#when my cat died she took me to some park at a church school and i just was hysterical for a while

[rosethornewrites]

The reblog about Native spirits reminded me of the times when I learned not to fuck with the paranormal. I’m at least somewhat sensitive, and I’ve learned to close off.

First: When I was 12-13 and at a church youth retreat for my Confirmation class (yeah, grew up Christian), for some reason someone brought out a Ouija board. At one point I was using it with our pastor (I don’t know how this happened), and a spirit told me she was my ancestor, gave her name, and said she was from Sweden. I disregarded this until a couple years ago when I was working on our family tree. My great-great grandfather’s wife shared her name, and was from Sweden. The pastor would have had no way of knowing this back in the early 90s.

Second: Same night, the girls who liked to bully me got me to use it with them. I saw an opportunity to play a prank, and I moved the planchette to tell them they would die getting hit by a car. The next day, they came to me pale and shaking, and asked if I’d moved the planchette. They’d gone to a gas station for snacks down the road and had nearly been hit by a car. I have no idea if it’s anything other than a correlation, but I would never touch a Oujia board ever again.

Third: In high school, a friend of mine who lived near a forest preserve noticed that all the deer came out of the forest reserve at night. You could walk right toward them and they would refuse to go back in. So we did what stupid kids do: we went into the forest. We were about 200 meters in when a weird ball of mist coalesced on the path about 50 meters ahead, then came toward us. We booked it.

Fourth: In college, on break, another friend and I decided we’d go to a place well known as a mob dumping ground because it was rumored to have ghosts. This was my last time fucking with the paranormal, because something followed me home. I was driving straight, and an air freshener I had wedged in the passenger side visor to keep the broken light switch off somehow became unwedged and flew across the car to hit me in the shoulder, hard. Again, as I was driving on a straight road. I was staying with another friend at the time, and her cats went nuts the moment I came home. She wound up reading the Bible aloud to get it to leave.

Fifth: After my dad died, he visited me in dreams, talking about things that had just happened. At one point, before the memorial, I heard his slippers shuffling in the hallway when I was half-asleep. Once he came to my dream all excited, but my alarm went off before he could talk to me. It turned out a player had been traded from my favorite baseball team to his, totally something he’d call to gloat about, so I knew why he’d come to my dream right away.

I learned to be closed off, and one of the last times I opened was when my mom took me to the location where my father passed away, to see if he was there. He wasn’t. He still sometimes visits me in dreams, but it’s pretty rare anymore.

When my grandmother died in 2019 to dementia, my mom and I were racing to the nursing home to be with her when she passed. We parked, and suddenly I had a feeling we were too late. Didn’t tell my mom, and we hurried in. Her phone rang with the news before we reached her room. Afterward, while end of life issues were being dealt with, I sat outside the room with her body, and I let myself open, and she came to me. She was worried about the family, and rightly so since there was a lot of strife over end of life care and one of my family members is still angry and blaming folks that she died. But I told her we would be okay, and Grandpa (he died before I was born) had been waiting an awfully long time to dance with her again, and she should go join him. And I felt her leave. (I actually freaked out one of my family members, too, when one of them was all “I can feel her spirit right above us,” and I said, “Actually, she’s standing next to Aunt J.”)

This is something I don’t talk about a whole lot, mostly because people get weird about it, but it’s my truth. I don’t go looking for spirits, and I certainly don’t do anything stupid that would draw their attention to me or upset them. We may not understand the paranormal, but it’s always good to be respectful of it regardless.

I hate most ghost hunting shows, since they largely stir things up in ways that could be dangerous to folks beyond them.

#spirits #paranormal #respect

[sunnysviolin]

reading your hc post about how Mari got Mewo (it made me feel very much thank you) and the line "She silently wishes that she can have a day like this every year. One wouldn’t be too much to ask for" made me think. How would the gang react on Mari's first birthday after her death? What about after they all got back together (post-good ending)?

It’s been ten thousand years,,,,,,,,I’m so sorry the writer’s block has been in a word...crippling. I’m back tho, and I’m gonna answer all my asks today, so there’s gonna be a flood of content lmao

Mari in my mind is totally the type who wants perfection, but knows she can’t have it. So that line was her wanting to get perfection just for a little bit longer 😭 but the rest of your ask...yeah I’m dead inside...okay here we go. I decided to focus on Kel and Aubrey specifically, because I think by this point Sunny is completely in the White Space, and he doesn’t even know what day it is in the real world. I’m going to hold off on the second half post good ending because I have ideas for it. 

On Mari’s first birthday after her death, Kel is alone. 

His confrontation with Hero happened a couple weeks ago (if you want to know about this check out my fic!) and Hero has slowly been coming back into himself, but today...today Hero didn’t get out of bed

Kel resolved that he wouldn’t be scared just yet. If Hero stayed in bed tomorrow, then he would be scared. 

All of that doesn’t change the fact that he is completely by himself on Mari’s birthday for the very first time. 

Mari’s birthday had always been a special occasion, a way to ring in summer finally coming. Her birthday always fell a few days after the end of school, and their band of six would come together to do something super special. Last year they had gone to an amusement park and rode rollercoasters all day long. 

Kel still had the stuffed animal Hero had won for him that day- a blue cat with purple paws. He hid it under his bed so Hero wouldn’t see it, but at night he would pull out and hold it close. He had it with him now, nestled in his backpack hidden from the world. 

His mom had kicked him out of the house early that morning, asking him to stay out today so she could focus on Hero and taking care of him 

((Kel wondered when she would think about focusing on him, when taking care of him might be the priority....then he hated himself for thinking that))

So the almost thirteen year old decided he was going to spend the day doing all of the things Mari loved. He went to their secret spot and ate lunch, skipping rocks along the pond, even braiding some flowers together. He broke the stems, and the final result was nothing like the elaborate crowns Mari had put together, but the thought was there. 

Then when the sun dipped low and golden on the horizon, Kel found himself walking to the church on the edge of town. 

He didn’t go there often, he didn’t like the intense silence, or the smell of the incense, but he went there enough that the Pastor knew him well enough. Pastor didn’t stop him to make small talk, and Kel was grateful for it. He didn’t feel like chatting with someone who wasn’t going to understand

There was no one else in the graveyard when Kel walked in. HE moved on autopilot to Mari’s grave, lowering himself down to kneel by her headstone. He pulled out the stuffed toy and put it down, blocking out the date she had died. Mari had loved the little cat when he had gotten it, it seemed fitting that it should belong with her now. There was an orchid behind Mari’s headstone- Basil must’ve visited earlier. 

“What are you doing here?” 

It was Aubrey. Her dress was black, her hair pulled up into a formal bun. She looked the same as the day of the funeral, when they had put Mari in this grave. Her eyes were red, and her lip quivered, but her glare was the same as always- full of an inexplicable hatred of him.

“Same as you. I didn’t want her alone on her birthday,” Kel didn’t move from where he was knelt by Mari’s grave, but he turned away from Aubrey to face the blooming orchid instead. Aubrey took in a breath to speak, but Kel cut her off when he heard the noise. 

“Could we not fight today?” Kel loathed the fact that his voice broke halfway through. He wanted to stay strong. He didn’t want Aubrey to see how much he was still hurting, “Mari didn’t like when we fought.”

Aubrey didn’t respond, but she did close her mouth. She knelt next to Kel, pulling a pack of glittering pens from her purse. She put them down next to Kel’s stuffed animal, staring at Mari’s headstone. 

They stayed there together until the sun was gone from the sky, and then they walked out of the church together. Neither of them spoke about it, and things went back to normal the next day. 

#omori headcanon #omori headcanons #asks #anon #omori kel #omori aubrey #omori mari #I focused on those two #because I wanted to have a cute little moment with them #but now my heart is sad #i might expand on this #We shall see #Omori

[writingonacloudblog]

I Will Always be His Daughter

I remember when I was six-years old, my father would deadbolt the doors so no one could get in, but also so I couldn’t get out. I couldn’t go outside to play with the other kids or even run around in the backyard. I always wondered why he did that but even when I was a teenager, I never had the courage to ask. Mostly because my father looked at me like I was a monster he was required to live with. I always thought he would kill me one day, but I actually came out of that house alive. I saved up all the money I could find around the house as my father drank his life away and promised I would never see him again. And if he died, I wouldn’t care.

As I sit in my kitchen with a cup of coffee in my hand, I can’t help but think of what my father is doing right at this moment. Mostly because it’s been twenty years since we last seen each other, and I remember that day vividly. I was sixteen years old at the time and I finally saved up enough to leave his house for good. So, I grabbed 2 outfits and put them into a small trash bag to go on my own journey to find my identity. Sadly, it was a special day for me, the mother I lost, and a tragic day for him.

“You ungrateful little bitch…” He mumbled under his breath as I walked into the living room with my bag in hand. Even though I was 16 I knew I needed to act like an adult and take my life into my own hands. I needed to make sure the life I was given isn’t wasted away on a drunk old man who can’t remember he has a daughter to take care of. I wanted the life I would see on all the TV shows like My Wife and Kids and Good Times where the family would laugh with each other and be understanding even when there are struggles. I wanted a family that would love me unconditionally and not push me towards a dark abyss of depression.

I looked at him with tears in my eyes trying to keep them from cascading down my face. I didn’t want to show weakness as I was about to leave. I wanted show that I was stronger than what he thought I was. I wanted to show him the “monster” that he didn’t create.

“So, you want to leave? You are just like your mother you know?” He laughed as he took another swig of whiskey.

“How can I be someone I never met? She died before I was born, or did you forget? Are you that drunk that you can’t remember that? That drunk that you can’t for a second remember her!” I asked feeling the suppressed frustration being released for the first time. I could feel tension in the room as I said these things most 16-year-olds wouldn’t mouth to their parents. It’s always respect your elders but never respect children as well.

“You should ask yourself that question. Don’t you realize everything I have done for you? The long nights I have worked to make sure you had food or the clothes you are wearing, “

“You made that money so you could drink it away. I am not that innocent child anymore. I know exactly what you have done for me! Nothing. All you have done for me is make me resent you,”

“LAYLA MARIE!”

“You have no right to call me by my name. No right to have kept me locked up in this house. And the audacity to call me the name that my mother gave me? You are a real piece of work.”

“Watch your mouth…”

“No, I won’t. I am tired of not living my life! I have no one here. I am alone here. I am tired of being treated like I am some murderer!” I yelled with every breath I had left. I remember feeling my throat become scratchy from all the yelling. I remember clenching my fist wanting to harm him in some way. I remember hearing him laugh at me and mocking me with a smile like a Cheshire Cat.

“I should have let her give you up you know. Because if you weren’t here, SHEwould be here!” He yelled at me his smile changing like the weather. From sunshine to a thunderstorm his whole demeanor became dark. This man was my father and I had to get away.

________________________________________________________

I put my coffee cup down into the sink and go into the fridge to grab the cupcake with a candle on top that I bought after work. When I place it on the counter all the memories of my father flash before my eyes. Him sitting in his recliner after he got off work, watching the NBA playoffs as I sat in my room wondering why I wasn’t allowed to eat that night. The smell of whiskey and cigarettes in the living room wafting up my nose even though I am in my own house, like my father was right beside me. I lit the candle on the cupcake with my lighter thinking of all the birthdays I had before. They weren’t happy at all.

“Happy Birthday Layla….” I say to myself before I blow out the candle not making a wish. I never made one in the past so why make one now. I could hear my phone ring in the other room. I check the time on the oven and it’s too late for anyone to call me. I have no friends or a lover. Its just me against the world as it should be. But for some odd reason I get a feeling that I should answer immediately. Like my world will crumble if I don’t. So, I walk into the other room and pick up my cell phone, hesitant to answer.

“Hello?” asked the voice on the other line. The words wouldn’t form from my mouth.

“Hello? Is this Layla Jones? I am calling about your father, Fredrick Jones,” Hearing his name for the first time in years made my heartbeat rapidly like a drum. Why am I getting a call about him?

“Y yes this is her. Who am I speaking to?”

“I am a nurse at Matagorda General Hospital. I am sorry to inform you of this news, but your father passed away this morning.”

My heart and time stopped. I didn’t know whether to celebrate or to cry. I didn’t know whether to tell her to go away and leave me alone or to cry and ask if she is lying. 20 years later and no call or an apology from him. And now he’s gone from this earth.

“I’m so sorry Ms. Jones. If you would like I can connect you to,”

“No no that won’t be necessary. Thank you for letting me know,” I said before hanging up the phone and sitting on the floor staring at the wall. I knew I have to go back home and bury him since he didn’t have anyone else. At least that’s how I left him. I left him there with his whiskey in hand drunk like he always was.

I take few deeps breaths to calm my nerves and get up from the floor to pack my suitcase for my flight back home. I know don’t have a ticket, but I know that I can get one for 2 days later. I grab my nice black suitcase with leather handles and grab the clothing that is suitable for the humid weather that makes your hair frizz up into an afro. I close my suitcase up after getting everything packed away neatly and set it to the side in my room. I always thought one day I would have to face him, but I didn’t think I would be facing him in a coffin.

________________________________________________________

A few days later, I landed in my hometown feeling a sense of myself again. The humidity embraced me into a tight hug as I placed my bags into the car I rented for the few days I would be here. I put my old home’s address into the GPS hoping that when I arrive my father still hadn’t moved out. Driving down these small-town roads and seeing places I never got to explore like the schools or the small shopping center, makes me feel like I don’t know this place at all. The only place I remember is my fathers’ house and the airport. The only memory being my father and that’s all.

I pulled up to the house and saw about ten cars parked on the side of the road along with 3 cars parked in the driveway including my dad’s old 1990 Chevrolet Impala. I didn’t think my dad had anyone in his life when I left. He never had friends that came over to watch the game or have a couple drinks. He never really talked about his family or my mom’s family since he was practically disowned, and he felt a lot of guilt about my mother’s death that he never told them that I was still alive.

I got out of my car and locked it, walking up to the front door that has changed since I was last here. I remember staring at the old front door analyzing the rusted screws and the dents on the top and bottom. Now it has changed to a door as white as dove with bronze screws and a beautiful flower wreath that makes me think of the gates to heaven. I try to calm myself taking a few deep breaths as I lift my hand to knock on the door wondering who I will face.

A woman opens the door staring at me, and I don’t recognize her. She was about 5’5’’ with a salt and pepper braided bun greased down to perfection, her eyes red but her demeanor stronger than a bull. I could smell her perfume and felt a sense of nostalgia to the old ladies in church who would always sit in the front of service and fan themselves while singing every church hymn loud for everyone to hear.

“Can I help you?” She asked staring me down like I was a threat to her.

“Yes, ma’am I am just wondering if I am at the right place actually.” I said looking past her and seeing about 20 people in a house with a changed interior from what I left it. The recliner he used to sit in is gone. The smell of smoke and whiskey doesn’t waft towards my nose anymore, but a scent of lavender incense mixed with this woman’s perfume surrounds me.

“Well, I can only tell you if you let me know what you are looking for chile,” She placed her hands on her hips and stared at me like she was trying to figure out who I was.

“A man I used to know lived here and I heard he passed away, so I came to pay respects. But I think I might be at the wrong place,” I stared at the ground and sighed preparing to be on my way to the hotel I booked. I could feel her eyes analyzing my face and my clothing wondering if I was some good for nothing child who is looking for trouble. Most likely asking herself why I had showed up at her house?

“Well, the only man who stayed here was my husband, Fredrick. Are you a friend of his from his old job? Or from the grocery store?” She asked, her eyebrow arched up. I couldn’t tell her I was his daughter because I doubt he ever mentioned me. His daughter who left him behind to find her own life. And imagine being the wife of a man who had daughter you didn’t know about?

“Yes, ma’am I knew him from the grocery store. I am sorry for you’re lost.”

“This gathering is only for family but thank you for the condolences. I am sure Freddie is in a better place.”

“Mom” a feminine yet bright voice called from behind her. When the older woman turned around, I caught glimpse of a girl who looked similar my dad with light brown eyes and his nose. She looked to be in her early twenties with a beautiful black designer dress you would see in Vogue magazine. She must be my fathers’ pride and joy since she doesn’t look like she has suffered at all.

“Yes Kayla?” the older woman asked back.

“Who’s at the door?” Kayla asked catching a glimpse of me before I put my head down looking at the ground, praying to God that I can just run back to my car and get the hell out of here.

“Just a bagger from the grocery store baby girl.”

“Well Aunt Shelly needs help with the potato salad she’s about to put raisins in it again.”

“I swear this woman is gonna make me lose my damn mind…” She mumbled as she turned to look at me. “Thanks again for coming by Honey, we all appreciate it. These last 2 days have been very hard on us. I used to go to the hospital everyday to go check up on him and it hurt me to see him in pain. I am just glad he is back home with the lord. He was such as good father and an even greater husband you know?” She tried to hold back her tears. I couldn’t agree on anything she was saying at all. The father I had was not good at all. He wasn’t some angel sent from heaven, but I guess that’s just her view of a devil in disguise.

As she and I said our goodbyes and the door closed in front of me, I regretted going back to my father’s home. I got back into my car with my suitcase in the trunk and drove back to the airport. There was no reason for me stay there when I’m not his family anyway. The way he treated me I shouldn’t want to pay respects to him at all. He had a new wife and daughter while I was struggling to come to terms that I never will have a sitcom relationship with him. I had to go to therapy and find love within myself because I lacked the love and support of a parental figure. He made me look like a fool again except in death.

I drove back to the airport straight from the funeral. I didn’t care how much a plane ticket would cost me, I just wanted to go back to my life again. I wanted to leave the past behind and pay attention to my future again. I sat in the waiting area and all I could do is stare at the carpet, watching the patterns expecting it to change and have some type of relief. I remember sitting in this airport with a trash bag, a plane ticket, and no plan, crying for someone to save me from him. I begged God to end my suffering and let me be with my mother. Yet, he was a good father?

When I got on the plane, all the comprehension of what just occurred just wouldn’t add up to me. He had a whole replacement family that doesn’t even know about me. I bet they don’t know about my mother or how he was a useless drunk so many years ago. The man who I begged to be my father for years until I had enough.

When I arrived back at my condo from my overnight flight back, I went to check my mailbox for my usual credit card bills and rent reminder. But instead, there was an envelope with a scent I knew too well. I looked at the envelope and read Fredrick Jones on the left-hand corner. A part of me wanted to burn the letter in the fireplace, especially since I wasted a trip to be confronted by his new family that he most likely treated in the way I always hoped he would treat me. But the other side of me wanted to open the letter carefully and cry until my eyes became sore. I wanted to open and see an apology for the way he treated me all those years. I wanted to finally hear him say that I am not a disappointment or a murderer.

So many things in one letter that I wanted to be said so I can cry until I can’t cry anymore. The years of hatred I had for this man and the love I was looking for in this man will be buried 6 feet under. But I will never open this letter. I will never forget my father and I know I will always be his daughter.

#shorts #original work

[sad-sweet-cowboah]

My Little Secret part 8

Summary: Filled to the brim with curiosity, you find out more about Arthur’s life and, well, afterlife. All the while you share some tender moments with him.

Warnings: It’s just fluff kiddos.

For the first time you could not wait to get to work. Excitement and anxiety took hold of you in anticipation of your next meeting with Arthur. Even when you woke up the next morning, your mind still reeled with the amount of information you received the night before.

Not only was Arthur a vampire, but he was also a famous outlaw. A double whammy that classified as both interesting and terrifying. You had so many more questions, an incomprehensible amount that would not even be covered in just one night.

As you headed out of the building, you heard a voice call to you from across the courtyard. You turned to see Sam jogging toward you, a huge smile on her face. She slowed down to fall in step with you.

“Hey Y/N!” Sam greeted somewhat breathlessly. “So… tell me how it went!”

“How what went?”

“Your date, silly!” Sam giggled. “Come on, give me all the juicy details!”

“Oh,” you said rather sheepishly. God, what could you even say? “It was… interesting.” You finally answered.

Sam’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at your tone. “What happened? Did it turn out he was a douche?”

“No not at all!” you rebutted. “The opposite actually. I learned… so much more about him than I thought I would.”

Sam’s eyebrows raised. “Ooh, did you sleep with him?”

“No Sam,” you sighed. “He’s just such a peculiar guy. So much more different than anyone I’ve ever dated before, but that’s what makes him so interesting.”

“Different how?” Sam pressed with curiosity.

You hesitated, unsure how to exactly word it without giving too much away. You thought for another moment before speaking again. “He doesn’t follow a conventional lifestyle, has a whole completely different diet even. Had a bit of a… wild past.”

“You make it sound like he’s part of a convent or something.” Sam said with a giggle.

You rolled your eyes, knowing full well it was the complete opposite. Could he even step foot inside a church? “That he definitely isn’t. But I’m still learning more about him, he said he might swing by my work later.”

“Wow, sounds like he’s really got a thing for you, visiting you while you’re sticky with liquor,” Sam laughed. “Next thing you know you’ll be walking down the aisle!”

You scoffed and gave her a gentle elbow nudge, though you couldn’t hide the smile on your face. “We’ll see how it goes.”

You spoke with Sam for a few more minutes before parting ways. You had a few hours until work and a large load of homework that weighed you down both physically and mentally. You made your way back to your apartment and settled with a cup of tea, ready to pore into your studies.

It impressed how much you’d gotten done in the span of two hours. There was only a month left in the school year, meaning final exams were soon around the corner. You were taking the time to wrap up projects you should have completed already, only your mind had been too warped thinking of Arthur. You managed to keep thoughts of him at bay until you were satisfied with the amount of work you’d completed for the day.

As you ate dinner and prepared for work afterward, your mind was flittering with questions you were preparing to ask him. Hell, what would be the first one? How many could you get through before your break was up? Would he still be around after you clocked out for the night?

You stopped yourself. There was still a chance he may not show up tonight at all, which spurred you to wonder about his job. What did his job entail specifically, and what jobs did vampires even hold? Were they something completely crazy or were they jobs similar to what regular humans had? You found yourself pondering too deeply, as an hour passed and you had an entire discussion with yourself on theoretical vampire politics.

Good thing you didn’t have a roommate.

You left afterward, your mind on autopilot as more questions and theories spread through it. You considered his life beforehand and how much you’d learned: an infamous outlaw from one of the most notorious gangs in history who made his mark in more ways than one in the state of Lemoyne. Why was he turned and when? Records mention he was last seen alive in 1899, assumed to have died. So what events transpired to lead to his final moments as a human?

Maybe you should write them all down when you have a chance.

You arrived at work sooner than you anticipated. Despite it being a weekday, it was karaoke night at the bar, which meant a usually heavier crowd. Tuesdays were generally a favorite night to work since you had to appreciate the patrons who were drunk enough to go up and sing. You settled yourself behind the bar as the first few of the night began to pile in. The sun was low in the sky, and you wondered when exactly he would wake up.

You kept yourself busy for the first few hours, passing out multiple beers and bar snacks while listening to the entertainment. The karaoke crowd was always the same few people, all of which had decent voices so it wasn’t a dreadful evening. You found yourself glancing at the door every time it opened, once again feeling both excitement and disappointment when you found each new body was not him.

Until it was.

You swore the atmosphere changed the moment Arthur stepped in. He seemed to have a different gait than everyone else, you noticed. Light on his feet and quick moments that reminded you almost of a big cat. You guessed in some weird way, he was.

His eyes locked onto you and smiled, making his way over to the bar. Once he reached it he pulled up a seat, placing himself in front of you. “Hey Y/N.” he greeted.

“Hey yourself,” you responded with a smile of your own, leaning on the bar. “Glad you came.”

“Glad I haven’t scared you off.” He jokingly countered.

Your smile widened, and you glanced back at your other coworkers in case any of them were watching. “So…uh, want a drink?” you offered with a shrug.

Arthur hesitated for a moment with a thoughtful look. “Did say I’d indulge, but I’d hate for a good whiskey to go to waste.”

You giggled at his reply. “Alright Mr. Morgan, you gonna sing instead?” you tilted your head toward the DJ booth. An older man stood up there, singing some old country song.

Arthur turned toward the show in curiosity, observing the man for a good moment before he shook his head. “I ain’t much of a singer,” He chuckled. “Least not in a long time.”

“Well, I guess you can just enjoy the entertainment then,” you said and then dropped your voice. “By the way, my break’s in an hour. I’ll be out back.”

He nodded once, flashing a subtle smile before he moved away from the bar.

And that next hour moved much slower than you liked. Despite having enough patrons to keep a steady workflow, your eyes kept drifting over to Arthur. He would watch the singers, nod his head to the beats of the songs, but would otherwise keep to himself. He moved around every once in a while, sometimes passing by you to briefly catch your gaze before wandering off into the crowd.

Once the clock struck to the next hour, you practically leapt over the bar to escape. After a quick bathroom and drink break, you made your way outside into the humid air. Even though the place was air conditioned, the amount of people would often make the air feel stuffy. You breathed in and leaned against the cool brick wall, your eyes scanning across the parking lot. Within moments you caught the familiar sight of his motorcycle, and you remembered with a jolt you’d left it behind at the restaurant last night.

“Hey.”

You flinched from his voice, turning to see him appearing out of the darkness almost silently. “Jesus,” you breathed, resting your hand over your heart. “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” he said with a slight chuckle, sidling up to you. “I tend to forget I don’t move like a normal human.”

Normal human. Those words sent a shiver up your spine, stirring up those memories of last night. A predator with a human face. You shouldn’t be afraid at this point, and you grounded yourself by reaching for his hand and interlacing your fingers with his. He didn’t hesitate to reciprocate. Little touches and moments to remind you he still has human emotions.

“How was your day?” he asked quietly.

You shrugged. “Same old, school then work. Boring as usual. How was yours?” you began, then realized it was a stupid thing to ask. “I mean – shit.”

He smiled in amusement. “Been nice so far, I get to see you.” He answered.

“Do you work tonight?” you asked next, thankful he didn’t make a fuss from your stupidity.

Arthur shrugged. “I’m on-call, I guess you could say. That don’t stop me from enjoying life’s pleasures though.” He gently raised your hand to his face, planting a sweet kiss on the back of it. Your heart fluttered in response.

“On-call,” you repeated. “Are you a doctor or something?”

“Or somethin’,” he replied lowly. “Anyway, I believe you had more questions to ask?”

As soon as he said that, your mind completely blanked. That entire mental list had disappeared within an instant. You frowned, trying to think of one, just any one, and failed. “Uh –” you paused. “What’s your favorite color?” you blurted out, inwardly cringing at yourself.

Another chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Blue, like the sky durin’ the day,” he answered with a sigh. “Somethin’ I miss a lot.”

Oh, maybe that wasn’t a good question to start with. “Sorry.”

He shook his head, smiling at you once again. “You’re alright, sweetheart. Got about 150 years’ worth of memories, ya know.”

Over a century. It however spiked up some of the prior inquiries you had. “So… what was your life like before you – er, turned?”

He leaned his head back against the wall, tilting his head up as his eyes searched the night sky. A look of faint longing crossed his face. His lips parted for a moment though no words accompanied it, as if he were trying to search for the right ones. “Well, I…” he trailed off, fixing his gaze to you. “How ‘bout you tell me what ya know, Y/N. That way I can confirm or disprove.”

The turnaround surprised you, however it made sense. Facts can become fiction over the course of time. “I know the most obvious, that you were an outlaw. You ran with the Van der Linde gang. You committed some heinous crimes of your time.”

Arthur nodded. “Any bounty poster or internet search coulda told ya that. What else?”

You took a deep breath, taking mental steps backward to the past few weeks. The museum in Saint Denis, Shady Belle, the library. Every place visited told the same story of him, the same few factoids without delving much into his personal life. It felt as if you were being quizzed.

“To be honest, there’s not much about you in history,” You admitted. “At least from what I’ve seen so far.”

“Wouldn’t expect otherwise,” he mumbled. “Back then people like me were a blemish to society, best left forgotten over time.”

“So were you really as cruel and heartless as history says?” you continue.

His smile turned rueful. “There was a time that I thought I was. I hurt a lot of people, killed even more…” he turned his head to face forward. There was an emotion in his eyes you couldn’t detect. “But I weren’t some killin’ machine. Didn’t like doin’ it, but I had to. I… we helped people too. As Dutch used to put it, ‘we save people that need savin’.”

“Really?”

He turned to look at you once again. “That surprise ya?”

“I…” you hesitated in thought. “A lot is surprising me these days.”

He huffed out hollow laugh. “Fair ‘nough. That life led to some interestin’ adventures. Robbed banks, trains, stagecoaches. Lived in multiple states when tryin’ to escape the law. Met some interestin’ folk along the way, took in a lot of ‘em too.”

“That’s something I learned, that many of you were just people looking for something better.” You remarked.

“Yeah, a bunch o’ lost souls fed with the promise we’d have a better life, only it ended with more bloodshed. Some were luckier than others, got out to live peacefully. Me, well…” he trailed off once more and gestured to himself with his free hand.

“You were turned.” You finished for him.

“Yes.” He nodded.

It fell silent between the two of you, and you pondered what to ask next. You chewed on your lip for a moment as a myriad formed in your head, many of which could possibly seem too prying or personal. Should you ask more about his life as an outlaw or about after he turned?

“You okay?” he asked, taking note of your silence.

You blinked, turning to look at him. “I am, I just…I’m not sure what to ask next.”

“Haven’t scared you any, have I?” he cautiously asked.

You shook your head. “Not since last night,” you joked with a giggle. “But there’s so much more to find out, like – when were you turned?”

“1899.” he said simply.

Well that made sense. “Okay, so how old are you?”

“36, like I said,” he continued. “Well…that’s how old I was when I turned. But I’ve physically been on this earth for 157 years.”

“And you don’t age?” you pondered, your eyes once again observing the faint wrinkles and scars that decorated his face.

“Nah, I’ve had this same unfortunate face for the past 121 years.” He shrugged.

You frowned at his response. Why did he always seem to talk down about his looks? “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Acting as if you’re hideous when you’re not.” You pointed out.

Arthur shook his head in disbelief, a dry half smile crossing his lips that highlighted it. “Old habits I guess. Never had a high opinion o’ myself, hadn’t changed much over the years. Still surprises me that you wanna be with me, all things considerin’.”

You sighed heavily, reaching to take his other hand. You held them both, meeting his eyes directly as he stared at you in faint curiosity. “Arthur, I happen to think you’re easily one of the most handsome men I’ve ever met, that’s the truth. And…vampire, outlaw, whatever or not…I think you’re worth being with.”

Surprise shadowed Arthur’s face at your words, and then a shy smile crossed his lips as he ducked his head, expressing a short laugh. “You’re sweet, Y/N. Too sweet for my own good…” he let out a low breath and tugged you toward him, which you offered no resistance. His hands broke from yours and his arms wrapped around your waist, holding you so lightly to draw you in for a kiss.

You melted to his touch immediately, your own arms sliding around his neck to lock him to you. His lips moved against yours with little effort, his hands tightening just a smidge. His cool touch sent tingles along your bare skin. Your fingers threaded through his hair, prodding him to deepen the kiss. His tongue briefly met yours, sparking something deep in you that you wanted to chase.

He then parted his lips from yours, pulling his head back just enough to look into your eyes. Those blue-green hues were so gorgeous that it left you breathless. One hand left your waist to rest on your cheek, his thumb smoothing across the raise of your cheekbone. “Forgot what it was like to be like this…” he murmured.

“Like what?” you whispered, your mind still reeling.

“Bein’ sweet on someone,” he said, and noted your look of confusion. “Bein’ in a relationship, I mean.”

You tilted your head. “How long has it been for you?”

“Long time,” he sighed. “Lost count in years when they start to mold together.”

Your eyebrows raised. “Really? I find that hard to believe with someone as good looking as you.”

He exhaled a small chuckle. “I’ll admit some women have…tried over the years. Never did look at ‘em twice.”

“So what makes me different?” you ask, smiling a little.

Arthur tucked a lock of hair behind your ear, his smile mirroring yours. “You’re the first person to speak to me in a while. I tend to avoid most folk, but I won’t turn down a good conversation. Somethin’ about ya jus’ kept drawin’ me back. Your curiosity ‘bout me. Your excitement ‘bout your dreams n’ ambitions. And I ‘spose one o’ us has to be pretty.”

You giggled shyly, turning your eyes away from him for a brief moment. “Didn’t think I wasn’t all that special either.”

“Gotta say you’re wrong, sweetheart.” Arthur said to you. “More interestin’ than me.”

You laughed at his statement. “Now that I highly doubt, Mr. Morgan.” At that same moment, your phone vibrated in your pocket. It was the alarm you’d set to remind you to get back to work. Shoot, had your break passed that quickly? You sighed heavily and retrieved your phone to turn it off.

“Guessin’ you gotta get back inside.” Arthur said as a statement rather than a question.

You nodded solemnly, peering back up at him with disappointment. “I still have so much more I wanna find out.” You murmured.

His other hand raised to rest on your cheek, gently cradling your face in his grasp. “Always next time.”

You nodded. Tomorrow you had a morning class, which meant no time for idle chitchat after work. You were also working the next two nights, and it wouldn’t be fair to have him come here a second night when he had no concrete reason to stay other than to talk to you. “I’m free on Friday, if you wanna meet up again.”

A warm smile touched his lips. “Sure, where?”

“My house, doesn’t seem very proper to go out somewhere conventional when only one of us can eat.” You pointed out.

He laughed at your response. “’Spose so. Anyway, I won’t keep ya much longer…” he leaned forward to place a kiss on your forehead before his mouth traveled down to meet yours, eliciting such gentle tenderness in nearly made your head spin. He stepped back, releasing you. “Go on. Don’t want ya gettin’ in trouble.”

God, all you wanted to do was to stand out here and kiss him forever. Biting back a sigh, you bid him goodbye before glancing at the parking lot. The motorcycle stirred up the thought you had earlier. “Oh, you got your bike back. I forgot about it last night…”

“There’s perks of bein’ what I am,” he replied with a small smirk. “Cars n’ such ain’t a necessity to us, they’re jus’ fun to drive around.”

That certainly set an ease to the momentary concern of accidentally stranding him. “What, you turn into a bat?”

He snorted. “Nah, that’s jus’ fiction. Some things we made up ourselves.”

You tilted your head in confusion. “Well, alright. Even more to find out. See you Friday, Arthur.”

He nodded, the amusement still plain on his face. “See ya Friday, darlin’.”

#Arthur Morgan x reader #vampire AU #Arthur Morgan #vampire!Arthur

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #360

“we are the ones that wanna play  /  always wanna go, but you never wanna stay”

"Crawling" or "In The End?" I want to say "Crawling," but I really can't be sure. Both are bomb. Is your window open? No. Monsters Inc. or Shrek? Shrek, my man. What did you last hear that made your jaw drop? Jason's mom died. What is the longest shower or bath you have ever taken? I remember as kids, Nicole and I would sometimes play 'til Mom made us finish because the water was cold by then. As an adult, idk about my longest shower. Do you have a preference of chocolate? Yeah, milk chocolate. Is there anyone you’d like to hug right now? Yeah. Could you ever picture someone writing a biography about you? Definitely not. Do you have a clock in your room? No. Do you shut off the computer when you’re done using it? No, I just close it. Do you usually catch a cold during the winter? No. I just about never get sick. Are you a good multi-tasker? NOOOOOOOOOOO. Do you know any deaf people? If so, is it easy or difficult to have conversations with them? No. Is there a door knocker on your front door? No. Were you ever into Pokémon? Bitch I still am. Do you drink a lot of water? Sigh, no. I'm definitely better than I used to be, though; once upon a time, I literally never drank it unless I was extremely hot and dehydrated. Nowadays, it's usually after I finish my soda for the day that I then only drink water, normally around one full tall cup of it. Do you like fireworks? They're beautiful, but I'm personally against them out of respect for veterans suffering from PTSD as well as animals, because I'm not exactly interested in traumatizing them, either. Is respect given or earned with you? It's given, the way I think it should be. Are you “in the closet” about anything? No. Are you missing any teeth? No. Do you like scrapbooking? I've never gotten into it and am not really interested in doing so. What was or will be your first tattoo? It's a semicolon butterfly on my right wrist. Sometimes I've thought about getting it covered with a cooler design but the same concept; it was literally from Google, and I'm very much not into "sharing" tattoo designs with probably thousands of other people. But, I still think it really is cute, and it's just very special to me as my first, so idk. Do you have any tattoos dedicated to someone special? I have one written in Sara's handwriting inside a heart, and my "ohana" tattoo that I am 100% getting covered was dedicated to my former best friend Colleen. I've talked before about why "ohana" has never really resonated with me, and I just don't like it anymore at all. Thank God it's small. Do you like ghost stories? Oh HELL yeah, lay 'em on me. What was your favorite movie as a kid? The Lion King. Some things never change, ha. Do you own a lot of cookbooks? Mom has looooots, but never uses any. I think her mom gave them to her, so she just keeps 'em. What’s your father’s handwriting like? It looks like every other man's handwriting I've ever seen lol. All the letters are capitalized. Did you wash your hair last time you showered? I wash my hair every time I shower. I have to with it naturally being so oily. What does your shampoo smell like? Coconut. Do you listen to Guns N' Roses? Not a lot, but yeah. They've got some bangers. I actually want "Sweet Child O' Mine" to be the father/daughter dance at my wedding. Have you ever been a bridesmaid? Yeah, at my sister's wedding. What was the last video game that you beat? I replayed Silent Hill 2 a long time ago. Have you ever hyperventilated? Yep. Do you talk in your sleep? I scream in my sleep. Nightmares/terrors are a blast. Whose house did you last sleep over? Sara's. Have you ever been cut by scissors? No. Do you like peaches? It's odd, I like canned sliced peaches, but the actual, full fruit, I don't. I love peach flavored juice, though. Do you enjoy being surrounded by neighbors, or would you be more comfortable someplace secluded? Take me back to the middle of nowhere, please. I'm really not digging being in an actual neighborhood. Is there any sibling rivalry between you and your siblings, if you have any? Not at all. Do you usually root for the good guys or the bad guys? Ha, the baddies... Are you allowed to have pets at your house? We're allowed to have what we currently own and then maybe one dog if Mom finally finds one. Have you ever lived in a trailer park? No. Is there anyone that you know through the internet that you would feel comfortable meeting in person? There's quite a few, actually! Have you ever had a dream involving characters from a game/movie/television show? Yeah. What’s the last thing you wrote down? My signature, I think? Do you remember any phone numbers from years ago that now belong to someone you don’t know? No. Have you ever found something strange in your mailbox? No. Who was the last relative that came to visit you? My half-sister and her husband. Does your bedding all match? Not currently. Are you more comfortable with having short hair or long hair? SHORT. Are you interested in fantasy movies/shows? That's my preference. Have you ever gone whale-watching? No, but that'd be dope. What is something that you have a large amount of? Meerkat plushies. Who is it that you’re in love with? Nobody. Have you ever gotten love and infatuation confused? No. Do you have a steady income? No. Do you take your medications in the morning or at night? Both. Have you ever bought a YouTuber’s merch? No, I wish. :( Do you think oatmeal tastes better when made with water or milk? MILK. I don't eat it with water. When was the last time you ran into someone that you didn’t want to see? Idk. Have you ever tried vlogging, and if yes, did you stick with it? Noooo, I'm completely disinterested in doing that myself. If you go to church, what is your favorite thing about it? I don't go. Even as a kid when Mom made me, I hated it. ^and what is your least favorite thing about it? N/A What do you do for exercise? I don't. .-. I want a pool SO badly to swim and strengthen my legs without having to worry about sweating or collapsing, though. Mom says we don't have space, but we definitely do. Not a lot, but enough. Do you have a birthmark? If yes, what color is it? Yeah, it's just a bit darker than the rest of my skin. Do you need to lose weight? Yes. My sister, Mom, and I very recently started a Weight Watchers subscription and we're all working our asses off to stick to it. Ash has already lost like, 12 pounds (she started before Mom and me), so I'm kinda hopeful. Have you ever had a cat? Growing up, after we took in a stray female, we ended up with a fucking empire of cats, literally around three dozen, I'd say. They were all outdoors, too, and not fixed because we couldn't afford it, so tomcats would come around and, y'know, make matters worse. Eventually, animal control took them all and I was DEVASTATED, but looking back, I understand it was necessary. Anyway, I have one cat now. Indoors and fixed and the prince of my world, haha. Have you ever had a dog? We've had a few. I was born with my dad having a collie named Trigger, but I don't remember her at all; she died of old age I believe when I was very young. Then we briefly had a pup named Angel, but she died due to that disease some puppies just have. We didn't get another dog until Teddy, who was my Christmas present, and he was put to sleep only last year, rest my baby's soul. We also had Dale, Cali, Delilah, and Bentley. Have you ever any other kind of animal? A LOT. I'm probably going to forget some, but we've had hamsters, rats, snakes, fish, a turtle, two lizards, gerbils, guinea pigs... just a lot. Animals have always been very important in my life. Have you ever had a pet rock? HA, yeah. I didn't take it seriously at all, but I had one. When was the last time you painted something? Not since my Painting course in my final college attempt. Do you have any disabilities? Not in the traditional sense, no. My social anxiety though is at such a severity that it majorly infringes upon my ability to do a LOT of things, though. What are five of your favorite stores at the mall? I couldn't name five. Just Hot Topic and Spencer's, really. What season do you want to get married in? AUTUMN. The actual dream situation would be to get married in the snow in a black dress, like can you IMAGINE the pictures, but realistically, it'd be in the fall to avoid the biting cold. Has anyone ever spread lies about you? Yeah. Anything special planned for today? Nope. Blue or green? Blue. How much older/younger than you was the person you lost your virginity to? He's two years older than me. Do you still care for that person? Very much. Can you completely annihilate the first Mario game in less than an hour? I haven't even played the first game. I've never really been into the games to begin with. Did you make it all the way through the Oregon Trail game? Yes! I was OOOOOBSESSEEEEEED as a kid. I would usually play it after school when my mom was an assistant teacher and was finishing up her work for the day. Have you ever contemplated climbing a water tower? Uh, no. Those kind of people got some wanderlust levels that I ain't got, haha. If you have a Facebook, when was the last time you changed your profile picture? It's been a few months. Would you ever marry someone who was lower class? Um, yes? You can deny it all you want, but answering "no" is pretty much the same as saying you'd marry for money. Is there a guy you wish you hadn’t let slip away? ugh Which do you prefer: English or math? English, by light years. Who is a singer that has given you chills? David Draiman's voice in the Disturbed cover of "Sound of Silence" is fucking haunting. Greatest cover of all time. Do you watch America’s Got Talent? I did when Sharon was a judge. Do you think you could win America’s Got Talent? Hell no. What act would you perform in a talent show? uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Have you ever practiced yoga? Yes. I used to be BANGIN at it. What is your favorite thing to buy at the Farmer’s Market? Fruit! Do you get carsickness? No. What color is the rim of your full-length mirror? Black. What is your state’s bird (if you live in the US)? Cardinal. Which style of wedding dress is your favorite? I'm a sucker for ballgown dresses. Do you enjoy editing videos? I used to love it, for many many years. Now, I just don't have the dedication or motivation to. Do you enjoy editing photos? Yes. If you gave birth, do you think you would want it filmed? Um, absolutely not. I would have NO desire to look back on me shrieking my lungs out and essentially dying. I handle abdominal pain very poorly, so I've got a goooood feeling that if I actually wanted to have kids, I'd be that woman screeching like a banshee.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''aerials'' by system of a down

[implodingcacti]

Hi, I worked graveyard at a hotel for 2 years.

Tonight’s my last night. I want to share some stories with you, because this job has been fucking wild.

When I interviewed for the job, my future GM asked if I was a good person (I said yes), complained about the American healthcare system for 30 minutes, and then hired me on the spot. That was my entire interview. He said he trusted me fully because my friend recommended me for the job.

This is the same friend who tried to get me to buy her cigarettes with a school ID because she had left hers at home. Our school IDs were printed on cardstock and laminated by the secretary. I told her it would not work because it looked like a shitty fake ID.

It did not work.

This surprised her.

Also the same friend who had a tan minivan, drove us to Starbucks during an off period in high school, almost crashed because she was smoking, and hit two people’s cars in the parking lot.

Love her.

The first employee I met got into an argument in front of me with her boyfriend. They fought loudly. Afterwards, she asked if I wanted a lollipop.

She got fired like a month afterwards because she took the money from the drawer. This was not the first time she had been fired for this.

I worked with a guy who I’m going to call S. S was a bald white guy who looked like a attorney who couldn’t leave his job. Or a depressed bank manager who’s wife divorced him. He was a very nice man.

I told him this one day on shift change. He thought this was fucking hilarious.

S also used to be a drug dealer. He got busted for selling drugs at this hotel years ago, went to prison, all that shit. My manager hired him after he got out. He thought this story was very funny.

We had a permanent resident named Joe. He was the nicest fucking guy. I chatted with him in the mornings when I set up breakfast. I miss him so much.

He doesn’t live at the hotel any more. This is depressing.

A man threatened to beat me up for flirting with his wife, because he saw us laughing in the lobby. I tried to tell him that I was not interested in his wife, who was 30 years older than me and also not my type. He was still angry.

I texted my manager this. He told me that if the man tried anything, we have, and I quote, “a big ass wrench” next to the safe. He gave me permission to hit the guy with it.

The wrench is, in fact, really fucking big.

A sexline operator called me once, while I was working. This was uncomfortable for me, a very ace then-19 year old. We got into an argument because she claimed I had called her.

Actually just... lots of people liked treating me like phonesex operators. Apparently people’s kinks are listening to room rates. Please do not do this to the people working front desk.

While we’re here, I got invited to a threesome once. The people who invited me? They watched me clock in to do shift change. They asked literal minutes after I clocked in. There is only one person at front desk. They asked after the other guy left.

I declined. For obvious reasons.

The other guy was S, who laughed about it when I told him the next day.

That time that they fired someone and another person left and we were short staffed for a month, so there were two days a week I’d come in at midnight, leave at 6AM, and then come in at noon for another 6 hour shift.

I hated that. Never again.

There was a raid on a hotel across the street. I watched it happen with Joe. He told me shit was wild. I agreed.

My GM would just... text me. At random times of day. To ask how many we had in house.

It was never when I was working.

He was always disappointed that I couldn’t tell him because I wasn’t working.

The time I had to crawl partially under a bed in a smoking room to help a guy get his cat. She was a good cat.

A lady told me a man was outside with a chainsaw and she’d seen him murder someone. Understandably, I was concerned, because she was shaken up and my hearing is godawful. I called the cops, who took things very seriously until she said the chainsaw man had no head in her physical description.

apparently she was on a very bad drugs trip. I learned this the next time I had to call the non-emergency number, because one of the cops from that incident showed up and told me.

A guy died in a room. Normally, you’d think this would be relayed with more urgency. I found about it when I was doing shift change with S. He told me this, and then proceeded to complain about an unrelated room and called them assholes.

The guy’s car was here for 8 months. The company he worked for wanted us to ship the car out to them. We told them they’d have to cover the shipping charge. They refused, and then S got the title to the car.

A guy once threatened to call the cops on me because I told him he couldn’t check into his room 10 hours early without paying an early check in fee. He wanted to call the cops because Expedia said it was 24 hour check in, and it was false advertisement.

He made the mistake of doing this right before I had to head out for a camp. I laughed at him, told him I’d willingly call the cops for him, and that I would love to have them come down.

A scam call once got angry with me because I wouldn’t authorize a purchase.

They pretended to call my manager. I laughed when they did it, because I could hear the phonecall.

My manager had a very particular way of speaking. He was very slow when talking. They did not take this into account.

I told him about this the next shift, of course, and he did not believe me. It was during shift change, luckily, so I did a faux phone call with another coworker, who had worked there for years. Both of them thought it was funny that I had his timing and general tone down.

The scam artists told me I was fired because my manager was, quote, “extremely disappointed in me”. I told them I was glad, because it meant I could go home early.

(My manager told me I wasn’t fired when I told him he had apparently fired me. I asked if he was still disappointed. He laughed.)

When we changed the clock-in system and I had to text our hotel manager whenever I clocked in and out.

A guy tried to tell me that I wasn’t qualified to check him into a room because women are all stupid. I asked him if he wanted to talk to the manager. He said yes, and the manager called him an idiot.

The other time someone told me I wasn’t qualified to check them in because I took too long, and I offered to let her come in and check herself in. Our servers were updating. She declined, because she didn’t work here. I told her she was just going to have to be patient.

Kicked someone out of the hotel once. He came back 30 minutes later to try and re-rent his room. I told him no. He thought I was just joking about him being kicked out.

My GM tried for like 8 months to get me to date another coworker. He made jokes about giving him a raise so he could take me out to dinner.

I do not think my GM knew I was very gay.

The coworker did not take me out to dinner.

The one drunk college student from Germany who I made friends with in the breakfast room, and his significantly less drunk friend.

they both said trans rights, i’m still crying

Drunk men are assholes. Drunk women are godsends.

One night, a lady told me my eyes were pretty, and when I had to help her to the door, she called me gorgeous and said I smelled nice.

her friends were so embarrassed

i forgot how to speak

That same night, a drunk guy said he hated his wife and that he hated me too after calling me an asshole. His wife came in after he said this. I felt bad for her.

Occasionally people would stop at the front desk on their way back from the gas station, and would come bearing gifts of usually drinks. It was always nice.

one time a guy offered me weed brownies

i declined because i was worried about

The guy who stopped at the front desk to ask where the nearest Starbucks was, because his girlfriend wanted a frappuccino, and he was gonna get her one so she could have it in bed.

He came back as I was clocking out.

His girlfriend had dumped him on his way back.

I felt really bad, because this man had peak “dumb of ass but chugs respecting women juice” energy.

Incidentally, I got a free Starbucks frap.

Someone was convinced I was colorblind because I told him that I thought his blue cup was neat.

It was a purple cup.

i did not know how to tell him i was not colorblind, i am just an idiot

Our GM moved to Texas and we didn’t see him for like a year. He was the GM of 2 other hotels. Apparently, he said he was living at all three.

Some dude came into the hotel once night. I tried talking to him. He started signing. I do not know sign, and apologized, and then grabbed a paper to write back and forth with him.

The man made me learn fingerspelling and we instead did this back and forth.

I thought nothing of this, and he came by a few times to chat with me, albeit incredibly slowly.

During shift change, he came in again. I explained to my relief that he only signed. He nodded, and then told me that he had been “healed by a grace act of God, and could now hear and talk.”

He then tried to tell me to come to church to celebrate this miracle.

He told me he was actually fine. He was just choosing to learn ASL and wanted me to participate for the “immersion of it all”, so that I might “find the lord and accept him once more into my heart”.

yes, this was in fact, some white person bullshit

Also in line with white people bullshit, the guy who said he could tell I had a strained relationship with my half-sister but a good relationship with my youngest sister, that my father would recover from the divorce, and that my engagement would be fine. He said it was because I was a Leo cusp, and then said that Kimberly was a good name for me and that I chose well.

i am not a leo. i was born in december

i have no sisters

i have never been engaged

my parents are (somehow) still married

i was wearing a nametag. angeles does not sound or look anything like kimberly

They sold the hotel last year to new owners. Nobody knew until an email got sent out that said we “probably would still have our jobs”.

I argued with my new manager about a raise. He didn’t want to give it to me. I told him he had to, because I was working minimum wage, and the minimum wage had gone up.

the AAA guy who was a real big dick when I asked him to repeat himself and joked about women being bad at jobs.

He asked me if there were any discounts. I refused to give him any, because we had none for him.

He asked if I knew if there was any discount that would make him stop asking me stupid questions. I sighed and said “No, but god I fucking wish there was.”

Tonight, a lady asked me what our beta fish’s name is. I don’t know. She decided to name him Benny, and then asked me to come up with a name. I panicked and said Soap. This was apparently the right answer, because she nodded sagely and said I chose wisely.

#angeles blogs

[dopescotlandwarrior]

Bluegrass-Chapter Four

                     A special thank you to @statell​ for your help and wisdom

Previous chapters at AO3

Chapter Four

Claire and Molly were hopping from one farm to another in Lexington when Claire announced she had to make one extra stop. They were done for the day and she filled Molly in on her date for the weekend.

“Chad Remington called out of the blue and asked me to dinner. High profile date, lots of press I’m sure. Chad gave me a one hundred dollar minimum to buy a dress. Will you help me, please?”

Molly looked confused and finally found her voice, “what about Dusty?”

“What about Dusty?”

“He would …”

“Dustin and I are best friends Molly, nothing more.”

Molly watched Claire’s eyes and saw compassion, maturity, and truth. “Okay, I didn’t know how you were together. So it’s like brother and sister then.”

“I don’t know about that, I never had either, or a Mother and Father. I don’t have anything to compare it to. I just know that Dusty put me first and for the first time in my life, someone knew I was in the world and cared about me. And I cared for him the same way. You watch, when we spy on him in the coming year, I will bet money he’s in love before his GPA is 4.0, the little brat. Let’s go”

Molly was young but she had a great eye for fashion from looking at hundreds of magazines. It was her guilty pleasure fueled by sitting in waiting rooms of salons, waiting for no one, consuming every page that the magazines offered. Claire tried so many dresses on but Molly scrunched up her nose. The saleswoman began shooting darts at the young woman, so she took over and looked through the evening wear pulling dresses as she went. She handed five dresses to Claire.

Claire’s eyes went wide as dress after dress fit perfectly, hugged her curves in the right places, and was fashionably short.

“Well young lady, now I have the opposite problem of having too many choices. What do you think?”

Molly pulled the best fitting dress and walked to the shoes, pulling a gorgeous heal with straps that exposed almost her entire foot. She grabbed a pair of silk stockings on the way to the register.

“Straighten your hair and put this in it.” She handed Claire a beautiful cubic zirconia hair clip that would sparkle against her dark hair.”

“Straighten my hair? Like how?”

“I’ll help if you want.”

“Yes, I think that would be really nice if you don’t mind.”

Once back in the truck, Molly got very quiet and seemed preoccupied with something troubling. She said goodbye to Claire and got into her car, but Claire stopped her. She leaned against her truck and looked down at Molly as she prepared to leave.

“Something is troubling you, Molly. I don’t want to impose but is there anything I can help you with?”

Molly locked her hands on the steering wheel and looked at her lap shaking her head. Claire waited, giving her the time to decide if she wanted to speak her trouble or not.

“Last night I was harassed by the police. They said I would be arrested if they caught me again. I don’t want to go to jail but I probably will because I have nowhere else to go.”

Claire watched the tears streak down Molly’s sad face, and she was ready to offer this sweet girl whatever she needed.

“Whatever it is Molly, I will help you, I promise.”

“I lost my job a month ago and I have no more savings, so I had to leave my apartment.” She blushed crimson talking about her poverty. “Can I park here tonight and sleep, so the police will leave me alone? I can tell them you allowed me to stay here. I won’t be back until after dark, I promise.”

Claire pulled the young girl out of her car and helped her up the stairs. “Molly, are you an orphan too?”

Molly looked at Claire through her bleary eyes, “no I have an aunt and older brother but neither of them can take me.”

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen. I’m too old to collect the welfare that kept me going my last year of high school, my church helped as well.”

“Did your parents die sweetheart?”

“I don’t know. They just left and never came back.”

Molly cried in earnest, apologizing to Claire as she was led into the house.

“I won’t hear another word about it, young lady. You need to bring your things in. You can wash what you want and take the extra room. See? No one has ever used this room, so it has been wasted. If you sleep in here it will not be an empty room anymore. I hate empty rooms, don’t you?”

Molly looked around and Claire could see her mind working on being a burden.

“So, what I need you to do is get your things from your car while I make dinner. I have needed a roommate, but I don’t know anyone in Kentucky. I would like a roommate so will you stay with me?”

Claire had talked so fast Molly hardly had time to formulate an answer and her bulldozing boss was suddenly her benefactor, offering her safety from the cold dark night.

Claire was pushing a warm plate of food at Molly and bringing in blankets and pillows. She sat across from Molly and ate from her plate in silence, watching the poor young woman inhale her dinner.

“Molly, I won’t accept any money from you, but I need your assurance you will be honest with me about what you need.”

Molly grabbed her hand and struggled with her tears, shaking her head yes.

“That is good enough for me dearest. Get some sleep, and there is more on the stove if you are still hungry. Good night love.”

Claire was intimately familiar with orphan’s pride. Many households took her in and fed her, gave her a room, and reminded her of their generosity every day after that. Uncle Lamb died and left her alone at sixteen with no one to care for her. It was the loneliest time of her life, more so than the eleven years she spent traveling the world with Uncle Lamb because then, she always had him.

Claire retired to her room and prayed that Molly would have the fortitude to give this a chance. This was a match that needed to happen, and she was the best advocate for this young girl, because she understood what she was going through.

The food was left on the stove to encourage Molly to eat. Claire heard noises in the kitchen and relaxed knowing she was fed and warm. Before she made it to her patio for Yoga the next morning, she noticed her sparkling kitchen and all dishes put neatly away. This was going to be easy she thought as she pressed into her first pose.

As the week progressed, Molly made fewer mistakes and pulled a small notebook out of her pocket each time Claire asked about the treatments. Molly would look at her notes and Claire would write furiously as she worked through the files. Claire let several monumental wins go by without noticing them because she was locked in her head.

She was so excited about seeing Chad at the end of the week she hardly noticed anything. The ripping of paper brought her mind back and she watched Molly deftly pull a syringe out of the sterile sleeve and twist a needle on before plunging it into a bottle of Penicillin. Claire walked over and looked at the medicines, bandages, fecal collection cups, and gloves she would use for treatments this morning.

“Wow Molly, you are certainly getting the hang of things. I am very impressed. Claire leaned back on a stall as she talked bringing the horse forward to nibble her hair. She reached up and ran her hand down his cheek hearing him complaining of pain. Claire opened the stall door and looked at a trough full of food from earlier in the day. He wasn’t eating, his head was hot, and his mouth hurt, according to him. Claire asked to look in his mouth and he finally obliged. There was a large abscess on the roof of his mouth. Most likely from a bur in his hay.

“Oooh, that looks nasty my friend. Molly, I must find the barn manager and see if they want me to lance it today. Be right back.”

Claire came back with several men who all crowded into the stall to help hold the suffering horse. Claire took the halter from one of them because she would be far gentler getting it on. She asked Molly to watch the men, and how they held the horse still.

The horse was not happy with the searing pain in his mouth, but Claire had it lanced quickly and flushed with peroxide. She could tell the pain was improving when she put her hands on his cheeks. A stiff shot of antibiotics and they were on to the next horse.

Molly wanted to know how Claire understood to look in his mouth but decided not to ask. She was still fresh to Claire’s treatments and would know her ways soon enough.

They quit early on Friday so Claire would have plenty of time to freak out before Chad picked her up. On the patio, a small cat cowered in the corner and they almost missed it. Claire picked it up and stroked it while it sat in her lap. Molly was bringing groceries into the house when Claire got up and asked her to drive the cat home.

Molly followed where Claire directed, and they watched the cat run toward a house. Claire followed, rang the doorbell, and when the door opened the cat ran inside.

“Sorry to bother you, your cat was lost and crying so we brought it home. Have a nice day.”

Since the homeowner did not know how far they had come, she figured Claire had seen the cat in her yard at some point. Molly, on the other hand, could not understand how Claire could know, so she asked her and got her mind blown.

“You, you hear them tell you things? Is that what you said? Cat’s don’t talk so how do you hear them?”

Claire did her best to explain the images she sees and using the cat as an example, she pointed to the clumps of Black Oak trees and told her she saw the cat climbing one of them.

“I have only seen these trees here, so I thought it was a good start. We got lucky.”

Molly was quiet. Another doubter, she thought. This was something she was used to, and silence was always Dustin’s response to her truth. She dropped it and turned her thoughts to Chad, not a hard thing to do because she found him very attractive. The only man who could top his looks was Jamie Fraser, she thought. Now he was off the charts. She thought about Jamie for the rest of the trip home and wondered why he hooked up with such an awful woman.

Later, Claire and Molly sat on the porch watching the sky turn its Kentucky colors. The sunset was distracting enough to let Chad slip up the stairs and watch the women for several minutes. Actually, Molly got a passing glance, but Claire was studied from her feet to the top of her head.

“I’m a bit speechless. I’ve never seen you out of your scrubs.”

Claire stood up quickly, shocked to hear his voice right behind them. She introduced Chad to Molly, smiling the whole time, so excited to be going somewhere fun. Molly waived and sighed at the charming Chad Remington. When he smiled at her she almost swooned. He was a beautiful and elegant man. She forced herself to go inside because staring after them was just plain weird.

Chad admired Claire’s shiny straight hair and the little black dress, long legs and killer shoes as they walked through the restaurant to their table. The conversation seemed to have no end as they got lost in the others back story. Chad’s brother came to their table and sat with them for a while. When the food reporter for the local news wanted to interview him, he suggested an open place right next to their table. While that was going on, Claire turned her attention back to her handsome date.

After dinner, they walked the downtown area because there was so much more to talk about.

“You have a hopeful for the road to the Kentucky Derby? What exactly does that mean?”

“Claire, I’m surprised you don’t know the term since you doctor these horses every day.” He was teasing her.

“No one’s ever had the time to tell me. Now might be a good time.”

“All the breeding farms you visit in this area are working toward one thing, to drop a foal that will be the next Secretariat. When I decide on my breeding matches for the year, it’s a bit like a mad scientist mixing genetic material to produce a super runner. At least that’s what it feels like to me. Once in a great while, someone produces a foal that was born to run faster than all the others and it’s like magic watching him win race after race.

“So the road to the Kentucky Derby?”

“The road is a group of races decided on by Churchill Downs. They are stakes-grade, minimum one mile, and the top four finishers win points. The second phase of the road to the derby is called the super six. Stakes-grade, tough races, with fierce competition because so many horses drop out during the first phase. Owners can nominate their horse for the Triple Crown as early as January. Right before the race, the top twenty point winners are chosen to run for the roses. Just getting to that point is a star in your breeder crown that will never dim, it’s a permanent elevation to elite breeder. It’s all I’ve ever aspired to, producing one of those twenty horses.”

“My preference for racehorses was a carryover from my Uncle who raised me. He loved the sport and talked about it constantly. He spoke of the Triple Crown winner Secretariat with such reverence I would giggle sometimes. He was quite a horse according to my uncle.”

Chad stopped walking and pressed Claire to the wall of a large retail building. His hands were on either side of her head and she was thrilled to the bone because he might kiss her any minute now.

“Claire, I really like you, really like you. Would you mind if I kissed you?”

“I do not mind, that would nice.”

She barely had time to finish her sentence when his lips pressed rather hard on hers, flatly, and unmoving, then released her.

“Well, that was something awful I think. I just rushed it, and I am very rusty. Can I try again?”

“Of course.”

This time, he looked into her eyes and took his time getting to her lips which Claire found very exciting. They kissed three more times and each time was better.

“My God Claire, did you feel the earth move a bit when we kissed?”

“Umm, no actually.”

“Me neither. I think that is okay because it will happen next time. Claire, it’s one o’clock in the morning already. Let me get you home.”

They kissed once more at Claire’s door and she waved goodbye. She was confused because the last time she kissed like that was at a campus party with someone she didn’t know. In fact, she ended up taking that great kisser home for the night, and it was rather good if she remembered correctly. It made no sense that Chad, a handsome breeder who was easy to talk to, initiated kisses that did nothing for her.

The next day, Jamie was running through the kitchen grabbing some fruit before leaving to watch Nick with the yearlings.

“Come here Jamie, there’s your strumpet, in the paper, laughing with her nose in the air. Come here!”

Jamie looked over Isobel’s shoulder and sure enough, Claire, looking fabulous with…Chad Remington! What the hell was this all about he wondered. Most people assumed Chad was gay so how did she end up at dinner with him? He bit into the apple and left Isobel muttering under her breath.

“Jamie! Glad you could make it. I refuse to say I told you so by the way. Let’s have a look at your magic colt.”

Jamie could see three colts being lunged by a handler who was clicking up their speed, while Midnight Runner was stationary looking at the weird man in the middle without a clue what to do. When his handler used the big whip to get the horse moving, the colt looked at his backside where he heard the whip and then back at the handler.

“Tell the handler to make contact with the whip. Give the lad some incentive to run away at least.”

Nick called out and the handler flicked the whip on the colt’s ass making him jump and glare at the man.

“He still doesna get it. I know someone who might help. I’ll get her here today, but chances are he won’t run. Just like ye told me, Nick.”

Claire clicked off from Jamie’s call feeling weird butterflies in her stomach. She had a vague recollection of his handsome face and a solid memory of what she saw on the inside of the man. It took her back to that day. She didn’t hate Jamie Fraser, and it sounded like he really needed her help. She made two calls to reschedule and told Molly they were going to Highland Brothers for the rest of the day.

Molly had ceased to be impressed by the large breeding complexes, but her eyes were darting all over the compound as she took it all in. Jamie waved them on to the premises.

So he is waiting for me this time. What on earth could be so wrong, she wondered.

Jamie pulled her aside right away so Molly would not hear him. He looked like he was chewing glass when he spoke to her.

“This colt is special, Doctor Beauchamp, I need for him to at least make a showing at the two-year-old races. It could finish me in Kentucky if he refuses to try. Understand? Ye said ye could understand them so I’m askin ye lass, please can ye find out what’s wrong wi’him?”

Claire looked out at the training arenas where three other horses were running on the lunge line and the colt was chewing on the handler’s hair.

“Oh dear, that is a problem. Can you leave him in the ring alone and let me take a look? I need Molly to observe him for me. From what I’m getting from him already, you, Mister Fraser must stay out of his sight. Okay?”

Claire walked into the arena and smiled at this enormous, but childlike colt who trotted to her, so happy to smell and taste someone new. She felt the presence of an innocent who didn’t understand what he was supposed to do. When Claire put her hands on his cheeks, she showed him he was supposed to run, as fast as he could.

He asked why. Why do I run? Is there a treat when I get there? Are you going to run too?

Claire laughed at the similarities between the colt’s thought process and a small child. She told him to get ready to run and called for Molly to get the sugar cubes from the truck. Molly came back to the rail and watched her crazy boss line up to race the horse. She constantly touched his face and they finally lined up together. Claire took off running as fast as she could. The colt stood and watched her but then jolted into a gallop, ears back, butt muscles exploding and passed her like a lightning bolt. He looked around for her, confused again, but saw her big smile and arms held out wide so he ran to her.

Molly saw the beast running right for Claire and she jumped the rail to help her. The colt came to a dead stop a foot from Claire, and Molly could swear he looked happy like this was a game. Claire’s arms were around his neck and she laughed. The colt backed up and reared on his hind legs like a kid saying, “watch this!”

Molly sat on the rail for the next two hours as Claire led the colt through a series of gates and games that seemed to heighten his interest and fun. Jamie pulled Nick to his hiding place to watch the transformation in the colt and the crazy vet that was making it happen.

“Why are we hiding Jamie?”

“The lad thinks I’m his mother and just wants hugs when I’m around.”

“What the hell? I swear it looks like she is speaking to him and he is listening!”

“Somethin like that Nick, she has a way to communicate wi’em. You should see him run, like the wind he is!”

The men watched the duo in fascination as they both lined up to race again. Molly was laughing as she watched Claire seem to taunt him into racing.

“Molly, if you would do the honors of saying bang please.”

“Bang!”

Claire took off as fast as she could run, and the colt watched her until he again seemed to get hit with electricity making him bolt into his own race. Claire knew he could sense her emotion, so she concentrated on winning, at whatever cost, she wanted to beat him.

The colt passed her going so fast she could hardly see him and she smiled triumphantly as he ran his heart out, right up to Molly to get his treat. Then he ran right at Claire again to bask in the glory of being the winner. He trotted around her as she told him ‘I want to win!” and he taunted back ‘never! I am the winner!’

Claire was still panting and holding her hip but kept up the teasing wanting to implant the love of winning.

“Okay big guy, race you to Molly for the rest of the sugar cubes!”

Claire ran with all her worn-out might as the colt blasted past her filling her head with Ha-ha, Ha-ha.

“Cheeky little bastard.”

Molly looked up as the colt appeared to be a beast of a horse running dead for her. She was so scared she fell backward, right into the arms of Jamie Fraser. She looked up at him and thought she had died and gone to heaven. She smiled up at him and saw their wedding, and children, and a glorious future together.

“Ye alright lass? Ye bumped ye head on the rail.”

Claire was running for Molly, ready to pass out but she opened her arms to hug her across the rail.

“Jesus Christ, Molly. Are you alright?”

Molly shook her head and blushed with embarrassment as Jamie set her on her feet. Nick had joined Claire in the arena and gave the colt some love while he praised her for making him run. Jamie looked at Claire and could see the gears working in her mind. He decided then and there that his prized colt, his road to the Kentucky Derby, and his business, were now the domain of one Claire Beauchamp because if there was a way, only she knew it.

Molly was packing up to leave and Nick had taken the colt back to his stall. Jamie noticed Claire was relaxed around him with none of the flirting jitters most women get from his presence. He found it energizing and delightful like he could be charming without stoking an unwanted forest fire.

“He won’t get the idea from this in one-day Mister Fraser. I had to goad him into running. Without the correct motivation, he won’t run or at least not his hardest. Do you want me to come back?”

“Aye. I know ye have a practice to run so whatever time you give me will be much appreciated and I will pay ye well lass.”

Claire smiled at this incredibly handsome man. “Three times a week for as long as I can.” She started walking to her truck and Molly.

“How ye gettin along wi’out Dusty?”

“It’s hard but Molly is doing great.” Another brilliant smile for the Scott and she climbed into the passenger seat.

“How do you do it Claire? Dusty would have walked off the earth for you, Chad wants to date you, and Jamie looked like he would do a backflip if you asked him to.”

“Claire laughed tiredly. Dustin is very special, Chad-isn’t, and Jamie needs me more than he needs air right now. It isn’t about me, it’s the circumstance we all find ourselves in.”

“Jamie is so good looking, is he married?”

“Almost. I thought you liked Chad!”

“Not anymore.”

Claire looked at her dreamy-eyed assistant as they drove off, and laughed before diving into files to update her notes for the day.

[grayson-dolans-dangly-earring]

Bible Study (E.D.)

THIS IS SO SMUTTY PLEASE BE AWARE OF THAT ALSO IM SORRY IF ITS NOT THAT GOOD OR THERE ARE SOME ERRORS IM NOT WELL VERSED IN CHURCH RELATED THINGS SO PLEASE FORGIVE ME ILY ❤️

@e-g-d-8 @hexagonaldolans @dolanswhore @deluxedolans @hmmmethan

ETHAN’S POV

My parents last ditch effort at making me a normal respectable teen was bible study. It’s a well known fact that my parents were bible thumpers and it irritated them to no end that my life goal was to be the exact opposite. My twin brother Grayson and I were both against our parents strict rules but Grayson obeyed most of them just to shut them up. I however, relished in making people squirm and pissing off my parents was my favorite hobby. I only agreed to bible study because it was either that or get a job, and an after school shift at the diner would really cramp my style.

I flicked my cigarette into the parking lot and crushed it with my boot before making my way to the door of the church. Once inside the building I followed the posted signs that directed me to the bible study room in the basement. Folding chairs were arranged in a circle and a few other teens were already there when I walked through the door. Heads turned and voices quieted as they all noticed me. I had quite the reputation at school so the people here already knew who I was and what I’d done and they seemed afraid of me. Good. That’s the way I liked it.

I found a seat and the rest of the group did the same. It was still quiet and I was not enjoying being gawked at, so when the door swung open and everyone’s attention shifted I was grateful. Until I saw her. The girl who entered the room was none other than Y/n Y/l/n, the local pastor’s daughter. I’d seen her around school before but only in small glimpses as she was usually hurrying away from wherever I was. Now, I could see her fully and up close. She made her way to a long table against the back wall of the room to set up some pamphlets.

She had a skirt on that was just a touch too short to be as modest as I’m sure her father would have preferred, her blouse was tight and I could see the buttons straining just a bit and she had a cardigan over top to keep the attention off her amazing tits. She could do whatever she wanted to hide them but I could tell what was underneath. She had wedge heels on that made her legs look amazing and I made a mental note that she was clearly not a girl who enjoyed wearing stockings. Her hair was thrown up into a messy bun on the top of her head and strands poked out all over the place, framing her face. Her glasses were thick rimmed and sliding down the bridge of her nose and she had to push them up with a delicate finger. A gold cross necklace hung around her neck and she fiddled with it often. Her lips were soft and pillowy and pink, and when she sucked the lower one into her mouth while trying to concentrate on her pamphlet set up, I almost came in my jeans. Fuck, my pants were so tight and all I wanted was to throw her over my shoulder and carry her out of here. I swore to myself that I’d go to this meeting and then never return but if she was gonna be here, I might have to stick around.

READER’S POV

Ethan Dolan was sitting in my class. He was sitting in my fucking bible study class. Why on earth do strange things always happen to ME?! How was I supposed to concentrate? Ethan Dolan was sex on legs and I don’t know if you know this but, as the pastor’s daughter I’m expected to steer clear of boys like that. But god he makes it so hard to do that. I continued setting up the back table and took a deep breath before turning to face the group.

Ethan had a smirk plastered to his gorgeous face like he had x-ray vision or something and could see through my clothes. My eyes scanned the group for an open chair but there wasn’t one as no one had prepared for another person to join us. “You can sit right here if you’re looking for a seat babydoll.” Ethan’s gruff voice rumbled from across the circle. I turned my gaze on him and watched as he ran his big hands up and down his thighs, grinning like the cheshire cat. “N-no thank you Ethan! But that does bring me to this weeks t-topic! Okay!” I managed to stammer while setting up a chair for myself. “This week’s topic is abstinence, chastity, and virginity. Now it’s okay if you’ve already lost your virginity. Yes, it’s a sin but if you ask for God’s forgiveness and vow to never do it again until you’re married, you will be pure again.” I recited from my father’s usual speech from mass. “Don’t really think I can un-ring that bell if you know what I mean.” Ethan’s voice sounded from across the circle. My breath caught in my chest and I swallowed down my nervousness. “Ethan, you can still be pure if that’s something that interests you.” I said. I decided to be a little daring and ask him a question. “Why don’t you tell us what's stopping you from having your virginity reclaimed by God?” I crossed my legs and waited for his response.

ETHANS POV

That little vixen. She really was egging me on! I was shocked she had the nerve to ask me what she did. But I wasn’t about to lose this little game we started playing, trying to push each other over the edge. “Uh, hard to say, exactly. Sex has always felt, I don't know, good, you know? I mean, really, really good. So what's the big deal, right? I mean what’s not to love about sex? There's the touching and the feeling all of each other, my hands everywhere, tracing every inch of her body, the two of us moving together, pressing and pulling...grinding. Then you hit that sweet spot, and everything just builds and builds and builds until it all just...explodes.” I said, clearing my throat. The girls in the group looked starstruck and the boys looked jealous. I noticed Y/n’s breathing had sped up and she was crushing the pamphlet in her hand. She quickly uncrossed and crossed her legs and I could tell I had gotten to her because when she uncrossed her legs, I could see up her skirt and a wet patch was just barely visible on her baby pink panties. I was fucking rock hard in my jeans and I wanted her more than anything. Everyone else in the room faded away when I locked eyes with her. God I’d give anything to fuck her right in this room in front of everyone.

READERS POV

Ethan’s little speech had quite the effect on me. I was extremely warm and dizzy. If sex was really as good as the way he described it, how could it be a sin?! Whatever. It wasn’t my job to question the Lord and his rules, so I brushed him off as well as I could and continued with the class.

After about an hour I dismissed the group and everyone made their way out of the basement, Ethan included. When my group ended it was usually around 7 pm and I was the only one left in the building so locking up was my job. I felt like I should say a prayer and confess my sinful thoughts before leaving so I made my way upstairs to the chapel. The lights were dim so I didn’t see the Ethan sitting in the back pew and I went to kneel in front of the altar. “Dear God, please forgive me for my impure thoughts and please protect me from the temptation that is Ethan Dolan. Amen.” I whispered. “Oh so I’m a temptation now?” a deep voice rumbled from behind me. I attempted to turn around quickly but just ended up further embarrassing myself by falling on my ass. My face was burning with guilt and I couldn’t bring myself to look up at him, and I feared that if I did look at him, I’d do whatever he asked.

ETHANS POV

I couldn’t help but grin as she stared down at my boots. I knew she wanted me now and she knew that she’d made a mistake letting her true desires slip. I reached out a hand and brushed her cheek and lifted her face. “Look at me Y/n. Come on baby. Look at me. Look at Daddy.” I said, catching her attention. Her eyes met mine and I swear to God my knees buckled. I ran my thumb over her lower lip and tugged on it just a little. She locked eyes with me as she sucked my thumb into her mouth. She looked so innocent and the thought of being the one to fuck her brains out was so so exciting. Was it wrong to tempt her and reel her in this way? Maybe. Did I care? No.

“Oh sweetheart, you look so beautiful. But you’d look so much better with my dick in your mouth don’t ya think?”

READERS POV

I must have died and gone to heaven. That could be the only explanation for this situation. Ethan Dolan wanted me and all reasonable thought had floated out of my brain. He wanted me to suck him off and that’s exactly what I was going to do.

My hands scrambled to pull his belt free and unbutton his jeans and he reached down to grab my wrists. “Baby slow down. We’ve got all night. I promise.” Ethan chuckled above me. “I-i I’ve n-never done this before.” I whispered, looking at him. His big hand cradled my chin before he spoke, “Oh baby, I know. But I’m gonna teach you.” He unbuckled his belt and pulled it free from the loops of his jeans. He then unbuttoned them, pushing them to pool around his ankles. He then grabbed my hand, pressing it to the front of him. I could feel his member pulsing beneath his black calvin klein boxers and it excited me. I gently pulled them down to join his jeans and his length sprang up, finally free from its confines. All I could do was stare. It was so big and intimidating but my mouth watered with anticipation.

“Open up beautiful.” Ethan gently urged and I did as I was told. He fed his cock into my mouth inch by inch and I moaned at the taste.

ETHANS POV

She was taking my cock like a champ and if I wasn’t so caught up in the pleasure, I would have been shocked. She started sucking on her own and bobbing her head back and forth, slowly but surely. “God damn sweetheart. Yeah just like that. You’re doing so good for me baby. So so good. Ugh fuck yes.” I moaned, my hand coming up to cup the back of her head. I managed to pry my eyes open to look down at her and the sight was beautiful. “Come on baby. Remember what I said? Look at Daddy.” I groaned. Y/n looked up at my through her this lashes and I could see tears welling up in her eyes. She looked so fucking pretty. “Okay take me in as far as you can...yup just like that baby, just like that…now try to swallow.” I instructed her. She did what I said and a litany of curses spilled from my lips as her throat constricted around me. I began sliding in and out of her mouth at a quick pace and she did her best to accommodate my speed. “Yes! Fuck yes! Good girl...oh god…” I cried. I was a panting mess and I couldn’t bring myself to give a shit. I withdrew myself from her mouth and she sucked in a large lungful of air, throatfuck spit gathered at the corners of her mouth. God she was so fucking sexy. “Get up baby. Come on.” I demanded. Once she stood, I pulled her body flush with mine, kissing her full on the mouth. My hand reached down slowly to lift her skirt and I ran a finger over her soaked panties. She hissed at the contact and I grinned against her lips.

READERS POV

He was touching me in my most intimate place and I was shocked that the sparks flying between us didn’t catch the whole church on fire. Oh. My. God. We’re in a church! My father’s church! What is wrong with me?! Ethan’s lips trailed down my neck, making me shiver. “Sweetheart I wanna fuck you over one of these church pews. Is that okay? Huh? Do you want that? Tell Daddy what you want.” His honey sweet voice whispered in my ear. I couldn’t lie, I did want him to fuck me. I didn’t even care that we were in a church anymore. I wanted him and he wanted me and I wasn’t about to stop this. I nodded before whispering back “Daddy, I want whatever you want.” He groaned and his hands that were resting on my hips, gripped my flesh tight before he grabbed his discarded belt and led me to a pew. Ethan spun me around so my back was facing him and he ran a hand down my spine signaling me to lean forward. He pulled the zipper down on the back of my skirt until it fell away. I heard the click of him opening his pocket knife and I shivered as the cold blade came in contact with my skin. In a swift motion he cut away my panties and I looked over my shoulder in shock. He grinned at me, shoving my torn panties in his jacket pocket. “A momento baby. They’re mine now.” He smirked and delivered a smack to my right ass cheek. I moaned and let my head fall forward. “Are you ready for me sweetheart?” He asked, just to be sure I wanted this. I bit my lip and shook my head yes. He slapped his dick against my clit a few times making me gasp and clench around nothing. “Please…” I moaned. “Well since ya asked so pretty…” He murmured before lining himself up and sliding in to the hilt.

I couldn’t help it, I just screamed. It felt so damn good having him inside me and the pent up need from the teasing all night completely masked the pain that should have occurred. Ethan stilled inside me, making what seemed like a choking sound. “I just...I uh...I’ve-fuck…I’ve never been with a girl this tight before. Jesus Christ. I uh, I just need a second.” He said through clenched teeth. I smirked to myself and wiggled my ass, giggling a bit after hearing him hiss.

ETHANS POV

Her pussy was like a fucking vice around me. I didn’t want to embarrass myself by cumming so soon so I had to take a second to collect myself. She was so warm and wet inside. She let it slip that she was on birth control during sharing time in group so I didn’t use a condom. This was the first time I’d ever been inside someone raw and it was amazing. I could feel everything, every ridge, every pulse.

After a few moments I began to pull out and Y/n whined. beneath me. I pulled out and pushed back in over and over at a slow but steady pace, all the while she moaned and whimpered below me. “Faster…” She cried. Her wish was my command so I planted my hands on her hips and began to slam in and out of her slick channel. My hips slapped against her ass and the sound echoed through the church like some kind of sick depraved hymn. “Oh my god! Yes Ethan yes! Please don’t stop!” Y/n moaned, slumped forward over the pew. Her hands gripped the bench seat and her knuckles turned white from how tight she was holding on. I had been fucking her so hard, her hair had fallen out of her bun and was now waving around her face. My left hand gathered her hair into a makeshift ponytail and yanked her head back while my right hand slithered between her legs to rub her clit. She tightened around me and I gasped at the feeling.

READERS POV

Between the stinging of my scalp where Ethan was yanking my hair, and the immense pleasure of him rubbing my clit while thrusting into me, had me in a fog of bliss. He used my hair to pull me backwards so his chest was against my back and his teeth sank into my shoulder. I cried out and I could feel the coil of heat in my belly tightening. “You’re doing so well sweetheart. You’re so perfect for me. Ughhhh yes. I’m close. Cum for me baby. Cum for Daddy.” He growled in my ear. After hearing his words I exploded around him, juices flowing down my thighs and all over him. My legs felt so weak but I was determined to stay upright until he came. “Oh fuck! You’re squeezing me so tight! I’m gonna cum! Can I come inside you baby? Please?” Ethan begged. He sounded so sweet I just couldn’t say no. I nodded yes and moments later I felt the hot splash of his seed inside me. It felt so good to share something like this with someone. The warmth spread all over my body and as he jerked inside of my with the aftershocks, he hit my g-spot, triggering another orgasm for me. Tears spilled down my face at the overwhelming pleasure and I felt him wipe them away. Ethan pulled out of me slowly and laid down on the seat of the pew, pulling me on top of him. I laid there in comfortable silence as he stroked my hair. “You did so good for me baby. I’m so proud of you. You feelin okay?” He asked. “Yes I’m good. I’m more than good. That was…amazing.” I sighed. “I think we should keep doing this Y/n. I’ve never been with someone that makes me feel the way you do. The chemistry between us is insane don’t you think?” He asked in a serious tone. “It is. I’ve never been so open and willing to bear myself to anyone else. I’d love to keep seeing you Ethan.” I murmured into his chest. “Come on baby. Let’s get outta here.” Ethan said sitting up. “Wait! I have to go erase the tape in the security office before anyone sees us fucking in the chapel! Oh my god I forgot about the cameras!” I shrieked. Ethan’s laugh reverberated through the room before he spoke, saying “Don’t erase it. I’ll take it with me. I’m gonna be replaying this night in my head over and over again for a while anyway. I’d like to have video evidence that this isn’t a dream.”

THE END

#dolan twins #ethan dolan #grayson dolan #me #mine #dolan twin tuesday #4ou tour #the dolan twins #dolan twins imagine #dolan twins fanfic #ethan dolan fanfic #ethan x reader #ethan dolan imagine #ethan dolan smut #dolan twins smut #grayson dolan fanfic #grayson dolan smut #grayson dolan imagine #grayson x reader

[darkling-er]

Piety Knob || Chapter 1

Summary: In 2017 Juniper Blackwood moves into a small town with her aunt because of a job opportunity thanks to distant family. Juniper was always homeschooled so she's unfamiliar with everything at her new town, and a new school to fit in with strangers. With noone to really talk to, she dwells in the mysteries of the town, while finding out secrets about her family and herself as well..

Parts: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 coming soon

Characters: Piety Knob OCS (see under Piety Knob intros tag)

The car ride from the airport is longer than expected. It's not like I didn't google the whole trip and count how long it would take, but actually experiencing a 16 hour long car ride is way different from theory. Perry, my aunt, is being cheerful without a stop since we packed our things in Chicago to move to the distant little town in Oregon, Detroit.

"We should be near to family, Juniper, you'll see how good it will be for you!" she said when she announced that she got a job in my hometown. I was excited for her, truly, she had such an awful job back in Chicago, her boss was mean to her all the time and she recieved a way too low paycheck after the plus hours she was working.

Finally she got a chance to start over in a small town, with people she already knew and liked so I guessed why not. Why not leave behind the town I grew up in and mostly loved to a place I hardly even remembered other than from my aunt's tales when I was little. At the age of four when people only remember insignificant events like there was a time when a butterfly flew on my mom's shoulder and my dad tried to catch it. Or when I hurt my knee in the backyard and my aunt scolded me for being so wild when playing. Not Perry, mind you, my other aunt, from my mother's side, Primrose.

And here I am in the overheated backseat of my aunt's old station wagon. It smells old, mixed with smells of used leather, overheated plastic and the burgers we ate a couple hours ago for lunch.

It's close to noon, which I can tell from the direction of the sun in the sky - I had to rely on such primitive modes since both my and my aunt's phone died due to lack of charge - which greets us sometimes when it reaches over the tall pine trees that sorround the main road to Detroit.

Perry promised to take me on many trips after we moved in to the Stantiam State Forest.

I look from the phenomenal view to the front seat and ask Perry:

"How is Church doing?" I look to our old tabby, who sleeps peacefully in her carriage.

"Wonderful, after he puked on my best traveling shoe back at the drivers' parkinglot."

Perry says sarcastically but looks lovingly at the cat for a second before turning her attention back to the road.

"How are you darling?" she asks looking at me through the rearview mirror.

"Good." I smile and I believe I manage to convince her because she smiles back and drives happily towards that hellhole.

I practiced smiling like that for a long time before talking to aunt Periwinkle about moving to Oregon. It's not the nature I have the problem with, the lack of city noise. I actually love the idea of being somewhere quiet and nice. Somewhere I can actually breath clear air.

But the thought of leaving my home and the place I was so used to terrified me in a way I never thought it could.

Maybe a repressed childhood fear, I reckoned. Moving meaning to lose something I love, just when I was four. Losing both my parents than having to move to my aunt Perry, who was my closest next to kin. Meanwhile my sister stayed there with Primrose. I never understood why was that, and truly Perry couldn't explain it either, it was some mix up with my father's and mother's last will. That's why I've barely met my sister, Betty or my other aunt. I got a card and some cash for my birthday from them always, with some petty excuse of not being able to visit me and meet. On Christmas it was our turn to go to them, but Perry having terrible pay at her work made that difficult as well.

I'm not saying it's all their fault. We could have called or texted any time, it's 2017 for God's sake. But it was too awkward and forced so we stopped trying to connect with my sister.

Now that we'll move there, I don't really know what to expect from this sudden change. I would prefer to skip any small talk with them, but if Perry will persist, which I know she will, I will try for her sake.

She always put me in first in her life since my parent's accident, it's only fair I try and make it up for her.

Doing all this thinking I only realize that Perry was talking as she calls my name probably for not the first time:

"Juniiii? Earth to Juniper, is anyone home?"

I roll my eyes and smile.

"Of course, sorry I was daydreaming."

She dismisses it with a smirk.

"I was only saying now that you'll attend high school maybe you'll get a chance to meet a boy."

I make an annoyed sound and bury my head in my hand.

"What? Stooop, no!"

She shrugs in reply.

"Or a girl, I don't judge, you know me."

I shake my head and look out the window again.

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't say any of that."

Perry chuckles with amusement then turns her attention to the road.

"Whatever."

The rest of the trip is boring, we almost hit a deer at one point, which freaks Perry out the most, then Church, who acts wild in her special carriage 'cage'. I on the other hand just want to catch some sleep and recharge my phone so I can return to socialization. Jeez, I'm really one of those people who can't live without their phone for a longer period. Longer meaning hours, it's ridiculous.

I would read something, but all my books are in the new house, we sent the moving truck way ahead so at least when we arrive in the new house all our things will be there.

After what seems like ages I notice an old, mossy sing with the usual welcome messeage. 'Welcome to Detroit, Oregon. Stay for a while.'

"Well that sounds like what a desperate husband would say to her wife when they are having a divorce." I let the comment slip out of my mouth and Perry shushes me but I see her trying not to let out a chuckle.

When we finally reach the house it's already dark and I feel terribly tired after the long drive.

"I want to sleep for a month." i comment as Perry parks the car in the driveway. She nods in agreement and we step outside the old station wagon.

I breath in deeply the summer warm but fresh air and let my body to be free from sitting all day long. I strech my arms and legs with a low growl, then take out Church's cage from the front seat.

Perry is already at the door, all fast and excited even after the trip, like it was nothing to her, just a five minute trip to the store or something.

She lets out an excited squel searching for the right keyes in her hand as I close the car with an exhausted sigh and join her at the doorway.

She looks at me with a grin excited for both of us.

"This is gonna be so great, sweetie! I'm going to make you something for dinner, maybe you can unpack a little in your room?"

"Sure thing, Captain."

She doesn't mind my sarcastic tone as she lets the front door fling open so our new home can greet us.

Periwinkle steps in first and I follow her inside, locking the door behind me.

It's a two story building, all wooden and bricks. It looks cozy, it's definitely bigger than our flat in Chicago.

It has a half-deck to the front door. A garage and an attic. Basically the attic is the second store to the house. My room as Perry told me. Two bathrooms, one downstairs next to Perry's room and one upstairs next to mine.

The living room is open and is connected to the kitchen. Other than that it looks pretty simple, no guest rooms or a cellar. We don't need them anyway.

I like the style of the house. It's like the one from Oregon Trail. The window shutters and doors are painted to a deep green, like the color of the pines around the house.

The moving company did a great job with the furniture, though we mostly left everything behind. We only brought the old couch and the Perry's wardrobe with us. I didn't need anything in my room, all my stuff could fit in three boxes and that was pretty much all I really cared about. Things are just things, the people around us is what matters. My mom used to say that, according to Perry. I like that thought.

I set down Church in the living room and let her out of the carrier. As soon as she knows it's freedom for her she runs to Perry in the kitchen.

I hear my aunt chuckle from next to the stove as I go upstairs towards my room.

It's a narrow stair, followed by a similarly narrow hall which ends in two doors. First I assume is to my room and next to it is the bathroom.

I open up the door which creaks with an eery sound. From the pictures Perry showed me it looked a lot smaller but now stepping into it I immediately smile. It's small alright, but looks cozy with the two windows looking down to the small town and lake, somewhat covered by the pine trees.

My bed is right under those windows, and it has a wardrobe, a desk and a small bookshelf.

I can already imagine stacking up the walls with polaroid pictures I took ages ago in Chicago with the posters of movies I always watch with uncle Gabe. He lives in Salem, so I'm also excited to meet with him more often.

He couldn't help us to move from the airport because he was out on a job, but he called us and said he would visit next thing tomorrow.

I look at the boxes that the moving company put down in the middle of my new room and I start to open the up and unpack my things. Just some clothes, I never was really that into fashion and having a lot of clothes to wear. My books are the next, which I immediately put on the bookshelf above my desk, and some other trinkets, such as my laptop and charger. I search for a place to plug it in my phone.

"Arise!" I say dramatically and put it down to charge on it's own.

Now my main goal is to put on something comfortable and go down and eat whatever is smelling so good downstairs.

I put on a button up shirt which is way too baggy for me, I got it from my dad. Well I found it in a box that had my dad's belongings in it. My mom's stuff stayed with my sister and aunt Primrose.

It covers the short I'm having on and in this summer heat it's perfect and comfy. I run down the stairs towards the kitchen and meet my aunt with a new sense of energy.

"What are we eating, I'm starving!"

She looks at me with a smile and holds up the plates.

"Bacon and eggs.. Right from the locals."

"My precious..." I make a lame impression and we eat our food in less then a couple of minutes.

"I'm gonna go wash up. You should too, and get ready to bed. We have to go into town tomorrow, I have to meet with my new boss and we have to sing you into high school before august starts!"

With no time to argue she heads into the bathroom downstairs and I hear the water starting. I sigh and look at Church who is already licking up our empty plates. I pet her and say to her.

"You are very lucky to not have to go to work or school."

With no response other than some purring I fill up the washer with the dishes. Just as I would head back upstairs to have a quick shower then hit the sack there's a knock coming from the door.

I look toward Perry's bathroom then I sigh and put on a tired smile before going to answer the door.

As the front door swings open the cool air comes inside the house making me have goosebumps all over my body. I hear the sound of crickets and I look upwards to meet the eyes of a stranger.

He looks to be in his late thirties, with slicked back short hair and a small mustache above his mouth. He wears a suitjacket with a v neck grey shirt and some very 'important looking shoes'.

His salesman smile falters for a moment when he looks me up and down and I realize I look like a girl with only a shirt on. I immediately feel uncomfortable for multiple reasons.

"Umm... Can I help you?" I ask because he hasn't said a word yet and I want to close the door on his face already.

"I hope you can. I'm Damian Forrester, mayor of the town. And hereby welcome you and your lovely family to our community."

I nod but I find it extremely odd that he came all the way up here to just introduce himself in the middle of the night.

"I see..." I say clearly uncomfortable under his eyes. It's like he's a robot, his smile never fades or changes on his face.

I'm seemingly being rude as he raises his eyebrows.

"And you are.."

I try to conjure some politeness up, even though I'm feeling grumpy and tired by late night smalltalk. You never see the mayor of Chicago knock at your door to introduce himself and welcome you to town.

"Juniper Blackwood." i say standoffishly.

"Ah. Yes! Rose talked a lot about you coming to town... And your other aunt of course."

I look at him weirdly before asking.

"Then why did you ask my name if you already knew it?"

There's a moment of awkwardness and his unfaltering smile starts to scare me. I can almost see a twitch in his eye like I made him mad, but it's gone before I could interpret it like it was never there.

I hold the door awkwardly and I can't stand his gaze any longer so I look behind him. It's only then when I notice the very expensive looking car and next to it the presumed driver. He looks out of place, wearing similar clothing to a car mechanic, with a name tag on it. I try to read it from the distance but it only has a handdrawn smiley face on it. The wearer himself looks in his thirties, his hair buzzed at the sides, but letting it grow longer. Like he regretted the hairstyle and wants to regrow it. The rest is slicked back, but not like Mr. Mayor here, but more messier, like he used the product on his hair days ago and it's use is growing weaker.

He leans on the car door, looking bored and off to the distance.

Mr. Creepy smile notices my sudden change of attention and looks back at the driver as well.

"Don't mind Marcus, he doesn't have any manners."

At the mention of his name he lazily looks at the mayor and then at me. He doesn't come up to introduce himself or even just to break a smile, he just stands there looking.

Okay, this is getting creepy, it's like looking at Frankenstein and Igor. I think.

As if I had said the joke out loud Igor 'Marcus' shakes his head with a chuckle and looks at his wrist to check the time. Yeah, I would like you two to leave as well.

"So.. You need anything, Mr. Mayor?"

I turn my attention back to Creepy Smiles. He looks surprised at the title.

"No, I just wanted to welcome you to town... Is your aunt in?"

He tries to look inside the house and I know he wants to get invited in, but I am not going to do that. Even if I get a scolding for it later from Perry.

"She's having a shower. We are both very tired actually. We have to do some paperwork tomorrow and unpack as well, so.."

He looks from the house to me again, not forgetting the salesman grin.

"Of course, I'm sorry for the late intrusion. I'm sure we'll meet soon again. My wife is inviting you two to the ball we are having this weekend. Please come, have a laugh. I'm sure you would like my son, he's similar to your age."

I fake a smile, in my head already planning to forget to mention this invite to Perry.

"I surely will." I lie. "Goodnight."

He's ready to leave the porch as he waves goodbye and gets inside the car. The driver looks at me again before entering the vehicle.

"Nice legs." He says with a cheeky grin and I can't help but make a face and shut the door.

Who the fuck... I think angrily and go up to my bathroom. Who the hell invites people to a ball in the 21st century anyways.

With those thoughts I lay in my bed after the quick shower and I quickly fall asleep.

tags: @onl-you

A/N: hope anyone who sees this likes it even just remotely. 😂💕 SORRY ITS ON MOBILE I COULDNT ADD KEEP READING LINK

#piety knob chapter 1 #piety knob #piety knob ocs

[amer-ainu]

In 1973, three young activists in New York City recorded A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America. Singing of their direct lineage to immigrant workers as well as their affinity with freedom fighters everywhere, Chris Kando Iijima, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, and William “Charlie” Chin recorded the experiences of the first generation to identify with the term and concept Asian American—a pan-ethnic association formulated upon a shared history of discrimination. They sought a connection to their cultural heritage; to claim their historical presence in the United States; to resist their marginalization; and to mobilize solidarity across class, ethnic, racial, and national differences. Music provided a powerful means for expressing their aspiration to reshape a society reeling from a prolonged war, ongoing struggles against racial inequity, and revelations of the Watergate cover-up. As writer and activist Phil Tajitsu Nash would state many decades later, A Grain of Sand was “more than just grooves on a piece of vinyl,” it was “the soundtrack for the political and personal awareness taking place in their lives.” Equal parts political manifesto, collaborative art project, and organizing tool, it is widely recognized as the first album of Asian American music.

A Grain of Sand was produced by Paredon Records. Over the course of 15 years, Paredon founders Irwin Silber and Barbara Dane amassed a catalog of 50 titles reflecting their commitment to the music of peace and social justice movements. In 1991, to ensure its ongoing accessibility, Silber and Dane donated the Paredon catalog to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, through which these recordings and their original liner notes remain available to the public.

THE MUSIC While the message of the album was by no means mainstream, the music through which Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie expressed their political and social convictions was reflective of the popular genres of the period. The 12 songs on A Grain of Sand were shaped by the American folk music revival, blues, soul, and jazz. For instance, “The Wandering Chinaman” is in the form of a traditional ballad. “We Are the Children” is more of a folk-rock anthem. “Divide and Conquer” and “Free the Land,” with their bass and percussion lines, are driven by a soul groove. “Something About Me Today” and “War of the Flea,” are instrumentally stark, emphasizing Nobuko’s voice against the counterpoint of Chris and Charlie’s guitar lines. All of their songs are notably written in the first person and directly encourage the listener to action: “Hold the banner high...”; “Will you answer...”; “Take a stand....”

Intending to take their music on the road, they kept their instrumentation simple—two guitars and three voices. For the album and in some performances, they were backed by conga and bass, and other instruments such as the di zi, a Chinese transverse flute that Charlie played.

A Grain of Sand was mostly compiled over a two-day period from first or second takes. Charlie compares their 4-track recording process to more technically sophisticated commercial productions as the difference between “a folding chair and a Maserati.” And perhaps because of these conditions, the recording is animated by the spontaneity and energy of a live performance. Arlan Huang, who created the artwork for the album jacket, remembers, “It was fresh as can be. There was nothing else like it. The power of their lyrics was aimed at people like me. They were saying things that I had thought about but hadn’t put into words or painting. And they were GOOD. It wasn’t like seeing your buddies at the neighborhood hootenanny strumming a guitar. Nobuko could actually sing.”

THE ARTISTS Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie, who were in their twenties and thirties in the early 1970s, arrived at their collaboration via routes that reflect the legacies of migration and exclusion.

Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto (b. 1939). Nobuko’s mother was born in the United States, the daughter of Japanese immigrants; her father was the son of a Japanese immigrant father and a White Mormon mother from Idaho. The family was living in Los Angeles when World War II broke out and all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their communities. To get his family out of the Santa Anita racetrack where they were initially confined, Nobuko’s father volunteered to harvest sugar beets in Montana. From there the family moved to Idaho and then to Utah before they were allowed to return to Los Angeles after the war. Despite this instability, Nobuko was encouraged by both parents in her study of music and dance. By the 1960s, she had been a scholarship student at the American School of Dance in Hollywood; performed with Alicia Alonso’s ballet company; and performed in the original Broadway production of Flower Drum Song, as well as in the film adaptation of West Side Story, where she was cast as one of Maria’s Puerto Rican dress-shop companions. She had also discovered the limitations of being an Asian in the mainstream entertainment industry. In 1968, she helped Italian filmmaker Antonello Branca to document the Black Panther Party for his film Seize the Time. Through this project, she met Yuri Kochiyama, a Harlem community activist and friend of the late Malcolm X, who subsequently introduced Nobuko to civil rights organizing in the local Asian and African American communities.

Chris Kando Iijima (1948–2005). Both of Chris’s parents, Americans of Japanese ancestry, were originally from California but raised their family in New York City, where they resettled after their World War II incarceration. Their example and consciousness significantly contributed to A Grain of Sand. Chris’s father was a musician and choirmaster, who took his children to the 1963 March on Washington. His mother—inspired by the educational and cultural activities integral to the Black Power movement—co-founded the organization Asian Americans for Action (Triple A) in 1969 to instill the same kind of pride in local Asian American youth. Chris attended the High School of Music and Art in Harlem, where he studied French horn, though he also played guitar.

Chris and Nobuko met in Triple A; and they wrote their first song and performed together in 1969 at a conference of the Japanese American Citizens League, where they joined other young people in urging the organization to oppose the war in Vietnam. Nobuko recalls, “We sang a song that was the collective expression of our Asian brothers and sisters to stop the killing of people who looked like us. The electricity of that moment, the realization that, until then, we had never heard songs about us, set the course of my journey.” When they returned to New York, Chris and Nobuko wrote more songs and began to perform locally and in California. A year later they met Charlie Chin.

William “Charlie” Chin (b. 1944). Charlie’s father came to New York City from Toisan, China; his mother, who was of mixed Chinese, Carib, and Venezuelan ancestry, was born in New York but raised in Trinidad. Growing up in Queens, Charlie’s musical upbringing was comprised of the Trinidadian forms played by his mother’s relatives and those emanating from the American folk music revival. Inspired by Pete Seeger, Charlie took up the banjo, but he also played cuatro, auto harp, and guitar. In the late 1960s, he toured the country with Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys. After he left the group, he returned to New York, where he worked as a bartender. In 1970, he ended up backing Chris and Nobuko by chance at a performance for a conference of new Asian American community groups, student organizations, and activists at Pace College. He recalls, “I’m at the conference, and all the things they are talking about—Asian Americans, how history impacts us, how we have been apologetic about being Asian. And there’s been this hanging question for me, ever since I had taught Appalachian 5-string banjo at a folk music camp, ‘Where is my history? Where is my culture?’ So I go on with them. And I’m listening—I have never heard this stuff before. This is amazing. So the first time I ever hear them play, I’m playing with them.”

For the next three years, the trio performed at Buddhist temples, churches, colleges, community centers, coffeehouses, rallies, prisons, and parks in New York and across the country. “We became like griots,” Nobuko says, “Moving like troubadours from community to community—we’d say, ‘This is what is going on in New York…and we have this Chinatown health program going on,’ and we would carry this news to Sacramento and L.A. and Stockton and San Francisco. And then we’d gather stories from there and carry it back to New York. We were like the YouTube of the times—spreading the news.”

THE MOVEMENT Coming of age during the civil rights and anti-war movements, the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants unleashed a whirlwind of grassroots activism beginning in the late 1960s. Around the country, they protested the war. They demanded ethnic studies curricula. They organized against urban renewal projects that displaced the residents of old Chinatowns and Japantowns. They formed literary workshops, art collectives, and social service centers. A Grain of Sand was a direct extension of Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie’s collaboration in the Asian American Movement.

One important community that provided support and inspiration for A Grain of Sand was Basement Workshop, an Asian American collective in New York’s Chinatown. Formed in 1970, they ran a creative arts program, a resource center for community documentation, and a youth employment program; produced a magazine; and offered language and citizenship classes. In 1971, Basement Workshop undertook a project to illustrate and publish the music of Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie. Titled Yellow Pearl, after one of their songs, it grew into a larger compilation of writing, art, and music. Public artist Tomie Arai emphasizes the importance of Basement and A Grain of Sand during this period: “You have to understand. There wasn’t anything at all out there. There was no music. No published poetry, music, recordings. Nothing. It was through Basement that people began to refer to themselves as artists. I didn’t know any artists. I wanted to be one—but I didn’t know what that meant.”

Fay Chiang, who served as director of Basement for 12 years, recalls that for their programs and direct actions, they also looked to the examples of other communities: “We were influenced by what was happening in the Black and Puerto Rican communities. Why not us? Who are we? It was very basic: Who are we? There was a hunger, a need to figure that out, where we felt like it was a matter life and death. The second and third generation Japanese Americans had come from the camps—and this feeling of not belonging in the society, racism, and displacement was visceral.”

Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie’s association with activists in other communities was reflected in their music. For example, “Somos Asiaticos” was inspired by their involvement with squatters’ organizations Operation Move In and El Comité. These activists opened a coffee shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Dot, which was regularly visited by singers, performers, and poets from Cuba, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. The Asian Americans who had taken over a storefront for a drop-in center down the street also congregated here. Nobuko recalled, “We were all there—artists and poets—listening to and influencing each other. We had a whole set, five songs, that we did in Spanish. One year, I think it was 1973–1974, we did more gigs for Latino groups than for Asian groups.” In fact, their first recording was done for a Puerto Rican company, Discos Coqui. Invited by two Puerto Rican Movement singers, Pepe y Flora, they recorded “Venceremos” and “Somos Asiaticos,” which were released as a 45 disc in Puerto Rico. Later, they were invited to perform at Madison Square Garden for Puerto Rican Liberation Day.

“Free the Land,” another song on A Grain of Sand, was written by Chris for the Republic of New Africa. This organization, established by a group of Malcolm X’s associates after his 1965 assassination, was the first group to call for slavery reparations—in particular in the form of an all-Black homeland in the southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Atallah Muhammad Ayubbi and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, both Republic of New Africa members, performed on A Grain of Sand. Atallah worked in the Black and Puerto Rican communities in the Bronx where he grew up. He was also a conguero and sometimes accompanied the group in live performances. Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who is the godfather of Nobuko and Atallah’s son, provided background vocals on the album. He often played the album at home, and his stepson, the late rapper Tupac Shakur, grew up listening and singing along to it.

Of this time in the early 1970s, Nobuko recalls, “It was like jumping into the pool of revolution…. Every day there was organizing going on at many different levels. It was powerful. You see something wrong, you have an idea how to fix it, you put it into practice.” And about this period living on the Upper West Side, she says, “that was the first time I ever felt like I was part of a community. You would walk down the street and see people you knew, and they would ask if you were going to be at such-and-such event and could you bring food or perform. It was a dynamic moment. We were crossing borderlines, and the music helped us to do that.”

THE LEGACY The intensity of purpose and activity during this period succeed in reshaping academic, cultural, and political institutions. It also gave rise to ideological conflicts and violence that sometimes destabilized organizations and efforts. For instance, Basement Workshop was shaken internally by the accusations and criticisms of members of the Communist Workers Party. And several months after A Grain of Sand was recorded, Atallah was killed in an ambush at a Brooklyn mosque.

Charlie remembers, “We were all moving so rapidly…. Everyone believed that things could be changed if you worked on it. We in our very young innocence thought that there actually would be a revolution in this country. I assured people it would happen. And when it didn’t, I felt bad: ‘Sorry, man’, ‘Sorry, dude.’”

By late 1973 when A Grain of Sand was released, Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie were beginning to hone their sense of purpose in ways that drew them in different directions. And the album marks, in effect, one of the group’s final collective efforts, though each in their own way continued the work they had started together.

Nobuko returned to southern California. In 1978, she established the organization Great Leap, Inc., through which she initiates multicultural community performing arts collaborations in Los Angeles, as well as nationally and internationally. She continues to perform, lecture, and provide workshops based on her new music as well as on reinterpretations of the songs from A Grain of Sand. In recent years her residencies and special projects have focused on facilitating dialog across spiritual differences and on environmental issues. Active in the Senshin Buddhist Temple, she has composed music and dances that are now a regular part of the annual Buddhist observance of obon (Festival of Lanterns) in temples from California’s Central Valley to San Diego and nationally.

Charlie focused his attention in New York’s Chinatown, becoming involved in the Chinatown History Project, which became the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. He later apprenticed to a master Chinese storyteller, learning the traditional teahouse style, which he has adapted and continues to perform throughout the country. In 1991, he moved to northern California, and he now works for the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco, driven by the conviction that “we know that people can be whipped into hysteria and xenophobia—we’ve seen it happen before, and it could happen again. And the only thing you can do is be vigilant and educate, educate, educate.”

Chris directed his energies to New York’s Upper West Side, where he had grown up. After 10 years of classroom teaching at Manhattan Country School, he studied and practiced law, and later became a professor in Hawai`i, where he fought for Native Hawaiian rights and mentored a generation of social justice–minded law students. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 57.

In the years just before Chris’s passing, Tadashi Nakamura, a young fourth-generation Japanese American filmmaker, began producing a documentary about him, A Song for Ourselves: A Personal Journey into the Life and Music of Asian American Movement Troubadour Chris Iijima. His film is an inspiring and melancholy portrait of Chris, covering his participation in A Grain of Sand, his reflection on his life as he confronted terminal illness, and the impact he had on others. For the film’s premiere in 2009, Nakamura invited Nobuko and Charlie to perform—and he also enlisted several young hip-hop artists. He explains: “Grain of Sand paved the way for many progressive Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders [API] to not only become musicians but cultural workers—artists who use their creativity to further a political movement. I feel very much a part of a present-day movement of API artists that are trying to document, articulate, and tell the stories of their people through their work. A talented new set of artists—such as Geologic and Sabzi of Blue Scholars, Kiwi, Bambu and DJ Phatrick—are creating the soundtrack to my generation’s movement. They are continuing the work that Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie started back in the 1960s. So when I premiered my film, I invited them to perform. I wanted to show that the legacy of A Grain of Sand is very much alive today.”

#A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America #Asian American #Chris Kando Iijima #Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto #William “Charlie” Chin

[the-writerly-night-owl]

Testament of Time

Desire and Decorum/ MC x Ernest with family moments 

Summary:  d on my poll:  Ernest reflects on each of his children. His thoughts as his youngest is about to be a man. Also a bit of romance between Ernest and Clara. 

Authors note: so today I learned that the average regency family had 5 children. Not 6 to 8 like I originally thought (although queen Charlotte had 15!). Really tempted to cut out two of these kids but I trudged on. It also includes what the kids are like and what they look like a little. LONG POST! 

Tag list: @flyawayboo @queen-among-writers   @cosigottahavefaith  @am-i-invisible777 @countrymusicandncis-blog @fluffy-cat-whisper @melodyofgraves @symonde @paisleylovergirl

Horse hooves beat down the path back from the woods to the stables. Two men from atop their trusty steeds were talking to each other. Guns loaded with another man following behind with the fresh kill.

“I taught you well Vincent,” said Ernest as he hopped down from his stallion. “Do you think we have enough?”

“I think we’re going to have plenty to eat,” said Vincent running a hand through his brown hair with a smile, his dark eyes lighting up. Then he passed his horse to the stable boy. Together the two men made their way back into Ledford with plenty of time to spare. The breeching ceremony wasn’t for another couple of hours. Their friends wouldn’t be there until an hour before.

That’s right they were going to breech their youngest son and child this afternoon. The seven-year-old William Sinclaire was now ready to be groomed into a man. This time Ernest was not going to be the one to train him. He was going to trust his two eldest sons, Vincent and Ernie, to do it. It would be practice for Vincent at least since he had a son of his own.

“I’m going to go and find Amelia,” said Vincent after they had replaced their shoes. “And check on Luke.”

Ernest nodded before going to find Clara himself. There had to be some final preparations to be done. He watched as Vincent left to look for his wife and child. It was hard to believe that he and Clara were already grandparents. Vincent, now four and twenty, already had a son named Luke who wasn’t even a year yet.

He could still remember the day Clara told him that she was expecting a child. When she was pregnant for the first time Ernest was wary. Roselyn had died in childbirth and the number of infants and young children that died was high. He knew this and feared for his wife. Clara was young and healthy ready to bear children. It was imperative that Ledford and consequently Edgewater have an heir. He held his breath bracing for the impact of what was to come. Only when he could feel the tiny kicks could get breathe again. Ernest could relax once they passed the age of five.

Vincent Sinclaire was his pride and joy. Just the thought of his eldest son made him smile because, well, because he was his son. He was the heir to the Edgewater Estate and Ledford Park.  He was trained by him, tutored by a master, apprenticed under Bartholomew Chambers, and graduated from Cambridge University. He was everything he wanted from his son and more. He was educated, handsome, charming, yet polite, and an all-around good person. Ernest could even overlook his flaws for as minor as they could be such as his stubborn nature.

“Ernest,” said Clara as she smiled at him, “I was looking for you. The cooks need what you caught and…”

“Already given to them love,” he said kissing her head. “Are you nervous?”

“Just a little,” said Clara as he bit her bottom lip. “He’s my baby, my last baby, but I know I have to. I’ve come to terms with this after Ernie. It’s hard to believe that William is seven already.”

Clara wrapped her arms around his shoulders pulling him into a hug. Ernest did the same as he took in her scent. After what happened during the last birth. Well, they shouldn’t be trying for more children any time soon.

“Think about it this way,” said Ernest as his hand cupped her cheek, “We have a grandson that’s still very little.”

His lips captured hers as they savored their alone time for the time being. Her hands lost in his hair and his pulled them even closer. Gooseflesh climbed up his skin before they broke apart, they couldn’t get too carried away. Their foreheads pressed against each other’s.

“To think I wasn’t sure about Amelia with Vincent, I’m glad they’re really happy. Now we’re grandparents.”

Ernest chuckled as he could remember Clara not being too thrilled that he wanted to marry after his first season. They had convinced him to at least wait until she was twenty like Clara. He wanted to make sure Miss Amelia Singer wasn’t a social climber before matching her with their son. Once Ernest was sure that she wasn’t another Roselyn, he accepted his daughter in law with open arms.

“I should probably go and find them,” she said softly.

“Just a few more minutes,” said Ernest as Clara grinned before pressing her lips against his once again. Finally, they had to part before they were missed. “Where’s Ernie?”

“In the library with Laurence,” she said before going to find their daughter in law.

Ernest only shook his head a smile on his face. Ernie was his name sake and probably a lot smarter then him with how much he read. There wasn’t a day he wouldn’t be in the library for at least an hour. Laurence on the other hand could be in there much longer, he was studying to be a clergyman upon his graduation. He made his way to the library to look for his sons.

Finally, he located his mop of brown hair that belonged to Ernie between a pile of books. Laurence’s blond completely hidden next to him.

“If I were you I’d pick one,” said Ernest as he studied the titles. They were mostly fiction on his side. Nonfiction on Laurence’s end. “You should be getting ready for the ceremony soon and don’t want to rush.”

“I promise,” said Ernie as he put aside another book presumably on a no pile. “Besides I need to be prepared for when I see…” He paused a deep blush on his cheeks.

“Leila?” asked Ernest as Laurence snigged before quieting at his father’s stern look. “You know your mother and I were hoping that one of our boys would marry Miss Chambers. Perhaps you’ve thought of it?”

Despite the two of them growing up (relatively) close with each other, the two shared looks often not just the friendly kind either. Ernie mumbled something under his breath but sounded somewhat relieved.

“Maybe just a little,” he said straightening up. “I think we both should have one season before deciding.”

“That’s fair,” said Ernest trying not to sound very happy.

Honestly, they were all hoping for this day since Leila was born. He liked that his son was cautious and not making rash decisions. Ernie’s usual sunny and easy-going smile returned to his face as he found a book. He was simply a good kid, one that he was just as proud to have raised with a good head on his shoulders. “Now Laurence, please do not tease your older brother about his love life.”

“I will not,” said Laurence. “Besides, I’m dedicating my life to the church. I don’t even think I’ll marry.”

“Give it time,” encouraged Ernest. “After all you’re only eighteen, I never thought I’d remarry but I did and have eight wonderful children.”

He rubbed his son’s shoulder as if it would be soothing as Laurence nodded seriously. Besides Laurence was not shy, if he wasn’t the third son women would be lining up to court him. He was confident, friendly, and handsome. He chose the church because he simply liked talking to people and helping. Ernest had no doubt that his son would find a wife.

Next he had to find Georgiana, Mabel, Andrew, Thomas, and William. It would be easy to find Thomas and Andrew though. They would be together in the billiard room playing a game or two. Ernest had taught them to play when they were old enough.

“I made that shot,” said a hot voice from behind the door. “Stripes went in, that was not a solid ball.”

He opened the door with a soft click before going in. “Boys don’t fight,” said Ernest as the two shot up and nodded at their father. “I just wanted to let you know it’s almost time to get ready.”

“Of course, father,” said Thomas with a charming smile. Ernest gave him a hard look as he gulped and nodded for certain.

“We’ll be ready,” said Andrew happily.

“Thank you,” he said as he surveyed the table. From what he heard it looked like Andrew was winning. “I’d just finish your game and head upstairs, you don’t want to keep your mother waiting.”

His two sons were something alright, he thought with a small smile. Thomas would often charm the staff into giving him a spare sweet or two sometimes. He would the one to ask Clara for extra hugs most of the time. Although he could play a great game of chess for a boy of ten. He was sweet, and Ernest couldn’t help but smile at the thought of him.

Andrew on the other hand was a bit impulsive but thankfully smart enough not to run off. He was smart and laid back with a dramatic streak to him. Andrew would be the first to notice if something was wrong in the house and say something about it. He also managed to pick up a lot of gossip from the women when they were around (which he didn’t use thankfully!).

“Father mother is looking for you,” said Mabel as she found him.

“Well why don’t you take me right to her?” said Ernest wondering if something happened. Or if they will get their alone time that they needed. He hoped for the former.

Mabel nodded leading him to the staircase. “Is Edmund coming to this party?” she asked anxiously. “Will he bring Katharine?”

“I’m sure he will,” said Ernest thinking of Edmund’s daughter. It was a bit sad that he had sent off his son, Harry, to boarding school and then university. There was a good reason for that though. “I bet you two have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes we do,” she said proudly. “We’re watching Amelia talk to Georgiana about her coming out.”

It was quiet as Ernest tried to control his thoughts. Of course they would be talking about that.

“Listen, Mabel, I do not want you to worry at all about growing up,” he said as they stopped in the hall. “You’re my baby girl and your going to be that way to me forever. Do not worry about that, you will be twenty sooner then I like.”

Mabel looked down at her feet before clearing her throat. “I will treasure every moment I have with you and everyone as much as I can. I don’t want to leave any time soon,” she said as her eyes looked a little glassy.  

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said brushing hair away from her face. Mabel was very sweet and curious as she looked up at him. She was beautiful, she was the only child to have blond hair (from his mother and Clara’s) and green eyes (from Clara). His girls were everything to him. “I only have two daughters and it will be difficult for me to give you away.”

“I think I get it,” she said hugging him. “I don’t want to leave you and mother either.”

Ernest nodded before they entered the boudoir. Georgiana sat in the room talking with Clara about something or another as they entered. He stopped and smiled at his daughter as Georgiana curtsied at him. Just like his wife and Mabel she was also a very beautiful girl. She had inherited her mother’s dark brown hair and his blue eyes, a striking contrast against her pale skin.

“We’re just finishing up,” said Georgiana. She smiled at her mother as Clara gave her a stern look. Sheepish she straightened up and headed toward the door. “Father, I was wondering if next week we could pick out some fabric for a new gown?”

There it was, just a subtle hint at her coming out to society next season. The first time he would have a daughter to present. Ernest Sinclaire would describe his eldest daughter as witty, energetic, and kind if a bit straightforward. He wasn’t ready to present her to society and society would not be ready for her. He would sooner enroll his daughter in a convent before parliaments sons could touch her.

“We will talk about this later,” he said. “Just give me time to prepare for it okay?”

“Okay,” she said before Ernest kissed her head. She turned and smiled at her parents before leaving to do something.

It was quiet as he made sure she was gone. Clara had already pushed aside what she was working on. Her desk suspiciously cleaned off as she made sure her window was shut before lighting a lone candle.  

“I may have called you in here for a more personal reason,” she said her voice low as Ernest’s pupils dilated and smile on his face.

She was waiting for him it seemed as she slid to sit on top of her desk. Forgetting about the party, he needed her. Ernest stepped over to her as their arms were already around each other.

Their lips met before kissing down her throat as a growl escaped from his lips. He was so happy her party dresses were low cut. Her hands were undoing his cravat slowly. Ernest dipped his wife until her back was against the top of the hardwood. She tossed aside his cravat his hands already working on the top of her dress.

“I’ve been waiting to do that since our last kiss,” said Clara straightening up.

“I only wish we could go farther,” whispered Ernest as she smiled at him. “Tonight?” She nodded happily before they opened the door.

There was a banging at the door before Clara fixed up the room and her dress and Ernest put his cravat back on. Outside the door stood William looking very excited. Curiously he looked up at his parents before shrugging. “People are here.”

“I can see that,” said Ernest, “Let’s go down okay?” With that Clara and Ernest took of his hands. He could only wonder what kind of man William will be.

#ernest sinclaire #mr ernest sinclaire #mr. sinclaire #mr sinclaire #mr. sinclair #mc x mr. sinclaire #mc x ernest sinclaire #ernest x mc #desire and decorum #desire and decorum 2 #choices: desire and decorum #choices: desire and decorum book 2 #playchoices #playchoices fanfiction #choices stories you play #choices you play #choices: stories you play #choices

[amandajoyce118]

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season One Easter Eggs And References

I so greatly enjoyed Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, and I’m really interested to see what they do in season two, which is almost done filming. I still maintain that this show is like if Riverdale and Supernatural had a baby. It’s definitely creepy and not for everyone, but I found it fascinating.

I’ve got Easter eggs galore, though I didn’t go through and explain who every comic book character is like I would normally do with a superhero show. And yes, the Netflix series is based on the 2014 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic, which in turn was named after another comic from decades earlier. Sabrina Spellman is an Archie Comics character, but it’s not clear if her show is set in the same universe as Riverdale or not.

There are spoilers here, but as usual, I’ve broken this list down episode by episode for those who want to read while they watch. Enjoy.

S1E01 “Chapter One: October Country”

Opening Credits

The opening credits feature the artwork of Robert Hack. Hack is the artist who actually illustrated The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic book. A lot of his art inspires the look of the show as well.

The Episode Title

October Country gets its name from a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury. They were all considered pretty dark, and the volume mostly reprinted stories included in a different anthology, only adding a few new pieces, king of like this show.

The Very 70s Aesthetic

The show kind of has a weird timewarp thing going on like sister series Riverdale. There’s a lot of cars, furniture, and even clothing that seem to be inspired by the 1970s. That’s likely because Sabrina made her comic book debut in the 70s. It’s a way to give an homage to the original books as well as the newer series the show adapts.

Cerberus Books

Cerberus was a three headed dog who guarded the gate to the underworld in Greek mythology. We’ll discuss him more in a later episode.

Dr. Saperstein

My guess is that someone on staff is a Parks and Rec fan. This is Jean-Ralphio’s surname, and his father, was, in fact, a doctor. Of course, it’s also the name of the doctor in Rosemary’s Baby, so… pick your reference.

Sabrina’s Thermos

You’ll notice some characters on Sabrina’s thermos. Those happen to be a musical group named The Archies. Yep, they’re Archie and the gang from Riverdale, which does make you wonder if the two shows are in the same universe or if one is the fictional version of the other or what.

Sabrina Makes Harvey Forget

She does it with a kiss here, but in the 90s television sitcom, she made him forget she was a witch a lot of times. This made me wonder if she might have to do it a few more times over the course of this series, or if the next time he finds out, it sticks.

Her Parents Were Flying To Italy

This is an awfully interesting destination. Why? Because what’s in Italy? That would be Rome and the Vatican, home of the Catholic Church, which is interesting in and of itself. It’s both a very romantic and a very religious destination for a witch and a mortal to be traveling to. It also happens to be where the first Sabrina The Teenage Witch movie was set, if I remember right.

The Weird Sisters

These three get their nickname from the trio of witches in Shakespeare’s MacBeth. There’s a lot of Shakespeare references throughout the show, but I think that’s really just because writers like their Shakespeare.

Salem

The show’s take on Salem is interesting. In the Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina comic, he was Sabrina’s familiar, but that’s not became he was a goblin. Instead, he was cursed by a witch in Salem to become a cat. He was a mortal man named Samuel who got her pregnant and, because he had nothing to offer her, he didn’t want her to have to marry him. She took offense, Satan ate their kid and she cursed him to become her familiar. When she died in the witch trials, Satan renamed him Salem as a nod to what happened.

The 90s sitcom had Salem as a warlock who was cursed to cat form by the witches council after committing a crime. It seems like Ambrose on house arrest is filling that role this time around.

S1E02 “Chapter Two: The Dark Baptism”

“...a movie star like cousin Montgomery.”

I like the idea that this is a nod to Elizabeth Montgomery, the star of the series Bewitched, which followed a witch named Samantha who married a mortal. Samantha’s evil cousin on the show? Her name was Sabrina.

A Riverdale Mention

So, Riverdale is likely just across the river from Greendale here since we hear the town named.

Black Narcissus

The name of the goat snagged for Sabrina’s baptism is also the name of a 1947 film. There’s actually a ton of classic movie references, posters, etc in the show, just like in Riverdale. I probably won’t point them all out because this would be a list of nothing but movie references.

S1E03 “Chapter Three: The Trial Of Sabrina Spellman

“Conserve water. Plug it up, plug it up…”

This is a sign on the bathroom door in the high school It’s a nod to the horror movie Carrie, which was based on a book by Stephen King. The movie also inspired a musical episode of Riverdale in season two.

Daniel Webster

The lawyer is named after a character in a pretty famous short story about a farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is then defended by a talented lawyer.

Archie’s Madhouse

Another comic from the Archie world of comics. One of its covers is on the wall in Harvey’s room. He’s clearly a fan of many different types of comics.

Ravens VS Bulldogs

We get another nod to the fact that Riverdale exists. About half way into the episode, there’s a kid putting up a flyer for a bowling match between the Baxter High Ravens and the Riverdale High Bulldogs.

Dr. Specter

I just thought it was funny that an eye doctor has this name. It’s not really an Easter egg, just cute.

Side note: Ambrose asks Luke if he’s a vampire. So, I’m going to go with witches aren’t the only supernatural beings the show will eventually introduce. Vampires, werewolves, there is no limit to what I expect now.

S1E04 “Chapter Four: Witch Academy”

Gehenna Station

“Gehenna” is an old biblical term that means hell-like. I kind of think it’s fitting that the school is disguised as an old train station as well since a lot of artists imagine purgatory as a train station. Hell-like purgatory seems like a good training ground for witches.

Nick Scratch

Old Scratch is a common slang, or at least it used to be, for the devil. Here, I think it’s just a nod to the fact that Nick’s a warlock. (Also, Nicholas Scratch was the name of a Marvel villain once upon a time, but that’s a whole different publisher.)

Valac

One of the names seen in a book is that of Valac. I think fans of The Conjuring franchise will recognize it as a demon there. Another movie reference in this episode? The “light as a feather, stiff as a board” chant used by the harrowed kids. That’s courtesy of The Craft.

S1E05 “Chapter Five: Dreams In A Witch House”

Batibat

Her makeup looks pretty reminiscent of The Witches (movie based on a Roald Dahl book), but that’s actually all I’ve got for this episode. Unless we count Sabrina using the children’s string game Jacob’s Ladder as her way to get the spiders’ webs going, but I think that’s just a result of that particular game being a prevalent one in the 90s, and thus, amongst the writers.

S1E06 “Chapter Six: An Exorcism In Greendale”

Harvey As Johnny Depp

Harvey with his headphones on in the #10 tee? That’s am almost exact remake of a shot of Johnny Depp in A Nightmare On Elm Street. (Side note: I kind of feel like this shot should have been in the previous episode, the one that actually focused on nightmares.)

Apophis

Apophys is a death metal group. Apophis is the name of an asteroid, but also a derivation of the name of an Egyptian ruler, as well as an Egyption entity of chaos. Apep was drawn as a giant serpent and was an enemy of “the light.”

The Exorcist Homage

Okay, this episode really just plays as a loving homage to The Exorcist. There are so many shots that echo frames from the film. I’m not going to even attempt to list them all.

The Witches That Came Before

Okay, Sabrina calls on the power of a whole lot of historical figures as she names “witches” during her exorcism. My personal favorites? The goddesses Artemis and Luna, the queen Anne Boleyn, and the mythical first wife of Adam, Lilith. She also calls on Morgan Le Fay of the famous Arthurian legend. She actually appeared in an old Archie comic involving time travel called Jughead’s Time Police. Yeah, even Archie comics got weird back in the day.

Afterlife With Archie

This is the more supernatural version of the Archie comic book universe. Luke actually has a copy of an issue in his hands while he’s in Cerberus. It’s funny because this comic book storyline was created by Sabrina trying to bring Jughead’s dog back to life… we’ll call that foreshadowing for a future episode.

S1E07 “Chapter Seven: Feast of Feasts”

Grandpa Kinkle

TV fans might recognize Grandpa Kinkle as Michael Hogan. He’s been all over genre shows for decades. Most recently though, and where Sabrina’s target audience will know him from, he played a hunter on Teen Wolf. There, he came from a long line of werewolf hunters. Here, he’s from a long line of witch hunters. Coincidence? I have a feeling it’s not.

Ben

Poor, tragic pizza delivery boy. Okay, so the most recent season of Riverdale also featured a character named Ben. Specifically, Ben Button. Ben Button was played by Moses Thiessen. Guess who this Ben is played by? That would also be Moses Thiessen. And, guess what else? They both (spoiler alert for Riverdale fans who haven’t watched yet) died in weird ways. What does this mean? I have no idea.

Side note: The only witches in the coven who don’t seem to partake in the feast are Sabrina, Zelda, Nick, and surprisingly, Prudence. (And Hilda and Ambrose, but they aren’t invited) There’s a part of me that wonders if that will be significant in season two.

S1E08 “Chapter Eight: The Burial”

1693

Above the entrance to the mine, we see that the Kinkle’s took over, or created, the South Line in 1693. I’ll admit, my first thought was, oh, that’s when the Sanderson sisters originally died in Hocus Pocus. It’s also the year that the Salem Witch Trials took place, providing a nod to the history the show pulls from. The Von Kunkles hunted down witches and stole their land while the trials were going on in Salem, which also indirectly led to the hanging of the original Greendale witches. Yikes.

American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares

A comic book published by Vertigo, this happens to land on Harvey’s bedside table. Another vampire reference, eh? I hope we see one eventually.

S1E09 “Chapter Nine: The Returned Man”

Dr. Phibes

He’s named for a Vincent Price character. If you don’t know who Vincent Price was, he was pretty much the face of horror in American cinema for a while. Do yourself a favor and look him up.

Pop Culture Nods

I have no idea why someone who claims to be as dark as Zelda chooses a song from The Sound of Music for the Church of Night’s choir. Your guess is as good as mine. Susie tries to shoplift Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I’ve never read it, but it’s certainly the type of novel Susie, or even a witch in Greendale would be interested in. It follows a poet who changes sex (male to female) and lives for hundreds of years.

S1E10 “Chapter 10: The Witching Hour”

Mr. Loomis

This is likely a nod to the Halloween franchise, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that it was also the last name of Sidney’s boyfriend in Scream, but that was a nod to Halloween in and of itself.

Riverdale

Again, a Riverdale nod. Harvey’s dad had the funeral home in Riverdale take care of Tommy instead of the Spellman’s. But is it in the Riverdale we know on TV? Who knows?

“Let Greendale cast a spell on you…”

This is the town motto on the sign at the edge of town. (I’d like to point out the sign is designed just like the one of CW’s Riverdale, so nice consistency in set design there.) It’s cute, but I’m also wondering how the town got this motto since everyone seems bent on rewriting the towns witchy history.

Cerberus

The owner of Cerberus books? His eyes flash yellow after getting a kiss from Hilda. I’d like to think he’s something canine to go with his name, and perhaps his store stands over an actual gate to hell. Whether he’s a real hellhound or a werewolf, or the show pays off on its vampire nods with him, remains to be seen.

Madame Satan

She reveals her real name. She also reveals she’s Lilith, first wife of Adam. I find it funny that Sabrina actually invoked her during the exorcism.

Comic Book Look

Sabrina gets her comic book accurate hair in the end here. You know, I don’t think she needed it, but it’s a nice nod that there’s been a transformation in her power level.

Bonus Motifs

These things showed up a lot, and I didn’t want to have to write about it every single time.

13

Pop culture has got 13 as being unlucky and associated with magic, so I like that the show embraced it. A witch’s pregnancy lasts 13 months, 13 minutes is just enough time for a soul to leave a body, and 13 hours is how long Sabrina has to wait to see if her resurrection spell worked.

Cain And Abel

These two brothers were the sons of Adam and Eve, for those who know their biblical stories. They represent jealousy and murder, etc. We’ve got Hilda with her Cain pit in the garden, but there’s actually a lot of more subtle references to them. Cain was a farmer (Hilda) and Abel was a shepherd (Zelda, leading the way), for example. There’s a lot of focus on sibling relationships considering the show’s main character is an only child. Harvey and Tommy, Hilda and Zelda, the Weird Sisters, etc.

Suspira

A lot of the set design (windows and ceilings, specifically) are nods to the horror film Suspira. I’ve never seen it, but it got a lot of notice from horror fans on social media, so I figured I should add that here.

Real Spells

According to interviews and set visits, the crew wanted the set to be authentic, so that had practicing witches cast protection spells on the set and used real symbols around the Spellman house. The Spellman house even has a German protection spell carved into the floor.

Jughead

Also according to set visits, one of the shelves in the Baxter High library has a shelf where you can see a crown and “Jughead was here” carved into it. I don’t think it’s actually visible while watching the show though.

So, what did you guys think about the show? Love it? Hate it? Did you spot more Easter eggs?

#chilling adventures of sabrina #sabrina on netflix #sabrina season one #chilling adventures of sabrina spoilers #easter eggs

[chrishansler]

24604

This is my last night in this house. It is empty. It is quiet. And it has the same peace, the same sense of “home” it always has. We’ve lived in this house for 24 ½ years. Nine months after moving our young family back here from California, nine months into a new church plant, we bought this brand new home in “Orchard Park” at 24604 57th Ave. E. in Graham. Lisa and I were 30. Bobby was 5, Johnathan was 3 and Annie was 2. It was exciting. The paint was fresh, the front lawn was new and the yard was big! We had no plants, no trees, no back or side yards, no fence – just a nice patch of grass in the front of the house and a vision for what could be.

The yard was full of rocks like all of Graham soil, so we paid our kids 1 cent per rock if they picked them out of the back yard and piled them in the back. 😊 We didn’t have any money so I build a dirt sifter and I raked and sifted rocks out. Raking and sifting, raking and sifting. I was occasionally able to buy a truck load of sandy loam soil to spread in the back yard, and our friend and new church board member, Duane Nelson worked for Emerald Turf farms. So sometimes at the end of the work day he would take a pallet of sod that they were throwing out and bring it to me. So I would plant some seed, lay some sod and do what we had to do to create a back yard we would love. For a long time it wasn’t pretty. It was like a patchwork quilt of every shade of green and brown throughout the back yard. And we still didn’t have any trees. But that would soon change.

Mom and Dad were selling their house on Golden Given so I took their young Northern Spy apple tree. They had some wild evergreen starts growing in their back woods, so I took some 3’ Douglas fir, a couple of Cedar tree sprouts and a little pine tree. Working for Northwest Building services I had the opportunity to take a couple of beautiful Sunset Red maple trees out of a strip mall that was renovating and getting rid of them. It took a flatbed and six guys to move those trees. One went in the front yard, and one in the back corner on top of an area that had been raised by all the rocks we raked and moved. I took one of Debi’s rhododendrons that Mom Hansler had planted when she lived in that house. Eventually our yard began to take shape with vine maples from mom & dad’s new property, as well as a dark red ornamental hazelnut tree and a beautiful mountain ash that mom gave me. We built our cedar fence and we planted pear, apple, peach, cherry, and Asian pear trees.

I built a play house with an attached swing set for the kids. The neighbor boy Torsten peed in that play house. That will forever be his legacy in our minds. I put a little pond in the raised area in the back with little goldfish and koi. We had a little garden on the side of the house. It was the perfect yard for wiffle ball. We would have neighborhood home-run derbies with awards. We played volleyball, badminton and I hit plastic golf balls back there. One time Annie had a party and we played kickball with her friends but one of her big high school friends ran me over at home plate. We had so many great times around the fire out there, looking at the stars, roasting marshmallows, watching movies projected on the back of the house, and even having a live backyard barbecue concert by Rod Nash one time back there!

We had church gatherings in our home. In the early days of our church we had a “small group” at our house with 17 adults and 24 kids. It was nuts, but it was so beautiful and fun. We’d have friends over and play games into the late hours of the night. Our kids played hard – sometimes too hard, sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags and leaving dents in the front door that I can still see as a glance over there – happy little memory dents.

We had the perfect yard for dogs – large and fully fenced. But it wasn’t enough for Dottie, our first Springer Spaniel. She was fast, she could jump high, and she was naughty. She would jump the 4’ fence like it was nothing and she wasn’t always nice to the neighbors so I had to build her a dog house to try to contain her. It didn’t. She got out and had a one-night stand with a stray neighbor dog, horrifying all of the neighborhood children who witnessed it. Dottie went to live with a nice elderly couple who would let her live inside their house. So we got Jill. Jill was a good dog, but mom and dad needed a dog so Jill became dad’s dog. Jack was the first black lab I ever owned. He was also the first big dog I ever let live inside the house. Jack was a big, lumbering, always-panting friend to everyone. He was truly the “best dog of all the dogs.” He loved the back yard. And now, no dog has ever loved our yard like JJ loves our yard – chasing squirrels, driving out crows and catching frisbees. It is his domain.

But it wasn’t only dogs at this home. We had Misty – the beautiful, albeit sometimes cranky, cat. Skitty – a stray neighborhood cat that we sort of adopted. Furball was a great little gray cat. But he liked to be inside and outside. He always got excited when we came home, until that fateful day when I didn’t seem him as I pulled in the garage with all of the kids in the suburban. It was terrible to lose him. We buried him near Misty in the back yard. That loss resulted in getting two half-brothers, Shadow and Fuzzball – loving, independent cats. Fuzzball is sitting next to me on one side and JJ on the other on this last night in the house.  We have also had fish in the pond, and those fish attracted raccoons, a big grey heron and a bald eagle! And I have loved watching the countless chickadees, finches, pine-siskins, sparrows and swallows. John always had swallow babies in the birdhouse mounted next to his bedroom window.

And on Christmas our house stole the neighborhood show. The streaming lights down from the star, the driveway lights, the post lights, the light-post Christmas tree, the snowman, the outdoor music and the nativity from Pastor Gene. Sometimes God would even give us a little snow to make it really pop.

The kids grew up here. The house was literally their classroom for many years. They each had their own space and they made it their own. John with his video games, K’nex and candy; Bob with his music, maps and reading; and Annie with her entrepreneurial spirit – with ever changing wall colors, clothing designs and even selling candy out of her room to the boys for a profit one time. So much laughter rang through these walls.

When we bought the house Lisa and I thought it was significant that we were right in the center – perhaps to make a little difference in the neighbor’s lives around us. Lisa quickly made a best friend in Pam Davis, and our kids played together. We remember Blain & Cindy, Luke and the twins; Gary & Kim across the street, Jim & Sharon and Kelly & Iris. Kelly still lives here too, and I said goodbye to him today. I married Steve & Brenda in their home. We tried to show love to Jeff & crazy Wendy behind us – even paying for and building a fence for them with some church friends. I used to walk the neighborhood and pray with Len Phillips. Adam & Nikke, Chloe, Lila, Amelia and now Josiah  have been such great neighbors – taking care of our animals when we’re gone; sharing sugar, eggs, flour; letting each other in countless times when we locked ourselves out, and always shouting “hi” from wherever they were. We’re really going to miss them. Maybe we made a little difference here. I hope so.

I’ve prayed every day in this house. I’ve prayed for Lisa and each of our kids. I’ve drafted vision here for new adventures that have become reality. I’ve wept over heartache, disappointment and loss. I’ve sat by the pond and just listened so many times. I’ll miss walking my dog to Centennial, talking to God, listening to scripture as I go.

This year has been really, really tough. When dad died I came home and walked through these trees that grew in his yard originally, and they reminded me of his deep roots, his love for outdoors and beauty, and his quiet strength. Mom needs help – she needs to be with family. And this week, as we were preparing for our move, Bonnie died of cancer. Then, within the hour of Bonnie’s passing, Lisa received biopsy results confirming breast cancer. We haven’t really been able to savor these last days here because we are trying to survive some pretty devastating news. But we will miss it here. It has always been a place I couldn’t wait to get to. I’m so grateful for that.

Tomorrow we will begin new dreams in a new place. There will be new trees to plant, new fruit to harvest, new friends and new places to walk, run and ride our bikes to. Maybe this will be a place where our kids-in-law come and grandkids. That place will ring with love and laughter to. We will share life with mom there for a while. I will walk with Lisa as she beats cancer in a new neighborhood. She says that in that community it “always feels like a vacation.” That is my hope – that it will be a refuge for us, for our kids and family and for our friends.

Now I’m 55, Lisa is 54, Bobby is 29, John is 28 and Annie is 26. The house I sit in tonight is older, the carpets are worn, but the yard is mature and beautiful – full of life and growth. I hope the new owner loves it and enjoys it as much as I have. I hope they mow straight lines in the lawn and put up Christmas lights. I hope they sense the peace here. Thank you God for our home.

[minnie-marvel]

Tag Game!

Bwahahaha it’s been so long since I’ve done one of these!!! I hope ya’ll aren’t disappointed I’m very vanilla LMAOOOO

I was tagged by @holland-haven @peter-prkers and @signed-potato!!!

Letsa go!

Tag Game

Last

Drink: Water

Phone call: one of my brothers just to see what he was up to

Text Message: “Waffles” telling my mom what I fed my granny for breakfast this morning

Song you listened to: “Ghost of Loreley” -Sasakure.uk/Lasah Listened to this while drawing a gift for a friend last night. Very different music taste I know LOL

Time you cried: Last Wednesday

-cutting off below with a keep reading if you’re interested!-

Ever

Dated someone twice: Nope! 

Kissed someone and regretted it: Again no, everything is an experience and so far I haven’t done anything that’s scarred me too bad!

Been cheated on: nope

Lost someone special: If you mean romantically no. I’ve lost family members that are dear to me although.

Been depressed: yes

Gotten drunk and thrown up: no

Fave colours: varying shades of blue, pink and red

In the last year have you

Made new friends: yeah!!!! Not too many but they’re all close to my heart

Fallen out of love: Nope!

Laughed until you cried: oh hell yeah. Thanks @discountedavengers!!!

Found out someone was talking about you: I mean....not that I’ve found out about LOL

Met someone who changed you: Not too drastically no!!

Found out who your friends are: Nope, everything friend wise has been pretty stable!

Kissed someone on your facebook friends list:Nope

General

How many of your Facebook friends do you know irl: All except two I believe!

Do you have any pets: I have a cat!!! Don’t ask me what his name is though, depending on when and who you ask in my family you’ll get a different answer each time LOL

Do you want to change your name: Nope! Surprisingly, I have some pseudonym across the internet but I wouldn’t change my actual name.

What did you do for your last birthday: ah.... I can’t remember too much. I think I went out with my mom and my friend to a ramen shop like the weekend before and then had cake with my family. But on my actual birthday I had school so it was probably boring

What were you doing at midnight last night:Probably sleepig or scrolling tumblr reading late night fanfics

What is something you can’t wait for: For this semester to end annnd FOR KINGDOM HEARTS THREE BABY IT COMES OUT ON MY BDAY AND IM HYPE IF YOU WANNA TALK KINGDOM HEARTS LET ME KNOW CAUSE IM ALWAYS DOWN TO TALK KH YA FEEL ME?!?!? 

Also infinity war part 2 and Spiderman Far From Home. I’m ready to throw hands

What are you listening to right now: Thumbnail- Louie Zong feat. David Gilbert which can be found here! 

Have you ever talked to a person named tom: Yeah!! There’s a very nice old man named Tom that goes to church with me and my fam

Something that gets on your nerves: Conversations that last too long over phone, People who yell to make a point, Myself LOL

Most visited website: Tumblr, Netflix, Youtube, Twitter

Hair colour: black with a reddish hue in the summer. Doesn’t make sense unless you see me in person LMAO

Long or short hair: shoulder length!

Do you have a crush on someone: Don’t have time to!

What do you like about yourself: My eyes, how silly I can be when I’m by myself

Want any piercings: Nah! I’m good with what i’ve got

Blood type: A+!

Nicknames: A lot lmao. Minnie, Minis, Squirk, Paris

Relationship status: single

Zodiac: Aquarius

Pronouns: she

Fave tv shows: I’ve really been into cooking competitions lately??? But shows that I can re-watch forever and ever are: How I Met Your Mother and Parks and Recreation (So sad they took HIMYM off netflix :((( )

Tattoos: no, maybe when I’m older though!

Right or left handed: right

Ever had surgery:Does wisdom teeth removal count? If not then no!

Piercings: just in my ears!

Sport: I used to participate in volleyball and cross-country (Don’t ask me why LMAO)

Vacation: I went to Disney last week!!! It was super fun <3333

More general

Eating: I had waffles this morning

Drinking: bottle o water

About to watch: nothing right now? Maybe I’ll find something on Netflix later or Youtube

Waiting for: myself to make a decision on which plot I wanna write!! I did a trial run of the asassin! reader fic but I really don’t like how its turning out right now, might post a WIP later.

Want: to make apple cider

Get married: Yeah hopefully someday!!

Career: studying health sciences right now, I’d like to write on the side someday!

Which is better

Hugs or kisses: It depends on the context, sometimes a hug can say things that a kiss can’t and vice versa. I tend to hug a lot tho

Lips or eyes: eyes

Shorter or taller: Taller I wish i was taller than I am right now im screaming

Older or younger: Again in what context? I think I’d like to be older at this point in life right now but not too old to the point where I want all the baggage that comes with it. 

Nice arms or stomach: both can be used in a very nice hug >:’D

Hook-up or relationship: relationship all the way. I need subsistence! 

Troublemaker or hesitant: I wouldn’t really want too much of either!! A trouble maker might get me into some sticky situations but someone with too much hesitation could live a boring life. There’s a time to be spontaneous and a time to settle down

Have you ever

Kissed a stranger: No

Drunk hard liquor: No

Lost glasses: only for a couple days!!

Turned someone down: Yes. Please @ my followers when someone says no don’t try to pursue them time and time again. Really annoying and makes you look desperate.

Sex on the first date: No

Broken someone’s heart: Unfortunately yes. I’m not proud of it but sometimes you need to take measures in order to protect your own heart and emotions.

Had your heart broken: yes, people don’t realize this but just because you break up with someone doesn’t mean you always come out of a relationship unscathed.

Been arrested:nope

Cried when someone died: usually I do.

Fallen for a friend: yep yep yep. I don’t act on these feelings although. I wouldn’t want to risk friendship.

Do you believe in

Yourself: I try to

Miracles: Oh yes

Love at first sight: No. Come back to me again and strike a conversation and we’ll see where things go from there!

Santa Claus: nope! 

Kiss on a first date: Not unless that persons been talking to you a lot before hand yknow?

Angels: Yes!

Others

Best friend’s name: Missy

Eye colour: brown

Fave movie: Just pick any Disney movie tbh. Also Howl’s Moving Castle!

Fave actors: Zendaya <333 Chris Evans

Tagging: @lokis-sunflower-anna @thatonefangurly!!!

#minnie mumbles #ask games

[kindabigbear]

Eastern European Pilgrimage – Czestochowa & Krakow, Poland

Continuing from the last part, we left Czechia and entered Poland.  Our first stop was the town of Czestochowa.  We were visiting a place called Jasna Gora.   It’s a monastery that has a famous painting called the Image of Our Lady of Jasna Gora or the Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa.  They also call it the Black Madonna.  It is of Mary holding baby Jesus.  When we went in to see it, there were a lot of people having a mass or prayer before it so it was kind of awkward walking around.  They had lots of rosaries, medals and other things hanging on the walls.  Very shiny. Ok……I got a bit ahead of myself. We arrived at Jasna Gora and were able to use the restrooms first thing before we went into the monastery.  Had to pay again.  We went into the monastery main area where we met up with one of the priests.  He took us around the courtyard area and over to a small museum.  There were a lot of painting of Pope John Paul II that people had painted.  Some of them were interesting looking.  They had a couple of his robes too.  At the other end, they had religious painting and a whole section that had musical instruments.  Our priest guide then took us to see the Black Madonna painting and then to a side chamber where there was a painting of Jesus with Joseph.  There were a couple nice looking sculptures there as well. We went back outside and up some stairs to a nice viewing area.  A large stage with seating below for when the Pope came to give speeches was off to the left. We went by that and into another small museum area where you were no allowed to take pictures.  I think it was kind of a treasury like place.  Once we left there, we said good bye and thanks to our guide.  We had a bit of free time before we were going to have a mass.  We went to this gift shop that had lots of nice things. I walked down the road to this little food place and got a water.  Actually, thinking it over, I’m not sure when we went to mass.  I think it was before the gift shop time.  I think it was back when we were still touring the monastery. Everyone went upstairs to look at some statues or paintings or something and I went back out to use the bathroom. When I got back, mom met me and took me over to the side chapel where we had mass.  I remember they had already started when we got there.  And I definitely remember leaving because mom missed a step or something and went flying to the floor. It was startling (and hilarious after the fact) and it took me and Dan to get her up because the floor was so slippery.  She braced her feet against ours to get up.  No one really saw either which was nice.  Then I think we went to the upper area and gift shop.  So, after all that, we walked through the parking lot and down the road a bit to our hotel for the night.  It was called Arche Hotel and Sebastian had the bus already parked there and unloaded.  We just had to get our things from our seats.  The room was nice enough.  Ma went downstairs to eat with everyone while I stayed in the room.  Wasn’t feeling too hot again.  

The next morning, we left for Krakow with a stop along the way at Wadowice.  Wadowice is the home of Pope John Paul II.  Sebastian dropped us off and we walked up this path to……. bathrooms. I mean yeah but also Pope John Paul II’s home and the Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There was a statue of Pope…...ok I’m going to call him PJP from now on.  Easier to write.  Anyway, there was a statue of PJP out front and I got a nice picture of mom with him. We had mass first in the Basilica in a side area.  It was pretty and I sat under this awning thing.  Like the kind you see in movies that the rich people are under at events or when they are carried down the streets.  After mass, we all went off on our own to look for something for lunch. One of the few times we were able to get lunch.  Mom and I found a nice little pizza place called Pizzeria Piazza Italia.  It was right off the main plaza area in front of the Basilica and PJP’s museum/home.  Pretty good pizza.  After eating, we went back to PJP’s home and went on the tour.  The lower area had newspaper articles and things about his early life.  There was also a little store like building that I think was more to do with Jewish people. We took an elevator upstairs and walked along a hallway lined with more pictures of PJP.  At the far end we entered the living room of PJP’s house.  The furniture was pretty.  The next room was the bedroom and kind of study area. After that was the kitchen.  It was very pretty.  I like the stove/oven.  The hutch was cute and so was the little table.  Leaving the home area, you went into this hallway that had PJP’s rise through church schooling……. I have no idea what it’s called.  I want to say seminary but I don’t think that’s it. Basically, his rise to becoming Pope. And all the different types of robes he wore.  More newspaper stories and even the gun and bullet from when he was shot.  There were these two door like things that were pretty impressive looking.  As we started to leave that area, the floor had clear glass that showed dirt that looked like it was from different countries.  Lots of different things celebrating PJP.  At the very end, there was a three-tier wooden display of PJP’s life from when he was an infant to when he died.  There was also another statue of him that mom and I had our picture taken with.  We used the bathrooms again and picked up our bags and then went outside.  We had some free time before the bus returned. Mom and I looked at a couple more gift stores and bought a few things.  

Back on the bus, we went down the road a bit to the Sanktuarium Pasyjno-Maryjne which is a pilgrimage site that was popular with PJP.  It was a nice-looking church with a nice park area. It was up on a hill and I stayed in the bus to rest while mom went up with most of the rest of the group. Mom said it was quite a hike up to the church itself.  They have another statue of PJP.  I feel like every town/city you went to had a statue of him.  Everyone came back and we drove on to Krakow.  We drove by multiple churches.  Our hotel for the next couple days was called PURO Krakow Kazimierz. It was kind of fancy and we were on the second floor.  We had to walk almost in a circle to get to our room from the elevators.  In fact, you could go two ways to get there.  Nice little room but I was a bit worried about the bathroom.  It had a window in it that looked out on the room itself.  So, while you shower, someone in the room can see you.  I wasn’t looking forward to that but then we noticed a switch that had a curtain move out to cover the window.  Thank goodness.  In fact, we told another person in our group about it because they were wondering about it too.  We met up in the lobby and walked over to where we were going to have dinner and a show. We were early so Dan and I sat outside while Tomas took the rest of the group around the square pointing out old Jewish areas and other places of interest.  The restaurant was called Restauracja Ester.  It served Jewish cuisine and had live music.  We had two tables in the back and all I really remember was a lot of people drink wine and the music was very good.  I ended up buying a cd when the meal was over.  

It was Sunday now and according to our schedule we were supposed to have the morning free and then go somewhere as a group after lunch.  Well that didn’t happen.  LaVern had changed it so that there was a small tour with shopping which according to Tomas wouldn’t be much since most shops were closed on Sundays.  Poland is a very religious country.  And Tomas was from Krakow so you’d think he knows what he’s talking about.  I wasn’t thrilled because I had made plans to go to the Krakow Zoo.  I try to go to zoos everywhere I go. So, with a bold move for me, I stayed at the hotel until the group left and then took a taxi to the zoo. Mom knew of course.   The zoo was small and located on top of a hill but the zoo itself was on a level area.  I wandered around looking at all the animals.  I found the feline area and looked at a jaguar, lion, leopard, snow leopard, tiger and some smaller ones like jungle cat and European wild cat and Pallas cat.  The red panda was very cute and the ostriches actually had some eggs.  In the entrance area there were some stone sculptures of animals.  Or more like rocks that they added legs and heads to. Still pretty neat though.  I bought a couple things in the gift shop and asked the man where you get a taxi from.  Yeah, apparently you call for them.  So……… I was stuck.  I wandered over to the bus area but wasn’t sure which one to take so I walked down the hill to this larger bus area.  I eventually got on one but the driver didn’t understand what I was trying to ask so I just sat down.  I pulled out my cellphone to look at the map to see where the bus was going to in relation to where the hotel was.  Luckily, I made it all the way into town before I had to get off when the bus went a different way.  I feel bad but I didn’t pay for the ride either.  I couldn’t figure out where you paid.  I walked across the road to another bus stop and tried to figure out the map.  Not an easy thing.  It was too high up and all in Polish.  I stood there for a bit before I walked over to this man with a little girl waiting for a bus.  I asked him which bus I needed to take to get to my hotel while showing him my phone.  He was incredibly helpful and nice and pointed me to this other train thing and told me which number I needed and how many stops before I should get off.  Polish people are very helpful and nice.  I thanked him and went over to the train area.  It’s kind of like a lite rail kind of thing……a tram.  I had just missed one leaving but it wasn’t that long before another with the number I needed showed up.  I got on and watching the other people, figured out where to pay. It was interesting as they charged you by how long you rode it.  The ride was very nice.  It went around the Wawel Royal Castle and I got off maybe a block from the hotel.  As I was walking toward it, I thought I saw our bus going by and sure enough, I wasn’t in the room for maybe five minutes and mom came in.  We went out to get some lunch.  We walked down the way a bit and went to Kebabar which was a kebab place. We bought drinks at a little convenience store on the corner and went back to the hotel to eat.  

After lunch, we met up with everyone downstairs to get on the bus and go to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. To get down into the mines, you have to ride an elevator.  A tiny steel elevator that they pack you into like a bunch of sardines.  It was not fun. The mines are 327 meters deep.  We didn’t go down that far.  The farthest we went down was 135 meters where all the statues, chapels and the underground lake was.  At the 64-meter level, we had to take some wooden stairs down.  Along the way were statues of the dwarves from Snow White.  The miners carved all of it out of the salt.  The main cathedral area was very pretty.  It had chandeliers made of salt crystals.  They hold mass there.  There was another area that had statues of Princess Kinga and our guide told us a story about her.  The ride back up was even worse as I was one of the last ones in and I was so squished. Some of the others behind me were afraid I was going to lose a finger because I was trying to hold on to the gate part.  I closed my eyes because I was feeling a bit claustrophobic.  At the top they had a nice gift shop where mom and I bought some things for the kids and ourselves.  When everyone was done shopping, we walked across the street to Karczma Halit for dinner.  First place so far where I actually had something good…… that I liked…….to eat. Plus, there was a lovely folk show of sorts.  Singing, instrument playing and dancing.  They would pick people from the group to dance with.  It was great fun.  They had CDs you could buy so I bought one.  Then it was back on the bus for the ride back to the hotel.  

This morning was another little tour with shopping and then mass at St. Mary’s Basilica at around noon. I had no desire to go shopping so I told mom I would meet her at the church at noon.  So, I laid around the room and then went down and got a taxi to the church.  It took a little bit before I found mom but I did find her.  It seemed we had some free time before mass started so we went to look for souvenirs. I found quite a few with dragons on them.  According to stories, there was a dragon living under the castle until someone was able to get it to leave.  So, dragons are kind of a thing.  They had a Hard Rock Café and we bought dad a hat and shirt since he has some from all over the world.  We met up with the group and went into St. Mary’s.  We had mass in a little side area behind a gate.  It was a bit weird because while it was going on, people would come up and look at us.  After mass, we went around the corner where Tomas had ordered some pizza for everyone. We did have to walk a bit to this park area where we ate and used the bathroom.  We then went across the street to wait for Sebastian and the bus.  We were going to visit Auschwitz.  

Auschwitz has two sites that you can visit.  Our first stop was at the first one that has the memorial and museum located there. We lined up for the tour.  You were given earphones so you could hear the guide.  The groups were small…… I think we had maybe twenty at the most in our group.  We had half of our group with us and the others went with another guide.  You start off walking along the outside of the fence until you get to the gate.  It was the main camp gate and said ‘Work will set you free’ over the top of it in German.  I guess working to death would be setting yourself free.  Stupid Nazis.  Anyway……we went into the main camp area.  There were about thirty buildings that the prisoners were housed in. The few we went into had pictures from after the Allies liberated the camp and what condition the people were in, piles of shoes, brushes, prosthetic limbs, cups, plates, eyeglasses, anything you could think of.  It was incredibly sad.  They had what amounted to mugshots of the prisoners along the walls and who they were and usually when they arrived and when they died next to the picture.  We went through a couple of the buildings like this and eventually ended up near the gas chamber/crematorium.  You could walk inside and see where millions of people were murdered.  I hate Nazis so much.  I just have nothing more to say about Auschwitz.  It was such a tragedy.  Every person should visit it.  We then went over to Auschwitz II which was bigger but did not have as many of its buildings.  It did have the gate where the train tracks went through.  I ended up staying in the bus with a couple other people while mom went with the rest of the group to look at what was left.  We went back to the hotel and had dinner downstairs in their restaurant.  I have to say probably the worst food so far.  The next day we would be leaving for Budapest.  

#travel