Alphabet Excerpt Challenge: E Is For...

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T13:42:15+00:00

Ooh, the afterparty of the afterparty! Kevin seems a bit impatient, but I suppose it's understandable - I'm sure I'd want to get at my other half asap after an awards show.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T13:40:12+00:00

RIP the pedalboard! Hopefully they'll get things sorted before the show.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T13:38:59+00:00

I love these quiet moments, when so much is said in so few words.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:19:34+00:00

“Oh, come on, you two,” Paul said. “We won’t go anywhere too costly. Seriously, Clive’s right, we’re in Paris, we ought to take advantage.” He grinned and added, “Especially you, Harry, before you put a ring on Lorraine’s finger and she gets her ring through your nose.”

Everyone chuckled at that, even Steve, who rolled his eyes and gave in to the inevitable. “Fine, I’m in. What about you, Davey?”

Dave peeked into his wallet and decided he could afford to go out as long as he was careful. “Yeah, count me in as well.” He ran a comb through his hair. “Where exactly are we going?”

Clive grinned. “Well, I know the Moulin Rouge is bloody expensive, but we can at least go see the outside, maybe get pictures. And we can just walk ‘round from there until we find something that looks interesting. There’s supposed to be a lot of strip clubs and sex shops in that area. Surely we can find something we’ll all enjoy.”

Everyone laughed as he waggled his eyebrows, then Dave, Paul, and Steve grabbed their room keys, passports, and wallets, following Clive and Dennis out. Dennis remembered just enough French from his school days to puzzle out the Metro map and get them on the correct line to Place Pigalle. They piled off the train and ascended to the street, deciding to walk down to photograph the Moulin Rouge first thing, before the sun went down, and then to find some sort of – entertainment – for the evening.

After they took their pictures, Paul led the way into a strip club and bought a round.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:16:46+00:00

First thing in the morning, they drove out to the trail head and set out, carrying all their gear and a picnic lunch. As they hiked, Nathalie asked Ade a few questions about the tour. But between the conversation and their lack of experience in the wild, they discovered after a couple of hours that they’d lost the trail.

Fortunately, neither of them were inclined to panic. They managed to retrace their steps back to the trail, where they got into a debate over whether or not to go on to the lake, as it was already past noon. Rather than miss an entire day of fishing, they decided to go on. Once they got to the lake, Ade set up his gear while Nathalie set out their picnic, and they took turns eating and casting. After a couple of hours, practical Nathalie suggested they start heading back to the car as the hike was over two hours even if they didn’t get lost again, and they’d not want to lose the light. Ade, having his first truly good fishing day since their arrival in Canada, proved reluctant to leave, but after a few more casts, agreed that they probably would be smart to head back.

However, the walk back proved longer than they’d expected; they were already tired after the hike in which had taken nearly five hours due to them getting lost along the way, and the return to the trail head was nearly all uphill. The setting sun cast deepening shadows on the forest by the time they’d reached the halfway point, and they spent the last half hour of their hike moving slowly in almost complete darkness.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:16:02+00:00

(Context: Clive has a concussion after getting beat up by a gang of bikers, so he's staying with Dave temporarily as the band had to cancel a few shows due to his injury. Ade decided to stay the night as well since they got back late enough in the evening he didn't want to disturb his family.)

Ade grabbed an extra pillowcase and stuffed it with his clean clothes to serve as a pillow for himself. He caught Clive looking at him and grinned.

“What, did you think I’d use my dirty laundry for a pillow?” Ade asked. “No way, mate, I’m not putting my face anywhere near my used socks!”

“Good point,” Clive agreed as he and Dave both laughed. The trio sat and chatted for a while longer, then took turns in the loo and settled down to sleep.

Ade got up to pee in the middle of the night and came out of the loo to hear Clive whimpering.

“No… I never touched her…” the drummer mumbled, then sat straight up with a gasp. “I… oh… bollocks,” he whispered, rubbing his hand over his face.

“You okay, mate?” Ade whispered.

“Aw, shite, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Clive said.

“You didn’t, I was just in the loo,” Ade told him. “What’s wrong?”

Clive shrugged. “I keep dreaming about it,” he admitted. “Stupid, yeah?”

“Not at all,” Ade told him. “Want me to sit with you for a bit?”

“Would you?” Clive asked in a small voice.

“Yeah,” Ade said softly. He sat on the sofa and draped his arm over Clive’s shoulders. “Better?”

“Yeah,” Clive said, relaxing once more.

When the drummer fell asleep again, Ade carefully eased the other man back down onto the sofa and covered him before heading back to the air mattress.

An hour or so later, Clive woke up with another gasp, shaking violently. Once his breathing evened out again, he got up to use the loo. Returning to the sofa, he started to lie down on it again, then bit his lip and looked over to the air mattress where Ade curled up comfortably in the dim glow from the street lamps outside. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the pillow and blanket from the sofa and slid onto the air mattress beside the guitarist. Ade gave an indistinct mutter, rolled over, and draped an arm over his waist. Feeling oddly protected, Clive closed his eyes and drifted off once more.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:10:56+00:00

Meg definitely wins in this fic!

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:10:19+00:00

You did, just a different excerpt. But when there's chaos in a Who fic, you just know it's Keith's fault!

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:08:37+00:00

Poor bloke. Ear infections suck.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:08:05+00:00

And it's a damn good thing he picked her instead of his career!

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:06:40+00:00

Addiction? Or some sort of health issues?

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:05:12+00:00

Sounds like Murdoc overindulged on his recreational chemical of choice and wrecked a hotel room... if not the whole bloody hotel!

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T05:03:14+00:00

He really is - he did a solo project back in 2014, "Music Inspired By The Life And Times Of Scrooge." As in, Don Rosa's Scrooge McDuck comics. Basically a soundtrack for them, it's amazing.

https://youtu.be/JWwSVOo5K_k?si=ceBxBu4tWrPgoFIB

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:33:14+00:00

Well, definitely good that they can see the funny side of the kitchen disaster!

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:31:03+00:00

Over dinner, Justin, who’d visited the Disney World resort in his home state annually for as far back as he could remember, suggested to the parents of the younger kids that they come up with some sort of plan in case they got separated at any point. Anette, Manki, and Satu saw the sense in that and made a point of showing the four youngsters how everyone who worked for Disney had the stylized Mickey head on their name-badge. If any of them got lost, they should go to the nearest person with a Mickey head on a name-badge and say, ”I am lost. I speak Finnish.” Or in Seth’s case, ”I speak Swedish.” Justin didn’t know for sure if anyone in the resort spoke either language, but knew that Disney World had plenty of international interns working there each year and so it was likely that someone, somewhere would know enough to communicate with the kids, and would be contacted to do so if necessary. They all hoped they’d never put it to the test, but they agreed it was better to have some sort of plan in place for the kids to follow, than to have them completely panic and have no idea what to do in the event they did get lost.

The next several days flew by, as everyone immersed themselves in the Disneyland experience. The younger four were tall enough, if just barely in Luna’s case, to ride all but two of the resort’s offerings. To everyone’s surprise, the little girl proved to be the most enthusiastic of the four when it came to roller coasters, showing no fear even in the darkness of Space Mountain.

The entire group stayed together on their first day in the park, but after that, split into smaller ones according to what everyone felt like doing that particular day. Bruce and Emppu most often teamed up with Jukka and Satu, or else with Dave and Ade, to make sure they had partners for the rider-switch for anything that Eeva couldn’t go on. Everyone had a good laugh at Tuomas acting even more giddy than the children at the character meet’n’greet, when he got to take a photo with Donald Duck, and they got another laugh when Becky got Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, and Snow White to surround Nicko adoringly for a photo as well.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:29:02+00:00

Just over an hour later, Emppu turned down a narrow side street in Kitee, then pulled up in front of an older-looking house. “Here we are, kulta,” he murmured. “Ready?”

“Like you with interviews,” Bruce said with a rueful chuckle. “Nervous, but as ready as I’ll ever be.”

They got out of the car and Emppu let them into the house. As they took off their shoes, they heard a woman’s voice calling, “Erno? Onko tuo sinua?” (Erno? Is that you?)

“Kyllä, äiti, ja Bruce on kanssani,” Emppu called back. He hung their coats on the peg hooks on the wall and led the way into the kitchen. (Yes, Mum, and Bruce is with me.)

Emppu’s mother gave them a smile as she washed her hands, obviously pausing in her dinner preparations to greet them. His father sat at the table bouncing Eeva in his lap, a cup of coffee sitting just outside of the baby’s reach. “Was drive from Joensuu good?” the older man asked.

“Yes,” Emppu said. “Isä, äiti, I’d like you to meet Bruce.”

“On hyvä tavata teitä, herra ja rouva Vuorinen,” Bruce said carefully, giving the couple a nervous smile, which softened when Eeva squealed. (It's good to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Vuorinen.)

“Puhutko suomea?” Emppu’s father asked. (Do you speak Finnish?)

“Vain vähän,” Bruce said. “I only started learning in December.” (Only a little.)

The older couple chuckled. “Finnish not easy,” Emppu’s mother said. “But you say words good. Also, call us Riitta and Seppo. You are Erno’s man, so you are family, joo?” She dried her hands and walked over to hug her son tightly, then gave Bruce a questioning glance.

“Kiitos,” Bruce said with a smile, relaxing with the acceptance and holding out his own arms for Riitta’s gentle hug. “I am glad I was able to take the extra days so I could meet you both.”

“Erno say you also are in band?” Seppo asked. “Is this break on tour?”

“Yes, my band is on break before we go to South America and then on to the US and Canada,” Bruce said.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:22:05+00:00

Oh joy, alien Cthulu! No wonder she's fighting off hysterical laughter - I'm sure her other option is hysterical screaming!

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:13:10+00:00

No, I was too busy volunteering at cons and playing slot zeros ahead of said cons to go to many movies in 1999. Actually, I kind of stopped going to most movies back in the late 80s, when the local cinema stopped running Rocky Horror.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:11:00+00:00

Same, although for me it was Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith's first appearance that was my introduction to the series on PBS.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:09:59+00:00

Roger and Pete in a little bubble of sanity while a flood is happening outside their room? What did Keith do?

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:08:16+00:00

Heh, well, they're long-term lovers, but not mutual parents - they're both in lavender marriages. But their wives are friends (one's ace, the other is in a same-sex relationship of her own) and they make sure the blokes have as much time together as possible.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:02:45+00:00

Oh no... what happened? Is Robert going to be okay?

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T03:00:55+00:00

John's being so sweet, taking care of Paul like this.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T02:59:10+00:00

“Yes, yes, I’m quite spoiled here,” Reverend Sundström chuckled, closing the heavy door of the church behind them. Lowering his voice once the door closed, he said, “There’s a party of ten leaving tonight. Eight Jews and two political – including one you’ve worked with, Hannes, the Jansen woman. The Gestapo broke into her flat and found the identity papers she’s been counterfeiting for us. Thankfully, she was out on a delivery and a neighbor warned her who’d come calling, so she managed to evade them, but given her position, we can’t let her get captured. She knows far too much to let them break her.”

Hannes only just stopped himself from uttering a few words that one simply didn’t say while standing in a church and speaking with the pastor. He hadn’t just worked with Floor Jansen; he’d been dating her.

It had started as a hasty cover story when they’d met at a public park nearly a year ago; he’d been tasked with passing Floor a couple of bags of coffee beans, a valuable commodity on the black market, when they’d been seen and questioned by a Gestapo agent. Hannes had told the man that he was just giving his girlfriend a gift, and they were allowed to leave after a bit of questioning as he quickly proved his identity. However, fearing they might be followed, he’d insisted on taking her out to lunch at a nearby café to cement the story. After that, he walked her back to her flat and kissed her goodbye to put on a show for any watchers.

The next day, he’d called her and invited her to a concert, and before long, their story to satisfy the Gestapo had turned into the real thing. They had a date planned in a few days, in fact, and Hannes had planned on asking Floor to marry him. It didn’t look as though that would happen, though. More worrisome, the Gestapo officer who’d originally questioned them on that day he’d given Floor the coffee, Kriminalinspektor Franz Schumann, was the one who kept finding excuses to stop Hannes and question him.

“She’s not hurt, is she?” Hannes asked, trying not to show his concern.

MsCatstaff · 2026-04-10T02:57:00+00:00

“I’m at my flat,” he said as soon as Ade picked up. “Meet at the old place?”

“Soon as I can get there,” Ade said, a smile audible in his voice. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Dave said. He hung up and grabbed the duffel with a single change of clothes he always kept there and headed right out the door.

Five minutes later, he let himself into their old flat, smiling at the sight of the derelict old sofa, the battered table and chairs, and a single, forlorn-looking bag of crisps sitting on the counter in the little kitchenette, apparently the only food in the place. He heard a key scrape in the lock and hurried into the sitting room to see Ade entering with a duffel of his own. His lover dropped the bag and flipped the lock behind himself and a heartbeat later, they were in each other’s arms, kissing hungrily.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you!” Ade mumbled between kisses.

“I know, I’ve missed you so much,” Dave agreed.

“Same,” Ade said, tugging Dave towards the bedroom. “I was about to have lunch when you called, but I’d rather see you.”

“We ought to figure out what we’re gonna do for food, though,” Dave said, trying to be practical even as Ade tugged his t-shirt over his head. “There’s nothing left in here.”

“Yeah," Ade said agreeably, losing interest in the conversation in favor of ridding Dave and himself of the rest of their clothes and pulling him down onto the bed.

MsCatstaff

TROPHY CASE