#Lucyverse
Note
i’ve been thinking about a halloween prompt for donnacha because i’m so incredibly obsessed with his and henry’s relationship dynamic.
i know you’re not big into overeating, so you know how when you don’t eat, you eventually start to get a little woozy and gross feeling? donnacha hasn’t eaten in hours cause he’s been busy running last minute halloween errands (can you get more candy? we have to have this very specific sweet! that place was out? oh no! can you try here?!) for everyone and he’s starving by the time he gets home.
he’s staying in with henry this year because he doesn’t like going out and hen doesn’t really go out anymore either. plus, donnacha doesn’t want to see a repeat of last year where he walked in on henry anxiety puking on the bathroom floor after snapping at lucy. so he beats a hasty retreat to henry’s room to get away from the mayhem happening in the shared space after he gives everyone their stuff, and he’s got a bag of his favourite junk food with him that he starts to munch on while he jabbers on to henry about his day. everything is going great!
only… his belly isn’t really liking all the sugar and it isn’t really helping his headache go away and he’s getting quieter and quieter until henry finally asks him what’s wrong.
-🐭
Yes, it's December 2nd, and yes, I know this is late.
Thank you so much for this lovely, detailed, thoughtful request, anony 🐭, I appreciate you so much and I hope you're well.
I've had this draft for so long and I'm a bit tipsy right now as I'm posting it, so I'm sorry if there are typos/inconsistencies, or if it just straight up isn't good 👍
CW: overthinking, stomach pain, mention of cheating, mention of breakup, overindulgence (sugar), mention of chronic pain, platonic caretaking.
Word Count: 4,200+
___
Donnacha barely had a second to breathe as he stepped through the door, before he was being beckoned through to the living area by someone who didn’t even live here.
Autumn was dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast; her outfit was casual, nothing extravagant like the yellow ball gown from the movie, but he could tell that was who she was. He felt a pang of recognition at the lace detail on the collar of her yellow blouse. Had she worn that on a date once? Had he been with her when she’d bought it? A second pang, this one tinged with loss.
It still sent him reeling, sometimes, that she wasn’t his, and he wasn’t hers.
“What is it?”
“Get in here.”
Donnacha sighed. He’d been running on empty all afternoon, actively ignoring the rumbling in his stomach and the tension in his brain for hours now. Now that he was home, he felt like wilting.
He blinked in bewilderment as he stepped into the living area. Lucy had been stringing up Halloween decorations since halfway through September, but she’d really doubled down at some point since he’d left this morning. He could barely see the mouldings for the amount of fake cobweb and crepe paper streamers filling the corners and tapering off across the ceiling.
But it was the unfamiliar faces that really threw him.
“Donnacha, this is Dixon,” Autumn said, gesturing towards the Asian guy dressed as Legolas from Lord of the Rings, and then to the dark-skinned girl in the ladybird costume. They were both sitting on the couch, flanked by a seated Claudette on one side and by Autumn standing at the other. “And this is Leigh. We’re in the musical together. Guys, this is Donnacha, my –”
She didn’t falter as she spoke, but in between her words, Donnacha’s heart did a sickening flip. Was she about to bring up the fact that they were exes? He wasn’t sure he was comfortable advertising that with these people he didn’t know –
“Oldest friend,” Autumn finished.
Donnacha let go of a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. “I mean, I’m not that old.” He smiled; both Dixon and Leigh had beautiful smiles, so it would have been a little difficult not to. “Great to meet you both.”
“You, too,” they practically said in unison, which led to Leigh curling her lip and softly backhanding Dixon’s leg. Next to Dixon’s knee, there was a glossy pride pin that caught Donnacha’s attention. It was attached to the strap of a side bag that he was holding firmly in his lap.
Donnacha breath caught in his throat as he thought about the flat cardboard packet that was currently sitting in the top drawer of his bedside table. Inside, still wrapped in plastic, was a bisexual flag pin. He’d been a little drunk and dizzy when he’d ordered on Etsy, and it’d seemed like a great idea at the time. He’d even smiled proudly to himself when it had arrived, but as soon as he’d started opening the package, as soon as he’d started thinking about actually wearing the pin, a pain had bloomed in the pit of his stomach. It just seemed as though advertising his identity was unnecessary. Maybe dangerous. Undoubtedly more trouble than it was worth.
He understood it now, though; he felt himself wanting to be seen, to be recognised, like Dixon.
Shit, he thought. Maybe he should have mentioned his pronouns after Autumn had introduced him –
It was too late now, because Lucy was scampering up to him, hands outstretched. “Thanks, hon.”
She relieved him of the shopping bags that had been testing the limits of his shoulder sockets for the past hour. He smiled at her tiredly and looked at her skinny denim jeans and plaid shirt, wondering if she hadn’t gotten changed yet, or had poured so much Halloween spirit into decorating the flat that she had none left to fuel a costume.
“You kept the receipts, right? I’ll pay you back tomorrow afternoon,” Lucy said.
“What are you dressing up as tonight?” Claudette asked from the other end of the sofa. Donnacha realised she was addressing him. Their eyes were pinned on Donnacha’s face over the rim of their cup. Autumn had promised – of her own volition – that she would never tell anybody that Donnacha had kissed someone else during their relationship, but he could never quite shake the feeling that Claudette knew something more than they let on.
“Eh, nothing.” Donnacha shook his head. “I’m… I’m actually not coming out tonight.”
“Oh, you’re not?” Autumn looked genuinely crestfallen, which gave Donnacha yet another strange pang in the centre of his chest. He didn’t know what to do with it, so he boxed it up, tucked it away in the back of his mind, and tried to stop thinking about it.
“Jesus, Donnacha!” Lucy called out from behind him. She’d propped the bags on the edge of the coffee table and was fishing things out, one by one. “You let us boss you around on the phone all day, and you’re not even partying with us? Why didn’t you say something!”
“Lu, it’s grand, seriously,” Donnacha smiled. He edged a little closer to her as some familiar packaging caught his eye. He’d almost forgotten that he’d grabbed something just for himself amidst all of the bossing around. “These are for me,” he chuckled sheepishly, reaching for the packets.
Lucy just nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, fair enough.”
“Anyway, I’d already promised I’d drive to the shops before this other plan came up…”
“Ooh-ooh, other plan?” Lucy lowered her voice, though everybody could still hear her, clear as day. “A hot date?”
“Oh, yeah.” Donnacha smirked. “I’ve got a date with this floppy-haired lad who works in web design and never leaves his bedroom.”
As soon as he made the joke, he wanted to snatch it out of the air and swallow it back down. It had somehow sounded like an unnecessary dig at his friend, and implied that it really was a date. How the hell had that happened?
“No – I just… Me and Henry, we’re just gonna watch a movie and hang out. You know, after what happened last year, I didn’t think it’d be good for him to be, you know, overwhelmed…” Donnacha couldn’t believe it was his own mouth that was saying these things. Nobody needed him throwing about reminders of Henry’s meltdown last Halloween, least of all Henry himself.
Autumn gave one of her politest smiles and turned to say something off-topic to Leigh. Claudette was still eyeing Donnacha with a curiosity that bordered on disgust. Even Lucy didn’t seem to know what to say, which was never a good sign.
Donnacha frowned, irritated. He’d spent all afternoon hunting down everybody’s requests for the Halloween party, edging through traffic jams, bothering staff members about their stock. He hadn’t expected to be hoisted up onto anyone’s shoulders like he’d scored a winning try, but shouldn’t he at least be allowed to be himself?
He pushed that feeling aside, packing it up alongside his confusing feelings about Autumn, and his reluctance about his identity, and his nervousness about Claudette, and his guilt about Henry.
He cleared his throat and rubbed at his stomach, which delivered to him a nasty twinge to remind him that the last thing he’d eaten had been a pathetically small, dry article that had barely passed for a blueberry muffin at 10am. The packaging of his chocolate bars crinkled in his other hand, and he couldn’t help eyeing the half-empty plates that were scattered throughout the room, holding mini spring rolls and spicy wedges and breaded cheese sticks.
“There any food left?” he asked, feeling oddly grateful for the opportunity to change the subject.
“Yeah, lots.” Payton.
Donnacha turned around.
They were sitting at the dining table, and had been quiet and staring at their phone since Donnacha had come in. They were wearing a navy jacket and had curled the front of their hair, but Donnacha didn’t care to contemplate their appearance any further.
They half-smiled at him and nodded towards the kitchen. “Help yourself.”
Help yourself. Of course, Payton would know all about helping themself, since they’d helped themself to Autumn less than a fortnight after the break-up –
“Thanks,” Donnacha said, making a beeline for the kitchen.
Everything edible was spread out on baking trays and was dried out from the oven and cold from sitting out too long. It was hardly an appetising site, especially while Donnacha was already thinking about tearing into his Macaroon bars. He’d been hit with a wave of nostalgia when he’d spotted them on his hunt for Lucy’s obscure requests, and he’d bought them thinking they would be his desserts for the next few weeks, but who was going to stop him from making them into his dinner tonight?
His stomach gurgled quietly beneath his hoodie. On top of the sharp hunger pains, it felt knotted with tension. He couldn’t believe how easily he forgot how skipping meals affected him, making him shaky and emotional. It’d been a mistake to let it get this bad.
After tossing a small handful of wedges and some ketchup onto a plate, Donnacha tucked his chocolates under his arm and swept through the living area one more time.
“Happy Halloween, have a good night,” he smiled, and he didn’t stop to let anyone’s expression or response sink in.
___
“Oh,” Donnacha deadpanned, “you’re working?”
Henry didn’t turn around at first, and Donnacha realised it was because he had his noise-cancelling headphones on. He must have seen the light from the hallway reflected in the computer screen though, because the further Donnacha pushed the door open, the more Henry’s attention seemed to twitch away from his work.
He took off the headphones and swung his chair into a half-turn. “You’re late.”
That face was a relief to lay eyes upon. Henry had washed his hair, there was some colour in his cheeks, and the circles under his eyes were barely a smudge. His eyebrows were scrunched up in a frown, but that was hardly unusual, and Donnacha knew that Henry could be frowning himself into a knot and still be genuinely content.
He didn’t understand it, but he knew it.
“Did you say something, by the way?”
“Yeah.” Donnacha tossed his Macaroon bars onto Henry’s bed. He sat down on the mattress, his plate of wedges on his lap. “I was trying to ask what you’re playing at. Working? I thought we were watching a film.”
Henry’s mouth slid into a thin, stretched line, his expression taut with unvoiced laughter.
“What?” Donnacha asked. He thought for a second about what he’d just said, popping a mini spring roll in his mouth and crunching down on it. Then he sighed, replaying in his head what he’d previously said, hearing it through Henry’s ears. “Seriously? Fil-um?”
Henry cracked a smirk.
Donnacha pointed at Henry’s computer screen. “Switch that off.”
“I want to finish what I’m working on.” Henry held up his hands, pre-emptively stopping Donnacha from protesting. “This is on you. I had to start something to occupy myself, and now I have to finish it. You were very late.”
“Yeah, I’m extremely aware. Bloody starving as well,” Donnacha said over a grumble in his stomach, dipping a cold potato wedge into the little pool of ketchup on the side of his plate. “So, are we not actually watching this movie anymore?”
“Of course.” There was no little amount of judgement in Henry’s gaze as he adjusted the bridge of his glasses. “I still can’t believe you’ve never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Donnacha chewed without much relish. He took in, for the first time since entering, what Henry was wearing. “I still can’t believe you own a... baby-grow.”
Henry glanced down at his orange one-piece pyjama set. “It’s a onesie.”
“Same thing.”
Henry held eye contact with him for a few seconds as he pulled the hood of the onesie up over the top of his head. A Jack O’Lantern face was stitched into the hood, and a little green stalk sat at the crown of Henry’s head. “It was a birthday gift from Lucy.”
“Was it? All she gave me for my birthday was scratch cards.”
“Try being her friend for ten years.”
Eyeing the pumpkin pyjamas one last time, Donnacha shook his head. “You know, I think I’m good.”
“Mmhmm,” Henry grunted. Hood still pulled up, his attention had already been drawn back to his computer screen.
Donnacha let him work in silence for a couple of minutes, slowly chewing his way through his pile of wedges, but eyeing his chocolate bars with much more enthusiasm. He hadn’t had a lot to eat yet, but having calories inside of him had improved his mood drastically.
Licking a smear of ketchup from his thumb, he glanced up at Henry. “Did you get some food?”
Without tearing his eyes away from his work, Henry pulled his hunched shoulders further back into his chair, unblocking Donnacha’s view of a paper bag that sat next to his keyboard. “I secretly ordered Thai noodles while I was waiting for you. You were very –”
“Very, very, very, extremely late,” Donnacha finished for him. It brought a smile to his face, to picture Henry in his pumpkin onesie, creeping down the hallway to collect his food at the front door without alerting anybody else in the apartment.
“I have some leftovers, if you’d like to warm them up.”
“Nah. Thanks.” Donnacha reached over to put his half-full plate on Henry’s nightstand. The scratching sound of ceramic on wood made Henry’s gaze jerk to the side.
“Hmm. Thought you were starving?”
“I am.” Donnacha rubbed his palms together.
“Then, what are you going to… What are those?”
Donnacha grinned broadly as he tore open the first packet, and the wrapped chocolate bars fell onto the bedspread. He felt a spark of pride upon seeing Henry half-turn his chair again. “Come on. Don’t tell me you don’t know what these are.”
Henry’s head bobbed from side to side.
“They’re Macaroons!” Donnacha exclaimed. “They’re a classic. Don’t tell me you never had these as a child?”
“My mother didn’t care much for sweets.” Henry touched the bridge of his glasses again.
“Want to try one?”
Henry shook his head. “I’m full.”
“Alright, but you’re missing out.” Donnacha picked up one of the bars and laid it to the side. “Know what, I’ll save you one.”
“Save me one?” Henry’s voice rose. “How many are you planning to eat?”
“Never you mind!” Donnacha waved a hand towards Henry’s computer before his fingers began wrestling open the wrapper on the bar. “Don’t you have graphics to design, or something?”
“I do.”
The first mouthful of the bar seemed to melt away on his tongue, but after the second, Donnacha began to feel the warm, giddy sensation of sugar settling in his belly. Mentally, he was right back in his hometown – or rather, the closest village to the remote area where his father’s farm was located – surrounded by crumbling stone walls and single-lane roads and the smell of vegetation.
Donnacha happily burned his way through three more of the bars, and was fishing the next one out of the packet when he let out an involuntary sound that Henry clearly found distracting. “Mmm.”
“Enjoying yourself,” Henry observed. Maybe it had been intended as a question, but there was no doubt in his voice.
Donnacha shook his head in a way that meant yes. “You have your cartoons and your old films, Hen –”
“Fil-ums,” Henry repeated incredulously under his breath. Every time, he acted as though it was his first time hearing Donnacha pronouncing that specific word in that specific way.
“But this – this right here –” Donnacha flattened the empty wrapper between his thumbs and stretched it tight, so that the words lay flat and the pattern unrumpled. “This is pure childhood joy for me.”
Henry’s desk chair creaked as Henry shifted his weight, bracing his hands on the armrests. He looked vaguely uncomfortable, and Donnacha was about to ask him if something hurt, but was cut off.
“You had those a lot,” Henry asked, “as a kid?”
“Every weekend, after mass,” Donnacha nodded, chewing quickly so he could swallow. “Da’d stay at the church because he’d be talking to the priest, and Mammy had this group of friends who would stand and smoke just down the road, and they’d – they’d give me and Aoife some pocket money, and…”
He took a break to swallow again, saliva filling his mouth as the sweet aftertaste lingered.
“And the two of us, we’d hightail it down the road, to the corner shop,” he said. “The shop owner was called Mrs. Breathnach, and she always took her time coming down to open up after mass, but me and Aoife were always the first ones waiting for her, and she used to know our favourites off by heart, so she’d be unlocking the shop and rattling off, ‘a Dip Dab for Aoife Ní Mhurchú, a Macaroon for Donnacha Ó Murchú, and one carton of milk’. Mammy always got us to pick up the milk as well, so there’d be milk for Sunday tea…”
He was quickly realising that there was no satisfying end to this story, no way for him to whip up the words to properly convey why these were such important memories.
Henry had stopped working altogether and was looking at him from the desk chair. His dull green eyes were unreadable as always behind his glasses, especially in the low lighting and with the computer screen glare reflected in the lenses.
“Sorry.” Donnacha swallowed again, realising his cheeks were burning and his stomach was doing flips. He took a bite of chocolate. “I’m rambling like my Uncle Seán at Christmas dinner.”
“It’s okay –”
Donnacha gestured towards the computer screen. “Do you not need to get your work done, so we can watch this movie?”
Henry was silent for a couple of seconds. Donnacha genuinely didn’t feel like chatting anymore, and he was really hoping that Henry wouldn’t push the subject. But he thankfully turned his chair back towards the desk and took the computer mouse in his hand.
After a little while, Henry reached for the chocolate bar that Donnacha had placed aside for him. He undid the wrapping so that there were no tears down the side, no damage done to the text or the design. His careful precision brought a private smile to Donnacha’s face.
“Want to finish it?” Henry asked after eating the quarter that he’d broken off.
“Aw. Do you not like it?”
“It’s nice,” Henry said, “but I’m still full from dinner.”
Donnacha pressed his lips together as he eyed the chocolate in Henry’s hand. His throat was dry, and his stomach was now pulsing with pain. “Wrap it back up. Have it later.”
Once again, he expected Henry to refuse, especially since he didn’t seem overly enamoured with the bar in the first place, but thankfully he nodded and folded the wrapper down over the open side. He went back to tapping away with his computer mouse.
Donnacha sank back a little on the bed, trying to find a comfier position that didn’t place too much pressure on his stomach. He started to reach for another chocolate bar but stopped himself.
“You’ve gone quiet,” Henry remarked after a notable amount of time had passed. “What’s wrong?”
“What d’you mean? You asked me to be quiet.”
“Never usually stops you.” Henry sat back in his chair, reaching up under his pumpkin hood to scratch his scalp. “Can I ask you a question?”
“’Course you –”
“Why did you stop telling the story about these bars?”
“Because – because it wasn’t really a story,” Donnacha frowned. “There wasn’t anything else to tell, and I didn’t want to just keep… you know, rambling on.”
“That word again.” Henry’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Do I ramble on when I talk to you about work, or movies, or my life, or whatever?”
Donnacha frowned. “No?”
“But that’s what it felt like you were saying. Do I tell you too much? Because it feels as though you never tell me anything about yourself.”
“There’s… not much to know –”
Henry scoffed loudly, a sound Donnacha had not expected to hear from him. It set his teeth on edge, and the sensation was uncomfortably similar to the hurt that flared up when he thought about Payton and Autumn.
“You don’t tell me shit either,” he said. He was trying for a calm, measured tone, but somehow managed to sound like a sulking child. Like he’d gone into the corner shop and they were all sold out of Macaroons –
“What?” Henry choked out.
You – you never told me why you stopped going out, why you stopped being Lavender, why you stopped bringing dates here… Donnacha’s stomach turned over, and he was hit with the sudden realisation that he might be sick. The back of his hand hovered towards his mouth. How the hell could he even have considered saying that? How could he compare the details of his silly little life story with... whatever it was that had kept Henry locked up at home for so long?
He was just grateful he’d managed to bite his tongue before speaking.
“I’ve upset you.” A dry hitch in Henry’s voice. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, Hen, it’s not – it’s not about that.”
His breath caught in his throat, heat swelling in his cheeks, as his insides gave an uneasy shift. It mightn’t have been so bad – in fact, it relieved a little pocket of pressure in his belly – if it hadn’t sounded like a lawnmower engine trying to take off. No denying it now.
“Pain in my stomach,” Donnacha admitted, massaging his side. “Right here.”
Henry turned his head, just slightly, and Donnacha caught sight of the look on his face. Something more than a sneer, something less than an eye roll. And his eyes were trailing close to the packets of chocolate bars that sat next to Donnacha on the bed.
“What?” Donnacha demanded.
“No comment.”
“You think I did this to myself.”
Henry turned back to his screen. “No comment.”
“And no sympathy either, I take it.” Donnacha sighed and pressed a little harder into his belly as he rubbed. The pain was warm, tight, tucked right up under his ribs. It felt a little like bloating, without feeling overly full. Like all of the chocolate had clumped together in his stomach and was sitting like a dead weight.
“I never said that, now, did I?”
Donnacha looked up to see that Henry was actually shutting his computer down. “Oh... you’re done?”
“Mmm. Yeah. Let’s go with that,” Henry said, which suggested to Donnacha that he wasn’t actually finished, but Donnacha was too relieved to make an argument. He hadn’t really acknowledged it, but the main thing getting him through the day had been this – time with Henry, time in which neither of them had to pretend that they were something they weren’t, or less than they were.
Henry spun his hair to the side and eased himself to his feet, wincing as he unfurled his legs. It suddenly felt silly – insensitive, even – for Donnacha to be complaining about something as fleeting and, yes, self-inflicted, as a belly ache.
“Are you okay?” Donnacha asked, half-rising from his position on the bed. “Is – is your hip...?”
“My hip’s fine,” Henry said as he sat down heavily on the edge of the mattress, one arm extended in Donnacha’s direction. “Come here.”
Donnacha exhaled and allowed himself to sink into Henry’s embrace, to enjoy the feeling of soft waves of hair brushing against his own. His own was short, aerodynamic, clipped and primed for always being on the move, while Henry’s had an air of messiness, of softness, of a way of living that involved no urgency.
Good, Donnacha thought with an odd flare of protectiveness. With all the pain and hardship that he’d been through, Henry deserved that kind of life.
A hand pressing against his belly made Donnacha groan and cuddle in closer, but shame pushed against the warmth in his chest.
I was supposed to be taking care of you.
Donnacha heard himself let out a whine, and his cheeks flushed. In an almost instantaneous response, Henry wrapped his arm tighter around Donnacha’s waist, tucking his face into Donnacha’s hair.
“How about you just try to get some sleep.” Another question that wasn’t a question. An offer that Donnacha wanted to sink into. Henry’s arm trembled against his ribcage, but he kept the hug going.
Donnacha shook his head, hair bristling against Henry’s stubbled chin. “Let’s watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Donnacha rubbed at his eyes and tried to sit up a little, resisting the urge to let his body curl around the sickly pain beneath his abs. “I might need a few more belly rubs, though, if you’re up for the job.”
Henry clicked his tongue in the back of his throat and pressed a quick, passing kiss to the side of Donnacha’s forehead. “Of course you do.”
#Lucverse Donnacha#sickfic#stomach ache fic#stomach ache#hurt comfort#hurt and comfort#Lucyverse#Lucyverse Henry#platonic caretaking
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The creation authority
Mother Universe, King Lunar, and Nowhere Man.
#lucyverse#nowhere man#yellow submarine#beatles#the beatles#character illustration#character design#illustration#digital art#oc#original character#artist on tumblr#fire alpaca#queer artist
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LUCY IN THE METAVERSE!
Lucy on Lucille / Lucille on Lucy
Lucille Ball created the Lucy character to live in a real world; a world also populated by movies stars, one of whom was film and radio performer Lucille Ball! On rare occassion, the Lucy character dared to acknowledge the existence of her famous portrayer giving viewers a rare visit to the metaverse. Lucille believed that comedy was better if it stayed close to the truth. Her sitcoms are full of references to her own life and the lives of those around her - but that’s not enough to be Meta! Here are some moments that transcend mere references and become self-referential!
In 1946, Lucille Ball (the actress) met Lucille Ball (the filly), courtesy of jockey Johnny Longden. This meeting no doubt influenced Longden’s playing himself in “Lucy and The Loving Cup” (1957).
~ META MAGAZINES ~
Lucille Ball was on the cover of a local edition of TV Guide (January 25, 1952), which was casually left on the coffee table during “Breaking the Lease” (1952).
In “Ricky’s Life Story” (1953), the photo of Lucy ("That's a fine picture of my left arm!") holding Little Ricky, may actually be of Lucille Ball because the monogram on the blouse are the initials 'LB' - although it could be 'LR' as the lower part of the 'B' is blocked by the baby!. It could also be another person wearing Lucy’s blouse. Very meta!
When Look turned up in “Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio” (1952), the June 3, 1952, issue actually had Lucille Ball on the cover!
Look was part of a 1952 flashback intro during Lucy’s pregnancy. Vivian Vance has her hand over Ball’s photo. Inside is an article by Desi Arnaz about his wife.
Another ‘meta’ magazine appearance was in “Ricky Has Labor Pains” (1953) where a pregnant Lucy is reading the January 1953 McCall's (January 1953), which clearly has a cover that say “Why I Love Lucy” by Desi Arnaz!
~ META COSTUMES ~
Desi Arnaz was such a golf nut that he built a second home on the 17th fairway of the Thunderbird Golf Club in Rancho Mirage, California. Ricky Ricardo (an East Coast golfer) wore the Thunderbird insignia on his cap in “The Golf Game” (1954). Desi ad-libs a verbal mention of the club at the start of “The Charm School” (S3;E15) earlier in 1954.
RICKY: “You know, the whole membership of the Thunderbird Club was around the 18th hole. All I had to do was make this measly two-foot putt to win, and I missed it!”
In “Lucy and Aladdin’s Lamp” (1971), Lucy Ricardo’s trademark blue polka dot dress turns up at Lucy Carter’s garage sale! The dress is a visual Easter Egg but is never talked about.
~ META MUSIC ~
For “Lucy’s Last Birthday” (1953), Ricky’s birthday present to Lucy is a song called “I Love Lucy.” In reality, viewers had been listening to the Eliot Daniel theme song for nearly two years, but the previously unheard lyrics by Harold Adamson were new.
In “Job Switching” (1952), nine weeks before it was announced that Lucy Ricardo would have a baby, Ricky is heard idly whistling “There’s A Brand New Baby in Our House,” a song that Desi Arnaz wrote several years earlier for the birth of his daughter. When Ethel asks Ricky if he wrote the song, he replies that he wrote it for Lucy. But since Lucie and Lucy are pronounced the same, Desi may be talking about his daughter!
A few weeks later, in “Sales Resistance” (1953), Ricky sings the song in full, recording it on a reel to reel tape recorder in his living room. Coincidentally, the song was released on the B side of the “I Love Lucy” theme song.
~ META CASTING ~
In “Don Juan is Shelved” (1955) Lucy thinks real-life Hollywood producer Dore Schary is an out-of-work actor so she hires him to pretend to be... Dore Schary! Schary was supposed to play himself in the episode, but backed out at the last minute and the role was recast with Phil Ober, marring the mega meta nature of the episode. An added layer of meta was added by casting Ober, who was married to Vivian Vance and was - at times - an “out-of-work actor.”
Frank Nelson memorably played the exasperated train conductor dealing with Lucy Ricardo in “The Great Train Robbery” (1955), then reprised the role to deal with Lucy Carmichael when “Lucy Visits the White House” (1963). Since the conductor was never given a character name - it is possible he exists in both metaverses!
William Frawley made his last scripted television appearance in “Lucy and the Countess Have a Horse Guest” (1965) as a horse trainer. When he is out of earshot, Lucy Carmichael turns the Countess (Ann Sothern) and says:
LUCY: “You know, he reminds me of someone I used to know.”
Frawley spent nine years playing Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.”
“Lucy The Gun Moll” (1966) is essentially a parody of Desilu’s crime drama “The Untouchables.” The meta madness is that the original actors (Robert Stack, Bruce Gordon, Steve London, and Walter Winchell) were cast, but the character names were changed to protect the innocent! Lucy, as chanteuse Rusty Martin, even mentions the series title to pound the satire home.
At the end of “Lucy Visits Jack Benny” (1974), the world’s most famous bus driver Ralph Kramden makes a wordless appearance. Jackie Gleason played the character on his variety show and the sitcom “The Honeymooners”, airing simultaneously with “I Love Lucy.” Ball and Gleason collaborated on several specials. The meta world that contains Lucy Carter, Ralph also exists!
~ META REAL ESTATE ~
In “The Tour” (1956), the Beverly Hills home of Richard Widmark actually is the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. A second unit film crew was sent to Roxbury Drive residence to film establishing shots of Lucy and Ethel walking up to the home. The actors, however, are not Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, but identically dressed doubles!
When “Lucy Sues Mooney” (1967) with the help of her wily lawyer Wally Wiley (Jack Carter), she gives her address as 780 Gower Street. This was the address of the Desilu Studios Production Offices. An extra layer of meta is added because Carter was best man at Ball’s wedding to Gary Morton. Lucy Carmichael also gives this as her address in “Lucy The Babysitter” (1967).
~ META MENTIONS ~
In “Baby Pictures” (1953) Charlie Appleby tries to impress the Ricardos about his TV station’s catalog of films:
CHARLIE: “We’ve got the newest moving pictures in town. I bought a block of films yesterday, and I want to tell you that they’re going to make television stars out of some of the actors. Now, just remember their names: Conway Tearle and Mabel Normand.”
Conway Tearle’s career bounced between Broadway and Hollywood. One of his last starring roles was in Hey Diddle Diddle, a play that premiered in 1937 featuring a 26 year-old Lucille Ball. The play was scheduled to open on Broadway, but closed after one week in Washington DC due to Tearle’s declining health. Had it succeeded, Ball’s career trajectory might have been very different!
In 1967, TV producer and director Sheldon Leonard (who actually worked at Desilu), arranged to film a bank robbery at Mr. Mooney’s bank - but keeps it a secret from Lucy, naturally. The end of the episode turns very meta when Leonard says:
“I suddenly got this idea for a new television series. It would be about this kooky red headed girl. She works in a bank and she gets into all sorts of impossible situations and…
...forget it. Nobody would ever believe it!”
A guest appearance by Van Johnson in “Guess Who Owes Lucy $23.50?” (1968) is used as an opportunity to promote their recently released film Yours Mine and Ours, where Lucy plays the wife of Henry Fonda and Johnson their best friend.
VAN JOHNSON: “I loved working with that kooky redhead.”
LUCY CARTER: “Personally, I thought she was much too young for Henry Fonda.”
During Lucille Ball’s third appearance on “The Carol Burnett Show” (1969) two flight attendants Finster (Carol) and Agnes (Lucille Ball) compete for a best employee award. They encounter a suspicious passenger (Harvey Korman) with a Fidel Castro-like beard, cigars tucked in his breast pocket, and a Spanish accent.
HOOPER (Lucy):“Where are you from, sir? Havana?”
PASSENGER (Korman): (alarmed) “Havana? What makes you think I’m from Havana?”
HOOPER (Lucy):“Well, if it’s one thing I know, it’s a Cuban accent.”
This meta moment relies on the audience knowing that Lucille Ball had been married to Desi Arnaz, a Cuban immigrant, as was his sitcom spouse, Ricky Ricardo. In the late 1960′s hijacking planes to Cuba was headline news ripe for satire.
When “Lucy Competes With Carol Burnett” (1970), she dresses like a charwoman identical to the one created by Burnett for “The Carol Burnett Show.” When Carol Krausmeyer (disguised as a hippie reporter) asks how Lucy Carter thought up such a crazy outfit.
LUCY: “From some goofy dame on TV.”
CAROL: “Well, she must be some kind of nut!”
~ THE DESILU METAVERSE ~
Lucy Ricardo met Danny Williams (Danny Thomas) on a cross-over episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”;
Danny Williams drives through Mayberry and meets Sheriff Andy Taylor, which spawns “The Andy Griffith Show”;
“The Andy Griffith Show” is where the Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) character began before getting his own show. “Gomer Pyle USMC”;
Gomer Pyle turns up on “The Lucy Show,” although here she is Lucy Carmichael, not Lucy Ricardo (even though both women share the maiden name McGillacuddy).
The outcome is that Lucy Ricardo and Lucy Carmichael exist in the same (TV) Metaverse!
~ METAGRAPHS ~
In “Lucy The Gun Moll” (1966) Rusty Martin’s (aka Lucy) dressing room is decorated with black and white photographs of Lucille Ball performing. Behind Robert Stack is a photo of Ball singing “Jitterbug Bite” in the 1940 film Dance, Girl, Dance. She met Desi Arnaz while making this movie. It was filmed at RKO, the studio that became Desilu.
When Kim decorates her room with posters of classic film stars in “Lucy and the Andrews Sisters” (1969), Lucy Carter finds a poster of Lucille Ball! She looks at it thoughtfully, is about to put it on the wall, and then says “Meh” and puts it down.
When “Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball” (1974), the walls of Ball’s dressing room are covered with photos from the star’s real life, including one of her mother Dede.
The black and white photo next to the door is from “The Lucy Show” episode “Lucy and Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party” (1962) where Lucy Carmichael did a silent movie sketch as Charlie Chaplin. So Lucille Ball is playing Lucy Carmichael who is playing Charlie Chaplin!
In 1975′s Lucille Ball special with Dean Martin, “Lucy Gets Lucky”, Lucy Collins admires a photo of Lucille Ball while walking through the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel’s Hollywood Hall of Fame.
~ META MASTERPIECE ~
The ultimate visit to the Metaverse is the “Here’s Lucy” episode “Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball” (1974), in which Lucy, Kim, and Cynthia (Carole Cook) enter a Lucille Ball look-alike contest.
With the assistance of split screens and doubles (the best technology available at the time, Ball played both roles - and was even billed accordingly!
Lucy, Cynthia, and Kim both don caftans and dark wigs to emulate Ball’s look in her upcoming film Mame, although the film is never directly mentioned. Kim says that a lot of her friends think she looks like Lucille Ball.
LUCY: “That's ridiculous. She's old enough to be your mother!”
And the winner is...
...Lucy, naturally!
#lucille ball#lucy carter#Lucy Ricardo#Lucy Carmichael#Lucy Collins#i love lucy#the lucy show#Here's Lucy#Lucie Arnaz#Carole Cook#meta#metaverse#lucyverse#TV#Johnny Longden#Carol Burnett#Van Johnson#Yours Mine and Ours#Sheldon Leonard#Jack Carter#desilu#conway tearle#Desi Arnaz#Look Magazine#McCall's Magazine#Vivian Vance#William Frawley#TV Guide
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argylle is very fun and very musically unhinged and very camp and you should all go see it in cinemas
#consider this your daily reminder to never listen to film critics#matthew vaughn single-handedly brought back frosted tips and retconned the release of now and then by at least five and half years#this is a masterpiece#and should be treated as such#argylle#argylle movie#argylle 2024#bryce dallas howard#sam rockwell#henry cavill#samuel l jackson#bryan cranston#catherine o'hara#john cena#ariana debose#dua lipa#matthew vaughn#the goosiest lucyverse
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I saw a comment about the Lucyverse being abandoned and was like *Victorian lady affronted gasp* what?!
I last updated in—um, well, yes, it was 2021 and I flit between lots of projects even when I have the energy for doing anything at all. But I would never abandon her for good!! I have a completed sixteen page outline for the next fic, I just need to find the discipline and space to write it!!!
(I even have a plan for the fic after the fic I wrote the outline for. I can't even imagine not having Lucy fic percolating in the back of my mind at this point. I've been poking at the series since 2011 and I spent ~5 years figuring out and writing the most recent one.)
#as if i would ever desert her... i am SHOCKED and AGHAST at the idea#anghraine babbles#deep blogging#sw fanwank#fic talk#fic talk: lucy skywalker#genderbending
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A really lovely comm from @lucy-verse
LucyVerse wrote the script for this and a couple more that are just awesome, making me feel all the things for these two. I intended on coming back to this one but accidentally forgot to save the project file ;w; Imagine them smoochin at the end m'kay?
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It's shifted, again- and I didn't even realize at first.
(my focus- on fictional characters, specific ones)
I know of course that it's been a long time since I was focused on Lucandra, the name behind the 'Lucyverse' when I was 11 or 12
But I thought, somehow, that Vicky, Cleo and Akasha- The Girl- would stick around.
And they have, in a way! Still characters that pop up, faces sometimes around- V, at least- names thrown around by other, more prominent characters... But then, Luce and her entourage didn't immediately entirely disappear from my mental universe either, did they? First it was just that she had grown distant, then I decided to make her a villain- if it was a conscious decision at all.
But if Luce was the creator of the senseless crossover world in my mind, Vicky and Cleo gave it shape- not those characters in particular, maybe, but it was their era that, amongst adding new fandoms like Marvel and Star Trek, fixed the inaccuracies and logic gaps and plotholes tiny me had left there for so long. They are also the heads of Central- how could I have expected to ever think less about them than I did then? And Francesca-Akasha-TG-Nika-The Girl, my true OC and not just oc-ified character, my own creative blood...
But if that was the era that fixed the Lucyverse, now is the era that turned it into a Multiverse. I don't even know when the change happened- when have I decided that there are different dimensions, timelines, universes at all? When did it switch from Lucyverse to Vickyverse to Headcanon-Multiverse?
Now I'm thinking about new characters- from new fandoms as well as ones from old fandoms I revisited in different universal forms, new faces or new 'Central-Names' given by me or new (to me) fanfiction.
My focus is on Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Alcott now, with Sarin Snape, Ronin Prince, Clarissa Black-Shacklebolt and family, Black-turned-Thir, Cookie Monroe, the Lovegood-Gaggle, kids like AKAlice and Jojo-June-Anna, not just Salazar 'Sally' Deslizarse but also Sally-Anne Slytherin and Anya, Aimsley, Casey and Ally (the alley-ghost) Lightman, mirror-verse versions and sister- or twin-universals, Alexa and Gracie-Grace, Jane and Mira, Eva-Ava-Eva turned Ava-Eva + Lira Evander as well as Tara'n'Tara... And the new generation of no-longer-children, Felicitas and Christina.
Not that there isn't still more to come, not that there aren't still gaps to fix, and not that my old faves are entirely gone (or necessarily evil).
It's a vast multiverse.
#lucyverse#x#personal#personal 2020#aug'20#it deleted the goddamn thing when I was halfway through :((#hope i got everything I had thought of the first time around#hp#i am just vry hp focused atm rly
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Jane and Cayla
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Black Widow for the character ask
Alright so there were two ask memes in my recent ish reblogs this could refer to, I just mashed them together, so this might be kinda long.
How I feel about this character:
Badass! Amazing! ♡♡♡
Favorite thing about them:
Always gets back up.
Least favourite thing about them:
Idk??
Favourite line:
[If only I remembered any lines... i'll have to look sth up xD]
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character:
Nope, headcanon aro! If i havvve to ship her with sb I guess Maria Hill or some ocs but I don't rly see it as romantic
nOTP: see above- kinda everyone lol. Tho I guess I rly can't see her with Clint cause that's such a BroTP to me... and, like, any bad guys are obvs nope
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Clint Barton aka Hawkeye! Also strike team delta with him and coulson! & I also like the dynamic she could have with Bucky Barnes, Maria Hill, Melinda May, Yelena Delova and my ocs Akasha and Victoria
Random headcanon: are we talking headcanon or headcanon as in the mess that is my headcanonuniverse? :D My backstory for her has another strike team in it, strike Team Ash, named both for the team members Akasha Shields aka The Girl, Natasha Romanova aka the Black Widow, Yasha Barnes aka The Winter Soldier. I should write some fanfics about them some time...
My unpopular opinion about this character: is her being aro an unpopular opinion?
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:
Dude what is canon even
My crossover ship:
Not a crossover but for a while I more or less shipped her with my morally grey oc Nika
Song I Associate with them:
Can't think of any rn, sorry!
Favourite picture of them:
There's another one that I can't find rn but I def like this one:
Thanks for the ask anon!
Ask me something off anon, I'll ask you something back!
Character asks ~ Fandom asks
#ask the blogger#answered#character ask#anon#f#12.01.20#lverse#lilo writes#black widow#marvel#my post#mine#x#xx#lucyverse#personal#personal 2020
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This is a long ramble of the current mental state I’m in. It kind of almost explains the need for this new blog as well.
I've been reading blogs for a long while now and it's actually sad to see that most of them seem to be some sort of "how to" blogs nowadays. I guess it's because people tend to update their lives on other forms of social media, but so much is just.. seemingly perfect all the time you know? And it's very easy to get lost in that perfect world and somehow feel less of yourself because you might not be putting so much of yourself out there because you never feel as perfect. And I think we do know that everything is cultivated but seeing how many of the popular blogs are 'how to' blogs, I cannot help but wonder why. Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?
Maybe it's just me and the depression talking, though. Or maybe I've just been on social media for too long and need to detox or something.
It's been hard to like myself lately. I love my boyfriend (he's honestly the best), but my emotions are doing super rollercoasters now. Whenever I'm with him, everything is fine. I feel happy and content and.. you know. In love. And I feel pretty good about myself, too. But past 2 weeks, when he leaves, it's been hell. He's currently in military training, so he only gets home on weekends and doesn't get to interact much online on weekdays. And it should be fine. I'm a competent woman and I can be alone. But the stupid emotions are killing me here. When he's not here, I cannot muster up any willpower to do anything.
To put this in perspective, starting this new tumblr took me a week.
Anyhow. I'm going to see a psychologist in 2 weeks and we'll see what happens. What I actually meant to say with the blog post was that sometimes when being with someone, one might forget about self-love. And when that someone is gone, even if temporarily, it feels as though you have to start practicing self-love all over again. Like with getting fit. Or learning to be creative again.
Which is why I wanted this new tumblr/blog. I’m going to try and learn to be more selfish now. And I don’t think I can do that with people I know in real life following me on tumblr.
Anyhow. Expect there to be more ramblings and potentially some fanfiction and fanart too, as I try and get my life back on track. Or hell, maybe even the fitness journey I’m currently trying to get back on.
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by Lucyverse
Prompt: It’s only when he’s put Draco Malfoy over his knee for the fourth time in a week that prefect!Harry clocks on that the blond might be behaving badly on purpose.
Words: 370, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Additional Tags: Spanking, Discipline, Humor, Short One Shot, Draco is a needy bastard
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Payton Gets Spiked
Loosely inspired by reading this post.
If you want more of an introduction to Dani, read this first.
CW: gender stuff, dysphoria, misgendering, brief mention of gendered bathroom dilemma, intense social anxiety, people with varying shitty opinions, spiking with alcohol, references to past binge drinking/alcohol dependency, low self esteem, emeto, crying, panicking, insecure/awkward caretaker.
Word Count: almost 8,000 - oops. If you finish this to the end, you're a real one.
___
“Alright, Dani! I’m just heading out back... to...”
It was fifteen minutes after the coffee shop had closed, night had settled in on the streets outside, and Payton had just finished closing the till. It should have been the most glorious moment of their day, the moment just before their time became their own again and they could bask in the knowledge that they’d done a great day’s work, but that reward was stolen by the swooping sensation in their stomach. Their day wasn’t over just yet.
They’d been in the middle of calling out to Dani, who had been assigned the closing shift alongside them, to tell her that they were heading out back to get changed.
But they stopped themself.
Dani was engrossed with sweeping the floors to the beat of whatever she was listening to on her headphones. Payton decided to leave her to it. She didn’t like being interrupted in the middle of a task, as Payton had quickly learned during her first few weeks here.
And besides, it wasn’t as though Payton was in a hurry to get to the pub, where, if the group chat was anything to go by, the others had already convened. The longer Payton could delay being wedged into a dimly-lit nook surrounded by the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke from the 80s, the better.
Guilt gnawed at them now, along with the nerves. They shouldn’t be dreading Jake’s birthday; they liked Jake. He deserved to have people coming to his birthday drinks who were excited to be there.
Payton went out back and stood in front of their locker.
They closed their eyes, allowing their mind to wind down after their shift. They stretched their arms out to the side and breathed in, slowly and deeply letting their lungs press out against their ribs. They didn’t feel particularly compressed, but they’d gotten into the habit of doing breathing exercises regularly while binding – in no small part to keep Autumn from worrying about them.
They undid their apron and pulled their polo shirt off over their head. They opened up their locker to grab the cropped purple hoodie they’d brought to change into for the evening. Payton didn’t usually partake in the loungewear look unless they were grocery shopping or travelling or chilling out at home, but Jake had requested that nobody ‘dress up nice’ tonight.
Before picking up the hoodie, Payton glanced down at themself, their sides bare above their waistband. Now that they thought about it, they wished they had worn dungarees instead of cargo pants today. Not for any reason they could put their finger on, which was frustrating. They just had the vague, hollow feeling in the pit of their stomach that they would have felt fifty times better about themself if they’d been wearing dungarees.
They sucked in another deep breath, this time to try to soothe the flare of anxiety.
Their phone screen lit up with a message, and they snatched it up from the shelf in their locker.
A: Finished work yet? X
Payton grinned. The simplest check-ins from Autumn always made their heart flutter.
P: Finished!!! x
A: You've got someone to walk over to the bar with you, right? X
P: Yep, Dani and I are sticking together, don’t worry! <3 x
A: Awesome! Have fun tonight, baby x
Payton kind of wished they’d insisted that Autumn come along tonight, but as far as they knew, nobody else was bringing their partner, so they would have felt a little awkward making themself the exception. Besides, it was good for Payton to get out there and be independent every so often.
And it made Autumn worry less.
P: I will x
A: Message me when you get home x
They glanced over their shoulder as Dani came into the changing room.
She didn’t have her headphones on anymore, but she was humming to herself as she walked. Not in a gleeful kind of way; she hummed intensely, as though her sanity depended on whether or not she hit each individual note. She went straight over to her locker, disappearing from Payton’s line of sight, but Payton didn’t hear her open it.
They put their phone in their pocket and reached into their locker for their hoodie.
“Does that hurt?”
Payton looked over their shoulder again – Dani was looking at them – and then down at their torso. They were still standing there in just their black cargo pants and their binder. It hadn’t really occurred to them that they were topless, but they supposed they were.
“Sorry,” Dani said bluntly, mistaking their embarrassment for offence. “Was that rude?”
“It’s fine,” Payton smiled. “And no, as long as I don’t wear it for too long, it doesn’t hurt.”
Dani blinked. For a second, Payton considered that she might have been working up to asking a follow-up question.
“Okay,” she said instead, turning to open her locker.
The two of them finished getting ready without talking any more. Dani didn’t actually change her clothes; she just swapped her apron for a baggy grey zip-up hoodie that she didn’t zip up. She had already been wearing dark blue jeans and a graphic tee, even though the dress code for staff members was black trousers and block-coloured tops. Dani would never have paraded that outfit in front of Annie or Jake; she must have kept in mind, while getting dressed that morning, that Payton was supervising today.
They weren’t sure how this realisation made them feel. Was it a sign of disrespect that she only challenged the rules on their watch? Or was a good thing that she felt comfortable being herself with them?
Anxiety spiked in Payton’s stomach again. The last thing they wanted was for the newer staff members to dread the sight of them, or watch how they acted around them, but it was also in their nature to be a pushover, and they hated to think they were falling into old habits.
They smiled as they gestured for Dani to step out of the shop before them. Not because they were being a pushover, but so that they could set the alarm, lock up, and then check twice to make sure that the door was actually locked.
It soothed them a little as they stood outside and peered through the glass into the dark shop, sure in the knowledge that nothing was left out of place. Annie was on the opening shift tomorrow, and Payton would rather not get any passive aggressive text messages about crumbs on the floor or lights left on before 9am.
They turned away from the shop. Dani was rocking back and forth with the balls of her feet on the edge of the path as she waited for them.
Payton’s stomach dropped all over again as they observed her in the streetlight. Had the two of them ever even interacted outside of the shop before?
Despite their promise to Autumn, Payton realised they had kind of hoped that Dani would start walking by herself while they locked up, getting enough of a head start so that they wouldn’t have to make conversation. They liked Dani as a person but they didn’t have a friendly banter like Payton did with Paul, and Dani didn’t talk the ear off anyone who would listen like Rachel did.
“You’re opening with Annie tomorrow, right?” Payton asked as they both started walking. They immediately cringed. Defaulting to talking about work had to have been the laziest, most cowardly option.
“Yeah,” Dani said. Her tone might have indicated that she’d rather have all of her wisdom teeth pulled at once. It also might have indicated that opening the shop with Annie was her favourite activity of all time. Payton had no idea which was closer to the truth.
“I... like your t-shirt, by the way.” It’d taken them several glances throughout the day, since the print was faded in parts, but they’d deduced that it was from some horror movie or another.
“It’s vintage.”
“Oh, really?” Payton thought that maybe they’d be treated to the story of how it’d come to be in her possession.
Dani tugged at the headphones that were still sitting around her neck. “I’m putting my headphones back on. For the traffic noise.”
“Oh, okay,” Payton smiled. Since they’d come outside, only about six cars had passed them by, but they weren’t about to point that out. If Dani didn’t want to talk, that was fine. They were still walking together. That was one promise to Autumn locked in.
Now for the second one, which filled them with a little more dread; to have a fun night.
___
The group was still lingering by the bar when Payton and Dani arrived.
The store owner and manager, Annie, stood with one arm across her chest and what looked like a gin and tonic in her hand. She was chatting – probably about one of her husband’s recent business ventures – to Jake, whose cheeks were bright red and whose pint of cider had almost run out.
Rachel was perched on a bar stool, swinging herself gently from side to side as she nursed a Coke-based drink. Paul seemed to be in the middle of telling her a story; judging by the bittersweet smile that played on his lips, and the way Rachel seemed to be completely tuning him out, Payton guessed Paul was talking about Mei, the girl who’d recently broken up with him.
I know way too much about these people, Payton thought with a wry smile to themself.
It was Paul who spotted them first, which brought his story to a halt.
“Hey, boss!” he cheered, shuffling towards Payton and scooping them into a quick but tight hug. They forced a smile despite their surprise, hugging him back. They’d last seen him at the coffee shop yesterday, but he was acting as though it’d been months.
“Welcome! And Dani!” Paul grinned at her as she stood to Payton’s left. “Oh – don’t worry, I’m not going to try to hug you. Learned my lesson on that one. Come on, come over here! What are you guys drinking?”
“I’ve got it, Paul, don’t worry,” Payton assured him. He was drunk enough that he’d probably buy a round for everyone and forget he’d done it, which Payton would rather save him from. They reckoned they should buy Jake’s next drink, seeing as it was his birthday. And Dani seemed tense – either from the walk outside, or from the Paul hug she'd been temporarily threatened by – so they decided to offer to get her first one, too.
“Dani?” Payton tilted their head when Dani didn’t look at them; she still had her headphones on. They waved their hand gently to get her attention.
She dragged her gaze around to look at them, and they gestured bringing a glass to their mouth. Drink?
“Bulmers,” she announced loudly.
Payton nodded and turned, waving to get Jake’s attention this time. He beamed when he saw them, and Payton pointed towards the near-empty glass in his hand.
“Bulmers!” he called over the din, winking his thanks behind his thick-rimmed glasses.
Payton smiled at the bartender and ordered the two pints of Bulmers, plus a Coke for themself. The others started making their way towards a booth. Dani stayed near the bar, not talking to or looking directly at Payton. She was making them think of an anxious stray cat who didn’t trust any of the humans present, but had decided that Payton was the least untrustworthy of them all.
Guilt churned their stomach at that silly assumption. She was clearly just waiting politely for her drink, so Payton wouldn’t be left with three glasses to carry.
She thanked them for her drink as it came out. Payton smiled at her and took their own glass, plus Jake’s pint, over to the table.
Annie and Jake had slid into the booth first, on opposite sides of the table, followed by Paul on Jake’s side and Rachel on Annie’s side. Payton would have preferred – just slightly – to sit beside Paul rather than Rachel, but Dani had already slid into the booth next to Paul by the time they’d decided this.
“Here you go, Jake,” Payton said, handing the Bulmers across the table. They were momentarily relieved to be free of the heavy, sickly smell of it, but as soon as they sat down, they were hit by the equally pungent scent of vodka wafting from Rachel’s glass. First, it made their head swim, and then their stomach lurched. Just the smell of it made them feel like their thought process was being scrambled.
They were seated for a few seconds before realising that all six of them were leaving wet rings on the tabletop.
“Oh! Coasters,” Payton said, relieved for the excuse to get away from the vodka smell for another few seconds. They stood up again.
Rachel squinted up at them, shaking her head. “Genuine question, Payton; do you ever switch out of work mode?”
Payton gave her a smile, wondering how many more they’d have to force before they became relaxed enough for a genuine one. “Yes. Sometimes.”
They started back towards the bar. The smile slid from their face and their stomach took a dive towards the floor as they heard Annie’s voice from behind them.
“Where’s Payton going, Rachel?” she asked.
Except...
She didn’t say Payton’s name, and she didn’t say ‘they’ either.
They pressed a hand to their chest and breathed in slowly through their nose. Misgendering didn’t always get to them like this, but hearing it from someone they spent so much time around felt like a punch to the gut after already enduring so, so many. They tried to force down the throbbing sensation, which was like a scream that was rising to their heart instead of their throat.
They were probably the first trans person Annie had ever met, and they’d always known they’d have to be patient with her. It was either that, or lose their mind, and in this economy, one couldn’t afford to lose their mind at work every other day.
But breaking their chronic people-pleasing habits was hard when this was a constant issue. Correcting people didn’t come naturally to Payton, and on the few occasions where they did correct someone, the weight of the guilt they felt afterwards was almost just as bad.
And guilt wasn’t a compatible companion for self-love.
___
“Oh... getting coasters or something,” Rachel had responded to Annie’s question.
Dani blinked, baffled by what she'd just heard. Had she missed something? Who the hell were they talking about? Payton had just left to get coasters; they had announced that, right before Rachel’s snide remark about how they always seemed to be working. Had Rachel misunderstood Annie’s question, then? Was there some conversation happening that Dani hadn’t –?
Oh.
White noise swelled in Dani’s ears for a couple of seconds. She squeezed one of the beads on her bracelet and focused on keeping her breathing steady.
Say it, she screamed in her head, tugging at her bracelet, They. Where did they go? They went to get coasters. Just freaking say it!
But judging by the murmurs of continued conversations, Dani the moment had passed for her to say anything to fix Annie’s mistake. She found herself equally frustrated with Rachel, who could also have corrected Annie, or at least used Payton’s pronouns in her response.
Through the fog of irritation, Dani became aware of Paul, who was sitting to Dani’s right, handing something to Rachel, who was sitting at the other side of the table. Rachel took whatever it was and whispered harshly in Paul’s direction.
Dani gripped her bracelet harder, resisting the urge to yank her headphones up. She fucking hated the sound of whispers, but she knew if she put her headphones on now, she’d have to deal with eye rolls at best, and verbal lecturing at worst.
A dull clink brought her back into the moment, and she looked up to see Rachel running her finger through a streak of clear liquid that had been spilled on the table in front of her. Rachel put that finger in her mouth – yikes, gross – and grinned as she handed something back to Paul.
A naggin of vodka, Dani realised. In blatant disregard for the no outside food or beverages request that was posted at several points around the pub, Paul had brought shop-bought alcohol into the establishment, and now Rachel was availing of it, too. This night was shaping up to be even more overwhelming than she’d expected.
And they hadn’t even gotten around to singing ‘Happy Birthday’ yet.
___
The bartender looked up from where they had not-so-subtly been checking their phone behind the counter. Payton flashed them a smile of apology and gestured towards the case of paper coasters. They counted out six and wandered back over to the table, sucking in a deep breath before they were once again submerged in the smell of vodka, cider, and the risk of being misgendered.
“Are we going to sing Happy Birthday?” Payton wasn’t sure when Dani had taken off her headphones, but before she’d even taken a sip of her drink, she seemed to have shed her inhibitions. She was speaking now, at least. “Because if we are, you should all know that I am going to have to stick my fingers in my ears.”
Rachel sighed, Paul took a pointed swig of his drink, and Jake half-chuckled as though he was unsure if Dani was joking or not. Payton had the feeling she was not.
Rachel begrudgingly slid a coaster under her drink as Payton passed them around, but not before using it to mop up a long smear of clear liquid from the table. Payton didn’t remember noticing it, but maybe there had been a dribble of water there when they’d sat down.
“And also –” Oh – Dani wasn’t finished apparently. Payton tried to cast her their most sympathetic look, but her eyes were focused on the tabletop, not on any person in particular. “If there’s going to be a billion rounds of for he’s a jolly good fellow afterwards, can you all just please tell me now? I’m not, like, opposed to it or anything, but I would like to know in advance.”
“Oh, god. Can I ask that we… not do any of that?” A nervous grin spread across Jake’s face. “I hate Happy Birthday and all that stuff, honestly. Especially in public places.”
“Ah, come on, it’s a bit of fun,” Rachel muttered, clicking her tongue.
Payton caught Jake’s eye and smiled to reassure him. “How about a toast instead, then, Jake? Just a short one.”
Jake met their gaze and matched their smile. “That, I can endure, P.”
“Oh! Me. Me, I’ll do it. Can I do it, boss?” Paul exclaimed, as though it was Payton’s job to delegate the task. He hoisted his beer into the air, glanced around at the others, and cleared his throat dramatically. “Aheh-hem!”
“Remember, Paul. Short and sweet now, for the love of god,” Jake grinned.
“Happy birthday... to the best senior assistant manager, and, of course, the owner of the best beard in town – Jake. You might be ginger...”
Jake feigned a scoff and put a hand to his hair and beard.
“But we bloody love you, you legend!” Paul waved his glass. “Cheers!”
“Cheers!” everyone agreed.
“Slainte,” Annie tossed in.
After taking a drink from their glass, Payton gasped forcefully, and took another. They were far thirstier than they’d realised, and ending up gulping down half their Coke before making themself stop. They'd had a glass of water at lunchtime today, but barely anything to drink since then. No wonder there was a funny taste in their mouth. Possible dehydration might explain why they felt especially on edge this evening, too.
They grimaced, holding a hand against their sternum and suppressing a burp. That was a lot of carbonation to force down all at once, but they weren’t about to relieve the pressure in front of all of their coworkers.
“Here.” Annie was flapping her fingers in the direction of Jake’s phone, which sat next to his elbow. “Give me your phone, Jake. I’ll get a picture of you, Paul, and the girls.”
Nausea and Coke residue fizzled in the back of Payton’s throat. They parted their lips, hands trembling on either side of their glass as they prepared to correct Annie, but the fear that curdled their stomach also put a clamp on their tongue. What did they even want to her to say? Paul and Payton and the girls? Paul and the others? Just the others?
Anything that didn’t lump them into a group they didn’t belong to would have been nice.
They shivered at the familiar sensation of the moment passing, of another wound officially taking up residence in their body. Autumn would be so disappointed if she could see them right now.
“And Payton.”
Payton’s ears practically pricked up like those of a cartoon dog. They looked across the table to see that Dani was looking vaguely in Annie’s direction, her hands fidgeting with something underneath the table. Her lips were mashed together, her eyebrows tense, and she definitely the one who had just mumbled those words under their breath.
A little bit of the sick feeling in Payton’s stomach dissipated. Annie hadn’t heard, but... just knowing that someone else at the table had clocked the mistake made them feel infinitely less lonely at this table.
Annie stood up, wielding Jake’s phone, and Payton felt a resurgence of queasiness.
“Alright,” Annie declared, “lean in, everyone, lean in. Dani, lean in, please! Thank you. Alright, good…”
In the last few seconds, Payton pulled the clear plastic clip out of their hair, letting their bangs fall loose over one side of their face. They held up a hand in a peace sign to partially obscure their jawline on the other side. They almost retched as they followed Annie’s instructions and leaned in; there was a stronger smell wafting from Rachel’s drink than before, if that was even possible.
Payton could almost imagine they could taste it, it was so thick in the air. God, they really didn’t feel well...
“Say cheese!”
“Cheese!!”
Payton sighed softly in relief when Annie sat back down, satisfied with just the one picture. Payton didn’t hate a lot of things, but they really didn’t like spontaneous photos taken on other peoples’ phones. Jake wasn’t a big social media guy, so maybe that one would never see the light of day anyway.
They took another mouthful of their Coke, hoping to wash away some of the bad taste in their mouth, but it only seemed to make it... worse? They brought the rim of the glass to their nose and sniffed, and then recoiled so fast that they almost fell out of the booth. The glass skidded a few centimetres across the table but, miraculously, didn’t tip over.
Dani jumped in her seat and made the closest thing to eye contact that she’d made with Payton since they’d left work. “What? What? Is it a spider?”
The whole room felt like it was tipping on its side. Payton wasn't just imagining they could taste the alcohol because of the strong smell; they were actually tasting it in their mouth. There was alcohol in their drink, and they had gulped down more than half of it... As they sat there, struggling to wrap their head around how this could have happened, it was inside of them, sloshing in their stomach, swirling into their capillaries, messing with their brain –
Sweat beaded on the back of Payton’s neck.
This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening –
“Payton,” Dani said loudly. “What. Is. Wrong?”
“N-no...” they whimpered, not caring that no didn’t make sense on its own. The only thing they could feel was the feeling of no, and with it came the heady weight of memories that weren’t supposed to be a part of them anymore.
They felt all alone again, like they were being slowly sucked into a pit of darkness.
“Th-they messed up my – m-my drink.” Sharp gasps littered Payton’s speech, and they couldn’t get a good sense of how loudly they were talking. They... couldn’t even feel angry. Not yet. Maybe they never would; messing up drinks was an inevitability for any establishment. Payton had once served full-fat milk to a lady who’d requested skimmed, and by the time they had realised their mistake, she’d already left with her latte. They still had nightmares about her coming back, months later, to complain.
But this was different, right? This was…
Dani wrinkled up her nose and leaned towards Payton’s glass to sniff it.
“I think there – there’s vod... vodka in it... N-no,” Payton said again, the word bursting on their lips like a giant blister. This was how it always used to start. With a ‘no’. No, no, not this, this can’t be real, this isn’t real.
When had it gotten so hot in here?
Dani put her whole hand around Payton’s glass, eyeing the bar. “You want me to go yell at someone?”
“No, no, no, don’t,” Rachel hissed, leaning conspiratorially towards the centre of the table. It seemed that she only wanted Payton, Dani, and Paul to be able to hear her. Her urgency made Payton stiffen. “Will you relax, for Christ’s sake, Dani? Payton, I took a few mouthfuls of your drink and topped it up with Paul’s vodka. I didn’t know you were such a lightweight!”
Payton’s head swam as they looked at Rachel’s face, searching in her green eyes for any indication that she joking. Her face was bronzed and freckled from all the field hockey she played, and they seemed to shift about nauseatingly in front of Payton’s eyes. She... she had to have been joking, right? Nobody would admit to something like that. Besides, they’d been with their drink since they’d bought it; when would she have had the time to –?
Coasters.
Payton had put their drink on the table and then gone back to the bar for the coasters. She must have done it then. Their body stiffened as they remembered the clear liquid spill on the table.
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you drunk, boss,” Paul half-laughed. The fact that Paul was seemingly in on this too, or was in support of it, at least, only piled onto Payton’s horror, but they’d have to process that later.
“Th-that’s because I...” Payton’s voice was trembling. “I-I’m... I’m sober.”
The grin started to slip from Paul’s face, but Rachel didn’t seem to grasp what Payton meant.
She shrugged. “But it’s not like you’re driving home. And you’re off tomorrow, aren’t you? So, what harm?”
“No, I mean I haven’t… I haven’t h-had any alcohol in…” Payton’s lucidity spiked briefly, long enough for them to experience the stab of grief that hit their gut. “About two and... a half years.”
“Oh, on purpose?” Paul asked weakly.
“Yeah.”
Paul half-chuckled, his energy levels dropping noticeably. Next to him, Dani looked like she was witnessing a train crash in slow motion but couldn’t bring herself to move. Payton couldn’t bear to look at Rachel.
“But it’s not, like… that serious or anything, is it?” Paul pressed.
“Is it Alcoholics Anonymous serious?” Dani questioned, as though that were the qualifying factor. “Like in the movies, with the chairs, and the free coffee, and the…?”
She trailed off, gleaning her answer from Payton’s expression.
“It was Rachel’s idea!” Paul complained. “She did it!”
“What’s going on?” Annie demanded suddenly, only tuning into the conversation now that Paul had started raising his voice.
Rachel half-stood up in the booth and pointed at Paul. “You agreed with me, dickhead!”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know...”
“Neither did I!”
Their voices faded into an echoing clamour. Payton felt so detached from their body that they wondered if they were having an attack of some kind. They’d had barely a few mouthfuls of vodka and Coke. Why did it feel like their stomach was on fire, forcing its way up their throat? Why did their whole body feel like jelly? Back in the day, it had taken so... so much more.
Had they gone so long without alcohol that they’d developed an allergy? Were they dying? After all of their work, were their last thoughts going to be swamped in dread and despair and drunkenness?
They didn’t know if it was wooziness or generalised terror that made their knees buckle as they tried to get out of the booth, but either way, Payton crashed to the floor, just about keeping a shaky grip on the edge of the table above. They weren’t sure where they were trying to go. They couldn’t even remember deciding to get up.
A hollow, desperate sob racked their ribs. Their stomach was lurching like an injured, frantic rabbit in a trap.
No...
Lucidity came in flashes again. Were they really hyperventilating on the floor, in front of their co-workers and their employer? Were they really making a scene at Jake’s birthday party? Were... were those Dani’s stockinged feet, resting on the floor next to her chunky Doc Marten boots?
Payton shook their head. They had to get away from here. That seemed fairly rational, no matter which they looked at it.
They started clambering upright. The sight of Dani reaching out to give them a hand up made them snap out of their panicked daze just slightly. They straightened their back and mumbled something to reassure her they were fine, they were good, they didn’t need any help –
They heard Rachel ask them something, and they ignored her. They ignored her on purpose – it felt terrible, but they couldn’t bring themself to react any other way – and raced for the bathrooms with tears streaming down their face.
___
Dani was only vaguely ashamed of her first thought after watching Payton bolting towards the back of the pub.
If someone at a small party has a breakdown, is that it? Can the party officially be declared ruined? Is it fair game for me to just... slip out? There were enough hours left in the night that she could probably squeeze in a few hours of Overwatch before going to sleep.
She flinched. Voices were being raised at the table again, which only made her want to leave even faster. No one was yelling at her, but her cells reacted as though they were. Her nerves felt like they were being twisted, twisted, twisted, until –
“You agreed with me!” Rachel hissed at Paul, much to Annie’s apparent dismay. “You said it’d be good for her!”
... Snap.
“It’s ‘they’!” A wave of dizziness hit Dani right in the face. Rachel and Paul and Annie and Jake all stared at her, and Dani’s stomach wobbled. Oh, stars. How loudly had she spoken?
Rachel groaned. “What?”
“They.” Dani felt out of breath as she reached for a bead on her bracelet and squeezed it between her fingertips. “Payton’s pronouns are they/them.”
“Payton’s... not even here, Dani,” Paul said softly.
“It doesn’t matter! You can’t call them anything else.”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Annie interrupted, though she didn’t sound sorry in the least. It was the kind of ‘sorry’ that really meant I have the right to speak and I shall continue to do so, even if I don’t have any idea what I’m speaking about.
Dani hated people who said ‘sorry’ like that, even more than she hated whisperers.
“But ’can’t’?” Annie went on, cocking an eyebrow at Dani. “It’s not very tolerant to go around telling people what they can and can’t say, Danielle.”
Danielle?! White noise clogged Dani’s ears again.
“I swear,” Annie said, shaking her head. “It’s always a morality contest with your generation. It is just –”
“Dani,” Dani grunted. “My name is Dani!”
“Do not speak over me.”
“You spoke over me first!” Dani’s voice turned into a squawk towards the end. Shit, shit, shit. “And I was talking to Rachel before, not to you. Do you even know what she di–?”
“You’re going to have to lower your voice.” Rachel laughed without mirth as she glanced around the pub. It was as if she herself hadn’t just been practically shouting at Paul across the table. “People are starting to look at us now.”
Dani’s head burned. She slammed a hand on the table. “I don’t care.”
Paul put out a hand, as though he was going to put it on her shoulder to calm her down. She flinched, jerking away from him in her seat, and he seemed to think better of it.
“Dani,” Jake said, tilting his head to see her from the other side of Paul. Jake was one of the more reasonable people left at the table, and his round face and thick beard gave him a soothing, teddy bear-like appearance, but Dani still didn’t trust that he wasn’t just talking down to her. Like she was a child having a tantrum. “Let’s talk this out, okay? What did Rachel do?”
“She… she…” Dani stopped pinching her beads and pointed across the table – not at Rachel, but at Annie. What Rachel did was significant, yes, but several things were screeching at Dani from inside her head, and Rachel’s thing wasn’t screeching the loudest right now.
“She said our generation is having a morality contest,” Dani said. “You’re upset about it, Annie, so that must mean... mean that you think you’re losing, and if that’s what you think –” She was getting out of breath. Too many words, too few seconds. “Then – then you must see that I’m being more moral than you, so you know there’s something wrong with what you're saying.”
Annie didn’t say anything in response.
Victory flashed briefly and hotly through Dani’s veins.
So... why did she feel like she was seconds away from crying? She wasn’t a child; she wasn’t about to be reprimanded by a parent or a teacher for speaking her mind. She was an adult. She could make her own choices, and –
Oh, right. She’d just pointed at and then yelled at her boss. She’d probably just thrown away the only day job she’d ever found bearable, as well as the only co-worker she’d ever genuinely liked.
Ah, crabs. Payton. How had it taken her so long so get around to worrying about Payton?
“Oh,” Dani announced, sliding out of the booth. She realised too late that she had taken her boots off, but it didn’t seem dignified to sit down again to put them back on. She looked Rachel square in the eye – for about half a second. Then, she lowered her gaze towards Payton’s glass. “Rachel put alcohol in Payton’s drink without them knowing.”
“You sat there,” Rachel choked out softly, “and said nothing, Dani!” There were tears in her eyes now, her face pale with terror.
Throat tight, hands trembling, and shoeless, Dani got up and went looking for Payton.
___
Payton had thought they’d need to force a finger or two down their throat to start emptying their stomach of the unexpected poison, but it turned out that their tolerance was low enough – or their panic high enough – for their body to begin rejecting it all by itself.
The force of the first heave had their ribs pitching inwards, their belly muscles folding in on themselves. A strangled cry came rolling out of their throat along with a mouthful of frothy vomit, and it took everything in their power not to let the crying continue.
No...
They... they had cried so much back then. They had cursed and screamed and roared like they were trying to invoke some god to come and release them from the pain that they didn’t have the words to describe. No words except no. They had always told themself that they didn’t know why they cried and shouted so much when they were intoxicated, but deep down, they realised that had always been a lie.
It was because they didn’t think it mattered. Whether they were stone-cold sober and coherent, or black-out drunk with vomit and snot dripping down their face, nobody listened to them or took them seriously. At least when they were drunk, they could make noise and act like an ass and convince themself that it was okay, that it was only to be expected, that they were free of the consequences.
All of it a lie.
No.
The tingling in their limbs felt like phantom tentacles reaching up from a dark pit, pulling and sucking them under –
Payton’s belly curdled and they spewed harshly into the toilet. They let out a dry sob that nearly ripped their lungs loose. All those years, all that work, all those miles between their past haunts and their current life... and they were back here. A different pub in a different city, but still the same old them. Hours of therapy; long, honest conversations with Autumn about their past; all those times Autumn had taken their face in her hands, tears in her eyes, and told them she was proud of them.
All of it was washed away in less than fifteen minutes.
Because it was pointless, wasn’t it? The thing they had once drank to escape – the helpless knowledge that nobody was listening to them – was still very much real. It lived inside them, keeping them small, keeping them polite, keeping them trapped as the pathetic, useless teenager who was never good enough...
No...
Annie’s constant criticism of the little things Payton did differently at the shop; the way Dani bent the uniform rules, only during Payton’s shifts; Donnacha... Donnacha’s outright refusal to listen to Payton’s side of the story when it came to their relationship with Autumn –
“No,” Payton whimpered, gripping the sides of the toilet with both hands. The thought of Autumn finding out about this made their soul feel like it was withering. Something slipped up their throat – a belch, a sob, a hiccup?
Even though their stomach had been completely vacated, the lingering smell and taste of the vodka kept their insides twisting and writhing. They wanted to hug their aching belly, but they had no hands left to do it. They were shaking, wilting against the toilet bowl like a dying flower; they’d surely headbutt the porcelain if they let go.
Frantic heartbeats assaulted their eardrums. They could barely see, barely breathe, barely... barely believe this was happening.
No.
___
Dani was glaring at two stick figures – one with their legs spread, the other with their feet together under a knee-length dress – and having a crisis.
Why were gendered bathrooms even a thing? Cubicle stalls existed for privacy. Lesbians and gay men existed, who used the bathrooms of the biological sex they were attracted to. Besides that, people who were inclined to trespass would and could do so, regardless of whatever little plaque was stuck outside of it. She found it hard to believe that anybody woke up one morning, decided to go out to a public bathroom and be a perv, and then end up being discouraged when they found a little plaque on the door that did or didn’t depict a human in a skirt.
Why had it taken her so long to question this? And why was she questioning it now, of all times!?
Right. Because back at the cafe, there were gender-neutral toilets and gender-neutral changing rooms for the employees. If that hadn’t been the case, maybe Dani would have had some idea of which way Payton would choose to go if they were forced to.
She flashed back to the moment she’d walked into the changing room earlier, and seen Payton’s binder for the first time. Right, right... Did that mean they saw themself as more masculine than feminine?
She pushed open the door to the men’s bathroom, leaning as far into the room as she could while keeping her feet outside and clutching the side of the door. A middle-aged dude was finishing up at a urinal, and he jumped when he saw her.
“Wrong place, love,” he half-smiled.
“Oh, gee, thanks, love,” Dani said, employing her Hollywood starlet voice in order to stop herself from retorting with something unsavoury. And then she yelled out, making the man jump on his way to the sinks; “Payton?!”
After waiting for a few seconds, Dani huffed, noting that none of the cubicles were locked anyway, and no feet were visible under any of them.
She retracted her torso from the bathroom and ducked into the one next door.
“Payton?” she called out again.
Two women were by the sink, one of them washing their hands, the other touching up their lipstick with a bit of a sheepish expression.
“Maybe in there?” the one with wet hands said softly, nodding towards the only cubicle that had been locked. Sure enough, Dani noted the presence of feet near the bottom gap in the door. “Is she okay?”
“They.” The correction sprang out of Dani’s throat, already locked and loaded this time. “And... I dunno. Maybe. Payton? You okay?”
Dani’s heart felt like it’d just been dragged down into her stomach when the reply came.
“No! No, no, no.”
___
Payton’s lungs fluttered with the effort of breathing. A mixture of a smile and a grimace sliced their face as they heard Dani talking to the other bathroom occupants. The novelty of Dani gendering them correctly had worn off so quickly that Payton struggled to remember what that rush of serotonin and acceptance had even felt like.
Their teeth were chattering, their fingers still tingled with the knowledge that their internal chemistry had been altered, and their stomach lining was still painfully irritated –
They were powerless against the no blisters that burst on their lips, over and over again.
“Payton, open the door!” Dani screamed, and even though they were the one yelling no continuously, Payton thought screaming was a little over-the-top.
They weren’t dying. They knew that now. They just felt like they were dying.
“NO!” Payton sobbed lucidly amidst the rolling cries of despair. No, I won’t open the door. What on earth might they would unleash on her if they let her in? They had a reputation as the cool, easy-going supervisor; how could they ever face her at work if they were revealed as the fraud they were?
“I’m so sorry,” Dani’s voice said from the other side of the door. “I wasn’t in on it, but I also wasn’t – I wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing. And I should’ve been.”
Payton squeezed their eyes shut. As badly as they wanted to stay quiet, hoping she would go away, they couldn’t leave her hanging. That was what they did. They soothed people.
“It’s... okay,” they croaked, their voice reverberating in the porcelain bowl. They recoiled. Ew. Was that how they sounded right now?
“No?” Dani retorted. “It’s not. It’s awful.”
Payton coughed, feeling the last of their fighting energy drain out of them. She was right. This was awful. It would be very nice if this could, somehow, not be happening.
Panic flooded their lungs again like liquid, and this time they were struck through with fear, because they didn’t feel they had it in them to continue panicking, and they definitely didn’t want to wind up unconscious next to a toilet –
“Come on, get out of there,” Dani was begging. Her voice sounded strange. Maybe Payton was imagining things again, like they’d imagined her without her boots on earlier.
The door of the next cubicle down creaked. A toilet lid slapped down. There was a muffled thump...
Goosebumps pricked the back of Payton’s neck. They tilted their head back, all the way, so that they were facing towards the ceiling.
The sight of a head hovering above the cubicle divider was unexpected and unsettling enough to make Payton’s breath catch, and once it did, it was like a cycle had been broken. They blinked, once, twice, three times, and suddenly became hyper-aware of their surroundings.
“I... Hi?” they croaked pathetically.
“Hi, boss,” Dani muttered. Payton wondered if that was her version of being playful.
Payton scrambled to flush the toilet, their face burning at the thought of Dani getting an ariel view of their neon yellow vomit.
“Get... get d-down,” Payton stammered. “Y-you’re gonna fall–”
“Open the door and I’ll get down.”
They reached up for the latch and then sank back down, still catching their breath. The tears on their face were starting to solidify. They couldn’t bear to look Dani in the eye when she circled the cubicles to stand in front of theirs, so they kept their gaze low.
A dry laugh popped out of them, like it’d been lodged in their throat and then squeezed.
Dani’s socks were black and covered in tiny green alien heads. She was standing on the tiles in her socks.
“You... actually took your shoes off.”
“Yeah, so?” Dani growled.
“Nothing, I just – I thought I was hallucinating earlier.”
“I find it more comfortable.”
Payton nodded, sniffling as they felt their nose run. They felt as though they were already in the throes of a mini hangover – the hollow pangs of nausea in their stomach, the ringing in their head, the burning agony in their throat.
But worst of all was the shame. The storybook of images of themself – ariel view, as though they’d been up on that toilet alongside Dani, watching their own pathetic display from above – flipped its pages over in their mind.
“So, did – did you have, like, a board somewhere at home that said ‘something-hundred and something days since last drink’, or...?”
Payton almost choked at the image. Why had they never thought of that? They’d only ever kept track of their sobriety on the calendar in their head, but even that would have to be reset to zero now. “No.”
“Mmm. Sorry.” Dani shuffled her stockinged feet. “I never know what to say in... Well, any situation. Ever.”
“You’re fine,” Payton sighed. A part of them noted how exhausting it was, to still be the one to comfort everybody else when something bad had just happened to them. They tried to squash that part. Dani was here, trying to help them.
Besides, they felt most like themself when they were making others feel at ease. Maybe they didn’t need to be so ashamed of that.
“Do you... need something?” Dani asked the question stiffly and awkwardly; was this how she took down orders from customers at the coffee shop?
Payton wanted the exact same thing they’d wanted about an hour ago.
“I want to go home,” they whispered.
“Samesies.” Dani’s feet rearranged themselves again. “Do you need me to help you up?”
The reluctance in her voice made Payton want to say no. But they were dizzy and weak, and tired of saying no. The thought of just a little bit of help brought tears of relief to their eyes.
Payton looked up from the floor. Dani’s appearance hadn’t changed at all from the moment she’d turned up for her shift that afternoon, but Payton got the feeling that they were looking at a whole different version of her.
“I... I mean, would that be okay, Dani?”
“Yes. Of... course.” Dani had clenched her fists by her side, and was looking at Payton as though they were a cliff that she was supposed to step off the side of. “Just don’t grab onto my waist, shoulders, back, or sides.”
#Lucyverse Payton#Lucyverse Dani#Lucyverse#OC sickfic#sickfic#emeto sickfic#emeto#emeto fic#alcohol#alcohol mention#angst fic#spiking mention#misgendering mention#gender dysphoria mention#emetophilia#whump fic
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Mother Universe
#digital art#character design#character illustration#illustration#digital illustration#artists on tumblr#queer artist#lucyverse
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LUCY & THE SUNDAY FUNNIES
A Look at the Comic Strips of the Lucyverse
Comic strips and comic books are part of pop culture history - just like Lucy - so it is natural that the two sometimes collided. Here are some examples of popular comics that went from the Sunday funny gage, to the Monday night tv fun!
DICK TRACY
Dick Tracy is an American comic strip featuring a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on October 4, 1931 in the Detroit Mirror, and it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Dick Tracy has also been the hero in a number of films, two of which were released in 1947. From 1934 to 1948 "Dick Tracy" was also radio serial. Tracy was mainly heard about on Lucille Ball's radio show, "My Favorite Husband" (1948-1951).
"SECRETARIAL SCHOOL" (February 18, 1949) Liz begs the Blabbermouth on the party line to allow her to make a quick call.
LIZ: “Do you have to use the telephone?”
BLABBERMOUTH: “Whaddya expect me to use? A two-way wrist radio?”
In 1946, Dick Tracy introduced a two-way wrist radio. In 1948, that cartoon item was brought to reality, along with a myriad of other Dick Tracy-themed toys.
"THE ANNIVERSARY PRESENTS" (May 13, 1949) Liz is positive that George will remember their anniversary. After dropping several hints, George still hasn’t said anything. Finally, he looks up from his newspaper with something to tell her.
GEORGE: “Dick Tracy found the jewels!”
On May 13, 1949, the daily Dick Tracy comic strip revealed that the missing jewels has been found. The case involved a character named Pear-Shape, who owned a weight loss business but was overweight himself. He conned an elderly widow out of the jewels and sold them to a fence.
"GETTING OLD" (May 20, 1949) Liz find a book she forgot to return to the library, long overdue. George wants to donate it to their tag sale, but Liz refuses to handle ‘hot’ merchandise. George sarcastically calls her Pear-Shape.
George is not referring to Liz's waistline, but to the character in the Dick Tracy comic strip named Pear-Shape Tone, who was part of the storyline from April to July 1949. He was a racketeer who would steal jewelry from his wealthier clients, then fence it to make a profit.
"LIZ IN THE HOSPITAL" (May 27, 1949) As George speeds toward the hospital a cop pulls them over. Liz thinks that if she gets arrested she can’t go to the hospital so she tells the officer that they are driving a stolen car. When George tries to interrupt, she calls him Pear-Shape to further reinforce her fake story of thievery.
Pear-Shape must have been quite popular in May 1949, because this is the third consecutive episode of “My Favorite Husband” where he is mentioned!
"LIZ AND GEORGE ARE HANDCUFFED" (December 30, 1949) George overhears Liz playing out a scene from Dick Tracy with little Tommy Wood from next door, who got a Dick Tracy outfit for Christmas and has been playing cops and robbers ever since. Liz says his sisters won’t play Tess Truehart to his Dick Tracy. George corrects her that she is now known as Tess Tracy, since Dick and Tess recently got married.
LIZ: “You mean I’ve been playing around with a married man?”
On December 25, 1949, just five days before this broadcast, Dick finally married his girlfriend, Tess Truehart.
Little Tommy ‘Tracy’ comes over to show ‘Pruneface’ Cooper (Liz) his badge, handcuffs, and finger print outfit.
LIZ: “Tommy, is it true that no two people in the whole world have the same fingerprints?”
TOMMY: “Nah, that’s a lot of bunk. I’ve already found three people who have exactly the same fingerprints; my daddy, Santa Claus, and the crook who broke into my piggy bank.”
"THE JIMMY DURANTE SHOW" (April 29, 1948) Lucille Ball guest stars in an episode where they take a magic carpet around the country to see how things might be different if women were captains of industry. In Paris, Illinois, they visit the second largest perfume factory in the country, owned by Hot Breath Houlihan.
DURANTE: “Now I know who set B.O. Plenty’s house on fire!”
B.O. Plenty was a character from Dick Tracy comic strip. In March 1948, his house mysteriously burned down and everyone feared the character was dead. Readers actually wrote to the newspaper begging Chester Gould not to kill off B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie!
From 1950 to 1951, "Dick Tracy" was a television series, ending just a few months before "I Love Lucy" went on the air. Dick Elliott (right) made his television debut as Officer Murphy. He had done several films with Lucille Ball and appeared on "I Love Lucy" in two episodes. Likewise, Pierre Watkin played Police Chief Pat Patton. He had also done several films with Lucy and two episodes of "I Love Lucy."
Ten years later there was an animated series titled "Dick Tracy" featuring Lucille Ball alumni Jerry Hausner, Benny Rubin, and Mel Blanc.
In 1967 there was a pilot for a new live-action "Dick Tracy" series that went unsold. It featured Eve Plumb and Victor Buono, who later did episodes of "Here's Lucy," but were far more famous for other shows.
LI'L ABNER
Li'l Abner was a satirical comic strip that featured a fictional clan of hillbillies living in the mountain village of Dogpatch USA. Written and illustrated by Al Capp (1909–1979), the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934, through November 13, 1977. The strip inspired a 1956 Broadway musical that was filmed in 1959. Prior to that there was a non-musical film in 1940. A radio series was heard from 1939 to 1940.
"GEORGE ATTENDS A TEENAGE DANCE" (November 20, 1948) This episode of "My Favorite Husband" opens with Liz reading the morning papers over breakfast.
LIZ: “Who do you suppose got married?”
KATIE THE MAID: “Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae?”
Almost from the start, Abner Yokum was being pursued for matrimony by Daisy Mae Scragg. The reading public found it quite a tease that the two were clearly destined to get together. They finally married in 1952, nearly four years after this broadcast. The event made the cover of LIFE Magazine.
"LIZ LEARNS TO DRIVE" (November 13, 1948) George reads about his old college girlfriend, Myra Ponsenby, in the morning paper. Liz is unenthusiastic.
LIZ: “What’s new in Lower Slobbovia?”
“Lower Slobbovia” was a term first used in 1946 by Capp to describe a place that was unenlightened and socially backward. The term entered popular culture when referring to any place hopelessly stuck in the past.
"FIRST STOP" (January 17, 1955) Fred Mertz calls the rundown Ohio roadside diner "Lower Slobbovia.”
In "Tennessee Ernie Visits" (May 3, 1954) Fred calls Cousin Ernie "Little Abner".
The Broadway musical and film adaptation starred Peter Palmer as the title character. Palmer played Brother Peter in Lucille Ball's failed NBC sitcom "Bungle Abbey" (1980). On Broadway, Daisy Mae was played by Edie Adams (aka Mrs. Ernie Kovacs), who played herself in the very last episode of "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" (1960). The film also featured Lucy players William Lanteau, Alan Carney, Bern Hoffman, Bobby Jellison, and Torben Mayer.
The 1940 film featured Lucy's mentor Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat and Dick Elliott as Marryin' Sam. A new 1971 musical special featured Lucy alumni Carol Burnett, Ken Berry, Eddie Albert, and Donald O'Connor. In 1967, "Here's Lucy" director Coby Ruskin created a pilot for a "Li'l Abner" series that failed to sell.
LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE
Little Orphan Annie was a daily comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. It made its debut on August 5, 1924, in the New York Daily News. In 1930 it became one of the first comic strips adapted to radio, and attracted about 6 million fans before leaving the air in 1942. It was adapted to film in 1932 and 1938, and (like Li'l Abner) even became a Broadway musical. The success of the 1977 musical is credited with revitalizing the popularity of the franchise. The musical was filmed in 1982, 2014, and for television in 1999.
"LUCY WANTS NEW FURNITURE" (June 1, 1953) Lucy likens her over-permed hair to a chrysanthemum, while Fred calls her Little Orphan Annie.
Annie is generally depicted with a mass of red hair and a red dress with a white collar.
"THE STAR UPSTAIRS" (1955) Cornel Wilde is trying in vain to read a soaking wet newspaper thrown to him in the bathtub by Lucy disguised as a bellboy.
WILDE: “I thought President Eisenhower was playing golf with Little Orphan Annie.”
Eisenhower was famous for playing golf and Annie was famous on the comic pages, so it easy to see a mash-up of the two from a soggy paper.
"LUCY AND ART LINKLETTER" (January 10, 1966) Seeing Lucy’s wide-eyed look, Mr. Mooney tells her to "stop looking like an over-aged Orphan Annie.”
In the comic strip, Annie's eyes have no pupils!
"LUCY GETS TRAPPED" (September 18, 1967) Lucy calls in sick, but goes shopping instead. When she's named Customer of the Year in a big celebration, she tries to hide the newspaper with her picture in it from Mr. Mooney. She tells him there's nothing new in the newspaper.
LUCY (about the news): "Oh, the temperature’s up, the stock market’s down, and Little Orphan Annie is lost again!”
During its 86 years of publication, Annie being lost or having disappeared was a frequent storyline. In fact, when the strip finally ceased publication in 2010, it ended with Daddy Warbucks "resigning himself to Miss Annie's being lost forever."
SUPERMAN
The Man of Steel was introduced to the world in comic book form in June 1938, created by Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster. Beginning in January 1939, a daily comic strip appeared and a color Sunday version was added that November. Since then, the character, and characters from his world, has been seen in virtually every form of media, including, of course, television.
"LUCY AND SUPERMAN" (January 14, 1957) is considered one of television's first 'cross-over' shows. "The Adventures of Superman" aired from 1951 to 1958 in syndication, concurrent with "I Love Lucy". It starred George Reeves as Superman, a role he also plays on this episode of "I Love Lucy." While "Superman" made the transition to color in 1954, CBS kept "Lucy" in black and white for its entire run. Reeves is never mentioned by name in the dialogue or in the original credits, although it is pretty clear that Lucy and Ricky are recruiting "the actor who plays Superman" to entertain at Little Ricky's birthday party, not the superhero himself. Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky) later said that this was his very favorite episode. Because Desilu had obtained the license to use the actual Superman logo, they weren’t shy about using it! They even got permission to use the show’s theme music, composed by Leo Klatzkin.
Actors who were also seen on “Adventures of Superman” and their (characters) on “I Love Lucy”: Doris Singleton (Caroline Appleby), Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs. Trumbull), Tristram Coffin (Harry Munson), Herb Vigran (Jule / Al Sparks / Joe), Claude Akins (Himself aka ‘Giant Native’), Hayden Rorke (Mr. O’Brien), Phil Arnold (Harry Henderson / Man in Hotel Hallway), Milton Frome (Bill Henderson), Pierre Watkin (Mr. Dorrance), Dick Elliott (Tourist at Empire State Building / Yankee Stadium Spectator), Maurice Marsac (Maurice / Waiter), Frank J. Scannell (Buffo the Clown), Lou Krugman (Hollywood Director / Jewelry Salesman / Club Manager), Joi Lansing (Herself / Miss Low Neck), Larry Dobkin (Counterman / Waiter / Counterfeiter), Rolfe Sedan (Paris Chef), Eve McVeagh (Roberta the Hairdresser), Norman Varden (Mrs. Benson), Danni Sue Nolan (Mr. Reilly’s Secretary), Harry Cheshire (Sam Johnson), Ken Christy (Ken the Detective / Dock Agent), Robert Foulk (Brooklyn Policeman), Sid Melton (Jockey / Bellboy / Shorty), Bert Stevens (Tropicana Patron), Harold Miller (Theatre Patron / Ship Passenger), Hans Moebus (Man on Dock), Ernesto Molinari (Vineyard Boss), Jack Chefe (Bellhop / French Waiter), Bess Flowers (Tropicana Patron / Theatre Patron), and Monty O’Grady (Ship’s Passenger / Man at Airport).
Picking up Little Ricky’s toys, Lucy holds one of his “Superboy” comic books. It is the December 1956 issue (#53), hot off the presses during filming. Ironically, on the cover, Superman is looking at television! Even more ironically, inside the comic book was an ad titled “Draw Bob Hope”. Hope had just appeared on the season opener of “I Love Lucy.”
BATMAN
Batman was created by Bill Kane and Bill Finger in May 1939, just a year after Superman. As with Superman, there were numerous radio, film, and television adaptations of the characters, most notably a series starring Adam West that aired from 1966 to 1968.
Alas, there is no direct reference to the Caped Crusader in the Lucyverse. There are, however, plenty of indirect references due to the large number of actors who appeared on the television series who had also appeared with Lucy: Madge Blake, Cesar Romero, Van Johnson, Shelley Winters, Liberace, Tallulah Bankhead, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Rudy Vallee, Ida Lupino, Howard Duff, Stafford Repp, Victor Buono, Vincent Price, Edward Everett Horton, Vito Scotti, Norma Varden, Tristram Coffin, Ellen Corby, Sammy Davis Jr., Allen Jenkins, Art Linkletter, Alan Hale Jr., Jessyln Fax, Ben Welden, Dick Kallman, Alberto Morin, Bryan O'Byrne, and Larry Anthony.
Most notable among these is Madge Blake, who played Aunt Harriet on "Batman" as well as two characters on "I Love Lucy" and one on "The Lucy Show." She was also seen with Lucy and Desi in The Long, Long Trailer (1954). Coincidentally, she played Martha, a prospective new tenant in "Lucy and Superman" (see above). When she sees something outside the apartment window, her husband Herbert is concerned.
HERBERT: “Was it a bird?”
MARTHA: “No.”
HERBERT: “Was it a plane?”
MARTHA: “No.”
HERBERT: “Well, what was it, dear?”
MARTHA: “It was Superman!”
A 1949 film titled Batman and Robin featured Lucy performers Jack Chefe, Lyle Talbot, William Fawcett, and Phil Arnold.
DENNIS THE MENACE
Dennis the Menace, a comic strip centered around a mischievous but good natured young suburban boy, made its debut on March 12, 1951 syndicated in newspapers. Its success inspired comic books and (most famously) a television series that aired from 1959 to 1963.
"LUCY THE ROBOT" (February 28, 1966) Jay North, who played Dennis, guest-starred on a 1966 episode of "The Lucy Show" playing the 13 year-old nephew of Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon). Lucy dresses as a toy soldier robot to divert him.
“You will keep that MENACE subdued for the next eight days!” ~ Mr. Mooney to Lucy about Wendell
During the final season of "Dennis", the long-suffering character of neighbor George Wilson was written out due to the death of actor Joseph Kearns. Kearns had played two characters on “I Love Lucy” - a psychiatrist in season one, and a theatre manager in season six. Gale Gordon was added to the cast as George’s brother, Henry.
When Lucille Ball was finally convinced to return to network television in 1962, she naturally wanted Gordon to join her, but he was unavailable due to his prior commitment to “Dennis the Menace” so Mrs. Carmichael’s put-upon banker was played by Charles Lane. Lane was also on “Dennis” as the recurring character of druggist Mr. Finch. He played the role six times before leaving for “Lucy”, his final episode airing just a day before his penultimate episode of “Lucy”!
When “Dennis” was canceled and Gordon was finally free, Ball wasted no time in hiring him and had Lane’s character was written out in order to make way for a new banker, Theodore Mooney. “Dennis the Menace” also had a character named Theodore Mooney - a police sergeant (George Cisar). He was often seen in the company of a woman named Lucy (Mrs. Lucy Elkins played by Irene Tedrow, and John Wilson (Gale Gordon).
Another cast member that "Lucy" and "Dennis" had in common was Danny, a cairn terrier who played Fred the dog on "I Love Lucy" and Freemont, Mr. Wilson's dog, on "Dennis the Menace." Danny was trained by Bill Blair and owned by Frank Inn, Hollywood's busiest animal actor supplier.
Besides Gordon, Lane, and Kearns, “Dennis” also featured “Lucy Show” and/or “I Love Lucy” alumni: Mary Wickes (Miss Cathcart), Edward Everett Horton (Uncle Ned), Kathryn Card (Mrs. Biddy), Parley Baer (Captain Blast), Elvia Allman (Edna), Tyler McVey (Mr. Carlson), Dub Taylor (Opie Swanson), Norman Leavitt (various roles), Bob Jellison (Announcer), Richard Reeves (Mr. Kelly), Lurene Tuttle (Mrs. Courtland), Nestor Paiva (Gamali), Jonathan Hole (Addison Brook), Stanley Adams (Jerry Richman), Willard Waterman (Otis Quigley), Harry Cheshire (Mr. Petry), Eve McVeagh (Mrs. Purcell), Harvey Korman (Bowers), Stafford Repp (Lt. Wheeler), Verna Felton (Aunt Emma), Madge Blake (Mrs. Porter), Ellen Corby (Miss Douglas), Eleanor Audley (Mrs. Pompton), and frequent extras Leoda Richards, Leon Alton, Olan Soule, Larry J. Blake, George DeNormand, and Monty O’Grady.
THE GUMPS
The Gumps is a comic strip about a middle-class family headed by hen-pecked husband Andy. It was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917, until October 17, 1959, just six month before the last time America saw the Ricardos and Mertzes for the last time.
"The Adagio" (December 31, 1951) Ricky says “All this shaving is liable to wear my chin away,” to which Lucy replies “Okay, Andy Gump.”
The character had a bushy mustache but no lower jaw. Cartoonist Smith based him on real-life Andy Wheat who had his jaw removed after a tooth infection.
BUSTER BROWN
Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the American public in the early-20th century. The character's name was used to describe a popular style of suit for young boys, the Buster Brown suit.
"THE ENGLISH TUTOR" (December 29, 1952) Lucy hires a grammar instructor so her new baby will grow up surrounded by well-spoken friends and family. Fred sarcastically shows up to the first session wearing a Buster Brown suit.
ETHEL: "All right, Buster Brown, go downstairs and get out of that silly outfit."
"THE RICARDOS CHANGE APARTMENTS" (May 18, 1953) To give Ricky the feeling their apartment is too small, Lucy fills the flat with toys, including a frog with a tongue that popped out when squeezed. This was actually a TV tie-in (one of the first) called Froggy the Gremlin. The character made its debut on radio’s “Buster Brown Gang” in 1944, which was brought to television in 1951 as “Smilin’ Ed’s Gang” with Froggy as a puppet and – occasionally – a life-sized costume character. In various formats, the program was seen from 1951 to 1960 (also on CBS) and featured "Lucy" performers June Foray, Vitto Scotti, Lou Krugman, Alan Reed, and Jerry Maren as Buster Brown.
BRENDA STARR, REPORTER
Brenda Starr is a comic strip started by Don Messick in 1940 about an adventurous and glamourous female reporter. The strip ended in 2011.
"LUCY BECOMES A REPORTER" (January 21, 1963) When Lucy takes a job as the editor of the Danfield Tribune's social column, Mr. Foley, the Tribune’s editor, sarcastically refers to Lucy as Brenda Starr.
Like Lucy, Brenda had red hair.
THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS
The Katzenjammer Kids was a comic strip created by German immigrant Rudolph Dirks which appeared from 1897 to 2006. Dirks was said to be the first to use 'thought balloons' in a comic strip.
"LUCY AND THE DIAMOND CUTTER" (November 16, 1970) Wally Cox plays Gustav, a nervous diamond cutter who stays at the Carter home while waiting to cut an expensive gem. Gustav calls Kim and Craig “the Katzenjammer Kids.”
The line is humorous due to Cox's thick German accent.
BRINGING UP FATHER
"VIV VISITS LUCY" (1967) A hippie named Itchy (Les Brown Jr.) tells Viv he doesn't miss his parents because “that 'Maggie and Jiggs' action was pretty hard to take.” Maggie and Jiggs (or Jiggs and Maggie) was the colloquial name for a comic strip actually titled “Bringing Up Father.” It was created by George McManus and ran from 1913 to 2000. The strip presented the life of a nouveau-riche American family. It was translated to stage, radio, television and six films.
It is often forgotten that "I Love Lucy" was also a comic strip which appeared daily from 1952 until 1955. In fact, it was the comic strip that broke the news that Lucy Ricardo had given birth to a boy! These were then collected into "I Love Lucy" comic books. "The Lucy Show" was also a series of comic books, published by Gold Key from 1963.
#Little Orphan Annie#Lucille Ball#My Favorite Husband#I Love Lucy#The Lucy Show#Li'l Abner#Dick Tracy#batman#Brenda Starr#The Katzenjammer Kids#Dennis the Menace#Buster Brown#The Gumps#Here's Lucy#TV#Comic Strips#Comic Books#Batman#Superman#Superboy#Andy Gump#Bringing Up Father
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i did not have edward norton and jason schwartzman kissing on my 2023 bingo card
#hats off to you wes thank you#asteroid city#wes anderson#jason schwartzman#edward norton#2023 bingo#the goosiest lucyverse
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🌤️:
Share your favorite piece of dialogue from your WIP.
Ooh, interesting! I have many, many WIPs, so ... let's see. I was trying to vary which WIPs I picked, but I think I'll go with the next of my Lucyverse/f!Luke Skywalker fics again. I won't give the context, but:
"Father—" Lucy's throat burned, but she seized his arm as well as she could, her fingers barely digging into the metallic cloth. "Haven't you had enough of masters?"
☔️:
Is there a fic concept you have that you’d like to just explain and share because you’re not sure you’ll ever write it? If so, what is it?
I've mentioned it before, but speaking of P&P AUs significantly involving the Gardiners, one I've thought of for years takes the simple premise that the weird Darcy/Elizabeth rumor that reaches Lady Catherine just doesn't happen. Jane/Bingley goes off as in canon, but Elizabeth and Darcy are still in their high-octane pining phase. Darcy leaves Netherfield with nothing resolved, and both have only the likelihood of their paths continuing to cross and hopes that maybe, hopefully, his/her feelings will become reciprocated over time...
The path-crossing happens somewhat earlier than anticipated, though, because a little while later, Darcy and Georgiana return to London while Elizabeth is visiting the Gardiners. Darcy pays a respectful visit only to find Elizabeth there(!!!! on both sides) and the Gardiners helpfully keep inviting him/him and Georgiana, and Elizabeth and Darcy spend the time pining, repressing burning UST, and trying to act Very Normal as they navigate their strange relationship. Eventually Darcy does piece together enough hints to get the hope to propose again, Elizabeth accepts, HEA etc.
#anon replies#respuestas#meme prattle#fic talk#fic talk: lucy skywalker#plotbunnies!#genderbending#austen blogging#i really need a star wars tag#otp of otps#edward gardiner#m gardiner#the gardiners hosting the most awkward yet intense courtship known to man is delightful to me#but i just don't have the wherewithal to write it
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