#Rachael’s got theories

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Change of Plans

A/N: Although I am SEVERAL days late at this point, this is a gift for @something-tofightfor - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACHAEL! I hope your day was all that you wanted it to be, and that this year is the best fucking one yet. I so badly wanted this to be done in time, but you know me. Anywho, I love your guts and I hope you enjoy this chaotic little cake I whipped up with the help of one of your favorite cowboys.

Word count: 4k

Warnings: listen, don't do what Reader does here. Other than that... just some language. It's very tame. But don't do it.

Summary: Jack is there on business. You're there for pleasure.

He noticed you right away. 

Sitting in the waiting area near gate A-7, right leg crossed over your left and an open book in one hand, you caught his eye -

Well hello, gorgeous.

- and he had to repeatedly free his focus from your direction, reminding himself why he was at the airport in the first place. 

Damn it, Agent, you’ve got a job to do.

You turned the page of the book you were reading, letting out a sigh and stretching your neck, and Jack adjusted his position on the barstool he occupied so that he was forced to change his line of sight. He cleared his throat, lifting his glass to his lips and taking a sip. The bold, smoky flavor of the deep amber whiskey coated his tongue, and by the time he swallowed he was back on his task. 

He’d been sent to locate and detain a known associate of a crime boss that Statesman was attempting to bring down. Intel gathered from Agents assigned to the case suggested that the associate - a mid level player who occasionally dealt in black market weapons - would be traveling through Louisville on his way to meet with the mysterious and nefarious man they knew only as The Gatekeeper. The current theory was that The Gatekeeper was operating out of San Francisco - or more specifically, out of a secret underwater lair that was built into one of the foundational structures of the Golden Gate Bridge, hence his nickname. But Statesman had been unable to confirm that yet. Catching up with the Gatekeeper’s gun runner was their best bet when it came to pinning down his location for sure, and since he had the most experience with facial recognition and planting trackers, the assignment had gone to Agent Whiskey. 

So let’s find this shit kicker and get on with it so I can get on with… He resisted the urge to turn back in your direction. 

Setting his glass down on the cork coaster it was served to him on, he brought his newly emptied hand up to tap the arm of his gold wire glasses. At the touch of his fingertip, the stealth lens screens activated, and he used them to scan the faces of the people moving through the terminal. So far none had hit as a match for the Gatekeeper’s associate, but since the man was clever enough to book himself tickets on multiple flights that day to make it harder for anyone who might be looking to follow him, Jack had to keep checking until he either found his target or the last of those flights had taken off. 

I’ll find him. Soon as he shows up I’ll- 

But Jack didn’t even need to finish the thought, because his lenses detected the person he’d been waiting for before he could. Just as he was about to get up from his seat and position himself to intercept his target, though, he saw something else flash across his lenses. 

Mission directive has changed. Do not detain. Intel from Kingsman suggests associate may also be working with Golden Circle remnants in Canada. New directive is only to place the tracker and not to pursue until we know for sure who he is meeting. Agents in Vancouver and San Francisco have been put on alert and will be activated as needed. 

Jack blinked twice to acknowledge Ginger’s message, then used the movement of his eyes to send a question in response. 

Received. Return to HQ? 

He had his jet on standby there at the airport in the event that he needed to abscond with The Gatekeeper’s man, and he assumed that since that was no longer necessary, Champ and Ginger would want him to come back and await further information. Keeping one eye on his target, he used the other to read the new message that flashed across his lens, finding it to be a surprise. 

Negative. Don’t want to risk the chance of counter tracking. Take the Pony somewhere for a few days first. Vegas or Denver are preferable but Mexico City is also available. 

Well, shoot. Looks like I’m takin’ a vacation. My favorite kind of mission. 

Ginger had listed cities where Statesman owned properties that were reserved for off duty use - for when Agents had to lay low for a while, or for when they needed a safe place to recover from injuries sustained in the line of duty. There were several more located around the world, but judging by the selection that was presented to him, they wanted him to stay close enough to either have him back in Kentucky in a matter of hours, or send him to California or British Columbia in a pinch when the intel on who the associate was meeting with came back. 

Received. Target inbound. Contact when directive complete. 

With that, he lifted his finger up to tap the arm of his glasses once more, the screens deactivating so that he could remove them, folding them for safe storage in the inner pocket of his jacket. In a turn of luck, his mark headed straight for the bar he was seated at and sat down two stools over. He showed no signs of having made Jack for a secret operative, not even bothering to look in his direction as he ordered a drink from the bartender. 

Perfect. 

Jack’s grin was imperceptible as he used his thumb and pointer finger to pull one of the small “buttons” from the cuff of his jacket sleeve. Flattening it with a tight pinch, he dropped the bio-tracker into his own beverage and watched as it dissolved into the liquid. It finished just as the bartender placed a rocks glass of whiskey on a coaster in front of Jack’s target. He waited for the other man to take a sip, and then he closed the distance, scooting over one stool so that he was right next to him, and then he greeted the man with a jovial tone. 

“Did my ears deceive me just now, or did I hear you order the Statesman 12 year, my friend?” Jack pointed to the other man’s glass while holding his own. 

The other man turned to face Jack, a semi-scowl on his face, his annoyance over being addressed by a seemingly drunken stranger as a “friend” clearly written in gray-green eyes. “What?” He glanced down at Jack’s glass and then at his own. “Oh.” He grunted and gave Jack a nod before taking another sip of his drink. “Yeah. You drinking the same, I take it?” He arched one eyebrow and turned back to face the television screen behind the bar without waiting for the answer to the question he’d just asked. 

“Smoothest bourbon there is.” Jack held up his glass, inspecting the contents. To anyone else’s eye - even the man beside him - it would appear as though he were simply appreciating the way the overhead lights streaked through the rich amber liquid. In truth, he was making sure that the button-turned-tracker had been completely infused into the drink. Seeing that it was, he glanced over and caught his mark with his own glass midway to his lips once more.

Slow down there, son, leave some for our toast. 

Reaching for the man’s elbow, he stopped him from draining the last of his beverage. “How about we both raise our glasses to good taste and safe travels?” 

The other man jerked his arm away as though he’d been burned, the motion accompanied by a deeply frustrated sigh. Checking his watch, he rolled his eyes and shook his head at Jack. “Sure Fine. Just make it quick, I have a flight to catch.” 

As he presented his glass for the toast, Jack aggressively clinked the rim of his against it - with just enough force so that some of his drink had sloshed into the other man’s glass without him noticing. “Quick it is. Safe travels.” 

“Uh huh.” The sketch of a scowl was back as the man nodded again, knocking back the remainder of his drink, including the tracker. “Same to you.” With that, he slapped a fifty on the bar and left his empty glass, on his way to whatever gate would take him to whatever scumbag was waiting for him. 

The Gatekeeper or the Golden Circle… or whoever the fuck else. We’ll know soon enough. 

Taking his glasses back out of his pocket, Jack unfolded them and put them back on his face. With a tap of his finger the one-way screens hidden in the lenses activated again, and through a series of blinks and subtle eye movements, he sent confirmation of his mission back to Ginger Ale. 

Tracker planted. Target in motion. 

Before he got a response, though, he was distracted by a voice coming from over his shoulder. “Excuse me? Is anyone sitting there?” 

He turned towards the speaker and his eyes widened, lips lifting into a slight grin when he saw that it was you. 

Hot damn, she’s even prettier up close. 

His grin grew at your sudden, small intake of breath when your eyes met. “All yours.” Using one hand, he pulled the stool out for you as Ginger’s message started to scroll across his field of vision. 

You muttered a thank you as you chewed your lower lip. “You didn’t have to-” 

Well done Agent Whiskey. The tracker is live and we are following its movement. Which location did you select? 

“Now darlin’, what kind of gentleman would I be if I only did what I had to do?” He smiled, covertly answering Ginger’s question. 

Not sure yet. Stay tuned. 

You let out a sound that was almost a laugh, shrugging. “You’d be like most gentlemen I’ve known, I guess.” 

Agent, we need to know- 

Jack brought his hand up and tapped the side of his glasses, closing the communication screen and letting Ginger’s message go unfinished. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it and it wouldn’t be the last. He always eventually got back to her and never made her wait too long. But his focus had been drawn to you all afternoon, and now that you were sitting directly beside him, he wasn’t going to rush the interaction he’d been putting off for hours. 

“Then allow me to introduce to you a different kind.” He reached up and swept his hat from his head, laying it on the bartop, and extended his free hand to you.  “Jack Daniels.” 

–  –  – 

15 Minutes Earlier…

You checked your watch with a sigh, noting that you still had a little under an hour before you’d be called for boarding. 

It’s fine. That means I can start another chapter now. You rolled your eyes. I’ll need a new book for the flight home at this rate, though. 

It was one of those flights that didn’t make sense - with a 4 hour layover in a city that was completely out of the way of your destination. But that was why you’d been able to find tickets for only $48 each way, less than three days out. Things at work had been hectic, and you weren’t sure if you were going to be able to get the time off until the very last minute. So even though it certainly wouldn’t have been your first choice if you’d been able to book it months ago when the trip was first brought up, you were perfectly content to take the unnecessary stopover in Louisville on your way to Las Vegas. 

Doesn’t hurt when the people watching prospects are this interesting, either. 

You glanced over at the nearby bar and the astoundingly attractive man seated there who’d snagged your attention as soon as he arrived. He, like a handful of others in the terminal, wore a dark felted Stetson But unlike most, it suited him. As did his perfectly tailored suit and- 

Oh, fuck, he’s wearing glasses now. And they look damn good on him, too. 

You cleared your throat and forced your thoughts back to your trip and your reason for taking the less than desirable layover. Even though it meant spending hours alone in an airport, you were excited, because it also meant being able to see several of your friends who lived far away, and being able to celebrate your birthday with them. Well, not just your birthday. The trip was meant to be a group celebration to make up for the fact that you hadn’t all been able to get together for a birthday in years. Since there happened to be two of you who had birthdays in January, that was the month that was chosen. But the dates that were settled on had included your actual birthday smack dab in the middle of them, and you were looking forward to having something fun to do with people you missed. 

Which was why you groaned as you read the notification that popped up on your phone regarding the flight status. 

Delayed - Mechanical Issues 

“Fuck.” You muttered under your breath, closing the airline app and tapping your phone screen to open the group chat so you could fill the others in on your situation. Before you finished typing though, your phone vibrated in your hand and a picture popped up of two of your friends - Jess and Maddy - both wearing ear to ear smiles at Harry Reid International, the text from Jess simply reading two words followed by several exclamation marks: We’re here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Kayla chimed in next, responding with an emphatic YAY! and sending a screenshot of her GPS, showing that she was just under 2 hours out. Be there so soon! 

Nat still had her phone on airplane mode since she’d only taken off from LAX about an hour earlier, so you didn’t bother waiting for an update from her before you finished typing your own. 

Bad news, my flight out of Louisville is delayed. :( Mechanical issues… No idea when I’ll be there now, but I’ll keep you all posted. 

You sent the message and tucked your phone into the outer pocket of your bag as disappointment set in. As it was, the rest of your friends were already supposed to arrive half a day before you. But now, it was looking like you were going to miss out on the entire first day of the trip. 

Or more. 

Frowning at the thought, you tried not to let yourself get too upset until you had a better idea of your situation. You told yourself that it could be something quick and easy to remedy - maybe you’d only have to wait one more hour. Maybe less. Either way, you decided that since half of the group was already there, it meant that the vacation had unofficially started, and it was time you treated yourself to a drink. 

And if I know Jess and Maddy, they’re doing the same right now. 

You picked up your bag, slinging the strap over your shoulder, and headed towards the bar. It was moderately crowded, only a few stools left vacant scattered here and between other travelers. But as you got closer you noticed that the man you’d caught yourself spending more time watching than any of the others was still seated there - and that the seat beside him had just become empty. 

Perfect timing. 

That confidence lasted only until the man spun at the sound of your voice, and seeing him up close had nearly knocked the breath from your lungs. 

Oh, shit. He’s- 

By the time he’d given you his name along with his hand to shake, you’d noticed things about him that you hadn’t from across the room. Like the flecks of tan and gold that lightened his dark brown eyes, the distinct bow of his upper lip beneath his mustache and how it rested against the plush pillow of the lower one, the way you couldn’t see a stitch of leather on him aside from his boots, but the smell of it - along with bergamot - clung to him and made him even more appealing. 

You swallowed, his warm hand wrapping around yours and squeezing as you managed to tell him your name. “It’s nice to meet you, Jack.” 

Without letting go of your hand or releasing your eyes from the lock his own had on them, he repeated your name back to you, the sound of it making your face grow warm. “Pleasure’s all mine, I promise you.” 

When he winked as he withdrew his hand, you knew you were screwed. You ordered yourself a drink - something local, a bourbon you’d not seen before called Statesman - and Jack, though approving of your choice, simply asked for a glass of water. As you brought the glass to your lips, another thought popped into your head. 

But am I really screwed, though? Because… he seems just as interested as I am. 

Over the next half hour, you and Jack made small talk and subtly flirted in smirks and glances. You asked him what brought him to the airport that day, to which he’d answered: 

“Had some business here earlier. But that’s done, so the rest of my evening is completely free.” 

You shook your head at that, taking another sip of your drink. Damn that’s good. “Don’t you have a flight to catch?” 

At that, he grinned and spread his large hands wide. “Ah, well, that is one of the perks of being my own pilot.” He raised one eyebrow and leaned towards you. “I can leave whenever I choose.” 

Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. That definitely makes him even more attractive somehow, though. 

You mouthed the word wow and let out a stunted laugh as you reached into your bag to retrieve your phone. Some time had passed and you were hoping that there would be another notification about the status of your delayed flight. “That must be nice.” You groaned as you saw that there was nothing new from the airline, and several texts from your friends expressing their dismay over your travel woes. Shaking the phone in your hand, you sighed. “I’m here on a layover that got delayed and the rest of my friends are already in Vegas.” Looking over at him, you wet your lips with your tongue. “I’d love to be able to just… hop in and take off whenever I wanted to.”

–  –  –  

Well, shit. Did she just say Vegas? 

Clearing his throat, Jack reached up to tap the arm of his glasses. Several missed messages came through at once, all from Ginger, but he blinked them away as he spoke. “Well, I know we’ve only just met, and I’m not trying to make any suggestions-” Though I could. “- But I happen to be going to Sin City myself tonight.” He had to contain his grin at the flash in your eyes as he used the nickname for the gambling town. “I’d be more than happy to take you with me.” 

Destination selected. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. 

You sucked in a breath at his proposition, and though he knew you were likely considering saying no, he hoped you’d say yes. “I… Jack, I couldn’t ask you to-” 

“You’re not. I’m askin’. I’ll show you my license and everything to prove that I’m legit, but darlin’, I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want to.” He tilted his head towards the window. “No tellin’ how long they’ll need to fix that bird, and if your friends are already there…” He trailed off and shrugged, returning his gaze to you. “My jet is fully fueled and ready to go. I could get you there so you don’t have to miss out too much. More than you already have, I mean.” 

He could practically hear Ginger’s reply when it came through, but he fought the urge to let out a snort as he read it. 

IT’S ABOUT TIME, AGENT. Make sure your friend buckles up. We’ll contact you when you can return to HQ. 

You bit your lower lip again, and he couldn’t help but watch the way your teeth dug into your flesh. “I…” He saw the rest of your protest dissolve the same way the tracker had earlier, your eyes shifting from skeptical to excited until that’s all he saw in them. You laughed, then, lifting your hand and holding up one finger. “Alright. I’ll… yes. I’ll take you up on it. But on one condition.” 

Received. Will await contact. Over. 

Jack reached up to tap his glasses before removing them and stowing them in his pocket. He leaned in closer to you, concentrating on the quirk of your lips and the mixture of impulse and instinct in your eyes. “Let’s hear it.” 

“You let me buy you a drink once we get there.” You said it over the rim of your glass as you finished the last of it, eyes on him as you swallowed. 

An excuse to go out with a beautiful woman? That’s the condition? 

Jack flashed you a smile. “I think those terms are more than agreeable, ma’am.” 

–  –  –  

What the fuck am I doing? 

You half laughed at yourself, but at the same time there was something about Jack that made you feel like you could trust him. You were aware that that could be a danger in and of itself, but your gut told you he was a good man, and you had always felt that you were a good and accurate judge of character. 

How’s it any different from meeting a guy and getting in his car with him? It’s not, really. 

It was, and you knew it was, but you hadn’t been wrong yet. And as much as you wanted to get to Vegas to see your friends, you also found yourself wanting more time to get to know Jack. He was offering you the chance to do both of those things, and even though you were looking for one, you couldn’t find a downside. 

Pulling out your phone, you opened the group chat and sent one text before switching it to airplane mode. 

Change of plans. Met a (really good looking) pilot who was on his way to Vegas and offered me a ride. Sending a screenshot of his license number in case I go missing hahaha. Just kidding. I’ll be fine. See you soon!

You knew what they’d say when they saw your message. 

Jess would likely just send a thumbs up - or possibly a photo of herself giving a thumbs up. 

Maddy would emphasize your message and respond with something like Okay but don’t die! 

Kayla’s message would be a more whimsical reaction like Jesus take the wheel! (Wait do planes have wheels?) or Life is short, take rides from hot pilots when you can with the peace sign emoji. 

And Nat would send advice from several documentaries and podcasts she’d seen or listened to, about what to do if you were being abducted. 

You laughed to yourself again at the entire situation. 

“Alright, Jack.” You hopped down from your stool and picked up your bag. “I’m ready when you are.” 

He stood, taking his hat from the bartop and placing it on his head. “No time like the present.” Running his hands over his clothes, he smoothed out his suit jacket. “Follow me, darlin’. And give me that.” He pointed his chin towards your bag. “I’m a gentleman, remember? Where would my manners be if I let a lady carry her own bags?” 

You shook your head with a smile and handed over your carry-on, leaving you with only your purse. “I don’t know. You’re teaching me about gentlemen, remember?” 

You knew when you saw his eyes darken that you’d made the right call. 

“Oh, sugar. I remember. Few hours to Vegas. Plenty of time for me to teach you things.” With that he started walking and you were left to follow, slightly stunned at the implications in his tone and in his words. 

This is definitely going to be a trip to remember, that’s for sure. 

.

.

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Thank you for reading! If you would like to be added to or removed from the taglist, please feel free to let me know by sending a message or filling out the form on my masterlist! :)

tags: @something-tofightfor @dihra-vesa @littlemisspascal @mishasminion360 @nyctophiliiiiaaa @practicalghost @tanzthompson @harriedandharassed @woodlandmouth @trickstersp8 @imtryingmybeskar @wildmoonflower @mswarriorbabe80 @theredwritingwitch @silverstarsandsuns @competentpotato @pedro-pedrito-pascalito @jedi-in-crocs @hannahkatharine @novemberrain221 @chiyo13 @myloveistoolittle @Noisynightmarepoetry

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHAEL! #pretend this was on time #jack daniels x reader #jack whiskey daniels x female reader #jack daniels x female reader #pedrostories #jack whiskey daniels fic #kingsman the golden circle #jack daniels x you #agent whiskey x female reader #pedro pascal character #agent whiskey fic #jack daniels fic #it's cowboy times

[mirai-desu]

On the MSATD News

I didn't have time to post a knee-jerk reaction (which those of you from the Downton days know I was apt to do - thank you to all my long term mutuals of my side blog for sticking with me through those days), as I saw the news as I was getting ready to head out for work and it's been… a bit of a day.

Suffice it to say… I am devastated. And my initial reaction was (well after cursing), that it should have ended with S4, but with a different (happier) conclusion. It's called Miss Scarlet AND THE DUKE for a reason. And after all that happened in S4… it really feels like… what was it all for?? Especially if they knew WHEN FILMING THIS?? "Goodbye for now" is NOT "goodbye forever." They really, really really fumbled this.

There's a lot of theories going around, and I will admit it's too hard for me to listen to Stuart's new interview, but going off what other's have said and the parts of the transcript I did manage to read… I just cannot feel like this was actually his decision unless there's something else going on with him (either in his personal life or maybe he has some secret role he's got, because supposedly he hasn't worked since he did ADR on S4). He's been the captain of the ship, and he has always been enthusiastic with discussing the show and had just great insight into playing William. It doesn't feel like he himself was ready to move onto other things (and that's not even how it's worded - some BS about how the show needed it him to be gone for ~longevity~ of the show), like I've seen with other actors are on shows (e.g. Dan Stevens). He still promoted S3 (which came out in the UK after they filmed S4), he still even promoted S4! He was an executive producer for S4!!! Nothing makes sense!

So if it's due to RN… why keep having the other characters say William was only going to be gone a year? Why bother to have the flashback? why bother to have him stay at at Eliza's to recover?? hell I'm surprised they just didn't keep in the coma then--

But really, why even bother to have Eliza write to him? Or have Ivy say what she said to her?? The time apart was supposed to be them looking at their options. They literally foreshadowed him joining Eliza at her agency upon his return. So… what happened?

If it was actually for personal reasons that Stuart left, he has a right to his privacy. But then they should have rewritten S4 to be the end then, since they knew all this time. I can't believe we are getting the full story on this, one way or the other. The more and more I think about it... I do think it was RN's doing though.

Just two nights ago I drafted up a whole meta extolling how one of the best things this show has done has been how they developed William and how he grew as a character. The progression he made as he not only accepted Eliza having a career but encouraging her. His mentorship of Fitzroy. How he came from nothing, from a teenager living on the streets, to become an inspector at Scotland Yard. But they have chosen to toss that all out the window.

Who knows, maybe S5 ends with Eliza deciding to go to New York. But it doesn't seem like they are handling this like Babington's absence in Sanditon. They will make Eliza quickly fall for someone else, and slap fans in the face who have been following their friends to lovers slow burn for five years (because we had to wait for S2 in the first place thanks to the pandemic). And what sucks is that we still got promo saying they are in love with each other. From Stuart, from Kate, from Rachael New herself. We have still gotten promo promoting the romance. Why not have them have a big fight then or something, idk. They gave us hope. And you know what Fellowes says about false hope.

So I'm just supposed to believe that William gives up on Eliza and doesn't return…? No, I cannot. As much as we hated the deaths on DA when they wrote out actors, at least those characters still died in love with their spouses. And while I'd still be foaming at the mouth in anger if they killed him off… yeah.

William's last lines of the show is a flashback including him saying "is it all worth it?" And the answer is… no it's not.

#yeah I'm risking putting this in the tag #miss scarlet and the duke #msatd spoilers #honestly thinking about every damn scene they ever had #WHAT WAS IT ALL FOR #thought of the jewelry store scene and died #also does this make Arabella right? gross. #also I guess Alibi doesn't give a shit about the ratings for the last two episodes left to air in the UK #also I didn't bring up Theo J*mes because he left after S1 and it was different #if they recast William with Ben Lloyd-Hughes I'd take it #(wouldn't be the same but you know) #but don't make him a new character it doesn't work here with William still alive #I'm tired of men going to America #iykyk

[zoloftsexdeath]

Thinking about the origin songs of all the surviving covey members. I can’t speak to color theory, and I haven’t read the books, but I do know some folk songs and recognized some names. Now I don’t stick to Childes ballads strictly when listening to these songs, but I will be listing the number for reference on all the names that have a childe’s ballad corresponding, just for ease of research.

Lucy Grey Baird

Lucy Grey is her own creature and her song is plain in the books. I think the difference between the book ballad of Lucy Gray and the one in the movie (the song she herself wrote about Billy Taupe) is fascinating, as the first one is more of a story-song traditional like, and the Ballad per the movie is so. Im shoving it in my mouth and eating it. Smarter people with more context than me can write better about it though so I’ll leave it at this. I personally think Rachael Ziegler killed it though, and her voice is high and clear, would love to hear her live so I could lay in the grass and kick my feet as I listen.

Barbara Azure Baird

Barb Azure canonically came from Barbara Allen/Barb’ry Allen [CB # ]traditionally a round sung about a woman whose lover dies of wanting her, and she dies of sorrow, and their graves lie entertwined with plants of rose and briar on each respective grave to form a true lover’s knot. My favorite version comes from Joan Baez. This is the only of the covey songs I’ve ever heard before doing this research, and I love it dearly.

Tam Amber [last name unknown]

Tam Amber from Tam Lin! Also known as Tamlaine, Tamlin, or Tam Lyne [Child Ballad #39]. An epic Scottish ballad, and a lovely round. As the story went he was a mortal kidnapped by faeries and has become their unwilling servant, protecting a forest in which he finds a beautiful young woman (usually named Janet or Margaret) whom he confronts for plucking roses. They doink about it, she gets pregnant, her father asks who got her with child, and she rushes back to Tam Lin and begs him to either get rid of the child he begot or marry hee, which in his current state he cannot do. He then devises a plan for Janet/Margaret to performs several tasks that will allow him to return to the land of the mortals, angering the faery queen but assuaging her enough that she makes good on her promise and reluctantly frees Tam Lin to marry his now beloved Janet and legitimize their child. Perhaps not the most traditional version, the one by Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer makes me think yes, I can see Tam Amber’s parents falling in love to this song, singing it to him and the other covey children to put them to sleep.

Clerk Carmine Clade

From the ballad Clerk Colven [Child Ballad #42] about a real piece of work who tries to run off on his wife and sleep with a mermaid. The mermaid knows this though, and curses him to suffer a horrific headache until I think his head actually explodes. I don’t think it necessarily has any bearing on Clerk Carmine’s actual personality, but the combination of this song with the color carmine (a brilliant red extracted from the cochinil bug) leads me to believe he was either conceived, born, or his parents married while traveling in district 5. I can see this one being a favorite in district, where they know the danger of baiting the sea and possibly the danger of being a jackass to your wife as well. The location of D5 down in the southwest also leads me to believe it was one of the few places the Covey could have encountered the color as well, as often red 40 or other synthetics are used in mass production of vibrant reds and the use of cochinil based carmine would likely be a very “district” thing, used by native residents for painting or decoration of small items. It’s a strong name, and dangerous when it comes to taking a stand against what the capital represents. I’m surprised he was able to keep it. I reccomend this cover, dunno the singer really but the accent is heavy and his voice is true. I would listen with lyrics alongside though.

Maude Ivory Baird

The book tells us that Maude comes from the poem “Maude Clare” by Christina Rosetti, and Ivory from piano keys. I also like to think that she was partially named after Maud Karpeles, a British folk song collector who helped write down a lot of folk music.

Billy Taupe Clade

Likely from Billy Boy, ironic and fitting for its being about a man after a wife who can feed and care for him despite her being “too young to leave her mother” something Lucy Gray says about him wanting in the books (and seemingly not wanting much more). I don’t care much for this song (sorry), but this is an alright cover.

#covey #lucy grey baird #lucy gray baird #Lucy gray #hunger games #tbosas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #clerk Carmine Clade #Billy taupe #Billy taupe Clade #barb azure #barb azure Baird #Maude ivory #Maude ivory Baird #tam Amber

[blogger360ncislarules]

The Young Sheldon cast is dressed to the nines — and George Sr. is nowhere in sight — in new behind-the-scenes photos from the CBS comedy.

Just days after the Coopers gathered for their final family dinner, a flurry of social media posts show Montana Jordan (Georgie), Emily Osment (Mandy) and several recurring guest stars donning funeral-appropriate attire.

The first post comes courtesy of Raegan Revord (Missy), whose latest TikTok shows her TV brother dressed in a suit:

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7353760782779256106?lang=en-US&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ftvline.com%2Fnews%2Fyoung-sheldon-george-death-funeral-scene-series-finale-1235196509%2F&embedFrom=oembed

Our fourth piece of evidence comes from Rachael Bay Jones (Audrey), who on Thursday shared a photo with TV daughter Osment, TV husband Will Sasso (Jim) and fan-favorite Wallace Shawn (aka Professor Sturgis):

Young Sheldon showrunner Steve Holland previously told TVLine that the Big Bang Theory prequel’s final season would deal with George Sr.’s passing. “I don’t want to say what you will or won’t see, but things will get addressed,” he said in February. “We are not beholden to every joke that was ever made on The Big Bang Theory, but we do feel beholden to the larger canon and the larger events that shape Sheldon’s life. We want to honor those.

Earlier this week, Revord shared a sneak peek at Young Sheldon’s final family dinner scene, saying it was “an emotional one to film. We opened the show with a dinner scene where we were first introduced to the Cooper family and they quickly became a staple in the show.

“Those scenes were always my favorite to film because they brought us all together,” she wrote, “and, like a real family, we got to sit around the table and eat and catch up with each other. It felt like being home with the people I love.”

#young sheldon

[genericpuff]

Quick question , when drawing Lo (Rachael) ,or rekindled (you) , do either of you use the draw fill tool? I’ve tried implementing some of the style of lo but I'm not sure how much is filled in and how much is painted. i have a theory , probably horribly wrong, that in the earlier seasons of lo, the characters got an outline in the paint brush and just filled it with a bucket, then shaded with a dry gouache brush to retain the painterly look said comic has. But this is a guess. Idk , im just trying to break this down. I’d appreciate your insight and thank you for your time.

So IDK how Rachel does it because we don't have any sort of footage of her work past the sketch stage. Like, we're already pretty certain she doesn't do much beyond the roughs and the fact that all we ever see her put out are basic preliminary sketches, kinda supports that theory.

That being said, how *I* do it is basically how you described. I carve things out in color on a base layer with my standard brush and use the lasso and/or fill bucket tool when possible to speed up the flatting process. Then when shading, I just make a separate layer clipped to the base layer and shade with my textured brush. I'll use the magic wand select tool for areas where it's possible to keep my shading contained to one area.

That's a pretty standard process for many digital artists though, regardless of style. So IDK if that helps you at all 🤣

I'd be happy to post an actual video walkthrough sometime though! Like one that's in real time and capturing my screen so you can see the tools and menus I use :>

#ama #ask me anything #lore rekindled ama #lore rekindled #anon ama #anon ask me anything

[mariacallous]

BOSTON (AP) — A Russian millionaire with ties to the Kremlin was convicted Tuesday of participating in an elaborate $90 million insider trading scheme using secret earnings information from companies such as Microsoft that was stolen from U.S. computer networks.

Vladislav Klyushin, 42, who ran a Moscow-based information technology company associated with the Russian government, was found guilty on all charges against him, including wire fraud and securities fraud, after a two-week trial in federal court in Boston.

“The jury saw Mr. Klyushin for exactly what he is — a cybercriminal and a cheat. He repeatedly gamed the system and finally got caught. Now he is a convicted felon. For nearly three years, he and his co-conspirators repeatedly hacked into U.S. computer networks to obtain tomorrow’s headlines today,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in an email statement.

Klyushin was arrested in 2021 in Switzerland after he arrived on a private jet and just before he and his party were about to board a helicopter to whisk them to a nearby ski resort. Four alleged co-conspirators — including a Russian military intelligence officer who’s also been charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election — remain at large.

Klyushin’s attorney, Maksim Nemtsev, said in an email that he and his client are disappointed but respect the jury’s verdict. He said they intend to appeal, adding that the case included “novel theories” that have never before been reviewed or adopted by higher courts.

Klyushin was owner of a Moscow-based information technology company that purported to provide services to detect vulnerabilities in computer systems. It counted among its clients the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other government entities, according to prosecutors.

Klyushin was also close friends with a Russian military officer who was among 12 Russians charged in 2018 with hacking into key Democratic Party email accounts, including those belonging to Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Ivan Ermakov, who worked for Klyushin’s company, was a hacker in the alleged insider trading scheme, alleged prosecutors. They haven’t alleged that Klyushin was involved in the election interference.

Prosecutors say hackers stole employees’ usernames and passwords for two U.S.-based vendors that publicly traded companies use to make filings through the Securities and Exchange Commission. They then broke into the vendors’ computer systems to get financial disclosures for hundreds of companies — including Microsoft, Tesla and Kohls, Ulta Beauty and Sketchers — before the were filed to the SEC and became public, prosecutors said. Many of the earnings reports were downloaded via a computer server located in Boston, according to prosecutors.

Armed with this insider information, they were able to cheat the stock market, alleged prosecutors, who said Klyushin personally turned a $2 million investment into nearly $21 million, and altogether, the group turned about $9 million into nearly $90 million.

Klyushin’s attorney denied that his client was involved in the scheme, telling jurors in his opening statement that the government’s case was filled with “gaping holes” and “inferences.”

[bumblbytrash]

Ok but we need to talk about this episode

Let’s start with this lil moment here

Look at Yang, just consoling her wife. Her prosthetic rubbing her back, their knees turned toward each other, comfortingly holding her forearm, reassuring her that A.) Adam being there and messing with the mission wasn’t her fault B.) what happened with Adam(killing him) also was not her fault, and C.) that Yang’s got Blake’s back, now and forever

Enter Ruby, Master at Nonverbal Communication and Master Bumbleby shipper

You cannot convince me that this moment is anything other than well obviously Ruby comforting Blake as she’s hugging her, as well as Ruby asking Yang what happened between them/are y’all gonna be ok.

Bc you’d have to be blind to not notice the shift in the way that Blake and Yang interact. They are very touchy feely the entire episode, there like a solid 4 shots of Blake and Yang where they aren’t touching and most of them are during the fight scene. And Ruby isn’t an idiot, she’s very intuitive to what her sister does and thinks.

Essentially there isn’t a single chance that you can convince me that this isn’t Ruby being like

“Yoooooo, y’all gay now?”

“Yea, we def had some head touches*turns away reliving the moment*”

Haha no, jk, in all seriousness there’s no way to convince me that this is t what was happening:

“Are you gonna be alright, Yang ?”

“We will be/we’ll get through this together” *turns away smiling, possibly hiding a mild blush*

And then Ruby’s final expression is complete love and happiness and just understanding. Like this isn’t surprising to anyone. Bumbleby is deadass canon and all the characters saw it coming as much as Renora.

Skipping past the fight scene which was epic, just not really bees related and if you’re confused reread my url 😂

Enter Weiss, first mate of the SS. BUMBLEBY, which as aforementioned is captained by Ruby, (Sun’s the Quartermaster btw)

And Blake, just smiling softly, happily, because Weiss is right, Yang was there for her and she couldn’t be more grateful or happy for Yang being in her life in that moment and all others.

And Yang just smiling softly from the background, before looking down, seeing an opportunity and

SEIZING IT 🎉🥰🥰🎉🥰🥰🎉 Yang just reached over to hold Blake’s hand, and before they even actually touch, Blake’s hand opens to accept the touch. Accept the softness, accept the love and affection and care from Yang. No longer pulling away and afraid, because her main antagonist and the whole reason for her fear is gone.

And then Yang just driving the nail home, reiterating the main Bumbleby theme/idea for the whole season, if not the whole series. It’s been kinda hinted at all the time, whenever either of them is incredibly upset really. From the moment with Weiss when Yang cried because Blake wasn’t there to the moment in the barn when Blake vowed to protect her.

But Yang doesn’t need protecting, and neither does Blake. They don’t need to be coddled, they don’t need someone to hold them at arms length away from danger.

They need a friend, a companion.

They need their PARTNER at their side, they need their partner to go with them through the adventure, through the strife, and through their lives together. They will be there to be together.

And speaking of doing things together from now on, you can not tell me that this moment, after Qrow saying “y’all should come see this”, isn’t Blake turning to Yang being like “so we going or are we just gonna stare into each other’s eyes until October?”

Well, anyway, thanks for listening to my bumbleby analysis(rant) of the season finale

#I love them far too much. #I may not survive until volume 7 #rwby #yang xiao long #bumbleby #blake belladonna #ship: bumbleby #rwby6 #adam taurus #rwby spoilers #yang x blake #weiss schnee #ruby rose #qrow branwen #Rachael’s got theories

[cherumie]

What do you think Grelle’s future in the manga will be? I’m sad to think we won’t see her again in the manga until probably 2023 or 2024 because of these side plots. I remember Toboso saying she’s the second-strongest character in the manga so I think she’ll team up with Sebastian to stop Undertaker but I think it would be neat if she teamed up with Undertaker also. Sorry for the spam, it’s just that none of my friends are as obsessed with her as me and you’re a big Grelle person on Tumblr.

idk why but being called "a big Grelle person on tumblr" is both hilarious and heartwarming to me gkdngmnc

but anyways- I see big things for Grelle in the future of Kuroshitsuji and I don't think I'm just being optimistic. The biggest indicator of this is Yana's statement that Grelle will get her own cover one day, and the implications of that drive me insane. I mean, characters usually only get a cover if they're playing a big part in the story at that point and if what Grelle has been up to so far isn't considered "big" enough for Yana to give her a cover then I'm dying to see what she'll do to with her.

And even disregarding that, Grelle as a character has huge potential in the story of Kuro. For one, she's our main reaper, the one we see the most and know the most about (which isn't saying much but it's true), so if anything happens that involves the reapers as a whole, she'll naturally be there as well. I don't think she's going to show up anytime soon since she has a reason to be off screen right now (unless Yana wants to write a fun little bonus chapter for her & Othello or smthn), but I predict that her return will come sooner than we all think. Not to mention, if Yana were to pick a reaper (non-deserted) to give a backstory to for the sake of fleshing out the reaper world, Grelle is the clear choice for this. I mean she's the 4th most popular character in the whole series, and the #1 dispatch worker (in the eyes of fans).

Plot-wise, there's also her connection to the Phantomhive family (and therefore the Undertaker? Potentially?) This one's slightly more of a stretch because she's not related by blood, but regardless of if she was Angelina's sister figure or lover, she's technically an honorary member of the family. This alone doesn't matter because Anne is dead, so any familial connection from Grelle to Ciel has been severed, but there's a decent chance that she won't *stay* dead if u catch my drift. I mean, Undertaker is a Phantomhive fan and clearly would have resurrected Vincent & Rachael if they weren't all burned up. Madame Red died like last year and only had a single stab wound. This theory doesn't feel far off and I'd looove to see Grelle's reaction if Anne were to suddenly reappear.

Oh and as for the Undertaker & Ciel vs Seb & Ciel thing, I think that Seb & the reapers should've teamed up the minute they realized what Undertaker was. I mean, it'd be the most efficient way to bag him wouldn't it? But both sides openly hate each other so strongly that I low key doubt that either side would agree to it. I think that's Yana's plan in the first place because that would make capturing him too easy. Or something. If the "backup" coming to help Grelle & Othello ends up being super strong then they may have a chance but I have this feeling in my gut that's it's gonna be William (plsplspls), and he's not.... mega tough so idk how that'll go but I'm kind of worried. If they don't succeed with the help of whoever is coming then I wonder if the higher ups will get involved, or just decide that it's too much trouble & drop the whole case. I mean, they don't seem very worried right now since they've got a total of 3 reapers on the case currently. It's very hard to imagine how they feel about the whole situation because we know nothing about them. The Undertaker also seems pretty confident that no one will be able to take him down, revealing himself to all of his enemies and then deciding to stay in that location and wait for them to return. I really am wondering what his end goal is.

Anyways TLDR; Grelle has a ton of potential as a character and as a plot device and if Yana chooses not to utilize her properly in the manga then I can only assume that it's because she plans on making a reaper spinoff. But I absolutely believe in full confidence that her big moment is coming.... someday.

#long post #god put me on this bitch of an earth for the sole purpose of thinking about Grelle #kuroshitsuji #grell sutcliff #black butler #grelle sutcliff #this was originally a semi-cohesive essay but the more i typed the more excited i got so it just turns into me rambling #but yeah im fully confident in her being extremely relevent before the manga ends #it's just gonna take 5ever #on the 10 year anniversary of the manga Yana was like ''lets shoot for 10 more!'' so like. yeah #i think those 2 will come back either at the end of this current little bard & lau arc just to talk to ronald #or at the very least we'll see them after the entirety of this whole mission with all of the servants #theres a fun theory that Grelle might join the Undertaker and desert her post bc of her history with dispatch #but i dont think she would ever do that unless at least William joined her #unless dispatch's secret is worse than i thought.. #she has too much to lose right now to just switch sides #it's fun to think about though

[talesofarcadia78]

Sorceress of Arcadia || Becoming Part 1

Summary: Y/n Lake is Jim Lake's older sister. She discovers  that she is sorceress and her brother is the Trollhunter. She and the Trollhunters go on adventures together, they save trolls and humans. Along the way, a friend becomes more than just a friend and discovers their secrets.

Warnings: Bruises, mention of blood, pain 

Word count: 3,514

Tags: @lunariasilver​

N​ext >> Becoming Part 2 

Beep! Beep! Beep! 

UHH! 

My stupid alarm clock woke me out of my perfect slumber. You rolled over to your side and glanced at your alarm clock. 6:30 AM. You groaned, today was Tuesday, which meant SCHOOL! 

After another minute of groaning, you got up and walked over out of your bedroom and into the bathroom. You brushed your teeth and took a quick shower and got ready. You looked at yourself in the mirror. 

“Looking good, y/n!”, you thought to yourself and got out of the bathroom and rushed downstairs to the living room. You saw that Jim was already up and making what looked like breakfast but you might wrong though. 

“Good morning Jim! Your dear old sister is very hungry! Have you made anything for her?” you asked, walking through into the kitchen. 

“Morning y/n! You’re only 18, three years older, not that old. But yes, I have! Here”, he handed you a plate with an omelette and a glass of juice. 

“Thanks!”, as you walked out of the kitchen and sat at the dining table. 

You quickly finished you’re breakfast and ran upstairs to grab your bag. You noticed that Jim was in your mom’s room, leaving breakfast there for her. You smiled. Jim took so much care for our mom. She was working double shifts lately, and she wasn’t getting enough rest and ‘me time’. 

Jim closed mom’s room’s door, and headed downstairs with you. 

||||||||||||||||||||

As the garage door opened, you saw that the garbage bin was laying on the floor with rubbish spilling out. 

“Uh. Raccoons!”, Jim said, annoyed. 

He picked up the rubbish, when Toby (Jim’s best friend) rides over to us from him house across from us.

“C’mon Jimbo, y/n, we’re late for school”, he said, buckling his helmet on. 

“I know. I was busy with the lunches. One for mom, y/n, me and you”, he said walking with his bike to him and handing him a brown paper bag. 

Toby peeked into the contents of the bag. 

“I can’t, I’m on a diet”, handing the paper bag back to Jim. 

“You’ve been on a diet for 14 years Tobes!”, Jim argued, pushing the Toby’s hand away. 

They continued bickering, when I got my bike and ringed it’s bell, catching the boys attention. 

“Well I’m heading to school. See ya later!”, you said, riding off

You took in the morning view of the beautiful mountains and canals. You would never want to leave Arcadia. As you rode your Vespa through town, you saw many people driving to work and walking to school. Some people were at the cafe or at a shop. You noticed a guy turn a sign from ‘close’ to ‘open’ for GDT Arcane Books. He was tall and skinny, wearing a black shirt and jacket with black jeans and black shoes. He had raven black hair with blue dyed tips. 

Hmm, I’ve never seen him around town before. You knew practically everyone in town except for the students at Arcadia Oaks High, other then Jim and Toby. I rode until your school came into sight, Arcadia Oaks Academy. You didn’t go to the same school Jim because your mom, Barbara Lake, couldn’t afford both of us going to Arcadia Oaks High, so I went to the other school, since it was cheaper. 

You parked your bike and hung your helmet on one of the handles. You walked through the entrance and were quickly greeted with your best friend,  Rachael and Izzy. 

“Y/n! Guess what happened!”, both of them squealed. 

“What?! Tom Holland is coming to Arcadia?”, you asked, jokingly. 

“Nope! I wish! But I got you-know-who’s Instagram!”, Izzy said, jumping up and down. 

You looked over at Rachael, she nodded. 

“Wow! Good job Izzy. Now you just need to become friends in the real world, not just the Instagram world”, you said walking over to your locker. 

“Uhh....maybe”, Izzy said. 

You grabbed your books and shoved them in your backpack, it was an urban backpack, so there weren’t any zips, just weird looking strips that magnetically connected. So you were having a hard time, zips were way more efficient. 

You slammed your locker closed and headed to our first class of the day, HPE theory. You were walking to class while talking with Rachael and Izzy when, you saw Jim calling me. you stopped and picked up. 

“What’s up, I have my first class in 5 minutes, so hurry”, you said quickly. 

“Sorry y/n! I found something in the canals, that was calling my name, strange. But I’ll tell you after school. Bye!”, he said and hung up before you even had a chance at saying ‘bye’. 

You put your phone in your pocket and were about continue to class, when you tripped over your feet and descended to the ground. You were ready for the impact but you never felt it. 

Huh? You looked up, and saw the same guy from the bookstore. He had grabbed you by your arms. You quickly got up and faced the guy. 

“Thank you! I can be very clumsy sometimes. Oh sorry, I’m y/n”, I said, stretching out my hand to shake.

“No problem! I’m Douxie. Nice to meet you y/n. Oh and...”, he said, then ruffled through his pockets and took out two cards. 

He handed them to me, GDT Arcane Books and Mr. Benoit’s cafe business cards. 

“I work there. It’ll be great to see you around there”, he said, not meeting your gaze.

“Sure! You look new, you just came here?”, you asked. 

“Nah. I just don’t really show my face to the public other then at school”, he replied. 

“Oh okay. Well, I’ll see you around, bye”, you said turning around to go to class. 

“Bye”, he said heading the other way. 

||||||||||||||||||||

The whole day was exhausting for you. After your last class, you left and went to your brother’s high school. 

Jim rode over to me, as well as Toby. 

“Hey Jim! How was your day?”, you asked, as you rode your bike along side him. 

“It was good, I kinda got into a fight with Steve, cause he was bullying Eli, so yeah...”, he said, trying to sound like it was normal. 

“Yeah! Did you see how I chanted ‘let him out! let him out!”, Toby exclaimed, proud of himself. “Good thing your mom’s a doctor”, he said, while mom drove up to us. 

“Hey kids”, mom greeted us, rolling down the window. 

Toby tried to stop in-front the car while he said,

“Looking sharp Dr. L”, as he stopped and came into mom’s view. 

“Thanks Toby. You’re looking sharp yourself”, she complimented him. 

“Oh really! It shows?”, Toby says, showing his ‘muscles’. 

You chuckled. 

While Jim and mom were talking, you waved mom bye and rode to your house. You put your bike in the garage and walked upstairs to your room. You dropped you bag on the floor, and took your laptop out and started doing your homework. Then you heard the front door open, must be Jim. 

You ran downstairs, finding him sitting on the edge of the couch and looking at what looked like an amulet. 

“I have a feeling that this is what you wanted to show me”, you said, sitting next to him. 

“Yeah. Toby and I found it in the canals in the morning. It was calling my name. Strange right?”, he explained. 

You nodded. You then looked at the amulet, it looked ancient. Jim suddenly, started talking to it. When the amulet didn’t say anything, he got frustrated and told it, 

“Come one speak up or else you’re going up on eBay!”

He sounded stupid at this point, he was talking to an inanimate object for God’s sake! Then we heard something from the basement. We glanced at each other and headed to the basement. 

“Uh! Must be raccoons!”, you said, getting a broom for Jim and getting yourself a metal stick.

We headed down the stairs and then saw....nothing. We went further in when you heard something behind you. You tapped Jim’s shoulder and turned around. 

A blue creature that had 6 eyes and 4 arms came out of the shadow’s. 

“Master Jim!”, it said. 

Jim started screaming, when another creature was behind us. It was bigger, had green hair and grey skin, well stone. 

“Hi!”, it said. 

You wanted to scream, but you couldn’t. Then you looked at the creatures and backed away terrified. You couldn’t hear what they were saying since you were in your own thoughts.

How did they get in? What do they want? What are they? How do they know Jim? 

Then you snapped back into reality. The creatures were introducing themselves. The multi-eyed guy was Blinky and the brute was AAARRRGGHH and they were ‘trolls’. Then Jim passed out. You looked at the trolls. 

“Don’t go near my brother!”, you shouted at them and stuck your metal stick out at them.

“Do not worry sister of Master Jim, we will not harm him”, Blinky said, trying to calm you down. 

But that didn’t work you felt very scared, but you had to look confident, the complete opposite. Then suddenly, aqua coloured sparks started to flare out of your hands and onto the stick you were holding. Then a ball of aqua looking sparks shot out and towards the trolls. It hit them, making them stumble back. 

“Hmm. Master Jim’s sister is a sorceress. Who knew?!”, Blinky whispered to AAARRRGGHH. 

“I-I’m a what?”, you asked, lowering the stick. 

“A sorceress. In simpler words, you have magic”, Blinky explained, “We should make our exit. Lovely meeting you sister of Master Jim. We-”. 

“My name is y/n. So call me that”, you said, introducing yourself. 

“Oh okay. Lovely meeting you, y/n. Well, goodbye, we will be seeing you soon”, Blinky said and AAARRRGGHH waved. Then they were gone. 

You looked down at Jim. 

“What have you gotten yourself and me into Jim”, you said, as you picked him up and took him back to the living room. 

You set him on the couch, and went upstairs to sleep. 

||||||||||||||||||||

You had gotten up a bit more early and got dressed. It wasn’t the best outfit but how cares?

You grabbed your backpack and headed downstairs. You looked at the clock, it was 7. You then looked at the couch were Jim was sleeping, he was snoring very loudly. You quickly wrote down a note for Jim: 

Morning sleepyhead, I’m out, since you were asleep, no one was going make breakfast, so I’m grabbing something for Mr. Benoit’s. See ya after school. 🤪

You rode you way over to the cafe and placed your bike near a window. You walked inside and was about to order, when Douxie walked up. 

“Hey y/n. Were you going to order something?” Douxie asked. 

“Hey Douxie, actually I was just going to get black coffee,” you replied. 

He help up a coffee cup. You smiled and thanked him as the two of you settled at a table. You drank your coffee quietly, while Douxie ate his muffin. 

“Wanna go to school together?” he asked. 

“Sure” you replied. 

You grabbed your bike while Douxie grabbed his. You both rided along side each other and talked. When the school came into view, Douxie asked, 

“Wanna race?”

“Why not!”, you replied. 

You both start peddling faster. When thought you were just about to win, Douxie peddled a bit faster. You pressed the brakes, but you didn’t stop. It did not end well. You skidded on the concrete, scraping your hands, making them bleed, and you ankle landed the wrong way when you fell to the floor. Douxie was just about to rush over and help you when a bunch of girls came up to him and started oooing and ahhing over him. He tried to go over to you but he couldn’t. 

You looked at your hands, there were bleeding a lot. You tried to stand up but as soon as you did, you fell back onto the floor, screaming in pain. Your ankle was not okay. Douxie had heard your scream, making him loose his patience. 

“Excuse me girls! I need to get to a very important person, so please,” he shouted, sprinting to you. 

“Y/n! Your hands...”, he said, worriedly, looking at your hands. 

He took your hands in his and inspected the scrapes. As he touched your wrist, you winced, he had touched a bruise. He saw you wince in pain, so he quickly apologised. He looked at your ankle, it was turning to a purple shade. Since you couldn’t walk, he would carry you. He placed one of his hands under your knees and the other behind your back and lifted you up. 

“Douxie, this isn’t necessary. I can pull my own weight,” I protested. 

He had pulled you close to his chest, so you wouldn’t accidentally fall. 

You noticed that he was pretty tall, so you wrapped your arms over his shoulders and clinged onto him for dear life. 

“You can’t pull your weight, clearly and this was the only way. Plus I don’t think you have a lot of weight to pull,” he said. 

He was clearly referring to me being light. 

He carried me across the school, getting everyone’s attention. We were about half way to the nurses office when Izzy and Rachael came rushed over to us. 

“Y/n! What happened?” they both asked. 

“My brakes were not working, so I skidded on concrete and my ankle landed the wrong way so I can’t walk. I told Douxie that I could pull my own weight but he didn’t listen and so he now carrying me to the nurses office,” you explained. 

“Well look at the bright side! You’re getting carried by Douxie! Douxie!” Rachael said. 

Douxie and you blushed. 

“It’s nothing. I can do anything for y/n,” Douxie said calmly. 

Izzy and Rachael eyebrows shot up at his statement. Douxie realised what he had said and tried to explain, when you tightened your grip on Douxie. Your ankle started hurting a lot. You winced in pain. Douxie looked at you and apologised to your friends and continued to the nurses office. You whimpered in pain, as it got worse. 

“It’s okay y/n, I’ve got you. Nothing is going to happen,” Douxie whispered to you. 

Douxie tried pushing the door of the nurses office open with his foot but it didn’t work. A person in the office, noticed you and Douxie and quickly opened the door, letting you in. Douxie laid you down on the bed in one of the room’s. The nurse ushered him out and the nurse examined your ankle. 

After you were examined, the nurse told Douxie that she will be fine by the end of the day, and that he could pick her up after last period. 

||||||||||||||||||||

You had been sitting on the bed all day, having an ice pack around your ankle and bandages on your hand. The whole day was very quiet and boring. Then, you heard the bell ring, school had ended! You didn’t have to wait long, your black and blue haired friend came as soon as the bell rung. 

“Hey Douxie!” you said, as he came into the room. 

“Hey y/n! How are you feeling? Can you walk?”, he asked, shooting you questions. 

“She can’t walk fully yet, she can limp. You’ll have to support your friend home”, the nurse interrupted. 

Your eyes become wide when the nurse said that he had to drop me off to my house. Douxie nodded and walked over to you. 

“Let’s see how you can walk”, he said. 

He offered me his hand for support and you took it. As you put weight on your ankle, it started to hurt. 

“Ouch!”, you exclaimed, squeezing Douxie’s hands in pain. 

“Yeah...you can’t walk. I am sorry for doing this again,” he said, then lifted you up again. You got out of the nurses office and out of school, were your bike was. 

“Hmm. If you can’t ride your bike to school, then you’ll need a lift. Do you have a brother or someone that can pick you up?”, Douxie asked. 

“I have a younger brother. He goes to Arcadia Oaks High. I can call him-”, you said when you were cut off by Douxie. 

“I can call him. What’s his number?”, he asked. 

You told him and then he called your brother. 

“Hey, is this Jim? Okay, so I have got your sister, can you pick her up? She can’t ride her bike, I’ll come with you guys since her bag is with me. Bye,” he said over the phone. 

||||||||||||||||||||

“Hey Jim!” Douxie waved at Jim and Toby, making him come over to you. 

“Y/n! What happened? Are you alright?” Jim asked, worried.  

“I’m fine Jim, I’ll tell you about it at home,” you said, reassuring him for now. 

“Okay let’s go, before it get’s dark...” Toby said, looking at the sun setting. 

Douxie looked confused, but he pushed the thought away. He helped you over to Jim, where he his hand stretched out for me to take. I took it and looked confused. 

“Jimbo, where am I going to sit?” you asked, gesturing to his bike, where there was only one seat. 

“You are going to sit on the seat, while I ride,” he explained. 

You nodded. You sat on his seat and he started peddling through town, while Toby and Douxie were following behind.  

“Douxie, thank you for helping my sister, it means a lot,” Jim said, as we rode through the town and onto the bridge. 

“It’s nothing. I can do anything for her,” Douxie said, but then he realised what he had just said. 

You blushed. 

“Well I um mean that I can do anything um...” Douxie stammered. 

“Anyways! Toby why were you at the dentist?”, Jim asked, trying to start a normal conversation. 

“I’ll explain later. Anyways, let’s talk about you, Jim,” Toby said, changing topics. 

“What about me?” Jim asked, panicking a little. 

“You know, the LOYL,” Toby smirked. 

“Yeah Jim, who is this girl? Wait, is it Claire Nūnez?” you teased. 

“Uh...um..well...”Jim stammered. 

“Oh! Jim you have a crush? Have you spoken to her yet?” Douxie teased. 

“Well I did yesterday, during gym class,” Jim said. 

“Please don’t tell me you said anything to her in Spanish,” you said. 

When he didn’t give you an answer, you knew the answer, he did. 

“What’s so bad in talking in Spanish?”, Douxie asked, curious. 

“Jim starts talking in Spanish when he get’s nervous, which is usually when he talking to girls, more specifically, Claire,” you explained. 

Then your house came. 

“Well that is it for the day, see you guys tomorrow,” Toby said, riding to his home across from ours. 

You got off your brother’s bike and limped over to the front door and opened it. You collapsed on the couch, tired. Douxie came in and dropped your bag onto the floor next to you. 

“Well I’ll see you tomorrow, love,” he said, walking out of the door. 

Jim came in and dropped his things on the couch. 

“I’ll make sandwiches, you rest,” Jim ordered. 

You sighed, you limped over with him and then sat on top of the bench. You looked at you brother, he chopping and looking at the amulet. 

“Why don’t you try looking into it?” you ask. 

“Maybe I should,” he said, taking the amulet and walking outside. 

You followed him outside and sat on the stairs. He looked at the amulet and spoke the incantation. 

“For the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command,” he spoke, turning the amulet. Then the wind suddenly picked up, and you saw that the rocks started to levitate. Then, blue magic orbs appeared out of the amulet and into Jim heart, then he levitated and armour appeared. Then the pieces clicked together. At first it was very big, which you started laughing at, then it shrunk and fitted him perfectly. He looked like a knight, but without the sword. 

“This is so freaking cool!” Jim exclaimed. 

“Now you just need a sword to go with the armour,” I commented, when a few more orbs appeared out the amulet and drifted to his hand, which then created a sword. 

You were amazed. This was magic! 

“Wow!” you said. 

Then Jim started to do some ‘cool’ moves with his sword, but when it got stuck into a a rock behind him. You bursted out laughing as you saw him attempt to take it out. He eventually did, but then he got it stuck again. He tried again, and it got out a lot faster. He chuckled when he got it out. 

In having discovered all this, on the other side of town, Mr Strickler and Bular were planning to take it from him. But the amulet had found it’s champion, would it be that easy? l

#douxie x reader #hisirdoux x reader #hisirdoux casperan x reader #tales of arcadia #trollhunters

[shiroscorner]

Okay! I Finished The Tower of Nero all the way back in October, but I got lazy and I recently re-read the whole ToA books again. I’m really glad I did because there where things I would have missed on first reading.

Before I give my final thoughts on the Book series as a whole I will be giving my  thoughts on events, Themes, and other miscellaneous things that happened in the books.

In the first chapter of the Hidden Oracle, Apollo talks about hanging over the Abyss of Chaos in Tartarus Which was a nice piece of Foreshadowing for the ending of ToA.

Rachael sassing Apollo over the other oracles like a bitter girlfriend is great.

I like how the books shows that Nico has been improving (Has friends, isn’t living with dead people, smiles, and participating in group activities), but that he still has a long way to go with his mental health. Rick works really hard at showing that a significant other isn’t going to fix all your problems and that its going to take a long time for Nico to get to a really good place mentally. Mental health is an uphill battle your whole life for people who suffer from mental health conditions no matter how much your life improves.

This series is the most inclusive LGBTQ+ children’s series ever written (Regardless of medium). Its makes me happy to see such a inclusive and well round LGBTQ+ characters. Including the main character which is huge for a children’s series.

Frank going out on his own terms to avenge Jason makes me cry every time even knowing that Frank survives on a second reading. 

I like to imagine that all the Jason hate is a vocal minority because of how many people were sad by Jason’s death (It couldn’t possibly be that they all suddenly love Jason now that he’s dead or anything like that).

Jason and Piper’s relationship. I’m really glad that though they broke up the still are friends and care about each other. They went on multiple quests together post break up. Most books, shows, and movies show that people can’t be friends after a break-up and it bothers me because people absolutely can be. Its nice to see that.

Apollo is thirsty for literally everyone. I wanna re-read these books an catalog a full list of people Apollo thirsts for and has dated.

I don’t think I have ever mentioned it on here before, but I work a job that allows you to where headphones and ear buds so I listen to the audio books while at work. The narrator for the ToA books is Robbie Daymond. His performance is so amazing. Probably because he is a professional actor. If you haven’t listened to the audio books I highly recommend it.

Lavinia is my QUEEN! MORE LAVINA PLEASE!

Jason is amazing and selfless and we stan him here!

I like that Calypso and Leo still have a lot of working to do to make the relationship work. Most authors would be like “He saved her from a 4,000 year imprisonment so now everything is perfect” All relationships need work regardless of the history.

Crest was okay, but I wish we had known him a little longer before he died.

I love Emmie, Jo, and Georgie.

Apollo forgetting how to God because of how long he’s been mortal is so funny.

Am I sad that my fan theory didn’t happen? Yeah, but it still ended in a really good way. I still think Apollo will take over duty of Camp Director once Mr. D’s punishment is over. It will be a really good full circle moment for him because it will not only bring him down to earth, but also Apollo was the one who made Camp Half Blood / was the original Camp Director. I actually have a lot of fan theories about what everyone will be doing when they get older and in the future.

Okay so my final thought on The Trials of Apollo.

The Trials of Apollo is one the the most well planned and written series in the Riordanverse. While Apollo’s literal trails were about reclaiming the five oracles the actual point of the trails were about Apollo taking accountability for the awful things he’s done. While each books is about a specific Oracle they are also about a particular part of his life that he ruined with his self destructive behavior.

The Hidden Oracle was about Apollo taking responsibility for the death’s of his two greatest loves Daphne and Hyacinthus.

The Dark Prophecy was about how Apollo has failed and ignored his children.

The Burning Maze is about Apollo’s treatment of demigod heroes and the part he played in sending them to their deaths

The Tyrants Tomb is about Apollo coming to terms with and taking accountability for the absolute worst things he ever did and discovering how he can move forward from them.

The Tower of Nero is About Apollo bringing all the lessons he’s learned together.

As the books go on Apollo slowly becomes less self centered and more humble. His inner monologues are were the change is most noticeable. At the beginning of the series in the Hidden Oracle Apollo’s inner monologue is so obnoxious its almost intolerable. However, slowly over the course of the books he becomes less obnoxious and more down to earth. His thoughts over time shift toward the people he loves and cares about instead of himself.

Meg and Apollo’s Abuse stories were so profound and honest about how Abuse happens. How Nero and Zeus trained Meg and Apollo to see them as the good guys when they were actually being abused, how the victim blaming worked, and how they came to the conclusion that they were abused. All of it so realistic and honest. Books like these may help real people see how they are being abused and to seek help.

These books were so great and I am excited for the stand alone books (WE KNOW YOU WRITING A NICO BOOK UNCLE RICK DON’T TRY TO HIDE IT) and the Celtic series he teased during The Tower of Nero.

Interested in hearing what you guys have to say. Tell me! Please be nice and respectful to everyone who comments!

(Note I am dyslexic like many other demigods and any constructive criticism about grammar and spelling mistakes are welcomed)

#Percy Jackon and the Olympians #heros of olympus #trials of apollo #apollo #lester papadopoulos #meg mccaffrey #Nico di Angelo #Will solace #kayla knowles #austin lakes #percy jackson #annabeth chase #frank zhang #Hazel Levesque #solangleo #Piper McLean #jason grace #lavinia asimov #the hidden oracle #the dark prophecy #the burning maze #the tyrants tomb #the tower of nero #Artemis #hunters of artemis #thalia grace #reyna ramirez arellano #emmie and jo #crest

[lore-o-hoe]

LO Theory: The Abduction of Persephone: Who’s involved and what might go down

(It’s a long one folks strap in!)

———————————————————————-——————————

So as of this post season 1 of LO has ended off with a few things happening:

We see a telling of Persephone’s act of wrath

We see Asspollo has taken up with Daphne a flower nymph that is close friends (and has a strong resemblance) to Persephone.

We also see Asspollo threaten to release the photos he took of her if she speaks out about his crime.

And lastly Persephone writes a note to Artemis that she’d be leaving for a while to visit her mother. Though at the end it’s revealed that she didn’t and she’s pretty much gone without a trace.

Honeslty there’s so much to unpack there but what I wanna focus on are the last few points.

Persephones disappearance and Apollo’s threats.

A main point of the Persephone/Hades myth is her abduction by Hades that later results n their marriage. Now given that the LO cannon diverts a lot from the original myth it’s not far fetched to assume that this aspect might also change as well.

Now what I’d like to point out is the man himself, Zeus. In one telling of the original myth, Hades abduction and marriage of Persephone was all facilitied by Zeus without even informing Demeter.

Now in Chapter 87 concerning Hades and his feelings about Persephone Zeus says this disturbing line:

Now while Zeus is already morally bankrupt as it is this adds a new disturbing light to the theory I intend to discuss.

Zeus has no issue allowing Hades to kidnap and marry Persephone against her will and explicitly states that he won’t get in the way.

Which doubles as a bit of a heartbreaker if you look at one telling of one of the old myths. In one such origin myth, Zeus tricks and forcefully marries Hera, and subsequently humiliates her with constant affairs. While LO doesn’t appeared to have gone in this direction (excluding the affairs), I feel like it’s still important to note.

Now let’s think, who’s also morally bankrupt and wouldn’t be opposed to marrying Persephone against her will?

Oh yeah...

That folks is what I love to call foreshadowing and things are certainly coming to a head next season. What makes it worse is what Zeus says in the season finale about Persephone and punishment.

Given what we know about Zeus and punishment, who’s to say he wouldn’t force Persephone to become Apollo’s bride despite her obvious hatred for him? Like an cruel, ironic type of punishment?

After all in Chapter 69 Aphrodite highlights one of Zeus’ well known harsh punishments:

Obviously I’ve got no idea what Rachael and Season 2 has in store for us, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Chances are it probably won’t go down this way but it’s good for thought.

#lore olympus #lo persephone #lo theory #lo apollo #lore olympus theory #persephone beat up apollo 2k20 #persephone theory #maybe it’ll happen maybe it wont i dunno #lo aphrodite #lo eros #yall i am SCARED #Im scared #Apollo can CHOKE #Zeus can also CHOKE #Hera rights in this household #can persephone get a break?? #i’m probably late to the party with this one but it’s been on my mind #lo headcannon? #my post

[slashingdisneypasta]

Horror Villain x Reader || Drabbles

Plot: Having the kid of a Slasher. These have vastly different blurbs though so they have lil’ titles! 

Includes: Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers 

Warnings: Freddy’s one includes the kidnapping of a child by their father (A child killer, to boot). Other then that, what can I say? This is Slasher fanfiction, Freddy is himself. Michael’s is pretty humorous though... :D

Notes: 

I really wanna build on these some more! I plans to write a oneshot where Michael and reader eventually get ‘back together’ sort of? And a prequal to Freddy’s where Maggie visits her half brother and Luke questions her and reader about their father. 

Note: Freddy is going to call you mummy if you are woman, man, or gender neutral. And I’m going to spell it the American way because it just seems more fetishized that way and more like the wrapped up Egyptian dead people the English way. I am not sure how you would accidentally have his child if you have a penis, but who knows in this universe. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! 

~~~

Freddy Krueger: Luke // ‘Protecting your child from his father’

“Hey! How are you?” I call, breathless to the receptionist -Judy, - sitting in school office. She looks up and a haze of confusions crosses her pretty green eyes, and I try not to worry. There could be any reasin this woman is confused to see me that is unrelated to my son’s whereabouts. Deciding not to wait for her to tell me how she is because the anxiety in me clenches around my heart like a boa constrictor, I paste on a bigger smile ask. “Where’s Luke? He didn’t come out when the bell went.”

Maybe he’s in the sick bay, or… I don’t know. What other acceptable reason could there be that my son is not here with me?

Don’t think like that.

My smile must look stiff and sharp at this point, because Judy starts very slowly. Cautious. “… Hi-His Dad picked him up, Miss L/N.”

Dad? My nose scrunches up in utter confusion. I’m absolutely certain that I had Bradley taken off the register as Luke’s secondary emergency contact- I stood right here with this woman for half an hour figuring out how to do that. And besides, why would my ex-husband pick up my son from school and not tell me? Luke doesn’t have a-

His… his Dad? Freddy couldn’t have. I’ve been giving Luke Hypnocil pills since he could take them, crushing them every night and stirring the dust into his dinner. I haven’t heard any signs of Freddy for 8 years and a couple months. Let’s set aside that crazy, ridiculous theory for now. Because its impossible! Even if he did want to do something with Luke, he would try to get to him through his dreams, yes? It would be too risky to come on out here and take him from school. That’s crazy.

“What?” Where is my goddamn son? Who took him?

“U-um, uh. A uh, ‘Fredrick Krueger’ took him about an hour ago. His name was in the system, and they looked a bit alike in the eyes, s-so I-we just assumed it was okay.”

For a moment I think I’m going to die on the spot. Then I spit out. “Is this a joke?!”

Its too horrible, too unthinkable to be true. I’ll say it again; I haven’t heard from Freddy in nearly a fucking decade, and that’s the way I was hoping it would stay. What is this.

“N-No, Miss L/N.”

“Did he say where they were going? Did Luke say anything?” My baby. Starting to breathe heavily now from the effort of staying calm and thinking too fast for a clue as to where my son is and what the hell is going on. Did this chick even look at Freddy’s face?! This school is just handing babies over to suspicious men who look like they should be in the burn ward of the intensive care unit?!

“Miss L/N- “This woman is scared, I know, and anxious as she looks with wide eyes all around me instead of at my eyes but she’s really grating on my nerves. A maniac has my son and she is going to give me all the information she has.

“Do you remember your dreams last night? Or the last couple nights?” That’s how assume Freddy got in the system, manipulated Judith here to do it for him. Maybe he left a clue.

“My- my dreams? Um-mm, well I… “My hand slams down on the bench between us so hard the pen attached to a string attached to the early leavers clipboard jumps up a little. My hand shakes, and as she quickly recalls her dream I read through the most recent entries on the board for the early leavers. Right at the bottom, in tiny handwriting that does not belong to Luke is the name Luke Krueger under student and ‘Doctors appointment’ under ‘Reason for leaving’, and a smiley face. I take a deep breath and turn back to Judy with eyes of molten lava. She fumbles with her glasses, on a string around her neck. “I-I remember a junk yard in a couple… “That’s it.

Already flying to the door, I call back. “Have some child’s school exit forms ready for me tomorrow Judy; Goodbye.” And promptly, I fling the door open and run for hell and leather for my car.

~~~

“LUKE!” I scream into the old junk yard, hands shaking but courage as strong as an ox. Nothing, not even death itself will stop me from saving my kid. Looking around every corner and trying to listen to any sound over the loud beating of my heart in my ears, I speed walk around, heading towards the burnt down old shed, yelling for Luke every 2 seconds because I’m deluded into thinking any second he might hear e, and come running out safe to me. When the horrible thing, the shed, comes into view, I feel sick. Its still burnt up, and rust litters the ground around its four walls but its standing.

They’ll be in there.

Forcing myself ahead, because I never wanted to see this, the place Freddy was killed -Because it’s something so terrible. Not because I give a fuck about what happened to Freddy, - I open the door and immediately there they are. It takes me a second to catch my bearing’s, because this place has such an awful feeling and I’ve never been in a situation like this and I don’t know what to do, and because theirs a child killer with his filthy hand on my 7 year old son’s shoulder.

“Luke?” My eyes soften as soon as they find his. Glancing from him to Freddy’s other hand to see if he has a weapon, especially that glove to find nothing, and back to him, I gesture for my him to come here. “Come over here, baby. Its okay.”

He doesn’t say anything, just frowns and whimpers, looking wearily up at the man who’s holding onto him and for an awful second I think Freddy’s going to pull a fast one on us and pull out a razor or something… but then one finger at a time he lets go of Luke and Luke rushes to me so fast that the force pushes me back a little when he reaches me, wrapping his little arms around my waist and digging his face, shaking so I’m well aware that he’s crying now, into my stomach. I drop to my knees and look him over thoroughly, searching for any indications that this ‘doctors’ appointment’ that he was taken for occurred, but theirs nothing.

A sick taste wells up in my throat as I realise this, and as Luke burrows into me again for more hugs and I wrap my arms around him I look back to the problem. “What-What’s this doctor’s appointment I read about? Just a cover?”

“Not in the slightest! But I thought we should probably wait for you before starting… Mommy. I got us a good deal- family pack!” With that, Freddy takes out a scalpel and grins madly. I tighten my grip on Luke. “Who should go first, eh?”

“Stay the fuck back.”

“Oh, I think not!” I gently tug Luke back as Freddy advances, wondering if it would be smart to make any sudden moves right now.

“I called the police!” God, I wish I had now. But I was too focused on getting here before something awful happened that I…

Forgot.

Oh my god.

He stops coming towards us, but then an evil, knowing smile creeps across his mouth. He tilts his head, calling my bluff. “No, you didn’t.”

“Uh, yeah I did!” So, I’m buying for time. Main objective: Save Luke. Leverage: Me. Freddy’s a being made completely up on vengefulness and anger at this point, and I escaped him. He hates that.

Stroking the back of Lukes head with my thumb in thought, I know what I have to do and make like him giving him a little, worried head kiss- but really whisper to him that our car’s in the carpark and my phone is in the passenger seat. He clutches me tighter. Oh, baby… I wish I could come with you.

“You called nobody. Don’t try to bullshit Daddy. Now, I think our little bundle of joy should go first, more fun for me! Little blast from the past, ey?” He takes another step towards us, causing me to jolt back violently from fear, because I’m so close to saving Luke and if Freddy makes any sudden movements, we both might be done for, and tats just unacceptable. That scalpel is unnecessarily big. Where the hell did he get a scalpel that big?! What is it for? Crocodile surgery?!

Luckily, we’re closer to the door then Freddy is -oopsie made on his part,- so when I let go of Luke he goes straight out the door and before Freddy can reach the door and slip out after him, and push myself hard against the door, slamming it closed. For a second everything is still, which is a scary thing when it comes to this killer, and I just sit there on the ground and watch his scary face just be still.

His eyes, though, expressive as they are, reveal how utterly furious he is.

Then slowly he looks down his chest at me, aiming that mad anger at me as his shaking hand grips the weapon so tightly that his knuckles go absolutely white. “You bitch.”

Michael Myers (RZ): Rachael // ‘Visitation’

“Morning Rache!” I exclaim, setting down cheerily on my 12-year-old’s bed as golden early morning light slips through her purple curtains and leaves stripes on my thighs. “It’s Sunday!”

“Why does it always have to be so early with him? Its not church.” She informs me, sleep thick in her voice as she pulls the doona up over her head and rolls over so her back is to me.

“He thinks very highly of himself.” That or this is when visiting hours are.

“I see that.”

“So… “Like I always do on Sunday, I put pluck the blanket away from her face to see her eyes are open and she’s already fully awake. She always is on Sunday morning, it’s because of what she knows is coming. I tuck some of her hair behind her early, and speak gently now, like always. “You wanna go see your Dad?” It always, always, always needs to be her choice. She always says yes, though.

For a moment this time, she pauses. Then deeply rolls her eyes and flicks the blanket back up over her face. “Yeah, okay.”

“Alright. We’ll head off in half an hour, then. Oh- maybe you can tell him about the awkward you got!” I exclaim, brightening immediately because my baby is so smart! Captain of her class, and she just got an award for doing well in maths! Her teacher even told me at parent-teacher interviews that she’s getting the work so much easier than any of the other students. This has been the same since she started Elementary school. Dunno where she got those brains from, but I like to believe if it’s me and not Michael. And I am so proud of her.

“Yeah, I will. Can you get out now so I can get changed, parent?”

“Whatever!” I exclaim cheerfully, like the immature one between us two that I am as I leave the room and shit the door behind me, heading to make her toast. She is more like Michael, in that regard. So focused and serious- I, on the other hand, have Goldfish brain.

Which makes a lot of sense when I ask myself ‘What made you think fucking the Shape of Haddonfield was okay?’ because then I remember ‘Big man, strong hands, big dick’ and I remember.

I’m a moron. Was, a horny moron. But no more! I am a mother now, and mothers don’t get horny! No, no. Ahahaha.

… But that doesn’t mean I regret having Rachael. No fucking way. She’s the mother-fucking light of my life, and I’ll have sex with Michael a thousand more times if that’s what it would take to keep her.

Wait, that doesn’t sound right.

… Ah, oh well. Toast!

~~~

When we get to Michael’s cell, Rachael goes straight over to the door and uses her foot to move the little stepping stool they keep right there, specially for her -well, I bought it and made them keep it there, but that’s just semantics,- and hops on so she can peer through the window to her father. I stay back a few feet with Dr Loomis, my jacket hung over my crossed arms. Because I don’t have anything in common with Sam Loomis at all, as we have previously discovered on these visits, I turn bluntly to him and ask, shamelessly. “So, how’s he going Doc?” Even though Michael’s condition hasn’t changed since he was six, that is what I ask.

Loomis offers me a crooked, humourless grin and explains that nothing has changed, but he did make Rachael a new mask. “Oh, that’s nice.” I say, although really, don’t think that’s nice. Does Michael think I have endless wall space for these things? I don’t want my home to look like his sanatorium cell. I have taste!

Hey, don’t judge me. The only way I can get through these visits is by being sarcastic and making jokes to myself.

And to Loomis, but he doesn’t really like me.

Probably because I make sarcastic jokes about his most dangerous patient.

Eh, oh well.

I turn back to Rachael to see her holding up her award to the window so Michael can read it, and after I lean to the left a bit to see inside the cell I see that he is doing so. He’s just sitting in his dressing gown on a desk chair at the other side of his cell- no wonder Rachael has to talk loudly!

He communicates through head shakes and nods, and sometimes even writes on a white board he always has set on his big -big mannnnnn. Oh jeez, the thirst is still strong, despite him now being an irritating part of my life… I have to get up at the ungodly hour of nine on a Sunday for this. Just to get a new stupid mask and stand back here with Doctor humourless, - lap, which I do concede, is pretty sweet. He doesn’t communicate that way to anyone else, as Loomis told me, except for with her.

Visitation usually lasts an hour and half, if Michael’s feeling ‘chatty’, And he definitely is today, so our visit bleeds into breakfast time so we join him -without a door between us and him,- for breakfast in the cafeteria. Rachael and I sit on one side and Michael and Loomis sit on the other. Mostly Rachael and I chat during this time, but Rachael looks to her father every now and then for his reaction.

“Hey mum, do you want the last pancake?” Rachael asks, eyeing the last fluffy breakfast food just as hungrily as Michael just after Dr Loomis gets up to go check quickly on another patient, leaving us as a ‘family’ for a little bit.

I pat my tummy. “Naw, I’m stuffed! Why don’t you and your dad share it.”

A little smile breaks across her little face, making me grin too. She’s so cute! She’ll always be cute, I don’t know if she’s 37, a pasty scientist and mildly mangled from experiments gone wrong, she’ll still be adorable. I’m sure Michael agrees. “Okay!”

As she goes off to get the pancake, I leap to take the chance alone to have a chat with Michael myself.

Or attack him.

Placing my elbow securely on the table between us, pointing at him, I squint. “Stop making her masks, Michael! Anything else, really!- We’ve had this talk before, multiple times. You know I have no wall space!”

He shoulders jump, like he silently chuckled at me, and my squint-greasy, just enhances.

“You know what you’re doing, don’t you?”

After a moment, he veeeeery purposefully shrugs those huge shoulders of his. He does know, he does. I knew it!

“Ooooooooh… “I nearly shake with annoyance, returning to my seat properly and glaring I hope subtly from my side of the table as Rachael returns and carefully tears the pancake in half for them. As she does, I watch and just sit and take great pleasure in the fact that they wont even trust plastic knives around Michael. Ha!

He see’s the too-happy glint in my eye and drinks all my juice.

Damn him.

#Horror Villain Drabbles #Horror Villains x Reader #Michael Myers #Freddy Krueger #X Reader

[alarawriting]

52 Project #28 / Writeober 2020 #8 Haunting: The Court of the Lion King

I returned to the apartment building where Daro and Anzali and I had lived before we went down to the sea. It had not changed in the way buildings change-- its paint was the same color, it seemed no more or less weatherbeaten than before.  The railing on the 3rd floor balcony still sagged.  But it had changed in the way homes change, because it wasn't home any more. Because different people lived there now, filling it with their strange scents, and because I had changed.  The scent of the sea was still in my nostrils. I would never smell the comforts of home again.

Renting the third floor apartment did not present difficulties.  I walked through the silence of the apartment, marveling at its emptiness.  The furniture was still there, the faded rug, the great sagging bed, the tired appliances. But all the personality was gone. Anzali's bright prints had been taken off the walls, which themselves had been whitewashed again to remove our cheery yellow paint.  White is a disturbing color, the color of bones and of drowned skin, pink human and green farla alike.  Even the humans of other colors became gray, in death by water. If I needed to be here long, the white walls would glare in my eyes and drive me mad.  

There was a knock at the door, startling me, and I almost fled.  But it wouldn't be the Lion King, not here, not yet.  He wouldn't know I was back.  I opened the door.

A human greeted me. "Hi there, new neighbor.  I'm Rachael from the second floor apartment. Just thought I'd come say hi. Need help moving in?"

Rachael was chubby – not just by farla standards, but by human – with short brown hair and a squeaky tenor voice. She had pale skin, which she covered with more makeup than most humans, and her chin and brow seemed unusually defined for a female human. "Hello,"  I said distantly.  "I'm Ashmi.  No, I don't need help moving in.  Thanks for asking."

"Oh.  Well, sorry to bother you.  You want to come downstairs for a cup of tea or something? I like to get to know my neighbors.  It cuts down on the insecurity, you know.  Living in a place like this-- well, this isn't the best of neighborhoods, you know?"

"I know,"  I said bitterly, and wondered if this androgynous human knew the Lion King.  I also wondered if I could still drink tea.  I was afraid of my bone-white apartment, and loneliness.  "I'll come downstairs if you want, but I don't know if I'll be able to take tea.  I tend to be allergic to nearly everything."

"Well, come on down. You don't have to have tea if you don't want it.  You're a farla, aren't you?"

I stepped out of my apartment and followed Rachael downstairs.  "You can't tell?"

"You're a bit pale, aren't you? I never saw a farla so white.  I thought you guys were all green.  Not that I think it looks bad, I think you look gorgeous.  At least, I don't know, by human standards or something, but maybe you don't feel good?"

"It's the color we turn when we're away from our Mother,"  I said.  "The Sun.  It is not a well color, and I thank you for your concern, but really, don't worry about me."

Rachael's apartment smelled like cats.  Unsurprisingly, three came to greet Rachael, and another one sat on a moth-eaten armchair and glowered at me.  The cats seemed unsure of me.  Farla generally get along well with cats, sometimes better than with the humans who brought them, and I had always liked them.  These, however, avoided me, and I avoided them.  Rachael noticed.  "Don't you like cats?"

There is one Cat that I despise.  But I wouldn't say so.  These cats were nothing of the Lion King.  "They're all right.  These don't seem to like me."

"That's funny.  Normally they're all over strangers.  What's wrong, guys? You being little bitches today?"  Rachael turned to me apologetically.  "They get like this sometimes."

"I don't blame them."  I took a deep breath of cat-scented air.  It was not quite enough to drown out the scent of the sea.  "Forgive me for my ignorance.  I'm not very experienced with humans, but...  you are a woman, aren’t you?”

Rachael laughed. "Already? That’s great!"

"I don’t understand."

"I’ve been trying."  The human went into the kitchen to put on tea.  "Just managed to get on hormones two weeks ago. This place, well. Not a lot of doctors, and the mail’s not too reliable."

"What do doctors and the mail have to do with your – no. This is none of my concern, I’m being very rude."

"From a farla, I’m okay with it,"  Rachael said, coming out with the tea. “I’m a woman, but I only figured it out for certain a year ago, and it’s taken me this long to get the hormones I need.”

“I didn’t know humans could have an ambiguous gender," I said.

“Yeah, sometimes we’re born with the wrong genitals and hormones, and it can be hard to figure out what we really ought to be. I’m thirty-five. I don’t know if farlae age like humans do, but that’s, like, more than a third of a human’s maximum average lifespan, more than half of how long we usually do live when we grow up in neighborhoods like this. I didn’t grow up here, though, but just a few cities over, not so close to the water, but other than that it’s just like this. So that’s a long time to not know, but I know it now. Gonna start growing my hair out now that I have my shots.”

I doubted the other city was really just like this. This city was different from any I had known. "I see,"  I said, though I didn't really understand most of what she was talking about.  I tried to smell the tea, but I could only smell salt water.

"Do you want something? Some water? I feel bad that you're allergic to tea and all."

What I needed, Rachael could not give me.  Or at the least, I would not take from her.  "That's fine.  I'm all right."  I had not been all right since we went to the sea.  I no longer even knew how many years it had been.  "How long have you been living here?"

"Oh, a year and a half or so.  It's a bad neighborhood, but it's cheap.  You know how it is.  Hard to get work nowadays."

I didn't know how it was, but I nodded politely.  "Yes."

"Now that I’m out, a lot of humans won’t hire me. This is the kind of neighborhood where they’ve got really old, traditional attitudes, you know? And I guess you've got it worse.  Not many farlae here."

"This was a farla neighborhood once,"  I said. "An artists' community.  It was poor, but it had a soul."

"Well, it hasn't got one now,"  Rachael said, with an edge of bitterness in her voice.  "That's just like us humans.  We wreck everything."

"You feel too much guilt.  This may be a human neighborhood now, but its soullessness is not human doing." Panic choked me like seaweed as I realized I'd said too much.  I had lost my old instincts-- I had no way to know if Rachael was the Lion's or not.

"You talk like you've been here before."

"I must go." I got up, hastily.  "I'm sorry."

"Uh, okay. Health problems or something? Or was it something I said?"

"Health problems," I lied.  "Perhaps we'll talk again.  I'm sorry."

***

I locked the door of my apartment behind me.  It wasn't necessary; what I feared could come through walls, and there were no mundane threats I did fear anymore.  But it would disturb me if Rachael came upstairs and came inside while I wasn't watching.  I wanted to be careful of what she might see.  

I thought she was a sweet, harmless soul, if a bit strange.  I would wish to befriend her, another time, perhaps, but not here.  Not where anything might warp under the paw of the Lion.  I could see the signs she'd spoken of now.  This place no longer had a soul.

Once Daro had argued that humans could be rendered soulless, could be enslaved, far more easily than the farlae.  Farlae, he argued, had been created as slaves, and would die free rather than live that way again.  Humans, freely evolved, knew no better.  Slavery was a sporadic thing in their history and was performed by groups of them on other groups, never something their race as a whole had suffered.  So they did not notice being enslaved.  They couldn't see the loss of their souls until after the precious stuff was gone.

At the time I had called Daro racist, but secretly suspected some part of his theory to be true.  Now I knew better.  Farlae had fled this neighborhood because they'd heard of our fate, I thought.  And humans moved in simply by the laws of diffusion, there being more of them on this world than us.  Unaware of the danger until it was too late.  Farlae would notice an absence of farlae, and stay away, feeling unwelcome. Humans, the majority, had no such warning system.

And farlae could be enslaved, stripped of will or soul.  Sometimes the choice was not between slavery or death.  Sometimes it was between two forms of slavery.

I thought I could sleep. But the bed would not touch me. When I closed my eyes and lay down, I felt myself in my ocean bed once more, curled like a child in the womb, the green water penetrating me and washing my thoughts away.  It didn't matter.  I didn't need sleep anyway.

I left my apartment and went to explore the neighborhood by night.  It had changed physically after all.  No one I'd known would have allowed their apartments to become so run-down, let so much trash collect in the streets, or left broken, melted vehicles like mountains of plastic on the sides of the roads.  Aside from me, no woman walked abroad, and I was invisible if I chose. Gangs of young male humans lounged about, predators waiting for prey.  Empty drug vials and used-up dermal patches littered the sidewalks and the paths between the buildings.  

The Lion King's place alone had grown in splendor.  His nightclub, Heaven, looked positively palatial, glittering with light and music. He sat in the center of the neighborhood, with a vast spiderweb thrown in the air about him of parking for aircars. There were no longer any grounded streets leading to his court, and all the buildings that used to stand around Heaven had been swallowed by the glittering fibers of the parking web. From the ground, only someone light as a wraith could climb the web to reach the cars, as I did; the human children down below could see fat, juicy prey overhead, but had no way to reach it. They were driven sullen, reminded of what they didn't have and could never get, made impotent by the Lion. And so in impotent fury they raged against those that had no more than they-- which was why no one walked alone on the night streets, and no women walked at all.

This was what I saw when the Lion King first arrived.  But then it was only a vision in a dream-clouded farla's mind.  I didn't truly know what the Lion King truly was until the day he summoned me to his court.  None of us knew.  I tried to tell myself that, to remind myself that Daro and Anzali's fate was not my fault. I didn't believe my own reassurances at all.

The club itself was the last place I went, that night.  Invisible to almost all, I wandered the two dance floors, peered in some of the upstairs bedrooms and slipped back out again.  Heaven had grown more openly decadent since last I was here, with more bedrooms for the transactions of perversion and vice.  They were no longer hidden away on the top floor, available only to members of the Lion's court.  I saw businessmen cavorting in swimming pools with women who were no more than animated shells, the vivacity that seemed to pour from them as artificial as the sunlamp light that glittered off the pool.  I saw humans and farlae both drugged out of their minds, performing obscene rituals of life and death for an appreciative audience of both races. I saw other humans and farlae voluntarily drinking down hells'brews, filling their bodies with a greater variety and concentration of drugs than even the poor victim-slaves had been poisoned with.  And none of them saw me.  I didn't expect humans to see me, but the fact that I was invisible even to farlae said that the farlae in this establishment were all spiritually dead.

None of this surprised me. It filled me with hate, but hate gave me strength.  I remembered what had been done to me, what had happened to my husband and wife, and why I was here.  I decided to risk finding the Lion King.

***

The topmost floor of Heaven was the Lion King's court.  One could not get in without an invitation, but in a sense the Lion had tendered me an invitation all those years ago.  In any case, only the Lion himself could have kept me out, and he didn't man his own doors.

I saw him on his throne, with four scantily-clad women serving him.  Two were human, one was farla, and one was as he was, part cat. The humans once manufactured other humans with the blood of animals mingled with their own.  Normally cat-humans manifested only with cat-shaped eyes and bodies far more graceful than a typical human body.  The Lion King himself was thought a mutant or a throwback, or else something entirely inhuman, with his features subtly shaped to seem more cat than human, and his curly golden hair almost a mane.  He was feeding from one of the human women as he held her in his lap.  The others were massaging him or stroking his hair, oblivious to the bloody fate of their companion.  Favored courtiers, men and unattractive women, competed for his attention, praising him and giving him information on his business.

He could not speak as he drank, but eventually he released the woman he was feeding from.  She dropped to the floor in a heap, and I shuddered.  In my time, his habits were not quite so open.  I turned and left as I heard his voice.  It was deep and mellifluous, no different than I remembered it, and I feared that my hate would choke me and I'd do something rash.  I hadn't come all this way to throw away my best chance.

***

In the morning, I went to visit Rachael.  My sight of the Lion King had fortified me, and I no longer cared if she was his creature or not.  I needed information.

"Hey, Ashmi!" she said cheerfully, answering my knock in a bathrobe.  "Want to come in and get some breakfast?"

"I'd like to come in, in any case,"  I said, "though I've already eaten."

"Oh.  Well, if you don't mind watching me eat, come on in. I was kind of hoping you'd come in."  She stared at me as I entered the cat-full apartment and seated myself.  "God, you're gorgeous.  I'd give anything to look like you."

"If you would give what I have given, you're a fool,"  I said softly.

"What?"

"Beauty is only a danger, in a place like this.  I need information, Rachael; about the Lion King.  What do you know?"

She swallowed. "Um.  I don't think it's safe to talk about him..."

"It's safe.  No one is listening, I am not an informant, and if you are I don't care.  Tell me what you know about the Lion King."

"I don't think--"

I stood up again, and stared into her eyes.  I let her see a small fraction of what I truly was.  "Tell me."

"Oh, God." She stared at me with fear, not envy, now.  "You're-- you're not--"

"I am not. Yes.  I won't hurt you, Rachael, not unless you keep information from me."

"No wonder you didn't want to eat."  She swallowed again.  "All right.  I don't know much-- I'm too ugly for the Lion and too poor to go to his club.  But I know what everyone in the neighborhood knows. He's not human, for starters.  I mean, more than the way you're-- uh, maybe the way you're not.  Um.  I mean, he isn't natural.  He isn't just a catperson, he's something else. Something else totally."

"Yes.  Something that can strip away a will, or a soul."

"And pretty girls have got to go to him, if he wants them.  He doesn't take them all.  And most of the ones he takes come back, though they don't remember much about what happened, and they're usually not so pretty anymore.  Some of them, though-- some of them don't come back at all."

"How do the girls go to him? How are they chosen?"

"Anytime someone new moves in, his people check to see if there's a pretty girl in with them. They'll probably come to take you tonight.  If there are any remotely pretty girls, they go with the Lion King's men, and they get presented to him in his court.  And if he likes them, they stay there."

"Yes.  It was not the same in my time, but it was similar." A fierce pain beat at me from within. "What of those who won't submit?"

"The Lion King's bullyboys don't give you a choice.  You have to go with them."

I smiled bitterly and looked hard at Rachael.  "You wanted to be my friend.  Yet you made no attempt to warn me-- though you thought I was beautiful, and that must have meant you knew the Lion King's men would come for me."

"I was scared," Rachael whispered, looking down. "If I'd warned you, and you'd run away...  and he found out..."

"You might find yourself walking to the ocean,"  I agreed.  "No, I suppose it doesn't matter."

"Ah--" Rachael looked up.  "Did it happen to you? Did you..."

"When the Lion King first came,"  I said, "I lived in the apartment I live in now, with my husband and my wife, Daro and Anzali."

"Your wife?" Rachael sounded startled, and then nodded.  "Oh, right.  Farlae live with two women and a man, don't they? I'd forgot."

"The Lion King summoned me.  He had less power in those days, but he was less well known as well.  I thought he would be a patron for my art, so I went willingly enough."  I lost myself in memory a moment.  

We had such bright happy lives then, and knew nothing of it.  We had problems with bills, lovers' quarrels, emotional intrigues with the rest of the farla community, and we thought those were troubles.  I was a naive innocent when I went to see the Lion King, thinking he had heard of my art.  But what he wanted was not what I had created.  What he wanted...  was what I was.

The demand was for my body. I knew it went deeper than that. Farlae tend to be more sensitive to such things than humans; it was my soul he wanted, and I knew it.  I refused.  He threatened to kill me, to kill my husband and wife.  I told him that all of us would rather die free than live as soulless slaves.

I looked up, shaking myself free of memory.  "I was a naive fool,"  I said harshly.  "But the Lion King has no more power over me."  I stood up.  "Rachael, I forgive you for not warning me.  But if you tell the Lion King of his danger, or give him or anyone else any information concerning me, I will kill you slowly.  Do you understand me?"

She nodded, shivering. She knew what I was capable of.

***

They came for me that night.

I feigned sleep, lying on the sagging mattress in the semblance of a nightgown, waiting for them. They unlocked my door and shook me, roughly, thinking they were waking me.  "Get up.  You've been summoned to the palace of the Lion King."

So even he called it a palace now.  I looked at them with dazed eyes.  "Do I have time to get into some clothes?"

One of them snickered. "Why bother? You'll just be taking them off again anyway."  They all laughed.

I went with them in my nightgown and my artfully disheveled hair, out to their aircar and from there to Heaven.  They brought me to the top floor, to the court of the Lion King.  And I stood before the creature who'd destroyed my life, and felt the hatred surging in me, giving me strength.  On the outside, I showed frightened, sleep-bewildered eyes, the face of a beautiful innocent.

"What is your name, girl?"  he asked me. His voice was beautiful, rich and deep as the sea.  

"Ashmi,"  I whispered, letting myself tremble.  I looked down at my feet, at the enamel floor, and forced myself to see a reflection.

"Ashmi,"  he said reflectively.  "I knew a farla named Ashmi once.  Years ago...  She looked much like you, but not as pale.  And she gave me trouble.  You won't give me trouble, girl, will you?"

"You should know what happens to those who resist the Lion King,"  one of his courtiers hissed.

"Disrobe," he ordered.

I stripped, letting the nightgown pool around my feet, and turned around for him like a bird on a spit as he ordered me to.  Finally he smiled, showing sharp teeth.  "She'll do.  Take her to my chambers and have her wait."

I scooped up the nightgown and slipped back into it.  Once I was in his chambers, alone, I let it disperse into mist.  I sat on his bed, naked, and remembered our journey to the sea.

He had demanded me, body and soul.  I'd refused, and he'd laughed.  "You have spirit, don't you,"  he said. "Go home then.  Go on back to your husband and wife.  I have no shortage of beautiful women, that I need to trouble myself with you."

And gods help me, I thought I was free.  I ran back to Daro and Anzali, to tell them what had happened, to seek their comfort. I ran up the stairs to the apartment, and into Daro's spotless kitchen, where the two of them had stayed up late, waiting for me.

But as I met their eyes, a compulsion struck, consuming the three of us.  I explained nothing-- I couldn't speak.  All I knew was that I had to go down to the sea and die, and that my loves felt the same way.

We left the apartment, holding hands, and began to walk.  We felt as if we were in a dream, inexplicably shared.  The empathic bond between us had twined around us all, dragging us down together.  Perhaps this was intended to be my private nightmare, and the bond I had with my loves, the linkage between our minds, pulled them down with me.  Or perhaps the Lion King had always intended to send us all. Throughout the night we walked, slowly, in a daze.  The sea was normally half an hour's journey by aircar.  On foot, holding hands and walking with dreamlike slowness, it took us all of the night and most of the next day.  We were exhausted, but there was never any question of stopping.  The sea pulled us with some strange gravity. Hydrotropic, we flowed down the path of least resistance, through the city and out, until we came to a cliff over the ocean.

I felt their love for me, and mine for them.  I felt an overwhelming despair and exhaustion, a hunger for the ocean's balm. We looked at each other and nodded. Then we released one another, and separately we leapt into the sea.

Daro and Anzali were dashed against the rocks at the bottom, immediately.  I fell into a deeper part, cushioned by water, and curled up in green darkness to sleep my despair away.

***

The Lion entered the room, awakening me from my reverie.  "Good.  You've got your clothes off."  He smiled at me ferally.  On him, it was more of a baring of teeth than a smile, and spoke of hunger.  "Lie down."

He removed his own clothes and came to touch me, to cover me with his lightly furred body.  "Gods of hell, you're cold, woman.  What have you been doing, standing on the balcony with your clothes off?"  

"It's a cold night,"  I whispered.

"I'll warm you, then."  His hands had articulated digits, but furred fingers and pads on his palms.  With these paws, he explored my body, finding no body heat anywhere.  Alarmed, he licked at my neck, and when he found the reassuring taste of salt there bit in, drinking what ran through my veins.

What he needed was blood. All I had was seawater.

The Lion King jerked away, spluttering, and stared down at me.  I smiled at him, the same baring of teeth he'd shown me.  

"You knew me," I said.  "Many years ago.  And I gave you trouble."

He tried to back away then. But I grabbed him and pulled him down to the bed, pinning him under my weight, the weight of the ocean.  I opened my jaws wide and let the semblance of normalcy fall from me, showing myself as I truly was-- a skeleton animated by seawater, a demon driven by hate.  He screamed. I dove upon his throat and tore at it, drinking his hot blood as my claws dug into other parts of his body, tearing flesh away.

The Lion's life force was strong, fed by the blood of innocence and whatever demons he served. But my hate was stronger.  He fought me, digging his teeth into my neck once more.  All he drank was seawater.  He tried to drink that, hoping to weaken me, but he might as well have tried to drink the ocean dry.  I drank his blood and it was finite, though fortified with the blood of many victims. I ate bits of his flesh, torn away. As his struggles weakened, I released his neck and burrowed my face into his belly, chewing through the flesh. Drenched in blood, I reached my bony hand into the opening I'd made and clawed through his liver and lungs. Finally I tore out his heart and showed it to him.  He died then.

The air was filled with a rustling noise.  The souls he had stolen from young women, from men, from the neighborhood itself, fled from the punctured hole in his body.  Some were partially consumed, and would never be strong again.  The sight renewed my hatred, though my enemy was dead and his soul bound to the darkness.

For this moment alone I had the power.  I had stolen the life force of the Lion King, and I had within me the strength of the sea and the energy of my hate.  I could have called a tidal wave to destroy Heaven and all the tormentors within. The tormented would die as well, but that would be only a blessing, I felt.  The neighborhood would be destroyed, but there was nothing in this blasted ruin of a hometown worth keeping anymore, was there? Destroy it all and let the survivors rebuild.  Yes.  I felt the charge build within me, and almost gave myself over to it.

But then Rachael would die as well.  And she was an innocent, who had kept her soul, though the paw of the Lion had undoubtedly started to warp her.  She had not warned me, but she'd tried to befriend me, as best she could with her fear of the Lion King.  If I killed her with a tidal wave, I was no better than the Lion King, killing as it suited me.

There would be no tidal wave.  I let the energy fade away.  Let someone else save the city; I had done my part.  I was so tired.

It was time to return to my ocean bed, and to my loves.  I faded away, and let myself turn into mist, carried back to the sea.

#52 project #spooky 5 #writeober 2020 #tw: death #tw: implied rape #farla #galconfed universe #tw: mind control

[girlsgonemildblog]

Mass Exodus - The Bachelor, Season 25, Week 7 Recap

Image from abc.com

The first two minutes of this episode were the same as the last two minutes of the previous episode, with Heather interrupting Matt and Pieper. When Pieper informs the other girls of what is going on, mass-hysteria begins over the prospect that Matt will ditch them for this new girl he doesn’t know. It is honestly concerning how insecure these girls are in their relationships with Matt when they are preparing to get engaged to him in three weeks. Pieper freaks out more than the others, which is especially bizarre considering the fact that she already has a rose from her one-on-one.

Heather explains herself to Matt, saying that (allegedly) Hannah Brown sent her because she thought they would be a perfect match. I am skeptical of this story, however, because it makes no sense that Hannah wouldn’t have introduced them before Matt even applied for the show. I prefer the (much more plausible) theory that this whole thing was set-up by producers.

Matt tells Heather that he needs a moment to think, and she goes to speak with the other girls, who immediately attack her because of course they do. Chelsea, Serena C., and Jessenia give her the third degree about what she’s doing there, and the irony of Jessenia bullying a new girl (the very thing she condemned MJ for doing) was not lost on me. Ultimately, Matt sends Heather home because obviously that was what was going to happen. But at least Heather secured her spot in Paradise.

At the rose ceremony, Matt sends home Chelsea and (thankfully) Serena C. This leaves only eight girls; Kit, Michelle, Bri, Serena P., Pieper, Jessenia, Rachael, and Abigail. Of those remaining, only Jessenia and Abigail have not had one-on-ones.

Despite this fact, the first one-on-one goes to Serena P., who gets to join Matt for a class on tantric yoga. Serena P is exceptionally uncomfortable the whole time (which, like, valid) and expresses that she’s not even into standard PDA, which I very much agree with. Matt, who has likely never not had a girl falling all over him, begins to think he is being friend-zoned by someone who gave up ten weeks of their life and came on a reality show to compete against 30 other people for the chance to date him. At night, the two discuss the potential of Matt meeting her family next week for hometowns but don’t seem to actually fortify their relationship in any meaningful way. Matt still gives her the rose, though.

There seemed to be no day-portion for the group date, as only a cocktail party is shown. In their private discussion, Bri tells Matt how she quit what she referred to as her “dream job” to be on this show. Quitting your job for a man is bad; quitting your dream job for a man you’ve never met is terrible. And if I were Matt, that would be a red flag for me.

Abigail, whose presence on the group date means she will not be getting a one-on-one before hometowns, confronts Matt and asks him if he sees a future with her. He admits that because they had such an instant connection on night one, he got overly comfortable in their relationship and pursued others to the point where they progressed past his relationship with her. Unfortunately, he walks her out and sends her home.

Kit then takes Matt aside and has the exact opposite conversation to Bri’s. She tells him that she has 5-year-plan and wants to focus on her career and traveling before settling down and starting a family. I think it’s fair to say that absolutely no one thought the 21-year-old was ready to have kids. She leaves the conversation feeling confident that she will be getting the date rose.

For some reason, he gives the rose to Racist, I mean Rachael, despite them having spoken about nothing of importance during their one-on-one time. Matt and Rachael then leave the others and attend a private concert of Aloe Blacc, which was shocking because usually, only nobodies perform on this show.

Later that night, Kit goes to Matt’s place and breaks-up with him. She says that hometowns are not for figuring out the relationship, and he deserves someone sure of what they want. Based on their relationship on the show and the way he spoke about her on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast, I genuinely think that she may have won if she had not sent herself home.

The final one-on-one is with Jessenia, and the activity is “stunt driving.” While the set people did a lot of work to make this date look cool, at its core, it was doing donuts in a parking lot in a Dodge Charger, like they were 16-year-olds from a fly-over state in 2005. At night, Jessenia tells Matt that she is falling in love with him, and he replies with the worst response of all time, “Thank you for sharing that with me.” Needless to say, she does not get the rose and is sent home.

The episode finishes with another rose ceremony with only five girls left. Pieper is the only girl sent home, meaning next week we will be meeting the families of Bri, Serena P., Michelle, and Rachael.

#the bachelor #matt james #the bachelor season 25 #abc #abc the bachelor #television #television review #television recap #tv #tv review #tv recap #season 25 week 7 #the bachelor week 7 #the bachelor Matt james #the bachelor season 25 week 7 #season 25 #week 7 #the bachelor kit #the bachelor Serena p #the bachelor heather #the bachelor jessenia #the bachelor abigail #the bachelor rachael #girls gone mild #girlsgonemild #girls gone mild blog

[wrestlingisfake]

Slammiversary preview

This is Impact's 19th anniversary show, although they didn't start using this name until the 3rd anniversary, and now they always hold it a month after the actual anniversary date. For the first time since March 2020, Impact will have fans at the show, but on a limited basis. So I would expect maybe 50-100 people spaced pretty far apart.

The show airs live tonight on Fite.tv. The pre-show is free and begins at 7pm EDT; the main show is $39.99 and starts at 8pm EDT.

Kenny Omega vs. Sami Callihan - Callihan is challenging for the Impact men's world title, which is represented by two of the four belts that Omega currently holds. The other two, the AEW and AAA men's world titles, are not at stake. This is billed as "no DQ match" which ought to mean that the winner gets to go to Dairy Queen but probably means can't be disqualified.

Omega and his henchmen interfered in a Callihan vs. Moose match on June 3, causing Callihan to win by disqualification. Since Moose was the #1 contender at the time, officials considered adding Sami to the Omega vs. Moose match on June 12, but ultimately they decided to book the winner to face Callihan here. The storyline is that Omega's manager Don Callis keeps arguing that Callihan is too reckless and unprofessional to be in a world title match, but we all know he's really just worried that Sami could hurt Omega real bad and win the title.

If it was me, I'd have done Omega-Callihan last month to set up Omega-Moose here. (Moose's contract negotiations may have made that impractical.) I don't buy Sami as the big destination for one of the biggest Impact shows of the year. I want to be interested in Omega trying to figure out how to deal with a misfit deathmatch guy. But Sami comes across more like a guy playing a misfit deathmatch guy. I mean, I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, but I'd rather do that than listen to his corny supervillain speeches or look at his Roman Reigns cosplay.

At this point I'm seriously wondering where they're going with Omega invading Impact, so I'm willing to believe they could wrap it up any day now and get the title off of him. Omega has to drop the belt to somebody, and I can see Impact picking Callihan, even if I'd pick somebody else. Even so, I still want to think there's a long-term plan in place, and that the blowoff won't come until at least the October pay-per-view. So I'm expecting this match will just come down to another wave of run-ins and shenanigans so Omega can retain.

Ultimate X match - This is a six-way match for Josh Alexander's Impact X division championship. The ring will be set up with four columns at each corner, which support either cables or scaffolding that cross overhead like a giant "X." The title belt will be hung from the center, and the first participant to pull it down will be the winner and champion. So it's like a ladder match, but there are no ladders.

Impact introduced this as one of their signature match types back in 2003, and they've always been rather proud of it. Personally I have trouble getting into it, since all the spots revolve around falling off of things, and all the "near-falls" involve slowly inching across a high-wire or a scaffold.

The six participants are: Josh Alexander, Petey Williams, Trey Miguel, Ace Austin, Rohit Raju, and Chris Bey. The storyline is that Austin and Raju have formed an alliance, and since no one can be disqualified they plan to gang up on the competition with their respective henchmen (Madman Fulton and Shera). Alexander, Williams, and Miguel are trying to stick together to oppose this, and Bey has reluctantly sided with them.

Alexander recently won a sixty-minute iron man match to add to his credentials as a dominant champion, so in theory this match is meant to secure his legacy as an all-time great in the division. Problem is, if he wins he's effectively cleaned out the division, and if he loses it's yet another situation where the champion didn't get pinned to lose the X title, setting up yet another multi-man X title match. Nevertheless, I'd much, much rather keep the belt on Alexander and have him move on to new business (maybe against a recent WWE castoff), so I guess I'm rooting for him to win.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. ? - Purrazzo is scheduled to defend the women's title against a mystery opponent who won't be revealed until right before the match starts. The storyline is that Purrazzo has cleaned out the division (a trope that's getting worn very thin in pro wrestling these days), so she's gotten overconfident, and Gail Kim set this up to truly put her to the test. They haven't said the opponent can't be Kim herself, although Kim strongly suggested that it won't be.

WWE has released a number of women over the past few months, and any of them could potentially be the challenger. Impact is probably counting on fans to jump to that conclusion. By not naming the challenger, Impact encourages fans to infer that she's currently under a WWE non-compete clause that won't expire until right before the show. Of course, none of us can be certain about those non-compete clauses, or which wrestlers have negotiated to waive them. We also can't be assured that the mystery opponent must be a WWE name; it could easily just be someone like ODB coming in for a cup of coffee.

Matches like this tend to be trouble for long-running champions. The most famous example would be when the Ultimate Warrior shocked the Honky Tonk Man in 1989. It won't help Purrazzo that she's cut ties with her cronies, Kimber Lee and Susan, so she won't have them ready to interfere if she gets in trouble. However, Purrazzo is already booked to defend the title in a champion vs. champion match on August 14, so it's hard to believe she'll drop the belt ahead of that.

Four-way tag team match - This is for the Impact men's tag team title, currently held by Violent By Design. Typically in a match like this, members of two teams start in the ring, while everyone else stands in their assigned corner. The legal wrestlers in the ring can tag in anyone in any corner, whether it's their own partner or an opponent. The first wrestler to score a fall on any opponent wins the match and the championship for his team.

The championship is currently held by Violent By Design: Rhino, Joe Doering, Deaner, and Eric Young. In the tradition of the "Freebird Rule," you get booked to wrestle the team, not any specific individuals, so then the team gets to choose which members will actually be in the match. Young has been sidelined with a knee injury so I'm pretty sure VBD's options are limited to Rhino, Doering, and Deaner. But they could always bring in a new member.

There will be three other teams in the match, but only two have been confirmed: Rich Swann & Willie Mack and Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson. When the match was first announced, the team of TJP & Fallah Baah was supposed to be in it. However, we found out yesterday that TJP is unable to do the match for some reason. Impact said the match will still involve four teams, but didn't say that Baah will get another partner. So it's possible Baah has also been pulled from the match, and both guys in the fourth team could be a surprise.

The build for this match felt like a clusterfuck. VBD and Gallows/Anderson are the top teams, but they're all heels, so some babyface teams had to get thrown together, and then all of it is dumped into one match until an actual story direction emerges. The only cool outcome I see is if Fallah Baah really does step aside and a whole new team debuts. But they could just as easily stick Johnny Swinger and Hernandez in there, so I shouldn't get my hopes up. The safe bet is the champs retain.

Moose vs. Chris Sabin - Moose has been a top heel for a while, but he kind of went babyface a little in his program with Kenny Omega. With that out of the way, he threw a tantrum about losing to Omega to remind us he's still a heel, until Sabin chased him off. Without Alex Shelley or James Storm to team with, Sabin hasn't had much to do, so now he's in a match that could re-establish him as a singles guy.

I assume the winner of this match get into the hunt for the world title, perhaps at whatever big show they do in August. That sort of favors Sabin, although I can't totally count out Moose. Moose feels like he's headed for bigger things in Impact, and a convincing win over a former Impact world champion here would get him off to a good start. I guess I've talked myself into picking Moose to win.

Eddie Edwards vs. W. Morrissey - Morrissey (formerly Big Cass in WWE) is on a roll as the latest Mean Guy to beat everybody up in Impact. Edwards, a former world champion in Impact and ROH, is his toughest competition since he got here. I don't see Edwards winning unless they have big plans for him. And I suppose they might have big plans for Eddie, but big plans are clearly in progress for Morrissey. I'm certain this is just a glorified squash match to put Morrissey over.

Matt Cardona & ? vs. Tenille Dashwood & Brian Myers - Cardona and Myers were the team of Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins in WWE, but they've been feuding since they got to Impact. I'd actually forgotten that Dashwood and Cardona were dating about five or six years ago, which would maybe explain why she helped Myers beat down Cardona recently. So now we've got this mixed tag team match. Cardona has to find a woman to be his partner, but we don't know who it will be.

The minute they announced this match, they started teasing the mystery woman would be Cardona's fiancée, Chelsea Green. I suspect that tease was taped before Green showed up at the ROH pay-per-view saying she wasn't medically cleared in Maryland and that she would wrestle for ROH this summer. Of course, none of that necessarily means she can't wrestle for Impact with a wrist injury in Tennessee. But I think the tease is a deliberate misdirection. Dashwood has been trying to drive a wedge between Rachael Ellering and Jordynne Grace, so either of them might make sense in this spot.

If the mystery partner is any good, I think she has to get the win here. But even if Impact has picked up some hot free agents, I don't expect many of them to actually wrestle on this show. So it could be a deal where they reveal Green is in the company, Green swerves us by introducing (for example) Alisha Edwards as the partner, and the babyfaces just lose.

Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz vs. Rosemary & Havok - This is booked for the pre-show. Fire 'N' Flava (Hogan & Steelz) are defending the Impact women's tag team championship. As I recall, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie feuded with Havok and Neveah a few months back over some spooky shit involving Rosemary and Havok. Anyway, Valkyrie and Neveah left the company, so I guess the spooky sides of those teams have put aside their differences. You could do some fun things with Rosemary and Havok as champs, but I don't know why you'd book the title change on a pre-show. So I think Hogan and Steelz retain, and this storyline will continue for a while longer.

#impact wrestling #slammiversary #kenny omega #sami callihan

[taggedtforswears]

Episode 5 Author Notes

It’s time for a guessing game! Fandom fixates on some VERY specific things sometimes, so Becca and Hannah Davey each take a turn describing a fandom they know nothing about except what they’ve seen on Tumblr, and then the other person tells them what they got right. And then we try to piece together what Among Us is (we have played a SUBSTANTIAL amount of Among Us since we recorded this episode, don’t worry, we know what it is now). This leads us into talking about video games and video game literacy. Neither of us are gamers, nor did we grow up gaming, but we are both kinda curious about the story possibilities!

If you want to avoid spoilers for any of the media we talk about, check out what we discuss below the cut. Listen to this week’s podcast episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts! And you can email us at [email protected].

Episode Notes

Becca describes what she knows about The Witcher (the Netflix series, which as of this recording has just one season). We have privately posted about what she does/does not know about The Witcher on our own Tumblrs, and Hannah Davey responds.

Hannah Davey describes Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Becca responds.

Becca and Hannah Davey BOTH piece together what Among Us is.

Hannah Davey takes a tangent to describe the vague plots of Death Stranding and Fire Emblem: Three Houses (she does not get the latter name right, nor are her plot descriptions particularly accurate). Becca describes Stardew Valley vs. Breath of the Wild video game tutorials and cannot remember the name of the game that is not Minecraft or Minesweeper (we never resolve this, but the game is Moonlighter).

Here’s a link to the Animal Crossing graduation video that Becca mentioned!

And a link to the Among Us animation that Hannah Davey mentioned (though not, apparently, created by Worthikids - whoops!)

Fanfic Recs

DILEMMA (by TheBigCat; Alex & Jonas, 146. Playable video game fic!)

26 Minutes And 42 Seconds (by T_5Seconds; Link/Zelda, 2.5k. BotW speedrun fic)

Further Reading

Hannah Davey mentions the translations of Animal Crossing puns and, while we failed to find the Tumblr post that talked about this, there was a bit of a book that mentioned the in-game puns.

Here’s a video about video game literacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNV2xtiBk5U

Y’all, there’s a lot of scholarship on video games out there! Here are a few articles relevant to the games we mentioned, but we’d encourage you to dig around! There’s some neat stuff out there.

Animal Crossing Special Issue. 2020. Loading..., 13(22). 

Hutchinson, Rachael. 2019. “Observant play: colonial readings in Breath of the Wild.” DiGRA Proceedings.

Pugh, Tison. 2018. “The Queer Narrativity of the Hero's Journey in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda Video Games.” Journal of Narrative Theory, 48(2), pp. 225-251.

Sutherland, Lee-Ann. 2020. “Virtualizing the ‘good life’: reworking narratives of agrarianism and the rural idyll in a computer game.” Agriculture and Human Values, 37, pp. 1155–1173.

Zhu, Lin. 2020. “The psychology behind video games during COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Hum Behav & Emerg Tech., 1–3.

Open Access (Video) Game Journals

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Game Studies

International Journal of Serious Games

G|A|M|E (2012-2018)

Music/Sound Effect Credits

Intro: ‘The Messenger - Silent Partner’

Outro: ‘Brain’ by Lobo Loco via Free Music Archive

Sound Effects: 'tada sound’ via Free Sounds Library

#podcast #video games #gaming #fandom #episode 5 #tagged t for swears THE PODCAST #the witcher #animal crossing: new horizons #death stranding #fire emblem: three houses #stardew valley #breath of the wild #legend of zelda