#also just found out Charlie’s from Virginia | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sinnerclair · 3 months

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wip of goose chase

It was a cool morning in Norfolk, Virginia. The folks were conversing among themselves. Today was the day that the Dreamcatcher would be arriving and departing at 5pm. In his house, Charlie Taylor was talking with his mother, Betsy Taylor.

“When you get back, make sure to help your sister Bess with the cows,” his mother said.

Charlie nodded as he rummaged through his bag for his train ticket, eventually finding it and placing it neatly in his pocket.

“Alright, ma. I’m leaving for Ellsworth.” He approached the front door.

“Stay safe, dear. Northerners are nasty folk sometimes.” Betsy warned. Charlie glanced at her before leaving.

The Norfolk train station was packed, which was unusual. Charlie squeezed through the crowd to the front. There was the Dreamcatcher, a large steam locomotive. It was quite an old model, dating back to when these machines were first being used, roughly 30 years ago. People soon began piling into the train, and Charlie soon followed suit. As he got in, he gave his ticket to the men at the doors and sat down in one of the leather seats which were damaged in some spots. The train’s horn was heard, signalling the train’s departure. Charlie kicked his legs at the metal floor as the train left the station.

The train ride for the most part was quiet, long, and boring. Some folk talked about shopping, their children, or plans they had for when the train stopped in Maine. The train soon went into a dimly lit tunnel, the only light being the sparks that came off the wheels from the train tracks. However, the train car began to feel unusually warm. Charlie shifted uncomfortably around in his seat as he picked at the buttons of his tweed sweater.

The heat only got worse as the train ride went on. Eventually the train’s windows went dark. Charlie coughed as the air began to fill with light smoke until an explosion went off and Charlie immediately blacked out.

Everything was black for Charlie still. He felt disconcerted, nauseous, and dizzy. He laid on what felt like sand for a few minutes before being poked by someone.

“Hello? Are you alive, sir?” They had an accent that seemed to originate from the Carolinas.

He squinted to regain consciousness, staring at the person who pulled him off Death’s doorstep. It was a woman with a pastel pink Southern belle-style dress that reached to her ankles.

“Oh! You are alive. Good to know I didn’t just poke a dead body!” She chuckled.

Charlie got to his feet and held his head, which was pounding. His ears rang badly.

The woman had introduced herself as Florence Ward. She was from North Carolina and also was on the Dreamcatcher before its untimely demise. While she rambled, Charlie could only worry about his mother back home. She was going to be worried sick.

“Hello? Are you listening, Charlie?”

“Oh, uhm, yes.” He lied.

Florence glared at him. Charlie sighed.

“Where even are we? Are we even in Virginia anymore?” he said.

Florence shrugged, “I would say I knew where we were, but the only sign I found had worn out paint and I could barely read what it said.” Charlie facepalmed.

Florence and Charlie wandered through what seemed to be an endless desert until they spotted a group of gentlemen looking around in confusion. Florence raced over to them. Charlie stumbled after her. The two men had introduced themselves as Edward Louis Gray and Claude Ellis, both from Pennsylvania.

“Were you on the Dreamcatcher too?” Charlie inquired. They both nodded.

“I don’t quite understand what happened. An explosion just suddenly happened. The train seemed fine.” Edward, who had a slight British accent, said.

“I knew something was wrong the moment the train got uncomfortably warm.” Claude added. Everyone else nodded.

“Do you at least know where we are?” Charlie desperately asked. Florence snickered at him.

“Are you going to ask everyone that in hope to get an answer? I don’t think anyone recognizes where we are.”

Charlie sighed, “I guess you’re right.”

Edward eventually spoke up, “There’s nothing bad about having a look around. Let’s see if there’s any towns around.” Claude nodded in agreement as Florence pouted. Eventually, all four of them headed North in a desperate attempt to find anything in the desert wasteland they ended up in.

After almost an hour of searching, everyone was about to give up. Even Edward, who kept insisting the group keep moving despite their many protests and groans.

“Are we even going anywhere? My feet are killing me.” Florence complained.

Nobody responded to her as they were all equally exhausted. As if miracles existed, they began to see a sign up ahead. When they reached it, it turned out to be an entrance to a town by the name of Harpsville, with a population of forty-five.

“Quite the small town.” Claude commented.

“Never heard of it either.” Charlie added.

When they entered the town, it was like they were back in Virginia again. Townsfolk were talking everywhere, kids were playing, and Charlie swore he could hear an auctioneer babbling on. Florence soon went out of sight and so did the others when Charlie realized he had slipped into a daydream while analysing the town.

“Guys? Where did you go?” He looked around in worry.

“Charlie! Get your butt over here before I drag you over here!” Florence was heard.

“Hold on, jeez.” He replied as he speedwalked over to her.

The group had wandered to the heart of Harpsville, known as the Harp.

“Let’s try to find a mayor. Maybe they know how we got here.” Claude suggested. Everyone agreed as they looked around for some type of local mayor’s office. But, before they could move, they felt a presence.

“What are you non-locals doing here in Harps?” Someone growled behind Charlie. They had a Southern accent that Charlie only ever heard when his mother was mad. They nervously turned around to a woman who was two times Charlie’s height, towering over them. She was clad in cowboy wear with a rifle on her back with the initials SM carved in gold on the forestock. Charlie felt himself shrink a few inches as he quickly chose to hide behind Edward, who raised an eyebrow at the woman. She merely laughed at Charlie’s cowering.

“Don’tcha worry, partner. I ain’t going to hurt ya. Unless you give me a reason to.” She chuckled.

“Stop scarin’ him for God’s sake!” Florence snarled.

“I ain’t tryna scare. I’m tryna warn.” The woman replied, “Name’s Scarlett Morris. I’m the bounty hunter of Harpsville. Nice to meet y’all.” She tipped her hat at them.

“Bounty hunter? So, you kill people for money?” Florence gasped.

“I kill the bad people for money. It’s how I keep nonlocals like you out.” she nudged Charlie with her rifle.

“But we didn’t even mean to be here!” Charlie protested.

“Still, it’s my job to keep this town safe.” Scarlett said. “And she does a darn good job at it! So, I recommend you stay outta her way.” A woman nearby added.

“So, you seem to be liked by this town. But we need to know where we are. We were just in New Hampshire a few hours ago.” Claude said, cutting into the argument. Scarlett scoffed, “Wish I could tell ya. This town’s considered in the middle of nowhere. Never really knew either.” She shrugged.

“Are there any other towns nearby at least?” Charlie piped in.

“Not for another three hundred miles.” Scarlett replied. Florence whined.

They eventually settled near a ranch to get food. Florence hadn’t eaten because she wished to make something with the vegetables she had bought and that she had a few caramel candies in her dress pocket to snack on. Scarlett had decided to tag along with the group to keep them safe, but Florence seemed to completely disregard her motives and stayed a fair distance from her.

“Do you think we could find a post office? The seal could tell us where we are.” Florence suggested. Scarlett looked over and shook her head, “Our seal only says Harpsville. We aren’t an established town in Texas yet.”

“How did we end up in Texas?” Charlie tilted his head.

“Now that’s a question I don’t know the answer to.”

Meanwhile in Norfolk, the news of the missing Dreamcatcher had been the talk of the town for a few hours now. The parents of the 5 missing teenagers were huddled around a nearby church.

“The train shouldn’t be too far from the border of New Hampshire and Maine. Maybe they could look around there?” Harvey, Charlie’s father, suggested.

“They already checked near Conway. Didn’t find anything there.” Fleur, whose son James was one of the missing, said.

Betsy hadn’t spoken. She had a worried look on her face. Eventually, the group had a moment of silence to hope their children were alive and well.

Charlie and Edward had decided to explore more of the town to see if any other passengers of the Dreamcatcher had ended up in Harpsville. They eventually found a man named James Silvester.

“I thought I was the only survivor. Everyone here seemed to be as confused as I was when I explained the train, I was on exploded to smithereens.”

“We thought too. This place looked desolate until we found this town. I don’t quite understand how we ended up in Texas out of everywhere.”

“We’re in Texas? How did we end up going South?” James seemed dumbfounded.

Edward shrugged. They brought James to Florence and Claude who were quite happy to know there were other survivors of the possible derailing of the Dreamcatcher. The group noticed it was getting dark, so they looked around for somewhere to stay, eventually settling on an inn named Sunrise. Claude and Edward fell asleep quickly. Florence had gone back outside to see if she could buy more candy despite the late hour.

Charlie was up trying to think of ways the train could’ve ended up in Texas, but alas he came up short. He decided to go to bed once Florence had come back inside.

Meanwhile, while Florence was outside, she had noticed someone. It was a woman in her mid-twenties walking around the Harp as if she was confused. Florence stared in confusion as well, wondering why someone was out here at such a late hour. She walked over to the Harp, only for the person to disappear into the saloon. She stopped and shrugged, turned, and walked back to the inn. Maybe they were just getting a late-night drink.

In the morning, they were awakened by Scarlett firing a ‘morning shot’ as she called it to wake them up. They groggily walked outside to meet Scarlett, who was grinning at them. Florence, grumpy as ever due to being tired, glared at her. Scarlett chuckled at this.

“Why do you need us this early?” Charlie yawned.

“Because y’all ain’t living here if you’re going to be walking around in the middle of the night and goin’ to the saloon. Aren’t y’all like seventeen?” Scarlett scowled.

“No one went outside but Florence, though.” Charlie said.

“That wasn’t me either! It was some woman! I saw her.” Florence retorted.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow before walking up to Florence, “What did this woman look like, exactly?” she asked with a low tone, as if accusing Florence of being the individual.

“I couldn’t see her due to the darkness, but she was wearing a dress. White, and like mine.”

“I will investigate it tonight. You five can go explore, or somethin’. I don’t know what you non-locals do.” Scarlett said before walking off.

An investigation in Norfolk was opened about the missing train a few hours ago. Detective Burns, one of the investigators on the case, was huddled in a small interrogation room with one of the workers at the local station where the Dreamcatcher had been seen before its departure, Madison Smith. The room was dimly lit and slightly uncomfortable due to the incoming summer heat.

“The train was headed towards Ellsworth, correct?” Burns inquired as she looked over, taking a red push pin out of her bun.

“Affirmative. It was carrying a lot of paperboys and girls as Ellsworth had lost most of its own ones due to a mass job shortage, so they needed support from the other newspaper areas across the South and East.” Madison said.

Burns nodded at him and placed a red string in between the two points. She kept the string in place by putting two push pins on Norfolk and Ellsworth. Before they could continue any more questions, a knock came at the door. Burns got up and walked over, answering the door. One of the local newspaper deliverers was there at the door and held a small paper envelope. Burns thanked the person and closed the door.

“Looks like we got a letter coming from Texas.”

As she opened the envelope, there was a small postcard inside that explained that they had reportedly found the remains of the Dreamcatcher in a ditch 300 miles away from any civilization, which had at once made Burns’ face contort to one of skepticism.

“What does it say?” Madison piped in, leaning back in his wooden chair.

“Apparently some folk found the remains of our train in the Texas panhandle. Don’t believe it in the slightest but my gut is saying we should ride down there. Borrow a stagecoach, maybe?” Burns said, fixing her bun.

“Let’s wait it out a bit. We still need to check around, there’s blind spots, y’know.” Madison said. Burns nodded.

The group of five had been spending hours trying to find any source of how they ended up in Texas. But they came up short.

“Are we going to be stuck here forever?” Florence complained.

“I hope not. I’d hate to hear your whining every day.” Scarlett snickered. Florence growled at her.

“Anyways,” she continued, “y’all are going to stay at my family’s ranch until the sheriff can find out how to get y’all back in Virginia.”

Charlie was relieved. Finally, somewhere he was familiar with, a ranch. When they got to ranch, which wasn’t too far from where they walked from, Scarlett left back to the Harp, Florence shooting her a glare before she got out of sight. There was a homestead in front of them, its brown paint seeming at least a decade old with how faded and chipped it was. It had two gray windowsills with faded lilac curtains adorned on each side of the windows. A white portico hung above, providing shade for two chairs set outside. They entered the homestead, which at once alerted a younger child as they ran over to them, tugging on Florence’s dress. She looked down and raised an eyebrow at the child. It was a girl who looked easily five or six, nothing more. She was small and wearing a white dress patterned with sunflowers and trimmed with lace at the sleeves and bottom hem of the dress. She wore small white Mary Janes with frilly ankle-height socks. She was pale and blonde with freckles around her arms, face, and legs.

“Are you the people my sissy is letting stay? She told us a lot about you!” She giggled as she stared at them with large, round hazel eyes. A subtle southern accent laced her voice.

“Yes, we are.” Claude replied, ruffling her hair.

“My name’s Carmen.” she replied as she tilted her head.

James crouched to her level, speaking gently, “Where is your parents?”

“Oh, they’re upstairs. I can get my mom!” she gleefully said as she beamed.

Claude smiled, “That’d be wonderful. Why don’t you fetch her right now? We could use another adult.”

Carmen nodded vigorously and skipped upstairs. As the group waited for the young girl to return with her mother, James started to analyze the place. The homestead was decorated with painstaking detail. The wall was faded with a Norwall wallpaper, which displayed bluebonnets against a beige background. The floors were wooden and mostly spotless. Many papers were framed, congratulating Scarlett and two other individuals on their performance in all sorts of weapon-related activities.

“Looks like this family has a history of bounty hunting, eh?” he commented.

“My family were assassins before we moved here, so not always.” A voice said, a rough southern drawl going with it.

Charlie jumped slightly at the sudden voice but turned around. A woman was standing there. She looked to be in about her 50s or 60s. Carmen was hiding behind her legs, peeking out at them with a smile. She was pale with sunken eyes, short gray hair that barely grazed her shoulders. She had a long pink scar going vertically down her left eye, and some minor scars on her cheek.

“Assassins? So, you are the people who kill for money?” Florence said, her skeptical attitude returning.

“Were. You’re makin’ me sound like a horrible person. Use the correct tense next time.” She growled, her southern accent intensifying.

“But you did used to do it, yes?” Florence spat.

“Only ‘till me and my husband John moved here about 30 years ago. Folk here didn’t quite agree with the term ‘assassin’, so we were labelled as bounty hunters instead. Except we don’t necessarily have to be humane anymore.” she replied.

Florence blinked at the unexpected response. She was used to having the upper hand in arguments. Guess not today.

“Name’s Charity Morris,” the woman continued. “Mother of Permelia, Scarlett, Carmen and Pierce.”

“We’ve met Carmen and Scarlett. Where’s the other two?” Edward asked.

“Pierce doesn’t come out to have a chat usually. He’s out huntin’ right now. Permelia is out in Kentucky fulfilling a bounty offer she was given due to the lack of skill in the own town’s hunters.”

“Ah. Understandable.”

For the day the group stayed at the ranch, not daring to move anywhere else. Everyone was content, except Florence who kept complaining how hot it was. Charlie and Claude were talking with Charity and her husband, John, while Florence helped Carmen with feeding the animals. Scarlett eventually came through the door.

“Did the sheriff say anything?” Claude asked.

“Unfortunately, the sheriff doesn’t know how to get y’all back without a train. He’s sayin’ we don’t have any railway systems either. So, I don’t know what to tell ya.” Scarlett shook her head. Charlie frowned.

“Florence isn’t going to be happy.” he replied.

“I don’t think anyone is going to be happy. We’re stranded.” Claude added.

Meanwhile, Scarlett had gone outside to tell the news to Florence and Carmen. Carmen ran over to Scarlett and hugged her leg. Florence gave her a scrunched-up attempt at a frown.

“Bad news. The sheriff has no idea how to get your group back to Virginia.” Scarlett said as she ruffled Carmen’s hair. Florence whined and kicked the sand in frustration, storming back into the homestead. Scarlett rolled her eyes as she picked up Carmen and headed back inside.

The investigation in Norfolk was coming up devastatingly short. All clues lead to dead ends, and nothing made sense. Betsy was endlessly pacing in the town square, it was only a day since the Dreamcatcher had gone missing, but it felt like weeks to Betsy without her son. Detective Burns and the rest of the investigators on the case had finally decided to listen to the letter sent and headed down south to Texas where the remains supposedly were, and once they got there, they realized the letter wasn’t lying about its condition. It was already rusting and very damaged.

“Do you remember seeing any…corpses inside?” Burns reluctantly asked the question to the men who had sent the letter. They shook their heads. Detective Burns dusted off the side of the train to confirm the authenticity of the remains, and although most of the paint had been scraped off in the accident, the Dreamcatcher’s golden nameplate stood, glistening in the sun.

In Harpsville, Charity was talking to the sheriff. She had her suspicions the man was purposefully lying to them to keep them there, which she was not happy about.

“I thought we had a workin’ train system near the Smith’s ranch? Are ya demented or somethin’?” she hissed.

He blinked at Charity, pursing his lips as he tried to lie his way out of this. But she saw right through him, and it made her even more furious.

“You’re lyin’, aren’t ya? Answer me, goddammit!” She slammed her fists on the table, making Oakley flinch. He could barely respond as he tripped over his words, trying to find an excuse that would diffuse this woman’s ticking bomb of anger. It only resulted in her grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to look at her. He squirmed in her grip as he panicked, sweat dripping down his temples.

“You’re lucky I ain’t an assassin anymore, Ellison, because I would’ve already beheaded your stupid self.” She dug his nails in his arm.

Elison stared at her with wide eyes. He was petrified.

“Don’t try to run, Ell. Because I won't be afraid to go back to my old ways.”

Tension was high in Harpsville as Charity’s threat seemed to echo throughout the town like an old church bell. When the group had exited the ranch and entered the town square, they noticed the town was quiet and still, completely unlike the liveliness they had met the day before. Folk was gathered outside their homes and ranches as they clutched their children and spouses close as they could. The group sauntered awkwardly past the people. They felt eyes all over them. They eventually found Scarlett near the Smiths’ ranch and approached her.

“Scarlett? Why is everyone actin’ as if they saw ghosts?” Florence asked.

Scarlett shrugged, “Don’t know. Been tryin’ to get an answer all day. Nobody’s darin’ to speak. It’s like a darn vigil.”

One of the townspeople, a young woman, eventually walked up to the group. Her eyes were sunken. She spoke, her voice laced with fear.

“Sheriff Oakley’s dead. He was found deceased this morning.”

“…What?” Scarlett said, her tone dropping dangerously low.

“He was found with a bullet hole through his chest. Murder, I say! Murder!” she cried.

The entire town began chanting ‘murder’ before Scarlett silenced them and ushered the five back to the Morris’s ranch. Once they had got there and the door closed behind them, Charlie wasn’t the first to notice Charity staring at them with a skeptical expression.

“The hell’s goin’ on out there?” she asked as she approached them.

“Apparently, Sheriff Oakley was found dead this morning. Nobody’s sure who did it but they’re sure as hell it was a murder.” Scarlett explained.

“Sheriff Oakley was murdered, and it wasn’t me? What a surprise.” She said, handling the situation as nonchalantly as one could muster.

“Is there any way you can get us home yet? I want my mom.” Florence butted in with a whine.

“There’s a railway near the Smiths’ ranch, but we still need to see how far the track goes. We know it ends somewhere in Virginia, though.”

“So, are we just going to completely ignore a murder just happened?” Claude said.

“The law will deal with them; we don’t need to be involved more than we are.” Charity replied.

When night fell, Charlie was having a hard time sleeping. It was 2:08 AM, and all he could hear was the chirping of crickets and the others shifting in their sleep. He got up and silently exited his room, staring at the front door. Charlie carefully walked over to it and peeked outside, a soft chill brushing up against Charlie’s face. He grabbed one of the kerosene lamps near the fireplace, lit it, and exited outside.

Despite having his tweed sweater, the cold night air made Charlie shiver. He began heading towards the entrance to the Harp when he saw a figure walking around. He froze up as his breath hitched in his throat. Who was out this late? He watched the figure appear again, peeking out from behind the local post office. They looked left and right before disappearing behind the building again. Charlie took a cautious step into the Harp, not seeing the figure anywhere and assumed he was just seeing things due to how cold it was. Despite the figure not being anywhere in sight, Charlie felt a sense of dread. He swallowed down his fear and continued further until he heard a noise from the saloon nearby.

He looked over. The noise sounded like bottles clinking together and corks being popped. Charlie walked over, pushed back the swinging saloon doors, and inside. In front of him was a woman who looked to be in mid-twenties. She was holding a large bottle of whiskey in her hand and was visibly tipsy.

“Uh- ma’am? The saloon closed five hours ago.” Charlie tried speaking to her.

“I know…” She trailed off, blinking. It was as if she was trying to form a coherent thought.

“Then why are you here?” He asked.

“Just gotta lay off some…stress. Yeah.” She smiled crookedly, revealing a snaggletooth.

“Do you know anything about the recent murder of Sheriff Oakley?” Charlie hesitantly asked.

“Oh, yeah. Him.” She snickered a little “I killed ‘im. But if ya say anythin’ about me to the investigators, I’ll do the same to you.”

Her words sent a chill down Charlie’s spine before he backed up and bolted out of the doors and ran towards the homestead. He knew one thing, and it was that he did not want to be here anymore.

Charlie hadn’t been able to sleep since that encounter. He wanted to tell Scarlett and Charity about it, but both had left the house by the time he had left his room. When he did, he saw Florence handing out brownies to everyone in the living room, where he saw an unfamiliar figure.

“Oh! Charlie! There you are!” Florence smiled and walked over. “Do you want a brownie?”

“Oh, sure. Thank you.” He forced a smile before grabbing the brownie from the silver baking sheet.

The unfamiliar figure looked over at them and got up. She looked a lot like Scarlett, except her chestnut brown hair had blonde streaks, presumably due to the sun, and had freckles all over like Carmen.

“Howdy!” The woman waved.

“This is Permelia, the woman that was out in Kentucky. She just came back after the news of the murder spread like wildfire.” Florence explained.

He swallowed dryly and spoke, “Something happened last night. I went outside, which admittedly was a very stupid decision, and saw a figure walking around. I followed them and heard a noise from the saloon. This woman was inside. She was very visibly drunk, swaying and all. I asked her if she knew anything about the murder and…she admitted to being the culprit.” Charlie’s voice fell quiet at the last part.

“She…killed the sheriff? What did she look like?” Florence asked.

“…White dress, like yours. Blonde hair. Sunken eyes. Which was weird, she didn’t even look that old.”

“I saw the same woman! She was wanderin’ around the Harp before I saw her enter the saloon. Now you’re sayin’ she admitted to killing Oakley?” Florence’s voice was laced with bewilderment.

“And she threatened to do the same to me if I told anyone.”

“I swear to the Lord if that woman puts a single finger on you, it is on.” She growled. Charlie smiled at her boldness.

“I wanted to tell Scarlett or Charity about it, but I don’t know where they went. Do you know where they are?” Charlie inquired with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“I believe Permelia told me they were going to the sheriff's office to meet with the investigators that came down from Virginia.” She explained.

“Virginia? That’s where we came from. Do you think they’re here to pick us up too?”

“Maybe. I hope so, though.”

Charlie and Florence had gone to the sheriff’s office, and sure enough they saw Scarlett, but no Charity. The cowgirl saw them and smiled.

“There y’all are. Where’s the other three?” she asked.

Both shrugged.

“We could get them if you’d like.” Florence suggested, pointing back with her thumb.

Scarlett shook her head, “No, no, it’s alright. You two are the ones the investigators need the most anyway. C’mon. I’ll show you where they are.”

Scarlett began walking. Florence and Charlie seemed confused why but decided not to argue with the girl with the gun. When they had entered the office, there were people lining the halls with muskets in hand. Charlie had recognized their uniforms—they were the Richmond sheriff! One of the deputies started ushering Florence and Charlie over to the interrogation room. When they got inside the room, Charlie froze. There was the woman from the saloon. She did not look happy to be there in the slightest. Florence glared at her and moved Charlie closer to her. Eventually the detective told them to sit down.

The woman was revealed to be Prudence Calloway. She had a history of charges in the past, but nothing as big as murder, mostly just assault. She was left off the hook, which was a decision Florence heavily disagreed with, saying she should ‘burn in hell for all eternity for threatening Charlie’, and all sorts of expletives before the detective settled her down.

Charlie had talked to the officers and, unfortunately, they could not bring them back to Virginia, but could send messages to their parents in Norfolk to let them know they were okay.

When they left, Florence and Charlie began to head back to the ranch.

Florence broke the silence, “You know. There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you, Charlie.”

“Huh?”

“I know we’ve only really known each other for like, a few days or so, but I like you.”

“…” Charlie stopped and looked at her.

“I know, it’s- stupid. I really shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Oh, no. I would be fine…with it. Just surprised. I’ll have to tell my mom, though. She’s weird when it comes to relationships. But it’s just more of a ‘want me to be treated right’ thing. I’m sure she’d approve though.”

Florence smiled.

Chapter 2

When they got back to the ranch, everyone was waiting outside. It was getting late, so everyone went to bed. However, as Charlie tried to sleep, he heard whistling outside. It was quickly interrupted by a woman shouting—which sounded like Florence to Charlie’s tired ears. He got up groggily and looked out the window.

He saw Florence yelling at Prudence, who had somehow found her way onto the property. A whiskey bottle was clutched in her hand. It was clear by the way she was swaying that she was intoxicated. Scarlett must’ve heard the commotion because she had come out and begun ordering Prudence to leave, which was only coherent due to how mad she sounded. Prudence ultimately refused to, leading Scarlett to smack her with her rifle, which made Prudence yell out an expletive and leave. Both Florence and Scarlett went inside, and Charlie finally fell asleep.

Another morning shot was done, except Permelia had fired it. The group walked out front to meet Scarlett and Permelia, who were smiling at them.

“Good news, y’all. The railway systems were fixed, and you all can go home soon. However, the journey is going to take a while, so you’ll be jumping trains to reduce stress and to give y’all time to stretch.” Scarlett explained. Everyone had relieved faces.

Permelia spoke up, “I think I should introduce myself properly now.”

Everyone looked at her.

“The name’s Permelia Morris. I’m the sister of Scar here and the oldest daughter of my momma Charity.”

Charlie smiled, “You have the same name as my aunt. She’s not from Texas, though.”

Permelia grinned, “Alright, ya scoundrels. Let’s get y’all back home.”

The Harpsville train station was much cleaner than the Norfolk Station, at least as Charlie remembered it. His memory was still quite fuzzy. The train they were going on, named Starlight—which Charlie immediately didn’t trust due to the incident with the Dreamcatcher that made the five get into the situation in the first place—had arrived about ten minutes after they had got to the station.

Before everyone left, Scarlett spoke up. “Be safe out there, y’all. It’s been a nice time with you folk. Come back sometime. Just not by some crazy train accident. It’s been enough already for the first time.” Everyone chuckled at that before the train’s horn went off, signalling its departure.

It was only twenty minutes into the journey that Charlie began feeling uneasy. Edward had noticed this.

“You alright, mate? You look as if you swallowed arsenic.”

Charlie looked over at him and fiddled with the buttons of his sweater, “I don’t know. I’m nervous something is going to go wrong again. I think it might just be because of what happened with the Dreamcatcher.” He responded, forcing a smile.

Florence must’ve seen through him because she looked at him with a disappointed look before scooting closer to Charlie and squeezing his hand. Charlie’s face flushed and he looked away. Edward ultimately was feeling uneasy as well. He didn’t want to admit, since he was the oldest of the group. He shouldn’t be feeling uneasy. He sighed and looked out the train’s window, which was slightly blurry due to the speed of Starlight. He noticed the terrain had slightly changed to less desert and to a more rural country area of Texas.

Florence had fallen asleep against Charlie’s shoulder, and he hadn’t moved since. He didn’t want to disturb her sleep. In Norfolk, the messages had arrived, and the parents were much more than relieved.

“Your tellin’ me my Charlie is okay?” Betsy said. She could feel tears in her eyes. It stung in a good way.

“Oh, thank the Lord. Is she going to be okay?” Elmira, Florence’s mother, asked.

Back in Harpsville, the engineer of the Starlight, Edward Simons, had noticed an error in the design of the Starlight and was pacing around in the town square. Lillie Smith, one of the bounty hunters, approached him.

“What in the Lord’s name is goin’ on with you, Simons?” she said coldly. It almost sounded like a snarl.

“You know those folk goin’ on that train back to Virginia?”

Lillie paused for a minute, “Sorta. Permelia has been talkin’ to me about them.”

“Well- I designed the train they went on. I just noticed a design flaw. It can’t go the full way to Virginia. We need to get them back. Before it’s too late.”

Florence had woken to a rather violent shaking of her. She looked up to see a panicked Charlie. He immediately clung to her as Florence looked up, confused about what had happened. The train had stopped, and they were in the middle of nowhere. Again. Florence hugged Charlie and saw Claude was approaching them. Florence nudged Charlie and got up.

“What happened, Claude?” she asked.

Claude shrugged, then sighed.

“I’m unsure. Edward told me to go find James and was wondering if you knew where he was.”

Charlie seemed to have calmed down and spoke up.

“I think he went out for some fresh air right before I started panicking.”

Claude nodded and left.

Back in Harpsville, Scarlett and Charity were getting the horses ready to retrieve the five.

“I’m still mad at Simons for lettin’ that design flaw go through. The kids could’ve died if he realized it any later than this.” Charity sighed in frustration.

“Why don’t you just get the mayor to fire him?” Scarlett asked.

“I would but the mayor hasn’t been seen since those folk had come here. We might have to get them and find out where he is. Unless we’re dealing with a double murder. Wouldn’t be surprised if Prudence murdered him as well.”

Scarlett sighed, “She’s a difficult gal, ain’t she?”

“Yep. Alright, horses are ready. Let’s go find those kids.” Charity hopped onto her Pinto Thoroughbred, and Scarlett got onto her Mustang. They both flicked the reins, and the horses began moving.

Meanwhile, Claude had been looking for James around the area where the train had stopped, but he so far was having barely any luck. He had checked around the train but hadn't found him at all. He was beginning to get worried as he readjusted his fedora.

“James! Where are you, mate?” He called out. There was no response and Claude sighed.

Edward peeked out from the other side of the train, “Any luck with finding him?” he asked.

Claude shook his head and Edward let out a disgruntled sigh.

“Where could that chap be? I told him not to stray far away.” Claude frowned at that. James didn’t seem like the type of person to just wander off like that. Claude only assumed this due to how close he was with James.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you all.” James popped out from the front of the train.

“Christ, mate. I told you to stay nearby. We all thought you left without us to continue the journey to Virginia by foot.” Edward said with an annoyed tone. James shrugged.

Detective Burns and Madison Smith had eventually across Harpsville, and Burns immediately raised an eyebrow.

“Since when was this a town?” she asked. Madison looked up and stared at the sign for a moment.

“No idea. I’ve never been to this part of Texas.” he admitted.

They walked inside and were greeted by a group of bounty hunters. They looked over in their direction, all having mixed reactions. One of them glared, another waved, and one just simply stared at them.

“Hello, folk—do you perhaps know where a group of five teenagers would be? They’ve been missing for a few days now.” Burns asked.

One of them, a woman with brown hair with bleached streaks, had stepped forward.

“What are their names?” she asked as she raised an eyebrow at burns.

“Charlie Taylor, Edward Louis Gray, Claude Ellis, Florence Ward, and James Silvester.”

The bounty hunter nodded, “Yes. They came here for a few days before getting on another train to try to get back to Virginia. But our engineer who made the train, damn him, made a design flaw and were pretty sure they’re stranded again.” she told Burns.

Detective Burns sighed, “Do y’all know if anyone tried to find them?” she asked.

“We have two folk who just left right now to go find them. You may stay here if you like until they return, hopefully, with the kids.”

“That’d be wonderful.” Burns smiled.

The five had been stranded for about twenty minutes but it felt like hours. Luckily, it was bearable since Florence and Charlie had fallen asleep and were curled up together in the corner of the train cart. Nobody bothered them.

Meanwhile, Claude and James were out watching in case anyone rode by that could help them get back to Harpsville. Edward was trying to his best to try and fix the problem with the train, whatever had happened. The sun was beating onto them.

Scarlett and Charity were still riding along the train tracks, looking for any sign of the train. They eventually stopped for a moment and walked their horses to the side and got off them.

“Damn, where did that train go?” Charity sighed.

“Language, ma.” Scarlett said. Charity rolled her eyes.

Smokefall was approaching. Claude and James were beginning to become restless and hopeless, while Edward was beginning to think the train had stopped for no reason. However, explorers Jasper and Almaretta Smith had taken notice of the train and Claude and James who were standing outside, seeming relieved. But—Almaretta had recognized Claude.

“Hold on, is that you, Claude?” she asked.

Claude perked up, “Wait, you’re my mum’s friend, right? Were you sent to look for us?” he inquired.

“Oh, no, we were just exploring. Your mom has been so worried. We would bring y’all back but we’re too far and we don't have enough resources for five more folk to join us.” Almaretta said, her tone filled with regret.

#goose chase (story)

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faustiandevil · 1 year

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Found the article where the Film Archive got the photos from and decided to translate it. Please note that I’m no translator by any means and I left notes where I struggled.

“I don’t get why such a good kid always plays villains in Hollywood?” – asks Peter Lorre’s father in Budapest

Warner Oland’s Charlie Chan got an interesting rival in the form of Mr. Moto. Mr. Moto the Japanese master detective is the hero of a new novel and movie series, and is played by our old friend, Peter Lorre, who few may know is actually Hungarian and his family still resides in Pest.

- He was my most serious son, I never would have expected him to become an actor – tells us Mr. Löwenstein, Peter Lorre’s papa. – He graduated in Vienna with honors and I enrolled him into the academy (it says keresekedelmi akadémia, which is for trade, merchant academy, but I couldn’t find like the correct translation for it so I just left it as academy). This is the first time when Lacika (this is Peter Lorre’s nickname at home) tells me that he wants to become an actor. I replied, that at least work in a civilian field for two years, and if you don’t like it, then I don’t mind…

- Lord, Laci was a genius banker – continues the papa his story – after six months he became the head of the foreign exchange branch in the English-Austria bank. There were ten phones in his room, he was headed of such a great career, but when the two years were over, he took his hat and left the bank. He didn’t even take his last month’s salary… Then he became an actor. For long years he fought, and acted in smaller German stages (again the translation is not precise, because it says vidéki which is like village, but can be used for smaller towns as well, so I just opted for smaller stages instead), until he was discovered. He had great successes in Berlin when he started in movies. His first success came from the movie “Bombs on Monte Carlo”, for me – for his father – I liked him best in “F.P.1”.

Mr. Löwenstein also said that Laci got married in London and together with his wife set out to Hollywood. I also have to tell him stories, as Peter Lorre very seldom writes back home. He doesn’t like to write, once a year he does and for the papa’s birthday. But with cable he isn’t thrifty, and phones very often.

- I just don’t get – ponders Mr. Löwenstein – that how can such a good kid always play villains in Hollywood?

Peter Lorre finally got rid of the villainous roles. Instead he became Mr. Moto, the Japanese master detective, a master of jiu-jitsu, and the enemy of all bad guys. The character only lived in books so far. In America the adventures of Mr. Moto are currently rivaling the popularity of the Sherlock Holmes books. From the book series the first movie was completed. It’s title: “Think Fast, Mr. Moto”.

Peter Lorre has such success in the role, that each month they are filming a new Mr. Moto movie with him. After this he will have even less time to write, for the birthdays of Mr. Löwenstein he will probably start phoning instead as well.

Original article by Emil Balázs.

Text under images:

Peter Lorre with his father. The picture was taken in 1921, when the Hungarian Hollywood star was last in Pest.

Childhood picture from the family album: Laci (on the right) and his three siblings.

Thomas Beck, Virginia Field and Peter Lorre in “Think Fast, Mr. Moto”.

Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) helps his Chinese acting partner out of a Shanghai rickshaw.

(Source: Színházi Élet 1937, 46)

#Faustian Fables #Faustian Translations #Peter Lorre

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church-history · 3 years

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Franz Stigler - WWII German Air Force Ace, Hero, and Catholic.

B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone, struggling to stay in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns. He glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision. "My God, this is a nightmare," the co-pilot said. "He's going to destroy us," the pilot agreed.

The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.

But the men had no way of knowing that the man flying that plane, Franz Stigler, came from a vocally anti-Nazi family. On top of that, Stigler was Catholic and had spent time studying to be a priest before the war. Stigler had not wanted to join the Fighter Corps and initially signed up only to train other pilots. But after his beloved brother, August, also a pilot, died in the war, Stigler finally agreed to go to the front, anger and resentment driving him.

August's wife had kept a copy of the Vatican's letter to German Catholics, "With Burning Concern," which Franz found in his brother's room. Read from every Catholic pulpit in Germany on Palm Sunday, 1937, its authors, Pope Pius XI and Munich Cardinal von Faulhaber, excoriated The Party as an evil, racist religion led by "an insane and arrogant prophet." Possessing a copy of that letter was a criminal offense.

Stigler wasn't just any fighter pilot. He was an ace. One more kill and he would win The Knight's Cross, Germany's highest award for valor.

As Stigler's fighter rose to meet the bomber, he decided to attack it from behind. He climbed behind the sputtering bomber, squinted into his gun sight and placed his hand on the trigger. He was about to fire when he hesitated. Stigler was baffled. No one in the bomber fired at him.

He looked closer at the tail gunner. He was still, his white fleece collar soaked with blood. Stigler craned his neck to examine the rest of the bomber. Its skin had been peeled away by shells, its guns knocked out. One propeller wasn't turning. Smoke trailed from another engine. He could see men huddled inside the shattered plane tending the wounds of other crewmen.

Then he nudged his plane alongside the bomber's wings and locked eyes with the pilot whose eyes were wide with shock and horror.

Stigler pressed his hand over the rosary he kept in his flight jacket. He eased his index finger off the trigger. He couldn't shoot. It would be murder.

Stigler wasn't just motivated by vengeance that day. He also lived by a code. He could trace his family's ancestry to 16th century knights. He had once studied to be a priest. A German pilot who spared the enemy, though, risked death in Nazi Germany. If someone reported him, he would be executed.

Alone with the crippled bomber, Stigler changed his mission. He nodded at the American pilot and began flying in formation so German anti-aircraft gunners on the ground wouldn't shoot down the slow-moving bomber. (The Luftwaffe had B-17s of its own, shot down and rebuilt for secret missions and training.) Stigler escorted the bomber over the North Sea and took one last look at the American pilot. Then he saluted him, peeled his fighter away and returned to Germany .

"Good luck," Stigler said to himself. "You're in God's hands now..." Franz Stigler didn't think the big B-17 could make it back to England and wondered for years what happened to the American pilot and crew he encountered in combat.

Stigler had lost his brother, his friends and his country. He was virtually exiled by his countrymen after the war. There were 28,000 pilots who fought for the German air force. Only 1,200 survived.

Decades after the war the two pilots found each other, and became dear friends and fishing buddies. In a book Stigler gave to Brown after their reunion he wrote:

"In 1940, I lost my only brother as a night fighter. On the 20th of December, 4 days before Christmas, I had the chance to save a B-17 from her destruction, a plane so badly damaged it was a wonder that she was still flying. The pilot, Charlie Brown, is for me as precious as my brother was.

Thanks Charlie.

Your Brother, Franz"

#catholic #christian #catholic history #wwii #history #germany #franz stigler #charles brown #wwii history

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loserdiaz · 3 years

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CRIMINAL MINDS X SUPERNATURAL HEADCANONS

Spencer probably reads everything that involves the fbi and cold cases bc he loves those. he once read about two brothers pretending to be fbi agents and looked into it.

He eventually found Sam and Dean and confronted them. Reid never believed in the supernatural stuff, he was a man of science but then Sam shows him evidence of the creatures they hunt and reid has no choice but to accept it.

Sam and Spencer are besties after that. Spencer loves learning new things and Sam loves nerding out about everything he knows ( he usually has to keep it to himself bc dean doesn't really want to hear it ), so they talk a lot and have long deep conversations.

Then one time they're in town, they call Spencer to hang out and Derek was with him so he tags along bc he needs to meet the misterious guys who keep making his pretty boy smile and be all secretive.

Derek and Dean become besties too.

Spencer faints when he meets Castiel. His mind can't wrapped around the fact that angels are real. But then he moves on and now they're besties too. Sam, Spencer and Castiel are the best trio ever.

Spencer loves that Castiel doesn't understand social cues, just like him. He also find out that Cass is the best listener, curious and always making the best questions. So everytime he wants to info dump, he calls the angel and they end up talking for hours and hours.

Everytime a case is too hard to solve and there are things that can't be easily explained, Spencer calls Sam and Dean.

"You need to come to Virginia right now. I got a case for you."

"Calm down, genius. We'll be there as soon as we can."

And then Spencer can hear in the background Dean saying: "Not all of have private jets to take us wherever we want."

And Sam: "Shut up, jerk."

Hotch starts to be suspicious so Spencer has to explain everything and introduces him to the brothers.

Hotch right away hates Dean. ( Dean is sassy and sarcastic and has this 'i don't give a fuck but i'm also absolutely depressed' vibe and Hotch can't handle it )

Hotch tells Castiel "I like your trenchcoat" and then they're besties too.

Garcia and Charlie fall in love, they're goddesses and they immediately hit it off.

Emily and Dean compete on who can drink more without throwing up.

Emily wins. Emily always wins.

Dean is a sore loser. "Whatever, Prentiss. I let you win."

Dean has a little crush on Emily even though he knows she's a lesbian and could never be romantically attracted to him.

Don't know where this came from, I just started thinking about them and... yeah. This is the first time I do something like this so if everything is wrong and you think i'm delusional... you're probably right lmao.

I'll probably delete this later once i overthink it but for now i like it so i'm gonna post it.

#criminal minds #criminal minds fandom #derek x spencer #moreid #spencer reid #doctor spencer reid #dr reid #derek morgan #penelope garcia #aaron hotchner #emily prentiss #spnfandom #supernatural #sam winchester #dean winchester #castiel #criminal minds hotch #criminal minds headcanons

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statecryptids · 3 years

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HAIRY DEVILS- ALASKA

Stepping into the dense rainforest of Southeastern Alaska, one can’t helping feeling a strange sort of presence, as if something unknown and unseen were watching from the trees. Is this sensation merely a construct of the mind? The human tendency to anthropomorphize nature? Or is it possible there are ancient spirits and unknown beasts lurking among the dripping spruces and shadowy hemlocks?

Around 1900 a gold prospector named Harry D. Colp wrote a story of an alleged encounter between one of his companions and a pack of unknown entities in the Alaskan wilderness. Colp had been lodging with the man, Charlie, along with a few other prospectors in a shack near the city of Wrangell. Charlie had heard about a deposit of gold-bearing quartz in the nearby Thomas Bay area. Packing three months of supplies, he set off alone to investigate the site, only to return less than a month later badly shaken and with neither supplies nor gold.

Charlie told Colp that upon arriving in Thomas Bay, he’d gone in search of a half-moon shaped lake where the gold could supposedly be found. After several days of searching, he finally locating the body of water at the foot of a glacier. He had only just gotten his bearings when he was horrified to see a pack of hairy “devils” swarming towards him from the shore.

Charlie described these beings as looking halfway between men and monkeys. They were “entirely sexless, their bodies covered with long, coarse hair, except where the scabs and running sores had replaced it.” The stench of the creatures made Charlie ill, and their screams and cries made him delirious. The beings chased him all the way back to Thomas Bay, where he passed out and woke up hours later floating in his canoe in the middle of the water.

Several decades after Harry Colp’s death, his daughter, Virginia, published the manuscript of the story under the title “The Strangest Story Ever Told”. Over the years this tale has become a popular piece of folklore in Southeastern Alaska.

Some have suggested that the beings Charlie encountered may have been kushtaka- shape-shifting otter-men from the folklore of the Tlingit people. Stories depict these creatures as malevolent tricksters who lure fishermen and hunters into the wilderness, only to drown them or transform them into more otter-men. They are often used as boogeymen to scare children aware from the dangers of the ocean. Yet, like shapeshifters in many cultures, kushtaka can be mercurial in behavior, and may occasionally save lost travelers from dying in the freezing cold (often, again, by turning them into kushtaka themselves). In at least one tale recorded by the Smithsonian Institute, an otter-man is depicted as the reborn spirit of a dead man who returns to aid his impoverished family.

While Harry Colp never refers to the creatures in his story as kushtaka, the otter-men have become closely linked with “The Strangest Story Ever Told” in Alaskan folklore.

Other people have allegedly also seen the hairy devils around Thomas Bay, though Colp’s story is the only one widely known. These sightings have led locals to dub the area “Devil’s Country”. Thomas Bay is also known as the “Bay of Death” by the Tlingit people because of a landslide in the 1700s that wiped out a village.

SOURCES

Full text of "The Strangest Story Ever Told", from bigfootencounters.com

A story about a more benevolent encounter with a kushtaka

An interesting possible explanation for the Thomas Bay devils, from Tara Neilson's Alaska For Real blog

An article from the Juneau Empire with more details about Harry Colp

"Kushtaka", a short film created by Cameron Currin about the monstrous Otter-Men

#cryptid #cryptozoology #kushtaka #monster

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ratingtheframe · 3 years

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10 Films to watch this Valentine’s Day if you’re single as hell.

If anyone or anything is making you feel worthless on the Capitalist Holiday that is Valentine’s Day because you’re single AF, then don’t fret because it means one of two things;

You’re happy enough with yourself to not need anyone else.

You’re allergic to people.

Though mine is both the former and the latter, I can still get down to a good romance movie now and again. Now I’m not talking about those horrendous rom coms that Netflix seems to be churning out every damn minute, but those emotionally invested, earthy and well written dramas that has you ugly crying into your bathrobe for 17 minutes straight (me at the end of Her.). Here is a compiled list of some of the best romance films I’ve seen over the years and how each one doesn’t showcase an abundance of clichés and brands them as “acts of love”.

A Star is Born (2018 or 1953, take your pick)

I’ve found that both the 1953 version of A Star is Born with Judy Garland and the 2018 newer version to be a perfect and well rounded love story. What makes this love story so fierce is the vulnerabilities and downfall of its characters, which even though there are many sad moments, it perpetuates and strengthens the acts of love shown in the film. Both versions are similar in that they follow a woman who’s rise to fame as a performer becomes overshadowed by her jealous partner, who is also a notable celebrity. In the 2018 version starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, Gaga’s character Ally is helped by a country singer, Jackson Maine to become a successful singer and icon amongst the music industry. As she rises, Jackson falls and the character dynamics and intensity between them is a fitting love story. I was thoroughly bawling at the end and I guarantee you will too as Lady Gaga’s rendition of Love Again was the true scene stealer of the film.

Call me by your name (2017)

I have an incredible bias towards this film and it has nothing to do with the film’s context or characters or even Timothée Chalamet The reason why I feel so connected to this film and proclaim it as my favourite film of all time is because of when I watched the film. It’s almost like seeing a film about a political event right after it's happened; you have this rush and connection towards something that’s actually affected you in the real world. I had the same feeling with Call me by your name after going through a rough and confusing patch whilst trying to get over someone I thought I truly loved. Turns out I didn’t (thank god) and yet Call me your name was almost like a shoulder to cry on. It’s a film that’s taught me to love and love hard but most importantly, not beat yourself up or try to distinguish the pain felt by true love. If you haven’t been fortunate to catch this beauty of a film, it follows two men, Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) and their brief relationship in the summer of 1983 in Northern Italy. 17 year old Elio lives with his parents and his father (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a scholar who invites students from outside the country for the summer in hope of passing on his wisdom to them. This is when Oliver arrives, a handsome twenty something American who becomes the infatuation of Elio.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard the monologue that Elio’s father gave his son at the end, explaining to Elio why he shouldn’t feel embarrassed by the pain he felt after loving Oliver:

“We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster, that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste”

That, ladies and gentlemen and all in between, is what love is.

Her. (2013)

Once again, another film about love that had a profound effect on me because of when I watched it. Her. follows the story of Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and his search for a story using an A.I to help him write. However, after getting to know this A.I named Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) and hearing the way she adapts and shows emotions, he soon falls in love with it. Some may deem this as rather sad (which it is) but I think it speaks to bigger constructs like internet dating and letting go of people you loved thus diminishing the fantasy and world you created for the two of you. This part of the film got to me a stark way as I felt the pain of letting go of not only a person, but a fantasy, just like Theodore had to do in letting his past partners go. Her. is truly beautiful, with some great production design, cinematography and acting.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

The absolute queen of love stories would be Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a film about the romance between two women in the late 18th Century. Definitely not a narrative you see every day or one that’s been painted in such a way (pun intended). Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to paint the beautiful and stubborn Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) and the portrait is to be gifted to a suitor of Héloïse’s from Milan. But instead of getting the painting done and sending it off, Marianne and Héloïse unexpectedly fall for one another at a subtle and well timed pace that had me gawping at the screen the entire way through. Slow, sensual and moving is Portrait of a Lady on Fire and I would definitely say is one of the best LGBTQ plus films ever made to date.

Broke Back Mountain (2005)

Ang Lee scooped up a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar for his direction on his adapted screenplay of Brokeback Mountain. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) form a romantic bond after shepherding alone together on the side of a mountain. Once their time herding sheep comes to a close and they return back to their respective lives, it's clear that their bond is stronger than they had anticipated. They live in constant fear of their relationship becoming apparent to those around them, which leaves one of them taking matters into their own hands. A controversial yet extremely successful film of its time, Brokeback Mountain does a fabulous job of showcasing the consequences and despair of love using two of Hollywood’s finest actors.

Carol (2013)

It’s difficult to fully appreciate LGBTQ plus films set in the past as they mostly focus on the persecution of homosexuals as opposed to the love they wish to express. However, this was pretty accurate of the time and it's only very recently that we have begun to accept one another’s sexualities and genders fully so much that we play these stories out on screen without the persecution part. Carol is a film directed by Todd Haynes and stars Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett. I found them to be an extremely intense pairing whilst they unravelled as their characters on screen. Therese (Rooney Mara) works in the toy department of a department store when one day she lays eyes upon Carol Aird, a beautiful and elegant married woman who becomes the infatuation of Therese. Therese throws all caution to the wind in order to be closer to Carol and because of this and the 1950s society they live in, their relationship is doomed from the beginning. I was in complete awe of the way Carol had been shot and created into this sensual and rich drama set in the 1950s. From the costumes, to the lighting to the acting, everything about Carol held weight to it showcasing the devotion of a truly talented director.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)

Usually I’d pass on a Charlie Kaufman film, seeing as they make no sense, however I felt that it was time I delved into this cult classic starring Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood. It’s a really well made film with a clear and distinct message to it that’s represented in some phenomenal filmmaking techniques. The plot line of this film follows a man trying to erase a past lover and his memories of her get wiped away physically before your eyes on screen. It made me wish that I could do the same with people I’ve liked in the past, but the contradictory of this would be the trauma of eventually ending up with someone you had already met in another life. I haven’t experienced a break up nor felt the pain of one, though I could judge that this film tells that experience really well.

Moonlight (2016)

Moonlight is one of few films that I would genuinely worship if it were a religion. It's also one of the films that I outwardly shame people for not having seen, as it is truly a masterpiece and film lover’s film. Deep, emotionally connected, colourful, harsh, moving and eye opening, this film takes you on an emotional rollercoaster through the eyes of Chiron and the three stages of his life that have carved out his essence as a human being. Not only that, but he falls in love with another boy at his school, and when he does, he’s hurt rather badly. Literally. Moonlight is the definition of profundity and was awarded the top prize of Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards.

Loving (2016)

When I think of a truthful and honest testament of love, the film Loving comes to mind which is a fitting title for such a delicate yet strong story. The film is based on a true story of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga) being banned from Virginia in the 1950s for choosing to be together. If that ain’t a true sacrifice of love, then I don’t know what is. Choosing someone you love over your own home is an unfathomable thing and certainly shows the strength that this couple had in facing the judgements of others whilst remaining emotionally truthful to themselves.

The Shape of Water (2017)

The Shape of Water is a strange yet enlightening love story between Eliza, a deaf woman (Sally Hawkins) and a creature being tested on in a laboratory. Awards season went mental for this back in 2018, winning four of the THIRTEEN Oscars it was nominated for. I would categorize it as quite the niche film and wouldn’t usually think that such a film could be garnered with Oscar success. However everyone who worked on this film really pulled out the stops in creating an entire new world and perspective that has many layers to it, as well as an abundance of conflict and dynamics for audiences to lull over. The relationship between Eliza and the feared swamp monster that’s being cruelly tested in the laboratories where she works, is heartfelt and honest, which is strange seeing as Eliza’s virtually in love with a monster. The casting in this was outlandish yet it really worked as all actors in this melded well into the story as their prospective characters. It also has one of the most touching endings to a film I’ve ever seen.

And there you have it, ten Romance films for you to enjoy this Valentine’s Day. Watch them all at once, or maybe just watch one. Whether you watch it alone or with someone, it doesn’t really matter!

Lots of love

Ang x

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thefreakydeaky · 4 years

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Call Out My Name

Part Eight Title: The Town

Characters: Negan, Reader, A stupid little prick named Rick Grimes, Garbage pail kid Daryl Dixon, Tanya and Frankie.

Summary: You belonged to him.Try as you might to pretend indifference, Negan’s very presence has awakened feelings in you that you believed had died with the old world.Is the ruthless King of the Sanctuary still human enough to fall in love?

Warnings: Language, Canon Typical Negan BS, Canon Typical Violence, A bit of gore, Angst.

Word Count: 3000

With each step you took your stomach knotted tighter in dread of the big scary u.Dealing with the unknown had always been a problem for you. When something was unknown, you were stuck waiting around to find out and in that time you could not plan for it.Upon reaching the ground floor, you saw that all of the dock doors had been pulled down. Every exit locked and blocked.The hungry rasps of the dead filled you with dread.It sounded like you were surrounded. Your eyes darted nervously about the place, from the worn and teary faces of the scared inhabitants to the hard expressions worn by the invaders.

The pounding of heavy boot steps had you swiveling your head about to find the source.

“Don’t you think of tryin’ anything.” Darryl grated.

“Get down on your knees.” He ordered gruffly.

You and the other two girls knelt on the concrete floor, waiting.

You could hear someone approaching behind you.Your breathing quickened in horrible anticipation.

“Are these his...wives?” A deep voice, asked calmly. “Carl said there were five.”

“I looked all over. Found one dead and these three."

You closed your eyes, wondering briefly who it had been.Your stomach churned.You knew what would happen next.He would hit you.He would hit you and demand to know where Sherri and Amber were.You wouldn’t have an answer, except to say you hadn’t seen them in a couple of hours.

“We’re not here to hurt you.” The man’s gentle tone was reassuring. “We’re here to free you.”

“Where is number five?” He inquired.

You couldn’t bring yourself to look at the man, you couldn’t bare it.

Darryl put a hand on your shoulder and shoved you forward.

“Ask her.This one was leadin’ ‘em.”

A pair of worn leather work boots stopped in front of you.The man inhaled deeply as if to calm himself.

“Are you alright?”He seemed to actually mean it.

You clenched your jaw.

He reached out and brushed his knuckles along your cheek.

You stiffened, hardening your heart for what was to come.

He tipped your face up, his index finger just under your chin.

Your eyes met his clear blue gaze.

The gasp you emitted made Tanya and Frankie turn to look at you.

“Y/n?” He sounded as astonished as you felt, almost hoarse with the shock of this revelation.

His arms were around you and squeezing you in a warm embrace before you could fully process it.

“Oh,” He kissed the top of your head.“You’re alive!”A sigh of relief escaped his throat.

Your lower lip trembled, emotion overtaking you.

Home hadn’t come to mind in a long time.Hugging him, you were transported to a different stage of your life, a different society.

“She doesn’t understand.Much as I wanna be there,I have got to put work first.We talked about this when I joined the force.Lori agreed that she should stay home and take care of Carl, that I would provide for our family. These days, I cover a late shift for another officer, get home and she starts ripping me a new one. Says everytime I’m out late I been drinkin’ with Shane.She accuses me of any wrong thing a husband can do.You name it, according to Her, I’ve done it.”

You frowned a bit at that. Lori wasn’t the best person, but she certainly wasn’t the worst. Neither of you was really in a position to judge her. Not when you were sleeping with her husband.

“Well, I’m sorry that ya’ll are goin’ through a rough patch.”Your voice sounded dejected even to you.

He closed his eyes briefly, his expression contrite.

“I’m...I’m sorry.You shouldn’t have to hear all this.I don’t know what I was thinkin’.” He kissed the top of your head in apology.

You snuggled closer, your head on his bare chest and sighed.

“It’s okay with me for you to talk about your problems.Everybody needs to vent sometime.The thing is, I feel...bad.I feel like I’m part of the problem.”

“You’re not.” He said vehemently. “Lori started accusing me of havin’ an affair long before you and I ever...”

He couldn’t bring himself to say it, his guilt wouldn’t allow it. That sat well with you. It was the least either of you could do.Admit that this temptation you’d both given into wasn’t right.

“How much do we owe you for watchin’ Carl?” He inquired with a softness in his tone that made you melt inside.

“I can’t charge you not when we’re sleeping together.It would feel like-like-“

“I get it.” He ran his hand along your side tenderly. “But I’m gonna have to pay you anyway.”

You winced.Of course he did. She would notice if suddenly there was an extra $80 bucks in their account every week. He could hide the money, save it and use it for something. but that would be one more lie he had to tell Lori. So you accepted the money and put it all in your savings account. Guilt kept you from spending it and as it turned out,you had needed that money to get yourself out of Kentucky.It had gotten you as far as Richmond,Virginia when all hell broke loose. It was there you met Charlie and the gang...

“It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.” He murmured into your hair.

Darryl cleared his throat. “Are you forgetting somethin’?”

Rick looked to him questioningly.

“She’s married to a sociopath!”

“She’s...a friend” He hedged. “I know her. She would never willingly have married a man like Negan."

“I don’t care if she’s your damn aunt fanny! Her husband murdered Glenn and Abraham!” He growled and spit at your feet.

You jerked back at the insult.

“You’re not the only one that’s lost people to The Saviors.” Your voice shook as you spoke.You couldn’t bring yourself to say that it was Negan who killed Charlie.Negan had done terrible things, but he also made you feel wonderful things, now was not the time to reconcile the two.

“He killed my best friend. My co-leader,Charlie.” You told them.”He forced me to become a wife. You gestured toward Tanya.

“Her mom was terminally sick.She was suffering. He offered to get her some morphine if Tanya would become his wife.”

Rick was listening with wrapped attention, compassion in his gaze.

“Frankie,” You nodded toward the redhead. Her green eyes begged you not to tell.

You took a breath.

“She was attacked by a group of cruel and violent men. Negan and The Saviors, rescued her.The price for his help was marriage.” You hoped Amber had gotten far far away from the Sanctuary.

If your words were revealed to be untrue, you might all be killed. You had no doubt this, Darryl guy would have you strung up in a heartbeat. Quiet followed the sad tale.

“I believe you.” Rick said calmly. “I’m sorry you had to go through this.”

Your eyes filled with tears.Not because you agreed with his insinuation that your marriage to Negan was a form of torture you had undergone, but for all else you had endured since leaving Kentucky.

Darryl huffed loudly.

“What are we gonna do with Negan?” He ground out.

“Now’s not the time or place to discuss this.” Rick inclined his head, peering at Darryl over your shoulder.

“We’ll talk about it once we get them to Alexandria.”

“Fine.” The man responded.Though it didn’t sound as if he were fine with Rick’s decision at all.

Once we get them to Alexandria. He’d said.

Your heart leapt at the possibility that Rick’s them included Negan.

During the three month deliberation of Negan’s sentence, Hilltop’s Doctor Carson had informed you that your dizzy spells and drowsiness were actually pregnancy.You were elated at first, then heartbroken when you realized there was a huge chance your child would never meet it’s father.

It took pride shriveling amounts of begging and sweet talking your ex-boyfriend to get him on your side to save Negan’s life.Rick turned the majority of the council in your favor.Their final decision was that Negan would live.Your relief at hearing this was immense until you were told the terms on which his execution had been stayed.You would be delivering his sentence.

The rustling sound of soft soles walking across the dirty concrete floor reached Negan long before your tear stained face came into focus in the dim light.

“Negan.”

He kept his face blank.

“Y/n.” His voice sounded raspier to you than usual.

Your eyes scanned over him in the dark and caught on the white bandage set across his throat.

“I’m here to-“

“Do I look like I give a shit?” He glared over your shoulder at Darryl.”You people are ridiculous.Five women to choose from and you send the one I regret ever setting eyes on.Nice.”

You glanced over at Darryl.He looked supremely unimpressed.

“That isn’t true and you know it.” You wet your lips with your tongue.

“You get the fuck away from me right fucking now.”

You took a shaking breath and tried to hold back the tears.A sobbing emotional mess was the last thing either of you needed at the moment.

You held your wrists up where he could see the restraints the council demanded you wear at all times.

You felt sorry for him.This was going to hurt both of you immensely, but if you didn’t do as you’d been asked, he would be getting a hell of a lot worse than a life sentence.

He turned away from you, unable to bear the sight.

“You’re wasting your fucking time.I am not fucking talking to you.”

“You don’t have to say anything, just listen.” You inhaled slowly and held it, to steady yourself for the pain to come.

“I’m not married to you.I wasn’t ever married to you.You manipulated, scared, and threatened me into submitting to you.”

He stiffened.

“You are a power hungry, sociopath who took advantage of my weakness and the weaknesses of many others-“

“Weakness? You?” He scoffed.

“-you brain washed us like some kinda deranged cult leader.I don’t love you.I never loved you and neither did any of the other wives.”You spat the word at him.

He laughed bitterly.

“I did what had to be done to keep all of you alive, if that makes me the fucking bad guy then fuck it.”

“Don’t you dare laugh!”You cried glaring at his back. "Do you have any idea how many people had to die because of you?Do you have any remorse for the pain you’ve caused? The lives you’ve taken?”

He turned to look at you then. From Negan’s surprised expression, the tears streaming down your face must really be selling it.

“You know I don’t.”He frowned, uncertainty in his tone.

“I hate you!”

“Hate me? For what?” He huffed.

“For everything you took from me! For everything you did to me!”

“You sure seemed to like what I did to you. Used to beg me to keep doing those things to you...But don’t you worry, Baby. I’m sure you’ll be getting your retribution soon enough.”

He crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

You sniffed, choked down a sob and prepared for the grand finally.You stepped right up to the bars.Eyeing you wearily, he moved slowly towards you.

“Kiss me.” Your voice was a low whisper.

The reluctance in his gold flecked eyes unsettled you, made what was to come that much harder.

He leaned in and through the bars pressed his dry lips to yours. He closed his eyes, reveling in your proximity, the familiar intoxicating taste of you.You fought to keep still, to appear unaffected. It took him longer to realize that you weren’t participating, than you thought it would.

He pressed his forehead to yours.

“I love you, Y/n.” He declared, breathing harshly. “Don’t you forget it.”

You raised one eyebrow attempting to seem aloof.

“You have been sentenced to life imprisonment.You’ll have all the time in the world to reflect on the atrocities you committed.It’s a fitting punishment for what you’ve done. Wouldn’t you say?"

He smiled sadly.

“I would much rather die, but they know that, don’t they?”

“Mhmm..”

He held you as best he could.

“They don’t have any mercy to spare where I’m concerned...Why’d they send you to tell me?”He wondered out loud.

You pulled away, taking a few steps backwards, so he could see you fully.You placed your hands on your stomach in that soft maternal way, the sick fucks had told you to do.

His face fell.

“I’m expecting.”

“No, no no no no.”

“Oh yes...but don’t worry.My baby will have a father.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Do you remember those little chats we used to have?”

He nodded, hanging on your every word.

“I told you about the man I was seeing, the cop with the bright blue eyes...”

Negan shook his head in denial.

“Fate has brought him back into my life. Can you believe that? I mean what were the chances, that the man to take you down, would be the only man that I have ever loved, Rick Grimes?”

Negan dropped to his knees. His eyes were wide pools of vulnerability.

“Have a nice life. I know I will.” You turned away.

Darryl gave you a begrudging nod of approval on your way out.

You’d never hated yourself as much as you did in that moment.

#Negan x Reader #negan x plus sized reader #the walking dead #jeffrey dean morgan #plus sized reader

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

Text

chapter eleven: the end of the world

The next morning was a cold, gray, and soggy one, but Sam had no intention on returning to Louie's apartment for another round that day: she had already packed her things in the back seat and she nestled down in the front seat with her arms folded across her chest and the lapels of her jacket pulled up to her ears. She had no hood or something to cover her head but she wished for one. She didn't want to be seen. Louie himself meanwhile, locked the door behind him and he headed down the steps. She looked on at him as he rounded the front end of the car and opened the door. She sighed through her nose as he climbed into the front seat.

“You okay?” he asked her in a low voice, and she nodded her head.

“Look—I was thinking about this last night before I fell asleep, too,” he started, “neither of us mean to inflame or kick up any old wounds with anyone. We're just—fooling around, messing around, you know?”

She gazed out the window right as he said that. She had nothing to say to that.

“If either of us made you uncomfortable—and I can tell we did—we didn't mean to. I didn't mean to, and I know Alex didn't mean to, either. And for that, I want to personally apologize to you for it.”

Sam never moved from her spot in the seat next to him. She couldn't hardly stop thinking about any of what went down the night before, such that it almost brought a tear to her eye.

“Also—I, uh—” he stammered and then he cleared his throat, “—hate to tell you this, but I'm kinda out of money.”

She turned her attention over to him and frowned.

“What do you mean you're out of money?” she demanded.

“I'm out of money,” he repeated, “well, for now anyway. Remember what I said yesterday, I had enough for breakfast and a cab?”

“Oh, right, right.” She hesitated. “So what's this mean?”

“Well, I have a full tank of fuel to start with,” he stated, to which she frowned and scoffed at that.

“Louie, we're not driving back to Elsinore from here—it's too far.” She was scorn.

“But the train already left, though,” he pointed out. “It's kind of overkill to fly on down to Elsinore, too.”

She sighed through her nose again.

“Don't really feel like driving through the valley, either,” he added.

“Yeah, it's boring as hell,” she said in a soft voice.

“Boring as hell and still hot as fuck, too,” he said, “at least here we have a bit of leeway with the San Francisco fog. Seven hours of nothin'.” He paused for a second. “We could take the coast.”

“That's longer, though,” she pointed out.

“Nicer, though,” he insisted.

“True. It's way nicer, actually.”

“Bet you've missed the Pacific Coast, too,” he said.

“I have—it's one of the many things I haven't been able to do like at all. Especially when I was growing up out here.”

“Really?” Louie was genuinely taken aback by that.

“Yeah.”

“Well, let's—” He set his hand on the ignition key and turned it. “Let's.”

Sam strapped herself in and Louie shook his head of hair about a bit.

“One thing I really wanted to do with Zelda,” he started again as he pulled on the parking lever, “when we were together was go on a road trip with her somewhere. I always considered driving from Providence down to some place like D.C., or go all the way down to like West Virginia. The two of us on a trip together and just hanging out together.”

“What kept you from doing it?” she asked him.

“Touring and making albums—and dealing with record company horse shit in her case—and in my case it was living a double life. There was no way I could do it, not with my other life in full swing.”

They pulled ahead and began up the block, around the cemetery and towards the block on the other side.

“So—I haven't really taken the Pacific Coast Highway much from my place so just kind of—like—bear with me here,” he sputtered.

“It's okay, it's okay.”

Louie glanced over at her at one point as they rolled up to a stoplight.

“You know—and I'm being perfectly honest with you here, Sam—I'm a little intimidated by you,” he confessed.

“You?” she asked him.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I dunno,” he replied with a shake of his head, “but there's just something about you that completely intimidates me. Like it's hard for me to maintain composure when I'm near you.”

“There's no reason to be, though,” she promised him.

“But I feel it anyways, though. It could be because you made a bold move in moving across the country and back again, but I can't really say for sure.”

“Funny you say that 'cause you did that,” she pointed out.

“True. But see, you weren't living a double life like I was.”

“I mean, I kinda am now,” she assured him.

“How so?”

“Joey doesn't know about Bill. He also doesn't know that I'm hanging out with you guys, either. For the record, Bill doesn't know that I'm hanging out with you guys, either. It's like a triangle of sorts with me come to think of it.”

“A delta,” said Louie.

“A delta?”

“Yeah. You know the Greek letter delta?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah!”

“Apparently in the realm of science, it's symbolic of change. Like change in temperature or heat.”

“How do you know that?”

“I dunno if she's shown you this but Morgan—you know, Morgan from the Cherry Suicides—has this old chemistry textbook back at her place. She found it in the garbage believe it or not.”

“Something wrong about that,” Sam declared.

“Oh, yeah. Unless it's actually trash, books do not belong in the trash. But yeah, she found it and I just happened to prop it open one day, and I read a tidbit in a chapter about equations at one point.”

“Huh. Bill has a bunch of old books at his place—mostly old literature, but it's worth a peek, though. I keep meaning to crack them open but I'm not sure where to begin.”

The light turned green and Louie lunged ahead on the street. The clouds hung even lower over them as he merged lanes and they headed for the 880 Freeway. To the right of them was the stretch of gray waters that made up the very Bay itself.

“If you ever come back up here this way,” he started again, “you know you're in a car on the P.C.H., you've got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge at some point. There's just—something majestic about it, even if you've lived here your whole life like the five of us. Well, four of us, anyway, unless Chuck was telling a fib about where he was born. This will take us right by Santa Clara and down to the interchange in San Jose, which'll in turn take us all the way down the coastline to the City of Angels.”

Sam nodded her head and she peered out the windshield to the gray overhead. To think that the assumption with the California coast was all bright sunshine and infinite beaches: it made her laugh the more in which she thought about it.

“What's even the deal with him, anyway?” Louie asked her out of the blue.

“Who, Bill?” She looked over at him with her eyebrows knitted together and he took a glimpse over at her.

“Yeah.”

“Well,” she began, “I mean, you were sitting right there when I called Chuck and told him what was going on.”

“Pff, how could I forget? But what I'm asking is—is there like a time limit with him? Like you signed a marriage contract plus a prenup but surely someone over at the school has to figure that out at some point because it's totally illegal. Setting you up like that and forcing you into something that you had no desire to get into and then threatening a whole bunch of bullshit with you like locking you in your room and forbidding you from going out and visiting people.”

“Well, when I first came out here and I spoke to Marla over the phone—you know, she's been trying to get a job and she finally did with Belinda up in Albany. But she went to the school and she told them that he was still on the payroll. He got fired, Louie, but there was some weird glitch of some sort so he still got paid and he got paid a lot of money, too. So he was able to afford that large house and care for his daughters, such that he enlisted them in a private school.”

“So he loses his paycheck, he's fucked, basically,” he followed along.

“Yeah. Unless he got something to help him out when we weren't looking, he's probably got to pull the girls out of school and sell the house.”

“And what happens to you if and when that happens?” he asked her.

“I—” She froze. Louie glanced over at her with his eyebrows raised. “I—don't know. Oh, wait!” She snapped her fingers.

“What's that?”

“My mom's moving down to the Southland soon. Where exactly is another question, though. She might be going out to Catalina or she might be going to San Pedro, I dunno.”

“Or you can go back to Joey,” he pointed out. “You know, make things easier on your mom. It's another cross country, for sure, but I feel it'd be more beneficial to take that risk again and go with him rather than put extra pressure on your mom like that. But that's my opinion, though. You do whatever you want.”

“There should be a way to null it, too,” she added.

“Yeah, being in a car with another dude,” he joked, and that brought a laugh out of her.

Within time, signs for the interchange came into their view and Louie took the next exit which looped around and met up with the Pacific Coast Highway. Right as they matched up with the pavement, the clouds over them swirled about like the old feathers or the wisps of paint mixed into the wash for a watercolor project. She looked out to the low hills off to the right, all of them different shades of green and yellow. All of them still that rich green despite the late summer. All of them still rich dark green despite the yellow dead grass everywhere. The clouds overhead beckoned rain but at the same time waned away from the coast line.

Such a strange position to be in as was the state of California, but that pocket there, the hills that followed her and Louie all along the highway on that lengthy seven hour drive, reminded her of that special place.

The quiet place. The spot that she and Charlie had found together and the place where she and Joey visited during their final days together.

“This is almost like the precious part of California,” she noted aloud.

“Nah, the eastern Sierra is the precious part of California in my opinion,” he said. “There's something lonely and ancient about the eastern Sierra Nevadas.”

“This whole area here reminds me of a place that Charlie and I found together when they were making the Stormtroopers of Death album,” she followed up.

“Really?”

“It was like this little nook in the trees down the street from the studio,” she explained as she returned her attention to him. “We called it 'the quiet place' because you go in there and it's like completely untouched in comparison to everything else. You walk down the street and you have to duck underneath the trees as you're going in there.”

“Sounds like something you keep a secret,” he remarked.

“I told Joey about it, though,” she told him. “I imagine upstate being covered in places like that.”

“Places you go to that no one else knows about,” he followed along. “This part of California and the eastern Sierra is like that, too. Lots of nooks and crannies and what have you. Like there's a place outside of Salinas—I'll have to show it to you when we get there. It's closer to Monterey Bay, though, which means we'll have to leave this highway, though.”

“It's okay—it'll get us over to the ocean.”

“The ocean makes everything better,” he remarked.

The highway took them down past Morgan Hill and then Gilroy: at one point the road turned towards Monterey Bay; off in the distance loomed those cold dark gray waters that seemed to stretch on forever. The view enlarged as they came closer and closer to the next turn off and the 156: Louie told her it would take them to Highway 1, which would in turn take them to the place he had in mind. At that point, the clouds increased and everything grew dark despite it being almost ten o'clock in the morning.

“While we're over here, you don't mind spending a little money for breakfast, do you?” he asked her at one point.

“Not at all. I was just gonna ask you if you're hungry at all.”

He showed her a grin in response, and then he pointed out the windshield to the next sign up ahead: the town of Castroville as well as the turn off to Highway 1.

“So anyway, this place—it's over by the Salinas River, which eventually heads out to the ocean,” he explained. “When I first met Zelda, and I was waffling on if I wanted to go with her or stay with my concurrent girlfriend and our baby, I always came here. It always helped me clear my head to drive down here when the baby fell asleep and Zelda was back in Rhode Island. I remember staying down here for a full afternoon once. Like I didn't get back home until well after the sun went down. Needless to say, I almost got in trouble for that.”

She laughed at that, and he gave his long smooth hair a little toss back from his face and the side of his neck.

“And the highway will take us all the way down the coastline, too. Take us down to Big Sur and all around the coast, all the way down to San Simeon and Cambria, and then Morro Bay, and then that'll take us over to San Luis Obispo and that's where we meet up with 101 again.”

“And that'll take us all the way back to L.A., too.”

He nodded his head at that, and then Sam cleared her throat.

“I don't think I get Alex,” she confessed.

“A lot of people don't,” he assured her with a straight face.

“It's funny, he said the exact same thing to me,” she recalled. “Word for word.”

“Well, because it's true! A lot of people don't get Alex. That kid is a bundle of contradictions, many of which are not for the faint of heart. I've only known him for a few years but can confirm that, though. And what's mind blowing to me is he's completely aware of it, too. I remember the first time I got into an in-depth conversation with him a few years ago when Testament first formed and we were still Legacy. Sam, I never had such a worse headache.”

“Well, like. For example, when we were in Germany and he and I spent a whole day together—”

“And he missed the train?” he finished for her. “Chuck told me.”

“Yeah, he missed the train and he got upset with me when I tried to grab his attention and get him to come onboard. Then the fireball happened and he realized the error of his ways and we patched it up. And then, you know last night, he opened up the wound over Cliff with me.”

“The fireball happened and what exactly did he do there?”

“I put my arms around him and held him close to me,” she explained. “Wept like a baby right into my chest.”

“He probably liked to feel your chest,” he pointed out.

“What makes you think that?”

“Sam—he's nineteen, soon to be twenty. When I was nineteen, that was all I ever thought about were touching and feeling boobs and clits. We're horny bastards at that age, and I would imagine that he is especially, too. Alex is bit of a nerd—it's the whole thing about how girls don't really talk to nerds.”

“But he's a guitar player, though. I would imagine the girls getting all hot and bothered to guitar players.”

“Not Alex and not our crowds, no. He's like the thinking man's guitarist. I'm sure you've seen him before a television.”

“Oh, yeah, he's all over news reports whenever they come on. Well, I was with you guys in Boston and he and Greg were right before the TV in the room there.”

“Oh, yeah, that's right! But still—at the end of the day, even with his large brain and social scientist parents, he's still a guy. And he probably wanted to feel something soft and warm and comfy.” Louie glimpsed over at her. “You said he was scared, right?”

“Yeah. It was right when that big fireball went up. He just—came over to me and burst into tears at the sight of it. I held him so close to me and I let him weep into my chest.”

“Well—if you see him next time, really pay attention to his behavior towards you,” he advised her. “If he's actually sincere with you, then it's probably because he's confused and his inexperience is showing. If not, like if he gets close to you again, then don't bother with him for a second longer.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I'm saying is he either wants you for you or he's using you,” he explained. “I wish I could tell you more about it, but I'm not Alex, though. I can only tell you what I know from being in between two women for a couple of years.” He shook his hair again and then raked his fingers through one side: outside, the signs for Castroville emerged from the scraggly shrubs on either side of the road.

“I imagine him being soft and sweet, though,” he confessed in a low voice, such that it took her aback to hear that.

“Is—there something about him that you see with him?” she sputtered out as she took a glimpse over at him with a bewildered look on her face. Louie bowed his head and cleared his throat.

“Let me ask you a question,” he said as he leaned his head closer to her.

“Okay.”

“Does it bother you at all—” She could tell that he chose his words with care. “—when a guy finds another guy attractive and it's obvious he's not gay at all?”

She opened her mouth to say something to that, but no sound came out.

“Take as much time as you need to answer that, too,” he assured her, “—I asked Zelda this once and she really had to think about it.”

She thought of all the times that she made art while in class, and she thought of the time that she drew Marla in her journal. It wasn't until she really got to know Marla as well as Belinda when she began to see them as a couple of beautiful women. Indeed, as she thought about their willingness to help her out even while she had posted up out on the West Coast, the more she wondered if the whole thing extended further than their smooth New Yorker skin. Further than Marla's colorful hair and further than Belinda's soft doll like features. There was something more to Alex, much like there was something more to Louie in the seat there next to her, and there had to be something more to herself as well. More to them all, and the fact that she and Louie both had a quiet place, a place where they went that fell on blind eyes, was enough to give her a clue.

The hidden spots and everything in between. It was only the beginning.

And thus it only made sense to her to realize that it resided with everyone, including Alex himself.

“No,” she replied after a long while. “No, it doesn't bother me at all.”

“Okay,” Louie proclaimed as they rolled into Castroville. “Sometimes I look at Alex and I think, 'god, he's a really beautiful boy. I imagine being the perfect cuddler, like he must be adept to snuggling and feeling soft underneath a bunch of blankets.' Not necessarily sexy, although he does have a nice chest and thighs.”

“Nice arms, too,” she said in a soft voice.

“Yeah, he's got those really lanky strong guitar player arms.”

“Hey, you've got nice arms, too, Lewis,” she declared.

“Drummer arms.” He shook his right elbow about: his muscles were tight and sinewy.

“Reminds me of Joey's arms,” she said.

“Oh, yeah, that's right! He's a drummer, too.”

“Drummer and a hockey player.”

Louie took the first exit off into that small town and Sam volunteered to buy the both of them cups of coffee and a couple of scones for themselves: she took a chocolate one where he took a peach one for himself.

Within time, they climbed back into the car and Louie guided her over to the spot in question, right down by the Salinas River and where it widened out before it reached the ocean in small narrow fashion. It was there that the shades of yellow that followed them out of the Bay Area returned to that rich dark green that reminded her of New York. The space in the forest outside of the studio where she and Charlie ventured to together, and then she and Joey visited under a blanket of pure white snow.

“We all have a quiet place,” she declared.

“We really do,” Louie said as he sipped on his coffee.

“We all have a house and a home, even if it isn't physical,” she said.

“Yeah, we all have an attic. We all have secrets. We all have things that we show to everyone.”

“We all have things that we've buried—skeletons in the closet,” she muttered.

“And we all have a quiet place,” he added with a raise of his eyebrows.

He took the next right turn, one that brought them down the Salinas River and away from civilization. All the while, the ponderosa pines stretched high up into the sky around them, all up into those low dark swirling clouds that enveloped them in a blanket of coziness. Soon, the pavement gave way to gravel and broken pieces of pavement itself; and every so often, Sam spotted a series of shrubs all over the places, shrubs with little light pink and pearly white flowers.

“The rhododendrons are still in bloom I see,” Louie remarked.

“I don't think I've actually seen those before,” she confessed; the whole scenery made her think of the hole in the wall back in Ithaca. “They only grow here on the coast and in northern Nevada, we have all manner of pines and trees but nothing like this, though. Nothing as delicate and fluffy as those, though.”

“You guys get oleanders down in the Southland. I've seen those a number of times, they're quite lovely.”

“Oh, yeah. Only drawback with oleanders is they grow like weeds down there. Which is absolutely amazing to me because they're very poisonous.”

“At least it's not strychnine,” he told her. “Strychnine or—better yet deadly nightshade.” And Joey entered her mind right as that final word left his lips. “I don't even know if strychnine grows out here,” he continued.

“Yeah, I don't know, either...” Her voice trailed off at that. She thought about Joey and what he was doing right at that moment. They were still touring over in Europe and they were about to drop their brand new album in the meantime as well. If nothing else when she got back to Lake Elsinore, she had to pick up a copy of that.

She would have to search about for that familiar lettering: she knew it when she saw it.

“There should be a garden somewhere,” he continued, “one full of poison plants.”

“The most dangerous garden in the world,” she declared.

“We should literally call it that.”

“'We'?”

“'They', I should say,” he corrected himself; before them, the little road led to that wide part of the river. Big lush ponderosas as well as oak trees with large wide green leaves the size of dinner plates and tall narrow trees with high canopies surrounded them.

“I was just gonna say—do you really wanna go there, Louie?”

“Unless you wanna.” He tugged on the parking lever and switched off the car. “I ain't gonna do it unless you want to do it.”

“We gotta be careful, though,” she pointed out.

“Oh, absolutely. That's something that's just not for the faint of heart. The quintessential declaration of 'you can look but don't touch'. Might wanna throw in a 'for the love of god' in there, too. 'You can look but for the love of god, do not touch.'”

“'Welcome to Shelley and Clemente's poison garden,'” she declared with a gesture of her hand, “the most dangerous garden on Earth. We've got everything from strychnine to belladonna to oleanders to—whatever else we can find. Have it all together under one umbrella. You and me—we could retire off the profits.”

“You think people would actually pay money to see that?” he asked her, stunned.

“Yeah. People pay money to see the weirdest shit, Louie.”

“Case in point!” He gestured to himself.

“You guys aren't weird,” she assured him.

“Yes, we are. We're as weird as weird can possibly be.” He sipped on his coffee a bit more and then he unbuckled his seat belt. “Anyways, this is where I come to clear my head. I call this place 'the end of the world' 'cause it's far removed away from anything. It's only ten miles back to Castroville but—still.”

They both climbed out of there in unison; Sam peered up to the gray sky overhead and she took in the smell of the salt as it filtered in through the trees before them. The Salinas River flowed right next to the small stretch of gravel and partially collapsed pavement.

“This is like the perfect place for a poison garden,” she told him as he led her to the soft dark river bank.

“Oh, yeah, this lush soil here. Look up the plants and see what kind of environment they thrive in.”

“I do know oleanders like heat,” she told him, “it's why they're everywhere in the L.A. area and in the south, too.”

“Have a special greenhouse for those guys,” he continued as he held his cup of coffee close to his chest. “Kinda clean up the pavement behind us a bit so—Skolnick can drive around on it on his—golf—cart.”

“Shelley and Clemente's poison garden—featuring Alex Skolnick's golf cart.” She laughed at that and he laughed with her.

“Can you imagine Alex on a golf cart?” he asked her, and then he held out his arms, “'oh! Oh god! Oh god here we go!'” And he lowered his voice to where he almost matched Alex's tone.

“Four wheelin' on a golf cart,” she laughed some more.

“Hey, Alex! Take it easy, little man!” Louie lowered his voice to a near whisper. “There's stuff in here that'll kill you faster than you can say your middle name!” He shook his head and chuckled some more, and then he took another sip of his coffee.

“So what's the quiet place like?” he asked her as they neared the river's edge.

“In upstate?”

“Yeah.”

“It's about like this, without the river, of course. There was another spot that Joey and I went to when Stormtroopers were in Ithaca a few summers ago—right by the water's edge at the one lake—one of the Finger Lakes that's there. It kind of reminds me of that, like I'm getting the same feeling as that.”

They stopped at the water's edge and Sam leaned out a little bit for a view beyond the trees. The stretch of rich black and gray that was the Pacific Ocean, a mere stone's throw up ahead of them. Even though Louie had a different opinion, Sam couldn't help but feel that there was something prehistoric about this part of the river; something precious and untouched.

“Sometimes, when it's a bit sunnier out,” he started again, “I'll kneel down to the waters here and search around for insects and rocks and stuff. There's a lot of bizarre life here that's endemic only to this part of the river and as far as I know, the whole state.”

“Kind of like a 'keep it forever' sort of thing,” she noted.

“Exactly, right. Keep this whole place hidden away from the world so as to protect it from everything and everyone. Eastern Sierra is the same way. Exact same way.” He sipped on his coffee once again.

“C'mon, I think it's gonna rain—I feel it.”

They returned to the car and sure enough, as Louie fired it up again and they made a turn back at the dead end and proceeded back up the pavement, the first large drops of rain pattered on the roof and the windshield. It would be some time before they reached the Highway 1 once again, but once they did, Sam wondered as to how far they could go without seeing another sliver of civilization between Monterey Bay and the next spot on the coast.

To the left of them stood the high sea cliffs in all their withered and eroded glory, strong and high over their heads, much stronger and higher than the buildings back in New York City or Los Angeles or even San Francisco itself. To the right stood the ocean: the gray and black waters that went on forever into the horizon. Empty and cold, and cradled by the clouds over them. Everything gray and black.

Every so often, Sam peered down to the waves down below as they crashed on the rocks. She looked to the left once again: every so often in the cliffs, a minute ponderosa jutted out from the cracks as if it gasped for the fresh oceanic air. The coast line seemed to stretch on for infinity before them. She glanced over at Louie and the serene expression on his face.

He was her drummer in that moment.

She turned her attention back out to the ocean beyond them as they went around a corner. Maybe it was the lack of anything discernible on the cliffs or the fact that the ocean appearead so endless beyond them, but something about all of this made her squirm in her seat.

Louie's occasional peers down to the gages behind the steering wheel didn't help, either.

An eternity in such a small pocket of the coastline. They really were at the end of the world.

A sign emerged on the side of the road but she had no idea what it read.

“We probably should've stopped for gas in Castroville,” he told her at one point.

“Why, are we low?” she asked him as her heart skipped a beat.

“Sorta. I hope. I don't really know the economy on this thing—I don't really pay attention to that sort of thing.”

They rounded another corner and Louie drummed his fingers on the steering wheel: that time they had a full view of the ocean. The grand view of the waves as they welcomed her to the end of the world, and they were about to run out of gas as far as she knew right then.

Another sign emerged from behind the guard rail and that time she saw that they were ten miles from the central part of the coast.

“Mother fucker!” he spat under his breath.

“It's okay—we're almost to San Simeon,” she told him.

“Yeah, I know—I'm still kicking myself, though. We'll probably gonna coast there the rate we're going at right at the moment.”

“Seriously?” she demanded, shocked.

“Yeah!”

She closed her eyes and she thought of Joey over in Europe. The only thing that seemed worse than losing Cliff to a bus accident that was far beyond her control was her being stranded on the Central California coast and not being able to tell anyone. But then again, they were close to the next piece of civilization.

“As long as we don't drive into the ocean, I think we'll be fine,” she told him.

“We don't drive into a—poison garden,” he muttered as they went around yet another bend in the road: the cliffs soon began to lower away to the sight of more ponderosas and scraggly shrubs.

“There's no poison gardens here,” she assured him.

“You sure? 'Cause like—there's a bend here—and another here—it's like this.”

They rounded a corner as it wound around the coastline: the road dipped inward into a gentle curve and they doubled back to the next crevice in the landscape.

“Sit—” He pointed to the left. “—down—” He pointed to the right. “—sit—down—sit—down—poison garden.” He pointed straight ahead at that last part and she chuckled at that.

Sure enough, the car sputtered a bit right outside of San Simeon: Hearst Castle rose up off in the distance but they had no time to visit right at that moment.

“Told ya we'd have to coast,” he told her as he guided the car to the gas station right there at the edge of town. The engine sputtered again and died right as they coasted into the first spot near the driveway. He let out a low whistle and leaned back in his seat.

“That was close,” she remarked.

“Yeah, I'll say,” he breathed, and then he turned his attention to her. “A twenty'll get us to the heart of Lost Angles and it'll get me up the Grapevine and into the Central Valley.”

“You're not gonna hang out there with me?”

“I can't,” he told her. “We're supposed to make a new album ourselves.”

“Oh, yeah, that's right!” She handed him a twenty dollar bill, followed by another which would ensure him a ride back home to the Bay Area.

Once they were filled up, they returned to the road.

“I don't know if Hearst Castle is even open,” Louie confessed.

“I don't, either. It's getting kind of late in the day, too.”

“Yeah, exactly!”

Some more coastline and they found their way down into Solvang and then San Luis Obispo where they were met with the Pacific Coast Highway yet again, and they moved away from the end of the world. So much that she wanted to show to Joey. And so much that she wished Cliff could see again, especially that one stretch of the highway where everything felt so finite and endless at the same time.

They wound their way through the low foothills and yet another unknown pocket of California, until they skirted the outside of Santa Barbara followed by Carpinteria.

The waves down below thrashed even more as they wound along the cliffs towards Ventura. At that point, the sky began to darken with the setting sun on the other side of the blanket of clouds overhead.

“Part of me wants to go down to the beaches here,” Louie confessed to her. “Like—take a walk on one of the beaches here. Yet another thing I wanted to do with Zelda when we were together.”

“We don't have towels, though,” she pointed out.

“And it's cold, too!”

“Right!”

The highway led them into Camarillo and then the heart of Los Angeles, where it ended and became the 210. At that point, night was about to fall over them, and the feeling of dread washed over Sam herself. She knew that Bill would be furious by the mere sight of her walking through that front door without any sort of explanation.

Louie drove them down to Corona and then the hills which cradled Lake Elsinore away from the rest of the region. The clouds had finally dissipated and gave way to a violet and orange sky overhead. Such a great length of time to be in that car with him and a part of her wished they had more time.

More time together. More time to relish over the idea of the poison garden.

But that time was all they had right then and there, much like that stretch of highway that overlooked the ocean.

She guided him to the house by the lake and within time, she recognized the neighborhood in question.

He pulled up to the curb and she sighed through her nose at the realization. Her head spun a bit from having driven such a great distance but at least they could come to a stop on a steady piece of ground. She looked on at the house, with its windows dark and the shades pulled despite the fact that it wasn't that late in the evening.

“Do you need any help?” he offered her, to which she shook her head. Instead, she sighed through her nose again and she climbed out to fetch her things out of the back seat. She decided to give her mother a ring later that night when Bill and the girls had gone to bed, that is if they already did. She hoisted her overnight bag over her shoulder and she held her purse close to her body as she reached the driver's side window. He rolled it down so she could speak to him one last time.

“Louie?”

He leaned closer to the window with his eyebrows raised.

“Thank you,” she said to him in a soft voice, and he showed her a sweet smile.

“It's my pleasure,” he told her with a wink. “Poison garden.”

“Poison garden,” she echoed him with a smile on her face.

“Also—”

She stopped and he gestured for her to come on closer to him.

“Don't worry, I'll—I'll talk to him,” he vowed to her.

“Who?”

“You know. The little man.”

“Oh, him!” She stopped right in her tracks. “What for?”

“Just to see if he's alright. One thing I've noticed about him when he fucks up something—he's real hard on himself. So if it's kinda messed between the two of you, I'll check in on him. I'll check in on him anyways.”

“Good plan,” she told him. “You be safe going back up, alright?”

“You be safe, too. Poison garden!”

Sam stepped away from the car and she turned back to the house, still in one place. Louie drove away right then and he disappeared around the corner. Another seven hours and he'd be back up there. She returned to the front door of the house and she opened it with ease. Silence.

She knew that he wouldn't do it. Sam shook her head and she bowed upstairs to her room.

#fanfic #fanfiction #chapter 11 #book four #souls of black #fever in fever out #fever in fever out fanfic #testament fanfic #testament band #testament #louie clemente #oc tag #long reads #friendship #also on ao3 #also on wattpad #slice of life #writing #text

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twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

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FTWD 6x10 - Handle With Care

How did everyone like Fear? I have to admit, the first time I watched it, I didn’t’ see much. But that’s probably when I first watched, I was SUPER tired. When I re-watched, I found much more. Amazing how that works. ;D

***As always, spoilers abound for Fear 6x10 below. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

This episode centers mostly around Daniel. Grace starts having contractions, and they don’t know if they’re Braxton Hicks or if she’s really in labor. Morgan wants to go get a fetal monitor he left at the water tower. Since Sherry is there, she lets him use the MWRAP so he can get there and back quickly. He leaves Daniel in charge.

When everyone first comes in, they make everyone lock their weapons in the armory. Only Daniel and Morgan have the keys. After Morgan leaves, Daniel gathers everyone to talk about the situation with this other group, but they just all end up fighting and not trusting one another. Then something explodes.

They run over and there was some dynamite that went off. No one was hurt, and Daniel says it was probably an accident. But everyone starts getting really suspicious of one another. The sound of the explosion brings walkers. A lot of them. Daniel decides to get into the gun locker, just in case, but when he goes in, all the guns are gone. Someone has taken them. No one knows who, or at least they aren’t telling.

Afraid the walkers will breach the walls, Daniel sends Grace to a *fishing shack* (not only symbolism but remember that) just in case. He later sends Charlie to be with her.

Some of the walkers get in and it’s revealed that Strand has a gun he didn’t turn in. So Daniel thinks he took the guns and puts him in jail. Just as it seems the walkers might get in, and Daniel is ready to shoot Strand, Morgan returns and the guns on the MWRAP take care of the walker problem.

Then Morgan goes to find Grace and Daniel still doesn’t believe Strand didn’t take the guns. But Morgan radios when he gets to the shack and says Grace isn’t there. She radios them later and is fine and they go get her.

Daniel asks why she didn’t go to the shack and she says he told her to go to the caverns. Charlie confirms that, and he even marked it on the map for them. The caverns.

Couple of things here before I go on.

1) There’s a major hallucination/delusion theme going on here. Given the Leah episode, that caught my attention. Let me say that it doesn’t LOOK anything like the Leah episode. No colors, no haziness, nothing. (I don’t think I’ve actually posted about that, but the more we see the color saturation and haziness of that episode as evidence of the hallucination.) For the record, we don’t see anything like that in this episode. I think there’s a specific reason for that, which I’ll get to in a minute.

2) They chose a fishing shack and caverns. Obviously, we can tie the fishing shack to Beth in 12 different ways. But “caverns” are also where Connie went missing. And while they found her very quickly, for a short time, Grace, Morgan’s love interest, was a missing girl. And in this pic, she’s…um…wearing a bright yellow sweater?

Okay, moving on.

So, it seems that Daniel isn’t entirely in his right mind. Right after that, they find all the guns hidden in his person shed. He says he has no memory of putting them there.

It’s actually very sad. He first says someone is framing him, but then says he’s confused and isn’t sure if he’s okay. It then reveals that he’s talking to June. She does some neurological tests and says the condition isn’t neurological. It’s probably psychological.

At the end, Dakoka tells them about Dallas. Luciana says Alicia and Al are probably halfway there. So, Luciana are going to go meet up with them and they’ll all go to Dallas. (That may happen next episode).

And Daniel decides to leave. He gets teary-eyed, saying he put Grace and Charlie in danger without knowing it, and it’s not safe for him to be in the community. He said the last time weirdo things started happening in his mind, he burnt a building down (S3).

So, he plans to go back to the warehouse he was living in before. But then Strand invites him to come to Lawton. So, he does.

That’s pretty much what happens. But let’s talk about this in more detail. The first time through, I thought it was very sad for Daniel. But by itself, it’s kind of a bottleneck story, designed to bridge the time between John and Virginia’s deaths and when they go to Dallas. So, perhaps not the most interesting episode, even if it was interesting to watch.

Watching it a second time…I think there’s a good chance Daniel is faking it. That may be why it doesn’t feel as ethereal as Leah’s episode. We, the audience, still hear him tell Grace to go to the shack. But that may have just been a bait and switch to trick the audience. If Daniel is faking, it’s not REALLY a hallucination.

And I’ll say up front that I’m not certain he’s faking it. I just suspect he might be.

So why do I suspect that?

When they’re all talking before the explosion, Luciana says the “end is the beginning” group took down Tank Town because they infiltrated her group without her even knowing. And they all start wondering if one of that group could already be among them. (Trust issues.) I’m wondering if, somehow, it’s Daniel. The mention the idea so many times, it makes me think it’s a hint. And there’s really no one else it could be.

And I will say that if it is him, and if he was faking, I have no idea why he would do that. I mean, clearly, he’s trying to sow discord, but to what end? I have no idea.

There’s also a lot of tension between him and Strand. They talk about how Daniel’s fake memory problems at Lawton was him playing Virginia. Strand says, “we were both playing our own game. The better man won.”

When Daniel thought Strand took the guns and imprisoned him, he talked about how Strand shot him in the face (I barely remember that) and how much pain Strand caused him. He really comes very close to shooting Strand.

I also noticed that in the “inside the episode” at the end, the showrunner said that Strand inviting Daniel to Lawton was part unselfish (he says it’s for Ofelia) and partly selfish because it means Daniel is weaker than Strand is. The showrunner says Strand, “outfoxed him.” And the fox reference is what caught my ear there originally. But there’s definitely a rivalry between these two.

I also noticed that Daniel offered to go get the fetal monitor early on, but Morgan said he’d get it. The place would be too hard for anyone else to find. So I’m wondering if Daniel was looking for a reason to leave. I don’t think he could have known that Strand would invite him to Lawton. But maybe he just wanted to get outside the walls.

So yeah. I could certainly be wrong about him faking it. Let’s put it this way. If I’m right, it’s a very intriguing episode. If I’m wrong, it’s kinda bland. So, I lean toward the conspiracy theory. ;D

Other symbols. Sarah in lots of pink is interesting. (Pink Theory.) I think it’s probably because she’s June’s assistant. So, she’s Beth to June’s Dr. Edwards.

There’s a blond walker that gets in. And this is pretty interesting. I didn’t think much about her at first except that she’s blond and therefore kinda Beth-ish. But I noticed this time that she’s also wearing a pink shirt under her denim jacket. She ends up wrestling with Dwight and getting a saw in her mouth (ew).

So it could be a “speak no evil” sort of theme. Then Strand shoots her to help Dwight, and when Dwight looks up, he has almost a perfect circle of blood around one eye. Sirius anyone?

The other thing from what I mentioned above is that the fishing shack Daniel told her to go to ended up being part of the delusion (if it was real). So, it definitely feeds into the hallucination imagery.

I think most of the rest of it is just run-of-the-mill imagery. We see tomatoes.

It starts with Daniel saying three words, which we later learn June told him to remember because she’s running the neurological tests. He says beach ball, elephant, grape.

Beach ball I tie to Sasha because Negan told her she had “beach ball sized” lady nuts. And of course there was all the beach talk around her and Abraham.

Grapes can tie to Beth in Inmates. And we have seen a few elephant symbols. So all of this is inline with the symbolism.

So how does this all tie into the grand scheme of things? Not entirely sure yet, but there’s definitely hallucination symbolism going on.

The other thing is that memory issues could possibly be a foreshadow of Beth having memory issues. After all, Daniel has had more than one death fake out and then returned. Plus he specifically referenced burning down a building here. So there’s that.

Mostly, this felt like a bit of bottleneck episode with some fun TD symbolism thrown in. I have no complaints, but I’m excited to see what happens in Dallas.

So yeah. I think that’s all I’ve got for Fear. How did everyone else like it?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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avarogers021 · 3 years

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Updated List 2021 For Netflix Cancelled & Renewed Shows

Platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime are watched by a number of people all over the world. Both of these platforms telecast movies, shows, and series which are related to different genres. From thriller to action, anime, mystery, documentaries, history, and more, everything can be seen on these platforms.

Before getting started let us first talk about the shows/series you like to watch? Friends, Riverdale, Game Of Thrones? Well, all of them has a huge fan following. I personally can never get enough of watching Riverdale and Friends. Whether I am back home after work or I wanted to spend some time, Netflix has always been a savior. However, lately I got a news and it just felt like the end of the world.

Were you aware of the fact that some of the Netflix shows have been going off air and cancelled real soon? Yes, you are reading this right. The reasons behind the cancellation of various reasons bring together a plethora of reasons. Of course some shows like Dear White People and Dead To Me have a huge fan following and will be missed for sure. However, since we know that sooner or later good things do make their way, all these shows also came to an end soon.

Have you been wondering which shows got canceled? This is the piece which is apt for you. You will be able to find out all of them here itself. Hence, let’s get started without any further ado.

Netflix shows that have been renewed and cancelled in the year 2021Below mentioned is a list of the top twenty shows that have been canceled this year. Check them out to find the reasons behind the big decision. In addition to this, you will also find out if they are coming back anytime soon.

Ozark: This one has been renewed for season four. The famous television series is coming to an end in 2021. You could find this series on Netflix. Even after gaining so much of popularity, the show is gong off air this year. The show did receive a number of nominations of awards and has also won numerou titles. Some of them are the Guild award, and Emmy award. To people who have watched this series, the fourth season has divided into two different categories. Each category consists of seven episodes. However, at present the director wanted to take a break and made sure that the series is remembered by the fans.

Cast of Ozark

Jason Bateman

Alik Bateman

Andrew Bernstein

Ellen Kuras

Daniel Sackheim

Amanda Marsalis

Benjamin Semanoff

Phil Abraham

Cherien Dabis

Dead To Me: This one has been renewed for season three. The series is known to end in the year 2021. However, the series finale is a big hit and funny. But, this one did not gain too much attention. Time changes, and so does the audience. This is why it is now time to bid adieu to this series, Jenny and Judy. Even though the series was loved by some of them till date, it is finally coming to an end yet not off air.

Cast of Dead To Me

Kat Coiro

Geeta V. Patel

Minkie Spiro

Abe Sylvia

Amy York Rubin

Tamra Davis

Jennifer Getzinger

Liza Johnson

Silver Tree

Elizabeth Allen

Lucifer: The series is renewed for season six. Another fantastic which is coming to an end is Lucifer. The series premiered on 25 January 2016. With time the first season received mixed reviews from critics. A number of them praised certain characters and Elli’s performance was no exception. With time more and more seasons were released. However, they did not gain much popularity. Platforms like Netflix also cancelled the pick up of the third season.

Cast Of Lucifer

Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar

Lauren German

Kevin Alejandro

D B. Woodside as Amenadiel

Lesley as Ann Branch

Scarlett Estevez as Beatrice

Rachael Harris

Kevin Rankin

Tricia Helfer as Mum

Tom Welling as Lieutenant Marcus Pierce

Inbar Lavi as Eve

You: This one got renewed for season three. There are only very few Netflix series that have grabbed the attention of people. However unfortunately, this famous thriller series has come to an end now. However, a statement was made by the director where he said that the series will be ending with a season three. The series is based on a novel which was written by Caroline Kepnes. The main role was played by Penn Badgley who was a bookseller. During the second season, the seller was a movie from New York to LA. Even though this is an irresistible show, the fans may not get to watch it anymore.

Cast of You

Penn Badgley

Victoria Pedretti

Ambyr Childers

Elizabeth Lail

Luca Padovan

Jenna Ortega

Zach Cherry

James Scully

Carmeta Zumbado

Nicole Kang

Shalita Grant

Scott Speedman

Travis Van Winkle

Atypical: This show has been renewed for season four. With the season finale, this show is going off air in 2021. However, it will still remain in the hearts of so many of them. No reasons have been found as to why the show is going off air. However, some of them are saying that the reason is because the show is very underrated.

Cast of Atypical

Keir Gilchrist

Brigette Lundy-Paine

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Michael Rapaport

Nik Dodani

Amy Okuda

Jenna Boyd

Graham Rogers

Fivel Stewart

Nina Ameri

Raúl Castillo

Ariela Barer

Graham Phillips

Sara Gilbert

Rachel Redleaf

Allie Rae Treharne

Eric McCormack

Casey Wilson

Angel Laketa Moore

Christina Offley

Kimia Behpoornia

Karl T. Wright

Major Curda

Marietta Melrose

On My Block: There is no official announcement related to the renewal of On My Block. However, it is going to end in 2021 mainly because of the pandemic. The show gained popularity but is still ending. Centered in Los Angeles, this one was based on high school teens who face different challenges.

Cast of On My Block

Diego Tinoco

Sierra Capri

Jason Genao

Brett Gray

Jessica Marie Garcia

Julio Macias

Ronni Hawk

Peggy Blow

Jahking Guillory

Paula Garcés

Danny Ramirez

Reggie Austin

Eric Neil Gutierrez

Eme Ikwuakor

Emilio Rivera

Lisa Marcos

Angela Elayne Gibbs

Ada Luz Pla

Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson

Shoshana Bush

Rob Murat

Mallory James Mahoney

Raushanah Simmons

Gilberto Ortiz

Dear White People: This series is renewed for season four. This one is coming to an end in 2021. The final episodes will show you the nest conversational end.

Cast of Dear White People

Logan Browning

Antoinette Robertson

Brandon P. Bell

Ashley Blaine Featherson

Marque Richardson

DeRon Horton

John Patrick Amedori

Giancarlo Esposito

Tyler James Williams

Caitlin Carver

Jeremy Tardy

Obba Babatundé

Brandon Black

Sheridan Pierce

Nia Long

Ally Maki

Quei Tann

Brant Daugherty

Wendy Raquel Robinson

John Rubinstein

Jeff Larson

Alex Alcheh

Francia Raisa

Rome Flynn

Luke O’Sullivan

Taylor Foster

John Paul Jones II

Tessa Thompson

Ratched: This series is renewed for season two but is going off air very soon. The series is about a nurse Ratched and is based on a real story. As of now it is twisted and ended with a superb episode.

Cast of Ratched

Sarah Paulson

Cynthia Nixon

Finn Wittrock

Sharon Stone

Judy Davis

Jon Jon Briones

Charlie Carver

Amanda Plummer

Corey Stoll

Alice Englert

Sophie Okonedo

Vincent D’Onofrio

Hunter Parrish

Brandon Flynn

Harriet Sansom Harris

Rosanna Arquette

Jermaine Williams

Michael Benjamin Washington

Don Cheadle

Linda Bisesti

Annie Starke

Teo Briones

Emily Mest

Liz Femi

Jeff B. Davis

Robert Curtis Brown

Kirk Bovill

Grasie Mercedes

Siaka Massaquoi

Ben Crowley

Elinor Gunn

Clayton Farris

Aaron Jay Rome

Patrick Duke Conboy

Zabeth Russell

Albert Malafronte

Jake McDermott

Heather McPhaul

Lita Lopez

Lucas Barker

Greg Ballora

Alfred Rubin Thompson

Germain Arroyo

Kristin Charney

Fred Maske

Casey James Knight

Glow: This one is straightaway cancelled. A very famous wrestling drama, this had to be cancelled because of the pandemic.

Cast of Glow

Alison Brie

Betty Gilpin

Marc Maron

Kate Nash

Jackie Tohn

Sydelle Noel

Sunita Mani

Britney Young

Gayle Rankin

Awesome Kong

Britt Baron

Ellen Wong

Chris Lowell

Kimmy Gatewood

Rebekka Johnson

Marianna Palka

Shakira Barrera

Rich Sommer

Bashir Salahuddin

Geena Davis

Victor Quinaz

Ursula Hayden

Alex Rich

Andrew Friedman

Elizabeth Perkins

Annabella Sciorra

Brooke Hogan

Breeda Wool

Kevin Cahoon

Horatio Sanz

Wyatt Nash

Joey Ryan

Toby Huss

Paul Fitzgerald (actor)

Eli Goree

Marc Evan Jackson

Phoebe Strole

Amy Farrington

Ravil Isyanov

Messiah: The series was cancelled because it had to go through ups and downs. However, for the year 2021, this high class show has been canceled. The reason behind this is the dropping popularity.

Cast of Messiah

Mehdi Dehbi

Michelle Monaghan

Stefania LaVie Owen

Rona-Lee Shimon

Sayyid El Alami

Melinda Page Hamilton

Wil Traval

John Ortiz

Fares Landoulsi

Jane Adams

Beau Bridges

Philip Baker Hall

Dermot Mulroney

Teenage Bounty Hunters: This one got cancelled too. Even though this was considered as one of the best teen comedy series, it came to an end. The series received amazing reviews from the critics and the jury.Sadly, the first season of this show fails to draw the attention of the audience. This is one major reason why the series ended.

Cast of Teenage Bounty Hunters

Maddie Phillips

Anjelica Bette Fellini

Devon Hales

Kadeem Hardison

Virginia Williams

Spencer House

Mackenzie Astin

Myles Evans

Charity Cervantes

Method Man

Eric Graise

Given Sharp

Shirley Rumierk

Randy Havens

Jacob Rhodes

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: The series got cancelled even after umpteen gigs and comedy episodes.

Cast of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Anya Taylor-Joy

Taron Egerton

Nathalie Emmanuel

Mark Hamill

Simon Pegg

Jason Isaacs

Helena Bonham Carter

Andy Samberg

Natalie Dormer

Keegan-Michael Key

Caitriona Balfe

Alicia Vikander

Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Mark Strong

Harvey Fierstein

Theo James

Toby Jones

Awkwafina

Lena Headey

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

Shazad Latif

Donna Kimball

Harris Dickinson

Benedict Wong

Sigourney Weaver

Hannah John-Kamen

Neil Sterenberg

Louise Gold

Beccy Henderson

Kevin Clash

Dave Chapman

Warrick Brownlow-Pike

Helena Smee

Bill Hader

Theo Ogundipe

Kemi-Bo Jacobs

Dave Goelz

Eddie Izzard

Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj; This American show has grabbed the attention of so many of them during the lockdown. However, the show is now cancelled and no reasons behind the same have been found out yet.

Cast of Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj

Hasan Minhaj

Joyelle Johnson

Arnab Goswami

Andrew Yang

Cory Booker

Maeve Higgins

Adi Ash

Michelle C Bonilla

Rahm Braslaw

Julian Zane Chawdhary

Sean Hartman

Alexis Landry

James Adam Tucker

Rayan Zaim-Sassi

Emily Grace Buck

Vava

Vinod Chaproo

Joan Dickson

Michael Eric Dyson

Jann Ellis

Sonia

Lori Hammel

Smith Harrison

John Hodgman

Siraj Huda

Jacob Dylan

Aurea Jolly

Kevin

The Summary

These are some of the famous Netflix series and shows that got cancelled in the year 2021. As mentioned above, the reasons behind the cancellation differ from series to series. However, you need not lose hope. Netflix still have amazing series coming up. Whatever genre you prefer, keep that in mind and start searching for them. This way you will surely end up finding the ones that will be suitable for you. If not Netflix, then you can check out IMDB. This is a platform where you can search for various shows and movies. While doing do, what you can do is check out the ratings. This way you will find out whether or not the show should be watched or not. IMDB shows new series ans shows that are released every week or month. Search for the one you want to watch and get started without any further ado.

We hope this piece has helped in understanding which and why the shows got cancelled. However, you need not worry about anything. There are a plethora of shows you will come across on this platform, and something or the other will surely be worth watching. Thus, do not wait further and make use of the time this lockdown. Do not let the cancellation and lockdown spoil your mood. Your mood will be cherished and who knows you find out facts you never thought could happen? Also, exploring various genres never goes waste. So, why not make use of this wonderful opportunity?

Syndicate Content:

https://www.exposework.com/netflix-cancelled-renewed-shows/

#neflix #netflix series #netflix series 2021

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minuteminx · 3 years

Text

Revolutionary

Pairing: Preston Garvey/ Female Sole Survivor

Summary: In the aftermath of personal tragedies, Preston and Charlie both seek to make a difference in the Commonwealth and those around them. They could never anticipate the impact that they will have on eachother in the process.

Chapter Five: Coast’s Clear

Chapter Summary: Charlie doesn't know many things for certain since she woke up in the future, but one thing she does know is that she will never watch someone she loves die again. Not if there's something she can do about it.

[First Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

[AO3 Link]

“For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient.”

― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

Quincy Ruins, June 2288

Charlie hadn’t lived in Massachusetts for long when the bombs fell. She and Nate moved up from West Virginia in July of 2077, she’d gotten a position as a postdoctoral fellow in neuropsychology at Medford Memorial Hospital, more than a little excited to make use of her shiny new degree. Shaun was born two months later. After spending most of her life moving from place to place for her education, she was ready to settle down. She never made it that far.

Needless to say, she’d also never made it down to Quincy. Though, at the moment, she desperately wished she had.

Preston had this way of looking at her sometimes when he thought she didn’t notice, a lingering glance over his shoulder, a careful observation of her face as if he expected to find some twinkle of pre-war nostalgia in her eyes when entering a new area, memories from a time when the air didn’t reek of sulfur and rotting flesh, and no one had to worry whether or not they’d be run out of their homes and mowed down by mercenary cults. She could offer him no solace. She could barely even look him in the eyes.

In more comfortable times over the past eight months since they had met, he simply asked her if she was familiar with locations or landmarks. Once, he asked her if she had fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and she informed him that she was two hundred and thirty-seven years old, not well over five hundred. His smile had wrinkled up his eyes that day as he laughed away the embarrassment. Today, there were no stories to be told, no jokes or laughter, just Preston, Charlie, Amelia, a handful of other Minutemen and a large pile of ashes that used to have names.

“I don’t like this,” Charlie muttered, more to herself than anything.

She jumped when Preston replied, “Me neither. Not one bit.”

She hadn’t expected him to hear her, or even pay attention. She could barely see his eyes from under the shadow cast by his hat, but she didn’t need to see to know that he wasn’t okay. He wasn’t one to wear the overwhelming grief he experienced on his face, anyway. The last time they’d visited a Minutemen graveyard, as the Lexington Super Duper Mart had turned out to be, he had to excuse himself from a barricaded room filled with deceased members of the militia. She found him in the feral-corpse littered hallway, green around the gills and sweating. He didn’t have a weak stomach, but reminders of his loss seemed to impact him viscerally. She wondered how he managed to keep his composure now, standing in the place where it all started.

She was drawn from her thoughts by a thunderous boom that left her ears ringing. She hated that noise. Looking up towards the direction of the blast she saw a small, mushroom-cloud pouring up from a nearby building. A fucking nuke. Hadn’t people learned a damn thing?

Charlie scanned the area for someone holding a Fat Man. She’d been toe-to-toe with wielders of those atrocities enough times to know that she had to act, and fast. Movement on the roof of the nearby church. Just right if the belfry stood a large figure, someone in power armor, with the exact weapon. Without another thought, she charged in his direction. If she got close enough in range she could keep him from firing again. He wouldn’t get another shot. Not if she had anything to do with it.

She tangled with very few Gunners on her way to the church, thankfully. Most of them were distracted by the small militia that accompanied her. A couple of grunts took shots at her once she made it inside, but they missed and she fired back, hitting each of them once. She didn’t stop to make sure they were incapacitated. There wasn’t time. She needed to get to the roof.

The stairs that led to the belfry were worn and rickety. In less of a panic, she probably would have made her way up them gingerly, avoiding the obvious areas of dry rot. Still, she managed to make it to the top without event. She hoped the luck would stay on her side just a little bit longer. She just needed to take out the Gunner with the Fat Man, or at least distract them long enough to protect the Minutemen. Her Minutemen.

“Hey,” Charlie shouted, pointing both of her pistols at the man loading a mini nuke into his gun, “Asshole!”

“What the--” he looked up from what he was doing just in time for her ballistic round to strike him between the eyes.

“Yes,” she said under her breath. How had she gotten to the point where she felt relief at another person’s death? Is this what the Commonwealth made of all its inhabitants?

She moved in closer to examine the man’s corpse, still standing erect in the power armor shell. A whole lot of good that did him. He was a relatively young man, mid-thirties, and she wondered if he had a family. MacCready had been a Gunner once, he’d told her as they sat drinking whiskey in The Third Rail, bloodstained and bathed in red neon light. It was a gig, a way of making money to support his young son when he had no better options. What if this man had been just like him? Charlie didn’t want to think about it.

Noting a fully loaded, modified laser pistol on the ground near the dead Gunner, she picked it up, discarding both of the 10mms in her hands. They’d just been spares, and she was out of ammo anyway. She also looted a stimpak and a good chunk of caps before standing up and adjusting her belt. A loud crash of metal and puffing of hydraulics rose up from the street beneath her and she rushed to the edge of the roof, crouching to keep out of view.

Preston. A more practical person would have noticed the handlebar mustache wearing the T60 first, the actual source of the commotion, but then again she never claimed to be practical. Why was he alone? Why hadn’t he fallen back to the gates with everyone else, where it was safe? She’d run at a man shooting nukes to protect him and there he was out in the wide open, staring down who could only be the notorious traitor Clint, if the militia hat and sheer aura of son-of-a-bitch were any indication. It was out of character for Preston to be so reckless. Maybe he’d forgotten that was her job.

The two men spoke, but she was too far away to make out any of the conversation. She’d never seen Preston look so visibly angry or shaken. She needed to get to him before something bad happened, but she needed to be careful. Frantically, she dug through her various pockets looking for one item in particular. Hoping, praying she still had it.

She smiled and let out a sigh of relief as she pulled the stealth boy from her satchel. That Railroad operative, Deacon, had given it to her as a welcome gift when she’d agreed to help him out. At the time, she’d shrugged it off as a passive aggressive commentary on her lack of discretion. She’d have to thank him next time they crossed paths.

Charlie rushed back inside the church tower, and down the rickety steps as quickly as she could, flipping open the cap of the stealth boy and pressing the button as she did so. By the time she reached the street, she was completely invisible. Later, when she and Preston were safe and sound back at Sanctuary, she’d ask Sturges how it worked.

As she crept her way up behind Clint, the man reared back and punched Preston so forcefully it sent him flying into an old junked out Corvega parked nearby. She brought her invisible hand to her invisible mouth to keep herself from gasping audibly. As far as she knew, stealth boys weren’t sound proof. She took some deep steadying breaths, ignoring the burn of tears in her eyes. Now wasn’t the time to lose her shit.

Moving into position directly behind Clint, she noticed Preston’s eyes on her. He must have noticed the movement in the air. She lowered the stealth field, watching relief wash over his face as she smiled and drew her finger to her lips. Clint would not take him away from her. She wasn’t in a cryochamber this time, and she would not stand helplessly by and watch someone she loved die. Never again.

“What’s so fucking funny,” she heard him ask Preston who was, despite it all, laughing.

“Nothing man,” Preston answered, slurring his words in a way that made Charlie uneasy, “Nothing at all.”

She took that opportunity to fire, aiming her fancy new pistol at the legs of Clint’s power armor. She had noticed that they were damaged as she moved in, knew it wouldn’t take much to disable them. Sure enough, after a half-dozen or so shots, the T60’s leg’s locked up, forcing the man to jump out. He turned in her direction as soon as he did so.

“You little bitch ,” he snapped, and christ, if Charlie didn’t hate being called a bitch.

He tried to raise his weapon and fire at her, but she’d already pulled the trigger, launching a blast of burning red energy into his chest, and filling her nostrils with the sterile scent of ozone. She holstered her weapon and hovered over him for a minute, shaking her head. “I’m not a bitch.”

Charlie then brought her eyes back up to Preston, where he sat leaned up against the car, worry tightening her chest. It wasn’t a good sign that he hadn’t even tried to stand up yet, so unlike him to not make an attempt to brush off his injuries and press forward. She ran over and knelt down in front of him, cupping his face in her hands and turning it to the left, then the right to check for any signs of external bleeding. When she saw nothing more than a couple of superficial scrapes she brought up her pip boy and flashed a bright beam of light into each of his eyes.

Shit , she thought, but hid her worry behind a laugh as he flinched and squirmed away from the light. Only one of his pupils had responded to the flash, which meant that he had a concussion at the very least. She refused to entertain the other possibilities at the moment. The tears she had held back just minutes earlier returned to her eyes, and she didn’t fight them this time.

“You’re okay,” she told him, kissing his forehead reflexively, “Looks like you might have a concussion, but you’re safe. I’m here.”

He blinked up at her a few times, and she wished she could live up to that version of her that reflected in his eyes. She wished desperately that she could be everything he needed her to be, but with Shaun, and the Institute, and--

“You’re really scary sometimes,” he interrupted her snowballing thoughts, a smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth, “You know that?”

She knew she shouldn’t take any of his concussed statements seriously, but an embarrassed laugh bubbled up from her chest, and she couldn’t hold his gaze. “I’m sorry, I just… I’d just watched Clint knock you into the car, and he was about to kill you, and I just…”

She trailed off, internally chastising herself for failing to conjure up a coherent response. She wasn’t even the one with the head injury. A gentle tap, and tug at her chin guided her eyes back to Preston. He let his hand linger where it was as his smirk turned into a full-on smile.

“No,” he said, laughing softly, and shaking his head, “It’s kinda hot.”

Heat rose to her face and she snorted gracelessly at his compliment. She didn’t know how or what to feel, couldn’t put her finger on why his affection made her so overwhelmingly sad. She shrugged it off and wiped a tear from her face. “Jesus, you hit your head harder than I thought.”

He didn’t respond, and his eyes fluttered closed instead, hand falling limply from her face. Panic surged up into her chest and she leaned forward to catch him from falling over on his side.

“Preston,” she called out frantically, as she repositioned herself so that she could ease his head down onto her lap, removing his hat and setting it on the ground by her hip. “Preston?”

Again, no response. “God damnit,” she snapped, slamming the side of her fist into the metal of the car door behind her, body finally giving into the sobs she’d been fighting, sobs that weren’t solely in response to present events. She doubled over, knuckles turning white around the fabric of his duster she clenched in her fists.

“I’m sorry, Preston,” she whimpered, knowing he couldn’t hear her, knowing it didn’t matter because she would continue to let him down. “I’m so sorry.”

Charlie stiffened at the sound of footsteps, straightening up to see Amelia, her long brown hair flying out of it’s braid, followed by the others who’d accompanied them. She found herself wishing MacCready was there, Codsworth, Sturges, anyone except the contingent of unfamiliar faces peering down at their commanding officer having a temper tantrum. Amelia glanced between Charlie and Preston, pretty blue eyes filled with concern.

“He’s okay,” Charlie explained, scrubbing tears away from her swollen face, “Just unconscious. He hit his head pretty bad.”

“What happened?”

“Clint-- at least I think that guy over there’s Clint-- hit Preston so hard he sent him flying into this,” Charlie pointed to the car behind her and watched as Amelia approached the body of the man Charlie’d just killed.

The woman frowned, shook her head, and kicked the corpse before returning to Charlie’s side. “That’s Clint alright, the bastard.” She offered Charlie a reassuring smile, and then glanced down at Preston, “You got a stimpak on you, General?”

Charlie recalled the one she picked up from the Gunner she’d taken out. She could have slapped herself for not thinking of it sooner. She reached into one of the pouches on her belt and pulled it out, showing it to the other woman.

“Perfect. Let’s give it to Preston, just in case he’s more banged up than he looks.” She took the syringe from Charlie’s shaking hand gently and removed the cap, and jammed it into Preston’s upper arm. He jerked slightly at the pain, but didn’t stir. Amelia continued speaking, “What do you say we have a couple of the boys move him someplace comfy? There are some abandoned apartments up the street.”

“Yes.” Charlie nodded. “What about the--”

“Coast’s clear. Any of the Gunners we didn’t kill ran off.” Amelia smiled. “Quincy’s ours again.”

#fallout 4 #preston garvey #preston garvey x sole survivor #preston garvey x f!sole survivor #revolutionary #update #my writing

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sinnerclair · 4 months

Text

here. have a wip.

“When you get back, make sure to help your sister Bess with the cows,” his mother said.

Charlie nodded as he rummaged through his bag for his train ticket, eventually finding it and placing it neatly in his pocket.

“Alright, ma. I’m leaving for Ellsworth.” He approached the front door.

“Stay safe, dear. Northerners are nasty folk sometimes.” Betsy warned. Charlie glanced at her before leaving.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Everything was black for Charlie still. He felt disconcerted, nauseous, and dizzy. He laid on what felt like sand for a few minutes before being poked by someone.

“Hello? Are you alive, sir?” They had an accent that seemed to originate from the Carolinas.

He squinted to regain consciousness, staring at the person who pulled him off Death’s doorstep. It was a woman with a pastel pink Southern belle-style dress that reached to her ankles.

“Oh! You are alive. Good to know I didn’t just poke a dead body!” She chuckled.

Charlie got to his feet and held his head, which was pounding. His ears rang badly.

“Hello? Are you listening, Charlie?”

“Oh, uhm, yes.” He lied.

Florence glared at him. Charlie sighed.

“Where even are we? Are we even in Virginia anymore?” he said.

Florence shrugged, “I would say I knew where we were, but the only sign I found had worn out paint and I could barely read what it said.” Charlie facepalmed.

“Were you on the Dreamcatcher too?” Charlie inquired. They both nodded.

“I don’t quite understand what happened. An explosion just suddenly happened. The train seemed fine.” Edward, who had a slight British accent, said.

“I knew something was wrong the moment the train got uncomfortably warm.” Claude added. Everyone else nodded.

“Do you at least know where we are?” Charlie desperately asked. Florence snickered at him.

“Are you going to ask everyone that in hope to get an answer? I don’t think anyone recognizes where we are.”

Charlie sighed, “I guess you’re right.”

After almost an hour of searching, everyone was about to give up. Even Edward, who kept insisting the group keep moving despite their many protests and groans.

“Are we even going anywhere? My feet are killing me.” Florence complained.

“Quite the small town.” Claude commented.

“Never heard of it either.” Charlie added.

When they entered the town, it was like they were back in Virginia again. Townsfolk were talking everywhere, kids were playing, and Charlie swore he could hear an auctioneer babbling on. Florence soon went out of sight and so did the others when Charlie realised he had slipped into a daydream while analysing the town.

“Guys? Where did you go?” He looked around in worry.

“Charlie! Get your butt over here before I drag you over here!” Florence was heard.

“Hold on, jeez.” He replied as he speedwalked over to her.

The group had wandered to the heart of Harpsville, known as the Harp.

“Don’tcha worry, partner. I ain’t going to hurt ya. Unless you give me a reason to.” She chuckled.

“Stop scarin’ him for God’s sake!” Florence snarled.

“I ain’t tryna scare. I’m tryna warn.” The woman replied, “Name’s Scarlett Morris. I’m the bounty hunter of Harpsville. Nice to meet y’all.” She tipped her hat at them.

“Bounty hunter? So, you kill people for money?” Florence gasped.

“I kill the bad people for money. It’s how I keep nonlocals like you out.” she nudged Charlie with her rifle.

“But we didn’t even mean to be here!” Charlie protested.

“Still, it’s my job to keep this town safe.” Scarlett said. “And she does a darn good job at it! So, I recommend you stay outta her way.” A woman nearby added.

“Are there any other towns nearby at least?” Charlie piped in.

“Not for another three hundred miles.” Scarlett replied. Florence immediately whined.