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scatterpatter · 3 years

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Corren - 1 through 100 - You did this to yourself.

FUCK YOU *UN-IRONICS YOUR ASK*

UNDER THE FUCKING CUT

1. What do they smell like?

Bad. Do you think their party is able to regularly take showers? I thinketh the fuck not. ... Pine and old books when he can self care tho.

2. What is their voice like?

Listen I know Corren, being taller, would be more likely to have a deeper register but you'll tear "tenor Corren" out of my cold dead hands

3. What is their biggest motivator?

Spite.

4. What is their most embarrassing memory?

When he first met his BFF Alondra, he was so antisocial and good at ignoring people that she actually got the impression he might have been hard of hearing. She never let him live that down. (one day I'll finish this fic i promise)

5. How do they deal with/react to pain?

"I will keep all of my pain in here, and one day I'll die." ... Okay but listen he's squishy so he takes like one hit and is bloodied up. Someone get him a healer. Pls.

6. What do they like to wear?

He likes his cloak. Its weighty and soft(well. WAS soft. got a bit of wear and tear these days.) and like. Who doesnt love cloaks.

7. Which of their relationships have impacted them most positively?

Ohhhhh fuuuccck this one's tough. I might have to go with Torvid honestly. While the entire party has had a positive impact on him(and trust me I was this close to picking Alistair), Torvid's been more of the one to call him out on his bullshit and to, oh I don't know, talk about your emotions? Ever??? Yknow BEFORE they become too much to handle and he absolutely breaks down???

8. What’s the weirdest thing they’ve ever eaten?

Alistair's cooking.

9. Describe the way that they sleep.

Good luck finding him NOT cuddled up with at least one dog. Tbh he just enjoys cuddles in general.

10. What is their favorite food/kind of food?

FUCKIN. GIVE HIM A GOOD STEAK. THIS BOY IS MOSTLY CARNIVORISTIC.

11. What do they feel most insecure about?

As tempted as I am to say "His cooking", it's actually his singing.

12. How do they like to dress?

"Comfort over flashiness tbh. I gotta go ADVENTURING in whatever I wear after all."

"... Also don't you DARE perceive me as cishet."

13. How do they react to feelings of guilt?

Call him a genie because he will BOTTLE THAT SHIT UP.

14. How do they react to/deal with betrayal?

Denial :D

15. What is their greatest achievement?

Shrike: Killing his dad

Me: NOOOOOO

EDIT: WAIT THIS WAS ANSWERED IN Q99 WHAT THE HECK

16. What are they like when they’ve gotten too little sleep?

Somehow more of a dick than usual. Snappy and cranky and just. Mrehhh.

17. What are they like when they’re drunk?

Doesn't get drunk often, but when he does I imagine he's actually giggly and a little clingy. It's cute :)

18. What kind of music do they enjoy?

*Opens my Corren playlist* Oh yeah. It's either full edgy alt rock or indie alt "depressed millenial" tracks.

19. Are they right or left handed?

FFFuuhhhhck uhhhh well

Looking over my old art I can't seem to pick a dominant hand(I've even drawn him handling his sniper with either hand???????????) so like oops guess he's ambidextrous.

20. Fears?

The dark, the ocean, dying alone and forgotten, his friends losing their trust of him

21. Favorite kind of weather?

Rain!!!! Especially cool rain like what people often get in fall months.

22. Favorite color?

Indigo!!!

23. Do they collect anything?

Books :3

24. Do they prefer either hot or cold weather more?

Cold weather by far.

25. What is their eye color?

Electric blue!

26. What is their race/ethnicity?

Well his race is a homebrew race known as Marelienth. Uhhh ethnicity? Idk he's from a mountain town way up north *shrugs*

In human aus I imagine him as half-Mongolian half-Norwegian so ayee

27. Hair color?

Black!

28. Are they happy where they are currently?

No :D He loves adventuring with his party don't get me wrong but he still has a lot of trauma to unpack. ... Also he was just possibly broken up with soooo. :/

29. Are they a morning person?

NOPE.

30. Sunrise or sunset?

*motions to above question* Sunset.

31. Are they more messy or more organized?

More organized, actually!

32. Pet peeves?

*unravels a list. It's all shit the party has done. Mostly Alistair.*

33. Do they own any objects of significant personal importance?

HOOUSIDSJFK- HE- Y-YEAH HE SURE DOES

His amethyst pendant used to belong to his brother, Julian, and he gave it to Corren right before they were separated so you BET it's sentimental as shit and he wears it daily.

34. Least favorite food?

Mecha's usually a great cook but one time trolled him with some absurdly spicy curry he couldn't handle and he's never forgiven them.

35. Least favorite color?

Hmmm. Maybe... yellow?

36. Least favorite smell?

He spent a year with his party in a damp cave and no showers, so uh. I'll give you a guess.

37. When was the last time they cried?

Literally last night in our game's timeline :D Full breakdown and everything!

38. Were they with anybody the last time they cried?

Torvid :D He was there to comfort

39. Tell us about one of the times they got injured?

One time they were in combat and Corren took a few hits and was down to about 2hp or so. He had a temporary level thanks to Kieran, which boosted his HP a little bit. When he teleported them to a safe town, though, well... Torvid was waiting for them so that's cool. But uh. Yeah that temporary level wore off then and there, dropping Corn Cob to exactly 0hp and he just- flopped down face first in the snow and started dying then and there KJNDKLFNSLKN

40. Do they have any scars?

Do you want to talk about the scar over his eye from a fight he got in with his dad or like. The scars on his limbs from the time he was literally experimented on.

41. Do they struggle with any mental health issues?

Undiagnosed+Untreated Anxiety, Depression, DPDR, PTSD, just to name a few

42. Do they have any bad habits?

Running away from his problems, definitely.

43. Why might someone dislike them?

He's a pretentious nerd. He can be a dick if he doesn't care about you.

44. Why might someone love them?

He's an adorable nerd! He's a hopeless romantic and oddly enough an optimist. He's passionate and driven too!

45. Do they believe in ghosts?

Well ghosts are like- a canon proven thing in his world sooo. Yeah.

46. Is there anyone they would trust with their lives?

His party. Well- most in his party.

47. Are they romantically interested in anyone?

Nethyl :)

48. Are they dating/married to anyone?

He's dating Nethyl and they're in a happy and healthy relationship :) *politely ignores canon*

49. Do they like surprises?

NO >:(

50. When is their birthday?

Heroya 5th! I think. I don't wanna check, assume it's this.

51. How do they usually celebrate their birthday?

"You guys celebrate your watchdays?"

Jokes aside, he mainly just treats himself to a nice dinner and a new book or something :)

52. Do they have any family?

Two older siblings: Julian and Mila. His parents are Andreas and Fanya!

53. Are they close to their family?

... *Coughs*. He was close with his siblings, but Mila died and he hasn't seen Julian in 30 years. Was close with his dad but last time they saw each other, they fought and Corren might have killed him so. ... Yeah. :/

54. What is their MBTI type?

FUCK uh. I... N... T... J? INTJ. Sure.

55. What is their zodiac sign?

In Sekrezia: The eagle

In our world: Uhhh. Idk. Capricorn????

56. What Hogwarts House would they be in?

Uhhh. Ravenclaw??? I know almost nothing about HP :/

57. What D&D alignment are they?

THIS ONE'S EASY- lawful neutral!

58. Do they ever have nightmares? If so, what about?

Used to have typical nightmares, nothing special. Nowadays though he often dreams of being underwater. Not drowning, though. It's... weird. He doesn't like those.

59. What are their views on death?

He's a necromancer lol.

Death is inevitable, though. It's a necessary part of life. Death is not an entire loss, though. One lives on in the memories others carry of them, in the love they hold in their hearts. Death is complicated, but that's okay.

60. What is something that they’re sure to laugh at?

Alistair :)

61. When bored, how do they pass time?

Dog time :)

62. Do they enjoy being outside?

... Ehhhhhh?

63. Do they have an accent?

Technically??? It's an accent from where he's from but like. I just barely tweak my own voice when I rp him so? Damn Corren I'm sorry you've been cursed with east coast dialect.

64. Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, what is their first reaction?

"Damn who's the rich bastard here?" (cake is kinda a delicacy in their world- not like elites only but not NEARLY as common as it is here)

65. If they knew they were going to die, what would they do/say?

Reassurance mode to whomever he's with. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm okay. Remember what I told you, death is a natural part of life, yeah? I don't have any regrets, I'm okay... Just. Thanks. For giving me a chance. Thank you. Thank you."

66. How do they feel about sex?

I SWEAR he's allosexual. I'm just bad at writing allosexuals.

67. What is their sexuality?

He doesn't really know how to pin it down, so he just calls himself "queer". Definitely not straight, that's all he knows.

68. Do they become squeamish at the sight of blood?

AHAHA no. He's hella desensitized

69. Is there anything that they find really gross?

Skulking cyst. Look it up at your own volition. It's. NO.

70. Which TV Trope(s) best describes them?

It's 12:21 in the morning and I'm NOT about to scroll through a bunch of tv tropes just. just. NERD stereotype.

71. Do they enjoy helping people?

Yyyyes? Only really if it's the people he cares about.

72. Are they allergic to anything?

Bullshit.

73. Do they have a pet?

WINGTHARA!! HIS SKELE-DOG!!!

74. Are they quick to anger? What are they like when they loose their temper?

Oh yeah he's all bark and no bite. He usually just throws a little fit and/or yells.

75. How patient are they?

More than he should be :/

76. Are they good at cooking?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

77. Favorite insult? Do they insult people often?

Oh yes he insults the others all the time. No particular favorite, he likes so spice it up.

78. How do they act when they’re particularly happy?

Stim. Stim. Stim. His eyes get all sparkly and he. He.

79. What do they do when they learn about other people’s fears?

He will do everything in his power to assure they won't ever have to deal with their fears alone- You afraid of spiders? It's his job to get the spiders from now on so you won't have to deal with them.

80. Are they trustworthy?

Oh yeah. He's like Rapunzel- doesn't break promises.

81. Do they try to hide their emotions? Are they good at it?

Oh yes he tries to hide it. And yes, he's awful at it.

82. Do they exercise regularly?

Yes and no? No like- exercise regimen, but the amount of travelling and fighting they do is just- a workout in and of itself

83. Are they comfortable with the way they look?

Yeah! He's cute and he knows it baybie!!!

84. What are some physical features that they find attractive on people?

He,,, he likes someone who's physically stong,,, Muscles are,,, aaaaa >///>

85. What kind of personalities do they find attractive?

Someone he can nerd out with :)

86. Do they like sweet foods?

Impartial to it. He won't turn sweets away but he's not crazy about them either.

87. What is their age?

43, the equivalent of- I think someone in their mid 30s?

88. Are they tall or short or somewhere in between?

He's 6'8" :) Which is actually normal for his race

89. Do they wear glasses or contacts?

Sometimes! I like to think he has reading glasses or something like that.

90. Do they consider themselves attractive?

HE'S CUTE AND HE KNOWS IT.

91. What is their sense of humor like?

Julian tainted his sense of humor and now he finds the most dumb shit hilarious. Think very millenial/GenZ humor like "I wish I was Jared, 19"

92. What mood are they most often in?

"I don't get paid enough for this" or Fear.jpg

93. What kinds of things anger them?

People who don't keep their FUCKING WORD. Oh and like. Yknow. Half the shit his party does.

94. Outlook on life?

Again he's??? Oddly an optimist? In the "Things will get better and that is a fucking THREAT" way, but still optimist!

95. What kind of things make them sad/depressed?

Talk about his family :) Or the fact that his boyfriend might want him dead :)

96. What is their greatest weakness?

He's squishy as fuck. He goes down easy.

97. What is their greatest strength?

He's extremely intelligent and great with magic and his sniper!

98. Something that they regret?

Not doing more to stop his brother when he tried to resurrect their sister

99. Biggest accomplishment?

Either convincing an entire town his name is Torren or accidentally convincing some very OP people that he's secretly a dragon.

100. Create your own!

FUCK YOU I SPENT LIKE 2 HOURS ON THIS. NO PROOFREAD. IVE ALREADY DESIGNED CORREN'S AND NETHYL'S HYPOTHETICAL KIDS. ANYWAYS THEY'RE TWIN IRINAGA AND I'VE NAMED THEM AFTER THE DNDADS TWINS: THEIR NAMES ARE LARK AND SPARROW.

#LONG POST #LONG LONG POST #Corren #FUCK YOU DREWSKI <3

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carly-they-jepsen · 4 years

Text

RWRB Timeline

I originally worked out the timeline for Sep. 27, 2020, and when people suggested I post it on tumblr, I said fuck it and did the whole book.

Go big or go home, right?

I have spent the past 3 days working on this. It’s half summaries of the events of the days in order, and half “here’s a one sentence summary of the day”.

Whenever possible, I’ve detailed out when things happen by the hour, like the day at Wimbledon, or the email leak day, including guesstimations on flight times, and what time EST and BST Alex is taking off and landing. I often forgot to add vague things like “morning” in, so sorry about that.

I’ve bolded all the dates I’m sure of.

Bold and italics means an official date: emails, text threads, tweets, holidays, Georgetown, etc.

Two asterisks ** = official dates.

Just bold means a day I’m sure of, based off of official dates: Two weeks later, day one post lake house, “a tuesday”, etc.

One asterisk: * = something I’m sure of based on official dates.

I’ve also bolded days of the week I’m sure of, even if I’m not certain of the date.

I’ve left a few things vague. Like, October 2020 is a lot of “sometime between these days, this happened”. Feel free to pick a day in that range to your heart’s content.

If you don’t like the day I picked for little things like Bea walking in on face time, or coming out to June, feel free to change it.

I didn’t bold everything I’m certain on, as I technically don’t have textual evidence to back it up. (Things like the wedding day, Alex and Henry’s texts at in the beginning, some things during the campaign.)

I’m 100% willing to answer questions on why I chose certain days, and any other questions or comments you may have!

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

**Aug. 28, 2019 (Wed.) — Alex starts classes at Georgetown, Winter Semester 2019

Sep. 7-Sep. 8, 2019 (Sat.-Sun.) (p. 5-6) — Alex and June attend an event and listen to an hour and a half of speeches about carbon emissions. June is whisked away to a star studded gala. Alex shows up to the presidential suite with a bottle of champagne. Around 4 a.m. Alex leaves after fake hooking up with Nora.

Sep. 12, 2019 (Th.) (p. 3-8) — June and Alex go over the tabloids. Alex has been working on a research paper all week

Sep. 13, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 8-12) — The US crew flies to London.

6 a.m. EST: Take off.

5 p.m. BST: Land in London. (Wiggle the take off time to your heart’s content. Flight is around 6 hours give or take for Air Force 1, plus time to and from the airport, plus the time change. The flight time is “11 hours” with the time change if that helps you calculate the landing time in London.) They potentially have 1-2 appearances that evening.

Sep. 14, 2019 (Sat.) (p. 12-20) — The royal wedding. The US crew has 1-2 appearances before arriving at the ceremony. The ceremony happens. Reception happens at a Buckingham ballroom. The White House Trio chats, Henry dances with June. Alex finds Henry hovering by the champagne fountain and they argue. Alex trips over his own foot and crashes into the $75k wedding cake, pulling Henry down with him.

Sep. 16, 2019 (Mon.) (p. 21-27) — Alex gets chewed out over the Incident by Zahra and the President in a White House briefing room. He gets told he will be leaving Saturday to make nice with Henry in England.

Sometime between Mon. Sep. 16 and Fri. Sep. 20, 2019 (p. 27-32) — Alex, Nora, and June meet in the Whitehouse and go over the HRH Prince Henry Fact Sheet. Alex bemoans the fact that he just finished his midterms.

Sep. 21, 2019 (Sat.) (p. 32-37) — Alex leaves in the early a.m. EST and arrives late afternoon/early evening in London. (11-12 hour difference in takeoff time to landing time. Note, this is just DC to Lon., not the other way round.). Meets Henry at the stable and a royal photographer takes pictures.

Sep. 22, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 37-53) — 12:00 a.m.: Alex is wide awake and goes into the kitchen for a snack. Henry stumbles in, and Alex posts a photo of them with their ice cream on Instagram.

9 a.m.: Interview with The Morning.

Afternoon meeting with cancer patients. Alex and Henry spend some time in the closet chatting after fireworks are mistaken for gunshots. Before his flight home, Alex puts his number in Henry’s phone. Likely lands around 7-8 p.m. EST.

Sep. 27, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 54-61) — Alex has a lecture on presidential sex scandals. Texts Nora about the probability of one of them having a sex scandal by the end of the second term and she replies with 94% and a link to a gifset of Henry and Alex at The Morning where someone has commented “omfg make out already”. Alex meets with Rafael Luna after his class.

Sometime between Sep. 27, 2019 (Fri.) and Oct. 6, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 61-68) — June, Alex, Leo, and Ellen have dinner together. June texts Alex to have dinner and he forgets to respond until 1.5 hours later when Ellen texts about family dinner. She offers them jobs in the campaign and June turns it down the next morning.

Oct. 9, 2019 (Wed.) (p. 68) — Henry texts Alex while Alex is in a policy lecture. His opening line is “this bloke looks like you” with a picture of the Ewok Chief Chirpa from Return of the Jedi.

Oct. 16, 2019 (Wed.) (p. 68-69) — Alex finally responds a week later after seeing a headline on the cover of People about Henry in Australia with a photo of him in a pair of minuscule navy swim trunks. “you have a lot of moles. is that a result of the inbreeding?

Oct. 18, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 69) — Henry texts Alex a screenshot of a Daily Mail tweet that says “Is Alex Claremont-Diaz going to be a father?” with the caption “But we were ever so careful, dear.” Henry texts Alex a screenshot of a Daily Mail tweet that says “Is Alex Claremont-Diaz going to be a father?” with the caption “But we were ever so careful, dear.” Alex gets ejected from Zahra’s weekly debriefing meeting with him and June.

Oct. 19-Oct. 28, 2019 (Sat.-Mon.) (p. 69-71) — Henry and Alex text regularly on a variety of topics including family, friends, beer, boats, and Hogwarts houses.

**Oct. 29, 2019 (Tue.) (p. 71-72) — Henry texts Alex about being in a meeting with Philip. Later that night Alex replies, asking what the meeting was about.

**Oct. 30, 2019 (Wed.) (p. 73) — 1:07 p.m. EST Henry and Alex text about Henry’s grey tie in his instagram post.

**Nov. 17, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 74) — 11:04 a.m. EST: Henry receives a box of Ellen Claremont campaign buttons with Alex’s face on them. Sniffer dogs were nearly called after the security theme thought it was a bomb. Alex and Henry text about it.

**Nov. 25, 2019 (Mon.) (p. 75-84) — Alex finds out that the turkeys his mom will be pardoning have been staying in the Willard Hotel on taxpayers dime. He convinces her to put them in his room.

10 p.m. EST/3 a.m. GMT: Alex regrets his decisions. He calls Henry to prove they’re as terrifying as Alex claims and they have a long conversation about the turkeys, Henry’s pets, and how Henry surprises Alex.

**Dec. 8, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 84) — 8:53 p.m. EST: Alex texts Henry about a Bond marathon happening on TV. He asks if Henry knows his dad was a total babe, which Henry replies with “I BEG YOU NOT”

*Dec. 20, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 84-85) — Ellen reads an article in the Post with the headline “Senator Oscar Diaz Returns to DC For Holidays With Ex-Wife President Claremont”. She continues to stress about decorations in the Lincoln Bedroom for Oscar.

*Dec. 21, 2019 (Sat.) (p. 85) — Oscar Diaz arrives at the White House. June nearly breaks a vase launching herself into his arms. Oscar and June disappear to the chocolate shop on the ground floor.

*Dec. 22, 2019 (Sun.) (p. 85-86) — Oscar and Alex bond over a cigar on the Truman Balcony.

*Dec. 23, 2019 (Mon.) (p. 87) — Alex catches Oscar in the kitchens with two of the cooks, laughing and dumping peppers into a pot.

*Dec. 21-23, 2019 (Sat.-Mon.) (p. 86-87) — Alex wishes it could be like this more often and misses having everyone under one roof.

**Dec. 24, 2019 (Tue.) (p. 87-95) — Christmas dinner is held on Christmas Eve so Zahra can still attend. Zahra wears a sensible red turtleneck. Alex wears a sweater covered in bright green tinsel. ‘O Christmas Tree” plays out of a speaker near his armpit when he presses a button on the inside of his sleeve. Dinner conversation moves to the election. Oscar and Ellen argue. Alex loses his temper and leaves.

9:30 p.m. EST/2:30 a.m. GMT: Alex changes into an old lacrosse shirt and calls Henry. Henry is wearing candy cane pjs. Alex tells Henry about the divorce and what happened at dinner and only realizes he’s been talking for an hour when henry says “It sounds like you did your best.) June knocks on the door and Alex hangs up after thanking Henry and wishing him a Merry Christmas.

10:30 p.m.: June and Alex talk about what happened after Alex left and then Alex tells her he was talking to Henry, not Nora.

**Dec. 26, 2019 (Th.) (p. 95-97) — Alex spends the day going over waivers for the “Legendary Balls Out Bananas White House Trio New Year’s Eve Party” aka “The Young America New Year’s Eve Gala” aka “The Millennial Correspondents Dinner”.

Dec. 27, 2019 (Fri.) (p. 96-97) — Alex discovers Henry is coming to the party and bringing Pez when he glances at the final guest list while the Trio are looking at confetti samples and eating cake samples.

**Dec. 31, 2019 (Tue.) (p. 97-103) — Pez posts a picture of him and Henry on a private jet headed to DC with the caption “USA bound! #YoungAmericaGala2019” Pez has dyed his hair pastel pink, and Henry is wearing a grey sweatshirt. Alex texts Henry that he will be wearing a burgundy suit and warns Henry to not attempt to outshine Alex, as he will fail and Alex will be embarrassed for him. Henry replies “Wouldn’t dream of it”. After that the Trio begins getting ready. Nora’s short curls are swept to the side with a matching silver pin to the geometric designs on the bodice of her black dress. June’s gown is midnight blue and perfectly compliments the navy-and-gold color palette they chose for the party.

8 p.m.: Guests begin to arrive. The first wave includes some White House interns, and the daughter of a first time Senator and her girlfriend. The second wave is the politically strategic invites chosen by the press team, and finally the fashionably late, including Minor to mid-range popstars and the children of major celebrities.

Pez and Henry show up. Pez is in a colorful floral print shiny silk bomber jacket. Henry is wearing a simple dark blue suit with a bright coppery-mustard tie in a narrow cut. Alex realizes this is the first time they’ve seen each other in person since their weekend in London and feels like he’s meeting a new person.

There's dancing and mingling, and June makes a speech about the immigration fund they’re supporting with their donations. June and Henry talk at the bar.

The live band breaks and the DJ takes over. Alex finds out Henry hasn’t ever dry humped to “Get Low”. There’s more dancing and crowd pleasers until midnight.

11:59 p.m.: They huddle together for the countdown.

**Jan. 1, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 103-108) — 12:00 a.m. Nora kisses Alex

Alex loses track of things. Alex goes looking for Henry. He eventually finds him under a tree. They talk. Henry is vague and Alex is dummy thicc. Henry calls Alex thick and kisses him. Henry pulls away and disappears from the party.

*Jan. 1-Jan. 4, 2020 (Th.-Sat.) (p. 109) — Alex tries listening in on his mom’s meeting as a distraction but can’t pay attention. Zahra bans him from the West Wing.

*Jan. 5-Jan 7, 2020 (Sun.-Tue.) (p. 109) — Alex studies bills going through Congress and considers making the rounds at the Senate or starting a rumor with Nora, but he has no enthusiasm.

**Jan. 8, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 109) — Alex begins his final semester at Georgetown.

*Jan. 9-Jan. 14, 2020 (Th.-Tue.) (p. 109) — Alex throws himself into classwork, meets with the social secretary to plan his graduation dinner. Henry doesn’t answer his texts.

*Jan. 15, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 110-114) — June is fed up with Alex’s pacing and takes him out for a run. Alex does some introspection. Alex tells his mom he wants to start his campaign job now, instead of waiting until he graduates.

*Jan. 20, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 115) — Alex starts his new job at the campaign offices.

*Jan. 20-Jan. 25, 2020 (Mon.-Fri.) (p. 115-116) — Alex puts 23 hours into his new job and Definitely Does Not Think About Henry.

*Sometime between Jan. 25 and Jan 29, 2020 (Fri.-Wed.) (p. 116-122) — Alex comes out to Nora and tells her about Henry.

*Jan. 30, 2020 (Th.) (p. 122-127) — Alex rushes from work to his lecture and review and returns to the White House in a bad mood. June has the week’s tabloids. Alex freaks out at the idea that Henry is going on a date with a girl. Alex finally realizes he’s not straight. Alex calls Liam.

*Jan. 31, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 128-146) — The state dinner. There's a hot makeout session and Alexander Hamilton watches.

10:48 p.m.: Alex paces around his room.

10:54 p.m. Henry arrives at Alex’s rooms

*Feb. 1, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 122) — Alex has a campaign event in Nebraska

Feb. 13, 2020 (Th.) (p. 146-147) — Henry informs Alex of a charity polo match in Greenwich, Connecticut. That evening, June asks why he’s bailing on the fund-raiser he’s meant to be at

**Feb. 15, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 147-152) — The polo match. Alex spends 4.5 hours driving up, stays for 3 hours, and then drives 4.5 hours back.

**March 3, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 152) — 7:32 p.m. EST: Alex sends Henry an email asking if he will be in Paris for a fundraiser that weekend.

**March 4, 2020, (Wed.) (p. 152-156) — 2:14 a.m.-2:43 a.m.: Henry replies, and eventually concedes after a brief back and forth.

*March 7-8, 2020 (Sat.-Sun.) (p. 157-158) — Henry and Alex have a clandestine hookup in Paris and spend the night together.

*March 8, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 158) — Zahra texts Alex a screenshot of a buzzfeed article about him and Henry.

*March 9-March 27, 2020 (Mon.-Fri.) (p. 158-159) — Alex and Henry continue to text.

Sometime between March 23 and 26, 2020 (Mon.-Th.) (p. 159) — Alex tells Henry about a voter drive he will be attending in NYC at the end of March and Henry re-schedules his visit to NYC for that weekend.

*March 27, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 159) — Alex and Henry celebrate their birthdays with champagne and a buttercream cupcake.

April 1, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 159) — Alex convinces Henry to download Snapchat.

April 4, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 159) — Henry sends a snap of him on a sailboat.

April 5, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 182) — Bea walks in on an after-dark FaceTime session.

April 9, 2020 (Th.) (p. 160) — Henry is right that Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long and won’t hear a word against it.

April 10, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 161) — June notices the photo of the man with AIDS protesting pinned over Alex’s desk

*April 11, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 162) — Henry and Alex meet at a gala in Berlin. Alex ties Henry’s wrists to the bedpost.

*April 13, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 162-163) — Zahra notices the hickeys on Alex’s neck at the weekly briefing.

*April 25, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 163-173) — Someone paints “Powder Princess” on the side of Bea’s car. Late afternoon EST: Henry and Alex have a phone call largely centered around family.

April 30, 2020 (Th.) (p. 173-182) — 9:44 p.m.: Alex redraws districts in Texas and misses dinner with June. After getting back to the Residence, June reveals she’s known about Alex and Henry the whole time.

*May 2, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 183-185) — 4 a.m. EST/9 a.m. BST: Alex FaceTimes Henry and Pez at Llwynywermod.

**May 1-9, 2020 (Fri.-Sat.) (p. 185) — Georgetown finals week

**May 15, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 186-189) — Alex graduates summa cum laude from Georgetown. Jacinto drops out, making Richards the official Republican nominee. Alex eavesdrops on a conversation between Rafael Luna and Oscar Diaz.

Sometime between May 16 and May 22, 2020 (Sat.-Fri.) (p. 189) — Henry invites the Trio to a fund-raiser in LA the next weekend.

*May 30, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 189-200) — Alex gets lunch with his dad, who changes the subject every time Alex brings up the conversation with Luba. Alex attends the fund-raiser in LA followed by partying. Henry and Alex fuck.

*May 31, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 200-201) — 7:00 a.m.: Alex and Henry wake up. June, Nora, and Pez are heavily implied to have had a threesome. Alex realizes he has friends now.

**June 8, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 202-206) — 3:23 p.m.-7:21 p.m. EST: Henry and Alex exchange emails.

**June 13, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 207) — Alex misses his first DC pride while in Nevada. He “talks to his minibar about it”

*June 20, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 207) — Houston rally at Minute Maid Park.

*June 22, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 207-210) — Alex argues with WASPy Hunter about Texas. Alex looks up LSAT testing centers in DC.

*June 23, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 210-213) — Alex texts the groupchat “3 Geniuses and Alex” with Nora, Bea, and Henry asking where his speech for Milwaukee is.

Sometime between June 24 and July 3, 2020 (Wed.-Fri.) (p. 213) — Alex receives an invitation to Wimbledon

*July 5, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 213) — 10:20 p.m. EST: Alex takes off from DC for London.

**July 6, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 213-221) — Alex spends his one day off from the campaign at Wimbledon with Henry.

10:35 a.m. BST: Alex lands in London.

11:30 a.m.: Alex makes it through customs and Henry and Shaan pick him up at the airport.

12:30 p.m.: Arrival at Wimbledon

1:00 p.m.: The first game at Central Court begins

4:00 p.m.: Philip and Martha show up. Philip is an idiot that says “Morning”. Bea, like a smart person, says “Afternoon”. Henry and Philip argue, and Henry runs off.

4:10 p.m.: Alex finds Henry in the clubhouse

4:12 p.m.: Henry “shows Alex round the clubhouse”. Alex and Henry cum for the first time

After that they go to Kensington. Henry plays the piano for a while. They make out for what could be hours. They move to Henry’s room where Henry, at least, cums for the second time that day. Alex spends almost an hour making Henry cum for a third time. After that, Henry asks Alex to fuck him again, where Henry cums for the fourth time that day, and Alex cums for at least the second time, possibly a third time.

Alex takes hours to sleep.

*July 7, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 221-222) — 9:00 a.m. BST: Alex flies home to DC and lands around 9:10 a.m. EST for DNC prep.

The Richards campaign leaks they’ve tapped an independant.

*July 9, 2020 (Th.) (p. 222) — Claremont campaign releases the official platform.

*July 11, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 221-222) — Richards holds a rally at Vanderbilt University.

**July 14, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 223-224) — The gang flies to NYC on the evening of the second day of the DNC.

9:00 p.m.: The Richards campaign announces that the Independent senator joining Richards’s cabinet is Rafael Luna.

9:15 p.m.: Air Force One lands and the White House crew goes into crisis management meetings. Alex texts Luna “What the fuck”

11:00 p.m.: Luna responds “I don’t expect you to understand”.

*July 15, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 224-234) — 12:00 a.m.: Alex and June leave meetings and get harassed by a Post reporter. June goes to bed, and Alex goes to the bar where he meets Henry. They retire to Alex’s room.

6:45 a.m.: Zahra wakes Alex (and Henry) up, and discovers their relationship.

July 20, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 235-239) — 1:00 p.m.: Alex comes out to his mother.

2:00 p.m. — Ellen gives a PowerPoint presentation, then makes Alex do paperwork and kicks him off the campaign.

**Aug. 10, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 239-247) 1:04 a.m.-8:22 p.m. EST — Henry and Alex exchange emails about the complex nature of their relationship, and Alex extends an invite to the lake house.

*Aug. 22, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 247-257) — Day one of the lake house. The Trio arrive earlier, possibly on Friday. Early morning: They gas up the car before taking it to the hangar to pick up Henry in Austin. 1.5 hours — The drive to the lake. They arrive, Oscar welcomes everyone. Alex barbecues ribs. They spend the evening after dinner singing and playing guitar. Alex and Henry sleep in separate bunks

*Aug. 23, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 257-264) — Day two of the lake house. Alex makes breakfast. In the afternoon, Henry talks to Oscar about boats and outboard motors. They swim. That night, Henry and Alex go skinny dipping

*Aug. 24, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 264-265) — Alex wakes up to find that Henry has left.

*Aug. 25, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 266, 267) — Alex sends five texts to Henry. He also paces on the roof of the residence and wrecks his heels.

*Aug. 26, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 266) — Alex sends two texts to Henry.

*Aug. 27, 2020 (Thu.) (p. 266) — Alex sends no texts to Henry.

*Aug. 28, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 266) — Alex trains himself to check his phone after two hours instead of one.

Sometime between Aug. 25-28 (Tue.-Fri.) (p. 267) — Alex’s Claremont for America mug is smashed in the sink. 2.5 different dreams of Henry’s hair. An email is drafted and deleted.

*Aug. 29, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 267) — Luna makes his fifth campaign stop for Richards. Alex breaks his phone screen and it is replaced by the end of the day.

*Aug. 31, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 267-276) — Alex finds the note Henry left in the pocket of his kimono and smashes his phone.

5:45 a.m. EST/10 a.m. BST: Alex buys first class nonstop tickets for him and Cash and sends Cash a text.

7:45 a.m./12:45 p.m.: Alex and Cash’s flight begins boarding

8:00 a.m./1:00 p.m.: Alex and Cash’s flight leaves Dulles for London. Alex calls Zahra on the runways and asks her to call them a car in London

3:15 p.m./8:15 p.m.: The plane lands and they leave for Kensington

4:00 p.m./9:00 p.m.: They arrive in Kensington.

*Sep. 1, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 276-284) — Henry goes for a run. Philip eats plain toast. They have a conversation in the kitchen. Alex wakes up alone. Henry brings Alex coffee. They spend the day together.

**Sep. 2, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 284-293) — 2:00 a.m.: Henry and Alex sneak out and explore the V&A.

5:00 a.m. EST/10:00 a.m. BST: Alex and Cash’s plane departs from Heathrow to Dulles.

3:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. BST: Alex arrives back home.

5:12 p.m. EST: Alex emails Henry to say he arrived back home

**Sep. 3, 2020 (Th.) (p. 294-297) — 2:49 a.m. EST: Henry replies, mentions he’s considering coming out to Philip and he may have to enlist.

6:20 a.m. EST: Alex responds, worried that Henry might have to enlist. He is supportive of Henry coming out.

**Sep. 4, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 297-304) — 7:58 p.m. EST: Henry says he came out to Philip and talks about putting memories into rooms.

8:31 p.m. EST: Alex responds and sends Henry an incomplete list.

Sep. 14, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 305-310) — Zahra shows up with a diamond ring at the breakfast weekly brief. Footage of Henry and Alex at the DNC is leaked. June posts a photo of her and Henry on instagram and it spreads within hours.

Alex takes Nora on a fake date as Henry flies to DC. Henry lands in the middle of the night.

Sep. 15, 2020 (Tue.) (310-313) — June lets Alex into her SUV in the morning on the way to her fake date with Henry. After an hour at the cafe, Henry and Alex meet in the SUV and kiss. They don’t notice when someone takes pictures

*Sep. 24, 2020 (Th.) (p. 314-318) — Alex meets with Luna and comes out to him. He returns to the residence, attempts to call Henry, and then gets drunk.

**Sep. 25, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 319-321) — 3:21 a.m. EST/8:21 a.m. BST: Alex sends a drunk email.

6:07 a.m./11:07 a.m.: Henry replies.

**Sep. 27, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 321-344) — Email Leak Day

3 a.m. EST/8 a.m. BST: News breaks.

3:23 a.m./8:23 a.m. Zahra wakes Alex up and puts him on communications lockdown. Alex meets with his mom.

6:00 a.m./11:00 a.m.: Philip arrives at Kensington

8:00 a.m./3:00 p.m.: Alex gets out of meetings, starts napping

1:00 p.m./6:00 p.m.: Zahra tells Alex to pack a bag

7:00 p.m./12:00: They arrive at Kensington

11:00 p.m./4:00 a.m.: Alex finally climbs into bed next to Henry.

*Sep. 28, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 344-358) — Philip shows up at Kensington, hair uncombed and suit askew. Philip yells at them in the kitchen about breaking the communication embargo. Henry leaves, and Alex follows and leaves Philip red in the kitchen.

6:00 a.m./11:00 a.m.: They meet with the queen.

Alex takes a photo of a mural and posts it on Twitter on his way to the airplane

**Sep. 29, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 358-367) — 9:15 p.m. Jezebel tweets about DC Dykes on Bikes chasing Westboro Baptist protesters down Pennsylvania Ave.

Alex gets back to DC. Nora comes busting in with proof.

*Sep. 30, 2020 (Wed.) (p. 367-370) — The White House leaks proof of the Richarads campaign stalking, surveilling, hacking, and outing Alex. Rafael Luna announces on twitter he has left the campaign. The podcast Bills, Bills, Bills, records an episode about it.

**Oct. 2, 2020 (Fri.) (p. 370-383) — In the morning, Alex gives his speech, which June wrote. Henry is there to support him. They make out for like 45-55 minutes before the speech. Jeffrey Richards goes on CNN. Alex sees Luna in his office. Luna tells Alex about his past with Richards.

*Oct. 3, 2020 (Sat.) (p. 375) — A crowd at the Mall. Cash, Amy, and Amy’s wife are there.

*Oct. 4, 2020 (Sun.) (p. 383-385, 409) — 7:32 a.m.: The boys wake up.

9:30 a.m.: Henry leaves back to England.

Alex goes back to the campaign trail. Liam calls.

*Oct. 4-10, 2020 (Sun.-Sat.) (p. 389) — The crown makes decisions about what to do about the emails: re Bea's addiction reveal, and Henry enlisting.

Sometime between Oct. 11-17, 2020 (Sun.-Sat.) (p. 391) — Philip has a falling out with the queen and apologizes to Henry and Bea.

Sometime between Oct. 25-31, 2020 (Sun.-Sat.) (p. 386-392) — The photoshoot in Hyde park.

*Nov. 2, 2020 (Mon.) (p. 393-399) — Day before election day. Alex struggles to pick a tie. June gets a book deal. The Trio falls asleep in the bed together.

**Nov. 3, 2020 (Tue.) (p. 400-418) — Election day

Alex votes.

6:00 p.m.: The Trio arrives at the election night event.

6:37 p.m. Henry texts Alex about plane troubles.

7:32 p.m.: Oliver Westbrook from Bills, Bills, Bills tweets about GOPers backing Richards even after everything that’s happened.

8:04 p.m.: 538 politics tweets that they’re confused about Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin being too close to call.

9:15 p.m.: NYT tweets that Claremont is at 178 and Richards is at 113

9:30 p.m.: Ellen worries about losing and asks June to write a concession speech. June refuses. Alex makes a speech. Henry finally arrives.

10:30 p.m.: Richards takes Iowa, Utah, and Montana. Claremont gets California’s 55 electoral votes.

12:00 a.m.: Claremont has the lead. Alex runs into Liam. Florida and Nevada go red.

12:30 a.m.: Texas goes blue.

1:00 a.m.: Alex unlocks the door with the key around his neck.

#rwrb #rwarb #rwrb spoilers #rwrb timeline #alex claremont diaz #prince henry of wales #this is exactly 5k #meta #i guess #long post

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morallygreyprompts · 4 years

Text

Concept #75 Write Up

Concept #75

Here you go, guys, enjoy!

Hero shouldered the small bag on their back, containing enough essentials for them to stay at the old military base for a few days. This place had been built for war, but the conflict had finished before the building could be fully used. There was no use for the building, so it was left alone. Hero hoped it would make as good a base for them as they hoped. Most people didn’t even know it was there.

Hero spent hours examining the place, visualising it. A lot of it was underground and it was structurally solid. It was mostly built, save for furniture and that there was no gas, electric, or water supply but Hero could fix that.

As the sunset approached, Hero found a spot to settle for the night. They ate their supper by the light of a battery-powered lamp, read for a while and finally decided to sleep.

It was late at night when they felt something nudge their hand. To a small click and the bright glare of the white LED lamp. Thief was standing over them, holding their wrists in a slipknot loop and pulling tight.

“Shit!” hero tried to fight them off, to get their hands free in time but Thief pinned them down.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Thief grunted as they tied their hands together. They tied Hero’s hands above their head, to a nearby pipe, a thick one that they couldn’t break. Next they tied their legs together, although Hero did manage to land a kick in their face. Thief hissed and worked faster, typing the ropes tighter, to the point of it being painful. They were stuck.

“Sorry dearie, this is my spot.” “Mine once your arrested,” Hero hissed. Thief grinned and crouched down beside them “And… how are you going to do that right now exactly?”

Thief sat down by them and helped themselves to Hero’s remaining food, which was meant to be breakfast.

“Hey!” Hero exclaimed. “Greedy pig!” “Nah, I need the energy. I’m going to have to have a long think about what I’m going to do with you. Can’t let you go or you’ll blab and apparently, it’s frowned upon to kill people. Hm…”

Thief left for a moment before they came back with manacles. They carefully tied Hero’s hands behind their back with them, and a rope around their arms kept them sat up and secure. Thief gagged them and yawned. “Get comfortable, I’m not known for rash decisions. Goodnight.”

Hero screamed after them, but it was no use. No, this place definitely was not safe.

Hero was kept for another two days. Thief had the decency to keep them fed, watered, and warm, but that didn’t make things much easier for them. They were trapped until Thief made up their mind about what to do.

But finally, Thief walked in with a grin. They’d made a decision.

“Alright, I have a deal,” Thief said, tugging Hero’s gag out of their mouth. Hero coughed. “A... deal?” “Yup. You and me, we don’t usually have much trouble between us, right?” “That’s... true, I’ve more important people to chase,” Hero murmured.

“Great! So, I’m willing to go against my nature and share the place. I let you live in a really good spot and help you do the place up, and you don’t arrest me. We keep to ourselves and everything is good, right?”

Hero thought hard for a minute. They hadn’t been entirely sure what decision to expect from Thief, but this hadn’t been it. “And you won’t like, turn on me or anything once I do all the work?” Hero raised an eyebrow.

“Nope, just like you I just want a place to hide. Is that so bad?” Thief grinned. They offered them a drink, which Hero accepted. Hero did need a place, and if, if, Thief was able to keep their word, then… That sounded manageable? Thief wasn’t all that bad, aside from stealing everything they could and the occasional… kidnapping.

Hero rolled their eyes when Thief moved the water away. “Deal, but if I bump into you and people are around I will have to chase after you.”

“That’s understandable.” Thief finally released them.

Hero fell forward, rubbing their wrists in pain. “Go back on your word,” Hero growled, “And I’ll tie you to that pole with a pink bow around your neck for the police to come and pick up… after a day or two.”

“Oof,” Thief grinned, “Well I’d best be on my best behaviour then.” they extended a hand to shake. Hero accepted it.

Like my stuff and want to support what I do? Then maybe consider buying me a Kofi? Ko-fi.com/morallygrey

#hero and villain #writing prompts #write up #ask #hero #thief #hero x villain?#I think this is the start of something beautiful #ambushed #captured #deal #does this count as the roommates trope?

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bakubabes-tatakae · 4 years

Text

Melting My Heart (Part Four)

Author’s Note: If anyone wants to be added to the tag list for this let me know. Happy to do it for anyone!

(Katsuki Bakugou x Reader)

Summary: The fireball with the attitude has one weakness, Y/N. When she’s the only thing that can break through his cold appearance around the other students, he starts to learn that being the best… isn’t the only thing out there.

AO3 Link

Part One, Part Two, Part Three

Part Four:

Word Count: 2373

We stared at the building surrounding us. The freedom that UA was going to give us to fight these robots was absolutely crazy. I had never seen anything like this. Our training area looked exactly like a real city. Skyscrapers loomed over us and stores lined the streets, even fake civilians were shown to look like they were walking around below the chaos that was about to ensue. Katsuki had the biggest smile on his face, a smile of determination. I put my hand on his arm and he placed his hand over mine. “Are you ready for this my queen?”

The look of determination on Katsuki’s face got me fired up. I reached around my neck at the small scarf that sat there. Eraserhead had made me a scarf, hoping that people would realize I was his daughter if I added it to my hero costume. Time to put this baby to use, he had made sure to tell me it would help me get around quicker. We had spent days with him training me on how to use it to fly around the city. “Let’s do this. We’ll be the top students in this battle center.”

A loudspeaker somewhere around us sounded. “3...2...1...GO!”

Katsuki held his hands out at his side and used his nitroglycerin to propel himself forward. I swung my scarf at the things around me, gliding through the city with ease. Robots were starting to be visible below us. Katsuki looked over at me. “You take them out from below and I’ll come from above.”

I spied some rubble sitting below and nodded. I dropped to the ground, face to face with four robots. They were a little daunting, but I had to keep my cool. I focused my energy on my hand, black circles forming around them. After focusing my energy on my hands I threw my energy toward the rubble, picking it up off the ground, and swinging it into the robots in front of me, sweeping them off their feet. The smell of caramel grew stronger the closer that Katsuki got to the ground, a smug look on his face as he came down at the robots, explosions ready in both of his hands. As he hit the two below him clouds of black smoke erupted around us. I used it as an opportunity to take out the other two around us. I used some of the rubble from the robots Katsuki had just destroyed and threw them at the robots, pinning them to the wall and crushing their circuit boards.

“Let’s find more. This is getting fun.” Katsuki propelled himself in the other direction, expecting me to follow.

Ten minutes flew by faster than we thought it would. Loudspeakers spoke Present Mic’s voice. “One minute remaining rockin boys and girls, get those points while you still can.”

Katsuki and I landed on the roof of a building and regrouped. “What are you at for points Y/N?”

“I think I’m at 68, what are you at?” I leaned against the wall of the small entrance that came up from the building.

“I’ve got to be at at least 75, we’ve got this in the bag.” He smiled.

“Thirty seconds remaining kiddos.” Present Mic was now screaming through the speakers.

“I’ve got thirty seconds to get more points. You coming? I spotted two below.”

I put my hand up, I was out of breath. “Take them Kacchan, they’re all yours.”

He didn’t hesitate. He jumped down from the building and I ran to the side, staring over the edge at him. His motivation was intoxicating. I smiled as I watched the two robots below explode at the same time Present Mic came through the speakers telling us to stop. I flung my scarf to the light post below and jumped down, landing next to Katsuki. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “We did amazing. We’re gonna be the power couple of UA High baby. Nothing can stop us.”

I grinned at the thought. “Let’s make them all jealous Kacchan.” I put my fist in the air the same way that All Might does after his fights.

Katsuki grabbed my waist and tilted my backwards, locking lips with me in a shamelessly hearty kiss. Katsuki had never been one for PDA, but clearly he was fired up. This boy… What else could he do to surprise me?

* * * * * *

We had a week to wait. An entire week of Katsuki being completely impatient when it came to finding out the results of the entrance exam. Trying to keep him calm was nearly impossible. His parents and I had our hands full the entire week. When the mail finally came we were all so grateful.

Katsuki and I came back from our walk to try and get him out of the house and not going stir crazy to see two formal envelopes sitting on the kitchen table. Katsuki ran as fast as he could to the table. Mitsuki, his mother, stood at the other end of the table, waiting for us. Katsuki picked them up and handed me mine. “Here, let’s open them together.”

I smiled at him, but I think this was something I should be doing with my father. He had been the one who helped me the most when it came to preparing for the entrance exam. “I think I’m gonna go to my dad’s and open it there. I think he would like that.”

Katsuki kissed my forehead and gave me an approving grin. “Go see him. I’m sure he’ll be excited.”

* * * * * *

I knocked on the door of the small one bedroom apartment that my father was renting. His tired eyes greeted mine as he opened the door. He looked surprised to see me and put his hand behind his head, scratching. “Hey Y/N, what’s up?” He laughed nervously. “I didn’t expect you to be stopping by.”

I held up my envelope from UA. “I got this in the mail today and I wanted to open it with you.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the apartment. “Let’s open this baby!”

I laughed and ran to his couch. He sat down beside me and I leaned back on him, letting him wrap an arm around me, kissing the side of my head. The closeness of having a parental figure that actually cared about me was something I would never get used to, but being in my father’s arms made me feel safe. I ripped open the envelope and took the paper out along with the disc that accompanied it.

Aiawa grabbed the disc from me. “We can watch this later, it’s just a thing with a message from a hero saying whether you passed or failed. Open the letter, then we can watch the video.”

I took a deep breath before opening the letter. As I read I could feel Aizawa getting anxious behind me. I started to read it outloud. “Dear Y/N Aizawa, I’m pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to UA High School beginning with the incoming semester. We are excited to hear back from you on whether or not you will be joining us. We hope to hear from you soon.” I was now squirming in my seat.

“Let’s get this video started then. I wonder who they had do your video.” Aizawa stood up to set up his DVD player. Once it was on he placed the DVD in the slot and pressed play. I sat up and resituated myself, anxious to see what hero was going to be in my acceptance video. A name flashed at the bottom of the screen and when I looked farther up the TV I realized who was on the screen in front of me. Eraserhead.

I looked from the TV to my father, who smiled at me anxiously. He started to speak. “Y/N, congratulations on getting into UA High. I couldn’t be more proud of you. I can’t apologize enough for not being around when you were a kid, and I had to pull some strings for them to let me make your acceptance video, but I wanted it to be memorable for you. I’m so proud of you, you’ve grown into an amazing woman, and you’re only growing more and more amazing every day since we met.” I could see a tear run down his face in the video and I began to get choked up, trying to hold my own back. “I can’t wait to see how far you’ll come in the future, and if anyone tries to mess with you at UA just come to me, I never told you I’m an instructor here, but I’ve been one here for a long time. Who knows? Maybe when I get my class list for the coming semester you’ll be on it. I’m blabbering now.” I chuckled, I could feel the tears involuntarily coming down my face so I wiped them away. “I’ll leave you with this…” He cleared his throat. “You’re going to do great. I wouldn’t be surprised if you far surpassed me in the hero ranks, and if you do, I’ll be your number one fan. Keep up the good work baby, always believe in yourself and never let others get you down. Welcome to UA High.”

The video cut off and I could feel the tears coming down faster. I looked up at Aizawa who was still smiling at me. I stood up slowly and he walked closer to me. I buried my face into his chest. In all the time I had lived with my mother she had always told me that my father was a deadbeat… that my father had never wanted to know me… that he was no good. Everything she had told me was completely wrong. Sometimes I wondered if she was really talking about herself.

* * * * * *

The first day of school came before we knew it. Walking up to the steps of the school again was something I had never imagined, knowing that this time we were students. Katsuki had his arm around my shoulders, keeping me close to him, still on a kick of us being the power couple at UA High. As we walked up the steps and down the hall a small way we saw the door that was labeled for our class; 1-A.

As we stepped in we were some of the first people. There were only two other people in the room as we made our way in. They both looked up at us, neither saying anything, and then back down at their desks. One of them was a taller boy with blue hair and glasses, I almost immediately recognized him, he was the boy from the entrance exam who had spoken to Izuku and I. The other was a boy only a little shorter than the first with red and white hair, each color only covering half of his head, and a scar on the left side of his face around his eye.

Katsuki sat and I chose the seat behind him and as we waited more and more students came pouring in. As the class began to fill up students began to get rowdy. Katsuki put his feet up on the desk and the boy from the entrance exam walked up to us. “Take your feet off of that desk now.”

Katsuki was clearly not in the mood for someone to be bossing him around. He looked up at the boy and tried to play stupid. “Huh?”

I facepalmed and sighed. Here we go already, we’re going to have so many friends…

“It’s only the first day and you’re already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property you cretin.”

“You’re kidding me right?” He leaned forward. “Your old school put a stick up your ass or were you born with it?”

“Kacchan…” I sighed again. “Stop it.”

The boy was flabbergasted, but stopped and calmed himself down, holding out a hand for Katsuki. “Let’s start over. I’m Tenya Iida from Somei Private Academy.”

He taunted him more. “Somei, huh? So you must think you’re better than me. I’m gonna have fun tearing you a new one.”

Iida gasped at him and took his hand back. “You would threaten me? Your own classmate… Are you sure you’re in the right place?”

I interrupted before Katsuki could speak again. “Sorry about him. He’s a pain in the ass, trust me.” I held my hand out for him. “I’m Y/N Aizawa,” I looked over at Katsuki. “And this jerk here is Katsuki Bakugou.”

Suddenly both Katsuki and Iida’s attention went to the door. The small boy with green hair was standing in it. Izuku Midoriya. Iida left us and walked to Deku.

Katsuki stared dagger eyes at me. “Do you always have to do that?”

“Do you always have to be a jackass?” I huffed back at him.

Suddenly a voice spoke from on the floor in a sleeping bag outside the door. I recognized the voice immediately. “If you’re just here to make friends then you can pack up your stuff now.” My father was scaring the people in the doorway. “Welcome to UA’s hero course.” He stood up while still in the sleeping bag and unzipped it, unwrapping himself from it. “It took you all eight seconds to shut up, that’s not gonna work.”

I hid my face, how embarrassing was that?

“Time is precious, rational students would understand that.” He looked into the classroom at all of us and Katsuki and I looked away, a little embarrassed that we knew him. “Hello, I’m Shouta Aizawa… Your teacher.”

Everyone that had heard me introduce myself to Iida turned to look at me. There was nowhere that I could hide at this point.

He held up a track suit and looked at all of us. “Let’s get to it, everyone grab one of these and meet me outside.” He looked toward me and tossed it to me. “This one’s for you Y/N.”

As if that didn’t solidify it enough they all watched me more. I was definitely about to be known as the teacher’s daughter.

Taglist 💕 @wwwwyamd

Part Five, Part Six

Updated: 5/8/2020

90 notes · View notes

doyoungdelrey · 5 years

Note

all 85 pls

1. describe yourself.

a loud and annoying clown

2. if you could go anywhere for a week all expenses paid where would it be?

Nova Scotia

3. do you have siblings?

Two younger sisters.

4. what is your favorite constellation, why?

Big Dipper b/c its the only one I know.

5. favorite color.

Red, blue or green

6. what kind of music do you listen to?

K-pop, indie and classic pop/rock

7. favorite flower. (you can name as many as you want cause flowers are awesome)

Daisy, carnation, roses

8. if you could do magic, what is the first spell you would learn?

A spell where I could redo the past.

9. favorite childhood memory.

When my youngest sister was born.

10. have you ever been cheated on?

yes. Too hard to explain.

11. if you could describe your perfect room, what would it be?

Filled with plants, painted a light grey and surrounded by photography with the sun coming through the window.

12. favorite animal.

Penguin and Cat

13. what was the last photo you took of?

A ceiling at the Frick.

14. do you believe in soul mates?

Yes, I live that there’s one for everyone.

15. do you hang toilet paper over or under?

Under?

16. your go to place to eat & your favorite thing to get there.

Shake shack and cheese fries.

17. do you believe everything happens for a reason?

Ever since I was a kid, my mother has instilled that belief on us, so yes I believe this.

18. guilty pressures?

I think y’all mean guilty pleasures, so I admit I still watch Arthur (the one with the aardvark). Also, I admit I listen to Taylor swift and Camilla Cabello in occasional times of existential crises.

19. favorite mythical creature, why?

dragons. Idk why though.

20. something most people don’t know about you.

I met Andrew Garfield as I was walking home from school.

21. where did you grow up, what was it like?

I lived in a well-to-do neighborhood with a lot of rich people even though we weren’t rich ourselves.

22. do you believe aliens exist?

No, now leave me alone.

23. what was your last google search?

Nova Scotia.

24. what did your last relationship teach you?

To not rush and trying not to be vulnerable.

25. would you relocate for love?

Yes.

26. do you hold grudges or forgive easy?

I’m 20 and I STILL hold grudges; I need to stop.

27. favorite book.

Little women.

28. do you consider yourself an extrovert or introvert?

I consider myself an introverted extrovert.

29. have you ever kept a journal, do you now?

I did in like third grade. I wish I still did :(

30. top 5 favorite movies.

Jules et Jim, Amelie, CMBYN, The Social Network, Before Sunrise

31. do you believe that everything happens for a reason?

Yes!

32. what is your greatest fear?

Dying and getting rejected.

33. favorite alcoholic beverage.

I don’t drink.

34. most embarrassing thing you’ve done.

Get my build a bears stolen and my parents yelling at me in the first grade for having them stolen.

35. do you believe in ghosts?

No???

36. what is the best and worst part of your personality?

I have the memory of an elephant but that means I’m clumsy AND I am lazy whilst holding grudges on people from three years ago.

37. should you split the dinner bill?

Yes.

38. are you a good liar?

39. what keeps you up at night?

My past and the future.

40. would you rather go without your phone or music?

Phone.

41. do you believe in god?

There is something up there, a spirit but not a being.

42. how do you relax when frustrated?

Listen to music and write mediocre poetry.

43. what’s something that offends you?

44. favorite food

45. if you were on a 10 hour flight and could sit and talk to any person the entire time, who would it be?

Suho and his translator. He seems like someone who has a lot to tell..

46. when do you feel the most confident?

In theater class.

47. what do you do on your free time?

Listen to music, go on Tumblr/ig, write, read, sleep, watch TV

48. is there anyone who has completely lost your respect

For someone who tends to hold grudges, no haha.

49. have you ever broken someone’s heart?

yes, I had a friend’s older brother who had a crush on me and I rejected him because I thought he was too awkward. I regret it now.

50. did/do you play sports in school?

nope.

51. when are you happiest?

When I heat good food and listen to good music.

52. coffee or tea?

both.

53. what is one possession you own you wouldn’t want to live without?

My phone. Or my chanyeol pin.

54. what is the first thing you notice about a person?

The way they dress.

55. what is your favorite season, why?

Fall because I was born before halloween. I also love the autumn breeze.

56. what makes you laugh?

Anything and everything. I have terrible sense of humor lmao.

57. are you a clean or messy person?

both.

58. what is important for a successful relationship?

Honesty and good communication.

59. what was your upcoming like?

I was raised partially by my grandmother. Once I was 5, I was raised by y mom. I was a troubled child, so she spent most of my childhood disciplining. Sometimes I want to tell berthings, but there are moments where I can’t say anything.

60. favorite holiday?

halloween. It is after my birthday.

61. what is the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery?

Put the money in a savings account, give some to charity then the rest to my parents and other family members (sisters, cousin who I think of as a younger sister)

62. what’s the best pizza topping combination?

Broccoli and Pepperoni. Or mushroom and sausage.

63. favorite outdoor activity.

Walking.

64. how are you? honestly.

I’m feeling good because I don’t have to worry about school for a week, but once I go back, I have to worry about finals, etc. I’m also worried about my future because IDK what to do after graduation.

65. would you rather go camping in the woods or stay at a beach resort?

Stay at a resort, duh?!?!?

66. what is the most beautiful thing in nature?

The mountains, specifically the Adirondacks.

67. favorite type of candy?

Snickers.

68. if your life was a book, what would be the title?

Confused and Thirsty Clown

69. what movie quotes do you use of a regular bases?

You talking to me???

70. what was cool when you were young but not cool now?

Build a Bears. They’re over-rated and over priced.

71. what’s the craziest conversation you have ever eves dropped on?

When a woman was telling her friend about her husband (the woman’s husband) cheating her while she was in the hospital for cancer treatment.

72. what’s the most interesting documentary you’ve ever watched?

The ted bundy one on Netflix.

73. what’s the worst hairstyle you’ve had?

The bowl cut. Or my attempt of Wendy’s zimzalabim-era hair (minus the bangs. I still have this hair style)

74. what do you like to cook?

Roasted chicken and mashed potatoes.

75. what’s the coolest animal you’ve seen in the wild?

A lion, when I went to animal kingdom.

76. what’s the funniest tv show you’ve ever seen?

The office. Stanley was and will be my favorite character.

77. do you usually follow your heart or your head?

Heart

78. what is your favorite quote?

79. what’s the weirdest crush you have ever had?

On the kid who played saxophone and picked his nose in middle school. He admitted to having a crush on me in the 10th grade. He was so sweet, yet he weirded me out. I regret notating him though.

80. what’s your love language?

Food

81. do you ever feel alone?

Not gonna lie, I do. I have friends who have their soulmates, yet I don’t have mine. I also suck at making friends.

82. ever been bullied?

Yes. Too complicated to explain.

83. are you usually early or late?

Both

84. what kind of art do you enjoy most?

Like romantic/baroque art, or any paintings made after the 1300s. Mostly impressionism or dutch realism.

85. what do you wish you knew more about?

Ways to be more organized

SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY TAMARA!!!

#sagittariustigerfish #ask #answered

2 notes · View notes

thedrowsydoormouse · 5 years

Text

@anangelamuse-castiel-spnfam asked and I shall deliver!

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

My boyfriend. He took me to the mall for dinner and shopping after my therapy!

2. Are you outgoing or shy?

Very shy but once you get to know me I’m a ball of chaotic energy!

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

Right now no one.

4. Are you easy to get along with?

I like to think I am.

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?

I would say my friend, Penny, but she’d probably be even more drunk than I am! So I think my friend, Daisy, or my boyfriend because they both have a background in medicine and would know what to do!

6. What kind of people are you attracted to?

Cool people. And people who are unafraid to be nerdy about things they love!

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

I should hope so! Or else something went seriously wrong!

8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?

I keep mentioning my boyfriend but that’s only because he’s sitting right next to me and just stole a slice of pizza off my plate!

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

Usually no! I’m very pro sex and pro discussing sex so it hopefully becomes less taboo and we can get some proper sex education.

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?

My therapist. And I immediately broke the tension with a joke that made her laugh so hard she cried!

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?

“I’m done.” I was waiting for my ride to pick me up from the hair salon!

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

Monster by dodie, My Kinda Lover by Billy Squire, Hallelujah by Pentatonix, Rolling in the Deep by Gretta Van Fleet, Bottom of the River by Delta Rae

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

It depends on the person.

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?

Luck yes. Miracles no.

15. What good thing happened this summer?

Technically it happened during summer (even though it happened in September but it was still Summer so it counts) but I met my boyfriend!

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

100% yes!

17. Do you think there is life on other planets?

There has to be. It’d be weird if there wasn’t. It may not be life like we know it but there is some form of life out there.

18. Do you still talk to your first crush?

No.

19. Do you like bubble baths?

I only take bubble baths!

20. Do you like your neighbors?

I hardly know enough about them to form an opinion.

21. What are you bad habits?

How much time we got?

22. Where would you like to travel?

I would love to go back to New York and to the Japanese Disney parks!

23. Do you have trust issues?

Yes.

24. Favorite part of your daily routine?

Food. Beautiful amazing food!

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?

My back. I have two weird scar type things on it that look nasty and I try to hide.

26. What do you do when you wake up?

Check the time an see if I can go back to sleep.

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?

Any lighter and I would literally glow and any darker and I wouldn’t be able to pull off the goth look so effortlessly so I’d say I’m pretty happy with my skin!

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

My close friends.

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?

Several of them have tried getting back together after we broke up only to find I had already moved on.

30. Do you ever want to get married?

I am married.

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?

It’s down to about my waist so it’s be weird if I couldn’t pull it into a pony tail! The comfort of it, though, is a whole other issue!

32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?

Margot Robbie and Brian Dietzen.

33. Spell your name with your chin.

No.

34. Do you play sports? What sports?

*laughs until I’m crying*

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?

TV. I need music to survive!

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?

All the time.

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

I usually crack a joke.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?

Smart, funny, amazing in bed!

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?

They’re pretty much all online!

40. What do you want to do after high school?

I’m already out of high school.

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?

Not everyone.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?

I’m distracted, people keep talking over me, or somethings seriously wrong.

43. Do you smile at strangers?

If it’s a kid or an old woman, yes. But never men.

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?

Space. The ocean is terrifying.

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

Food. Or having to pee.

46. What are you paranoid about?

A lot of shit! I’m a nervous, panic-y mother fucker!

47. Have you ever been high?

Yes.

48. Have you ever been drunk?

Yes.

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?

Yes.

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?

Black.

51. Ever wished you were someone else?

Nope! I love myself way too much!

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?

Nothing!

53. Favourite makeup brand?

I’ve been wearing a lot of Blackmoon, Milk, and Lime Crime lately.

54. Favourite store?

Total Wines.

55. Favourite blog?

Mine!

56. Favourite colour?

Deep red.

57. Favourite food?

Sushi!

58. Last thing you ate?

I’m currently eating pizza! That is if my boyfriend stops stealing my slices!

59. First thing you ate this morning?

I actually didn’t get a chace to eat until dinner when I had a BBQ chicken salad.

60. Ever won a competition? For what?

Nope.

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

I was suspended in middle school for writing a burn book.

62. Been arrested? For what?

Nope!

63. Ever been in love?

Yes!

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?

I was a junior in high school and I was talking with one of my friends during Winter Formal and neither of us had ever been kissed so I just said “then kiss me” so she did and we spent the rest of the night making out.

65. Are you hungry right now?

I’m eating right now.

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?

Yes.

67. Facebook or Twitter?

Neither.

68. Twitter or Tumblr?

Tumblr.

69. Are you watching tv right now?

I’m listening to music.

70. Names of your bestfriends?

I have too many to list. I’d literally be here all night.

71. Craving something? What?

Pumpkin spice.

72. What colour are your towels?

I have a ton of towels and none of them match because I’m a human dumpster fire.

72. How many pillows do you sleep with?

As many as possible.

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

Yes.

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?

I have no clue.

75. Favourite animal?

Cats.

76. What colour is your underwear?

Black.

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chocolate.

78. Favourite ice cream flavour?

Dublin Mudslide from Ben & Jerry’s.

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?

Hot Pink.

80. What colour pants?

Teal.

81. Favourite tv show?

I can’t pick just one!

82. Favourite movie?

See above!

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

The first one!

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?

Mean Girls!

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?

Janice Ian!

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?

Bruce!

87. First person you talked to today?

My mom.

88. Last person you talked to today?

Not sure yet.

89. Name a person you hate?

Trump.

90. Name a person you love?

My boyfriend.

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

See #89. 92. In a fight with someone?

Usually.

93. How many sweatpants do you have?

I lost count.

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?

I love being comfy.

95. Last movie you watched?

Spaceballs.

96. Favourite actress?

Margot Robbie.

97. Favourite actor?

Does John Mullaney count.

98. Do you tan a lot?

Never.

99. Have any pets?

A chubby puppy named Zorro!

100. How are you feeling?

Pretty good!

101. Do you type fast?

Sometimes, depending on how long my nails are.

102. Do you regret anything from your past?

Yes and no.

103. Can you spell well?

Sort of.

104. Do you miss anyone from your past?

Not really.

105. Ever been to a bonfire party?

No.

106. Ever broken someone’s heart?

Yes.

107. Have you ever been on a horse?

Yes.

108. What should you be doing?

Nothing.

109. Is something irritating you right now?How long this is taking.

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?

Yes.

111. Do you have trust issues?

You’ve already asked this.

112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?

My friend, Sabrina.

113. What was your childhood nickname?

I hate them so I’m not putting them.

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?

Yes.

115. Do you play the Wii?

Not anymore.

116. Are you listening to music right now?

Yes.

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?

Yes.

118. Do you like Chinese food?

Yes.

119. Favourite book?

I don’t really read that much anymore.

120. Are you afraid of the dark?

No.

121. Are you mean?

I can be.

122. Is cheating ever okay?

Only if you really didn’t have time to study and you don’t get caught. (Hint: hide the cheat sheet between you’re thighs or up your skirt so that way if you do get caught you can pin it on the teacher being a perv.)

123. Can you keep white shoes clean?

I’ve never owned any so I have no clue.

124. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Yes.

125. Do you believe in true love?

Yes.

126. Are you currently bored?

Yes.

127. What makes you happy?

Food.

128. Would you change your name?

Yes.

129. What your zodiac sign?

Sagittarius.

130. Do you like subway?

No.

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

I mean i hope they like me or else my marriage is about to get very awkward!

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

You asked this one already.

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

Tell me again about how it hurts Being awfully loud for an introvert

134. Can you count to one million?

I’ve never tried nor had the time to try.

135. Dumbest lie you ever told?

It’s my dad’s signature.

136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?

Open just a crack.

137. How tall are you?

6′

138. Curly or Straight hair?

Mine is curly and I prefer curls.

139. Brunette or Blonde?

It depends on the person.

140. Summer or Winter?

Winter.

141. Night or Day?

Night.

142. Favourite month?

October.

143. Are you a vegetarian?

No but almost.

144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?

Milk.

145. Tea or Coffee?

Tea.

146. Was today a good day?

Yes.

147. Mars or Snickers?

Neither.

148. What’s your favourite quote?

��Fuck it.” - Me 149. Do you believe in ghosts?

This is the 3rd repeat question.

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

The only book I have near me is super tiny and doesn’t have 42 pages.

1 note · View note

patriotsnet · 3 years

Text

How Many Republicans Voted For Affordable Care Act

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-republicans-voted-for-affordable-care-act/

How Many Republicans Voted For Affordable Care Act

Regulatory Action To Destabilize The Aca

House votes to repeal Affordable Care Act

When GOP lawmakers failed to repeal the ACA in 2017 , the Trump administration started looking for ways to chip away at the law via regulations instead. As mentioned above, the administration has opted to significantly reduce the federal funding that was being used to help people enroll in plans offered through the exchanges. But there have also been some regulations that have further undermined the ACA-compliant markets, mainly by making it easier for people to enroll in plans that dont meet the ACAs requirements for individual and small group coverage.

In June 2018, the Trump Administration finalized regulations that allowed self-employed people and small businesses to join association health plans without having a commonality of interest or a purpose for the association other than obtaining health insurance. This regulation has been struck down by a federal judge and although the case is being appealed, the Department of Labor has confirmed that association health plans based on the 2018 regulations cannot currently be marketed to sole proprietors and small businesses.

The Trump administration has issued regulations that allow employers to reimburse employees for the cost of individual market coverage. In addition, employers have the option of reimbursing employees for excepted benefits via an excepted benefits health reimbursement arrangement.

Eliminating Health Care Penalties

The Affordable care Act, required most Americans to be enrolled in Health Insurance since it was made affordable, otherwise a penalty would be induced. Effective 2017, congress attempted to eliminate financial penalties that were related to complying with the mandated law that every individual needs to be enrolled in Health insurance, this law however did not become effective until 2019. This policy is still valid, the penalty for having no health insurance was reduced to 0$. Individual mandates effects the decisions made by individuals regarding healthcare in that some people will not enroll since health insurance plans are no longer mandatory.

On March of 2020, the nation has undergone a global pandemic, however, several Republican-led states and the Justice Department are making the case for invalidating the ACA. This will cause at least 60 million people to not be able to afford being hospitalized, or treated which increased the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide.

A Final Vote Isn’t The Whole Story It’s Like Researching Your Ancestry And Going No Further Back Than Your Mother And Father

The day after she was one of three;Republican;senators to vote against;her party’s proposal to repeal chunks of the Affordable Care Act, Susan Collins of Maine posted a press release that said:;”Democrats made a big mistake when they passed the ACA without a single Republican vote. I don’t want to see Republicans make the same mistake.”

It was a nice nod in the direction of bipartisanship. But it also perpetuates a deceptive narrative, repeated often by Republicans,;that they were completely excluded from the process that resulted in Obamacare. While it is true that no Republican voted for the final bill, it is blatantly untrue that it contains no GOP;DNA. In fact, to make such an assertion is like researching your ancestry and going no further back than your mother and father.;

Not only were Republican senators deeply involved in the process up until its conclusion, but it’s a cinch that the ACA;might have become law months earlier if;the Democrats, hoping for a bipartisan bill, hadn’t spent enormous time and effort wooing GOP senators only to find themselves gulled by false promises of cooperation. And unlike Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s semi-secret proceedings that involved only a handful of trusted colleagues, Obamacare, until the very end of the process, was open to public scrutiny.

More:Spare America a do-over on health care. Seize the bipartisan moment.

POLICING THE USA: A look at;race, justice, media

Don’t Miss: Did Trump Call Republicans Stupid In 1998

Republicans Win Fewer Votes But More Seats Than Democrats

Republicans controlled the post2010 redistricting process in the four states, and drew new lines that helped the GOP win the bulk of the House delegation in each. Republicans captured 13 of 18 seats in Pennsylvania, 12 of 16 in Ohio, nine of 14 in Michigan, and five of eight in Wisconsin. Added together, that was 39 seats for the Republicans and 17 seats for the Democrats in the four proObama states.

The key to GOP congressional success was to cluster the Democratic vote into a handful of districts, while spreading out the Republican vote elsewhere. In Pennsylvania, for example, Republicans won nine of their 13 House seats with less than 60% of the vote, while Democrats carried three of their five with more than 75%.

One of the latter was the Philadelphiabased 2nd District, where 356,386 votes for Congress were tallied. Not only was it the highest number of ballots cast in any district in the state, but Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah won 318,176 of the votes. It was the largest number received by any House candidate in the country in 2012, Democrat or Republican. If some of these Democratic votes had been unclustered and distributed to other districts nearby, the party might have won a couple more seats in the Philadelphia area alone.

The Closest House Races of 2012

NARROW DEMOCRATIC WINNERS

Vulnerable Gop Senators Vote To Protect Affordable Care Act From Trump Lawsuit

Six Republican senators, five of whom are up for re-election in 2020, sided with Democrats on Thursday in a procedural vote to block the Trump administration from supporting a lawsuit that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Why it matters: The final vote on the motion was 51-43, failing to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold to pass. But the move by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer forced several vulnerable GOP senators to go on the record on whether they support the lawsuit, which could strip protections from pre-existing conditions for millions of Americans.

The state of play: Sens. Susan Collins , Joni Ernst , Cory Gardner , Martha McSally and Dan Sullivan all voted with Democrats and are facing close re-election fights. Sen. Lisa Murkowski also voted in favor.

Sens. Steve Daines , Thom Tillis and David Perdue are facing tough re-election races, but voted against the motion.

Flashback: All six GOP senators who supported Thursday’s bill voted for the 2017 tax bill that set the latest Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act in motion.

Of note: Four of the Republicans to break rank were women nearly half of the nine female GOP senators in Congress.

While Murkowski is not up for re-election until 2022, she opposed President Trump on quickly confirming a Supreme Court judge to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and has publicly opposed the Trump administration on several occasions.

You May Like: What Is The Lapel Pin Republicans Are Wearing

Join Govtracks Advisory Community

Were looking to learn more about who uses GovTrack and what features you find helpful or think could be improved. If you can, please take a few minutes to help us improve GovTrack for users like you.

Start by telling us more about yourself:

We hope to make GovTrack more useful to policy professionals like you. Please sign up for our advisory group to be a part of making GovTrack a better tool for what you do.

Young Americans have historically been the least involved in politics, despite the huge consequences policies can have on them. By joining our advisory group, you can help us make GovTrack more useful and engaging to young voters like you.

Our mission is to empower every American with the tools to understand and impact Congress. We hope that with your input we can make GovTrack more accessible to minority and disadvantaged communities who we may currently struggle to reach. Please join our advisory group to let us know what more we can do.

We love educating Americans about how their government works too! Please help us make GovTrack better address the needs of educators by joining our advisory group.

Would you like to join our advisory group to work with us on the future of GovTrack?

Email address where we can reach you:

Thank you for joining the GovTrack Advisory Community! Well be in touch.

Changes Required By The Affordable Care Act In 2011

A provision goes into effect to protect patients choice of doctors. Specifics include allowing plan members to pick any participating primary care provider, prohibiting insurers from requiring prior authorization before a woman sees an obstetrician/gynecologist , and ensuring access to emergency care.

Young adults can stay on their parents insurance until age 26, even if they are not full-time students. This extension applies to all new plans.

All new health insurance policies must cover preventive care and pay a portion of all preventive care visits.

A provision goes into effect that eliminates lifetime limits on coverage for members.

Annual limits or maximum payouts by a health insurance company are now restricted by the ACA.

The ACA prohibits rescission when a claim is filed, except in the case of fraud or misrepresentation by the consumer.

Insurance companies must now provide a process for customers to make an appeal if there is a problem with their coverage. ;

NOTE: In January,;2011:;eHealth publishes 11 guides on the top;child-only health insurance coverage;that examined differences in implementation in numerous states.

Don’t Miss: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Poll Finds Startling Difference In Vaccinations Among Us Republicans And Democrats

A Washington Post-ABC News poll has found a startling difference between Democrats and Republicans as it relates to COVID-19;vaccination.;The poll found that while 86% of Democrats have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, only 45% of Republicans;have.

In addition, the survey found;that while;only;6% of Democrats said they would;probably;decline;the vaccine, 47% of Republicans;said they;would;probably not;be inoculated.;

The poll also found that;60% of unvaccinated Americans believe the U.S. is;exaggerating;the dangers of;the;COVID-19;delta variant,;while;18% of the unvaccinated say the government is accurately describing the variants risks.

However, 64% of vaccinated Americans believe the government is accurately describing the dangers of the;delta variant.

Iran fighting COVID 5th wave The variant is having a;global impact.;Irans;President;Hassan Rouhani;has warned that the country is on the brink of a fifth wave of;a COVID-19 outbreak.;The;delta variant of the virus, first;identified;in India, is;largely;responsible;for the;rising number of hospitalizations and deaths in Iran, officials say.

All;non-essential businesses have been ordered;closed;in 275 cities, including Tehran, the capital.;Travel has also been restricted between cities that are;experiencing;high infection rates.

Reports say only about 5% of Iranians have been vaccinated.;

The Number Of Times Every Senate Republican Voted To Attack Preexisting Condition Protectionstheir Rushed Supreme Court Confirmation Will Be The Latest

How Senate Republicans’ ‘skinny repeal’ bill failed

The coronavirus has underscored how important it is that the American people have comprehensive, high-quality, and affordable health coverage.;More Americans than ever are;relying;on the Affordable Care Act for coverage; and yet, President Donald Trump and Republican attorneys general are suing to take away this critical lifeline in the middle of the pandemic. If the ACA is repealed, more than 20 million Americans could lose health coverage and 135 million could lose critical protections that prevent insurers from denying people coverage or charging them more for having preexisting conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and even COVID-19.

This case will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court just one week after the election, which is why the president and Senate Republicans are rushing to install another rubber stamp for their political agenda following the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgdespite just four years ago having opposed filling a Supreme Court vacancy during an election. This rushed confirmation push is;opposed;by the American people and comes while voting in the election is already underway.

This analysis provides a comprehensive look at how many times Senate Republican incumbents have voted to weaken the ACAs protections for preexisting conditions and makes clear why voters do not trust their efforts to push through a lifetime appointment that would put Americans health care at risk.

Table 1

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans In The Us Senate

Opposition To Obamacare Becomes Political Liability For Gop Incumbents

In the 2014 elections, Republicans rode a wave of anti-Affordable Care Act sentiment to pick up nine Senate seats, the largest gain for either party since 1980. Newly elected Republicans such as Cory Gardner in Colorado and Steve Daines in Montana had hammered their Democratic opponents over the health care law during the campaign and promised to repeal it.

Six years later, those senators are up for reelection. Not only is the law still around, but its gaining in popularity. What was once a winning strategy has become a political liability.

Public sentiment about the ACA, also known as Obamacare, has shifted considerably during the Trump administration after Republicans tried but failed to repeal it. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, which has led to the loss of jobs and health insurance for millions of people, health care again looks poised to be a key issue for voters this election.

Reminder: Obamacare Passed Without A Single Republican Vote

Back in 2009 and 2010, Democrats controlled the White House and the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare through without a single Republican vote.

The Washington Post said of the Obamacare fight at the time It has inflamed the partisanship that Obama pledged to tame when he campaigned for the White House and has limited Congresss ability to pass any other major legislation.

In December 2009, the U.S. Senate voted 60 to 39 for Obamacare. The Washington Post reported The Senate bill passed without a single GOP vote.

In March 2010, the U.S. House voted 219 to 212 for Obamacare. 34 House Democrats and all of the House Republicans voted against Obamacare. The NO votes were the only bipartisan votes.

President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010.

President Obama embraces HHS Sec Kathleen Sebelius and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after signing the health insurance reform bill, March 23, 2010.

Democrats ignored the plans offered by Republicans at the time including the House GOP plan drafted by Rep. Tom Price and The Patients Choice Act of 2009introduced by U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. and Richard Burr and U.S. Representatives Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes .

Don’t Miss: Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

Isans Are Split On The Supreme Court Overturning The Aca

In June 2020, the Trump administration issued a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ACA. The brief was filed in support of an ongoing challenge to the ACA by a group of Republican attorneys general in California v. Texas, a case that challenges the legality of the ACA in light of the zeroing out of the individual mandate penalty in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Acts. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18 and the possibility of the Senate confirming a new Justice appointed by President Trump before the presidential election has brought heightened attention to the potential outcome of this case and the future of the ACA. In October 2020, a majority of the public said they do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn the 2010 health care law, and eight in ten said they do not want to see the ACAs protections for people with pre-existing conditions overturned. There are partisan differences on both questions, with the majority of Democrats and independents saying they dont want the Court to overturn the ACA or pre-existing condition protections. However, among Republicans, three-fourths say they want to see the ACA overturned, but two-thirds say they do not want to see pre-existing condition protections overturned.

Figure 2: Majorities Do Not Want Court To Overturn ACAs Pre-Existing Condition Protections, Republicans Want Entire Law Overturned

Russia Sanctions Headed To Trumps Desk Will He Sign

Some GOP senators worried the measure would go back to the House, where leaders would put it on the floor, pass it and send it to Trump who has said he would sign whatever lands on his desk when it comes to Republican-passed health care legislation.

Before the vote, at 10:43 p.m. ET, Trump was rooting them on in a tweet: Go Republican Senators. Go!

Afterward, it was a different story, with the president tweeting at 2:25 a.m. ET that those who voted no had let the American people down.

Its somewhat ironic that McCain was the one to derail what seemed like a sure Trump victory . After all, Trumps comments about the former prisoner of war were among the earliest to land the then-candidate in controversy.

Hes not a war hero, Trump said in 2015 of McCain. He was a war hero, because he was captured. I like people who werent captured. Hes been losing so long he doesnt know how to win anymore.

That was likely never lost on McCain.

Read Also: When Did The Parties Switch Platforms

Recommended Reading: Donald Trump Republican Or Democrat

Actions To Hinder Implementation

Under both ACA and the AHCA, CBO reported that the health exchange marketplaces would remain stable. However, Republican politicians took a variety of steps to undermine it, creating uncertainty that adversely impacted enrollment and insurer participation while increasing premiums. Concern of the exchanges became another argument for reforms. Past and ongoing Republican attempts to weaken the law have included:

Dont Miss: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Requirements For Health Plans And Insurers

See also: Health insurance policy cancellations since Obamacare

Coverage

The Affordable Care Act prohibited individual market insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. This policy is known as guaranteed issue. Guaranteed issue regulations had already existed for insurers selling employer-sponsored health plans, and the ACA extended this rule to the individual market as well.

The law also required insurers to allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26. Insurers were also required to allow people in the individual market to renew their health plans each year unless they did not pay their premiums.

Benefits

The ACA required individual and small group health plans that were offered both on and off the exchanges to cover services that fall into 10 broad benefits categories, called essential health benefits:

Ambulatory patient services

Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices

Prescription drugs

Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment

Laboratory services

Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management

Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

Premiums

The ACA placed restrictions on the way individual and small group insurers set a plan’s premiumThe amount a consumer is required to pay for a health insurance plan. Premiums are usually paid monthly, quarterly or annually.:

Medical loss ratio

Stabilization programs

Don’t Miss: Which Republicans Stormed The Scif

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infinitysdecendants76730 · 4 years

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Infinity’s Descendants

“Calm before the storm”

Despite Leo’s presence in Marseille Céleste and Cassius continued to grow closer. Céleste had spent countless hours at his chateau and they had been on serval dates. Things were on the up and up for the couple but for the close relationship of the two sisters the same could not be said. If Céleste wasn’t with Cassius she kept late hours at the shoppe. She had had a great deal of notoriety and popularity before that night at the theatre but her commissions had more than tripled since then and she was one of, if not the most sought after dressmaker in all of the south of France. Saying that time was sparse for her was the understatement of the century.

Azazelle worked long shifts as a sick nurse and spent nights with Jean-Laurent when the both of their schedules would allow it. On the nights when she was home she would frequently fall asleep before céleste arrived or vice versa. Often times the only interaction the sisters had was one of them tucking the other in after coming home at a late hour.

It was finally the weekend after another long week. Céleste woke with her sister’s arms draped around her. She smiled and slowly got out of bed, careful not to wake her little sister. She knew she had worked hard all week and thought it would be a nice gesture for breakfast to be prepared before her sister woke. After all, this would be their first meal together in what seemed like ages.

Azazelle stretched and rolled over looking for her sister. “Is that bacon?” she said groggily. She got up and set off to find her sister. “Bon matin sleepyhead” Céleste smiled “Hungry?” “Starved. What can I help with?” Azazelle walked all the way over to her sister, leaned on her and rested her head on her shoulder. Céleste laughed. “Everything is done all that is left is to eat. Go sit. I will prepare your plate” “Mhm” Azazelle sleepily walked over to the table, sat with her head in her hand, and fought to keep her eyes open.

“Azazelle, should I be worried?” céleste asked sitting the plate down before her sister. “About what?” she replied picking up a piece of bacon. “I fear that you are working too hard. Perhaps it would do you well to take a brief holiday?” she said. “I do appreciate your concern sister but I will be fine” “Zaz your eyes have dark circles and your skin is pale. Any sane person can see that you are exhausted. Please just consider it?” urged Céleste. “Fine I will consider it. Perhaps Jean-Laurent and I can go on holiday to Paris?” Azazelle put a fork full of food in her mouth. “Ooo la la, or pehaps Jean-Laurent is the reason you are so exhausted?” Céleste raised a brow and sipped her juice. Azazelle rolled her eyes and smiled. “Tell me Zaz how is Monsieur Jean-Laurent all jokes aside” asked Céleste . “Not well this week, one of his best friends fell ill and sadly passed” replied Zaz. “Oh mon Dieu! When was this? What was his illness?” asked Céleste. “Cette semaine, mercredi. The doctors are unsure what ailed him but it was horrible to watch Céleste. I tell you I do not wish that on my worst enemy” Replied Zaz. “I see, so that is why you stayed with him that night?” asked Céleste. “Oui, I did not want him to be alone” she replied. “I will say it has been rather odd lately. More and more people have been passing from ailments we know nothing of, all with similar symptoms” she added. “Do you think there is cause for concern?” asked Céleste. “Je ne sais pas. I will keep you informed” Azazelle pushed her plate away from her “Merci Cele, c’etait delicieux. Anything special planned this weekend?” she asked. “No ma’am, I was thinking you and I could spend some time with mother and father?” Azazelle’s eyes lit up at her sisters suggestion.

Two long months had passed since that pleasant breakfast Celeste and Azazelle had had. City conditions were declining. More people had begun to fall ill but those in the city were still trying to make the best of the situation. “Cele, will you please help me with this corset” Azazelle grunted “You know how much I hate these things they are completely unnecessary” “Oh hush and turn around” Céleste laughed. “Ouch Cele! Not so tight! I’ll never be able to get out of this thing” whined Zaz. “Bon, he should have to do a little work before getting you out of it very now and then. It should not always be easy littler sister” jested Céleste. “Right, I’m sure Cassius has the hardest of times getting you unclothed” retorted Azazelle. “That is adult business and it is of no concern of yours. Now, where is it that Jean-Laurent will be taking you this evening? Were you aware that he visited father last week?” asked Céleste. “He wouldn’t say. Visit father? I wasn’t aware. Why did he visit father?” Azazelle quickly turned to face her sister. “Je ne sais pas Zaz. You need not worry, I am sure everything is fine. Do enjoy yourself this evening”

Céleste had been home alone for about an hour when There was a knock at the door. « Bonjour mon étoile. Comment va tu aujourd’hui ? » asked Cassius. « Très bien et tu? » he planted a soft kiss on her lips « Mieux maintenant » he smiled. “Would you like for me to take your coat?” asked Céleste. “Merci Mademoiselle. Would you allow me to prepare us a drink?” He asked. “Sure, one moment and I will grab us some glasses” Céleste said as she walked down the hallway. “It’s okay, I am sure I can find them. I have been in a kitchen before a time or two” he quipped. Céleste made her way back into the living room and took her seat. “What would you like to do this evening my star? Theatre, shopping, I will do whatever you wish” he said grabbing the glasses. “I had hopes we could stay in tonight? Perhaps play cards by the fire?” She suggested. “Sounds lovely” he replied.

“All this winning has a girl bored. Shall we make this more interesting?” said Céleste. “What did you have in mind?” He wasn’t opposed to a change of pace for he too was tired of losing. “You see that bottle over there still in its wrappings?” Cassius shook his head. “That is a bottle of 75 year old scotch gifted to us by our father. What do you say loser takes a shot?” she raised a brow. “Mon étoile, perhaps that is not a great idea. You say it was gifted to you and your sister. She is not here to say if she cares that we drink it nor do I think this an occasion significant enough to consume a spirit as fine as a 75 year old scotch” said Cassius. “Nonsense, it is ours to with do as we please and Azazelle does not even drink scotch” Cassius looked at the bottle and back at Céleste. “Please, Cassius” her voice was smooth, sultry and sprinkled with a playful promise of excitement. There was something about her that Cassius couldn’t resist, her eyes captivated him and her voice lured him in. “Si vous insistez mon étoile” he grabbed the bottle.

Several more hands in the bottle was almost gone. The alcohol flowing through Céleste’s veins was allowing her to act more freely and more courageously than she normally would had she not been under the influence. “Céleste, it’s your turn” said Cassius. “I know” she just kept gazing at him over the top of her cards. He laughed “What are you doing? Are you not going to play?” She sat her hand face down and began crawling towards Cassius. His eyes bounced from the swell of her breasts to her mesmerizing eyes and back again until she had closed the distance. She nestled in beside him and placed her hand on his chest. Instinctively Cassius put his hand atop of hers as the two began kissing. Never breaking the kiss Céleste’s hand made it’s way down slowly she started untying his pants. She rubbed her hand over the growing bulge just beneath the fabric and moaned an “mm” of approval. Cassius began unlacing her corset while planting kisses on her neck. He tossed the corset across the room before laying her down. She ran her hands through his hair. She loved how soft it was. As they continued to kiss her hands explored his body the same way his were exploring hers. Her nails dug into his flesh of his back which promptly made Cassius pin her arms down beside her and break away from the kiss. Breathing heavily he said “I am sorry. I cannot do this” he sat up and leaned back against the couch. “Why not? Is it me? Or something I have done?” she sat up on her elbows still breathing heavily. “No Céleste” he let out a defeated sigh “I simply do not want to harm you...In any way” “Harm me? Cassius for the first time in my life I can say with the most absolute certainty that I know you are a man that will not harm me” she straddled him and ran her hand through his hair then gazed into his eyes willing him to believe her.

Céleste’s face neared Cassius’. He didn’t move forward to meet her but he didn’t show any resistance or inclination that he was going to stop her. She softly panted a kiss on his lips and looked him in his eyes again. As her face neared his again and her lips met his once more he surrendered to her kiss. Not soon after she felt was big, thick hands on her skin, groping at her backside and pulling her against his excitement.

There the two of them were Céleste sat on Cassius lap kissing grinding against him. Her scent was intoxicating and her heightened heart rate making her damn near irresistible. He had to have her, every part of her. Hurriedly he rid Céleste of her undergarments. He laid her on her back once more and Céleste could see the carnal desire in Cassius eyes. His gaze alone made her stomach flutter. He spread her legs and slowly trailed his middle finger up along the inside of her thigh making sure he kept his eyes locked on hers the entire time. She inhaled sharply when she felt two of his fingers dip into her heat. He removed them and slowly started rubbing her clit. Her eyes closed as she welcomed the long lost sensations. Cassius continued toying with her this way rubbing her clit and sliding his fingers inside her at whatever pace he pleased until her hips began moving in rhythm with his hand. “C’est ça, show me you want it” his voice was low and a devilish smirk played across his face just before he came in for another kiss. To Céleste’s surprise Cassius slid another finger in. The feeling of his thick fingers stretching her was ethereal. She moaned uncontrollably as they kissed and Cassius kept up his delightful torture. Cassius could tell Céleste was nearing her peak. The passion in her moans was almost palpable to him, the noises her heat was making coupled with the juices pooling in his hand as he pumped his fingers inside her while pressing his palm against her clit had his cock as hard as a rock. “Ri-ahhh, right there Cassius” she whispered shakily as he switched up the pace.

He kissed his way down her body taking each of her breast into his mouth one after the other gently tugging on each of her nipples with his teeth. His trail of kisses continued until he reach her thighs. Céleste saw Cassius’ eyes looking up at her through the valley of her breasts then she felt the warmth of his tongue. That was it, all she needed to reach her peak. She continued moving her hips while Cassius slowly lapped at her clit allowing her to ride out her orgasm.

When her breathing steadied Cassius began working her again. It wasn’t long at all before he had her lost in flurry of sensations that had her reeling. She couldn’t tell if it was because she hadn’t been touched in this way in quite some time or if he was just that skilled. Nevertheless she was about to cum....again. “Merde! Ne t’arrête pas bébé” her grip tightened on his hair and his tongue went back to work. Her legs began to shake. “Fuuckk” She screamed as Cassius sucked at her clit hard enough to make little popping noises when he lifted his lips. He slapped her swollen button and Céleste moaned loudly as she came again. There was no question she was cumming this hard this frequently because Cassius was that skilled. He was attentive to every aspect of her body.

Deciding to give her a bit of a reprieve Cassius kissed Céleste. The mixture of scotch and her juices was fairly tasty. He was now between her legs grinding his arousal against her soaked core. Celeste wanted so desperately for to pull out that cock and have him take her but she couldn’t reach it and Cassius was lost in his own world. He let out low guttural growls and buried his face into her neck. Céleste could feel his lips and his tongue on her skin. Cassius felt himself on the verge of losing control so he kissed his way back down her body. Could see the fire now burning in his brown eyes. No one had ever ravaged her like this. He had her seeing white as two more orgasms tore through her. When she was finally able to sit up saw that his face and lips glistening with her passion.

After they had eaten Jean-Laurent had taken Azazelle to the Notre-Dame de la Garde for what he said was the lost stop of the night.

“Careful mon Cherie, watch your step” he said as the climbed the stairs of the bell tower. “Merci” she replied. Once at the top Jean-Laurent pushed open the slats on all four sides of the tower exposing the 360 degree view of the beautiful city of Marseille. “This is gorgeous. I have never seen Marseille like this before” she said looking out one of the windows.

Jean-Laurent walked up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist. He was just tall enough to rest his head atop hers. “Est-ce que ca va my love? You have not been yourself the entire evening.” Azazelle asked placing her hands on top of his. “Oui, j’ai juste beaucoup de pensées dans ma tete pour le moment” he replied. “Really, is it your friend? Or your visit with my father? Please do not say it is about your visit with him. Did he offend you? Please accept my sincerest of apologies for whatever he said Jean-Laurent” “Calm down Calm down. Your father said nothing to offend me Azazelle” he said reassuringly. “Then what did you two speak about and why did you not tell me you were going to visit him?” she asked, somewhat relieved but still inquisitive. “I visited your father to tell him une histoire” he replied. “Une histoire?” She asked. “Oui, I told him the story of a man that followed his heart instead of his family’s wishes. His travels led him to a city he did not know but in that city he met a girl to whom he fell madly in love with. He was so sure of this that he sold everything he had in order to purchase a token of his love for her. One day at a festival, in front of all the townspeople he knelt before her and asked her to marry him” Jean-Laurent paused, long enough for Azazelle to conclude he was done with the story. “So romantic. Who was the man? Est-ce-que tu le connais?” she replied. Jean-Laurent did not respond he simply took a deep breath and let Azazelle go. She turned to find Jean-Laurent down on one knee.

“The man’s name was Alexandre Cartier and the woman he fell madly in love with was named Joséphine Rousseau. The man in this story is my grandfather and the woman, my grandmother” He nervously took another deep breath and pulled a ring out of his pocket. “This past 10 months have by far been the best and most enjoyable months of my life. I could not fathom spending another day without you by my side. I have spoken to your mother and your father and they have both given me their blessing. Azazelle LeBlanc would you please do me the honor of making me the happiest man on earth by taking my hand in marriage?” Jean-Laurent looked up at her nervously. So many thoughts and words were running through Azazelle’s head and tears came to her eyes. “Mon Cherie, ta response?” He said sheepishly. “Yes, yes, yes a million time yes!” Jean-laurent smiled from ear to ear, picked Azazelle up and spun in circles until they were both dizzy. Sitting her back on the ground he softly grabbed her cheeks and kissed her. “Je t’aime Azazelle maintenant et pour toujours”

“Je t’aime aussi. Stay with me tonight. I do not want you to leave. We can celebrate with my sister” Azazelle said excitingly. “I wish I could my love but I cannot. I must return to the lazaret for the night. Le Grand-Saint-Antoine is to leave port again tomorrow morning and I must ensure that all have retrieved all of my belongings” On cue he pulled out a pocket watch to check the time. “As a matter of fact I need to get you back now to ensure I have enough time to collect my things.”

“Allow me to reciprocate?” Said Céleste. Cassius looked at her apprehensively. His longing for her was evident in his eyes yet he still held back. Her hands cupped him his balls and squeezed softly. “You mustn’t” he protested and grabbed her hands. His efforts were futile though seeing that his hands fell from hers when she stroked up and down his length. His eyes fell shut. No sound could be heard only their breaths and the fire crackling.

“Do it Cassius” the words fell upon his ears like a whisper and his eyes snapped open. It was not Céleste who said these things. Someone else had uttered these words. Through the window pane he saw a figure; he couldn’t quite make out who it was until the figure came closer. Then he saw the eyes and a glimmer from the fire off the handle of the walking stick. “Take her” Leo’s voice met Cassius’ ears again laced with excitement. Cassius’ eyes burned red and he bore his fangs at Leo. Leo smiled and disappeared. Once Cassius was sure Leo was gone he grabbed Céleste’s hands firmly. “Arrêtez” he commanded. “I must go. There is an urgent work matter that I neglected to handle. Please forgive. I give you my word I will make this up to you” He grabbed his things and left in a hurry. Céleste opened the very window Cassius saw Leo in and saw Cassius walking down the street. She blinked and Cassius was gone.

Azazelle opened the door to the house and Jean-Laurent came in to ensure she was safe. “Please stay” she said between kisses. “I want to. You know I do but I must go” The couple shared another affectionate kiss “I will see you tomorrow. Dream of me tonight” he said before closing the door.

“You two love birds are adorable” Céleste was sitting on the couch. Immediately Azazelle could tell something was different with her sister. “Céleste” the younger sister said slowly. « Oui Zaz? »she smiled. “What has happened? What did you do?” asked Azazelle. “I do not know what you mean. I am simply sitting” the older sister replied. “Enough lies Cele. Do tell” Azazelle sat on the couch across from her sister. “Well while you were out Cassius came by and we- AHHHHHHHHH!” Celeste screamed at the top of her lungs. “What’s wrong!?” Azazelle started, eyes wide frantically looking behind her. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT” Céleste’s voice hadn’t lowered at all. “What is what?” Zaz was still looking around. “This on your finger!! What is this?????” Azazelle blushed. “Perhaps you should tell me what has happened with you?” Céleste said with a brow raised. “Jean-Laurent has asked for my hand in marriage! He has already received fathers blessing” Azazelle’s eyes had started tearing up again. “How on earth did Jean-Laurent manage to acquire a ring such as this?” Céleste lifted her sisters hand to inspect the jewel closer.

“Apparently his grandmother has several jewels each having their own story and she felt this particular jewel fit our love story the best when he spoke with her about me” replied Zaz. “It it absolutely gorgeous Zaz!” Céleste couldn’t help but smile at how happy her sister was. “Do not think that you are off the hook sister. Tell me, what were you up to while I was out? You mentioned Cassius?”

“Did the two of you, you know?” Azazelle winked. “Heavens no Zaz! He just um, well he, he umm” Céleste hesitated to tell Azazelle. “Merde Céleste! Use your words” her sister taunted her. “Azazelle no one has ever made me cum that many times so quickly” Céleste admitted. “perhaps it is because your garden hasn’t been tended to for quite some time” she joked. Azazelle looked around the house. “Where is Cassius now?” “He left not too long ago” the big sister replied. “For what reason?” asked Azazelle. “Urgent business matter?” Céleste said. “An urgent business matter? A bit odd, no?” After giving it some thought the fact that Cassius left urgently because he had forgotten some work matter wasn’t the weird but. It was the disappearance in the street that Céleste found odd.

Cassius barged through the front door of his Chateau “Charles! Leo is meddling in affairs that he should not be. I need you to find out why the camorra has sent members of the Cavalieri Bianchi to keep tabs on me” Charles knew by his tone Cassius meant business so he immediately headed off to see what he could find out. “Charles one more thing” “Yes?” replied Charles. “Please do it quietly” Cassius poked his head in a room and said to the man sitting in their looking at blueprints “Athan, come with me. We need to tighten our security measures”

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years

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The 7 Best Vitamins for Healthy & Glowing Skin

If you want healthy skin — and who doesn't — you want to ensure you get the right combination of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. With so many out there, how do you know what specific vitamins promote skin health?

Whether you have adult acne, wrinkles, dry skin, slow-healing wounds, or other skin concerns, nature makes it easy for you. Hundreds of plants contain vitamins that boost skin health, keeping your skin moisturized, elastic, and having a smooth complexion.

Vitamins are vital for healthy skin and its function. With the right ones, we can stave off nearly every aspect of unhealthy skin getting in our way.

What Causes Unhealthy Skin?

Even if you’ve got a comprehensive skincare routine — exfoliate, wash, moisturize, repeat — if you’re not getting the right nutrients or you’re stripping away the ones you do have, you may end up with unhealthy skin.

If your skin is blotchy, has an uneven texture, has dark spots or acne, is dry and flaky, looks wrinkled, is tight or feels uncomfortable, you likely have unhealthy skin. Chapped lips are a telltale sign that your skin is dry.

Many things can wreak havoc on your skin:

Smoking

Stress

Excessive alcohol

Dehydration

Picking at your skin

Exposure to toxic chemicals

Consuming too much sugar

The best path to get healthy skin is preventing unhealthy skin! Eat healthy, exercise, and stay away from things that keep your skin from looking its best. If you’re eating junk food — including sugar and processed foods — you’re probably going to have skin issues.

Stress also depletes vitamin levels — and that affects your skin. When you’re stressed or your vitamin levels are low, it can lead to acne breakouts. Your body heals as you sleep, including your skin. So give your skin enough zzz’s to do its magic.

Best Vitamins for Skin

The combination of stress and lower vitamin levels increases oxidative stress, leading to skin damage. Many vitamins and minerals have antioxidant properties that protect the skin from free radical damage (which leads to premature aging). Ensuring you get adequate levels of these vitamins can make a big difference.

We’ve compiled a list of the best vitamins for your skin. Whether they improve collagen elasticity, reduce the appearance of acne, or give you glowing skin, these are the best of the best.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is actually a group of eight fat-soluble compounds — four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Most dietary supplements only contain alpha-tocopherol. Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant, which means it counteracts damage caused by free radicals inside the body and on your skin.[1, 2]

If you stay out in the sun too long, this vitamin can help counteract its effects, like dried-out skin and blemishes.[1] Vitamin E also has anti-inflammatory properties.[2] Interestingly, people who have acne tend to be low in it.[3]

You can take vitamin E internally or you can use it directly on your skin. Many people like to get capsules of the oil, poke it with a pin, and squeeze it onto their face as a moisturizer. Choose an organic, plant-based vitamin E supplement. If spreading oil on your face doesn’t appeal to you, take it internally.

The recommended daily allowance of vitamin E is 15 mg for men and women — and most people do not get enough.[2] Almonds, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, and avocados are excellent sources of the vitamin.

Vitamin C

Sun exposure generates free radicals on the skin, which contribute to premature aging. If you want to slow down the signs of aging, vitamin C helps with its powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.[4] It works best when taken with vitamin E.

Vitamin C boosts collagen production in the skin, the protein that helps your skin stay tight, which keeps it looking young.[4]

Putting vitamin C serum directly onto your face is great for collagen production.[4] The topical version comes in a dropper bottle for easy application, but you can also take vitamin C internally as a dietary supplement.

The recommended daily allowance of vitamin C is 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men.[5] People are unable to produce vitamin C on their own, so you have to get it from foods or supplements. You’ll get the highest amount of vitamin C from citrus fruit, bell peppers, and broccoli.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

If you’ve spent too much time in the sun, omega-3s can help. While not a vitamin per se, omega-3s are important nutrients that protect against photo-aging and sunburn effects on the skin.[6] That means less dry or damaged skin. Omega-3s can also help eye health, boosting tear production and keeping eyes moisturized.[7]

There are three types of omega-3 fatty acids: alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Of the three omega-3 fatty acids, only ALA has an established recommended daily allowance: 1.6 g for men and 1.1 g for women.[7] While you can find ALA in flaxseed oil and olive oil, you can only find both EPA and DHA in algae oil.

Try eating olives, flaxseeds, and chia seeds. You can also get omega 3s from hemp oil, sea buckthorn oil, and algae oil. We recommend avoiding fish oil due to the high incidence of mercury and other oceanic contaminants.

Vitamin D

Also called "the sunshine vitamin" because your skin produces it when exposed to the sun, vitamin D supports healthy, glowing skin. Interestingly, similar to vitamin C and E, when you're low in vitamin D, you may be more likely to get pimples.[8] Some people use vitamin D serum on their skin for this reason.

Vitamin D supports wound healing, and also protects against the sun’s damage.[9] Healthy levels of vitamin D delays aging, promoting normal hair growth and excellent skin health.[9]

The recommended daily allowance of vitamin D is 15 mcg for men and women.[10] It can be challenging to get vitamin D from food. It most commonly comes from being out in the sun. Global Healing’s certified organic Suntrex® D3 not only encourages glowing skin but also supports immunity and the nervous system.

Vitamin K

Vitamin K is a skin-healing powerhouse. The delicate area under your eyes is prone to dehydration, which can bring dark circles, wrinkles, and fine lines. Applying vitamin K on the skin may help with these issues.[11]

Interestingly, when people with bruising on their faces applied vitamin K topically, it improved the appearance of their skin within a couple of days.[12] This versatile vitamin may even speed up the wound-healing process.[13]

Make sure you get 90 mcg of vitamin K per day if you are a woman and 120 mcg if you are a man.[14] Leafy greens, broccoli, parsley, and cruciferous vegetables contain the highest concentration of vitamin K.

Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

Vitamin B3 or niacin (which converts into niacinamide) can even out your skin tone and help you avoid excessive wrinkles and fine lines that come with age.[15]

Applied on the skin, B3 makes your skin more elastic and even out skin tone, including red blotchiness, skin sallowness (yellowing), and hyperpigmentation.[15]

The recommended daily allowance of vitamin B3 is 14 mg for women and 16 mg for men.[16] Plant-based sources of vitamin B3 include nutritional yeast, brown and wild rice, corn, and acorn squash.

Vitamin B7 (Biotin)

If you lack enough vitamin B7 (biotin), you can end up with rashes and irritated skin, brittle nails, and hair loss.[17, 18]

If you want to make sure you’re getting enough, Global Healing’s Biotin is plant-based and extracted from organic Sesbania herb. This ensures that all the cofactors and co-nutrients found in nature are present in your supplement.

The recommended daily allowance of biotin is 30 mcg for men and women.[18] Biotin is mainly found in animal sources, so I recommend a supplement.

Tips & Tricks for Healthier Skin

There’s plenty you can do to improve the appearance of your skin. Check out these tried and true practices.

Eat a Plant-Based Diet

Boost your intake of whole, natural foods, particularly fresh raw fruits and vegetables as well as nuts and seeds. You’ll get some of those essential vitamins for your skin and also start feeling more energy. Eliminate or cut down on sugar, meat, dairy, and processed foods, and say goodbye to tobacco and alcohol. The havoc they wreak on your skin just isn’t worth it.

Get Your Sweat On

Sweat naturally detoxifies your skin. So hop in the sauna, get in a tough workout at the gym, or go to a hot yoga class. Once all the toxins hit the road, you’ll be left with younger-looking skin that people will envy. Make sure to wash your skin right after your workout!

Go All Natural

Choose natural skincare products, because standard beauty creams and washes contain toxic chemicals that can actually contribute to aging. Use a dry brush before your shower, and don’t use too much soap and shampoo (and use natural, organic products). Select an all-organic moisturizing cream like Parfait Visage®, a 100% natural and organic luxury face cream with aloe leaf juice, coconut oil, vitamin E, hemp seed oil, and exotic essential oils like blue chamomile, lavender, and Tunisian neroli.

Try a Cleanse

If you want to improve the look and feel of your skin, a cleanse is one of the best things you can do. A cleanse involves following a clean, healthy diet while taking supplements that support your body’s natural detoxification abilities. This allows your body — including your skin — time to rest and renew. If you don’t know where to start, consider Global Healing’s Chemical and Heavy Metal Cleanse Kit™.

Points to Remember

Your skin needs specific vitamins to look its best, whether you’re concerned about skin tone, moisture, wound healing, blemishes, or other issues.

Vitamin C and E are both potent antioxidants, counteracting the oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Interestingly, vitamin D and E are low in people with acne. Make sure you are getting your recommended daily allowance. Vitamin D may help promote normal aging of the skin and hair.

Vitamin K can reduce the appearance of bruises and speed wound healing. Omega-3 fatty acids can give you extra power to fight off sun damage.

If you eat the right foods and minimize exposure to toxic chemicals (try a cleanse!), you’ll give your skin a boost that will make it appear more youthful and healthy. But it never hurts to lend a helping hand to our body’s natural process by ensuring you get enough of these vitamins for healthy skin.

Do you use vitamins for your skin? What works for you? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The 7 Best Vitamins for Healthy & Glowing Skin appeared first on Dr. Group's Healthy Living Articles.

The 7 Best Vitamins for Healthy & Glowing Skin published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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michellelinkous · 4 years

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The 7 Best Vitamins for Healthy & Glowing Skin

Vitamins are vital for healthy skin and its function. With the right ones, we can stave off nearly every aspect of unhealthy skin getting in our way.

What Causes Unhealthy Skin?

Many things can wreak havoc on your skin:

Smoking

Stress

Excessive alcohol

Dehydration

Picking at your skin

Exposure to toxic chemicals

Consuming too much sugar

Best Vitamins for Skin

We’ve compiled a list of the best vitamins for your skin. Whether they improve collagen elasticity, reduce the appearance of acne, or give you glowing skin, these are the best of the best.

Vitamin E

Vitamin C

Vitamin C boosts collagen production in the skin, the protein that helps your skin stay tight, which keeps it looking young.[4]

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Vitamin D

Vitamin D supports wound healing, and also protects against the sun’s damage.[9] Healthy levels of vitamin D delays aging, promoting normal hair growth and excellent skin health.[9]

Vitamin K

Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

Vitamin B3 or niacin (which converts into niacinamide) can even out your skin tone and help you avoid excessive wrinkles and fine lines that come with age.[15]

Applied on the skin, B3 makes your skin more elastic and even out skin tone, including red blotchiness, skin sallowness (yellowing), and hyperpigmentation.[15]

The recommended daily allowance of vitamin B3 is 14 mg for women and 16 mg for men.[16] Plant-based sources of vitamin B3 include nutritional yeast, brown and wild rice, corn, and acorn squash.

Vitamin B7 (Biotin)

If you lack enough vitamin B7 (biotin), you can end up with rashes and irritated skin, brittle nails, and hair loss.[17, 18]

The recommended daily allowance of biotin is 30 mcg for men and women.[18] Biotin is mainly found in animal sources, so I recommend a supplement.

Tips & Tricks for Healthier Skin

There’s plenty you can do to improve the appearance of your skin. Check out these tried and true practices.

Eat a Plant-Based Diet

Get Your Sweat On

Go All Natural

Try a Cleanse

Points to Remember

Your skin needs specific vitamins to look its best, whether you’re concerned about skin tone, moisture, wound healing, blemishes, or other issues.

Vitamin K can reduce the appearance of bruises and speed wound healing. Omega-3 fatty acids can give you extra power to fight off sun damage.

Do you use vitamins for your skin? What works for you? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The 7 Best Vitamins for Healthy & Glowing Skin appeared first on Dr. Group's Healthy Living Articles.

The 7 Best Vitamins for Healthy & Glowing Skin published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.tumblr.com/

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midnightresearchers-blog · 7 years

Text

Q & A

Did Desmond Doss always have a desire to help others, even before joining the army?

Yes. "He was always helpful to people," said his brother Harold, who was his best friend when they were boys. "He was not one that would give up. He didn't know how." The Great Depression left their father, a carpenter, despondent and turning to alcohol at times (though the movie greatly exaggerates this and makes him abusive). Instead, Desmond took after his mother, Bertha Doss, who taught him about compassion, helping others, and the importance of following Christ. His sister Audrey recalled a time when they were young and Desmond went the extra mile to help victims of an accident. "Anyone sick he'd be there," said his sister. "It was announced on the radio, we didn't have TVs in those days, it was announced there was an accident on Route 29 and they needed some blood right away to save this woman's life. He walked three miles to that hospital and walked three more miles back home after he gave blood. Two days later, a call came back over the radio, they need more blood. There he goes again, walks the three miles, then walks three miles back." In the movie, Desmond is motivated to give blood in order to get to know Dorothy, who works as a nurse, but in real life he met Dorothy Schutte at church. -The Conscientious Objector Documentary

Did the army really want to send Desmond Doss to a conscientious objectors camp?

Yes, but he tried to explain to the army that he still wanted to be in the military and do his part, just without having to kill. For this reason, he told them he wasn't a conscientious objector but rather a "conscientious cooperator." He believed that the war was justified but that killing was nevertheless wrong. Like in the Hacksaw Ridge movie, when he told the army he wanted to be a medic, they replied by telling him they would decide what his position would be, not him. In the end, he was allowed to remain in the army but with the "conscientious objector" classification, a label he did not believe was accurate. -The Conscientious Objector Documentary

Did fellow soldiers really accuse Desmond of being a coward and pick on him?

Yes. "He knew he was gonna have difficulty," said his sister Audrey, "because he doesn't use a gun." He went to South Carolina to join the 77th Division and begin his basic training at Fort Jackson. The army initially refused his request to be a medic and assigned him to a rifle company, figuring that peer pressure (and intimidation) might convince him to handle a weapon. His fellow soldiers regarded him as a pest and thought he was putting on an act. The Hacksaw Ridge true story confirms that, like in the movie, they ridiculed him and didn't want to associate with him. "They made fun of me," says Desmond, who always carried a Bible in his pocket and prayed before bed. They called him "Holy Jesus" and "Holy Joe." "You know, he'd say his prayers at night and everything, and some guys took their shoes and threw shoes at him and threw things at him, made fun of him right out in the open," recalled Ken Lafond, a battalion scout from Tucson, Arizona. "I don't think I could have taken what that guy did. I don't think I could have taken it, but he hung in there. He hung in there regardless of what they said or what they did." Contrary to the movie, there seems to be no record of Desmond ever getting pulled out of bed and beaten in the night. In addition, the movie's early antagonist, Smitty (portrayed by Luke Bracey), appears to be a fictional composite of some of Desmond's tormentors. The Medal of Honor recipient remembers some of the threats. "One fella, he told me, 'I swear to God Doss, you go into combat, I gonna shoot you.'" After a month of being in the infantry, the army decided to grant him his wish and transferred him back to the medical corps. -The Conscientious Objector Documentary

Did Jack Glover try to get Desmond transferred out of his battalion?

Yes. "I went to my battalion commander, Colonel Gerald Cooney," recalled the real Jack Glover (portrayed by Sam Worthington in the movie), "and I suggested that, in my opinion, Doss should be transferred." It should be noted that after later fighting alongside Desmond, Jack Glover's opinion of him changed entirely. "He was one of the bravest persons alive, and then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing." -The Conscientious Objector

Did Desmond treat an enemy soldier while he was out looking for his own men?

It seems likely that this is true, at least according to the stories told by some of his comrades who found an American bandage on an enemy soldier. "I don't know how bad the man was hit," said a fellow soldier, "but there was one found with a bandage on his arm, an American bandage." During an interview, Desmond recalled an instance where he tried to help a wounded Japanese soldier. "The fellas pulled a gun on me. They used some strong language. 'If you use that stuff on blankety-blank, we'll kill you!' And I knew they meant it. So I knew better than to try to take care of a Japanese." We found no evidence that Desmond lowered wounded Japanese soldiers down the cliffside like in the movie. However, Desmond did have a willingness to help anyone who was injured. He often went out in the darkness looking for fallen comrades to bring to safety. His heroics didn't go unnoticed, as fellow soldiers were often amazed he was still alive. -The Conscientious Objector Documentary

Why did the U.S. invade Okinawa?

A fact-check of the Hacksaw Ridge movie supports that the United States invaded the island of Okinawa in order to use the island as an air base for an invasion of mainland Japan, which is only 340 miles away. Japanese forces were deeply entrenched on the island, hammering American troops from caves and tunnels, in addition to setting booby traps. Private Desmond Doss and his battalion were ordered to ascend a jagged 350-foot escarpment called the Maeda Escarpment, which was heavily fortified with Japanese defenders.

How dangerous was the Maeda Escarpment, a.k.a. Hacksaw Ridge?

Okinawa's Maeda Escarpment is an approximately 350-foot high ridge that runs across most of the island of Okinawa. "The Japanese had been there for years," said the real Desmond Doss. "They had that mountain honeycombed and camouflaged, it looked like natural terrain. That's what we had to face." The Japanese were hiding everywhere, in caves, tunnels, holes and pillboxes, ready to cut down any enemies who approached. The escarpment was so deadly it was dubbed "Hacksaw Ridge." U.S. soldiers who were involved in the battle to take the ridge recall stacking the bodies of fallen Americans as high as they could reach and wading through 200 yards of mud puddles that were saturated with blood. The machine gun fire was sometimes so thick that men would be cut in half. -The Conscientious Objector Documentary

Was Desmond ever forced to choose between killing to protect his men or standing by his convictions?

Yes. As we explored the Hacksaw Ridge true story, we learned that while trying to get some sleep near the bottom of the Maeda Escarpment on Okinawa, Desmond Doss and a fellow soldier heard the voices of Japanese soldiers coming from a hole that was just below them. Desmond feared they would be discovered. "Between me and my buddy was these hand grenades," said Desmond. "All I had to do was just pull the pin and I knew I had some Japanese." Realizing that taking out the enemy in the hole would protect his men from possible death, he later said that this was the greatest temptation of his life. "I thought of what I heard before, 'Thou shalt not kill.' God gave life and I didn't want to take life." -The Conscientious Objector

How close did Desmond Doss come to being killed or wounded while rescuing 75 of his fellow soldiers?

The real Desmond Doss considers it a miracle that he made it off the ridge on Okinawa. "When you have explosions and bursts so close you can practically feel it, and not get wounded up there when I should have been killed a number of times. I know who I owe my life to as well as my men. That's why I like to tell this story to the glory of God, because I know from the human standpoint, I should not be here." The true story reveals that he spent 12 hours up on the ridge rescuing the men, averaging one man every 10 minutes.

Did Desmond T. Doss nearly get blown up by a hand grenade?

Yes. On the night of May 21, 1945, just a half mile past the escarpment on Okinawa, Desmond's unit inadvertently walked into a company of Japanese soldiers. The unit engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy and Desmond scrambled to treat the wounded. "They begin to throw these hand grenades," recalled Desmond. "I saw it comin'. There was three other men in the hole with me. They were on the lower side, but I was on the other side lookin' when they threw the thing. I knew there was no way I could get at it. So I just quickly took my left foot and threw it back to where I thought the grenade might be, and throw my head and helmet to the ground. And not more than half a second later, I felt like I was sailin' through the air. I was seein' stars I wasn't supposed to be seein', and I knew my legs and body were blown up." The blast left 17 pieces of shrapnel embedded in Desmond's body, mostly in his legs.

Did the real Desmond Doss get shot by a Japanese sniper?

Yes. Director Mel Gibson decided to leave this out of the movie because he felt audiences would find the heroic circumstances under which it happened too hard to believe, especially after Desmond had just taken the blunt of a grenade blast to save his fellow soldiers. After the grenade left him with 17 pieces of shrapnel stuck in him, Desmond waited for five hours until fellow soldier Ralph Baker was able to reach him. Baker, along with a few other men, carried Desmond on a litter (stretcher) through an intense enemy tank attack. As they were carrying him, he saw a guy on the ground badly wounded. Desmond rolled off the stretcher and crawled over to patch the man up. Desmond gave up his stretcher to the man, but while waiting for help to come back, he was wounded again, this time by a sniper's bullet that shattered his left arm. He fashioned a splint out of a rifle stock and crawled the remaining 300 yards under fire, eventually reaching the safety of an aid station. He was transported to the hospital ship Mercy. -The Conscientious Objector Documentary

What did Desmond Doss do after the war?

Desmond's life wasn't easy after the war. His wounds left him 90% disabled. He spent five and a half years in and out of VA hospitals and was discharged in August 1951. He had lost 5 ribs and one lung due to tuberculosis contracted on the island of Leyte in the Philippines and made worse on Okinawa. The military continued to treat him with antibiotics, which he believed by 1976 had made him completely deaf (possibly from giving him too high of a dose). He lived in silence for twelve and a half years, until he received a cochlear implant in 1988. After WWII, Desmond received a modest pension from the military, but due to his disabilities from his injuries, his wife Dorothy got her nursing degree and had to work full-time to help with their income (in the movie she is already a nurse when they meet). He cashed in his Government life insurance policy to buy four acres in Rising Fawn, Georgia, using much of the money to fix up the property. He, his wife Dorothy, and their son Desmond Jr. (who they called "Tommy" after his middle name) resided in a small log cabin that he built on the land. They grew their own fruits and vegetables to help sustain themselves and eventually farmed the land. Desmond also worked part-time as a cabinetmaker and tried various other jobs that his health would allow, including raising tropical fish, door-to-door sales, and working as a maintenance man. Later in life, Desmond's wife Dorothy developed breast cancer and passed away from injuries sustained in a car accident while Desmond was driving her to a hospital in November 1991. He married Frances Duman in 1993. They were together until his death in 2006. -The Conscientious Objector

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boyf-canons · 7 years

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☆I’m The Light Blinking At The End Of The Road☆ [Evan x Reader - Soulmate AU]

[I told myself I wouldn’t let 75% of the posts on this blog be about Evan but I’m w e a k ~Mod V]

TW: none, except a little light swearing and a little of Evan’s anxiety.

Everyone knows about the words. The ones that show up on your body as a child—inky black and scrawled in unfamiliar handwriting, impossible to scrub off. It’s common knowledge that the words will be the first ones your soulmate ever says to you.

However, not everyone acknowledges them. Some people go their entire lives without being entirely sure whether or not the person they love is their soulmate, with only simple “Hi”s and “Hello”s on their bodies. Some couples tattoo their own words, foregoing the system. Who’s the universe to say who you’re destined to be with? The universe doesn’t give a shit about any other aspect of your everyday life; why should it care about your “soulmate”?

That was a lot of people believed, anyway. Evan was one of the “lucky” ones—one of those people that got phrases so specific, it would be impossible to meet his soulmate and not know it. However, it was kind of inconvenient. He spent years wearing sweaters and long-sleeved shirts to cover up the phrase inked on his right wrist: “Are you fucking kidding me?” People gawking at his soul mark coupled with his crippling social anxiety made for a very uncomfortable cocktail of emotions.

He had tried scrubbing it off with soap and water as a kid, even considered getting it inked out with a black tattoo. But the soul marks were impossible to scrub off and he was scared of needles, so he stuck with just keeping it covered. Even with the reminder ever-present, Evan didn’t really believe in the whole “soulmates” thing. After all, his parents had been so-called soulmates, and look where that landed them. Plus, a little voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like his own whispered that there was no way anyone in the universe would be meant for someone like him.

Well, that was until a quarter through his senior year.

The trees in town were turning gorgeous oranges and yellows, painting Evan’s sleepy hometown in a warm glow. He adjusted his bag on his shoulder as he waited for Jared to pick him up. The familiar maroon, junky-looking car pulled into his driveway, and Evan opened the passenger side and half-sat, half-fell into the seat.

“Evan, bro, did you finish last night’s chem homework?” Jared asked immediately. Evan had half a mind to say an indignant, “Well good morning to you too,”, but then he started thinking about whether Jared would understand what he was saying and not get the sarcasm, something he didn’t really handle well, oh god what if Jared just thought he was an idiot? He’d stop giving him rides to school and his mom would have to drive him, making her late and then she’d lose her job and he’d have to make ends meet by working at a shady bar and—

“Dude, you okay? You thinking about your weird sex dreams about one of the Murphys again?” Jared cackled. Evan turned bright red.

“OhmygodJaredshutup!”

The rest of the ride to school was uneventful, Jared talking more about his weekend (“Yeah, I crashed a college kegger. It wasn’t cool enough for the infamously awesome Jared Kleinman, so I left after an hour. No big deal.”) while Evan just stared out at the world rushing by. He tried not to look at the tops of trees anymore, and not for too long, unless the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach returned, thinking about last summer.

“Okay, but seriously, I need to borrow your chem homework, or I’m doomed,” Jared said pulling in to his parking spot. Evan nodded—at least he didn’t have to pay gas money—and dug through his backpack.

“Uhhhh….h-here it is,” Evan said, kind of shoving it in Jared’s direction. Jared smiled wide.

“Thanks man! I’ll give it back by lunch.”

“Jared, don’t you get A’s in everything? W-Why can’t you just, I dunno…do the work, yourself, maybe?” Evan suggested, getting out of Jared’s car. He just laughed, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

“Wow, look at Hansen over here, a straight-up genius,” Jared said sarcastically. Evan looked down at the ground, focusing on a pile of leaves near the sidewalk. “Yeah, like I would do that. I’ve got way cooler things to do with my friends. My other friends.” Jared tugged on his shirt collar in something that Evan would recognize as awkwardness if everything Jared did wasn’t awkward on its own account.

“O-Okay. Um, see you at lunch?” It was more of a question than a statement, and Evan swore at himself in his head as he walked away. God, why did he always let Jared walk all over him? Because he’s your only friend,” that voice in his head said.

“N-Not true! I have—I have friends,” Evan thought defensively.

“Yeah, and that’s why you’re standing in the middle of the parking lot talking to yourself.”

Goddammit. He was doing this again.

Evan messed with the hem of his shirt, rolling it up and smoothing it out again, wringing it with his fingers. He tried very hard to just focus on his blue converse: stepping on a square floor tile, flecked with brown and gold spots, the way his shoe crinkled up when he stepped—

CRASH!

Evan yelped as he knocked into you full-force, knocking you over and onto the ground. His hands shot out to catch himself, and he did—with his arms pinned right beside your’s face. Wide eyes stared up at him, and he felt his face and neck flush a bright, embarrassed red from the position he was in, effectively landing right on topof you.

Evan opened and closed his mouth, making him look kind of like a fish. “I-I-I’m so sorry, I must have—must have tripped, and um, oh my god this is embarrassing I am so so sorry—“

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Evan’s eyes went wide, and he practically jumped off of you. There was a crowd of people forming around them now, watching the scene in the hallway. Evan felt his cheeks and the tips of his ears burning, felt the sting of tears threatening to spill. His throat felt tight and his hands were starting to shake, fingers fumbling where he was messing with his shirt hem. You shot up, glancing worriedly at the gathering crowd and grabbing your things, cursing under your breath. When you saw Evan, however, your eyes got wide again, and you grabbed Evan’s hand, both gentle and insisting.

“Come on, let’s go,” you murmured, squeezing his hand encouragingly and pointedly not looking at the other people surrounding you, and Evan nodded, getting to his feet and walking quickly away. He didn’t even notice you were holding his hand, until he thought about how warm your hand was—and oh god, were his warm too? Were they getting sweaty like they did the night he had waited for Zoe, but only got sweaty because he was thinking about them getting sweaty and now they were because he was thinking so much—

“Okay, I think we’re good,” you said, relieved, effectively stopping Evan’s runaway train of thought. You had a habit of doing that, Evan thought absently. He didn’t stop to ponder if that was a good thing or a bad thing. You had pulled him into a little alcove in a pretty deserted part of the school. Evan’s free fingers still played nervously with his hem.

“Listen, I’m—I’m sorry, about, um, whatever that w-was, and if you took me aside to say you never want to talk to me again I mean I guess that’s fine?” Evan rambled out, not thinking before he spoke.

You gave him a look of complete confusion. “Why would I not want to talk to you?” you asked. “I mean, I think this gives me more than enough reason to want to talk to you.” You made a move to take off your jacket, pulling down your t-shirt sleeve so this boy who had tripped into you could read the black words inked onto your collarbone in his messy handwriting: “I-I-I’m so sorry, I must have—must have tripped, and um, oh my god this is embarrassing I am so so sorry”.

Evan’s jaw hit the floor. This could notbe happening. He fumbled with his shirt sleeve, pulling it up to show your vulgar first words to him. “Wow, I-I can’t believe they…they even got my, um my stutter right??” Evan said, gesturing to your soul marks.

You stared at him blankly for second before laughing. Full-on cackling, bent-over-at-the-middle laughing. You even snorted a little bit, slapping a hand over your mouth. Evan suppressed a giggle; that was kind of…cute?

“This is insane,” you said, still kind of laughing. “The first thing I get when I move here is my soulmate just, showing up out of the blue? What the hell?” And then you were laughing, and Evan was smiling shyly, and then laughing along with you. Two laughing weirdos in an alcove in a high school hallway.

“I’m—I’m (Y/N),” you finally said, holding out your hand.

“E-Evan. Hansen.” He tentatively took it in his own, not objecting a bit when you threaded your fingers through his.

“Well, hello, Evan,” you said, sweetly looking into his eyes. “I’m just loving this incredibly awkward first meeting we’re having, but I don’t want to be late on my first day of classes. Maybe we could meet up later…?” you asked hesitantly. Evan felt his cheeks grow pink again.

“Oh, um, yeah! Yeah, of course. I mean, what kind of guy would say no, to his soulmate, right? God. Soulmate. Um. Wow.” Evan’s still confused and bewildered rambling made you laugh.

“Yeah. Wow.” You squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back. “I guess I’ll see you later, Evan Hansen.” You smiled at him one last time and squeezed his hand, letting your hand fall from his grasp. You could barely contain your excitement as you walked down the hallway, shoulders hunched and smile wide.

Evan watched you go, out of breath suddenly. He couldn’t believe the universe gave him such good luck—you were so pretty, and caring, and funny, and god you were just so cute, this was impossible. There was no way you were real.

Then, he glanced back down at the words on his wrist, the objectively vulgar words taking on completely new meaning. Instead of feeling like the surrounding chilly fall air, he felt like early spring, in bloom and bursting at the seams.

~~~~

Fic and head canon requests are open! ~Mod V☆

#dear evan hansen #evan hansen #evan hansen x reader #x reader #deh #fanfiction #soulmate au #au #genderneutral reader #mod v #fanfic #sfw

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black-john-lennon-archive · 7 years

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Kay’s Glee Episode Ranking: 75. I Am Unicorn

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This episode is not the worst of season 3, but it is not a favorite. I think if you really like Kurt, this episode is hard to watch. For me, it’s that combined with the drastic tone switch from the Glee of season 2. More on that later.

So we have Kurt being utterly humiliated. Then we have virtually no Blaine and almost no music. Makes for a complete downer of an episode.

The good is that Chris Colfer’s acting in this episode is stunning. My heart breaks for him when he’s overhearing those criticisms, and again when he’s laughed off stage.

But Kurt being laughed off stage is part of the switch in the tone of Glee that is 75% of the reason season 3 is my least favorite. Season 1 and 2 of Glee have their serious moments, but they’re hopeful and fun, and silly. The Purple Piano Project continues in that tradition of hopeful, but silly, wacky Glee. And then we have I am Unicorn and Asian F that are completely sad, very little humor in the episodes at all. And there’s moments in those episodes that are so sad, and they lack the hope that is usually present in even some of Glee’s darker moments in the early seasons. I think one of Glee’s darker moments is when Kurt gets laughed off the stage. It was so unnecessarily cruel and I still don’t understand it. For me, oddly enough, that was harder to watch than any of the Karofsky stuff or the break up because I knew that Kurt would prevail over Karofsky, Klaine would get back together, I knew what the story was. But to this day, I don’t know why that was necessary.

Thing is, I don’t think Kurt should have gotten the role based on his first audition. But the story should have been about someone, like a teacher perhaps, teaching the kid how to audition so that when NYADA comes around, he has the knowhow to pick the right piece. Or a teacher could have stepped in and said, “hey, you know what makes senior year less stressful? Applying to multiple schools instead of pinning your entire future on a school you hadn’t even heard of until last week.” But what do I know?

There’s a reason fandom started referring to season 3 as Gloom instead of Glee. Most times, senior year is portrayed as shenanigans and fun. Senior pranks and what not. But Glee completely threw the sense of joy that comes with being a high school senior completely out the window, and that started with this episode.

Favorite Performance:

I know that Darren doesn’t have a Broadway voice, but he slayed this, and I say that as someone who does not like West Side Story.

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Least Favorite Performance:

See above, I don’t like West Side Story.

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Quotes

Quinn: First a few demands. I need thrift store couches under the bleachers. I've realized that after smoking all day it hurts to stand.

Sugar:I need to catch up on My Strange Addiction episodes and your voice has this nasally quality I can only take so much of.

Kurt: I wanted toned down. Santana: This is toned down. In the original, the unicorn was riding you.

Brittany: We're gonna call it Kurt Hummel's bulging pink fun sack.

Figgins: I just ended our toilet paper shortage with this enormous check. Wipe away!

Artie: I developed my whole persona around conflict avoidance

Meta Moment:

So… Junior Blaine. Let’s talk about it. When it happened, I was upset and appalled and angry and hyperbolic because of reasons I barely remember but were probably because I spent a whole summer reading fan fic about their magical senior year and had expectations. But also, with all the spin off rumors and the possibility of people leaving the show, I was terrified of what was going to happen.

#Kay's Glee Episode Ranking

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insecure-hbo-recaps · 7 years

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hella open

Previously on Insecure: Issa slept with Lawrence but Lawrence is apparently with Tasha. Lawrence told Tasha, and it didn't go well. Lawrence moved out of Chad's place. Molly's therapist helped her try to move up a level at work. Issa starts to accept that Lawrence is done.

Issa is having a red wine and chill with some random. She's wearing a purple football jersey for the occasion, which is an interesting choice. Her hair is braided down in a protective after-shampooing set of Celie cornrows like... it tickles me when famous black women publicly do stuff that is just-for-at-home and mainstream media loses their shit over it (see also Rihanna wearing sparkly bobby pins in her wrapped hair) but, Insecure is for us. I'm not so sure I can cosign this ostentatiously quirky style choice, lol.

The guy moves in to kiss her and Issa awkwardly accepts it. She continually giggles while he is trying to be sexy, past the point where he is amused by it. As an aside, this is everything:

Issa is frankly annoying him now - I get that it's weird for her to have sex with a new person after being with Lawrence for five years. The first time I had a serious long term relationship I was surprised how weird it was to begin sleeping with someone new again. It wasn't something I thought I'd have a problem with, since obviously I'd never had a boyfriend and that was the weird thing. But, it was. Issa asks to reschedule, but she has blown this dude's high - he's wearing jeans with cutouts at the knee, this is some Eric Benet California shit - he doesn't really want to try again. This didn't work. So Issa gets dressed to leave.

Dunes. Issa is about to leave for work when she catches sight of the plume of smoke she burned into her wall at last week's party. She also notices before she goes that the new property management has issued what appears to be every apartment notices for noise violations, taped to their doors.

On the way out, Issa runs into one of the bloods that crashed her party. He has a really big, weird shaped head.

It reminds me of this kid I went to high school with named Mickey who had a big oversized head that sort of came to a point at the top; so more a triangle than round head. Of course now that I've spent several years working in developmental pediatrics I know what happened there is that he should have had a helmet as an infant and his parents didn't get him one, but at the time it was just there goes Mickey with his big ass pointed head that he for some reason chooses to accuentuate with a cloth headband. (This was obviously during the Rocafella era when that was en vogue for men.) I actually think that he ended up being shot and murdered as an adult, but for the life of me I cannot remember his last name in order to check and I'm not exactly on speaking terms with my high school classmates.

Anyway, Mickey (I don't know that we ever get to hear his name and I'm going to make the executive decision that it doesn't matter) says he had fun at Issa's party and she watches him go.

Molly's law office. She's skyping with Hannah in the Chicago office as well as the TSA agent from Get Out, Quintin, a fellow lawyer in a trendy bow tie. There's a Chicago joke about the sun shining so he's going to the beach. That doesn't work here because Chicago is not an overcast city and we don't have an excessive amount of cloudy days. You're thinking Portland, Insecure writers. Idk why the actor didn't correct him, since apparently he's also from Chicago. In the summer I hang a dark blanket on the window behind my blinds because my bedroom is east facing and there's too much sun for 75% of the day. Anyway, they bond over being the token black lawyers and it's all lovely and relatable.

High school. As you may have noticed, I really don't give a shit about this storyline. I did think it was interesting that Issa ended up being the bad guy in this scenario, as the show's hero, because you are definitely tempted to take her side in this. Frida comes across as an overly Clueless White Person with her concerns that the after school program is only black children while Issa isn't bothered because she's just glad the program is full. When I watched this the first time I was uncomfortable with it because while I didn't exactly disagree with Issa's blase attitude, I did think the show made it clear enough that she wasn't doing the right thing to take it. Of course this season will make it overtly clear - more than the first season did in my opinion - that Issa's judgment is sure in the fuck not to be trusted, and this was just another way that they established that. Duly noted that white people aren't always wrong when it comes to race. Issa's attitude doesn't sit well with Frida.

Multicultural Silicon Valley start up, aka Lawrence's computery job. It looks like he's wearing one of those Untuck It shirts. Tangent. I went out with this guy who was born in the 70s because he started hitting on me when I was working on my laptop at Map Room and trying not to cry because I was texting with my new boyfriend-even-though-we'd-been-fucking-for-the-last-three-years-not-as-a-couple because he up and booked a flight for a 10 day trip to Costa Rica and didn't tell me about it til afterward. I was two La Fin du Mondes in already and when I went to close out, the random man offered to buy me another, apparently not noticing my teary eyes. Anyway, because he was born in the 70s, he was particularly preoccupied with anything young and trendy, and frequently mentioned his Untuck It shirts to me. Granted they do look expensive and well made in real life. But they're also just regular fucking shirts that charge a 300% premium because they cut them slightly shorter so that you don't have to... guess what... tuck them in. I've literally only ever seen or heard of these shirts due to advertisements during daytime CNN or MSNBC viewing so like... who's supposed to be impressed by this?

Anyway, The Generic White Guy is obnoxiously eating snack food made from crickets, and Lawrence is talking about his trip to Phuket, so we get the full range of lovely diversity at work in this cool, trendy environment. Apparently the ethnic girl next to Lawrence slept with Corny Colin, which the blonde teases her about. Ethnic Girl is not amused by it. The group discusses a company social, but Lawrence can't go because he "promised someone he'd pick up some chairs." So he's going to go to Tasha's family bbq after all. The group clearly regards Lawrence as a trendsetter amongst what's hot and what's not - a distinction I feel that certain types of black people, in certain environments, are relegated to simply because black culture is presumed to be cooler than the other prevailing cultures - and everyone is disappointed that he will not be going.

Loading dock. Molly is wearing a fabulous black skirt suit with leather trimmed lapels. She's on the phone with her mom about the vow renewal thing her parents keep bugging her about. A worker comes out with her bookcase and assumes the random black man standing nearby is there with her. He asks if he should hand it over and everyone looks at each other, blanketed by the wrongness of the assumptions all around. Molly scoffs that she's not with him, and makes to pick up the bookcase by herself.

Yes, it is exactly as absurd as you'd think it would be, and two things. Motherfuck this whole concept where black women aren't allowed or should be or expected to be the normal amount of "feminine" granted to every other woman. I had this epiphany somewhere not long after high school when I realized how panicked and backed up against the wall I felt that my natural inclination was to resist any kind of vulnerability and the realization that I didn't want to have to be "strong" all the time. That wasn't going to work for me. I am damsel in distress all the time. You will stop when I cross the street, even if I'm timing it wrong with the stop signs - when I politely give you the right of way, you will insist I cross instead. You will pause to let me pass and open doors when I do. You will push my car out of the snow. You will offer to carry the leftovers from the restaurant. I dated a guy who insisted on walking down the stairs in front of me when I was wearing high heels, just in case I tripped. Point being, with regards to this scene, I wouldn't have lifted that shit. I wouldn't have carried shit. I would have been pointedly unable to carry that box. I'd have stood there for a half hour if that's as long as it took for someone to offer to carry the box for me. But it wouldn't have. When you behave with the expectation that you are a woman and you expect to be treated like a woman, something kinda funny happens... people treat you like a delicate woman. It doesn't escape my notice that the black man the worker assumed was there for Molly is there with a white woman, whose boxes he handily carries, while Molly struggles absurdly with the bulky oblong in her five inch heels down a flight of stairs. No ma'am. Later for "strong black womanhood," in this physical sense at any rate.

Molly's fantastic apartment. She's telling Issa she's putting her therapy on hold until she finds another therapist. Naturally, therapy was hitting too close to home, so Molly's instinct was to run from the truth. They are trying to put together this Ikea ass bookcase (related to my previous tangent, whenever I need this kind of manly work done, I outsource it now. Task Rabbit is an app, y'all. That's what it's for. It's not as solid a solution as having an actual man around or anything, but on some level I simply refuse to become a handyman myself just out of sheer principle. You will not deny me my femininity this way, it is a political issue at this point to me.)

Anyway, Molly is bitching about the therapist trying to get too close "just because we both got brown titties." Issa abides this silently. I can't believe they unironically drink Carlo Rossi. I remember being a kid and trying to learn about this kind of stuff and making a note from, of all places, an episode of Intervention about what kinds of wine people actually drink. Haha! (And yes, it was the huge gallon jug of Carlo Rossi.) Issa encourages Molly to keep looking for a new therapist, which Molly flips back on Issa regarding not finding a new Lawrence either.

Issa recounts how she couldn't do casual sex because she was too stuck in her own head. I'm so glad this has never been a problem for me LOL. I don't even know what my social life would be like if I had a hang up about this issue. They decide they should be doing their "ho phase" together - but then Issa met Lawrence and he "made [her] fall in love with him and shit." Issa wants to get on Team Fuck Love, and asks Molly "can you teach me how to ho?" "Bitch that's rude... and yes," Molly replies.

Late night spot. Issa is wearing a ridiculous outfit as she ridicules the other thirsty women in the spot that are there for an apparently different kind of thirst than the one she is. Seriously, what were we supposed to think about this outfit?

Baby, no. Especially as a woman walks past wearing the exact same bad dress. She's also wearing what I'm sure are an expensive pair of espadrilles, but they are wedge espadrilles, with a red floral print. Plainly, that outfit is ridiculous. Issa suggests a vacation to somewhere where they'll be exotic. Molly doesn't care, and seems very underwhelmed by the night.

Issa is chatting with some guy, making awkward double entendres and sexual innuendos. The guy is not amused and flat out walks away from her mid conversation. The next guy at the bar keeps peeling his eyes around at everything else but Issa, finally admitting that he's only talking to her because his friend wanted to talk to Molly. Issa is the grenade. Dayuuuuum, bro. "Do you have any other friends?" he asks, which Issa doesn't dignify with a response.

Molly is talking to Sterling K Brown and is still underwhelmed with the night - the way his friend was only talking to Issa, she's only talking to him. He asks for her number and Molly coolly hands him her business card. She joins Issa at the bar, who has given up on the night and ordered a plate of wings. I get it. There's only so much humiliation you can take when you put yourself out there to pick up a random at the bar. Hell, at least Issa has a friend with her while she does it.

Tasha's house. Tasha is in bed with Lawrence with her hair wrapped gossiping about tv shows. Lawrence tries to distract her and get amorous but Tasha isn't interested in going there. She pushes Lawrence away and we are treated to more of the show-within-a-show.

Back at the Dune's, Issa (in her middle-of-the-bed pillow) can't sleep so she pulls out her vibrator. The battery dies and she spends like ten minutes walking around the apartment looking for new batteries. And, why don't you have a magic wand? True story: I held off buying any kind of sex toys because I never had any and it made me have to seek out men if I wanted to have a sexual encounter; I (it turned out, rightly) figured that if I had any sex toys it would discourage and demotivate me from meeting actual men. Guess what... I was completely correct, and my love life took a marked down turn the same year I bought a magic wand of my own. Could have been timing, coincidence, I don't know, but it was interesting. I have since incorporated it into my regular sex life. (My boyfriend-that-I-loved-so-much-I-was-always-crying was amused the first time I used it with him, calling it "violent" and "over the top" because I was "loud" and it "plugged into the wall." lol. I did nothing but laugh and concede the point, because he was right. But in other news, fun fact: it also works on men, so if you are hooking up with someone that you don't actually want to have sex with, everyone can have an orgasm with no intercourse whatsoever.)

There are a few scenes about Molly's being underpaid and Issa missing the discrimination that I'm going to skip because the point has been made already.

Lunch. Molly is on a date with Sterling K Brown. He's showing her pictures of his niece on his phone, because he's a Good Black Man looking for a Good Black Woman. Actually, given the champagne flute and the bottle on the table I'm going to assume this is brunch (mimosas, you see). Sterling K Brown is wearing an interesting outfit, what says the tribunal?

This rote-date-conversation centers around the fact that they both have ticking biological clocks, and that Sterling K Brown is not being at all ambiguous about his intentions. Molly seems uncomfortable, and isn't following this conversation as well as a woman would be if she were truly interested. I gotta say, Sterling K Brown comes off as a LITTLE thirsty... but, considering Molly really does the most when it comes to choosing a man, like... you can't empathize with her at all. Do we know this, do viewers know this? Molly is wrong and ridiculous and has no clue what she is doing, and her choosing criteria is wildly outdated, immature, and foolish. Like, there is no shrewdness to her relationship behavior at all. She is doing nothing that would prove to be in her best interests or better her life circumstances at all, even if it were just casually dating a potential husband so that you have that back up available when things aren’t going well. This is the kind of thing I might of done before I realized it may be an actual real possibility that I actually might not find the husband I wanted some day.

California Family Cookout. There's ribs, there's dominoes. You feel right at home. Lawrence shows up in some hipster ass shirt, carrying chairs as promised. Tasha is wearing a lime green midi dress with scribbled print and a lopsided sew in. It works, as long as you don't pause at the wrong moment. Why am I hating on both their outfits? Let's move on. Tasha's relatives line up to get a good look at Lawrence and he is clearly there in a capacity of Tasha's Man Friend... which he looks decidedly uncomfortable with. Well, what the fuck were you expecting, Lawrence? Why do you think she hedged around inviting you, and made it clear you didn't have to come?

Lawrence's coworker texts him, and he decides to take it as an out, telling Tasha he'll be right back. "Oh... ok," she says. Damn. Again, people were furious over the "thirsty" character of Tasha. Meanwhile I'm just over here wondering why fellow black women didn't have more sympathy for her flexibility. Some of the time when I peek back into conversations in The Community, I am reminded of all kinds of toxic shit I used to feel and believe when I was younger that I eventually had to unlearn in the interests of any kind of healthy interpersonal life. She cheerfully says she'll see him later, and he leaves.

Molly is at a cupcake shop - those are a thing, y'all, and why? I live near one that granted, makes delicious cupcakes, but they cost like fucking four and a half dollars for one REGULAR SIZE muffin tin mold cupcake! Funnily enough, they are actually named "Molly's Cupcakes." Someone calls out that they will pay for her cupcakes, and it appears to be someone Molly knows:

A guy named Dro and his ostensible wife, who playfully criticizes Molly's insistence on wearing "ugly" dark colors - it's a black greek thing. (The wife is Delta, which I presume makes Molly AKA). The married couple set up the plot for next week's episode, expositing that they are in town for the Kiss n Grind party. It's clear that Molly knows Dro from way back, and the wife is newer.

Dunes. Issa has decided to paint over her burnt wall. She's typically spastic at it, dripping paint everywhere and making a mess. While cleaning off the roller, she spots Mickey Bighead lounging by the pool and is apparently attracted by what she sees. Molly calls; Issa notes her "high pitched fakeness" as she describes the date with Sterling K Brown: although there is clearly nothing wrong with him it's obvious to the both of them that Molly just isn't into it. For SOME reason. And this is the thing that is frustrating about Molly... there's never any legitimate or tangible reason why she has no interest in normal men and normal relationships, or why she brushes off scenarios that would be good for her. Like, what is she looking for instead? What's wrong with Sterling K Brown? Why would she not be interested in him? There are no red flags - it's not his looks, it's not that he's not a professional peer, it's not his baggage as he is unmarried with no children. And perhaps that is the point the show is making - that just because she should be interested in him, that doesn't mean she has to be. In the larger context of women "wanting it all" or "not settling," the point is valid. But in a practical sense, Molly is being ridiculous and her actions are not justified. This is how bitches end up single til 40 when they wind up marrying a bald janitor in the end anyway, is all I'm saying. Making smart choices don’t always feel like the choices you want to make.

Molly is comparing her lack of interest in Sterling K Brown with the fact that Candace and Dro are happy despite the fact that Dro was a mess and never had a "five year plan." So I guess that's what her problem is. She has no idea what will make her happy and is constantly peeking in other peoples' lives like it will tell her what would work in hers. You can always find a reason why a person is lacking when you compare them to someone else because... people aren't the same.

Start up Happy Hour. Lawrence shows up and his coworkers are happy to see him. They know the workplace is one big ho fest once enough drinks start flowing. Ethnic Girl is still pointed about regretting hooking up with Generic White Guy. Which, rude.

Issa has painted over her wall, which looks really good. But then she notices she neglected the smoke on the ceiling. Knowing she can't reach it, she reckons with it and tells it, "you can't have my joy." She spots Mickey Bighead going into his apartment and concocts a plan. She pulls out her charger and takes it down to Mickey's asking whether he left it at her house at her party. He seems momentarily taken aback, but recovers smoothly enough to invite her in.

Start Up Saturday. Lawrence gets a text from Tasha wondering where he is. Ethnic Girl asks what his deal is - and I kind of hate those "work people" that you can tell their primary source of social capital comes from people they meet in and around the work environment. Like other people are wrong for having a life outside of work and are not as immersed as you are. They ask whether Lawrence is single as a waitress comes up to flirt with him. Although Lawrence says he has to take off soon, her overt interest is all it takes for him to stay for a round of shots.

Back at Mickey's they're talking about Gossip Girl. Blake Lively is the most generic white woman on the face of the planet. "Yeah, white people," Mickey says. "There's so many of them," Issa adds awkwardly. Lol. Issa daydreams a confidence boost rap to convince herself to make a move: "even if it's wack, you can still get some head!" Unflattering accidental pause moment:

Issa makes an awkward kiss move, accidentally knocking him in the nose with her forehead. It works anyway, and they start making out. The first time I watched this I was a little annoyed because while I understand Issa's excitement over her new body, her constantly barely clothed state this season just seems so gratuitous. The fact that I personally don't like her body type - not to say she hasn't done a lot of work on it! - mainly just annoyed me. And I don't enjoy her sex scenes. Molly's sex scenes and Lawrence's sex scenes are great. So it's always kind of a let down when we have to watch Issa have sex. Her bra collection is excellent though, I guess.

Mickey asks if he could titty fuck her, which Issa "respectfully decline[s]." He wants to put her legs over her head, which she is uncomfortable with. Her head is squashed into the headboard and it's terrible. To her credit, Issa asks to change positions and finds a way that suits her better. He's wearing white socks. Aw. Flashbacks.

Molly is at home, working with a glass of red. Sterling K Brown invites her to a SZA concert and she declines. He comes back with a dinner invitation which she doesn't even reply to. Whatever, Molly. But hey, she heard my complaints and hired some random men to put the cabinet together for her! There's that at least.

Start up Saturday. Everyone's drunk and Lawrence is explaining the concept of his app to the two girls. What IS "Woot Woot" exactly? Besides the fact that everyone makes fun of him when he talks about it, as far as I can tell it's some kind of group chat client? Idk. Tasha calls, and Lawrence puts the phone to his ear in the loud bar. Tasha is mildly agitated, asking what happened to him because he never came back; her family members are even now in the background asking about him. He apologizes and says he ended up drinking too much. Tasha says if he didn't want to come he should have just told her. Lawrence tries to brush it off but then admits he isn't looking for a serious relationship. Tasha is put out because he ghosted on her in front of her entire family; if he didn't want a serious thing he shouldn't have come. He embarrassed her. Lawrence apologizes in a way that still blames it on her: "I know how much you wanted me to be there." It's her fault for expecting his intentions to match his behavior, not his fault for not being up front and leading her on. Tasha tells him to stop acting like he gives a fuck about her feelings, because he "fronted like it was [something more], apologizing for shit" he knew he wasn't sorry for.

Lawrence insists he was being genuine. Tasha: "You're a fuck nigga. You're worse than a fuck nigga. You're a fuck nigga who thinks he's a good dude." And she hangs up. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the cultural conundrum facing all of us in this new technologically advanced hook up landscape we are all attempting to navigate. I don't know how it used to be before Swiper Not Swiping and casual sex became the rule, not the exception, but I also find that men are preoccupied with being "good guys" in a way that belies their shitty behavior; some kind of veneer of honesty and distance that doesn't quite square with the level of intimacy and acquiescence they are seeking from their partners. Maybe back in the day it was understood you couldn't get that level of commitment without expressly acknowledging it; I find these days men think they get to have their cake and eat it too on this issue.

Anyway, look at this shit:

Bitch, what are you wearing? Those 1980s Jessie Spano mom jeans. Her name is "Arpana" which leads me to believe she's supposed to be Indian, but I think in real life her body type would indicate she is something else. She's probably Latina tbh. (And no I'm not going to google this to find out.) Anyway, Lawrence is laughing off his conversation with Tasha well enough as he rejoins the party.

Back at the Dunes, Issa is sneaking out of Mickey's apartment. She isn't quiet enough and he wakes up, offering for her to sleep over. Super generous considering she lives literally right upstairs. As Issa grabs her phone to go, she decides she isn't actually willing to sacrifice her phone charger for this farce, so she snatches it up too. But not to fear: it turns out Mickey was aware of her ruse the entire time, as his phone has been sitting plugged into his own not-missing charger the whole time. Issa can't even be mad as she lets out a chuckle and goes. She seems pleased, at least, with this first foray into "honess."

#insecure hbo #issa rae

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b-does-the-write-thing · 7 years

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The House Guest, Chapter 72/75

Read it on A03

Wednesday December 21st, 2016

The town of Storybrooke lay quiet in the early morning hours. Midnight passed and went as softly as the drop of a feather as the Winter Solstice creeped closer and closer.

It would be the shortest day of the year.

It also very well could be the last.

“Lacey.”

She did not turn from the window. The pane was frosted slightly as the street lamps glowed below them. She sank bank into Rumpelstiltskin's chest though she did not turn from the window. The entire town lay beneath her, each house holding life and secrets she could only hope to protect even if she never knew them.

“Is it time?” she asked.

“Nearly,” Regina responded. The elder witch sat at the table where bottles and vials were stacked around her, sands and powders, liquids and gases swirling in test tubes and bottled by champagne corks. The soft green drew attention to the shadows under Regina’s eyes and the hollows of her cheeks.

The rest of the house was empty. No Ruby, no Archie, no Jefferson or Neal. They had protested of course, but a witch was difficult to argue against. In the end, they had agreed to go with the Nolans and the Bentons on a day trip to New York City, where an unexpected snowstorm had kept them trapped at Cruella’s.

Safe.

Lacey only wished she could have sent everyone away. Regina had refused to vacate the town, calling Lacey’s idea of a gas leak idiotic. The lists of people still missing or dead did not seem to haunt Regina. Lacey saw it every time she closed her eyes.

Monday and Tuesday had creeped by. Lacey had gone to work, picked up the phones, sent emails, handled her business and all the while, she watched the time tick away until the entire mess was over with. One way or another, after six this morning, her life would be forever changed.

“I’m ready,” she whispered. She did not need to see Rumple’s face or hear what he had to say. They had spent the last two evenings curled up on the bed in the corner while Queenie hid in the bathroom. She had only emerged when they had grown quiet and still and proceeded to mewl loudly to remind them that she still existed. Neal had promised to take care of Queenie if something should happen.

The familiar jumped up to the kitchen counter and head butted Lacey’s crossed arms. The odd feline with her mismatched coloring and her stunted tail purred a hello as she joined their watch on the still town.

Lacey’s right hand grasped Rumple’s. He gently kneaded her fingertips with his, pressing the pads of his talons to her own nails. She buried her other hand in Queenie’s fur to scratch the spot behind her cat’s left ear.

There was nothing remarkable about the town, no fog, no starry sky, just a grey cloudy early morning which would dawn late and set earlier than any other day this year.

And yet, this was a moment she would remember for the rest of her life. Be it two more hours or two hundred more years. This moment of quiet contemplation before the storm, wrapped in the arms of a lover she could never have dreamed up and stroking a cat that had helped her find her way when she had been truly lost.

“Are you two just going to stand there all night or are you going to help?”

And then, there was Regina.

“You wanted to make the potions,” Lacey said as she peeled herself away from her roommates. “I’m the one doing all the heavy lifting.”

Regina rolled her eyes. “You’re summoning a demon you’ve summoned already. It’s hardly rocket science.”

True. They had the bones of Bozo’s ancestor and the dagger he had used to cut his own soul free from his mortal form. They simply lacked his blood. Easily gained with the correct spell, the right weapon and a small amount of luck.

“Regina, anyone ever tell you that you’re a bitch?” Lacey grumbled as she sat down across the table.

“Mrs. Lucas did yesterday as a matter of fact,” Regina replied. “She’s leading the Committee to Save the Christmas Parade.”

It was easy to forget it was almost Christmas. The whole town had been in an uproar the past few weeks since Regina had canceled the annual parade. It was something so trivial to Lacey and Regina, that even at work, they brushed off the people’s holiday fury, too busy trying to focus on more important things like town taxes and stopping ancient demons from destroying the town.

Lacey nodded as she reached for the purple scales of a violet turned salamander. “She won’t do anything without the permits,” she assured Regina. “Unless every shop on Main Street signs a waiver-”

“They won’t have to. I gave them the permits last night,” Regina told her. “They’re holding it as soon as the sun goes down tonight.”

“You what?”

Whether it was because of the way the room went still or the quiet fury in Lacey’s voice, Regina looked up from her mortar. “What? If we survive this summoning, they can have their ridiculous parade. If we don’t, they’ll have more things to worry about than if Rudolph’s float works.”

“If something goes wrong-”

“Then, they’re all screwed anyways,” Regina interjected. “Hand me that vial.”

Lacey was more inclined to throw it at her, but settled for ignoring the request entirely to focus on her own project. Behind her, Rumple stayed at the window. He did not make a sound but his body was tense, alert and humming with anticipation.

He was after all about to face the creature responsible for his own power, his own immortality and his own existence. There was a hatred between the two that Lacey couldn’t quite understand, a bond between creator and creation that had twisted and turned loathsome over the centuries. One born of jealousy, rage, and mistrust but more importantly, a hatred reserved for those who had gone past dreams of vengeance.

The clock on the stove read a quarter past five in the morning. The night sky showed no signs of lightening so Lacey continued to work silently besides Regina. They bottled spells, brewed potions, and stoppered death in all its forms.

“There,” Lacey finally said as she ran out of the last of the ingredients. “That’s everything.”

The table glowed with smokes and liquids, gases and stars, solids and gels. They had used some wine bottles toward the end, and the green glass glinted strangely as the golden chain reactions of dormant hexes swirled hazily through the murky depths.

The small apartment glowed. Every surface had been covered in some form of magic. Rumple had retired to the couch at some point where he tinkered curiously with some of Regina’s potions and Queenie had curled up in Lacey’s lap. Both were still wide awake and alert though they appeared relaxed.

As 5:40 appeared on the digital clock face, Regina nodded to her over their bounty. “Better get on with it then,” she said as she too stood up. Rumple did not move from his spot on the couch, though Queenie hopped up onto the table without disturbing a single bottle.

With a lazy wave of her right hand, Lacey called the book from where it sat on the fireplace mantle. A trail of ash followed lazily behind it, until she caught both in her waiting hand. The ash stained her fingertips black and without pause, Regina reached over to stab a straight pin into Lacey’s thumb pad.

After Lacey finished cursing, the elder witch picked the book off the floor and pressed it back into Lacey’s sooty, bloody grip. She whisked a finger under Lacey’s left eye, and when she drew it away, a single tear glistened softly.

“Element of surprise,” Regina said coolly as she pressed the tear into the blood and soot.

“I could have just conjured my own blood and tears at significantly less pain,” Lacey said through her teeth. “You didn’t have to stab me.”

“Lacey.”

Rumple pointed to the clock as the sky outside began to grow navy, then grey, and finally hints of colors appeared in the stratosphere. The book hummed to life as the Winter Solstice dawned outside, and for the third and hopefully last time, Lacey French summoned a demon.

The skin of her palms tingled, the hair on the back of her neck raised and a ghost danced across her grave. Then, there was nothing.

“Lacey?”

Lacey raised a hand for silence. “He’s here,” she replied after a moment.

Regina had a rather large vodka bottle in her hand, which glowed red with a particularly nasty charm. She held it higher to illuminate the small studio.

“Not here,” Lacey clarified as she moved to the window. “He pulled away when he crossed over.”

“Where would he go?” Regina demanded of Rumpelstiltskin.

“Most likely Midas’s manor,” Rumple replied. “It’s still empty.”

“Then, let’s go,” Lacey said. She grabbed as many bottles as she could and with a quick whisper shrank them all down to slip into her jacket pocket. Regina began to do the same but Rumple did not make a move to join them. “Rumple?”

“He’ll expect us to come,” he said to himself. “Otherwise he would have just crossed over on his own. He wouldn’t have waited for you to summon him forth.”

“He’s weak,” Regina pointed out. “He probably hoped we wouldn’t press the matter.”

Lacey shook her head. “No, Rumple’s right. He’s smarter than that.”

“You have the dagger, right?”

Lacey nodded and patted the small sheath strapped to her leg underneath her skirt. The blade remained wicked cold despite the warm of the room and her own body temperature.

“And you have the bones?”

Rumple summoned forth one of the various vials filled with the crushed bone fragments of the last living descendent of the Old One. They had over twenty vials lingering in different hiding spots around the world, ready to be called forth at a moment’s notice.

“Then, we just need to stab the bastard, draw blood and say the words,” Regina finished with a withering look at the two of them. “Let’s get this over with before the town wakes up.”

In the end, he was not at the manor.

He was not at the toll bridge.

Or in the woods or at the docks.

They did not find him at Archie’s, or at the Mayor’s residence or even at Granny’s.

By the time all the shops opened on Main Street, the weak morning sun shone through the cloud cover. The trio was exhausted and on edge.

“He’s here,” Lacey seethed as she turned in circles outside Granny’s diner. “I can feel him.”

Rumple laid a hand on her shoulder. “He’s toying with us,” he said softly and Regina nodded wearily from where she leaned against the diner’s porch. “You two need sleep.”

“We just need coffee,” Lacey argued.

Regina pushed away from the wall. She did not do anything as banal as yawn, but her eyes were lined and red and there were dark circles under her eyes that had not been there an hour ago.

“We’ve used more magic jumping around town than was wise, and we stayed up all night preparing potions and spells,” she reminded her. “We keep this up and he’ll just have to show up and blow us over with a huff and a puff.”

Too tired to mock the nursery rhyme reference, Lacey scowled. “So, what? Take a nap and hope he doesn’t start to destroy the town in the meantime?”

“You two go get some rest, and I’ll keep an eye out,” Rumple said with a firm note in his voice. “I’ll alert you if he shows his face, and I can keep him occupied in the interim.”

“Goddamnit,” Lacey swore as she aimed a kick at a nearby rock. “What’s he going to do? Hide out until the Spring Equinox?”

“Rest,” Rumple repeated. “Neither of you are any use to me or this town at this rate.”

Regina nodded curtly. “The Mayor’s Residence is closest,” she said with a quick check down the road. It was the morning rush and a few people were starting to take notice of the Mayor standing outside Granny’s at the early hour. “Lacey, you can stay in one of the guest suites.”

She shook her head. “I’d rather be with Queenie.”

A soft meow of approval came from her feet. Queenie blinked up at her in the cloudy morning, a pleased feline look on her face as she twined about her ankles in greeting.

“Then, it’s settled,” Regina said. “Grab the cat and let’s go.”

“Lacey.”

She stirred out of the piles of blankets and pillows to wrap her arms around his waist. Rumple sat perched on the edge of her bed, his hands combing through her tangled hair. The room was dark save the window where faint light still poured through the thin curtain. At her feet, Queenie twitched her nose against her shins but did not move from her own nest of fabric.

“Where is he?” she murmured as she tried to fight off the lingering claws of her dreams. They had been full of nightmares and hopes, shadows of realities that were too fantastic to be true and too cruel to be dismissed.

“Still hiding,” Rumple told her as he helped her sit upright. “Regina’s been up for the past hour scrying for him, but hasn’t had any luck.”

One of her dream fragments grew bright for a moment. “What about the Coven? Or the Church?”

“We discussed this,” Rumple reminded her. “We aren’t going to involve them unless something goes wrong.”

Lacey sighed as she pulled at the pills on the blanket she had found in the closet. The tangles gave her something concrete to fix, and she began to pull at the little knots and beads harder than necessary. “He’s toying with us.”

“He is,” Rumple agreed. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy.”

“Yea, but I at least thought we’d get to fight,” Lacey groaned. “Not go on a deranged hide and seek around Storybrooke.”

“Get dressed,” Rumple said with a press of his lips to the tips of her ear. “We have a little under an hour before sunset.”

When they entered Regina’s office, the stark black and white was tinged with the colors of the setting sun. It was nearly a quarter to four and the sun had already begun to dip lower into the winter sky.

“Anything?” Lacey asked as she joined Regina at her desk. The scrying crystal swung over the map of Storybrooke but it did seem to be doing much of anything other than hanging in Regina’s grasp.

“No,” the other witch said through gritted teeth. “I had something at Gepetto’s but then it disappeared and reappeared across town at the docks. Just a minute ago, I had a fix on him at the Rabbit Hole but he was gone before I could even stop the pendulum swing.”

“He’s toying with us.”

Regina arched a brow. “How is jumping to random place to random place toying with you?”

Lacey ignored her. “Where else did he appear?”

“The lofts where Mary Margaret used to live, near Sprat’s, the woods up by the faerie ring-”

“All places we’ve been together,” Lacey said as she turned to Rumple.

“What kind of message is that?” Regina demanded. She stood from the table, but the pendulum continued to hang in mid air.

“He’s playing for time,” Lacey told her as she grabbed for her jacket. Queenie jumped up on the table to pat at the pendulum. “He wants us to chase him.”

“And we aren’t going to do that?” Rumple asked.

Lacey grinned. “No, because he doesn’t know what we know.”

Regina looked lost. “And what is it that we know?”

“In two hours, there’s going to be a christmas parade.”

The plan had been easy.

Convincing Granny Lucas of it, not so much.

The widow crossed her arms and peered suspiciously at the trio. They stood at the Inn’s front door, effectively blocking her from leaving her own home to join the mass of people all heading down to the miraculously saved christmas parade.

“You want me to let her ride on the front float?” Granny repeated.

“The three of us,” Lacey clarified for the third time.

“Mayor Mills here is the reason we were not going to have a parade,” Granny reminded them.

“I gave you the permits last night,” Regina shot back.

“We would have had it with or without those permits,” Granny bristled. “This was a Storybrooke tradition long before you rode into town on your broomstick!”

Rumple chuckled behind her, and Lacey elbowed him gently. “Granny…”

“Oh, don’t Granny me, young lady,” Mrs. Lucas said as she turned her attention on Lacey. “Don’t think for a second I don’t know you have something going on lately. My own granddaughter barely talks to me anymore, disappears every month for nearly a week and now she tells me she’s moving away. You’re as much my child as that one, Lacey French, which means I know you just as well I know her, and there is something the two of you aren’t telling me. If you want to ride on that float, you tell me what’s going on this instant.”

“Oh, for god’s sake,” Regina muttered. “At this rate, it’ll be 2017.”

“Regina…” Rumple warned.

Regina ignored him. She took two steps up to Granny to glare down at her. “You want to know what she isn’t telling you? Fine. Your precious granddaughter is a werewolf. Lacey and I are witches, and this guy here is a demonic entity. He was created by the original demon who, as it just so happens, is bent on destroying this entire town tonight in his quest to tear the mortal realm apart to rule this and all other realms in a bloody sway. We are attempting to stop all that by riding at the front of a goddamn Christmas Parade like a bunch of moronic buffoons.”

Granny blinked.

Lacey hurried to explain. “What Regina meant was-”

“A werewolf?”

Lacey’s words died on her lips.

“Regrettably, yes,” Rumple said softly as he gently tugged Lacey too the side so he could speak directly to Granny Lucas. “She was bitten last Halloween, but you suspected that, didn’t you, Madam Lucas?”

To Lacey’s surprise, Ruby’s grandmother gave a short nod.

“Granny?” Lacey mumbled in disbelief.

“Don’t look at me like I’ve grown a second head, dear,” she said with a snort. “I grew up in this town. I know the myths and the legends about faeries in the woods and the sirens in the sea. Plus, I know how to google.” Lacey wanted to fish her phone out and call Ruby on the spot but Granny fixed her with another direct look. “Let’s see it then,” she demanded. “Some magic.”

All three of them lifted their hands up in unison and a burst of green and red sparks emanated into the night sky. A few people on the sidewalks clapped for the display, a few taking photos of what they assumed were bottle rockets as they hurried on to the parade route. Granny just nodded. “Well, then,” she said as she pushed past the three of them. “Let’s get on with it then.”

With Granny Lucas on their side, they had no problems getting onto the head of the parade float. It was covered in ivy and mistletoe, Storybrooke spelled out in poinsetta leaves on the side and white icicles dripping down over the sides to the ground so it looked like it was floating on light itself. With its three different levels, it towered over most of the buildings along Main Street.

With the help of a suggestment elixir, the original float driver agreed to help on a different float. With magic at the helm, their float was on of the first out into the streets and was greeted with excited exclamations of holiday cheer.

“Wave!” Lacey said through gritted teeth to both her companions. Regina slipped into politician mode easily enough but Rumple scanned the crowds, too intent on his prey to pay attention to the kids cheering and waving at him in his Santa Claus outfit.

“Were the outfits really necessary?” Lacey said in aside to Regina.

The Mayor, still in her usual pantsuit, bared her teeth in a smile as she continued to wave to the crowd below. “Probably not, but if he dies in a Santa Claus outfit, it’ll be a hell of a story.”

“No one is dying,” Lacey said firmly. She tugged at her own elf costume, the bell at the end of her cap jingling dementedly. “Don’t think I’m voting for you next year though.”

If the town was surprised to see the very Mayor that had canceled the parade in the first place leading the floats, they were too good natured to care. Familiar faces peered up at them, while children waved happily as parents held them up on their shoulders.

“There.”

Rumple pointed at the clock tower as they passed it, and sure enough, there, illuminated by the dull glow, was a shadow.

“Here,” Regina said and Lacey gasped her hand in her right and Rumple’s in the left. “We’ll need a distraction.”

Rumple smiled and as if that was the signal, the top of their float exploded free and a rein of candy burst forth like a geyser into the night. The crowd’s boomed its approval as the float came to a stop and the entire crowd pressed forward to gather the chocolates and sweets as they continued to pelt down from the sky.

Regina used the pandemonium expertly. One second, they swayed on a still float, and the next, the three of them stood in the empty clock tower above the library before the demon they had chased all day.

The Old One chuckled. “Whose idea was that little performance?”

“Needs must,” Lacey said as she drew the dagger free from beneath her elf’s skirt. “Got your attention, didn’t it?”

The Old One looked to where Rumple stood in his beard and red suit. He had dropped Gold’s face and his demonic face was grotesque in the clock’s feeble light. “It is honestly a sight I do not think I will forget in the foreseeable future.”

“You have a very short future,” Regina said as she appeared just behind him. With a lighting quick move, she smashed a bottle into the side of his face before disappearing again into the shadows.

The Old One did not make a noise of anger or pain, but stood with blood dripping down his face. It pooled into the neck of his robe and stained the hair around his ear but he did not make a move to so much as wipe it off.

Lacey made a move towards him but Rumple snagged her free hand. “Wait!”

Another soft chuckle filled the silence. “I have spent the last fortnight preparing for death,” the demon murmured. “I wondered how I should meet it...or should run from it...and in the end...I think there is nothing as amusing as one’s own hubris.”’

Regina reappeared at their side, and though she held a spell at the ready in her hand and a bottle of some noxious potion in the other, there was no need.

Rumple stepped forward and with no hesitation, he drew a finger through the blood that had begun to drip on the floor. Lacey’s breath caught in her throat, but the Old One did not make a move to strike Rumple even though the back of his neck was exposed and his back open to attack.

“Here,” Rumple said quietly and he swiped the blood over the flat of the blade. As Regina and Lacey kept an eye on the Old One, he sprinkled the bone fragments to stick to the blood on the blade. Finally, he stepped away.

“Do you remember what I said to you?” the Old One asked him before Lacey could begin the words. “When you came to me a coward and a fool? A lost mortal doomed to obscurity even in those primal times?”

“‘I can make you a king’,” Rumple repeated. “‘You will walk through fire and blood, death and agony and you will laugh and not know death’.”

“Until I do.”

Lacey stilled.

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” the Old One said where he stood immobile. “That my death heralds his own. My blood is in his veins. Killing me kills him.”

“He’s lying,” Regina said. “Do it now. He’s buying time.”

“Rumple?”

His eyes were locked with the Old One’s, a silent conversation between the two ancient demons. “He’s bluffing.”

Lacey lowered the blade. “But-!”

The Old One struck. It was a small spell, so slight that she had not even noticed it being cast. If Regina had not had her own spell called forth, it would have hit Lacey before she could have even drawn breath to respond.

“Do it!” Regina exclaimed as the shadows erupted to life around them. Dark claws wrapped around Lacey’s throat and arms, encircling her limbs in a tight embrace as it picked her up off the floor to hover in midair. Regina was caught too, though she had an arm free and was using it to hurl whatever she could get her hands on down to the floor below.

Rumple and the Old One were locked in a battle of wills.They flickered in and out of the light, appearing next to each other and then across the room. Lacey struggled in vain to catch her breath, to start the first words, but the shadowy figures pressed their way into her mouth and stilled her tongue.

“Lacey!” Regina yelled as they rose into the rafters. “Say the spell!”

The dagger was heavy in her hand, and though the shadows did not seem able to touch it directly or wrest it from her, Bozo’s words had worked all too well.

Regina knew it too. “He’ll be fine!” she exclaimed, hissing as something corporeal scratched long rows across her face. “Say the spell or we are all dead!”

The shadows clutching her sensed her resolve. As she began to wiggle and struggle for control over her own body, they dropped her. It was a long fall down, long in the time it takes to know one is about to die, but not long enough to gather the breath to speak the words. Luckily, magic did not always need words.

She slashed the hand holding the dagger across her body, and a gust of wind erupted from beneath her so when she hit the floor, she had slowed down enough to only be mildly winded. A agonizing pain at her hip indicated she had stabbed herself in her fall, but she only had eyes for the two demons across the room.

Rumple had his talons locked around the Old One’s throat, prying him backwards into the floor as shadows wailed and tossed around them in a whirlpool of darkness. Rumple was bloody now too. Bozo’s claws were scarlet with their mixed blood.

Lacey wanted to say something. Words of love came to mind, goodbyes, and even apologies clamored to be said but instead she said the only words she could.

It was instantly different from the Summer Solstice. This time it was not power and magic that flooded her senses, but an eerie stillness. The words flowed from her mouth as easily as words of love and praise, as calmly as words of acceptance and compassion and as pure as a prayer.

The shadows faded away. There was no light, no wind, just a serenity that extended from every center in her body and spiralled out into the world around her.

Regina’s centers opened in response, and the shadows exploded as if the sun had risen inside each to them. The entire clock tower shone, not with a light, but with a power that seemed to illuminate from the inside out. The elder witch appeared at her side as quietly as the spring rain, though she did not touch her.

As the magic touched Rumple, he staggered backwards away from his creator and pressed himself along the wall. He only relaxed when he caught her eye, his muscles sagging in relief as the magic touched the wounds along his body and crept into the cracks of his soul.

When the magic touched the Old One, he only laughed.

“Zoso,” Lacey said quietly as the spell breathed through her. “Your time is done.”

“My life may be spent,” he agreed as he pulled himself to a standing position. “However, it has touched countless others. My creations are still out there, my legacy lives on without me.”

“Your legacy stands in the light beside you,” Lacey told him.

“The Dark One is dead,” Zoso spat. “This creature is a lap dog.”

“This creature is a man,” Rumplestiltskin said firmly, “and you had nothing to do with it.”

The magic flared bright and when it abated, the Old One was gone.

Regina only barely caught Lacey as she collapsed. The pain in her hip flared bright and then the lights overhead swam in her vision as darkness crept in. Rumple’s voice was distorted and far away, and though she could hear him and Regina, she let herself sink into the depths of her own mind and slipped away from them into unconsciousness.

Outside, as the parade slowly wound away, the crowd below began to sing O Holy Night.

Notes:

*makes strangled noises*

Bozo is dead. Defeated, erased, vanquished, and our babies are all still alive. (Injured and exhausted but ALIVE)

Next chapter, we have the meeting with the Coven.

So, I'm going to leave this here, this huge chapter, this beginning of the end, and I am going to hug you all while you try and think of how you feel and I hope to hear from you because this has been such an adventure to go on with you all and here we stand three chapters from the end and I can't believe it.

(can you tell I'm a WiP author? I'm freaking out over here that it's almost done)

#the house guest #b does the write thing

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