#charlie had one joke and committed to it even in the face of immediate danger and that's courage

[mndvx]

DOOM PATROL — DEAD PATROL (S03E03) ››› Sebastian Croft as Charles Rowland ››› Ty Tennant as Edwin Payne ››› April Bowlby as Rita Farr / Elasti-Woman ››› Matthew Zuk and Matt Bomer as Larry Trainor / Negative Man

#doom patrol #sebastian croft #ty tennant #april bowlby #matthew zuk #matt bomer #charles rowland #edwin payne #dead boy detectives #rita farr #larry trainor #dctv #dc #tvedit #dcedit #doompatroledit #dctvedit #charlie had one joke and committed to it even in the face of immediate danger and that's courage

[bestillmyslashyheart]

it’s all twisted

Joe thought for a moment, a single moment, after they woke up that Andy would get the new girl. It just seemed right. Or if Andy didn’t, then it should be Quynh.

He started sketching immediately, trying to commit the image from his dreams to paper before it slipped his mind. Nicky and Booker called out what they remembered and slowly an image began to take shape. 

Andy and Quynh were silent. Well, not silent. Joe chanced a look over at the two women, saw Andy clutching at her head and Quynh trying to soothe her, and looked away. 

“We will get her,” Nicky volunteered them. Joe didn’t object. Booker would be an awful choice to get the new girl and introduce her to their life and Quynh refused to leave Andy. And Andy wasn’t going anywhere.

“We will meet you at the Charlie safehouse?” Joe asked. They hadn’t decided where to go just yet but it was one of their more frequently used ones so he presumed it was where they were headed. 

“Hurry,” Quynh urged as they stood and gathered their things. “The military has a lot of scrutiny and it looked like she died in the line of duty. People will be watching her.” Andy let out a strangled noise and buried her face in her hands even more. Quynh rubbed a hand up and down her back and said something in a soft murmur in a language no one but the two of them even remembered. Neither of them so much as looked up as Joe and Nicky opened the door and jumped off the train.

---

They were almost too late. The girl from their dreams was being escorted under armed guard to a plane when they first saw her. She looked uneasy, like she knew something was wrong but couldn’t quite place what it was. 

The situation wasn’t ideal, too many soldiers, too many weapons, too many eyes watching for it to be ideal, but they made it work. Joe got the girl and Nicky cleared their way. 

She waited until they got her away from the base before she asked any questions. “Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?” She paused. “Why do I know your faces?”

Joe and Nicky exchanged glances. They’d never had to do this before. Quynh had handled Booker’s introduction to this life and they’d just had to come in and deal with the aftermath. 

“What is your name?” Nicky asked first.

The girl looked between them and then seemed to consider her surroundings. She was sitting in the back of an armored vehicle, no restraints and no locks on the doors, and a weapon in her line of sight. Neither Joe nor Nicky had seen any reason to lock her up or take away her weapons. She had come peacefully enough, recognizing that they had taken her away from a potentially far more dangerous situation, that further action hadn’t been necessary. “Nile,” she replied.

Nicky turned in his seat to smile at her. “Hello Nile. It is nice to meet you. I’m Nicky. This is Joe. And we’re like you. We can’t die.”

---

Quynh didn’t like this. She understood that Joe and Nicky had to go get the new girl from their dreams, she understood they couldn’t leave her exposed especially not in the military, and she understood that they had a responsibility to help her adjust to this life of theirs, but she didn’t like it. 

Andy had collapsed in on herself as soon as they’d awoken, mumbling nonsense in languages Quynh barely remembered. The few words she did make out were “no” and “not again” and “stop”. 

She let Booker lead the way to the safehouse, trusting him to keep an eye out for any dangers while she focused on Andy. There was something going on with him, she knew, but she didn’t have the time or patience to deal with it, not with Andy being Andy.

Booker left them as soon as they made it there. He saw them inside, made sure Quynh had a phone to reach him, and then left to get food and supplies. Quynh was half certain he just wanted to get away from the two of them but she wasn’t one to begrudge someone their privacy so she didn’t mention it. 

“Quynh,” Andy rasped once he was gone. Quynh was by her side in an instant. She laid one hand on her, her thumb rubbing slow circles, and Andy relaxed minutely. “I can’t take another one.”

“I know,” Quynh murmured.

“Why won’t it end?” She asked. She stepped out of Quynh’s grasp and banged around the kitchen for a minute, touching everything but doing nothing, before she collapsed into a chair. “How are we supposed to do this? How are we supposed to bring her into this life? This nightmare?”

Quynh pulled out a chair and sat down, reaching for Andy as she did. Andy leaned out of her reach though so Quynh let her hand drop onto the table, there if Andy needed it. “Andromache,” she said softly. Andy shook her head. “She is in it. She did not get a choice and neither did we. We will do this because we must, because the alternative is forcing her to do it by herself and we both know that we can’t do that. We were alone for far too long to ever do that to her.” Now Andy grabbed her hand and squeezed. Andy didn’t do well with being alone, didn’t like even a reminder of it. As much as she hated herself for it, for the weakness of it, she needed it. Needed Quynh. 

“I can’t do this,” Andy admitted. “I can’t-”

“Joe and Nicky are doing it,” Quynh reminded her. “They are finding her and they are telling her and you will not have to.”

Andy inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath. “How much longer are we going to do this Quynh? How much longer do I have to-” live.

“I don’t know,” Quynh told her honestly. “That’s not up to me.” If it was, she would have granted Andromache peace well before now. Maybe when Lykon died, maybe when the men ripped her from Quynh’s side, maybe when Andy spent centuries under the water, but definitely before now. Andy had lived too long and been through too much to be forced to continue living and yet she was.

No one had ever said immortality was kind but Quynh thought it reserved its cruelty for Andromache.

---

Nile had no idea what to make of these people. The two men who had saved her from what she was certain was not going to be a pleasant fate with the MPs seemed nice enough, if a little odd. They’d dragged her to a small town outside of Paris, the two waxing lyrically about the city and the history and each other for the nearly ten hours it took to make the trip, and she was almost thankful to see other people. The three people who greeted her when they arrived at the old church gave her pause though. As almost overwhelming as Joe and Nicky had been, they were pleasant enough. They smiled and laughed and joked and set her nerves at ease. 

The two women sitting at the table and the man hunched in front of the TV did not. Misery and weariness seemed to emit from all of them. They greeted Nile with a smile and a nod, one woman actually said hello before dismissing her, and went back to what they were doing. 

They sat down to dinner not long after and Nile learned their names, Booker and Andy and Quynh, learned their ages, too old all around, and nothing else. 

The five people around her clearly knew each other well, had obviously spent years (centuries, her mind added) living out of each other’s pockets, and she was an outsider. An outsider who they seemed to think belonged with them but who they had no idea how to involve. Joe and Nicky tried. They steered the conversation away from memories and towards more modern topics, they asked Nile questions to get her speaking, but it was hard when the other three didn’t do much of anything. Booker was deep into his flask, reacting only when spoken to directly. Andy looked completely out of it while also being hyper aware of her surroundings, simultaneously on edge and uncaring about it. Quynh was too focused on Andy to really pay much attention to the others. She masked it slightly, occasionally pretended that she was doing anything other than watching the other woman, but even then she didn’t try too hard to engage with Nile.

The dinner ended, Andy and Quynh cleared the table, and Nile fled. She needed to fresh air in more ways than one.

“Nile.” She startled when Joe came up next to her. “Sorry,” he apologized immediately. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s fine,” she waved him off. “Is something wrong?”

He smiled. “I was going to ask you that.”

Nile shrugged. “I’m fine.”

“It’s alright if you aren’t,” he told her. “It’s a lot to process.”

“It is,” Nile nodded. She flipped her phone around in her hands and turned the screen on to stare down at her mom and her brother. “I want to go home,” she laughed in surprise. She’d never been one to get homesick but right now...

“I would not advise that,” Joe told her. Nile stiffened. “Booker did that,” he added. The pieces clicked together. Booker’s dead eyes, his seemingly unending flask. “We will not stop you, of course,” Joe told her. “We just would not advise it.”

“What happened to them?” Nile gestured to the church behind them. “Will I be like that one day?” They were miserable. The only ones who weren’t were Joe and Nicky and she had an inkling it had to do with them being Joe-and-Nicky rather than being more well adjusted than the others.

Joe looked at the church, his eyes saddening as his gaze lingered. “We are old, Nile. All of us. Booker- Booker had to watch his family die. Andy and Quynh are very very old and they have been through a lot.”

There was something else though. Something in the way Andy didn’t look at her. “What else?”

“Andy was captured, about five centuries ago,” Joe confessed after a while. “She was locked up and cast into the sea.” Nile’s breath caught in her throat.

“How long did it take for you to find her?”

Joe shook his head. “We didn’t. She found us.” Nile’s brow furrowed. “We searched. We searched for decades but the technology just didn’t exist for us to find her and we had to stop. Her cage rusted and she was able to break free herself but it took a while.”

“How long?”

“She found us about,” Joe paused to think, “fifteen years ago? She used her dreams of Booker to find us once she’d made it to land.”

Nile’s mind whirred. “You’re telling me she spent almost 500 years trapped in a cage under water?”

“Not being able to die is not always a good thing, Nile,” Joe replied. Nile hadn’t yet thought of it as a good thing so this wasn’t quite the revelation Joe acted like it should be.

“Is there any way to stop it?”

Joe shook his head. “Our time will come one day,” he confessed. “But we don’t know when and we have no control over it. One day we just won’t heal any more.”

---

Booker had never seen Andy like this. In the last decade and a half, he’d never really seen her as anything other than severely depressed. They’d commiserated over it more than a couple of times.

This, this wasn’t that.

Andy raged. 

He’d expected Joe to be angry, expected the man to fight and yell once Booker confessed. After Nicky was taken, he’d half dreaded the moment Joe realized Booker’s hand in it. 

He hadn’t expected Andy.

Andy killed him four times before Joe even got a hit in. Each time more painful than the last. She barely waited for him to take a breath before she killed him again.

“Where are they?” She asked, her voice a low growl. When Booker didn’t answer quickly enough, she killed him again. “Where are they?”

“London,” Booker forced out before she could swing at him again. “They’re in London.” Andy stepped back and let Joe step in. He hauled Booker to his feet and stared him in the eyes.

“You will help us get them back.” It wasn’t a request. “And then we will deal with you.”

Joe’s fury burned colder than Booker had expected but it was no less intense. He nodded and let Joe push him into action.

“I thought you’d be happy,” he told Andy. “They want to know what makes us like this. If they find out, they can undo it. We can finally die, Andromache.”

Andy hit up across the face with the broad side of her axe. “You would have us be prisoners,” she corrected. “You would lock us up and have them kill us over and over again.”

“So that we can finally die!” Booker yelled. “Don’t you want it to be over? Don’t you want some goddamn peace?!”

Andy shook her head. “Not like this. And not for them. We will get Quynh and Nicky out and you will help us. And no one will ever lock me up again.”

---

Andy didn’t notice it at first, too focused on getting to Quynh and Nicky and getting them out. The pain and the blood was normal. She didn’t notice when it didn’t go away.

It was Quynh who saw. They’d gotten out of the lab, killed everyone who might come after them, and gotten somewhere safe. Joe and Nicky had escaped to a room. Booker and Nile had left to get food and other supplies.

It was just Andy and Quynh. As it should be. As it had been. 

Andy spent centuries angry at Quynh. She’d been angry at Joe and Nicky too but her anger at Quynh was different. Not for a single moment had she thought Quynh would give up on her. She fought in that box and knew that Quynh was looking for her.

Right up until Booker died and she saw Quynh in his eyes and knew that she had.

Andy fought herself free of the box, fought herself to the surface, then to the shore. She used her dreams to find them and in her anger kill them.

But even as she raged at them for leaving her, she’d needed them. She’d needed Quynh. Because they weren’t meant to be alone and Andy had been alone for far, far too long. 

“Andromache,” Quynh breathed, tearing her from her thoughts. Andy turned to see Quynh staring at her.

“What?” She asked.

Quynh stepped in close, her hand going to Andy’s stomach. Andy didn’t stop her. 

The pain was a surprise. Quynh pressed against one of the bloodstains on Andy’s shirt and Andy felt a sharp pain in her gut. Quynh pulled her hand away and it was stained with blood. Wet, fresh blood.

It had been almost an hour since they left the lab. Andy should have healed long ago, the stain on her shirt well on its way to dry by now.

“Andromache,” Quynh said again. There was a strange note to her voice, like she couldn’t decide if she was happy or sad at the new revelation. Andy didn’t see the look on her face, her eyes fixed on her own stomach as she rucked up her shirt to stare at the wound. 

It was bleeding.

It was bleeding.

on ao3

#the old guard #tog fic #andromache the scythian #andy x quynh #my fic

[jean----ralphio]

IT’S BoB LIVEBLOG TIME

Episode 1 is under the cut!

Warning, I swear a lot... and am very in love with RSJ so a lot of this was just me pointing at the screen and screaming RICH and then remembering you can’t see me so writing it down...

Episode 1: Curahee! Curaahhee? Curraahhee? I can’t spell so I’m renaming it Ross is a punk bitch

Buckle up my babies, this will be a carcrash!

00:01 Here we fucking go aw yis

00:11 Aw who’s this? I wish they named the gentlemen at the start of the episodes, I wanna know who is who :s

00:25 Shifty, is that you my angel son?

00:41 OMG you guys… these men are breaking my heart </3

01:06 Lord, men were committing suicide because they couldn’t go to fight? That mentality… man. Oh my God, you angels. Babies.

01:36 No jokes allowed, every man is <3

01:40 Now that I’m humbled and we’re all well and truly miserable…the credits, ugh, my heart. The score is amaziiiing. Some of the footage is actual war-time footage, I read, which is a brilliant touch.

02:01 DICK <3

02:13 DICK’S HUSBAND <3

02:18 RSJ’S NAAAAAME

02:27 JFC this music makes me so emotional. Look there’s Matthew Settle’s face. That makes me emotional too

02:48 Ah it’s Roe <3

03:48 I’m trying to pick them all out in the line-up but I can’t tell who is who. Are we supposed to be able to? There’s a short one in the middle, is that Harry?

03:49 I’m not drunk enough to handle this

04:10 Upottery? Ah it’s so English I love it. That’s not a name! Wtf is up with English place-names, you guys have the weirdest names. Upottery? Seriously? Is it only potters that live there? I’m so confused

04:22 Close up of Roe! Perfect. I approve.

04:32 Is that the guy from Line of Duty? I think it is

04:39 Lip <3

04:44 Ew. GTFO Cobb. He doesn’t even go here

04:47 IS THAT RICH? RICH. ILY. ILY RICH. Please note that 94% of this will be a Rich-watch

04:53 Lieb stop. I am sure you are not a certified hairdresser

04:56 RICH. SMOKING. SMOKING RICH. More like smoking hot do you see what I did there?

05:20 I can categorically say that I love Joe Toye. I do. I love him. But every time I see Kirk Acevedo, all I think of is Charlie my baby from Fringe (awesome show, please watch it). And I just. Charlieee <3

05:39 Aw. They’re so sad

05:55 They’re so despondent. Guys. It’s fine

06:05 Fassy?? FASSY!!

06:18 God Damien is pretty

06:25 Nix that’s not how you flirt

06:57 Lol at Dick noting its happy hour. Thinking about taking Nix on a date, are we? I bet you are. Now THAT is how you flirt!

07:24 OMG the fucking flirting! GUYS. “And give up all this?” NIX SAYS AS HE CHECKS HIM OUT

07:37 Yeah, Nix, you’ll take him ‘to Chicago’ huh? Is that what they call it nowadays.

07:44 Do you want to be that cigarette? ‘Cos there is nothing heterosexual about that lingering look, Dick

08:18 ‘Murica time

08:25 Ross, fuck off. Nice jacket though. “You PEOPLE are at the position of attention” ugh GTFO. Dick’s sideye tho lol

08:52 NGL Ross does a great job at being super unlikeable

09:05 Noooo you don’t want it with Johnny Martin. You wont win. Yeah, walk away Ross

09:15 Careful around Lip too, or Speirs will materialize out of thin air and snap your neck

09:33 RICH. Don’t be scared of that douchebag, baby

09:43 What kind of question is that, there is nothing Lieb wants more!

09:50 It’s weird hearing Ross swear tho

10:26 Don’t argue with Johnny, baby. Also Roe OMG <3 Shane is freaking fit

10:43 Wow Lip is ripped

10:48 Oh no, poor baby. Lip leave him be ☹ </3

11:10 LOL I just noticed the drum by the door. It says ‘butts’ and it took me a seconds to realise it was for cigarettes. I am an adult (31-year-old married woman). I’ll laugh at the word butts if I want.

11:11 RICH

11:18 Lieb omg lol

11:39 RICH BABY NO! FUCK OFF ROSS! LEAVE HIM ALONE OR I WILL HAVE SPEIRS CUT YOU

11:52 I can’t take Ross seriously in those shorts. Hi-ho GTFO

12:07 Ew fuck off running up that, I’d just nope out like nah babe imma go chill with that sweet baby back in the butts cabin

12:18 Aw Dick <3 The juxtaposition of Dick as a leader compared to Sobel who sure he might be honing them into something formidable and skilled but he’s an asshole. He’s not a leader. He’s a bullying, abusive scumbag. Dick is an actual leader who protects them and supports them and encourages them and IHAVEALOTOFFEELINGSOK

12:43 You don’t deserve that sick jacket, Ross. Seriously. That is a boss jacket, I want it

13:04 Have they not stopped fucking working out all this time? Ugh

13:23 Oh good, Dick gets a boss jacket too. He deserves it.

13:30 I wish people had to ask me for permission to speak.

13:53 I just. He. I can’t with Dick Winters, you guys. I cannot. I have lost the ability to can. Like they’re so upset and tired and low and just with that little joke he boosts their morale back up from where Sobel fucking beat it down into the mud and makes everything lighter and they laugh and are less tense and I just. Fucking love you, Dick.

14:00 Is that my angel son? I see you Shifty, love you baby

14:03 RICH. DON’T TOUCH MY RICH.

14:07 Oh my God, address them yourself you weirdo, Ross. They’re right there, you’re right there! I had a colleague that used to do the same, would get me to speak to my employees for her when they were right there in front of her like… ‘can you tell x to do y for me pls…’ … I was like wtf you know you CAN talk to them… you won’t catch poor just by speaking to people lower down the pecking order

14:22 Fassy! Wtf they’re not supposed to drink? Dehydration is legit one of the most dangerous things, how tf can you turn them into high-key supersoldiers if they’re dehydrated? How is this man so dumb? The guy in front of Fassy tho omg. I bet Fassy’s boss wife Alicia Vikander won’t like her husband being treated that way… she’s so badass tho right?

14:26 He’s so dramatic! Ugh

15:11 Piss off omg

15:24 oh my DVD flipped its shit here, only picked back up at 16:30 don’t @ me

16:52 RICH WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO YOU RICH

17:21 Shifty my angel son

17:46 so sweet

18:04 Sink, babe, no he is the worst, stop

18:20 LOL no, he’s jel as fuck babe

18:32 NO FUN ALLOWED. Im sorry, that tie is so ugly

18:44 Simon Pegg??!!

18:51 Ross is so dramatic God shut up. it’s not a conspiracy, weirdo

19:10 “It’s a can of peaces, sir.” Iconic.

19:11 Dick’s tiny smile is equally iconic.

19:17 SHUT UP ROSS

19:44 He wants to be punched, I think, like he’s goading them. The sick fuck.

20:47 DON’T TRUST HIM, DICK!

21:02 ROE <3

21:31 Hoobler, aw <3

21:37 I warned you not to trust him, boys

21:54 Ah boys, oh no

22:04 RICH. Kick him, baby

22:17 Bull, punch him, seriously

22:24 Oh Luz <3

22:26 Yeah GTFO, suck it, bitch

23:06 Who is this? Fella’s hot

23:40 RICH. FASSY. WEB. TAB.

24:19 Suck it, Ross

24:30 Real footage?

24:41 Lol you suck Ross

25:23 RICH. SMOKING RICH.

25:26 Bill omg

25:45 Perco, baby, no. don’t talk to Johnny Martin. Don’t look at Johnny Martin. Don’t so much as think about Johnny Martin. He will fuck you up with his gaze alone, baby

25:56 Ah Luz

26:06 OK. That’s hot. Joe/Charlie don’t be hot. It confuses me

26:42 Winnix being husbands in the corner

27:42 YOU’RE in the wrong position, dumbass, it’s no one else’s fault

27:46 Dick’s come to save the day

27:56 Ross knows nothing omg

28:05 RICH. Even my Rich is confused, Ross, you dweeb

28:20 Lol at Dick dropping down ready for a fight

28:36 Fassy isn’t happy. That means Alicia Vikander is coming for you. Joe/Charlie is definitely not happy. Lip is upset. Think about your life, Ross, think about your choices. You know you’ve failed when Roe is judging you

28:57 Nix is like lol where tf is the alcohol tho

28:59 Harry! Harry is here! But yes, baby, you’re interrupting the husband’s foreplay, leave immediately

30:00 Lol at the Nix vs Ross staredown. Nix won

30:17 RICH. GUYS IT’S RICH

30:33 Do it, Lieb. Drop the grenade. Just don’t upset my angel son Shifty

30:40 He is a literal angel. Don’t corrupt him Lieb

30:59 Nix is having another crack at flirting. “Going my way” so suave omg. Omg stop. No wait don’t

31:09 “I’m not the intelligence officer.” Neither is Nix half the time babe let’s be fair

31:14 “If I told you I’d have to kill you.” Nix is getting better at flirting! He’s been attending flirting 101 classes it seems

31:40 They’re legit such husbands prove me wrong

32:00 He’s not joking, Dick

32:06 Harry’s like oh yay yes please

32:11 Lol Nix

33:03 Ugh. Men. I feel like that hold smells so bad.

33:09 RICH. Naw, Rich is sad he’s missing out on the flamingos.

33:32 Joe/Charlie you deserve a day to commemorate you tbh. I love you.

33:46 “My brother’s in North Africa, he says it’s hot.” Bill is iconic.

34:34 Lieb, honey, don’t, please

34:49 I feel you, random hot guy. Tipper?

35:05 Eyyy this place is nice, let’s all move there.

35:17 Shifty, my angel son, my baby <3

35:26 Yay, Harry gets a boss jacket too!

36:22 Mum and Dad of Easy. I’m low-key living for Lip’s little worried faces.

36:33 THAT JACKET IS SICK AS FUCK I WANT 20

36:38 The fence is there, Ross, because you’re so fucking dumb

36:51 Guys, look, cows

37:06 He’s fucking useless. Hi Simon Pegg.

37:22 RICH

37:25 This whole scene gives me life and waters my crop

37:31 RICH <3. YOU GUYS. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. RICH RICH RICCCCHHHH

37:42 Poor Tip is so done

37:58 Simon Pegg is so confused

38:04 Good job, Tipper, I’m proud of you and your pretty face

38:10 Iconic

38:15 Keep it together Tip

38:54 The hand signals, no, I’d be like BABY. WHAT. I CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU WTF. I’d last like a millisecond in the military lmao. Does my country even have one? Tbh probably not. Us Kiwis are too chill, cbf’ed with anything. Too busy watching rugby, drinking, and sulking that we can’t afford houses cos our housing market is fucked. But at least we beat Covid *shrugs*

39:06 ILY, old guy. You are the best thing in this episode, aside from Rich

39:22 But wait, there’s more weird Americans hopping out yo’ bushes

39:26 “Bloody hell!” Mood

39:47 “You’ve done it now, yanks, you’ve captured me!” He is such a mood. I love him.

39:54 FUCK OFF ROSS. “Would that be the enemy?” “As a matter of fact, yes.” DICK IS SO VALID I LOVE HIM THIS IS ICONIC.

40:25 Be free, moo-cows

40:40 LAMO GET WRECKED

41:00 Guys imma be straight with you. I’m on my third whiskey lmao.

41:10 Simon Pegg, please refrain from being a douchebag. Leave Dick and his husband to flirt in peace.

41:23 I love how Nix is like instantly suspicious. He knows.

41:39 Worried husband

41:45 “Misspelled court-marital.” Iconic

42:14 Ross, why you lying? So threatened and jel that you gotta lie omg.

42:50 God Damien is freaking hot. Guys.

42:57 Punk bitch Ross.

43:22 Dick is so BDE. It’s fucking hot.

43:30 Ross is shooketh tbh. Punk bitch.

43:36 AH! IT IS HIM! THE GUY FROM LINE OF DUTY S5!

43:50 That underbite must have hurt FJH a lot omg so committed.

44:02 Hey Lip <3

44:09 Johnny Martin has absolute BDE

44:22 God they’re willing to be killed just to not follow Ross. Same tbh.

44:57 This whole scene is BDE.

46:00 But Sink has the most BDE let’s be honest

46:44 The respect for Dick. Even after what they just went through. I AM EMOTIONAL.

46:58 He’s so worried like omg what have my troublesome sons done now

47:09 ROSS WHY YOU ALWAYS LYING??

48:09 Weak

48:24 Yeah, fuck off back to ‘Murica

48:34 Legit, can we acknowledge Ross did a great job (the actor). Really really well done, one of the best performances on the series tbh.

49:48 LMAO GET WRECKED PUNK BITCH

50:06 Dick just wanders about a lot on his own, huh?

50:50 What? What? I understand nothing of what the cockney guy is saying.

50:55 Me too, Hoob, the fuck.

51:00 RICH I SAW YOU

52:19 “Never put yourself in a position where you can take from these men.” Don’t omg I can’t, Dick, I’m weak, I can’t deal with these fucking feelings.

52:36 DAFUQ

52:40 OHHHH I get it. Right. Dick, you’re so smart. It’s a little sad they have to do all that just to get some answers and guidance but tbh it’s probably fair? Gotta be top secret so punk bitches like Ross can’t screw things up.

53:30 Hey Nix. Speak French to me any day.

53:48 Unf.

54:08 LMAO Lieb, how many cigarettes do you need!

54:10 NGL I paused here for a little while.

55:05 We could ALL use some brass knuckles, Joe/Charlie. Mood.

55:25 LOL Lieb is so nosy.

56:15 Oh no

57:00 Luz LMAO

57:10 Oh babies

57:13 Bill LMAO that’s not ice cream, yuck it looks like soup

57:28 God. All that effort. Not just logistically but emotionally, mentally, psychologically, to prepare, just to have it put off. Fuck.

57:38 That movie again. Poor boys.

57:47 That’s actually a really smart move, Johnny.

58:41 Oh no. I would lose it completely. Oh Bill </3

59:11 Naw, Dick dawdling around again

59:49 RICH I SEE YOU

1:00:08 AAAHHHH IT’S TOO CONFRONTING DON’T

1:00:48 NOOO I CAN’T aw Bill

1:01:09 Naww

1:01:16 RIIIIICH

1:01:20 It’s like they’re kiddies on a field trip and Dick is the teacher wrangling them lol

1:01:47 Lol their crap is so heavy Dick has to help pull them up. That’s actually really sweet.

1:01:51 I wish I could hold Rich’s hand

1:02:08 Oh God. I can’t. Like he’s helping them up BUT IT’S ALSO HIS WAY OF SAYING GOOD LUCK AND GOODBYE AND HAVING LIKE A MOMENT TO CONNECT WITH EACH OF THEM I CAN’T LIKE THE EYE CONTACT NO DICK STOP

1:02:19 LMAO at them having to shove each other into the plane

1:02:23 That look between him and Roe. Ugh. Like. You two gotta take care of your boys together. Brotp

1:03:22 Can someone explain the block on that guy’s helmet to me?

1:03:55 I’m sad. And scared. This series is so confronting. I’ve watched in annually since I was like 16 and I’m still so nervous for them.

1:05:37 Rich, I see you! I recognized his chin lmao

1:06:16 God, Dick be careful

1:10:00 This show. The feels. Every time.

#band of brothers #liveblog #episode 1 #Currahee #sp? #rsj #richard speight jr

[weaselbeaselpants]

Rewritten Alastor notes (TW: NSFL, Cannibalism, Vore, animal abuse)

This is unexpected I know, but I’m suffering from a major headache and I need something to do.

Alastor the Radio Demon in my non-existent Hazbin repaint. Things he has in common with his canon self:

Human soul of a man who died in the 1930s. Was a cannibal in life.

Tried (and succeeded) to corrupt a bunch of lesser demons. 

Respected by the big-bads of Hell, like Valentino and Vox. Feared among them as well because he creeps even them out.

Deer + wendigo motif still very much still at play.

Still asexual, though I wouldn’t recommend putting him on any pride flags.

Gets along with Charlie and loves antagonizing Vaggie.

Treats Nifty and Husk as goons and/or pets.

His weird hair tufts emote along with him like ears. I don’t know if they are ears though. I think Viv has the right idea not confirming what the frack is up with his anatomy.

Can’t ever stop smiling. Ever. That aspect of Al’s design is something real special that I think Viv has the right idea implementing. A character who can not stop smiling makes for a lot of terrifying and hilarious reactions. Just look at Sans near eternal smile. 

Inexplicably likes pineapple pizza. Funny out-of-character gag.

AGAIN: CONTENT WARNING ESPECIALLY FOR ANYONE WITH TRIGGERS TO THE STUFF ABOVE. KEEP READING AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Changes made to his character:

I do not mind Hazbin being crass and vile and offensively-over the top as long as it has a good grasp on what the joke is (like Helluva Boss :>). My Hazbin thesis is that all of the characters are “demons” in as much as they’ve done bad things or were bad people, but are not maniacal or sadistic + there’s hope for some of them. THEN there’s Alastor who absolutely lives up to the demon-reputation and did genuinely evil things in life. Alastor’s the kind of person who absolutely should be purged but has escaped because those who are supposed to be for justice aren’t threatened by him.

He isn’t involved in voodoo or has any affluent Creole background. With all do respect that aspect feels just a little too lifted from Dr. Facilier. My Alastor’s background is American “mutt” with an Algonquian-native grandmother.

His sin in life - and in Hell itself - is Gluttony. Taking a page from the OG Wendigo mythos, which describes them more as pulsating, gorging Elderitch abominations, Al’s MO in the show is to consume everyone and everything there is. 

Alastor’s demonic powers are presented as a wave of high frequency radio static that messes with a demon’s psyche so much it physically hurts them. Al then scoops up his victim’s souls to power his microphone and everything that demon had in it’s possession beforehand crumbles or becomes his.

Angel is afraid of him. Unlike in the canon cartoon, Angel is the one who recognizes Alastor and knows he’s dangerous, not Vaggie. Turns out, Angel had a run in with the Radio Demon sometime during the mid twentieth century (so when they were both pretty young in demon years). Angel tried to steal Al’s microphone but Al flung a nasty radio-frequency in Angel’s face, taking out one of his eyes. Angel was present during Al’s first attempt to take over Hell, so he immediately knows Al’s bad news and Alastor never misses the opportunity to mess with Angel in season 1.

Alastor is a shape-shifter. In what is probably the most grizzly detail about my take, he technically self-mutilates in order to re-imagine himself ala the Hellraiser Cenobites - which he does quite a bit to hide from Charlie’s parents.

Technically, Al is naked. What looks like a suit is actually his flesh. Look closely at you’ll see that he’s all stitched together like a crude taxidermy piece. Beneath his “skin” are his bones; which all look like mechanical radio parts and move independently of another. Sometimes Al tears them out if he thinks his “wiring needs to be reworked”, which is Al for ‘feeling an emotion’ and he doesn’t like that.

The motif my Alastor is supposed to invoke is everything about him was “stolen” and crudely pieced back together: he collects and traps other demons inside his microphone; he eats by unhinging his mouth and swallows in one gulp. Alastor’s anatomy invokes a lot of vore imagery as well as Ero Guro. Despite being ace, there is a sexual (but not arousing) edge to his character, which leads to a lot or horror and humor.

Alastor does not like that he was human. He’s even in denial of it and insists “I was always a demon. I simply had a nightmare that I was a man. Now I’m awake and the nightmare is long gone”.

Alastor’s human name was Edward; he was a sad, pathetic little man whom everyone walked all over. Edward wanted to be a radio host but was denied that position cause he ‘couldn’t smile’. Edward was deeply disturbed and fixated on ingesting human meat (a condition called ‘wendigo psychosis’). Despite committing murder and then eating all his victim’s bodies, he can’t recall most of the process and was frightened by his behavior, knew what he was doing was wrong. BUT he never went about treating his addiction with meat; he’d have “cold periods” where he didn’t kill and thought he was ‘fixed’ only for his psychosis to resurface.

Alastor’s demon self aims to be all the things that he wasn’t in life: happy, fulfilled, complete, confident, cheery, and satisfied. Al relishes in his self-made creepy image and no doubt took his demon name from a famous Alastair from his youth. 

Al’s character arc throughout the ‘show’ (there is no show, why am I treating this like genuine pitch bible blah) goes as follows:

For the first season leading up the the finale and beginning of season 2, Al pretends to be Charlie’s friend until he backstabs her and takes over her hotel to harvest the ‘redeemed’ souls so he can restart his broadcasting-takeover that was just barely stopped years before. Charlie, Vaggie, and Angel intercept him however and destroy his microphone - which holds all the souls - causing him to loose his power. Charlie personality terminates his physical form leaving only his ‘heart’, which Lucifer makes Charlie eat so that Alastor will forever be under her control. The downside to this is Al’s soul+heart+person exists within Charlie now, and he of course speaks to her within her mind, trying to discourage, belittle, threaten or taunt her plans and feelings throughout the second season. Season 3′s opening would be about the main cast trying to get Vaggie out of Heaven once they learn it’s as corrupted as Hell. Charlie needs Al’s expertise, so she vomits him up. Al agrees to help her but is obviously not happy and vows to get his freedom back. In the second half of season 3, the main characters have to lay low while the angels partake in spiritual warfare against Lucifer. So Charlie and co. escape to the human world disguised as humans. Though an agreement, Alastor comes along and aquires a foreclosed motel for the demon’s to live (he intends to trap mortal souls while he’s there, though Charlie intercepts this too). 

Angel and co. end up discovering Al’s human identity (something he tried to cover up any evidence of having in Hell) and invite his now elderly human daughter to the motel. It works too well however, and the fright of seeing his daughter again triggers an all out anxiety attack in Alastor causing him to merge with the motel. Charlie has to traverse his insides to try and get to his crumbling psyche which would be very Akira-inspired.

Meanwhile, inside Alastor’s mind we see his demon form finally baring a frown and freaking out as the pathological spirits of his victims sing to him in a radio booth about the life he’d chosen and the lives he took away from them. (Yes, this is absolutely taken from Bojack Horseman)

Once Charlie cuts to his core+Al faces the fact that there never was another demon responsible for his actions, it was always just him, Al relinquishes his hold on that motel and his physical form become that of a baby deer, whom Charlie nicknames ‘Deerlastor’. Deerlastor doesn’t appear to have any of Al’s powers, memories, or personality but Angel and the other demon’s Al’s abused insist on killing it, sure that this is just another one of Al’s weird forms. Because of Alastor’s absence, it takes a lot longer and harder for the main cast to get back to hell and help Charlie’s dad’s stop the (previously human) angels who want to wipe purge ALL of hell.

To take out the main ‘enlightened’ angel that’s in the middle of trying to purge ALL of Hell, the demon’s need a power of their own. Deerlastor agrees to sacrifice its body and because of that, Alastor pops out from the deer’s body and head on collides w. the big bad angel-villain, eliminating both their souls. Alastor gets no proper redemption arc kids, he just gets to be the one to take out the main villain.

Edward/Alastor’s daughter’s name was Lavinia and she was the closest thing to genuine ‘love’ he had in his life and the only person who obviously looked up rather than ignore or abuse Edward. When Ed was arrested and confessed to his crimes, his daughter wasn’t allowed to see him and the knowledge that her father was a cannibalistic serial killer haunted Lavinia all her life.

His crimes were not sexual. This is NOT AN EXCUSE for what he did though because - 

- two of his victims were children. Yep. 

Unlike the rest of the filth-spewing demons, Al doesn’t appreciate racism or sexism. He thinks himself a feminist for his day...despite also having killed women and children. Keep in mind he’s also from the 30s, so he’s as “progressive” as people could be for back then, AND he believes that his partial native ancestry means it’s okay to call himself a ‘wendigo’.

In reference to an oooooooooooold ref sheet Viv made for Alastor back in the day, Deerlastor gets shot in the head and dismembered a lot but always gets up like nothing’s wrong.

Alastor does not like electroswing. He likes jazz, doowop, twist, show jingles, and lots of American Folk ballads. You know, the stuff they’d jam the radio’s with back in the 30s.

Big influences on my Alastor are They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, American Murder Song, My Friend Dahmer (a graphic novel), Llamas with Hats and Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. 

(Ima thinking of renaming my Hazbin gang to better distinguish them between the canon. Alastor’s the only one who won’t be renamed though, just probably spelled a different way. (Alystar, Alaster, Alastar))

#alastor hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel rewritten #the radio demon #rewrite #TW: GORE #tw: cannibalism #tw: child abuse #tw: animal death #tw: ero guro #tw: vore

[nevertickleasleepingbadger]

Re-sorting the Weasleys

Ok first installment of a re-sorting series! One of the biggest weaknesses of the HP universe is the very flat, one sided sorting. Brave=Gryffindor, Smart=Ravenclaw, Kind=Hufflepuff, Cunning (Evil??)=Slytherin I understand that for some of the plot devices to work, certain characters had to be in certain houses, but it always came off as lazy to me that all the Weasleys were in Gryffindor (for decades???). I honestly never really understood whole families going into one house in general- considering how different all these people are, did the Sorting Hat just give up and assign all gingers to the red house? ANYWAY. Here’s my defense of where I think they should go, based on the fandom’s collective interpretations of the houses. And many thanks to @flockdynamics​, for your discussion and help!

Arthur Weasley- Ravenclaw

At first, Arthur comes off as this very goofy character. Which he is, no doubt, but this man is also a genius- his whole job is spent undoing charms and hexes on muggle objects which undoubtedly involves creativity and skill. He is constantly tinkering and coming up with really inventive adjustments and improvements on objects- objects that few wizards understand the workings of at all! I saw a Weasley appreciation post awhile back that mentioned Arthur’s obsession with batteries and how he could be looking into the possibility of storing magical energy and I 100% believe this to be true. He’s not just collecting these items because they look fun, he’s studying them and trying to figure out how they work and how he can incorporate magic into muggle inventions. And he goes through the effort to write loopholes into his own laws so that what he’s doing isn’t strictly illegal which just kills me. One of the true hallmarks of Ravenclaws, beyond just plain intelligence, is cleverness and ingenuity (and a constant desire to learn and push the boundaries of understanding). Ravenclaws aren’t just interested in things you can learn from books and they encourage out-of-the-box thinking. One of the first things he does when he meets anyone connected to muggles is to immediately start asking questions and learning. Also don’t forget that he wrote (co-wrote?) the Muggle Protection Act. His demeanor is jubilant and laid back and he certainly shows great bravery at times, but his baseline behavior is to be in the background, steady and confident and pushing the boundaries in his own way. He is a great source of comfort to his family and to Harry. He always takes Harry seriously and does his best to protect him in the ways he can. In the muggle world, he would totally be that spacey college professor whose office is a mess with random artifacts and weird comics pinned up everywhere, but when you talk to them you realize they are about 10x smarter than you. Molly Weasley- Hufflepuff Ah, Molly- the badger indeed. Loving and fiercely protective. We hardly ever get to see Molly outside of the context of motherhood, but I imagine we see the worst of her temper as she attempts to raise 7 children amidst two wars. I think the Molly underneath all the stress is strong, empathetic, and comforting. We see her unkindness towards Fleur do a 180 as soon as she realizes that Fleur isn’t someone she needs to protect Bill from. She might not get points for patience, but she is certainly stubborn! Overall, Molly is deeply emotional and she keeps her emotions close to the surface. She is soft (in a good way) and warm and just unbelievably capable. The intensity of her kindness towards Harry (knitting him a sweater his first year even though she had only once briefly met him because she guessed, presumably from Ron’s letters, that he needed a family). That’s the kind of person Molly is.  Bill Weasley- Ravenclaw I struggled a bit with Bill because the age gap between Harry and Bill might skew our perception of him a bit. Bill is certainly the cool, calm, and collected older brother. The hair, the earring, the swagger- I absolutely adore Bill. Bill always comes off as a bit reserved- not shy but just someone who doesn’t say more than they have to. But this could just be his age and maturity compared to his younger siblings. His family’s obvious disdain for his fiance, Fleur, seems to roll off his back and we rarely see him raise his voice or lose his cool. He is just an incredibly competent man and wizard. Skills with curse breaking and wards really scream Ravenclaw to me- these are skills that take perseverance and creativity to master- something that might not mesh well with the brute force and brashness of a Gryffindor. He is obviously someone who can work with Goblins, which tells me he is tactful and careful and must have paid attention in History of Magic. And how could I forget, Head Boy and 12 Outstanding OWLs. Slowclap for Bill Weasley, everyone. Charlie Weasley- Hufflepuff?? Who knows because it’s a crime we have almost nothing to go on with this fabulous character. A well built, quidditch playing, dragon wrangler?? Cmon JK Rowling- we need more Charlie Weasley. His love for Care of Magical Creatures automatically makes me gravitate towards Hufflepuff (Hagrid is my next big installment post, don’t worry) and the little we see of him shows us a popular, warm, and dedicated guy. But that’s all I can really say! Percy Weasley- Slytherin I know this one is going to be controversial so let me start out by saying this is partially based on a rejection of JKR’s version of Slytherin. I’m not sure if we are just supposed to blame Harry’s unreliable POV, but Slytherin is a mess. So if we strip away some of the ugliest caricatures of the house, Slytherins are crafty, resourceful, driven, and deeply protective of tradition. Percy is seriousssss. He’s a snob, absolutely. He sees everything as an opportunity and he feels he is fighting an uphill battle to separate himself from his family, who don’t share his commitment to self-betterment. He bleeds ambition and unfortunately, because of the political climate that he grows up in, he has the perfect personality to get swept up in government corruption. He realizes his mistakes, but he is prideful and it takes him awhile to face his family and own up to them. We see him full of regret but not yet able to apologize at Christmas during HBP, and of course his arc comes full circle at the Battle of Hogwarts. Tradition and correctness are very important to Percy and he needs constant validation that he is in control. He is in a bit of an awkward age gap with his siblings and I think often ends up as the odd man out and as such, he overcompensates by trying to rise above the chaos of his family and he isolates himself in the process. Percy is also bullied relentlessly by Fred and George, and this really hardens him and pushes him further away. I think it is probably good that he wasn’t sorted into Slytherin in canon, because the divide between Percy and the other Weasleys is already wide and it would have really hurt Percy in the long run. But that being said, JKR wrote the perfect Slytherin with Percy, she just didn’t act on it. He could never have survived as the odd man out in his family in Slytherin, but in a different universe, he fits. Fred & George- Gryffindor I struggled with them because in a way, I wanted to split them up because I think they really can encompass more than one house but I think that F&G are a FORCE together and need to stay as such. I was originally leaning towards Ravenclaw for them just based on the extreme wit and creativity they possess, but as @flockdynamics pointed out to me, I think their intentions are very important. Life is a joke for these two and it’s full of color and noise. They are whip smart and very ambitious and honestly would have thrived in any house- I don’t see them letting house boundaries define them (especially if we cast aside the Gryffindor ancestry of the Weasleys). But their inventions and ingenuity don’t stem from a desire to research and push the boundaries of wizard invention. They just want to make stuff and blow shit up and have a good time. And sure, they want to build a business and make the money they never had growing up, but making people happy and bringing humor into the world are their #1 goals. They are brave in the most foolhardy, Gryffindor way (U-No-Poo anyone?) and never back down from a challenge. They act before thinking and can be bullies (their treatment of Percy, Ron, and sometimes Hermione definitely comes off this way). They often don’t stop to consider emotional tact because they really just live in their own world where everything is fun.  Ron- Gryffindor In all her missteps with the houses, I think JKR spent a lot of time making the golden trio fit into her views of Gryffindor traits. Ron is often tactless and self-centered but he is also deeply empathetic (especially towards the end as he’s maturing). I think bravery is an oversimplification of Gryffindor- I think Gryffindor to me is more about being just. They definitely exhibit overt bravery by going off on adventures or putting themselves in danger for loved ones. But moreover, Gryffindors are motivated by an unerring sense of justice and sense of how things should be- they often can’t see the nuances or slow down to consider the best course of action before diving in. Ron’s relationship with Harry is one of the best teenage boy relationships I’ve seen. Ron is there for Harry and legit willing to fight by his side time and time again. He knows when to be supportive, when to give Harry space, when to argue, when to capitulate. His misgivings with Hermione are a different story of dumb teenage hormones and misunderstandings. Ron gives 100% and puts his life on the line for his friends. He really struggles with deep feelings of inadequacy compared to his brothers and struggles to find a place for himself being in Harry’s and their shadows. This really overshadows his underlying personality and makes him act out. I can actually see adult Ron acting much more like a Hufflepuff: stalwart, dependable, and caring but also fiercely protective of those he’s close to. But his personality growing up is definitely Gryffindor. Ginny- Slytherin?? But probably Gryffindor Ginny, Ginny, Ginny. man this one is hard. One look at my blog will probably tell you she is one of my favorite characters, but she is also one that suffers from Harry’s unreliable POV. She went through unimaginable trauma at the age of 11 and was saved by none other than her girlhood crush/brother’s best friend/famous quasi family member. It’s an odd position for her to be in. She is broken and deeply embarrassed and spends time rebuilding herself away from Harry. Which is completely understandable, but it means the audience suffers from not getting to know Ginny until much later and she keeps herself at arms length with Harry until their relationship begins. I think Ginny is largely misunderstood by the fandom and the complete obliteration of her character by the movies doesn’t help. BUT, damn if Ginny is not a BAMF. Sneaky, witty, sometimes harsh and sharp but also loving and bubbly and effervescent. She is the embodiment of “bitch, I won’t hesitate”. Growing up with 6 brothers really pushes Ginny to be rough, unapologetic, and outspoken and we see that side of her often- berating Fleur, hexing/crashing into Zacharias, tripping Ron, etc. Her friendship with Luna gives us glimpses into the softer sides of Ginny. As much as fans love Luna, it always strikes me as odd that they easily dismiss the person Luna seems closest to as boring and mean. Luna seems like an excellent judge of character and not one to seek out negative people (but I digress). I think Ginny is a complex character that the books barely scratch the surface of. By the end, Ginny really exudes confidence and she bravely takes on part of the role of running the DA during the darkest year at Hogwarts. In a world away from the blood purity nonsense, I would totally put her in Slytherin. Her tenacity, perseverance, and cunning really match up well with many of the things Slytherins claim to possess and she shows us time and time again she is willing to push social boundaries to make herself heard/seen. The prejudices associated with Slytherin muddy the waters so in canon, Gryffindor is a good place for her. 

#harry potter #hogwarts #hogwarts houses #sorting hat #hogwarts sorting #the weasleys #arthur weasley #molly weasley #bill weasley #charlie weasley #percy weasley #fred weasley #george weasley #ron weasley #ginny weasley #gryffindor #ravenclaw #hufflepuff #slytherin #original content

[peaky-yamyam]

Neighbours: Part Twenty-Two

The Payout

Part One | Part Twenty-One | Part Twenty-Two |  Part Twenty-Three - The Final Chapter |

I replay the moment we stood before the car for a long time; Tommy’s hands enclosing mine, caressing the skin of my fingers gently. I wonder, had Tommy not cut me off, where my words were heading. They'd begun to tumble from my mouth before I realised what was happening, a confession that perhaps neither of us was ready to hear; I love you.

There are times when I’m barely sure I mean them; when I think about the implications, when I think about Grace who Tommy had loved so dearly and about Alfred who had become my world and who had broken me when he passed. It doesn’t feel like that, Tommy is not my world, but my world feels more complete with him in it. His home feels like my home, helped no doubt by the amount of time I'm spending there. I wonder if perhaps love is different for each person it's directed at? My life has hardly been rife with examples for me draw from, but when Tommy and I share a joke and he laughs, when I catch him watching me with Charlie, a smile on his face, or when he captures me from behind in his arms and presses a kiss to my neck, it feels as if nothing could ever hurt me again and the words bubble in the back of my throat, desperate to escape. I force them down though, deciding that until I'm certain, no utterances of love will leave my mouth.

A few weeks after the gala Tommy catches me as I return from my early morning checks on the horses and invites me into his office.

“Sit down Georgiana,” he orders, “I have some things I need to explain.”

I listen, enraptured as he describes the reasons for the bounty on Roderick and Whitley's head; a litany of sordid offences had been committed by the two of them. Tommy slides the files he has on them towards me and as I read through them I’m met with descriptions of numerous accounts of assault, bribery, blackmail, extortion and solicitation, none of which particularly shock me having known Whitley well, and even from the few times I'd spoken to Roderick, it's no stretch of the imagination to picture him partaking in these activities as well. The only thing that surprises me in fact is the dates, some incidents dating back years, a couple stretching into the decades.

“Why now Tommy?”

He doesn't answer immediately, but unfolds a letter and hands it to me. It's a letter thanking him for his service, signed unmistakably by Winston Churchill.

“You can't be serious?” I mutter to myself, rereading the letter to be sure.

“It would seem that their intention was to create a backing with the richest and most powerful people and companies in the country and that's not the kind of sway you want two politicians to have, especially when they are big opposers to Churchill progressing his political career any further,” Tommy elaborates.

“Of course…” The irony of the situation is not lost on me; Winston using the biggest power of them all - The Crown - to quash the inexcusable power Whitley and Roderick were concocting. Winston with The Crown on his side is dangerous. But perhaps not as dangerous, it would seem as Whitley and Roderick.  

I read the letter a final time.  “‘Yet again, your assistance has been so gratefully received.’ Yet again, Tommy? What does that mean?”

“This isn't the first time I've been asked to do something like this,” he answers, so matter-of-factly that my blood boils.

“How many times?”

“It doesn't matter.”

“And what exactly do you get out of risking your life and reputation?” I fume, folding the letter up messily and flinging it towards Tommy.

“Licences, money, he saved my life once…”

“And what have you been so graciously gifted this time?”

“Money.”

Despite wanting to fly out of my chair and scream, I manage to keep myself composed. “Money? Tommy, you already have more money than you know what to do with! This whole mess, all the stress and danger, for more fucking money! Unbelievable, I knew Winston could be a prick but this-”

“You know him?” Tommy interrupts and I can see his mind whirring as he contemplates how this could help him in the future.

“He was a friend of Alfred’s, I wouldn't say I know him well, but yes I know him… Tommy just answer me this, why? Why would you do this just for money?”

He looks at me as if he's already told me the answer a hundred times, his eyes squint and his mouth draws into a tight line. “Because I don't have a fucking choice Georgiana.”

I decide not to argue with him, I’ll never understand the full implications of his work and I’ve accepted that. Besides, my anger is directed elsewhere and shouting at Tommy will do nothing to placate it.

“What are you planning?” Tommy asks, a trace of humour on his face and in his voice.

I shake my head and keep my lips tightly closed.

“Are you thinking about how you can get a meeting with Churchill?”

“Oh I don't need a meeting Tommy, I'll turn up at his fucking house!”

He's almost smiling now as he swipes a finger across his lips. “Georgiana, calm down. The agreement we have is beneficial for all parties, so don't barge in there, in a rage, and ruin it.”

“I shan't promise anything,” I reply, already out my chair.

“Georgiana,” he warns. “I know you're angry but listen to me. Do not ruin what I've built with him.”

“I won't.”

“Promise me?”

“I promise.”

And with that I'm out the door.

As it happens all it takes is the mention of my name to Winston’s secretary and I'm permitted a meeting at his office as soon as I can make it to London. With Jones’ erratic driving I make it there by early evening and am ushered through without delay to Winston’s office.

The door is open as I approach and before I'm fully over the threshold he calls out to me.

“Georgiana! How delightful it is to see you.” He rounds his desk as I enter and pulls me in for a hug. “It's been a long time.”

“Mmm, Alfred’s funeral,” I reply solemnly, dampening his previously jovial greeting.

“Of course, of course. How have you been? Word on the street is your stepping out with a certain Mr Shelby?”

“That's right.”

“And I assume that he's informed you of our arrangement?”

“He has.” I try to keep my anger contained, to channel it articulately and calmly, however my snappy answers are falling short of what I had planned.

“Am I right in thinking that’s the reason you've come to see me today?”

“It is.”

Luckily it seems that Winston remembers the few times we've met previously and the stories I know Alfred had told about me, and as such he has no illusions as to my true feelings.

“Very well. Say what you have to say,” he prompts and I explode as if his words a match dropped on a pile of gunpowder.

“You have no right to keep calling on Tommy the way you do, asking him to murder and framing it as if it's some great service to the country, when in fact he's just doing you a favour so you can have an easy ride! It's ludicrous!” Once I start I can't stop, all the points I'd spent the journey here organising into an eloquent argument flash through my mind chaotically before expelling themselves from my mouth. “This has nothing to do with the welfare of King and Country, this is all about you! You couldn't possibly get your own hands dirty could you, oh no, not Winston Churchill, you're too good for that. You get some pawn you know you can control with blackmail and bribery to do it all. Then when Tommy does gamble his life for you, the reward he's given is what? More cash that he can add to the mountains he already has? You're an utter shit Winston!”

As I return to silence the air hangs heavy between us. Winston sits with hands folded neatly in his lap and waits until my breathing slows a little and I calm enough to lean back in my seat.

“Finished?” he asks and I nod. “Good. From what I hear Whitley threatened you with gun.”

I nod again.

“That must have been terrifying and I imagine it stirs up a lot of negative feelings. Thomas must have explained the nature of our relationship, he benefits from it greatly and the accounts I hear of him lead me to believe that he rather enjoys the sport of it all. But, Alfred was a dear friend and as his widow, if you want me to cease contact with Mr Shelby, then I'll do so.”

“No,” I mumble, covering my eyes with my hand as I try to organise my thoughts again. He's right in his insinuation that my anger is misplaced, spurred on my experience at the gala and my confused feeling towards Tommy which, as I refuse to feel angry at Tommy, have manifested themselves now in my deluded trip down here and my outburst. I feel like a child, petulant and immature, unable to process her feelings in a mature way. “Tommy told me not to ruin anything,” I add. “In fact he didn't really want me to come.”

“But he didn't stop you?”

“Of course not. He knows he couldn't.”

That garners a small chuckle from Winston and his eyes grow soft. All is forgiven.

Regardless I still feel the need to apologise.

“Winston I am so sorry for what I said. It was out of order.”

He waves his hand casually. “No matter, do you feel better at least?”

“A little.”

“This business with Whitley and Roderick is over and I urge you to forget about it. However, you do realise that stepping out with Mr Shelby means this kind of thing is always going to occur?”

“I know that. I've accepted that it's Tommy's life and who he is.”

“You care about him a lot, you can see it in your face when you speak of him.”

“I do…”

“But you feel guilty,” Winston concludes.

Perhaps it should have obvious to me, that my hesitation with voicing my feelings to Tommy is born from the guilt of moving on, but it's only when the reason is laid in front of me so clearly that it becomes apparent.

“You shouldn't,” he adds, “Alfred loved you dearly, long before you loved him-”

“You just said I shouldn't feel guilty!” I interrupt.

“Let me finish. I simply mean that all he wanted was for you to be happy, to have a life you enjoyed. Although you might not think it, I hear a great deal of your comings and goings through gossip and I know Alfred would proud of you for making your life what you want it to be.”

“The gossip you’ve heard must have been relayed through the mouths of those incredibly favourable of me, because I have no doubt he'd be ashamed of me. The past few months I've done nothing but be a disgrace to my family's name and title,” I scoff.

“Perhaps. But I get the impression Georgiana,  that for once you're being entirely your true self.” His attention shifts slightly to the paperwork in front of him and I can tell he wants to end this conversation on some sort of profound comment. “Feeling guilty over the feelings of the dead is pointless, especially when it's unprecedented.”

The conversation is over, my feelings have been addressed and he has nothing more to say so I stand to leave but I can’t let him have the last word.

“You'll pay Tommy more money,” I order.

“Thomas has been given his due.”

“His due? Men have been Knighted for less than what Tommy has given. You’ll pay him more.”

“Goodbye Georgiana,” Winston says, but there is no malice or annoyance behind his words, rather a playful cadence that spreads to his whole face and I leave his office feeling lighter and more composed than I have for a while.

#peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders fanfic #tommy shelby imagine #tommy shelby fanfiction #peaky blinders fanfiction #tommy shelby fanfic #neighbours

[peckhampeculiar]

This is not a drill

WORDS: EMMA FINAMORE; PHOTO: LIMA CHARLIE

From gaining the support of international music stars and getting meetings with cabinet ministers, to arrests and accusations of dangerous behaviour from members of the public, it’s fair to say Extinction Rebellion is making its mark.

Known as XR for short, the group describes itself as an international “non-violent civil disobedience activist movement”, which wants governments to declare a “climate and ecological emergency” and take immediate action to address the climate crisis.

In April the group “shut down” London for 10 whole days – blocking bridges and using peaceful, mass civil disobedience, resulting in more than 1,000 arrests.

In June, activists blocked traffic in New York, and chained themselves outside Angela Merkel’s chancellery in Berlin. In Paris, police used pepper spray to clear activists blocking a bridge over the Seine. In July, XR used brightly coloured boats to stop traffic in Cardiff, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds and London.

All this activity has brought them a lot of attention, both negative and positive. When a hacker stole a cache of unreleased Radiohead recordings, instead of paying the demanded ransom, lead singer Thom Yorke released the music online and pledged all the proceeds to XR.

The group has gained meetings with people like Michael Gove – then secretary of state for the environment – but has also drawn criticism for blocking roads required for emergency services like ambulances, and in July more than 30 activists were charged with a range of public order offences in London. Planned drone activity over the summer – in response to proposals for a third runway at Heathrow – was cancelled after police warned those involved they could face life sentences and urged campaigners to reconsider.

Clare Farrell – one of XR’s founding members – is in it for the long haul though. Having been involved in activism since the early 2000s, the threat of arrest, for her, pales in comparison to the threat of climate change.

Having studied and worked in fashion, even setting up her own apparel brand in a Bussey Building studio, how did she come to this seemingly contrasting world?

In the early to mid 2000s Clare was part of the Space Hijackers, which she describes as a group of “anti-capitalist troublemakers”, parking tanks outside arms fairs and throwing parties on the Circle line. They were aligned with Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping – a radical performance group based in New York, focusing on mass consumerism – and other groups, with lots of focus on consumer culture and stemming people’s addiction to shopping.

So when Clare started working in fashion, she tried to do so sustainably. “I did a fashion degree and I wrote about the environment,” she says. “And everyone told me it was really boring and unimportant.” She wrote about how much water cotton needs to be manufactured, and what she says are “tens of thousands of people poisoned to death every year by the cotton industry”.

How did she square that anti-capitalist, anti mass consumerism, environmentally aware mindset with the fashion world? “Well, they [fashion and her activism concerns] kind of should be mutually exclusive, that’s why I’m not doing much with my brand – I’m a one-woman business so there’s a big deficit if you’re just not interested in selling stuff. I feel like I like developing a good product but I couldn’t give a sh*t about selling it.”

Clare talks about the difficulty of working consciously in fashion, saying big brands don’t follow through on promises while small brands suffer from a lack of scale, so she bounced between the two for a while before deciding that “green capitalism is absolute sh*te, people need to get a grip because everybody is going to die and it’s all been a joke. It’s not interesting to make organic T-shirts if you’re expecting an uninhabitable planet by the end of the century.”

Then in 2017 she met one of the other main founding members of XR, Roger Hallam – a PhD researcher at King’s College London who was on a hunger strike to demand the university stopped investing in fossil fuels and who had been testing out various civil disobedience tactics for years. He went two weeks without food, after which King’s agreed to divest from fossil fuels by 2022 and to be a fully carbon neutral institution by 2025.

Inspired, Clare went along to a meeting. “I went thinking, ‘Loads of people will be there because it’s really interesting’, but there were like, five people,” she laughs. She started blocking roads, testing out tactics like Roger had done, as part of a campaign called Stop Killing Londoners, calling for radical action on air pollution.

“Londoners breathe illegal air,” she says. “They have done for about a decade. It’s obscene, I have total disgust for the way public health and the environment is viewed by politicians and the way it doesn’t meet. There are 9,500 deaths in this city every year linked to air pollution. And that’s not part of the climate conversation.”

What she says definitely seems to be backed up by research. In June, Public Health England reported that the rate of fatalities linked to breathing in killer particles rose from 6.4 per cent to 6.5 per cent in 2017. That followed a jump from 5.6 per cent to 6.4 per cent the previous year, suggesting that efforts to clean up particulate pollution are having little impact. Before that the death rate had been falling since 2010.

Clare says angrily: “If someone drives a car into someone on a pavement outside the Houses of Parliament, how many thousands of pounds are spent erecting a barrier overnight and keeping it there, and debating rerouting roads and changing the traffic system? And yet for the sake of nearly 10,000 deaths a year they won’t put any effort in at all?

“Politicians say the public just accept those deaths as inevitable, as part of ‘progress’. I don’t think they f***ing do! People just feel like they can’t do anything about it.”

Hoping to draw attention to their cause, Stop Killing Londoners organised a series of what Clare describes as “little experiments”, testing how long it was possible to block a road before being arrested.

Then members of the group began pushing their civil disobedience further, getting sentenced for spraying chalk spray on City Hall, for example – then breaking bail and going back to do it again and again – or going on hunger strikes in prison and writing to Sadiq Khan from inside.

“In some ways it’s really not cool to say, ‘Get arrested and that’ll fix it’, because it won’t fix it, at least on its own,” acknowledges Clare. “But when you say, ‘There’s no way I’m willing to stand by and watch you do this without doing anything, and you can chuck me in jail if you want’, it shows your commitment, and it gets you the sympathy of other people, who realise the seriousness of the situation and that we’re willing to make a very serious sacrifice for it.”

Clare says non-violent struggles are about winning hearts and minds, winning the intellectual and emotional argument. “You can’t beat the state on the ground,” she explains. “If they send the army in, what are you going to do? You won’t win a fight that way. And what we’ve already done is to be able to shift the language, that’s a battle in itself.”

For XR, the term “climate change” is problematic, only helpful to states and big business. “If you term it like that it sounds somehow less alarming, like ‘Maybe we didn’t do it ourselves’. And that’s been very clearly steered while the public have been confused and all the fake science and bullsh*t campaigns and the PR and the billions that the fossil fuel industry has spent on PR – all of that, swinging the language round.”

But now “climate emergency” is entering the public vernacular, which for activists is a far more fitting term. It’s no coincidence that this shift has taken place since the establishment of XR in May 2018, after activist network Rising Up committed to working together on environmental issues and ran a series of talks across the UK signing people up to support them in taking action.

The light touch civil disobedience tested out by people like Clare and Roger Hallam – such as spraying something on a wall then sitting next to it waiting to be arrested – is the bedrock of their work. But to make an impact, it’s needed en masse. How have XR persuaded so many people to stand with them in acts like this? For Clare, it’s all about the national talks the group ran.

“If you’re going to ask someone to go and break the law with you, you’re not going to get them to say that on Facebook. You have to talk to them and they have to feel that they trust you and that it’s going to be worth doing. In the world of activism and organising, people overstate the importance of online. It doesn’t help you get proper support, people who are going to put their body on the line. That involves real time and real connection.”

Clare’s well aware that this isn’t something everyone can commit to, regardless of how concerned they are about the environment. “It’s not possible for everybody to engage in that act,” she says. “There’s always been a conversation among the Rising Up community about recognising privilege, but also about using it.

“A lot of criticism we’ve received says, ‘Well not everyone can go and get arrested’, because it’s more difficult for them, or because they’ll be treated really brutally because they’re not white, or who can take time off work, or who can have a bad DBS check. And it’s all true, it’s not fair. But it’s not fair right now, and it’s going to get a lot less fair really quickly. The people who can’t afford to take the time off work are going to have to face a doubling in food pricing in about 10 years.”

She says that if you’re lucky enough to be able to afford to make sacrifices, then you should consider it, and that the group acknowledges that there’s work to be done to help those who feel excluded by their brand of action.

“There are people like carers at home who were saying, ‘I can’t come out on the streets, how can I be part of this?’ People from communities of colour who said, ‘We think it’s too dangerous for us to do this but how can we be a part of it?’ We need to get our heads together in the coming months to think more and more about how that looks because lots of people want to recognise themselves as in rebellion but are not able to do some of the things that we’ve been doing.”

Clare also talks about working to persuade industries and sectors like culture, teaching, music and construction to declare an emergency.

“Concrete is also killing you,” she says. “It’s got a huge carbon footprint and doesn’t stop, and it never disappears. Massive carbon emissions from the concrete industry hardly ever get scrutinised, but it’s really, really not good. And its use just goes up and up.” Six XR activists were arrested in July after chaining themselves to the entrances of a concrete factory in east London.

Despite the huge task ahead of XR, Clare also says it’s a magical feeling to be part of building something so big that it takes on a life of its own. “You think, ‘There used to be 10 of us on Marylebone Road feeling no one’s paying us any attention.’”

Well, they are now.

#extinction rebellion #peckham #peckham news #peckham newspaper #peckham peculiar #local news london #london news #southeast london

[pluckyredhead]

Daredevil 101: Typhoid Mary, Part 2

CONTENT WARNING: Same as last time - dubcon, attempted sexual assault, sexual violence, infidelity, child abuse, ableist depictions of mental illness.

When we last left the Nocenti/Romita run of Daredevil, Matt had begun cheating on Karen with the sweet, innocent Mary Walker, little guessing her other identity as the unhinged killer Typhoid. He was also about to face off against Foggy in the courtroom, via a proxy at least, with Foggy representing the slimy corporation Kelco, whose illegal toxic waste dumping had blinded a little boy named Tyrone, and Matt coaching Tyrone’s inexperienced lawyer.

Foggy, canonically one of the best and most expensive lawyers in the MU, somewhat pityingly expects to run rings around his opposition - until Matt walks in (just as an audience member), and he completely falls apart:

Get a haircut, Matt.

While the jury deliberates, Matt goes to the apartment Foggy now shares with Glori to rub it in:

“What happened to your morality, Foggy? P.S. I have literally attempted murder multiple times."

Foggy doesn’t say a word in this whole sequence, which just...baby. My sweet baby. MATT’S GOOD OPINION MEANS SO MUCH TO HIM.

Anyway Matt concludes his speechifying by offering Foggy a job at the clinic and is about to leave when Glori hauls him into the other room and reads him the riot act, pointing out that Matt is acting like this at least in part because he’s pissed that Foggy and Glori started dating after Glori dumped Matt. Matt ignores this and high-and-mighties his way out of the apartment, and...that’s, um, kind of the last we see of Glori for a really long time??? Which is so weird??? I love you, Glori, I’m sorry that you, like most of Matt’s love interests, eventually come to a Tragic End (TM).

The jury deliberation goes on for long enough to Daredevil to fight Typhoid again, but just as she’s about to kill him:

Mary loves Matt so much (apparently...this is not a relationship that has much emotional weight, since we basically only ever see them sucking face while neglecting a blind child and never, like, having things in common) that she’s managed to exert some sort of control over Typhoid for the first time. Matt, meanwhile, is still completely oblivious.

Matt dries off, and the jury reconvenes:

SOMEONE GET TYRONE AWAY FROM MATT, JESUS.

Meanwhile, Foggy finally does what he’s known he has to do for issues and issues now, and quits.

(That second panel in the second row is a reference to Fisk having attempted to pay off a juror, which Matt managed to put a stop to.)

Anyway, Tyrone’s family wins their lawsuit! Hooray! Fisk is furious, and also increasingly jealous of Typhoid’s toying with Matt:

I’m pretty sure this is supposed to make us thing Typhoid is even more evil and disgusting, which, you can move right along with your slut-shaming and your fatphobia, Daredevil comics.

This raises the question of whether Fisk is committing infidelity here, since he is technically still married, though Vanessa is currently institutionalized in Europe due to the trauma she sustained at the hands of the, um, sewer people. Or, what I find more interesting - whether Fisk thinks he’s committing infidelity, because the overall morality of having what is technically an affair when one’s partner is ill and indefinitely incapable of consent is certainly not something I feel equipped to make a call on. But Fisk is very invested in the sanctity of marriage - note his meddling in the Nelson marriage - and I don’t think he's shown with anyone besides Vanessa or Typhoid. It’s also worth noting that Matt, who is in a similar situation many years later, does consider himself to have cheated.

And speaking of cheating!

Any guy who ever said to me “Oh, darling...you’re like a child” would immediately find himself dumped so hard, even if he did look like Matt Murdock/Charlie Cox/kind of a redheaded Robert Redford in terrible sunglasses. But this is what I’m talking about when I say that Mary is all supplicant and innocent and sweet, and also what I’m talking about when I say this is a full-on affair where Matt is considering leaving Karen, and not just the occasional dubcon-y stolen kiss.

Also, for those of you who were not yet born in the 80s, that dress is real.

Typhoid has realized that Mary won’t allow her to kill Daredevil - oh, and Fisk explicitly told her not to, because he wants Matt broken, not dead - but she decides to get someone else to do her dirty work anyway, and uses Fisk’s IBM Henchman Database to hire all of Matt’s rogues from this particular era (none particularly interesting...Bullet, Bushwacker, I’m already asleep) to beat the shit out of him instead:

That last line is such a cliche I can’t even make a joke about it. I’m so tired.

Brief interlude for Matt and Karen to rescue some missing kids with the help of the Fatboys, and then for Matt to be adorable:

I love the consistent canon that Matt is great with kids, and this scene is so heartbreaking and sweet (even if Butch hasn’t shown up since like 1990 and Matt hasn’t thought about him once, but what can you do?).

ANYWAY. Back to Typhoid destroying Matt’s life!

There are a lot of covers during this run with Matt in a tattered costume and a subject position, but this one might be the most explicit - especially with the hints of pink on the torn underside of the costume and the massive phallic object between Mary’s legs. (And the liquid trickling down Matt’s face towards his open mouth, can’t forget that!) Over and over again we see Matt weak and in peril, defeated and violated, both by Mary and later by the gender-bending Mephisto.

What strikes me is that Matt’s not just victimized here - he’s sexualized. He’s objectified. Matt’s always been a fairly lithe, graceful hero as opposed to your Supermans, your Caps, your Punishers, and in these covers - which, remember, are a marketing tool, meant to entice customers to buy - he’s portrayed as beautiful and eroticized in an entirely submissive, feminine way. And this was during the chest-thumping, uber macho, xenophobic 80s!

But it’s part of the handwringing, too. The fact that he’s an eroticized victim is part of what makes Typhoid so threatening. If part of Matt didn’t “want it,” she wouldn’t be scary. (PLEASE NOTE I am not saying that sexual assault survivors want their assault in any way! I’m talking about the unhealthy construction of this narrative and the underlying anxiety of it, especially to the straight male reader.)

And while we’re talking about the underlying anxiety of changing gender roles and also power dynamics and also kink...

Yeah, I don’t even know what to do with that last panel.

This is after Typhoid has sicced Matt’s rogues on him and they’ve all beaten him to hell and back. He starts hallucinating that his father’s ghost is yelling at him in an alley, and is then rolled by some random petty criminals and beaten further. So yeah, he’s calling some random mook “daddy” there.

I honestly don’t know if it’s intended to be kinky, but...I kind of think it is? Again, so much of this run is about the dangerous subversion of gender roles. Early on Matt gets hit on by a dude in a seedy bar (“Well, well, well...red spandex, tight as a drum. You pitching or catching, Redman?”); in the next post, he’ll kiss someone who normally presents as male and it will UPEND THE MORAL FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE, I’M NOT KIDDING.

So yeah...when I look at Matt here - chest bared, head bowed, legs spread, calling the person beating him “Daddy” - I can’t help thinking that this is yet another lesson on the dangerous enticement that is male submission.

Matt eventually tangles with Typhoid while still in this sorry state, and she manages to push Mary down far enough to strike the killing blow and throw him off a bridge (though she does shed a solitary tear over it):

Matt doesn’t die. (Surprise! They do still publish Daredevil comics, after all. In fact, Matt’s never totally died and come back, though he has faked his death at least four times that I can think of off the top of my head.) He just lies there under the bridge until he’s attacked by an evil vacuum cleaner.

...Yeah, so this had something to do with the big company-wide “Inferno” crossover, which I didn’t read, but all the electronics in the city come to life and attack people? And there’s a vacuum cleaner under this bridge?

Anyway Matt fights it of, and then who should show up to take him to the hospital?

Why, it’s Typhoid Mary of the incredibly obvious name! Judging by her hair not being in weird inexplicable dreads and her speech bubbles being white and not pink - and the fact that Matt recognizes her as Mary - I guess she’s attained some sort of compromise between her two personalities for the moment?

Meanwhile, Karen has been keeping the Fatboys safe with the help of a guest-starring Natasha and worrying herself sick over Matt’s disappearance. She’s confused when Mary shows up at the hospital to see Matt as well, and especially when Mary (who appears to be fully Mary now, no Typhoid) calmly tells Karen that she knows all about Karen but it’s Mary that he really loves:

Karen leaves the hospital in tears and doesn’t return to their apartment.

The city burns. Matt eventually hauls himself out of bed and fights demons until the crossover is (almost) over.

The legal clinic is closed on the basis of Matt operating without a license. The Fatboys hate Matt now for cheating on Karen. Mary was an illusion.

Matt’s reaching rock bottom, and he’ll hit it in the next adventure: Gay Panic Road Trip to Albany! There are genetically engineered pigs and straw feminists, it’s pretty exciting.

#daredevil #daredevil 101

[salemspoint-blog]

❝ No, I reject it because I do not believe in fairy tales about chakras or energy or the power of belief. We are made of matter and nothing more. You’re just another tiny, momentary speck within an indifferent universe. ❞

» Lucas Astor » Thirty-five » Witch » Unemployed » Charlie Cox

Physical Appearance —

Lucas doesn’t pick out his own clothing. He’s blind and when he was sighted, he didn’t care enough to do it. Therefore he looks very much like he stepped off the cover of a magazine. His wardrobe consists of well tailored suits, often in darker colors as he’s prone to dropping things or spilling them. He often tends to dress more on the formal side but treat his clothing like its meant to get dirty. Even his athletic clothing is more on the nice side, but just as prone to stains and getting dirty. His hypersensitivity means that the fabrics are very comfortable and soft. He has a very exorbitant dry cleaning bill. For the rest of his physical appearance it is very well maintained. His hair is trimmed and if he has scruff it’s intentional. His hands are often manicured, as too many callouses interferes with his magic. Lucas carries himself very well. This is both because his parents stressed proper posture and because he’s constantly adjusting his balance. Usually with the use of assistance of his magic. He’s a devotee of yoga, which he has found helps him immensely when it comes to dealing with the physical aspects of not being able to see the world. A very attractive man, he often has a smile on his face and cracks jokes a lot. Much of which was a front to cover up his trauma. Now a lot of it is just to get the upper hand with people. He enjoys being the smartest man in the room. Lucas is blind. His eyes do not function at all and are non-reactive to light. He has a scar that wraps around his eyes much like a blindfold. This is actually the physical manifestation of the protection spell he was trying to do, which backfired onto him. It blocked attempts at healing his eyes via magic until it was too late and the damage was permanent. The scar makes other witches uncomfortable as they recognize what it is and Lucas is careful to cover it with his sunglasses as much as he can. Lucas also always carries a collapsable cane. He’s discovered a way of ‘seeing’ that involves using the gravitational pull around him, but he has the cane to identify himself to others as a blind man.

Personality Traits —

♦ Innovative, genius and brave ♢ Ambitions, egotistical and selfish

Biography —

Lucas was born in two places at once. Quite accidentally (and unexpectedly) he was born on the border of Vermont and Montreal. Witches are fans of things like being two places at once, even if it’s on a technicality. In Lucas’ case, the additional clout was not even necessary. Lucas was born the only son of Michael and Sarah Astor, of the famed Astor Coven. As their only child, Lucas was heavily doted upon. As his skills improved, his sense of entitlement grew. His entitlement was matched only by his ambition. At first both were fostered by his parents and his elders, working to shape him into the leader they felt their Coven needed. Lucas largely grew up in the confines of the Coven, often dreaming of being somewhere else. Finally his parents decided to allow him to travel, hoping that seeing the world would quell some of the unrest that was driving him towards increassingly dangerous magic. No sooner did Lucas depart the Coven House than he ran into Natalie Mercier. The young hunter immediately caught Lucas’ eye. While his family name had been enough to get him most witch girls, it worked against him with the hunter. However he was still able to charm her, leading to them having a passionate relationship. The relationship culminated when Lucas, realizing his feelings and the danger she regularly faced, attempted to perform a spell to protect her. During an eclipse, Lucas touched primordial magic. Unable to handle it, the spell blew up in his face–quite literally. The large dose of solar radiation changed the chemicals in his eyes and made them phototoxic, destroying his vision.

Lucas was rushed to the hospital and healers were called in. However, the powerful protection spell had backfired and had the inadvertent effect of blocking any healing magic put on him. Or any magic at all. Eventually it was clear that anything more would risk him losing his eyeballs themselves. Unwilling to take that chance, he ordered the healings to stop. His parents were desperate to help him and found the best schools to teach him to function as a blind man. Lucas chose the one farthest away from them. Initially he was overcome with depression, leading to an almost sucessful suicide attempt. It was only when he felt his magic that he decided to try to live and only when he learned to read that he was fully committed to it. For eight years Lucas learned to and eventually functioned well as a blind man. His magic was severely crippled but still there, slowly coming back. However the curse had left him with severe scarring and as a constant reminder that magic was limited. Other witches looked at him as a cautionary tale and feared him due to his scars. Lucas slowly re-learned how to use his magic before declaring his intentions to resume his coven duties. His family decided that to do that, he would need to show he could function in their world. Not handicap friendly, he was tasked with figuring out how to read his family’s grimmoires.

Lucas figured out that most of the old ink had traces of iron in it. By magnitizing it he was able to raise the image off the page and manipulate it, creating an imprint. He learned to do the same with pencil, though the led in that proved to be harder to work with. Lucas went one step farther and actually translated the pages into braille, creating a much easier way for him to read the books quickly. Inadvertently and quite by accident, he found a cause that would continue for years to come: making the magical world more accessible. Within his own coven though he was largley viewed as a warning. The stigma he claimed to feel, however, was mainly in his head and due more to how he viewed himself than actual prejudice. On the contrary, in actuality Lucas’ parents were thrilled he was alive at all, a joy that far eclipsed the fact that their son happened to have a curse on his face. But Lucas’ own trauma eclipsed that and colored his view of the events, leading to him treating his parents coldly for many years and blaming them for his decision to spend time far away from his Coven. Eventually as his father’s health began to fail, Lucas began to step up his pace in order to be ready to take over. But he still found it difficult to access parts of his magic, attributing it to his own handicaps. The unseen force in all of this was, of course, love. The hunter Lucas fell for came back into his life, bringing with her issues he had never truly dealt with. But it became clear, even to him, that he had never truly moved on. This culminated when she disappeared and Lucas looked for her, finding her near death. Without a second thought Lucas reached for the same magic to heal her, pulling her back and at a heavy cost to himself. His coven found them and brought them back. It didn’t take long to see the connection and though he had refused to tell his parents or elders who the hunter was, they figured it out. In yet another desperate move to save her, Lucas confessed his love and their intention to marry. Attempting to call him on his bluff the elders agreed but if the wedding took place very soon. Within two weeks they were married. For two years their lives were happy. Blissful even. Then one morning Lucas woke to find her side of the bed empty. She was gone. For the past few years, Lucas has been focused singularly on becoming a leader for his Coven. He’s taken on more and more of his father’s duties and is finally beginning to understand that his own limitations are not as uncommon as he told himself they were. In the wake of the Skinwalker crisis, his father’s health has begun to decline rapidly. During what should have been an easy spell, his father lost control of it and it backfired quite badly, landing both him and Lucas in the hospital during the ball. While he’s been released, it’s becoming clear that his father will not be and after six years, Lucas is finally going to have to take control of it from him.

#lucas astor #takenm #c.witch #charlie cox