#conductor may be there the most but i feel like they fit him well

[dr-imbadatnames-enstein]

unleashing my creations into the world of tumblr

#ahit #a hat in time #ahit conductor #ahit hat kid #ahit empress #ahit cooking cat #ahit mafia #ahit goofy mafia #ahit walrus captain #ahit vanessa #ahit prince #conductor may be there the most but i feel like they fit him well #lesbian cats my beloved #some of these are old so they look kinda iffy

[mageknight14]

Exploring the Parallels Between Our Favorite (and Only) Conductors

One thing I think is really cool about the Kitaniji and Shiba parallels is how they both idolized the Composers/Higher Plane members they were in contact with but take that idolization into different directions and how these are reflected in Neku and Rindo’s individual flaws.

First we have Kitaniji, who idolized Joshua and put him and his status as Composer on a pedestal, and thus, in an attempt to try and save Shibuya, conducted a plan to try and rob the city of its individuality and make it a hive mind to, in his view, appease the Composer. However, what Kitaniji failed to consider that what HE, as an individual, wanted was counterintuitive to what Joshua truly desired as shown by the rules/structure of the Shibuya Game and his various interactions with Neku throughout their week together.

Kitaniji acts in a way he presumes would please Joshua, thinking that initiating the human instrumentality project would be the thing to please him most when that's far from the truth, simply because he's unable to look past his ego. He thinks he understands Joshua best, despite not taking the time to actually get to know him (which sounds an awful lot like toxic idol culture) and only ends up projecting his own insecurities about human connection onto Joshua as desires that a god would share as well because hey, why would a god care about empathizing and connecting with people when they’re just so much better than them, right?

He failed to see Joshua for the flawed individual that he was as opposed to the almighty Composer and instead of trying to genuinely connect with him and perhaps convince him otherwise when it came to his plan to eradicate Shibuya, goes right into the brainwashing scheme, essentially doubling down on his flawed mindset. Kitaniji’s idolization makes him believe that he is something akin to a God as well; makes him feel closer to Joshua in a way. In short, Kitaniji’s idol worship is a conscious, agency-prone outcome mediated by the false relationship he has with Joshua.

Throughout the game, Kitaniji makes conscious (and unhealthy) decisions through his idolization of another person; he also believes he has a measure of personal agency and individuality that makes him more important than others, probably in part due to the "special relationship" he believes he has with Joshua (more idol worship toxicity) despite ironically being an empty individual and misinterpreting his intentions, which is what leads to his downfall. This in contrast to Neku, who due to his past trauma concerning his friend’s death, latches onto his flawed misinterpretation of his idol CAT’s words, only for CAT himself to set the record straight, causing Neku to realize throughout the game how he may have twisted his idol’s (Hanekoma) message to support his bias of isolation, and finally understand what CAT's words meant. This in turn is what allows Neku to finally get through to Joshua and convince him through his actions that Shibuya, and by extension humanity, can truly change for the better and gets him to spare the city. A happy ending that a Shibuya free of individuality wouldn’t have been able to achieve.

In NEO TWEWY, we have Shiba, someone who rises through the ranks of the Reaper hierarchy incredibly quickly and thus, became easy pickings for Kubo to try and manipulate to do his bidding; a man that has obtained so much power that he actually begins to idolize himself, thinking himself so strong and important that now he can whimsically make decisions about life and death, treat every situation as some kind of game, and judge people as he sees fit. Shiba only thinks himself as holding such an important role, which really belongs to Kubo's because of Kubo setting things up in such a way that made it so that Shiba's newfound powers would fuck with his ability to rationalize. Kubo fed into Shiba’s ego and slowly nudged him into the direction of shutting out his loved ones, which then leads into a cycle of Shiba becoming worse and worse thanks to the influence of his powers/Kubo and the Shinjuku gang isolating themselves from him. He becomes convinced that what Kubo wants is what HE desires as well, even if that’s not truly the case deep down, and throws himself more and more into his work to accomplish that, which, of course, only adds onto the cycle I described above more and more.

What's interesting here is that Shiba doesn’t draw any implicit or explicit motivations from his relationship with Kubo; he’s just another guy to him. We can make the argument that Kubo as a character symbolizes a particular substrate of toxic idolizing in that he represents status, a constituent of success that Shiba clamors for in the hopes that he can idolize himself. However, with that being said, the relationship between Shiba and Kubo itself in the story has no bearing on the former’s personal drive the way Kitaniji’s relationship with Joshua does. Rather, what Shiba’s idolism represents is the corruption of one's sense of self when they fall too deep into the cesspool of influencer stardom/corporate corruption; the overinflation of ego that becomes a malicious byproduct of commanding such an effect over large numbers of people.

If you remember, Shiba initially started off in Shinjuku promising change and a better lifestyle for his fellow Reapers, which they clearly took to heart and gladly followed after him, speaking volumes about his charisma. But then when he got a taste of his newfound power after the conclusion of the Shinjuku revolt, he became more and more detached from the people and found himself sinking into the singularity of his own self-indulgence.

This can be considered an almost 1-to-1 parallel with influencer behavior and in a way, Shiba is kind of what Motoi was hoping he'd be before he found some clarity by actually having to look into the face of the fan he was nonchalantly treating as a pawn to stardom and came to realize just how damaging his actions were overall.

In contrast to Shiba, we have Rindo, who also has the flaw of internalizing someone else’s thoughts and opinions as his own, something that gets repeatedly shown off in his interactions with Swallow and Motoi/an0ther. Hell, it gets to the point that Sumio, Motoi’s second-in-command, is able to play on Rindo’s need for validation from his idol and trick him into helping him (I love how Beat in the last pic here sighs in his sprites because he knows that Rindo fell for it, hook, line, and sinker)

However, what truly cements the parallel here is this convo Shiba has with Tsugumi in the Last Day Intervention.

Shiba here basically flat out admits that he was afraid of having to face the consequences of his decisions. Of having to own up to the fact that his self-destructive actions were causing harm to himself and others and so, in an effort to try and suppress that feeling of insecurity, he saw it fit to run away from the warning signs and trap himself in his own self-isolating bubble in order to avoid taking responsibility.

Now, who does that remind you of?

Now, at first glance, this comparison might seem like a stretch, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, let's think back on what Nagi said about Shiba at the end of W3D3 after Kanon's erasure.

When we reflect on what Nagi said, you start to realize that the majority of Shiba's actions throughout the third week was due to his feelings of anger and hurt following what he feels is a personal betrayal from the people he cares about the most and how he then takes out that anger on the people below him. First there's his calling out Shoka personally out of anger of a mix of betraying him and the others by switching to Rindo's group and blaming her for HIS encouraging Ayano to take drastic measures such as personally infecting herself with the Plague in order to try and get Shoka to come back.

Which then leads into the next day where Shiba, out of anger concerning Ayano's erasure, sends out more Plague Noise to target the remaining teams so that they can feel the grief he's currently going through, which ends with Kanon, the Twisters' most supportive ally, getting caught in the crossfire and subsequently erased, which Nagi's analysis on Shiba alludes to when she comments on his wrathful energy in the morning announcment.

Combine this with him sending out Plague Noise that take on phantom images of the Twisters' failures and traumas and him getting so pissed at Susukichi betraying him in a previous timeline on W3D6 that he causes the Inversion a day earlier than intended and you get the sense that Shiba is lashing out at the others for what he views to be their fault, while never reflecting on his own fault on the matter due to a combination of the Dissonance affecting him so deeply and his refusal to see just how much he's hurting the people he cares about the most.

Much like how Rindo tends to lash out at others whenever he feels pressured to make a decision or face the possibility of having to take responsibility of his actions, Shiba's actions can be considered an example of what can happen if that flaw was taken to its worst possible conclusion. Both Rindo and Shiba are afraid of having to face the consequences of their actions and try to avoid facing them by either pawning off responsibility off of someone else or just outright tuning out the warning signs altogether. They put the people around them at arm's lengths, often taking them for granted, and become paranoid around others out of fear what will happen to them if they get too close. However, Rindo eventually starts becoming more savvy to his idol’s intentions and actively seeks out the truth about him, resulting in him breaking away from Motoi’s influence and slowly becoming more assured in himself and his decisions. He becomes more aware of his friends' struggles and will often try to do right by them (as shown with his talks with Shoka and the contrast between his and Fret's conversations at the beginning and end of the game). This is shown off in two ways, with Rindo and Shiba's confrontation at the end of W2D7 and W3D7 being flipped to have Rindo and Shiba trading places to show who’s on top, Shiba utterly alone in contrast to Rindo being surrounded by others, the Wicked Twisters dominating the screen while Shiba can only shrink back in defeat and Shiba being invisible in the Crossing (despite being surrounded by all those people) while Rindo is literally embedded in an ever-expanding Social Network.

By the end, Rindo actively takes accountability for his actions and achieves the happy ending he strives for, even helping with bringing Shiba back to his senses. Shiba on the other hand, once his influential power gets to his heart, begins to devalue the significance of the wants, needs, and individuality of the people who followed him fervently, and it's not until he gets his ass kicked and then is forced to face his number one fan/the person he cares about most, Hishima (another parallel with Rindo and Motoi), does he come to terms with how his actions have affected people he cares about, and is able to break out of his own self-idolizing and begin his path towards reformation, taking responsibility for his actions much in the same way that Rindo himself does.

To recap, Kitaniji becomes convinced that what he’s doing is what JOSHUA wants while Shiba becomes convinced that what KUBO wants is what he actually desires when that’s really not the case and I find these parallels to be incredibly fascinating. Kitaniji and Shiba are considered to be the ideal of what a Reaper should be in their respective cities and what's especially interesting is how while the values each game tries to instill does have merit when applied to our lives, they also show off the downsides of what those values can have if you're not especially careful.

On one end, you have Kitaniji, who is the "ideal" of a Shibuya Reaper. Highly unique and imaginative, has a very strong sense of self and sense of identity. Is an individualist but is also very isolated as a result. Tellingly, when Joshua starts to force his hand and basically tells him to come up with a way to save the city or get fucked, Kitaniji starts going down a dark path and tries to rob the citizens of Shibuya of their individuality in order to save the city from becoming destroyed, unknowingly increasing its countdown to its inevitable destruction and became twisted into a raving madman that insists that he’s saving humanity and is shepherding them into a new ideal utopia.

By contrast, when you take a look at the flashbacks and how the others speak about him before he got his new powers, Shiba is shown an be incredibly charismatic individual and this goes hand in hand with his role as the most powerful of the Shinjuku Reapers. His leadership and connections are his strength. He’s a social butterfly (his Noise powers and pendant are themed for a reason) and is considered the ideal of a Shinjuku Reaper. However, thanks to his new powers getting to his head, he’s pushed away all of his remaining allies and now has just about no one but himself, the emotional isolation being incredibly damaging to both himself and the people he cares about .Susukichi, Rindo, and Neku even talk about this, speculating about how he must be lonely and how his new powers most likely contributed to this.

Both TWEWY games can be read as a cautionary tale of idolism; of influencer status; of becoming so disillusioned that you either close yourself off to others or deem yourself so important that other people matter far less. Last but not least, they emphasize the importance of being accountable for one's own self, especially in a society of influencers because at the end of the day, it's important that you believe in your own views and can uphold them responsibly; it's important to not blindly follow others, especially if your self-worth hinges on it and ESPECIALLY if they become like Shiba or Kitaniji.

#twewy #the world ends with you #neo the world ends with you #neo twewy #ntwewy #rindo kanade #neku sakuraba #yoshiya kiryu #megumi kitaniji #shiba miyakaze #analysis post

[volono1fan]

what survivor / hunter the pokemon legends arceus characters would main because i think it’s funny. part 1 because i can’t do all them in one post.

akari: perfumer for survivor. she gets all the instant perfumes but the time she doesn’t she gets downed in twenty seconds and it’s so bad. mains geisha and again is either doing amazing with the butterflies or gets one person on the chair once the entire match.

rei: embalmer. not personality wise but i feel like rei likes the idea of helping on the sidelines idk that’s just me. could also be a prisoner main too ngl. as for hunter i feel like he’d be a bonbon main i don’t know why it just feels right. specifically the new b.duck bonbon. but rei is definitely way better at survivor than hunter.

adaman: that man mains mercenary or forward he hates decoding and always wants to help others and rescue everyone, plus he loves kiting too. unfortunately he never gets first kite with his mercenary or forward so he gets stuck on decoding duty anyways which double sucks because of their awful decoding speed. he mains naiad just trust me on this one too. it’s one of the hunters that moves around and is super involved even when someone is chaired. he is not good with the super campy hunters

irida: she mains mind’s eye don’t question me on this she is always keeping the hunter on their toes and is so good at telling when she needs to pallet stun or vault it’s not even funny. she also mains bloody queen and her spacial awareness with that hunter terrifies survivors and even fellow hunters.

volo: mains seer. he’s a fucking nightmare to play against though he will farm owls and he will emote while kiting. he also is such an awful gate taunter like he will not leave until the absolute last second even if everyone is already gone. dances at dungeon until the hunter shows up. he’s a fucking menace. he mains feaster too like the god fanboy he is and roleplays as him post match win or lose.

ingo: he mains gravekeeper but specifically train conductor gravekeeper. however if there was ever a train oriented survivor he would main that one. he also mains wu chang because *i am about to be attacked*

melli: first officer and photographer. i am not explaining this. he is so toxic it’s not even funny.

laventon: he mains the professor (lmao) but he’s really bad at the game. he used to main lucky guy though and was always downed in 5 seconds. hell ember main too because he needs the help of the ai. he’s struggling constantly.

cyllene: doctor main and she’s so good. pallet stun to heal is so engrained in her and she’s so good at it too. she’s also a sculptor main she’s so good with statue placements she can down anyone in 20 seconds. she’s not even toxic too she just leaves immediately post match and doesn’t accept any compliments. she’s also an idv coach for top players.

kamado: batter main. batter main. batter main. he is such a harasser it makes hunters pull their hair out because he always gets away with harassing. he’s a percy main too and everyone hates him for it but he leaves post match immediately so he doesn’t see people try to bully him. he’s good but he doesn’t play often so everyone thinks his account is a smurf. no he just didn’t play for two months and came back to wipe the floor clean of all the hounds in rank.

mai: barmaid. older sister moments but also she is really good at getting her heals in and using her speed boost when necessary. also a disciple main and kills it at both survivor and hunter. probably the most well rounded out of everyone too in terms of ability to fit into any role.

#why did i make this? for me. for myself. because no one else will do this #also volo and adaman duo rank together and everyone thinks they’re kindating naibeli

[brattyfics]

Cape Disappointment | Part One

Pairing: Miguel Galindo x Black!OC [Chantel Williams]

Summary: Miguel doesn’t rescue a damsel in distress because Chantel Williams is not a damsel in distress.

Warnings: None yet.

Chantel Williams was a lot of things. Quirky, witty, sarcastic. Condescending, impulsive, sometimes even chaotic. She could be all those things and more, but she refused to be anyone’s victim.

“I’m not a damsel in distress. I’m not a damsel in distress…” She chanted over and over in a low tone. 

On the side of a low traffic road, snow raining down on her head, Chantel willed the words to be true. Unfortunately, she remembered very little of what her Papa taught her about cars, eyeing the confusing parts under the hood with frustration.

Papa was a school teacher but he worked as a shade tree mechanic on the weekends to be able to afford dance classes for little Chantel. Teaching was his passion through and through. He would talk her ear off in the car on the way to recitals or while she did homework on the bench in his workshop. Being a bratty kid, she learned to tune him out when the topic didn’t interest her and not for the first time she regretted not soaking up more of Papa’s wisdom before he passed. 

If she had, maybe she wouldn’t be stuck on the side of the road with no solution in mind. Empty handed and no closer to fixing the car, she shuffled through the snow. It wasn’t much warmer inside the car despite the thick North Face coat she wore with a matching hat and pair of gloves. She was sure she resembled a wet dog as she shook the snow off, not wanting the ice to melt into water droplets that would surely sting. 

Just a week earlier, she’d splurged on the fanciest new smart phone after losing the older model at a dinner party. Even with all its promised features, it was useless. No signal and no nearby WiFi networks to connect to meant she couldn’t call her sort-of-sometimes boyfriend for help even if she wanted to. She couldn’t even call a tow truck! 

Pride. 

Another one of Chantel’s many traits. She liked to think of it as a positive thing. It kept her from being desperate, saved her from being dependent on others for her happiness. No one else seemed to agree her pride was a good thing. 

Among the naysayers was her sort-of-sometimes boyfriend, Adam. Pride was what had led her to take off from the Yurt they shared on their week-long winter break getaway to race back to her industrial loft in the heart of Seattle despite the weather advisory. She would never admit it to anyone else, but she realized her pride didn’t always serve her well. 

If not for her bruised ego, it would have been funny that her car had chosen to break down a few miles north of Cape Disappointment State Park. It was where she had been staying with Adam. The yurt was too far away to walk back to in the snow but still close enough that it only made sense to stay there for the night once the car issues were resolved. She wasn’t looking forward to ending the night with him. 

Remembering Papa’s belief in God showing up when most needed, Chantel sent up a quick prayer. She really hoped she wouldn’t have to wait long for someone else to come down the otherwise deserted road. Winters in Washington were fairly mild so she wouldn’t lose her extremities to hypothermia or anything crazy like that, but she’d certainly suffer by way of the shivers. 

Any sane person was cuddled up next to the fireplace in their cabin with a bowl of chili, or participating in heat-inducing sexual activities in their yurt to keep warm, not on the road driving. It was only natural for her thoughts to snowball into all the types of un-same people she could run into. 

Indigenous women from Washington and Canada went missing far too often on roads just like the one she had so conveniently broken down on. Chantel had a bad habit of researching everything there was to know about topics when they peaked her interest and she knew too much about human trafficking in the area to not feel a considerable amount of fear. 

“That would be my luck.” She muttered meanly to herself, resolving that whatever happened would be her own fault. 

It wasn’t like a whole lot of people would come looking for her anyway. She had a large group of friends in Seattle, but she kind of had a reputation for taking off without saying much. She hadn’t even told anyone about the weekend excursion to Cape Disappointment! The family she had left she wasn’t close to, and by the time Adam realized she hadn’t made it back home it would be too late. 

Yellow headlights bathed the narrow road, the light blinding her the closer it got. Her hazard lights blinked red, signaling that she was broken down, but Chantel second guessed whether she wanted the help. 

“I’m going to be a sex trafficking victim all in the name of independence. Way to go, idiot.” 

Her fingers fumbled around in the gigantic backpack she’d been using as a purse for the weekend, hastily pulling at the zippers until she found what she was looking for. A purple taser she purchased on Amazon for a whopping ten dollars. She doubted it would stop anyone in their tracks, but it was better than nothing. 

It turned out the man who knocked on her window wasn’t an axe wielding serial murdering rapist, or at least he didn’t appear to be. She tucked the small device into her side as the ridiculously handsome middle aged man with a salt and pepper beard smiled at her through the foggy glass. 

He looked harmless enough, sporting a pair of smart designer glasses and what Chantel knew to be a really expensive cashmere turtleneck sweater underneath an equally expensive Canada Goose coat. She wasn’t shy about looking him up and down as she assessed the risk. What if the male model was a decoy?

His neatly manicured eyebrows twisted down in confusion and she thought it was one of the cutest things she had ever seen. 

She rolled down the window with a nervous smile.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” 

She hated how breathy the words came out but he was truly stunning. 

Tall, fit, well-dressed. 

“Are you alright? It looks like you’re having some trouble.” 

A gentleman.

“What would make you think that?” Chantel spoke before she thought it through, but the stranger didn’t seem to take offense if the amused smirk on his face could be trusted. “I’m kidding. Yeah, no. I’m not alright. The car was making weird noises so I pulled over and now it won’t turn back on. I looked under the hood but I have no idea what’s wrong.”

He nodded attentively while she spoke, watching her lips with interest. She noticed him staring and licked them.

“I don’t know how much of a help I’ll be.” His bronze skin reddened with the admission and she wondered if he was blushing or if the cold was getting to him. “I don’t know anything about cars but I can give you a ride wherever you want.”

She’d like a ride alright. In his cushiony truck that may as well have been a royal carriage considering the circumstances. Or on his handsome bearded face that she couldn’t stop staring at. 

Chantel wondered if he could tell what she was thinking. 

Movement caught her eye and she noticed an identical black SUV pulling off the road to park behind the one Prince Charming departed from. Her hand squeezed around the taser instinctively. 

Was the sexy stranger bait to catch naive, unsuspecting girls? 

“...but I’m sure we’d both rather leave it to the professionals.” He gestured back towards the dark truck and paused, noticing they weren’t alone. Her breath caught in her chest when four bulking men slammed their doors shut and started walking in their direction.

“I apologize. That’s my security team. I left without telling them.” 

Hmm. A kindred spirit. 

Who was he to have a security team? Was he telling the truth? Or just stalling? 

She wanted to believe him. To trust that it was in human nature to help one another without some ulterior, sinister motive. 

Did she even have a choice? How long would she have to wait on the next passerby? There was no guarantee they would be any better than the (so far) kind stranger and his friends.

Chantel Williams was a lot of things, but she was not naïve. With surprising coordination, she swung the door open, knocking the man back several steps. Her boots crunched as she landed in the snow. 

“Back up or I’m going to tase you!” She warned, putting space between herself and the stranger while keeping an eye on the approaching men. 

The corners of his mouth turned up as he fought back a smile. 

Chantel scoffed. He wasn’t taking her seriously. 

“I’m not fucking around!” She insisted, charging up the small device. The buzz felt more powerful than she remembered. The man seemed to think so too, changing his approach. He spoke in a soft tone. “Can we slow down?” 

“Don’t patronize me. Just back up like I said. No, this way!” She ordered until he stood across from her with his back to his men. 

Behind him, they speed up their approach but they could only move so fast in the snow. Following her gaze, the strange man looked over his shoulder and gestured for the men to stall at the front of his truck several feet away. One of them shouted at her to put the taser away from his position. He sported two braids and a cut in his brow. Chantel shouted back at him to ‘shut the fuck up’

Mr. GQ gave another signal and like he was the conductor of an orchestra, all noise ceased. Well, all external noise at least. Chantel swore she could hear the sound of her heart ringing in her ears. 

“Hey!” He demanded her full attention. His hands were up in a defensive position. “What are you looking for here?” 

It was a great question but she had no answer for him.

Trouble maker. Fire starter. Full-time agitator.

Chantel was that way even as a child, responding to normal adolescent teasing with violence. Sharp bites in the classroom or royal rumble style fights on the playground were her specialty in grade school. She made anyone stupid enough to provoke her regret it whether big or small, male or female. That wasn’t to say she was organized or calculating in her plans. She acted and dealt with things as they came. 

She had no idea what the endgame was when she pulled the taser, but she had to stick with it. The crowd of onlookers made her feel more justified in her rash decision.

“I don’t think you really want to hurt me.”

“Now, what would make you think that?” Chantel asked incredulously. He didn’t know her from Eve. 

She was even more steadfast in pointing the taser in his direction but he didn’t seem phased.

“When you want to hurt somebody, you don’t wait around or warn them. You just do it.”

“Are you suggesting I should’ve tased you?”

He shrugged as if they were discussing the weather.

“That certainly would have been more effective.”

Was he serious?

“I mean I still can. If you keep talking I just might.”

He had the gall to laugh in her face. 

Hysterically. 

And it wasn’t fleeting or sarcastic. It was genuine laughter from deep down in his gut. She hated how beautiful he was, even in the middle of showing blatant disrespect for her ability to harm him. 

“Seriously?” She griped, fighting against the way her face muscles twitched. 

Giggle box.

When somebody at church mispronounced a word during the announcements or when her aunt murdered a hit song, she giggled uncontrollably. Papa chastised her for it, but it couldn’t be helped. When the urge struck and she got that itch in her throat, she had to laugh.

So naturally, like two birds of a maniac feather they shared a laugh in four (and counting) inches of snow.

***

GENERAL TAGLIST

@woahitslucyylu @briannab1234 @sheeshgivemeabreak @breakingnewsin-no-oneasked @angelreyesgirl @blessedboo @glimmerglittergirl @apantherinmypastlife @brownsugarcoffy @marvelmaree @starrynite7114 @scuzmunkie @thewarriorprincessxo @sadeyesgf @pearlkitten33 @imanerdychubbyqueen @literaturefeen @ourlittlesecretsoveragain @everyhowlmarksthedead @yourwonkywriter @trulysuccubus

MIGUEL TAGLIST

@thesandbeneathmytoes @taylortheeshowpony

#mayans mc #miguel galindo #miguel galindo x black!reader #miguel galindo x black!oc #miguel galindo x reader

[sirenprincess15]

Please Don't Leave Me Chapter 4

Title: Please Don’t Leave Me

Author: SirenPrincess

Description: What if Aleksander hadn’t answered the door when Ivan interrupted the war room kissing? What if Aleksander and Alina had a bit more time to get to know each other before Baghra told her his true identity? Alina is the only one who can comfort Aleksander through his nightmares. Will she leave once she knows who he is?

This story is based on the show version and features a soft on the inside, hard on the outside Aleksander with an emphasis on emotional hurt/comfort and angst. If you are looking for lots of hurt!Aleksander thoughts, then this story is for you. Mal exists but pretty much solely to cause Aleksander some angst. Don’t worry. It will be a Darklina ending.

Chapter 1 is a missing scene at the end of Ep 4, and Chapter 2 takes place alongside Ep 5 and then diverges from canon there.

Pairings: Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov, bits of Ivan/Fedyor

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Grisha are oppressed in this universe, and I don’t shy away from showing the horrors of that. There may eventually be mentions of canon-typical torture (Fjerdan pyres), death of family members, and cruelty to Grisha children. It’s not the focus, but that backdrop is definitely there and comes up as characters discuss their past.

In this chapter: Aleksander deals with the aftermath of the attack on Marie.

Chapter 4

Aleksander was struggling to keep the darkness in check long enough to interrogate the suspect. His anger at the attempt on Alina’s life demanded that he unleash it, but he had to maintain his calmness long enough for him to get information from this man who fit Nina’s description of the Conductor. It was worth holding off his revenge long enough to try to get information on who else was involved in this assasination attempt and if this man knew anything on what had happened to Nina.

When it became apparent that he might actually not know what had happened to Nina, then there was no further reason to stop the shadows. A simple hand on Ivan’s shoulder and his heartrender understood the warning to get out of harm’s way. He appreciated that level of understanding.

He laid his accusations out before the man. He didn’t need Ivan to confirm anything. He already knew from the rumors of what was happening in West Ravka and the clear motive. The Conductor had been sent by General Zlatan to kill Alina for what she was. He had not expected to be told the Conductor had agreed over money. Rage overcame him. A million kruge for the life of a saint. As if she were nothing. As if she weren’t everything.

He wanted to stay and watch the man suffer as he had planned, to truly enjoy his pain, but he was anxious to get back to Alina to ensure her safety now that he knew there was a price on her head. Feydor was trustworthy, but Aleksander wouldn’t feel she was truly safe until he was by her side again. He moved his hands to call the shadows and then collapsed his fingers to cause the strangling. The shadows would obey his command even if he moved on.

“Search the palace and the grounds for any sign of his companions. They will be long gone, but we search anyway,” he informed Ivan and Zoya as he entered the hall. “Detain anyone who is spotted somewhere they don’t belong. I don’t care the reason. Ivan, keep one of your personal guards with Alina at all times that she is not directly with me. I don’t want her alone under any circumstances. Only people you personally trust,” he insisted.

“Sir.” Ivan nodded his acknowledgement.

He paused, thinking of Alina. “Alina can’t know about Marie. They were becoming close friends.” He stopped as he thought about the loss. A strong Grisha gone for hate of what they were. Alina had been bonding with her. Marie had brought Alina happiness. “It would destroy her to know a friend died for her. I will not put her through that pain.” It was a pain he knew all too well. How many Grisha had he lost? Good people who cared enough to die for him. The closer he was to them, the more it hurt.

He shook the dark thoughts off. “She was close to Nadia. Find out what Marie dreamed of. Tell everyone she was attacked and fought bravely. As a reward for her heroism, she is being given a trip to the destination of her dreams. We will bury her privately at night. I still want it done properly. She died for Alina.”

“Of course, sir,” Ivan agreed.

He resumed his stride to return to Alina.

“There is one other matter.”

“Oh?”

“The tracker.”

“Oh, yes, the tracker.” How had he forgotten? He was off his game. Was he distracted by the beautiful woman in his bed? Or perhaps the dark memories that the killing and hunting of Grisha were causing him? Getting the Stag was absolutely paramount, now more than ever. Without it, Alina was too fragile. “Well, I suppose my plan of having Marie disguised as Alina meet with him to get us the location of the Stag is no longer an option.”

“I can do it, sir,” Zoya volunteered. “I’ll pretend to be her to get you the Stag.”

She would like that, wouldn’t she? To be the one to get him what he wanted. She didn’t realize she would always be nothing compared with Alina, but there was no harm in using her motivation. He stared at her as he thought it through. “You haven’t been around Alina enough to pull off her mannerisms or speech pattern.”

She shrugged. “We will keep it short, say I am meeting with ambassadors and have Ivan come sweep me urgently away as soon as I have the information.”

He nodded his agreement. “Very well, but after Genya feels up to it. We can stall him with the promise to see the Sun Summoner soon until Genya is up for the task. After we have the information, have him stationed nearby. We should be able to find the Stag with his information, but he could prove useful in case it’s elusive.”

They parted ways as he reached his ready room and returned to his bedchamber. “Fedyor, how is she?”

“She sleeps well, sir. She is dreaming.”

“Thank you, Fedyor. Go get some rest. I will likely need you to stay with her tomorrow.”

“Do you want me to wake her?”

He shook his head. “Let her do it naturally.”

Alone, he stared at her. He wanted to rush back to her side to feel her warmth, but he found he could not move. She had nearly died tonight. He had almost lost her. If that had happened … He could not think of it, but he also could not stop thinking of it. If he hadn’t asked Marie to be a double, what hope would any of them have now? So close to losing everything. They had to find the Stag. And he would be hard pressed to let her out of his sight for any reason anytime soon. At least he knew he could trust Ivan and Fedyor to protect her, but after nearly losing her … He wasn’t sure he would feel safe until she had antlers around her neck.

She stirred. How long had he been staring?

“You never sleep. Why do you never sleep?” she asked as she stretched on his bed, still covered only in that beautiful black kefta.

“I sleep,” he corrected her.

“I have been in your chambers at all hours of the night over the last few weeks. You never sleep.”

“Ah, I don’t sleep well,” he emphasized. “That is quite a difference.”

She laughed, and his heart relaxed just a little. “So, what is stopping you from sleeping well now?” she asked.

He sighed. He did not want to have this conversation with her, did not want to bring this darkness into her light, but she would notice Marie’s absence. There was no way to fully keep it from her. He moved to the bed to join her, noticed again how she looked exposed in the black kefta, and then quickly grabbed his robe to wrap her in. He could not have this conversation with her body and vulnerability distracting him. He pulled her into his lap, pressed his forehead to hers, and let himself absorb a bit of her warmth before he spoke. “There was an attempt … Our enemies were ready to kill you for what you can do before we even gave the demonstration.”

Alina gasped. “Marie?”

“Good thing she’s an inferni. I’m letting her have the trip of her dreams to thank her for protecting you. It’s not enough, but it’s the best I can think to give her.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I could be dead right now. That’s twice you’ve saved my life.”

“Alina, we need to increase your security. Our enemies will not stop with this attempt. I’m going to have Fedyor or Ivan or a very few select guards stay with you at all times.”

“But …”

“You are too special to lose, too important. We need you. I need you.”

She looked into his eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

“There is one other thing. What would you think of permanently staying here in my rooms?” He held his breath, afraid she wouldn’t want to constantly be with him. He wouldn’t force this one. It would just logistically be so much safer. “You end up visiting my rooms most nights anyway. I can keep you safe. If you’re with me, then I can let the guards rest at night and keep the number of people I trust to protect you during the day limited.”

“You’re asking me to move in with you?”

"Only if you want to, of course,” he emphasized. If she still wanted her privacy, he would understand.

"For security. Not because you want to? I mean if I'm going to be disturbing you …"

"I would like it very much," he admitted, a small smile playing across his face at the idea of her in his bed every night, at knowing she would be safe with him. “You could never be a bother to me, Alina.” It was the damage from her past that made her think that she would be in the way, unwanted. He vowed right then and there to dedicate himself to banishing those feelings inside her. “You belong here beside me.”

“Then, yes," she said, nodding her head.

"Yes?"

"Yes," she said with a smile. He leaned in to kiss her, softly, gently. They would be okay. She would be safe in his bed every night. Ivan and Fedyor could protect her in the day until they found the Stag, until he could be assured of her safety forever.

#darklina #aleksander x alina #kirigan x alina #alina x aleksander #aleksander morovoza #alina x kirigan #general kirigan

[beckydoesthings]

various fics of hxl that i adore reading! this list is quite lengthy, but feel free to message me if you have any questions!

*will continue to be updated. also, if i mistagged you, i apologize, i do not know how to tumblr*

Love Is a Rebellious Bird

E | 134k | @100percentsassy and gloria_andrews

AU in which the boys still make music. Louis is the concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, Harry is the New! and Exciting! interim conductor/ex-cello prodigy who "has made Mozart cool again" according to Esquire Magazine (Louis hates him immediately, which is definitely why he internet stalked him in his dark bedroom late at night that one time), and Niall is the best. Zayn and Liam are around too.

Don't hum Bolero.

i think this tickled every bone of my musical self and also made me cry (are you seeing a theme here??) one of the first fics i fell in love with and one i keep coming back to.

Collision

E | 226k | @tequiladimples

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.

(Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who’s got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.)

the world building in this one is insanity - so much good mythology mixed in and it made me screech with joy. i think i can firmly say that i did not expect where the plot went, but that made the story so much better.

Flour and Chocolate

M | 145k | @danosphere91

It was nice, for a bakery he supposed.

Then he approached the display cabinet.

And the foreboding slammed into him. Because every product had letters next to it. Letters. GF, DF, V, O, VGN.

What. The. Fuck?

Lifting his eyes to the chalkboard menu spread across the back wall Louis felt physically ill. ‘Gluten-free’, ‘organic’, ‘vegan’, ‘paleo’, ‘dair-…’ Wait, what the fuck was a paleo? He had entered some hipster-trash establishment and it was more than time to get out.

OR

Louis is a single dad and Harry works at the newly opened bakery down the street.

the miscommunication in this fic is SO REAL and makes for a good read. the rest of the flour and chocolate series is also fantastic. i thoroughly enjoyed both the ziam and ed/niall arcs that bring the whole story together.

run away home

E | 106k | @hattalove

Louis stands, in the middle of a clearing with his hands in his pockets, and stares. This boy—God, this gorgeous, gorgeous boy. He seems so clumsy, confused at the best of times, but there’s a wisdom about him as he speaks, a maturity that belies his age.

Louis is hopelessly, wildly attracted to him.

or, louis is a successful jockey down on his luck, struggling to get his life back on track after an injury. harry has a horse, a house fit for a prince, and a broken heart.

it takes them a while to figure out that they need each other.

this makes my inner horse girl extraordinarily happy - even if i don’t know anything about horse racing. louis’ story in this is beautiful and makes the whole piece worth a read.

waiting for the tides to meet

E | 60k | @nauticalleeds

Louis lets out a deep breath, thinking about Harry’s soulmate. Thinking about how Harry’s soulmate is probably as beautiful as Harry, some person that Louis cannot compare to, and how the universe has chosen them to be Harry’s. Fuck the universe. “Fuck you,” he calls out to the universe. He’s aware of how crazy he sounds.

Maybe he is crazy, with how he’s falling for Harry. And fuck that, too.

Soulmate AU. Everyone is born with heterochromia — one eye is their own eye colour, while the other is the colour of their soulmate's. It's only when they meet their soulmate for the first time that their own eyes match properly. After a hazy night at a frat party, Louis wakes up to blue eyes and the shocking realization that he had met his soulmate, without any sober recollection. Seven years pass where Louis comes to terms with the fact that he'll never know who his soulmate is. Then one fated summer, a beautiful green-eyed photographer arrives at Louis' workplace, with promises of endless laughter and a familiar feeling in Louis' heart.

Featuring a lovely cup of OT5, a road trip down the coast, and a scene where Harry eats a whole head of lettuce. Don't ask why.

gorgeous soulmate AU that gives me summer cruising vibes. worth the read for the lettuce scene alone (i kid, i kid)

Do Not Go Gentle

E | 70k | @afirethatcannotdie

“This is all a game to you, isn’t it? Well, it’s not for me. This is a real life or death situation,” Louis says, spitting the words at him. “And I just don’t think you’re cut out for it.”

For a moment, they stare at each other in complete silence. Harry can feel his blood thrumming between his ears, can see Louis glaring at him, feels red-hot anger. And then all he feels, oppressively and desperately, is lust.

Suddenly Louis is surging up to him to press his lips against Harry’s. Harry walks the two of them backwards, pressing Louis back against the door. Louis oomphs in surprise and brings his hands under Harry’s scrub top, scratching at his lower back.

“Lock — oh — lock the… fucking door,” Louis mutters.

When Harry Styles starts his first day as a surgical intern, he expects a lot of things: to treat patients, to observe a surgery, to feel a bit overwhelmed. What he definitely doesn't expect, however, is that the handsome guy he kicked out of his bed this morning is also an intern.

A Grey’s Anatomy AU where tensions are high, Harry and Louis are hooking up in secret, and no one has time for love. Or do they?

okay i’ve watched maybe 3 episodes of Gray’s Anatomy, but i feel like this encompasses the vibe of the show: medical stuff with a hefty dose of angst and sexual tension

Falling For Me Won’t Be A Mistake

M | 58k | @all-these-larrythings

Harry is married to his job and so overworked that he doesn't know how to stop. All it takes is a forced Hawaiian get-a-away, the warm tropical breeze of the island, and the most beautiful, elusive man he's ever seen to make him remember what living is like outside of work. Well, that, and the little souvenir he accidentally takes home with him.

one of my favorite mpreg fics so if that’s not your cup of tea, then don’t read it. i love surgeon harry with a vengeance, but honestly Gems and Niall are iconic in this one.

Watching the World Fall

E | 11k | @crazyupsetter why won’t it let me tag :(

This segment has been going on long enough that Louis knows what’s coming before James starts in on it, trying to sell him on something he knows that Louis wouldn’t normally be buying. But there’s four cameras surrounding him, and an audience watching him expectantly, so if Louis wants to continue convincing people that he’s doing just fine, he’s going to have to go along with it.

“We have a whole host of single men backstage waiting to meet you, Louis,” James tells him. “We want to help you find love tonight, on Late Late Live Tinder. Is this okay? Do you want to play?”

It actually kind of makes sense that his first date after the break-up is going to be just as public as said break-up. Something like coming full circle.

“Alright, James,” Louis agrees, hopping down off his stool.

“Okay, come down to the stage,” James says. Louis can’t even tell whether the excitement in his voice is genuine or not. “Right now, come on down!”

i have a soft spot the size of Antarctica for Late Late AU fics (we stan James Corden) and for exes to lovers so this checks all the boxes.

autumn leaves

E | 27k | @suspendrs

“Brave?” Harry frowns, caught off guard. “No, not particularly.”

“You seem brave,” Louis decides, pushing off the wall and stepping on the butt of his cigarette. “You are strong, and you are not mean. That’s good,” he assures, touching Harry’s arm gently.

“Thank you, but that’s not true,” Harry smiles ruefully. “I’m really not anything special.”

Or, Harry is an American soldier in France during World War II, and Louis is a French waiter that doesn't mean to fall in love with him.

love love french AUs and while this one isn’t sunshine and rainbows, it’s a beautiful yet heart wrenching piece. warning for period typical homophobia

caught up in your love affair

NR | 8k | @disgruntledkittenface

“And the corgis took to you straightaway,” Harry remarks.

“That’s true,” Louis chuckles.

 “I’ve spent the last 29 years being barked at,” Harry deadpans, jerking his hand toward Louis, “this one walks in, absolutely nothing.”

Louis outright giggles at that, saying, “They were just lying on my feet during tea.”

“Wagging tails,” Harry says, shaking his head.

“It’s because they don’t understand flirting,” Louis tells him, “you can’t charm them the way you do everyone else.”

Royal AU. Prince Harry announces his engagement to Louis Tomlinson in an interview with longtime friend and BBC host Nick Grimshaw. Inspired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

just. 8k of royal fluff. that’s literally it and i adore it so much.

Apples Always Fall (As I Do For You)

M | 54k | @rainbowsandgucci

”Due to unforeseen circumstances, help is needed here at the orchard for the impending apple season. Looking for someone able to start within the next week or two at the most, is willing to do whatever miscellaneous tasks are needed, such as picking & packing apples, running the cash register, and other handywork that may need to be done. Must be good with customers, and able to lift up to 50lbs. Help will be needed until at the least the end of October. Please contact the number found on this page, or come out to the orchard and ask for Harry. All the love xx” --- Louis is staying at his Aunt's farm in a small town in Minnesota for four months. To deal with the boredom that sets in a week into his stay, he starts working at the local apple orchard, owned by twenty six year old Harry Styles. Louis quickly finds himself falling in love with the orchard, and he finds a family in Harry's friends Niall, Liam, and Zayn. He also starts to fall in love with Harry. Falling in love with him turns out to be the easy part.

i never thought i would enjoy an apple orchard fic?? but it’s so good?? farmer harry makes me laugh to think about, but the heartbreak in this fic is so. real.

Mine Would Be You

E | 114k | @crinkle-eyed-boo

Louis blinks his eyes open, his eyelids fluttering as the room swims around him. He takes several gulps of beer once he confirms that he’s definitely not hallucinating, that the very first portrait Harry Styles ever painted of him is hanging on that wall.

Louis stares at the wall, his heart jackrabbiting in his chest as he realizes that there’s not just one painting of him, there’s five, the portraits lined up like they’re some sort of storyboard depicting the rise and fall of his deepest love. His greatest heartache. A pain that cut him so deep that he left the fucking country, severing all ties with his life in New York, now suddenly surrounding him as if he’d never left.

Fucking shit motherfucker fuck.

Louis returns to New York City five years after he left it – and the love of his life – behind. He didn't intend to see Harry again, but fate has a funny way of pulling them together, whether they like it or not. After making a begrudging truce, they both start to wonder: Would it be so bad if history repeated itself?

exes to lovers drama but make it extra sad. the fact that we see so many facets to this story just makes it all the more painful, yet beautiful. this fic also reminds me of how much i love one mister niall horan.

One for Luck

E | 96k | @leavingonatrain

The very first time Louis remembers hearing Harry Styles' deep, deep voice, he's just won gold at the World Equestrian Games and he's officially back on Great Britain's Olympic team. He's also three sheets to the wind, drunk on victory and champagne, and there's a gorgeous boy whispering in his ear. Life's grand.

(AU: Louis and Harry are professional riders on the British Olympic team.)

again, i know nothing about horses, but i like to pretend i do for the sake of this fic. it’s beautiful, it’s smutty what else could you ask for?

Nothing But You On My Mind

E | 83k | @absoloutenonsense

Louis Tomlinson is a PR manager hired to improve the image of royal bad-boy Prince Harry Styles. Unfortunately for him, that means being faced with the Prince's constant innuendos, incessant dirty jokes, and relentless flirting. Louis just wants to make it to Princess Gemma's coronation; once she's crowned Queen, his contract is up and he never has to see the Prince again.

i absolutely. definitely. sobbed tears at this fic. it’s just so beautifully painful to read. don’t want to spoil anything, but this is a must.

Adore You

M | 67k | @isthatyoularry

“We invited our new acquaintances from uptown. You’ve simply got to meet their oldest son!” said his mother with a flourish, and suddenly it became abundantly clear as to why his parents had so adamantly demanded he join them in Deansville for the entirety of the summer.

Against his wishes, Harry spends the holidays at his family’s summer estate, and is reluctantly pulled into a courtship he didn’t ask for. Harry doesn’t want to get married, but Louis does. They don’t fit, but then again they really, really do.

Vaguely set in the 1920’s. Headpieces, jazz, fashionable canes, and flapper dresses, and that.

i strongly relate to harry in this one! one of my favorite historical AUs and honestly i love the thought of louis in well fitting suits.

leave it to the breeze

E | 81k | @hattalove

Louis couldn’t be prouder of his bake, but there’s something—there’s something. Something about Harry Styles and the earnest way he measures, pours, mixes, scrapes. Something about the tip of his tongue poking out of his mouth as he knocks the air out of his batter.

or a great british bake off au in which louis cares about winning and winning only, harry is made of sunshine and rainbow sprinkles, and niall sticks his nose into other people's business. also featuring liam as louis's best friend-slash-concerned mother, and zayn as a macaron connoisseur.

i. love. the. great british baking show. baking + h&l is amazing. and another reminder as to why niall is the absolute best.

Paint The Sky With Stars

M | 62k | @icanhazzalou grrr let me tag

On 10 April 1912, Harry Styles boards the finest ship the world has ever seen. Still grieving the death of their mother, he and his sister are being sent to America to live with a callous uncle who cares more about his business connections than family. Harry prepares himself for a long, disappointing voyage alone in his stateroom.

Louis Tomlinson has borrowed and saved, and finally has enough to purchase a Third Class ticket to America. With all of his belongings in a single ruck sack, he boards the Titanic filled with hope for a brighter future. Never one to sit still, he can’t resist exploring the massive ship, and soon goes sneaking into First Class in a stolen steward’s uniform.

By a twist of fate, Louis finds himself in Harry’s stateroom, entranced by the most attractive man he’s ever laid eyes on. He keeps returning day after day, even if he doesn’t understand what it is about Harry that continues pulling him in. That’s all right; Louis has a week to figure it out, and Harry is plenty willing to help.

Except they don’t have a week. They have four days. Because on 15 April, their entire world will be turned upside down.

Or, the historically accurate Titanic AU with a happy ending.

gorgeous historical fic that’s so accurate and painstakingly written. i keep coming back to it!

When It’s Late At Night

M | 25k | @all-these-larrythings

Louis has zero interest in an ex-boybander turned solo artist when his appearance on the show gets announced, but that's exactly who he gets stuck with when Harry Styles shows up at the Late Late show to promote the release of his debut album. For an entire fucking week.

Or

The Late Late prompt that we all need to get through this excruciatingly hard time.

remember when i said i love Late Late AUs? yeah. i love that louis gives absolutely zero shits in this fic until he gives all the shits.

Chasing Empty Spaces

E | 79k | @domestic-harry

The year is 1934 and Harry Styles was to inherent the largest tobacco firm in the south. His parents have picked out the “perfect” girl for him to marry and he has the privilege of receiving the highest education possible. The problem was, Harry hadn’t realized he didn’t actually want any part of that future until he met a mechanic named, Louis Tomlinson.

gorgeous historical AU that goes through Harry’s struggle with his sexuality wonderfully. this one also made me cry.

Resist Everything Except Temptation

E | 100k | @domestic-harry

The lethargic sound of heels clicking against wood resonated across the sea. Footsteps descended the staircase, every assured step creating a menacing aura as it grew closer. Perspiration gathered along Louis’ palms as the rhythmic sound halted in front of him.

“Captain,” Malik greeted.

Louis watched out of his peripheral as Malik’s boots shuffled back a few steps. Sweat matted the hair along the nape of Louis’ neck as he waited for something to happen. He felt as if a sharp blade was twisting his gut as the silence became tangible. There was a metallic slide of a sword being pulled out of its sheath, the sound startling Louis out of his cocoon of sterile shock. His shoulders jumped as the tip of a blade flattened underneath his jaw. Louis’ distorted reflection stared back at him in the polished metal. Engraved rose petals twisted his appearance as they crawled up the length of the sword. The sword lifted and took Louis’ chin with it.

Standing in front of Louis was Captain Styles.

OR

The one where Louis is the commodore's son who is forced to become a part of Harry's crew when he is captured.

love this pirate AU that’s got one badass gemma styles. also, harry as a super cool pirate in gorgeous clothes makes me super happy!

i’ll make this feel like home

E | 49k

Harry to groans himself and then takes a deep breath. “Okay, well. Here’s the thing. I peed on a stick.”

Louis isn’t able to get more than a shocked “What!” out before Harry’s steamrolling on.

“I peed on a stick and it says it’s positive, but you always prattle on about how it’s best to go to the doctor’s before you get excited, you know to confirm it because sometimes hormones are off or you have like a tumor or some shit and get false positives and what if I’m dying and-”

“You’re pregnant?!” Louis shouts out, stomach dropping as the words leave his mouth.

“Um, yeah… maybe.”

[the one where Louis' hopelessly in love with his best mate... who just happens to be pregnant with another man's baby.]

baby momma harry with hot mess!Louis is a recipe for disaster, but this one has plenty of fluff to make up for it.

Hands Clasped Tight

E | 44k | @afirethatcannotdie

“What am I looking at here?” Harry asks.

“This, my friends, is a ‘proof’ Instagram account, run by your students,” Liam announces.

“It’s got all this stuff about how the two of you are together,” Niall adds.

“I heard about that,” says one of the math teachers. “Confiscated a kid’s phone today when they were looking at it. I have to say, the evidence that you’re dating is pretty damning.”

“Really,” Louis says dryly. “Do you think being married for three years might have something to do with it?”

Or the one where Harry and Louis are high school teachers and their students have been playing matchmaker for over a year. Little do they know, Harry and Louis are already married.

love love teacher harry and louis that’s mostly funny fluff with a little angst. just a teeny amount. reminds me of my own experiences with meddling students haha.

*updated 2/16/21*

#fic recs #hl #hlcreators #ao3 #in no particular order #message me for other fics! #yourlarrysource

[sepublic]

Musical Car!

           What’s interesting is that the musical has a sign advertising Jesse’s name; Did he stop by the Musical Car at some point and inspire the denizens there with a speech about empathy, and how differences are okay? We know that had to have taken place prior to him, Lake, and Alan Dracula entering the Carnival Car, meeting The Cat, etc. Either way, I’m not at all surprised that someone as open and friendly as him would say such things, especially with an unconventional friend like Lake; And obviously he stuck by his words in the end, didn’t he?

           Lemme tell you though… I was legit disturbed by that raid, as well as seeing those poor denizens get legitimately hurt and injured for no reason at all, and that ONE decapitated dude almost getting wheeled, only to be converted into Simon’s thing; Like, screw you Apex. That’s what makes Simon and Grace interesting; I’ve always imagined the concept of more problematic protagonists for this series, so it’s not much of a surprise to see Book 3 dive into this! Given how much more, well… WORSE Simon and Grace are, pehaps it’s not all-too surprise that their arc was confined to HBO Max, given the even more mature tone set by them and their actions!

           Honestly, those two rapidly switch and range from terrible, nasty jerks I want to punch, to misfits with banter and chemistry, and plenty of comradery; Especially for people they DO care about! It really drives the point home that not every bad person is PURE evil, like they don’t spend every waking moment plotting how terrible they can be, and most don’t even consider themselves as bad! It’s disconcerting, but a good look into their mindset; With Grace genuinely trying to be nice and caring to the kids and not hurting their feelings, but also repeating Amelia’s lies about the train denizens being there for the passengers’ benefit, and… More on that later.

           Also- Glad to see Grace make fun of Simon’s fashion sense and acknowledge it, but at the same time… Either he was ten when he began to wear socks with sandals, AND/OR he was ten when he first met Grace; Presumably on the Infinity Train, although the idea of two individuals knowing one another PRIOR to boarding it is also fascinating! Especially given how Book 2 discussed the idea of fate and pre-determination in one’s paths and all…

           It’s interesting to see that not all Apex kids are against the denizens, like some DO want to make friends with them (albeit in a very invasive manner), but Grace and Simon just shut them down. I have to wonder if they themselves also had a similar moment with Amelia, only to be brutally shut down; And Amelia is objectively worse than those two considering how much higher her number is, and how SHE was the one who started this dumb ideology in the first place (instead of just being taught it at a vulnerable moment in her life like everybody else)!

           What’s worth noting is that Simon has a device that can detect the presence of other passengers, which is both VERY cool and VERY useful; I have to wonder if it’ll detect Hazel in the Jungle Car however. Given the speculation of her being a train denizen, it’d serve as neat, subtle foreshadowing as to her true nature, and I can see the show touching upon this! Also, the aesthetics of that device reminds me of what The Cat would own; Given how she’ll make a return this Book and has had a run-in with at least Grace in the past, I can easily see it being something she’d own. She IS a collector of useful things, after all… And I have to wonder if maybe The Cat was even a companion of Simon or Grace; Or maybe even Amelia! Perhaps the Passenger-Detector was a ‘gift’ from Amelia…

           (I mean, they HAVE to bring her back in Book 3, given how her ideology and actions are a direct consequence of everything that happens, and would fit nicely into her eventual redemption arc. Not to mention it’d give a fascinating insight as to what was going on in her mind when she indoctrinated the Apex.)

           Neat detail seeing the Unfinished Car with those corgi diplomats, and nice joke with that one turtle talking to what’s later revealed to be a phone with a line that’s already cut anyway! Grace breaking her Harpoon Pack makes sense; She wasn’t seen with one in the trailer and posters, and I guess it’d help ‘balance’ things if only one protagonist had a Harpoon Pack; So they can’t just skip over cars on their way back!

           Speaking of a way back; We have a set number of cars leading back to the Mall Car, so in other words we have a way of keeping track of the journey’s progress! It IS worth noting that the cars could always rearrange… It’s interesting to learn that cars apparently don’t move when passengers are inside; I always assumed that sometimes they might’ve and a passenger wouldn’t notice because all the cars look identical from the outside, and also being inside a pocket-dimension kind of skews around with the sensation of what’s going on outside. It’s possible that Simon and Grace actually felt the movement because of the Unfinished Car’s unusual nature…

           Regardless, after that disturbing opening scene it makes sense that One-One is stepping in! Given how he values the passengers more than the denizens (as seen with his second and final interaction with Lake), it makes me wonder how much he actually CARES; Or if he can’t afford to have people ‘breaking equipment’, and/or is mostly doing this to lean the Apex towards becoming better people by confronting them over their actions! At this point, they may end up pushing One-One too much and he’ll have to send in his Steward…

           Getting onto some existential crisis, the cruel thing about Simon and Grace saying that the denizens are made for them is… They’re actually kind of right? NOT that this justifies at all their wanton, senseless cruelty towards the train denizens… But it ties back to Lake’s existential crisis in Book 2, the realization and likelihood that she (and maybe even the Mirror World) was made purely for the character development of people like Tulip and Jesse! One-One himself outright says in the Book 2 Finale that, YEAH; Train Denizens are supposed to stay on the train because their entire purpose, their entire means of creation was just to fulfill what the passengers need!

           …Obviously, using them for raids ISN’T what One-One (and/or whoever made the Infinity Train/the Infinity Train itself) intended… But the disturbing realization still stands that the denizens’ purpose and creation in life is for the betterment of passengers, to accompany them, aid them… In the past, I’ve speculated how some Cars and their inhabitants don’t seem to have much of a personality beyond being a basic caricature to fulfill the ‘theme’ of a car, as well as aiding in passengers’ journeys! And obviously they’re all PEOPLE, but again this ties back into just how real the pasts and worlds of denizens were, as discussed by Mace; The idea that entire histories and cultures have been fabricated, and pre-programmed into the memories of denizens.

           Needless to say, it’s very disturbing… And if Simon and Grace ever change their stance on denizens and even start vouching for them, it’d be a brilliant reversal of their beginning attitudes to have them call out One-One for making sapient people for the sole purpose of serving others; Which could be a dilemma for him given how HE may have been made for the purpose of others! Given how Amelia taught the Apex her ideals, and she was Conductor for a time and thus had rather intimate knowledge of the Infinity Train… perhaps what she says about the denizens being just ‘toys’, made for the passengers, isn’t too far a stretch from the truth; Obviously a dark, twisted, and selfish distortion. But it’s emblematic, reflecting a deeper, underlying issue that could lie with the Infinity Train itself.

           (Especially since Owen Dennis said that One-One and the Infinity Train can be wrong…)

           Given how Amelia made cars with denizens that only ‘turned on’ once a car was considered ‘complete’ (or close to it), it suggests that she knows all about the artificial, pre-programmed nature of denizens because she’s made a few ones; Which when coupled with how she probably tried to make a Fake Alrick, and ultimately realized that a replica would never be the same… Eerily, it lends to the idea that part of what made Amelia realize this at the end of Book 1, was her mindset that denizens are just follow, fake copies of pre-existing things and aren’t even real to begin with.

           THAT is a cruel twist; That the very ideas that founded the Apex and caused our issues in Book 3, were low-key what helped Amelia wake up from her fantasy and realize that she needed to confront her issues! Given how high her number is, it only makes sense that while she’s making progress, she STILL has some more fundamental problems to tackle; Specifically the idea that while denizens aren’t the same or ‘real’ as the original, they’re still people and whatnot!

           All in all, a VERY fascinating watch! Just eleven minutes, but I’m hooked in; Sure this does tie a lot back to previously-established concepts, but what story-driven show doesn’t? It really recontextualizes and makes you think back about what WAS discussed already and how it changes with the more we learn and explore!

#infinity train #infinity train book 3 #infinity train cult of the conductor #infinity train season 3 #infinity train spoilers #infinity train season 3 spoilers #infinity train grace #infinity train simon #infinity train amelia #analysis #spoilers #it spoilers

[officialwagnerrant]

Wagnerrant Review #1: Double Parsifal

(Picture Source: here)

Work: Parsifal House: Vienna State Opera Date of performance: 11.04.2021

Team:  Director: Kirill Serebrennikov Conductor: Philippe Jordan With:  Jonas Kaufmann, Nikolai Sidorenko, Ludovic Tézier, Stefan Cerny, Georg Zeppenfeld, Wolfgang Koch, Elīna Garanča

Notes: This is not technically the first review posted on this blog. Still I decided to tag it as the No. 1, as it’s the first review ever since I (Admin Dichterfuerstin) decided to post reviews somewhat regularly. By that I mean that I plan on doing on or two per month, depending on my schedule and my mood. Most reviews will feature productions that have been around for longer, but I promise that I will watch and review every new production I can. I also take requests.

Trigger warning: The following review of the new Vienna Parsifal discusses self-harm as it’s a prevalent element in Serebrennikov’s production. I ask you to keep this in mind when reading my text or watching the production. Don’t do either of this if you know you currently cannot deal with the subject.

Review: @dichterfuerstin

In the matinee talk preceding the premiere of the Vienna State Opera’s new Parsifal, director Kirill Serebrennikov announced a production that rather caters to an audience that doesn’t find the idea of devoting one’s whole live to serving a grail particularly appealing and struggle with the heavy role religion plays in Wagner’s monumental final work: According to Serebrennikov, his Parsifal portrays physical salvation just as in Beethoven’s Fidelio rather than religious one and focus less on myths and religion than on the development of the titular character, which is achieved by featuring two versions of the character. It is a rather radical concept, turning away from Wagner’s idea and calling for Serebrennikov’s own characters and storytelling. The director delivers a strong set-up in act one, but can’t avoid plot-holes and flat arcs.

The opera begins with Jonas Kaufmann’s face on a video screen. He appears on stage shortly after, as the old Parsifal, that watches act one from the front of the stage, reacting to all of his younger self’s decisions, mockingly lip-syncing Gurnemanz’ lines and singing his owns. He is supposed to recollect the events from act one and two and is already remembering, even though his younger self only goes on quite late into act one.  Until Parsifal’s entrance according to the libretto, the young Parsifal only is present on screens above the stage, where he is eventually shown killing another prisoner nicknamed “Swan”. Having Parsifal kill a human instead of an animal works. Not only because it fits Serebrennikov’s setting better. It also creates a bigger contrast between the young and the old Parsifal. However this is the only occasion where the projections on the three screens serve the plot. During the rest of the opera they show images underlining the cruelty of prison life, creating an atmosphere but having no impact on what happens on the stage whatsoever. By act three they’re even somewhat distracting.

Behind Kaufmann, under the screens, is the huge and elaborate set, a prison, in where the young Parsifal such as all the knights are inmates. The audience watches them working out, fighting, and bribing the guards for cigarettes. One prisoner sleeps on a bench, to give Gurnemanz a prompt for his wake up-call. Even though Gurnemanz’ position is lower than usually, when he’s not a prisoner but instead the factual leader of the grail’s knights, he’s the character changed least in this production. He may hide his cigarette’s from the guards, but he still commands over the knights and pages, and tells the story about Amfortas, while tattooing the other prisoners with mythical and religious symbols to remind the audience of Wagner’s plot and setting, and maybe to establish Gurnemanz as a somewhat religious character, as he proceeds to proclaim Parsifal the new king in a very holy service-like ceremony in act three, after singing at a random metal pole, since a spear isn’t needed in this production. Amfortas, some kind of a leader of the resistance, as we learned in the matinee talk, was never hurt by someone else but instead suffers from mental illness and self-harms. He needs to be saved from himself. Amfortas’ father, Titurel, is long dead, he seems to speak to his son from above. He is partly responsible for Amfortas’ illness The unveiling of the grail is substituted by a mental breakdown, in which the prisoners try to stop Amfortas from giving himself even more wounds and pain.

The last main character to appear in act one is Kundry, in this staging a journalist investigating the prison and smuggling medicine for Amfortas. She is sung by Elīna Garanča who delivers an impressive role debut. While some journalists who had the opportunity to see the opera live claim that she seemed to struggle with combining the staging and the score, both her singing and her acting came across amazing on the recording. She plays Kundry not like a singer but like a good actress.

It’s not Garanča’s fault that the character of Kundry eventually falls flat. According to Serebrennikov she was supposed to be a strong woman with a conflicting past, but not much of this is present throughout the opera. She starts out as the seemingly independent Journalist, who later turns out to be an employee at Klingsor’s magazine “Schloss.” He assaults her, she shoots him. This is also Klingsor’s entire role in this Parsifal. He doesn’t have any interaction with Parsifal and also seemingly no impact on him at all, a consequence of stripping the plot of Parsifal of important story elements such as the grail, god, and the celebacy of the grail’s knights. Kundry seems interested in Gurnemanz’ tales, collecting pictures of the prisoner’s tattoos, being clearly interested in the myths and the prisoners, but we never learn her motivations. Eventually her arc is completed by her walking off the stage, arm in arm with Amfortas, who freed himself from his father by throwing out his ashes and was then healed through Kundry’s kiss. This would be a satisfying ending for an action film, considering the source material and the set up from act one it’s a lazy, far to easy way to resolve both of their character arcs.

Unfortunately, the entire ending is dissatisfying. Parsifal returns to the prison as his old self, yet his young alter-ego appears later on and kisses Kundry, the old Parsifal doesn’t mind, no matter how determined to separate them he was back in act two. After that Serebrennikov makes a surprising return to the libretto: Kundry washes Parsifal’s feet, he is made the king and baptises her, before fulfilling the production’s premise as a salvation opera. All the prisoners can finally leave the prison and reconnect with freedom, this production’s holy grail. Gurnemanz even takes his time to wave Parsifal good bye, who remains inside the prison. It’s a symbolic ending, in the libretto Parsifal is now responsible for the grail, a prisoner of the grail if you will. However this third act end ending fail to connect with the preceding acts.

The production falls flat on more than just a few occasions, however the cast and music manage to make up for it. Most outstanding is Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz. Not only is his beautiful bass voice made for this characters, no other Wagner role is so incredibly fitting for him, he also manages to combine the prisoner and commanding Gurnemanz through his acting. Overall the acting is strong for a bunch of opera singers, who still have a reputation for being great singers but struggling with acting. There’s  Elīna Garanča delivering her impressive role debut, as well as Ludovic Tézier as Amfortas, appearing perfectly hurt and pained as he drags himself over the stage. Parsifal Jonas Kaufmann is neither a debutant nor a born Wagner-Singer. His approach to Wagner’s music is rather italien, he values emotion and beauty over heroicness. It’s melancholic, well-fitting for this old Parsifal remembering his youth. Kaufmann and his alter-ego actor Nikolai Sidorenko work together to create a character and they do it well. The only downside of having two Parsifals, besides some confusion on who is the active parsifal especially during act three, is that next to the fantastic actor Nikolai Sidorenko it becomes obvious that acting isn’t Kaufmann’s strong suit. He often resorts to a preset set of gestures, other than most of his colleagues who are their characters throughout the whole four hours long performance. Last but not least, it’s the orchestra that is the center of nearly all of Wagner’s music. Philippe Jordan, the new musical director of the Vienna State Opera, leads his orchestra through this exhausting opera fluently, making every single Leitmotiv and their variations perfectly clear. But especially the solo parts stand out. But it’s also the unexcelled charm and emotionality of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra that makes this performance so fitting and so beautiful. Even on screen, through speakers, this orchestra feels live, and alive.

This Parsifal is mostly worth listeing to, but also worth watching. While Kirill Serebrennikov couldn’t quite do justice to the setup for a deep and thoughtful story he created in act one, he was able to create a captivating production, with an ending that is good for Parsifal nights, where you want to leave the theatre or laptop with the feeling of having watched a happy ending instead of having been confronted with four hours of Wagner’s music-religion. 

#wagnerrant reviews #parsifal #richard wagner #opera #wagner opera #review #vienna state opera #not a rant #officialwagnerrant

[travllingbunny]

The 100 7x11 Etherea

This is the episode we’ve been waiting for this whole season - and while I don’t think it’s the best episode of the season, it is certainly the most exciting one. It would be that just the fact that Bellamy is finally back on screen (and not just for a couple of minutes, but for an entire episode fully focused on him), and it was great to see him and have an episode fully devoted to him, and remember once again what an amazing actor Bob is and the presence and intensity he brings to the show. But it also turned out to be the first episode of season 7 that is a genuine game changer and that shocked the viewers with a twist that wasn’t entirely predictable. 

Even though the fandom had been speculating on the so-called brainwashed Bellamy or “void Bellamy” or generally Bellamy that is for some reason the (temporary) enemy of Clarke, Octavia and the rest of the protagonists, and hoping for that storyline, with a Mockingjay-like possibilities for romantic angst between him and Clarke (especially after a photo of Bellamy in the white robe leaked early in the year, months before the season even started to air), the way it happened seems to have upset many of the fans )to quote a podcaster, “I was hoping for a brainwashed Bellamy, but not like this”). Probably because the show has Bellamy retain agency in his transformation and that it is indoctrination into a cult be more like real life and partially rooted in Bellamy’s own emotional issues, beliefs and needs, rather than taking the easier route of having him be Sci-Fi brainwashed, Winter Soldier style.

That said, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this episode and how good I think it is. The first half of the episode, Bellamy was very much himself, and it was focused on survival and trying to get off the planet,  and the dynamic between him and Conductor Doucette - throughout the episode - seems to play into the familiar trope of two enemies, or people of opposing views, who have to spend time together, gets to argue, survive together, and eventually bond as fellow humans. This story would not be particularly interesting - not only have we seen it many times, but it feels redundant for Bellamy, who has learned to see the POV of his enemies, bond with them and see the common humanity in them, many seasons ago. It also would not have been interesting if Bellamy managed to change Doucette’s beliefs - which the audience already thinks are rubbish - as this wouldn’t tell us anything new about Bellamy and would only give development to Doucette. 

But instead, what was really happening throughout this episode, under the guise of bonding with the enemy, was Bellamy’s spiritual journey - aka his indoctrination into Cadogan’s cult. The crucial part of it happens not just to his exhaustion and desperation in tough circumstances, or his companion offering him faith as a solution, but through something Bellamy actually sees in the cave, and his own visions a little later.  This is where the episode becomes a lot more interesting - and also a lot more frustrating.  I don’t think I’ll be sure how I feel about this until I see the rest of the season, and learn how some things from this episode are explained or followed up on. In particular, the explanation (or lack of it?) for Bellamy’s visions in this episode will pretty much determine what course the show is taking in its final season and what it is trying to be.

Whatever the explanation, the end result - which we see after Bellamy returns to Bardo - is disturbing and painful to watch. It is something we have never seen before - Bellamy himself trying to enforce a total abnegation of everything Bellamy Blake is. Which includes willingly repressing his feelings for his loved ones to the point of betraying them (and results in the most painful Bellarke reunion ever, and one of the most painful reunions of the Blake siblings). I don’t know if I’m fully buying such a huge transformation - which is one of my problems with the episode. But this is certainly quality angst, and means that the season has become much more exciting to watch.

Is it weird that such a big twist happens in episode 11, out of 16 episodes, after 10 episodes that have been mostly setup for the big plot? Yes, just like it is weird that Bellamy has been MIA before this. BTS reasons obviously affected this season a lot - if it hadn’t been for them, I think we’d have a similar storyline, but this would have happened much earlier in the season. Are 5 episodes enough to resolve this in a satisfactory way? Well, it’s certainly enough to resolve it - this is a show that has characters go from hate to love over the course of 5 episodes, has characters hook up/fall for each other after knowing each other for 2-3 episodes, the show that showed Hope’s entire 10-year relationship with her father figure in a 7 minute scene, and the show that just had this massive character transformation happen over one episode. Will it feel satisfactory and convincing - it could, if it’s well-written and if the show doesn’t waste too much time on the Sanctum plot and fully focuses on its two main characters now that one of them is finally back.

Starting from the beginning - this time, its Bob saying “Previously on”, in line with this season having different cast members saying those opening words in different episodes (Eliza in 7x01, Marie in 7x02, Luisa in 7x03, there was no previously on in 7x04, Marie in 7x05, Lindsey in 7x06, Richard in 7x07, no previously on in 7x08, Eliza in 7x09 and 7x10 - it’s a bit surprising that Eliza said it in episode 9 even though she wasn’t in it at all, but otherwise those fit characters that were strongly featured in the episode in question).

We also get yet another version of the opening titles - which start and finish with a shot of the Anomaly. Earth again makes a cameo near the end, just as it did in 7x10, though it’s in the shadow now so can’t be seen as clearly. 

While 90% of the episode takes place on Etherea, it opens and ends on Bardo. The opening scene is the only one not featuring Bellamy - apart from a replayed memory. We learn that the MCap machine was damaged by Echo, and is only now operational again. Finally, a good explanation why the Disciples did not put Echo, Diyoza or Octavia - again - in MCap after they agreed to cooperate. Levitt is using it on one of the Disciples who were in the Stone Room during the explosion. I guess he was still recovering a week after, and now they are presumably trying to help him, since - as the other Conductor tells Levitt - he is suffering from PTSD. Hey, isn’t that the first time anyone has mentioned that word on the show? At least the Disciples have kept the knowledge about mental health issues, even if their ways of dealing with it are questionable at best. We learn that no one is being punished, not even for killing Anders, as the other conductor says. (Not even? Does she think that’s worse than attempted genocide? Hope didn’t even back down from it as Echo eventually did, and the two Disciples Anders called witnessed it. The Conductor may think that the consequence is more important than intent... But even so, she clearly thinks Anders’ life was more important than those of two other Disciples, who were murdered by Echo as a part of her torturing Levitt. I guess that “For all mankind” thing doesn’t mean you consider all of the people, or even all of the Disciples, equal...)

Levitt finds out what 99% of the audience was sure of anyway and goes “He’s alive!” Surprise, surprise. But Levitt, shouldn’t you say “They are alive?”? Knowing Levitt’s attachment to Octavia, he is talking about Bellamy, not about one of his colleagues, Conductor Doucette, who was also presumed dead. (Doucette, not Douchette - even though the latter would make for a good joke.)

Let’s think about why this scene exists (apart from being used as a sneak peek). Obviously it was full of exposition, but why was it important for Levitt to find out that Bellamy is alive at the same time as we learn about it? We could have just seen Bellamy falling through the Bridge to the planet of Etherea. I suppose the purpose is dual: 1) to learn that the Disciples indeed did not know Bellamy was alive and on Etherea, 2) to learn that Cadogan knew Bellamy was alive an on Etherea, at least a few hours to a day before his return, which may be important for the events of this episode.

One of the questions the fandom has been debating is, did Anders intentionally send Bellamy to Etherea to be indoctrinated? Since 7x05, I have believed that Bellamy was on Etherea, and my initial reading of the scene was that Anders made the decision to send him there - and that this was why Doucette started to beg him: “Please, sir, no”, as he wasn’t happy to be stranded there. Then I started second-guessing it, because it became increasingly obvious that Anders was dumb as a brick and unable to come up with any smart plans how to brainwash people (as we saw with HEDO - he just threatened them into compliance instead of trying to really change their minds). Now I think that sending people to Etherea may be a standard practice that Disciples do on very special occasions when they want to send someone on a spiritual journey/pilgrimage/true brainwashing that they can’t come back until they make a ‘leap of faith” (just like they use Skyring as a standard prison). Maybe this is not even something that most Disciples know, but info only reserved for Level 12s or even Level 13s. But the grenade attack was real and made Anders believe Bellamy was dead and the plan was off - as there is no reason to believe that anything before Bellamy’s last day in the cave was manipulated from Bardo.

However, that last day - with Bellamy’s visions - could have been, and it happened around the same time Cadogan would have found out from Levitt that Bellamy was alive and on Etherea. There seems to be no time differential (or too small a differential to matter) between Etherea and Bardo - just like there seems to be none between Earth and Sanctum, since Bellamy and Doucette retained their memories going from Bardo to Etherea and back, both times without a protective helmet.

Etherea, the planet

The promo for this episode made the planet look much worse and less survivable than it really seems to be. Apart from the grey filter* that the show is using to make it look worse and kind of drab and gloomy, it seems to be a perfectly nice planet, with vegetation and an OK climate - as long as you are not trying to get off the planet through the Anomaly and climbing the extremely high mountain to reach the Anomaly Stone. It’s funny that, aside from Nakara, every other planet connected by the Anomaly has better living conditions than Bardo. The Disciples obviously use Bardo just because of the facilities they’ve found there. But Skyring is a really lovely planet - its only problem is the time differential from the other habitable planets, but that would not be a problem if a big group of people just decided to live there and start a community. Sanctum is lovely, too - well, except for red sun toxin and killer insects and meat-eating trees. (Why have the Disciples mostly ignored it? Is it because of those things, or maybe they didn’t want to mix with the Primes and other Sanctumites? Or they just didn’t see a use for it?) And Etherea is another problem where people could decide to live, if they gave up going to other planets.

*The show uses different filters to make the woods around Vancouver look like different planets:  

Sanctum - bright colors, lots of red during day, purple at night 

Skyring - blue filter (nice planet) 

Nakara - blue filter (frozen planet) 

Etherea - grey filter 

Earth - normal, except in S5 everywhere outside Eden - greyish yellow filter for a desolated post-Praimfaya Earth

But of course, Bellamy is definitely not interested in staying there and only wants to find a way off this planet, and Doucette, unlike Orlando, is neither serving a sentence he wants to see to the end nor is expecting the Disciples to send a team to retrieve him. This is another one of the “just two three four people on the planet” episodes, but this stay is just a few months rather than years, and spent in much harsher and most exhausting conditions during most of that time - because Bellamy never stops trying to get off the planet. There are parallels and strong contrasts to every one of those other situations:

Eden -  The first few months of Clarke’s experience surviving on the desolated Earth parallel Bellamy’s months on the mountain - surviving in tough conditions (extreme heat in Clarke’s case vs extreme cold in Bellamy’s), physically and mentally exhausted to the point of breaking. There are even visually parallel shots of both of them walking with a stick or eating bugs. But the big differences are: after trying and failing to get in the bunker and after the Temple collapsed, Clarke had no way of getting off the planet or out of her current situation and reuniting with any of her loved ones. She could only survive and wait. She was all alone and only talking to Bellamy, who wasn’t there, to keep herself sane. Bellamy, OTOH, was actively trying to get off the planet and reach his loved ones all that time, and he had a companion - another adult with strong beliefs, who he talked to and who did his best to indoctrinate him. After those first few months, Clarke found Eden and met Madi, and the rest of her (mostly off-screen) life on Earth during the next 6 years was much more similar to Octavia’s life with Diyoza and Hope on Skyring. 

The Garden - Unlike Bellamy, Octavia lived in a beautiful place and with someone who was already her friend and a child she came to look after, finding family she loved (rather than faith and abstract “love for all mankind”). Like Bellamy, Octavia kept trying to get off the planet and reach her sibling and her friends, which was equally difficult for a different reason, as the Anomaly entrance was deep under water (unlike Bellamy, she wouldn’t have actually able to leave the planet as she didn’t have a Conductor or codes for the Stone - but she didn’t know she needed them) - for 6 years, before she eventually gave up and settled for her peaceful life for the next 4 years and sending Bellamy a letter.

Hesperides - Like Bellamy, Echo, Gabriel and Hope wanted to get off the planet and reach their friends/family, but unlike Bellamy, they couldn’t get the codes and had to wait for 5 years, and, unlike him, they lived in lovely place. Like Bellamy, they had a devout Disciple as a companion,  but there were three of them, which made it more difficult for him to indoctrinate them, no matter how much he wanted to make them Disciples, and they were the ones trying to manipulate him. They developed a friendship with him, as Bellamy did with Doucette, but while Bellamy saved Doucette when he didn’t have to anymore, Echo betrayed him and left him as expendable, and the other two eventually went along with it.

But Etherea is not just another planet for the Disciples - it is notable for what can be found in a cave on the way to the top of the mountain, which Cadogan apparently looked for and found, as a part of his pilgrimage - his own “40 days in a desert” - because, of course, he sees himself as a messiah (and, as we saw in 7x09, this is an important thing in the Bardo religion and something children are taught about in school). 

Bellamy immediately learns all about Cadogan’s teachings - everything the rest of the characters took several episodes to learn about - by reading his book (”pocket propaganda from another false god”) and immediately pokes holes in it. He makes all the good points and lists most of the reasons why the Disciple faith makes no sense, including the fact that it makes no sense to be fighting for peace and end of violence by waging another war. Everything he says in the first half of the episode are things I would completely agree with. Which makes it all the more frustrating when he starts ignoring his own reasonable arguments by the end of this episode. One might say that the Disciple propaganda attacks both his heart - using his desire to find peace, an end to all the struggle and pain, and eventually, his love and memory of his mother, to ignore what his head is telling him - but they also eventually attack his head, by presenting what seems like actual physical evidence, and the end result is to ignore not just the rational objections he had, but also try to suppress his love for the most important individual people in his life.

He lists the people he loves - “Octavia, Echo, Clarke” - which is the first time Bellamy himself has used the word love for the latter two (and in fact, for anyone other than Octavia). BTW, notice that no one in the show has ever used the word “girlfriend/boyfriend” except Diyoza (when this was what she assumed Clarke was to Bellamy)? Maybe these words have fallen out of use in the post-apocalypse societies. The main characters usually talk about their “friends” or “family” (the latter not always being biological). Doucette later talks of "your family, your friends” and “your obsession with your sister and your friends” - where Echo and Clarke are both lumped into this category. Echo is not singled out as “your girlfriend” or in any other way.

Here’s the thing about Bellamy’s and Doucette’s dynamic: if this story wasn’t really about indoctrinating Bellamy, there really wouldn’t be anything there we didn’t know about Bellamy before. Of course he wouldn’t kill this random Disciple guy if he didn’t have to - and, in spite of what he tells Doucette at the start, it’s not just because he needed him to survive. Bellamy learning to see the humanity of his enemies and working with them and bonding with them is something we have seen many times: at first with Clarke, then with Lincoln, Indra, the Grounders, Kane, Echo. All the way back in season 2, he valued human lives, even from the enemy side: he opposed Murphy’s idea of killing the captive Grounder thief (while Finn summarily killed him), he angrily said he’d kill everyone in Mount Weather but then tried his best for that not to happen, after seeing the children there; even during his Pike-supporting days, he tried to persuade Pike and the others to spare the wounded Grounder warriors, in season 4 he talked Riley down from trying to assassinate Roan, and in season 5, he refused to kill the cryo frozen Eligius prisoners, and later convinced Madi to spare the Eligius convicts who were their PoW. And while Bellamy has been motivated, most of all, by personal love (particularly for his sister and Clarke), we’ve seen him save many people, including strangers or near strangers. That speech Doucette gave him about “loving all mankind” is something season 1 Bellamy needed to hear, the one who was focused just on Octavia and then just on her and the Delinquents, but Bellamy has had a massive character development since. Bellamy knows more about loving all mankind than Doucette or any of the Disciples do. Doucette says he “loves all mankind” including a total stranger - well, dude, didn’t you try to kill Bellamy at first? And the rest of what we’ve seen from Disciples is much worse. They talked the talk, but don’t walk the walk, unless they think kidnapping and torturing people and trying to break their spirit is “love”, And Anders definitely showed that he did not “love all the mankind” when he ordered a hit on Hope, or when he gave that speech in 7x10 about what disgusting “wild beats” all these non-Disciples were.

But unlike Anders, Doucette can talk in a convincing way and make decent arguments in favor of his faith to non-believers, rather than just preaching to the converted - or at least, he can appear to give decent arguments. He’s taking a page from The 100 fandom with the argument that Bellamy is so selfish and egotistical for... loving his sister and his friends and constantly fighting and sacrificing himself for them. (The 100 fandom loves making that same argument about Clarke.) Quite a skill, to make such BS argument sound convincing. He basically gives Bellamy a version of the “Love is weakness” advice - in this case, that “love is selfish” and leads to destruction and pain. And when Bellamy asks the rhetorical question, if that means that you shouldn’t love anyone -  Doucette turns it around and talks of love for all mankind. But that “love” he speaks of is abstract and fake - it is impossible to love everyone. You cannot love total strangers, or people you simply don’t like - certainly not the same as you love your lover or friend or family member. You can, however, be compassionate, and value human lives,.Which is, in fact, something the Disciples don’t do, as we’ve seen on Bardo (but Bellamy has not seen it yet) - they just value lives as more soldiers for the cause. Their “humanity” is abstract - they are ready to sacrifice individuals for it (everyone except the Shepherd). Bellamy, on the other hand, has always been about valuing individual lives and saving them - be it Mel on season 2, or the slaves in season  - and he managed to do it while also loving his sister and his friends. The Disciples and Doucette’s arguments present a false dichotomy. But, unfortunately, Bellamy still has deep guilt and self-loathing that he never fully resolved (even in season 6, he still talked about his many sins in 6x04), and he’s tired by always having to fight another war for survival, just to followed by another. (Which is similar to Clarke’s misgivings in 7x03: “I’m afraid that fighting is not what we do, it’s what we are” and Raven’s and Clarke’s conversation about guilt over having killed so many people.) The only time he didn’t have to always worry and/or fight were the years on the Ring, but he was still grieving Clarke and missing Octavia and motivated by going back down to reunite with her  He knows what he’s capable of doing out of love - and he also has unresolved issues with the women he loves. In season 4, he lamented how pathetic he was coming back to his sister when she kept treating him badly, and in the 7x07 Ring flashback, he thought his love for his sister was his “weakness”. He’s certainly been hurt by her, finally rejected her and then later got to reunite with her, get an apology and forgive and make up with her. He and Clarke have also certainly hurt each other and forgiven each other, and that relationship is still unresolved. Bellamy himself admitted to Jo!Clarke in 6x09 that he was exhausted by their ups and downs and lack of resolution. And Echo... well, he should know exactly where he stands with her, but he didn’t seem happy about their relationship and seemed to want her to be Clarke someone else.

I can see why Bellamy started to envy Doucette his emotional calm that his faith and worldview seemed to bring him.

We got another Pike mention in this ep (and again, it was a reference to his positive role - as a teacher of Earth skills). The last time Bellamy made it was in 6x07 when he found out Clarke was alive. Pike was also a father figure to Bellamy - just like Kane, and now Cadogan. Bellamy has been called both a King and a Knight. Some of his biggest mistakes were when he chose to trust in a leader/father figure (the last time, it was Pike - who was, however, very different from Cadogan and his views on the opposite side the spectrum from Bill’s), and ALIE!Raven thought that one of the ways she could try to taunt him and erode his confidence was to call him a follower rather than a leader. Only she tried to convince him that he was in subjugated position to Clarke - which IMO was never true. They have always had an equal relationship (except when external circumstances made it otherwise - see, Kane and the adults taking the power away from Bellamy, while Clarke was able to take it back from Abby mostly because she was backed up by the Grounder Commander), and Clarke was the one who always tried to boost Bellamy’s confidence in his abilities as a leader. He was definitely a leader of his people in season 5 and season 6, and he works best as co-leader with Clarke (and vice versa). But even when Bellamy supported Clarke, he was questioning his decisions, even though he was rarely able to change Pike’s mind - he wasn’t blindly obeying and accepting everything, as he would have to with the Disciples.

Another factor in Bellamy’s transformation is of course the fact that he spent months in the cave - to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. Every time he and Doucette would climb the mountain, the peak where the Stone was would turn out to be even higher. Bellamy himself used two of the Greek myths to describe the task - Sisyphus and Icarus. A pointless task that results in having to do everything all over again (just like what he said about having to always fight another war), and a dangerous task likely to destroy you.

Bellamy was still insisting on reason over faith - “I believe in what I can prove” - but then he got to see the beings of light, as “proof”..

And here we come to the more interesting part of this ep and something that the show may or may not explain. I’m pretty skeptical about Cadogan’s views of what these beings are. How do we know that they have really “transcended” and become eternal or whatever, living on some kind of higher plane? No one has communicated with them, or have they? They are aliens, from our POV. Maybe that’s their natural state?  Maybe they’re dead and this is just what remains of them? Maybe they died in a similar catastrophe as the Bardoans but one that was more about fire than ice, as Selina hypothesized in her review)? Maybe they are in agony?  Sure, they look beautiful to human eyes, and fit the human culture’s idea of what spirituality and transcendence is like - but you can’t know that for sure. The frozen crystal giants on Bardo also look beautiful, after all, and that entire species died horribly

And then the second “otherworldly” thing happens after Bellamy finally agreed to prey - and he has a vision, involving Cadogan as his spiritual guide, leading him from a place full of weapons - swords and guns - to the place where he sees his dead mother, Aurora. It’s a beautiful and emotional scene, and I can’t imagine all the things Bellamy is feeling as she touches his face - including, probably, more unresolved guilt - over getting his mother executed (because he loved his sister and tried to make her happy). Aurora tells him Go to the light, Bellamy” and he looks at the figures of light -  but we don’t learn what, if anything, he saw there .

I hope we learn that Bellamy saw something important - maybe something connected to the Judgment Day Becca talked about - that would explain the extent of his conversion, although it seems that it is mostly supposed to be a consequence of the fact that the storm stopped at the moment when he chose to prey. 

The final step in his ‘spiritual journey’ is after that, when he barely managed to reach the top. After repeating the mantra “I am not afraid” (something else from the Blakes’ childhood - the same line Octavia was repeating on Bardo to resist the Conductors), he admits to himself “I am afraid”. In retrospect, a sign that he was broken, and started feeling that his past and his family were not enough to give him strength and faith. The jump from the top was described as a “leap of faith” by Doucette - which is kind of ridiculous, since it had nothing to do with faith, just with the fact that Cadogan was there and knew how the Anomaly worked, and the fact he was able to climb the mountain and leave is proof that the Anomaly worked properly. 

(I wonder why the heck the Anomaly works so differently on different planets - in some cases you can enter the Anomaly right next to the Stone when you’re leaving the planet, and in others, you have to go back to the original entrance that’s somewhere else.)

Now, the visions may be explained in several different ways:

hallucinations - earlier, Bellamy found a family photo and recognized Cadogan, and he would know how Conductors and high ranking Disciples dress, he’s seen the white robe on Anders and Doucette

everything in the cave is real, and Cadogan has some sort of a telepathic connection to the cave (the true believer’s interpretation)

the brain implant/hive mind theory (by Selina again - I don’t believe in this one as there has been no evidence of it so far)

projections/hologram - see Jean’s theory that Cadogan used the hologram technology to project images of himself and Aurora (whose image is familiar to the Disciples from Octavia’s memories)

a combination of some of the above - the beings of light may be real, and Cadogan may have stumbled onto something but has again misinterpreted what it was all about; Bellamy’s vision of Cadogan was a hallucination or projection, but he also did see something real when his mother (again, possible hallucination or unexplained spiritual phenomenon) told him to look into the light.

It’s possible that the show will never fully explain what really happened here, just as Murphy’s vision of hell has never been explained.

The reunion

Up until this point, the episode doesn’t seem to show a seriously disturbing turn in Bellamy: we saw that he was starting to take the Disciples’ faith seriously and even to believe in it, and the first thing he does when turning up in the Stone Room on Bardo is look happy and relieved he made it, and hug an equally happy Doucette. So, he made a friend among the Disciples and will be the one telling Clarke and the rest: “We should take this seriously, they have a point, here is what I saw on Etherea...” - right? That would make perfect sense while not fundamentally changing who Bellamy is.

But no! Bellamy falls to his knees and calls Cadogan “My Shepherd” - which was one of the most painful scenes for me to see in all of the show, even more so than the later scene where he snitches on Clarke. There’s been a lot this season about “kings” forcing subjects to kneel - but instead of the “kneel or die” approach that Anders more or less used (while Sheidheda is using it in the most literal way possible), this is out of genuine belief. I  don’t know if I’m really buying this massive transformation that we see here and in the next scene. It’s just a bit too much. Maybe information about what it was that Belalmy saw when he went ‘into the light’ would help explain it better.

Cadogan is happy to use Bellamy to convince Clarke to cooperate, and informs him: “Your friends are here, they have gotten themselves in some trouble”. Maybe this adds up to the reason why Bellamy is uncomfortable when he sees them a bit later, because they’ve been bad - but only some of them were (Echo with her murders, torture and genocide attempt, the others - not really, except Hope, someone he doesn’t even know yet). But when he comes to see them, he looks broken, exhausted and numb after all his experiences. And probably wary of giving in to the “selfish love”. (His friendship with Doucette is presumably in line with his new faith, but he seems to think his friendship with Clarke is not? Is that his relationship with Clarke actually involves love, real love for an individual?) After finally reuniting with the people he had been trying to reach all that time on Etherea, he doesn’t even look happy to see them. To quote Bellamy from earlier in the episode,Sometimes, Bellamy Blake, irony is funny. This is not one of these times.

Meanwhile, his friends are in Cadogan’s living quarters in house arrest. Conveniently, it’s just Clarke, Echo and Octavia there - plus Gabriel, but the focus is on Bellamy’s reunions with the three women he named as the people he loved earlier in the episode. Raven is not there, neither are Miller, Jordan, Niylah or Hope. (The last time Bellamy saw Jordan, Jordan was the brainwashed one. Hey, what happened to that storyline? Did it end up as a casualty of the rewrites?)

They’re discussing what to do, and Clarke has decided to basically sacrifice her life so the others could escape. We know that Clarke is a very selfless person, but  the way she’s been increasingly casually deciding to sacrifice herself feels a bit disturbing - as if she’s stopped caring about her own life or hoping for happiness. At this point, her big character development would be to choose happiness and try to have what she wants. Even her “selfish” actions up to this point were mostly about trying to protect others. We haven’t even seen her show much emotion this season - as if she was on autopilot - except for her early grieving Abby earlier in the season, and moments when she’s silently grieving Bellamy, 

Cadogan is there to offer the carrot rather than the stick, and being a drama queen, doesn’t Clarke and the others that Bellamy is there, but lets him in. They are massively surprised but don’t notice something’s off, or rather, they seem to assume he is just physically exhausted and in pain rather than mentally/emotionally off, as he silently looks at Clarke and Octavia and then Echo. Camera shows close-ups of the reactions of the people who love him: Clarke’s, Echo’s and Octavia’s reactions before going back to Clarke. (Probably because she’s the main character, in case people have forgotten, and her relationship with Bellamy is at center of the show), Octavia is happy and proud tries to hug her brother, but the Disciples pull out weapons. Clarke ignores the weapons, counting on her status/leverage, and hugs him. 

She looks lovingly at him, with something we haven’t seen from her in a long time - happiness, that’s definitely not “best friend that I’m not attracted to” but “best friend I have naughty thoughts about”. (Only love can make you hug someone who must be smelling really badly at this point, considering Bellamy hasn’t washed or changed his clothes in over 3 months!)

This hug is different from any other Bellarke hug ever, since Bellamy is so numb, even when he hugs her back, but she is too happy to see him back to notice.  And then when she takes the chance to also get him up to speed and tell him about the Flame - he gets an incredibly sad look on his face. He is not unemotional now - but he has decided he must ignore and suppress those feelings, betray her trust and tell Cadogan the truth, because his faith and the so-called “love for all mankind” comes first.

Everyone is shocked when he calls Cadogan “My Shepherd” and then beyond shocked when he betrays them - and camera again shows Echo’s, Octavia’s and Clarke’s reactions, going back to Cadogan, and then the episode ends on a close-up of Clarke’s shocked face. Because, you know, she’s still the main character. And finally, now we can hopefully have a S7 storyline that properly focuses on the show’s protagonist and utilizes Eliza’s talent allowing her to show a range of emotions. When Clarke believed Bellamy was dead, he was someone she could hold in her memory and try to honor it by saving his sister and girlfriend - but this is a whole new way of losing him, right after thinking she got him back, and means real emotional turmoil.

Bellamy has become a true believer and decided to stop being himself. And the people who love him will now have to deal with his loss - in another way - all over again, and try to save him. I’m torn because this storyline offers huge opportunities for a “power of love” storyline right out of a fanfic, but I’m uncomfortable with the idea that it may come at the expense of having Bellamy be manipulated and subjugated to a white megalomaniac villain in the last season. But I hope and expect we will see genuine character development and re-affirmation of who Bellamy Blake is. Now, there are a lot of things Bellamy doesn’t know yet and that have contributed to him drinking Cadogan’s Kool-Aid (he hasn’t seen Cadogan’s dealings with his family or Second Dawn, or what he did to Becca, or Anders’ actions on Bardo, or the way the Disciples mistreat their own people, and he doesn’t know about Cadogan’s mistranslation of the Bardoan text), but I don’t think the resolution of this storyline will be about Cadogan or what Bellamy knows about his religion. I think it will be Bellamy himself and his relationships. Clarke and Octavia had big character arcs in season 5-6 where they had to deal with who they are, who they’ve become and what they want to be negating everything he is. He needs to finally really deal with his self-loathing and guilt and he needs to gain back trust in himself, the Bellamy Blake that others loved and trusted and relied on. He needs to feel loved and decide that love is strength and a positive rather than just ‘selfish’ force. (And who can show him that? Hint: not his girlfriend Echo, whose love he would definitely see as confirmation that love is selfish and destructive, as it makes a person do things like murder, torture and attempted genocide out of revenge. Another hint: probably the same person who gave him confidence and made him believe in himself and grow as a person, multiple times, all the way back in season 1 and again in season 3 and season 4, telling him he was a person that other follow because of his big heart and the way he can inspire people. And third hint - the same person Bellamy was saving - her physical self - in season 6, will be the one who’ll have to save him, mentally, save who he is., in season 7.)

Rating: 8/10 (could go higher or lower depending on how the cave visions are explained and what the outcome of this plot is)

#the 100 #etherea #the 100 7x11 #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #bill cadogan #octavia blake #the disciples #the anomaly #bardo

[simpsocial]

Okay so hear me out: Haikyuu marching band head cannons!

Here’s some of mine that just came from literally no where but if they aren’t accurate I’ll be damned:

First off goin through Karasuno players

Kageyama - this boy is 100% that power-hungry one that got picked as drum major just because they needed someone to conduct halftime since the other one was part of the show and you can’t convince me otherwise!

Hinata - I feel like because of his whole ‘my size won’t stop me’ attitude he’d pic tuba/sousaphone just because it’s the biggest instrument and the bells are really shiny, just sayin

Suga - okay he’s the drum major that worked sooo hard in high school to earn his spot but can’t conduct halftime performances because he’s a like the only flute player so he’s needed in the show but he conducts in the stands most of the time

Daichi - band captain, probably a tenor or baritone saxophonist (idk he gives me low reed vibes), absolutely brutal punishments if you break an instrument or lose your music/dot sheet

Asahi - clarinet, he’s the flute/clarinet section leader since drum majors often run in between sections during things, he’s cried in the stands at a game multiple times and ngl probably tripped while marching a show

Tsukishima - okay hear me out, he’s that snare drummer that thinks he’s soooo talented and that the rest of percussion is sh*t, the kid everyone’s like ashamed to have in band just because of his salty attitude, the band director has totally had to chew him out because of how he’s reflecting poorly on the program

Yamaguchi - let’s see he’d definitely be a flute, the soft shy flute that is the embodiment of his instruments stereotypes, he’s fairly new and still needs to work on his tone quality a bit but is good other than that, is def told to play louder everyday

Tanaka - just gonna say it he’s a percussionist, I feel he’d be on tenors just because he’s the only one good enough to actually do it, he goes ham every time he plays anything, dynamics? never heard à those lol

Nishinoya - as a low brass member I would’ve doing my section dirty if I didn’t say this chaotic gremlin was a trombone, like he’s the trombone, best player in the section, if he’s there none of the other trombones are worried about messing up because he’s got them covered!

Yachi - she may look all fragile n stuff but trust me this girl is a baritone, she is the one and only baritone in this band and is shy as hell about it, she is very scared of the other bands out there but always longs for more baritone buddies silently, she’s definitely got overwhelmed during a halftime show and passed out on the field after throwing up

Kiyoko - okay I’d like to say she’d be a flute but honestly she’s more like a mellophone to me, like if you’ve even heard a mellophone with good tone quality it’s angelic man, she has the tone quality better than some professional players out there man, she helps leadership in spreading info about events and stuff throughout the band and sometimes further out to the common population

Now time for Nekoma because why not

Kenma - every single band has one (or more) of these guys tbh, I see him as an alto saxophone player that is really good but doesn’t really try, though he’s drum major so that doesn’t really get shown often, he is a conductor that gives an insane amount of cues because he knows the band isn’t counting lmao

Kuroo - band captain that people often forget is in charge, like hes the band captain that will literally break the rules WITH YOU and then punish you alone for it, I just get baritone vibes from him idk why, definitely the type to just start a list of sh*t said/done in the band room and during practices/games on his phone, is the band directors favorite and can get away with almost anything

Lev - okay okay okay sooo it’s about time I put someone on this instrument, he’s a trumpet, it’s the ego oKaY???, you cannot tell me he doesn’t have trumpet ego, he thinks he’s the best trumpet but really he’s only on first part because the band director wanted to spread the sound between the different parts, he’d probably try to be a section leader as a joke and end up actually getting it and panicking

Moving on because I’m not familiar with the rest of that team hahaha, let’s hiiiit Fukurōdani

Bokuto - okay he’s a band captain that no one knows how the hell he got the position, he’s lively energetic and lowkey got a big ass ego so he is by default a trumpet, first chair ofc and louuud af, you can tell when he isn’t playing because suddenly there’s no more trumpets and the band director is mad lmao, he doesn’t know how to punish ANYONE he leaves that sh*t up to the drum major

Akaashi - as the drum major HES the one that has to deal with alll the bs bokuto doesn’t, when he’s conducting you know that almost all his ques are for the trumpet section because if bo doesn’t get his ques he gets all emo, he strikes me as a clarinet (idk it’s his face)

Okay well time for Shiratorizawa (my personal fav)

Ushijima - tuba, he IS the baseline, band captain that no one’s really close to but they know not to goof off, when he’s playing he gets all focused and his face looks like he’s constipated, scares all the younger members into staying for practice after school

Tendō - okay don’t be mad but he’s a bass drum that doesn’t know half his part but guesses anyway, you either know he’s extremely wrong or can’t tell that he’s guessing at all, has definitely had the band director tell him to go home and practice his f*cking part

Goshiki - he’s an aspiring bass trombone, he dreams of being able to carry the baseline like Ushijima does except he’s not exactly equipped for it, definitely wants to be the captain someday just because he wants to be like Ushijima

Reon - okay so Reon is definitely a reed player, I think maybe bassoon would fit (though personally never met a bassoonist), he’s the one that’s with Ushijima and swearing to the underclass men that he’s not that scary or mean, does more to help with recruiting and peace keeping than Ushijima just because he has more charisma than him, probably the woodwind leader if I’m being honest

#haikyuu!! #haikyuu hcs #haikyuu headcanons #daichi #sugawara #Hinata #kageyama #Kenma #haikyuu tsukishima #tsukishima #yamaguchi tadashi #tanaka ryuunosuke #asahi headcanons #nishinoya hcs #yachi #haikyuu kiyoko #kuroo testuro #lev habia #bokuto kotaro #akaashi #ushijima headcanons #tendou satori #haikyuu goshiki #hq reon

[theoriquewitherseld]

Heck I DO wanna know more! I'm super interested in thia fic 👀

OK I am SUPER happy receiving this ask, but alas all I can offer is a lot of excerpts,, more under the cut

When Jacques arrives at Stain'd, he finds the records to be VERY accurate: it's a deadzone. That would likely explain the weird look the conductor gave him when he requested to get off. There's no longer anybody here

Back then there must have been some, perhaps, in order to enact Lem's apprenticeship. But he still regards the situation with an air of apprehension. Large chunk of reports were missing, reports that were leading up to his disappearance. It could be that VFD hid it, of course, but intentional or not, its denominator remains the same: something monumentally terrible occured for that to happen.

And he will have to walk straight to it. Or at least, its aftermath.

The rattle of the train leaving startles him, and he shakes off his nerves. He wants so badly to get back on the train, jump on the railings perhaps but the rear has gotten quite a distance away. He's already alone.

(Oh God I just realized I have no idea what people do after they get off trains. Should there be like people taking ur tickets or something?? Ive been on a train only once and that was super long ago)

The Stain'd Station was utterly deprived of life. Everything was cracked and looked in the danger of falling apart. Litter and dirt was strewn all around. There was no place that Jacques just wanted more to bail out of immediately (except, perhaps, that one wasp-infested area but that is besides the point). It unnerves him, to listen to the echoes of his footsteps in the abandoned station, with its business nothing more than a ghost of its past. It rattles him more than the rattle of train wheels on the tracks. But he trudges on, hoping to find some clue.

Out on the street was no better. All buildings were boarded up, some windows smashed. Brown grass was growing out of the sidewalks. There was few vehicles on the side of the road: a brown rusty one with its hood popped up and its insides gone, a yellow cab so terribly dented, and a black one with its paint job scratched and all four of its tires missing. It was a miserable place, not fit for any human life, much less an apprenticeship. He grimaces in dismay. This is where they dumped his brother? Even as a containment procedure, it was a bit much. No person should be in this place.

But that wasn't the most pressing issue. The most pressing issue is where to start. He does not have the faintest idea where he is in this desolate town, much less where his brother stayed for the duration in the past — except for the address of The Lost Arms. But that information was useless without a map, and every other map he scoured to know about the town has vehemently insisted that Stain'd-By-The-Sea does not exist. Whether VFD has already tampered with those maps, he can not tell.

He had hoped there may be a clue in there, some forgotten item, a thing accidentally left behind. But with no map, his best course of action is to simply search every establishment and hope for serendipity. Not all of the best things are necessarily good things.

He hears a rumble of an engine.

His gaze snaps upwards, puzzled if whether or not he had imagined it. Then he can see the yellow dented cab making its way towards him at a snail's pace. Jacques's heart stops, and gripped his suitcase until his knuckles turned white. It was a trusty little suitcase, filled with tools and files that are of great use of him, but he's not so sure if it were of any use against a damned ghost cab. If it were really a ghost. If Kit was here, she would've scoffed at him. But he's not really feeling up to an argument, not when his feet was stuck to the pavement, body frozen into place. He stares, heart pounding like there was no tomorrow as the taxi pulls up to its side, exactly right in front of him, and stops.

But then the window rolls down, and Jacques felt very, very foolish, but immensely relieved, as it reveals a worn and much younger face of a boy with a busted blue cap.

"Well, hello there friend," he says, with a voice just as tired. "Another visitor was the last thing we expected, but —" he gives a small shrug, "— here we are. Need a taxi?"

It took him a moment to realize how stupid he looked with his mouth gaping open. "I-I'm sorry," Jacques stammered, once he found his voice. "We?"

Another younger face pops up from below the young driver, and Jacques nearly jumps in surprise. "That would be us, the Bellerophon brothers," he reveals with a squeaky but cracked voice. "I'm Pecuchet, and this—" he points upward, and his brother tipped his hat at him, " — is Bouvard, but that makes people's tongue tired, so you can call him Pip, and me, Squeak."

The driver known as "Pip" frowned. "Are you alright though? You've looked like you've seen a ghost."

His eyes fluttered. "Er  — Yes, yes, I... I am afraid I also didn't expect anyone to come here either." He tips his white hat at them in turn. "Greetings to you, I am Ja— James Moore."

Internally, he cringed. It was a sloppy pseudonym, but he can't risk revealing who he is in the potential situation VFD managed to track his trail, they wouldn't be able to hold incriminating evidence against him. Curiously, it didn't arouse much suspicion from the odd duo, except for a slight tilt of the head.

"Well, nice to meet you Mr. Moore. Do you need a ride anywhere?"

Jacques is not quite sure what to think of climbing into a cab with kids of odd names in an abandoned town. However, his relief in discovering that there is fellow life, inexplicable as it is, and a likelier possibility of gaining information triumphed over whatever reservations he had at the moment. In the pursuit of his search, with its very nonexistent lead, he'd take anything.

"I'd like to go to the Lost Arms please."

"Sure," Pip reached out behind him and opened the door. "Hop in."

He pauses, and then climbs in and closes it shut, and soon enough, the two brothers drive away from the Station with startlingly expert hands on both wheel and brakes. Jacques is fairly impressed at their coordination.

"Say," Pip starts, once they got a quite the distance away. "Apologies if it sounds prying, friend, but out of curiosity, what business does a stranger have with Stain'd-By-The-Sea?"

That shook him out of his stupor. Idiotically, he hasn't prepared for that, he was ascertain there won't be anyone here, he even got business cards and all but it's not in his suitcase (which he wants to smack himself on). His mind blanks for a moment, but he manages to scramble an answer that isn’t necessarily a lie nor a truth. "I am private investigator hired to search for someone last seen in this town."

Pip looked at him through the rearview mirror, which was a bit dirty and cracked. "Oh? That certainly does explain why someone wants to be in this town."

Jacques didn't bother to clarify he does NOT want to be here at all, but he nods his head instead.

He expertly steered the wheel. "You wouldn't happen to be allowed the details no? Sorry, but interesting things have rarely happened here since..."

"I'm afraid not, no," Jacques blinks. That felt off. "Speaking of visitors, you haven't happened to have driven someone around lately no?"

"Until you came along? Not one for the past year. No outsiders at the very least."

He deflates a little, but he's unsurprised. So he really wasn't here recently. He was about ask more, when the taxi came to a stop in front of a shabby and derelict building he would presume to be the Lost Arms.

Once again, Pip reached out to open the door for him. "Here we are then, Mr. Moore."

"Thank you," he says, retrieving his wallet. "How much is the fare?"

Pip blinked in surprise. Then his eyes flickered towards the wallet, and his eyes widened further. "Huh, I never expected a paying customer today either."

It puzzles him so much that he tilts his head. Did they just let him ride as a charity? "Well, it's only natural to pay for a service, no?"

He just shrugged. "It's alright. Keep the money, it's not gonna be much use anyways, with the state of the town. You may wanna give that to the proprietor though —" he nods to the building, "— Prosper Lost."

"Well, I shan't dare to think of leaving this taxi without giving something in return," Jacques insisted.

"How about a tip then?"

"A tip?" he frowns. "A tip what?"

"Anything really, s'long as its useful."

That got him thinking. He thought of giving them a tip of accepting money when they get it and leave this terrifying place, but decided against. He then looks up.

"Here's a tip, there's this book that..." he trails off, feeling a painful lump form in his throat. "That my associate enjoys. Champion of the World, heard of it?"

~

Ellington feels the bitter sweetness on her tongue. The air was damp and cold after the shower, having ceased into droplets. Everything reminded her the cool greens and blues of a watercolor painting. At the distance, the light of the morning sun peaks through. She's glad she's getting some pieces of her back, but some of the damage will be permanent, and some things are just lost forever. Seeing the Association and strangers and natives to Killdeer fields all work together to set things right was amazing, but also drove home on the tragedy of Armstrong Feint, whose pursuit of vengeance blinded him, destroyed himself and set back hopes of recovery for years. The pain he inflicted was an unnecessary cruelty, that if he had bothered to spare, even the tinniest bit of mercy and offered his help, he would've witnessed the return of the sea and the recovery of the environment, and they could've been together.

But he had made a decision. All of their parents did — the Mallahans, the Hixes, the Knights, the Bellerophons, the Losts. What's done is done.

She remembers a line that her father read her once, many years ago. It was the book where Snicket claimed a wizard was not so very helpful, and that her father loved because of its elaborate descriptions of trees. Many elaborate description of trees.

"'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo." Ellington murmurs to herself.

"'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'"

She stares at the sky.

~

But there was a knock at the door

They both froze. Moxie is still on the phone — with who, Kellar didn't hear.

It could be anyone, Kellar thought, perhaps some coworkers who forgot their stuff, or has the intention to work overtime. It may even be some neighbor, asking for help or providing assistance. It could even be a fellow Associate. There's no reason really, to think there could be enemies on the other side.

But he walked anyway. His breathing far too loud and uneven, yet his pace cautious and fearful. He calls out, "Who's there?"

No answer.

"I'm warning you," he says slowly, attempting to keep the tremble out of his voice, "that I'm armed."

Silence. It's a blatant lie of course, but no matter how he strained his ears, he still can't hear anyone walking away. They’re not fooled.

He motions to Moxie to get ready to run. A few seconds, he could buy that. Enough seconds to scramble whatever data they need and bolt like hell. Kellar doesn't see if she saw it.

The door is inches away from him now. His heart pounded in his chest. His hands carefully placed on the dark wood, and he looked into the peephole.

Kellar had barely moved his head in time just to dodge the blast shot that would've blown away bits of his brain, but had blown off half of his right ear instead.

He screamed, it hurt, hurt worse than anything he'd known and he's sure he's lost his hearing there, but he let the wound bleed and instead ducked and braced himself against the door to keep them from opening it. "Moxie run!"

~

"Look at him. Look. At. Him." Pip hissed, and Squeak looked at them with an air of innocence. "You think that's an angel?? A beacon of innocence?? Wrong. That's bastard incarnate. The single source of maliciousness on this earthly realm. Look. Look how evil he looks. He's a little prick."

~

"Frankly, I'd love to have a sibling," Cleo said.

Kellar looked at her as if she said something deranged and jabs a thumb towards Lizzie. "No, you don't. I love my sister, but you think she won't sell me off to the circus first chance she gets?" He shook his head. "Think again."

~

"Dibs."

"What the—" Moxie then scowled. "That was too fast."

Snicket just shrugged. "I have two older siblings, Moxie. The true nature of siblings... Is natural selection."

"Are you certain you should be using big boy words like that?" Ellington asked, bemused. "I'm fairly certain you can't even differentiate a crocodile and an alligator."

~

"If I may introduce you to my family," Jacques says.

He points to Kit emerging from his side. "— Parasite number one—".

And he points to Snicket as he emerges from the other. "— and Parasite number two."

~

"Alright, does anyone have any questions?" Jacques asks tiredly.

They all raise their hands.

"That isn’t sarcastic," he snaps.

They all lowered their hands, disappointed.

Jacques sighs. "Lizzie, you've got the stage."

~

"Just what time is it?" Ellington inquires, exhausted.

"Hang on," Kit smiled, and instead of whipping out a clock, she instead produces a clarinet. She took a deep breath, and blew. Before she could even make it to the second note, they look up at the ceiling— startled— suddenly hearing a very muffled but very clear yell from Jacques, Kit, are you seriously playing the clarinet at 2 IN THE DAMN MORNING.

They look down. Kit still has a devilish smile plastered.

"It's 2 am," she announces.

#ask #asks #atwq #all the wrong questions #the association au #snicket snippets #my writing

[hedonisthierophant]

Unveiled eyes and bloodless lips -A skarsgard multiverse thing.

A universe of many Bills, a couple AHAs, and a few others.

@grandpa-sweaters You asked for fic with The Kid and instead I somehow came up with this monstrosity. I’m not sure if you’ve ever read my writing before but I’m sorry.

Dedicated to my literary soulmate @ill-skillsgard I hope you don’t hate it.

Warnings: Smut, mentions of pregnancy and childbirth, gore, spit kink, cuckoldry, degradation, injury, death.

   Unveiled eyes and bloodless lips

The witch had lost this game long before she even started playing, the final result such a foregone conclusion that it might be more accurate in fact to say she had lost before she had even been born. Forces much larger than her, to call them even titanic in scope would be an understatement, had been attending to the moves of the board since time immemorial. To say her fate such as it was had been decided back then is to grievously misstate the situation. Her exact destiny was fiercely contested on the board of play, it could’ve turned out completely differently, unfolding along anyone of the infinite myriad of paths of kismet. But her doom? That became inevitable she drew the attention of the game’s players. Naturally she remained unaware of the inescapable quality of her demise, she fought against it until the very last moment, her ferocious zeal, her skill and talent, all of it amounted to naught, For what hope does in an insect have against flood? Through no fault of her own, her perspective on this eons-long contest she had the misfortune of being prescribed to enter was…limited. In actuality the word “limited” doesn’t begin to convey the magnitude of her ignorance, imagine if you will placing your eye at a keyhole and attempting to catch a glimpse of a room darkened to pitch black. Some less astute souls might say that her involvement in the affair was rather like bringing a deaf person to the symphony but you dear reader know better, I should hope. Someone who cannot hear will have a different experience with music to be sure, but an experience they will have, the concepts on display remain within the realm of understanding. In our case a young woman became the toy of forces so far beyond her ken that she was to them as an amoeba might be to one of us beneath the prying lens of a microscope. As you may have surmised the tragedy that brings my voyeuristic audience to me unfolded slowly, spanning two lifetimes. Of course, this is only slow from the mortal point of view, to the beings that brought this about such a timeframe was less than the blink of an eye might be to us, for their machinations make glaciers seem to move with haste. Oh yes, they lack celerity but in exchange their actions carry the gravity of unquestionable certainty. However, I have indulged myself long enough. It is time that I recount, to the best of my ability the story which is brought you here today…whilst I remain able to do so.

           Her mother was possessed of a nearly singular lack of the talent that had been at the disposal to members of her family as far back as records would go. She did retain the gift of foresight. In the hands of anyone else this boon guaranteed an interesting life, if not necessarily a good one. The ability to see the future meant that so much of the world could be bent to your whim, fortunes raised, mistakes avoided, enemies destroyed before they even had the opportunity to transgress. For her mother though the only thing her visions brought was infinite sadness. She was many months pregnant you see. The result of an impetuous liaison with an excitable and impassioned thief several years who junior who quite literally stumbled into her lap, betrayed by his gangly limbs at a luxurious hotel bar he happened to be casing. He must have absconded with a waiter’s uniform for nothing about his outfit fit his exquisitely lanky form properly. Remembering the bowtie that hung limply and sideways from his collar still brings a smile to her face. The knave proclaimed she was the love of his life, his goddess and that he would devote his life to securing her happiness. It was quite a scene the tableau made certainly more…unconventional due to the fact that she was celebrating her first wedding anniversary at and sitting directly across from her husband at the time. Their marriage had been mostly a business arrangement, not entirely loveless but more cordial than intimate, but she thinks she could have grown to love him for the smirk that wound its way across his face after the blubbering young would be waiter realized his presence. She recalls watching the scene like a member of the audience at the theater, her face impassive, one brow raised. Her husband had a reputation for an incredibly violent temper, if you ever witnessed it though but she could never convince herself to entirely discredit the rumors. Both she and the scoundrel were frozen, he in fear, she in surprise. Her husband stood up, declare that their food had been awful and they were taking the waiter as recompense. Her husband, she couldn’t stand the pain that thinking his name brought even all these years later. He had made his fortune as proprietor of the “last heir to the great circuses of old, the man was a showman to his core and could have sold sin to the most pious of people. Sitting in the stands watching that man bewitch everyone around her, she certain she could’ve learned to love him had she been given more time with him. Her brother-in-law put a stop to any happy fantasies she might’ve entertained though, fratricide had a way of casting a pall over such things. Death took him from her, but that night he had been so very alive. He threw the reprobate onto their sumptuous marriage bed and ordered her in a voice that was equal parts chilling and gleeful to fuck him within an inch of his life. She did, hips canting madly as she struggled to match the thief’s exuberance for all he was worth, she was the only thing that grounded him as he shuddered through orgasm after improbable orgasm. His soulful eyes stared up at her as though she had hung the stars. After one particularly fierce climax she turned to look at her husband across the darkened room for all the while he had been orchestrating the performance as though being its sole audience member also burdened him with the role of conductor, she may have been having extraordinary sex but for all that the two of them were just  toys for her husband. He controlled them with such precision a note here,  a whisper there, advice for the two of them ghosting across the room. He was a master puppeteer, they may have lacked physical strings but that did not stop him. He ruled over them with the same exactness he employed with his beloved elephants, compelling them through routines to astound and amaze basking in the dazzled worship of the onlookers. That night though, he was taking full advantage of being the only onlooker. She still remembers the manic smile on his face and how his hair looked like flame in the moonlight spilling through the window as hysterical (euphoric) laughter echoed off the walls of their manor, as though her husband were the only one in on some wonderfully hilarious joke of cosmic proportions. Looking back on it, he may well have been. Following their final crescendo as her husband’s euphoria slowly waned into giggling, the criminal professed his love for her for the umpteenth time and begged her to come away with him to Florida, promising to dedicate the rest of his days to making her happy. His stirring gaze brimmed with imploring tears he unabashedly let fall from his eyes, his voice quavering beneath the immense wait of his need to keep her in his life. The scales she used to weigh her options were suddenly dashed as her husband took a great gasping breath, sprang up from his seated position in the sumptuous armchair he’d been occupying and began to flit around the room gathering things to him, mania rolling off him in waves. He’d hoisted the nude crook off her with little apparent effort despite being smaller than the rangy younger man. He spun him around and  slapped the sex drunk visitor’s bare ass as the man squawked in surprise and indignation, pale globes of flesh flushing an angry shade of red and leaving a print in the form of her husband’s hand at the sting. Her husband crouched for on his haunches for a moment to admire his impromptu work of art. She couldn’t see him but she could clearly picture his eyes growing wide with fascination as the mark took shape, his hands twitched with restrained desire, she could practically feel him warring with the impulse to throw him onto their marriage bed yet again, but this time for the purpose of sowing sharper and deeper blossoms of suffering across the entirety of the canvas that was the other man’s body. Disturbed smile still in place as he ground his teeth he muttered to himself in hushed tones. “No Jer, be a good boy. Almost done now, you can do it. Just gotta ape him. He straightened the conflict within him tucked away beneath the impeccable veneer of the consummate showman’s mask. “Would that I could have joined you crazy kids. I’d have loved to use all my fun little tricks on a tall glass of water like you. I’d have driven you crazy, stark raving mad really, shown you just how wild gingers can get, I’m talking showing you where the animals go.” He said with a grin that was only matched in lascivious by it’s lunacy and air of danger. She was certain the young man with the innocence and coordination of a newborn fawn would not have survived such an encounter He clapped the sex drunk young man on the back, sensually garbed him in a ludicrously expensive silken kimono, handed him a duffel bag of cash as though he had one standing by for just this occasion. That torn expression came over his face yet again, this time he surrendered to his urges. Quite suddenly he brought their lips together with the force of a devouring hunger, grinding his crotch against the other man’s leg. Judging by the surprised sound that issued from their visitor, her husband’s tongue had embarked on an enthusiastic exploration of the other man’s mouth. Then as suddenly as the whirlwind of passion had come, it stilled. He stepped back, a deranged smile lighting up his face. A single thin and determined cord of saliva still bound them together in remembrance of their embrace, her husband broke it with his middle finger, and then brought the digit to the other man’s lips. He sucked on it with a dazed expression for a moment before her husband withdrew with out warning. He clapped him on his back, said in perhaps the most jovial tone a cuckold has ever used with his competitor “I’ve always loved a good fireworks show.” and sent the befuddled young paramour on his way with a wink. The next day her husband left on “family business” to some crime on the east coast submerged seven layers deep in corruption and crime, this business ended in his demise. She remembers looking at him in the casket, smirk fixed in place as though even in death he had gotten the last laugh after all.

That had all been eight months ago exactly. Now here she was at a comfortable cruising altitude of 30,000 feet returning from a sojourn to the place where so many of her sisters had famously died along with innocents and hapless victims of circumstance. She buried her husband in the cesspool city and then communed with nature and the spirits of the sisters who came before her in Salem, now all that was left for her to do was return to her family’s modest estate in Canada and continue puzzling over the odd provision in her husband’s will for any child of hers regardless of whether that child was part of their union or not. The trouble began in earnest on that flight which should’ve been an entirely unremarkable trip from Salem to Halifax.  The first unusual occurrence was that her water broke and quite suddenly she was in the process of bringing a life into the world some 2000 stories off the ground suspended in what she’d always considered to be fragile contraptions held aloft by little more than a prayer. Her situation was odd and certainly less than ideal but not unheard of. The flight attendants rushed her to the back of the plane and by what many would like to think was a happy accident there were several members of an obstetrics team present aboard that very flight. The delivery was much more difficult than expected for the culmination of what had been by every reckoning a model pregnancy, with nary an over-enthusiastic kick. Whatever creature was inside of her head suddenly gained the claws of the most wicked of fairytale crones, and the weight of a giant every movement brought only piercing agony and precious little relief. Her screams echoed through the craft that was a dedication to mankind’s hubris as her pain intensified so too did an incredibly unforeseen bout of bad weather, the radar which just hours ago prior to takeoff had promised skies wonderful for flying was now proving itself to be a liar. It was as though passing above some insignificant little town in Maine that caused the storm spring up around them. Their vehicle was buffeted from every direction by winds and frost that were unseasonable even for harsh winter in upper North America. Around her people cursed and prayed, screamed and shouted as the pilots fought to deliver their charges to the ground in the same amount of pieces as they left it, rather than in so many more as was becoming increasingly likely. The town against all sense did have its own infinitesimally small airstrip, it wasn’t until many years later that she would begin to understand just how long ago the pieces had been set in play. As they began their harried descent people were struck by falling luggage and other debris that comes when you compress the lives of hundred people into the space of an aircraft and then turn it into a topsy-turvy. Some were killed, she even took a piece of glass to the jaw but any object that got within striking distance of the newborn child swaddled in a washcloth suddenly lost all momentum and dropped to the floor, this sort of power was most definitely beyond her she had no gift for telekinetics but she was simply too alarmed at the gravity of their situation as Earth’s own gravity began to make its power and its displeasure at having been flaunted known to the passengers. Someone with much more than was at her disposal was looking out for her daughter. And so, their airplane limped down from the sky thoroughly chastened by Zeus and his ilk for its trespass into their domain and Moira and her mother crashed into Castle Rock.

Moira and her mother had always been considered oddities by the town. Two outsiders literally cast out of the heavens and dropped into the midst of unwelcoming townsfolk. Her mother had made the best of the situation, for she had tried, made a very valiant attempt to leave this town but the moment that she crossed the boundaries she was wrapped in agony which would not abate until she took a step back into the town, this phenomenon persisted whether she tried by car or on foot and she refused to give air travel another attempt. She was no fool, she knew well that some incredible force was bent on keeping her and her daughter entrapped in this little nothing of a hamlet. She may not have had the gifts that her family had taken for granted but anyone could make rituals work with enough determination, she used her dead husband’s well to secure a small cottage on the outskirts of town for her daughter and set about turning it into a mystic fortress brimming with occult defenses. Oh the villagers looked at her askance when she went asking strange herbs or when rumors, true in this case, swirled about that she desecrated graves looking for bones or danced in the moonlight bared skin flashing as she circled her home and chanted in forgotten tongues. Castle Rock had a history with which is in their neighbor town of Salem’s Lot you see, they knew the signs even if many had forgotten precisely what they meant. When her mother realized she was potentially in the territory of other practitioners her theory became that a powerful coven existed here and they wanted her for as of yet unknown reasons, but the more she doubt the more it seemed that any true coven had long since died out or moved on to more fitting pastures. The occult in community the town consisted of one or two charlatans, and a few like herself with barely an iota of true power between them, capable of little more than the simplest cantrips, certainly not the massive feats of magic required to both down and trap her here. The first night she performed a ritual of crying beseeching a cracked bowl she’d stolen from the motel to connect her with her mother. Her family had always been a nest of vipers they were immune to their own poison but that did not stop the backstabbing that took place as soon as one was no longer able to defend oneself. Her mother made it clear imperious tones bringing out into the forest and stirring the leaves although in truth she was many miles away, that by allowing herself to be brought low and trapped in a backwater with even a lesser one of her families grimoires by unknown parties she had shamed the family and would be forgotten. They would not come to her aid. Cast out of the one coven she had known since birth she went about forming a tighter knit one as its replacement. She had asked the two charlatans out of town and gathered those with inklings of true power to her, she lacked her family’s innate command of the mystic arts, but her deficit had made her a master ritualist. And so she doled out their precious secrets to a few peasants in this town and made herself a new family. With helpers at her disposal she was able to enact more complex magic and had soon carved out a niche for herself and her followers as the area’s sole authority on matters of the arcane. People flocked to see her from all corners of the continent and a few from even further. She didn’t doubt that her mother, the rest of her family and their retainers were trying their best to end her life but as the years went by it occurred to her that whatever was keeping her here was also keeping her alive, the town seemed to repel anything more than passing outside influences and her family feared to enter its boundaries and become trapped themselves, better to let whatever invisible enemy had brought her there finish her off eventually. Their judgment proved correct.

Moira was an unusual soul, daughter of the town witch and perpetually mistrusted. Despite all that she had a sunny demeanor and those that matter couldn’t help but be charmed by her. For as long as she could remember her mother had forced her, even as a barely aware child to partake in odd rituals, from filling purple gossamer bags of strange herbs sends unknown objects and placing them in various spots throughout the house to keeping a bowl of water by the door and flicking a drop against the wood once it was shut to bathing in oils and strange concoctions by the light of the moon. She did all this because as she told Moira “Something was out to get them.” Moira always found it odd that her mother chose to say something as opposed to someone. Moira had always dreamed of being a doctor but her mother forbid her to leave town for any reason and although she could not explain why to herself even after all these years she’d never even thought of disobeying that particular rule. Her few friends in town and her mother concurred that she would’ve made a brilliant doctor but in a town like Castle Rock the closest she could manage was to be a nursing assistant at the local prison. Some days she bemoaned her life stuck in this little town, so small that it did not even merit a dot on most maps of the area. But she would gather up her natural cheer, take her sketchpad and pencil, sit in the park and draw on those days. Since Moira began drawing she’d been a prodigy, but even from earliest childhood when one has no attention span to speak of after she would dally with the subject and that she would return always to her first. A pair of haunting blue-green eyes, a slightly upturned nose, and your whispering pair of lips, cracked and dry, parched even to the drawings one got the impression that no words passed between them for a long time. The drawings of course worried her mother but try as she might she could puzzle out no theories as to their significance, the last time she’d tried describing ritual on the mysterious subject her bowl had been gripped by a powerful kinetic force shattered from the inside out embedding pieces of cheap ceramic into the wall around her and a few into her body as water that had been cool and tranquil moments earlier became scalding and improbably rose up to splash her in the face. It was then she decided that the drawings were out of her power.

Whenever she was outside of her house Moira always felt the faintest buzzing against her skull, the local doctor had considered it a prodromal symptom of a migraine, but the element never progressed beyond an irritating sound. Until the day she disobeyed one of her mother’s rules. She always looked forward to Fridays, it meant that she have the weekend to draw, but more importantly she would get to see Adrian. Adrian she suspected, that been an enigma from the moment he was born. A Scandinavian street rat with far too much charm and intelligence for his own good and somehow grifted his way across the Atlantic and ended up in her life riding a steed of criminal charges for allegedly attempting to traffic young women across the border. Adrian claimed he had been trying to rescue them and the promised jury of his “peers” such as it was appeared to have bought that story, but Adrian could sell water to a drowning man. Even Moira was unsure what the truth of the matter was. Still Adrian was a charmer, and incorrigible flirt and she had fun bantering with him, although when she asked about his plans his thoughts always turned to getting out and making enough money to support his little boy. About a month ago, Adrian had complained of awful whispering noises splitting his skull during the day while Moira was not on shift. She walked into his cell the later at the start of the graveyard shift and found him sitting as though he were a wounded lion whose legs had been caught in a trap, through his quick pained breaths he greeted her in a melodious accent that was related to but unlike Adrian’s own. She saw that his legs were twisted, broken and fractured at various intervals as though someone had taken a chisel up and down the length of bone within his limbs. No one at the prison could explain the origin of his injuries and beyond a cursory visit from the institution’s uncaring physician no one tried to. As long as word did not escape these walls no one cared, Moira had thought about telling but who was there to tell? How did one even begin to do that? She’d never even left this town once in her twenty-something years. He been an able-bodied, athletic young man at lights out, and had awoken as…

“A cripple! I am but a poor humble cripple and I throw myself on your mercy, my dear sweet Moria. How must I abase myself before you to obtain another of these wonderful puddings? I am willing to do quite a lot, to serve…no that’s not quite the right word, oh your language is so silly…Service! I am willing to service you in oh so many ways!” He said in his singsong voice, appearing quite proud of himself for hunting down his lexical quarry. He he had used the provided spoon merely  an implement to tear the thin film of plastic keeping him from his prize, flung it away and for lack of a better descriptor… began preforming cunnilingus on the pudding pouch in his hand, his performance was complete with moans and groans and little contented sighs. All the while never breaking eye contact with her, blue orbs burning into her own filled with indecent proposals. Unwilling to tolerate his antics anymore she snatched the offending pudding cup from his grasp, for the shadow of an instant she could have sworn a terrible look of feral rage had flashed across his countenance but it was gone before Moira could register whether or not it ever truly been there. “I am so terribly sorry dear Moira for my offense, it is just that in my day, we did not have such…culinary delights. He’d slowed to get the word “culinary” out properly but hadn’t stumbled and looked satisfied. In his day, that was the other thing, in the month since Adrian awoken the entire prison wailing about whispering in his cell, according to the doctors he developed a dis-associative identity. The young man that now occupied the cell which officially belonged to Adrian, called himself Ivar Lothbrok. He had been doing his best to convince Moira that he was the spirit of a long dead Viking who had for reasons unknown even to himself woken up in a body that was so similar to his own that it had frightened even him. The prison psychiatrist couldn’t have cared less about the situation in that cell, but to Moira it was quite the engaging mystery.

Today Moira decided to challenge him. “If you really aren’t Adrian, prove it if you’re not him then your innocent of the crimes that got him put in here and you should be angry, you should want out.” The smile that split the face in front of her should have been a warning. “I may be innocent of his petty crime dealing in flesh and weird…potions,” Moira decided to let the odd word choice go to spare his pride. “But I have killed and maimed, and lied,  and stolen, and coveted many times over. You’re correct though, I do want out of the cell but for the moment I’m right where I want to be.” Moira, ever quizzical couldn’t stop herself from asking “Why do you want to be here?” “Because here is where you are.” he said as if he were speaking to the dullest child in all the world. “I will indulge you however, I am not Adrian, Adrian had pure wholesome thoughts about you, he was going to be free, tell you that he wanted you to be his little boy’s mother, beg you to start a family and run away with him to whatever little speck of a town he found someone foolish enough to care for the child while he was here. He’d have trafficked poison and flesh slaves or slaughtered swine for the rest of his days for you. He used to touch himself here in the dark fantasize about reaching through the bars of the cage and touching your skin, used to dream of having pure loving sex with you on a blanket by fjords illuminated only by the stars and the moon, lest he seemed to greedy to want to see you in all your glory. He wanted to fill your cunt with his seed over any over until the two of you made a brother or sister for precious little Patrick. One big happy family.” He spat out the infant’s name like a curse most vile, and treated the world family as though it was unconscionable poison on his tongue. She took a breath intending to halt whatever sick game he was playing, but the moment she drew breath and opened her mouth his eyes blazed with danger. “Keep your tongue behind your teeth if you wish to keep it all wench!” He roared. “You asked for this, now you will listen. I am not Adrian because never in his wildest dreams would he have contemplated the fantasy of using your uniform to tie you down and spitting on your face over and over forcing you to swallow what you could, and what you couldn’t would slide down between those perfect breasts of yours and they would glisten as I played with them, sucked and bit until they were raw, then I would have kept spitting until your cunt was drenched from the inside out, I would have laid siege to it like it was my traitor brother’s last stronghold. Oh, the sounds and squeals I would have pulled from you. I would have lavished you with my tongue and fingers, bit and sucked and twisted and slapped and pulled and made you come over and over again until you understood what it is to be ravished by a god!” He broke off into a fit of chuckling then capped with a wistful sigh. “But alas all that is denied to me, and indeed you, for you belong to someone else, and as sweet as you would be, you are not worth the effort of challenging his claim.” He stated this with such nonchalance that it broke the terrible spell that she had been under and she fled the prison with eyes burning and tears streaming.

Ivar smiled as she fled, finally, finally. he was one step closer to being free of this accursed in-between place, he was getting home to his beloved Eira and their little girl. Or perhaps another sojourn through life with his healer who had the body of a tower. Or maybe he’d meet that lippy little puppy of an entitled young man in Pennsylvania again who secretly craved discipline. Whatever happened he would be home again, nothing would stop him.

In her haste, she entered her home, ran to her bedroom and threw herself down on the bed without observing her mother’s rules. Had she been paying more attention she would’ve noticed that the water in the bowl she was supposed to flick at the door suddenly evaporated and the gossamer bags filled with protective elements suddenly caught flame and turned to ash in moments. It was then that she heard his voice. “Please don’t cry. I’m here now, it’ll be alright.” His tone was nearly plaintive. She didn’t bother setting up she knew that the voice came from no place within her home. “I’ve been waiting…eternities for you Moria,” He whispered inside her skull. “Let me make you feel better.” There was a hand stroking her face. Her eyes shot open and she beheld a figure that was both present and absent, there was wait to him but light seemed to pass through him through him as though he was merely a projection. Even trapped in the in between as he was, he was gorgeous. Her angel. A completely bare towering figure with the chest and leg and back and ass seemingly having been sculpted from the highest quality marble by da Vinci himself, with cheekbones that could reduce adamantine diamonds to dust, with lustrous hair and sinfully plump and pillowy lips. His eyes, so soulful that she believed he had lived a thousand lifetimes, she realized she’d been drawing this face for as long as she could remember. To feel his touch was to experience euphoria. He kissed her and all her senses were expanded beyond human potential, she saw a kaleidoscope of colors behind her eyes, he smelled and tasted of every single enticing thing at once but instead of a riotous discord of scents and flavors, they were balanced in perfect harmony. His voice alone could reduce her bones to jelly in a way that would make Ivar fear she intended to stake a claim to his epithet. He worshiped her with his entire being, fingers and hands and tongue and colossal endowment yes, but in the midst of their lovemaking she was certain that their spirits were melding even more intensely than their bodies. He spat upon her face one and she felt as though she were being anointed in holy oil by a deity. He scored her flesh with his sharp straight teeth the color of shining bone, drew blood, and she was happy to give it. His enormous hand encircled her throat closed her airway and if she hadn’t already been experiencing what she thought might be Nirvana, the oxygen deprivation would’ve taken her there. After fucking her through more than 20 orgasms and claiming all her orifices for his own each first with the gentle fervor of a virginal lover at the end of an idyllic courtship and then with a harsh brutality as though fucking her two within an inch of her life was the only way he could properly express the hatred for her that filled his entire alien being. He finally unburdened himself of his seed deep inside her and sighed contentedly .

When she awoke after their tryst, he was seated in a chair opposite her bed dressed in a suit and other finery looking for all the world like a high-powered professional instead of some cosmic entity to take an interest in her. He then told her of the tragedy of Henry Deaver, how a Titanic battle with his wife over his infidelity with a young woman he had met at a business engagement led to him driving fueled by rage and sadness while rain pounded the car and obscured his vision, he’d crashed into the lake and been thrown into a myriad of alternate realities, “other heres and nows where the dominos fell in different patterns. His stories of lives spent with Charlotte, Oliver, Westly, as a professor, a soldier from West Virginia, a bounty hunter who fought for his life in a dystopia, the life he’d almost lived of a Viking, a philanderer with a beer-based pick-up strategy, a gangster, the searching for true love based on a scientific assessment ,they all brought tears to her eyes. He entreated her with every fiber of his being to free him from his cage and put an end to his cycle of loneliness, to save him and others trapped in this limbo. She swore to do it.

That was the day the matriarch without a clan descended on the prison, her chariot of choice, a limousine flanked by a motorcade of four SUVs each bearing the insignia of an elite private security firm denigrated the world over for unsavory activities, their detractors though couldn’t question their effectiveness. She and the battalion she paid for advanced through the prison like a storm, the guards normally employed were deferential and out of their depth. The only sounds echoing through the prison with a click of her heels and the thuds of the jackboots that accompanied her for she had brought silence to the prison with her mere presence. Moira had heard of her, the interim controller of a ludicrously wealthy and secretive biotech firm following the scandalous disappearance of her son and heir. Allegedly, the young man whom the newspapers referred to as the Brat Prince had somehow veered off the course of normally accepted philandering ways among the ultrarich and powerful and become involved with someone his mother deemed unacceptable. The matriarch had come because the vast network of informants that she plied with riches and sharp promises had imparted to her knowledge of a prisoner found here who almost matched her son’s description. The only thing he had left behind was a wheelchair covered in the blood of its owner, a crippled faggot whom he had dared to take for a lover. He would pay for his insolence, for the damage down to her reputation and company, she would break this mysterious prisoner and learn all that he knew, she swore it. When she reached his unusual cell a young woman in scrubs was fumbling with the keys, her son’s face taken on a different path through destiny than the one she knew stared back at her. He spoke to her in an antiquated dialect of that language from the Balkans she had left behind so many mortal lifetimes ago, she was not that frightened, trusting girl from Wallachia anymore, she nearly charged the cage to make him pay for daring to address her this way, but the meaning of his words stilled her. “Madame Olivia, I believe we can be of help to one another once this insect has served its purpose.” Moria broke the lock.

He nuzzled into her touch aching a contented sound as she ran her hands through his hair, it had been eons since he felt the touch of another, his eyelashes fluttered and tears swam in his eyes, he would allow himself this one indulgence. “Loyal Moria, you have played your part well and in appreciation I give you the greatest of gifts, the fulfillment of your destiny.” When he spoke it was with the voice of 100 different people at once both cacophonous and whisper quiet. She screamed as his lips brushed her forehead, for this feather-light touch broke everything inside of her all at once. She fell as her skin froze and burned all at once, her muscles liquefied and her bones turned to jelly, her ears, nose, and eyes ran with blood, then her eyes began to boil in their sockets fluids running down into her still shrieking mouth as her body contorted it this way and that trying desperately to contend with suffering that was beyond human comprehension.

The last thing she saw before death mercifully claimed her were a pair of unveiled eyes atop bloodless lips, her final sight was one she had been drawing her entire life.

As the wretch finally had the good sense to expire Olivia Godfrey watched as the death seemed to fill out the prisoner’s gaunt and wan features until she could almost confuse him for an older version of her son. He drew in a deep breath, stooped to kiss her hand and issued a request, eyes glittering with dark promise: “Take me to Derry.”

#Bill Skarsgård #fic #roman godfrey #ivar the boneless #henry deaver #Mickey #axel cluney

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch25 Poppy’s Day Out P2

"WHAT?!" The loud shout from the red head staring at Mr. Grooves didn't even make the penguin flinch as he only smiled calmly at her still. Poppy gestured to herself with wide panicked eyes. "I-I CAN'T BE IN A PICTURE!! I'VE BARELY EVEN SEEN A TELEVISION BACK IN MY DAY!!"

Again DJ Grooves held his flippers up in an attempt to calm the frazzled woman down. "Now, Darling. I DID get you out of a pickle now. Conductor would've most likely made you do some hard chores in the hot sun, but no!" He held out a flipper to her and coralled her a few steps away from the mess of broken glass and metal soaking in foam. "I may have only known you for a mere twenty minutes, Darling, but any diva who can say it how it is to Conductor and have a good taste in movies might I add, is a diva I can get behind! Darling, I could really use your help!"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP!? I CAN'T ACT?!" She insisted back looking a bit more panicked. "L-Look! I'll work it off. I PROMISE that, but I can NOT act in front of thousands of people!!"

The penguin looked sad for a moment then sighed. "Alright. Alright. Maybe I was a bit too forceful to jump on the chance for the princess?"

".......Princess?," Poppy asked raising a brow and Grooves nodded.

"Yes. Do you by chance know the Starella Children's Book?" ...Poppy slowly nodded to answer his question. The three children and her watched as he reached a flipper into his coat and pulled out a colorful piece of paper, and held it out to Poppy who after a moment, took it with her other hand that wasn't holding a bill. "You see this story right now is insanely popular right now with the masses especially the young ones." He patted Bow on the head as she smiled and Poppy looked back to the paper in her hand. It was a poster. It was EXACTLY like the Starella book cover with the Orange-red silhouette of Starella and the dark blue Prince. Except it had a few words and advertisment like things on it as well. Like the words 'Coming To The Big Screen Near You: Starella LIVE!! Real people. Real action. And all based on the beloved New Bird TImes' Bestselling Hit Children's Book! Come see us live Feburary 11th! Limited supply Book now for reservations!' Poppy rose a brow and looked back to him. "You see? I wanted to try something ....FRESH!! Lately I've been on a terrible, terrible losing streak! So I asked myself DJ Grooves, you are the most well known penguin director? You need something that can wow the masses and topple Conductor! Something he'd never expect! So I thought up with grand idea for this new live action play! People love the drama and suspense seeing it in person! But there was a problem setting me back. Poppy, Darling, I'm limited on actors here."

''But...wouldn't there be actors here already to fill these r-roles?"

He chuckled. "Well yes you would think that, but you see I'm staying true to the source material. Which means I need human actors, and frankly you're the perfect match for the main role!" Her panicked face went back to him but again he tried to be reassuring. "Now I don't mean to force the role onto you. That's not what Im saying at all. But I promise if you help make this a success, the profits from it will be MORE than enough to cover that. If you don't want to, I'm sure we can find you a job in storage or dress design or...Something?"

Poppy only looked at him with a wide eyed look before staring back down at the two papers in her hands. It felt like she was making a choice. A choice between one hundred thirteen thousand seven hundred fifty pons, and being the center of attention for thousands of people in some famous director's play. HOW WAS THIS FAIR?! STUPID FATE!! DID YOU JUST LIKE MESSING WITH HER FOR NO REASON?! Well there was good n bad with both. On one hand she didn't even have HALF of what these birds were saying she owed, and she wasn't sure she wanted to mess with any law makers. But working off this high of a debt could take YEARS!! She was already forced to work as a babysitter for some ghost's help(she wasn't even sure how long that contract stated she'd be staying) and she still had NO idea what he was up to, staying her paying off ANOTHER problem she caused was really not ideal. Poppy wanted to save what pons she had left, and she still had plans on leading out her own life again. Somewhere far from her cursed home and start over. The only good thing about that option was that she wouldn't be in the public eye. Blue eyes shifted over from the bill to the shiny poster. On the other hand, one play doesn't sound like a big deal when you say it outload, but there's still going to be hundreds of people watching and she'd NEVER forgive herself if she messed up in front of all those people and it might even ruin her new reputation before she even made it. WHO'D WANT TO BUY FLOWERS FROM HER THEN?!....But. A few months sounded WAY better than a few years, and she wouldn't have to spend any pons really, which would both save time and money literally but....GAH!! She couldn't decide!

Sucking in a breath through her teeth, Poppy looked down at the ever calm penguin who still politely smiled at him. "What exactly would I have to do in this ...play of yours?"

He seemed to brighten up as he explained. "Well, exactly as it sounds. We're staying clear and true to the source book material, which means I need human actors like yourself to fill in some roles I or my penguins unfortunately cannot. And you're just the spitting image of that Starella beauty! That beautiful red hair, that fiery passion. Darling you are the PERFECT fit for it!"

"POPPY'S GONNA BE STARELLA!! NO WAY!!," Hattie's eyes were suddenly wide with wonder as the other's gawks around at her.

"YOU! No way!" "THAT'S SO COOL!!"

"Now hold on!," Poppy held up her hands to stop the tirade of excitement from the girls as they all smiled up at her. "I never said I was gonna do this crazy thing."

"But you'd be a great princess,Poppy!," Bow beamed brightly up at her with wonder.

"Yeah! I know, but-"

"So you'll do it?," Mu asked crossing her arms, "If you know you'll do a good job, why not?"

She stuttered over her words. "W-Well, I didn't mean-...I-it's not like that-...I-.....*sigh*" Looking back down to the two papers in her hand and all the choices slapping her in the face made her grip the papers tighter...before loosening it with a sigh closing her eyes. ".....Fine. I'll be the princess."

What followed was a chorus of 'YAY!' from the three girls, and Mr. Grooves smiling like he won a million pons. "OH! Thank you, Darling! Thank you! You won't regret it I SWEAR!! Here. Let me just take care of my end of the agreement right now." From her hand he grabbed the large bill and in a swift moment the paper was torn completely in half. "There! Nothing to worry about now!" Well....Seeing she no longer had a large bill on her shoulders made her sigh in half relief but there was still butterflies in her stomach from the dread that was to come as she watched the paper fall to the floor and sighed. Looking back to the glamorous poster she got even more nervous feelings in her stomach.

"Great. W-When do we start?"

"Not until I have the other four remaining roles filled. To be perfectly honest, the hardest part of making a film is finding good people for the job. Not to put down the staff, but my penguins are quite frankly terrible actors."

She found herself breathing a sigh of relief at that, her feelings going somewhat back to normal. "I'm....I-I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused all ya, Mr. Grooves. I promise to work hard for it."

He waved a hand. "Darling! You don't have to apologize for anything. It was a simple mistake no one saw coming. If fact, I should be thanking you! Thanks to you I have one less thing to worry about!"

She chuckled nervously but inside she was still nervous as if she was already standing on stage. "Well....I guess I should start practicin'."

"The best way you can practice is by memorizing that story, Darlin'. I'll send notice once the other roles are filled."

She was about to ask something else when the door behind them opened and they all turned to FINALLY a relieving sight for sore eyes. The metal door creaked open and at last Cookie returned, a small white purse thrown over one of her shoulders as she smiled and the door closed behind her with another loud creaking noise as she walked in. Smiling as her eyes landed on the kids and two adults. Stepping closer the cat paused seeing the now sweeping owls who at some point in Mr. Grooves's and Poppy's conversation had gotten out brooms to clean up the giant mess she had caused. Blinking Cookie looked back up to them with a raised brow.

"...Did I miss somethin'?," she asked pointing to the mess behind her.

"Only the most hilarious talk back the old geezer's gotten! HAHA!!" Mu looked up to Poppy with a smile. "You know what? I like her now! The old wind bag needed to hear something like that for a long time!"

"Muriel!" Mu froze at the scowl Cookie was giving her, giving the famous 'Mom' pose of one hand on her hip and tapping her foot staring her down. "I HOPE you're not referrin' to Conductor now. I'd hate to be the one who grounds ya."

"He was acting rude...But I guess it's a little bit of my fault too." Poppy turned her gaze over to the mess behind them and Cookie looked at her as she nudged away a piece of metal by her foot. "I accidentally knocked over and destroyed this.....camera did ya'll call it? I'd be pretty angry too if someone ruined somethin' like this of mine....But he was still being quite rude."

Cookie stared at her a bit, then at the mess, seeming to quickly put two and two together in figuring out what must've happened while she was gone and groaned. Reaching a paw up to facepalm herself. ''I leave for JUST a few minutes and ya'll are in trouble. What am I going to do with all of ya?" ....A low rumble from Poppy's stomach answered that as she looked suddenly embarrased. Cookie gave a small chuckle and shook her head. "Well I guess there's mah answer. I still owe you all that lunch I promised huh? Well, now that I have this we can grab a bite from my resturaunt across the studio here." Another chorus of Yay! came from the children at the promise of free food from Cookie and Poppy gave a sigh of relief. At least one thing was looking up for her situation. Cookie turned her gaze to Mr. Grooves. "Would ya care to join us, Mr. Grooves? Of course it'll be on the house."

DJ Grooves held up his flipper. "I would LOVE nothing more than to accompany all you darlings, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline you're little offer. I still have too much to do and so little time with the costumes, and interviews, and over seeing the scenes being built by the production team. Lately there was an accident on set and we have to rebuild two and a half of the scenes and props."

"Oh my. That does sound really busy. Tell ya what, stop by on your break and order ya some fish on the house. Just tell 'em I sent ya."

"Thank you, Darling. Truely you are an angel in the fur!"

Poppy was glad to grab all her heavy tools and bags again off the floor and follow Cookie out, but not before apologizing again to Mr. Grooves for the embarrassing incident and back out into the hot afternoon sun they went. It was farther along in the sky now meaning it must've been later in the afternoon than she thought. Probably 4:00 or 5:00 p.m.. But she didn't care right now. She had worries in her brain, butterflies inside her empty stomach, and not enough water in her whole body. She was hungry, and thirsty. So take care of one easily problem first before thinking thing's over on the other problem she had gotten herself into for now. Most of the owls they originally saw on their way there were probably already home considering how long it had been since they had arrived but it was until 10:00 until they could go back home on the train, and she was NOT really ready for those transporting umbrellas. The building Cookie lead them too was really just across the studios, and from the outside looked like any of the other plain buildings but only bigger as if two of the regular buildings were smooshed together. Cookie explained this was her long time dream resturaunt and she modeled it after her old home so she could visit it without any of the danger that came with Nyakuza City. Bow seemed REALLY excited at it and Poppy soon found out why. The inside of the resturant looked EXACTLY like the metro room except for the flying tvs, pile of money, and weird moving thing. But the city part yes. But honestly she could care less, Poppy's amazement was overtaken by her hunger and thirst, plus the cool air washing over her again was a great relief again from the hot outside. It looked like a typical resturaunt with tables, chairs, (besides the metro theme) decor, and two double doors that lead to the kitchen she assumed since that's where all the mouth watering smells were coming from. Her stomach grumbled again and Cookie chuckled at it making her more embarrassed at it. there was another counter with a register and yet another owl who lit up at the sight of her boss.

"Good afternoon, Ma'am. Wasn't expecting you today! Eating with friends today I see. We'll have a waiter right out to you."

Well she was very polite. And they were the only ones there apparently as the children were free to run in and choose a random large table in the middle. Cookie gave her the alright to leave her things on the bench by the door and THIS time Poppy made sure to lay them in a position that didn't pose any threat unless some numbskull sat on it without looking. The two adults joined the three children at the table and sat down at the round table. Odd they would be literally the only ones there in this part of the day. When voicing this to the cat, Cookie explained since this was modeled after her old home all she sold here was the food from the city, and not a lot of penguins or owls liked the dishes other than the teas, coffes, and fish appitizer. Which in Poppy's eyes was valid since everyone had different tastes, it was totally acceptable different species would too. Not long after they were greeted like a waiter who said 'Hi!' and passed out these things called Menu's which Cookie explained listed the dishes and the catagories they were under. Assuming 'swamp people' didn't get out much since she hadn't seen a TV before coming into Hattie's ship. Poppy took a look at it and it read:

Deserts:

Cake: A sweet baked desert, usually reserved for special occasions like birthdays, weddings, or 2 A.M. Ice Cream Sandwhich: ice cream served between two biscuits or wafers. Sandwich only by name, this desert has mastered the art if disguise. Triple Scoop: Vanilla cream frozen at the right temperature then shaped into a ball, then put in a cone. Many scoops in your cone will impress your scoopless peers and get you that promotion. Meals

Hamburger: Meat, lettace, and buns grilled and served with condaments. While some may prefer meat alternatives and some skip the lettece, all greatly prefer the prescence of the buns.

Katsu Curry: A tasty pork cutlet cut into stripes served with the rich flavorful curry and usually rice. While the pun is irristdable given you're in a cat metro it will not be appreciated.

Shoyu Ramen: A warm chicken and vegistable broth, served with toppings of your choice. The perfect comfort food of the cold night after you miss the last train of the day.

The Metro Special: A big bowl of rice with fried fish, egg, and chips. A meal of everything, proving that little care can have delicious results.

Rice: Rice is one of the most consumed foods on the planet. It's easy to prepare and cheap, and the savior of wet cellphones.

Side Dishes

Meatballs: Grounded meat rolled into a small ball. To reach true enlightenment you must understand as meatballs go in hair balls go out.

French Fries: sliced and deep fried potatoes. An important reminder that when are alone we are all small fry but together we're delicious.

Fish: Battered and fried fish, usually cod or poloc. Most cats love being able to buy it fried since there's no fish tanks in the metro to steal from.

Soup Dumplings: Steamed dough buns filled with meat and soup. You won't know exactly what taste hides beneath the dough until you build up the courage to bite into the unknown.

Spring Roll: A wide variety of rolled appetizers often filled with meat or veggistables. A tasty snack whatever the season.

Drinks

Hot Chocolate: A sweet, hot drink made from shaved or melted chocolate powder. Enjoy with a sprinkling of mini marshmallows and a swirl of cream if you wanted to visit your dentist soon.

Tea: A hot drink made from boiling water and leaves of plants. Great for getting warmed up on a cold day, either when you drink it or when someone bumps into you

Large Soda: A carbonated drink in a large container. The large soda remains the unsung hero of moderation. An acceptable pick in the eyes of your peers, just one size short of gluttony.

Coffee: A warm brewed drink prepared from coffee beans. Consuming this drink on a regular basis transforms a kitten into a cat and a cat to a nervous wreck.

Kitten Meals

Drinks The Juice Box: Pressed from fruit and put into a box. Premium juice often shows chunky pulp showing the hypocracy in mankind's unwillingness to drink spoiled milk.

Mini Soda: Small enough parents can't complain to us about a sugar rush.

Meals Pizza Slice: A round dough base topped with tomato, cheese, and other toppings. Most chefs are reduced to tears by witnessing such triangular beauty. Mini Hamburger an Fries: Like the adult meals but much smaller.

Deserts:

Cookies: Small baked biscuits usually filled with chocolate chips, raisins, or something else. Great for a quick snack or dropping crumbs everywhere.

Wow. So much detail. It was pretty impressive, this must be what it was like to eat rich. She jumped when the waiter owl came back with a smile.

"Are you ladies ready to order?," he asked with a smile and paper 'n pencil in wing.

"PIZZA!," the three children yelled in unison throwing their hands up in a rather cute way.

"And this extra large soda!," Hattie added much to the other two's agreement.

"Soda?....As in Soda pop?" Hattie nodded in agreement and Poppy shook her head. "Oh no ya don't! I don't need another long night of trying to wrestle you two to sleep!....This fruit juice sounds nice."

The girls awed but Cookie agreed with her. "Absolutely. I don't need Mu hyped up either but if you're all good you all can have some cookies and hot coco." The kids quickly agreed and she purred happily with herself before looking back at the waiter. "Well you heard them."

The waiter nodded and wrote something on the notepad. "Alright. Pizza and juices for the chicklings. And you lovely ladies?"

"Some Shoyu would be nice. Haven't had it in a month, and bring me a plate of that fish will you." She glanced at Mu for a moment and sighed. "And some coffee...I'm going to need it."

The waiter nodded again and looked directly at Poppy. ''And you Miss?"

"Oh.....Uh.." Her eyes glazed over the strange items for sale on the paper and went silent for a few seconds. "I- Uh-....D-Don't really know what a lot of this is actually."

"That's alright. Do you want me to order for you?"

She sighed. "That'd actually be great thanks."

So Cookie just told the owl waiter to bring Poppy some Katsu Curry and some tea, what ever the heck Katsu Curry was. The menu did saw it was supposed to have pork and rice with sounded delicious. The waiter nodded and soon disappeared through those double doors on the far side of the room and it would be a couple moments. Until then Cookie asked Poppy to fill her in on what exactly happened while she was gone inside the studios. And quite embarrassed the children jumped in to excitedly tell Cookie all about how Poppy's leaned her tools against the giant camera and Conductor coming in, and how the camera fell and Poppy took the blame like a hero and put Conductor in his place. Cookie actually looked quite surprised at the mention of the exchange between Poppy and Conductor, and Poppy sunk into her seat a bit from the embarrassment she was feeling especially then Hattie excitedly announced that Poppy agreed to play the princess in her favorite book for Mr. Grooves.

"Well......It certainly looks like someone has quite the stubborn attitude."

THANK PECK!! The food came out just as she was starting to get nervous again and her stomach rumbled again at the smell of food as it came over to them. The large tray the waiter was carrying was placed in the middle of the table and the first person to receive their food was Cookie. Placed in front of her was a bowl of long noodles with two pieces of chicken, a sliced egg, and a few spices making the seasoned chicken smell all the more better, and next to it came a small plate of white paper and on it was five pieces of bread covered fish. Which also smelt good. The kids cheered as they were handed their pizza and juice boxes. Poppy never even heard of pizza but by the looks of it it looked like some kind of baked bread with seasoning and toppings. How peculiar. The pink juiceboxes were adorable though, with the cat print holding a fake strawberry. Her's looked and smelt just as delicious! What was placed in front of her was a bowl of rice, chopped fried pork, beans, and what looked like lettace! But either way it smelt delicious! Next to it was a small wrapped burrito like thing that she looked at curiously.

"It's an spring roll," Cookie explained noticing her confused expression, "It's usually served with that dish. Sorta like an eggroll but made slightly differently."

And then there was her tea which was served in the cutest coffee cup she'd ever seen! It was shaped just like a cat with a painted face. While the children dug into their well deserved lunch followed by Cookie, Poppy took a moment to admire the well put together dish and the smell it radiated before slowly grabbing her fork and digging it. Shoving a piece of that pork into her mouth........H O L Y P E C K!!!! IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! It was even better that that cheese omlet thing Cookie had given to her hours ago for breakfast. The seasoning, the juicy pork. The fluffy rice!! It was so GOOD!! In a moment she was eating as eagerly as the kids and Cookie watched with a patient smile as the hungry girls ate. She didn't seem fazed a bit or anything as they did so. Probably used to seeing people with healthy appitites. Fair enough the kids finished before  her and understandably begged for more. That's how it went. All for about an  hour it was pretty peaceful. The food was good. She had never had such pork or rice before and the tea was quite refreshing from the hot sun and to her dry throat. And Cookie true to her name, decided to let the still hungry children have more food like they begged and out came some cute cat shapes cookies and coco like she promised. Which amazed her because back in her day chocolate was a delicacy that only the rich and wealthy could afford and yet here they were eating it like it was an everyday item. When offered by Cookie if she'd want anything like that too of course she accepted! When was she gonna get a second chance at eating chocolate! The cake she ate was the BEST THING SHE HAD EVER TASTED!! Even better than the wild honey she'd sometimes stumble across in the forest. Her only real slip up was jolting and dropping her fork when something red flashed across the corner of her eyes but relaxed when it was only a red bird sitting outside the window. It tilted it's head looking inside for a moment before flying off again. Something was definately off about her. She could feel it. Poppy just didn't know what. But for the rest of the time she spent out she tried to bury her worries for her own sake. She just felt really drained right now for now real reason.

But all good things must come to an end. Hours passed and soon enough it was time for all of them to go home. Poppy could barely remember the long ride back up to the moon city and then again back to Hattie's ship. All she really did was smile and politely agree and tried to not make anymore embarrasing mistakes. Even as Cookie and Mu bid them all a good night and Poppy thanked her for the wonderful day out and the take out she had let them take back with them before they disappeared back presumably to take the night train back before they missed it. It was still a blur when she just flopped onto the cold floor completely physically and mentally exhausted and falling into the world of dreams and red eyes.

#The Florist #florist #Snatcher #a hat in time florist #a hat in time the florist #A hat in time the florist x snatcher #a hat in time snatcher #A hat in time snatcher x florist #A hat in time florist x snatcher #a hat in time snatcher x the florist #Snatcher x the florist #the florist x snatcher #snatcher x florist #florist x snatcher #a bloom in time

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

03. Strengths and Weaknesses

Previous: Write Whatever You Want

Another person shouldn’t have the power to be able to control every aspect of your life. In fact, some power and responsibility granted to someone else in your life should be a sign of trust and appreciation, not force or obligation…

Grace collected all of the self help and self love books she could from the mall bookstore. It was a section that they rarely went to, the bookstore, a place that they never defiled. She glanced at the sci-fi and fantasy sections… they weren’t empty, but Simon had taken a lot of those to his personal quarters. 

She realized that Simon would always occupy some space in her heart and in her mind, but the fact that he could still occupy space in her life was troubling her. She just wanted to get over him and what he’d done… But that would also come with having to face what he did, to look at it all and really think about it. That could destroy every semblance of dignity that she believed their friendship was based on. That could rob her of even the fond memories that she knew would never return.

But, she saw his absence in the book store, where all the spaces were in that section, where all of the journals from the journal rack were all but gone, where the section that had fanfare like models of famous spaceships or bobble heads from certain fandoms had spaces (which very well could have been taken by any number of the kids in the Mall Car, but she thought of Simon and his fanboy things. She thought of his passion for writing and his knack for constructing figures. She thought about the times when she would be reading a book and came to him and wondered, “What’s this word mean?” and how he would either know and give her a hard time, or not know and immediately consult a nearby thesaurus or dictionary. She saw his absence everywhere.

She headed back to her quarters, glanced at the photo booth as she passed, the photos of their kiss now serving as a bookmark for her to figure out how to figure out herself. How do you not know you? You’ve literally been with you since your conception. “I was distracted. By everybody’s expectations of me and by my need to be exalted as the best. Didn’t even matter what I was the best at, as long as I was the best.”

“Looks like you win again,” she heard Simon’s voice say in a memory. She shook her head. She hadn’t won anything in a long time. Maybe she could win some peace of mind if she went through enough of these books. All quotes and motivational “insights,” health advice, and spiritual tips.

The kids were still coming to her for advice on matters. “You are actually older than I was whenever I got here,” she told Shadow. Shadow wasn’t her real name. Couldn’t have been. But, it was the name that she told Grace and Simon that she wanted to be called, and she absolutely lived up to the name, as she seemed to trace Grace’s every move, copy her style, and emulate her. It was cute, to Grace. Having a mini her. She had plenty of kids that looked up to her, even Simon did, at some point. But, now that the Apex was over, and they hadn’t quite figured out what to do next, they still turned to Grace for their step by step and day to day… several of them, anyway. Shadow, definitely.

She was one of the ones who witnessed what happened. One of the ones who endured such a terrible sight as the gruesome fate of Simon. One of the ones to not mourn him herself, but to be very sympathetic to Grace for her loss. One of the ones that she may or may not have instantly grief bonded too as they were nice to her for the first time since she messed up, in the midst of her saying goodbye to not only her first, but her oldest friend… who had become her most determined enemy… There were many mixed emotions with what happened to him, but Grace appreciated the kids that were there for her. She appreciated Shadow, she really did… But she also wanted her to give her some space. 

Grace was startled when the girl was waiting for her, for “morning yoga class,” and she didn’t regret to inform her, “It isn’t a class… It’s just me trying to start doing yoga, and you tagging along and doing what you see me doing.”

“I grabbed a yoga book from the bookstore to help me get better at my poses and teach me about meditation,” she said, not at all taking the hint that Grace wasn’t in the mood. Yoga was supposed to be some time to herself, but she also couldn’t just tell her to go away. The way that she had snapped at Simon at the cabin and the way it hurt him… the end of the beginning, she was pretty sure of it… She couldn’t risk shoving Shadow to her downfall, just because she was doing what she had been commended and appreciated for doing previously… though… before, they weren’t close. She definitely gave her more space before, but there was more structure back then, too. 

There were rules, regulations, guidelines, laws, ordinances, whatever else in the big book of the Apex. They learned what to do and they did it and to not do it meant consequences. Nothing dire in her day - maybe not being able to go on the next raid or being responsible for some chore or something. But, Grace wasn’t positive what Simon had put these kids through without her there. 

She knew that they had seemed unhappy when she next saw them, that the ones who were obediently trying to shove her off of the train and she begged for her life were just as confused as she had been when she and Simon began all of this. Confidence didn’t always mean certainty, and the guilt that she could see on those kids was as thick as the sorrow she saw whenever she returned to see Simon on her throne. 

Shadow had been watching her and wanting to be her since her first day in the Apex. Seeing somebody that looked like her in charge, commanding, and carefree… 3 fun years of duty, then one day Simon returned without her, told them that she had betrayed them all, that she was unfit to lead, threw off his hoodie and revealed the most numbers any of them had seen, even on Grace. Some of them mourned her right then and there. Simon didn’t like that. 

He explained to them that Grace was no longer like them. She no longer believed in the Apex. She no longer believed in the Conductor. She wasn’t to be mourned and she wasn’t to be missed. She was worse than a null, because they were created for worthless futures. But Grace? She had been given a chance by the Conductor. She had been given status and respect and honor, only to turn on all of their values. To call her a null would be an insult to nulls. She deserved nothing but to be blotted out, voided. 

“She’s a void. THE void. Not even human anymore. Its number is low and its spirit is lost. The void is an unfit leader, a danger to us all!” Shadow couldn’t stop crying. This still sounded very sad to her. Simon cupped her chin and said, “Don’t worry. You won’t be punished for emulating it. None of us knew, but now that we know what the void is, we know what the Apex will do, what we MUST do.” He dropped his hand and smirked. “If it ever infiltrates the car again, we wheel it.” 

The children all gasped. “You’re… you’re talking about Grace…” Lucy said.

“IT IS THE VOID!” He roared. Lucy and Todd both jumped and clutched each other. Simon pointed to Shadow, “Bring me the procedures. We have to quickly establish who is faithful to the Apex, and who is faithful to the void.” He looked at Lucy.

“I am Apex!” she said. 

“And what is the void?” He asked. 

“It’s… not Grace… It looks like Grace?” She felt ashamed that she was feeling sympathy for the void. Simon had just explained that it wasn’t Grace anymore. But, if it still looked like Grace, the person who had held her crying when she put her eye out with the harpoon pack while Simon tried to tend to the injury. Ultimately… she just lost the eye and it was Grace who had told her that she still was a whole person and one of her favorite kids. “That eye was important, but the most important thing is that you’re alive and safe and still one of the greatest kids here.” But… Lucy didn’t dare let Simon see her cry over Grace, not after how he had just gotten angry.

“If you see the traitor we used to know as Grace, it is now the void and only to be acknowledged as the void. What is a void, Apex?”

“A leader who is no longer fit to lead?” Lucy said, trying to fix her last mistake by mimicking what she remembered Simon saying before. 

“And a danger to us all,” he completed as Shadow returned with his book for him to write in. “Again. What is a void?”

Now, multiple kids said, more confidently, “A leader who is no longer fit to lead. A danger to us all.” He continued writing and getting them to repeat it, until he was satisfied. “And how do we deal with voids?” 

“We wheel them?” Todd asked, recalling what Simon said. 

“Again!” Simon called. 

“We wheel them! We wheel them!” Many of the children began to chant, as was their way. Shadow, Todd, Lucy, Lindsay and Alex looked at each other, Alex noticed Simon looking at them and immediately joined in. Reluctantly, Lindsay and Todd did too. 

Simon gave the signal for everyone to stop, a quick cut of his hand across his throat and they did. He put a hand on Lucy’s back and one on Shadow’s, then called five boys’ names and began to walk the girls to the door. Shadow was panicked. She didn’t know what this meant. Simon lead the six kids outside and shut the door behind them. 

In a calm voice, he asked, “What is a void, Lucy?”

“A leader who is unfit to lead. A danger to us all.”

“And how do we deal with voids?”

“We wheel them.”

“Good. So, you understood. You didn’t join the Apex when I asked.”

“It won’t happen again, Simon.”

“I have a special job for you. You’ll keep watch for the void. If it comes back, it may be injured or sick. It may try to convince you to be kind to it. Don’t be deceived, Lucy. The void is dangerous. Don’t let it near you and don’t listen to it. The Apex will back you up and we will wheel it, as a collective.” 

Lucy nodded her head, “Understood, Simon.”  He talked to the boys, too, giving them each assignments - sounding the alarm whenever the void arrived, taking the yokes to carry his throne… Shadow was more and more confused and troubled as it came down to her and Simon.

“Shadow, what is a void?” He didn’t sound as chill as he had with the others. More like cold. It sent shivers down her spine.

“A leader who is unfit to lead. A danger to us all.”

“And how do we deal with voids?” 

She sighed and put her head down, “We wheel them.” 

Simon smirked and then leaned forward to touch her shoulder. “It took you awhile today. Don’t let that happen again. I can’t leave room for another traitor. If you can’t keep your allegiance to the Apex, you will become familiar with the wheels.” He pointed towards the wheels and she gasped. “The Apex has but one leader now and if you can’t accept that, all traitors will be thrown off of the train.”

“I understand, Simon.” He put her on spotlight duty and she didn’t think that she would ever smile again. 

She had been about to throw Grace off of the train. She had been about to kill her idol… She couldn’t take it back, but she poured herself into respecting Grace again as a person. Not the void, not a traitor. But, she felt like Grace didn’t like her anymore. Like… she was tired of her. Probably angry because she was going to push her off of the train..

“Grace…” Grace let out a very frustrated groan and wiped her face with her hands. Shadow frowned and shut up. 

Grace tried to continue yoga, but the nagging that she had possibly just shut this girl down was getting to her. “What is it, Shadow?” She asked, trying not to sound annoyed.

“I just wanted to say that I didn’t just go along with it. Simon took me outside of the car. He threatened to wheel me if I didn’t agree with him about you. I was really scared that he was going to do it. I didn’t really want to kill you, even though I tried to.”

Grace sighed again, this time a little less annoyed. An understanding sigh, if that’s a thing. “I know. All of you were under pressure. I know that it was hard for all of you. Simon was sometimes hard for me too, and especially in the end. I can’t make heads or tails about how I feel about him from one day to the next. So, I understand that. But, I’m just trying to move on with my life. I just want to be able to get to the next step without harping on that,  but whenever I’m trying, someone is always there. I love your company. I just want to be able to have an hour of time where someone isn’t looking to me for anything!” Grace realized that her voice was loud. She sighed again, “I want a moment to relax. Talking about who tried to kill me and why is not relaxing for me.”

“It’s just that, I know how afraid you must have been out there with him… and I know that I helped. I know how afraid I was with him, but I still helped.”

“Are you asking for forgiveness, Shadow? Because, I thought I made it clear to all of you that I don’t blame anybody for being tricked by Simon. How can I be mad at you for following someone that I recruited you to follow? We were a team. You did exactly what we taught you to do - listen to the leader and trust their judgment. I wouldn’t fault you for that. What I am faulting you for is the fact that I haven’t been able to have one session of yoga and meditation without you all up in my aura.” They both laughed a little. 

Grace crawled over to her and wrapped an arm around her, “Seriously, you can’t just depend on me to give you what you’re looking for. You have to be able to forgive yourself for things that you don’t understand why you did. You have to be willing to ask yourself why and explain it to yourself to correct yourself. Never look to somebody else, not even me.”

Shadow smiled and said, “I just needed you to know the truth. I just needed to clear the air.”

Grace smiled, “It’s clear. It’s clean and clear and pure, okay?” Shadow smiled and then noticed her number changing. 

She looked at her hand and gasped whenever it turned into a zero. Grace looked at the door that appeared and quickly got up to help Shadow off of her mat. Shadow looked excited for a moment then frowned, “Why me? There’s other kids more deserving of their door…”

“You did all that you needed to do!” Grace cheered. “And you didn’t have to model after somebody else to do it. You just had to be clear and honest and willing to accept the truth. I’m very proud of you.” Shadow opened her door and saw her family, still putting up posters and handing out fliers, three years later. Her eyes welled with tears. She hadn’t thought that they would even miss her, but there they were, still looking…

“Grace… My name was Sunny,” Shadow said. “Is Sunny, like the song. You should listen to it. It’s perfectly fitting for you.” She went through the doorway and Grace watched it all go. She felt her own number move and she looked down. It had gone up? She sighed and flopped back down on her mat. She knew that song, but not the lyrics. Just the melody. It was back to the bookshop, she guessed. There was a little music section and she could probably find that old song in there. 

.

*Sunny plays in the background*

It was her go to yoga song, now. She kinda missed having Shadow around, despite how irritating it had been her last days there. Grace passed by Lucy and Lindsay, sitting on the floor looking at each other and giving affirmations. “

Lucy: When I look at you, I see me.

Lindsay: When I look at me, I see you…

Grace smiled, but kept going, grounding mat beneath her arm, water jug in her hand and a bag on her arm. Alex and Todd ran by her, both swerved to miss her.

Todd: By, Grace, we’re gonna go check out this go kart car that Mandy told us about!

Grace: Have fun!

Alex: We’ll bring you something back!

Grace: No need!

That kid was terrible at tributes when it was a thing. She set up her yoga space and looked at the empty place where Sunny would have been. It didn’t feel the same without the kid, but she also didn’t have that stress of her watching so intently either. She was finally able to actually relax as she went through this new little ritual. Afterwards, she did feel better. The other kids didn’t bother her the entire time, though whenever she finished, Lindsay and Lucy were there to each grab one of her hands and drag her to some place. 

It was the signature wall. Apex kids would tag their names onto it and it became a mural of sorts. Grace had seen the wall before and guessed that they were about to show her some new art or something, when she noticed that the taller kids had sprayed over the red “Down with the False Conductor” that had been sprawled across the top, with curvy block letters that read “We Made It Out.” Lucy pointed to a four picture set from the photo booth of Sunny, posing like Grace used to in the mirror, with shoulders out and lips puckered, one of her looking thoughtful, one silly face and one simply smiling. It had “Shadow” written in marker on the slit of white just before the last one. Grace told Lucy, “Gimme a marker.” Lucy still had it and handed it over. Grace drew a line through Shadow and above it wrote “Sunny.” She and the girls smiled at each other. 

“It’s a new tradition,” Lucy said. “We came up with it ourselves, without asking you.”

“I love it… Do… we have pictures from the photo booth of everybody?”

“Yep. They were in Simon’s ledger.” Lucy reached into her fanny pack to pull out hers, “We took them for his records. Our skills and weaknesses are on the backs. But me and Lindsay decided to use them for good stuff.” She showed Grace her own photo set, in which she still had two good eyes and flipped it over where she had a list of strengths and under weaknesses: Literally put her own eye out. Grace growled. “My sentiment exactly,” Lucy said.

“Look at you, Luce! If this place was going to continue, you’d be running the joint next.”

Lucy took Lindsay’s hand and pulled her forward. “Didn’t do it on my own.”

“And Lindsay. You’ve always been the silent but strong type.” Lindsay shrugged her shoulders and made an uh uh sound. Then she and Lucy exchanged looks.  “What?”

“Well… We know that you’re probably gonna be the last one out, but just in case… There’s no photos of you. We want you on the wall one day too. But, Simon destroyed all of your pictures when he voided you. Can you take a set, and put it on the wall whenever your number drops?” 

What if she was nowhere near the wall when she reached zero? What if she never reached zero? “I’ll try,” she said. 

They dragged her to the photo booth to take her pictures and the first one was a big, fake smile, the second was a slightly faded one, the third a frown and the last she was starting to cry. She snatched it from the slit and sat down. “Maybe I’ll try another day.”

Lindsay took the photos and the magic from Grace and began to write on the back.

Strengths: Takes responsibility for her mistakes. Good feelings. Big heart. Leadership skills. Makes people happy...Grace was sniffling as she read along with Lindsay writing. She was scared to get to the weaknesses, but Lindsay capped the marker instead of writing any. “What, no weaknesses?”

“Plenty. But, that’s because you’re human and not an asset, like Simon saw us as.” She and Lucy fist bumped, and Lucy handed Grace the photos. “We’re gonna go check out that go kart car too, actually.”

“We won’t bother to bring you anything back.”

“Good!” Grace said. She looked at the photos and sighed, got back into the booth, wiping her eyes. The first one, she still looked sad, the next she tried to fix her expression, the third a smile started and the last, she had a bright smile with slightly damp eyes. She pulled them out. “I’ll get there. I’ll make it out.”

#Infinity Train #Nesha Fanfiction #Infinity Train Fanfiction #Fics #Grace Heals #Grace Monroe Fanfic

[girlactionfigure]

Plan Z

In the Fall of 2012, Bibi Netanyahu and then Minister of Defense Ehud Barak had a plan to destroy Iran’s capability to make nuclear weapons. The plan was not executed because of opposition from the Cabinet, the Israeli security establishment, and of course the Obama Administration, which was facing an election and secretly negotiating with Iran toward what would become the JCPOA.

The “nuclear deal” that was ultimately signed in 2015 provided Iran with cash for its Hezbollah terrorists and its expansion into Iraq and Syria, as well as fully legitimizing Iran’s nuclear project in 10-15 years. Even before then, the JCPOA lacked adequate safeguards to prevent cheating, and Iran took advantage of the loopholes to pursue development of uranium and plutonium bombs.

The Obama Administration was following a playbook developed – in part by advisor Ben Rhodes – in the 2006 Iraq Study Report, which intended to extricate the US from Iraq and bring about overall stability in the region by appeasing and empowering Iran and Syria (there was still an independent Syria then) at Israel’s expense. It seemed to me then, and still does today, that the negative consequences for Israel from the plan were not simply an unfortunate byproduct of it, but rather a desired outcome.

President Trump took the opposite tack, choosing to weaken Iran and empower America’s traditional allies in the region, Israel and the Sunni Arab states. He took the US out of the JCPOA, re-imposed sanctions on Iran, recognized Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan and Jerusalem (the 2006 plan envisioned Israel transferring the Golan to Syria), and encouraged an alliance between Israel and the Sunni Arab states.

If Trump’s policy to build up a strong countervailing power while weakening and isolating Iran would continue, then it might be possible to force Iran to give up its nuclear dreams without military action. But if, as seems likely, Joe Biden takes office as President of the US on 20 January 2021, then everything may change.

The following is sheer fantasy. I don’t know what the PM of Israel is thinking, I am not acquainted with anyone in the Trump Administration, the Biden team, or Israel’s defense establishment, and I have no insider knowledge about anything.

By Chanukah 5781 [10 December 2020], it became clear to the Prime Minister of Israel that President-elect Biden, although personally not particularly anti-Israel, was assembling a team heavy with individuals that were less than sympathetic to our point of view, like Susan Rice, Jake Sullivan, and Daniel Benaim. Biden had also made appointments that were concessions to the extreme left wing of the Democratic party that had almost defeated him in the race for the nomination. Intelligence reports showed a continuous flow of communications between Biden and the headquarters of the group led by Barack Obama, located only about 3 km. from the White House.

The PM of Israel was worried. Biden had already announced his intention to re-engage with Iran, which would probably mean a loosening of sanctions. The PM knew that the Iranians had recently made significant progress toward the development of a nuclear arsenal. He had no confidence that the Biden Administration would have the will to stop them; he could imagine a repeat of the JCPOA process, in which Iran made a fool of US negotiators.

Israel would have to stop Iran, or nobody would.

The PM knew that during the Obama Administration the Americans considered Israel a prime target for intelligence-gathering. The Americans had been operating a radar installation in Israel since 2008 that could spot air activity anywhere in the country, even small drones. Electronic communications in Israel’s defense headquarters, the Kiriya in Tel Aviv, have been tapped for some time. It would be very hard to take almost any kind of military action against Iran without the Americans finding out.

The PM decided that if Israel were to take action, it would have to be before 20 January, when Biden would be inaugurated. Indeed, considering the precedent of the incoming Obama team which aborted the ground invasion of Gaza in January 2009, it would have to be before Biden’s people got themselves organized. Otherwise, he was sure the Americans would act, diplomatically or even kinetically, to prevent Israel from striking the Iranian nuclear program.

Such an operation would not be simple or easy. The Iranian assets that would need to be destroyed are buried deeply underground and defended by surface-to-air missile batteries. The moment Israel attacked, the Iranians would unleash Hezbollah in Lebanon, which had some 130,000 short range rockets and longer range missiles, some with precision guidance. They are fitted on mobile launchers and ensconced in the homes of civilians. Hezbollah has plans to invade across the northern border, and kill Israelis and take hostages.

But the IDF has been preparing for this for some time. There is a plan called tochnit zayin [Plan Z]. The Prime Minister convened his mini-security cabinet, a subset of a subset of the cabinet, including the Minister of Defense and several others, together with the IDF Chief of Staff and a few key officers, including the Air Force and Navy commanders. The meeting took all of 15 minutes. The clock began to tick on tochnit zayin.

The IDF announced that it would carry out a defensive exercise on our northern border. It was not a massive exercise, and only a small number of reserve units were called up. Several days later an Israeli submarine moved into position in the Persian Gulf (or, if you prefer, the Arabian Gulf). At 0200 on the 4th day of Hanukah, the submarine fired a missile almost straight up. The missile contained a small nuclear bomb designed to maximize the production of gamma rays, and it exploded high in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 100 km. A person on the ground might see a small dot of light if he knew where to look; he would not be injured or even feel anything.

Most of the gamma radiation from the explosion was absorbed by the air. The gamma rays ripped electrons from atoms in the air, and the electrons spun downward; their motion in the Earth’s magnetic field produced a powerful pulse of electromagnetic radiation, lasting only one millionth of a second but containing an enormous amount of energy. Much of Iran was blanketed by this pulse. Electrical conductors that it passed over had high voltages induced in them, and semiconductor devices, especially those connected to power lines or antennas, were reduced to inert lumps of silicon. Telephone and cellular networks, broadcasting equipment, internet routers, the power grid, and countless other things became inoperative. Even emergency generators, with their solid-state controls, didn’t start.

When Israeli aircraft arrived to bomb the nuclear sites with multiple bunker-busters, Iranian radar was dark. When eyewitnesses tried to alert their commanders, they were unable to do so. When they finally drove to Teheran to inform their leaders (most vehicles were still operative, especially older ones), their leaders could not communicate with each other, or, importantly, with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Lebanon is too close to Israel to receive the same treatment, but units of Israeli special forces penetrated its borders and destroyed communications infrastructure and cut cables at key points. A bombing campaign followed, aimed primarily at the nervous system of the country – the power grid and communications systems. In 2006, the IDF was surprised by its inability to intercept and interrupt communications over Hezbollah’s fiber optic network. Since then, it’s been documented and mapped. It was quickly destroyed. Since 2006 the IDF has collected good intelligence about Hezbollah’s installations, including the hiding places of mobile rocket launchers and weapons depots. Many of them were destroyed almost immediately.

The Hezbollah leadership was targeted; unlike in 2006, the IDF knew where they were and was able to kill them. Without a head and a nervous system, and without support from Iran, Hezbollah was demoralized, and was unable to sustain a massive rocket attack. There was some damage to Israel’s home front, but Iron Dome and Arrow antimissile systems significantly reduced it.

All this happened in a couple of days. By the time Hanukah was over, the Lebanese government – less Hezbollah – was suing for peace. In Iran, economic paralysis had begun to set in.

The US and the Russians, who had been informed only an hour before the operation, offered to help Iran and Lebanon to rebuild, as did Israel and the Gulf states – on condition that the mullahs in Iran and what was left of Hezbollah in Lebanon would have no role in the government. They accepted.

By the time Joe Biden became president, he faced a whole new Middle East.

Abu Yehuda

[papermoonloveslucy]

VACATION TIME

April 29, 1949

“Vacation Time” (aka “Trailer Vacation to Goosegrease Lake”) is episode #41 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on April 29, 1949 on the CBS radio network.

Synopsis ~ It's vacation time, and Liz and George have decidedly different plans. He wants to go camping with a trailer he borrowed from a friend, while she's set on a glamorous vacation at Moosehead Lodge.

This episode later partly inspired the premise of “Liz Learns To Swim” aired on June 11, 1950. 

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) and Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) do not appear in this episode. 

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (Policeman) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.”  On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.”  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.  

Wally Maher (Joe Risley) was born on August 4, 1908 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was known for Mystery Street (1950), The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) and Hollywood Hotel (1937). He was heard with Lucille Ball in the Lux Radio Theatre version of “The Dark Corner” (1947), taking the role originated on film by William Bendix. He died on December 27, 1951.

Milton Stark (Filling Station Attendant) was a theatre actor and director, who also appeared on radio and television, although usually in supporting roles.  He also worked as a dialogue coach and acting teacher. At UCLA a scholarship was established in his name. He lived to the age of 103. 

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers, it is a cold rainy afternoon, but Liz is in her bedroom standing in front of the mirror wearing a back-less, strapless sun dress.” 

Liz calls Katie in to show off her sun dress, but Katie is disapproving that is so revealing.  Liz has shopped for summer vacation clothes.  Liz’s bathing suit cost’s forty dollars. 

KATIE: “That’s a lot of money for two doilies and a diaper.” 

Liz says that husbands only approve of scanty swimsuits when they are on any woman but their wives. 

LIZ: “I want to look good for George. He’s going to see a lot of me this summer.” KATIE: “He’s not the only one!”  

The topic of revealing bathing suits was later also mined for comedy on “I Love Lucy.”  In “Off To Florida” (ILL S6;E6) Ricky thinks Lucy’s new skimpy new swimsuit is for Little Ricky!  Lucy also buys a swimsuit that Ricky feels is too skimpy when shopping for their California trip in “Getting Ready” (ILL S4;E11)

Liz says they are going to Moosehead Lodge on Lake Okeechobee. Liz calls it a real swanky place.  Katie reminds Liz that George prefers more rugged vacations.  Liz says she will suggest it to George at dinner. 

Lake Okeechobee is a real place, located in central Florida, although it is far more conducive to George’s type of vacation than Liz’s, highlighting nature through fishing and nature.  

Although there are places called Moosehead Lodge in America, it unlikely that a moose would be associated with central Florida and that it would be an upscale resort of the type Liz is describing. 

At the bank, George talks to his co-worker Joe about scheduling vacations.  Joe says that his ideal vacation is in a trailer.  If George likes the idea, he will lend the Coopers his trailer.  George will suggest it to Liz at dinner. 

After dinner, both Liz and George get cozy with the idea of easing the other into going on their dream destination.  Liz ‘just happened’ to hear about a place that she vaguely remembers. 

LIZ: “I did hear of some place called Moosehead Lodge. It’s probably situated in groves of stately pines, on the shores of an emerald green lake, its rustic beauty enhanced by lawns and flower beds. Each luxurious room is furnished with clean, comfortable box spring beds, modern bathroom and shower. Ten dollars a day, American plan. Oh, George, let’s go there. We can relax and enjoy a continual round of  glorious entertainment, sports, good food, and true fellowship, see your travel agent for details.”

George realizes that Liz has been plotting a vacation.  George says he has a better idea - two weeks in a trailer.  Liz is less than keen. George says that they can borrow Joe Risley’s trailer!

LIZ: “Keen with mud on it.”

Liz is worried that nobody will see her new vacation wardrobe if they are cooped up in a trailer.  They are at an impasse.  Liz suggests they go on separate vacations.  When George reluctantly agrees, she breaks down in tears.  

Liz moans to Katie that she already misses George, and the vacation doesn’t begin for two months.  George phones from work to talk to Liz.  George offers a compromise.  They will take a trial weekend trip in the trailer, and if she doesn’t like it, he will go to Moosehead Lodge!

Vacationing in a trailer was explored by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in their 1953 comedy MGM’s The Long Long Trailer.  The film mines a lot of physical comedy from the trailer’s unwieldy movement and how Lucy’s character Tacy Bolton copes with it. 

ANNOUNCER: “George is just driving up with the trailer hooked up to the back of the car.”

Liz remarks how small the trailer is.  

GEORGE: “Keep an open mind.” LIZ: “I’ll have to close it or it won’t fit in that trailer.” 

They tour the inside, which is smaller than Liz thought.  Just then, a knock at the trailer door and there’s a policeman (Frank Nelson) issuing them a parking ticket! Forty bucks for parking illegally!

The next morning George and Liz get an early start on their trial trailer trip.  Liz has brought along a little light reading for the trip: “Inside Moosehead Lodge” by Liz Gunther. 

Motoring along the highway, George is enjoying the drive. 

LIZ: “Travel is great. I wouldn’t go anywhere without it.”

George says it is so smooth, you wouldn’t even know the trailer is back there.  Liz notices that it isn’t!  George forgot to hook it on!   Finally, they are off (again) to Goosegrease Lake. Liz reads one of those sequential signs along the roadside: “If Your Whiskers...  Won’t Behave... Take a Tip Use....”  Liz goes silent. 

GEORGE: “Use what?”  LIZ: “The last sign’s torn down. Now we’ll never know.” 

Almost everyone in the audience knew it was Burma-Shave.  From 1926 until 1963 the ‘brushless’ shaving cream company dotted the American highways with small red signs, each containing a line of a short rhyme that the driver could read without slowing down as they drove by.  At one time, there were over 600 different rhymes on signs!  

The idea was given a nod on a 1955 “I Love Lucy” episode “First Stop” (ILL S4;E14) with the roadside signs for Aunt Polly’s Pecan Pralines. 

LUCY: Fifty miles to Aunt Sally’s Pecan Pralines. later... LUCY: 300 yards to Aunt Sally’s! ETHEL: 200 yards! FRED: 100 yards! RICKY: Just around the bend! LUCY: You have just passed Aunt Sally’s. 

Liz is quite sure that George’s shortcut has gotten them lost. They stop to ask directions from a laid back filling station attendant (Milton Stark) who tells them they don’t want to go to Goosegrease Lake.  He suggests they go to the hot springs, instead. 

Oops! Milton Stark has trouble pronouncing ‘Goosegrease’ and  the audience is aware of his flub. When he asks Lucille Ball “What ya gonna do there?” She deliberately says “We’re gonna goose a grease”, instead of “grease a goose”, which causes more giggles from the cast and gales of laughter from the audience. 

FILLING STATION ATTENDANT: “You can’t get there from here!”

Next morning Liz wakes up and looks around.  She sees beautiful green grass and a little flag with the number 18 on it!  A golf ball comes crashing through the window. The policeman from who ticketed them earlier knocks on the trailer door. They have illegally camped out on the 18th green of the municipal golf course - only two miles from home!  Liz said they didn’t know where they were going. 

POLICEMAN: “Do you know where you’re going now?” LIZ: “Yes!  To Moosehead Lodge!” POLICEMAN: “No, to the city jail! Come on!”

End of Episode

#My Favorite Husband #Lucille Ball #Richard Denning #Ruth Perrott #Bob LeMond #Frank Nelson #Wally Maher #Milton Stark #Lake Okeechobee #The Long Long Trailer #I love Lucy #Burma-Shave #1949 #CBS Radio