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aviewfromtheclouds25 · 4 years

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Is Aaron’s breakdown meeting your needs? I feel like it’s going the way I want it to and I’m really enjoying it. But seeing other people’s comments, I feel like I’m on my own.

I’m enjoying it. There’s a few of us, so you’re definitely not on your own! I don’t tend to post my thoughts on individual episodes unless there’s something specific I want to pick out, but I’m happy to share them so feel free to message me if you ever feel like you’re watching a different show to the majority of your dash haha.

I’m not sure what it is other people might not be enjoying. Most of the negativity I see is in relation to the Wendy/Luke aspect? And the odd comment on Liv/Chas… But personally I’m loving everything about Aaron’s breakdown and so far it is going exactly as I expected. I mean, we’ve clearly had the slow burner we anticipated with the signs to his unravelling throughout. It’s lasting for months, again as we anticipated. It’s all about Robert. (#WeAreBlessed.) Liv’s already been inadvertently hurt and it’s about to lead to her having another seizure. (And they’ve shown her deterioration to that pretty well, I think, too!) And Aaron’s finally started to lose that sliver of control he had which is what was enabling him to stay in the denial stage and focus solely on his revenge… But when he can’t stay in denial any longer and has to confront his reality, then we get the grief… Which is how we end up at Robert’s car on Thursday! (Yeah, I’m excited!!)

So, here’s why I’m enjoying Aaron’s breakdown so much:

1. Robert and their relationship is obviously at the centre of it. So we may be down half of Robron, but technically it’s still about Robron, you know. #Blessed

2. The Robert mentions! I mean, this just doesn’t happen nowadays. A character leaves and they just go into that void of lost characters who are lucky if they get mentioned once a year frankly. But Robert? Robert’s still all over the place like he’s still a part of the show and that is just so unusual in this era of soap. Which brings me to;

3. It’s actually fundamentally character-driven. Remove Wendy/Luke from the equation, everything we’re getting from Aaron’s perspective is emotionally charged. It’s the characters and their relationship driving it. We live in an age where soap - actually, most television - is, on the whole, incredibly plot-driven and fast-paced. Because the digital world has made the race for TV ratings and the instant gratification which comes from the readily available social media paramount and integral to a show’s success. This is why so much is drama, drama, drama, because they need people tuning in and they need people talking about it. But occasionally, Emmerdale do still take the time to deliver some character-focused stories. And that’s what we’re getting with Aaron. Not only are we getting Robert still being an integral part of the story despite having been written out, we’re also getting nods to Aaron’s history and that consistency with his character. They are not making Aaron just go and do some nonsense to cover up the fact that they’ve forgotten Robert ever existed or just how important he was to Aaron. Because they absolutely haven’t.

4. I just mentioned this one: Aaron’s character. We discussed ages ago that the most effective way to separate Aaron from Robert is to take Aaron in a new direction. That’s what we’re seeing here. However, I also just mentioned how this all ties in with Aaron’s history, too. And that’s what I’m loving with this aspect; the juxtaposition between the two. Past Aaron, and the Aaron he becomes now he’s lost Robert. We know when they were parted in 2017, they both resorted back to being the Aaron and Robert of old. The ones before all that growth they’ve been through together over the years. It used to be their safety net, the only other constant they each knew before they became each others’ anchor. So when that anchor was taken away, they clung onto that safety net. Well Aaron’s anchor has been taken away from him again now. He’s freefalling so he’s grabbed that safety net like he always does, and we have the return of the “chavvy thug” if you will. But there’s an added dimension. And it feels somehow darker. He isn’t just lashing out and reacting to things like he’s always done. He’s calculating, he’s manipulating, and he’s threatening. He’s attempting to intimidate Wendy/Luke. These are all very much Robert’s methods of getting to someone. The difference is Robert prefers to get into someone’s mind, whereas Aaron tends to rely on his physical presence. So we have the Aaron of old, and this Aaron with a slightly different edge merging together. Because let’s not forget this isn’t the Aaron Livesy who first walked into the village, or even Aaron Dingle. This is Aaron Sugden-Dingle. And remember, Sugdens don’t do self-pity. They do revenge.

5. The parallels between Aaron’s breakdown and Robert’s breakdown in 2017. I know I keep talking about them but it really is amazing how similar they are, and I’ll never stop obsessing over the similarities between these two idiots because they really are the perfect match. So we have not being able to sleep; seeing Liam about it but with an ulterior motive; drinking heavily; feeling empty; filling that emptiness with a Plan - an excuse for revenge against the family they blame for losing each other; total apathy to anything other than The Plan; reckless crime; Liv getting hurt when she gets caught up in it; blatant lying; crazy facial expressions masking their dead eyes… And now we’re about to get Aaron’s eventual emotional release when he loses that armour of denial, just like we got with Robert when he finally told himself he had to let go of the hope. I might have missed something, but you get my point haha. The way they grieve over losing each other is so strikingly similar because so, too, is the way they love each other. Because they really are two halves which fit together to make a whole, because they found in each other what they’d always longed for in their lives. Because they had always longed for the same thing.

6. Oh, and Danny’s acting. I assume this is self-explanatory, though. :’)

If I’m honest, I have struggled to really enjoy quite a lot of the storylines and the show in general over the last year, but Aaron’s storyline is not one of them. I am genuinely loving it right now!

#the fictional village now Robertless #can you tell by the length of this ramble that I am genuinely loving it?#haha #sorry I couldn't reply to this sooner though #but you're definitely not on your own :)

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ranekvilmas · 4 years

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Unraveled (Chapter 1, Part 2)

She doesn't answer, only pushing more power into her long legs. It's as she digs her antlers into the leg trap, closed around a bear cub's ankle--it opens its mouth to screech in pain, but no noise escapes it--that he reaches her. One prong of her right antler breaks, but she manages to pry it open. Ranek caught up just in time for the trap to open, a small sigh of relief. She was safe, and so was the cub. He kept his ears alert and his nose slightly elevated for unusual scents.

Dark, equine eyes stare after the cub as it limps away at a dash. "I know i' could 'ave been a trap," she states mutely, devoid of emotion in her tone. "Bu' if'n there was even a chance i' could no' 'ave been... I can't take tha' risk. I couldn' 'ave lived with m'self if'n I came back tomorrow an' found a day-ro'ed corpse in tha' trap."

He listened to her every word, reaching a claw up in an attempt to touch the broken antler. "Tomorrow? I did not say to not help whoever was in the trap, just... to take two seconds and be cautious. The little cub could have been bait, and you ran so far ahead...." He stopped himself, letting his hand fall to his side.

"The little one is safe, which is what matters." He spoke softly as the little one waddled away.

Contact with her broken prong causes Blythe to jerk backwards, eyes briefly wide. She's swift to relax, and the 'injury' doesn't appear to pain her--like as not, she can't even feel the extensions of her skull, what for their lack of surface nerves. Ranek's hand shot back as she recoiled, knowing full well it was instinct on her part. He also knew from past experiences that her reaction means to back away.

"They do away with 'em so quick, I..." She turns sun-bright eyes to the forest floor, frosted and quiet underhoof. "I've become so afraid o' wastin' even a second with caution. I've found i' better t' charge in an' use th' surprise as an ambush. Kill th' 'unter an' free their victim, aye?"

He took a step back, crouching to inspect the rusted trap, frowning. "You have killed so many hunters, don't you think they would start putting down bait if you charge in so often? It's what I would do.. especially if their leader is playing games with you."

"I don't know, lad. Th' 'unters 'emselves tend no' t' be very smar', an' they don' seem t' pay attention t' one another. I jus'... I don' know."

After speaking, and with a sigh, the druid steps aside. With gentle kicks to their sides, she begins disarming the rusted traps, whose trigger mechanisms snap at the slightest provocation due to the brittleness of the rust.

Ranek frowned, moving over to more traps and disarming some of the rusted contraptions. "It just... does not make sense to me. I am used to dealing with apex predators.. demons. Creatures from another plane of existence. I forget sometimes how simple these things can be." He walked over to her, running a clawed hand along her flank.

"I always suspect ulterior motives, tricks wrapped in riddles. But I will not let my guard down, because our kind is in danger, the animals as well. And especially you, darlin’." The worgen looked around, moving to disarm a few more that he spotted.

"This is... a 'ive o' nonsense with a single apex predator a' th' 'ead o' i', bu' 'e seems t' opera'e mos'ly on 'is own. I know i' makes no sense," the druid admits after disarming the last trap in the clearing. Ranek stood back up after disarming his last trap, looking around and letting his nose and ears survey the area. He walked back over to her, resting his nose on hers.

"C'mon. Let's make some rounds an' disarm wha'ever we see, an' we'll 'elp anyone we can--even if'n it's only t' bury 'em." With that, Blythe steps off on her split hooves, head slightly low while her ears twist and swivel in search of any potentially dangerous sounds.

"I will follow you forever, love. Lead the way." As they walked, he gently scratched her back. "We will give burials and honor to those that are killed, but I hope we find more empty traps."

With a glance towards her love and his hand, the druid continues on her way. She taps any rusted traps she sees, remarking that there are plenty to be found. They run across a few more skeletons and some less decayed corpses, but the number thins as they travel. The cold grows. Frost on underbrush turns to ice that catches under a hoof and nearly breaks Blythe's foreleg when she goes down, after which she resorts to a clawed form.

(Art by @theunfortunatedruid herself!)

The worgen stays close to her side, only moving away to help disarm traps as they patrol the area. Normally, it would be a perfect outing to spend with her, but the reason they are in the current space is more important than a hiking date. He hated having to bury the poor souls that were needlessly killed, hated having the feeling bubbling in his stomach of seeing another dead worgen or animal left to rot. He hated those hunters, the ones leaving prey to rot. It was not the way, in his mind.

As the amount of corpses thinned, he allowed himself to relax slightly, making a small huff and exhaling slowly. He began to survey the area with a tiny smile... then she fell. He was quick to try and help, but she had already compensated and changed forms to his relief.

It's as a feline that she directs Ranek to one of the most dense parts of the forest, her tail brushing the back of his calves with every other stride cycle. No traps litter the ground, and the bone cover underpaw is sparse at best compared to the rest of the forest, but the sensation of wrongness is at its thickest.

For Ranek, her tail was one of the few things keeping his own paranoia and alertness from becoming obsessive, and he kept a claw musing her fur to have that anchor. Though as he too noticed the clearer area, his ears twitched, moving to catch any sound. There was the faintest of annoyed growls that came from his throat, and his hand stopped moving through her fur to rest on his knife.

Blythe patiently allows Ranek to hold and pet her fur as they travel, though her hackles slowly rise as her long ears stand to nervous attention. Her gait grows stiff, and she glances about with thinned lips and narrowed eyes. The area falls rapidly silent, eerily so, not even a breeze or the faintest hint of animal life stirring. Every paw-step echoes like a gunshot, the crackle of frozen leaves underfoot deafening. The tip of Blythe's tail flicks and twitches as her nerves draw taut.

The eerie calm does nothing to help his paranoia and sends his sense into overdrive. He closes his eyes to calm and focus, letting his ears and nose take over instead of blurring his vision. The absolute silence is one of the things he dreads, his senses straining to the point of a dull ache.

Then the trap springs, making him almost jump out of his skin like his companion. His gut becomes a block of pure ice, his hands clenched into fists. "I want to kill them just for making those traps.." He muttered in a hushed tone.

A trap snaps in the distance and she leaps all but out of her fur, claws unsheathed in an instant. But nothing more happens, not even birds stirring far away, suggesting the snap was merely a rusted trap's mechanism finally giving out under its own chemical decay. The tenseness remains in the air, smothering like water in the lungs and stone weighing down on them. Seeing her startled as much as he is, he tried to force his heart to calm and eased his fists to unclench. "Let's find out what that was."

Should Ranek make to step away, Blythe doesn't follow. She stands with what can be mistaken for rigor mortis in her limbs, not even breathing as she stares into the distance with wide eyes. Her ears ever-so-slowly pin back. Ranek turned, noticing Blythe had not made a sound. When he caught her expression, his guts went cold...

"I did warn you about that companion, my dear." His voice is smooth and deep, echoing across icy leaves from where he stands atop a nearby boulder. "This is a game for two. And only two." Bumblebee yellow eyes, pinpricked with black-as-night pupils, smile down at the pair alongside the slow curl of his lips. And then the lead hunter adjusts his thick-barreled gun in his hands, the same as the other hunters utilize to fire darts for taking live targets. "We'll simply have to return things to the way they should be."

"Run, Rane'," Blythe whispers, her quietly panicked tone leaving no room for argument. Her eyes remain fixed on the hunter before them, tall and proud atop his boulder, confident in his abilities--and he must be justified in that, to strike such visible fear into the druid.

Run? No. Never.

"You made a promise this morning. I stay." He whispered back, his eyes now locking on the hunter to observe and predict his every move. He would never leave Blythe, and he would fight and die to protect her. But he was about to find out how wrong he was.

"Rane-" Blythe barely manages to begin, barely manages to breathe in warning for his disobedience in a situation she's far more familiar with, before the yellow-eyed man aims and fires an orange-filled dart faster than one can even blink. Nearly impossible to register in time, let alone evade from a standstill, it most likely buries itself in Ranek's flesh with a sharp sting and drains into his veins.

The effect is instantaneous, like fire or acid boiling its way through his blood and wiping clean the sanity of both the potion and years of tempering. It draws forth the frenzied, directionless fury of the curse... but without a focus. With a slow, cocky smile, he points a lax finger at Blythe, who drops her ears back and looks rapidly back and forth between Ranek and the hunter.

"Kill her." @theunfortunatedruid

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lindoig · 7 years

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Days 18 to 22 (May 14 to 18)

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums. Having inadvertently staged our own mini-celebration for Heather’s Mother’s Day last week, we forgot all about it this time until half the day had gone and messages started coming in from the kids. Notwithstanding, we tried hard to celebrate it again.

We went to the Mindel Beach Market in the afternoon. We arrived early because we had been advised that parking was a major issue, but it was pretty easy really. We strolled around for a few hours and Heather bought a couple of small items. It was reputed to have a wide selection of ethnic food outlets as well as some of the usual crafty stuff, but I didn’t feel that it quite lived up to its advertising. There were certainly lots of food outlets, but quite a few were simply replicating their neighbours and there was nothing really unusual at all. Still, we indulged ourselves and what we had was quite tasty. As the sun dropped toward the horizon, the crowds drifted from the Market down to the beach and at least a thousand or two ooh-ed and aah-ed and took thousands of photos as the light faded and the sea swallowed the burning globe. Actually, most people left before the sun was completely gone for some reason, leaving only a few hundred stalwart party people to dance the night away – and it looked like plenty of them had come well-prepared. But once again……. what is with all the people standing in the water, or splashing and swimming, with all the crocodile (and poison box jelly-fish) warning signs about?

Next day, we went west – not on the recommendation of the Visitors Centre where such a direction seemed a little odd. It was 100 or so kilometres to Dundee Beach, stopping a few times along the way to explore. There was not a lot to see, but we sat under a shady tree and ate our sangers and had a cuppa overlooking the brand-new boat-ramp and the ancient Arafura Sea. On the way back, we took a 50-odd kilometre detour north, up to the tip of the Cox Peninsula with Darwin on the horizon to the east. It was getting late so we didn’t hang around there for long and retreated to a couple of coldies and the air conditioner in the caravan.

Quite a lot of the area we travelled through that day had been burned. We have seen lots of fires as we have travelled in the NT. During the Wet, the grass grows to more than three metres high (almost as high as a very tall elephant's eye) and there is a policy of fuel reduction burning up here. People could easily get lost in the grass (a haven for all sorts of deadly snakes and other toothsome critters) so it is a very sensible policy in my view. Actually, the grass is so dense, you probably couldn’t get far enough into it to get lost, but they have apparently have some big bushfires over the years and burning off reduces the risk of uncontrollable conflagrations. For example, we were told that they burn the whole of Litchfield National Park every three years- one third each year and we saw plenty of fires there. We have seen numerous very hot fires right up to the very edge of the road as well as extensive blackened areas, many where there are plenty of logs and dead trees still smoking and the raptors are circling looking for some freshly baked prey – or maybe just trying to find a place to roost without burning their tootsies. We have not been inconvenienced at all by the fires. There are ample signs warning of the risk of low visibility due to smoke, but despite seeing thick smoke in the distance, all we have experienced is a few wispy areas where the aroma of burning leaves is really lovely. (Even when at home, we sometimes collect a few leaves and burn them of an evening just for the smell of the bush and we have enjoyed smelling that on a grander scale up here on lots of occasions.

Tuesday was FABULOUS. When we were on Bruny Island in April, we shared a table at the Bowls Club with a couple whose daughter and SIL have a tourism business up here so I contacted them and said we were interested (even negotiated a ‘family discount’ on account of the ‘referral’ from Kelly’s Mum.) The business is Adelaide River Tours, not to be confused with Adelaide River Cruises from whom they bought the business a couple of years ago. Very few people have heard of them and they are struggling a bit to get known, partly because the previous owner still operates and advertises his Jumping Croc Cruises that almost drown the airwaves up here. He advertises very heavily and Kelly and Alex are still trying to gain market share. We think their all-day tours are hugely better than the hour-long Jumping Croc tours, but horses for courses.

We were picked up at the caravan park gate at 8.15 and eventually joined about 8 other people and were taken to Adelaide River where we boarded their boat and cruised up river for 30-40 kilometres. We saw several crocodiles, one huge beast that investigated the boat quite closely for 10 minutes or so and we had to keep moving to avoid it getting too close. We also saw one by the shore eating what I think was a large olive python – it was having some trouble getting it down. Several of the crocs were relatively small, mainly 2-3 metres – and one cute little metre-long baby made a dash for the river right next to where I was in the boat. He was out of the water and among the mangroves and we just made eye contact when he decided it was safer in the water – they can really run fast!!! We had morning tea on the boat and lunch at the most amazing little private lease they have way up the river. It is just 100 square metres or so, well out of the water, but set up with battery-operated fans, gas barbeques, tables and chairs, even a dunny they have set up. A few of us went for short walks outside the leased area, but it was very hot and it was good to retreat to the relative cool of the shade in the shelter shed. They made us a barbecue, with lots of salads, fruit, cold drinks and a cuppa and we enjoyed an hour or so in the middle of nowhere. Then back on board for more exploring and a coldie or two on Goat Island – a very rustic resort run by a grossly extroverted eccentric with a crazy sense of humour and a singing dog (he plays the harmonica and the dog barks along with him.) All very kitch – ultra-kitch really – but he has carved out a profitable business in the middle of the bush catering for tourists like us, runaways from Darwin’s Big Smoke and fishermen who get helicoptered in to the tiny pad hacked from the jungle behind the ‘motel’.

It was then a run for home, stopping once or twice to check out a sunbaking croc – one truly enormous reptile that stayed around long enough for us to all get plenty of pics – and then delivered back to the caravan at about 6.15. It was a great day with interesting people – but only a few birds.

Wednesday seems a bit of a blur. We went out around 10am to buy a new stabiliser leg for the van – the new one we had fitted before leaving home wouldn’t wind down, no matter how hard I hammered it. I even pulled it completely apart and couldn’t get it to work. Of course, the guy who sold us the new one gave ours one solid belt and it worked fine after then, so we are now carrying a spare stabiliser that will probably never get used. I had to go to Medicare to sort out some issues we had in Alice Springs – and they were completely unhelpful, but we eventually resolved the issues ourselves (I hope). We went to the ferry terminal to pay for a tour we had booked, did a little bit of grocery shopping and somehow it was then after 4.30 – and neither of us can figure out how the hours slipped away. Maybe we had a nap during our travels but neither can remember that! Darwin is a lot bigger (and a LOT more spread out) than I imagined so maybe we spend a few of those hours driving from one side of town to the other – but I think not.

Thursday was also a little bit lost to us – maybe we are getting the hang of this sort of lifestyle and an hour or three spent doing something we can’t recall next day is not a big deal. I know we spent some time on our emails, paying bills, making phone calls and updating our blogs, and during the late afternoon, I went off on my own to the Botanical Gardens to try to spot some birds. There were plenty there and I saw a few that we hadn’t seen before on this trip, but nothing quite new to us. I didn’t see the pittas that they say are in the Gardens so that was a little disappointing – maybe I might need to make a return trip after next week and try to spot them allowing myself a bit more time to wander around. The gardens are quite extensive and definitely worth a visit. They are divided into numerous ecological and geographical environments and I found them really interesting.

(Species count 143, including 16 new ticks since leaving home)

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