#one of the characters is complaining about bible classes and she's like ''all we talk about is how you shouldn't be gay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

Users from the US are the majority of Tumblr visitors.

#one of the characters is complaining about bible classes and she's like ''all we talk about is how you shouldn't be gay

l-pandamatic-l · 1 year

Text

Young Sheldon OC introduction. ( Don't judge me. I have Asperger's and relate highly to Sheldon's character )

It was a typical Sunday morning. I was woken up by the complaints of my little brother as momma shook him awake, leaving me to drag myself sluggishly out of my own bed.

I pulled on my usual Sunday dress, a light purple with little lace ruffles around the bell-shaped sleeves. Then, my Mary Janes and my typical piggy-tails were next. My favourite bows dawned the top of each one.

My family, after clambering into the crowded minivan, scrambled into the church, momma finding her friends to gossip as they stood outside, my dad finding a pew near Mr. Vince and his buddies. My brother was dropped off at the kids section and I was left alone, next to the Coopers. Again. They had been the talk of the town lately. Georgie apparently knocked up some older girl. It was insane the things people 'round here said about the Coopers because of it. I kinda felt bad.

I turn to see Sheldon. He lived a few houses down from me. I hang around his grandma's video store pretty often. Especially since Missy comes around sometimes. She's in my class with me at school and we hang out a lot. She constantly complains that I'm too much like her brother. Mainly because I watch the shows he does too. Things like Star-Trek, or StarWars. Yoda is my favourite character. Either him or Han Solo, I always liked the rebellious ones.

Missy says 'hi' but she's alot more quiet than usual. Really skittish, too. Must be the rumours that've been flying around. I smile and say 'hi', giving her a hug before I hear my momma gasp, pulling me out of the seat and away from the Coopers. I roll my eyes and follow her, unfortunately sitting across from my friends.

-------------------------

Sheldon's outburst surprised the church, and everyone inside it was silent for the rest of the sermon. I went home, his words curling around my head, momma's too. Everything he said made so much sense. Why did we preach about loving everyone no matter the circumstances but treat the Coopers this way?

I glanced at Momma and frowned. She was such a hypocrite. I spent the rest of that day locked up in my room, reading through my bible. It didn't make any sense to me anymore. I couldn't figure out specifically why, though. Like everything I'd known was suddenly just some story in some old book.

I had to get help. I knew just where to go, too.

-------------------------

I knocked on the Coopers' door. Mrs. Cooper opened it with her usual smile, eyes slightly red, either from anger or crying. I didn't want to find out.

"Is... Is Sheldon here?" I asked, cheeks pink. It must've been awkward,. showing up like this after all that happened yesterday.

"Shelly," Mrs. Cooper called through the house, "That nice girl from down the street's here to see you!"

She welcomed me inside and I was met with a begrudging Sheldon walking down the hall, a look of surprise on his face when he saw me.

"Oh, hello, Maggie." He said, monotone voice ringing through the empty living room.

"Hey, Sheldon. I uh... I need some help." I say, pulling out my bible, "With this. I thought about what you said on Sunday. And I think you have a point. I'm confused. And I need your... sciencey things explained to help."

His face lit up and suddenly I was whisked away to his room, filled with trains and Professor Proton posters, missing the way his mother leaned over to her husband and said,

"Oh George, he's got a friend. Maybe there still are some good people at church."

#youngsheldon #OC #YoungSheldonOC #80sOC #wtf are tags #I dunno how to tag this #Sheldon Cooper #Missy Cooper #Georgie Cooper

4 notes · View notes

spine-buster · 3 years

Text

Patience is a Virtue ft. Matthew Tkachuk | 𝒯𝑒𝓂𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒

CONTENT WARNING: this story deals with cults, polygamous cults, escaping cults, strict adherence to religion, gender roles, abuse, miscarriage, and a character with a traumatic past. ̲𝖳̲𝗁̲𝗂̲𝗌̲ ̲𝖼̲𝗁̲𝖺̲𝗉̲𝗍̲𝖾̲𝗋̲ ̲𝗌̲𝗉̲𝖾̲𝖼̲𝗂̲𝖿̲𝗂̲𝖼̲𝖺̲𝗅̲𝗅̲𝗒̲ ̲𝗁̲𝖺̲𝗌̲ ̲𝗆̲𝖾̲𝗇̲𝗍̲𝗂̲𝗈̲𝗇̲𝗌̲ ̲𝖺̲𝗇̲𝖽̲ ̲𝖽̲𝖾̲𝖺̲𝗅̲𝗌̲ ̲𝗐̲𝗂̲𝗍̲𝗁̲ ̲𝗍̲𝗋̲𝖺̲𝗎̲𝗆̲𝖺̲ ̲𝖺̲𝗋̲𝗂̲𝗌̲𝗂̲𝗇̲𝗀̲ ̲𝖿̲𝗋̲𝗈̲𝗆̲ ̲𝗆̲𝗂̲𝗌̲𝖼̲𝖺̲𝗋̲𝗋̲𝗂̲𝖺̲𝗀̲𝖾̲𝗌̲ ̲𝖺̲𝗇̲𝖽̲ ̲𝗌̲𝖾̲𝗑̲𝗎̲𝖺̲𝗅̲ ̲𝖺̲𝖻̲𝗎̲𝗌̲𝖾̲.̲ Please be warned.

Word Count: 15,503

A/N: I have been loving your feedback on this story so far. Your canon question about Matthew and Effie are great and I would love to hear and answer more. It means the world to me that a plot this...unconventional, let’s say, is really taking hold and generating interest. I know that there’s some really, really serious stuff dealt with in the chapters, so I appreciate everyone’s feedback and maturity about it. As always, please check the content warning for this chapter. Otherwise, I hope everyone enjoys the update!

* * * * *

She wrote every message on Instagram like an email, and Matthew couldn’t get enough of it.

Hello Matthew,

Today was interesting. I started classes for my business certificate today. I sat in a room with about 50 other people and I listened to my professor speak about the course prospectus and what we would be learning and doing. I didn’t meet any new people or make any new friends but that’s okay. I want to focus on my studies. I already have homework.

How has St. Louis been? I bet you are excited to be back home. I hope you are relaxing and staying safe.

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

I know you are going to ace that program, Effie. You’re very talented and smart and it’ll be no time until you find yourself with a certificate and able to explore more job opportunities.

St. Louis is good. Brady and Taryn are home too so it’s good to be surrounded by family. I know it’s not the same for you but one day I think you will find a group of friends that will make up your family. Most days I go golfing with my dad. I usually relax by our pool too, or play basketball or some other sport with Brady. I go to the gym too, to keep up on my fitness for next season.

Hello Matthew,

Class was good today. We started the beginning lectures. The professor went quickly but I was able to keep up. I’m definitely learning how to type fast on my laptop!

You said in your message that I’m very talented but I don’t think I’m talented. I’m maybe talented at some things like baking, but I don’t think I’m talented in much else. Talents are developed over time and I was never given the opportunity to develop anything because I was expected to be a good wife, tend to children, and read the Bible. Sometimes I think about if I could have been a piano player or a singer or something creative. Maybe I could have been a writer like Geneviève if I was given the opportunity young, but I wasn’t. But that’s okay. I am trying to make my peace with it. I will develop what I have now and try to use it for good.

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

Nobody bakes like you, Effie. Please don’t think you are not talented, because you are. I know you weren’t able to develop anything like you said, but you can still find your talents now. You’re still young! You’re only entering your 20s in a few weeks. You can do whatever you set your mind to.

Hi Matthew,

Levi and Jenna took me to the mall again today. We bought some new clothes that fit me better and aren’t so baggy. They look really nice. I even bought a dress that falls right at my knee. Can you believe it?! I never thought I’d wear something like that. I never thought anybody else would be able to see my legs! It’s a very weird feeling but it’s a very pretty dress. Jenna said I should wear it for my birthday and I think I’m going to do it. Do you want to see it? I can send you a picture of it if you want.

I checked the weather in St. Louis and saw there was a big thunderstorm. I hope you weren’t caught it in or anything. I can’t imagine your curly hair getting wet in the rain and what it would look like.

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

What are you trying to say about my hair??????????

I would love to see your dress. I bet it looks great on you. And you will need to send me pictures of you wearing it on your birthday.

They happened daily. Usually sometime after dinner, when Matthew knew Effie had just finished eating and was either winding down for the night or preparing to do homework. Every day, he waited for the message. And every day, he’d grab his phone the second he heard the notification, not bothering to wait, and read the message eagerly.

***

Matthew found himself at a raucous house party, one that could have been characteristic of any stereotypical college experience or American movie trying to depict a traditional American life. It felt like it was straight out of the American Pie movies. A friend of his was hosting, and there was everything – beer kegs, jungle juice, trashed guys jumping into the pool, music blasting so loud Matthew almost couldn’t hear his own thoughts, girls taking selfies and posting to Instagram or complaining about boys at the party not paying attention to them.

Hot girls taking selfies and posting to Instagram or complaining about boys – he and Brady – not paying attention to them.

Brady was taken and accounted for – Emma was great and Matthew loved her, even though he saw her only sparingly – and so most of the attention tonight was placed on Matthew. He was the shiny new toy every time he came back to St. Louis in the summers – well, shiny always, but new not so much. Nothing was new about him being in St. Louis in the summer, but everybody always treated is as such a big deal because he spent most of the year in Calgary. That’s why attention was always on him, especially at parties like this. That’s why everybody wanted to talk to him. That’s why all the girls wanted to talk to him. Matthew didn’t want to think about it. He wanted to enjoy his night with his buddies, drinking beer and chatting them all up.

That was…until Leah made an appearance.

Leah, a girl. Leah, a girl he would hook up with in the summers…occasionally. Sporadically. Like, once a summer when he was back. Maybe twice. She’d always show up everywhere and smile and be nice. And when Matthew was tipsy, or just a little bit drunk, he’d think ‘What the hell’ and let the night take him where it wanted to take him.

Just like now.

“Hey Matty,” she cooed, smiling as she always did and biting the bottom of her lip. She went in for a hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He could swear she spilled some of her jungle juice on his neck.

“Hey Leah,” he said, his lips in a tight smile as she pulled away. She was wearing a frilly crocheted top and cut-off denim shorts. She looked hot. Any guy at the party would have wanted to hook up with her. “How are you?”

“Better now that I see you,” her flirting was automatic. “How long have you been back for?”

“A few weeks,” Matthew shrugged his shoulders.

“And no call or text? Ouch, Matty.”

“You always show up places,” he found himself saying, feeling his lips curve into a smirk. “Didn’t think I needed to call.”

“Well then maybe I should have sent you a text.”

The party went on. Matthew hung out with his buddies and talked up a storm. Everybody got a kick out of his hockey stories and were practically begging for more. He’d catch Leah staring at him from a few friend groups away where she stayed with her girlfriends, or from across the backyard or something, and she’d always bite her lip and flutter her eyelashes. The beers kept pouring down his throat and he noticed her get closer and closer until she wiggled her way in with her friends. It probably took a while, but in Matthew’s mind, it felt like it was only a minute until she was right in front of him, red solo cup in her hand.

“Have you tried the jungle juice?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I’ve been drinking beer all night.”

“Come get some inside with me,” she said, already grabbing his hand. She wasn’t taking no for an answer. She pulled him as he staggered behind her, almost tripping on the steps of the patio and while walking through the screen door. When they finally got to the kitchen, Leah looked over her shoulder and winked before tugging Matthew nearer to her body. She spun around in front of the jungle juice to pour some more into her cup. When she did, Matthew could feel her ass up against his groin. He felt like he was going to pass out from the beer.

“Did you miss me, Matty?” she asked as she looked at him over her shoulder again.

“I miss everyone in St. Louis,” he replied.

Leah apparently didn’t like that response, because she grinded her ass up against his groin even harder now. “Don’t say that,” she cooed. “I know you miss me. It’s not like there’s anybody in Calgary like me.”

Matthew hummed. She was right. There wasn’t anybody like her in Calgary.

Effie was nothing like her.

Matthew’s stomach twisted as images of Effie flooded his mind. The first one that came was the day he had picked her up at the hairdresser’s when she’d chopped off all her hair. She looked so cute, and he remembered how bashful he was. Then came the image of her sitting on another couch watching Little Women intently, at least fifteen bags of candy spread out on the coffee table of Levi’s basement. She was so into watching the movie, and he was so into watching her. Then came the image of her face, sweet and innocent and beautiful – the last face he saw in Calgary before heading to the airport and boarding a plane to St. Louis. “No,” he mumbled out, half-drunk and heart aching.

“No,” Leah repeated with a smile on her face, turning around finally to face him before trailing her finger down his chest and letting in linger on the hem of his jeans. “There’s nobody in Calgary like me.”

He furrowed his brows. He wanted out, but his feet felt like cement. They always were when he was on the edge of being drunk. He gulped. “Where’s Brady?”

“Come with me, Matty,” she tugged at his jeans before grabbing his hands again and dragging him through the house. She kept looking over her shoulder to smile at him and he kept looking back towards the backyard. “I know what you need.”

She led him down a hallway, and at the end of that hallway was the bathroom. She turned on the light and dragged him inside, shutting the door behind them and locking it. She looked at him suggestively when the click filled the air. “Le—”

“Shhh…” she pressed her finger against his lips to shut him up, replacing them quickly with her lips as she began to kiss him.

Matthew closed his eyes.

These weren’t Effie’s lips.

She was kissing his neck now, and had backed him into the sink so he could lean against it. Her hands wandered down to the button and zipper of his jeans. Suddenly, she dipped down and was on her knees in front of him. “Want me to suck you off, Matty?”

“N—No,” he stuttered out, looking down at her. Matthew felt the zipper being pushed down and her hand on his groin.

“You can come down my throat,” she offered.

He closed his eyes tightly, and in the darkness, he saw only one person: Effie.

The only thing that brought him back – because he could have stayed alone in the bathroom with his eyes closed and the image of Effie in his mind for the rest of the God damn party if he really wanted to – was the sound of his zipper being pushed down dramatically. He opened his eyes. “Would you stop?!” he demanded, wiggling out of where he’d been backed into the sink. He grabbed the front of his pants and zipped them up again.

Leah, still on her knees, spun around and glared at him. “Oh you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” she got up slowly, not breaking eye contact. “You have someone in Calgary?” she demanded.

Matthew refused to answer as he did up his button.

“Who the fuck is she?” she demanded again.

“There’s nobody.”

“Fucking hell there’s nobody. What’s her name?”

“Don’t go there, Leah. As if I’d tell you.”

“You’re fucking someone in Calgary? Since when?”

“As if I’d tell you,” he repeated.

She gave him one last glare because unlocking the door. “Fuck you Matthew Tkachuk. You’ll fucking miss me.”

“Doubt it.”

***

Hi Matthew,

I went to a Starbucks today to work on some school work and people watch. When you get back to Calgary, we will need to find a new Starbucks because the one near Levi’s house is too far away now. Anyway, I was working on an assignment and watching people interact and go about their daily lives. It was eye-opening and a bit weird to me. A lot of people were on their phones! It makes me wonder if I should be on it more…? A lot of the girls who walked in were really fashionable and it makes me want to go shopping again. I don’t think I’ll ever look as good as Geneviève or Annica but I could definitely try, and they could help me. I learn a lot by people watching. Does that make me weird?

I had a Zoom call with Geneviève and Jacob in Sweden. She is doing well and helped me with my assignment a little bit. I’ve been baking shortbread recently, and I’m going to make butter tarts tomorrow. I miss you being my taste-tester, but I bet you are happy to have home cooking. Sometimes I wonder if my siblings miss my cooking but I doubt they do.

Did you think I was weird when I said I didn’t miss my family at all?

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

I do not think you are weird at all for not missing your family. They were abusive. You have no reason to miss them.

People are addicted to their phones these days, which is why you’re so refreshing. You’re not a slave to it…at least yet lol. I hurt my eyes sometimes from staring at my screen too long.

I can’t wait to eat ALL of your baking when I get back. It’s the best, Effie. It really is.

I miss you a lot.

Hi Matthew,

I miss you too.

Thank you for not thinking I’m weird for not missing my family.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies and listening to a lot of music. I’ve been researching what’s been popular since I was born and I’m trying to, like, catch up I guess. Some of the movies I don’t like or don’t get. Some of them are really funny, and I watched them because I know people quote them all the time. Like this movie called Bridesmaids. I want to be able to get references people make even though I wasn’t in the moment of them. There are some movies I’ve read about online that seem amazing, but I don’t want to watch them alone. They are:

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind Moonlight There Will Be Blood Shoplifters Brokeback Mountain The Master Unorthodox

When you come back to Calgary, would you watch them all with me?

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

Of course I’ll watch them all with you.

***

Effie Schaffer woke up the morning of her 20th birthday, on July 7, 2021, to her phone ringing. Birthdays were not a thing in the People’s Dominion of Christ. They were not celebrated. Effie always knew when hers was, but as a kid she never had a birthday party, and when she was forced to marry the prophet, she hated her birthday. Hated it. She always wished that the prophet would forget about it but he never did. It was the one day of the year she spent the most time praying, and when she was not praying, she was with the prophet on his demand. Several weeks later, usually, after a lot of blood loss and visit from the cult’s midwife (though she wasn’t properly medically trained), Abraham would tell Effie that everything was her fault, that God was testing him when He spoke to Abraham and told him to take Effie as his wife. “July 7. 7/7. One number above the Devil,” he’d tell her. “That’s what you are. Just above the devil. Your blood and your loss are the signs of having the devil in you. That’s why you refuse to carry my Son of God.”

She wasn’t expecting anybody to call besides Levi and Jenna, but they said they would be picking her up at noon anyway. After she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat up in bed a little bit, she was pleasantly surprised, albeit a little shocked, to see Matthew’s name flash across the screen. The giant FaceTime text was at the bottom of screen. Effie swiped to answer. After a bit of lagging, Matthew’s smiling face appeared. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” he screamed, loudly, causing her to jump slightly.

“Thank you, Matthew,” she said, her heartbeat going back to normal.

“How does it feel to officially be in your twenties?” he asked.

Effie could barely think, so she shrugged. “When I wake up and my brain starts working, I’ll tell you.”

Matthew furrowed his brows. It was only then that he noticed half of her hair in a scrunchie and the pillows behind her head. “Oh shit, I fucked up time zones, didn’t I?” he asked worriedly. “What time is it there?”

Effie looked at her watch. “It’s 7:30 in the morning.”

“I woke you up! Jesus Effie, I’m so sorry,” he began to apologize. “I’m such an idiot—”

“It’s okay, Matthew,” she said, smiling at how his own smile had faded from his face when he realized he had woken her up early. 7:30 in the morning would have been a godsend two years ago, when she usually woke up at 5:30. “It’s nice to be woken up by your voice on my birthday, actually. Someone is at least treating it like a birthday.”

“Levi’s gonna treat you,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. As if Levi wouldn’t.

“I know,” she said. “I mean, like…before. Birthdays weren’t exactly a celebration.”

“You never used to celebrate your birthday?” he asked, thinking back to all the amazing birthdays his parents had thrown he and his siblings over the years. Because his was so close to Christmas, it was extra special. His parents always made sure Christmas didn’t overshadow it too much. Same with Taryn being born on Halloween. Brady’s parties were always good too because they were right after the start of school, so usually the entire class would be invited.

“No,” Effie shook her head. Matthew was sort of waiting for her to elaborate, but it seemed like she didn’t want to. He left it at that. “Levi’s taking me to that steakhouse we went to for Noah’s birthday,” she informed him. “I think I’m gonna have another tomahawk.”

Matthew smiled again. “Please do, in honour of me.”

“Maybe I’ll take a picture of it to show you what you’re missing.”

“Believe me, I know what I’m missing,” he said. He bit his lip, wondering for a quick second if he should tell her about the gifts coming her way. He quickly decided against it, thinking it would be better left as a surprise. “I’m sorry I can’t be there, Effie.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Matthew,” she told him, meaning it sincerely. “It’s an amazing thing that you’re so close to them. I…believe me, I know how important that is…to be able to have people who love you unconditionally, to be able to have people who love you and want to see you and always have your best interests at heart. I would never want to take that away from you. And besides, when we watch all those movies together…you’ll be there. We’ll be reunited.”

He licked his lips, nodding quickly. “You bet.”

***

Matthew had been lying around the house all day after playing a round of golf with his dad that morning. He’d tanned by the pool with Taryn and ate straight from the bag of Veggie Straws, but he was pretty glued to his phone because he wanted to see the delivery updates for the gifts he’d gotten Effie for her birthday.

The first gift was a giant bouquet of flowers. Peonies, mostly, of course, because of her tattoo, set in a beautiful vase. He’d gotten the delivery notification, then about five minutes later he’d received a picture of it from Effie over Instagram saying thank you. Fifteen minutes later, she uploaded a photo of it to her Instagram feed and tagged him. ‘Beautiful bouquet of peonies from my friend Matthew! I am twenty years old today.’ was her caption. That was the first gift.

The second was a delivery of some cookies from an amazing bakery in Calgary that Annica and Geneviève always ordered from. The cookies were divine, but realistically, they weren’t better than Effie’s cookies. But Effie making cookies for her own birthday wasn’t exactly a gift, so he knew he’d have to order her a batch. Again, he’d gotten the notification that the cookies had been delivered, and ten minutes later, Effie had sent a selfie of her with one of the chocolate chip cookies. ‘Yum!’ she’d texted with the photo. Another notification on Instagram told him Effie had uploaded another photo and tagged him in it. ‘My friend Matthew gave me cookies too! How sweet! Cookies are some of my favourite treats.’ He absolutely loved her feed and the way she used Instagram. If he had to delete everyone else and just follow her, he’d do it.

The last gift was the trickiest. He didn’t know how she’d react. But she didn’t have one of her own – she’d been borrowing Jenna’s – and she needed one, quite literally, for her job. He wondered if she’d like the colour. And the make. And all the attachments.

A ‘MATTHEW, YOU DIDN’T’ text suddenly came through on his phone, and he couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. It was the first time it didn’t sound like an email.

Do u like it? he texted back.

I LOVE IT IN THE PISTACHIO TOO MY FAVOURITE COLOUR AND THE SIFTER ATTACHMENT AND THE ICE CREAM MAKER ATTACHMENT MATTHEW!

Im happy u like it! Now u can bake all you want and not have to borrow Jenna’s

“Taryn, mom needs you inside to help with something,” Brady’s voice boomed through the silence of the backyard. Matthew heard the screen door burst open, and watched conspicuously through his sunglasses as Brady more or less barged towards them.

“Can she wait?” Taryn didn’t make any effort to move.

“Now Taryn. She seems pretty adamant,” Brady didn’t give up, his tone serious as he continued to walk towards them.

Taryn grumbled and got up from her seat. Matthew locked his phone and pretended not to care, even when Brady took Taryn’s place in her lawn chair right beside him and didn’t bother lying down. Instead, he sat facing Matthew, elbows on his knees and hands joined together, like he was a cop about to interrogate his brother. “Who’s in Calgary?”

Matthew looked over at him. “Huh?”

“Who’s in Calgary?” Brady asked again.

Matthew was confused. “G…Gio?” he asked.

“Who’s in Calgary that made you not hook up with Leah at the party?”

Matthew’s heart dropped in the pit of his stomach. For fuck sakes. He sighed deeply and took off his sunglasses, trying to make it seem like everything was being blown out of proportion when, really, Matthew just didn’t want people knowing. But he told Brady everything – everything. He was sort of impressed that the secret had lasted this long, if he was being honest. “Brady…” he began, his voice low.

Brady took off his sunglasses too. “There’s a girl.”

“Sort of. It’s complicated.”

“It’s complicated? What’s her name?”

Matthew thought about not telling him, but there was no point. Brady would find out eventually, and Matthew would rather Brady learn the news from him than from the rumour mill or from Leah stalking his social media. “It’s…Effie.”

“Effie?”

“Who’s Effie?” Taryn voice boomed. The boys whipped their head to see her standing at their family room’s sliding doors, hiding behind the screen door.

“Taryn!” both brothers yelled at their sister.

“Effie? Who’s Effie?” Chantal called out from the kitchen.

“What’s an Effie?” Keith asked from beside Chantal.

“Oh my GOD this is a disaster!” Matthew screamed out in frustration. “Get out of here, Taryn!”

“Who’s Effie?” Brady demanded once more.

Matthew put his heads in his hands dramatically before giving up. There was no way he was going to get out of this. Now his whole family would know. It would be a game of telephone, and by the end of his and Brady’s conversation, Keith would hear Matthew married a girl named Jessie who’d grown up in a hut. “You remember me talking about one of our physio guys? Levi Schaffer?” Matthew asked. Brady nodded. “His younger sister.”

Brady furrowed his brows. “Isn’t Levi in his thirties? You’re dating an older woman, Matthew?”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “No, you dolt. She’s fifteen years younger than he is.”

“SHE’S FIFTEEN?!”

“WHAT?!” Taryn screamed from the screen door again.

“AAAAAAARGHHHH!” Matthew screamed in absolute frustration. “You are literally the dumbest person alive, you know that right?!” he screamed at Brady.

“Matthew! Apologize to your brother!” Chantal called from the house, opening the screen door and stepping through into the backyard with Keith.

“But mom! He’s an idiot!”

“Matthew,” Keith’s voice bellowed. “Now.”

“Sorry,” Matthew grumbled. His parents always made the siblings do this stuff, ever since they were kids. “Can we just drop it all?” he asked.

“Nope. We’re all here now,” Brady said. “Who’s Effie?”

Matthew sighed heavily. “She’s a girl I met through my friend Levi at work.”

“What’s the big deal? Are you dating her?” Keith asked.

“No,” Matthew answered immediately, shaking his head. “No. We’re not dating. Not at all. She…” he began, trying to find the right words.

“She…” Brady egged on.

“She’s a bit…” Matthew began again. How was he going to tell them? How was he gonna word it? Should he sugar coat it or just come out and say it? “She’s a bit…different. She…she and Levi grew up in one of those, like, religious cults, out in rural Alberta. But a year and a half ago, she escaped, and she’s been trying to adjust to the real world ever since. I met her in January, at Noah’s birthday. And ever since, I’ve just been, like…helping her experience the normal world.”

The entire Tkachuk family was silent as they processed the information. They were definitely expecting a much different explanation from Matthew, that was for sure. “A religious cult, Matthew?” Chantal was the first to speak. Matthew nodded his head. Chantal grew serious. “Was she abused?”

Matthew hesitated, but he eventually nodded his head. It wasn’t his business to tell – he knew that – but he couldn’t lie to his own mother. “She could only wear dresses. She had to read the Bible all day. She was married at fourteen to the leader of the cult who was 55. That sort of thing,” he explained briefly, not wanting to give any more details.

Chantal looked concerned. Keith looked at his wife before looking back at his son. “So you’re not dating her, but you’re helping her learn about the real world,” Keith clarified. Matthew nodded again. Keith looked at Brady. “Then that’s none of our business! What’s the big deal?” he huffed.

“It’s not—”

“Why’re you busting his balls then?”

“Keith!” Chantal chastised.

***

Hi Matthew,

I still can’t believe you got me the stand mixer. I love it so much. It’s the only thing that I have out on my countertop because there’s no reason to hide it. And the pistachio colour is sooooooo beautiful. I promise that as a token of appreciation, I’m going to bake you whatever sweets you want when you get back to Calgary. Seriously. Anything you want. Even if I haven’t made it before. And I’ll make ice cream too!

I have been taking some walks around Calgary in my spare time. It’s a really beautiful city. Sometimes I will do my walks at night and see all the young people out at restaurants and bars and all the light are lit up downtown, and it’s even more beautiful. It’s so nice to see life in people. Everybody in the cult was so miserable. Maybe I’m just saying that because I was so miserable, but that’s how I remember it. Nobody was happy about life. Well, they weren’t happy about life like the people in downtown Calgary are on a Friday or Saturday night.

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

Calgary is definitely a beautiful city, and I’m happy that you’re starting to see that. Wait until you see even more of the country and the world one day! All of those young people that you see out and about are your age. I know you are probably very nervous to make new friends, but if you ever want to go out to one of those places, I’m sure Levi or Jenna would take you. When the team gets back into the city, I know any of the guys would take you too, just like when we went out for Andrew’s birthday. You just let us know when. And I apologize in advance for Noah’s behaviour.

I’m going to put in a request for snickerdoodles. My mom used to make them a lot growing up, but she doesn’t make them as much now because then I’d eat them all and get too pudgy.

Hi Matthew,

Snickerdoodles it is. I will perfect the recipe before you come back.

On top of movies, I’ve also been listening to music. Levi lets me use his Spotify. He also told me what an iPod is…was. Have you heard of Adele? She’s amazing! I love her voice. Most of the time I just let Spotify recommend me things and I end up liking them, but Levi introduced me to some bands too. Have you heard of Bruce Springsteen? Taylor Swift? The Tragically Hip? Red Hot Chili Peppers? They’re all so good. Red Hot Chili Peppers is Levi’s favourite band. I also really like listening to Coldplay. I think they’re my favourite out of all of them. But I also like dancing songs, like the songs that have a good beat. I wasn’t allowed to dance before (it was too sensual and would tempt the men) so now I feel like I should let it all out.

Sincerely, Effie Schaffer

Dance your heart out Effie. Fuck them.

Fuck them.

***

Matthew was antsy. Antsy. The second the plane landed in Calgary, his leg was bobbing up and down to get off the plane, grab his bags, and go straight to Effie’s apartment.

It was the first time since he had lived in Calgary that he wanted to go anywhere but his apartment after a flight back to the city. But Effie had that effect on him these days. He hadn’t seen her in three months – almost four. And he was dying to. FaceTimes and Instagram-messages-formatted-as-emails could only do so much, and satisfy so much in his mind. He needed to see her, physically see her. He didn’t know what had happened to him in the past few months, especially since he and Effie had left on such a good note. No need to rush things. Take the time. But this entire summer, all Matthew could think about was her. All he dreamt about was her. He wondered if it was the same for her too. And he wondered, if it was, if she would admit it.

Once he got his bags from baggage claim, he hightailed it out of the airport and got into a taxi. He gave the driver Effie’s address, and within half an hour, he found himself with his suitcases at the foot of her apartment.

Okay, so maybe he didn’t think this through.

He hauled both of his suitcases up the staircase, most definitely putting chips in the wood steps along the way. It reminded him of moving her in to the place months ago, with him yelling at Sean for half of the day but ending with a slice of pie and his first kiss from Effie. He didn’t know what to expect now, but he knew that whatever he’d get, he’d be happy with. He knocked on her door and waited.

When Effie opened it, she looked confused because she wasn’t expecting anybody. But the second she saw Matthew’s face, her face lit up like a night show of fireworks. “Matthew!” she squealed, jumping on him and wrapping her arms tightly around his broad shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “What are you doing here?! You weren’t supposed to be back in Calgary for a few days!” the shock was still evident in her voice.

“Just thought I’d take an earlier flight out,” he said casually. “Gonna need to customize to the time change anyway.”

As if an hour was going to be a big shock to his system.

When Effie pulled away, she still kept her hands on his shoulders and he kept his hands at her waist. She’d gained more weight throughout the summer, thankfully, and filled out more. The pair of jeans she was wearing actually fit. The top she was wearing actually fit too – a simple navy-striped long sleeve. He was happy to see that. She’d been so frail when he met her in January. She looked like she had life in her now. “Have you even gone home?” she asked, looking down at his suitcases behind him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Uh…no,” he said awkwardly. “Can I bring them in? I just wanted to see you.”

Effie couldn’t help but gulp at his words. “I just wanted to see you.” Nobody had ever said those words to her before – not even her own mother, she thought. Nobody was ever happy to see her in the cult. But in the real world, Matthew was. “Yeah, come in,” she said, moving to remove her hands from his shoulders to give him more space to haul his suitcases into her entrance. He closed the door behind him when he was done, and that’s when the reality snapped back into Effie’s mind. “Oh no!” she exclaimed worriedly.

Matthew automatically got worried too. “Oh no what?”

“You came home early and I—I didn’t make your snickerdoodles!”

A smile automatically appeared on his face. “Effie, it’s okay,” he said softly, slipping off his shoes. “It’s not like I told you I was coming back to Calgary.”

The worried look didn’t leave her face. “Are you sure? I—I didn’t mean to forget. I actually made one batch but I thought they could be better for you so I was going to make another and—”

“Effie,” he said sternly, placing a hand over hers, which had bunched together nervously. “It’s alright. It’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” she asked one more time.

“I’m positive,” he squeezed her hands gently. “Just gives me another excuse to come over again in a few days, really.”

A small smile crept on Effie’s face as she realized Matthew wasn’t angry. Usually, when something like this happened, the outcome was much different. She didn’t have to worry about that anymore. “Well come in then, come in,” she said, moving further into her apartment so Matthew could follow her. “D’you want something to drink?” she asked, already opening up her fridge.

“Tell me what you’ve been learning in school,” Matthew said instead, leaning against it. “I want to hear everything I missed.”

Effie couldn’t stop talking after that. They had managed to migrate to her couch and she told him about her courses and teachers and homework and assignments and textbooks and her new computer and the classroom and the building and the campus and the Starbucks on campus and the cafeteria she’d eat in and the vending machine she’d buy snacks from and the bench she’d sit on waiting for class and everything. Everything. There was nothing she didn’t talk about. And he listened to it all, listened to all of it intently, not interrupting once, asking follow-up questions and asking her for more more more more more. He couldn’t get enough. He forgot about his water. He forgot about the homemade Rice Krispie she gave him on a plate on her coffee table. He forgot that he was going to suggest they go out to a Starbucks. He forgot that he hadn’t seen her in months and was so desperate to see her that he came here before he even went to his own apartment. All he could think about was here, and all he could pay attention to was what she was saying.

He wanted it like this all the time.

“How’s therapy going?” he asked, finally remembering his water and taking a quick sip from his glass.

“I’m seeing a sex therapist now too.”

That was a bombshell. Matthew tried not to make it show that he was shocked at the news, but she’d said it so casually – like everyone saw a sex therapist. And, like, a therapist was one thing, but a sex therapist was another. He understood why she’d need one, but it was still a shock to him. “Oh yeah?” he tried to say casually.

Effie nodded her head. “I told Dr. Barlow how we’d been kissing,” she said, biting her lip and blushing slightly. “And, um…well, I told her some other things, so she suggested I see the sex therapist to help fix them.”

Fix them? Matthew had no idea what she meant. He moved slightly closer to her on the couch as he furrowed his brows. “What else did you tell her?” he asked softly. Effie averted his gaze, looking away as if she were embarrassed. “Effie, come on, you can tell me,” he urged.

“Well…when we—do you promise not to freak out at me?”

His heart ached. “Of course.”

“When we started kissing—well, when I started kissing you…I liked it a lot,” she said.

“We were kissing each other,” he said, correcting her, because he knew language was important and the way things were phrased was important and he wanted her to know he was 100% in on it too. He wasn’t exactly innocent. He was a willing accomplice. “I was kissing you too. I liked it a lot too.”

Effie nodded her head. “Well…I liked it a lot. But then we had that talk and you left for St. Louis and we were in a good place. Dr. Barlow told me that was very mature of me, and that she was very impressed. But then…”

“But then…”

Effie kept averting his gaze. “Um…but then, well, you weren’t here, and I started to have dreams of us kissing. I’d lean into you and close my eyes and kiss you. And your lips were soft like I remembered. But then it would change. Quickly. And it would hurt. It—it would hurt. And I’d open my eyes and instead of you, it was…Abraham. And I’d get so scared. I’d wake up screaming.”

Matthew’s heart fell in the pit of his stomach. He felt like he was going to be sick. “I made you feel that way?”

“No! No you didn’t,” she shook her head vehemently. “It was only when you left. When you’re—Matthew, no,” her words were jumbled because she had started crying. “When we kissed, I liked it. I liked it so much. But my mind was playing tricks on me.”

“Effie, if I hurt you—”

“You didn’t. You didn’t hurt me at all,” she pressed, her hand extending automatically to grab at his forearm comfortingly. “You could never hurt me Matthew. Ever. I just…” her voice had gotten softer, frailer, more like it had been in January. “I still see him sometimes.”

If Matthew’s heart had fallen into the pit of his stomach before, then now it had just shattered into a billion pieces. “Oh, Effie…” he barely got out.

“I don’t want to see him ever again,” she said.

“C’mere,” he said softly, pulling her body towards his so he could hug her. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and could feel Effie melt into him, her head cradled on his chest. He wanted her to feel as safe as possible with him – he’d wanted that since the beginning. With this new revelation, he now wanted it more than ever. “You’ll never see him again, Effie. I promise you.”

“I know I won’t. I know. This is happening because of what happened to me.”

“When he would hurt you.”

Effie looked up at him, nodding, almost embarrassingly. “I know that he can’t hurt me anymore. But my dreams would take me back to when he did. It wasn’t you, Matthew. You didn’t make me feel that way. I told Dr. Barlow and Dr. Stevenson that. They’re just trying to help me not see him anymore, and move past the things that he did to me. And they’re…they’re trying not to make me feel guilty about something so simple like kissing.”

“You felt guilty about us kissing?” he asked.

“Women couldn’t date, right? So it wasn’t like I was kissing any of the other boys in the cult. We were harlots and sinners if we kissed men, and we were responsible for them straying away from God. My first kiss was on my fake wedding day.”

Matthew could kill them all. He had half the heart to jump into his car and drive to Sheerness so that he could. “I will give you as many kisses as you want if it helps you forget,” he blurted out.

Effie couldn’t help but smile. “Can we start again now? Slowly?”

Matthew smiled slightly. She craned her head up and placed one of her signature chaste kisses on his lips, and he reciprocated readily, the feeling of her lips on his after months of not having them there ranking up there with the best feeling in the world. When she pulled away, her eyes were still closed, but there was a smile on her face. Her prior tears had stained her cheeks. “Hugging you feels nice too,” Effie said, finally opening her eyes.

Matthew smiled. “Well then we’ll start doing a lot of that too.”

***

At the beginning of every hockey season, right before training camp, the Calgary Flames hosted a gala to benefit the Calgary Flames Foundation. The team would set a fundraising goal for the night – often surpassed – and then set one for the season – also surpassed – to give back to the city and community that supported them endlessly, through thick and thin. The gala was unofficially the kickoff to the season. Every member of the team, coaching staff, and head office attended. It was one of Calgary’s biggest events. It was the one night of the year Matthew didn’t mind being out and having to small-talk with hundreds of strangers, because he knew it was all for a good cause and a greater good.

Matthew was forced to wear a tuxedo. All the members of the team were forced to wear tuxedos. He kept fiddling with his bowtie and Mark kept slapping his hand away. Matthew thought they all looked like penguins. He searched around the gala room, already filling up with people. He took his phone out of his pocket.

You guys here yet? he texted Geneviève, knowing that since Elias and Jacob were already here, she and Annica were coming together.

We’re in a taxi. Eyeliner needed to be reapplied because Effie kept crying.

Matthew chuckled to himself, picturing the image of Effie sitting in a chair while Annica and Geneviève fussed over her makeup. Before he could text her back, another text from her came through.

She looks beautiful, by the way.

Matthew was impatient. He kept looking towards the doors even though he was supposed to be pretending to be interested in what these rich people had to say. Levi and Jenna were already there, too, so it really was just him waiting for Effie to arrive. This entire night didn’t start until Effie arrived.

Matthew was in a conversation with someone when he saw her walk through the doors. Annica was wearing a navy blue bodycon dress that showed off her curves, and she looked great. Geneviève was wearing an emerald green midi-length dress with a high slit, high collar, back cut-out, and cap sleeves, and she looked impeccably chic and stylish, like only Geneviève could.

But it was Effie, of course, who looked the best. A bright red dress that fell to her knees, with floral lace and sequins and cape sleeves that covered her otherwise bare arms. She wore a pair of low nude heels, and her blonde bob was styled professionally as a barely-there curl. She looked impeccable. Beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous. Divine. Exquisite.

“Excuse me,” he said quickly to the man and wife he was talking to, and left Elias alone with them as he made his way through the crowd and towards Effie, Annica, and Geneviève. He pushed past some people gently before finally appearing in front of them. He could see Geneviève smirking the second they saw him, but he locked eyes with Effie. When she saw him in his tux, her breath hitched in her throat. He looked good. “Hi,” he said to Effie breathlessly.

Annica saw the look in his eyes and knew she had to skedaddle out of there. “Where’s Elias?”

“Over there,” Matthew pointed behind him, somewhere in the crowd of four hundred people, as if that answered the question and helped her.

“Thanks,” she left, winking at him as she passed him.

Geneviève was next. “I guess my husband is in the same place?” she asked him.

“Mhm,” he nodded his head quickly.

“Great. You two behave. If I don’t see you, I’ll assume you’re in a broom closet,” she said before disappearing into the crowd of people.

Matthew and Effie hadn’t taken their eyes off each other. Effie thought he looked great in his tux; it was tailored to perfection, and really showed off how thick his body was, but in a good way. She’d felt it when they hugged when he showed up to her place after landing in Calgary, and if she was being honest with herself, she had been thinking about it ever since. She kept thinking about being physical with him, about touching him and hugging and cuddling and doing all the things she couldn’t have done with another man before. And she only wanted to do them with Matthew. Her mind – and now increasingly her body – wanted to do that only with Matthew. With the dress and the makeup and the whole look all together, Matthew was a man possessed. With Geneviève and Annica gone, Matthew couldn’t help but bite his bottom lip to suppress himself from smiling bashfully, like he usually did with Effie. “You look beautiful, Effie,” he said softly.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “This is the second dress I’ve ever worn that has shown off my legs. It’s Geneviève’s. And – if you can believe it – this is the first time I’ve word something red.”

He couldn’t take it anymore. From her hair to her makeup to her dress to her shoes, he just couldn’t fucking take it anymore. He looked around the room quickly before grabbing her hand. “Come with me,” he mumbled.

“Where are we going?”

He dragged her out of the room and into the foyer. There were more people out there, sipping on cocktails and eating hors d’oeuvres and getting checked in, so he kept walking with her behind him down the long foyer that connected all the different hall rooms in the complex together. When it got quieter, and the rush of people were too far away, he led her into a short corridor where a men’s and women’s washroom was. They were far enough away that he knew no-one from the gala would find them.

“Matthew? Is everything okay?” she asked as she watched him close the door behind them.

“Everything’s fine,” he said, his voice strained. “I just…God, Effie, you look so fucking beautiful.”

Effie could pick up on the strain in his voice. She could also see the fire in his eyes as he looked down at her. She didn’t know much about the world, and she knew even less about men, but those things alone were telling her something. Her body was telling her something too, something she’d never heard from it before. Instead of being repulsed by the body in front of her, she was drawn to it. Instead of being scared to touch it, she wanted to feel it all over her. Instead of allowing her mind to take her somewhere else so she didn’t have to focus on pain on hurt or anything else, she wanted to be in the moment and feel everything. “Kiss me, Matthew,” she said. She’d never been so bold in her entire life. She didn’t think she had it in her.

Matthew didn’t need to be told twice. He held her face between his hands, dipped his head, and began kissing her passionately. Effie loved it. It wasn’t a chaste kiss like the kisses they had shared in the past. This kiss was hungry, and told her almost everything she needed to know about Matthew’s feelings.

Her feelings were similar. She wanted to explore them. She wanted to do more.

That was why, when it was Effie who slid her tongue along Matthew’s lips, he stopped in shock. Not that he wanted to – the action was just surprising. He pulled away slightly, making sure it was something she wanted to do. When he saw her open her eyes slowly, she was bringing her hands up, placing them over his. “You can touch me, Matthew,” her voice was barely above a whisper.

He let out a shaky breath. He knew they weren’t exactly gonna hook up in the bathroom or anything, but this was still huge, especially for Effie. “Are you sure?” he asked.

She nodded her head. “You won’t hurt me.”

He dipped down and kissed her again. And he kept kissing her, letting his hands wander to her waist and hips, where he gripped them and pulled them closer to his body. And she kept kissing him, letting her hands wander down his chest and under his tuxedo jacket to his back, feeling the thickness of his body. And for at least a few minutes, they were in their own little world, kissing in the men’s bathroom of a banquet hall, hands all over each other as Matthew probably got lipstick all over his mouth.

Effie was loving it. The feeling of his soft lips on hers was unlike anything she’d ever felt, and his tongue in her mouth, tasting slightly of the alcohol he’d drunk before she got there, was intoxicating to say the least. She felt like it could go on forever. She was pretty sure she would let it go on forever if she could. She was happy, so happy that she was doing this – that she could do this. Two years ago, if she’d even thought about it, she would have been scared of being damned to hell for eternity. Now, she was enjoying it. Now, she wanted to do it all the time. Now, she could—

She could—

She—

Now, it hurt a little.

Now, the lips weren’t as soft.

Now, she could feel a prickly, unkept beard scraping at her skin—

“STOP,” she instinctively pushed the body away, scrunching her face and gulping hard. Before she could see Abraham’s face – before it could appear to her in her mind – she opened her eyes and looked at Matthew.

Matthew.

She saw him staring back at her worriedly and she let out a shaky breath. He knew why she stopped; he didn’t need to be told. “I’m—I’m so—”

“Hey hey, it’s okay,” he said soothingly. “It’s alright, Effie. We can stop.”

She diverted her eyes from looking at him. She was so embarrassed. “You won’t be mad?” she asked. That was usually how it went for, well…

Matthew put his hand under her chin so he could look her in the eye. “No,” he said, with as much conviction as he could muster. “We can stop whenever you want.”

“I’m so—”

“Do not apologize to me,” he said sternly. She didn’t need to. He needed her to know that. “Never apologize to me for that.”

She bit her bottom lip. “Thank you for stopping.”

“There’s no way in hell I’d keep going.”

Effie nodded. She understood. “At least I’m getting better,” she said. “I didn’t give you a black eye this time.”

Matthew couldn’t help but snort. It released all the tension in the air immediately; even Effie was giggling slightly. “That you did not,” he said, grabbing her hand slightly. “Wanna go back out there? Well, after we get all this lipstick off of me.”

***

The gala was nice. It was formal and the food was decent and even though Matthew basically kept his eye on Effie sitting with Levi and Jenna the entire night, it was nice. He had fun with his teammates. He embarrassed himself on stage for charity. At the silent auction, one of his packages with signed memorabilia went for the second-highest bid. He was proud of what he and the team were able to accomplish in terms of giving back to the community.

But now he had more important things on his mind.

By the time he found Effie again, she was standing in a group with Levi and Jenna, Jacob and Geneviève, and Annica and Elias. It looked like they were chatting about something exciting, so Matthew knew he needed to be there. When Geneviève saw him butt his way in, she smiled. “I was just reminiscing about when Jacob and I met, and how my friends and I went to the pubs in Oxford after our graduation in our robes and Tudor bonnets,” she said, filling him in. “There’s nothing better than showing up to a place severely overdressed and then having the time of your life dancing.”

Matthew looked at Geneviève in her dress. He looked at Annica in hers, and Effie in hers, and Jenna in hers. He looked to his teammates in his tuxedos, and to Levi wearing a form-fitted navy suit. “Wanna go dancing?”

Elias smirked. “The night’s still young.”

***

They ended up at a bar downtown, one that Matthew had been to before but couldn’t really remember exactly what happened (it was his first year in Calgary and he’d just found out hours before that the legal drinking age was only eighteen). The bouncer looked at them all weirdly in their getups but let them in anyway. It was only when they entered that they realized it was frosh week for the University of Calgary, and the bar was full of university students drinking and dancing. The floor was slightly sticky. It was the perfect venue for the goal they wanted to achieve.

“Oh, this takes me back,” Geneviève giggled, looking out at the sea of people. She looked at Annica and Jenna. “Spicy margs?”

Both women nodded. “Spicy margs.”

She looked at Effie. “Have you ever had alcohol?”

“No.”

“Do you want to try it while you’re safe with us?”

Effie nodded.

Geneviève, Effie, and Matthew headed to the bar while the rest of the group went to find a bar table to take over. Matthew made sure Effie got a spot right at the front as he stood directly behind her, his body pressed against hers. Geneviève waved down the bartenders and ordered all the drinks. All the university students clamouring to get a spot at the bar and the attention of the bartenders looked at them weird for their too-fancy clothes. Geneviève didn’t care – it wasn’t like this was her first time doing this. Effie was a little self-conscious, but that soon went away when she saw the drinks being made in front of her.

“Whenever you go out to a bar like this, you always want the bartender to make your drink in front of you. Don’t ever accept a drink from a stranger or if you haven’t seen it made in front of you,” Geneviève cautioned her.

“Okay,” Effie nodded. “What happens if I don’t like the spicy margarita though?”

“Then we’ll get you another drink.”

Once all the drinks were made, they were brought back to the bar table the rest of the group managed to find and everyone began drinking. Effie liked her spicy margarita. Matthew let her take a sip of his beer but she didn’t like that too much. She ordered another spicy margarita. Her body began to feel tingly because of the tequila. The music started to get progressively louder, too, the bass making the floor vibrate. Effie looked out onto the dance floor to see a bunch of people her age dancing – grinding, as Matthew called it at Andrew’s birthday many months ago. She watched them intently, while they were having the time of their lives.

“You okay?” Matthew asked, bending down to ask as she was looking out at the crowd.

“I want to dance but I don’t know how to,” she revealed. “I’m just…looking to see what everyone else is doing. I wouldn’t be comfortable with that grinding.”

Matthew couldn’t help but smile. “Nobody knows how to dance, Effie. We all just move our bodies to the beat of the music.”

The song changed suddenly and it made Geneviève scream at the top of her lungs in excitement. Effie watched as she grabbed her drink and Jacob’s hand and dragged him towards the dance floor as they began to dance together. Levi and Jenna followed, and so did Annica and Elias. The couples weren’t grinding like the university students, but instead danced facing each other, holding hands or swaying back and forth, holding their drinks it their hands and raising them up in the air, miraculously not spilling a thing. She and Matthew were the only ones left at the bar table. “This was their wedding song, I think,” Matthew explained, watching Effie watch Jacob and Geneviève dancing.

“What’s it called?”

“I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston.”

“Levi hasn’t introduced me to that one.”

“Levi isn’t the type to listen to Whitney Houston.”

Effie continued to watch them dance, Geneviève singing the lyrics to Jacob at the top of her lungs. They were so in love with each other, even she could see it, and she barely knew what healthy love was. A part of her wondered what made them love each other so much, and another part of her wondered if she should ask. Was it rude to ask something like that?

“D’you want to dance, Effie?” Matthew asked.

Effie looked up at him. “Do you think people will laugh at me because I don’t know how?”

He shook his head. “There’s so many people and they’re all so drunk, they won’t even notice you.”

She gripped her margarita tighter. There was something to be said about overcoming fears ever since she left the cult, and this could be classified as one of them. But she wasn’t like these university students who were moving their bodies so freely and easily. She was much more restrained – with everything really – but she wanted to actively work to move away from that. Conquer her fears. Do what she needed to do to shed herself from the past. So she nodded her head. “Let’s go.”

Matthew grabbed her hand and led her on to the dance floor, moving his body to the song with his beer still in his hand, doing his best not to spill it everywhere, but especially not on Effie wearing Geneviève’s expensive red dress. Effie watched, moving her feet back and forth awkwardly. She looked up at Matthew for reassurance, only to see him already smiling at her. “You got it, you got it,” he said, moving his feet in a similar way.

“What do I do with my hands?” she asked.

“Just throw ‘em up!” he showed her. She did the same movements, but she couldn’t step or move with the beat of the music. Matthew could tell she was nervous. “Just move your body, Effie. Move it however you want. Doesn’t need to be on beat.”

Effie closed her eyes, trying to get the feel of the song in her, but she lost her groove because it soon ended and another began. This one was even more upbeat – well, it had a better beat – and Effie began to move again.

Feel buried alive This city is airtight Suffocated and lonely in the crowd I'm surrounded by All the screens of their life Screaming in to space to drown them out

Effie not only began to move her feet and hands, but she tried swaying her hips a bit. She liked this beat. She loved this beat. She lost herself completely in it, dancing with no inhibitions. Matthew watched as she let loose, moving her body in tune with the music. Her dancing was unlike anyone else’s around her, and the only thing he wanted to was copy her. It looked a bit ridiculous, but it didn’t matter to Matthew. He’d made himself look more ridiculous than this before. This was nothing.

I felt down so low Found nowhere to go But I know you wait for me You wait for me So far out of sight Straight into the white But I know you wait for me I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight

Effie opened her eyes to see Matthew. Matthew, who would wait for her. Matthew, who had waited for her.

'Cause I've been hypnotized by the lights But I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight Yeah, it's taken time to realize But I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight

“Go Effie! Go Effie!” Annica chanted, coming up beside them with Elias, grooving to the beat of the music. Annica watched Effie moving and followed her movements too – albeit more fluidly – and when Effie looked up and saw Annica, a giant smile took over her face. Annica screamed in excitement and cheered their drinks together before moving with her, beside Matthew, letting him get closest to her.

So hold me tight I just wanna fade out Somewhere we can ship the world away I'm ready to hide Far from the fallout They won't find us in the paradise we'll make

“Woooooooo! You go girl! Get loose!” Geneviève screamed from her other side, approaching them with Jacob beside her who was doing a modified version of the robot. Matthew watched as Effie closed her eyes, going into her own little world, raising her arms and bopping her body to the music. It was the happiest and most carefree he’d ever seen her. He vowed right then and there to take her dancing whenever she wanted to go so she could feel this same way.

I felt down so low Found nowhere to go But I know you wait for me You wait for me So far out of sight Straight into the white But I know you wait for me I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight

Effie was feeling it. She loved it. She loved this. She loved the people she was surrounded by. If this was love, she wanted to feel it all the time.

'Cause I've been hypnotized by the lights But I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight Yeah, it's taken time to realize But I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight

When she opened her eyes again, she saw everyone dancing around her. She stepped closer to Matthew, almost so close that she could feel his body against hers. They moved together to the climax of the song, Matthew looking down at her and smiling.

Free falling from the high I'm following the voice I know Free falling from the high I'm coming home I'm coming back down tonight

In his tuxedo and in her frilly red dress with cape sleeves, surrounded by people. it felt like they were the only ones in the world.

***

“I think I can live a normal life with him,” Effie told Dr. Barlow as she sat in her usual seat in the office, looking down at her hands. She’d already been talking for almost an hour during her session, but she felt the need to get that statement out. Dr. Barlow had the right to know.

“With Matthew?” Dr. Barlow clarified.

Effie nodded her head. Who else would she be talking about? “He’s never once made me feel uncomfortable or unsafe or…like…ashamed of what I went through,” she elaborated.

“That’s a very positive thing,” Dr. Barlow said, her voice steady. “It’s good that you’re thinking about these things, Effie. You’re thinking about your future. You actually see a future for yourself. But how normal do you think a friendship or perhaps even a life with a hockey player can be?” she asked.

Effie shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I barely understand hockey as it is.”

“Well, hockey players don’t exactly live the most conventional of lifestyles. They travel a lot, as I’m sure you know since Levi travels with the team.”

“Yeah…” Effie didn’t know where Dr. Barlow was going with this. “That’s…that’s not the biggest deal to me.”

Dr. Barlow nodded her head, writing something down on her pad of paper. “Have you continued to kiss him since he’s come back?” Effie nodded. “Regularly?”

“Semi-regularly.”

“Have you told Dr. Stevenson?” she asked. Effie nodded again. “Do you still envision Abraham sometimes?”

Effie hesitated before nodding her head. She knew she couldn’t lie. “It’s been getting better though. We kissed for a couple of minutes once before I, um, felt Abraham’s beard. And when he stopped, he didn’t get mad at all. I means it’s progress from when he brushed up against me in bed and I gave him a black eye,” she tried to joke.

Dr. Barlow apparently didn’t find it funny like Matthew had. She just nodded again and wrote on her note pad. “You should tell Dr. Stevenson about that.”

***

“I made another pint of maple pecan ice cream,” Effie told Levi as she handed him a Tupperware full of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. They were mostly for Jenna – she was craving them. Jenna had been craving a lot of things lately, ever since Effie got her own mixer, anyway. Effie had been experimenting making ice cream. The café was pleased about this as well. The owner was already looking to invest in ice cream storage to be able to serve it. “I’ve found a real gem in you, Effie,” the owner would repeat over and over again to her. Matthew had to stop himself constantly from getting a third bowl on nights he’d come over. He’d tap at his stomach and say “I can’t” but when he’d go and put his bowl in the sink, she’d always see him hesitate before he did so. “Do you want it?”

“Please,” he begged his sister. She moved to open her freezer. “I swear Effie, the best thing Matthew’s ever done was get you that KitchenAid. I’ve been gaining weight ever since.”

Effie smiled. “At least you’re not the hockey player that has to stay in peak physical condition. Matthew’s been complaining that I’m making him pudgy.”

“Thank God.”

“Speaking of…” she began, handing him the pint of ice cream. “Do you think you can teach me about hockey?”

“You mean like the rules and stuff?”

“Yeah. You know, like what’s going on out there whenever I’m at games.”

“Okay,” he nodded, shrugging his shoulder slightly. “Any reason?”

“If I’m going to be surrounded by hockey because of you, then I should learn it, shouldn’t I?” Effie asked rhetorically.

“Sure,” he side-eyed his sister playfully. “But does this have anything to do with Matthew?”

“What if it does?”

Levi smiled. He knew there was something going on between the two of them, regardless of whether or not they wanted to tell him. He liked Matthew, he knew he was a good kid, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. She could have hooked up with someone way worse. Actually, she could have gone the opposite route of where she currently was (which many former cult members went), which was becoming a hypersexual after being sexually repressed for so many years. Effie was taking her time with it, and that was fine, but if her friendship…or relationship, or whatever she had going on with Matthew was any indication, Levi figured Effie was thinking about it. “I don’t care, Effie. It’s kind of cute, actually.”

“So you’ll teach me?”

“Of course. I’ll have you screaming at the referees in no time.”

***

“So Levi’s teaching me about hockey,” Effie said as she marinated chicken in her kitchen, her phone call with Matthew on speakerphone as she moved around and got her hands dirty.

“He is?”

“Mhm. By the time the home opener comes around, I’ll be able to understand what’s going on,” she revealed.

“I better get you a Tkachuk jersey then.”

Effie smiled bashfully, even though he couldn’t see it. “You don’t want me wearing a Markstrom one like last time?” she joked.

“Effie.”

***

Effie was nervous as she sat in Dr. Stevenson’s office. Not because she was scared, or because she wasn’t a good sex therapist, or because of anything like that. She was nervous to admit to her the thoughts she’d been having about Matthew, even though she knew Dr. Stevenson wouldn’t judge her at all and that it was his job to help her. Help her make peace with these thoughts; help her realize they were completely normal and okay; help her act on them, eventually, in a healthy way. Dr. Stevenson already knew about Matthew – she knew about him from Effie’s very first day.

“My mind may not be ready but my body is physically attracted to him. I don’t know how to…you know, mend the two so that both are on the same page,” Effie admitted after almost an hour. “I want to be with him. I do. I know he won’t hurt me – that he’d never hurt me.”

Dr. Stevenson nodded. “When you were in the People’s Dominion of Christ, there was a huge power imbalance between Abraham, being the prophet and leader, and the followers – you,” Dr. Stevenson began to explain. “This imbalance made it impossible for you to give true consent to sex.”

Effie’s body stiffened. Consent. Geneviève had taught her that term early on. Consent was giving permission for something to happen. Effie had never given her consent to marry Abraham. She’d never given Abraham consent to consummate their marriage. She’d never given Abraham consent to touch her, stroke her, do anything to her. She’d surely never given him consent to impregnate her. “Okay…that makes sense. But I didn’t know I had to give consent. I thought that men could do whatever they wanted with my body. Especially Abraham, since he was the prophet.”

“The institutionalized sexism in the cult is nothing I haven’t heard before. Many victims like yourself have said the exact same thing to me,” Dr. Stevenson said. “You are not alone. There are many people like you, unfortunately. When females are not equally valued because of misogyny, because of outdated traditional gender roles that are disempowering, it makes women like you experience sexual inequality and become more susceptible to leaders who will exploit you.”

“So how do I get it back?”

“Get what back?”

“My agency. My…my…” Effie began to tear up, thinking about all the things she had to endure at the hands of Abraham – literally and metaphorically. “How do I get my mind back? My body is finally mine, and I can do what I want with it, but I don’t feel like I have my mind back yet if I’m kissing Matthew but then all of a sudden I remember the feeling of Abraham’s beard or that I can’t sit or lie at the foot of a bed because that’s where…”

Dr. Stevenson took a deep breath. “One way to do so is to embrace, appreciate, and celebrate your sexual self. That is what I am trying to help you do here. You need to understand that your capacity for pleasure is not a luxury, and it is not shameful either. It is a necessity for a well-balanced and emotionally happy life. As a woman – as a survivor of sexual abuse, of rape – you should take a stand for your own sexual healing and embrace sexual pleasure as something that will help heal you.”

Effie nodded her head, more tears escaping her now, but she understood. She knew what she needed to do, and the mental shift she needed to go through. Touching could be pleasurable for the woman. Sex could be pleasurable for the woman. Not everything had to hurt. Not everything had to come with pain.

“I’m not saying this is going to happen tomorrow for you, Effie,” Dr. Stevenson continued. “I’m not saying it’ll happen next month, or year. It happens quickly for some, and for others it can take years. Everybody has their own timeline – you included. You have to remember that your trauma comes with complex PTSD. If you set goals for yourself, like you already have been doing, with a person you are comfortable with – Matthew – your sexual self will grow with your physical self and your mental self. When those three parts of you are aligned, they will all grow stronger, and make you stronger.”

Effie kept nodding. The words were permeating through her like lightning. “I’m going to try. I’m really going to try.”

“Just stop when you need to stop. Go when you want to go. You’ll get there, Effie.”

***

“Did you learn about gay people in the cult?” Matthew asked as he prepared Brokeback Mountain on the TV while Effie finished pouring the popcorn into the bowl.

“Not in a good way, if that’s what you’re really asking,” she said from the kitchen. “You know the stupid Bible verse. The prophet called it an abomination. But it was one of the first things that Levi and Jenna taught out of me when I first went to live with them, because Jenna’s brother is gay and has a husband and two kids. Levi didn’t want me to be shocked if I ever saw them.”

Matthew didn’t know that about Jenna. But he nodded his head and watched Effie bring the bowl of popcorn over. “Have you met them?”

Effie nodded. “They came over a few months after I arrived. They were so incredibly kind,” she explained. She handed the popcorn bowl to Matthew to take before folding her leg and collapsing onto the couch beside him, facing him. “It really…it really messed with me. I mean, it’s not like I wanted to think that way. It was what I was conditioned to think. I didn’t know better. And I felt so bad, because I knew they knew, but they were so understanding. From the moment they walked through the door they were so nice and they didn’t hold it against me,” she explained.

Matthew could only listen. And though he listened through her entire explanation, he was hung up on one thing. “You should stop calling him the prophet,” he said suddenly, not really thinking it through but needing to get it out. “He wasn’t a prophet. He wasn’t even your husband. He was just some guy.”

Effie looked stunned by what he was saying. She’d never considered that before. She was so used to calling him the prophet that the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind – ever. “You’re right,” she said, unable to say anything else. It was such a simple sentiment but it held so much power. “I…you’re right, Matthew.”

He smiled slightly. “Wanna start the movie?”

Effie nodded. Matthew extended his arm to move the bowl to the side, and his other arm moved upwards slightly, signalling to Effie that it was already to cuddle. She moved closer to him, snuggling into his side and letting both legs drape over his thigh. Only then did he let his arm down, draping it over her back. Effie looked up at him. “Is that okay?” she asked.

“It’s perfect,” he whispered, placing the bowl of popcorn between their bodies so they had equal access to it. “You comfortable?”

“Mhm.”

“Effie, are you comfortable?” he repeated.

She knew why he was repeating himself. She looked up at him and smiled. “The comfiest I’ve ever been.”

Matthew pressed play. From that moment, Effie’s eyes were glued to the screen, hooked on the love story unfolding in front of her. For Matthew, he was more hooked on watching her than the movie, but he kept up slightly. At some point during the movie – Matthew didn’t pay attention when – Effie’s hand settled on his abs, and it was all he could think about for the rest of the night. He was acutely aware of its placement. Then, the sadder scenes started happening, and he’d feel the hand grip his t-shirt, and his body would seize up. She’d soften it, but then grip again when something emotional would happen. Then the scene where Ennis visits Jack’s parents after his death occurred, and Ennis was let into Jack’s childhood bedroom and found his old shirt. Matthew watched as Ennis smelled it and clutched it against his chest.

Then he heard Effie let out a sob.

She gripped him tighter than she ever had. He tightened his hold on her too, shifting slightly and letting his shirt ride up against the couch, just so she could cuddle into him even more than she already was. He could feel her hand on his skin now, gripping at his side tenderly as the tears still rolled down her face. He took the opportunity to place his hand in the small sliver of space where her shirt had ridden up too, squeezing and massaging it gently to comfort her. “Y’okay?” his voice was barely above a whisper.

She didn’t respond. Her eyes were glued to the TV. As the movie continued, Matthew left his hand exactly where it was, and Effie left her hand exactly where it was. Holding each other. Clutching each other.

When the movie ended, Effie didn’t move for a long time. Not even when the credits began rolling on the screen. “Are you okay, Effie?” Matthew repeated his question from earlier, albeit a bit louder and more pronounced this time.

“I think my heart is broken,” she finally let out, bringing the hand that was squeezing his side to her face so she could wipe her tears away. “That was beautiful. Beautiful.��

“It was,” Matthew agreed. It was very obvious the movie was affecting her a lot.

Effie moved so she could look up at Matthew, craning her head and bringing her hand up to cradle his face so she could kiss him. When their lips connected, Matthew could feel the wetness of her cheeks. “I can’t believe I was ever scared of that,” she whispered against his lips when she pulled away.

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is what you think now.”

Effie nodded. He always knew the right things to say. He was helping her change her past and way of thinking one way or another. “I think I want to kiss you again.”

Matthew kissed her. And even as the credits finished, neither of them would let go of the other.

***

The Calgary Flames home opener at the Saddledome had Effie buzzing with excitement. She wore a brand new pair of jeans for the occasion, and arrived at the game with Jenna, Annica, and Geneviève. As was normal for them, Annica was wearing her tried and true Lindholm jersey, while Geneviève was sporting a Markstrom one. Jenna wore Levi’s old Iginla jersey.

Effie had Tkachuk sprawled across her back.

“Do you want to go down near the ice and wave?” Annica asked, and Effie nodded her head. “It might get a big crowded, so stay near me.”

The ladies descended down the steps, joining the pretty big crowd that had formed against the glass beside Jacob’s net. A bunch of kids were up against the glass with homemade signs, their parents near them taking pictures. Some men around Effie’s age were there too, drinking beers with their jerseys on and taking videos on their phones. Other girls her age were there too, taking pictures of all the players. “Can you see Matthew?” Geneviève asked as she looked down at Effie.

“He’s over there,” she smiled, pointing at Matthew across the ice. He was practicing his stickhandling, in such deep concentration that he didn’t look up for a while. When he finally did look up, happy with his stickhandling, he began skating around the ice, bumping into Noah and Andrew along the way.

Effie waved excitedly.

Matthew stopped when he saw her. Even though there was glass streaked with puck shots and some distance between them, she could see him smile from ear to ear, his mouth guard hanging out. He waved back, his hockey glove looking like a giant bear claw.

“God you two are insufferable,” Geneviève said jokingly.

Matthew continued to skate around, shooting the puck at the net, each of them going in. Geneviève noticed all of his glances back at them, and the small smile constantly on his face as he went about his drills. When the practice was almost over, she kept an eye intently on him, watching as he skated over. She knew what he wanted to go. “Go closer,” she said to Effie, urging her with a little nudge.

Effie took her cue and stepped down, closer to the glass. Matthew had flipped a puck over the glass towards a kid with a sign for him. Now, as Effie watched, he pointed to her and made sure everyone around knew who he was pointing to. She turned around slightly, pointing to his name on her back. He smiled wide and flipped another puck, perfectly, right into her hands.

Geneviève watched as the young women around them eyed Effie suspiciously.

***

“Matthew!” Effie squealed once he finally emerged from the locker room, his suit back on and his tie tied loosely around his neck. She hugged him excitedly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he reciprocated. “Great game!”

“Thanks, Effie.”

“And your goal!” she continued. Now that she actually understood hockey, and now that she wasn’t scared about every little thing around her at the arena, she could actually enjoy the experience and know what was going on. “What a great goal!”

He had the puck in his pocket, and had planned to give it to her, but right now his mind was elsewhere. Seeing her in his jersey at the beginning of the game did things to him, and although he was able to focus throughout the sixty minutes, now that he saw her again with his name sprawled across her back, his mind was right where it was the moment he first saw her that night. “Wanna come over mine and watch a movie?” he asked, his voice low so no-one else would hear.

To his complete surprise, Effie nodded her head immediately. “Of course.”

They left inconspicuously without saying goodbye to anyone.

***

Effie broke down during the first scene.

Matthew had changed out of his suit and into a sweater and track pants, and Effie had taken off the jersey and hung it up in his front closet. They cuddled on the couch together, exactly as they’d done when they watched Brokeback Mountain, and Matthew pressed play on Netflix. The first scene was the main character, Esty, packing up her most valuable belongings, including a small picture of her grandmother, and running away from her Hasidic community. All before the opening credits. When the show’s opening played, he heard Effie let out a loud sob.

“Hey hey hey,” he cooed, watching as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth to try and control herself, but there was no use. Tears were streaming down her face. “It’s alright, it’s alright.”

“It’s me,” she said softly, through tears. “It’s me.”

“C’mere,” he said, pulling her even closer against his body, if that was possible. Every inch of her was touching him now, with his arms wrapped tightly around her, and he hoped that brought her at least some reprieve. She was wiping her face with her hands, and he could see her chest heaving, though he could tell she was taking deep breaths to calm herself down. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. “We can stop it or watch so—”

“No,” she interjected sternly, looking up at him. “I can do this.”

“I know you can Effie, but—”

“No buts. I can watch this,” she was adamant.

Matthew lost. He knew he would. He bit his bottom lip and nodded his head. “Will you promise to tell me if it becomes too much?”

Effie nodded. She snuck her hand underneath his sweater to feel his skin again, and she – surprisingly – game him a quick peck before laying her head on his chest again. “Press play.”

Matthew kissed her forehead, then the crown of her head, then laid his cheek there before pressing play.

Effie broke down again less than ten minutes later, when the grandmother was listening to an old German song, An Die Musik sung by Elisabeth Scwartzkopf. And again, when Yanky was searching her childhood bedroom and found her personal items and her music. The last scene she cried to was near the end, when Esty’s biological mother showed up and gave her documents to prove German citizenship “just in case you need somewhere else to go”. When the episode ended, Effie was shedding her last tears. Matthew paused Netflix before the episode could switch over. “You okay?”

Effie nodded, despite her tears. “I know it’s different religions, but a lot of things were just, like, so similar,” she explained. “The…the beginning brought me back.”

“I can only imagine,” Matthew whispered.

“The grandmother crying listening to that beautiful song. Esty’s music. Her mom still looking out for her despite abandoning her. It all just…it all just really hit home.” Matthew nodded. It was the only thing he could do. If Effie wanted to elaborate, she could, but he wasn’t going to force her. Instead, he shifted her body so she was sitting more in his lap as opposed to right beside him. She steadied her breathing, and her tears had stopped. “When I went to live with the proph—Abraham, as his wife,” she began, “he made me leave everything at home besides my clothes. I couldn’t see my favourite things unless I was visiting, and even then, I’d never be alone in my room for more than two minutes because he knew I’d be reminiscing, and he said it was a sin to dwell on my past life when I should have been looking forward to my future as his wife and as a mother to his son of God.” She paused, biting her bottom lip; Matthew could tell she was remembering it all vividly in her mind. “After a year my mom threw out all my things anyway. Because she agreed with him.”

“What did you have? What were your things?” he asked, sad and angry and disturbed all at once.

“Just simple things. Nothing special,” she said. “My…my own Bible that I’d been using since I was a kid. A journal I had where I recorded my favourite verses. A doll I had when I was a kid that another member made for me. Just stupid things.”

“They’re not stupid things if they were special for you,” Matthew said. “I can’t believe your mom threw them all out. My mom has kept my kindergarten paintings.”

Effie smiled slightly. “That’s because you have a good mom who knows how to be a mother.”

Matthew digressed. Effie obviously hadn’t meant Chantal yet, but Matthew talked about her enough that Effie knew a lot about her. “I know I keep saying this, but you’re so strong, Effie.”

“It’s a lot to overcome,” she whispered, nodding her head. They sat for a while in comfortable silence, just being with each other. Matthew’s arms were still wrapped around her. Effie was still in hip lap, looking at him. “Will you kiss me, Matthew?”

Matthew smiled slightly before dipping his head down and capturing her lips in a kiss. It wasn’t long before – once again – Effie took the initiative to slip her tongue into his mouth. There was kissing – so much kissing – and Matthew took it upon himself to start to lay Effie down on the couch, his body looming over hers slightly and—

“Stop,” Effie said, her hands on his chest, pushing him off her slightly. Matthew immediately stopped and moved away from her. Her chest heaved up and down once before she pushed herself up. “I’m sorry.”

“Never apologize,” he said. “Did you see him again?”

Effie didn’t answer. “I think it happened because we laid down,” she said, her lips puffy from all the kissing.

Matthew was catching his breath. He was thankful that he was wearing track pants or else Effie would see how…excited he’d become. “How about you stay on top then?”

She furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”

“We—we can stay upright,” Matthew explained. “You can sit on my lap if you want…facing me. Or you could just…you know, like, sit…” he was losing his words.

Effie looked confused. Nervous. Like she didn’t know what to think. Like she was picturing the scenario in her head and couldn’t really make sense of any of it. “W—Women are allowed to do that?” she asked softly. Matthew couldn’t speak; he could only stare at her flabbergasted. He nodded his head slightly, and Effie thought about it. How women could be ‘on top’. What that would look like. What that would entail. “C…Can you—can you show…” she was too embarrassed to even be asking.

“C’mere,” he said, extending his hand. She put her hand in his and he pulled her towards him. “Put your one leg over here,” he said, patting to the space on the other side of him. She did so slowly. “And your other leg goes here,” he explained, and she did the same movement, “and now you can just sit on my lap.”

Effie took a deep breath as she lowered herself down until she could feel his thighs as her seat. Both she and Matthew had barely blinked the entire time during his simple act of showing her how to straddle him, but she had never done it before (and it wasn’t like she would have been allowed to), and so everything about it was new to her. Now, she was face-to-face with him, her hands resting on his chest, his hands resting near the bend in her knees. “This is new,” she said.

“Are you comfy?” he asked. She nodded. “D’you like it?” he asked again.

“It’ll take some getting used to,” she admitted. “But I can see it being nice.”

Being nice. Matthew couldn’t help but grin. “It’ll be nice. Trust me.”

Effie nodded. She did trust Matthew. So when she went in to continue their kisses, it was nice, and it was beautiful, and it wasn’t so bad anymore. Which is why, when Matthew’s hands moved from her knees up her thighs, it was okay. When his hands squeezed at her flesh through her pants before going higher, it was okay. When his hands moved to her hips and pulled her even closer, it was okay.

It was okay.

298 notes · View notes

awesomehoggirl · 4 years

Text

it’s wip wednesday so i thought i’d share a quick writing wip from my multi chapter fem howince fic which will maybe be done in 20 years ! it’s got 8 chapters and i am still on chapter 2 if this gets finished it’ll be a miracle. the fic is called eau d’bedroom dancing because i love le tigre and imagine how fantastic riot grrl vince would be ...

mentioning before hand that i write all my first drafts and oneshots with no capitals because i find it a lot easier but with this fic when i go back over i’ll put capitals in :) (also this is a section from chapter one not the opening)

—

her name is vincenzia mirabella lucie-marié le manteau rafflesia vaisseau-spatial noire (the longest name in the class, and the only one never written up on the ‘star student!’ chalkboard) but everyone refers to her as vince. she’s new to the school, and seemingly england, but her accent is pure south london. two teachers have quit because of her already. holly moon has never been so interested in a person in her entire tiny life.

oh, she’s read up on musicians, heard their stories, wished ever so slightly that her life would someday be just as interesting — did you know nina simone had seven siblings, that john coltrane was in the navy? but the weirdness that seems to just bounce off vince’s tongue beats every story she’s ever read hands down.

it quickly becomes apparent that she’s borderline feral: if the staff-room murmurs of the teachers are to be believed, she came from a ‘neglectful home’; if vince’s own word is to be accepted, she was raised in the jungle by a cast of rock stars, animals and french nobility. holly is sensible enough to doubt her at first, but before long (and after many demonstrations of her ability to talk to animals) she’s genuinely on board. they sit behind the ash tree at lunch time, out of sight from dribbling boys and disapproving teachers, and holly figures out that through half a chocolate bar vince can be coaxed into revealing all sorts about her unorthodox childhood.

‘dunno why you’re so desperate to know about my life,’ vince complains once, when asked again to tell the story about the great order of frogs and the backwards waterfall. ‘why can’t i hear stories about you for a change?’

‘all in good time,’ says holly, whose mother is a tax attorney married to a geography teacher. ‘plus, i know you love the attention.’

and so vince sits there and talks until she goes hoarse, or loses interest, or feels like changing the subject right at a crucial moment, or the school bell rings and they have to go inside. she talks about her house made of bus tickets and her animal friends, her french duke uncle who would come down on bank holidays and teach her table manners, about joining the jackals for hunts, about skimming the treetops in the claws of squabbling vultures, about the hoots and screeches of the monkeys as they chased her through the undergrowth on the back of a hippopotamus. and holly will listen breathlessly, trying to seem nonplussed when in reality she is clinging to every last word. (tell me again about the paper-mache tiger and the rhinoceros’ game nights. tell me again again again.)

because no matter how hard her sensible brain tries, she really can’t prove them wrong. vince is hopeless at all forms of spelling or arithmetic. she is genuinely flabbergasted when explained to that, in fact, biting and shoving are not always seen as ‘playful’ in the human world. she swears like a sailor (or perhaps a rockstar) would, until the little old lady vicar gasps, snaps her bible shut and refuses to read to the year six class ever again. idioms are beyond her, let alone algebra, and the teachers insist there’s no hope — but they can’t help liking her, despite it all. there’s something so genuine about her ever-present toothy grin, her bubbly demeanour, that they soon allow her to get away with anything.

and yet holly is her best friend. and the only person (maybe in the world) vince will tell her stories to.

‘once upon a time,’ she begins one lunch break, dipping holly’s generous sacrifice of a curly wurly into her pocket for later, ‘i was out with jahooli the leopard, who was my best friend — he’d give me rides on his back when i was really small, swattin’ the bloodsuckers away with his giant tail. he’d catch me fish in his big strong jaws, crush ‘em up so i could eat ‘em right, i was just a nipper, i’d not got all my teeth in yet, but he was a right sweetheart about that sort of thing. on the surface jahooli always seemed to be a reckless character, a real rough-and-tumble kind of cat, but i knew the reality: he’d lost his mate and his litter and he was gettin’ on a bit, i was all he had left in terms of fatherhood. it meant he did get a bit invasive at times, yeah, he could be real clingy. i didn’t mind though, see, i’m wise beyond my years, so i was quite good with all that stuff, i let him vent to me when it all got a bit too much for his poor leopard heart to handle. anyway, this one day he was lookin’ after me, on account of my foster father bryan ferry being away on tour. and it was a hot afternoon, this one. really hot.’ she sinks down on her heels. ‘the kinda hot that drenches you in sweat no matter how still you stand. the kinda humid that makes your palms slick and your eyelashes heavy. most of the animals were tucked away underground by midday, but the bigger sorts like me and jahooli, we couldn’t exactly join them. so jahooli said, why don’t we make our way down to the river?’

holly feels her spine prickle. it is eerie, the way her friend’s stories pull her in.

she follows vince along to said river, feels jahooli’s long speckled tail curling round her shoulders, bumping against her collarbones, keeping her close. feels the slick wetness of the air, feels the burn of her lungs as they work in shallow pumping gasps. breathes in the hot dark of the bush, the low chatter of the canopy. soon the lumbering gait of the leopard slows, the river is in sight — the banks are busy with boars, bucks and buffalo, sunning lizards and mice. slow-blinking crocodiles cruise in the shallows. vince is not afraid of them. (holly would be.)

‘is it true if you’re being chased by a crocodile you should run in a zig-zag pattern?’ she interrupts (not because the story is getting a little too tense for her or anything).

vince rolls her eyes, makes a face as if holly has asked her the stupidest question in the world (considering just yesterday she asked holly whether all numbers bite or if the three digit ones are just especially fiesty, they clearly have different opinions on what counts as a ‘stupid question’). ‘if a crocodile were to haul its fat arse out of the nice cool water just to give you a bit of trouble, you probably did something awful to deserve it. why? are you plannin’ to go pokin’ sticks at ‘em? cause if you are, insult their music taste, they’ll go absolutely mental. most crocodiles are obsessed with alice cooper, so there’s a good starting point, have that one on me.’

‘so what’s—‘

‘oi, hush! do you want this story or not?’

holly shuts up. vince lowers her voice.

the jungle is sweaty now, the riverbanks a dripping piccadilly circus. jahooli has left vince’s side, gone to make conversation with ranbir the great panther, so she ventures alone to the water’s edge (the animals watch over her, they all like her, tiny and pink and strange as she is) and dips her feet in. the water is so clear and cold it hurts, but soon the pain ebbs and gives way to a calm coolness. she sits down, slides in up to her knees, lies back against the soft mud

the jungle is treacle now, bubbling and pooling, thick. vince soon drifts off and the leaves behind her eyelids are red. the stars are wheeling gulls, the air is thick with salt-spit, her eyelashes tangle and she slips down into the mud. somewhere else, the dulcet waves begin to lap. the elephants have arrived. jahooli and ranbir share a look before they approach, hackles raised (they are not mean-spirited creatures, but they do like to play a prank).

the jungle is long gone now, and vince dreams of strawberry ice cream. somewhere else, jahooli and ranbir wind around each other dizzyingly, teeth flashing slick and sharp. somewhere else, the elephants are fussing, distressed by their feline dance, their ashy trunks whirling as they back up their feet. pelts twist and brush together before the big-cats turn, open their jaws and let out a combined roar that wakes vince, sends animals scattering, splits the sky in two —

and the jungle rumbles. and the elephants charge.

#this is such a weird section for me to use as a teaser LMAOO im so sorry #vince noir #howard moon #howince #wip wednesday #primmy writes #the mighty boosh

20 notes · View notes

all-hail-the-witcher · 4 years

Text

every book i had to read for english and why i didn't like any of them

i woke up thinking about this and decided to make this post. for context, i went to public school and was on the honors/ap track for english. i am a firm believer that english teachers ruin books for their students inadvertently. this is my experience:

6th grade language arts

we read three books during 6th grade, bridge to terabithia, the cay, and where the red fern grows. and i had to read a wrinkle in time over the summer which i didn't understand like at all so I'm just gonna skip that one honors english was not a thing until 8th grade where i went to middle school so this was a regular english class and i hated it. it was also a double period class for some reason, so i had an hour and a half of language arts every day.

it took us half the year to read bridge to terabithia. i am not kidding. that book is like maybe 100 pages and it took us a good 4-5 months. this is because our teacher stopped us every time we got to a pice of figurative language and made us analyze it. every. single. piece. i got so bored that i read ahead and then got in trouble for reading ahead. needless to say, i absolutely detested bridge to terabithia and would not touch it to this day if my life depended on it.

after bridge to terabithia we read the cay. this took us the rest of the year. the cay is a relatively short book as well so i got bored with this one quickly as well. i really dont remember much about the discussions, but i remember a long one about how the cover was “inaccurate,” which, yes, it was but i dont know if a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds need to spend a week debating that. i think i hated it mostly because, again, we read it for 5 months.

the last three weeks of the school year, our teacher gave us a book and said “here read this before school ends because we have to read three books a year and we only read 2″ (for context, the other language arts class had read about 5-7 books that year and found it insane that we were “still reading bridge to terabithia”) so i read where the red fern grows. all in all it wasn't a bad book, i did kind of enjoy it, but since i was rushed reading it on top of all my other homework and because it was definitely ahead of my reading comprehension level, it wasn't my favorite.

7th grade language arts

now, a bit of a disclaimer here, this was the year that i was in language arts with the guy i had a crush on and one of my close friends at the time. so, i didn't really pay that much attention to begin with. we read quite a few books in this class, but I'm not sure if i remember all of them. again, this was a double period.

i think the first book we read was freak the mighty. i remember not liking this book because i felt like i was missing something. there was definitely some kind of metaphor or something in there that i was supposed to get but because i was literally twelve i didn't get it and i didn't find the meaning in it. theres nothing more frustrating than reading a book that you dont understand.

after that I'm pretty sure we read the wave. it was explained to us that the wave is supposed to symbolize how the n*zis came to power and all that stuff, and while we all knew this, i dont think we really Understood it. (probably because we were 12). we all kinda saw it as a joke and thought it was funny. i think that if i read it now i would be like. “well shit this is really interesting” but 12 year old me wanted to make fun of it with the rest of my class.

i think we read seed folks next. this was another book that just went over all of our heads. its about how a garden changes a whole bunch of peoples lives which is like, super interesting. but none of us got it and were like “lol this is stupid” so much so that we actually stopped reading it. like my teacher stopped having us read it.

I'm fairly certain the last book we read was the miracle worker. a lot of us had had to read parts of it before that class so we were all kinda familiar with it already. i vaguely remember some kind of obnoxious class joke about the book that was probably rude. i remember finding it interesting, but there were so many activities we did about the book that i lost interest.

8th grade honors reading

this class was A Trip. i liked the teacher, but she was a little out there. its unclear whether she got fired or just didn't come back after that year. i had a lot of fun in her class but it was usually because we all bonded over hating the assigned reading.

i dont remember what order we read the books in and i dont remember if this was all of them, but to the best of my recollection this is what we read

we definitely read romeo and juliet. by the time you're in 8th grade, everyone knows the story of romeo and juliet, so it wasn't like that suspenseful or a surprise or anything. but we had to act the reading out. yes we had to act out romeo and juliet. with burger king crowns. and wrapping paper swords. clearly the teacher was trying to have fun with us, and it was fun fun for awhile but it got old. especially when you got participation points taken off your grade if you didn't read for once of the characters (which is massively unfair because not everyone wants to get up in front of a class in a paper crown holding a wrapping paper tube and read in old english when you're 13 but whatever).

we also definitely read animal farm. it was another book that went right over our heads (or, mine at least). i didn't actually really understand it until i had to read the communist manifesto for ap euro senior year. and our teacher talked in a bad russain accent the entire time? i could barely keep the characters straight, let alone analyze the underlying message and all that. now i might actually like it since I'm a history major and have a decent background on the russian revolution, but at 13? no thanks.

the one book that everyone hated (including the teacher herself) was farewell to manzanar. it was a memoir about a young girl growing up in the japanese internment camps and looking back on her life and stuff like that. the story itself was very interesting and we all learned a lot from it. but the person who wrote it did not know how to write. it was confusing, some chapters made no sense, and none of us generally knew what was going on. we had to finish the book because we were the honors class, but the regular class got to stop after chapter 6.

i think we only read 4 books that year and the fourth one was the outsiders. this was one of two books that i actually liked the entirely of my public school education. i kinda vibed with it when we were reading it and then i vibes with it more once i got to high school and rediscovered it. it was just a good book, pretty solid, good themes, fantastic.

9th grade honors english

i absolutely hated this class. hands down the worst teacher i ever had. she was one of those that should have retired 20 years ago but was still teaching for some reason. and she hated kids. legitimately. that was the first time i got a c and it took my parents a long time to realize that it wasn't because of me, it was because the teacher was absolute shit. the only thing that made that class bearable was the fact that my friend was in there and so was this guy that totally like her so he would flirt with her pretty incessantly and it was Hilarious.

we read so many books that year and i hated all of them. a lot of them were like greek dramas and plays? like we read oedipus rex and julius caesar and antigone. and i hated all of them because the teacher made me hate reading and made it seem like a chore.

by far the worst was the old man and the sea. i hated that book, hemingway was terrible. i struggled to find any kind of meaning in it and connected all of my responses to the bible because my teacher loved it when people did that.

we read inherit the wind and to kill a mockingbird and all quiet on the western front which were the only books i found remotely interesting. but i still hated them because i knew that we would have to do her reading quizzes which were impossible so it was pointless to read the book anyway.

and we also read a raisin in the sun. i dont remember what this was even about except that there was some kind of insurance money involved. but by this point we were all really done with our teachers shit and my one friend legitimately said during class “but, ms. [name] if you put a raisin in the sun, doesn't it just get more raisiny?”

10th grade ap english language and composition (american lit)

i loved this class and the teacher but i hated all the assigned reading because we read it for the ap test. everything you read was in the context of having to find themes and shit to write about on the ap. so i didn't really get any of the books for that reason. i think we only read three and they were the scarlet letter, the crucible, and the great gatsby. i kind wish i paid more attention to gatsby and i think i would like it more now but at the time i detested it. we also had to read grapes of wrath over the summer and i hated that. i wanna read books to read them, not to come into school and write essays on them. also the ending was weird and i hated it.

11th grade honors (british lit)

another bad year of english, not quite as bad as freshman year, but still bad. still hated it. i outlined many fics in that class. the teacher did not like me and i did not like her. she also talked in this weird fake almost british but not quite accent that sometimes still haunts my nightmares. she was also one of those backwards feminists who claims they're a feminist but still was sexist in her favorites and the way that she treated people in the class?? after english i had math and my friend (the same girl who said the thing about raisins freshman year) and some others would complain to our math teacher about our english teacher. math was essentially a support group for english where we would discuss answers to reading checks.

over the summer we read 1984, which, cool concept (esp right now) but i hated knowing that i had to find some kind of deep meaning in it because i was going to have to write an essay on it as soon as i came back to school.

from there i think we read beowulf which was interesting. i dont know if we actually read the whole thing or just excerpts but again, i hated looking for meaning.

we read a tale of two cities which was like the one book i actually wanted to read because i am a huge fan of the shadow hunters book serieses and will and tessa quote that book all the time. i think if i had read it to read it it would have been better but first, dickens is wordy and weird and second i dont really wanna have to search out symbolism while I'm reading because its required.

we read macbeth, which i just didn't like. idk why. i just kinda thought it was stupid. i dont really have an explanation for this one. i think it was because we read it in the old english and that confused me a lot of the time.

and we read jane eyre. the only thing i remember from jane eyre was “pathetic fallacy” which is where the mood of the scene is reflected in the weather. i dont wanna dissect a book like that. and also my teacher referred to the book as “jane” but she said it “jAAYYneeE” which was annoying.

12th grade ap lit

dear god. this class. i had issues with this class. our teacher was something. everyone was afraid of him. e v e r y o n e. he ran detention and didn't know how to match his clothes and wore skinny ties. he had three swell bottles the he would bring with him to school every day. people claimed he used to be in a rock band and that was why his voice was so high pitched and weird. some said his wife left him, others said he had a kid. we were genuinely confused by him. he didn't teach, he yelled at you for doing things wrong without giving any instructions on how he actually wanted it done. he made college out to be some big scary thing where we would all be trampled. but mostly, he was an existentialist.

we had to read song of solomon over the summer. i hated it. i didn't hate it because of the messages and all that stuff, no the book itself was good and toni morrison is a great author. i just hated the fact that there was graphic description of incest, necrophilia, or sex at least once every 5-10 pages. i didn't wanna read that. and it turned me off the book. so when he asked us if we liked the book when the year started i said no and i argued with him about it. and he hated me for the entire year.

next i think we read waiting for godot. which was absolutely terrible. its literally a play where nothing happens. it would have been funny except that i knew i was gonna have to write an essay on it. how do you write an essay on a play where nothing happens? literally all of our discussions about it were about existentialism and it was terrible.

we read the metamorphosis, which everyone hated cause it could have been written in like 4 sentences. and our teacher thought he was So Clever for assigning it to us. he thought it was the biggest joke. and he went on and on about how its about existentialism and blah blah. the book would have been funny had he not only discussed it in regards to existentialism.

i think next was hamlet. i would have like hamlet had we not discussed it only through the lens of existentialism. its a good play, but i hated it because of the way he talked about it. even now, i only like it to make fun of the way he liked it. my friend and i send hamlet memes to each other all the time but only cause they remind us of our teacher.

one flew over the cuckoos nest. the second and final book that i actually liked my entirety of school. i dont know why i liked it, but it was just a good book. our teacher also had some kind of weird cowboy trope thing that he thought mcmurphy fell under which i thought was hilarious. the essay i wrote on that book was the only one he wrote “nice job” on and i still have it somewhere

my friend claims that we also read the stranger. i dont really remember what that book was about except some guy shot some people. there was definitely something in it that i didnt get.

anyway in conclusion required reading ruins books. when i told my creative writing advisor that i out of all the books i read for school i only like the outsiders and one flew over the cuckoos nest she was like “yeah, english teachers really ruin books for students”

#this is a very long post #saph screams #english #books n shit #english teachers are so hit or miss #and even if they're good teachers #that doesn't mean that you'll like the books

3 notes · View notes

eponymous-rose · 6 years

Text

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E21 (June 5, 2018)

Buckle up, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times... and for the love of everything you hold dear, don’t read the chat. Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Liam O’Brien!

The episode starts with Marisha and Liam fighting over a bowl and then hugging. Brian: “Wait, it was that kind of bowl?”

F̩̤̹̹̞̳j̣͓̝o̶̖͍r̙͚̝̹̪͙͔͘d̪̭͎̮̞͜ ͉̤̖͇̦̗̕b̸͈̳̥̻̳̤̼u̺͔̩̻͚͍s̘͞t͎̼̺̜͉̝̞ ̣͉̯̤s҉͖̯͖ee̜͙̤͕͓̺s ͙̳̘͍̪̳́a͓͓͞l̫̻l҉̩̖̬̰͉̬.̝̖̙͔

Announcements: Vox Machina comic is still on sale, including the limited edition! Winners of fanart of the week will now be hosted on critrole.com! New Instagram account!

@critrolestats for this episode: This is the first episode of the new campaign to surpass 4 hours of gameplay (4:07:27); Beau got her 30th Nat 20 in this episode and continues to have the most Nat 20s, with Nott in a distant second place with 19; the Mighty Nein rolled their 100th Nat 20 in this episode (Fjord’s concentration save for Hunger of Hadar); Nott and Beau are tied for the most Nat 1s with 18 each, and Caleb ranks third with 14.

Of all the great stuff in the D&D Beyond ad spot, Liam was least surprised by Sam’s singing, because he knew he had the a capella chops to pull it off; he and Marisha got teary-eyed watching it the first time because of animation style nostalgia (it especially reminded them of Thundercats).

Beau is deeply enjoying having a friend in Jester, especially since she doesn’t seem to question Beau for who she is. “For Beau, it’s like appreciating an adorable little flower.”

Everyone was enamored with Mark and Cali. Marisha: “I loved how cute he was, his appreciation for cute things.” They’re going to try to Skype Mark in on Talks next week to see what his side of the experience was. Brian: “Probably horrible.”

Beau isn’t likely to be too dramatically changed by her near-death experience. "I think Beau was unconscious and then Beau was woken up and was like, ‘This is fine. This is normal, right?’” Marisha talks about how it would’ve been a huge bummer as a player to lose Beau before her backstory even came out.

There’s some speculation as to how long this campaign might be. Liam: “Could be shorter, could be 852 episodes like Naruto.”

Caleb’s passing around of Frumpkin is his main outlet for expressing affection; Frumpkin’s deep importance to him and the significance of handing him off to someone else for even a brief period of time will become more clear with future reveals.

Beau doesn’t think she’s immortal, but she still has the youthful perspective that risk-taking will probably work out. “It’s not that she thinks consequences can’t happen to her, it’s that she thinks they won’t.” Marisha points out that Beau wouldn’t really know how close it came since she was unconscious for most of it.

Gif of the week: Jester casting Speak with Dead and everyone freaking out.

Caleb knows Nott’s laying it on way too thick when it comes to his magical abilities, but he doesn’t want to call her out on it, because he’d feel a bit hypocritical pointing out someone else’s irrational behavior. "Caleb hates himself. Nothing gets through that wall.”

Apart from Caleb, Frumpkin is most comfortable with Nott, despite Nott "eating” Frumpkin twice. After Nott, it’s Jester. Liam: “Laura would kill me if I don’t say Jester.” Marisha: “I thought you’d say Yasha.” Liam: “I was going to say that, but Laura would kill me.”

Beau’s still processing how she feels about not getting left behind despite her worldview that everyone’s basically selfish; she wouldn’t have begrudged them leaving her behind (even if she weren’t dead in that scenario). Once again, it’s hard to reconcile because the players all know how close she was to dying, but that’s not really reflected in the game’s universe (she didn’t even have to roll saving throws; she was just out for a few seconds). Beau knows it was Cali who saved her, because she knows Cali has Levitation.

The parallel between Cali and Caleb’s backstories was most influential earlier, when Caleb warmed to her faster than he might’ve otherwise, but didn’t have much time to percolate and didn’t factor into his actions at the end of the episode.

Fanart of the week: a spectacular Mollymauk!

Beau saw Caleb’s actions as him being cautious, and that was fair and warranted and justified, and Beau knows that more than anybody else (along with Nott), considering she has the peek into his backstory. From Beau and the rest of the Mighty Nine’s perspective, they didn’t see the conversation between Nott and Caleb, and when it came down to it, in Beau’s eyes, having this thing that’s this potentially horrific artifact on their person when they already have the dodecahedron was just going to bring trouble down on them. Marisha: “This isn’t our jam, and if Cali is telling the truth and she is going to destroy this, great! Bonus points for us! If she is lying to us and she does want to go out and talk to Tiamat, I think, in Beau’s head, that’s another adventuring party’s problem. That’s above our payscale. That’s not why we’re here.” As a member of the Cobalt Reserve, she knows exactly how bad this kind of stuff can be. “What are we going to do, go around intercepting every potentially dangerous item that doesn’t have anything to do with us?” She emphasizes that Beau’s not a hero yet and doesn’t have that mindset. “I’m not saying it’s the right choice or the wrong choice, but it’s the character choice. (...) What she was trying to tell Caleb is ‘You had no knowledge that this bowl even fucking existed before Cali came along.’ Beyond that, she was going to go along with it until Caleb suggested holding Cali overnight. Due to stuff that Beau has dealt with in her backstory that unfortunately no one knows about yet” she wasn’t going to let that fly.

Brian talks about how much he admires that Marisha is willing to make bold character choices, especially after so many folks have seemed to enjoy attempting to tear her down for it. “That’s fucking awesome. You’re going to own the shit out of that character.”

Liam: “I want to toss out three ideas about all this, because obviously there’s been a lot of discussion about this, a lot of passion and debate. (...) One, I encourage everyone who watches our show to watch Rashomon. Something happens in the woods, and the movie is three different people telling their account of what happened out in the woods, and every story is totally different. Different people are the hero or the villain depending on who’s telling it. The other thing is that I know that VM was more of a family, and this clusterfuck of a-holes is not. This is not a Sunday School Bible parable class, we’re not an afterschool special, this is a character study of a lot of really messed-up people.” They might end up being role models, but it’s an ongoing arc. “And then the last thing is, this is a game of D&D. If Caleb can’t decide to have a moment, if Beau can’t grab the bowl, what’s the point of Dungeons and Dragons? I don’t care what gripe Caleb and Beau had together. I live in Caleb’s skin, so of course I associate and feel passionate about Caleb’s point of view, but it’s not the only point of view. The point is not to be right, the point is to have fun and get into it.”

Marisha: “I think ‘character study’ is the right way of putting it. We’re uppity actor types. We like making complex characters, and we want to explore that and see what these complex characters do, because people are complex, people are complicated. You hear a lot of people complaining about contradictions. I mean, yeah, have you ever had a Facebook post pop up from two years ago like, ‘Remember when you said this two years ago, you dumb shit?’ You’re allowed to be upset at our characters, and you should, and I think that’s why we as actors have jumped into this profession, is because we like making people feel things.”

Brian paraphrases Melville: “A great moment is about the opposite of what it appears to be about.” He points out that this wasn’t about a bowl, it was about what was in the rearview mirror for both characters. “Ultimately, it’s the stuff that brings you guys closer together.” He talks about how it’s probably harder for viewers to watch that after Vox Machina, given that they were more in the flawed-but-noble vein as characters.

Liam: “Caleb is trying to make good with the group and (laughs) is not doing a good job of it. He obviously saw the extreme parallel between [his and Cali’s] backgrounds. Because of the things that she was dealing with, he put on a different pair of sunglasses to watch her and make sure everything was fine.” At the end, even Caleb knew it was probably over-the-top, but he’d found out this thing and was awkwardly trying to communicate that to the rest of the group. “Caleb thinks that he’s a broken bag of glass that everybody doesn’t want to touch, and he’s right.” Even in a moment when he thought he was doing what the group wanted, he couldn’t do it right. “He’s been in a fucking asylum for eleven years.” In the moment, in his mind, he didn’t think his trauma had anything to do with his actions, and didn’t understand why that was being brought into it, and just disengaged. “Another thing with Caleb is that he doesn’t need, in this group, to feel like people respect him or think he’s cool; Caleb thinks that he is a piece of shit, so this is just confirming what he unconsciously wants. All he needs to do is learn more and grow, so if he needs to just shut up and deal with it, as long as they’ll keep him around, fine, because he just needs things that he hasn’t had access to for five years.” He’s getting what he wants out of this group: he’s getting that unconscious need to be told he’s a fuck-up.

Liam on Beau: “She is talking from her experience, she has nothing to do with what happened to him, she is not responsible for him, he doesn’t want pity from anyone, he barely knows how to accept what Nott is doing. So everyone get off her back. Caleb is where he wants to be, which is moving towards his goal.”

Caleb’s latest actions were too similar to someone with authority that Beau had trouble with in the past. Beau bringing up Caleb’s trauma was speaking directly to that point, which she and Liam have since talked about offscreen.

Marisha doesn’t think at all that this has destroyed Beau and Caleb’s relationship beyond the point of no return: “I don’t think that’s how conflicts between friends work. Honestly, I was stoked after all this, because I thought this was a breaking point that maybe we were all waiting for.” She also thinks it opens up an organic way to bring Beau’s backstory into the limelight, and she thinks having some of this out in the open will bring the group closer together. It’s tough for her to analyze that episode because nobody has all the information behind Beau’s reasoning yet. Brian points out that it can be really refreshing to be surrounded by people who call you out on your bullshit. “Those moments create respect.” Liam mentions that there is no friendship yet, because they haven’t known each other that long, but that this confrontration could be the beginning of a real friendship between Caleb and Beau. Marisha points out that it’s very much “I wouldn’t get mad at you if I didn’t care.”

Marisha mentions that she’s used to being cautious where she treads on the internet after an episode like this, but “if you’re upset at Caleb or you’re upset at Beau or you’re upset at Fjord for holding the sword to Caleb’s throat, I think art and acting and media and these stories are there to teach us about ourselves, and why we get these emotions towards these certain things. Liam and I have been talking all weekend about how fascinating the Team Beau vs. Team Caleb discussions have been.” Liam: “It can only come from people being deeply invested.” Marisha: “They care. And we’re truly blessed to be a part of something that people feel that passionately about.”

Brian: “There’s a difference between a conversation and lashing out between the actors.” Liam: “Just know that we’re playing strange people on purpose.”

Talks Machina After Dark (It’s Machine-a)

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh dear.

Marisha talks about how fun it can be to experience DMs who aren’t Matt, because at this point they all fall into the habit of trying to over-analyze his tells. “In my opinion, different DMs are like different teachers. Each one teaches me a different thing, and I love it.”

Marisha does her accent from the Stream of Many Eyes. Liam: “Casting director Liam is listening.” Marisha: “Oh, God! No! I’ll never work again!”

Liam and Marisha talk about how essential it is that they (and the rest of the cast) know each other so well and trust each other so much, so they can play out and explore those conflicts safely. Marisha: “There isn’t necessarily supposed to be comfort in conflict. It’s not going to be comfortable. I think it does take a more experienced roleplayer to make sure they can tread those waters safely, because there is care, and you do have to have personal care and after-care.” The two of them checked in afterwards, and all of them have been doing so since the first campaign to make sure they’re on the same page and feeling okay about what happens on-screen.

Liam talks about how embracing failure goes beyond rolling 1s or having bad things happen to characters. He legitimately was not paying attention when he nearly cast the spell that would’ve killed Beau, and appreciates that there’s enough of a rehearsal feel in the game to allow for those imperfections when they do arise. Marisha: “Yeah, thanks for not killing me, man.” Liam, deadpan: “It’ll happen.”

Swoleregard. Jumbeau. Beaulossus. Beaugantic. Dani: “Beauyasha.” Liam: “That’s a different thing. That’s not my job, to worry about that.” Dani: “It’s my job.”

Caleb is terrible at accents, terrible at impressions, terrible at musical impressions, but okay at singing (because he speaks Celestial). Marisha: “I think Beau would be full-on drumline.”

When they were going into a show for the stream this weekend, the whole audience broke into the D&D Beyond theme song. Marisha: “It was... it was so surreal.” Liam talks about how he keeps starting to sing it without thinking, then inevitably segues into another Sam song that goes “put your finger in my butt”.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

1K notes · View notes

leadwithlove-blog1 · 6 years

Text

With Love

Not too long ago I was at a women’s event for the church. While I was there I had a kid call me desperate for help with a math problem. I told her to send me a picture, so I could work through it. After I hung up I ran around trying to find a napkin and a pen to work through this problem. One of the other women there asked me what I was doing. I explained the phone call and she shook her head while laughing, “I don’t know how you do it.” In my head I was thinking, ‘do what?’. It didn’t seem like much of an ask really. Trying to figure out a math problem during the middle of an event isn’t ideal but then I thought about the why. It’s in my heart. I do things I don’t love with love because of who I love. These kids have enough stress in their lives so if there’s anything I can do to ease it I will. When we can take things off their plate it leaves room for them to do the same for others. Loved people love people.

We can always complain about things we don’t want to do or we can find a reason we do care, make a connection that puts our heart behind what we’re doing intentionally. Going to class or work every day and saying you hate it will make you hate it. But deciding every day to change your perspective will in turn, change your attitude. Going to class lets you graduate on time and go to the college you want instead of being left behind by all your friends who finished on time. Or you can keep hating it, not go to class and stay stuck in that loop longer…makes a lot of sense to do something you don’t like for longer than you have to. Our attitude towards what we don’t want to do doesn’t only affect that one area, it starts to seep into other categories. We let our frustrations infect our relationships and motivation. For example, let’s say math is your first period and your least favorite subject. On this particular morning you’re going through a unit you don’t understand at all when you ask the teacher for help they tell you to ask the people at your table. One of your friends tries to explain it to you but you still don’t understand and start to feel dumb, you pretend like you understand just to end the conversation. Because of this one moment at the start of your day you’ve decided the whole day is crap. You don’t really want to talk to your friends at lunch, you start thinking about ways you can get out of your plans after school. When you do finally get home the last thing you want to do is start the homework you don’t understand so what’s the point in starting any of it. You just made your day a bad day, instead of letting what happened stay in first period and just going through your day learning what isn’t confusing and enjoying your friends you have in each class you cut everyone out. Secluding yourself doesn’t fix what frustrated you it just feeds it, you get in your head and start analyzing all your flaws as though they’re character defining.

Think about all the times you’ve obsessed over something negative and all your focus became locked on the problem. You’re with your best friend and suddenly you hear them say, “What do you think?” Or “Did you hear what I just said?” And you just have to give them a blank stare because while they were talking you were trying to ease your anxiety about how much you really don’t want to tell your parents that your grades have been slipping. Maybe you have two friends who are upset with each other, you can understand both sides of the situation and you’ve tried all you can to help them communicate, but it just isn’t working. Every time you’re with either of them you just feel sick. You miss being around both of them and you hate that you can’t tell the other one something funny that happened because it involves the person they aren’t talking to. We tend to put our focus on the things we want and what affects us, instead of doing everything with love. If you have to manipulate a situation to make it happen you’re going to spend a lot of time and energy keeping it that way. Your love for each friend isn’t based on their relationship with someone else. It is who they are to you, it should be unconditional. Instead of thinking about what you want to “fix” because it would be easier on you respect how they feel and let them heal on their own time. They’ll talk to you about it when they need to and they’ll be more receptive when they come to you on their own. Be present, pay attention to your relationship with your friend and why you love them. Remind yourself about all the times you were up late with them laughing about nothing even after you woke their mom up from being too loud. Or when that boy broke your heart and they showed up to lay in bed and watch Netflix with you. People are easy to love when we don’t muddy up the relationship with things that aren’t about us. I promise you if you start thinking about all the reasons you’re grateful for your friend those reasons will outweigh everything else.

There’s this story in the Bible where Jesus is at Mary and Martha’s house, Mary is sitting with him hearing stories and Martha is frantically running around trying to cook and clean. Martha goes to Jesus and says, “Do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” Jesus responds by saying, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” In other words, he’s saying being with people is more important than impressing people. Maybe you’re thinking well I don’t have a house or I don’t cook but what this is saying is so much bigger than that. Listen to what people have to say, get curious about what they love, and I promise you they’ll inspire you to love more every day.

I’ve heard the whole “I don’t know how you do it” thing a lot recently. They make being with people sound like it’s so much work, but it’s easy. I just do everything with love. I’m not using myself up or overexerting myself when I pick a kid up for coffee or I’m sitting on the sidelines of their soccer game or they come over and watch the football game. I listen, smile, encourage and hug them when they need it. I want others to know the peace I have every day. I want people to know they are loved always not just sometimes. There isn’t anything wrong with them, they can be loved, they aren’t broken, they have purpose and worth. It happens fast too, you show up for someone a few times and catches them off-guard. They will start to open up about things they’ve never shared or were too embarrassed or ashamed to talk about before and that’s when you must love them anyway. You don’t guilt them or shame them. You don’t react, you smile and hug them. Sometimes they cry and sometimes you get to see what’s been making them so sick leave their body. But once they know what it feels like to let go of things weighing them down, everything about them begins to shift to happy. They remember how good it felt when someone listened without judgment and poured some love over the wound. My goal is to get people to love whoever they meet better than they’ve been loved before. I can’t meet everyone but I can love people in a way that makes them want to love the people they meet a little better and I’m just going to believe that makes a difference. That’s what Jesus did his whole life, he was the perfect example of what loving your neighbor looked like and I want to be like that.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

#love #patience #kindness #God #Lead #Jesus #Bible #verse #bible verse #distractions #anxiety #relationship #happy #friendship #encouragement #positive #life

1 note · View note

amplesalty · 3 years

Text

Halloween 2021 - Day 1 - Us (2019)

‘tis Halloween season once again!

It’s October, it’s Tumblr dot com and that can mean only one thing; another boat load of horror adjacent movies and possibly the odd TV show thrown in for good measure. And hey, we might have skipped out on the Stand finale and I didn’t do Halloween 1978 as I planned but I had a fair few entries last year. Christmas...not so much. Some of these years really seem to blend together because I thought for sure I had watched Get Out last year but, no, apparently it was 2019. Relevant because for this opening day I’m looking at Jordan Peele’s directorial follow up; 2019’s Us. Maybe next year I’ll watch 2021’s Candyman that he, whilst not directing, was involved in writing and producing. I love how certain sections of the internet immediately flipped their lids over that and were like “He’s going to make it political and about race. Stop bringing politics into movies!”. Ah yes, unlike the original Candyman which we of course know did not involve race in any way, shape or form.

This movies broader points about class structures and wealth ineaquality can easily be applied to all of society but it’s perhaps no coincidence that the protagonists are an African American family. Whilst the racial themes are quite as strong as in Get Out, it’s still evident to see the difference in opulence between the Wilson’s and their more wealthy white friends.

There’s a moment in particular when the Wilson’s are at their friends house and you get this shot of their two boats side by side. Their dirty speed boat that constantly veers to the left and with an engine that cuts out all the time is dwarved by the SS BYACTCH. It’s not something that’s dwelled on or talked up but I think it’s a nice little piece of visual universe building. And for that talk of wealth inequality, you can’t complain too much if you’ve got yourselves a summer house and a speed boat, no matter how shabby it is.

That boat does lend some measure of humour to the film that kinda threw me off guard given how tense the second quarter of the movie gets. There’s something really funny about this vicious killer stopped dead in their tracks when the boat cuts out, having to resort to the old bloke trick of ‘Technology doesn’t work? Smack it with your fist!’ It worked for the Fonz. I feel that’s something we’ve really lost in this modern age of techonological advancement, you can’t get any good surface area to give the telly a smack these days with all these LCD’s and OLED’s. You could really bring the smackdown on those old CRT’s.

That whole vicious killer thing is also something of a departure from Get Out which was more of a psychological trip. They both share these creepy elements but there’s something more immediate and visceral here when you have this family being stalked by these shadowy figures in the middle of the night before they start being set upon and this whole home invasion plays out.

Actually, the start of that scene is a bit of a mix between the creepiness and terror when they just see this family holding hands in their driveway in the middle of the night. I know I’ve probably touched on this before but you know where you stand when Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees are marching towards you with their bloody knives drawn. What the hell do you do though when there’s just bunch of people on your property at 2am, unmoving and smiling politely?

Not that they have polite intentions, when we find that these are the dopplegangers of this family referred to as ‘The Tethered’. Sort of like corrupted, shadow versions of their normal counterparts who have gone through near enough the same exact experiences but in a more twisted way. The normal person might eat a warm, delicious meal but the shadow consumes only raw, bloody rabbit meat. The normal person might meet someone, fall in love and get married but the shadow is compelled to meet with their partner based on the actions of their double. The normal family might give birth to beautiful, healthy children but the shadows are blessed only with wicked, sadistic offspring. And, again, it’s hard not to draw parallels when you have a black character talking about living this less privileged life in the shadow of the more well off.

It becomes infinitely more terrifying when you come to realise that this isn’t just isolated to the Wilsons, their friends have also been visited and killed off by their own evil selves. It’s like, even if you outrun your own shadows, it seems like there’s nowhere to run with the news showing shaky footage of similar red clothed people committing seemingly random attacks.

Small point on the other family but, between this and thinking back to her role in The Invisible Man remake, Elisabeth Moss just kinda ‘gets’ that whole facial expression thing. Whether it was the paranoia and fear of Invisible Man or the maniacal expressions of her evil version here, she does a really great job of selling it. Again, it’s only a small role in the grand scheme of the whole movie it’s pretty chilling to have her preening herself in the mirror to the sound of classical music. And then the Wilsons arrive to bludgeon everyone to death to the sound of ‘Fuck the Police’ by N.W.A so, you know, contrast...

I feel like parts of the finale are a little tacked on, like the whole story behind where the Tethered came from just feels a little thrown together, that they’re these clones that were designed by the government in order to control their counterparts on the surface. It’s just sort of left at that and not explained any further.

The setting is certainly very eerie though, a lot of strange imagery going when Addy ends up going through the underground complex with it’s singular escalator that is lit up like a Christmas tree, or the long, white corridors littered with rabbits. I’m not sure what the metaphor is behind the rabbits, other than her following one into the complex which is maybe a nod to Alice in Wonderland or the general idea of ‘going down a rabbit hole’.

Bit of a nod to A Nightmare on Elm Street too as she makes her way through a boilerroom.

The whole Hands Across America thing I’m a little confused on too, it’s something that’s focused on near the end that it’s something the Tethered have almost idolised with this one item they have referencing it. Quite why they’re replicating it though, maybe it’s symbolic of how the Tethered have all joined together in this one cause. Or, as the Evil Addy says she wanted to make a statement, maybe this was her way of doing that in a similar way to how Hands Across America was so widely covered in its time. It kinda goes along with the idea of the Tethered being this mirror image, them doing it now is like an inverse of the original idea of it promoting charity and helping the less fortunate. Now those truly less fortunate are using it to their own ends.

And that ties in to the coolest part of the movie, this general idea of symmetry. It’s something that’s touched upon near the start with the idea of symmetry and coincidences brought up, like when one of the kids points out the clock reads 11:11 which had up to this point popped up on a few signs referencing a bible verse. It affected me a little bit in a similar way to Invisible Man where I started to really look for things in the movie that were maybe going on in the background that were meant to be subtle hints. But as the movie wore on, I started to realise it was itself playing out in this mirrored way; like how it starts out at this fun fair at night but ends at the fun fair in day time. Or how the normal version of one of the kids is encouraged to snap along with some music at the start of the film, then near the end his evil version is snapping along too, only he’s mimicking a lighter since he’s a bit of a pyromaniac. That song incidentally being ‘I Got Five on it’ which is used near the start and then again near the end, only that time it’s an eerie orchestral remix that soundtracks the fight between the two Addy’s.

Which is a really neat fight scene as well, you’re used to these slasher type villains just overpowering their victims or brutally stabbing them but the evil Addy uses her dance background to gracefully dodge Addy’s attempts to attack her. It’s like a bizarre dance routine between the two of them, brings a whole new meaning to fight choreography.

Oh, and that ending too, that’s a whole different level of confusion too. Not in terms of what happens, more just the way it makes you feel. I saw it coming that the two Addy’s were switched in the incident that took place when she was a kid but it plays with your idea of a happy ending. Like, this whole time you were rooting for the ‘good’ Addy to overcome the evil version that had come to kill her and her family, but then you find out that she was the evil one all along. It’s not quite on that level of gut puncher as The Mist but still a neat twist.

But yeah, really cool movie on the whole. Aside from Candyman, I’ll also be looking forward to Peele’s next movie which is apparently slated for next year and will feature Daniel Kaluuya again.

#Halloween 2021 #Us #Jordan Peele

0 notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 16 Review: Manger Things

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 16

The Simpsons Season 32, episode 16, ” Manger Things,” is the 700th installment of the series. That’s more episodes than Rocky and Bullwinkle and Gunsmoke put together. To celebrate, they are gifting us with a second holiday episode. This one is a Christmas story of failing and redemption, like every other yuletide tale. It stars the Simpsons’ neighborinos, Ned and Maude Flanders.

As Bart says, Christmas is no time to think about your neighbors, but “Manger Things” repays the indulgence. It is set in the not too distant past, six years ago. But you’d never know that from Marge’s contemporary cultural and political references. She wryly explains the year which the incidents took place was the year when the Oscar went to an overrated movie nobody remembers, a politician said something stupid no one will ever forget, and Tom Brady won the Super Bowl. This is a very deft collection of memories which can be considered evergreen. We do know it is set before Abe was shipped off to the retirement home.

The premise of the episode is hung on Homer’s promise not to get drunk at that year’s office party. A tough promise to keep, it turns out, but somewhat tougher on Montgomery Burns, who is consistently reliable for an underhanded laugh. Mere moments after filling up on the ego-boosting carol “Hark the herald angels sing, good old Monty is our king,” Mr. Burns has to endure Homer’s drunken ribaldry at his expense. At least Burns is in the holiday spirit. He only calls out the Christmas hounds: Slasher, Gasher, Mangy and Nixon, Stalker, Vicious, Rabid and Rips-em.

The episode is loaded with subtle and subversive commentary. Soda is safer than water in Springfield. The immigrant Irish family living in the room above Homer’s garage have never known such luxury, even when you factor in how they have to clean Moe’s bar for seven years before they get their passports back. During Christmas prayers, Lisa puts more of an emphasis on “Santa bless God” than God blessing Santa.

Homer goes one further, when Reverend Lovejoy tells him to quote one Bible verse, he comes back with “There once was a man from Judea, who said of my wife, if I pay ya-.” Homer is banished to Ned’s Son of Mancave, where both holy water and regular water run on tap. Keep an eye out for the wonderful posters Ned keeps on his wall and how they religiously undermine the expectations of a man cave.

The flashback affords us a guest appearance from the long-dead character Maude Flanders. She is not as charity-minded as her husband, and can see through his selfish selfless acts, just like Ned can see the face of Jebus on every person he meets. This makes for a very Simpsonesque aside, of which there are many during the installment. The Simpsons employ many comedy stylings peculiar to the show. It helps us go with the flow. Unlike Maude, who has little patience for Homer’s particular peculiarities.

The first straw on the camel’s back gets placed there when Homer eats the Flanderses’ Christmas ham, not even cooked, and still in the plastic. This implies Homer also ate the plastic and didn’t notice over his feeding frenzy. We know, from this scene, how much he really needs Marge. She can glaze a ham until its radioactive glow can’t even be contained at the Springfield Nuclear Plant. The emotional point is subtly reinforced by the cut to Marge, who is making one of her groaning, worried sounds. The segue implies she knows, even as much as she is blinded by disappointment, that Homer is suffering. And is probably contributing to the suffering of others.

You would think, with a title like “Manger Things,” the episode would be a takeoff on Stranger Things, but it remains within the realms of probabilities, not possibilities. The scariest of the supernatural horrors in Ned’s son of man-cave is a picture of Ned himself, in a sweater, with the words “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” written on it. Oh, and some infernal fresco of some of the layers of Hell. It turns out Homer is immune to temptation, but it’s not because of clean living. The demons in Ned’s basement threaten Homer with eternity in a lake of fire, which he takes as a vacation offer. The demon should have tried the more tortuous time-share approach.

The segment where Homer makes himself at home in the room over the garage is very sweet. He cuts a hole in the roof rather than trim his tree, but other than that, as Lenny points out, he’s living his dream life: unable to stand up. Lenny’s to blame for the whole mess, of course, and was even hitting on Marge at the Christmas party. Yet Homer still calls him to keep him in the loop.

Homer is a persistently consistent optimist. His entire character is rooted in the belief that everything will work out after it has bottomed out. And he’s always able to maintain surprise when a bottom does drop out. He mistakes piety for pie, and thinks he can fix everything with cookies. One of the stranger things about “Manger Things,” is that Homer’s brain makes an appearance. Usually, all the blood goes to his stomach.

To delay the tide-turning climax, Homer gets stuck by a commercial when he’s looking up how to deliver a baby, but it’s worth it for the audience. Sideshow Mel is teaching a class on how to be a sidekick. Before Homer skips the ad, we get to hear him tell an appreciative audience: “There will come a time, mark my words, when a monkey will attempt to eat your face.” Even I took notes. The series is always very self-aware. When Homer notes that the newborn is perfect, having eight fingers and eight toes, he’s making note of an animation necessity over a biological imperative. It costs more to animate five fingers than four.

The episode includes an “Itchy and Scratchy” cartoon which is so frightening, the cameras cut away before the final reveal. But Bart and Lisa, still young and reasonably impressionable, are visibly and audibly horrified. It’s been too long since the audience has witnessed the horrors of the animated-within-an-animation comic duo, so this works very well. Bart and Lisa look absolutely traumatized, which continues when they mistake a snowman for their returning father. The whole segment brilliantly condenses their fall from a loving sibling relationship to the cynicism of a broken family.

There are plenty of quick visual gags which flash by in very few instants. Some are silly, but still quite telling. The double feature playing at the Springfield movie theater is Frozen and The Ice Storm. There is a warning that chatty elves are not affiliated with the Springfield Mall. Gil, who is toiling as a mall Santa, becomes the first person in history to be dishonorably discharged by the Salvation Army. The books which are seen lost in the heating vents are “How to Get Your Baby Off Her Pacifier,” which seems a little too gender-specific for a baby book, and “How to Clean Your Vents.”

The opening piece, which replaces the couch gags, is “Homer’s Family” by Bill Plympton, which is a watercolor dismantling of Homer’s psyche to Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero.” The impressionist piece shows how tightly he keeps his family bond, however lightly they are arranged. The episode ends with a display of holiday cards from some of Springfield’s most esteemed residents. A particularly apropos tiding is “Enjoy today, we’ll talk about your test results tomorrow,” which comes from Dr. Hibbert.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“Manger Things” works exceedingly well as a stocking stuffer, even if it does arrive on the first day of spring. Why not? The classic Laurel and Hardy feature Babes in Toyland celebrated Christmas in July. Not very long ago, we were served a “Thanksgiving of Horror” episode, which was no turkey. Fox recently renewed The Simpsons for two more seasons, so it is doubly fitting to wrap its 700th episode in tinsel. Season 32 has seen a consistent rise in both quality and laughs per minute. If the residents of 742 Evergreen Terrace want to keep their decorations up until summer break, who’s to complain? Hallmark delivered us twelve days of Christmas, the Simpson family can parcel them out as they wish, if we get episodes this good.

The post The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 16 Review: Manger Things appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3cUNCgf

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

rdmfavcpls · 7 years

Text

Dragon of Japan - Chapter 6 - Sheep To The Slaughter Part 1

Title: Dragon of Japan

Pairing: Sebastian/Ciel Mai/Lin cheating Madoka/Naru previous Mai/Claude

Category: Crossover Black Butler/Ghost Hunt but I am trying to keep it mostly Ghost Hunt

Rating: T-M will slowly progress

Summary: Mai is a demon and she’s within the top 3 powerful demons, but she still holds human emotions within her demon life. She got over Naru’s rejection quickly, but now she’s dying and her brother steps in to help her. What adventures will awat the new and improved SPR?

Warning: There is some Naru bashing and Naru is not a main character in the story. Lin is a lot more talkative in this which I will explain within the story.

Author’s Note: So I too have fallen victim in the Ghost Hunt Black Butler crossover universe.

Disclaimer: I do not owe any rights to Ghost Hunt or the Black Butler franchise.

Please enjoy the story and constructive feedback is always welcomed.

Chapter 4 - http://rdmfavcpls.tumblr.com/post/168030623522/dragon-of-japan-chapter-4-a-haunted-manor-part

Chapter 5 - http://rdmfavcpls.tumblr.com/post/168197593802/dragon-of-japan-chapter-5

~~Story Begins~~

Chapter 6 - Sheep the to Slaughter Part 1

SPR was on their way back to Japan within their own private plane, (another present from Mr. and Mrs. Davis. Lin is not complaining). Monk and Ayako going into their little spats, Yasuhara was helping Mai with her online high school classes, John reading a worn-out bible, Masako was doing her own classes, and Lin was typing up the reports from the Phantomhive Manor case when his cell went off.

“Hello?” Lin asked.

“Yes,” a voice spoke over the phone. “Are you known as the Dragon of Japan, Lin Koujo?”

Lin furrwed his brow, “Yes, and you are?”

“I’m the prime minister’s secretary, Kishi Ryota. I have a case that needs to be solved.”

Lin opened up a new document on his laptop, “What’s the case?”

Everyone looked at Lin. “We’re not even back home yet,” Monk said with a sigh.

“How did they even get Lin’s number?” Ayako asked crossing her arms. “It was like pulling teeth to get his number.”

“You would know about pulling teeth, won’t you, you old hag?” Monk said only to get hit on the head.

“They’re together again,” Yasuhara sang.

“Uh?” Mai asked watching the two fight. “How do you know?”

“There wasn’t a thunking sound,” Masako commented as she looked up briefly at the couple before going back to her homework.

“Monk is easily jealous,” John said flipping the page and placing his bookmark within the Bible. “Maybe this time, he’ll propose.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we get to Japan,” Lin said before hanging up the phone. “We have a case from the prime minister.”

“Wow!” Ayako said. “We are still flying over Europe and we’re getting a case from the Prime Minister?”

“It’s a serious case,” Lin said. “There’s a hospital on one of the Oki Islands known as Fukkuhrinigu which is where we will be investigating.” Yasuhara’s and Mai’s face went pale. “You two have heard of it?”

“I chose to do a paper over it and I had to change it,” Yasuhara said.

“I could never tell the story about that place when we’re telling horror stories,” Mai said.

“Wow, that terrifying?” Monk asked.

“It could just be an urban legend,” John said.

“Children have been disappearing there, all visiting their families. The children ranging from five to eight, but there have been instances where the child was seventeen when they went missing. Every night that a child would disappear, people could hear ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb,” Lin explained.

The high schoolers looked at each other before looking at Lin. “The urban legends are true,” Yasuhara said.

“What are these urban legends?” Masako asked.

Mai took a deep breath. “Fukkuhrinigu used to be an orphanage known as Kodomono bokuso-chi. They took in unwanted children, those torn away from their families by war, those that were considered mistakes. There was one child, a girl named Mary. She just washed up on their shore one stormy night. She had no memories of how she ended up there. She was bullied by other children because she was of American birth, red hair and blue eyes, a complete outcast in every sense. One day, the orphanage brought in a young man - no one remembers his name, what he looked like, or why he was working for the orphanage, but he took a shine to Mary. Soon, Mary would do whatever he asked and she grew up to be a beautiful young woman, but on her sixteenth birthday, she disappeared. Two weeks later, a child that grew with Mary heard her singing outside so they looked out the window and saw Mary outside, walking away with a young boy following her. The next morning, the child was telling one of the caretakers about what they say when another caretaker came in claiming that the young boy was gone.” Mai explained.

She took a couple of seconds to rest before she continued speaking, “Now, whenever they hear ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb,’ a child disappears, never to be seen again.”

“It sounds interesting and creepy,” Ayako said. “So why couldn’t you do the paper over it?”

“All I could find was urban legends,” Yasuhara said. “As you know how strict my school was and how everything needed to be facts.”

“Speaking of school, how does your school like you working for a ghost hunting business?” Monk asked.

“Oh, I go to Mai’s school now,” Yasuhara said with a smile. “They allow their students who are having family problems or work that makes them travel to get the notes online and submit the assignments online.”

They finally landed on the Oki Island they were investigating. Lin and Yasuhara started talking to the director of the hospital, John went to console the families of the missing children along with trying to gain more information. Masako went with Ayako to get a feel for the spirits leaving Monk to gather the equipment for their base which they didn’t know where it is located at yet.

“This is going to be a difficult case,” Monk said as he carried the monitors.

“Why do you say that?” Mai asked as she held onto the cards.

“For starters, all of the medical equipment could change the temperatures causing them to rise or fall. Second is that their are so many people here, patients, families, doctors, nurses, we won’t have the place to ourselves like what we usually do. So try not to get into trouble.”

“Why do you think I’m going to get into trouble?” Mai asked as they entered the hospital.

“You’re a trouble magnet,” Monk said sitting the equipment down with the rest of the equipment. “We can’t go barging into the rooms or screaming like we usually do.”

“It’s not my fau-” Mai said but stopped as she heard something. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

A voice sounded so far away, so faint that Mai had to strain her ears. “-un… ay… to.. ten...ie…”

“I’m not sure,” Mai said stepping outside. Monk following suit. “I could just be hearing things.”

“Or imagining them,” Monk added in. “Let Lin know, however, it could mean something.”

Mai looked over the sharp grey rocks that were all around the island, protecting the two story hospital from rough waves and floods, there was no other land in sight and the only way to get here were by plane or boat.

Mai could feel within her gut that something wasn’t right, something was terribly wrong, that something was missing and it was so obvious that it could bite their nose and no one would even notice.

Mai’s demon instincts were on high alert.

Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Lin, you need to stay more than that!

No.

#black butler #ghost hunt anime #Mai Taniyama #Lin Koujo #Monk #Masako Hara #Ayako Matazuki #Father John Brown #ciel phantomhive #sebastian michaelis #Ciel x Sebastian #mai x lin

5 notes · View notes

evenstevensranked · 7 years

Text

#35: Season 1, Episode 4 - “What’ll Idol Do?”

Ren gets a pre-high school mentor (is that really necessary? lol) named June Marie. She’s clearly evil and fake as a 3 dollar bill, but Ren thinks she’s the cat’s pajamas because of her scholastic accomplishments. Meanwhile, Louis is obsessing over someone stealing one of his beloved VHS tapes of an SNL episode. And you know how much I love Louis The Aspiring Comedian... :)

The episode opens with Louis reading a book called "The Art of the Joke." Wait a minute... Louis Stevens... READING?! Yep. When I was younger, Season 3 Louis was always my fave. But, looking back.. Season 1 Louis was amazing. He had so much ambition and a real goal to become a comic, much like Shia. So much so, he was actually reading and researching about it!! That pretty much tapers off eventually and he just becomes a little zany -- Also like Shia...? lol. It's not a bad thing by any means. I'm just realizing exactly how much I miss this more restrained, "real," smart and subtly sarcastic Louis. He retains these qualities throughout the series, they’re just highlighted more/better in the early episodes.

He’s literally skipping dinner to read here. Incredible. He’s also seen reading this book in “All About Yvette.” I think it must’ve been Season 1 Louis’ bible.

Anyway, Louis takes a break from reading and goes to watch a VHS tape of a 1995 Saturday Night Live episode ft. Mike Myers... when he discovers it’s missing! We see the rest of the family at dinner downstairs, being forced to listen to Ren talking up some chick June Marie like she’s the second coming of Jesus. She explains that June is her ~idol~ and will be acting as her “Pre-High School mentor.” Right away you get the sense that this is sketchy. Even though Ren Stevens is, well... Ren Stevens... We see her relying SO MUCH on June to help elevate her status once she gets to High School. Obviously Ren could easily achieve high ranking status herself -- And would most likely take pride in that. It feels a little bit out of character. Even Eileen seems very suspicious about it. We also find out that June is in Geometry class with Donnie. This is important information!

Louis barges into dinner, turning the missing tape situation into a major mystery case. He’s basically accusing someone in the family of stealing it. Aside from this scene going on just a tad too long, I still think it’s entertaining. Louis says a great line: “I’m not a detective. But I did watch 10 whole minutes of Nash Bridges once” which I freaking love. The entire family claims to have no idea what he’s talking about and they’re so fed up with him and his Dramatics™ -- it’s kinda hilarious. With every overly serious thing he says, they’re all just groaning like “oh my god.....” It gets me. The scene ends with Ren saying “Mother, may I please have permission to FedEx Louis to Timbuktu before June Marie gets here?!” And Eileen says “Absolutely not! ........UPS is so much cheaper.” I’m only mentioning this because I caught a rerun of the episode on Freeform recently, and this bit was mysteriously missing! I’m assuming it was cut out for “FedEx” and “UPS” copyright reasons? No idea. Idk man. I always kinda liked that part, and I was like ???????? Where’d it go?!

Ren practices in the mirror how she’s gonna greet June before she gets there and it’s too much. We finally see this June Marie character and her personality is so ugly. She seems like a rich, entitled snob. (Trust me on this, I have very good judgement.) Ren is in awe though and desperate for June to like her. Again, this seems a little out of character. But she wants to achieve flawless academic success in high school and believes June can help her do that. Ren is a perfectionist, sooooo.

June is seriously the fakest person I’ve ever seen and Ren is looking at her like she is her savior. I’m sad.

Oh yeah.. Did I mention that June Marie is also a creep? It almost seems like she's coming onto Ren at one point. I'm actually uncomfortable watching this. She’s so clearly up to something.

She’s saying “Could you imagine what we could accomplish on the high school yearbook staff together?” in a suggestive voice. Tell me this isn’t creepy as hell. Run, Ren... Run for the hills.

At school the next day, Louis is complaining to Tawny about the missing tape now. She, too, is so done with his drama lol. I love this bit because he actually references the sketch “The Whiners” as a major influence of his and that the missing tape is what made him want to be funny. Awwwwww! Dear, god. I seriously love this so much. Even though according to Wiki, “The Whiners” was a skit from 1982-84. So, this tape definitely doesn’t exist irl. But, still! Tom overhears the crisis and offers to set up an audio/video home surveillance system in Louis’ house in an attempt to catch the possible tape thief. Tom is the best. He always has great lines and actor Fred Meyers’ delivery always makes me smile. Later that day, he ultimately sets up the system for Louis! He offers to set up one for Tawny as well and Louis says “Tawny doesn’t have a home. She lives on her bike. It’s a long story. It’s very tragic.” I always loved this.

lol at Tom listening in. Also, I love how Louis and Tawny are such a couple’a outcasts honestly. They’re so perfect!

Ren tells her placeholder best friend Jewel about June.. and I swear it’s like everyone somehow knows that June is trash, but they don’t want to burst Ren’s bubble. Jewel is clearly thinking “.....yikes! not gonna say anything”:

The “yikes” face is even punctuated by a suspicious dominant chord... just so there’s no confusion. What is UP with that hair, btw??? The Early 2000s were a mystical time in history...

While spying on the family from his room, (see cover image) Louis ends up overhearing the real juicy drama. Forget the tape! June Marie is over and meticulously quizzing Ren about high school stuff (”Details, woman! This ain’t junior high!!!” lol chill) when suddenly Donnie walks in and tells Ren she has a phone call -- which ends up leaving June and Donnie alone. Remember how I said they have geometry class together? Yeah. They have a small talk conversation about class - and as soon as Donnie leaves the room, June whips out a bulky Y2K cell phone (I knew she was rich) and calls her friend freaking out over talking to THE Donnie Stevens. She admits to having a plan to make Donnie ask her out, and that’s the only reason she’s hanging out with “his lame sister.” What a loser, for real. Thank the lawwd for Louis’ hidden cameras.

Louis is upset and tries subtly telling Ren by warning her that June “isn’t as cool as you think she is.” But of course Ren is all “JUNE MARIE IS THE COOLEST PERSON I KNOW!!!!!!!” - I hate when people refuse to listen to other people like their own family members when they're trying to help them. I wanna slap Ren.

We get a mirror talk mid-episode from Louis in the bathroom about how he has to find some clever way to tell Ren to make her believe him. Yay! Caring Louis looking out for his big sis! His deep speech (accompanied by sad piano) ends with a curveball joke. (”...The worst part is........ I got a zit the size of a volkswagen.”) Shia's phrasing is always on point. I laughed. The joke helps saves the scene from becoming an overly sentimental, cheesy parody of itself.

We find out that Steve and Eileen have Louis’ tape and....... they accidentally taped over it. THE HORROR!!! If you lived through the era of VHS tapes, you understand. There's no "undo" option, people! This scene gets me so mad every time. Of course Louis is asleep when this is revealed on hidden camera. Louis is so smart, but he spends the rest of the episode completely oblivious to the fact that the tape is right under his nose. It’s cute.

Louis decides to write June Marie a note signed “Donnie” asking her to come over for a date. She shows up right on time, overly eager and dressed for the Oscars -- coming onto Donnie full-force.

I just noticed it looks like they’re actually at the real house for this shot??? Or that could just be a painting in the background. Probably.

Louis set everything up so that he could show Ren the live stream of June being a [Raven Voice] ‘lil nasty. She’s curling into Donnie’s side on the couch saying “I’m so glad we finally got together. I only became Ren’s mentor to get to know you better.”

Ren gets so heated, she marches downstairs and tells June Marie offffffff for being a two-faced liar and a terrible role model. Donnie’s caught in the middle of it and has absolutely no idea what’s going on:

Same, Donnie.

But, yaaaaassss Louis for #exposing June Marie. And yaaaaaassss Ren for confronting her. (”I got news for you, Little Miss Pretentious... I can get that job on the yearbook without your help.”) The sass level is through the roof. I love it. It's always satisfying to see a snake like June get rightfully stepped on.

Ren yells at Louis for not telling her about June but....... he did tell you, Ren!! That’s what you get for not listening to your family.

The scene that follows feels like an ad-lib. Shia and Christy are genuinely laughing. I’ve mentioned this a million times before, but according to Shia they ad-lib’d quite a bit on this show. I think this is one of those instances. It’s great.

The episode ends with Eileen telling Steve to burn Louis’ tape. Meanwhile, Louis is still hoping to get it back. It’s supposed to be funny, but it honestly makes my skin crawl. I'm so sad for him D:

And that’s it! I remembered not being all that crazy about this one simply because it’s clear in my memory due to it airing very frequently. But it's actually a pretty satisfying and slightly scandalous story, haha. My only issue is that this episode is incrediblyyy slow paced. In most cases, that’s one of the things I love about the first season. But, here it just kinda draaags on a bit.

The best aspect, of course, is Louis wanting to help Ren. Whenever they focus on the brother/sister dynamic, the show really shines because that is the foundation! Like, hello! Louis and Ren are the Stevens who are constantly trying to... get Even! So, yeah. I like when their relationship is highlighted in some way. For a more Ren-Centric episode, this one is pretty good. Although, this is another episode that involves a one-off character. This is something we see a lot in the first season, which I don’t understand??? The freaking premiere episode was about a random guy. This episode is about some random chick. The next episode is about Yvette. The episode after that is about some random dude. Like..... who decided that a chunk of Season 1, a.k.a. everyone’s first exposure to Even Stevens, should basically not fully focus on the main characters? Idgi. Might just be a symptom of the show trying to find its legs.

At least this is a case where they found a seamless way to combine the two plot lines. A story like this also helps Louis come across as endearing. So that’s good. :)

Thanks for reading! Thoughts? Leave them below!

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

#rank #season 1 #even stevens #disney channel #review #2000s #shia labeouf #christy carlson romano #ren stevens #mirror talk #louis the aspiring comedian #louis stevens #donnie stevens

5 notes · View notes

relationshipadviser-blog · 5 years

Text

Bad Marriages & Family Relationships (Church, Jan 27, 2019)

New Post has been published on https://relationshipqia.com/trending/bad-marriages-family-relationships-church-jan-27-2019/

Bad Marriages & Family Relationships (Church, Jan 27, 2019)

NOTE: The first minute-and-a-half of the video is silent — Jesse’s mic was muted before we officially started!

We dealt with a middle-aged man going through divorce, a woman not on the same page with her fiancé, overcoming issues without suffering, anger, beta males, Slender Man, and Iyanla!

Middle-aged man going through divorce

A man talked about dealing with a divorce. His wife still pushes his buttons, whereas he thought he had peace. Jesse advised him: Don’t live in your thoughts, and don’t judge yourself. She complained that he didn’t cherish her, even though he tried to put her first. So Jesse urged him: Never cherish a woman, because she will see you as a weak man. He called it an “emotion trap.” Just allow yourself to grow.

This man wants to date, because he feels lonely and wants companionship. But Jesse tells him: You’re not lonely for a woman; you’re lonely for God, for perfect peace. At age 63, this man still wants to have sex! Sex is not love! His grown daughter and adult children should not want him to get with another woman. It won’t make him happy, but miserable.

Woman is not on same page with fiancé

A woman disagrees with Jesse about nearly everything, including sex not bringing happiness. Jesse asks: What’s the purpose of marriage if not for having children and a family? Your sex will get old, and then the man will go out and cheat. Instead, date and wait 7 years with no sex before marrying. Her fiancé seems just to want the sex, seeing marriage as a way to claim, “That’s my booty.” They see a counselor, but that won’t work. The woman believes that everyone has their own truth, but human beings don’t have truth. They get caught up in emotions and do wrong.

Overcoming issues without suffering

Jesse asked his Biblical Question of the Week this past week: Is there a way to overcome your issues without suffering? Various people answered. Jesse says yes, absolutely. In the light you can see all things, but you must let the anger go. In your fallen state you suffer. For example, ladies should stop trying to change men. You cannot even change your children!

Slender Man horror story

Jesse brought up a report he watched on TV yesterday about a fictional character named Slender Man. Children read about Slender Man and try to summon him, and carry out crazy acts. Three girls in Wisconsin went into the woods; two of them named their victim Bella before trying to stab her to death — believing they did the bidding of Slender Man. Psychologists and lawyers attempted to say they only had issues with their brains. But they’re possessed — medication will not solve a spiritual problem!

Satan wants you more than God does! All of this is spiritual.

Iyanla can’t fix your life!

Jesse also told about seeing an episode of “Iyanla, Fix My Life,” by this woman Iyanla Vanzant. A mother told her daughters that their father raped them when they were children. But it was all lies — Iyanla rightly had them take a lie detector test, and it came out that the mother lied! Unfortunately, the mother never admitted to lying, and Iyanla did not press her to admit she was wrong! Iyanla also told the father that he did not have to forgive the mother, which is not true. He and the daughters should forgive the mother, and then have nothing to do with her — she’s evil! The mother has so much hatred for the father, such that she’s willing to destroy the children to get back at him.

It’s a spiritual battle of good versus evil. Forgive your parents, especially your mother, and your father for being weak. We all have done dumb things, such as have sex out of wedlock, become violent, or not defended ourselves when we should. Some men have been hit by women, and because of false societal expectations, did not defend themselves!

Overcome your anger. It’s wrong to be emotionally attached to others. Don’t hate your fellowman. Men, the world needs you, but men try to please women more than they try to please God! They do this because they have not overcome “mama” and they want sex.

Super Chat donations and questions

One man asked about dealing with gossip at work. Never trust a gossip, and do not allow a person to gossip. And never trust an angry person — their nature is of Satan, and they will turn on you.

Another person asked what it means to pray and watch.

New York passes evil pro-abortion law

Jesse talked about the new pro-abortion law passed in New York by a black woman Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Abortion is evil, and everyone knows it’s wrong, but they make excuses. But Jesse says: I don’t blame the evil people for doing evil; I blame the good people for allowing it to happen. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Perfect love casts out fear.

“It’s ok to be white!”

In this country, it’s okay to be black, Indian, brown, whatever, but it’s not okay to be white! Jesse admonishes one man not to be silent, but to speak up even in class: Don’t let “education” be more important than what’s right. Don’t be afraid to speak up.

Jesse told the story of Travis, a producer for The Fallen State, wearing a T-shirt that said something like “white and proud.” He shouted, “White power!” at the end of the Women’s March in Los Angeles, and all the people surrounded him like demons to attack him. But people can be any other race, and it’s no problem!

Some people discussed the Catholic school students whom the media smeared, including Nick Sandmann who smiled in front of the American Indian activist.

Whites are under attack, because most whites are afraid. With fear, you will be destroyed. Overcome fear by overcoming anger. Start standing up to evil. God is with us!

A man talked about attending “Blexit” event — blacks and Latinos leaving the Democrat Party. One speaker said we should put women on pedestals, to which this man and some friends shouted, “Beta!” And it stopped the crowd from cheering the speaker! This man said that many conservatives are also beta males and RINOs.

No leaders!

The people did not have many questions, but just came to listen. So Jesse urged them: Don’t have leaders! Come with questions. Then afterward, people start talking about their knowledge. But instead, be slow to speak, and start living it!

One man asked about anger: In Colossians 3: 8, it says to put it away, whereas other verses seem to be okay with anger. But Jesse says that the Bible has been tampered with according to the times — one version says, “Our Father and Mother which art in heaven…” so you know that’s wrong! The word of God is written in your heart. Anger is a judgmental nature. So just live. Just be.

Go and forgive your mother!

One man believes that his issue is with his father, and that he loves his mother. But his fiancée says the root is with his mother. Another lady, their friend, approached her mother about having given her pot at age 12! But she’s still afraid of her mother, because she told her mother, “Jesse wanted me to ask you…” instead of asking for herself! The ladies talk about their “strong moms” who hated them.

Do not put too much meaning into dreams. If God wants you to know something, He will reveal it to you and make it clear. You won’t have to wonder.

Do the Silent Prayer no matter what. Get to know yourself, love what’s right. The world attacks good people, because they are afraid of good. Millennial men seem like half-men, half-women, because they are afraid. Let anger go. Forgive your mothers for setting you up, and then playing the “victim.”

SILENT PRAYER: http://silentprayer.video | AUDIO https://soundcloud.com/rebuildingtheman/silent-prayer CHURCH Sunday 11am PT (1pm CT / 2pm ET) http://rebuildingtheman.com/church

BOOKS http://www.bondinfostore.org DONATE http://rebuildingtheman.com/donate

The post Bad Marriages & Family Relationships (Church, Jan 27, 2019) appeared first on Rebuilding the Man.

Source

Bad Marriages & Family Relationships (Church, Jan 27, 2019)

0 notes

funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

Text

In an erstwhile yeshiva boy's comedy club, Jewish jokes reign supreme

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/in-an-erstwhile-yeshiva-boys-comedy-club-jewish-jokes-reign-supreme/

In an erstwhile yeshiva boy's comedy club, Jewish jokes reign supreme

NEW YORK — Jewish comedy has been around for centuries, with sarcasm dating back to the Bible and Jewish comedians monopolizing the stage and screen since the days of vaudeville.

While there is an ongoing debate as to why Jews are so funny, the ingredients seem to be consistent: irony, self-deprecation, kvetching (complaining), sarcasm, wit and an interesting balance of self-praise and self-loathing.

Writer Saul Bellow once said “oppressed people like to be witty,” Freud suggested that Jewish humor was a survival mechanism, and Jon Stewart pointed out persecution as the Jewish comic’s fuel. But are Jews really any different than other comics? Or does a sarcasm that dates back to biblical times still shape us today?

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Ten years ago longtime comedy club Stand Up NY was financially struggling and up for sale. Located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side (coincidentally not too far from Jerry Seinfeld’s home), the club, which had been operating since 1986, was looking for new ownership and a second wind.

Yeshiva University High School graduate Dani Zoldan, who spent much of his teenage years frequenting Stand Up NY, decided to make an offer to join the club’s line of Jewish owners. Now, Stand Up NY has its own podcast recording studio, offers comedy workshops and hosts various events at its two-story venue.

Stand Up NY partner Dani Zoldan. (Courtesy)

While the question of whether Jews are funnier than average is up for debate — especially by Jews — it’s hard to ignore the significant percentage of Jewish performers. Twenty percent of Stand Up NY’s lineup consisted of Jewish comedians this past year, and similar numbers are seen at other clubs, clearly a disproportionate amount of funny Jews compared to the rest of the American population.

The Times of Israel spoke with three comedians who perform regularly at Stand Up NY and discovered that there’s more to funny people than meets the eye.

So, tell me about your mother

NAME: Judy Gold AGE: 50s YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY: 32 BIGGEST INSPIRATION: Joan Rivers

Comedian Judy Gold. (Courtesy)

For many Jewish comics, inspiration comes from home. New York-based comedian Judy Gold, known on stage as “Jewdy,” has made a career talking about her mother, and mothers in general. Until her mother’s recent death, whenever Gold was looking for new material — “or irritation” — she simply picked up the phone.

Gold, who became a mother herself 21 years ago, sympathetically tells audiences about her children’s experience having four moms. After Gold split up with her first female partner, they each went on to move in with someone new — bringing the mom total to four. “Can you think of anything worse for a child?” Gold asks.

A 6’2″ liberal Jew and lesbian, Gold lives with her partner Alyssa on the Upper West Side. She has been so fascinated with mothers throughout her career that she has even written a play called “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother.” In it, she interviews moms from all Jewish streams, attempting to break down what makes these mothers so “lamentable, lovable and laughable.”

Gold’s career has been characterized as very Jewish, but ironically it was a “Secret Santa” dare that set her career in motion. Her good friend — and Secret Santa — asked Gold to perform a 10-minute standup routine that made fun of their entire college dorm floor. Following what she described as an “out of body experience” and ultimate (natural) high, the rest was history.

[embedded content]

Gold’s lampooning of her Jewish identity hasn’t always been well-received by her own community. Over the years Gold has been accused of promoting a Jewish stereotype, while her agents suggested she drop the “Jewish stuff” and consider dying her hair blonde in order to broaden her audience.

Gold takes pride in the seemingly disproportionate amount of Jewish comedians, and chalks the high number of funny people in the Tribe up to historic persecution.

“We’ve had to talk our way out of some crazy stuff from day one,” says Gold. “We’ve been kicked out of every country, and we’re taught to think differently which is what comedy is all about.”

Gold believes Jews are in general “funny characters,” and it seems she isn’t the only one, as audiences keep coming back to see her perform her mom-infused shtick.

Happily unmarried ever after?

NAME: Modi Rosenfeld AGE: 40, plus shipping and handling YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY: 24 BIGGEST INSPIRATION: Feedback from fans, and the healing power of comedy

Comedian Modi Rosenfeld. (Courtesy)

Someone who has been able to poke fun at his Jewish heritage without catching too much flak is comedian Modi Rosenfeld, who goes by the professional name Modi.

“Happily unmarried,” Modi lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and can be found conducting Shabbat Services, Kol Nidrei and private weddings when he isn’t on tour. Modi studied at the Yeshiva University Cantorial School but it was “only a hobby… I knew I wouldn’t pursue a career as a cantor.”

Weddings, however, were a completely different story. “It all started on the Howard Stern show when someone called in and asked if I do weddings,” Modi says.

Before becoming a performer Modi worked as an investment banker, and it wasn’t until 1993 that he would grace the stage for the first time at Stand Up NY. He did so at the behest of a friend who had heard Modi impersonating his clients and urged him to get into comedy.

While Modi has developed a Jewish voice as a comedian, he says the most important thing is to know your audience.

[embedded content]

“When you start doing comedy you’re just looking for that laugh,” Modi says. “I’m very good at accents, so that’s what I did initially. But after years of performing, your real voice comes out.”

When performing in front of diverse audiences he adapts his act, and sees it as an opportunity to “offer a window into the Jewish world.”

Modi is popular within the Jewish community since he can offer nuanced performances with religious inside jokes. He has performed in Israel several times, is flown overseas for special occasions like birthdays and bar mitzvahs, and has stood on numerous ultra-Orthodox stages where the crowd is divided by a mechitza, or a barrier separating women and men.

Modi doesn’t think Jews are funnier than any other people. “If there’s any difference, it’s that Jews saw a way to make money out of it, just like schmattes,” he says.

‘Comedy is tragedy, plus time’

NAME: Jessica Kirson AGE: 40s and stopped counting YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY: 19 BIGGEST INSPIRATION: Lucille Ball

Comedian Jessica Kirson. (Courtesy)

For comedian Jessica Kirson it isn’t about the money at all — comedy is her personal therapy. Kirson says comedians usually come from dark places and share their hardships through jokes.

“Nothing is more accurate than the saying, comedy is tragedy plus time,” says Kirson, who grew up in a Jewish liberal household in New Jersey.

Kirson claims to always have been the class clown, but if it hadn’t been for her grandmother, she may have never pursued a career in comedy. Kirson was about to begin her masters in social work when “Nana called me and said, ‘Jessica, you have to become a comedian.’”

Raised by a therapist and married to a therapist, Kirson has plenty of material from home. “I talk to my mom every day otherwise she thinks I’m dead,” she says.

Kirson’s Jewish identity is also apparent in her stand up, which she describes as an educating tool that disarms and connects people.

“I want to help others let go and be silly. There’s so much pain and craziness now, I want to help people deal with life and loss and depression and struggle,” she says.

Offstage, Kirson is a very private person. “After spilling my guts on stage I just want a simple conversation,” she says, noting that she would rather talk about something other than herself.

At the same time, she loves “seeing people’s reaction to craziness” — which can explain the incredible amount of videos she posts online with subjects ranging from Trump, to makeup tutorials, to “how to end any conversation.”

[embedded content]

But what she loves most about the job is giving people some relief from their everyday life. Gold and Modi can relate.

“When somebody says to me, ‘My son or a family member is sick, and we haven’t laughed in a really long time, thank you.’ Or, ‘We really needed this laugh,’ these are by far the best moments,” says Gold.

Modi shares the sentiment. “You never know what people are experiencing. You never know what people in the audience are suffering from, and you are able to give them some relief,” he says.

The similar answer from three Jewish New York comics may have more to do with a chosen lifestyle than a Chosen People, and reflect the fact that good humor really is universal.

“Audience members have come up to me saying their Indian mom sounds exactly like my mother,” says Modi.

0 notes

themorningcatch · 7 years

Text

After Thoughts

an essay after 10 months in a dorm

the rabbit hole

Although it is not revolutionary or even slightly unbelievable to live in a dormitory during college, it is to me. As I have made it sound every day for the past year, it has been a tough challenge for me, particularly because I get attached to places (and people) without restriction. In my second year of college in the University of Santo Tomas, I made the decision to live by myself in España, Manila where my school was located. Before I didn’t have to live in a dorm because my class schedule finished at 11 in the morning so my four hour commute to and from my house was not a big deal. However, my schedule changed to night classes and since my route home was a little dangerous during those times, my parents told me that we needed a safer alternative, ergo to live in a dorm.

We went dorm hunting around late July of 2016 and since we couldn’t afford the fancy student towers nearby, we settled on Santa Fina Ladies Dormitory. It wasn’t actually a dorm but more of a bedspacer with quaint rooms and little to no free WiFi. It became a problem to me because I was such a housebody and I didn’t know how to live decently without a kitchen or a balcony. I did however get to live peacefully enough as I established every day routines, but it came after many nights of when I would just stare at the ceiling from my bunk bed and my eyes would well up even though I wasn’t sad, or getting through the trial and error system of finding cheap places to get dinner from (or places that just served vegetables because fresh food was a rare commodity in the city. I felt like dying when I had to buy a 17 peso banana in a convenient store).

the tea party

Upon moving in, I had this picturesque experience of what it’s like to live away from home in college as I’ve seen in coming-of-age movies. I had three roommates who also went to UST, but sadly even after 10 months of breathing in the same space together, I didn’t really get to be friends with them. It drove me insane every single day because I was living with these people who I’ve only had a couple of conversations with for almost a year. It was repulsive to me that I was in such a condition. I tried to be as inviting as possible on the first weeks I moved in. I constantly tried to start a conversation that would hopefully lead to anything other than small talk but you know that feeling of when someone just doesn’t want to have a conversation with you? I got that every time. They would give me short answers that made me sound like a parrot if I kept repeating my questions. Alas, it came to the point where I became tired of myself so I just succumbed to the way they lived because they’ve been there longer than me, and who was I to change how they went through life anyway? I concluded that they just weren’t chatty people.

However, it was still ridiculous that I only found information about them when I was snooping around, cleaning their stuff. They were also really insensitive to their surroundings. Most of the time, I was the cleaning lady in our room, and curse my inherent and unbearable shyness, but I just couldn’t bring it up to them in actual conversation. I’ve had so many breakdowns in the quiet of the night where they didn’t notice, and I felt bad because roommates—anybody living together—shouldn’t be like this.

There was just that time when I went home from seeing a play and my roommate didn’t expect me to come back so when I entered the room, her stuff was on the floor, and she evaded my gaze and picked them up while sniffling. I asked if she was okay and she said that she just wanted sleep. Of course, I knew that was a lie but since I was moving out in a few days, I didn’t press on. I offered to turn the lights off and saw her turn her face to the wall while sobbing. It made me realize that we were all so alone even when we had each other. So I won’t complain about them too much from now on, even though I think I have the right, because they were just people who had their own things to deal with. They weren’t always unkind to me anyways.

When I packed my things on my last day, all they said was “You’re done with finals?” and I said yes, and they replied, “Buti ka pa.” It’s a less sarcastic version of good for you and a more envious one. And I thought, it is good for me because this was the only place I lived in where I was constantly trying to get away from it, and now that I was leaving permanently, I can’t help but wish the same freedom and happiness to them. It is good for me.

the palace of the red queen

My daily routine in the cramped space that I lived in went like this: on the days that I wasn’t drowning in requirements where I would go early to the library and squat there for hours upon hours studying, I would spend the day in my dorm. Aside from the times that I was off somewhere shooting a film or doing an interview or making props or practicing, I preferred to wake up at 7 in the morning. I was usually the second one to wake up because my other roommate had morning classes. The others would still be asleep. I would sit on my bed and groan for a little while until I haul myself to our tiny bathroom and try to wake myself up. There was no WiFi connection so I was always on mobile data, however, the signal doesn’t reach to our room so I usually didn’t have internet unless I went outside and sat on the floor by the window or the stairs. If I was doing well, I would go back to my bed, open this tiny Japanese table and read the Bible. I would pray as earnestly as I can to make up for the times that I was too busy running than talking to God. I would read a little or write in my diary or type a story in my computer if I had some time. On a lazy day (which felt like every day), I would opt to just watch movies and TV shows to kill the hours. During my first semester, I had lots of homework so I did that until it was lunch time and my Dad would be at the lobby to bring over some packed lunch since he works nearby and we were such a frugal family. Afterwards, I would wait until it was 2 in the afternoon, then I would get dressed then leave to go to school. The walk to my building was usually 20 minutes when I wasn’t rushing so I became obsessed with podcasts. I would always be zoned out while walking because I was paying too much attention to this recorded sermon or life hack or interview. I learned an obscene amount of random things thanks to podcasts.

It wasn’t an exaggeration when I said I couldn’t breathe inside my dorm. I would watch my roommates through my peripheral vision robotically go through their day. I was the odd one in the room because I tried a variety of activities in contrast to them just studying. I bet they were actually more complex than how I thought of them, if only they spoke to me. But once I was out of that room, I felt like myself again. After classes at 7, I would walk with my friends Marie and JJ in Lover’s Lane, and then I would continue by myself to the P. Noval side. I would find some place to eat dinner. I would maybe listen to a podcast or watch a show while I eat, then wait until I can ask them to turn off the lights and go to sleep. It was toxic living there because I was constantly just begging the time to be over. Saturdays were the worst because I would be alone since my roommates would have gone home. The first time I was, I cried so hard because I realized that no one miles away was a friend or a family member who would care about me. I felt truly alone. I was always paralyzed by fear and anxiety so I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, and because there was always this looming presence of other people that I didn’t have enough space in my head to focus. It sounds like a nightmare when I think about it, but eventually I’ve accepted that was just the way the days happened. But I am so glad to not be in there anymore. There was so much of the world that I was missing out inside of that place.

the rose garden

Although my experience in living in a dorm felt so much like a clenched fist, it is where I was planted first to be supported by my own roots, and happily enough, I turn to see that I have grown in ways that I didn’t expect, which was always a good thing.

There was a time when I started watching Steven Universe because my brother Amos kept teasing me about how I was going to live alone and be an adult, and in my desperation to not sink into this swirling crisis, I grabbed onto cartoons to remind myself that I can go on my own speed. It was raining that night and I didn’t know the streets yet so I went to buy dinner at a fast food restaurant. I spent 150 pesos which was too much because we weren’t rich and we could barely scrap enough money to pay for my dorm, but I was already so tired and my socks were wet so I just let it be. I ate in silence as I marathoned the whole show. In the middle of it, I felt like an ice bucket was dumped over my head because I realized that this was how being an “adult” felt. That’s why I am so fond of Steven Universe because of its simple language of love without too many metaphors and problems that were fixed by the end of an eleven minute episodes, I found a somewhere to still be a child without compromising storytelling and character development.

I had my worst anxiety attack in my dorm around the time I started reading the Percy Jackson books. I felt like I was failing my classes because it was so hard to keep up on General Education subjects, subjects that made me feel insecure my whole life. Swallowed up by loneliness (which is a noun that have come to understand as an essential part of me) and confusion, I couldn’t stand being in my dorm any longer because I felt suffocated so I packed a small bag at 8 in the evening and ran around España to find a place to hide in, which was a bad idea if my parents found out. I brought a copy of Catcher in the Rye because maybe I could lose myself in words again like I always did when I was afraid but the city was so unforgiving that even 7/11 was crowded, so I bought myself some hot chocolate and tried to fit myself in my tiny bed. Responsibilities were nagging me but I tossed Catcher and started reading Percy Jackson instead. I managed to get so lost in it that I didn’t realize it was midnight and my roommates were already going to sleep. I finished the fourth book of the series in one lying down. After that, I prayed and swore to God that I would still try even when I can’t anymore, even if I knew I would win in the end. I bawled so hard and wrote a diary entry on my phone. It was one of my worst nights. In the morning when I thought I wouldn’t make it anymore, I clutched my aching chest and thanked God for the sunlight and for art, to which I owe so much. I could not have done it myself. Art, literature, music—all of them, so, so important, more than we realize. We should keep absorbing it because we never know when we’ll need it the most.

I once skipped Spanish class earlier this year because I was done with recitation and I had a headache. I went to the nearest Mini Stop, which became my second home, the menu being something I memorized like the back of my hand. I got myself vitamins, dinner, and tea. While walking back to my dorm, I realized that I can cope with taking care of myself when I was sick because before, it was incredibly painful. Now I’ve managed without having to beg the heavens to just kill me already because of the emotional, mental, and physical hell I was going through. My Mom said she was proud of me for doing so.

Some firsts for me were when I waded through a flood in my doll shoes, when I stayed up until 2 in the morning watching a Korean drama, when I fell on my knees after being overwhelmed by prayer, when I had a sleepover, when I went grocery shopping by myself, when I almost got locked in UST with a friend after seeing a play and all I could see in between fits of laughter was pitch black darkness, and when I bought coffee at 4 on a Sunday morning without going to Church. There was that one funny time I was deep in the recesses of my mind during a breakdown as I sat by the restricted section of my dorm’s rooftop, a lady walked in on me and she was so shocked that she couldn’t stop laughing. I apologized and then left, but I was a little better because of what she did. I don’t even know her name.

My friend Kate and I once de-stressed by going through eskinitas in Gastambide and looking for hidden eateries. We bought cheap ice cream, and I’ve always had the easiest conversations with her. We joked about how we shouldn’t walk in streets like this so deep in the night but it was nice to pretend to be Manila girls with her and go about like I wasn’t afraid of tomorrow and the million things we had to do.

There was the time my group mates and I practiced for a speech we had to do in class. We sat in an empty makeshift rehearsal room where there were no lights and bonded even when I didn’t think that I would ever understand them because they were so different to who I was. They let me in on their thoughts and secret codes and showed me how important it is to listen to people and their stories regardless of how you’ve perceived them in the daylight for everyone to see. People are worth your time, especially when they’re in their most honest selves, when you can’t see them but you can hear them and the hum of the universe as they trust you with who they are. You just have to give them a chance.

And when my friend Abby and I sat by the fountains in UST and she told me enthusiastically how she appreciated all of her friends and I saw how she tried to understand all of us despite of who we are. She told me story upon story and laughed at my cussing. We ate Chinese food and she never made fun of my dreams when I indulged. I realized that afterwards, she stayed until 10 in the evening just to talk to me because I was always going about how I didn’t have anybody to talk to for the rest of the night. It’s in those moments when you learn to like yourself because other people do, and in turn, find yourself becoming kinder, gentler, and just better to everybody else.

the end

After all of this nonsense, trifles that only mean something to me, I remember this absolutely killer view of the España skyline at night that can be seen by walking through the UST football field. It offers no stars, just a glint of the moon behind the clouds. It is so wide and immense. It makes me remember God. The bustle of cars and restaurants underneath make me distracted but I look up again to tell myself that I shouldn’t miss this. It’s there but it isn’t always going to be mine. So the night before I moved out, I ran towards it until its entirety was all I could see. It did not take my breath away. It is nothing new. It was just the last time. But I didn’t miss it, and that’s what I got to keep.

#essays

0 notes

thxslartibartfast · 7 years

Text

1/8/2017

A shoutout to my friends who made my trip:

Kristine, my Norwegian friend, thank you for being my guide to Norway. For taking me hiking and skiing and letting me eat dinner with your family. I only wish I'd met you earlier in the semester you were at UT so we'd had more time together. I know I'll see you again, and I can't wait to see how successful you become!

Krista, my Dutch-Canadian bestie, it was so refreshing to have another sarcastic North American to confide in and have inside jokes with. I think you were the only person the entire trip whom I did not have a language barrier of some kind with (including the Irish and their weird slang), and I couldn't have made it through the US Election without you there to let me rant to. You're hilarious and grumpy and always made me feel better, and I cannot wait to meet up with you when you visit Texas (even though you claim you don't ever want to visit the Bible Belt).

Rolinda, my Dutch friend, you are one of the sweetest, funniest people I've ever had the joy to know. You balanced out Krista's and my sarcasm with your motherly, "she doesn't mean that!! You're not ___" before turning around and telling it like it is in a candid and hilarious way.

Juliana, the lively Portuguese comedian, your genuine interest in wanting to learn English honestly inspires me. I've never felt so connected to someone who speaks English as a second language, and I wish I spoke Portuguese because you're f*ing hilarious in English so your jokes in Portuguese must be amazing. You made my Stockholm trip awesome and you're gonna do amazing things and be a light to everyone around you.

Arisa, my Japanese travel companion, you're actually the most thoughtful person I've ever met. I remember when your roommate was sick and you Googled "things Irish people eat when they're sick", then proceeded to buy the Norwegian versions of the stuff on the list. There's so many stories that I could tell about you and our trips to London and Stockholm and the Japanese food you made for us all and the dumb shenanigans we got into, but that story of you trying to cheer up Parisa when she was sick is really the "picture" that's worth a thousand words. You're thoughtful and caring, finding little ways to show people you love them, and my life was all the better for getting to have you in it, however brief a time.

Jenny, my Vietnamese friend and the linchpin of our gang, you were the first friend I made in Norway. Your friendly smile, warm welcome, and the enthusiasm you showed really brought us all together.

My Irish friends:

Paddy, you're everything a stereotypical Irish lad should be; merry and cheerful, happy to share drinks and stories and laughs. You're the reason I discovered the group from the British Isles, and I'm so lucky you were in my buddy group that first week (although you always complained that everyone else got to be in the same group and they threw you in with "Molly and the Asians").

Cillian, the ringleader of the gang, you were amazingly open-minded, the way you can only become from traveling the world. The party dad who always made sure everyone gets home, everyone had a well-placed faith in you that isn't easily gained. I hope I get to see you again (and since you're literally one of two friends who said they want to see Texas, there's a decent-ish chance of that).

Philip, ever the opposite of Cillian, said to shoot him with one of my guns if I ever see him in Texas. You're the most impish person I've ever had the pleasure to know, and I'll look back fondly on all the annoying things you did. Thanks for the memories and our B in the marketing class you never attended.

Parisa, I've never met a more "mom" mom than you. I wish we'd gotten to hang out one on one more, that's one of my few regrets from this semester. I'll miss your kind smile and the quips you'd share with Philip when he was being especially bothersome.

Sarah and Jess, y'all will hold a special spot in my memories from the couple of nights in your dorms, the parties and that forever fun marketing project we put off until two days before (@Jess). I hope you both are having fun at your internships, and I hope I see you again, Jess has already made tentative plans for us to meet in NYC or California (bc they're near Texas and all).

Sam, the only British bloke (look at me using the slang heh heh) in the gang, you were always my favorite to talk to. You had some clever jokes (although everything sounds nice in a British accent), and I could always count on you to cheer me up or calm me down or just make me laugh unexpectedly. Another member of the "never see you again Molly" camp, I hope one day I run into you at an airport or something at least!

And so I said goodbye to all my friends who were there for my adventures. Summing them up in a few short sentences doesn't do justice to their characters, but I was lucky to make many good friends and I don't want to write a novel here. Har det bra, Norway <3

0 notes

Last Seen Blogs

yoshray-blog

Black_eyes

romdotcom

Rom.Dot.Com

cricketsportz

Cricket News Today, Latest Cricket Updates, Fantasy Cricket,

vinhonacama

Vinho na Cama

faithandreams

faith and dreams