#the first picture was taken at the beginning of October and I have to explain the Latte Macchiato (bc I have this need to explain EVERYTHING

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Dumbledore is a Manipulative Piece of Shit: Part 1/?

Since I read the books for the first time at the age of 12, I knew I didn't trust Dumbledore. Back then, I couldn't put my finger on why. But now, a bit over a decade later, I can.

Not only can I explain why I thought something's fishy, but I can prove it is.

This is going to be a long series... but let's start at the beginning:

Halloween 1981

I'm going to go about this in chronological order of events according to book quotes I could track down.

Before the Prophecy

Circa October 24, 1979 - Lily gets pregnant with Harry. According to reverse calculating due date.

Sometime between March 1980 and October 1980 Peter Pettigrew starts spying for the Order.

"(Dumbledore) was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements...Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who."

(Prisoner of Azkaban, page 205)

We know that there was a spy in the Order that fed Voldemort information before James and Lily went into hiding. Sirius mentions Peter being a spy for a long time again later in Prisoner of Azkaban:

“Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord . . . you have no idea . . . he has weapons you can’t imagine. . . . I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen. . . . He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me —” “DON’T LIE!” bellowed Black. “YOU’D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!”

(Prisoner of Azkaban, page 374)

So we know Pettigrew spied for Voldemort for about a year, if not more, before October 1981. The reason I'm saying he might have spied for longer is that the Order noticed there was a spy during that year, there might've been months he spied but the Order was none the wiser.

The months leading up to the attack on the Potter

So, we know when Peter started feeding Voldemort information, but we need to know when exactly the prophecy was given and when James and Lily went into hiding under the Fideliulous Charm. Most fans I see, seem to think they were hiding for only a week, then Peter betrayed them and then they died that same night. I think it went a little different. I think they were hiding for much longer.

So, let's determine this from the Evidence we are given.

The picture of the Order of the Phoenix Moody shows Harry in book 5 is the final picture of the Order togather before the Potters went into hiding. Most fans date this photo to the summer of 1980. I think it has to be earlier than that for two simple reasons:

Lily isn't pregnant and Harry wasn't born

Alice isn't pregnant and Neville wasn't born

“...That’s Frank and Alice Longbottom —” Harry’s stomach, already uncomfortable, clenched as he looked at Alice Longbottom; he knew her round, friendly face very well, even though he had never met her, because she was the image of her son, Neville....

...His mother and father were beaming up at him, sitting on either side of a small, watery-eyed man Harry recognized at once as Wormtail: He was the one who had betrayed their whereabouts to Voldemort and so helped bring about their deaths.

(Order of the Pheonix, page 174)

Remember, Harry and Neville were born at the end of July 1980, and pictures taken during that summer would show the pregnancy or taken after their births. So I think that picture was taken in 1979, although I'm uncertain exactly when. because, as I'll prove later in this post, the Potters went into hiding before Harry was born.

Next up to help us put a date to when they went into hiding is the Fidelious Charm itself, or more correctly, how it works.

The Fidelious Charm hides a piece of information within a person. It hides the phrasing of a secret, not a location.

an immensely complex spell ... involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it.

(Prisoner of Azkaban, 205)

It can be used to hide a location like we see the Order of the Phoenix do:

Dumbledore's Secret-Keeper for the Order, you know -- nobody can find Headquarters unless he tells them personally where it is

(Order if the Pheonix, 115)

With the phrase that Dumbledore hides being:

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

(Order of the Phoenix, page 58)

They use a specific phrasing to hide the Order's headquarters. The moment the Order stops existing, the house will stop being a secret. I'd argue the moment Grimmauld Place stopped being the Headquarters it stopped being a secret because this phrase applied no longer.

This is what we see with the Potter residence. Once James and Lily die, the Charm breaks and muggles make their way to the house:

“No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin’ around. He fell asleep as we was flyin’ over Bristol."

(Philosopher's Stone, page 13)

The fact muggles and Hagrid could arrive at the house and see it means the Charm broke.

We also see it in Deathly Hollows when Harry and Hemione visit the Potter's cottage:

He could see it; the Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily. 

(Deathly Hallows, page 286)

"So what?" You may ask, "we know this already,"

True, but the reason it's important is because it hints at the phrasing used when the charm was cast. It means the phrasing of the secret Peter kept being along the lines of:

"James and Lily Potter are hiding in the Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow"

Now, this makes sense to be the secret, right, but notice, Harry isn't mentioned. If Harry was part of the secret, the charm would not have broken with James and Lily's deaths, since the secret would still protect Harry. Now, why not protect Harry as well? The whole point of the Fidelious Charm was to protect Harry, was it not?

This means the Potters went into hiding and the charm was cast before Harry was born.

More that suggests they were hiding for quite a while is Lily's letter to Sirius:

Dear Padfoot, Thank you, thank you, for Harry’s birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick

(Deathly Hollows, page 158)

Meaning Harry's first birthday (July, 1981) happened when they were already under the protection of the charm. As this letter was sent a short time after it (early August 1981).

James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell

(Deathly Hollows, page 158)

Also from Lily's letter to Sirius. James' restlessness definitely suggests they were hiding under the charm for a good few months before Harry's first birthday.

This dates the Prophecy and Trawlany's job interview around the first half of 1980 (January to May). This means the Potters were in hiding between a year and 4 months to a year and 9 months before their deaths.

All of this leaves us with two main oddities. Questions that just got me scratching my head:

If Peter was a spy since March 1980 at the earliest and October 1980 at the latest (but probably earlier), and the Potters went into hiding with him as the secret keeper in Earley in July 1980 at the latest, why not tell Voldemort immediately? And if he did, why did Voldemort wait a full year+ to go and kill the Potters?

It means that when Severus Snape came begging for Dumbledore to save Lily about a week before their deaths, Dumbledore already had the Potters in hiding. It means Dumbledore made Snape take an oath for him to do something he already did. So we see Dumbledore's first manipulations coming into play by fucking Severus over and taking him as a spy without actually giving anything in turn.

The first question is one I have somewhat of an answer for in my Voldemort character analysis, but this isn't this post. This is about Dumbledore's crimes.

The Night Everything Happened

Now we arrive at the night that changed the Wizarding World and the life of one Harry Potter. October 31st, 1981.

I time Voldemort’s arrival at Godric's Hollow at the late evening (around 8 PM). This is due to children being allowed outside still:

The night wet and windy, two children dressed as pumpkins waddling across the square, and the shop window covered in paper spiders, all the tawdry Muggle trapping of a world in which they did not believe

(Deathly Hollows, page 295)

And Harry (a year and four months old infent) still being awake, but clearly preparing for bed:

the tall black haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas

(Deathly Hollows, page 295)

So, Voldemort arrives at Godric's Hollow around 8:00 PM, let's say, 15 to 20 minutes later, James and Lily are dead, Voldemort’s body is destroyed and he runs off to Albania. Baby Harry is crying and the Fidelious is broken.

Now, things get interesting. Well, more interesting.

We know the first on the scene is Peter Pettigrew, arriving around 8:30 PM, and retrieving Voldemort’s wand. We don't actually know when or if this happened beyond a quote from JKR, but as muggles and aurors searched the house, it's unlikely Voldemort’s wand was there and undiscovered.

Then Pettigrew ran away to the muggle street where he would meet Sirius.

The second on the scene is Reberus Hagrid.

Hagrid arrives sometime later when muggled started looking into what happened now that the Fidelious Charm is broken:

“No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin’ around. He fell asleep as we was flyin’ over Bristol."

(Philosopher's Stone, page 13)

Around the same time Pettigrew arrived at Godric's Hollow, Sirius probably saw Peter wasn't home and realized the Fidelious was broken. So he heads to Godric's Hollow.

The night they died, I’d arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he’d gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn’t feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents’ house straight away. And when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies . . . I realized what Peter must’ve done . . . what I’d done. . . .

(Prisoner of Azkaban, page 365)

Sirius reaches the Potters and meets Hagrid there, outside the house, Harry already in Hagrid's arms:

“I met him!” growled Hagrid. “I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an’ James’s house after they was killed! Jus’ got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, an’ his parents dead . . . an’ Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin’ motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin’ there. I didn’ know he’d bin Lily an’ James’s Secret-Keeper. Thought he’d jus’ heard the news o’ You-Know-Who’s attack an’ come ter see what he could do. White an’ shakin’, he was. An’ yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN’ TRAITOR!” Hagrid roared.

(Prisoner of Azkaban, page 206)

Sirius then goes after Pettigrew, after failing to take Harry from Hagrid and figuring he'd rather chase the rat down before he disappears. We all know how that ends, as Hagrid takes Harry according to Dumbledore's orders.

‘Give Harry ter me, Hagrid, I’m his godfather, I’ll look after him —’ Ha! But I’d had me orders from Dumbledore, an’ I told Black no, Dumbledore said Harry was ter go ter his aunt an’ uncle’s. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Harry there. ‘I won’t need it anymore,’ he says. “I shoulda known there was somethin’ fishy goin’ on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin’ it ter me for? Why wouldn’ he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace.

(Prisoner of Azkaban, page 206)

This quote has quite a few interesting things about Dumbledore, Hagrid and Sirius.

First, Hagrid says Dumbledore gave him orders to take Harry to the Dursleys. This order was given before Sirius went after Peter, before he was arrested and sent to Azkaban.

This is illegal. At this point in time Sirius was Harry's legal godfather and guardian, and yet Dumbledore gave Hagrid this order. And yes, you could argue it was because he knew Sirius was the Secret Keeper and was wary of him, but:

“Hagrid,” said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. “At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?” “Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,” said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. “Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I’ve got him, sir.” “No problems, were there?”

(Philosopher's Stone, page 13)

Dumbledore hears Hagrid met Sirius when retrieving Harry and shows no concern. Like he doesn't consider Sirius a threat to Hagrid and Harry. But then, why take Harry away? Why support Sirius' arrest? (More on that in a later post)

Not only is all this highly illegal but how did Dumbledore know when the Potters died?

JK explained he had some magical alarms in place, but that means at the earliest he would've known the moment Voldemort entered the premises. But he knew before. He knew James and Lily would die that day before they died.

How do I know that?

Simple, Hagrid can't apparate and didn't arrive via broom or floo.

Hogwarts, where Hagrid is during October as Grounds keeper, is in the Scottish Highlands (Higher up as they travel for about 9-10 hours by train from Kings Cross to reach Hogwarts as they leave at eleven and arrive for dinner). Godric's Hollow is in West Country, England. This distance is a 9-10 hour drive (672.03 km, 417.58 miles).

It means that for Hagrid to arrive by 9 PM at Godric's Hollow, Dumbledore told him to go fetch Harry, the order was given to Hagrid between 11-12 noon on October 31st.

This already paints Dumbledore in a bad light, it means he planned this. I'd argue he even planned for Voldemort to hear of the Prophecy (but that's a different post). But it means Dumbledore planned for the Potters to be killed that night.

Second, Hagrid is right about Sirius giving his bike being odd (But that's a different post about the Fidelious Charm). But, in short, something was up and Sirius knew, at least somewhat, that he was doomed.

The Boy Who Lived

Finally, we arrive at the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone. We follow Vernon Dursely throughout his day on November 1st. We know that because we see the Wizarding World celebrating the death of Voldemort:

He’d (Mr. Dursley) forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker’s. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn’t know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn’t see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying. “The Potters, that’s right, that’s what I heard —” “ — yes, their son, Harry —” Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.

(Philosopher's Stone, page 6)

So, McGonagall is watching over the Dursleys throughout November 1st. It means Harry arrived at the Dursleys around midnight between November 1st and November 2nd.

Hagrid and Harry left Godric's Hollow on Sirius' flying motorbike around 10 PM at the latest on October 31st. So what was Hagrid doing with Harry in these 26 hours?

The only information we have is that Harry: "fell asleep over Bristol,"

Thing is, if we go back to the map of the UK.

Bristol is not really on the way from Godric's Hollow to Surry.

But it is closer to the flight path between Godric's Hollow and Hogwarts.

(The locations are estimated for fictional locations but are based on what I know. Regardless, West Country to Surry won't pass over Bristol, while West Country to the Scottish Highlands is likely to, so the point stands)

In conclusion, Dumbledore manipulated Harry's life, his parents' deaths, Snape, Sirius, and Hagrid, and fucked them all over for the sake of his grand plan of defeating Voldemort.

What else went into his plan and who else he fucked over, will be covered in the next installments.

#harry potter #harry potter theory #harry potter thoughts #wizarding world #overthinking #hp theory #hollowedtheory #albus dumbledore #sirius black #james potter #lily potter #peter pettigrew #Dumbledore Analysis #lord voldemort #voldemort #first wizarding war #lily evans #severus snape

[finallydelight]

MING CHAPTER WHERE MEMBERS BECOME CERY PROTECTIVE OF HER 🥺 i love seeing how much they care for her

here you go, love! i hope you enjoy it and thank you for the request!

Personal Space, Please | Ming Chapter

October, 2020

"Everyone's here? Great, we can start then! We'll begin with unit shoots, who's going first?" The photographer looked from the complete group to their manager.

His eyes first landed on Hoshi. "The 96z will start." Jun, Wonwoo, Hoshi and Woozi got up from their seats and took off their jackets to begin the shoot. Meanwhile the rest of the members waited and cheered them on.

Ming was getting her makeup retouched when a male staff member approached her. "Ming-ssi, do you need something warm? It's quite cold here outside."

She figured he was part of the photographer's staff, since she didn't recognise him. "I'm fine, thank you." She declined, not feeling that cold.

"If you need anything, you can always ask me." He said, before bowing his head and walking away.

"Do you know him, unnie?" Ming asked her stylist, while she fixed her eyeshadow. She shook her head. "No, I don't think he's with us."

"HOSHI SEXY!"

Ming's mind got taken away from the staff member and was brought back to the photoshoot happening in front of her.

"Guys, there's a change of units, the maknaes and 95z will shoot together." Their manager announced, looking up from his phone.

They all looked up confused. "Why?"

"Otherwise we don't have enough time for the full group shoot." He explained, typing away on his phone.

They all nodded, not minding it very much. "And fans will like it either way, the youngest with the oldest, that always gets well received." Their manager said, smiling at the members.

"It's okay, hyung." Coups said, letting him know it was alright.

"I really like the dress they picked out for you." Her attention shifted back to her stylist, who seemed finished with touching up her makeup.

Ming looked at the dress, it wasn't too short on her, but it wasn't long either. "I like it too, something different."

"Alright, next unit, please." The photographer announced, loudly. Mingyu, Dokyeom and Minghao got up as the manager looked at them.

Ming looked to her right and saw the male staff member from before on his phone. Normally, she wouldn't think anything of it, but the camera was held at quite a weird angle and when she looked in his direction, he almost dropped his phone.

She turned her head back to the photoshoot, but she couldn't get that weird interaction out of her mind. She signalled to their manager to come over. "What's up?"

"That guy on the right there, who's holding his phone, he's kind of behaving weird. I think he was filming me." The manager subtly looked at who she meant, but he wasn't holding his phone at that moment. "Probably a bit starstruck to see you, but we'll keep an eye on it." He told her, giving her an assuring smile.

"Thank you."

After a while, it was her unit's turn to be photographed for the magazine. The photographer instructed the members to lay down on the ground next to each other in a circle formation. They all did as he said and lied down on the ground.

"Hey, what's that guy doing?" Mingyu noticed the male staff member holding his phone at quite a weird angle, it seemed to be pointed at the young female. The others looked to where Mingyu was looking and were confused as to what he was doing. "Is he taking pictures of Yerim?" Woozi asked.

As she was too busy with the shoot, Ming didn't notice her dress had ridden up a bit. However, the mysterious male staff member did and wasn't going to let the opportunity slip to take a picture of it.

"I think he is." Mingyu said, already getting up along with Wonwoo and Hoshi. They moved themselves in front of Ming behind the camera, so they were blocking the guy's camera.

The others who stayed seated alerted their manager. "Hyung, that guy behind the members is taking pictures under Ming's dress." Dokyeom informed him, pointing at the man in question.

He nodded and made his way over to the man. The manager could already see the guy slightly panicking and saw him doing some things on his phone, before putting it in his pocket.

"You're not taking pictures of the artists, right?" He asked him, still trying to sound professional. The guy shook his head. "No, no, I wasn't, I was just on my phone." He tried excusing himself.

Their manager nodded, not believing it for one bit. "Can I check it, you know, so there are no misunderstandings?" He already had a feeling the guy had deleted the pictures, but it was worth trying.

He hesitated for a bit, stuttering inaudible words, before typing his password and giving the manager the phone. His suspicions were correct and there were no pictures of Ming or any other member present on his phone.

He handed him his phone back. "Thank you, we have to be careful, we don't want any issues for our artists." He hoped by coming up to the guy, he would get the message and stop bothering Ming.

He made his way back to the members. "I checked his phone, but there were no pictures on there." He told them.

"The bastard deleted them." Woozi commented, giving the guy a glare. "Poor thing, she can never catch a break with these perverts." Minghao said, feeling bad that it was always Ming who had to deal with these kinds of situations.

"Alright, that's good, thank you," the photographer put his camera down, "let's retouch the makeup, change the set and then we'll do the group shots." He instructed the teams around him.

Mingyu had grabbed Ming's coat and covered her while she got up, so no inappropriate pictures could be taken anymore. "Yerim-ie, the guy was taking pictures of you while you lied down." Wonwoo told her, helping her up.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "What?" She looked around the set, but the guy wasn't anywhere near in sight.

"What do you mean taking pictures of her?" Cheol joined them, overhearing what Wonwoo told her. "While you guys were on the ground, a male staff member was holding his phone at quite a weird angle. The manager went up to him, but he had already deleted the pictures by the time he got to him." Wonwoo explained to them.

"Where is he?" The leader asked, looking around the set. "He doesn't seem to be here right now." Mingyu and Ming chorused.

"Yerim-ie, come here for a second, let me fix your makeup." Her stylist called her over. Ming nodded and made her way over. "A bit more powder, your forehead was a little shiny in the pictures." Her stylist explained, putting some more powder on her forehead. "Well, I am a star." Ming commented sarcastically, making the older woman laugh.

As the two women continued chatting, they failed to notice a figure creeping up on them. Ming did feel someone walking behind her, but she couldn't move as her stylist was retouching her makeup.

"Hey!"

All of a sudden, there was a commotion happening. A bunch of members surrounded her, there was yelling, a broken phone on the floor.

She felt arms around her shoulder and on her back guiding her away from the set, looking next to her she saw Jeonghan and Minghao. "What happened?" She asked then, totally confused. "That guy was filming under your dress." Jeonghan answered, voice thick with anger. "Coups-hyung pushed him away from you." Minghao mumbled, just focused on getting her as far away from the scene as possible.

Ming looked at him in shock, not expecting that that was what the commotion was about. "He pushed him?" She asked them.

"He wanted to push the phone out of his hand, but he was standing very close to you, and… yeah." Jeonghan tried explaining to her.

They made their way to the dressing room, since it was empty and quiet. Despite the frustrations and anger they felt, Jeonghan and Minghao remained calm on the outside. If they remained calm about the situation, Ming would remain calm.

"He's not going to get in trouble, is he?" She asked them, not wanting their leader to receive a scolding by the company. "Don't worry about that, Ming-ah." Jeonghan told her, not wanting her to feel bad about anything.

The door of the dressing room opened, revealing Vernon, Chan, Seungkwan, Dokyeom and Jun. "Here's your coat." Chan hands it to her. "Thanks."

Dokyeom immediately sat by Ming's side, checking up on her. "You're okay?" He's too sweet, honestly. She nodded. "Yeah, I didn't really know what was happening." She told him. He gave the younger one a hug, knowing it would give both of them some comfort.

"Security took the guy away." Seungkwan informed the three members. They all nodded, relief going through their bodies that he wasn't there anymore.

A couple minutes later, the rest of the members walked in. There was an obvious tension in the room that none of the members dared to speak on. It was a truly rare sight.

Woozi scratched his voice. "The guy had a video on his phone, but it's gone now," he starts off, "and the shoot is canceled, so grab your stuff and we can go home." The members moved at his words and started gathering their belongings to make a quick getaway.

Their staff had also made their appearance and started packing all the makeup, hair products and clothes that they had needed for the shoot. Ming had also seen their manager briefly, but he didn't really seem in the mood to talk.

Mingyu, Cheol, Wonwoo and Ming got into their car together. There was a silence present in the car that Mingyu tried to fill up by talking about this new camera that he had bought. Eventually, Mingyu and Wonwoo fell asleep since it was quite late at night and it had been a hectic day.

Ming stared out of the window, deeply sinking into her thoughts. A hand against her arm brings her out of her trance. "Hey, little one." She looks at Cheol, giving him a tired smile. "Hi"

"How are you feeling?" He asked her, realizing he hadn't been able to talk to her since the 'incident'.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just tired, I want to forget today." She told him, being honest about her feelings.

"You're not alone," he said, "I hope I didn't scare you, I don't know what came over me." She could hear the guilt in his voice and could see it in his eyes, it broke her heart to think he thought she would be scared of him.

"I could never be scared of you," she grabbed his hand, "I just don't want you to get in trouble, oppa."

"You're more important to me than the company, Yerim."

○○○

Taglist: @lunarxsun @cosmicwintr @mythicalamphitrite @billboard-singer @stopeatread @still-astray @sakuurra @multiplumes @giverosespls @seongwhaffels

#ming.svt #deluxeocnet #aes!ocnet #14th member of seventeen #seventeen 14th member #seventeen female addition #seventeen female member #seventeen addition #seventeen oc #kpop addition #kpop oc #kpop au #seventeen extra member #scoups x reader #scoups x oc #seungcheol x reader #seungcheol x oc #seventeen x oc #seventeen x reader

[ranwing]

Personal stuff (feel free to ignore)

Two weeks ago was the 3rd anniversary of losing mom, and admittedly I've been rather down for the past few weeks. I can't believe that so much time has passed, and that it still feels like yesterday. I started thinking a lot about those days when she was on hospice care when I lay in bed at night and the moments when it was clear that she was slipping away. There was the moment when I asked her who I was and she didn't recognize me. The moment when she lost the ability to swallow and I had to clean what she tried to eat for breakfast out of her mouth. I remember when the nurses explained that what I thought was sweat was her body forcing all of it's fluid out through the skin which was a clear sign that she might have only a week or two left. And watching my father holding her hand, sleeping in a chair next to her bed and telling her that it was okay to go.

There were so many wonderful things for my family after we lost Mom. My niece was awarded her PhD in psychology and is well on her way to making a name for herself in her field. My nephew graduated college and is starting to build his own career. My niece got married last October and yesterday she came over to tell us that she and her husband are now expecting their first child. There have been so many things that would have filled Mom with so much joy because there was nothing she loved more than her family. She would already be starting work on knitting a blanket for my niece's baby. When my niece told us, I started crying because all I can think about is how Mom was robbed of this. That her child will never know her great-grandmother and what an amazing person she was.

Mom wasn't just my parent, but one of my very best friends. We did so much together. I took her to see Adam Lambert in concert because we both loved him. We did Civil war reenacting with my dad and I remember the blue dress that she always wore for the first event of the season that ended up in every picture, which we called the FBD (fucking blue dress). I would take her to the Renaissance Faire with me, and dress her up in my spare corset and wench gear. She would read my fanfiction, offering suggestions and edits. We had so many wonderful, funny, amazing moments together and now it's all over. I can't begin to count the number of times when even now, my instinct is to call her from the office and just see how her day was going.

I've been crying a lot lately. A lot of people that have been through a similar loss warned that the pain will never entirely go away. It's long enough that the wound on my heart is now a scar, but it still hurt. I want to reach the point where the memories are bittersweet and not just painful. I want to think of her as she was in life and not those last moments when I lost her. It just hurts that life is going on and she is not a part of it beyond being a memory. It's not fair and I hate that she was taken away from me. It doesn't matter that I'm a woman in her 50s who had my own life. There are still those moments that I just wanted my Mom.

Thanks for listening. It's been a rough few weeks.

#personal stuff #grief journey #dealing with loss

[golbrocklovely]

i'm really lost, can you explain the timeline of Colby going from ms singer to m? just super confused about it all hahah

of course anon, i would love to lol

i'm actually genuinely happy someone finally asked me something like this bc i've been seeing a lot of misinformation and i'm really tired of it.

i'm explaining everything, pictures and all. i'm blurring out ppl's names and sticking to the codes names i've given the girls involved. i get that you can find these names relatively easy, i'm just not gonna be the place for you to do so.

some of the things i'm gonna mention don't have physical proof, bc they were in a live stream or just stuff i didn't take ss of. but trust me everything i'm gonna say is real and not me making shit up.

so… let's start from the beginning.

the first major misconception that i've seen is that colby and ms singer got together back in march, dated until october/november, and then colby just haphazardly moved onto m. ppl say this bc they use the pic of them out that leaked and compare it to the pic of her wearing the same outfit in march on her insta.

now idk how this got lost in translation, but ppl are trying to say it's m in the pic??? it's not, but cool that you guys want to believe that lol

but again, this fandom is holding onto "oh well, her pic on insta is from march, so that means that a, this pic was taken in march, and b, they have been together since then". respectfully, did yall forget that ppl rewear clothes? just curious.

i also literally saw her, on her story, post the exact same outfit, but in november. so....

the pic of him and ms singer is not from march. it got post on tiktok in october.

and HERE is colby, at universal horror nights, which is where the photo was taken, meeting a fan.

now, this might not proof enough, bc he could have just been dating her secretly and this was the first time they were "caught" in public. but let's be forreal for two seconds. first off, in march, he was deciding whether or not to get chemo. and on top of that they were working nonstop to have backlog content in case of him getting chemo. neither one of them had gfs or time for gfs.

on top of all of this, i have more proof that they didn't start seeing each other until september. colby did not even follow her until sept 21ish. i know this bc i keep track of who he follows and when. yes, i know it's weird. idc. here's other ppl he followed at that time:

the black box is ms singer's name.

now, onto the stuff i don't have proof of - right as all this information was blowing up, ms singer started getting more viewers on her tiktok livestreams. one of the first ones she had after the above tiktok dropped, she was asked during her livestream what's the best date she was on and she said it was one that happened recently, most likely alluding to colby's (with sam in tow most likely with k/la girl).

the biggest proof of them all is that ms singer herself said in a livestream that she didn't meet colby until september. she outwardly said that. i have friends who heard her say that, not just anons that randomly tell me things. actual ppl i have convos with daily.

now, we have to move on to how he got with m. everything this point down will just be complete speculation on my part. the only proof i have is that colby did not start following m until the day after sam's bday. she was at the party after the marathon bc k brought her there (and k was also there obviously).

personally, what i believe happened was that ms singer was very heavy handed on the fact that she personally wants to get married and have kids soon even tho she's only 21. she said it multiple times on tiktok. idk why you want to rush into that type of stuff, but hey, you do you. that being said, most likely, while they both enjoyed their time together, colby is not exactly ready to settle down and have kids anytime soon. so he most likely backed off of ms singer.

after halloween, ms singer was no where to be found with colby. what i believe happened is since k/la girl and sam were already together, she decided to bring along m to sam's bday bash. m and colby clicked, and they spent all this time together.

now, when it comes to ms singer and k and m being in some weird little drama where ms singer feels slighted - first off, i have no clue about any of that for certain. ms singer continues to be vague, for good reason, and so it's hard to know what happened. if i was ms singer, i too would be a bit pissed if my friend brought some other girl to be around the guy i was into, just bc he wasn't into me. i'm not trying to say all of this isn't messy. it is to some degree, but i don't fully blame k. colby is a grown man. if he wanted to continue his friendship with ms singer after they "broke up", he would have. clearly, it just wasn't in the cards. or maybe he felt awkward being friends with her still after moving onto someone she knew/is somewhat friends with.

okay, i think that's everything. if there is anything else you need me to explain, feel free to ask. the only reason i really wanted to answer this kind of ask was bc i've heard some whispers via comments on tiktok and twitter and whatever else that some fans think or believe that sam cheated on kat with k just bc ms singer (who is good friends with k) and kat knew each other. bc they think the timing of everything is "suspicious".

first off, kat and sam broke up in march. ppl mistakeningly believe ms singer was in the picture around this time, which is why they think k/la girl is also in the picture. that's just factually not true. secondly, sam was literally fuckboying his ass up during the summer: he followed multiple asian girls (like almost 10) in julyish before during and after japan, danced and spent the night with that random girl that was on jc's stream during his party (while colby had fun with her friend, mind you), and then ppl speculated that he had a thing with niki going on too. that boy was having fun during this period prior to september, which is when he ACTUAL started seeing k/la girl. and third, if sam or kat cheated on one another, i'm 99% certain we would have known way before now. they literally explained in their break up video that nothing actually happened, sam just wasn't ready for marriage. not to mention, if he did cheat, YALL AIRING IT OUT IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT. if they were hiding something like that from us, realistically it would be for good reason. it's not your business to share that intimate of details.

and before anyone gets on my ass about that comment, everything i'm sharing with yall is already public info. i'm not speculating, minus what happened between ms singer and la girl. but even bits of that have been told by ms singer herself so… don't come for me lol

#ask #personal #cb ll

[bcacstuff]

Live IG Waypoints cover reveal August 7 2022

Transcription, long version:

After welcoming, explaining what Waypoints is; his new book, new memoir, really excited to share this very personal journey with you all. He was aware the cover already has been shared (😂) before he managed to reveal it, some people did get hold of it. But if you haven't seen it, I'm about to show you.

Very briefly, just to tell you about it. The book will be coming out in October (25), you can pre-order, we've got a bunch of signed copies, it was a fun experience, it's basically a memoirs with a difference, I recount 'My journey', ‘My Scottish journey’ is the name, the title, Waypoints, my Scottish journey. From my birth upbringing in rural Scotland, to deciding to become an actor, and then obviously my career so far. Meanwhile I also go on this 96 mile hike, let’s say 100 miles on the West Highland Way in Scotland just around the end of October last year. And then I decided to climb Ben Nevis as well. In pretty much the beginning of winter which was probably not the best idea.

Still welcoming viewers, shout out to his publisher Radar books, and also to Voracious Books, thanking them for their guidance to create his first solo endeavor. Clanlands and the Almanac was a great experience working with my fond, angry, bearded co-star Graham McTavish, but this was really a personal experience. It’s a lot harder when you’re on your own, because you really have to write a lot more and trying to remember all the things.

Finally getting to reveal the cover, while telling Mr. Cree, yes my solo endeavor. Here it is, I hope you likes it, uh.. it's back to front because I got my phone back to front. I promise you the actual book wont be back to front.

Picture of me on the. front of course, because just to remind you who I am (!) and what I look like…. 😳 This is actually a photo taken on the shores of Loch Lomond. That is where part of the journey took me. Probably the second day you go on the shores of Loch Lomond. If you don’t know the West Highland Way is a walk from pretty much my home in Glasgow, 100 miles up through the highlands, you go pass loch Lomond as you go up Crianlarich go through Glencoe, you go up the Devils Staircase and ultimately you end up at Fort William up in the Highlands of Scotland. It’s a beautiful walk. 

Describing the picture on the cover now, obviously having a wee dram here…. Been writing something, points out there’s a map which I clearly could have used along the walkway. Showing the back, we only just decided on the back. Here's the picture, I took this photo while I was on the walk. That is the West Highland Way. If you look closely enough, this is Glencoe, this is the old military road. You can just see over here (points to a building in the distance), this is the King House Hotel. Actually an interesting base, we filmed OL up here. If you have seen the last season, S6,, the very first flash back. The scene where Jamie is carrying rocks. And you can see the Buachaille Etive Mòr (pointing on the left side of the back cover). But I took this photo just as it got dark, I think on my 3rd day. Pretty exhausted, and actually by the time I got to the hotel I stayed that night (pointing again at the King House Hotel) it was pitch black.

There’s a little excerpt here on the back, he’s reading it to his viewers:

Far ahead Behind the rolling hills, I see the ghostly traces of the highland mountain ranges, they dare me on. I falter my footsteps slow. It strikes me that my journey is almost over, I don’t want it to end. So given that I’m completely alone, I throw my arms out in celebration and gratitude. “Scotland” I yell, simply because I want to hear my own voice across this great Glenn. The hills echo me back.

Explains it isn’t actually the book he’s showing, but a dummy, cause they don’t actually have the books yet because they’re not being published until October when you can get your hands on it, please pre-order. It’s been such fun, really rewarding, he’s really proud of it, he hopes you like it.

Showing the book, well actually the cover, from all sides, the front, the back the spine. Insert on the inside with his biography and what the book is about as well.

Asking for questions:

Obviously has a little dram to celebrate, cheers…slainte. He doesn’t recommend to drink and write, he may have done that a little bit.

Q: Will there be an audiobook?

Very good question (of course 🙄), yes indeed… which you can, he thinks pre-order now, and I will read my own words. I will be recording the audiobook quite soon (so hasn’t done it yet!) I may throw in some extra stuff in there while recording. Talking about recording the Clanlands 'when Graham and I had a really good time recording that’ (smiling at the memory…) A lot of things that didn’t quite make the book. It’s gonna take me a few days to record it, it’s a sizable book, obviously not as big as Diana Gabaldon’s books.

Q: Where did the idea come to write about your journey?

Really good question.The west highland way is a walk, journey, that I always wanted to do. As I said it goes almost from my home, it goes right through the lowlands and the highlands of Scotland. And you know, I’ve been to Glencoe, which is part of the walk, so many times, we shot there on OL. Actually the last day of shooting of S6, we were here in Glencoe and I went for a run with one of the other cast members and we ran along the west highland way.for about 40 minutes or something.I remember when I was running I was thinking I must do this sometime. I’m not getting any younger, I need to give this a go. So I decided to do it. However, maybe in winter is not the best time. And actually I only had a week to complete the whole walk, and go up to Ben Nevis and get back to my home to get to Edinburgh and London, because I was at that time promoting the Clanlands book for which we were doing a live evening event. Actually the Edinburgh dates, I just came back from this. It was a pretty mad few weeks, promoting Clanlands but also completing the walk. A lot of fun really rewarding.

Q: Only in English?

I’m not sure actually. I know Clanlands is doing really well, it’s in a number of other languages, the publishers keep getting up with this. So hopefully, I would love to see this in other languages. But at the moment it is English of course. Keep your eyes peeled, hopefully there will be other languages there as well.

Q: Where do you we go to pre-order?

That’s a very good question. www.waypointsbook.com. I will put the link up in a story soon as I finish this. We deliver on all major book stores. Big distributors as well. You can get them in the US, UK.

Q: Will you do a book tour?

We are definitely looking at dates. I really would love to meet some of you guys to sign some books. So yes, but I can’t tell you where. Obviously we’re still shooting S7 of OL, we are pretty busy on that. Obviously at the moment we’re on a hiatus, but in October we’ll be back at work. So yes, I hope to do a couple of events in the UK and possibly in America as well. So watch this space.

Please come to Florida! I try. Please come to LA. I will, I will….

Q: Any camping under the stars?

Yes! Yes there was camping under the stars. You learn more about it in the books. Mmmmm…. Yes interesting…. Something I wanted to do, I really wanted to do this (Sirene on the background, that’s the Police, I believe… coming for me). Yes I really wanted to camp under the stars, something that I really enjoy. Uhm, maybe didn’t quite prepare enough, but you learn all about it in the book. Please don’t take this as a guide to do the west highland way, don’t do what I did.

Q: Are you planning to visit Mexico?

Slightly off topic there, but I am, quite soon actually. So I’m looking forward to that.

Q: Did I invite Graham to camp?

(Laughs) Graham refuses to camp, Graham will never camp. Hence the reason why we are always staying in very fancy hotels and then I have to pay the bill. 

But uhm, it was really nice to do this on my own actually. Really great way to reflect. Not only I guess on the journey of walking the west highland way. Seeing the landscape of Scotland. It is beautiful even in the hight of winter. But also to reflect on my career. You know I have been an actor now for a couple of decades. And I feel like it’s been an incredible journey, it’s been a real roller coaster.Especially getting OL, and uhm meeting all you guys, it’s just been really rewarding. This was really an opportunity for me, to also be, I guess, a bit more open about my life, about who I am. How I got here. So yeah, uh… huh it’s tough and I’m nervous about it, cause I hope you guys like it. But yeah… it is my journey I guess, telling how I got to be here.

Q: Would you come to Belgium?

I love to come to Belgium.

Q: Look forward to see in October in London.

Yes! We do have two dates. I think they have been already announced. Edinburgh, at the McEwan Hall and also there is a live event in London at the Barbican, which we’re doing through Fane. Everyone that attends that in person or online, I believe gets a signed copy. I look forward to see you all there. I’m not quite sure what the actual event is going to be like, we’re still working on that. But I’m hoping we can do a talk through the walk. Maybe show you some slides on the insights into that walk. But also talk about the process of writing the book and take the photo and the whole journey. It really has been a rewarding one, a challenging one, it’s been a lot of work, but very rewarding. So I can’t wait to join me on those two dates. If you haven’t check them out, I think Fane, search on Sam Heughan or Waypoints, you will find the event details there.

Q: Pictures in the book?

Yes! Great question, thank you. Yes there are pictures. We have two segments, there’ll be a segment from my personal life. Sort of my career, like looking back you know where I started (laughs), maybe some pics of me as a young man, ahem as a boy. Some pictures from my first productions as an actor. And then we have a second section which documents the walk. And see some of the characters I met along the way (looks mysteriously). Yeah, there’s plenty to look at as well. Uhm.. it feels similar in some ways I guess to Clanlands in certain ways. In the way I tried to start each chapter. Each chapter is pretty much a day of the hike of the walk, but also it captionates a certain part or certain chapter in my career. Well, so… it’s cool. It’s been a great deal of work, I’m so pleased. Actually really want to thanks Radar. Briony (red. publisher at Radar Books) thank you so much, thanks veracious because they’ve been very patient in working with someone who is, I guess, a newbe at this. Also kinda busy, it’s been pretty tough when working on OL and also try and fit in time to do this. We got there.

Q: Any life lessons during the journey?

Plenty! Plenty! Preparation is key. But no you’ll find out. I think again, just reflecting on my journey, my life, my career. I’ve been very fortunate to get this far. There’s hopefully a lot of insights in this book as well. So I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Q: Come to Brasil Comic Con.

I would love to. We love to do a lot, we’d love to, I think we working on to do maybe New York. You’ll hear more, we try to do as much as we can. Also filming at the moment is busy, when we’re not on a hiatus on a holiday, but it’s been pretty intense.

Q: Audiobooks also for long trips in the car

Exactly, just don’t follow my directions.

Q: The hardest hike?

I give you a little insight. Part of it, it isn’t the hardest part of it, but it was an interesting part, was here in Glencoe actually. Up here somewhere, there’s a place called the Devils Staircase. I think they named it that because it is pretty steep, pretty challenging. I can’t remember what day I got there, maybe day 4, day 5. It’s a great wee hike, get’s you quite high up, and you get some amazing views across Glencoe. And then it’s quite a nice descent, I think Kinloch­leven. Really nice descent, beautiful views if you got the weather and there are no midgets. So, yes, word of advice.

Q: Favorite piece of advice in life?

Let me check this book… let’s see… oh yeah I forgot this is a dummy book. Oh well, you have to read it yourself.

Q: What is harder, writing a book or climbing Glencoe?

Well, both at the same time! Cause I did, I tried to take as many notes as possible. Actually the way I did this was with voice notes. I think I recorded over 300 voice notes while hiking. It’s the easiest way, and then you get to transcribe them at home. Did tried to write a little bit as well but everything got very wet. It’s pretty difficult when you’re actually on the hike. And sweat as well and mud, and of course whisky too. So uhm, yeah but voice notes were brilliant and a really great way to go back and reflect. And obviously taking photographs, I took so many photographs. You may have seen on my Waypoints Wednesdays. I tried to include as many Waypoints Wednesdays photo’s without giving away too much. So you can go back to my Instagram and look at them. But the photo’s in here will be ones you haven’t seen before.

Q: You have a Devils Backbone in Texas.

Oh I should try that.

Q: Has my mom read the book?

She has, she read the book. I do talk about her, I talk about my family a bit in here. Uhm, and yeah, I think it’s uh…it was tough because I’ve always tried to protect them, my family, and uhm… hmmm nnnnot uhm…. I guess… have them…uuuhhh… I don’t know, try to protect them. Because it can be quite uhm… not intrusive but it’s difficult and… and… uh, she was very proud. She’s been very very proud from the beginning. And I’m sure she’ll be asking for lots of signed copies. I keep having to give her copies of Clanlands for her friends. I just wished they’d ordered them but I got to do it. So I’m really proud. She will get the first copy of Waypoints and I will sign it to her. So thank you Chrissie (his mom) because she gave me a great start in life and you’ll find all in here.

Q: Can we buy your book from India?

Oooh, I’ve no idea. You can give it a go. I’ll include the link, waypointsbook.com. I include it in my stories when I save this video. And actually I’ll include this on other social platforms as well. And an interesting side point, I’ll put it on Twitter, but actually gonna doing some TikTok hopefully, working on getting an account for that. So we look forward to seeing you there as well, that’ll be fun, a new adventure.

Q: When are you going to come to Naples?

I’m not sure, I mean when you’re inviting me..

Q: What am I doing in the US?

Uuuhhh… what am I doing in the US? It’s a good question. Well… hopefully revealing the cover of the book. But uhm, yeah I’m off to Mexico pretty soon and then we’ll have to be back in the UK to keep filming S7. So just a very quick summer break.

Q: Did you cook while you hiked, what was the meal?

(Laughs) I did, breakfast was the best part. Porridge, cooked porridge, coffee, maybe a little bit of cinnamon on the porridge, peanut butter, you can’t beat it, you know it’s good.  Did bring up a lot of those meals you can eat up as well, you have to read the book. I don’t want to give away too much because… yeah.. it didn’t go.. it didn’t go quite to plan

Thanking the viewers, I hope you like it, I give you another close up. Not quite sure what I’m looking at there. Probably the rest of the walk, do I have to really walk this far??? Can I not just sit here and drink a whisky.

Well I did it. And we’ve done it. The book is here. The book will be in your hands very soon. Can’t wait for you guys to read this with me or, indeed listen to the audible as well. Be a lot of fun.

Thank you so much, thank you all for your support. I really appreciate it, I’ve seen all your posts, and your collages and making up your own covers and stuff. I just love that. Have a great Sunday! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. I’m gonna finish this wee dram, start reading this book.. I know it’s a dummy one… uhm, and enjoy the rest of your weekend! Thank you for tuning in, those in the UK, those in Europe, everywhere else, America, I really can’t thank you enough. I hope you like it.

Cheers to you guys... bye bye

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Unification Church/FFWPU makes false claims over photo to promote Moon as a ‘hero.’

Moon himself claimed to have carried Chung-hwa Pak for 600 miles!

Won-pil Kim, Bo Hi Pak, Hyo Jin Moon and Jin-hun Yong all repeated the lie.

From 1983, when the photo (above) surfaced in a newspaper story (see below), the Unification Church leaders always knew it was not of Moon and Pak. But they decided to use it for propaganda, regardless of the truth.

Three men made the journey from Pyongyang in North Korea to Kyongju in the winter of 1950-51: Sun Myung Moon, Won-pil Kim and Chung-hwa Pak. Pak remained in Kyongju – for a couple of years – while Moon and Kim continued on to Busan on the south coast. The Unification Church frequently STILL claim this photo is of Moon carrying Chung-hwa Pak to Yongmae Island. The detour to Yongmae Island never happened either! Won-pil Kim was forced to remove the photo from his testimony book – and he had been one of the three refugees! He repeated his false testimony all over the world.

▲ The photo was taken on Jan 14th 1951 by Cpl J.J. McGinty of the US Army. The caption at a Korean War exhibition in Seoul reads “A Korean carries his aged father across the icy Han River at Chungju, Korea, in their flight to the South to escape the onrushing Chinese Communist Forces.”

중공군의 공격으로 국군과 유엔군은 다시 첨수하였습니다. 중공군 의 공격을 피하려고 총주의 남한강물 건너 더 남쪽으로 가려는 한피란민ol 연로하신 아버지를 업고 차디찬 강물을 걸어서 건너고 있습니다. 일자: 1951년 1월 14일       자료: (사)월드피스자유연합

▲ The profile photo of Moon praying (above) was taken at Heung-in Dong in about 1955. Comparing the facial profiles of Moon and the refugee carrying his father, it is clear that Moon is not in the photo. Moon was 30 at the time of the journey. The refugees are both older than Moon and Pak were in 1950.

Chung-hwa Pak explains how he first saw the photo: “One day in 1983, the international department of the church contacted me. They asked me to stop by because they had some questions to ask. They showed me a picture in the Choong Ang Ilbo newspaper. It was a picture of a man carrying another man on his back, and they were crossing a river. They asked me whether it was a picture of Moon carrying me on his back. I answered them that we had no chance to take any pictures at that time. I never crossed any river on Moon’s back. They said nothing and I thought that was the end of it.”

▲ Here is the photo, published on October 24, 1983 in a memoir about the Korean War in The Joong-ang Ilbo 中央日報.

__________________________________

Chung-hwa Pak explains how his ankle was fractured – his leg was not broken:

“One day [in Pyongyang] I was surrounded by a gang of thugs who called themselves a security force. They were just thugs who joined the North Korean side when it was in control, and later swapped to the opposite side. They said, “You were a real communist who served as a company commander in the North Korean army. We will kill you!” Then some of them struck my leg with hammers. My ankle was fractured and I couldn’t move. I thought that my life was going to end there. An unexpected twist of fate saved me. Fortunately, I was saved by Korean Military Police. I was questioned, but because I had been imprisoned in North Korea I was soon released. All the other prisoners were executed. They were shot. I was a black belt in judo, but I really needed to get treatment for my injury. There were no hospitals in Pyongyang that were functioning.”

__________________________________

Hyo Jin Moon gave a sermon based on the invented story: Inheriting God’s Heart And True Parents’ Heart

April 28, 1991    Belvedere, New York

When he was carrying that person on his back he tried to compare himself to … it’s bothersome sometimes to think of some of the people who were with Father in the beginning. Anyway … many of you have seen those pictures of Father carrying Mr. Pak. He was carrying that person across the seabed [to Yongmae Island] a distance of about six kilometers.

I’ll try to tell you later the circumstances surrounding it. I’ll try to explain it in the video. He had literally to carry this person even though his own physical condition, just coming out of prison, was not good. All through his time in prison he utilized his imagination, thinking.. “I must overcome no matter how difficult it is.” He gave himself inspiration. He relied on his imagination to see that his work was incomparable to the kind of suffering God was facing. He really tried to think about God’s heart and tried to visualize the suffering of God. Based on the visuals that he created with his imagination about God, he overcame all those difficulties, even when he was carrying Mr. Pak. Of course it was physically difficult; he had just come out of Hungnam prison, living under those circumstances for almost three years. Obviously, he was not in shape physically to carry anybody for that long distance, let alone across a slippery, muddy seabed. Try to put yourself in that situation. But he thought to himself, “I’m not carrying a man, I’m not feeling this physical pain.” While he was carrying this person he tried to think about God’s heart. He imagined, ‘This load is nothing compared to what I must bear in order to complete the mission of restoring humanity. This is nothing compared to what I must face later on.” Based on that idea, relying on his pure imagination, Father drew a pure rationale to help him persevere through all kinds of hardship.

Ultimately they reached their destination, but couldn’t find any boat to travel down to South Korea [Inchon] and he had to walk back carrying this man again. He had to travel the same course again. It’s just unbelievable that anybody in that situation, indebted to a person in that way, would ever forget their gratitude. But this person, he rejected Father later on. I guess he couldn’t bear the persecution that he was receiving from all around him. He couldn’t take it so he left. That’s the course of Father. In a way that is the essence of his life. Over and over. People who were to assist and support Father rejected him because of their own individual lack of understanding.

Through these difficult times Father relied on his imagination. He believed in the ideal world. He believed that what he imagined would one day come true.

(LINK to Hyo Jin’s sermon)

__________________________________

Chung-hwa Pak said, in a 1993 interview in Seoul, that on the way south Moon had only carried him a couple of times, and each time for only around 400 yards, during the entire journey from Pyongyang to Kyongju. Pak clearly said that Moon had never carried him across any water.

Michael Breen recounts just two incidents of Moon carrying Pak in his book, Sun Myung Moon, the early years – on pages 129 and 135.

__________________________________

Here is how Moon boasts about his achievement: The Necessity for the Day of Victory of Love

January 15, 1984 – Tarrytown, New York“Upon the victory of my prison experience, I can claim the foundation for the fatherland. After being liberated by United Nations forces, I carried Mr. Chun Hwa Pak 600 miles from North to South Korea. Most people aren’t even able to go beyond their own needs, but I showed the example of serving others by carrying Mr. Pak for that distance.”

__________________________________

Here are the words of Bo Hi Pak in an interview in the documentary “Emperor of the Universe” which was broadcast in 2000:

Narrator: “His followers speak with awe of how he carried an injured man across Korea.”

Bo Hi Pak: “roughly 200 miles walking and walking in a mountain he carried him on the back. 80kg man on the back, all the way to the south. To me alone that shows him the messiah to me.”

LINK

__________________________________

Michael Breen’s description in his book ‘Sun Myung Moon, the early years’ (pages 135-136) is no doubt much closer to the truth than the words of Moon and Bo Hi Pak:

“From Jechon, they took the old road, which used to be the main communication link from Seoul to the south-east in the days before the railroad. It took seven to eight hours one day to struggle over the Moongyeong Pass, at the boundary of North Chungchong and North Kyongsang provinces. Kim carried the bicycle, and Moon carried Pak up the steep, icy track, which was covered in fresh snow. At the top of the pass, they walked through the ancient gate. They stopped at the town of Caun. Pak’s leg was improving and from here, he was able to ride the bicycle without being pushed. …

With Pak now able to walk, they travelled rapidly southwards, through Andong, Uiseong, and Yongcheon. They arrived one evening at Koncheon, near the historic town of Kyongju. …

Moon and Kim Won-pil [left Pak behind in Kyongju and] continued on to Ulsan, a fishing port on the east coast. There they bought train tickets, and travelled the last fifty kilometres of their journey to Pusan in two hours. They rode up front, clinging on to the front of the engine. They arrived at Choryung Station in Pusan, cold and hungry, on January 27, 1951.

However, on pages 129-130 Breen does include a version of the Yongmae Island story which he most probably got from Won-pil Kim.

__________________________________

Here is what Jin-hun Yong presented in 2011. He has known for decades that Moon, Kim and Pak never went to Yongmae Island.

How much can these Unification Church leaders be trusted?

__________________________________

Won-pil Kim was inconsistent with his lies. His own testimony book had to be revised and a replacement rushed out.

Won-pil Kim was a blatant liar

The UC Yongmae Island Fake Story

Young-oon Kim lied. She said Sun Myung Moon was “a pure virgin until the age of 40”

Should Bo Hi Pak be charged with the crime of perjury for his Fraser testimony of 1978?

Bo Hi Pak Contradicts Himself

Sun Myung Moon: “How do you know I’m not the world’s worst con man or swindler?”

#Liar #Fake News #Sun Myung Moon #Chong-hwa Pak #Won-pil Kim #Unification Church #FFWPU #Heungnam #Yongmae Island #Bo Hi Pak #church history #Chung-hwa Pak

[mrmrswales]

Exclusive: the ‘profoundly powerful’ moments that shaped Duchess of Cambridge’s children’s charity work by Camilla Tominey

It all started with secret visits the public never got to see. Newly married, and with the world’s press chronicling her every move – down to the details of her designer dresses – the Duchess of Cambridge resolved to go "below radar".

Acting as Prince William’s "plus one", rather than a fully fledged solo royal in those early days, the newest addition to the Royal family knew that she wanted to find a cause she could champion as impactfully as Diana, the Princess of Wales’s landmine campaign; it was simply a question of where to find it.

Having already announced her first patronage of Action on Addiction, a charity working with people with drug and alcohol problems, Hope House, a women-only rehabilitation centre in Clapham, south London, seemed as good a place as any to start.

It was October 2011 when the then 29-year-old Duchess paid the first of several, incognito visits in a bid to find out what had sent its clients on a downward spiral of self-destruction.

According to Rebecca Priestley, who accompanied the Duchess on the visit and would go on to spend five years as her private secretary, it played a pivotal role in her decision to put childhood at the heart of her philanthropic endeavours.

Speaking on the record for the first time, Mrs Priestley, who is now an executive coach, recalled:  "I remember going up to Anglesey, where they were living after the wedding, to have a conversation with the Duchess about her royal life."

At that point, she had the philanthropic world at her feet. She could have done anything she wanted in the charitable arena. Typically, she had put a lot of thought into it already. Addiction was an issue she was instinctively thinking about – but she was also genuinely interested in understanding what support was there and what role that played in the bigger picture of mainstream societal issues."

With the Duke having flown to the Falklands for a six–week tour of duty with his RAF search and rescue squadron, Mrs Priestley put a programme together to support the Duchess’s desire to "listen and learn"."A lot of it was behind the scenes, just talking to people and hearing where it was that they needed more help.  The one thing that united all of the women at Hope House was that the derailing had started so early on. They could trace the problems in their adult lives back to childhood."

A subsequent private visit in February 2012 to Clouds House, a treatment centre in East Knoyle in Wiltshire, served as further confirmation that the early years should be a key area of focus. But it was during a later meeting with female inmates at a detox unit at Send Prison in Woking when the penny well and truly dropped.

"It was a profoundly powerful moment,” recalled Mrs Priestley. "You go in there with this preconceived idea that these women have done things wrong, that it was their fault. Then one woman started speaking to the Duchess about her earliest memories of seeing needles on the floor of her home."

She had always thought addiction was a misunderstood issue, but after this, she became concerned that there was a pre-destiny about those affected – an inevitability about it. These women were born into it and there was very little chance of escape."

The experience set in train a sequence of events that will next week culminate in the Duchess, 39, stepping up her ambition in driving awareness and action on the impact that early childhood can have on society at large.

She will launch a new initiative through the couple’s Royal Foundation to further explore the science around early childhood, raise awareness of the issue and foster collaboration and partnerships across relevant groups.

According to Lord Hague, who became chairman of the Royal Foundation last September, the "ambitious" new project will be equal in stature to William’s £50 million Earthshot Prize, launched last year with Sir David Attenborough to find workable solutions to climate change and environmental problems.

"The Duchess truly believes this is one of the great issues of our time," said the former Tory leader. "This is the central plank of her work in the way conservation issues are for the Duke. It’s a hugely significant moment."

While politicians are often in a rush to make a difference during the comparatively short time they have in office, royals are there for life, which perhaps explains why Kate has taken 10 years to get to this point.Having been instrumental in launching the Heads Together campaign with William and Prince Harry in 2016, designed at tackling the stigma and changing the conversation on mental health, it was not until 2018 that she convened a steering group of experts to look at how cross-sector collaboration could bring about lasting change.

In January, she delivered a landmark speech after her Five Big Questions on the Under Fives survey garnered over 500,000 responses.

"People often ask why I care so passionately about the early years," the mother-of-three said.

"Many mistakenly believe that my interest stems from having children of my own. While of course I care hugely about their start in life, this ultimately sells the issue short. If we only expect people to take an interest in the early years when they have children, we are not only too late for them, we are underestimating the huge role others can play in shaping our most formative years, too."

Pointing out that the social cost of late intervention has been estimated to be over £17 billion a year, she added: "The early years are therefore not simply just about how we raise our children. They are in fact about how we raise the next generation of adults. They are about the society we will become."

According to Eamon McCrory, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology at University College London, the Duchess "has a vision of how she can help transform how we as a society view and invest in the early years for the benefit of society".

Describing her interest in "the role the brain shapes our early experiences and how that sets us on a path to adult life", he explained: "When you look at very young babies and infants, on the surface they don’t appear to be engaging in complex emotions so there's a tendency to underestimate the millions of synapses that are being formed every minute. But science is telling us we have to look under the bonnet.

"There’s no question that for the Duchess, this is a lifetime piece of work. The last five years laid the foundations, now we are entering a more proactive phase.” Described by one source as “thoughtful, professional and determined to do a good job,” there is a sense that Kate has never been in it for the early wins, but the long haul.

As one well-placed insider put it: "She took the job very seriously right from the very beginning. She continues to want to get it right and do her very best - for the institution, for William and the importance of the work she’s doing.

"She doesn't just want to rock up for a picture opportunity, which is why she used to get quite frustrated with all the early focus on what she was wearing. She really cares about this stuff."

Another source said she was "much more fun" than people give her credit for, pointing out how she has grown in confidence having found a cause that she is not only passionate about - but also well informed.

As Lord Hague put it: "She’s been reading the books and had trustees reading the books. People assume her interest in the early years is because she has children – actually it comes from all the adults she’s met." The other key influence has been Kate’s own idyllic childhood.

Brought up in leafy Bucklebury in West Berkshire by her entrepreneur parents Michael and Carole Middleton, pictured below with the royal family, the Duchess has never made any secret of how fortunate she has been to be brought up in a loving and supportive family.

"She always recognised that she benefited from such a great start in life," added Mrs Priestley.

"That’s why sport and the outdoors has always been a key theme for her. She was always asking how those sorts of experiences could be made accessible to others."

For Dame Benny Refson, president of the children’s mental health charity Place2Be, where the Duchess has been patron since 2013, Kate’s grounded upbringing has proved an asset.

“The Duchess listens and people feel heard and valued. It’s nothing to do with privilege. The groups she meets in challenging areas in London don't look at what she's wearing. What makes a difference is that an important person has shown a genuine interest in them. She can relate without passing judgement, which is so important."

Having started out as a reticent public speaker, the Duchess has finally found her voice – and next week she will have a lot more to say.

#duchess of cambridge

[subwaysurf45]

Winter Makes Ice (Ep. 4)

Summary: you’re captured after a brawl at the Avengers building, Bucky and others must save you before Hydra makes a new Winter Soldier out of you, Bucky has given up that title.

Words: 4123

Episode: Four

Warning: violence, gore, description of violence, fighting

Masterlist! Winter Makes Ice Episode: Three

Time: 3:20am

Date: October 3rd 2024

Wakanda was always calm when Steve went, the people who lived there just seemed to understand the ways of life. There was never a catcall or fight in an alley, people greeted each other with kindness and a soft bow, Steve always copied but felt like he was too stiff when he did so. He found he walked with his back a little straighter and his chin a little higher, he felt unstoppable in the warm climate, filled with power and generosity. 

Natasha on the other hand hated Wakanda, not because of the people but for the same reason as Steve; it was too peaceful. She’d always get the dirtiest looks when trying to explain her case, no one seemed to understand the concept of ‘too much comfort is uncomfortable’. She ran to Bucky once after a moment and asked him why he liked it so much, she thought he off all people would hate comfort, he’d always be one to sleep on the floor because the mattress would feel like it was swallowing him. He just shook his head and shrugged, he’d never tell anyone why; Nat found out he never even told you. 

Natasha had been trained to trust no one other than yourself, but after escaping the Red Room she questioned the one in the mirror all too often. People would smile and while Steve smiled and waved Natasha thought of ulterior motives, why were they smiling to them and not the people slightly behind them? but then they’d smile to the people behind Natasha and she’d question if it was to cover themselves. The welcoming's to almost everywhere felt weird, she wanted to break in or have to fake her way to what she wanted, having doors opened for her felt like a slap in the face for all the things she’s done for those years before. 

“God, gives me the creeps,” Natasha faked a shiver, Steve just rolled his eyes. They were walking in the palace now, T’Challa would be waiting for them in Shuri’s tech room. 

Apparently Shuri had been wanting to try a new type of cuff, one made of- obviously -vibranium that tightens at a lie. There were little needles that poke into the culprit's nervous system, it picks up on someone’s sign that they are lying and tightens when the little pins are triggered. If someone's breath picked up or heart rate doubled, it would squeeze a little bit more until their hands were blue. Nat thought it was amazing when she heard it over the phone, her mind was picturing it the entire flight over. 

Steve had been thinking about Bucky, Steve was well aware of Bucky’s deep connection to you. You’d been dating for over a year and it was love at first sight (then Bucky quietly loving you from the other side of the room), Bucky was never one to fall for someone, he’d never have the confidence in himself that he’d be here for too long. But it was the little things Bucky began to do that made Steve appreciate you even more. He’d watch from his spot on the kitchen counter, quietly sipping coffee and reading the paper, which wasn’t actually paper because it was on his phone, while glancing over every so often to see you and Bucky in your own little world, both giggling at something. There's this moment for Bucky when he’d just look at you, Steve had seen it happen so often, like Bucky was taking a step back and realizing he had someone who loved him unconditionally. The laugh would die down and Bucky would whisper something, it would alway be along the lines of ‘thank you’ but it could change. He’d sometimes do it with Steve as well, both you and Steve would say the same thing, ‘no need to thank me, but you’re welcome’ because that’s what Bucky liked best. 

You were just an agent when you arrived, nothing more. Slowly you had gotten to know who everyone was by going out of your way to give out cookies to everyone who walked by you, it was a little thing Bucky seemed to really enjoy. After your talents were discovered from past jobs you were moved to a spy, you’d used to work for a private firm where they’d track down people who launder money, you’d have to get so much evidence it often led you to get jobs at mattress stores or random shops. With that and a lifeguard certification- that you got when you were a teen- under your belt you were perfect to be an agent, Fury introduced you to Bucky for combat training because Bucky needed to learn how to work with others; Steve actually told Fury to give Bucky the assignment. 

You’d spar everyday and the both of you would get into it. There would be times where you wouldn’t talk to each other for the rest of the day because the other cheated. Everyone would laugh but you’d take it very seriously, Bucky would always say you weren’t strong enough to go out into the field, so you lifted weights. He’d say you weren’t fast enough, then he’d see you sprinting on the treadmill a day later. 

Steve knew you were good for Bucky when you were about to start dating, it was at that part where you were going on dates but you weren’t dating. With all the things Bucky had criticized you on, you flipped it on him with one simple task: keep your fiddle-leaf fig plant alive. It would’ve taken Bucky one google search to find out that 61% of people can’t keep this house plant alive, it’s the hardest one to take care of. It was a metaphor of sorts, for you and for your relationship. 

It wasn’t a surprise to find it dead when you got home, Steve came to you with his shoulders slumped. Apparently Bucky had been crying for three days straight because he killed your plant and he thought you’d dump him because of it. It was the weird feelings when Steve saw you start to laugh, this was his best friend who was crying of guilt and you were laughing, he’d wanted to punch you square in the jaw. 

“What’s so funny?” he asked way too harshly. 

“Oh nothing…” you wiped the tear that had fallen. 

“Baby, I’m so sorry!” Bucky had left his room and came running to you, his face was red and his eyes were barely open from how puffy they were. He quickly pulled you in for a hug, “I messed up your plant, I’m sorry.”

Steve was getting redder and redder the more you laughed, “what’s so fucking funny, huh?” Steve boomed, he was getting protective. 

You had dropped the act then, both of them were very emotional at the moment and laughing wouldn’t be the best choice of action. “Don’t worry, Bucky,” you soothed him, “you weren’t supposed to keep alive.” 

“What?” he pulled away and sniffled, “but you asked me to-”

“To try,” you paused with emphasis, “and keep one of the hardest plants to keep alive, alive.” you smiled, “I was proud that I had kept it alive for as long as I did, but I needed to see what you would do with something like this.” 

“Why?” Steve asked for Bucky, still very protective. 

“Did you buy a new one and hope I didn’t notice?” You asked, Bucky shook his head no. “did you get mad at me because I gave you a stupid chore?” He also said no to that. “Did you make Wanda keep it alive with her powers?” all these options ran through Bucky’s head and he didn’t even think of them, “you put so much effort into this, and even if you did fail you still cared a lot, that’s all I ever want. I want this relationship to work and if you run at the first sign of adversity then this won’t work, but you buckle down and keep pushing, and if it doesn’t work? Then I know you actually cared, and you tried. That’s all.” 

“You’re a keeper.,” Steve said before walking away and giving them space to catch up. 

Nat waved a hand in front of Steve’s face, and it turns out he’d been staring at T’Challa for a while while he was talking. They had walked the entire way and Steve just stared at the ground with a blank expression, he needed to look out for you in order to keep Bucky sane. 

“S-sorry, I zoned out.” Steve straightened his posture a bit, hands on hips and shoulders rolled back.

“No worries, captain Rogers.” T’Challa spoke calm as ever, “I have the criminals in the room, they have the new tech that’s already set up, my sister wanted to set it up.” T’Challa opened one arm and guided them to the secret room where two men sat with their hands cuffed and on their laps. “Neither of them have any record of being born, probably a fake identity.” The king linked arms with Shuri and walked out of the small room. 

Seeing how grand and futuristic Shuri’s lab was made it shocking to be in a normal interrogation cell, two rusty chairs that were occupied and no table. Steve looked to see the single light that hung from the ceiling, it wasn’t a soft yellow like the one’s at the Avenger building but purple, vibranium always casted a purple/blue hue. 

“Where are you from?” Steve asked. 

“Iceland.” the one on Steve’s left answered. 

“Is Hydra now stationed in Iceland?” Nat cut in and asked. 

“One station, there’s many.” The same man on the left kept talking, the other one had his head all the way down with his forehead touching his knees. 

Steve leaned up against the wall, “you attacked Princes Shuri, why?”

“Because she is the one that made us start from the very beginning, she's the one that erased the trigger words from your friend and our weapon.” He snarled, “She needed to pay for what she did, we should have known Wakanda was the hardest place to attack, we’d need a Winter Soldier for that.” A smirk grew from the right side of his mouth. 

“What are you smiling about?” Nat pressed, she walked closer.

“Oh, nothing- ow!” the handcuffs tightened, his breathing rate doubled as he tried to ride out the initial shock. 

“Tell us!” Steve smashed the wall, causing a dent to grow from it. 

“Fine…” the man adjusted, “once we found out we’d never get our Winter Soldier back we quickly moved on, no one can break Wakanda’s tech, it’s impossible.” The man sighed and looked off, “so we chose to start again, make a new way, create a new trial. It’s safe to say we did.” he took a deep breath and leaded back against his chair, his fingertips were beginning to turn purple, it was difficult to see with the purple hue of the room. “When we attacked your building we didn’t want Barnes, we wanted someone, anyone. This girl was the closest to us, and it seemed to be the closest to Barnes, am I right?” he quizzed, seemed to be genuinely wondering. “She’d wake up and forget where she is, normally she’d pat the ground beside her and call out for a man named Bucky, that’s Barnes. It was the perfect choice, completely on a whim.” He looked at Nat, “she got her confidence from you, the entire time we were slowly poisoning her she completely believed she was here for ransom, it was funny to see her face when he told her what we did to her, how we now control her. The look on her face when we asked who wiped Barnes’ trigger words… She spit them out but her face was full of fear, her voice and thoughts weren’t her own.” 

“Why would you tell us all of this?” Steve asked. 

“I know I will die,” the cuffs didn’t tighten, “and my friend is already dead, I’d like to go with a bullet and not torture.” He looked up to them. “I think my father has passed, he worked for Hydra and I’d like to see him, to ask for forgiveness.”

Natasha pushed back the other man who hadn’t spoken a word to find his hands blackened and completely dead, the tightness had cut off all circulation. Right near the edge of the cuff and on the man’s skin was starting to split, there was no blood to leak out of the cut because there wasn’t blood in the veins, it was slowly falling and peeling away. 

“You tortured my friend- two of them actually!” Steve screamed, “I hope to god you die slowly.” Steve lifted his gun to the man’s face, he closed his eyes. But Steve moved the aim to the thigh, you had told him that a shot to the femoral artery was fatel after ten seconds of bleeding, you had also told him that the femur- which was what the femoral artery is attached to -is the most painful break for bones. 

So Steve shot at the middle of the thigh, he and Nat watched without emotion as the man quickly bled out, the blood squirted in the air and rolled down his pants. Blood coming from an artery is bright red and tends to squirt, but from a vein makes the blood more slow and dark. When the final squirt of blood managed to hit the man’s face, Steve knew he hit right on target; and that you were right for all those things.

Time: 5:59am

Date: October 3rd 2024

Bucky and Wanda walked through the forest, most of the leaves had fallen off the trees due to the season so they could see further into the thick woods. Not a lot of talking was happening between the two of them, Bucky was way too focused on keeping his cool while Wanda used her powers to see if there was any form of life around. 

The wind blew softly and the leaves that held on for dear life were now getting pushed aside off the flimsy twigs, they would fall and join the other countless leaves that met the same fate. Wanda loved the fall, she’d jump into a pile of leaves any chance she got. Right now she was purposely stepping on the ones that looked the most dry which would give a good crunch. Her nose was a little red due to the cold but everywhere else she was yellow and happy, it seemed she gave off heat.

Bucky hated the fall, the sound of stepping on leaves sounded like someone was right behind him. If there was a Hydra agent out in these woods they would have heard them from a mile away with all of Wanda’s jumping and giggling. Bucky loved Wanda in a motherly kind of way, but sometimes she was just too...happy…

When everything seemed lost, Bucky and Wanda’s phones began to vibrate, Bucky was quick to pick up. Both Bucky and Wanda made their way to a tree stump to take a moment to listen. Wanda sat on the ground floor and picked at the tons of leaves that covered the ground, she’d pick and rip them apart one by one. 

“It’s Steve,” Bucky whispered before picking up, “Steve?”

“Buck, you have to listen to me,” his voice was shaken and distraught, “I’ve sent the coordinates, she’s there but I don’t know how much of her is left.” 

“What does that mean?” Bucky asked as he looked over to see Wanda looking at the coordinates on her phone. 

“I don’t know how much has happened to her, they’ve brainwashed her.” Steve took a deep breath, Bucky could hear Nat in the background, “we have to act fast, we’re on our way, do not wait for us.” he commanded and Bucky nodded but he knew Steve couldn't see, there was a type of mind reading between the two of them that really came in handy for times like these. 

“Roger that.” Bucky hung up and began to move again, Wanda had read the location and it turned out they weren’t that far away, at the final stretch they saw the building through the empty trees. 

The forest had been cleared around the building, the grass seems healthy but it was starting to brown with the changing weather. The building itself was very small for it to be the most dangerous Hydra facility, it was only one story. There were no windows and the outer wall was all one grey colour, no symbols or tanks ready to fire; there wasn’t even a guard around the building. It seemed too vacant for it to be true, the wind seemed to stop as they got closer into the open field, it was completely still and almost dead. 

Bucky or Wanda actually had a plan, everything had been so fast there wasn’t anything drawn out or spoken about at some meeting, this was all instinct. Though there were no windows and security cameras they both knew something had to be watching the outside, they were low to the ground in the open field but the grass was way too short to cover them. Bucky had his gun ready while Wanda’s hands were in a position to create a shield for the both of them, at the sound of a vibration Wanda checked her phone. 

“Steve and Nat have landed, they are five minuets out,” she whispered. 

“Copy.” was all Bucky could think to say. 

Both of their backs smashed against the wall, with their final moments of bliss before fighting a couple deep breaths were taken and eyes remained shut. Bucky’s finger fiddled on the trigger of the gun, Imagining what it would look like to blow the man who hurt you to oblivion. Bucky moved further and farther away from his Winter Soldier thoughts, the mass murder and robotic revenge. But when it came to someone hurting you, he’d even put the mask back on.

On the count of three the door was bursted open, and right away agents on the inside began to fire. Wanda and Bucky took them down their own way. 

One agent was still alive, Bucky ran up and gripped his throat. “Where is she!” he screamed. 

“You’ll never know-”

A gun was placed to his head. 

“-Alright! Alright!” The man shrieked, “third door on the left, please don’t kill me!” the man cried. 

“I won’t kill you,” Bucky lowered his gun but the grip on his neck tightened, “I’ll torture you slowly before.'' His left hand gripped so tight around the agent’s neck he could hear the bone shattering, clear fluid from the agent’s spine leaked from his eye and ear before blood followed. Bucky watched emotionlessly as the agent’s face turned blue and almost popped like a balloon. “Wanda, get them all outside.” 

“Yes, sergeant!” Wanda yelled, she was fighting off everyone else. 

Bucky blew by everyone as they ran to see the commotion, so ran right by Bucky without thinking he was the threat. Wanda was now outside and in a matter of seconds the eeriness of the outside matched the inside, the air was still and stuffy, it smelt like the beginning of decomposing. Bucky had his gun ready but it seemed no one was in here, his only threat was you. 

Bucky took note of the stone grey floors, and stone grey walls, and stone grey ceilings. HYDRA didn’t put much money into design like the Avenger’s did, all the funds they collected went straight into the tech they made and Bucky was sure that’s why they were still around, they had so much money saved that they could pay people to turn their cheek and walk the other way. 

As Bucky scanned for something to give away where all the scientists were, his eye met another door in the very corner of the room, it was exactly the same colour of the stone grey walls but the brass door knob caught his eye. All you could hear was the boot of Bucky’s combat boots on the floor, his breath was even scaring him. His hand reached out for the door and when he opened it he found what he was worrying about. 

A cell. More specifically: an empty cell. 

There were chains hanging from the ceiling, one large cuff, one for what seemed to be used for a neck and then four cuffs for wrists and ankles. Bucky completely forgot where he was, he didn’t remember there was an entire lab behind him, all his mind was throwing at his memories of a cell just like this. 

Bucky didn’t remember much about cells in the early days fighting against HYDRA in a cell, in the 40’s. He did, however, remember what it was like to come out of ice when he was needed. The concept of life didn’t exist when he was frozen, it felt like a long blink, it didn’t seem like he’d been asleep for years.

He’d wake up and for a second he was still normal. He’d think it’s cold because it was winter and his house back in the 40’s didn’t have any type of heating system except for a small fireplace, his boots and pants were still on because he got hammered the night before- also explaining the headache -and just fell into bed. All his convincing would go away when his brain would fog again, and he’d look down and catch the shine of his left arm, all at once he’d fall back into place. The dissociating happens after dreams but it came from waking up and not really knowing who he was, as he’d walk to whatever commander was in charge that year he’d ask himself what he was, all the memories and answers in his brain would seem to pull further away, like a word in the tip of his tongue. 

He was ripped from his thoughts manually, he thought of you. He thought he was hypnotizing himself when he looked in there at first, too triggered by what he saw to think straight, but he took another moment to look, he saw the chains swinging back and forth ever so slightly.

His stomach dropped, he knew you were still in the room. “Sweetheart?” he called like he always did, “it’s Bucky, we’re gonna get you out of here, come out, baby.” he tried to sound as soothing as possible, he looked under every lab table and every chair. 

He flipped through pages on his desk, reading the details of what they did to you. “What is I.C.E.?” Bucky asked himself. 

“Injected Complying Enhancement.” 

Bucky turned as fast as he could to see you behind him. You were completely naked, body covered in dirt and grime, your hair was hacked and it seemed to have been pulled. Bucky just looked at your body, words were carved into your skin, every single one of them were infected, puss bubbles around the angry red scars. As his eyes trailed up he saw blue on your finger tips, then he reached your face to see a sunken cheekbone and massive cut on your forehead, but nothing compared to a generous piece of your nose hanging on by a thread, the tip was black. 

“Baby, do you know me?” Bucky asked through heavy tears, this wasn’t what he was expecting. 

You scanned over him, “Sergeant, James Buchanan Barnes, 32557038.” 

Right at that moment, he knew you were gone.

Winter Makes Ice tag list: @small-death-and-codeine​ @commonintrest​ @buckyys-doll​  @lil-baby-nor​

let me know if you want a tag!

#winter soldier fic #winter soldier oneshot #wintersoldier #winter soldier #sebastian stan #sebastian stan fluff #bucky barnes #bucky #barnes #bucky barns imagine #bucky series #bucky barnes series #bucky fluff #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes angst #bucky angst #bucky love

[fa-by]

Hi Faby I have a question L said that she knew she was queer when she fell in love with her best friend when she was 15 and that her and L started to have a physical connection when she was 15 and I know everyone says that she was talking about C because L met C for the first time when she was still 15 but to me that doesn't make sense because L and C only started to get closer after L turned 16 and her and C basically just met so how could she be talking about C?

Hi to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 I know it doesn’t seem to make sense because the narrative’s goal is to confuse you and get you on their side by making you abandon the ship. You have to pay attention to the details and what they say because there are always flaws in the stories that our Camren are forced to tell. But don’t worry, I’m here. I’ve already talked about it many times, but I’ll explain it again to make you understand better and answer your ask at the same time.

So. During Becky G’s ‘En La Sala’ podcast (October 28, 2020), Lauren said she realized she was queer because she fell in love with her best friend when she was 15 and they started having a physical relationship. She forced herself to think that kissing and sleeping with her friend every once in a while was just a funny thing and nothing important; something that she has ‘normalized’ in her head by justifying it as something that ‘straight girls do’, and therefore fueling her internalized homophobia. Personally speaking, I believe in this. Not in the ‘she fell in love’ part because Laur’s still forced to say that the only girl she has ever loved is Lucy, but I believe Lauren and Lucy really did everything L said. Lucy was the first real unlock thanks to which Laur experienced the attraction and the feelings towards the girls she’d always felt and hidden deep inside herself. I firmly believe that Lucy was the first girl among her crushes on girls Laur acted on, and with whom she experimented in secret given the environment in which they both grew up and which still surrounded them at the time.

Now, the time frame in which this experimentation happened. Paul Martinez, the one she believed was her first love and whom she believed she would marry, broke up with her in late July 2011, and she only managed to move on when she wrote a song about how she felt on September 17th of that same year. Lucy moved back to Puerto Rico in February 2012, returning to visit Miami occasionally (that’s why the fetus pictures with Lucy and Camren at Laur’s house). Therefore, the time frame in which that experimentation happened, is from the end of September 2011 to February 2012. It could’ve happened in all those four months, or only in two, or only in one. Who knows. But that’s the time frame. Time frame during which Laur was 15 years old.

Having explained this, let’s move on. Camren first met during the first phase of the audition, the ‘cattle call’, on May 1, 2012, in Greensboro, North Carolina. You know? Where that short and really cute conversation started by Mila happened: “Hi, I like your shirt”, “Thanks. I like your jacket”. But it ended up there because they didn’t become friends from that day. They didn’t exchange phone numbers and they therefore didn’t even spend time together at home in Miami. They were still just two strangers who had auditioned for a TV show to pursue their dreams like so many other people. Oh and, on May 1, 2012, Laur was still 15, and Mila had turned since almost two months; therefore they were both 15 years old. The moment they became friends by no longer detaching one from the hip of the other, was two months later, on July 25 in Miami, when they met for the first time for the first day of boot camp (L went to C: “You’re the Cuban girl!”). On July 25, 2012, Lauren had by then turned 16 for nearly a month, and Camila was still 15.

Now let’s move on to the biggest miscalculated mistake that, either they made her say, or Laur herself said; perhaps even deliberately and not by mistake. On June 26, 2020, and therefore before the podcast with Becky, the PAPER Magazine article was released. In that article, Lauren explained, along with other things, that she’d been in love with her best friend for seven years. But the calculations don’t add up, for two things to be exact.

First thing: The Laucy narrative includes that A) Laur fell in love with her sure, Jan at 15 when they kissed and hooked up during parties.

P.S. Is it just me, or does this smell like what actually started happening to Camren the following year? I mean, the Like Friends Do situation whereby Laur got out of her internalized homophobia and realized she loved her and then got her head out of her ass by finally going to get her girl? No? Just me?

B) The wanting but not being able to be with her and giving her what she wanted made them grew apart not by her choice and not because Lucy returned to live in Puerto Rico and they simply grew apart for the distance and Lauren’s busy schedule with 5H, no, no.

P.S. I don’t know about you, but this still smells like Camren’s story to me.

C) Lucy returned to her life after she had a car accident on May 17, 2015:

“She came back into my life when I was 18. I was on tour and I was in my room in a hotel somewhere and she called me”. From that moment on, Lauren decided they would’ve been together “all in” and “now we’re gonna be in this relationship”. Yeah, sure. No contract that was supposed to help both of them involved here. No, no.

D) They broke up because Laur confirmed that theirs was a very toxic relationship, and the specific reason she gave was because they both weren’t fully healed from the past yet, but that they still loved each other very much. Mmmh-hmm, okay 🥱😴 Yeah, no, yeah, sorry. I fell asleep as a result of hearing bullshit.

Second thing: Ty.

Shall we reveal the miscalculation (again)? In love with her at 15, got together with her at 18 and broke up at 20 (1 year and 8 months, from mid-May 2015 to mid-January 2017), and after less than a month, start of another PR dating Ty. Now, 20 minus 15 (Laur’s two ages from the beginning to the end of the ‘story’), how much is it? 5. Shall we calculate from the moment of Laucy experiment to when they ‘broke up’? From late September 2011 to mid January 2017, how many years are? 5! 5 years and four months to be exact. According to the logic of the narrative, if she was oh so in love with Ty as they made her proclaim every two seconds, it means that she’d stopped loving Lucy that same year, and it’s not 7 years anyway! It’s still 5! Do we want to try with two last calculations? Okay. Also because you may have wondered: “Faby, what if we instead calculated from when ‘they got together’ to the release of that PAPER Magazine article?”. I’d answer that it’s still 5 years. From mid-May 2015 to June 25, 2020, it’s 5 years and 1 month to be exact. “Faby, what if we tried to calculate from the beginning to the publication of the article?” From the end of September 2011 (beginning of the time frame of the Laucy experimentation) to the publication of the article on 25 June 2020, it’s 8 years and 9 months to be precise. Not even in this case it’s 7! So, as you can see… And at this point I wonder: is there an alternate world where math calculations lead to 7 and not 5 here? What was that? Why say 7? Well.. I actually know why.

Shall we play another little math game? Can I reveal the truth in the lie? Let’s try to make sense of this 7 together now.

Lauren explained that she’d been in love with her best friend for 7 years in that interview, right? The interview with PAPER Magazine came out on June 26, 2020, but was done before the date it was released. We all know Laur was born on the 27th, and therefore in both cases, Laur was 23. And tell me, dear, how much is 23 minus 7? Sorry, I can’t hear your answer. A little louder please? Got it, got it. Can I also write it for everyone else who’s reading? Okay, thanks: 16. Wait, 16??? So who was Lauren actually talking about? Ohhh. How foolish of me. That’s why it ‘smelled like what actually started happening to Camren the following year’ to me. Because Laur was talking about Camila all along 🤦🏻‍♀️

🤣😏😎

Sarcasm and jokes aside, do you see how easy it is to manipulate and confuse people's ideas? It's still 7 years if we calculate from mid-January 2013 (after the first real New Year's kiss and the signing of the contracts with Syco/Epic) to the release of that PAPER Magazine article on June 25, 2020. And it's still 7 years even if we calculate from July 25, 2012 (first day of boot camp) to June 25, 2020. Camila is the answer to the 7 years because even if they try to make Laur modify the narrative by making her change the names with the PRs' ones, she's always talking about Mila anyway in reality.

Does it make more sense now, dear? I hope I’ve taken away all your doubts 🥰 Stay safe and have a good day 🤗 You guys too ❤

[dini73]

Miss you babe - Chapter 2 (Part I)

Catch up with Part I here

Okay, folks, before Christmas hits I have to post at least the beginning of this chapter, which - as the moodboard shows so bluntly - is about 8 weeks old. Well what can I say: real life got in my way, but beware, I am on holidays now😘

Thanks again @mintjamsblog and here you go @jackson--t I can't keep up with your workload, but let yourself be surprised. 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 October, 31st

Heahmund had gotten up early to finally finish, then submitting his article and still have enough time to make changes if requested.

There was something else he had to take care of, something important and today was just perfect for it. Ivar loved Halloween and a spooky movie was always a great reason to cuddle up together.

After a short but fast 5K through a nearby park, Heahmund was full of energy. He knew there was a lot the two of them had to discuss, finally talk about openly, but he was all up for it. There was no exact need for him to run through the beautiful autumn leaves and Ivar better didn’t think he was an easy to trick fool.

Heahmund looked happily at the two pairs of keys on his living room table and thought that two really was their number. It had been two weeks - and no, he was not ready to admit that it had probably been more like two days…or even hours – after they had met for the first time, that he had known Ivar was the one and only. The one he wanted to move mountains for, cross oceans for, the one… who was still living with his family he mumbled, amused, on his way to the shower. But there was nothing that couldn’t be changed, right?

While hot water pattered on his neck he had to smile again, thinking about last night. An unbelievable wave of warmth and affection washed over him, overwhelming him so much that he reached for the faucet, feeling slightly dizzy.

Since meeting Ivar half a year ago Heahmund had been so much happier. Sometimes he still couldn’t truly believe his luck.

It had been a wild ride. Around two weeks into dating Ivar, Aslaug had confiscated her son’s mobile without Heahmund being aware. When he wanted to leave his apartment, he found himself face to face with a very angry, yet uncomfortable looking Ragnar, who was just about to hammer on his door.

What followed was the strangest and somehow most adorable talk Heahmund had ever had with a sturdy guy like Ragnar. During the “I hear you are dating my son,” talk, Heahmund was taken aback by the deep love both parents felt for their youngest son. But there was something more. He had of course realised before that Ivar sometimes stumbled a bit or walked as if in slight pain, but the young man had always been quick to explain it away. “I worked out too hard,” or “I got into a fight with Sigurd.”

And although the heart-breaking explanation — that Ivar had been in a near fatal car crash when he was a young teenager — helped explain his behaviour, it didn’t help Heahmund to talk about it with Ivar straight away.

He had sworn to Ragnar, and a furious Aslaug (who had a pretty good picture about the two of them due to knowing her son and his passwords very well) that he wouldn’t tell Ivar his parents were already in the known. Therefore, he couldn’t admit to knowing about the accident.

Then the first time Ivar and he wanted to have sex, turned into a tearful disaster when he couldn’t hide his pity at seeing the scars on Ivar’s legs. All Heahmund wanted to do was hold Ivar in a strong hug and let him know “I don’t care about the scars. I care about you. You are everything to me.” but he couldn't admit to knowing about the accident, and Ivar read his hesitation as rejection and ran off.

Heahmund was convinced he’d lost his precious, broken angel that night. Instead of enjoying each other completely for the first time and devouring the other’s body, he had to witness how Ivar was overcome with shame. It looked as if Ivar couldn't stand Heahmud seeing his battered legs and had fled the apartment in such a hurry that he forgot his mobile phone.

The next day, Hvitserk was sent over by Ivar to get the phone back for his brother.

Thanks to Hvitserk’s kind heart and desire that his baby brother would be happy, and due to the irresistible smell of the comfort food Heahmund was preparing himself after that disastrous night, the two men sat down, shared some warm pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries and became friends.

It was Heahmund himself who gave Ivar his phone back in the end, but only after they had sat down and Heahmund heard, for the third time, about the horrible car crash that had nearly cost Ivar his life.

Although the water in the shower was still burning hot, Heahmund shivered, thinking back to a shaken, insecure, and ashamed Ivar who had explained to him through sobs, and with the help of his brother’s hugs, that he had not only fought for his life, but had nearly lost his ability to walk. His legs had been broken several times and only multiple surgeries and lengthy, stressful rehabilitation had brought him to his current state of weak but mostly working legs and chronic pain.

Heahmund got out of the shower and reached through the steamy fog for his mobile.

9:30 am H: Hey, you awake? H: I miss you❤

I: Hey, hearty😉

Heahmund wanted to text more, or, even better, call Ivar, but just then his editor called. With dripping hair, he rushed back to his notebook and….got lost in work.

°~~~°

When Ivar next opened his eyes, 9:56 amradiated mercilessly from his mobile’s display. It was unusual for him to fall asleep again once he was up, especially when his boyfriend had already texted. Thinking of Heahmund, Ivar screwed his eyes up a bit and looked again at the too-bright display. He expected to see at least one, if not more messages.

When there was not a single notification Ivar huffed, frowned, and wanted to lift himself up, but a sharp pain shot through his legs.

“Fuck” he exhaled letting himself fall back immediately. There he had the explanation for his exhaustion and sleeping in. “Damn, not today” Ivar hissed after a few moments of trying to breathe calmly and not glide into a panic.

Distraction, yeah, he needed to distract himself and he wanted Heahmund, why the heck didn’t he answer? Shivering a bit, although he already felt sweat forming on his forehead, Ivar reached for his mobile and typed:

I: Playing hard to get? First a ❤and then nothing?

10:15 am

I: Babe?

Five minutes later panic crawled up with her icy fingers, crawled from Ivar’s hurting toes up to his fast-beating heart.

I: Hvit, you heard from your best buddy?

Hvit: ? Good morning to you too, my dear brother. Who are you talking about?

I: Heagh. He texted me and I haven’t heard back.

“Goddam it!” The minute he pressed send, Ivar realized how pathetic he sounded and braced himself for a mocking answer from his brother.

Hvit: Seriously? Gosh, maybe his battery died. Or he is busy.

Ivar tried to shift in his bed again to get up, but the pain had only grown worse.

I: You busy?

Hvit: I’ve got a wife and a baby. I’m always busy.

Ivar pressed his lips together and reached back to his nightstand. With trembling fingers, he fumbled through the drawer where he kept an emergency-pack of pain killers.

“Thank god” he whispered when his mobile vibrated.

Hvit: U ok?

Only when he had to blink twice to sharpen the letters did Ivar realize that his eyes were all teary; he brushed the wetness away angrily. His brother had sensed what was going on. Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked again. And he knew, Hvitserk, the favourite of his brothers, would understand his way to ask for help:

I: Yeah. Happy Halloween.

Hvit: Happy Halloween, liar.

Ivar huffed and, when there was no further message from his brother, concentrated on getting out of bed and into the shower.

*~~*

Two hours later Hvitserk used his spare key to open the door to his little brother’s apartment. Just as he stepped in, his brother stumbled towards him and landed awkwardly in his arms, his face pained.

“Wow, brother!”

“Hvitty.” “Hvitty, hm? How bad?” and with these strict words, Hvitserk supported his younger brother back to the kitchen table to sit down again.

“A five,” Ivar mumbled and added a frustrated, “maybe six,” under Hvitserk’s scrutinizing gaze.

“I suppose you’ve taken something already?”

“’Course. It was slightly better after the shower.”

“Okay then let’s try some more warmth.” Hvitserk supported Ivar over to the living room sofa. Midway through their journey Ivar made him stop, pointing back at the colourful cookie-jar Hvitserk had brought with him.

“What’s that?” “Later bro, Thora baked something.”

Ivar’s eyes burned again. What a damn day.

Once at his sofa Hvitserk tugged him in a fluffy blanket and went back to the kitchen to prepare some heat pads. While they were heated up in the microwave, he handed Ivar a glass of water and some more pain killers. He knew they would make his brother sleepy, which was exactly what he hoped for.

Ivar’s eyes were already closed when Hvitserk laid the heat pads carefully on his legs.

“You staying?” Ivar asked.

“Of course I’ll stay, dumbass. Now sleep.”

When Ivar’s breathing got deeper and slower, Hvitserk crept to Ivar’s bedroom. Closing the door behind him he dialled Heahmund’s number but only got the mailbox.

“Listen, idiot. It’s Halloween, my brother loves this day, it’s important to him. He told me hours ago he can’t reach you, so what’s up? Text me.”

He wanted to call his wife but decided to send her a text instead. Without hearing her lovely voice and the crying from their baby he wouldn’t feel so torn; he missed them badly each time he left the house.

Hvit: Honey, Ivar is having a really bad day and is in pain. We can’t reach Heahmund so I’d better stay with him for a while since he’s on pain killers. Ok? Love you!❤

T: Sure. Love you too, babe! ❤

#heavar #heahmund x ivar #vikings #ivar the boneless #vikings au #vikings fanfiction #vikings hvitserk #halloween #cookies #brotherly love #missyoubabe

[specialagentsergio]

sweater weather

summary: The weekend before Halloween finds the BAU at a local farm, and there’s a bet on who’s going to solve the corn maze first.

pairing: spencer reid x gn!reader 

category: fluff

content warnings: none

a/n: happy halloween! this is just something nice and fluffy for the fall season. i ended up researching corn mazes in virginia for this. (liberty mills is an actual farm in the area)

word count: 2.1k

song: sweater weather by the neighbourhood

masterlist

There’s three things every agent who starts working at the FBI’s Quantico office quickly learns about the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

First, the unit has the best case solve rate in the Bureau. Second, yes, they really do have their own jet. And third, everyone in it has a mean competitive streak. There’s no such thing as a casual bet with any of them.  

You’re no exception. You don’t make it onto one of the FBI’s most elite units by keeping your head down.

And it’s that competitive nature you all possess that finds you wandering through a corn maze on a chilly October afternoon with Spencer at your side.

It’s safe to say it gets away from you sometimes.

---

It started off innocently enough. Ten minutes before the end of work on Friday, JJ approaches Spencer with a question.

“Are you and (Y/N) busy this weekend?”

“Um, I didn’t have any plans,” he replies, then turns to you. “Honey?”

“Not unless sleep counts as a plan,” you say with a shrug. The team had returned from a case yesterday that had taken nearly a week to solve. You’d slept well cuddled up with Spencer last night, but still had plenty to make up for. “What’s up, JJ?”

“Well, it’s the last weekend before Halloween, and Henry’s been dying to go pick out a pumpkin,” she says. “So Will and I said we’d take him to Liberty Mills farm tomorrow to pick one out from their patch. But, he wanted me to ask Uncle Spencer if he’d come, too, to help him pick out one that’s perfect.”

Spencer’s face lights up immediately. “I’d love to.”

JJ smiles right back. “Great! He’ll be so happy.”

“You know, Liberty Mills farm has the largest corn maze in the United States this year,” he says. “On average, it takes thirty minutes to an hour for the first and second trails, and two to three hours for the third level.”  

Morgan joins the conversation. “And let me guess, pretty boy: you think you can solve it faster than that.”  

“I’m not sure, actually. I haven’t ever gone through a corn maze.”

You look at him incredulously. “Really? You, of all people, haven’t done a corn maze?”

Spencer frowns. “What do you mean?”

“You love this time of year. Corn mazes are just such a fall thing that it surprises me that you haven’t done one before,” you explain.

“I don’t love fall,” Spencer corrects. “I love Halloween.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Bold words from a man who’s ordered a pumpkin spice latte every morning for the last three weeks.”

You take a moment to enjoy the blush that paints his cheeks at your words, then speak to JJ. “What time are you guys leaving?”

“We’re aiming for around nine,” she says. “It takes about an hour to get there. We can give you a ride, of course, but I’m guessing the two of you don’t want to be crammed into the backseat of our car for that long.”

Truthfully, it wouldn’t bother you much. You know Spencer would take the middle seat so he could sit next to Henry, leaving you with the better one. But the man is made of legs, and he’d get uncomfortable quickly with them squeezed into a tight space. The last thing you want is for his knee injury to flare up and leave him in pain for the rest of the day.

“Yeah, we should drive up separately,” you say. “We can just meet there.”

“Now, hang on,” Morgan says. “Is this an open invitation for anyone? Because I’ve done corn mazes before and I don’t want to pass up the opportunity to beat Reid at something.”

“Oh, I’ll take up that bet,” Emily says. “Twenty bucks says Morgan and I get through it faster than Reid.”

Spencer frowns. “Two against one? That’s not fair.”

“Well, obviously, you’re going through it with me,” you point out, lightly swatting his arm with the back of your hand. “You’re on, Emily.”

Rossi, briefcase in one hand, jacket hooked over his shoulder, comes into the fray. “What are we betting on?”

“Whether Derek and Emily or Spence and (Y/N) can solve a corn maze faster,” JJ says. She does a good job of acting exasperated, but you know she’s just as invested as the rest of you. If it wasn’t for her desire to spend time with her son, she’d probably enter herself.

“Oh, I’ll put fifty down on the kid, easy,” Rossi says.

Hotch, descending the stairs into the bullpen, overhears this and sighs. “What have I said about office bets?”

“Technically it’s not an office bet,” Emily points out quickly. “It’s something we’re doing over the weekend on our own time.”

“Yeah, this isn’t pool,” Spencer agrees. “Twenty-five on (Y/N) and I.”

“What’s this over?” Hotch asks.

“Corn maze,” Morgan explains. “I’ll add twenty-five as well on me and Emily.”

You tear a piece of paper out of one of the notebooks on your desk and start writing. “I’m putting in thirty,” you say as you write it down. Spencer may have never been in a corn maze before, but you have, and you’re pretty great at them. “Everyone write down their bets on here.”

“What about you, Aaron?” Rossi asks as the paper makes it way through the group.

Hotch shakes his head. “I’m not getting into this.”

“You should still come,” JJ says, scribbling down her wager. “There’s a pumpkin patch you can take Jack to.”

“I did promise him we’d carve a pumpkin this weekend,” he muses.

Penelope toddles in on her high heels with her bag over her shoulder. “What’s going on?” She frowns. “Am I being left out of something?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, baby girl,” Derek says, slinging his arm around her shoulders. “We’re having a family outing to some farm tomorrow—”

“Liberty Mills farm,” Spencer interjects.

Morgan rolls his eyes. “We’re going to Liberty Mills farm tomorrow. You in?”

Penelope’s face breaks into her bright, radiant smile, warming up the room just like she always does. “Of course! JJ, please tell me my beautiful little godson is coming, too.”

“You can even help him pick out a pumpkin,” JJ replies and Penelope squeals.

“This is going to be so much fun! I can’t wait!”

---

A breeze ripples the cornstalks as you navigate the maze with your boyfriend. You’re on the fourth trail, the mystery maze portion. Derek had insisted on that after learning that Spencer saw a picture of the main maze over your shoulder while you were looking up the directions online. You’d agreed that it was only fair to do the mystery section; his eidetic memory would make it too easy to get through the main portion now.

You shiver at the cold and press yourself against Spencer’s side. It’s around four PM, but the temperature has already started to drop, and it’s especially chilly away from all the people and attractions, isolated in the maze.

Spencer lets go of your hand and you open your mouth to protest, but he speaks before you can. “Hang on, I have something for you.”

Your eyes widen in surprise as he lifts the flap of his satchel and pulls out a blanket that really shouldn’t have been able to fit in there. He drapes it around your shoulders and punctuates the action with a kiss on your forehead.

“Have you been carrying this around all day?” you ask incredulously. It’s new; you haven’t seen it before. The fabric is incredibly soft and the design is made up of your favorite colors.

He nods. “You get cold faster than I do, and you get cranky when you’re cold.”

“Yeah, how does that work?” you muse, pulling the blanket around you tighter. “You’re so thin. I feel like you should get cold at least as fast as me.”

“Well, if we look at the laws of thermodynamics,” he begins and you tuck yourself into his side with a small smile. He rambles for a while and you listen patiently, nodding and giving him “uh-huh”’s every so often to affirm your interest (though honestly, a good portion of it goes over your head—most of your studies in college were focused on psychology and sociology).

“I see,” you murmur when he finishes, and it’s not a lie—you think you understand the basics. You briefly stop him from walking to press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for the blanket. I love you.”

It’s hardly the first time you’ve said it, but he still blushes. “Love you, too.”

“Now,” you say, taking his hand back into your grip. “Let’s win this bet.”

Sixty minutes later, a smile tugs at your lips. Spencer’s corrected you on a few turns, being able to say for certain if you’ve taken a path before, and now you’re close to the end of the maze. You can feel it. You tug on his hand, picking up your pace. “Come on. We’re close.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.” You let go of his hand and break into a jog, recalling the hot apple cider stand you saw earlier in the day. You can’t wait to wrap your hands around a cup of it.

“(Y/N)—” he starts, and you look back just in time to see him trip over a root and almost fall face first into the dirt, just barely catching himself on his hands.

You try not the laugh, but a small giggle slips out. “Sorry,” you say, fighting a smile.

He just rolls his eyes as he pushes himself up. “Can you slow down?” he asks. “The cold is making my knee hurt.”

Your expression immediately drops. “Yeah, of course.”

Five minutes later, you’re exiting the maze. Rossi’s waiting at the end and cheers when he sees the two of you. “Ah, yes! I knew it!”

“We’re first?” Spencer asks.

“Of course we are.” You remove one arm from your blanket cocoon and place your hand on the back of his neck, pulling him towards you for a kiss. He hums happily against your lips.

He hugs you from behind as you wait for Derek and Emily, sliding his hands under the blanket and into your sweater’s pockets. They’re ten minutes behind you.

“Ah, come on, man,” Derek laments when he sees you.

“Dammit,” Emily sighs. “You two better be buying dinner tonight.”

“Oh, we’d love to,” you tease.

“How far ahead of us were you?” Morgan asks.

“Twenty minutes,” Spencer replies, and you don’t have to turn around to know the smirk he’s sporting.

You elbow him lightly. “Ten,” you correct.

The five of you meet back up with the others near the entrance of the farm. Penelope had held onto the small pumpkin you’d picked out earlier in the day and hands it to you now. You have paint back home that you’re planning to use to decorate it. Spencer had no desire to get one to carve; he can’t stand touching the pumpkin guts.

“So who won?” she asks.

“Well, going by Spence’s expression, I’m guessing he and (Y/N) did,” JJ says.

Henry lets go of his mother’s hand and approaches Spencer, lifting his arms in a request to be picked up. “We sure did,” Spencer says as he obliges. “Isn’t that right, Henry?”

You grin. “Dinner’s on us.”

---

The team’s seated at your usual table at one of the restaurants you all like to frequent. There’s smiles and laughter all around. Jack is telling his dad, Beth and Morgan about the design he wants to carve into the rather large pumpkin he picked out. Penelope, JJ, and Emily are chattering about Emily’s date tomorrow. (You’ve seen pictures of the woman and she’s gorgeous; Emily also seems completely enamored with her.) Rossi is following up with Will on a recipe he gave him to try. Henry has vacated his seat next to Spencer to sit on his lap instead, and both of you are helping him color in the picture on his placemat.

When JJ takes Henry to wash his hands, you take the opportunity to put your hand on Spencer’s knee. “How’s it feeling?” you ask.

“Better, now that it’s warm.” He pauses, then says, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Coming with me today. I had a lot of fun. I...” He fiddles with the corner of the placemat. “I never really got to do stuff like this when I was a kid. You know, because...”

You nod; you know what his upbringing was like. “Well, I’m happy to have been a part of it.”

Spencer leans into you, tucking one of his legs behind yours. You squeeze his knee lightly and he lets out a sigh of contentment. He stays like that until Henry returns. The food arrives shortly afterward. Before you take your first bite, you run your eyes across everyone at the table.

It’s a strange, mismatched family you and Spencer have, but you wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

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

tell me what you thought here!

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds self insert #spencer reid #fluff #my fic #don't mind me just reposting bc tumblr blocked this from the tags for whatever reason

[writing-in-april]

Ghost Story

Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader

Mood board is mine pictures were taken from Pinterest- Message me for credit.

This come from the wonderful @imagining-in-the-margins​ prompt list- go check her out she’s the best!

Warnings: One swear word- and if you’re super scared of ghost stories don’t read.

A/N: I’m really proud of this one! The ghost story is called whispers and I found it on the huffington post, it’s originally about Christmas but I changed it to fit Halloween (Even though it’s August- I’m just really ready for Halloween)

Masterlist

italics are the ghost story

——

“This is a story I do not often tell. I promise, sincerely, that this has scarred me for life and although I have looked into psychological explanations for what I heard and natural explanations for what occurred, they remain unsatisfactory.” Spencer’s voice cut through the air in a whisper. The pine green walls of our softly lit apartment gave me a sense of security that Spencer was actively trying to break as he relayed his ghost story.

It was nearly Halloween, the 28th of October to be exact, also known as Spencer’s birthday. Honestly it was the only reason I indulged in his request of reading a scary story, any other day of the year I would have flat out refused. So there I was perched on our leather sofa,  staring a hole into a slice of pumpkin pie that I had made for his special day trying to take my mind off of the story.

“When I was a child, I was scared of the dark. I swore to my mother I heard voices in it. They were not evil, but they were not familiar and so they scared me. It was not uncommon in the middle of the night for me to wake up and hear “whispers” as I would call them when asking my mom. She figured they were just “bumps in the night” and typical kids nightmare material. I tried often to explain to her that it was more than that; that they sounded different from one another the way people’s voices do. On some nights I would get so scared from these “whispers” that I would sleep in my mom’s bed with her.” I now understood why he was so eager to share a ghost story with me tonight, the story paralleled his own journey with his fear of the dark. We both had a shared sentiment of fear surrounding dark corners, but Spencer was far braver than I when it came to the dark, after all he saw the worst of humanity everyday at work.

“I should add at this point that when walking out into the hall to go to the bathroom, you looked directly down the stairs that would lead you into my living room on the first floor (as my mom’s bedroom was on the second floor). On one such night, around Halloween, I awoke and felt the need to go to the bathroom. I walked out from the door and distinctly heard the phrase “Look!” and to my astonishment, an orange light, almost like a spotlight, was cast upon the wall at the very bottom of the stairs. The light had no other source, it was by itself, and I was transfixed by it.” The inflection that he had adopted to tell the story chilled my bones, making me feel as if I was a skeleton in the dead of winter.

The pumpkin pie was no longer enough to stare at so my gaze wandered to the knickknacks that adorned the apartment. The spotlight in the story eerily mirrored the decorations we had strung up, the string of pumpkin lights basked us in an orange glow aiding in the creepy persona Spencer had taken up. Puppets in white shrouds, freshly carved jack o'lanterns, and handmade black construction paper bats also furnished our home to give the appropriate mood for Halloween. Spencer and I had spent a whole weekend that he had off from work decorating our apartment to the nines. I detested the horrifying aspects of Halloween, but that didn’t mean I hated the holiday. I reveled in the fact that for one day a year I could be someone else, letting my imagination take the reigns of my life even though it was only for a night.

“Being a little kid, and it only being a few days from Halloween, I KNEW what this light was. IT WAS JACK SKELLINGTON!!!My parents had just let me watch a Nightmare before Christmas, he must be visiting! I was so excited I began walking down the stairs to greet him, picking up my pace after the second step as it began to creep off the wall and fade into the darkness in my living room.” My heart felt stuck in my throat as I sat at the edge of the couch, anxiously awaiting the dreaded jump scare that I could feel creeping up around me. No matter how formulaic ghost stories tended to be I was still tricked every time getting sent into a state of fright, my body always getting a stab of panic and a jolt of terror.

“That’s when I heard him. A very strong, masculine voice. Different from the first. Not at all like my father’s (not to say he isn’t masculine, it was just distinctly different). It said, “Stop! Right now. Go back up those stairs.” I listened, turned around, and what happened next I am not sure I would believe if someone had told me this same story. After reaching the top of the stairs, I heard a very loud CRASH”  As If on cue from Spencer’s voice a loud clap of thunder shattered through our curtained windows, the sudden sound sent me cowering under my burgundy plush throw which swaddled me like a scared baby. My shaking form didn’t even notice that the story had stopped or that Spencer had retreated into the darkness. My eyes peeked out from under the blanket, the apartment was full of blackness- the power must’ve gone out. All I could see was the pale moonlight creeping through the drapery as my eyes darted trying to locate Spencer.

“Spencer?” I murmured into the shadows- no one answered back from the depths.

“Boo!” Spencer suddenly popped up behind the couch causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.

“Fuck! Spencer Walter Reid!” I picked up one of our pillows, chucking it in the direction where I believed him to be hiding. His shriek permeated the apartment as he shielded himself from my wrath with what appeared to be candles. He must’ve retreated to find candles we had stashed in our bathroom when the power shut off.

“Most power outages will be over almost as soon as they begin, but some can last much longer – up to days or even weeks. Power outages are often caused by freezing rain, sleet storms and/or high winds which damage power lines and equipment.” He spouted off at me to try and quell my anger while setting down candles on the coffee table preparing them to be lit. From out of his pocket Spencer produced a disposable lighter- I always let him handle them because my fingers often got burned on them. Stroking the wheel, the lighter sparked to life lighting the apartment once more, soothing my frazzled state.

“I guess that’s kind of comforting…”

“Do you want to hear the rest of the story?” The soft gleam of the candle flickered on my skin, illuminating the cringe that made its way onto my face.

“No thanks Spencer- I’d rather cuddle.” He flashed me a little stupid grin that I adored and joined me back on the couch. Spencer swathed the blanket around us settling into his position as the big spoon, the combined feeling of  my boyfriend and the velvet like blanket made me feel impervious to the outside world. I nuzzled against his neck sinking deeper into the sofa, letting the soft edges of sleep overtake me, Spencer had a way with cuddles that almost always immediately lulled me to sleep. Sometime later when our pumpkin pie had been long forgotten the lights flicked back on, the fluorescent bulbs combined with the still glowing candles lit our sleeping figures.

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid #spencer reid imagine #criminal minds imagine #spencer reid fluff #fluff #halloween #Criminal Minds #criminal minds x reader

[mcwriting]

The Marriage Project (8)

Hello, hello, hello! Here’s chapter 8 after a long break since chapter 7! If you haven’t all ready, make sure you go check out the prologue to Sweet Home Alabama once you’re done here, as I may post the first chap very soon!

Story Masterlist

Word Count: 2178

Warnings: Some language? I can’t think of anything else

% approximately the 3rd week of October %

You hadn’t really told anyone what you’d been doing Sunday, and especially left out the part where you were with Tom.

Once getting home the previous night, you’d quickly taken off your makeup and brushed your teeth before essentially passing out on your bed. You’d also snoozed your alarm enough times that you’d had to rush to school that morning, getting to class with only a minute to spare.

In the afternoon, your friends sat around a lunch table discussing how your weekends had gone.

“Mine was pretty boring. How about yours, y/n?” Caroline asked.

“It was fine. Mostly did homework. Oh, and I took some senior pictures yesterday, but that’s it.”

“Oh that’s why your hair is straight?” someone else asked.

“Yeah, I got home late and woke up late so I just tossed on some jeans this morning.”

“Where even were you? Your snap maps said you were at the lake,” Alexis stated. 

To say that question made you nervous was an understatement. You didn’t want to give anything away so you tried to keep it vague.

“Oh, yeah. The photographer knew of a place out there we could go so I said yes.”

“Who was your photographer? I’ve been looking to get pictures done,” Caroline said.

Well, there goes ambiguity.

“Hah, well, Nikki Holland.”

“Isn’t that Tom’s mom?” Alexis asked, squinting at you. You sighed.

“Yes. I’ve been at their house a lot for the project and her whole career is photography so she asked me if I wanted her to do my pictures for free. I couldn’t turn that down.

“So that’s why you and Tom were at the same location yesterday!” Alexis exclaimed.

“What! Keep your voice down!”

“So it’s true? You and Tom took your senior pictures together? I was waiting until you’d admit why you were together.”

“Okay there are so many things I need to address but firstly, we did not take them together, we just did them at the same time. And secondly, since when do you have Tom on snap?”

Alexis rubbed the back of her neck and looked away. Everyone else looked surprised and kept quiet.

“Remember sophomore year when I went to that party while you were out of town? And I told you I made out with someone? Well….”

“ALEXIS!”

“I was drunk, okay? By the next day I realized how gross it was, but I kept him on snap so I could keep tabs for when we talked trash about him.”

You folded your arms across your chest and stared blankly across the table at your best friend.

“And you just didn’t think to tell me that you, I don’t know, made out with my mortal enemy and have had him on snap for the past 2 years?”

“I thought you’d be mad at me! Obviously it was the one time, and we’ve never sent each other a single snap. This was about you anyways and how you and Tom spent yesterday together. Where were you, actually?” Alexis asked, looking at you expectantly. You rolled your eyes.

“His grandparents have a lake house, okay? His mom planned the whole thing and the leaves were pretty colors, so it was whatever.”

“Hm, I guess so…” Alexis trailed, giving you one final look of “this conversation isn’t over” before someone brought up a different topic.

%

With volleyball regionals that upcoming weekend and Tom having an away game, you and he decided to work together that Thursday at his place.

You quickly rinsed off after practice and headed over to his house where he was waiting at the door. 

“Took you awhile,” he commented as you came up the sidewalk.

“Yeah, sorry. I got caught talking to coach about this weekend. It also takes forever to get these leggings on right out of the shower,” you joked, gesturing down at your athletic pants.

You got to work pretty quickly as there was a lot to do as compared to normal. By the time you finished, it was almost dinnertime.

“Oh, I think my mom finished all those pictures if you want them. Let’s go find her,” Tom suggested, leading you downstairs.

Her and Dom were in the kitchen cooking together. It was sweet watching them interact.

“Hey, mom? Did you say you had that flash drive done?” Tom interrupted, causing both parents to turn.

“Yes! I’m glad you reminded me. Dom, hold down the fort while I go get that.”

She led you to her office, then dug around her desk until she found it, handing it to you.

“You know, dinner will be ready in probably 10 minutes. You’re free to eat with us tonight,” she offered.

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“You never impose on us! And absolutely, we always make more than enough food so the boys can take leftovers to school.”

Well if you’re sure… I’ll text my mom and make sure she doesn’t mind.”

She didn’t, so as you waited for dinner, you sat down on a living room couch, Tom taking a recliner nearby. From the corner of your eye you saw Paddy walk in the room and freeze when he saw you.

“Y/n! Lovely to see you on this fine evening,” he greeted, sitting tentatively on the other end of the couch. You held back a chuckle at his word choice.

“And you as well, sir. How was your day?” you asked, trying to get him out of his shell. 

His eyes widened as he told you all about his school day. You prepared to reply when Dom came and announced the food was done.

You followed everyone to the dining room and stood watching, not wanting to accidentally take someone’s seat.

“Oh, you can sit here, y/n,” Paddy said, pulling out a seat for you in the middle of the table. You glanced to Tom, who was rolling his eyes.

“Thanks, Paddy. What a gentleman you are,” you complimented as he helped tuck in your chair. He took the seat on the left of you as Tom sat on your right. Directly across from you were Sam, then Harry and Dom on either side. Nikki took the head.

“Y/n, why don’t you get what you want first,” Nikki suggested, gesturing over the food. There was spaghetti, salad, and bread. You got only a little bit of each thing, trying to be polite.

“That’s all you want? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you eat more on the bus to soccer games than that,” Tom commented. You raised your eyebrows at him and nudged his knee with yours.

“Thomas! Don’t be rude! Y/n, you’re free to however much or little you’d like. You can always go back for more later, too.”

Dinner went relatively smoothly aside from that, most of the conversation being centered on you as different family members wanted to know different things (Paddy especially as he’d trained his eyes on you almost the entire evening). For the most part, Tom was quiet except to crack a few jokes or answer something you asked him.

As everyone was finishing their meals, you offered to help clean up.

“Oh, no, don’t worry. It’s Tom’s job to do the dishes tonight,” Dom told you.

“I don’t mind helping him. I can dry if nothing else.”

After being reminded a few times that you shouldn't feel the need to, you went with Tom to the kitchen anyways, holding a towel. 

“You really don’t have to help me, you know. You’re technically our guest,” he said as the sink filled with water.

“Seriously, I don’t mind. I have nothing better to do anyways since I finished my homework.”

You worked together pretty much silently, falling into a comfortable rhythm. As you set down the last plate, Tom spoke up.

“Hey y/n, think fast.”

“Wha- TOM!” you exclaimed, as he had shot water at you, making the front of your shirt wet. “Oh you are so dead for that!” 

You jumped on his back, pressing your wet shirt against him, causing his own shirt to dampen. He thrashed around, the both of you laughing.

“What the hell is going on in- oh,” said Sam, who entered the room. 

You both froze in place, you quickly sliding off Tom as Sam looked at you skeptically.

“Your brother just sprayed me with the faucet, so I was getting back at him,” you tried to convince him. It is what happened after all.

“Right... I was just coming to grab something from the drawer, so I’ll leave you all to it,” he said awkwardly as he dug around the drawer and quickly made his leave. 

You and Tom both looked at each other awkwardly before bursting into laughter.

“You know you’re lucky this is a dark shirt,” you said after a moment.

“Am I though?”

“TOM!”

%

When you got home a little bit later, you decided to plug in your flash drive and look at all the pictures Nikki had taken. You were marveling at her work when your phone started buzzing. It was Alexis.

“Hey, what’s up?” you picked up, confused as to why she’d call on a Thursday night.

“Hey. I saw that you were home so I figured I was good to call. Are you alone?”

“Yes, and why do you need me alone?”

She paused.

“Look, y/n, I’m sorry for bringing that stuff up about Tom in front of the girls Monday, but, since I don’t know when I’ll be able to get you alone again, I need to ask you something.”

“Okay what is going on?” You’re scaring me a little.”

“I hate to be the one to ask this, because I know you and we came up with that whole revenge thing at the beginning of the semester but… do you… have feelings for Tom?”

You were taken aback at her question.

“What! Me have feelings for Tom? Are you crazy?”

She sighed.

“Well it’s just that, you two are always together now, your usual bickering has turned into normal banter, and you literally traveled to take pictures with him last weekend. It just seems like something else is there, and the whole school is starting to pick up on it.”

Ironically, you had frozen on a picture of you and Tom from Sunday, one of you standing in your sports uniforms back to back.

“Okay so maybe we’re kind of friends now, but that doesn’t mean I like him! And how many times do I have to say that the pictures were just at the same time?”

“Then explain to me why his mom’s website has multiple pictures of you two together?”

Your blood ran cold and stomach dropped.

“Wait, what?” you breathed, immediately going to pull up her page. Like Alexis said, a picture of the two of you posing was at the top of the home page. It was the same one you’d been looking at before. “Oh, no,” you whispered.

“Are you seeing it?” she asked.

You gulped.

“Yep. But, it’s not that bad, right? I mean she takes tons of sports pictures and we look super serious. It’s not like we’re standing with our arms wrapped around each other or anything.” you rationalized, half joking at the end of your sentence.

“You might want to scroll down, then…”

You went past a photo of just you on the dock railing in your jumpsuit to find one of Tom lifting you over his shoulder, but of you laughing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you muttered.

“Are you sure you’ve got nothing to tell me? I’ve had lots of guy friends and most of them don't do that to me.”

“Yes, Alexis, I’m sure. He was getting back at me for something and acted like he was gonna throw me in the lake. I didn’t realize Nikki took any pictures of it. I’ll ask Tom about it.”

“If you say so… I’ll believe you. But you do know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Of course I do, and I’m telling you right now that nothing has happened or will ever happen. We’re just friends, okay? Now I’ve got to go. See you tomorrow?” you finished.

“Okay, see you tomorrow,” she signed off, ending the call.

You felt another pit in your stomach thinking about how you’d lied to her. You definitely didn’t have feelings, but why didn’t you tell Alexis about that moment you’d had in his room a couple weeks back, or how you'd fallen asleep on his shoulder Sunday night, or even how you’d accidentally seen him naked?

Because she’d think there’s something there.

But there isn’t.

But..?

You shook the thoughts away as you texted Tom, asking him to take a glance at his mom’s website.

“Omg I have no idea why she used the third picture. I’ll see if she’ll change it” he answered. 

You were glad he would save your asses like that, but felt a twinge of sadness for it to be replaced. You almost didn’t mind it being there.

%

A/N: another long awaited marriage project! I have been working so hard to get this out while going through rewrites and working on sweet home alabama, but hopefully this will hold y’all over for now. As always, thank you so much and feel free to hit up my asks any time!

Send a message or ask if you’d like to be added to my permanent or series taglists so I can verify you’ve been added!

Story tag list: @jackiehollanderr, @one-big-fangirl, @l0lmk, @primadonnasdream, @bookworm06, @thenoddingbunny-blog, @agentnataliahofferson, @spider-babe, @stxfxniexreads, 

#The Marriage Project #tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland story #tom holland series #tom holland au #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fic #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n

[tomyo]

A Vague Soul Eater Timeline Estimate:

TyI feel confused a lot when I see the characters listed as being 13 since a lot of elements don’t line up. Things like Soul riding a Harley (which are notoriously large and likely hard for a boy at the start of puberty to ride), Tsumugi (canonically 14) calling Maka senpai, and of course, the likelihood that the soul eater characters aren’t the same age. I saw a half finished draft pointing out some of these things but it began to become just a lengthy timeline. So as someone who’s obsessively documented this series for over 10 years, I thought I’d just explain the general time frames in Soul Eater. 

Warning: Long and full of spoilers.

First off, I always pictured the characters to start the series around 15 for various reasons I’ll get into later but in doing some extra fact checking, the wiki even cited Ohkubo saying Soul is 13-15. My viewing of their age is proto Maka and Soul in the pilot chapter look significantly younger than their standard design. While I doubt years passed between the Blair incident and Meeting Tsumugi on the stairs, I view their proto designs as 13 and their standard look as them at 15. Although admittedly there is a lot of information that can be contradictory as we will see.

Black Star is often headcanoned as the youngest but he is actually roughly a year older than Maka. He was brought to DWMA on the day she was born. The wiki says he was one year old but seeing as he was still unable to walk or talk, I’d guess it was closer between 6-10 months. 

Liz supposedly said in chapter 74 that she is two or three years older than BS making her around 17-19 at the beginning. I’m going to estimate low and put her at 17 for reasons. At some point I hope to find the original japanese text to see for myself just to verify if that’s what she said or if it was an embellished translation. Since Tsubaki has a similar figure to her, I would put her at the same age.

Patty is a little confusing. She’s called a Twin gun along with her sister and Japan still uses Onee/imouto even for twins based on who was born first, however Twin seems to more mean matching that literal twins in this use. Patty is probably anywhere between 14-16 but I’m going to stick with 16 because her doppleganger from B.ichi, Mana is 16 (Patty is also a bit taller than Maka which could suggest she is older.)

Death the Kidd has also been confirmed by Ohkubo to be 13-15 (which again I’m gonna place as 15).

So final thoughts before timeline listing, Soul Eater not is one of the most reliable pieces of info on the early Soul Eater timeline. Death City is in a monoseasonal climate which made it hard to identify how much time was passing but Tsumugi’s arrival fills in a LOT of details. She is 14 (a japanese middle schooler), arrives in Spring (Most likely April), Soul is still wearing a Gakuran(Boy’s middle school uniform) ONLY in the first episode (suggesting he was at the end of being middle school aged), Sid is still alive and Medusa is still around at the start but Stein shows up midway through the series, and her series ends on Halloween. I will push back the main kids’ ages back slightly for SEN. To also note, DWMA seems to most commonly take in students middle school aged an above unless there is a unique circumstance in cases like Black Star, PoT, PoF, and Angela. And finally, becoming a Death Weapon is rare and the info of Soul and Maka’s second time collecting 100 souls will suggest the minimum time progression from their first meeting to the Blair incident. 

So without further ado:

At 12/13 years old, Maka and Soul meet and pair up as a Meister Weapon pair. Both regularly wore a gakuran and the same sailor suit as tsumugi. Maka introduces Soul to Black Star who is a childhood friend and both meet his new partner Tsubaki.

Roughly one year before Tsumugi arrives, Spirit and Maka’s Mother (Who we will call Kami; her fan name from a misinterpretation) decide to get divorced. US divorces take about a year to go through and theirs finalized at the start of the first SE arc.

It was likely at this point Maka moved into an apartment with Soul since her mum left and the two seemed to have lived together for a while by SE not.

During the winter, Death offers Liz and Patty to become his weapons. Liz accepts wanting to provide Patty a better life.

Soul and Maka begin to to transition out of their middle school style uniforms as by a japanese standard, they would be considered high school aged now.

Soul Eater Not Starts

Age Estimates(Young-Oldest): SEN trio 14, Maka: 14 3/4, Soul 15, Dtk 15, BS 15.5, Patty 15.5, Liz 17, Tsubaki 17

Tsumugi discovers she is a weapon and moves to Death City in April. She meets her senpai Maka who is in the advanced class and who later gives a demonstration with Soul who is still wearing a Gakuran. Neither seem upset as they would have if they had recently encountered Blair. 

Between April and May, they loose the 100 souls they collected and Blair moves into their apartment. (SEN 4 references SE 4) A few days later, Black Star fights Mifune for the first time (Based on the Anime’s Prologues which better connect the stories).

Late April: Kim and Jackie become a Meister Weapon pair after Jackie learns Kim is a witch; they are possibly younger than the other main cast as they still wear sailor suits in the main series.

Mid-May: Eternal Feather is possessed by Shaula and is nearly killed but Stein stiches her back up. The main SE cast are likely not aware of Stein as Sid is still alive.

October: Shaula kills Sid.

October 31: Shaula attack Death City but SEN Trio kills her. 

Timeline Inconsistency: There is a timeskip at the end of SEN showing DtK, Liz and Patty becoming partners in Spring however they should already be a working team before the other’s remedial lesson. Specifically in the 2008 anime, Black Star and Soul notice someone (DTK) took a high level mission and ask a still alive Sid for information.

Kim and Jackie are moved up to EAT class.

Soul Eater Starts (Post prologues)

Age changes: Maka: 15; BS, Patty: 16. 6 months have elapsed since SEN.

November: Stein reanimates Stein. Soul, Maka, BS, and Tsubaki meet Stein during their remedial test who thereafter becomes their class teacher. BS and Soul attempt to fight DTK who is starting classes at DWMA. 

Maka and Soul fight Crona. Soul gets badly wounded and infected with Black Blood. Medusa who is unknowingly the witch creating black blood watches his progress in secret. While Soul is recovering Dtk and BS find Excalibur.

Winter: Tsubaki defeats her brother giving her a new power that BS needs to train to use leading to Maka wanting to also become stronger for Soul. Medusa briefly battles Eruka who becomes her unwilling servant. She sends Eruka to Free....Free. Maka, Soul, BS, and Tsubaki battle Free and defeat him after Maka and Soul overcome their issues and slightly awaken the black blood. Maka now is also infected with BB.

March: Year end exams more or less. Given the importance of the exam, it matches up with Japan’s placement exams.

Kid fights Crona while suspicion grows on Medusa.

March 31st: Shibusen founders party. Medusa ambushes them with only our 4 meister weapon pairs escaping. Crona is willingly captured after Maka befriends them and Medusa is ‘killed’, but the Kishin is ultimately revived and Stein is infected with Medusa??. Due to some confusing wording, a lot of people including myself mistake Shibusen’s foundation being around xmas. Realizing the actual date is the end of March, the timeline since Nov is a became a little more vague.

Age Changes: Soul, Dtk: 16; Liz Tsubaki; 18; 12mo since SEN; 6mo since SE

April: The death weapons convene in Death City. Crona starts school at DWMA.

Crona joins Maka and Soul on a mission to the Czech Republic where Arachne is reformed after 800 years. Giriko is also there and apparently just kept body stealing his kids for all that time.

Maka comes back temporarily paralyzed and BS fights Mifune a second time while seeking revenge. (We will diverge from the Anime now)

Joe comes to Death City for internal investigation.

A girl is possessed by Medusa. Crona becomes used to DWMA and Dtk puts on a part for them. Midway through the party, they are called on a mission. Kid is conflicted at finding Death’s name alongside the wizard Brew’s and Crona gets a visit from Medusa after leaving the party. Medusa tells Crona to spy and further worsen Stein’s condition. The Wiki points out that it’s May 21st based on a comment by Azusa. 

May 22nd: DtK fails to find the Book of Eibon.

May 23rd: Crona poisins Marie.

June: The 3 meister renaissance is formed.

The battle for Brew Occurs.

Maka finds out Crona is working with Medusa but doesn’t know what to do, Black Star fights Kid, and Justin Law, the shibusen traitor, kills Joe.

Stein and Marie leave to track Joe’s Killer, BS and Tsubaki take a break from shibusen to go to Tsubaki’s home, and Crona leave Death City for good.

Maka, Soul, DtK, Liz, Patty, and Blair fight some of the Kishin’s clown agents in Russia.

Medusa returns and bargains with Shibusen with her child host as hostage and giving the names of witches in Death City, including Kim who runs away to join Arachnaphobia. Arachnaphobia uses a brew tool to manipulate them.

An alliance between Medusa and Shibusen is formed to fight Arachnaphobia.

I want to make the guess that summer has passed and it is August/September by the Baba Yaga fight. 1. Because it seems like enough events have happened that 3months would have passed and 2. this would make the time skip start in spring which fits thematically (new arc, new team, etc).

The battle against Arachne occurs. Kim and Jackie are saved. BS kills Mifune in their final battle. Arachne is killed by Soul and Maka becoming their witch soul to make Soul a death scythe. Medusa transfers herself to her sister’s corpse and flees leaving behind a free Rachel. Death is captured by Noah.

Angela is taken in by Shibusen who plan to try and guide her away from the sway of destruction natural in witches.

 6 month timeskip, the main cast heals, Spartoi is formed, Justin is formally know as the traitor acquitting Stein of the murder, and Soul and Maka recollect 100 kishin souls thus officially turning Soul into a death scythe. 

Spartoi Arc Starts

Time Passed since SEN: 2 years; Since SE: 1year 5 months

Ages: Maka 16 3/4, Soul/DtK 17, BS/Patty 17 1/2, Liz/Tsubaki:19

Maka and Soul train with Kim and Jackie to utilize Maka’s grigori soul properties for flying. At the same time, Gopher, Noah’s devot peon, attacks intending to assassinate Maka. Maka ofc wins. 

Killik is sent to do reconnaissance on Medusa with Liz and Patty in addition to his Shamanic weapons. There he faces off against Medusa’s madness experimentations.

At the same time, BS and Tsubaki’s recon leads them to a memory erased Crona who they battle with. Eruka and Mizune come to retrieve Crona but Eruka is caught by BS in the end.

Also at the same time, Medusa who was overseeing both events through a crystal ball ends up in a three way battle with Justin and Tezca, the South American death scythe.

Maka and Soul who are still at school discuss how Soul has been getting even more partner requests lately. Only Maka seems aware that an underclassmen has been following them as well.

Soul and Maka witness Blair and the Chupa witches make their way to meet with Shinigami-sama about rescuing Kid followed by BS breaking in behind them to show off the captured Eruka.

Spartoi and Blair enter the book intending to save Kid. While I won’t go over it in its entirety, it’s worthwhile to point out that Giriko describes Maka as looking 15 or so (Something the fandom used often as Maka’s age). However, when he also believed she was new henchman, he said she was 7/10 years too young to be working there suggesting he perceives her as younger than she is. 

DtK gets consumed by madness and has a duel with BS. 

Crona starts spreading madness zones in Russia. Maka and Soul journey with Stein, Kim and Jackie but Soul is briefly taken over by madness.

Kid starts pursuing for answers on Eibon.

Crona kills Medusa.

Spartoi is given the order to kill Crona if found. Maka does a soul perception search but instead comes across the kishin on the moon.

Shibusen prepares for the battle on the moon while Maka and Soul continue to look for Crona. Very little time passes during the kid salvage arc and it seems to be summer when preparations are finished. I would presume since an airship was needed to be built, the final battle takes place around August. 

As Kid and the Death Scythes begin the battle on the moon, Spartoi joins Maka in finding Crona in Italy. Maka fails to talk Crona down who then heads to the moon with the intent to consume the Kishin.

Having no interest in killing Crona, the kids somewhat defect from Spartoi and head to the moon to aid in the fight. However, some of the fighters from the moon, including kid, return after struggling in their mission. Kid decides to gather allies with the witches in order to defeat Asura. 

Crona consumes the kishin and battles Maka while stripping her friends and partner. Maka uses Spirit instead and Crona becomes frustrated at being unable to disharmonize the two. Spirit explains their parent/child connection is too strong to be unsynced causes them to freak out and be overtaken by the kishin.

The meister weapon pair trio battles Asura, Kid reaches godhood, Maka and Soul go inside the Kishin to find Crona, work with them, and kill the Kishin as they rip through him. The witches protect the humans from the flood of madness that spills out and a new era of Shibusen/Witch alliance forms.

Chrona deadass infects the world with boob madness.

A funeral for Shinigami-sama is held the following week.

Kid’s coronation occurs where he announces the end to the war between Shibusen and Witches. We know enough time has passed that people became used to the black moon and BS has decently healed despite literally breaking every bone in his body but Marie hasn’t gotten her baby bump yet which comes in during the third month of pregnancy meaning probably only 2 months at most have passed. October makes sense for where the story ends.

Final main 7 ages (vague ideas): 

Maka: 17

Soul: 17.5

Black Star: 18

Tsubaki: 19-20

Death the Kid: 17.5

Liz:19-20

Patty:18

Total time since SEN started: 2.5 years

Total time since post prologue SE: ~2 years

Final thoughts:

Well, that took two long nights to write down. I tried not to give a tedious play by play and only put down the most essential of story details to help give an idea on time passage. It got progressively harder to detail time as sources started to dwindle from the manga timeline. I love the Spartoi arc so at some point I might go through that part again to reexamine some details. Japanese high school is only three years long so the idea of their story starting at Japan’s freshman age and ending around HS graduation seems fitting. One of the things that also occurred to me with the timeline write up was that Justin in concretely 17 when Crona briefly joins Shibusen, giving us someone to contrast against our cast. In this lovely breakdown we can see the growth spurt the main 3 guys go through but if you also look at their artwork in the later chapters, they also share similar slimmed features to Justin’s design. I will say, early on I was surprised how many time frame details I was able to pull out from the material. Soul Eater was always vague with the fine details but clearly some of us managed to pull out a lot from it. 

In terms of the soul collection, the second 100 souls required 2 years to get(1 soul/mission a week). Soul collection would theoretically get easier over time and experience but its hard to figure out with all the variables we saw like a major injury, an attack on the city, and the kishin revival. Then there’s also questioning how long it took Maka and Soul to sync up. While Tsumugi’s case is unusual, it took her 6 months to even partner up (though then they also flawlessly killed a witch sooo). Going by the middle + high school model for Shibusen, Maka’s efficiency and a less big world issues could possibly validate the idea they could get that far in 3 years. Applying that much time for the idea Maka/Soul are 13 would mean they started their partnership at around 9-10 years old which seems unlikely to me. Then again, Justin became a death scythe AT 13 so who knows. 

My last little thought is completely inconsequential but I see Maka as having an end of August birthday. The 23rd game to mind but I didn’t realize that was the switchover date from Leo to Virgo. Based on what google searches say about those signs, it feels fitting imo.

Well, congrats for making it all the way and thanks for hearing out my ramblings!

#soul eater #soul eater theorizing #soul eater ages

[postpostpostpostpostpost]

Mile End, Montréal

The Montréal neighborhood of the Mile End has, in recent times, become known as a very trendy and popular area to live in, with a high concentration of creatives. This neighborhood has transformed tremendously from when it housed a large working class immigrant population and was Montréal’s garment district. In my powerpoint tour I seek to show this change as well as the factors leading to this neighborhood’s gentrification. I believe that the Mile End is a neighborhood that has been constantly changing to accommodate its different inhabitants and, as a result, has become uniquely cosmopolitan. 

In my project I will be focusing on analyzing how this neighborhood has transformed and been gentrified in the later part of the 20th century to present day. However, I would like to discuss the historical background of this neighborhood first. With a picture of the Montréal Hunt Club from 1859, I intend to show that this neighborhood was largely rural land on the outskirts of the city until its growth beginning later in the 19th century. The implementation of the streetcar in the 1890s became a large cause of this growth. In the article, The Politics of Transportation Services in Suburban Montreal: Sorting Out the "Mile End Muddle" 1893-1909, Christopher Boone writes how streetcars expanded the city and made the Mile End into an early suburb. According to Boone, the Mile End was strategically important in connecting the opposite sides of Mount Royal via streetcar. Boone writes that, after the implementation of streetcar into the Mile End, the neighborhood’s population rose from “3,500 to nearly 11,000” from 1892 to 1901. This made the Mile End the “the fastest growing

suburban municipality in Montreal” at the time. During the twentieth century, Montréal grew tremendously in population due largely to immigration, with many settling in the Mile End. The film, Our Street Was Paved with Gold allows a look into the Mile End in 1973. The film contains footage of the neighborhood at that time and interviews with residents who describe the Mile End of their childhood and how it’s changed.  In the film, there is an emphasis on the high concentration of immigrants living in the area and how different groups of people have come and gone from the area. Our Street Was Paved with Gold shows the Mile End at a time when the garment industry was still active and much of its inhabitants were still relatively new to Canada. In the article Mile End History: Prologue, Yves Desjardins writes about how different groups of immigrants had come and gone as well. Desjardins writes an account of his father’s stories of growing up in the Mile End as well as his own experience growing up in a Laval and then, as an adult, choosing to move back to his father’s old neighborhood in 1973. Desjardins explains how, until its more recent gentrification, the Mile End acted as a “gateway”, writing, “However, for nearly a century, Mile End was first and foremost a transitional area: a point of arrival for several generations of immigrants for whom leaving the neighbourhood – which they associated with their first impoverished years in the country – was often the primary goal.”. Therefore, the neighborhood has taken on many different characteristics, with its inhabitants each leaving their mark and adding levels of character and history. 

In the later half of the 20th century to present day, the Mile End has experienced gentrification and a growing creative scene. In Materiality and creative production: the case of the Mile End neighborhood in Montreal, Deborah Leslie and Norma M Rantisi explore this neighborhood’s more recent transformation, with an emphasis on the large number of creatives that have made it their home. Leslie and Rantisi describe that the low rent and newly free industrial buildings that were previously used by the garment industry attracted artists after the neighborhood experienced an economic depression in the 1980s. Leslie and Rantisi write that, by the 1990s, the neighborhood was quickly starting to be gentrified. Leslie and Rantisi also explain that the arrival of the game development company, Ubisoft in 1997 was another large cause behind this transformation as it now is “the largest employer in the neighborhood”.

In Is There Such a Thing as Montréalology? Pierre Filion describes that, due to its unique historical and linguistic position in North America, Montréal experiences a “cultural self-reflexivity”. Filion then writes that the “resulting feedback loop between the media and life in Montréal accounts for a political scene that distinguishes Montréal (and Quebec as a whole)”. Due to the changing nature of the Mile End (especially from the mid 20th century to the present), it has become increasingly cosmopolitan and, as a result, has largely been able to avoid these divides that exist in the rest of Montréal. In The Fragmented or Cosmopolitan Metropolis? A Neighbourhood Story of Immigration in Montreal, Annick Germain describes this phenomenon, writing, “While adjacent Petit-Plateau became the heartland of a francophone cultural avant-garde inspired by the Quiet Revolution, Mile End remained an in-between space, a little haven of peace in a city often troubled by linguistic and political tensions, where a number of extremely diverse groups found themselves embracing the cosmopolitan mode of indeterminacy and multiple belonging that doubles as attachment to the district.”. 

Although the Mile End has been constantly changing, it has also constantly been diverse and, therefore, has not really belonged on either side of the political and linguistic divides that exist in Montréal. This has allowed the neighborhood to develop a very unique identity and purpose within the city.

Bibliography

Boone, Christopher G. "The Politics of Transportation Services in Suburban Montreal: Sorting Out the "Mile End Muddle" 1893-1909." Urban History Review / Revue D'histoire Urbaine 24, no. 2 (1996): 25-39. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 43559851.

Desjardins, Yves. "Mile End History: Prologue." Mile End Memories. January 06, 2014. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://memoire.mile-end.qc.ca/en/histoire-du-quartier-mile- end-prologue/#foot_text_2355_3.

Filion, Pierre. "Comment: Is There Such a Thing as Montréalology?" Anthropologica 55, no. 1 (2013): 87-92. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24467376.

Germain, Annick, and Martha Radice. "Cosmopolitanism by Default: Public Sociability In Montreal." In Cosmopolitan Urbanism, 112-29. London: Routledge, 2006. Accessed October 20, 2020.

Germain, Annick. "The Fragmented or Cosmopolitan Metropolis? A Neighbourhood Story of Immigration in Montreal (La Métropole Fragmentée Ou Cosmopolite? Une Histoire De Quartiers De L’immigration Montréalaise)." British Journal of Canadian Studies 29, no. 1 (2016): 1-23. Accessed October 20, 2020. doi:10.3828/bjcs.2016.1.

Our Street Was Paved with Gold. Directed by Albert Kish. Canada: National Film Board of Canada, 1973. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://www.nfb.ca/film/ our_street_was_paved_with_gold/.

Montreal Hunt Club at Mile End Road, Montreal, QC, 1859. 1859. McCord Museum, Montreal. In McCord Museum. Accessed October 20, 2020. http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/ en/collection/artifacts/MP-1978.29.8§ion=196.

Rantisi, Norma M., and Deborah Leslie. "Materiality and Creative Production: The Case of the Mile End Neighborhood in Montréal." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 42, no. 12 (April 15, 2010): 2824-841. Accessed October 20, 2020. doi:10.1068/a4310.

#montreal #mtl #mile end #plateau #quebec #Gentrification #Ubisoft #Immigration