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financialsmatter · 2 years

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Sunday Funnies, If You're Not Offended...

Welcome back to this week’s edition of the Sunday Funnies where, this past week we saw: How Elon Musk continues to fire Twitter Employees. And Musk also announced that Trump is back on Twitter… Let the Triggering Begin And (not to Musk’s’ dismay) celebs are announcing they’re are leaving Twitter…but nobody cares. The markets are indicating that Black Friday seems to have bailed out retail…for now. And two different mass shootings occurred where pronouns were involved and MAGA Republicans were accused…again. As if on cue: the media tries to hide the truth. And by adapting to leftist policies, angry turkeys who survived Thanksgiving Day are now seeking MORE than just reparations… NY Times announced Sam Bankrun-Fraud as a guest speaker at their "top business and policy leaders" summit. LMAO! Included on the list are other notable business luminaries such as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Janet (Mrs. Doubtfire) Yellen, Mike Pence 48th vice-president and author of “So Help Me God,” and Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck? WTF! After praising SBF – and his fraudulent FTX Crypto Ponzi scam for the last year – the NY Times became a laughing stock last week with the collapse of FTX. But...and this is a Very Big Butt... They would be quick to mercilessly cancel and expel from its "prestigious" conference, anyone who had misgendered some post-op transsexual. At the same time, THEY/THEM are willing to give SBF (Bankrun Fraud) – a thieving pathological liar and sociopath – a forum in which to profess his innocence to the entire world. But, that’s to be expected from today’s Whores-Of-Babble-On Presstitutes. Especially a totally bought-and-paid-for-rag like the NY Times. And that’s precisely why we publish the Sunday Funnies. You see, we use our funnies/memes/cartoons in an effort to counter the madness and frustration that accompanies Turbulent Times. Because when it’s all said and done, we all need to laugh every now and then. Why? Laughter is good for your soul. And it’s healthy to be a bit silly…especially in the face of fear mongering, medical tyranny, and especially the threat of WWIII. It’s all the more reason why we won’t apologize…especially if our Funnies just happen to hurt some Progressive/Socialist/Communist/Globalist’s feeeellwwings. And please remember: The Sunday Funnies are not just about our nations bizarre state of politics/finance/beliefs. It’s about awareness of what’s happening in the world that we choose to poke fun at. And, if our funnies/memes/cartoons/etc. provide you with a laugh or two – and/or open your eyes to some stark realities – then we consider that a victory. So, when things tend to get a bit overwhelming, we believe it’s best to remember that Humor is Waaaayyyyy better than Hatred…which is contrary to what the world wants you to believe. And we hope you see the Sunday Funnies as a refreshing oasis in the middle of a parched, dry, and increasingly dark world that we’re living in. As always, we remind you: As difficult as things might appear, Evil Always Overplays its Hand…And Righteousness Prevails. Thanks again for joining us on this crazy journey we’re on and remember America Was Built by the Brave, Not by the Fearful… ********************************* Democrats Have Found New Evidence to Prosecute Trump **************************************** Are You Smelling Their Panic Yet? ******************************* And Speaking of Covid Origins… *********************************** While We’re On the Subject of LIARS and Murderers ************************************** And For Those Who Still Actually Believe that Factcheckers Are Legit… *************************************** Thanks to Stinky Joe’s Mishandling of A Railroad Strike (Pun Intended) … **************************************** And Now that Republicans Have Control of the House Again… ************************************** When You Tell Your Woke Friends How They’ve Been Deceived by Covid, Climate Change AND Inflation… ****************************************** In a Recent Poll, Ohio Stands Out. Who Woulda Thunk it? **************************************** This One Quietly Slipped Under the Radar. But Female Beauty Pageant Losers Cheered for Their Own Destruction As a Man Wins Local Miss America Pageant. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un… **************************************** Why It’s Not a Good Idea to Listen to Irish Whiskey ************************************** Has This Ever Happened to You? *************************************** A New Drink Combo to Celebrate the End of 2022 ************************************** Who Really Pays Those Prices? **************************************** Whimsical Rules For Gender Identity Results in Leftist Denial ************************************** BTW… the NY Times is Not the Only Bought-And-Paid-For Media Rag Out There… ************************************** That Face You Make… ************************************ What Happens When You Mis-Gender Someone… ************************************* For Our Delusional Friends Who Try to Convince Us They’re Helping Others When They Buy Very Expensive Cars **************************************** While We’re On the Subject of Electric/Coal Fired Cars… *************************************** This is NOT a Joke. But It is Funny How the WHO Tries to Cover-up Another Fake Pandemic…Prompting Us to Ask: “So, What’s In a Name?” ************************************** More Proof That the 2022 Elections Were Rigged ****************************************** Alfred Hitchcock’s Classic Thriller “The Birds” 2022 Style…Courtesy of Elon Musk *********************************************** It’s Incredible What Millennials and Gen Z’ers Will Put in a Text Message These Days. ***************************************** Then Again, Millennials and Gen Z Kids Have a Limited Scope of Reality *************************************** But When Your Child Learns to “Think Outside the Box…” ********************************* ********************************* That’s all for this week’s edition of the Sunday Funnies. Unless, of course, you want to see more risqué and/or R-Rated memes. You can find them (HERE). And remember to take advantage of our Black Friday Special that ends on Cyber Monday. This will be your last chance to get an annual subscription to our “…In Plain English” newsletter for the low price of $76.85…normally $145 (HERE). Or a monthly package for $7.95…normally $15 (HERE). Be sure to enter the coupon/code Thanksgiving at the check-out. Your discount will automatically be calculated there. As always, we hope you enjoy our memes/cartoons/rants etc. and that they bring a smile to your face. We definitely love to hear your comments so keep ‘em coming. And although the world seems pretty dark these days, we encourage you to see why you have a lot to hope for in 2022 and beyond (HERE). In the meantime, be sure to share these funnies with friends and family members. Caution: They may get offended. But remind them…It’s important to laugh together and laugh often. And be sure to tell them… We’re Not Just About Finance. See You Next Sunday… Invest with confidence, James Vincent, The Reverend of Finance Copyright © 2022 It's Not Just About Finance, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Read the full article

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bobbystompy · 3 years

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91 Quotes I Enjoyed From 2020

Below are my favorite quotes from 2020. Though most occurred throughout the year, some took place before but were encountered during.

1) “You don’t have to be new to make new.” - Rick Rubin

2) “He put the beat on and go to sleep then wake up with a verse.” - The Lox

3) “Every opinion is bad.” - Blink-155

(via Twitter)

5) “At the start of every disaster movie, there’s a scientist being ignored.”

6) “Be brave enough to suck at something new.”

7) “Comedy is the only job you can have where you can use everything you know” - Robin Williams via Dave Chappelle

8) “What’s the worst swear word where you live?” - Josiah Hughes

9) “Cookies are a really great way to get everybody to like you for a short period of time” - YSAC

10) “The worst dancer at a wedding is the one who’s not dancing.” - John Mulaney

11) “I never saw the end of the tunnel. I only saw myself running out of one." - Kobe Bryant

12) "A good movie begins as you're walking out of the theater" - Ethan Hawke

13) “When I was young and starting in cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart which is, 'The most personal is the most creative.’ That quote was from our great Martin Scorsese.” - Bong Joon-ho

14) “Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow” - River Phoenix via Joaquin Phoenix

15) “Thank you -- I will drink until next morning.” - Bong Joon-ho

16) “Men will bury their emotions for decades and then take it all out on children tubing while they drive the boat.” - @krauter_

17) “They help you with the dumb face stuff, but they don’t tell you how to fix it” - Adam (Nate’s friend), on having older sisters

18) “We all had our connections, but it’s not the details themselves that matter, it’s the feeling behind them. There are a million coming-of-age tales. Lady Bird’s secret sauce is how deeply its creator gave a shit. The older I get, the less I care about anything but the sense of a filmmaker’s personal connection to the material. It doesn’t matter what it’s about, what genre it is, or whether it’s genre at all. I only really care that it feels like something the filmmaker had to tell me, and that it was that filmmaker in particular who had to tell it. It has to answer the ‘why are you telling me this’ question, and not just why are you telling me, but why are you telling me.

Lady Bird is a movie that feels like only Greta Gerwig could’ve made. And it’s only because it’s so specific to her that it can be so meaningful to so many people.” - Vince Mancini

19) "I have cast some lonely votes, fought some lonely fights, mounted some lonely campaigns. But I do not feel lonely now.” - Bernie Sanders

20) “Ever hear a Beatles song you haven’t heard before?”

21) “Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.” - Charles Bukowski

22) “You shouldn’t have to hear a band to know if they’re good or not” - Josiah Hughes

23) “I was raised by OGs. Some of you were raised by IG. I understand.” - Ice-T

* * *

[Here is where I note the line of demarcation that was the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the US, pushed forward by Tom Hanks’ announcement, the NBA and NCAA shutting down, and, then, the nation itself.]

* * *

24) “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” - Vladimir Lenin

25) "Taken together, this is a massive failure in leadership that stems from a massive defect in character. Trump is such a habitual liar that he is incapable of being honest, even when being honest would serve his interests. He is so impulsive, shortsighted, and undisciplined that he is unable to plan or even think beyond the moment. He is such a divisive and polarizing figure that he long ago lost the ability to unite the nation under any circumstances and for any cause. And he is so narcissistic and unreflective that he is completely incapable of learning from his mistakes. The president’s disordered personality makes him as ill-equipped to deal with a crisis as any president has ever been. With few exceptions, what Trump has said is not just useless; it is downright injurious." - Peter Wehner

26) "Epidemics have a way of revealing underlying truths about the societies they impact." - Anne Applebaum

27) “A funny thing about quarantining is hearing your partner in full work mode for the first time. Like, I’m married to a ‘let’s circle back’ guy — who knew?” - Laura Norkin

28)

(Jojo Rabbit)

29) “The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. - Deadwood: The Movie

30) “All bleeding stops eventually.” - Deadwood: The Movie

31) “Our Father, which art in heaven… / Let him fucking stay there” - Deadwood: The Movie

32) “It’s like a power outage, but we still have power” - Ryen Russillo, on the pandemic

33) “Whenever Sox baseball returns, it’ll be weird to not have Farmer on the call any more. The relationship between a fan and longtime announcer is always built in the little moments. One afternoon, he’s the soundtrack as you clean the garage. On another night, he’s your bookmark for the game as you stand in line for churros or walk down the ramps at Sox Park to try for better seats in the 100 level. A voice like Farmer’s becomes so familiar that you only really notice when it’s no longer there.” - Kevin Kaduk, on the passing of Ed Farmer

34)

(via Twitter)

35) “In my songs, I try to look through someone else’s eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message” - John Prine

36) “Observe everything. Admire nothing.” - Generation Kill

37) “Trump, by that definition, has always been a wartime president -- always willing to sacrifice people he doesn’t know to things he only sort of cares about” - David Roth

38) "Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen." - Michael Jordan

39) "Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach." - Hunter S. Thompson

40) “Airlines sending me “we’re in this together” emails. When my suitcase was 52 pounds I was on my own.” - Mike Dentale

41) “Sometimes you can be the worst source of your own story” - Ryen Russillo

42) “Family is not necessarily blood, but instead who you would bleed for.”

43)

(via Twitter)

44) "This is the deal that Jordan made, knowingly or unknowingly — that he would trade everything he had for everything he wanted. And then, when he won all those things, he found that he had nothing but that.” - David Roth

45) “I’m brand loyal, but the brand doesn’t matter” - Caitie Miller, on why she doesn’t like generic peanut butter

46) “NOBODY shitposts Gene Hackman!!” - Mark Dehlinger

47) “When a man concludes that any stick is good enough to beat his foe with—that is when he picks up a boomerang.” - G.K. Chesterton

48) “You can be appalled forever, but shocked only once.” - Jeff Weiss, on early Eminem

49) “Whether I’m pessimistic or optimistic, the fight’s the same” - David Simon

50) “Freedom can never be completely won, but it can be lost.” - Bernard Simon

51) “Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands.” -Kareem Abdul Jabbar

52) “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist -- we must be anti-racist.” - Angela Davis

53) “Start as close to the end as possible” - Kurt Vonnegut, on creative writing

54) “You can’t stay woke all the time — that’s insomnia.” - Dr. Cornel West

55) “No, I get it. I’ve dated a lot of Geminis.”

56) “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” - John Krakauer, Into The Wild (via Tyler Keller)

57) "I couldn't show them my For You because it's pretty much just lesbian stuff and depression memes" - Maggie Loesch, on showing TikTok to her coworkers

58) "It's 1 a.m. in Slovakia and I've already had one bottle of wine and I don't know how long this press conference will go, so good luck to me." - Marian Hossa, following his NHL Hall of Fame announcement

59) “All I want in life is to go on an Anguilla group trip” - Mandy Gilkes

60) “You miss old friends when you don’t see them, but you miss them more when you do.” - Chuck Klosterman

61) “The only way to appreciate the present is to pretend it’s already the past.” - Chuck Klosterman

62) Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth Until they've faded, but trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back At photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now How much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked

(”Everybody's Free [To Wear Sunscreen]”)

Second time that essay’s been quoted on this list.

64) "I mean, it's just human nature to suck up to the people above you, crap on those beneath you, and undercut your equals” - Brian, Family Guy

65) “You never quit a job. You quit a manager.” - Brian Bedford

66) “All the pictures in my house are of people I’m not friends with” - Tracy Cunningham

67) “In order to leave something behind, you have to leave.” - Dr. Herman, Grey’s Anatomy

68)

(via Twitter)

69) “You can obsess about death if you don’t have to obsess about dying.” - Brendan Kelly via “White Noise”

70) “If it’s right to do, it’s wrong to wait.” - Andy, doorman

71)

72) “When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, 'When there are nine,' people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.” - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

73) "America is mostly people who’ve never left their state saying we have the best country in the world." - Billy Wayne Davis

74) “A writer is someone who knows at least 80% of their writing sucks.” - Gabe Hudson

75)

(via Twitter)

76) “You’re dead twice” - Brendan Kelly

77) “Perfect is the enemy of good” - Voltaire (via Zach Lowe)

78) “I don’t want to be a savior, I want to be a mirror.” - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

79) “I get bad Twitter FOMO but not real life FOMO. That just goes to show I need to get off the Internet.” - Josh Thomas

80) “Is there anything you love in life that you engage with seriously that you don't also engage with humor?" - Sam Sutherland, on his relationship with Blink-182

81) “My favorite genre of music is my friends' bands" - Josiah Hughes

82) “Let’s fall in love like both our parents aren’t divorced.”

83) “Seabiscuit may be the only earthling that was on both sides of the stamp.” - Brendan Kelly

84) “There’s no shame in coming in second, except in, like, wars.” - Family Guy

85) “I feel like I experience writer’s block 100% of the time, and when I do write, I have impostor syndrome.” - Phoebe Bridgers

86) “We teach based on what we most need to learn.” - psychologist on Grey’s Anatomy

87) “Having too many choices is the leading cause of stress” - Grey’s Anatomy

88) “I think we've all gravely underestimated the extent to which this year has changed all of us, permanently” - Kelli Maria Korducki

89)

(via Twitter)

90) “I wonder if people understand why they don’t have polio” - Sandra E. Garcia

91) “Ending songs is terrible, so let’s keep singing” - Dave Hernandez

#covid19 #2020 #star wars #dave chappelle #volatire #ysac #kobe #kobe bryant #ladybird #bukowski #jojo rabbit #aoc #john prine #deadwood #bernie #rbg #notorious rbg #phoebe bridgers

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planesofduality · 4 years

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The Story Behind Solas with Dragon Age Lead Writer Patrick Weekes - Dialogue Wheel (Part 2 of 3)

Full video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFx1nCdZFjw&t=1s

Part one here

Time: 12:16

When it comes the characterization of a character that you’ve already been give at least some sort of name to. We know that this character is some sort of trickster god - when you were trying to develop and make him some a stand-alone character, did you ever have to rely on what the mythos already established of this particular kind of eighth-seat god that maybe a lot people hadn’t heard a lot about?

Well, I think, like we talked about before, one of the great things about the Dragon Age universe is everything that you learn in a codex entry is something that someone else heard in a story and wrote it down somewhere and you’re reading half of the book. So the good news on that is anything we wanted to do with Fen’Harel, there was so little and what was in there was already so sketchy that we had all the freedom we needed to play with him.

That turned out to be a nice thing because I think if we had someone that was completely by-the-books, already established, their character already given, it would feel like more of a letdown to write that as a character or you would have to play against type, you’d have to do something completely different to show he wasn’t just what the stories wrote about him. And, you know, in some ways that is both liberating but also disappointing to people who might have liked the original stories. This was a fun experience of getting to fill in some of the gaps.

The only thing I think we had to struggle against is that anyone who hears “trickster” or anyone who hears “oh, he’s chaotic and unpredictable” it feels like there is a natural urge to go to “He’s Loki in the Avengers. He’s the guy who’s gonna make large grand-standing plans.” Or, you know, “He’s the Riddler, who’s gonna leave clues to test you.” We had to get away from that: “Let’s tone that back a little bit, let’s not have him be the Jack Nicholson Joker version of the Dread Wolf.”

That’s quite a quote.

You got Dorian as a large, grandiose , extravagant figure and it would have been easy to have him go that way. It was fortunate that we had Dorian as the mage who had the larger-than-life persona already to make Solas be the quiet one.

Time: 15:21

Was there ever an instance where you were really pushed with giving some indicators to the player that Solas may have some connection to this going through the gameplay? Because you do see a lot statues of Fen’Harel. There’s many instances of where you’re discussing it, you’re traveling through those lands. Where do you walk that line, how do you walk that line, or do you just completely disregard it whatsoever?

The goal we had is we wanted the very careful players, the very sensitive players, who were playing attention and watching every scene with Solas to know that something was up and to want more answers and then go to “OH MAN” as soon as the stinger after the credits rolled. But we wanted most players to just go “Oh, okay, he’s like ‘Fade nerd.’ He’s like ‘hippie guy.’”

The other thing we wanted was everyone on their second playthrough, as soon as they talked to Solas to be like “Oh, man, he’s just saying it. He just flat-out said it right there and I missed it completely the first time!” I think we called it the “inevitable in retrospect”- or the “slap the forehead on the second playthrough” style of writing, where we wanted people to see that the most interesting thing about the trickster god is he’s not actually that great of a liar - He is almost telling you a lot of the time. And, you know, some of the tragedy is it that you never had the chance to actually ask, “Wait -are you Fen’harel?”

Time: 17:13

We talked about leaving breadcrumbs, what that meant. Now the big turn, the big scene at the ending: How did this come about, were you really involved in that sort of process and are you happy with it?

Oh, I’m absolutely happy with it. It went through several iterations,. Mike was hugely involved. The writing was definitely done by Dave; it was a huge crit path moment. He had me give a look at the Solas voice, I think I looked at it, I don’t think I actually changed a single word in the final one.

We had versions where after the main plot it was actually going to be a full plot where you the player went and were actually present when Solas confronts Mythal. We had a part where we said, “Wow that’s too big, a lot of players are gonna miss that, we’ll make it a DLC.” So it was gonna be a separate DLC where that happened. At one point we said “No, this is too big, we actually - let’s cut it and address it next game.” So it was going to be this thing that we pushed off into some future content.

I am really happy with what we went with, because, I think, you know, for my money, that short, little Marvel-style, after-the-credits stinger is what we needed. We needed something so that everyone who was paying attention and everyone who was really invested could go “oh my god!” And go, “Okay, so, just in case you were wondering, we’re not done, we have more stories to tell, and we are confident enough in what we are doing that we are willing to throw that ball.” That stinger is essentially us throwing a football to future us, trusting that we are going to catch it. Because, you know, at the end, we had that level of confidence. We felt that we had that level of confidence, we felt we made a really good game. Dave led an amazing team of writers, and I’m really touched that he has the confidence to believe that I’ll be able to carry that on for him.

Time: 19:49

When we spoke to Dave, one of the big moments that he mentioned, was when he created kind of a long-term idea for what’s going to happen in the Dragon Age universe. And to hear him say it, he mentioned that what he originally wanted for Dragon Age: Inquisition couldn’t happen - it was far too big - it wouldn’t work. And you guys had talked about taking that concept, finishing Inquisition somewhere in the middle of that concept arc, and then using at least an influence or something like that to affect the franchise going forward. Speaking with you now, as someone who has taken up the reins, do you know what I’m talking about? Am I talking crazy? Where do you see it going?

Um…

Reasonably - of what you can say on this.

So here’s the last scene of the next game… (laughs). I think there’s an extent to which no plan really survives contact with the audience when it comes to video games. We look at how fans react, we look at what hit, what rang true with everyone. You know, it’s funny, having people react angrily actually isn’t as bad as having people ignore things sometimes. Having people react angrily means they were definitely emotionally engaged, so you know you hit something there. Whereas having fans go, “I don’t know, fine, I guess, whatever” and move on means, “Okay, I don’t know if that’s what we want to go back to. We didn’t actually get anything from them there, they didn’t actually remember that later.” So that’s a phase that comes after every game we ship. We look at what hit, what missed, and where we want to go from there.

Now that said, Dave’s future plan is, I think, fantastic, epic, and heartbreaking. Our plan is to use that as our starting point. To look at where we want to go, what we want to do, and it will not be - and I, you know, Dave and I have talked about this - it will not be the story that Dave would tell if he were still here as lead writer. Because it could never be that. We can get into that when we talk about Cole a little bit, but if I tried to do that I would just be doing a bad impersonation of Dave Gaider and no one is ever going to be as good at that as Dave is. My goal going forward is to, as lead, put my own spin on that process, put my own spin on the plots going forward, on the thematic elements, while keeping those same thematic elements that we had. Because, I think, what Dave has set in motion in three games, countless DLCs and expansions, is something that can endure: The idea that no choice is ever really that easy and that the great events always stem from human-understandable motivations.

So, that is where I think where we are going to go, as vaguely as I can say.

Time: 23:30

Speaking of specifically to Solas: His continuation of the story. Adding that little “Marvel moment” at the end - what do you think that did for the crit path and the overall arc of the story that players experienced in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Do you think they would have been more satisfied if there was a DLC or is that just us gamers complaining because we can’t get everything we want right away?

Well, I think you want to leave people wanting more. “Man I wish you guys had done more” is a better problem to have than “Man I wish you guys had done less.” So, I think, looking at it from inside the studio, we didn’t have the resources to do much more than we did. So it was never going to be the big moment right then anyway. From my perspective, the reason I’m really happy we have it is, like I said, I thought it was a vote of confidence. The team is still the Dragon Age team and it is still the writers and designers who did everything else, who made such wonderful characters and were responsible for such fantastic plots.

Time 25:10

Well, again, looking at that in its completion, it’s good to see that even a character that needed to give you a stinger in your estimation didn’t take away, I guess, from the overall story you were trying to tell.

Well, thank you. Yeah it was obviously the moment we were building toward, but again, the goal was even if we didn’t have that stringer, he was still an interesting enough character that people would have not felt cheated that he was in the party.

Part 3

#solas #patrick weekes #patrick weekes interview #dragon age #dragon age: in #dragon age lore #da4 #dragon age 4 #dread wolf rises #dread wolf #the dread wolf rises #fen'harel #solas x lavellan #part two

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honeypiehotchner · 5 years

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Trust -- part thirty-eight

It’s Best Man Speech time! Also, I’m a liar. This chapter is not the last. The next one is. Oopsies! ;)

“Pray silence for the best man.”

You squeeze Sherlock’s hand as he stands to his feet, buttoning his jacket and smoothing it down. He really is nervous.

But to be fair, you’re a little nervous, too. He wouldn’t let you hear the speech—He wouldn’t let anyone hear it, actually. This is brand new to everyone. And while that should be exciting, since it’s Sherlock, it’s a little nerve-wracking.

John is beaming, though, grinning from ear to ear – possibly a little buzzed. But he does really love Sherlock, and you know that, even when he doesn’t want to admit it. You know those two have a bond like no other. The Baker Street boys, as Mary calls them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends. And, um…others.”

Sherlock’s stuttering continues, prompting you reach up and thread your fingers through his. He glances down, smiling a little.

“Telegrams,” you hear your brother mutter, and then Sherlock is back.

“Right, um…” Sherlock picks up the cards. “First things first, telegrams. Well, they’re not actually telegrams, we just call them telegrams, I don’t know why. Wedding tradition. Because we don’t have enough of that already, apparently.”

“Sherlock,” you whisper warningly.

He settles again, nodding. “To Mr. and Mrs. Watson. So sorry I’m unable to be with you on your special day. Good luck, and best wishes, Mike Stamford.”

Ah, Mike. You chuckle.

“To John and Mary. All good wishes for your special day. With love and many big…big squishy cuddles from Stella and Ted.” Sherlock sighs. “Mary, lots of love—Oh.”

John looks up at him. “Yeah?”

“…poppet.”

Mary snickers, leaning forward to catch you stifling your own laughter.

“Oodles of love and heaps of good wishes from Cam. Wish your family could’ve seen this.”

You lean forward at that, giving Mary a look of sympathy as John takes her hand in his, comfortingly.

Sherlock carries on, not missing a beat. “Special day…Very special day…Love…Love…Love…Love…Love. Bit of a theme, you get the general gist. People are basically fond.”

Here we go, you think, wanting to smack Sherlock in the arm, but you decide against it.

“John Watson. My friend, John Watson. John. When John first broached the subject of being best man, I was confused. I confess at first, I didn’t realize he was asking me. When finally, I understood, I expressed to him that I was both flattered and surprised. I explained to him that I had never expected this request, and that I was a little daunted in the face of it. I nonetheless promised that I would do my very best to accomplish a task which was, for me, as demanding and difficult as any I had ever contemplated. Additionally, I thanked him for the trust he placed in me and indicated that I was, in some ways, very closed to being moved by it. It later transpired that I had said none of this out loud.”

The room erupts with laughter, especially coming from John. You laughed loudly, too, because that definitely wasn’t the story you remembered John telling you.

Sherlock begins rummaging in his coat for some cards. “So…done that. Done that. Done that bit. Done that bit.”

He takes a deep breath. And continues.

“I’m afraid John that I can’t congratulate you.”

Your eyebrows furrow. Odd start. Maybe you should’ve forced him to practice the speech in front of you.

“All emotions, and in particular love, stand opposed to the pure cold reason I hold above all things. A wedding is, in my considered opinion, nothing short of a celebration of all that is false and specious and irrational and sentimental in this ailing and morally compromised world. Today we honor the deathwatch beetle that is the doom of our society and in time, one feels certain, our entire species.”

The room stills. You stare down at your hands, a little bit worried for the rest of this, and still regretting the fact that you never took a peek at his speech before today.

“But anyway, let’s talk about John.”

“Please,” you hear John clear his throat, shifting around in his seat.

“If I burden myself with a little helpmate during my adventures, it is not out of sentiment or caprice, it is that he has many fine qualities of his own that he has overlooked in his obsession with me. Indeed, any reputation I have for mental acuity and sharpness comes in truth from the extraordinary contrast John so selflessly provides.”

You tilt your head. That was an insult, wasn’t it?

“It is a fact, I believe, that brides tend to favor exceptionally plain bridesmaids for their big day. There is a certain analogy there, I feel.”

Is he…serious? He absolutely has to be kidding.

“And contrast is, after all, God’s own plan to enhance the beauty of his creation. Or it would be if God were not a ludicrous fantasy designed to provide a career opportunity to the family idiot.”

The room rustles again, and you clasp your hands together, willing yourself to keep listening.

“The point I’m trying to make it that I am the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant, and all-round obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet. I am dismissive of the virtuous,” Sherlock pauses to look down at you, nudging your arm so you’ll look at him. “I am unaware of the beautiful.” He smiles only softly, then turning to Mary and John. “And uncomprehending in the face of the happy.”

You smile sadly.

“So, if I didn’t understand that I was being asked to be best man, it is because I never expected to be anybody’s best friend. And certainly not the best friend of the bravest and kindest and wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing.

“John, I am a ridiculous man. Redeemed only by the warmth and constancy of your friendship and the love from the woman sat to my left.”

Your breath hitches. You weren’t expecting him to mention you at all.

“But as I am, apparently, your best friend, I cannot congratulate you on your choice of companion.” Sherlock pauses, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Actually, now I can. Mary, when I say you deserve this man, it is the highest compliment of which I am capable. John, you have endured war, and injury, and tragic loss. So sorry again about that last one.”

You chuckle softly. He’ll forever be apologizing for the time he was ‘dead.’

“So know this. Today, you sit between the woman you have made your wife and the man and woman you have no doubt saved. In short, the three people who love you move in all this world. And I know I speak for Mary and Y/N as well when I say we will never let you down and we have a lifetime ahead to prove that.”

You reach up and wipe a stray tear away from your cheek, chuckling a little when Sherlock doesn’t seem to notice he’s gotten the rest of the reception hall crying as well.

“Ah, yes. Now on to some funny stories about John…” Sherlock frowns. “What’s wrong? What happened? Why are you all doing that? John? Y/N?”

“Love…” You shake your head, smiling despite your own watery eyes.

“Did I do it wrong?”

“No, you didn’t,” John mutters, pushing his chair back. “Come here.”

The room applauds while the two of them hug, Sherlock still not understanding anything at all as he tries to continue over the noise. John pats his shoulder and says something to make him stop, but you don’t hear.

After John is settled back in his chair, Sherlock continues.

“So, onto some funny stories about John. If you could all just cheer up a bit, that would…be better.” Everyone laughs. “On we go. So, for funny stories, one has to look no further than John’s blog. The record of our time together. Of course, he does tend to romanticize things a big, but then, you know, he’s a romantic.

“We’ve tackled some strange cases. The Hollow Client. The Poisoned Giant. We’ve had some frustrating cases. Touching cases,” Sherlock rolls his eyes. “And of course, I have to mention, The Elephant in the Room. But we want something very particular for this special day. The Bloody Guardsman.”

Ah, you remember. The unsolved one. From wedding planning weeks ago.

“Private Steven Bainbridge had written to us with a concern about someone possibly stalking him. A bloke, no less. Private Bainbridge had just come off guard duty. He’d stood there for hours, plenty of people watching, nothing apparently wrong. He came off duty and within minutes was nearly dead from a wound in his stomach but there was no weapon. Where did it go?

“Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to consider this: A murderer who can walk through walls. A weapon that can vanish. But in all of this, there is only one element which can be said to be truly remarkable. Would anyone like to make a guess?”

Good lord. You definitely should’ve looked at his speech.

“Come on, come on. There is actually an element of Q&A to all of this.” Sherlock clears his throat. “Scotland Yard, have you got a theory?”

“Don’t pick on Greg,” you mutter.

“Yeah, you. You’re a detective, broadly speaking. Got a theory?”

Lestrade crosses his arms over his chest, deciding to entertain Sherlock. “Er, um…If the uh, if the blade was propelled through the um…grating in the air vent… Maybe a ballista or a catapult, uh, somebody tiny could crawl in there. So yeah, we’re looking for a dwarf.”

“Brilliant.”

“Really?”

“No.”

You shake your head.

“Hello, who was that? Tom.”

Sure enough, Tom stands from his chair, Molly sending a frightened look your way. This is going to end badly, it always does when Sherlock gets in one of these moods.

“Got a theory?”

“He attempted suicide with a blade made of compacted blood and bone. Broke after piercing his abdomen, like a meat…dagger.”

“A meat dagger?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Tom sits back down, and Sherlock continues, clearly annoyed. “There was one feature and only one feature of interest in the whole of this baffling case and quite frankly, it was the usual. John Watson. Who while I was trying to solve the murder, instead saved a life.

“There are mysteries worth solving and stories worth telling. The best and bravest man I know and on top of that he actually knows how to do that. Except wedding planning and serviettes, he’s rubbish at that.”

Everyone chuckles at the slight joke.

“The case itself remains the most ingenious and brilliantly planned murder or attempted murder I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. The most perfect locked-room mystery of which I am aware.

“However, I’m not just here to praise John, I’m also here to embarrass him so let’s move onto some—”

“No, wait. So how was it done?” Greg interrupts.

“How was what done?”

“The stabbing.”

“He never solved it,” you chime.

“Yes,” Sherlock nods. “I never solved that one. It can happen sometimes. It’s very…very disappointing. Embarrassment leads me on to the stag night.”

Oh, dear Lord.

This night was the night you, Mary, and Molly got together and had dinner before having essentially a big sleepover at John and Mary’s. Because John was out with Sherlock all night, apparently doing something along the lines of having a beer at every place they’ve solved a murder.

It’s okay, you found the idea weird, too. But Molly said she calculated everything correctly, so they should be fine. Even if it was odd that Sherlock asked her to calculate anything in the first place.

But anyway, while the three of you were drinking wine and sharing idiot stories of your significant others, John and Sherlock were getting absolutely pissed.

“‘Course, there’s hours of material here, but I’ve cut it down to the really good bits.”

Apparently, they were only out for two hours before returning to Baker Street. Mrs. Hudson said she nearly had a heart attack when she walked out with her trash to find them snoozing on the stairs, drunkenly mumbling to each other.

And then they had a client. Of all things, they had a client that night.

“The Mayfly Man.”

They also got arrested, which Lestrade wasted no time calling you about and starting off with saying, “You’re not gonna believe this shit.” You thought it was going to be much worse than what it was, but at least Lestrade was able to get them bailed out with no problem. And thankfully, it never turned up in the papers.

You still remember after that when Sherlock continued investigating. You were sat in his chair when he had probably six or seven laptops open, talking to all of these women who had encountered the Mayfly Man. John was here as well, helping with the case on his day off.

Apparently, Sherlock had asked a question to the women and immediately every single one of them signed off. You had warned him to let you help, but he didn’t want you to. He didn’t want to come off as too knowing.

“Why? Why would he date all of those women and not return their calls?” Sherlock slams the laptop closed, straightening up and buttoning his blazer.

John snorts. “You’re missing the obvious, mate.”

“Am I?”

“You are,” you nod. “He’s a man.”

Sherlock still doesn’t get it. “So? I’m a man.”

“You’re a different breed,” you chuckle.

“But why would he change his identity?” Sherlock asks the rhetorical question to the wedding guests, not noticing their lack of interest. “He was married. Obvious, really. Our Mayfly Man was trying to escape the suffocating chains of domesticity and instead of endless nights in watching telly or going to barbeques with the awful, dreadful, boring people he couldn’t stand, he used his wits, cleverness and powers of disguise to play the field. He was—” Sherlock stops, suddenly surveying the room and seeing their tired faces. He turns to you and you shake your head, motioning for him to stop the story.

He nods. “On second thoughts, maybe I probably should’ve told you about The Elephant in the Room.

“However, it does help to further illustrate how invaluable John is to me. I can read a crime scene the way he can understand a human being. I used to think that’s what made me special. Quite frankly, I still do. But a word to the wise: Should any of you require the services of either of us, I will solve your murder, but it will take John Watson to save your life. Trust me on that, I should know. He’s saved mine so many times and in so many ways.

“This blog,” Sherlock gestures with his phone, “is the story of two men and their frankly ridiculous adventures. Of murder, mystery, and mayhem. But from now on, there’s a new story. A bigger adventure.”

You watch with a smile as Sherlock glances to the happy couple, and then you watch in surprise as he looks to you.

“Ladies and gentlemen pray charge your glasses and be upstanding.” You stand with your glass in hand. “Today begin the adventures of Mary Elizabeth Watson and John Hamish Watson. The two reasons why every single one of us is—”

Sherlock freezes.

His glass falls from his hands, but no matter about that. You know that look in his eyes. He’s gone. Albeit for a split second, but he’s gone.

It’s almost like he’s gone to his mind palace.

The glass shatters as it hits the floor, the noise startling Sherlock back into the real world. He blinks, looking down at the mess he made and tries to brush past it.

“Oh, sorry, I—” He shakes his head, clearing his throat.

“Another glass, sir?”

“Thank you, yes. Thank you. Now, where were we?”

“Sherlock…” You whisper.

He looks to you briefly before continuing on. “Ah, yes, raising glasses and standing up. Very good, thank you… And down again.”

You sit down quickly, casting a worried glance in John and Mary’s direction. The rest of the guests follow, confusion coating their faces.

“Ladies and gentlemen, people tell you not to milk a good speech. Get off early, leave them laughing. Wise advice I’ll certainly try to bear in mind, but for now…”

“Sherlock!” You hiss as he jumps over the table.

“Part two!” He walks down the middle. “Part two is more action based, I’m gonna walk around, shake things up a bit.

“Who’d go to a wedding? That’s the question? Who would bother to go to any lengths to get themselves to a wedding…? Well, everyone!” Sherlock turns around, clapping his hands. “Weddings are great. Love a wedding.”

Mary leans forward to look at you. “What’s he doing?”

“Something’s wrong,” you whisper back. “I don’t know what.”

“And John’s great, too,” Sherlock points back to the front. “I haven’t said that enough, barely scratched the surface. I could go on all night about the depth and complexity of his jumpers. And he can cook, does a thing – A thing with peas, once. Might not be peas, might not be him, but he’s got a great singing voice – Or somebody does…

“Too many, too many, too many, too many!” Sherlock screams. He stops himself, turning back around. “Sorry, too many jokes about John. Now, uh… Where was I? Ah, yes. Speech! Speech. Let’s talk about…murder.”

“Christ, Sherlock,” you smack your forehead.

“Sorry, did I say murder? I meant to say marriage. But, you know, they’re…quite similar procedures when you think about it, the participants tend to know each other and it’s over when one of them’s dead. In fairness, murder is a lot quicker, though.”

You watch as Sherlock pulls out his phone and begins texting behind his back – something you hate when he does, but now it’s only worrying you further.

“Jeff, the gents.” Sherlock looks at Lestrade.

“It’s Greg!”

“The loos, please.”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s your turn?” Sherlock nods toward the door as Lestrade’s phone beeps. So, Sherlock was texting him. You wish he’d text you to let you know what the hell is going on right now.

Lestrade looks at his phone and his eyes widen. “Yeah, actually, now that you mention it.” And he disappears through the doors.

“Sherlock,” John calls out. “Any chance of an end date to this speech? We’ve gotta cut the cake.”

“Oh! Ladies and gentlemen, can’t stand it when I finally get the chance to speak for once – Vatican Cameos.”

Your eyes widen. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

“What did he just say?”

You scoot over to Sherlock’s seat next to John’ careful of the broken glass. “Vatican Cameos,” you murmur. “It means someone’s going to die.”

“Not you, not you, you,” Sherlock points to John. “It’s always you. John Watson, you keep me right.”

John stands to meet Sherlock. “What do I do?”

“You’ve already done it,” Sherlock whispers, glancing to you. “Don’t solve the murder. Save the life.

“Sorry,” Sherlock inhales sharply, turning back around. “Off-piste a bit, back now, phew! Let’s play a game. Let’s play murder. Imagine someone’s going to get murdered at a wedding. Who exactly would you pick?”

“I think you’re a popular choice at the moment, dear,” you hear Mrs. Hudson say, bringing a small smile to your face.

“If someone could move Mrs. Hudson’s glass just slightly out of reach, that would be lovely. More importantly, who could you only kill at a wedding?”

Your eyes widen. They lock with Sherlock’s. There’s a brief moment where you wonder if it’s you. After all, this morning was the only time you traveled without Sherlock in a long time. But it doesn’t make sense, you don’t fit. He’s here with you now, and no one was close to you when he wasn’t.

Sherlock shakes his head slightly. You’re safe.

“Most people you can kill just any old place,” he continues. “As a mental exercise, I’ve often planned the murder of friends and colleagues. Now, John, I’d poison. Sloppy eater, dead easy. Y/N is a different story. To poison her would ultimately insure my own death sentence. Lestrade’s so easy to kill, it’s a miracle no one’s succumbed to the temptation. I’ve got a pair of keys to my brother’s house, I could easily break in there and asphyxiate him…if the whim arose.

“So, once again, who could you only kill here?”

Sherlock’s eyes lock with yours again and you mouth, “Isolated.”

“Clearly, it’s a rare opportunity, so it’s someone who doesn’t get out much. Someone for whom a planned social encounter known about months in advance is an exception. Has to be a unique opportunity. And since killing someone in public difficult, killing them in private isn’t an option. Someone who lives in an inaccessible or unknown location, then. Someone private, perhaps, obsessed with personal security. Possibly someone under threat.”

When Sherlock looks to Major James Sholto, you sigh, letting your eyes fall closed. You should’ve known from the minute your brain told you it had to be someone who is truly isolated. Major Sholto is the only one true fit to that statement.

“Or, a recluse,” Sherlock speaks, now obviously filling the time as he writes something on a card. “Small, house hold staff. High turnover for additional security. Probably have all signed confidentiality agreements.

“There is another question that remains, however, a rather big one. How would you do it? How do you kill someone in public? There has to be a way. This has been planned.”

Your eyes widen. “The Bloody Guardsman,” you blurt. “The killer that can walk through walls. The weapon that vanishes.”

Sherlock stares off when he hears you, Major Sholto standing and leaving in the meantime. Sherlock nods to you. “Not just planned, planned and rehearsed.”

He slides back up to the front, grabbing a random glass. “Ladies and gentlemen, there will now be a short interlude. To the bride and groom!”

Everyone stands for the toast, but Sherlock whirls around, leaning down to the table. “Major Sholto’s going to be murdered. I don’t know how or by whom but it’s going to happen.” Sherlock abruptly kisses you on the forehead before turning and moving his way through the crowd. “Excuse me, coming through, consulting.”

John gives Mary a kiss before standing, looking to the both of you and saying, “Stay here.”

As soon as he gets around the table, though, you and Mary look at each other and nod. You stand, linking arms and pushing your way through the crowd, careful not to trip on your dresses as you search for where Sherlock and John went.

You round the corner just as your brother is laying into Sherlock for not remembering Major Sholto’s room number.

You roll your eyes and say, “207,” as you and Mary push between them.

The four of you bound up the stairs and to the left, Major Sholto’s door right at the end of the hall. Sherlock immediately begins banging on the door, trying the handle.

“Major Sholto!” Sherlock yells, hitting the door with an open hand.

The Major speaks from behind the door. “If someone’s about to make an attempt on my life, it won’t be the first time. I’m ready.”

“Major,” John steps forward. “Let us in. Or I’ll kick this bloody door down.”

“I really wouldn’t,” he calls out. “I have a gun in my hand and a lifetime of unfortunate reflexes.”

“You’re not safe in there. Whoever’s after you, we know that a locked room doesn’t stop him.”

“Yes, I know. The invisible man with the invisible knife.”

“I don’t know how he does it, so I can’t stop him and that means he’ll do it again.”

“Solve it, then.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You’re the famous Mr. Holmes. Solve the case, on you go. Tell me how he did it, and I’ll open the door.”

Sherlock shakes his head, stepping away.

“Please, this is no time for games. Just let us in, you’re in danger!” John’s voice cracks on a matter of urgency, and the knot is your stomach is twisting dangerously tight.

“So are you, so long as you’re here,” the Major counters. “Please, leave me. Despite my reputation, I really do not approve of collateral damage.”

“Solve it,” Mary blurts.

“Sorry?”

“Solve it and he’ll open the door, like he said.”

“I couldn’t solve it before, how can I solve it now?”

“Because it matters now!” Mary cries.

“What are you talking about? What’s she talking about? Get your wife under control.”

“She’s right,” John replies, deadly serious.

“Oh, you’ve changed!”

You smack Sherlock’s arm harshly, finally succumbing to the urge you’ve had all evening. “Shut up!” Sherlock looks back at you, dejected and holding his shoulder where you hit it. “She’s right. You are not a puzzle solver, you idiot, you never were. You’re a goddamned drama queen. Now, there is a man in there about to die, the game is fucking on, solve it.”

Sherlock’s eyes widen, though you can’t tell if it’s in shock or realization, but then he turns to the door, and you hear he’s solved it. “Major Sholto, no one’s coming to kill you. I’m afraid you’ve already been killed several hours ago.”

“What did you say?”

“Don’t take off your belt.”

“The belt,” you mutter. “Of course.”

“Bainbridge was stabbed hours before we even saw him. But it was through his belt – tight belt, worn high on the waist. Very easy to push a small blade through the fabric and you wouldn’t even feel it.”

“The belt would bind the flesh together when it was tight. And when you took it off…” John trails away.

“Exactly. Delayed action stabbing.”

“Neat,” you mutter, then realizing what you’ve said, you grimace. “Sorry.”

“You’re supposed to open the door, Major, he solved the case.”

Silence.

“Whatever you’re doing in there James, stop it, right now, I will kick this door down!” John yells.

“You and I are very similar Mr. Holmes,” the Major continues. “There’s a proper time to die, isn’t there?”

“There is.”

“And one should embrace it when it comes. Like a soldier.”

“Of course, but not at John’s wedding!” Sherlock screams. “We wouldn’t do that, would we, you and me? We would never do that to John Watson.”

Sherlock steps away from the door, and right as John is getting ready to ram his foot through the door, it opens.

John and Mary disappear into the room, leaving you and Sherlock in the hallway. He suddenly picks you up by your waist and spins you around, setting you down to press a firm kiss to your lips.

“You’re a drama queen, too,” he pouts.

“Shut up,” you shake your head, pulling him back into you for another kiss.

#bbc sherlock #bbc sherlock fanfiction #bbc sherlock fanfic #Sherlock Holmes #Sherlock Holmes fanfiction #sherlock x reader #Sherlock Holmes x Reader #the sign of three #best man speech #female!reader #watson!reader #half-sibling!reader #soft #john watson #mary watson #wedding day

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veryangryhedgehog · 6 years

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“A Late Night at St. Adelaide’s”, an Ede Valley story by Hedgehog.

“What are we doing?”

“Clearly we’re digging up a body.”

“Well, duh. I know that. But what are we doing?”

“I just tol—”

“Shut up, Gil.”

Doug leaned on his shovel and shook his head at the pathetically small hole he and Gil had managed to dig. It was only February; the ground was frozen. So why were they out here at 1 o’clock in the morning trying to dig through it?

“I found another shovel!” Victor shouted triumphantly, panting as he jogged towards them. With his long, dark coat he looked even more like a bear than usual. A very nervous bear. “T-thank you both so much,” he managed to stutter. “I know it’s the middle of the night and everything, but it was really urgent, and I didn’t know who else to ask.”

“What is the big rush?” Doug asked. “You haven’t told us yet.”

“Well, uh... uh,” Victor ducked his head sheepishly. “You’re not gonna like it.”

Gil frowned now too. “Come, artificer, spit it out.”

Looking down, Victor started digging. “See, the thing is, um, Abby was really interested in seeing what I was working on, so I wanted to make a demonstration.”

“And thus you needed new parts,” Gil nodded.

“Exactly!”

The two of them glanced over to Doug, who merely sighed. He had known all along that Abigail Hodge was no good, especially not for Victor, but it was far too late now. What’s done is done, and if Victor was willing to risk the fire, then so be it. Victor wrung his hands nervously as he waited for Doug’s response. After a disapproving glare, he shook his head. He couldn’t believe he was doing this.

“Alright,” he said, “let’s dig up a body.”

It was hard work, digging through the frozen ground. But with the three of them working together, they somehow managed to make headway. Doug could see his breath in the air, but he didn’t feel the cold. Only his nose was slightly frozen, no doubt as red as a certain reindeer. What really bugged him was the quiet. He couldn’t stand silence. And in the graveyard in the middle of the night, the Potter’s Field, no less? Oh yeah, it was pretty quiet.

“Quick question,” he asked, turning to Gil. “What the hell is an artificer?”

Gil opened his mouth, but it was Victor who answered. “Only the coolest class in Dungeons and Dragons! Basically, an artificer’s job in the party is—”

“Okay, okay, give me the cliff notes, dorkasaurus.”

“Oh, sorry,” Victor apologized. “Um, so they basically combine science and magic together.”

“So is this where you get all of this wizard bullcrap?” Doug turned to Gil. “Dungeons and Dragons?”

Pausing his shoveling, Gil’s mismatched eyes narrowed. “Nonsense,” he insisted. “I’d known those words for thousands of year before that admittingly amusing game was invented.”

“Dude, you’re seventeen,” Doug grunted, his back beginning to ache from all the hard digging.

Gil shrugged. “This form may be, perhaps.”

Doug waited. But of course he didn’t elaborate. “What the hell’s that supposed to—?” He began, but broke off as Victor’s shovel hit something with a loud thump. The three boys paused, almost unsure of what to do, before Victor fumbled with gloved hands for his flashlight.

As the light shone down into the hold, Doug pushed aside some of the remaining debris to reveal a plain, pine box.

“There!” Victor exclaimed. “Here, help me move it.”

“Don’t’cha need to look and see if it’s all, you know, intact?” Doug hesitated. Part of him still couldn’t’ believe he was doing this.

“Oh no, it’s fine,” Victor shook his head. “I only need some of the parts anyway.”

Together, the three of them lifted the pine box out of the ground, Doug cursing as he received a splinter for his troubles.

“Good,” he grunted. “Then let’s get back. I don’t have much time.”

“What could you possibly mean?” Gil asked.

“Uh, nothing,” Doug recovered. “Just that in about five minutes I’m gonna freeze my ass off.”

And as they began the journey back to St. Adelaide’s, the box hoisted on their shoulders like some lop-sided funeral procession, Doug tried to ignore the ominous vibrations that had begun to emanate from the band on his wrist.

~~ o ~~

Jilli didn’t know what she was doing. It was eleven o’clock at night and she was currently sitting in the library, nursing a cup of chamomile tea while Mike was doing “research”. Research on what, she didn’t know. “It’s for, uh, a project,” he’d said after he’d knocked on her door a half-an-hour ago.

“And you have to go now?” She asked, robe slightly askew.

“Well, I just finished my homework now,” he asserted, “and it’s kind of urgent.”

“I thought you said this little trip was for homework.”

“It is!” he gulped. “Uh, different homework.”

He was a terrible liar. She sighed, shaking her head. “Why don’t you just ask Doug? He never sleeps anyway.”

“He’s... playing Garfield Kart,” Mike admitted. “You don’t bug Doug when he’s playing Garfield Kart.”

Jilli opened her mouth to ask him what he was really up to, but closed it again. She was curious, but there was something about the kid’s innocent, puppy dog eyes that made her stop. The moment of truth came when he implied that he was too scared of Abigail to go alone, so she finally agreed to go along with him.

“You know she doesn’t sleep in there, right?”

Of course, Jilli had to eat her words as she opened the doors to the Blackwood Library to find the dim lights still flickering and Abigail balancing a stack of books as tall as she was in her arms.

“Oh hello Jilli, Mike,” she beamed, dropping the books with a dusty plop. “You’re here awfully late.”

Jilli made a face. “I was just about to settle down for some Netflix and chill... by myself.” God, that was depressing. “But this one has to do some last minute research for—”

“—A report,” Mike finished for her. Funny, five minutes ago it had been a project.

“A report?” Abigail brightened immediately. “People mostly use the internet nowadays. Would you like some help?”

“No! No, uh,” Mike said, a little hastily. “Could you just... point me to the history section?”

As Abigail interrogated Mike further on exactly what kind of history he was looking for—“There’s an awful lot of it, you know!”—Jilli settled down at a mahogany table with the tea she’d brought from her room. Technically food and drinks weren’t allowed in the library, but Abigail usually let the rule slide if it could get people to go to the library at all.

Eventually, after Mike insisted several times that he had found what he was looking for, the student librarian joined Jilli. “So, what have you been reading lately?” Jilli asked.

“I’ve been reading a lot about alternate biology.” Abigail replied, as if this would mean anything to Jilli at all.

“Alternate biology?” she asked finally, once she realized no illumination would be provided.

“Oh yes,” Abigail’s head nodded like a bobblehead. “Biology in a more... mystical, or maybe occult sense of the word. Eastern alchemy, occultism, things like that. Victor’s been having some trouble with his experiments, so I’m trying to help if I can.”

Jilli had to admit that she was impressed. Maybe even a little jealous. Not of Victor, or course, he wasn’t even remotely her type, but more so of the idea that Abigail of all people could find someone, and Jilli was still alone. Don’t get her wrong, she was definitely happy for Abby, but still... Yet, she supposed that’s just how life worked out sometimes.

“So you two are really serious, huh?”

“We’re... getting there,” Abigail blushed.

Of course, Jilli knew immediately what she meant. Abby and Victor were both incredibly awkward people. The fact that they’d gotten this far at all was shocking in itself. “Well, good for you.” Jilli nodded.

“Oh, but his project is fascinating,” Abigail’s eyes grew owl-like behind her glasses. “It’s very difficult to explain, but the way he’s combining mechanical parts and organic matter is incredible. The construction is perfect. The only problem is he isn’t sure how to get it to actually function.”

“What do you mean?” This was all starting to sound a little like science fiction to Jilli.

Abigail opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again. “That essential human... something. I don’t want to call it a soul, because no one’s really sure what actually makes us function. Does that make any sense at all?”

“Sure,” Jilli said. She had learned that this was the best thing to do with Abigail sometimes.

“Oh, sometimes I wish that there weren’t any adults here,” Abigail sighed. “That would make everything easier. Then Victor wouldn’t have to work in secret. They don’t understand, of course. I wonder to myself occasionally what would happen if someone just... kicked them out, you know?”

Jilli would admit that yes, she had humored the thought, though she didn’t see how much good it would do her. She’d still be stuck here regardless. It wasn’t as if just getting rid of all the adults could net her a ticket back to Japan. Unless she could gain access to her bank account again. This was assuming, of course, that her mother hadn’t spent it all.

But before that train of thought got any farther, Mike sheepishly approached the table with a few heavy books clutched in his scrawny arms. Jilli thought she could make out the title: “The History of St. Adelaide’s” on one of the spines. That was weird, what would Mike want with that book?

“Uh, I’ve got what I need,” Mike mumbled, “Do I need to check these out?”

Nodding, Abigail led him over to her desk, while Jilli made ready to leave. Taking over the school, what a silly thought. She’d have to put it in the back of her mind for a daydream sometime.

~~ o ~~

Sonia dreamt of strange seas. The sky was pitch black around her, and there was not a star to be seen. Even the water below her was dark and cold, the waves silently journeying to distant shores. She floated above it all, not herself, or material in any way, merely an observer, as is often the case in dreams.

Below her, the water began to glow with a strange, white light. It wasn’t a reflection, as there was nothing but darkness above the waves. No, it came from deep within the depths. Dim, and distant they were at first, before growing and becoming more numerous. Whole towers of light, their very tops glowing blue and purple, came into view. It seemed as if there was a while city beneath the waves.

Sonia, who now found herself in possession of a hand, reached down towards the water. The lights beckoned and as she drew closer, a chorus of whispers joined it. It was calling to her, pulling her. Where had she seen it before? The name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t remember. Her mind was missing.

Below, the voices had begun to organize themselves into a melody, a tune that seemed to fill her whole being. She was so close, her hand a few inches from touching the black abyss below. If she could reach the lights, she would remember, she was sure of it.

She woke with her hand stretching towards the sky and tears running down her face. They ran down her cheekbones as she blinked and remembered where she was: her room, St. Adelaide’s, so far away from her home in Russia.

“Get a good education,” her mother had instructed. “Find honest work, not like your uncles.”

She didn’t know about the dreams, and how they had only gotten worse after coming here. It was always the same: the pitch dark water, the lights, the singing. And it always ended just before she touched the water.

Sitting up, Sonia glanced over to her alarm clock: 1AM. Nowhere near morning. She’s have to try and fall asleep again. But before she flopped back down again, something made her pause: singing. The same singing from her dream. She glanced to and fro, trying to find the source of the noise. And then her eyes came to rest on the window.

That glow, that eerie, pale light wasn’t from the courtyard outside, but form inside the room. It seemed to follow her everywhere, always in the corner of her eye. And there was something in it, some kind of thing, or person, but as much as she squinted and strained, Sonia could never make it out.

And now it was humming that strange, sad song. Or, at least it had been, before it seemed to notice her staring at it and cut off.

The two stared each other down, goosebumps all up Sonia’s arms. Then her heart stopped as the glow did something it had never done before: it spoke.

“Uyo aws latnasit.” It was pure gibberish, and Sonia shook her head in confusion. “Uoy od mrebmeer?”

“What are you?” Sonia asked, clutching her comforter to her chest as if it could protect her.

The glow almost seemed to sigh as it dimmed and faded away. “si iemt het onso.”

“Wait!” Sonia made to stand, but the glow was gone, and she deflated back onto the bed. Was she crazy? She must be, it must be a hallucination of some sort. But no one wants to think they’re crazy. Maybe Gil was right, maybe she was being contacted by spirits.

But right now, that didn’t matter. One thing was clear: Sonia wasn’t getting back to sleep anytime soon. It was going to be one late night.

#Ede Valley #Doug Bailey #Jilli Nakajima #Sonia Valentina Borozovna #Victor West #Abigail Hodge #Mike Miller #Gil Trenton #Backwards

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brightlotusmoon · 7 years

Text

TMNT and Teen Titans part 1?

I had a very, very involved dream and decided to write down as much dialogue as I could, because if I play it right it could become a new AU fic. It would have the same “Mikey is naturally spiritual with ESP” theme that runs through all my stuff, but this time there are five superheroes who are totally up for turning him into Shiny Mikey whether his brothers are ready or not. Plus, Starfire would just adore him and squish him haaah.

In my dream, The Titans were a blend of Original and Go!, since some of the Go! episodes really are funny and silly and insightful. It’s a trash fire show. But it has moments. I’m hooked on Pretty Pretty Pegasus, okay. The Night Begins To Shine is a new autistic interest by itself. This is what I could scrounge up, very free floating, no real context, but there is definitely room for world building. I’ll need title recommendations. I loved the design of 2D animated 2012 kids during the first crossover with 1987 so I pictured them like that rather than CGI, not just in Jump City but in their own New York.

TMNT Meets Teen Titans (working title)

Scene (?)

“Mikey is…” Leo paused. He shrugged. “Mikey is friendly. He wants to make everyone happy. It makes him happy. There’s not much else, I mean, he doesn’t have hidden layers. He’s a happy-go-lucky fun-loving optimist who uses humor to diffuse tension. What you see is what you get.”

“Yeah, I doubt that,” Robin smirked, draping over the back of the couch with his coffee.

Leo glared. “Scuse me?”

“Everyone has layers,” Cyborg said. “Even the ones where you just see surface stuff. Take Beast Boy. He’s pretty much the same as Mike, right? Except he’s got a surprisingly huge amount of dark depth and intensity.”

Leo stammered, blushing. “W-well, yeah, but…that’s what I meant, like, I know Mikey gets sad, he gets depressed and dark sometimes, like everybody, but–”

“Sounds like you don’t know your youngest brother as well as you should,” Beast Boy smirked wider from the floor.

“Shut up, you little goblin…”

“Aww, is Leo pulling a me?” And Raph sauntered in with Starfire, both sweating after a training session. “Man, she’s like Master Splinter, she keeps going. Leo, you should train with her!” “Raph, they’re insisting there’s a dark side of Mikey that we never see,” Leo said in an odd, wheedling tone.

Raphael frowned. “Dark? Michelangelo? Nahh. Well…maybe. If push came to shove. Like, when I got bit by Fishface, he stayed with me and you should’ve seen how mad he got when Bebop and Rocksteady came near us, took them down like it was nothing. But that’s just ninja skill and athletics, Mikey was always the fastest and most acrobatic. Dark, though, no way. He’s too…sunny.”

“Cheerful,” came Donatello’s, voice, as he finally emerged from Cyborg’s work station, tapping away on a tablet, eyes alight. “Organically optimistic. Anger makes him feel physically sick, although he seems to store a great deal of it – did we tell you about that adventure we had going into his mind?”

“Donnie, can you look at people when you talk to them?” Leo snapped. Donnie sighed and sat on the couch and put the tablet on his lap.

Robin suddenly whirled toward the hall leading to the bedrooms. Raven walked out, Mikey gripping her hand in his and swinging them, a wild grin lighting up his face.

“You smell like incense,” Raph noted.

“We were in the astral plane!” Mikey chirped. The three brothers froze. “Raven says I’m one of the strongest spiritual minds she’s ever seen. See? Sensei was right, wasn’t he, Leo?”

“Wait, you meditated willingly?”

“You reached the astral plane by yourself?”

“You can’t be stronger than me!”

Cyborg and Robin exchanged a long, quirked glance.

Raven flushed, carefully eased her hand away, and smiled a tiny smile. “Well…yes. He’s strong. His aura is very…encompassing. Cuddly. Strong. Bright.” She looked up. “Dangerous.”

“Is not! You just said cuddly.”

“I meant that it could overwhelm, Mike. You…you hold on to things. People. You love too much. You don’t want to let go. You might not know how. Your emotions are your strength and your kindness is your weapon. Your aura was pulling my aura in like a hurricane. You wanted to connect badly and you relied on your natural charm, but you didn’t have any discipline or specific focus.” She smiled a little wider at him, as his eyes were widening and looking watery.

“Let’s put it this way. If you were like me, you could envelope an entire city in your aura and no one would even know. You could project nothing but calm and happiness and it would still be a problem because nobody would know anything else.”

“Ya mean…brainwashing?” Mike’s lower lip trembled.

“In less harsh words, sort of. Look.” She took his hands and faced him. “Remember what we talked about once I pulled us back out in there? I’m willing to teach you how to manifest and control these abilities, but that means delving deep into your soul and unlocking all the parts we need.”

“What unlocked parts?” Raph asked. “Mikey’s an open book!” Leo nodded emphatically.

They didn’t notice the very hurt look Mikey shot him. The Titans and Donnie did.

“Mikey,” Don said carefully, “I know you hide everything behind the jokes and the pranks and being loud. After Sensei’s death, your cheerfulness was almost out of hand.” Mikey flinched so hard that Raven tightened her grip. “But you know you can tell us anything. You can tell me anything.”

“But I can’t!” Mike exploded, and his brothers winced in shock. “You expected me to be the goof, so I’m the goof, so I don’t even bother to show you when it hurts!”

“Uhhh…” Beast Boy stood up slowly. “Maybe this should be a private family thing.”

“No,” and Robin folded his arms. “If we’re all going to work as a team to protect both our worlds and our cities, we’re going to get all of this out in the open. Especially as Raven just revealed some incredibly useful and powerful information.”

“Not just that,” Raven said, “What about that time he got electrokinetic abilities after being shredded out of existence? He could still have them, even after nearly a year.”

“When did you tell her about…never mind.” Don bit his lip. “Look, Agent Bishop’s dampener cannon took those powers away because they were overloading him and they were going to burn him out.”

“You sure he was telling the whole truth?” Cyborg asked. “Electrokinesis can be controlled easily enough. Besides, that cannon might not have gotten all the ability, there could be just enough of a spark deep in his central nervous nervous system to ignite and bring at least a portion back. Not enough to be nearly as strong as he was back then, but–”

“COOL,” Mikey cut in, eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Well, Bishop is kind of a lying liar who lies,” Raphael grumbled.

“If I supplied Raven’s powers with an electromagnetic charge,” Cyborg mused, “I bet she could find the part of his brain that still holds the memory of that power and tweak it until it released the ability to call back that specific electrical power…”

“Yes please!” Michelangelo squeaked, bouncing so hard he moved from Raven to Cyborg in a blink, arms wrapped around the metal waist, eyes shining and puppy-begging.

“Plus,” Raven added, “I sensed a strong potential for extrasensory perception, which would make sense, since he’s connected to Dimension X via the mutagen’s affects on his particular brain pattern and wiring.”

“Are we sure it’s a good idea, rooting around in Mikey’s brain?” Leo asked. “It could hurt his brain.”

“Who would know the difference?” Don said automatically, old sibling teasing snapping into place. Every head turned to him. So, their brand of sibling humor was not going to fly here.

“It…it was a joke,” he murmured.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mikey’s wide, lamp-like eyes full of tears. Mike whispered to Cyborg, who ground his teeth and looked ready to punch the other three turtles in the mouths.

Starfire rose higher into the air, eyes glowing. “Am I hearing this correctly? Are you all so accustomed to mocking Michelangelo’s preferred forms of intelligence, expression, input, sensory process, that you would naturally assume he is utterly incapable of being the great warrior he clearly is inside? Has this been happening all your life together?”

Michelangelo shifted, throat clearing. “When…when Sensei gave us our weapons when we were really little, he gave me my nunchucks because he thought they were perfect for me but he never explained why, or who I was, like with the others. So I made them perfect for me. I don’t think anyone ever believed in me. So I pushed all the sadness down until it got buried.”

There was a slight silence.

Starfire erupted in rage, and in a flash, she had grabbed Mikey and was hovering, cradling him like a child, energy flashing and hissing around her. “This is unacceptable! None of you are allowed to speak poorly of him! He is now under my protection as Princess of Tamaran! Shame on you!”

Mikey just stared at her, mouth open.

“From this point onward, Raven and I will take Michelangelo under the wing, and his natural abilities will be allowed to flourish. If any of you say anything mocking his brain, I will threaten to force feed you zorka berries until you choke!”

Leo, Raph, and Don had shrunk back, while Raven and Cyborg were holding back laughter.

“Well,” Raven smiled, “this will be fun.”

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willelbyers · 7 years

Text

Curtains and Glass

Summary: I killed the Bad Men, she thinks desperately. But they’re still here. And if they find her, they’ll kill her, and Mike, and Lucas and Dustin and Will. She has to run. Pairings: Eleven/Mike Notes: About 1,200 words, Eleven-centric

This is based on two clips from Netflix and written in preparation for tomorrow’s Stranger Things Season 2 release. It takes place after El defeats the Demogorgon but before the boys visit Will in the hospital. The story is linked here and also written out under the cut. Enjoy!

She gasps as she slips through the sticky curtain stretching over the gap she’s torn open, falling to the floor somewhere very familiar and real. She feels gross and slimy, but at least she knows she’s not dead.

She thinks of Will, then, of how she’d only sensed him for a moment before he was gone, and it terrifies her because that can only mean two things: he’s safe, or he’s dead. For real, this time.

And then she thinks of Mike. Of Lucas and Dustin. How they’re safe now, because the monster is dead and so is Papa.

She stumbles down the hallway of the school, aware she’s leaving a snail’s trail behind her but not caring. She remembers snails from something Papa made her do—the memory is faint, so many years old, but she can recall the salt and the wrinkly little things.

But she doesn’t care about that right now. She falls against the doors, opening them and letting a blast of air hit her. It’s clean, blessedly so even after barely an hour in the Upside-Down—as far as she can tell, anyway. Who knows how time worked down there? Her stomach twists at the thought—if Will is alive, what’s going to happen to him?

Mike, she thinks. Mike will know. So she runs despite her shaky legs, vaguely remembering the twisty path they’d traveled on the bikes not long ago. When she takes the final turn, however, she comes to a screeching halt as noise assaults her ears and lights flash through her vision. There are cars outside of Mike’s house, all blinking lights and loud alarm sounds. For one horrible moment, she thinks that this must be Papa, he must still be alive, he must have gotten Mike.

Then she remembers the kind of person Papa was—quiet, stealthy, a silent evil. He wouldn’t make such loud mistakes.

But still, noise means people, and she can’t be seen. So she slips around the side of the house, searching for a different entrance. The back door is locked, and the windows are all blocked by curtains, but then she finds one where there’s a sliver between the curtains. And when she looks through the glass, there’s Mike.

“Please let me go,” she hears him say, muffled through the window, but she strains because she needs to know what’s happening. There are two people there, unfamiliar, clothes like that Chief man and shiny badges like that lady Papa was with. Like that bad lady—the one she killed.

“Please,” Mike says again, and she can see that his eyes are red. “Will is in the hospital. He’s hurt, badly, he could be dying, I don’t know. Just let me go see my friend, please.”

So she hasn’t been gone for long at all.

“Being polite won’t get you out of this, Michael,” this new lady says. “You need to tell us everything. Where is the girl?”

“I don’t know,” Mike tells her again, desperate. “I don’t know. Please…”

“Michael, I know this is hard,” the man says. “But she’s extremely dangerous and if you know where she is, you need to help us.”

She’s puzzled for a moment before she realizes that these people are talking about her. They want to know where she is. They want to take her all over again.

“I don’t know,” Mike says, voice sharp. “I don’t know where she is. And even if I did, I would never tell you.” There’s a pause and she shifts slightly, not wanting to alert the older people to her presence but wanting to see Mike’s face. It’s bitter and cold, and his eyes are so much different than those she’d seen not too long ago. He practically spits the next words. “I would never tell you.” Despite the circumstances, something warm blossoms in her chest because Mike is still Mike, even after all this. He still cares about her.

The lady sighs as he resolutely looks away. “Your friends, those other two boys, said the same thing.”

So Lucas and Dustin are okay, she realizes, and she’s so relieved she almost falls over. They’re all alive.

But then Mike looks right at her, and she freezes.

If he knows she’s here, well, he’s not a good liar. If he knows she’s here, then the other people will, too. And these aren’t the Bad People, but she’s willing to bet that they’re people who are just as bad.

They can’t see her.

She she stands completely still, other than twitching a finger so that the light behind Mike turns slightly to send glare at her—she’d perfected the technique in the Lab, when Papa would shine those too-bright lights at her. The other two people look over, but by now she knows they can’t see her. She stands completely still until the lady moves in front of Mike to block his view.

“No funny business, Michael,” she says sternly, and El has made the decision that she hates the name Michael. She has to resist the urge to make that lady smack herself. “You need to tell us where she went.”

When Mike speaks, it just sounds like a wheeze of air. “No, I…”

She’s about to panic, because they’re going to check the window any minute now. But then, shockingly, Mike’s mother saves the day.

“Michael,” she says, walking briskly into the room. Everyone’s attention turns to her, so El takes the time to shrink away from the window and hide in the shrubbery below. She can still hear them.

“Ma’am,” the older man says, “With all due respect, this in an ongoing investigation and you have to leave. Your son—”

“Is my son,” she cuts him off succinctly. “And, frankly, I’m not sure the manner in which this investigation is being conducted is entirely legal. Interrogating—sorry, interviewing—a twelve-year-old? He said he doesn’t know where she is, and I know he hasn’t been entirely honest with me the past few days, but I believe him.”

El doesn’t really know what that means, but she likes the authority in the voice she hears.

“Ma’am—”

“Michael,” she says calmly, and El is suddenly reconsidering her earlier statement about hating the name. Coming from his mother’s mouth, it doesn’t sound nearly as hostile. “Lucas and Dustin’s parents just called to say that their interrogations are over. Do you want to go see Will?”

“Yes, please,” he says, sniffing like he’s tearing up. His voice is meek, and El almost wants to cry herself. She hears a chair scrape, and then Mike’s footsteps fade a little.

“Now you,” Mike’s mother hisses after a moment, clearly talking to the other people, “Get out of my house and get the hell away from my family.”

They do, doors slamming and mutters filling the air, and Eleven knows that within minutes, those people will be looking for her. She wants to run to Mike, and her legs to start to carry her around the side of the house, but the lights are still blazing and she retreats.

I killed the Bad Men, she thinks desperately. But they’re still here. And if they find her, they’ll kill her, and Mike, and Lucas and Dustin and Will. She has to run.

She can’t tell them she’s alive.

So she turns, runs before anyone can see her, and plunges into the woods. The noise fades, replaced by her panting and sticks breaking. Her lungs burn, and once she can’t breathe at all anymore she falls against a tree, eyes stinging.

She’s made her decision: Eleven is dead.

Hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you think! Find more of my stories on Ao3. Thanks for reading!

I hope everyone has a great time watching Stranger Things Season 2 tomorrow!

~Logan

#stranger things #stranger things season 2 #mileven #eleven #mike wheeler #karen wheeler #fanfic #fanfiction #this is kinda byeler/byler ish?#idk that part with mike asking to see will is sorta shippy i guess #anyway who's excited for tomorrow?#i am!#logan writes stranger things stuff

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mockingjayne12 · 7 years

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So I just found your blob, and I've been gobbling up all your Prison Break opinions, which are on point and well thought. So I have a question for you - I don't know if you have already answered it - but here it is: what's the REAL reason Jacob married Sara? I mean, Micheal was already doing his bidding, while sneaking peeks at Sara and Mike. I don't think he ever really loved Sara, he just wanted her to prove he was smarter/better than Micheal. Annihilate him, in a way. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

hello! welcome!

i have touched on this, but i’ll take any excuse to pull up some old posts and rant about how horrible that man was.

basically, it all goes back to that original speech that he gave sara that was supposed to be about michael, but really was about himself.

See, in game theory, it serves you to be two-faced. Be everyone’s friend until the moment you’re not. You make them love you so much that when they’re up against it their loyalty will make them go against their own best interests. That’s game theory, a cold, rational, focus on winning, even if its at everyone else’s expense.

According to the little you’ve told me, he was different, always an agenda, right? I mean, he clearly loved you. Of course he loved you, how could he not? But he also wanted you to open that door in the prison for him.

I mean, true game theory, everything, everyone is a contingency. You meet people, you bring them into your life, and you keep them percolating until the moment that you need to manipulate the relationship to your advantage.

I’m not judging, you know, that’s not my thing. You know me, but a schema as deep and as calculating as that can, in the end, spin a man off into madness. He might initially think smaller evils are okay on the surface of a greater good. But the dance of good and evil could become jumbled. And the manipulation itself becomes the most important thing, becomes about winning, rather than whether the game should be won at all.

jacob was a two-faced liar that spun off into madness, jumbling good and evil, because the manipulation, winning, became more important than anything else.

what originally began as needing michael’s skills to help with his plan, became jealousy at what he was capable of, and the life he had, and it quickly turned into jacob having to “win” over michael, and stealing his entire life.

do i believe that jacob loved sara? no. but i do think that jacob believed he loved her.

i think ultimately he believed that he was owed sara. he genuinely believed that he was a good guy, and had painted michael out to be the enemy in his head, that he couldn’t understand why, after everything, sara still loved michael more than him.

all of which came out after sara went to see michael.

jacob was actually one of the scariest villains they had on the show.

he knew exactly what to say and how to say it to get sara to trust him, to love him, to marry him.

he was literally having sex and marrying a woman whose husband he’d gotten rid of, and was blatantly lying to her about it, claiming it was all for love.

but here’s how we know for sure that it was not love, and he was just a psychotic, manipulative, rapist by fraud…

when, as michael says, sara stops playing the game and takes off the mask, jacob immediately kidnaps her son, the boy he claims to love, so that sara will continue to stay with him, and he can love her, twisting the situation to place the blame on sara, convinced that everything he’s ever done has been for love, and that he’s a good guy and why can’t she just let michael go and love him like she should?

which just makes you go back and think about everything he’s said about her…how her face is amazing, well sure, because that’s the first and only thing he knew about her when he probably started stalking her. how of course michael fell in love with her, how could he not? of course, he’s talking about himself, because how could he not fall in love with her? placing the blame for all of this on her, because he just couldn’t help himself, she was just so beautiful and smart and funny, she was asking for it.

and then he hits her, again, blaming her for making him do that.

HE IS ABUSING HER. HE IS MANIPULATING HER. HE IS BLACKMAILING HER. HE IS ASSAULTING HER.

and that was what was truly scary about the whole situation. because that really happens. maybe not the whole manipulate your husband into faking his death shit, but this idea of a man wanting a woman, a woman he’s never actually met, so badly that he’s willing to manipulate the situation to get what he wants, her feelings be damned. he acted like a nice guy, the perfect guy, and then as soon as she did something he didn’t care for, as soon she figured out his act, made a choice based on the truth, he flipped the switch, placed the blame on her, and emotionally manipulated her to comply with him or else…all the while still operating under the impression that he’s doing this because he loved her.

jacob is the kind of monster that’s rooted in the real world, claiming sara as his prize and believing that if he can’t have her, no one else should.

#prison break #michael scofield #sara scofield #misa #sara tancredi #maricips

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comicteaparty · 5 years

Text

March 7th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on March 7th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PST. The chat focused on 2 for Joy by Abi Watson.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing 2 for Joy by Abi Watson~! (https://tapas.io/series/2-for-joy)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

i think at the moment that my fave scene is when art goes to the library. cause before the comic possibly toed the line about whether everything was conspiracy or coincidence. and thats the scene that says "nope conspiracy." i just also found it to be this really tense scene cause of the librarians talking about art like he was some super threat. which brave to making an activity like visiting library archives seem test. overall though, the part i like best is that it still leaves the question of what the one librarian guarding the archives wouldve done had art's rouse come to light

Superjustinbros

Ello~!

I have returned

RebelVampire

hey super~!

mathtans

I'm... kinda here for now. I did like the library scene, the librarian conspiracy was interesting.

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1159441

mathtans

I liked the cast moment there too, for the amusement value.

(Which arm was it? Whoa hoa...)

RebelVampire

yeah the cast moment was great, partly cause i was no expecting this random moment of humor to roll up

mathtans

As to my fave scene though, I think interestingly I'll need to go with the nametag thing. Because it was just kind of funny at the time, but had some significance later, with the gender change thing, and the not wanting to get him a new tag. Also explains (kind of) why he wears it upside-down.

Superjustinbros

It also gave me flashbacks to when I broke some fingers on one of my hands and had to go into a cast for about a month

back in middle school

mathtans

Ouch. I've never actually needed a cast for anything.

Also, maybe Tec is just waiting for the cast to heal before the fight, humm.

Superjustinbros

Yeah it was not pleasant. I'd go into detail about it more but this is a CTP

RebelVampire

yeah i really liked that on the side the nametag was made to be more relevant. it wasnt just some quirky character thing. which i mean the latter wouldve been fine, but i just like the element that these are characters who have been living their lives without art and the town didnt suddenly exist again just cause art showed up

https://tapas.io/episode/1121842 less a scene but i also really enjoy this page because of all the character reactions. like you got the whole circus of emotions going on and it conveys so much without needing any sort of dialogue

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1128546 and this one two pages later

mathtans

Also weird how Jack's name has dual significance.

Superjustinbros

"it means that makes a liar"

mathtans

I see what you mean there. (I'm not always good at picking up on artistic choices.)

RebelVampire

yeah. although that has gotta kind of suck. i mean i wouldnt want to find out a person i was named after was actually dead and i was just never told XD

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1296840 The latest bit also sparked my interests

RebelVampire

tbh, mike is probably just dumb/evil and not a liar. cause i severely raised an eyebrow to anyone who thinks they can cull birds from an area and theyll just never ever come back even for a short period of time

i really love art's dumb conspiracy journal

i am jealous and want one

Superjustinbros

yus

RebelVampire

but also someone needs to teach jack journalism does not actually involve journals XD

mathtans

Yeah, I don't think Mike's really got it out for anyone though. Maybe he's related to the librarians.

Art draws pretty well. He makes... art.

RebelVampire

an unfortunate nickname well suited to puns

Superjustinbros

"What did you name your son?" "Art"

"Is that really his name?" "No it's just a nickname he likes."

RebelVampire

but i really like how the journal shows art's thought processes and everything. like its a great way to build character without art smacking you with dialogue to put you in his head

Superjustinbros

lol

I never actually thought of that- to give a character a journal

and just have them jot down in it every once in a while

and show you what they write/doodle

mathtans

That's a good point. A little window into his view of the plot.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. One of the central features of the story is the vast conspiracy that seems to haunt Art’s hometown. Are the birds truly leading Art somewhere, or are they really just a coincidence? If the former, where are they leading Art to? Why were all the magpies culled and what does this have to do with murders and supposed cults? What was the one librarian scared of Art finding in the archives? Why is the other librarian willing to help Art? What does all this have to do with the forest and the various people who have gone missing in it? How do you think everything connects in general?

I think the birds are leading Art somewhere but im skeptical theyre actually birds. Cause conveniently nobody but Art sees them UNTIL Alice and Jack get involved. And then suddenly cause theyre part of the plot they can see them. So I kind of wonder if they arent birds but supernatural entities that look like birds

mathtans

I feel like that title "2 for joy" has something to it; I've never heard of the saying (rhyme?) before about the magpies, but there was a reference made. So turning it around, you need to have two people or the birds will get you.

Ohh, that's an interesting theory. I like it.

Maybe the missing people got turned into birds.

Superjustinbros

and then the birds haunt more people

and turn them into birds

it's how they spread

RebelVampire

thats an interesting idea. or more optimistically the birds are trying to lead art to a cure

mathtans

A cure for what though? He's not sick.

RebelVampire

actually if this was true itd explain why jack kind of got dragged in

one of those birds is his uncle

mathtans

Or a cure for the thing that turns the eyes white?

RebelVampire

i meant a cure for them

to be not birds

mathtans

Ohh, now I'm with you.

The librarians also used to be birds. That's why they're in on the conspiracy, they don't want to have to be birds again.

RebelVampire

the family secrets that cant be told are that art was patient 0 and really a ghost bird all along

on a more serious guess, maybe theyre leading art to ground zero though. like assuming there is supernatural stuff at work, when things like whats going on in the town happen, theres usually like an origin point. like a pentagram in the woods though probably not that.

mathtans

That's why they saved his life!

Superjustinbros

Good thinking.

mathtans

Maybe, could be something silver, what with the bird connection.

RebelVampire

arent magpies the ones who like shiny stuff?

mathtans

I think so? I don't know much about birds.

RebelVampire

google tells me yes but that this is a myth

and that scientifically them stealing the shiny things is not backed up by dedicated observation and testing

https://tenor.com/view/themoreyouknow-star-rainbowstreak-nbc-gif-4884642

which now leaves me torn cause i was gonna guess that theyre just leading art to their silver pile of treasure

mathtans

As Jack said, the true treasure was the friends they made along the way.

RebelVampire

ya know, given the title, that is probably all that matters

that through their quest theyre going to find joy

mathtans

And Joy will be the wife of that guy who was blamed for all the murders?

(Seriously though, it's interesting how deep the rabbit hole seems to go.)

Actually, now that I think of it, there was an X-Files reference too. Possibly just in the author's notes though.

RebelVampire

ya know

i would not be surprised if the wife's name did turn out to be joy

although id also find that kind of funny

mathtans

(off to crib)

RebelVampire

aside from birds though, im turning my attention to the archives. cause from the convo i gathered that besides other things, there were things with births and deaths art wasnt supposed to find? and given the one extra side page, i really wonder if it has to do with art's birth since hes adopted

(good luck)

RebelVampire

but maybe i misread the conversation. i mean maybe theyre just trying to cover up exactly how many people have gone missing in the forest. cause its too shameful or a high risk for crashing that small town tourism cash cow

or theyre trying to cover up the fact that the cult is still sort of active and something in the archives proves how deep the cult runs

mathtans

(back-ish) Yeah, I noticed the adoption thing and wondered briefly about it.

You think maybe the "murders" were just lots of missing people?

Superjustinbros

Yeah I wouldn't want that getting out inot the public

mathtans

A birb cult.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. In the recent pages, Jack and Art have decided they need to go into the forest and look around. What do you think will happen to the two while in the forest? Will they see more birds? Will the silver compass come into play? Do you think the two will be in danger considering the possessions that seem to have occurred to certain individuals? In regards to the conspiracy, what answers do you think the two might find directly in the forest? Lastly, do you think going into the forest will have other consequences? What if members of the town find out about their little expedition? What about Alice?

and it could be. that there are less murders than we think and everyone is just missing.

i do think the adoption thing is significant

Superjustinbros

more birds definitely

RebelVampire

i think what will happen in the forest is theyll get jumpscared a lot but then learn nothing. outside of the forest is spooky af. although i also think theyre gonna find something they dont think is significant until later and theyre like "le gasp signs of the missing ppl"

Superjustinbros

"forests are spooky"

the moral of the story

mathtans

(back-ish again) I wonder if going into the woods will cause a replay of the Hec stuff. Like Jack will have his eyes go white and try to beat up Art and then won't remember about it. Could put their relationship on the rocks a bit.

Or jumpscares with birds.

RebelVampire

tbh i actually assume if that were to happen alice would be the more likely possession target

like shell show up

scold

suddenly rolled back eyes

beat art up

mathtans

Ooooh. That'd definitely shake up the character dynamics. I wonder if the birds tried to talk to her first, but she didn't listen? Since she also left town for a while.

RebelVampire

maybe. although now im wondering how she and art both happen to coincientally be back in town. like we know kind of why art is there. but alice too seems a huge coincidence in a story where coincidences are actually conspiracies

mathtans

Hmmmm. Maybe she's not really there? Has anyone other than Art and Jack mentioned actually seeing Alice?

Maybe she's Jack's guardian angel or something in disguise.

RebelVampire

im trying

to recall a moment

i mean shes gone half the time and not able to interact with outside ppl

there was the one scene where theyre all eating together

but i dont remember if any outside person approached them

mathtans

Did Mike comment on her though? Because she only turned up when Art admitted to Jack that he was waiting for her.

(Is she a bird? Man, I can't tell if my conspiracy theories are totally crazy or not.)

RebelVampire

the only reference mike makes is later on when hes scolding jack and ask if its going to become another summer where he ignores customers to gossip with his "little friends"

so specifically plural

BUT

the context does not imply that there has to be multiple

more like the implication that more friends could show up even tho just the one is there

so it could go either or

mathtans

Indeeeed.

Oh, wait! The guy in the compass shop. He saw her, in the hat.

Mustache man... maybe he's in on it?

RebelVampire

darn it compass guy

mathtans

(Nice subtle detail in that scene by the way, him not recognizing Jack after the transition.)

RebelVampire

ruining our good alice isnt there theory

mathtans

Heh.

Alice and Art do prove that you can leave the town without just vanishing then.

RebelVampire

yes. until the town pulls you back

by crashing your car

i think jack and art going into the forest is going to attract unwanted town attention

i can hear that one librarian now going "i told you he was up to something!"

mathtans

They went swimming without incident though. As long as they play it off as camping or whatever, who would care.

RebelVampire

suspicious librarians

thats who would care

"They just went swimming who goes swimming that much they must be suspicious!"

mathtans

I wonder what the librarians do in their off hours.

Superjustinbros

sme tbh

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Among the conspiracies are a lot of emotional conflicts and changing relationships. Do you think Art and Jack’s flirting will go anywhere? Whether it does or not, how might their investigations and the revealing of certain secrets affect how they view each other? How might it change Art’s relationship with Alice given Alice is reluctant to buy into the conspiracies as much as Art or Jack? Also, how will learning more help or hurt Art’s ability to deal with Hec? Do you think Hec is in on the conspiracy or is Jack right and Hec just wants to fight? Lastly, why do you think Art was the one targeted by the birds, and how does Jack play into the ultimate roles that the supernatural events seem to have intended for them? How might Jack’s missing uncle come into play and change how Jack deals with the situation?

the nice librarian goes home and reads books. the mean one is obviously part of HOA and the neighborhood watch

mathtans

Related to the relationship stuff, it's nice how the gay angle was put in as a sidebar, just a statement of fact. I wonder a little bit if younger Art had a thing for Hec, which is partly why he sees the best in the guy.

Related to the bird stuff, the second appearance of the birds related to a baby. Not sure how that fits in.

Superjustinbros

i was surprised to see the gay comment, I'll admit

did Art drop that fact earlier on in the story?

mathtans

Yeah, when it was the four birds for Jack I think.

RebelVampire

yeah its pretty super early on

like not first page

but very early

Superjustinbros

aye

mathtans

Like maybe birth as the opposite of death? :/

RebelVampire

i worried it meant the baby was gonna die tbh XD

mathtans

Oooh, super serious.

RebelVampire

mostly cause so far the birds have an omen sort of tone and omens arent good

and they caused art to crash his car

soooo

Superjustinbros

and put him in a cast?

mathtans

But he was going to crash anyway, right?

RebelVampire

maybe? i mean art says the birds saved his life or something but that doesnt mean thats the objective fact of what happened

mathtans

Art and Jack seem destined to get together though, after the bit with Hec in the alley.

True. Wishful thinking?

RebelVampire

i do think in this case maybe

at the very least i dont think alice and jack are wrong in thinking some of this bird thing is about art kind of not coping with what happened

cause i def dont think art is dealing with it and that even though something is going on, hes also using it as a distraction

cause both can be true

maybe this comic is just the labyrinth and the birds are gonna spirit the baby away to turn it into a troll

mathtans

The baby is really Art. It's all time travel. He takes the baby back and gets himself adopted.

RebelVampire

so does that make the librarians the time police?

Superjustinbros

...That would be a pretty epic twist(edited)

mathtans

One of them is a grown up Jughead.

As to why Art was targeted, maybe Art has unfinished business in town.

RebelVampire

well id say hec is unfinished business. although maybe thats why. that art encountered the supernatural and lived to tell the tale and didnt disappear in the forest

so that proves he has magical supernatural immunity

mathtans

Oh, immunity, that's an interesting idea. Maybe it's because he was adopted and didn't grow up in town or something?

Maybe everyone has silver poisoning.

Superjustinbros

Oooooooooo

mathtans

Can that make your eyes go white?

RebelVampire

art is just the chosen one

idk

lets see

mathtans

I hope the Art and Jack thing works out. Art needs some grins in his life, and I gather the transition wasn't easy for Jack either.

RebelVampire

“Silver poisoning, medically termed argyria, causes ashen gray discoloration of the skin (and other tissues of the body).”

thats what the first result tells me

i think itll work out just cause its called 2 for joy and theyre the ones in all the banners

and they do seem to be mutually attracted to each other. although i do wonder if they solve the conspiracy if that will remain

mathtans

That's true... maybe the two of them will adopt a baby, whence the "2 for joy" relates to the birds too?

I suppose the specific species of bird is related too, but I don't know from specifics.

The real conspiracy, of course, is how that diner manages to have the best pancakes in town.

Superjustinbros

That'd be cute, just sayin

(or a young child)

RebelVampire

i liked the bit where jack was criticizing alice for making up ppl

but then art joins in

with an even more ridiculous chain

mathtans

Yeah, that helps to show the sibling angle too.

Superjustinbros

I guess since there's only a few minutes left, I'd like to take the time to say good luck to abi on getting this story worked on, it's looking great so far.

mathtans

Yeah, the characters are interesting along with the plot, like I don't think I've ever seen this sort of mix before.

Superjustinbros

Well said.

mathtans

Hope they bring pancakes into the woods to appease the birds.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Abi Watson, as well, for making 2 for Joy. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Abi Watson’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/2-for-joy

Abi Watson’s Redbubble Shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/abiwatson

Abi Watson’s Society 6 Shop: https://society6.com/abiwatsonillustration/s?q=new

Abi Watson’s Gumroad Shop: https://gumroad.com/abiwatson

Abi Watson’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/abiwatsonart?lang=en

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #2 for joy #abi watson

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florrickandassociates · 7 years

Text

TGF Thoughts: 1x04-- Henceforth Known As Property

Thoughts on 1x04 under the cut!

The episode begins with an image of the schtup list from last week, which is… fine but not engaging. Maia is annotating it in a crowded elevator. That makes sense! Why wouldn’t you take a confidential document, which you obtained illegally, pertaining to an ongoing investigation on to a crowded elevator at your workplace?

A woman offers Maia unsolicited cooking advice. She’s confused. Another woman jumps in to dispute the first woman’s advice. Maia remains confused. She exits the elevator, and Lucca greets her with information about a fertility case she’ll be working on.

Maia says that’s good, but Lucca realizes she’s a bit shaken and asks if she’s okay. Lucca needs Maia to find precedents for the case, then adds, “And tell me if you’re getting some bad-mouthing.” “If I’m getting…?” Maia asks. “Well, people say things. You know, sometimes people don’t know better,” Lucca explains. When Maia asks if people are talking, Lucca responds, “No. I mean, no more than what you said.” Sorry, does this mean that Lucca, who actually knows Maia, believes that an unverified twitter feed with the bio “Daddy’s little lesbian” is an account Maia is involved with?

Before Lucca can explain further, Barbara pulls her into a meeting.

Marissa knows what’s up: “It’s not your twitter feed, is it?” she says to Maia. Maia is still confused, so Marissa shows her.

“It’s hard to get excited about work when people call you lesbo behind your back.” -- @MaiaRindellSays. Yes. Because real Maia would definitely tweet about her workplace in the middle of a scandal under her real name. This sounds believable.

(I won’t get stuck too much on this point; I was in a fandom once where a 12 year old impersonated someone on Twitter and frequently tweeted about her own middle school homework and people still believed she was a 40 year old celebrity.)

(I don’t know where this music is from!!! Someone find it, please!)

The profile for @MaiaRindellSays (which is not a real account, boooo! The writers USED to make real accounts for their featured twitter trolls, like @Upriser7!) reads: “Daddy’s little lesbian. Love life and never change. YOLO.” I mean that sounds totally fake but okay.

This twitter account—which we later learn is a bot set up years ago—must be a super smart bot if it knows to tweet Maia’s feelings about her dad going to jail.

Fake Maia also tweets about canning fruit, and I wish they’d given her a different hobby because every time anyone says “canning” I think they’re going to summon Louis Canning and I’d rather they didn’t.

Fake Maia talks about sex too!

“Do you have any enemies?” Marissa asks Maia. Maia has a lot of enemies, Marissa! (Here’s a better question: does Maia have any friends? I understood when Alicia—who was in her early 40s in TGW season 1 (which took place in 2009-2010), was technologically inept, and was kind of a loner—didn’t know when internet things were happening. But would Maia really be so disconnected? Is she making an effort to unplug after those harassing calls? Are friends not willing to trust her? Do they think it’s too awkward to reach out? Are Amy’s friends reaching out to her? Why aren’t we seeing more about this side of the scandal? YMMV but to me, these questions are far more interesting than tracking down a twitter troll.)

“It’s the scandal,” Maia realizes. “What do I do?”

Marissa says the way to track down the fake is to tweet to her. “I’m gay and like canning, too. We should meet up. :-)” Marissa DMs fake Maia.

COTW time! Case stuff happens!

I’m amused that the client’s last name is Salano, which I kept hearing as Solano at first, and her case is a dispute about eggs. Jane the Virgin, anyone? I’m sure that show could find a way to connect Laura Salano to Raf and Petra.

One thing I like about the case: Laura is a friend of Barbara’s. Another thing I like: the RBK team on this case is all female.

Barbara calls Diane in to help on the case, and once Diane leaves, Barbara moves closer to the client. That’s when it becomes clear they’re friends. “So you’re expanding?” Laura asks, referring to Diane. “Girl…” is all Barbara can say. “Explain,” Laura says. And then we cut away from them, and that’s fine, because we already know how Barbara feels about this. But this is one of those little “throwaway” scenes that end up mattering a lot to a show. Seeing Barbara around a long-time friend clues us in on who Barbara is outside of the office, even if all the information we’re really getting here is that Barbara has friends. (And, uh, that means a lot in this universe, because a lot of the characters don’t seem to have friends.)

Diane spies a man in Adrian’s office. She asks Marissa who it is. She has a suspicion, but needs Marissa to confirm. Marissa tries to be inconspicuous… and knocks a painting off the wall. Adrian and the man—Mike Kresteva, the Lying Liar—turn to look at her.

“Mike Kresteva,” Marissa tells Diane. (It makes sense for Marissa to recognize him; she’s Eli’s daughter after all.) Diane gets worried, and instructs Marissa to pull Adrian out of the meeting.

Marissa and Mike make eye contact. I wonder if Mike recognizes her. It would make sense if he did.

“Mike Kresteva. What’s he doing here?” Diane asks Adrian once he’s left the meeting. Adrian doesn’t know yet and wants to know why Diane is alarmed. “One of the partners at my firm, Alicia Florrick, knew him. He made her life hell,” Diane explains, accurately.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen Diane interact with Kresteva before, though he would’ve been a figure she’d heard a lot about, both through the gubernatorial race (she represented Peter in that voter fraud case!) and through Alicia. This Alicia reference is a necessary one. Diane doesn’t fear Kresteva because she disagrees with his politics; she fears him because she’s heard Alicia’s stories. I doubt Diane knows the anecdote about Alicia calling Kresteva Hitler and to his face and then telling him to die chocking on his own blood because she knows what she actually says to him doesn’t matter one bit, but, yeah. Kresteva’s that awful.

Anyway, Diane is warning Adrian that Kresteva is a Lying Liar.

The scariest thing about Kresteva, I think, is that he’s totally aware he’s lying. He just doesn’t care. He’s not gullible or easily confused. No—he’s calculated and cruel.

“I can handle myself,” Adrian tells her. Yeah. Sure. Diane isn’t satisfied with that answer and absentmindedly hands Marissa a sheet of paper. Marissa has to remind her to explain—a nice way of conveying how consuming and intense Diane’s dread of interacting with Kresteva is.

Kresteva is now on a task force about police accountability. He’s a fictional character in a fictional world, but that still makes me want to cry. The first time we met Kresteva, in W319 (Blue Ribbon Panel), he was making excuses for and shutting down inquiry into a cop shooting and then framing an unarmed black man. (That’s still one of the most eerily prescient episodes of TGW. The cop in that episode was named Zimmerman… and the episode filmed right before Trayvon Martin was murdered.)

Maia and Marissa are still waiting for a reply from the Twitter account. (Wouldn’t a bot reply instantly? HOW DO TWITTER BOTS WORK? I’m almost curious enough to go down a Google rabbit hole!)

FakeMaia tweeted back. She wants a picture. So, Marissa goes into her “photostream,” which she keeps on her work laptop for occasions like this (what are you into, Marissa!?), and selects a picture of some random stock image girl. Maia wants Marissa to get a photo back from the bot. The bot sends one back instantly. Several, actually. They’re artsy images of a naked woman who doesn’t look like Maia but whom Maia says is really her.

So wait. There’s a bot on Twitter that carries on conversations, is up to date with the news, has hobbies, and just sends nude pics of Maia if you ask!? And it was created by some random photographer, on his own, several years ago? Is this supposed to be a play on that racist Microsoft bot from a while back?! Ohmygod I’m gonna stop nitpicking. Or, at least, I’ll try. I’m not sure if I’m more concerned that this could happen or skeptical of the plot.

At least Maia knows who’s behind the account now: she remembers the photographer. (Hey, they did this plotline on Desperate Housewives!)

“This feels like old times,” Kresteva remarks as he steps into Diane’s office. Again, not sure they ever met on screen. “And what line are you selling today, Mike?” Diane asks. “Why is everybody so suspicious of me?” Kresteva wonders. Hmmm. Why indeed.

He informs Diane of his new position. She refuses to give advice or say much. Kresteva says he’s changed. Sure. “How is your son doing, Mike?” Diane tries to change the subject. Turns out Kresteva’s son (named Jax; I remember this because I’ve been thinking about characters named Jax because of the Rindells) passed away. Kresteva almost seems like a human being telling his story.

The second he leaves her office, Diane Chumhums (HIIIIiiI CHUMMIE I LOVE YOU YOU SILLY LITTLE GOPHER) to determine whether or not Kresteva’s son really died. She hates that she has to look it up, but she does. Turns out Kresteva was telling the truth about that, sadly.

Diane goes to the fertility clinic to follow up on something COTW related. The doctor mistakes her for a patient. Diane laughs that off—“I’m not here for myself.”

Case stuff happens.

There’s a joke that goes on for way too long involving a doctor who’s hard of hearing. It’s supposed to be funny. It is not funny.

Sleazy Twitter Bot Bro is now a photographer who specializes in portraits of children. Gross.

Maia is, in theory, on the case of the week, but aside from the one scene where Lucca asks her to do a bit of research, her main work task seems to be investigating her personal life and using firm resources (computers, support staff) to do so. Either that, or she has a really generous lunch hour.

Marissa is comfortable being very assertive around Bro. When she speaks up on Maia’s behalf, Bro wonders if she’s Maia’s new girlfriend. Sounds like someone’s precious masculinity was wounded when Maia came out. Boo hoo. Marissa explains she’s not, “but that doesn’t matter.”

They broke up four years ago. I wonder if Maia’s bisexual or if she realized after (or during) the relationship she was gay?

The twitter bot was set up two years ago, which means Bro was bitter and resentful for two years. (Also means that Amy and Maia, if we believe the writers requested a photo of Amy and Maia for the icon, have been together at least 2 years.)

“What’s a Twitterbot?” Maia asks. … exactly what it sounds like, Maia. What weird sort of bubble does Maia live in!? (Alternatively: writers, it’s never a good look to make your characters more ignorant than they realistically should be for the sake of exposition.)

The bot will duplicate itself if he turns it off. Wha?

When Bro tells Maia to “tell your girlfriend to fix it,” she slaps him. Yay, Maia! (If this happened in the first episode of the show, I’d be worried about the series finale. I think we’re safe because it’s episode four.)

Maia and Marissa return from their non-work related adventure at the same time Diane and Lucca get back from working on the case. The subpoena guy (I’m sure there’s a technical name for this—process server?) who’s a crew member or something is in the RBK lobby, subpoenaing everyone who worked on the police brutality case in F1x01. (At least, I assume that’s why he’s serving them, since he doesn’t subpoena Barbara or anyone else.)

There’s something missing from the Maia subplot—and, really, from the way Maia’s been written so far in these first four episodes (well, mostly just these last two, so there’s hope!). Whenever the show could explore how Maia’s feeling or what she’s thinking or how she’s doing at work, it instead goes for a plot-driven conspiracy. Twists and turns are fun, but Maia’s a new character. These plots don’t give me much of a sense of who Maia is or how she’s coping with the aftermath of the scandal. Consider, for a minute, what the show would look like if Maia’s parents were obviously guilty. Instead of having to wait for the reveal of what really happened (which I don’t care about at all), we’d be dealing with Maia realizing the betrayal that definitely occurred. We’d be seeing her lose her innocence and rebuild instead of watching her investigate various family members we as the audience have no reason to trust. Maia would be the focus, not the facts of the scandal. Same goes for the harassment. Why can’t it just be some random person on Twitter who made an account, and Maia has to learn to steel herself against it? Why does it have to be an elaborate Twitter bot that also makes Fake News?

I keep coming back to the way TGW season 1 worked for Alicia. First, and I didn’t realize how smart this was until TGF began, Peter committed two crimes: one against the law and one against his family. Alicia even makes that distinction in the pilot. She doesn’t care as much about the crimes he allegedly committed, and she (and we) don’t know if he really did it. What she does know, and what we do know, is that he cheated on her with prostitutes. Since there are two scandals there, Alicia can lose her trust in Peter because of one (the cheating) while the writers are free to play around with the mystery/conspiracy of the other. But we don’t have that with the Rindells. Their scandal is all doubt.

While I’m on this kick of comparing the writing for Alicia to the writing for Maia, I’d also like to mention W109, Threesome. That episode has a plot that’s similar to Maia’s in this episode. Alicia is the last to know about Peter’s call girl’s appearance on Chelsea Handler’s show. Zach and Grace know about it. Peter’s legal team and publicity team know about it. Everyone in the office knows. It’s not until Alicia’s assistant pulls up the video that she finds out. We see Alicia react to the interview; how much it pains her to be called “frigid.” Alicia’s called to meet with Will and Diane before she can even finish watching the clip, and we get a great little sequence of Alicia walking through the firm, her confidence waning as she notices everyone’s eyes on her. Her whole demeanor changes completely from what we saw as she walked in to work. Will and Diane are talking about damage control when she arrives, and we can tell from the way Alicia’s moving she expects that they’re going to talk to her about the video. (I’m rewatching this now, and holy shit, guys, she even does the thing with her hands to calm herself down. You know, that thing she does in the last minutes of the series finale. SHE DOES IT HERE TOO.) She only relaxes, slightly, when she realizes they’re talking about Stern’s scandal, not hers. And the whole episode plays out with Alicia trying to figure out what’s going on with Peter, how to make Amber stop, and how to talk to her children about their father’s sex life. And, oh yeah, she’s on a case the whole time, too. I could talk for hours about Alicia’s arc in W109, and how the episode deepens the audience’s understanding of Alicia by forcing her to shift between so many environments, and how the central problem of Amber Madison’s eagerness to spread lies is resolved as an issue between Alicia and Peter, not as a convoluted plot. But I won’t, because I think the example of that first scene (which you really should rewatch!) illustrates my point: the writing for Maia lacks this nuance. The writing for Maia is mostly about plot. The writing for Alicia used plot to develop the character.

Lucca waits for Colin in the bar near the courthouse. She’s already ordered a burger and cut it in half for him. What’s their ship thing going to be? Burger and Fries? Onions and Peppers? (Note: this is not a serious question.)

Colin thinks Lucca’s there to flirt, but she’s there for work. But they don’t get to work before Colin invites her on a date to get milkshakes. Something about his therapist. This is cute, but not really anything I need to get into in-depth.

Lucca asks Colin about the subpoena; he says he’ll look into it.

Marissa made a breakthrough in the Twitterbot fiasco. She contacted Twitter and they froze it right away, which is definitely how Twitter deals with harassment. (I actually don’t know if this is realistic, but I’ve seen so much about how ineffective Twitter is at suspending trolls that this seems too fast, even though it also seems totally logical.) (But won’t the bot remake itself?)

Maia and Marissa high five, adorably.

Case stuff happens. This case is interesting.

Alma Hoff is back! So is just Stanek, who is still collecting electronics in a trash can.

Yesha gets a news alert from Chumhum about Maia being fired. She phones Maia to ask if it’s true. The news source is obviously fake, but I can’t tell if it’s Fake News or Real News For These Characters But Fake Because Copyright Laws.

Maia asks Adrian if she’s being fired. “I barely even know who you are,” Adrian replies, shooing her away. Heh. Wouldn’t Maia know it’s a lie from the fact that she didn’t call her workplace anti-gay?

Now there’s a story about Maia buying $350,000 in jewelry. Ah, it’s one of those sites. The ones that generate ridiculous stories about famous people that have no connection to the truth at all.

Now a Grand Jury is in session, and I think this insert of “GRAND JURY IN SESSION” is lifted from a TGW ep, probably 314 or something from season 7.

Diane is on the stand; Kresteva is questioning her. He starts off by framing her answers as uncooperative, and then begins to flat out lie. “What could be wrong with my motives?” he asks. LOL. I CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING. (Even if it weren’t Kresteva specifically… there are still a lot of good reasons to be suspicious!)

“I think you tend to lie,” Diane responds. Kresteva goes after her about the money the firm makes off of the police brutality cases. It’s 30% of the firm’s annual income. Well that’s a cynical suggestion.

Kresteva asks Diane if she said that the problem was that “the people of Cook County hated African-Americans.” Wait, I thought she refused to answer in his version of events? Also, what does he mean by the People of Cook County? Does he mean in the legal sense (The People vs. ___) or does he mean that Diane said that Cook County residents are racists? What narrative is he trying to spin—that Diane was uncooperative, that Diane wants police brutality to continue so she can profit, or that Diane made sweeping accusations of racism? All of the above? Does it matter? Is the point to scare the firm away from these cases or to actually accomplish something with the Grand Jury? (I think it’s the former.)

Anyway, the real point of this scene is that KRESTEVA IS A LYING LIAR.

“Are you saying that my notes from our meeting are incorrect?” Kresteva asks. THIS GUY IS SO FULL OF BULLSHIT, I NEED TO WATCH THE GIF OF ALICIA TELLING HIM TO DIE CHOCKING ON HIS OWN BLOOD, PLEASE A FEW TIMES NOW. Kresteva is so full of shit that his lies don’t even make sense! His whole shtick rests on the hope that the grand jury finds him trustworthy! If they don’t, then why shouldn’t Diane suspect him? What should it matter that his “notes” don’t match what Diane’s saying? They’re his notes. He could’ve written them whenever he felt like it; he could’ve written down whatever he wanted! It’s not a video. It’s not an audio recording. It’s not a print-out of an email. The people who say “believe me” (or variations of that) the most are the ones to watch out for.

Kresteva’s lies, which seemed outrageous back in 2012, play differently in 2017, don’t they?

This scene is very hard to watch because of the emotional toll it takes on Diane as she realizes nothing she says or does will help her out of this hole. Kresteva will just make up more lies, and when he does let the truth through, he’ll spin it to make Diane look bad. Diane’s mistake about Jax seems malicious when he questions her. Her denial of the conversation reads as guilt. How could Kresteva have made up all of that information, the jury must wonder. Isn’t it more to this lady’s advantage to lie than it is to the head of the task force?

Diane says Kresteva was in her office for six minutes. I don’t get why she says this, since we saw the full meeting and it wasn’t six minutes, so…

Diane’s furious when she gets back to work. “He’s setting us up,” she announces to the others. Adrian understands why: Kresteva wants to reduce the number of police brutality cases by having fewer cases filed. I presume this means not just shutting down RBK’s cases, but also making other firms fear taking them on.

Lucca goes to Colin to investigate further. “Yeah, he lies,” Colin acknowledges. “Does your boss know that?” Lucca wonders. Good question. Colin agrees to help out, which is very nice of him. (So far, Colin feels a lot like a flirtier Finn Polmar to me.) Lucca says he seems like a good guy and reminds him they have a milkshake date. They can’t have sex yet because it would seem like a quid pro quo. “Fuck, I hate being a good guy,” Colin jokes as Lucca leaves.

Case stuff happens. I like Judge Stanek.

Colin does bring Kresteva’s methods up with the boss. The boss hears Kresteva’s strategy for how to reduce the amount of cases and doesn’t care about (agree with?) the ethics of it. Colin tries a different angle: the firm is all African-American; won’t that look bad? Kresteva argues it’s not all black because of Diane. LOL DIANE IS ONE PERSON. (And even if you include Maia and Marissa, that’s still a small fraction of the total employees.)

Colin must have pretty high standing/be pretty good at his job if he can bring this up at work. Kresteva gets a small warning, but he’s allowed to continue.

“It’s fake news,” Jay tells Maia. The original twitter monster has morphed into a lot of fake news all across the internet.

Yesha tries to stop it by getting a TRO against Bro, but he says it won’t work because his servers aren’t in Cook County. Yesha tells Maia there’s nothing more they can do. “Not legally,” Yesha repeats. Then she leaves, as Maia, Marissa, and Jay all think of illegal ways to stop Fake News.

Marissa has an idea—create fake news about Bro. Wouldn’t it be easier to just phone his boss? WHY ARE YOU GUYS USING YOUR WORK COMPUTERS TO CREATE FAKE NEWS WITH EXPLICIT CONTENT? WHY AREN’T YOU GUYS WORKING?! (Yes, this has gotten under my skin, why do you ask?)

Bro’s boss buys the fake news. Would that really happen? I can see him being fired because it looks bad, but being fired because your boss believed ILoveFakeNewsDotCom or whatever seems strange.

Case stuff happens.

Bro shows up at Maia’s office to announce, “You’re ruining my life.” HYPOCRITE. (Though, I do have a question: if the fake news is no longer spreading because of him, what is this accomplishing other than revenge?)

He calls her a bitch. Hell. No.

Luckily, Adrian intervenes and Bro calms down. “You drop your news articles and I’ll drop mine?” Bro says. So they are his news articles? What happens when someone else gets the same idea?

“At this firm, we stand up for each other, Maia,” Adrian tells Maia after she thanks him. Awwww. (So does that mean he’s cool with her doing all of this on the clock, using work computers, and pulling Marissa and Jay into it, too?)

YES!!! A break from the Diane/Barbara tension!!!!! This week, they’re drinking together after a rough day in court. Diane’s sad. Barbara, too.

“Do you regret not having children?” Barbara asks Diane. I can’t believe we got through seven seasons of TGW without Diane ever answering this question. That’s cool!

“Sometimes,” Diane responds honestly. “Not often.”

“When are the sometimes?” Barbara wonders. This feels a lot to me like Barbara trying to decide if she should try to have kids before it’s too late.

“With my husband. I mean, it’s too late for us now, but, uh, but I look at him and I wonder what, you know, what his son would be like. Or my daughter,” Diane explains, breaking my heart. (She and Kurt are totally going to reconcile, right?!)

“Yeah. It’s interesting,” Diane continues, unprompted. “Most people think I didn’t want kids, and that’s why I made my work my life. What they don’t realize, it’s… it’s really just the opposite.” I definitely assumed that Diane prioritized work over having kids. I’m not entirely sure what Diane means by “the opposite” but I think she’s saying that kids didn’t seem to be happening for her, so she had time to throw herself into work, and then it was too late. I wonder if Diane would’ve considered IVF if it had been more common when she was in her 30s/40s.

Diane and Barbara talk a little bit more, then Diane finishes her drink and goes back to her office. She phones Kurt. He doesn’t pick up (or does she hang up too quickly? I think it’s the former but compressed for time). I CAN’T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK.

Then Diane has an epiphany: ENGLAND.

“We dialed 44 and then the number,” Barbara retorts when Alma asks how they called an agency in England. LULZ.

Case stuff happens; Laura wins! (Also, who knew Alma Hoff had a pottymouth?)

I barely talked about it, but this was a very complex and compelling case.

The Fake News hasn’t stopped. Shocker. Yesha has figured out that now Reddit is making fake news because people on the Internet also hate Maia.

Now Yesha and Marissa both advise Maia to drop it. So she does. But… Fake News has Real Consequences.

Someone brings the Fake News about Maia, which is now in the Cook County Vindicator which I thought was supposed to be a legit paper with actual reporters but whatever, to Kresteva’s attention. He’s looking for any ways to go after RBK, and this news article—real or fake—plays right into his story.

His white board of RBK targets consists exclusively of people we know (and excludes Reddick—who is Reddick, anyway? Is he still there?), including Amy. “Hired for SA ties?” reads a post-it next to Maia’s picture.

So… that’s what’s coming next. All the conspiracies come together! That means it’s time for ELSBETH TASCIONI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Seriously, Elsbeth is the one good thing about the unnecessary conspiracy plots The Good Shows like to do.)

#The Good Fight #you can tell I had a very exciting Sunday

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sl-walker · 7 years

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21, 25, 40.

21. least favorite character to write

Depends on the fandom. With due South, I can’t say I have a least favorite? Because I legit love all of them for some reason or another. Some are harder; I struggle with Kowalski’s voice. I’m not as good at Bob or Frannie, I can’t write Dewey. But it’s not a favorite thing, just an Erin-is-their-voice thing. XD

25. favorite line you’ve ever written

Pfft. Wow, no, it’s impossible to narrow it down to one. But I do have ones I love, so have some of those. And they’re really more passages than lines. And this is not a comprehensive list.

Turnbull stepped closer, shoving down the sick anxiety in his gut. He could summon no satisfaction at Hawthorne taking a small step back. But he dropped his voice to just one note above a whisper, locking gazes with the man: "If you put your hands on him again, I will break every bone in them."

It wasn't an empty threat. He meant every word. - Betrayal, Arch to the Sky

"--here. Since you lost yours saving the Grey."After a moment of staring at it, Scotty carefully took the new penlight. He had reached for his old one countless times since he lost it, and missed it quite a bit when he was trying to work on something in cramped or low-lit places. It had really never left his possession from when it was given to him, to when it slipped from his fingers under the Lady Grey, and despite not really saying anything about it, he had quietly mourned the loss.It was both surprising and not surprising at all that Corry had noticed anyway.He looked it over, not holding onto it too hard for the sake of not marring the new matte black surface with the grease from his hands. Then held it out of his own shadow to read the little letters, etched silver, around the light-end of it."Wolf," he said, and wanted to make a joke about it being puppy, cub or mutt, but he couldn't quite make himself speak much more past the constricted feeling in his chest."In case you find yourself in the dark." Corry managed to keep a fairly steady note. "At least you won't be there alone." - On the Nature of Wind, Arc of the Wolf

"Abigail Hanson," Corry replied, not looking away from her."Really?" Scotty had to look again. He remembered Corry had once pointed her out as one of Rachel's friends, years ago now, but it had been at a distance. Though, he remembered her looking a lot more fragile then than she looked now. "Followed her father?""Kinda. He was a marine, she's shore patrol. Her Dad still lives here, but...""But ye haven't gotten the nerve up to ask her out?"Corry managed to tear his attention away from Abigail long enough to give his best friend an irritated look. "I'm working on it, I'm working on it!""Right." Scotty got to his feet, and was thoroughly amused at the horrified look Cor gave him. He didn't even make it two steps, though, before Corry had gotten up and dragged him back. "What? I was just gonna ask if she wanted some coffee," he said, innocently, though he didn't put up a fight. That might end with him in a headlock."I'll ask her out, I swear. But gimme a little time, okay?"There was enough sincerity in the exasperated plea. After a few seconds of pretending to think about it, Scotty let Corry off the hook and sat back down. But he still found it kind of funny that Corry watched her all the way until she was out the door again. There was something about the whole thing that felt like hope.And for a moment, he was aware of the before, and the now, and in a way that was almost wonderful, something down the road that was only an impression. But a good one.Maybe even a great one.It didn't last long, but it lasted long enough. - Bookends, Arc of the Wolf

--okay, pretty much the entire story Thunder from the Arc of the Wolf.

Honestly, I could probably quote something from every single story in that because it’s about the closest thing I’ve ever have to a magnum opus. I’ll be telling it the rest of my life, I think.

"No domestics tonight," Corporal Chase said, leaning against the counter.

Turnbull held his tea close to his chest; the steam curling up off of it felt good on his face, even as it threatened to make his eyes sting again. "That's... good, sir."

Chase nodded, then fell silent for long seconds, looking over the otherwise empty detachment building under the harsh fluorescent lights. Then he looked over, eyebrows up. "Good tea?"

"Yes, sir." Turnbull barely thought to taste it, but it wasn't off-putting. Severn had, indeed, saved him quite a bit of it as well. He was not so sure what to make of that kindness right now. "Thank you for bringing it back."

He could feel that scrutiny when it landed on him again; for the first time in a very long time, he felt like flinching under it. He knew that Chase would not ask. Still, he sometimes wondered -- worried -- just how much the Corporal knew and could see.

He buried himself in a sip of the tea, and prayed that he was not so transparent that the battering he felt was visible. For all of the literal bruises he had worn in his life, none were more humiliating than the invisible ones he was wearing now.

"I'll pick up another box next time I'm down there," Chase finally said, as though he had come to a decision, and then stood up straight, heading for the door. "Stay safe out there tonight, Turnbull." - River, Arch to the Sky

"No, sir. You see, they will repaint my cruiser in that ridiculous rainbow scheme they came up with only after they forcibly, bodily remove me from her frame."

Mike Chase snorted a sip of coffee up his nose, then turned away and almost choked to death on it, and even then he couldn't quit laughing.

Turnbull shot him a startled look, Russ rolled his eyes in long-suffering frustration, and Mike held his free hand up, waving 'no, keep going, this is comedy gold!' - Caprice, Arch to the Sky

Ray was a hustler. He could hide the lump in his throat, hide the ache in his chest, convince people that he was someone that he wasn't.

"I'll miss you," she said to him, the last night he was in Chicago, the last night he was allowed to be home, when it finally became clear that none of them could talk him out of it.

"Here," Ray said, giving her the box. "Don't open it 'til I'm gone, though, okay?"

In the sunlight coming through the windows of the plane the next day, Ray wrapped the memory of his little three-year-old sister holding a marble around a million others, in some place where not even a hustler like him could reach. Somewhere it would be safe. - Hustler, Arch to the Sky

"I am in love with you."

Turnbull said it quite clearly, reaching up to adjust the rearview mirror so that he could see Ray's expression. He didn't even bother to be sly about it. No more of this. This was ridiculous; one way or another, he was risking heartbreak. He might as well risk it with his chin up and his boots on, metaphorically speaking.

Ray's perfect composure didn't crack, so much as bleed a little. A faint hitch in his breath. He steadfastly didn't look up meet that gaze in the mirror. There was something besides blankness in eyes reflecting pale green and gold sunlight, though Turnbull could not quite read what. Perhaps fear. Which spoke for both of them, but damned if he would quit now.

"I cannot give you any precise time when I realized this. I suppose that, in a sense, it crept up on me. I can tell you for certain that it was only a few days ago that I had finally managed to make myself speak the words aloud, though I venture I have felt something for you for longer than I have been willing to admit, even to myself." Turnbull kept his eyes on that mirror. He felt wired to move right now, and it wasn't to run away.

Ray finally spoke, in a rush, "I didn't mean--"

"I realize that." Rarely did Turnbull interrupt someone without remorse. "I realize that you would reiterate what you had said last night: That you expected nothing, nor wanted anything of me. I realize you had not anticipated this. However, I will not allow you to continue blaming yourself for it, as though you had somehow seduced me into falling in love with you."

He definitely had Ray's attention now; those eyes finally caught his in the mirror, and that expression was more definably fear now. It ached, fiercely, right in his chest. Then Ray shook his head, a manic little motion, and looked away. "Ren..."

"No, Ray. Look at me." The words were firm, and Ray did look back up, even though he quite clearly had to fight himself to do it. "I am here because I chose to be. I would be a liar if I said that I didn't struggle against the notion for quite some time, but that wasn't because you were somehow unworthy of that loyalty or love."

Turnbull could see the protest start up, and shook his head to cut it off. He didn't think for a moment that Ray would believe those words, but they needed to be said, and he was determined to finish. "That was my own fear, on any number of levels. You are correct; that is, I don't see you as a time-bomb, someone to pity or someone to watch fall apart at the seams. I see you as someone who hurts, who I love, and to paraphrase what you said to me: I'm not going anywhere." - Any Way Up, Arch to the Sky

Legitimately the entire story Half a Teal Deer in Midnight Blue. It’s Mike at his comedic, deadpan best.

Catherine Marie Johannsen, Constable in the RCMP, was a proud feminist.She approved of her former FTO's pick in fiancees; Cindy Mason was a tiny thing, but she had a quick grin and sharp eyes. She wasn't the least bit demure. She was established in a career, and Mike was absolutely smitten with her. Cath had gotten an earful of chatter when Mike called her to invite her to his wedding; he couldn't stop talking about her.Naturally, Cath was quick to agree to attend the wedding, but what she was going to wear was a little more difficult.After the introductions were past, after the greeting and the hugging and the restaurant wrangling, they ended up all going to dinner together and that was when Cathy successfully managed to get Mike to snort water up his nose and spend three or four minutes coughing, waving his hands in the air like a teenage cheerleader slap fight with only one participant.How she did it was surprisingly simple: "Hey, did you ever tell Cindy about that time I got into your pants?" - Cherry Red, Midnight Blue

Turnbull looked up at him, wide-eyed. Desperation. Destruction. It was, by far, the most emotionally raw expression Mike had ever seen on Turnbull's face, and it clawed through his own chest.

"I'm sorry," Turnbull said, plaintive and pleading, begging for something only he could ever know through chattering teeth. "I'm sorry."

When Russ showed up, God only knew how long later, Turnbull had sobbed himself half-senseless into Mike's shoulder, and Mike was still holding onto him, shushing and patting on his back and trying desperately to figure out how to pick up the pieces to put them back together, and cutting himself on every one. - Snow, Midnight Blue

He had always threatened, jokingly, that they would get his cruiser when they pried her from his cold, dead fingers. Over his dead body. Them and what army. Because he had gotten 414 new, and with her came one of the warmest, happiest times of his life. He fell in love with Cindy. He fell in love with Nipawin. He built friendships. He hunted and fished and curled and played hockey sometimes, and he planned cookouts and he restored a house. He got his ninth rook. He patrolled afternoons and sometimes days and sometimes midnights; he responded to hundreds and hundreds of calls, rescued people, arrested people, lived eight hours or more a day sitting in this seat, drove thousands upon thousands of kilometers, maintaining the right, for years.

He knew, of course, that it wasn't permanent. But he thought he'd maybe arrange to buy this cruiser when time ran out. Fanciful, idealistic thoughts; he could keep 414 forever. Maybe sans police equipment, but still. He'd thought that before everything happened; could picture Russ goodnaturedly rolling his eyes, and Cindy smiling her knowing, head-shaking smile, and Turnbull would definitely understand. Mitch and Sandy would never stop teasing him about keeping his mistress and his wife on the same property. And he would keep his old cruiser; the Mountie with his favorite steed, even if he had to put her out to pasture.

In the end, he didn't. Didn't have the money, didn't have the strength. It was another goodbye, in a long string of goodbyes, and Mike felt each and every one, with every heartbeat.

When he came into work tomorrow, she would be gone.

No one would ever call for him with bravo four-fourteen again.

Mike put his hands on the bottom of the steering wheel, and the bridge of his nose to the top. There weren't enough tears for the losses; not in him, not even in the rain.

But he gave what he had, anyway. - B414, Midnight Blue

40. which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series

Toss up between Midnight Blue and Arc of the Wolf, both of which would make amazing animated series. But I totally get to handle the voice casting. XD

#montgomery scott #renfield turnbull #ray vecchio #mike chase #ask memes #sossity

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redtutel · 5 years

Text

Rewatching Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Or as Gen X calls it, Star Wars. But I was born in 1997, so it’s a New Hope to me.

I watched bits and pieces of the original trilogy on TV when I was a kid, but I never saw them all the way through until Middle School.

Can I even say anything about these movies that haven’t already been said? I’m not sure, but I’ll try.

Star Wars lore used to be as simple as Rebels good, Empire bad. And despite all the complexity that’s been added to it since, that’s still the core of this franchise, and I honestly think that’s for the best.

The opening action sequence is one of the greatest in film history. It does a fantastic job of establishing the stakes, as well as showing just how powerful the heroes are in comparison to the villains. Darth Vader looks awesome, and is a fantastic threat.

Rogue One is ending right now. That’s so crazy to think about. Since it’s not a part of the main Skywalker saga, I’m not revisiting it, but I might some other time.

Leia’s such a cool character. She gets captured sure, but she goes down swinging, and she’s just as capable a fighter as the others when she does get rescued.

There are things that infamously don’t make sense with this movie, like “Why didn’t the Imperial Officers take droids into account” or “Why is there a small hole that destroys the Death Star.” (although that last one was explained in Rogue One), or “How come nobody remembers the Jedi and the Force?” But back then, people understood that those little things don’t matter, or at the very least they didn't care. Why can’t nerd culture go back to those days?

I remember being so surprised that the Senate was in the original movie, although it was only mentioned and never seen. Same with the Clone Wars

The retconned in CGI is odd, but at the same time, I kind of understand where Lucas was coming from. He had a lot of ideas he wanted to use, but couldn’t because of the limitations at the time. And now with CGI, he can finally puts those ideas into the movie. Although it’s very anacronistic. I agree re-adding deleted scenes was a mistake. Delete scenes are cool, but a majority of them are not in the movie for a reason, or the final product made them redundant.

17 minutes before we meet Luke. That’s a lot better than the hour spent to meet Anakin, and the events that happen beforehand are much more coherent as well.

Did R2-D2 kill another droid for the sake of the rebellion. That’s...troubling.

Luke is a likable bright eyed dreamer that wants more out of life. There are many like them, but to be fair, he did inspire a lot of them. Leia being Luke’s sister is very, very clearly not the original plan.

The acting is a little hockey, although the Darth Vader and C-3PO’s acting is still fantastic. And its overall a lot better than the prequels.

It is troubling to see the continuity errors the prequels had. Owen and Buru only met Anakin once, so it’s a bit weird how they talk about him. Obi Wan and R2-D2 should remember each other, but don’t seem to know each other (although Obi-Wan could be faking it. He does tend to lie. Then again, there isn’t really a reason for him to lie about R2). As well as Darth being a name and not a title.

The twin sun shot. It’s one of the greatest moments in film history. There’s a reason it’s refrecened again and again.

I never noticed how often Obi Wan says “Hello There.”

On the subject of Obi Wan, I love how well he conveys his friendship with Anakin with just he acting. Although he probably wasn’t indeed to be a liar, it's still really sad seeing him lie to Luke to spare his feelings. And he’s one of the definitive mentor characters for a reason.

Tarkin is a character I never thought much about, just another guy in an Imperial Officer's uniform. Which is odd seeing how he blew up a planet. Which is odd because technically, he has superiority over Darth Vader, and is the actual main villain of the movie. Although he was an amazing villain in the few episodes he was in in Rebels.

The Force was pretty simple early one. Fast reflexes and choking people, I guess they didn’t have the ability to do more advanced things with the force back then.

The fact that Owen and Buru were killed so brutally is seriously dark. Although they’re forgettable characters, I feel bad for Luke.

The interrogation machine is super creepy, especially since we don’t see how it actually works.

The brainwashing with the force scene is amusing to this day. Some other great jokes include “She’s Rich” (a favorite of my cousins'), Chewie scaring away the mouse droid and the scene where Han gives up bluffing and just shoots the communicator. Star Wars is allowed to be funny people.

I love all the alien spices in the cantina. It’s a great source of world building. I imagine it must’ve been very difficult, given the low budget of this first movie.

I saw a red eyed, blue skinned alien. Is Thrawn’s species in the first movie?

I do find it funny all of Han Solo’s big accomplishments happened in one day. It doesn’t bother me, though. Anyway, Han’s another good character. He’s your classic rouge archetype, and a good foil to naive farmboy Luke.

...I honestly don’t care who shot first. I’m watching the Blu Ray, so I didn't get to see “Marlarky.”

The movie has a ton of worldbuilding for something meant to be one stand alone story. That’s probably one of the best and worst things about it.

Although it’s definitely overused, the Death Star really is that good a concept. A space station the size of a moon, that can shoot a beam that can destroy a planet. It’s a very intimidating concept, and an excellent obstacle to overcome.

Although we never see Alderan, the fact Leia comes from there helps give the scene the emotional weight it needs. Obi Wan’s iconic line definitely helps as well.

I love how despite advancing technology, that chess game is always designed so that it move like stop motion.

Of all the Star Wars protagonists, Luke is the weakest in the force at first. Part of me wonders if it’s because they were very limited in what they could show about the force back then. Although it mike be possible Uncle Owen prevented him from experimenting with it, while Anaking got to practice with Pod racing, and Rey got to practice with scavenging.

The beginnings of the Leia/Han relationship. Two very strong willed people. It’s a good dynamic that only gets better in the next movie.

The trash compactor scene. Again, one of the greatest action scenes of all time. There’s a monster in the water and the walls are closing in. It’s a classic.

...you know if a character like Leia came out today, the dark side of geek culture would despise her for being an “SJW Mary Sue.” Screw those guys.

The bridge scene is another classic, although the rope swing kind of portrays Luke and Leia in a different light than the rest of the movie.

Darth Vader vs Obi Wan. As a child of the prequels I found this battle...underwhelming. I’m warmed up to it since, but I couldn’t help but miss the crazy choreography of the prequels. Later Star Wars works found the proper balance, thankfully. And I love how Obi Wan knows full well death won’t be the end for him.

Poor Luke lost his aunt and uncle and his mentor on the same day. That definitely gives him a reason to despite Darth Vader personally, especially seeing how Vader allegedly killed Luke’s father too.

“There wasn’t anything you could do.” I never noticed those arc words. Much like his father, Luke just keeps losing and losing family. But he also gains family during his adventure as well. I guess that’s one of the unifying themes of all three trilogies. Dealing with the loss of family, and learning to accept new family.

Although he denies it, Han is torn between collecting the money and living another day, or staying and helping his new friends. And in the end, he chooses his friends. It’s a nice character arc.

Was Wedge in the original cut? I honestly don’t know. And there’s the Roge One “Woomp”

I know I’ve said this a million times, but the death star battle is another one of the greatest actions sequences of all time. I’ve heard that the ticking clock aspect was actually something George Lucus’s wife at the time, Marcia Lucas. So good on her for making this action sequence as great as it is.

Overall, this is one of the greatest movies of all time for a reason.

#star wars #star wars rewatch

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