#Herschel&Songbird

[lonesome--hunter]

hi u didnt rb the writer asks or i missed it if u did but i would still love to hear ur answer to this one from that list: Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Oooo I don't think I've seen that floating around but I'm happy to answer.

TW: suicidal ideation, murder, talk of real like mental health, heavy thoughts ahead

So I have two that still fuck me up to this day.

Ezra watching Darlin' and Big Boy's murder. The callousness of it. The indifference of the Boones' and Cheyenne's chipperness in the midst of the deaths. It fucked me up for a bit after I wrote it but I don't regret it at all. Because it shows at the end of the day beyond all the fun torture, Josiah is a cold blooded killer who is beyond redemption. There is no redeeming someone who executes people begging for their lives.

And the second is a really personal piece that I wrote when I was going through hell. I can't remember if I posted it or not but it was Josiah in a deep depression and Songbird and Herschel finding him before he kills himself. When he's alone for too long in that lonely house in the mountains he gets deeply depressed. I spend a lot of time alone and when you're alone too much and dealing with deep depression, being alone with your thoughts can really be dangerous. I wrote this when I was at the end of my rope last year. I was in so much pain I was ready to die. I blew out my birthday candles and wished for it to be the last birthday. So writing that helped me in a low moment.

[whump-me-all-night-long]

Aaaaaaalso. I know you were my secret Santa and I fucking LOVED it!

Damn!! How'd you guess??

And I'm so glad!!! I literally had so much fun writing your characters! Herschel is honestly such a fun and creepy whumper, and I just absolutely adore Songbird!!

#ask leigh

[saintwhumpolas]

Merry Christmas, @simplygrimly!

“Ugh!” Songbird couldn’t quite bite down on her yelp fast enough, the small, broken sound slipping through her lips.

Her back was aching, fire racing down her spine where it had collided with the stairs she’d been thrown down. Her scraggly, chipped nails scratched against the cold concrete floor of the basement as she slowly tried to back away from the man descending the stairs.

Herschel stared down at her, his eyes almost glowing in the dim light, shining with that mix of excitement and fury that Songbird had only ever seen in his gaze.

“Did I hear ya make a little noise, Songbird?” he asked, voice low and rough, as he stepped down onto the basement floor. “Did ya make a noise, when I didn’t want ya to sing?”

Struggling to push herself up, Songbird furiously shook her head, unable to tear her gaze away from his eyes. She bit down on her bottom lip, trembling, as her legs, littered with fading cuts and bruises, unconsciously curled towards her torso.

Stopping right in front of her, Herschel crouched down, bringing a hand, large, warm, and rough, to cup her much smaller cheek. “Are ya sure, Songbird?” he murmured, drinking in her terrified, wide eyed stare.

Unable to stop herself from trembling, Songbird desperately bobbed her head up and down, pleading, wordless, with her eyes.

Herschel dragged his thumb over her pale skin, causing a shiver to race through her as his calluses scraped her.

She didn’t see the blow coming.

She never did.

The backhanded slap sent her crumpling back down to the ground. Tears prickling in her eyes, she let her forehead rest against the ground, the cold concrete helping to abate the fire in her cheek.

Slowly, she let the tears fall, knowing that the slap had unbalanced her enough to let a whimper out, loud enough that there was no way Herschel hadn’t heard it.

A hand was in her hair, dragging her up by her limp red locks. She didn’t resist, knowing it would only end up making things harder on her.

Instead, she allowed herself to be dragged to her feet, legs shaky underneath her, looking pleadingly and unwaveringly at Herschel’s bright eyes.

Please, she begged silently as the tears began to race down her cheeks with increasing speed. Please, forgive me. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.

Herschel dragged his eyes down her, taking his time to gather up every detail of her shivering, thin frame, her shining, wide eyes, her wet, bruised cheek.

Then, ever so delicately, he lifted his other hand to her cheek—her unslapped, unbruised one—and carefully wiped her tears away.

Unable to stop herself, Songbird let her eyes flutter closed, leaning in slightly to the hand that offered the light, warm touch.

When only one hand ever touched you, you began to rely on the rare kind touches, even stomaching the worst, most painful ones.

When Herschel’s hand slowly lowered, traveling from her cheek to her throat, swallowing nervously under his touch, Songbird opened her eyes, meeting his gaze.

She couldn’t conceal the hitch in her breathing as his hand slowly began to tighten- not painful, no, not yet.

His hot breath tickled her ear as he leaned in, crooning softly, “Do ya trust me, Songbird?”

Knowing there was only one acceptable answer, Songbird pushed down all her pleas and nodded, keeping her hands fisted at her sides, knowing not to struggle.

As his hand squeezed the life out of her neck, making the world around her begin to fade to black, the last thing she heard was, “Merry Christmas, Songbird.”

#a gift from saint whumpolas #writing #whump writing #lady whump #female whumpee #choking #character death #implied character death

[twdmusicboxmystery]

9x10: Music References and Ties to Beth

Okay, here goes. One of the things I really loved about this episode was how much of it revolved around music. The biggest things that jumped out to me were, of course, Lydia and the fact that her dad sings to her in flashbacks. There are some major Beth parallels going on here.

Because Beth was the song bird, we automatically tie any and all musical references to her. And there were TONS in this episode! We also saw the songbird pull the worm from the walker’s ear when this arc began (after Rick left) which gives us a lot of hope that Beth will show up somewhere in this arc. Keep in mind that doesn’t mean she has to show up this season, but we hope she will.

Alpha sang to Lydia and calling her “Bug.” Later, we find out it was actually her father who sang to her. That's significant because, back in S2, we saw Herschel not exactly singing to Beth but sort of chanting the rhyme to her about the doodlebug. It was their thing that they did together to bond and it brought her comfort when she got sick (emotionally/psychologically) after the walkers came out of the barn.

So anyway, Beth’s father called her Doodlebug and sang to her. There have been many theories by me and various members of TD about the doodlebug rhyme and the closely connected ladybug symbol, which we know is a major symbol for Beth. (Remember, she was associated with ladybugs in Still when she picked up ladybug off the leaf.)

We didn’t actually see Daryl watching Hershel sing to Beth, but he was probably aware of it, and he knew how close Beth was to her dad. We also know he watched her sing to Judith as a baby to comfort her, so he’s definitely seen people sing to their children before, specifically to keep them from being afraid. So, I really loved that when Lydia told the truth about her father singing to her when she was afraid, Daryl immediately recognized it as true and used it to differentiate Lydia’s truths from her lies. I think that’s super significant and can be tied directly back to Beth and Daryl’s memories of her.

On TTD, they said that the person who wrote the lyrics for the song Lydia’s father sang her (Lydia, the Tattooed Lady) is the same person who wrote all the songs for the Wizard of Oz (TWOO).

That's super important for several reasons. They went out of their way to point it out on TTD, which means they really want us to know about it. Obviously, knowing who the lyricist is, isn’t something we need to know in order to understand the show. They also reminded us that we'd seen Rick reading the Wizard of Oz book to Judith in 9A, before the bridge blew.

Now, I really need to update my Wizard of Oz theory, but remember the first place we saw the Wizard of Oz template was at Grady with Beth. Seeing it with Rick just reinforced that she's as much alive as Rick is. Both of them were injured and woke up in a faraway, strange land, separated from their friends and family. So, because we know Rick is alive, and they associated him with the TWOO template (Dorothy survives at the end of the story makes it back to her family; she doesn't die.) we can use that as evidence that Beth, too, is alive and well somewhere.

I also find it to be entirely too coincidental that they mentioned TWOO on TTD and in this episode, Daryl said to Lydia, “You don’t know shit about me.” Noah said that to Beth at Grady and he was also the one had the “of the Lollipop Guild” line. See the subtle ties? Tptb went out of their way to tie this episode heavily to TWOO and, by extension, to Grady.

Let's talk about the Tattooed Lady song. I looked at the lyrics and let's just say that there are a lot of extremely random references included in the song. 

Here they are:

Lydia, oh! Lydia, say have you met Lydia Oh! Lydia, the tattooed lady She has eyes that folks adore so And a torso even more so Lydia, oh! Lydia, that "Encyclopedia" Oh! Lydia, the Queen of tattoo On her back is the Battle of Waterloo Beside it the Wreck of the Hesperus too And proudly above the waves The Red, White and Blue You can learn a lot from Lydia She can give you a view of the world In tattoo if you step up and tell her where For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paree Or Washington crossing the Delaware Oh! Lydia, oh! Lydia, say have you met Lydia Oh! Lydia, the tattooed lady When her muscles start relaxin' Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson Lydia, oh! Lydia, that "Encyclopedia" Oh! Lydia, the champ of them all For two bits she will do a Mazurka in Jazz With a view of Niag'ra that no artist has And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz You can learn a lot from Lydia. La la la La la la La la la La la la Come along and see Buff'lo Bill with his lasso Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon And Godiva, but with her pajamas on La la la La la la La la la La la la Here is Grover Whalen unveilin' the Trylon Over on the west coast we have Treasure Islan' Here's Nijinsky a doin' the Rhumba Here's her Social Security numba La la la La la la La la la La la la Lydia, oh! Lydia, say have you met Lydia Oh! Lydia, the champ of them all She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat And now the old boy's in command of the fleet

The song is about a woman who has tattoos all over her body. Most of them have to do with real people or historical events. So, the idea is that you can learn a lot from looking at her tattoos. Not all the references jump out at me as meaning something significant, but a lot of them do.

First, a LOT of them are water references. (Remember water =s Beth). It mentions the Battle of Waterloo, which I think is a dual symbol for the coming war with the Whisperers and also the fact that it includes “water” in the title.

It mentions The Wreck of Hesperus, which is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about a shipwreck. This one is super interesting to me because the captain of the boat wrecks his ship due to his arrogance. His little daughter is on board. I just couldn't help but think of this shot where we see this boat in the storm, talking about a sailor behind Hershel. 

I feel like we could substitute Herschel and Beth into this poem as the captain and his daughter.

The song mentions Treasure Island, which is an artificial island in San Francisco Bay. So again, more water references.

It also makes mention of different waves of the sea, Niagara, and the Crossing of the Delaware, which was when George Washington crossed the Delaware River in the dead of night to attack his enemies. For the record, that story is considered a modern-day miracle. It also mentions a fleet of ships tattooed across Lydia’s hips. There are probably a few other water references. Go through the lyrics and see for yourself.

Other references that jumped out at me include Buffalo Bill. I wondered if he, being a great hunter, could perhaps be a symbol of Daryl. One thing that caught my interest when I read about him was that he compared his strategy for hunting buffalo to a game of billiards. Obviously, we’ve see that in association with Beth and Daryl.

It talks about Capt. Jeffrey T. Spalding, who is a fictional character, but he was a great world explorer and went on many long journeys. Again, that reminds me of both Beth and Rick's long journeys.

It mentions the Trylon and Perisphere, which were central themes of the World's Fair in 1939. I wondered if perhaps that could point to the fair that's going to be at the Kingdom that they keep foreshadowing.

Finally, it also mentions a man named Vaslav Nijinsky who was a great ballet dancer. Music box anyone?

So I don't know if they mean for us to read into the references in Lydia, the Tattooed Lady. I think the a big part of the point of mentioning it on TTD was to point out it's ties to TWOO, which is clearly tied to Beth.

But we also did hear much of the song in the show, so I think that means the lyrics themselves are very important as well. I reserve the right to analyze the crap out of them. ;D

This is slightly off topic, but me, @frangipanilove and @wdway have also talked about the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow from TWOO. The lyricist who wrote Lydia, the Tattooed Lady, Yip Harburg, also wrote all the TWOO songs, including the famous Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

We’ve talked about how a lot of the symbols in that song can easily tie to Beth. I’ve never talked about the song in my TWOO posts before, but obviously I should. The mural on the prison wall back in S4 included a rainbow, which is further proof that Beth’s arc and these symbols were planned back then, when Beth first came front and center.

@frangipanilove also pointed out that the shirt Sophia wore when she came out of the barn in S2 had a rainbow on it. That’s a great way to associate Beth with the Missing Girl theme. The song talks about wishing on stars (North Star Theory, Sirius/Dog Star Theory) and songbirds (Beth and the songbirds with Daryl and the tree walker in 5x06). And of course there’s the fact that Dorothy has a dog named Toto.

And keep in mind the basic plot of TWOO. Dorothy, who wore a lot of blue 

hits her head (obvious head injury) and passes out. She wakes up in a far away land, away from her friends and family and spends the entire episode trying to get home.

This is why I can totally see them first bringing Beth back somewhere other than TWD (perhaps in Fear or another spinoff) so they can tell her story without completely taking over the main story line. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

I also noticed that we see a rainbow on the wall near Lydia that mirrors the one at the prison. Hmm. Especially given all the water references, could Alpha function as the Wicked Witch? Really no idea. Just conjecturing. But remember that in TWOO, it’s water that defeats the villain. (I’m melting!) Just saying. ;D

So, this is been kind of a rambling post, but there's a lot of music floating around this episode, and I can't help but tie it to Beth and feel like she's very close. Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[writingandprocrastinating]

even. more. names.

(and meanings!)

~

Aerin - Gaelic, meaning ‘Ireland.’

Aden - Hebrew, meaning ‘attractive, handsome.’

Aero - Greek, meaning ‘of the sky.’

Aleph - Hebrew, meaning ‘chief, number one.’

Alwyn - German, meaning ‘friend.’

Andromeda - Greek, meaning ‘to be mindful of a man.’

Annika - Sanskrit, meaning ‘grace, gracious, favored.’

Ares - Greek, meaning ‘bane, ruin.’

Aric - Norse, meaning ‘rule with mercy.’

Arlen - Gaelic, meaning ‘pledge, oath.’

Aspen - American, meaning ‘quaking tree.’

Astraea - Greek, meaning ‘star.’

Bowen - Welsh, meaning ‘son of Owen.’

Bram - Hebrew, meaning ‘Father of a multitude.’

Cabot - French, meaning ‘to sail.’

Cade - Old English, meaning ‘something or someone lumpy or rotund.’

Cadence - English, meaning ‘rhythm, flow.’

Caelen - Gaelic, meaning ‘victorious people.’

Carson - Middle English/Scottish, meaning ‘son of Carr.’

Cassandra - Greek, meaning ‘unheeded prophetess.’

Circe - Greek, named for the Greek goddess of magic living Aeaea, an island.

Celia - Latin, meaning ‘heavenly.’

Cree - Native American, meaning ‘highly spirited.’

Dabria - Latin, meaning ‘name of an angel.’

Dakini - Indian, meaning ‘demon.’

Dario - Greek, meaning ‘rich, wealthy.’

Earleen - American, meaning ‘pledge, noble.’

Eaven - Very old Celtic (Irish), meaning ‘fair radiance.’

Echo - Latin and Greek, meaning ‘reflected sound.’

Edlyn - English, meaning ‘small, noble one.’

Eira - Welsh, meaning ‘snow.’ Also Sanskrit,  meaning ‘the earth.’

Elijah - Hebrew, a Hebrew prophet in the Old Testament.

Ender - Turkish, meaning ‘very rare.’

Enzo - Italian, meaning ‘rules the home.’

Evienne - Hebrew, meaning ‘breath of life.’

Faron - Old English, meaning ‘handsome servant.’

Finlay - Gaelic, meaning ‘fair-haired soldier.’

Gaia - Greek, meaning ‘earth.’

Gaston - French, meaning ‘stranger, guest, host.’

Geronimo - Greek, a Spanish form of Jerome. 

Grey - Old English, meaning the color grey. 

Gre(/a)yson - English, meaning ‘son of the grey-haired man.’

Guinevere - Old French form of a Welsh name meaning ‘fair, white.’

Herschel - Hebrew, meaning ‘deer.’

Hyrum - Hebrew, meaning ‘my brother is exalted.’

Ianto - Welsh, meaning ‘Yahweh is gracious.’

Ivelisse - Spanish, meaning ‘life.’

Janus - Latin, meaning ‘archway.’

Jolyon - English, meaning ‘youthful.’

Kafka - Czech and Jewish, meaning ‘jackdaw.’

Kalen - Gaelic, meaning ‘slender, fair.’

Kent - English, meaning ‘high or coastal land.’

Laertes - Greek, meaning ‘gatherer of the people.’

Laron - French, meaning ‘thief.’

Lyra - Greek, meaning ‘lyre.’

Lysander - Greek, meaning ‘liberator.’

Maddox - English, derived from Welsh, meaning ‘son of Madoc.’

Marcellus - Laitn, meaning ‘hammer,’ derived from Mars, Roman god of war.

Milana - Czech, Russian, meaning ‘gracious, favored’ in the former and derived from ‘milaya’ from the latter, meaning ‘dear, beloved, pleasant, and sweet.’

Miro - Slovene, Croatian, meaning ‘peace, world.’

Noelle -  French, meaning ‘Christmas.’

Nortia - Latinized version of Etruscan goddess Nurtia, influencer of time, fate, destiny, and space. 

Nova - Latin, meaning ‘new.’

Nyoka - Swahili, meaning ‘snake.’

Oran - Gaelic, meaning ‘light, pale.’

Orpheus - Greek, meaning ‘the darkness of night.’

Ophelia - Greek, meaning ‘help.’

Pax - Latin, meaning ‘peace, the binding thing.’

Philo - Greek, meaning ‘lover, friend.’

Primus - Latin, meaning ‘first.’

Quillan - Irish, meaning ‘cub.’

Quinn - Gaelic, meaning ‘wisdom, reason, intelligence.’

Raven - English, derived from the name of a common bird.

Reid - Scottish, meaning ‘red.’

Rehan - Islamic, from the Quran, meaning ‘scented.’

Remus - Latin, from the two twins who founded Rome.

Saar - Hebrew, meaning ‘storm.’

Sabar - Arabic, meaning ‘one who is patient.’

Sipho - Xhosa, meaning ‘gift (of God)’

Sirius - Greek, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. 

Stellan - Swedish, meaning ‘peaceful one’ or calm.’

Syon - Hindi, meaning ‘followed by good luck.’

Taras - Ukranian, meaning ‘son of the god Poseidon.’

Tarian - Welsh, meaning ‘shield.’

Valentina/Valentine - Latin, meaning ‘healthy, strong.’

Valia - Latin, meaning ‘concealed.’

Valeria - Latin, meaning ‘strength, health.’

Valente - Italian, Galician, and Portugese, meaning ‘brave, valiant.’

Wren - English, a small songbird.

Zachariah - Hebrew, meaning ‘the Lord has remembered.’

Zain - Arabic, meaning ‘grace, beauty.’

Zaire - Portuguese, meaning ‘the river that swallows all rivers.’

Zarek - Persian, meaning ‘may God protect the king.’

[lonesome--hunter]

Please don't read this if you are in any way struggling. I had to get some stuff out today. Herschel and Songbird belong to @simplygrimly

cw: graphic talk of suicide, suicidal ideation, ableist language, guns, drug mention

The phone in the kitchen hasn't stopped ringing.

Josiah doesn't hear it. He's lost in decision making.

He could eat the whole bottle of pills he had stashed away for when Goldie was around.

But it might not be enough and he'll be damned if he's going to be a vegetable that needs his ass wiped three times a day by a crotchety nurse or worse, Songbird would insist he come stay with them. No way he can do that to her. No way will he disrupt the lovely life Herschel has built for himself there.

Maybe he could fill up the tub and grab one of his sharpest knives.

No. That'd be too much to clean up.

Or he could blow his brains out with the shotgun he takes out hunting. He could go up in the woods and do it there. Die peacefully in the woods like a wounded deer. Let the wildlife deal with his body. No chance of anybody finding him and seeing him like that.

He doesn't notice the ringing has stopped and the pounding on the front door pulls him out of his suicidal reverie.

When he opens it and Songbird's small arms wrap around his waist tightly, his gruff facade crumbles away and the tears don't stop. She looks up at him, there's worry etched all over her face. She's never seen him like this before.

He squeezes her back and wipes his face with his sleeve as Herschel makes his way up the driveway.

"It's alright, Tweetybird. I'm alright."

#graphic thoughts of suicide #suicidal ideation #thoughts of death #guns #implied/brief ableism #josiah blevins #songbird #herschel boone #terror in tennessee

[lonesome--hunter]

how did big boy stop speaking? was it because of intentional conditioning like with songbird?

He stopped speaking in the middle of his captivity right after Songbird was "reborn" and he was completely broken by that point. It wasn't necessarily conditioning as it was him just giving up all hope and retreating in a way. When he saw Annie for the first time and she wouldn't respond to that name it broke him. His hope of escaping with her and starting a life with her was gone. It was easier to just be Josiah's mutt after that and give up. And seeing the way she loved Herschel after that was too much. So Michael checked out for good and left only Big Boy behind.

#big boy #annie/songbird #boone clan #herschel boone #josiah blevins #dehumanization #conditioning

[lonesome--hunter]

Oh Ezra. I’m sure Songbird just wanted to find some humanity in Herschel too. And look what happened with her, look how she turned out...

“She’s still alive isn’t she? And Herschel won’t let anyone breathe wrong next to her. She told me what I have to do and I’m going to at least try.” Ezra points outside to the colorful blooming flowers they planted together. “It’s not all bad. See?”

#ezra shoemaker #baby #songbird #josiah blevins #herschel boone #rumor asks #oc asks #the devil's highway #boone clan

[lonesome--hunter]

Big boy fights back au

Ooooo in this one Big Boy would have to be an only child for sure.

In the beginning of his captivity Cheyenne goes through his phone and looks at all of his social media accounts. His Instagram was full of pictures of his family and all of his sisters. Cheyenne singled one out, Delia, and found her address easily. They would threaten to go pick her up for Cheyenne as soon as he started to fight back.

But with no siblings or Annie/Songbird to threaten, he probably wouldn't have lived very long fighting back and being a general pain in the ass.

I imagine Josiah would get sick of him and pass him off to one of the Boones. He wouldn't last long at Cheyenne's. She would have bled him out in a few days. But Herschel would be more methodical and take his time.

@simplygrimly What do you think would happen to Big Boy if Josiah gave him to Herschel?

#big boy fights back au #blood #threats #threats to a loved one