#NOR has he been able to do things on his own. he had noel backing him up.

[archangelmacaron]

NTMF College AU Chapter 19

What a coincidence it's Mayor Burrow's birthday and he finally makes more than a half sentence appearance in this story! I should be able to leave you with a short but pleasant chapter tomorrow before I have a small weekend work trip! have a great weekend everybody <3 (mild cw for mentioned violence and so much gaslighting it's like it's 1905)

- Jillian had no idea what to say as the Dean entered the office. He gave her a benevolent smile and gestured towards the only chair. “Please, Miss Littner, have a seat. You're not in any trouble, I promise.”

I... just broke into this building... am standing amongst piles of the forbidden tomes... how can I possibly not be in trouble?

Her eyes flicked to the chair and back to the Dean. There was no longer a book on it, which was a problem for her to process later, so she carefully sat down, keeping her eyes on him.

The Dean crossed his arms, shaking his head and looking troubled, rather than stern. The disconnect between what she'd expected—especially based on what Noel had told her about her own meeting with the Dean—to what she was actually seeing was jarring. “So, it seems your friend Miss Cerquetti has gotten herself into a bit of trouble these past few days.”

Jillian swallowed. Her hands were tightly gripping the edges of her seat, hidden by the desk. He's referring to the expulsion, right? There's no way he knows—

He smiled at her again, a reassuring expression. “Don't look so worried, Jillian. I can call you Jillian, right?”

It didn't seem like disagreeing was the right thing to do, so she nodded awkwardly.

“Well, Jillian, your other roommate, Spica, has filled me in on what's been going on.” He shook his head, seeming pained again. “I must apologize. I know that losing the top spot must have been a shock to her when she is such a skilled pianist, but I never would have anticipated such a reaction from a lady of Miss Cerquetti's status. But I do know about the devil now, Jillian.”

It felt like there was ice in her veins. Her hands were gripping the chair so tightly she hadn't realized she was shaking until she heard her teeth click. She took and released a deep breath, trying to focus on calming down. Dean Burrow's voice was gentle and soothing, and helped on that front.

“It had to be very hurtful that she'd hide something like that from you, but I hope you understand that even people you've known for a very, very long time can betray you, Jillian.”

N...no, Noel didn't betray me... “Sh-she said...”

“Please speak up, Jillian. What did she say?” He leaned in slightly, clearly listening carefully.

“She said it was an accident... that Spica had drawn the circle...”

“An accident?” He shook his head, smiling sadly. “No, Jillian, I'm afraid not. Spica did draw the circle... because Noel asked her to.”

That's not true—there's no way that's true!

“I know that you can't believe it, I know. It's your best friend, of course. But Jillian, you need to think through this logically. What possible motive could Spica have to frame her? Spica is, indeed, a troubled girl, but tricking someone into a summon is, at best, attempted murder. Would your roommate truly hate her that much that she'd kill her so violently? Spica said your worst disagreements were over noise levels and dishes, isn't that right?” He waited for her to answer, and she nodded reluctantly. He rubbed his brow for a moment, sighing. "Now, Jillian, I don't wish to violate her privacy, but I want you to understand Spica a little better. She told me she's been too nervous to tell you, but that it's okay if I did. The truth is... she's currently being treated for a personality disorder. So both she and I understand that she's very difficult to get along with. But neither I nor her therapist believe she is capable of killing someone, especially without a motive. Think, Jillian... have you ever actually seen her be violent?" He waited again, and Jillian, reluctantly, shook her head. I actually haven't... Spica's jealousy over Ribellio scares me, but I don't know that she's ever actually been violent, I just suspect. He did tell me that his scar was from a fall... Maybe my instincts are really off if the Dean acknowledges her flaws like this, but still trusts her... It's clear he understands what she's really like, so she wasn't pretending to be someone else when she talked to him... Maybe she's... not lying... about what she told me...

There was something amiss with that logic, but Jillian couldn't place it. Her anxiety was too high. She listened as Dean Burrows continued to speak, calmly, logically. His voice was soothing even as his words were terrifying. “And besides that, Jillian, the most obvious proof is simply that Noel is with the devil now. Why would he be with her, if they hadn't made a contract? And why would he make a contract with her if her summoning was an accident?” He gave her a knowing glance, one that was gently encouraging her to put the pieces together on her own. “Devils are very proud creatures, Jillian. An insult like that would not be taken lightly.”

Is he... right...? Could Noel really... have lied to me like that...?

“So you surely must recognize that it is, at least, a possibility. We both know that she hasn't been thinking clearly these past few days. Noel's pride is almost as strong as a devil's, after all.” His smile at that seemed off, somehow, but it quickly readjusted into a plaintive expression.

Noel... is very proud... She hates losing... She said she recognized her own playing, but... Professor Becker really didn't have a motive to switch them. Maybe... Maybe Ribellio really did just practice a lot, and she can't accept that someone so less experienced could have surpassed her... The devil made a contract with her, I can't deny that. The proof is that she's with him right now. And she told me no when I told her I'd help her get rid of him. Why—why would she do that if it were an accident? And they were even—even sleeping together, if not more... but... it's all because of him, he's the one that's corrupted her! There's no way I can believe that she did this on purpose!

It's just... got to be a mistake...

Dean Burrows gave her another reassuring smile. “Listen, it's okay if you don't believe me, Jillian. That's not important right now. What is important is handling the situation as it presents itself to us, okay?”

He looked down at her, smiling with deep compassion, until she closed her eyes and nodded firmly. “Now, while there obviously must be consequences for committing such a dire crime, my first priority is always my student's safety, and that includes Noel's."

“... you can really... help her?” Jillian felt sure her words were too quiet to be heard, but Dean Burrows gave a firm nod.

“No, Jillian, not only I—together, we can save Noel. I can't do this without you. We can get her away from that devil, and then get her help to understand why what she did was wrong, and how to deal with those kind of strong emotions in the future. I'm certain that we can keep this out of the news, and I'll use all of my power to see that she's treated leniently." He gave a heartfelt sigh. " After all, it's my responsibility, in the end, I failed to recognize the conflict inside her, and thus failed as an educator. So I won't give up on her either, Jillian, just like you!”

She could feel how passionate he was about the subject. There's a reason he's the most beloved Dean... How could I have ever even listened to Noel when she said she thought he was hiding a darker side? To think so negatively on him when he's going so far to help her... it's as bad as I was with Fugo... Maybe I really can't understand people at all! Fugo was right, I spent all my time with Noel, and missed out on socializing with other people because I was too scared. Now she's the only person I believe in, but it looks like I never actually understood her... I never thought she could lie to me...

Dean Burrows gave her an almost pleading expression. “But to do that, to save Noel, we need to work as quickly as we can. And for that, I need your help, Jillian.”

Jillian bit her lip, her eyes flickering around the room nervously. The piles of books were still giving her a horrible, claustrophobic feeling, and she wondered now why she'd ever thought she'd be able to safely open one. She looked up at the Dean. “Wh... what can I do?”

“I know you want to save your friend, even if you still don't believe that she chose this path on her own. It's why you're here, after all, isn't it?” He gave her an encouraging look, and she nodded silently. “I assume you learned of the books' removal from one of the Dressel brothers.”

“Fugo,” she said softly, apologizing silently for throwing the man under the bus—but also knowing that he would have wanted her to, to protect his brother. “Oscar has nothing to do with any of this.”

“That doesn't surprise me. Oscar's always been an upright, trustworthy young man. Fugo, however... is a little bit of a wild card. I have a lot of guilt because he dropped out... I really failed him.” His face looked determined. “Still, I'll do whatever I can to make sure he isn't punished for this break in, I know you both have your hearts in the right places.”

He smiled down at her again. Somehow, this time it made her feel less at ease, not more.

“Now, I have someone I can call on to perform a devil exorcism, Jillian, but first, we need to get the devil here, where there aren't many people around. I want to do this as quietly as possible, for Noel's sake. Let's try to keep her reputation intact, okay?” He paused, as if thinking for a moment. “Jillian, can you ask Noel to come here without raising her suspicions?”

Is he... for real?

It's the Dean... why would he lie about something like this? He has all the motivation in the world to not want this to be publicized, so maybe... I can rely on him.

No, I must rely on him. Fugo doesn't have any idea what to do, and I can't read these or even touch these books so my own plan failed—Dean Burrows is going to be my savior. And I'll be Noel's!

Noel, I'm going to save you!

She nodded. “Yes, I... I think so.”

“Good. Do that, please. Ask her to meet you in the lobby as soon as possible.”

Jillian swallowed the strange feeling building in her throat, nodding. She pulled out her phone, trying to think for a moment. She was horrible at lying to Noel, but she had to at least partially obscure the truth. She thought a moment longer before finally typing a message with only one blatant lie in it.

Noel, I'm at the Performance Hall now. Nobody else is here, probably because there's a power outage and it's so foggy out. My idea was stupid, I can't even read any of these books... Can you please come meet me? I want to talk to you a bit more... I don't think I listened very well last night, and I'm regretting that. I'm sorry I was so rude to Caron, too... if you trust him, there's a reason, right? I'm just so scared...

“Is this okay?” She held up her phone to the Dean. She wasn't sure why she was asking him for approval before hitting send.

“Caron?” He raised an eyebrow at the name. “The devil with her is named Caron?”

Jillian nodded. “Um... is he really dangerous?”

Dean Burrows touched his brow, seeming stressed. “I'm afraid so, Jillian. I've heard of him many times before. That creates a bit more urgency. Go ahead and send that message. We need to get him away from her before he claims his price, and it's too late.”

Jillian nodded again, wondering why her fingers were shaking as she hit send. She set her phone on the only open spot on the desk and looked up at the dean as they waited silently. After a few minutes, she felt compelled to ask a question that she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer to. “That devil... Caron... do you know what kind of prices he takes?”

The Dean looked uncomfortable—as if he was trying to protect her from a cruel reality. “It's... hardly the sort of thing I should be discussing with a student, but...”

“Please, I want to know. I'm really scared for Noel, but I don't even know what might happen to her... what danger she's really in.” She bit her lip, looking to the side. “I don't know if he's already... started...”

Dean Burrows looked pained, smiling down on her sadly. “I apologize for being graphic, Jillian, but Caron is a Great Devil, not one of the lessor ones that play tricks. He's been known to disembowel his victims, remove their limbs and tongues and eyes... terribly, terribly violent things.”

He paused, looking even more distressed—as if feeling bad for her, having to listen to his words. “There are other things, unspeakable deeds that I can't bear to mention. I'm... afraid you can imagine what I'm referring to, right?”

Jillian twisted her hands in her lap, feeling like she wanted to throw up.

“And we know Miss Cerquetti is already disabled... it is truly unlucky that she summoned him in particular. She doesn't have much chance of fighting back at all... We must hurry!”

Jillian's phone went off. She glanced up at Dean Burrows, who gave her a gentle smile and nod as if telling her to open it. She tapped on the message as he walked around the desk to stand behind her.

We'll be heading that way shortly. Please don't worry, he understands that your only concern is my safety. If we all talk together, I know we can come to an understanding!

“Find out what route they're taking to get here.” Jillian looked up at Dean Burrows in slight confusion, his voice had sounded a bit strange. He set his hand on her shoulder, smiling reassuringly as he gave it a gentle squeeze. “Ah, to be clear—I want to be sure that they're not stopped by campus security. That could be terribly dangerous for Noel. Some are armed, and if they see a devil, they might not understand that she's really his victim, not his demon.”

She nodded again, realizing she could taste blood—how hard am I biting my inner lip? And why? It's going to be okay, Dean Burrows is on my side, too. We're going to save Noel!

She pushed aside the thoughts in the back of her head struggling to become clear, and took another moment before thinking of the exact phrasing to use.

The main roads are a little busier than I thought. You might wanna cut through the forest.

She looked up at him again, and he paused, touching his chin. “Specify the Lhaplus Gorge Trail. There shouldn't be anyone on it since the main part was washed out in the rains a few weeks ago, but the part they'd use should be safe.”

She restated the text.

The main roads are a little busier than I thought. You might wanna cut through the forest using the Gorge Trail.

Dean Burrows nodded as she glanced up, as if giving her permission. She hit send again, setting the phone down as they waited. After another half minute, it beeped and she picked it up again.

Sounds good. See you soon! And thank you for everything, Jillian, I truly appreciate you. You really are my one and only best friend.

The last line made her feel ill.

She went to set the phone down again, but was surprised when Dean Burrows plucked it out of her hands with two fingers. She looked up in confusion.

He was smiling at her, but it was different.

“Thanks for that, Jillian. Now, unfortunately, you're going to need to wait in here while I take care of this issue. But you've always been such a good, obedient girl, I know I won't have to worry about anything, even in such a dangerous room... after all, some of these books are harmful to even look at.”

What is he...

“What do you...” her voice trailed off. It felt like there was a different man in front of her.

Dean Burrows continued to smile. It was no longer kind or sympathetic, but malicious and arrogant.

“Now, after I take care of Caron and Miss Cerquetti, I have something else I need you in particular for, Jillian. You'll agree to that, right?” He paused, but his smile didn't fade. “Otherwise... I don't know what could happen during this exorcism. Noel could get hurt. Maybe even lose another limb... or worse.”

It wasn't a prediction. It was a threat.

She could barely make out words. “What is it?”

“You're going to perform a little concert tonight, that's all. The night of the full moon will be so lovely for it.”

A concert...?

“That's right, I even have the sheet music right here.” He moved a book on the desk, pulling out some papers from underneath it and setting them in front of her. “You're so diligent, Jillian, I'm sure you'll be able to play it perfectly. Mistakes would also be very troublesome for Noel...”

He laughed. “Oh, I mean for me, sorry. Why did I say Noel?”

She knew exactly why he had.

He turned to leave the room. “Wait patiently, Miss Littner. I'll be back soon enough. Oh, and I'll be sure to send you proof of life for Miss Cerquetti... I'd hate for you to give up because you don't believe she's okay. I promise I'll return her to you in one p... well, I'll return her to you alive.”

“N... no...” Jillian couldn't say anything else as he closed the door. She heard the click of a lock.

She was now alone in the windowless room, surrounded with the forbidden books.

All of the panic she'd been holding back came rushing in.

No... no!

This is the exact opposite of what I set out to do! Noel is in even worse danger now and it's all my fault!

I'm sorry I'm sorry Noel I'm so sorry I'm sorry—

Her vision was tunneling again as she started to hyperventilate.

No, I need to keep calm—I need to do something—I need to—I need to save Noel—I need to save her—I need—

Her body wouldn't cooperate any longer. Everything went grey. She couldn't catch her breath.

She fainted.

#fanfic

[dramaticviolincrescendo]

Rewatching Shameless and i just watched 6x1 jail scene. Can I request a meta if its not too much trouble? I feel like reading a really good meta about that scene and you're one of the best we've got so.....

It’s never any trouble at all! That’s so sweet to say—thank you so much! <3 Kind of coming to terms with the idea that anyone cares about my opinion over here. You guys are too much!

This scene is actually extremely important to me because it and the response to it were what made me start writing Shameless fanfiction, specifically when I saw that my views regarding Ian’s behavior and how Mickey received it were so vastly different from what I initially read. (Insert shameless plug for “That Milkovich Reputation” here.) Now, I know you’ve told me not to do this before, but based on the controversial position in which this scene resides, I feel the need to present a couple of disclaimers for our audience at large.

I first fell in love with Shameless last March, a couple weeks before quarantine began. I didn’t know what it was prior to that and therefore was not present when Noel left the show, so I didn’t experience the disappointment of a beloved character leaving in a potentially permanent way and didn’t engage in the fandom or see how deeply upset people were by that until after I finished the series. I also don’t subscribe to the theory that there was something going on behind the scenes or any animosity between Noel and the creators, as I have not seen any relevant evidence from reliable sources to support that what happened was anything other than decisions made in pursuit of career goals on both sides. As such, my analysis of this scene has only ever taken the content and context of the story and characters into account. I have no interest in speculating on the motives of people I do not know in writing it or portraying it this way, and even if I did, this scene made perfect sense to me as it was written and performed.

I understand and appreciate that this is not a popular position to take and urge everyone to pass this post by if my position on that matter is offensive or upsetting to you. I do not mean to tell anyone what to think or believe, only to explain how I view this scene and the context in which I do so.

That said, let’s begin.

When Last Seen: Mickey

As in all things, context is important. Prior to the prison scene, the last time we saw Mickey was when Ian broke up with him and Sammi interrupted their heartfelt moment, which basically sums up her character in a nutshell. That was a rough couple of days for Mickey. He saw how devastated Ian was to hear his family talk about him as though he were just like Monica; was distressed in his own right to return for him and discover that he’d left the base with Monica; buried his frustration and sadness by sleeping around with other people, which seemed to exacerbate those emotions because those people weren’t Ian, nor had he and Ian broken up when he did it; and came running when Ian called him, only for Ian to end their relationship.

Mickey is a very sharp man—we know this. He can read people like books and manipulate or intimidate them accordingly. He knew Ian had feelings for him in s1 when he showed up on his doorstep seeking comfort rather than going to any number of other people he trusted. He was well aware that Ian loved him in s3, and that made what he felt he had no choice in doing that much more painful. He heard what Ian said and knew what he was doing in 5x12. Of that, I have never had any doubt. It wasn’t like Ian tried to hide that he didn’t want to break up but thought that that was what would be best. In fact, the way he initially framed it always made me think that one of his highest priorities was not dragging Mickey down with him, especially in the aftermath of being called “destructive” and similar to someone who “put them through hell.” That’s why Mickey’s response wasn’t to call him an asshole or get angry or beg. It was to reassure Ian that he was there for the long haul, that he loved him and wanted to take care of him no matter what that meant—and that they could make that work. All the sentiments Ian had tried to communicate before he got married, Mickey was reciprocating in his own way. Had they not needed to temporarily write Mickey out of the story and Sammi hadn’t shown up right that second, I believe that he wouldn’t have given up so easily. We do have confirmation of that being the case in the prison scene, but we’ll get to that shortly.

When Last Seen: Ian

Ian isn’t a selfish character. We know this, too. However, Ian needed to be selfish by the end of s5. What he had to come to terms with wasn’t something that anyone could fully help him with, much as Mickey desperately wanted to. To Ian, the enemy was within. It was inside him, in his brain, telling him what to do even if that destroyed himself and everything he loved. It’s terrifying. I’m not bipolar, nor do I suffer from any other diagnosed mental illnesses, but I admire and respect everyone who wakes up every morning and tackles these things. They’re heroes every single day. But by the end of s5, Ian doesn’t feel much like a hero. Instead, he feels like the villain, and he’s lost touch with who he even is anymore.

That’s not a healthy mindset to have in a relationship. Relationships require a level of give and take, and that used to be something that Ian and Mickey already struggled with. Ian gave more in s1-3 because he was able to, while Mickey had a limit on what he could openly give because of the environment in which he lived and the manner in which he was raised. In s4-5, those roles were reversed: Mickey was able to give so much more, but Ian was gradually falling apart. Neither of them are at fault for any of those situations. It is what it is, and they have a stronger relationship for it. Ian is a giver, though. He’s always been a giver. To be in a position where he doesn’t feel like he can give anything to Mickey because he doesn’t even know who he is was truly heartbreaking for him, and objectively, he needed to take a step back so that he could focus on himself. He knew it. Based on Mickey’s understanding of Ian’s reasons after watching him deny that he had a problem for so long, I think Mickey knew it too. This hurt both of them—Ian to say it and Mickey to hear it—but they’re not fools and they’re not naïve. In some ways, they know each other better than anyone.

Jimmy said that when you’re on a plane, they tell you to put on your mask before you help anyone else with theirs. Ian needed to put on his mask. His heart can’t keep beating if his lungs don’t work.

Starting Season 6: Mickey

Unsurprisingly, Mickey has settled into prison life just fine. We’ll focus on his interactions with Ian in a bit as that’s the meat of the scene, but there are major implications inherent in his discussion with Svetlana beforehand.

1.      Mickey has accepted that this will be his reality for the foreseeable future. What else is he supposed to do? Besides, he’s known for a long time that the likelihood of ending up in prison was pretty high for him, as he alluded to in s2. He was a street thug. He stole from local stores, sold drugs, ran guns, operated a rub ‘n’ tug, created scam companies, and was a generally violent presence in the neighborhood for years. He was in juvie twice during the show, perhaps more beforehand. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that it would have been more surprising if Mickey didn’t get locked up at some point than that he did.

2.      Ian has visited Mickey before. We won’t get too deeply into this yet, but he thanks Ian for “coming back.” The other times, he wasn’t even paid to do it. So, as far as Mickey can tell, nothing has changed. Ian is focusing on himself right now, but his love for Mickey hasn’t dulled at all. That’s an encouraging thought, and it certainly puts a smile on Mickey’s face.

3.      Ever the opportunist and entrepreneur, Mickey really is doing just fine in prison. He runs a business, if you will, that appears to be quite lucrative already. This isn’t surprising either. Sadly, it’s a bad move. He’s already going to be in prison for somewhere around a decade, give or take a couple of years depending on his behavior. But his behavior isn’t good. He’s hurting people for money, and if he gets caught and brought up on more charges, not only will he serve the full fifteen years, but he could get more time added onto that.

4.      Ian is aware of this arrangement. He has to be if he’s been going there with Svetlana, and they weren’t exactly hiding what they were talking about. Ian has been very consistent throughout the series: he’s not as concerned with the moral implications of Mickey’s behavior, just how it could potentially impact their ability to be together. He still cares about Mickey at the start of s6, and Mickey can see it on his face when he won’t say it out loud. (More on that shortly.) Once he’s in a better spot mentally, maybe they would have gotten back together had Mickey been on the outside. I’m of the opinion that they would have based on the context of the situation. It isn’t an option, however. This is Mickey’s reality, and he’s not doing everything he can to get out earlier. If anything, he’s tempting fate on not being released at all. (This, in hindsight, sounds rather similar to the issues they’re dealing with right now in s11.)

So, this is where Mickey stands at the start of the season: a prison hitman who is quite pleased that the man he loves has come to see him again, even if the latter is visibly not in a very healthy mental state.

Starting Season 6: Ian

Ian isn’t in most of 6x01. What we do see of him is typically sad or colored by his frustration, outside Carl’s welcome home party at the end of the episode. Even then, there’s an aura of discomfort that accompanies the family’s knowledge that things have changed. Carl came out of juvie a different person—they’re all different people after s5, and they’re not sure how to handle walking on eggshells around each other.

From the very start of the episode, we see that Ian is still struggling even though he’s had enough time to at least partially adjust to his medication, especially if he’s been on and off of it. It’s so sweet how Fiona gently wakes him up—it’s also a bit different. What happened to banging on the bunk bed and yelling for them to come down for breakfast? After behaving pretty normally with Debbie at the bathroom door, she’s almost handling him with kid gloves, and the punches keep coming when she reminds him that he (1) has to get up for work at a place he despises and (2) needs to remember to take his meds.

The kitchen scene is extremely telling of where Ian is at this point, and it partially shows why he’s somewhat standoffish by the time we reach the prison scene. Most of the family is gone or different. Fiona is repeatedly on him about meds and getting to work on time—Ian, Mister Responsible himself who was out of the house before anybody woke up to get to work on time as a kid. Lip is at college. Debbie is absorbed in her unconfirmed but likely pregnancy. Carl is in juvie, and Liam is playing with the switchblade he found under Carl’s pillow before they take him to pre-K. His entire support system is either gone or treating him like he’s broken. All he has is Fiona “going Fiona” on everyone. It’s clear that this is impacting him because he actually derails the conversation to say that they should go visit Carl the following weekend, which was the position Debbie used to be in when Fiona was in jail. Just like Lip shut her down, Debbie shuts Ian down, and he doesn’t say another word as he drinks his coffee—which he can’t finish because Fiona is once again on him about work, so he trudges out the door to another day of being a busboy with no dreams instead of a soldier who has a future.

Work isn’t much better. Svetlana wants him to go see Mickey when he’s determined to stay away. (We don’t have confirmation, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that he wants to distance himself if Mickey is doing something that will potentially get him into even more trouble, especially given some of his reactions at the prison.) Sean is sending Fiona to nag him about not moving fast enough when the diner isn’t even busy. When Otis is chased down by the cops and slammed against the front window, Sean rather condescendingly tells him to, “take your rag and wipe the blood and snot off the window.” Ian—West Point-aspiring, ambitious, courageous, caring, intelligent, hardworking Ian has been reduced to wiping up someone’s snot by a boss who’s living in his house with a sister that’s treating him like he’s shattered glass and a family that is growing further and further apart these days.

That is the day Ian has had before he even arrives at the prison. Odds are that that is how most of his days have gone for quite some time, minus the blood and snot. …Maybe.

The Prison Scene

Now we come to it: what you actually asked about! It’s taken this long to get here because we can’t possibly interpret this scene effectively without incorporating all of what came before it. Mickey’s position is regrettable, but he knows that Ian still loves him and is at least handling his situation with all the grace and competence that we can expect from him. Ian is a bit of a mess who’s had a bad day and is now faced with the man he loves, who he is telling himself he can’t be with, sitting behind glass—where he’ll be for a good long while.

I’m going to divide this analysis into two sections. For a scene that many prefer to forget, to me, it’s a masterpiece of storytelling.

Physicality

The body language in this scene is remarkable—phenomenally blocked, phenomenally directed, and phenomenally portrayed.

When Mickey first appears, he’s visibly chomping at the bit to get to the visitation area. He’s peering out there while he’s still behind a locked door, and he only diverts his gaze to the guard because he’s waiting for him to unlock it. He’s cool about the whole thing—he’s very cool—but he’s obviously also here for one reason and one reason only. That reason is where his eyes go the moment he sits down at his stall and spots Ian’s coat where the latter is pacing behind Svetlana. Throughout their entire conversation, we see his eyes darting to Ian as he attempts to get the business out of the way so that he can indulge purely in the pleasure. It doesn’t matter to him that Ian is visibly tired and reluctant to be there or that he plays with Yevgeny instead of actively joining their conversation. It’s Ian, and all Mickey has to look at in here is a bunch of fellow thugs he hasn’t loved since he was too young to know what that meant. Damn right, he’s going to shamelessly watch him.

In Ian’s pacing, where we can’t see his face, I find it interesting that he keeps himself angled away from the glass. We see more of his back even though he’s moving side to side rather than away. He doesn’t want to see this. He doesn’t want to be there. In s7, he told Mickey how hard it was to see him behind glass—that wasn’t an excuse. He wasn’t falsely trying to make it sound like he was suffering at their separation just as much as Mickey was. We can see that that’s the case right here in 6x01. Ian has never had a problem sitting still through difficult moments, not even when a potential court martial that would further ruin his life was on the table. But this? He can’t sit down. He can’t face that.

The first time he turns directly towards Mickey’s location is so that Svetlana can hand Yevgeny off to him, and Mickey is visibly loving the view. His expression gets a bit softer, and he ducks his head a little so that he can catch a glimpse of Ian’s face. He follows Ian with his eyes even though Svetlana tries to get his attention. What a blast from the past, right? Ian there with his son, taking care of him while he and Svetlana figure out their business? And just like before, he offers Svetlana all of the attention and input that he deems her worth—next to nothing. Ian’s over there. Ian’s keeping the kid entertained, playing with him and rocking a bit in their seat and leaning over his little shoulder to make sure he’s doing okay—but forget that, Mickey’s eyes are examining him from red hair to beat-up shoes. He only glances back to Svetlana because he has to in order to get the information for their next paycheck. Even then, he’s still back and forth, up and down.

And Ian? He can’t keep pacing. He can’t stay turned away, but he won’t look. He occupies himself more than Yevgeny because now he’s low enough that he won’t just see an orange jumpsuit—he’ll see Mickey, and he’s had a bad enough day with his family making him feel more alone than ever without adding that pain on top of it. (This is the third time Mickey’s been locked up for something directly or indirectly related to Ian. I’m sure it’s not unreasonable to suspect that he also feels somewhat guilty about that, especially when it happened right after he broke it off.)

When Mickey asks if Ian is going to sit back there the whole time and not interact with him, Svetlana turns around and presumably says something to get his attention. Their eyes meet, and Mickey gives him a look that clearly says, “What the fuck, man?” This isn’t the behavior of a man who is heartbroken at their relationship ending or questioning Ian’s love for him. This is the behavior of a man who wants the love of his life to get his shit together enough to come say hi to him—or at least look at him—because he can’t pretend that he doesn’t want to see Mickey as much as Mickey wants to see him. It’s impossible to hide that when Ian has let Mickey see so much of his heart over the years.

Ian’s response is so fascinating because he does meet Mickey’s eyes, and he holds that connection for a moment. Then, reading what Mickey is trying to tell him, he actually turns further away again so that Mickey gets his shoulder. This sets the stage for the rest of Ian’s development from now through s9. He’s doing what Ian does: he’s compartmentalizing. He’s taking the emotions he can’t deal with right now, wrapping them in tissue paper, and neatly stacking them in a box that he’ll put up in the attic where he can pretend they don’t exist. But they do. They really do.

If they didn’t, he wouldn’t have spent their entire conversation trying so hard to focus on literally anything but Mickey, because as we saw in the Hall of Shame flashbacks and as has been obvious since their first fight-turned-fuck, once they look, the battle is lost.

Dialogue

I’m going to be real with you guys: I adore this scene. I’ve watched it more times than I can count even though I haven’t rewatched much of the season in its entirety. There was so much said with so few words, and while I was sad at the end, I was also hopeful. This was an impossible position to be put in on both sides, and I truly believe that this was the best resolution they could get at the time. And yes, it hurt. It was painful. But why was it painful?

Because they’re so visibly, obviously, irrevocably in love.

Mickey’s tone when he tells Svetlana to leave because he wants to talk to Ian isn’t as harsh as it’s been for the rest of their visit. There’s such a disconnect between his words and tone: roughly telling her to scram while actually sounding a bit younger at the idea of speaking directly with Ian. Svetlana could tell. It’s so clear, and her smirk is super knowing. In that moment, we’re seeing the woman who stood in the doorway of what was supposed to be her bedroom and watched him make eyes at this unconscious boy she didn’t really even remember. Not in the tears and realizing she was in big, big trouble if he left her, but in the understanding that his heart isn’t in the body on the other side of the glass—it’s sitting behind her. There are a lot of things I don’t like about Svetlana as a person (as a character, she’s amazing), but since they reached their agreement in s4, she’s never had a derogatory thing to say about the love those two share, and I respect that. It’s actually a bit cute how she takes her time and is almost teasing in giving him what he wants. A bit.

As I have this scene running on repeat so that I don’t miss anything in writing this, I paused to type and ended up on such a meaningful glance at Ian’s face. Svetlana just took Yevgeny from him, and he hasn’t gotten up yet. He’s staring straight at Mickey, and he looks hesitant. Scared, almost. Then he looks up at Svetlana, nods a bit, and reluctantly moves into her spot.

Is it overkill to take this one exchange at a time? Probably. Am I going to do it anyway? Hell to the yes.

1.      “Thanks for coming back.”/”Yeah… Svetlana paid me.” – I know that people hate this line and think this is painful. I know that it objectively is painful. I still laugh every time. Not because Ian agreed to come if he was paid. (He’s got medication to afford and no insurance. I can’t begrudge him wanting to make a few extra bucks any way he can.) Not because of the words, but because of what accompanies them. Ian will not look at Mickey—he’s lost so many battles lately, and he can’t lose this one too. Not when he started this one himself. He’s hemming and hawing, not looking up from the countertop and then twisting around to see if Svetlana is still there or anyone else is listening. It’s so stupid, because literally no one cares, but it gives you this sensation that Ian sees himself as being under a microscope the whole time. That’s his life anymore, at home and at work and now here. And Mickey? He doesn’t look terribly broken up about Ian accepting payment in exchange for coming. He gets this expression that I interpreted as, “Seriously? You’re playing it like that?” Then it settles into disappointment that Ian won’t open up or look at him like he normally would—that the glass interferes with the magnetic pull between them. But don’t worry, children. Uncle Mickey has just the thing to fix that: himself.

2.      “You look good.”/*awkward silence* – I mean…what do you say to that? I actually felt so bad for Ian there because what must he have looked like these last visits if Mickey is telling him that he looks good now? What kind of mess was he then when he’s still sort of a mess today? And he can’t even return the sentiment because how can he? Mickey is in prison. He’s in a jumpsuit looking at being here so long that he’ll probably have a few grey hairs starting to grow in when he gets out. I don’t know how to respond when people tell me I look good on an average day, so I can only imagine how that must have felt in his position. And still, he won’t do more than glance in Mickey’s direction. Well, if that didn’t work…

3.      Mickey chuckles and says he got a new tattoo. Ian’s eyes immediately shoot upwards, and Mickey slouches a little so that he’s in their direct line of sight—to hold them there, because once they look, the battle is lost. And Ian does lose. For a while there, he can’t look away again. First, because Mickey is courting some pretty nasty illnesses with his improper use of needles. Seriously, Mickey, a beautiful gesture but holy crap. Second, Mickey has his name (or a very close approximation to it) tattooed forever right over his heart. Ian had asked if Mickey was going to marry him, and Mickey told him to fuck off, but everything he’s doing points in the opposite direction. He promised sickness and health; now he’s made a permanent mark on his body for everyone to see. Mickey, who wouldn’t be seen in public with him once upon a time, has plastered Ian’s name onto his body. Ian tries so hard not to let that impact him, but it’s over. He’s lost the battle already, and he falls further and further. He’s smiling when he tells Mickey it looks infected, he teases him about the misspelling (which I think says more about how much that tattoo must have hurt than any inability to spell on Mickey’s part—I’d have a typo too), and he laughs at Mickey’s irritation that he messed it up. And it’s this sweet little laugh, not cruel or hurtful or mean. The wonderful thing about humor is that it can be used to cope with difficult emotions. We’ve seen a lot of people on the show start laughing when they’re in a bad place. Ian has been trying so hard to accept his life as it is even during the shitty day he was having. He tried so hard not to let himself fall into the trap of letting his love for Mickey rule his actions in the scene so far. That’s a lot. That’s denying himself to the point where I’m sure it hurts. And so he laughs, because Mickey did this crazy, absurd thing for him and yeah, it came out wrong, but he did it. This was all Ian wanted once upon a time (minus the felony), and now he has it—but he can’t have it. So he laughs. He immediately moves to hide it, but he laughs. He smiles more and has to bend away to pretend that he’s not—and Mickey lights up like a goddamn Christmas tree. This is the moment that keeps me from seeing this scene or Ian’s actions as being cruel. They’re both hurting, and this is an awful position to be in. But Ian loves him so much, and Mickey was doing everything he could to make him show it. Not exactly how he saw that going, I’m sure, but he’ll take it.

4.      “Been thinking about you.” – Knowing that he lost that one, Ian looks away again. While the end of this scene will hurt for both of them, especially Mickey, think about the pain he must be feeling in that moment simply because he’s not. He’s not hurting. For the first time that day, he feels good. This can’t last. Mickey isn’t coming home with him when time is up. This wonderful emotion that filled him up enough for him to laugh and smile after such a bad day will be gone the second he hangs up that phone. Then he’s going to go home and have Fiona breathing down his neck with nobody else for support. And Mickey will be here—behind glass. He can’t handle that, and he pulls that box out again and starts tearing off the tissue paper. He has to get rid of this feeling. He has to be the one to put it away before it kicks him to the curb. He’s stubborn, and Mickey can see him shutting down but also knows that he’s knocked enough bricks out of Ian’s walls to say something softer, something emotional and closer to the heart. Something he is willing to say where the other inmates can hear, which I don’t think is lost on Ian since he immediately looks up again. He doesn’t look away either, not even when Mickey asks if Ian thinks about him. He glances to the side and opens his mouth a bit, but nothing comes out. Mickey knows the answer.

5.      “Gonna wait for me?”/”You’re here for fifteen years.” – There’s this thing Mickey does after he first says that. He chuckles, because he knows that that’s pretty unreasonable to ask and has already predicted Ian’s response. His comment about being out in eight is lighthearted, a serious matter spoken as a joke because…this isn’t juvie anymore. They’re not going to see each other in a few months. This is Mickey’s version of what Ian was just doing, only where Ian tried to withdraw and escape within himself, Mickey is making it more humorous. He’s always done that, make light of pretty serious things to avoid looking at just how messed up it is. But I didn’t get the feeling he was really asking for Ian to wait that long. Instead, I got the feeling that he was testing the waters, seeing if Ian would shut him down—which he didn’t. He offered the bullshit excuse that Mickey tried to kill a member of his family, and Mickey saw through that immediately. I think he knows that he can’t ask Ian to seriously wait and never be with anyone else for fifteen years, or even for eight. I think he knows what he’s saying is a touch absurd. He also knows that Ian’s excuse is extremely absurd, and he doesn’t buy it for a second. It gives him a little courage to do something…well, a bit absurd.

6.      “Will you? Wait? Fucking lie if you have to, man. Eight years is a long time.” – I think the important part of this isn’t that Ian says he’ll wait when he doesn’t mean it, which is the popular take. For one thing, I don’t think we can ascribe that level of calculated behavior to Ian in this instance. There are a few things about this part of the scene that mean a lot to me: (1) Ian doesn’t get up and go. He doesn’t even move in that direction. He sits there with the phone after the buzzer sounds and before Mickey tells him to lie. His mouth opens and closes like he’s not sure what to say. Because what can he say? If Mickey serves the maximum, Ian will be in his mid-thirties by the time they can be together. At that point, he was either nearing eighteen or just turned. I still can’t fathom what I’ll be doing in my mid-thirties, and I’m a whole lot older than that. Ian looks just a little terrified here, and that’s because he knows he loves Mickey but has no clue what he’s supposed to do with that in the impossible circumstances they’re operating under. (2) Ian can’t even see himself moving on yet. He’s still trying to figure himself out, not think about a relationship. He has a job he hates, and his family is a different brand of chaos these days. He feels alone, yes, but not in a way that has him openly desperate for a relationship. Based on what he says to Mandy about Caleb, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he doesn’t think he’ll ever be in a serious relationship at this point or even in a position for more than casual sex anytime in the near future. How can he say that he’ll wait when he doesn’t know where he’ll be whenever Mickey does get out? Maybe he’ll feel better. Maybe he’ll be out of his mind, roaming all over the place like Monica. Maybe he won’t just be standing on that bridge. It’s a huge question, one that has a lot of ramifications no matter what his answer is, and Ian clearly has none. He’s blindsided by that, which Mickey sees. That’s when he gets serious about those eight years, about how absurd their situation really is. That’s perhaps the first and only time in this scene where we can see that, for as successful as he is at navigating prison, his freedom means something to him. His freedom means he wouldn’t have to coax a glance out of Ian—he could kiss his dumb ass and make him stop being stubborn about how much he loves Mickey. But he can’t. He won’t be able to for a long time. And I think that is what really breaks his heart in this scene, not…

7.      “Yeah. Yeah, Mick, I’ll wait.” – Did anyone else notice how Ian swallowed hard before he answered? How his voice gets hoarse when he first speaks? I paused again to type, and the video is sitting on his face staring at the counter before the second part of what he says. He looks like he might cry. He looks like his heart is breaking just as much as Mickey’s is, because he can do what he’s asking this time—reassure him with a lie. Not because he doesn’t intend to wait, but because he is buried so far under what life has piled on top of him that he can’t see the light these days, and he doesn’t see waiting or moving on. He just sees the daily struggle of being this shell of a person. Of being without Mickey even if they’re not technically together. (Admittedly, I think he knew they would be if Mickey weren’t in prison at that moment. Ian has no real self-control where he’s concerned. Lip told him as much, and he’s self-aware enough to realize it, hence his behavior in this whole scene.)

When Ian hangs up the phone, he doesn’t get up immediately. He looks at Mickey—really looks at him—and each of them watches the other’s heart shatter. I don’t see it the way a lot of people do, though. On Mickey’s side, I don’t see it as being because Ian lied. I think it’s so much bigger than that.

Ian looks at him when they can’t hear each other anymore, and if he didn’t seem ready to cry before, he looks it now. Why? Because there’s nothing he can do for Mickey besides that. Ian, ever the giver, can’t give him anything. At that point, he couldn’t even help himself. He can’t be what Mickey needs in that moment, just like he couldn’t be what Mickey needed while he was sick, and it kills him. It kills him to know that by the time Mickey does get out, he’ll be older than he can fathom being and has no idea if he’ll even be around that long. It kills him to feel like even if he is, he’ll still have nothing to offer because, in his own words, this is where he lands. And it kills him to have to walk away and leave what he loves most behind glass.

Mickey is watching this. He knows Ian, and as painful as it was to get exactly what he asked for, it’s even more painful for him to see what him being here does to Ian. Where Ian is a giver, Mickey is a fixer. He makes things better. When stuff is broken, he puts it back together. When there’s a problem, he resolves it. Ian was going to leave because he couldn’t be an unacknowledged number three in Mickey’s life anymore? He jumped to solve the problem by coming out. Ian was acting strangely and wouldn’t get out of bed for so long that Mickey realized something was wrong? He immediately went to hunt down Lip, who he knows is closer to Ian than anyone else in his family. Fiona tells him that Ian is sick and needs to be cared for? He jumps in to do it, even to the point where it did more harm than good. Sammi caused a problem that Mickey couldn’t solve? He fixed the problem of her being there at all. But here he sits, behind glass, watching Ian that whole time and knowing that he was trying to maintain some emotional distance—and, because it’s Mickey, knowing why. There’s nothing he can do about this. He can’t fix it. For the first time since s3, Mickey is absolutely helpless to fix a problem. He takes a breath as Ian walks away as though he’s about to say something, but what can he say? What can he do? Nothing. He can do nothing but hang up the phone and weather the storm.

In the end, the heartbreak in this scene isn’t about them hurting each other, from my perspective. It’s not about Ian being callous and cruel or purposely trying to hurt Mickey. They know each other too well for that. They’ve been through too much. To me, this is about two people who love each other more than anything not being able to be what the other needed when they needed them—and that’s a whole lot more painful.

#shameless meta #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich

[themuzzleofnemesis]

3–Memory of the Four Seasons; Scene 12

The Muzzle of Nemesis, pages 138-147

--It was still snowing.

I continued to watch it through the gaps in the cherry blossom tree’s branches, laying on my back on the ground.

“You’ll catch a cold sleeping in a place like that,” someone said to me, and I gradually sat up.

I had hoped that was Shakuson’s voice, but naturally it wouldn’t be.

It was a man wearing glasses…Someone I had never seen before.

“Are you looking for someone?” he asked me.

I honestly replied, “…Shakuson. My boyfriend.”

His corpse was nowhere to be seen.

Maybe he survived—

But that fragile hope was immediately dashed by the man before me.

“If you mean his dead body, I put it back in his room. I couldn’t have someone finding it, after all. I’d just gotten back to carry you away too. And then you woke up.”

I didn’t cry again. I had cried so much that my tears had already dried up.

More than that, several questions were welling up inside my mind.

First—who was this man?

This man who was so calm despite knowing that I had killed Shakuson.

And another one…How was I alive?

I put a hand on my temple where I had shot myself.

“…Ow.”

There was definitely a wound there.

But it wasn’t bleeding.

…What in the world…

The man reached out a hand in response to my confusion.

“I’m sure you have questions for me…But first let’s get back to your room. There fortunately isn’t anyone else around, but—it’s very likely that someone heard the gunshots. It’s best we get away from here before the police run up.”

After saying that, he grabbed my arm and tugged me up to my feet.

.

It was only once we had returned to my room that I truly felt that I was in neither heaven nor hell, but the living world.

“Well then…Shall I now answer your questions, Nemesis?”

The man sat down and lounged on the sofa as though this were his room.

“If you know my real name, then…You must be from the organization after all.”

“Sadly, that is incorrect. I have nothing to do with Pere Noel, PN, or the Dark Star Bureau. However—I have been watching over you up to now.”

“You’ve been spying on me?”

“What an awful way to put it. Didn’t I just tell you I’m not related to the organization?”

“Then just who are you!?” I pressed the man.

“…Hm. Rather than explaining with words—Perhaps it would be faster to show you.”

Directly after he said that—

His body rapidly began to emit light.

“--!?”

I instinctively closed my eyes against its brilliance.

“…”

When I opened them again a short while later, the man was no longer there.

--Or rather, he had changed into a different creature.

“This is…it can’t be…”

It was a single blue octopus.

“…Are you Mr. Ziz?”

And then I heard a voice speak directly into my mind.

It wasn’t the “other me” I would usually hear. It belonged to the same man as before.

<This form has its share of difficulties. I can’t directly converse with you like I was doing just now. So that’s why I have to speak to you in your mind like this>

“Mr. Ziz…you survived.”

<Indeed. That old sorcerer got me good. A normal octopus would have undoubtedly frozen to death if made to suffer such nonsense as being frozen inside a lake. I managed to pull through, but it took a great deal of time for me to recover to how I had been before>

Mr. Ziz’ body once more began to glow.

And then he returned to his form of the bespectacled man.

“—Right. Yes, this one is better for talking.”

“Is that…your true form?”

So Mr. Ziz’ true identity hadn’t been an octopus, but a human—

But he shook his head. “No. My true form is neither an octopus nor is it a human being.”

And then he changed shape again.

This time—he was a small, golden key.

<This is my true form>

“A key…So you aren’t even a living thing?”

<The name of this key is “Grim the End”. In the ancient era two people called the “Twins of God” unleased into the world seven vessels with demons inside—this is one of them. From time to time Grim the End will change its shape into various forms. A knife, poison…sometimes even an octopus or a person. However, as it’s really an inorganic substance, it has no will of its own>

“…Then that means you talking to me right now are—”

<A demon dwelling inside one of those seven vessels—popularly called a “Vessel of Deadly Sin”. In other words, I am--> He once more changed from key to human. “—The ‘Demon of Wrath’ who resides in Grim the End. Demons have no physical bodies in the living world. And on the other hand, vessels have no will. When you join the two together—I can become a conscious person like this.”

--If I hadn’t had any talent in magic, and if I hadn’t heard the voice of the “will of the forest”, I wouldn’t have been able to believe what he was telling me at all.

But since “magic” and the “will of the forest” truly existed—then there was nothing unusual about there being “demons” in the world.

“Mr. Ziz—My mother was the one who gave you to me. …So then, was this all by her instigation?”

“No, she didn’t know my true identity. She had bought me at the marketplace thinking I was a simple octopus. –Though it is because I knew that she was looking to buy a pet octopus for her daughter that I infiltrated that market.”

“Why would you go to all that trouble to—”

“Let’s just say that I was ordered to by a certain someone—I’ll reiterate to be clear, but I have no connection to that organization. A demon can’t be ordered around by the likes of a normal human being, now can they?”

“…”

There are beings in this world that would try to protect me, that I cannot see—that was what the “will of the forest” had told me.

Mr. Ziz put a hand on my shoulder, and grinned at me.

“Well, I hope we can work well together from here on out. Though you may know my true identity now, there’s no need to go recklessly worshipping me or anything like that. You can treat me as you did before this point.”

“I’ve no intention of sinking so low that I start worshipping a demon.”

“Is that right? I’d still appreciate at least a little gratitude. It’s thanks to me—that you wound up not dying, after all.”

Yes—there was that.

How I was alive, despite having been shot in the head?

“You mean this is by the power of a demon?” I asked him, pointing to the wound on my temple.

“Not a power so much as—it might be better to call it a ‘Rule’ established by the gods. ‘Those who have contracted with a demon can only be killed by another contractor’…So it goes. By all rights you can’t commit suicide. Though well, it’s a different matter if your physical body were to be completely erased from this world.”

“I have no memory of contracting with a demon.”

“—That Christmas night when I first went to your house…Didn’t you have a dream?”

“A dream? …It was so long ago I’ve already forgotten.”

“That night, I spoke to you in your dream. I asked you to ‘become friends with me’. And you agreed.”

“…That’s a ‘contract’!? What nonsense!”

“Whatever you think, that night a contract was established.”

“A contract! But not a valid one!” I yelled.

Mr. Zis sighed regretfully. “If you really insist then I’ll respect your wishes. But—don’t you still need my power yet?”

“…I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“Then let me ask you this. What do you intend to do now?”

“—I…wanted to die. Along with Shakuson. I would probably just try to do so again.”

“Are you really fine with that? Living while set adrift by the people around you only to helplessly give up and run away from this world—If you died now, that would be the sum total of your life. Isn’t that wretched? Don’t you have any regrets!”

Mr. Ziz raised his voice.

Were his words the whisperings of a demon?

Or—the advice of a friend?

“I don’t know…What I should…do…”

“Nemesis…The weak you is the one who died just now. From this moment on will be your true life.”

“…”

“You don’t have to come to a conclusion right away. What you do now is up to you.”

Mr. Ziz once more began to glow.

I closed my eyes, and when I had opened them again—

There was a single mask…and a single golden bullet.

“…What’s this?”

<This mask form is the closest to my proper self. Being an octopus or a human’s not too bad, but this is more comfortable. And that bullet—It’s a fragment of Grim the End that has been divided off>

“So you can do that…”

<Since you have skill in handling a gun, I’ll give you this bullet as a present. You are free to choose whether you shoot it at someone or not>

“A demon…bullet.”

<Shoot it at those who you think to be the most “evil” to you. You will always kill them, no matter what kind of person they are. –Even if this person is a “demon contractor”>

“…But if what you’re saying is true, then aren’t I already a ‘demon contractor’? And so I should be able to kill other contractors even without using this bullet, right?”

<Naturally. But in that case, you and your foe would be on equal footing. There’s a chance you would have the tables turned on you. This is a “power” that helps avert that. A power separate from the “Demon of Wrath”, one that exists inside Grim the End itself>

In other words, by obtaining both the power of the “demon” and the “vessel” together, I had an advantage over other contractors.

A bullet that could kill a demon contractor—

“If…I were to shoot this at myself, what would happen?”

<Your body would be destroyed. Earlier I said you couldn’t commit suicide, but in the event that you’re using Grim the End that’s an exception. It’s a vessel that specializes in killing demons, after all>

“…”

<Grim the End has no will. But it is “alive”. That’s why it’s able to take on the shape of living creatures. In that sense you could say that Grim the End is a unique type of “contractor”>

“And another ‘contractor’ would be able to kill me…I see.”

<I pray that you will not use it on yourself. I’m being earnest>

“I got it…Thank you. I’ll—think about it a little.”

I picked up the mask and the bullet, and set them down on the desk.

--Frankly there was so much to process that I couldn’t keep it straight in my mind.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[dinrelsanddragons]

A drabble I wrote in early December. Takes place prior to Twilight Princess.

In her little dress, Noel carefully peered around the corner, hoping no one would see her. In truth, several people saw her, but not the two she meant to avoid, for they were quite distracted with each other.

Mama. Papa.

It had been a while since they had talked. Vair hadn't come home for a week now, choosing instead to sleep in the barracks with the other knights. Shanzira couldn't fathom why he would do this– she hadn't done anything, not a thing in years, that would drive him away from her. After first realizing her attractions to him, she'd attentively noted his dislikes so as to avoid them.

"Vair?"

Even as she approached, on those ginger tiptoes that pointed inward with anxiety, she feared this wasn't going to go well. "Vair, please talk to me. What's wrong?" In his years of experience at his post, Vair knew how to ignore distractions and focus on his job. Never before, however, had that distraction been so personal– his wife, the mother of his daughter, his beloved. On the verge of tears, at that. He didn't know what to say, and it was only the thought of his duty that kept his expression straight.

Shanzira gave him a few seconds for good measure. She wondered if he needed a moment to compose what to say to the wife he had been avoiding. But that seemed not to be the case; he seemed intent on shunning her as if they'd never met. "What did I do, Vair? What's going on? Noel misses you." Not returning to the arms of his wife meant not seeing his daughter. His eyes flicked to a corner, around which he could just see a tinge of red hair– oh, goddesses, the girl had followed her mother here. In truth, Vair didn't know what to do. Avoiding Shanzira had been the simplest solution to his problem, but a temporary one, apparently.

He wondered how 'temporary' this marriage was to be.

His wife was under investigation. They had met on the field of battle years ago, Vair saving Shanzira from the horde of monsters and gifting her his halberd for her own protection. But there were absolutely no records of her existence prior to that. None of residence, none of birth, not even gossip about a red-haired, round-eared woman. Anywhere.

He had wondered how this had not been apparent before. How it was that this literal nobody had been able to create an existence for herself, a comfortable life in a crucial position– married to one of the king's guards. She had never spoken of her past, but focused solely on the present. Never of the future, though. Vair had been the one to bring it up, when he had proposed to her. He had never once thought to look the other way...

She had crafted the perfect position for a spy. That was the king's fear. Vair was the perfect conduit to receive information about the royalty from. He was careful never to repeat any sensitive information he accidentally overheard, and he thought he had vetted Shanzira for any sign of a volatile temperament.

In truth, he couldn't imagine her to be anything but who she said she was, who he had seen her be. An artist, a wife, a mother, a storyteller...

"Vair, can't you even look at me?" Her voice shivered with grief from what felt like some distance away as he was in his thoughts, despite there not being so much as a foot of distance between them. A small hand rose up as if to touch his face, but pulled back quickly, as Shanzira feared what his boundaries on the job might be. "Please stop this. Please come home. Talk to me again. Spend time with your daughter, let her see her playmate again."

Zelda. Goddesses, the princess and Vair's daughter got along like two peas in a pod. Shanzira would recite stories to them and the children would listen attentively, mesmerized by every word. Those stories were laced with information only the royals could have known, was what the king told Vair. Shanzira knew such facets and details that it was as if she had personally lived through those events... Vair had had to choose where his loyalties truly lay, and they were with the king. But it was a painful choice to make, and every night he had lost hours of sleep thinking, wondering: Had he been right? Should he have protested further the king's decision? To do so would have been to risk his livelihood... but now he risked his heart.

Out of the corner of his eye, Vair witnessed tears snaking down his wife's face. He had only that brief moment of warning before she turned around and began to sob, unable to stand looking at his face anymore. She tugged her hood over her face and exited, walking briskly to the point that the now-apparent Noel had to run to keep up.

From behind the door Vair guarded, he faintly heard something. If he had to take a guess, it was a deep sigh... from none other than the king himself.

He felt a twinge in his chest. Even the king had his regrets. Perhaps, then, he would be willing to listen to reason, assuming the investigation bore no fruit that would incriminate Shanzira. Perhaps traces of an idyllic past could be brought up, but from what Vair had been able to tell, there was simply nothing to find. As if she had sprung into existence on the day they'd met.

A cry rent him from his thoughts. A child's wail, filled with pain. His child's wail. "Paaapaaaa! Want Papaaaa! Mama, pleeeeeease!"

He closed his eyes, gently as he could when he was so aggrieved. Tears streamed down. Would that his uniform had the luxury of a hood like his wife had, that he could have hidden them...

PART 2

For over a week, Shanzira had been unable to bring herself to put pen to parchment. Inspiring as emotions could be– even the negative– there was nothing artistic about what she felt. She could not continue to write her stories– she had no motivation when she had only Noel to tell them to– and she had thrown out every charcoal sketch she had thus far made. There was nothing to do regarding her work but place her head to her desk and try not to cry. If she hadn't had Noel to look after, she might have gone mad. Something about being responsible for another person kept her sanity in check.

As the little one napped in a chamber adjacent to Shanzira's study, she heard a click. The distinct sound of a doorknob turning. Shanzira twisted around in her chair, wondering who it could be. Perhaps someone had arrived with divorce papers. She prayed not. Or she was under arrest. Or something worse yet... As the door began to open, Shanzira leapt to her feet with a hand on the hilt of her dagger, ever prepared to defend herself. Her thoughts went to the halberd displayed on the wall, with a twinge of pain– the same halberd her husband had given her so long ago.

The door swung wide, and Shanzira dropped her arm by her side in shock. How could she have seen this coming, a visit from the king himself? Trembling in fear and anticipating the worst, she hurried to a kneel– praying that a show in sincerity and loyalty would mitigate whatever punishment lay in store for her.

She betrayed a single glance back up, and noted her husband behind him. What was this? What could it be?

"Rise, Lady Shanzira. I would speak with you."

It called back to her youth, of being summoned to authority figures to be scolded and punished. When being in trouble was the worst imaginable fate. Regardless, Shanzira stood back up, unsteady at first but regaining her balance quickly enough. Averting her eyes, she didn't see the king's expression. Nor did she really know his face that well. She had no indication apart from tone of voice of what his intent might be.

"You have presented quite the quandary of late, a quandary that we should have seen long ago. You are the spouse to a royal guard, and on occasion a caretaker of Princess Zelda. Yet there is no information on you prior to five years ago. Your history cannot be tracked by any means imaginable, though prior to now it has not been a problem. Thus you have eluded any kind of investigation... until your role as my daughter's storyteller began."

With that final sentence, a revelation hit Shanzira like a blow from her husband's claymore.

The dazed look on her face must have betrayed her thoughts, as the king cleared his throat before continuing. "Your tales began as fanciful and clearly works of a creative imagination, though at the apparent request of your daughter turned more historical. So historical, in fact, that they hit the nail on the head. They could not be more accurate. Or detailed. Such information has been privy only to members of the royal family until you appeared. You have paid few visits to the royal library, and you could not possibly know the location of the secret library. This was why I ordered my agents to look into your past. I do not like unanswerable questions."

"They have found nothing. There are no records of you, or anyone like you, existing anywhere. Even one so close to you as your own husband and daughter have no inkling of where you came from. My final recourse is to turn directly to you. So, you will tell me... and we will be here as long as it takes to hear the truth out of you."

A silence followed.

Where to begin. Shanzira thought briefly of Noel, still asleep in her crib, and wondered if she might wake before she finished telling her tale. A tale she had no choice but to share, at this point. She chanced a look to Vair's face, over the king's shoulder, and noted a regretful expression, his eyes cast down and to the side and his brows tented.

"I don't know if you'll believe the truth." She wanted to be clear with that. "I hail from a very strange and technologically advanced world, with no magic or monsters. There is but one intelligent species of life. In this world, the world of Hyrule is known but considered entirely fiction. Stories are told from the viewpoint of the hero, of his struggles against evil. They span many different eras and ages. They are stories that I followed intently.

"I didn't know what to think when I awoke on a battlefield, surrounded by monsters. If Vair hadn't been there that day, I would have died without a clue. I did my best to blend in to my environment and say nothing about this bizarre place I came from, or I'd be written off as a madwoman. I was extremely lucky in that the same man who defended me from monsters also found me a place to live and gainful employment. Not to mention, we ended up falling in love and having a kid. I suppose I couldn't have it all for long, though."

Her eyes drifted downward at the last sentence. She didn't believe it likely, even now, that the king would believe her. And Vair, his regretful expression? It could have meant anything.

"So you do not know how you came to be here." The king scratched his chin thoughtfully. Shanzira had definitely explained the cause of her knowledge, but her presence was a mystery. "Very well."

Eh? Shanz risked a glance at his face, but failed to read his expression in the brief time she saw it. "I am not satisfied, but for now, it will be enough. I understand this investigation has caused your husband and you much grief. I will allow you to resume watching over my daughter... if you know Hyrule as if it were a book, then perhaps your knowledge may come in useful."

"Your Majesty," Vair piped up, "does this mean–?"

"Yes, Sir Vair. You may return to the arms of your loving wife."

Oof!

Shanzira almost fell over from the force with which Vair collided into her, one of his arms wrapped tightly around her upper back and the other resting atop her head. Shanz could barely breathe with her face trapped in her husband's chest. She pushed against him just enough to look at his face, and saw radiant joy upon his features, to the point of tears glistening in his eyes.

"I'm never doing that to you again. Never."

Shanz still needed a moment to process it all, but for now... it was welcome to have Vair back.

"He ordered me not to say a word," he explained at the quizzical look on Shanz's face. "He tried to hide the whole thing from me... but I could see you were being watched."

"Indeed." The king almost chuckled, or perhaps scoffed. "He was beside himself when he came to me with his little discovery. I have work to return to."

"Of course, Sire." Vair didn't so much as turn his head to the king, but kept his eyes focused on Shanzira. Silence followed but for the king's footsteps as he exited, and once those faded from earshot, Vair released Shanzira. "I'm so sorry."

She wasn't a hundred percent sure she had forgiven him yet, but... he'd been between a rock and a hard place. If nothing else, Shanz could forget. She raised a hand to rub out the tension between her eyebrows. "I'm still upset over it, but I at least understand. And you might like to know that Noel is asleep right now..."

Vair blinked. "What... does that have to do with this?"

"I will tell you," Shanzira answered lowly. "It has to do with the fact that you're coming with me to the bedroom. And we're going to be there for a bit while you pay me back for over a week of loneliness..."

#Out of Claymores

[seithrveined]

                                        Judgement Day

          Where was he?

     Isola...? No, this is a different island. Much smaller, more condensed-- the scenery was all too different. There wasn’t a place like this on the island he should be on.

          Why was he here?

     It was like a dream... He arrived here with no warning, no sudden snap of reality shifting around him. He was simply here... But his mind was quickly growing dull.

          What was going on?

     His movements were slow, staggered... But it wasn’t exhaustion overtaking him, nor an outside force hindering his movements or thought process. Perhaps that was only a half-truth, though...

          Why was his Azure Grimoire activated?

          “This is...! Why now...?!“

     The power that had been kept dormant for over a year was finally breaking whatever seals had been placed on it-- but it wasn’t stopping there. The Azure Grimoire was bypassing all of the restrictions of his own making, the red veins glowing brighter with each passing second. The Reaper was mindlessly walking forward, all of his focus being directed to his right arm. He can hear it so clearly... that damned heartbeat ringing in his ears-- the ringing of a massive, powerful beast.

     So far the crowd wasn’t paying him any attention. They were all blissfully unaware of what was happening, none realizing the danger they were in. His breathing steadily grew more intense, his feet threatening to give way any moment now. A few faces of the crowd eventually took notice of his abnormal walking, but weren’t sure if they should even bother him.

          ”Ghh-- away... go away...!” His warning was hardly more than a weak whisper-- even talking felt like it would distract him too much. A painful vibration shot out from his arm, enough to make him stumble and crash up against the nearest wall. The searing hot pain that crawled across his arm threatened to completely numb out his mind, the corruption of the Grimoire spreading more across his body.

     Why now? Why did this have to happen now...?! The pain was too unbearable for him to remain silent now, a pained roar tearing through his throat and making the crowd around him panic. The unknown faces were finally sensing that something was off... but none dared to approach the man screaming his head off in pain, not even to check and see if he was doing alright. But eventually, one figure was bold enough to step forward... and plant his foot right onto the Reaper’s back, knocking him over as a mad cackle followed.

          ”Ghahaha! Look at the sad little puppy, can’t even handle his own toy!”

     He didn’t even need to look and see who that was-- only one name came to mind to match that insufferable voice... Yuuki Terumi. Ragna could only glare daggers over at his nemesis, still on the floor while trying to not break his focus.

          ”-- Piece of shit...! You bastard...!”

          “Oh god, you look so damn pathetic, Rags! You’ve been off your fix for so long, now you can’t even handle the rush! Shit, I wish I had a camera for this!” The hooded figure continued to cackle, stepping closer in order to plant his foot against the other’s right arm, now coated in red and black seithr-- even outside of the coat sleeve. “That just proves how weak you’ve gotten! You can’t protect a damn thing anymore! A weakling like you needs that power... It’s the only reason you even had a chance to go toe-to-toe with a God!”

     Bullshit... That was all bullshit! That damn voice, he needed to shut it up...! The heartbeat against his ears, the violent vibrations of his arm, that taunting voice-- it all needed to go away, down into the void of darkness...!

          “Too much to handle~? That’s just to be expected of some trash human-- no, less than human! You don’t even qualify as a human, let alone a mutt! That sounds familiar to another piece of trash... don’t ya think?“

     In a dark flash, the snake was finally silenced by a powerful fist sending him off-- right into the nearest building. Finally the crowd began to panic, recognizing that their safety was in jeopardy. The Reaper’s arm was glowing more brightly, red lines growing more across his skin.

          ”S̸h̶u̸t̵ ̷u̵p̴!̵!̷ ̶S̶t̶o̸p̶ ̶t̸a̴l̵k̴i̷n̴g̸,̸ ̶s̶t̶o̸p̸ ̷i̴t̶.̴.̷.̸!̶”

     The voice was gone... was he silenced? Would he attack soon? There should have been an attack, yet nothing came... instead, a new voice came in-- a much more... sickly sweet voice, laced with a twisted kind of comfort.

          ”Ah, Ragna...? You’re finally embracing it, huh~? But you’re doing it without me... That’s not fair!” The Reaper panicked, looking around to spot the 13th Murakumo Unit floating down to greet him. The city’s alarms were starting to go off, but all he could focus on was the danger before him... the danger of her twisted smile.

          ”But that’s okay, Nu can forgive you... Nu understands, having all that pent up energy, so desperate to release it...! But you know it’s better to have someone join you, right~? Why do it alone when Nu is right here...?”

     The heartbeat in his ears wasn’t from his own Grimoire-- this was the Heart, and he was merely the Body. The heartbeat only grew faster now, stronger than before... Yet the Reaper simply cried out again, both hands gripping his head as he tried to drown it all out-- all the unnecessary noise. It all needed to go away... The snake, the heart, the corruption-- all of it! Once again, a quick flash was all it took for him to strike at the new source of anger, darkness blowing out as he tried to make Nu disappear.

          But that was someone he swore to save, right...?

     At this moment, it didn’t matter. She was a threat-- a threat trying to make him lose his mind... Threats need to be dealt with-- they need to be removed...! His vision was growing darker, but all he cared about was destroying the things that threatened him...

          ...

                    ...

                              ...

          How much time had passed now?

     His vision had practically become a red haze, his body moving on its own. It was like he had blacked out, his mind going unconscious while his body continued to move. A safety measure to protect his mind from the corruption...?

     Whatever the reason may be, his vision was finally coming to-- and all around him was destruction. Buildings collapsing over, the streets themselves cracked and broken from his own power. The air itself trembled from the unnatural aura emanating from him. But that aura began to die down now that Ragna was “awake” again. Now he has to recapture his focus, find out what was going on.

     Where was Terumi? Where was Nu? Did he make them disappear? His mind tried hard to recollect what happened-- but soon stopped dead in its tracks once he took a look at the landscape around him.

     Bodies. People strung around him like ragdolls.Were they dead? ... No-- No, he can sense it... They’re alive. A few clearly had blood staining their clothes, but they were all alive. Some of them were nameless people caught in his rampage... but even they still drew breath. Yet it was the ones he did recognize that gave him pause.

          ”Wh-- What did they...?”

     Litchi Faye-Ling. Makoto Nanaya. Nine. Trinity Glassfille. Celica Mercury. Tsubaki Yayoi.

     Even more familiar faces surrounded him-- even Noel, Naoto and Rachel were there-- all battered and defeated from combat... Combat with him-- against the power of the Black Beast. They were all hurt trying to stop him... a dangerous gambit that should have put their lives at risk-- there was no chance for them to fight against the Beast without the risk of casualties...!

     And yet, they all still live-- merely exhausted and beaten, not slaughtered. Somehow, some way... he was able to hold back the immense power, able to retain enough reason to remember that he shouldn’t kill indiscriminately. They were hurt... but they were still alive. Still alive...

     If he wants them to stay that way, he needs to remember who he is...! The man who would destroy the world? No... That’s no longer the being he’ll inevitably become.

               Ragna. Ragna the Bloodedge. Not a Black Beast... Ragna.

     Another pained roar ripped through the air, shaking the ground itself as the dark power around him began to fluctuate. Now more than ever before, he was using all of his willpower to bring his own body back into his control. Over and over, it threatened to overpower him-- this power didn’t want to relinquish control so easily... But the Azure Grimoire wasn’t going to take from him anymore-- it was going to become his power, to use however he sees fit!

     The warrior repeatedly began to smash the ground with his bare hands, cracking it even more as he continued his internal struggle. But eventually, swiftly and without warning-- it all stopped. The vibrations, the heartbeat... the seithr around him was finally being pulled back into his arm, the darkness receding back and being set under the restrictions that held it in place. At last, the Reaper broke free from the chains of the Beast.

     A deep sigh of relief escaped his lips, his breathing so deep and heavy... Once more he looked around him to see all his fallen comrades, their struggle not in vain. Seeing them all hurt didn’t leave him unaffected-- each one added more pain and guilt to his conscience... Looking over at Tsubaki somehow made the pain all the more worse, oddly enough.

     Using up all the energy he had left, the Reaper took slow, pained steps over to the fallen Yayoi warrior, falling onto his knees nearby. A gloved hand finally pushed up against her cheek, once again feeling that life had not left her just yet.

          ”... I’m sorry... all of you-- sorry...”

     Even the simple act of talking felt like a difficult task... especially with the physical pain being combined with the guilt threatening to overcome him. His gaze eventually settled on Nu, another survivor-- one who didn’t even have a chance to unleash her power like she wanted. She was the only one still conscious... albeit with a broken look on her face. The look of one who felt no purpose in life, her single eye devoid of light... His expression only grew more sullen as he witnessed the truth-- the twisted goal she wanted... it was all she had.

     Without him realizing it, the island around the Reaper began to fade away-- as if the “dream” was finally coming to a close. Yet all he could focus on was stroking the hair of Tsubaki Yayoi, while his mind offered a silent promise to the fallen Murakumo...

          I didn’t save you before... But I’ll try again. Even if you don’t want me to.

     The world around him finally fell into darkness, just as the Reaper swore another vow to no one but himself: This won’t happen again. This isn’t what he wants his power to become... No matter what it takes, this power that can take on the Gods themselves won’t turn on him ever again.

          If I can’t live up to that promise... Then I really will have to erase myself for good.

#[ Drabble ] #[ Supergiant Challenge ]

[thefifthclown]

Part 1, Chapter 4-The New “Pere Noel”; Scene 2

Fifth, Pierrot, pages 118-128

“I’m beaten…Even though I’d been hiding so well up to now.”

Isabel—or rather, ‘Seventh, Magician’, Yuzette Ora put back on the clothes that she’d been taking off.

“Traitors—must die!”

Lemy rapidly closed in on Yuzette, and prepared to stab his knife into her chest.

“Ghu!?”

She probably figured she wouldn’t be able to dodge. Yuzette had grabbed the knife’s blade with her right hand.

Blood trickled from that hand.

Lemy tried to bring the knife down with all his strength, but as his quarry resisted much more strongly than he’d thought, it didn’t work.

He tugged his knife from Yuzette’s hold and temporarily readjusted his stance.

“Did you think this would go so easily? I was your mother’s apprentice for a time, you know.”

Yuzette crouched down on the spot, and pulled out a sword that she’d been hiding under the bed.

“—You’ve got a sword.”

Lemy readied his defenses. He hadn’t faced off against someone with a weapon since Ton.

“You shouldn’t assume I’m like the other prostitutes up to now. …But relax. I’m a novice when it comes to swords. I’m not going to use this as a weapon. The correct usage of the ‘Venom Sword’ is—like so.”

Yuzette’s eyes began to flash suspiciously.

.

--She had once adored ‘First, Santa Claus’, Julia Abelard.

When Yuzette first met Julia, there were still only two members of Pere Noel. Julia, and Mayrana Blossom, her apprentice.

Sorcerers—when she met those two, for the first time Yuzette learned that such beings truly did exist.

Yuzette’s life until that point had been extremely monotonous, and full of nothing but that which was boring to her. Those days, she’d helped out in her parents’ job as fishermen in a rustic port town…Her boyfriend was also a fisherman. If things had gone on as planned, Yuzette would have married him and spent the rest of her life in the same town where she’d been born and raised.

Yuzette had decided to run away from home, and join Julia and Mayrana on their journey.  She also studied magic, but unfortunately was unable to become a sorceress. It seemed that she didn’t have that innate talent. In the end, Yuzette was cast out by Julia, and left behind midway through the journey.

Sometime later, after Yuzette had started making a living as a fortune teller, Julia once more appeared before her.

She had given her a sword. The Venom Sword—Yuzette had already known then that it was a “Vessel of Deadly Sin”. Contract with a demon—that was the condition that Julia had put forward for Yuzette to become part of her group again.

.

“Lemy. You say that I am a traitor. But you’re mistaken. I was the one who was betrayed…by ‘First, Santa Claus’. I showed her nothing but loyalty, even contracting with a demon for her. And in return, she has simply cast me aside.”

The sparkling in Yuzette’s eyes increased.

It was obvious what she was doing.

He had to kill her before that—yet despite knowing this, somehow Lemy couldn’t move, as though his body was paralyzed.

“And yet, I have no intention of baring my fangs at her. I owe her too much, and besides—to this world, she may very well be ‘evil’. A woman with a secret position as the founder of a criminal organization. But…I know. The true intentions of her ‘evil’. And if they would call her evil—then just what is evil, anyway?”

“I don’t…really get what…you’re saying.”

Though he tried to reply, he couldn’t speak well, slurring the words.

His head was pretty hazy.

“What she’s trying to do—I would like to see the world after she does it. But even I value my life. So…I’d like you to let me go. I will live alone from now on. Holding close to me what I have learned from Santa Claus.”

Yuzette spoke firmly.

Ah…this woman…was so beautiful.

“…Seems like it’s working on you. That’s fine, Lemy. You don’t want to kill me anymore, do you?”

“…No.”

Lemy slowly drew closer to Yuzette with a loitering gait.

“Do you want me? That’s fine, come here. I will—embrace you.”

Obeying her words, Lemy darted to Yuzette’s chest.

“I…want…you…”

“Hahaha, what a cute boy. I’ll make you feel real good now.”

Yuzette gently patted Lemy’s head.

“I want…I…”

“Yes, yes.”

“I want…I want your—”

.

--Your life!

.

The slack expression on Lemy’s face rapidly switched to something sharper.

“--!? Ghu…”

Yuzette shoved Lemy away.

A silver knife—was thrust deeply into her chest.

And there, Yuzette fell forward on the spot.

“It can’t be…Why didn’t it work!? The power of the ‘Demon of Lust’…I should…be able to make any man do as I wish using it…”

“Are you stupid? Did you think that woman would send Lemy to your side without any counter-measures? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Lemy cackled as he looked down on Yuzette.

His tone was very clearly different from how it had been before.

“The power of ‘Lust’ only works on the ‘opposite sex’ of the contractor. The late Duke Venomania was killed by that too. I can’t imagine you didn’t know about that, considering you’re that woman’s apprentice.”

“Lemy was…a woman!? …No, that’s not it…Augh…the wound’s not healing up.”

Yuzette pulled out the knife that had been stabbed into her and threw it aside.

Blood gushed from her chest.

Purple blood, proof of her contract with the Demon of Lust.

“As I recall, Santa Claus gave him ‘The Glass of Conchita’…So then you…You in Lemy right now…Are the ‘Demon of Gluttony’…No, perhaps…Yes, you are…her servant…”

“Relax, Yuzette. I, Lemy, and ‘my lord’ will see the path the world takes. You should take a little rest…at the bottom of hell.”

The light left Yuzette’s eyes.

.

“Seventh, Magician” Yuzette Ora

Her life of twenty-eight years came to end in a brothel in Rolled.

.

--When Lemy came back to his senses, Yuzette was already dead at his feet.

Something like this had happened before. With Ton. He’d killed someone without being conscious of it back then as well.

Yuzette was dead face down, purple blood flowing from her. Upon lifting her corpse up a little, he could see that there was a knife wound in her chest.

So he had killed her after all. It was annoying that he couldn’t remember his own response, but at any rate, he’d been able to complete his goal.

Lemy picked up his own knife that had landed nearby, as well as the Venom Sword that Yuzette had been holding onto.

That sword is the ‘treasure’ that Julia was talking about, Ney explained to him, knowledgeable as always.

Now he just had to run away.

Hold on a sec.

Ney stopped Lemy just as he was about to jump out the window.

There’s a witness. The owner of the brothel…You’ve gotta erase her too.

“…Do I really need to kill someone who’s not involved?”

Bit late for that now. Don’t you remember all the prostitutes you’ve killed?

“That was to find ‘Seventh, Magician’. But I’ve already completed my objective.”

You can get caught if you want. But that might be inconvenient for you to be of any use to Julia after this, don’t you think?

“…I guess so.”

Lemy wiped the blood off his knife. It seemed he still had one more job to do today.

Oh? Looks like she’s coming over here herself.

When Lemy turned, he saw a woman in a wheelchair by the entrance to the room.

The woman looked a little young to be the owner of a brothel. She seemed around the same age as Julia and Yuzette.

“—So you’ve killed her.”

There was neither unrest nor fear in her expression. She looked both at Yuzette’s corpse and Lemy, covered in her blood, with a calm face.

“I’ve gotta have you go the same way,” Lemy said, closing the distance between them.

She was in a wheelchair. It seemed she couldn’t use her legs.

She wouldn’t give him much trouble.

“Kill me? That’d be a bit of a bother. I don’t want to die yet.”

“You’re surprisingly calm about this. Maybe you think there’s no way a kid like me could kill you? Unfortunately, you’re mistaken.”

He drew up to the owner and looked down at her.

When Lemy went to raise his knife.

He heard a “voice” telling him to stop.

--Hold it, Lemy.

“…What is it? Weren’t you the one who told me to kill her, Ney?”

She’s behaving really differently, so I didn’t notice it right away. …But you can’t kill this one. I don’t think you can win.

The owner chuckled.

“So there’s another person in there—It’s been a long time, Ney.”

Can she hear my voice!? …No, that’s impossible. She must have heard you say my name and made a guess on her own.

However, even if it had been a guess, this was the first time Lemy had met anyone outside of Julia who believed that “Ney” existed.

“Do you know her, Ney?”

…Yeah. But this woman. She’s a little—or rather a LOT different from how she was back then.

At any rate, if he couldn’t kill her, then what should he do instead? It was clear that she had witnessed Lemy’s murder.

“You seem in a bind, Lemy Abelard. Take it easy. I won’t tell anyone about this. I’ll just tell them Isabel—or rather, ‘Seventh, Magician’—died of illness.”

“You knew her true identity?”

“I realized that she was hiding the ‘Venom Sword’ here. I investigated into who she was while sheltering her here. –Your crime won’t become public. And in return, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“You’re saying a favor for a favor.”

“Indeed. Please—introduce me to ‘First, Santa Claus’. That is my condition.”

“That’s—not a request I can grant so easily.”

She might be an acquaintance of Ney’s, but as he wasn’t clear on who she was, he couldn’t very well let her meet Julia.

He absolutely could not put his mother in danger.

“I see…Then I’d be satisfied if you could at least tell her that I would like to meet her. Once you do, I am sure that she will come to meet me herself.”

“…What’s your name?”

“—‘Third, Sleep Princess’ Margarita Blankenheim. Your comrade.”

That’s a lie. This woman is lying. Don’t believe her.

Ney immediately denied the woman’s claim.

“What do you mean, Ney?”

She isn’t Margarita. Her real name—is the ‘Eternal Sorceress’, Elluka Clockworker. Your mother’s arch-enemy.

--His mother’s enemy!?

Seeing Lemy’s state of confusion, the owner smiled again.

“Ney’s talking, isn’t she? You must believe me, Lemy. –I’m not lying to you.”

The owner’s eyes seemed to flash green.

“You’re…telling the truth.”

Lemy had the sensation that something had entered his mind.

…Yes. This woman had no reason to lie, did she?

…She said she would overlook Lemy murdering someone.

…If she were an enemy, then she’d have no need for such an arrangement.

…Yes, he was certain that was it. It was true.

“…I understand. I’ll tell ‘First, Santa Claus’ about you. But make sure you keep my killing that prostitute a secret. If it gets out, then I’ll come to kill you right away.”

“--! Lemy!? Don’t believe her!

“Shut up—I’m the one who decides. Whatever we do, if I don’t hear out her demands then I’ll get caught for sure.”

…Hmph. Fine. It doesn’t have anything to do with me, after all. But don’t come crying to me if you regret it later.

Ney said peevishly, and then from there was silent.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[pricechecktranslations]

TTDS: The Three Daughters of Sir Torture; Chapter 4

Torture Tower Doesn’t Sleep: The Three Daughters of Sir Torture infomine under the cut 

Character Info:

Aruvin (Alvin): Stella’s bird, a white parrot. He is quiet and well behaved. Normally.

Benji Kenpu (Benji Kemp): He’s a descendant of the person who originally designed Torcia Tower. While it doesn’t state much on where he’s from, his family was evidently wealthy enough to hire a maid in his boyhood. His intellectual curiosity is a driving motivator for him.

Meiden (Maiden): The torture devices she summons can move through walls and ceilings, though it uses up a lot of her power to have them do this.

Reimondo Atouddo (Raymond Atwood): He seems to have some insecurities about being part wraith—part of his motivation for fighting the girls is to prove that he’s human. He’s also surprisingly ruthless in regard to innocent people getting hurt (out of pure pragmatism towards a greater good, albeit). He was also, evidently, adopted by Romarius. His real father is Beritoad. His alchemy powers are not as advanced as Beritoad’s—while Beritoad can make something from nothing, Raymond can only impact an object’s physical properties (ex, making a knife a sword). He was also bullied for being part wraith. As a result of everything that’s happened to him, he hates wraiths. He has lightning magic, but he doesn’t like using it because it reminds him too much that he’s only half human.

Romariusu (Romarius): According to Raymond, he is every bit a user as Beritoad—while putting on a front of being noble, really he only cares about his own ambitions. Also according to Raymond, he’s a coward.

Seruma Atouddo (Selma Atwood): She was burned at the stake as a witch when Raymond was young, continuing to love the wraith (it doesn’t say whether it means Beritoad or Romarius) who used her as a plaything even as she was dying.

Setting Info:

Toruchiatou (Torcia Tower): In the past (according to Benji, the expert on the tower), it used to have a ward lock. The girls switched it out for something easier to bypass. There is also a secret passage on the first floor that leads up to the fifth floor’s storage room. There are ten rooms on the first floor, none of them showing signs of being used. One of them used to be a library (though without any important texts in it). Was built three hundred years ago to be used as a stronghold against enemy invasion.

Notable Quotes:

Raymond (when discussing his plan in the secret passageway): “You mean to call me coldhearted? I know I am. But this world isn’t so kind that you can make it by idealism alone.”

Plot Summary:

Scene 1

A little exposition on a wraith that made an enemy of humanity (Beritoad, though it doesn’t say his name). He feeds on negative emotions and suffering. So he kills not out of any particular malice, but because it’s what gives him power and keeps him alive.

For this he was hated by humans and other wraiths alike—wraiths are not inherently evil, and in fact there were quite a few who co-existed peacefully with humans. It was the wraiths, in fact, that were the unusual forces in the bonus story, the ones who joined Hank and Romarius’ army to take down Pere Noel and Beritoad.

Publicly, this was just the king’s army cracking down on a criminal organization.

Scene 2

It’s the day they’re going to bring everything to an end. Raymond is standing before Torcia Tower, the sun having already gone down. It’s midnight—this is the time when a wraith’s powers are at their strongest. There are three people behind him—Benji, Lloyd, and Stella (who has her bird with her in its cage). They are armed and looking over their plans of the tower (that Benji brought).

Raymond had originally intended to go alone, and he’s seriously doubting that any of them will be any use in a fight. He’s prepared for casualties—something that may seem a little cold-hearted to others—but that’s because he’s certain that he’s doing the right thing.

They discuss the lock for a moment. Benji reveals that he’s there not to because he wants the Pot of Basuzu, but to study it for his medical curiosity. Lloyd was promised it though, so he’ll get it when Benji is done studying it.

They head inside. (just a note—the narrative is continually referring to Lloyd as “the masked man”, so it’s probably supposed to be at least a minor twist that he’s Lloyd, even though it’s patently obvious. Also, Benji makes clear he’s the one who nursed him back to health).

Scene 3

They’re in the entry hall. Raymond has trouble lighting up his lamp (like he did last time he was in). Lloyd gets it working, and then Raymond hands it to Benji and Stella, saying the two of them should stay here to be safe. Stella objects, but Benji doesn’t mind.

Raymond explains that another reason why he wants to split up is to split up their enemy’s forces, as a fight is inevitable. If anyone comes to attack them, they’re to just run outside as fast as they can.

Benji says his intent to look around the tower for his curiosity, though not to stray too far from the entrance. Raymond and Lloyd leave (both of them can see well in the dark, so they’re fine without the lamp).

Scene 4

The room with the stairs (west side of the first floor) is larger than the others, possibly once a dining room. Across from the door, there’s a stone fireplace—this is where the secret passageway is located. They go inside after flipping the switch to unlock it, heading up the spiral staircase (getting covered in soot in the process, which Raymond wipes off with a handkerchief but Lloyd leaves as is).

The two of them talk, Raymond explaining Beritoad’s power to see everything in the tower and explaining to Lloyd the significance of a silver snake pendant (featured in the illustration) that he gave to him earlier (one Raymond is wearing himself)—it makes it so Beritoad can’t see them.

He didn’t give anything to Stella and Benji—essentially, they’re bait to lure the girls away so that Raymond and Lloyd can go about undetected. He hopes they’ll be able to escape when they’re attacked, figuring Gibbet will approach them alone, but he doesn’t seem too broken up about the possibility that they won’t be able to.

Lloyd doesn’t think badly of him for this—rather, he’s envious that Raymond is so free about being his true self. This makes Raymond smile. They start to run up the stairs.

Scene 5

They reach the top of the stairs, seeing that while the place is crumbled and scratched up, there’s signs of repair and maintenance by the girls. Raymond thinks on them and Hank (described as being his adoptive father’s best friend, before eventually becoming a puppet of Beritoad’s).

Romarius is the one who sent him on this task, telling him to use his training to defeat Beritoad (his arch enemy since before Raymond was even alive) and then, if possible, take him back to Romarius alive. Raymond doesn’t plan to do that second part.

In truth, Romarius just wants to get Beritoad’s power to make something from nothing, his alchemy. Raymond figures that’s why Romarius acquired him. He thinks more on his childhood and personal history. As he walks up the steps, Lloyd continues to keep pace with him.

Scene 6

Gibbet is confused as to why Benji and Stella don’t make their way up to the second floor, where she’s waiting for them. She’s disappointed that she won’t be able to go to Stella’s bar anymore (because it’s an easy place to pick up marks, I think), and puzzling over what she’s doing at the tower (speculating it might be her father’s legs she’s hoping to cure). Stella’s father’s injury happened near the tower, ten years ago.

Thinking on this hits her with her dream flashback again, making her dizzy. It’s been getting worse since Raymond showed up. Beritoad wouldn’t tell her who he was. Apparently (according to her), there are actual magic users in the world, though they’re rare (and I think, don’t have the same level of ability?).

Rack has been improving on Josephine with Maiden’s help in preparation for Raymond’s return. Rack wants to best him—Maiden appears to have taken a liking to him. They know he’s closer to what they are than humans.

As she’s thinking about this, Maiden shows up behind her, having gotten tired of waiting (and Gibbet is mildly frustrated how neither she nor Rack have enough patience). Maiden expresses some doubt, wondering if there’s more than just those two intruders, but Gibbet brushes her off, saying Beritoad would have told them.

She sends Maiden back to her place in the tower, and then goes down to greet Stella and Benji herself.

Scene 7

Benji and Stella are walking around the first floor. She’s put a cloth over her birdcage to keep Alvin silent. Stella explains she’s here because she has trouble believing the lovely and regular customer Gibbet is really a wraith, and wants to see for herself. Benji accuses her of being worried for Lloyd (as she apparently visited him a lot while he was laid up).

Stella returns the question and asks what he’s really doing there (amusingly, she has trouble with the name “Basuzu” and calls it “the Pot of Something or Other” (Nantoka). This place is connected to his roots—he just wants to see it for himself.

They decide to head back to the entrance.

Scene 8

Maiden is back on the fourth floor, and can’t help but feel like something’s wrong. Due to being the one working on the tower, she knows about the secret passage, as she found it once during repairs (she didn’t feel the need to tell anyone else about it).

She almost brushes it off, but then decides to go to the storage room just to check things out for herself.

Scene 9

Raymond and Lloyd are now at the stairs to the fourth floor. Raymond speculates that Beritoad will be weak, as he hasn’t regained his full power yet (hence remaining in the tower). They swiftly make their way up the stairs.

Suddenly, a pack of iron maidens fall from the ceiling towards them. They manage to dodge, seeing one of them move. Lloyd fires his gun into that one, correctly guessing that Maiden was inside. When she comes out it’s clear that she’d been shot, as it slipped through her armor, but she’s not bleeding. She puts in some effort (it says puts her strength in her stomach? flexing???) and the crushed bullet comes out.

Maiden explains her belief that she is an Iron Maiden herself (ie, shooting metal can’t harm it), but that she was chosen by her “father” to have a human appearance, given this power by both Beritoad’s abilities and her father’s love. Also that her father will return, etc.

Raymond gets mad about this because Hank is dead, killed by the king’s assassin and sunk to the bottom of the sea. When Maiden claims Beritoad will revive him, Raymond insists he has no such power, and that she’s been deceived.

The narrative reveals Raymond is getting so worked up because Maiden is reminding him of his mother right now, with her blind belief in Beritoad.

Seeing the two distracted, Lloyd loads a differently colored bullet into his gun.

Maiden continues to speak to Raymond, moving close to him—she thinks of him as another wraith (though he insists he’s human), and was looking forward to seeing him again. She points out his powers, his magic, and his lack of emotion regarding the people around him dying. Raymond points out there are humans like that too.

He freaks out and unleashes another lightning attack. Maiden feels pain for the first time (but she likes it), and he ends up breaking the snake pendant on him (having forgotten that you’re not supposed to have metal on you when you do lightning magic, which I think is why he discarded the cross that was on him in the previous chapter).

He changes his knife into an estoc, which is made of a particular metal that doesn’t conduct electricity (esutoraru metal? …I’m not sure if this is a real thing or something made up for the story). Apparently the lightning attacks aren’t working on Maiden because she’s made of metal (? so Lloyd says).

He shoots at Maiden’s left shoulder (though he was aiming for her heart) knocking her backwards. He tells Raymond to go on ahead, he’ll keep Maiden occupied.

Then there’s this sweet moment where he reassures Raymond, saying that if not being sad at the loss of your comrades makes you inhuman, then he’s a not human either. Then he tries to cover for it by complaining that Raymond looks too much like Zepeto—his younger brother.

Raymond runs on ahead. Maiden focuses her attention on Lloyd, angry that Raymond is getting away (she thought she’d found a new friend). Lloyd reveals that the bullets he fired at her were filled with a strong acid—her shoulder is melting. Benji designed these bullets.

Lloyd at last removes the mask and reveals who he is, and that he’s come to take revenge for the girls completely disfiguring his face (laughing maniacally as he says it).

Scene 10

Stella and Benji meet Gibbet in the first floor entrance hall, Gibbet putting on the innocent act (or rather, Stella playing innocent and Gibbet poking holes in her story). They ran into her as they were returning from the library (eg, she’s between them and the door).

She offers to take them to the second floor for tea, and as she moves Benji takes the opportunity to run with Stella to the door. Unfortunately, Gibbet summons an iron lattice to block their exit.

When she starts trying to do something else, Stella releases Alvin from his (? doesn’t actually state if it’s a boy or girl bird or what I’m just going off the name) cage and sends him after Gibbet. Gibbet flips out and runs away in terror (apparently she ran from the bar when she saw him there once, hence Stella keeping a cloth over his cage when she comes by).

With Gibbet gone, the lattice disappears, and Benji calls for Stella to run outside.

Scene 11

Raymond comes to the top of the stairs, and after activating a revolving wall he comes out into another tunnel that leads to the torture device storage room. It’s described as containing the wooden horse (Spanish donkey), an inverted cross with thorns on it, and others (also some kind of large metal box with wheels on it).

As he’s thinking about destroying them to rob the girls of their weapons, Beritoad’s voice calls to him (confirming he is Beritoad’s child) and invites him to the chapel. Raymond takes him up on that, going to meet him.

They talk, Raymond calling out Beritoad for turning humanity against wraiths (which are merely a different species from humans, neither good nor evil). Beritoad intends to kill Romarius some day (and I think in so doing take back his original form?). He also reveals that Raymond is the one who killed Hank all those years ago (when he was a child, no less), knowing this due to his familiar reporting it to him.

Raymond confirms he’s here to kill him, they exchange some banter (again pressing home that Raymond wants nothing to do with his wraith heritage and that Beritoad has no love for his own son). Beritoad insists human are little more than food to him—Raymond asks then why he had a child with one (which Beritoad dodges the question of).

Before Raymond can attack, Rack shows up, breaking through the wall with the metal box from earlier. The wheels are about double his height, and unlike the metal of the box they’re made of wood. It’s being pulled along by the wooden horse he saw earlier as well (moving as though it’s a real horse). Rack is standing on top, and also has her cat o’ nine tails with her.

She laughs like Riliane does (the oh ho ho ho ho), and calls it “Josephine Revised”. She declares her intent to do battle, and then says for him to kneel to her. Thus, the fight begins.

Scene 12

Maiden is in one of the rooms (cells) in the fourth floor, having escaped from Lloyd and thinking about what to do next. She thinks about helping Rack fight Raymond, but figures she’d just get in the way. She’s about to go to Gibbet when she hears Lloyd firing his gun and running her way.

Lloyd gets to her. He reflects on the time he spent in the cells being tortured every day—among other things, he can no longer have children. He’s after the pot because he thinks there’s a slim chance it might cure his lingering injuries (Benji is a skilled doctor but he could only do so much).

Maiden shows no sympathy or remorse towards him whatsoever, which angers him. He fires his gun, and blows her head off (her body falls to the ground, no blood spilling at all).

Due to the battle going on above, the ceiling cracks. When it crumbles, the Pot of Basuzu falls down to Lloyd’s level. Most of the water inside has spilled out, but there’s a little bit left there. He drinks it, noting it’s lukewarm and faintly sticky, with almost no taste. Nothing happens.

Gibbet speaks up behind him before he can get another mouthful, trapping him with her Gibbet powers. He’s able to turn his head a little, and sees one of the Iron Maidens, which opens to reveal its spiky interior.

He looks behind it to see Gibbet glowering angrily at him, alongside Benji and Stella (who are similarly captured). He asks her if the Pot of Basuzu can really cure any ailment. Gibbet whispers something to him, and he expresses disgust at having drunk it.

He’s shut inside the Iron Maiden, realizing that Maiden herself is not dead despite being headless. His life flashes before his eyes, thinking on how much pride he’d had. The talisman Raymond gave him reminds him of when he was an actor and played Romarius on stage. (Etc etc)

The impression I’m getting is that Lloyd is someone who didn’t have family connections, personal connections, or influence, and wanted money to make up for it—ultimately, he wanted to use his money to become an actor again.

Lloyd gets a fairly touching sendoff, and his last words are “Do you…have dreams?” (the you being the wraiths killing him).

Scene 13

Gibbet hears Lloyd’s words. She wavers a moment before assuring herself that their dream is to revive their father.

She goes to tend to Maiden, who’s lost her head and is melted in places (but is still alive). Stella is crying. Gibbet prods Benji on his apparent lack of emotion. He explains that he just doesn’t express his feelings much on the outside, but inwardly is upset at Lloyd’s death and angry at the girls. Though, he’s also fascinated with their powers.

Gibbet rebukes his compliment as, roughly, “we’re not looking to make any new friends”, which upsets Maiden’s headless body (not that she notices).

Gibbet leaves them all behind to head up to aid Rack in her battle on the fifth floor.

Scene 14

Yeah basically “Josephine Revised” is a chariot comprised of other torture devices. It’s not as effective in the narrow chapel, though. Raymond is able to easily dodge it due to how slow it is. He doesn’t have a lot of options though—his estoc is useless, and the only other ability he has on hand is his lightning magic (which he’s not sure will work).

Beritoad is riding on Rack’s shoulder.

Raymond instead decides to target Rack, who’s driving the chariot. Before he can get at her, though, she draws some kind of symbol in the air (?) and four wires shoot from the box towards him. He manages to dodge/cut them off, but loses his estoc in the process.

They go for him again. This time he’s slammed against the ceiling twice, then pulled towards the box. They pull him into position and start stretching him.

He realizes this box is the torture device Hank loved to use the most—the rack.

He fires off his electric spell, which burns up the wires and frees him. He can’t stand though, as his tendons are injured. He’s defeated Rack, but Beritoad is still fine. He gloats a little bit, waiting for Gibbet to come up to them.

Gibbet picks up the estoc, and goes to kill him with permission from Beritoad. But then she suddenly has a crisis, remembering it’s Maiden’s job to kill people, not hers (she’s never killed anyone before). Raymond finds this hilarious.

Beritoad gets enraged, telling her that Raymond is the one who killed their father (which Raymond doesn’t deny). This surprises Gibbet, but more importantly it infuriates Rack, who’s woken up.

She growls like an animal. The chariot dissolves into black particles (I think?), which latch onto Rack and start to transform her into an extremely large (larger than the chariot, reaches the celing) wolf. According to Beritoad, this is her true form.

Gibbet is, of course, freaking out a little. Beritoad starts getting excited, saying that in this form Rack will even be able to leave the tower, and go terrorize the townspeople below. He’s cut short, though, when Racks steps on him.

Scene 15

Back to Stella and Benji—they’re abruptly able to move again, released from their bonds. They can feel the tower violently shaking. The ceiling collapses (Benji moving to protect Stella), and the people on the top floor fall to where they are (namely, Raymond, Gibbet, and the giant wolf Rack).

Benji realizes Raymond can’t move and picks him up. They call for Stella to go along, but she’s trying to pick up Gibbet (Stella is a soft touch apparently), who is unconscious with blood trickling from her mouth. The wolf catches sight of them, though, and they’re forced to flee.

The wolf is fast, and they’re spared only by the fact that it has difficulty maneuvering on the stairs with its big size.

Benji is tired (having been raised as an intellectual, indoorsy type). He ends up having to hand Raymond off to Stella (who is more physically fit than he is, apparently).

The wolf drops through the ceiling to get at them, and they run for the first floor.

Scene 16

They manage to get outside the tower, and the wolf doesn’t follow them (even though Beritoad said it could leave the tower). Raymond explains that it was Rack. They all relax a little in relief, Benji becoming consumed by his intellectual curiosity again (though he does need to patch up Raymond’s wounds), but they’re interrupted by hearing the wolf’s howl again.

Benji notices that Raymond’s wounds don’t have much blood flow (because wraiths don’t bleed, and he’s half wraith). Raymond is prepared for Benji to react with horror or prejudice, but then he remembers what Stella told him—Gibbet was bleeding earlier.

Raymond thinks it odd that Gibbet, who is supposedly a wraith, was bleeding red blood.

#holy frack this is a long chapter #()torture tower doesn't sleep #just the epilogue left

[gramon-my-otp]

To The End, With You - chapter twelve

Previous Chapter |  Next Chapter

Chapter Synopsis: Russell and Gareth participate in the entrance ritual of the secret gay brotherhood of Britpoplar. The Gallagher brothers prank Damon and Graham in an awful way - which escalated to a surprising revelation between the two friends!

Alternative Universe fanfiction placed in the 1600s. 

Words: 2040

Disclaimers:  I understand that Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Suede, Elastica and other bands members belong to their own and have their own personality and personal lives. I am aware this is nothing but a work of fiction and the way the characters are represented are fruit of my imagination and do not correspond to their real thoughts and way of life. Fanfiction should not be taken seriously.

(After more than three years, I came back to finish what I have started. Thanks for the giving me motivation @skygramon​ I can’t do this without you)

Two cloaked individuals sprinted around the borough of Britpoplar at night. They were aware that there were eyes in places they would never imagine. The location chosen for a secret meeting was unfamiliar to them, but the path that led to it was infamous for the grieving memory it sparkled. It was where Simon Gilbert last walked alive - and they were there, the two cloaked men, holding hands. They stopped by the butcher shop, as it was instructed to them. A straight gated iron door opened before them, almost invisible in the corner of the slaughter house. Only then the blokes noticed a flickering light in a window above. A hidden room above the shop. The negotiators had already been waiting. The men entered and the iron gate shut closed. Damon Albarn received the visitors with a knife in hand, pointing at them.

“Identify yourselves”

They removed their own covers completely, revealing to be Damon’s fellow Russell Senior and his young lover, Gareth Coombes. Damon put his blade back and greeted them accordingly. The setting was unsettlingly silent. The glow of candles reflected upon the stairs behind them.

“Up we go”, asked Damon, gesturing with his arms and hands. 

The blonde followed the couple climbing the stairs, heading to the bedroom. Another iron gate, and also a door. Anxiety built up in the two lovers hearts. They held their hands tighter, and carried on. On the edge of the bed sat Morrissey and Alex James. He wasn’t happy to be there, but as a member of the society he had to fulfil tasks when required of him. Russell wasn’t expecting to see neither of them there. He would never guess the so much respected librarian was homosexual, and he never cared for a poor lowlife profile such as Alex. He was speechless already. Gaz took a deep breath and gathered the courage to make his question:

“Are those the ones assigned to each one of us?”

“Yes”, answered Damon, behind them. “It was easy finding someone slim, tall, and young as you are for Russell. Believe me, it’s easier to get it done when the person resembles someone you like”.

“So, I have to lie down with fellow Alex, while he has to lie down with Morrissey”, Russell was repeating the obvious. He knew Damon wouldn’t volunteer because they were kind of close. Still, the thought of that passage rite was absurd, but necessary.

“Are you going to stay here and watch us?” - asked Alex, annoyed. “Aren’t we going to have a little privacy?”

“Mr. James… Somebody has to watch the surroundings. Damon had the idea that we leave as a group afterwards, pretending we’re drunk”, Morrissey explained. “I’m sorry this room doesn’t fit your needs, but it’s the only we could find in a hurry. Now, shut your mouth and do what you are supposed to!”

Gaz and Alex were tops, while Russell and Morrissey were bottoms. It was difficult for the couple having to have sex in those conditions, only to be accepted, protected by the community. Proof was necessary, and now they had it. The plan for them to leave in safety proceeded well. They were mistaken by drunkards lost in Britpoplar streets. 

~

The sound of boiling metal and hammers crashing against steel filled the emptiness of the air under the hot midday sun. The Gallagher brothers had been reforming armor pieces for the soldiers for the last few days. Not that they cared for the army. In fact, they didn’t, but gold was gold. The payment was good and they needed it. They constantly thought about what Jarvis Cocker and Brett Anderson said to them. Honestly, they thought they were crazy and being paid for following people was something way over the line. They rarely did the patrols they were supposed to, and never saw anything that called their attention. That day, though, was their lucky day. 

“Fuck, I’m bored!”, voiced Liam, dropping his working material. “Tired of doing this and bored!”.

“If you leave the hard work to me again, I will take your gold for meself”, warned Noel.

“You just try it!”, Liam raised his fist toward his brother.

When they were about to throw punches at each other, they noticed movement behind them. They see Damon walking past by with Graham, chatting joyfully. In the midst of the awkward silence between the Gallagher brothers, the two peasants ignored them. In fact, they didn’t even witness the foolish discussion. They were so focused and entertained with each other. 

“Let’s fool with them just like we did with that Justin Welch moron last week” - suggested Liam, with pure mischief in his eyes. 

“Do we really have to?” - Noel questioned, uninterested.

“Are you crazy?! Stop being a slackass and let’s go!”- Liam tried to encourage him.

“Alright, alright. They are full of shit anyway…” - Noel got moving then, and Liam went along.

Graham was actually having one of the most exciting afternoons of his life. Listening to Damon nonstop, telling stories of the town and sharing his adventurous experiences. He would either blabber about managing the gay community or how much he liked Justine. Graham couldn’t avoid thinking how big of a hypocrite and selfish Damon was at that matter. What the hell did he want in life? The answer was simple, Albarn wanted the whole world, he wanted everything. However, no man was able to play God, nor he was allowed to be larger than life just for the sake of good fun and self indulgence. Damon’s sins were numerous, as he was endangering both himself and all the people he cared about. Sooner or later, Graham would suffer from some kind of backfire. The blonde one had been spending the whole day with his friend, saying lots of things, but not what he really wanted to say. Coxon was fine whether Damon knew he was attracted to him or not. It was too dangerous to risk it all for an affair. He was more than happy with his friendship.

“Oi, mates! What a pleasure to see ya in this part o’ town!” - Liam came in grinning wide.

Graham froze from his arse up. He was aware of the Gallagher’s reputation. 

“What’s wrong, newcomer? Shat your trousers?!?” - Noel already got a grip of the brunette’s shoulder. 

If Damon decided to fight them he would surely lose. Graham was nothing but a scaredy cat - there was no way he was going to help out in combat. As Liam sunk his knee deep in Damon’s stomach, Noel punched Graham in the mouth. 

“Damon, no!” - uttered Graham.

“I’m okay, Graham. He’s too weak for me…” - Damon could barely talk, and still he mocked the one who bullied him.

The two victims were dragged by their enemies to Britpoplar’s cemetery. It had both fancy tombs for the rich families and some areas to drop poor abandoned chaps. Last time Damon was there he stole Simon Gilbert’s body away, to bury him at his homeplace. 

“Right! Let’s play a game!” - Liam held Damon by his hair, almost pulling it from his scalp. They kept climbing the hill on the cemetery until they found the tiniest stone mausoleum. It must have been built for a child, but the funeral never happened. The monument was there for a really long time, and the Gallaghers often took other young men there just to terrorize them, locking them up in the tomb for several hours. They were about to do it with Damon and Graham.

“Liam, I don’t know if they will both fit in! We never tried putting two at once!” - Noel was laughing at his younger brother’s psychotic necessities. He probably participated only for gags.

“Shaddap and help me” 

The only way Damon and Graham could coexist in that horrid conditions were positioned against each other, face to face, squeezed in the vault between the stone walls. 

“Let’s see how long it will take for them to figure how to get out” - the two friends in trouble overheard the sentence, as the voices from Noel and Liam disappeared with the distance. 

It was so tight in there that their rib cages didn’t have enough space to breath. Their legs were nearly intertwined with one another. Graham’s crotch was against Damon’s thigh, as well as the same for the other way round. The whole situation was disturbingly inconvenient, and yet it could get a lot worse.

“Graham, are you okay?” - Asked Damon after noticing his friend’s face twitch. - “Can you breathe?”

Coxon could only nod positively, while a drop of sweat ran down on his forehead. Damon struggled to move his hands and looked all around the stone enclosure.

“That’s what Justin Welch meant with being abused by the Gallaghers! What a bunch of useless cunts! If he got out, we can too!”

Not that Graham was relieved with the idea of being free from that nonsense, but while Damon was slowly searching for a lump, a button, or a handle of any sort in the walls, it was hard not move accidentally against his mate, rubbing himself against Coxon’s body.

“Damon, I am sorry, I am so sorry, I can’t!”

“What are you…? Oh, my… Graham, you…”

That was it. Graham Coxon got a boner, and his stiffness was screaming inside his trousers, trapped between Damon’s thigh and below his own navel. Damon first reaction was to be in shock. Never in his mind he could imagine this chap longing for him, even though Morrissey had suggested so a few days prior. Graham was truly mortified. He refused to open his eyes and wished he was dead only not to hear what Damon had to say. Instead of what was expected, Damon suddenly burst into laughter. Graham discreetly peeked at his giggling face. 

“That’s right! Laugh at me! I deserve to be humiliated!” - Coxon cried dramatically. 

“Shut your mouth, Gra.” - Damon silenced Graham himself, surprising him with a warm, magisterial, and hopeless kiss. He forced his tongue inside the man’s mouth, relishing on his sweet taste and extreme insecurity. 

Graham, at first, got so scared with Damon’s sudden move, that he fought it, refusing to believe that his life had come that - but as soon as Damon’s large tongue made way, his whole body simply swooned. He wanted more, and he didn’t want it to stop - but Damon had a million thoughts in his head. He started it, and he ceased it too.

“We shouldn’t, Graham, you’re my friend.”

“I… I think I am in love with you.” 

When they thought they were never gonna leave that wretched tomb, Damon unexpectedly hit his elbow on a piece of the wall and dislocated, making it possible for them to push the stones apart and escape the trap. They literally fell on top of each other when they made it out.

“You don’t want to get involved in this, Graham.” - Damon was referring to joining the gay brotherhood. “I can't let you risk your life over me.”

“But - I am not confused anymore! I know now, I want this, and I want you!” - Graham embraced Albarn, still on the ground.

The blonde one held Coxon’s chin, as if he was about to kiss him again, but then let go. He got up and assisted his confidant afterwards. 

“Try to imagine yourself with a maiden or something and get rid of this hard-on you’ve got, We’re going back to the university.”

Eventually, Graham’s erection faded away, but not because he imagined a naked woman - being rejected by Damon in that way had hurt him. He felt as if his feelings had been played with, like a dart game. Damon had hit bullseye, and his heart was now bleeding.  Neither him or Albarn could sleep that night. Coxon was just too sad, regretting that he opened his heart to his friend in a moment of fragility. Damon, on the other hand, kept awake because of his guilt. He didn’t want to mess with Graham’s feelings at all. He was still resenting Simon’s death, and believed he couldn’t keep his brothers at the secret community safe. He loved Graham too, still, he wasn’t ready to put his life on the line for the sake of their feelings. 

#gramon #fanfiction #to the end with you fic #britpop #I am back

[mvneatcr]

( jake gyllenhaal. cis male, he/him, soap + riz la vie. ) have you seen NOEL LAWTON walking around central park during lunch time? rumor has it they’re THIRTY FIVE, but i think their mental age is THIRTY EIGHT. currently, they’re posing as a REALTOR at LAWTON’S REALTY, and during dark you can always find them going home to MANHATTAN by SUBWAY. apparently, they DID NOT attend the met gala this year! (alyssa, 21, she/her, pst)

a like = me popping into your ims to plot; (or add me on discord! alyssa #4325)

Summary: Noel is a witch turned vampire, who had a pretty peachy life until his hunter husband learned what he was and killed him for. 

Noel wasn’t always Noel. In fact, for the first seventy two hours of his life, he was dubbed Connor Edward Williams. It didn’t last too long, as his biological, teenage mother learned that she just wasn’t quite ready for motherhood. When he was adopted, his parents didn’t hear a ring in that name, and decided Noel Christian Lawton was a better fit. He’s been Noel ever since. His parents must’ve been saints for adopting a child in need, but besides that, they  were. His father was the head pastor for a large baptist church outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mother was the perfect preacher’s wife, as she was the head of women’s group, head of the children’s ministry, and an all around beautiful and gracious. They spent their free time helping out at soup kitchens and volunteering with foster kids. Such a shame that two nice people ended up with such a devilish son.

It’s not their fault, nor his, really, there’s only lack of communication to blame. Because the state of Pennsylvania does not require a parent to disclose that their child is or is not a witch. 

Noel was a naturally naughty kid, he constantly had his hand in the cookie jar, and a lie to tie around it. In grade school, he freely teased others and spent his fair share of time in the principal’s office. Middle school he was going through quite the changes. Puberty is hard enough, and it gets harder when you begin to possess powers that you do not understand. It was getting tricky trying to explain to his mother why the house smelled of smoke, after accidentally setting the lamp in the living room on fire, and why they awoke to his scream that one night, as Noel woke up to his furniture levitating in the air. He was able to keep to this underwraps for a while, until he finally learned what was happening to him. A few afternoons spent in the school’s library, he came to a conclusion. He was a witch. 

Noel learns to control his abilities and make them work for him. A charm spell when he saw a cute boy out in the town always came in handy, a good luck potion when finals came around is what saved his grade. He even casted a spell or two on his mom and dad when he got in trouble at school, just to ease the blow. The Lawtons began to catch on to Noel’s behavior. Soon enough the God fearing couple caught their son in the middle of casting a spell,  aka chanting broken latin in his bedroom, and called it blasphemy. They packed his shit up in a garbage bag and threw him out at the shining age of seventeen. He hitched hike to New York City and was on his own ever since, never looking back, not  even once.

Mostly because NYC was terrific for Noel. He met other witches like himself. They taught him even more about his powers, and he joined the Noctis Circle. Noel was exposed to more supernatural creatures, learning about vampires werewolves, and hunters.

He learned more about hunters then he ever cared to, when he fell for someone. With the help of a love spell, he ensured that Jasper would feel the same sense of love as Noel did when he first saw him. Of course, this all before Noel realized that he was Jasper Leon, head of one of founding families. A hunting family at that. He made a decision to hide his witch side from Jasper. It worked for a while, and life was good for them for a few years. The two wedded, and started a family. Noel launched his career as a realtor, and has a pretty successful realty company in New York City. 

But good things can’t last forever. Noel couldn’t exactly tell you what happened, but he suspected that the love potion he had casted all those years ago had faded, and somehow, Jasper figured out the truth of who Noel was. It was too much for Jasper to handle, and murder was the only way of evening the score. They said it was a car accident, Noel wonders if that’s what he tells the kids too. The betrayal did not come to as a surprise to Noel, as he drank a vile of vampire blood every day. You know, just in case. 

Immortality has treated him very well for the last three years. He got out New York, and spent some time exploring the world. But now he’s returned home to either repair the relationship between his husband and family, or set it to flames, he hasn’t decided yet. 

#n. lawton / biography. #nightsbound%3Aintro #wow this is a fat bio #sorry #yikess #i guess i was in the mood to write idk

[ravenlywritings]

Realization

Written with @maximillianvalentine, Dhares belongs to her! Be sure to give her a follow, and to learn more about her characters and amazing world, check out her writing blog @yudryae!

A slight sting hits my collarbone, causing me to run my finger along it. The raised skin alarms me, and I rush to the nearest mirror. Pulling my shirt off, I stare in horror at the flowing script embedded in my skin,

Dhares Kemal

What have I done?

That bastard tricked me. How is anyone going to take me seriously now? A jinn that sold his own soul, and for what? This better work out for me, or I might as well go into hiding. No one can know about this.

This is all that wretched Kalise’s fault. If she had never said anything, I would still own my own soul.

I grab my shirt and put it back on, being sure to hide Dhares’ name from view. I have business to attend to and I cannot let this control me. First on my list of deals to check up on is none other than the Demon King himself.

Fading into the shadows, I find my way to Kearney. I follow him around for a while until he steps into his office. Materializing before him, I take a seat in front of his desk and he glares at me. “Hello Kearney,” I smirk at his reaction to my presence.

“You know, I have always wanted to meet the Demon King, face to face. Although I suppose I would have to actually move in front of him for that to happen.” Dhares leans out from behind Kearney, giving him a once over, and directs his next comment at me. “How is your new tattoo healing? Is it hurting quite a lot?”

“What are you doing here?” I snarl.

“Uhh, what is going on?”  Kearney turns his attention to Dhares, “And who the hell are you?”

“Dhares Kemal, pleasure to make your acquaintance, your majesty!” Dhares bows low to him. He straightens, before plopping himself down in the seat next to me.

I lean close to Dhares and whisper as softly as I can, “You cannot be here. You need to leave now.”

He gives me a small pout of his lips, “Oh, do not worry; I will be quiet as a mouse!”

I clench my fist and glare at him, but before I can say anything else, Kearney clears his throat to grab my attention, “If you and your boyfriend are done talking, I’d like you to tell me what you’re here for.”

“Firstly, we are not together, nor will we ever be. He is just a pain in my side,” I sneer. “Secondly, I would like to talk to you about Maxine. How is the search going?”

“We’re getting close, I can feel it,” Kearney pauses for a moment, a sinister grin spreads across his lips. “You already know where she is, so I suggest you tell me that information if you want to keep that soul of yours.”

Dhares’ muscles tense next to me and anger flares in his eyes, but he keeps quiet. I fold my hands together and cross my leg, “Right, but that’s where you are wrong. Don’t you think if I knew where she was that I would tell you?” Kearney looks away from me, but I continue, “Your soul belongs to me, or have you forgotten?”

“Look, I’m hungry, so someone is going to give me energy or a soul, whether they want to or not. Your boyfriend looks like he’d have a nice one,” Kearney winks at Dhares. The look on Dhares’ face is not one of suspicion as I would have expected; instead, he looks almost intrigued by the idea. Kearney steps out from behind his desk and leans down to Dhares. “Have you nothing to say?”

Dhares only gives him a shrug in response.

Kearney grabs his arm roughly, pulling him up from the chair, “Other than humans, I think this is the easiest time I’ve ever had taking energy. You jinn may be tricky, but you can’t outsmart me. I always get what I want.”  

I watch as Kearney begins taking Dhares’ energy. Perhaps I will get my soul back if Kearney manages to pull this off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for Kearney to release Dhares; his face twists with anger, “You don’t have a soul?”

“Ah, is that why you decided to make out with me? And here I thought it was because of my stunningly good looks.You learn something new everyday!” Dhares lights up with glee, “I have no idea whether I have a soul or not.”

“As an incubus, I’ve never failed to find a soul. It must mean you don’t have one. You’re not a jinn, are you?” Kearney crosses his arms, “Your energy feels like Maxine’s. Why is that?”

“What are you willing to bet for that information?”

“Nothing. I already have one deal; I don’t need another thing toying with my life,” he scoffs. I am surprised that he denied Dhares.  

“That is a shame. Fine. I will answer one question for you, no strings attached, no deals, no bets. Just one simple answer. How is that?” Dhares relaxes back into his seat, resting his leg on his knee, and raises an eyebrow in challenge.

“Any question I ask, right?”

Dhares smiles, “Is that your final question?”

“What? No! Don’t try and trick me, damnit,” Kearney growls. I have to stifle a laugh, causing Dhares’ smile to widen; it’s interesting to see another person taunt him. Kearney glares at me before returning his attention to Dhares, “Where is Max?”

“The little revolutionary, Maximillian Ailet? Why, she is with the angel and the damned.” Dhares answers in one breath, as if knowing the exact question that Kearney would ask.

“Vanrahn? Why the hell would she team up with him?”

Dhares doesn’t respond nor move in any way, refusing to give even a hint.

“If that’s all you have to say, you both can leave now,”  Kearney says as he rubs his forehead. “I need to talk to those kids.”

I nod my head and stand, “I’ll be back to check on you.” With that, I  fade into the shadows once more. I almost hope that Dhares follows me because I have a lot of questions that I want to ask him.

An arm settles around my shoulders, “I am glad you called for me; I was able to meet another egotistical idiot who needs to be taken down a few pegs, and it is all thanks to you, pretty boy.”

“Why do you think I have a deal made with him?  He thinks I’m helping him, but I know about your little revolutionary and what she can do. It’s more fun to drag others into this and watch how it unfolds,” I smirk, reappearing in my home.

“Mmm, just be careful. If she ever finds you, she will destroy you. I doubt she will have any mercy left in her heart, especially not for you.” Dhares turns me towards him, then gently pulls down the collar of my shirt, tracing his name on my collarbone. “You never told me how this was holding up.”

“I have a feeling that you won’t let anything happen to me unless it benefits you,”  I say as I pull away from him touch. “It stings, but it is easy enough to ignore.”

“I cannot let someone break what is rightfully mine, now can I? Then again, I could always separate your soul; the physical form is just an added bonus.”

“Willingly and rightfully are two completely different things, dear Dhares," I challenge.

“Alright then, let me explain. You, Akir Ameer, willingly signed your name, selling ownership of your soul to me, meaning you are, rightfully, mine. Sure, they are different, but they are also both quite important.” He clasps his hands behind his back, a smug grin spreading across his face, “Now, did you have questions you wished to ask or not?”

“Why is your name written on me when I signed my name on you?”

“It is an unremovable and obvious mark that I own you. A Yudryaen Soul Contract, if you would prefer a better term for it. It also means that you, and your soul, are under protection; No one will be able to mess with or take your soul. Even if one were to try, the magic is unbreakable.”

“If your name is on me, does that mean that I own your soul?” I ask softly, my curiosity piqued.

He tilts his head, seriously considering the question. “Well, as we just found out, it appears I do not have a soul. So, no. Up until now, I had been wondering the same thing.”

“No wonder you are such an asshole,” I jeer, hoping to get under his skin. Although, I know it likely won’t faze him.

“Yes, and congratulations on being stuck with me! Do not worry, you will learn to love it.”

“How long am I stuck with you?”

“How long is your lifespan?”

“Don’t you dare say that!” I gasp. Oh god, what have I done?  “Unless someone kills me, like I hope they will now, I will continue to live.”

“Oh dear. Well, I can promise you I am not that bad to live with. And, I will never let anything happen to you, so that is another problem solved.”

“So, what you are saying is, I am doomed. Great. This is just great,” I sigh heavily in defeat.

“Oh lighten up.” He drags me back to his side, his hand gripping my shoulder, “Think about the chaos we have caused when we never even realized we were working together? After all, I steered her in the right direction in the first place. She is nearly ready to face Kearney, as I had hoped she would. And it is highly unlikely that she will fail.” His voice has an excited tone to it, ignoring my negative mood.

“Hmm, you’re not wrong. She is doing as I hoped. All that’s left is the little vamp children to join her. Though, it won’t be all four of them if things go the way I think they will.”

“Oh, I think they already have. If you mean Noel. Maximillian has already taken care of that little brat. It was pretty entertaining to watch.”

“Well, I missed it. Damn. I definitely cannot miss Maxine’s fight with Kearney, that one will surely be the highlight of my life thus far,” I smile widely. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

“Now, I think it is time I ask a question of my own.” He twists me back to face him and lifts my chin slightly. “Well, it is more of a request. I want to know exactly what you were thinking while we were at the bookshop. Honesty would be preferred.”

Heat rushes to my face and I look away from his gaze, “I’d rather not say.”

“I have answered you without a fight; will you not do the same?” His voice is velvety soft, and I can tell he finds my embarrassment amusing.

“I’m not used to other people being that close to me, so I was taken off guard when a handsome man approached me. Happy?”

“Handsome? And what about right now? Have I caught you off guard once more?”

“I… yes… you have,” I answer shyly.

I feel his gaze upon me once more before he speaks, “You really are beautiful; I will have to catch you off guard more often.” I find myself having to catch my breath, unable to speak.  He drops his hand, satisfied with my reaction, and steps back. He leaves me standing in the front hall, and slips into the next room.

Shaking myself from my stupor, I stand in the doorway and cross my arms, “What do you think you are doing?”

“Well, I was sleeping, but obviously I am not now.” He opens one eye to glance at me.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to go? This is my home,” I bark with irritation. I just want to be alone now.

He stretches his arms out, then folds them behind his head. “Oh, this is your house! It is nice.” He closes his eyes once more and adjusts himself on the sofa to be more comfortable, “No, I do not have anywhere else to go.”

I roll my eyes, pushing myself from the door frame, “Alright, fine. I suppose I can share my home with you.” He doesn’t respond, and I realize that he’s fallen asleep within seconds. “Of course, I didn’t have a choice on this, did I?”  I sigh and leave him alone.

Taking a seat at my cluttered desk, I reach for the book where I write all of my findings about Kearney. Jotting down all that happened today, I lean back and read it over. It’s all just as I had thought, even Noel’s death was correct. These people are far too predictable; I want more uncontrollable souls like Maxine to make things on this planet more fun. Yudryae must be very interesting if they have more people like Maxine and Dhares. They’re both very dangerous, but that’s what is fun about them.

#writeblr #vignette #creative writing #original writing #am writing #amwriting #co-written #co-author #original characters #akir ameer #dhares kemal #yudryae #draygar #original world #renee-gracie #maximillianvalentine

[kassandra-lorelei]

So, I've been sick in bed and went back through all your one-shots on here (why did I never do that before?!) Anyways... You're amazing and I love them all, but my favorite one was the AU where Niles was CC's carriage driver who got lost and they eventually run off together. It's so adorable and I was wondering if you could write a next part of it? Their wedding and /or them living on the run from her family maybe? I just want to know what happens next! Ha ha Thanks, Hannah!

Hey there, my friend! I’m sorry to hear you’ve been unwell - I hope you’re feeling better!

@missbabcocks1 @holomoriarty

Niles had been correct in his assumptions that the journeywould be long – they had left at first light and it had been very near dusk bythe time they’d arrived at the village where his cousin served as priest. Butto Chastity-Claire, there had never been a finer journey, nor a better timespent. Her fiancé, though but a servant by birth and profession, was truly themost remarkable she’d ever met. His wit matched her own, his kindness wasunparalleled, and his charm could win the heart of even the most cynicalcreature.

It had certainly won hers. She could not be completely firmin how many of her friends and family had married for love, but from the waymany of them presented themselves at dinners and balls, it was not themajority. She was amongst the fortunate few, and she would not trade her placefor all the wealthy suitors her mother would consider a more than adequatealternative.

Niles’ cousin was an amicable man, and though he had beensurprised to see them, he’d delighted in the opportunity to perform a wedding(even at extremely short notice!). He’d even gathered some of the localvillagers to serve as witnesses and as congregation, and some of the villagersin turn had provided Chastity-Claire with a fine bouquet of wildflowers, andNiles with a fresh suit. They had insisted that no man should look less than hisbest on his wedding day, and after many thanks were exchanged between allparties, they had begun the ceremony.

A faint blush had settled across Chastity-Claire’s cheeksfrom the onset, and she feared being the colour of the setting sun by the endof it. But from the gaze that Niles bestowed upon her (even from the merecorner of his eye), she felt as though she could be as red as an apple and hewould consider her no less than a goddess.

The mere thought sent a pleasant shiver through her verycore, and she beamed back at her love, before turning her eyes back to thepriest.

“If there is any person present who knows of a reason whythis man and this woman may not be married, you are to declare it now.”

There could be no reason. No person present knew-

“I demand that this wedding be stopped!” cried a commandingvoice, snatching the remains of Chastity-Claire’s thought from her head.

The replacement dread for her previous satisfaction feltcold, and with a soft gasp she spun to witness the objector’s entrance.

It was her mother, Lady Barbara-Beatrice Babcock, who hadspoken, and whose heeled shoes were marching with tempestuous purpose towardsher daughter through the murmuring congregation. Her father, Lord StewartBabcock, and her brother Noel both soon followed, appearing much more reluctant.The instigator of this interruption was clear, and though Chastity-Clairelowered her bouquet in one hand, she used the other to take Niles’.

She would not allow him to feel intimidated, which was oftenthe case when her mother approached servants. And though she knew her love tobe both sharp and stalwart in his own honour’s defence, her encouragement wouldnot be unwelcome.

“Chastity-Claire,” it was not a greeting that her mothergave. “Step away from that man this instant!”

Chastity-Claire would do no such thing, “Mother-”

“Silence, child,” Lady Babcock came to an imperious haltbefore them. “We did not leave the Goodhues’ home in search of you, only to beinformed by the landlord of an inn some miles away from your intendeddestination, that you had left in this direction with your fiancé! I will notallow it to continue! You are a highborn lady, you shall present yourself assuch, and you shall marry as such!”

Chastity-Claire had never heard such a silence follow anorder her mother gave. But it was to be expected – she was the recipient, andshe was not going to obey.

It was only broken by a clearing of the throat designed toattract attention.

“Perhaps,” Niles’ cousin leaned discreetly into the colloquy.“It might be more prudent if this discussion were to be conducted privately?”

Lady Babcock turned on the priest with the amount of respectowed to a man of his position, but also with an equal amount of condescensionthat was typical of her interactions with…well, any working man or woman shecame across!

“Good sir, I shall be the one to decide where my affairs arediscussed.”

“This is not your affair, Mother,” Chastity-Claire finallyfound herself able to speak. “This affair is between Niles and myself.”

Lady Babcock cast a disdainful eye over Niles, “It certainlyalmost was…!”

Chastity-Claire set her jaw hard to prevent it from gaping, butshe knew her eyes were alight with righteous anger.

“I am a woman of age, Mother; I may decide which man Imarry!”

“Not when your choice brings shame upon our family!” hermother retorted, her chest slowly swelling in indignation. “Unless, of course,you are choosing to renounce the Babcock name?”

That irked Chastity-Claire.

She slowly tilted her head to one side, “Is that not anobjective of marrying, Mother? To give up one’s maiden name and take up that ofone’s husband?”

Her mother’s eyes flashed, and her hand gestured, “This manis a servant! He has no name!”

Chastity-Claire felt Niles let go of her hand. In a momentof unprecedented fear, she thought that perhaps he had decided that her motherwas correct, and he was intending to step away so that she might marry a manher family deemed worthier of her. Though she would never do such a thing, whenshe now knew her love to be him.

But Niles did not step away. He merely stepped forward toaddress Lady Babcock.

“If I may beg your pardon, my lady, us of the lower ordersdo also possess surnames,” he said, calm and collected in his manner. “Though Icannot fault you for believing otherwise, Your Ladyship having never stooped tospeak to any man below the rank of Duke.”

More than a whisper of a gasp, intermingled with variousnoises of amusement, went about the congregation, and Lady Babcock was deeplyaffronted.

“How dare you address me in such a fashion?!” she turnedfrantically to her husband. “Stewart! Say something!”

Chastity-Claire’s father appeared composed. However, therewas a glint of mirth dancing in his eyes.

“Do I have permission, Barbara?” he asked, cocking his headin a similar fashion to his daughter. “I only possess the rank of Lord…”

The hilarity spread further amongst the congregation,including to Noel, who barked a laugh.

And though Chastity-Claire knew her mother would have deniedpulling such an unseemly facial expression, Lady Babcock gaped.

“You cannot possibly be in agreement with Chastity-Claire’sdecision?!”

“I am, in actual fact,” Lord Babcock wandered to theirdaughter’s side, placing a gentle hand on her upper back. “Our girl has becomea woman, Barbara. She has fallen in love. And I understand completely heraversion to attending any party or ball in which Elizabeth Goodhue is present.”

Lady Babcock spun on her heel, eyes searching for her son.

“Noel,” her voice was verging on desperate. “Your father hastaken leave of his senses! Speak to him at once!”

Chastity-Claire’s brother was concealing a full look ofamusement; she had always been able to tell when he was intending on mischief andhis current countenance matched each scenario.

“Unfortunately, Mother, that will not be possible,” Noelannounced. “I also choose to uphold Chastity-Claire’s decision, and I also hateElizabeth Goodhue.”

Lady Babcock’s eyes widened, her form growing weak as shelooked as though she might faint, “You…hate…?!”

Chastity-Claire restrained herself from laughing at hermother’s behaviour. The Goodhue family were the wealthiest amongst all thelocal families. Her mother most likely still had visions of her betrothal toJames Goodhue, Elizabeth’s son. Not that such a venture would come to fruitionanymore.

Noel smiled, “Vehemently.”

“With untold fervour,” Lord Babcock agreed. He then becameapparently thoughtful, though it was clear it was feigned. “Although, “untold”is a changeable factor. A factor which might easily be changed, say, out loudand at the next function we host, to which the Goodhues are invited…?”

Silence hung in the air before his wife answered.

“You would never dare to do such a thing.”

“For my girl and her happiness, I would live the very day Idid over, tenfold,” Lord Babcock replied. “A servant for a son-in-law ispleasing compared to the embarrassment of the scandal I would cause.”

The silence returned as Lady Babcock cast her eye over thewedding party, the flush of potential humiliation staining her cheeks. It wasobvious to all that she had been defeated on the matter.

“Well. Then I fear you leave me no choice but to accept thisappalling state of affairs. Though I want it noted that I do so under protest,”she huffed her declaration. “If I were not under duress, then neither bride norbridegroom would be welcome in my home!”

She followed her statement by storming away, no doubt toreturn to the carriage from whence the Babcock family had made their journey tothe village.

“Fortunately, they are welcome in mine and we share thathome together,” her husband called after her vanishing frame, before turninghis attention to the soon-to-be-married couple. “Though the blushing bride andher groom might find it more acceptable to have their own, might they not?”

There was only one possible implication that he could bemaking in his statement.

Chastity-Claire felt her breath catch in her chest, whichshe clutched, “Father…are you suggesting that you will…?”

Her father smiled, “The family along the way from us haverelocated to the city. They are poised to sell me their house, as well as allthe surrounding land. It shall be my wedding gift to the pair of you.”

A house. A home of their own, which Chastity-Claire couldnot imagine being long empty. Herself and Niles would soon move in, and then…well,it was inevitable that children would follow! Her mother had made sure she was very well educated in what to expect, after all, and the thought of being withNiles (while also slightly intimidating) was…well, more than stimulating to her.

She beamed, “Father, I…words cannot express how grateful Iam!”

He took her free hand, matching her countenance in return, “Thinknothing of it, my Kitten.”

Niles stepped towards them both, resting his own hand overhis heart, “I feel that I must express my own thanks as well, sir. I cannotimagine how many numerous fathers would have attempted to pay me to keep awayfrom their daughter, or perhaps given me a sound thrashing.”

Lord Babcock laughed, “I would not insult any feelings hereby offering money, sir. And you will receive no thrashings from me, for as longas you keep my Chastity-Claire happy,”

“You have my word when I say that I intend to spend my lifedoing exactly that,” Niles bowed.

Chastity-Claire watched as her father considered her futurehusband, before stepping away from her and offering Niles a hand to shake.

“Then you have my blessing,” Lord Babcock said. “It iswell-deserved; not many men can claim to have stood up to my wife, and evenfewer can say that Chastity-Claire would willingly forgo all she has known andloved for them.”

Niles took the proffered hand and turned a look of adorationon his future wife, “I already count myself amongst the most fortunate of menfor that very reason, sir.”

“As well you should,” Lord Babcock grinned, grasping Niles’hand tightly before releasing it. “And please, think of me as the mostunfortunate of men – I cannot stay for my own daughter’s wedding, and must insteadface the wrath of my wife the moment I set foot off these consecrated grounds.”

“Are you certain you cannot stay, Father?” Chastity-Claire asked,disappointed at the thought of her father or brother missing the ceremony. “Thevillage inn has offered us a reception after the ceremony…”

Her father took and held her upper arms, “I would lovenothing more, my sweet, but your mother will be waiting in the carriage toleave.”

Chastity-Claire turned to her brother, “Noel?”

The man returned an unfortunate look.

“Alas, I must assist Father in appeasing Mother,” he said. “Ourpresence would only spoil the ambience.”

If it were truly possible to physically deflate, then Chastity-Clairewould have achieved it in that moment. Though she knew they were correct – her motherwould never agree to sitting through a celebration for an occasion of which shedid not approve. Her father and brother would have to mollify her, somewherefurther away than the ceremony.

Niles must have noticed her displeasure, as he came closerto her and placed his own hand upon her back.

“Then we must all have dinner together when we return,” he stated. “I may have no living relations, but I will not allow my wife tomiss celebrating with hers.”

Chastity-Claire felt the warmth of affection coming over herheart, and she leaned carefully into his half-embrace.

“You truly are a gentleman. Niles, was it?” Lord Babcockasked, slapping his future son-in-law heartily on the upper arm. “We shallarrange a meal for the day after you come home, so that you may rest from yourjourney.”

The man then took one last look at his daughter, approached,and kissed her on the cheek.

“Farewell for now, my Kitten. I could not be prouder of you,or of your decision.”

Chastity-Claire returned the kiss, “Thank you, Father.”

Noel moved closer to do the same, “Farwell, little sister.Enjoy your elopement as though it had never been interrupted!”

The couple certainly intended to. And after Lord Babcock andthe future Lord Babcock left with more wholehearted farewells, the ceremony wasresumed.

The reception at the inn might not have been full of spectacle,but it had the warmth and true jubilation Chastity-Claire often felt ballslacked. Beer and wine flowed freely, joyous laughter and music floated throughthe air, and there was a wondrous amount of enthusiastic dancing.

The bride and bridegroom tired of it long before the guestsdid – they craved some time to themselves, and were thoroughly applauded asthey excused themselves for the night.

Chastity-Claire held her husband’s arm as they walked alongthe corridor, to the room the innkeeper had insisted on giving them for thenight, with the rent already paid.

“I had once imagined my wedding would be some grand affair;flowers and ribbons, a great feast laid out, all friends and relations upstandingto make a toast,” she sighed, relaxing in the quiet and the comfort of Nilesnext to her.

Niles also sighed, though it conveyed a very differentemotion, “I am sorry that we could not have had such a ceremony.”

Chastity-Claire stopped him outside the room door, windingher arms about his neck.

“There is no reason to be,” she told him, resting herforehead against his. “I preferred the one we just had to any fantasy, my darlinghusband.”

Niles began to smirk at that, “The night is not finishedyet, my dearest wife.”

Chastity-Claire matched his expression, thinking of how onlythe night before, they had been forced by decorum into separate rooms. And nowthey would share not only a room, but a bed.

She brushed her lips close to his, “Oh, yes…the matter of myhonour…”

Niles, understanding what she wanted, caught her lips in a shortyet passionate kiss. It felt like a foretaste of what was to come.

“Might I be allowed to escort you inside?” he near whispered.

“You may,” Chastity-Claire murmured in reply.

Without so much as a muttered word, Niles lifted her intohis arms, causing Chastity-Claire to let out a soft giggle.

Her husband smiled lovingly at her, “I might not have beenable to give you the ceremony you deserve, but I can certainly bring flourishwhere possible.”

Chastity-Claire stroked his cheek with one finger, “I shallbe holding you to that promise…”

Even from the sly grin he gave to her words, she knew hewould not disappoint. And as Niles carried her over the threshold into their room,using his foot to close the door behind them both, the celebratory music andcheerful laughter carried on below.

#bigbabypuddingsnatcher47 #the nanny #niles and cc #niles the butler #cc babcock #otp: always been bitter together #otp: butler bitch

[thatmexisaurusrex]

The Shotgun Angel: Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1: THE SHOTGUN ANGEL

 Wisteria was built around the Undying Forest. Buildings made so that when the trees grew, they had room. Buildings weren’t built by cutting down to create a flattened plain, no, they were built around whatever was there, indoor spaces and green spaces one and the same in the Old parts of town, high on the mountain top where the Heavens meet the earth. People came from all over the world to see a city created to compliment its natural biome, meant to accentuate and appreciate the awe-inspiring fauna and flora on top of the Endless Mountain.

And then there were the edges of Wisteria, New Town. Temporary bungalows made to withstand perhaps a season if they were lucky, tin thin and lacking the elegance of the city that loomed above it. Most tourists tended to ignore New Town. It wasn’t exactly a prime destination, after all. It wasn’t something many people spoke of unless bemoaning a poverty that felt too immense to wipe clean from their eyes or if you lived there and simply couldn’t ignore the nature of your habitat. However, deep in the heart of New Town, hidden near a crumbling chapel, it was said their lives a daemon spawn who will help anyone for the right price.

The first thing Pearl noticed about Noel Baird was her eyes. Pearl didn’t know eyes could be that color. As if someone concentrated the jewelry shine of a polished shell, moving between a seafoam and aqua depending on the light. She seemed to endure forever bedhead, despite trying to comb her short hair into some presentable shape. She wore a suit as if she knew she needed to look professional, yet the suit was too big on her, too unwieldy, making her seem like someone playing adult. Maybe she was. She looked younger than Pearl expected.

“You just going to stare at me all day or do you want something from me? If not, Stop wasting my time,” grumbled Noel, and Pearl didn’t expect how garbled the voice was, as if this thin, small young woman had irreparably burned her throat leaving whatever croak of a voice that was.

Perhaps that was the daemon in Noel.

Pearl straightened, trying to palm down creases in her own outfit as if her body were rejecting whatever Noel’s clothes were doing entirely.

“Yes. Quite. Well. My name is Pearl Morin and I had heard that Noel Baird would help anyone for a price – that you might be able to help me with my…complicated situation,” Pearl responded.

At first, there was a curdling of the face, a souring in the air when Noel heard “anything”, perhaps the tone Pearl had (it wasn’t as if Pearl hadn’t heard before that her tone wasn’t exactly “friendly” nor “amiable”). But there was a shift, as if Noel’s general rule was to always not judge a book by its cover, and the bristle softens as she stalks around Pearl.

“Your empty money, aren’t you?” asked Noel, her eyes devastating as they read Pearl in ways she felt uncomfortable in admitting, “Nice clothes, but worn, well-kept. You’re one disaster away from New Town. I see why you’re coming to me instead of, say, Holy Agency? Or, perhaps it’s the nature of the ‘problem’ you come to me with. Too embarrassing for the gossip hounds? Willing to risk them for New Town trances, but not the actual problem itself?”

Pearl squirmed under the judgement. She loathed it, some daemon spawn judging her, but she couldn’t say the girl was at all wrong. Which gave Pearl some solace for coming to her for aid in this grave matter.

“Do you have an office? Or will we talk amongst the miscreants in the alleyways and pray they don’t sell my secrets for fortunes?” Pearl said coldly.

Pearl was taller than this girl. She used her height as a point of pride, made sure her back, straight, made it pointedly clear that she would not be harassed by this pay-for-help creature. All Noel did was laugh, glancing over at the muddied children ogling them and shooing them off.

“They’ve never seen clothes so dazzling, but if you’re really so worried, we can meet inside,” explained Noel like Pearl was an idiot, vaguely gesturing for Pearl to follow her into the crumbling chapel behind her, which, strange.

Pearl couldn’t fathom how the structure was still standing, with how little upkeep it seemed to have in terms of the building itself and how archaic the building was. It even had stained glass of angels, surprisingly pristine and untouched unlike the rest of the building, something Pearl had never seen herself in person. It felt as if one particularly strong wind could bring this place down, which would be a shame due to the rare specimens of stained glass.

“I didn’t know such a place existed here,” mumbled Pearl, sensing a faint waft of smoke.

“That’s because no one quite cares for the chapels of yesteryear, left behind as you choose more interactive places of worship,” Noel explained, stepping into eyeline.

Pearl flinched when she noticed that it was Noel who brought about the smell of smoke. She was literally smoking in the church, yet seemed completely relaxed in between the pews.

“You’re, y-you’re,” Pearl stammered as Noel smiled at her, her teeth only slightly pointier looking than the average person – or perhaps that was a trick of the light, Pearl’s brain assuming there had to be something physically demonic about this cursed person.

“You think of daemons,” Noel replied without even needing to hear the answer, “You see, an ancestor of mine some five-hundred years ago offered up her soul as well as the souls of five-thousand of her offspring to the Daemon Azazel, Fallen Angel of Mercy, for gifts beyond her wildest dreams. She got the gifts. The rest of us were lost before we were ever given the choice. So, no. I’m not daemon spawn. I’m merely damned.”

She gestured to the smoke as if it was all settled, that reasoning was set. Maybe it was. But such a horrifying thought. To have your fate sealed before you were even alive, so far in the past that nothing could be done, there was no one to be angry at but probably those who birthed you thinking you could still have some semblance of a happy life.

“Is that why you do what you do?” Pearl asked.

Noel laughed again, more bitter.

“There’s nothing that can save me, you fancy mess. I do this because I want to,” Noel replied.

Noel glowered at the pity, so Pearl allowed herself to shut down such feelings. It wasn’t her fault a strange soul was given no chance. Noel leaned onto the pew, crossing her arms.

“Now, what seems to be your issue?” asked Noel.

There was no running from it, Pearl supposed. She let out a stifled sigh, sitting down in one of the pews.

“My brother, Aria, went missing some three weeks ago. He sometimes will do this. A few days, a week maybe, off partying around, drinking, gambling, but…not three weeks. I fear for him. Especially since he maintains a level of, well…rage against the fact that I seem to be the one keeping us afloat,” Pearl said, trying to find her words in her fidgeting hands, “Our father had drilled into his head that the man is supposed to keep a house afloat, and, well…I’ve always been better at the books. I even made sure he could go on his sprees with no dent in our finances, but he seems desperate to prove himself to be better than I and, from notes I found sprawled in his room, well…I fear for his soul.”

Noel bristled, moving away from the pew she leaned on.

“You’re telling me he’s going to make a deal with a daemon because he feels his fragile masculinity is threatened by you making sure he doesn’t burn through all of your funds?” growled Noel in a way Pearl never saw someone do for her, as if it was okay that she was the way she was and it was her brother in the wrong.

Pearl stuttered a nod. Noel roared, kicking a pew, the pew skewing sideways and awkwardly leaning onto the pew behind it. Noel froze, staring at what she had done.

“Oh, halos and harps,” grumbled Noel.

Pearl startled as a stumbling giant of a man hobbled out in undone priest clothes out from the door to some office Pearl didn’t notice hidden in the back corner. He didn’t look drunk like Pearl expected. More lacking sleep. He had stubble that didn’t quit, hair gelled to the heavens, and a piercing gaze to rival that of Noel. He pointed at Noel accusatorily.

“You break it, you buy it, kid,” the man rumbled, a voice both deep and authoritative with an edge of “kids have to listen to me if I sound like this, right?”.

Noel surprisingly panicked at his reaction, arms flailing.

“I didn’t mean to! This place is a crapshoot.”

“You say that when I let you into my home, I let your shotgun angel stay here?”

“I get it, I get it, I’ll pay for it, okay?”

They gabbed like a dad to a daughter, or maybe more like a disgruntled uncle to a turbulent niece. It juxtaposed the mysterious work-for-hire that made Pearl shiver, almost scared.

“Don’t be so hard on her. The blemish on her allows for a stronger vessel, you know she doesn’t know her strength sometimes,” grumbled a voice from in the office, stretching as he walked out.

This other man, dressed a lot like Noel, carried a hundred-meter stare in his October autumn eyes, voice deep and velvety and just a bit horrifying. Everything about him felt a little too put-together, especially with the two disasters he seemed to keep company with. As if he was born to wear a suit but hates it.

“She has a guest. Don’t embarrass her,” this too-put-together man said, pointing straight at Pearl, making Pearl squirm.

Then she realized why his gaze unsettled her. She turned, surprised to Noel, avoiding eye contact with the organized man.

“Oh of Cupid’s bows, why do you have an angel here? Why is he so easy to hide?” whispered Pearl as if that could make her unhearable, which she knew wouldn’t work but a girl could dream.

“Ortega doesn’t count anymore, don’t worry,” groaned Noel as if for the millionth time, “Stop focusing on those weirdoes – what will you give me in return?”

Pearl remembered why she was there.

“So, you’ll help me, then? With my, um…” Pearl stumbled, glancing at the two strangers in the room, “…situation?”

Noel’s eyes darkened, as if Pearl was truly making a deal with a devil, moving slowly towards Pearl, drawing shivers up Pearl’s spine, making her wonder if Noel’s tale was a lie.

“Depends on what you offer,” said Noel, “What do you think I am owed?”

She was prepared, though. For this pact. Clutching the amulet on her neck, Pearl, broke its chain, holding it out to Noel.

“I heard rumors of you looking for protection from heaven. This is a sliver of a maelstrom. From the Darker Days. I heard it hides a person from the eye of a beholder, so maybe this will help? I don’t know if it hides from heaven, but you can try it.”

She held it out for Noel, only to pull it away. Good. Pearl needed to feel some semblance of power in this agreement. Noel glared as Pearl placed the amulet in her dress’ pocket.

“You’ll get it once you find my brother. Before he does something he’ll regret,” said Pearl.

Noel sighed, nodding.

“That’s fair,” said Noel.

“Does that mean you need your shotgun angel? She’s still sleeping, last I checked,” echoed the still-messy maybe priest.

“Ugh, shut up, Iker. Nobody asked your opinion,” said Noel, stomping towards spiraling stairs behind them.

Pearl followed Noel, glancing over at the eyeing sort-of angel and possible priest.

“Hey, who are those two?” whispered Pearl, hesitant to get on the rickety spiraling staircase.

“Iker and Ortega? They own the chapel. Or run it. I don’t know how landowning works. They let Dru stay here, that’s all that matters,” said Noel, the stairs opening to a lofted room filled with soft pillows, fuzzy blankets, and a young woman sleeping, IV attached to her.

Noel crawled slowly to her, cautious. She touched the girl. Shook her a few times. No response. Pearl wasn’t sure what to make of this. What was happening. She wanted to ask, but she also didn’t want to be tangled in anything shady Noel might be doing. That was when she saw Noel clasping her hands to pray.

“Dru. It’s Noel. I hope you’re listening. I need you to come back, if you can. It’s your choice where you are. Don’t let them choose for you.”

And Noel just watched. Hopeful. Watching that breathing body before her. They snuck up from behind without Pearl even hearing them.

“You’re going to scare her, awakening that shotgun angel of yours,” growled Iker.

Noel glared at him.

“W-What’s a shotgun angel?” asked Pearl.

“Nephilim. A child of blood and bone and holy fury,” said Ortega, leaning a little too familiarly onto the strange almost-priest, “Their essence is tied inextricably to both the body birthed to the mortal coil and to the holiest plane, so their pith is shot from earth to heaven whenever those above call upon them.”

“But angels need hosts,” said Pearl.

“Not when they are half-mortal,” said Ortega, “A rarity, yes, but not unknown to be certain. And heaven, well…they like such soldiers in their garrisons.”

Noel kept her hands clasped, pulling Dru’s hand into her clutch.

“Come on, come on, come on. Didn’t you say you’d come when I call?” whispered Noel in a way that Pearl was sure she wasn’t supposed to hear.

And then it happened. A startle. A stop. A deep breath in, as if life dragged itself back into the body, dazzling topaz eyes lighting as her eyes opened wide, wider than they should. Noel’s hands flung up, cradling Dru’s face gently. Her hands smoked more – Pearl was sure it was probably her touching one most holy. Dru’s eyes fluttered, always on Noel.

“What are you doing?” said Dru, and it was if her voice was both raspy yet like a million relaxing wind chimes.

“Platonic face holding?” suggested Noel.

Dru smiled.

“You called, Noel?” asked Dru, her face still cradled.

“We got a job,” answered Noel, grinning.

#writeblr #writing #fantasy #dystopian #original writing #Serial #The Shotgun Angel #Chapter 1

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 12/11/20 - MINARI, THE MIDNIGHT SKY, LET THEM ALL TALK, WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, PARALLEL, WANDER DARKLY and More!

Honestly, I almost didn’t write a column this week for reasons I’ll probably be ranting about for a few more months, but the long and short of it is that I’ve now been writing movie reviews for 19 years, as well as writing a weekly column through most of that time, and I’m kind of sick of working my ass off, usually for very little money, and just not getting anything out of it.

This mainly came as I crossed 200 reviews for the year a few weeks back. As I was preparing to write this week’s column, Rotten Tomatoes, where most of my reviews have been available as FREE content for the past 17 years, decided to upgrade a number of critics to be “Top Critics”… but not yours truly. I have a lot more to say about this but don’t want to waste any more of my time or anger right now. I will be wrapping this column up and taking some time off for a month in January and deciding whether I want to keep wasting my time every week for no money and little feedback. It really just isn’t worth it anymore.

Fortunately, I saw a few good movies this week, and more than a few bad, so let’s start with one of the good ones, shall we?

This week’s “Featured Flick” is Lee Isaac Chung’s MINARI (A24), which like Nomadland last week will get some sort of virtual cinema release in New York and L.A., presumably that can be seen across the country. It will then get its official release on February 12, 2021.

The movie stars Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead as Jacob, a Korean father who brings his family to an Arkansas house in the middle of nowhere in the ‘80s, hoping to start a farm. His wife Monica (Yeri Han) is not happy with this decision but their kids Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim) try to adjust to the new life. Things aren’t going well but then Monica’s mother Soonja (Yuh-jung Youn) shows up, that just adds more pressure on Jacob, and the kids, especially David, who hates the quirky older woman who acts nothing like a grandmother.

I’d been hearing about Minari going all the way back to its debut at Sundance, and though I remained skeptical, I finally saw it a few months ago an again over the weekend, and it’s one of my favorite films of the year, probably Top 5. To me, it’s somewhat in the vein of The Farewell, my number 1 movie of 2019, vs. the Oscar Best Picture winner, Parasite. It’s a very personal story for Chung who based some of the experiences on his own childhood, which once again proves the adage that if you’re going to write a movie, make it personal since that’s the most likely to connect with others. (Not always true, but it was great advice when I was given it.)

It takes a little time to understand why Minari is so beloved, since Chung takes an interesting approach where we see various scenes that don’t necessarily seem to tie into some sort of plot. Characters like Will Patton’s ultra-religious zealot who seems to be a bit lost when Jacob takes him on to help with his farm. Otherwise, we see various character interactions as things get tenser and tenser between Jacob and Monica, who are fighting all the time. Although the drama does get intense at times, there’s a lot of joyful and fun moments, particularly those involving the wacky grandmother and her dysfunctional relationship with her grandson. I also enjoyed the relationship between the two kids where Anne is always protective of her younger brother, who has some sort of heart illness. 

It's a beautiful movie with an equally gorgeous score, but it’s really in the last 20 minutes or so when we start to see where Chung has been going with all these seemingly disparate elements, which builds up to a wonderful ending. Yeun is terrific, and the fact he reminded me of my own father -- we’re neither Korean nor have I ever been to Arkansas -- shows why his subdued performance is so effective. Overall, the film proves that however many awful things life might throw at you, your family can always fix things. I love that message, and I hope others will find and love this as well.

After its one week in virtual cinema, Minari will get an expanded theatrical release starting February 12… hopefully, New York City theaters will be open by then and I can see it in a theater.

Film at Lincoln Center in New York also is starting its 49th annual “New Directors/New Films” series, which was delayed from March, although being virtual, the movies in it can also be viewed nationwide for the first time. I feel like a lot of movies that were scheduled to play ND/NF ended up being released already but there should be some interesting things in there.

George Clooney’s latest film THE MIDNIGHT SKY is based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, in which he plays Augustine, a scientist dying on his own at the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic, who has to warn a group of astronauts returning to earth that it’s no longer safe for them to return.

Clooney has made a lot of good and great movies over the years, so that I’m one of those people anxiously ≠waiting for him to make something great again after the disappointment of Suburbicon. Midnight Sky is definitely one step forward and a few steps back, as it’s impossible not to think of previous Clooney movies like Solaris and Gravity, as well as The Martian and Passengers and Ad Astra. Yes, we somehow have gotten to the point where every year there’s some sort of space movie, and while Midnight Sky at its best is better than Solaris or Ad Astra (sorry, but I was not a fan), there’s enough that’s so quizzical and confounding I’m not sure people will be able to follow what’s going on.

Much of the first half of the movie involves Clooney’s Augustine alone at the Artic base interacting with a little girl (Caoillin Springall) who is completely silent. If it’s ever explained what the girl represents, I must have missed it. There are also flashbacks to Augustine’s earlier career as a scientist and explorer played by a somewhat only semi-impressive Clooney kinda look-alike in Ethan Peck.

The best moments of the movie involve the crew of astronauts on the spaceship Ether, including Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, who are in a relationship, Demián Bichir, Kyle Chandler and Tiffany Boone, as they deal with various issues. This is really where comparisons to Gravity and The Martian are earned, but that’s such a mighty quintet of actors that these sections are far more interesting than sullen bearded Clooney with his young ward. The production design and visual FX in these portions of the film are also quite impressive.

The Midnight Sky throws a lot at the viewer but then tries too hard to be quizzical and enigmatic about how all of it ties together until the very end. I feel that some of Clooney’s more mainstream fans will be quite confounded and possibly even disappointed. The Midnight Sky is Clooney taking a swing and only partially connecting, and it might require multiple viewings to feel like it’s a worthy addition to his filmography.

Either way, The Midnight Sky will open theatrically in select cities this week and then be on Netflix on December 23, just in time for depressing everyone on Christmas!

Also hitting Netflix streaming this week is Ryan Murphy’s musical THE PROM, which I reviewed last week. It’s great, I loved it, and can’t wait to watch it again!

Next up is Clooney’s pal Steven Soderbergh, whose new movie LET THEM ALL TALK, will premiere on HBO Max this Thursday, December 10. It stars Meryl Streep as renowned writer Alice who is called to England to receive a prestigious literary award. Since she doesn’t fly, she’s booked on a cross-Atlantic trip on the Queen Mary II ship. Alice decides to bring her old friend Roberta (Candice Bergen)—whom hasn’t spoken to her in three decades--and Susan (Dianne Wiest) as well as her nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges) to serve as her assistant so she can focus on her writing. Little does she know that her young agent Karen (Gemma Chan) is also on the ship hoping to find out what Alice is writing about with the help of Tyler, who is quite smitten with her.  

I’m not sure where to begin with one of week’s films that I probably had the highest expectations and ended up leaving me with the most utter disappointment. I wasn’t really that crazy about last year’s The Laundromat, and I’ve generally found Soderbergh’s work to be hit or miss over the last few years. I loved his thriller Unsanefor instance, and the Magic Mike movies were fun. This one, written by author Deborah Eisenberg, is just plain boring for most of it, offering nothing particularly interesting or insightful, as it’s basically another movie where Streep is playing a character who moans about how difficult her life is and how much better everyone else has it. I mean, if I wanted that shit, I’d spend more time on Twitter than I already do. And then there’s Hedges, one of my favorite young actors over the past few years, who seems to have fallen into a niche playing

In fact, my favorite aspect of the film was Gemma Chan, who plays a character with far more depth and dimension than normal, although much of her role is just to spy on Alice and fend of the subtle advances by the much younger Tyler. The two actors have some fun scenes together, far more lively than anything involving the older actresses, but you always know where it’s going. It’s kind of awkward and painful to watch Hedges bomb so hard. (At least he fared better playing a similar role in French Exit, but in that one, his love interest was Danielle Macdonald.)

The movie looks good with Soderbergh handling his own camera duties and cinematography as usual, and it’s scored with the same hipster jazz he might have used in one of his Ocean movies, but the movie just goes on and on and on, and it hs one of the most “what the fuck?” moments you’ll see this year.

If you can imagine one of The Trip movies without any of the laughs or the delicious food porn…but on a ship, that’s basically what you end up with. More than once while watching Soderbergh’s movie, I was ready to abandon ship.

And from pretty bad, we go to much, MUCH worse. Do you know what thyme it is? It’s WILD MOUNTAIN THYME!!!

John Patrick Shanley adapts his own play Outside Mullingar into a film that will be released in theaters and On Demand by Bleeker Street this Friday, and believe me, its biggest problems isn’t some of the awful Irish accents on display, but they certainly don’t help. Emily Blunt plays Rosemary and Jamie Dornan is Anthony, childhood friends who live down the street from each other in their Irish farming community. When they grow up, Rosemary’s father dies leaving her with a plot of land that forces Anthony and his father Tony (Christopher Walken) to have to use a gate to get to their home. Remember this gate, because it’s going to be mentioned so much over the course of the movie, you’ll wonder why the movie wasn’t called “Wild Mountain Gate.” (It’s actually named after a song that Blunt’s character sings for no apparent reason.)

First, you’ll have to get past the odd choice of the very non-Irish Walken in a key role as the dead narrator of the story with that aforementioned horrid accent. It won’t take long for you to start scratching your head how a noted playwright like Shanley could write such a horrible screenplay. Soon after, you’ll wonder how he convinced someone to finance making it into a movie. I’m normally a pretty big fan of Blunt, but this movie and role might be one of her biggest missteps as an actor to date. As a child, Rosemary was told by her father that she was the White Swan in Swan Lake, so of course that will lead to

It’s not long before Jon Hamm shows up as one of Anthony’s distant relatives who also has interest in Rosemary’s plot of land – nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Pretty soon we’re thrust into awkward love triangle rom-com that falls somewhere between Leap Year and The Holiday. Not exactly something you’d expect from the filmmaker behind the drama Doubt that produced multiple Oscar nominations for the cast, eh?

Instead, Shanley ends up trying to foist the… I don’t want to call it chemistry. What is the exact opposite of chemistry? Between Blunt and Dorman with one long boring conversation after another. At one point, they’re having a romantic chat about suicide, the next Anthony is telling Rosemary that he thinks he’s a honeybee. I mean, what the holy fuck?

Honestly, the whole thing is just grueling to watch, because you wonder how so much talent could falter so badly, particularly Shanley? Even the recent Shane MacGowan doc was a far more romantic take on Irish farming than this could ever possibly be.

One of the nicer surprises of the week is the sci-fi thriller PARALLEL (Vertical), which will be in theaters and On Demand this Friday, and it’s likely to be missed by a lot of people who would enjoy it. Directed by Isaac Ezban from a screenplay by Scott Blaszak, it follows four young people working in the tech sector of Seattle who discover a mirror in a hidden section of the house they’re renting that apparently allows them to experience other dimensions and other versions of their lives. Soon, they’re experimenting with different ways they can make money and achieve fame, although not all of them are cool about how they’re doing it.

Although Parallel opens like a home invasion thriller featuring the great Kathleen Quinlan, we soon learn that it’s a red herring before we meet the quartet of young entepreneurs working on a parking app with an almost impossible deadline. When they find the mirror that leads into an alternative dimension, they immediately start to experiment with figuring out what is happening exactly, and once they do, they realize they can make money by stealing from “alts” i.e. other versions of themselves. Soon, their success starts driving them insane with a desire for even more money and power.

Ezban’s movie benefits from a talented mostly unknown cast, including Martin Wallstrom and Mark O’Brien as boisterous alpha males. Georgia King’s artist Leena is far more than a love interest, although she does become an obsession for one of them eventually – and man, does she remind me of a young Reese Witherspoon. British actor Aml Ameen plays Devin, whose father committed suicide after being accused of corruption, and he’s also wary of some of the activities his friends get up to. There’s also the quartet’s main competitor Seth who gets suspicious of their success as they start producing all sorts of incredible technical inventions.

Parallel is a pretty twisted sci-fi movie that in some way reminded me of the ‘90s thriller Flatliners and even Primer a little bit, but the mirror aspect to it also will draw comparisons to Oculus, one of Mike Flanagan’s cool earlier movies. It doesn’t take long for the twists to start flying at the viewer, and once they do, your mind will be boggled and not necessarily in a bad way. I wouldn’t want to even begin sharing some of the crazy places where the film goes, but even gore fans won’t be disappointed by some of it.

It’s a real shame this terrific movie has floundered without distribution or deserved attention for so long, because there’s absolutely no question in my mind that Jason Blum should be talking to Ezban and Blaszk about doing something together. Parallel is the type of quality high-concept thriller Blumhouse thrives upon.

Another nice surprise this week was Ekwa Msangi’s FAREWELL AMOR (IFC Films), which debuted at Sundance earlier this year and barely got any attention, which is a real shame. It’s expanded from her earlier short, and it’s about an Angolan immigrant named Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), who is reunited with his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson) after 17 years. As they share a small New York apartment, Walter and Esther try to rekindle their romance while Sylvia tries to adjust to an American school.

Msangi’s film opens at Newark airport where the small family is reunited, Walter not having seen either wife or daughter in a decade and a half. He’s working as a cab driver, and he’s ready to rekindle the old flame and meet his daughter who was only a baby when he moved to the States. (Little does Esther know that Walter was in a relationship with another woman, a nurse who isn’t too happy about having to leave Walter’s life.)

One of the things Msangi does to keep things interesting is that she splits the film into three sections, one for each character that focuses specifically on them, and the story gets infinitely interesting as we learn more about each of them. Walter is somewhat at odds with doing the right thing by his wife and daughter, who is wanting to explore her love of dance that her ultra-religious mother forebids. For some reason, I thought Sylvia’s section would be the most interesting as she deals with the trials of being a teenager, but then Esther’s section shows her to be a far more layered character we might have assumed earlier. She also befriends a neighbor woman played by Joie Lee that helps her expand. The thing is that all three are clearly good people, and you never feel as if one is doing something bad in relation to the others.

Farewell Amor is a quiet but beautiful film that explores an immigrant story in a far different way than we’ve seen before. It’s a discovery film, and I hope people will not just presume it won’t hold their interest. It’s a wonderfully relatable human story, similar to Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor.

Sienna Miller and Diego Luna star in Tara Miele’s psychological drama WANDER DARKLY (Lionsgate), playing Adrienne and Matteo, a couple who recently had a baby. After they get into a horrible car accident while arguing, they end up revisiting the highs and lows of their relationship as Adrienne believes either she or Matteo or both are dead.

This is a surprisingly stranger film than I expected, delving into the supernatural not quite in the way as something like Wes Craven’s Serpent and the Rainbow or Jacob’s Ladder, but having a few elements in common. Although I haven’t seen Miele’s other films, this one feels very much like something Drake Doremus might have made to the point where I’m not sure I could say I fully understood what was happening from one moment to the next. The film seems to be exploring a couple’s relationship through a horrible tragedy but does in a strange way.

With the emotional performances by the two leads being enhanced by an amazing score by Alex Weston (who also scored The Farewell last year), Wander Darkly is more than anything, a performance piece with a decent script and further proof Miller continues to be one of the most underrated actresses working today. Despite those great performances, the movie’s strange premise might be too metaphysical and intense in execution for everyone to be along for the entire ride. In that sense, I probably liked last week’s Black Bear just slightly more.

I reviewed Steve McQueen’s ALEX WHEATLE (Amazon Prime Video) in last week’s column, and that will hit Amazon Prime this Friday, but I think I’m going to save Education, the last film in his “Small Axe Anthology” for next week’s column.  I was also hoping to review Tom Moore and Ross Stewart’s WOLFWALKERS (Apple+) this week, since it premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, but I just couldn’t get to it. Story of my life.

I’m not sure if I could tell you how many of the Ip Man movies I’ve seen over the past 12 or so years, many of which I saw at the New York Asian Film Festival, but Ip Man is indeed back after last year’s Ip Man: The Finale, but that’s because IP MAN: KUNG FU MASTER (Magnet/Magnolia Pictures) is part of the spin-off prologue series starring Dennis (Yu-Hang) To, who looked enough like a younger Donnie Yen to start a whole sub-franchise. This one is directed by Liming Li, who is also directing a Young Ip Man: Crisis Time prequel movie that presumably stars someone younger than both Yen and To. Got it?

Okay, maybe this needs a little more explaining, although the nice thing about Kung Fu Master is that it works perfectly fine as a stand-alone in case you’ve never seen any of the other movies. This one takes place in the ‘40s as Man is a police captain in Foshan, dealing with the ever-present gang known as The Axes.  He’s framed for murder when the leader of the gang dies in prison, and his daughter, Miss Qingchuan (Wanliruo Xin), wanting revenge as she takes over the gang. Ip Man has other issues like being disgraced as a police officer and then the arrival of the Japanese army who have their own agenda. Ip Man ends up donning a mask to become the Black Knight to fight crime in another way.

I make no bones about my love of martial arts films when they’re not stupid or hoaky and sadly, the Donnie Yen franchise was getting by last year’s so-called “finale.” Kung Fu Master starts out with an amazing action scene of To fighting off what seems like hundred of axe-wielding gangsters, and it barely lets up, constantly throwing interesting and thoroughly entertaining fights at the viewer. Eventually, there’s a bounty on Ip Man’s head with whoever kills becoming leader of the Axes, but he has other issues, like his wife giving birth to their baby boy, just as the police chief and force shows up to arrest him. Cutting quickly between childbirth and kung fu action is just one of the interesting things Director Li does to make his Ip Man debut.

The resemblance between Dennis To and Donnie Yen is more than just facial as his wushu techniques are equally impressive, and sure, there’s a few more dramatic moments between Ip Man and his wife, but it’s Xin’s Miss Qingchuan who ends up being more of a formidable counter to To in just about every way, including a few fight scenes where axes are flying through the air.

Ip Man Kung Fu Master is fairly short, less than 90 minutes, but it still feels long because it feels like it finds a good ending, and then tacks on an epilogue and then another one. There were times I thought it might end on a cliffhanger to set up Ip Man’s inevitable next movie. The abundance of evil antagonists Ip Man must fight in this one tends to become a bit much, but it’s hard not to be thrilled by the martial arts on display and Li’s terrifically stylish visuals that keeps the movie interesting.

Ip Man Kung Fu Master will be available digitally Friday through a variety of platforms.

Filmmaker Adam Egypt Mortimer, who released Daniel Isn’t Real last year, returns with ARCHENEMY (RLJEfilms), starring Joe Manganiello as Max Fist, who claims to be a hero from another dimension that fell to earth. He ends up spending time with a teen brother and sister, Hamster (Skylan Brooks) and Indigo (Zelee Griggs) who want to clean the streets of the local drug syndicate, led by The Manager (Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). It’s a strange and quirky dark superhero movie that includes appearances by the likes of Paul Scheer and Amy Seimetz, and though I ran out of time to review, I do have an interview with Mortimer at Below the Line.

Time to get to some docs, and there are definitely some you’ll want to check out, although I don’t have as much time to write that much about them, and some of them I wasn’t able to watch yet.

Another great doc out of the September festival circuit is Ryan White’s ASSASSINS (Greenwich Entertainment), which follows the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother to North Korean leader Kim Jon-un in 2017 at a busy airport in Malaysia by two young women. Although the two women had never met before, they were jointly charged with attacking the North Korean ex-pat with a lethal nerve gas called VX but White’s investigation takes him all over South-East Asia trying to get answers to how the two women were tricked into committing the assassination. This is a pretty masterful display of doc filmmaking by White, not just in the sense of the way the story is paced and edited like a good political thriller, but it’s one that keeps the viewer invested even as the last act deals with the trial of the two young women and the bond that forms between them.

I’ll have more about this film over on Below the Line sometime very soon, but it hits theaters and virtual cinema this Friday and then it will be on PVOD on January 15

I saw Seamus Murphy’s doc PJ HARVEY: A DOG CALLED MONEY way back in March when it was supposed to open at New York’s Film Forum, but it’s finally getting a virtual cinema release there. Murphy travelled across Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington DC with singer/songwriter PJ Harvey as she prepared material for her 2015 album, The Hope Six Million Project, which she produced with Flood and John Parish as an installation at Somerset House where people can walk by and view the recording process.  This is an amazing doc that allows you into the process of writing for an amazing recording artist who has given Murphy and the viewer unprecedented access into her creativity. I had fully lost track of Harvey over the years, even though I was a huge fan of hers when she first hit these shores – in fact, I saw her play a concert where Radiohead opened for her… and there as another band (Gallon Drunk) after them! Because of that, I wasn’t familiar with the album, but I just love good music docs, especially ones that take us behind the scenes of a talented artist, and Murphy has created quite a fascinating film even outside the recording studio, whether it’s following Harvey around (narrated by her own poetic observations) but also with commentary by others they encounter. I found the Washington DC segments particularly interesting, since that’s the one place where I’ve spent the most time.  An absolutely fantastic doc whether you’re a fan of Harvey’s or not.

Also playing in the Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema this week is Thomas Balmés’ SING ME A SONG, the filmmaker’s second doc set in the Himalayan village of Bhutan that’s been isolated for centuries. He returns to update on Peyangki, the 8-year-old Buddhist monk from his 2014 film Happiness, now a teenager who has fallen under the sway of technology including pop music and smartphone games, as he begins a WeChat romance with a young singer, which makes him consider leaving the monastery.

Also premiering on Netflix this Friday is Jim Stern and Fernando Villena’s doc GIVING VOICE, tying into the streaming premiere of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom next week. It follows six student actors auditioning for the August Wilson Monologue Competition, which brings thousands of students from twelve U.S. cities together to perform the Pulitzer Prize winner’s work.

Joshua Faudem’s doc THE LAST SERMON (Gravitas Ventures/Will Kennan) follows the director and Jack Baxter as they follow 14 years after making their 2004 documentary Blues by the Beach, in which the two ended up in a terrorist attack by British Nationals on Mike’s Place, a bar next door to the National Embassy on Tel Aviv. This event sends Baxter and Faudem across Europe to refugee camps and mosques in order to understand the essence of Islam and the truth about the international terrorists that almost killed them.

Drew Barrymore plays a dual role in THE STAND-IN (Saban Films), directed by Jamie Babbitt (But I’m a Cheerleader). While under normal circumstances, Wild Mountain Thyme would have been the dog of the week, then this movie came along. Yikes. Barrymore plays Candy Black, a comedy star best known for her pratfalls in bad movies (ala Melissa McCarthy). She also plays Paula, Candy’s much sweeter and almost identical stand-in. Candy is a nightmare to work with and after a fall from grace, she holes herself up in her Long Island Estate for five years, while Paula’s own fortunes falter without having that work. I’m sure you can figure out where it goes from there.

Yes, folks, we have what is now one of the worst iterations of a Tale of Two Cities not made by Barrymore’s frequent co-star Adam Sandler, although there are times where you wonder if she is actually playing a version of Sandler with Candy. Eventually, either Candy or Paula or both decide that Paula can take Candy’s place in her attempt to return to work, but the results are just far worse than The Hottie or the Nottie, as Paula also stands in for Candy on dates with the man she’s fallen in love with online through their love of woodworking. (I didn’t make that up.) You almost always know where it’s going and can’t help but groan when you’re right.

Basically, there’s one Drew that’s glammed-down and the other talking in an annoying wispy voice, so there really isn’t getting away from the awfulness even for a second.The thing is that, like the worst comedies, The Stand In is not funny, and it’s sad to see a decent director like Babbitt being dragged into this one. It’s just a terrible overused premise that’s executed quite poorly. Not only that, but the movie also co-stars TJ Miller, who has fallen so far from grace himself, that it’s shocking to see him in another movie.

Besides guaranteeing Barrymore a double-dose Razzie nomination, The Stand In also leaves her with cow shit on her face, much like her character.

Movies I just didn’t have time to get to this week:

Funny Boy (Array/Netflix) Gunda (NEON) Safety (Disney+) Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (HBO Max) 40 Years a Prisoner (HBO Docs) Through the Night (Longshot Factory) To the Ends of the Earth (KimStim) Rompan Todo: The History of Rock in Latin America (Netflix) The Wilds (Prime Video) Nasrin (Virgil Films) Finding Ying Yin

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #Movies #Reviews #Minari #TheMidnightSky #LetThemAllTalk #VOD #Streaming #WildMountainThyme #Parallel #TheStandIn #IpManKungFuMaster

[themuzzleofnemesis]

3–Memory of the Four Seasons; Scene 2

The Muzzle of Nemesis, pages 92-101

The apartment that wound up being my new residence wasn’t particularly extravagant, but even so it was better than being in prison.

The town of Rolled, in the Lucifenian Republic. This was the first time I had ever come here in my life, but it wasn’t all that far from Aceid, and there didn’t seem to be a ton of differences culturally speaking.

On the door to my room was displayed the name “Themis Eight”.

That was the fake name that had been given to me.

…Nemesis Sudou had been arrested as the main culprit behind the Titanis incident, and then died soon afterwards during some trouble in her prison block—that was what the public records claimed.

But the truth was different.

I had already been gone by the time the violent prisoner Jorm went on his rampage in the prison.

I had been taken outside by Bruno. In all honesty I still didn’t understand why he had taken such an action, given that he was the reason I was arrested in the first place. He hadn’t said one word of explanation to me about it.

After that I was entrusted to a certain soldier, and taught how to use a gun.

It seemed that Bruno had intended for that to be for self defense purposes, but a year later I could tell very clearly that the way he looked at me had changed.

That was because I had far more talent with a gun than he’d expected.

And so—I wound up being given a new “job”.

And that “job” was part of the reason why I had come to this country.

All of the essential supplies and furnishings that I would need were already set up in the room. And they had evidently been courteous enough to bring over my things from where I had once lived in the forest. Items of sentimental value to me had been tossed into several wooden boxes.

After I went through sorting all of them, I realized there was something missing.

That doll that Mr. Ziz had scooped up was nowhere to be seen. …Well, PN was probably holding it as evidence relating to the S.S. Titanis incident.

Mr. Ziz…

I thought of my friend as I gazed upon the empty water tank. I wasn’t allowed to go to the Millennium Tree Forest, so I couldn’t even go collect his corpse.

Nikolay…I will never, ever forgive you—

I knew one day I would get my chance, once I had obtained some credibility by reliably carrying out the “job” I had been given by this organization—Pere Noel.

Right then, the only thing on which I could sustain myself was my desire for revenge against Nikolay.

.

After getting all of my things unpacked and sorted, I looked out at the scenery from my window.

I could see trees bearing beautiful, pale pink blossoms. They were splendid, large trees.

Even in the Millennium Tree Forest there would be many trees that would be covered with vibrant flowers when spring came around.

But I had never seen flowers that color before.

My interest piqued, I went to leave my room and look at the trees from up close.

…They really are quite pretty.

They weren’t flashy, but their delicate hue was had a fragile beauty, and calmed my heart.

--After I had been staring at the flowers for a short time, someone spoke up from next to me.

“Do you like the cherry blossoms?”

It was a young man. When I looked his way, he smiled at me good-humoredly.

I immediately tensed up. He was wearing a police officer’s uniform.

Perhaps I should have ignored him, but it would have also been unusual for me to not reply when spoken to.

And I was a little curious at him calling these “cherry blossoms”.

“Cherry blossoms? But I’m sure that the cherry blossoms I know have a much deeper color than this.”

“These are a little different from the ones that have been in the Evillious region for ages. This is a variety that was brought over from Jakoku maybe a hundred years ago.”

“Wow…You know a lot about flowers.”

“Oh no, not really. I just know that little fact about the cherry blossoms. My late father told it to me, as part of my ancestral roots.”

“Your ancestral roots?”

“I have Jakokuan genes. That might be why I always feel nostalgic whenever I look at cherry blossoms.”

The man approached me, and we looked at the cherry blossoms together.

“Jakoku, huh…I guess we have something in common.”

“Do you also have Jakokuan genes?”

“Yeah—My mother was from Jakoku. She told me that herself.”

My mother hadn’t come to see me at all when I’d been arrested for the Titanis incident, despite my name having been reported many times on the news.

Perhaps that was understandable, given her daughter had committed such an unspeakable crime.

…Even so, alone in my cell I had been seized with the feeling that I’d been abandoned.

Now that I was presumed dead, I would probably never see my mother again.

As though somehow able to tell my feelings, the man peered at my face worriedly.

“You’re looking a bit grim…I’m sorry. I guess this isn’t a great topic for you.”

“No, that’s…alright.”

“Still, I am a bit glad. It’s rare for me to meet anyone with Jakokuan ancestry in this country. Where do you live?”

“…Is that a police question?”

“Huh, why do you ask?”

“You’re…a policeman.”

I pointed to the uniform he was wearing.

“Oh, no, well…I am, yes. But this isn’t meant to be a formal conversation or anything like that. It’s just simple personal interest.”

“…Over there.” It probably wouldn’t look good for me to be unreasonably evasive. I pointed to my apartment building. "Room 202 in that--"

"--What a surprise. We live in the same apartment building. My room is number 304—How odd that I’ve never seen your face before today.”

“Ah…Well, I just moved in.”

"Is that right. So then…It’s nice to meet you, neighbor," he said, holding out his hand.    

Well…I guess a handshake is alright.

I gripped his hand.

"May I ask your name?"

"It's uh…Themis."

"That's a good name."

The praise didn't really make me happy. It was a fake name after all.

"I’m Shakuson. If you need anything--Uh oh." He suddenly looked at his wristwatch. "I have to get back to work soon. Please, excuse me."

He ran towards the road, looking flustered.

--But then he turned around, appearing to have forgotten to say something.

“Ah, right right…I agree that the cherry blossoms are pretty—In fact, they’re as beautiful as you.”

“…B-bwahaha!”

What a cheesy line that was.

Without thinking, I burst into laughter.

“Ha ha…Hey, Mr. Shakuson? Were you trying to flirt with me?”

“Oh no—well—Maybe.”

“Judging by your looks you’re older than me, right? If you’re going to flirt, I’d appreciate it if you were a bit cleverer at it, hahaha…”

“I see, I’ll try to be more diligent…But still, I’m glad.”

“…?”

“I finally got to see you smile—Well then, see you around!”

He waved at me, and then ran off.

…What an odd guy.

All the same, it felt like it had been a truly long time since I had enjoyed myself just talking to another person.

Feeling a little bit lighter, I continued to look upon the cherry blossoms for a while after that.

.

--My calm was blown away the moment I returned to my room.

Two unwanted guests were waiting there for me.

“…I’m pretty sure I locked the door on my way out.”

“Sorry, but I had a duplicate key made. Not accepting any objections on that.”

I hadn’t really said it with intent to complain.

I was just uncomfortable with it.

“Do you have some business with me, the very day I moved Bruno? And—who this is person here in the red coat?”

“I’ll answer in order. First, I came here today to have you set about with your ‘job’ immediately.” Bruno set a sheet of paper on the desk. “This is your target list. It’s five people in all. Their names and details are written on this sheet. …But it’ll be difficult for you to take them all out at once, so there are some people whose whereabouts have not yet been made clear.”

Then he set down a new sheet of paper—and a gun.

“So, take out the first person on the list before anything else. This paper contains a photo of your target’s face and their home. Kill them within the week.”

“…I’m guessing I don’t have the right to refuse?”

“You can, certainly. You’ll just wind up dead in their place.”

“…”

“I came along because today is your first time—but from now on, all of your assignments will be sent to you through ‘Postman’ here.”

Bruno indicated the person in the red uniform who was with him.

“…”

Postman said nothing, merely standing in place.

“He will never speak to you. Postman will never answer any of your questions. He’ll contact you later to follow up on your second target onward. Just carry out the “job” written on the papers you’re given. Any weapons you need will be provided each time.”

“And when I’m done using the weapons?”

“After we confirm that the ‘job’ is complete, Postman will collect them for you. You just need to give them back. We’ll deal with the disposal ourselves.”

“And what if the police find out about my ‘job’?”

“It’s your responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen, ‘Number 8’.”

Number 8. That was the codename given to me.

On the surface, I was Themis. Underneath, I was Number 8.

No matter where I went, I would never be allowed to go by Nemesis again.

“…I do have one concern.”

“What’s that?”

I pointed to the ceiling.

“A policeman lives in the room above mine.”

“…I see.”

“This isn’t an ‘I see’ kind of thing. Didn’t you do any preliminary research when you picked my room? You guys should do your jobs properly before saying anything to me!”

“Well, I don’t see it as being much of a problem. It’s not like you’ll be killing anyone here.”

“But—”

“If you like, you could even use this to your advantage.”

“…?”

“Use your feminine wiles. If things go well, you might be able to get your hands on some info for police investigations.”

“…You’re scum.”

“Say what you like. I’m giving you this advice for your own sake. Use any means you have to to survive. For yourself—and for ‘Master’.”

“Master”—that was what Bruno called the leader of Pere Noel. He had never revealed to me what his true name was, nor had I ever met him.

But given Bruno’s occupation, when I thought about who I would be doing these “jobs” for, I could easily guess their identity.

--The Dark Star Bureau Director Gallerian Marlon. Assassinating people who could oppose him was the job given to me.

Gallerian’s wife and daughter had been riding on the S.S. Titanis.

That meant that I had a “duty” to work to atone for that.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[a-woman-apart]

The Fourth Season of Felicity

WARNING: This contains multiple spoilers about the conclusion the Felicity TV series. I haven’t been this engrossed in a show in forever, and this might not be the most appropriate place to go crazy in fandom, as this blog is dedicated to other issues, but I am going to do it. After seeing the final conclusion I really needed to vent. I know it is an old show, but if you haven’t seen it yet, or are just seeing it now and do not want spoilers PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS.

   “I’ll never inhabit you the way he does.”

The above are the words that Noel said to Felicity, after she “traveled back in time” to try to be with him (we’ll talk about that weird deal later). It seemed that no matter how much Felicity tried to be with Noel, Ben just kept pulling her back in. Those words are a sad, but apt description of the ongoing saga that occurred with the three of them.

Really, maybe Noel never stood a chance, no matter how much that I wanted him to. Even from the beginning of their friendship, Noel was the person that Felicity would confide in- mostly about Ben. When their relationship blossomed into romance, though, Felicity would confide in him about everything. In my mind, they were the perfect couple. They were always so tender and attentive and they had amazing fun together. The first time they try to have sex, they end up lighting a Christmas tree on fire by mistake. It’s comical and silly.

If I were Felicity, I wouldn’t have wanted to go back to the moment when I first had sex with Noel, on the roof, I would’ve gone all the way back to the moment when I left him in the airport, leaving him to go to Berlin all alone, and instead went on the road trip with Ben. I feel like that was when she really made her choice. She chose Ben, who would later end up letting her down more than once. One of his worst moments is when he distances himself from her when he first finds out that she loves him, but one of his best is when he realizes his mistake.

The Felicity/Ben dynamic is just that- dynamic. Their relationship is volatile, filled with ups and downs, and passion, but love ultimately grounds them. They sometimes pull away from each other, but the best thing about them is that they also know how to forgive each other and reconcile. The relationship is one of uncertainty, but maybe the point of it being so glorified in the show is that one of the show’s main themes is that nothing is certain.

The great thing about the show is that it kept us guessing. I honestly did not know who she was going to end up with. The bad thing about the last season, though, is that there were so many loose ends. Too much happens in season four and not all of it makes sense.

Ben fathers a child with his dad’s AA sponsee and moves to Arizona (for a spell) to be close to his son

Noel gets on medication for depression

Felicity changes her major from art back to pre-med

Elena dies unexpectedly, but before she dies she has this whole existential crisis about how she isn’t “black enough” and it is never addressed again or resolved

Finally, Felicity travels back in time with the aid of a “wiccan” spell from Meghan because after Ben cheats on her at school in Palo Alto she realizes that she wishes she had gone with Noel (who is actually set to be married very shortly)

I get it. The show creators wanted to explore how becoming a parent can affect a relationship- especially if the other parent is not the one involved in the relationship. The pregnancy happened as a result of one reckless night together- neither Ben nor Lauren (baby’s mother) wanted to be a couple. The way things evolved from there could be considered a little ridiculous, though. For one, when he is helping Lauren move, she ends up driving drunk and they are involved in a terrible accident. Lauren is fine, but Ben has to go into surgery. Felicity rushes to his side, but his parents are nowhere in sight. I mean seriously, wouldn’t they have been notified? And why would Ben let Lauren take the wheel anyway, if he of all people should be able to tell when someone is intoxicated? Also, we never get to see the kid after It is born, and I feel like that was intentional, but for all the wrong reasons. We are made to feel like it is something that happens off to the side, something more external to Ben’s life than it actually is.

Then, there is the issue of Noel’s depression. His therapist recommends to him medication, and that he create some distance between himself and Felicity. I do appreciate how Abrams and Reeves destigmatize mental illness. I am not a doctor, though, but I think though that with Noel’s mood swings and behavioral inconsistencies he may have been leaning slightly more towards bipolar II than just regular depression (that’s just my opinion). Also, I like how even though Felicity and Noel are good friends- and Felicity is a good person overall- there is some emphasis placed on creating space between ourselves and people who might not be good for us, even when we love them dearly.  Mental illness is addressed again with Noel’s girlfriend-and-wife-to-be, Zoe, who reluctantly opens up to Noel about her struggles with depression.  

I guess Felicity changing her major from art back to pre-med wasn’t actually that weird. It probably would have been unrealistic to have her suddenly succeed in art, given the struggles that she had been facing. People change their major and then change back- that’s a thing that happens. I just feel that we never really get to see her soul-search that much about changing. It is something that is just sort of announced after she goes back to California.  

What is weird, though, is the situation with Elena. Out of nowhere, Richard invites her to a dance to try to impress this girl who is “PC as all get-out” and would be “impressed” with him “dating a black chick.” She punches him in the face, unsurprisingly, and when he comes back around, he tries to explain why she doesn’t really “seem black” to him. That is when she confesses that maybe he has a point, that there “has to be a reason why all my friends are white”- even though she loves them all dearly- and that maybe she was always just trying to fit in. This seems to address an elephant in the room, and was an opportunity for character development. Is it every explored again, though? No. Instead, they kill Elena off! She mysteriously appears alive again- with her on/off boyfriend Tracey- in the last episode at Noel’s wedding. I think maybe she really was dead and they did it for nostalgia, but it was a little bit confusing. Also, what is the deal with her punching people? None of the white female characters do this, even though they are given plenty of reasons, and I feel that it promotes a stereotype of black women as aggressive. On a whole, though, I was pretty comfortable with Elena’s characterization.

Now, on to the weirdest thing of all- the time travel spell. Wicca, in the form of Meghan, had been improperly portrayed on the TV show for some time, but this absolutely took the cake! In the end, the whole thing turns out to be a dream, but that doesn’t excuse how bizarre of a way this was to end the show.

The whole reason that Felicity wanted to go back to the roof- where she cheated on Ben with Noel- was that Ben cheated on her with some girl they studied with in college in California, right before Noel’s wedding. She attended the reception without him, but of course Ben came back crawling for forgiveness. So Felicity theorized that she had made a mistake choosing Ben in the first place, that she should have gone with Noel, and she considered that moment on the roof her one opportunity to change it all. Meghan, “helpful” as usual (for the record may I say she gives the worst advice ever) creates a spell to send Felicity back in time. What do you know, it works!

After the spell works, we encounter some of the strangest- and as a friend put it, “baffling”- events in the show we have ever seen. She tells Meghan that she’s from the future and needs to go back, but past Meghan doesn’t own the spell book yet, so she is of no help. Hannah comes back, Julie comes back, and all of this crazy stuff just keeps happening. Felicity is super intense and weird, because this is her “one chance” to make things right and be with Noel, but Ben isn’t willing to give up on her. In the end, Ben and Noel end up getting Felicity put in the psych ward because after she shares that she is “from the future” because they are worried she has had a nervous breakdown. Shortly after, Ben experiences something that makes him believe her and he breaks her out. Not long after this, they find out that Noel has died in a fire at the school- a fire that he saved Felicity from in the regular time line. After this, Felicity is more determined than ever to get “back to the future”. With Meghan’s help she finds the man who wrote the spell that originally sent her back. He is over the top, as expected, and has her talk about her past while he performs all these rituals that doubtless have nothing to do with real-life spells. So naturally, we get the nostalgic flashback that is typical of the end of a show.

In the end Felicity and Ben get back together, Noel gets married, and the gang- including dead? Elena- are back together for one last hurrah. It doesn’t seem like it’s happily ever after. It feels like the show could have just kept going, even though I understand why they had to end it there. What I don’t understand is why a show that had such a fundamental grounding in reality had such a fantastical ending- even if, as usual, it was “only just a dream.” Also, you would think that if Felicity had a “fever of 104” like Meghan said when she woke up, that they would have taken her to the hospital. It’s just so delectably cliché.

In the end, though, I kind of understand- Abrams is known for fantasy-based story lines, so he probably could not help injecting those elements into this TV show as well. Also, Noel was an unanswered question, and maybe he felt it best to give the issue some finality. In my mind, I still trace things back to Berlin. Noel wasn’t going to be ready to trust Felicity after that. It’s why they couldn’t get back together when things were rough with his girlfriend Ruby (Season 2). In the meantime, Felicity was always still in love with Ben. They were better off just friends, but I feel like Abrams made it seem like if they had gotten together Noel would’ve died, which is really a drastic way for things to end up. It’s also true that Noel was far more forgiving of Felicity than he had to be, but that was because in the end he truly loved her. It was more than just really wanting to be together, he truly cared about her. He made a number of questionable decisions, but with her he was always consistent, if sometimes cautious.

Then there’s Ben. Ben was supposed to be the unreliable one, but he was always there for his friends when they needed him. He always supported Sean. He stayed faithful to Julie, not seeing other people until they were broken up. He helped Javier with his citizenship test. He tried his best to be there for Avery, but he broke things off when she started to come between him and Felicity. He forgave his dad. He saved Trevor’s life. He made a decision to be a good father. There were so many amazing, noble things that Ben did, showing that he was more than just a hapless jock but he was a real person. He did sometimes struggle to express his feelings, but he always did the best that he could. Throughout the show we see him grow, and we see that Felicity’s love isn’t wasted on him. Even though I still feel as though Noel was the more stable choice, Ben really proved himself.

So how do I feel about the ending of the show? It was bittersweet. This show really helped me get through a lot of things, and I think that, for the most part, it was well-written and directed. The ending does feel a little bit haphazard and a little anti-climactic. I realized in the middle of this review that this was because the show was canceled suddenly. Knowing that kind of helps to put things in perspective. They actually did very well with what they had.

I think that Felicity Porter represents the part of all of us that craves adventure and struggles with not having all the answers. When she tells Sally about the reason why she chose Ben, it was because if she hadn’t gone with him she “would’ve always wondered what would’ve happened.” I think that all of us have felt that way at one time or another. After having traveled thousands of miles to be with Ben, she had to at least give it a shot when he finally reciprocated her feelings. Even though it may have been love at first sight, it definitely wasn’t a fairy tale. This show demonstrates how relationships can be hard work, but it is worth it if you are willing to work together.  

#felicity show #felicity #review #i love this show #vintage tv #old shows #keri russell #scott speedman #scott foley #spoilers #felicity ending

[savanahdppadillaim10insuran-blog]

cheap one day car insurance for 19 year old

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