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boldlyvoid · 3 years

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Amoreena | Chapter fourteen

Chapter fourteen

main summary: Heaven is a real place and it's located exactly 14.6 miles away from the FBI, Quantico Headquarters. Off behind a small park, under a fantastical willow tree surrounded by wildflowers, in every colour young minds can imagine.

Don't forget, heaven also comes with angels.

Chapter Warnings: talks of spencers major anxiety, parental death tw (not Diana or bob and Linda), trauma talks, computer hacking and new members joining the family...

word count: 4k

from the beginning <3

Taylors biggest surprise that weekend was what she had planned for Amoreena that night.

She set up a fort in the theatre room, they had every snack imaginable and any movie of her choice to watch. Karaoke in the corner, popcorn being popped in a theatre-style machine, and 3 different, matching child and adult, princess dresses for them to choose from.

It was all an elaborate plan to keep her preoccupied until bedtime, which Taylor offered to handle so that her parents could have a little wedding night date alone.

They’re all ready for a wonderful night when Spencer’s phone started ringing.

“Hello?” Spencer answers, sneaking away from the girls so he could hear better.

“Spencer, I am so sorry to interrupt you this late, but we have a situation… it’s not something that should be discussed over the phone. Do you have someone to watch Amoreena while you and Y/N come into the bureau? As soon as you can?”

His stomach drops, he feels instantly sick. “Not until you tell me who’s dead, who’s dying or who’s trying to kill us.”

“No one is, Spencer, it’s not a case or criminal related, it’s… personal, someone is here to see you,” she sounds serious and Spencer is still just as worried.

“I’ll tell the girls,” he responds before hanging up.

Y/N is standing right behind him, listening with wide eyes as she waits to soothe his panic. They worked like a well-oiled machine, she could physically feel his anxiety and in return, something about her just being there made him physically feel better.

“What’s wrong?” Taylor asks as she appears behind Y/N, Amoreena now off changing into one of the dresses she picked.

“They won't tell me on the phone but they need me and Y/N back at Quantico as soon as possible,” Spencer explained with a pale face, “we can go in the morning.”

“I’m fine watching Amoreena for the night, there’s a hanger down the road with a few of my dad’s planes, I can have someone take you to Virginia within the next hour? It's only 7 pm, I’m sure you can be back before bedtime?” Taylor offered her services for the 100th time that day, “It’s not a problem, really, and they wouldn’t call if it wasn’t serious, they’re the FBI after all.”

With that, they said goodbye to Amoreena and told her they’d be back before she woke up in the morning. If not, she had Y/N’s cellphone for the night to call them before she goes to sleep and when she wakes up, so she won't bother Taylor that early. (Even though Taylor said she wouldn’t mind early morning Amoreena cuddles.)

He was anxious on the drive to the small airport, the old man named Norman, chartering them that night was incredibly kind, they were granted lading access in Quantico and before he could prepare, they were up in the air. He chatted up a storm with Y/N on the headset radio as Spencer overthought the upcoming chat with JJ and stared out at the world below them.

On queue, he jumped from anxious to scared when they land, before getting in the shuttle from the airstrip to the front entrance, but he’s so incredibly terrified when it comes time to actually start the walk to the bullpen.

“Will you come in with me?” His small voice asks as she is pinning a visitors tag on her shirt.

“Of course,” she smiled, taking his hand as they walked into the elevator together.

He grips her hand tighter as the elevator stops, dipping and returning to the right height and making his stomach drop the same way a rollercoaster would. He hated that feeling more than anything, having it alongside the anxiety wasn’t helpful.

He can see JJ and another girl sitting together at his old desk. She’s smiling at whatever JJ says, she looks exactly like Amoreena just with box-dyed black hair that shines purple under the lighting. She’s in all black, she pushes her glasses up her nose with her sweater hiding her hands, Spencer knows she’s a foster kid from just her posture.

“JJ,” Spencer makes their presence clear and the little girl turns to him with a huge smile, running to him and wrapping her arms around his waist. “Hi?”

She’s sobbing ten and he doesn’t know why or even who she is, he lightly holds her with complete shock on his face. He stares at JJ with wide eyes and a gaping mouth as he communicates the confusion and terror with his eyes.

“This is Josephine Elliot, or Jo as she likes to be called, her parents passed away a few months ago and she recently found out her biological father was actually a sperm donor and not her moms husband,” JJ explains a little before sighing and sitting on the edge of the desk.

“She hacked into the sperm bank and found your name, and google led her to the FBI and they stopped her at the second gate, the first only let her in thinking she was your other daughter, Amoreena.”

“I’m so sorry,” the poor girl wipes her tears with her sweater sleeves, “I don’t know why I hugged you when you don’t even know me, ew sorry.”

Spencer pulls her back into a hug, “it’s okay, you don’t have to worry about wanting a hug ever again. You can have whatever you need from me.”

She cries more, holding on to his shirt as he holds her, shushing her softly and rubbing his hand over her back. It’s weird how safe she seems this early in their acquaintance with one another, but he understands it. She’s so desperate for someone related to her to love her again, to replace what she was missing from her parents, that she’s already accepted him as a father without thinking it through. Without even know what he would be like to her.

When she finally calmed down enough, Spencer led her towards the briefing room so they could have a moment alone to talk. He wanted to know her, and she needed to know him before she made another big decision. He let her know who he was, what he used to do and the rundown on his relationship with Y/N and Amoreena.

“So you met her at the park and got married a week later because you both have dead exes and somehow through fate, you made a kid together?” She summed it up in a way that made it sound ridiculous.

“Mutual trauma is a great bonding tool, I’m sure you probably listen to rock music or anything sad and angry because you know someone feels the exact same way you do? I was like that when I was a teenager. We've both lost someone we loved and then made Amoreena out of pure luck,” he combated her snarky summary with his own profile of her.

“I actually like Taylor Swift, Paramore, Evanescence and Olivia Rodrigo when I need to scream about being sad, thank you very much,” she teased him, finding a very easy rhythm as they got to know one another.

“You’re going to lose your mind when you find out who’s with Amoreena right now,” Spencer smiles, somehow everything just fits together.

“What?” She looks so confused, scrunching her face the same way he did to push her glasses up without her hands.

“It’s a long story, but essentially we were at Taylor Swift’s house when JJ called, she’s watching Amoreena still,” Spencer explained, watching her jaw drop.

“Who the fuck are you, dude?” She whispered, and it took Spencer by surprise. “Sorry, I’m so used to swearing in front of adults lately to get my point across. But seriously, you’re so interesting…”

“Understandable,” Spencer laughs lightly at her strange compliment. “I have a lot of connections, and I’ll do anything to see the people I love, smile, that includes you now.”

“You barely know me and you’re just ready to accept that I’m your kid? Didn’t this just happen to you last week?” She laughs at the insanity of it all, “you’re going to have a million kids at this rate, dude.”

Again, she calls him dude and he knows she’s just trying to distance her emotions as they grow fonder and fonder. A coping mechanism so that she doesn’t get hurt anymore, she’s lost too much and she’s not going to love him just to lose him too.

“My dad ran out on me when I was a kid, I basically raised myself when my mom’s schizophrenia got bad, I know what it’s like to feel alone even when you’re with people who are supposed to love you,” he makes sure she knows who he is inside.

“I’m sorry,” she reaches a hand out for him, holding it softly. “I never really liked my dad growing up, he always felt off… I can’t explain it, but he was never the same guy twice he was either angry, miserable or scarily happy," she explains him and all Spencer can think is how he sounds like an unsub.

"I do miss my mom a lot, I didn’t know what else to do when I found out they couldn’t have babies together and she went to a Sperm bank without telling him. I know the names of your other kids too, besides Amoreena, I’m really surprised you found her mom without hacking the system too but, yeah, Dylan is 6 and Alice is 10, they’re both in DC with the same 2 mom’s, so if you didn’t want me, I was going to see if they would cause I’m technically their stepdaughter in a weird way and if I spent one more day in that foster home I would have ended it all,” it's a Reid rant, she's his for sure.

It takes him a minute to absorb it all, “wait, Amoreena is mine for sure?”

She nods like it’s a stupid question, “could you not tell my just looking at her? The 3 of us have the same face.”

“No, they wouldn’t tell us at the clinic,” Spencer is still in shock but more so that she got into the database so easily, “how did you do it?”

“It was easy, I had all the information about the sample my mom used so I just encrypted an email to the secretary of the sperm bank so as soon as she clicked the link to read more I’d have access to her computer, they didn’t even know I was in the system, they probably still don’t know I was there,” she explains it exactly how Penelope would.

“I don’t want you to think I’d ever not want you,” Spencer holds her hand a little tighter, “I’m not sure what the process will be like trying to get the foster agency to agree to me taking you home with us, but I’ll see what I can do. We have a big house and enough room for you in our hearts if this is where you’d like to be. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, you might hate the farm life and the isolation and all the cousins you now have, but you’re a piece of me and I’m not letting you go.”

She uses her free hand to wipe her tears on her sleeve again, “please, I know it’s not going to be the same but I miss having a family so much.”

He wraps her up in his arms, he knows the feeling all too well. One day his mom was there, the next day she was gone and no one prepared him for that. She never had to do this alone, Spencer wasn’t going to let that happen to her.

“Y/N is wonderful, you’ll love her and Amoreena. We live on a huge farm and there’s a lot to do during the day and people to spend time with, believe me, you’re going to feel so surrounded by the love you won’t know what to do with it all,” he shares from personal experience.

“Okay,” she hugged him tighter, pressing her face into his neck as he talked more, feeling the vibrations of his voice on her forehead to know that he was real. That his words were true and she was going to be taken care of.

“Is there anything about yourself that you’d like me to know? Or any questions you have? I’m sure this is going to be an interesting adjustment,” Spencer asked as he pulled away, looking down into her sweet eyes and seeing the hope she was still hanging on to.

“Is Y/N even okay with all of this? It’s her house isn’t it?”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine with it, she knew I had you and the other 2 out there somewhere, we just never expected to meet you so soon,” he’s as honest as possible, talking to her the same way he would with Henry, she seemed even more mature than him.

“Can she come in here too? I’d like to get to know her as well, see if she’s really as lovely as you say she is,” she smiled, coping with her trauma the same way he and Y/N did, with humour.

Almost like Y/N could feel him thinking about her, she knocked on the door before opening it a crack, “sorry, I have some updates,” she smiled.

Josephine smiled at her, “come in.”

Y/N sat down close to her and placed her hand on her shoulder, “my sister is a foster parent, she called her caseworker and they were able to rush the emergency next of kin paperwork, you can stay with us for as long as you would like to.”

“You’re serious? You barely know me?” She kept repeating that as if she convinced herself earlier in the day that they wouldn’t want to know her.

Y/N wrapped her up in a soft hug and Spencer saw all the tension leave Josephines body as she settled against her. It had been a long time since a mother held her, she didn’t realize how much she needed it until she was in her arms.

“You’re half Spencer, so by default you have a portion of my heart now too. I’m not going to love you as an obligation or because I feel like I have to, I love you because you’re part of him and our family,” she whispers into her hair, “I know what it’s like to be alone, you never have to be... unless we’re smothering you then I get it, but you know what I mean.”

She laughed in Y/N’s arms before pulling back. Y/N held her face in her hands and looked at her gently. She ran her fingers through her dyed hair, “you’re going to fit right in with the 4 of us.”

“Four?” She repeats, wondering who else they lived with.

“I’m pregnant,” Y/N smiles as Josephine lights up.

“I’ve always wanted to be a big sister,” she cried a little, “my mom named me after Jo from Little Women, she said she always planned to give me lots of sisters.”

“If this one is a girl she’ll be Eleonora like—“

“Like the poem, Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favourites,” Jo smiled again.

Somehow, without even being there, Amoreena’s mess of glitter glue was able to patch her older sister's broken heart right then and there too.

“I read really fast, my mom said she was going to go bankrupt buying books for me,” she opened up more and more, the hurt of the memories fading as she remembered them with happiness instead of mourning.

Her mom was gone, but the love of a mother filled her space once more. Y/N took her under her wing, keeping her warm and making sure he grew to be as happy healthy and wonderful as all her other babies.

—

They arrive at Taylor's door once again at 11:30. Amoreena is sound asleep in the spare room, not even able to change out of her princess costume or phone them to say goodnight. Taylor said she had a sugar crash and just asked to go to sleep, reminding Taylor that she had the best day ever before closing her tired little eyes.

Jo was very anxious to meet Taylor too, telling her a similar story to Y/N’s from just a few hours prior. Taylor made sure she was comfortable for the night in another spare room, making her a hot chocolate and some snacks from earlier that day at lunch. She was the best host, a wonderful friend and an even better honorary godparent to these girls of Spencer’s.

“Can I have a hug?” She sheepishly asks before she has to turn down the hall to her bedroom for the night.

Spencer answers by wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to his chest once more, he wasn’t sure how his heart could hold so much love for these girls, and still have room left to make more one day. It was a dream come true to have a family this big, no one was going to believe that he gained 3 kids and a wife in under a month.

He kissed her on the forehead gently, seeing her smile at the contact let him know it was fine. “Goodnight dad,” she whispers, pressing her lips together awkwardly the same way he did before turning down the hall and disappearing into her room.

She had only a backpack of things currently, not expecting everything to go as smoothly as it did. She had enough clothes to sleep in, and Taylor happily provided some old tour perch to her just in case she needed something new to wear. Something to help her ease to sleep that didn’t feel like she was going back to her old life in the morning.

Amoreena was going to have a field day tomorrow when she met her big sister, the beautiful girl who was busy covering her scars with bandaids provided by Spencer, but it would take a lot of time, effort and care to make her feel truly healed again. It was going to be interesting seeing Amoreena adjust to sharing him so early, especially since he knew Jo would need so much more attention to ease her anxiety moving forward.

Spencer sat on the guest bed beside Y/N, noticing all the rose petals and candles on the dresser and night tables, “oh she really had a lot planned for us.”

“She’s the fairy godmother of our dreams,” Y/N agreed with a laugh. “I don’t mind staying up late tonight if you don’t mind leaving on Monday instead?”

“I was going on suggest the same thing,” he smiled at her, leaning in to press their lips together gently for the first time since the wedding that afternoon.

“let's get into our comfy’s and go for a walk on the beach, Taylor left me the keys to lock up when we come back,” she whispered the words against his lips before smiling.

“Can I call Derek before we go? I really need to talk to him,” he’s honest with her as he pulls away, feeling really anxious and shook up at the events of the day. He needed his best friend.

“Yeah, I’ll go check out the rest of the guest house, come find me when you’re done?” She says softly, getting off the bed with a smile and stepping out of the room with a small wave.

He takes his phone out and dials the number, waiting with the phone pressed against his ear as it rings. Again and again, every new hum in his ear making his heart beat faster, “hello?” He’s finally rescued.

“Have you talked to anyone on the team lately?”

“Who died?” It was everyone’s go-to question when they got a phone call like this one.

“No one, quite the opposite actually—“

“She’s pregnant!” Derek shouts, cutting him off and Spencer can hear Savannah asking who from the background.

“Well, yeah, but that’s not why I'm calling,” Spencer replies only to be met with Derek's laughter.

“Penny and I had a bet on how long it would take.”

“She cheated because she knew we were trying,” Spencer takes the fun from him, Penelope always won. “I have another kid.”

“I know man, birth is so cool— well I’m telling him anyway,” Derek is clearly talking to Savannah and him at the same time, “we’re pregnant again too.”

“No, Derek, I’m pregnant and sick as hell while you’re perfectly fine,” she snaps back at him as she takes the phone. “You better be so kind to her Doctor Spencer Reid; rub her feet, make her breakfast, thank every god on earth and the ground she walks on for being willing to make another version of you, do you hear me?”

“Yes ma’am,” Spencer hold back a laugh, wondering when Y/N would have a hormonal switch like that, “but I didn’t mean the one in her stomach, another fully formed human of my creation walked into the BAU looking for me today.”

There’s a rustling through the phone as Derek takes it back from her, “what the fuck did you just say?”

“Her name is Jo, she’s exactly a month younger than Henry and her parents died 7 months ago,” he continues without even repeating the last part, “Derek I have 3 kids now and I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Where are you right now?”

“In Taylor Swift's guest house.”

“Spencer, be serious with me, are you doing drugs again?"

“Ask Penelope, she contacted Portia, Rossi’s stepdaughter, who contacted Taylor so I could help Y/N and Amoreena meet her, then JJ called and made us fly all the way to Quantico and now I have 2 children living with me and one on the way. Not to mention, child 1 is extremely jealous about sharing me with people and hasn’t even gotten accustomed to being a big sister, and child 2 is so traumatized she hacked the fucking sperm bank and explained it to me like it was as easy as making a sandwich. I am in over my head here, Derek.”

“Okay, that sounded more like Spencer Reid,” Derek’s calm and happy voice calms him slightly and prompts him to take a deep breath. “If she’s able to hack she’s most likely like Penelope, we can introduce them. She’ll need someone who understands the loss of a parent. Amoreena, on the other hand, you need to spend a day with just her. Take her to the movies, or to see a play or something. Let her know she’s always going to be your little girl no matter how many siblings she gets.”

“Thank you, I needed someone who wasn’t my overly optimistic wife to tell me if I could do it,” he’s overly honest, Derek is his person and will always be his person.

“I get it, thanks for calling me, I’m really glad you’re okay,” he can hear Derek's smile and all he wants is a hug from him. “How was the wedding?”

“Good, we all cried a lot,” he laughs then, “we were supposed to have a big dinner on the beach before we got called into Quantico, so I’m going to go spend time with her now, I love you, Derek,” he rushes the words out so he doesn’t get overly emotional.

“I love you too, Spencer, have a good night,” Derek hands up before they both get too emotional. They always had a knack for making the other cry in times like this.

He lets out a deep sigh before tossing his phone on the bedside table. 3 of his 5 kids were here with him and Y/N now, safe and sound. If anyone else needed him, they could wait.

tag list: @shemarmooresfedora @spencers-dria @spookyspence @reidsfish @manuosorioh @mochionly @samuel-de-champagne-problems @jswessie187

@k-k0129

#spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid self insert #spencer reid request #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine #amoreena

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Nightmare Time Episode 1 Review: The Hatchetfield Ape-Man/Watcher World

I take a look at the first episode of Starkid’s new show Nightmare Time! Starkid, returns for a zoomcast, bringing back the casts of both Hatchefield plays for an anthology series of science fiction double feature picture shows! This week’s tales of terror:

The Hatchefield Ape-Man: A british heiress gets romanced by a shaved bigfoot with the help of everyone’s favorite kooky college professor. Forgotten fiances, murder and described nudity naturally insue.

Watcher World: Bill and Alice return as Bill drags his daughter to a kitschy theme park for a day of family fun, which Alice enjoys and is as respectful about as much as you’d expect. As you’d also expect given Bill’s general luck, things take a turn for the Shining real quick. Spoilers and full review under the cut.

Well this was a nice suprise. With the ongoing pandemic I genuinely did not think Starkid would be back anytime soon. Having just gotten back into them this years after several years of forgetting they existed via the Hatchetfield plays, I was pretty bummed, if understanding. So last week’s announcment of not only this series but a full scripted series from their sister production company the tin bros was a HUGE shot of happy I needed in this troubling times. Still need to watch spies are forver love the soundtrack nto important.

Point is the Lang Brothers and their merry band of actors found a way to continue on via format I didn’t realize existed outside of table reads but is a nice way to do things: The Zoomcast, basically a podcast done live on zoom, with the actors in plainclothes for the most part, with one person, in this case Nick Lang, reading out descriptions of what’s going on. Being a starkid production this also has musical director Matt Bohm playing accompaniment and pretaped if still via the actor’s own camera musical numbers. Overall while i’ts an understandably cheap production, only what costumes the actors have on hand and most props mimed, it WORKS, allowing for way more elaborate set pieces than the stage would allow and is anchored by Lang’s impeccable descriptions and the cast’s amazing as always acting really making the stories pop. So things worked on a technical level despite having the barest of bones to work with. But did it work on a story level? Well yes, but if I ended my reviews with just that i’d have less than the 3 or 4 fans I do have, so without further ado, it’s nightmare time! The Intro:

Now normally in my reviews I don’t talk about the intro because I come in mid way or because I just didn’t think to. This is an exception since

A) I should be doing that anyway or at least when I cover a show’s first episode since intro’s are sometimes one of the most memorable parts of a show

B) It’s a full musical number that’s been stuck in my head since the trailer for this series and has now set up an apartment there. C) This series is a musical, if not to the same degree as the two plays before it, so it’d be weird NOT to talk about it’s signature song.

So with that out of the way the intro.. is fucking impressive. Seriously taking disparate videos with probably as much as the directions “Sing this part of the song and be kind of creepy or alluring or whatever” and making it really flow? Good work, both to the starkids for bringing their a game to it as always and to Nick and Matt really did a good job editing this together, musically and visually to be an abolute jawdrop. And somehow finding utterly stunning stock image animations that none of us realized were stock footage but still fit the tone perfectly. Just great stuff. Some stray notes: Mariah is absolutely stunning in both voice and apperance in this, John Matheson’s bit as paul was great, and Jeff Blim of course got a great bit with his always astounding hair blowing in the breeze with him at full high pitch. Just an utterly great intro, and for Starkid’s first series in over a decade, and really ever but semantics, they really brought it. Good stuff. Onto the actual episode content.

The Hatchetfield Ape-Man: Lucy, a british heiress played by Angela Giarratana, was saved by the legendary “Hatchefield Ape-Man”.. who apparently has a hyphen like spider-men because while sasquatches can do that. Point is she’s come back every year in the hopes of reuniting with her savior but has so far failed. But as Lucy prepares to leave from this year’s failed expedition, an old friend finally gives her what she needs... old friend to us to her she’s just some grey haired lunatic who showed up out of the mist. Which while accurate, dosen’t quite quantify everyone’s favorite playwright/college professor/murderous psychopath/composer.

Yes at long last Professor Hidgens has returned! I honestly didn’t expect the anthology to bring in such a huge fan faviorite so soon. I mean I expected returning characters, mostly because the project allows old faviorites to come back for their own stories or for the stars of the musicals to get a chance at a much happier ending... there’s a lot of potetial there. That and let’s face it “Jane’s a Car” is a pretty dead giveaway it’s going to be about Tom’s dead wife and Tim’s dead mother coming back in horrible mash up of christine and my mother the car. Maybe. I could be wrong. I also doubt many of you know what my mother the car is and to that I say it’s an old sitcom i’m honestly suprised I know exists and know nothing about other than the title and it being about a son’s mom’s ghost possesing his car apparently. Well that and it was the basis for this.

youtube

Point is, while I expected some returns, I wasn’t expecting one this large and this bombastic so soon, but BOY was it welcome. So getting back on track after all that, HIdgens seemingly takes Lucy to meet her ape man, who goes by the name Klonk, played by everyone’s faviorite sexy caveman Joey Richter. Also it’s adorable he and Lauren share a streaming screen. I know practicality and all that but their engagment is genuinely a sweet thing to hear about at a time when the world’s going down the toilet fast. Fun Fact: I pegged the Ape-Man was either going to be Jeff or Joey, leaning towards Jeff, though given my love of Joey I wasn’t disapointed with him, especially with the twist... but I was EXASTIC to learn the answer was basically “Both.. kinda?”. But yeah Lucy soon bonds with the ape man, with HIdgens encouraging her since it’s more than he’s gotten out of Klonk in 11 months of looking after the guy, and this way they can get him to learn enough to decide what he wants for himself.

So a few months, and some romantic bonding between woman and ape-man, pass but a wrench is thrown into Klonk’s wooing and attempt to tell lucy he loves her: Jonathan, Lucy’s just now mentioned fiance and royal dickhead played by Kurt Mega. And credit where it’s do whlie he clearly didn’t have to dress up, he did have a nice 50′s monster movie british person suit he put on. Lucy is now conlficted and what not even though Jonathan is kind of an asshole who just wants to drag her back home. And i’ts not like Lucy didn’t keep in touch: she sent him texts and probably called, so i’ts not like he didn’t know she was here. He’s also a hunter for extra dick points as if he needed them. Naturally when meeting his romantic rival he’s a dick.. but raises some valid questions: While Hidgens claim he shaved Konk due to lesions, there’s no mark of lesisons or the shaving. But his natural dickheadedness shines through and Jonathan talks about shooting Klonk before lucy takes his ring off and throws it and Jonathan goes after her. Annnnd yeah turns out the disposable dickhead fiance for once is RIGHT. In a twist I did not remotley see coming but damn if it wasn’t clever, Klonk.. is Ted from TGWDLM and the plan was to seduce lucy with this con, marry her and then bump her off. It’s a hell of a twist and cleverly hidden since Joey’s such a starkid mainstay, it’s not a huge suprise he was Klonk and thus easily hid the fact he was also Ted. It’s clever stuff and pivots the story nicely.

Ted is naturally a douchey as ever, going along with Hidgen’s plan to have him marry lucy then kill her and take her dough for themselves.. and unsuprisingly, so Hidgens can get Workin Boys off the ground. Granted there are easier ways to do this with the same scooby doo scheme: Just have HIdgens plan working boys casually, have Klonk really love it and being the sweetheart she is LUcy would fiance the thing just to make them both happy. I mean he can still marry her and ted can still have direct acess to her money if they want, it’s just an easier way that dosen’t shine supscion on the caveman who looks exactly like a local douchebag who everyone he’s met would testify against him. I mean would Paul and Bill REALLY be that suprised that Ted did this?

Exactly. Then again neither of our “heroes’ Here is very bright, and this scheme only works because Lucy is clearly very sweet, very naive, and very much wants a romantic evening with an ape man after all this time and effort searching, so she wants to believe him. So the fact the best they could come up with is something out of Scooby Doo is unsuprisng but still great. However things take a turn for the

Pretty quick as Hidgens takes disposable british douche fiance hunting.. then kills the guy after freely admiting he’s a fraud in what’s an INCREDIBLY chilling scene. Seriously it’s amazing how Robert takes a character as loveably redicilous, even his evil and murderous plan during TGWDLM was still hilariously rediclous, and makes him UTTERLY TERRIFYING. Even when dropping my fair lady refrences. Amazing stuff. So the next day, after Konk “asks” what an engagment is and what not, we then get Lucy wondering just WHERE jonathan is and we get the second biggest laugh of the night as Hidgens gives us the iconic line of “Oh he left... said something about you being crazy and going back to london and basically to go fuck yourself. “. Naturally Lucy has followup questions and goes to find out while Ted, also naturally, isn’t exactly pleased when he finds out his partner in crime did a murder on someone.

Ted may be a sleazy dickhead.. but even he sees maybe murdering a rich british person who just came here, went basically ONLY to this one location, and whose probably got many people who will misss him, one of whom is their primary target, is kinda dumb. Then again this is a plan that hinges on someone who could easily be identified, as he has or at least probably had an office job and three coworkers who know him, assuming a false identity to marry someone for their money. But again we’re dealing with a guy who thinks working boys is marketable to anyone who isn’t a starkid, and a moron who soon says he does his best thinking while erect. They only got this far because their target REALLY wants to fuck a sasquatch, is sweet but naive and well Ted IS still joey richter, and no longer has the porn stache so there you go. Ted decides to cut Hidgens out of things.. partly because you know, he killed a person, and partly because instead of killing Lucy, Ted realized he honeslty has a LOT to gain by simply marrying her and staying married. He gains a hot rich wife (his word’s not mine, but angie is genuinely beautiful so fair point), a mansion, and while Hidgens points out the obvious, he has to stay Konk.. that’s actually appealing to Ted as he feels better as Konk, not just because he impresses an attractive woman for doing basic stuff, but because he feels better as Konk. This is.. an intresting turn for Ted i genuinely like. It shows that Ted may, as much as he presents with bluster and ego, actually LIKE the kind of shithead he knows he is. I mean looking at his life he has two workmates who calling them friends is a bit of a stretch, and one who he’s having an affair with but seems detemrined to make her doomed marriage to an even bigger asshole work. He really dosen’t have much as ted so it’s easy to see why being Konk is better: He’s a better person as him who actually has someone who cares about him. Naturally Hidgens takes this as well as you’d expect and when Ted/Konk tries proposing he goes with the logical option for taking the fourtune for himself:

Yes really. Hidgens strips naked, and swings his arms around like an orangutan to try and convince Lucy he’s the real hatchetfield apeman. Sadly this dosen’t mean we get a shirtless robert manion as he needs to keep the turtleneck on for later, but the mental image.. I had to pause the video for a good minute to laugh over it. Just everything about it from it somehow being a dumber plan than his scheme this episode, to the orangutan swaying to just.. everything. It’s fucking genius. But Higdens has more than a mighty penis to compete with Ted.. he reveals ted’s phone and Ted ends up revealing himsef by telling Hidgens to go fuck himself. Naturally Lucy is distraught and tries to leave and the professor pulls out his shotgun to threaten her into financing his musical because of course it’s about workin boys. Lucy tries to run, Hidgens tries to shoot.. and ted , doing the first good thing in his entire life, takes the bullet. Lucy gets ted out of there then locks the door behind them, and we get the SCARIEST bit in this segment as Hidgens leans into the camera, simulating the peep hole of the vault door to the ape man inclosure and begs her to let him out. It’s some real Jack Nicholson in the Shining stuff and it’s utterly terrifying, but it’s also an amazing bit of acting. Nice job Rob. So ted bleeds out, as much as Lucy wants to save him he knows he’s not going to make it and prefers to die as Konk, finally happy with himself. And I just realized everyone at Paul’s job is horribly miserable. I mean good god, Paul himself has serious depression issues judging by “Let it Out”, Ted clearly hates himself, Charlotte is in a horrible marriage and Bill just got out of one and has a strained realtionship with his daughter we’ll get into more in a bit. I mean honestly, Mr. Davidson is the only one of them who really dosen’t need therapy.. he just needs to tell his wife he wants her to choke him while he jerks off. For as ungodly hilarious as that line is he’s probably the most well adjusted person there. Go figure.

Naturally being already insane, Hidgens breaks out, still naked mind, and chases after Lucy. Also noticable is apparently some people thought hidgens was manipulated by the blue shit hive mind in TGWDLM. Which.. no. I do love the guy dont’ get me wrong.. but it was very obvious both from the way his musical number was done compared to the rest of the ones in the musical, and his actions that was entirely him, and his playing the music was so he could join, especially since we don’t see the hive mind use any mind manupluation on anyone else. Regular manipulation sure as seen with you tied up my heart and not your seed, manipulating charoltte into freeing her asshole husband so he could infect her and torturing bill for funsies. Just something to get out of the way. Point is he was always crazy we just now have him chasing an innocentish woman with his dong hanging out to prove it. He eventually catches her as Lucy catches herself in one of his bear traps when she hits the woods, because he had those for some reason.. and he has a resonable way out: Just give her the 30,000 dollars he needs for his musical. Thing is she dosen’t have the money.. or hardly any. She spent all of it trying to find the ape man and was marrying jonathan for his money and him for her title. And while it is a bit skeezy, it’s very clear both were using each other and likely knew it, and Lucy still comes out the most moral of our cast here.. granted it’s not a big stretch as hidgens is criminally insane, ted’s a skeeze and Jonathan.. well he’s just a diiiiiiccckkkk. It’s not hard is what i’m saying.. much like hidgen’s dick flopping around in the rain. But yeah he dosen’t take it well, Lucy goes up a tree, which is apparently something Becky did once. But before Lucy can die at the hands of a naked thespian, the REAL Ape-Man shows up and tears Hidgen’s arms off, taking lucy in his own arms afterwords and revealing he remembers her. The two hit it off instantly, it turns out his name is chumby in an excellent gag as that was what Hidgens wanted his fake ape man to be named but Ted froze, and go off into the night together. Awww.. what if a naked ape man played by my boy jeff blim and a british person can’t work who can?

We then close out the segment with a cameo appearance by Jamie Lynn Beatty, who while not part of the cast for this double feature, does get a fun showtune about the ape man. Also fun fact that i found out here on tumblr: That costume is from something Jamie did in HIGH SCHOOL. As in well over a decade ago. Like holy shit, good for her. She looks great in it. But yeah it’s a fun song and a nice way to close it out. Final Thoughts on the Hatchetfield Ape-Man: This was a great way to start things off. This one was more in line with starkids pre-hatchetfield work, a goofy story with some hidden depth inside. And like the guy who didn’t like musicals it was utterly terrifying in spots so yeah good stuff ,utterly hilarous and a great way to bring back some old faviorites while giving us a neat new protaganist. Good stuff.

Watcher World:

Now from a mostly comedy with a horrifying ending to just.. pure unfiltered horror and depression! It’s Watcher World! Bill and Alice are back! And given I love Mariah Rose Faith and Corey Dorris, I was exastic to find this was what the second segment was about.. mostly because I had no idea Starkid had teasers for the episodes on their instagram, or I would’ve known Hidgens was coming. I wouldn’t of known he’d be stark naked for the last third of his story but still, pleasant surprise.

So Bill and Alice are spending the day at Watcher World, a run down amusement park on the edge of town. It’s Alice’s last weekend before College so Bill’s trying to reconnect with her by cramming a good old fashioned family vacation down her throat. Alice is less than enthused, both because she clearly resents her dad in general, and because Deb is throwing a huge rager on the same night. My honest interpretation of that is that Deb fully inteded for her girlfriend to come but Bill sprung this on Alice at the last minute and being pretty oblivious and hating Deb, either didn’t care about taking alice from one last night with her friends and girlfriend or didn’t generally think that through. I mean don’t get me wrong normally i’d side with a parent not wanting their daughter to attend a huge teen rager on their last weekend together.. but it’s also Alice’s last weekend in town for some time, and it’s likely a saturday.. so he has another day, and presumibly had friday before this and while things with his ex wife are tense, fighting for an extra day with her would be understandable and i’ts not like Alice, even if she hates Bill, would really fight him on getting an extra day in the town she didn’t want to leave.

But that’s what I really like about this one that it’s layered. While Alice is slightly more in the right, she’s still shutting her dad out, refusing to let him follow her on instagram (though he does agree with her keeping it private as he dosen’t want Ted perving on her, which tracks, or Ted’s brother doing it which.. wait what?), and being on her phone the whole time to very clearly spite him and rub how much she dosen’t want to be there in her dad’s face. She dosen’t WANT to be at watcher world but instead of trying to talk to her Dad just wants to complain and apparenlty has on all their vacations.. it’s easy to see why Bill is annoyed by his daughter at times and thinks he has to FORCE HER to have fun with him, because otherwise she’d gladly ignore him for their entire weekends together for Deb. She’s so determined to punish her dad for the divorce, that she refuses to see on some level he IS trying, and is just sad about her leaving, and possibly leaving him forever and alone with nothing else in his life but his buddy Paul, whose getting married next week so that’s probably not helping. On the other hand the reason I say Alice is more in the right is that well.. Bill’s a grown ass men. And while, speaking for himself, grown ass men don’t always make the right decisions, and not speaking for myself neither do fathers... Alice’s acting out is understandable coming from an 18 year old whose been through hell over the last year, having her parents divorce being forced to move, loosing her friends. Bill however just kind of uses her age and angst as an excuse to undermine and belittle her feelings. Because he doesn’t like deb for the very stupid reasons of she does pot, instead of assuring her that Deb wouldn’t cheat on Alice with Deb’s former crush Zigg, starkid’s first non binary character in a nice show that Nick Lang wasn’t just covering his ass when he said there’d be more representation in starkid, which in his defense I didn’t doubt him on but it’s still nice he did so at the earliest opportunity and very clearly plans to use Zigg if he can find a nonbinary actor for them.

But yeah instead of assuring his daughter, Bill is just like “well sometimes relationships don’t work out” which while true is clearly his self serving way of trying to get Alice to break up with someone he dosen’t like. INstead of supporting her in her dreams of writing plays, one of which was good enough to get her a scholarship, he tries to act like she has no plans for her future and get her to be a doctor for more security, even though having a secure job has done.. no one at his office including him favors. I mean again, the most stable and happy person at the office is the guy in charge, and even he can’t tell his wife he wants her to choke him out at night. He wants her to choke him, he wants her to choke him while he jerks off, he wants her to choookeeee himmm while heeeee jerrrkssss offfff.

While part of this seems to be that Deb plans to be a starving artist who can mooch off her parents in a pinch, Alice GENUINELY seems to have a full plan for her life. I do get his worrying about her future.. but she’s a smart kid. A bit of a brat but she knows what she wants clealry and clearly has talent. He’s just projecting his own fears on her. He also refuses to accept any responsibility in the divorce.. his hating his ex wife IS valid, as she took his daughter away, uprooted her life a year before graduation and spends gobs of money on impressive outings, the latter two seemingly just to spite him when honestly, it’d of made more sense for Alice to stay with Bill for the year before she graduates and been better for her. However, Bill still doesn’t take responsibly that he too is shoving fun down her throat to try and win her over, hates her girlfriend and refuses to treat her with any respect, and really DOSEN’T know Alice all that well. As we learn during their fun day she has anxiety, and he never knew about it. And the divorce isn’t really an excuse when he had years before that. It’s the real problem of their relationship: Bill feels ENTITLED to a good father daughter relationship, but isn’t working at it and blames his ex wife or Alice for it instead of himself. While Alice isn’t an innocent as i’ve made clear, putting up walls and not telling dad things, given bill ignores her when she DOES try to tell him about her life, it’s easy to see she’s just given up. If he won’t listen why bother. Which yeah i’ve found myself there with my own dad from time to time. Bill’s not a bad person, he genuinely loves Alice, as he says “to the moon and back”, but it’s very clear from this outing he still loves the little girl who loved him unconditionally and not the complicated and mopey adult sh’es become, and dosen’t WANT to adapt to that and fears once she leaves for college she’ll avoid him for good, which isn’t unfounded. It’s a good, complex rich dynamic. Naturally with.. all this I covered up front instead of sprinkling it throughout, the day doesn’t go great, with Alice utterly miserable most of the time, and ending up in a goofy novelty t-shirt due to a log ride. She also has an unsettling encounter with park mascot Blinky, our newest adorable abomination, who not only shows up the moment she does something bad on camera but also stares at her ass, which.. Paul you mind coming back for a second?

Thank you. They end up at the Watch Party, a cheesy kids show musical because Bill apparently equates this with his daughter loving musicals. I mean granted cheesy kids stage shows can be rad just listen to this.

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But I get Alice’s annoyance here. Thus we get the return of the sniggles, who apparently serve whatever eldrich deity is around this week and our first song of this segment, The Blinky Song. Which is catchy as hell as well as hilariously dark (”I’m so hungry”), and uses the stock footage well, as I could buy a cheap theme park ran by an eldtirch eye goblin using stock footage. But yeah it establishes Blinky as always watching and kinda fucked up. Also the sniggles are now clearly the smurgs with Angie’s now being named Sniglette, Jeff being papa Sniggle and James being Snigglotts. However Sniglette considers leaving with another song with a long string of words. Then, things get.. dark as the rest of the sniggles don’t want her to leave and try and mob her, and then Papa Sniggle accidently wings her with a mallet and apparenlty injures the actual performer, before everyone’s ushered out and the usher pretends nothing happened. Good mind screw horror stuff.

Alice and Bill then bicker a bit with my above point being made as Alice TRIES to get Bill to accept some respoinablity but he refuses and blames her mom. It’s now time for the Tear-Jerker, the reason they came. Bill’s buddy Paul says someone died. They also find three other people waiting in line and when one goes to the bathroom the other two start making out which.. yeah, dosen’t help Alice’s worry Deb’s going to cheat on her. So she takes the first single rider pass she can, with Bill worming his way in as to not let her get away. The two naturally end up fighting on the Tear-Jerker before it stops up high, and ends up stalled, with the gloriously returning Nerdy Kid played by Joey from Black Friday being as helpful as usual. Seriously bless them for bringing him back. Man in a Hurry also showed up again, bless him too. Alice picks this time to reveal her fear of heights and anxiety, and an approaching storm isn’t helping. So Bill.. steps up. He helps ease Alice down taking her phone for her, if loosing it due tot he rain and helping her stay calm. It’s a REALLY nice portrayal of an anxiety attack, with Mariah herself apparently having them and thus portraying it really well. As someone who has them myself it really hits home and Bills calm attempts to help her are really heartwarming, getting her to describe her musical for him and the two bonding. It’s genuinely sweet. But.. it can’t last, as Alice freaks out about her phone and Bill for once is in the right, as .. he was you know.. trying to save his daughter having a panic attack, and really stepped up given he was obnovious she had anxiety in the first place, and managed it well. He then gives the utterly heart stomping line “I love you to the moon and back, but sometime’s it’s really hard to like you. “

Just damn. So Alice runs off and both find their way to the fairway. Bill tries winning a doll for Alice, getting into a test of strength where he fails repedatly and is constantly mocked by the barker, played by James Tolbert who also played Blinky..

That should be Tolbert’s twitter handle. Anyway point is, Bill keeps trying even as he wracks up 400 dollars in credit card debt, for a 49.95 doll, before eventually the barker and hte crowd’s jeers get to be too much and he does smack it hard, thinking of all of his pent up rage towards alice.. just as the bell at the top takes the shape of alice’s head and explodes. Bill is naturally horrified by this by the barker assures he loves him.. and that he should totally hobble his daughter misery style to make her not leave him and use the mallet for it. Meanwhile Alice is at the shooting Gallery not wanting the blinky doll she wins, just blowing off steam when she runs into an old crone played by Lauren Lopez. But this Crone has her phone... which suspiciously has a ton of instagram photos of Deb and Zigg making out while sharing a toke. Granted Deb COULD’VE cheated, but given Alice is insecure, and her phone was given back to her by a witch working for an eye goblin.. yeah maybe just maybe Deb was loyal, and if she wasn’t wouldn’t be dumb enough to put it on instagram. But given Alice is already worked up it’s easy enough for her to beliive that her relationships in danger and if she gets there in time she can stop it and oh look her gun is now a real gun and can help her get the keys. So yeah it’s time for a creepy as hell Shining-esque showdown, but if both sides were possesed instead of one. It’s.. a CHILLING as hell scene, not helped by Alice wielding a gun again as both fight. I was gripped the entire time and don’t have much to say utter than HOLY SHIT THIS WAS AS TERRIFYING AS IT WAS RIVITING.

But a crowd gathers as the fight continues.. all with purple eyes which ave been seen on and off, watchers with a thousand eyes.. and with Blinky, now revealed NOT to be a costume probably, above them all. We also get one hell of a line. “This is an amusement park but not for YOUR amusement.”

So yeah I love this sequence.. and Blinky as a villain. While it’s vague if he and Blinky are the same entity.. I’m going with not. It’s not a stretch that like Cthulu, Wiggly has brothers in the black and white, with their own motives, methods and ability to get into our world. Unlike Wiggly.. Blinky’s already here and has no real ambition other than to find people to mentally tear apart and set loose on one another for his own amusement. He doesn’t have grand plans of burning the world.. he just wants to be entertained. It’s an interesting and chilling motive and I hope we see him again eventually. I also believe those at the park are trapped there bound after their own day there and trapped doing whatever Wiggly needs. Except maybe squeaky voiced teen. He probably just complains about cleaning up so much blood. But yeah Blinky is very happy as the fight escalates into the hall of mirrors and Alice looses her gun.. with Bill now poised to strike down his daughter as the mirror reflects the various workers at the park, all encouraging him to kill her... it’s utterly terrifying as Bill’s eyes take on a purple tint.. and we get a POWERFUL use of the score and the “why does it hurt to love you’ bit from TGWDLM.. as Bill sees himself and what he’s about to do, sees his daughter understandably having a panic attack.. and calms her, his eyes returning and the two reconciling. Of course Blinky isn’t happy about this “sappy bullshit” and brings htem into his domain, charging at them. But kinda missing that giving a pissed off teenager a rifle she knows how to use when you have a giant target for a face isn’t a good idea and she shoots him, with him bleeding a flood of purple goo that sends them out. While I doubt Winky’s dead, he is done with them. Our story concludes on a sweeet note as the two find their car, and they finally make as tep forward, Bill having seen almost too late how selfish and controlling he was being and accepting his daughter on her phone.. and Alice realizing her need to open up and after checking Instagram, likely finding out those photo’s weren’t real, she throws her phone in the back.. but not before accepting her dad’s request, letting him in. Sure the road ahead is rough.. but the two have made a good first step towards repairing things and loving one another again in a healthy manner. and all it took was bill nearly murdering her and allice shooting an eye goblin int he face and getting covered in his blood. Cue the credits, a beautiful song called “One Thousand Eyes” with Jeff Blim fucking nailing it. A great way to send off this bit. Final Thoughts: This was the best one of the two. While Ape Man is really good too, this one took the darker tone of black friday, but with a tighter narrative. By focusing on a smaller cast, the darker elements really played better and the conclusion felt more satisfying.. though it helped that BOTH of these tails ended without everyone dying, and while I doubt EVERY story will have a happy ending, it makes things more interesting knowing that the heroes can get a happy ending this time around instead of an apocalypse.

Overall Thoughts: This double feature was great, I’ll be getting a ticket to the next one if I can afford it, and if not i’ll see it presumably in December or next year when it comes on YouTube. Really excellent stuff. So this was a first for me but if you’d like to see more starkid stuff from me, let me know in the comments or my askbox, commission me to review one of the musicals via dm, and if you liked how I did this review follow this blog for weekly ducktales and loud house coverage, and amphibia coverage when that returns, among more fun reviews. And until next time.. don’t blink. Play us out Jeff.

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I really hope this is the ending theme for the series.

#nightmare time #hatchetfield #the hatchetfield ape man #watcher world #ted #professor henry hidgens #Bill Woodward #Alice Woodward #Lucy Stockworth #halloween #halloween havoc #paul matthews #jeff blim #team starkid #starkid

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heathenrage · 5 years

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Movie Review: Us

SPOILER ALERT - Look, if you haven't seen it, you fucking better. And, I suggest seeing it before reading my review.

Ok now, where to begin? So many layers. Let me first say that I don't pretend to fully "get" the movie, and certainly don't pretend i'll even touch the surface of what this movie meant or the expanse of themes incorporated, but here are my observations as concise as possible.

Obviously the cinematography was superb and calculating. From the offset, the development of the characters had to have hooked most of the audience as it did me. A naive little girl with an alcoholic father who ignores her, and a permissive mother who allows them to be ignored set the scene for the child's innocence lost; cut to candy apple falling to the ground as she walks towards the Carnival forest to be lost in a hall of mirrors where she goes to find herself, and ... she does. From ominous storm clouds and lightning bolts rolling in as she gets ever closer to facing her evil opposite, to rain pouring down the moment she steps inside. Analogous to Eve biting the apple from the tree of knowledge and then going from paradise to pain.

The use of Michael Jackson shirt 'Thriller':

1. Michael always used dance as a metaphor for something else ( a lot of times fighting) in his videos.

2. Thriller the music video is about a girl being scared by zombies which is symbolic of the vices/ evil in others. Michael is trying to "thrill her more than any ghost would ever dare try" cut to groovy music with an awesome bass line where he proceeds to take her back to his house, as she imagines being trapped in his room only for him to jolt her to reality with his offer to take her "all the way home". We sigh with relief, he isn't a zombie! All is ok for the young lady's virtue, but as we sink into our complacency Michael turns back to the camera one last time with a hunger in his wolf eyes. Ow oooo, if you know what i'm sayin'.

3. In the case of the two opposite twins in the movie Us, who is the wolf? Which mother? Is this song about date rape? Is the little girl given the shirt as a foreshadowing of her impending date with her own wolf? Could the red jumpsuits mean little red riding hood is coming to kill the big bad wolf? Or is it a shout out to co-star's 'The hand maiden's tale'? (Also, a show/novel about the struggle between servitude, complacency, and pride.)

4. In ethnic cultures, through the trials and triumphs of time, dance has been a form of escapism, non verbal expression, a subversive act that can bring joy even in the darkest of times.

Then there were rabbits and scissors:

1. The scissors for the untethering from servitude. She cuts the head off of the rabbit stuffed animal symbolize the untethering of herself as the evil twin's plaything.

2. As the 'Prevailer' decends down the stairs to the lab, a rabbit is seen escaping, as if saying that she was Alice falling back down to Wonderland where the Red Queen was waiting to chop off her head.

3. However, the "Unionizer" was herself like the rabbits, being tested on and kept locked up. This I feel was very analogous to how our society deems it acceptable to lock up animals to conduct research, and people to put them in jails.

4. There jumpsuits help us to see that they were the prisoners all across the country; living in smaller confined versions of the real world. People society has locked up and forgotten about, instead of placed in restorative justice centers to rehabilitate and integrate back into society.

5. The theme of Upper/Middle Class vs . Working Poor/Imprisoned/Homeless

News reel "They came from the sewers."

"And I kept thinking, you could have taken me with you."

"... This is our summer home!" Hilarious line to splash in some comedic relief.

Which brings me to the use of comedy ... Tears rolling "nobody wants the boat dad" however, in the end the boat saved them time and again. "Thanks dad for buying the boat!" is something left unsaid but fully understood by the time the credits rolled. In the end having a family that could think for themselves, and make their own decisions helped the 'evil twin' to prevail. Though, I can honestly say that I didn't sleep that night, that movie had me laughing so many times. Luckily, I saw it late at night with a lot of people that were, like me, talking shit out loud to all the characters, and mooning over/chuckling at Winston Duke's spread eagle poses. This movie had the best of both worlds; thrills and chills.

The use of the song "I got $5 on it":

1. Yes, the song is funny, well known, and well liked, but is there more here?

2. "The Prevailer" in the begining of the movie is in the car singing along with the entire family "I got five on it." Openly lying to her kids about the meaning of the song it is understood but accepted as joke; as if she was only saying that because that is what a good mom should say while she is really laughing at her children misbehaving."Mom I can see you laughing in the mirror." A precedent of two faced nature is set as the family drives along to their second home.

3. Let's go half on a sack lyrics could be a metaphor for the two clones going half on one body/soul. It could refer to the struggle of those going through addiction and having two sides of themselves trying to dominate the other as someone tries to get clean but relapses again.

In the end, after really reflecting on the movie, it makes me sad that our main character protagonist - antagonist or however you look at it - dies in the end. She is kidnapped and turned slave, only to rise up unionizing thousands of clones / guinea pigs, homeless, lab rats controlled by the government. These clone slaves had no rights all around America, and she with really only The Goonies, and - i'm inferring here - an approximately 3rd grade education brings them all together to seek freedom. The most beautiful revenge story, a little girl taken for granted by her biological family is abducted and forced to live imprisoned for 20+ years; yet though she probably had her wind pipe crushed by the evil twin, "the Prevailer", it acts as a catalyst for her to find her voice in a different way. Even more of a blow, a bitter irony is the original surface twin "the Unionizer" who is now imprisoned never gets the love that her family started pouring out from their guilt. After the abduction, she never gets to experience how her family started to invest in their daughter - except through dance. Dance to me is a ubiquitous expression of subversiveness, rebellion, revenge and passion; it is a tool of communication that evokes a plethora of emotions and intentions. It was used beautifully in this case.

But alas, revenge has its price and the price is the soul as seen in 'I Saw the Devil', "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance", "Oldboy" and all your other favorite revenge films. I'd like to compare "the Unionizer" to a similar hero in another favorite revenge film of mine, Oldboy. Oh Dae-Su is a drunk, asshole shitty father and cheating husband who gets kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years. During this time, confined to a single room by unknown captures, he teaches himself how to kick ass and prepare for the moment he can seek his form of justice. After being released randomly with no prior notice, he is hooked and entangled in figuring out who his capture is, and where he can find him. There were several points in time where he could have walked away, but his pride hammer on his intentions and resolve for revenge. And just like the "Unionizer" in the movie 'Us', Oh Dae-Su does end up getting his revenge in the end, but at a price. Spoiler alert: He literally cutting his pride/ his loose tongue that never stopped talking shit even after he was released (if you think about it) at the end to gain peace, "Unionizer" gaining her voice, losing her life, but succeeding arranging the greatest civil uprising at the cost of her own life finally had peace.

With a twist of fate, Alice goes to meet the Red Queen and the rest of the story is revealed. And just as in any great Michael Jackson music video, a war wages through the waltz that the evil opposites begin as a means to an end. However, not only does the battle resume with the characters on the screen, but also within our audience. Who should we really be rooting for? Should justice be served and what is the truth behind that justice; millions of peoples blood spilt, both guilty and innocent alike. For even when you don't commit the act of genocide, when you don't speak up and stop it, the blood is still on your hands. This movie really points out that we as people do not realize the hypocrisy within ourselves when turning a blind eye. We are all tethered together by the bonds of our humanity, and we cannot continue to ignore the white lies we tell ourselves about the inequalities in our society.

#us movie #movie review

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adobe-outdesign · 6 years

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BATIM Chapter 5 Liveblog

I am in no way emotionally or mentally prepared for this LET’S DO THIS

Spoilers under the cut (duh).

Henry, stop calling Joey your friend

I like the perspective from the cartoons, very interesting

Hehe, she drew Tom

Allison seems to be fairly unlucid compared to Alice

oh hey I was right, he did doodle the Bendy animatronic’s hand

Tom. dude, not cool

what the fuck else do you watch us to watch Allison

why the fuck did you call him Tom to begin with if you didn’t know it was his name

hehe, invisible ink

oh, she does have a halo, it’s just invisible. I thought the headband was her halo, but maybe not

true bros fix other bros arms

oh, so that’s why they leave, that makes sense

TAKE THE SPOON

aw, such a charmer

I’M ON A BOAT, I’M A BOAT, EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME

oh, okay, this is happening

SAMMY, MY BOY, GREAT TO SEE YOU. or not. actually no

is it pretentious to start an “outdesign is right” count? too bad I’m doing it

Outdesign is right count: 1

I wonder if he joined the hivemind? It’s not his voice and it’s got a bit of an echo to it

HE AIN’T NO FACE

yes, yes it is.

Henry, why do you break everything you touch

“GO BACK TO YOUR PUDDLES” Allison is just an angry mom

oh shit, there’s a lot of miner searchers

JESUS CHRIST

boy, if that ain’t evidence for the “Henry is an ink creature” theory than I don’t know what is because literally all his bones should be broken by now

it would be really clever if it was Henry who left the messages on his first visit to the studio, given that he managed to escape once and Allison says whoever left them knew how to escape

ah, maybe the last reel refers to the last reel used to make the final cartoon? possibly Bendy? or Henry if he’s an ink creature?

This could go against Joey being Bendy - but at the same time, if the Ink Demon was made on the first attempt, wouldn’t everyone be dead because all he does is murder the shit out of people? If that’s the case there’s definitely a secondary Bendy running around.

Alternatively: Maybe this was before they figured out the sacrifices? Thomas doesn’t mention anything about anyone going missing. Maybe that’s why you need the people - cartoons without people are just moving ink with no personality or anything. (”there’s just something unworldly about him”).

am I hallucinating or is that Charlie, like, huge? though it’s probably the same one in the trailer so maybe not

“likewise, we would also like to dismiss the idea that our accountant had a complete mental breakdown and is now drinking gin in the closet”

leader because Bendy’s the main character, maybe?

did... did wally get killed over a chocolate cake

Though more importantly: food-lover, even at the expense of other’s? Another check on the Boris checklist

was that Sammy’s cake

spoilers: first-attempt Bendy was Beta Blobby Boi (though once again, I think this goes against the idea of it being the Ink Demon, because Thomas would be very dead if he got near him).

Also, the whole “these things are soulless” thing - IE this Bendy doesn’t have a soul and thus isn’t a person. And it’s only at this point that he says he’ll get them a soul, which the Ink Demon definitely seems to have

Surprisingly, Joey’s office isn’t as over the top as I thought it would be

Joey you’re such a piece of shit

“I’ll be straight with you” no part of Joey is straight

this also adds up - first abominations made, then Alice is the first cartoon with a soul made using the CK1

well this looks safe (get it? because vault? I’m a genius)

please be a tape from norman in here I miss him

ink demon has the last reel, maybe?

“I need three gears, a crowbar, AND THAT GUY’S PROSTHETIC ARM”

okay, that was legitimately hilarious

reminds me of Norman’s stroll in 3

“death” okay this sounds promising

christ on a fucking cracker

that sounds like confirmation that Henry probably isn’t an ink creature (yet?). He’s waded through ink before

you’re here because Joey’s a dick

oh, now you say that

maybe this is where cartoons are re-created? Looks like a Boris in there, though impossible to know if it’s our Boris

hey, new cartoon clips on the walls!

mildly suspicious that there’s a Joey tape in Bendy’s space. could be nothing though

wait. wait this isn’t a tape. Joey where are you

BOY IF THAT AIN’T CONFIRMATION I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS

Outdesign is right count: 2

oh great, now you can fucking shape shift

CHRIST HE RUNS FUCKING FAST

Joey why. do you have this

I like how the wall animations are actually animated shorts, mostly from the contest winner’s. Rosemary’s Babysitter and Hell in a Handbasket are in there

his horns are so.... wiggly

good fucking riddance

HOLY SHIT, THAT POST I MADE WAS RIGHT, THE REAL WORLD IS IN COLOR. THAT WASN’T EVEN AN ACTUAL THEORY

Outdesign is right count: 3

no wonder Henry complimented Jack, he’s clearly a hat person himself

these storyboards seem to be for AUs? One is called “Bendy wins”. or maybe these are all the alternate endings that can be unlocked?

1963 adds up with the present day - 1933 was when 30 years was, according to Mike Mood

the rendering here is really freaking cool, as it actually does look realistic

so this is a good ending, I think? Like, this is... heaven, maybe, seeing as there’s sketches from the studio and good AU things (Wally has grandkiddens!), but Joey(? I think) is also here? And it’s not like Henry knows where he is? plus it kind of seemed like he died at the end there

and badabing, there’s Joey’s wheelchiar. all the way from my chapter 2 theory baby

wait, is that why we keep having flashbacks? so the “we’ve been here before” thing is correct?

holy shit, this animation is fucking gorgeous

HENRY HAS A LAST NAME BABY

So is the idea here that Henry is also a drawing/character that Joey made, and that’s why he keeps going back to the studio?

Maybe the entirety of BATIM is a story? You can see the characters and inspiration on the walls, even down the studio going bankrupt

I mean, overall I really enjoyed it, but I still have a ton of questions (what happened to Shawn, Grant, and Lacie? What about Norman and Alice’s corpses and the Bendy animatronic? Plus the ending is... strange and Gainax-y.

This should only be one ending according to the achievements (the Main Ending), so let me see if there’s more that might explain things...

Hmm, okay, not seeing anything right now in a quick search. There definitely is more than one ending according to the achievements (and even the storyboards at the end) so I’ll hold off judgement until then. Might update this post later if there is something.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #henry stein #ink machine #bendy #batim spoilers #outdesign posts things #i mean i liked it i just don't know what to make of it and it feels like we're missing a lot #hey i can update my henry tag finally

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lilacmoon83 · 5 years

Text

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 190: I'll Make a Man Out of You

At dinner last evening, Snow and David detailed their plan to Phillip and Aurora, only to be met with overwhelming support and excitement from the other royal pair. In addition, Red was so excited that she could barely contain her joy. She loved her life with Mulan and being with her, but she missed her them, Granny, and her Godchildren very much. So naturally, Mulan was on board as well, knowing how happy it was going to make Red.

They graciously enjoyed Phillip and Aurora's hospitality and got a good night's sleep in the guest wing of their castle, before awakening the next morning to enjoy breakfast with them. And before they knew it, it was time to move on.

"We'll see you soon," Snow said, as she hugged Aurora and David shook hands with Phillip.

"We are excited for this new direction," Phillip stated, as Phillip Jr. and Bobby said their goodbyes too. The boys were about the same age and fast friends.

"Us too," David agreed.

"Where will you go now?" Aurora asked curiously.

"Well...we were hoping Mulan could get us an audience with the Emperor of her land and then I suppose we'll have to visit King Francis in the Southern Isles. As much as we never cared for him, we don't feel it's right to exclude a Kingdom solely based on their ruler," Snow explained.

"Oh...King Francis passed away two years ago. His eldest son rules now," Phillips said.

"Do you know much about him?" David asked curiously.

"He seems to be a more just ruler than his father, but I'm afraid I have not met him directly, only representatives of his. He seemed to be appalled by what his youngest brother Hans tried to do in Arendelle, but I don't know if that was because he got caught and it reflected badly on his Kingdom or if he was truly appalled by his acts," Phillip advised. David nodded.

"We'll go into that one carefully," he said. They nodded and gathered with their children, while Mulan and Red joined them.

"The Emperor does not take meetings from outsiders often, but he is well versed in the legend of the Dragon King. If I explain that you are the next pair to hold the title of truest loves, he may grant you an audience," Mulan explained.

"And if he doesn't?" Snow asked.

"I will present your case for you," Mulan answered. They smiled.

"Thank you Mulan," the raven haired beauty said, as her husband toss a bean and a swirling orange portal appeared before them. With that, they, their children, Red, and Mulan stepped through to their intended destination.

~*~

Nephilim

Regina and Mim followed Seth, as he led them to a chamber in the bowels of his palace. Once they walked in, it was clear that it was a treasure room. It was filled with gold, silver, precious jewels, ancient artifacts, diamonds, and acquired items that Regina assumed were probably significant pieces.

"So...is there something in here that can help us?" Regina asked.

"I believe so," Seth responded, as he retrieved a helm from the highest shelf.

"And what exactly is this?" she asked.

"You uneducated fool...you don't recognize such an ancient prize?" Mim snapped.

"Easy Mim...I obtained this helmet long before she was even thought of, let alone born," Seth eased, as he put the cap on to demonstrate its power and Regina was astonished to see him disappear. He removed it and reappeared again.

"Hades' cap of invisibility. I took it from him centuries ago, before my banishment. You see, before they ousted me from my home, I put many things I acquired in a sort of magical dimensional pocket and when I arrived here, I found that I was able to retrieve everything I had stashed away." he replied.

"That's a fascinating trick. Care to teach it to me sometime?" Regina questioned.

"Pff...you're barely worthy enough to polish his boots, let alone become an apprentice," Mim protested.

"Your ambition is very refreshing. Perhaps a lesson or two is in order, but first, we need to figure out how to conceal this land and the curse from Storybrooke," he purported.

"We need to be hidden in plain sight so we may infiltrate our enemies and only reveal ourselves when we are ready," he continued.

"And you think the answer is in Hades' invisibility cap?" Regina inquired.

"I think if we melt this helm down and add its magical invisibility properties to the curse...then yes, I think it will work," Seth responded. She smirked.

"I don't see why it wouldn't. This is a powerful artifact...it could be exactly what we need," she agreed. He smirked back.

"Then let's proceed with our plan," he said.

~*~

"Order up!" Frankie called, as he finished the last of the breakfast rush. He and Joe were thoroughly enjoying their new lives in this extraordinary little town. They were still astounded at how the Charmings had basically adopted them into their large family and they had never been so grateful.

The last order, being that of apple pancakes and other breakfast and lunch items, went out to Regina's table. They were enjoying a late family breakfast that morning. Joining her was Robin and Roland of course, along with Chad, Zelena, Jade, Alice, who naturally brought Emma and Killian with her.

"Thanks Joe," Emma said, as she dug into her grilled cheese and onion rings.

"You're very welcome. So...how do you think things are going for your parents?" Joe asked curiously.

"Oh, I actually talked to them last night through magical Skype," she replied. His brow furrowed.

"Magical Skype?" he asked. She smirked.

"Also known as an enchanted looking glass. With the chalice, it allows them to talk to us through an enchanted looking glass, no matter where they are," she clarified. He shook his head.

"Amazing…" he said.

"Yeah, so they've visited Agrabah, the Maritime Kingdom, and were in King Phillips Kingdom last night. All three are overall excited and on board with it all," Emma reported.

"Agrabah...that's Aladdin, right?" Joe asked.

"Of course it is. His knowledge of fairy tales is embarrassing," Frankie complained.

"And yours is a little scary," Joe retorted.

"Right. And the Maritime Kingdom is ruled by King Eric and Queen Ariel. My Mom and Ariel go way back as friends," Emma added.

"Snow White and the Little Mermaid...now how come Disney never made that movie?" Frankie joked.

"You did see what they did to my parent's story, right?" Emma reminded.

"Very true...I read the book version and the mouse didn't even come close to doing them justice," Joe agreed.

"So King Phillip...we talking the Sleeping Beauty thing?" Frankie questioned.

"Yep and today, they're going with our Aunt Red and Mulan to see if they can get an audience with the Emperor of China...not this Earth's China...but that China," Emma explained. Joe shook his head.

"Mulan...unreal," he said in amazement, as the bell on the diner chimed and Mr. Hyde walked in.

"Mr. Hyde...I see you're back from the Land of Untold Stories. I hope you have good news," Regina stated.

"I do...I was weary about any of the residents that still remain there putting their faith in me. Thankfully, I had the foresight to take Aesop with me," he reported.

"And?" Robin asked.

"They were leery of course, but Aesop used his own experience to convince them. He told them that he too was afraid to resume his own story, but that doing so was the best thing he ever did, because Storybrooke allowed him a fresh start," Hyde replied.

"So...the Land of Untold Stories is on board?" Killian asked. He nodded curtly.

"Yes...thanks to Aesop's help, they are welcoming this new endeavor," Hyde answered.

"That's good news," Regina agreed, with a smile.

"Yeah...and if Mulan's Kingdom is on board, that just leaves the Southern Isles, the Land Without Color, Oz, and Neverland," Emma said.

"Yes and we might as well already count Neverland in. Your parents have a good relationship with Tigerlily and the tribes," Killian added.

"Zelena says that Glinda will likely get on board fairly easily too. Let's hope then Whale has good luck and that the Southern Isles are ruled by a better ruler than Hans," Regina stated.

"Sounds like things are on track," Frankie mentioned.

"Yeah, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Mr. Hyde is the good guy. That's not the book I read, Joe joked. Regina smirked.

"Oh there's always a twist around here," she responded, as they continued to eat and enjoy each other's company.

~*~

The Nine Realms

Midgard or Earth

New Asgard

Rose and Fandral, along with the children, followed Valkyrie and Sif to a modest dwelling within New Asgard.

"I feel I must warn you one more time. He's in quite a state," Sif said, as she turned to them.

"To be fair, I've seen Thor drunk before," Fandral replied, but she gave him a dire look.

"Not like this. No one has ever seen him quite like this," she admonished, as she and Valkyrie went inside. Rose squeezed his hand, as he took a deep breath and their eyes met.

"I'm here, my love...no matter what," she promised, as she kissed his cheek and they followed them inside.

The first thing they noticed was how utterly messy the place was and it appeared that Thor already had company in the form of a couple of creatures, the species of which he was unfamiliar. They all held game controllers and he recognized the devices as items he had seen in Storybrooke in the Charming household around the television.

His old friend, looking as disheveled as he had ever seen, jumped up and cheered in victory, though Fandral could see that the victory was something happening on the screen.

"Yes...the strongest Avenger strikes again," he boasted, as he took another swig of beer and stumbled slightly.

"Okaaay...you were right," Fandral told Sif.

"Out you two," Sif ordered to Korg and Miek.

"But we're on the verge of winning the whole thing," Korg complained.

"He's right...and victory shall be ours!" Thor boasted, as he slammed the beer bottle down and it shattered to pieces.

"Now morons," Valkyrie ordered and the two aliens quickly scurried out of the house. Neither was stupid enough to cross Valkyrie or Sif.

"S'okay...I shall take on this valiant quest alone," Thor slurred drunkenly. Valkyrie rolled her eyes and shut the television off.

"Hey...I'm Thor Odinson, King of Asgard. You can't just turn the King's television off," he complained.

"Sit your drunk…" Valkyrie started say.

"Valkyrie...they're are children present," Sif warned. She looked annoyed by that. Not at the children, but rather at the fact that she had to watch her mouth.

"Just sit," she snapped and he did so, as he finally looked up and saw the people with them. He squinted his eyes and then shook his head, before squinting again. He looked at the beer in his hand with scrutiny.

"Okay...someone definitely spiked this stuff, because now I'm seeing ghosts," he drawled. Fandral sighed.

"You're not seeing a ghost...I'm real," he confirmed, as he knelt down at eye level with his troubled friend.

"But how…" he wondered, as one could practically see the mental gymnastics his brain was performing in trying to figure out exactly how a member of the Warriors Three was alive.

"It's a very long story; one of which I am eager to tell you. But it is also one that you are not sober enough for," Fandral replied. Thor chuckled.

"Yeah...I'm pretty drunk," he agreed, as he looked up and fought the tears in his eyes. Fandral had known him a long time and could see past his bluster and drunken stupor. His oldest friend was in a lot of pain.

"Are they part of your story?" Thor questioned, as clarity started to break through. Thankfully, the ale on Midgard was about as weak as he remembered, compared to that of true Asgardian ale. And that meant Thor would sober up much faster.

"Very much so," Fandral replied.

"Here...coffee," Sif said, as she handed a mug to him.

"Two creams and three sugars?" he asked. She gave him a stern look.

"No black...now drink it," she ordered and he didn't disobey, as he sipped at the scalding liquid. While he was sobering up, they all found chairs and prepared to hear Fandral's tale and learn about the family he had with him.

~*~

New Orleans

2018

Cecily walked along the docks in the reclusive Bayou marina and approached one empty stall, which was being manned by a lone deck hand. The deck hand looked up to see her and looked surprised.

"Ms. Clayton...you're alive," the man said.

"Yes...unlike father, I survived that fiasco in Seattle. I need the submarine. We're leaving this land, Sykes," she replied. He nodded nervously, as he spotted the Military officials with her.

"Something wrong, Major?" Cecily asked the other woman, who seemed glued to her phone.

"The fall out from Seattle is not going away. Social media is still on fire with the whole thing and the news outlets are discussing it to death. The magic is real thing isn't going away," she revealed.

"And it probably won't," Cecily responded.

"There are even civilians conducting expeditions in the woods of Maine, looking for the source. We never mentioned anything in the news about Storybrooke or Maine. How did they even know to explore Maine as a possible source?" she questioned.

"Rumors and whispers of Storybrooke, magic, and its existence, as well as the people that might dwell there have been on the dark web for years now," Cecily answered.

"But trust me, Snow and Charming have the town well protected. They're not going to find anything. There is only two ways into Storybrooke these days, short of an actual curse," Cecily revealed.

"And those are?" the Major questioned.

"Portal or through the barrier. And for that, we'll need mermaid scales, which is what the outer coating of my father's submarine is made of," Cecily answered.

"Fine...where is this submarine?" the Major snapped. Sykes fished something out of a net kept in the water and revealed it to be a control of some kind, obviously waterproof. He pressed a button and a massive submarine surfaced.

"Impressive," the Major stated.

"Tell me, Mr. Sykes, is it?" the Major questioned.

"Yes Ma'am," the nervous, scraggly man replied.

"How does this Submarine know which land to go to?" the Major inquired.

"The Submarine crosses realms through the All World River and the Collector had me program all the significant ones of interest into the GPS system on board," Sykes answered.

"Sykes was my father's technical guru," Cecily confirmed.

"Is that so? Then it's safe to say that you know much about these realms we're about to visit?" the Major questioned.

"Yes Ma'am...I have an entire database on all the realms the Collector ever visited. I also have an entire scope of Storybrooke and complete records of all the prominent members in the town. Add to that, I have the Collector's blueprints of Atlantis and a database of every item and person he ever collected," Sykes revealed. The Major smirked.

"That is excellent news," she stated, as she pulled a gun with a silencer out of her inside jacket pocket and shot Cecily in the head. Sykes put his hands up in surrender.

"Don't worry, Mr. Sykes. You work for me now and will be paid well for your complete cooperation, if so choose," she said. He nodded.

"I'm at your service, ma'am," he agreed.

"Tell me...are these waters infested with alligators?" she questioned. He nodded.

"Heavily, ma'am," he answered.

"Good…" she replied, as she kicked the body into the water. The animals would smell blood and there wouldn't be a body left soon.

"You're now our guide, Mr. Sykes. We have five years to find everything I need to take control of this magic and town concealed from us by the Charmings," she stated. Sykes nodded.

"I helped the Collector build his Empire...I can help you too," Sykes responded, as they boarded the Submarine and left the Land Without Magic.

~*~

While Mulan requested a meeting with the Emperor, Snow, David, the kids, and Red experienced the vibrant and lively Marketplace in the Capital city. Summer and Bobby were enthralled by the sights and sounds, especially the paper dragons and hand crafted lanterns. They got to sample some of the local cuisine too, which they all enjoyed.

It wasn't long before Mulan returned and seemed in good spirits.

"I have presented your request to the Emperor and he has accepted with an invitation for us all to join him for evening meal. He actually seems very eager to meet you," she reported.

"That's wonderful...thank you Mulan. Can you help us with proper attire?" Snow asked. The last thing she wanted to do was offend the Emperor.

"Actually, normally it would be required for you to dress in traditional robes of this land. But since you and David are royal dignitaries, the Emperor requests that you dress in traditional attire from the Kingdom from which you hail. He likes to experience other cultures when he the opportunity arises," she explained.

"Oh, then we'll still need a bit of time to conjure up some with the Chalice," Snow said. Mulan nodded.

"We have been granted a suite in the Emperor's palace," Mulan confirmed.

"Does this mean I have to wear another uncomfortable outfit?" Bobby complained.

"You'll get by," Snow assured, as she ruffled his hair and kissed his cheek.

"Mom…" he complained in embarrassment. David chuckled, as they followed Mulan into the palace and they were led to the suite.

Since Red was Mulan's consort and considered a citizen of the Emperor's Kingdom now, she dressed in a traditional silk Chinese dress, which was red in color, with a pink floral pattern. Mulan shed her armor and exchanged it for the traditional dress uniform that a member of the Chinese army would wear.

Snow chose Charming's red coat for him with his white tunic and black leather pants. And she had a lot of fun putting her son in a mini version of his father's outfit. Bobby endured his mother and Aunt Red gushing over how cute he looked. For Summer, she kept with her daughter's favorite color and chose a beautiful orchid colored gown for her and she and Red enjoyed giving her caramel colored hair princess curls.

Finally, Snow chose a white gown for herself that had a silver sheer overlay, which complimented her husband's attire well. She donned her tiara as well and Mulan led them to the dining hall where they would meet the Emperor.

When they entered, they were met by the steely gaze of the Emperor's top councilor, who looked none too happy about impromptu visitors, especially outsiders.

"Chi-Fu, I present Queen Snow and King David of Misthaven and their children, Princess Summer and Prince Bobby," Mulan announced. Snow and David bowed to the sour looking man and their children followed suit.

"You have been granted an audience with the Emperor, but his dining chamber is no place for children. They can eat in the servants dining nook," he stated.

"No...our children will eat with us," Snow refuted and the man fumed. It was painfully clear that this man not only didn't like outsiders, but he didn't particularly care for women, especially a woman in power.

"You are a visitor on this land...and you do not wield any power here," he refuted.

"Chi-Fu...your attitude dishonors us all and reflects badly on us," a voice said, as they looked behind the man to find a man in golden silk robes with a hat that signified his position of power.

"E...Emperor…" Chi-Fu squeaked, as he bowed deeply.

"The children are most welcome at my dining table," he stated.

"Thank you Emperor," Snow said graciously, as they all gave a deep bow.

"You must excuse Chi-Fu. I am afraid he is very much stuck in the past and chooses tradition over innovation much of the time," the Emperor stated.

"Tradition is important, but not at the price of making us stagnant," he continued.

"We couldn't agree more, Emperor and we are honored that you have accepted our request for a meeting," Snow said graciously. The Emperor gave a small smile.

"We once kept our gates closed tightly to outsiders and we were invaded anyway. Closing our gates only led to fear of outsiders and that is one tradition that I do not want to continue," the Emperor stated.

"I get the feeling that you somehow have an inkling of why we're here," David mentioned. The Emperor nodded at the younger man.

"I have studied ancient scrolls that detail this land's history quite thoroughly and within those scrolls foretells a prophetic future. As we dine, perhaps you will allow me to regale a tale to you that I believe you may find very interesting," the Emperor stated.

"We would love to hear it, Your Majesty," Snow agreed eagerly. The Emperor nodded and began to tell his story.

~*~

Flashback

Rose Red gasped, as she saw the injured man, who had seemingly dropped out of the sky. She had heard of such occurrences though; portals from other places and wondered if this man had come from such. As she got closer, she noticed how serious his wound was and called for the dwarf that lorded over her.

"He might as well be dead already. What do you want me to do about it?" he snapped at the girl.

"No...he's alive! He still draws breath, however faintly. You must heal him with your magic!" she pleaded.

"Oh...and just why would I do that? He has done nothing for me," the dwarf griped.

"Please...I will owe you the favor!" she begged. And the evil dwarf smirked deviously. He had just received word that there was a very rich Lord that wished to have Rose Red's hand in marriage. Just the riches a deal like that could barter him was too tempting and having her owe him ensured that he would benefit greatly.

"Fine stupid girl...I'll save this stranger and then you shall repay me with whatever favor I desire," he growled, as he used his magic and healed the handsome stranger's wound.

As the man opened his eyes, Rose was captivated by the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The stranger saw the beautiful woman kneeling over him and was also captivated by her beauty.

"Where...where am I?" he asked.

"You are in my garden...you were gravely injured. I bartered a favor from this dwarf to heal your wound," she replied. His brow furrowed.

"But you don't even know me? Why would help me?" he asked in awe. She looked down shyly.

"I could not let you die…" she said, as he sat up and their hands brushed, as an electricity passed between them.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Rose Red…" she answered.

"I am Fandral of Asgard...or at least I was," he introduced himself, as he stood up and towered over her.

"Was?" she asked.

"I'm afraid Asgard is gone...I was fatally wounded in an apocalyptic battle or so I thought," he replied.

"You must have fallen through a portal as your world collapsed," she surmised.

"And then you saved my life," he added.

"It seemed like the honorable thing to do," she said, as they stared at each other.

~*~

"And that's how I found myself in a new land. As far as we can figure, a portal was opened up as Asgard collapsed and I fell through it into the All World River, which would have killed a normal sentient being. But somehow, I clung to life, though unconscious and was deposited into the realm I now call my home," he explained.

"Extraordinary. We always suspected there were more than our nine realms, but never knew for sure," Sif stated.

"And you've been there for over twenty years now?" Valkyrie questioned.

"Yes...we have learned that time passes much faster in our realm than some others," he replied, as he looked at his wife.

"Rose and I fell in love, defeated her evil Uncle and took back her Kingdom from him, and started a family," he added. Sif smiled gently.

"I see that...care to properly introduce us?" she asked.

"Of course, this is my wife, Queen Rose Red, our eldest daughter Carina, and our twins Benjamin and Arianna," he said.

"A pleasure to meet all of you, though you seem to know quite a lot about us. And you seem to have knowledge of what has happened here. How is that possible?" Sif asked.

"My Kingdom has been tasked with guarding and maintaining the Library of Story for all the realms, a responsibility tasked to us by the Goddess Hermes. She even granted me an Asgardian lifespan so that I could live as long as Fandral and our children," Rose answered.

"Naturally, I became curious about the fates of those that survived Ragnarok and we retrieved the storybook for this realm. And to our horror, that's when we learned about the snap," he stated, watching his old friend, who had been silent, carefully.

"We wanted to come sooner, but I couldn't risk my family while that monster was still alive," Fandral explained.

"A wise decision," Thor finally spoke and Sif noticed the tension.

"Perhaps a tour of New Asgard is in order for Rose and the children," she suggested. Rose smiled and nodded.

"That would be lovely," she agreed, as she gave her husband a quick, encouraging gaze, before shuffling the children out, leaving Fandral and Thor alone.

"You have a beautiful family…" Thor mentioned, which brought a smile to Fandral's face.

"Thank you...they're my life," he agreed.

"As they should be," Thor agreed in return.

"I'm sorry...I thought that everyone was lost. I didn't come back…" Fandral started to say, but Thor put his hand up.

"You don't have to apologize for being happy and finding a life. I am happy for you," Thor said and Fandral's shoulders relaxed a bit in relief.

"Do you really think I would begrudge you such?" Thor questioned.

"No...I guess I'm just dealing with a bit of guilt since learning what really happened after Ragnarok. First, I was overjoyed that some of our people survived and that you killed Hela. And then…" Fandral said, trailing off.

"Thanos...you couldn't have known and by the time you did, judging by the difference in the passage of time, you had a family already," Thor replied.

"I know...Rose says I have survivor's guilt," he added. Thor smiled slightly.

"A friend told me that I have the same, especially since I could have stopped him," Thor added, as he got up and looked out the window, before turning back.

"I had him...I was so close to stopping him. I had my axe in his chest!" Thor ranted.

"You couldn't have known exactly what he was going to do," Fandral reminded.

"Oh but I did. He had all the stones and I could have cut the head off the monster himself, but I didn't," Thor responded.

"And when I did...it was too late. The damage was already done," he lamented.

"But you can still live. You can help other survivors move on," Fandral advised.

"How can I help them when I can't help myself?" Thor questioned brokenly. Fandral put a hand on his shoulder.

"Because I'll be there to help you," he assured. Thor smiled slightly.

"I appreciate that, my friend. But you have a family to care for and from what I hear, a Kingdom to protect now," he replied.

"And you have the bi-frost and I know a Goddess that can bring me here for frequent visits. Travel is not all that difficult between the realms anymore," Fandral said.

"I am not good company," Thor warned. Fandral chuckled.

"I'm familiar with your moods and I assure you that my wife and children can cheer up even the saddest sack," Fandral mused.

"Well then...perhaps we join that tour and I get to know your family," Thor suggested. Fandral smiled.

"An excellent idea," Fandral agreed, as they left the house.

~*~

And when the dust settled and the Gods finally banished the vicious and evil Typhon, there was peace in the realms for a time. But the damage was done. The battle was so catastrophic and so earth shattering that all the lands had been severed and broken apart from each other. Portals had swallowed up many of the lands and scattered them across the stars of their sector. Now, instead of one realm with many Kingdoms, they now had ten realms and a division that was never intended. But not even the Gods had the power to repair this.

However, Athena decreed a prophecy on that day that there would be hope. She prophesied that there would one day be a pair with the power to reunite the realms and end the division. They would not be Gods, but mortals that shared an incredible true love and many of the Gods scoffed at such a notion. But one Goddess did not, for she knew it would come to pass. The Goddess Aphrodite knew that one day, she could champion a pair with a love so powerful that they would bring light to the darkness and unite all. They would be hold the greatest amount of light magic ever and in turn create such magic into a bloodline that would flourish.

~*~

"Then it was this creature, Typhon, that caused all the realms to break apart?" Snow questioned with fascination.

"Yes...mother Gaia bore him from Tartarus itself as revenge for the Gods imprisoning the Titans and killing the Giants. He was so powerful that the Gods knew they could not kill him," the Emperor regaled.

"So they banished him," David surmised. The Emperor nodded.

"They suspended him with a powerful spell and then cast him into Oceanus where he would remain suspended for all eternity in the harsh oblivion of the All World River," he continued.

"And the prophecy...you think it speaks of us?" Snow questioned. The Emperor smiled gently.

"You and your husband seek to do just what the prophecy says, do you not?" he questioned in return. They exchanged a glance and then nodded.

"Yes Emperor…" David answered.

"There was a time that my ancestors thought that it would be your predecessors that would do this. But I am afraid, as powerful as their love was, they were not the ones chosen for this. But I believe, after everything the two of you have faced and accomplished, that you will be the ones to reunite the realms," he stated.

"Then we would be honored if your Kingdom agreed to be a part of the United Realms," Snow said eloquently. He smiled.

"My people and I will be honored," he said.

"Sire...are you sure this is a wise move?" Chi-Fu questioned.

"I know how leery you are of outsiders, Chi-Fu, but inclusion breeds ignorance. We learned that when the Huns almost destroyed us and we will not make the same mistake again," the Emperor decreed.

"We will join the United Realms and forge a prosperous path to a new future," he added. They smiled.

"Thank you Emperor…we are truly honored," Snow said graciously.

"The honor is mine," the Emperor said, as Bobby whispered something to his father. David smiled.

"Emperor...my son would like to ask you a question," David said.

"Of course young one, please," he replied.

"Can you tell us about the war with the Huns?" Bobby requested.

"Certainly...we faced a threat to our way of life in the form of Shan Yu. Now, there was once a Shan Yu that served in the Dragon King's army, over a thousand years ago. But when he betrayed the King, he was cast out and his descendants swore revenge for their leader's punishment," the Emperor said.

"They were exiled to Mongolia and their hatred of our Kingdom was harbored for a thousand years until Shan Yu's descendant, a man of the same name in honor of the man they considered their greatest leader, rose up and invaded us," he continued.

"Fortunately, thanks in large part to Mulan, he did not succeed," the Emperor said.

"Can you tell us more about the Dragon King and Queen?" Bobby requested. The Emperor chuckled.

"Our children love their stories," Snow said, smiling at him.

"As do I. It is not often that I find someone that wants to listen to my telling of the ancient scrolls. But yes, I can tell you much about those ancient times," the Emperor said, as he continued to regale them with tales.

~*~

"You know, I don't see why this is necessary. I'm fine," Emma complained, as she sat on her sister's exam table.

"Your heart was poisoned," Eva reminded, as they waited for the results of Emma's routine blood tests.

"But you just said that physically I'm in perfect shape," the blonde complained.

"And you are, but I want to make sure your insides are just as healthy. You may have been cured, but you know magic can be tricky. Just humor me, please," Eva replied.

"Mom and Dad put you up to this, didn't they?" Emma questioned.

"Maybe...but I would have wanted to do it even if they didn't suggest it, so hush," Eva retorted. Emma huffed impatiently.

"Honestly, you're a worse patient than Leo and that's saying something," Eva chided.

"You know I hate hospitals," Emma retorted, but Eva just shook her head at his older sister's antics, as the nurse delivered the test results. Eva took them and began looking them over.

"So…?" Emma asked.

"Everything is normal," Eva replied.

"Told you…" Emma said, as she grabbed her jacket and noticed the beaming smile on her sister's face.

"Except one anomaly," Eva said.

"What? What anomaly? And why are you smiling like you just one the lottery?" Emma asked.

"Because you, big sister, are pregnant…" Eva announced, bringing a look of shock to Emma's face.

"What?" she questioned.

"You heard me," Eva replied.

"But...I don't really have any symptoms at all!" Emma cried.

"I mean, I've felt a bit sick here and there, but nothing like I was with Henry. I was barfing all the time with him," she replied. Eva shrugged.

"All pregnancies are different. Remember, Mom could barely get out of the bathroom with Summer and then the morning sickness she had with Bobby was fairly mild," Eva reminded.

"Yeah...wow…" Emma said, letting it sink in.

"Are you happy?" Eva asked, watching a smile slowly eclipse her sister's face.

"Uh...yeah I am," she realized, as they hugged.

"Congratulations...when are you going to tell Killian?" Eva asked.

"Tonight I guess...and Mom and Dad will be over the moon, I know," she replied. Eva nodded.

"Oh yeah...another grand baby for them to spoil," the younger said with a laugh, just as Whale came in.

"There you are," he said, addressing Emma.

"Excuse me, but she's my patient and you can't just barge in here," Eva scolded him.

"Easy mini Snow...it's important," Whale replied. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Well, since you're back, then you must have news from the Land Without Color?" Emma questioned, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Uh yeah...I kind of blew it. Turns out, they all still pretty much hate me and think I'm some kind of mad scientist," Whale responded.

"You are," Emma reminded. Whale winced.

"Fair point, but maybe this is for the best. They're all scared of anything they don't understand. I'm not sure they'll ever accept any of this," he stated.

"Maybe...but I think we should give it one more try and this time Eva and Paul should go with you," Emma suggested.

"Us?" Eva asked in surprise.

"Yeah...you're both doctors too. And you have magic and amazing healing abilities. You can show them that this is a land of opportunity and they have nothing to fear," Emma replied.

"What makes you think she and Paul can convince them when I couldn't?" Whale asked.

"Because you're you," Emma deadpanned.

"Another fair point...well, I'll be off then," Whale said, intending to head for the Rabbit Hole.

"Wrong Frankenstein...you're going with them and the three of you leave in the morning," Emma said. Eva nodded.

"Fun...a trip with Whale. I'll go tell Paul. He'll be thrilled," Eva said sarcastically, as she went to find her husband.

"Hey...I'm a lot of fun!" Whale claimed. Emma rolled her eyes and walked out of the exam room, thinking about her news. She smiled from ear to ear and left to the hospital in search of Killian to tell him her news.

#Snowing #SnowxCharming #Charming family #OC Charmings #AU #original season 8 storyline #Fandral the Dashing #Rose Red #Dashing Rose #background Rumbelle #background OQ #background glass believer #background cs #romance #adventure #family #finding you always #the epic continues

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impish-wxys · 5 years

Note

What lies in your past?

Walking with Cheshie always helped clear her head before. Right now, there was so much racing through her mind and she didn’t really know what to do. How did she not know she could always shift? They’d told Alice they couldn’t repress the ability, but she didn’t remember ever shifting before Cheshie had taught her own when she was 8. How did everyone hide this from her for so long?

She sniffles, still crying. How could her own mother do this to her because of her father?

“I know it’s hard, kiddo. I was furious with your mother when she left you with us. I was furious that she refused to take care of you, and I’ve done everything I can to do better for you than she could. So have Hightopp and the Hare, when they finally realized that she wasn’t coming back for you, not to take you back with her in any case.” Cheshie floats alongside her, looking at her as she cries, trying to comfort her.

She clears her throat, sighing. “I… I know mama never loved me as much as she loved Ally. I always knew that. I try to pretend she doesn’t, because she’s always been my mama, but now… now I don’t want to. I just want to understand the truth, Cheshie. That’s all I want.”

He nods solemnly. “The truth? Well, kiddo, the full truth goes like this. You have imp blood in you. It granted you the ability to shift, and it gives light to some elements of your personality– namely, your impulsiveness, your high energy and your constant ache for attention, though I do blame a lot of that second one on your mother, as well.”

“Because part of me still wants her attention?”

“Yes.” Cheshie nods solemnly. “A good part of it can also be found in your DNA, but she didn’t help things along at all. Anyways. When you got older, we decided the best way to avoid you finding out the truth about your dad– at Alice’s request– was to make you forget you could always shift and lead you to believe I taught you to do it. It took a lot of magic, but we managed to finally clear a lot of the little hints of imp in your childhood out of your memories. Your dad has always been watching you, since you came to Wonderland, from a distance, and… well, you know the rest, I suppose you were there.”

Iris nods, sniffling, taking deep breaths. “Does Ally know?”

“I doubt it. Your mother was…” Cheshie looks for the word.

Iris sighs. “You can say it. She was ashamed of me. I was a mistake on many, many counts.”

Cheshie sighs and headbutts her arm gently before continuing. “Well, in any case, it’s unlikely she ever told your half-sister anything about your past. Ally probably believes what you always have.”

Iris nods, taking deep breaths, trying to clear her head. So much about all of this was making sense.

But right now… Wonderland wasn’t doing her any good. As much as she had needed to get home, she needed to leave, now, immediately. She needed to talk to… someone.

“…thank you, Cheshie. Thank you, really, for so much.” She sighs. “Mom might have left me with the Hatter and the Hare, but… you raised me. More than they did, in a lot of cases.”

“Anything for my great-grand niece.” He purrs a bit. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Eventually. I need to go back to Auradon right now. There’s someone I want to talk to. Someone who helps me feel better that isn’t involved with the situation, for once.” She sniffles, giggling weakly.

“You’ll have to introduce me,” came the answer, a perfect grin curled across his face. “For now, then, kiddo, I’ll see you when you come back. Don’t be a stranger.”

“How could I? This is home. No matter what else, this will always be home.”

#back with the madness: ask meme #will wonders never cease?: anons #cheshie #sweet little sister: ally #her weed: alice #his flower: dad #Anonymous #finding wonderland is going home again: iris

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onceuponamirror · 7 years

Text

heart rise above

///// CHAPTER 6

summary: It wasn’t an experiment with freedom borne of some Americana fantasy; rather, a road trip of purely logistical intentions. The plan was simple. Drive from Boston to Chicago for his sister’s college graduation. That’s it.

Or, he drives a Ford Pickup Named Desire.

Mechanic!AU

fandom: riverdale ship: betty x jughead words: 25k chapters: 6/?

[read from the beginning] [read the latest]

Well, I've been afraid of changing 'Cause I've built my life around you

“Knock, knock,” comes a familiar voice, quickly followed by Veronica’s dark head peeking around her bedroom door.

“Hi, V, come on in,” Betty says distractedly, standing back to get a better look at the organized piles on her bed. “Where’s Kevin?”

“Downstairs, being interrogated-slash-interviewed by your mother. She says she wants to do an article on the pageantry of parade floats.” Veronica takes a seat by Betty’s pillow, crossing her legs as she presses one hand into the soft florals of the bed sheets. She’s wearing a short black sundress and her sunglasses are perched on the top of her head. She glances around. “Are we going somewhere tropical?”

Betty looks up. “What? No. I’m just making sure I have everything.”

“There’s like two weeks worth of sun products here, B,” Veronica replies, her lips curling upwards. “We’re going to Sweetwater, not Waikiki; you don’t need four towels and SPF three-thousand.”

“I’m just going through my options,” Betty insists. “Besides, Polly texted me this morning and said she and the kids are going down to the river today too, since it’s so nice out. They need high SPF; they’re so fair.”

“Let Polly bring her own kids’ sunscreen.” Her look is pointed.

“I’m sure she is. I thought I’d have it just in case,” Betty says, throwing the jumbo bottle into a bag anyway. Veronica throws a hand into the air, but doesn’t say anything else. “Anyway, what suit should I wear? I’m sure you have an opinion.”

“Mais oui,” Veronica preens, standing up and coming around to the selection of suits laid out on the bed. She immediately reaches for the stringiest bikini available and dangles it in Betty’s face; a tiny pink thing that Betty hardly ever wears and, right now, wonders why she even still has it.

Betty grabs it out of Veronica’s hands and puts it back on the bed. “Not that one.”

“I thought you might say that,” Veronica grins, something glittering in her eyes. “You’d look so Bikini Kill in it, but I get it. It’s a lot for just Sweetwater. Okay, what about this one? One-pieces are very in right now. I’m wearing one too. Granted, mine has quite a few more cut-outs in it.”

Veronica has selected a simple white one-piece with a low back and high hips, and Betty smiles and takes it, going behind her closet door to change.

As she’s pulling her cutoffs on over the suit, she hears Kevin enter the room and immediately exclaim, “Oh my god, am I going off to war?”

“You two are so dramatic,” Betty huffs, slipping an open pink button up over her arms and coming around the door. “I just wanted to have enough food and sun protection for everyone. You’ll be thanking me when you’re hungry and want one of the sandwiches I made.”

Kevin and Veronica exchange looks. “True,” he admits, shrugging. “Alright, I’m loading up the car. Gimme something to carry.”

Throwing the rest of the snacks into one of her large canvas bags, Betty passes it and the cooler to Kevin, who accepts them with a theatrical grunt and a poorly repressed eye roll.

“I’ll take this one,” Veronica offers, grabbing the second beach bag, and then they’re both gone.

Betty moves in front of her little vanity mirror, staring at herself. She hasn’t quite gotten past catching her reflection in the mirror of her childhood bedroom; amongst the pink flowers on the wall and the old photographs, it feels like a looking glass into time, like she’s sixteen again and questioning everything, especially her own appearance.

But looking at herself now, she actually likes this look—pale pink, light washed denim blue, and crisp white have always been her colors. She reties her ponytail and tugs it through the back strap of her ratty old blue baseball cap, hoists the last bag over her shoulder, as well as her purse, and slips onto her Keds.

When she gets downstairs, her mother is typing away by an open window, a glass of fresh lemonade beside her. “I’m going now, Mom,” she says, and it’s a moment before her mother looks up.

“Have everything?” She asks, folding her hands together. Betty nods. “Sun-block?” Betty nods again, and Alice Cooper returns her gaze to her computer. “Then have a nice day. By the way, the fridge looked a little empty yesterday. Pick up some fruit and milk on your way back, would you?”

“Sure,” Betty says easily, waving goodbye. Kevin and Veronica are waiting for her outside, leaning against her big blue car and gossiping away. They fall suspiciously silent as they spot her, but move aside for her to throw the bag through the open window. Veronica slides into the passenger seat and Kevin climbs into the back, and then they’re off.

“So how was your date last night? I was very patiently waiting to ask until Betty was here so you wouldn’t have to tell the story twice,” Kevin says, leaning forward and resting his chin on the back of Veronica’s seat.

She twists excitedly. “It was quite nice, for a first date,” she says demurely. “We went to that French place in New Paltz you like, Kevin.”

“What does Archie do?” Betty asks, eyes on the road, realizing that if he’s sticking around with Jughead, he must also have some kind of freelance job.

Veronica laughs. “I can’t believe I didn’t open with that. He actually writes commercial jingles. Do you remember that one about the singing vacuum cleaner?”

Kevin and Betty simultaneously burst into the same hypnotically insipid tune, and Veronica giggles again. “Yes, that one. The twins were so obsessed with that commercial. Cheryl took the televisions out of their rooms because they were constantly singing it.”

“How could I forget?” Betty half-gripes. “That sounds like a fun job, though.”

“He says it’s just to pay his bills, and he wants to really be a singer-songwriter,” Veronica adds, with a slight sigh. “Which is cute.”

“Or potentially annoying, if he’s not any good,” Kevin quips.

Veronica waves a hand and her bracelets tinkle slightly. “I don’t think I’ll know him long enough to get annoyed. We’re just having fun. He’s leaving in, what, less than three weeks? How long do you think it’ll take you to fix that truck, Betty?”

“About that,” she says, sighing.

“So, have you slept with him yet?” Kevin asks, a smidge too excitedly.

“I have my rules, Kevin Keller,” Veronica replies with faux-offense. “I’m not quite as prone to playing with my food as I used to be, but I still like to wait a little bit. Probably date two.”

“You’re seeing him again, then? Besides today, obviously.”

Veronica nods. “Tomorrow night. I suppose this could count as a second date, but considering you two sprung his inclusion in our afternoon plans on me, I’m not partial to anything that wasn’t my own idea.”

“Well, it was Jughead’s idea,” Betty says, “and we did check with you.”

She notices Kevin and Veronica exchanging looks again. “Yeah, though we couldn’t exactly say no, with him making such big puppy eyes over at Betty,” Kevin says, after a moment. Betty exhales loudly. “I’m sorry, I know I said I wouldn’t meddle, but—”

“Then don’t,” Betty interrupts. Veronica opens her mouth, but Betty is faster. “Either of you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you two whispering already. Please, guys. I’m not going to be able to unwind at all today if I feel like I need to babysit your twitter feeds. And you both have been on my case about relaxation, so you don’t get it both ways. Pick one and stick to it.”

They stare at one another, then at Betty. “Very well,” Veronica pouts, shifting in her seat so that she faces the road again.

Betty reaches forward and turns on the radio, and the sweet crooning of doo-wop filters through the speakers. She’s always liked the genre; it has the chronic romanticism that can span to relevance of any part of her life, but it’s also as soothing as it is saddening. Like catching the eye of her reflection across the crowded room of her heart and not being able to close the distance.

She slips her hand out the window, undulating it against the wind, and lets her mind clear.

They reach their destination not much later, and it’s still early enough for the parking lot not to be madness. Sweetwater River is an inlet of the larger Hudson River, with a small stretch of patchy water mostly used by kayakers and other boaters, but largely a leisurely stream of floating inner tubes, frolicking families, and warm, coarse sand.

It takes a moment to gather all the things Betty has packed, plus the collapsible and utterly gigantic beach umbrella Veronica insisted on and secretly stashed in the trunk (“I never want to hear another word about my packed lunches, Ronnie.”), but eventually they heave everything out of the car and find an unoccupied patch of beach to drop anchor.

Betty texts Jughead instructions for their location, having gotten his cell number last night, and he replies with a thumbs up emoji, promising Archie is a slow-mover but they’re on their way.

She puts her phone on her towel, while Kevin sheds down to his swim trunks and pulls on an open, cuffed button up and Veronica starts lathering herself with tanning oil. Betty kicks off her sneakers and tucks her knees under her chin, peeking up at the sky from under the brim of her baseball cap.

She watches the trees rustle with an unseen breeze.

She’s still sitting there, staring at nothing, when she hears a voice over her shoulder. “Hey there, Gilligan,” Jughead says, plopping into the sand beside her.

He’s dressed the same as usual, with dark pants and drooping suspenders, but this time he’s rolled his jeans up to the ankle and is only wearing a white undershirt. He’s still donning the beanie and he’s barefoot.

“You found us,” Betty greets, momentarily distracted by the surprising amount of definition in his arms.

“Wasn’t hard,” he scoffs. “Could spot that thing a mile away.”

They both turn and look at the big beach umbrella behind them. Archie and Kevin are making introductions under it and Veronica looks pleased to see him. Betty gives Jughead another once over, feeling a bit disappointed as a thought occurs to her. “You’re not dressed to swim.”

He rubs behind his neck in what she’s learning is a tell-tale nervous tick. “I’m not much of a swimmer, honestly. I’ve got a pair of trunks in Archie’s backpack, but…mostly I planned to read or write, if I’m lucky.” He pulls a dog-eared paperback and a moleskin journal from his back pockets and gives them a little shake.

She stretches her arms over her bare, tanned legs, sizing him up. “Have you ever swum in a river? It’s not like the ocean. The water is cool and calm and you just float along.”

“I can’t say that I have. Sounds almost nice,” he admits.

“It is. There’s nothing like it. It’s…well, I’m not the writer here, so I’m not quite sure how to describe it. But, peaceful.”

“Well, you make a hard case to argue, Betty Cooper.” She pretends to look offended, and he grins. “I’ve got an image as an aloof miscreant to uphold, but I’ll think about it.”

“You’ll want to once you realize how hot it’s supposed to be today.” She says it lightly, but Jughead’s eyes are lingering on her legs and she feels the heat of the day already. She quickly pulls the cooler over to them. “I brought drinks and water and snacks, also. And sandwiches for lunch.”

“And dinner, and desert, and The Last Supper, by the looks of it,” Jughead says admirably, peering into the snack bag next to it.

“Everyone always makes fun of me, but they all manage to eat whatever I bring anyway,” Betty huffs, halfway between a laugh and indignancy.

“I’m not making fun of you,” Jughead replies seriously. “I think it…I’m basically always hungry. So between my Homo neanderthalensis companion and me, you definitely don’t have to worry about the food getting eaten. On my honor, I swear to thee,” he adds wryly.

“Big words from a guy wearing a wool hat at the beach,” Betty jests, and he snorts, his fingers tracing the edge of his beanie. She reaches over and picks at one of his loose suspenders. “Like, did you confuse Hawaii 5-0 as Hawaii 50 and think it was about old men at the beach?”

“Ouch,” he whistles. “You know, I like my suspenders.”

She does too, but she won’t give him the satisfaction, so she just shrugs coyly.

He shakes his head at her, giving a good show of looking affronted. “So I take it my sacred vessel is in the hands of Joaquin today?”

“Yes, even though I told him I wanted him here,” Kevin says tersely from behind them.

“He wanted the hours, Kev, don’t blame me,” Betty replies, sweeping a look over at him. He’s stretched out on his stomach underneath Ronnie’s giant umbrella and looking downright petulant. He starts to reply, but something catches his eye beyond Betty’s shoulder and he seems to lose the train of thought.

“Oh my god, it’s Queen of the River Styx,” he drawls instead.

Veronica looks over, sighs, and then raises a hand in the air in greeting. “Hi Cheryl!” She calls across the water. Cheryl hesitates, then responds with a half-wave of her hand that is probably the same gesture she uses in a dismissal.

“God, she is so extra. I mean, I love it, but so extra,” Kevin mutters, and this time Betty actually agrees; Cheryl Blossom is floating downriver on a large, bright pink flamingo-shaped raft, wearing oversized sunglasses and a cherry red bikini.

It’s outdoing herself, even for Cheryl.

“I’m gonna go say hi,” Betty announces, mostly because she’s been aching to get into the water but didn’t want to rudely be the first one to leave the beach encampment without good reason.

She peels out of her cutoffs and shirt, tossing her hat onto the sand. Jughead is watching her, but when she catches his eye, he mutters a “have fun” and hastily turns his attention onto his book.

She dives into the water, enjoys a moment of the cool quiet beneath the surface, and then bobs upwards. She always loves that first meeting of the river and the sun. Betty starts swimming towards Cheryl’s raft, where the redhead in question is currently rubbing sunscreen into her pale, glossy skin.

“Hello there,” Cheryl says, not looking up. She deposits the tube of sunscreen into a cup-holder on the flamingo’s wing and trades it out for a bottle of water with a straw in it. She takes a sip, and then uses one finger to push her sunglasses up onto her forehead, finally glancing over.

“I didn’t know you’d be here today, Cheryl,” Betty says, treading water in front of the raft. She grabs hold of it, and it sweeps both of them slowly downriver.

“Came with the fam, don’t forget to come say hi,” she replies coolly. Betty and Cheryl’s dynamic had once been fraught with high school hierarchies, but years of therapy and mood-stabilizers have done wonders for their relationship. Betty is grateful for the shift, considering she’s now related by marriage to her and sees her quite a bit more than she ever expected, still after she and Veronica broke up.

Cheryl even once admitted that, since the split, Betty is the only other person besides her therapist that she talks to about her bipolar disorder—as Jason always tries to fix her and Polly couldn’t be trusted to keep it from him—and ever since then, the two women have grown closer. As close as one can get to Cheryl Blossom, that is; they still have plenty of off-days.

“So, who’s the tall drink of orange juice talking to my ex?” Cheryl asks, in an incredibly poor attempt at sounding casual. Across the water, though now farther away, it’s clear that Archie and Veronica are laid strewn on towels and talking closely.

“Cheryl, you can’t do this again,” Betty warns. “It’s been over a year.”

The redhead sighs heavily, palming her hands along the cool water as she adjusts against her raft. “Oh, spare me the lecture, Olivia Newton-John. I know. I’m not going to interfere, I just want to make sure he’s up to standard.”

“You both mutually agreed breaking up was the right thing to do,” Betty reminds her, because there’s something longing in Cheryl’s expression that worries her. “You know it was. The timing just wasn’t right.”

“Yes, but I always thought, after—well, it doesn’t matter. So who is he? She certainly has developed a type, at least.” She flips her long red hair over her shoulder.

Betty folds her arms on the edge of Cheryl’s pink flamingo raft. “His name is Archie. He and his friend were on a road trip, but their truck broke down in the parking lot of Pop’s. Veronica was covering one of her mom’s shifts, and, well.”

Cheryl sighs and flicks an invisible shred of dust off her bathing suit. “So he’s not sticking around long?”

“Should take me a few weeks to fix it all up, but no. They’ll be gone,” Betty says, digging her chin into her crossed arms.

“Veronica isn’t like us,” Cheryl says, after a long moment of inspecting Betty. Her voice is uncharacteristically tender. “She’s not as picky.”

“Are you serious? Veronica is the pickiest person I’ve ever met, Cheryl, you should know that better than anyone.”

“I don’t mean it like that,” Cheryl sighs impatiently. “With shoes and jewelry and dresses, yes, she is, of course. But she gets back on the horse right away. She’s fearless. She sees something she wants, and she goes for it, because she knows she’ll always land on her feet. I always loved that about her. Me…I don’t do anything I can’t control, can’t predict. And neither do you, Betty dear. That’s where we’re alike.”

“I’m not like that,” Betty says quietly, knowing it’s a lie. She’s good Betty Cooper, she who does everything for everyone, but Cheryl has a point. The sun shines brightly on the water and her eyes find Jughead on the beach, his nose in a book.

“Please. Let’s not insult either of our intelligences,” Cheryl insists sharply. “You had a boy down on one knee for you and you practically ran away screaming. So riddle me this, Rapunzel: why wouldn’t you let down your hair for sweet Trevor Brown?”

But Betty can’t answer that. She still doesn’t know how to put it into words, still can’t even begin to form the thought without the feverish flutterings of a panic attack. She presses her lips together, and Cheryl just leans back against the flamingo’s neck, pushing her sunglasses back down over her nose.

“I thought so. I’m not paying my therapist all that money every week for nothing, Cleopatra of denial. Now, give me a nudge. I want to float away my troubles.”

Betty complies, giving the flamingo raft a shove downstream. Cheryl waves her away, tipping her chin up to the sun, and then the current sweeps her lightly down the river. Betty dips her head under water once more, and starts swimming in the opposite direction, her limbs feeling strong and toned as she heads upstream. She finds Polly, Jason, and the kids on a beach not far up, and cuts their way.

She tans herself on the private Blossom beach for a little while, trying very hard not to think about Cheryl’s words, and has a bit of light conversation with her sister and brother-in-law. It turns out that Polly has, indeed, brought her own high SPF sunscreen. The kids are busy with squirt guns, and she indulges them in a bit of warfare before reentering the river.

As she returns to the original stretch of sand, where Kevin is texting, Jughead is still reading, and Archie and Veronica are now splashing each other playfully in the water, Betty is bathed in sunshine and sparkling green water and feels simultaneously so at ease—and so alone.

She desperately wants to blame Cheryl Blossom for planting the seed, but truthfully, she’s lived with this thought for some time now. It’s duplicitous; swimming amongst the reeds and trees along the riverbanks is freeing, anonymous—but humbling, and isolating. She feels so small amongst the pines.

She kicks back towards the shore, past Archie and Veronica, and steps out of the water. Jughead’s head rises slowly from his book, and for a fleeting moment she wonders if he might be looking at her in a way that speaks to the heat in her own belly at the sight of his toned arms.

“Do you guys want to go swimming with me? The water’s really nice,” she asks, glancing between the two of them.

Kevin’s eyes don’t leave his phone. “Maybe in a bit,” he says vaguely, which is Kevin for there’s-something-much-more-interesting-happening-on-Instagram.

She turns to Jughead. “What about you?” His Adam’s apple bobs and he makes a noncommittal sound. She really doesn’t want to go back into the water alone, but she doesn’t want to stay here on the beach either. “Please, Juggie?”

The nickname just slips out, and she’s far too sure she doesn’t know him well enough for it, but it seems to do the trick; he scrunches up his face and then sighs, getting to his feet. He rustles around in a blue backpack near the cooler, says he’s going to go change behind the trees, and disappears.

Kevin finally glances up, but doesn’t say anything. While she waits, Betty decides her wet hair feels too tight on her head, so she pulls out her ponytail and shakes it free.

Jughead returns a few minutes later, wearing nothing but a black pair of trunks and his hat. His clothes are bunched up in his hands, and he dumps them by his book. And then, after a moment of deliberation, pushes the wool beanie off his head as well. It falls onto the sand beside the rest of his things with an unassuming plop.

He stares at it, and then looks over at her. “Okay,” he says, in an indecipherable voice.

She forces her brain to play catch up, because the sight of his bare chest momentarily caused her to forget herself. She swallows. He has broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and once again, a surprising amount of lithe definition. Even Kevin is eying him with something like impressed approval.

“Right,” she says, turning on her heel and making her way back towards the river’s edge. She dives under the water and surfaces quickly, pushing her hair back over her head. “Come on!”

She swims out further, but Jughead’s toes line at the sand’s end. “You can swim, right?” Betty asks, because Jughead is behaving strangely enough for her question it.

“Yes, I can swim,” he says flatly, but he hasn’t moved. “How deep does this go? I mean, how deep is the river?”

She cocks her head at him, treading water. “In the middle it’s probably 15 feet, but we can stick to the shallows, if you want.”

In a moment of decision, Jughead splashes into the water and dips his head under. He pops up a second later, flipping his hair back with a force that sends droplets flying. “I’ve just got a thing about not being able to see the bottom or touch down,” he says quietly, swimming towards her. “I know it’s ripe for metaphorical investigation, but spare me.”

“We won’t go too far out,” Betty promises, and for a moment, they’re just treading water, staring at one another. Jughead allows himself to sink slightly so that just his nose and eyes are above the surface. She can’t read his expression, but she feels warm and is unsure what’s the sun and what are her own nerves.

“Well, I’m here,” Jughead says finally. “But I’m not sure I see my way through the hype. What am I supposed to be doing in order to access catharsis?”

She laughs, and shifts onto her back, limbs spread out around her as if she were making a snow angel. “You just float, Juggie. Let the water take you where you want.”

Betty kicks, frog-like, and swims in a circle around him. He watches for a moment with something like amusement, and then mimics her, allowing himself to float on his back.

“Wow,” he deadpans. “So this is nirvana.”

She laughs and splashes water at him. “Shut up.”

Ducking under the surface to avoid his retaliatory splash, she swims further out, though is sure to remain close enough to the shallows that he won’t get nervous. He follows, and they both consent to the current guiding them downstream.

Lazily, she cuts her arms over her head in a half-hearted backstroke, but mostly lets the river’s flow to do its ancient work. After what feels like an hour but is more likely ten minutes, she looks over, and Jughead is grinning at her, his normally downturned lips quirking upwards.

She’s overcome with a simple thought: he’s hot. And then, slightly more poetically: she likes it when he wears handsomeness around the softness of his eyes. With a face that looks like it’s carried tension for years, relaxation looks especially good on him.

“Well, alright. This is nice, Ophelia,” he says.

“Leave it to you to make a morbid reference on a beautiful day,” Betty sighs, closing her eyes to the sun.

“I mean it, though,” Jughead says, softer. “This is actually kind of…nice. You’re right, it’s not like the ocean.”

“You’ve been missing out, Jughead Jones,” she replies, eyes still shut, but waiting for him to crack a cynical joke or drop some obscenely large vocabulary, or any of his usual responses.

But he doesn’t say a word.

Finally feeling her fingers and toes beginning to prune, Betty accepts that it’s probably time to pull herself out of the water for a bit, though she has no desire to. She feels so at ease, half-swimming, half-floating in peace with just Jughead by her side, but his stomach gives a loud gurgle and she breaks the silence with a giggle. “Hungry?”

“Always—but, particularly now, yes,” Jughead replies honestly.

“Lets head back, then,” Betty says, performing a half-curl in the water, her legs momentarily the only thing above the surface. She submerges herself fully, allowing a respite of underwater tranquility, and then returns for air.

They both turn and swim up against the stream, and when they reach the shore, everyone has returned to their stations. Kevin’s hair looks wet, so Betty assumes he finally went into the water, and Archie is strumming an acoustic guitar while Veronica suns herself.

Archie looks up as they approach. “Were you swimming, Jug?”

“No, I tripped and fell in,” Jughead replies, pokerfaced. “Yeah, I went swimming.”

“It’s my fault,” Betty intercedes, dropping to her knees and digging around in the cooler for a chilled lemonade. “I practically begged him.”

Archie’s eyebrows briefly knot into a peculiar expression, but he doesn’t seem to dwell on it because Betty has procured sandwiches in each hand.

“Who wants lunch?” Betty asks, only to be met by an affirming chorus of yeses. “We’ve got turkey or chicken salad.” People announce their decisions and Betty starts dolling out the sandwiches.

“I take back anything I’ve ever said, ever,” Kevin says gratefully through a mouthful of chicken salad. “Thank you for thinking to bring food, Betty.” Everyone agrees, and she feels a flush of warm appreciation.

After everyone polishes off their lunch, Archie resumes care of his acoustic guitar and launches into a soft rendition of the Girl From North Country. Jughead mutters in her ear that it wasn’t until two years ago that singer-songwriter Archie Andrews even knew who Bob Dylan was, and she fails to suppress her giggles.

The sun is now high overhead, her skin feels kissed golden, and her eyes fall to his lips as they pull from her ear.

Kevin has placed Betty’s baseball cap over his face while he lies on his back, Veronica is curled towards Archie, watching him play, and Betty and Jughead both lean back on one elbow, the length of their bodies warmed to the sky and facing one another. She watches a stray droplet run down his jaw.

“Remember me to one who lives there,” Archie crones in a gentle, pleasing voice. “She once was a true love of mine.”

Betty tucks a damp, tousled strand of hair behind her ear. Jughead’s eyes follow the movement.

#bughead #bughead fanfiction #betty x jughead #betty cooper #jughead jones #lalala #i am now realizing how influenced by sarah dessen i still am #even all these years later #as an adult #like all i want is some moody and tender and sweet and sad and soft story of love and summer #well bitch i wrote that #fics

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nightcoremoon · 7 years

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now that I've driven home and had a few minutes to cool off and collect my thoughts, I feel I should explain myself to the people who have been following me and know who i am so I don't damage my relationship or reputation more than I probably already have. there was a post that an autistic person I follow made, where he vented about bigotry against autistic people, and ended with a passive aggressive "...janice". there was another post that a nonbinary person I follow made where they vented about bigotry against gender nonconforming people, and ended with a passive aggressive "...denise". I'm not 100% sure which was which but I DEFINITELY remember the posts, as well as the profile pictures of the people who posted them. I don't remember the urls though, and even if I did remember them I wouldn't list them in case the people who are now harassing and spamming me in my inbox and activity feeds decided to also hop on their [proverbial] dicks as well as mine because they apparently culturally appropriated those post templates, of ending extended rants about various bigots and ending them with names befitting of middle aged suburban soccermoms, karen. now, when listing people of this demographic, I used to include white among those adjectives. however, there are black middle aged suburban soccermoms, hispanic middle aged suburban soccermoms, and asian middle aged suburban soccermoms, and pretty much people of every race who have the potential to be this type of person the practice strawmans. obviously not every single middle aged suburban parent of children who participate heavily in after school activities is going to be the type of person to scream at retail workers or starbucks baristas or people who cut off their minivans when they're driving 15 under the speed limit in the left lane. not every single middle aged suburban person is an undeducated bible thumping bigot with their head shoved up their ass. not every one of them is a problematic piece of shit that stands by the #alllivesmatter crew or trump or whatever the republicans are rallying around this week. not even all of the white ones, and there are some people who fit the trope who are not white. I've dealt with many of them during my days at target, but I always stood by including white. until recently. when I learned it made black people uncomfortable when white people made white jokes, I was of course initially hesitant. "that's fucking stupid!" I though. "I'm not assuaging white guilt by doing this, I'm just finding it in me to laugh at myself". and then I read a bit more about the subject and figured it isn't worth the potential heartache if I fought it because in all honesty it kind of makes sense. my mom's boyfriend's son is black (and hispanic), and I had once made a white girl joke to my sister in front of him and mom told me later that both he and her boyfriend were uncomfortable with me saying that. after seeing the post that talked about it, and my... slight breakdown where I may have dramatically overreacted... I decided to try and stop with the white people jokes because I want to unlearn all of the racist shit that my dad, stepmom, aunts, uncles, grandparents, former friends, former acquaintances, and society in general that I possibly could, because racism as a concept digs into my skin and fucks me up. it used to make me absolutely seethe with rage, and I still get a little steamed by it. in fact I once got in a LOT of trouble with my high school sociology student teacher because I got really shitty with her when she- an anthropology student no less- kept calling one kid in our class by his initial because apparently kudsai is just Too Hard™ to pronounce. one day, an off day where I forgot to take my medicine, she called him that and I yelled at her "he has a name, so use it". granted I didn't like the kid. I thought he was annoying; loud, obnoxious, constantly making sex jokes while we were studying freud (and even the fucking holocaust), in the choir and the football team... basically like any other cishet teenage boy. but being annoying is no excuse for a teacher to not take five fucking seconds of her day to learn how to say his name right just because it wasn't franklin or gregory, two of the other black kids who I went to school with. anyone following me as far back as when annie got remade with quvenzhane wallis as the titular role might have read my thoughts on the matter of pronouncing people's names right. i'm not saying this to pat myself on the back for not being racist, because WOW was I a rough mess of things back then, but I was never like my dad's side of the family about race. back when michael brown's death and ferguson were still talked about, I found myself agreeing with rush limbaugh about some of the things he said, so clearly I haven't been a perfect angel my whole life. anyway, back to white people jokes making black people feel uncomfortable. I've been trying to make myself agree with that, which as anyone who has the syndrome formerly known as aspergers can probably attest to, is hard as shit to do. possible but hard. like, I'm even now still unlearning some acephobia, transphobia, queerphobia, islamophobia, and even though I know the occasional fleeting thoughts that I think are wrong and bad, they still happen very frequently. same goes with various forms of racism and xenophobia. my dad (and former stepdad's) influences are probably so deep because of various issues with abandonment and abuse that I'm not gonna discuss here, and they're both absolutely reeking with white supremacist microaggressions. so I'm definitely trying my hardest. part of that is why I reacted so negatively when people misinterpreted what I said, put words in my mouth, and straight up told me to kill myself in all of these messages that are still flooding in. another part is because I truly do stand by the things that I meant to say, rather than the things that it appears I've said. I really do think that it's unreasonable to say that it's racist for people who aren't black to make posts where we vent about various injustices we face from people who are misinformed and ignorant and straight up smarmy condescending assholes and then end it with a passive aggressive name of some baby boomer fuckwit, peggy. because these baby boomer fuckwits come in many colors (black people are still capable of being racist [against hispanic/asian/etc people, not whites, I need to make that abundantly clear], classist, misogynist, queerphobic, ableist, otherwise bigoted prejudiced assholes), and these names that are heralded as "typically white", like henry or franklin or gregory or harold or penelope or alice or etc, are not exclusively white names. I've seen or met black people with names like this and while it's definitely not the majority (not even close), and it's definitely partially due to cultural erasure perpetuated by gentrification, it still exists. so it doesn't make sense to me why the person who wrote the post that started me on this whole sequence of posts about this topic insisted that it was a 'white people names' thing. especially when white people names are more like khaeylieghhe or miakkaylia or annedeeye or some other ridiculous bastardisation of english language in order to make your child feel special and unique and end up growing to be a cookie cutter member of the conservative party that tries to take down affirmative action because they feel like it's reverse discriminatory or some shit. if it was something like that, making fun of those names that are actually like making jokes at the expense of white people [I think I should apologize in advance because technically this counts as a white people joke even if it's just an example] would make perfect sense. however I have not only seen posts in this template of ending with baby boomer names being used as tools to express their distaste in queerphobia, ableism, classism, xenophobia, and intolerance of other sorts, but I've made them before, and it has had not a god damn bit of racial connotation to it at all unless it's been specifically a black millennial on tumblr venting specifically about a white people-ism, and to make a post that shits on everybody who uses this template to cope if they're not black, and causes those kids who use it to cope to ask why not, and then get immediately shit on by assholes who treat them just like people are treating me, who tell them that it doesn't matter if they're neurodivergent or gay or trans or whatever because they're being Big Bad Evil Racists™ by ending their rant posts with names like becky, allison. I don't care if you're black. if you treat queer or disabled kids like shit and call them racist when they're not being racist, no matter what color your skin is, you're an asshole. and to act like fucking salem massachusetts when confronted with legitimate criticism of your ill-informed unbridled assault of an angry mama bear to queer and disabled kids, is just DISGUSTING. WEAK. and PATHETIC. and only serves to strengthen my points. so you know what, go ahead. keep sending me your hate anons. keep sending me the smarmy condescension. I can take it. just stop being fucking assholes to my family. your race isn't something I have any authority over but I won't let you use it as a weapon to beat people over the head with just because you get high off of the power you get from the veil of anonymity. false accusations of being a tier 6 skinhead is more palatable than telling us to kill ourselves.

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sylvanas-girlkisser · 7 years

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Lena Immaculate!

So a couple of days ago i stumbled upon this amazing gifset featuring Katie McGrath as a goth DJ, and it sort of inspired me to write a supercorp fic, featuring Goth engineering student Lena Luthor, and 9 puppies in a cardigan journalism student Kara Danvers.

Can also be read on AO3

Tortuous one, taboos undone

A glittering star on a sea of myriad waves

And a thickening mist, a seductress

Leading lovesick hearts astray

“Hi, uhm, excuse me. Gosh am I interrupting. I’m so sorry, can I just trouble you for a moment.”

Lena slowly pulled off her headphones and glared at the girl who dared to disturb her sanctuary of study.

The girl looked like she had wandered right out of Pleasantville, all pink cardigans, blonde hair and bubbly smile.

“I’m listening.” Lena said folding her hands on top of her textbook, she wasn’t actually listening, but she figured it was the easiest way to get rid of little miss sunshine.

The girl spent a lot of time looking at Lena with an open mouth, it was probably the rings, or maybe the piercings, Lena wasn’t sure.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, and Lena mentally prepared herself to be asked about her lord and savior Jesus Christ. She had no idea why they kept letting nut jobs like her in at Metropolis U.

“Uhm, I have to do an interview for my journalism class and I saw you sitting there, and was wondering if maybe you had the time. I’M SORRY FOR DISTURBING YOU I’LL JUST GO!” So not a religious nut, just a freshman in the field.

Lena wasn’t sure why she reached out to stop the retreating girl, she wanted to get back to her studies, not have to sit through 20 awkward, and vapid questions from the neighbor nice girl.

“No, its fine I need a break from the studies anyways.”

The blonde almost flew back. “Really?” She asked with eyes the size of teacups, Lena could have sworn she saw a tail wag between her legs.

“Yes, let me see if I can guess the topic: subcultural life on campus.” Lena sassed, gesturing at her heavy black clothes. She was already regretting agreeing to this.

“Actually it’s about studying engineering as a woman, and what kind of challenges you face, I saw that you were reading all these books about currents and physics and all kinds of clever stuff.” The girl smiled with her whole face, like she genuinely hadn’t realized Lena had just insulted her.

“Oh, uhm sorry for being presumptuous, yes I study electrical engineering I’m on my 3rd year what would you like to know?”

The interview itself when smoothly. The blonde (Kara as she learned was her name), asked interesting but not too intimate questions. Then proudly showed Lena the notes she’d taken on her reporter pad (“cause I’m going to be a real reporter!”), before waltzing off to do whatever it was girls like her did.

Probably sing to her flock of forest friends while cleaning up after her evil stepsister.

That should have been that right? Just a minor footnote in the melancholic story of her life.

Except somehow that modern day disney princess with her locks of spun gold was haunting her dreams.

Lena had known she was gay since the first time her and Veronica snuck up to the old belfry after lights out. Her family hadn’t been near as okay with it, but that was another story.

What mattered was that she was familiar with the term gay panic, even though she had never experienced it herself.

Until now.

She hadn’t seen Kara since that afternoon in the library 2 weeks ago.

It made sense, Metropolis U was a fairly compartmentalized university, engineering was taught in one end, the humanities in the other.

She had no reason to ever leave the engineering buildings except to study in the larger cross faculty library.

Which she admittedly did often, though it seemed Kara didn’t.

Lena would know she had been keeping a lookout.

Lena didn’t really have any friends, it was a conscious decision, after first Veronica, then Lex, and then her mom, it just seemed easier to not get attached.

Contrary to what she heard people say behind her back (seriously was she back in middle school?) she didn’t walk around in trench coats and army boots to stand out, she did it to scare people off.

Also maybe because Alice from “Resident Evil” had sort of been her sexual awakening.

The closest thing she had was her roommate Jess, however that was more of a mutual politeness thing.

Most of the time she was perfectly okay with her solitary lifestyle. Right now she needed someone to pull her out of her obsession, before she did something stupid.

Like exploit the schools poorly managed database structure to gain access to the schedule of all freshman journalism students, and plan to “randomly” stumble into her one day after class.

Not that she would ever do that.

Or debate whether Tuesday or Thursday was more likely to make Kara susceptible to an impulse trip to a café.

That would be stupid, and irresponsible, possibly illegal, and bordering on stalking.

Lena arrived 25 minutes early outside the classroom.

She had meant to be there at most 5-10 before, just in case the lecture ended early.

Her fear got the better of her, so she looked up what the maximum amount of time school regulations allowed a lecturer to end the lesson too early was.

She had been rehearsing her speech all morning, yet the moment Kara stepped out of that classroom it all left her.

At that point it was too late to turn around, she was already walking towards Kara.

Lena could do this! All she had to do was smile and be cool.

“Hi Lena, how are you doing?” Kara smiled while she spoke, and Lena swore it was getting harder to breathe.

“Fine thank you, I came by to ask how it went with your assignment.” All things considered, Lena was pretty impressed just how calm and coherent she was being in front of this literal ray of sunshine.

“Oh, uhm, it went really well, Professor Grant called it a mediocre attempt at decent journalism, so I think she liked it.” Kara had this cute little crinkle in her brow as she stared off into the distance, and tried to think about... something?

“I was wondering if you could perhaps be persuaded to tell me more about the assignment over a cup of coffee?” Lena made sure to add a seductive little wink to her proposition, which Kara missed entirely.”

“I don’t like coffee, could we get pastries instead?” Lena was about to politely chuckle at Kara’s joke, before she realized the blonde the blonde was completely serious.

“It’s a date.” Truth be told that last comment was a hail Mary from Lena, if she was going to do it, she was going to go all out.

Kara sputtered and recoiled. “Sorry I, um, I didn’t mean to drag you into something you don��t want, its okay we can just have coffee! I uhm, I, ah.” Lena wasn’t even sure what Kara was rambling about.

“Kara, stop panicking, I would like to go on a date with you, I was the one who asked.” Putting a grounding hand on her crush seemed to prevent her from taking flight through the roof, though her cheeks still looked about ready to spontaneously combust.

“Psh, me panic, no never, I’m the most collected person ever! Wait really?! You want to go on a date with me? As in a date date? As in you might like me date? Like, like me like me? That kind of date! But you’re so cool, and badass, and I’m just silly little me?”

It was weird, but Lena was already growing fond of Kara’s tendency to ramble.

They must have looked like an odd couple, walking down the hall side by side. Kara in an ensemble of pastel colors, with her hair framing her head like a halo, next to Lena in black and silver, with sleek raven hair looking not unlike a widow’s veil.

#supercorp #karlena #kara x lena #supergirl #fanfic #my writing

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the-bitch-files · 3 years

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Spring Reading Wrap Up!

Hello! Instead of doing a monthly wrap up or individual reviews, I have decided to do a seasonal wrap of the books I have read. Here, I will list all the books I've read I've watched during the Spring months - March, April & May - and include some select reviews. This is because I only have so many thoughts about these things and there are some books where I want to write a review and have plenty of thoughts about it. Hopefully that makes sense. So, without further ado, let's get to it!

What I Read

MARCH

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu (2017) - 5 ★ Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (2019) - 5 ★ Revenge of the Sluts by Natalie Walton (2021) - 5 ★ Good & Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister - 4 ★ Men Explain Things to Me And Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit (2014) - 5 ★ The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe (2021) - 5 ★ All Eyes on Her by L.E. Flynn (2020) - 3 1/2 ★ The Book of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resistance by Chelsea and Hillary Rodham Clinton (2020) The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan (2020) - 5 ★

APRIL

These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin (2020) - 2 ★ Vagina Problems: Endometriosis, Painful Sex and Other Taboo Topics by Lara Parker (2020, memoir, non-fiction) Girl A by Abigail Dean (2021) - 5 ★ The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto (2021) - 4.5 ★ The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (2021) - 5 ★ Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women White Feminists Forgot by Mikki Kendall (2020, feminist non-fiction) - 4 ★ Sisters by Daisy Johnson (2020) - 3 ★ Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017, short feminist non-fiction)

MAY

Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney (2017) - 3.5 ★ Moranthology by Caitlin Moran (2012, collection of her newspaper columns) You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott (2016) - 4 ★ People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd (2021) - 1 ★ Pretty Bitches: On Being Called Crazy, Angry, Bossy, Frumpy, Feisty, and All the Other Words Used to Undermine Women ed. by Lizzie Skurnick (2020, anthology essay collection)

REVIEWS

These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin (2020) - 2 ★

This was my worst read of the season. This book was slow-paced, slightly predictable with a plot that felt like it had already been done and an ending that had little effect on the world in the book.

Following Ember Williams - which is short for September, named after her birth month - who sets out to take down the Red Court, a secret society within her high school which grants favours for others at a price, in revenge for an accident which left her elder sister April paralysed two years earlier. After joining the Red Court (RC) and playing a part in missions (including election rigging for Homecoming, breaking up couples and takedowns of other students), Ember faces a conflict of morality and struggles with the secrets she's keeping from her best friend, Gideon, and new love interest/crush, Chase - who happens to be one half of the couple she breaks up soon after joining the Red Court and the guy that she competes with academically. This leads to drama within her own life and Ember spirals into her obsession with the Red Court while trying to keep up with school and her relationships with friends, family and now Chase.

I didn't connect to Ember as a character as she seemed to be hellbent on revenge and while I do enjoy a good revenge tale, this was not that. It seemed like she changed her mind sometimes on her opinion on the RC, even going so far as to think herself as a potential new Queen of Hearts (the leader), remaking the RC with her own vision. It did not seem like a good idea and just selfish thinking that she is superior to these other girls and the RC itself. Ember says that she is doing this for her sister - and at one point it gets all 'this is bigger than you and me and I must do it for the greater good', which seems cliche - but it seemed like April wasn't convinced and didn't want Ember to do it.

Also, the 'romance' between Ember and Chase was pretty boring and quite forced. They just kept bumping into each other and Ember was like 'I can't be seen with this guy because of my place in the Red Court. but I'm really starting to like him. What do I do?' Chase seemed like a good enough guy but not developed enough as a character. The romance itself was just added drama for Ember to deal with on top of the RC shit.

This turned into a rant and I usually don't like to complain about books this much - sorry. TLDR: I thought it was going to be a good revenge tale; it wasn't. Waste of Queen of Hearts/Alice in Wonderland motif. Too slow paced as well.

The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe (2021) - 5 ★

This book was sooo good! I loved it - it was so thrilling, action-packed, heartbreaking, and brilliant. A few things that I loved in this:

bisexual protagonist with great rep (she has a good relationship with her male ex as they are now friends, and is a good relationship with her current girlfriend)

the protagonist, Nora, is a con artist who is v skilled but is dealing with what she's experienced and how she grew up with her con artist mother

the girlfriend, Iris, is amazing and well-written as a character and love interest. she loves vintage clothes, is resourceful and wants to investigate arson for a living which gives some skills that helps them out

the action is set in a bank robbery and this takes place over a matter of hours so it is quite action-packed for a short time frame. the characters have to think quickly on their feet in order to survive and it really questions what would you do to survive when placed in a life-or-death situation

as someone who deals with bad period pain/constant abdominal pain (potential endometriosis), I really liked the inclusion of a character with endometriosis in Iris. During the bank robbery it's revealed that Iris is on her period, so dealing with a heavy, painful period along with the stress of a hostage situation must be overwhelming. Iris is such a badass for this and we see her do some heroics near the end. I love Iris

the characters of Nora, Iris and Wes (their best friend and Nora's ex) are bonded by their friendship and have past trauma and asshole dads (or stepdad in Nora's case) in common. their friendship is awesome and they will do anything for each other. a great example of found family trope

The plotline of the bank robbery is written alongside flashbacks to Nora's past through the different aliases she has had - the eponymous 'girls I've been' - and we really get to see what Nora's learnt, and how her mom has manipulated her into living these lives and running these cons when Nora didn't ask to be a part of it. She was born into it really, since it started so young. It's all she's known but she wants more from her life. The men that her mom - Abby - chose to be the marks were always bad guys and they got worse as Nora got older, culminating in crime boss and Abby's love Raymond Keane. Nora's past and present collide during the bank robbery with secrets being revealed.

The whole novel was fantastic. Highly recommend.

Girl A by Abigail Dean (2021) - 5 ★

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and god, it was so good. 'Girl A' deserves all the praise it is getting - and some of it is included on the inside cover. As devastating as it is brilliant, this novel is a compelling read that looks at the lasting impact of trauma from the perspective of Lex Gracie, a survivor of child abuse and neglect that became a nation-wide headline-making case known as the 'House of Horrors'. She is Girl A, the girl who escaped, but there is so much more to it than that.

The narrative switches between the present day with Lex at age 30 and dealing with the aftermath of her mother's death in prison as she is the executor of her will and now owns the House of Horrors, and the past taking us through Lex's childhood and the abuse she and her six siblings faced. Since the timeline shifts quickly by paragraph, sometimes it can be quite jarring and confusing as you realise that she is talking about the past but I understood this mostly. You could say it speaks to how hard it is to shake off that kind of past.

Sometimes it can be hard to read simply because of how horrifying the abuse is and the conditions that the Gracie children had to live in. That just shows how strong Abigail Dean's writing is. This is a fantastic debut and one that I found absolutely excellent.

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott (2016) - 3.5 ★

I continue to love Megan Abbott's writing style as she writes great prose about women, their bodies, the relationships between women and femininity. She writes about sports that considered typically feminine - cheerleading in 'Dare Me', gymnastics here and ballet in the upcoming 'The Turnout' - and it feels like a deep dive into the sport itself and the impact it has on the girls who take part and their bodies. Gymnastics was central to the plot as the protagonist's (Katie) daughter, Devon, is a star of the sport. Multiple times we are reminded how extraordinary Devon is due to her ability as a gymnast and commitment to the sport.

There is a mystery here with the death of a young man within this community being the catalyst for the events of the book, but it takes a backseat to the gymnastics. I do wish there was more to this mystery but it seems that it was not the focus here.

I did not like this as much as I did my other Megan Abbott reads - 'Dare Me' and 'Give Me Your Hand' - but it was still a great read.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (2021) - 5 ★

This was *chef's kiss* amazing.

The writing was brilliant, the twists were stunning (particularly in the last 10%) and the dynamic between Amb (Ambrosia Wellington) and Sully (Sloan Sullivan) was intense, toxic, co-dependent, and destructive, both internally and externally - as in, destructive towards themselves and other people. The title is a reference to the optimism of Amb's roommate Flora, when in actuality, the niceness was mostly fake, particularly from the perspective of cynical Amb. there were a few quotes here that I liked, including:

"I don't know if it's disgusting or impressive that girls can do that for each other. that we can achieve that level of deceit in the name of sisterhood."

"People thought girls' bodies were our deadlines weapons. they had no idea about the mountains our imaginations could move."

"the world loves a pretty dead girl."

"I discovered my own version of sisterhood. It doesn't have to be merciless, feeding on the chunks it tears from its own flesh. It can be softer, more forgiving. because there are girls like me, fighting to make the society we're fenced into a more hospitable place for all of us."

"I turned into a monster, but the world knows exactly how to make monsters out of girls who want what they can't have."

Definitely recommend! Especially if you're a fan of Megan Abbott (it's like 'Dare Me' and 'Give Me Your Hand'), toxic female friendships, and dark academia (I don't know if this could be considered dark academia, but ). 5 stars all the way.

So, what did you read in the spring months? have you read any of these books? if so, what did you think? let me know in the comments. thanks for reading! - Cat

#books #book reviews #reading wrap up #long post #girl a #the girls are all so nice here #you will know me #these vengeful hearts #the girls I've been

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leapteen-blog · 7 years

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How to raise a self-sufficient kid

You’re scrambling to get the kids out the door, but your three-year-old is putting on his shoes at a glacial pace. The temptation to take over is overwhelming. While letting your child do it himself definitely takes more time and patience, it’s some of the most important parenting you’ll do, says Jane Hewes, chair of the Early Learning and Child Care at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton. “When kids learn to do things for themselves, they’re developing a positive self identity, and it makes them feel competent and worthy.” Here’s what kids can learn to do for themselves at every stage from toddler to tween, keeping in mind that some may be ready earlier or later—and what you can do to help your child blossom into a self-sufficient young adult.

The toddler years (1–3)

“I do it!” may become your toddler’s daily mantra and now is the time to start nurturing that independent spirit.

Using the potty: Around 24 to 36 months, kids are developmentally ready to be toilet trained, and they’ll show you when they are interested, says Emmett Francoeur, a developmental paediatrician at The Montreal Children’s Hospital. “They might be curious about adults using the toilet and begin to imitate it, or start inspecting the toilet or potty.”

Coaching tips: Once your child shows interest, encourage him to use the potty once or twice a day to start. When he goes, celebrate and offer lots of praise.

Drinking and pouring: Toddlers can graduate to cups without lids. At around 18 months, kids can also start pouring their own drinks.

Coaching tips: To minimize cleanup, have your child start with a small pitcher filled with water.

Eating with a spoon: From the time your child is sitting up in a high chair, she can start eating with a spoon.

Coaching tips: Let your child have a spoon as soon as she’s able to grab it from you. Holding utensils helps develop the fine motor skills your child will use later to hold a pencil, says Hewes.

Putting on coats and shoes: Kids this age are capable of putting on their own coats and shoes—if they’re given time and patience.

Coaching tips: Make it easy for your child to get her outerwear, put it on and put it away, by installing a hook or cubby within her reach, and offer help only if she’s getting frustrated.

The preschool years (3–4)

By ages three and four, kids “can really zero in on what they need to do,” says Francoeur.

Eating with a fork: Some kids may still prefer to use their fingers, but they are capable of feeding themselves with a fork.

Coaching tips: Give your child utensils and encourage him to serve himself. As you serve yourself, you might point out what foods are on the table (“I’m going to have some more yummy peas”).

Bathing and hair washing: Preschoolers always need to be supervised in the tub, but leave most of the washing to them.

Coaching tips: Give your child soap and a washcloth, and offer guidance about which body parts to scrub. Preschoolers can lather up their own hair (and have fun creating sudsy styles!), but they’ll need help rinsing so they don’t get soap in their eyes.

Picking out clothes and getting dressed: Unless you’ve got an outfit planned for a special occasion, let your little one pick out her clothes and dress herself — however mismatched the outcome may be.

Coaching tips: Make sure dresser drawers are accessible and open easily. Keep non-seasonal clothes separate so she doesn’t come down for breakfast in a bathing suit mid-winter. To help her son Jai tell his left foot from his right, Toronto mom Brenda Ha stuck shoe labels on the inner sides of his boots and told him to make sure the labels were looking at each other before he slipped them on.

The school-aged years (5–8)

By age five, there’s been lot of development in the part of the brain where cognitive functions develop, like planning, remembering, paying attention and organizing.

Using the washroom: By five, kids may feel ready to go into a public washroom stall without mom or dad (though they may need reminding to wash their hands!).

Coaching tips: Have a chat about the hygiene issues with public toilet seats—that they are used by lots of people and might be wet or dirty—and proper wiping techniques. Stand right outside the stall door in case she needs help.

Tooth brushing: By age eight, most kids can brush their own teeth and they can master flossing by age 10, says Calgary paediatric dentist Sarah Hulland.

Coaching tips: Make sure your child has a toothbrush that suits her—the heads on battery-powered toothbrushes are often too large, so the back teeth are missed. Try floss sticks with handles, like GUM Crayola Kids’ Flossers.

Eating with a knife: School-aged kids can cut their own food.

Coaching tips: Show your child how to use a knife safely. At age six, Madelaine Wice cuts her own meat like a pro. “We tell her she’s one of the big kids now, and she loves it because it makes her different from her younger brother Sam,” says her mom Cynthia Keeshan.

Organizing homework: Some kids are born organized and others will always need help in this area. But between eight and nine, your child may be ready to manage his own school work.

Coaching tips: Help your child come up with a plan about when he’ll do his homework—after school or after dinner, for example—and a strategy for staying on top of project deadlines. Get him a paper calendar or set him up with a calendar on the home computer; this lets your child develop organization strategies so he can eventually control his schedule on his own.

The tween years (9+)

The limbic system in the brain is developing, allowing kids to make better decisions about people and social situations, says Francoeur.

Preparing food: By now, many kids are ready to make their own school lunches and prepare some meals.

Coaching tips: Make a habit of inviting kids to help in the kitchen, supervising while they stir a pot on the stove or chop vegetables, so they gain confidence and competence. Kayla Hall, 11, of Oakville, Ont., helps her parents pick out groceries for school lunches and bakes her own cookies and muffins. “We don’t force the kids in the kitchen, but let them lead when they want to bake or cook with us,” says her mom, Alice Hall.

Riding public transit solo: Most 12-year-olds are mature enough to take the bus or subway alone or with friends.

Coaching tips: Take a field trip together: instead of driving to the mall, go on the local bus and let your child take the lead with getting you there. “It helps to role-play different scenarios with kids, like practising how to ask for directions and who to ask,” says Patty Young, mom to 13-year-old Maya Shaffer-Young. “I always say if you need help, ask women with children. We also gave her a phone—so she can call us and we know we can always reach her.”

Staying home alone: Around 12, kids are usually ready to stay home by themselves or with younger siblings for a few hours at a time. Child Safe Canada (childsafecanada.com) offers home-alone safety courses for children age 10 and up.

Coaching tips: Give kids a sense of responsibility in a gradual way. Start by going out for a short walk, then the next time, take a short trip to a nearby store and so on, gradually building up to longer time periods away. Leave lots of instructions and your cellphone number, and call home to check in. And if your child screws up—maybe inviting friends over without permission—talk about what he could do differently next time. And continue to give kids chances to show responsibility for themselves and others, says Hewes. “It’s part of becoming an adult.”

#leapteen #educate #kids #addicition #love #safer kids

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riseofthebelieversrp-blog · 7 years

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Hello, Storytellers~

Summer's in full swing! (Which is great, but up here it's kinda chilly. What gives?!) It's sunny, it's warm, it's beach season and we couldn't be happier! Summer is the season of high energy and high muse - which means lots of plotting, lots of writing! But don't forget to go outside for the occasional ten seconds of fresh air. <3

Welcome to our blog’s first newsletter! From hereon in, we’ll be submitting it every month on the first. Keep an eye out!

THE WELCOME WAGON

We're welcoming a total six new candidates this month! Say hello if you see them in the cbox! March, as brought by Shade! She's looking at the Obsidian King~ Cam, who has expressed interest in Dorothy! Gen, looking at the Merry Men of Robin Hood! Leopard, who totally slipped in under the radar - if you see this one, nab them and say hi! Rosary, a friend of Nico's! Shelby, who found us through an ad on tumblr! Last minute Zira, an old friend of Carma's, who's dragging York along with her!

IN THE WORKS

We're looking at fae, Egyptians and fairytales this month! Be sure and take a look at these apps, and stay tuned to see them complete~

March's Rauvelore ap Ievos

Gengar's Iollas Dacan

Hakuna's Osiris

Shelby's Maddie Hathaway

Nico's Alice Liddell

Though there's not yet an app, Rosary has a character named Lucy Seeker in the works! Wonder what she's all about!

ENTERING THE STAGE

We had a whole slew of characters joining us in May, including a grand total three canines, a feline, a few immortals and a Night Mare.

Ocean's Cafe Noir

Skel's Averin Lucida

Bass Invader's Pestilence

Spotteh's Gregorio Pantaleon

Momo's Pippa McBride

Micken's Ranger

Reed's Cerberus

Moulder's Pretty Boy

Lloydy's Asheton Hollins

Lulu's Jack Dawson

WANTED CHARACTERS

Of all the Big Five, a couple are still in need of filling! Those are North, the Guardian of Wonder, and Sandman, the Guardian of Dreams. Further, we'd like to take a moment to remind people of the Wanted Ads out there~ If you're musing on a character idea, take a look at the Wanted Ads out there to see if there are any roles your idea can fill! Don't hesitate to poke people and see if they're willing to be flexible on what they've got!

SITE UPDATES

It's Summer Skin time! As before, you have the option to choose between a DAY skin and a NIGHT skin. Go to your User Control Panel, and on the left-hand side, look for skin preferences! You should see SUMMER DAY and SUMMER NIGHT available. Special thanks go to Ionahi of tumblr, who we commissioned for the artwork in both skins! Tumblr Features: Starting this month we are opening up a new thread for Wanted Ad features! Those of you who would like a wanted ad featured on our tumblr page, post in that thread with the requested information! A single member can request a specific wanted ad once a month. That same member can request different wanted ads once every week. Guides: The community has done it again, giving us two new guides to pore over! First we have Shade's Guide to the Fae, formatted in a google doc, and second, Momo gave us the Land of Sweets from the Nutcracker. NPC Character Gudielines: Staff is going to be slightly revising the role that NPC characters are able to take! This shouldn't affect anyone currently, it will simply help to give a more distinctive boundary between "full character" and "NPC character", as we don't currently have much to distinguish them.

THE STORY SO FAR

The Starlit Masquerade is underway! So far most of the guests have arrived in some fashion; some have partnered off for a dance, while the rest are simply chatting it up in....what we can only hope is civil discussion. But soon, they will be joined by their most gracious host, with words on the Guardians! I wonder what all will be said - and how might that information be used by less savoury sorts? Could the Anti-Guardians be gleaning information from their enemies, even now?

SPOTLIGHTS

Momo's Poesy: If you've heard anything about the power struggle in New York's gang community, this girl's at the center of it. The gang scene has been severely shaken up ever since Poesy decided to dig her claws into it; she's clever, she's crazy, and she's on her way to the top. Moulder's Volker: This is a man who's lived a long life haunted by his family's curse. Male members of the family are possessed, through each generation, by a demon of sorts known as Oor, who turns the host into a sociopathic cannibal. With a son of his own, he's looking for a way to free himself of the curse before it passes on to his child.

GOSSIP INSIDER

Know the tricky thing about masks and code names? All the good gossip is speculation until everything is revealed! That said, the gossip rags are soaking up spilled tea everywhere! Let's wring 'em out and see what we can find out~ A masked lady in blue and silver was asked to dance by a dashing man in green - are those robes? Who wears robes in this day and age? And who taught this man to dance? He's crushed the lady's delicate toes! Wow, did you see the gown on that woman with the horned mask? The one with the emeralds and gold? Whew, she looks like she belongs in the Palace, that's for sure! But it also looks like she'd found her place with Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Handsome over there~ Now there's an energetic duo on the dance floor! She's clad in gold and he in white, but if you squint a bit... I think - maybe - one of them is glowing? Perhaps it's just a trick of the many lights... Yeah, that's it. Couldn't possibly be...? Could it? Overheard in the Amber Room: two ladies discussing how overwhelming the party is! They're not wrong; the party is being held in one of the grandest locales in Russia, is being hosted by a being that hasn't been seen in several years, and no one knows who anyone is! It's the very definition of the word, but fear not, ladies - everything will be okay. Just enjoy the party~ Overprotective Chaperone Alert!! Hyperion has found himself in the company of two unchaperoned young women and is, apparently, very upset about this! So much so, in fact, that when one of the dates finally appeared, he was very curt with him. There's still one date missing and he seems to be silently fuming about this. WHAT KIND OF STRANGE DOG IS THAT?! It's not like any dog we've ever seen, folks, and I'm willing to bet that it's not a real dog! Honestly, we're still wondering how it even got in and to whom it belongs, but the guy in red seems to know it... Speaking of the guy in red... RABASTAN! That's his name! Yeah, he was overheard saying some rather rude things to a lady - granted, her words weren't terribly ladylike - but that was seriously uncalled for! And it just goes to show that words hurt - but fear not, Rasalas! A fellow lady is there to show solidarity and to give advice and comfort. Just let Gemma take care of you, it'll be okay~ Looks like the champagne wasn't enough for some! Arcturus set out to steal some wine and succeeded! Now, with stronger drinks in hands, he and several others in the Cameron Gallery are discussing the other guests in broader terms. People come to the balconies for fresh air and a reprieve, but they tend to leave in pairs - according to one set of loose lips. Several couples have been spotted, but the one that intrigues me the most is the man in the cape and his dazzling lady in blue. She seems tense... wonder why... HOLY MASQUERADE, BATMAN! Gotham City's Dark Knight has been spotted talking to a pirate lass, a pretty lady in yellow, and a gentleman who... ALMOST... got a date! In any case, I hope Batman has an eye on the two gentlemen in the corner; they are lowkey competing with him for the title of 'Most Likely to Brood at a Fancy Party'. And, thus the curtains close on the Starlit Masquerade Gossip Corner~ We shall now resume with our regular programming. There would appear to be an unattended child running around in Burgess with a bag way too big for him. Fortunately, a nice ol' dad is here to help him out. Hey, who said that you have to be a Guardian to have fun? Ginger's throwing her own shindig, and she's got all the really cool people there. Booze and soft drinks around! Seriously, who let Douglas take anyone for a tour around the Moon Clipper? At least Thoth seems to be serious about it... Avast, it's a meeting of pirate folk! Or...well, a former pirate and a cabin boy....girl. Wonder what the Jolly Roger wants with Asheton? Oh jeez, Jamie's gotten himself into the clutches of a rising power in the gang world. And who's there to save the day but one of Ryder's own gang members? Yeah, it's a bit of a hairy mess. Let's hope our belief-less boy comes out okay! Who's that sniffing around the fae world? Why, it's a handsome skeleton~ He's caught the eye of an equally curious hot mom. No, a real hot mom, as in she's on actual fire. It seems our favourite light sprite doesn't understand that wraiths don't like bright glowing girls. She just wants to make a friend, Sab, have a heart! Maidie's in a mess! A mess whose name is Hydra. Whatever dastardly plans does the snake man have for her?! Will she make it out alive?! Ever wonder what training a ditzy light sprite might look like? Well, Deit's about to find out... Tars needs to seriously stop getting caught unawares. It's happened with the wrong person now...wonder if Taer plans to tattle? The friendly mom routine is winding to a close~ Kary is about to learn the true nature of the Beldam. And it's a real shame, too; they were getting along so well. Oor seems to believe he can strike a bargain with the Nightmare King. Could he have anything in his favour, or is it a lost cause? Snow is beginning to uncover the mysteries that lie beneath Roman's mask....just how much will he share? Apparently mouth to mouth isn't an expression of romance in these two cultures; Emil and Sabellius have instead become a strange pair of friends. Or that's the idea, anyway. It's a bird! It's a plane! ...Actually a bird isn't far off, but Daniel's being a superhero again and Kay's left to wonder....huh? Stand aside Emil, there's a new dad for Maidie in town, and his name is Niulang! Well there's no lions or tigers or bears, but there sure is a wolf, and Frollo hates wolves. What's that? She's also a woman? Oh, now he hates her more. Burn the witch, am I right? It seems like the Aquarians are about to get themselves into a bit of a pickle...there's danger on the horizon, and only one of them seems to be aware. Ever wondered why the Guardians think how they do? Pandora's asked the Guardian Expert, Pitch, to explain! Wait.... Hold on, hold on! There's a gunfight by the lake, between two Guardians. Both of you, calm down! You're on the same side! What's this? Childhood friends?! West is about to learn a shocking truth about her sweet friend Pippa. The Lady of the Lake stands before the ruins that brought about the existence of the Stromkarlen. Is there any dark magic here to be revealed? Damn, what a view! Douglas sure knows how to treat a lady to a nice spectacle. I guess there are some perks to living on the moon, eh? An evil scientist and an evil potionmaster have finally met! Only one seems to be even remotely pleased about it.

#rotb #rotg #rise of the guardians #jcink rp #jcink premium #rotg rp #newsletter #forum rp #wanted characters #admin:Carma

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canyouhearthechurchbellsringing · 7 years

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#46: Ali

03/05/17

FTP: So, here we are at the final entry. From awakening in the motel room to now exactly a month had passed, and I was no closer to comprehending the riddles Darek had left behind for me. I still had half a set of coordinates on a notecard. Entry #43, which you have read by now, solved some puzzles but created so many more. The motel room was mine for a few more days and then I would be homeless, living on the streets. Luckily I had an angel watching over me and I’ not necessarily referring to Alice here.

I didn’t get a chance to include it in the earlier entries, but sometime between learning Casey had died and meeting Madrik I had a conversation with Ali in my grief. The end result of it was her asking to come visit me. This entry is the events of her visit. It also includes a little bonus story I think is beneficial to post which reveals the origin of Darek. This is the final entry I had worked on before being convinced to let the investigastion go, so the next entry I post will be in the present. I’m so sick of all these logs bouncing from the past to the present constantly. With luck, this will be the last log that takes place in the past. Then again, I’ve said that before.

09/24/16

I couldn’t quite tell you what it was, maybe Darek’s gaze behind my eyes, but Ali looked beautiful to me. I swear there was a golden aura glowing off her bright hair like a halo.

I’ve been lying most of these entries, shrouding the truth in social status and false appeals. Now I want to tell the truth. Now I want all to be known.

I first dated Ali after my senior year went to hell. My so-called friend Grant had a lot of lies to tell about me and it pretty much ruined my life, everything I felt I was. She was there for me, emotionally… and physically. I told her from the start that our relationship would not work out. Yet I longed for the caresses Casey introduced me to, the feel of someone against my body. Even then I think I may have still harbored a deep yet unrevealed love for Casey. But Casey wasn’t the one there for me. It was always from that moment on me and Ali.

Despite my lack of feelings for her I gave my all to the relationship. I tried to shower her with my affection, and there was a lot of it. I can still grasp that time in fleeting memories. Once we climbed the chain link fence to the elementary school and explored in the dead of night. Ali was no good at fence climbing; back when we dated she was overweight and exercise challenged She ended up losing a lot of weight because her dad pretty much starved her. On the way out of the school she got caught at the top of the fence, too scared to jump down. I encouraged her and cheered her on until she finally made the plunge to safety. As we walked away from that place a cop rolled up to the gate. We lucked out. He didn’t even notice us. When we went to retrieve our bikes we found out that someone had set off one of the silent alarms in the school. Who would have guessed elementary schools were so well-guarded?

That wasn’t the first school we had broken into that night. We had also visited the high school. That memory stuck out in my head. It was the reason we were so confident going into our adventure in the elementary school. We had snuck in through a hole under the fence. I climbed the inner gates and let her through from the other side. We circled round to the football stadium where we had sat through so many dreadful pep rallies and where countless students had displayed their school spirit in support of their team. We climbed to the highest point, over the commentator box, overlooking the whole school. The rain was falling from the heavens, drenching us, and we stripped off all our clothes and made out a bit. If she hadn’t been on her period, God knows I would have lost my virginity that night.

Here she was in front of me, a girl I thought was dead, a girl I considered my best friend, a girl I’d shared many an intimate moment with, and I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. I just broke down crying in her arms, my ear pressed against her chest, listening to her heartbeat.

“She’s dead. Oh God, Ali, she’s dead and I killed her.”

She shushed me and stroked my hair. I felt guarded in her embrace, hidden from Darek and Madrik and Mark and Veronika and all the darkness that dwelt within and without. I let the tears flow like a faucet for my anguish. I knew if anyone could understand my suffering it was Ali.

“It’s all right, sweetie.” She whispered. “God, I haven’t seen you cry like this in ages….”

“I’ll bet.” I whispered into her bosom and laughed. “I missed you, y'know.”

“I know.” She answered quietly. “I missed you, too.”

A silence passed between us, not uncomfortable at all. We had ended up sitting on the edge of my bed in each others’ arms. In the turbulent war my life had become, this was the safest I felt I could be. Maybe that was all I wanted. Someone who understood to hold me and soothe my raging emotions. I guess God has a funny way of answering your prayers.

I looked up at her, deep into her eyes, into her soul. “Do you miss it? Being with Darek?”

She shook her head. “I missed you more.”

I remembered after we broke up, how I couldn’t talk to her without losing my temper, how I chased her away and made her feel worthless. I remembered meeting her again, nearly a year later, around the time I met Jake and started hanging out with Ben and Casey more. I remembered what she told me, how many times she’d tried to commit suicide after it was clear she could never speak to me again. We ended up reaching a sort of homeostasis, her satisfied having me as a friend, me relieved to find someone I could confide in. Even then, though, I remembered all the times she told me she was in love with me, starting before I even asked her out and not ending while she was with Rob. Sure, she never professed any feelings for me flat out, but I still knew. In fact, now that I considered it, she had said it out loud at one point. That was a night I tried not to dwell on, though. That was the night Darek was named. “I never…” I began, tearfully. “I never meant, y'know? For it all to play out like this.”

“Mat, I know.” She pressed her finger to my lips to quiet me. The tears still broke free despite it. “Nobody wanted it like this. It just is.”

I nodded, still at odds with my guilt and longing and insecurity. Life was really something else, putting me in a place like this, a place where I longed for a girl six feet underground and the girl who longed only for me was forced to hold the bronze medal happily. I didn’t even consider Alice in the ironies. Alice was above the hormone-fueled feelings I had for Casey and Ali. In fact, that whole night I spent with Ali, Alice Rachelle Langdon never crossed my mind.

I don’t know why. I certainly didn’t expect it of myself, and I didn’t think it was Darek motivating my actions. Its root changed nothing. I still did what I did. I leaned in closer to her and kissed her on the lips, gently, so gently, but desperately, longingly.

I needed Alice. And I longed for Casey. I didn’t feel either of those things for Ali, but by God I wanted her. I wanted her and in that moment I knew she was all mine.

She returned my kiss with more intensity. She subtly controlled the energy level between us in a way that time seemed to float unhindered and we moved seamlessly from affectionate pecks to enthused deep kissing. I felt my mind slide away to somewhere distant, somewhere sacred.

Something exploded in the center of my mind’s eye. I was in two places then, one engorged with pleasure and abusing the moment for all it was worth, the other trapped in a memory of misery, a night my life changed forever, a night I could remember with ease despite the effort I put into forgetting it.

It was the first time I’d gotten kicked out. Used to be thought of as the only time, but, so far from home, I suspected this was not the case anymore. I met Ali and Rob at the McDonalds we always hung out at, my situation laid bare. Rob promised me if nothing else worked out, he could offer me a place to stay with him and Ali. I should have known better than to get in the middle of their turbulent relationship. But nothing else worked out, and so I was swept far away from my home with two people I loved whose feelings for each other would only grow blacker by the night’s end.

It was a long night in a place next door to Rob’s second mom. It was explained in depth to me before I went there that if I made any commotion it would get them all kicked out. She had brain cancer and her family was very protective of her privacy. Plus he and Ali had had their share of arguments already and were on thin ice. I swore to be on my best behavior and even had Ali promise, if I was getting out of hand, that she would slap me to bring me to my senses. One thing led to another. There were two beds but one was hard as a rock. Rob wanted the comfy bed for himself, but there was no room for Ali. She didn’t mind; she said she’d sleep on the floor. After hearing of the other bed’s infamy, I made the innocent comment: “Well geez, if it’s that bad I might just sleep on the floor with Ali.”

Now I know it wasn’t so innocent. Now I know it was a part of Darek’s messed-up plan to make himself exist. Suffice it to say, Rob took it entirely the wrong way. The two of them got into a very heated debate. Voices were raised, feelings were hurt, and I got to watch up until the startling conclusion, where Ali ended up in a corner, sobbing and saying, “I’m in love with two people. How can that be? What do I do?”

The next confrontation happened in the front of the two houses. She was running. He was chasing. I tried to stop him, I knew it was for his own good, but he only saw me as an obstacle. He shoved me down and caught up to her, grabbing her by the wrist and spinning her around roughly. I wasn’t even aware of getting back on my feet. I only knew I was pissed.

“Hey asshole! Just leave her alone!”

Both of their eyes locked on mine and they were striding purposefully toward me.

“Mat, lower your voice.” Rob said.

“Oh, now you’re suddenly calm!? Bullshit! You were just pissed as shit and now that I am it’s not okay?”

I swear I don’t even remember what happened next. I didn’t see Ali’s hand coming at me but I guess Darek did. Next thing I knew I was in a dream state, watching from my eyes, speaking with my mouth, but only passively observing the phenomena

“Get away from me! Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”

I ripped up clumps of grass and dirt and hurled them at her. Somehow I had ended up back on the ground. I felt a massive presence within me, something dominating my senses and creating a sort of radio interference. It overrode my disposition with a single command. Destroy… destroy… destroy…

Ali and Rob shared a look, their earlier argument forgotten. They wordlessly left me behind and strode back to the house. I sat in a daze, too stupefied by what had just happened to think. Finally I regained control of my legs. I stumbled like a zombie back to the door, only to find it locked. Though I seemed to have control of my body, my mind was still reeling with violent thoughts, homicide and suicide and everything in between. Apparently I wasn’t as in control of my body as I thought because my attempt at knocking on the door turned into a relentless hammering.

The door creaked open. “Come in. Just be quiet, please.”

I went in and fell to my knees, my fists clenched, my mind working in reverse. “Help me…”

“What do you want, Mat?” Ali asked, concerned.

“To destroy.” I answered shakily. “To hurt. To maim. To wreck. To kill.”

“Not to this house, you’re not.” Rob answered authoritatively.

I shook my head. “No.” I stuttered. “No. Not this place. Not you. Only me. Give me a knife.”

Rob pulled a switchblade from his pocket. “Casey taught me the importance of bleeding.” He assured me, offering the blade.

I took it like a beggar would snatch up food. Hungrily, without looking, I dragged the blade across my forearm. The blood leaked from the wound, staining the knife with my life’s fuel. It was like a pressure release. All I could do was break down in tears, leaving the knife beside me on the floor.

“Come on.” Ali whispered, leading me to the good bed in the next room to rest. I wrapped my shirt around the wound, savoring the dull pain.

“That… that wasn’t me….” I whispered, terrified. She let me down and smiled. She smiled at me.

“See? I knew you had one in you.”

That gave him his breath of life. That made me believe in him.

“Why…. ?” I couldn’t articulate quite yet. “Why didn’t you slap me like I asked?”

“Mat, I did.” She said. “You swatted my hand away and started freaking out worse.”

I cursed under my breath. Those words still came to me effortlessly. “S- sorry…”

“Just rest.” She whispered, kissing me on the cheek and leaving.

I believed her when she said Darek was real. I believed her because, before Ben and Mark, before Jake and Madrik, before Casey and Veronika, there was Ali and Kendra. Kendra was Ali’s Darek.

As I moved in and out of her that night in the motel, lost in passion’s embrace, it was Kendra on my mind. Kendra and her eerie calm, as if she were always in control of everything. Kendra and her beautiful words, the way she made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. Kendra who was so totally different from Ali. Kendra who I probably fell in love with without even intending to.

With a moan of pleasure she brought me to climax. Time ceased to hold meaning. Everything stopped and became immortalized in my mind. Every sensation, every perception, magnified a hundredfold. Something awoke in me in that moment, something grander, more powerful, more frightening than Darek could hope to be. I rolled over in the bed, both of us naked under the covers, a thin sheen of sweat reflected in the faint glow of light coming through the sheet over the window. I saw it in my mind. The doorway. I knew I could get back. I knew that, no matter what memory he took from me, I could always get back if I only remembered the doorway.

After I’d stopped trembling the night of Darek’s birth, I texted Casey. I told her there was something inside me, something psychopathic, sociopathic, homicidal, suicidal, a paradox walking a contradictory path inside my pacifistic mind. I asked her what to name him. Derek. She answered. Then, an afterthought. Or Darek if you want to spell it different. So it went. The girl I was in love with supplied the name for the presence the girl in love with me solidified in my mind. That’s how I was infected. That’s how the darkness planted years ago flowered into the demon I now lived with every day. Maybe it wasn’t another being controlling me. Maybe it was adrenaline and nothing more affecting me that night. The tulpa theory claims if you believe something strongly enough, it becomes real. Well I certainly believe in Darek enough for him to have a hold on me.

“What am I to you?” Ali asked beside me. I was staring up at the patterns in the ceiling.

“Right now? You’re everything I have. The only good thing in a world Darek brought crashing down around me.”

Silence.

“Ali?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m scared.” I confessed. “In a week or so I won’t be able to stay here anymore. I can’t bring myself to contact my family. They certainly haven’t tried contacting me. I don’t know where to go. So… I’m scared.”

She shifted beside me to face me. I didn’t look at her, only played games with the ceiling. “Mat, I’ve been working these past few months. You probably didn’t know that since…. you know. But. After me and Rob broke up… he kicked me, out and I got in touch with my cousin. My job is with Google Enterprises so I can do it all from a laptop wherever I am. Anyway the two of us have been splitting rent on a place a couple hours away from here. If you want…”

“Really?” I cried, surprised by the offer.

“Really.”

“Oh Ali.” I said quietly, a whisper full of desire. “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

I scoffed. It was a beautiful, brilliant night.

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