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#they just repeatedly fake their deaths without telling him and traumatize him through that and then expect him to be chill about it
halloweentual · 3 years
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do you ever get slightly annoyed with a character choosing to be the better person. like i know it's probably more benefitial to you and everyone around you bestie but i feel like if you went a little apeshit in response to what some people did to you it'd be justified ❤️
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grain-my-beloved · 3 years
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For real though watching yhs has lead me to the conclusion that despite Grian seemingly has such an active fight instinct....most of the time he actually doesnt respond to situations with half the fight attributed to him.
When faced with a traumatic situation Grian will absolutely bare his teeth at the nearest threat. He's absolutely vitriolic towards Sam at all times without fail and has even initiated physical violence in their confrontations once or twice. He's often on edge, often quick to angry outbursts, just overall rather hostile when faced with a dangerous/frightening/harmful situation. Which definitely indicates his main response to these scenarios is to fight. Hard.
However the more I engaged with fanon the more I faltered. A lot of fanon does portray him as very hostile in the face of trouble. Which should make sense. Canonically Grian knows when to say no, when to argue, and even sometimes when to physically fight back. Any episode with Grian present will likely have examples of him pushing back against harmful situations. And yet something always feels very Off about that being the start and end of it in a lot of fanon. Which led me down an interesting line of thinking.
I honestly suspect that Grian's volatility and will to fight back isn't nearly as strong as one would believe from observing him on surface level. In fact, his on the surface hostility feels like it's borderline a facade altogether to be honest.
I mean look at examples throughout canon of Grian in distressing situations.
Yhs halloween episode. The one where Taurtis got stabbed. And the following situation where Grian is famously forced to dress up like Taurtis. Grian would later be very upset about Sam stabbing Taurtis, however his initial response was to nervously laugh and even give Sam appeasing praise. I mean, Grian says "you weren't supposed to stab him" pretty clearly, but he anxiously laughs before and afterwards and even tells Sam he's proud of him when prompted. Obviously Grian was very upset about the whole thing later on after taking Taurtis to the hospital however in the moment he's mostly silent and when he's not he's just nervously laughing throughout, even agreeing with whatever *Sam* says when he's outright prompted by name for an opinion, then when everyone else tries to play it off casually Grian actually goes along with it almost entirely, even agreeing to let Taurtis drive him home for some reason. Then, according to his own story, he had an opportunity to talk to police at the hospital and he didn't incriminate Sam. He knew they were supicious of *him* but he still didn't incriminate the actual killer. "I told them I found him like that" Grian alleged. Honestly it sounds like he didn't tell them much of *anything* before being released and making the walk back to meet Sam. The next morning Grian was significantly more vocally upset about Taurtis being stabbed and expressed being upset with Sam however he seemed significantly more anxious than he was angry throughout the interaction. Then Grian immediately pretty readily agreed to go with Sam and Yuki to school and willingly put on the Taurtis outfit before the other's even started with the threats in the name of making things 'less awkward'. He certainly objected, however he was once again a lot more anxious than angry, nervously laughing, coming up with really weak unimportant excuses, and agreeing within ten seconds of being asked. Pretty much the rest of his time dressed as Taurtis goes very similarly. He objects to most things he's told to do and brings up Sam stabbing Taurtis multiple times despite the other's not wanting him to but is primarily nervous rather than hostile and he never actuslly puts up enough resistence for it to stick. Even when the other's were stuffing plastic down his throat and he told them he thought it may kill him Grian still did it and told the other's he *liked* it when pushed. Eventually he got out of it by running on Rowan's command and no sooner than being told to get out of there. When Sam found him again Grian immediately even reverted back to doing as he was told and cowering away from him in obvious fear up until Okami and Rowan showed up and shoved Grian behind them. Then he *still went home that night* knowing Sam would be there. When they found Taurtis it was pretty clear that Grian was hoping Taurtis would help him once he got his memory back however when instructed to stop telling Taurtis who he was Grian for the most part did aside from subtle pushing about the familiarity of certain things and then later when Taurtis got his memory back and made it pretty clear he wasn't going to help Grian? Grian conceded. He spent a good few minutes arguing about everything he'd gone through- everything they both had- and insisting it wasn't okay but when Taurtis made it pretty clear he wasn't going to do anything and they collectively agreed Grian was the real problem? Grian kinda...stopped. When Taurtis made it clear he wasn't going to be helping, Grian just kinda fell back into their normal routine with the other's, and when Sam demanded an 'apology soda' from Grian for what he'd apparently done, Grian bought it for him saying "If that's what it takes for things to go back to normal".
Let's also look at Grian's involvement with the law during/shortly-after the Halloween situation. When Sam and Yuki dragged him to join the Yakuza he was upset and objected anxiously but caved as soon as he got pushback. When Sam wanted to steak from the Yakuza he once again got objections from Grian who nervously insisted that it was a terrible idea but once again Sam shoved aside Grian's complaints and once again Grian just kinda fell into place despite being upset. When the police also started threatening the trio's lives to work for them, Grian objected. He questioned if they were allowed to do that and was very openly not happy about any of it, however he very quickly submitted under pressure. Both times Grian was locked in solitary confinement he loudly protested his sanity and both times he voiced how disturbing it was on a really deep level being locked up like that but both times when he was let out he just went with the other two again and let them brush it all off- even knowing full well they let him out to be *death fodder*. He just went with them relatively quietly save for maybe a token remark or two. Honestly the large majority of this bs Grian was involved with was under physical threat and he almost always bent under it. Even down to his fight with Pie over Ellen. Pie showed up and started challenging their relationship. Sam, Taurtis, and Yuki insisted they have a knife fight. Grian said *no*. Pie said yes. Sam, Taurtis, and Yuki affirmed there would be a knife fight. Grian objects more. Everyone else present discusses how the knife fight will work. Grian gets stabbed. Grian suggests they just ask Ellen who they want to date *obviously*. Ellen chooses nobody and leaves. Grian was upset but then just kinda accepts it and goes on with what the whole group was doing before.
And just to round this out with one more example. The Starwars Cosplay Incident. Apparently Sam burst into Grian's room, undressed him, shoved him into Leia Cosplay complete with fake boobs, and locked him in the basement for three days. Grian sits there for three days until Taurtis rescues him.  Grian has a moment of being rightfully very angry and finally even tries to physically attack Sam, demanding to know if Taurtis is aware of what Sam did to him and insisting that they can't expect everything to be fine now. Except it kinda...was. Taurtis stopped Grian from attacking Sam, they both brushed it off as a joke and not a big deal, and then they went to school. And Grian just *went*. He walked with the other two, he wore the outfit Sam put him in, and he just kinda moved on. Grian would later object when the clones tried to pull him out of class, snapping that he just wants to learn and get an education like a normal person and demanding to know why he's not allowed to. But he goes! And when he's released he walks right back to Sam and Taurtis, makes some bitter remarks to them, and let's them shove it all aside as if it's unimportant. Later when it's Grian, Sam, and a member of school staff alone in the closet, some innapropriate remarks are made to Grian. He very quickly says he's reporting the remarks made by school staff but Sam tells him not to be rude and it doesn't seem Grian ever does. Later on when Geode makes a comment about Grian's outfit as well Sam and Taurtis start pondering *giving* Grian to them. Grian repeatedly said *no* but with a lot more despair than defiance and we don't even know if he'd have actually followed through with fighting back if they'd tried to actually give him away because they were interrupted before the situation got to that point. Grian once again just let the other's move on as if that didn't happen and continued following them around, though! And he wore that damn outfit he was very explicitly uncomfortable with. All day.
Which is kinda all to say that when it comes to fighting back Grian is a lot more bark than bite.
Grian throws out a lot of bitter remarks, makes his objections very apparent in most things, and even has more than one vitriolic rant to his abuser(s) throughout the series. But that layer of his responses to things is so fragile that it tends to fall away within minutes- if that, sometimes *seconds*.
Of course ive seen other people take note of this and argue that it means Grian actually *wants* to do these thingd he's objecting to but I think that's silly. If it were just things like group crime or violent acts then id possibly see it but Grian puts up the same kind of response to having plastic shoved down his throat and to being locked in the basement for days which there's no way in hell he was any kind of okay with. The more likely scenario here isn't that he secretly wanted to do any of these things and made his resistence weak so he could pretend he tried while still doing it.
The likely scenario here is that his fight response is much more for show than one would think. Because Grian's strongest most influential response to things really never seems to be to fight. Aggression is really hardly Grian's overall stance on handling a distressing situation.
Much more frequently you see the most influence coming from completely other instinctive responses.
Looking for outside help in adults, friends, and classmates like when Okami and Rowan protected him during his time dressed as Taurtis or when Grian tried desperately to get Taurtis to be on his side and help him after Sam seriously hurt him both when Taurtis first got his memory back after Halloween and when Taurtis found Grian in the basement during the Starwars Cosplay Incident, hell, even during his fight with Pie it can be argued that Grian calling for them to just ask Ellen was an appeal to outside help as he hoped Ellen would agree to end the fight and save him from the situation as a result.
Running away- or trying to at least- from the threat. Most notably seen back during the halloween incident when he quite literally ran out the back of the gym and hid from Sam+Yuki then hiding behind Okami and Rowan when they showed up in an attempt to flee from Sam which is how he got away from the other's at all during that situation. Grian's consistent need to exclaim every so often how much he wants to go back to Europe is a subtler example of this, though, of Grian's urge to get away.
Honestly though being quiet and moving as he's directed seems to be the most common winning response. You see little sparks of reaction from him but most of the time Grian is just quiet, nervously laughing, following Taurtis and Sam around in what they ask of him, and even outright appeasement strategies to maintain a calm environment. This is So common from Grian. This is what usually wins out. His quiet nervous laughter and agreeing with Sam when Taurtis is first stabbed. The fact that he didn't tell the police what Sam did when alone with them during questioning and then immediately walked to meet up with Sam and went to school with Sam+Yuki with literally no objections. The fact that he didn't say no like *at all* to putting on the Taurtis outfit in the name of not making things awkward and complied within seconds of first being asked. How he proceeded to do what he was asked all day and didn't make any move to get away until Rowan outright instructed him to run. The fact that he went back! The fact that he went along with it when they joined the Yakuza and when they stole from the Yakuza and when they joined up with the cops and when they *forced him into a knife fight*. How Grian eventually just lost his spark of defiance after Taurtis first got his memories back and made it clear he wasn't helping Grian, with Grian agreeing to buy Sam a fucking *apology soda* if it meant things would go back to normal after hearing everyone else agree that *he* was the problem in all he'd been put through. The way he just goes back to following Sam and Taurtis after they got him locked in solitary confinement on blatant lies because they *wanted* to. The way he walks around school with the other two while wearing cosplay that made him feel gross and uncomfortable that Sam had literally physically forced onto him and just went along with what he was told in the end.
Grian always puts up a fight but not a good one. He makes side comments, he makes objections, he even has more than one emotional rant about the hell he's put through, however this never wins out in the end and this presenting fight is very frequently just barely holding down much stronger freeze and fawn instincts that usually win out pretty damn quick.
Which!!! In a situation like Grian's it actually makes significantly more sense to have strong freeze and fawn responses than to have a strong fight response! I mean, think about it. A fight response is primarily useful in scenarios in which it's possible to take strong action to remove the threat. You're attacked by a dog so you throw stuff at it till it backs away. You're picked on by an upperclassman so you punch em' in the nose expecting fully that they'll leave you be after. Someone attacks you while you're walking home so you try and stab them with your key. Fighting is an incredibly good response for random/one time attacks. If you're ever kidnapped you wanna scream and punch and kick and make a scene so they can't take you to a secondary location. You fight. Fighting is optimal for unexpected stranger conflicts. That's not the situation Grian's in though. Grian suffers from serious long term physical, emotional, and financial abuse. He's in a country he doesn't have residency or family in, he doesn't have a readily available source of income, he doesn't have his own mode of transportation, it seems that most of the time he doesnt have a clear way home, he's often dealing with long term friends of his and seemingly his biggest source of support prior to this situation, even back in Europe he doesn't have much support system to run to given his parents canonically left him, he's frequently under threat of physical danger, etc. This is not the kind of situation in which an intense primary fight response helps. This is the type of situation in which an intense primary fight response either gets you seriously hurt or wandering the streets with no way to provide for yourself. It would likely be similar if he presented an intense primary flight response to be honest. In long term abuse situations where there's no rational way of escaping safely or no rational place to escape to? Often the primary responses that promote survival are fawn and freeze. Appeasing the aggressor or sinking into the background. Those are your ways to stay alive when you can't expect to 'win' or escape. It absolutely makes more sense for Grian to have primary fawn and freeze responses than a primary fight response.
But then why does he present so much hostility? What's with all the bitter remarks and the attempts to voice objections and the occasional overt insults/screaming? How does a fawn/freeze response present as fight when first pressed at?? Well fun fact, I have experience with that kind of presentation because I *was* that kind of presentation. Oh boy did I try to push strong fight responses towards my abusive father with token resistences and petty remarks even though most of the time I crumpled under the slightest pressure and spent my time ignoring the problem or dissociating or trying very hard to avoid future conflicts. You put up a token front of fight even if that's never going to be your primary response for the sake of your own mental health, really. To assure the world- and *you*- knows that you don't *want* this situation. So you can say you tried. Out of some misguided hope that your attempted bravado won't be seen through and that maybe this time they'll just stop pushing instead of calling the bluff. Which. Makes sense with Grian as well. I mean looking at the times he really truly goes off before reverting back to a more appeasing stance, most notably his rants from when Taurtis first got his memory back as well as from when he got out of the basement during the Starwars Cosplay Incident. Most of those rants were taken up by Grian loudly and passionately reiterating what he'd been through, insisting he was the victim, and calling Sam an awful person before the defiance fades out and he becomes more willing to just go about their day. It's one attempted push hoping the other parties present will vie in his favour and a reassertion that he's not okay with this and that *he* is being hurt which gives way within minutes to a much duller attitude. That's just a painfully familiar format. Adding on Grian's token objections/passive aggressive remarks to many situations that distress him and how quickly those objections give way as dismissed by others. That kind of behaviour feels strongly like an attempt to preserve your own mental wellbeing as much as possible with the knowledge that you tried to some extent and with just generally hearing out loud that you are the victim even if from yourself. Grian's behaviour just really feels like a facade of defiance to cover up general helplessness which makes a Lot of sense for the scenario. Probably more than just plain defiance would.
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august-anon · 3 years
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Lullaby of Laughter
I've been trying to edit this for days but I've been having brain fog so it's been pretty unsuccessful lol. It was written months ago though and I edited it once back then so it's probably fine? Last time I did a fic poll this got the second-most votes so it made sense to post this next.
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Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ship(s): Suki/Sokka/Zuko
Characters (lee/ler): Lee!Sokka/Ler!Suki/Zuko
Word Count: 2038 words
Summary: Sokka's a bit too restless to fall asleep, and unfortunately all his fidgeting is keeping Suki and Zuko awake. Suki decides to show Zuko just how she tires Sokka out enough to sleep.
[ao3 link]
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It was different, now.
Zuko had been worried that it would be different, that things would change. He often worried late into the night about it, if they would still like him after they all started to find peace. There was certainly something to be said about romantic bonds formed in the face of death itself, after all, and while Zuko was certain his own feelings were true, he worried about the feelings of his partners were simply in the heat of the moment.
After all, he had tried to kill them multiple times. And had their friends kidnapped, multiple times. And sent an assassin after them. And--
Zuko stopped that train of thought. Uncle Iroh had told him repeatedly how unproductive it was, and Suki and Sokka had started trying to convince him of that as well. He would begrudgingly admit that their methods were a bit more effective than his uncle’s.
But that didn’t mean Zuko’s fears had vanished.
The war was over, now. His father and Azula had been defeated, Aang had saved the world, and now Zuko was anxiously waiting on his own coronation. The heightened emotions from the battles were waning, and Zuko wasn’t yet convinced that Suki and Sokka’s feelings were not going to wane with them. It would be just his luck, wouldn’t it?
They were nothing if not persistent, though.
It was the first calm night since his father and Azula had been taken down. The past several days, everyone had been rushing around, putting out one political fire after the next, stopping battle after battle. Not everyone had gotten the memo that the war had finished. For the first time since Ember Island, the three of them were in the same building with no obligations.
Somehow, they all wound up in Zuko’s suite.
The three of them had slept in the same room before; heck, they had even slept in the same bed before, but they’d never done it alone. Team Avatar, as Sokka liked to refer to their group, was not only extremely close-knit, but also extremely traumatized. Odds were, if one person found their way into your designated sleeping area, five more weren’t far behind.
This was the first night the three of them would ever spend alone.
Zuko felt a bit out of place as he climbed into the bed, Sokka already sprawled out in the middle and Suki climbing in on the other side. Sokka had quickly made himself at home, letting his hair down and throwing off most of his clothing before climbing into the bed. Suki’d had much more decorum, but she certainly wasted no time in snuggling up in Zuko’s bed, cuddling up to Sokka’s side. They both glanced up at Zuko.
“It’s no different than any other time,” Suki said, her voice gentle.
“It’s a little different,” Zuko said.
Sokka rolled his eyes. “Can you at least have your crisis while cuddling me?” He said. “I’m cold, and I need my weirdly-warm firebender boyfriend plastered up against my side, like, yesterday.”
Zuko huffed a small laugh, steeling his nerves and sliding into the bed. Sokka stayed sprawled on his back, Suki’s arms wrapped around his waist. Not sure where to go, Zuko hesitantly mirrored her position on Sokka’s other side.
The three of them laid in silence for a while. Suki was clearly dozing in and out, though not fully asleep yet. Zuko himself felt his eyelids grow heavier and heavier, the spaces between each blink growing longer and longer. Sokka, though, seemed incapable of settling down. His eyes remained wide open between them, and he seemed incapable of controlling his fidgeting, despite how hard he seemed to be trying. After the fifth time he’d jostled them both awake, Suki sat up.
“That’s it,” she said. “Do we need to tire you out?”
Zuko immediately felt the energy in the room shift. Suddenly on edge and no longer sleepy, he carefully sat up, glancing back and forth between Suki and Sokka. Sokka had his hands raised in a placating motion, a nervous grin on his face. Suki looked downright predatory.
Zuko made a note to himself to never be in the center of the cuddle pile. He didn’t want to risk her wrath if he couldn’t hold still, either.
He couldn’t help but feel a little out of place in the situation, though. While this was a clearly practiced song and dance between Suki and Sokka, Zuko had no clue what was going on. He didn’t know why that grin was on Suki’s face, or why Sokka was blubbering incoherently, or why whatever this was would help Sokka get to sleep.
But then Suki looked over at him, her devious grin going a little softer at the edges. “Wanna help out?”
Zuko blinked. “With what?”
Suki smirked. “Sometimes, Sokka’s brain moves a little too fast for him to fall asleep--”
“I’m fine!” Sokka interrupted, deliberately snuggling back into the pillows on Zuko’s bed. “See! Totally tired.” He gave them a comically fake yawn.
Suki rolled her eyes. “So when that happens, I have a little method to help tire him out for the night.”
Zuko glanced back and forth between Suki and Sokka. “What’s the method?’
Suki grinned. “I’ll show you.”
Without any more warning, her fingers were suddenly spidering against Sokka’s bare sides. Sokka shrieked and thrashed around on the bed, but Suki didn’t let up. If anything, she tickled with more vigor, her grin growing. Sokka shied away from her fingers, shouting and pleading for mercy. Zuko’s hands twisted in his lap.
Suki looked up at him and her grin faltered. “Zuko?”
Zuko gestured awkwardly. “Are you sure that’s okay?”
Suki’s face immediately softened and she slowly reached out to him, allowing him ample time to pull away or tell her no. He did neither, and she took his hand in hers, interlacing their fingers. Zuko stared at their hands, almost with a sense of wonder.
“I know he’s playing it up a lot,” Suki said. “But he doesn’t hate it.”
“I’m right here,” Sokka said.
Suki rolled her eyes. “Then you can calm our boyfriend down, since you’re the one who worried him.”
Sokka let out a drawn-out groan, but reached out to link his fingers with Zuko’s free hand anyways. Zuko ignored the way his heart seemed to be skipping beats.
“Alright, fine,” Sokka said. “I don’t hate it.” A flush spread across his cheeks and he fidgeted a bit where he lay between them. “I kinda like it, actually. Just a little.”
Suki scoffed. “He likes it a lot, he means. I wouldn’t do it to him if he didn’t love it.”
“And all the yelling?” Zuko asked.
Sokka shrugged. “Involuntary.”
Zuko nodded. Suki gave his fingers one last squeeze before pulling away and wiggling her fingers threateningly in Sokka’s direction once more. Sokka started giggling before she even touched him, flinching away from her and raising his free hand in defense. He made no effort to pull his other hand out of Zuko’s grasp. Suki lunged.
“You wanna help out, now?” Suki asked over Sokka’s laughter, a bright grin on her face.
A smirk slowly started spreading over Zuko’s face as he stared down at Sokka. His cheeks and ears were flushed, and his eyes were crinkling at the corners from the force of his smile. His laughter shook his entire body, though it was hard to tell with the way he was thrashing around on the bed, trying to escape the fingers pinching evilly along his waistline.
“Who am I to say no to that,” Zuko replied, his smirk growing into a predatory grain when Sokka’s eyes went wide.
Slowly, Zuko used the hand he had interlaced with Sokka’s to raise Sokka’s arm above his head. Zuko’s speed was originally because of hesitance, but then he noticed how flustered it seemed to make Sokka, his thrashing and pleading growing all the more desperate. It made Zuko chuckle a little under his breath as he finally pinned Sokka’s hand to the bed above his head.
“Hey,” Zuko said, voice so low that Sokka could probably barely hear him above his own laughter. “This might tickle.”
While Suki’s fingers occupied themselves with Sokka’s stomach, sides, and hips, Zuko’s own fingers landed on Sokka’s tricep and began slowly spidering down with the lightest of touches. It proved to be very effective, with Sokka arching his back and squealing at a frequency that only flying bison could hear. His legs kicked as he whined through his laughter.
“Torture!” He yelled. “Torture!!”
Suki laughed. “Light tickles get him so bad. He’s usually too squirmy for me to be that mean.” She shot him an evil-looking smirk. “But now that you’re here and I’ve got the extra hands, we can torture him as much as we want.”
Zuko laughed, gaining confidence. He kept his fingers feather-light where they were wiggling down Sokka’s arm. Right when he was above to dive into Sokka’s armpit, Sokka’s thrashing getting more and more frantic the closer he got, he switched directions and started a slow spider back up to Sokka’s elbow. Sokka kicked his legs around at the end of the bed.
“Don’t tease!” He said through his cackling, burying his flushed face in his free hand.
“But you’re cute when I tease,” Zuko said. 
Sokka didn’t seem to have a response for that, but Zuko took mercy on him anyway. The next time Zuko made it back down Sokka’s arm, he continued into Sokka’s armpit, scratching the skin as lightly as he could with his blunt nails. It drove Sokka wild. Zuko hadn’t even realized Suki had stopped tickling at first, because Sokka was still thrashing and howling as desperately as ever.
“Are you tired, yet?” She asked Sokka.
“Yes!” Sokka cried, slapping at Zuko’s tickling hand with his free one.
Suki caught Sokka’s free hand and pinned it as well, scritching against his top rib with her nails. “Are you sure?”
“Yes! Please!”
Suki pulled back at that, so Zuko followed suit. She laughed as Sokka curled into a ball and started rubbing at his ticklish spots, trying to scrub away ghost tickles. Zuko couldn’t help his fond smile at the sight. Then, Suki grabbed his hand and leaned in for a kiss, once more giving Zuko ample time to pull away if he wanted to.
He leaned in.
Even through his breathlessness, Sokka wolf-whistled at them kissing over the top of him, and Suki giggled into the kiss. Zuko carefully kept his own smile under control, not wanting the kiss to end so soon, and brought his hand up to cup Suki’s face. He felt one of her hands run through his hair, while one of Sokka’s hands trailed up his side under his robe.
He flinched when Sokka’s fingers brushed a little too gently against his waistline, unfortunately pulling away from Suki in the process.
Sokka was grinning when Zuko opened his eyes.
“We are so exploring that later,” he said.
Zuko gave him a bashful smile, but didn’t protest. He let Sokka pull him down into a kiss, planting his hand against the mattress next to Sokka’s head for balance. The other hand went down to cup Sokka’s neck. Sokka’s hands cupped Zuko’s face, not letting him pull away until Zuko was properly blushing from the heady kiss. 
Not that Zuko would’ve been pulling away, anyway.
Suki leaned for her goodnight kiss next, and Zuko smiled as her and Sokka’s lips met. His heart felt like it was turning into liquid, warm and thick and heavy in his chest in all the best of ways. The feeling only intensified when Sokka pulled him and Suki close again, the two of them cuddling up to his chest. Suki and Sokka drifted off first, this time, leaving Zuko to admire the peaceful faces they made in their sleep.
He was sure the spiraling thoughts would find their way back to him at some point. They always seemed to after all, no matter how hard he tried. For tonight, though, Zuko let himself relax into the mattress and hold his partners close.
He was starting to feel like maybe he belonged here.
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itsbenedict · 3 years
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Two-Faced Jewel: Session 5
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A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]
Caught up in a blood feud between the villages of Wheat and Barley, Saelhen and Looseleaf are tasked with investigating a recent death. Their investigation takes them to a spooky tower owned by the local crazy torture wizard, which- hey, why was this guy not considered a suspect, huh? He's a crazy torture wizard!
Last time, the group was introduced to Malath Kanthalga, matron cleric of the village of Barley. She has no trust for outsiders- but she was willing to let Looseleaf lend a hand in proving once and for all that the scoundrels of Wheat were responsible for the recent murders.
To that end, the party is led a ways down the road to the farmstead of Roos and Gera Nicksickle, an elderly halfling couple which was recently slain.
En route, Looseleaf sizes up the farmers Malath has been arming, to see if any of them seem to have combat experience. There's one lizardfolk farmer who seems more comfortable with the armor, and holds his pitchfork like a spear. She makes a note of that.
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They arrive, and are met by Lester Jawhold, a doughy-looking human man who's standing guard over the body out in the field, accompanied by a number of vicious-looking hounds. With permission to search the crime scene, some investigationing occurs.
Saelhen gets some basic details- the body was pierced through the chest with a four-pronged weapon, as described. Plus, there are the remains of hastily-erased footprints in the dusty soil- bootprints, it seems.
Looseleaf uses her animism magic to get a more direct picture of the incident. The corpse, recently dead, has a dead-corpse spirit that retains some information thanks to the emotionally volatile nature of recent events. The cause of death... being suddenly pierced through the heart, from the front, by a strange four-pointed weapon that induced extreme pain. It appeared to strike from out of thin air. Nothing about the corpse indicates a memory of seeing an assailant.
Indoors, the other victim, Gera, is found dead on the floor of the kitchen. It seems like the cause of death is the same, but... Looseleaf's animism reveals that her vital organs are intact, and she appears to have died of shock from the extreme pain.
All Saelhen finds from searching the house is... an empty cupboard with a recently-unlocked lock, and a mattress removed from its bed. Plus some of the same bootprints from outside.
Looseleaf has the idea to search the house for the victims' boots, to compare with the prints found outside. And what the search reveals is... there are no boots. They didn't own any. They were halflings. So their house being covered in dusty bootprints... well, it implies someone else was here and murdered them, which rules out the "a weird knife sort of inexplicably teleported into their chests" theory, at least.
The only real clue they have to go on is the extreme pain experienced by the victims. This suggests...
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Malath gives a little exposition on the torture wizard- apparently he considers himself a savior, who through his experiments intends to vanquish pain itself- and surely torturing a few unwilling test subjects will be worth it, if he succeeds. Malath doesn't seem to consider it likely that Lumiere is the culprit, for the same reasons as Thalath- but jokingly suggests that perhaps Lumiere might have some information on who stole his torture tools to commit murder with.
Looseleaf: "So," Looseleaf asks, "if we're going to the tower wherein dwells a torture wizard, what can you tell us about what we might expect to face there? Ravenous horrific alchemical experiments ready to eat our faces? Traps? Magical servitors? A portal to another realm full of horrors?" Benedict I. (GM): She looks briefly surprised. "No, I... though I haven't been victim to him myself, I would warn strongly against confronting Lumiere, unless you're all much more seasoned than you look. None from our village have been able to resist him when he decided our consent was no longer worth trying to wrest from us." "Those who have been inside the tower might have more information for you, if you're fool enough to try." Looseleaf: "Well, team, you've heard the mission dossier, I guess. Do we think we're fool enough to try?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: Saelhen Fishercrown is not fool enough to try. Unfortunately, Saelhen isn't getting to be Saelhen right now. "...I imagine that we have no other recourse." Benedict I. (GM): Vayen looks... almost gleeful, insofar as his face betrays any expression. Looseleaf: Thanks for the vote of creepiness, edgelord.
Saelhen opts to kill annoying helicopters with one stone, and suggests that the team split up to gather information on the tower from the townspeople. She also suggests that Malath personally keep an eye on Vayen, as the least-trustworthy-seeming member of the group. Good persuasion means it works, and Vayen goes off to interrogate Lester Jawhold while the rest of the team heads into town to ask around about Lumiere's past victims.
First, on the way back to town, they speak with Chitch Ssarzar, the lizardfolk with the apparent military background. He's got one hell of a sob story for them!
Saelhen du Fishercrown: 24 PERSUASION (8) all i do is win Benedict I. (GM): That'll do it- Chitch is pretty horrified at the implication that you're actually trying this, but with sufficient reassurance, he'll spill his guts. He came to Grain back when it was just Grain, twenty-odd years ago, hoping to raise his infant daughter somewhere less dangerous than the Cutthroat Islands. Then, during the fire, his daughter was kidnapped by the wizard, and he tried storming the tower to get her back. He got captured, strapped to a rack, and had his flesh flensed and healed and flensed and healed repeatedly. At one point he thought he'd get a reprieve, when the wizard's teakettle went off and he went downstairs to get some tea- but the flensing knives just kept going, by themselves, without stopping. He never saw his daughter again. He was eventually released, and thanked for his service, and by that point he was too traumatized to ask Lumiere what happened to his daughter, in case it provoked him to torture him more. He's pretty wracked with guilt over the situation.
They get a rough description of the first few floors of the tower, up to the torture room. Plus, some exposition on the town's history:
Looseleaf: Okay. More questions: this time, asking about the town. It was called Grain, once? It split into two towns and now Barley hates Wheat? There was a fire? How did this all come to happen such that a single town turned in on itself? Benedict I. (GM): Yes- either 28 or 29 years ago, he forgets exactly, there was some feuding between farmers growing different crops. The ones with less fertile soil, sandier towards the southeast and closer to the mountains, had some kind of grudge against the landowners with more fertile soil, and it was this whole political infighting nightmare he didn't understand, as he was new in town. Then the dragon attacked, and... he's not entirely sure what happened, because accusations were flying left and right, but apparently some people tried to use the dragon attack as cover to commit arson against their enemies? Saelhen du Fishercrown: DRAGON Looseleaf: A FUCKING DRAGON Benedict I. (GM): And most of the town burned down, and when it came time to rebuild, nobody wanted to build near each other- and there was some sort of weird religious split between Family and Harmony so that most of the Harmony people decided to go grow wheat on the worse land, and the Family people went to go grow barley on the better land. He'd never been super involved with the split, as a newcomer, and spent the early rebuilding period being tortured- Barley was just the closest civilization after he was set free. Looseleaf: Mmmmm. A tragedy, all around, gods-damn. Saelhen du Fishercrown: caused by a dragon. a dragedy, if you will.
Then it's off to visit the innkeeper, Cassie Zeishus.
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Benedict I. (GM): When you reach the inn, you meet Cassie Zeishus, the innkeeper. She tells you about the time she visited the torture wizard to see if her husband was there. Looseleaf: Oh, yeah, you know. Just, a conjugal visit. To the torture tower. Benedict I. (GM): Apparently her husband, kind of a good-for-nothing out-of-towner she married largely as a charity case, kept on gambling and trying to sleep around and doing general sleazy vice stuff, and was miserable in a town that didn't want to indulge him- and she's pretty sure he faked getting kidnapped by the torture wizard to escape it. Saelhen du Fishercrown: as one does definitely not victim-blaming Benedict I. (GM): This was corroborated by Lumiere quite pleasantly answering the door and telling her no, he hadn't seen hide nor hair of this Arnie fellow, and would she like to come in for tea? And her saying no, no thank you, and walking away. Looseleaf: Huh. Benedict I. (GM): She doesn't know why the guy let her leave, despite a propensity for forcing people inside and torturing them in the past. She chalks it up to having been very intimidating towards him.
Saelhen also tries to inquire about Kensa, Thalath's sister, who's apparently in some sort of dire straits here. She doesn't want to give away that she's asking about Kensa deliberately, so she takes something of a garden path of conversation, about Malath and why the townsfolk call her "Mother". Eventually she gets to Kensa, who apparently weaves cloth and sells it to the general store, where she can be found around this time of day. (She's apparently got something going on with the shopkeep's son.)
Looseleaf: these affairs might not be something we can intervene constructively in. Saelhen du Fishercrown: I mean, Saelhen's definitely abducting this child Looseleaf: gosh, well, when you put it that way, how could we not. Saelhen du Fishercrown: let's visit the general store! saelhen enjoys cloth.
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At the general store, they find... not really any evidence that anything bad is going on with Kensa. She seems... fine? Also six feet tall and jacked as hell, because she's a goliath and their twelve-year-olds are just like that?
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Kensa notices Lady Noeru de la Surplus' fancy silk dress, and fangirls over it immediately.
Benedict I. (GM): "Whoa, is that silk?" "I don't know if we have any silk in the back, but-" "Silk?" the girl by the window asks. "Ohmigosh, you have a silk dress? Ohmigosh, how much did it cost?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Ah." Saelhen expected a little more resistance than this! "15 gold, when I bought it." Benedict I. (GM): "Whooooaaaa..." She's looking the dress up and down with obvious envy. "Nnnnngh, but I don't have... fifteen gold..." Looseleaf: oh my gosh she wants to buy it
Benedict I. (GM): "It's- hang on, if I get ten, will you sell it?" "I can probably get ten! And I'll throw in a replacement!" "Not silk, but-" "Uh, Mr. Teller, do you still have last week's stuff in the back?" Looseleaf: this kid's great Benedict I. (GM):"It's good, I promise!"
Saelhen, being a con artist and kind of a jerk, turns down the offer, but skillfully reframes the issue by exploiting Kensa's love of textiles to get it repaired on the cheap in exchange for a swatch or two of the fabric. Great... job...?
After interrogating the townsfolk, Looseleaf has a bright idea- she wants to buy a climbing pack to scale the tower from the outside. It costs her extra, since new stuff has to be custom-forged overnight (a remote farming village like this doesn't have much call for climbing packs), but she gets it.
Vayen comes back, with testimony from Lester. It's not much they didn't get from Chitch- just a note that apparently vegetables were chopping themselves in Lumiere's kitchen.
Looseleaf: i should get some food too maybe! anyways all this is really pointing hard to 'the four-pronged stabby painblades move on their OWN'. it's not clear who's BEHIND it, but it's pretty obvious now that all the clues point towards the stabbies being the culprit.
-
The next morning, they head out to the tower. They notice a couple things: one is a sign that reads: " KEEP SHOUTING",
and the other is a bunch of broken glass and rubble strewn across the ground. Looking up, they notice the sixth floor seems to have had a large window smashed open. Weirdly, less glass on the ground than you'd expect if it'd been smashed open from the inside.
Looseleaf's Animist class can Detect Magic, sorta, and it's pretty clear to her that the front door is magic- so rather than fall for an obvious trap, she puts her plan into action. She can jump 30 feet up with the aid of her wings, so she's able to jump straight to the third floor and try to drive a piton into the stone to drop a rope for the rest of the party.
Here is a list of problems with that plan:
Looseleaf has tiny little sticklike moth arms, which exert insufficient force to drive pitons into stone with no leverage.
Breaking a window to attach the rope to instead results in a broken window.
Inside the broken window is a spindly suit of armor covered in nasty spikes, which immediately springs to life and turns to face whoever just broke a window next to it.
Also an alarm goes off.
Looseleaf is able to get the rope secured before the living armor attacks her, and jumps back out the window- as a moth, she essentially has Feather Fall on at all times. Still, going in through that window presents a problem.
They've noticed something, though- the automaton doesn't seem to be chasing them out the window. It's just standing there, staring down at them. This... gives Looseleaf a bright idea.
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Orluthe has to make his grapple check with disadvantage, given that he's trying to snag this thing with his halberd with one hand while clinging to the side of a building by a rope, but luckily this thing botches its own roll thanks to its patented "stand perfectly still because there are no intruders in the building" maneuver.
It takes a bunch of fall damage from hitting the ground, is knocked prone, and the remainder of the party immediately unloads on it on a surprise round with crits for a bazillion damage, killing it before it can move.
This was a really good idea!
Too bad there was another one just inside, which Orluthe is now alone with!
...Wait, no, he's a giant wolfman in football armor and he suplexes the other one out the window, where the exact same thing proceeds to happen to it. Okay. Cool.
With that, the party makes their way inside. Whatever the alarm was, it seems to have died down, physically- whatever was powering it petered out. Plus, Looseleaf's magic detection means there's no way they could get caught in any traps!
Any magic traps!
Saelhen fails her perception check while walking across the room to a treasure chest and hits a tripwire and a net falls from the ceiling, trapping her and Oyobi! I bet this would be a really dangerous trap if there were, say, two menacing spiky robots bearing down on them trying to kill them while they were defenseless. As is, though... it's a minor inconvenience.
After this snafu, Saelhen tries to pick open the chest, only to find that the lock is a) quite well-made, and b) itself trapped, with a poison needle in the locking mechanism designed to go off if a lockpicking attempt fails. She just barely gets her fingers away in time, and opts to leave this treasure chest to loot later, after they're done here.
The stairs up from floor 3 seem to be blocked off by a translucent red magic barrier, so Looseleaf resumes the original plan. She stands on the windowsill of the third floor, and just flaps up to the fourth floor, looking inside and this time unlocking the window telekinetically from the inside, rather than breaking it and setting off an alarm.
When she opens the window (to the torture laboratory), some more very scary torture robots immediately go after her, as do a variety of flying knives that have quite a bit of movement speed and stab her repeatedly.
Maybe this idea had some flaws.
Next time: Looseleaf hopefully doesn't get turned into moth sashimi by animated torture implements! More dungeon is crawled! Some jerk falls down the stairs and it's hilarious!
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ginger-snaps014 · 3 years
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Because I am trying to actually post my art again. Also I need to stop watching dc shows since this is getting out of hand.
Enjoy my random OC I created after rewatching young Justice and Titans. In whatever multiverse she lives in, Greyson is still robin but older (think junior/senior in high school pre-fallout with Batman). And most members of the team are young justice versions. She is a scholarship student at Gotham Academy and is roommates with the daughter of a former ambassador’s to bealya who does not like talking about her mum (spoiler not Queen Bee).
Personality: sarcastic with trust issues galore; she tend to lean into anger and humor as a defense. Despite her parentage (presumably because she never knew her parents), she has a strong moral code despite being able to quickly befriend villains. She likes to call out the hero’s when they are being self righteous picks (especially if she is saving their butts or saving an innocent). Prickly, but overall good.
Episode one: Diamonds are not a Girls Best Friend.
Opening- one year ago
You meet Gwen in school being harassed for her scholarship status and bored as hell. Use this scene to establish personality. Next meet her bubbly roommate who starts talking about being jealous of the Wayne Scholarship dinner that will be held at the Manor, clothing etc. makes Gwen borrow a nice dress because otherwise Gwen would go in casual black jeans (which is all wrong for a cocktail event per the roommate).
Next major scene is in the limo with the other scholarship kids (only 1-3 per grade). Easter egg with atriums. Alfred and Greyson greet the kids at the door, and Greyson leads the group in a tour of the manor. During the tour near the entryway, they pass a large jewel that perfectly matches Gwen’s eyes and seems to slightly glow. Close up of Gwens schooled face looking like she saw a ghost. She asking dick about the gem as if disinterested and asking why it was in the Manor. Dick explaining someone had stole it last year from local gallery, and that Batman had just recently recovered it and handed it over to the gallery’s owner. Who in turn asked Bruce, an old friend, to secure it while the gallery’s security is being upgraded. Next scene is a vaguely uncomfortable dinner scene where Bruce has to leave within 5 minutes of being introduced to the group. He tells Dick to stay. While leaving Gwen realizes she left her phone at the table and leaves the limo to retrieve. She stares again at the jewel and tells herself “it is a coincidence.” She grabs her phone. The limo has already left. Dick finds her at the door and seems annoyed (and like he is in a rush). They call a cab and wait awkwardly in the entryway. Suddenly the windows burst. Smoke bombs and knockout gas are thrown in side. Blurry men in full tactical gear bust in as Gwen collapses. When she wakes up she tried up in a chair next to dick (also tied up and seemingly unconscious though a few panels will show his eyes partially open). Gwen struggles only to hear a familiar laugh. “Isn’t life funny, last we were all together,” motions to himself and and the stone (still in its glass case though the other masked men are trying to break in), “I killed you”. She looks up with disgust. “Missed you too sweetie”. The man lifts up his mask to reveal a teenage boy. And Gwen spits at him. Fun dialog show that they at least dated and she had something to do with the original theft. They finally get the stone and start to leave. “Oh right. lose ends” he aims a gun at her and it clicks. The barrel was empty. Laughing to himself the leader then tells one of the other men to get her up. Smiling. She is coming with us. One of the masked men speak. He sounds older and more mature. “That is an unnecessary risk. Leave her or kill her.” The leader throws a tantrum yelling that he hired the men. “Just shut up and do what you are fucking told”. Gwen has her hands tried behind her back and is forced up the stairs to the roof. She looks over her shoulder at Dick who looks asleep and cooperates.
Next Panel in the background his chair is empty. Gwen is on the roof watching a helicopter come closer. Suddenly one of the men is pulled backwards into the dark. Traditional Batman style fight with henchmen. Only the leader remains. He pulls Gwen to him and holds a knife to her throat. “Come any closer, you fucker, and I kill her!” Gwen smiles. “I’d like to see to see you try.” Suddenly she stomps on leader’s foot, and spins away unscathed. Notably, in the struggle the knife slashed Gwen but there was no blood, only blue sparks. She stands before the leader, her dress cut across the middle (clearly showing her skin … with no cuts). Leader pulls out a gun and Robin’s voice emerges from the shadows telling his to drop the gun… and likely making a joke. The leader starts firing at the shadows. We heard robin curse as if hit. Gwen jumps in and says his fight is with her. She walks slowly towards him and he fires repeatedly. The bullets bounce off with a flash of blue light. Her eyes are glowing. “You!!” He screams “It chose you!!” Gwen clocks him across the face and the leader collapses to the ground. She turns over her shoulder to ask the boy in the shadows if he is ok. He comes out. Intrigued. His leg is bleeding but he promises it was only a graze. She looks down at her dress. “Well this sucks.” Jokes about dry cleaners and coverups. Gwen mentions the Wayne ward passed out inside. And sees her cab coming towards the house. Thanks robin and jumps off the roof. We see her land and walk towards the cab.
Next scene is her getting a package early in the morning with a new dress the perfectly matches her roommates and her phone. And a joking note from robin. She see dick in a nearby classroom and asks how he is doing. He says fine but is clearly in pain. She can see some blood seeping through his pant’s leg where robin had been grazed. She says nothing. And the las scene just says “now. “ Showing robin and Gwen soaring on a roof.
Sad Origin or Juliet should have just Stayed Home: (Notably all covered in one issue as background info to avoid romanticizing pain and trauma) first thing to notice in the first panel. Gwen has brown eyes instead of the normal eerie blue). She thinks she is an orphan being raised by a loving aunt, only to have her home blown up by faulty gas lines (spoilers was not the gas lines). She ends up in the Narrows living in a group home with a hot boy (he is the leader that tried to steal the gem in the earlier episode). She is alone, without a safety net and traumatized. He starts dating her. And is a manipulative and emotionally abusive asshole. He tells her the mob has his missing birth father and will kill him if he does not get a certain stone (that just happens to be on display as of that morning in her dead AU ants gallery). The gem had been brought over by an anonymous buyer who what deemed in breach of the purchase agreement and lot rights to the gem. The aunt’s co-owner/ girlfriend had reviewed the jewel and set it up as displayed in the old 15th century painting, weird writing and all. While stealing the gem, Gwen cuts her hand as her boyfriend fucks around and reads the weird script. This accidentally starts an old ritual. After a clean get away, the boyfriend kisses her and pushes off a roof to her death. She accidentally grabs the gem while grabbing for something to safe her life. She wakes up two days later on the street where her body had landed after the fall, with blood stains in her clothing from nonexistent injuries. She feels strange and disconnected from her past as if looking at her entire history through water. She assumes it is shocks and sneaks back into the group home. She uses her aunts oversized jacket hide the blood. Her roommate try’s to get Gwen to fess up where she has been thinking it was a romantic runway. Gwen turns to go to the restroom and roommate says she likes the new contact lenses. Gwen looks up and realizes that her brown eyes have turned an unnatural blue. last panel "what the hell"
Bullet point of storyline notes:
The Halloween special issue. “Never Trust a Cat.” Gwen has her noticing Dicks Gymnastics and being forced by her roommate to go to a Halloween party. She dresses up as a cat. Roommate is kidnapped by guys in tactical gear and has something injected into her. Gwen runs after and with Dick’s help saves the roommate. Only to realize she has been injected with some neurotoxin that slowly makes her susceptible to suggestion that the JL has recently learned about. Obviously created by the light. He says the antidote is in the bat cave and he will take care of the roommate. “If you think I’m leaving her side, Dick Greyson, you are dumber than you look.” Dick tries to deflect. Gwen says fine. He awkwardly holds the roommate while racing through the street on his bike. He looks over his shoulder at Gwen who has not moved. A blue flash is in the sky. He goes through the waterfall. And administers the cure. Suddenly from behind “so this is what the bat cave looks like…. I’ll be honest. I did no expect the giant penny.”Gwen is floating in cloud of blue light that dissipates as she lands.
Batman started avoiding Gwen after only a few sessions
In the same episodes she learns her mother is alive and abandoned her for a life of crime, she learns that her aunt faked her death and left. Apparently, the aunt killed some guy that had been hitting her. He was part of the mob. “It’s not safe for you” crap.
Finds out mum is alive after seeing a picture of cat woman on the bat computer. Turns out Batman had only even given her the maybe scholarship after learning he could be her dad. He grew distant when he learned who was the dad. Oh the abandon meant issues and trust issues I mentioned above.
Turns out robin knew about her parents and had been lying to her for over year. He is also the only person to know her secret so she feel especially betrayed. Needless to say the budding relationship is crushed after their first kiss. She is pissed.
Mum is cat woman. Who had an unwanted pregnancy and gave birth under a fake name. She faked her death in a car accident. And never appeared to look back.
Gwens auburn hair is from her dads side of the family. That’s right cat woman and lex hate fucked after a successful mission. Lex doesn’t know about Gwen.
When Gwen learns who her father is and that Batman and robin have known since testing her DNA (without her consent) a few weeks after meeting her. She is pissed. So she gets drunk underage. Kidnapped by none other than her ex. He had hired Icicle Jr. to guard her. She just wants to avoid the bats at all costs and know she is off the grid. So she spends the next few hours joking with Jr and bonding.robin breaks in. As other henchmen are being beat up, Gwen asks jr if he wants to make a deal. Give me a place off the grid to crash and I will get you out of here. Screams. Jr shrugs and says the money wasn’t that good anyway. Gwen blasts the ceiling creating a hole and grabs jr to fly out. They crash at one of his hideouts and get take out. At some point a group of his friends (probably Easter eggs) come to try to get Jr to come partying. A little bit later. Gwen is at a club in central city with a bunch of villains and having the time of her life. She is flirting with one of the guys that came to Jr’s. And jr is dancing with his own man (is apparently gay in this universe go with it). Gwen is joking and being extremely vague about her “co-workers”. Suddenly green arrow and Artemis crash the party. Artemis says to put down the shot glass. Gwen stays she is just drinking and to chill (she is dealing with some shit and may not be perfectly sober). Artemis fires an arrow that breaks the glass. Small fight and Jr drags Gwen out. They arrive at the apartment laughing. A panel showing days of the week and then hanging out (video games, baseball, etc. just friend shit). Later the same friends at before some over with Jrs new man. They are all hanging out when the others start talking shop. Namely Batman has been captured and will be killed on live tv. They are laughing at how the hero’s won’t find him despite him being just a few bloating away. Gwen excuses herself. And leaves a note to jr thanking and apologizing to jr. she saves Batman. Fight scene. And tells him to never contact her again. It’s snowing when she leaves.
One of the Episodes right after robins betrayal. “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble”. Bus of kids with Gwen on it gets highjacked. Before highjacked, see a football player ruin gwens chem book. The kidnappers make their demands and decide to wait it out at there boss’s place…. Which also happens to host an illegal fighting league. The men joke that they will make someone fight. If you win the whole ransom amount we will let you go. Gwen volunteers. The men laugh. A football player volunteers and gather his friends money to place the bet. He gets knocked out in record time. The b Gwen worked on her school projects volunteers her money up so long as it gwen in the ring. The rules are simple. Step out of the ring, you lose. Get knocked out, you lose. Die, you lose. Gwen first fight is against a larger guy who comes swinging. She dodges and trips him. He lands out of the ring. She wins without throwing a punch. She sees lex in the box. She wins several rounds of increased difficulty. This includes a two on one and blockbuster. Gwen next fight is against bizaro.When he is flying she asks if that counts after stepping out of the ring. No, you have to touch the ground. Gwen does not want people to see her powers. Instead she tumble and flip jumps off the ring tops to reach the lowing rafters. She proceeds to fight and dodge bizaro before jumping on mercy greaves shoulders and asking Lexi if he could spare what he had hidden in his ring. Curious and intrigued he gives her the sliver of kryptonite, which she slide under Bizaro’s skin when she tackles his form. He collapsed in the ring. Comedic scene of her dragging her out of the ring slowly since he is so heavy but technically still awake. She removes the kryptonite as soon as his hand touches the ground outside the ring. It’s the final fight. Makes a joke how she has definitely repaid the ransoms after this this. At this point the kidnappers are impressed and joking with her. She jokes about chem book. They promise to give her 300 bucks for a new one if she beats the next guy. A cage comes down on the ring. A guy smaller than most she has fought is tried up with a hood covering his face. Kids wonder what monster could be worse than Bizaro. The announcer starts going on about this interloper trying to shut the fights down. It’s robin duh. Gwen turns to the kidnappers. “I’m supposed to fight robin. Fun” robin is half to see Gwen and tells her they just need to fake the fight for bit since KG and his other new teammate are there. Gwen says not a problem and punch the lying sidekick across the face and into the bars. She makes a cryptic joke how this will be over In a flash. Just give her five minutes. Cue fight. Robin is good at dodging. But gwen is coming for him. Crowd comments that she seems way more into this fight. Robin ends up tied up and hanging from the top of the cage like a Christmas turkey with one shoulder dislocated (but nothing permanent). He struggles and Gwen asks if he was looking for these. And pulls out his batarangs. Chaos occurs as the young hero’s make their move. An arrow is fired but Gwen blocks it with a batarang saying she still has 20 seconds on the clock. She waits as she counts down then jumps out of the ring as KF comes up. “What they hell” Gwen smirks. “We both know he deserved worse. After I didn’t cause any permanent damage.” She starts walking away. “By the way, don’t worry about taking me home with other hostages. I will find my own ride.” See her ride off on a bike. Artemis walks over to KF “isn’t that Robin’s bike”. “Yep”. Next scene Gwen in bat cave returning the bike when Alfred walks in. “I did not expect to see you here again for a while.” “I needed to return something after all. I’m not a thief.” Alfred looks at the bike and notices some stu wires. He raises an eyebrow. “You found the trackers” Gwen smiles “so will robin. I left them in some interesting places”. Alfred asks if she needs a ride home. She says she fine and has a few errands to run. A chem book to buy” “ miss Kyle, I believe most book stores will be closed at this hour.”
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nikkoliferous · 5 years
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Ragnarok Makes No Damn Sense (Part 1)
Having now laid out who Loki has always been and why there was an open agenda to demean and debase him, we come to why Thor: Ragnarok is antithetical to his character. Buckle your damn seatbelt. We've got a lot to unpack.
Off the bat, we're supposed to be appalled/annoyed/something that Loki has usurped the throne from Odin. Yet when last we left our heroes, Thor had abdicated his role as King of Asgard, knowing full well that Odin's health was failing, he was emotionally unfit to rule, and there was no other heir to fill his role. Oops! And for all that we're meant to believe in Loki's selfish ambitions for a throne, let us not forget that Loki-as-Odin at the end of The Dark World offered Thor this kingship. It was Thor who refused. What was it he said at the time? Oh, yes.
"For all his grave imbalance, Loki understood rule as I know I never will."
Now Ragnarok wants us to forget all that. It doesn't suit the narrative Taika Waititi wishes to spin. He wants us to believe that Loki is a terrible, lazy ruler who cares only about glorifying himself. But wait, is Loki a terrible ruler? The Hero™ tells us he is, so it must be so. And yet all we really know of Loki's reign is that he had a non-interventionist foreign policy, improved public infrastructure, and supported the arts. Wow, yeah, what a dick.
We will soon go on to meet Doctor Strange, a character who in comparison to Loki is a novice at magic yet somehow repeatedly manages to get the drop on the trickster. This is necessary in order to minimize Loki's power and competence in the eyes of the viewer. Let me also explain why the "I have been falling for 30 minutes" scene is not charming.
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Does anyone think perhaps Loki may have a touch of PTSD related to the sensation of falling? No? Then perhaps we should instead analyze the deleted scene in which Loki is locked in a portapotty while men repeatedly urinate on him until Thor arrives to let him out. The fact that this was an idea someone had to begin with is gross. The fact that they came close enough to using it that it was actually filmed is downright shameful. Every single person at Marvel involved in approving this trash should commit seppuku in penance.
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Ignoring the sexual assault implications here... I mean, this is literally toilet humour. Literally. What are we, five years old? Who the hell actually finds this funny?
"I keep a watch list of individuals and beings from other realms that may be a threat to this world." - Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok
So how did you miss the huge, purple nutsack wreaking havoc across the cosmos? I mean, no offense. I'm just saying.
Now we have the culmination of Odin's A+ parenting. He's at the end of his life just because he feels like it, I guess, so now it's time to pretend he gives a damn about Loki for a few seconds again. One "I love you" without even looking at him is supposed to make a millennium of emotional abuse and neglect all better or something. Even in his death, Odin can't seem to stop screwing with Loki's mind. What a charming man, I'll sure miss him.
Oh, but before he's on his way, he has a teensy weensy confession to make. Remember when he lied to you about your entire existence, Loki? LOL! He lied to Thor about being the firstborn too! And now the evil sister neither of you knew you had is coming to destroy everything and he's given you no time to plan how to stop her! Don't you feel much better now?
It's been about five minutes since we were reminded that Loki is a coward and an idiot or something, so contrary to Tom Hiddleston's own words that
"The thing with Loki is that, if he’s afraid, he won’t show it. He’s been highly trained, through the experience of his slightly traumatic life, to shield his fears."
it became necessary for Loki to immediately panic and lead Hela straight to the one place he knows she'll be most powerful. Whoops!
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The Warriors 3 are quickly dispatched by Hela because it's important we remember that the first two Thor movies were trash and nothing that ever happened in them has any meaning. By the way, Heimdall is Thor's new BFF now and Thor will never mention his former friends ever again. Ever. Like, even in passing. Like they never existed. Those people who committed literal treason for him both before and after he was banished in Thor (2011). And then again in The Dark World. Those friends.
Meanwhile, Thor and Loki have both landed on a planet called Sakaar. It's a giant trash heap and that about sums up how I feel about this whole damn movie, so credit to TW for the symbolism, I suppose. Here's possibly the most cringeworthy moment in the whole debacle—and that's a very high bar. Or low, I guess, depending on how you look at life.
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He's a Norse god... screaming, "oh my god!" I don't have enough hands for all the facepalming I feel like doing right now.
Anyhow, Loki and Thor have arrived on Sakaar separately and Thor has just noticed Loki sitting across the room, casually joking about his own suicide attempt. Because there's nothing funnier than suicide, amirite?! Especially when you still haven't sorted through any of the complex issues that led you to become suicidal to begin with. Who cares? We're just here for the lulz, yeah?
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"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Korg, I'm the director's annoying self-insert, and I'll be pissing on every poignant moment from here on out because reflection is for nerds. You just need to smile more."
Hey, remember that time in The Dark World where Loki was stuck in solitary confinement for a year and Thor didn't come to visit him even once? Now Thor is the one locked up and Loki has come to visit him almost immediately. To offer his help. To try to relate. Maybe mourn the loss of... everything together. But Thor's not interested in relating. He's interested in scapegoating Loki, because that's what this family does.
"What would you like me to say? You faked your own death, you stole the throne, stripped Odin of his power, stranded him on Earth to die, releasing the Goddess of Death.” - Thor, Thor: Ragnarok
To borrow a phrase from the late Luke Skywalker, "Amazing. Every word of what you just said is wrong."
► Loki has never faked his death. What he did is fail to die on Svartalfheim, through no fault of his own. It seems a little insane I have to defend Loki's right to not die, but here we are, I guess.
"We planned to have Loki have a redemptive death[...]We think he's wounded, but it wasn't a death blow." - Kevin Feige, The Dark World DVD extras
"Loki probably in his heart wants to be worthy, and the way he achieves his redemption—his salvation—is to ultimately sacrifice himself, for Thor and for Jane. I hope it’s a very cathartic and moving moment, by saving his brother’s life and avenging his mother’s death." - Tom Hiddleston, The Dark World DVD extras
The worst that can be said of Loki's "betrayal" of Thor at the end of The Dark World is that he failed to inform him that he had survived. And Loki had very good reasons to do so. What had Thor offered him in exchange for his help with the Dark Elves? He would return him to his cell to live out the rest of his days in complete isolation—a fate that I will just reiterate is classified as a form of psychological torture.
► Loki didn't steal the throne. As mentioned above, he offered Thor the throne. Thor said no.
► There is zero evidence beyond Thor's own assumptions that Loki stripped Odin of his powers. We are meant to believe this only because we are told that it is so. On the contrary: "It took me some time to break free of your spell," Odin tells Loki before his death. But if Odin had been stripped of his power, how then did he eventually break free? Upon examination, Thor's logic fails.
► Loki did not "strand Odin on Earth to die". He left him in a freaking retirement home where he had every expectation that Odin would be well-cared for. An argument can certainly be made that after everything Odin has done to Loki in the past, Loki was downright merciful not to kill the old man in his sleep and be done with it.
► Loki had no way of even knowing Hela existed. How is her release his fault and not, say, Odin's for dealing with all his problem children by tossing them out and throwing away the key? Or for not preparing his sons for the day they would be forced to face her?
Oh well. Now it's time for Loki Is A Coward™, Part Deux, because as I may have mentioned previously:
"The thing with Loki is that, if he’s afraid, he won’t show it. He’s been highly trained, through the experience of his slightly traumatic life, to shield his fears." - Tom Hiddleston
MINOR ENDGAME SPOILER:
Reminder also that this was Loki's reaction to the Hulk in Endgame, only minutes after being beaten to a pulp by him
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Doesn't seem particularly frightened, but what do I know?
Hey, remember back in Thor (2011) when this happened? If the Valkyrie were already legend, why did Sif need to prove herself as a female warrior?
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Shhh. You were supposed to forget about that minor detail. Now back to the butt jokes.
Now let’s take a short intermission, shall we? Because this movie blows so hard that if I put all my criticisms in one post, it’ll probably break Tumblr.
↩️ back to the compendium
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dipulb3 · 3 years
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Traumatizing details of George Floyd's death were shown at trial. Experts weigh in on who should -- and shouldn't -- see them
New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/traumatizing-details-of-george-floyds-death-were-shown-at-trial-experts-weigh-in-on-who-should-and-shouldnt-see-them/
Traumatizing details of George Floyd's death were shown at trial. Experts weigh in on who should -- and shouldn't -- see them
They were among the officers responding to a call accusing Floyd of using a fake $20 bill at convenience store.
The footage shows two perspectives of the events before and after the nine minutes and 29 seconds Chauvin and two other officers knelt on Floyd’s neck and body.
Lane’s bodycam is up-close and personal, capturing Floyd’s fear and increasing panic as he struggles with officers trying to put him into a police car: “Don’t do this to me,” he pleaded repeatedly. “I’m claustrophobic!”
Agonizingly clear are Floyd’s struggles to breathe and cries for his mother as Chauvin continues to kneel on Floyd’s neck.
Thao’s bodycam shows the panicked reactions of a growing crowd at the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue as they plead with officers to stop.
“Does he have a pulse?” yelled off-duty firefighter and certified EMT Genevieve Hansen when the officers refuse to let her examine Floyd. “Tell me what his pulse is right now!”
And then a chorus of anguished voices: “What are you doing, he’s dying!” “He’s not moving!” “Get off his neck, bro!” “He’s f**king dead!”
If you and your loved ones haven’t already, should you watch these traumatizing videos and follow the trial as it unfolds? What role might your race, ethnicity or prior experience with trauma play in your decision? If you have viewed them and are struggling with emotions, what can you do to help yourself and those you care about?
Appradab reached out to four trauma experts for their opinions: psychology professor Janet Helms, the director of the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at Boston College; Dr. Cheryl Singleton Al-Mateen, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University and medical director at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children; and clinical psychologists Michele Cosby and Leslie Kimball, who are both assistant professors of psychiatry at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children.
Here are their thoughts, edited lightly for clarity.
Leslie Kimball: For adults who have had similar traumatic experiences, I think it’s advisable not to watch the video or trial without some opportunity to get support or to talk with someone else about it — isolation is dangerous.
But everyone may be deeply disturbed by these videos — that’s our humanity, our empathy — and that’s a wonderful thing. It’s also an awful thing that we are able to put ourselves in his shoes and feel his terror and helplessness. It was clear he knew what was happening and what was about to happen. It’s secondary trauma — we are witnessing someone else’s trauma, and so we experience a form of trauma.
Be aware if you experience intrusive memories, or even flashbacks. And if you notice that starts to interfere with your daily activities — your sleep, your appetite, and certainly if you start having any unsafe thoughts about death or dying or hurting yourself — the first step is to talk with someone you trust, such as a mental health professional.
When it comes to children, parents need to be careful. We can’t protect children entirely from these realities, but we want their exposure to be developmentally appropriate. No, we would not want young children to watch these tapes, but we may want to have a conversation with them about what they may be hearing. For older children, maybe they watch a news story about it, but if an entire tape is being played, say “Hey, let’s not watch this part.”
Janet Helms: I think White people have a duty to watch the videos, because if you don’t watch as a White person, then you never know these things are happening in your name. So I think you have a duty to watch, to bear witness, to say, “This is not who I am; it’s not who you are.”
It’s a different experience for Black and Indigenous people, because they are watching similar experiences with respect to violence in their own lives every week, and so this is just building trauma, upon trauma, upon trauma for Black people.
In retraumatization, whatever symptoms were experienced the first time, are going to be aggravated a second time, and perhaps more strenuously than the first time. It’s racial PTSD, and my team has resources and a tool kit people can use at #racialtraumaisreal.
I also think even people of color did not expect to see what happened to Mr. Floyd.
Although people of color, particularly Black and Indigenous people, grow up knowing that they are likely to be victims of police violence, we don’t typically see (police) spend such a prolonged amount of time killing a person.
Watching them drain a person’s life is particularly traumatic and not being able to help or prevent that yourself adds additional trauma to the situation.
Now there’s multiple trauma, reoccurring trauma, and also the knowledge that in these situations, no matter how many people are there, Black people are essentially helpless to prevent violence against one of their own.
What I often recommend to Black people is that they recognize that they’ve been traumatized, and that they need to take care of themselves by not watching those videos over and over again, if they can avoid it.
They can choose not to be a witness to this particular incident, to try to keep it out of their minds because it’s more traumatizing to them.
I say to them, “It’s okay to get help. You don’t have to be strong in this situation. This is an inhuman situation, so seek therapy to help you get over your symptoms.” It’s really important that if they talk, they are with people who can understand the trauma, their feelings of anger and guilt — and not with someone who’s going to discard it.
Or with someone, if I may say, who’s a White person who feels bad and wants the Black person to help the White person feel better. It’s not a Black person’s job to do that, it’s the White person’s job to do that for themselves.
Dr. Cheryl Singleton Al-Mateen: Understanding some of the issues related to structural racism in America is a process. People have to appreciate that it’s there, and then understand more and more about how it impacts others as well as themselves.
If someone is really saying “Well, what’s the big deal. I don’t know why should I care,” then maybe they should watch. And if somebody feels it’s part of their journey in that process to see this, then OK. But if somebody feels like “No, I don’t want to see it because it’s going to be painful for me,” then I’d say OK with that as well.
And if someone’s curious because they want to know about it, then “Fair warning, this could be traumatic for you to watch.” But it may be something that’s necessary for some people to see to understand what is happening.
It should not be necessary for someone to watch something that’s traumatizing, because you don’t know what their personal history of trauma is. What is a necessity is to listen, understand and believe.
Michele Cosby: I would encourage any person of color to take emotional inventory of what they can handle. For me as a trauma therapist, I know I dare not watch something that is triggering for me in the middle of my workday when I may not be emotionally resourced to handle it.
I encourage Black people to seek their own support. That could be structured or professional therapy. It can also be seeking out your spiritual leader or talking to loved ones who are seeing and experiencing very similar things.
It’s vicarious trauma. By hearing stories or witnessing and feeling the pain and the fear and the terror, it’s as if you are going through the trauma yourself, because you’re bearing witness to how that was for someone else. And especially for people of color watching, it also triggers their own life experiences, dealing with generations of racial trauma.
As a Black woman, I think what is often triggering is that it makes you think of your son, your uncle, your grandfather — all those people in your life that might encounter that situation.
There isn’t a way to avoid it completely, but I think part of this is taking inventory of emotions, recognizing what your emotions are. So if I have no emotion, if I’m numb, if my life experiences I associate with this leave me hopeless — that’s something I probably need to deal with. If I’m triggered with anger or guilt or desperation, then I need to figure out how to channel that for my own healing.
As a collective, this is not new for us, so having that shared experience can be helpful if it’s being channeled in a way that doesn’t cause you to self-destruct. Because it can easily trigger sadness, depression. Anxiety and fear are based out of not having control, and what those videos show is feeling out of control.
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outinthewastes · 6 years
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Diary Part 2
A sequel to Part One, which I put up earlier this morning
April 18th
Working with Krow is... challenging. He's whiny and petulant but also overeager to please. He constantly needs to be told he's doing a good job. I've been tempted to hit him just to get him to shut up when he repeatedly asks how he's doing.
He is doing an okay job, but good god man. Good god, shut up. I am not your father figure or friend or lover or whatever it is he wants from me. Get your validation elsewhere.
It's especially hard to not become violent when he gets on the topic of women. I wouldn't call myself a feminist, but jesus lord, just listening to him is really swaying me to the cause. Disgusting little wretched man. He's in here for good reason.
He thinks I'm going to help him escape, too.
I don't know what I'm going to do when the time comes, but there's no way I could, in good conscience, allow him to escape with me. I may have to do something drastic.
Somehow I don't think Jacob will disagree.
Well, I've got time to consider this. It's going to take us a while more to collect enough stuff for this. I am not, by nature, a patient man, but I will have to just deal with it.
June 20th
It has taken, seemingly, a lifetime to finally assemble enough packages for this operation. An agonizing process slowed by the fact that we only get a few hours of free time a day, and the guards are constantly flipping random cells for contraband. I almost got caught a few times.
Someone carved this scary looking face into the wall behind my pillow long before I got here. So, I slowly chipped away at it myself until the drywall came loose. Behind that I carved another small hole. Not very big, but big enough to hide things. And the little mouth shaped drywall I could place back and no one could hardly tell what I'd done. Not without really looking it over. And the guards aren't THAT thorough.
Almost ready.
July 5th
We've planted the packages at key points throughout the facility. Well. the parts we have access to.
Tonight's the night.
July 7th
A lot went down yesterday. Where to even start.
Jacob betrayed me. Sold me out. Good thing I never fully let him in on the plans, so he didn't know where all the bombs were. Never fully trusted him, anyway. Still, hate to have that distrust validated.
I didn't expect Phineas to come through at all. I hate the idea of owing him anything. I hope I never see him again.
Krow's dead. Big loss. Was still a bit traumatizing to see. He probably deserved it, but... I don't know. I think the thing that bothered me the most about Krow was how similar we were. We both had the same fucked up childhood. Isolated, domineering mothers, unpopular in school. Maybe he was just born broken or something, though. It would never have occurred to me to hurt anyone. Not like that. I guess I should stop thinking about it. If only I could...
The man who rescued us. I knew him. He was that agent that hassled me in my lab. before. Before... That thing I did. I thought he was a government agent. But apparently not.
We've flown out to Virginia. I would like to crawl into a nice bed and sleep for a week. but first I would like to have a shower that lasts about two days.
July 14th
Met with intimidating smoke man's boss. Smoke man's name is Abel. Boss's name is Thanatos. No, really.
My grandfather. They didn't want me, they want my grandfather. Like I fucking know anything about the dude. But they want to sneak me into Chicago to see him. I guess they think he'll see me and do as they say out of familial nostalgia? Heh, wrong family for that, man. If he gave a shit about me at all he wouldn't have left me alone all those years with Gloria. Wouldn't have ruined the family name by being a big psycho. Well, whatever, they're paying me enough. It's just one night out of my life. He's probably not even alive anymore. How could he possibly be?
Oh!
Most importantly. I can't believe it. I saw Laurence. He was sitting outside the building when I finished up my meeting.  Was he just there by coincidence or was he waiting for me? It was interesting talking to him again. We fell back into the same kinda... roles. the same brotherly bond. Joking and teasing. Talking about movies and music. We didn't really talk at all about what we'd been doing these past decades. It was like we didn't need to. We're just in tune with each other.
This is the best I've felt in a very long time.
We went to a close by diner. He had some big nasty sandwich and I had a big plate of fries and he made fun of how I eat and it was just so nice. I really missed him. I knew I did, but I didn't realize how much. It was like there was a part of me missing for a long time. I think things are looking up! Surprisingly enough! He works for Thanatos. Maybe all this shit was almost worth it... heh. Nah. That's crazy.
We exchanged numbers. I'll have to call him when I get back in town.
July 19th
I don't know.
I don't know what to think.
August 22nd
I mean where do I even...
Opa was alive. Sort of. I think he did something to himself so he wouldn't die in that place. I don't think he's human anymore. That city was awful. Caked with fungus. Moist and slimy, shit floating in the air. Hard to breathe through that mask.
And Orville. The things he did. He made me do.
I don't even know what to write about any of it. I don't know who to talk to. No one would understand. Those kids. They were just kids. Why would he make me do that? Every time I think about them I'm just flooded with all these intense memories. They aren't mine. And I can't make sense of them. They're just rattling around in my head contradicting each other and I really shouldn't know what it's like to have a period or learn to drive stick or grow up black or have sex with a man... or all these things. And I still don't because I can't process these memories!! It's like a movie I'm watching but I can't look away and also I'm IN IT but NOT IN IT, and the more I try to think about it the more I feel horrible and wrong and if I don't stop I'm going to throw up some more and I've been doing that enough today. And APPARENTLY I'm not real, I mean, like, everything in my life is just weird fake bullshit, grown in a lab, my entire destiny guided by a madman. I don't know!!
I wish I could still drink. Would it really be so bad? I could just... one time. Or perhaps some weed would be the better choice. It might make it worse, though... Aghfffk
Thanatos and Abel can go to hell. I don't care how much they paid me. It wasn't worth it. One last meeting and they can fuck off forever.
I feel ruined.
August 24th
Got the meeting over with. Got the rest of my payment. Look who's a millionaire now, it's this boy. Well. I was already one. But. Now I'm double one. ha ha. Whatever.
I don't feel as bad today as I did yesterday, but I'm still pretty pissed off about his whole rotten year. Met an interesting girl. More on that later.
In lieu of my grandfather they're now targeting some guy I don't know at all, so I'm off the hook. Although...
Opa said something about that man being responsible for my father's death. Which is intriguing. I'd always assumed my mother drove him to kill himself. She almost drove me there a few times, so, you know, it fit. But.
So now I can't stop thinking about this guy. I'm obsessing. I know, it's stupid. I should let it go. But I can't.
Oh.
Laurence screamed at me. I forgot how mad he gets... Can't say I didn't deserve it...
We were at his house. We did actually do the catching up thing this time. Everything about this time felt weirder, awkward. He seemed testy at me from the start. Now I know why. He found out about Janet and me. His sister. He thinks I abandoned my kid, Janet abandoned ME. But I don't want to argue with him about it... But she's the one who left...
Now I'm definitely feeling that decade long gulf between us. Sucks.
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Background
Toby grew up with several mental disorders during his childhood, making it difficult for him to fit in with "normal people". He was constantly bullied by his classmates for his tics and was ultimately deemed unsuited for a public school surrounding, so he switched to homeschooling. While he received plenty of support from his mother and older sister Lyra, his father was nothing but a negative influence on his son. Having lost himself to alcohol, drugs and gambling, Toby's father became increasingly abusive towards his family, especially Toby.
When Toby was seventeen, he and his sister were involved in a tragic car accident that resulted in Lyra's death. Toby's symptoms worsened greatly because of this; he lost his appetite for food, became even less social than before, and slowly began to lose his memories. On the night he returned from the hospital, Toby saw the Slender Man watching him from the street. Slender Man repeatedly stalked Toby wherever he went throughout the following weeks, causing Toby to have several visual and auditory hallucinations. Concerned for her own son's safety, Toby's mother brings him to a psychiatrist to help him cope with his post-traumatic stress disorder.
The next day Toby dreams of his sister's corpse followed by an attack by the Slender Man. As Toby walked down the stairs, he began hearing voices telling him to kill his father. He eventually couldn't ignore the voices anymore and has a complete mental breakdown. After a brief struggle with his father, Toby gained the upper hand violently stabbed his father in front of his mother. In a desperate attempt to escape the police, he set the neighborhood on fire as a distraction, but was quickly surrounded by the flames. Just as he was about give into his inevitable death, the Slender Man teleports in front of him and saves him. Two weeks later, Toby's mother listened to a news story about the murders of several teenagers. The main suspect is Toby due to one of his hatchet's being found at the crime scene. This marked the moment Toby officially became a Proxy of Slender Man.
Personality
Though Toby usually has an up-beat and hyper personality, he can be very sarcastic at times and he will sometimes lose control of his emotions due to his bipolar disorder. He can change from being very emotional to being angry or happy in an instant, making it very difficult to talk to him at times. Despite this, he can be friendly to certain people and he is a natural born trouble-maker.
Problems with the community
Masky, Hoodie, and Toby
Brian Thomas (Actor Brian Haight)
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Be aware this section contains spoilers:
This is a point of confusion in the mythos that often is question without truly understand who Masky and Hoodie are. Ticci-Toby is, in his own story, a proxy. Masky and Hoodie, however, are not proxies, and have never come into contact with Slender Man. The main antagonist of MarbleHornets is The Operator, a similar character to Slender Man with several fundamental aspects altered. The Operator does not use proxies, and neither Masky nor Hoodie are ever seen trying to help it. The opposite is true, actually, as they are constantly trying to impede Alex, who is also trying to destroy The Operator, but through a different method than they are.
Additionally, Hoodie and Masky are the alternate personas of Brian Thomas and Tim Wright. By the end of MarbleHornets, Brian is dead, and Tim has cast off his personality shifts. Neither have had control of their shifts, do not show any ability to remember what has happened, and Tim specifically does everything both as Masky and as himself to stop The Operator the best he can. By the end of the series, Tim and Hoodie were enemies, and Hoodie was ultimately killed by Tim and then revealed to be Brian.
Ticci-Toby has never existed in the MarbleHornets universe, and therefore would never interact with either Tim Wright nor Brian Thomas. Furthermore, Masky and Hoodie are typically depicted as individuals with a similar build to Toby, which is false as both are bulkier men with a heavier set. Finally, MarbleHornets states it exists in its own continuity, meaning it would be impossible for Ticci-Toby to meet either Brian or Tim, let alone the fact that Brian is dead and Tim is missing.
One other piece of confusion is part of the Creepypasta World theory, which stipulates all creepypasta characters actually exist in one singular universe. While most creepypasta authors do not accept this, Brian and Tim still wouldn't be part of it even if it were true. This is because Hoody and Masky are not creepypasta. By definition, a creepypasta is essentially an internet horror story, whereas Hoody and Masky were characters created for a YouTube show. They were never written in a story prior to this, and are copyrighted characters just like Toby, so they cannot be written without permission from Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage, and Tim Sutton. Any creepypasta stories involving Brian and Hoody are not only non-canon, but totally fake, just like any spinoff creepypasta of Ticci-Toby.
Is Toby Canon?
This is a point of confusion for most people in the Toby fandom, which mainly stems from confusion as to how Slender Man canon works.
A Slender Man story is typically regarded as canon or not on an individual basis, but as a mythos overall, stories that are canon are typically only accepted as canon once the mythos has come to accept it as either a fundamental aspect of the Slender Man, or the world Slender Man embodies. Furthermore, most works involving characters interacting with Slender Man often have very limited storytelling, and quickly die out. From a surgist point of view, Toby would be an unacceptable part of the mythos, as Surgists do not tend to believe in the concept of proxies as a canon aspect.
One major problem is that Slender Man is attributed under a creative commons, allowing for use of him in everything save for commercial products that are released without the permission of Eric "Victor Surge" Knudsen. Ticci-Toby, however is a copyrighted character belonging to Kastoway, who used Toby in only one story and has distanced himself from his creation altogether. As such, Toby is a dropped concept, and is non-canon. He exists in only one story and will not be used in any further stories.
Kastoway and his creation
On the Ticci-Toby Deviantart page created by author Kastoway, comments have been disabled.
On Friday, December 14th, 2014, Kastoway wrote the following after a series of arguments regarding Toby being shipped with other Creepypasta characters. The post was titled "Creepypasta Fandom, Please Read"
Hello guys,Due to recent events I feel the need to clarify a few things.A lot of people really have been white knighting for me, which I understand is in attempt to help me out and defend me in a situation in which I wouldn't defend myself but you really don't need to do that.I know in the past I have asked people not to draw or write anything involving Toby which featured him being shipped with anyone other than Clockwork but I know now that it's really pointless to ask something like that.A lot of people have respected what I am and am not comfortable with and some people haven't. That's fine, I don't really find it to be important anymore, it's really just not worth the effort in trying to fight back against stuff like that and I guess I really just don't care much anymore.I'm done with the Creepypasta fandom. I've been done with it for a while and with Toby's copyrights in place I plan on not looking back on it or bothering with it unless it involves legal violation of copyright.Please don't feel inclined to defend me against people shipping Toby with other characters or OCs or anything like that, it's fine. And not to mention people are getting hurt because some others tend to take it too far.Bashing on someone's OC is a big nono. Please do not do that it's very hurtful towards the creator.Bashing and Constructive criticism are two very different things and have two very different outcomes.I never wanted to ultimately hurt anyone, I just thought that in the past that by putting up boundaries with my character I'd feel more comfortable with my place in the fandom but I was wrong and I am 100% not afraid to admit that.This is my fault. It is and I am truly sorry that I caused so much trouble, please know that it wasn't intended.From this point on please don't attack anyone about shipping with Toby or anything like that.Just leave it be, okay?And to anyone who has been hurt in the process please know that I truly am sorry. The fact that one little thing went against something I didn't like doesn't mean that it's right for you to be hurt, and I truly hope that everything gets better for you.I wasn't prepared for my character to become popular on the internet. I really wasn't.I never thought it would happen and I'm still not good at dealing with it. In fact I suck at it, it's true.Anyone who dislikes me has one reason or another to feel that way about me and that's fine. As I've said before I don't ask anyone to think of me any certain way so hate me if that's what you feel, just know that I'm sorry for what I've done and if I've ever done anything to personally offend you or anything like that and you'd like to confront me about it please do so so that I can apologize to you directly, because I want you all to understand that I'm not just playing nice, I mean it when I say I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused.I don't want to come on Deviantart and worry about people hating me. I don't want to start or continue conflicts, I just want it all to be water under the bridge.So all and all--Thank you and I'm sorry. I really am.
Kastoway has tended to refuse to answer questions regarding Ticci-Toby, with reasoning not being directly cited, but possibly being due to receiving the same questions over and over, and possibly in response to any flame wars that happened due to the above post.
The Slender Man Connection (SMC) wiki has hosted an article regarding Toby since May 2014, and has repeatedly had to delete or redact comments worshiping Toby. These include worshiping Toby's aspects, wanting to be in a relationship with Toby, believing Toby to be real or, at the very least, based on a real person, wishing to be in a romantic relationship with Toby, idolizing his murderous behavior, and a myriad of other problems. On April 29th, 2016, Kastoway wrote the following on a blog post on Deviantart titled "What the F---". The beginning portion of the blog was added after Kastoway had posted a comment on this wiki which will be posted after this blog.
EDIT:// Hey guys, sorry again for how hostile I sounded in this journal, I usually try not to use such a large amount of cursing and stuff like that, I was in a really infuriated state so I let all of that slip. ANYWAY the mods on the wiki have featured my comment as a discussion and edited to wiki in order to give the issue some recognition, which I am incredibly thankful for! Hopefully that helps cut this crap down, although I know there will always be those hard-headed people who will refuse to accept the fact that he's not real. Anyways, sorry about that. I'd like to go back to avoiding the subject of Ticci-Toby from here on out.Thanks guysI know I said I'd like to avoid this topic to the best of my ability but I feel like straight up pointing this out because I have no tolerance for this asinine bulls---. Sure it's all fun and games until another person gets hurt because some crazy f---ed up kid thinks they're gonna please some made up f---ing character by harming someone else again.The comments on this are absolutely ridiculous.I'm saying this here and now, and I'm going to make a comment there linking back to this journal so people know that I'm the actual person who wrote the god damn story: Ticci-Toby is 100% fictional, he is made up, I am f---ing positive because I made him up. His sole purpose was for my entertainment because I like horror and I wanted to create a scary story that ended up actually getting unexpected amounts of attention. He is not real, he not based off of a real person or an urban legend, you have not seen him with your own eyes because he is FAKE. Do NOT take this and make another f---ing sick move like those girls who stabbed their friend over Slenderman, do not do this to me, do not do this to anyone. Claiming that he's real is taking an imaginary thing meant to do nothing but take the form of a scary story for entertainment purposes and making it a real life issue that actually affects real life people. I'm horrified to see people say this, I don't know what I'd do if this were the cause of something awful because of some f---ed up prepubescent s---head hurting someone over something I made.I know I sound aggressive and rude but that's because I am furious. I am not going to take lightly to this subject, I'm not playing games, this is an issue and I'm not going to sit back and let people take something made up to a harmful realistic magnitude.To the people who think that Ticci-Toby or any horror character, creepy pasta or not is real; get your f---ing head on straight, don't be a god damn idiot.
(Minimally edited to censor curses, Original blog link above, can be read uncensored on Deviantart)
In response, Kastoway also posted the following under the username "Bonejags" on the comment section of this article (Link to uncensored comment):
I cannot believe the bulls--- that I am seeing in these comments. I cannot believe that there is an actual debate over whether or not Ticci-Toby is real. I made this account to announce that no, he is not real. How do I know? Because I'm the one who made him the hell up. I'm Kastoway from deviantart, the one that's credited in the wiki for writing the story. If you don't believe me here's a link to a journal about this subject that's on my account
http://kastoway.deviantart.com/journal/What-the-f----599845215
So, once again, I'm going to say it. Ticci-Toby is 100% FICTIONAL. As in he is NOT REAL. So no, to those saying that they've seen him with their own eyes, you haven't, there's nothing to see because he doesn't exist. He's not based on a real person nor an urban legend, he is a character I made up because I wanted to write a scary story for my own entertainment. I had no clue that it would get this amount of attention, and that's why handling the subject has been so rough for me.I apologize if I sound harsh but I have no tolerance for this bulls---. The amount of people who think that he's real is absolutely obscene, and I can't bare to think that another incident similar to the Slenderman Stabbings is possible because of something I created for fun. Please do not let that happen and take this seriously. It's one thing to enjoy a horror story, it's another thing to get joy from thinking that fictional psychopaths are real and that you're able to interact with them. They're fake and quite frankly I don't care how hearing that affects you, if you're heartbroken to hear that a crazy f---ing murderer isn't real then there is something wrong with and what you need is help and a taste of reality.
(Edited minimally to censor curses. Original unedited comment link above, and will remain unedited for record).
Since then, all comments regarding worshiping Toby or trying to imply he is real have been either heavily edited or deleted entirely. Kastoway himself does not wish to speak about Ticci-Toby further.
UPDATE: For some time, Kastoway's Deviangtart Blogs have been 404ed, possibly indicating they were deleted by Kastoway, but for unknown reasons. Unfortunately, the only current evidence of their existence is the above transcripts of the blogs.
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busines303-blog · 5 years
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These are the very best deaths in the 'Scream' franchise
New Post has been published on https://howtobuyfranchises.com/must-see/these-are-the-very-best-deaths-in-the-scream-franchise/
These are the very best deaths in the 'Scream' franchise
Just out here raving about my actual favorite scary movie.
Image: Mashable composite; Dimension Films
Excuse the morbidity of what I’m about to say — and if you hate slasher flicks and/or spoilers, you may want to stop reading now — but I love, love, love the Scream franchise. 
My feelings ring true for all slasher films — even if they’re bad, which a lot of them are — but there’s something extra-wonderful about the Scream movies. The cast, the fashion, the music, the unbridled dedication to reviving the genre … it’s the epitome of quintessential ’90s campiness.
All four films thrive by playing tension-heavy guessing games that vary from who will die next to the identity of the serial killer dubbed Ghostface. Yet there are moments of tangible satire, introspection, and pop culture reflectiveness amid the bloody horror. 
Scream creators Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson are often (correctly) credited for spearheading a revolution. They constructed an iconic set of films that continue to impact viewers and directors, ranging from 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer to 2017’s Happy Death Day, another college-based slasher, but with a time loop conundrum. 
SEE ALSO: The best horror comedies for the easily spooked
The first three Scream films were released between 1996 and 2000 and were marketed as a trilogy, but fans craved a continuation. In April 2011, Scream 4 premiered to mediocre reviews and featured the return of surviving protagonists Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox).
On the eighth anniversary of the franchise’s final film (so far), I looked back at what it does best and how. What’s a slasher movie without some weird innovation? These 15 deaths are ranked by their gruesomeness, sure, but also because they’re ridiculously over the top, a Scream specialty.
15. Tom Prinze (Matt Keeslar), Scream 3
Cause of death: Blown up by a gas leak explosion
The weapon of choice in every Scream film is usually a knife. That’s why Tom’s fiery death stands out. 
Tom, Angelina, Jennifer are hanging out at Jennifer’s house, mourning the canceled production of the film they were supposed to star in, Stab 3. Ex-cop Dewey and journalist Gale are there, too. Ghostface starts sending threatening faxes (what is this, the year 2000??) taunting them about who will die next and hinting that he’s inside the house. Everyone runs outside. But the faxes keep coming, so Tom runs back inside to find out if they reveal the possible victim’s name. Before you know it, boom! The house goes up in flames, as does a naive Tom. 
14. Cotton Weary (Liev Schrieber), Scream 3
Cause of death: Stabbed, stabbed, and stabbed again
Cotton has been around since the first film, but he emerged as a likable character whenhe saved Sidney and Gale’s lives in Scream 2. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive longer than Scream 3’s opening scene. At least he got his final wish and became a popular TV show host. 
The killer calls him and pretends to be a huge fan before admitting he’s about to kill Cotton’s girlfriend, Christine, which he does. Then he chases Cotton around the house before finally gutting him. The killer even uses a voice modulator to bid Cotton goodbye in his own voice. Dark, yes, but remember — this list rewards innovation. 
13. Olivia Morris (Marielle Jaffe), Scream 4
Cause of death: Stabbed, pushed through window for dramatic effect
The only Scream 4 death on this list, Olivia’s packs quite a punch. It’s the first time Ghostface doesn’t directly contact his victim, instead going through her BFF’s Jill and Kirby.
Jill is on the phone with Olivia, who lives in the opposite house, when the killer calls Kirby and hints that he’s hiding in the closet. After some slow-paced confirmation that he’s not, Kirby realizes Ghostface is hiding in Olivia’s closet. Then they witness their friend being bludgeoned. Ghostface is more show, less tell — so he shoves his victim out the window for her friends to see it happen up close. 
12. Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy), Scream 3
Cause of death: Stabbed in a scene straight out of an obvious trope
Sarah’s death is on the list not just because of how it happened, but because of what lead to it. She gets a call from director Roman to come to the studio to run lines. Once there, she realizes Ghostface used a voice modulator to trick her, and now she has to hide in the costume department. Somehow the killer is already there and then she’s stabbed. Okay. 
But this ordeal matters, because it turns out — spoiler alert — Roman is Ghostface in Scream 3, and the answer was right there all along.
11. Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey), Scream 3
Cause of death: Stabbed and fallen through a mirror 
This scene is on the list because of how fun & nonsensical it is. Let me explain. 
Jennifer ends up behind these mirrors and sees Dewey and Gale in the room, even if they don’t see her. She pounds for help while the killer stabs her, but all they see are the mirrors moving. Dewey starts shooting at them one by one; a dead Jennifer falls through. What matter is that Ghostface has vanished with the skills of a magician, despite standing right there in the previous scene. 
A continuity error elevated Jennifer Jolie’s death. She would’ve probably approved if she were alive. 
10. Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), Scream
Cause of death: Stabbed with an umbrella, gunshot to the head
Billy was the main killer in the firstmovie — he was aided by Stu, but we’re getting there in a minute — so naturally his death had to make an impact in the larger Scream universe. 
First, he faked dying in front of girlfriend Sidney to put aside any suspicion. He returned and revealed his true nature with the now-epic line, “We all go mad sometimes.” Sidney stabs him with an umbrella and it weakens him, he’s then shot by Gale and everyone thinks he’s done for — but surprise, he’s not, so Sidney puts a final bullet through his head. 
Billy’s death established the notion that the killer possesses superhuman strength and won’t be easy to kill. This trend carried on for all films. 
9. Phil Stevens (Omar Epps), Scream 2
Cause of death: Stabbed through a bathroom stall 
Phil is the first Scream 2 death. Ghostface kills him when he’s in the bathroom by hiding in the next stall and luring him into listening through the door as he makes … odd sounds. Gross and sad but also, there’s a lesson in there: Don’t be a creep! 
8. Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler), Scream
Cause of death: Stabbed but in a classic way
There’s nothing wrong with using tropes to full effect. In the first Scream, after a bunch of murders take place, Principal Himbry suspends classes and enforces a curfew. He’s the only one hanging around school besides the janitor, for some reason. 
Fonzie Himbry gets a hunch that someone is following him, but after a few rounds, shrugs at the idea. If only. The killer is hiding behind his door and lunges at Himbry, stabbing him to death. His body is then hung in the football field for all to see. Yikes.
7. Casey “Cici” Cooper (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Scream 2
Cause of death: Thrown off a roof
I’m scared of heights, so Cici’s death is personally hard to watch. Girl is straight up thrown from a roof in dramatic fashion.
The entire dorm is at a party and Cici is designated to be the one who stays indoors in case anyone needs assistance or a ride. It also makes her the perfect bait. The killer calls her with his trademark “What’s your favorite scary movie?” phone call. She’s almost makes it out of the house before Ghostface chases her up to the roof. And then, as shown in the gif above, splat!  
6. Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), Scream 2
Cause of death: Stabbed extremely repeatedly, throat slit 
Randy’s demise was unexpectedly sad. One of the leads from the original, he didn’t survive the sequel, which is a twist Randy himself predicted, as we know from the video of his found in Scream 3. I told you, these movies get meta. 
Ghostface [in this case, Mrs. Loomis] keeps him occupied by being on the phone. It’s funny because they’re discussing famous murderers when she snatches him into the van in broad daylight in the middle of campus. The goddamn confidence! Randy’s famous last words were, “Manson, Bundy, OJ?”
5. Derek Feldman (Jerry O’Connell), Scream 2
Cause of death: Bound and shot.
Sidney’s boyfriend gets a biblically symbolic death. It’s traumatic, yes, but what’s funny about this scene is it hinges on the killer knowing that when he follows Sidney, she’ll run straight to the theater. We knew Ghostface is weirdly strong, but now, he/she is also omniscient. A deadly combo, especially for Derek. 
To torture Sidney, who falsely believed her boyfriend might be the killer, one of the actual killers brings out a captured Derek and delivers the final blow to the heart. 
4. Maureen Evans (Jada Pinkett Smith), Scream 2
Cause of death: Stabbed, dies in front of an entire movie theater full of morons
Oh, Maureen, we lost you too soon. After pointing out that slasher movie heroines sometimes act silly, she is stabbed by Ghostface right in her movie seat. 
It’s a fairly simple kill, but, along with Pinkett Smith’s guttural scream, the reason it’s so high on the list is for the killer’s boldness. Ghostface is sure that even if Maureen calls for help, it’ll be useless. Everyone around her is loudly enjoying the movie-within-the-movie Stab, based on the events of Scream 1. 
3. Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), Scream
Cause of death: Television dumped on the head.
In the final fight between Billy and Stu, the two serial killers of this film, Sidney overpowers the latter after he’s already been slashed. She then electrocutes him by ditching a TV, a.k.a. one hell of a makeshift weapon, on him. She made do with what she had, and it really made Stu’s death stand out. 
2. Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan), Scream
Cause of death: Neck broken/electrocution by garage door
Listen, Ghostface *tried* to kill Tatum by stabbing her, but she was a fighter. A damn good one. She even got to throw beer bottles at him. But then she thought it’d be wise to escape through a minuscule cat flap. 
The killer doesn’t have to do much besides letting the garage door and the lighting above do the job for him. It’s definitely an appalling, unexpectedly madcap method of killing someone, which is why it’s the runner-up of this list. 
1. Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), Scream
Cause of death: Stabbed through the heart
Barrymore’s finest performance (sorry,Santa Clarita Diet!) cemented Scream with an opening scene for the books. 
Ghostface’s first on-screen kill, Casey is tormented with the “What’s your favorite scary movie?” phone call, followed by a game to save her boyfriend’s life. She has to watch him die before getting killed herself, left hanging with her organs inside out. 
The first film made a statement by killing off its biggest star within the first 10 minutes. It’s been a twisted journey ever since. 
With revivals, sequels, and reboots the latest Hollywood trend, maybe there’s hope we’ll get a Scream 5. In the meantime, we’ll just be here rewatching our (I’m assuming it’s collective because who can’t not enjoy Scream?) favorite scary movie. 
WATCH: ‘Us’ stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke put their horror movie knowledge to the test
Read more: http://mashable.com/
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an-escapism-blog · 7 years
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SALVATION
“Where are you?! Stop hiding!” He said out loud. I was in a cabinet hiding as silently as possible. My heart was racing and I was having a hard time catching my breath. I didn’t know how it ended up like this. I didn’t expect to be so caught up in this. I just wanted some money. Sigh, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this mess, so here is my story.
My name is Finn. I am a poor 24 year-old house painter. I guess I’m not really satisfied with my job. Anyway, I was hired yesterday to paint this old gigantic house near the street. This house was owned by some rich woman who wanted her house to look more modern and all that since it looked old and crappy. To be honest, it looked really hideous from the outside. Anyway, I should probably stop judging her house since she’s paying me a lot. So, I stopped by and she greeted me. She was nice, I think. She got all the materials and the paint and then asked me to first paint the left side which by the way, faced her neighbour’s house very immensely. She then continued to tell me that she was going out quickly to buy food for dinner. So she locked all the doors, let some house painter she didn’t knew outside her house, and left.
I climbed the ladder, and then started to paint. While I was painting, I could see through the neighbour’s window and I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was a man filled with blood on his clothes. His face wasn’t visible and he just wasn’t moving anymore. I felt sick to my stomach and it was the first time I saw this much death in a room. It was terrifying so I quickly went down the ladder and got my phone. I immediately called the police and waited for about 10-15 minutes. While waiting, I quickly climbed up the ladder and checked if the corpse was still there, but the curtains were closed!
The police arrived, knocked on the door, and then someone faced us. It was a tall man with a beard and it was pretty noticeable that he was puzzled by the presence of the police. He told us that his name was Luke. The officer told him that he was going to search the whole place to find a corpse and the man was surprised as to what he has heard. I told him that I saw a dead body while I was painting right beside his house, specifically in the living room. Luke was becoming a bit angry so he told the officer that he couldn’t care less if they search the whole house. He also told them that his brother would be coming soon so they should just talk to his brother instead of him. He was frustrated so he told us not to disturb him since he was going to relax and listen to music. And just like that he went upstairs to his room.
There were six rooms in the house in general. The police searched every room from corner to furniture. Every part of this house was inspected and even I joined in searching where the dead body could have been hidden. Night time was arriving and unfortunately we could not find it anywhere. The police were doubting my accusations at this point but something within me tells that beneath these walls lies a dark mystery.
The other brother finally arrived and he introduced himself as Brooke. I was immediately amazed at how much they resembled each other. Maybe they were twins, I don’t know, I really should focus on the situation here. He told us that there were only two people living in this house which was him and his brother, Luke. The police asked Brooke if they could search the room upstairs which was the last room to be inspected. We went to the room and began to look. Luke was silently lying in bed with his eyes closed listening to an unknown artist. I guess this is what he meant when he said he was going to “relax.”
I could tell that he really was unbothered while we were searching. The officer looked at the window of this room only to find out that there was a large tree in the back of this house. The officer ordered the police to try and climb down to this tree while carrying another person to see if it was possible. The police then tried one by one to see if it was possible but apparently, it wasn’t.
While the Officer was still interrogating, Brooke told his brother to turn the music off since it was too loud. The music stopped while he was still lying silently and still in his position. At this point, everything at the house was already searched through. The police have concluded that my story was clearly false. We went back downstairs and apologized to Brooke, and despite my unwillingness, I also apologized.
I was back in my small apartment since they asked me to go home. The woman also told me to just start painting tomorrow. Anyway, I was still thinking about where the corpse was hidden. How did the corpse disappear when there were literally no way out? Was this all really a product of my imagination? I was perplexed. When suddenly without a doubt, I went outside of my apartment and ran all the way back to that house. I ran as fast as I could. It was the most absurd thing I could think of, but nothing could stop me from finding out what really was beneath those walls.
The next thing I knew, I was already trespassing and I thought that if I climb their large tree, I would be able to enter the house and searched through more. So I climbed silently until I reached the part near the upper room’s window. I noticed that Luke was still in the same position as when we left him. I observed a little longer when suddenly something made sense. I entered the room quietly and walked carefully. I searched through the room and found Luke’s phone beside him. Luckily, it had no passcode so I turned it on and found out that the music was put into timer! I went closer to Luke who was lying peacefully and then I did it. I checked his pulse and in that moment, I confirmed that he was dead all along. The corpse was Luke! What we have been searching for was here in plain sight. I immediately went inside of the nearest closet and called the police one more time. The officer answered and I asked him to come back to the house. He immediately declined so I told him that I finally found the corpse, when unexpectedly the sound of footsteps entered the door. I stayed silent, hoping that the person would leave, but my phone released a noise. It was the voice of the officer, and then someone shouted, “Where are you?! Stop hiding!” and I found out that it was Brooke who was yelling.
So enough of the flashback, here I am panicking and paranoid. But I thought that this would be my chance to know what really happened. Is he the killer? If he is, then why would he murder his own brother? I was so curious in finding out the truth so I spoke to the phone and said “Officer, listen carefully and quickly come here right now!”
I went outside the wardrobe and asked, “Why did you kill your brother?” I told him that his brother was the corpse we’ve been looking for hours. I then pushed his brother which was unresponsive, confirming that it was dead all along. He became furious. I told him “This was a great plan of yours I suppose, but it did not go well. Right after you saw me discover the body, you immediately washed the blood away, dressed him and made him lie on this bed. Then, you came to disguise as your dead brother and meet us and the police.” He screamed at me and told me to stop, but I didn’t have any plan on stopping. I then explained more and said “You are twins if I’m not mistaken, it would be easy for you to fool strangers since your faces are identical. To make your alibi better, you said that you were going to listen to music so we should not disturb you. After you went upstairs you put the music on timer and you used the tree to climb down and then you re-entered the front door of your house as yourself! Isn’t that right?” I said.
He stopped for a moment and after a long pause he shouted “I am the killer! I killed him! Do you know what I’ve been through?” As he was uttering these words to me he put out a knife. I believe he has gone insane at this point. I quickly ran through the house and locked myself in a room so he couldn’t get me. It was traumatizing and suddenly I heard his footsteps once again. While he was walking slowly, I checked if the phone was still on and the police was still listening. I was just hoping that they were on the way since this madman could potentially end my life. Brooke uttered, “I have no money anymore! He was constantly blackmailing me! I was living in hell because of him. I was tired and I couldn’t bear it anymore!”
I had no idea what he was saying. All I could do was wait for the police to arrive and save me from this madness. I could hear Brooke’s footsteps become louder. It was like death fetching me instead of the police. I suddenly heard him again saying, “I was drunk driving, I thought I could trust him! You would never understand how much I struggled. So now that I killed him, I can finally live my life!” he said. I then saw a lot of newspapers which contained all the same hit-and-run case. It says here that a man died because of it. As I was reading the case, Brooke’s story made sense now. He ran over the man in the newspaper and he told Luke about it so Luke abused him and constantly asked Brooke for money or else he would send Brooke to jail! Brooke is now barging at the door repeatedly. I am panicking, but luckily I now hear the Cops siren. I then uttered, “Salvation.”
Few weeks passed and Finn was enlightened. He finally realized his potentials and decided to use his skills and pursue his dream which is to become a detective.
//
About the author:
Timothy Caballa is an aspiring web designer. He believes in the saying “Fake it till you make it” and he also likes to talk to his dog sometimes.
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