#queue (went riding out in white and green and gray)

[progcnitrix]

almost forgot these!!

[shirbertshitposts]

10 Shirbert Moments from Anne of Green Gables series I think about a lot

In honor of Valentines Day I thought I would post a list of some of my favorite Anne and Gilbert moments. It was hard to narrow it to just ten as I have been going through all nine books and trying to queue posts about all their iconic moments through the series; However I decided to pick the ones that I remember even when I haven’t read the books in a while. I didn’t have the heart to rank them properly so they’re just listed in chronological order.

1. His future must be worthy of its goddess

In the twilight Anne sauntered down to the Dryad’s Bubble and saw Gilbert Blythe coming down through the dusky Haunted Wood. She had a sudden realization that Gilbert was a schoolboy no longer. And how manly he looked—the tall, frank-faced fellow, with the clear, straightforward eyes and the broad shoulders. Anne thought Gilbert was a very handsome lad, even though he didn’t look at all like her ideal man. She and Diana had long ago decided what kind of a man they admired and their tastes seemed exactly similar. He must be very tall and distinguished looking, with melancholy, inscrutable eyes, and a melting, sympathetic voice. There was nothing either melancholy or inscrutable in Gilbert’s physiognomy, but of course that didn’t matter in friendship!

Gilbert stretched himself out on the ferns beside the Bubble and looked approvingly at Anne. If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert’s future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather “fast” set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne’s friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert’s eyes Anne’s greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls—the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.

-- Chapter XIX, Anne of Avonlea

2. For the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert’s gaze

“What are you thinking of, Anne?” asked Gilbert, coming down the walk. He had left his horse and buggy out at the road.

“Of Miss Lavendar and Mr. Irving,” answered Anne dreamily. “Isn’t it beautiful to think how everything has turned out . . . how they have come together again after all the years of separation and misunderstanding?”

“Yes, it’s beautiful,” said Gilbert, looking steadily down into Anne’s uplifted face, “but wouldn’t it have been more beautiful still, Anne, if there had been NO separation or misunderstanding . . . if they had come hand in hand all the way through life, with no memories behind them but those which belonged to each other?”

For a moment Anne’s heart fluttered queerly and for the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert’s gaze and a rosy flush stained the paleness of her face. It was as if a veil that had hung before her inner consciousness had been lifted, giving to her view a revelation of unsuspected feelings and realities. Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.

Then the veil dropped again; but the Anne who walked up the dark lane was not quite the same Anne who had driven gaily down it the evening before. The page of girlhood had been turned, as by an unseen finger, and the page of womanhood was before her with all its charm and mystery, its pain and gladness.

Gilbert wisely said nothing more; but in his silence he read the history of the next four years in the light of Anne’s remembered blush. Four years of earnest, happy work . . . and then the guerdon of a useful knowledge gained and a sweet heart won.

-- Chapter XXX, Anne of Avonlea

3. I just want YOU

“I have a dream,” he said slowly. “I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends—and YOU!”

Anne wanted to speak but she could find no words. Happiness was breaking over her like a wave. It almost frightened her.

“I asked you a question over two years ago, Anne. If I ask it again today will you give me a different answer?”

Still Anne could not speak. But she lifted her eyes, shining with all the love-rapture of countless generations, and looked into his for a moment. He wanted no other answer.

They lingered in the old garden until twilight, sweet as dusk in Eden must have been, crept over it. There was so much to talk over and recall—things said and done and heard and thought and felt and misunderstood.

“I thought you loved Christine Stuart,” Anne told him, as reproachfully as if she had not given him every reason to suppose that she loved Roy Gardner.

Gilbert laughed boyishly.

“Christine was engaged to somebody in her home town. I knew it and she knew I knew it. When her brother graduated he told me his sister was coming to Kingsport the next winter to take music, and asked me if I would look after her a bit, as she knew no one and would be very lonely. So I did. And then I liked Christine for her own sake. She is one of the nicest girls I’ve ever known. I knew college gossip credited us with being in love with each other. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered much to me for a time there, after you told me you could never love me, Anne. There was nobody else—there never could be anybody else for me but you. I’ve loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.”

“I don’t see how you could keep on loving me when I was such a little fool,” said Anne.

“Well, I tried to stop,” said Gilbert frankly, “not because I thought you what you call yourself, but because I felt sure there was no chance for me after Gardner came on the scene. But I couldn’t—and I can’t tell you, either, what it’s meant to me these two years to believe you were going to marry him, and be told every week by some busybody that your engagement was on the point of being announced. I believed it until one blessed day when I was sitting up after the fever. I got a letter from Phil Gordon—Phil Blake, rather—in which she told me there was really nothing between you and Roy, and advised me to ‘try again.’ Well, the doctor was amazed at my rapid recovery after that.”

Anne laughed—then shivered.

“I can never forget the night I thought you were dying, Gilbert. Oh, I knew—I KNEW then—and I thought it was too late.”

“But it wasn’t, sweetheart. Oh, Anne, this makes up for everything, doesn’t it? Let’s resolve to keep this day sacred to perfect beauty all our lives for the gift it has given us.”

“It’s the birthday of our happiness,” said Anne softly. “I’ve always loved this old garden of Hester Gray’s, and now it will be dearer than ever.”

“But I’ll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne,” said Gilbert sadly. “It will be three years before I’ll finish my medical course. And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls.”

Anne laughed.

“I don’t want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU. You see I’m quite as shameless as Phil about it. Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more ‘scope for imagination’ without them. And as for the waiting, that doesn’t matter. We’ll just be happy, waiting and working for each other—and dreaming. Oh, dreams will be very sweet now.”

Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her. Then they walked home together in the dusk, crowned king and queen in the bridal realm of love, along winding paths fringed with the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed, and over haunted meadows where winds of hope and memory blew.

-- Chapter XLI, Anne of the Island

4. Gilbert, I'm afraid I'm scandalously in love with you.

"Gilbert darling, don't let's ever be afraid of things. It's such dreadful slavery. Let's be daring and adventurous and expectant. Let's dance to meet life and all it can bring to us, even if it brings scads of trouble and typhoid and twins!"

Today has been a day dropped out of June into April. The snow is all gone and the fawn meadows and golden hills just sing of spring. I know I heard Pan piping in the little green hollow in my maple bush and my Storm King was bannered with the airiest of purple hazes. We've had a great deal of rain lately and I've loved sitting in my tower in the still, wet hours of the spring twilights. But tonight is a gusty, hurrying night . . . even the clouds racing over the sky are in a hurry and the moonlight that gushes out between them is in a hurry to flood the world.

"Suppose, Gilbert, we were walking hand in hand down one of the long roads in Avonlea tonight!"

Gilbert, I'm afraid I'm scandalously in love with you. You don't think it's irreverent, do you? But then, you're not a minister."

-- Chapter 9, Anne of Windy Poplars

5. Suitable Places

"(Are you sure you kiss me in suitable places, Gilbert? I'm afraid Mrs. Gibson would think the nape of the neck, for instance, most unsuitable.)”

-- Chapter 12, Anne of Windy Poplars

6. He narrowly escaped bursting with pride

"Anne, this is Captain Boyd. Captain Boyd, my wife."

It was the first time Gilbert had said "my wife" to anybody but Anne, and he narrowly escaped bursting with the pride of it. The old captain held out a sinewy hand to Anne; they smiled at each other and were friends from that moment. Kindred spirit flashed recognition to kindred spirit.

-- Chapter 6, Anne’s House of Dreams

7. Queen of my heart and life and home

"Gilbert, would you like my hair better if it were like Leslie's?" she asked wistfully.

"I wouldn't have your hair any color but just what it is for the world," said Gilbert, with one or two convincing accompaniments.

You wouldn't be ANNE if you had golden hair—or hair of any color but"—

"Red," said Anne, with gloomy satisfaction.

"Yes, red—to give warmth to that milk-white skin and those shining gray-green eyes of yours. Golden hair wouldn't suit you at all Queen Anne—MY Queen Anne—queen of my heart and life and home."

"Then you may admire Leslie's all you like," said Anne magnanimously.”

-Chapter 12, Anne’s House of Dreams

8.  Annest of Annes

But the best of all was when Gilbert came to her, as she stood at her window, watching a fog creeping in from the sea, over the moonlit dunes and the harbour, right into the long narrow valley upon which Ingleside looked down and in which nestled the village of Glen St. Mary.

"To come back at the end of a hard day and find you! Are you happy, Annest of Annes?"

"Happy!" Anne bent to sniff a vaseful of apple blossoms Jem had set on her dressing-table. She felt surrounded and encompassed by love. "Gilbert dear, it's been lovely to be Anne of Green Gables again for a week, but it's a hundred times lovelier to come back and be Anne of Ingleside."

-- Chapter 3, Anne of Ingleside

9. I couldn’t live without you

Anne felt like a released bird . . . she was flying again. Gilbert's arms were around her . . . his eyes were looking into hers in the moonlight.

"You do love me, Gilbert? I'm not just a habit with you? You haven't said you loved me for so long."

"My dear, dear love! I didn't think you needed words to know that. I couldn't live without you. Always you give me strength. There's a verse somewhere in the Bible that is meant for you . . . 'She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.'"

Life which had seemed so grey and foolish a few moments before was golden and rose and splendidly rainbowed again. The diamond pendant slipped to the floor, unheeded for the moment. It was beautiful . . . but there were so many things lovelier . . . confidence and peace and delightful work . . . laughter and kindness . . . that old safe feeling of a sure love.

"Oh, if we could keep this moment for ever, Gilbert!"

"We're going to have some moments. It's time we had a second honeymoon. Anne, there's going to be a big medical congress in London next February. We're going to it . . . and after it we'll see a bit of the Old World. There's a holiday coming to us. We'll be nothing but lovers again . . . it will be just like being married over again. You haven't been like yourself for a long time. ("So he had noticed.") You're tired and overworked . . . you need a change. ("You too, dearest. I've been so horribly blind.") I'm not going to have it cast up to me that doctors' wives never get a pill. We'll come back rested and fresh, with our sense of humour completely restored. Well, try your pendant on and let's get to bed. I'm half dead for sleep . . . haven't had a decent night's sleep for weeks, what with twins and worry over Mrs. Garrow."

--Chapter 41, Anne of Ingleside

10. Old love light

DR. BLYTHE:- “The old, old love light that was kindled so many years ago in Avonlea ... and burns yet, Anne ... at least for me.” 

ANNE:- “And for me, too. And will burn forever, Gilbert.” 

-- Page 189, The Blythes Are Quoted

Feel free to respond to this post with any of your favorite shirbert moments that I missed!

[atmilliways]

On the 10th day of Dethmas this writer gives to thee…

Dec 22 - Metalocalypse but it's a cheesy Hallmark holiday movie

He’s a big city notary, only in town to clean out his deceased grandparents’ condo.

He’s a small-town metalhead pot dealer/part time taxi service with no one to hang out with for the holidays.

Is it fate, or is it Christmas?

Chapter one of a Murderface/Pickles, what-if-Dethklok-never-happened AU. I went heavy on Pickles' accent for this and I refuse to apologize for my crimes.

~

Deck The Halls With Ughs & F*ck Yous

When you boiled it down to the bare essentials, the first half of the letter basically said, “Merry Christmas, your grandparents are dead.” 

Which, William felt, was kind of nice of the lawyer writing to him. He hadn’t liked his grandparents particularly much, for all that they’d raised him ever since the unfortunate murder-suicide that had claimed his parents. Everything he’d accomplished in life had been in spite of them. They’d wanted him to be a hubcap salesman like his grandfather; he’d gotten his notary license and done just fine. They’d wanted him to stay in the same kind of podunk towns they always lived in; he’d gone to the big city and landed a steady career notarizing deeds and titles for a huge real estate company. All they’d done was yell at him to make sure was still alive for seventeen years. Anyone could have done that. 

It was the second half of the letter that was the problem. Apparently they’d had no money to leave him, just all the crap in a condo that needed to be emptied out by the end of the year so the next owners could move in. If he didn’t, there would be a ridiculously large fine due of some truly idiotic wording in the lease they’d signed. 

A quick check online told him it would be cheaper to just fly out to this . . . Tomahawk, Wisconsin, throw all the shit in a dumpster, and be done with it. He had a couple weeks of vacation time coming up anyway, with Christmas and New Years, and no particular plans. Why not go? Maybe it would be . . . cathartic or something. 

William sighed and reached to grab a credit card from his wallet. So much for a quiet Christmas to himself, holed up in his  blissfully undecorated apartment with takeout from one of the best sushi places in the entire city. 

~

Tomahawk was pretty much what he expected. Once he made it out of the four-gate airport with a baggage claim so slow that it might have been faster to  walk  instead of fly, it turned out there wasn’t even a taxi queue. He had to go back inside and call one himself. And it wasn’t so much a taxi service as something called “Pickles Cab” scratched in above the payphone.

As long as it had wheels and knew how to find the address, he didn’t much care. The dispatch guy had seemed kinda stoned on the phone, but hey, William figured, that just meant he might be able to find some to buy in the area. 

The car was easy to spot because it was the only non-white thing moving in the snow-caked parking lot. William eyed the shitty old Vista Cruiser in shades of drab green, rust, and beat-to-shit wood paneling skeptically as it pulled up to the loading zone curb at an angle that was, frankly, terrible. The driver put it in park and popped out the driver’s side door with the engine still running, spewing thick steam out of the tailpipe in the frigid air. 

“Hey dood, welcome to Wiscahnsin,” the guy called, waving. “Abandon hope all ye to enter here, heh.” He smirked. William recognized his voice as the person he’d talked to on the phone.

“Uh . . . hi,” William replied awkwardly, hefting his two suitcases, 

“Trunks open. Lemme get it fer ya.” The driver hurried around to the back of the car and opened it for William to toss the suitcases in. He had a shock of red hair trying to escape from his black beanie in all directions, and park-job aside seemed slightly less stoned in person than he sounded. “Wanna sit up front? It’s warmer up here, I’ve had the heat blastin’ all the way here . . . uh, just let me clear some shit out first.”

‘Some shit’ seemed to be a lot of empty bottles and cans and snack wrappers, but William waited patiently because it’s not like this place had any actual taxis he could call instead. When he did climb in and buckle his seatbelt, at least it was warm, as promised, even if it did smell like pot and stale beer. 

The driver popped back in, stripped the glove off one hand, and rubbed at his nose above a vivid red goatee before grabbing the wheel, “Okey, here we go. I’m Pickles, what’s yer name?”

“William Murderfasche,” William replied. What kind of a name was Pickles? But . . . it did explain the name of the ‘cab’ company. 

“Murderface, that’s a fuckin’ cool name. Mind if I just call ya that?”

“. . . Sure.”

“Cool. So dood, Murderface, where to?”

William gave him the address. The car pulled away from the airport with a jerk and he stared out the window at passing snow banks and white-shrouded trees, starting to sink into all his misgivings about the decision to come out here. There was a certain smell that developed anywhere his grandparents inhabited for long enough that he hadn’t realized until moving out on his own kept him in a near-constant state of upset stomach. 

“Hope ya don’t mind there ain’t no radio,” Pickles told him companionably, not appearing to mind when William didn’t react. “Tape deck’s broken too. . . . I’m tryin’ ta save up the money to fix it by givin’ people rides and shit. And doin’ some other stuff too, but don’t tell the cops, heh. All the local stations are pretty much shit anywey, all they’re playin’ right now is fuckin’ Christmas songs.���

“Hm,” William agreed. 

“What kinda music you listen to?”

“Hm. Uh, what? Oh, schorry. Moschtly metal, I guessch.” He shrugged, shaking himself out of the funk he’d been about to sink into. Usually he would prefer to just be left to his own thoughts, but right now the chit chat was actually a welcome distraction. “It’sch good background muschic for conschentrating on not thinking.”

“Hey dood, me too!” In his enthusiasm, Pickles gunned the engine and sent the car into a brief skid on the wintery road, but corrected it with an ease that spoke to lots of practice. “There’s naht much of a metal scene here, fuckin’ sucks. What else am I supposed to get fucked up to, huh? People jest don’t get that. Is it any better where you live?”

William, braced for impact as he now was and would probably remain for the rest of the ride, shrugged again. “I don’t know. I moschtly keep to myschelf, but there are plenty of schtoresch that have deschent schtuff, if you’re willing to schort through all the other crap.”

“Well, cool. Hey if you wanna hang out at all while yer here, I got a pretty good collection on vinyl. Y’know, if you don’t have family shit to do. I’m avoiding mine due to sort of a . . . landlord tenant dispute. They won’t let me put a lock on the house-door to my basement-room, so I’ve got it barricaded and stopped payin’ rent, and now Mahm won’t let me eat anything she cooks. But it’s cool, I’ve gaht an exterior door so I can still get in’n out.”

It took a moment to digest all that, but William noted the invitation with the tentative optimism of a guy who’d moved a lot as a kid but never quite gotten the hang of making friends as a survival method. 

But he was only planning to be in town for a few days, get the condo cleaned out ASAP, and go home, never to return. Not a lot of point in making friends. 

“Thanksch, but I probably won’t have time.” He wasn’t looking directly at Pickles, but he saw the driver’s smile drop a few watts out of the corner of his eye. Feeling bad for the guy, he quickly added, “Schoundsch like you’ve got a pretty good schet-up, though.”

“Eh . . . it’s alright.”

The conversation petered out after that, and William had no idea how to get it going again. He’d always been shit at this sort of thing. Looking back, it was probably a miracle that he’d stuck through high school long enough to graduate, having alienated, avoided, or accidentally insulted enough of his peers that virtually no one on campus had ever willingly spoken to him. The only social group he’d ever successfully infiltrated was the lunchtime stoners that hung out in the park across the street, and that was because they’d mostly just sat around passing joints, trying to blow smoke rings, and napping before having to face sixth period. 

Eventually Pickles put his turn signal on and announced, "Here we go, Christmas Mountain Avenue. Sheesh, that's a little on the nose, huh?"

Privately William agreed, but awkwardly swallowed the chuckle before it could make itself heard. As they pulled up in front of the building, he peered out the window at the gray, shitty condo building and felt his lip curl. Fuck, there was a fridge in there full of rotting food and cans of condensed milk that he was going to have to deal with somewhere in there, he just knew it. 

“Is this where yer staying?” Pickles asked dubiously. 

“No,” William said with a shudder. “Thisch isch juscht the . . . family schit I’m here to deal with. My grandparentsch died and I have to clean out their plache by the end of the month.”

“Ooh.” Scratching thoughtfully at his goatee, he leaned forward to get a better look at the building. “. . . You know, the nearest motel is a ten minute walk and it’s gettin’ dark soon. Yer gonna want a ride, prahbably.”

William blinked. “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Pickles made a show of looking thoughtful. “So . . . want any help? I gaht reeeeal reasonable rates.”

“Well. . . .”

“And I’ve gaht weed, too,” he added. 

“Done,” William said immediately. 

Well. At least the ordeal would probably be over with sooner this way, and also a lot less horrible with something to blunt the edges (and cover the Smell).

[ecofinisher]

Off to Rust (Adrigami fanfic)

Chapter 4

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21137411/chapters/50573717

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13415645/4/Off-to-Rust

https://www.wattpad.com/800098213-off-to-rust-chapter-4

The fencing class stood in the queue inside a dark room in the middle of the crowd, which stood near to the railway of the rollercoaster, they were going to take.

“Are you sad, you couldn’t see any ladies in red dancing, Amir?” Etienne asked looking back at the twins.

“We were too young for it anyway, Etienne” Amir mentioned glancing at the shorter boy.

“I don’t think they would take their clothes off, mostly since it’s for almost all ages the roller coaster here”

“He’s right” Zeynep added to their conversation. “Last time when I heard they were gonna take this roller coaster down, I really thought they would, but they changed everything”

“They renovated it and changed the theme” Laura explained. “But many people are going to miss the old one”

“I have never been in anyone here, not even in the past” Adrien stated earning a nod from Kagami, which listened to the conversation of the group.

“You don’t have to worry. All the roller coasters here are safe. They are checked for its security every day and Zeynep was here too, so you know it’s not dangerous” Amir explained making Adrien nod.

“Well that sounds reassuring” Kagami faltered a little.

“Come on Kagami, it’s not that bad. We’re all going,” Eveline said looking back at the blue-haired girl.

“I’m there too Kagami, we can sit together if you want and if you’re afraid you can hold my hand or my arm as tight as you want” Adrien offered smiling at the girl.

“Or he’ll be the one screaming like a girl all the ride long” Mohamed mentioned making the group laugh.

“Aren’t we all going to scream during the ride?” The blonde asked making Mohamed shrug his shoulders.

“Yeah most likely,” Replied the Egyptian boy. “This roller coaster isn’t also the fastest one according to the brochure,”

“Which one is it then?” Asked Kagami curious.

“I think it’s the gray one, where we saw very close up as we were walking the street down to the entrance” The Swiss girl mentioned.

“That one is pretty high thought” Kagami mentioned earning a nod from the girls.

“I want to go to that one later, that will be amazing,” Amir said looking at his brother, which nodded.

“I’m most likely to skip that one” Etienne added earning a nod from Laura.

“Me too”

“Of course you would,” Amir said crossing his eyes smirking at the boy.

“Why don’t we all start by the lowest roller coasters and then we go picking with the time the faster ones?” Suggested Zeynep the group. “I know, which ones are the fastest ones and a few that could be fine to start with?”

“Why not?” Answered Etienne looking at the others. “Do you all agree?”

“How fast is this one?” Asked Kagami.

“How fast is it Zeynep?” Questioned Laura making Zeynep shrug her shoulders.

“50-60 kilometers?”

“That’s like driving inside the cities,” Adrien pointed out watching the group nod in agreement.

“Look, it’s almost our turn” Eveline mentioned walking forward as a small group of people moved forward and waited for the people that sat inside the wagons leave the vehicle from the other side and in each row two people entered sitting down on the wagon and pulled back to them the safety bar. A staff member passed by the wagons moving shortly on the bars to check if it was locked up, afterward the man gave a thumb up and watched the wagon leave slowly the station, then a minute later the next wagon arrived with other passengers, which had to leave the ride as it had ended for them.

“Spread out, so we can all be in the same round” Laura mentioned walking a few rows back along with Eveline, then stopped to see Etienne had paired up with Zeynep while the twins went together and Kagami teamed up with Adrien.

“Aww that little girl looks so happy” Adrien mentioned smiling as he saw a short redheaded girl laugh, who sat on one of the carts that was in the middle of the carriages with the father, which looked felicitous about seeing the state of her daughter. “I don’t remember the last time I and my parents were this happy” Adrien mentioned neutral as Kagami stood beside him rolling her eyes up at him, seeing him down.

“It will get better in the future, I promise” Kagami cheered the blonde up as she grabbed him by his hands. “It might just take a little more time” Kagami noted making Adrien smile a little and the two observed the train move forwards leaving the station and in front of the two were doors made of iron, which separated the group from the railway and the two stood close to the door to observe the wagon disappear in the dark, afterward Kagami looked back and smiled as she saw another set of wagons attached to each other tax in and stop in front of the station, thereafter the safety bars got unlocked and the passengers lifted it up to get out of the other side of the station. Adrien looked at the Japanese girl, which felt a little anxious and Adrien placed his hand on her shoulder assuring her, everything would go just fine.

The door opened and Adrien entered into the car, then held his hand out for Kagami to help her get into the cart and both sat inside it and Adrien pulled the safety bar back to the two, then kept looking at Kagami, which observed in front of her the students of the fencing class get in and Eveline looked back and waved at Kagami with a smile, which Kagami returns back.

“You’re feeling tensed at the moment?” Adrien asked watching Kagami roll her eyes up to think.

“At the moment, just a little bit” The Japanese girl answered to her friend.

A staff member passed by the train to check, if the safety bars were locked successfully by pulling on them, soon as he arrived at the last wagon he gave a thumb up and the wagon moved forwards entering into the dark space, then on the right side, where Kagami sat on the wall she noted a green light and saw a couple of beer bottles standing on a platform and from the inside the bottles fizzed up light green effects up in the air like fireworks, making Kagami smile and pull on Adrien’s shoulder for him to look at the side and see it too.

“Oh” Adrien replied at the sight of it, after that the two looked forward into the darkness, slowly noting, that they were going to pass by a tall house with white-colored windows, which was lightened up by the headlight of the carriage, which was on the front of the first cart.

“We’re going around the house aren’t we?” Asked Mohamed as the cart rolled up slow around the building while all passengers observed the building in the middle of the sphere.

“I’m not really fond of the new theme they gave this roller coaster, but at least they kept the old soundtrack. Not the original, but also not a bad one” Zeynep mentioned her groupmates.

“This question just got into my mind right now, but since it’s dark in here and we barely can’t see each other here. Is it dangerous to have our hands out of the cart?” Etienne questioned awaiting an answer from anyone of the group.

“I have no idea” The Swiss descendant girl responded. “But I think you can without a problem”

“Then we better keep our hands down, Etienne” Eveline mentioned making the twins laugh.

“I think this would only be a problem, if we were taller” Mohamed pointed out at the other boy.

“Adrien, look they also have the Eiffel Tower” Kagami hinted as the wagons were higher, circulating the grey-colored copy of the French monument.

“You’re right” The blonde boy responded gazing at the Eiffel tower next to them. While listening to the soundtrack of the ride Kagami leaned back on the friend holding her eyes up at the monument and sensed the French boy place his hand on her shoulder and she rolled her eyes back to the darkness, where she very slightly could recognize Adrien’s shadow sitting there beside her.

“I did grab your shoulder, didn’t I?” Adrien asked making the friend chuckle, soon the music in the ride changed slightly into a circus-themed one and the carriage had reached the top, rolling on a straight line, afterward the music started to have less electronica in it, only having the famous cirque theme airing during the ride. At that moment the train went on the rail the way down in the dark around the sphere passing through blue-lightened cloud-themed loops shining around the railway, where the train with the passengers passed, which cried excited as they passed inside the loops.

“Woooohoooo!” All the passengers inside the train yelled during their descent to the destination, passing by cardboard-made clouds and a hot air balloon. With the circus-themed song nearly ending the ride of the group was almost done, afterward they passed under a cathedral made by cardboard inspired by the famous Notre dame, followed by a couple of street lanterns, where the train passed in the middle of them, soon their last sight was passing by cardboard dancing women holding their right leg up for the dancing and the carriage had slowed down, as it arrived the straight ground of their line, slow-rolling to a reddish-yellow illuminated place, which was the station, where the group had entered to board the roller coaster.

“This was awesome!” Etienne chanted clapping earning a nod from Eveline.

“Look there is another train right in front of us. They might send every minute or two a train up the roller coaster” Eveline calculated earning a nod from the brunette boy. “I wonder how many trains they have”

“We gotta get back here again, Mohamed. It’s way more worn riding in the dark!” Amir shouted out excited earning a nod from the brother.

“Rolling down felt amazing. I really enjoyed it guys” Adrien confessed gladly making the group smile.

“That’s great Adrien” Mohamed agreed. “What about you, Kagami?”

“Although it confused me in the dark a little, I gotta admit it felt great. I loved the adrenaline kick I got as it went down in the darkness” The Japanese girl confessed the twins, which looked at each other with a smile.

“Where are we going next, guys?” Laura asked looking back at the group, seeing the twins and Adrien shrug their shoulders while the rest just sat there in the wagon waiting for a suggestion.

“I don’t know, but I think on the map before I saw that the closest ride to us is the bobsled track. This means we’re later in the Switzerland-themed section,” Zeynep explained the group.

“Yeah we could go there” Adrien added earning a nod from the most of the group.

“Shall we all go there?” The Turkish girl asked seeing all fencing students nod. “Great, that’s our next stop” The tan-skinned girl mentioned while their train rolled into the station, getting unlocked up, so they could climb out of the train to leave through the exit corridor on the left side.

[myaekingheart]

So, I was informed yesterday of an unexpected death in the family--a distant family member who I didn’t really know very well personally, but my parents knew him better so my mom especially was sad. I may not have known him, but he knew me at least in the sense of knowing my parents. He would comment nice things on posts my mom had made about me and stuff, so that coupled with the knowledge of his sudden death have had me a little fucked up all day and it definitely informed the strange dreams I had last night.

First, I was in what was meant to be my grandparents’ house. It looked nothing like their actual house but I just automatically understood that that was where I was. My grandfather, who passed away in 2014 (his death was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life and has led to me actually becoming pretty necrophobic), was brought back to life but was then told he only had 2 days to live before he’d die again. He didn’t look sick at all during this time we spent with him, however, which was probably for the best. My parents, aunts and uncles, and myself all were at their “house” for dinner to spend some time with him before his second death. We got to catch up with him about what he had missed in the past six years. And then him and my grandmother were about to leave and I remember standing in the driveway looking up at him like I was a child again, and I told him I was getting married and I got to hug him super tight. The last thing he said to me before getting in the car and driving off was “I love you, Amanda.”

SO AT THIS RATE I’M CRYING BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK. I’ve had dreams about my grandpop in the past that always feel like this, like visiting his spirit in the afterlife or in the unconscious space between living and dead or something and it’s always super jarring but this time specifically just UGH MY FEELINGS. I am in pain.

Then the dream transitioned into visiting this very weird, cheap indoor knockoff of Epcot. The whole building had that feeling of clearly being old, like built in the 1960s or 1970s. Like when you step foot in one of the buildings on Main Street in Disney World and you can just tell everything there was built like 50 years ago. The entryway had a wide but short stairway into the main hall through which you walked to visit the different countries. It started with Greece and I remember banners hanging from the ceiling. The whole place also kind of had the same vibe as my local church’s event hall. But anyways, Greece was hardly anything, and then there was a Japanese tea room that looked like a cheap American attempt at capturing Japan. All I remember were red and white banners hanging from the ceilings and women dressed like geishas serving tea at round tables with cheap white tablecloths. Then there was Russia. One room was more of an alcove or indoor amphitheater hybrid where you walked down some shallow stairs and there was a little scene with snow and a little kid ice-fishing. There was another room set up similarly that had a very creepy set of animatronics meant to be the Romanov family dancing like at a ball, but nothing about the atmosphere itself screamed “ballroom.” The walls were this unforgiving pale blue-ish gray and the carpets were crunchy and old and a slightly darker shade than the wall. I remember everyone was wearing bright and tacky yellow and turquoise clothing, too, like a take on Bluth’s Anastasia from the Once Upon a December scene. The animatronics themselves were absolutely terrifying with Resusci-Anne-esque faces. The most detailed of all the countries, however, was Germany. Once you reached that portion of the building, there were rosemaling-esque murals on the wall (which I know is Norway and not Germany but fight me, my unconscious brain is dumb) and forest green shingled awnings to represent some pretend housing structures or something. While in Germany, suddenly everything became academic. I found myself in a private school uniform (plaid pleated skirt, gray blazer, white button down, probably loafers and knee high socks) sitting on a wooden bench in a rounded dead-end corner where there were a handful of classroom doors. There was something said about something bad having happened to my math teacher, who looked exactly like Bea Arthur but was not, but that she was coming back so we just had to wait a little while or something. While I was sitting on the bench waiting, my senior year math teacher showed up and we were talking about something I can’t remember. I think at one point during this time, I had mentioned something about planning to go get my engagement ring resized or something because it kept spinning and sliding off (which, ironically enough, I had to take it off to type this up because it was spinning violently and my grouchy ass got so frustrated, I nearly chucked it out a window because I couldn’t type with it on). When I brought this up to my math teacher, however, she insisted against getting it resized though I can’t remember why. Then I was by myself again on the bench but I had a handheld white board. I was practicing sketching figures on it before I got called someplace and had to leave, so I remember crouching down in front of the bench with a black dry erase marker and gold metallic permanent marker and quickly writing some message onto the white board for the next person to find. I don’t remember exactly what I said in full, except that the first part was “Take care of yourself” and the tone of the message overall was something positive about self-care. Then I ran off and I was back in the Germany section of old, fake, indoor Epcot again. There was a rendition of the Oktoberfest restaurant which was actually pretty decent, like it looked pretty close to the real thing except that it was snowing inside so it also had a slight aura of A Christmas Carol. I distinctly remember a young male waiter pulling a metallic brass pole like the kind that line ride queues out of the fake brick ground and readjusting it in it’s little hole. Then there was a makeshift theater in what was either Italy or Greece, I can’t remember. It was a terrible looking theater, though. Same unforgiving blue-ish gray walls and crunchy old carpet. The walls were so tall, too, which made me feel tiny and powerless. They were projecting an old movie onto the one wall, but they didn’t turn any of the lights off. I’m pretty sure the seats were just a bunch of those business-y chairs they have in church event halls and school assembly halls and principal’s offices. The gray ones with no arms and scratchy fabric seats and backs that have zero cushion whatsoever. I went into this theater with my parents where we took a seat right in the front and watched a very weird vintage montage film. The only scene that I specifically remember was a young man with blonde hair and a toned physique who I guess was supposed to resemble Apollo flying through the air as if on a zipline ass naked with drum tied around his waist which he was beating consistently with his penis. How he had that much control over his dick so as to bang a drum with it, I don’t know. Right after this, the theater was interrupted (not in a terrifying way, however) by the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus. They were holding either red solo cups or Styrofoam cups likely filled with beer and were drunk off their asses. And that’s just about the last thing I remember.

[biofunmy]

Disney’s Haunted Mansion at 50: The Ghosts Are Still Grinning

One summer visit to Disneyland after another, a young Tom Morris stood outside a mysterious set of locked gates, peering up at a stately, old-fashioned manor sitting just out of reach and wondering what awaited inside.

When those gates in Anaheim, Calif., finally opened in August 1969, Mr. Morris and others entered what became one of the most beloved and long-lasting attractions at any of the Disney theme parks: the Haunted Mansion, a macabre ride filled with mystifying illusions, eerie inhabitants and 999 grim, grinning ghosts, having a delightful time in the afterlife.

For Mr. Morris, who later became an Imagineer (a Disney employee who designs resort attractions), every element of the dark ride was fascinating. There was something about the music — the theme song, “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” plays throughout the ride — the smell of the hydraulics, the “old-fashioned showmanship.” He took a spin through the Mansion twice each trip, a rare sign of dedication back when two rides at Disney required two separate tickets. And he found himself doodling pictures of the ride in class.

Surely, Mr. Morris thought, he was the only one with this level of adoration for the Haunted Mansion. Fifty years later, it’s clear that has never been the case.

The Haunted Mansion, treasured as one of Disney’s quirkier rides, has long maintained a fan-favorite status for its distinct balance of the spooky and the sprightly. Varying iterations of the attraction, including the Dutch Gothic-style Tudor version at Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Fla., have become staples at five Disney resorts around the world.

Other rides over the years have come and gone (and been given face-lifts to reflect recent Disney films). But with remarkably little deviation from the original design, the Mansion has been a constant for five decades.

Mysterious From the Start

Built in the early 1960s to resemble an old New Orleans estate, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland sat vacant for years — its exterior finished, its insides a mystery. The longer it sat, the more the mystique built. An advertisement at the gate for “post-lifetime leases” hinted at the type of ride future visitors might expect: Inquiring spirits were directed to contact Disneyland’s “Ghost Relations” department.

There were rumors among visitors about what had rendered the house off-limits for park guests. Maybe Disney had already tried to open it as an attraction, but the ride had been too terrifying. Perhaps Walt Disney himself was planning to move in, and the house would never open as an attraction.

In the end, the delays boiled down to something more mundane: Between creating other future favorite rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, breaking ground on a new park in Orlando and getting ready for the 1964-65 World’s Fair, Disney’s Imagineers were simply swamped. After Disney died in 1966, finishing the Mansion became a focus.

A creative debate between the project’s two driving Imagineers, Marc Davis and Claude Coats, inspired the Mansion’s complementary moods. Davis was in favor of a lighter, humorous approach to a haunted house. Coats wanted the opposite.

“The beginning of the attraction is more Claude Coats,” his son Alan Coats said. “It’s scarier, it’s more moody, it’s darker, it’s ominous. You think, ‘Uh oh, this is going to be scary,’ and it does really frighten a lot of people when you enter those doors.”

But as the ride’s vehicles, called “doom buggies,” whisk visitors along, the mood starts to brighten — Davis’s influence. Spirits dance through the ballroom, and the journey culminates in an upbeat graveyard party. For many fans, it’s that combination of fun and frightful that has made the ride a favorite.

“I think the Mansion taps into our wanting to be scared and realizing that we made it through safely, that we were able to overcome our fears and deal with them and come out O.K.,” Mr. Coats said.

Susan Thompson, who lives in Lakeland, Fla., spent her first ride through Disney World’s Mansion in Orlando, as a 5-year-old, crying with her head buried in her mother’s side. When she went back a year later, determined to keep her eyes open, she fell in love with watching the Mansion come alive.

Ms. Thompson, now 51, has since acquired her fair share of Haunted Mansion souvenirs: a dress reminiscent of those worn by Mansion staff and a backpack patterned with the manor’s signature wallpaper, among other items. On her twice-a-month visits to Disney World, she always returns to the ride.

For R.J. Crowther Jr., a bookseller in San Diego, the Mansion is the first attraction he has a vivid memory of riding at Disneyland. He’s since been on it more than 200 times, earning him a certificate from Disney staff that declares him an honorary citizen of the park. Mr. Crowther has also collected an “embarrassing amount” of Mansion merchandise, primarily sculptures inspired by art within the ride.

“When you’re younger, it’s just all real and magical,” Mr. Crowther said. “There’s just something wonderfully otherworldly about it that just captures people’s imaginations.”

Alyssa Ottum, another superfan, is planning a tattoo sleeve composed entirely of Mansion-related images: The exterior of the Disneyland manor is already finished, and pieces with the Mansion’s gothic wallpaper and some of the ride’s most famous characters are in the works.

For the 50th anniversary, Ms. Ottum attended an overnight event at Disneyland, complete with ghoulishly named snacks and photo ops with Mansion characters. Tickets went for nearly $300.

Haunted Memories

The Haunted Mansion’s fans extend beyond the ride’s regulars; it’s a favorite among Disney Parks employees, who are called cast members.

“Everybody that says they want to work for Disney?” said Robert Brauchler, who was a cast member for 16 years at Walt Disney World in Orlando. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, they say they want to work at the Haunted Mansion.”

The work itself isn’t extraordinary. Like those at any other attraction, cast members (clad here in green polyester tuxedos and dresses) still spend hours parking strollers in the Florida heat or loading guests into ride vehicles. What sets this attraction apart is how workers, acting as the Mansion’s eerie butlers and maids, can melt into their somber, creepy characters as part of the ride’s ghoulish aesthetic.

“If you’re having a bad day, that’s a great place to be working,” Mr. Brauchler said. “I would just stare at people and just not smile. It’d be like, ‘Hey! You work at Disney; you’re supposed to smile!’ No, I’m not. I would just walk away from them, and it’s all part of the theming.”

Mansion cast members still find time for more upbeat moments: Mr. Brauchler and another employee would sometimes sneak black-and-white photos of themselves into the picture frames in the ride’s ballroom scene. And when employees at the attraction complete their training, they crawl underneath the “doom buggy” tracks — flashlights in tow — to sign their names alongside hundreds of others on a wall beneath the ride.

Some riders, though, have a different way of leaving a mark. Every once in a while, a cast member discovers gray powder on the floor — the ashes of deceased park-goers who had a particular affinity for the ride, spread by loved ones hoping to add another spirit to the Mansion’s collection of happy haunts.

“It was like, ‘Ugh, somebody spread Grandma on the carpet again,’” Mr. Brauchler said. “We’d have to shut the ride down and go investigate it.”

He added: “All these people that think that their loved ones are going to be in the Haunted Mansion forever? Well, Grandma’s getting vacuumed up into a vacuum and getting sent out to the landfill somewhere.”

But there are plenty of other park-approved memorials at the Mansion. Many Imagineers who worked on the attraction were honored in a mock cemetery at Disneyland bordering the ride queue, its gravestones etched with rhyming epitaphs. (The cemetery was removed to make room for longer lines, but a similar one remains in Orlando.)

“At peaceful rest lies Brother Claude, planted here beneath this sod,” Coats’s reads.

It was a bit too dark for Coats’s wife, their son Alan said. She was not a fan.

Voices From the Beyond

Another Disney employee was immortalized in the ride itself. Madame Leota, the Mansion’s floating head who summons ghosts from inside her crystal ball, is the face of Leota Toombs, one of Disney’s first female Imagineers.

Her daughter Kim Irvine, Disneyland’s art director, was a teenager when her mother was practicing for the role. Toombs was the face of Madame Leota, but not the voice, and Ms. Irvine remembers her mother lip syncing the incantation in front of a mirror downstairs for days.

“One day my friends and I came home, and she was down there doing, ‘Witches and goblins and ghoulies!’” Ms. Irvine said. “They were like, ‘What’s wrong with your mom?’”

Toombs did, however, lend her voice to the end of the ride at the California park, where a small spirit — lovingly called Little Leota by fans — ominously bids visitors adieu. When Toombs died, in 1991, Ms. Irvine’s visits to the ride with her own daughters gave them a chance to hear their grandmother’s voice again.

“I always had to laugh when we would be going up the exit escalator and seeing Little Leota over there going, ‘Hurry back,’” Ms. Irvine said. “And I’d go, ‘Girls, say hi to Grandma, there’s Grandma!’ and I’d hear people around me go, ‘What a weirdo.’”

When Disney decided to create an annual holiday-themed makeover for the Mansion, Imagineers needed to record a new incantation for Madame Leota in order to match the overlay. When they approached Ms. Irvine for the part, she was initially unsure — but she knew she didn’t want anyone else to do it either.

Now, every winter, she and her mother are both a part of the ride.

“I go out in the park in the morning before guests come in to check things out and look things over, and it’s so quiet out there in New Orleans before they turn on the music,” Ms. Irvine said. “But Little Leota never turns off. So to walk by the exit there and hear her little voice just talking away to me makes me smile.”

Sahred From Source link Arts

from WordPress http://bit.ly/31HcCAn via IFTTT