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stop-talking · 3 months

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Honestly? I'm not surprised the FNAF movie is delayed.

They're DEFINETLY struggling to come up with a plot for the next movie. They planned to make three movies if the first went well, but they didn't really leave themselves much room for a sequel.

What do I mean by that? Well...

• The driving conflict of the first movie, that got Mike to work at Freddy's in the first place, was the custody battle with aunt Jane. But they fucking killed her off. (In the movie, it seems like it's possible she still may be alive, but in the book it's pretty much confirmed she's dead.) Abby sees her "lying in a puddle of ketchup" or something when golden freddy comes to get her. And I have a direct quote from Mike.

"You know," he said, "I think my aunt has finally decided to move on." I mean... she kind of did, Mike thought. (Pg 317)

• Oh, and also in the book, it's said Mike gets a nice new job as a contractor after the events at Freddy's, so it's not like they can pull the "Mike can't find a job so he HAS to work at another Freddy's location!" thing again.

• AND, they resolved his storyline with Garrett. He's found the killer, and watched him die. (Even if we know he's not dead). Mike realized Abby is much more important than his dead brother and he no longer torments himself with thoughts of Garrett... so I don't think he'd go poking around in another Freddy's location to "figure out what happened". He knows what happened. And he's finally over it.

• It seems like they TRIED to give themselves something to work with in the end credits. You know, the "C O M E F I N D M E". But honestly? It's not all that helpful. There's no clear way to tell who it's addressed to or who it's from. Everyone seems to agree it's Garrett speaking to Mike as the puppett, but honestly? That doesn't make sense to me.

• I've already explained that I don't think Mike is interested in learning more about his brother's death. He knows who killed him, and watched that man die. Mike is as "at peace" as he's ever going to get. Besides, I don't think Garrett is the puppett!! At all!!

• In the movie, Mike says he feels closer to Garrett at Freddy's. I think that means his soul is LITERALLY there, in THAT Freddy's location. Why else would he say that? Just because there are ghosts there killed by the same man? Also, in the novel, Mike literally sees Garrett's ghost in the pizzeria and it leads him to Springtrap. Finally, the "It's me" messages that keep appearing near Mike. Who else would be writing that shit? It's not just a little Easter egg for the audience. It has to be someone Mike knows. Garrett. (Also I think there's a strong argument to be made that Garrett is co-posessing Golden Freddy with the little blonde boy)

• SO THEN, WHO IS SAYING "COME FIND ME," AND WHO ARE THEY TALKING TO?

Honestly? No clue. But I think there are a few interesting directions they could take things.

1) From Mike's dad, to Mike.

In the movie they sort of imply Mike's dad offed himself, but in the book they reveal he just walked out on them. So he's still out there somewhere, and they could totally reveal he had some kind of connection to Freddy's and William, and it would explain why William drove all the way to goddamn Nebraska to kidnap some random ass kid.

2) From springtrap, to some unfortunate soul dumb enough to set him free

In the games, he was locked away in a bricked off room for like 30 years before being set free, but I don't think these movies are going to have that big of a time skip. Probably a year at most. So I could see the next movie starting with some idiot freeing springtrap.

3) Okay yeah I cant think of anything else.

And I know I'm not a professional screenplay writer but those bitches are anxiously struggling too!! In every interview where Josh Hutcherson (Mike) has been asked about a sequel, he says they're still trying to figure out the story. No shit!! They didn't give themselves anything to work with.

• So basically, Mike has absolutely no reason to go back to another Freddy's location, and the little secret message at the end is almost too vague to be useful.

So, what DID they leave themselves to work with in the next movie? What plot points remain unresolved?

• For one thing, they didn't even give William a fucking motive for killing kids. Or for luring security guards to their deaths. This version of him seems to have a much better understanding of remnant and possession that his game counterpart, but there's no reason given for that either. In the game, he does it all for his dead son. He wants to "fix" him. But they didn't set up any hints to that in the first movie. Mike talked to Vanessa about HIS dead brother, so I feel like if the whole "dead son" thing was the case, she would have mentioned she lost a sibling too.

• Or maybe William would have brought it up at the end when he was getting mad at Vanessa. The "mess YOU created!!" scene. He probably would have said something like, "You know why we have to do this, Vanessa." But he didn't. There's literally no known motive, and it'll be kind of hard to set one up without any breadcrumbs left in the previous movie.

• Mike was TOTALLY falling for Vanessa in the books. Yeah, I know, a lot of people feel FNAF isn't a place for romance, and SCHMELLY isn't a very popular ship... but that doesn't change the face he almost kissed her in the novel. (Also in the book she threw his EMPTY PILL BOTTLE into the river, didn't actually toss bro's meds! So she's a little more likeable!)

"Vanessa and Mike grinned at each other, and Mike felt something zing inside of him. It was a palpable 'wow' feeling that was much more intense than his casual appreciation of her beauty. And the zing felt like it was going both ways. The look Vanessa was giving Mike was one he hadn't ever seen before... not directed at him anyway. Her reciprocation of his feelings was so strong that he felt himself leaning toward her." (pg 186)

(They didn't kiss though, Vanessa blushed and looked away and changed the subject.) Still... now they have to address their little romantic subplot in the next movie as well.

• Vanessa. Just as a character. There's a lot to work with there. Personally, I think it would be interesting to use her coma to tell a story. You know, have her flashback to there's childhood with William and at Freddy's. (Honestly if they don't do that they're dumb and missing a huge opportunity. Why else put her in the goddamn coma?)

• Also, in the novel, they heavily implied she's... a robot? Apparently, her eyes drastically change color and Mike notes she flips from "girl mode" to "cop mode" on a dime. In the movie she just looked bipolar.

"Yeah Abby, let's use the tables for the fort! 😄"

"Mike if you bring her here again I will SHOOT YOU. 🤬"

• But yeah apparently she's a robot. A robot so convincing that even hospital nurses and doctors can't tell. With no explanation for how William could have built that. Or why there's a photo of her and William where she's clearly a child. Did he build a child robot that grew up into an adult woman robot? Or did he build two robots? Or did child Vanessa die and he replaced her with a robot? Who knows!

"Mike watched, mesmerized, as Vanessa's irises deepened noticeably in hue. They went from their usual soft, almost greyish-blue to a deeper indigo. The shift was so pronounced it almost looked computer-generated. It was also enormously disquieting. Mike felt like he was watching a human turn into..." (pg 184)

• So for the next move, Mike has no motive to go visit Freddy's, William has no motive in general, and Vanessa is a robot. The script practically writes itself, am I right??

And then there's the way Scott Cawthon likes to incorporate fan feedback into all of his projects.

(Ex: People complained FNAF 3 wasn't scary, so he made FNAF 4 horrifying)

• I have no doubt he's going to incorporate the fanbase's favorite characters into the next movie. (Ness, Doug, Maxine, Jeremy) Which honestly just complicates the plot further, adding more stipulations to the script.

• Bringing Ness back would be easy? Mike and Abby could have a scene in the diner, I guess, but it's also sort of unnecessary, and I'm not sure MatPat would agree to another cameo. He's retired.

• Bringing Doug back would be more complicated. He's aunt Jane's lawyer... but they fuckin' killed her off. So. Doug is not needed.

• Jeremy could come back? Maybe? He's really a background character... It's not stated whether or not Mike was friends with him outside work, or kept in touch with him after being fired.

• Maxine is a lot more complicated. The actress who plays her, Kathryn Sterling, said herself that she was originally supposed to have a bigger role in the film but it got trimmed down. And THEN there's the way she was stuffed into a purple Freddy suit, which a lot of fans theorize is supposed to be Shadow Freddy. On her TikTok, she basically confirms this, hinting to her character coming back in the next movie and being more important.

So in the next movie...

1) Mike has to somehow have to end up tangled back into Freddy Fazbullshit even though he has NO desire to... (Remember the way he looked at Abby when she asked if they could visit them??)

2) They have to reveal or at least hint towards Vanessa being a robot

3) Mike & Vanessa romance subplot??

4) William needs a fucking motive for killing people

5) The audience needs to be able to tell who "come find me" was said by AND who it was directed towards

6) Bonus points if they can cram in more youtuber cameos & beloved characters from the last movie like Jeremy and Doug

--------------------------------------------------

So yeah. It's a lot to consider when writing. And the clock is ticking, because kids, especially little kids like Garrett's actor, grow up FAST. And ghost kids aren't supposed to grow up. Ghost kids are supposed to be dead.

I do want to say though, that despite the plot holes, I LOVE the FNAF movie. I've watched it 20+ times. It's genuinely one of my comfort movies. I'm excited for the next movie, but I'm also sort of expecting it to be late 2025 before we get to see it.

Scott is notoriously picky. He turned down, like, 8 scripts for the first movie before settling on the Mike storyline. I don't mind waiting, especially considering how difficult this next movie is gonna be to write. Also if you read this whole rant?? Damn?? Kiss me on the mouth rn.

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kiirotoao · 27 days

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Thinking about how Mileven could break up. I don't see how Mike can be the one to do it. Mainly because it has to be done in a way where El isn't the victim of heartbreak, otherwise it makes Mike look really bad to the audience and the audience needs to root for Mike and (Byler's) success. (At least to those who are not already there).

If she's the one to break things off, however, it could make Mike the sympathetic character. As long as he is simultaneously having gay realizations, that way it's not as if he's just choosing Will as a back up plan. (obviously Will isn't but it needs to feel organic and independent from his relationship with El)

Does that mean the break up has to be El driven or just mutual? (Mutual at least seems to have the least amount of breakup "negativity").

The other factor is Mike or El finding out about the painting. But I would argue that if El finds out and decides to leave Mike for the sake of Will happiness.... doesn't that just make her even more the sympathetic party and Mike is the one she loves.

If season 5 Eleven starts to move away from Mike romantically, I guess that wouldn't be an issue anymore

It all depends of how it's written. I want Byler to happen but for me it still needs to be executed well. The multiple time jumps could also help with giving more Byler/Mileven space to play out.

Thats it! Thanks

Thanks for the thoroughly written ask, dear anon! I love having some content to gnaw on 👌

So, yes, the question of how would Mike and El break up. I really hope that it’s mutual and that they both realize that they simply aren’t working romantically.

I find it interesting how you factor in sympathy and perception of Mike and El. In the Steve-Nancy-Jonathan triangle, I think that perception is relevant. Nancy is shamed for bringing Jonathan over. Steve and Nancy are the affluent power couple of Hawkins High, and Jonathan enters from a down-to-earth, poor family. It’s the talk of the entire school when Steve and Nancy get together - everyone knows their names. The thing is that I believe that Nancy has romantic chemistry with Steve as well as Jonathan, so for them, emotional bond and sympathy when breaking up is quite felt since choice and weighing options of relationships is highlighted for their dynamic.

But as for the Will-El-Mike triangle, their status isn’t the focus, it’s their interactions. That’s not to say that Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan’s interactions don’t matter, but as kids, Will, El, and Mike are still much more clearly developing and changing. Their concepts of romance are portrayed to us as much more consequential of each other rather than outside influence. Take Nancy and Steve being influenced by Tommy and Carol. Take Nancy and Jonathan being influenced by Murray. Those types of waves in questioning relationships don’t happen between the kids. The only “outside” influence to muddle Mike and El’s relationship is Hopper who doesn’t or at least didn’t like Mike and made him lie to El, but otherwise, the kids are never under scrutiny or peer pressure to do things to/with the person they like.

What also makes Will, El, and Mike unique from Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan is that all three of the youngsters know each other very well. Mike and Will are best friends. Mike and El are bonded after finding Will together. El and Will became sister and brother. They are not mutually exclusive, they exist in each other’s lives very tightly. Meanwhile, Steve and Jonathan haven’t had a proper conversation (besides arguments) in canon. Ever.

So, yes, I think that a typical sympathetic break up would blur things for Will, El, and Mike, but the thing is that I also don’t think that that’s how the break up will be handled.

At the crux of it all, they both love Will. They both clearly want him to be happy, too, and I think that that starts at acceptance. If Will comes out to the both of them, I think that they’ll be able understand what he means and sweetly realize that their entire situation works out for the better if Mike and El break up. It won’t be as smooth as that, of course - and, actually, I think that this might be the hardest part of the process as Will would probably feel too guilty to ever come out to either of them and risk changing what he has with them let alone expose his lie to Mike - but I think that all the pieces can clearly fall into place as their loves for each other mix and collide.

I know that Will is a point of contention and consideration, and I think that it wouldn’t feel as complete of a break up if Mike and El don’t address him and what he means for their standing relationship. Will did so much for Mike and El in season 4. He tried to push El to tell the truth about the bullying, and he tried to encourage Mike that he was “the heart” and that El needed him. Although neither of those pushes ended up in full, fleshed-out conversations, that’s not on Will. That’s on Mike and El. And the fact that neither of them could deepen their conversations even with Will’s help says a lot to me. But yeah, we’re here leaning on a break up, I know that I’m not here to argue that. The question is how.

I think that Will’s painting needs to be addressed, and once it is, no matter where Will possibly coming out factors into this, El will realize that her brother has a crush on Mike and not a girl, Mike will realize that he’s fallen in love with Will’s affections and thus him, and they’ll both be able to sort out their circumstances. Of course, it’s not that simple, but I think that they’ve come far enough to discern how to handle the difficulties. El needs to know that she’s not the monster first, and Mike needs to know that he’s worth more than being El’s support first. Then their disagreements about their perceptions will come more fully into view, which will lead to a mutual understanding.

I agree that it would be tough if it was one-sided in either direction. Because in order for it to be one-sided and difficult would mean that either of them haven’t fully grappled with who they are.

But if they do understand who they are, it puts many awkward notions at ease. Because if El is for Will’s happiness, she’s also for her own. She doesn’t have to be against herself. She can see how Mike isn’t the one romantically for her and that she can have someone who is openly affectionate, who writes “love” on every letter and note. He doesn’t see her qualities like a partner but as a confidant, and that’s okay. They can still be great together, they can still be close. And if Mike is able to realize his sexuality and point of affection for Will as romantic, it’s not like he suddenly needs to remove El from his life. Hell, El and Will are siblings now, so whoever he’s with, he’s going to have the other there. I think that El is special to Mike; she always will be. She’s the first person that’s given him this opportunity of a lifetime, and I think that he can love her as fondly as ever, just not as a girlfriend anymore.

Their bond as each other’s protectors and safe places will trump their being exes, if you ask me.

So here’s how I dream it to go: Mike and El talk. It’s casual at first, but they’re both still tense after all the tragedy. They talk about how scared/worried they are, how they just don’t seem to hold each other up. Even though they’re both trying, something is off. They like being together, but if this is love, then it doesn’t feel quite right. They both agree. Mike still genuinely thanks her for the painting to which things shift. El doesn’t know about the painting. It was for him? Mike is now flustered. El realizes that Will is in love with Mike. They piece it together aloud, and she asks how Mike feels about him. All it takes is for Mike to convey that he does like Will. He apologizes. He feels horrible, guilty. But El just puts her hand on his. It’s okay. She didn’t realize it, either. The fault isn’t always on one thing, she’s learned. They hug. Something like that.

I want to close this by saying that I agree that it all comes down to how the break up is written, and I think that the writers have all the pieces to make it pretty lovely. Will, El, and Mike all love each other very much, it’s just a matter of sorting out the displaced romance without losing anything other kind of love for each other.

Basically…

Their central bond of unconditional love doesn’t ever need to change, just the status of their flexible relationships.

#asks my beloved <3 #byler #anti mileven #such a good topic THANK YOU ANON for the question #byler analysis

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tngrace · 3 months

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Chapter 3

Hope 31..... nough said 🤭 😭 This one hurts... but man did I have fun writing this chapter and the next. I also figured out how I'm going to write the last chapter this week so hopefully in the next two weeks I'll get it written. and then it'll be on to part two. Hope yall enjoy and Happy Easter weekend.

A03 ; Tumblr Masterlists: Main, Mav Chronicles

The weekend is fun and relaxing and just what they needed. Watching Pete with Bradley is a true treat and makes Tom wish for things he knows will probably never be. They head into Monday morning refreshed and ready to go, none of them realizing what’s to come.

The second hop of the day is intense, Mav and Ice going up against each other, essentially sealing the winner of the trophy. Though neither of them really care at this point, would be happy for the other, they’re both still very competitive and determined to win. They go back and forth for the kill, their voices getting more intense and annoyed the longer it goes, more argumentative and impatient. But neither expected the jet wash or the flat spin.

“Mayday! Mayday! Mav’s in trouble. He’s in a flat spin. He’s heading out to sea!” His voice is calm and controlled but there’s a slight tremor there as he watches.

He and Slider see the two parachutes, but they know something’s wrong. He circles over head, refusing to leave, even when Jester orders them back.

“Ice,” Slider says after ten minutes of circling, watching Mav and Goose in the water.

“I’m not leaving. We don’t know how long search and rescue will take to get here. They’ll need the coordinates as Mav floats.”

Slider doesn’t push. They both had seen how Goose had hit the canopy, how his body floated listlessly down, how Mav had pulled him into his arms and Goose still didn’t move. Ice keeps circling, and ever so often it looks like Mav looks up at them, but they can’t be sure.

“Ice, Slider, back to base. SAR is two minutes out.” Viper’s voice is firm over their radio, and finally Ice acknowledges and turns them towards base. He doesn’t say a word on the return flight, leaving Slider worried.

Mike's heart is in his throat when he hears the mayday call come in. He dispatches search and rescue immediately and grips his hands in tight fists as he waits. He hears Jester order Ice and Slider back to base, but he still doesn't move. He wants to be a dad in this moment but he can't. He has to be a Commander and it's killing him.

He sees Jester’s plane land, and he takes a deep breath, and then another one. He dials Carrie; "Metcalf's," she answers.

"I'm going to be late." He doesn't know what else to say without breaking down, but he has to tell her.

"Mike? What's wrong?"

"There…." He cuts off, choking back a sob. He breathes deep before he continues. "There was an accident during training. I'll be at the base hospital most of the night."

"Is everyone ok?"

"I don't know yet. I just…. Waiting on SAR right now. I…"

"Mike?"

"It was Pete," he breathes. He hears her breath catch and he'd love nothing more than to hug her. "I…. I can't go there as…. And you can't…"

"Mike. You call me the minute you lay eyes on him! You hear me? I have to know…" He can hear the hysteria in her voice and he’d love to let her come check on Pete for herself, but he knows they can’t.

"I will… I will… I just… I have to be detached and I just…"

"I know. Just breathe. You can do this. But you let me know our boy's ok."

He takes another ten deep breaths after hanging up. When he sees that Ice and Slider still haven’t landed, he orders them back to base as well. He’s not sure what is going on with Tom and Pete, but he knows it’s something. Once he sees their plane heading for the landing strip, he pulls himself together and heads to the hangar where he knows the class will have gathered. “You’re dismissed for the day. SAR will take them straight to the base hospital and we’ll let you know when there’s an update.”

“Can we wait there?” Wolf asks.

“Of course. But you might be waiting a while.” He takes in all their faces and knows he’ll be seeing them all at the hospital. “Dismissed.”

They scatter, and Mike rakes his hand through his hair. He’d kill for one of Rick’s cigarettes at that moment, but he knows the hospital won’t allow him to have it inside anyways. He makes the trek over, bracing for the worst while hoping for the best. He’s not sure what he’ll do if something happened to his own kid under his watch.

A nurse greets him as soon as he enters; “Sir.” He gives her a nod to continue because he’s not sure if he can speak right now. “Lieutenant Mitchell is going to be fine. He has some severe bruising, mild concussion and is currently in shock, but overall he will make a full recovery.”

Mike blows out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “And Bradshaw?”

The nurse stops their trek down the hall and Mike tenses once more. “I’m sorry Sir. Lieutenant Bradshaw didn’t make it. His neck was broken and likely died upon impact, we assume he hit the canopy. Lieutenant Mitchell hasn’t offered up any details on what happened as of yet, so the doctor is just making assumptions.”

“Has Bradshaw’s wife been informed?”

“Not yet, no. We were waiting to see who you wanted to designate to do that.”

“I’ll handle it,” Mike decides. “Can I see Mitchell?”

“Of course. Right this way.” She shows him to Pete’s room, and Mike pauses, gathering the strength to push the door open. When he does, he feels the breath knocked out of him once more. Pete looks so small in the bed, eyes closed, but Mike knows he’s not asleep.

The nurse leaves him with it, and Mike quietly closes the door behind him. Pete’s eyes snap open at the sound of the door closing, and when they meet Mike’s, he quickly turns his head the other way.

He pulls up a chair beside the bed, and tentatively reaches out for Pete’s hand that has an IV in it. He can see where Pete has picked at the tape around it, and it brings a small smile to his face as he smooths it back out. Some things with his kid will never change, he thinks. “Pete?”

Pete turns his head back towards him, tears shining in his eyes, but he keeps them from falling.

“I’m not going to ask you if you’re ok because I know you’re not.” He pauses as he watches Pete just staring at him. “I told mom. She’d be here if she could, you know.”

“I know,” he croaks in a whisper.

Mike squeezes his hand tighter once more. “You’re not ok right now, but you will be…. You will be.”

Pete turns away again and Mike sighs. “We have to be even more careful now, so this is the only time I can offer you any form of comfort kiddo. There’s going to be an inquiry; they’ll let me know the date tomorrow.” Pete still won’t meet his eyes and Mike feels like they’re back at day one when they brought home a scared nine year old that didn’t trust them. “Pete? You know I love you son. But I need you to know that right now and for the next however long it takes to get the brass off our backs, I can’t be ‘dad’. No matter how bad I want to be.”

Pete gives him a tentative nod, and Mike can’t resist any longer. He leans over and pulls Pete into his arms, into his chest. He resists at first, but the first hint of Mike’s cologne and Pete breaks. The sobs break Mike’s heart even more, and he just holds him. He murmurs soft innate words of comfort as his son breaks in his arms. It takes several, several long minutes before Pete starts settling, his sobs turning to quiet sniffles, before he eventually just goes silent.

Mike softly strokes his back as he keeps holding him. “I’ll try to sneak mom in after hours ok?”

He knows Carrie isn’t going to rest with just his reassurance that Pete is ok, and he knows Pete really needs her at this moment. Pete gives a small nod before his whispered words destroy what is left of his broken heart. “Just don’t get in trouble for me.”

Mike pulls Pete’s head off his chest and stares into Pete’s eyes. “We’d do anything for you and you know it kiddo. If it comes down to a choice between you and the Navy…” Pete tries to interrupt him, but Mike just keeps talking. “If it does, I’m choosing you every time kiddo. Every. Single. Time.”

“Mike…”

“I mean it Pete. You are my son, my kid, and if the Navy doesn’t like it, they can go fuck themselves. You matter Pete. I love you son.”

“Love you too dad,” he whispers as he falls back into Mike’s chest.

Mike lets out a deep breath at that. Pete isn’t ok, but he’ll make sure he is, no matter what he has to do.

After several minutes of letting Pete resettle he has the horrible task of making Pete recount what happened. It’s the most detached he’s ever heard his kid, and it strengthens his resolve to sneak Carrie in to see him later. Once he’s sure he has everything Pete can recall, he squeezes his hand once more. “Try to get some rest. I can keep the others out if you want?”

“Na. It’s fine. I’m sure they need to see with their eyes I’m fine. Especially Ice and Slider.”

“Alright. I’ll let them know.” He leans close in case anyone can hear; “I’ll get mom in here later. That’s a promise.”

Pete gives him a weak nod. They both know what a risk it is, but he’d do it over and over for Pete. He gives him a nod and then heads for the door, with one glance back at his son.

Mike’s not surprised to find the six aviators waiting in the waiting room. They all jump up as soon as they see him, and Mike pulls himself together. “Mitchell is going to be fine. Some bruises that will heal in time and a mild concussion. He’ll be discharged tomorrow.”

He sees a small relief flow through the group, and he knows what he says next will cause it to vanish.

“Bradshaw on the other hand, is… dead. Broke his neck on the canopy as soon as he hit. I’m going to inform his wife now.”

The six aviators before him are deathly quiet, grief written across all their faces.

“Can we see Mav?” Wolfe finally breaks the silence.

Mike gives them a nod. “He’s pretty detached, still in shock. He’s resting, but he said it would be fine for all of you to visit. Probably do him some good to not be alone right now. Classes are dismissed for the rest of the week. When arrangements have been made, you’ll be the first to know.” He gives them a nod of dismissal and takes his leave.

The six aviators scurry down the hall to Mav’s room. Wolf and Wood are through the door first, just barely squeezing in before Chipper and Sunny. Ice stands at the door for a long moment just breathing, trying to prepare, and Slider waits with him squeezing his shoulder. Tom wants nothing more than to race in and scoop Pete into his arms, but he knows he can’t. Once he lays eyes on his boyfriend, who’s barely engaging with the other four, he leans in the corner just watching. He can see Pete’s eyes trail over to him ever so often, and he finally sees when Slider realizes they need to go. Tom gives him a nod of thanks, and promises to get back to their base housing later, before Ron turns and ushers everyone out.

Once he’s sure they’re gone, he walks over and settles on the side of Pete’s bed. His hand ghosts over Pete’s forehead, brushing the hair back. “Hey,” he whispers.

Pete can’t speak, too choked up holding back tears.

“Come here,” Tom whispers, easing down and helping Pete sit up some and lean into his arms. He holds him as tight as he dares, knowing under the gown Pete will be covered in bruises too painful to be held too tight. “I’m so sorry,” Tom whispers over and over as Pete sobs in his arms. He finally exhausts himself even more, and Tom can feel him drift off. He eases Pete back to the bed and covers him up. He sits and watches him sleep, knowing the coming days, weeks, and months are going to be hell, and wonders if Pete will blame him, wonders if this will be the end of them. Once Pete is deep asleep, Tom takes his leave, knowing he can’t stay any longer without them being found out.

After talking with Carole, he finally makes it home; it’s late enough he knows he’ll just be leaving as soon as he’s through the door though. Carrie is waiting on him at the door just as he suspected, and he pulls her into his arms. “He’s going to be ok. Just some bruising and a mild concussion. He was still in shock earlier. I…” He feels her squeeze him tighter and he lets out a soft sigh. “I promised to sneak you in. He needs you.”

“Do we tell the girls?”

“Not yet. Sneaking you in is going to be hard enough. I don’t need Catherine leaving Cynthia and banging down the hospital door or Jamie freaking out.”

Carrie gives him a soft huff of a laugh. “Alright. Let me get my purse and we can go.”

Once at the hospital, Mike nods to the night nurses, but doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t see any of the class in the waiting room, and assuming they’re not still with Pete, they should be at home. He stops right outside Pete’s room and tries to listen for any voices, but doesn’t hear any. He pushes the door open just a hair, and sees it empty, Pete just lying in the bed staring off into space.

He turns back and gives Carrie a nod, before pushing the door open further for her to slip past him. He closes the door behind them, but stays near it, so he can run interference if anyone comes to it. As soon as she’s by his side, she sits on the side of the bed and pulls Pete into her arms.

“Mom,” he cries as he clings to her, and it breaks Mike’s heart even more. Carrie just hugs him tight, her hand running up and down his back and into his hair.

When Pete has finally exhausted himself of tears, he whispers “I killed him,” effectively tearing both his parents’ hearts out.

Mike moves across the room at that statement, joining Carrie on the side of the bed. He eases Pete back from her hold and cradles his face. “Look at me son.”

Pete slowly meets his eyes, unable to ignore the firm demand in Mike’s voice. “You did not kill Nick. You did not kill him. You hear me?”

“I did though. He was my RIO, my responsibility.”

“Pete…”

Carrie cuts him off though, knowing that Pete isn’t going to believe a word of any argument at the moment. She cradles Pete’s cheek and kisses his forehead. “You need to get some sleep sweetheart.”

“Don’t think I can,” he sighs. He knows he’d fallen asleep on Tom, but it doesn’t feel like he slept long at all before a nightmare gripped him. When he’d woken and been alone, he laid there staring off into space, knowing sleep would be hard to come by.

“Try. We’ll stay til you’re asleep,” she promises.

She gets him to ease back against the bed, and softly runs her fingers through his hair. It’s the fastest way to settle Pete; they'd learned the first time the kid hadn’t gotten sick after coming to live with them. She keeps it up until his eyes drift, and even after until he’s deep asleep.

“He’s going to be ok,” Mike reassures her as they watch him sleep for a few more minutes. They don’t linger long though, despite Carrie wanting to stay.

The next morning, the inquiry information is waiting on Mike the minute he steps on base. He goes through Mav’s file one more time to make sure nothing of their connection is hidden in there, even though he knows the file like the back of his hand. When he’s sure everything is good, he makes the trek over to the base hospital to deliver the news about the inquiry. From here on he knows everything has to be above board until the brass is done sniffing around.

When he walks into Pete’s room, he’s surprised to see him not there. He has a moment of panic before one of the nurses points him towards the bathroom down the hall. He gives her a nod and heads in. Mav is leaning heavily on the sink, but he somehow managed to shave. Mike catalogs the bruising along his chest and shoulders from his harness that he wasn’t able to see yesterday because of the gown. He knows there’s probably some along his thighs as well, he just can’t see them. He wants so badly to pull his kid into his arms and never let go, but they also have more eyes on them now more than ever. He just has to be careful, not show emotion or favoritism, he keeps reminding himself, and they’ll get through this. He calls on all his years in the service to keep it together as he meets his kids' eyes. He doesn’t like what he sees; Pete’s eyes have always been alive and full of mischief. They always shine and sparkle so bright. But right now, they are dead, lifeless, emotionless, same as yesterday.”How you doing?” he manages to ask.

“I’m alright.” It’s rough and so much quieter than Pete normally talks it throws Mike for a minute. He spins and meets Pete’s eyes in the mirror trying to portray that he has to be a Commander at the moment.

“Goose is dead.” Internally he winces at how straightforward and harsh he has to be, and he knows the minute Carrie finds out, she is going to be livid. But they all knew when Pete joined up, that a time like this might come, and Pete told him then, as a bright eyed eighteen year old, that he’d never hold it against him.

“I know.” His eyes drop back to the sink, hand splashing more water onto his face, and Mike can see he’s barely holding it together. He wants to tell him to come home with him, let Carrie mother him to death, but he bites it all back. Seeing her last night is going to have to be enough for now. Pete runs another hand over his face, and takes some deep breaths. Mike recalls words one of his former COs told him after Duke died. At the time he hated it, and he knows Pete is going to hate being told the same thing, but he needs to say it. “You fly jets long enough, something like this happens.”

“He was my RIO, my responsibility!” It’s an echo of his statement last night and Mike knows the guilt is eating him alive. He knows he’s going to have to work hard to get Pete to let it go, if that will even be possible. He knows Goose was like a brother to him; that Carole and Goose both welcomed Pete into their family. But he can’t see his kid drown in grief, not if he can help it.

“In my squadron in Vietnam, we lost eight of eighteen aircraft. Ten men. First one dies, you die too. But there will be others. You can count on it. You gotta let him go.” His hand touches his side, draws across his back, offering as much comforting touch as he can in that moment. “You gotta let him go.” He knows it's harsh, hates the words coming out of his own mouth, but as a Commander, it’s what you’re supposed to say.

Pete’s eyes are hard as they stare at him despite being red rimmed, but Mike does his best to let it roll off his back. “Your inquiry hearing is scheduled for two days from now at 0800. Jester and I will be there. I don’t see any reasons why you won’t be cleared and can return to finish the program before graduation.”

Pete doesn’t say anything and won’t meet his eyes again. He walks away even though it kills him too. He passes Tom in the parking lot and he knows he was right about something going on between the two. He gives the Lieutenant a nod, wants to pull him to the side and threaten him if he so much as dares to break Pete in any way. But he knows he can’t, so he keeps walking and just hopes Tom will be able to get through to his kid.

Tom finds Pete back in his room, trying to dress. “Can I help?” he asks from the doorway.

Pete gives him a nod and Tom comes over, helping him pull his shirt down. The bruising looks worse today, and his body is stiff and achy. He’s refused anymore pain pills though and just wants to leave. “I saw Viper leaving.”

“Mmm yea. Stopped by to give me the information for the inquiry hearing.”

“It wasn’t your fault Pete.”

“Let’s not. I don’t… I just want to get out of here.”

Tom bites back all his retorts that Pete needs to talk about this and just gives him a nod. “Carole and Bradley are at the base housing. I can take you there.”

Pete gives him another nod, and follows Tom out the door. Once in the car, the silence is almost unbearable. “Pete…” Tom starts when they’re in front of the housing, but stops when Pete cuts his eyes at him.

“Might be best if we just had some space right now. You don’t need messed up in this hearing too.”

“I have to be there because I was in the air with you.”

“Better to be safe than sorry.”

Tom wants to argue, wants to push that Pete doesn’t need to do this or push everyone away, but his own guilt is eating him alive. Thus, he’d do anything Pete asks. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.”

Pete won’t meet his eyes so Tom knows he’s lying. “I just want him back,” Pete says softly before he gets out. He closes the door and doesn’t look back.

Tom watches him go, his heart breaking, but knowing he will give Pete anything. He watches until Pete is inside the door before driving off.

#my writing #maverick chronicles #icemav #icemav fic #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #ron slider kerner #nick goose bradshaw #mike viper metcalf #vipapa #top gun #tg #top gun fic #tg fic #MCD

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strangeswift · 2 years

Text

Katya/Goncharov Argument vs. MiIeven Argument Parallels (Hinting at the downfall of MiIeven and Mike and El's sexualities.)

The Duffers have confirmed that they took inspiration from Goncharov (1973) while writing Stranger Things 4. Given this information, the parallels between Goncharov and Katyas and El and Mike's relationships are undeniable.

Katya is in love with another woman, Sofia. While Goncharov has romantic tension with another man, Andrey. Katya and Goncharov are in a toxic, loveless marriage. What does this say about the Duffers intentions as far as Mike and El's relationship?

The most glaringly obvious parallel between Katarov and MiIleven is between the two couple's big arguments. Here I will point out how the MiIeven argument parallels the Katarov argument by presenting the Katarov argument and identifying the parallels.

The Duffers have actually paralleled Mike to Katya and El to Goncharov. For context if anyone hasn't seen the movie in a while and forgot, this is the scene after Goncharov is forced to kill Vasiliy in front of Katya.

Here we go:

Goncharov: You were never meant to see that.

Katya: I know what you do. I know how we make our money... What pays for this house.

Goncharov: Do you know what your mother would've said, if she knew I let you see something like that?

Katya: My mother is dead.

Goncharov: Yes, I realize. At your request.

Katya: It doesn't matter what she would've thought.

Goncharov: It matters what you think.

Katya: I don't think anything.

This section parallels Goncharov killing Vasiliy to El hitting Angela with the roller skate, as well as Goncharov feeling like a monster for being a mobster to El feeling like a monster.

When Goncharov says "You were never meant to see that." he is expressing concern about the way Katya specifically views him due to her seeing him kill Vasiliy. Just as El expresses concern that Mike thinks she's a monster after watching her hit Angela with the roller skate. And Katya's response is just as dismissive as Mike's.

"Do you know what your mother would've said..." is Goncharov expressing that Katya's mother perceived him as a bad person, as a monster. He is worried about other people's perception of him. Just as El is worried about other people's perception when she says, "Everyone looks at me like I'm a monster." Again, Katya is dismissive, simply saying "My mother is dead." and "It doesn't matter what she would've thought." Just as Mike is dismissive, saying, "Well they just don't know you."

When Goncharov responds, "It matters what you think." That is a direct parallel to "You think I'm a monster too." And Katya's response? Parallels Mike's reply.

Moving on:

Goncharov: You don't think anything of watching me kill a man, or you don't think anything of me?

Katya: You know I think the world of you.

Goncharov: (Pauses) All my life, I knew what I was. I knew what I'd become. I became what my father was. I did hope, that like him, I'd somehow still find a wife who loved me.

Katya: You have.

Goncharov: (shakes his head) No. I haven't.

Katya: I don't know what you want me to say.

Goncharov's "...you don't think anything of me?" Parallels El's, "But you don't love me anymore?"

Katya's "You know I think the world of you" parallels Mike's, "You know what I think of you. You're the most incredible person in the world." (Come on Duffers, this one was a little on the nose.)

Goncharov's "All my life, I knew what I was. I knew what I'd become." demonstrates his acceptance of what he is, what he sees as being a monster. Just as El does when she says, "I am different. I do not belong."

Moving on:

Goncharov: I don't want you to say anything. (Pulls gun, but doesn't aim it.) I want you to tell me where you were two nights ago. I know you weren't at Vasiliy's, he told me as much before I shot him in the face.

Katya: (boldy, showing no fear) I was with Sofia.

Goncharov: Do you know what people would say, if they knew...

Katya: They wouldn't say anything! You're Lo Straniero. What can they say?

Goncharov: (examining the gun) I don't want you seeing her.

Goncharov is concerned once again about other people's perception of him when he says, "Do you know what people would say, if they knew..." just as El is concerned about other's perception if her, as discussed earlier.

When Katya says, "They wouldn't say anything! You're Lo Straniero." she is referring to the fact that because Goncharov has power in the mob, he shouldn't worry about other people's perceptions. This parallels Mike's, "They're nobodies, and you're a superhero!" And Goncharov doesn't seem convinced by this, just as El isn't.

End scene.

Now, in this scene Goncharov is implied to be aware of Katya's amorous connection to Sofia. That raises the question of whether Mike and Will's relationship will parallel Katya and Sofia's, as well as whether El knows about Mike's feelings.

There are many more Goncharov (1973) parallels to dissect, but this is just the most glaringly obvious. I find it so interesting that nobody has compared these two scenes yet. Please go watch them both, you'll see the parallels in the staging and the actor's mannerisms as well.

#byler #unreality #abby rambles #analysis #🌈🐦

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henrysglock · 2 years

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no but this is so real. yes, Henry is absolutely deranged and clearly has no problem killing/ enjoys it to some degree/ has fun with his little horror visions.

but it was Always impersonal. he picked all his victims when psychically browsing the trauma isles he sees all over Hawkins and chose the one's he could work with most. we see him do this. then he torments them for a while but ends up killing them in only a few seconds - he doesn't draw anything out. and he doesn't have a personal vendetta against the people he kills, they simply fit into his worldview of conformity and humanity sucking and just happen to be vulnerable enough for him to use for opening the gates.

we see him start to be a bit more purposefully mean to Max on her second go, where it's become slightly personal after she tried to hurt him, ran, and then thought she could trick him. he's always direct but here he's a bit more brutal in word choice than with other victims before. not just telling them their issues and that they're lost causes but going out of his way to compare her to Billy and also corrupting her happy place, the snowball, in front of her eyes.

but that was only because Max got away the first time. that small act of defiance was Enough to make him react with MUCH more purposeful torment. because Henry is unforgiving, vengeful, and clearly ready to hold any deemed "wrong doing" against a person forever, as we've seen with his family.

the 4 victims we see in s4 are technically replaceable. just the most vulnerable people he has access too. Lucas even suggests that there are more victims already cursed he could go after if he somehow failed to kill one of the 4 victims he was actively pursuing. Vecna could just pick someone else if any of them proved too difficult to kill, or left town. it was never about the people but their Trauma.

so that leaves the question of what would happen if he was presented with a person he would actually Profit from having out of the picture?

and if that person wasn't someone like El who could try and fight back with her incredibly strong psychic powers, and not someone like Will he clearly wants alive beyond all else. then what? we've seen Henry act cruel even without any incentive given to spark a personal grudge. what the HELL would it look like if he Actually wanted to hurt you personally?

and sure, Mike got in the way of plans a lot before. he's clearly been assigned the party leader role for a reason, taking charge, coming up with the base concepts for all of the big plans to fight back etc. but the thing Mike Truly shines in when messing things up for Henry is Will. he knew Will well enough to realize he was leading the soldiers into a trap and convinced Joyce to sedate him. he was the only one of the kids going into the shed with Will with powerful enough memories to bring him back a bit. he keeps looking for Will when he goes missing, even when he just bikes home after an argument. Mike is clearly unwilling to let anything happen to Will at any cost.

but the thing he truly stands out in is the Trust Will places in him. Mike was the ONLY ONE Will felt comfortable telling about the Shadow Monster and his Now-Memories. and similar to that, at the end of s4 Will doesn't tell everyone about Vecna being alive. he tells Mike one on one, and only him. and in typical Mike fashion he grabs Will reassuringly and tells him they'll do this together. that he's there for him. once again showing that he is the person Will feels comfortable to confide him the most.

Henry has Reasons to go after Mike. he's been in the way a lot already. but if Henry actually wanted to get to Will next season he would physically HAVE to get through Mike first - it's not even a question of how everyone reacts to the news of Vecna's survival, since Mike already Knows AND told Will they'd kill him. he's GOING to be in the way of Henry getting to Will and the ending of s4 went out of it's way to already set that up (him also standing alongside Will in the final shot hammers that point of 'being there for him' home even further)

there's SO many occasions from previous seasons alone that would justify Henry taking a bit more joy from taking Mike out than any of the previous 4 victims. but given that he's going to be an Active hindrance next season with being Will's biggest source of comfort and belonging? which now gives Henry an actual Incentive to get Mike out of the way specifically?

yeah those visions are going to be NASTY

god you are SO right for this anon you took the words right out of my brain!!

He's already cruel at just being hindered by a victim. but Mike? The Mike Wheeler? "Crazy together" Mike Wheeler? "We will, we will." Mike Wheeler? Mike Wheeler who goes batshit over Will (and El) being in danger, who figures out all Henry's plans and destroys them??

He's fucked, man. Henry's pulling out all the stops, he's gonna hit Mike where it hurts because you know he's got a massive personal grudge. He's going to hurt Mike because he wants to and because he can. It's going to be brutal.

Can't wait to see how Will is going to react to the love of his life being tortured by his abuser...

#asks #mike gets vecna'd #mike wheeler #henry/vecna/001 #byler

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pappydaddy · 2 years

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To the stancy anon

No need to call nancy a cheater... you can show steve appreciation with out calling her something she isn't. I love steve, he's my favorite character, but sometimes i feel like people worship steve so much they forget all the bad shit he did, but when it comes to nancy they bring back season 1 things. And this type of behavior almost always happens with the woman while the man is like "but he's such a better person now". You can dislike nancy btw, and i understandwhy some people don'tlike her sometimes, I'm not her biggest fan also. Besides they're just characters who are teenagers.

Btw i also think the stancy thing is bullshit but i like them as friends

Anyways stan ronance <3

another ronance shipper! i feel like natalia is one of the biggest ronance shippers lol!

i also like steve and nancy as friends. they have both matured and they have grown since their break-up, but i really don't see a romantic relationship working out between them because of the things they both have done.

tbh, i think the big reason people are so quick to forget the things that steve has done (which, quite frankly, i hated steve in season one until he ran back to fight the demogorgon) is because he realized what he did was shitty and he made active changes in his life to better his character. this is not excusing what he did, he was shitty to nancy (another reason i don't think they should date again) because he was easily influenced by the shitheads he was friends with. he was also pissed at her in season 2 (understandably), but he talked to her and acknowledged that he wasn't a good boyfriend and that their relationship wasn't working out. steve changed into a better person because of the break-up with nancy. and in season 4, you can see him reverting back to his old self a little especially when nancy is around.

with nancy, her character isn't horrible. i like nancy enough, but (like i keep saying) it sometimes feels like the writers are trying to get viewers to not like her. from what we saw, nancy never actually explained what her and jonathan were doing in her room when steve saw them together. i also feel like the nancy cheating on steve argument is a lot like the ross cheating on rachel argument. with nancy, we never see an actual shift where she actively tries to correct a behaviour and i think that's where a lot of dislike for her character comes into play. also where the dislike for mike's character comes into play.

steve and nancy never officially broke up in the bathroom (that we know of), they had a fight. then, after the bathroom scene, nancy and jonathan go off on their mission and they sleep together. the whole cheating thing really comes down to opinion - like with the ross and rachel thing. were they or weren't they on a break kinda deal, ya know?

i also am not a fan of jonathan and nancy dating either tbh. jonathan has done sketchy shit as well and is not completely innocent. he also doesn't actively try to correct behaviour either like nancy.

however, with robin tho. with robin, we can see nancy thinking a little bit more and (maybe) changing for the better (which is what a relationship is supposed to do, bring out the best in you - not actively change everything about you, but makes you want to act like a better person if you catch my drift).

in sum: i don't like the relationships because both parties have issues making the relationship not good.

but yeah, stan ronance.

#pappydaddy answers anons #pappydaddy answers anon asks #pappydaddy answers asks #pappydaddy answers #anti stancy

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zaine-m · 2 years

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Back for round 2, we still have a good 9 days until Nini's screen time in the show drops and only 3 more days of fun Gina. So prepare yourself.

previous -- next

Hsmtmts season 1 episode 2 thoughts under the cut:

So the old music teacher was supportive of Nini, and was either the reason Nini got into musical theater or Nini didn't even fucking audition despite her wanting a role in the musical. Either way there is no reason for us to feel bad for her, god, she's so infuriating

And then she was in the ensemble once so boo hoo, let's get out the tiniest violin for Nini

Ricky is such a classic teenage boy, and big red's just going along with it

This is what I'm confused about, why does EJ have so many followers. Yeah some kids at my school have a lot of followers but that's from people they know. EJ is acting like an influencer, is this a thing that happens in America?

Ashlyn has already improved

I think EJ has some right to be concerned considering her ex, who she didn't break up with before starting to date EJ is actively trying to date her

Like just be like "Yo, I'm worried you're going to get back with Ricky, cause he's doing all this stuff to try to get bac with you" and she can be like "yo, valid concern, however, I'm over him" IDK, just talk about our issues

Why does Seb need glasses while he's milking but now when he's reading

"Where are the sparks from the audition" if you had looked into the drama you would've know this is a terrible idea

✨️✨️✨️Gina eaves dropping✨️✨️✨️

I never realised they're talking about Zack Roy

Miss Jenn, wtf are you doing making kids come in early so you can force them to kiss despite the fact that it isn't in the movie and one doesn't want to. If Carlos wasn't there it would be straight up weird

As much as I hate Nini, she is completely in the right with this, bring this up to the principal girl, he'll probably take your side since he seems to hate Miss Jenn

Also fake kissing, exists

I love the Caswell cousins

I love that after Ashlyn is like "you don't need to see her texts" he immediately asks her to steal her phone for him. Like what have they been through that would make him think she would do that for him. I never realized how much I miss this dynamic

"She's not like other girls" fuck off

"She makes me better" EJ, you're about to steal something and you poisoned someone. I don't know what you consider better or what spell she has you under to think that.

I love the way Carlos giggles as he explains curtain calls to Ricky

It just occasionally cutting to Gina watching, like yes girl, give us shady 🥰

They're all just like wtf did Gina just do. She has no fear and I love that

Nini, you're so fucking rude. Talk to Ricky. Get over yourself, if you want to be the lead, you're going to have to be more mature

Deal with this outside of rehearsal

Maybe you're the one wasting everyone's time with your immaturity

Carlos is so fucking stressed over this

Why do you expect someone who you have shown time and time again to not care about, to care about you?

The entire world doesn't revolve around you, he got the part, fair and square. Either ignore the issue, or deal with it outside of rehearsal. Stop making it Carlos' problem

She's like I'm not going to talk about it, then starts an argument every chance she gets

Rickyyy, you're not just taking up space. Nini, look at what you did to our baby. When he already had all this stress at home

The cogs in Gina's head turning

Big red just getting left behind 🥲

Wait was she lying about her neighbour's kid

Gina acting all scary, cause she's afraid inside. This is why she's my favourite character

Why are insulting Carlos 🥲

Mike just watching everything go down in Ricky's life

I miss all the background characters

Why wouldn't Ricky just go up to Carlos

I never realised how many scenes Ricky and Carlos had together

I still hate how the song Ashlyn wrote is just to further Nini's character development

They're acting so shady about EJ lol

"It doesn't matter who texted you it's no one's business"

And he starts a long journey of Miss Jenn being mean to Seb

I fucking love Gina

Gina's starting to come into the story more so that's nice. I think tomorrow is really when she shines so can't wait for that. I'm hoping the worst of Nini is over, there still the everyone doing huge favours for he and her never thanking any of them which will be annoying, but I think I can manage.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts season 1 #gina porter #anti nini #anti miss jenn #ricky bowen #hsmtmts watch through

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kaypeace21 · 4 years

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Will Byers doesn't even get nosebleeds and all the stuff El, Kali and Terry get so why are you saying hes a psychic and even the most powerful one? Don't get me wrong, I like him and want him to have have powers, I just don't understand how this would work without the nosebleed thing.

1) Kali & El only have noseble*ds when they over exert themselves and push their powers to their limits. They’ve used their powers a bunch of times without either of their noses ble*ding (El opening/closing doors in s3, pushing max/ pushing food on to Hopper in s2 , exploding the drinks on the girls in s3 , Kali causing Ray and Axel to hallucinate,kali making a butterfly, or Kali making everyone appear invisible , etc). A ble*ding nose isn’t a sign of strength- it’s an indication of where their power threshold is (and a sign they’re reaching their natural limits). Kali’s nose only bl*d when she made huge allusions- like a giant wall or a bridge collapsing. El in s2, when closing the gate/levitating off the floor had her nose the blo*diest (2 nostrils instead of the usual 1 nostril ble*ding) and then she immediately passed out. When moving the train her nose bl*d and she also collapsed after. Same in s1 when saving Mike from the cliff- it caused her nose to bl*ed and she also passed out.Same thing (in s1) happened when she protected the boys from “bad men” at the school-her nose bl*d and she literally passed out and couldn’t walk temporarily and Dustin had to carry her. So his nose doesn’t ble*d ,cause creating sentient creatures like the mf/demorgorgan, isn’t a big deal because he’s not over exerting himself... (it’s literally a subconscious act for him-he’s not even trying to use his powers- or knows he’s using them)-that’s how powerful he is! And sorry... but i’ve heard this argument before. This is a weak counter argument because ...

2) Will having powers/causing everything supernatural in the show IS A PLOT TWIST! OF COURSE HIS NOSE DOESN’T BLE#D- it would be too obvious then (that’s basic storytelling: throw in lots of hints about the twist but not make it so obvious that everyone sees it coming since ep 1 ) BUT in the original pilot script (when the show was called Montauk -which only had slight changes in the script)in the first episode his nose and ears were supposed to ble#d (in the shed) when taken to the upside-down.

So yeah, Will has powers and always was supposed to have them. And they left plenty of other hints throughout s1-3 to indicate this.

Also, sorry, there’s so much evidence that Will has powers- discussed it here (you can be lazy and just skip to the ‘will the wise’ section if you want, but i’d recommend reading the whole thing , from beginning to end, cause the evidence just stacks up to an undeniable extent).If you can actually read the whole thing and say... yeah let me ignore ALL THAT EVIDENCE cause his nose doesn’t ble*d ( despite it not doing so to obviously hide the HUGE twist & cause the Duffers probably realized the nose-thing for Will also wouldn’t make narrative sense , since Will has no real psyionic limits.)

Then...c’mon you’re just refusing to see it XD

*The fact the tumblr censors blocked this from the tags ... unless I say “noseb*****” . I can’t sometimes.XD

#will byers #stranger things #el hopper #kali prasad #stranger things theory

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irandomblogfulb · 3 years

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FATE: What happens when you get a bunch of middle aged white guys to adapt a cartoon for girls

Well, I just went through 6 hours of fate and I have a lot of opinions on it. Yeah, this is going to be long (slightly under 3k words) so putting it under read more and obvious spoilers.

PSA before delving right in:

1) Yes, I will be comparing to the original. Any comparisons are not through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. There are parts here and there that I genuinely think were done better in the cartoon on a writing standpoint.

2) This is purely my opinion and overall negative. Don't like it? Don't read. I'm all up for discussion but I don't want another person crying to me about how I “ruined” their experience of the show.

3) If you like Fate then good for you. This isn’t me bashing people who like it.

I've spit it up into sub sections just for my own convince.

1. The problem with the 'I'm not like other girls' trope

This pertains to the entire Bloom-Sky-Stella love triangle. I wasn't as pressed about it compared to other winxers (and I loved Stella's and Brandon's relationship on my rewatch). In fact, I was okay with it. But then I sat down and watched the show and there's a lot of underlying problems with the love triangle. Particularly pitting Bloom and Stella against each other for Sky's affection.

Now this part of the love triangle I already didn't like. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I dropped the OG Winx after season 5 but the Winx while they did have their conflicts and arguments, never fought over a boy. I really appreciated that from the cartoon so seeing that live action would fall into that trap – I was mildly annoyed at that. Then it hit me. It's Bloom and Stella.

The seemingly ordinary girl vs the pristine princess of Solaria. If the title didn't give it away, you should get the point by now. Others have already called it by now but the "I'm not like other girl's" trope in itself, while seemingly feminist is actually misogynist. Saying the more masculine type of girl is better than the feminine is inherently misogynist. Stella, the prime princess, girly and feminine, is villainized by the love triangle. Sky's and Stella's relationship is toxic and Stella's overt co-dependence and jealousy are already big fat red signs - but Sky's and Bloom's relationship is built on how she's "different". Bloom isn't like Stella, she's "real".

2. Am I supposed to like Riven?

As the title puts it, wtf am I supposed to feel about Riven. Is he supposed to be a good guy? Do I root for him? Is he morally ambiguous? Because holy shit compared to OG!Riven, this guy is diabolical and much much worse! OG!Riven is an asshole and he teams up with the trix but his arc was very simple and easy to understand. He joins the bad guys, distances himself from the good guys, the trix betray his ass, he self-reflects in the dungeon - escapes and redeems himself. Net!Riven is so bad to the point where you can't redeem him and the writers don't even try. Freddie Thorp is good in his role. (however, he definitely doesn't pass for a 17-year-old. He's 26 and it shows) and he actually makes the cringe dialogue work. But he's way too diabolical and downright predatory. The scene where he forces Dane to gulp down his spiked drink - it’s worse seeing it than reading it. That grossed me out more than the gore.

What makes it worse, nobody properly calls him out. Beatrix kinda does on his homophobia – “Homophobic bashing by GIF” - and Sky does chastise him, but they still tolerate him. It is kinda funny in a way Sky has a whole ass arc about how he's enabling Stella's problematic behaviour by still dating her after she blinded her friend but doesn't realize he's doing the same for Riven.

The only person that really puts her foot down with Riven is Terra and nobody takes her seriously about anything she says.

Everyone is very laissez-faire around him and that's not how you respond to your friend being problematic. (Hey, kinda like the other girls sans Aisha are with Bloom!) Everyone surrounding Riven is so disgusting and the notion of him supposedly being a good guy is very hard to buy into. His whole relationship with Dane has a section of it’s own because there’s just a lot to unpack.

3. Stella I am so sorry

I'm also in the majority hating how they've tarnished Stella. Basically, they turned her into the stereotypical rich bully with mommy issues.

I get that Stella has an abusive mom but that’s no excuse to be a total bitch to her roommates. And no, her roommates shouldn't accept her back with open arms. And she doesn't even redeem herself - the girls just accept her back after her mom pulls her from Alfea.

And this is also another issue with the writing were the characters suddenly just change their opinions on a whim. Suddenly Stella likes the winx, suddenly Terra misses Stella even though having that girl literally gives her anxiety. Suddenly Aisha's on Bloom's side in the end.

This isn't me simping for the cartoon out of nostalgia. I was mostly okay with the idea of Stella and Sky hooking up. But Looking at it from a creative standpoint - looking at the source material, and the many paths you can take this character, the best thing Brian Young and co. can think of for her was turning her into the stereotypical rich bully that we've seen time and time again? No deconstruction no meta take, it's played out exactly how you’d expect it.

Again, this isn't me simping for the show. Purely from a creative standpoint Stella was such a major let down. There's so much to the character and Brian Young took the easiest, saturated path.

4. That one scene with Bloom's parents

You know the one. Mike unhinges Bloom's bedroom doors and Vanessa cusses out and insults her child like a petty teen bully. Forgetting how utterly cringey that scene was, you can't have her mom go batshit insane on her child, then act like she's this loving parent that cares so deeply about her daughter. Screw that! Vanessa deserved those 3rd degree burns! She invaded her daughter's privacy. Bloom didn't even do anything wrong!

I can't buy into this narrative of Vanessa and Mike being loving parents when they do something like that. Seriously who thought that was okay?

5. Pity Parties for everyone.

I already discussed this in Stella’s section but I don’t like the “it’s okay for me be a shitty person because my life sucks :)” narrative Fate tries to pull. They did it with Stella, Bloom, Riven.

What I liked about the first season of Winx Club is Bloom’s arc and her character as a whole. Because while she went through shit, from the Trix, to finding out she was adopted, her existential crisis, not feeling like she belonged, losing the dragon flame, she went through a lot. She didn’t throw a pity party. She didn’t whine, bitch and complain. She allowed herself to feel upset, took it as it is and tried to make lemonade out of lemons. And I respect that.

Net!Bloom is agrevating. She does some dumb, reckless stuff but it’s excused because she’s the protagonist? She let the war criminal out, the school gets taken over by the bad guys because of Bloom. Faragonda fucking dies because she let the war criminal out! The burned ones attacked the school because she let the war criminal out!!! But no, Aisha’s villainized for calling Bloom out because Bloom’s existential crisis is more important then anything else.

Getting to Sky, he isn’t as bad as the others. He doesn’t become a shitty person because of his problems. (Though lowkey flirting with Bloom while he hooks up with Stella is uh not good.) But he does come across incredibly whiny. Because of the cringey dialogue and the unnecessary swearing I can’t take his speech on opening up to Bloom seriously. I laughed throughout the whole thing and Bloom leaving his unconscious body there was the icing on the cake.

One of the few characters that deserved a pity party is Terra. She’s very much like OG!Bloom in a way. She is bullied by Dane and Riven, has body insecurities, anxiety, nobody listens to her and at most only tolerates her. Despite all the crap that is thrown her way she still reminds humble, kind, and respectful. And she is one of the few characters that deserves more support than what she got out of the season.

5. Bloom, Aisha, Tokenism and their awful relationship

I’m going to be upfront, their relationship sucks. The core of their dynamic is what Aisha can do for Bloom. It’s very one-sided. Bloom only goes to Aisha to help solve her problems, which Aisha gladly does – but when Aisha disagrees with Bloom or says something Bloom doesn’t like, Bloom suddenly goes off and Aisha’s made to be the bad guy. Even though she’s right? And Aisha has her own problems as well, shown to also struggle with her powers. But nope, that’s pushed to the back burner because Bloom needs help.

I am all for creative freedom. I can stomach Stella x actual Sky. I can stomach turning Stella into a rich mean girl. I can stomach the dark academia aesthetic but what Brian Young and co. did to Aisha is just plain racist. Screw the “it’s an adaptation” excuse. Turning this character who had a rich storyline and was a princess into a white girl’s magical negro who fixes all her problems is racist and by definition tokenism. And by whitewashing the other two characters of color, making Aisha the only poc in the group – that’s the worst thing you can do to her.

And frankly we need more black princesses on screen.

6. Dane and the homophobia of the show

Towards the show’s climax it’s revealed Dane is helping Beatrix because she accepts he’s “different”. Not only does this go back to my pity party rant but like bruh,

1) Beatrix never really did anything for Dane? She hung out and smoked with him a bit, but that’s all. You’re telling me Terra wouldn’t accept Dane? Beatrix never helped him and he never really opened up to her about his struggles.

2) Nobody else, not even background characters bully or harass Dane for being “different”. It’s only Riven, the guy he’s crushing on. The whole falling in love with the bad boy/abuser trope is bad in a hetero relationship and that still stands for a gay one. And I know damn well if Dane was a woman half of the shit Riven did to Dane wouldn’t slide.

It makes no sense for Dane to side with the bad guys when Riven’s the one bullying him and Beatrix is complacent in the bullying. Oh, and having your second black* character who’s also lgbt+/potentially questioning be a villain? Not good.

I’m all for gay and poly rep, but not like this. If Stella and Sky’s toxic relationship is going to be called out for what it is, why not Dane’s?

*Idk if Theo Graham is light-skinned black or biracial so I’ll just refer to him as black.

7. The plot

It’s very predictable. Personally, wasn’t fond of the ‘twist of a twist of a twist’ style of writing. The story tries to be nuanced and deep but it’s not. Common sense is treated like a big revelation. Not trusting the war criminal you barely know isn’t as big of a take that the writers try to make it out to be.

8. Everything else

· Beatrix is fine. No Icy but did like the gothic bookworm aesthetic.

· Sam is just there to be Musa’s love interest and provide some dumb drama between Musa and Terra. I thought they’d go the Edward/Bella root – Musa’s drawn to Sam because she can’t sense his emotions for some reason. Nope, they just get together for the obligatory make out sessions. Don’t care much for the relationship or the character.

· Since the powers are all elemental shouldn’t there be classes purely for an elemental? Classes purely for fire fairies, etc?

· Musa’s powers are confusing. If she has no control over them and they are “always on”, shouldn’t her eyes constantly be glowing purple? Very wishy washy. Sometimes they overwhelm her and other times she has complete control. Her character is just there for plot stuff.

· Terra is one of the better characters but can’t enjoy her knowing about the whitewashing. Why can’t we have a plus sized character just exist and not have body issues?

· Sky doesn’t feel like a prince. Characters treat him like his dad is a war hero and not the King of Eraklyon. There was a point where I thought I misheard and thought his dad was just a war hero and not a king.

· Why try to justify Rosalind’s war crime if she’s going to be the big bad anyways?

· The way the characters treat death/act around death is very weird. Musa and Terra see a pile of dead bodies and they’re unreasonable calm. Especially Bloom an “ordinary teenage girl from earth”, reacts very nonchalant when death and war crimes are brought up. Doesn’t help the show tries to push this “they’re kids fighting a war” narrative.

· Can’t buy into the girls’ friendship. The Aisha/Bloom dynamic is centred on what Aisha can do for Bloom. Bloom only cares about herself and only goes to her friends to help with her problems. Most of Musa’s and Terra’s interaction centre around Sam. Stella didn’t care for the girls until her mom showed up and pulled a 180. The girls were quick to turn on Aisha when she sided with the adults.

· I have no problem with technology existing but why do they have Instagram, Tiktok and Tumblr? The otherworld is a completely separated from Earth, why do they have the same technology?

9. Brian Young, what do you mean by mature?

I grew up on the 4kids dub before transitioning to the Nick dub for season 4 and 5 then dropping the cartoon for good. So naturally on my rewatch of the cartoon I decided to go watch the RAI dub since I heard it’s more accurate and 4Kids are infamous for their horrid localisations straying too much to the source material. Upon finishing season 1 and currently watching season 2, a few things took me by surprise. For one, the cartoon is surprisingly dark. The schools are at war with the Trix and their army of Darkness, Sky almost dies in Season 2, Riven almost dies and the Trix thinks he suicided, it’s heavily implied in Season 2 Darkar murdered some of the pixies, the paedophilic undertones of Bloom and Avalon’s relationship, the list goes on.

When the interview with Brian Young came out, he said Fate would be a mature take on the cartoon. And I wondered, what did he meant by mature? Was he going to delve deeper into the darker aspects of the show, or did he mean he was going to have the girls swear and have sex? Watching Fate, I found my answer.

If you take out the gore, swearing, drug and alcohol usage from the live action, the maturity is on par with the RAI dub. The difference is in the presentation. This is what sucks about the mentality surrounding live action remakes. Because the OG!Winx was colourful with glittery transformations , was super girly and overall had a positive upbeat tone (not forgetting 2D animated) - it can’t be taken seriously. You have to strip all that, the colour, the kindness, the femininity in order to be deemed mature.

10. Wrapping up

I went into Fate expecting the worst and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. There were things I liked about it. The show looks pretty, and I did like what they were trying to do with Sky’s arc. The actors did what they could with the material. Freddie Thorp made the cringe dialogue work and Abigail Cowen proves she can carry a show as the lead.

Fate is your generic, YA, dark academia show. It follows all the tropes of the YA genre to a T. If that’s your niche, then you’ll love Fate and I’m not bashing anyone who liked it.

For me, as a creative, it doesn’t capitalise on the strengths of the source material. I’m not asking for Winx Club again, as I’ve reiterated, I’m all for creative freedom. But Brian Young, Iginio Straffi, whoever worked on this – they could’ve created something new, innovative, something that stood out from the hordes of other YA shows. They had good material in their hands! But what I got - I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen it done better. That’s a major disappointment.

As a winx club fan, don’t bother watching this. It’s a very diluted version of the Winx. In trying to capture the interest of the adult fans who grew up with the franchise – Iginio showed how out of touch he is if he thinks this is what they wanted.

#fate the winx saga #netwinx #back on my winx club bs #long post #this took me like 4 days to write

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sarcastically-defensive17 · 4 years

Note

Hey, so I really like your work so I have a request 👀 maybe you could write Luke and reader being best friends but both having deeper feelings, they're roommates but they fight over Luke's gf bc he says that she needs to move out bc his girlfriend wants to move in and she doesn't like reader so she ends up leaving and running with Crystal but she asks to not tell anyone (except Mike for obvious reasons) that she's there and Luke is really worried but he and reader end up together, pretty please

I LOVE THIS REQUEST!! Sorry if I didn’t do it justice, but I hope you like it!

Also I’m so sorry that the layout went weird! I posted it from my computer and now it looks odd on the phone!

Original story by sarcastically-defensive17

Love? Love. - L. Hemmings

"If she gets those fake blonde extensions wrapped around my straightener one more time, Lucas, I will rip them out myself."

He simply sighed, focusing more of his attention on his phone rather than his best friend.

Y/N and Luke has been best friends since they were 17. They kindled their friendship on the very last day of year 12, such as she did with Calum and Michael.

Since that day, as they sat in the barren English Room and discussed everything and anything that came to mind, her and Luke had been inseparable.

She was the Bucky to his Steve, the Yang to his Yin, the regular sized human to his giant stature.

Well, until Suzanna stepped into the picture.

She is 5"7, coated in fake tan that was applied by somebody with the vision of Stevie Wonder and fake blonde extensions that accentuate how beautiful she would be, if she toned down the Geordie Shore look.

Y/N couldn't help but wonder if her personality would be able to shine brightly through the thick foundation, if she had one, that is.

"Thank you for pretending to listen to me, I appreciate it so much," she rolled her eyes.

For the past few weeks the air in the house had been incredibly tense.

"Y/N?" He asked, his voice hesitant. "Can I talk to you about something?"

She couldn't stop her eyes from lighting up. This was the calmest her and luke had been with each other in almost a week, and she would take any chance to talk to him in a civilized manner.

To be honest, the idea of talking to him did nothing to quell the overflowing feelings she had for the man.

"Is that even a question? You can always talk to me, Lu," she sat opposite to him on the lounge, pulling her legs up underneath her.

He was nervous. That was obvious in the way he raked his fingers through his blonde curls. Suzanna constantly hounded at him to cut his hair but Y/N knew how much he loved his hair.

She couldn't deny that she adored the ringlets that decorated his soft locks.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about this for a little bit," he rung his hands together, spinning rings on his fingers. "I, um, I'm gonna need you to move out."

He mumbled the last few words, sighing softly when she asked him to repeat it. It's safe to say, she was at a loss of words.

"You - you want me to move out? Why?" Her eyebrow was cocked, and she tilted her head to the side slightly.

Luke couldn't help but admire how much she resembled a puppy dog. He always found her to be a mix of adorable and purely beautiful. Which is part of the reason he forced himself to say yes when Suzanna asked to take a larger step in their relationship.

He had spent so much time fighting his feelings for Y/N. Suzanna helped, but he still needed to force himself to deny his feelings in favour of the smaller ones he had for his girlfriend.

He was cruel, he knew it.

"Suzanna and I were talking, and we’re ready to move in together. And she couldn't move in here because of-"

"Because of what? Because I can't stand the woman that has cheated on you multiple times?" Y/N was angry, that much she knew. She couldn't believe the audacity. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Well I would love nothing more than for my girlfriend and my best friend to get along but you make it so difficult for Suzanna to get to know you," he snapped pinching the bridge of his nose between his long fingers.

"I gave her a chance before she slept with one of your mates, Luke. As far as I'm concerned, you should have gotten rid of her months ago when she did it a second time."

"Why can't you just be happy for me?" His eyes were narrowed and the blue orbs held the same lack of patience she had seen a lot over the past week.

She opened her mouth to retort but couldn't find the words to say. Truthfully, she was shattered when Luke told her about his relationship, but she decided to be the bigger person and let go of the idea that Luke could be hers. Their friendship has lasted too long for that to be a possibility.

Luke's comment set her off.

"Oh so I am meant to happy for you, with the Geordie Barbie who fucks another guy regularly, but you couldn't be happy for me with Daniel?"

"Daniel was an asshole!"

"And so is Suzanna!"

They were both on their feet now, staring each other down with a ferocity they hadn't seen since an argument in their teenage years.

Sure, Daniel was a bit of an asshole, but Luke knew he was in the wrong for hating the man so fiercely. The moment he had finally worked up the nerve to ask Y/N on a date - a real date - Daniel swept in and the two were together for almost a year until he started getting more controlling.

The last straw was when Daniel flipped because of the close relationship Y/N and Luke shared and Luke threw a punch at him.

"You're jealous," Luke scoffed, his blue eyes aimed anywhere but at her for he knew his anger was unwarranted but he couldn't bare to face the truth about his relationship.

"Excuse me?" She cocked a brow again and he had to glance away quickly as his eyes fell on her for a second.

"You are jealous that I can keep somebody around and you haven't been able to keep anybody around for almost a year." His brows were pinched tight together and he squared his shoulders.

It was easy for Y/N to notice the slight hunch in his posture, a symbol that he was immediately guilt stricken by his words.

"Oh, I'm so sorry that I can't settle for somebody who doesn't deserve me," she barked out a sarcastic laugh, slamming her hand on the bench to grab her keys.

Luke opened his mouth to retort, but she fixed him with a glare so angry that he physically recoiled.

She slipped her vans on at the door, grabbing her bag off of the hook where she organized all of her daily belongings. She was meticulous and Luke had always admired how neat she was compared to his disorganized chaos.

"You wanted me gone? I'm going. Don't bother contacting me til you wake up to yourself," she stomped towards the door, pausing as she pulled the wood open. "I'll have my stuff gone by the end of the week. Tell Barbie to keep my straightener. God knows she fucked it anyways."

The door slammed behind her and the entire house instantly felt as if the warmth was gone.

She went straight to Crystal's house. The woman was packing for the impending move to a new house; one which her and Michael would share.

"So he wants you to move out so that thing can move in?" Her voice was laced with disgust.

All of them despise Suzanna. The woman had hurt Luke more times than they could count, she blatantly ignores or insults both Y/N and Crystal for fear of any sort of threat in her relationship, yet she regularly cheats on him.

Go figure.

Y/N made a noise of agreement around her glass of wine. The minute she had stepped in the door Crystal had phoned Micheal and ordered a Girls Night, to which Y/N profusely demanded that she would make it up to the couple whose date night she disturbed.

"He better hope I don't get my hands on him, Y/N."

"It's not worth it Crys," she sighed, swirling the contents of her glass in a circle. "I've been basically invisible in that house since the Barbie started coming around."

Crystal pulled the girl into a hug. Not many knew of her hidden feelings for Luke, but Crystal figured it out after a week of knowing the pair.

"I'll cut her extensions and glue them to Luke's eyebrows."

<><><><><><>

Exactly a month had passed. Y/N had ordered Crystal and Michael to not speak a word of where she was because she didn't want to see Luke. Instead, she found a small apartment to live in, while she gathered her wits to find a better place.

She knew it was petty, but she didn't have the care to feel guilty.

Luke on the other hand, was going insane and harbored so much regret surrounding his decision that he couldn't bare to think straight.

Moving in with Suzanna did nothing to make the home feel less empty. Y/N had made sure to collect the rest of her things while Luke was out.

She knew his schedule inside and out and used it to her advantage.

Luke wanted nothing more than to see her face. To hear her voice. The time apart made him realize just how deep his feelings went. The same feelings he had spent many years attempting to bury.

Now his only fear was that he would never get the chance to tell the woman how much he needs her in his life.

That, and how he would manage to get rid of the woman who he had caught sneaking out of their house at all hours of the night.

He didn't know what to expect when he entered his house to hear pornographic moans echoing from the bedroom.

He didn't feel angry. He didn't feel sad. He didn't even feel betrayed.

In fact, he couldn't contain his laughter. After all, catching her in the act of cheating on him simply opened the window for him to break up with her without the guilt.

He simply walked towards their bedroom door, which was ajar, and entered with no hesitation.

He was met with the sight of a bare assed male and a moaning Suzanna.

"I'm breaking up with you," he had a wide smile on his face, already planning his next actions with severe determination. He pulled his long curls into a small bun at the back of his head, “Please get out by tomorrow?"

He didn't leave room for her to argue, instead choosing to snatch his keys off of the bench and exit the house while Suzanna called him from behind.

The minute his backside hit the seat of his Jeep, he had the key turned in the ignition and he was dialing Crystal's phone number.

If anybody knew how to get in contact with Y/N, it would be the woman she had the closest bond to.

"What do you want, Luke?"

"Is Y/N at your house?" He asked quickly.

He was met with silence for a moment. He knew that Crystal knew where she was, but he also knew Crystal would most likely be reluctant.

"Why should I tell you? Want to go kick her out of her own house again?" He heard the malice in her voice.

It was obvious that after a month the pain would still linger. He deserved to be spoken to in such a way.

He knew he had a lot to make up for.

A deep sigh sounded through the receiver, and Crystal took another moment to reply.

"She is going to kill me for this, but I swear, you better be taking your breadstick ass over to apologise or I will kill you myself," she recited the address for an apartment not far from where Crystal and Michael now lived, and hung the phone up without another word.

He arrived at the apartment block soon after, and rushed up the stairs - not having the patience to wait for the elevator.

Number 304 shone brightly in his vision, and his heart tugged at the thought of seeing Y/N again.

He knocked with such urgency that caused the girl inside to jump out of her seat.

The door swung open and before she could close it in his face a converse covered foot was wedged between the door and the frame.

He cringed at the pain but refused to move it.

"What do you want?" Her voice was hard, and his stomach lurched at the sound. Even if she was mad, she still sounded more melodic that he ever could.

He chose to jump straight to the point, not wanting to leave room for her to reject him before he could confess.

"I have been in love with you since a few months after we met. I realised it when we were at your house, and you were doting over your baby cousin," His eyes were basically smiling, as he retrieved the fond memory. "Since that moment, I have done my best to push down how I feel about you, but I am sick of hiding it. I just broke up with Suzanna. I walked in on her with another guy, but I can't do this without you. I can't go back to that house for another minute without you there."

She was at a loss for words. He spoke so fast that it took a moment to piece his sentences together, and when she did, she couldn't help the confused look that coated her features.

"You- what?"

"I broke up with Suzanna," he had a wide smile on his face that she couldn't comprehend.

"Finally?"

"Yes. And, I have been in love with you since we were 18."

"Are you sure?" She cocked her head again.

The action made his stomach erupt in butterflies. He truly adored how she could look so cute through a simple gesture.

Y/N was genuinely confused. She knew how she felt about Luke. The month apart from him hadn't done anything to stop those feelings.

She truly had feelings stronger for him than she had for any of her past relationships. If she were to think about it, she would even say that she loved him.

"How could I not be sure?" He pinched his brows together in confusion. He grabbed both of her hands in his, leading her into the house and to the lounge where they both slumped down.

She stammered, "Where did this even come from? How?-"

He moved his hands to the side of her face, framing her confused expression.

She didn't know how to feel. For so long, Y/N had longed for Luke to notice her in such a way, and now that he is admitting that he has felt the same way about her that she had about him for so long, she was truly at a loss of words.

His eyes were full of pent up emotion. He didn't necessarily look sad, but he looked the most apologetic she had ever seen him, and she had been there through many emotions with the man,"Y/N, I'm sorry. Not just for what happened last month, but for everything I have done. I'm sorry I couldn't work up the courage to confess to you so many years ago, I'm sorry I let my jealousy ruin your relationship with Daniel, I am sorry I wasted time with other girls just to try and deny how much I truly adore you, and I am sorry that I ever thought I would be happy choosing anybody over you. I can't stand to live without you, and even if you have zero feelings for me in the same way I feel for you, would you please come back-"

She pulled his hands from her face and put her own on his before crushing her lips against his in an urgent moment of passion.

The contact was full of so much emotion, and it was the most loving kiss she had experienced from any of those who she had kissed.

It was intimate, but not rushed. Simply lips against lips; no pushing to move it deeper.

They pulled back after an unknown time, and she bumped her nose against his.

"I can't tell you how long I have wanted to do that for," she told him, feeling most of her anger melt away along with her confusion.

Instead, they both felt a love that they hadn't felt before.

"Come back, please?" He was ready to beg. Hell, he was ready to not go back to that house until she was ready to go with him.

"My name's still on the lease, you can bet your thick ass I'm coming back. But if I see one blonde hair extension, I will go on the warpath," she smirked at him, staring at his plump lips.

"I'll make sure it's spotless for your return," Luke beamed at her, feeling his nerves both escape his body and ignite at her touch.

"Good. Now get back over here and kiss me some more."

#luke hemmings #luke hemmings x reader #5sos #5 seconds of summer #crystal leigh #michael clifford #calum hood #Ashton irwin

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cocastyle · 5 years

Text

Sick Day

Pairing - Eddie Kaspbrak x reader

Word Count - 2,888

A/N - definitely not one of my longest pieces of work, but I honestly love the length for this request :) Eddie is one of my favs and I just love him so much so I loved writing this! if anyone else has a request, please go ahead and send it in! I am accepting Christmas requests right now seeing as Christmas is so soon so if you want something written just let me know!

if you would like to be added to my permanent tag list, let me know!

Request- Oooh could you write an Eddie Fic where he takes care of a sick Reader? He fusses over her so much and it’s super adorable :’)) Thank you!! @purplelittlepup

"Tilt-A-Whirl is by far the best ride that's going to be there."

"No fucking way! That ride is for pussies. The Zipper is the best!"

"No, the Tilt-A-Whirl!"

"The Zipper!"

Y/N rolled her eyes as she listened to her boyfriend Eddie Kaspbrak argue with their best friend Richie Tozier about which carnival ride was the best. The Losers had all spent the night at the arcade and had just went there separate ways, so Y/N was the only one there to hear the two's bickering on their walk home.

With the carnival coming to Derry and it's first official day being tomorrow, the carnival was all the Losers could talk about. They had been planning on going to the carnival since it left the previous year, but now that it was here, Richie and Eddie were arguing over which ride they should go on first.

"Guys, the rides are all great," Y/N sighed before she squeezed her eyes shut and let out a small sneeze.

"Bless you," Eddie said almost automatically before looking down at his girlfriend. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and held her close as he said, "Come on, Y/N. Don't you think the Tilt-A-Whirl is the best?"

"Woah! No fucking way, Eddie Spaghetti! Y/N's opinion doesn't count because she's just going to agree with you because you two are dating," Richie frowned.

"I don't know. I have to agree with Richie on this one. The Zipper is pretty fun," Y/N admitted before sneezing again.

"Bless you," Eddie and Richie said before Eddie pouted and Richie laughed in his face.

"Never mind! Y/N's opinion does matter," Richie smiled earning a whack in the arm from Y/N.

Y/N glanced at her boyfriend who was still pouting and she chuckled before leaning up and pressing a kiss to the boy's cheek, the action making Eddie blush and smile almost instantly before he pulled her closer to him by the neck for a small hug.

Y/N shivered slightly from the cool breeze and Eddie frowned before instantly taking off his jacket and wrapping it around the girl. Neither of them had time to say anything before Richie fake gagged making the couple glare at him.

The two rolled their eyes and smirked at each other before Eddie pulled Y/N close and gave her a quick kiss. "My eyes!" Richie cried out in disgust before he gagged again.

The couple pulled away with a laugh before Y/N sneezed again. The boys went to say 'bless you,' but didn't get a chance to before Y/N was sneezing again.

Once she stopped with her sneezing fit, Richie let out a laugh and said, "Well fucking bless you." Y/N chuckled at that and rolled her eyes at the boy before glancing over at Eddie who was looking at her worriedly.

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern, not liking that Y/N had been sneezing a lot for the past couple of minutes.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just allergies," Y/N assured him despite feeling the pressure that was building up in her face and the small ache in the back of her head. Eddie clearly didn't like the answer and went to question her more, but Y/N could already see her house not too far away from them. "Here's where we part ways, boys. I'll see you two tomorrow, okay?"

"See ya, loser," Richie joked before Y/N and him fist bumped. "Don't miss me too much."

Y/N put a hand to her chest in fake agony before saying, "I will try my best." This caused the two to chuckle before Y/N reached out and ruffled Richie's hair. The boy quickly went to fix it, but he would be lying if he said he didn't love it when Y/N did that.

Y/N turned her attention to Eddie who was still looking at her in worry. "I'm fine, Eddie," she whispered before leaning over and pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Eddie hummed in response before wrapping his arms around Y/N and giving her a big bear hug. Y/N smiled and hugged him back tightly before pulling away to sneeze again.

Y/N pulled Eddie's jacket closer to her body before smiling at the boys and beginning to walk away. "Bye, guys!" she called out while Eddie stared worriedly after her.

Richie looked to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder before shaking him slightly. "She's fine, man. Just some allergies like she said," Richie told him.

"Yeah," Eddie muttered as he stuck his hands in his pocket and began to walk the rest of the way home with Richie. "Just some allergies."

So why did he have a feeling it was more than that?

- - -

"Where is she?" Eddie asked, his face scrunched up in concern as he nervously bit his lip. He snuck a glance at his watch before frowning and looking to the Losers. "Y/N's never late to anything."

"I'm sure she's fine, Eddie," Mike spoke up.

"Mike's right. She might have lost track of the time," Beverly suggested while her and the rest of the Losers tied their bikes up on the bike rack at the carnival.

The lights and sounds of laughter had stolen Richie's attention and the moment his stomach growled from having smelled all the different foods was the moment he grew impatient. "I don't know where the hell she is, but if she doesn't get here soon I'm going in without her," Richie said practically bouncing on his feet.

"No, you're not," Eddie said with a pointed look towards his friend. Richie huffed in frustration and went to argue, but Bill was quick to stop the argument before it even began.

"Th-Th-There she is," Bill spoke up, pointing behind Eddie. The Losers all turned to look and Eddie sighed with relief at the sight of Y/N trudging towards them with her bike by her side.

Eddie felt his heart flutter at the sight of her wearing his jacket and he had started to blush, but when he got a better look at his girlfriend, he paled. She had dark bags under her eyes, a red nose, as white as a piece of paper, and her eyes were fluttering open she close like she was struggling to stay awake. She looked like she felt awful.

"I knew it wasn't just allergies," Eddie muttered under his breath before he began to take big strides towards the girl.

"Fuck, Y/N. Took you long enough!" Richie complained, none of the other Losers having noticed the young girl's state.

“Richie,” Ben hissed, already feeling bad for the girl.

"Sorry," Y/N croaked, her voice sounding as if she had to strain to use it. She sneezed before looking over at her friends, all of their faces turning into looks of concern when they saw her.

"Y/N, are you okay?" Stan questioned, his head tilted curiously as he looked to the girl who was now being bombarded by Eddie who had taken her bike from her hands to put it on the bike rack.

"I'm fine," Y/N assured them, but they knew better than to believe her when she both looked and sounded like she didn't feel good.

Eddie was by the girl's side in an instant, a frown on his face as he gently reached out and placed a hand on her arm. "Honey," he whispered, "I think it would be best if you go home. We know what you're saying is bullshit and that you don't feel good. You need the rest."

Y/N frowned and reached out to shake Eddie's arm slightly, whining out, "But we've been waiting on this for forever, Eddie."

Eddie sighed and moved his hand down to latch onto her own before giving it a small squeeze. “I know, darling, but you need the rest,” he whispered so that only she could hear. Y/N frowned, but didn’t respond so Eddie took that as a sign of acceptance.

Turning to the group, Eddie found that Bill was already giving him a knowing smile. Eddie returned the smile before saying, “I’m going to take Y/N home. Bill, do you mind-?”

“No, yeah, I’ll dr-dr-drop her bike off on the w-w-way home,” Bill assured him with a nod.

“Thank you,” Eddie said before his eyes flickered over his friends. “You guys have fun tonight, okay? Maybe we can come again when Y/N’s feeling up to it.”

“Of course,” Stan said.

“Definitely,” Ben agreed, the boy smiling sympathetically towards the sick girl who had moved close enough to Eddie that she could lie against him if she wanted to.

It was like she was holding back though and Eddie felt his heart warm slightly when he realized she was only holding back from touching him because she knew how much he hated germs. Usually Eddie would die if someone so much as coughed in his direction, but with Y/N, he never seemed to care about germs or getting sick.

So he didn’t even hesitate to wrap an arm around her and pull the girl close, the action causing Y/N to sink into his side almost instantly. She wrapped her arms around his waist and dug her face into his side while Eddie lovingly rubbed a hand up and down her back before he looked back at the Losers.

Beverly was holding a hand over her heart because of how cute the two were while the others, minus Richie who looked bored, all smiled at the couple. Eddie’s eyes flickered over to his best friend and he gave the boy a look before saying, “Richie.”

Richie’s gaze slowly fell upon Eddie who gave him a small smile. “Go on the Tilt-A-Whirl for me, would ya?” Eddie asked, knowing that Richie was upset that both him and Y/N wouldn’t be joining the boy for the night but not showing it.

That made Richie crack a smile and he nodded slightly. “Yeah, yeah. Just for you though, Eds. Now you get Y/N home, okay? I can’t have my arcade partner missing out on too much,” Richie said before his eyes flickered over to the girl. “You get some rest, Y/N, okay? And don’t worry, Eddie will take care of you.”

Y/N smiled softly at that and her grip tightened on Eddie ever so slightly as she whispered, “Thanks, Rich. You guys have fun.”

A chorus of ‘we will’ and ‘hope you feel better’ followed the couple as they slowly began to walk away from the group and over to Eddie’s bike.

Eddie got on first before glancing back and watching cautiously as Y/N slowly got in behind him. Her arms instantly wrapped around his waist and she leaned her head against his back, her eyes fluttering closed as she nuzzled into the boy. Eddie could feel the heat radiating off of Y/N and through his shirt which made him frown before he quickly took off on his bike, heading towards Y/N’s house.

Y/N’s parents were out of town or they wouldn’t have let Y/N even leave the house in the state she was in. So that meant Eddie would have to take care of her for the night, not that he minded.

The whole ride home consisted of Eddie thinking of excuses to tell his mother while he tried his best to keep Y/N up on the bike. Every time she started to fall asleep, Eddie would have to wake her up and it broke his heart despite her reassurance that it was fine.

The couple finally managed to get to Y/N’s house and Eddie was quick to toss his bike onto the ground before hurrying the girl into the house, wanting nothing more than to get her inside. Eddie silently led Y/N to her room and left her to get changed into some comfortable clothes while he went downstairs to make her some of his ‘healing’ soup as he liked to call it.

By the time Eddie had returned with a bowl of soup in hand, Y/N had changed into one of his shirts he had left at her house and some shorts. Eddie couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her, finding her just as beautiful as ever even if she wasn’t feeling one hundred percent.

Eddie slowly crept across the room before setting the soup on her nightstand and sitting down in the side of the bed. The dip in the bed had Y/N slowly blinking her eyes opened and she smiled ever so slightly at the sight of her boyfriend before closing her eyes once again.

“I’m sorry you have to take care of me,” Y/N muttered, her smile slowly turning into a frown. “I know how much you wanted to go to the carnival.”

“I don’t have to take care of you. I get to take care of you. I want to take care of you. Besides, I wouldn’t have any fun if you weren’t there with me,” Eddie assured her as he reached up to brush some of the hair from her face.

Y/N smiled softly at that before relaxing under Eddie’s touch, not noticing the way his smile dropped as soon as he felt her burning hot skin. “Shit, Y/N. You’re burning up. Do you know what this means?” Eddie questioned, his voice raising in a panic as he stood up and began to pace the room.

“That I’ve got a fever?” Y/N questioned as she sat up and began to eat some of the soup Eddie had brought her.

“Exactly! So we’ll need to break that as quick as we can. You’ll need some cold compresses and possibly some ibuprofen. Oh, and you’ll need lots of water to replenish your body and-“ Eddie began to ramble.

“Eddie,” Y/N sighed, her soft voice being enough to make the boy freeze in his tracks. His eyes flickered over to look at her and she set the half eaten soup on her nightstand before saying, “I just want to sleep. I promise I’ll feel better when I wake up.”

Eddie sighed, his shoulders relaxing ever so slightly as he realized he had about gone into his freak out mode. Knowing that sleep was probably the best solution for the girl, Eddie nodded his head in agreement, “Fine, but I’m at least giving you some ibuprofen.”

“Deal,” Y/N sighed before watching as Eddie quickly disappeared from her room only to return with some ibuprofen and water a minute later. She downed the pill as quick as possible and took a few extra gulps of water to appease Eddie before lying back down in her bed.

She had just started to close her eyes when she felt the bed start to dip down behind her. Y/N glanced over her shoulders, her sick eyes widening as she noticed Eddie getting into the bed with her. “But, Eddie, you’ll get sick,” she whispered worriedly, knowing how much the boy hated being sick and how fussy his mother would get.

“I know,” Eddie said, a loving smile on his face. “But frankly, Y/N, I don’t give a fuck. All I want to do is hold my sick girlfriend and help her feel better. A few germs are worth it if I get to hold the girl that I love.”

Y/N smiled at that and Eddie took that as a sign that he could lie down beside her. He carefully laid down beside her before wrapping his arm around the girl, chuckling as he watched her flip around so that she could nuzzle her face into his chest, her hand balled up into a fist around his shirt.

“Eddie?” Y/N whispered as she nuzzled closer to him, loving the warmth and love that seemed to be radiating from the boy.

Eddie hummed softly in response as he moved a hand up and began to gently play with the girl’s hair, the action making her sigh in content as she felt herself growing drowsy.

Letting out a small yawn, Y/N whispered, “Thank you for taking care of me. I love you.”

Eddie smiled again that and leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her forehead. “I love you too, darling,” he whispered back as he held her a little closer of his body, tucking her head underneath his chin and rubbing a hand up and down her back as her breathing slowed down.

Y/N never felt more loved and comforted than she did in that moment. How she had ended up lucky enough to have Eddie Kaspbrak return the crush that she had on him for years was still a mind blower to her. And she wouldn’t trade moments like this with the boy she loved for anything in the world.

“You sure you don’t want anything else? Maybe some more water? A cold compress?”

“Eddie.”

“Right. I’m sorry. I love you.”

“I love you too, you idiot. I love you too.”

* * *

Permanent Tag List

@marvelismylifffe @roboturtle16 @purplelittlepup @amberkay284 @blogforhoes @artlovingbre @bitch-imma-head-out

#it movie #it imagine #it chapter one #it chapter two #it x reader #eddie kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak x reader #richie tozier #bill denbrough #ben hanscom #stanley uris #mike hanlon #beverly marsh

124 notes · View notes

ladyhistorypod · 4 years

Text

Episode 4: Let’s Ms. Behave

Sources:

Charlotte Corday

The British Museum

Brooklyn Museum

Find A Grave

History Channel

UCL Art Museum

Encyclopedia Womannica (Podcast)

The Blonding of Charlotte Corday

Giulia Tofana

Wut. (Podcast)

History Collection

Historical Post

Medium

Mike Dash

Virginia Hill

The Mob Museum

Encyclopedia of Chicago

Alabama

Further reading/watching: The Damned Don’t Cry (1950 film), Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill (eye roll from Alana), Virginia Hill (1974 film)

Click below for a full transcript of the episode!

Lexi: A brief warning about the following episode of Lady History: this episode contains sensitive topics, such as suicide and murder. If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. To learn more, visit suicidepreventionhotline.org

Alana: I think my therapist is listening to our podcast.

Haley: Wait what really?

Alana: Yeah. Because I was looking at like our dem– like our listenership and it said a bunch of people in Arlington and I don't know that many people in Arlington. I know like my mom's... my parents’ like family friend from… my dad like went to high school with them and then they introduced my parents and we call her my Arlington mom and so I was like oh maybe it's her but that's too many people to just be her and I think my therapist lives in Arlington and I told her about this so shout out Dr. Sterman.

Haley: I would love–

Alana: If you’re listening.

Haley: –Your next session she's like ‘by the way I don't listen to your podcast’ even though... and just like out herself from… not super listening but also listening we just had…

Alana: I might bring it up. I'm seeing her on Tuesday, virtually obviously, but I’m seeing her on Tuesday.

Haley: ‘Just wondering, do you listen to my podcast?’

Alana: Well I'm going to talk about how like ‘oh I started my podcast and it's doing this this and this for my mental health’ and then be like… just see if she says she’s listening.

Haley: I feel like she wouldn’t though. I feel like she wouldn’t just to…

Alana: I don’t know if she would.

Lexi: Does that cross the like professional boundary?

Haley: Yeah…

Alana: Is that a HIPAA violation?

Lexi: Is it though? It’s only a podcast

Haley: Well none of us are in the medical field.

Lexi: No. We are not.

Alana: Let us know.

Haley: So we can’t have a definitive answer. But I can see someone–

Lexi: Hey if you're in the medical field or are a certified therapist please email us at [email protected] and let us know if listening to your patient’s podcast violates HIPAA.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Thank you. You can also email other stuff there. Don't, don't– you don't have to be a doctor to email us.

Alana: No. I also I have a– because you can do asks on Tumblr, and I have our ask page for the Tumblr– Lady History pod dot tumblr dot com– I have… you can suggest a lady.

Lexi: Please, suggest ladies.

Haley: I would love that.

Lexi: Please suggest ladies to us at Lady History pod dot tumblr dot com.

Alana: You can also DM us, and as previously mentioned if you DM the Instagram that's Lexi and if you DM the Twitter that's me and they're both at LadyHistoryPod. We're gonna plug that again at the end so it's just a constant cycle.

Haley: No one can slide into my DMs. I'll just use one of… if you want to slide into my DMs, use like, the Twitter and just be like this is for Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots and they’ll know it’s for me.

Lexi: Okay if you DM or email any of the accounts, if you need the message to go to Haley, please use that name only. Any messages directed to Haley will not be given to her.

Alana: We’ll be like ‘who’s Haley?’

Lexi: So go back–

Haley: I don’t even know what I said. I forgot.

Lexi: No, so go back–

Alana: Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots and I will never forget it.

Lexi: Just go back, listen to that however many times you need to to get it in your brain, and then use that when you address Haley in any of your communication to our general inbox.

Alana: Hang on, my light went away because I have to go change Haley’s contact info in my phone.

(Lexi and Alana laughing)

Haley: I really hate if like I am interviewed for a job and they’re like… ‘so… Twinklebear McPuss-n-Boots…

(Lexi laughing)

Alana: It was Sprinklebear

Lexi: You didn’t even get it right. She can’t even–

Alana: Sprinkle… Sprinklebear…

(Lexi laughing)

Haley: I used to have a crush on Puss-n-Boots when Shrek first came out.

[INTRO MUSIC]

Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History, the good, the bad, and the ugly ladies you missed in history class. I’m the next best thing to being in the same room as Lexi. Lexi, what's the name of your favorite plant?

Lexi: My favorite plant is probably a pothos. Just really cute, a cute plant, a good plant, grows well, grows well in my climate, has not failed me, has not died, so that is why I love the pothos.

Alana: And also in the virtual studio is Haley. Haley, how’s the weather?

Haley: It's quite gloomy. I am in San Francisco so we're still dealing with the wildfires. But I think it's just Karl the fog today.

Alana: Karl the fog?

Haley: Yeah the San Francisco like fog that just like looms over this bay area is called Karl. He even has a Twitter, a whole kids’ picture book. Karl the fog.

Alana: That's giving me An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green vibes.

Haley: And also, oh, the SF MOMA… the new building of it is Karl the fog. It doesn't– it looks kind of like a… like an old time steam iron, like on an ironing board. But it's like meant to be Karl the fog. Or like blend in. Karl just mushes his way through San Francisco.

Alana: Oh my god that's incredible.

Haley: Yes.

Alana: And I'm Alana and I theme my canvas tote bags based on event.

Lexi Nice. Solid.

Alana: Thank you.

Haley: So can I tickle your tastebuds with a fun fact?

Lexi: Oh… oh, tickle away.

Alana (whispering): Tickle your tastebuds…

Speaker 1: This is either going to be like the best thing I've ever created because like– let me just give you a side note: I thought of this joke while taking shower and was cracking up for ten minutes.

(Alana laughing)

Haley: It's either– it's probably gonna flop. But, with this fun fact– it’s kind of setting the mood for our crime theme and it's about the guillotine and the family of the guillotine, Dr. Joseph– I think his name’s like Ignace? It looks like Ignatio, but it’s like Ignace Guillotin– was so horrified that like their family member invented such like a horrible thing, and if you don't know what the guillotine is, it is basically a big sharp knife that comes down from a pulley, will slice your head off, used in many executions– that they appeal to the French government to change the name and the French government just took it to a step higher and was like no we won't change the name but we will make it one of like the official ways of executing people. more s– to the point that the last execution was like in the 1970s. And this is like across Europe and at least for France it was in 1977. So this is where it gets to my cringy joke because I've used this before. If you want a sick burn while your parents are talking about their childhood and they grew up in like the 60s, 70s, you can just go ‘Pft, the land and time of the guillotine. Such heathens.’ And I like this more than the… the burn that goes like ‘when the dinosaurs roamed’ because dinos just like didn't live when humans lived and it always made me so mad where it’s like I learned that the dinosaurs were born millions of years ago but we have this like iconic just… execution machine that was used for so so long and no one realizes that this was just used until the 70s as a humane way of execution, which like I won't even get into that whole argument. There's so much of a rabbit hole of whether the like guillotine was humane or not. But it's just– it's almost funnier because like it did happen this was an ironic like ‘oh you’re so old you’re like a dinosaur’ this is like ‘you were born when the guillotine was used!’

Alana: Because that's like a burn but it's also true.

Lexi: Yeah. That's the worst kind of burn, I– I mean the best kind of burn because it hurts the worst.

Haley: I once said it to my dad because he was like talking about something when he was like younger and I was like the guillotine just looked at me and was like ‘excuse me?’ I was like ‘you lived during the time of the guillotine, heathen.’ And he was like ‘well…”

Alana: It's true!

Haley: Because he was like ‘no that's like the Middle Ages’ and I was like ‘let me school you on some facts. And that actually is a great segue into my first gal.

Alana: Alright, let's go Haley.

Haley: Uh, so my gal, like Artemisia, we have another one with her own movie. It's an unfortunate movie because I couldn't find it anywhere, but who am I talking about… Charlotte Corday. And other names include… side note, I don’t speak French, I speak Spanish. Please don’t come after me, with my horrible horrible French pronunciations, I had my boyfriend, who speaks some French, pronounce them to me… probably didn't remember anything that he said to me. Her other names are Corday d’Armont, Marie-Anne Charlotte, and now her like more modern name is Charlotte Corday the Assassin. So I love Charlotte as a topic, because other podcasts, like crime, history, women's studies, have covered her to an extent. Like I– you'll see in the show notes I like I've even used her– thanks, Encyclopedia Womannica. But on the other hand, not many people know about her. And they don't even know like her influence with the French Revolution because I've been in like many discussions about like history of crime or what like– the world history that we had to take, and I asked like about her and my even like my history teachers like ‘I don't know who that is’ and everyone just gave me that blank face and it's like wait a minute, this is weird, why isn't this covered. So of course, I'm going to cover it. And let's crack this case wide open before we do a deep dive and go over just like some historical background and some of the people be talking about because I don't want you guys to be lost in this whole mumbo jumbo. So Charlotte was a Girondin sympathizer– again, my French is not good– she came from a family of impoverished aristocrats from a little town outside of Paris, France. And as a noble family she was given the opportunity to go to a formal education, but really this formal education came because her mother and one of her sisters died. And her father was just so grief-stricken and also just couldn't handle the now need to raise two daughters, so he sent them to a Roman Catholic convent so they could get a formal education. During this formal education of hers, she learned about French politics, history of France, and was able to mold her own theories and just ideas about the world around her. Thus, she became a French moderate Republican party member during 1791 and 1793 and this is during the French Revolution.

Alana: I'm guessing that moderate Republican back then doesn't mean the same thing that moderate Republican means now.

Haley: No, not at all. I'll explain more. So that's– this is exactly why I wanted to do our whole kind of let's see the players let's name some names and let's go over some history because just looking at her based on just the woman it's very hard to understand why she's one, seen as a hero; two, seen as a murderous assassin which both are correct in a way.

Lexi: I mean, goals. No I’m just kidding. I’m not condoning murder.

Haley: No so that's basically where she's at in the scope of where she grew up and what role she’ll play in the French Revolution, or what side she was on. And she's also mainly known for murdering Jordian Jean-Paul Marat, and he was on the other side he was Jordian so she was very opposed to his ideals. So again like Alana said is this kind of like what our U. S. politics is like? No, this isn't the Republican Party. However we have two extreme sides and people on one extreme, people on another extreme. That is very much similar. And he was an outspoken leader of the French Revolution to the point where he was the founder of a popular journal, deputy of Paris to the convention, opposed legislation that would hurt the other side, empower him and to Charlotte and other Girondan followers. So now that we cover the big picture ideas and we know the players and we know how extreme both these sides are, let's do our deep dive. She was committed to fighting the Girondist side of the revolution, posing the radical Jacobin faction. So this was right before the Reign of Terror, and why I mention this is because all her actions were to stop a civil war; and the Reign of Terror was a part of the French Revolution that kind of like started the first French Republic and culminated in a series of massacres and like many many public executions. So this is what she tried to stop from happening in French society. However, her whole story and what role she played in the revolution actually caused the Reign of Terror. So that's why for me as– in high school was like why aren't we talking about her and now we're gonna talk about her now. So, we come to the point where our victim Marat was continuing his train of like bloodshed, and was responsible for utter catastrophe, and putting a lot of lives in danger of like the French– like the French people were just terrified of him, to an extent. And that’s why Charlotte just hated him. He was seen as definitely one of the leaders of this one extreme side that had to be taken out. So that's exactly what she kind of planned to do. And she was not in Paris, she was still in another city outside of Paris, France. So, Charlotte stabbed him while he was taking a bath; and that's really the punch line of like her whole story. If you do like a quick Google search you'll get a lot of stuff for her and even in some textbooks that I tried to look at it was just like Charlotte Corday assassin… stabbed Marat in the heart. Really, she stabbed him in a planned assassin while he was taking a bath. I'm gonna just go through the accounts of this whole story because they're not really pieced together in one area and I'm going to piece them together now so you can understand why he was like in a bathtub, why she stabbed him, and so on. Because this just sounds so strange and it's really strange to see this as your history. So the planned assassin started because she wanted, like I said, to stop from a civil war happening in France, and she truly believed that to do this you have to kill one of the leaders; and also to an extent make the other side seem strong in that way. Like if you kill one of the leaders, you prove that the other side is just as strong or stronger. So she originally planned to kill him at a Bastille Day parade to make a huge show of it and this was on July 14th 1793. Unfortunately, or fortunately for her plans in a sense the event was just like it either didn't happen or it became apparent that Marat was not going to be at that public event. So she quickly had to say okay what else can I do, how can… what will be the next step to kill him. On July 13th, so the day before this event was supposed to happen, she was able to get a meet and greet with him or just gain access to him by saying and promising to betray her political side and give some insider secrets– like name names, basically become a traitor. And Marat was like cool you're definitely high up in the Girondin side of it, let you like, come into our area, we’ll hold– like we’ll basically keep you hostage, in a sense, like that's the feel I got… like Marat was also like come to our side because if anything happens you'll be on our turf; and she did. She was like cool, great. You don't know I'm gonna kill you, you think I'm gonna come and like give you all my secrets and then you'll protect me in a way. So Marat was having this meeting in the bathtub, but this was a very normal occurrence for him because he had a terrible skin disease or infection that he would just be in the bath all the time, like the water soothed him. So he was just very vulnerable, but that was his normal state– like nothing was wrong with him taking a meeting in the tub… so like she could be alone with him. It would be more weird if they were just walking around in the streets together. And instead of having this whole conversation that Charlotte said she would, she took this knife out of her bodice that she was just like hiding there and stabbed him in the chest.

Haley: He died almost immediately; and she actually waited for the police to come. She did not run away– she waited and confessed, essentially. She was proud of what she did, she wanted this assassination like the public assassin– assassination to still have some sort of effect on the public to show that her side did it to the other side, she is responsible for ma–Marat, and she did it as this political leader, in a sense. So at the trial, she allegedly proclaimed ‘I killed one man to save a hundred thousand’ and she kept reiterating that this was in fact a planned assassination, this wasn't out of passion. She took some thought, even wrote down like accounts and like had this whole… I saw like some people called it a journal or like statement– different written statements basically on her thoughts of an upcoming civil war and what she thought she was doing to help prevent that. She was also able, before the trial she was able to write down like write a letter and write her thoughts, feelings, concerns to her father. So her father was still alive and was able to get this kinda like last testimony of hers. And of course during this trial because she did essentially plead guilty… she was ordered to be executed via guillotine just four days after the murder; so July 17th 1793. And another quote from a lawyer from all this whole trial came from I think this was a man named Vergniaud, but I couldn't find this quote as in from like a reputable source as yes this was him, so could have been just another lawyer and not this guy. However, someone as a witness to this whole trial on this whole ordeal said ‘She is leading us to our death, but she is showing us how to die’ and it was because he, as a lawyer, saw this whole thing, saw her whole plan, and knew okay this is going to become a massive shit show. Like this won't end well. She is not preventing a civil war; she actually just started a whole other battle. However, she is showing us how to die with dignity, and showing how to like own up to the actions and just just die. Essentially die because a lot of people through the Reign of Terror did die. So you thought I'd be done– and I know this is gonna be my longest but this is such a great great story– because now we get into her overall death legacy, and we do know a lot of things, unlike Amelia Earhart where we just don't know what happened to her after death. A lot of this we still have artifacts and evidence of. She overall became this French savior, like the savior of French society in her circle. Months after her death, there are just so many portraits of her in different scenarios; short hair, long hair– like I needed to go back and make sure these were the same Charlotte Corday and if there could have been multiple Charlotte's just to make sure that these images looked so vastly different. And it was because people wanted to show that she was just this holy woman and ladies now weren't the ones who are supposed to be stuck in the kitchen with raising the kids. They had the power to do something in life and in society, but they also had a spin on it, so like– like I said, she was seen as a savior, this holy woman, goddess… like they even used her Christian name so Marie-Anne Charlotte, which she– to my knowledge, and to my research didn't necessarily go by that name. But there are definitely images of that name and her with very fair skin, white, brunette hair, looking very womanly and accentuating her womanly features. So that really pissed off the other side. Like all Marat’s supporters, they were absolutely flabbergasted that she was getting such a reputation. They thought this can't be happening; she just murdered one of our political leaders, and she was executed for it, why is everyone trying to kind of put this holy cap on her. And yes, that worked to an extent, like their outcry, because like yes she did murder someone. But it didn't help enough, and there were women in French society who did try to distance themselves from her and just for ideas of what women should be like. But, Charlotte did such a good job at like the legend of her as a woman, even before she died, that it didn't matter. Like I read an article about whether she had blonde hair or chestnut brown hair from a 2004 academic article; like this is still being discussed. And she had a part of her reputation– like she knew that whether it started a civil war or not she needed to form her own reputation. And there's even accounts that she witnessed the paintings and drawings of her that would be published and printed post-execution, and she gave comments. She was like no no no no, make me look more like a schoolgirl; or like make me more with curly hair. I don't really know the specifics but it was documented that she would give kind of suggestions on how she would look like. So while she did it, she tried so hard to like make herself look like this holy woman, and yes it did work. Marat, when he died, one of his very close friends, Jacques-Louis David painted the classic portrait or classic image, not portrait The Death of Marat, which is capturing the scene of his death and that is still considered like a classic image and the classic picture from– especially from the French Revolution. So I don't– I don't want to go as far as saying either Charlotte's portrayed as this holy one or this heinous, murderous, like scoundrel because both of them have lasted to this point in history that no one can make up their mind whether this was like a good thing that happened or a bad thing that happened. And I don’t even– I don’t even want to put out like in the universe whether we should have the discussion; if we should say like yes or no. I just wanna give you the facts and let you kind of like decide but that is Charlotte Corday.

Lexi: She is very interesting.

Alana: Yeah that's real cool. That's fun. That was a good transition for… from the guillotine to…

Lexi: Yes, good choice.

Alana: Charlotte Corday. I’m glad we let you go first.

Lexi: Alana hit us. Hit us with it. Don't hit us please don't hit me.

Alana: I won’t hit you. Okay so I will be talking about Giulia Tofana. Um.. Ooooh Haley's face, I'm so excited. I feel like– I hope I do this justice. Oh no. She is Giulia but it’s spelled G-I-U because she's Italian. Okay. So. I like to give credit as we've seen in the past like where I have first found out about my stories. And so I first found out about Ms. Tofana– I should I should call her Giulia not Ms. Tofana because there’s another Tofana, her mother’s name is also Tofana. I heard about this for the first time on Wut. W-U-T which is another great edutainment podcast by women. I'm gonna promo them without needing a sponsorship or a collab because women supporting women. So if you like us, go check them out. That was fun. They're not specifically women's history they're just kind of fun facts in general so not as niche as us but still pretty cool. And then I heard about that podcast from my friend Jesse on Twitter… I think we're friends I don't know I think we're friends… so shout out to Jesse. So Giulia Tofana, G-I-U because she's Italian, lived in the seventeenth century. Exact dates are kind of weird because she was a woman and not highborn. Best guess she was born in Palermo in Sicily. Her mother was executed for poisoning her father, possibly because he was abusive. This is a thing– like a running theme that we’ll see it later. Also later, Giulia's husband died mysteriously, probably also poisoned, probably also abusive. So she moved to Rome at some point in the 1630s-ish, probably, as a widow with her daughter to sell cosmetics and be apothecaries and poison people. Dun dun dun…

Alana: So women in the seventeenth century have so many options. They can be sex workers, they can be essentially auctioned off to almost always abuse of older men and then later if their husbands died become respected widows. Those are your options. So many! So many options! What– how are you going to pick, so many things.

Lexi: The amount of choices is staggering.

Alana: Paralyzed by choice, really. My sources call these women ‘aspiring windows’ as if they are gold diggers and not battered women with no escape. I love– I love that like my running theme is criticizing my sources. That's my thing. Giulia crafted essentially her own poison. Created her own poison, or what by all accounts… she was the one who came up with this. Between like her and her mother and her daughter they came up with this poison called aqua tofana, named after her. It's a combination of arsenic and belladonna and lead, which are things that are already in cosmetics at the time but not quite lethal, still have problems, but not lethal unless they're ingested. And so having these things on a vanity looks totally normal. And so Giulia, as someone who experienced abuse, who had watched her mother get executed for defending herself, essentially… I am not condoning murder, and I know it's never good to say something at the beginning of a sentence like ‘I'm not condoning murder’ and then doing ‘but’... I feel like… there are no options.

Lexi: Self defense.

Alana: Self defense.

Lexi: And it seems very clear– again, we don't know the whole situation but it seems very clear that she was in a bad situation.

Alana: A bad situation. Yeah

Lexi: We are not the judge, jury, or the executioner so we can't say.

Alana: So she, having probably been abused and having watched her mother probably been abused and watched her mother get executed for essentially defending herself… she's going to help these other women get out of their marriages in such a way that it can't be traced. Because this poisoning with this mixture of belladonna and arsenic and lead, it takes really long for someone to die. Really long is like two to three days, but it also looks like natural causes or another illness which always happened in the 1600s. People got sick and died and that was just normal. And it gave these men time to get their affairs in order and to confess their sins and in a very Catholic area at a very Catholic time you like automatically got into heaven as long as you confessed your sins. So since these people had time to confess their sins, our murderess wouldn't have to feel so guilty that she was condemning her husband to hell even though he was probably hurting her. It only takes four to six drops to kill someone, depending on their size and all of that other stuff. And another side fact, side fun fact: Mozart, who nobody knows how Mozart died, Mozart wholeheartedly believed that he was poisoned with aqua tofana, but nobody knows. I feel so good that Haley is just nodding fervently. I feel like I'm doing a good job. Thank you for that.

Haley: I've awkwardly read so much on arsenic poisoning. Just so much so, but yes you are correct. There are probably just so many people who died of arsenic poison in the 1600s because autopsies weren’t like what we have today where you can do a toxicology, so so many people would seem like they were getting ill, because a lot of the times it just looks like a common cold or flu-like symptoms, they just weren't feeling good. But then they would die so now people do toxicology because it's a thirty year old man with no pre-existing conditions. But when you're talking about it in the 1600s it's like ‘oh they got sick we don't have modern medicine to help out.’

Alana: Nobody knows what's happening, essentially. It's like ‘oh no another person got sick.’ So Giulia Tofana sold this with her daughter and some employees at this family business, essentially, which is a weird way to think about it– that the family business is murder. They operated like this for about fifty years, for decades. And… at least the estimated number is something like six hundred plus people died because she sold their wives poison. But she got caught, and legend has it– and there are so many foggy details but this seems way too specific so I think like somebody exaggerated but, one of her clients who had bought the aqua tofana to poison her husband had poisoned a bowl of soup but decided, ‘no, I can’t. I can’t kill someone’ and dramatically knocked it out of his hand. And that's where I am thinking this… somebody exaggerated. Somebody made this up because that's way too specific. But she stopped her husband from eating the soup and confessed her crimes and turned in Giulia Tofana and her daughter and their three employees at the business. And all of them were executed. Under torture, of course, it's the seventeenth century, she turned on a bunch of her clients as well. So a bunch of her clients were also executed. Some of them were not executed, because they claimed that they didn't know that it was poison and it was just ‘oh no, I spilled some of my lotion in my husband’s soup… Oops. Oopsie poopsies I’m only like fourteen I don't know any better.’ I made myself laugh with that one I’m sorry. But those people were spared. So there is something to… was Giulia a hero, was she a murderess, could both of those things be true…

Lexi: Was she an anti-hero?

Alana: She's kind of an anti-hero. I think that's what we’re going for.

Haley: I like that, I like anti-hero.

Alana: I think– I also think like–

Lexi: Like a Robin Hood, but murder.

Alana: Batman, but murder. Does Batman kill people?

Lexi: Robin Hood stole things, he didn't kill anyone. This is like the Robin Hood of murdering people.

Alana: Sure.

Lexi: It's like murder the rich, give to the wife?

Alana: Vigilante!

Lexi: I don't know. Vigilante murder, yeah.

Haley: So far we’re on the track of like ‘our criminals are good, question mark?’

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Mine was definitely a criminal, but we'll get in that.

Alana: Well, I am done. So, Lexi let’s get into that.

Lexi: What a segue! Okay. So my lady, though definitely also had a lot of background trauma as it seems that a lot of these ladies had definitely did crime. So we'll just jump in. Have you guys ever heard of the queen of the mob?

Haley: Yes. I'm so excited that you're doing this one.

Alana: Maybe. You'll have to tell me her name.

Lexi: Okay.

Haley: This is truly like my favorite episodes so far, and I like hate when people like get really into criminals like some people, like for Jeffrey Dahmer, people love him, think he's like the most beautiful man, same with Ted Bundy, and that's not where my head is at.

Lexi: That’s creepy.

Haley: I have a true fascination with the history of crime, death, medicine, and how our society perceives it now. When I say I love these people or I love these stories that is not where I'm going.

Lexi: You're not doing the whole crime fandom crush thing.

Haley: No.

Alana: I have seen people get like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer's signatures tattooed on themselves.

Lexi: That’s creepy.

Haley: Yeah

Lexi: And I don't condone that.

Alana: No we don't like that.

Lexi: But you can be interested in crime especially because as someone who has taken courses in the forensic realm… and who likes bones, and likes that kind of thing, I think you can be interested in the human phenomenon.

Alana: As academics.

Haley: That’s where we’re at for me.

Alana: Not as fanatics.

Lexi: Yes, yes.

Haley: I was listening to like you guys speak and kind of like going back in my head like oh, I seem like such a psycho when I’m like ‘I love Charlotte’ like she is just a fascinating human.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: Well now we’ve clarified which is good.

Haley: She assassinated someone. And assassinations aren’t swell.

Lexi: But like when you think about like what is interesting on TV, or like what is interesting in our fiction, it's because humans have a general interest. So–

Haley: I wanna write a whole paper on that. Just truly that whole concept.

Lexi: So the queen of the mob, Virginia Hill. You can learn about her at the Mob Museum, people are really really fascinated with her and her story is really interesting. And she was born on August 26, 1916 in a place called Lipscomb, Alabama. I might have said that wrong, you know general– general reminder I say things wrong sometimes. She was born on her father's horse farm. Her father was abusive and he actually beat her and her siblings when they were children and one day she got really fed up with him attacking her and her little siblings so she hit him with a hot skillet in self defense. At the age of fourteen, Virginia married a man named George and three years later the couple moved to Chicago. When they got there she dumped him because you realize the world is a lot bigger than her hometown in Alabama, and so seventeen year old Virginia wanted to start her life anew. At the time, the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, which is a World's Fair style event, and it was conceived to bring hope in the wake of the Great Depression that was happening. So Virginia took a job dancing, like as a shimmy dancer, so she had a really unique–

Alana: What– what does shimmy dancer mean? Like a go-go dancer? Like a str– like what?

Lexi: I think you dance shimmy like you shake back and forth and you wear tassels, I believe.

Alana: Dream job.

Lexi: But someone feel free to correct me.

Haley: Yeah, I was thinking one of those 1920s cigarette girls.

Lexi: Yeah that could probably be it because this is a similar era.

Haley: Like they would have like the thing that went over them holding a plate platter like tray that they would just like walk around, dance around, and you can buy stuff from them.

Lexi: Yeah. It could possibly be akin to that. When the fair ended, Virginia became a waitress at one of Al Capone's old haunts the San Carlo Italian Village, which is a restaurant not a town. I had to Google that. Though Capone was at that time in prison, he went to prison in 1931, the community of criminals that he had built was still thriving, and it was– it was in this role as a waitress serving tables of America’s mobsters that Virginia met the man who would change her life. His name was Joe Epstein. He was an accountant and bookkeeper for Capone's crime family, and he took a liking to Virginia’s style, and that doesn't mean like her physical attractiveness… she had a certain style of a way that she talked to the mobsters, and she seemed to really have like a no-nonsense kind of ability to deal with the mobsters, which is really unique in a girl so young. So he felt he could trust her, and he took her on as a money launderer for his racketeering. She laundered the money by placing large bets on horses in Chicago's racetracks. She later moved into betting scams which is basically when she learned how from Joe to collect bets on fixed boxing matches. So the matches will be predetermined, but she would encourage people to bet the losing side. Virginia didn't just launder money. Joe taught her how to dress and act like a rich woman, and used her to cross state lines with stolen furs, jewels, and other items, because of course no one would suspect a nice, rich lady of stealing things and crossing state lines with them. The craziest part is that this all happened before Virginia even turned twenty. So by the age of twenty she was wearing really wealthy clothes, working really wealthy circles, and basically was a part of the mob. Over time, Hill became a trusted cash carrier, money launderer, and information gatherer for Joe and the rest of Capone's crew. She had many rich boyfriends and often used these relationships to benefit her mob family. In one instance she dated an oil tycoon named Major Riddle. No, you cannot make up this name, and yes, I wrote in my script to pause for insane laughter but no one is laughing. I think his name is hilarious.

Haley: I think that’s the best name ever.

Alana: We're on meat. We're on mute. Lexi that's why we're not laughing you didn't... they won’t be able to see the face that I made.

Lexi: Yeah. That's true. I forgot. Well anyway she dated this oil tycoon Mr. Riddle and she convinced him to give her money for investments that were like completely fake and she took that money back to her boy Joe. And Hill used her womanly charm, and by that I mean she seduced men. And through these methods she was able to obtain valuable information for her mob bros. Joe encourage Virginia to move out east to build connections between Chicago and New York crime syndicates. In New York, she laundered money and met many more men including a Mexican night club dancer named excuse my pronunciation, if this is wrong, Miguelito Valdez. At some point Virginia marriedValdez to help him maintain his residence in the United States. And then Virginia, at the same time as this marriage, had an on and off affair with Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel who is a really famous leader in organized crime.The pair is well known to have real chemistry so this wasn't just considered to be a case of her seducing someone. They think that she genuinely liked him And unfortunately at the time Bugsy was married to another woman. In 1940, he was sent to jail on a murder charge. While Bugsy was in jail, Virginia tricked Valdez into signing divorce papers. And it was all very “90 day fiance” of her if you ask me. It is unclear if it was through her marriage or not but at some point Virginia had become very fluent in Spanish. She used her newfound language skills to begin trafficking drugs particularly heroin from Mexico to Chicago. In the 1940s, she attempted to start a career acting in Hollywood while transferring cash from New York to Chicago to LA. Meanwhile, Bugsy was setting up his new crime life in Las Vegas which he believed was the new up and coming resort destination for Americans and in hindsight he was probably right. He wanted Virginia to join him and she did but mainly only to spy on his activities and report back to her other mob leaders like Joe. Unfortunately, Bugsy’s biggest dreams were dashed when his resort project the “Flamingo” failed. He had drowned too much money into elabore improvements to the resort and lost cash when lucky winners struck it big in his casino. In a desperate attempt to save the business, he closed the casino and reopened the Flamingo as a hotel only, which sadly was unsuccessful, because we all know how Vegas went. Hill received orders to leave Las Vegas, so she did. 12 days later, someone shot Bugsy dead in their home. In 1950, Virginia went to a ski resort in Idaho, which I didn’t know you could ski in Idaho, but apparently you can. And she fell in love with an instructor named Hans Hauser. Again, very “90 Day Fiance” of her. Though she was still laundering money and Hauser was not a criminal, he still wanted to marry her. The couple eloped and had a son named Peter. Later that year, Virginia was subpoenaed to appear in a trial on organized crime which would be shown on National TV. She arrived like a star, dressed from head to toe in expensive clothing and jewelry. As a witness, she served her crime family well, evading details and giving vague, basic answers to in depth questions. She used creative lies to explain away all the cash she had laundered, explaining how she had bet money on horses to win her initial cash. She also insisted that most of her wealth came from gifts of suitors, or as we would probably call them today her sugar daddies. Now quick side note- this kinda gives me vibes of the musical Chicago and that song about the main character’s testimony, where she basically used her charm and virtue as a woman to get out of murder. “Well I can’t help it sir, I am just so beautiful men flock to me and give me free things.” On the stand, Virinigia denied that her male friends and lovers were racketeers. When the investigators caught her in her lies, she simply denied knowledge of the nature of their work. “But I never knew anything about their business” she would say. She denied her ability to have any financial knowledge, you know, because she was a lady, and ladies don’t do money things.

Alana: Ladies don’t money.

Lexi: Ladies never money.

Alana: Women be shopping but women don’t be money.

Haley: I love the comparison, like this whole story cuz this is so much like Charlotte. Both of these ladies are trying to be like, “Oh women do this, this is how women look, look how beautiful we are.

Lexi: That’s the vibe. That’s the vibe she was going for. The investigators were still suspicious, it did not work. Because, you know, it was about to be the sixties I mean it was the fifties but was about to be the sixties and so women were going to be liberated. As Virginia left the trial, she cursed out the press and she punched a reporter in the face. Then as she got her car she told reporters she hoped an atomic bomb would be dropped on them, which I think is a timely thing to say. This was right after World War II. That- That’s a big insult. That’s really mean. Virginia and Hans then realized that they needed to leave America so they moved to Europe. The IRS was still on Virginia's tail and she knew she could not return to the States ever again. She met up with her old boyfriends and colleagues while they were in Europe and it was clear she still received money from her life's consistent characters like Joe. In the nineteen sixties Virginia and her family settled in Austria and her mental health rapidly declined.

Viriginia had suffered with her mental health through most of her adult life, getting hooked on sleeping pills and almost dying from a sleeping pill overdose on at least one occasion. Her life was turbulent, her trauma was intense, and she survived at least three separate suicide attempts. On cold, winter’s day, March 24th, 1966, in Austria, Virginia took her own life. Pedestrians taking a walk along the water found her body, laying in the snow, along with a note stating the reason for her death, “I am tired of life”. Her husband Hans also took his own life, passing in 1974. Their son Peter, who would go on to become an American soldier and veterean of the Vietnam War, died in a car accident 20 years later. The family is buried together, in Salzburg, Austria. To this day, some crime enthusiasts believe Virginia may have been murdered, force fed pills as a method to hide a murder as suicide of someone with a history of mental illness. Though her apparent struggles with her mental health throughout her life really suggest this theory is unlikely. I think Virginia can teach us a lot, for starters I think the importance of mental health help is something her legacy can teach us. Virginia had a horrible childhood and instead of getting help she needed, she was married off and eventually she was convinced to do crime. She spent a lot of her life struggling, and it's possible some for mental health issues stem from that early trauma. I think Virginia can teach us a lot, for starters I think the importance of mental health help is something her legacy can teach us. Virginia had a horrible childhood, and instead of getting the help she needed, she was married off. She spent a lot of her life struggling, and it is possible some of her mental health issues stemmed from that early trauma. I think Virginia also teaches us that it took more than men to make the Mobs of early and mid century America function. Virginia was often called the mistress of the mob, but that’s not fair- she wasn’t a mistress of the mob, she was a member of the mob. Women, both those whose stories are recorded and those whose stories were forgotten, played central roles in organized crime. So maybe next time you think about famous figures like Al Capone, think of the women like Virginia Hill who supported the crimes too. And that’s why we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of women’s history, because there are so many stories that go untold.

Alana: That was so beautiful.

Haley: That was mind blowing.

Lexi: Thank you! I am gonna leave in you guys calling it beautiful too!

Alana: That was incredible.

Lexi: I really thought about that really hard.

Alana: Holy shit!

Haley: I truly love that like all our stories had a moral like that the ending for Alana was also just like you have to face that you're a killer that's a no no and like Lexi here with mental health and then me being like it's not all black and white you’re both bad people!

Alana: Nuance and context is like my mantra these days.

Lexi: That’s academics.

Haley: Yes.

Alana: Nuance and context as academics.

Lexi As people who studied at a university. Oh my.

Alana: I have a bachelor's degree.

Lexi: Mhmm. Is this podcast just proof to your parents that you got a bachelor's degree?

Alana: No, they paid for it.

Lexi: They know.

Alana: They know.

Lexi: They suffered.

(Alana laughing)

Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on lady history pod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review or tell your friends, and if you don’t like the show, keep it to yourself.

Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Instagram and Twitter at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, Garageband, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time on Lady History.

[OUTRO MUSIC]

Haley: Next week on Lady History: we're going to be in the kitchen cooking up some great stories about famous women chefs and cooks alike.

Alana: WHERE WE BELONG.

Lexi: In the kitchen.

Alana: /s.

3 notes · View notes

fanwarriorfictions · 5 years

Text

One-

A Stranger Things Fanfic

Chapter Seven: The Bathtub

They were in the station for a few hours, when Joyce and Chief Hopper walk in.

"Hey! Jonathan? Phina? Jesus what happened," Joyce asks.

"Ma'am."

"Why is he wearing cuffs," Joyce asks the officer.

"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer, thats why," Callahan, the one that he it, says.

"Take them off," Joyce orders.

"I am afraid I cannot do that," he says.

Joyce then shouts, "take them off!"

"You heard her, take them off," Hopper says.

"Chief," cuts in Powell, "I get that everyone's emotional here, but. There's something you need to see."

They leave and Phina instantly knows where their going to, "shit. We are in such deep shit."

Jonathan shoots her a concerned and confused glance. She just tells him to wait for it. After a few minutes, they come back with the box of supplies. Jonathan gives her a look and she gives him an I told you so look.

"What is this," Joyce asks, digging through the box.

"Why don't you ask your son. We found this in his car," Hopper says, monotonously.

"What?"

"Why are you going through my car," Jonathan glares at Hopper.

Hopper leans on the desk and glares back, "is that really the question you should be asking right now? I want to see you in my office."

"You won't believe me," Jonathan shouts a little.

Hopper leans back over the desk, "why don't you give me a try?"

They sat in Hopper's office, and explained everything to him and Joyce. They looked at the picture in turn and Hopper looked up st them.

"You said blood draws this thing?"

Phina nods, "potentially, yes, but it's just a theory."

Joyce turns to Jonathan, "can I speak to you in the hall please."

Phina hears the tension in her voice and gives Jonathan a scolding look when he goes to object. He sighs and follows Joyce into the hallway, leaving Phina, Nancy, and Hopper in the room alone. They can faintly hear Joyce and Jonathan's conversation and it makes them all a little awkward.

Hopper glances down at Phina's hand, "what happened to your knuckles kid?"

"I punched someone in the nose," she shrugs, she knew he was just trying to defuse the awkward air but she wasn't in the mood, and was very short with her answer.

"The Steve guy," he asks.

She nods.

"Why?"

She shrugs again, "he hurt my sister, I don't like that."

Phina ran her fingers over her knuckles, "he deserved everything he got."

Suddenly shouting comes from the main room of the police department, Hopper stands up and tells the girls to stay put. Phina follows after him anyway.

A hysterical woman argues with officer Callahan, her son who has a broken arm, standing behind her.

"What the hell is going on here," Hopper shouts.

The women turns to Hopper, "these men are humiliating my son!"

Callahan starts to defend himself, "no no no no no, ok that's not true!"

"There was some kind of fight Chief," Powell explains.

"Some psychotic child broke his arm," the women shouts.

Phina raises her eyebrows, standing next to the Chief. He gives her a look but she just shrugs.

"A little girl Chief. A little one," Callahan says, almost mockingly.

The women points at the officer, "that tone! Do you hear that tone?"

The officer raises his arms, "honestly I'm just trying to say state a fact.."

"We don't have time for this, will you please take a statement," Hopper then mouths, "and get her out."

Hopper turns and waves Phina to follow after him. Callahan asks the kid what happened and what he says stops Phina in her tracks.

"She had, no hair, and she was bleeding from her nose," the kid says, "like a freak!"

Phina whirls around and looks at him, "what?"

Hopper turns around to, a similar look on his face, "what'd you just say?"

The kid turns to them, "I said she's a freak!"

"No, her hair. What'd you say about her hair," Hopper asks, walking back over to the kid.

"Her heads shaved, she doesn't even look like a girl," the kid answers, "and..."

"And what," Hopper asks.

"Tell the man Troy," his mom says comfortingly.

"She can," he says, "do things."

"What kind of things," Hopper asks.

Phina steps closer to them, she knew who he was talking about.

"Like," the kid pauses, "make you fly. Piss yourself."

"What," Powell asks, his voice a little higher.

Hopper holds up his hand, quieting the officer, "was she alone?"

The boy shakes his head, "she always hangs out with those losers."

"Losers," Hopper asks, "what losers?"

"Mike," Phina answers for him, "god damnit, it's my brother and his friends."

"What?"

Phina turns around to get her sister, "he's in such deep shit!"

Hopper follows the girl, "what are you talking about!"

"Mike and his friends found her when they went out looking for Will, she's been staying in our basement," Phina says, "she's got these powers, telekinetic powers."

They get to Hoppers office, the three that had stayed standing from their seats and looking at the distressed pair.

"What's going on," Nancy asks.

"Your little brother is in trouble." "Mike's in trouble."

They drove to the Wheeler's house, stopping far away from it. On the way there, Hopper had explained to them about Hawkins Lab, and why they were searching for Eleven. At the mention of Hawkin's Lab, Phina got a queasy feeling, one she didn't like at all.

People from the lab were taking boxes of things from the house, Mike's things. Hopper watched them through binoculars.

"We have to go home," Nancy says.

"You can't," Hopper answers.

"Our mom, our dad are there," Nancy shouts at him.

"They'll be ok," Hopper tells her.

Nancy grabs Phina's arm and starts walking towards the house. Phina pulls back her arm from her sister.

"Nance, he's right, they have nothing to do with this. They'll be fine," Phina says.

"You don't know that Phina," Nancy argues, walking toward their home again.

Hopper grabs Nancy's arm and pulls her to a stop, "hey. Hey hey hey!"

"Let go!"

Nancy tries to free her arm, pulling back, but Hopper holds on.

"Listen to me. The last thing in the world we need is them knowing you're mixed up in all of this," he says.

"Mike is over there," Nancy shouts worriedly.

"No he's not Nancy, they haven't found him, not yet," Phina says.

Hopper nods and points to the helicopter that was flying around. They all look towards it, Nancy getting a astounded look on her face.

"For Mike," she asks.

Hopper pulls her back, "come on, get in the car."

They rush to get into Hoppers truck, Nancy sits in the middle of the backseat, sandwiched between Phina and Jonathan. Hopper gets in the drivers seat and turns back to them.

"Look, we need to find them before they do," Hopper says, "do you have any idea where he might have gone?"

"No, I don't," Nancy says, her emotions showing clear on her face.

"I need you to think," Hopper tells her.

"I don't know! We haven't talked a lot, I mean lately," Nancy falls back in her seat.

"What about you Phina, is there any place your parents don't know about where he might go," Joyce asks.

"Not that I know of," Phina sighs.

She then gets an idea and looks at Jonathan, "but I might know how to ask him."

"Will's radio," Jonathan nods, "they all have radios."

Hopper turns on the car and they speed toward the Byers' house.

It takes almost no time at all to get there, Hopper drove like a mad man and Phina was honestly scared for her life. There were a few corners where she was almost certain they were about to flip.

Hopper skids to a stop in front of the house. Phina jumps out of the car before it's even completely stopped, rushing into the house which was left unlocked. She leads everyone to Will's room, ignoring Nancy who stops to look at the messy state of the place.

She barges in and starts looking, Jonathan and Joyce as well. Joyce crawls underneath the bed and shouts that she found it.

They circle around her and Nancy takes the radio, "Mike? Are you there? Mike?"

"Mike, it's me Nancy," she tries again, "Mike we need you to answer."

No one answers and Nancy tries again, "this is an emergency Mike, do you copy."

No answer, "Mike do you copy!"

They look at each other and Nancy tries again, "we need you to answer!"

Hopper gets annoyed and takes the radio from Nancy, "listen kid, this is the Chief, if you're there pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl. We can help you, we can protect you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there, do you copy? Over!"

"Give it to me," Phina says and takes the radio.

"God damnit Mike, I'm worried sick about you guys. Pick up the damn radio, we're trying to help," Phina growls into the radio, "we're trying to protect you guys, from the bad men, got it? Over."

Phina looks down at the radio and groans. Hopper turns to the group.

"Do we got any other ideas," he asks.

Suddenly, the radio makes a noise, "yes, I got it Phina. It's Mike, I'm here. We're here."

Phina jumps, "where are you, we're coming!"

"The old junkyard, in the broken down bus," Mike says.

Phina throws the radio onto Will's bed and rushes towards the front doors, hearing someone following her.

"Phina, go back inside, I'll go get them," Hopper yells after her.

"I'm going whether you like it or not," she snaps.

"No, you are going to stay here where it's safe," he argues, "I don't want to add you to the list of kids I have to protect."

Phina turns around to face him, her eyes burning him, "I can handle myself Hopper. Now listen to me, those are my kids and I am going to save them, with or without your help. Got it? Good."

She turns on her heel and continues towards the truck, getting in and slamming her door shut. There was no arguing with her, Hopper realized, Seraphina Wheeler is fiercely protective of who she loves, trying to stop her would be like standing between a bear and her cub. Hopper was not that stupid.

He got in the car, no argument left on his tongue.

-1758 words-

#steve harrington #steve harrington x oc #stranger things #stranger things fanfic #strangerthingsfanfic #strangerthings #slow burn #one #romance

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