#Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity

[hauntedbythenarrative]

Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.

Circe invidiosa (1892), John William Waterhouse//Boyish, Japanese Breakfast//Medea, Euripides//Judith and Holofernes, Unknown Artist//Medea meditating on killing her children (1852)//Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers, Sady Doyle//Medea, Euripides//Circe offering the cup to Ulysses (1891), John William Waterhouse//Study for Lady Macbeth (1851), Gustave Moreau//John Singer Sargent (1889)

[marwyn]

ADWD / Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power

[ash-and-starlight]

Books of 2023

the list nobody asked for <3

My reading habits had gone a bit stagnant in the past couple of years so this year i made the effort to engage in reading again and wow books really are good!! who would have thought! Sharing this year's book log with the small reviews i did while reading yeah i am That kind of list lover if u feel like being nosy, (and maybe even help mi crowdsource reading recs based on my likes 👀🤲?)

The left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula i Need to know your thoughts on omegaver- [gunshot] THAT ASIDE yeah. mrs Le Guin you've done it again. I can see why everyone got their brain chemistry altered by this book.

The Membranes - Chi Ta-Wei another brain chemistry altering book. would love to discuss it with a gender studies major lmao

Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie its a v atmospheric and poignant story, I know I would have loved it more if I was familiar with the rich religious/cultural background it draws from

The Masquerade Series - Seth Dickinson Crazy insane in the membrane about this series. one of the most compelling worldbuildings I've ever seen, and most importantly it features one of the most crazy wet pathetic scrunkly meow meow protagonists i've ever had the pleasure of reading about.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides i liked the writing style of this book a lot! idk how well it holds up re: intersexuality topic, but its a very engaging read.

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power - Jude Ellison, Sady Doyle The title says it all honestly, its a beautiful, thought provoking and engaging essay, spanning eras, pop culture phenomenons, and real life events on the topic of women and horror.

The cat who saved books - Sōsuke Natsukawa this was so cute and heartfelt, it will really make you go Ah Yes, this is Why we Love Books <333

The Locked Tomb Series - Tamsyn Muir now when people say there is a girl who is the cursed sacrifice of 2000 infants who falls in love with the sleeping embodiment of the soul of the Earth (barbie) and also another girl who is the only survivor of the aforementioned sacrifice and is. a Jesus metaphor? and also the two girls become one at some point. and every book is a different genre. and god is bisexual. and memes survived the nuclear apocalypse. I can just nod and say so true.

The Area X Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer Rotating this series in the microwave of my mind at the speed of light it's soSO GOOD!! the movie doesn't even come close honestly u NEED to read the books. and then go touch grass and be aware of every strand in a completely new way.

The Dawn of Yangchen - F. C. Yee nice read! I was more invested in the worldbuilding crumbs than in the actual story lmao, I will forever think about the HEATED airball rivalry between the air temples and about the swt greetings / bethrotal armbands.

Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex - Bernard Saladin d'Anglure starting w a disclaimer bc I feel like the topic of native colonization was ignored when it should have been way more prominent when talking about the context of where and when these testimonies were collected?? That aside it was very interesting and well put together, with first account testimonies of Inuit elders about their myths, lifestyles and beliefs.

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee i read the book after having seen the tv series (which i also rlly recommend). Very moving story about a family and its generations, from Korea under Japanese colonization to modern day America.

Her body and other parties - Carmen Maria Marchado sometimes I go about my day then I remember this book exists and stare at the wall for 30 minutes.

Dictionnaire de l'impossible - Didier Van Cauwelaert big miss. this collection of articles about "strange impossible phenomenons" sounded so quirky and interesting but i sure would have loved if the author hadnt so clearly picked a side. and also way too much church for my tastes.

He who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker Chan Im not even gonna speak about this one if you've followed me since july you know what pits of insanity and despair i'm in

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin Sometimes!! the book with pretty covers put in the "famous on socials" bookstore section!! are good!! It's about being othered it's about connection it's about diaspora it's about love and friendship and most of all it's about viddy games.

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel reading this post-covid and learning it was written in 2017 was A TRIP. Psychic damage at every page. still feeling very normla.

The Mask of Apollo - Mary Renault Ugh i desperately wanted to like this book because the setup is so interesting and full of potential, but the end result was just. flat. flat story flat characters the plot focusing on the wrong things at the wrong times i was so DONE when i reached the end otz.

Babel - R. F. Kuang LOVED the worldbuilding in this, the "lost in translation" system of magic is one of the most interesting things ive ever read. I think theres something about the writing in general that didn't win me over completely?? but all in all a very good

Red Ocean - Han Song This sure is a Book. That i've Read. its so profundly strange and unlike anything ive come across that i dont even know what to feel about it. i think 90% of my confusion comes from Not Getting Cultural References so if someone has a "red ocean explained" essay plz send it my way bc i couldnt find one.

[julictcapulet]

re. your post about nonfiction, do you have any nonfiction books that you would recommend to people who haven't read any ever?

these are some of the ones i've read that i either loved or just ones that i think offer a bit to the conversation. if anyone has more recs for me, please send some <3

know my name, chanel miller (10/10)

crying in h mart, michelle zauner

i'm glad my mom died, jennette mccurdy

everything i know about love, dolly alderton

trainwreck: the women we love to hate, mock, and fear...and why, sady doyle

dead blondes and bad mothers: monstrosity, patriarchy, and the fear of female power, sady doyle

trick mirror: reflections on self-delusion, jia tolentino (there are people who hate this one, and then there are communications students. i'm a communications student)

bad feminist: essays, roxane gay (really great introductory book to nonfiction/feminist theory)

all about love: new visions, bell hooks

call them by their true names: american crises, rebecca solnit

empireland: how imperialism has shaped modern britain, sathnam sanghera (a little tedious for me, but an important read nevertheless)

the madwoman in the attic: the woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination, sandra m. gilbert & susan gubar

mediocre: the dangerous legacy of white male power, ijeoma oluo (READ THIS!!!!)

men who hate women: from incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all, laura bates

a curious history of sex, kate lister (served absolute cunt)

[explorenocta]

Research Archive

Visual

The Psychology, Geography, and Architecture of Horror

Dead Letter: The Aesthetics of Horror

The Aesthetics and Psychology Behind Horror Films

How color, time, space and sound elicit fear in an audience

Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture

History & Analysis

The horror genre : from Beelzebub to Blair Witch

Monsters from the Id : the rise of horror in fiction and film

Knowing fear : science, knowledge and the development of the horror genre

Dead blondes and bad mothers : monstrosity, patriarchy, and the fear of female power

Haunting experiences : ghosts in contemporary folklore

Horror as pleasure : the aesthetics of horror fiction

Unutterable horror : a history of supernatural fiction

Haunted : on ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, and other monsters of the natural and supernatural worlds

Horror fiction: the unexpectedly ancient origins of ghost stories

Horror Film Aesthetics: Creating the Visual Language of Fear

Lore

The United States of Cryptids

The Forest in Folklore and Mythology

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Treasury of Folklore: Woodlands & Forests

Treasury of Folklore: Seas & Rivers

Breverton’s Phantasmagoria

[onebluebookworm]

Women's History Month 2023 - March 24

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power - Sady Doyle

[snowman-aesthetic]

In the days leading up to her death, Michael’s neighbours recalled hearing screaming coming from his house - “take It, you [bitch], you old faggot, or we will burn you” was one widely reported comment - and seeing Bridget tied to the bed, where she was doused and force-fed potions to repel fairy magic. Sometimes that meant herbs boiled in milk. Sometimes it meant urine. Fairies hated iron, so she was threatened and prodded with a hot poker; fairies hated Christianity, so a priest was called. Bridget was made to recite her name and her male relatives’ names; she had to describe herself as “Bridget Boland, wife of Michael Cleary, in the name of God” over and over, as if the spell could be broken by reaffirming the proper marital relation. When she was slow to answer, they held her over the kitchen fire. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When she refused a third piece [of toast], Michael knocked Bridget to the ground and began forcing the bread down her throat. He began demanding that she call herself “the wife of Michael Cleary” again .... Michael then stripped his wife’s clothes off, except her chemise, and got a lighting stick out of the fire. She was lying on the floor and he held it near her mouth. 

Fairies hated fire. So Michael held fire to his wife’s mouth, telling her to take back what she’d said. Some of the witnesses remembered her crying out for Johanna - “oh, Han, Han” - and Johanna remembered Bridget saying, “give me a chance,” but then her head hit the floor, hard, and she stopped talking. So it may have been the blow to the head that killed her. We can’t know. Somehow, in the struggle, a spark got loose, and Bridget’s chemise caught fire. Over the screaming of her assembled family, Michael reached for a lamp and poured the burning oil over Bridget’s body, stoking the flames.

-/-/-/-//-/-/-/-/--/

...given what we know about the other men, the obvious pride Bridget took in herself, and the financial power she wielded - say it plainly, the fact that Bridget was not under her husband’s control - it may have been a lie, and a way to justify killing her. Men kill women every day to assert their authority. Bridget wouldn’t have been the first. 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-oo

“Fairy wives” behaved less like inexplicable creatures of the spirit world and more like women who’d figured out how to have long-term heterosexual relationships without ceding their dignity or autonomy. So if Michael Cleary had a wide who was more beautiful than ordinary women, who wielded more control than ordinary women, who acted “too fine” for him or anyone, who had a habit of disappearing - well, he knew what to call her. If tradition had taught him anything, it was that a woman who insisted too much on being treated like a person was probably not a person at all. 

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

Women’s adult sexuality - the kind that comes attached to female experience, agency, power in the world - is even more heavily demonised than the adolescent variety. An adolescent girl’s sexuality is frightening because it’s a way for her to slip out of her parents’ control. But once a girl slips her chain and becomes a woman, her sexuality stops being merely worrisome and becomes a threat. Sex is a valuable resource that men can never entirely alienate her from because it resides within her body.

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

...humanity, for most of recorded history, has been defined as male. In the West, white men have told our stories, written our laws, made our definitions, dominated our arts and academies; when female experience has been accounted for at all, it has usually been a man doing the accounting. Women are defined from the outside, in terms of how they seem to men, rather than from the inside, as thinking, feeling subjects. They are not fellow people, not even a different or worse variety of people, but simply the opposite of men, and hence, the opposite of human. 

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

They seem beautiful and human at first glance, but when you examine them, their bodies are never quite right; they always bear some mark of the animal or the otherworldly. You can never fully understand these women, never fully pin them down, never love them; they are elusive, incomprehensible, practiced deceivers. You can live with one for years and still not see the snake that lives inside her skin.

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

The twenty-first century, of course, does not really do swoons. We don’t really do fairies, either. We still have magical kidnappers, not-quite-human imposters, and inexplicable visitors from another world, but we call them aliens. 

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It is luxuriantly, gorgeously terrible. 

-o-o-o-o-o

a psychic who does things like walk up to a gorily mutilated corpse and announce, using his psychic powers, “Something bad happened here!”

-0-0-0-0-0-0

Maybe you think I am exaggerating. Maybe it’s not actually that stupid. To which I reply: no. Whatever you are imagining, [movie] is much, much stupider than that. 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It is an artless, timeless, accidental blueprint of all the ways men fear female sexuality.

-o-o-o-o-

Yet Sil’s quest to fulfil every single female stereotype from a bad ‘90s stand-up routine is not really meant to amuse us. It’s meant to be terrifying. The fact that she’s feminine is what makes her monstrous - a Melusine whose dragon nature is always lurking just under the surface. Once a woman is free to desire and pursue her own desires, she moves beyond the reach of our empathy; she’s a threat that must be contained or destroyed.

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

Plenty of these portrayals [of animal seductress women] hint at more commonly concealed desires, which are less cannibalistic than they are “not heterosexual” .... The fear of female sexual liberation has always been partly a fear that women will develop desires that don’t include men. 

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

But there is another group of marginalised women who bear the brunt of our fears nowadays - made to hold the bag for our ideas of deceptive femininity and killer shape-shifters. Transgender women have always existed. But in literature, they have seldom been anything other than monsters. 

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

Monsters can be beautiful; possessed of a certain archaic, queenly violence or a joyful Lucy Western indifference to convention, .

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

[Elena] Rose calls monstrosity an ethos of “the cobbled-together, the sewn-up, the grafted-on ... the golden, the under-the-earth, the foreign, the travels-by-night; the filthy ship-sinking cave-dwelling bone-cracking gorgeousness that says hell no, I am not tidy. I am not easy.”

‘Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power’ - Sady Doyle

[fettesans]

Top, Barbara Kruger, Sex/Lure, 1979, Acrylic on black & white photograph, 30 x 40 inches. Via. Center and bottom, Manuel Cornelius, JetH, 2021, Gradually decaying agar jelly, food dye, 3d printed inner support structure. Via.

--

Women have always been monsters, too, in the minds of great men; in philosophy, medicine, and psychology, the inherent freakishness of women has always been a baseline assumption. Aristotle famously concluded that every woman was a "mutilated male." Thomas Aquinas said that, were it not for their ability to bear sons, God would have been wrong to make women at all: "Nothing misbegotten or defective should have been in the first production of things." [...] Centuries after Aristotle, Sigmund Freud updated and expanded the "mutilated male" theory by arguing that women were "castrated." Male and female children alike were supposedly traumatized for life by the knowledge that their mothers did not have penises, seeing the female body forever after as maimed and incomplete—a walking wound.

Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Introduction to Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and the Fear of Female Power, 2019. Via.

[queerographies]

[Il mostruoso femminile][Jude Ellison Sady Doyle]

Se un mostro è un corpo spaventoso perché fuori controllo, una donna mostruosa è una donna libera dal controllo dell'uomo. [Il mostruoso femminile][Jude Ellison Sady Doyle]

Se un mostro è un corpo spaventoso perché fuori controllo, una donna mostruosa è una donna libera dal controllo dell’uomo. Il mostruoso femminile è un saggio sulla natura selvaggia della femminilità, che viaggia tra mito e letteratura, cronaca nera e cinema horror, mostrando la primordiale paura che il patriarcato nutre da sempre nei confronti delle donne. Da “L’esorcista” alla dea babilonese…

[rapeculturerealities]

In her acclaimed 2016 debut, Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear … and Why, feminist author and cultural critic Sady Doyle dissected the ubiquitous American pastime of simultaneously idolizing and vilifying female celebrity. Her new book, Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power, also looks at how the morass of misogyny poisons everything — including our psyches, our popular culture and our everyday lives. But this book focuses more intently on … horror.

Not the horror genre — though plenty of those examples are included — but about the horror of living as a woman in a violent patriarchal society that fears you, despises you; even wants you dead. Pulling from a broad range of cultural references, from Freud to Aristotle to the second-wave feminist theories of Dorothy Dinnerstein to obscure slasher films like The Mutilator, Doyle examines the myriad ways that the world is monstrous to women — and how the world has made monsters of us. “Women have always been monsters, too, in the minds of great men; in philosophy, medicine, and psychology, the inherest freakishness of women has always been a baseline assumption,” Doyle writes in the introduction. “A monster does not merely inspire anger, or disgust. A monster, by definition, inspires fear.”

The fantastically smart book that follows is broken into sections covering the monstrousness associated with the entire socially-prescribed female life cycle, from the spark of adolescence; to marriage and motherhood (with their attendant domestic indignities); to the solitude of old age.

read more

[bigtickhk]

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Sady Doyle https://amzn.to/2mfHV6k

[hauntedbythenarrative]

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers, Sady Doyle

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Maw #1 by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and A.L. Kaplan. Cover by Ariela Kristantina. Variant covers by (2) Megan Hutchinson-Cates, (3) Abigail Jill Harding and (4) Tiffany Turrill. Out in September.

“What happens when one woman becomes the real monster society has always made her out to be? Dragged by her sister Wendy to a feminist retreat on the remote island of Angitia, Marion Angela Weber hopes to gain some perspective and empowerment... that isn't at the bottom of a bottle. But everything is horribly derailed after an assault on their first night there. The violent encounter awakens something in Marion she never imagined, triggering warped mutations in her body, and awakening a hunger she can't bring herself to name. When the townsfolk react with suspicion and violence, what unforgivable act will transform Marion into the very monster they've made her out to be? A provocative five-issue horror series by award-winning journalist and opinion writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle (Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power) and artist A.L. Kaplan (Full Spectrum Therapy) that explores the anger of women trapped by society's expectations and the reclamation of power through collective rage, perfect for readers of Redlands and Something is Killing the Children.”

[pixie-dust-and-pain]

Laser tag

Pairing: Solangelo

Words: 1,224

Warnings: only my horrid writing/none

Based on the prompt: 

Nico Di Angelo was ready to smack his boyfriend. Now, normally, he wasn’t the type to resort to violence-or, well, maybe he was, but that was not the point-but Will Solace had dragged him to the horrid building against his will, insisting that he’d “have fun”.

Well, he was having loads of fun now, sitting in the stuffy mall, legs aching and ice cream melting. He usually liked ice cream, but this one tasted like paraffin wax and sludge. He hadn’t even been aware that ice cream could taste bad before his encounter with this monstrosity. He stood up, threw it in the nearby dustbin, and slumped back into his seat, glaring pointedly at Will. Will simply rolled his eyes, and tugged the hideous blue cap off, finally showed his blonde hair.

“I want to go home,” Nico presumed he looked intimidating, but the way Will’s lip quirked and the way he pinched Nico’s cheek, moving away only when Nico swatted at his hand said otherwise.

“Don’t act like this was torture for you, Mr Dark Lord, I’m the one who had to carry all your hot topic bags,”

Nico blushed slightly, but kept his expression impassive, merely rolling his eyes in reply and slouching in his seat. It wasn’t his fault that the cursed shop had decided t have a sale, and that he’d liked every other piece of clothing.

“Let’s go laser tagging,” Will suggested, getting up abruptly from his seat, and jerking Nico out of his thoughts.

“Let’s go what?” Nico understood if he had annoyed Will by making him carry his bags, but surely, murder was too much. Right?

“Laser tagging? I heard there’s a place here to…” he trailed off, looking horrified at the lost look on Nico’s face. “You’ve-” he began again, slowly this time, as though being confronted by another prophecy, “you’ve never been laser tagging before?”

When Nico shook his head, his expression changed from horrified to confused to pure ecstatic, and he let out a bark of a laugh. He dragged Nico out, bags in one hand and Nico’s arm in the other, and something about the way he was grinning made Nico gulp.

“Where-?” Nico was cut off as Will shushed him impatiently.

“Trust me, you won’t regret it.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Nico regretted it. The air was cool, thankfully, but that didn’t stop him from sweating a bucket. A song, one that Will had immediately recognized upon walking into the place, had been playing for the past hour and half, slowly driving Nico insane. and Nico’s throat felt like parchment paper. Flashes of blue, red, and purple danced across his vision as he squinted, nearly braining a kid when she tried to sneak up on him.

He was great at this, a natural, Will had said after their second round, and he supposed his reflexes and ADHD helped, too. And although he loved the game, he couldn’t help but get annoyed at the flashy lights and the horrendous music, and Gods could he not wait until he got his hands on Will so he could kiss-no, kick him. He’d kiss him later.

He shot the girl who had tried to shoot him, and was filled with relief. It was only him, Will, and another mystery kid left.

Nico was competitive, and would never let Will purposefully win, but he was also tired and wanted nothing more than to cuddle up on his couch with a certain son of Apollo and watch those ghastly movies Will liked so much with him. Although, despite the fatigue and the annoyance he faced, he couldn’t help but admit that the activity was ridiculously enjoyable, especially since he was bound to win.

Will, although being a son of Apollo, couldn’t shoot a gun to save his life, be it a fake or a real one. Nico, on the other hand, was rather skilled, if he said so himself.

“Holy Hera! Mother of fucks-shit, what the fuck, get away you heathen-Fucknickles-!” The crass vocabulary belonged to none other than Will Solace, and Nico winced. Him being from the 1930s highly affected his definition of proper, and Will Solace almost never filled it. 

Moreover, there were kids there, and Will didn’t seem to understand the concept of age-appropriate language. After Chiron had caught a seven-year old girl call her archery partner a “fucking dickhead”, Will had been banned from treating kids under the age of eleven. And when he did, under any emergency, he had been banned from talking in front of them. 

He felt relief flood through him, and he sagged against the wall. It was only him and Will left. His eyes burned, and he licked his lips. His mouth was dry.

Nico may have been excellent at using the weapon provided, a weird, fake gun, but Will was obviously better at sneaking around. Maybe that was why Nico hadn’t noticed it when Will had snuck behind him, and by the time he had, Will had already managed to pin both his wrists above his head.

Nico tried struggling, he really did, but when Will leaned in closer, pressing his body against his, Nico’s mind went blank. Will’s breath fanned the shell of his ear when Will whispered, “Got you,” and Nico didn’t have time to put together a meaningful sentence before Will had pressed his lips to his.

The little space Nico had hidden in seemed to have suddenly turned a thousand degrees hotter, but Nico couldn’t seem to bring himself to care. He didn’t care about winning anymore, and even if he did, it was certainly the last thing on his mind.

Will pressed into him harder, and Nico gasped. He had forgotten about the game, and everything else, and all that mattered to him was the boy currently making out with him. He felt his cheeks turn red in embarrassment at being so openly affectionate in public (and certainly not because he was completely and utterly in love with Will Solace, and was blushing because he was flustered), but this wasn’t the 1930s anymore, and Hades, he couldn’t care less about social etiquette while Will Solace was Pressing into him that way.  

He pulled away, leaving Nico’s breathing uneven and his heart beating louder than before. One thing Will absolutely adored about Nico was how easily flustered he got. Like now, for example. Nico’s cheeks were burning, and his face was a delectable shade of crimson. He was leaning against the wall, and didn’t move away even when Will let go of his wrists. 

Will smirked, shot at Nico, who was far too dumbfounded to react quickly enough, winked playfully at him, and left him behind. “Player is dead, return to base,” A boisterous voice announced, snapping Nico back to reality. He had just lost to Will Solace. Even more, he had just kissed Will Solace in public. He briefly wondered if he’d get thrown out for that. He didn’t care, it wasn’t like he couldn’t bribe Valdez to set up a better replica of the game-he’d forgotten the name-back at camp. 

He stumbled out of the area, cheeks still aflame, and scowled at Will in faux annoyance. Will only grinned back, and Nico felt his lips twitch into a slight smile. Although Nico was usually a sore loser, he didn’t mind losing so much this time.

[unmaskedagain]

Oh Lady Luck (How I miss you so!)

Okay; first off. I hated this. I had a massive case of writer’s block while doing it and lost inspiration near the end.

Oh Lady Luck (How I miss you so!)

           Bustier’s class was the luckiest in school, everyone knew it. They got to go on the most amazing trips, win contest after contest, competition after competition, met all sorts of celebrities, frequently got to meet Ladybug, through the best dances and school plays, and always seemed to have a pep in their step. Anything any of the students went after they always managed to get. Everyone knew Bustier’s class was the luckiest in school. Then one day that changed dramatically.

“You’ve changed,” Alya accused Marinette after the class voted her out as Class president. “You become a bully.”

           Alix snorted, “More like a jealous bitch.”

           There were nods from the other students in class. Lila smiled at Marinette; happy that her promise to ruin the girl was coming true.

“You’re always so mean to Lila,” Rose added. “It’s not nice.”

“You’re worse than Chloe now,” Kim glared.

           Juleka frowned, “We miss the old Marinette.”

“You should’ve chilled out like I told you to, dudette,” Nino said with a shake of his head, clearly disappointed.

“We can’t be your friends anymore,” Alya crossed her arms.

           Marinette had listen to them quietly as they relayed reason after reason why they were ending their friendships with her; all to do with Lila. She didn’t bother to look at Adrien. He had warned her what was going to happen; Nino had told him. There had also been a group text apparently. Adrien made it clear he stood with Marinette. Even more so, when he chose to sit with her in the back of the class, a fierce glare on his face at the other students.

The bluenette placed down her pencil, closed her sketchbook and said, “Fine. Then we’re not friends anymore.”

“That’s counts double for me,” Adrien hissed. “Lose my number. In fact, don’t bother; I’ll just change it. That goes for every last one of you. I’ll be informing my Father and Nathalie that only Chloe and Marinette are on my visitors list.”

           The class blinked in shock. Not expecting that reaction from the blond boy who was usually so amicable and nice.

           Chloe watched with amused eyes. She had been sentenced to the back of the room not long after Marinette. “We’ve never been friends but consider all extra little perks you’ve gotten used to: dead and over with.”

           That was it. None of the other students knew what to say or do. They hadn’t gotten the reaction they expected. Marinette didn’t seem to care. Adrien seemed ready to set them on fire. Chloe looked rather pleased at the idea of seeing them burn. Most shrugged it off; figuring at least two of the three (Marinette and Adrien) would come crawling back in no time.

           They didn’t.

           Things started to change for the students in Bustier’s class the next day.

           Lila woke up in the morning to an email confirming that she would no longer being a model or any type of employee for the Gabriel Agreste brand. Or as Nathalie put it when the sausage hair girl called her, “We will no longer be needing your services, Miss Rossi. Do not contact us again.” Click.

           That was when Lila realized her plan of using Gabriel to get Adrien under her thumb had went up in flames. She hoped that Adrien wasn’t informed so that maybe she could still use his father as a threat against the boy.

           When she go to class, the blond model sent her a vicious smirk. Lila paled. She knew without a doubt that Adrien didn’t just know Lila was fired, he was the one got her fired.

           Nino woke up to the news that the gig he was due to play, his big break, had replaced him. It would’ve been huge for his career.

Oh well, he thought, back to DJ-ing for birthday parties.

           Alya accidently dropped her phone in the toilet; ruining hundreds of videos and pictures for the Ladyblog.

           Alix took a dive while skating; broke her ankle and the watch her dad gave her.

           Max broke his glasses.

           Kim got food poisoning.

           Ivan’s dad ran over his drum set while parking in the garage.

           Rose tried to call Prince Ali and found out he changed his number.

           Nathaniel spilled coffee all over his Ladybug comic strips. Marc had been pissed.

           Juleka’s mom accidently put bleach in with a load of her laundry; it ruined everything.

           By the time they had all got to class, all the students were in a terrible mood. However, when Marinette walked in with a box full of delicious smelling breakfast pastries; they perked up. The bluenette always seemed to know when they needed a pick me up. And there was nothing like a treat from the Dupain-Cheng Bakery.

           Marinette didn’t acknowledge any of their presences. She walked straight to the back of the classroom, sat in her seat between Chloe and Adrien. “Morning!” She beamed at her friends. “I brought treats for the three of us.”

“Awesome!” Adrien smiled, quickly opening the box and snagging a chocolate croissant. “Delicous, Thank you” He said. Or least they thought he said that. His mouth was full and it was mostly garbled.

           Chloe rolled her eyes. She grabbed a mixed berries and cream cheese pastry, “Perfect way to start the day. Thank you, Marinette.”

           Marinette took out her favorite: a berry and jasmine scone. Then she promptly through the box away; making clear that she hadn’t brought any for anyone else. “Anything for my friends.”

“We’ll do lunch at Le Grand Paris,” Chloe said. “On me of course. The chef there is to die for.”

           The other students visibly wilted. Alya in particular who loved going to Le Grand Paris as her mother was the head chef.

           It all went downhill from there.

           Over the next week things went from bad to worse for the students.

           Bustier told the class their trip the Presidential office was cancelled due to an unexpected flooding incident. The plan had been for the class to tour the office and have amazing picnic on the beach afterwards

           Lila’s mother, who had been busy nearly 24/7, officially went on vacation, meaning she plenty of time to spend with her daughter. Her daughter was panicked when her mother inquired about visiting her school.

           Alya discovered that the hits to her site had started to declined dramatically. She didn’t have time to worry about that as her internship with a local new studio had been cancelled; something about realizing Alya didn’t have enough experience. So her summer plans were cancelled.

           Nino’s Dj equipment sparked or shorted out or something but nothing would work anymore. He had cancel the rest of his gigs until he could buy new ones.

           Kim lost a swim match against Ondine.

           Markov got a virus and broke down causing Max to break down in tears.

           Nathaniel lost the expensive sketch pencil he won in a contest.

           Alix’s grandmother brought her a new dresses; frilly monstrosities that Alix’s forced her to wear to school for the entire week.

           Rose, Ivan, and Juleka were heartbroken when Luka announced he was going Solo.

           It didn’t help anyone’s mood that every day Marinette, Chloe, and Adrien walked into class with big smiles on their faces and pleasantly discussed their amazing plans.

           On Wednesday, Adrien invited Marinette and Chloe to come with him to meet the Prime Minister.

           Apparently, Adrien’s dad had called in favors so the three would tour Palais Bourbon, where the French Parliament meets.

“He said I could invite all my friends!” Adrien smiled.

           Marinette had been shocked at this. Until Adrien explained that his aunt had threatened to reveal to the world Gabriel Agreste’s neglectful behavior, his tendency break child labor laws, and his need to isolate Adrien. Thanks to his aunt, Adrien had a much free-er schedule and Gabriel had been in therapy for weeks. “I’ll bring food from the bakery. We can have a picnic!”

“Beach day!” Chloe cheered.

           No one else so much as smiled at the news. Even more so when pictures surfaced on Friday of Marinette, Chloe, Adrien, Ondine, Marc, Mireille, and Aurore with various members of Parliament; including the prime minister.

           Thursday, Chloe loudly invited Marinette and Adrien to an event for her mother, “It’s a fashion show! It’s tonight. Adrien can relax behind the scenes, while Mari and me model on the run way. Mama’s lost a few models so I told her I could recommend a few friends.”

“I’m modeling!” Marinette paled so much, her friends were sure she’d pass out.

“I get to do nothing!” Adrien grinned.

           Pictures of Chloe and Marinette modeling exploded across the internet; multiple fashion websites and online magazines deeming the girls’ Style Queen’s secret weapon and modeling next big thing.

           Most of the guys in class shrugged it off. But a few of the girls turned greened with envy; Lila in particular.

           On Friday, Marinette invited Adrien and Chloe to meet her uncle and her cousin, “He’s back in town on Saturday and he wants to meet all my friends.”

           No one else in class paid too much to that. Who cared about Marinette’s uncle? Or her cousin? They were probably just as stuck-up and nasty as she was.

           Then on Saturday, picture of the same group who went to Parliament, plus Luka, with Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale started trending on the internet. Jagged Stone posted a tweet about how awesome his honorary niece was, with a picture of him and Marinette. Clara posted a pic with her favorite little cousin, Marinette.

           Alya couldn’t believe her eyes and immediately started texting Marinette for the deets. She received a text back saying; new number; who dis?

           Nino flat-out called Adrien only hear that the number had been disconnected.

           The rest of the class faced the same issue.

           And then one by one, they each remembered that they weren’t friends with any of the tree Ostracized students anymore.

           Monday, Alya found out that BugOut, a competing Ladybug blog, had been officially endorsed by Ladybug and Chat Noir. Something that hadn’t happened with the Ladyblog.

           Max lost the science fair. For the first time. He had to go see the school guidance counselor.

           Kim got kicked off the team for his poor grade.

           Lila’s finally called the school to schedule an appointment. Lila was Akumatized within the five minutes.

           Alix’s grandma brought her more clothes; some which were tacky sweaters with cats all over them

           Nathaniel misplaced his new sketch book, with his redone Ladybug comic strips. He never found it. Marc wasn’t happy.

           Nino got a call to dj a huge event only to have to decline as he hadn’t bought new equipment yet.

           It was Adrien that brought in breakfast for the other two; Mcdonalds. Much to the Chloe and Marinette’s dismay, but they didn’t say anything as the boy was clearly happy about being allowed to eat it for the first time.

           Marinette unwrapped her sausage Mcgriddle, wondering who she hurt in a past life, “Jagged is doing a private concert. You two want to come?”

           Adrien nodded, his mouth full of fried hash brown and bacon. “Count me in,” They think he said.

           Chloe held the egg mcmuffin in her hand like it was physically hurting her to do so, “I’m in,” she said. “And I’m bringing breakfast tomorrow.”

           The class was dismayed at missing at meeting Jagged Stone again.

“Are you going to invite us?” Alya asked with a huff.

           Marinette didn’t even look in her direction, “Sorry Uncle Jagged said I can only invite my friends.”

           Ouch.

           Over the course of the next few months, things continued to fall apart for the class. They tried planning one of their usual amazing dances, only for everything to crash and burn. Then they remembered that Marinette planned everything, and before her, Chloe.

           The class never made enough money fundraising so nearly all planned class trips were canceled.

           They had to deal with seeing pictures of Marinette, Adrien, and Chloe and all their friends meeting all sorts of celebrities.

           Ladybug disowned the Ladyblog; causing Alya to burst into tears.

           No matter what any of the students tried, did, competed in, they never won. They practically failed at everything.

           Rose tried to bake cookies for the class; her kitchen caught on fire.

           Max applied for science camp; all spots were full.

           Nathaniel who had lost his comic drawing for the twelfth time in a row was finally told by Marc to take a hike.

           Nino lost his hat, broke his glasses, a dog at his homework, and he tripped landed face down in the mud; all on the way to school one morning.

           The students were constantly late, frustrated, and always seemed to have something accidently spilled or thrown on their clothes.

           Lila’s  mother, who finally decided to just randomly drop by the school after being told repeatedly by her daughter that it was closed so she couldn’t do the appointment for months, was shocked to say the least when it was clearly opened and active. She had a long talk with the Principle and all of Lila’s lies were revealed to class.

           Class was very apologetic to the three ostracized students after that but it didn’t matter. The three made it clear they weren’t interested in renewing their friendships.

           By the end of the year Bustier’s class went from the luckiest in school to the unluckiest kids on the planet.

           The students of Bustier’s class couldn’t help but wonder aloud why they lucked changed do much.

           Tikki, Plagg, and Pollen, hidden away in their chosens’ school bags just smirked.

[just-whatever-ig]

Do you hear the Clones sing? (sad!)

I slobbered this down after I got inspired by “Do you hear the people sing” from Les Misérables. It is not written well since I was not feeling great while writing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYb9sRLUDyM

Major WARNING, folks: Major characters die, this does not end well. Absolutely not even remotely well. 

The senate is already usually a very crowded place. But now it is packed with Clones. The doors behind the pods of the different senators open up and show thousands of identical faces. There are troopers and officers all the same shoulder to shoulder as they lay down their weapons to their feet and take off their helmets.

The chancellor interrupts the session and demands the Clones to leave again, but they stand there unwavering. One in blue armor and a blonde buzzcut lifts a fist and starts singing. "Do you hear the people sing" his voice is not beautiful, has never been made for singing, but it carries through the giant room like a battlecry. "Singing the song of angry men." Other soldiers lift their fist as well and join in. "It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again."

The voices get louder. More and more soldiers lift their fists into the sky. The grand chamber of the Senate begins to vibrate with every syllable of the song "When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drum" It's a frightening sight to see the soldiers fight like this. The way they laid down their weapons but still so powerful and dangerous "There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes."

And for a moment the republic stands still and watches.

The plazas all over Corouscant are flowing with marching soldiers. All colors no matter which battalion shoulder to shoulder a fist risen against the sky, and singing, almost screaming. Unpracticed but powerful. There is a child that bursts out in scared tears and hides behind her fathers' leg to hide from the scary men. There is a worried mother of 3 who pushes her awestruck children back into the house. There are a few teenagers who immediately recognize the melody. They shoot each other a few uncertain looks before they start marching. They rise both their wrists and start singing the loudest they have ever sung.

There are tears glistening on every soldiers' face. They stand proudly between the monstrosities that are the housings on Corouscant.

--

And then everything breaks apart.

The uprising falls as quickly as it has begun, the police drives them apart with brutal force, thousands of bodies already scatter the streets of Corouscant before the sun can set on the gruesome picture.

"Would the prisoners request to be blindfolded?" Cody smells the sting of blaster smoke and burnt plastoid in the air. There is a few drops of blood right between his feet. His stomach feels like it might turn over when he is shoved up against the wall. To his left is Fox with a nasty gash in his right cheek. To his right is Rex, face scrunched in pain as he tries to lean onto his uninjured leg. Cody himself is fine, almost, he is the one who watched a large group of the most proficient and experienced soldiers being slaughtered down right before him.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!", the police officer screamed, pressing the blaster gun against Cody's neck. The grip around his throat was turning all the senses from outside into while noise. The Ghosts had all their guns lifted against the officer, but the man knew too well that Cody was important and he didn't waver for a second. He screamed at them again and kicked into the back of Cody's knees, causing him to buckle over and fall to the floor. The Ghosts gripped their guns tighter and for a moment Cody almost expected them to shoot. The sound of blasterfire tore the air and green bolts shot from throughout all the covers around them. Cody let out a pained breath and squeezed his eyes shut as the first Ghost hit the floor, hands limp and lungs breathless.

"You can kill us", Cody calls out, "But you will never destroy us." - "Everyone of us", Wolffe shouts out, his mouth spraying thick drops of blood from his punched out teeth, "Would choose death over the life of a slave!" He has to pay for his unruly behavior with a punch into the guts that makes him fall to his knees coughing. "Others will take our place", Fox exclaims, quietly but still very much audible. The police droids in front of them lift their guns and align them with the imaginary targets that are painted on their chests. Rex chokes back a sob and Cody wants nothing more than to hug him and keep him close until everything is over.

"Aim!", the police officer orders. "KOTE!", Wolffe screams, "IJAAT!" - "MIRSHKO", Fox adds with closed eyes. Rex sobbs again and murmurs a soft, barely audible "Kote" as well. "Haat, ijaa, haa'it" - "GRA'TUAR", Fox calls while Wolffe answers with a half-broken. "IJAA"

"Fire!"

The impact on his chest punches every air out of his lungs and Cody staggers backwards. Rex goes down in a fluid motion, Fox lets out a painful, ragged breath before he falls against Cody and takes him down with him. Pain sears through Cody's lungs. It burns and he is unable to breathe.

He got killed because he dared to fight for his right to be free. He îs dead because he dared to think. To act on a foolish wish of living. What an irony, he thinks and closes his eyes to give in, And what a bad aim. They wanted us to suffer. He can make out the soft whisper of Rex nearby. "K'atini"

there is so many things Cody doesn't know

he doesn't know that their troopers are shoved together in their barracks and that the executions are livestreamed to every clone still alive

he doesn't know that everything the doors open every soul fears to be next

he doesn't know that the Jedi are locked away in their temple and wheep for the dying ones

he doesn't know that from afar Boba cries out in pain and desperation and calls for the spirit of his dad to make it stop

he doesn't know that backon Kamino the clone towers’ life support are being turned off one by one

he doesn't know that the sleeping cots in the dormitories are gradually filled with dioxide to extinguish every lifeform bearing them

-------

Mando’a tag:

Kote:                       Glory

Ijaat/ijaa:                 honest/honesty

Mirshko:                  courage

Haat, ijaa, haa'it:    Truth, honor, vision - words used to seal a pact.

Gra'tuar:                 avenge/revenge

K'atini:                    Suck it up! Or: It's only pain!

14.03.2021 08:08 PM