#It's all well and good to hold Edgar - he's an adult! As much as he wants to give him a good hug haha

[sysig]

Second request: baby todd and Jake fluff perhaps? 💖

Day 12 - Little hands, my one weakness

[acosmicblizzard]

Older sibling hcs pt.2 (Ikemen Revolution)

Links to other parts: pt.1, pt.3.

Spoilers for every red army route, more specifically Edgar's and Zeros

I have only done rays route so characters have a chance of being ooc! Some information regarding the characters may be wrong too so don't take everything said in these hcs as truth! Please don't repost my writings even with credit. reblogs are preferred!

Red Army

Lancelot Kingsley

Being Lancelots older sibling most likely means you are the current king of hearts instead of him. You're most likely also a magic user and i'd say you're about 3 or 4 years apart in age.

Lance doesn't show it much but he is SOFT when it comes too you. He cares for you and doesn't want you getting hurt but usually doesn't show it and he knows theres no way to avoid being in peoples crosshairs as the king of hearts.

A way he does help to protect you is by working in the shadows, very much like how he works with the magic tower in secret in his route he does it even when he isn't the king of hearts. He probably wouldn't be shocked too see you working with the magic tower either to gain their trust knowing you would want to put a end to what amons planning to do.

A normal occurrence is holding his hand while getting shots from kyle. You did this even when you were kids to help calm him and always held lances hand through out it all.

Lance isn't a man of many words but he will be there for you no matter what and will usually show his care through actions instead of words.

Sadly, it isn't often that you and lance get some free time to spend with one another but when you do it's always special.

While you don't get to spend much time together you two have a unbreakable bond that'll never be tainted.

Shine absolutely loves spending time with you and you're the small lion's second favorite human, it's first favorite human being lance.

Jonah Clemence

The amount of respect and just how much jonah looks up to you is just WOW.

Like with the lance hc due to being the eldest Clemence child you became the current queen of hearts and jonah admires you so.

Most of the times after training troops jonah wants to attempting dueling you saying things like "Well If in the future i become the queen of hearts i need to best the past queen!" He always seems to be trying to impress or prove himself to you. To show he would be a good queen if you were to ever resign for any reason.

Despite being queen you and jonah somehow can get your schedules too work together and go on outings at cafes to hang out.

Most times you and jonah go out shopping or hanging out at cafes and catching up on what's happened with the househould while you were busy with your duties.

You and jonahs outings are usually very peaceful and very fun and it's become a habit to always hug eachother before splitting ways. If you don't jonah becomes veryyy poutyy.

Overall you two share a very sweet bond that'll keep going till times end.

Lukas relationship with you thankfully isn't the him and jonahs relationship cause while you do worry for your younger brother you know he's a capable adult.

Edgar Bright

Being the eldest child of the bright family not only meant you became the jack of hearts, it meant Edgar's hands didn't have to be stained with innocent blood. Due to your age and shown prowess in swordsmanship Claudius chose you instead of Edgar after knocking off your father.

Before all of that, you and Edgar shared a very close bond. No one could break you apart and you cared for eachother. And Claudius used that bond to force you to do things. Threatening Edgars safety he pushed you to do more things. And so too protect Edgar as the years went on you pushed him away.

However Edgar wasn't a fool, ever since he was a child he always noticed the small changes that happened in how you acted and slowly unveiled everything that was going on behind the scenes. However he was powerless to do anything ever since the moment he found out and couldn't do anything as you pushed him away.

Like Edgar when Zero showed up you started mentoring and teaching him. And Edgar eventually started training as well under the guise that if you were to ever resign Edgar needs to step up and become the new jack of hearts. But in reality, he wanted to get stronger to help you.

Recently Edgar has been involving himself in business regarding the things you've have to do and claudius has taken notice of it. But no matter what, Edgar won't give up on trying to save you

While your bond with Edgar is almost little to none over the years of distancing yourself to protect him you do still have bonds. You share a bond with the rest of the red armys chosen 13 and you also share a bond with luka despite being on opposite sides.

Zero

You don't know for how long it was, but for a long time it was just you and zero locked away in that tower. And during those times you two bonded more then ever.

Even when you guys first stepped out into the outside world after being thrown out due to being no longer of use to the magic tower your bond still persevered. You two stuck together throughout it all. Through the school, through the red army, and throughout anything that came your way. And somehow you both ended up as spots as generals in the red army even without the noble background. Zero as the ace of hearts and you as the 10 of hearts, both trained by Edgar.

After all those years of being together you can read on another like a open book, extremely Intune with one another's emotions and feelings.

Sparring is a very important thing between you two and also a very fun activity.

Even if not biologically related, you and zero have a very close connection, and choose one another as family.

Often times you two will spend off time just relaxing and eating candy with one another.

Kyle Ash

Cool chill younger brother check

You definitely help kyle out in the infirmary in the red army base often and because of that you're well known by the red army despite not being apart of it

Whenever both of your schedules are clear you and kyle often go to taverns and drink and hang out. Of course there are other things you do other then go out and drink but most of the time it's just joking around and getting drunk with one another.

And once again you're an animals second favorite person. Goo, kyles pig absolutely loves you and whenever you come over you best believe you have a pig running towards your current location.

A extremely easy going and chill bond that shines most at unexpected times, you two are there for eachother through and through and you'll never lose that.

If you ever get sick this man will be rushing towards you at goddamn lightspeed and you best believe you're resting.

[bridgertonbabe]

I’m reading your Violet & Edgar story, so that then i can read the Benophie Blip, and I’m loving it so much!!! your portrait of Violet is exactly how I imagined her!

I was wondering, between all the cousins, who do you think bonds more with who?

Also, what do you think are the strongest relationships between uncle/aunt and niece/nephew?

So within the cousins here are a few different dynamics;

When Amanda Crane first met the Basset girls, she did not like Amelia after the eldest Bridgerton grandchild asked her if she wanted to have a tea party, feeling as though Amelia was trying to dictate to her what to do. Prior to meeting her step-mother’s family, Amanda had sworn to Oliver that they wouldn’t leave each other’s side, so she rudely turned down Amelia’s offer only to turn around and find that Oliver had already run off with the Bridgerton boys. Amanda had sulked for awhile, glaring over enviously at Amelia and her sisters as they enjoyed their tea party, secretly wishing to join in even though she had rejected them. It was only after some cajoling from Eloise that Amanda swallowed her pride and bashfully asked if she could join them after all. From then on Amanda built up a steady friendship with Amelia, despite being closer in age with Belinda and Caroline. While Belinda was a little too much to deal with and Caroline a bit too on the quiet side, Amelia was the happy medium and Amanda greatly enjoyed her company. They only got closer as they grew up, so much so that in 1843 Amanda “Mandy” Joliffe and Amelia “Amy” Farraday were born only a month apart. 

Charlotte Bridgerton spent the first few years of her life surrounded by her brothers and male cousins, enjoying the rough and tumble of running after them in the grounds of Aubrey Hall in the summertime. The Basset girls were a little too old for her (even if Amelia liked to pick her up as toddler and haul her about, in spite of Charlotte’s desperate wriggling to get free) when she she was younger, but once her cousins Violet, Agatha, Penelope, and Georgiana were old enough to run about, Charlotte took great joy in leading the pack of girls around at family gatherings. She gets along well with her female cousins just as much as her male cousins, though her favourite Bridgerton cousin is definitely Violet.

William Bridgerton is a perfect example of a floater in the family; pair him up with any relative regardless of age, he’s going to chat away to them and do everything in his power to entertain them. He does get a little quieter when he’s among the older male cousins of the family, having been the youngest boy for a number of years before Thomas was old enough to join in, but even then he’s still cracking jokes and nudging his cousins if he finds something particularly funny. 

Edmund Bridgerton and Amelia Basset are the natural leaders of the younger generation, being the eldest grandson and granddaughter respectively. However while Amelia likes to think she’s the epitome of a role model for her younger cousins to look up to, Edmund is more modest of his position and he dutifully ensures everyone is safe while being dependable at all times.

Mary Bridgerton and Janet Stirling have a very close bond and always pair up together at family gatherings. They can be typically sighted holding each other’s hand and running off giggling together but they’re both very innocent so neither one of their fathers ever has cause for concern with what they might be up to. Though there is a rather significant distance between them for most of the year, they’ve been pen pals since they were both old enough to read and write, and it’s a correspondence they keep up for the rest of their lives. 

And as for dynamics between the aunts and uncles with their niblings?

Hyacinth was the adult comrade for her nieces and nephews growing up, being a lot closer in age to a good deal of them and being the ultimate fun aunt - but once they were adults, her nephews quickly realised she was an ally no more but rather a dastardly aunt who took great pleasure in their torment i.e. forcing them to dance at balls. She takes over the mantle from her grandmother-in-law, Lady Danbury, in meddling as best she can with the men of the family, though she does also offer sage advice to the more sensible-minded of her nephews should they need guidance. 

As head of the family, Anthony cares a great deal about every last Bridgerton member, though he has particular soft spot for Charles Bridgerton, the nephew who is often compared to him for their similar temperament. While some in the family think Charlie is quick to overreact when it comes to being protective and defensive of those he loves, Anthony completely understands where he’s coming from and is always there for his nephew when he needs to vent his frustrations. 

Speaking of Charles, he’s also a favourite of his uncles, Michael and Phillip. Michael Stirling always takes a keen interest in the young man considering he was the one who had to deliver him when Sophie went into labour at Francesca and John’s wedding reception, meanwhile Phillip was the one who saved an ailing Charlie when he was a child. Michael and Phillip are always particularly concerned whenever they hear that Charlie has got so much as a common cold; in their eyes, he’s as much their boy as he is Benedict’s. 

[sociologyontherock]

Revisiting Wool and Needles in my in my Casket

By Lynda Harling Stalker

Lynda Harling Stalker is Professor and Chair of Sociology at St. Francis Xavier University. She is engaged in research in the areas of culture, craft, cultural work, belonging, rural outmigration, islandness, and narrative inquiry. Her research enlivens the emotional, embodied, and material aspects of creative production and culture.

In the late fall I received a lovely email from Stephen Riggins asking me to reflect back on my MA research conducted in Newfoundland. An instant smile came across my face as I was quite chuffed to be asked. Stephen’s invitation sparked another memory from a couple of years ago when I received an unexpected but very welcomed email from Doug House. Doug had been my MA supervisor and was influential in my development as an academic. He wrote that he had given a presentation to NONIA (Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industry Association) about the history of the organisation. His father, Edgar (House and House 2015), had written a small book on NONIA’s history (1990), so Doug is the natural choice to continue this legacy. What the current members did not know was that from 1998-2000 I had interviewed NONIA knitters from across the province as part of my graduate programme. This research has become a document (albeit by a very junior academic) of a particular time and place. The women knitters were dealing with a difficult time in Newfoundland history.

Of late, Newfoundland knitting has again become popular following the publication of Christine Legrow and Shirley A. Scott’s Saltwater Knitting Books (2018-2022). These books are filled with patterns to knit double-ball mittens, trigger mittens and socks that are seen as a traditional Newfoundland knitting style. Knitted items have been so integral to Newfoundland culture that items were christened with names for objects not used elsewhere: vamps are oversocks that reach the ankle; cuffs are mittens; trigger mitts have a separate covering for the thumb and index finger (Dictionary of Newfoundland English). The knitting was always practical and well-executed and important work done by women. Magot Iris Duley (1993) talks about how the “iconic grey sock” knit by Newfoundland women during WWI led to them gaining the vote in 1925. It was very much women’s work throughout Newfoundland history, although many of the knitters I interviewed in the late 1990s said there was the proverbial man around the Bay who could knit as good as a woman.

NONIA started in 1925 when the then-Governor’s wife, Lady Allardyce, decided that Newfoundland women’s skill in knitting could / should be used to improve the health of their families. Money from selling knitted garments in St. John’s would fund the salaries of nurses to be stationed in the Outports across the island. The skills of the knitters were quickly recognised by many, including one of the first sponsors, Queen Mary, and the Canadian government christened a naval ship the HMS NONIA. The operations of NONIA have stayed much the same throughout its history. The organisation would mail out wool and patterns to knitters across the province and the women would mail back the finished garments. These garments would be sold in the store located on Water Street in St. John’s. While nurses’ salaries are no longer funded, knitters receive a piece rate for their work. This is all done as a not-for-profit organisation.

I arrived at Memorial in 1998, when the cod moratorium and the fallout from it was still fresh. Outmigration, particularly of youth and working-age adults, was reaching epic proportions. It was a time of unprecedented social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental change that left Newfoundlanders unsure what the future would hold. In this climate, I set out to interview 19 women who knit for NONIA. More than half the women were 60+, about 80% were married, and a little over 40% started knitting with NONIA around the time of the cod moratorium.

When I analysed the knitters’ narratives that were shared with me, I took a Weberian-like approach. I was influenced at the time by the work of Colin Campbell (1996a, b; 1999), which focussed on analysing the meaning and motivation behind one’s actions. Through my analysis I highlighted that the women were motivated to knit because it allowed them to pass the time, do some challenging work, relaxation, and knitting provided a sense of accomplishment and pride. As Mrs. Parson said, “It’s something that you worked at, and you’re completely satisfied; it’s self-assuring.” (All knitters’ names are pseudonyms.) The motivation was quite intrinsic. It wasn’t about external reward or validation; the motivation to knit was linked to ideas of self and almost self-preservation.

The meaning that I argued that the knitting had for the women included filling in the time, a link between generations, enacting and embodying a female identity and being a part of Outport life. Knitting was always part of the planning and figured into much that they did. This was illustrated when Mrs. Murphy articulated when preparing for a trip to Ontario, “See them two boxes there? That’s full of wool. So now I’m going up to Ontario and I’m going to take them with me. What I’m going to do is put them in the mail.” Others stated similar things; knitting was so integral to who they were and what they did that even when going on holiday they could not be parted from their knitting.

NONIA’s role in the knitter’s lives was important but not in the way many would assume. It was often speculated that organisations like NONIA provided much needed economic benefits to Outport women during the cod moratorium era. That wasn’t the case for these women. Yes, they wished to be paid and knitting for NONIA was not out of the goodness of their hearts. As Mrs. Foley stated, “I knit for NONIA for pastime. I like knitting but I found I was knitting a lot of things that I didn’t need, just to knit, before I started with NONIA. The only thing about getting paid for knitting or any other hobby, you never will get paid enough for the time you put in it, but if you enjoy what you are doing that don’t matter.”

What NONIA provided for the knitters was access to good quality materials to knit with at no cost, provided someone to knit for, and there were no time pressures. NONIA’s value to the knitters went beyond the pay they received but what NONIA did was allow these women to be able to do craftwork that allowed them to demonstrate that despite the turmoil caused by the cod moratorium they were Newfoundland (Outport) women. As Mrs. Budgell said, “I get women who say, ‘I don’t even want to knit’ ‘cause they say it’s from the Bay. You know I came from the Bay and so what? I love to do it!” The creation of knitted garments with a purpose meant that the women could, through practice and materiality, hold onto this identity that was so important to them. 

A dear colleague of mine at St. Francis Xavier University, Dan MacInnes, said that the last way we can assert our identity is through our tombstones. While this may sound a bit morbid, for some of the women I spoke with this is very much the case – although it was through the placement of material items in their coffins. When talking about how important knitting was to who they were and what they did, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Hickey said that they will be buried with wool and needles in their casket. Mrs. Hickey repeated something her children had said, “Mom, we’ll have to put some wool and knittin’ needles down in the box with you ‘cause you always got it in your hands.”

This sentiment speaks to what the women identify with and how others identified them as knitters (Jenkins 2000). I’m sure both Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Hickey have passed – I wonder if these wishes were carried through.

I think if I were to do this project again, it is belonging that would be my centralising concepts. As May (2013: 3) argues, “belonging acts as a kind of barometer for social change.” The women’s talk about the importance of knitting to them speaks to the importance of belonging to Newfoundland, particularly the outports, and the kind of knitting they did demonstrates the relational, cultural and material elements of belonging (May 2013). It seems that this desire to be seen as a Newfoundlander, belonging to the place and its people, was heightened due to the dramatic changes the cod moratorium brought to the province. If I were to advise my younger self, I would urge me to delve more into the narratives about how belonging in light of the social changes manifests itself through the practice of knitting. Maybe that will be my next project….

Works cited

Campbell, Colin (1996a) “On the Concept of Motive in Sociology.” Sociology 30(1), 101-114.

--  (1996b) The Myth of Social Action. Cambridge:

     Cambridge University Press.

-- (1999) “Action as will-power.” The Sociological Review, 47(1), 48-61.

Duley, Margot Iris (1993) “‘The Radius of her Influence for Good’: The Rise and Triumph of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Newfoundland, 1909-1925.” Pursuing Equality: Historical Perspectives on Women in Newfoundland and Labrador. Linda Kealey (Ed.). St. John’s: ISER Books.

Harling Stalker, Lynda (2000) “Wool and Needles in my Casket: Knitting as Habit among Rural Newfoundland Women.” Unpublished MA thesis. Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.

House, Edgar (1990) A Way Out: The Story of NONIA 1920-1990. St. John’s: Creative Publishers.

House, Doug and Adrian House (2015) An Extraordinary Ordinary Man: The Life Story of Edgar House. St. John’s: ISER Books.

Jenkins, Richard (2000) “Categorization: Identity, Social Process and Epistemology,” Current Sociology 48(3), 7-25.

Kirwin, William J. (Ed.) et al. (1990[1982]) Dictionary of Newfoundland English, 2nd edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Legrow, Christine and Shirley A. Scott (2018-2022) Saltwater Knitting Books. Portugal Cove-St. Phillip’s: Boulder Books.

May, Vanessa (2013) Connecting Self to Society: Belonging in a Changing World. Baskingstoke: Palgrave.

[its-monster-mash]

Marko(Lost Boys) X Frog!Reader Imagines

Gender Neutral Reader

Content Warnings: gun, near death, brief mention of weed

• You spent most of your life on the East Coast, but you had a lot of family out west, including your beloved Grandfather. So when he passed, you dropped everything to attend the funeral

• You didn’t even recognize Edgar and Alan when you showed up at the trailer with your bag; last time you saw them Ed was just learning his first words(“Bullshit”, thanks Uncle Frog), and Al couldn’t even walk yet. Now here they are, a couple of Angsty sullen teenagers

• “You guys used to be so cute, what happened?” “We grew up.” “Oh please, what are you, 12?”

• You decided to stay for a while, help out with the comic book store while your Uncle deals with the legal stuff about your grandfather’s death. Dying sure was a pain in the ass, you guessed

• All things considered, you liked the work. You were a huge comic fan, and the store was slow enough that you had plenty of time to spend working on your own art. You hoped maybe you’d have your own comic some day, if only you could stick to one idea...

• In fact, you were so focused on your art that you forgot to lock up after closing time; so you were more than a little bit started when someone tossed a comic on your desk

• You look up to see a curly-headed blond man, with one of the most beautiful faces you had ever seen, and you can’t help but blush, he smiles at this. “New in town? I think I’d remember seeing you.”

• You notice his friends snicker as they mill around the store. So he IS flirting with you...this does nothing to help your blushing

• You try to collect yourself, ringing up his comic book as you explain your situation; about your grandfather, and how you’re staying with your uncle for a while...how you accidentally kept the shop open way late

• He seems infinitely more interested once he hears that you’re an artist, and absolutely wants to see your work. In fact, he doesn’t even wait for you to respond. “Is that your sketchbook?” Is all the warning you have before he’s snatching it off of your desk and flipping through it

• His jaw all but drops as he appreciates your work. “This is so sick!” Suddenly he’s pushing the sketchbook back to you. “Can you draw me?”

• Normally, you hate that question as much as any other artist, but you’d been dying to draw him since you saw his face, so you absolutely take him up on that

• It doesn’t take you very long to sketch him, and the second you’re finished he snatches it out of your hands, staring at it like he hasn’t seen himself in years

• While he’s busy being in awe, you snatch the sketchbook back from him, much to his surprise, and you hold up a finger to tell him to wait while you scratch your phone number onto the page. You hope he can read your terrible writing

• You tear the page out of the sketchbook, handing it to him. “Here, my phone number...you could call it sometime...if you want to.”

• Your heart flutters when he smiles, and you think you might die when his fingers brush yours when he takes the page. “I want to.”

• His spikyheaded friend nods at him, signaling it’s time for them to leave. “Name’s Marko, I’ll call you!”

• After a couple of late night phone calls, you never leave the shop open late again; Marko never failing to pick you up just after the sun goes down. You tease him about never seeing him in the daylight, like he’s one of those vampires from your cousins’ favorite comic

• “I’ve never seen you in the daylight either.” “Fair enough.”

• Unfortunately, your cousins overhear this little talk just outside of the shop; and one very early morning you notice them sneaking out of the house...you follow of course, you are the adult after all

• Following at a distance, you watch them climb into an old cave...very clearly labeled “Stay Out”. You wonder if maybe they go down there to get stoned with their friends or something...they have friends right? You consider leaving them be...but decide it would be so much funnier to bust them

• Except it isn’t funny at all. By the time you get down there, you hear your cousins’ screams. You frantically follow the sound, and much to your surprise you find Marko, his face distorted monsterously, ready to tear Edgar’s throat out

• You hardly even notice his friends, making a daring slide to pick up the stake Ed had dropped, and grabbing onto Marko. You aren’t strong enough to pry his grip off of your cousin, but the shock of seeing you here causes him to let go anyway. Ed scrambles to Al’s side, terrified under the gaze of the other vampires

• You press the point of the stake to Marko’s chest, and he looks at you with the most devastated expression. “Touch my cousins and he fucking dies.”

• Contempt and fear plays across the faces of the other vampires, guys you thought had become your friends since you started dating Marko; they didn’t know if you could kill him, but they didn’t want to take that chance. David nods for them to part so your cousins can start climbing out of the cave

• Marko...Marko looks at you with his golden eyes full of sorrow and anguish. Seeing him now for the monster he is, you know that the only reason you’re still alive is because he doesn’t want to kill you. You have a stake pressed to his chest, but you both know he could tear your throat out before you ever got the chance to use it

• “(Y/N), please, I-”

• As soon as your cousins reach the safety of daylight, you toss the stake violently to the floor, glaring into Marko’s eyes. You don’t even spare him a final word before you turn and walk away

• Every night, the phone rings; your Uncle doesn’t even bother to tell you anymore, just hanging up the second he hears Marko’s voice. If he knew the truth about what happened that night he’d be terrified, but as it stands he just thinks you had a nasty breakup; and you’re grown...so it’s not his business

• You hate yourself for it, but you miss him...you want to blame it on his Vampiric Charm, but you know in your heart that he never had to manipulate your feelings...they were real

• One night, you just can’t stand lying awake staring at the ceiling anymore. At damn near 3am, you leave quietly so not to awaken your family, and take off for your grandpa’s old shooting range

• Perhaps it was unwise to take yourself to a secluded area so far from any civilization in the dead of night, but you don’t care anymore. You load your grandfather’s old shotgun, the one he taught you to hunt with, and fire at the target

• Eventually, you hear a lone dirtbike pull up the long road behind you; you don’t even turn to look at him. “It’s four AM Marko, what are you doing here?” You fire at the target in the distance

• He walks up behind you, watching you lazily reload. “I could ask you the same thing.”

• “S’my grandpa’s range. I couldn’t sleep so I figured I’d get in some target practice.” *Ting* “You know that’s no good against Vampires, right?” “It’s not for vampires.”

• He can’t help but be frustrated with you; how could you just come out into the open like this? In the middle of the night? Were you stupid or suicidal?

• You don’t need to read minds to know what he’s thinking. He opens his mouth to speak and you cut him off. “If you wanted me dead, I never would have left that cave.”

• “So why didn’t you do it? You know what I am now, so why didn’t you drive that stake through my heart?” “Even if I could have stabbed you faster than you could have killed me, your brothers would have torn me to pieces.”

• “My brothers aren’t here now.”

• You finally turn to look at him, tears welling in your eyes at the sight of him. Your heart tenses at the sight of the sun threatening to rise on the horizon. “If you don’t leave now, I won’t even have to kill you.”

• “No (Y/N).” You can see the tears in his eyes as he shifts into his monstrous form. “No, if you really want me dead, you’re gonna see it.”

• You’re confused at first, until you see the smoke beginning to rise as the first rays of morning light threaten him. “Marko, what are you doing?”

• He lets out an agonized hiss as his skin begins to singe. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

• Tears well in your eyes as you run to him, throwing your jacket over him in an attempt to shield him from the sun. “Knock it off!” You practically drag him into the old gun shack

• He collapses to the floor once you get him inside, too weak to stand. “If I’m gonna die, I want it to be you.” He sounds so raspy and exhausted

• You shake your head, tossing an old blanket over him. “Well too bad. You’re not dying on me today.”

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S5 Ep 11. (The Voicemail Episode) -  5 things I loved/ 3 Things to Consider (potentially, spoilers)

Things I Loved:

1. I loved that Riverdale, this (formerly) teen show, was blatantly making a radical commentary about both religion and male violence, but in this sneaky way with a ‘silly’ looking trippy drugged-out music video.   The statement is this: Religion = Drugs = Righteous Violence of Young Men.   Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses, and Riverdale answered, Nah, it's more like shrooms. 

And in fact, according to the show, being two sweet girls hanging out dancing and having fun is better than religion and righteous violence.  Further, violence is Archie’s drug.  I mean this is a set of pretty bold statements, people.  I will also add the crazy young man vigilantes of Riverdale making the Batman rope-slide entrance was fabulous, but I also liked that the music made fun of them, like, Y’all think you’re being heroic but this is so dumb.   

2. If you read my retread of Seasons 1 through 4  (the true ending, which was “Graduation”) you’ll know that I love scenes of Jughead Jones waking up from sleep.  He’s so good at it, and I don't know if my abiding interest in this specific thing elevates this to some sort of kink but  I’m ok with that, if it is. (Please tell me in the comments if Watching a Cute Boy Wake Up From Sleep is an actual kink.)  In this episode, Jughead is startled awake by a loud noise from a fevered sleep, and then becomes gradually more alarmed at the noises outside and I loved it. 

3. This is not an anti-man blog here, so I will try to tread carefully, but I mean, I absolutely loved that the women are so much better than the men at everything in this episode. 

Exhibit A:

Penelope’s cult is so much better than Edgar Evernever’s!  And she is being so honest - Penelope always emotionally worshiped her son, like a lot of misogynist mothers of sons do, and now she’s literally worshiping him.  Also a religion that is founded on a deceased person is much sturdier, I feel, than a religion that is like Worship Me (which is Edgar’s religion).  Plus Penelope is echoing what Jughead used to say about Jason - that his death laid bare the sins of Riverdale!   There’s robes in Penelope’s religion, colorful ones, singing and communion and imbibing from a magic goblet. (Can you tell I was raised Catholic? I still love statuary, robes and altars SO much).

Exhibit B:

 Tabitha and Betty are so much better than Jughead at everything, including getting high!  (Jughead is currently just so bad at life he can’t even get high correctly, poor lamb.)  They are better at taking care of their domestic lives and are appalled at how Jughead lives. Tabitha modeling openness and transparency for Betty was terrific:  She asks Betty for help and makes sure to  tell her, though it’s difficult, about that ‘don’t be such a Betty’ comment and the fact that Jughead made a pass at Tabitha, so that she can make her decision to participate with the full set of relevant facts.   Betty’s reaction of wtf?? followed by snorting and then moving right on - I like grown up Betty SO much. She knows it’s not true - they always had fun together, did Bughead, so she’s like, That’s a weird thing to say and then SHRUG.  

Exhibit C:

Even when burly men are in a violent confrontation in this episode, the mastermind for both teams is a woman - Veronica on one side, Darla on the other.  

4. I loved the two voicemails from Jughead.  Yes yes, of course I would because #Jughead Stan but also - hear me out! - because they rang so emotionally true for me, and showed the difference between still-adolescent Jughead and the now-more-adult Jughead. 

First, the one to Tabitha:  These mushrooms make people say & do what they really think, apparently, so Jughead hit on Tabitha because he’s really attracted to her, and his non-defensive, roll-with-punches adult-self apologizing in this abashed but not self-hating way, and the way he is still hopeful that he stands a chance, was lovely.  

The weepy, upset voicemail to Betty was expert fan service for the Jughead Stans, but it was thrilling for everyone else too if  the HUGE amount of chatter about it is anything to go by. (Not all thrills are pleasant).   I think it’s because there was a lot of truth packed into both his voicemail and her reaction (while high, but again, the mushrooms make you tell your truth).  

Truth 1:  It’s important to express yourself when you’re upset.  Otherwise it comes bursting out at the wrong time, like pus from a festering wound, in a way that helps no one and may hurt you the most.  Truth 2:  Having an ex hung up on you is no fun.   Truth 3: Being confronted with an utterance like, I regret THE ENTIRE time I’ve known you, can make you lose perspective, as in, Betty playing that voicemail isn’t a serve on anyone other than herself and Jughead, together, and that’s why the kind Tabitha won’t bring it up again. 

There is SO MUCH discourse about that word “bitch” and a lot of it is very well argued, but I feel no urge to pick a side. What *I* have to say about that is, Jughead using that word in that way with that tone definitively marked an end of Bughead 1.0.  If there’s going to be a Bughead 2.0, it’s going to have to be really different.  

5.   I love the character set ups for Reggie and Fangs. Fangs first - is this guy like the world’s most perfect ex boyfriend or what? Fangs is infinitely kind to Kevin.  And Reggie - he’s abused by his dad but he is also loyal to his dad, working for “a Lodge” which he doesn’t actually seem to like in the little that he says about it, to ‘pay off’ his Dad’s debt.   I like the adult that Reggie has become.  “This isn’t high school.”   His calm “Nah, the bad guys pay better” felt like a breath of fresh bracing cynical air but then the actor also managed to push my But I Can Fix Him buttons so kudos, to you, good sir.  

3 Things to Think About

a)Veronica is told it's the DIVORCE that is making Archie not want sex but please recall that the Riverdale High School is decimated and Archie is in the process of putting his genitals  - oops sorry - THE BUILDING back together.  He doesn't have a libido without the Riverdale High School building. I've been telling you.

b)Tabitha voluntarily enters into an agreement to lie (by omission) to Jughead about the manuscript handover to Jessica and the playing of the voicemail message. She doesn't know this yet but so far a rule of Riverdale is that you must not lie to Jughead or bad things happen. Interested to see if the rule still holds for Adult Jughead.

c) The show is very much doubling down on the fact that they think using other people’s lives as fiction is absolutely unforgivable.  Riverdale absolutely hates drug dealers (which is why the Serpents are alcohol runners, and kicked out drug dealers) and yet even though Jessica is totally a drug dealer that Betty Cooper fake-FBI knows is a drug dealer, AND  SHE NON CONSENSUALLY DRUGGED TWO WOMEN WHO SAID NO ALREADY, but the fact that she didn’t want her life used in a fictional outlet trumps literally everything.

[starrysupercell]

Sooo... Now that its my wif- Tara's birthday... Are the Mystics (And Bo) gonna celebrate it :D? I can imagine Gene trying to set up some kind of surprise party for her, that would remain a surprise for like 4 minutes...

DANG IT. Past 12. TwT

But here you go! An outline for how Tara’s birthday is celebrated this year. 🧿 best fortune teller in Starr Park tbh. Your wife says hi 💜

I really gotta start keeping track of the Birthdays to have these things planned out.

~

One of the many good things about how much time Tara and Gene have known each other, is he knows she'll figure it out.

The surprise for her will be not the fact that there's a party because she can easily see that, but the extent of it, because she can promise not to sneak a peek at it.

(But now she's curious! Also, she's so used to checking on the future,* it takes a very conscious effort to not do so.)

So, while Gene keeps Tara preoccupied by taking a walk around the Park, Sandy, the Tribe, Gale and Mortis (because they're also friends with the Mysticals bc of the skins, shush.) are in charge of decorating.

So, with only two responsible adults in this group, how well do you think this is going to go? :)

Gale: So do you have a plan for the setup?

Sandy: hm? >.o oh. Yy*yawns*eah. here you go... *hands him a paper*

Gale: ...this just has a rough sketch of the main room and a couple of balloons.

Sandy- mm..felt sleepy but there's still.... -.-...time to...zzzz....

Gale:

Mortis laughs because well they'd just have to wing it! (He would definitely ask Emz for help, but she's busy with the teen crew for plot convenience) As long as decorations are already bought, it should an easy thing in setting it up the way they want it to look.

....decorations are already bought, right?

Sandy softly snores, and the Party Crew realizes that's their answer.

~

Meanwhile, Gene and Tara walk through the Park. The plan is picking up a few extra gifts along the way before heading back to the main party.

Their first stop is Barley's for some drinks! He gifts one bottle of Tara’s preferred drink, but does charge for the rest. Along the way, we see Brawlers greeting Tara and wishing her well on her birthday.

Colette’s very enthusiastic! She knows all the Brawler’s birthdays, and wanted to make something for Tara!

She doesn’t really have extra money recently, since there was some recent change in management, and she usually makes more detailed items, but because of the money problem, couldn’t buy as many materials she needed, but she’s derailing, so she hands Tara her wrapped gift.

It’s a cute hand-made Shade Plush!

Tara is delighted and thanks her for it. It’s a pleasant surprise, and she appreciates it. Colette fangirls a bit, thanking her, and then waving bye as the Mystics carry on.

~

Back at the Bazaar, they're trying to brainstorm on what to do. Well, half of them present are. Sandy is asleep and Nita + Leon are playing around the house.

Mortis says the only things he has back home are.. well, decorations of a more... gothic type..you know,.. (Halloween decors. they’re Halloween decors.)

Gale also offers up... some Snowtel hangings, but again, ‘tis not quite the right season to be jolly.

Bo suggests makeshift decorations. The twins are good at crafts! .. but more so along the lines of forest materials, not sand and...

Everyone’s drawing a blank, and decide that they could gather up their own share of materials, and see what could work best. Their time limit won’t really allow a break after all.

So Gale contacts Lou and asks him if he could meet him halfway with everything he can carry. Try not to get caught by the Penguin boss. Lou, ever the chaotic good guy agrees.

Bo gathers up Leon and Nita and they head out to see what they can scrounge up.

Mortis wonders if he should call up Frank too since he’ll be here later to set up and provide the music, but decides to be ~generous~  and just send a flock of his Bats to pick some things up for him. He sees them off adoringly.

With a content sigh, he lounges back and waits for his precious lovelies to return with his ideal decorations. Sandy sleeps on...

~

Back with Gene and Tara, the next item to pick up is the cake. Piper has the order ready-- a black forest chateau cake.

“Magnificent taste, darlings!” she compliments. she has it all boxed up very fancily. “It’s on the house. Take it as my gift for you. Happy birthday!”

She’ll also be attending the party later. Tara thanks her for the cake. She and Gene then take their leave.

Along the way to their last stop at the new Castle environment for the food, (because while they don’t know Ash very well yet, Tara loves trying out the new items and pizza is always great for a party.)

“Hey, Tara! ...hold up.” Edgar jumps down from a building they’re passing, just because he can and . “...this is from the rest of the Gang. Me too, I guess. Happy birthday.”

~

The party squad are actually worse off than before.

The Shaman Tribe are back, and the Twins became interested in using fabrics to try and make something too. so they’re playing around with it pretty much.

Gale just arrived, with Lou joined along because he was interested in the party planning too. (So, the snowtel is understaffed right now.) but they’re just chatting instead of working.

Mortis’ bats haven’t arrived yet, and he’s getting worried. They don’t usually take this long in running errands for him.

Leon and Nita are practically playing catch right now. They knock over something that looked priceless. Oh, a crystal ball, perhaps. Bo reprimands them.

They haven’t gotten much closer to making up the room...

There’s a knock, and the group freezes because oh no, they’re out of time. but it ends up being Frank. A very unhappy Frank who was suddenly surrounded by screeching batties who kept picking apart the house while he was packing up his set up for the party. They followed him there afterwards, along with several things.

Mortis tries joking it off ;; , and then very quietly and off-handedly apologizes when Frank doesn’t find it very funny.

But then so hey!!! you’re here so decoration time, everybody! let’s hop to it!

Gene’s Lamp, Sliver, floats in. Sent by Gene himself to check on the progress. They were nearing after all. The Lamp’s alarmed by what it sees. That is, absolutely nothing.

It glares around, and spots Sandy still sleeping. Sliver floats over to him, and hops on him-- Wake up!

Sandy does so, but is very grumpy. “what?”

Tara’s Birthday.

“yeah? what about it?”

Don’t you care?

“obviously.” he swats at the lamp. “it’s tomorrow.”

>:( Today. It’s TODAY.

“,” Sandy looks around, as wide-eyed as he could be.

broken crystal ball, a mix of decorations, and nobody currently fixing up anything from the looks of it.

They’re on the way.

Sandy makes a face. “ok... game plan on the fly.”

~

The final stretch of the day out.

Gene and Tara are nearing the Bazaar, and along the way, Gene starts to get heartfelt.

He reminisces how they first met, how far they’ve traveled together, how much longer they’ve yet to go.

He wishes he could think of something to give her that meant something like the other gifts that she received that day.

He was a Genie, but after everything they’ve been through, she deserves much, much more than what he could ever imagine to conjure up for her.

Tara smiles. “(Don’t... put me on too high a pedestal, my Friend.”)

Don’t sell yourself short either. You’ve done so much.

“(Yes. I have.)” Tara muses unhappily, thumbing the doll.

Gene suddenly gets the idea of what his gift could be, but he needs his Lamp to start on it.

~

Right before the two opened the door, a pair of bats were hanging up the last decoration.

And when the two walked in with the final party supplies at hand and are amazed at the display.

intricate ice sculptures and a more snowy feel set up where the food would go. the music section where Frank set up (who was talking with Mortis.) had a darker aesthetic, including the balloons over there.

Lastly the rest of the place was decorated with very cute works of art. no doubt the Tribe kid’s handiwork. she recognized it from when they stayed over, and the gifts Bo’s gotten from them and shown her.

You’d think that the seemed like the mix of fancier silver decorations, a more gothic theme and natural crafts would look odd together... and well, it was quaint, but it was very pleasing to see.

a patchwork of oddities, not unlike this park, really. She’s always been fond of odds and ends. Tara loved it!

Sandy yawns and walks over to them. “we actually just got done with the set up. but if it makes you feel better, we can still hide right now and yell surprise.”

Tara laughs. It’s okay.. it isn’t like she could be-- but she appreciates it. Sandy shrugs, like he didn’t just call all the shots and work in a hurry with the other eight. “you’re welcome.”

Lou offers to help set up the food and cake. Gale helps too, after presenting his gift too.

Frank and Mortis notice the arrival of the Birthday Gal and wave her over. They chat animatedly-- it’s been so long since they’ve had the chance to catch up! They should plan something soon. Tara agrees, and their gift is from the both of them. I can see it being a very nice piece of clothing, though I’m drawing a blank as to what.

The Lamp reunites with Gene, and their perspectives merge again. Oh. the party was really cut close, huh? but it worked out well! what a relief. a scrap book of actual memories is what you have in mind? how very sappy.... She would like it.

Lastly, Bo walks up to Tara, greeting her and wishing her well on this day. He hopes she likes what they helped with ....he then has the Twins apologize for breaking a few things around the house--

Tara dismisses it easily. They can be replaced. The Twins, that is. (joke to scare them.) But really, as long as they were careful from now on, it was okay. the cub and chameleon agree with no hesitation and then run off to cause more mayhem, but quieter this time.

The Psychic smiles. The guests would be arriving soon, and it was already so lively.

Time to party~!

_______

*I’m still deciding on the extent of her powers, so future sight might not be a thing, because of the characterization I have for her. I’m thinking something along the lines of “Can see past events, and make very informed guesses based on what she knows about people, but cannot see the future itself.”

[cottoncandyjester]

Yandere boys as dads

I've got a dozen of asks wanting a pregnant y/n or the boys being dads sooo let's do this thing

This story contains: wholesome dad stuff, talk of breeding kink and breastmilk kink *cough* salem *cough*

Theodore

When you told him you were pregnant he actually started crying

"you're..we're..sweetheart that's amazing!"

He's been dreaming of being a husband and father since he was a child

Makes sure to take care of you during your pregnancy he's at your beck and call

He is very nervous about doing anything intimate with you so you are on a strict no sex ban for nine months

Even when he cuddles you he gets super scared

When you finally have the baby he's absolutely freaking out

He prepared for this though so he is not too badly scared

Definitely the type to talk to the child like it's a grown adult

Has huge dreams for his baby like yale or law school

Of course he will be a supportive parent no matter what

Definitely not used to having to be silly so it's a bit of a challenge

"um, theo what are you doing?"

"reading edgar allan poe"

You stared at your husband who was currently reading such a thing to your six month old baby.

"sweetie there are baby books.."

Theo closed the book before locking eyes with you having a serious gaze on his face.

"I refuse to read my child a book that uses the word awesomest its either more awesome or awesome."

"theo that was on-"

Theo simply cracked the thick book back open with a slight pout on his face.

"I refuse [y/n] I absolutely refuse"

You felt the urge to choke your man child of a husband, you were pretty sure your child was more concerned about trying to eat the book.

Hikaru

He definitely will be shocked if you tell him you're pregnant

Will be all tsundere about it but you know he's happy

"w-what?! You idiot! Were you on the pill? Ugh! Fine we can keep it"

The minute he is away from you he's grinning and crying.

He's also super scared though cause he comes from a huge fucked up family

During the pregnancy he is super protective of you and the baby

No leaving the house and no getting up from bed

"sit down damn it! If you break a bone I'm killing you!"

As a father..he's great

Definitely spoils his child in riches

Everything from clothes to toys is expensive

He wants to give them the absolute best

Definitely is a bragger and a PTA dad

"remember sweetie if a commoner walks up to you they are usually dangerous"

"papa what's a commoner"

Hikaru smiled as he painted his three year old's nails deciding to give them a make over while you were out.

"well, a commoner is someone who doesn't have any money like us they are below us on the food chain"

"hikaru..."

The feminine male twitched at the sound of your voice and glanced back only to see you glaring at him. Having a child with you has definitely made him respect you far more to the point where his degrading is usually light and slightly harmless.

"what did I say about calling people that infront of them?!"

"I'm only being honest like you're a filthy commoner yet I still married you, doesn't that say something about how I feel?"

You wondered how much was his life insurance incase you blacked out and one day killed him.

Prince

He nearly catches a heart attack when you told him you were pregnant

He hasn't been hooking up with anyone or drinking too much since he's been with you but he still doesn't expect it

"p-p- pregnant?! You're kidding yeah?!"

The first few days he is flipping out but after it settles he does quite well

He definitely has no idea what to do when you start having mood swings and stuff like that

He tries his best to please you

He still definitely wants to do it at though

He will be pouty the entire nine months if you deny him

As far as being a parent he tries his hardest

He definitely matures a lot more but is still the silly guy like always

You walked into your child's room only to see prince's hair in many ponytails which made you hold back a laugh.

"trying a new style babe?"

"not funny [y/n], but yes I am"

Prince flashed you a grin before he reached to touch his hair only to feel a tiny hand slap it away

"not finished!"

Primce let's out a long sigh before giving you a pleading expression now wanting your help but you simply turned away.

"have fun!"

"[y/n]this isn't how you treat your husband!"

You ignored prince's outburst and figured he can handle his own child giving him a makeover.

Axis

When you told him you were pregnant he was so happy

"we're going to have a baby? I'm so excited!"

But then it hit him

He won't be able to see a child

Won't be able to see their first steps or how beautiful they are and he gets upset at himself

He gets a little depressed but he still helps you out during the pregnancy

He is terrified during the whole pregnancy

He breaks down when the baby is born

Hearing them cry for the first time really snapped him out of his depression

His first worry is if the child is healthy

As a parent he definitely wants to spoil his child but he's also deathly over protective

He always let you know that he loves his family

You let a long sigh as you walked around the hluse looking for both your toddler and husband, you heard hushed whispering in axis' art room so you walked there only to find axis with the three year old in his lap and was teaching them how to paint.

"art is about feeling, though I guess we can talk more about that when you're older!"

Axis let them paint whatever they wanted though randomly he covered their eyes earning a giggle

"daddy! I can't see!"

"yeah, try paint now hmm? Not so easy huh?"

You rolled your eyes at his antics but you noticed his shaking hands before realizing what was going on..he was checking their eyesight.

"it's lunch time guys"

Axis perked up at your voice and turned to you with a smile though it was definitely strained, he was nervous about something but you didn't push it.

Yuki

He definitely wasn't expecting pregnant to come out when your mouth talked to him

His reaction was a shocked expression

"oh. I see"

What you don't know was that kids terrified yuki

He was scared of his child being as fucked up as he is

He is definitely supportive though

He gets his first tattoo of his child's name on his back

Him as a parent is very interesting

He is wrapped around his child's finger

Whatever they want he will absolutely do

The want snacks? He got it. They want to play pretend? He'll play for hours

He Is quite protective or both you and his child so the first year of their birth he didn't want to leave your side or theirs either

He just wants to be a happy family.

"having fun yuki?"

"mhm.."

You held back a snort of laughter at the sight of yuki doing a tea party with your four year old, he had so much glitter in his hair he reminded you of a disco ball.

You were glad he was entertaining them but you simply couldn't help but laugh at his appearance. He had stickers all over his face and was wearing a bright red tutu

"join us."

You gazed at him with a nervous look, he planned this. Before you knew it you were roped in as well now with a long sigh

"the things we do for this little demon"

"mhmm..more tea?"

Salem

Let's be real here salem got you pregnant on purpose cause of his breeding kink

When you told him the news you had to spray him with water to keep him from pouncing you

Your pregnancy is very sexual with him around

He definitely has a breast milk kink so he uses you a lot during your pregnancy for that

To a point where you're worried about being dried up

He likes to talk to the baby while you're asleep or just laying down

When the baby does come you're terrified about him being a parent

He is a good parent actually..he's weird but good

He acts like a child himself so it's quite fun

He is still an insane mess but it's toned down slightly

He is glad his child is normal and nothing like him in terms of personality

"salem!"

You glared at your husband as he and your four year old shoved cookies in their mouths while hiding under the kitchen table. Salem nearly choked and simply flashed a huge grin

"you were taking tooooo long! Couldn't wait!"

"they are going to think it's okay to eat snacks whenever they want"

Salem stuck his tongue out at you before your face flashed red at his next words

"I eat snacks whenever I want [y/n]~"

You yank the two of them from out the table before you simply roll your eyes.

"how about we have another kid?"

You choke at his words and glared at him only for him to wink at you, this clearly wasn't up for discussion in his book you two were having another child

[itsthenovelteafactor]

Superhero Gothic

Thanks to everyone who responded to my previous post (special shoutout to @jeyfeather1234 💛 ) about superheroes and gothic media! I know it’s been, like, a month, but here we go.

Here’s a bit of a look into some common gothic themes, and how they apply to Doom Patrol, The Boys, Watchmen (2019), and The Umbrella Academy. This one’s a bit long, not gonna lie, but I hope you enjoy! 

Part I: Let’s Talk About Gothic Media

There is not actually an all-encompassing definition for gothic media, or even a universally agreed-upon one. You’re probably familiar with some well-known gothic works (think Dracula, Frankenstein, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King) but there is a lot of debate on what exactly makes them gothic. 

There are some common themes in gothic works, though: families/characters under the control of a tyrannical paterfamilias, the crumbling of the established order/estate, long-buried secrets that have consequences in the present, and supernatural events that are stand-ins for/reflective of the emotional state/past actions of the characters. 

(Note: these aren’t all the themes of gothic works or even most of them, but for purposes here, I’d like to limit this analysis to them. I’d love to talk about other themes/ideas, though, if anyone has them. 😊)

So… superheroes (quick overview in case you haven’t watched any of them… spoiler warnings for the rest of this discussion)

Doom Patrol:

Five misfit superhumans attempt to rescue their mentor figure when he is kidnapped by an old enemy.

They are very, very bad at it.

Also features a singing horse head, a sentient nonbinary teleporting street (who is by far the best character) and the narrator is the fourth-wall breaking series villain. 

Beautifully weird but will also emotionally devastate you. Criminally underrated, tbh.

Watchmen (2019):

Story takes place after the canon of the graphic novel which is too much to summarize.

Alternate history (that should really feel more fictitious than it does) where white supremacist organization the Seventh Cavalry, masked police officers, and former superheroes in hiding all collide in Tulsa Oklahoma

Swept the Emmys this year and ABSOLUTELY DESERVED TO

The Umbrella Academy:

Washed up former child superheroes are forced to reunite when their father dies under mysterious circumstances 

Time travel, dysfunctional siblings, and a killer soundtrack

Basically a family drama with the superhero story as secondary (complimentary)

Probably the most obviously gothic of all of these it is aesthetic AF 

The Boys: 

Superheroes exist but they are corporate sellouts under the control of evil company Not-Amazon (AKA Vought)

Regular human protagonists try to hold them accountable for their actions with varying (read: usually minimal) success

Yes, it’s the one from those weird ads earlier this year

Billy Joel!! 

Part II: Niles Caulder, Ozymandias, and Other Terrible Father Figures

The Tyrannical Paterfamilias: 

Does not always mean a father figure explicitly, often relating to the notion of a patriarchal tradition, or family inheritance that plays a role in controlling the main characters. 

Sometimes, it is a father figure. 

Sometimes, it is a representative of patriarchal tradition/male head of pseudo-family unit.

So, uh, role call: 

Reginald Hargreeves (even in death) holds power over his children, and has shaped all of them into the adults they have become, and that drives the majority of the conflict. Each of the major character individually grapples with the after-effects of his abuse. Luther feels the need to be the leader and protect everyone and alienates his allies as a consequence. Diego constantly asserts himself as a hero (often to dangerous extremes) because it is the only way he was ever valued. Allison has to teach herself boundaries and responsible use of her powers after he encouraged her to abuse them for years. Klaus turns to drugs to cope with his childhood trauma. Five disobeyed his father with disastrous consequences and is constantly fighting to not become him. Vanya spent her entire childhood in the background, and never learned to assert herself in a healthy way. Thanks, Reggie.

Homelander says that The Seven are like a family. While whether or not this is accurate (it isn’t) is up for debate, he does occupy the tyrannical paterfamilias roles incredibly well. Homelander controls every member of the Seven, threatening them and their loved ones whenever they step out of line (read: do not do exactly what he wants in the exact way he wants them to do it.) He is also very closely tied with conservative/patriarchal rhetoric in-universe and at one point dates a literal Nazi. 

William Butcher less evil than most of the other characters on this list but the bar is also like, on the ground. Butcher tries to control the Boys in a similar way (Butcher and Homelander are character foils, okay? it’s actually pretty neat). He’s perfectly willing to sacrifice them in pursuit of his own goals, disregards their points of view and the well-being of their loved ones, and tries to cut loose anyone who disagrees with his methods (recall when Hughie tried to rescue his friends at the end of s1 and Butcher… punched him in the face? Yeah, that.) The difference is that the Boys can push back against his without being, you know, brutally murdered. (And also the Butcher isn’t a literal monster; I’m not anti-Butcher, okay? He’s an interesting character and the fact that he seems constantly on the verge of becoming that which he hates most is part of what makes him interesting.)

Guess what, folks? It’s hating Niles Caulder hours. He engineered accidents to turn the main characters into his test subjects, and then kept them conveniently hidden away in his large manor. Stole their autonomy and independence but paints himself as a benevolent father figure. And that’s not even including what he does to his actual daughter, Dorothy. He’s terrified of her growing up (read: becoming a young woman) and so he locks her away for almost 100 years and, when she is freed, yells at her constantly and makes her terrified of showing any signs of maturation (even though she’s 111 and clearly tired of being written off as a child).

The relationship between Ozymandias and his daughter, Lady Trieu, is integral to the final act of Watchmen. Heralded as the “smartest man in the world,” Ozymandias refused to acknowledge his daughter as his until he needed something from her. While Lady Trieu is more self-sufficient and independent than some of the applications of this trope, she goes to great lengths to prove herself, first to him, and then to herself when he rejects her.

Part III: Been a Long Time Gone (Constantinople) 

Gothic fiction is often associated with change, and particularly, the collapse of established systems of power. For example, many works like The House of the Seven Gables and The Fall of the House of Usher take place in old, crumbling manor houses. There is a reason for this! These kinds of estates are remnants of a past that is irreversibly gone, and their continued presence in decrypt forms serves as a reminder. 

Each of the four series takes place at a moment, either on a wide scale or on a personal scale (or both!), in which an established order is being questioned, and the constant reminders of that failed order are used to gothic effect.

The Umbrella Academy plays this most directly (In fact, there are TONS of parallels between the end of s1 of TUA and House of Usher that I don’t have the time to get into right now... lmk if you want that meta). We can see the Hargreeves mansion as a very literal example of this. While not worn down, the house is notably both very large and very empty. Shelves are filled with merchandise for a superhero team that disbanded over a decade prior, and portraits of a family that no longer speaks to each other. None of the family members ever seem truly comfortable or at ease in the house, and for good reason - every back corner is a reminder of their incredibly traumatic childhood. 

In The Boys, the story begins with the fridging death of the main character’s girlfriend, Robin, at the hands of a member of the Seven, a group of heroes so ingrained in the public consciousness that when they later hide out in a costume shop, literally every single costume is for one of Vought’s heroes. The Seven represent the system in power, which, at the disposal of Not-Amazon means corporate greed, shallow altruism, and the cultivation of public personas at the expense of actual humanity. 

From that moment on, the sheer presence of The Seven on everything from public billboards to breakfast cereal is a remainder for Hughie (and the audience) that this established system doesn’t work and is based on lies, which serves this effect on a personal level. In the broader scale, however, we also see that the Seven themselves are fracturing under an unsustainable business model. Even their name, “The Seven” starts to seem a bit dated when halfway through season one through the end of season two there are notably... less than seven of them. 

The main characters in Doom Patrol are all in recovery after the accidents that irreversibly changed their lives. We see through flashbacks the people that they used to be, and the difference is striking. They were each established in their own elements: Cliff a famous race-car driver, Rita a world renowned actress, Larry a hero pilot, Jane was involved in counter-cultural movements, Vic was a student and athlete. The foundations upon which their worlds were established are completely decimated by the accidents, and now they (save Vic and sometimes Jane) live mostly in isolation in Niles’ manor house, an estate that is far larger than would be necessary to comfortably house a group of their size.

And you feel the emptiness, both in the manor, and in the lives of the characters. They have barely created a shadow version of their own existence when the series starts, so fragile that a simple trip into town devolves into utter chaos. 

Angela Abar of Watchmen has also constructed a life following the terrifying act of terrorism on the White Night. It’s a bit of a double life, and we see that the balancing act is challenging for her, even before the story truly begins. The death of Judd Crawford, and the revelation about him that follows is not only traumatizing on a personal level (but it definitely is that), but also upsets her understanding of the world. People she’s come to trust are not just dishonest but truly monstrous. And the more Angela learns about what has been happening, the more her understanding of the world begins to unravel. Her memories, and the memories of those around her are cast in a much more sinister light, and the effect is genuinely chilling. 

Part IV: “I’m the Little Girl Who Threw the Brick in the Air”

In episode 3 of Watchmen, Laurie contacts Dr. Manhattan on the cosmic phone booth to tell him a joke. It’s a version of what TVTropes calls the “brick joke,” and it relies on set up taking place early on, other stuff happening, and then the response coming at an unexpected moment. 

So, yeah. Events of the past/buried secrets resurfacing with consequences in the present.

Continuing with the theme from Watchmen, the entire series is punctuated with the way the past and the present intertwine, with elements from both the original Watchmen graphic novel, and actual American history. One of the things we talked a lot about in my gothic lit class was the manner in which the overhanging specter of past atrocities casts a shadow over the present, and how many works cannot help but have gothic themes because there are so many horrifying things in the past that cannot be ignored, and provide both context and nuance for the discussions we have in the present. No series tackles these topics quite so directly (and with as much care) as Watchmen. (note: it does not always make for easy viewing, but if you’re in a place where you feel like you can engage with that kind of material, I highly recommend the show.)

In Doom Patrol, the past actions of the characters very much control the storyline (see: previous discussion of Niles Caulder), but the character whose storyline I want to talk about here is Rita (partially for plot reasons and partially because I just love Rita, okay?). We learn when we first meet Rita that in the past she was... not a great person. We know that the trauma of the accident that gave her her powers has changed her, we also know that she still holds on to the guilt and that her guilt has limited the scope of her world for years, but we don’t know what exactly it is that she’s done. 

Enter Mr. Nobody, all-powerful narrator who is not just aware of Rita’s greatest sins, but perfectly capable of manifesting reminders of them into the story. She is confronted with empty cradles, and the sound of crying children in the background of many scenes and we see how much it effects her, without a full understanding of why it does (see: The Tell-Tale Heart). Her past begins to haunt her physically, and she begins to crumble in response to it, until finally she is forced to confide in a stranger (and thus the audience). The past actions do not just inform the audience of Rita’s character - they show up to influence her behavior in the present. 

The ending of The Umbrella Academy season 1 is super evocative of the gothic genre with Vanya breaking open the soundproof chamber (wherein she was silenced for years) and rising from the basement to destroy the last remnants of the Hargreeves legacy (which would be awesome if the last remnants of the Hargreeves legacy didn’t include the rest of her family). Pretty much every mistake the siblings make over the course of the season feeds together to create the finale, but the primary cause isn’t something any of them actually did. It all ties back to Reginald Hargreeves’ complete inability to be nice to children. Any children. His own and random strangers that need help. 

In The Boys, while the extent to which people are making f-ed up choices in the present cannot be expressed enough, we see through the characters of Homelander that many of the present difficulties are a result of past mistakes. Particularly, the profit-seeking corruption within Vought. We learn in s1 through Vogelbaum that Homelander was raised in a lab by Vought as an experiment, only to be unceremoniously thrust into the spotlight and told he was a superhero (which... does not justify a single one of his actions but is still a major yikes). As the head scientist of the project, Vogelbaum is very aware that ignoring his conscious if the name of research has essentially created the biggest threat their world has ever seen. 

(Seriously y’all just stop raising your super kids in isolation) 

Part V: Put Them Together, and They’re the MF-ing Spice Girls 

Having the environment respond to characters’ emotions/mental states is pretty common in gothic works (it was a dark and stormy night = someone is probably not doing super well). One of the advantages of the genre’s tendency towards the supernatural is that, often, those elements of the stories, as well, are reflections of the main ideas of a work of fiction (see: Stephen King’s really unsubtle period metaphors).

Because all of these shows have a ton of supernatural/scifi elements by virtue of being, well, superhero shows, I thought it would be easier (and more fun!) to come up with a short list of elements, what they mean, and what cases they might apply to.

1. A Nonlinear Experience of Time

The Umbrella Academy: legitimately about time travel. Characters are attempting to fix the timeline but are unable to because they are both mentally and sometimes literally stuck in the past. 

Watchmen: In the episode This Extraordinary Being, Angela experiences firsthand the experiences of her grandfather, under the influence of a drug called Nostalgia. The episode touches on many themes, one of which being the impact of generational trauma in marginalized communities. Throughout the series, Dr. Manhatten is cursed with experiencing all time at once, and the episode A God Walks into Abar illustrates that, because of this, he is constantly facing the consequences of particular actions before, after, and while he is preforming him.

Doom Patrol: Mr. Nobody is able to physically travel to one of Jane’s flashbacks via his fourth-wall breaking powers, and gives Dr. Harrison an ultimatum for the future. 

What it implies: Events, particularly events that evoke guilt or conflict, are not as rooted in the past as one would like to think.

2. Powers/Abilities that reflect personal trauma/failings

Doom Patrol: Larry’s abilities/bond with the Negative Spirit have made it so that he is constantly covering himself with bandages/avoiding other people, which reflects his experiences having to hide his identity as a gay man in the 50/60s. Rita forced herself to walk a thin line, betraying everything in pursuit of her image; her abilities require constant effort to keep her entire body from becoming misshapen and out of control. Vic’s father with boundary issues can literally control his perception of the world through his cybernetic enhancements. Dorothy’s abilities manifest as imaginary friends because she was kept isolated for years at a time. 

The Umbrella Academy: pretty much all of the kids’ powers are representative of the interpersonal skills they were never able to develop. Luther is super-durable but also the most emotionally vulnerable of the group. Five can teleport and time travel but always seems to be too late to stop things. Diego can manipulate the trajectory of projectiles but cannot escape the path his father set out for him, not matter how much he resents it. Vanya always forced herself to stay quiet until the sound literally explodes out of her.

The Boys: Annie’s abilities allow her to control light, but she struggles (in the beginning) to bring to light the horrible things done to her behind closed doors. 

Watchmen: Not technically a power, but Looking Glass’ mirror-mask is a constant reminder of the hall of mirrors that both saved his life and traumatized him forever. 

What it implies: from a story perspective, these allow for an exploration of trauma/guilt to occur on a scale much larger than people simply talking about their problems (as if anyone on any of these shows knows how to talk about their problems...) It also means that the trauma/guilt of the characters takes on a physical form that is able to haunt them, and constantly remind them/hold them accountable for their past actions.

3. Diluted Sense of Reality:

Doom Patrol: The first season is narrated by its main villain, and throughout the season we see that the act of narration itself has an impact on the story.

Watchmen: The event that kicks off the plot of the story is hinged upon a paradox introduced by Angela near the end of the series when trying to speak to her Grandfather in the past through Dr. Manhattan.

The Umbrella Academy: The pair of episodes in season 1, The Day that Wasn’t and The Day That Was take the same point in time and explore two possible avenue for the future from there, with The Day that Wasn’t ending with the events of the entire episode being completely erased from the timeline.

What it implies: you can’t necessarily trust everything you see, even from the audience perspective, giving them a position not unlike that of the characters. The character’s uncertainty and confusion is magnified and reflected in the world that surrounds them.

Other examples: an apocalypse (The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, Watchmen (of a sort)), ghosts (The Umbrella Academy - hi, Ben!), immortality/invulnerability (Watchmen, Doom Patrol, The Boys), and characters that look significantly younger than they actually are (The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol). 

Part VI: Why Did You Write a Literal Essay Don’t You Have Real Schoolwork (yes... shhhhh...)

And... there you have it. I don’t really have some grand conclusion here. This is (clearly) far from a complete analysis but it is the most my finals-week brain can concoct at the moment. 

If you have other ideas, let me know! You can always add to the notes or message me – my inbox is always open!  If you got this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Much love! ❤️

[electro-kins]

i promised diona zhongluc family headcanons , did i not ? (:

at first i was pretty clueless on how zhongli would get to see diona in the first place , but you replying to my previous hc ask with how she ‘ d meet him in a tavern opened a door to so many scenarios , so i thank you for that .

although i doubt that zhongli would often go to the mondstadt tavern , given that i imagine he ‘ d visit diluc at the winery , perhaps he ‘ d meet diona in an earlier trip , when he ‘ d be much more intrigued by how mondstadt progressed as a whole and the infamous wines ( osmanth— ) , despite not being the most appreciative of the citizen ‘ s drunkenness ( as according to one of his voicelines , i believe ) . regardless , he was eager to learn and therefore stepped inside cat ‘ s tail with an open mind .

i imagine him , after seeing diona and hearing her complain about drunkards , thinking if she was actually acquainted with diluc and friends with him , due to their shared hate for alcohol despite being bartenders . i can also see him later on contributing to bringing the two together and minimizing conflict when they ‘ re all in one room .

i think zhongli would see the similarity of expressing anger a lot between diona and xiao ( probably because he ‘ d miss talking with the adeptus after being away from liyue for so long ) , except that diona was much more rousy and acted upon it more , compared to how xiao tries to hold back . he ‘ d made mental notes about her to try and understand how such a tiny cat can hold so much anger . perhaps , this is why she ‘ s so outward with her rage ?

also , i find it amusing that both diluc and zhongli are kinda clueless about the human psyche and how emotions work at times . diluc represses a lot of stuff due to past trauma and zhongli is very new to the concept of being a mortal , so i would expect some conflict here and there between the two and diona , probably because she ‘ d be a tad self aware . zhongli would do his best to keep the peace though , at worst acting stern and strict or giving out a punishment . i can see him talking with diona in private after an argument and trying to work things out , though . if she ‘ d want space , he ‘ d respect that . if diona would want to talk about it , he ‘ d also respect that . he ‘ s new to mortal concepts , but not an “ uwu so clueless what is this mortal thing ? ? “ type of person ( i have an immense distaste for when fanfics make adults or literal 6k + year old archons act like clueless children , it ‘ s very out of character ) .

regardless , i hope you continue to enjoy your birthday and have a good day / night .

- 🪐

yaayy zhongluc diona family hcs!! thank you sm for sending, i'm happy you enjoyed my ideas of how zhongli and diona meet ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪ she would so remind zhongli of diluc, so cute!! and xiao whenever she's very angry, i love how observant you write zhongli <3 AND HONESTLY i really dislike people writing intelligent, ADULT characters as clueless babies as well... (thinking of edgar valden from idv rn) zhongli is a whole god and even though he's new to mortal concepts he's not... a baby LMAO. he's trying his best, i love how you write his relationship with diona!! *\(^o^)/* i hope you're having a nice day/night bestie!!

[jocazep]

In the Whole Wide Train | Chapter 10

Author’s notes: Hi, remember me? Sorry about the six-month hiatus, but I’m back at it! And it gon’ get dark (even more so than before), so this is just me laying in the groundworks early... ENJOY~

Pairing: Curtis Everett x Reader (Jo, OFC), slight Edgar x Reader

Warnings: Major spoilers for SNOWPIERCER, dystopian society and its countless problems, mentions of forced abortions, language, violence, deaths, slow burn, eventual smut

Synopsis: Having grown up in the Front Sections of the Snowpiercer, you venture down the train when a rare opportunity presents itself, but the excursion quickly changes flavor when you arrive in the Tail Section.

Taglist: Now closed

Series Masterlist

Chapter 10 - Trading Secrets

Curtis couldn’t remember the last time he slept so well--it must have been before the train. There were no dreams, there were no nightmares, just deep, post-climax slumber as if the world around him has melted away--until the alarm blaring “oh-seven-hundred-hours” yanked him out.

He jumped up, but had to take a second before realizing where he was, as the rest of the revolters joined him, stirring awake and confused--the world outside was pitch dark.

“We’re traveling against time zones” Your voice sounded from behind--Curtis turned to see you walking up with a cup of hot water in hand, ”C’mon, need to make some arrangements before we push on.”

“Good morning to you, too.” He took your extended hand, stood up, and pulled you in for a quick kiss. You didn’t kiss back. “What’s the matter?”

“Oh nothing. Gilliam is looking for us is all.”

The truth of the matter is a little bit more complicated than that.

You woke up early. As a medical apprentice, you used to do that before you had important appointments, as it would clear your head and prepare for your day, but today you found no such effect.

Your eyes fixated on Curtis as he lay next to you, breathing in and out, but your head was a million miles away. What was last night? Was it just two people seeking solace in each other after the death of a mutual friend? Or was it the culmination of all those little touches and stolen glances and shared silences? Did it mean anything to him? More importantly, did it mean anything to you?

But then Mason entered your mind in stealth, slowly gnawing away in the back of your head, until you couldn’t focus on the inner debate between your commitment to your father vs. your--your what? Your responsibility? Your debt?--whatever it is you owe to the revolt.

So you push yourself up, and padded barefoot towards where Mason was being held captive.

“It’s about time.” Her unmistakable accent greeted you before your eyes could find her, “ah is that water?”

You didn’t respond, but dipped the mug in your hand lower so she could suck a mouthful of the liquid before you rescinded it.

“Any chance you can spare some food as well, my dear?”

“Not unless you want the fish they gutted before the fight.” You sat down next to Mason, and silence fell for a second.

“Well, I suppose we should make a de--”

“When did he send you to the tail section?”

“Excuse me?”

“I said how old were you when my father first sent you to the tail sections?”

“I must have been around...well, your age.“

“You don’t know how old I am.”

“You, Joanna Catherine Watt Wilford, are thirty-two years and some three odd months old.”

You stare at Mason in astonishment.

“I’ve seen your birth certificate. There was a time when Mr. Wilford thought about giving you to a foster family... After your mother passed away of course...” Mason took a pause, “But I thought you are here to warn me--”

“I am.” You kept your eyes straight ahead, “This is just my human interest story for the report.”

You tend to forget that for some people, there was a life before the train, since you had barely turned fifteen when your estranged father plucked you from the monotony of a privileged private school, into a monotony of the train.

But hey, at least you got to practice medicine and help people. Is that what I’m doing now?

“The report--that’s why I first went down there too, you know...He must see it as a rite of passage.” A smile threatens to break as Mason reminisced about her past.

“Was it..” You didn’t know how to phrase the question, but luckily Mason caught onto your train of thought.

“Oh dear, even more so. Mr. Wilford really turned it around. They were surviving on rats and vermin before the protein block assembly. When I first went down there... it’s as if all society had broken down. There was stories about this pregnant woman... And when they found out who I was, they chained me up and almost tore me to pieces. Imagine what they would do to you. ”

You had heard enough, “All right, here’s the deal. I keep you alive, you keep your mouth shut about me. Sound good?”

Mason nodded enthusiastically as you stood up to leave. “Just one more thing, what does Mr. Wilford want with Curtis?”

You did not look back, “Ask another wrong question, and my father will hear about it.”

Mason all but clasped her hands onto her mouth.

You were planning to sneak back and lay your head on Curtis’ chest, relive the little escape you two had before the day had to begin, but today luck just wasn’t on your side. As your turned the corner back into the makeshift dorm, soft crying and sniffling caught your attention.

It was Tanya. By the dim moonlight reflected from the snow, you could see her clutching a piece of paper and wiping tears from her face. By the time you realized it was the charcoal drawing of Timmy she was holding, it was too late to turn back.

Noticing the light shift, Tanya sat up and look at the person standing a few feet from her. You didn’t know what to do for a moment. You two haven’t been alone since you came clean about Timmy. In a letter no less, you coward.

“I didn’t mean to--”

Tanya lay back down and closed her eyes.

What was the rest of your sentence anyway? You asked yourself as you padded towards the infirmary section, sleep now the last thing on your mind. Didn’t mean to pry? Didn’t man to take Timmy? Didn’t mean to get so close to Curtis and the revolt?

You were pulled from the reverie by Yuna’s hand tugging your sleeve. Around you, the men were deep in discussion, figuring out how many people to station at each section.

Yuna slipped you a piece of paper torn from the small notebook you gifted her. On it she had drawn a picture of herself and Namgoong in the prison section, the many drawers colored dark and ominous. Yuna pointed to the drawers.

“It’s a little advanced for you but ok,” you took the pencil from her and spelled out the word prison, “Prison, it’s a place to hold people that have broken the law.”

Yuna didn’t seem to like that word. She wrestled the paper from you, pointed to the drawers again, and looked at you, waiting for a response.

“Jo?” You whipped your head back to the much less mystifying, but much more important meeting.

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

Curtis gave you an update, “Gilliam will stay behind, with 50 men stationed in the water section, then 15 men at each other section before our base,” Base is what you called the tail section now, “Grey will stay with Gilliam as well.”

“Nonsense, Grey will be much more useful to you than me.”

You shot a look at Gilliam as he chimed in, wondering if he really meant it.

“I think Grey should stay too. We are already a large pack as it is--”

“Don’t forget, Jo, we’re going ahead to take the engine,” Gilliam gave you a long look, “who knows what you will find there”.

Right. You bit your tongue and didn’t argue any further. Let’s never forget

“We were trying to decide what we should do about Mason.” Namgoong picked up the thread of discussion, “What do you think?”

“She’s injured, will only slow us down.” Grey’s voice was very quiet.

“I would rather keep her close than let her stay with the captured soldiers. Who knows what she’ll get them up to.”

“That’s fair, I can’t possibly keep an eye on her the whole time,” Gilliam agreed.

“Tanya’s doing a great job watching her.” *So that’s why she’s not in the meeting.*

“She didn’t want to come with us?”

“Of course she did, but--”

“I think Jo’s saying Tanya should go with you.”

The discussion wrapped up quickly after that, as dusk was threatening to break over the horizon. Your partners in crime stood up and went off--there were bags to pack, arrangements to make, and farewells to say.

You dragged your feet, hoping to spend a few minutes with Gilliam before setting off.

“Having doubts, dear?” Gilliam clicked by on his crutch.

“Before I first came down--”

“Perhaps it’s best you don’t tell me exactly what Wilford asked of you.” Sometimes you wish you had his ability to see right through everything.

“You don’t want to know?”

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t,” Gilliam chuckled, “But I’ve feigned ignorance too many times, even for someone my age. I’d like this occasion to be real.”

“Then...can I ask how much you know?”

“As far as I know, the revolt should have served its purpose after the water supply section.”

You nodded, “Do you ever ask yourself, why he always landed on culling?”

“It wasn’t just him, my dear.”

For the second time that day, you stared in astonishment.

“Perhaps you’re the only person with whom I can share this secret.” There were mini explosions happening in your head as Gilliam spoke, “No past revolt has gotten past the water section. Sometimes it was disorganization, sometimes it was survival instincts, sometimes just plain human greed. But every time, the necessary culling would take place, and the tail section would treasure its existence that was magnanimously gifted by Wilford.”

“Why did they settle?”

“The very first revolts that took place, was only six months into the train journey. Curtis was a little past seventeen, completely unaware, and Edgar, god rest his soul, was just a baby. The leader, he rallied enough people to fight. But every battle cost heavily on his side. Byt the time he got to the prison section, there were only a handful of adult men left. And Mason, who was also a surveyor at the time, managed to entice him with promises of a better life. He held out for a while, but eventually he chose the devil he knew.”

“Your point being?"

"My point being, there's only so much you can do at one given time. Learn to pick your battles."

---

You left Gilliam soon after, head still reeling from the secrets he confided, wondering if he ever regretted his past decisions.

“Hey...” Curtis snuck up on you, taking your hand. You jumped slightly, taken out of your trance. “Do you realize this will be the last time we’re alone for a while?”

“Yeah...?”

He pulled you into him, and caught your lips in a long kiss. You both stumble towards the steel walls of the train, eventually settling in a nook. Curtis dipped his tongue past your teeth, tangling with your tongue, one of his knee wedging between your legs, bringing back heated vignettes of last night. You wrapped your arms around his neck, your hips bucking against his thigh, your belly bumping up against his increasing hardness.

Curtis eventually lifts his lips from you, allowing you to breathe, while he latches onto the side of your neck. His hand roams up your belly, kneading your breasts, squeezing your side--

“Ow!”

“Shit, sorry,” Hard pause as he remembers your injury, “Is it getting better?”

“No, but I’ll live,” you answered, breathless, “when we get to the health section I’ll take a closer look.”

Curtis rest his head against yours, gulping for air, “This is your injury number three, huh?”

“Yeah, you are bad news for me.”

From the front of the section, someone called out, “Curtis, Jo, we’re doing the portrait!”

“You gonna be okay there?” You eyed his bulge.

“Yeah, just gimme a minute...”

The portrait took longer than you expected. While Painter took down your likeness in charcoal, Andrew was playing with the now captive Mason, asserting his newly-earned dominance over this once proud magistrate.

“I was hoping to talk about it earlier.” Curtis said out of the corner of his mouth as you all stood, eight half-frozen figures.

“I...enjoyed it?” You said, tongue in cheek, “Would recommend to a friend.”

“Funny,” Curtis couldn’t help the smile creeping onto his face,  “But seriously...”

“I mean...” You looked up at him, “If we both survive when this is all over...”

You were joking but the words hit home for Curtis, as he remembered Edgar. Will you both come out of this alive? He had always considered himself as someone with nothing to lose, but now...

You turned away as you noticed Curtis staring into the distance. Gilliam was standing in the front of the crowd that would stay behind, looking at you with his signature elderly smile, and something else just behind the glasses, a mutual understanding that this is truly farewell.

You found yourself running his words again and again in your head.

“The leader asked for running water, and a stable food supply. Wilford agreed, but asked the leader to help him maintain the balance in the tail section whenever necessary. A few months later, the protein blocks started coming in, a washroom was unlocked, and my secret phone compartment was installed.”

Taglist: @torntaltos @emmalbg @ajosieface 

[toloveawarlord]

Ch. 2

Characters: Aster, Jonah Clemence, Lancelot Kingsley, Edgar Bright, Kyle Ash

Tagging: @plumpblueberry​ @thetwinkims​ (please let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged)

A/N: Aye guess who finally got around to writing chapter two!

Rain dripped from the gutters against the cobblestones. The downpour having brought in a damp chill on the fall night. A crystal flickered in the lamp barely secured to the small building. The teenager sat cross-legged on the only dry crate that hugged the wall beneath the awning. Scooping up another hot bite of soup graciously given to her by the owner, Aster blew on the spoonful, not bothering to even glance at the officer. “Can I finish my dinner first?”

“By all means, I’ll wait.” Edgar remained at the entrance to the alley, the only way out blocked by him. He’d tracked her down with little issue. The townspeople not fond of the resident thief. They’d given away all her usual haunts.

Aster hopped off the crate, rapping her knuckles against the door. “I just need to return-- this-- hey!” She’d only turned her back to him for a second. The world tilted, now upside down in her crimson eyes. “Put me down!”

“If I did, you’d only try to run again. I have orders to bring you in. Please don’t struggle too much.” His arm tight around her waist as he held her over his shoulder. The girl was light and therefore easy to restrain, even in the awkward position.

Her fist hit against his back. “Do you always do everything you’re told?” She huffed as her weak attack didn’t faze the Jack at all. Aster wasn’t made for fighting, only stealing. The way to survive in a world where one is physically weak was to avoid fighting at all costs.

Edgar chuckled, thoroughly amused with her attempt to escape. Her small feet kicking to try to throw her balance but failing spectacularly. “I won’t drop you. So be a good girl and give up.”

There were little people on the streets at this house. Not that any of them would ever aid her, especially with her captor being the Jack of Hearts. None of that deterred her from trying to make his job as difficult as possible. 

“How disgraceful. Could you not have simply used the cuffs?” The Queen of Hearts voice was drenched in annoyance. How long did this child plan to make King Lancelot wait for her to surrender? 

“I’ve a feeling that she’d make even that an arduous task,” Edgar responded. This had been the easiest path to capturing her, and also the most amusing.

Lancelot narrowed his eyes at the teenager. “You understand that you’re a citizen of Red Territory, therefore subject to my judgement about your crimes. The list is extensive according to the residents in this town.” 

“It’s not a crime to stay alive!” Aster spat out and made a pointed kick back in his direction. He’d nearly been in reach, but Edgar merely swatted his hand against her calf to parry the attack. The teenager was out of breath from all her struggling, but she refused to just let them take her.

“Kyle, do it.” An order from the King of Hearts, swift and absolute.

The doctor, however, hesitated with a long sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose, believing himself to be the other sane one among the group. “I’m not comfortable with this plan.”

“She attempted to attack King Lancelot. We cannot let this miscreant continue to cause issues on our travel back to headquarters,” Jonah chimed in, irritated with the child that refused to have any decorum.

“Think of it as deescalating the situation. She’s a thief resisting arrest, and we could use force, but you’d have much more work if she got injured in the process.” Edgar eased the girl back down to her feet, keeping her close and restrained. It was unlikely, but he wouldn’t underestimate what she might do to escape.

Kyle retrieved a syringe from his pocket. “This is kidnapping but hold her still.” Golden eyes met her narrowed crimson ones with an apologetic expression. He gently took her arm that remained hooked under Edgar’s, giving her little range of motion. “This is gonna pinch.”

“Seriously? You’re going to drug me? How upstanding of the prestigious red army-” It took only seconds once the sedative was injected into her vein. Her anger subsided and her body slacked as she fell unconscious.

Edgar bent to slip his hand under her knees to lift her light body up. She seemed smaller somehow, more innocent. He’d hardly think that she was a skilled thief and con artist, but he knew more than anyone how appearances could be altered in one’s favor.

**********

The wood creaked but refused to give. Aster kicked her foot against side of the bed, tugging on the chain that connected the other half of the cuff to the headboard. She grunted in frustration.

“That won’t work. Those are magic cuffs.”

“I know how they-- work!” Aster responded, slamming her foot into the frame again, causing the bed to bang against the wall. Her cuffed wrist ached, bright red from the abuse she caused herself.

Jonah stood absolutely bewildered at her actions. A crease formed between his brows. “Why are you so obstinate?” The best course of action would be for her to comply, but she fought despite the clear outcome.

Aster brushed the stray white hairs away from her face, huffing softly. “If you’re going to arrest me, then do it already.” It made little sense to her as to why they hadn’t tossed her in a cell yet.

“We have no intentions of putting you in jail.”

All her movements stopped; crimson eyes searched his features for lies but found none. Aster gave a half-hearted tug on the chain. “So, you chain up teenage girls for some fun?” Her insinuation received a disgusted eye roll.

“Hardly.” Jonah refused to give any more response to her childish taunts. Instead, he crossed the room to her. “I’ll remove this if you’ll behave. King Lancelot is waiting to speak to you.” 

“About?”

“You’ll simply have to go and find out.” Jonah released the spell, amber irises carefully watching for her attempted escape. The less belligerent he was, the less the girl seemed to fight.

She was terribly confused. Suspicious. Aster was confident that she could escape with only Jonah in the room, and it wouldn’t be difficult at all. Perhaps if she relocated to Black Territory; they’d simply leave her be.

But...

“Fine, which way?” Idle curiosity took over.

Jonah relaxed at her compliance, not in the mood to give chase at the late hour. “I’m pleased you’ve learned when to concede. Follow me.” He checked every few steps that she followed.

Outside the room, Aster scoffed quietly. “Don’t get too excited. I haven’t agreed to anything-”

“Now, now. You haven’t heard our offer. It might be of interest to you,” Edgar interjected, leaned against the wall. It made more sense why Jonah had released her before getting an answer. If she had run, someone was waiting just beyond sight to apprehend her again.

It was slightly irritating that they continued to keep up with her. But, what else would one expect from the prestigious Red Army?

The building had expert architecture, unlike anything that she’d seen in the small town on the outskirts of the territory. With Edgar trailing behind her like a silent warning, Aster had little choice but to be the sheep herded where they wanted her. Even if she could get a window open, a jump this far up without anything to break the fall would only result in broken bones. 

Aster despised captivity, but not more than she disliked pain.

A single chair sat before the desk, especially placed there for her. Jonah took his spot standing beside the seated Lancelot, and Edgar remained somewhere behind her, likely guarding the door should she try to flee. Only the highest three ranks were present.

“This whole silent, scary boss tactic isn’t going to work. Let’s skip all the veiled threats and get to the point,” Aster said, plopping down in the chair and crossing her legs. The fact that the King of Hearts actually did make her quite a bit nervous would remain a secret to only her.

But to her surprise, he only inclined his head once and began to speak. “In exchange for overlooking all your crimes, and the list is quite extensive, you will become a spy for the Red Army.”

“I’m sorry-- what?”

Surely, she’d heard him wrong. Aster’s gaze flickered between the King and Queen, neither of which had any signs of deceiving her. They were entirely serious. This didn’t even make the list of things she’d thought this might encompass.

“What is unclear about the offer?” Lancelot questioned back, icy blue eyes not revealing any secrets to the teenager.

“The part where three adults want a sixteen-year-old to be a spy for them. Don’t you have trained soldiers who can do it? I mean, I get it. I’m really good at what I do, but how desperate do you need to be to bring in a teenager?” This must be a trick. A set up. Maybe the thief charges weren’t enough, and they wanted to make her into a scapegoat.

Lancelot sat back in his chair; hands folded on his lap. “This particular mission requires for the enemy to have no indication that the Red Army is responsible. I’ll forewarn you, if you refuse, charges will be drawn up and you will pay for all your crimes.”

“Ah, so this is blackmail.” 

“Think of it as a job offer,” Edgar interjected, leaning his arms against the top of the chair. He adored the way she didn’t startle at his sudden appearance. With a little more training, she’d certainly do well as a spy. “And you’ll be compensated, starting with a free place to stay and access to meals. I’m sure we could arrange for anything you might want.”

Aster was speechless, which was a very rare occurrence. It would be one very cruel joke if this were a lie. And yet, on the other side if it were a genuine offer, she couldn’t refuse. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she mulled over her options before asking, “Why me?”

“There is no record of you in either territory, not of your birth, of any family. You’re a blank slate, a ghost. We can create an identity to use that would be impossible to unravel,” Jonah answered. He didn’t agree with this idea. Too many variables, and there was no way to fully prevent her from betraying them, even with the promise of her freedom and riches.

“Okay, what exactly do you want me to do?”

Steal a few files, lead some soldiers in the wrong direction. Either of those would be simple to do. The affairs of Cradle didn’t interest her. In reality, the Army didn’t care for her, it didn’t fight for her freedom. It only served those in powerful positions. People like her were made to be used and thrown away.

But for now, Aster was okay with that.

“It won’t be some months, as you’ll require extensive training in various subjects, however...”

Extensive training? The words made her shift in her seat, uncomfortable with what that mean.

“You will infiltrate the Black Army, seeking refuge from our army, and report back on all their plans of attack and movements. Once the war is won, the charges will be forgiven, and you will be free.”

Free. Was one of her profession ever truly free?

Aster kept a policy of not thinking too far ahead, instead focusing on the moment at hand that she could control. A wicked grin spread across her lips.

“I’ll do it.”

Maybe if she didn’t end up dead from this, she’d know what freedom he spoke of.

[youllallriseintheink]

Like It Never Happened, chapter 2.

Susie found work in the city fairly quickly. It was just as a store clerk, but she said that the first thing she needed was an income, and she could focus on having a real career when that was settled. And anyhow, it seemed like a pretty nice place to work. Her only complaint was the hour-long commute each way.

Sammy found out about this while they were talking during one of their dates. At first he didn’t ask if she was planning on moving into the city, opting instead to ask about her coworkers. He saw the opportunity, but the longer he could keep her only seeing him during dates, the longer they could pretend that nothing had happened. It was Susie who had brought it up, and Sammy couldn't resist the urge to ask.

“It’s awkward. I don’t know that I want to live by myself again. Which I know, I’ll have to, and I am looking for a place-"

“Want to move in with me?”

Susie was a little taken aback. “You sure you're okay with that? We’ve only been seeing each other a couple weeks.”

“Sorry. It’s kind of hard to tell where I’m supposed to treat this like a new relationship, and where I’m supposed to act like we can just pick up where we left off. We were fine living together back then. But I understand.”

“No, let's do it. It sounds great” There was a long pause. “I’m going to try and make this as much like before as possible, alright? You’re going to have to be patient with me.”

“Okay,” Sammy had said. After that, they agreed on the day she would move in, and then changed the subject. Sammy wondered what she’d meant by that, but he supposed he would find out. Any signs of trauma she had, she was hiding well. He almost hoped, sick as it sounded, that she was doing worse than him. He’d hate to be the one testing her patience.

Their first week of living together went by without any serious issues, but there was one thing that Sammy noticed, and that was that Susie seemed to be avoiding music. He started noticing the pattern when he’d tried bringing it up once or twice, and she’d immediately changed the subject. Later in the week, he'd decided to play banjo in the apartment while she was around, and she quickly decided that she had elsewhere to be.

"Where are you going?" Sammy had asked.

"I'm going to get some milk." Her eyes were shifty- clearly she was lying.

"We have milk."

"Well, there are other things we need," she said before leaving. Sammy returned to his banjo. He supposed it was Susie's right to not want to listen to him, but still, he was frustrated. When Sammy heard her unlocking the door some time later, he turned on the radio. He wasn't much for 60s music, but he wanted to give her one last test. As Susie came in, carrying a few non-perishable grocery items they'd use eventually, she turned it off.

"Hey, Susie. Since coming out of ink hell, I found a nice little church. I'm going to a service this Sunday, and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me."

Susie looked a little... stunned. Sammy supposed he should have made it less obvious that he was studying her. “I didn’t know you were religious,” Susie said.

Sammy shrugged. “My parents took me to church maybe five times a year. I think I went about ten times in my entire adult life. Believe it or not, it was my experiences with my cult that convinced me that I should go back.”

“Cool, you wanna tell me more about that?”

“Not really.” Sammy could remember years of comforting the barely sane creatures that came to him for guidance. Back then, he’d been the most stable creature around. Now, well, Sammy was glad to have the luxury of being the lost sheep, coming to others for guidance and community. Plus, Susie surely realized that the church would play music, and he still wanted to test her comfort level with it. His little bird being afraid of music seemed just perverse to Sammy, and he wanted to know just how bad the damage was.

"Okay, then. I'll go," Susie said. Good. And hopefully she'd fucking enjoy it.

---

Sunday morning rolled around. Susie had been rather uncomfortable coming to Sammy's church, being that she had strong suspicions about why he wanted to take her there, but once she was there she saw no real reason for it. It was a fairly standard church, full of friendly old people that Sammy introduced her to. Of course, Susie knew there would be music, and she was ready for that. As the service began and the choir began to sing, she focused on the visuals in the room, averting her eyes from anything with an angel on it. It still made her tense, but she was managing. Then, her eyes landed on Sammy's face. He had been staring right her, studying her, just like he had that one night. She realized that she looked rather distressed and spent about a second trying to fix that before she got up and left.

Sammy followed behind her. “Susie, what's wrong?”

"Why don't you guess? You already have your theories, don't you?"

"It's the music, isn't it?"

"No, it's you!" she snapped.

Sammy could tell they were in for a fight. “Maybe we should talk elsewhere.” He’d hate for the other churchgoers to overhear them fighting, especially if Susie had figured it out.

“Fine. We’ll talk at home. Should we go back in there?”

“Are you going to break down because of the music?” Sammy felt like the father of a petulant daughter.

“I'll be fine,” she growled.

And she was. Grumpy, but fine. No worse than uncomfortable when there was music. The church service was fairly average, which for this church meant quite pleasant, though Sammy would have liked to stay at the end to talk to the other churchgoers. Ah, just like old times, Sammy thought, Susie going into theatrics and taking it out on whoever’s closest. Which just so happens to be me.

After they got home, Sammy asked, “Okay, where were we?”

“I was going to tell you that it wasn’t the music. Yes, it does make me uneasy because of ink-related craziness, but what really upset me back there is that you have been... I don’t know... testing me about it. Did you think I couldn’t tell? I’m not stupid, Sammy, and I don’t appreciate you making weird plans like that instead of talking to me, alright? I'm not your daughter. I'm not for you to go planning stuff behind my back like in the you did in the forties. Alright? I need you to respect me.”

“Alright, I hear you.”

Susie sighed. “Okay. I’m sorry for overreacting. Is that everything? I'm sorry I didn't just tell you about this when I first suspected you were testing me.”

“Well, I guess I would like to know if you're planning to get back into music.”

“I don’t know. Probably. I mean, who am I without it? But not right now. Sorry. Voice acting I definitely still wanna do, though." There was a pause, and a heavy sigh. "Sammy, have you ever read 1984?"

“Yes, decades ago."

"I know that music is a lot of what we had in common. I just hope we're not like Julia and Willson after room 101- too damaged to still love each other. And it'll be all my fault since you don't seem to be having hardly any trouble with this at all."

A part of Sammy was honestly just relieved he was apparently hiding it so well. "Actually, Susie, I'm struggling a lot. When I first came out, I was pretty much jumping at shadows. Even now, going anywhere new is pretty hard for me. And there's a reason why I'm just as tired as I was back when Joey was working me to death. I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep, and when I do, I have some pretty ugly nightmares. It is kind of like you said- I don't really know who I am anymore. Am I the person I became in that dimension, or am I the person who helped ink everyone in the first place? Neither of them are very good people, and I know I'm not exactly like either of them. I guess, we just have to be the best version of whoever we are now."

"I guess you're right. I might have a solution to the sleeping thing, though. I know that you aren't normally one for sleeping together, but, well, my sister's dog started crawling in with me when I was having nightmares, and that helped me. We could try it."

"Sure," Sammy said. It was mostly to indulge her. He remembered the nights they'd slept together in the 40s, before Susie was put away. Of course, then it was because she was freezing cold due to being made out of ink. Sammy would have refused her, but he half suspected that that was half the reason they were even still together. The two of us sleeping together because ink-related issues. Nothing ever changes.

---

Alice Angel turned on the record player. "Sing," she ordered, letting Susie into the forefront of her consciousness.

Susie blinkered awake. She wasn't really in the mood to fight. She got up anyhow, intent on finding a knife.

Alice took back control immediately and sat back down. "Don't you even think about it. Do that, and I'm popping the eyeballs of the next ink creature we get in here, and you'll have to watch. Now, sing. I need your voice to hit the high notes." Alice restarted the record and allowed Susie back out. Susie began to sing. It was the Alice Angel theme song- one of her headmate's favourites. After she'd gone through it a couple times, she got up. Alice didn't seem to try to stop her. Susie kept singing, as though doing so would keep her placated. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't about to waste the opportunity it presented. Her voice caught on the high notes as her breath grew unstable. She made her way to the tool drawer, retrieved a kinfe, and began cutting through the ropes that were holding a captive Edgar in place. She could barely hear the music of the record player now, and she was more muttering the words under her breath than singing them. Her hands were so tense she could barely handle the knife.

The knife flew into the Edgar's eye socket, and Susie was thrown out of her locus of control. The creautre wailed and writhed in agony. "You were never in control, Susie. Remember that. Even when I let you control certain parts of us, you're never in control."

Of course, that wasn't true. There were times when Susie took control by force. Still, she felt utterly helpless. And without a body to pilot, she couldn't even curl up and cry.

Susie woke up with wet eyes. She touched the gloxinia plant she kept beside their bed. It felt green. Its velvety petals felt purple. She felt her pulse (as useless a feature as that had seemed), and it felt red. Then, she felt Sammy beside her, also struggling with a nightmare. She snuggled into him, calming him down. Everything was fine now. It was all over.

[advernia]

fic: the many tea parties of charon

— deck out the flowers and mourning veils, the guests of honor are in attendance. - pre-game: of a child and his trusty guide.

1: contains heavy references to edgar's backstory, so be warned if you haven't read his route yet! please tread lightly. 2: terribly late, but this was written for @unappreciatedotomelove’s day 19 angst prompt, death.

Baron Paulos Arca was mute.

The morning papers narrate the tale of a man unable to scream for help as he fell to his demise. Scratches on grass and soil, torn pieces of cloth and drops of blood scattered on the twisting path leading to the forest's cliff may suggest that he might have been running away from beasts until he had a misstep that led to his untimely fate. Why the man was in the Forbidden Forest without permission or an escort was still being investigated, but the man was already well-known for losing himself to the company of plants and trees over tea parties and soirees, so perhaps that narrowed down possibilities.

A most unfortunate accident, his uncle reads before pressing the rim of a teacup to his lips.

It almost sounds humorous; the way the word accident rolls off his uncle's tongue. He pokes at his breakfast, watches the tines of his fork sink into the meal on his plate.

Metal through meat.

Sharp tearing soft.

Trident piercing flesh.

Very unfortunate, he says dryly in reply, feeling the twist in his stomach.

Marchioness Marie Marithe Lacelle was weak.

He's been taught manners, and one of the basics say that is it most rude to stare. Young boys like himself shouldn’t dare ogle, especially at girls and ladies and at their bare skin. Propriety is important. And if he must stare, there is an unspoken rule among gentlemen that whispers subtlety is key.

So he and his uncle don't stay too long, don't find a need to linger any longer around a casket that held a woman so dainty, even her gloved fingers gave off the impression of fragility. On these occasions his uncle spent more time exchanging pleasantries anyway, and while waiting he would just stand away and observe his surroundings. Today wouldn't be any different. 

On one side of the refreshment table, he studies the champagne flutes that form beautiful rows. Despite the bright crystal lights, the liquid inside each glass remains a hostile purple; dark from the top and eerie come the bottom. Almost like vials of poison, he figures.

The smile on his lips turns awry.

Merchant Duriel Atlas was sickly.

In the modestly decorated hall he's seated somewhere around the middle aisle next to a relative, a child who may or may not be a member of the main family. His uncle is seated somewhere around the front row, becoming one of the many gentlemen offering an ear to an elderly man with a face that's positively ghastly. The deceased's father, he guesses.

Hey, the child seated beside him suddenly speaks. It's only then that he looks at her properly, at the girl beside him who was clutching a stuffed bear close to her chest.

How do you know my papa? she asks, raising her head to stare at him. The edges of her eyes are bright red but their centers remain gray, the kind of shade that's a tad dull but with an edge to it that's oddly sharp; like the deceiving end of a rusty needle pricking the most sensitive spots of skin.

Her scrutiny pokes uncomfortably at his throat, and for once isn't quite sure what to say.

Professor Sarietta Pierre was careless.

It's amazing, really - in one room where all sorts of individuals gather there are those who truly mourn, but in that same room there are those that hide behind their feathered fans and quiet corners, believing that keeping their voices in hushed whispers could hide remarks such as:

A professor of magic put to rest by her own spell - what an end!

She was bound to make a mistake sooner or later with that ego of hers.

Serves her right, I'd say. That woman was far too arrogant.

And to think that she bragged about how her prudent magic wielding was second to none...

And so on and so forth - he listens to wails in one ear and criticism on the other until his uncle comes to stand beside him, gaze set on the deceased's portrait.

They sure enjoy wagging their tongues before using their heads, don't they? he says, tone casual.

Government official Ivor Xies Grellol was bedridden.

It was bound to happen... but oh, I wish it didn't happen so soon, too soon, the now-widow cries with her puffy eyes and scratchy voice. She angles her head away from them to stare at the body fit perfectly in the coffin, clothed in his very best and surrounded by fresh flowers. I... I... just wish we had more time.

... I'm sure he felt the same way, his uncle is a picture of sincerity with a gentle tone and perfect bow, my deepest condolences for your loss, Lady Grellol.

Tears start streaming down her eyes again, so as an act of courtesy he takes out the handkerchief in his pocket and gingerly offers it for her to use. She blinks for a moment before accepting the cloth, breathing in deeply and dabbing quickly at her damp cheeks. 

Such a kind child you are, the woman says in between sobs.

He'd swallow a lump down his throat and say his thanks, but he finds himself too distracted by the powdery smudges of red now staining his handkerchief.

Arles and Ceres Clemence were bastards.

There's no caskets, formalities, procession. No flowers, people, crying, portraits - just a deep well of soil, two large sacks, torn shrouds of cloth, a shovel.

Two people - a child and an adult - looking down at the well and its contents.

The sound of raindrops hitting an umbrella's canopy, going tap tap tap tap tap every second.

A voice cutting through the rain, soft yet with a fury so cold.

Blame society for deciding that your greatest sin was to be born, Claudius Bright hissed.

Claudius Bright was limping.

A result of an accident or the curse of aging? Either way it didn't change the fact that today, he was assisting his uncle in the act of walking for one of his legs seemed to be struggling. Together they cross the halls and go past the door, down the path and inside the carriage that was waiting for them.

It hardly suited the Jack of Hearts - an image of susceptibility, a flaw. Vulnerable, oh-so vulnerable to the eyes. A target with an obvious weak spot, easy prey that didn't require much effort to take down. A strike to the knees or a well-aimed hit to the thigh, a poke of poison or the bind of magic, the pierce of a bullet and his uncle might as well -

"... Perhaps," he says when he enters the carriage and sits himself across from his uncle, "we should get you a cane. Trying to walk on your own adds to the strain of your sore leg, and we can't have that if you want your leg to heal properly."

"That does sound like a good idea," Claudius hums, but then he checks his wristwatch. "... Ah, but that will have to wait. We can't afford to be late, now can we?"

A funny concern when they've never been late for an appointment in their life.

With the subject temporarily put on hold though, his eyes keep drifting back to his uncle's left leg; to the bandages secured around the kneecap. Weakness, the sight seemed to whisper strongly. Balance disrupted, equilibrium lost, weight of the body favoring one side over the other -

Hands balling into fists and teeth digging into the inside of his cheek, he urges himself to look out the window instead.

The sky above them is nearly dressed in murky grays and heavy blacks.

Perfect weather for another funeral, Edgar Bright whispers to himself.

3: charon from greek mythology is the ferryman of the rivers styx + acheron, the rivers said to separate the world of the living and the dead. he serves under the god of the underworld, hades. intended context puts edgar as charon (he who follows) & claudius as hades (he who commands), but can also work in a reverse manner with claudius passing off as charon - he 'leads' souls to edgar and his nephew unwittingly becomes hades; he who passes 'judgement' on said souls. 4: supposedly this went with a desensitized edgar in claudius' perspective, but somehow turned out to be novice!assassin edgar dealing with his conscience + claudius rubbing salt on the wound by bringing edgar to the funerals of the people he ordered his nephew to kill. it does give a different spin on the theme of death, so i guess it works.

[jamielea81]

Just a Simple Lie

Chapter 2

Pairing: Chris Evans x Reader

Description: Having worked on small independent films for the better part of a decade, your friend tells you about an opening for a script supervisor with a large studio. Wanting to advance your career, you apply and get an interview. The only downside, they prefer to hire crew who are married. It’s just a simple lie, right?

Warnings: Cursing and Drinking

Word Count: 2,435

A/N: This fic is simply for fun. I know nothing about the personal lives of the two actors in this series and mean no harm. I am also totally guessing regarding the studio talk. Comments, reblogs, and likes are always welcome. Tag list is open, please send me an ask.

Internal thoughts are in italics.

Catch up with chapter 1

The week went on with only minor bumps along the way. You slowly started to navigate the lot with little to no problem. George, Christine or Edgar were always there to pick you up from your parking spot in the morning and to drop you off at night. Really you should walk since you spend a good portion of your day sitting. Maybe one day.

Your meeting with Monica after the table read went better than expected. She had worked on a few major films, so she was turning out to be a great resource while you got your feet wet on this size of a film. Your personalities seemed to mesh pretty well as you both were meticulously detail oriented when it came to work. Much the same couldn’t be said about your personal life, but one out of two wasn’t bad. Monica could easily fit into your friend group, you know, if you were looking to extend it. While you wanted to get along with your co-workers, your objective was to get that extended contract. This can only be accomplished if you didn’t fuck up. No drinking with co-workers, no getting too personal, and not getting too invested. If you could just follow these simple rules, you could survive this movie and have a good and solid job.

On Monday you were at the studio bright and early. Filming began today and you were pretty nervous. You’ve been through this before, but this was different. Not only was it larger than life, it felt larger than life.

“Good morning,” Monica greets you as you step out of your office and join her in the hallway.  

“Morning,” you reply.

Knowing you’d be on your feet most of the day, you opted for your navy and orange sneakers, jeans, and a long-sleeved button up flannel with a simple white t-shirt underneath. That way, if you got hot, you could roll up the sleeves or take off the flannel all together and tie it around your waist. Monica was dressed similarly, opting to pull her long hair up in a loose bun.

“Listen,” she began, “the other day when I copped an attitude about you getting Chris and Keanu, sorry about that.” She sighed. “It’s just bullshit you know?”

All you could do was nod. You knew she meant the fact that she was single, she wasn’t getting to work directly with the two male leads. A lot of your time wasn’t even going to be spent with the actors, sure you’d be on set and if you had notes for them or they had notes for you, you’d speak on set or meet privately. A part of you felt guilty as you looked down to the ring on your finger. You pushed aside those feelings as you stepped onto set.

 It was Thursday before you even had to meet with either actor. Most of your time was spent with the director and working with the set dressing team. There was so much going on that you were actually relieved that you had Monica working with you. The two of you met after each day to go over notes the two of you had made. There were no adult beverages consumed during said meetings, so you were still adhering to the rules you had made up.

 It was late, well, late for being on set when filming wrapped two hours earlier. You had to meet with Keanu to go over the scene that was picking up again tomorrow. Meeting with Keanu! You may have internally squealed as you left your office and made you way to the actor trailers.

Chris and Keanu’s trailers were easy to identify as they were the largest on the lot and closest to get to from the soundstage. Knocking on the trailer’s door, his PA answered after the second knock.

“Come on in,” he says, stepping down the two stairs and keeping the door wide open. “I’m just leaving for the night.”

You hadn’t learned his name yet, so you offered a polite smile. “Have a good night.”

You stepped into Keanu’s trailer and closed the door behind you. Not seeing him immediately you stood by the door, albeit a little awkwardly.

“Ah-hi?”

Good lord. Apparently, your greetings are coming out like questions now. You’d seen him all week and while you didn’t interact, you were still your normal self. Of course, now is the time for you to freak out. Now, when no one else is around.

“I’ll be right out,” he shouts from a closed door. Most likely the bedroom you assume.

Keanu’s trailer was actually a little nicer than the first few apartments you lived in when you first moved to LA. The TV mounted to the wall is actually larger than your current TV. There’s a small kitchenette, bathroom, living space with a couch and a large reclining chair, a small table with two chairs pushed into it, and a bedroom, but you couldn’t see it, you know, because the door was closed. Two lamps, one next to the couch, and the other alongside the recliner illuminates the space. There’s a lit candle on the kitchen counter as well as one on the table. The space smells of a mix of fresh linen and lavender, and you quite enjoy it. You walk toward the kitchen where the lavender candle is burning and breathe it in deeply, hoping it relaxes you just a bit.

Hearing door open, you spin around to see a near naked and fresh from the shower Keanu and suddenly you’re a teenager again, begging your mom to take you to the video rental store to rent Speed for the fifth time. Okay, that’s not exactly true. He’s not naked. The part about the video rental store is most definitely true. He has on jeans, but they’re slung low on his hips. A gray t-shirt is in his hands and he hasn’t quite got it over his head yet. Most of his stomach and chest is exposed causing you to let out a bit of a whimper. You silently pray he didn’t hear it.

Jesus. Fuck. Get it together.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” He pulls the shirt over his head and it slowly falls down his stomach.

What did he say? Why can’t I hear anything?

Suddenly, the studio’s silly rules make a whole lot of sense. But, even if you were married, you’d probably have the same reaction.

He offers you a toothy grin and makes his way to the recliner, easing himself on to it. His hand gestures to the couch and you find yourself walking to it and manage to sit without falling on your butt.

“H-hi,” you stutter out.

He smiles again. It’s a polite smile which puts you at ease. You know you aren’t cool and you know he’s picking up on your nervousness. You clear your throat.

“So, um, scene one-thirty-four?” You ask, holding out the script in your hands.

“How’s it going?” He asks.

Your eyebrows knit together. “How’s the scene going?”

He chuckles. “No.” He shakes his head. “How are you liking it on set?”

“Oh. Ah, I’m really liking it. Everyone’s pretty nice and easy to work with. Monica, my counterpart, really knows her stuff.”

“Good. Good.” He nods his head. “What made you get into the business?”

Suddenly this was turning into an interview. But what were you going to do? Tell Keanu to get back to business. Nope.

“High school actually,” you said. “I tried out for Death of Salesman and pretty much made of a fool of myself. I was talked into doing crew rather than being on the stage. Turned out I loved it, and I haven’t looked back since.”

“It’s amazing when you can find what you love so early in life,” he replied, running a hand through his damp hair, pulling it away from his face.

Could he say the word love again?

“Ye-yeah,” you said breathlessly.

He slaps both hands on his thighs and leans forward, jarring you from your dream like state.

“Let me hear your notes on the scene,” he said.

An hour later you were walking out of his trailer, looking forward to getting home and taking a long nice bath before crawling into bed. You never would have imagined Keanu Reeves asking about your life and being so kind. You didn’t expect him to be a jerk, but generally actors kept to themselves or at the very least kept it business only with you.

“Y/N, is it?”

You spun around to see Chris Evans walking up to his trailer which was right next to the one you just came out of. This was your life.

“Yeah, it’s Y/N. Hi Chris,” you replied.

Look at you keeping it cool.

He abandoned his trailer and walked up to you. “What are you doing out here so late?”

“Just got done going over a scene with Keanu,” you said, pointing toward his trailer.

His hands went into the front pockets of his jeans and he bounced on his feet.

Maybe that’s his thing.

When he didn’t say anything, you decided you might as well continue on your walk to make your way back to your car.

“Well, have a goodnight, Chris.” You offered him a smile and started to walk away.

“Wa-wait,” he sputtered.

You stopped walking and turned back around again.

“Can I pick your brain for a bit?”

Pulling your phone out of your back pocket, you took a look at the time. It was almost nine. It would take you about forty minutes to get home. You took a breath and decided why not. You could take that bath tomorrow.

“Sure.” You gestured for him to go first with your hand.

Chris’ trailer was set up much the same as Keanu’s with the exception of a few framed photos and dog toys. A brown and white dog eagerly greeted you at the door as you walked in. You stuck your hand out for him to smell. You didn’t grow up with dogs, but your few interactions with them told you it’s what you do.

“That’s Dodger. Dodger, this is Y/N,” he said with a chuckle.

Dodger butted his head against your hand. You crouched down and gave him the attention he requested.

“Beer?” Chris asked.

“Nah. I’ve got to drive home tonight.”

You took a seat on his couch while his head was still in his fridge. He closed the fridge and walked over to the couch, two beers in his hand. He sat next to you and handed you one of the cans.

“I really shouldn’t,” you said, offering him the can back.

“Just one. Don’t make me drink alone.” He stuck out his bottom lip and gave you what you considered, sad puppy dog eyes.

Oh boy. There goes rule number one.

“Fine. But just one.”

Instantly his face went from sad to happy by putting on a huge smile. Cracking open his beer, he took a long sip before pulling a leg on the couch and angling his body toward yours.

“So, when’s the big day?”

Huh?

“Huh? What do you mean?”

His head nodded to your hand. “The wedding day.”

Oh, that. Shit.

“Um, next year,” you replied. You brought the beer to your lips and took a long sip.

Smooth.

“Exciting.”

You nodded and took another long drink from the can.

“What’s your fiancé’s name?”

Seriously? Should have figured this out prior to signing the contract. Think. Think! He’s looking at you!

“Travis. His name is Travis Johnson.”

Travis? You went with Travis. At least he’s a real person. Dumby.

“How long have you guys been together?”

“Three years, but I’ve known him for about seven.”

Change the subject. Think!

“Wow, seven? Friends to lovers kind of thing?” He chucked out the last part.

“Yeah. Something like that. So, what did you want to pick my brain about?” You took another long sip from the can and noticed it was nearly empty.

Good. Turn the conversation back to him.

“You,” he replied.

You coughed, choking on the beer in your mouth.

“Me?” You sputtered.

He let out a big laugh, his head fall back. “Yeah, figured we’d be working together the next couple of months, might as well get to know you.”

“Ah okay. Well, this has been fun, but my bed is calling me home.”

You started to stand up when he placed his hand on your knee, but then quickly removed it. A bashful smile on his face.

“You can’t go. You haven’t finished your beer and you haven’t asked me anything yet.”

This was the strangest night you’ve ever spent on set, so far at least.

Leaning back into the couch, you finished off your beer and then held it out causing Chris to smirk at your action. You rubbed your chin with your hand to indicate you were thinking. Some days you could be quite the smart ass.

“It’s not that difficult,” he chuckled.

You licked your lips. “Okay. Does Dodger have a girlfriend?”

It was Chris’ chance to spit out the beer in his mouth. “What?!” he practically howled at your question.

Shrugging your shoulders, you looked him square in his eyes and said “You heard me.”

“Oh my god,” he laughed. “No, Dodger doesn’t have time for a lady friend. Doggy friend? He’s single. We both are.”

You hummed in response. Why this man was single was beyond you. Okay, maybe that’s not true. He’s very handsome. Scratch that. Hot. He’s hot. He’s funny. He’s a good actor from the work you’ve seen him do this week and the two Avengers movies you’ve seen. Maybe he’s horrible in bed and that’s why he’s single. He’s probably a bad kisser too. One of those guys whose mouths are always wet. Probably not, but that’s what you’re going with.

“Another beer?” He asked.

You shook your head. “Got to drive, remember?”

“That’s right. Next time,” he said.

Next time?

“Ah, yeah. Next time.”

You stood up and gave Dodger a rub on the head before walking to the door. Chris stood up and quickly followed behind you.

“Thanks, for the beer, Chris.”

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around you. Chris Evans was hugging you. Once again, this was your life. You wrapped one arm around him to hug him back. He let go and smiled.

“Thanks for stopping by.”

You smile and nodded. He pushed open the door and held it open for you.

“Goodnight, Chris.”

“Night, Y/N.”

Yep, strangest night on set.

Tags: @tanelle83 @pinknerdpanda @allaboutthebooz @estillion14 @panicfob @patzammit @heartislubbingdubbing @collinsstanharbour @twittytelly @thefandomzoneisdangerous @linki-locks11 @mywinterwolf @ab-baybay @chrisevansforever-blog @southerngracela @chrisevansfanfic @zsuzstyina @peach-acid @grtchn @hista-girl @trynnabemultifandom @symonlyjen5 @mrshiddleston @tfandtws @xxloki81xx @heyyouwiththeassbutt @patzammit

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.