#aka never any of their chance encounters at the train station.

[orcelito]

Ooooo I really should have taken note of what all the pictures are that have been taken in discacc... like, I Think I know them, but I also really would like to be sure...

[jeserai]

"Everyone thinks we’re already dating, but we’re just best friends- oh wait" because this is adora

38. Everyone thinks we’re already dating, but we’re just best friends- oh wait

aka 5 times they were gay and didnt realize it, and the one time they finally realized

Catra can’t stop staring at Adora’s hair. She’d cut it boyishly short as the summer heat wore on and now the golden strands just barely curl against the back of her neck. Freckles dot the skin of her shoulders and neck and Catra kind of wants to connect the dots with her finger to see what constellations they’ll make, kind of wants to kiss each one to count them all. Either way, she doesn’t move.

1—

It’s been a longer day than usual and Catra is quite honestly exhausted, ready to get off campus and head home and sleep. She’s just getting to the car when her phone buzzes in her pocket, and usually, she’d ignore it—but it buzzes in the custom pattern she has for Adora, so she checks the message immediately and responds just as quick.

Adora: :(

Catra: gimme 15 min princess

Adora doesn’t respond, but she reads the message right away; so Catra pockets her phone and makes a quick detour to McDonald’s to get what she calls Adora’s Bad Day meal: a McDouble, medium fries, medium mango smoothie, and an apple pie. While she waits for the food, she tries to think of what could be wrong—and, oh. She probably got back the results on the test she’d studied so hard for recently. Knowing Adora, she did well too; she’s just so goddamn hard on herself sometimes.

When the food comes, Catra texts Adora again to let her know she’s on the way, then speeds home and finds Adora curled up in bed, eyes closed. “Hey, babe. Bad day?”

Adora nods and Catra sits down beside her, placing the food on the bedside table and waiting for Adora to sit up so she can wrap an arm around her and hold her close. Adora doesn’t speak, and Catra doesn’t push, just holds her safe and quiet until Adora decides she’s ready for words again.

2—

In her sophomore year, when Catra still lived in the dorms, she spent so much time at Adora’s that they joked that she was her third roommate. They walked home together after classes almost every day, studied together on the couch, had dinner and watched TV until passing out, curled under the thick fleece blanket Adora brought down from her room. By now, Catra has long since learned where all of the utensils and cooking supplies are kept, and where to put the blankets when they’re done with them, and most importantly, how to work the oven.

The first time Adora invites her up to her room isn’t until the end of the school year, and Catra doesn’t think it’s a big deal, until Bow barges in and ends up just staring with wide eyes at the sight of them sitting on opposite sides of the bed, each on their own laptops and enjoying the other’s silence.

“What is it, Bow?” Adora asks without looking up. Catra would be proud of how hard her friend is working if she didn’t already know that Adora had been online shopping for the past fifteen minutes.

“You—just. You have someone in your room. You never do that.”

“Yeah, well...Catra’s just special.”

“About time you admit it,” Catra grumbles, yelping as Adora kicks her. But Adora’s laughing, and that makes Catra smile too, and she doesn’t even notice the way Bow slips out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

3—

It’s almost Thanksgiving break of their junior year, and when Adora calls her mom to make sure someone remembers to pick her up from the train station, it’s Mara that answers. “Hey, brat,” she says, sticking her tongue out at the camera. Adora sticks her tongue out right back, trying not to laugh because she’s supposed to still be mad at Mara for hanging up on her after their last call.

“Where’s mama?”

“In the kitchen, making dinner for her favorite daughter, of course. Oh, tell Catra hi.”

From the floor, Catra calls out, “Hey, Mara,” and Adora ignores the way Mara is grinning at her now.

“Are you picking me up from the station, or should I ask mama?”

“Hm. I don’t know, I’ll be out—”

“I haven’t even said when I’m coming!”

Mara winks and then twists around, and Adora watches as she passes the camera to Razz, smiling wide at the sight of adoptive mother. “Hi, mama!”

“Oh, how are you, dearie?”

“I’m good—”

“I am too, Razz,” Catra interjects. Adora holds out the phone so Razz can see Catra, studying on the floor at her feet.

“C’yra! Are you coming home with Adora too?”

Very matter-of-factly, Catra says, “I don’t know, I wasn’t invited.”

“Of course you’re invited, dearie! You’re always welcome here, you know that!”

“I know, Razz, I was just teasing Adora—you know, she still hasn’t invited me?”

“What! Don’t put that on me, you—” Catra twists around and grins at Adora, and god, she’s never hated her more.

“I’m surprised she didn’t invite you, you’re all she ever talks about,” Mara cuts in.

“Oh really now?”

“Oh my god, Mara, shut up!”

“Be nice, Adora. Your sister is just telling the truth.”

Catra’s smile is absolutely devious at Razz’s words, and Adora feels her cheeks go pink as she asks what exactly Adora’s been talking about. Before Mara can begin to speak, Adora grabs her phone and hangs up.

“Not a word, or you’re uninvited.”

“You never officially invited me, so…”

Adora decides then that she absolutely hates Catra.

4—

The first time Catra comes home with Adora for break is...interesting, to say in the least. Razz is usually super chill with who stays over at the house, but she’s made up the spare room and told Adora in a stern voice that Catra will be sleeping in her room and that Adora will take the spare. Mara is home too; she and Catra take an immediate liking to each other, bonded over sharing embarrassing Adora stories and baby pictures. Even Razz falls for Catra quick, and Adora rolls her eyes with a smile every time her mom calls Catra “my dear” and piles more food onto her plate every night at dinner.

But she can’t say she’s any different; she shows Catra all around the town she grew up in, takes her to all of her old haunts: the ice skating rink, the movie theater by the river, the bowling alley that they used to celebrate Christmas at every year when she was growing up. She shows her the best ice cream place in town, and her high school, and they go on a whim to the new escape room that’s just popped up.

Catra loves all of it, but she especially loves teasing Adora with Mara, because of course she does.

“Adora, you never told me about your thing for horses,” she says one night after dinner. They’re curled up in Adora’s bed watching youtube videos on Catra’s laptop, Adora half asleep and not really paying attention. She keeps dozing off on Catra’s shoulder and shaking herself awake—the third time she woke up, she realized that Catra turned the volume way down low so as to not wake her.

“I did not have a thing for horses! Whatever Mara told you, she lied.”

“And I suppose she made up the Christmas letter you wrote Santa asking for a talking rainbow unicorn pegasus?”

Adora struggles to sit up, still sleepy, and Catra pushes her back down easily. “Relax, princess, I’m just teasing you. It’s cute—and if it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure I asked Santa to be able to turn into a cat so I could get away with not doing chores.”

After a moment, Adora lets Catra push her back down; she tries to settle down on the pillow Catra isn’t using, but her friend makes a disgruntled noise and guides her head back to her shoulder before unpausing the video.

Adora falls asleep like that, to Catra’s quiet breaths and warmth and the quiet drone of the video she’s watching. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, they’ve both been tucked in, and though she must be uncomfortable, Catra has left her there, head pillowed by her shoulder. It’s probably the best sleep Adora’s had in years.

5—

Adora meets Catra—officially—in her freshman English class.

They’ve been reading Romeo and Juliet for the past few weeks and today the teacher decides that since no one’s actually reading it at home, that they’ll read outloud, acting out the play to the best of their abilities. It feels very high schoolish, but Adora doesn’t mind so long as she doesn’t get a character with a lot of speaking parts.

So of course, she gets assigned Juliet.

The teacher assures those with large speaking parts that they’ll switch out every so often so that everyone gets a chance to read—they’ll switch every page or two.

The Romeo that speaks before Adora’s turn is Catra. She doesn’t know her name then; all she knows is that her Romeo slouches in her seat, has wild brown hair and reads in a monotone voice.

Until—

“Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?”

“Ay, pilgrim,” Adora says, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees her Romeo straighten and turn to look at her, “lips that they must use in prayer.”

All of a sudden, it’s like a new person reading. This time her voice comes out low and smooth, and Adora can practically hear her smirk as she says, “Oh then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray—grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.”

The glance her Romeo flashes her makes Adora’s cheeks go pink, and she’s read this play enough times to know what comes next, but she’s sure the way her voice shakes will just play into character more. “Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.”

“Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take,” and now her Romeo is standing, coming close to her, sitting easily on her desk as she leans in close to continue, “thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.”

And then, by the book, she kisses her.

(The whole class loves it, and Adora cannot stop blushing and sneaking glances at her Romeo for the rest of class. Whenever their gazes meet—which happens often—her Romeo just gives her that shit-eating grin again, and though the whole encounter shouldn’t matter that much, Adora finds herself intrigued. Especially since her Romeo just shrugs and tells the teacher that she was “just getting into character” when asked.

She finds out later that her name is Catra, and that despite the bold persona she put on for class, she’s actually quite shy and easily flustered. But she is warm, and familiar, and they get along so well that Adora is honestly surprised she hasn’t known Catra all her life.)

1—

Catra can’t stop staring at Adora’s hair. She’d cut it boyishly short as the summer heat wore on and now the golden strands just barely curl against the back of her neck. Freckles dot the skin of her shoulders and neck and Catra kind of wants to connect the dots with her finger to see what constellations they’ll make, kind of wants to kiss each one to count them all. Either way, she doesn’t move.

“You know what Mara asked me when she called yesterday?” Adora suddenly asks.

Catra startles and blinks; when she comes back into focus, she finds that Adora has rolled over to look at her. She’s got a faint smile on her lips, the one that she reserves solely for when Catra does something dumb, and after a pause for a beat too long, Catra remembers what Adora had said and asks, “What?”

“She asked me how you were doing. Or—no, she asked ‘how’s your girlfriend’, and when I said I didn’t have a girlfriend, she said she meant you.”

“Dork,” Catra mutters, and when Adora sticks her tongue out, Catra wiggles closer to her just to poke her forehead. “Tell your sister I’m doing good, if not dying in the heat.”

“We’ve only got two weeks left before we go home, you’ll live.” But Adora is frowning sympathetically at Catra’s curls, frizzy and wild from the oppressive heat. As much as they’re loving their vacation to Aruba, the heat is not doing it for either of them.

“Come here, I’ll—” Adora stands, brushing sand from her knees before sitting behind Catra. With a grumble, Catra sits up as well and closes her eyes as Adora begins to run her fingers through her hair, gently detangling it the best she can with her fingers. Once she’s satisfied, she begins to braid it—and she’s done this enough that the processes is over quick even with the thick unruliness of Catra’s hair. When she’s done, Catra leans back into her and like clockwork, Adora’s arms come round to wrap around her waist. Catra tries to ignore the way her back presses into Adora’s chest, tries to ignore the way Adora’s fingers are toying with the hem of her shorts, tries to ignore the way her heart is racing double time in her chest.

“I just thought it was funny, what Mara said.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, just…” Adora shrugs and rests her chin on Catra’s shoulder, “she’s not the only one that does that, you know. Everyone thinks we’re dating even though we’re just best friends, and I—”

Adora cuts herself off so abruptly that Catra reluctantly pulls away from her, turning around to look her in the eye. “And you what?”

Adora frowns, chewing on her lip as she thinks, and she reaches out blindly for one of Catra’s hands to hold as she thinks. Catra lets her, staying quiet and stroking her thumb across Adora’s knuckles; she knows that Adora needs time to think through and process whatever’s on her mind, that she’ll speak when she’s ready. So she waits. She’d always wait.

And finally: “And I...I think I kind of love you, in every way that there is to love.”

Oh.

“Are you going to...say something?” Adora asks. She seems hesitant, unsure, and god, of course she would.

“Adora, you’re...you know how I am with words, but. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything. I think I always will. I don’t know when I realized, but…” Catra shakes her head, giving up on words to just stare. Because Adora, her golden, summer-freckled, sun-burnt Adora, loves her. “We’ve known each other for only what, four years? But it feels like—”

“Forever,” Adora finishes. Catra reaches out just as Adora collapses into her, and on the summer beach in Aruba, they kiss for the second time. As Adora sighs against her lips and slots their fingers together, Catra thinks that this, this is the final puzzle piece, finally slipped into place.

(The next day, when Razz asks how Adora’s girlfriend is, Adora very smugly reports that she’s good. Catra finally lets herself kiss the beauty mark on Adora’s shoulder, and relaxes into her as Mara and Razz begin to interrogate her about what happened.

And finally, Catra realizes that this is what it feels like to finally come home.)

[missbadparadigm]

So, after @justwinchesterme96 and @justanothershelby reblogged the first chapter of my horrible fic, and with the encouragement from @justanothershelby and @kappagurl, I’ve decided to give writing another try.

This might be boring as I’ve left myself wander a little bit more and play with the scenarios in my head to improve (unsuccessfully) my writing.

Thanks a lot every one who liked, rebloged and commented. You’re the best!! 💙

TOMMY SHELBY X OC (part II)

aka Stubborn lioness by now..

There was only silence, and a note next to your phone.

Dear birdie,

I have decided to confront Grace, if she wants to leave me then so it be. I’ll call you as soon as I can.

Thanks for all, my sweet birdie, you can relax now.

Lots of love,

C.W. Macmillan

You let out an audible sigh, your mind racing through all the possibilities. Clive was sensible, even more after the war, his wrecked mind haunting him. You had lost the count of his suicidal attempts and you remember your aunt, sitting next to him at the hospital, confessing you how she wished he’d have died in the war like a hero instead of coming back home shattered in pieces. But that was the first time he ended up in a hospital, or so you like to think, because he seemed like a tougher man since he moved to America, at least everything seemed great from what he and your aunt told you in their letters.

But now he was in London, and now he feels broken again, and even though you were frightened, you were already planning an intervention. If he survived the war, the trauma, the provoqued accidents, then you wasn’t going to lose him because of a selfish, unfaithful woman.

Without losing any more time you call to his hotel room, with no luck. But there was still hope: your brother James.

“James, we need to find Clive. He’s not okay, he’s been worried for Grace leaving him after she has been seeing Thomas Shelby. I’m afraid he’ll do something stupid, Jim! What are we doing?” you tell him as soon as his voice sounds in the other side of the line. A few sights and a heavy breath it’s the only response you get for what if feels ages.

“I’ll go find him, don’t worry eh? You stay there, maybe he comes back to yours. I’ll call you as soon as I find him. He’s not stupid, don’t you worry, birdie” and without much as a goodbye your brother hangs the phone, leaving you all by yourself and your thoughts.

It’s been two hours when finally the phone rings and you pick it up fast, you’ve been waiting for the call in the chair next to the phone table, falling asleep in the process.

“Marie, he’s with me. He can’t find Grace, but he’s at my place now, I’ll try to talk to him. Now rest, I have to go. Goodnight birdie”

And you don’t have the chance to say anything before he hangs again.

You’re tired but you’re sure you won’t be able to sleep, your mind already working and tracing a plan. That whore won’t fuck with your family and then run away with Thomas fucking Shelby.

After a few hours of sleep you get up with the first lights, taking your time to get ready and even trying to have some breakfast before calling James again, making sure Clive is okay and with him. Your brother tells you that your cousin it’s sound asleep since he drank two bottles of whisky in a row last night. And you feel somehow relieved but don’t tell him your plan, just asking him to keep your cousin there. But before heading out, there was another phone call to make.

“Morning Ada, how are you honey?” you ask as soon as Ada is in the line.

“Oh good and early morning, darling!” she replies from the other side. “We’re okay, actually, why don’t we go out? Karl has been up for an hour now and he desperately wants to go out”

You accepted her invitation and embraced the precious calm moments you had while Karl was playing with other kids. You didn’t know how you’re plan would end, you were keen to try it but you felt like you’d using your friend if you didn’t tell her about it all.

Without so much as a second thought now, you breath deeply before opening your mouth.

“Ada, I know I should be sticking my nose in your brother’s business but I need to know something because my cousin is the one who might suffer the consequences” you tell Ada, her head snapping in surprise to look at you, so you keep talking to bring light to her. “Grace and Tommy. What’s their story?”

“Marie, you’re my best friend and the best I could ever have asked for but…”

“Ada, please. Someone told my cousin, who happens to be Graces husband, that she had met with Thomas. He’s so worried and after the war he was… I’m afraid he’ll hurts himself or something if she leaves him. I…” you started pleading, tears already trying to escape your eyes and her hand holding yours in her lap.

“Grace was the biggest disgrace that happened in the Shelby life after the war. She made Tommy fall in love with her so she could get information. She was an Agent of the Crown. When we knew what she had done we all turned our backs to her but Tommy was so in love. And so was she, or so she said. But after all, she ended up leaving to America. She tried to make Tommy go with her, but fortunately he didn’t” she finally tells you. And you can see clearly the options, your first impression about the situation wasn’t as misguided as you wished.

“Do you think they love each other so much to run away now?” you question plainly.

“I don’t think Tommy could ever run away but she… she’s Tommy’s weakness. I don’t even want to think about it, Polly would kill them both”

“Grace is been missing since yesterday, Ada. And she’s carrying Clives’ baby” she informs her friend, a surprised look in her face making you feel worse. She was worried too. “Where’s Tommy?”

“Tommy went back to Birmingham yesterday morning…”

“Ada, I’m so sorry. But I have to go. I have to find her. Or him. Whatever, but I need to know something before my cousin puts a bullet in his own head!” you cry, holding her hands in yours and kissing them before standing up.

“Marie you can’t go there alone! Please! Wait we’re going with you! I’ll see my family and I’ll help you. Please, just wait for us. There’s a train leaving in an hour” Ada pleas and you don’t find your will to tell her no. So you just tell her it’s fine and that you will see her in the station.

You almost run to your flat, where you take a small bag in which you throw what you might be needing. A clothes change, some money, makeup, your semi-automatic brand new gun and your thigh holster. There’s just one thing left to do: tell your brother about your plan.

And so you did. His worried tone not faltening you, reassuring him you’ll be with Ada and Polly Shelby all the time and that you have your gun with you.

The train ride was long but you spent it trying to distract Karl, which helped you to ease your nerves. Ada was worried, she didn’t knew if she was doing the right thing. She had called Polly before going to the train station. She didn’t gave her all the details her best friend did, but that was enough information to set Polly on fire. Ada asked her to wait for her and Marie, because the last one would need her undoubtedly.

Polly was happy to have them back, even if it was for some trouble Tommy had made. Not like she wasn’t used to it. They chatted, making the most of the encounter and left the main point for late on the afternoon, when Karl was already sleeping and no one would disturb them.

“Then, what are you going to do when you find Grace? I can’t promise to behave if I see her fucking face again…” says Polly but stops abruptly, taking in Ada’s warning glares.

“It’s okay, Pol, don't restrain for me. I never liked her anyway” you sigh, taking a sip of your glass. “To be honest, I don’t know what I’ll be doing. I think I should retain her and call my cousin? Or maybe I should slap her first and then think about it” you laugh, shrugging. “It just depends. If she really intends on leaving Clive then I’ll try to talk to her, after all, she’s carrying his child. But maybe we’re mistaken and she’s not the whore I think”

“I’m sorry for your cousin, but you’re not wrong. But she’s not going anywhere with Tommy. Not if I can prevent it, I’m not willing to see how our family breaks and the business going to shit, like hell I am!” Polly states, clearly irritated and motivated in her words because of the alcohol.

And tonight, no plan was made because you couldn’t feel right with any of Polly’s suggerations.

The next day, already awoke and fresh, you got ready. Polly was already sipping on her tea, reading the newspaper when you came down, Karl in your arms. You were chatting when the door cracking open made you both get silent. Polly standing up slowly to find her gun and your hand quickly covers Karl’s mouth.

“Polly where the fuck are you?!” you heard, and as soon as you see Polly putting the gun back in the drawer you release the air you didn’t know you were holding back. Your hand caressing Karl’s cheek, his confused eyes fixed on you.

“Morning to you too, Thomas. Ever thought of knocking?” Polly answers drily. “You’ve frightened your nephew and we have a guest”

[healisms-blog1]

❝ the good girl is always a ghost, the body is always a wound. ❞

( katherine mcnamara. 23. she/her. ) we spotted MARIELLA CAULFIELD around toledo today, just another gear in the machine of the apocalypse. i heard she is a MEDIC for CAMP SEROTONIN. i guess it fits, seeing as she is known to be + resilient & + charitable, as well as - impatient & - naïve. they often have fade by lewis capaldi in their head while they work. i wonder if they’re prepared for what’s coming ? ( faye. 22. est. she/her. n/a. )

life as she knew it,

Born to Louise Brodeur and Darby Caulfield in the midst of a very cold winder night in Leavenworth, Washinton, Mariella Caulfield was the product of a unconventional relationship. Despite their new addition, both refused to settle down into an indifferent, loveless marriage and instead agreed they would work to raise their daughter separately. Once she was able to walk she would spend time split equally between Washintong and New Orleans, Louisiana. It was often that her parents fought on what values to instill into her, their core values and expectations never quite lining up.

Her father wanted her to be raised to live life as she pleased, whereas her mother would have preferred she was brought up in a more traditional sense. As a result, Mariella had very different relationships with her parents. To her dad, who she mirrored in more ways than one, she could do no wrong. Her mom on the other hand, she had grown to detest her daughter more and more with every visit. She reminded her too much of her father, a man she loved more than anything to hate.

The friction between she and her mother eventually came to a boiling point at age ten when child protective services were called to their townhouse by a neighbor. The elderly women next door often overheard screaming between the two of them and worried she might be abusing her child. The charges were investigated and eventually dropped, but the memory of being ripped from everything she knew and ( while briefly ) shoved into foster care has always stuck with her. While Louise was technically not guilty of anything, she did very little to prove otherwise once her parental rights were restored.

Even as a young child Mariella was the type who wanted to get out and explore, to meet as many people as possible and learn from them as she went. Being raised by two teachers really set her love for learning into motion. Knowledge above all else was something her childhood was rooted in, and the fever to learn stuck with her well into her time in school. There was no one subject she enjoyed more than the other, but she had a particular penchant for STEM classes. She went through all the changes in potential career growing up; from wanting to be a ballerina, an astronaut, to even considering following in her parents footsteps and becoming a teacher; which is how they met.

On a particularly hot afternoon in the middle of summer, her father began complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. At first he assured her that it would go away, he would be fine. But as the night persisted and he wasn’t getting any better, she dialed 911 in the hopes that emergency response would make it on time. From the minute she arrived at the hospital she was captivated by the process and found herself asking questions to anyone who would speak to her. Mariella was thirteen then, and everything seemed to have fallen into place. Funny as it was, she found her calling through her father’s heart attack.

It wasn’t until she reached university that she really started experiencing the world for what it was, and she quickly felt like a fish out of water among the masses. As such it was rare you’d find her without at least two books tucked under her arm. Being a medical student took up the majority of her life, the courses work-heavy and requiring immense concentration, but she tried to be as social as she was dedicated to her education. Given she graduated high school at fifteen, the girl pushed herself to mingle with people across the board rather sticking to one fixed set of friends. At her core she believed all people had something more to discover beyond what was shown at face value, thus she made connections wherever she was able.

Graduation from Med school arrived in a whirlwind of emotion, mostly exhaustion and relief. While as happy as she was to be finished with the bulk of her studies and onto the next stage of her impending career, Mariella knew this was one of the last times she’d have to well and truly enjoy being young before fully engulfing herself into the workforce. So, rather than sticking to her typical plan, she decided to celebrate on an impromptu trip to Ireland, setting off with nothing but a quickly packed suitcase and whatever money was left in her bank account.

the start of the outbreak & onward,

September 25th, 2015. Crowded among a group of strangers underneath an airport television, word of the outbreak begins spreading on television. Everyone within the confines of the Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans were on edge following the story dropping, numerous people began panicking. Rather than feeding into outcry, as nothing around her seemed to be out of the ordinary, she pushed it from her mind as she boarded her connecting flight to Europe. Only, the plane never left the ground.

Ten minutes after their plane finishes boarding, all of the passengers find themselves face-to-face with one of the creatures. Being small and quick on her feet played in her favour as she quickly maneuvered through the plane, narrowly escaping the bloodbath with her life. A good few of them survived the ordeal and decided to stick together, spending the initial night of the outbreak holed up in a supply closet. The group separates the next morning, each hoping to return to their respective families. She, however, blindly decides to make a run for it.

Alone, unarmed, and terrified, she did the best she could for someone in her situation. They—whatever they were—began surrounding the gas station she holed herself up in, making any chance at escape very slim. Convinced she’d die there, whether by starvation or from being attacked when the reinforcements on her door gave way, Mariella began plotting an escape route. She knew very little about the outbreak as it stood, but was observant enough to notice that if they were distracted by a loud noise, she could make her way around without much trouble.

The next week or so is spent coming in and out of abandoned houses and scavenging whatever she can carry. Mostly everything she took was medical supplies, building herself quite the kit should she need to help someone in need. By that point her initial adjustment to the new world went by quite horribly. As time passed she quickly found that the more ‘savage’ way of living was not the one for her.

At first of the mind that the creatures were still people underneath the dirt and decay, Mary refused to kill them. To her, they could still be saved. There would be a cure. There had to be, right? Before she joins a group or finds a solid place to call home, a close encounter with a hoard is what changes her mind. Someone steps in to save her, and she’s felt indebted to them ever since. The near-death experience acted as a wake up call, and from that point on she stopped avoiding the inevitable; to survive, the undead had to be exterminated. The possibility of a cure ( or at the very least a vaccine to help the remaining humans ) still plays in the back of her mind.

The person that rescued her disappeared as quickly as they swooped in to aid her, but she got lucky shortly after and found a few people to travel with. Everyone within her group seemed to be handling the transition with relative ease — whereas she found herself keenly aware that she would not survive long if not for having capable people surrounding her. Though she may not be the greatest in combat or of much use when it comes to scavenging, she knows she’s a valuable asset in other ways, happily putting her medical knowledge to good use.

January 14th, 2016. Catching wind of a camp called Serotonin beginning a slow recruit of people with varying abilities, Mariella is among the first to offer her expertise. Thankfully she’s welcomed with open arms and feels she may have found herself somewhere much more permanent to call home. Trust doesn’t come so easily in their new world, though she’d certainly lay her life on the line if it came to down to protecting her people. Any people, actually, because prioritizing human life above all else is her number one goal. When she’s not tending to the ill or injured, the young woman proudly acts as a morale boost, doing whatever she can to keep everyone around her going. Where most people have seemingly given up hope on there ever being a way out, let alone a real chance of survival to the end, she remains fixed in her belief that there are better days ahead of them.

misc,

Basically, she’s kind, gentle, soft, dedicated, passionate, thoughtful, stubborn.

She’s a certified Mom Friend™ and proud of it.

Would literally go to any length necessary if it means keeping those she cares about safe. She honestly just wants to save people in general !!!

She tends to see the best in people, even those who don’t deserve a moment of her time, and tbh, she’s not to be trusted when it comes to making allies; she’s liable to take in the wrong people and get herself killed.

She’s not helpless, she can get things done when needed, but she can’t fully defend herself. Aka, she ABSOLUTELY needs training.

wanted connections,

I’m not very picky, I’d love any and everything under the sun, but here are a few potential ideas:

Maybe someone she met travelling between baton rouge and the reservoir, who helped keep her alive and she aided them medically

Friends and/or a close/best friend

A good influence, someone who brings out the less tense, more relaxed version of herself

Maybe an ex or a past fling??? idk

Someone to help train her!! homegirl really needs to learn how to use a gun and fight (honestly, bc Kat has good content from Shadowhunters and Arrow and I rly want to use it)

People outside of her camp that she helps, bc honestly she wouldn’t be able to resist doing whatever she can to  aid people, especially helping a rouge if they came to her

idk just pls gimmie all the connections/plots AhH!

[dizon-lesleys12-blog]

Game Changer

“It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go.”

– Bob Proctor

 This internship helped me grow as an individual. I was given the opportunity to get a taste of real life and experience working and living in a totally new environment. It was difficult for me to live away from family but then I knew that participating in this internship would change my perspective in life, so I did it. When I began my internship, being able to be independent felt very satisfying. I believe this is truly a priceless journey that I encourage for others to step out of their comfort zone – you will never know until you try it.

 While working in the kitchen I was able to meet my colleagues, at the same time made some friends that I now consider as my family. Throughout all the challenges we have encountered such as big parties, busy service, when we lacked manpower, to the simplest things like maintaining cleanliness in the kitchen and inventory. It is essential to work as one team. To be able to help one another in different tasks and learn from each other’s diversity.

 In the first months of my internship I was assigned to work in the Garde Manger kitchen. In this department, I was tasked to create thousands of hors d’oeuvres such as ahi tuna tacos, tarragon chicken in puff pastry, spiced lamb tenderloin on crispy garlic naan bread and seared beef tenderloin on toasted crostini. Some appetizers I was able to make were caprese salad, penne pesto salad, standing shrimp cocktail with champagne aioli, Dungeness crab salad with carrot sauce and lobster shrimp ceviche on grilled plantain. I was often designated to carrying out the dish outs, plate ups and pre sets of salads and giving a hand to banquets during service. Other dishes included were cobb salad with grilled chicken, iceberg wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing, strawberry spinach salad with Meyer lemon dressing and artichoke arugula salad with piquillo pepper puree. During events such as weddings, large companies and foundations for example Hulu, Netflix, World Global Company, Lexus, Play for P.I.N.K., Herbalife, etc. I participated in action stations such as the roasted tomato with mozzarella on grilled crostini, fresh avocado bar station wherein guests have the chance to choose from various toppings and can create according to their taste and made fresh Vietnamese spring rolls (vegetarian, pork chashu and shrimp). I enjoyed creating dishes for the VIPs, I did some fruit and cheese platters for amenities, worked in the fresh mozzarella and burrata action stations, constructed and presented in front of real time customers for menu tasting. I love interacting with guests and I feel my mentors see that in my work as well. They would assign me to work in the action stations for the reason that I can work well and at the same time communicate with the guests and attend to their needs. Not to mention, the happiness I feel whenever I get to perform new tasks and have the best results, to be able to work and meet new people in the industry.

 After 5 months of my internship, I was rotated to Catalina Kitchen restaurant. I was able to rotate to the different stations such as salads, desserts, raw bar, pizza and pasta then to the line in working a la carte and buffet style. It was different from my previous station in a way that we did not have any BEOs also known as Banquet Event Order while in Catalina Kitchen we had REOs aka Request Event Order and ticketing. The buffet style was similar to the action stations we had. At times, we would rotate and help each other’s station where help was needed. I enjoyed the various themes we had every Sunday Supper for example would be Peruvian, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Hanukkah, etc. As the seasons change, we incorporate the use of different vegetables whether it was spring or winter. Not to mention the use of our farm to table ingredients such as mandarins, avocado, organic eggs, kale, Meyer lemon, cured prosciutto and the different kinds of sea salt including rosemary salt, Meyer lemon salt and smoked sea salt with Chef Bernard Ibarra’s fresh honeycombs from local bees. Working in these kitchens really made me really appreciate the use of the best quality and freshness of each product we use with no waste to also help the environment.

 Having the chance to work with my mentors, I have learned techniques and life lessons that I can practice and hand on to share with my future team in the kitchen. I am proud to have met these people that trained me well, they inspire me to always work the best I could. I look forward in the future to work again with great people like them. I feel encouraged with all the advices and guidance from my mentors wherein I will use this to succeed in what’s to come.

 I am truly grateful for having the chance to participate in this training experience in the USA. This internship let me appreciate more the hospitality industry, the satisfaction I feel during and after service knowing that I have served my guests with my heart. Along the way, I was able to develop a growth mindset to a successful path. The type of mindset wherein it is important to be open to change, be clear on goals and creating a plan of action to move myself forward to my career. This internship program really opened my eyes to all the possibilities what I can do with the hospitality industry and its beauty in the happiness of serving others. I am sincerely excited on what is to come in the future whether on having my next job to when I open my own restaurant and start a business.

 For those who are planning to do an internship abroad or local, always know that there will always be difficulties that you will encounter in life whether at home or in the kitchen – do not hesitate to challenge yourselves. I guarantee you this journey will surely benefit you not only in the long run in your career but also as a person. This was truly a Game Changer.

[vmeemo]

Seeing how the little footnotes thing for Jackie went well, I’m gonna do another one, for Mint and Celia and how their relationship works for the most part. It’s gonna be longer, so keep that in mind.

So to understand how Mint works, we have to go back in time a bit, back to her days underground. There it was as decent as the underground, as decent as it can get, being enslaved by brainwashing.

However, there were a few older octolings/octarians who were pretty much not gonna be super useful there, due to their bodies not being as well as they used to be. It was their mentality of current affairs that made some of the few non-brainwashed people pause and think over the reality of the situation: You are effectively being used as a weapon by an old man who can’t accept that the wars over and is almost purely doing his actions on a grudge rather then any genuine want for the people, despite what’s shown.

To these people, Agent 3 is a sign that as long as you act on Octavio’s grudge, you are not allowed to ever walk on the surface, viewing the agent as a gatekeeper of sorts. These people were laughed off, until the Calamari Inkantation came along and did exactly what happened: Now that the people can think for themselves, the gatekeeper will let you pass, allowing you access to the surface.

This is where we get to Mint, escaping the military after doing some planning ahead. Now, she didn’t really buy all that stuff about the agent being a gatekeeper of sorts, but after the Inkantation, she figures that she has nothing left to lose.

So after a long while of trekking about the old domes, cave systems, and finding old exits, she eventually got out. And unfortunately, crossed paths with agent 3, who is currently on an expedition with the Captain.

In Mint’s mind, because she is effectively a non-combatant, and was someone who was saved by the Inkantation, she would be allowed to pass by without much issue, despite most of her body screaming to fight. She would be allowed to pass, and be on her way to a new life.

Unfortunately for her, Celia fought the octoling, on one part of her being ordered to, and the other part being pure reflexes telling her to fight because guess what, there’s an octoling right there.

This did not register well in Mint’s mind at all and thought that this is no ‘gatekeeper’: it was just an obstacle that stood in not only her way, but in the way of every other octoling who wanted to start a new life. This turned into something that was known to most of her friends up on the surface for a bit: her infamous anger. And that point, she only had one goal in her mind: defeat Agent 3, by any means. Be stronger then the agent.

Whether or not the initial attempt was successful is up in the air, not that it would matter because they were jumped by unknown forces. Mint, now with memory loss, and a subtle, but ever present feeling of anger and wrath boiling inside her, but not knowing the meaning behind it.

She finds out the meaning behind it during the ‘Drinky Ink Station’ which was one of the limited ink stations. At first it was going well enough, up until she encountered the sanitized octoling with the brella near the end. This octoling managed to catch her off guard and put her onto the ground, with the tip of the weapon pointed at her. That’s when she remembered. The reason why this feeling of anger existed inside her, why whenever Cuttlefish mentioned his agent, she wanted to do nothing more then to fight.

In a rush of anger and adrenaline, she ripped the brella from her opponents hands, pushed the octoling off her, and smashed it against the others head so hard, the brella bent. And in that one moment, Mint grabbed the sanitized solider and threw them off the side of the area. She did not care anymore, as she remembered her goal now: Defeat Agent 3, and achieve true freedom.

This is more or less where Mint gets her grudge of the agent from, because in her mind, she’s the one back underground, all because the agent didn’t let her go and attacked her on the basis of being an octoling.

When she got back, the only one brave/probably stupid enough to talk to her still was Cuttlefish. Said that he understood and that while he doesn’t condone her actions, he at least understands why she has them.

During this time on the other hand, you have Celia now lost around Kamabo without much to go on. She’s looking for the captain, and hoping that he’s safe. When she got to one of the camera rooms that overlook the tests, she saw that that’s the same octoling from earlier, and now that’s the same octoling beating the other one with a weapon now bent from raw force alone. At that point, Celia had another mission as well: get the captain away from this person.

This would turn complicated as once she goes to one of the train cams, she sees the captain not only with the octoling, but because of the little device she found giving her employee access to audio, she found out that this is now a new agent as well. At first she wondered if they both saw the same person, but during their talk, she learns that because of her direct actions against the agent, and because of not assessing the situation better, Celia learned that this new agent has every valid reason to absolutely hate her guts.

To say that Celia feels guilty would be an understatement.

So while Celia doesn’t exactly approve of the company that the captain’s keeping, she knows that being around the two right now wouldn’t end well for anybody and progress would halt because of it. She also needs to think of a proper way to apologize for being the cause of nearly everything that’s happening to the new agent now.

After awhile, Mint eventually got all of the thangs, and surprise, surprise, she was betrayed by the phone, but then was saved by agent 3. And despite seeing the agent on the ground, she knew that there are better things to worry about right now. Her grudge can wait.

Passing through the levels of Kamabo, Mint eventually reaches the last phase. Hearing on the radio that something stuck to the agents face, Mint was prepared for a fight. And when she saw the agent above her, with the goop on her face, she only got herself prepared.

And after a long battle between the two, Mint sees Three on her last legs, but still being forced to keep going. So to finish off the fight, she walks up, grabs the agents face, and rips the goop off her face. It was easy enough, with the prolonged fight weakening the goops hold as time went on. And while Mint was satisfied that she beat the agent, she knew that it wasn’t enough to stop the feeling inside her. She only beat a puppet, and not the true person she’s after.

And while she was tired from the fight, she still climbed up that ladder to the surface. And the reward for it, was a view that she would never forget.

Which made the moment of the statue rising from the ocean all the more insulting to her. How everything keeps trying to take away what she deserves. Even with her body tired from the last fight, she knew that she would have to keep going. And she did exactly that, by covering up the statue with ink. After the statue was destroyed, and Tartar defeated, Mint took this chance to look out over the horizon, now finally up there after so long.

When Celia woke up, she was on a platform up in the air, with people she doesn’t recognize. And the agent from earlier nearby. Before she could move her body, she saw the new agent walk towards her. After a few seconds of tense staring, she moved back to the edge of the platform and simply stayed there. While confused, Cuttlefish filled her in: The agent, while she doesn’t like you, she wants to enjoy herself. As much as she can anyway.

Landing back at the mainland, the decision to hold a proper NSS meeting the next day was unanimous. For now, rest is needed.

The next day, the meeting was held down at Octo Canyon. After a brief recap of the events on both ends (with some details being omitted), the next order of business was to find a place for the new agent to live for a bit. Mint, still tired and sore, wanted to fight agent 3. The only reason she wasn’t able to was because Cuttlefish appealed to her sense of fairness, and said that as long as 3 was in her current condition, she wouldn’t be able to give you a proper fight. Not able to find a good counter to that, not to mention having a point, she backed off on the matter, but it was clear to everyone there that she wants to fight the agent.

That was when the other new recruit, agent 4, aka Jackie spoke up: she would take the new girl in, as she has an extra room for her to stay at for a bit.

When no one spoke against this, it was decided that Agent 8 would stay with Jackie for the foreseeable future.

Once they got everything set up and after a short time staying there, it was an octoling by the name of Melone that decided to give her a proper name: Mint, because of her minty coloured eyes. At first, ‘Mint’ was against this, because it’s not exactly a good reason to name someone based on that alone. Eventually though, the name warmed on her, and now goes under her new name.

---

Man that was long, but I hope for the few that know of my characters, now you know them just a little bit better now.

[entergamingxp]

Resident Evil 3’s remake introduces more action, new moves and meaner enemies • Eurogamer.net

Following quickly in the footsteps of last year’s frankly brilliant Resident Evil 2 remake, Capcom’s preparing its makeover of Resident Evil 3 for release, and we got to sample a decent slice ahead of time.

The demo took place a little way into the game, where Resident Evil 3’s leads Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliviera have already met. We took control of Jill seeking cover in the Redstone street subway station, as she meets with members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service, or UBCS, and is then tasked with heading to the nearby electricity substation, to get the subway’s power back online. Therefore, she has no choice but to head out into the city proper.

The first thing you notice when you emerge onto the streets of Raccoon City is that everything’s been given a slightly modernised makeover. So not only has the original’s cable car been replaced with a subway line, the streets just look that little bit more vibrant. That’s not to say that the twisting alleys and iron-gated back streets of the original game aren’t here, they’ve just been given a slight sprucing up.

The original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was notably more action-heavy than its predecessor Resident Evil 2. That is also the case here, but if you’re concerned about a return to the over-the-top nature of the more shooter-heavy later games, don’t be. This is still first and foremost a survival horror experience.

Jill isn’t any old police officer and she certainly isn’t a civilian – she’s a member of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service AKA S.T.A.R.S and as a result her reflexes are just a little bit more enhanced. To illustrate this, an extremely welcome dodge mechanic has been added, and when timed perfectly – in other words when you press the dodge button at the last possible second to avoid an enemy’s attack – time will slow for just a moment, allowing you to counter-attack with a well-placed headshot. Super satisfying and appropriate, given Jill’s expert training. But you will need to make good use of it, because there are a LOT of zombies in downtown Raccoon City – way more than you might have encountered in and around the RPD building in the Resident Evil 2 remake.

Crucially, it never tilts into feeling like a full-on third person shooter. First off, the streets are crowded, cluttered and claustrophobic; you won’t be getting the chance to pick off hordes of undead from a safe distance. Zombies will crush you in with your back against a wall and come at you from multiple different directions – more than once we were jumped by some shuffling, sluggish walkers we had no idea were anywhere near us. They can creep out from under wrecked cars, climb over barricades, smash through shop windows – you always need to be on your guard with one eye on your escape route at all times. They can also take multiple bullets to put down, even with headshots. Luckily, Jill herself can take more damage, but you’ll definitely want to keep moving and pushing forwards because you simply don’t have enough bullets to take down every enemy you’ll encounter downtown.

And of course there’s one particular enemy who’ll be giving you more grief than others. Nemesis is every bit as scary as he should be, and even veteran Resident Evil players will be trying not to panic once he shows up on the scene. Towering over Jill and making Mr X look like an absolute nobody, Nemesis will lay the smackdown with his fists and use his gross tentacles to grab, swipe and reel you in from afar. Even when you think you’ve got some distance, he can leap across entire areas to cut you off, forcing you to either make use of that 180 degree turn to flee or to try to dodge past him.

The whole effect is utterly terrifying and designed to disorient, of course, and let’s just take a moment to appreciate his new design. Although some people are unsure of his new face/nose job, we really like the updated body design. It’s a similar silhouette to his original look, but taking a closer peek, you can see that he’s basically a hulking mound of mouldering flesh barely held together by a load of body bags and caution tape stapled together. It’s cool to note the protective covering on his heart too, though we’ll see how much use that does him in the long run.

Nemesis isn’t the only enemy that’s been redesigned. Drain deimos, parasitic flea-like enemies from the original Resident Evil 3 game return, but they’ve got a few new tricks up their sleeve. In a particularly stressful section of the demo we played, Jill has to navigate the electrical substation which has become a nest to a huge host of deimos, which pursue her relentlessly from the walls, floors and ceilings as she has to activate transformers in order to get the power back online. If the monsters manage to grab her, they’ll shove a proboscis down her throat in a particularly gruesome animation and plant a parasite in her stomach, forcing you to use a herb or a first aid spray to make Jill puke it back up before she succumbs.

There’s a newer, meaner Hunter Gamma too. Despite looking less like a frog and more like an uncooked chicken these days, the Hunter Gamma is absolutely not a pushover – it’s capable of killing you instantly if it gets too close. You’ll encounter these slimy boys several times down in the sewers, and they can be extremely tricky to deal with if you don’t have the appropriate equipment for an impromptu barbecue.

It’s in these encounters that the new mechanics introduced for this updated Resident Evil 3 really shine, and they’re built on some solid foundations. It’s a high compliment when we say this plays out a lot like last year’s Resident Evil 2 remake. The HUD is the same, maps work in a similar way in that areas are left red when there are still things to uncover there and blue when they’re fully searched, Jill’s inventory space will be increased by finding hip pouches, and there will be plenty of files and thoughtful environmental puzzles to ensure that Jill is exercising her intellect as much as her itchy tasty, trigger finger.

Live selections, as a reminder, were choices that popped up at key moments during RE3 which could affect player progression and even endings in the original game, though Capcom’s said they won’t be returning here. Still though, there’s plenty of callbacks here for Resident Evil veterans. UBCS’s Nikolai still doesn’t trust or respect Jill and Jill doesn’t exactly warm to him right off the bat either, Carlos is still a little bit cringe-worthy at the flirting game, and a fire hose will definitely come in handy out there on Raccoon City’s streets.

We’re still curious as to how Carlos’ playable sections will be expanded upon, and how the game will just be made bigger in general. But what we can safely say is that all the new enemies we’ve met so far are giving us the fear already. It’s going to be an excruciating wait for the final release in just over a month’s time.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/02/resident-evil-3s-remake-introduces-more-action-new-moves-and-meaner-enemies-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=resident-evil-3s-remake-introduces-more-action-new-moves-and-meaner-enemies-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[johncarney-blog1]

UnBearable: The Unbelievable Awfulness Of The Berenstain Bears

(Note: This originally ran in the Fall 2012 issue of Scooter, the now-defunct parents magazine published by the New York Observer. Scooter’s website no longer works, so I’m putting this up here.)

Late last October, I found myself looking for a children’s book about Thanksgiving, something to introduce my two-and-half year old daughter to the approaching holiday. Owing to a surprising dearth of children’s literature about this cherished autumn feast, I wound up with The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks.

Here’s what happens in the book: Papa Bear has been doing work for a local farmer, who pays with a live turkey. Sister Bear adopts the turkey as a pet and refuses to eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The family relents and eats fish for Thanksgiving instead.

Give Thanks is part of the Berenstain’s “Living Light” series, a subdivision of Berenstain country in which lessons about God are imparted. I have no idea why the Berenstain God approves the eating of fish but not turkey on Thanksgiving. But I do know that the last thing a parent of a toddler needs is literary and faith-based encouragement for picky eating.

After just a few doses of that finicky Sister Bear’s behavior, my daughter arrived at her grandparents’ home for Thanksgiving with a driving passion against eating turkey. To her, the main point of the holiday appeared to be about avoiding the consumption of turkey, as it was for Sister Bear. For all I know, her two-year-old theology thought God hated turkey eaters. Thanks, Berenstains!

Berenstains will infiltrate your life in a number of ways. A well-meaning friend brings a Berenstain Bears book to a birthday party. Your mother in-law visits with a well-worn copy from your spouse’s childhood library. Perhaps you pick up one of the Berenstain books because of the relevance of its theme. This is one of the Berenstain Book Industrial Complex’s tricks: there are hundreds of titles, one for almost any occasion: a Valentine’s Day book, a first-day-at-school book, a budget-cuts-shutting-down-a-school-play-ground book, even a neighborhood-racial-integration book.

Since you are not an imbecile, you are initially put off by the hideous cover. It is sure to feature four or five members of the Berenstain family—all absurdly and insultingly ugly. Mama Bear is wearing a hat or, more commonly, a bonnet—a bonnet!—and a dress that looks like it was smuggled off the grounds of a breakaway post-Mormon polygamist cult. Brother Bear and Sister Bear are identical except for their clothes—blue slacks for Brother, some hideous pink romper for Sister. Papa Bear somehow wears overalls all of the time. Honey Bear, the baby of the family introduced in 2000, seems to be thrown in as an afterthought—which, in fact, she was.

Open the book and the situation is no better. The illustrations would be dull if the colors were not so garish. The bears typically stand around in wooden poses with not a suggestion of dynamism or movement. Their faces bear no indication of thought or emotional presence, unless a grin or grimace counts towards such a thing. Not a hint of charm or whimsy or technique redeems any of the art. The bears are devoid of wit. It’s a wonder anyone would inflict these pictures on a story that someone had actually taken the time to write.

At this point, if you are lucky or particularly wise, you will have set aside the Berenstain Bears. Preferably far from home, somewhere it will never be discovered by your offspring. If you are unlucky or unwise, the book will find its way into the proximity of your child. You will be asked to read the book. This is your last chance. You must refuse to read it. Do anything but read it. Suggest a different book. G oout to the park. Resort to declaring it ice cream time, if you must. But do not read the Berenstain Bears to a child.

Reading the book will reveal that the story is—unbelievably—worse than the art. The art merely betrayed lack of thoughtfulness. But the story is to thought as a black hole is to starlight. Where the art lacked action, the plot is grindingly dull. Where the drawings lacked whimsy, the text reads as if it were written under rigid orders to avoid creativity. There are no jokes that are funny. No surprises that are unexpected. It’s all wooden grins and grimaces.

As a parent, you know what is likely to follow: you will be required to read the book over and over. Your child will demand it at naptime, at bedtime, whenever his or her day becomes just slow enough to remember that some-where in the house there is a book about bears. Time and time again, you will spend precious minutes with your child—time you should rightfully be cherishing—resentfully reading the worst children’s books ever written.

The drudgery stems from the generic characters. As the official Berenstain Bears website puts it, the bears’ names were chosen to “emphasize their archetypical roles in the family.” But that fancy word “archetype” is wishful thinking. They are more like half-conceived types. The bear children are neither childlike or child-ish—they are likeish. Mama and Papa and Honey are likeish too. They are approximations of abstractions. To call the Berenstains anthropomorphized bears insults both humans and bears.

The incessant moral hectoring makes the dull-ness ever more excruciating. Each plot is organized around the relentless pursuit of a life lesson: Don’t be mean to your brother, mind your parents, weary our helmet and kneepads while skateboarding, don’t eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Fine enough advice, except for the weird turkey thing, but it is rendered tedious by the lack of imagination with which the themes are introduced, explored and resolved. It’s like watching a train wreck that you see coming a mile away—except there is no wreck. Just a train reliably pulling into station after station after station. The Berenstain books are the train spotting of children’s literature.

Most insidious is the Berenstain empire’s cleverness in coopting the otherwise unassailable canon of bear books for children, at whose pinnacle sits A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. The Berenstains are clearly derivative of the three bears encountered by Goldilocks. (Brother Bear was originally called Little Bear—and Sister Bear wasn’t introduced until later.) Don Freeman’s Corduroy tells the sweet tale of a stuffed bear looking for a home. Paddington Bear stows aboard a ship from Peru to London.

But the Berenstain series repudiates this proud tradition’s central tenet: that a book can be wonderful for parents and children. The franchise seems founded upon the almost anti-literary idea that children must be taught early reading through books whose art and narrative make them unbearable to read. Sure, kids may like them—but kids will drink detergent if you leave it in a cup placed on a low table. They aren’t the best judges.

Despite the dreadfulness of these novellas, they have been selling for 50 years, originally blessed by none other than Ted Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. A few of the earliest installments, especially those rewritten in rhyme like the series-launching Big Honey Hunt, are admittedly pleasant reads. Not great, but good enough if you don’t have a Milne or Freeman around. But in short order, the books went terribly wrong. My research into the Berenstain oeuvre confirms that they have been awful for decades.

Perhaps we get the literature we deserve. But surely the delivery of just desserts has constitutional limits, I hope. Because even the most annoying parents among us should be spared these Bears.

[bunkerbooks]

I frequent boards such as Goodreads' What's the Name of That Book and click on books that might fit the Bunker Books theme, partially to get new ideas on what to read, and partially because I've read so many of them that I might know the answer. Out There by Adrien Stoutenburg gets suggested sometimes because it takes place in a domed city, but it looks like no one has written a detailed synopsis or review of it on any of the sites I check. So I did it. I got the book through interlibrary loan (it's not a common book), read it, and here you go! Now if you're wondering if this is your book, it'll be easier to find out. Because I want as many details as possible of this book online, this review contains spoilers. 

Zebrina "Aunt Zeb" is an elderly Ms. Frizzle-type who hosts a nature club in her attic for the neighborhood kids. The goal of this club is to pass down knowledge and appreciation of nature and wildlife to the younger generation, because it mostly no longer exists. You see, Zeb and her young friends live in New City, a domed city shut off from the polluted surrounding areas. Her late husband had been a big game hunter, and he and his ilk, as well as the rest of the human race, had abused and polluted the natural world so that creating this domed city was necessary for humans to survive. There are some pets left, and animals raised for food, but not much wildlife, not even pests like spiders. Occasionally you'll see a bird. But other than that, it's just freeways and casinos and other unwholesome things. Zeb's crew of nature scouts includes: Patrick, who's a take-charge sort Lester, who has a philosophical/religious bent Fay, whose one characteristic is being fat Sylvie, a rich girly-girl and Celeste, aka Knobs, who is being raised by Zeb after her gambling-addicted parents abandoned her clinging to a freeway fence, inches from cars speeding by. Knobs is called that because she has some developmental disabilities, probably due to her traumatic abandonment. She compulsively fidgets with a set of jacks she's had since before the trauma. Zeb takes good care of her, but she doesn't really click with the other kids. It's never explicitly said how old these kids are. Patrick and Lester apparently know how to drive, although driving laws may be more lax in this society. Anyway, at the suggestion of one of the kids, Zeb takes them on a semi-ill advised camping excursion outside the dome in hopes of seeing some wildlife: squirrels, bugs, anything. It's legal to go outside the dome (Fay even lives just outside the dome because her family can't afford a house in the dome), just not recommended because it may not be healthy. Regular people aren't kept informed on how bad it is out there, because it is mostly irrelevant to their lives. So Zeb and the crew are banking on nature having recovered a bit since humans started leaving it alone. Zeb loads up her station wagon with the kids, air mattresses, some food and water, and other supplies, including a gun for emergencies - there are rumors that packs of wild dogs roam the wilderness. They drive until the road is no longer passable for a car, and then start hiking. They should only be gone for 5 days or less. Well, some stuff happens to them. First of all, Lester wanders off by himself while the others are setting up camp, and when he encounters a wild dog, he becomes so excited and frightened that he drops and breaks their only compass. Zeb, who has the patience of a saint apparently, tries to not get mad and comes up with some alternative ways for them to figure out where they are and where the car is. But while they are trying to get to another campsite, they encounter Josh, a wild man who abandoned his dismal life being trained for manual labor on the moon to take his chances living off the land. Knowing that if he is caught poaching wild deer he will go to prison, he aims a gun at Zeb and the kids. Lester, however, who is now in charge of the gun, beats him to it. He shoots the man in the leg. While he isn't killed, he won't survive long without medical help. Plus, shooting a man, even in self-defense, wreaks havoc with Lester's personal moral code. Complicating things, some huge aircraft from a nearby military test site fly low over their campsite, scattering their remaining belongings, food and water, making it impossible for them to keep going. The man allows them to carry him back to where he's staying, an abandoned lodge/motel that must have catered to hikers and outdoorsy types when the area was still hospitable to life. There are some supplies there for them to use, and the area is rich with the kind of wildlife they hoped to see, and unspoiled enough that they can fish and gather vegetation to survive. Luckily, before they left, Zeb informed Steve, a now-grown nature squad graduate who lives next door to her, where they were headed and to send help if they don't return by a certain day. After a few days, Steve and his wealthy friend who owns some type of futuristic helicopter are able to spot their signal fires and pick them up. Zeb is distrustful of this wealthy guy who seems bent on walking back the small steps nature has made to recover - for instance, he wants to bring back the commercial deep-sea fishing that devastated the oceans. So she lies to him and says that they have barely seen any wildlife and that they don't feel the fish they caught were safe to eat - and hopes he believes it. Even with all the dangerous situations they got into and a member of nature squad shooting a human being, the trip was still a success on a certain level. They saw a lot more wildlife then they imagined in their wildest dreams. They could feel optimistic about the environment's ability to recover, although less so about humanity's ability to learn from their mistakes and respect it this time around. They all return home from their trip profoundly changed by their experience. Josh gets the medical attention he needs and comes home with Zeb, who is always a sucker for a stray. And who knows what they will do after this? I can't say I know exactly what age group this was written for, kids or teens, but 1971 was pre-YA literature being its own thing, so it doesn't really matter. I'd say it's good for kids 10 and up. While it could have used more time spent on the kids' characterization, I feel that this little-known book is a hidden gem. It didn't take the direction I thought it would at all - both Knobs' dark backstory and the results of their camping trip were much more serious than I expected. These people were in actual danger which made it a suspenseful read at times. Some smart Hollywood screenwriter should snatch this up for cheap and make it into a movie because it has a great plot arc and could be on par with Hunger Games-type dystopian stuff. FYI - I really liked the Hunger Games books and movies, and I think Out There is a cut above Divergent and the other imitators. It's even timely considering how the current administration wants to get rid of the EPA and other things that would cause us to die.