#also without an age difference and Dani getting to go to high-school like a normal human

[redrosesshadowwolf]

This is fan-fucking-tastic.

Got here from a dpxdc post that linked this. But really I love this for both Fandom.

But for the dpxdc? Sam and Tuck have like 5 degrees each now, Danny was one of the first child heroes and the league has conveniently forgotten that hundreds of times because he's still youngish so clearly he hasn't been heroing that long right?

He's also got his engineering degree and some other shit. Dani followed him to collage on one of his later trips through and got a few herself. Jazz has more than anyone. The kids from their high school have all gone on to have successful careers. Dash is a physical therapist, especially for sports injuries, and somehow no one has noticed that he's helped like 3 generations of players in 1 family without aging more than a year or so.

Sam has literally been running programs and participating in volunteers' work across the world for a good decade with minimal recognition, but when she does show up on the news, it's years apart, and she never looks different. Jazz has worked at hundreds of clinics and asylums only to open her own businesses in a few places. She once wanted to be a child therapist and a family therapist. But then, seeing Danny's work, and how it effected him she decided to go the route of psychoanalysis towards villains and heroes. She has little offices in major hero hub cities and has definetly noticed the lack of aging thing. At first she thought it was due to ectoplasmic contamination cause she noticed it acting upon her own town. Then she realized it effected almost every hero and hero community in the world. But for some reason Amity residents remember more than the others.

I'd like to say it's because they're imprinting on the ectoplasm and it's keeping their memories safe. Because we know ghosts are imprints on ectoplasm and that only being made of ectoplasm they have their memories and emotions and soul and everything they need in their core and just form ectoplasm around it as a body, but how would they get the body the same every time if not imprinting the same thing on it each time?

So I'm theorizing that their core is basically just a backup hard drive with all their important "files" and that they just imprint ecto from the backup to exist and it's constantly cycling through and updating based in sensory data.

Humans in Amity though only have their brain to rely on. But since there is lots of ecto in the air and they aren't imprinting their whole existence and form all they need to do is imprint memory to the ambient ecto around them and whenever the phenomenon that makes people forget happened the ambient ecto passing over them just re-uploads the memories in the blank space and they all have a unique signal so memories down cross over to others. But that also means that they're basically constantly without knowing imprinting their memories to the ecto and their memories are being pinged around through the ambient ecto at all times so sometimes there is a bit of delay or even a relay where certain stuff hasn't linked together yet and shows back up in chunks. Which is why Amity Parkers remember more than other hero communities but don't always remember everything. Because ambient ecto is around the whole world basically just in varying amounts so if the pings of memory implant bounces half way across the world and gets slowed in a dead zone with basically no ecto it may take awhile to show back up and going through that area may weaken the imprint loosing a little bit of it along the way.

But it's scientifically proven that our brains forcible fill in empty spots in memory sometimes with whatever it can conjur that makes sense so based on their normal lives I'd guess they aren't loosing anything to important and it regularly gets filled back in based on other events, so they wouldn’t loose more than a few details.

Like they couldn't lose an anniversary because every other anniversary would jump out, and their brain would, in turn, be like,

"Hey. Hey. Dude. Where is June 21? Every other June 21 is important. Where is the one in 2009?"

Basically, either it would be filled in or forcibly collected from another ping of memories jumping around the world because the brain would recognize the empty spot.

And wow, this got way off track. But here's some pseudoscience bullshit. And I'm sorry I'm being mean to actual pseudoscience, which was once a respectable term that has been disrespected because it was used wrong technically right but on stuff that wasn't even based on logic in the past.

Cause pseudoscience is actually just an explanation that hasn't been proven yet and yeah some of it is obviously bullshit but lots of science we know today was once pseudoscience until properly proven cause thats basically what it means. But people keep trying to shove fake science forth and make people associate the word pseudoscience with that stuff only.

Jason, holding a photo of Tim as Robin: Tim what was with this haircut

Tim: it was the 90s! Everyone had that haircut!

Jason: it’s still ugly!

Duke: so is nobody going to mention Tim claiming to have been around in the 90s?

Tim: of course I was alive in the 90s? I was born in ‘77?

Duke: WAIT WHAT? So you’re in your 40’s???

Tim: no? You know I’m 17

Duke: If you were 17 you’d have been born in 2006!

Tim: that…. Yeah that makes sense. But I was definitely Robin in the 90s? I don’t…

Jason: yeah… and I definitely died in the 80s

Tim: … this is making my brain hurt

[starlightshore]

Hm should do some small changes to my Dani design. (I see people call her Ellie a lot, might have her use that too, less confusing that way... but then again both being named Danny is still really funny.)

First off, I'm giving her glasses. That's literally The Reason Danny can't recognize his own face. Classic superman identity trope.

Going into Dani's back story, the parents got hired by GiW soon after Dani was born. The family moved to some other state to do government related testings- my assumption that the universe difference here was something Vlad did that cause the GiW to be formed earlier, not sure what the exact context is. (A bigger plot is here but idk details yet)

Dani never grew up with Sam and Tucker, she's popular at the schools she's at but doesn't have anyone super close. (Maybe they move all the time?) The Fenton parents of this timeline Aren't Evil persay, but they're stuck with government officials who put a lot of pressure onto them.

For whatever reason (idk yet) Dani gets caught up in the GiW stuff and they use her to test the portal gun on her, Dani can't separate her parents involvement, family is torn apart. It's a mix of Classic Fenton nonfunctional mishaps and the parents believing it was the right thing to do for Dani, considering how serious/corupt the GiW are in my take.

Anyway, Dani is friends with Vlad who isn't rich or well off. Maybe Dani has portal powers? (Cause. Portal gun. Cool) and Dani is on the run. (Thus ghosts are always following) This vlad is more like TUE Vlad, softened and a good role model. Dani still trusts Jazz (who shed be extra close with) but can't see herself staying with the Fenton anymore.

She jumps realties. (likely a Vlad of main timeline's fault, but portal Dani could be involved, making this jump more on-purpose...?) Vlad takes her in, Dani assumes he's like her world's Vlad. Later when she learns he's evil, not sure how she'll side. (As she is a version of Danny who's rejected her family, she's going to be selfish and less morally righteous. Ya know, troubled Teen) she likes the power he teaches her, the money she can flaunt. Vlad was there for her. It'll be hard to convince her he's evil, and harder to get her to change sides even then.

It makes Danny have a head ache trying to unpack all this. This is a girl version of himself (talk about awkward) who has everything he could of wanted- popularity, lots of friends, acceptance, skills and money. Danny's jealous. But he doesn't see that Dani is jealous of him. Danny's family, friends, they all love him. When he's Phantom, everyone adores him or fears him.

Dani and Danny are at heart the same person but they've lived completely different lives. Nature vs. Nurture argument. The two are dumb teenagers who don't know how to communicate. They're arch rivals and jerks to each other. It's pure chaos and frustration and it's gonna end with them being good friends. At the end of the day they're both Dan and Halfas. Nobody (except Vlad but he is not a Dan) could understand what's that's like.

Danny and Dani once past their rivalry make a Dan club for Dans only. I want Dan high-school hijinks

[starkey]

[Spoilers for The Haunting of Bly Manor!]

I know everyone is super loving Bly Manor cause ~80′s gays~!!! but some stuff about it sat really bad for me so I’m gonna try to verbalise it. Obviously if you loved it and aren't vibing with a critical analysis I'm not offended if you don't read lol. Also I’m not trying to say that there’s anything wrong with liking it! I just...didn’t, and I want to think about why, for a sec. (Sorry this got a bit long)

I think part of my problem is that I count Hill House as one of my favourite shows ever and I had ridiculously high hopes for Bly Manor, which probably couldn't ever have been fully realised. And there was actually a lot about it that I liked, especially at the begining. I thought the kids were great, and I loved the core group of Mrs Grose, Owen, Dani and Jamie. I liked the fact that the Henry Wingrave element was expanded upon, and I liked the complexity of Rebecca and Peter, and the room it gave them to be fully realised human beings. I quite enjoyed that they kept to the Hill House ghost mythology - that ghosts are lost in time but fixed in place, and that they jump from memory to memory, and haunt the people that they care about without knowing. But there were lots of things I wasn't so keen on...

Until the last episode my issues were mainly that it felt a bit...lazy? I can't stress it enough but the british accents were really really bad. Old!Jamie’s accent was deeply unbelievable and jarring, as was Henry Wingrave's, and although Peter’s accent was passable (I assume because the actor is English and not American like the others) it still didn’t match his mothers, or his ‘background’ - i.e. it sounded like a private school Edinburgh accent, not a Glasgow kid dragged up through poverty in the scheme - and yes there is a significant difference in those accents. I appreciate there’s a degree of privilege at play here - I’m used to the BBC producing high quality television where these details aren’t messed about with, and the production of Bly Manor was thoroughly American, but to put it in perspective, it would be like... if a character had a deep south dirt-poor Louisiana upbringing and spoke like somebody from a private school in Virginia. Other details also felt off - Rebecca’s costumes all seemed weirdly 2020-adjacent, none of the fashion or ancillary details seemed to match the UK in the 80s (which has a distinct feel), and the house that Peter returned to on his ‘memory bumps’ looked much more like an LA condo than a Scottish council house. Really, they should have just set it in America, because it felt more American than British, and they clearly didn't have any British people involved in the production.

I really didn't enjoy the narrative framing device of 'someone telling a story to a group of people at a party'. It makes sense in the Turn of the Screw, because the narrator is reading from a document written at the time of the events, so the narration becomes a first person one where the degree of detail is logically accounted for. In this take, the story alternated from being one which made sense - us just watching the characters move around normally - to one in which 'Jamie' (who’d apparently had a complete personality transplant that had turned her from a feisty northern lesbian into a coy, mysterious victorian englishwoman with a severe accent problem) adopted a falsely old-fashioned manner and told the wedding guests a ten hour long story about a haunted house.  And somehow neither Flora nor Miles recognised any part of this story in the least, in spite of what must have been overwhelming similarities? It was very jarring.  

I also kept waiting for a twist on a level with Hill House, but never got one. The big twist about Mrs Grose was, I thought, obvious from almost the first episode. I mean the woman didn’t eat or drink anything and spent most of her time confused about where she was, I thought it was fairly clear that she was a ghost. And yeah, I suppose because I’ve read the book I was never in any doubt that Peter was already dead. The ghosts in the background were much less spooky than in Hill House. They stood around in broad daylight while the characters talked and joked and it kind of felt like the ghosts had wandered in by accident and felt too awkward to leave. I really liked how spooky Hill House was - even apart from the jump scares I thought the psychological elements and the open discussion of death and grief was really affecting. I didn’t feel that at all in Bly Manor, and by the time we found out the details of Mrs Grose’s death, I’d already come to terms with it.  But all of this would have been fine, if it hadn’t been for the last episode.

I really really didn’t enjoy the bury your gays ending. And I’m not even usually against this in principle! I think in a dark/horror context, where there’s implied to be an ever-present threat of character death, it’s unreasonable to expect that no characters will die or experience tragedy - and in cases where there’s abundant LGBT rep some of those characters will by necessity not be cis/straight. So I don’t have a problem with gay characters meeting tragic or dark ends, as a general rule, particularly when it serves a narrative purpose and isn’t gratuitous. My problem here was in the manner and necessity of that death.

There were ways in which Dani could have died in this story that I would have felt were narratively meaningful and cathartic, but the manner in which she did die failed to hit those beats for me. This is a story in which two women in the 80's fall in love and are doomed by the world around them (we're already in Meryl Streep 'groundbreaking' territory here, in terms of metaphor). They know death is coming for them, that it will likely destroy them both, that they won't have an opportunity to grow old together, that eventually one day it will catch them and everything will be over - they're on borrowed time, and they spend a lot of that time looking over their shoulders waiting for shit to break bad. In the end, they're destroyed by a force in Dani's body/mind that she can't fight, that she can't win against, and the spectre of which haunts her through the years. Like... the obvious parallel here is mental health, and suicide - they even go out of their way to feature that classic heartsink moment with the overflowing bath. And to me, any story that has a message of 'no matter how strong you are, no matter how much love you have and give, or how beautiful the life you've built is, eventually the dark forces in your mind will Get You and it'll probably be before you make it to middle age' is... really shitty. The other echo that struck me was the HIV/AIDS crisis - obviously wlw were relatively spared from this, in comparison to mlm, but it still carries a cultural legacy of pain and trauma, and I really didn't need this show to grind down on that for me.

And the thing is... in the original story, the governess doesn't even die! Miles does, so maybe there's an argument here that Dani sacrificed herself in exchange for Miles's life in this retelling, but I'm still struck by this element of, like... they added this in! They chose to do this! Only one character dies in the course of this show (with Mrs Grose dying before the show starts) and it's the gay woman?? Why?? What did it show?? Why was it necessary?

Not to mention, the 'epilogue' scene paints Jamie as being very lonely and isolated. I'm not sure why the children didn't recognise ANY elements of this story from their past - even assuming they forgot the ghostly elements of their childhood, they should be able to see the similarities in the characters, but the scene also seems to imply that Jamie really isn't very close to Miles and Flora, and that she doesn't even really get to have a relationship with them as adults, in spite of losing everything to protect them, and not having any family of her own.

Almost everybody else gets a happy ending, but Jamie ends the night of the epilogue standing alone at a table, with the love of her life dead in a cursed lake, doomed to spend eternity watching over a crumbling house, and idk to me? that kind of sucked.

[kevintor]

I Watch a Movie I Should Have Seen: Hocus Pocus

I miss doing these entries. Mostly I miss adding movies to my watched list. Obviously, I’ve never seen Hocus Pocus. That’s why we’re here.

What did I know about Hocus Pocus? I knew there were witches and I knew Bette Midler had fun teeth. And she certainly did!

My thoughts:

We open on Salem in the 1600s following the shadow of a flying witch. The music was straight out of the Danny Elfman playbook but I guess they couldn’t get him so they found an equivalent Ray Parker, Jr. to Elfman’s Huey Lewis. (If you don’t know)

Pink smoke comes out of the chimney of the witch house which means someone’s gender reveal party resulted in a girl! Unfortunately they had to sacrifice a different little girl to find out.

The old-timey boy we meet is wearing a shirt that can only be described as billowy. He should take off like a kite when he runs. Yet somehow when he violently tumbles down a forest hill, none of that very excessive fabric gets caught on anything. Is the fabric even there or are we imagining it?

The witches (Sanderson Sisters) use a book made of human skin and a functioning eyeball. I shall call this book “Columbo.”

It’s very nice of them to put a mill wheel next to the witch house for the boy to climb.

Okay, so Bette Midler has lightning fingers like Emperor Palpatine.

I honestly thought the witches were going to be misunderstood and everyone would win at the end but killing a little girl for her youth and turning the boy into an immortal cat really puts a big wrench in the redemption arc chances.

The townspeople stage a hanging. The witches curse the town that they will return much like Pennywise only scarier.

We fast forward to find out that the opening is a story that is told in a Salem high school class where the kids apparently range in age from 14-28.

A new-to-town California boy (Max) doesn’t buy into all the witch lore. No mention on why his first day of school is Halloween. Parents did not plan that move well.

Max is into Allison, the pretty girl in school that leads with her teeth in every conversation. Did Rami Malek pull some his Freddy Mercury from her?

Max rides his bike home from school at super speed. He is either an exceptional mountain biking improviser or he practiced it the day before to be really ready for school. Probably the latter.

On his shortcut through the cemetery, he runs into two kids, Jay and Ice. Jay seems to be all the bad parts of Bill and Ted combined and Ice seems to be 40.

Jay and Ice take Max’s sneakers because that’s what bullies in the early 90s did. It makes pedaling home slower which may be for the best. He rode his bike too quickly.

Max does not like being here in Salem anymore. We learn this as he angrily takes off his hat, backpack, and jacket.

Max comforts himself by awkwardly hugging and cooing to his pillow pretending it’s Allison. His little sister, Dani, catches the awkwardness, gets on the bed, and simulates being Allison which is normal.

The house appears to have an unlimited number of stairs to climb up to get away in frustration.

Max reluctantly takes his sister trick-or-treating. He has the appropriate level of older brother standoffishness.

Jay and Ice stop the sister asking for her candy. Max gives the candy to the bullies and she tells him he should have been a man and fought them. Again one of them is like 40.

Max makes up with her using a pouty face. Like! A! Man!

They find a rich house that they assume will make them bob for apples. This is a bad idea even in non-pandemic times. Never bob for apples at a stranger’s house. No matter how rich they are. That’s how rich people fatten you up to make you easier to hunt.

Max and Dani let themselves inside and start robbing the place of their Raisinets and O Henry bars. Rich people give out terrible candy.

Turns out the rich house belongs to Allison. They are having a party and everyone there is authentically dressed like royals. They did not get any of these costumes at Spirit Halloween.

Dani tells Allison that she can’t wear Allison’s royal dress because she doesn’t have yabbos and proceeds to tell her that Max loves her yabbos. This girl is outrageous. Or rude. It was a fine line in 1993.

Max asks Allison to take them to the Sanderson Sisters’ house. She tells him she’s going to quickly change out of a dress that must have taken her 45 minutes to get into.

The house is no different than it used to be. The spell book is still there. How have Jay and Ice not stolen anything from it?

Immortal Cat attacks Max when he wants to light the “virgin candle” that will bring back the Sanderson sisters. It’s a great sequence where he says the name of the movie (always important), then pulls a Zippo out of his pocket (which all kids who don’t smoke have), and lights the candle.

It starts things. Hair blows a lot. This is why they had Max be a surfer boy from California. For this hair effect.

This movie cares a lot about someone being a virgin. Even Dani knows what a virgin is. Are they covering this in her second grade class? Do the parents know? What does the PTA think?

The candle makes the Sisters return and they try to keep Dani. Bette Midler uses more of her Star Wars lightning fingers but Allison saves the day.

The cat can talk and the chances of me liking this movie just took a huge hit.

Max steals Columbo, the spell book.

The writers of the movie do the right thing by having the Sisters be scared of everything modern like roads and fire trucks. Nice touch.

The Sisters only have tonight, which adds the right amount of stakes, to get the spell book back. I don’t think I could make it if they had a week or so.

The Sisters raise the dead causing a very reluctant zombie (RZ) to chase after the kids. Most zombies love what they do so this is a fun choice.

Immortal Cat gets run over by a bus but lives because he’s immortal. We needed proof because the 300 years of being a cat was not enough.

Garry Marshall plays a guy dressed as the devil which they play for fun as the Sisters worship him but we can’t gloss over that fact that Fake Devil’s wife is played by his real-life sister, Penny Marshall. It’s not disturbing. They’re acting!

Children steal the Sisters’ brooms which probably won’t matter later.

They find a Halloween party that Max’s parents went to. When Max’s dad meets Allison, he kisses her hand. I am going to do the same to whoever my kid brings home one day. “It’s from Hocus Pocus. That movie’s fun. It’s not weird.”

Bette Midler gets to sing a song. That should satisfy the requirements from her contract. The song puts a spell on the partygoers forcing them to dance until they die. Somehow the kids are immune to it. Can they shut off their ears? Are they also magical?

The kids lure the Sisters into the school incinerator and burn them alive. It’s a strong play. The kids celebrate as if there is not 30 minutes left in the movie.

Immortal Cat, in a time of reflection, brings up his sister and Max says “You really miss her, huh?” He has been trapped as a cat after failing to save his sister’s life 300 years earlier. He misses her. Why not “Hey, do you ever wonder what might have happened if you saved her life?”

Without any explanation, the Sisters are fine. They run into Jay and Ice who insult them. The Sisters cage Jay and Ice and make them hang from the witch house ceiling. The bullies are crying. Maybe they aren’t so tough after all. <High Fives No One>

Allison decides to find a spell to uncat Immortal Cat. She opens Columbo causing it to glow. The glow lures Bette Midler and the Sisters to her. Allison fails to notice the glow but learns that salt can keep them safe.

The Sisters steal the book and Dani when Allison only uses the salt to protect herself. She really took care of number one here.

Now Sarah Jessica Parker gets to sing a real creepy song that summons all the children from the town. It really shows you the power of song. Again, Max and Allison must have turned off their hearing for this.

Max and Allison trick the Sisters into thinking sun is coming early by using a car headlight. It works but I don’t understand why. They had the sun 300 years ago. They know what it looks like. “Is that a person in a brown sweat suit and green hat or a tree?”

While the Sisters are scared of the car headlight, Max steals back his sneakers but doesn’t save the bullies. How does he know he won’t need the bullies to be on his side in the future? Has he not seen every other high school movie?

They drive away and Bette Midler brooms after them. We know how fast Max likes to go so it is impressive Bette Midler can keep up.

Reluctant Zombie shows up and Max pulls a knife on him. So Max has a knife and a zippo. He might be a problem.

They take the final showdown to a cemetery which is an odd choice. Why not a miniature golf course or a TCBY. Were they still around in 1993?

Max brings a bat to a magic fight. Allison still has her salt. “Bats and salt: Working together to inconvenience witches since 1881!”

Max sacrifices himself to save Dani. The sun comes up as Bette Midler is sucking the life out of Max. Just when you think it might be a better sun-impersonating headlight, Bette Midler turns into a statue and explodes. Definitely the sun.

Immortal Cat dies so he can be with his sister. Billowy shirt ghost appears to say thanks with a kiss on Dani’s cheek (so normal) before he runs off with his ghost sister for eternity.

They did it! They saved Salem! Quite a first day for Max..

The movie was fine. I hate talking animals unless they are cartoons so that didn’t help. And why did they care so much about virgins? A friend told me that “virgin” meant “pure of heart.” Well then they should have said “pure of heart.” And if I can suggest, between Max’s predilection for weapons and Allison’s selfishness with the salt, I don’t think they should stop being “pure of heart” with each other. They aren’t a good couple. Going through a traumatic thing like killing summoned witches from the Pilgrim days causes feelings that can’t last.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E25 (July 10, 2018)

First show in the new studio! Ashley wasn’t nervous until Sam started talking about how nervous he was. There’s a lot of nervousness. Now with Dani Cam!

Tonight’s guests are Ashley Johnson and Sam Riegel!

Announcements: TM is headed to San Diego Comic Con again this year! On Tuesday, July 24 (the Tuesday after their Saturday panel), the panel will be broadcast in TM’s usual time slot. Wyrmwood giveaways are back starting this week, but will be hosted in the Critical Role Twitch chat moving forward. New shirt in the store (featuring Nott and Jester’s detective agency!).

@critrolestats​ for this episode:

Yasha is practically tied with Fjord for highest average damage dealt per episode (35.875 for Yasha, 36.040 for Fjord).

Nott maintains her lead for the most natural ones (23). Sam points out that he’s using the same dice as last campaign and suspects the proximity to the baby may have been a curse on his luck. Ashley: “I feel like he couldn’t possibly be a curse on anyone.” Sam: “No, he’s a demon child. Have you held up a mirror to the child to see if it has a reflection? That’s all I’m saying.”

It’s been 34 days since the Mighty Nein met in Trostenwald. Ashley points out that it’s starting to be a substantial number of days for everyone to have been spending all their time together.

Kiri was with the Mighty Nein for 11 days.

Nott’s new crossbow is a +1 hand crossbow. If Sam rolls a 20, it magically resets and fires another bolt immediately. If Sam rolls a 1, it tries to do that, fails, and shoots Nott instead. Because it’s a magical weapon, it will deal magic damage even if non-magical bolts are fired from it. Sam’s holding out for a cupholder.

“Beau is-- I think more of Beau and Yasha’s relationship, whatever that turns out to be, I like exploring that in the game.” Yasha “got a kick out of” Beau playing up her injuries and didn’t mind carrying her around. “She’ll help a girl out.”

The official name for Nott’s flask is The Flask of Perpetual Booze.

Heroism for the sake of being nice is definitely new from Nott’s perspective---she and Caleb have mainly just been fighting for survival until now. Money is not what drives Yasha, so getting into a fight is more motivating for her than any sort of reward. She was very affected by getting the couple out of prison, and especially by what followed with Kiri. “She’s trying to not let things affect her, but they do.” She’s averse to getting emotional, because then people are likely to see the cracks; it’s easier for her not to engage, but Kiri leaving affected her more than she was ready for. (Part of it was bleedthrough from Ashley and Marisha trying not to lose their composure during that scene.)

Nott was surprised that the Schusters accepted a good deed from her even knowing she was a goblin. “It maybe changed her impression of how ready or willing people are out there to accept a little gobby into their world.” Traveling with the Nein for so long and having their respect has “definitely expanded her opinion of the world and the people who live in it.” She’s never had that experience before. “So far, mainly people throw rocks at her.”

Gif of the Week: the many faces of Sam-as-Burt-Reynolds.

Sam’s eyes were watering and stinging all night because of the fake mustache. “By the end of the night, I was struggling to keep my eyes open.”

Brian: “I have good news. The fly that was buzzing around everywhere and bugging us is dead. It’s in my drink.”

It was a big relief to everyone that Kiri made it through her time with the Nein alive and okay, but it was still really sad to give her up. “As Sam Riegel, I’m really sad to see the character go, but in the game I kept looking for a way to find her a safe place.” They both feel pretty good about leaving her with the Schuster family. Sam points out that they know where she is, so they can come back and visit. Brian gives Matt well-deserved kudos for how lovable Kiri was right from her first appearance.

Because of Ashley’s schedule, she knew Matt had to plan something for Yasha’s disappearance, but he hinted to her that something would happen at the end of the night and that she’d know what to do. “He makes it feel organic and part of the story. I like that it’s the three of us going together on this journey.” She didn’t know beforehand what was going to happen (and still doesn’t know more than we do) so it was a very exciting scene to play out.

Sam and Ashley realize anyone could have volunteered for that last watch---they’re so impressed with how Matt set that up as their choice, even knowing he might’ve had to scramble to get the right combinations of players ready to go.

Sam points out that they’re left with no obvious leader, there’s a lot of underconfidence with Caleb and Nott and a lot of overconfidence with the other two (”all misplaced”). No healer, one person with substantial magic, no tank. The clues basically consist of a bit of blood on the ground. “I don’t know how we’re going to find these people, and even if we found them, if the baddies were powerful enough to apprehend all three of them, I don’t know if we’d be strong enough to rescue them.”

Fanart of the Week: a gorgeous scene of Beau training.

Both Scanlan and Nott have “a visceral hate of goblinkind for different reasons.” Scanlan would kill one on sight. “Nott might ask them a few questions first, and then kill them.” She hasn’t come into contact with any goblins from outside her clan. “Maybe she’d have an open mind if she met a really cool goblin.”

“Yasha’s relationship with the Stormlord is still fairly new, so I think her connection with him and figuring out how to connect with him-- she’s still figuring that out, but I also think he probably knew she could take care of herself. She’s still figuring out what she’s supposed to do to reach in and connect with him.” It’s tied in with her backstory. “There’s a lot that she doesn’t understand about it.”

On Nott losing her detective partner: “They’re bad cop/bad cop. Without one of them, they’re just bad cop! How would that work?” Beau might be her first attempt at a new detective duo.

Ashley’s okay with the speed at which Yasha’s backstory is being revealed---in that basically none of her backstory has been revealed. “I would love to have revealed more while I was home, but her backstory is very sensitive and it’s not something she would be comfortable talking about.”

At one point, Sam was writing a pilot pitch for a CW-type show about “sexy minotaurs and centaurs in a high school.”

Stealing the gun wasn’t about messing with Taliesin; Sam has specific plans for the gun. “Let’s just say that Nott has a fascination with things and enjoys shiny things, but also enjoys chemical things, and it’s an interesting item to her and she has ideas of what she could try with it. It also helps that it bothers Taliesin. I’m not going to lie.”

The Stormlord is more of a protector figure than a distant, abstract figure to Yasha. “He definitely saved her from something. Before the Stormlord, she didn’t serve any gods. That was a foreign thing to her. I don’t think she knows what servitude means, yet, but she’s getting there.”

Nott felt like a protector and a keeper of Kiri. “Innocent little kid who needs to be protected and is also adorable!” She’s also very pleased to see Caleb coming out of his shell.

Ashley has confidence in the remaining four members of the Nein. “I think they’re going to be fine.” Sam: “Let’s be frank, Ashley’s been carrying us as a show for some time now, and losing her might sink the ship.”

There’s some speculation about why Matt keeps putting manacles into the narrative. Sam: “They might have some sort of a payoff later? Otherwise, he’s just kinky.”

Matt has said that he’ll figure out a way to bring Ashley in on Skype even if she’s the only one of the three available, but she also just wants let the narrative unfold naturally. They’ll see how it goes moving forward.

Unexpected Matt Key!

Talks Machina In The Dark:

Weirdest stuff found during the move? Sam found a bunch of rejected things he was going to paste to the side of his flask. “Some of them were clever. Some of them were not.” Brian: “Taliesin’s coffin that he sleeps in.” They all found a lot of dice lying around. Ashley’s Gil dice is still missing!

Sam does some squats. Brian: “Totally normal. It’s totally normal.”

Everyone’s really sad that Laura couldn’t be there for Jester’s goodbye with Kiri.

Yasha “100%” did not feel qualified to give Caleb advice. “Just anybody coming to her for advice about anything. Why are you asking me? What advice could I possibly give you?” Sam demands to know if she’s ever had a friend. “Yes, of course. She comes from a very rural area, and raised in a certain way that she was-- You gotta wait. It’ll make sense. There’s a lot of life that she hasn’t lived yet. She doesn’t have a lot of life experience.” She’s around Ashley’s age (or the equivalent for an aasimar).

Both Sam and Ashley think Kiri would be good as a rogue. Possibly a bard? Ashley: “Matt’ll come up with something great if we ever see her again.” Brian points out the potential for a kenku using mimicry for Vicious Mockery.

Votes go to Marisha’s Fjord voice over Taliesin’s Jester voice.

We delve into the disgusting depths of how gross Sam’s flask gets. “We need to get you a little brush.” “We do. I might get tetanus from this thing.”

[acuppellarp]

Welcome to A Cup-pella, Kieran! We’re excited to have you and Stevie Evans in the game! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours. 

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Kieran, she/her Age: 23 Timezone:  MST Ships: Stevie/Chemistry Anti-Ships: Stevie/No Chemistry, Stevie/Any other Evans

IC INFO

Full Name: Stephanie “Stevie” Erin Evans Face Claim: Olivia Holt (Cloak and Dagger gifs only) Age/Birthday: 20, December 11, 1997 Occupation: Apprentice Tattoo Artist & Bike Messenger Personality:  sarcastic, loyal, rude, artistic, charismatic Hometown: Nashville, TN Bio:

As the second youngest child in a family of five, Stevie often felt forgotten by her family. Sure, their parents did their best to make sure that everyone got a little slice of time with Mom and Dad, but a pie split five ways isn’t exactly great. And as much her other siblings seemed okay with everything that was going on, Stevie never felt satisfied. She wanted a normal childhood—she wanted to be like the other girls who got to go to ballet practice or learn piano or do all of that normal childish things that kids often loved to complain about. She wanted to be a kid without worrying about her classmates mocking her for her hand-me-down clothes and second-hand backpack. She wanted to be more than just that poor kid in class.

Family was so important to all of her other siblings, to the point where they were okay with the situation their family was in—going to bed hungry, having the power shut off, their parent’s terse conversations every time the bills came due. Even if it meant the Evans clan was able to stick together, they were okay with shouldering the burden. Stevie saw how Sam struggled being the oldest of them, taking on responsibilities that no teenager ever should. All in the name of family.

By the time she hit high school, Stevie was bitter towards the school system and the world as a whole. She wasn’t as smart as Stacey and while she made it onto the varsity soccer team, she would never be able to compare to Sam. She wasn’t as talented as her older sister, not as smart as her younger sister, and nothing like her brothers. Out of the Evans siblings, Stevie was the only one who didn’t have a future ahead of her. At least, that’s how it looked to her.

So, when her junior year of high school rolled around and she was cut from the soccer team—replaced by a better prospect, a younger, faster, quicker forward—Stevie fell in with a different sort of crowd. They were the kids who hung out under the bleachers and mouthed off to teachers. But, beyond their seemingly skeevy reputations, there was a secret love that they all seemed to share: art. Specifically, graffiti art.

Stevie fell into the world of art head first, learning about tagging and trying her hand at laying down tags whenever she had a free moment. That was how she met her best friend, Brandon, one of the under-the-bleacher-kids who, like her, had an interest in art. He showed her different techniques, playing with spray paint, stencils, and whatever spare bit of wall he could find. The two became close friends and Stevie learned a lot from him. But, as fun as tagging was, she wanted to broaden her vision beyond just vandalizing people’s back walls.

Her senior year, what money she made at her crappy fast food job went to buying herself real art supplies—Copic Markers, paints, canvases, charcoal. Stevie had found something she was interested in and, to her surprise, it was something that she was actually good at. But, art schools cost money and even if she had the huge portfolio that they were looking for, she didn’t have a chance in hell of getting a scholarship.

Brandon on the other hand, he had a shot, a real shot. And when he got that letter, saying that he’d been accepted? They both celebrated his accomplishment, happy that at least one of them would be getting out there and following their dream. But, when Brandon pulled out a second letter, this time addressed to her? It was almost unreal. Stevie opened that letter and saw that she’d been accepted to the City College of New York’s art program under a full scholarship.

The rest of the year passed in a blur, with Stevie going off to college—something she never dreamed of happening. And when she first started her classes, she thought it was everything she had ever wanted. But, the reality of going to school day in and day out when she could be out and about exploring New York? It was a drag. Soon she was ditching class to bike around the city and mingle with the other New Yorkers, just taking it all in.

While this free spirited existence suited her, it did little for her grades and by the end of her freshman year, Stevie was faced with the consequences of her actions: her scholarship was taken away. Everything that she and Brandon had worked hard to secure, gone. Suddenly, Stevie was truly on her own and without her family to fall back on. There was no way she was going back to Nashville—she couldn’t burden her family by moving back in. And, she still had her wits and her trusty bike, which was better than nothing.

Stevie found a job as a bike messenger and fell in love with it. Being a bike courier was fast paced, exciting, and cut-throat in just the right ways. Plus, the courier community was like a little family of nomads, something she really enjoyed. Stevie thrived in her job and was able to get an apartment with a few randoms out in Bushwick—imagine her surprise when she realized that they knew her sisters!

After reaching out tentatively to Sam and Stacey, Stevie has been easing herself back into being a part of the Evans family. She’s not as interested as being a big happy family as her sisters are, but after being on her own, she’s realized how much being a part of something had on her. That desire to find a community of her own is what has Stevie embarking on the next step of her life: becoming an apprentice at a tattoo shop.

Though her parents would probably disapprove if they knew, Stevie loves the idea of creating art that will forever be a part of someone. It’s the permanency she loved of tagging mixed with the finer drawing she enjoyed as well. Plus, there’s a strong community amongst tattoo artists and that’s something that Stevie is attracted to as well. For now, she’s doing the gruntwork at a shop in Bushwick, running late night deliveries on her bike, and spending whatever free time she has drawing up designs at A-Cup with an iced Americano at her table.

Pets: None

Relationships:

Samantha Evans: Stevie never had the closest relationship with Sam. Her oldest sibling was always so preoccupied trying to be a third parent and Stevie found it stifiling. She didn’t like the way that Sam tried to take on responsibility for their family and tried to mother her.  Even after their time apart, Stevie is still reluctant to reach out to Sam because she doesn’t want her older sister to try and mother her again.

Stacey Evans: Though closest in age, Stevie and Stacey couldn’t be more different. While Stacey was talkative and academically talented, Stevie was the kid in school that teachers dreaded. The only thing in common they had was their last name and the Evans family athletiscim. Now that they’re both in the same city, Stevie does her best to keep her sister at arms length—close enough to say hello and appease their parents, but far enough to keep out of her personal life.

Rachel Berry: Out of her roommates, Rachel’s very vocal lifestyle is one that tends to bug Stevie the most. She doesn’t share Rachel’s interest in theater or show tunes; sure, she likes music, but she usually restricts herself to singing in the shower or listening through her headphones. She also isn’t quite sure how she feels about her roommate flirting with her older sister all the time.

Ava Sinclair: While Stevie is generally intrigued by Ava’s accent and her place in the gaming industry, Stevie keeps to herself when she’s at the apartment. She doesn’t really know how to read the quieter woman and as a result keeps her distance. That said, Stevie loves Ava’s cat, Reeses, and often can be found teasing the cat with a laser pointer or some other cat toy.

Dani Harper: As the most laidback of her roommates, Stevie feels most comfortable hanging out with Dani. She’s the most “normal” out of her roommates and Stevie enjoys chatting with her about possible tattoo ideas, often showing Dani designs that she’s drawn up.

EXTRA INFO

Steve-o/@stevienotnicks/fastest girl on two wheels.

Five latest tweets:

@stevienotnicks: handcramps are the worst ohmygod @stevienotnicks: s2g if my asshole neighbor pulls out in front of me again im gonna key his mercedes @stevienotnicks: lowkey miss honey can GET IT jesus @stevienotnicks: feeling creative today. dm me design ideas pls @stevienotnicks: real talk. if cinderellas shoe fit perfectly then why tf did it fall off???

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

The Super-Switch

(part 4)

Monday was coming too quickly and Danny was starting to panic.

The heroes that were sent to search for Desiree were coming up empty, the Flash having made a wish that ended with him buried under a mountain of pizza. Whether that was an accident or not remained to be seen. It was starting to look like the chosen heroes were spending more time trying to fix the chaos Desiree was making than defeating Desiree herself. It was frustrating because Danny knew he and his friends would have handled this within the day of her escape.

He had already contacted his friends and let them know what was happening. Neither could get away from Amity to help hunt the ghost but they were going to offer there services as soon as they could.

Superman and Danny's house arrest was also starting to get noticed. Well, Superman’s disappearance more than Danny's. Danny was sure his parents were jumping to the conclusion that he was planning something nefarious and big, and Val was probably missing her punching bag but at least the ghosts were being handled back home. Dani was always willing to lend a hand when he got tied up with league business and he’ll love her forever for that.

For the most part, the training with each others powers was going well. Danny was surprised at how nice it felt to fly while alive and warm and also tall. If he was being completely honest, Superman was pretty much the best person you could magically get turned into. He was handsome and strong, he was indestructible and everyone liked him. More people have said hi to him since he’s become Superman than the sum of Danny's entire high school experience. It was nice. Plus EXTRA BONUS: he could still fly! He’d really miss that power if he lost it.

Superman was having a harder time, but in Danny's opinion not nearly as hard as of time as Danny had when he first got turned into a ghost. Maybe having a teacher really did help. If Vlad weren’t so much of a fruit loop it might have been nice to have a mentor.

But despite his insistence that Sups was doing well, Superman has been a lot more frustrated with his progress. He hasn’t lost his optimism and his determination to improve was admirable. Danny wondered if his face would hurt from all the smiling Superman was doing with it. But Superman it turns out was actually incredibly hard on himself. The fact that they were both presently bared from helping people was also clearly bothering him.

Danny felt a similar need, though the fact that it wasn’t colored by the normal cold desperation of his core was strange. Maybe that was why Superman was struggling so much! Maybe he just wasn’t used to the feeling of obsession. He needed to tell him as soon as possible but that would have to come with the rest of his speech...

See, Danny needed to go home and be Fenton tomorrow. Lancer had made it very clear that he couldn’t get away with an absence or a tardy. If he didn’t make up this test tomorrow, he would be suspended form school and his parents would be called and he’d even have to attend a hearing about it. He had to be at school tomorrow. Lancer wasn’t going to give him anymore chances.

But as it stood, he couldn’t attend as superman and the team of ghost hunting heroes weren’t any closer to changing them back. So Superman would have to attend school for him as Fenton.

Which meant Danny would have to tell Superman about Fenton.

Monday was coming too quickly.

Superman watched as Phantom rambled, impressed at how much the boy could say without saying anything. It would be a good talent to have with the press. As a reporter he had a vested interest in the truth but as a hero he could see the good in being able to keep one’s secrets.

“Danny, could you please get to the point,” he asked patiently. It’d been a trying week and while he’s been rather irritable lately, that was hardly Phantom’s fault. He was in the same boat after all and he wasn’t the one who made the wish. Phantom had also been trying his best to help him master his new powers, so Superman wasn’t in the position to hold a grudge against him.

He was presently more disappointed in himself. While he stood by his argument that Phantom could stand to be more responsible, he was the one who stated the fight and he was the one who messed up. Because of his mistake people were now in danger and he couldn’t do anything to help them. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. He needed to be out there saving people, but until he could control Phantom’s powers he wouldn’t be able to save anyone. It was a frustrating contradiction and it was eating away at him

“Right.” Phantom was saying. “OK. OK, we just gotta rip the band-aid off. Just get it over with and then explain. Right. I can do this. OK. Superman I want you to reach inside your chest and find the warm spot.”

Superman blinked at the hero. The warm spot?

Ever since he’d become Phantom he’d been practically numb with cold. As far as he could tell ghosts weren’t supposed to be warm. Did this have to do with the core Danny kept talking about?

Superman closed his eyes and sure enough, Danny wasn’t wrong. There was a feeling a warmth near his heart, almost hot compared to the rest of his body. Superman mentally held onto the warmth and suddenly...

There was a flash of white light and two glowing rings passed around him. His black super suit was replaced with a white and red t-shirt and jeans. His feet landed heavily on the floor and he could feel again, feel the way a living person was meant to. He was also hit with the heavy weight of exhaustion. it was a level of weariness that he had never felt before, not even returning from the dead carried quite this level of tiredness. Superman didn’t like the feeling.

“Right,” Danny said anxiously. “So, this is my human form. I’m what’s known as a halfa. I’m half ghost, half human and there only three of my kind in existence right now.”

Superman stood up strait. “you’re alive?”

Danny was rubbing the back of his neck and refusing to meet his eyes. “Yeah, I mean technically. I’m sorta like Schrodinger's cat, I’m both alive and dead at the same time. We don’t really get the science behind it, but I mean magic and aliens are real and we know of several after lives so it’s whatever, I guess.”

Superman simply stared at his look-a-like. He could feel his heartbeat in his chest now. He could gravity bearing down on him and a desperate kinda hunger that hadn’t been satisfied by the portions he’d eaten as a ghost. 

Superman stared at his hand. It was young but it was calloused and scared. Minute burns shined on fingers and his nails were dirty and bitten away. It was a human hand. In his chest he could feel the remains of the icy numbness but right now he was human. 

Phantom was human.

“How old are you?” he asked quietly. A vague feeling of horror was coming up over him like a wave.

Danny laughed nervously. “Um, I’m sixteen, now? I've done a little time travel so my exact age is a little less precise. But I've been dead for about two years.”

He said it so matter-of-factly. He was a child, an actual child.

And somehow he had died and taken on the responsibility of being a hero.

“How?” is what he asked.

Phantom bit his lip and looked very uncomfortable. “It’s not really something I talk about. I mean you’re actually the first person I've properly told my secret to. everyone else usually figures it out on their own or they catch me when I have no choice but to change. The actual story is kind of embarrassing.”

Curiosity burned within him but Clark nodded. “Take your time, son.”

“It’s so weird seeing me act like you,” Danny commented distractedly. ”Like you make it looked like I actually know what I’m doing. You need to stop that. You can’t do that at school or people will notice.”

“School?” Superman gasped. The child was attending school on top of hero work!? Clark hadn’t started proper heroics until after he graduated. What was this boy thinking. He could get... he could get killed.

“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I’m telling you. I’m sorry to ask this but I can’t afford anymore absences, so I kinda need you to go to school for me tomorrow. I would obviously do it myself but-” Phantom gestured to his body. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while and I know we don’t have a lot of time for a crash course in Danny, but don’t worry, you won’t be alone. My friends and my sisters will help cover for you.”

“What about your parents?” Superman couldn’t help but wonder.

Phantom winced. “Um... they don’t know about this. They can’t know. They’re ghost hunters and for all their best intentions they tend make situations more dangerous rather than safer. And I also sorta have someone blackmailing me to keep it a secret from them but that’s a whole different level of complicated and it’s not something you’ll have to worry about.”

Superman could only gape at the child. “What happened to you?” the sense of horror had solidly taken its grip of him. Blackmail? Ghost hunting parents? Who was protecting him?

Phantom laughed nervously. “I just stepped into a portal to another dimension and activated it while inside, nothing too strange.” He said it like it was a joke, but it was obviously not a joke. The look of panic in Danny's eyes and his desire to flee was obvious.

Superman took a long breath and tried to regain his footing. “Phantom,” he said as gently and as kindly as possible. He though of his father and his endless patience when it came to Clark and his power issues. He could offer that to Danny. He had to. “Son, I really need you to tell me everything. If I’m going to help you properly, I need the truth. I won’t judge you. I won’t hold anything you tell me against you. I just need to know the truth.”

Phantom relaxed minutely. “You sound like my sister.”

“I’m sure she’s a lovely young woman.”

“Right. Yeah. Okay.” Phantom said. “Okay, I’ll tell you.”

And he did.

Later that night, Clark Kent's head was still ringing with the young boys tale. He’d always respected Phantom. They shared similar philosophies and ethics. Phantom was a hero through and through. But to find out the man behind the strength and determination was a child in over his head, was disturbing.

He knew Phantom was more than capable of taking care of himself and looking after the people in his protection. But to hear the story, to know that it wasn’t a thirty year ghost fulfilling an obsession but a sixteen year old child actively choosing to put himself in danger, to know that at any moment Phantom could die completely, it shed the hero in a new light.

It also filled him with an irrational sense of guilt. He knew there was nothing he could have done to change phantoms situation. He had no way of knowing or stopping Danny's accident. But still his stomach twisted because he was helpless with this. He couldn’t very well demand Phantom stop his hero work, he did too much good and he didn’t seem nearly as disturbed by his circumstance as Superman felt.

Perhaps, he was reading too much into things. Phantom has always been a good kid after all and good things come to good people. That’s just karma.

Clark set his jaw in determination. He’ll be one of those good things, he decided. He’ll make things easier for Danny. Just you wait!

 (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (here) (part 5)

[phoenix1966sbottom]

When Jared/Sam is or interacts with aliens...as always, heed the warnings where the original story is posted. And please consider leaving a comment. It’s all the writer ever gets in return for their time, effort and generosity!

At the End of the World by ashtraythief on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jensen collects the wonders of the verse to preserve them; only observing, never getting involved. When he comes to a planet called Earth, he realizes he’s capable of deeper emotions than he was designed to have.

Grave series by all_the_damned_vampires on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.   Jared is pretty sure he was insane even before he was abducted. Not many people can survive a global pandemic with their minds intact. For a long time, it’s just Jared alone in the room, tended and manipulated by an unseen force. (past Jared/Adrienne in flashbacks)

Chasing Darkness by ashtraythief on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Discharged from the military after the war and unable to find a regular job, Jensen and Dani end up on JD’s mining planet Wora. It’s one of the most hostile environments in the Old Galaxy, but the pay is astronomical. The job sounds easy enough: protect the miners. While battling the demons of his past, Jensen meets Jared, a beautiful, sought after companion, who is isolated by his own secrets. Jared had come to Wora, dragged by Chad, with the need to make some serious money. It doesn’t take Jensen long to figure out Jared’s secret and he has to decide how much he’s willing to risk to protect him.

As Boundless As the Sea by cherie_morte on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jensen is an Engelon, a race whose home planet was abandoned thousands of years ago. Now what remains of their collective live in a large spaceship that travels to find, conquer, and drain new planets and their inhabitants of the one precious substance they need to survive: water.  When Jensen unintentionally takes a human form, his fellow Engelons have finally had enough. They cast him down to Earth, far from any ocean, where it is assumed he will die without access to water. But Jensen is rescued by Jared, a man who lives alone on the farm Jensen was dropped on. Jared has lost everything he ever held dear, but he has not lost his kindness or his willingness to help a very strange stranger in need.

Close Encounters by morganoconner on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  This is the story of how an alien named Jensen and a human named Jared met, fell in love, and got their happily ever after. (no penetrative sex)

Mission Voyager by soulmatecest on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Earth has been colonized by a non-violent and pacifist race of aliens who have the ability to morph their bodies to look like humans and be able to live on this planet. But they believe real humans to be too violent and dangerous to keep around. It has been almost two years since Jared Padalecki ran to hide with a group of survivors, living in abandoned buildings and stealing supplies to survive.

I Can Fly (But I Want His Wings) by mystik on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  After a tragic death a couple years ago, the life of nineteen year-old Jared can be described in one word: numb. But one day, he meets a man that can change his life for good. A man that is literally different from anyone he ever met and that will turn not only his present, but his past upside down. Aliens are real after all. (warning: background Jared/Sandy (nothing explicit) and past Jared/Chad)

The Ethereal by saucyminx on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared Padalecki had just about settled into his place as a member of the Earth Division squad aboard space station TwoTwo, ready to follow in the line of his family’s military linage. But everything he knew was about to change when an otherwise average day had him crossing paths with a should be extinct Ethereal. Especially when, against all odds, Jared found himself drawn to the half breed he’d been raised to despise.

World Domination is Harder than it Looks by kellifer_fic on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jensen Ackles is an alien and Jared is hell-bent on cuddling exposing him for what he is. (no penetrative sex)

The Third Kind by BewareTheIdes15 on Ao3. Jared/Jensen/Misha. J2/M AU.  "So you see too?" Jensen whispers again, peeping around the edge of the bedroom door. The thing has climbed out from under the bedclothes and sprawled out in a long slice of sunlight pouring through the window. He's almost sure it wasn't that big last night. (no penetrative sex)

The Taking by morrezela on AO3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared was on vacation on the mysterious and beautiful Parnath. He had known about the ‘takings’ that could happen; he just never thought that he would be that one tourist that would have it happen to him.

Legacy by c-is-for on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared is a high school outcast, bullied for being gay and for having a father who had some strange theories before he disappeared. Jensen is a perpetual outsider, constantly on the move, trying to blend in as a normal teenager when he's anything but. When it comes time to make a stand against the forces pursuing Jensen, Jared discovers that his father's bizarre notions might have contained more truth than anyone realized. (only kissing)

The Squid Monster by morrezela on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared picks up an intergalactic squid that decides to live on his inner thigh

Blood Feud by morrezela on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared and his team were sent to evacuate a training facility on the latest colonized planet, but his mission wasn’t exactly successful. Now he either has to try to negotiate with the enemies who want him dead, or let a group of young cadets starve to death.

What About the Heart You Promised to the Tin Man? by misskittye on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared Padalecki is a regular guy who runs into Jensen (literally) after watching a falling star crash into a lake. Jensen is more than meets the eye (while also being easy on the eyes) and he drags poor Jared into the plot of a sci-fi action movie. (no penetrative sex)

It’s Supernatural, Extraterrestrial by thorkiship18 on Ao3. Sam/Dean. Unrealated wincest AU. Dean Winchester is a Twenty-four year old truck driver with 0.3% of ties to the world around him. He's never had a long lasting relationship or a friendship for more than a week because he believes that everyone and everything around him is stupid.One rainy night, Dean almost runs down a young boy in the middle of the road. A boy who knows zero english and is ignorant to everything on Earth and also carries around a GPS like device that points east.Shenanigans and all types of fuckery ensue! (no explicit sex)

I Will Follow You by hunters_retreat on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  He did notice, as he’d turned, the way Jensen had licked his lips as he let his eyes trail over Jared one more time.  It may not mean anything.  It might mean everything.

Stardust and Hunting Go Hand in Hand by blackrose_17 on Ao3. Sam/Jack, Sam/Dean.   Sam Winchester was supposed to go to Stanford but a chance meeting with a Police Box changed his destiny and all those around him. Sam had known from a young age that Dean was his mate, his alpha but Dean didn’t see him as anything but a little brother. Jack on the other hand saw Sam for the omega he was and very interested. The last thing Dean ever expected to see back in his life was his little brother who’s heart he broke pregnant and mourning the loss of his lover. But together they realize that they are whole together and the other half of each other’s soul. (warning: mpreg) 

Veterans of the Psychic War by kellwyntar on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  When the invasion came, no-one was ready. Humanity faltered. We died by the thousands, then by the millions. Nations fell before them before the survivors could begin to hold them back. At the most desperate moment in humanity's history, two men would face the battle. Jared Padalecki, a Psion whose power could only lead him to self-destruction alone in the face of the horrors of war, and Jensen Ackles, a Guardian fractured by his past. Apart, they are broken and incomplete. Together, they just might save the world, and maybe even themselves. (the sex is ambiguous)

Think of the Queen by kerfuffling on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared never expected his ass to become the star of the show when he and Jensen find themselves trapped in a cave on an alien world.

Mayuon by hunters_retreat on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared never believed anyone would be crazy enough to fund his research, but every crazier things had happened.  Like finding that his belief in an ancestor race was true and he'd found their home planet.  Or that the men he'd traveled with had turned out to be mercenaries, ready to kill the king and his people so that they could go back to Earth and start bringing people in to 'colonize' their new home.  Or that Jared could fall so completely in love with the king who hated him for the part he played in the mercenaries finding his people.  With a race against time, can Jared find a way to stop the ancient ceremony that would kill Jensen and his people?  Will he be able to stop the mercenaries in their plot to destroy the Martrikian people?  And will he find a way to show Jensen that he really is the man he believed he was when they fell in love?

The End (of Something) by ashtraythief on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared and Jensen are captured by the enemy. In the face of almost certain death, Jensen finally makes a move. (no penetrative sex)

Garden of Ackles by morrezela on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Long ago, Jensen Ackles was in an accident that left him in a wheelchair for life. He didn't let that stop him from amassing a small fortune and buying his own mansion at a dirt cheap price - no pun intended. But the mysterious gardens needed some work done, and Jensen couldn't do that with his own power. He hired Jared to be his gardener instead.

It’s Supernatural, Extraterrestrial by ghostboi on AO3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.   The far-reaching Love Story of Sam & Dean grabs the attention of some real big fans. (kissing only)

The Right Language by hunters_retreat on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  It would be lectures all day and it would only end when Jared was taken to the Crowned Prince for the ceremony.  Hopefully, a translator would be found before then.

Alien!Crack Verse by Annie46fic on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.   Jared and Jensen have the best ‘How we met’ story ever (warning: mpreg)

The Real World: New New York by DarceyDelaney on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Hundreds of years in the future, Jared takes part in Earth’s latest attempt at a reality TV phenomenon—they’ve revamped The Real World, but this time around, it’s taking place in space, specifically New New York, Mars. Jared originally signs on just to get Chad to shut up, but when he meets Jensen, his shy, really really ridiculously good-looking Martian housemate, he decides reality TV might not be so stupid after all. (the sex is ambiguous)

What Comes Next, Alien Sex? by zempasuchil on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jensen really IS too beautiful to be human. His true alien form is a little... strange. (chapter 2 is Jensen’s backstory where he does bottom for an OMC).

One for the Book by ashtraythief on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared loved his job as ambassador to the Space Council. He especially loved to sample local customs.

Abductions and Amnesia by hunters_retreat on Ao3.  Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.   Jensen was a Prime and his dedication to Jared would never allow room for someone else. He would wait on Jared forever. Jared just wished it was love he saw in the other man’s eyes and not just the unswerving loyalty of a Prime that had been trained into him with his devotion. (the sex is ambiguous)

Forced Entry by virtualpersonal on Ao3. Sam/Dean. Wincest AU.  Captain Winchester doesn’t like people messing around in his mind. He’s had some run-ins with telepaths and he hates them all. Too bad he's been paired up to work with Sam Wesson, one of the highest rated Telepaths in the Tel Unit.

My Favorite Martian by Ephermeralk on Ao3. Sam/Dean. Wincest AU.   When a space capsule crashes onto the beach where Dean’s working as an astronomer, he expects a NASA astronaut inside, not a humanoid extra-terrestrial named Sam. And he definitely doesn’t expect them to have much in common--like, say, being brothers. After all, his own brother Sam had died years ago in what was supposedly a house fire.

Deja Vu bu Zara_Zee on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU. Dean Winchester has a pretty sweet life. He works in construction; he married his long-time girlfriend, Carmen, straight out of high school; and he’s almost paid off a basic apartment in the Middle District. He may never have left his home district, let alone his home planet, but he’s happy… more-or-less.So why does he keep dreaming about the red wastelands of Mars? Why does he know more about the Martian Resistance than he has any right to? And who do the long, long legs and decidedly male butt that have him waking up achingly hard every morning belong to?Maybe Dean just needs a holiday? He couldn’t afford a real one, of course, but maybe he could go to Déjà Vu and get the memories of a holiday implanted; get Mars out of his system.Of course, that’s when the trouble really starts.

And I’m going to sneak a gen series in here. You can always read it with wincest goggles on.

Xenophobia by selecasharp and pixymisa on LiveJournal. Sam& Dean. Gen AU.  In space, no one can hear you scream. And its sequel, Xenocide.  This time, it’s war.

[fandomoblivion]

Family

Fandom: Supernatural

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Request: “Could You Write Something Where The Reader Pretty Much Grows Up With The Winchesters And Her Mom Dies And So They Basically Adopt Her And The Reader Develops Feelings For Dean But Doesn't Think He Feels The Same Way About Her? Thank You!”

Warnings: Mild swearing, death, mentions of sex. 

Word Count: 2009

Notes: Since you didn't really specify any ending I just winged it, hope you enjoy anon! -Dani (You’re welcome for proofreading this, Dani! -Lottie) (Also Y/M/N means “your mom’s name”)

~10~

"Sammy! Sammy!" A 10 year old Y/N called out jumping out of a truck and running over to hug a 9 year old Sam Winchester. You were a year older than Sam but you two got along well. Like siblings.

"My name is Sam. Only Dean calls me Sammy." He said while hugging you.

"Why can't I call you Sammy? Aren't we family." you pouted while straining your neck to look up at Sam who was already a head taller than you.

"Of course you’re family Y/N." An 13 year old Dean spoke walking out of a motel room door, John following close behind. John walked up to you mom and pulled her into a hug.

Your mom was a hunter who had met John on a hunt when you were still a baby. Your mom and John hit it off and since then you had been following your mom and John around on hunts growing up with Sam, Dean in motel rooms and going to the same schools.

This time John called your mom about a vamp nest in Wyoming so you and your mom packed your bags and head out to Wyoming.

"Y/M/N! How's life been treating ya?" He asked. Your mom pulled away and leaned against the truck. "Ah same old same old." she smiled.

You, Sam and Dean walked back to one of the motel rooms. This was normal for the three of you. Your mom and John would stay in one room, and you and the brothers stayed in the motel room next to them.

Normally you three shared one bed so the cost would be cheaper. You always slept in between the brothers because you were too scared to sleep on the sides of the bed. They always let you sleep in the middle without any complaints anyway.

That night John and your mom left you and Sammy alone with Dean to watch you two while they went out chasing the nest.

Dean made mac-and-cheese while you and Sam watched crap TV.

You were the first to take a shower and crawl into bed. By the time Sam finished showering you were already asleep, curled into a ball.

After Dean finished his shower he and Sam crawled into bed on either side of you.

"Hey Dean?" Sam whispered.

"Yeah Sam?" Dean replied.

"Do you like Y/N?" Sam asked.

"Ew what? She's like 10. That a three-year age difference!" Dean replied, almost too quickly.

"No, stupid! Like as family?" Sam said.

"Oh... yeah I do." Dean said. 

"I do too." Sam said while yawning and rolling onto his side. "Night Dean."

Dean rolled onto his side, looking at you. "Night Sammy... you too, Y/N." he whispered.

~11~

You were laying, curled in a ball, under the blankets of your motel room bed. You sneezed and groaned. You and Sam had come down with the flu and because John and your mom were out hunting something, Dean to take care of the both of you.

"Dean, do we have chicken soup?" Sam asked.

“Yes. I’m making it now.” Dean replied. 

You we’re in the other bed, you were almost asleep but not quite. Your stomach wasn’t feeling well. You kept groaning, holding your stomach curled in a ball. You were almost asleep when you suddenly felt sick. You ran out of bed suddenly ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind you. 

You threw up in the toilet while crying. You hated throwing up, and you haven’t slept for 24 hours. You stayed curled over the toilet crying when you heard a knock at the door and a frantic voice calling you. 

“Y/N? Are you ok? What’s going on?” Dean called you. 

You just sobbed, you head hanging over the toilet. The door started to creak open. 

“Don’t come in. It’s embarrassing.” You cried. You felt a hand start to rub circles in your back. 

“Y/N don’t be stupid. Everyone gets sick.” He said in a calming voice. 

“But I hate throwing up.” You sobbed. 

“Everyone throws up.” He said. “I’ll start a bath for you.” 

“Thanks Dean...” You smiled, watching him. 

~13~

“Dean?” Y/N whispered. 

“What Y/N” Dean said, rolling over to face you. Sam was already taking up half the bed. You had woken up on the ground multiple times the past month. 

John has suggested that you sleep in the same bed as Dean instead now instead of Sam. 

You didn’t mind, Dean seemed weird about it though. You we’re excited about it, you felt giddy around Dean. Like you had butterflies in your stomach when around him.

“Do you think our parents are together?” You asked. 

Dean looked shocked at first but looked concerned shortly after. 

“What do you mean?” He asked. 

“Like hooking up, idiot.” You frowned. 

“Y/N! Where the hell did you learn that phrase?” He whisper-yelled. 

“I’m 13, I’m in 8th grade. I go into high school next year!” You whisper-yelled back. 

“Right... right. Well, yeah. Yeah they are.” He said.

“Do you think they’ll ever get married.” You asked. 

“I don’t know. I really don’t.” He said. 

“If they did, we’d be brother and sister.” You said. 

“Half siblings.” He corrected you.

“Yeah.” You said, yawning. “I’m tired.” You hugged Dean, burying your head into his shirt. You fell asleep not long after. 

“Night Y/N.” 

~15~

“Y/N run!” You heard your mom’s voice in your head over and over again. 

You didn’t know how long it had been since hiding in the back of your mom’s truck under blankets to hide you. Your mom was hunting something called the yellow eyed demon with John. John had gone ahead and your mom decided to check out a vampire case on the way.

It must have been 30 minutes by now. You sobbed to yourself, replaying the image of your mom on the ceiling, her stomach cut open and bleeding in the house the vampires were in. 

A man with glowing yellow eyes surrounded in darkness glanced at you before she burst into flames. You gasped, crawling back on the floor and running out of the house as fast as your could. 

The last thing you could hear was a male voice. “Let her go... for now.” 

You sat, rocking and humming trying to calm yourself down. 

“Where’s that stupid bitch’s kid?” You heard a voice outside the truck speak. You quickly stopped crying, covering your mouth and biting down on your hand, trying to be silent. 

After what felt like forever, the voices disappeared. You leaned back and sighed in relief when you felt something in your pocket. 

You reached into your back pocket and pulled out your phone while quickly dialing a number.

After a couple rings they picked up. 

“Hello?” The voice answered 

"Dean?" You whispered.

~16~

“Hey.” you sighed, getting into the front seat of the truck. Sam followed behind. Dean was driving what used to be your mom’s truck. Ever since your mom’s death, John had basically adopted you. John didn’t take your mom’s death too well either. Looking back on it, they were definitely hooking up, and were possibly more than that. Dean dropped you and Sam off at your school and picked you up at the end of the day. When he wasn’t doing that he was either researching or sneaking into a bar somewhere.  

“Hey, how was school?” He asked you. You just sat, looking out the window. 

“It was fine.” Sam answered. You stayed silent the whole car ride back to the motel. 

“I’m going to a party with some friends tonight.” You said after walking into the bathroom and locking the door behind you. 

“Excuse me, you’re what?” Dean asked, pounding on the door. 

Sam just sat on the motel bed, watching as Dean yelled at your through the bathroom door. 

“Y/N! I’m coming in!” He yelled before breaking the door and slamming it open. 

When he got in the bathroom door was open, your school clothes were on the ground, and you we’re nowhere to be seen. 

“God DAMMIT Y/N!” Dean punched the wall in anger. He winced and held his fist in his other hand. 

“Dean, she hasn’t been taking her mom’s death well. Maybe we should just let her grieve.” Sam said. 

“NO... no. She needs to be here. Not out screwing some guy!” Dean yelled. “Get in the car, were going to find her.”

...

After hours of searching for you they found you around 1 A.M. at some party. You were literally in the middle of hooking up with some guy. 

“DEAN WHAT THE FUCK.” You yelled, pulling your skirt back up. 

“C’mon. We’re leaving.” Dean said gruffly, grabbing you by your arm and dragging you out of the house. When you got out to the car you yanked your arm out of his grip. 

“What the hell is wrong with you Dean?!” You screamed. 

“What the hell wrong with you? Going out to some party with some guy and you’re fucking him?” Dean yelled. 

“How is that any different from you going out and fucking any girl who stands still long enough? HUH?” You felt tears welling up in your eyes. 

“I don’t do it as a way to not think about my mother's death! That’s why it’s different! You shouldn’t be doing this!” He yelled at you.

“Why do you give a shit about what I do? You're not my dad or my brother Dean!” You screamed, blinking back tears. You quickly realized what you said. “No- Dean I-” 

“Get in the car, Y/N.” 

“Dean I didn’t-” 

“Y/N. Get in the car. Now.” Dean growled. 

You silently got in the car. 

~18~

It had been 2 years since that fight with Dean. 

It was still awkward around you two, part of the reason being that your feelings for Dean had gotten stronger since you were a kid. You liked him, maybe even loved him. 

You and Sam were closer. You talked to him about the fact that you liked Dean often. He was your safe place, your brother. 

You three had decided that you were going to the library to research something for John. 

Dean had gotten up about 30 minutes ago, saying he was going to look for more books since you were running out of books and quickly walking off. 

“I’m gonna go look for Dean. Be right back.” You told Sam. 

“Ok.” Sam said, not looking up from what he was reading. 

“Hey Dean, Sam and I think we found that John’s looking for so we don’t need those books anymore- oh.” You stopped dead in your tracks watching as Dean made out with some girl, his hands groping her ass frantically. 

You knew he was hooking up with someone in this town, you had just never seem him in the act. 

You felt like a ton of bricks hit you. 

“Oh, hey Y/N, sorry. I’ll be back in a few, just finishing up some- uh... business.” He smiled at you, winking.  

“Yeah, I’ll see you back at the motel.” You said, quickly turning around while blinking back tears. 

~19~

It had been a couple months since Sam had left Dean and John. Once again, things between you and Dean were weird. Even weirder now that Sam had left the three of you. 

John was more determined to find the thing that killed Dean’s and your mom. 

You however didn’t want to find it. You really didn’t. You wanted to move on with your life. Still being a hunter, but not hunting the thing that killed your mom. 

...

“I understand Y/N.” John said. 

“Thank you John, really.” You said, pulling away from his bear hug. 

“Understand what?” Dean asked, virtually coming out of nowhere. 

“I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll be in the car.” John said while closing the door behind him. 

“Dean, I’m leaving.” you said. 

“What.” 

“You and John are hunting the thing that killed our moms but I don’t want to anymore. I still want to hunt but I don’t feel like I can get over my mother’s death while continuously hunting the thing that killed her.” You explain. 

“Y/N, please.” He said. He looked like he was about to cry. 

“I have to Dean.” you said. 

“Please don’t leave me...” Dean’s voice cracked, he looked helpless. 

“Goodbye Dean.”  

[lacubanarps-blog]

i'm very confused about your halcyon muse. can you go into further detail about her so i can understand?

you want to understand… my crazy… born out of wedlock… daughter of a duchess.. sarcastic little fuck… halcyon???????? well, you asked for the details so i hope everything here is what you’re asking for. also i love this bitch so much and i probably went overboard. like there’s more information on here than in her bio tbh. but also shoutout to bryanna for helping me develop this bitch over the last few months with our hal x harley verses and brotps with hal x andi, even dimitri x harley. she’s the mvp for putting up with me and all of my hal/dani headcanons.

main verse (highly developed):

who is she?halcyon is technically two people in one. her full birth name is danielle andree-lucie giselle du quenoy-sault and she is considered as the duchess of auvergne and lady of magenta. now, since halcyon was born out of wedlock between two people who are of noble blood (her mother is the duchess and her father is a lord), they were forced to give her up by her mother’s husband. truthfully, i don’t have her mother’s husband very developed but his overall information is that he’s a very powerful duke with ties to government and even the royal family in england. now because of him, almost all the records of her birth were removed, leaving a very small amount of information about danielle or where her location was after that. danielle was placed in an orphanage and she was in the care of the nuns for two years. in most paperworks that did survive, her name is labeled as andree du sault. which is why in one of her verses, she named her daughter andree because it was believed to be her real birth name.

how did she get adopted?around the time that she turned two, a group of american army men decided to spend time volunteering while stationed in france and spent time at the orphanage that danielle was in. at this time, christopher, soon to be her adoptive father, saw danielle playing on her own in the playroom while the other kids were giving attention to the american strangers. he took an interest in her because danielle showed advance signs of creativity and independence so every day, chris would come back and play with dani and she got very close to him early on. now, this was the make or break. chris wanted to adopt danielle but his wife, ava, was very against it at the start. they couldn’t have their own kids so naturally, chris thought about going about it different ways to have their own family. ava decided to visit the orphanage with chris one day to visit the little girl, danielle, and she fell in love. so, they spoke with the nuns and started filling out the paperwork. 

what’s with the name change?ava didn’t think that danielle was a good fit for her the longer that they spent time together. so when it was time to officially adopt her, ava requested for a name change to her paperwork and she was named halcyon elizabeth charles.

after adoption?since hal was young when she got adopted, she doesn’t remember her time in the orphanage. the few memories she does have from that time of her life, she thinks that it was with her parents and she was playing with the neighborhood kids. now the charles family spent eight years in france so chris and ava could finish out their military duties and halcyon can grow up with her culture. halcyon was actually pretty advanced when it came to language and grammar compared to the kids in her school and it was because ava and chris learned french in order to communicate with her. while they learned, they also taught her which is why she’s still fluent in the language as an older adult. 

how did she get to america?a little bit after she turned eight, the charles family packed their bags and returned to america!! exciting right? wrong. since ava and chris had high ranking positions within the american army, they were constantly moving from city to city which made halcyon to become the literal definition of an army brat. she’s lived on the bases, played with the other brats and was always packing up her stuff within 6 - 9 months of their move. now, she realized that since they were always moving, she never had to keep friendships or relationships because communicate will die out when you’re always on the move. this, in return, is what started developing her promiscuous nature after she lost her virginity in the 10th grade. she started fucking and leaving them early on. in addition, halcyon did play soccer at every school she went to even if it was just for a little while.

how did she find out about her adoption?in the 11th grade, halcyon had a school project about her family tree. she started digging through old family documents for information and found her adoption paperwork. her parents didn’t want her to know until after high school because, honestly, they didn’t know how to go about it. once hal found out, it did break the relationship she had with them. halcyon still loves them but it doesn’t feel the same when they had lied to her. because of that, she wanted to know more about her birth family. however, since most of her documentation was destroyed, halcyon could only ever find paperwork that said andree du sault and didn’t know about her full name, and titles, until years later. did she ever find her birth parents?in due time, she does find out the literal truth of her birth parents and learns that she’s actually a duchess. her brother, gabriel, is the one who found her during their college years and told her the truth when he felt it was time for her to know. without her current verses, that part isn’t fully developed on its own. how does she behave?so, halcyon actually does behave and act a lot like her birth mother but she has a lot of characteristics of her birth father. the funny thing is that ava is very much like marie, hal’s birth mother, but the major difference between the two is that ava thinks more with logic and marie is a free spirit with a creative personality. they’re both witty and sarcastic, which is why hal behaves in that matter. it is also why hal turned to animation, illustration, photography and film directing, because it was already in her blood. but her father, antoine, is much more guarded and protective of what he cares about. hal behaves like him when she’s in love, causing her to get jealous sometimes and doesn’t allow people to come in easily. and she has his very pigment green eyes (which is a trait that only runs in his family and gabriel have them too). 

now, since you have a better understanding of who she is as halcyon, time to introduce the royal duchess, danielle andree-lucie giselle du quenoy-sault! 

so i won’t be using questions for this because i am still developing halcyon’s alt. life as a duchess so anything on here is subject to change!overall, it’s still the same story that her parents fell in love and had danielle out of wedlock during an affair. her mother’s husband found out about the affair that his wife had and she begged him not to take danielle away. in response, he agreed to let her stay and only if marie follows whatever he says. without thinking about it, she said yes and everything was pretty good for a couple of years. dani got her primary education of grammar, math, etiquette and so on. basically how to behave and act like a duchess 101. at the age of 5, danielle got placed into ballet and she kept doing it for years. most kids her age would pick on her because they’d say that the teachers only liked her or she only did the lead roles because she’s the duchess but really, danielle was a natural born ballerina and was talented. due to that bullying, it basically pushed her to keep up with training and become the best principle dancer that the paris opera house has had in years. in addition to her ballet training, danielle is very talented with it comes to art (mainly illustration) and modeling (like her mother).now, although dani has a good life as a duchess, with all the luxury and comfort that one could have in the world, she hated the lifestyle. growing up, danielle felt like she was a bird in a golden cage. most of her days were planned months in advance and she couldn’t do as she pleased without requesting it early on. at least, that’s how it was when she stayed with her mother and it was because of her husband, who was grooming danielle to be the perfect duchess to marry her off to somebody and use in a business deal. whenever she stayed with her dad, things were more laid. gabriel and her would play pranked on each other and their dad. they would go on vacation together and actually have fun. you know, she actually got to be a kid and not think about the royal engagements she had to do in a week.as for danielle’s personality, she is still very much like her mother, marie. although she doesn’t do it in public, dani is very sarcastic in private and often fights with her mother’s husband to give her more freedom. she’s pretty naive when it comes to life outside of her duchess bubble (like, normal life for common people), but she’s highly educated in several different subjects and languages. as for her sexual life, she has been active among other nobles around her age but she’s still kinda lost when it comes to pleasing somebody else (and herself). then even tho her parents aren’t together, she can see the love they have for one another whenever they have their secret family reunions and hopes she can find that one day.dani is still developing but she’s a spoiled duchess and i love her stupid royal ass. i also have pinterest boards for halcyon and danielle (and her verses) if you’re very curious, anon!

[chandlermovestomichigan]

Spring 2017- The Semester So Far

I started writing this post back in February. And then I lost it because I couldn't remember what app I wrote it in. So yea, this is a pretty late time in the semester for a "mid-semester review," and may end up being more of a final overview. I'm okay with that.

In some ways, it feels like I'm still getting into the swing of things, so it can be hard to believe that I've been here for a month already (at least, I had in February). In other ways, it's like I never left.

Classes Overview: Renaissance - Dr. Gaetano It's a good thing that Dr. Gaetano warned us about all the reading we would have for this class, because yea, it's a lot of reading. But it's all good stuff. We started the course talking mostly about understandings of the Middle Ages, and now we've been focusing on writings on education. I guess the question of what makes up a good education has been on my mind a lot lately, so it's good for me to think about it in the scholastic/humanistic contexts. And, of course, I love history, and I like studying how people thought.

Intro to Journalism II - Mrs. Servold This is just like Intro to Journalism I but better. The focus is on feature and opinion writing. I like both of these better than news reporting, because even though interviews and research can be fun, I'm getting tired of the strict formulaic writing that comes with it. Features and op-eds are much more fun, and we've read some pretty great examples so far. This was the only midterm I've ever gotten higher than 100% on, which is just another reason I like this class.

Intro to Psychology - Dr. McArthur I signed up for this class last semester and dropped it after about a week because it was so much reading. Which it is. Most of it is pretty easy to understand, though. We recently (in February) finished the Biology section, which I'm glad about because I have a really hard time remembering that stuff. Much of my time on this class has been dedicated to a group project. We were supposed to present last week, but hadn't actually done our experiment yet. That's mostly due to my professor's inability to respond to emails in a timely manner, so luckily she doesn't mind us presenting late. The plan now is to do the experiments this week and present on Thursday, so I'll have to let you know how that goes. It's frustrating that it's taking so long, so it will be good to have it over. UPDATE: we finally did the experiment and it was super fun. We went to the preschool to test children's understanding of conservation. So for instance, I had two identical glasses with equal amounts of water, but once I poured one into a beaker, the kids thought the beaker suddenly had more water. Silly children. They don't understand that just because something changes shape doesn't mean it changes mass. Adorable.

US & the World Since WWII - Dr. Moreno It's hard to say exactly what I think of this class. We're covering a lot of material without going very in-depth, which you pretty much have to do to cover so many events in one semester. So I think I'm learning, but I feel like I could be learning better. Part of that is from putting off reading in order to focus on an upcoming paper (and other homework), so I'll be able to get on that next week. UPDATE: I've now had two papers in this class and I felt good about both of them. The first was on Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, and the second was LBJ's Howard Commencement Address. We don't choose our own topics, which is unusual, but it's worked out.

January highlights:

My dorm, Mauck, was redecorated over the summer/fall! And it's lovely. My room is big and blue and adorable. It's nice to have such a fancy dorm with air conditioning and all kinds of important things.

The improv group "Broadway's Next Hit Musical" came to Hillsdale and performed songs based on audience suggestions, one of which turned into a full musical. It was hilarious. They really did their research, too, and made some very Hillsdale-specific jokes (i.e. "Hillsdating), which added to the charm.

I started taking voice lessons (in addition to guitar still) for the first time since second semester freshman year. I'm really enjoying it! I have the same teacher, Kristi Matson, who I had before, and I like her a lot. I had this "irrational" fear beforehand that she'd try to convince me I'm actually a soprano instead of an alto like I've always sung, which turned out to be a perfectly rational fear. But I'm liking those high notes much more than I thought I would.

A friend approached me over Christmas break about helping him edit/upload online-only pieces for the Collegian website, so I started doing that. The section is called Study Break, and we cover a range of topics, from op-eds to fun listicles or other features. I really like editing! And it's good to know the ropes of the website.

February highlights:

I started a radio show! Well, my friend Sarah Schutte asked me if I was interested in co-hosting a show with her about the history of Hillsdale College, and obviously heck yes I was. Now, we record two three-and-a-half minute clips a week with fun facts and anecdotes. You can hear episodes of "Wait, What Happened?" on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM (also SoundCloud).

I met a Hillsdale alumna named Joy Pullmann, who is both an editor at The Federalist and a homeschool mom, so basically who I plan to grow up to be. Which I told her, and then she asked if I wanted to write for her. Which obviously heck yes I did. Here is a piece I sent her!

Somehow, I wrote in my planner that I had a midterm on February 9. Felt very unprepared. Realized 30 min before that it was on March 9. Relief.

Every year, the ladies of SAI call people and perform "Singing Valentines" around Feb. 14. It's always a good time. Sometimes people request really weird songs, which adds to the bizarreness of the whole situation. I called my mom and we sang "My Heart Will Go On," which apparently my dad wasn't thrilled with because she kept singing it all day.

I got an email from George Angell of the theatre department asking if I was planning to audition for the upcoming play he was directing. I wasn't, but he said he had me in mind for the female lead. All year, I’ve had this idea that if someone specifically asked me to audition for a play, and wanted me for a challenging role, then I'd do it. So that's what happened! Now I'm playing Doctor Mathilde von Zahnd in Durrenmatt's The Physicists. It's quite a show. I'll have to write a whole post about it later, for fear of spoilers. We open on Wednesday!

I went to Jilly Beans- this cute little coffee shop in town- with friends to celebrate my 22nd birthday! It was a lovely time.

My friend Sarah and I decided to pick up a little (as in, little sister) together in SAI. Unfortunately, the girl we chose ended up deciding not to join after all, which was a bummer. But, there's still next semester.

March highlights:

Mom and dad came for Parent's Weekend! Normally, they come in the fall, but my mom wasn't able to take work off. They got to see the new Mauck, meet our professors, and hang out with us. Mom ended up sticking around a few extra days and visiting classical schools, then she and I flew home together for spring break.

We all saw the musical "Kiss Me, Kate" that the theatre department performed. It was very cute and super well done.

We also saw paintings by Winston Churchill on display in Sage.

Hillsdale went on lockdown after a former student called in a threat. It was a little scary, but no one ended up being in danger. The student was caught that same afternoon. Certainly a strange experience.

We had SAI formal in the Mauck Solarium. I took my friend Noah. It was really fun! We mostly played card games and Bananagrams. And experienced a modern day photobooth- a selfie stick and props.

April highlights:

I attended Opera Workshop. The show consisted of different songs from various operas all centering around madness and death. It was really good, though pretty long.

I wrote an op-ed on why Hillsdale students should read up on the history of the college.

The SAI concert! It was fantastic! At least, I think so. Here’s a full video. and here is where I am: Blue Skies Fairest Lord Jesus Depreston (solo) thank you Dani and Giannina! Touch the Sky Another day of Sun (solo)

I went to Chicago with some students and professors from the History department. I'd never been before, and it was really cool! I mostly stayed with my friends Mary and Patience from SAI, and we wandered the Field Museum, the Navy Pier, and other cool historic spots.

The theatre honorary (APO) had an initiation, which was theatrical as always. I now have an APO little- my friend Jonathan Henreckson. His girlfriend is my APO big, Elena Creed, and together they consider themselves Regan's parents. So we have a bizarre little family situation going on.

I stayed on campus this Easter, which I somehow didn't realize was an option until this year. It ended up being a great call. I got some work done, got to relax, and went to my home church here (Countryside) with Regan and Matthew.

I'm sitting in a brand-new coffee shop called Rough Draft. It's charming and the coffee is very good. I plan to spend lots more time here.

Looking forward:

It's hard to believe the semester is almost over. Finals week will be here before I know it.

Right in the middle of finals week is the performance of Shakespeare in the Arb's Taming of the Shrew. I joined the crew last semester as the graphic designer, and somehow found myself with two small roles as well. I think it will be a good show. We've certainly put a lot of work into it.

In my penultimate semester, I will be taking:

Constitutional Convention – Rahe

Ancient Rome – Calvert

Biology (Human) – Johnson

Philosophy of Education – Beier

Voice – Matson

And of course, more writing for the Collegian.

I don't actually believe that I only have two more semesters. Maybe it will hit me soon.