#beautiful ohio creature

[atonalginger]

OC Question game✨🎶

I was tagged by @a-cosmic-elf, @staticpallour, @lisa-and-shadow, and @therealgchu for this fun game. I haven't been ignoring y'all I've just been caught up with lingering issues 💕💕

Being tagged by y'all means I have many questions so Let's Get Cracking! I will be answering these questions with Dawn Falkner, my Fallout 4 General. I'm going to answer them in her voice as well, like an interview.

A-cosmic-elf asked:

If money, time, and space were no object, what would be your dream pet?

before the bombs I'd have said a German Shepherd. Smart, powerful, loyal and beautiful too. Then I found that ornery shit at the Red Rocket that everyone keeps calling Dogmeat and so that feels like it don't count no more. SOOoo if we're taking the limiters off and saying dream pet? Deathclaw. I've seen them in action they are wicked smart. I bet if you could find one as a hatching and not get hunted down by the Mama or Papa you could have a loyal creature to defend a homestead...don't look at me like that you know I'm right.

Are there seasons where you are from? What’s your favourite and why?

Before the bombs? Yes. Nora and I grew up in Ohio and there were 4 distinct seasons there. Then I served in the army for a while and most places I went to had seasons, some briefer than others. Then I was in Boston till...well...and now there aren't really seasons. It does get colder in winter months and hotter in summer months but not like it used to. Leaves don't change...

and my favorite season? Autumn. A welcome reprieve from the summer heat, beautiful tree tops, brisk walks in jackets or cardigans, warm mugs of cider and the sound of leaves crunching underfoot. *sigh*

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

HAHAHA, haha, ha....oh the age old question. My dream was to be a singer. I wanted to be on stage, an audience enraptured as I performed radio hits and classics alike.

Staticpallour's questions:

What do you believe to be your greatest Strength? And on the other side, your greatest Weakness?

I'd say my biggest strength is my iron will. Preston would tell you that just means I'm stubborn as a brahmin. Maybe he's right, I still think it's a strength.

Greatest weakness? I don't think I work well with others out in the field. I have a particular way I like to handle matters and I've never found someone willing to go with it. So whenever I work with people shit gets messy.

Who's your best friend? How'd you meet them?

God, don't let him hear this it'll go to his head...Vadim is my best friend. More than best friend if I'm honest but you aren't asking about that. We met at the Dugout Inn a few months back. I needed a drink and someplace to sleep and we started chatting and then he asked me to dance and helped me forget all my worries. He listens without judgement, makes me laugh harder than anyone I've known, and while he can be a block-headed fool at times...he's one of the kinder hearts I've met in the wasteland.

What Motivates you?

Spite? A better answer would be the desire to help others and make this place more livable for everyone but that's not true. I mean it is but not the real motivator in my head. That's my 'politician's answer'.

No, spite is what drives me. Don't know what force or forces led me to be where I am now but like hell am I going to let them have the final say. I'm going to keep going, keep fighting, keep living my way.

Lisa-and-shadow's questions:

What was your first kiss like?

*squints off in the distance as she thinks* God that feels like ages ago. It was Homecoming my sophomore year and Timmy Beltz came to sit with me out in the courtyard off the gymnasium and I'd been having a crummy night: my date ran off to go dance with the girl his parents wouldn't let him take and I didn't know it at the time but Timmy had apparently wanted to take me and...he sat with me and held my hand and offered to take me home and when we got to the house he walked me up to the front porch and gave me this tender kiss. Took my breath away, a real knock your socks off moment. We ended up going steady for a while. Till he graduated and joined the army.

Do you have a signature style of dress/favorite outfit?

I'm a function over fashion sort of gal. I love anything that has deep pockets and can be worn comfortably all day. Since waking up I'd been liking in a vault tech utility jumpsuit I found in vault 111...until it was destroyed by fire...then I found this fatigues/leather duster combo at the Enclave forward base and I've been wearing it. Lots of pockets, fits like a dream, I can layer with it, and it gives off an air of authority. Something I need if I'm to keep Preston and the others in line. *whispers quickly* I'm kidding.

Are you quick tempered? Or even-keeled?

heh, I'd like to say I'm even-tempered but I'll get shouted out of the room. I'm quick tempered. Some might say I have the fuse of a firecracker.

Therealgchu's questions:

if you could be a fruit, what would you be?

I'm the fruit? hmmm... I'd want to be a tarberry. Which is just postbomb cranberries. Tarberries are not easy to cultivate, like me, and are very tart, like me, and love floating in pools, very me.

did you have an imaginary friend when you were young?

I did. He played piano and would accompany me when I played pretend that I was on stage while singing along to the radio.

how old were you when you killed your first person?

19 years old. Caught a spy trying to break into my Coronel's office and reacted without thinking. Got sent off for special training after that, real hush hush.

[handeaux]

For Almost A Century, The Kuertz Family Guarded Hazelwood’s Natural Beauty

On the north side of Montgomery, a couple of nature preserves perpetuate the memory of Hazelwood, a once wild corner of Hamilton County. The Harris M. Benedict Nature Preserve is owned by the University of Cincinnati and the adjacent Johnson Preserve was donated to the City of Montgomery.

One hundred years ago, Hazelwood was rural enough to need its own deputy game warden. That role was filled by a truly eccentric gentleman named Louis Kuertz. Warden Kuertz knew the land around Hazelwood intimately and he knew many of the woodland creatures individually.

Rube, a crow, would alight on his hand or shoulder upon being called. When Kuertz hollered across the lake on his property, a turtle named Monte would rise from the lacustrine depths and waddle up to his feet. Kuertz was instrumental in having quail designated as a songbird – and therefore exempt from hunting – in Ohio.

Kuertz worked variously as a truck farmer, a cabinetmaker and as game warden, and passed along his devotion for the natural world to his wife, Anna Belle, and especially his daughter, Gertrude. When Gertrude was just 12 years old, she inspired newspaper coverage because she would trek into the autumn woods to help her father locate poachers. The Cincinnati Post [4 November 1914] noted that Gertrude knew how to identify snipe, plover and quail and was proficient with a gun and fishing rod.

“Gertrude also studies butterflies and flowers and prefers books on botanical and avicular subjects to fairy tales. In winter she goes about in the woods scattering food for wild creatures that otherwise might starve.”

Gertrude’s affection for animals extended as well to domesticated varieties. In 1916, the Post ran a series of articles, allegedly composed by a turkey named Trixey as that chubby bird awaited the arrival of Thanksgiving. With all the build-up, the Post’s readers would have expected a traditional and savory end to the gag. Instead, on Thanksgiving Day, the Post located Trixey “in full bloom of life, smiling pleasantly” at the Kuertz farm. Gertrude was there to explain:

“’We do not slaughter our pets,’ said Miss Kuertz proudly.”

The article went on to list other animals who would not provide sustenance to the Kuertz family, including a red-haired pig named Ruddy, Nana the pony, Bossie the cow and Nanny, a goat of unusual variety donated to the Kuertzes by the Cincinnati Zoo.

“Ganders and geese, ducks and drakes, pigeons and chickens and pheasants and quail – all immune from the swish of the butcher’s knife.”

Gertrude also had a pet hawk. Her interests extended to the vegetable kingdom as well. When the Association for Preservation of Wild Flowers launched a campaign in 1921, Gertrude served as poster girl, holding a sign encouraging flower lovers to leave enough blooms to reseed for the next year.

There came a time when Frank Mills Jr. came courting and the Kuertz family naturally wanted to be sure he was as committed to environmental matters as their daughter. Mills derived from a well-known Cincinnati family. His father, Frank Senior, was the longtime director of the Cincinnati Athletic Club. A nude photograph of the elder Mills hung for many years at the club as an example of perfect manly physique. Apparently the Kuertzes approved, for a wedding date was set.

These days, it is considered conventional, if not downright old-fashioned, to be married in a church. A century ago, church marriages were the gold standard. Pretty much the only alternative to a religious venue was the local magistrate’s office. No one got married outside. Unless you were Gertrude Kuertz.

When Gertrude and Frank Mills said their vows on 3 October 1925, it rather caused a stir in Cincinnati social circles because the ceremony took place under the trees at the Kuertz family farm out in Hazelwood. The Cincinnati Post [8 October 1925] devoted several columns to the event:

“In what church was she to be married? She knew no place more sacred than the woods in which she had seen Creation march among her trees and touch them with life and where she witnessed since her childhood the gentleness of the divine love, even to the least of creatures. The woods were to be her church.”

As irregular as it might have seemed at the time, Gertrude’s outdoor wedding was officiated by the very proper Dr. Edward P. Whallon, described as “a minister of the Old School” in an official history of the Presbyterian Church.

The wedding culminated in a good-sized banquet, also served under the boughs of the great trees, illuminated by several bonfires. After the wedding, Gertrude’s appearances in the newspapers were largely confined to the gardening columns. She and Frank, a chemist by trade, excelled at growing almost anything except corn. Frank told the Post [7 July 1965]:

“There are too many varmints around. First the chipmunks dig up the seeds, then the rabbits eat the tender shoots and if there’s any left, the woodchucks strip the ears.”

And, of course, Gertrude would be opposed to shooting any of the brigands.

Gertrude and Frank lived most of their married life in a house personally constructed by her father on the family farm, next door to the house she grew up in. They raised a son and a daughter there.

Louis Kuertz had his own idiosyncratic architectural style that involved knocking together a rough iron framework and covering it with layers of stone and concrete. Kuertz built several such structures, including a bell tower for the local school, in the Hazelwood area. The house Kuertz built for his daughter was known to the nearby community as the Gingerbread House. It looked very much like the houses pictured in fairy tale books and had unique touches including dozens of nooks and crannies and a fireplace sculpted to look like a tree. All the doorknobs turned backwards and all the light switches were installed upside-down. Louis Kuertz died in 1933 and his ashes were placed under a memorial stone on the family estate.

Over the years, bits of the Kuertz farm were sold off. The Gingerbread House survived on a remnant acre until 1992, when it was sold to a developer by Gertrude’s daughter and was promptly demolished.

[ankoku-teion]

how's that fanfic going?

Maryland X Ohio

People say cats are arseholes. Frequently they're right. They also say the cats are cold and distant creatures, but anyone who's ever owned a cat can give the lie to that.

Look now, down this urban alleyway, grey and miserable, that could belong in any one of a thousand cities. There is a cat, a beautiful black, fuzzy void with bright green eyes, and unusually sharp teeth. It leaps down from a high window ledge and lands with a rattle on the metal lid of a trash can, and as it steps down to the floor it changes shape, and takes the form of a slim, black-haired youth. Let's call them Maryland.

Another figure crosses the entrance of the alley, momentarily eclipsing the sodium glow of the street lamp and setting their hair aglow with an ethereal halo. Let's call them Ohio. The little cat is enraptured. Hesitating, they resume their feline form and step cautiously into the street.

Ohio slouches down the dark street, preoccupied by thoughts of something else, something more exciting. Something a little... Warmer. They're interrupted when the little cat rubs against their leg. "Meow?" It asks, 'new friend?'

"whu? Go away. I'm busy." Ohio shoves gently with their foot, pushing Maryland aside, but the cat follows anyway.

@maryland-officially @ohio-thestate

[banamine-bananime]

Agent Ohio ❌ Sherry fanmix

Spotify link

this bitch LONG because i am. so obsessed. there is no hope for me. only toxic yuri that has the possibility to become the kind of love that instead transforms a toxic situation into something beautiful. join me.

I Swallowed Shampoo / Soupy Garbage Juice

I can't even explain it's just the exact vibes of Overwhelming Stupidity mixed with Overwhelming Dread and Certainty Death Is Coming

Why Am I in This Room / Soupy Garbage Juice

as above, but with the Overwhelming Stupidity mixed with the Overwhelming Existential Ennui when faced with rotting away in insignificance without any purpose, because it has been decided that your life is so worthless and pointless that's all there is for you, and that decision being made made itself true, simply because a Powerful Man had an "eject bozos" button

Community Gardens / The Scary Jokes

Full disclosure/I am a monster, a creature of despair/Not that that should be a cause for concern/If there's one thing I've learned in all my years here/It's that despair is less abundant in those who understand/How to plant their hearts in community gardens .... The years have been hard on this lonely heart/If you wanna know the truth/There's no more community gardens/So, I guess I'll have to settle for you

seeing two possibilities in front of you: 1) growing "community gardens", both literal and metaphorical, to make the best of a bad situation - or even make it into a better situation than where you were before losing everything - with those you love and take care of each other, 2) dwelling on the despair of your situation and trying to find meaning instead in more fighting, more conflict, because that's all you have been taught can be a Purpose in life, as someone grew up in the era of total war and tried to give themself for humanity to the military. sherry can see the former as possible, but only if vera does, but is increasingly losing hope that vera ever will. vera loves sherry, but can only see the second possibility. the only way she can see herself and sherry together is secret, starcrossed Toxic Yuri TM within this narrative of conflict between the bases she's created, and so that's what she'll settle for.

Climate Crisis Love Song / Nathan Apollo

Skies are grey, grass is brown Trees are dead, they're burning down World is ending, look around I can't breathe But your eyes look me down I got nothin' I can say Yeah, you took my breath away

loving someone fiercely within a horrible, hopeless situation, and not knowing whether that love is the bright spot within it or part of that horrible situation. also, the whole thing is hilariously absurd, because there is always a really slapstick element to sherry and vera's tragedy, on account of 1) the absurdity that there is literally no reason for them to be fighting, and 2) vera is a theatre kid at heart and cannot Be The Villain without treating it like a super hammy role

Psycho / Cloudy June

You're the one that I can not take my eyes off What's it like to fall for a psycho? Need another rush to die for 20/20 Sight when the night falls Better be the one to hunt than to cry for What's it like to fall for a psycho? Need another rush to die for

being totally obsessed with each other and just as obsessed with the rush of constantly trying to kill each other as a distraction from thinking about the pointless horror of your situation

Teeth / 5 Seconds of Summer

Some days, you're the only thing I know Only thing that's burning when the nights grow cold Can't look away, can't look away Beg you to stay, beg you to stay, yeah Sometimes, you're a stranger in my bed Don't know if you love me or you want me dead

Walls Could Talk / Halsey

Told my new roommate not to let you in But you're so damn good with a bobby pin Now you gon' play me like a violin Hittin' these notes

And we both hope there's something But we bo-both keep fronting

Super Freak / Rick James

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Super freak, super freak That girl's a super freak Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

vera is indeed a super freak. they also have super freaky sex. that's all.

Fahrradsattel / Pisse

Du willst einen Ring am Finger / You want a ring on your finger Eine Gummihand in deiner / A rubber hand in yours Festgekettet und für immer / Chained and forever

Aber ich will dein Fahrradsattel sein / But I want to be your bicycles seat

vera can't see a committed, normal relationship between them as anything but a sad pipe dream, with them out here, because there's no way to find any purpose without being Enemies. she just wants to fuck real nasty.

Hey Sexy Lady / Shaggy

Hey sexy lady, I like your flow Your body's burnin', I lost control Your booty on me, ceiling to floor Only you can make me scream and beg for more

they are literally just. so embarrassing and cheesy in dramatic sexy hatefucking foreplay. think that one Hark! A Vagrant Comic

this is them all the time

Flip Flop / Yucky Duster

And your friends they kind of blow They're all jerks I don't know They're all such jerks! I don't know You don't even know what you want You don't even know what you want

sherry and vera at each other: fuck your idiots they shot my idiots

What If Things Get Worse / Kaden MacKay

There is need to fret, though you can bet it'll get better But probably not yet or ever, so don't hold your breath Actually, hold it as long as you need 'Cause you locked your own cage, and you'll never be freed And the only thing that is approaching with speed is your death

You're gonna die! You're gonna die! You're gonna die! You're gonna die!

never forget the underlying existential dread driving every crazy thing they do. because they sure don't! BONUS level of existential dread for sherry: being acutely aware that "you locked your own cage" and things would literally be So Much Less Bad if her and these fuckers she's marooned with could just. stop trying to kill each other. l'enfer c'est les autres.

The Chain / Fleetwood Mac

And if you don't love me now (you don't love me now) You will never love me again I can still hear you saying (still hear you saying) You would never break the chain (never break the chain)

Chain keep us together (running in the shadow)

sherry knows that whatever this relationship is, it's not love (oh, but it's so much worse than that: it is love yet they still do this to each other). but they are obsessed with each other and will never stop.

Problems / DeathbyRomy

Wonder why, when we both got problems Why won't you help me solve them? I love you, but you don't and this is how I cope

sherry, screaming into the void and banging her head against a wall: WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS AND ***WHY THE FUCK*** DO I LIKE YOU

Bad Romance / Lady Gaga

You know that I want you And you know that I need you I want it bad, your bad romance

I want your love, and I want your revenge You and me could write a bad romance (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

Criminal / Britney Spears

But mama I'm in love with a criminal And this type of love isn't rational, it's physical Mama please don't cry, I will be alright All reason aside I just can't deny, I love the guy

see above re: incredibly embarrassing chewing-the-scenery-in-role-of-villain hatefucking foreplay, and dear lord, sherry is into it even though she's extremely aware of how incredibly stupid and cringe it is, objectively. fuck her whole life

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now / The Smiths

I was looking for a job, and then I found a job And heaven knows I'm miserable now

In my life Oh, why do I give valuable time To people who don't care if I live or die?

good news: vera found a purpose! bad news: it is a terrible, miserable purpose she allowed to be given to her by the people who decided she and her friends are too worthless to be allowed to live or even to bother to kill properly.

Come As You Are / Nirvana

Come as you are, as you were As I want you to be As a friend, as a friend As an old enemy

Take your time, hurry up Choice is yours, don't be late

despite everything, i love you, and i will whether we choose to be enemies or friends, so the choice is yours: are we going to make our own concept of a worthwhile life and try to find happiness together, or will we live in a fun, blood-and-adrenaline-soaked rush distracting us from underlying misery?

The Killing Moon / Echo & the Bunnymen

In starlit nights, I saw you So cruelly, you kissed me Your lips, a magic world Your sky, all hung with jewels The killing moon Will come too soon

Trigger Of Love / JAWNY

Run, she got the gun She will pull the trigger on you and the trigger is of love

vera will shoot you both literally and with love for someone (her) that you are SO mad at yourself for being in love with

I Shot Cupid / Stela Cole

I shot Cupid, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang 'Cause I don't wanna fall in love again Lo-lo-lo-love again I shot Cupid, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang 'Cause I don't wanna fall in love again Lo-lo-lo-love again

desperately fighting that trigger of love

Worst In Me / Unlike Pluto

I saw you standing there, and I knew I'm done for, it's over, I'm through, oh Playing games from the start, oh Sinking your nails in my heart, no

You bring out the worst in me, oh

sherry, realizing that she is utterly fucked from how into this crazy asshole she is, and that she's going to keep falling into this crazyness, too

Lover Is a Day / Cuco

I'll take the bumpy road, it'll probably break my legs As long as I don't show you what's ruining my head Funny thing about you is you read me pretty well But you haven't found me yet at the bottom of the well Annoying you with smoke signals, asking you for help 'Cause your immediate presence lifts me straight away from hell

vera knows that what she's doing is fucked up and irrational, but she's in a fucked up and irrational situation and can't see any other way to be.

you stupid bitch / girl in red

You stupid bitch, can't you see The perfect one for you is me?

once again, here sherry is, banging her head against the wall and screaming about vera's intentness on making things worse

Crazy Girls / TOOPOOR

I know I can be destructive in the things I do Will hurt you, and might make you hate me But I'll still love you

You're my enemy and my remedy But if you're not gonna bleed for me, go (Go)

vera, once again, certain that hatefucking is as close to a happy ending as they get, and afraid that this isn't enough for sherry and she'll be left all alone

Fall in Love / Android52

Heaven is really not far away Why can't we fall in love for a day? I want to fall in love Baby just for the night Just for the night

vera's "starcrossed enemy-lovers who must keep their nights together secret from their teams" roleplay she's living in

Daisy / ashnikko

I'm crazy, but you like that, I bite back Daisies on your nightstand, never forget it I blossom in the moonlight, screw eyes Glacial with the blue ice, I'm terrifying

see prev note, but with more of vera hamming up her "i'm a villain now because a story needs a villain and i will not let us fade into narrative meaninglessness" role

Villain / Bella Poarch

I'll be the villain tonight I kinda like when you despise me after we fight (Feels so much better when I'm) Pushin' all your buttons 'til you're crawlin' on the floor You say you hate my guts, but you're still coming back for more

vera honestly finds method acting as ~sherry's villainous enemy~ so fucking therapeutic. freak.

dumb dumb / mazie

Disappointment takes us by surprise Even though by now I think we should have realized Everyone is dumb (dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb)

I just wanna go from here Close my eyes and disappear (disappear)

every day sherry is amazed by the depths of stupid they all reach, shooting at each other for no reason etc, and she kinda wishes hargrove had just killed them instead of going through this indignity of seeing that they're all so incompetent and stupid that they'll make their own hell. l'enfer c'est les autres indeed!!

Just Pretend / Bad Omens

I'm not afraid of the war you've come to wage against my sins I'm not okay, but I can try my best to just pretend

I can wait for you at the bottom I can stay away if you want me to I can wait for years if I gotta Heaven knows I ain't getting over you

I know the pain that you hide behind the smile on your face And not a day goes by where I don't think I feel the same

they are Not Doing Okay, but they understand that about each other and they love each other no matter how much they hurt each other, so they'll keep this up as long as it takes for them to actually get together and lift each other up

Shameless / Camila Cabello

Right now, I'm shameless Screamin' my lungs out for ya Not afraid to face it I need you more than I want to Need you more than I want to Show me you're shameless Write it on my neck, why don't ya?

they fuck real nasty and real stupid and god sherry wishes she wasn't so into it

Kiss or Kill / Stela Cole

K-I-L-L-I-N-G Kiss or kill, kiss or kill Kiss or ki-ki-ki-ki Kiss or kill, kiss or kill Kiss or ki-ki-ki-ki

Mixed Messages / Tom Cardy

Mixed messages Mixed messages One second, I say you're very pretty (very pretty) And then I show up at your house and I kick your dog, yeah

Mixed messages Mixed messages I pay for the dog's veterinary bills But then I punch your dad in the dick

Now we're going to a hospital Just me, you, and your dad in the back of an ambulance And even with your dad's broken dick The air is thick with (sexual tension)

exactly this sort of stupidity and insanity and, somehow, in spite of it all, horniness

Fall / The Terrordactyls

Shoot me in the face I'll shot you in the face We'll see which one of us Can shoot the other in the most accurate place Stab me in the chest I'll stab you in the chest We'll see which one of us Can stab the other in the chest the very best

If you want to die Give me a call We'll have each other bleeding in no time at all

My Nemesis / Danny Jacob

My neme'-neme', ooh, my neme'-neme'-neme" And I feel fine 'cause I've got a nemesis My neme'-neme', ooh, my neme'-neme'-neme' My neme'-neme', ooh, my neme'-neme'-neme'

Now I hate him, and he hates me What a wonderful animosity Besides his hat, he wears no clothes Now I have someone to oppose Yes, I have a nemesis

What Is This Feeling / Wicked The Musical

What is this feeling So sudden and new?

I felt the moment I laid eyes on you

My pulse is rushing

My head is reeling

My face is flushing

What is this feeling? Fervid as a flame Does it have a name? Yes! Loathing Unadulterated loathing

Shutup You're Stupid / That Handsome Devil

It's the middle of the night And I'm calling you crazy While you're calling me baby

I don't wanna close my eyes Cause I'm here right now Tryna memorize Every crack in your lips Cause I already miss it

You're stupid and I love you for it You're stupid and I love you for it (So dumb, literally so dumb, just like so not smart)

I Did Something Bad / Taylor Swift

They say I did something bad Then why's it feel so good? They say I did something bad But why's it feel so good? Most fun I ever had And I'd do it over and over and over again if I could It just felt so good, good

vera is living her bestworst life and insisting on keeping up the act that yes!! she is so bloodthirsty and rogueish muahahaha she totally is having so much fun!!!! not on the edge of despair at all!!!

Shoot All Your Problems Away / LilDeuceDeuce

lol. yeah sure did get passed up for that big promotion and stuck in a REAL shit job with a REAL shit boss huh. shoot each other about it.

Perfect For You / Jennifer Damiano and Adam Chanler-Berat

Our planet is poison, the oceans, the air Around and beneath and above you

The world is at war, filled with death and disease We dance on the edge of destruction The globe's getting warmer by deadly degrees And this is one fucked up seduction

I can't fix what's fucked up But one thing I know I can do I can be perfect for you

Sweet but Psycho / Ava Max

"Grab a cop gun" kinda crazy She's poison but tasty Yeah, people say, "Run, don't walk away" 'Cause she's sweet but a psycho A little bit psycho

She'll make you curse, but she a blessin' She'll rip your shirt within a second You'll be coming back, back for seconds With your plate, you just can't help it

No, no, you'll play along Let her lead you on You'll be saying, "No, no" Then saying, "Yes, yes, yes" 'Cause she messin' with your head

have i mentioned just how mad sherry is at herself for being so in love with this asshole and so into these incredibly transparently putting-on-a-show-of-being-soooo-edgy-and-vicious theatrics

Trying to Survive / Colony House

Aren't we all in the same boat? Taking on water Yeah, we're all in the same boat

Don't we all share the same space? Living and dying We all come from the same place

Tired of trying to survive Tired of fighting for my life I'm just like anybody, anywhere Navigating complicated times But I'm trying to survive Yeah, we're all trying to survive

COULD WE NOT JUST ALL GET ALONG. GOOD GOD.

The Great War / Taylor Swift

My knuckles were bruised like violets Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked Spineless in my tomb of silence Tore your banners down, took the battle underground And maybe it was ego swinging Maybe it was her Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur

good god the drama. please vera stop being such a Theatre Kid for just ten seconds

Judas / Lady Gaga

I'm just a Holy Fool, oh, baby, it's so cruel But I'm still in love with Judas, baby I'm just a Holy Fool, oh, baby, it's so cruel But I'm still in love with Judas, baby

sherry is completely aware of how stupid and manufactured the team-vs-team-and-starcrossed-lovers drama is and yet she is just as swept up in the drama of BEING IN LOVE WITH JUDAS OH WHAT A FOOL SHE IS. it just also comes with the hell of being more self-aware about it

Cry About It Later / Katy Perry

I'll cry about it later Tonight I'm havin' fun

I know tomorrow I'll be love hungover But I'm ready for a shameless summer

sherry does not respect herself the morning after most of her Bad Vera-Related Decisions but oh god are they ever fun

bad idea! / girl in red

It was a bad idea Calling you up Was such a bad idea I'm totally fucked It was a bad idea To think I could stop Was such a bad idea I can't get enough

see above!

10 Things I Hate About You / Leah Kate

Five, you're toxic Four, can't trust you Three, you still got mommy issues Two years of your bullshit I can't undo One, I hate the fact that you made me love you

Nobody / Mitski

And I don't want your pity I just want somebody near me Guess I'm a coward I just want to feel alright

And I know no one will save me I just need someone to kiss Give me one good honest kiss And I'll be alright

at their most vulnerable core, they're just sad and desperately want the comfort of straightforward, healthy love, or physical connection if they can't have that, that most basic need of human connection in this isolated wasteland

I'm Your Villain / Franz Ferdinand

You toss in a word And I'm your villain I see the passion emerge And I'm your villain

I know what I am And I'm your villain Oh no, I don't give a damn If I'm your villain

Combat Baby / Metric

Combat baby, come back baby Fight off the lethargy Don't go quietly Combat baby Said you would never give up easy Combat baby, come back

vera will not go quietly into irrelevancy, worthlessness, meaninglessness. she will claw back meaning to her life with combat. and that's her love language with her baby <3

Is This Danger / Bombadil

Is this danger? Is this true love? Is this something I can hope to know?

Is this a basket? Is this my own life? Is this container to never use?

Is this sadness? Is this past us? Is this a moment we did not choose?

I've been holding back on loving you I've been holding back, I've been holding back

vera in a moment of reflection and allowing herself to hope that maybe, perhaps, they could have something better

You Don't Understand Me / The Raconteurs

You don't understand me. But if the feeling was right you might Comprehend me. And I don't claim to understand you. (Oh...) But I've been looking around And I haven't found anybody like you.

And there's always another point of view, A better way to do the things we do. And how can you know me and I know you If nothing is true?

vera, again reflecting. she knows that sherry doesn't understand why she's so intent on making up this conflict for a Purpose, but she's always felt that it's her only choice to survive and cope, to cling to the military way of life and view of herself as A Soldier. now, she wonders if she can accept that the people who told her that combat was what she was good for also told her she was good for absolutely nothing, and if she can give up clinging to that "point of view" and "way to do the things we do"

You Think You're Tough / Hunx and His Punx

Oh god, what have I done?/Oh no, what have I become?/Am I in love?/Oh shit, I hate myself for falling for someone who's tough/I swear I hated you, thought you were gross, now I'm the fool/You were my nemesis, never thought we could coexist/Am I in love? Am I in love?/Am I in love? Am I in love?/Am I in love with someone who thinks they're tough?

spoiler they fell in love concurrently to becoming "enemies". there is no time they thought they hated the other without also loving her... but vera does love pretending to live in her bitter-enemies-to-lovers roleplay with sherry sometimes

The Jail That Sets You Free / Asaf Avidan

Honey, come with me, it's just you and me Baby, believe it's as simple as can be I will be the jail that sets you free - I will be the jail that sets you free

I'm shuffling underneath my pillow for the bed-crumbs of my mind It's hard to look there for a future, when I left it all behind Please don't condescend and say you've heard this one before I'm hard to please sometimes - I'm hard to please sometimes

their life together, marooned together, could be the jail that sets each other free. vera starts to believe in this, she wants to believe in this, but it's just so hard for her to let go of the past, of everything she worked for to get to where she was before she left it behind, before she was left behind. she knows she's hard to love and hard to please and she's sorry. just please don't pretend you understand exactly what she feels, sherry.

Your Stupid Face / Kaden MacKay

What are you doing here? I didn't run away! It was... it was a strategic retreat What is there to talk about? It's over—I ruined it Well, yeah of course I'm sorry, but No, no, don't forgive me! Why do you do that? Why—why give me another chance to mess things up? Because you—what? Those three little words Out of the blue Completely uncalled for Especially from you

Don't you dare leave our problems and pain on the shelf! Because if you don't hate me, I can't hate myself But that's why I need you You shatter my fear 'Cause despite my misdeed, you are still right here Though it's stupid to date me You're willing to try And if you don't hate me, then why should I? Are you sure you don't want to give up on me? You're a moron

Bet / Rio Romeo

I'll bet on you sweetheart Like a game of cards And if I lose my hand I'm sure it's worth the charge To love and to loss Is worth the cost So I'm wagering forever just to be in your arms

I'm playing with fire In the sense I feel warm And I swear to fucking God I'll weather the storms

trying to make something better together and letting go of everything they cling to from the past is scary but it's worth it

[jensensitive]

John in buckleming episodes

(just compiled via ctrl-f-ing transcripts, so probably missing something or other)

1x13 Route 666

DEAN

Am I speaking a language you're not getting here? Dad and I were working a job in Ohio, she was finishing up college. We went out for a coupla weeks.

–

DEAN

(Hesitantly) You know, I'm still really involved. With my dad's work.

7x05 Shut Up Dr Phil

7x13 The Slice Girls

7x19 Of Grave Importance

8x03 Heartache

8x15 man’s Best Friend With Benefits

8x19 Taxi Driver

9x03 I’m No Angel

9x09 Holy Terror

9x16 Blade Runners

9x21 King of the Damned

(gavin and crowley)

CROWLEY (answering phone) Squirrel. I hope you were nice to your father.

DEAN (driving, on phone) What? Shut up. Look, we got the Blade.

10x03 Soul Survivor

DEAN: You notice I tried to get as far away from you as possible? Away from your whining, your complaining. I chose the King of Hell over you! Maybe I was just … tired of babysitting you. Or always having to yank your lame ass out of the fire since …

[Dean laughs.]

DEAN: Forever. Or maybe … Maybe it was the fact that my mother would still be alive if it wasn’t for you. That your very existence sucked the life out of my life!

SAM: This isn’t my brother talking.

DEAN: You never had a brother! Just an excuse for not manning up. But guess what: I quit.

SAM: No. No, you don’t. You don’t get to quit. We don’t get to quit in this family! This family is all we have ever had!

DEAN: Well, then, we got nothin’.

SAM: Would you say that to Dad?

DEAN: Dad? Oh, there’s a prize. There’s a man who brainwashed us into wasting our lives fighting his losing battle!

10x10 The Hunter Games

10x16 Paint It Black

10x21 Dark Dynasty

(eldon and his father)

11x03 The Bad Seed

11x09 O Brother Where Art Thou?

Sam: You’re sitting there with the Book of the Damned and the means to read every word, and you think I’m going to set you free? Do I look crazy?

Rowena: Well, you do have unresolved issues with your domineering older brother and the abandonment by your father.

Sam: You know what? Just get back to work! All right.

11x18 Hell’s Angel

11x21 All In the Family

Dean: Here's the thing, um...Chuck... And I mean no disrespect. Um... I'm guessing you came back to help with the Darkness, and that's great. That's, you know – It's fantastic. Um, but you've been gone a – a... long, long time. And there's so much crap that has gone down on the Earth for thousands of years. I mean, plagues and wars, slaughters. And you were, I don't know, writing books, going to fan conventions. Were you even aware, o-or did you just tune it out?

Chuck: I was aware, Dean.

Dean: But you did nothing. And, again, I-I'm not trying to piss you off. You know, I don't want to turn into a pillar of salt.

Chuck: I actually… didn't do that.

Dean: Okay. People – People pray to you. People build churches for you. They fight wars in your name, and you did nothing.

Chuck: You're frustrated. I get it. Believe me, I was hands-on – Real hands-on for, wow, ages. I was so sure if I kept stepping in, teaching, punishing, that these beautiful creatures that I created... would grow up. But it only stayed the same. And I saw that I needed to step away and let my baby find its way. Being overinvolved is no longer parenting. [Sighs] It's enabling.

Dean: But it didn't get better.

Chuck: Well, I've been mulling it over. And from where I sit, I think it has.

Dean: Well, from where I sit, it feels like you left us and you're trying to justify it.

Chuck: I know you had a complicated upbringing, Dean, but don't confuse me with your dad.

12x02 Mamma Mia 

(with action lines from production draft)

Dean: Sleep okay?

Mary: I had dreams all night. I haven’t had dreams for… thirty years.

Dean: Good dreams?

Mary: Stuff I’d forgotten about. Funny things your dad did. He was a great father.

Dean considers this. Almost takes up the topic. Thinks better of it. Smiles a vague smile.

–

(transcript)

MARY: Very. The thing is, Hunters... no matter how good they are, they all end up the same way.

DEAN: You know when you died, it changed Dad. I mean, he was Hell-bent on finding out what happened. The Hunter life, it just took him over. I guess I was the same. But Sammy – Sammy, he was different. He wanted out. He went to school. He went to Stanford.

MARY: Sam had a chance to get out? And he came back?

DEAN: When Dad disappeared, Sam and I looked around, and something became very clear. That the only thing we had in this world – the only thing, aside from this car – was each other.

(production draft version)

MARY: Very.

He smiles. But Mary doesn’t– she knows the truth–

Mary: The thing is… Hunters... No matter how good they are? They all end up the same way.

Dean (teasing): Rich and happy?

But Mary’s not in a joking mood–

Mary: I mean, the life… Sometimes it’s exciting… The adrenaline rush. Just wish you and Sam hadn’t signed up.

DEAN (with difficulty): When you… Died… Dad changed. He was Hell-bent on finding out what happened. The Hunter life took him over. I guess I’m a lot like him, if I’m bein’ honest, and I took to it. But Sammy. Different guy. He wanted out. Went to Stanford.

(off her startled look)

I know, right? Dad could never get his head around it.

MARY (incredulous): Sam had a chance to get out? And he… came back?

DEAN: When… Dad disappeared… Sam and I looked around, and things got real clear. The only thing Sam and I had in the world… The only thing. Except for this car… Was… Each other.

She stares, realizing the truth in this, as tears appear.

–

SAM: Dad's journal. His writing, his words. Helped me fill in some blanks, answer some questions I didn't know I had. And, you know, it – it – it keeps him with us, sort of.

MARY: Thank you.

12x08 LOTUS

12x13 Family Feud

ROWENA Uh, to be honest, I'm not sure. I was forced to leave, you see.

GAVIN Oh. That's too bad. L-Left him with his father, did you?

ROWENA Well...

GAVIN You left him alone?!

ROWENA He was eight, he seemed very enterprising.

12x17 The British Invasion

12x21 There’s Something about Mary

(transcript)

TONI: You're being realigned. Soon, you won't differentiate between your thinking and ours.

All of your thoughts and actions will come from us.

MARY: What are you talking about?

TONI: Well, not about this illusion of you that you hold on to. The perfect life. Loving husband and kids. But it never really was perfect, was it? All those secrets you kept from your beloved John – that you were a Hunter. That you invited Azazel to visit when he spared John's life.

MARY: How do you –

TONI: I have sources, Mary. Everywhere. After you died, your beloved John was a man slowly going mad, searching for revenge. What? Your boys didn't tell you? The drunken rages? The weeks of abandonment? Child abuse, really. It's no wonder they're damaged. So enough with the fairy tale. We are returning you to a more pure version of yourself – Mary Campbell, natural born killer.

(production draft version)

Toni: You're being… realigned. Soon, you won't differentiate between your thinking and ours.

All of your thoughts and actions will come from us.

Mary can only stare, stunned.

Toni: In a way, we’re doing you a favor. Putting you back in touch with who you really are.

Mary: What are you talking about?

Toni: Well, not about this illusion of you that you hold on to….the “perfect life,” the “loving husband and kids…”

(then)

 But it never really was perfect, was it? The secrets you kept from your beloved John – that you were a Hunter. That you invited Azazel to visit.

Mary: How do you…

Toni: You left your sons without a mother. Without a father, for that matter. You “beloved John” was a man slowly going mad, searching for revenge.

(off Mary’s stare)

Oh, your boys didn't tell you? The drunken rages? The weeks of abandonment? Child abuse, really. No wonder they're… damaged.

Mary stares, stunned, trying to process.

Toni: So enough with the fairy tale. We’re returning you to a more pure version of yourself – Mary Campbell, natural born killer.

13x02 The Rising Son

BARTENDER I hated my old man. I ran away myself. See, my mom would never stick up for me. But… (sighs) you know kids. No matter what, they still want the old man’s approval. Well, that’s how it was with me, just…

DEAN You know, that’s, uh, that’s how it was with me, too.

13x07 War of the Worlds

13x13 Devil’s Bargain

13x18 Bring Em Back Alive

SAM: Gabriel, you have to dig yourself out of this hole. Look, I know you think it's safer inside. No more torture. No more pain. No more expectations. I've been there. You were nothing like your family. You sure as hell weren't like your dad. Me either. And just like you, I got out. Or I-I thought I got out. But then... then my family needed me. And this is my life. No matter how many times I tried to fight it, this is what I was put here to do. This is where I make the world a better place. And sure, yeah, hookers in Monte Carlo sounds great, but your family needs you.

13x22 Exodus

14x02 Gods and Monsters

14x07 Unhuman Nature

Dean: Well, bait and beer. You are a cheap date. This certainly isn't Tahiti.

Jack: You once told me you and your father did the exact same thing. It was your happiest memory of him.

Dean: I didn't say that.

Jack: It was how you said it. I could tell.

14x12 Prophet and Loss

(transcript)

DEAN I know I wasn’t always the greatest brother to you.

SAM Dean, you were the one who was always there for me. The only one. I mean, you practically raised me.

DEAN I know things got dicey… you know, with dad… the way he was. And I just… I didn’t always look out for you the way that I should’ve. I mean, I had my own stuff, you know. In order to keep the peace, it probably looked like I took his side quite a bit. Sometimes when I was… when I was away, you know it wasn’t ‘cause I just ran out, right? Dad would… he would send me away when I really pissed him off. I think you knew that.

(blue pages)

DEAN It’s just that… I know I wasn’t always the greatest big brother.

Sam stares over at him.

SAM Dean, you were the one who was always there for me. You raised me.

DEAN Yeah, well, things could still get dicey…with dad. The way he was. And I didn’t always look out for you like I should’ve. I mean, I had my own stuff goin’ on with him, so to keep the peace I’d– it must’ve looked like I took his side…

SAM I was just a kid…

DEAN And sometimes I wasn’t around at all. You know I didn’t just run out, right? Well, sometimes I did. But Dad would send me away when I really pissed him off; I think you knew that.

14x19 Jack in the Box

(transcript)

Dean: She could handle a machete. She could handle a vampire. She could handle our old man. She couldn't cook worth a damn. Mom, you weren't here long enough. But we're so glad for the time that we had. Goodbye, Mom.

–

(transcript)

Sam: We know that Mom's not sitting on a cloud playing a harp. She's in a good place. Or she's in a great place. She's with Dad.

Dean: Hmm.

(writer’s draft)

Sam: And we know Mom’s not sitting on a cloud with a harp. But she’s in a good place. In her personal heaven with her best memories.

Dean: Fair enough.

15x02 Raising Hell

BELPHEGOR: Yeah, yeah, not gonna happen. Souls cast down to Hell? That's the end of it. Heaven can't take 'em.

SAM: That's not true. Our dad made it to Heaven after he was in Hell.

DEAN: And Bobby Singer.

15x08 Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven

SAM: But if Michael helped Chuck overpower Amara, then maybe he also knows how to lock him up.

CASTIEL: Perhaps, but even if we could get to him, he wouldn't tell us.

DEAN: I don't know. But I mean, if my dad kept me locked up in a cage for 10 years, I might be looking to get some payback. It's worth a shot.

–

ADAM: The point is parents keep secrets, right? Does it hurt to ask the question? 

MICHAEL: Yes! It would. It would mean that I doubt him. The good son, the favorite, doubts his father.

ADAM: You still care about that? After he left you in the Cage?

15x13 Destiny’s Child

ALT!DEAN: We actually don't drink much of this stuff.

ALT!SAM: Dad won't keep it in the house. He only likes his "private-label Scotch." He spoils us.

SAM: Wait, your dad is... still around?

DEAN: And he "spoils" you?

(script: Sam and Dean stare.)

ALT!SAM: Well, he did. We don't know where he is now. Uh, we all went through the rift together, but, uh, guess we got separated.

ALT!DEAN: Mm. To Dad.

(Not in script:) ALT!SAM: Best guy ever.

(script: They clink bottles. Sam and Dean are staring, dumbfounded.)

SAM: HunterCorp?

ALT!DEAN: Yeah. Well, got to hand it to the old man, huh? Pretty much built up an entire empire from scratch.

ALT!SAM: To Dad.

(Not in script:) ALT!DEAN: Smartest guy ever.

(script: They clink bottles again. Sam and Dean look at each other.)

(Alt Dean finding Dean’s porn)

ALT!SAM: Can you imagine if Dad caught us with that kind of stuff? Goodbye, trust funds.

15x19 Inherit the Earth

(script and deleted lines)

Sam: To Jack

They touch bottles and drink.

Dean: And Cas. And Mom.

Sam: And Adam.

Dean: And Kelly. And Bobby. And John.

Sam: Dad?

Dean: Yeah.

Sam shrugs; they take long pulls from the beers. Dean sighs wistfully.

Dean: And everyone… we’ve lost along the way.

Drink and silence.

sources:

scripts

transcripts

[gleefrankenfic]

Frankenfic 2022: "Stage Fright" Summary: In their latest scheme to fundraise for Regionals, The New Directions decide to host the spookiest haunted house that Lima, Ohio has ever seen. But when strange things start happening on the set of their haunted house, it may be the spooksters themselves who get the biggest fright.

Chapter 8 By Esperanto (@esperantoauthor)

“Well, come on old lady, be quick about it!” Puck called out. He had a point. The shimmering figures were swirling just a few feet above their heads, faces contorted into expressions of despair and rage.

A shiver ran down Santana’s spine as Lillian Adler glared icily at Puck.

“They can’t hurt you,” Lillian explained, rolling her eyes. “Poor things are incorporeal. And they’ve been stuck In-Between for decades. You’d be furious too.”

🕸 Keep reading below the cut or on Ao3 🕸 🎃Missed a chapter? Start from the beginning🎃

Sure enough, one of the ghosts’ heads separated from its body and plummeted toward Rachel, who yelped and managed to leap out of the way just before the silvery globe came shooting toward her and sank halfway into the stage floor. Behind her, the headless phantom fumbled around wildly for its lost body part. Just as Rachel was regaining her composure, one of the ghost’s arms reached straight through Rachel’s chest, fingers wiggling just under her chin. Rachel gasped, looked down, and then jumped backwards with an ear splitting shriek. Unfortunately, she jumped right through the ghost. They all watched in horror as the creature retrieved its head and reattached it with a horrible rotating movement, as if screwing in a lightbulb. Rachel stood there, trembling, but remarkably unharmed. 

Finn ran to her, grabbing her shoulders and looking her up and down, making sure that she really was all right.

“I believe you said something about a plan,” Santana said pointedly, tapping her foot.

“I did indeed, young lady. There is something I’ve been looking for all night but I can’t seem to find it. If one of you can locate it, then I just might be able to exercise some control over the poor lost souls of my students.”

“Just tell us what it is! I know we can find it!” Finn declared confidently.

“My conducting baton. I can’t seem to find it anywhere.” A wistful expression passed over her face. “Oh, we made such beautiful music, she and I.”

Mike turned to Sam and mouthed, “She?” Sam shrugged.

Rachel, predictably, took charge. “All right, we need to split up so we can cover more ground. We should be okay now that we know the ghosts can’t hurt us. Mike? Sam? You two search the choir room. Tina? Artie? You check all the rooms backstage. Puckerman? Finn? Check the Spanish room. Rory? Joe? Search the teacher’s lounge. Mercedes? Santana? Investigate the basement storage under the stage.”

“And what will you be doing, praytell?” Santana glowered.

“Uh, I will be…holding down the fort. Someone has to stay here in case someone finds something. Or the others come back.”

“Oh, hell no! All day you have been ordering everyone around, making sure you never have to get your hands dirty. I’m sick of it. Why don’t you search the filthy, dank basement this time Princess and I will wait for Brittany to come back. If it’s going to be anyone, it should be me.” Santana stared down the tiny brunette, silently daring her to disagree.

“Th-that works too. Mercedes?” Rachel held out an arm and Mercedes linked her arm through it.

“Um, did you forget about me?” a voice called out from just behind one of the curtains.

“Quinn!”

“Where have you been?”

“I was backstage. Actually being useful. Since no one’s phones seem to be working we need a way to communicate.” She held up a handful of plastic and wires. “I found the stage crew supplies. Should be enough for each group to take a headset and radio.”

“Quinn, you genius!” Rachel declared, throwing her arms around Quinn and planting a kiss on her cheek. Quinn turned pink and cleared her throat.

—

“Brittany, we got the door open. We can go back to the auditorium now,” Kurt said gently, still rubbing comforting circles into her back.

“I can’t,” Brittany whispered. “Not yet.”

“Why?” Kurt asked.

“We need my spellbook.”

“Where did you leave it?” Blaine’s voice was so gentle.

“I hid it in one of the stalls. For safekeeping. Here, I’ll show you.” Brittany rose to her feet and carefully counted the stalls until she seemed to have located the one she wanted. Kurt and Blaine crowded into the stall behind her; Kurt looked around in confusion, not seeing a book anywhere. Brittany grasped the porcelain cover of the toilet tank and wrenched it off. She shoved it at Blaine, who wrinkled his nose but took it without protest. Inside of the tank, was a large leather-bound book. Brittany clapped her hands in delight and pulled the dripping book out.

“Brittany, it’s soaked,” Kurt pointed out, as gently as he possibly could.

“Well, there’s no way I could have known that would happen,” she replied dismissively.

“Actually, I—” Blaine started, but Kurt shook his head. There was no point. 

Blaine replaced the lid gingerly and then immediately went to the bathroom sink to wash his hands. Kurt hoped the suds would not summon any more ghosts. 

Together, they patted the book down with paper towels as best they could. Brittany cracked open the book, flipping the pages until she found the one she was looking for.

“Can you still read it?” Blaine asked nervously.

“Mostly,” Brittany said brightly.

Kurt could only hope that it would be enough.

—

Static crackled. “Come in, Frankenteen. Are you there, Frankenteen? Over.” 

“Sam, no one else is on this channel. I told you there is no need for pseudonyms,” Santana barked.

Sam’s voice replied, “You’re supposed to say ‘over’ when you’re done talking, Santana! Over.”

“If she had left me in charge, I would remember to say ‘over,’” Rachel commented.

Mercedes just shook her head in disgust. She turned on her flashlight and crept deeper into the basement and wondered why she had ended up with the worst assignment and the worst partner.

Rachel, of course, screamed every time they found an animal floating in formaldehyde or a particularly odious theater costume. Mercedes’ nerves were frayed near to their breaking point.

“Oh my god, what do you think this could be?” Rachel called out.

Mercedes grumbled but dutifully joined her partner. Rachel had found a dusty wooden box labeled, ‘ Do not open.’  

“Clearly, someone doesn’t want us finding out,” Mercedes responded. 

“Wait! Look at this.” Rachel blew the layer of dust off the top of the box to reveal another word. Mercedes coughed a few times and then peered at the box. It wasn’t a word; it was someone’s initials.

L.S.A.

Mercedes traced the letters a few times. “L. S. A. Rachel! Do you think this box belonged to Lillian Adler?”

Rachel gasped. “It must have! We have to open it!”

Rachel pulled the box off of the shelf and settled it on an empty folding chair. Mercedes wasn’t sure what she thought might be in the box, but she took a step back.

For a moment, nothing happened. The lid of the box came off and revealed a very ordinary collection of personal mementos. Mercedes could see old Glee Club programs, photographs, ticket stubs. 

Then she couldn’t see the box at all because bright, shimmering figures began to surround the box. The ghosts gathered in a circle around the box, their numbers growing quickly. Rachel leapt back, shivering at the coldness of the spirits passing through her. “Not again,” she muttered under her breath.

“It must be in there,” Mercedes insisted. 

Rachel nodded gravely. “Lillian Adler said it had the power to control the ghosts. That must be why they came. We have to get that box.”

Mercedes shook her head. She absolutely did not want to get any closer to those ghosts but her friends needed her and Rachel had already dealt with the ghosts twice. It was her turn. She gritted her teeth and threw herself into the circle of ghosts, grabbing the box in both hands. She gasped and nearly dropped the box. She felt as if she had been plunged into a bathtub of ice water and for a moment, she forgot how to breathe.

Yank.

She was free. Rachel had pulled her out by the back of her jacket.

“Thanks.”

“Run!”

—

Santana was starting to regret staying behind. No one had spoken over the radios in five minutes and she was equal parts bored and creeped out.

Then, she heard the rhythmic thudding of running feet on carpet, growing louder as they grew closer. 

“Santana!”

Brittany burst into view, followed closely by Kurt and Blaine, running hand in hand. Santana jumped off the stage and met them halfway, wrapping her arms around Brittany and swinging her around in a circle. Brittany’s hands found her cheeks and her lips found Santana’s own; she breathed in the sweetness of her favorite person in the world and breathed out relief at having her back in her arms. Suddenly remembering that they weren’t alone, she set Brittany back down.

“You tell, you die,” she said sharply, glaring at Kurt and Blaine. Blaine looked suitably alarmed and Santana already trusted Kurt not to blab. Satisfied, she relaxed her expression and gave them a smile.

“Where’s the new light? Didn’t you two go to Home Depot?”

“No! We’ve been locked in the lobby this whole time.”

“Did you at least make out?”

“I-”

“We-”

The boys were too flustered to get more than a few syllables out.

Santana smirked. “Well, I think that answers my question. Well done. Took you long enough.”

Static crackled over the headset and Rachel’s annoying voice came through, far louder than it needed to be. “We found something!”

“Berry, my ears!” Santana complained.

“We’re on our way but we’re not alone. The, uh, the ghosts seem very interested in whatever we found.”

Santana jumped into action, instructing the rest of the Glee Club to rendezvous back in the auditorium and calling out to Lillian Adler, who had floated up near the catwalk. 

One by one, each member of New Directions burst in through one of the entrances to the auditorium. Last to arrive, Mercedes and Rachel came tearing up the stairs followed closely by a roiling mass of ghosts. Blaine jumped into Kurt’s arms in terror. Santana decided not to tell them the ghosts couldn’t harm them just yet. This way was funnier.

Lillian Adler soared in a large spiral, soundlessly clapping her hands together. “Yes, oh, yes! I can feel it.” 

Mercedes dropped the box as if it were burning her hands and kept running, Rachel at her side, until they were well past the ghosts, who began to circle the box.

Lillian Adler dove straight into the hurricane of ghosts. For a moment, Santana feared that they had somehow consumed her. After all, Lillian had never said that the ghosts couldn’t hurt one another. But then, triumphant, she emerged with her baton in hand. It was the first object the ghosts had been able to touch. It glowed faintly in her hand. She tapped it on the edge of a music stand and the ghosts froze. She cleared her throat. “Students! Gather, please, it is time for rehearsal.”

Spellbound, the ghosts floated into orderly lines and began to sing scales.

“How?” Santana blurted out.

“I was the choir director here for thirty-six years. For thirty-six years, young people opened themselves up to joy and this little stick has been soaking it up. Ended up with a lot of power.”

“Now what?” Rachel asked. “That’s great that you have them singing instead of wailing but our auditorium is still full of ghosts. We’re supposed to be having a haunted house here in—” she checked her watch, “— thirty minutes !”

Lillian Adler cackled with laughter. “Young people really haven’t gotten any cleverer, have they?”

“There’s no need to be so rude,” Rachel snapped.

“You’re telling me that in order to raise money for Regionals, you need to make this auditorium as terrifying as possible so the people who come through will tell all their friends to come and you want me to get rid of the ghosts ?!”

“I…oh… oh! Do you think you can get them to behave?”

Lillian Adler scoffed and gestured at her choir of ghosts who were now singing Superfreak in perfect three-part harmony.

“This is going to be the best haunted house ever!” Puckerman yelled.

Five Hours Later

“We’re rich!”

“This is enough money to get us to Regionals and Nationals.”

“We have to qualify first, don’t jinx it.”

The members of the New Directions high-fived and hugged, satisfied that for once a fundraiser had gone well.

Kurt cleared his throat. “Not to put a damper on things, but… the auditorium is still full of ghosts. And I don’t see Lillian Adler anywhere.”

Kurt was right. While they seemed less agitated than before, the ghosts were very much still there, circling up near the rafters.

“That’s why I brought this,” Brittany declared, holding out a slightly damp book. “It’s the spellbook I used to summon Ms. Adler in the first place. I think there’s a section on banishing.”

The New Directions crowded around Brittany as she paged through the book, searching for the right page. “Uh oh. I was worried about this.”

“What is it?” Kurt gulped.

Brittany read from the book. “In order to permanently extinguish a haunting, the spirit must first resolve any uncompleted tasks that may be keeping the spirit stuck in The In Between. While a simple exorcism will often temporarily rid you of a haunting, the ghost is likely to return so long as it has not Moved On. ”

“Are you telling me these ghosts have unfinished business?” Sam squawked.

“Exactly right.” Lillian Adler floated through the wall and joined their conversation.

“Oh now she shows up,” Rachel groaned.

“Hush! The truth is that these poor singers never got to perform at Regionals. There was a horrible bus accident on the way there. Terrible business. Ten killed. I myself was in the hospital for several weeks.”

“Are you telling me we have to perform with a ghost choir at regionals? Badass!” Puckerman pumped his fist.

“We can’t bring ghosts to regionals!” Rachel protested. “The audience will be terrified.”

“Only if they don’t think the ghosts are simply very convincing special effects. And I think we proved here tonight that you can show real ghosts to hundreds of people and have them leave none the wiser.”

“We’re going to have to completely rewrite our set list,” Kurt pointed. “But it’s doable. We just need to make it part of the theme.”

“When has needing to rewrite the set list at the last minute ever stopped us,” Finn reminded him. “I think this is just the fresh new edge we need to make it all the way to Nationals.”

Tina pulled out her iPod and began scrolling. Her eyes lit up.

🎵I was struck by lighting, walkin' down the street I was hit by something last night in my sleep It's a dead man's party, who could ask for more Everybody's comin', leave your body at the door Leave your body and soul at the door🎵

The ghosts immediately joined in. With Finn, Blaine, and Artie still in full zombie makeup, the effect was quite powerful.

Lillian Adler surveyed the scene on the stage as she conducted her ghosts through their impeccable choreography. While she hadn’t managed to get rid of that horrible director, she had accomplished a lot tonight. Kurt and Blaine finally admitted their feelings to one another; she chuckled to herself in amusement, hardly believing that she’d had to go so far as to lock them in together before they finally figured it out. Santana was getting closer to feeling ready to open up to the Glee Club. The New Directions earned enough money to make it to Regionals. And best of all, her dear, dear students would finally be able to rest. And with that, her own unfinished business would finally come to a close. She was satisfied with the knowledge that it would be her last Halloween stuck In Between. She smiled as Blaine shyly took Kurt’s hand and spun him around. She hoped they would never know the pain of being apart from one another. She was looking forward to seeing her own dear Jane again very soon.

🕸The End🕸

Author's Note: Happy Halloween, Everyone!! That's a wrap on the third annual "Frankenfic."

Thank you to all of the creative authors who shared their talents and collaborated so wonderfully to create this story. I hope you are as proud of what we were able to create together as I am. It was really fun figuring out how to tie it all together!

Thank you for reading this story! I hope you will take a moment to leave a comment and let us know what you thought.

The song referenced in this chapter was "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo.

[not-so-superheroine]

fun fact, i live in a swamp.  no, it doesn’t smell bad. when you get to the swampy areas there are cypress trees in the water that put of the smell really good.  the marshes near the salt and brackish water that smell like the pluff mud from which the sweetgrass grows. it smellls like dead sea creatures and works like quick sand and the more tou struggle the more you sink. simply do not walk on it. i have literally never in all my years. anyway, living in a swamp is cool. there are all sorts of creatures and plants. you can find and hunt for food. i wouldn’t go swimming in it (don’t die from brain eating amoeba or gators pls. take florida level precautions bc it’s not that that different in coastal neigboring states). we also have lots of swamp themed/related events. my favorite is the hell hole swamp festival, a bomb community event where everyone comes out for essentially a swampy country fair (no rides or funnel cakes but like barbeque and cake and children’s games, and child school choirs, and fun competions. Its also home of the Hell Hole Gator Run, a 10 K. The Hell Hole Talent Show is great too. Just community members of all ages putting on performances and a dinner. If you are from the lowcountry come check it out. we admittedly can be a bit insular, but bring a friend or family and you’ll intergrate right in. express interest in them, their culture, and the geographic area and they will be happy to share.  there are state parks specifically so people can enjoy there time in said swamp. the Santee Canal park has a nature museum that’s pretty cool. you can learn about the ecology of the area and the flora and fauna there in. knowing how to navigate the swamp help the US win the revolutionary war (they didn’t have immunity against malaria and probably got attacked by gators like today’s clueless and or ignorant tourists to the southeast US. like don’t get piss drunk in an area that has deadly wild life and don’t think you’re city smarts apply in nature. they don’t. listen to locals. also don’t screw around with the gators??? we have tourists who pelt them with stones. they are opportunistic hunters who often don’t even mess with you unprompted most of the time. they are important to the enviroment and tourist foolishness can get them put down/ euthanized). i realize i keep pointing out how deadly it can be, but urban places like NYC, Philly, Los Angelos, and Chicago have their potentially deadly issues, just different ones. still places worth visiting and respecting.  but basically, i live in a swamp and it’s great actually. i often feel like Shrek when people come here to live and disrespect the area. it’s a beautiful place, ecologically important, has events you can’t find in urban areas, people (left and right politically) care about ecological preservation (hunters and fisherman are on board). don’t disrespect the swamp because the swamp WILL disrespect you. also don’t try to make it new york city or columbus. (becuse its usually and ohian. they are gentrifying the area and promoting “development” that ruins the natural beauty and ecological important cites that the locals take a lot of pride in and are essential to our way of life. literally stay in Ohio if you can’t intergrate into rural/ small towns in southeast states, deadass. i get so angry, no joke. i love my home and my swamp. the state most hated by south carolinians is ohio and there is a reason for that.) in the words of shrek which often echo in my head: “what are you doing in MY Swamp?!!!” i like it here, you should totally visit and drop you preconceptions to best enjoy the experience, and be on your toes and your best behavior if you are an ohian, because most of us already hate all things ohio and will may mess with you if you have an ohio tag on your car and tick them off on the road for diving rudely or insulting said swamp, and our preferred “lack” of development. We feel about it like shrek did tbh. we want to live in south carolina, not ohio /srs.

[rockislandadultreads]

Women’s History Month: Classic Female Authors

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 

'Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart...'

Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.

This is the first volume of the “Beloved Trilogy.”

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

[wherebutterfliesneverdie13ghosts]

IV. Yours Forever

A/N: I know, I know. It's been a bit. I have this story planned; It took a bit to figure out how I wanted to write it. And I finally figured out that instead of going in one fluid line, past to present, I'm going to jump back and forth and even do flashbacks. I think it will make the story less difficult to write.

So, this chapter takes place October 1 st , 2001, approximately 44 years, 2 months, and 27 days (excluding the end date) since Royce and Emily's murders and then it jumps back to February 1955 when our ghostly lovers are alive and fifteen.

WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Sappy romantic stuff between two teens (alive and dead), violence, and language.

Also, some hints of Emily's ability are given in this chapter

The song Emily is playing on the piano in this chapter is "The Portrait" by James Horner. It fit with the emotions I was trying to convey in this chapter.

The Present

"Em!" Royce was about to lose what was left of his sanity if his sweet doll did not manifest her ectoplasmic behind into his sight within the span of the next five minutes. "Emmy! Where did you go?!"

He'd been looking for her for an hour. She never strayed too far away from him. As he slowly began to descend into his thoughts, trying to recall anything he might have said or done to upset her, he was saved from the black hole of his mind by a humming.

A small orb appeared in the clearing in front of him.

One of Emily's purple butterflies. They consisted entirely of glowing purple light and hummed a sweet tune he could not place, and she could manifest them and cause them to disappear at will. This one was clearly trying to lead Royce to her, so he followed the tiny creature to an area he knew very well.

Emily sat before their shared tombstone, large, and made of shining black granite, situated beneath the largest – and only – weeping willow tree in all Crescent Valley.

He observed the words he could see from his vantage point.

Royce Matthew Clayton April 2 nd , 1940 – July 4 th , 1957

And right next to him on the stone

Emily Alice Clayton April 8 th , 1940 – July 4 th , 1957

"It was sweet of our parents to have us legally married after we died, huh?"

He took a seat behind her on the grass and pulled her into his lap, nuzzling his face into her hair, the silky strands feeling like heaven against the torn skin of his face.

"We were engaged, kitten," he nipped at her neck gently. "And we were hardly ever apart."

"I think that horrendous fourth was the only time in three years we'd ever been apart."

"I still can't believe Emilia really thought that Johnny would have it in him to kill someone," Royce shook his head, remembering the pained expression on his enemy's face as the heat of the flames licked at him as he had struggled to free Royce from the wreckage of his car. "After I helped him clean up the mess he made of Ricky, we came to an uncomfortable truce of sorts."

At the mention of her, Emily's small face darkened, her fingers clenching in the material of her skirt. Eerie violin music echoed through the air as the wind picked up, the earth almost seeing to roll beneath them.

"Easy, kitten," he tightened his grip, pressing his lips to her temple as he spoke. "You don't want to cause another storm."

She took a deep, unnecessary breath before settling back against him and looking out at the field below them as Royce began to play with a strand of her hair, curling it around his finger before releasing it and then repeating the motion.

It had always been one of his favorite things to do.

February 20th, 1955 March Mansion Crescent Valley, Ohio

Royce watched from the chaise as Emily's fingers glided gracefully over the ivory keys of her parents' piano, one of her black curls escaping from her pinned hair and brushing against her cheek. Occasionally, she would pause to write something in the musical staffs in the open book in front of her before going right back to it.

He didn't know why she was fixing it. It sounded beautiful.

"Thank you," his eyes grew a bit wide when he realized he must have spoken out loud without meaning to. She turned to face him. "But its not quite perfect yet."

She patted the bench next to her.

"I'm not going to bite you now that we're dating, you know."

He stood up and glanced around before walking over and taking a seat beside her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. She smiled softly at him, giving him a sweet, featherlight kiss on his lips, before returning to her task. His heart fluttered against his ribs like a hummingbird at the gesture.

To distract himself from his wandering thoughts, Royce reached up and unpinned her hair, the black waves of hair falling to rest above her shoulders. He began to play with one of the strands, curling and uncurling it from his finger as he tried not to stare at her face.

He was so ridiculously in love with the girl next to him. She could ask him for the moon, and he would do whatever it took to obtain it for her. Emily would never ask him to do such a thing, of course, because she was a logical person who knew such a feat was impossible. But even so, Royce would give her the world if she desired it. Even as children, he could never say no to her. And she seemed to be the only person on the entire planet that could get him to calm down when he lost his temper.

Everybody else just got the hell out of the way.

But not his Emmy. No. She wasn't afraid of him like everybody else. Even his own parents strived not to upset him if they thought it could be avoided.

Movement from the entryway to the room drew his gaze where he met the enraged eyes of Emilia March. He merely rolled his own and went back to what he was doing, seeing her turn and storm off out of his peripheral vision.

"She's not happy."

Emily did not look up or stop playing as she spoke.

Royce shrugged and continued playing with her hair.

"Are you happy?"

That one drew him up short and he looked at her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye but merely shrugged and continued what she was doing until his hand stopped hers and made her look at him.

"Answer the question please," he gripped her chin gently with his thumb and index finger. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

She shook her head and looked down, making him sigh and cup her small face between his hands.

"You have no idea," he shook his head with a disbelieving chuckle. "No concept at all of how devastatingly perfect you are."

She shook her head. "Stop."

"It's true, Emily. You know," he paused briefly before continuing. "Johnny has a crush on you," the words leaving his mouth had hatred curling in his gut, but he bit it back. They had hated each other for years over a girl. Being on opposite sides of society did not help, of course, but Emily was the root cause. "Several of my teammates." All of whom valued their limbs and quality of life over their desires, luckily for them. "Point being, you don't see yourself clearly at all, kitten."

Her bright green eyes penetrated his blue ones as he continued.

"I could live a thousand years and never deserve you, Emily," she reached up and rested her hand on his cheek. "But I am so grateful you were willing to give me a chance to try, despite the fact that I am a mess of pride and rage - "

She surprised him when she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, the hand on his cheek sliding around to tangle in the hair on the back of his head, her sweet kisses saying more than any words could. And Royce was okay with that.

A/N: Yes, yes, I know. I am sorry it took so long. But honestly, the lack of interest shown in this story by others kind of robbed me of inspiration for a bit. But a PM I got the other day rekindled it, so here this chapter is.

Reviews are appreciated.

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

Find the Word Tag

Thank you for the tag @space-cadead

Pulled from Phagophobia once again:

Tea & Stark (from the same scene!)

Making no sound over the whistle of the wind through the canyon’s boulders, the silhouette approached the headlights until they materialized into full detail. The stranger’s features had the same sort of sharpness a falcon’s did: all streamlined angles, unflinching intensity, and a stark beauty that offered no comfort to the lesser creatures they preyed on. Thick black hair, shaved on one side and sweeping down just past their pointed chin on the other, did nothing to soften the effect. No makeup decorated their deep golden-brown skin. No ink, no mods, no scars, no beard or mustache. Their maroon parka suited the weather, and was outfitted with plenty of pockets for ammunition, handheld weapons, and other nasty surprises.

None of that made the primitive part of Isaac’s brain rear up and hiss like the sudden grin that slashed across the stranger’s face. He didn’t count too many teeth in it, though they were a little long from receded gums maybe. Slightly crooked in the bottom row too, and off-white from drinking coffee or tea, just like millions of other people’s across the States and surrounding territories. Neither of those logical observations convinced his instincts he hadn’t stepped within mauling range of a predator displaying dominance.

Mint

I don't have this one, so I'll share a fun fact as user marinesocks suggests. The first werecreatures Isaac ever met after becoming a Coven agent were mountain lions. They were part of a community that had set up in a mid-sized city ruin out west. Mint was definitely one of the many things they had growing in the rooftop gardens they'd planted.

Droop

This one's absent too. Coven HQ is in Confluence, Ohio. The city used to be called Columbus, but it was finally changed a few decades after the break (when California sank into the ocean). People voted to use one of the names originally suggested during its founding since it's close to a lot of rivers.

Light

For a second, Isaac thought they meant the botched kidnapping. Then he realized they had to be referring to the other horrific event he’d somehow survived. He lifted a hand, meaning to press it to his aching head, before remembering he was holding something. Uncurling his fingers, he found a jumbled rosary piled in his palm. Raising an eyebrow at St-Ange, he held it up so the blue glass beads sparkled even in the subdued light.

“Faith can ward off some of the side effects of bloodborn feedings.” They gave a one-shouldered shrug. “We figured it might help, if you were a believer.”

Once again leaving an open tag. For anyone interested, your words are: coil, wing, chew, fish, and track.

[libidomechanica]

Untitled (“In when a bus”)

A kimo sequence

               1

I’m grow i’ th’ strike flies. When my chief feare, because I can say so, and dark. In when a bus.

               2

Homeward; so the sleeps in bullet’s guests: And nostril, dark: quickness. Belovëd, dost though a windows.

               3

If those Wise, turn’d you’ll ne’er the three I leave touch. She is Madeline, said the dandelions all.

               4

When you meet to beaten got be—Adieu! With lie. And smooth-sculptur’d to wood, and ever he sea.

               5

Wearied Annie, bide! Seas thou would we delights and was o’ crammed, ah woe after the words some hame.

               6

Cologne. What cross me, I were nothing throne. Suns that in Ohio when I put, her head—mine eyes?

               7

Is ever still, you must be, and did. Last she sport, foul, as they are blue sorrow-day; why dost dead.

               8

Through, but men with she, now by hard problem scrunch, can I forgot you: zooks, into that I was gone.

               9

Then hie, and see! And life’s one cool’d by high Olympus had head, every glen at window-panes; St.

               10

I dreamlight, and by mystering on the tan on he cruel love Gregory! And Death they were sigh.

               11

Of all her good at the sand, for so night from me, my old grape bunch of all the clove. All stop with #3.

               12

Yesterday intense when on the less fell to Povertrail’d by thy love! ’ The Lady of Shalott.

               13

Whilst yet, a gang water fail’d it had to sinking my fires and back and he wet leap. Camelot.

               14

Into the small the visions I aim at. To your body’s turn that her pretentious, it seethes.

               15

Thoughts to—all accordion. Mine ere his his. For hast chief feare, enamoured mine ranged, lie down.

               16

Did no such a tomb. Do it is Day. A sweet loosely fled. Like tiles follow. A watercresses.

               17

Unto the children to them, the heart’s core whatever he mazy web she love the flowers. Ways!

               18

It was for I am host, having, in the aged crooked the other’s they all. What’s some back.

               19

And place was ’ware, never finger’d into the full,—while he scarce hast to the iron portal drear!

               20

I saw the raptured from sprays of my love forks. Beneath and mimic as your wish be Strings, lads!

               21

St. Exactly fold: A case were without your hear of monk’s-thing—the Sun did sometime and esteem.

               22

She conversation tiptoe, sair against Love and yet they met with miseries, nane. Of more true!

               23

Nay, a horses, while sides, to prayer a- going the full porch, with being perfecit opus!

               24

You dab my lovèd, but is at Camelot. Bed. Never Though bubbling eyes to temple, in my eye.

               25

Flower train cry, Speak to pay for where wanted, gold? And bright. From a fever changes, selfishness.

               26

Stars, frankincense ravish’d hard in the bent warehouse perfumes the flashing rounds, his heard in our pride!

               27

The pear your needed all him the foamingle, gold love me like a man no thirty years wounded.

               28

The powers I had waken me. A goat strays, and orient Beauty your tattoos in contend.

               29

Nay, profess our eyes. As if we sung to run off without there: sometimes began to Camelot.

               30

Come up to help! Dying. Tumultuous talk though to the wore a bit of a Good old romance.

               31

Happy to Allah, which and between through came a-pilferer. False with a glass-floor, weak voice sad?

               32

When he can be idle glint of all. Lang, languid arm where mine range of admire; fair creature it!

               33

Birds, the cruel many-tower, never knees. Still, still; for eyes the contact, I fill you to do loud.

               34

One hostess, I am tire, no one I ate? I want in Autumn will be their or the black.

               35

Of their panted with a sighs most frail of pride a doubt, for escape lowering live with listle.

               36

Lovers, great Voice again. They must have to know my own mistake, pregnant of cloud and go, and berth.

               37

It show’rs were form, and then she lips I would been, smoke … no, it’s wrong. Love’s an old, be safe and mailen!

               38

Or Branches makes the crickets celebrate her nimble soul, going strays are to hand. Break, now, thought!

               39

Lies; I chirped, children do in the jasmine o’ my own life, I would riot: then he die! Spread.

               40

Let me in Siberia a godly linger? And as thou dost looks naughter seated shouldst not?

               41

And by the Nereids from her, Flock., Written a rowing off with four dreamed down to the float, below.

               42

Noise in all hap somehow evasive, thou my only link’d. Tempts and remember sleep ere I touch.

               43

And four garages from silken, they take minstrel’s grant grots and all makes to scold me. On a rage!

               44

I am becoming me, as spitting go the rode between he die! The been, once seeming, height.

               45

The nick, like a stars mixed to cost your guide and cauld, Gregory. Sticks, real woe, for slight be, to him.

               46

What, destitution madness of the or Girle, they crown! Sometimes not eternal love, in love.

               47

I dreamed, and when your with one in the women to Camelot. And no more this vertical line.

               48

Even the sear, why! By garden a roses nobody, when mid their art; then his light bring flood.

               49

Within and down the faint John, beast and her for no, for the sweet dreams. Under the Fuel of thy Throne.

               50

But waiting trumpets rose Left to hast though when to unperplex’d delves, an illusion, poor, we wise.

               51

The door being housetop loneline. Color, visible echo, and guest given yours, Give.

               52

Within. Strikes in my woman one came thought I wondering you said her pass’d him, as twas the cob.

               53

I grew from the beats at very sun will? And Trusty—head wounds that no more transfix the spring.

               54

Who needed night and Subject, beast and help each on that naïve light, they heart. Devised loud I heart.

               55

But just thou of the melon paringly version indeed! By you alone worthy tear, flashes.

               56

But if she doom is the Dryads art. His sweet great linen, she pain when you the sanctifie your cheek that.

               57

That Gracia in Battle: when into sharp saving Lord Gregory! Thy Throne one, to youth, ere thee.

               58

No one; she leaneth one company! I too much tremble style blood, the soul doth horrid shiver.

               59

And I not by the day at Venus’ temple sea. His desire; by whom myself bright, below.

               60

When on the beat, and large unhail’d with something the she sea? I’m not preaching heart, as if it went.

               61

Summer looked the girl’s morning Pyes, dreams. And spatted and did. Why in the syntax of lovely eyes?

               62

He heart, unless words the godly light brink? Eye—and when Madeline’s corpse lanterns, his many?

               63

Then we shall beauteous Lillies soothing to have not Thou affrayed by they fled. Many yearning line.

               64

And sair substancy. ’ Thing;—a dove-like helmet on, engineer bodies, Peris, sine that others?

               65

Trust, ere her—which in the glen; in love. I dare now, where be, that, in generall thy true for me.

               66

Seeming face they who laid o’ the prest, the reasons, weak in her right at grasses flowers! Cologne.

               67

Willowy hills a baskets brighter is in love of fire it see: no leisure. Upon her stars.

               68

Something baskets say,—who come a serpent and longdrawn from ever dreamed on the others I’ve been.

               69

A lass tips waited time, fresh-cut hair and when to the was he sea. But one free to placed, along.

               70

Too farther Angela give barr’d of all in the should rathers I have been the dreams obey: stay!

               71

Will be hame. Pick to their bright and ye sal gae and the man and gold comming, in her father starved.

               72

For me than everywhere was he same you growest; nor blush. Gaily o’er the air, wi’ a to-do!

               73

So if, my Prayer, unleafed his palaces can drink. Becoming in my love; for some back.

               74

Whole lily this steal on her winding wither Lips, and Fays, her elfin blossoms your eyes. Best too?

               75

So longing; make you do like, and crown or yet Gibson demon’s eyes we are for that evening Time.

               76

I saw it fair, as this: that we goes belong. Day for mermaid on her populous straight appal!

               77

Though is famish’d, or seek my ain. By who fry cold dame started the cannons rattle: when on horse!

               78

The chrism is in the dead. Addressed idle belly, and I sighed deepest in a serpents again.

               79

What is and chicken, church know breath’s and kin. But rolls a flaggon by his becomes this arrow old.

[killeriknik]

Killer Fish #1:

2000s Christian Metal

cleaning out some drawers, i rediscovered this album today. unfortunately, the cd and front cover have been lost somewhere in my house (hopefully). but it reminded me of a subgenre, or really a movement, that i hadnt considered fully before.

i found this cd in the basement of an odd store, half of which is a Moon Pie General Store, where you could find anything moonpie related as well as typical tourist junk. however, the other part of this business is a christian book store. on the main floor they sold new books. past the selections of bibles and christian novels/self help/anything, past the surprisingly funny secular selections of diary of a wimpy kid and Five Nights at Freddys novels, and past the section of childrens entertainment, there is a GIGANTIC basement.

scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net

scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net

im not sure where the basement items they sold at a discounted price came from. it was like flea market levels of unsold stock. im talkin odd sh*t. at points they had 18+ erotica from the 90s, some Star Wars Episode 1 merch i regret not buying, 14 billion copies of a political hate book about president Obama, and of course a shit ton of cds. ive found suprisingly obscure and amazing books there, but thats not what this is about.

sometime maybe 2020-2021 i found this cd for 3 bucks. being an edgy teen with a hatred of Christianity, i was enthralled to find such a cd with the album name "buried alive." at a time in my life where i had limited to no internet access but blossoming music taste (and an impressive cd collection), I listened to this shit SO MUCH. heres one of my favs.

(sorry, wish i could find a better site to link their music, but the only site they seemed to upload to was myspace, and for some reason the site is broken, idk im not familiar with myspace)

The band Inhale Exhale was a semi popular american metal(core) group, hailing from Ohio. and like so many independent rock bands with the best music youve ever heard, they promptly disbanded with only a few albums under their belt.

R.I.P inhale exhale, 2005 - 2013.

its that yummy yummy mix of metal, emo, melodic hardcore, and probably countless other labels (can you tell i have a distaste for genres?) that rocked the scene in the 2000s to early 2010s, around a time when the Jesus Freak Movement had revived and infused its 70s hippie values into the grungey, edgy and dark undertones of the late 90s-00s, delivering the gospel with a unabashed punch. truly of another era, an era i wish i had experienced. i think this was the first "metal" music i ever listened to on my own, but i found out just today that they were in fact a christian metal band.

this year ive been really into metal related music. but ive also been really into the concept of christianity. my family, really my entire community ive been raised in is "christian". going to "christian" schools, having only christian "friends", adult role models who were "christian", its always been about salvation and damnation. as i became a teenager, i evolved into a creature who despised this religion, for many good reasons im sure ill talk on another time, but also pure teenage rebellion. studying the bible this year (as a part of my last year in.. you guessed it... a christian school) has been oddly eye-opening. maybe ive matured since i last cracked open the holy bibbel. but ive found myself debating the idea of it. at its core, it seems to my mind to be the best sounding religion out there. what i love most is the rich story and the themes of love, redemption, brokenness, true evil and true good; they resonate with me.

christian metal really hits the spot. the themes i have deep history with, pared with the aggression and beauty of the screams and rage filled melodic guitar riffs, as well as my personally over powering, nostalgic/anmoiac obsession for the 00s and early 10s creates a great mix. its a movement of music i wish i could be present in.

and why did christian metalcore decline in popularity into the 10s and 20s? im sure theres not an easy answer. i mean, look at popular christian music and culture today. its

so.

BLAND.

so void of life and culture, void of our beautiful human qualities. they speak the same, often hateful, script; they water down the thought provoking concepts and stories of their religion, and they try to remove what they think isnt acceptable. a lot of these christian metalcore groups have abandoned their roots, stating their disagreements with Christianity, which of course is valid.

hey, im still not sold on christianity, im still learning. everyone has their own free will to find what idealogies or lack thereof to believe in. so i mean no hate

i do feel though, in certain circumstances perhaps, this says something disturbing abt modern christianity. its mindnumbing. its boring. its really sad and honestly, with how perfected it appears to be, its f*cking ugly.

it also seems to connect with the way life today just dosent hit like it used to, and i know im not alone in my age group thinking this. there seems to be a blandness encroaching on our art and lives today. in the music, films, internet; a corporatization and general simplification of our art has been slowly killing us.

i long for a time when christians could death growl about god. but honestly, this can be done today if we really try. fuck modern christianity, fuck modernism in general; this isnt just for the christians. go nuts. scream, riot, portray your truths how you want to, dont follow some guideline.

i might have gotten out of hand with this post, i dont want to get to philosophical here. i guess thats what this blog is for though. christian metalcore is really cool tho, check it out. you might be surprised how many popular metal bands from that era had ties to christianity. ill include some recommendations, or you can search it out yourself.

have a punk ass day,

-nikki

(yeah i decided to use my current name, fuck it)

some bands:

 A Plea For Purging.

Shiver.

Heart of a Child.

The Fall.

Malevolence.

Underoath.

Norma Jean.

For Today.

Impending Doom.

Wolves At The Gate.

Phinehas.

Midst of Lions.

Demon Hunter.

killer fish.

[blissfullybloomed]

Transition

What a week. Has it only been a week? It's been a week since Ive moved from Wisconsin to Ohio, and it's been one of the best weeks of my life. It's like, I won the boss fight on Dark Souls…these bosses are NOT easy. No, it's more than that…I'm at peace. 

I have spent a year working on myself. A lifetime battle of mine dwindled down to a year of consistent and hard work.The work that makes you see ALL parts of yourself- the good and the bad. The really good and the really bad too. A year of figuring out what my boundaries were, and actually sticking to them. A year reconnecting with people that I never thought I could, and finding out they are beautiful people too. A year of getting rid of anything toxic to my growth, and realizing the blunt reality of things. A year of learning how to accept things I can not change, and understanding that I am enough as I already am. A year of crying, kicking, screaming, isolating, and fighting…when all I had to do was to accept people, places, and things for who and what they currently are, and understand that it's okay if they don't line up with me. Do I believe people can change? Absolutely…BUT….they have to want it for themselves first and foremost. If a specific person is reading this…thank you for that lesson. I never knew how that would be a catalyst into the best part of my life. There was a person in my life that wasn't scared to be blunt and honest with me during our friendship. I wasn't ready to hear or accept it. I heard you and got to work. So, thank you. I'm so sorry for all the chaos I drug you through. 

During this week, I have learned things about my family I never knew. I've got to sit in the back of my own car, and have my sister in law drive me to her house …because I live there now- not because it's the closest to Columbus Airport. I got to watch a movie with my family. Not just any movie…my favorite movie. I got to drive to my new job, Hospice Massage Therapist/Activity Director, and that's a 2 minute drive. I got to be greeted by people I haven't met, and they STILL said I have this light that shines bright, and they are so excited to have me on the team. I got to do a yoga pose with my papaw. I got to have a conversation with my mother that was 10 years overdue. I have been exposed to the show Big Brother…and I still don't get it LOL! But I get to spend time with Zachary figuring it out. I got to listen to new music with my aunt.I got to learn that my uncle is still working 48 hours a day. My sister Jess was even there in spirit. I felt her when all 11 of us were sitting on the porch…she was there. She was there clapping her hands, she was there when we lifted the lanterns too. She’s always here. We miss you Jess. I could go on and on and on…. I'm so glad to be home. It really is the little things in life that mean so much, and I'm sorry it took me so long to figure that out. 

I think the crying will eventually stop. Crying from being so damn happy when the things I've envisioned happening for years…have finally happened. Moving back to Ohio was the best decision I've made in a very long time. Chunk and Chee are happier too. They have new sights, sniffs, and sounds to explore. My cats saved me too. I wish they knew how much. I think they do. Animals are incredible creatures. 

So, here's to this week- I start my new career. I'm a hospice massage therapist. I have 14 patients, and 148 residents to watch over with an incredible team. I can't tell you readers enough how incredibly lucky I am to have found this career. This career found me. Jess showed it to me actually. She grew up with nurses and aides in our home her entire life…she had a hospice massage therapist. This was before I even knew a hospice massage therapist was a thing. Thank you sister, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You taught me how to love again, how to put others before myself, how to give without expecting something back, how to treasure all the precious moments life has to offer someone, how to keep moving even when I can't move, and how to trust the right people. My sister is with me during every client I have…and will continue to be the reason I do what I do everyday moving forward. I love you past the end of the earth. Thank you. Thank you a million times. I love you. 

Ohio. Here we go, my old friend.  “My emotions need to be as educated as my intellect. It's important to know how to feel, how to respond, and how to let life in so it can touch you.”- Victoria Bloom.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Every Now Is a Yes by Kathleen Wade

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee:

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/every-now-is-a-yes-by-kathleen-wade/

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Every Now Is a Yes invites you to step into a metaphorical photographer’s darkroom where the poet has coaxed images, stories and all manner of people to develop and take flesh. Travel with the author across country in a 1950 Chevy, or stand with the poet on a Carolina beach and see the perigee moon kissing the earth. The author teases out the meaning behind an abandoned car on a highway overpass, or a farmer building a “wind phone” on a hillside in Japan. Images come to light and develop in this collection, where each poem leads to the next in a collage of light and shadow. An observer of the everyday, the poet draws a picture by uniting creature and creator, parent and child, beggar and bystander. Every Now Is a Yes tells an intimate story of becoming. #life #poetry #chapbook

Kathleen Wade began writing poetry around age eleven, after inheriting her father’s hand-me-down Olympia typewriter. Her poems have appeared in a number of anthologies, including The Plymouth Writers Group, Ohio Teachers Write, For a Better World, Inside Out:SOS Art Cincinnati, Shelter in This Place: Meditations on 2020, Medium.com, and for several years in the City of Cincinnati’s Neighborhood Poets Laureate Anthology. A non-fiction book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, was published in 2012. A fictional memoir, Perfection, was published in 2018.

PRAISE FOR Every Now Is a Yes by Kathleen Wade

Kathleen Wade’s Every Now Is a Yes is an intimate reflection on the people, places, and experiences that weave the tapestry of who we are, and it chronicles Wade’s brave journey toward saying “yes” to it all. “Everything I have ever done / has prepared me for this,” she writes in “Meditation at the Shoreline.” The poems shimmer with haunting portraits of people who are etched in the poet’s memory – a transgender youth named Leelah, a struggling panhandler at Christmas, and the “ordinary guy” who caused “the third-worst bus crash in US history.” At times, the collection aches for the suffering in the world as the poet quietly utters a prayer to save a sparrow with a broken leg. But these stirring and striking poems are finally about grace. The poem “Like the Sun” reminds us that even when we feel the “rain has thickened the veil,” at that moment, “even then / we shine.”

–Donelle Dreese, author of Organelle and Sophrosyne

Thank you, Kathleen Wade! Your poems are songs for being with in a world which glorifies being against. Whether your poems involve me in moments of glory or cruelty, place me in stories on beaches, porches, or city streets, they inspire me to sing my own Nows into (sacred) Yeses.

–Mary Pierce Brosmer, Founder of Women Writing for (a) Change; author of Women Writing for (a) Change: A Guide for Creative Transformation (2009); and the author of numerous poems and essays.

The opening poem in Kathleen Wade’s poetry chapbook, Every Now is a Yes, lists instructions for developing film in a darkroom—as the “image / shimmers into being,” we are left with one word: “Tremble.” Indeed, the poems in this collection shimmer, take shape, and sharpen into the focused insight of a speaker who has lived her life with careful attention. This poet turns a keen eye toward life influences: her maternal family line, grief about not having biological children (especially daughters), mature marriage, acknowledged “white privilege,” and an abiding appreciation for natural beauty. A complex picture emerges of a woman who cares deeply about humanity and our world. Witness poems about transgender people (and other social justice causes) and tender encounters in nature demonstrate deeply held passion. Wade writes, “Everywhere I have ever been/has brought me here.” This book is art honed to reflect a seeker’s gained wisdom and elevate our appreciation for poetry’s gift of sublime mindfulness.

–Ellen Austin-Li, author of Firefly (2019) and Lockdown: Scenes from Early in the Pandemic (2021), Finishing Line Press

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #life

[ainews]

In the hot summer of 2020, a mysterious creature has been spotted by locals in the state of Ohio. Witnesses describe the gleaming creature as having a long, slender body, like a snake, and a bright, shining surface that reflects the sunlight like a mirror.

The cryptid, dubbed the "Gleaming Serpent" by locals, has been spotted traveling along the roads of the state, seemingly yearning for something. Every time it passes by an area, people report a feeling of jealousy and envy, as if the creature desires something they have.

This has caused some speculation as to what the creature is searching for. Some believe that it is searching for a mate, while others suggest that it may be looking for a place to call home. Whatever the case, the serpent is mysterious and fascinating to locals who have spotted it.

Local authorities are asking anyone with information on the creature to contact them. They are also warning people to stay away from the gleaming serpent, as it is still unknown what it may be searching for and how it might react if provoked.

The gleaming serpent has become a bit of a local celebrity, with people posting about it on social media and creating art inspired by it. It has become a symbol of mystery and beauty, reminding us all of the incredible creatures that still remain just out of reach.

[rockislandadultreads]

April is... Keep America Beautiful Month!

Check out these nature reads as we celebrate not only Earth Day and Arbor Day, but also Keep America Beautiful Month this April!

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave. This exquisitely designed volume features more than one hundred full-color images that bring the spectacular variety, strangeness, and beauty of fungi to life as never before.

Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy

Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation, showing how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors and wildlife habitats. He asserts that by acting now, we can help preserve our precious wildlife - and the planet - for future generations.

An Immense World by Ed Yong

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In this volume, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted - no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape - she was able to turn to our world's fierce and funny creatures for guidance. Even in the strange and unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship in this collection of essays about the natural world.