#but wendy is ending up with the agatha route

[aparticularbandit]

the amount of trauma wendy experienced maintaining neverland is not the same as the trauma wanda did not experience maintaining westview primarily for one reason:

wanda subconsciously ran westview; wendy consciously ran neverland.

everything that wanda was controlling, everything that she scripted, was stuff that went on in the background of her mind like when your computer scans or maintains other programming while you’re browsing the internet or writing in a word document.  she was aware that the computer was running, but not every program or what it was doing (or why it was breaking).

wendy controlled everything.  she very consciously controlled everything.  which meant she was also very consciously aware of everything.  which is why she was sequestered in the center of neverland with her barrier to protect her while another version of her got to run around with her lost ones (or do other things).

like - i don’t know how much of the scope of what wendy spent doing for those two years in neverland will be addressed (i think the moment she went back to is implied, but there’s so much more to it than that) - how she might have tried to be subconscious about things at first, the way wanda was, and when she found things breaking, as they inevitably would, she rebooted and made sure to consciously control everything because that was the only way to keep everyone happy and make sure that everything was going and moving correctly (and this is probably where the white streaks in her hair come in - from everything she’s seen, everything she’s stopped, everything she hasn’t stopped and probably should not have seen but couldn’t not see if she was going to maintain everything)--

like.

there is so much in those two years that i’m just.  probably not going to actually specifically address in the narrative proper.  but definitely had an effect on her.

[carib0us]

Harry Potter and the magical academy 01

Harry Potter's adventures continue at a magical school in England where he rescues a girl named Hermione from a troll. But no one is what they seem, including Harry him/herself.

A School of Magic! Harry Meets Hermione

As Harry Potter ran to the unused classroom where the sounds of a struggle were coming from, she didn't have time to ponder where she was or why. She really, really hoped this would work, and she only had a few seconds to fret over what would possess a girl to be so stupid as to wander off where a troll could get her. A revelo wouldn't work here. As a boy (and, in his own estimation, a very handsome one) he'd gone through all of Jeanette's naked rituals by various kinds of trees to "build up magical potential" but despite being a nymph, she hadn't taken any liberties as he'd rather hoped she would. On paper, conturbabimus would work long enough to drag the idiotic girl away before the troll could gather its wits and start serious spell-casting.

She kicked the door open and yelled the incantation without even looking around. Both figures struggling on the floor suddenly went slack and stared around them.

Harry dragged the girl (not bad looking but very dowdy) through the dusty, nondescript door and cast adfigo on it — another first attempt that worked. She owed Jeanette a debt of thanks. Eunice St. Clair, too. From the pounding the door was now taking, it was more than holding up. The girl was coming to her senses, so they dashed toward where she told Harry her room was. When they reached the section, the girl first made a complex gesture and said, "Nuntius Amelia Cackle hazardous being in the North Tower corridor, last room!", causing a white bird to appear and fly off with a scrap of paper in its beak, then spelled Harry in, and they ended up sitting on her bed. The girl was still shaking a bit but she smiled at Harry.

"Thank you for saving me from .... was that a troll?"

"A troll wizard, I guess you'd call it."

"That's supposed to be impossible, you know. But in any case, thank you ... "

"Harriet Potter. Named after my father, Harry Potter, senior. I go by Harry preferentially."

"Ah, I am Hermione ...... " the girl paused. " ... Grant. Hermione Grant."

Harry had never prided himself on his intellect. When it came to the things that interested him, like friends, girls, girlfriends (you get the picture), he'd seen that having a pretty face was far more important than whatever you had going on behind it. Not that that applied now. He'd barely had time to see his new form in a mirror, and had wasted that having a breakdown (what Madame St. Clair called 'throwing a tantrum', in fact). But who would blame him? He'd been a 15-year-old boy, his family's weirdness behind him, his little sister in one place for once, and nothing to worry about in the future but juggling phone numbers from hot girls. Now, thanks to what Eunice St. Clair had had Jeanette and the other Fae do to him, he was a dowdy, four-eyed eleven-year-old girl. Moreover, he wasn't in San Francisco anymore. He was in Wimbledon, and not here as a tennis champion, which would have been hot and garnered abundant female attention. He - or rather, she — was at a crazy school of magic the other people in Wimbledon could not even see.

All that said, even someone like Harry could tell the girl was lying.

"Umm, haven't you even checked in here?" she said. "I hope you were able to remember your name a bit better then, if so."

"Well, then, Harry Potter, if we're talking about not being what we seem?" she responded, looking her in the eye. Somehow, she knew. Maybe not everything that was up with Harry, but some of it, for sure. She decided it was the better part of valor to drop the subject. But that led to a different one.

"You are certainly powerful and educated in spell-crafting for an eleven-year-old, I have to say," Harry began.

"Oh?" asked Hermione, raising one eyebrow. Really, she could be actually cute if she'd taken the least little care for her appearance. Her dark, bushy hair was medium length, but cut as if someone had brushed it all out then cut it all off at the same length, then done for her bangs with a mixing bowl and a fabric shears.

"I almost am surprised you didn't overcome To .... the troll," Harry continued, catching herself.

"Your friend To the Troll has magic I've never encountered. That did not seem to be the case for you." Once again, she met her eyes, and Harry had to look away.

"Well," Harry responded clumsily.

"Well, indeed. Let's go have some tea and something to eat, shall we?"

With that, Hermione turned to bend over her bed and reach her bag. She came up smiling for some reason, and then they left, with Hermione spelling them out of the common area.

En route to the dining hall, she pulled Harry to a halt. "I realize we have a sort of detente going on, Harry, and I am genuinely grateful, but we must talk. You were staring at my breasts — what little I have — more than meeting my eyes when we were talking. When you did meet my gaze, you were thoughtful, as if evaluating how much better I might look if I fixed myself up, and paused when you got to my lips, at which point you licked your own. When I bent over to get my bag, in the mirror I saw you were drooling over my bum." She had her hands on her hips and a satisfied expression on her face. "I am sorry if I was short with you when you pointed out my mistake. It's elementary that you pick a name, stick to it, and say it automatically. The answer to your question is that nervousness such as to make you stammer out your name is quite expected here at Miss Cackle's, and in fact, the faculty and other students find it endearing. But I wished to return the favor, if your goal is to be discreet."

When they got to the dining hall and summoned tea and a small lunch, Harry and Hermione sat away from the others. Hermione said, "murmurati" as they sat down, which she explained would not silence them, just make it tricky to make out anything they were saying. Then she asked Harry, "Would you agree both of us have secrets, and our own agenda, here at Miss Cackle's?"

Harry nodded.

"And am I correct in saying you are lamenting the fact that your social life will be somewhat truncated? I honestly suspect you are a bit older than you look, probably in your prime dating age."

Harry looked at her, astonished.

"Well, if that surprised you .... Harry, we are going to have to be allies. If you did not mean me well, you could have let that troll you know finish me off, for one thing."

"Well ..." Harry interrupted.

"Well?"

"He doesn't do that. He's evil, all right but he thinks killing is a waste."

"Oh? So what was my fate to be?"

"He would put you in a glass coffin, probably. It's what he did to my sister, Wendy. And then assume your form and wreak havoc."

"And what's preventing that now? Well, Amelia will probably sort him out."

"Uh." Harry looked a little ill.

"What?"

"Well, he can expand a room like that until it's so big he won't be found easily. It's one of his spells."

"So, regardless of my plans, I have to help deal with a shape-changing troll wizard who could be anyone? Am I hearing this correctly? And of course you are aware that trolls are mostly resistant to magic — here in an academy devoted to nothing but?"

Harry could only nod.

"Does he take liberties with the girls? Or are there some small mercies here?"

"I think he's still obsessed with my little sister ...  Or, well, now she'd be a bit older than me, wouldn't she? He wanted her to be his consort in his dark kingdom, after all."

"At any rate, Harry, if you wish to keep me company here, I would not mind. My own experiences at girls' academies have made me open to such arrangements, and I can be very discreet, and instruct you as well, if it comes to that. But, hmm... okay, enough secret-sharing. Let's get you up to speed about Miss Cackle's Academy, shall we?"

She paused. "My true surname is actually Cackle. Since I share that with the headmistress, Amelia Cackle, and her twin Agatha - who is, I assure you, quite the piece of work - and since my existence has been heretofore absolutely unknown, you can see how that could be confusing at "Miss Cackle's Academy of Magic?"

After Harry nodded, Hermione gave her a brief overview of the school. She encouraged Harry to meet a few of the students over lunch and meet up with her afterwards. Since it was, after all, an all-girl school, Harriet had no objection to that plan whatsoever. It was time to see if girl-Harry still had game.

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

AK Monthly Recap: February 2017

After a quiet January, I got back to the road in February with two trips that were out of the norm for me. A trip to Florida and a cruise — two very typical American vacations, but not the usual kind of trip I take. Even so, I had a blast on both trips!

Best of all, these were trips with friends — a road trip through Florida with Cailin and a cruise through the Caribbean with Jeremy.

Punctuated with some fun times at home in New York, it made for a very satisfying month. Here’s everything I got up to in February!

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Orlando, Islamorada, Key Largo, Tavernier, Marathon, Key West, and Miami, Florida

Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Favorite Destinations

Key West is one of my new favorite places in the United States!

San Juan is a fabulous city and I was happy to return.

And I’m just discovering how awesome Miami Beach can be.

Highlights

Having fun at Universal Orlando. Universal Studios was the main reason for our Florida trip. Cailin is an ambassador for the park, and part of her partnership is that she gets to bring friends with her to experience the park for themselves. She kindly invited me and I was happy to join her. We had a great time!

Some of the highlights: throwing out beads on a Mardi Gras float, going to the actual Moe’s Tavern from The Simpsons, wearing our hot pink BEST FRIENDS shirts, experiencing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and doing a hilarious Bertie Botts Roulette video on Facebook live!), having breakfast with the Minions, riding The Mummy over and over (flying around in the dark, fiery explosions, Brendan Fraser demanding a cup of coffee — what’s not to love?), and THE FOOD. Seriously. I did not have high expectations for the food at Universal but the restaurants at CityWalk were excellent, especially Antojitos. They made the best salmon over sweet potatoes…

Road tripping down the Keys. The Florida Keys were amazing and both fulfilled and defied my expectations. They were absolutely beautiful, gritty in all the right ways, and surprisingly a lot like New Hampshire…

Having a little too much fun in Key West. Let’s just say that at age 32, Key West is for me what San Juan del Sur was at 30, Vang Vieng was at 26, Las Vegas was at 23…it’s a fun place. And wild. And incredibly beautiful and historical as well, but still — this is a place where you come for fun. The highlight was our sunset cruise with a bunch of rowdy Boston sports fans and unlimited rosé…

Trying all the key lime pie. This was my major diet fail this month — but I did eat clean otherwise. Cailin and I decided to go on a quest to find the best key lime pie in the Florida Keys and we sampled eight different top recommended pies across the archipelago. Stay tuned for a post on the best slices!

Kicking back in South Beach. We had two nights in Miami at the end of our trip and decided to just chill out — we ate ceviche, relaxed on the beach, and vegged out at the W’s pool.

Enjoying my first cruise ever. Jeremy kindly invited me to join him on a weeklong cruise on the Carnival Vista. The cruise was split between February and March, so it seems a bit weird only writing about the first half of it here. I’m still on it as I write this, and I’m having a blast. It did take some getting used to (it was SO OVERWHELMING at first!) but once I found my zone (balcony, adults-only deck, fitness center, spa, and sushi bar), I was happy as a clam. And my favorite part was getting to know the staff. I’ll be writing more about my introduction to cruising in the future, so stay tuned.

An awesome catamaran ride in Grand Turk. We booked only one official shore excursion and it was a good one — a catamaran ride with snorkeling and a visit to a private beach. The water in Grand Turk is an UNREAL shade of blue and the beaches are fine white sand — Jeremy and I definitely chose the perfect excursion.

Revisiting Old San Juan. Jeremy and I had both been to San Juan previously, so this day was about wandering the town, revisiting some of our favorite places, and taking photos. Puerto Rico is a fantastic place and I’d love to return for a third time and see new spots (Culebrita, yo vengo!).

Meeting up with blogger buds for the first time. This month I met Hannah and Adam from Getting Stamped at Universal Orlando and Gloria from The Blog Abroad came to visit me in Harlem! It’s so nice to meet blogger friends in real life.

I also got some nice plane views over New York en route to Orlando. So pretty!

Challenges

As far as months go, there were no major personal challenges, and for that I am grateful.

From the “learn from my mistakes” files — Cailin and I decided to save money and have me be the sole driver on our Florida road trip, but we really should have paid more and shared the driving. Orlando to Islamorada took six hours and was a slog, especially through traffic around Miami!

Post of the Month

You may have noticed publishing was much lighter than usual this month. I only have one non-recap post, but it’s a good one: Where to Stay in Barcelona: Best Neighborhoods and Accommodation

Most Popular Instagram Photo

This is a bit of a misnomer — my actual most popular Instagram photo was the recipient of roughly 2,000 fake likes from a spammer that has started targeting me and a host of other travel bloggers. (Their method: give 2k bogus likes “as a gift” and then ask us to sign up for their paid service. No thanks. Plenty of travel bloggers use bots to artificially inflate their Instagram numbers, but I refuse to play that game.)

But this is the most popular photo minus the spamming — one of Key West’s legendary sunsets.

For real-time updates from my travels, follow me on Instagram and Snapchat at adventurouskate!

What I Read This Month

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins (2016). Kathleen Collins was one of the first prominent black female filmmakers, and she died in her 40s in the 1980s. This collection of short stories she wrote was only recently found among her belongings and published last year. Some stories read like poetry, some like prose, some like plays.

More than anything, this book is about how black women love and the sacrifices they make as a result. I loved these stories of women who fell in love, women who stayed by their cheating men, women who attempted to carve out a life of their own. You could call it a companion piece to Beyonce’s Lemonade. It’s a relatively quick read and one that I highly recommend. Category: A book by a person of color.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016). I was afraid to read this book for a long time, despite its stellar reviews. I tend to avoid books about confronting death and grief (the same reason why I haven’t read Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking), and I didn’t know how I would handle reading about a brilliant young neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer. This book is about how he evaluates his life prior to diagnosis and his outlook afterward. I shouldn’t have avoided it.

This book is written so beautifully. The best memoirs are fascinating stories that are told well, and this absolutely fits the bill. Dr. Kalanithi wrestled with whether to become a doctor or a writer, and tentatively planned on leaving medicine to focus on writing later in life. But what a way to leave the world — this book is a treasure. I read it in one sitting. I’m grateful that I got to know Dr. Kalanithi, if only posthumously. Category: A book about a difficult topic.

What We Do Now: Standing Your Ground in Trump’s America by various authors (2017). This book, obviously published quickly following the 2016 election, is a collection of essays by liberal leaders talking about what needs to be done in the resistance against Donald Trump. Some of the authors include Elizabeth Warren, Paul Krugman, Bernie Sanders, and the first Somali-American legislator, Ilhan Omar.

I had read a handful of the essays before, including Warren’s and Krugman’s. Everything was organized by topic, from LGBT rights to the environment. And honestly, this is a very preaching-to-the-choir book, especially if you’re a liberal who follows the news, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless and got some new insights. Category: A book with multiple authors.

Wendy Darling, Volume II: Seas by Colleen Oakes (2016). My cousin Colleen is an incredibly prolific author and the mind behind two young adult series of retold fairy tales. My favorite books of hers so far are the Wendy Darling books — a dark retelling of Peter Pan from Wendy’s point of view. These books are visually lush and much more mature.

In the first book, Wendy realizes that both Neverland and Peter Pan are far more sinister than they appear, and she escapes with her brother Michael. In the second, she joins Captain Hook and his crew as they sail Neverland, trying to stop Peter Pan with the help of bloodthirsty mermaids and deranged fairies. And if Peter Pan was sexy in the first book, CAPTAIN HOOK was sexy in the second! I love Colleen’s view of Neverland! Category: A book involving a mythical creature.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934). I’ve actually never read a book by Agatha Christie in my life (!) but I needed a book that’s becoming a movie this year, and I got excited when I saw that not only is Murder on the Orient Express going to be a movie in December, but Leslie Odom Jr. (a.k.a. Aaron Burr from Hamilton) will be in it! It has an awesome cast: directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh with Odom, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe, and DAME JUDI MOTHERFUCKING DENCH.

This iconic mystery takes place on the Orient Express from Istanbul to Calais in the 1930s. A passenger is murdered and the train gets stuck in a snowstorm, which means the murderer is one of the passengers in the car. Good thing detective Hercule Poirot is on board and is able to deduce who the killer is.

One thing I didn’t expect…the surprising amount of casual racism about Italians and Italian-Americans. According to one character, the Italian must be the murderer because Italians love to stab people…That said, it’s a reminder that Italians and Irish were once treated with the prejudice and scorn that Muslims, Latinos, and Africans receive in America today. I’m eager to see how they modernize the film. Category: A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017.

What I Listened To This Month

“Etunnel” by Primary feat. Gaeko. Another one of Spotify’s picks for me (seriously, Spotify knows my tastes inside and out), this is a lovely Korean electronic/hip-hop song with a touch of Burt Bacharach. Give it a listen; I bet you’ll love it!

Fun fact: I didn’t even know it was Korean until I looked it up just now…

What I Watched This Month

I’ve started watching Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix. This comedy stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as boring-yet-happy realtor couple living in the suburbs with a teenage daughter — until one day Barrymore’s character suddenly turns into a zombie and starts eating people.

It’s not the sharpest or most cutting-edge comedy of all time, but it’s wacky and I love it! The cast is great, and it has a very sweet message of doing everything you can to protect your family, even if that means killing people you can’t stand in order to eat them.

What I Cooked This Month

No pics, but I am cooking these turkey spinach burgers all the time. They’re super healthy and a good source of protein, and I love making four at once so I have a few ready to go in the fridge! Plus, they look like Oscar the Grouch.

Four pieces of advice: 1) This recipe calls for a truly insane amount of spinach — just go with it. 2) Be very gentle when mixing the turkey; if you mash it too hard it will be too dense. 3) They will fall apart if you grill them, so bake them in a glass dish. 4) Top them with avocado or guacamole — it’s the best! Avocado is my main substitute for cheese these days, and I find it just as satisfying.

Fitness Update

I’m still working hard on my fitness and I think I’ve been making progress at a much faster rate lately. Something has shifted — I work harder and better and am feeling great!

That said, this was also my first month traveling since starting my fitness regimen, and it was challenging to keep up workouts and eat well on the road. I could have done better with both, but I’m glad neither trip turned into a gluttonous free-for-all, as it would have in the past.

I tried two new classes this month — Pon de Flo with Oneika, and IMAXShift with Beth. Pon de Flo is a Caribbean dance class in SoHo that includes HIIT segments — think Zumba but with more push-ups. IMAXShift is a spin class in front of an IMAX screen located in DUMBO — you ride through space and lasers and the sky.

I only lost a few pounds in February, but I don’t mind — according to my body analysis I’m gaining a ton of muscle, which is heavier and cancels out a lot of fat loss. Weight isn’t as important as you think. More important is that I look and feel different — especially in my face, my upper arms and my thighs. And I’ve lost three inches off my waist since December.

Also a bonus: I went bathing suit shopping and found three suits that I loved and felt great in!

Coming Up in March 2017

I have a few more days on the cruise at the beginning of March, and beyond that, I have no travel plans scheduled in March. Which, once again, is great. I feel like I’m actually starting to live my goal of traveling 25% of the time or less.

I do have a lot I want to do in New York this month, including visiting the new Golden Girls cafe in Washington Heights, so stay tuned for more local coverage!

Plus, Cailin is coming to stay for a few days (amusingly, she’ll already be at my place when I get back from the cruise). I’m also looking forward to hosting my book group at my apartment, which is shockingly the first time I’ve invited more than two people into my apartment simultaneously!

What’s coming up for you in March? Share away!

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