#divorce will be final early July

[lostinmirkwood]

First kiss since separating from my husband 18 months ago was shotgunning a hit off a weed pen at the concert of the band who wrote my divorce anthem.

[ramblingthoughtsofayoungadult]

Unpredictable-Limoreau x black!fem!reader fic

A/N: I was inspired a lot by the Bama Rush documentary and couldn't get the idea of a sorority girl in GOD U out of my head. Let me know if you want a part 2.

Warnings: some swearing

Words: 5.2k

Series Masterlist

Future probability cognition, the ability to see potential future outcomes, was usually a nice power to have. At 7, I knew my parents were going to get divorced before either of them considered filing. At 9, I knew my mother would focus all her energy on the agency. At 12, I knew that my older brother would take a head of surgery job in Buenos Aires, escaping the chaos at home. Despite this history, nothing could have prepared me for my second year at Godolkin.

The first day back on campus was uneventful: I survived a grueling early morning Pilates class that I envisioned would put me in Sydney’s, the Si Chi president, good graces and, later in the afternoon, I settled an argument between two Si Chi juniors by predicting that brunch would be the most successful rush event.

Being (one of) the first black high-ranking members of Si Chi could be a full-time job.

As I was re-reading the chapters for Brink’s class, my V-Phone buzzed with a text from Leah, one of the seniors in the sorority.

L: Do you know Emma?

I quickly typed back: Which one? Wallace or the girl who got the botched nj in SK?

L: Neither. Short girl with curly blonde hair. She’s here 4 u.

The yelp that left my mouth would have been embarrassing if anyone else was in the house study room. Quickly, I tucked my book under my arm and ran into the ivory and wood-paneled foyer complete with Tiffany crystal chandelier and faint instrumental piano music playing through the Bluetooth speakers. At the door, Leah’s arms were crossed over her lavender babydoll dress as she smiled fakely at Emma, who looked more apprehensive than usual.

“Emma, hi, I thought I told you to text me when you got here!” I greeted as I approached the two.

Emma’s expression relaxed when her blue eyes landed on me. “Sorry, I got distracted and then I got lost trying to find you.”

I glanced at Leah, who shot me a questioning look. “Thanks, Leah, I can take it from here.”

Leah shrugged, turned, and teleported into thin air. Emma’s eyes widened again as she stepped further into the house and I closed the door behind her.

“Sorry about Leah; she’s cagier than usual because she couldn’t get a refill on her favorites,” I explained.

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you aren’t like that,” Emma admitted.

I paused to finally hug her and she nearly crushed me as she wound her arms around my middle. It felt like forever since I had seen Emma, even though it was at my dad’s annual 4th of July barbecue. When I pulled away, Emma eyed the book in my hand.

“You’re reading before school starts. Nerd,” she teased.

   I playfully pushed her shoulder. “We’re in college, we have to take school way more seriously now. Besides, a requirement for Si Chi is at least a 3.8.”

   Emma tapped her chin. “Let me guess, you have a 4.0.”

  I smiled and tugged her further into the house. Of course, I had to give her a tour of the house and introduce her to the girls we passed. When we finally got to my room, Emma collapsed on top of my pastel blue comforter, dropping her bag on the matching rug.

  “I know Si Chi is a top house, but you basically live in Barbie’s Dream House,” Emma beamed. “How do I get in? What do I have to do? I will do literally anything or anyone.”

   I rolled my eyes and set my book on my desk. “I’m glad you like the place but, you haven’t even met your roommate yet. What’s her name again?”

  Emma pushed herself up on her elbows with a huff. “Marie Moreau. I tried to find her on social media, but she doesn’t have any: No X, no TikTok, not even an obligatory Facebook.”

  Social media presence was basically a requirement at GOD U these days so it was a bold move for someone to show up without any. It could mean Marie was hardcore about her studies or…

  “She might have strict parents,” I pointed out, sitting next to Emma.

  Emma raised an eyebrow. “They better not be weird, cult-y parents. I guess that would be my luck too: have a psycho roommate my freshman year.”

   “Hey, no one could have had it worse than me: a slob who always had boys over and threatened to gut me in my sleep,” I argued.

   “But, you saw all of that coming,” Emma argued.

   I shook my head. “Only the part where she stood over my bed with a knife in hand.” I sighed and pressed my hands into the covers. “I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with that ever again.”

   “Really, because some of these girls are giving unhinged,” Emma replied.

   “The nice thing is I either pick up on the signs or ‘see’ their breaking point,” I explained.

   Emma nodded and pushed herself off my bed to start exploring my room. As she started messing with my checkered Moschino teddy bear figurine, my phone buzzed on my desk. When I grabbed it, I saw it was a video call from Cate.

   “Hi, what’s up?” I greeted, holding the phone at the most flattering angle.

   “I’m trying to entertain myself while Luke preps for training,” Cate admitted.

   “What, you’re not totally entertained by your star boyfriend?” I teased.

   Cate rolled her eyes. “No, I can’t wait for this to be over. You’re coming, right?”

   I shook my head. “Sorry, we have a rush event at the same time, including a choreographed dance.”

  “Ooh, did you choreograph it?” Cate asked.

  “I might have helped a little.”

  “Well, I’m pissed I’ll miss it but make sure to have someone send me all the cute videos and pictures,” Cate requested.

  “Sure.”

  There was some yelling in the background and Cate rolled her eyes.

  “I have to go but we’ll talk later.”

  “Bye!”

  When I hung up, Emma was staring at me with her mouth gaping, the teddy figurine dangerously close to slipping from her grasp and onto the hardwood floor. I crossed the room as quickly as I could and carefully placed the figurine back on my dresser.

  “Emma, I love you but if you break anything, I will lose it,” I warned.

  “You know Cate Dunlap?” Emma asked slowly.

  “Oh, yeah, she’s my peer mentor. Dean Shetty paired us up last year since our powers are similar,” I answered.

  “So, you’ve met Luke Riordan? Like, you’ve been in his presence?”

  “Yes,” I answered slowly.

  “And you didn’t faint or throw up from his glory?”

   “Emma, he’s a regular person. His powers are insane but he is also human, just like us.”

  “No, I’m a regular person. Luke Riordan is, like, a demigod or something. Is he better looking in person?”

   I hesitated and busied myself with grabbing my rush outfit from my closet and setting it on my bed. Then, I stared at my shoes, feeling Emma’s eyes bored into the back of my head. I closed my eyes and focused on the event tonight, the potential sounds and people. Seconds later, I got a decent image of my Si Chi sisters and I dancing in front of the house, surrounded by freshmen girls in Princess Polly and House of CB. I focused all my energy on looking at our feet and tried not to groan when I saw red high-top Converse.

   “Every time,” I muttered as I opened my eyes.

   Two more years, just two more years of going along and I would reap the benefits: a strong ranking, a decent contract, and my pick of the most eligible supes. I just had to keep playing the game.

   I grabbed my platform red Converses and set them in front of my bed, sheepishly turning to Emma. “Yes, Emma.”

     She squealed. “I knew it!”

     I laughed at her joy as she bounced in her Vans. “Go to the training today and see for yourself.”

   Emma’s expression deflated slightly as she walked closer to me. “I wish you could come, you could introduce us!”

   “There will be a next time,” I stated.

   “Promise?” She held up her pinky and eyed me as I slowly wrapped my manicured one around hers. She opened her mouth but was cut off by an alarm going off on her phone. “Shit, I have to go film a video!”

   “You’re still doing Little Cricket?” I asked.

   Emma shushed me loudly and her eyes filled with panic. “Not so loud and definitely not in this house!”

  The girls probably already know all about it, I thought.

  I flipped my waist-length box braids over my shoulder and laughed as she rushed towards the door. “You don’t know where you’re going, let me walk you out!”

  She paused for a split second and gave me some time to catch up to her. However, I led her through the quickest route back to the front door and she gave me a quick hug before she took off. I laughed as I closed the door behind her.

  “Some things never change,” I mused.

   When I got back up to my room, I realized she left her backpack and groaned. She would have to learn to be more responsible if she was going to survive more than a week here. So, I grabbed my purse and her backpack before traipsing the campus. Fortunately, Emma had texted me her dorm information before she got on campus.

   “In case of an emergency,” she’d insisted.

    The freshman dorms were not as bad as I remembered them but I cringed at a few musty speedster jocks I crossed in the hallway. A brief premonition helped me duck to avoid an ice user’s power going out of control when I finally made it to Emma’s door. First, I rapped on the door three times.

    “Emma, it’s me, you really have to keep a better eye on your stuff!” I called.

     After a few seconds of no answer, I knocked again.

     “Seriously? I can’t always be looking after you,” I teased.

     Finally, the door swung open, revealing a pretty black girl with big brown eyes and long brown dreads that were pulled partly away from her face. Her eyes widened at me and I smiled.

     “Sorry, I’m looking for Emma, she left her bag in my----”

     Emma cut me off, appearing next to the girl, “I was wondering where that went, thanks!” She grabbed the bag from me.

    “Oh, uh, come in,” the girl said, stepping aside.

    I nodded and wandered further into their dorm. It was small, like most freshman dorms, but Emma’s side offered pops of color and coziness. The other side was more basic, probably because the girl just moved in.

   “Marie, this is Y/N, my best friend, Y/N, Marie,” Emma introduced as she plopped onto her bed.

    I turned to Marie and extended a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

   She hesitated slightly before shaking my hand. “You too.”

  “Don’t worry, Marie, you’ll get used to her hotness,” Emma advised.

   My cheeks warmed as I whirled around to my friend. “Emma!”

   “It’s true!”

   The embarrassment floated in the pit of my stomach as I faced Marie, who looked somewhere between surprised and amused. “Sorry about her, she speaks without thinking.”

   “It’s okay. How do you two know each other?” Marie asked.

   “Her mom represents me,” Emma answered.

   “Oh.”

   “She’s the one who helped encourage me to make a YouTube channel and is helping me get into more commercials until my big break,” Emma continued.

   I sighed as I sat in Emma’s desk chair. “We’ve known each other since I was four and she was three.”

  “Do you want to be an actor too?” Marie asked.

   I shook my head. “I tried it when I was little but it wasn’t for me.”

   Emma’s eyes lit up and she sat up on her bed. “You should have seen her, she was so cute! She was that toddler in that one diaper commercial----”

   “Emma,” I softly begged.

    Marie laughed. “Now, I’m curious.”

    “Please don’t look it up, it’s not worth it anyway,” I insisted.

    Marie shrugged and sat on her bed. “My curiosity might get the best of me.”

    “Why did you have to mention that stupid commercial?” I whined at Emma, who laughed at my pain. “Anyway, what’s your major?”

     “Crimefighting,” Marie answered.

     I straightened up. “Me too.”

    “So, you’ve had classes with Brink? How is he? What’s he like?” Marie rambled.

    “Well, he’s really tough on first years and makes his tests almost impossible to pass,” I admitted.

     “Really?” Marie asked.

     “But, I can help you if you want; I did pretty well last year,” I offered.

     As soon as the words left my mouth, I questioned where they came from. Marie was a complete stranger, yet she was one of the easiest people to talk to. Normally, I stumbled over my words in front of new people, and this was…new.

    “That would be great, thanks,” Marie replied.

     Emma leaned forward. “Y/N, you are way too modest. She was in the top ten of the first years last year and she has a peer mentor and meets with Brink on a regular basis.”

     Marie snapped her attention to me. “Wait, what?”

     I shook my head. “She makes it sound more impressive than it is.”

    “No, I’m not; she hangs out with the Top Five all the time.”

    “Top Five?” Marie asked.

     Emma and I turned to her, stunned.

     “You don’t know what the Top Five are?” Emma asked slowly.

     Marie shook her head, growing tenser the longer we looked at her.

    “Godolkin ranks all the students based on their Q score, which is basically the strength of their powers, academics, and social media engagement. The Top One Hundred are the only ones published every day,” I explained.

   “And the Top Five are the only ones everyone really cares about since they’re the ones most likely to make it into the Seven,” Emma added. “It’s on the GOD U app.”

    “I don’t have a phone,” Marie admitted.

     Emma balked at her. “How have you gone this far in life without a phone?”

     Marie shrugged. “My parents wouldn’t let me have one.”

     “What about emergencies?” I asked.

     “Someone else always has one,” Marie countered.

     Something was off about her statement and I knew that if I focused on it long enough, I would get a premonition about her. However, I decided that it would be rude to do that in conversation and tabled it for later.

    “You’ll get through it,” I said.

    “So, what ranking are you, Y/N?” Marie asked.

    “Last I checked, I was number twenty,” I recalled.

     Marie and Emma’s eyes widened at me, and I shrunk a little under their gaze. It really was not that impressive considering how intense the nineteen other people above me were.

    “That’s amazing!” Emma cheered, leaping off her bed and hugging me.

    “How did that happen?” Marie asked gently.

     When Emma pulled away, I replied, “Well, right before summer break, I had a premonition about a case Brink had the class working on all year.”

    “You solved a crime?” Marie concluded.

     “I just helped with a tip,” I insisted.

    “Please, Y/N, don’t act like you haven’t solved cases before,” Emma stated.

     I narrowed my eyes at her and Emma smirked in reply. Marie held up her hands and shook her head.

    “Wait, as in plural?”

     “It’s really not a big deal. With all the forensics, psychology, and ethics classes you’ll take, you’ll be solving them too.”

      Marie looked unconvinced but did not push it. “So, what’s your ability? I’m sorry if that’s rude to ask.”

     “No, it’s fine. Future probability cognition, I can see potential outcomes for the future,” I explained.

     “That’s amazing,” Marie complimented.

      “Eh, a lot of times it means I get blurry images in my head but it’s helpful sometimes. What about you?”

      “Blood manipulation.”

       “Whoa, no offense, but that is such a supervillain power,” Emma thought outloud.

        “Emma!”

         “I said ‘no offense’!”

        Marie laughed. “It’s okay, I get why people would think that.”

       “Can you give us a demonstration?” Emma asked.

        Marie nodded and grabbed a switchblade from her cargo pants’ pocket. In a graceful motion, she cut one of her palms and held it out in front of her. Seconds later, a circle of blood floated in the air like water, swirling each way. Marie smiled at our expressions and the blood slowly flowed back in her palm and the mark healed.

       “That was awesome!” Emma cheered.

       “I think Brink will like you,” I added.

      “Thanks. I think it’s your turn, Y/N,” Marie said.

       I hesitated. “Well, mine is definitely not as impressive as yours and I can’t promise I’ll see anything…positive.”

     “That’s okay,” Marie insisted.

     “You can use me as a demonstration,” Emma offered.

     I turned to her and closed my eyes. My mind wandered to images of her face and the sound of her laugh. Eventually, I saw an image of her rolling around her dorm bed with some guy. Then, all of a sudden, she was small and---     “AAAH!” I jumped from my seat, both underclassmen looking at me confused.

     “Is it that bad?” Emma asked.

     My eyes looked everywhere but my best friend and my hands unconsciously flexed. “Whatever you do, do not bring a guy here in the future.”

   “You don’t want me to get laid?”

   “I don’t think you would want to experience what I just saw.” I shivered at the thought.

    “Have your powers made you respond like that before?” Marie asked.

     I nodded. “It’s rare, though, and I have help to get a handle on it.”

     Slowly, I sat down and focused on the orange circle rug on the floor. Suddenly, I wished Cate was there to wipe that premonition from my memory. My stomach churned and I swallowed thickly.

     “Oh, Marie, you have to come to the training with me today,” Emma announced.

      “What training?”

     “The Top Five have public training at the beginning of every year. This year, Luke Riordan is up first,” Emma explained with a grin.

       “Luke’s a big deal?” Marie asked.

       “Hell yeah, he’s number one!” Emma chastised.

        Marie turned to me. “Are you going?”

        I looked up at her and wondered if she seemed kind of hopeful. “No, I have to do rush tonight.”

      “On top of everything else, she is also the secretary of Si Chi, the top sorority on campus,” Emma bragged.

      “Wow, are you always this busy?” Marie asked.

     “Not always. Things calm down once rush is over.” My phone beeped in my bag and I grabbed it. “Speaking of which, I have to run and get ready.”

      “But you already look nice,” Marie commented.

      “Thanks, but I need to be up to Si Chi standards. Have fun at the training and Emma, please try not to act up too much.”

      “I can’t control what will happen once his clothes burn off.”

       “What?”        I shook my head. “I’ll see you around.”

    The next day, I was shocked awake by a series of texts from Emma.

          E: Emergency, pls come 2 my dorm.

         E: Srsly, Marie needs ur help.

    Immediately, I wondered my Marie would need my help. When I reached out to Emma last night, she was busy gushing over Luke and never mentioned any issues. Also, I didn’t see any posts about her on social media which calmed my nerves.

    After texting her I would be there soon, I slowly pushed myself to sit up in my head and pushed my silk sleep mask up over my scarf. Then, I meditated for a few minutes, breathing through all the chaotic thoughts and scenarios that included strangers and people that I knew. Just when my temples began to throb, I stopped and made my way into the en-suite bathroom.

   About thirty minutes later, Emma shoved her dorm room open and pulled me in. She was wearing a gray GOD U t shirt and matching shorts, her curly stuck up in random places.

   “Where the hell have you been?” she whispered.

   “I got here as soon as I could,” I defended. “What’s going on?”

    Marie stood from her desk, a deep frown on her face, and made her way towards us. “I’m not in any Crimefighting classes; it’s all performing arts!”

    I cocked my head to the side. “That’s weird. Can I see your schedule?”

   “It’s on my phone.” Emma handed it to me and I started scrolling through Marie’s schedule.

   “Did you register for any performing arts classes?” I asked.

   “No, I registered for all the first-year Crimefighting classes,” Marie insisted.

   The frustration was thick in her voice and I wondered what was keeping her from punching a hole in the wall.

   “Is there anything I can do?” Marie asked.

   “Sorry, I don’t know. I’ve never heard of this happening.” I paused for a moment and smiled. “But I might be able to help. I have a meeting with Brink today and if you come with me, I could introduce you and we could get this all figured out.”

   “Really? Do you know how it will go?”

   “Let me try.”

   I closed my eyes and focused on Brink, the Crimefighting building, and Marie. The images were as blurry as a Monet up close and all the audio was muffled as if everyone was speaking underwater. When I opened my eyes, I shook my head at Marie.

   “Looks like it’s up to fate,” I commented.

   Marie deflated and I did not know whether to comfort her or not.

   “I’m sending good vibes your way,” Emma offered.

   “Thanks, we’ll need it,” Marie replied.

    As much as I wanted to push back, I did not like not knowing how this would turn out. My heart drummed in my ears later that day as we walked to the Lamplighter building. At the very least, the sun was beaming on everything, making Godolkin look shinier than usual. It was the perfect day for the white cherry-printed sundress and denim jacket I wore with platform white sandals. My braids flowed freely around me under the cool breeze.

   When we walked into the building, I let out the breath I did not know I was holding in.

   “You okay?” Marie asked.

   “Yeah, why?” I replied.

   “Your heart rate picked up,” she observed.

    I paused and looked at her. “You can hear my heartbeat?”

   She nodded. “Sorry, I know that’s kind of weird.”    “Nothing’s weird at this school but, that’s good to know,” I assured.

   I made a mental note to be more intentional in meditation as I led Marie to Brink’s office. The Lamplighter building was practically empty since most students were sleeping off hangovers. However, Jordan Li wasn’t most students and was at their usual post, the desk outside of Brink’s office, eyes focused on their laptop. They were in their feminine form, hair slicked back in a low ponytail.

   A small smile etched its way on my glossed lips at the sight and I turned to Marie, whose eyes widened at Jordan.

  “Let me do the talking,” I whispered.

  “Sounds good,” she answered, nodding.

  As soon as we got in front of Jordan’s desk, I waved my hand in front of their face to no avail. With no choice, I grinned as I slammed my hands on the desk and called their name. Immediately, Jordan jumped in their seat, yanking their earbuds out as they exclaimed an expletive.

    I laughed as they rolled their eyes at me.

   “Seriously, freshie?” Jordan commented.

   “You can’t call me that anymore, I’m a sophomore,” I sang.

   “It doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Jordan teased.

    My cheeks warmed at their words and I gripped my Longchamp tote closer to me in an attempt to get a grip on myself.

   “By the way, I loved your little dance from last night,” Jordan added.

   “You saw that?” I rasped.

   “Rushtok is so big that no one can escape it.” Jordan glanced at their laptop. “You’re early, as usual.”

   “I like to be punctual but, I also have someone who might be your new favorite freshman,” I replied.

    “Impossible,” Jordan scoffed.

     I nodded to Marie, who slowly moved to stand next to me. “This is Marie Moreau. Marie, this is Jordan Li, Brink’s TA.”

    Jordan glanced at Marie, a smirk disappearing from their face. “Hi.”

    “Hi, it’s so nice to meet you. You’re so awesome; your powers are incredible,” Marie confessed.

    Jordan smirked. “I’m glad I impressed a freshman.”

    Marie looked taken aback and glanced at me.

   “I brought Marie with me since there’s been a mix-up. She applied for Crimefighting but she’s in all the performing arts classes. So, I was thinking that you’d be able to help,” I explained.

    Jordan looked back at their laptop and started typing again. “I know, I’m the one who rejected her.”

   Their words hung in the air and I could feel a lump starting to form in my throat. As smart as Jordan was, they were either unaware of how deeply their bluntness could cut or they did not care. After knowing them for a year, I began to lean toward the latter.

   “What?” Marie muttered.

   “Why?” I questioned.

   “She has no social media presence and, even though her scores are decent, she needs a following,” Jordan rattled.

   “Isn’t that a little biased? Do you know what her powers are? If you knew, I think you would be open to making an exception,” I argued gently. “Besides, she can still get a following online. With her face, it will take no time.”

    As soon as the comment left my mouth, I froze. I had no idea why I said that, maybe Emma’s tendencies had rubbed off on me.

    “Sorry, the decision’s final.” Jordan did not sound apologetic at all and I thought I saw them trying not to smirk again.

   “You can’t do that. Let me talk to Professor Brink,” Marie requested.

  “There’s no point, he leaves all admission decisions to me,” Jordan said. “You should learn from your friend. Y/N here has ten million followers across her social media and solved the Glasgow Ripper case and a twenty-year-old cold case before she got here.”

   Marie whirled around to me. “You solved the Glasgow Ripper case?”

   “I just gave them a tip and it was supposed to be anonymous,” I muttered.

    “Nothing is anonymous with Vought,” Jordan countered. “Plus, you led them to key evidence.”

    “They would have solved it…eventually,” I admitted.

   Based on my original estimate, it would have taken them three years and I always felt horrible whenever they showed the victims’ families on the news. The tension in the space was thick as Jordan and Marie glared at each other. I wracked my brain for something, anything to say.

   Fortunately, Brink took care of the tension when he burst out of his office, gun in hand, and shot at Jordan. Marie yelped as Jordan switched to their male form and absorbed the shot.

   “Wow, every time,” Brink admired.

   “If you keep it up, I’m going to run out of shirts, sir,” Jordan replied, smiling.

    Brink turned to Marie and me. “Oh, Y/N, you’re here, early as always.”

    “Hi, Professor Brink. How was your summer?” I asked.

    “Busy. And yours?”

    “Good. Um, Professor, I don’t want to take too much of your time, but this is Marie Moreau and there was a mix-up with her schedule,” I started.

    Professor Brink nodded and turned to Marie. “Is that so?”

    Marie quickly explained the dilemma, narrowing her eyes at Jordan but was able to stay as calm and professional as possible. I glanced at Professor Brink’s expression and while he looked pleasant, I dreaded his words.

   “Well, if Jordan rejected you, that’s final. I trust their judgment,” Professor Brink affirmed. “You can serve as a hero in many ways; Crimefighting is a select group of students who show high aptitude in several areas. That does not mean anyone else is less valuable. Maybe we will see you on Dancing with the Stars one day.”

   Marie’s face fell and her body tensed. I might have started crying if I was in her position but her eyes stayed dry. I gently put my hand on her shoulder.

   “We’ll figure something out,” I muttered.

   She did not look convinced and as I politely followed Brink into his office, I prayed that I would get some sort of helpful premonition. Then again, why did I want to help this girl? I knew her for less than twenty-four hours. Nothing was making sense.

    Later that day, I practically ran a hole into my bedroom floor as I ruminated over my next steps. My meeting with Brink was unremarkable and I couldn’t stop thinking about how to get Marie into crim. She was obviously a strong hero in the works, even if Jordan didn’t see it. One way to help would be to get her into a decent house on campus since that was one of the only viable routes outside of making it into the Top 100 to get noticed on campus. However, Marie did not strike me as the sorority type.

    Then again, I could help her with donors at fundraisers since they loved throwing their money to make themselves feel better. As I thought, my mind somehow circled back to Jordan. It was fun getting a rise out of them after everything last year. They were not as rude to me as they were to Marie, but they were still terrifying last year. They always had a critique for someone and had reduced numerous kids to tears before the first semester ended. Somehow, I impressed them last year and they started being nicer to me. It probably also did not hurt that I had befriended Cate.

    “Ugh, it’s hopeless!” I huffed, plopping onto my bed.

    Even when I tried to get premonitions, there was nothing helpful; just Jordan and Marie arguing while I attempted to settle things.

    What was this year turning into?

      My phone rang, jolting me from my thoughts, and I answered without looking at the caller ID. “Hello?��

    “Do you have any rush shit tonight?” Cate asked.

    I sat up and eyed her in the video call. “No, all the presidents and VPs are meeting tonight so we’re on our own.”

   “Great, so you’re free to go out with us,” Cate concluded with a grin.

  My heartbeat picked up at the thought of going out with Cate and the others. Any time I went out with them always ended in an interesting story, from the time Cate got us all out of a really embarrassing ticket to the time Andre and Luke drunkenly dueted “Never Gonna Give You Up” in a Korean karaoke bar.

  “I know that face, you’re thinking too much,” Cate warned.

  “Not in a bad way, in a good way. Where are we going?”

  “Don’t worry, just wear something hot and meet us in the parking lot at ten.”

  “Okay.”

  I hung up and set the phone on my dresser. Maybe this would help me clear my head or get me out of my head. Sometimes the thoughts could be suffocating but I would get a break tonight. I closed my eyes and wondered what would happen tonight. Slowly, clear images of a dark club and the sound of a thumping bass flooded my mind. The club was crowded but I saw myself dancing with Cate and…Marie?

[strscrossed]

mean dom hobo eren: a timeline

(feel free to point out any inconsistencies because it’s a lot and I’m adding/retconning stuff too)

eren:

march 30, 1990 - his birth

2005-2006 - he meets lara, his first wife

2006 - 2017 - eren and lara have an on again, off again relationship. he’s constantly breaking up with her and finding other girls. she’s basically always second choice

2017 - lara secretly baby traps him and he steps up and marries her. don’t remember if he cheats on her or not

~2018 - lara miscarries and eren tries to be there but then he overhears her talking to willy and he finds out that she intentionally baby trapped him, he leaves her. she refuses to divorce him. the tyburs are too powerful

2022 - eren meets mikasa in mid 2022

mikasa:

february 10, 2000 - her birth

october 25, 2010 - koji, her brother, is born

~2011 - 2012 - her parents die, either an accident or a double homicide. she and koji go to live with kenny/levi

~2019 - she moves out and takes full custody of her brother. she’s engaged to porco at this point and she moves in with him. all is well. but then she comes home early one day to find porco in bed with one of her bridesmaids so she immediately ends the engagement and the relationship

late 2019 - she starts working in a bookshop

late 2022 - she meets eren and he immediately hires her on the spot

eremika’s relationship:

mid - late 2022: the relationship is professional, though there’s attraction between the two of them

very late 2022: they have sex for the first time and the relationship keeps going even though they try to stop it multiple times

late 2022: april 2023: eren gets super involved in mikasa’s life and even enrolls her brother in the best school in the country and pays for the tuition.

may 2023: lara comes back into eren’s life again, asking to reconcile and saying that she will absolutely not sign the divorce papers

late 2023: she starts sniffing out that eren might be in a relationship with his secretary and she gets willy to do something about it

january 2024: willy threatens mikasa after a gala and forces her to move away. eren is shattered and desperately starts searching for her

july 2024: koji makes contact with eren and he finds them. and he brings them back.

august 2024 - june 2025: eren and mikasa are are back together but secretly while he gets his revenge on the tyburs via gaslighting and shorting their stock. this becomes the climax of the story.

september 2025 - eren and lara’s divorce is finalized

new year’s eve 2025 - eren proposes and that’s when mikasa figures out that they’ve been in a relationship for the last three years

february - march 2026: mikasa learns she’s pregnant

june 12, 2026: em are married in a private ceremony

october 1, 2026: their son, kai, is born

december 21, 2028: twins kane and hana are born

may 3, 2030: twins victoria and amelia are born

april 25, 2032: their daughter, emiko, is born

august 13, 2038: they have twin girls (no names yet)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for siding with my Dad and actively shit talking/giving points about things his wife is wrong for?

Using 🎸🎶 as my emojis so I don't get lost.

For context, I (17F) and my sisters (14F and 12F) have lived with divorced parents for the past almost 13 years, nearly our entire lives. Our Dad (38M) and our Mom (38F) got divorced long ago, and since both have been remarried and divorced. My dad is currently married to his third wife (37F) and things have gone to shit. They grew up together and reconnected through Facebook a while back and began to talk. Since early July, they reconnected around late June, we have; drove 40 hours to Ohio to see and meet Wife and her 3 daughters (15, 7 and 5 F), moved them down over 80 hours of back and forth with both pets and kids, lived in a small trailer house until we closed our half million dollar one, and now we live in an old 1940s house where Wife never has to work unless she wants to. My Dad provides for her and her three kids easily on his own due to owning a fraction of the company he works for, but money has been a little tight due to a lack of houses to work on and her excessive spending.

This morning was when it bubbled over. She woke him up 30 mins before he needed to have his trailer, and hour away to pick it up, and be in another city still 30 mins from there, to pick up a free dresser we do not have room for. While getting ready he was informed her two youngest did the dishes to ask for something, a habit they all have. And to be clear, they ONLY do chores to go places and do things, so the house is often trashed. My Dad boiled over after both things adding onto all the stress of caring for 8 people and only seeing his 3 kids 4 days a month, and it started a scream fight that she encouraged. She loves to rile him up and then play victim, and this time was no different. Despite being angry, he asks if she still wants to go get the dresser, and she says she won't ride with him even to talk it out or get the fifth dresser for their room. So me and my middle sister (14F, we'll call her D.) Go with. We get the trailer, get into town, and he calls to confirm the address. Rather than tell him, she plays hard to get to piss him off, and we leave instead, not getting the dresser and taking the trailer back. The entire way Dad, D and I air our grievances about the behavior of Wife and her kids, discussing habits we don't like and clarifying we aren't doing it to be mean. It turns out, she was also bitching about the laundry and how she does everything when I've only ever seen her do theirs and no other chores. My Dad offers to solve it by having his own basket for his own laundry and even cooking his own meals if that's what's bothering her. Instead, she takes off her wedding ring rather than accepting the solutions. We talks, discussing how yes, they've been through a lot, but so have we, and that doesn't excuse her behavior.

We get home and the fighting starts again rather quickly, we don't catch much before it dies out but he tries to reason with her. I paint and everyone is calm for a bit. Well, I'm sitting on my bed and the fighting starts again. D and I share a room right over the garage, where the fight was, and D drops to the floor to listen. Our Dad uses many of the points we brought up in the car, and it hits hard and rings true really. At some point Wife complains that we never talk to her, and Dad points out that she picks fights when we're here and we know what divorce sounds like and refuse to get attached. She calls him our for being married and divorced twice, and Dad gets petty and tells her he didn't have kids outside marriage. And finally she complains that we don't do anything, and my Dad points out that we're self sufficient and do everything when we're here. The fight continues, he keeps making points we all discussed on the way to and from the trailer and failed dresser retrieval, and he keeps bringing up the ring since he doesn't want to divorce again.

Anyways, its causing a rift and I haven't told anyone but my Mom that I helped supply points, but I just feel bad because I feel like I somehow made the fighting worse by mentioning all the shit she does and talks about him and us.

TLDR; Dad and new wife were fighting all day and my sister and I gave points and talked shit about what's been bothering us in the car and our Dad brought up those points in the fight.

So Tumblr, am I the asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[horsetailcurlers2]

a rough, addison-centric timeline of grey's anatomy/private practice

an anon sent me an ask about when greys/private practice took place and a rough timeline for addison. then i went to edit the draft and accidentallly deleted it. so, i'm sorry, anon! i hope you find this post lol.

okay, so, the grey’s universe contradicts itself multiple times when it comes to the timeline so this is my best approximation/what makes the most sense. i’m putting this in bulleted list format lol bc initially i had a long rambly paragraph that was me basically doing the math as i went. i also got way too carried away and this may be more detailed than you needed. 

Pre-show/establishing age

addison is 39 by the end of season three. this makes absolutely no sense considering her extensive credentials but shhh dont worry about it. in my head i justify it bc she canonically graduated college early, and in my head she skipped a grade or two

she and derek are heavily implied to have met their very first semester of med school. they married in 1994. So there is no official timeline on what years she completed her undergrad, when she graduated med school, or when she completed her residencies and fellowships. 

GA seasons 1-3 

the first three seasons of greys are all one year (they span meredith & friends' intern year)

i initially thought season one took place in 2005 (when the show airs) but in order for everything else to fit it must be 2006. the show contradicts itself about this a few times. personally, i think 2005 makes more sense because addison and derek were married in 1994 and they were married for 11 years at this point. but, they must have made allowances for the fact that three seasons spanned one year.

season one runs from summer to fall 2006. meredith spends two months with derek before addison shows up. addison spends those same two months with mark in new york. so her whole pregnancy/abortion/blonde-hair-for-a-minute all happens in late summer/fall, then she shows up in seattle at the end of season one and by her fabulous fur lined coat, we can gather that it’s fall.

season two picks up directly after season one with no time gap. We get christmas and thanksgiving episodes, and it stretches into spring 2007 (the hospital prom takes place during actual prom season for richard’s niece)

season three once again picks up directly after season two with no gap. addison and derek’s divorce is finalized pretty quickly into the season but i couldnt get the date. the season ends definitively around mid june, because that’s when cristina and burke’s wedding was meant to take place. the two part backdoor pilot for private practice spans the two episodes directly before the wedding/finale, so addison presumably visited L.A around late may/early june 2007 and then came back before the wedding

PP season 1 (+GA season 4)

season one of private practice aired concurrently with grey’s season 4 and the timeline runs directly parallel. there are only nine episodes and they make very very few references to time, so we have to extrapolate from grey’s.

they say that there's a short gap between cristina’s wedding and the start of their second residency year so, season four picks up around early/mid july, meaning private practice also starts around this time. 

grey;s has a halloween episode early on (episode five or six) and presumably runs through the rest of fall and winter. PP season one ends after the ninth episode, which aired before the ninth episode of grey’s. then, addison comes to seattle in GA S4 ep 13. in the episode directly after this, the article comes out about burke winning the “2008 harper avery award”, so i believe this visit is already early 2008. 

PP season 2 (+GA season 5)

seasons 4 and 5 of GA take place over one year, so pp seasons 1 and 2 must also be one year. there are very few time references, so we have to extrapolate from grey’s again. there is a few months long gap between seasons 1 and 2 (bc of the time during which grey's was airing but pp was not)

episode five of grey's takes place in october (so ep 5 of pp must also be around october)

GA 5x14 and PP 2x15 run parallel to eachother. addison calls derek at the end of these episodes. i'm pretty sure this is meant to take place in january or february 2009 (at this point the air dates are closely lined up with the in universe dates). this whole crossover arc spans two episodes of PP and one episode of GA and i’m pretty sure its meant to take place over just a few days.

2x18 of PP takes place over three months so im guessing its at least early summer 2009 by the time the season ends

PP season 3 (+GA season 6)

season three picks up directly after season two (violet’s attack). season 6 of GA also picks up directly after their previous season (george's death). but then GA 6x1 and 6x2 take place over forty days and PP 3x2 picks up a month after 3x1. So theres a lot of futzing and messing with the timeline to make up for gaps and cliffhangers between seasons already. 

they mention that seattle grace mercy west is established in 2009

PP 3x3 is a direct continuation of GA 6x5, for reference

the grey's holiday episode this season (6x10) spans from november 2009, to january 1st 2010. and then PP 3x11 is a direct continuation of GA 6x11. i am assuming it's still january 2010 at this point. (this is also directly after addison finds out the truth about bizzy and susan)

there's a valentines episode of greys (ep 14), so pp 3x14 is probably also february 2010

3x16 to 3x19 take place over two months but then i'm not entirely sure on the timeline of pete and violet’s custody battle

the two part grey's finale/shooting episode takes place some time in late spring or summer 2010 (the next residency year starts in july)

PP season 4 (+GA season 7)

i couldn’t catch the date on dell’s headstone but his death was definitly late spring 2010.

7x1 of GA takes place two months after the season six finale. The episodes where they have to treat the casualties from a college campus shooting (7x10 and 7x11) take place around christmas 2010

4x6 of PP takes place before halloween (pete and violet talk about lucas’s costume) so its october 2010

the musical episode (7x18) is sofia's birthday, which is in may 2011. the PP episode 4x18 runs exactly parallel to it.

callie and arizona’s wedding is 7x20 and its stated that sofia is 3 months old, thus this is three months after both GA 7x18 and PP 4x18

So to recap: private practice season four takes place from around late spring/summer 2010 to spring/summer 2011

PP season 5 (+GA season 8)

here where it gets more tricky bc they do some time jumps around amelia’s pregnancy 

the first episode of season 8 of greys takes place on july 1st 2011. the three episode arc in which teddy’s husband dies (eps 8, 9, 10) take place around mid january i think, based on what she says in the valentines episode (ep 14). the plane crash (the final ep of the season) takes place around mid may 2012.

season five of pp picks up right after season four (pete’s heart attack). the second episode jumps to a month later

episode 5x8 (amelia’s intervention) takes place 12 days after 5x7. assuming this lines up with greys, her intervention, ryan’s death, and her admission to rehab probably take place in late december 2011. then her episode in rehab (5x9) spans the course of fifty days, so the next episode (5x10) likely takes place in mid february

amelia is 20 weeks pregnant in 5x16. i’m going to assume that christopher was conceived very close to the night of ryan’s OD, so i’m guessing it's late spring at this point

5x19 is the episode where amelia gets the horrible news about her baby. There is a time jump. she is six months pregnant at the beginning and seven months pregnant at the end. She gives birth in the season finale. i'm guessing it's already late summer at this point, though somehow addison and amelia did not know about the plane crash. 

so based on the timeline of amelia’s relapse and pregnancy, plus the grey’s timeline, i'm fairly certain season five of private practice take place summer 2011 to summer 2012.

PP season 6 (+GA season 9)

this one's gonna piss me off bc they do so many time jumps in an attempt to tie up loose ends before the show ends

there is a bit of a time jump before season 6, but in the season premiere, amelia celebrates one year of sobriety. so it must already be late 2012. i’m leaving wiggle room with my guesswork for last season, because imo the canon timeline they’re establishing of the last season is a little iffy.

its implied that addison and jake have been together for these past few months between seasons

pete’s memorial happens in 2x2. addison gets the call that mark has been taken off life support, so this episode must run parallel to greys 9x1. there has also been a time jump between GA seasons. it’s unclear whether or not addison visited mark while on life support, but it had likely been a few months so it's possible. they state that mark died in 2012 so it's not yet 2013.

they jump back and forth in time too much over the course of charlotte's pregnancy, henry’s adoption, and vivian carlsmith’s death. the entire season was meant to be a finale, so a lot of episodes focus only on one or two characters and have events that happen concurrently with the events of other episodes and it gets all muddled. but i'm pretty sure episodes 1-12 span a little under nine months (charlotte discovers she's pregnant at the beginning of the season and gives birth in ep 12). so her pregnancy serves as a backdrop to all these other storylines that overlap in these 12 episodes.

there is some kind of time jump between the triplets birth in 6x12 and addison’s wedding in 6x13 but not a very long one.

there is a thirteen week time jump between addison’s wedding and naomi’s ultrasound, then a little longer before sam and naomi’s second wedding.

so from what i can gather, season six took place over the course of around a year, starting in late 2012 and ending in late 2013 (potentially early 2014?? at some point this season the timeline diverges from greys so that they can utilize all the time jumps)

[mycupofrum]

Birthday boy

Pairing: Harry/Draco

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Newly divorced Harry Potter is not interested in celebrating his birthday. He's sitting in a pub sipping a beer when an unexpected encounter with Draco Malfoy completely changes the course of his evening.

A/N: This is my first ever Drarry fic! I've loved this ship for a long time and I'm excited to finally be able to share this with you. Includes divorced Harry living through his well-earned slut era and Draco eager to annoy him only to end up getting more annoyed himself. These two always have a way of flirting with each other in the most difficult way possible, don't they?

Snippet under the cut.

__

31 July 2007

The annoyingly catchy pop song about an umbrella played for the fifth time in the pub while Harry sat there. Customers didn't seem to pay attention to the drink-stained, sticky tables or pieces of greasy chips lying here and there on the deep blue carpet.

Harry grabbed his pint and took a big gulp of the malty brew without tasting it. He had felt so horrible that day, but it had gradually dissipated into a comforting fogginess.

"Happy birthday to me," he muttered to himself, gulping down the last few drips of the pint before getting up to order another. He had previously gone for coffee at Ron and Hermione's house, but after having some cake he came up with an excuse to leave, even though they asked him to stay.

Instead, Harry had ended up at his regular pub on Bishopsgate just after lunchtime and remained there till the early evening. His only plan that day was to get pleasantly drunk, so the quality of the drink didn't matter that much.

When Harry approached the bar, he raised his hand, and the waiter nodded as she served another customer.

"Has it really come to this?" a strangely familiar voice asked from behind him. "Great Potter still goes to muggle pubs. You don't appear to have much luck hiding from the rest of us in this world either."

Harry turned to face the speaker. "Shut up, Malfoy."

Draco Malfoy slipped through the crowd next to Harry and leaned against the bar counter.

"It's your birthday today."

It was not a birthday wish, and Harry wouldn't have appreciated one.

"The whole wizarding world knows it's my birthday. What are you doing here?"

Malfoy's expression didn't change. "I pass this pub often, but there's a reason I've never been inside. However, I saw you sitting by the window with a pint, so my curiosity was piqued."

"You were spying on me?"

"As usual, you make your own inaccurate interpretations of everything, Potter," Malfoy replied, bored.

He observed Harry for a while, but Harry was mainly interested in the bottles of various colours on the wall opposite the bar counter.

"Where's the rest of the golden trio – Granger and Weasley?"

"At home. Spending quality time as a family."

Malfoy nodded. "I see."

Harry didn't say anything. He and Ginny had tried to have children but were unsuccessful. In retrospect, he wondered if that had been the first sign that they just weren't meant to be together.

"Now let me at least offer you something better to drink than that murky liquid you just had."

That caused Harry to turn and face the other man.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to hit on me."

__

Read more on AO3.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

By Ben Johnson

Published 30 October 2020

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot!

Fireworks can be seen all over France every July 14 as the nation celebrates Bastille Day.

Across the USA some ten days earlier on the 4th of July, Americans celebrate their Independence Day.

In Britain, the words of a children’s nursery rhyme “Remember, Remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot” are chanted as fireworks fly and bonfires gradually consume a human effigy known as the ‘Guy.’

So who was this Guy? And why is he remembered so fondly 400 years after his death?

It could be said that the story started when the Catholic Pope of the day failed to recognise England’s King Henry VIII‘s novel ideas on separation and divorce.

Henry, annoyed at this, severed ties with Rome and appointed himself head of the Protestant Church of England.

Protestant rule in England was maintained and strengthened through the long and glorious reign of his daughter Queen Elizabeth I.

When Elizabeth died without children in 1603, her cousin James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.

James had not been long on the throne before he started to upset the Catholics within his kingdom.

They appear to have been unimpressed with his failure to implement religious tolerance measures, getting a little more annoyed when he ordered all Catholic priests to leave the country.

A group of Roman Catholic nobles and gentlemen led by Robert Catesby conspired to essentially end Protestant rule with perhaps the biggest ‘bang’ in history.

Their plan was to blow up the King, Queen, church leaders, assorted nobles, and both Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder strategically placed in the cellars beneath the Palace of Westminster.

The plot was apparently revealed when the Catholic Lord Monteagle was sent a message warning him to stay away from Parliament as he would be in danger, the letter being presented to Robert Cecil, James I’s Chief Minister.

Some historians believe that Cecil had known about the plot for some time and had allowed the plot to ‘thicken’ to both ensure that all the conspirators were caught and to promote Catholic hatred throughout the country.

And the Guy? Guy Fawkes was born in Yorkshire on 13 April 1570.

A convert to the Catholic faith, Fawkes had been a soldier who had spent several years fighting in Italy.

It was during this period that he adopted the name Guido (Italian for Guy), perhaps to impress the ladies.

What we do know is that Guido was arrested in the early hours of the morning of November 5th 1605, in a cellar under the House of Lords, next to the 36 kegs of gunpowder, with a box of matches in his pocket and a very guilty expression on his face.

Under torture, Guy Fawkes identified the names of his co-conspirators. Many of these were the relations of a Catholic gentleman, Thomas Percy.

Catesby and three others were killed by soldiers while attempting to escape.

The remaining eight were imprisoned in the Tower of London before being tried and executed for High Treason.

They experienced that quaint English method of execution, first experienced almost 300 years earlier by William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace.

They too were hanged, drawn, and quartered.

*Hanged, drawn and quartered:

Victims were dragged on a wooden hurdle behind a horse to the place of execution where they were first of all hanged, then their genitals were removed.

They were disembowelled and beheaded.

Their bodies were finally quartered, the severed pieces often displayed in public.

—

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against King James I by a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby, who considered their actions attempted tyrannicide and who sought regime change in England after decades of religious persecution.

The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during which King James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the new head of state.

[coochiequeens]

Sounds like the guy knew he was losing control of his wife so he said nothing about the termination until after so he could use it to make her life hell and possibly make money by suing her friends.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/04/texas-abortion-wrongful-death-countersuit/

After a Texas woman got a positive result on the home-pregnancy test she took in July, she texted two friends to discuss her options, according to a new countersuit.

A trigger law banning all abortions would take effect in her state in August, about two months following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Abortions were already illegal in Texas after the six-week mark. Another law had also made prescribing abortion pills online or mailing them to Texans illegal, which the woman and her friends discussed, the complaint states.

The woman had decided to end the pregnancy, according to the countersuit, filed in the District Court of Galveston County on Monday.

“Not questioning if this is what needs to happen,” she allegedly texted her friends. “I know it does.”

She took abortion medication on July 14, the suit states. Months later, in early March, her ex-husband filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against three women — including the two friends he said she had texted over the summer — whom he accused of being involved “in the murder of his child.”

On Monday, the two women filed a countersuit, alleging that their friend’s ex-husband was aware that his then-wife had wanted to terminate her pregnancy after he “illegally accessed” her phone without consent.

“He wasn’t interested in stopping her from terminating a possible pregnancy,” the countersuit claims.

Attorneys for the two women and the ex-husband did not respond to requests for comment. The ex-wife is not a named party in either lawsuit. Under Texas law, a pregnant patient who has an abortion cannot face criminal, civil or administrative liability or penalties.

The husband filed the original wrongful death lawsuit on March 9 in Galveston County, Tex.

In the suit, he alleged that the two friends assisted in “murdering [the] unborn child with illegally obtained abortion pills” that were acquired from a third woman. The complaint claims that the wife hid the pregnancy and had a medication abortion “without [his] knowledge or consent.”

The married couple finalized their divorce in February. The husband’s complaint states that he brought the lawsuit after he had “recently learned of the defendants’ involvement in the murder of his child.” His lawsuit was among the first of its kind since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Texas Tribune reported.

On July 12, the husband allegedly dug through his wife’s purse without her knowledge, according to the countersuit. He found a Post-it note with the number for an abortion clinic, and he read messages on her phone between her and her two friends about her “possible pregnancy and her desire to terminate it,” according to the document, citing a police report he later filed.

The next day, he looked through his wife’s purse again, the countersuit alleges.

This time, according to the friends’ countersuit, he found a small white pill labeled “MF” and learned it was mifepristone, which can be taken to terminate an early pregnancy. The friends allege that he placed the medication back in her purse and did not say anything to her about it that day.

The wife took the abortion medication the following day, on July 14, the countersuit states. Four days later, he went to the League City Police Department to file a report about his wife’s “intent to terminate the possible pregnancy,” according to a photo of the incident report that was included in the countersuit. The man also told police he had “accessed [his wife’s] phone without her permission,” the countersuit alleges, citing the police report.

The League City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

After talking with police, the husband began to “threaten and try to control” his then-wife about the medication, according to the countersuit. His wife allegedly texted her friends to say: “So basically because I didn’t tell him in the first place that I was in that position he’s using it against me.”

The countersuit alleges that the husband threatened to have his wife “‘thrown in jail’ if she did not give herself to him ‘mind body and soul.’”

The friends’ lawsuit accuses the husband of violating Texas’s Harmful Access by Computer Act by reading the messages between his ex-wife and the two women, as well as taking screenshots of the correspondence without their permission.

The legislation allows Texans to sue those who have accessed a computer, computer network or computer system that they own without their consent. When the husband allegedly accessed his wife’s phone, he harmed the two friends, the countersuit claims, causing them to “suffer damages and losses.”

The countersuit also argues that the husband violated the friends’ right to privacy when he allegedly read their conversations with his then-wife.

By Praveena Somasundaram

[atlemont]

Life updates!

1. I got divorced and remarried! My 20 yo marriage ended with a fizzle in September. Luckily we found a great lawyer who only works with couples who are in agreement and she pushed everything through. He is still my #1 supporter and I couldn’t ask for a better bestie. We still talk everyday and honestly, our friendship has never been better.

My wife (!) and I married shortly later in a simple town hall ceremony in Germany. We will celebrate again this December on NYE and it has been so nice to finally have the legal paperwork behind us all.

2. I officially moved to Germany. The kids and my ex visited over Christmas. The kids are joining me here in July. They will stay for at least a few years with trips back and forth. My ex and my new in-laws are so adorably cute and friendly. We are a strange family composition, but honestly it’s never been better.

3. We took an excessive amount of honeymoons…. We both surprised each other for Christmas with a trip so off to Hamburg and spa days we went, then a few weeks later we had a great 5 days in Iceland. My friend from the US was in Paris for a short trip so we did our last short weekend in Paris. All three were like dreams. We happily indulged in extra we wouldn’t normally and I’m completely spoiled now.

4. I’m involved in a little film production that filmed a bit this last weekend. It’s a Harry Potter world (Marauder’s Era) fan movie. It’s absolutely nerdy but in the sweetest way. We are an almost entirely queer cast and have worked really hard to try and be as inclusive as possible. I’m so ridiculously proud of the cast. Most of them are in their early 20’s (I play a Mom, no surprises there) and seeing them find themselves and surrounding themselves with people that support them and bring them joy makes my heart have hope.

Anyway, what’s new with everyone else????

[thatsnothowyoupronouncemyname]

A Chris Wood Deep Dive

This post will take a deep dive into The Vampire Diaries and Supergirl actor Chris Wood (CW) and why he is not as nice a person as many would like to believe.

Trigger warnings: this post discusses racism, homophobia, misogyny, domestic violence, abuse, and police brutality.

**Disclaimer: I do not endorse the gossip sites and their administrators mentioned in this post, nor do I claim that the information presented here is 100% accurate and confirmed to be such. This post is made up of publicly available information. Sources are linked.**

Part I: Cheating

1. Here are blind items, courtesy of the blog Crazy Days and Nights (CDAN), run by an entertainment lawyer (?) under the nickname “Enty”, from the past couple of years that allege CW has been cheating on Melissa Benoist, his wife of three years, starting not long after the two of them began dating. The latest blind also claims that he was “trying to move onto other people” while still married to her, and even attempting to submit information on himself to gossip sites.

September 2022 (revealed here)

June 2022 (revealed here)

July 2017 (revealed here)

There are others that show that he hasn't been committed to his marriage and that they were likely to get a divorce. 

November 2021 (revealed here - where Enty also had a blind about Melissa potentially coming out in the future)

June 2021 (revealed here)

In case you are doubting how trustworthy Enty and his blind items are- it is a gossip blog, so most definitely not 100%. He has posted blind items before that ended up being verified, while others were never proven to be true.

However, with regards to CW, Enty posted a blind item in late October about the Almost Famous Broadway musical, in which CW appears as Russell Hammond, a main character. Prior to the company’s appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Enty claimed that despite the appearance on late night television, the show wasn’t doing well and would be closing after Christmas. It was then announced December 19, 2022 that the show would close January 8, 2023 (Broadway shows usually close on Sundays). Originally, the musical was advertised to have an open-ended run (which is the norm, unless the show is brought to Broadway explicitly as a limited engagement), so there is a distinction to be made between a show ending its run after a while (like The Phantom of the Opera in the upcoming year) or being closed, mostly due to low attendance and grosses that are not enough to recuperate the money invested (like Almost Famous, K-POP or Ain’t No Mo’ in the most recent cases). Enty’s insider information was correct - it wasn’t public knowledge. So, it could be said that this is another case of “where there is smoke, there is fire”. I cannot claim with full certainty that he has been cheating, but there are many indicators that point towards these rumors being based in fact.

2. He'd dated at least four of his co-stars, all of whom were leading ladies on the “almost network” TV shows he appeared in.

First, there was AnnaSophia Robb, whom he met on the set of the Carrie Diaries. They dated for a while between 2013 and 2014.

Then, he was linked to Nina Dobrev, who led the The Vampire Diaries from 2009 to the end of season 6 in 2015. CW appeared on TVD in season 6 (2014-2015), and there were a number of pictures and claims that the two of them dated. Though, it has recently been confirmed by a former make-up artist on the show during a Reddit AMA that CW’s relationship with Nina was purely PR. 

In 2016, he dated Hanna Mangan Lawrence, his co-star on the series Containment, which was also produced by TVD boss Julie Plec.

And lastly, CW met Melissa on the set of Supergirl. The two started dating in early 2017 and got married in September 2019.

In the video below (which will play an even more significant role in a second), CW said he “was playing hard to get” when offered a role in Supergirl without an audition by then-showrunner Andrew Kreisberg (more on him later). Finally, he did end up taking the role and moving to Vancouver for filming, partly because he apparently knew "he'd meet his future wife and the mother of his children" on the show.

At that time, throughout 2016, he was in a relationship with Hanna. CW’s twitter fans noticed that Hanna moved to Vancouver with Chris around August 2016 before he started filming Supergirl and the two were seen together there some time later, in November 2016, according to Twitter, so about three months into CW’s time filming. They appear to have broken up in December 2016, some two weeks after Hanna’s last post of CW, though the break up was only reported in early January 2017. So CW’s “hunch” about meeting his future spouse occurred when he was in a serious relationship with someone else. Sounds like a nice, faithful guy, right?

Part II: “First and last” 

In 2020, CW was invited to appear on Kevin Smith’s “Fatman Beyond” podcast. As you might know, Kevin (the writer/director of the homophobic movie Chasing Amy) directed multiple episodes of Supergirl, and is good friends with both Melissa and CW. He himself once captioned an Instagram photo with her in 2019 by saying that “[Melissa’s] boyfriend is also [his] boyfriend”, and also posted on IG to congratulate them both on expecting their first child. This proved to be a “lucrative” friendship for CW, as it was Kevin who gave him the voice role of He-Man on Netflix’s animated Masters of the Universe reboot. In the podcast episode, Kevin told an anecdote when him and CW went to see Melissa in her Broadway debut as Carole King on Beautiful in the summer of 2018.

When Kevin emphasized that this performance was, in fact, Melissa’s debut, CW interrupted Kevin to yell that her turn on Broadway was her "first and last". Even Kevin seemed confused for second (at about 42:13), pausing what he was saying to ask, “Is she not gonna do it again?” with genuine interest, at which CW quickly backtracked by saying that he was only kidding.

I get that he was joking, but I think most people would agree that it was a shockingly poor and tasteless joke to randomly throw in there, unprompted. In fact, Kevin told this whole story to highlight how CW was "crying joyful tears" over the fact that his then-girlfriend’s long-held Broadway dreams came true. Why did he feel the need to say this immediately after confirming this was her dream, and one that he apparently shared with her, at that? Yikes.

In that same video, Kevin Smith mentioned that he mispronounced Melissa’s last name for some time as “Benoit”, until CW enlightened him with a joke as to how to correctly pronounce it. Apparently, CW likened the pronunciation of “Benoist” as something that rimes with “moist” (which is true, but he admitted that the joke was of sexual nature at 41:01 of the above video). And while this, too, was an obvious attempt at humor, my impression is that he seemingly has a pattern of making jokes in poor taste about his partner to others, which is definitely not an admirable quality.

Part III: A republican past

Recently, CW was known as a prominent supporter of the Democratic party, most notably tweeting his support for Joe Biden and the Black Lives Matter movement over the course of spring and fall of 2020. 

Apparently, his frequent tweets did not go unnoticed and a person who knew him when he was still in high school in Dublin, Ohio, reached out to the gossip website “Blind Gossip” to tell a story about CW’s affiliation back when he was younger. The resulting blind item from 2020 was perhaps the most shocking piece of information I discovered while doing this deep down. Essentially, it claims that CW used to be "super conservative" and alleged that he and his friend routinely stole dozens of lawn signs supporting John Kerry, the democratic presidential candidate running to unseat incumbent president George W. Bush in 2004. The person who spoke to Blind Gossip claimed to have seen the stolen signs in CW’s car. Obviously, the theft of yard signs is a crime. So if this is true, a 16 year-old CW was not only a thief, but also a passionate supporter of George W. Bush. With regards to Bush, I don’t have to detail while he was a terrible president guilty of war crimes - if you are not entirely aware of his catastrophic tenure, you are welcome to google it and read through thousand pieces of evidence that will make clear why supprting should be condemned.

At this point, I have to make it clear that there is no further evidence to corroborate this story other than a person's submission who has seen the stolen signs and to whom he confessed the theft. As I said with CDAN, the trustworthiness of gossip sites is questionable at best. Nevertheless, the blind is eerily specific, and the theft of lawn signs is definitely not uncommon in Ohio or the U.S. in general during presidential elections, so this very well could have happened. But we will likely never know for sure.

 Part IV: Performative activism

In spite of his youthful days of Bush-inspired theft, CW is a very vocal Democrat now. Yes, I know that people can grow and mature, and they can very well change their political affiliation over time, but I guess not everyone becomes a passionate democrat after stealing to benefit the GOP years before. Maybe the more liberal ways of Los Angeles genuinely rubbed off on him, or maybe his change of heart was merely motivated by the wish to be perceived as progressive in order to fit into Hollywood. Who knows the truth in his case?

1. Anti-racism

During the 2020 George Floyd protests, he actively advocated for the Black Lives Matter movement (which is great), tweeting his support quite frequently. He even called out and shamed others that posted literally anything else, like the publication Variety for continuing to report entertainment news like they always do (though merely a few months before, in mid-February, when reports of the pandemic had already surfaced and COVID-19 was rapidly spreading outside of China, he was more than happy to repost the news that featured him from these entertainment sites).

He also filmed himself calling representatives, posted an open letter to the president of Elon University (his alma mater), and took photos of himself holding books on the topic.

I wholeheartedly support BLM and anyone who seeks to proactively fight against systemic racism in the US and elsewhere. Except, CW posted a couple of weird tweets that were really not helpful. There were some in particular that clearly centered himself instead of BIPOC voices in an attempt to celebrate his own wokeness, like this one tweet where he gleefully patted himself on the back for tweeting the phrase “Black Lives Matter” 4 years prior.

Since then, he doesn't post about anti-racism and BLM anymore. To be fair, he rarely posts anything other than updates on his career, but he has also become very silent when it comes to activism, even with respect to his own mental health awareness campaign. That makes it seem like he wasn't actually committed to unlearning his racial bias, raising awareness against police brutality as well as white supremacy, and campaigning for Black liberation and equal justice. As others have pointed out before, he probably only spoke up at a time when he thought calling out injustice would benefit his image and only followed suit when he saw hundreds of famous people participate in the outrage sparked by George Floyd’s murder.

And the reason why his self-congratulatory attitude in 2020 rubbed me the wrong way was precisely this: he never seemed to committed to actually doing the work of becoming actively anti-racist, and instead lauded himself for being woke years prior to the events of 2020, even though he himself posted this tweet when the protests first started following Floyd’s death:

This first tweet from that time makes two things very clear: one, that he was absolutely not “woke” when it comes to racism, because otherwise, he wouldn’t have tweeted something like “I can’t believe this is happening” when speaking about police brutality against Black people. If he was, in fact, as woke as he claims in 2016, he wouldn’t have said something like this in 2020. Those who actually educated themselves on systemic racism were, though enraged and disappointed, probably not surprised by another instance of the violent policing of BIPOC in the US - it is an incredibly sad truth that such deplorable acts of violence happen every single day, but of course he doesn’t know that, because he is a white man that is afforded the extreme privilege of ignoring the everyday realities of being BIPOC in the US. Him saying “we shold have moved on from this hate by now” only shows how blind he was to the institutional and permanent nature of racial injustice in his own country.

Second, his rage is nothing but performative. He only speaks up about such topics when he can establish himself as a champion of social justice, but between these highly publicized and scrutinized incidents of racialized violence, he is most definitely not doing anything to unlearn his own biases or to actively participate in these conversations.

2. Condemning Mon-el’s misogyny

Then there's also him describing his sexist, slave-owning Supergirl character as a “puppy” in November 2016 (photo credit goes to @/avvatrice on Twitter) and then again at the infamous 2017 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), insisting that he may have some less than savory views but doesn’t mean any harm or malice. Said character was not only a former slaver and a raging misogynyst, but he also turned out to be Supergirl producer Andrew Kreisberg's self-insert. Yuck.

Only after Kreisberg was fired in November 2017 and the details of his sexual misconduct were published, did CW write a little twitter essay fully acknowledging that his character, who was given lines that matched Kreisberg's own sexist, disturbing words and views in real life, was a misogynistic, small-minded piece of sh*t.

Photo credit goes @/avvatrice on Twitter.

To be clear, I do not blame CW for the abysmal way his character was written, that’s fully the writers’ fault. But I do blame him for downplaying and romanticizing the character’s unsavory, disgusting qualities for over a year, attempting to portray a sexist, lying white man who fled a planet full of slaves as a harmless “puppy”.

3. Homophobia

In June 2019, CW's mental health awareness campaign IDONTMIND (IDM) released two t-shirts for pride month. So let's see some of his past with the LGBTQ community.

To start with, this is in line with what many companies and campaigns routenely do when Pride month comes around every year, a practice called “rainbow washing”. This refers to cases when organizations “disingenuously use Pride branding for their own gain or to give themselves a deceptive air of liberalism and allyship”. Technically, IDM is a non-profit, and all profits of the campaign support their umbrella organization, Mental Health America (MHA), which qualifies as a 501(c)(3) organization in the US. CW himself was appointed to the board of directors of MHA in 2019, departing from this role in 2021. Nevertheless, the practice of rainbow washing is not solely reserved to for-profit corporations, as it is not just about aiming to bring in more money from those sales, but also about creating the impression that the organization is, in fact, accepting and welcoming towards all orientation and lifesytles.

The reason why IDM’s efforts to raise money for MHA (and the Trevor Project, according to their now-deleted IG post back then) is noteworthy here as a potential example of rainbow washing, is the history of its founder with the LGBTQ community, which the collection was meant to support. A history which is not exempt from allegations of homophobia.

First of all, there is a video CW made with his friend best friend and IDM co-founder Edward Schmit that taps into harmful stereotypes and is centered around mocking gay men. The whole skit is about two men having a pillow talk, speaking in a manner often dubbed as “gay voice” as a way to caricature gay men. Straight men mockingly imitating this speech is not just overtly homophobic, but is also a subtle type of misogyny, since it’s making fun of someone who is “sounding feminine”. They perpetuate the myth that whenever a man has qualities that are traditionally assigned as “feminine”, they must be gay and simply not “manly” enough.

There's also this compilation of him essentially doing the same in different settings, for roles and skits. How he approaches the topic of homosexuality and portrays queer men shows how he doesn’t shy away from tapping into these stereotypes instead of seeking to portray such characters as anything other than mere caricatures that are nothing but comic relief.

And then let’s not forget SDCC 2017 and the cast’s (Melissa, CW, Mehcad, Jeremy, David, Odette, Katie) infamous singing interview, where some of them, notably including Jeremy Jordan and CW, outright mocked the fans for shipping Supercorp.

When asked about Supercorp in the same interview, Katie McGrath defended the fans (at 7:15 of the video):

The great thing about what we do is, like any art, anyone can read into it what they want.

Upon hearing this, CW immediately felt the need to chime in and practically mocked Katie’s comment (at 7:38):

Sexuality is all about others’ perceptions of yours, right? That was sarcasm!

While Katie sought to validate fan’s feelings and interpretations of the show, CW’s facial expressions throughout the entire time they were speaking about Supercorp and his subsequent comment reek not just of some misplaced arrogance that his character wasn’t the hit he thought it would be, but also of the homophobia he wasn’t able to hide away. It’s clear he felt threatened by the incredible response to Kara and Lena’s storyline that massively overshadowed Kara’s forced and problematic relationship with CW character. It is also evident that the fact that many people saw a romantic connections between two, supposedly straight female characters, really bothered him - after all, it was “Karamel” that was supposed to be in the limelight, while any romantic undertones between Kara and Lena were unplanned. CW’s character was brought to the show with the purpose of becoming the lead’s romantic interest, but instead, many fans fell in love with the chemistry between Supergirl and Lena Luthor. To him, it must have been disappointing to lose the attention he thought he would get to a queer ship, leading to this obviously homophobic comment at SDCC.

Interestingly, in January 2020, when it was announced Jeremy Jordan would return for a few episodes in season 5, a fan asked Jeremy whether his character Winn and CW’s since-departed former slaver “were married” in the future. In response to the people who were seeimingly shipping his character with Jeremy’s, CW tweeted this:

His response, particularly the quip “chemistry=too strong”, makes me think that he was either similarly sarcastic here about people shipping two supposedly straight, same-sex characters as he was back at SDCC, or, he was suddenly okay with the fans doing this if it was his character they were shipping and getting the spotlight from the viewers.

Overall, as these examples show, CW’s attitude towards the LGBTQ community is contentious at best. So it was understandably suspect when IDM released Pride merch a mere two years after the SDCC disaster. CW was all too happy to participate in the bashing of queer fans during that San Diego interview, and this attempt to appear supportive of the community was meant to absolve him from and make people forget about his history of belittling LGBTQ people, which he has never acknowledged, while presenting him as a benevolent ally with a charity that fully supports everyone under the rainbow umbrella.

Part V: Work ethic

Most recently, CW starred as Russell Hammond in the musical adaptation of the 2000 film, Almost Famous (AF). Russell is one of the three lead characters, and since CW was the most senior and well-known from the three performers playing those roles, he has been the one to receive top billing most times (even though Anika Larsen, a Tony-nominee, and Drew Gehling were in the cast, too, both of whom have more Broadway credits as well as name recognition in theatre circles and also play principal roles in the musical). In the beginning, he was all over the musical’s social media pages, too, though more recently, he has been featured less and less, and there was even an instance when on a cast photo, they tagged his understudy, Van Hughes, instead of CW, even though he was the one in the picture (the tag was later removed, and then CW was tagged in it).

This could have easily been an oversight on the part of whoever is running AF’s Instagram, but, as some have pointed out, they could have possibly shaded CW for skipping out too many shows, most notably also the one on the day that photo was posted. By my count, he missed about 18-19 shows - and most of these during the week before the company was scheduled for a nationwide televised performance.

In a SiriusXM interview with Casey Likes (the recording of which I can’t find for the life of me), CW explained that he doesn’t have a lot of memories from opening night, which is still more than what he can recollect from the final preview from the evening before, as he was on heavy medication. Apparently, he had been sick for the last few previews before the company’s performance on The Tonight Show, for which he did show up (and ended up getting a lot of negative buzz for butchering the only line in the song he had). One fan account of his, formerly @/chriswoodnetwork on IG (notorious for cropping Melissa out of every picture, generally ignoring her and posting throwbacks with his former girlfriends), claimed at that time that he was on vocal rest, which is in line with what he said himself.

However, those approx. five performances before the Fallon appearance and opening night weren’t the only times he was out for. According to the twitter accounts @/BroadwayCovers and his understudy, Van Hughes, he missed an additional 7-8 performances in November, particularly five in a row before coming back for the company’s appearence on CBS’ Good Morning America on December 1. He was also absent at least four-five more times in December.

These are the CDAN blinds that discuss how unreliable he has proven himself to be as a lead member of a Broadway company that claim that his absences should be attributed to his lack of commitment and questionable work ethic:

December 26, 2022

December 22, 2022 (revealed here)

December 8, 2022 (revealed here)

November 29, 2022 (revealed here)

What’s more is that it is highly likely he got this role thanks to the connections of his wife (though this, once again, cannot be fully verified). One the one hand, in the SiriusXM interview, he mentioned that after Colin Donnell, who played Russell during the musical’s San Diego run, had to bow out of the production due to scheduling conflicts, he joined a company for a workshop and did not have to do an actual audition for the part. On Twitter, @/PotionClass (here on tumblr @magicpotionclass​) pointed out that one of the producers of AF was also the one to invite Melissa to lead Beautiful on Broadway back in 2018, and that the musical’s writer (and the original film’s director), Cameron Crowe, is repped by the same agency as Melissa.

While I believe he was in fact sick prior to opening night, the subsequent absences either prove that he is simply unfit to do eight shows a week on Broadway or confirm Enty’s claim that he only wants the fame (which is why he never misses a TV appearence) without the hard work.

Part VI: Standing up for victims of abuse?

One other point of criticism that has been brought up against CW recently is him working with people who are connected to Bl*ke Jenner (BJ), Melissa’s first husband who abused her both physically and verbally, causing permanent damage to her eye by throwing a phone in her face. In this regard, I generally say that actors don’t always have the luxury of picking who they do and don’t want to work with - Melissa herself is currently working on a show produced by Julie Plec, who was accused of racism, treating Black actors and their characters badly, and maintaining an evident racial bias in the production of her shows; while Katie McGrath’s new series, The Continental, will star Mel Gibson, a known antisemite and abuser. So, I was gonna go easy on CW for working with Daniel Sovich on AF. Sovich, an actor/musician, and member of AF’s company is good friends with BJ. Working with him is not CW’s fault, because he clearly wasn’t the one who brought Sovich to the musical and there is only little evidence that they are even friendly.

However, I recently discovered that it was Robert J. Ulrich who served as casting director for the Thirtysomething sequel pilot in early 2020, in which CW was cast in a leading role (though the project was never picked up). It is therefore likely that CW was cast in that role by Ulrich himself at a time when he was already married to Melissa and BJ’s abuse was made public by her. As these pictures show, Ulrich is a good friend of both BJ and Sovich.

Additionally, it was also revealed that he is working with Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, on the development a feature film. It is well-known that Pitt was accused of abusing his former wife, Angelina Jolie, and their children. Particularly in this case, I believe it would be more than possible for CW to try to work on this feature with any other producer who is not a violent domestic abuser.

That makes it a total of three times in the past three years that he’s worked with either people directly connected to the man who abused his wife, or someone who has been accused of doing so with their own family. To be honest, these three instances make me question his support of his wife in the wake of her speaking out, as well as his public commitment to stand up against the abuse of women and

...”not work with those who continue to build toxic work environments.”

That particular comment did not age well.

Part VII: IDONTMIND making mistakes

1. Anxiety

Lastly, I want to mention two more things in relation to CW’s campaign, IDM. In the fall of 2020, IDM launched a new collection titled “Anxiety - Own Your Feelings”. The items in the collection (two sweatshirts, two baseball hats and a tee) were made with the graphic “anxiety” printed with an elegant, cursive font.

The collection immediately received backlash for romanticizing mental illness and using it as an aesthetic/fashion statement to sell merchandise. After even mental health professionals commented to state how harmful and foolish this idea was, IDONTMIND posted the following statement in the comments:

As you can see, they did not apologize for putting out such a collection and essentially attributed the backlash to a matter of opinion and taste. Needless to say, they went on with the launch of these products and sold them as planned, even if they were discounted some weeks later. After the above statement was posted, CW himself seemed to respond to the backlash with this (since deleted) vague “notes app” post on Instagram that did not take any accountability whatsoever or apologize for offending many people, instead trying to tell them they should just forgive him and IDM for the blunder:

Clearly, neither CW nor any of the team behind IDM was concerned with the whole incident, since they chose to sell the collection anyway instead of admitting their mistake and pulling these products.

2. Run IDONTMIND & TWLOHA

The second thing I wanted to include concerns IDM’s Run IDONTMIND program that they launched in May 2021. May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the U.S. and the program aims to encourage people to run a 5k, 10k or half marathon during those 31 days in order to raise money for IDM and their work in mental health awareness. That sounds like a cool thing, right?

Well, the problem is that they basically stole this idea from another mental health organization, To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA - if you’ve never heard of them, please check out this amazing non-profit!), a charity founded by Jamie Tworkowski in 2006. Curiously enough, TWLOHA was created sixteen years ago when Tworkowski designed a shirt which he sold in order to allow a friend to get the mental health care she needed. TWLOHA grew from here into a well-known charity that aims to spread a message of hope and help to people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicidal thoughts. Since their inception, they tried to raise money and awareness by selling shirts and later other types of merchandise that look unique enough to jumpstart everyday conversations about the meaning behind them - over ten years before CW founded IDM with the exact same “business model”.

In 2013, TWLOHA launched the annual event “Run For It 5k”. Every spring, they designate a day when the followers of the movement can complete a 5k to raise awareness for TWLOHA’s work. Prior to the event, TWLOHA usually sells a t-shirt with that year’s graphic and a finisher’s medal, among other things.

Besides Run IDM being an eerily similar initiative, in 2022, IDM even started selling shirts and medals just like TWLOHA always does (though TWLOHA’s medal comes for free if you buy the shirt for $30, while IDM originally sold it separately for an additional $20).

In many ways, IDM seems to be copying TWLOHA - their Journal also bears a lot of similarity to TWLOHA’s blog; they share the same business model, and now IDM is organizing essentially the same events.

Back in 2017, in an interview with TVInsider.com about his new campaign, CW was asked how he came up with the concept of this initiative, to which he said:

“...Then this fell into my lap, this little pocket of stigma awareness surrounding mental health that I felt wasn’t being approached in a way that I felt would be the most successful.”

...”because people wear shirts that say nothing phrases all the time, and by having a meaning behind it, the hope is that something simple like “Hey, I like your shirt, what does it mean?” people can then say “Oh, it’s actually a mental health awareness campaign.” And now we’re having a conversation, now we’re talking about mental health, which is the whole thing is that everyone’s terrified to open up about.”

In this interview, he presents IDM as a brand new idea to fight the stigma surrounding mental health awareness, a topic that he, in his own words, sought to approach “in a way that would be the most successful”. Needless to say, other campaigns with the exact same approach, like TWLOHA, already existed for years before he ever launched his own campaign. So, despite what he said in this interview, his idea was nothing revolutionary and only copied what other organizations while already doing. This doesn’t mean IDM is not doing good work and helping people, but CW definitely should not claim that he was the one who came with the idea to defeat the stigma by selling shirts that spark conversations about mental health.

Part VIII: The rest

There certainly are more rumors and topics to discuss than these, however, I found some of them on forums and blogs as they were mentioned by fans, so I chose not to include them unless I could find other sources for such claims.

What this deep dive was meant to show is that his “nice guy” image is likely just that - an image. Granted, there are many, many people in the industry who are much worse than he is. But this doesn’t absolve him on any of the less than nice things he did and comments he made over the years. He certainly doesn’t deserve the devotion of his fans and I hope some of them will recognize that his squeeky clean image is nothing but a facade that masks some of the ugly truth.

[justforbooks]

The writer-activist Wendy Mitchell, who has died aged 68, won hearts and minds by advocating for living positively with dementia. She was determined to remind people that those living with the disease are not “sufferers” and that there is “a beginning, a middle and an end to the disease – with so much life to be lived in between”. She held strong beliefs that people should have the right to choose their own death, and campaigned for assisted dying laws in Britain – one of the subjects of her final book.

Wendy wrote three bestsellers, Somebody I Used to Know (2018), What I Wish People Knew About Dementia (2022) and One Last Thing: How to Live with the End in Mind (2023) – I was fortunate enough to be her ghostwriter on all of them. They were translated into dozens of languages, and her advocacy work won her honorary doctorates from Bradford and Hull Universities, and a British Empire Medal last year.

When I met Wendy in 2016, she was writing a daily blog, Which Me Am I Today? ,which she had started simply to document her day-to-day life, though it soon had tens of thousands of followers. After her diagnosis of young-onset vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in July 2014, Wendy was shocked at the lack of information and support available to those newly diagnosed.

In Somebody I Used to Know, she wrote about her own depression at the diagnosis, until she realised: “I was still the same person I had been the day before my diagnosis.” She threw herself into academic and medical research, speaking to doctors, nurses and other professionals. What I Wish People Knew About Dementia chronicled how the disease affects different parts of daily life, aside from memory, including taste, smell, hearing, gait and vision.

Her tips, such as draping a scarf over a flat-screen television to avoid it looking like a hole in the wall, or sticking photographs of clothes on wardrobe doors as a reminder of what is inside, made all the difference to those who were newly diagnosed.

Wendy enjoyed finding ways to outwit dementia. As she wrote in her final blog post: “Yes, dementia is a bummer, but oh what a life I’ve had playing games with this adversary of mine to try and stay one step ahead.”

Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, to Violet and Ken Draper, Wendy described growing up in their pub in her first memoir. She went to school in Pontefract and was a keen sportswoman, excelling at tennis and running – after her diagnosis, she swapped running for fell-walking in the Lake District. She described the Lakes as her “paradise” and Friars Crag as her favourite place to sit.

Wendy raised her two daughters, Sarah and Gemma, alone after her divorce from their father in the early 1980s (although she continued to use her married name). For many years she earned her living as a cleaner, until she started working in administrative roles within the NHS, gaining promotion to become a non-clinical team leader. Eventually she was forced to retire from her job as a rota manager at Leeds general infirmary, and later campaigned for workplaces to support those newly diagnosed with dementia to continue working: “We don’t lose all our skills overnight just because of our diagnosis,” she said.

In early retirement Wendy discovered other skills, including writing, and enjoyed her “trundles” around the village of Walkington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where she lived, capturing local wildlife with her trusted Nikon camera. She revelled in the fact that villagers unaware at first of her diagnosis described her as “the lady with the camera”.

She met many dementia advocates, and was inspired to take up campaigning when she heard Agnes Houston talk at a women and dementia event in York. Wendy became a guiding light to others, a regular contributor at Innovations in Dementia and York Minds and Voices, part of the DEEP UK Network of Dementia Voices.

She gathered her own formidable team of friends living with dementia, who produced video content chatting about the issues they encountered and nicknamed themselves “the Four Amigos”. She advised on the BBC TV series Casualty and the movie Still Alice (2014), and received a mention from the Hollywood actor Julianne Moore in her Bafta acceptance speech.

Wendy raised tens of thousands of pounds for Dementia UK with her annual “wacky challenges”, as she called them, daredevil stunts that included walking across hot coals, skydiving, wingwalking and, last autumn, a swim in Derwentwater after she was forced to abandon her abseil down the Leadenhall building in London (the “Cheesegrater”) due to technical issues (theirs, not hers). She insisted that she was fearless after her diagnosis, having already faced the worst.

Wendy was a force of nature, but dementia made her life harder and harder. She ended her life by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED), a subject she discussed in One Last Thing. In her last blog post, written in advance, in which she announced her death, she said: “Adapting to this life with dementia is over, but I don’t consider dementia has won, as that would be negative … it’s me calling time on my dementia – checkmate – before it plays its final move.”

She also pleaded for people to campaign for assisted dying laws in her memory.

Reviewing Somebody I Used To Know for the Sunday Times in 2018, Jackie Annesley wrote: “The world could do with more Wendys.” I couldn’t agree more, but there was only one wonderful Wendy, taking people by the hand and showing them how to live a good life with the disease in tow, or indeed how to talk about the end of life so they can instead focus on living.

Wendy is survived by her daughters.

🔔 Wendy Patricia Mitchell, writer and campaigner, born 31 January 1956; died 22 February 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[westdallasgang]

Barrow Gang member: Blanche Barrow (1911 - 1988) and she really was a preacher's daughter!

Blanche was born Bennie Iva Caldwell, to a teen mother and a father more than twice his wife's age. As a toddler, her parents divorced after her mother cheated. Therefore, Blanche was raised by her father (a farmer and preacher) in Oklahoma where she regularly attended church. Blanche's relationship with her absent mother was poor from the very beginning. The relationship soured even more when Blanched dropped out of school at age 16 to start beauty school. Not happy with Blanche's independence, her mother arranges a marriage for her. A 39 year old man named John Calloway, who promised to pay them both money if she married him. Blanche was just 17 and didn't want to disappoint her mother, so she agreed.

The marriage turned out to be a disaster. Her husband was so abusive that he caused her infertility. During a visit from a friend who stopped by to say hello, she and Blanche planned an escape. Blanche's friend said she had a cousin out in West Dallas who she can stay with and Blanche fled. Once she arrived, Blanche changed her name permanently from "Iva" to "Blanche" so her husband couldn't find her. In 1929, Blanche met Buck Barrow and they began dating. Their relationship came to a stop 2 weeks later when Buck got arrested for burglary. He was to serve a 4 year sentence in prison but escaped 3 months later, unable to be away from Blanche too long. Blanche didn't agree with Buck's choices or lifestyle. The last thing she needed was more problems but she was already in love and felt safe with Buck than she did with John.

After finalizing her divorce from her husband, Blanche marries Buck in 1931. She made Buck turn himself in to finish the rest of his prison sentence in order to start their life on a clean slate. Blanche gets a job at her sister-in-law's beauty parlor in Denison, TX. 2 years later, Buck gets an early pardon and reunites with Blanche. This too was cut short. Buck's brother Clyde paid a visit with his own agenda to raid Eastham prison. Blanche objects the plan, not wanting to lose her husband so soon after he was just freed. Clyde cans his original plan and offers a new one to meet in Joplin, Missouri. Blanche's own plan to convince Clyde to go straight in Joplin falls flat after their rented apartment turns into a bloody shootout with Missouri officers. They all escaped, only Blanche had made the drastic mistake of leaving behind her purse, including camera rolls of film.

The entire country now knew what Bonnie and Clyde looked like. Blanche was doomed for being involved. There was no escape. Buck had also killed and was in it just the same as everybody. In July of 1933, Blanche was involved in another bloody shootout, only far worse. Shards of broken glass injured her left eye that left her blind in that eye for the rest of her life. To make matters worse, Buck was mortally wounded by a bullet to the head. The gang hid in a field after the shootout where cops followed them to. That was when Blanche surrendered herself with Buck. Blanche landed a 10 year sentence at the Missouri State Penitentiary for "intent to kill" but only served 6 for good behavior. Buck died 6 days later from his wounds. After prison, Blanche remarried and lived in Dallas until her death from lung cancer in 1988. She was a camera buff, loved scrapbooking, and contrary to how she was portrayed in the 1967 film, Blanche actually had a cooler head than Bonnie. She also wrote a book about her times with Bonnie and Clyde and remained lifelong friends with Bonnie's sister and her niece.

[the-empress-7]

Too bad it’s not a leap year…then Meghan could announce she’s leaving Harry on the anniversary of Diana agreeing to the divorce.

Here are the essential dates for the Diana’s divorce timeline. It’s probably a safe assumption to think Meghan will use one of these for her divorce proceedings:

February 29: (1996) Diana agrees to the divorce.

August 28: (1996) Waleses divorce is finalized and settled

November 20: (1995) Diana’s Panorama interview is broadcast. Also Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding anniversary — if the Queen was still here, this would be my guess.

December 1: (1995) Queen’s letter to Diana and Charles urging them to divorce

December 9: (1992) Charles and Diana announce separation

I also wouldn’t put it past Meghan to time the announcement for something involving Kate such as:

March 17: likely her first engagement as Colonel of Irish Guards, for passing out shamrocks

April 28: Louis’ birthday

April 29: Wedding anniversary

May 2: Charlotte’s birthday

Early July: Wimbledon appearances

June 21: William’s birthday

July 22: George’s birthday

Or if there’s a fourth baby, right after the “we’re expecting” announcement or “baby’s on the way, Kate’s at Lindo” announcement.

Thank you so much for this. It’s great to have these dates for reference.

[rosie-love98]

Ask-Anything: The Snape-Hardbroom-Hobbes Family: Context And Rules:

Part 1: The Early Years:

Severus Snape and Constance Hardbroom first met back in 1977 as students. Constance’s school-Cackle’s Academy-was visiting Hogwarts for the Spring Term. Over time (and with the secret help of Lily Evans and James Potter), Severus and Constance began a bit of a romance. But, this was short lived. After Constance, Severus, James and Lily had to fight off a Death Eater attack at Hogwarts, Snape was confronted by his Slytherin peers-reminding him of his true loyalties.

 When Constance and the rest of Cackle’s students returned to their Overblown Castle, Severus continued to work with the Dark Arts. As for James and Lily, though they were upset about Severus still being into the Dark Arts, the two couldn’t help but sense the best in him. A feeling James and Lily kept to each other. Even in their last days.

Then came September 1st, 1982. It has almost been a year since Lord Voldemort’s defeat at the cost of James and Lily Potter. The then 22-years-old, Snape worked as Hogwarts’ Potions Master much to his own chagrin. With his own personal demons, Severus proved himself to be unpopular among staff and students alike. He was arrogant, antisocial and outright petty. With him being head of the Slytherin Household, Severus could let his underlings get away with murder. Yet, on this day, Albus Dumbledore announced to all that Cackle’s Academy was going to make a longer visit than last time; from October all the way to July.

Halloween arrived in a flash and Cackle’s Academy made their much awaited arrival. Among the visitors was one of the younger teachers; Constance Hardbroom. Now in a long, black dress, and dark-brown hair wrapped in an extremely tight bun, Severus was surprised to see her again. This was said for Constance as she always thought Severus would never-for any reason-return to Hogwarts after graduating. Not to mention, she was still mad at Severus for not keeping in contact with her as he had promised.

While they had an awkward start, a couple of incidents would drive Constance and Severus to let love bloom. Albeit in strict secrecy. And when July arrived, the pair wrote dozens of letters to each other. The relationship got so serious that marriage was often brought up. 

Given his past and current situations, Severus was reluctant to take such a step. Eventually, Severus would buck up the courage to marry Constance. But not without confessing his Death-Eater ways, his job as Dumbledore’s agent and even what had happened to Lily Evans. While that was a lot for Constance to process, she would decide to marry Severus on August 1, 1983. With retired Minister of Magic, Elphinstone Urquart, officiating the elopement, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Amelia Cackle served as witnesses.

At first, the newlyweds were in bliss in spite of having to continue their long-distance romance due to their respective jobs. But, as time went on,  problems would start to resurface. And when it’s discovered that a baby was on the way, a scared Severus put divorce on the table. As a result, a heart-broken Constance decided to put their upcoming baby up for adoption in hopes to give him/her a stable upbringing. Something Constance nor Severus could give.

Throughout the months, Constance would hide away in the Flamel House in France thanks to Dumbledore’s friendship with Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel. Amelia Cackle, Minerva McGonagall, Elphinstone Urquart and later Poppy Pomfrey would be around to help. As for Severus, he would visit when not teaching or spying. Yet, he and Constance would hardly speak with each other. 

Then, on Christmas morning, a son was born; “Nicholas Brian”. Ecstatic as they were to see their son, Severus and Constance forced themselves back to earth. They finally got around to signing both the divorce and adoption papers and gave the nine-day-old newborn to Elphinstone who would give the baby to Kezia and Huw Hobbes.

In his grief, Severus decided to do something drastic; collect his memories in flasks, put those in a box and have Dumbledore obliviate any memories that involved Constance and their son. A task a solemn Dumbledore agreed to do. As for the box of memories, it would be given to Dumbledore and then to the next headmistress, McGonagall to give to Nicholas Brian if he ever arrived at Hogwarts.

Part 2: Resurrections And Reunions:

  In 1998, the Second Wizarding War was fought and won by the Order of the Phoenix. However, among the casualties was none other than Severus Snape. Hated by the Order, it was Harry Potter who would clear the air and explain Snape’s true intentions to the Wizarding World. Yet, Severus had to have his funeral without his corpse for, during the battles, he would be whisked away by an obscure, but dangerous group known as “R”. With most of their former members dead, the remaining party, Verruca Snyde, Patricia Rakepick, Eustace Burke and Kazuhiro Shiratori had managed to escape Azkaban during a 1997 mass breakout. Trying to gain their goal of immortality, the smaller “R” often tried and failed to reach it. Then they came across a peculiar formula that holds to the key to revival. And once finding the body of Severus Snape, they took their chance.

Once the corpse was in their hideout, a concoction was made with the tears of a phoenix, the wings of fairies, the horn of a unicorn, a few plants and the Resurrection Stone. This, the Revival Potion, was what brought Severus Tobias Snape back from the grave with his scars and infamous Death-Mark gone. But this potion came with a cost; with the Resurrection Stone being one of the main properties, Snape’s DNA has been mutated; gaining the Hallow’s powers, he could summon the Heaven-bound at will. All while both of his palms bore the symbol of the Deathly Hallows with the stone emblem being the most pronounced.

Disgusted with what’s been done to him, Severus escaped his captors and lived on his own in the woods of Great Britain. Over time, he created unique potions and mailed them to apothecary shops and St. Mungo’s Hospital under the alias, “Sephtis Surgo”. He would obtain a good portion of wealth as a result, yet remained in isolation. All Severus would have for company were the summoned Dumbledore and Lily Evans.

Then, in the spring of 2006, a potions experiment caused a terrible house fire which would’ve killed Severus had he not been rescued by students of the nearby Cackle’s Academy. As he was cared for by Amelia Cackle and the school nurse, Constance Hardbroom was shocked and lost for words when finding Severus again. Over time, she and Severus had to work to rekindle their troubled flame. Not only that, they would reunite with their long lost son, 22-year-old Nicholas Hobbes of Weirdsister College.

The Characters You Can Ask:

Severus Snape.

Constance Hardbroom.

Nicholas Brian Hobbes.

Ethel Hallow.

Mildred Hubble.

Harry Potter.

Ginny Weasley-Potter.

Ron Weasley.

Hermoine Granger.

Minerva McGonagall.

Albus Dumbledore.

Amelia Cackle.

James Potter.

Lily Evans.

The Rules:

Questions must be appropriate and family-friendly.

Must be on topic to anyone on the questionnaires. 

Get creative with your questions!

Just so you know, this will be in written form so it’s best to not expect any comics concerning this Ask-Anything. I’m drawing other stuff still but not for this.

Please be patient.

Now with all of this in mind, ask away!

@theworstwitch @queen-ramsey @yaviae @mmad-lover @constancehardbroompics @theworstwitchforever @phantasmhoran @nimielsy @ladyemeraldpigeon @dandelionscarf @danse-de-macabre @big-scary-bird @mildred-hubble-bubble

[kriegertops]

I fully believe Sophia’s team leaked the divorce. That’s really the only option that makes sense, at least based on the reactions of Ashlyn and Ali’s mutual friends, employers, and family members.

I don’t think any of the mutual friends had any idea about the divorce on Oct. 6th at Pinoe’s retirement game, so Ash bringing Sophia completely blindsided all of them. I think a few close friends such as Pinoe, Sue, makeup Alex, Midge, and maybe Syd and Carm knew about the problems they were having, and potentially their separation (which looks like it occurred mid Sept. around the time Ash moved into her new apartment), but Ashlyn filed and most likely only told Sophia. Sophia’s probably the one who even encouraged her to file early, TBH.

I also think Sophia’s team tried to pin it on crazy fans, but the timing the news was released seems too convenient for that. I can almost guarantee that if fans were looking for divorce records, they would have found them closer to the date when Ash filed, not hours before Ali’s final press conference was scheduled. Particularly because fans noticed problems starting around July. Also notice how Sophia never has any bad comments on her social media posts? I think she pays people to delete bad comments. Who’s to say she’s not paying someone to manipulate her PR and now Ashlyn’s further? Too bad, they’re still absolutely terrible at it.

I agree, like no one on lchat just randomly decided to search all the divorce filings for no reason. That leak was placed in the lchat in an attempt to use lchat to blame. Sophia’s team had to have been behind it …the timing like you said was too much of a coincidence with it being right before Ali’s big week😳 the more we dig the more we find just how crazy SB and Ashlyn are😳

Ashlyn bringing Sophia to pinoes retirement was wild 😳 the audacity and entitlement Ashlyn had by doing that and also by trying to be all over pinoe in pinoes spotlight that night 😳

I think people know (at least their close friends) that they were having issues or separated but separation doesn’t always mean divorce so I think the divorce caught a lot of people off guard for sure

[jtheplante]

All Hail King Julien survey! 🎉

Feel free to copy & paste, then give ur own answers! 👍 Stolen from @fairfaxandy

1. What do you think about All Hail King Julien?

Worst show ever

2. When did you first watch the show?

I knew this show existed for years. WHY DID I SLEEP ON IT FOR SO LONG??? Anyway last June I think I finally gave the 1st episode a chance, I was bored & looking for something new. The 1st episode is only okay so I didn't think much of it. A few weeks later (early July) I decided to give the show a 2nd chance. Episode 2 is meh, but it was Episode 3 w/the absolute gay furry thirst trap that is Karl Fanaloka that won me over & sealed my fate to watch the whole show 🔥

3. Favorite season?

Season 2 is probably the best season of any show ever in history. Exiled as a whole is also amazing but sadly dips in quality for a couple episodes IMO

4. Favorite episode?

Um have u even watched my episode rank video?? I put s3e6 (Jungle Games) as my #1, but as time's gone on, I think it's really s5e11 (KJ Is Watching You AKA the Orange ITN Black parody episode). Ted is peak and this episode is his peak 🔥

5. Least favorite episode?

As said in my ep rank video!! The S3 opener - O Captain Where Aren't Thou (both parts). Jokes fall flat, KJ's parents are a pain to watch, & the pirate crew is so forgettable I can't name a single one off the top of my head

6. Favorite scene?

Um the whole show but the hardest I laughed at any moment was when Ted suddenly exploded on stage while singing for no f*cking reason

7. Least favorite scene?

s3e4 the episode basically opens with a minute of nasty visualized farts & everyone vomiting on each other. I like gross-out to an extent but this was TOO. MUCH.

8. Favorite characters?

1st: Ted my beloved 💗💗💗 he's so much like me it's scary

2nd: King Julien - a VERY close 2nd. His energy & ability to stay goofy in even the worst situations inspires me to be the same 🔥

3rd: Karl - Gay thirst trap hottie social reject misunderstood sad backstory creative genius who just wants love 😭😭😭

4th: Mort - Objectively the best fictional character of all time. Sure he delivers the funniest moments in animated history but I don't really feel a connection with him like I do the top 3

5th: "Uncle" Julien - sass and ASS 🍑🥵 I love villains who are unapologetically assholes. His redemption was forced & stupid

9. Least favorite character?

Maggie - I love farts but it 100% depends on who. If it's a hot guy then 😍😍😍 but this is an old woman so 🤢 & that's like her whole character

10. Favorite ships?

Jaurice - absolutely adorable couple, heck I get teary eyed just thinking about them, gosh I'm so gay. Anyway their ship is extra special b/c KJ is usually hedonistic & horni, but with Maurice it's so wholesome & romantic 🥺

Julieddy & Karlien - These 2 ships have their own unique dynamics, but I put them together b/c they're both a gay man desperately wanting a man they can't have. This kinda situation always fascinates me & I can relate myself...

Karl x Chauncey - we all kno who Karl wants the most, but the fact that he has a happy life with Chauncey makes me happy 😌

Pandy - Be gay do crime

Ted x Horst - tbh if Ted finally divorced & married a man instead, Horst is a genuine contender

Nurse Phantom & Dr. S - the way they bicker is hilarious

KJ x Rob - Gay booty bumpin hotties enough said

11. Least favorite ships?

Clage - I've already ranted about it a million times it's just crap

"Uncle" Julien x Zora - like I said, forced & stupid

Willie x anyone - Willie's too innocent y'all

12. Have you ever cried while watching?

I'm an overly emotional gay man I cry over litcherally everything. I practically choked to death crying the first time I saw Maurice fall 😭

13. Favorite songs?

-Theme song superiority 🔥🔥🔥

-True Bromance is a gay anthem for the ages

-All Eyes On Me (Photronique) 🔥🔥

-I also like Swagnificent & Big Stacks