#f: vickers

[apricote]

domestic.

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

I will never stop being a white-hot dumpster fire of NUzi trash and you’re just gonna have to learn to accept that.

Really wish I'd posted this before Episode 6, tho. I think you can guess why.

[blogmoderne]

[dailynuzi]

Liam Vickers talks about Uzi & N

(Creator of Murder Drones)

LIAM'S WORDS:

I think N and Uzi together are my

favourite, because i think...

Obviously, they are specifically

designed to cover each others

weaknesses and be supportive of

each other in ways that they

haven't really experienced from

other people before. They're just

wholesome good times. I think

they play off each other really well.

They kind of make each

other better...

I think Uzi helps N stick up for him self and realize the value in himsel f and i think N helps Uzi chill out a little bit sometimes.

So together, i think they're just a real force for good. And i love them and i appreciate that they're there for each other.

[felixravinstills]

I could be wrong, but a quick Command + F search of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes reveals that Sejanus seems to be the only one of Coriolanus' male classmates to call him "Coryo." Now, this could just be due to his interactions revolving around his female classmates being more prevalent/common in the book, but I still find it interesting.

Is there some form of like toxic masculinity culture that makes the Academy boys more averse to using a nickname? There are examples that this might not be the case such as Apollo "Pollo" Ring and Pliny "Pup" Harrington, although Pup is used to distinguish him from his father, Pliny Harrington. I suppose that the usage of Pollo for Apollo could be a deliberate in-and-out of universe mirroring between him and his twin sister, Diana or Didi, which makes its usage more natural for everyone.

Does this suggest that Coriolanus is more distant with most of his male peers than his female peers? I don't think this is necessarily true. He does call Festus Creed his best friend, but perhaps, this closeness is only in Snow's own mind.

Additionally, the use of the nickname could be a conscious or unconscious way for his female classmates to position themselves closer to a by-all-accounts good-looking classmate who comes from an excellent family. Just a guy that they could bring home to their parents.

Personally, I think some combination of the first and last option are most likely since I imagine that Coriolanus' disposition doesn't change too much between the classmates he's closer in his circle and those he's not.

The List of People Who Call Coriolanus "Coryo," including the first instance of their usage of the nickname from what I could find:

Tigris (of course) (Chapter 1)

Arachne Crane (Chapter 6)

Diana Ring (Chapter 6)

Clemensia Dovecote (Chapter 10)

Sejanus Plinth (Chapter 16)

Lysistrata Vickers (Chapter 17)

[caystar13star]

I can see this happening to Maverick, if anyone was crazy enough to let him fly a visitor around. If Ice was still flying it might be funnier if it happened to them. He would of course land perfectly, but inside he would be worried about his promotion disappearing…

[usafphantom2]

The Alcock and Browne F-4M - commemorating the 60th anniversary of the transatlantic crossing by Alcock and Brown. The 1979 Alcock was a nephew of the 1919 Alcock who made the trip in a Vickers Vimy. Browne was, as far as I can tell, unrelated to Brown.

@Tempest_Books via X

[canis-or-cannotis-lycaon]

Dead Weight || Gael, Rhett

TIMING: Mid-July LOCATION: Vicker’s Beach/Harborside PARTIES: Rhett (@ironcladrhett and Gael (@lithium-argon-wo-l-f SUMMARY: What was supposed to be sea urchin fishing turned into a salty sea dog and a chemistry professor fighting off a drowngr CONTENT WARNINGS: Body horror (it’s a drowned corpse)

He might’ve been a little… not dishonest but Gael could hold his breath for close to two minutes nowadays - he wasn’t sure when he picked it up but he figured hiking with Elias had already started to work its magic, nevermind his binges where he’d go out into the forest to blow off the pent-up energy that routinely came around every month or so. Brain defect.

Gael wasn’t really paying any of that much mind as he made his way to the spot on his map that was marked by Rhett, a man he could only mentally describe as either  “looking like an artist’s rendition of Blackbeard” or “reminiscent of a walrus with a hook for a hand”. Rhett probably looked like neither and he wasn’t disappointed, at least not that he’d say aloud. Then again, he was sure people heard ‘chemist’ and automatically put him in a lab coat with goggles on holding two beakers with colorful liquid in them like some sort of mad scientist. He never looked like that, though he could’ve styled his hair like Frankenstein if he tried hard enough. No, today he was wearing minimal gear - a gray tank top, a pair of bright blue swim trunks and carrying a small satchel with a towel, his phone and a couple other little luxuries; he hoped Rhett was receptive to him taking notes if the other man had anything else interesting to say. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for but he HAD spotted a man in the near distance - well, he had a beard that had black in it. And a mane of hair so Gael wasn’t disappointed. “Rhett?” He called to the stranger. “It’s Gael– er, if you aren’t Rhett, hi, I’m Gael and I think I’m lost.”

—

It was a strange thing to be equal parts relieved and disappointed that the person that came striding toward him on the beach didn’t set off any of his alarms—Gael being a nice person wouldn’t have stopped Rhett from removing his head from his body, had any of those chimes started dingin’. But they didn’t, and so he knew this would be a rather mundane afternoon, but… that was nice, sometimes. He was getting fucking old, sometimes he needed mundane. 

Raising a hand in greeting, the warden gave a sharp, boisterous laugh. “Aye, last I checked, was my name,” he answered in his unique accent, one that couldn’t really be tied to any one place, nomadic as his life had been up to this point. He wore red swim trunks that didn’t make it past his knees, a black v-neck, and sunglasses. Every inch of exposed skin from his clavicle down seemed to be covered in tattoos, all colorless and painting a confusing, nonsensical tapestry that could take a while to unravel if one was determined to do so, though there’s a good chance the warden would stick a switchblade through their eye before they finished. Mind yer business, he’d say.

“Kia Ora,” he offered a hand to shake, noting the bag the other had brought. At his own feet was a bucket for collecting the urchins, and in it, a hunting knife. For various purposes. Pulling the black elastic from his wrist, the warden gathered that wild mane of hair into a ponytail and tied it back. “Hope yer hungry—lotta fat suckers down there. If not, well, more fer me.”

— Was Gael just a little bit intimidated the closer he got to this man covered in tattoos, with fantastic hair and an implacable accent? Just a little. “Mucho gusto,” He replied with a nod, taking Rhett’s hand firmly as he glanced around at the environment for a moment - the sand, the shore, the bucket with the knife in it - presumably to cut the things open so they could enjoy the meaty insides. Gael was simultaneously curious and trepidatious and he tilted his head with the mix, setting his satchel down and almost opting to remove his shirt though he ultimately decided that it could stay on - they weren’t going that deep and this was supposed to be a fun outing with a guy who he was pleased to see DID in fact look like a pirate. Gael took a step or two into the lapping water. “I AM hungry. For knowledge and tasty sea urchins.” He tilted his head again. “I’ll follow you though - I’ve never seen one out in their natural habitat before.”

—

Rhett, for his part, did remove his shirt, because there were few things that annoyed him more than the feeling of wet clothes on his skin. He’d sooner be naked in the company of complete strangers than deal with that. 

Grabbing the knife and bucket, he followed the other man into the water with a grin on his face. “Aye? Good, good. Sure you’ll learn plenty.” He walked in about chest-high, then secured the knife between his teeth, took a big breath, and motioned for Gael to follow. 

It was a short swim to a cluster of underwater boulders that the sea urchins clung to, and with a wordless show and tell (more like show and make eyes at), Rhett taught Gael how to get the suckers off the rocks with said knife. Several trips to the surface later and their bucket was about half full. Would probably be enough, Rhett thought, and just as he was about to motion to Gael for them to surface, his eyes caught some strange movement behind him, even as shitty as they were. He gritted his teeth, air escaping between them in a bubble, his grip on the knife tightening. His gaze darted to meet Gael’s and he shoved the bucket into his arms, pointing up toward the surface. Then he was kicking to swim past him, down deeper to the sea floor, where something was… walking toward them. 

— His tattoos were fascinating. Gael had to try not to look at them, almost out of some Lovecraftian fear that they would mesmerize him and drive him to madness. Either that or he just figured Rhett was the type to, he didn’t know, fly off the handle over something completely innocuous. Call it a sixth sense but he knew how to respect people older than him, especially when they looked and acted like Rhett both online and in person. The older man didn’t do the whole ‘stand around and wait’ stuff which worked fine for the professor, who was rather eager to get started so with the newly-shirtless Rhett leading the way, Gael followed the salty sea-dog into the water, where they swam out a little ways. While the professor wasn’t a champion swimmer, by any means, he retained enough information to propel himself through the water without looking like an idiot who only knew how to dog paddle. After a show-and-not-tell from Rhett about what to do, Gael, being a quick learner, took to the activity with his usual enthusiasm, though he felt as though it didn’t need to be said this time. So the time passed in peace, just two guys diving for sea urchins in the pleasant summer weather. The bucket filling up and the professor was currently under the water, keeping his blurry gaze on the figure of Rhett when the latter suddenly motioned for him to surface. Being underwater, however, didn’t give Gael long to think about it and he just did what he was told, breaching the surface with a deep inhale though he wondered what Rhett wanted him to surface for. 

— He was already running low on oxygen and probably wouldn’t have time to deal with whatever it was wandering their way, but he wanted to get a look. Assess the situation. 

Well, the situation was shit. 

Knowing that he really lacked an edge underwater, the moment Rhett realized that they’d attracted a drowngr, he was off towards the surface. Popping up beside Gael, the hunter removed the knife from his bite and nodded at the shore. “Right, uh, sharks about. Best get goin’,” he lied, hoping that the creature wouldn’t follow them onto shore… even though he knew it probably would. 

Probably was giving it too much credit to lose interest, because the undead thing just kept coming for them, drawn to their body heat and wanting to take that for itself. As the men rose up from the waves and took their first steps back onto dry sand, a very decomposed, ugly-looking human head popped up from the water below about a hundred yards from shore. 

Not only was Rhett ill-equipped for this sort of fight, he couldn’t remember exactly what this type of undead fed on. It wasn’t always flesh and bone, he knew, and the undead often required more robust methods of killing than his typical fare. Damnit, he wished Emilio were here. He’d know. 

His van wasn’t parked too far from here, and they could probably beat the creature there if they started moving now. At least in the van, he had more weapons besides his hunting knife. While reliable, it wasn’t always the best option, and he didn’t think he wanted to get too close to this one. Looked bitey. 

Ushering Gael down the beach after grabbing the shirt he’d left on the sand, Rhett kept stealing backwards glances as they walked. Wouldn’t be long, now, before a corpse was on their tails. “Tell me, mate… how ready are ya feelin’ t’see an actual underwater monster today, eh?” There it was, stumbling out of the surf. “‘Cause we got one breathin’ down our necks.”

— Gael’s brow furrowed as he tread water, regarding the pirate when the latter surfaced. “Uh, okay.” He agreed without asking for clarification - even if he hadn’t seen any and from what Prisca told him, sharks didn’t attack people on purpose (unless they were bull or tiger sharks, the little menaces), he still trusted Rhett over his own incredibly limited experiences… and even if it WASN’T actually a shark, surely there was good reason for the older man to want them to get to shore. As they made their way to shore, wading into knee-deep water, Gael started to tousle his hair but it subconsciously turned into him shaking his body loose of excess water. It was brief, however, and soon enough he was back to wringing out his shirt and shorts. “Well, at least that was fun!” He said lightly, immediately before wondering if Rhett even did things like “have fun” but the professor had already said it and he probably would’ve followed it up had a harsh stench not been carried on the salty breeze, meeting his nose and instinctively causing him to press a wrist to it suddenly. Then Rhett mentioned something about an actual underwater monster and Gael gave him a brief look. “What, like an eel or–” His sentence was cut short as he looked over his shoulder and his brown eyes caught what seemed to be a bloated, slimy body of a male, obviously decomposed, shuffling out of the water and towards them. “NO?” He yelled, confusion and horror making itself very clear in his tone. “Rhett, what is THAT??”

— “It’s a dead guy,” Rhett responded matter-of-factly, glancing sideways at Gael. He reached for the bucket of sea urchins, not wanting the other to drop it in his panic, because apparently he’d never seen a mobile corpse before. Funny, that, since they were everywhere. Some hid better than others, though. This one was pretty obvious, all bloated and shuffling and brainless as it was, lurching out of the surf and pivoting in their direction. Its skin hung loose in some places and was stretched thin in others from the gasses that were trapped inside of it, contributing to that horrible stench on the wind.

The beach ahead of them wound around a steep cliff, and just beyond that was the access road Rhett had used to get down here.  “Come on. Van ain’t far. Got a weapon or two in there.” Not giving his afternoon companion much time to argue, the hunter struck off at steady trot, figuring Gael would probably follow closely rather than be left behind with the corpse that was tripping through the sand to get to them. 

— “It’s a dead–” Gael faltered, tearing his gaze off the foul-smelling shambler, working hard to keep himself from falling into a complete panic and quickly turning on a heel to follow behind the pirate at a brisk pace. “Okay I’m sorry but did you say that was a dead guy?” He called as he decided to keep his dark eyes on Rhett instead of look behind them at the foul-smelling, shambling figure. The hand that wasn’t tightly clenched to the strap on Gael’s messenger bag that hung over his damp frame flew up and pressed itself against his nose with fervor. “Rhett why are you so casual about a dead body that’s just… walking towards us? Do you know how utterly insane that sounds?” He asked urgently, his voice definitely carrying a tone of fear and concern to it - had he just gone searching for sea urchins with someone who just… shared in his hallucinations?

—

“Yeah. Cuz it is. Not much to not understand!” He could only laugh at the following question, glancing back at Gael. “Aye, well, the world’s an insane place, innit?” Gesturing at the thing that was tailing them, trying to hurry itself along and kicking around a lot of sand in the process, Rhett raised his brows. “I mean, what else woulda ya call that other than a dead guy?” 

Sure, it had some kind of ‘real’ name, but that was Emilio’s wheelhouse. Speaking of… as they hurried around the bend of the cliff that reached into the sky above them, Rhett tried to remember where exactly he’d left his phone in the vehicle. Cup holder? Yeah, that sounded right. 

The pair closed in on the van and Rhett threw open the door, setting the bucket of urchins in the seat and grabbing his phone. “Do me a favor, young man—find ‘Milio in my contacts n’ call him up for me. As what to do about a… fuck, what’re they called… eh, just tell ‘im it’s a dead guy what came outta the ocean, aye? He’ll have an idea how tah kill it.” Meanwhile, the warden circled to the back of the van, passing Gael the phone before opening those doors as well and reaching in to retrieve a black duffel bag. And from there, his favorite cutlass. Turning it in his hand and beaming at Gael, the warden poked his head out to check on the dead guy—closing in. He could hear the phone ringing, and just hoped that Emilio would have a clue about dispatching these. — “Yeah… I guess it must be.” Rhett didn’t seem worried about it and even though the smell wanted to make Gael gag and he didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if the thing caught up to him, whatever was happening didn’t phase the older man so the professor himself wanted to reflect that, too. The duo approached the van, which was rather stylish as Gael thought so himself - the mushrooms were a nice touch - and Rhett pulled open the door, thrusting a phone at Gael to call someone named ‘Milio’ followed by what he needed to ask him as he made his way around to the back of the van. Immediately, Gael’s mind had questions - did he mean ‘Emilio’ as the man was looking through his contacts (few as there were) and didn’t see anyone named ‘Milio’? And if it was Emilio, why would he know about how to kill water corpses - he was just a PI, right? Nonetheless, Gael caught the vaguely-unhinged smile that Rhett offered him as he pulled a cutlass from the back of his van and he got to work dialing Emilio; hopefully this was the right person. “Hey Emilio, I need– No, it’s Gael, look– Okay look I don’t have time for this, Rhett needs to know how to kill a corpse that came from the ocean.” Gael’s voice displayed impatience as he prattled to Emilio in Spanish and he urgently cast a gaze from the side of the van over his shoulder to the corpse that got ever closer, the water-slicked skin making him shudder. “Okay. Thanks, bye.” Without waiting for anything else, figuring Emilio wasn’t going to be happy about him after this, he hung up the call. “He says ‘aim for the head, cutting the head off works best and to set it on fire if it’s not too wet’??” He repeated most of what Emilio said, looking at Rhett once more.

— “Aye, well it’s pretty fuckin wet—” Rhett complained, growling in annoyance as he faced off the creature. What he didn’t know, and what had been lost in translation, was that this wasn’t just a reanimated corpse, but a drowngr, which meant it was decidedly more challenging to kill. In fact, it meant that most hunters that encountered it would simply try to trap the thing underwater where it couldn’t hurt anyone, because they all seemed to have an immensely powerful healing factor and destroying the body quickly and completely was… hard. Unless one had a wood chipper on hand, which Rhett did not. Sadly. 

With a shrug, the warden readied himself as the barnacle-covered body shuffled closer, arms outstretched. Sidestepping to avoid the creature’s grasp, Rhett gave a hefty swipe of his sword, burying it deep in the undead thing’s throat. Didn’t cut clean, of course, thanks to the elasticity of this soggy fuck’s skin, so he was left to wrench it back free, which gave the drowngr an opportunity to grab onto him. 

The freezing cold was almost immediate and very intense, and the fact that the thing’s head was mostly severed didn’t seem to deter it in the slightest. Rhett gasped involuntarily, every muscle in his body tightening against the sudden chill as the creature sapped his body heat. It drove him to one knee, which was when his gaze jumped to Gael. “Knock it over!” he yelled through gritted teeth, feeling his heartbeat begin to slow. “Ger’roff’me…!” _ One moment, he was relaying information and then the next Rhett was taking a sword to a corpse and Gael was admittedly dumbstruck as the two got into what he roughly called ‘a scene from a movie’ - that was to say, it was difficult for him to fully wrap his head around what had decided to transpire over the past fifteen minutes. They went from sea urchin searching to running from a bloated corpse and now Rhett was taking a SWORD to it– So instead of contributing anything to the squabble, at least at first, Gael just stood there dumbly as he watched the fight, wondering if he should be doing anything to assist. Maybe call Emilio again and see if he could… the professor didn’t even know, what did Emilio know about how to get rid of corpses? Then again, the question seemed to answer itself. He was shaken out of his thoughts, however, as he heard Rhett yell and his attention was abruptly pulled to the sight of the older man on a knee with the shambling, nearly-decapitated corpse looming over him like a blobfish depressurized from the deep sea, hands on the man’s arms and flesh around its sagging neck starting to knit back together as though a sword wasn’t going through it. For a second, Gael was frozen, a deer in the headlights unable to perceive anything or move. It was only a second though, and in his fashion, he sprinted forward in a burst of speed without thinking, holding his breath and rammed into the bloated body with his shoulder with all the strength he could muster and sending the three of them toppling over while he rolled on the sand. Shaking his head to recover, he glanced up to see what else he could do. “You okay?” He called, worry evident in his tone. “How else can I help?” He asked, his fear being overshadowed by his need to assist, make sure Rhett was okay.

—

Okay, so he knew zombies healed fast, but that was next level. Fuck. Needed a new plan, n’ setting the thing on fire wasn’t going to be feasible. Not with how waterlogged it was. 

“Fine,” he bit out in response, trying to shake away the sensation of slowly freezing to death in spite of the hot temperature of the day. The drowngr was a bit like a turtle stuck on its back, he realized as he got back to his feet—rolling to and fro, not posing an immediate threat. Rhett ducked around the thing’s waving arms and grabbed the hilt of his cutlass, ripping it out of the monster’s neck before handing it to Gael. “Ya wanna help? Run that fucker through n’ pin it to the ground,” he instructed. “Gonna get some rope.” Just beneath the thin layer of beach sand was dirt, warmed by the spring and summer sun and easy enough to drive a blade into. Or so he figured. 

Turning away to leave Gael to it, Rhett added a quick, “Oh, n’ don’t let it touch ya!” as he rummaged around in the van for the aforementioned rope… and something heavy to tie it to. 

— The professor scrambled to his feet as the reality of what he just did sank in, suppressing a shudder as he felt the residual slime from connecting with the corpse lingering on his shoulder like the rotten fish it seemed reminiscent of. Not considering what he would’ve done if Rhett hadn’t, in fact, been okay, Gael carefully but quickly gave the corpse who was now on its back a wide berth, almost like a dog curious about something it wasn’t sure was dangerous. Which was ridiculous. Of course Gael knew it was dangerous but while it was flipped over, waving its arms uselessly as a baby that couldn’t prop itself up yet, the thought ebbed and flowed, almost as though he was wondering why they were so afraid to begin with. … Okay, obviously his brain was mixed up about how much fear it should feel and for a moment, he subconsciously rubbed his forearms, trying to get hair that hadn’t accumulated on them off desperately. There was no fur on his arms. No aspect of the disorder had made itself present but the motion was there, fervent and almost panicked but gone soon enough. Gael arrived next to the pirate in time for the cutlass to be thrust into his hands and he cast Rhett a quick glance, his expression asking if he was serious when Gael knew the answer to that question. “Oh sure. Pin it to the ground with a sword from the back of my van while I get some rope and also don’t let it touch me.” More coping mechanisms. When faced with something Gael didn’t understand, for some strange reason, his first thought was to diffuse his own anxiety with a joke - he did it with Regan, he did it with the boys that visited him in the hospital after the attack, he’d do it now. Despite the sarcasm, he looked up and down the length of the blade with a concerned look and with a grimace, he peered down at the flopping mass. Like a band-aid. Holding his breath again and with the forward thought that he was about to plunge a sword into a man, he did so quickly, clumsily and looking like a reverse of the King Arthur myth, trying to force the sword as far down into the sword as he could while avoiding the creature’s grasp. Gael managed to do so and he staggered back in surprise and relief at his success. 

—

The sarcasm couldn’t really be held against him, and Rhett only smiled as Gael worked himself through the situation in whatever way he had to. Humans. He fought to keep them safe, and it had always been a part of his training to keep them from knowing as much as possible, which… he wasn’t great at that part. Obviously, or he wouldn’t have the guy skewering the drowngr for him like a kebab. Oh well. 

Finding a coil of rope, Rhett let out a celebratory cheer. “All right, mate—oh. Good job!” he praised, turning around to see the cutlass was buried deeply in the undead’s chest. That would be handy for what they were going to have to do next. Which was to bind the thing’s feet together. Now that it was stuck in place and unable to roll about, it’d be a lot easier to do without getting slapped by cold, dead hands. But, to make it even easier for them to avoid the thing’s chilling touch, Rhett passed a pair of gloves to Gael before putting on his own. 

“Can’t kill it, not easily. So we’re gonna make sure it stays underwater, aye?” Gloves donned, the warden grabbed one leg and motioned for Gael to grab the other, then began to loop the rope around the creature’s ankles. Next would be the hands (arms above its head was fine, comfort wasn’t the concern here), and lastly, the two ends would be connected by a rope that looped around its neck and ran up and down the length of its body. 

Then came the weight.

Rhett had, for whatever reason, an old tractor tire in the rear of his van. It was a recent road-side acquisition, and he’d give a haughty I told you so to anyone who tried to tell him that collecting other people’s garbage was a useless hobby. 

“Right. We tie the fucker t’this, then roll ‘er back into the sea. There’s a drop off not fair from here. Perfect place to sink it.” 

—

He was handed gloves and at this point Gael wasn’t even asking questions anymore even though he probably should’ve, such as ‘what the hell IS this thing’ and ‘how the hell does Emilio know how to take care of it’. So instead, he slipped the gloves on and he nodded in affirmation that he was listening to the old pirate, dark eyes observing Rhett’s movements closely so he could imitate them to the best of his abilities. And suddenly he felt like he was plunged into some unholy combination of a buddy comedy, mobster and pirate movie all at once as he helped restrain the grotesque mass of jiggling skin, swollen tissue and abhorrent stench. The good news was that he was getting his gag reflex under control, breathing out of his mouth. The bad news was literally the rest of it as he pushed the thought that he stabbed a bloated corpse to the beach and was now helping tie it together to put it back where it came from. Rhett had said that it wasn’t easy to kill and going by Emilio’s suggestion that fire would be best, the professor could see why but still. The deed was done easily enough though - at least as far as “tying someone up” went - and Gael sat back for a moment, not wanting to look at the residue on his chilled hands from touching the corpse. Instead, his gaze followed Rhett as the latter went back to his van and managed to procure a tractor tire from it. Gael didn’t even want to ask what he was doing with it and instead just gave an uncertain nod. “Okay.” He exhaled, raising his eyebrows before he shook his head and got to his feet. “Okay wait. What the hell is this?” He asked, gesturing to the wriggling body. “It’s a dead guy but like what IS it?” He asked.

—

“Don’t remember the name, lad. Somethin’ ‘bout… drownin’. On account’ah that’s how they’re made.” He grabbed some additional rope and used it to lash the creature to the tire, which the two of them then heaved up onto its side. The body dragged along in the sand behind them as they rolled the wheel back into the water, the waves lapping higher and higher at their legs and waists. The tire, heavy as it was, did not float. 

It was not a quick process, especially once they got into deeper water and had to keep making trips back to the surface for air and avoiding the trashing monster that bobbed about, suspended in the water like a balloon that was losing air. Still, they managed all right, and eventually the drop off that Rhett had mentioned appeared before them. After one last trip to the surface, the pair pushed and kicked with all their might until the tire rolled over the edge, dragging the abomination down into freezing, murky depths. 

Once they had emerged, the task complete and the beach once again safe(ish), Rhett led the way back to the van. 

“Anyway… still want those urchins?�� 

— Oh gee, Gael wondered why he never thought to just call it ‘a drowned corpse’. Okay, it was fine. It was fine, they were just… tying up a bloated mass of rot and flesh to a tire then putting the tire in the ocean and just gonna leave it there where hopefully the ropes wouldn’t rot away too fast and it’d be everyone’s problem again. This was fine. He definitely didn’t feel like a re-murderer.

Maybe if they got caught and sent to prison he’d room with Rhett and they could engage in a Shawshank Redemption-like prison break thriller. These were all thoughts that flitted through Gael’s mind as he participated in the act. The effort was there, as was the tedium, but at this juncture he supposed he was just filling the time with fun things, trying to distract from the ever-present stench the corpse provided them with. Once the trio were in the water, things got a little more difficult as the dead man seemed to get more restless.

Then somehow, with a last bit of strain and a healthy kick or a few from the two of them, the corpse was sent over a drop-off in the water where it plummeted out of sight. The two surfaced and headed back to Rhett’s fan, though not without the professor suddenly nervously looking around, almost as though another undead was just waiting to materialize out of nowhere to add more onto his already-struggling plate.

The other man’s question punctured his thoughts and Gael’s dark gaze slowly drifted over to the pirate, his expression half-lidded with raised eyebrows as though to say ‘you can’t be serious right now’. A pause with the man glancing between the old sea dog, the van and the beach, he scoffed and gave a small shrug. Mama didn’t raise a quitter or a coward.

“Sure.”

[number1spongebobfan]

T&F Diesel Headcanons

Diesel

He is devious!

He is in a rivalry with Duck and Thomas.

He smokes cigarettes. He's a baaaad boy (note that I don't support smoking, it's really bad for you guys).

He bosses Paxton and Sidney around, since they don't know any better.

He has Doberman Pinscher ears and tail in his animal form.

He's emo. He dresses in all black and listens to grunge.

He is miserable and self-loathing.

He drinks from soda cans filled with oil. He is often covered in diesel stains.

He does boxing. You do not want to see him and Thomas get physical. Different fighting styles, yeeesh!

Mavis!

She's a scene girl.

She listens to My Chemical Romance.

She has a passionate interest in rocks. She knows what kind are sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.

She and Toby are good friends. Toby likes her cowcatcher skirt. Mavis likes his cowcatcher shorts!

Percy has a huge crush on her but she's oblivious.

She has Maine Coon cat ears and a fluffy Maine Coon tail in her animal form.

She hangs out with Diesel from time to time but doesn't tolerate his prejudice against steamies. A lot of her friends run on steam.

Her patron saint is Mother Mary Lange. She founded the first African American religious congregation.

Salty

He's the pirate train! Yo-ho-ho!

He sings sea shanties. Donald the Scottish twin sings along with him.

He's the Mr. Krabs of Sodor. He's attracted to shiny objects and can be very greedy.

He is attached to the sea. Sometimes he'll drink the sea water then his face looks like this 416c175b6a82f64209c441768857c61a.jpg (640×960) (pinimg.com)

He purposefully annoys Cranky with his really long sea stories.

He's a Japanese Spider Crab with wheels on his six legs in his animal form.

His patron saint is Saint Nicholas aka Santa Claus.

Boco!

He is a Metropolitan Vickers Diesel highly respected by the railfanning community.

He is a grandfatherly figure to Bill and Ben. He is able to withstand their tricks with firm but gentle discipline.

He and Edward are friends.

He dresses in military fashion.

He is best friends with Bear, the friendly diesel bear with wheels on his legs. He understands how he feels.

He is a bear with wheels on his legs in his animal form.

Bill and Ben tease him by calling him, "Boco Coco"!

He's kind of like Alex the Lion from Madagascar? Because he's so respected he got a bit of an ego, but he's a good guy regardless.

He had a crush on Ashima when she visited Sodor for the great race.

Diesel 10

He's not a nice guy.

He crushes steam engines with his claw.

He killed Lady, however she came back to life.

He almost killed Thomas. He ripped his arm off during the chase scene, but thankfully they put it back together again.

PT Boomer is his driver. He's a stick figure w/ a motorcycle helmet who carries dynamite.

Sir Topham Hatt doesn't kick him off the island due to finances.

He's a bull with train wheels in his animal form.

He's comedically villainous but when he's angry, you're screwed.

He treats Splatter and Dodge like punching bags, no wonder why they left him.

Daisy

She used to be very rude and sour when she first came to Sodor. Now she has a change of heart.

She's a dairy cow with train wheels on her legs in her animal form.

She's very girly and fashionable.

She and Lady have DIY spa days together. They get massages, mani-pedis, facials . . . they're girls okay! XD

Diesel thinks she's really annoying.

She uses strawberry flavored lipstick and high-volume shampoo for the extra bounce in her hair.

Her patron saint is Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.

She has back pain. She's highly sprung.

She dresses in flapper fashion and carries a feather boa around her neck.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Another pitch for a live-action “Resident Evil” movie:

1) STORY

In Raccoon City, South Dakota, two teams of S.T.A.R.S. units (basically SWAT teams) are dispatched to the long-abandoned Spencer Mansion in the Arklay Mountains. A group of federal prisoners who were being transported to another facility have gotten free. The prisoners managed to take refuge inside the mansion and are holding the transport crew as their hostages.

The night takes a dark, bizarre turn when both the prisoners and the STARS officers realize that there’s something else in the woods and inside the mansion. Something…unnatural. When both sides are attacked by monsters, the survivors are forced to work together in order to escape with their lives.

2) ADDITIONAL PLOT DETAILS

a) one of the escaped inmates is Billy Coen, who is the only one of his group to survive the movie

b) a major source of tension in the movie is the STARS officers and the inmates needing to put aside their differences and work as a team. This is also to heighten the shock to non-Resident Evil viewers that STARS commander Albert Wesker is a traitor since the audience will keep expecting the prisoners to betray the team.

c) Brad Vickers is rewritten to be one of the transport crew that the prisoners took hostage. His storyline is also changed in which he has to be kept alive since he’s the only one who knows how to use a helicopter, which is important since the group finds an abandoned one while exploring the facility.

d) The story is only loosely based on RE0 and RE1. Just to get an idea of what is kept in the main story, some of the main story beats are that Rebecca Chambers is the first STARS officer to recognize that Billy Coen is a good guy, Barry Burton is being manipulated by Wesker, Jill and Chris are the protagonists, everything culminates in a showdown with the Tyrant, and the movie ends with Brad flying all the survivors away from the area.

e) for those who played House of Ashes, think of Rebecca and Billy’s relationship as being similar to Jason and Salim.

f) while I can’t give an exact body count, I’d imagine that all the STARS officers, escaped prisoners, and transport crew characters not named Chris, Jill, Barry, Rebecca, Billy, and Brad end up dying. Albert Wesker is also “killed”, but we all know he survived off-screen.

g) due to how the story unfolds, Billy Coen is also flown to safety by Brad at the end, which ends up playing a role in how the sequel starts

3) CAST/CHARACTERS (not meant to be a complete list)

a) Taron Egerton as Chris Redfield (STARS officer who was about to go on vacation with his sister, Claire)

b) Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Jill Valentine (STARS officer who deeply opposes Umbrella’s prescribe in Raccoon City)

c) Kiernan Shipka as Rebecca Chambers (STARS officer who is the youngest of the team and the one to befriend Billy Coen)

d) David Harbour as Barry Burton (STARS officer who is a veteran about to retire)

e) Jon Bernthal as Billy Coen (disgraced US marine and one of the escaped inmates)

f) Iain de Caestecker as Brad Vickers (one of the prison guards taken hostage by the prisoners, later revealed to be a licensed pilot)

g) Cillian Murphy as Albert Wesker (leader of the STARS units, later revealed to be a double agent for Umbrella)

h) Florence Pugh makes a cameo appearance as Claire Redfield. She only appears at the start when she’s talking to Chris about vacation plans, and in a post-credits scene in which Claire arrives in Raccoon City several weeks after the events of the movie.

[whump-collector]

Whumpees (actors)

All the actors on this blog (so far):

Search for the name or use this link and add the name you're looking for https://whump-collector.tumblr.com/tagged/

I use the tag compilation for posts with several whumpees.

a: aaron ashmore - aaron tveit - adam palsson - adarsh gourav - aidan turner - alex o'loughlin - alexander dreymon - ali tarik findik - allison scagliotti - andreas pietschmann - andrew j. west

b: ben levin - benedict cumberbatch - brian austin green - burc kümbetlioglu

c: callum turner - channing tatum - charlie cox - charlie hunnam - charlie vickers - chris pine - christian bale - christipher egan - colin farrell - colin morgan - colin o'donoghue

d: dan lewis - daniel craig - daniel sharman - david boreanaz - david dastmalchian - david tennant - david wenham - diego klattenhoff - diego luna - dirk benedict - dominic cooper - drake rodger

e: engin akyürek - eric christian olsen - ewan mcgregor

f: freddie stroma - freddy carter

g: gael garcia bernal - gavin drea - giacomo gianniotti - guy pearce

h: halil ibrahim ceyhan - harold perrineau - henry cavill - henry golding - hisham tawfiq - hugh dancy - hunter doohan

i: iain de caestecker - ian somerhalder - iko uwais

j: jack bannon - jack davenport - jack martin - jack quaid - jake mclaughlin - james mcavoy - james spader - james wolk - jared padalecki - jason isaacs - jay hernandez - jd pardo - jenna ortega - jensen ackles - jeremy allen white - jim sturgess - joe flanigan - joe gilgun - joe keery - joel kinnaman - john cho - john cusack - john reardon - jon bernthal - jonas nay - jonny harris - jordan bridges - joshua jackson - jude law - julian morris

k: karl urban - keegan allen - kevin alejandro - kiefer sutherland - kit harington

l: lee pace - liam hemsworth - lucas till - luke evans - luke mitchell

m: mark hamill - mark waschke - markus brandl - martin henderson - martin shaw - martin wallström - matt barr - matt bomer - matt czuchry - matt lanter - matt smith - max thieriot - megan boone - mel gibson - michael fassbender - michael hurst - michael shanks - michael sheen - michael weatherly - mike farrell - milos bikovic

n: nathan fillion - nathan parsons - nicholas galitzine - nikolaj coster waldau - noah centineo

o: oliver rayon - oscar isaac

p: pablo schreiber - paul bettany - paul hassall - pedro pascal - pio marmai

r: raj yadav - rami malek - richard armitage - richard harmon - richard madden - rish shah - robert downey jr - robert james-collier - robert kazinsky - robin lord taylor - rodger corser - rupert evans - rupert penry jones - russell crowe - ryan guzman - ryan kelley - ryan reynolds

s: sabin tambrea - sam riley - santiago cabrera - scott caan - sean bean - sebastian stan - shawn ashmore - simon baker - stanley tucci - stephen amell - steve burton

t: thomas elms - thomas gibson - tim dekay - tim roth - timothy granaderos - tobey maguire - tolga saritas - tom austen - tom ellis - tom holland - tom payne - tom riley - tom sturridge - torrance coombs

y: yon gonzalez

z: zach mcgowan - zeeko za

[apricote]

some new-ish details of the house.

[shrimp-sticks]

Murder Drones: Eye of the Storm.

The story of how everything from the present time came to be. A long unknown story of those who risked their life to stop the destruction and genocide of the Absolute Solver.

The story revolves around a small group of drones. Three serial designations and about a few dinky little worker drones. Serial Designation F, A, and K, and worker drones shrimp, fearless, star, cup, and gazelle.

Murder drones does NOT belong to me! The show belongs to Glitch and Liam Vickers. This is just a fan comic me and my friends made :]

[blogmoderne]

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.17 (after 1950)

1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama. 1950 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted. 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland. 1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities. 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region. 1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking…We are making progress." 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service. 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S. 1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides. 1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre. 1970 – Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. 1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook." 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital. 1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico. 1986 – The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska. 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29). 1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts. 1993 – United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement. 1993 – In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup. 1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre. 2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years. 2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru. 2003 – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure as the governor of California began. 2012 – At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt. 2013 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia. 2013 – A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes. 2019 – The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

[wreywrites]

Tiger Shark

Part 7: The Sail

Chapter 44

I wake up in a room that is definitely not 2138, or 2110, or 2109, or 2289, or 405. It’s also not my room at home in Four. Any of my homes in Four. The house from so long ago when I was so little I barely remember it, the old house on Mako’s street, the Victor’s Village house, Finnick’s house across the street. I can’t be sure it’s not my room in the house Finnick has built in his mind.

The door opens.

“Annie?”

“That’s me,” I rasp. How long has it been? I sound like I haven’t used my voice for a week.

The woman chuckles. “You must be feeling okay then. I just need to run a couple quick tests and ask you a few questions, and then we can get you moved to a real room.”

A real room? Is this not a real room? Maybe I am in Finnick’s imaginary house.

The woman begins examining the machine I am hooked up to. “Do you know where you are?”

“I was in the Capitol. Close to Snow’s mansion. Am I still in the Capitol?”

She doesn’t answer, just goes to her next question. “Who are you?”

I thought I already answered that. I frown. “Annie Cresta. Odair. Maybe I should change that. Legally. Or maybe it’s already done.”

She chuckles again but looks at me like she wants more of an answer.

I go on. “I won the Seventieth Hunger Games. They called me the Tiger Shark of Four. I was reaped for the Quarter Quell. We broke out and some of us went to Thirteen. Then we went to the Capitol to fight. Actually, we went to the Capitol because we were recognizable and pretty, so we were a good propo squad.” I trail off. Alvan and Cashmere are running from the lizard mutts. Boggs’s legs are blown across the block. Gloss paces endlessly. Where is Gloss?

The woman is checking my IV. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

I stare through the opposite wall.

When I finally speak, ten years or three seconds later, my voice is quiet. “The Capitol dropped parachutes. Bombed those kids, and then everyone who went to help them. And-” I sit straight up. “Where’s Cassia?”

The woman frowns, actually looking at me. “Who?”

“Cassia! Cassia Vickers! The little girl who was with us! Finnick and me! On the street!” Panic is rising in my chest. Cassia trusted us, and the first thing the rebels did was leave her? And now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t even know that this woman is with the rebels.

She shakes her head. “They only brought me you two.”

I swing my legs over the side of the bed.

“Whoa!” The woman grabs my shoulders, forcefully but gently. “Annie, you’re safe. I can’t have you running off yet. We haven’t even swept the whole mansion for traps yet.”

I feel like a netted fish. I am breathing too fast but still not getting enough air. My gaze darts from side to side, looking for an exit.

“Annie,” she says. “Annie, if you will wait for five minutes while I check in with the main doctor, then we can get you moved to your new room. Finnick will be there. I promise.”

I nod.

Promises, promises. Round and round we go, and either we’ll prove ourselves honorable, or we’ll prove ourselves liars, and all of it out of our control.

But five minutes later, the woman comes back in with a smile, unhooks my IV and the other machine, and leads me out into the hallway, all the way to the end, and up two flights of stairs. At the end of that hallway, she opens the last door on the right. There is a bed against the far wall, a very comfy looking chair in the corner, and a desk against the near wall. On the desk sits a box. Our box from Thirteen. Katniss’s mother is in the Capitol.

I turn around to say something to the woman, but she is already halfway back to the stairwell, and much closer is someone much more important.

“Finnick!”

I crash into him and he wraps me in a bone-crushing hug.

~~~                               ~~~                               ~~~

No one seems to know where Cassia is. Katniss’s mother, who walked Finnick up to our room in Snow’s mansion, knows only that one of the medics who arrived after the second round of bombs recognized Finnick and me, laying unconscious where the force from the blast had knocked us against the building behind us. He and a few others brought us in. No one mentioned a little girl.

I add her to the list of people I have to mourn now that the war is over. Cassia, Prim, the Preps, Marius, Dalia, Titus, Boggs, Jackson, Homes, Mitchell, Castor, Pollux, Cashmere, Alvan.

Cressida and the Leegs come visit that afternoon. Leeg 2 and Gloss did indeed lose Katniss and Gale, but Leeg 2 realized they’d never find the rest of us, so she got Gloss to a safe spot and the two of them holed up the same way Finnick and I had with Cassia in the bakery.

Cressida tells us that our concern—which is a nice way of putting it—for Cassia has reached Plutarch’s ears. Plutarch knew Titus Vickers, so he’s concerned as well, and is using his connections to launch an under-the-table manhunt for Cassia.

She also tells us Katniss and Peeta were much closer to the bombs than we were. Both were badly burned, but the doctors say they have survived the worst of it and should pull through. The road to recovery will be long and painful though.

That almost makes me laugh. That’s just what being a victor is.

Since there is really nothing else they can do with us, the powers that be decide to put us up in Snow’s mansion until it is time for us to leave the Capitol. Finnick hates it because one hallway is set up exactly how he wanted to do part of our house, but now he can’t stomach the design.

“I hate it, Annie. I’m not building you a house that reminds me of him.”

I hate it because there aren’t enough people here. Johanna and Cecelia are still in Thirteen. Gloss is here, but his mind isn’t. He wanders aimlessly through the hallways. He hasn’t spoken since that day in the sewers. Cashmere isn’t here for her laugh to brighten the place. Alvan isn’t here to make her laugh anyway. Haymitch is drunk. Katniss and Peeta are still in the burn unit.

No one knows what to do with us while we wait. So we wait. We play cards. I draw a marble board and we use some chess pieces as marbles. Finnick still wins most of the time.

Johanna and Cecelia and Beetee arrive the next afternoon. Beetee attends lots of important meetings. The rest of us do not. We play half-hearted games of cards and catch each other up on life. The only good news anyone has, other than the war being over, is that Commander Paylor met Cecelia when she was getting off the hovercraft and told her that Mark and the kids all made it. They will be joining us in the Capitol in a few days, on a hovercraft scheduled to bring in more supplies from Thirteen that will stop in Eight along the way.

We spend the next morning wandering the mansion. I find myself in an office that looks vaguely familiar. It takes a long time to realize it’s because I’ve seen it on TV. This is Snow’s personal office.

I sit down at the desk, open one drawer after another, until, in the bottom left-hand drawer, I find seventy-five files. They are numbered, with 1 in the back and 74 in the front, and each has a name on it. I flip through them. 10 – Lucy Gray Baird, 11 – Mags Flanagan, 25 – Beauregard Farrier, 27 – Beck Sheer, 50 – Haymitch Abernathy, 65 – Finnick Odair, 67 – Augustus Braun, 69 – Megary Fallon, 70 – Annie Cresta, 71 – Johanna Mason, 74 – Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark.

Cecelia, Gloss.

Mags, Alvan, Cashmere.

I pull out my file, remove the piece of paper from the envelope. There is a rose stamped at the bottom. At the top is typed my father’s name. Jade. Coral. Mags has been crossed out. So has Beck. And Megary and Augustus. And so has Finnick. I frown. Then I see the line through my name on the envelope. They crossed us off when they thought we were dead.

I grab Finnick’s next. His parents, Mags, me. All crossed off. It’s weird to see my own name marked to show that I can’t be used to threaten anyone to play nice anymore. Like it was weird to hear Caesar Flickerman talk about me in the past tense and see my Quarter Quell picture on Capitol TV like they would have showed in the arena if I died.

I stare at the stack of files.

~~~                               ~~~                               ~~~

Johanna finds me surrounded by smashed vases and broken decorations. The files are scattered around the desk. I read them all. Gloss had two names in his: Cashmere and Augustus. Megary had over a dozen, all crossed off. Johanna had only her mother, also crossed off. I can’t explain it, but something about seeing the lists did more damage than the Hunger Games ever could have. The knowledge that after everything we went through, the Capitol was willing, prepared, to put us through more, just for their own selfish ends. How many people did Finnick sleep with to keep them from crossing my name off that list? How casually did they kill all fourteen people on Megary’s list, before deciding they just needed to kill her? And the real genius of the Quarter Quell finally hits me. Yes, it was about getting rid of Katniss and Peeta, but rebellion had been brewing among victors long before they joined our ranks. And all the people whose names were drawn were the loudest in their dissent. Johanna, Finnick, Beetee, Katniss. I, in my madness, who was of no real use to the Capitol, would serve their aims better by dying in the arena, so my name was drawn. Peeta, whose death would be useful to destroy Katniss, so his name was drawn. Haymitch volunteered, but I doubt the Capitol would have seen that as a huge loss. Those lists, those precious, horrible lists, weren’t enough, so they designed the perfect way to get rid of their most troublesome victors all at once.

Johanna picks up a few of the papers. “I guess you read them.”

I nod. “I’m sorry about your mom.”

“Me too.” She takes a deep breath. “Sometimes I wish I would have just done what they wanted. But I couldn’t have lived with myself. And that was never what she wanted me to do.” She flips through the papers. “I didn’t realize how many kids got reaped because they were on someone’s list.”

“Me neither.”

Merritt was on Alvan’s list, Cashmere on Gloss’s, Cally on three of Ten’s victors’ lists, and no doubt there are many more that I don’t know simply because their Games were too long ago or they died too early on for their names to find a permanent place in my memory.

Johanna sits down next to me. She is holding my list. “You know what this means though?” She points at my father, Jade, and Coral. “As far as the Capitol knew, and I imagine they were thorough, these three are still alive.”

Finnick slumps in. “Had to go get Gloss again,” he says. The doctors send him after Gloss when he starts wandering into places he shouldn’t. Gloss hasn’t been violent, he’s just a big guy, and the doctors found pretty quickly that he’ll listen to Finnick. “He was all the way…” Finnick trails off, looking at the destroyed décor on the floor and the scattered files, then looking at me. “So,” he says after a pause, “you’ve seen your list.”

I nod. “You were right.” The words are surprisingly hoarse, raspy with emotion. “It was one of the longer ones.” My voice cracks as I hold it up. “They hadn’t crossed off Dad. Or Coral and Jade. Maybe-” I haul in a breath. “Maybe they’re-”

“They’re alive,” Finnick says. “Snow is nothing if not thorough.”

Johanna nods. “He crossed you off based on video evidence. If they’re not crossed off, that means he didn’t even have flimsy proof they were dead. And you know he’d be watching.”

They’re right, of course. But I don’t want to get my hopes up. I know how Cecelia felt, all those weeks ago, in the hospital when she first got to Thirteen. She spent weeks not knowing about her family. And now the war is over and I still don’t know about mine.

~~~                               ~~~                               ~~~

We have been there for another two days when we are sitting on a second-floor balcony, bundled in blankets against the frigid cold, watching the continued chaos of the very end of the war and the cleanup around the mansion. Johanna is in an appointment with her head doctor. Cecelia is waiting at the landing pad for Mark and the kids. Finnick and I are shivering in the cold, but can’t bear to go back inside. Inside is where the ghosts are. The ghosts and the lists.

The ground is pockmarked with small craters from the bombs. Pockmarked like our skin after the fog. Two people are staggering across the middle, just like Johanna hauling Nuts and Volts out of the jungle.

The jabberjays scream and the buffalo stampede.

Finnick leaps to his feet.

One of the people has fallen. The other tries to get them back up on their feet, then to pick them up and carry them, but they take two steps and collapse.

Finnick is moving.

I follow, trying to see what he sees, what is so important. I feel like I’m looking through thick morning fog and moving through chest-deep water.

“Let them through!” Finnick shouts.

I see now the dozen guards forming up in front of the two, who look about as threatening as Cassia Vickers.

I wonder what has happened to Cassia Vickers. If we’ll ever know. If the rebels got ahold of her and just killed her.

“Let them through!”

And then I see it. It’s like the fog has burned off and I can swim like a swordfish.

I pass Finnick, who is laughing as he bounds down the stairs that lead to the front garden. One of the guards steps into my path but I shove past him. I am the Tiger Shark.

I drop to my knees next to them, and I am laughing too as tears stream down my cheeks and I want to ask a million questions but all that comes out is “How?”

Cashmere smiles weakly, puts a hand on Alvan’s shoulder where he lays next to her, and slumps forward against me.

****

****

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