#only it's much later in the story so it's implied that Thomas was around 15 when he entered the maze

[pathsofoak]

I think I'm going to explicitly mention Thomas's age The Early Rise. There is a scene where Janson shows him his file, there is no reason why that wouldn't be in it, his mother willingly gave him up, they would have gotten those documents somewhere. Since Thomas basically turns away from WCKD on the basis that he's a child in the Night Winds, I think it would make sense.

Random hc's in the tags they're just a thought dump

[john-laurens]

John Laurens’ War - the movie version of the play Radical Son I reviewed back in 2015 - is now available on Amazon Prime Video.  For background, you can read my review of the play here.  The movie version is fairly similar to the play, but I cannot say that is entirely enjoyable.  It’s only an hour long, so it’s a relatively quick watch - and it’s free if you have Amazon Prime.  My major issues with the movie are outlined below:

The dates are all over the place.  For example, John is shown still in England with Martha Manning in January 1777 when in reality he had left in December 1776.  The narration also stated that Frances was born a few months after this scene and that Martha died 1.5 years later.  In actuality, Frances was born in January 1777, and Martha died in fall 1781 (4.5 years later).  These are not major details that affect the progression of the story, but it is basic information that they should get right.

Thomas Day was weirdly lax on his anti-slavery stance while debating Laurens in the movie.  In contrast, Laurens is shown as an abolitionist gift from God who can do no wrong.

It is heavily implied that Laurens had Shrewsberry or another slave during his studies in Europe and educated them.  I don’t recall any specific slave that was documented as serving Laurens in Europe, but it’s certainly possible.  However, I would bet good money that they didn’t receive an education.  In the play, the major slave character was named Phillip Rivers.  To me, this was a major fault.  Why make up a slave when we have record of hundreds of actual lives that were affected by slavery under the Laurens family?  In the movie, the name was changed to Phillip Shrewsberry, so that was a minor improvement.

They used a quote about Laurens wanting to be a doctor to show that he was anti-slavery.  They abbreviated/edited the following quote: “When I hear of another who has done eminent service to mankind, by discovering remedies for the numerous train of disorders to which our frail bodies are continually subject, and has given relief to numbers whose lives, without his assistance, would have been insupportable burdens, I cannot refrain from wishing to be an equal dispenser of good.”  There were like a dozen other quotes they could have used, and they chose this one?

Alexander Hamilton and Lafayette were not in the play but appeared in the movie for about 15 seconds for the HamiltonTM factor.

They showed Laurens dueling Lee in Brunswick right after the Battle of Monmouth when they actually dueled in the woods outside of Philadelphia around 6 months later.

Both the movie and play spent a weirdly significant chunk of time on Henry Laurens’s capture/imprisonment in the Tower of London.  I’m guessing this happened because Clarence Felder (the Henry Laurens actor) was a screenplay writer/executive producer and is married to the director/screenplay writer/producer Chris Weatherhead, and they wanted to give him more screen time.  The movie also unfortunately still includes the uncomfortable flirtation between old man Henry and young Elizabeth Futterell too.  She kissed him, and it made me very uncomfortable (only on the cheek, but still).  I still have no idea who this lady is.  I admittedly have not spent much time researching Henry’s time in the Tower of London, but I can find very little information on this woman.  It seems like her name may have actually been Elizabeth Vernon - I’m not sure if they made up the name Futterell or if that is supposed to be a married name.  The movie even admits that she disappears from the historical record, so I’m not sure why they seem to have made up this entire story surrounding her - they even claim that she became a governess to the Laurens children (uh, only Mary Eleanor would have been a child/teenager at this time...) and that she was bequeathed a significant sum of money in Henry’s will.  I have no idea where this is coming from.

The movie unfortunately still contains the made-up conversation between Laurens and Thomas Jefferson, but at least they now introduce it with “One wonders, then, what might have transpired in such a conversation between John Laurens and Thomas Jefferson.”  But still - why was this necessary?

For some reason, Laurens was not at the Battle of Yorktown in the movie.  He learned of Cornwallis’s surrender through a letter.

Thaddeus Kosciuszko gets one random mention when Laurens calls a group of people over?

Hamilton’s final letter is unfortunately still edited so that Hamilton tells Laurens he can only join him in Congress after he clears all the British from the Carolina coast.  Why.  This is in direct contradiction to the final Hamilton-Laurens letter.  What a disgrace.

One of John’s dying lines is “Martha.  Where are you?  Holding my daughter?”  That’s certainly a...choice, I guess.

Overall, I’m glad that Laurens is starting to get some more recognition, but this movie frankly suffers from too many inaccuracies and a strange focus on Henry Laurens to be enjoyable. 

[densi-mber]

Just For Show

A/N: Here’s part two of Just for Show, the fake date fic. I may have stolen the plot from an episode of the show “Taxi”.

***

“Remember, I told Janelle that you work for the district attorney, so you can’t really talk about any specific cases,” Kensi reminded Deeks as she drove. Her hands were clamped tightly around the steering wheel, reminiscent of the grip a 15 year old student driver might have.

“Got it.”

“And she’s very detail oriented, so if you tell her anything, she’ll remember it.”

“I’m a little insulted that you would think I, master of a dozen aliases, would get caught in a lie,” he said with mock offense.

“Deeks, I’m serious. Please don’t mess this up,” Kensi begged.

“I know and I won’t.” She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at him and he smiled reassuringly. “Promise.”

She shook her head as she pulled into the parking lot of the bar where they were meeting Janelle and her boyfriend. It was less of a bar, more lounge and Kensi was infinitely glad that she’s chosen a dress and heels.

Deeks got out before she could and came around to her side, offering his arm as he opened the door.

“Hey, don’t lay it on too thick,” she warned as she stepped out, using his forearm for support. “How do I look?” She turned in a quick circle and tugged at the knee length hemline of her dress, which was red and sleeveless.

“Perfect,” he said almost immediately. “What about me?” She glanced at him, taking her time. He’d chosen a black suit with a deep blue shirt that made his eyes seem even more vibrant. The top two buttons were popped, revealing tanned skin, and it looked like he’d even combed his hair for once. He looked more than perfect.

“You’ll do.” She adjusted his collar, which was perfectly fine, and patted his chest. “You’ll do.”

As they walked into the bar, she felt her tension ratchet up a notch. Deeks just have noticed because he dropped his arm around her waist, giving her a light squeeze. Normally she would think he was just taking advantage of the situation, but she was actually grateful.

“You’ll be fine,” Deeks told her with an encouraging smile. They found Janelle and her boyfriend without too much difficulty and quickly.

“I’m so glad you made it,” Janelle greeted Kensi, giving her a hug. “I almost thinking you might find some excuse to back out.” Kensi laughed nervously and Deeks stepped forward, extending his hand.

“Sorry, that’s on me. I couldn’t get my hair right. Marty Deeks, by the way,” he said. Janelle shook his hand, giving Kensi a mildly impressed look.

“Janelle. And Kensi didn’t mention that you have a sense of humor.”

“She doesn’t like to brag.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely it,” Kensi muttered under her breath as Janelle gestured to her boyfriend.

“Marty, Kensi, this is Thomas.” He stood at shook Kensi’s hand and then gave Deeks a slap on the back.

“Nice to meet you.” He was about Deeks’ height and by Kensi’s guess, in his mid to late 30’s with short brown hair. Thomas gestured to the curved booth seat that surrounded half of the small table, waiting for Kensi and Deeks to sit down.

Deeks’ leg brushed hers as he slid in beside her and draped his arm over her shoulders. He was close enough that she could feel the heat emanating from his body, straight through their close.

Thomas ordered a bottle of wine and Janelle immediately engaged Deeks in conversation. This was going to be an incredibly long night.

***

“Kensi mentioned that you two met at work,” Janelle said to Deeks from across the table. “Was she one of your paralegals?” He felt Kensi tense beside him so he dropped his arm from her shoulders to her waist, tugging her against his side.

At least Janelle had waited until after they finished dinner to start truly interrogating him. Deeks took a sip of wine and nodded, taking his time before answering.

He’d killed an hour or so talking about former cases, both real and based off of case studies from his law school days. Fortunately, Janelle and Thomas didn’t seem to versed in law.

“We did meet at work, but we started out in different departments. The last 2 and a half year have been the best of my life,” he said.

“Kensi said you’ve only been dating for 6 months.” Janelle tilted her head as Kensi’s heart rate sped up dramatically.

“De-I mean Marty was just-“ Kensi started to say, sounding a little panicky.

“That’s when we met. Kensi thought I was kind of an idiot for a long time, but she eventually came around. Do you want hear about when we finally got together?”

“Honey, I don’t really think that’s necessary,” Kensi said with a forced smile, pinching his thigh.

“Oh, but it’s such a good story,” he said, grinning down at her. Kensi glared back, her eyes threatening that he would regret this moment later on.

“I would love to hear it,” Janelle said eagerly, she leaned forward towards Deeks, laying a hand over his. Thomas didn’t seem particularly thrilled about the idea-or Janelle’s wandering hand- and wrapped his arm around and tugged her back against his side, giving Deeks a proprietary look.

“Did you want to tell them Kens?”

“No, you go ahead.” He didn’t miss the mild sarcasm in her voice as she brushed his hair back from his forehead. “You tell it so much better.”

Deeks nodded, pressing a kiss to her temple, like it was perfectly normal.

“About six months ago,” he started, quickly inventing a story as he went. “I was...I had a case that didn’t go well. I kind of lost my faith in law and my abilities as a lawyer. Kensi found me one night when I’d stay late at the office-she’d noticed I been acting differently-and asked me what was wrong. I told her I was, uh, thinking of resigning.”

“Kensi took my hand and told me that there were people out there who needed my help. I said didn’t feel like I was doing anybody much good, maybe it would be better off if someone else took my place.”

“How’d she convince you to stay?” Thomas asked and Deeks huffed out a laugh and then met Kensi’s eyes, letting his expression turn to one of fondness.

“She told me that if there was no other reason, I should stay for her. Because she needed me.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Janelle whispered, sounding a little awestruck. Deeks didn’t let his gaze waver from Kensi’s and she reached out to take his hand.

“I’d wasted enough time as it was, figured I needed to say something before I lost him altogether,” Kensi added with a little shrug. “Plus, I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing these gorgeous eyes and this fluffy blonde hair again,” Kensi said, running her fingers through his hair as she spoke. For a second, it felt as though it was just the two of them.

Thomas noisily cleared his throat, making them both pull apart slightly.

“Well, that’s a nice little story,” he said, his tone a little condescending.

“Thomas,” Janelle admonished him, smacking his arm. “It’s a beautiful story.”

“The last six months have been the happiest of my life,” Kensi said with so much sincerity that Deeks almost believed her.

“Mine too.” He leaned forward, intending to kiss her cheek, but Kensi surprised him, turning her face at the last second so there lips pressed together firmly. He didn’t have enough time to fully appreciate the warmth and softness of her lips against his. “Sorry about that,” he apologized with a soft laugh. “Sometimes we get so caught up in each other we forget other people are around.”

“How lovely,” Thomas commented sarcastically under his breath, just loud enough for Deeks to hear. Deeks winked at him, enjoying the other man’s annoyance.

“Yup, I’m a lucky man.” Kensi shared a smile with him and chuckled sheepishly.

“So, um, Janelle, how did you meet Thomas?” she asked.

“Oh, I was at a bar and Thomas had a martini sent to my table with his number,” Janelle said, suddenly looking self-conscious as she fiddled with her earring.

“Actually, I think it was a manhattan,” Thomas interrupted a little tightly. Janelle eyes flashed as she turned to him and said in a tight voice,

“I don’t think it really matters, Tom. You bought me a drink and I took your number.” There was an awkward silence and then Kensi looked at her watch, and gently grabbed Deeks shoulder.

“Oh honey, we better go. It’s after 8 and you have that debriefing in the morning.”

“I almost forgot about that,” Deeks said, pulling a face as he slid out of his seat and offered a hand to Kensi. “It was nice to meet you, Janelle, Thomas.” Thomas grunted something that might have passed for a agreement while Janelle rushed over and gave him a hug.

“The pleasure was all mine, believe me,” she said fervently, holding onto him a bit longer than necessary. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Well, he’s a busy guy,” Kensi interrupted, stepping between them. “I’ll see you on Wednesday in class.”

***

“So, did I pass?” Deeks asked as they were walking up to Kensi’s front door. Kensi inclined her head, smirking at him.

“Just barely,” she decided.

“Oh come on, I thought my performance was inspired.” Kensi snorted.

“That resignation story you pulled out was definitely something else. Next time you plan on creating an entire backstory, let me know ahead of time.”

“So that would imply that you expect me to go on more fake dates with you,” he pointed out.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” she sighed. “Hopefully I won’t have to do anything like this for a long time.”

“Well, based on the way Thomas and Janelle were bickering when we left, I’d say our chances of scoring a second double are pretty slim.” He felt a little bad about that part, but if they fought that easily, then their relationship probably wasn’t that solid.

They didn’t talk for a minute, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. When they reached her door, Kensi hesitated and then turned to face him directly.

“Thank you for doing this,” she said softly. “You didn’t have to. At all.” He shrugged, brushing off her thanks.

“What else are partners for?” Kensi started to say something, but stopped short and instead wrapped her arms around him. He froze a little as she settled her chin in the cleft of his shoulder, brushing her lips over his cheeks.

“Good night, Deeks,” she whispered.

[schrijverr]

'Till Death Do Us Part

Part 9 out of 13

When Alex has to bring Philip to work, he and Thomas discover that they both have something in common: they lost their love. They form an unexpected bond and connection about this that grows into something more.

A medium burn with parental feelings about Philip and flowers.

On AO3.

Ships: Jamilton

Warnings: very brief death mention

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 9: Ambrosia Means ‘Love Returned’

Alex woke up to Philip shaking him, he mumbled something and turned over in an attempt to get away from the waking hands. He hid against the warmth at his other side, faintly aware that the heat in question was Thomas.

“Papa,” a little voice called out.

“Wha?” he groaned groggily.

From the other side came a chuckle, then Thomas rich early morning voice came: “Hey, Pip, maybe let your Papa sleep a bit more. What do you need?”

“I’m hungry,” there was a pout in Phillips voice and Alex knew he would have to get up to feed his kid. He couldn't just ignore him if he was hungry, bored was another story, but hungry…

“Then I’ll make you some pancakes, kiddo,” Thomas voice was a savior.

“Really?” Philip asked, Alex usually didn’t make pancakes and they were a treat that Philip treasured.

“Yeah, really, I’ll be there in a sec,” Thomas promised and Alex heard Philip leave the room. He shifted and an arm came to drape over him then a kiss on his forehead. He snuggled closer to Thomas, who chuckled: “I have to go, you just sleep a bit more, okay?”

“Y’re a h’ro,” Alex mumbled, faintly hearing more laughter as he drifted away again along with the sounds of someone getting dressed.

When he awoke again, it was to Thomas gently shaking him and soft saying: “Hey, darlin’, I’m heading to Jemmy now, if you wanna get to Herc’s in time, you might need to consider getting up now.”

He blinked heavily, but opened his eyes, seeing Thomas’s crinkled eyes. He smiled back and sleepily said: “I’m up, I’m up.”

“I can see that,” Thomas grinned, pecking his nose then his lips, before getting up, “Have a good weekend and brush your teeth.”

Alex gave him a lazy thumbs up, before sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Slowly he made his way through his morning routine, happy to see Philip already dressed and well fed with a few left over pancakes for himself.

As he drank his second cup of coffee he spotted the flowers. A warmth flood through his body and he fished his phone out of is pocket to look up their meaning.

‘Declaration of love’

The world paused, but the words stayed unchanged. No matter how much he checked again, they remained bold and true.

Had Thomas not realized the relevance of the flowers? He’d said he’d seen them on his way back home, but he would have checked, just to be sure.

Right?

Neither of them had spoken those word out loud. Alex certainly felt them, but God, he was so scared of messing up on this first good thing since John’s death. He didn’t want to be the one to drive Thomas away by saying it first, but-

But what if Thomas felt the same?

What if this was his confession?

Thomas of all people understood why they were both so scared to say that they hadn’t, evenafter practically moving in together and caring for Philip together. Thomashad done that with only love and care.

Zero complaints.

Alex knew there was love in those actions. Love they both had allowed to be left unsaid, because saying it meant that it could be ripped away.

Maybe Thomas was ready to tell him, but didn’t want to give him that moment of pressure or face it if Alex wasn’t at that point. Maybe this was a tentative push to take a step both were ready for, while also being woefully unprepared.

God, what was he going to do?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Philip who tugged on his sleeve and said: “Papa, you said we were leaving when the clock was at 11:15, it’s 11:10 now.”

“Ah, yeah, yeah,” he blinked and chugged his coffee, deciding that he would just ask Herc later today or in the evening when Philip was asleep.

When they got to Herc’s apartment he gathered Philip up in his arms and threw him in the air, catching him again and giving Alex a minor heart attack even though he had seen this go right many times before.

“How is my favorite nephew doing?” Herc asked Philip with a grin, “You doing okay at school, little man?”

“Uncle Herc!” Philip cheered, hugging Hercules tightly, before telling him that he was being very smart in his class and how he had very elaborated stories with his friends.

“That’s great, dude,” Herc smiled as he put him down, then he pulled Alex into a hug and asked: “And how have you been, man? Life treating you right? Thomas too?”

“Yeah he has, Herc,” Alex smiled into the other’s shoulder, relaxation washing over him in familiar and comforting arms. God, Herc gave the best hugs.

“Good to hear, good to hear,” Hercules nodded as he let them into the apartment.

Philip was delighted to visit his Uncle Herc again after he hadn’t been able to pick him up from school for a while due to the busy days. He spend most of his time breathlessly recalling everything his Uncle had missed, before pulling him into playing a story of his own making, which Herc in turn roped Alex in too.

It was a good day and Alex’s cheeks hurt from smiling by the time Herc was making them burgers for dinner.

“Really, what have you been up these past few days?” Alex asked, beer in hand and leaning against the counter while Philip busied himself with Lego's Herc had at his house for him.

“Been great, man,” Herc replied, “Taking advantage of the bit of freedom to play some games, you know. I’ve been helping out at the youth center too.”

“That’s so cool,” Alex nodded, “You seem happy.”

“I am, ‘Lexi, I am,” Herc agreed, “Never thought I’d make it this far, but look at me now.”

“I’m proud of you, Herc,” Alex told him, “You deserve all of this so much.”

“Come on, dude, no need to make me cry in my burgers,” Herc said in teasingly, but Alex felt the hint of truth in there, so he dropped it.

It was only after Herc – special request from Philip, who bluntly informed Alex that Herc had the coolest stories – had tucked Philip into the mattress on Herc’s floor that Alex brought up the flowers to him.

“So, what do you think?” he finished recounting his analysis of the flowers.

“I think that you’re overthinking it and you just need to go with your gut,” Herc told him.

“Yeah, but what if my gut is wrong?” Alex argued, “What if he really just saw them and thought it would be nice and now I’m making a mistake by telling him how I feel.”

“You can’t really go wrong by telling him how you feel, ‘Lex.”

“Yes, it can,” Alex protested, “Maybe he doesn’t feel the same or it’s too soon and everything will fall apart around me, I can’t have that. I’m not the one ruining it.”

“And maybe you ruin it by not engaging in it, Alexander. You can’t predict every outcome, but honesty is the best road. If he isn’t in this long haul, you better find out now, rather than later when both you and Pip are in too deep.”

Alex rubbed his forehead and groaned: “This is too fucking hard. I’m not made for this. Me and John worked. With him it was easy, I can’t do this. I can’t. I need to go.”

“No, you don’t.”

“But-”

“Alexander, listen to me and listen close, okay?”

Herc look at him intently and Alex nodded.

“Every since this between you and Thomas started you’ve been happier again. We all see it, okay. Even Burr commented on it when I was last picking up Pip after he played with Theo. If even Burr is willing to admit there is something, then there is something, okay?”

“I mean, I guess,” Alex knew he was right.

“You’re not giving this up just because you’re having a hard time with your emotions. And you don’t get to say that between you and John everything was always sunshine and rainbows, okay. I know you love him and that you remember the good stuff the most – and I want you too – but I had both of you on my couch plenty of times.”

“I know that, Herc, but with John I know how it ended. It had a happy ending – well, as happy as someone dying can be – with Thomas it’s just unknown. I don’t like not knowing things.”

“And that I know, ‘Lex,” Herc agreed, “But it’s pretty clear you both love each other, so saying it can only make you stronger. I promise you, it will be fine.”

“But what if it doesn’t?”

Herc took a deep breath and fought the urge to slap Alex and call him stupid. He knew what this all meant to him, but by God, was this just the height of dumbassery.

“You said it yourself that Thomas wouldn’t just buy the flowers without checking their meaning, he knows what he gave you,” Herc said, “You also know he knows you, he’ll know you will check too. If you don’t engage, he will think you don’t love him. And you do love him, right?”

“Yeah, I do, but-”

“Alex, my man, my dude, I am not sitting here and watching you get into some soap opera, romcom miscommunication plot line. I’m just not. I love you with my whole heart, but I am not watching that plot unfold,” and with that Herc had reached his stupid limit.

At Hercules’ outburst Alex paused and thought it over without mentally wantingto refute all of Herc’s points so that he wouldn’t have to face this.

“I’m stupid, you’re right,” he groaned, “Fuck, you’re right.”

“Thank you.”

“How will I tell him though?” Alex immediately found a new problem to stress about, making Herc roll his eyes fondly.

“Maybe just say: ‘Hey, love you’, like a normal person,” Herc shrugged, knowing Alex wouldn’t take his suggestion.

“No, I need to tell him he was a dick about telling me with flowers, because it made me stress about it all,” Alex shook his head, then his eyes lit up, “I’m gonna give him flowers too, put the ball back in his court. Ha, he should know who he’s playing against.”

“Drama queen, it’s not a game, you idiot.”

“Potey-to, potah-to,” Alex shrugged, waving his hand vaguely, “I’ll acknowledge the flowers he gave me, not say it outright, but imply it and based off his reaction words may or may not be spoken.”

“God, you’re an idiot,” Herc face palmed.

“But I am a genius idiot and you will put respect to that, Herc,” Alex grinned, with a plan in mind he could allow himself to relax again.

“Whatever, man,” Herc just told him, before pulling out a deck of cards, “Let’s just play some cards, alright? I still need you to tell me how you think frat boy khaki cargo shorts were okay.”

“They have pockets!”

“Not a good excuse,” he handed Alex the cars, “You deal.”

Alex shuffled and dealt the cards, letting Thomas drift out of his mind and focused on spending time with Herc.

The next day passed in quite a similar fashion and before Alex knew it he was driving to work on Monday morning with his own bouquet in the passenger seat.

He was feeling a bit jittery, but mostly excited to see Thomas again, it was crazy how quickly he’d gotten used to seeing him every day and how much he missed him in the past weekend. He quickly parked his car and walked into the building, happily noting that Thomas was already there.

Since he had to bring Philip to school from Herc’s house– the boy had pleaded and he hadn’t been able to say no – he was slightly later than normal, but this worked in his favor.

Walking down the hall, he took a deep breath in front of Thomas’s office, before throwing the door open and stating: “You cannot confess that to me in flower language and expect me to handle that in any way shape or form.”

Thomas startled loudly and clutched his chest as he processed the words and sight in front of him. Alex was holding out a bouquet of flowersthat Thomas recognized all too well, since he had studied flowers relating to love to form his own confession: ambrosia and moss rosebud.

He relaxed at the sight.

“I never pegged you to be the type to use someone’s own tricks against them, darling,” he smirked, leaning back in his chair.

He watched as Alex relaxed too and grinned: “Well, then you’ve underestimated how much of a petty bitch I can be, Jefferson.”

At that Thomas snorted and sighed: “Sometimes I wonder why I love you.”

It was the first time the words had been spoken out loud and both smiled instantly at them, even if they were meant to be a tease.

The atmosphere shifted and Alex put down the flowers before pulling Thomas in a hug and pecking his lips as he whispered against them: “Love you too.”

After a moment of quiet Alex whispered: “I missed you this weekend.”

“Missed you too.”

“Wanna come over tonight? Me and Pip are gonna make pasta.”

“I’d love that,” Thomas told the top of Alex’s head, which he was cradling gently. He just held Alex against him, not yet willing to let him go.

They just stood there for a long moment, until there was a knock on the door and both jumped apart, while Thomas called out: “Come in.”

“There you are,” the door opened to reveal Washington, who somehow managed to look both not amused at all, while at the same time very amused at their position.

“Sir,” Alex greeted, attempting casual. They weren’t doing anything improper, but he still felt like he should be guilty.

“You two were late for the meeting,” Washington informed them with a grin, “I think I can vouch for you, but I do need to be sure that we don’t have to have a conversation about office romance protocol.”

“Sir,” Alex squeaked.

While Thomas protested, mortified: “We weren’t-”

“I joke, I joke,” Washington assured them, “Come on, I have some documents you can pretend to carry, no one will ask. I know you two well enough to feel safe leaving you by yourself in a room at work,” there was a slight warning there and both nodded quickly.

As they walked behind Washington, Thomas hissed: “That was the most awkward thing ever and I’m blaming you.”

“Me? Why me? You were the one doing the hugging.”

“And you were the one with the flowers.”

“You started it.”

“I didn’t do it at work.”

“Oh please, you would have shit your pants if I hadn’t said anything all day.”

“True. Love you.”

There was a pause, then a sigh: “Love you too.”

They entered the meeting with happy matching grins and a lot of paperwork. It was crazy how they had confessed their love moments before and they were now yelling at each other about whether or not they should start a branch in France.

Alex grinned and looked Thomas straight in the eyes as he refuted his best argument with a bit of company policy he had dug up from God knows where. He saw Thomas scowl, before rolling his eyes and smirking back.

As Thomas walked by on his way out, he stopped by to say: “You’re a fucking scoundrel and I will refute you next time, dick.”

“Love to see you try, Tommy,” Alex replied, “Wanna get lunch?”

“Hell yeah, I do.”

They ate lunch together, but after that the day moved pretty quickly and when Thomas got home to Alex and Philip in the kitchen with Alex attempting to teach Philip to make pasta, he hadn’t seen him all day.

Thomas stopped in the doorway and watched the two for a while. Alex was standing behind Philip at the counter, guiding his hand with a knife as they cut a few tomatoes.

After a few moments of watching, Alex looked up and spotted him. He raised a brow: “How long have you been lurking there, creeper?”

“Long enough to fully appreciate the view,” he smiled back.

“Uncle Thomas!” Philip called out, “Papa is teaching me how to cook!”

“I can see that, kiddo. Next time I have to cook, I know who to call to do it for me,” Thomas told him.

Philip looked incredibly proud of himself as he nodded: “I will be the best cook.”

“Well, Mr. Master Chef, don’t you think you need to watch where you put the knife?” Alex intercepted the little hand that was about to start waving the big knife around.

“Ah, yes, Papa,” Philip said apologetically.

“No problem, buddy, just be careful around the sharp objects,” Alex ruffled his hair.

In that time, Thomas had walked over and kissed both on their forehead. He told Alex: “Hey, your afternoon okay?”

“Yeah, it’s been, you know, emails and stuff.”

“God, do I know,” Thomas grimaced in sympathy, “How ‘bout you, Pip?”

“It was good, we did crafts today,” Philip informed him.

“Really?”

“Yeah, we had lots of glitter. Me and Theo made a glitter-man together,” Philip said excitedly, “We named him George and he came to life and started to chase us and I got shot, but it was okay because Theo brought me back to life with a paper confetti spell.”

“Oh wow,” Thomas said, feeling bad for Ms. Dolley, who likely had been the one to clean that up.

After dinner Philip played a bit more until bed time, not that Philip really wanted to go to bed when Alex announced it. “But Papa, I still need to charge the castle,” he pouted.

“The castle will still be there in the morning, Pip,” Alex told him, “Besides, castle sieges are best done in the morning, when then troops are well rested and the guards tired.”

Philip looked between his toys and his Papa, then protested: “But all the troops are already in place, calling it off would give away their position.”

Alex sighed and rubbed his brow. He hated having to be stern to Pip, but he had already been so lenient the weekend at Herc’s, so he really couldn't let him get away with it if he wanted to have a bit of credibility later.

“That sucks, buddy. I know you wanna keep playing, but you need to go to sleep,” he squatted next to Pip, “You have school tomorrow and it’s already late. There are a few rules and I made them with your well being in mind, so I’m sorry, but it’s bedtime now.”

It looked as if Philip was on the fence and just needed a small push, so Thomas interjected: “We can read another chapter of the Ranger Apprentice.”

At that Philip lit up and he started to put his toys away, while Alex mouthed to Thomas: “Thank you.”

Thomas got off the couch and asked: “Do you want me to tuck him in?”

“Would you do that?” Alex asked, “Sorry, the whole weekend was busy, fun but busy, and today Adams came by my office and I’m just tired.”

“Hey, no problem, love you.”

“Love you too.”

Both were so excited about saying it and Thomas couldn't help but kiss Alex, before turning to Philip and clapping his hands: “Okay, let’s get this show on the road, wanna race to the bathroom?” and with that they were off while Alex collapsed on the couch.

After an hour Thomas came back and plopped down next to Alex and said: “Your child is just as manipulative as you.”

“What did he get you to do?” Alex asked with an amused look.

“We read two chapter, because it ended on a cliffhanger and he knows I’m invested too and he has pleading eyes and I feel like he’s aware of it,” Thomas pouted.

Alex laughed and draped himself over Thomas, saying: “I will claim no responsibility for that, he has Johns eyes.” “God, then I get why you got with him,” Thomas informed him, making Alex giggle, then Thomas added, “But he definitely has your people reading skills and he knows when to use them.”

“Yeah probably,” Alex agreed, sounding proud.

“He’s also going to use that against you, you realize that, right?” Thomas asked him, when he heard the tone.

“Oh, he already does,” Alex grinned, “I just have to learn to tell him no or hope he will listen to reason and agree with me.”

“Oh my God,” Thomas snorted.

“You know you love me,” Alex singsonged.

“Sadly.”

“Rude.”

They fell quiet for a moment, then Thomas asked: “Wanna talk about Adams coming by your office, you didn’t say before, but you sounded stressed.”

“Nah, he was just being a dick, the usual,” Alex shrugged.

“I’m gonna punch him.”

“Please don’t, I’ve had enough awkward conversations with Washington about you for the rest of my life.”

“Enough?” Thomas sounded curious, “Was one enough?”

Alex blushed: “I’ve had two more.”

“Really?” there was an unnecessary amount of glee in Thomas’s voice in Alex’s opinion.

“Yeah, when I came over to you the first time, he was like ‘You and Thomas!?!?’ with a lot of suggestiveness and I had to be ‘oh, no sir, not like that,’ but then a while later it was like that and he did the eyebrow thing and said ‘I thought it wasn’t like that?’ and then I had to come back on my word. So yeah, awkward. I think he even gave me a shovel talk, but for both of us.”

Thomas laughed at him and Alex pouted: “You’re being a meanie.”

“Sorry, darlin’, still love you.”

“Yeah, love you too,” Alex said, it was quiet for a beat, then Alex asked: “What made you decide on now?”

“What?”

“I mean, why did you get the flowers now? Was there a reason?”

Thomas paused and thought about it, then said: “Uhm, picking up Philip from school, actually. The- the teacher referred to me as his parent and-”

“Oh, God, I’m sorry, I didn’t tell her that, if you’re uncomf-”

“Alex, how many times do I have to say that I don’t mind taking care of Pip. I enjoy hanging out with him, he’s a good kid and I don’t mind,” Thomas assured him.

“But-”

“No, buts,” he said sternly, “As I was going to say, after that I realized how much you two had made yourself at home in my heart and I didn’t really wanna loose that because I was too scared to tell you how much I love you.”

It was quiet for a moment and Thomas waited anxiously for Alex’s reply to his confession. Then softly Alex said: “Well, I’m glad you did.”

Relief washed over Thomas and he smiled, pulling Alex against his chest to that he could kiss him on the forehead. He replied: “Yeah, me too,” then he was reminded of his mostrecent call with his mother, which had increased after his birthday, and he added: “I did have another motivethough.”

Alex quirked a brow: “Really? Do enlighten me.”

“Well, my Ma has been nagging me a bit, she does it lovingly and embarrassingly,” Thomas said, “Since she has issued an invitation to you and Philip to come to Monticello with me over the summer and I promised her I’d ask you, but I didn’t.”

“So, telling me you loved me was your response?” Alex asked, curiously while also amused.

“I mean, based on your reaction to said declaration, it would be less scary to ask you to come,” Thomas shrugged.

“You- you want us to come?” Alex sounded insecure.

“Of course I’d want that, I just didn’t know if you would and I didn’t want to force you to come if you didn’t. My family can themselvesand there’s a fat chance at least one of my sisters, probably Mary,will be there and you’ll be interrogated by Ma, which is not only scary, but also embarrassing. Well, mostly for me, the embarrassment that is,” Thomas rambled.

“I’d love to go and I’m sure Pip would too,” Alex cut him off.

“You- you’re sure?” Thomas double checked.

“Yeah, I want to see baby pictures of you and hear embarrassing stories, that sounds great,” Alex grinned.

Thomas pushed him lightly: “Shut up. Ma is going to give you way too much food, I hope your know that.”

Alex’s eyes shone and he said: “Actually, I don’t mind, so ha, suck it.”

“Idiot,” Thomas told him fondly.

“It’s your idiot, idiot,” Alex grinned back.

After a beat Thomas said: “If you don’t wanna go or back you’ll tell me, right?”

“I will, promise,” Alex promised, “Don’t stress about it, I’ve heard you wax too much poetry about the Virginian countryside not to be curious.”

“Only if you’re sue.”

“I’ll ask Pip tomorrow, if he’s in, you can tell your mom.”

“Your not nervous at all?”

“If you want me to say no, you can.”

“No, no, no, I want you to come, but usually people find meeting parents a big deal and you are being very chill about it.”

“Ah, well, I guess it can never be as bad as when I met John’s parents, which was subsequently also the last time I eversaw them, and from what you told me about your mom, she sounds like a lovely lady and I think we can get along.”

“What happened when you met John’s parents? It sounds like there’s a story there.”

“Oef, that is a story and a half. Remember why they’re not in Pip’s life anymore?”

“Homophobic, transphobic assholes,” Thomas recalled, before going: “Ahh, I see.”

“Yeah, let’s just say that they didn’t appreciate me being the Alex John had told them about,” Alex said, “They hadn’t picked up on the gender neutral language and had decided that Alex could be a girl’s name, so that was a jikes.”

“I can’t even imagine.”

“Oh, no you can’t, my meeting them lasted twenty minutes, then me and John got a hotel,” Alex recounted, “We stayed in town just long enough for me to meet a few of his cool siblings before we left. Haven’t seen them since. It had been the last straw for John, so I respect that. I don’t even know if they’re aware of Philip’s existence.”

“Wow, that- that sure is something.”

Alex laughed at Thomas’s response: “Yeah, it is. Not really my go to party story, I gotta say,” Thomas snorted and Alex send him a pleading smile andsaid, “So, Designated Survivor? I wanna know what happens.”

Thomas looked and said: “And you say he got it all from John. But sure, I’m curious too.”

“Fuck yeah,” Alex went to set it up, “And don’t bash tested methods.”

“Dork.”

“Love you too.”

The next morning Alex was sipping coffee still in his pajamas while Philip ate his breakfast. Thomas came in, clothed for the day and freshly showered. He kissed Alex and said: “Love you, sleep well?”

“Hmm, yeah, love you too,” Alex hummed back, “You?”

“Yeah, good,” Thomas was a bit more awake, but not overly so, “How ‘bout you, kiddo? Have a good night?”

Philip studied the two of them, before he nodded: “I fought a dinosaur, but then he was nice and we were friends and explored, before we turned into eagles and became kings of a floating castle.”

“How nice.”

With Thomas there, Alex left Philip to shower and dress himself. It was relaxing how he could now do that after waking Philip up instead of having to do it way too early in the morning every day. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Philip on his own, but just to be sure.

When he came back it was rushing out the door. Thomas off to work while Alex drove Philip to school.

While they were in the car, Philip asked: “You said you love each other yesterday and this morning.”

“Astute observation,” Alex nodded, then glanced at Pip in the rear view mirror, “Means, well spotted,” he clarified, “Me and Thomas do love each other, we just started saying it now.”

“Why now?”

“Because it was all very new and now we both felt comfortable with it.”

“Didn’t you love each other before that?”

“We did, but sometimes we don’t say it yet,” Alex tried to think of an example, “Uhm, you know when you and Theo became friends, did you immediately say you were best friends?”

Philip thought about that, then shook his head: “No.”

“And why was that?”

“Because I didn’t know her long enough to be her best friend, but one day I felt I was and she was too and now were bestest friends.”

“Well, this was kind of like that for me and Thomas with saying ‘I love you,’” Alex explained.

“So you and Uncle Thomas are best friends?”

“A bit more than that buddy, think more like Auntie Eliza and Auntie Maria, but then a bit newer.” Alex said and Philip hummed thoughtfully then nodded in understanding.

They drove in silence for a bit more, then Alex said: “There was actually something I wanted to ask you, is that okay?”

“Yes, what is it, Papa?” Philip looked at him curiously.

“Well, Thomas invited us to come to Monticello in the summer break, would you like that?”

“What’s Mothello?”

“Monticello,” Alex corrected, “And it’s where he grew up, so we’ll be staying with his mother and maybe a few of his siblings. It might be more people you don’t know than you’re used to, so if you think it’s too scary we don’t have to go, alright. Just be honest with me.”

“Is his mom kind of like my grandma? Like Grandma Martha?” Philip asked.

Alex really hoped he wasn’t overstepping too much, when he answered: “In a way, I guess so, buddy,” it wasn’t as if the Schuyler parents hadn’t taken a liking to him as well. If it got too far he could fall back on that example, not pushing Thomas to be a dad.

Though, fuck ifwouldn’t thatbe amazing.

Philip seemed satisfied with his answer, because he said: “I wanna go.”

“Alright, buddy,” Alex replied, “If you’re sure, but if you want to think about it more, now is the time to say so, because otherwise I’ll tell Thomas okay and then it’ll be harder to say no later.”

“I’m sure,” Philip said with conviction, so Alex believed him.

“Then that’s a plan,” Alex smiled, before parking in front of the school and getting out to unbuckle Pip and let him go.

Once Philip was ready to go, Alex asked: “Am I getting a kiss?”

Philip gave him a kiss and Alex gave one back, before wishing Philip a good day and waving him off, making sure to keep watching until he had reached the doors of the school safely. On his way to them he saw him meet up with Theodosia and he smiled as the two kids greeted each other.

A quick scan and he saw Burr himself, he waved and the other nodded back politely, before both got in their cars and drove to work.

Burr was more an acquaintance than a friend, but it was funny how they kept running into each other. First in the army, then at college, before seeing each other at work (Burr worked in Public Relations) and finally running into each other at their kid’s school.

At work they rode the lift together, Burr getting off first, with surprisingly little fighting between them, though that was mostly due to Burr’s stoic politeness than Alex’s lack of trying.

He walked into the office and to the break room where Thomas handed him a cup of coffee as he said: “You need to stop drinking that much coffee.”

“And I love you too,” Alex loved this new way of ending a discussion, “Philip is in, by the way. He seemed excited about it.”

“That’s good to hear, I’ll call Ma tonight.”

“Cool, what are you doing today?”

“Probably not much, why?”

“Oh, just wondered if you were up for dinner at my place?” Alex asked nonchalantly.

He had been doing this more and more, Thomas noticed. At first he hadn’t paid it much mind, because Alex usually had a good reason and it wasn’t until he had spend a full week there once that he had noticed it.

Thomas was more at Alex’s place than his own.

Not that he minded, he thought it was sweet and if Alex was willing to take the lead there, he would gladly take it. He smiled: “Sure, we ended on a cliffhanger.”

“Which we?” Alex teased, “You and Pip with Ranger’s Apprenticeor us with Designated Survivor?”

“Would both be an acceptable answer?”

“Dork,” Alex said, before walking away to his office.

“That’s your dork, Mister,” Thomas called after him.

As he turned into the hall, he made a pirouette type movement, in which he blew Thomas a kiss and replied: “I know, don’t forget to call your mom.”

From the chair Angelica broke her silence: “God, you two are sickeningly sweet.”

“Jealousy isn’t a good look, Angie,” Thomas stuck out his tongue.

Angie stuck hers out in retaliation, before saying: “We need to catch up soon, okay? I’m thinking lunch and I want details, but now I have work to do. And so do you, don’t think I’ve forgotten that you still need to send me those files.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Thomas saluted and quickly sped off, not wanting to face Angelica’s wrath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

I am incapable of writing a miscommunication plot lines, just because I get too much second hand embarrassment from it. So, I shall acknowledge what could have happened and not do it, bc I will hurt my own feelings, lmao

Btw: “pirouette type movement” → think ‘water tribe’ from ATLA

The bouquet was ambrosia and moss rosebud, because ambrosia alone is boring, since it doesn’t have flowers. Moss rosebud means confession of love.

[snowdice]

Little Kestrel (Part 9)[Birds of Different Feathers Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan & Patton & Virgil (future Virgil/Patton but not in this story)

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton, Virgil

Appear: Thomas

Mentioned: Janus

Summary:

It was supposed to be a quick job either way. Either Virgil would assassinate King Thomas of Prijaznia or he’d be caught and get executed. Yet, when Virgil gets the wrong bedroom and gets caught by Prince Logan and his future royal advisor, Patton, the job ends up getting way more complicated for the 14-year-old. He also ends up sleeping in a (actually pretty comfortable) closet for a few weeks…

Notes: Implied/referenced child abuse, assassination attempt, knives, torture mentioned, captivity, teenagers being really dumb

This is a prequel to Kill Dear. I wrote it 100 words at a time on my blog, but this is the edited version. If you want to see how it was crafted, look at the tag proofread stories.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Logan had explained briefly what had happened while Patton was gone getting food. Patton had lectured him a bit about the whole drugging the poor boy on accident over their breakfast, but he understood why it had happened. Logan had been too busy explaining to him that the nutritional potion would not hurt him, that he’d forgotten to explain everything about it.

The poor thing. Patton didn’t have any personal experience with binding potions, but he’d been around that one time Logan had accidently gotten some on his hand and that had been a nightmare. Swallowing it had to hurt really, really bad. So, it made sense that Virgil was tense when Logan came back in with the new restraints. It was just two thick leather bands that looked like simple bracelets and had little engravings on them. Patton wasn’t sure if those were decorations or meant something, but he did know at first glance they didn’t look like something to keep someone prisoner.

“I’m going to put these on first,” Logan told Virgil. Patton had brought him out of the closet and set him down in one of the comfy chairs while Logan had been gone. “Then, I’ll take off the old ones. Once that’s done, we’ll do some adjustments okay?” Virgil nodded, looking resolutely at his knee.

Logan’s expression grew pinched, but he still reached out to take Virgil’s wrists. Patton saw Virgil close his eyes and clench his fists. The leather bands were quickly fastened around his arms above where the metal ones sat. Then, Logan removed the metal ones and set them aside. “I’m going to tighten these around your wrists now,” Logan said, already sliding them down so they settled around his wrists. “Please tell me if there is any discomfort. I want them to be tight enough not to chafe, but I don’t want to tighten them too much and cut off your circulation.”

Virgil peeked open his eyes and blinked down at the cuffs. “That didn’t…” hurt, Patton filled in to himself.

“It’s not meant to hurt Virgil,” Logan said, coming to the same conclusion as Patton. “Whoever has applied binding magic to you before clearly is not only grossly negligent, but cruel. Now,” he finished fiddling with the cuffs. “There are three different settings that only Patton and I can change for these cuffs. The first setting is like the basic binding potion on the metal cuffs. It keeps your wrists locked in place wherever they’re moved.” He moved Virgil’s wrists, so they were both at his side and tapped the cuffs once. They glowed slightly making Virgil look at them curiously.

“This setting allows you some range of motion. You can move slowly, but you will feel a pull back to this position, and if you move too quickly it will snap your wrist back into place. Go ahead and try it.”

Virgil stared at him for a long moment. “Just… just move them?”

“Slowly, but yes.”

Virgil’s arms moved very slowly at first, but eventually he did pull them in front of him. Then he let them return to his sides.

“See?” Logan said. “You can do things like eat with that setting easily. The third setting gives unrestrained range of motion, but Patton or I can make them snap back into place with a simple hand motion. We’ll likely keep it on the second setting when we are actively watching you and the first when we are not, but I wanted to have the flexibility of the third as well, as well as have it be an option for when you are sleeping. For now, we’ll keep it on the second setting so you can eat.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed.

“Here,” Patton said, walking over to where they had stored Virgil’s breakfast. “Logan put it in a stasis thing to keep it warm for you.” He walked back and sat it down next to him. “So, we’ve got bacon, eggs, blueberry pancakes, and blueberries by themselves. I suggest we start with the pancakes.”

“Um,” Virgil said. “Okay.” He still didn’t seem comfortable with moving his arms much, so he nodded at the plate. “Are those the pancakes?”

Patton gasped. “You’ve never had pancakes before?!”

Virgil looked startled. “Uh… no?”

“We need to rectify this immediately!”

“You were already going to have him eat pancakes,” Logan pointed out.

Patton ignored him and instead pulled over one of the other chairs so he could sit next to Virgil. “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right,” he informed Virgil.

Virgil blinked at him and then looked over at Logan. “What is he talking about?”

“I have no idea. Just do what he wants. The worst it will be is a slight annoyance,” Logan said. Patton stuck his tongue out, but the statement seemed to make Virgil relax marginally so Patton couldn’t actually be annoyed.

“So, these are blueberry pancakes,” Patton said. “They’re my favorite types of pancakes, though chocolate chips ones are pretty good too. Have you had blueberries before?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well, these are blueberries from the castle gardens and they’re really good. Here, try one!” He picked up the bowl and offered it to him. He looked at it hesitantly. “Oh! Right!” Patton said. He reached forward and popped a couple into his mouth and then offered the bowl again. Virgil very slowly reached out to take one and brought it to his mouth. Patton watched as his eyes lit up when he bit down on the blueberry.

“See? They’re really good!” Patton said. He shook the bowl. “Have another one.” He was a little quicker to grab a second blueberry, but still cautious of the restraints. He popped it into his mouth and happily chewed it. The way he perked up a little bit at the taste was absolutely adorable. “Okay,” Patton said, smiling in excitement about the next part, knowing if he had never had pancakes, he probably had never had syrup either. “You can have more of those later, but first we’re going to introduce you to one of the most important parts of pancakes other than the actual pancakes: syrup.”

Patton grabbed the still slightly warm bowl of syrup and stuck his finger in it before putting it in his mouth.

“Patton that’s disgusting!” Logan scolded. Patton rolled his eyes, popping the finger out of his mouth.

“Don’t mind him,” Patton instructed. “He’s just silly.”

Logan sputtered. “You didn’t wash your hands.”

Patton’s eyes met Virgil’s and then he rolled them. He saw Virgil’s lips twitch just barely. Patton offered the syrup and Virgil carefully dipped his finger in and brought it to his mouth. He made a small sound when he tasted it and then blushed slightly when he realized that he did.

“And then the best part,” Patton tore off a little bit of the blueberry pancake with his fingers and dipped it into the syrup.

“Patton silverware.”

Patton looked over at him as he popped the piece of pancake into his mouth. “Are we giving Virgil a fork?”

“Right…” Logan said. “Probably not.”

“It’s better to eat it as finger food anyway,” Patton advised Virgil. “Go ahead.”

Virgil tore a piece of the pancake off and dipped it into the syrup. He got maybe a bit too much on it because it dripped onto his shirt, but it was worth it to see his expression when he ate the bite of pancake.

“Like it?” Patton asked. Virgil nodded. “Well, have as much as you want and don’t forget about the bacon and eggs. You need some protein too.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed. He reached forward and grabbed some bacon. Surprisingly, he didn’t make Patton eat any of it first.

“Patton and I were discussing sleeping arrangements before you woke,” Logan said after a few moments. Virgil looked up warily at that, and Patton wondered what he expected out of that. “I’m going to ward the closet you were in earlier and you can sleep in there.”

“I’ll make it up real nice and comfy for you,” Patton assured quickly. “I bet we can even convince Logan to make you some of the fun light thingys he does for it.”

“Unless you have an objection,” Logan said, “however, you seemed to be comfortable in the closet before. Also, since it is warded, I’ll set it so whenever you are in the closet you can move your arms freely.”

“The closet is good,” Virgil said. “It’s comfy.”

“And that’s without all the other stuff I’m going to put in it!” Patton bounced a bit in excitement. “We can decorate it too! However, you like!”

“…Okay?” Virgil replied, seeming confused.

“Great!” Patton chirped. “You keep eating and I’ll go get stuff to decorate it if Logan’s able to watch you.”

“Sure,” Logan agreed. “Go ahead.”

“Okay,” he turned back to Virgil. “What type of decorations do you want? I have a lot of cat decorations in my room so we can do that. Or mama has a lot of flower themed things I can get from her. Ooo and I think I still have star themed stuff from Logan’s birthday last year.”

“I like stars,” Virgil said after a moment’s thought. “But anything is fine.”

“Stars work,” Patton said with a smile. “I’ll go get the stuff and we can decorate the closet together today so it’s nice and comfy for when you go to bed.” He stood up to leave. “I’ll be right back with the stuff in a few minutes.” With that, he left Logan and Virgil alone in Logan’s room.

Want to read more? Click below!

AO3 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15

[bella-in-a-bag]

Not mine

Ao3 

Masterpost

 - Next

Words: 2446  

Day 5 - Any intense emotions your soulmate feels you will also experience 

Maybe that was worse, because he was just broken and no one was to blame, just himself. Maybe he had repressed his feelings to the limit and they were retaliating, unlike, but he wasn't human after all. Maybe he deserves this and there is no reason, it just is and he has to accept that. 

Where Logan gets someone elses feelings.

Tags and triggers under cut

Hurt/Comfort, Unsympathetic Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, more or less, he's just mean and never actually in the story, just mentioned, it's implied that he's just stressed, mention of violence, Swearing, Remus doesn't get gross, , tw panic attacks implied

Logan didn't know how his chest had suddenly gotten so tight, his eyes watery and his gut twisted in a way that made him want to throw up. Feeling such an intense array of emotions left him unable to think, let alone reason his way out of something he didn't know the cause for. Just a minute ago, he was fixing Thomas's schedule to include his meeting with Joan, an action that he deemed deeply satisfactory, when a wave crashed into his train of thought. Anger for something he didn't know the motive but knew was wrong, as well as many other things he could only identify as a mixture of pride, guilt, grief and sadness.

Well, no use in trying to get something done now.

Logan was used to these impulses, as he liked to call them, but every time he suffered them he felt like the world was figuratively trying to crush him into a pile of dust, so maybe the appropriate term should be awareness of the situation. He didn't freak out when they happened, which was good, but the unpleasantness still stuck all the way through the episodes. Surprising no one, he hated them more than he hated Thomas pursuing theater and YouTube instead of a stable career, but unlike the latter, these problems only affected him. Maybe that was worse, because he was just broken and no one was to blame, just himself. Maybe he had repressed his feelings to the limit and they were retaliating, unlike, but he wasn't human after all. Maybe he deserves this and there is no reason, it just is and he has to accept that.

Logan realized that if Janus heard that he was going to get lectured, but he didn't really mind, not when his brain was spiraling back and forth between a decision he wasn't sure he was making himself. The pros and cons, the possible outcomes, the whole problem laid out to him in a way he could only watch someone from afar look at a map he couldn't see. It reminded him of the courtroom scenario, but at the same time the problem felt more trivial and more important. The stakes were high, he guessed while trying to assume the best decision based on the pieces he could get, but then a choice was made and anxiety filled his mind to the brim.

He almost didn't answer when he heard a knock on the door, too many things happening at once, but he pushed himself up his chair and answered with the loudest voice he could manage. "Who is it?" It still sounded too emotionally charged, or maybe it didn't and his ears were playing tricks on him. "Can I come in?" Still no answer to his question, but if he ignored them maybe they would go away. The three seconds he stood in the middle of his room waiting for an answer felt like an eternity, but to his dismay, that someone finally decided to reveal their identity.

"I'm Remus, Logan" he sounded far too broken for the Duke, and Logan deduced that wasn't good. "Can I come in?" The desperation in the voice pushed Logan to open the door and let him in, trying to look collected.

"How may I assist you?" He wanted to add that he couldn't even assist himself, but the thought remained in his head.

"I need you to coach me through Virgil's breathing exercises" it still felt wrong the way his voice broke when he said Virgil and why would he need them in the first place? Remus was becoming a decent distraction from his own problems, he realized as he tried to make sense of the situation. Logan gestured at the foot of his bed before beginning to speak.

"Ok, I want you to breathe in for four, hold for seven and exhale for eight" Remus simply nodded and Logan began the exercise, counting with his fingers when he saw the creative side struggling to follow his instructions. After 15 minutes and 23 seconds, Remus seemed to look more like himself and Logan stopped counting, finding comfort in the way his mind had started to function as well. Remus was looking at the ground while biting his nail and it didn't look like he was going to speak any time soon, but Logan needed to know what happened in order to help Remus. He might be also teeny tiny bit interested, but that is besides the point.

"If you are not comfortable you do not have to answer" Remus's finger was out of his mouth, good. "But may I ask what is bothering you, you seemed troubled. And by previous experiences, I assume you do not get easily troubled." Remus snorted, Logan wasn't sure why but that is a problem for another day.

"I might have fought with good ol' Virgin again, which might not have ended so good ol' ok" That usually didn't end up well, Logan remembered trying to comfort Virgil with Patton making cookies and Roman swearing revenge on the background.

"If you were in his room that would explain your distress"

"We were on common territory, so my bullshit comes exclusively from me."

"I wouldn't consider your stress fake, but did anything he said upset you into this state or was it the whole situation in general."

"Well, there were some things said." He paused for a moment, looking down weighting if it was worth it or not. Logan was beginning to think he would just get up and leave when he resumed talking, startling him just enough to make him flinch but improbable that the other side had noticed.

"I had this extremely good idea, you see. It was good, so good I was going to show it to Thomas. Not an intrusive thought, you don't need to worry legged dictionary, but an actual real plot for an episode." Logan nodded along, listening carefully to the side's words. "I made the mistake of telling Virgil, cause he was the only one around and I needed to tell somebody. He's still pissed that jay-nus got sort of accepted, hypocrite coming from him," Logan bit the urge to correct him, shifting a bit on the spot." so he didn't take well the idea of me making something useful. Or he was afraid that I wasn't going to make anything and kill Thomathy on the spot, but hey, same difference. He also called me something a bit ugly." Remus's voice shifted into Virgil's like second nature, which would make sense given Janus's history. "Yeah, well maybe you are better off trapped in the subconscious, no one wants you around anyway. I'm sure your brother won't miss you."

This time Remus didn't continue speaking and Logan understood that he wasn't getting more info right now.

"I am sorry Remus, Virgil has been a little over the edge lately with Janus up in the primary mindscape." Bad wording Logic, now he looks more sad. "I am in no way trying to excuse his actions, perhaps I could talk to him later. Make him see the error in his thinking, possibly getting him to apologize."

"Thanks Logan." Satisfactory, he isn't even using a nickname.

"If I’m not intruding too much, why didn't you go to Janus for help?"

"Intruding is my thing logical meat bag" That one's creative "but he's busy and you seemed good at comforting V-movie, so I guessed you could comfort me too. Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw, I sound like Roman."

"I guess you do not want anything to do with chainsaws, but I appreciate that you would come to me for help. I am not in any way qualified in dealing with emotions, but I am suitable for providing physical help, techniques do not depend in whether you are very sad or mad at someone eating your last crofter jar." Remus smiled, which was good.

"Well that was fun." Remus stretched and half laid on the bed, his legs dangling on the edge. "But you seemed pretty out of it Wikipedia, when I came in" So much for looking collected, then.

"I was not doing well, but I am fine now"

"You can't just not tell me what bothered you, I need to know what to hit." That was nice, in its own way.

"I am afraid you cannot hit my problems, Remus"

"If you don't tell me I'll have to disagree, Logan”

"Well, why would I lie to you if it doesn't benefit me?" A short idea dashed through Logan's head, and he followed it. "Remus"

"Janus lies without reason, Logan"

"I am sure he has his reasons, Remus"

"You don't know that, Logan"

"You don't know that either, Remus"

"Logan?"

"Remus?"

"You're good at avoiding issues, glasses." Maybe Logan laughed a bit, not that he would admit it.

"I like you, but if you don't tell me I won't leave your room till eternity." Logan did not appreciate the idea of Remus in his room for an eternity, whatever that meant given that Thomas, and per se his sides, won't live an eternity.

"It is difficult to explain, but let's just say that nothing caused my distress." Remus launched himself forward to sit down properly, one of his hands playing with his mustache.

"I belive I am feeling and experiencing things that haven't happened to me. I am unsure of the cause but I know for certain that it is not an emotional response to something that happened to my person."

"Do you know when it started?" Serious Remus voice, that is definitely scary.

"I do not remember"

"So you had a crisis but you didn't know why it happened."

"Yes and I did not tell you anything about a crisis, how do you- nmg" A hand pressed his lips together, making him unable to speak.

"I think I figured out and I am not smarter than you, probably." The hands off now, that's good.

"Well then, what is it?"

"I do not know how this happens, but I know why it does. Still no clue?"

"No, I am afraid I do not know. Emotions are not my expertise."

"I don't think this has anything to do with emotions. Ok, I'm going to give you the data and see if you can complete the puzzle, live up to your title Sherlock." That nickname made Logic all warm inside, not because he was being called Sherlock but because Remus meant it as a compliment and not an insult.

"You were feeling bad emotions but they weren't yours. I was feeling bad emotions. At the same time." Logan could almost physically feel the click his brain made while connected the dots, every time he had seen Remus sad or angry after he had had an episode, but as they have also happened without seeing him, there was no need to make a connection before. But it was obvious, of course it was. Obvious as it was, it still left option for a lot of questions, like for example, why?

“Ah, well.” Logan had to stop talking, the realization dawning on him. If this is what Remus was feeling, maybe that wasn’t so good. Because he knew what he had gone through, and if he had a reason, it had probably been worse. “Well, that is a lot to take in. Remus, you have gone through a lot.” A pause for air, so he wouldn’t drown in all the weird feelings he was having now. It was probably Remus, or him, or both. “You don’t need to deal with this alone anymore.”

“I wouldn’t want to drag you more into hell with me.” Sadness, and this time Logan knew it wasn’t his, even if Remus’s smile tried to convince him otherwise.

“You are not dragging me anywhere, because we are sitting on my bed and you did not choose your feelings to go to me.” Another beat of silence, this time less dense.

“I think it happens both ways.”

“Oh. That would make sense.” Logan did not want to think of what that implied, had the other side felt the anger he couldn’t control when it escaped its grasp and flooded his senses, or was he safe. No, he probably knows now, think clearly Logic.

“Don't worry dicktective, I’m not going to judge you. I don’t do that, not even kink shaming! Unless that is your kink, then maybe I’d make an exception for you.” Logan figured he tried to sound suggestive, but in all honesty he just sounded tired. He was tired too, so tired he could jawn. So he did, at the same time as Remus. Remus smiled afterwards, less maniacal, more soft. Logan smiled back.

“We are soulmates, Logan.” The logical side was taken aback. He barely knew Remus and he was sure that soulmates meant a declaration of love so good it was as if it was chosen by the universe.

“No?” Yes, appropriate response Logan, five stars would recommend.

“I mean, that’s the drill right?. We share emotions, we share a soul. Isn’t that soulmate 101.”

“Soulmates aren’t real, those are just fairy tales.”

“Maybe Thomas wanted them to be real, so he made them real in his messed up mind.”

“That, that actually makes sense.”

“Look, it’s even making me intelligent. I should hang around your room more often.” An offer perhaps, to see where this goes. Logan is very dense right now, but he nods unsure of everything.

“Why me? I’m the least emotional side.”

“That might be what you think, but you don’t know everything.”

“It’s terrifying.”

“Not knowing or soulmates?”

“Both.”

“I figured. I am pretty scary.” A feeling of discomfort, but this time is his own.

“Not you, emotions. I would react the same way if it was any other side. Maybe not Patton, as he insists on calling me his kiddo and that would be uncomfortable.”

“I’m morally depraved and it would still feel weird.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.” Silence, this time they are just lost in thought. A minute passes, maybe ten. Logan isn’t keeping track of time. It doesn’t matter anymore, not when his world just tilted a bit to the side.

“Logan?”

“Remus?”

“How the fuck are we going to tell the others?”

“We'll figure it out, let's worry about ourselves now.”

"Thanks Lolo."

"You're welcome Remus."

He wasn’t really sure of anything. But with Remus by his side, sounding so confident and yet so scared, maybe things would turn out ok. He was greeted with happiness, a feeling that wasn’t his but still belonged, somehow. And somehow, he knew Remus was receiving happiness as well.

@tsshipmonth2020

[kiitsume]

a few thoughts on six the musical because nobody asked for them

(also excuse any historical inaccuracies, i've done only cursory reading thank you)

let's start light. the costumes are pretty but they completely take away any sense of historical context, unintentionally minimizing the degree of awareness the audience has of the culture surrounding the women at the time, which is actually pretty important to the message the writers are trying to construct.

the music is good. like, it's catchy and generally well written, and of course well performed. but the writers giveth and the writers taketh away. mostly they take away. all of the songs are reductive and collapse six people-- who they claim to attempt to honor the memory of-- down into platitudes and general notions of people, caricaturizing them into something that's barely recognizable.

the set up the musical to be a "competition between these six women to get the respect the deserve for the amount they suffered" and then they turn around at the end and shame the audience for doing that-- for picking favorites along the way and actually considering which ones they empathize most with.

the opening song, "ex-wives" uses modern lingo and whatnot, but it's not any more jarring that the costumes, so it's not until "don't lose your head" that the text speak really throws you off. it was honestly uncomfortable to watch in context of the musical, at least upon my viewing.

do i know they went chronologically? yes. will i ever forgive them for putting the most jarring joke of a song, "haus of holbein" right after arguably the most heartfelt song of the musical, jane seymour's "heart of stone"? absolutely fucking not.

haus of holbein has it's merits. i won't lie. it addresses the beauty standards of the time and the way that women were expected to destroy their bodies and give up their lives in order to appeal to men, which contributes to the larger narrative the writers were trying to build in saying that all these women would've led remarkable lives if they hadn't been forced to give themselves up to a life that made them miserable. but all of that is erased by the fact that it has air horns in it, i'm sorry, that can't be overlooked. literally die.

katherine (we're going with the musical's spelling okay) howard's song? a fucking bop. "all you wanna do" is iconic. but it has been brought to my attention by my girlfriend, who is much more knowledgeable on the six's actual history and writings, that pretty much the entire song is a complete disregard for who she was in life and her actual feelings, and that's especially irritating because they did it specifically for the purpose of constructing a much more simple narrative and, in the process, did the exact thing they claim to condemn: writing over her, and all the others, with what they think they know and bending them and their lives to fit their ideal message. how so? my girl k howard actually did have feelings for thomas. you know, the one person in the song she's like, "just mates, no chemistry/ i get him and he gets me/ and there's nothing more to it." they just throw that out to make thomas look like a nice guy and like people were just constantly taking advantage of her, which to some extent was true. but it also strips all the agency out of her life, and ignores the fact that "serious, stern and slow/ gets what he wants and he won't take no," francis dereham was the one who got jealous of her and thomas' relationship and snitched to the king and got her executed. there's literally no acknowledgement that he was anything other than just another fling or something. and, by omission, it implies that her music teacher, henry mannox, was the one and only one who groomed her (and molested her at 13). in reality, dereham's relationship with her started when she was 15 and he was 32. oh, and she was 17 when she married the 49 year old king. if the musical is supposed to form a cohesive narrative around how these girls were taken advantage of and thrown out by history as a joke, her story is literally ideal for that purpose. but instead we got naive girl uses sex to get ahead and then it backfires and she's killed for it.

not that thomas is innocent in all of this-- when the affair was brought to public light he blamed everything on howard and continued to deny ever sleeping with her, though he eventually admitted to intending to. there's some debate over whether their private meetings were actually an affair, but howard's writings on it make it seem as if she did have feelings for him, so. we may never know. but again, this is just to show the disservice the musical did to her.

i don't know as much about the other queens i'll admit, but here's just a few things that would be useful for the narrative the musical tries and fails to build: catherine parr was 15 when she was married to henry's brother arthur, who she couldn't speak to because they'd corresponded in latin but had different pronunciations-- this marriage was to give arthur greater legitimacy, because she was considered more strongly royal by blood; anne boleyn resisted henry's attempts to make her a mistress-- she was extremely smart, which was desirable in a mistress but not a wife!-- as her sister mary had been, and her daughter, unlike parr's is never acknowledged by the musical, the subjects called her "the king's whore" and blamed her for his tyranny, and-- oh, did i mention? historians debate whether there were any actual grounds for the charges brought against her that led to her execution, and most scholars regard it just something the king did so he could move on to seymour; jane seymour was married to henry the day after anne boleyn's execution, and she was never publically coronated in part because of a plague (woo!) but some also theorize that henry didn't want her to be coronated until she'd done her "duty as queen" and bore him a male heir; anne of cleves was described as extremely beautiful, so when the king met her and described her as "plain" he was incredibly let down, and immediately decided that he wanted to avoid the marriage altogether-- she was not considered ugly, as the musical makes it sound, just not good enough for the kings "selective" tastes (you know, the same henry who had a festering, ulcerated wound on his leg from a jousting accident); catherine parr is done the most justice, actually acknowledging the work she did in education and writing, the role she played in the establishment of the Third Succession Act which allowed her daughters access to the throne, and her two previous marriages (one of which was to someone twice her age) but it fails to acknowledge that her protestant sympathies got her targeted by arrest warrants before she reconciled with the king, and she was able to marry her lost love thomas seymour (different thomas, different seymour) in secret four months after the king's death, only to die a year and four months later.

also this: catherine of aragon was the only wife older than henry when they married, with her being 24 when and henry being 18; boleyn was 32 while henry was 42; seymour was 28, married to a 45 year old henry; anne of cleves was 25 and henry was 49; i repeat, howard was 17 when she was married to the 49 year old king; and parr was 31 and henry was 52.

and they were all flawed individuals, too, don't take my defenses of them to mean otherwise. in fact, as historical figures, i don't necessarily like all of them. but despite their flaws, they didn't deserve what happened to them, which is something the musical fails to portray in every way. it glosses over everything so quickly, which i understand is to be expected to a degree when you give each queen a six minute song to tell the story of their entire life, but the writing distorts them so badly they're hardly recognizable, and their stories are changed willy-nilly to fit the lazy empowerment theme rather than addressing them as they were.

the final song, "six." boy do i have thoughts. it's meant to seem empowering, and to an extent it is, because the characters they've given us get to talk about having a happy ending and making something of their lives that made them happy to have a legacy. but none of it's true, and it feels incredibly forced, especially because they take the concept of these women and pay no attention to them historically or what the figures they're based on would've actually wanted, and instead just says, "they all sing and dance and have a great time! question nothing!" and it just feels so hollow. it honestly made me feel even worse about the historical figures themselves and the suffering they endured, because it felt minimizing and shallow, like a platitude to make you stop thinking about how horribly they were treated. it was genuinely upsetting from that point of view, and despite how uplifting it's meant to be in the context of the show, it acknowledges that it's only a dream by giving a time limit to their happiness-- five minutes. and after that point you're supposed to go on continuing to be happy, having connected with these people and been empowered by their stories, when you are given very little of their actual stories and are shamed for analyzing things through the lens they gave you at the opening of the show. not to mention how horribly they trample over their message of how restrictive and repressive their lives were by nature of their station and says that, "well, if they could've just made different choices they would've been happy!" ignoring how the culture gave them no other choice and there's a pretty good chance that, even if they had made the choices they wanted to, they would've still been held back by virtue of their gender and station. the story behind six is not empowering, and it feels horrible to have it twisted around that was to make it seem empowering. i understand not wanting to beat down your audience and make them miserable, but rather than reducing these women down to such simplified caricatures and then having them all bond and have a girl power moment, it would've been much more impactful to have their actual concerns be what they bonded over-- being forgotten, talked over, held back, so on-- and talking about the people they actually were. having them write their own stories is fun and all, but having them actually tell their stories and feel heard, even if it's in a time they'll never see, is a much less reductive sentiment.

tl;dr: so basically i thought the musical was badly written for the message they were trying to send, and no amount of good music or talented performance can save a boring or badly written musical, and the six queens still deserve better.

[gothamslimpestwrist]

s1e2 selina kyle

killcount:

“doug” the childsnatcher: “soldier” (homeless guy)

oswald cobblepot: douchebag college bro from the car, probably the other douchebag college bro as well.

jim gordon: quillan’s janitor

“patti” the childsnatcher: cat scratch fever dude w/ no eyes

episode total: 5 total count: 12

the dark knight rises: shit is clearly fucked in gotham. crime families are ruling the city, yes, but honestly that’s the least of it; look at the police force. we see that bo, the first responder, is late to the scene of the crime because he takes protection money from a local restaurant & gave them first priority (in other words, he’s a crooked bitch demanding a racket, AND it gets in the way of him actually doing his job). the cops are pretty much, explicitly, just an extension of the mob at this point. 

interestingly, we also see the start of an exploration of the wayne’s corruption; falcone refers to “the wayne empire,” mirroring the way they talk about the crime families And Also setting the waynes up as, like, a picture of the wealthy elite taken to a whole ‘nother level. gotham is the last modern vestige of the city state--and that is the wayne empire. who takes the crown now that the emperor and empress are dead? 

in OTHER news, the waynes really fucked bruce over. the murder itself was the lynching pin, causing him to jump over the fucking edge, so to speak, but he is Just A Little Boy! he is so troubled! he’s self harming and alfred yells at him and HITS HIM for being stupid, he’s listening to loud music and drawing fucked up shit, he’s both burned himself and is apparently cutting, and alfred, seeing all of this, refuses to get the boy who saw his parents shot a therapist, because the waynes told him to essentially let bruce raise himself. “the children are thoroughbreds,” basically. 

quoth barbara (thinking about essen shushing the child snatcher case in fear of bad press): “i can’t believe the system is so corrupt.” quoth jim (thinking about how he was yelled at for not beating a perp, thinking about the cop/mob connection that demanded he kill a man to prove his loyalty, thinking...): “you have no idea.” 

oh! and jim tells bruce the kids need more than money to keep them safe.

sliding scale of barbara kean’s sanity: she seems to be doing alright, but she’s troubled by jim’s troubles. also, this episode sets up some shit that will lead to irreparable damage later on; jim, even when he’s telling her things, isn’t telling her everything. she knows it. she hates it. he specifically hasn’t told her about oswald, which gives her reason to believe he’s a murderer pretty soon. plus, what she does w/ the information he does give her about his work (go straight to the press) gives him immediate reason to start trusting her less... and so they spiral.

sliding scale of ed nygma’s sanity: he’s a little bit more of a lurker this episode. creeps outside the captain’s office until someone notices him, lingers inside until everyone in the room makes it obvious he’s not welcome. he’s trying his best, but he’s not... very... “well liked,” shall we say.

continuity: montoya and allen are looking into the murder of oswald cobblepot. he was their snitch, after all. so that’s problems... many things are subtly set up in this episode: falcone and fish discuss maroni and his anticipated power play (adding another piece to the political chessboard of this season), the atp drug the child snatchers use is established to have been developed for arkham asylum, which is also established to have been closed for the past 15 years AND to have recently been in the works for a reopening, specifically by thomas and martha wayne. and that’s all just offhanded discussion. also related to the atp, when ed is listing the only three places that still stock it, it’s quillan pharma, drakatech (?)... and welzyn, which isn’t relevant at all to THIS episode (quillan’s the one dealing with the childsnatchers) but WILL become relevant to everyone in a few episodes, when welzyn manufactures viper. oh, and naturally the identity of the man the childsnatchers are working for: the dollmaker. hm!! on a lighter note, harvey’s ex-white knight tendencies that we explore in spirit of the goat are foreshadowed here; essen accuses him of leaking the child snatchers story to the press, w/ the reasoning that he’d done it before. after jim & barbara established that it was the right thing to do....

parallels: jim & selina meet in this episode. they are... The Same™. (look, i’ll come back to it later, but even tho my parallel in the pilot was btwn selina and oswald, and even tho they’re the two that are the villain counterparts to our heroes, jim and SELINA are the matched set.) also, this is the episode where fish expresses the wish that penguin wasn’t dead (because she wants him to suffer), but also she tells jim & harvey that she knew it was a mistake to order them killed as soon as she did it. so that means something? 

neither here nor there, but gertrud tells montoya & allen how elegant and well dressed oswald is, and bruce comments on the orphans’ scruffy appearances and buys them new clothes... we love a dandy, i guess.

characterization: we meet some irrelevant street kids that selina knew; zeb, smoke, and mackey (corey in the house). i’m basically using the characterization tab as fanfic reference so i might as well record that.

lazlo, fish’s lover, is relevant, in that falcone beats him to get to her. it definitely does affect her, though she says she only keeps him around for exercise. maybe more b/c of falcone’s threat and the fear of what it implies, though. 

and gertrud! ozzie’s mom. everyone connected to oswald, even outside (maybe even especially outside) of his mob connections, is a little twisted. she’s no different; she’s clearly a bit out of her head, she mistrusts the police (which i guess we’re supposed to think is suss, though really...Fair and Just), she’s got that almost creepy codependency with oswald while not really knowing what’s going on there. (other examples: elijah, oswald’s gothic horror father, martin, oswald’s lowkey homicidal son, edward, oswald’s fascist dog, jim, oswald’s corrupt boyfriend...) she also seems to think oswald has run off with some painted lady (actually, she says painted slut), which might be indicative of her experiences w/ van dahl and some unstable jealousy more than it is of oswald, who’s... you know. 

in other news, jim is all over the map here. he stops harvey beating mackey (and later, quillan, after they’ve already gotten info out of him) and protests that they should leak the story to the press, but he also seems content to keep his mouth shut until barbara takes doing good upon herself. he adapts to the mob shit pretty quick, but expresses disgust w/ the corruption in the system. he gets off on the wrong foot w/ mayor james because he disagrees with locking up the kids w/o a trial, but he doesn’t... step in... either. we see this willingness to compromise and bend the knee that means he’ll never be the hero gotham deserves. 

also, not to be a jim apologist on main or anything (ha, ha), but he’s just so... brainwashed. all this, & he still tells alfred that being a cop, which has thus far caused him nothing but pain & misery, is the “best job in the world.” because he thinks he’s helping people. (and he likes getting to feel like a hero... so where do the misguided good intentions stop and the selfish motives begin?) he also kills a man for the first time on screen this episode because for all its examinations of dirty cops... gotham is still, at the end of the day, Copaganda. in an actual moment of me drinking I Love Jim Gordon juice, jim is the one who advocates for bruce going to therapy, and tries to convince him to go personally, even when jim himself is too emotionally stunted for it to help him. 

also, backstory: harvey pegs his love life, saying, “high school sweetheart, then a bunch of hoes (read: eduardo dorrance) overseas only made you sad... and then there’s barbara.” he also calls jim a monkey riding a race horse; jim’s face is really good @ that. i misinterpreted the line about high school sweethearts back in the day to mean that barb was jim’s highschool sweetheart. this is on account of auditory processing disorder and also general dumbassery. anyway, the point is that jim is a boring, predictable bitch! whom i love.

...in terms of characterization from the episode that i don’t agree with, i can’t really see oswald writing all the shit that they had on his conspiracy board, lmfao. “crybaby brucie,” “gordon=STOOGE,” & so forth. i pretend i do not see it.

[demented-dukey]

In-depth Meta of “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts” as it pertains to Incest and the presumed sibling relationship between Remus and Roman

Thanks to @squipfromjapan​ for picking out these moments from the episode. They also notated other moments that could be interperated as “sibling banter”, but for this post I’m going to focus on the dialogue that specifically references brotherhood.

I’m making this post so I have something to link to whenever someone tells me that “They called each other brothers several times!” or “The episode said they were twins!”, because I keep seeing the same assumptions made over and over again being represented as cold hard facts, when there is so much more nuance and room for debate.

So. Let’s look at the episode “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts”, shall we? Buckle your seatbelts, kiddos, ‘cause this is gonna be a wild ride.

💚

Timestamp: 5:46 Remus: “Have you ever imagined killing your brother?”  

Remus whispers this line in Thomas’s head. He is referencing Thomas’s dream the previous night, where Thomas literally imagined murdering his brother and dragging the dead body into his bathroom. The dream sequence won’t be revealed until later in the episode, but upon rewatch this is a clear reference to ~specifically~ That Dream. This is also a more subtle reference to the “Moving On” two-ep arc, when Thomas showed a drawing his younger self had made of him electrocuting his brother. We know from the livestreams that Thomas and Joan have been planning Remus since the “Growing Up” episode, and have been dropping hints and easter eggs about Remus’s existence in various episodes. That drawing indicates that these “intrusive thoughts” have been with Character!Thomas for a long time, and this is not the first time this particular thought has crossed his mind.

A few moments later, Remus appears and knocks out Roman. Patton screams, “You killed him!”, but it’s a lot less likely that Remus was actually intending to ~murder~ Roman - Roman is obviously not “dead” because he continues to mutter in his sleep, and Remus does not continue to attack Roman to finish the job. It’s made clear later in the episode when Remus attacks Logan that his actions are impermanent, and do not do lasting harm to the other sides.

Because Remus attacked Roman directly after uttering this line, many people have taken that to mean the “brother” in question is Roman, thus it implies that Remus was talking about killing Roman. But correlation does not equal causation - just because the action happened so soon after the line, doesn’t mean that the line is referring to that action. The action echoing the line makes for a beautiful cinematic parallel, but it’s all a matter of interpretation. People can make that association, but it is their headcanon, NOT actual canon proof.

For example: Immediately before Remus’s appearance, the other sides are taking about whether ghosts are evil, or if they just appear to scare people. At the same time, Remus is appearing (much like a ghost) behind Roman. The conversation directly parallels this for a reason - the viewer is supposed to make that association and wonder “Is Remus evil? Or does he just scare people because you never know when he’s going to show up?” Being a mental projection of Thomas’s mind, Remus is very ghost-like, and he even says the trademark ghost sound, “Boo!”, but in this scene there is no more “proof” that Remus is a literal “ghost” of a dead person than there is “proof” that Remus is trying to kill his literal “brother”.

Conclusion: “Have you ever imagined killing your brother?” is referring to Thomas’s bad dream, not the relationship between Remus and Roman.

💚

Timestamp: 7:53 Roman: “Bro, I’m gonna whip your butt!”

Roman calls Remus ‘bro’. Yes, this can imply a sibling relationship, but “bro” is often used for non-sibling relationships as well. Roman says this line as a threat, much like the common phrase, “Come at me, bro!” or the less threatening but equally common phrase “Cool story, bro.” - which can be used to address anyone of any gender without indicating a sibling relationship. Much like “Dude”, “Bro” carries a inherently “male” association, but it is not used exclusively to address “men” - it can also be used interchangeably to refer to a woman or nonbinary person.

For example: In the beginning of this episode, Thomas is doing an advertisement for Hello Fresh. He holds up a dish of food and says to the viewer, “You jealous of this, bro?” Thomas is using the term “bro” as a nickname, and addressing his entire audience irregardless of gender. Thomas is NOT implying a sibling relationship with the audience.

Conclusion: “Bro” is a commonly used generic greeting, not proof of a sibling relationship.

💚

Timestamp: 14:30 Logan: “At a young age you filed away your products of your imagination as either welcome or forbidden. This led to the development of two separate sides of your creativity.” Thomas: “So my creativity split in two?” Logan: "Into two parts during your development, yes. Like an ovum. The Duke is like Roman’s twin.”

For this scene, let's go over some basic English Grammar rules. What Logan is saying is an example of a simile, because he uses the word "like". Logan says "Like an ovum. The Duke is like Roman's twin."

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Logan has proven in other episodes that he is very literal and very, very careful with his speech, so he is using a simile on purpose. He is not saying that the Duke ~is~ Roman's twin, he is saying that the Duke is ~like~ Roman's twin, drawing a comparison so that Thomas can better understand Remus’s role in Thomas’s psyche. This comparison has nothing to do with how Roman and Remus ~feel~ about each other, it is strictly an example of Remus’s role in Thomas’s brain and the portion of his negative Creativity that Remus embodies, as a comparison to Roman’s role and control of Thomas’s positive Creativity.

As Logan says this, he hold up two fingers together before splitting them while talking about why Remus exists - this indicates that Roman and Remus were once one whole side. Much like Thomas’s “whole” personality “split” into the personifications of Creativity, Morality, and Logic, Creativity “split” again to form Roman and Remus. Therefore, Remus and Roman are no more “genetically” related to each other than any of the other sides. 

It’s worth noting, also, that the specific details around the split are still unclear. A majority of the fandom has accepted the headcanon that Creativity, prior to the split, was a Personification of unknown name and personality that was equally split into what we now know as Roman and Remus. But it is possible that Roman himself was the Original Creativity with Complete Control, until the negative attributes were removed from him and created into a separate being, like Eve was created from Adam’s rib.

Conclusion: “The Duke is like Roman's twin" is a simile used to explain what Remus’s job is in comparison to Roman’s job. It is not a description of how Roman and Remus feel about each other, and it is not proof that they are siblings.

💚

Timestamp: 15:01 Remus: “You made me this way Thomas. I was the unloved brother from the Genesis. Roman and I are Cain and Abel.”

Logan points out later in the video that Remus intentionally uses Religious Iconography to play to Thomas’s sensitivities. It’s possible Remus is being deliberately misleading as a scare-tactic (he accused Logan of being Deceit when he knew he wasn’t, so he is capable of lying), but for this meta let’s assume he is being genuine in his comparison.

Remus uses a metaphor (not a simile) to compare himself and Roman to Cain and Abel. While some people use this comparison as “proof” that Remus harbors a desire to kill Roman, this is not the point he is trying to make.

Let’s backtrack to the story of Cain and Abel: Cain and Abel are the first two sons born to Adam and Eve. Cain, a farmer, offers God a portion of his crops one day as a sacrifice, only to learn that God is more pleased when Abel, a herdsman, presents God with the fattest portion of his flocks. Enraged, Cain kills his brother. God exiles Cain from his home to wander in the land east of Eden.

Why is Remus using this as a metaphor for how Thomas “made” Remus the way he is? Remus equates Thomas to “God” in the story, because Character!Thomas is the one who “created” his own sides - He is the one responsible for visualizing them as separate beings. Logan points out that Remus and Roman literally wear Black and White because they are Thomas’s sides, and that is how Thomas sees them. Roman and Remus each contribute creative ideas to Thomas (read: “sacrifices” to their “God”), but Thomas is more pleased with Roman’s contributions and shuns/exiles Remus. Remus doesn’t actually say that he wants to kill Roman; however he does heavily imply that it is Thomas’s fault that Remus was created to be inferior, Thomas who chose to favor Roman over Remus, and therefore Thomas’s fault for Remus’s actions and any rage Remus may feel towards Roman.

Conclusion Part One: Remus uses religious imagery on purpose to play to Thomas’s sensitivities. He uses the metaphor of Cain and Abel to point out how he has been mistreated by Thomas, but does not confirm or deny any harsh feelings towards Roman himself.

But while we’re on the topic, let’s look a little more into Religious Canon. Adam was the first human created by God on the planet. God removed a rib from Adam and used it to fashion Eve, to be Adam’s wife. (As I mentioned above, this iconography is a cinematic parallel to Remus’s creation. As Eve used to be a part of Adam, so was Remus a part of Roman before he was removed and reformed into a separate being.) Not only was Eve literally created from a physical part of Adam, she also would then share his genetic code. Even if Adam and Eve didn’t have sibling “feelings” towards each other, an argument can be made that they are still an incest pairing.

Cain, a son of Adam and Eve, marries a woman and produces children to populate the earth. But if Adam and Eve were the only humans on Earth, then Cain’s wife must be a daughter of Adam and Eve, and therefore Cain’s sister. Thus, Cain and his wife are also an incest pairing.

Conclusion Part Two: Adam & Eve, as well as Cain & his wife, are both incest relationships. If a romantic relationship between Roman and Remus is considered incest, it is still no more problematic than the biblical family Remus was comparing himself to.

💚

Timestamp: 35:52 Thomas: “So, you have a brother?” Roman: “Yeah.”

This is, by far, the most commonly used argument in favor of the headcanon that Roman and Remus are brothers. Most fans hear Roman’s “yeah” as confirmation that he sees Remus as a brother. 

However, there is still room for debate. “So, you have a brother?” “…yeaaaaah.” Roman is reluctant. He tilts his head back. He stretches the word out. Maybe he’s not quite sure “brother” is the right term for it, but there’s not really anything else he can call him. There’s no easy word for the other half of what used to be a whole fusion. Remus is like a limb that used to be attached, or a rib that was removed and created into a separate person. Remus is something to him, alright, and Roman feels responsible for Remus in a way that the other sides aren’t because of their shared history. So of course he would default to “brother”, it’s the simplest way to try to grasp a large and complex issue. He then starts comparing Remus to a mirror - “It shows you everything you don’t want to be.” When he looks at Remus, he doesn’t say he sees a sibling or a rival - he says he sees ~himself~, the dark parts of his own mind he doesn’t want to admit to. The dark parts that used to BE part of his own mind before they were separated. 

Conclusion: Roman’s “Yeah.” is the closest thing to “proof” of a sibling relationship in the entire episode. But it’s also debatable - Roman seems hesitant/reluctant to confirm that Remus is his brother, and he doesn’t actually use the term himself.

💚

So, let’s recap. In the Intrusive Thoughts episode, there were the following references to brotherhood:

One (1) occurrence of Roman calling Remus “bro”, which is a generic form of address.

One (1) occurrence of Remus comparing his relationship with Roman to “Cain and Abel”, which is an intentional use of Incestual and Religious Iconography designed to shock and repulse Thomas.

Two (2) occurrences of Someone Else (Logan and Thomas) associating Remus with a familial term (twin/brother).

One (1) occurrence of Roman (reluctantly?) “confirming” Thomas’s “brother” association, but never using the term himself.

Roman never calls Remus his twin, nor uses the word “brother”, and he compares his feelings towards Remus to “looking in a mirror” and seeing not a twin, but himself.

Remus never calls Roman his brother, nor his twin, and he never directly comments on his feelings towards Roman.

This will change as new episodes reveal more about Roman and Remus, but as of “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts”, all the “proof” in the episode that Roman and Remus are brothers and/or twins is debatable and subject to interpretation.

If you want to believe that they ARE twins/brothers and share a platonic relationship, that’s a valid headcanon, but it is not the only one.

If you want to believe that they ARE twins/brothers and share a romantic relationship, that’s a valid headcanon. There are many reasons to intentionally ship a fictional incest pairing.

If you want to believe that they are NOT twins/brothers and share a platonic relationship, that's a valid headcanon.

If you want to believe that they are NOT twins/brothers and share a romantic relationship, that's a valid headcanon.

[queermediastudies]

Sex, sex, sex and so much more in Blue is the Warmest Color

The French film, Blue is the Warmest Color was released in 2013 and directed by, Abdellatif Kechiche. It follows the story of a young woman named Adele who faces crises with her queer identity. The film begins with Adele facing pressure from her peers to have a relationship with a boy named Thomas. On her way to her first date with Thomas, Adele passes a young blue haired girl in the street and later has a sexual dream about her. This scene is the audience’s first glimpse into Adele’s queer identity. Later in the film when she officially meets the blue haired girl named Emma, an art student in university, at a gay bar the audience begins to see Adele’s queer identity unfold and come to life through their relationship. While this film does work to bring attention to queer elements that are so often missing from films, it also falls victim to heteronormative and hegemonic values in the way that it presents Emma and Adele’s relationship.

The relationship between Adele and Emma seems to follow a similar arc as any other romantic film. They first officially meet at a bar as some type of “meet cute” and Emma later seeks Adele out at her high school, and they have a romantic moment on a bench while Emma sketches Adele. Though unlike the heteronormative romantic films often seen, Blue is the Warmest Color also functions as a queer breakout film. Andre Cavalcante (2017) in his article “Breaking into Transgender Life: Transgender Audiences’ Experiences With “First of Its Kind” Visibility in Popular Media” defines breakout texts as “media that portrays “first of its kind” representation” to a marginalized group. While this film is not about Trans characters like the ones Cavalcante analyzes in his article, the film does work to represent queer women’s lives in a way that is not often presented in mainstream media. One of the ways that the film does this, is through its representation of Adele and Emma’s sexual relationship. While the sex scenes throughout this film are striking and even at times uncomfortably long, they give queer women a sexual visibility that is rarely seen.

 The sex scenes that occur in the film not only occur in a queer context meaning that it is not prompted by a male third party, as we see in other hegemonic films, but the content is also extremely explicit. They show the female body in a realistic and raw way. They do not hesitate to show female genitalia, and in doing this they break patriarchal boundaries that demand modesty and concealment of the female body. The scenes also give visibility to queer women that is not through the Heteronormative male gaze. The sexual interactions are by women and for women and unlike the Canadian queer film, Below Her Mouth that also has female sex scenes, they are not all focused around a strap on.

 While queer women can and do use strap ons in real life, the persistence of it in every sexual encounter in Below Her Mouth presents a binary and heteronormative view of female-female sexual relationships and re-enforces the idea that one of them is “the man.” The sex scenes in Blue is the Warmest Color also present a reciprocal sexual relationship, where in neither of the characters seem to be the “dominant” or “submissive,” and a power dynamic between the two, at least in this point of the film, is non-existent. This works against the heteronormative narratives that are so often portrayed in romantic films where one character (typically the man) has more control over the other character. The film also makes the sexual interactions between the two women appear to be consensual, and while this doesn’t happen in the form of either party asking or saying yes, the scene does include mutual participation unlike typical heteronormative sexual encounters seen in films where one party seems to be resisting for one reason or another, and the forcing of the sexual interaction somehow leads to consent. 

Even though this film uses sex scenes to break patriarchal barriers and gives visibility to queer women, as Cavalcante also discusses in his article the short comings of breakout texts such as Blue is the Warmest Color come in their tendency to fall into hegemonic tropes and feed stereotypical narratives. To start, Adele and Emma externally fall into normative ideas of queer female couples. Adele is the innocent femme character and Emma is her butch lover. Later in the film, Adele pursues a career as a teacher and takes on the domestic role, while Emma is a rugged artist. 

This depiction of the characters falls into binary and heteronormative values and reinforces the idea that a queer relationship needs to mimic straight ones by having a “man” or masculine partner and a feminine partner. In addition, the age gap between the two characters is also worth discussing.  While without knowing that Emma was much older than Adele, the audience may assume their ages were similar, but the audience is explicitly told that Adele is 15 while Emma, in her fourth year of university, is assumedly around the age of 22. While, this age gap is not huge, it is still large enough that in contemporary western society it raises some red flags. Not only does this age gap seem strange to include, but it also reinforces narratives surrounding the idea that the queer community is filled with pedophiles and is out to corrupt the youth. This is also played out when Adele cheats on Emma with a man and throughout the rest of the film the audience never sees her have any interactions with any other women. 

This is problematic because not only does it make Emma and Adele’s relationship seem like some sort of fad that Adele was seduced into by the older Emma, it also suggests that femme women are inherently straight. Adele’s lack of interactions or relationships with women other than Emma, and in contrast  Emma’s multiple female relationships throughout the film suggest that feminine women like Adele are inherently straight and that to be truly queer you must be butch like Emma. Similarly, Adele never comes out to her family or friends and her being closeted is almost never mentioned, and even when she does eventually have Emma over to her parents’ house it is under the guise that Emma is just her friend. This is problematic because again it suggests that if you do not externally look queer, then it is easier to stay in the closet. While as discussed in Bonnie Dow’s (2010) article on the Ellen coming out episode, an individual’s coming out is not “taken to imply the success of the discourse” around queerness, it seems for a film such as this it would be important to include. To not include one of the main queer characters coming out at all suggests a shame around queerness that is perpetuated, and not addressed or corrected through Adele’s story.

Overall, Blue is the Warmest Color presents its audience with a raw version of queer female-female relationship, but the way that I experienced the film is probably much different from a queer identifying female. While I was watching the film I thought of Alexander Doty’s (1993) piece Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture, in which he describes that in the same way that “heterocentrist texts can contain queer elements […] heterosexual, straight-identifying people can experience queer moment(s).” While Doty discusses this in terms of queer readings of straight texts, it applied to my experience watching the film, because during the raw and unfiltered sex scenes I did experience queer moments. Though despite my queer moments, I do understand that my analysis is very skewed because despite being a feminist and having knowledge through gender studies classes, I have not had queer experiences. Therefore, for me to say that the film depicts “real” life queer female relationships and even queer female sex lives may be an over exaggeration. Especially the scenes where the women are “scissoring” stood out to me as being potentially stereotyped though again, I do not belong to the queer community, have not experienced a female-female relationship, and have not discussed female-female sexual relationships with queer women and can not speak to the accuracy. It is also notable that I have not seen an abundance of French films and so the nudity in the film that I describe as being liberating or forward may simply be part of French culture/films. 

Sources:

Cavalcante, A. (2017). Breaking Into Transgender Life: Transgender Audiences Experiences With “First of Its Kind” Visibility in Popular Media. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(3), 538–555. doi: 10.1111/cccr.12165

Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis u.a.: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Dow, B. (2001). Ellen, Television, and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 18(2), 123–140. doi: 10.1080/07393180128077

Kechiche A. (Producer), & Kechiche, A., Maraval V., Chioua B., Lemal G., Martin A. (Director).(2013). Blue Is the Warmest Color [Film]. France.

Mullen, A. (Producer), & Mullen, A. (Director). (2017). Below Her Mouth [Film]. Canada.

[wolfpawn]

When Ghosts Come For Us

Chapter 15

NOTE This is based on the movie Crimson Peak, so if any of the subject matter in that was uncomfortable for you, you will find this similar. I will *NOT* be describing incest in this, it will only be implied, same as the movie.WARNING None.

Also, I do not own any image or gif used in this story.

Thomas had felt his heart cease to beat in his chest when the telegram was given to him. It was sent the morning he was due to come home.

Thomas,

Lucille is most ill. The doctor has been. I left it to tell you until after you were done with business. I am sorry.

Charlotte

He had called for his carriage to be readied immediately and packed everything into it with great speed. The poor maid that had given him the telegram and who had been there to tidy the room rushed around helping him.

He sat into the carriage and the horses were immediately rushed on. He wished they could go faster, but the journey was long and they would only last so long at full speed.

When finally, he came to the road to Allerdale Hall, he felt his breathing become rapid. When he arrived, he saw the pony and trap of the doctor. His coachman did not even have a chance to open the door for him when he was out of the carriage. He rushed into the house where he was met by Charlotte rushing down the last of the stairs.

‘Oh, Thomas.’

‘Do not fall, I could not cope with you injured also.’ Thomas kissed her as she reached him. ‘What happened?’

‘I...I have no idea. She did not rise the morning after you left. I assumed it was something to do with the reason she went to Dr Thompson earlier in the week and then, half eight came and I became worried, so I went to check on her and she was having fits on the floor. I had one of the men fetch Dr Thompson.’

When they got to the room, they were met with Dr Thompson checking Lucille’s limbs. He turned around. ‘Sir Sharpe.’ He bowed his head.

‘Do we know what happened?’ He looked at his sister, who was looking at him and moaning, her eyes filled with her anguish.

‘I suspect that she has what is commonly known as a stroke.’

Thomas stumbled slightly. ‘No...she cannot have.’

‘I am sorry, Darling.’ She gently touched his arm.

‘No.’

‘I will come every day for the next three days to check on her, but the signs very suggesting it. I will bring Dr Percival with me tomorrow also to confirm, but this would more than likely diagnosis. I am sorry. She cannot speak, but she is awake and able to understand us.’

Thomas walked over to the bedside, Lucille’s eyes flicking between him, the doctor and Charlotte. ‘Will...will she recover?’

‘Only time will tell. But being honest, I cannot say she will, more often than not, these things progress, not get better.’ He stated solemnly.

Thomas’s breathing increased and his eyes became glazed over as he tried to process what was being said.

‘Lady Sharpe, a moment, please.’ He requested, walking out to the corridor. Charlotte led him to the art room Thomas had made for her. ‘Charlotte, are you sure it is safe for you to be around him?’ Her brother whispered.

‘Yes, he is harmless. All he has done, he did under her instruction. I swear, Edward, he is no threat to me.’

‘I really think you to not be seeing this clearly. He loves her, in the most sick manner, we know this. I think him dangerous now.’

‘I disagree.’

Edward looked at her analytically. ‘Charlotte, do you….you love him.’ Charlotte did not respond. ‘No, we need to end this now. Your judgement is impaired.’

‘No, Edward.’

‘No, that harpy cost me one sister, I am not letting him take the other.’

‘Edward, he would never do that. It was always her, you know this. I see him, every day, he is not like her. He does not want this.’ She stated, looking him in the eye. For a moment, they said nothing but looked at one another silently. ‘Thomas would never hurt me.’ She reiterated with more volume than she meant to use.

A moment later, the door opened slightly and Thomas came in, looking between the pair worriedly. ‘Is everything alright, Charlotte?’ He asked, looking at Edward.

‘It is perfectly fine. Dr Thompson was giving you a moment to process and was discussing with me the best care for Lucille. We will need to acquire a few things to make her life easier as she recovers. He has been so kind as to offer his housekeeper to bring them tomorrow if we sent our carriage. It is too cold to carry such things on the trap. I will also have to liquify her foods, but he was talking about us getting a carer in the long run. I said I would speak it over with you, but for now, we can handle it. Once Dr Percival takes a look at her tomorrow also, we will know more.’

‘Alright.’

Charlotte walked forward and placed her hand on Thomas’ chest, taking his focus off the doctor. ‘I suspect you have not eaten today, am I right?’

Thomas’ face altered slightly to one of a slight smile. ‘You are.’

‘Come on, I have some broth on that I was making for the workers, it is a cold day. There is plenty for you and I also. Doctor, would you care to have some?’

‘No.’ Edward looked at Thomas’ less than welcoming glare made him wish to stay. ‘I better not. I have patients this afternoon.’

‘Of course, how silly of me. I never even thought of such.’ Charlotte smiled. ‘Thank you, doctor. We will call upon you if there is a change, if not, then we will see you tomorrow.’

‘Excellent. I will see you then.’ He bowed and left the room. As he descended the stairs, he paused and looked behind him, Thomas was standing there. ‘Is there something else, Sir Sharpe?’

Thomas descended the stairs until he was level with Edward. ‘I only heard one sentence of what was said between you and my wife, but it is enough for me to say something. I would never harm her, in any manner. Even the suggestion of such makes me ill to my stomach.’

‘I am glad to hear that, but you have to understand Sir Sharpe, I have to ask these things. Your wife’s well-being is important. With such a shock, some men are not the best with their emotions, the women and children in their lives are the ones that suffer.’

‘If the decision were to have to hurt either myself or my wife, I would never even consider harming Lottie. I would take a blade to the heart for her.’

Edward’s brow rose at the use of a nickname, but he said nothing of it. ‘It is good to see you hold your wife in such high regard, Sir Sharpe. You will have to excuse my insult to your character, I truly meant no offence. But in my defence, I must ask that you consider that I am more used to men like Mr Brown, whose wives are all but possessions to them.’

‘Charlotte is no possession.’ Thomas stated as he nodded slightly. ‘Though I understand your concern.’

‘Very well. I am sorry about your sister, Sir Sharpe. She is a young enough woman for such things, though, that said, I once witnessed a child die of a heart attack. I find with medicine, there is nothing set in stone.’

‘Nothing in life is.’ Thomas returned.

‘True of all but taxes and death, I fear, Sir Sharpe. They come for us all.’ He commented before continuing his journey down the stairs. ‘Do not hesitate to contact me again, Sir Sharpe, if you require anything.’

Thomas said nothing but went back up the stairs. He was somewhat startled not to see Charlotte waiting at the top of the steps, as was somewhat the usual with Lucille. Instead, she was in their room, tidying herself up a little. ‘Lottie?’

‘I...we need to order a few things, to make this easier.’ She stated almost without any emotion in her voice. ‘Thomas...I am so sorry.’

‘When did it happen?’

‘The morning after you left.’

‘I wish you had told me sooner.’

‘You would have come home without your duties done then, and we were uncertain what it was. This way, you have your paperwork so you can do what is needed and the end result with Lucille is the same.’

‘I should have been here.’ He sat on the bed. ‘I should have…’

‘Thomas, she would be in the same position regardless. And I was here.’ She walked over to him.

‘I know.’ Thomas pulled her to him and lay his head against her chest, listening to her heart beating within. ‘Charlotte?’

‘Yes?’

‘I would never hurt you.’

‘I know, my love. I said as much to Dr Thompson. He was just worried.’

‘Thank you for trusting me.’

‘Thank you for giving me reason to trust you.’ She smiled.

‘What will I do?’ He looked to her for direction.

‘You will continue. You are a survivor, Thomas. You persevere when others crumble. You will be fine. You have me.’ She gently toyed with his black locks as he continued to lean against her. ‘We best get you something to eat.’ She urged. Thomas did not listen and merely stayed as he was, his arms around her for a time more.

* The next day, Dr Percival reaffirmed Dr Thompson’s diagnosis. Stating that a drooping face was not a requirement of the condition, but that everything else led him to believe it the be such.

Thomas stood, shocked to silence by it all while Charlotte asked all the questions.

Edward had brought a few things for them as a doctor would try to and while Dr Percival drank tea, he gave the dosages to Thomas and Charlotte, the latter of whom wrote them down diligently. Unbeknownst to Thomas, the medications he was carefully noting were more to suppress than to assist his sister recover.

As they joined the older doctor for tea, there was a tenseness in the air.

‘Does she have to be restrained?’ Thomas asked, not pleased by the manner Lucille was strapped to the bed.

‘My good Sir, by right, your sister should be put into a sanatorium or other such facility, where she would be more so.’ Dr Percival stated.

‘We do not want that. I will tend to Lucille here, in Allerdale. She loves her home, to remove her from it would cause her upset and as a result, do her health no good.’ Charlotte stated.

‘Yes, the restraints are required.’ Edward answered the question. ‘If Lady Lucille were to fall from the bed in a fit, she could harm herself considerably with no way to protect herself.’

‘Can we get more comfortable fitting ones, lined, and not so restrictive but keep her firmly in the bed?’ Charlotte asked. Thomas immediately looking for the answer also.

‘Yes, of course. She is not some crazed lunatic that needs to be tied down.’ Edward stated, only Charlotte getting his double meaning.

‘We will get them ordered so.’ She looked at Thomas, who nodded.

‘You are very thoughtful, Lady Sharpe.’ Dr Percival commended. ‘Though what of when the little ones start arriving, can you be so dedicated to her needs then?’

All three of them looked at him with differing levels of uncertainty and awkwardness.

‘Should such occur, we will concern ourselves with it as it arises.’ She smiled politely.

‘There is no reason it should not occur, a young woman such as yourself. I am surprised we are not having to concern ourselves with such already.’ Percival nattered on.

Thomas looked at Charlotte, who seemed to almost be becoming upset. ‘Perhaps, if I may be so bold, can I request an appointment to see one of you gentlemen, myself. All things considered, I need to see if this is something I am coming towards also.’

‘Thomas, you are being silly.’ Charlotte dismissed, but seeing the look on his face, she gave a supportive smile. ‘But assurance can often make things easier.’

‘Of course. I will be here again tomorrow, Sir Sharpe if you wish to do it then?’ Edward offered. ‘If you do not mind it being me. I will take no offence if you decline. I know you have a longer history with Dr Percival.’

‘No, thank you. I will happily accept your offer. Your work with my wife and my sister shows me you are an excellent doctor. I would not leave the two most important people in my life in the hands of someone I think to be inept.’

‘Very well, I shall return then and we can check you over.’ Edward smiled. ‘George, we had better make our way back to the town, lest we are late for our lunches.’

‘Right you are. Lady Sharpe, your housekeeper makes excellent scones, my compliments to her.’ Dr Percival nodded before rising from his chair.

Charlotte smiled kindly. ‘I shall relay the message.’

When the doctors were gone, Thomas looked at his wife, completely lost.

Charlotte, knowing that he never went a day of his life without some woman or another giving him instruction, turned to him. ‘You need to get your paperwork all sorted, where do you call an office?’

‘My workshop.’

‘Very well, we will get all of that sorted first. Then you need a wash and I think then, you should spend time with Lucille.’

‘And do what?’

‘Speak with her, of pleasant moments, or of what occurred in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, even read a passage from a book, but you need to spend time with her, Thomas. No excuses.’ She instructed.

Thomas looked at her, slightly startled. The look she gave him back showed him she was serious, but her tone and her smile were as polite and pleasant as usual. ‘Would I not speak with her first?’

‘No, I will keep her company while you get your business in order.’ She smiled. ‘You know she would be the first to tell you to do it.’

Knowing it to be the truth, Thomas walked over to the case that he had brought with him for business relations and lifted it. Seeing that there was more to go, Charlotte walked over and assisted in getting everything into the elevator. When it was loaded, she walked to the stairs, Thomas following after, the elevator going to where it was required. ‘Are you alright?’ Charlotte turned to look at him. ‘You seemed shocked by Dr Percival’s comments.’

‘I have not got time for his comments at present. I have too much to consider.’ Charlotte answered as she continued to go up. ‘We need to get those restraints ordered today. I don’t like her being pinned down like a lunatic, it must be very stressing for her. I also need to change her clothing. I better get her a few more nightdresses, she will need more.’ She listed aloud. ‘When I said we should get out some extra money, I never could have imagined…’

Thomas looked at her worriedly. ‘You think that we should not pay…?’

‘No, nothing like that, goodness. No, we are not leaving her without and we are not putting her in a sanitorium.’ Charlotte stated firmly. ‘I could never do that to anyone, much less someone who means so much to you.’

Relieved, Thomas smiled gratefully at her.

Tags

@sigridlaufeyson @wolfsmom1 @ilovekingt  @lokilover9 @whovianwookie86-captainxev@texmexdarling @lokiloveheart

[agentaw]

Detroit: Become Human - Funny story...

Okay... so Story Time because my friends pointed this out and it’s been fucking with me ever since.

This is the story of how I kinda...sorta wrote/ predicted parts of DBH about...2 years ago. Just hear me out...okay?

So this all started similarly to how DBH started, with that dope-ass demo back in 2012. My 15 year old self became enthralled in it, much like I am now enthralled in the full game. I’ve always loved story telling and had a sort of soft spot for digital modelling. So that demo was a masterpiece to me, it had a great concept and beautiful design. It was a short obsession but it had an impact. 

And that was the last piece of news I’d ever hear about it until a month after they released the full game. I remember hearing some rumour that they weren’t gonna make it a full game or something and left it at that. I didn’t hear anything about it’s coverage at E3 because while I like video games, I become absorbed in different obsessions from time to time. 

And two years ago I was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, the thought of creating a whole world and having others enter it was fascinating. And while I tried to create worlds from scratch, I had a problem. 

I had never been too interested in Fantasy things, I liked fantasy characters but tended to focus on too much of the political aspect of fantasy worlds and not the fun stuff like slaying dragons and stuff. 

The return of an old obsession began to try and take my focus off of DnD but I wasn’t ready to let it go yet. 

So I merged them, DnD didn’t have to be fantasy, I didn’t have to invent a world from scratch and luckily my old obsession had a world pre-designed. Marvel, specifically MCU had a treasure trove of lore and I could take a number of rules from DnD 5e and tweak them to suit the change in genre. 

So I started off with a one shot campaign, set in a HYDRA base. My three player characters would be playing themselves and making decision based on how they’d react. They ‘woke up’ in a white plastic robot body. Singular, all three were in the same body, looking through the same eyes and rolling for control over said robot body. It was entertaining to watch them figure out what they hell was going on organically. They quickly met the first NPC an old doctor/sciencist who was a very nervous person. He explained that they’d all been loaded into the same body by accident and that he was just testing out that his creation (the body itself) was working correctly. So my players decided to answer the jumpy doctors questions and let one of them take control as the doctor got them to walk around while still connected to the computer around them by a bunch of wires connected to the back of their neck. The doctor left the room briefly (to report to his superiors) before returning and calmly explaining that he’d need to shut them down before making the rest of the bodies. Yes, this was heavily inspired by the demo but the players didn’t notice or didn’t comment on it at the time. And they genuinely really like the one-shot. So, I started writing more, growing the campaign and expanding my list of NPCs.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “wow...you ripped off the demo and think that counts as writing a whole game” but I never said I wrote the whole story, that would be mental. But as both me and my players have pointed out, there is a large number of similarities which is spooky because as i already stated I didn’t know anything about DBH until almost a month after it’s full release. 

The first and most profound is Amanda. Or my Amanda, who’s called Ruth LaRue. Dr. Ruth LaRue, the trio’s psychologist/co-creator who acts pleasant (too pleasant) towards them...unless they disobey or resist their training to become Hydra Assets. One of my players is rebellious and LaRue has tried to manipulate and coldly threatened him as a result. While another obeys and gets praise and rewards as a result. Also she looks like Amanda (a character i didn’t even know existed), I originally described her as the same race, hairstyle, though slightly younger. And then I drew her (poorly) for my players to get a better idea of how she looked and Jesus Christ they look the same. 

Another is the fact that I have three player characters. There was a possible fourth player but work and life made it difficult for her to be a part of the game. Also my players are two boys and one girl. And while that’s all freaky, their characters appearances/designs are extra weird. Originally, after all getting their own bodies, they all had white plastic robot bodies, all male design (which female player wasn’t happy about because she missed her boobs). The only way to tell them apart was voice and the nervous doctor had given them different coloured eyes. Creating robots came with the challenge of figuring out how their bodies worked (one player was particularly interested in this). Once again inspiration partly came from the Kara demo, the robots are a water (blue liquid) based system, a pump (heart) transports water, which is collect in bags (lungs) through the robots absorbing moisture in the air (through breathing), around the machine frame (body). The water has two purposes, to thinly coat the white plastic casing (skin), which allowed the robot to feel pressure but not texture and also to keep the pump valves going, which creates the energy the machines (players) are run on. After learning that the white plastic version could be easily broken during training, the nervous doctor created a second batch of models, this time made out of metal (female asked for a female body and therefore the doctor gave her a large dent in her chest plate, she was pleased). They then get a new model, ones that are designed to blend in with humans. And this is where this section gets super freaky. The player got no say in how they looked because in game they wouldn’t. 

The female is the shortest model as well as they palest model with loads of freckles, the similarities with Kara stop there but the female player has been gifted a female kitten (thankfully named Cookie, not Alice) as the reward and is quite paranoid about it being taken off her or harmed (calm down, I haven’t hurt the cat...yet). 

One of the males is only slightly more tanned than the female with considerably less freckles and markings. He’s the tallest and the player has been surprisingly obedient, only "failing” when he doesn’t understand what’s happen or doesn’t think something will benefit HYDRA. Because of this he’s been promoted to team leader by the powers that be. He’s logical and is usually thinking about training and what’s going on in the NPCs’ heads. 

Lastly we have the second male who looks southern European (Spain, Italy, Greece and could probably pass as Mexican but the story is set in central Europe) so a different ethnicity/race to the other two. This is the rebellious player who generally plays pranks, cracks jokes and says “fuck you” to authority. Like I said before as a result, he tends to be the one looked down on and oppressed by the powers that be. He generally has a very clear line which he won’t cross no matter what and is willing to stand up if he views something as drastically wrong (refused to hurt his friends or pick up a gun).

Also when asked what they wanted to be called (I.e What’s your name?) The players decided to to sick to what the nice nervous doctor had designated them, i.e the colours of their eyes. Rebellious is Red. Logical is Blue and Female is Purple (name later changed to Violet).

Next is three more NPCs, who have enough in common with the DBH characters to mess with me. 

The nervous doctor, Dr. Thomas Thornley, while having a completely different personality, has formed relationships like Hank. A number of the players refer to him as “Daddy Thornley”, not to his face but when talking to each other in game. And most disturbingly the rebellious player has implied on several occasions that he “ships” the logical male player with father-figure Thornley, jokingly of course. And while in the beginning Thornley may have viewed the robots as a project or experiment, he now appears quite protective and fond of them. Even displaying discomfort when one is broken or completely destroyed. 

Their combat and gun trainer, Agent Woodrow who is ex-military and treats the robots exactly like you’d expect he would, like machines. He could either be Gavin or Captain Allen but either way he’s a genuine aggressor and dislikes/hates the robots. 

The Head of Hydra, Director Malachi Storm who has an air of mystery around him and commands any room he enters. He’s considerable less creepy than Kamski but is an “all-knowing, all-powerful” character. Also I guess I’m technically also Elijah Kamski (a.k.a GOD) and my players pointed out that i have his sadistic, power hungry play style (thanks, guys).

Lastly is a few game mechanics and events i put in the game. The players have always been able to telepathically talk to one another, they can also transfer images to each other. If broken beyond repair (i.e Killed) they now get automatically rebuilt, similar to Connor. I made LaRue give them a morality test which was mostly the “Track dilemma” which is similar to both the driver-less car AIs and the Kamski test. I actually did the motherfucking Kamski test with one or two of my players (but with humans instead of androids lol). Also the players believe they’re alive (which technically they are). They’ve literally been give zero context as to how they are in robot bodies in the MCU, specifically they’re last memories before the start of the game are of going to sleep in their beds in the real world. They are literally three robots walking around stating that they’re alive. 

And yes, I realise that Cage took shit from other movies but it have seen any of those movies so...:P

If I looked hard I could probably find more scary comparisons but a) I don’t particularly want to show all my cards, in case my players read this post, and b) I appear to have written a fucking TED talk out of what was supposed to be a short funny story. 

[majorxmaggiexboy]

Constance Bonacieux...

...Will never again not look like Beauty and the Beast’s Belle to me. I don’t know when that particular connection was made, but they register as very similar to me.

Initially it was a visual thing, I think? They both have that reddish tint in their hair, and some facial similarities (at least, to me)

But, thinking about it further....they actually are a match in other ways. Belle sings about being bored with her life, about wanting “so much more than they’ve got planned” and Constance’s entire storyline is basically just that. She’s not in a terrible situation, but is underwhelmed with her life. Her marriage, her role in society...they’re a far cry from what she wants and the majority of her story is about gaining the courage to make her own way.

I don’t see d’Artagnan as the Beast character, really, though. I mean, kiiiiinda, I guess? If we replace The Curse with the death of his father and draw comparison with his S1E1 “ill manners”...and a lot of his character growth (breaking the curse, theoretically speaking) does revolve around Constance. One example is how he goes from “I don’t need a woman to protect me” to trusting and relying on her as an equal.

You know who would be a better Beast, though?

Olivier ‘Athos’ de la Fere.

I hear the screeching of breaks and a resounding “whaaaaat”

Hear me out.

I don’t mean this in a shipping sense, although obviously if we’re talking AU, hey, maybe you do ship Constance/Athos and that’s fine! But from a canon, drawing-of-comparison standpoint with no romance involved, and with a little headcanon thrown in, Athos is perfect for The Beast.

“The Curse” is his brother’s death- more than that, it’s Milady’s betrayal (however you feel about that) and it’s grief and guilt and all that pain Athos carries with him. You could even say it’s his implied alcoholism and lack of interest in his own life following Thomas’ death.

Now, it’s generally accepted that d’Artagnan is the one who came charging in and saved Athos’ heart, and I don’t disagree. D’Artagnan became a younger brother to Athos and, arguably, almost a son. (According to book!Athos There are only 15 years between them, but honestly it’s enough to throw some paternal shades into their dynamic. Friend, brother, mentor...) And there is no denying d’Artagnan was ultimately great for Athos in a different way from Porthos and Aramis. But, Athos had already become a Musketeer before d’Artagnan showed up.

Here’s a man who, even in S1E1, is so ready to accept a death he doesn’t deserve. He offers no complaint post-sentencing when most, I feel, would pitch a fit at the prospect of such a dishonorable end, especially being innocent. And he regularly drinks his sorrows.

So, aside from perhaps thinking it a convenient way to eventually die, why would this grief-stricken man sign on as a musketeer to begin with? Maybe because it’s as good a way to get through a day as any, but there’s a snippet where headcanon comes in: In S1E1, Constance shows no sign of knowing Aramis or Porthos, and they both act like it’s a first meeting when she arrives in the Garrison. But she not only knows Athos, she tells d’Artagnan that Athos is her friend. By that time, Athos is already close friends with Aramis and Porthos, so for Constance to know one but not the other two, she and Athos would have to be friends well outside his life as a Musketeer. Enter Headcanon, and getting back to the Beauty and the Beast comparison.

This is purely speculation but, what if Constance is the one who got Athos to try for the Musketeers in the first place?

What if Athos came to Paris, drifting from tavern to tavern in the throes of heartbreak and grief, throwing his life away one bottle at a time (the Beast, in the depths of hopelessness, resigned to his fate.) And then, by some chance or the hand of God, Constance Bonacieux crossed his path. And at that time she’d be engaged or newly married, settled into a dull pattern of life that she knows isn’t what she wants, but...she’s never really known different, outside of books. Where reality is concerned, she’s left to assume this is really all life has for her, and so while she isn’t happy, she’s not miserable. And anyway,

Going by the Beauty and the Beast analogy; Athos’ curse - he’s in such despair, wasting his life trying to drink the pain away. He’s distrustful, in a sense, of women in general, or tries to be. As far as he’s concerned, life has come to a halt. (Plus we could go as far as to consider Milady as The Enchantress, and compare Athos’ Nobility and post-Thomas’-death rejection thereof to the Beast’s royal status and post-curse ruination of the castle...torn portraits are present in both cases)

And then Constance Bonacieux finds herself in this man’s life, and she’s having none of it. (in addition, headcanon: for their first meting, Athos passes out at Constance’s feet, drunk. Call-forward to meeting d’Artagnan?) She almost forcibly befriends him, and he comes to accept her friendship.

Think of the Beauty and the Beast scene after Beast fights off the Wolves, where Belle and Beast argue as she tends his wounds.

That becomes the exact picture I imagine for Constance and Athos. Instead of falling in True Love, though, they build a friendship, and Athos, while not fully whole again, starts to regain his life, joins the Musketeers. This puts him in place for later development when d’Artagnan arrives. Constance, meanwhile, becomes more sure of herself. Not quite ready yet to question society’s notions of her role in life, but beginning to realize she wants more. Consequently, after wrangling Athos at his worst, she is far less likely to take nonsense from anyone.

This got long and fell apart a bit toward the end, but TL;DR: Constance is totally Belle and Athos makes for a really good Beast and you know what? It might even be a fun AU with the original storyline rearranged a little bit.

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 (4 of 6)

Continuing our look into season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, here’s a fourth round of episode reviews that includes the second Q episode and second mid-season two-parter for this season.

Episode 15: Tapestry

Plot (as given by me):

Captain Picard is beamed to sickbay along with other members on an away team that have been attacked by an alien race known as the Lenarians. Picard is severely injured, having taken some kind of energy blast to the chest that has damaged his artificial heart. Seemingly dying, Picard finds himself in an all-white environment with what appears to be Q. Q tells Picard he is dead, which Picard refuses to believe because he can’t accept the idea that the universe would be so badly designed as for Q to be in charge of any form of after-life. The conversation then turns to the question of whether Picard has any regrets, which brings up the matter of how Picard ended up with an artificial heart. The prosthetic was fist given to Picard after he was stabbed by a Nausicaan during a bar fight when he was a young Ensign fresh out of the Academy.

 Hearing Picard state he would probably do things differently if living his life over again, Q takes Picard back to two days before the fight, giving him a chance to change his life. Picard is initially reluctant to alter his past for fear of causing damage to the present, but Q notes Picard is ‘not that important’, and that only his life will be impacted. As Picard relives his past life, it becomes clear that events take place slightly differently to the story Picard once told Wesley Crusher about the incident (in “Samaritan Snare”). The fight actually results from Picard and one of his friends, Corey Zweller, trying to get back at a group of Nausiccans for cheating Zweller at the billards game Dom-Jot, whereas Picard had told Wesley he’d insulted the Nausicaans.

 This time, Picard tries to dissuade Zweller from taking revenge, and at the same time also tries to change the nature of his relationship with their other friend Marta Batanides, who Picard had been attracted to but never pursued romantically. His efforts estrange both of his friends, and when the time of the fight comes, Picard avoids it by pushing Zweller out of the way. As a result, he loses both friendships and is suddenly transported to a new present. In the revised present, Picard is a junior lieutenant in the position of assistant astrophysics officer on board the Enterprise, and an officer named Thomas Halloway is captain of the ship. Picard also learns that his new self has often set lofty career goals for himself but has never achieved them because he never does what is needed to in order to achieve those goals.

 Faced with a choice between a mediocre life or dying with a full life behind him, Picard calls on Q, who explains to Picard that this was the consequence of altering his past. The incident with the Nausicaan made Picard more willing to seize opportunities and work hard to get command in the original timeline, but the Picard who avoided that fight never had the trauma of nearly dying to spur him on, and thus he barely achieved anything as a result of playing things safe. Picard asks to set things back to how they were, preferring death as the man he was to the other life he has been shown. Q agrees and returns Picard to the start of the fight, which then unfolds as it did originally. It is then implied that Picard laughing after being stabbed is relief from Picard knowing his life would then turn out as before. He then comes to in sickbay, his heart repaired and condition stabilised, and later he discusses his experience with Commander Riker.

Review:

One thing I’ve come across in checking through the Memory Alpha wiki site is that this season was something of an experimental one for the show, and I think that’s why up to now we’ve not seen anywhere near the number of episodes of ‘true Trek’ I might otherwise expect. “Tapestry” is another rare instance of Trek being more or less what it should be amid episodes that don’t sufficiently cover either character or issue exploration, and remarkably it does a bit of both.  We’re going into Picard’s back-story, so that offers us some character development, and it explores the question of what would happen to any of us if we were given the chance to change a past action we didn’t like.

 The character side of the episode works out well, and with Q thrown into the mix it’s quite a fun episode as well, but the issue exploration aspect of it as well as one aspect of the general execution are a little more flawed.  First of all, a lot of fans misunderstood the episode and complained because they felt it somehow glorified or encouraged violence, because removing a violent incident from Picard’s past harmed his present and restoring that incident restored the present.  However, the focus of the episode isn’t on violence, but on how key events in our past shape who we become; the episode focuses on a violent event in Picard’s past because that happens to be a crucial moment in his development as a person. If Picard had had a non-violent key moment that would have made good episode fodder, I’m sure the show would have used that instead.

 Second, the episode makes three flawed suppositions that aren’t strictly true.  The first is that altering one’s past must have an adverse effect on the present, but look at Back to the Future.  Marty McFly’s initial entry into the past is initially harmful, but his efforts to restore history actually result in a much better future for himself and his family. By the same token, in the Part II film of the franchise, old man Biff’s efforts to assist his 1950’s counter-part result in a future which, while horrific for the McFly family and for Doc Brown, works out well for Biff.  Taking stories from other franchises like this into account, it doesn’t follow that Picard’s foray into the past would be how all such travels work; it’s just how they work in Trek to maintain each show’s status quo and dissuade time travel in line with the franchise’s philosophy of a more enlightened humanity.

 The second flawed supposition is that in order to avoid being stabbed, Picard had to avoid the fight entirely.  However, there was another way; Picard’s error, to me, was less in picking the fight and more in trying to fight opponents who were large, stronger and armed with daggers by just going hand-to-hand with them. If you have to fight an enemy who will out-match you in close combat, then you don’t make it a close combat fight. All Picard had to do was go in with a phaser and stun the opposition.  That way, the fight still happens, but because Picard fought smart instead of hard, he could have actually avoided a worse life from the fight itself.  The episode could then have focused more, perhaps, on how Picard’s altered actions towards his friends could have impacted the future.

 Our third erroneous assumption is that just being a bit more of a risk-taker is somehow all that’s needed to make or break Picard’s life and career, and I suppose in the world of Trek it’s easy to boil things down to that one factor.  However, in real life that’s not the only obstacle.  I can empathise with Picard’s situation because I often feel like I’m stuck in that other, hum-drum life Picard was willing to avoid on pain of death.  However, Picard had the luxury of knowing what he wanted to do from a young age and being in a world where everything was set up to let him just do it.  In the real world, things like money, where you live, the means by which you can or can’t travel around and so on all impact on what we can or can’t do.  As such, I think it’s almost over-simplistic boiling Picard’s career down to a single event, and would love to see this subject tackled again from a more holistic approach of greater relevance to our present day and tackling all those pesky real-life issues someone like Picard never had to fret about.

 Next, there’s the issue around the episode’s general execution, namely having Patrick Stewart playing Picard’s younger self. In the episode, this is explained away as a trick on Q’s part, which makes everyone in the past see Picard as his younger self, but Picard, Q and we as an audience still see the older version, and as a result we end up with a kiss scene between Picard and Marta, which some fans felt was inappropriate, given that Stewart was 52 at that time and J.C. Brandy, who played Marta, was 17 and made to appear a bit older through the work of the show’s make-up staff.

 Now as I flagged earlier in this season when I reviewed the episode “Rascals”, we live in a world where age of consent laws vary internationally, and in the US the range is 16-18 from state to state, with the wider world mostly having their age limits in the 14-18 range. That means both domestically and internationally, this episode was showing something that anyone in a country or state on the higher end of the spectrum could find to be concerning and potentially inappropriate.  To my mind, it would probably have been wiser for the show to have the young man who appeared briefly earlier in the episode as the younger Picard play him not just for a single ‘white room’ scene.  Instead, he should have taken up the role for all of the events in the past.  Overall, I still think this is a good episode, but not without its flaws.  As such, I give this episode 8 out of 10; luckily Stewart and de Lancie are so good as Picard and Q, and they’re working with a good character plot, or the flaws could have dragged the score down much more.

Episode 16: Birthright (Part 1):

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

While the Enterprise is docked at Deep Space Nine, providing assistance in repairing the Bajoran aqueducts, Worf is approached by an Yridian information broker, Jaglom Shrek, who claims that Worf's father was not killed at Khitomer, but is instead alive at a Romulan prison camp. Since Mogh's capture would dishonour Worf and his own son Alexander, Worf is reluctant to believe the alien's claim but it upsets him. However, following an accident, Data has a dream-like experience that involves his creator and Data approaches Worf to ask about a time Worf himself had a hallucination during a Klingon ritual. Worf realizes that it is important to learn the truth about his father.

 Data continues to pursue the meaning behind his dream. Geordi La Forge and Dr Julian Bashir (DS9's Chief Medical Officer) reluctantly recreate the experiment that caused the dream (a dangerous venture that could damage Data permanently). Data has the same experience, which continues on to a conversation between Data and Dr Noonien Soong, his creator. Soong encourages Data to continue dreaming. Awake, Data comes to the conclusion that Dr Soong pre-programmed the ability to dream in anticipation of activating it himself. The energy charge from the experiment simply activated this feature. Data then plans to henceforth spend a brief period each day experiencing these dreams.

 Worf suspects the information about his father to be a trick and forces the reluctant Yridian to take him to the prison camp himself. Because of the danger involved, Worf makes the final leg of the journey alone on foot, where he finds the Klingons moving about freely with Romulans. He corners one of the Klingons, who informs him that his father fell in battle at Khitomer as he thought, meaning that Worf's family honour is intact. When Worf offers to free the Klingon prisoners, they insist on staying. Since he is aware of the camp's existence and location, they insist that he must also stay. Two armed Romulans show up to prevent Worf from leaving.

Review:

So, to prove the experimental nature of this season, not only do we end up with two Q episodes instead of the usual one per season (only season 1 had had multiple Q episodes previously), but then we also get a second mid-season two-part episode, and at the same time we also get a cross-over with the then-new series Deep Space Nine in part 1.  The overall plot is centred on Worf, with Data’s story being a B-plot that more effectively capitalises on the cross-over aspect of the episode, as DS9’s chief medical officer Dr Bashir comes into that story. It’s great to see because, as I noted when I reviewed DS9 some years ago on Facebook, Bashir comes to fulfil a similar function to Data on his own show with regards to representing some aspect of autism.

 Now I imagine that might not make sense to some, so I’ll quickly explain.  In TNG, Data is often emblematic of autistic people because of his tendency towards literal understanding of language and inability to grasp certain aspects of interpersonal communication, especially humour.  In Deep Space Nine, however, it’s until quite late in the show that Dr Bashir can make any claim to being in any way autism-like.  That claim is made possible during the fifth season of DS9 when Bashir is outed as being genetically engineered, as this sets up a couple of episodes over the last couple of seasons of the show where he works with other genetically engineered humans whose treatments meant they could not effectively integrate into wider society.  The similarities and differences between Bashir and these other characters were not only similar to certain autistic traits, but suggested that Bashir was akin to being someone with Asperger’s (a form of “high-functioning” autism, or high-masking as I now think of it) in a group of autistic individuals. As such, Data and Bashir together is for me very much about combining the first two major autism analogues in 24th century-set Trek in hindsight, and as such it’s cool to see.

 As for the rest of the B-plot, the idea that Data can now dream is a cool idea, but a little flawed in a couple of areas. The first is that while it made some sense for Data to look into existing cultural and scientific databases to interpret his visions, I’m a bit surprised Data was reeling off examples from non-human cultures at one point.  Data was designed by a human to mimic humanity, so logically he should have focused more on human cultures and psychological references, since presumably Dr Soong would have developed Data’s dream capabilities from a human perspective. Second, if the dream circuits were activated by the initial incident, why did it take a second incident for Data to learn what they were?  Surely the dormant circuits being activated should have been picked up by the subsequent diagnostics on Data and deduced from that.  As good an idea as this was, it took longer than it needed to in order to reach its conclusion considering what that conclusion was.

 The A-plot, on the other hand, is really just so much set-up for part 2, which is where it comes into its own a bit more. The two only connect in one scene part-way through, but it’s a good scene where Worf and Data each end up spurring the other into the rest of their stories.  On balance, I’d give this episode about 8 out of 10.

Episode 17: Birthright (Part 2)

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Worf is puzzled by the Klingons' lack of desire to escape. The elders explain that they were knocked unconscious during the Khitomer attack and awoke as prisoners, preventing them from either escaping or dying in battle. Prevented from committing suicide by the Romulans and unable to leave after being released because returning home would be a great dishonour to their families (who have assumed the warriors died in battle), they have remained at the camp. Worf is not allowed to leave, however, to keep the compound's secret. He discovers, to his disgust, that some Romulans and Klingons have even inter-married and had hybrid children, including a young woman named Ba’el who is the daughter of the head Romulan Tokath and a Klingon woman. Ba’el is attracted to Worf, but Worf is initially unable to overcome his revulsion on learning she is part-Romulan.

 Worf inspires the young Klingons, who were born in the compound and know nothing of their heritage, to be curious. He teaches them Klingon myths, martial arts, hunting, and other elements of their culture. Eventually Tokath, offers Worf a choice: to live among them according to their rules, or to be executed. Worf chooses death, which is honourable in its defiance, though Ba’el tries to talk him out of it out of her attraction to Worf. He in turn admits that he loves her despite her mixed parentage, but cannot abandon his honour for her. The next morning, at Worf's execution, the young Klingons he has inspired suddenly decide to stand and die with him, including Ba’el. Unwilling to kill them all, Tokath allows Worf and the young Klingons to leave, and Worf asks the young Klingons to honour their parents by agreeing never to reveal the camp’s existence to the outside world. A Romulan warbird delivers them to the Enterprise, which had been searching for Worf since his disappearance from DS9.  When asked by Captain Picard if he found what he was looking for, Worf tells him that no one survived Khitomer, but Picard seems to perceive the truth underlying Worf’s claim.

Review:

Part 2 of “Birthright” focuses right in on Worf’s side of things from part 1, and there’s a bit of character development for Worf alongside some decent issue exploration.  Worf trying to inform the other Klingons at the camp about their heritage is a kind of metaphorical exploration of what can be experienced by people who immigrate to other lands.  Such people then struggle between the need to assimilate into their new homeland and their need to be true to their heritage.  At the same time, Worf also has to learn to deal with his own prejudice when he learns that the young woman he is attracted to and several others are of mixed race, which not only helps to develop Worf but also gives the episode another issue to tackle, namely that of prejudice.  It’s especially good to see because TNG has never really capitalised on the mixed heritage character of Deanna Troi to confront this specific form of prejudice.  In fact, I think the first time I can remember seeing that tackled by Trek is through the character of B’Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager.

 This time, I honestly can’t find any flaws to speak of.  For once, we have a pay-off to a two-part episode that really surpasses the part 1, and we get another episode that is true Trek rather than being some experimental story that that would perhaps have been better tried in another franchise. All in all, I give this episode top marks; 10 out of 10.

Episode 18: Starship Mine

Plot (as given by me):

The Enterprise docks at the Remmler Array to undergo a baryon sweep, which will eliminate baryon particles (a form of radiation) from the ship’s hull that have accumulated over several years of warp travel. The sweep is harmless to the inorganic matter of the ship’s construction, but can be deadly to organic life, and as such the Enterprise is evacuated for the procedure. As everyone rushes to leave the Enterprise, Captain Picard finds himself dreading an upcoming reception at Akaria Base which is to be hosted by a Commander Hutchinson, who is well-known and feared for having perfected the art of small talk.

 At the reception, while Data studies Hutchinson to develop his own small-talk program that he has created, mention of horse-back riding on the planet enables Picard to duck out of the reception so he can quickly get his saddle from on board the Enterprise before the baryon sweep commences.  However, as Picard is leaving the Enterprise again, he discovers a maintenance operative working on a panel he apparently shouldn’t be working on.  The man attacks Picard, who is forced to subdue him and then beat a hasty path to the transporter room.  Main power goes off-line before Picard can beam away, however, leaving him trapped on board with what he deduces to be a phony maintenance crew.

 On board the Enterprise, a game of cat-and-mouse ensues between Picard and the intruders, who ultimately turn out to be using the baryon procedure as cover to steal Trilithium resin from the ship. The resin is a volatile waste product from the ship’s engines, and initially Picard assumes the group are terrorists; however, their intent is to sell the resin rather than using it themselves. As events unfold, various members of the criminal gang are killed; most by the baryon sweep, but one is killed by the gang leader Kelsey to increase the profit shares of the survivors. Meanwhile on the planet, Geordi noticing an energy signature in the reception room results in the alien base personnel taking the Starfleet officer hostage. Geordi is injured and Hutchinson killed in the initial altercation.

 Eventually, the Enterprise officers manage to knock out their captors with a hypersonic pulse from Geordi’s VISOR, which leaves everyone except Data unconscious. Back on the Enterprise, Kelsey beams out after a fight with Picard in Ten-Forward, the last part of the ship that will be hit by the baryon sweep.  Picard manages to get Akaria Base to stop the baryon sweep before he is killed by it, as Kelsey’s exit coincides with Data gaining control of the base. The base personnel are therefore presumably part of Kelsey’s heist, but Picard informs Data the ship Kelsey beamed to won’t get far; somehow Picard removed a control rod from the container transporting the resin, causing it to explode as the ship tries to escape.  When the rest of the crew re-boards the Enterprise, Dr Crusher heals Picard’s injuries and Worf retrieves the captain’s saddle, which he was forced to abandon after his initial scuffle with one of Kelsey’s crew.

Review:

This episode is basically TNG going all experimental again and trying to do an episode that is all-action.  Now granted, that’s certainly a bold experiment and in some respects not a bad one, but this is Star Trek, not Star Wars.  Trek is about character development and issue exploration, not action for action’s sake, and while DS9 did develop some very action-oriented episodes in its later seasons, there was always character development or issue exploration mixed in to justify it.  With this episode, you don’t really get either.

 The episode also features some truly cringe-worthy moments around Data trying to emulate Hutchinson’s small talk. Honestly, I fast-forwarded all of these bits because I absolutely couldn’t stand them.  There was nothing funny about these moments, and it certainly wasn’t something Data needed.  I think when it comes to Trek characters he could have picked up the art of banter from, Data would have been better off learning from just about anyone else.  As such, I honestly wasn’t shocked or surprised when the base personnel sprung their surprise and Hutchinson got gunned down; I’d been wanting to see that happen from the character’s first scene. All in all, I give this episode only 5 out of 10.

Episode 19: Lessons

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Captain Picard is curious as to why the stellar cartography department has shut down several systems on the Enterprise, and visits the section to discover what is going on. He meets the head of the department, Lt. Commander Nella Daren, who makes an impression on Picard. It is a meeting memorable enough for Picard to later discuss with Dr Beverly Crusher. At a musical recital by Lt. Commander Data, Picard is surprised to see Daren, once again, playing the piano. The two discuss music, and later meet in Picard's quarters and participate in a duet. Daren plays a portable piano and Picard performs on his Ressikan flute.

 The two begin to meet more often; even in a Jefferies tube, which Daren claims has the best acoustics on the ship. In this private setting, their attraction for one another is expressed in a kiss. The moment of intimacy is fleeting, however. When they enter a turbolift, and are joined by another crewmember, Picard resumes the professional demeanour of Captain. The Enterprise is diverted from its mission, when it decides to investigate a report of firestorms at a nearby Federation outpost. While in transit, Picard consults Counsellor Troi about pursuing a relationship with Daren. Picard then goes to Daren to apologize and to explain. He recounts the experience shown in the episode "The Inner Light" in which he had a wife and family, became a grandfather, grew old, and learned to play the flute. The experience imparted to Picard a deep appreciation for music, and he is pleased to have someone to share it with.

 Daren speaks to Commander Riker requesting a transfer for another crew member to stellar cartography. Riker says he will consider the request. Afterwards, he speaks with Picard, explaining that Picard and Daren's relationship makes the decision complicated. After determining from Riker that Daren's request is not unusual or taking advantages, Picard assures Riker that he will support any decision he makes. Later at dinner, Picard relates to Daren his talk with Riker, saying that they need to be careful about anyone else misunderstanding their relationship.

 The Enterprise arrives at the Federation outpost to find that firestorms are heading toward the facility, and are of a larger magnitude than it was designed to withstand. Daren suggests a means of deflecting the storms, but the equipment requires trained personnel on the ground to operate it. Daren is assigned to the surface team, along with a number of other crewmembers. The outpost is evacuated during the dangerous mission, leaving only the Enterprise away team on surface. The firestorms overwhelm the position that Daren's team occupies before they can be retrieved. Believing Daren to be dead, Picard sits contemplating his decision in his quarters. He then hears that survivors are being transported aboard, and heads to the transporter room. Daren is not among the initial group of survivors, but is later transported to the ship. Eight members of the team have died.

 Afterwards, Picard and Daren discuss their relationship. They conclude that it cannot continue, as Picard could not bear to put her in danger once more. They discuss giving up their Starfleet careers to be together. Daren realizes that Picard, although still cherishing the family life he experienced as Kamin, has nonetheless chosen duty, career, and loneliness. They both know that Daren must transfer off the Enterprise. They kiss once more, and Daren makes Picard promise not to give up his music.

Review:

As Picard romances go, I think this episode features the best one of the lot just for the fact that not only does it give Picard someone who is very much a true equal, but it also capitalises on the episode “The Inner Light” from the previous season throughout the episode to make it stand out.  The main facet of this, of course, is Picard’s music; he’s never played in front of anyone, and yet goes from that level of privacy to playing very well alongside Daren, and even performing the theme from “The Inner Light” and sharing that experience with her.  Some of the music they play is very lovely, especially their improvised riffs on Frère Jacques.

 However, beyond its nature as a character piece, the episode also has some issue exploration, though it may elude some. In many respects, this episode is a case study in not only why work-place romances can be very difficult and are often ill-advised, but also why such romances should ideally be avoided in any organisation that involves any sort of command structure.  It soon becomes apparent that the relationship isn’t going to last because Picard and Daren can’t maintain a romantic relationship and at the same time retain their professional objectivity.  This is why any time a romance does work over the long-term in Trek, the characters are usually of equal rank or one of them isn’t even in Starfleet, as both scenarios remove the conflict faced by a two-officer relationship where one officer commands the other professionally. Overall, it’s a great episode and I have to give it top marks, 10 out of 10.

[heatherrdavis1]

BITCOIN SURGED 4000% AFTER IT TOOK THIS LEVEL IN 2016. IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN!! | BTC Halving 2020

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

In today’s show, Bitcoin surge, 4000 percent after it took this level in 2016. And it just happened again. This is relevant for Bitcoin because the last time Bitcoin claimed this technical level was an early 2016 when Bitcoin was trading around five hundred dollars and prior to the 4000 percent rally that brought Bitcoin to twenty thousand dollars just 20 months later. We’ll be breaking down this critical indicator here in today’s show. Also in today’s episode, the Bitcoin supercycle theory ignites crypto Twitter as the bitcoin having approaches. Taking a look at this thread here by Plan B of the stock, the flow model, it now has four point two thousand likes and one point four thousand read tweets. We’ll be breaking it down for you. Here in today’s show. And as you can see, the Bitcoin having its just nine days. Twenty two hours, 47 minutes and 40 seconds away. This is something that is a pretty big deal here in the crypto space. So we’re gonna be discussing it here in today’s show. And also, we’ll be taking a look at the overall cryptocurrency market. As we can see, Bitcoin and many of the major cryptos are back in the green, whereas the bitcoin price likely to go from here. Find out this plus so much more in today’s show. Here at the news alerts, I drop a brand new episode every single day, so be sure to smash that subscribe button and click that icon to receive notifications of the latest premium crypto news. And before we kick off today’s show, if interested in attending a free online event and Q&A session with the number one most trusted person in cryptocurrency and titled Five Coins to five million, your last chance until 2024 with the one and only, take a worry for your chance to discover a handful of tiny krip those that can turn five hundred dollars into five million thanks to a crypto market phenomenon. You won’t see again until twenty twenty four. Again, this is brand new. Never seen before. May 6th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Live Q&A session to discuss these final five points to five million. Your last chance until 2024. Click the link right down below in the description to lock in your spot and RSVP for this live event. All right. Welcome back to another episode of Crypto News Alerts. I’m your host, J.V.. And let’s dive right into today’s top story of the day. Bitcoin surge. Four thousand percent after it took this level back in 2016. And it just happened again earlier this week. Bitcoin erupted from seventy seven hundred to ninety five hundred within the span of just around 24 hours. It was a move that allowed the crypto to print an extremely strong monthly performance that ended with a bullish engulfing candle. While many took this candle as a decisively positive sign, one trader called the sentiment into question, noting that the bullish engulfing candle is a big misnomer. Technician Thomas Koski wrote himself that bullish engulfing candlesticks are anything but signs of macro reversals. His is quoted saying these candles act as a temporary reversal of a downward price trend. This is also one of the trading setups. I suggest you avoid. Why? Because the primary trend is downward. The bullish engulfing candlestick reverse that trend, but only for a short time. The primary downward trend takes over and price resumes falling. However, Bitcoin recently made another technical accomplishment that could negate the bearish effects of a bullish engulfing candle. That’s right. Bitcoin retakes crucial key level that catalyzed a 4000 percent rally back in early 2016, according to a crypto trader. Bitcoin strong rebound in April saw the cryptocurrency close its monthly kandal above the key level of the Moku cloud. On the one month chart. All right. Taking a look at this tweet from trader Smokey, who wrote Daily Ichi Moku will very likely confirm fully bullish on today’s close, as well as the two day Kumo breakout with the bullish kumo twist. I cannot not be bullish on quarter two. I want to buy the dips. This is relevant for Bitcoin because the last time Bitcoin claimed this technical level was an early 2016 when Bitcoin was trading around five hundred dollars and prior to the 4000 percent rally that brought Bitcoin to twenty k just twenty months later, this historical precedent suggests that the crypto market is on the verge of its next parabolic rally. I repeat, this historical precedent suggests that the crypto market is on the verge of its next parabolic rally. If you’re ready, let me know in the comments below. I know I’m ready. I’ve been waiting a very long time. The latest of many bullish signs. This is the latest of many historical relevant signs that Bitcoin is soon going to erupt into a full blown bull run. Let’s go BTC Bitcoin’s trend. Earlier this week was so strong that amid the peak of Wednesday’s rally, a trader observed an unexpected technical occurrence. The Relative Strength Index, also known as the RSI reading of Bitcoin’s when our chart hit ninety six point five, just a few points shy of the top of the oscillator, which is one hundred traditional forms, a technical analysis state that whenever the RSI passes the level of 70, it is overbought over the timeframe that is being analyzed. The fact that Bitcoin’s one hour RSI briefly hit ninety six point five means that it was extremely overbought, almost to the point of lunacy, according to a crypto trader. The last time this metric was this high for Bitcoin was in April of twenty nineteen. On the day that the crypto rocketed twenty five percent higher within the span of a few hours. What followed this move was an extended rally from the four thousands to fourteen thousand within three months. Similarly, a trader shared the chart in the wake of Bitcoin’s recent strength, noting that the rising wedge that had constrained Bitcoin’s price for the past six weeks has been decimated with clear invalidation to the upside. Yea, what’s especially notable about this formation of Bitcoin braken above the rising wedge after a bear market. This is the exact same market structure that marked the start of twenty nineteens Bullrun that brought prices from the 4000 to fourteen thousand dollars in just three months time. As we can see right here on the chart brought to you by rookie SBT on Twitter. And before we get to our next story of the day entitled Bitcoin Supercycle Theory Ignites Crypto Twitter as the Bitcoin having approaches. Let’s take a look at the overall cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin currently up point seven percent for the day trading at eight thousand eight hundred and seventy one dollars. We have a theory come up point four percent, trading at two hundred and twelve dollars. SRP up one point six percent, trading at 22 cents. We have link up point nine percent, trading at three dollars and eighty three cents, BMB down point three percent, trading at seventeen dollars and 42 cents. We have missed slight coin down point zero four percent. Trading at forty seven dollars. Bitcoin cash down point eleven percent. Trading at two hundred and fifty four dollars. And Satoshi Vision dead even. Trading at two hundred and ten dollars. I would like to see Bitcoin break that nine thousand dollar resistance and retest the ninety five hundred dollar level, which is where we broke down last time. We just did this parabolic surge from about seventy seven hundred to ninety five hundred two corrected to where we’re currently at. I think if we can break that ninety five hundred dollar resistance will continue inching forward leading up to the having. I’m still very bullish around this time considering that having is just nine days out. There’s a lot of institutional money flowing in to the crypto market at this time. And now checking out some of the volume on the top exchanges we have buy announced down 38 percent for the day with about five billion in volume. Okay. X down 31 percent for the day with about two point four billion in volume bit next, down 36 percent with two point two billion in volume. But this is normal considering how much volume we’ve had in the past couple days into the crypto market. I mean, I saw Buy announced the other day like over 15 billion dollars in volume in a single day. You know what I mean? So there is still a lot of money flowing even though we’re down in the past 24 hours. All right. Now for our next story of the day. Bitcoin supercycle theory ignites crypto Twitter as the bitcoin having approaches a prediction that Bitcoin is about to begin. A fourth parabolic phase that will bring the leading crypto to more than a quarter million dollars is lining up the crypto verse, to say the least. A post revealing the new forecast from price analysts Plan B of the stock, the flow model shot across crypto Twitter this week with more than 40 200 likes. At the time of publishing. But the forecast itself has reignited a great debate on the relationship between bitcoins having which will slash the rate of the new Bitcoin entering the market in just a matter of days, nine days, to be exact, and the price of Bitcoin, according to Plan B, who recently told Morgan Creek digital co-founder Anthony Pump, Liano shot out the pump that he’s a member of an institutional investment team that manages roughly 100 billion dollars in assets. His latest stock, the Flow Model, shows Bitcoin rising to two hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars by the end of twenty twenty four. The forecast analyzes Bitcoin scarcity by removing time and grouping Bitcoin’s growth in phases, representing its transition from a proof of concept to a potential payment method to a store of value and then a financial asset. Plan B says that the relationship between Bitcoin’s price and its scarcity determine by dividing the overall supply by its yearly production are coin degraded. That term implies the relationship is especially solid, as if the ratio and price are tethered to one another and taken a look at his tweet here on crypto Twitter. My third Bitcoin article, Bitcoin stopped the flow cross asset model entitled S to F X as in stock the flow X. So we actually added the other assets to this chart, which is actually pretty cool of him to do. Macro investor Rowel Powell says that the new model, which Plan B designed to also evaluate gold and silver, offers a powerful method of the analysis. Here’s what he tweeted on crypto Twitter. This is what I saw in the model when he first revealed it. It gives a great valuation for not only Bitcoin, but gold and silver, too, and other similar assets. It’s super powerful for relative valuations and outright valuations for all these assets. Amazing work. That’s right. However, at the same time, this forecast is also earning plenty of detractors, including economist Alex Krueger. He says the fact that Bitcoin scarcity is locked in and not random fundamentally destroys the predictive power of the model. Here’s what Alex Kruger tweeted on Twitter. Bitcoin stock, the flow and price are not going to grated. Therefore, the stock, the flow model has no predictive power. Stock the flow cannot be used to predict price stock. The flow and price are not integrated because stock the flow is not route process. An example, not random. And then he went on to include debunk integration by arguin stock the flow as a stationary variable and Quinter Gracian can only be present among non stationary variables should be integrated to the same order. Thank you. Alex Krueger for sharing your two. Satoshi is another longtime criticism of Bitcoin stock. The flow chart is that it is based on small number of data points with Bitcoin going through just two prior hangings in its short history. Since those having Bitcoin has also become increasingly institutionalized, leading coin shares Chief Strategy Officer Meltem de Mirrors to argue that the rise of fut. from the likes of the CMC has fundamentally made Bitcoin’s future price far less predictable. So what are your thoughts surrounding the stock, the flow model by Plan B? Do you feel it could be accurate in predicting the future price of Bitcoin? Let me know your thoughts in the comments right down below. Me personally, I do feel it has been accurate over the past decade. And I’m looking forward to a two hundred eighty eight thousand dollar Bitcoin price. I don’t know about you play around if you won’t. But that’s where we head in to the moon, my friend. All right. Now, taking a look at the Bitcoin block reward having countdown. We have nine days. Twenty two hours, 22 minutes and eight seconds remaining. Currently, the estimated date for the Bitcoin having set to be May 12th. This could change because it’s all depending upon the block reward. Right. And now taking a look at the overall cryptocurrency market cap, we’re sitting just under a quarter trillion dollars at two hundred and forty nine billion with one hundred and thirty four billion in volume in the past 24 hours. And the current BTC dominance is still on the climb at sixty five point five percent. And taking a look at the top gainers within the top 100. We have digits, right? Go, Deji. Up 16 percent. Trading at one point eight cents. The central land up 11 percent. Trading at three point six cents. Had there a hash graph up 11 percent, trading at four point three cents higher on up nine percent. Trading at 34 cents. Fada up eight percent. Trading at thirteen and a half cents. Zyla quar up five percent, trading at point 006 and ZET coin up three point eight percent, trading at four dollars and 37 cents. And now for the biggest losers for the day. Within the top 100, we have streamer data coin down nine percent, trading at seven cents higher, down seven percent, trading at thirty seven cents. Unit bright down six percent. Trading at thirty one and a half cents. Energy down three point eight percent. Trading at three dollars and 43 cents. Aive down three point four percent. Trading at four cents. Zibi Tolkan down one point seven percent. Trading at 24 cents and bit shares down one point six percent, trading at two cents. Now let’s check out the bit MECs margins. We can see the bulls are back in control, but barely leading with about 17 million and superiority in the last 24 hours, with longs leading fifty point four two percent versus forty nine point five eight percent shorts. Are you currently bullish or bearish? Let me know in the comments below. And now checking out the Crypto Greed and Fear Index shows we’re currently rated a 40 in fear. Yesterday was a 40 in fear. Last week at 28. And fear. And last month, a 12. And extreme fear. Hey, this is a good sign because we’ve been in extreme fear for like two months and now we’re finally inching our way back into fear and maybe in the next few days we can be neutral again. Let’s see if you’re not familiar with the Crypto Greed and fear index. Extreme fear can be a sign that investors are too worried. That can be a buying opportunity. And when investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction. And I want to encourage you to check out the description right below this video by clicking show. More in the description right down below for a detailed analysis of what’s going on in the market. This goes for all 400 plus videos right here on my channel. Also have some very helpful resources for you to plug into, including the blog to my podcast, which could be found at Crypto News. Yes, dot com. Here you can download the latest episode of the show every day and MP three format so you can listen to it on your way to work on when you’re out and about on the go, working out, doing your thing. Also, be sure to subscribe on YouTube if you haven’t yet already done so. It helps out the channel tremendously. And also you can find us on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple’s I, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, Radio. So whichever podcasting platform you’re active on, please help support the show is greatly appreciated. You can also follow us on Krypto Twitter. My Twitter handle is Krypto News. Yes, you can just click the link here in the description. And also you can join my private Krypto Facebook group entitled Crypto Alchemy. We have over seventeen thousand crypto per Neuse, a part of this group from all over the world to become a part of it. All you need to do is click this link request to join. I’ll be sure to plug you in and also have a private crypto telegram chat to become a part of this. Simply click this link from a mobile device and you’ll automatically be added. And I’m looking forward to connecting with you on the inside. Well, that’s going to conclude today’s show. As always, I appreciate you tuning in and journeying along with me inside this incredible crypto revolution. If you gain value added Today Show. Be sure to smash that subscribe button and click that bell icon to receive notifications of the latest premium crypto news. And real quick before I go, if interested in attending this free online event and Q&A session on Wednesday, May 6th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern with the one and only take a worry. The number one most trusted person in cryptocurrency entitled Five Coins to five million. Your last chance until 2024. Discover a handful of tiny crypto currencies that can turn five hundred dollars into five million thanks to a crypto market phenomenon. You won’t see again until twenty twenty four to register an RSVP. Click the link below this video in the description. It’ll take you here. Simply enter your favorite email address, lock in your spot and I know you’re going to enjoy it and I’ll look forward to catching you on tomorrow’s episode. Peace.

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-surged-happened-again-btc-halving/

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[scottmapess]

BITCOIN SURGED 4,000% AFTER IT TOOK THIS LEVEL IN 2016. IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN!! | BTC Halving 2020

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

In today’s show, Bitcoin surge, 4000 percent after it took this level in 2016. And it just happened again. This is relevant for Bitcoin because the last time Bitcoin claimed this technical level was an early 2016 when Bitcoin was trading around five hundred dollars and prior to the 4000 percent rally that brought Bitcoin to twenty thousand dollars just 20 months later. We’ll be breaking down this critical indicator here in today’s show. Also in today’s episode, the Bitcoin supercycle theory ignites crypto Twitter as the bitcoin having approaches. Taking a look at this thread here by Plan B of the stock, the flow model, it now has four point two thousand likes and one point four thousand read tweets. We’ll be breaking it down for you. Here in today’s show. And as you can see, the Bitcoin having its just nine days. Twenty two hours, 47 minutes and 40 seconds away. This is something that is a pretty big deal here in the crypto space. So we’re gonna be discussing it here in today’s show. And also, we’ll be taking a look at the overall cryptocurrency market. As we can see, Bitcoin and many of the major cryptos are back in the green, whereas the bitcoin price likely to go from here. Find out this plus so much more in today’s show. Here at the news alerts, I drop a brand new episode every single day, so be sure to smash that subscribe button and click that icon to receive notifications of the latest premium crypto news. And before we kick off today’s show, if interested in attending a free online event and Q&A session with the number one most trusted person in cryptocurrency and titled Five Coins to five million, your last chance until 2024 with the one and only, take a worry for your chance to discover a handful of tiny krip those that can turn five hundred dollars into five million thanks to a crypto market phenomenon. You won’t see again until twenty twenty four. Again, this is brand new. Never seen before. May 6th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Live Q&A session to discuss these final five points to five million. Your last chance until 2024. Click the link right down below in the description to lock in your spot and RSVP for this live event. All right. Welcome back to another episode of Crypto News Alerts. I’m your host, J.V.. And let’s dive right into today’s top story of the day. Bitcoin surge. Four thousand percent after it took this level back in 2016. And it just happened again earlier this week. Bitcoin erupted from seventy seven hundred to ninety five hundred within the span of just around 24 hours. It was a move that allowed the crypto to print an extremely strong monthly performance that ended with a bullish engulfing candle. While many took this candle as a decisively positive sign, one trader called the sentiment into question, noting that the bullish engulfing candle is a big misnomer. Technician Thomas Koski wrote himself that bullish engulfing candlesticks are anything but signs of macro reversals. His is quoted saying these candles act as a temporary reversal of a downward price trend. This is also one of the trading setups. I suggest you avoid. Why? Because the primary trend is downward. The bullish engulfing candlestick reverse that trend, but only for a short time. The primary downward trend takes over and price resumes falling. However, Bitcoin recently made another technical accomplishment that could negate the bearish effects of a bullish engulfing candle. That’s right. Bitcoin retakes crucial key level that catalyzed a 4000 percent rally back in early 2016, according to a crypto trader. Bitcoin strong rebound in April saw the cryptocurrency close its monthly kandal above the key level of the Moku cloud. On the one month chart. All right. Taking a look at this tweet from trader Smokey, who wrote Daily Ichi Moku will very likely confirm fully bullish on today’s close, as well as the two day Kumo breakout with the bullish kumo twist. I cannot not be bullish on quarter two. I want to buy the dips. This is relevant for Bitcoin because the last time Bitcoin claimed this technical level was an early 2016 when Bitcoin was trading around five hundred dollars and prior to the 4000 percent rally that brought Bitcoin to twenty k just twenty months later, this historical precedent suggests that the crypto market is on the verge of its next parabolic rally. I repeat, this historical precedent suggests that the crypto market is on the verge of its next parabolic rally. If you’re ready, let me know in the comments below. I know I’m ready. I’ve been waiting a very long time. The latest of many bullish signs. This is the latest of many historical relevant signs that Bitcoin is soon going to erupt into a full blown bull run. Let’s go BTC Bitcoin’s trend. Earlier this week was so strong that amid the peak of Wednesday’s rally, a trader observed an unexpected technical occurrence. The Relative Strength Index, also known as the RSI reading of Bitcoin’s when our chart hit ninety six point five, just a few points shy of the top of the oscillator, which is one hundred traditional forms, a technical analysis state that whenever the RSI passes the level of 70, it is overbought over the timeframe that is being analyzed. The fact that Bitcoin’s one hour RSI briefly hit ninety six point five means that it was extremely overbought, almost to the point of lunacy, according to a crypto trader. The last time this metric was this high for Bitcoin was in April of twenty nineteen. On the day that the crypto rocketed twenty five percent higher within the span of a few hours. What followed this move was an extended rally from the four thousands to fourteen thousand within three months. Similarly, a trader shared the chart in the wake of Bitcoin’s recent strength, noting that the rising wedge that had constrained Bitcoin’s price for the past six weeks has been decimated with clear invalidation to the upside. Yea, what’s especially notable about this formation of Bitcoin braken above the rising wedge after a bear market. This is the exact same market structure that marked the start of twenty nineteens Bullrun that brought prices from the 4000 to fourteen thousand dollars in just three months time. As we can see right here on the chart brought to you by rookie SBT on Twitter. And before we get to our next story of the day entitled Bitcoin Supercycle Theory Ignites Crypto Twitter as the Bitcoin having approaches. Let’s take a look at the overall cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin currently up point seven percent for the day trading at eight thousand eight hundred and seventy one dollars. We have a theory come up point four percent, trading at two hundred and twelve dollars. SRP up one point six percent, trading at 22 cents. We have link up point nine percent, trading at three dollars and eighty three cents, BMB down point three percent, trading at seventeen dollars and 42 cents. We have missed slight coin down point zero four percent. Trading at forty seven dollars. Bitcoin cash down point eleven percent. Trading at two hundred and fifty four dollars. And Satoshi Vision dead even. Trading at two hundred and ten dollars. I would like to see Bitcoin break that nine thousand dollar resistance and retest the ninety five hundred dollar level, which is where we broke down last time. We just did this parabolic surge from about seventy seven hundred to ninety five hundred two corrected to where we’re currently at. I think if we can break that ninety five hundred dollar resistance will continue inching forward leading up to the having. I’m still very bullish around this time considering that having is just nine days out. There’s a lot of institutional money flowing in to the crypto market at this time. And now checking out some of the volume on the top exchanges we have buy announced down 38 percent for the day with about five billion in volume. Okay. X down 31 percent for the day with about two point four billion in volume bit next, down 36 percent with two point two billion in volume. But this is normal considering how much volume we’ve had in the past couple days into the crypto market. I mean, I saw Buy announced the other day like over 15 billion dollars in volume in a single day. You know what I mean? So there is still a lot of money flowing even though we’re down in the past 24 hours. All right. Now for our next story of the day. Bitcoin supercycle theory ignites crypto Twitter as the bitcoin having approaches a prediction that Bitcoin is about to begin. A fourth parabolic phase that will bring the leading crypto to more than a quarter million dollars is lining up the crypto verse, to say the least. A post revealing the new forecast from price analysts Plan B of the stock, the flow model shot across crypto Twitter this week with more than 40 200 likes. At the time of publishing. But the forecast itself has reignited a great debate on the relationship between bitcoins having which will slash the rate of the new Bitcoin entering the market in just a matter of days, nine days, to be exact, and the price of Bitcoin, according to Plan B, who recently told Morgan Creek digital co-founder Anthony Pump, Liano shot out the pump that he’s a member of an institutional investment team that manages roughly 100 billion dollars in assets. His latest stock, the Flow Model, shows Bitcoin rising to two hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars by the end of twenty twenty four. The forecast analyzes Bitcoin scarcity by removing time and grouping Bitcoin’s growth in phases, representing its transition from a proof of concept to a potential payment method to a store of value and then a financial asset. Plan B says that the relationship between Bitcoin’s price and its scarcity determine by dividing the overall supply by its yearly production are coin degraded. That term implies the relationship is especially solid, as if the ratio and price are tethered to one another and taken a look at his tweet here on crypto Twitter. My third Bitcoin article, Bitcoin stopped the flow cross asset model entitled S to F X as in stock the flow X. So we actually added the other assets to this chart, which is actually pretty cool of him to do. Macro investor Rowel Powell says that the new model, which Plan B designed to also evaluate gold and silver, offers a powerful method of the analysis. Here’s what he tweeted on crypto Twitter. This is what I saw in the model when he first revealed it. It gives a great valuation for not only Bitcoin, but gold and silver, too, and other similar assets. It’s super powerful for relative valuations and outright valuations for all these assets. Amazing work. That’s right. However, at the same time, this forecast is also earning plenty of detractors, including economist Alex Krueger. He says the fact that Bitcoin scarcity is locked in and not random fundamentally destroys the predictive power of the model. Here’s what Alex Kruger tweeted on Twitter. Bitcoin stock, the flow and price are not going to grated. Therefore, the stock, the flow model has no predictive power. Stock the flow cannot be used to predict price stock. The flow and price are not integrated because stock the flow is not route process. An example, not random. And then he went on to include debunk integration by arguin stock the flow as a stationary variable and Quinter Gracian can only be present among non stationary variables should be integrated to the same order. Thank you. Alex Krueger for sharing your two. Satoshi is another longtime criticism of Bitcoin stock. The flow chart is that it is based on small number of data points with Bitcoin going through just two prior hangings in its short history. Since those having Bitcoin has also become increasingly institutionalized, leading coin shares Chief Strategy Officer Meltem de Mirrors to argue that the rise of fut. from the likes of the CMC has fundamentally made Bitcoin’s future price far less predictable. So what are your thoughts surrounding the stock, the flow model by Plan B? Do you feel it could be accurate in predicting the future price of Bitcoin? Let me know your thoughts in the comments right down below. Me personally, I do feel it has been accurate over the past decade. And I’m looking forward to a two hundred eighty eight thousand dollar Bitcoin price. I don’t know about you play around if you won’t. But that’s where we head in to the moon, my friend. All right. Now, taking a look at the Bitcoin block reward having countdown. We have nine days. Twenty two hours, 22 minutes and eight seconds remaining. Currently, the estimated date for the Bitcoin having set to be May 12th. This could change because it’s all depending upon the block reward. Right. And now taking a look at the overall cryptocurrency market cap, we’re sitting just under a quarter trillion dollars at two hundred and forty nine billion with one hundred and thirty four billion in volume in the past 24 hours. And the current BTC dominance is still on the climb at sixty five point five percent. And taking a look at the top gainers within the top 100. We have digits, right? Go, Deji. Up 16 percent. Trading at one point eight cents. The central land up 11 percent. Trading at three point six cents. Had there a hash graph up 11 percent, trading at four point three cents higher on up nine percent. Trading at 34 cents. Fada up eight percent. Trading at thirteen and a half cents. Zyla quar up five percent, trading at point 006 and ZET coin up three point eight percent, trading at four dollars and 37 cents. And now for the biggest losers for the day. Within the top 100, we have streamer data coin down nine percent, trading at seven cents higher, down seven percent, trading at thirty seven cents. Unit bright down six percent. Trading at thirty one and a half cents. Energy down three point eight percent. Trading at three dollars and 43 cents. Aive down three point four percent. Trading at four cents. Zibi Tolkan down one point seven percent. Trading at 24 cents and bit shares down one point six percent, trading at two cents. Now let’s check out the bit MECs margins. We can see the bulls are back in control, but barely leading with about 17 million and superiority in the last 24 hours, with longs leading fifty point four two percent versus forty nine point five eight percent shorts. Are you currently bullish or bearish? Let me know in the comments below. And now checking out the Crypto Greed and Fear Index shows we’re currently rated a 40 in fear. Yesterday was a 40 in fear. Last week at 28. And fear. And last month, a 12. And extreme fear. Hey, this is a good sign because we’ve been in extreme fear for like two months and now we’re finally inching our way back into fear and maybe in the next few days we can be neutral again. Let’s see if you’re not familiar with the Crypto Greed and fear index. Extreme fear can be a sign that investors are too worried. That can be a buying opportunity. And when investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction. 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