#2012 he even lost his wife

[stormte]

I don’t think we give splinter enough credit for his role as a single father and sensei. My guy loses everything, gets turned into a rat, finds 4 little mutant turtles and hides in a sewer system for 15 years. Excuse me, but those are 4, buck wild, feral teen boys he had to take care of, raise, and train. Do you know the pain of having to deal with 4 rampant teens on a day to day basis? I haven’t experienced it, and frankly, I don’t plan to.

We really don’t give Splinter enough credit for the effort he had to put in. He had to find food for children and himself. He had to train them and raise them as both a sensei and a father. He took the time to give them gifts that would play to their strengths.

[reggies-floatie]

Young Love- Derek Hale X Vampire!Reader

Summary: What if instead of Derek falling for Paige when he was younger, he fell for Y/N?

After Y/N randomly left Beacon Hills leaving a young teenage Derek Hale confused and frustrated, she finally returns after a few years, grown and the new history teacher of Scott and the rest of his pack.

Warning: pure filth, enemies to lovers to strangers to lovers again, switch Derek, a bit of angst and smut and fluff, oral male and female receiving, breast worship, and so on…

Enjoy my beautiful readers-

November 7th, 2004

Sitting alone in the music room, practicing my piano trying to focus I hear this bouncing? Fed up with it, I go out to see who’s making all this noise, the second I enter the hallway I make direct eye contact with the one and only, Derek Hale.

“You mind playing basketball somewhere else?” I say clearly agitated,

“Why would I do that?” The arrogant voice of the Hale boy rings against my ears.

“Because idiot, i’m trying to practice” I state through gritted teeth, my eyes glaring at the raven haired boys.

“ooh looks like we’ve got a feisty girl on our hands boys” he says grinning,

Not wanting to play into his games I roll my eyes and shut the door of the music room, praying that the music from the piano drowns out the idiotic boys in the hallway.

After that interaction, about a week later I’m sat at my usual lunch table with my friends Paige and Grace comparing our test answers for history when all of a sudden Paige looks up and smiles, she grabs Grace and quickly their off. Confused, I look up to see the Hale boy walking towards me, that same cocky grin on his face that he had earlier in the week.

“What do you want Hale.” I say rolling my eyes,

“Just wanted to say I think you look gorgeous today, Y/N”

I choke on my milk, “Sorry?” I ask my face heating up,

“You heard me, Cmon Y/N let’s go on a date” He says confidently,

“Yeah i’m good” I say confused but flattered, “is this some kinda sick joke?”

“Why would i be joking?” Derek says with raised eyebrows, I reluctantly agree on going on the date, little did I know what Id be getting myself into.

After our first date, we would use any excuse to see each other and by seeing eachother, I really mean going into empty classrooms and dark hallways to makeout with eachother until we lost our breath. We were whipped for eachother.

That is until my uncle Alaric called me, he sounded really worried, something was going on with his wife, my aunt and he thought i could help. I had no time to say goodbyes to anyone not Paige or Grace. Not even Derek. Little did I know, me going to Mystic Falls would lead to me becoming what my uncle was sacred of, what he hunted. A vampire.

September 8th, 2012

“Good morning class! My name is Ms. Y/L/N, I’ll be your new history teacher!” I happily speak out, “I hope to get to know each and everyone of you lot very well! I know you all probably don’t want to be here given history is the most boring subject” I say using my fingers as air quotations for the last part.

“But i hope you know i’m trying my very best to make this class enjoyable, I’m not one to give out homework, and i’ll always try to give you as much class time as i can to help you guys, so please if you’ve got any questions i’ll be more than happy to help you guys.” I say making eye contact with a boy with a buzz cut, i can tell he’s going to need help.

The year started our lovely, that is until this blonde girl, Erica, waked into class looking as confident as ever, it was a good look on her don’t get me wrong, but i could tell by her smell that she was a wear wolf. As the year started I could tell who was and wasn’t aware of the supernatural world. the people who I knew that know about it were, Scott McCall, Allison Argent, Stiles Stillinski, Erica Reyes, Issac Lahey, and Boyd. I’m sure some others knew but those were my main suspects. There was this one kid, Matt I knew he was up to something i just didn’t know what.

I was going to sub in for Mr. Harris as he randomly didn’t show up and the school didn’t have any substitutes that could come in last minute, so as any good teacher would I rushed over, as i walked in I heard Scott and Stiles whisper about how Derek Hale is trying to expand his pack. Hearing this I stiffened my back and coughed to get the student’s attention. I made direct eye contact with scott and with that, he knew that I knew about him and his friends.

Given that the class was the last of the day, when the bell rang i started writing notes for Mr.Harris when none other than the trouble duo came up to my desk, “Need help?” I ask not looking up from my paper at the two.

“you know about us.” Scott says, his heart rate rising, “are you a wolf too?” the boy with the buzz cut butts in,

“something like that.” I say finishing my notes, “what is it you were saying about derek hale?” I ask, standing up.

Me being impatient, I compelled the two boys into telling me everything they know, once they are done, we chat for a bit more before i’m off. I’m about to get in my car when I notice a tire in flat. I turn around as i’m greeted with Issac claws out pointed at me.

“Hello Mr. Lahey” I speak up, with a calm voice.

“What did something like that mean?” He asks, that sly fucker listened into my conversation with Scott and Stiles,

“Vampire, blood sucker, you know whatever they call us these days.” I say shrugging, “what’s it to you?” I ask the boy, when suddenly it clicks, he thinks i’m the Kanima,

“you sure?” he asks, “I need you to come with me”

“I’m your teacher Issac, me getting into your car would be highly inappropriate.” I know for a fact issac doesn’t care and he won’t leave till i do so with that i get into the passenger seat.

After a quiet drive and a few empty threats, we show up to a loft type place? slowly walking behind him we get a these big doors to which he opens, “Derek, I think we found our Kanima” issac says out loud to which i scoff. he can’t be serious.

“derek’s out right now with boyd but he’ll be back” Erica states, “Ms. Y/L/N?” she says confused as me and isaac walk in,

“Hey Erica” I say with a smile unbothered by the situation, “for reference i’m not the Kanima but i’m glad you guy’s thought of me” I say a smile plastered on my face.

“only. a kanima would say that” Issac says with a scoff, suddenly he cuts me with something normally i would care and it would heal, but i let out a scream, that little shit has vervain. I fall to the ground holding my wound.

What feels like two hours which is really ten minutes go by when Erica and Issac stand up at the opening door. In walks in boyd, with Derek Hale in all his glory,

Boyd is the first out of the two to notice me, “Ms. Y/L/N? holy shit are you ok?” he asks, the second my last names leaves his mouth derek looks up, there he is, the boy who i fell in love with then abandoned.

“don’t, she’s the kanima.” erica says her eyes glowing at me,

“If i was the kanima I don’t think vervain would take me down but here we are” i say, the veins under my eyes showing as well as my fangs,

“Y/N?” Derek says looking at me, “you three get out of here” he says looking at his pack members,

“but-“ is safe starts but is cut off,

“she’s not the Kanima.” he says his red eyes glowing at the three, and with that, they leave,

i try to muster the energy to move, or to even thank him but it’s cut short as a shooting feeling of pain hits me, causing me to scream, worried, derek runs over “how can i help you?” he asks looks at the wound,

“blood. i need blood and fire.” i says throwing my head back in pain, derek runs off and comes back with a blow torch and his claws out,

“her i got fire and you can use my blood” he says starting at his once girlfriend,

“fuck that, i’m not feeding off you, i’ll kill you” i say looking him in the eyes, but everyone knows derek hale is the most stubborn person ever. “it’s going to feel weird but when it gets too much tell me okay?” i say as he nods. with that i close my eyes as my fangs come out and i sink them into his neck, tasting the blood in my mouth sent a sense of euphoria to come over me, and i think him too as he lets out a sudden groan, after a little bit i pull back as i grab the torch and i burn the vervain out of me. the pains too much for me so i pass out, the world going black.

I wake up to the smell of coffee and the sun shining into the room, i’m on a mattress and i’m wearing a large shirt which i assume is derek’s, i groan and sit up only to meet the gorgeous green eyes i once yearned to see. “hey” i mutter weakly,

“where we’re you all this time?” derek says handing me a cup of coffee,

“I was with my uncle, in Mystic Falls, i became a vampire just a little while after i came there, that’s why i never came back i was scared that if you saw me like, we’ll you know, that you wouldn’t love me anymore.” i say looking down at the floor, “i was ashamed derek, and i feel so bad” i say finally meeting his gaze,

“how’d you die.” he asks, sadness in his voice,

“it was either me or my sister who had to die, so i took the step forward and here i am” I say a weak smile on my face. the rest of the day is spent with me and derek catching up, the things we missed, i never thought that seeing him and the conversation we had would lead to him, laying down on the mattress half naked, with me in top of him making out. hey, maybe old habits really do die hard.

I let out a small moan as his hands wrap around me and unclip my bra, “derek” i moan as one of his hands goes to my breast and the other goes into his mouth, i don’t think i’ve ever felt this good holy shit, his mouth moves from my boob to my neck, which leads to him flipping me over and removing my pants and underwear, his hand finds my clit as he plays with it, leaving little figure 8’s making me moan, the other hand goes to his pants and with one hand he pulls them off, he kissed my mouth, then my neck, then my breasts to my stomach then to my mound, my hands go straight to his hair as his skilled tongue draws patterns on my clit to my entrance, the feeling is so divine and i feel as if i’m about to come when he stops,

he draws a whine out of me, “calm down my girl, i want you to come around my cock” he says stroking his member.

i close my eyes as he enters me, and shock of pain and pleasure erupts through my body as he slowly starts moving. his pace gets rougher and rougher as we both start moaning louder and louder, I flip him over as i started riding him, pinning his hands above his head, i bite my lip and let my head fall against his chest as this new position is the one to send me over the edge, i feel my stomach start to tighten as i finally let my release go, clenching around derek

“oh fuck” i hear him slip out as he comes inside of me, completely emptying himself. I drop next to him as he holds me close, “stay with me this time?” he says staring into my eyes,

“of course” i say smiling.

later that day i changed into better clothes, i saw derek standing behind the kitchen island washing the counter, i walked over and kissed him.

as i pretended to drop something, he laughs it iff but it’s stuck in his throat as he feels my hand palm him, i pull down his sweats and start massaging him with a grin, “you dont need to.” he starts but i just smile as i take him in my mouth.

he lets out a moan as his hand goes behind my head pushing me further down his large cock, this man had to be atleast 9 inches, i continue to deepthroat him as i hear the door open, hearing that mixed with the voice of erica and issac only make me keep going i can tell derek is annoyed that they came here, but i know he’s happy that i’m continuing.

they walk into the room and start talking to him, i reach my hand to fondle his balls as he lets out a chocked growl and i feel something shoot down my throat, suddenly i hear issac stop talking, “oh shit derek” he says laughing as he realizes what happened, quickly he leave pulling erica behind him, her still being confused,

i stand up and kiss his lips, with a smirk, me coming back is going to be so fun.

Hey gang! sorry i haven’t posted in a while, i’ve has loads going on omfg. sorry if the words are wrong, not only am i on the phone but english isn’t my first language. i hope you enjoyed and make sure to send requests.

muah muah -Bailey

[itsohh]

With You

A/N: Female reader, the cheating tag is there cause well I mean, Deimos has a wife lol.

Summary: After a mission goes wrong you find yourself in a decade long coma only to find out that your mentor betrayed your team and is currently the world's most wanted.

Word count: 4784

Warnings: Angst, cheating, age difference, power imbalance

Masterlist AO3

2012

A curse left your mouth as he held you pinned against the floor. The second that he kept you there was almost a lifetime, eternal as time slowed down. Completely trapped under him as the heat radiated from his body onto you. If you weren't already hot from training you were certain your checks would have heated up. Time sped up again and he removed himself from on-top you. “Going to have to last longer than that Rookie.”

By no means were you new to combat, yes you were younger than most of the operatives but you weren't a rookie. You didn't dare say that to Gerald though. At the end of the day he was right- you were less experienced than most of the other Rainbow operators. Gerald knew that your enemies wouldn't go easy on you so he didn't go easy on you. 

“I know.” You finally answered him as he handed you your bottle of water. 

“We're doing overtime tonight, I want to see improvement.”

“Can’t, I've got prior plans.” 

Gerald froze at your refusal. “Prior plans?”

“Uh huh.”

“How in the hell do you have prior plans? This should be your biggest priority.”

“Yah know they reckon half of the fight is menal right? Plans Morris. A life. I need to breathe a little or else I'll get lost in our work.”

“You should be lost in our work. It's us or nothing.” He took a swig of water from his own bottle, obviously eager to get back into it. Yet you ignored his body language. 

“I should go. It's certainly late enough.” You mumbled the last part and got off the mat. With a small goodbye wave to Gerard you headed towards the locker room. Yet when you reached the corridor which lead towards it a hand suddenly yanked your arm. 

Gerald looked you in the eye with a look you couldn't quite gauge. It wasn't quite fury but more akin to authority. Control. “Cancel your plans rookie.”

“No.”

“No?” 

“No. I need to just let loose for a moment. I need to relax.”

“You need to train more if you want to stay alive. I think that's a little more important than putting on a cocktail dress and getting wasted like a whore.” He mocked.

Your hand went slap him but he caught your wrist and pinned it to the wall. He took a step towards you and used his body to sandwich you against it. For a moment neither of you spoke. Each time you breathed his chest would press against your while your eyes remained locked on his. 

“You can't speak to me like that.” You finally found the courage to speak. 

“I don't think your in a position to make demands are you sweetheart?” 

At his question silence ring in your ears and you were painfully aware the pair of you were the only ones left in the room, hell even the building. His free hand came down to your chin. “I don't know how you have lasted this long. Sweet thing like you.” 

Your brows narrowed at him. He had been in combat with you, he had seen what you could do. But you had to admit hand to hand was your weakness. The possibility that he was trying to rile you up did occur to you and you studied his face. There were a lot of things people had said to describe you sweet was not one of them. “No one gets close enough to take me.”

Gerald hummed and his body pressed against you. No longer did you breath to touch him, his entire body was for against yours and you could feel his warmth through his shirt and your bra. “This job swallows people. I have to have time to remember I'm a person.” Your voice was practically a whisper as his lips brushed against yours. 

“I can show you that. Cancel your plans with your friends. Stay here. We can take it easy and be productive.” 

“I never said I was going out with friends.” Each time you spoke your lips brushed against his and you could feel his breath on your face. 

His eyes flicked to your lips and then his lips were firmly against yours. With a moan you kissed back against him. He kissed like he fought, hard and full of passion like his life depended on it. His lips were consuming, controlling and demanded everything from you. With your free hand you found the back of his neck and tangled your fingers into his hair before you yanked his head back. 

Gerald let out a groan that seemed to ignite in his eyes and he stared at you. 

“We can't.” You whispered. 

“Why not?” He let go of your wrist and parted slightly from you. 

“You’re my superior.” 

“Trust me, that won't affect anything.”

“You’re- you're married. You have a wife and kids. You love your family and I'm not going to ruin that. I'm not going to be the other woman.” Despite how bad you wished to continue, you pushed on his chest and slipped away from him. 

“Europa.” Your nickname fell from his lips like a prayer. Lips that had been just previously against yours. Lips that you ached for, your body so cold now that his was gone. 

“I won’t tell anyone. I care about you too much for that. A moment of weakness.” You swallowed and looked to the floor. He repeated the name again but this time was a little bit closer. 

“Go spend time with your wife Morris. I'll improve on my own time.” 

-

2021

The sun was almost painfully bright, your body disobeyed your commands. Weak in your own skin it took almost your entire strength to move. Each breath was heavy as you sat up and attempted to look around. 

It was obvious you were in a hospital and you let out a little groan. The fucking grenade. You had seen it and reacted a little too slow. The metal table had taken the brunt of the impact but you had still been sent flying. A breath left your lips. Morris would no doubt give you a hard time about the matter. 

There wasn't any flowers near you. Only an empty vase that hadnt been filled in a long time and a teddy bear which had ‘get well soon’ sewn on it. A layer of dust covered it and you couldn't help but wonder how long you had been there. 

When you tried to move your legs they only barely moved and you decided not to test your luck by standing up. Your eyes found the call button for a nurse and you pressed it. 

A brief curse was heard out of the open door and a few moments later a couple of nurses locked eyes with you. 

“Holy shit she's awake.”

-

2024

It had taken you three years but you were almost back to were you used to be. Your coma had left your body frail and weak but over time and therapy you managed to build your muscles and strength back up. No one from Rainbow had contacted you but you found you did have pension and quite a lot of backpay. 

That was the case until a knock tapped on your door. You had only barely heard it through the small gap of you changing songs on your phone as you worked out. “Coming!” You called and put the phone down. 

The door was opened only a crack and you peered outside. A red headed woman and an older man stood here. “No soliciting.” You went to close the door before the woman jumped into action and called your name. 

Still you went to close the door. 

“Europa!” She called and you froze. It has been a long while since anyone had called you that. “That's what they called you right? May we come in and talk?” 

Your hand went to the pistol you kept next to the door and aimed it through it. “Who the hell are you people?” 

The man pulled out his wallet and showed you his identification. GIGN. The woman fumbled for a second and did the same. FBI. 

“We're from Rainbow.” He smiled and you paused and slowly you pulled open the door and flipped your gun into your jacket. 

“I thought Rainbow disbanded.”

“It did but was reactivated in 2015.” She explained. You allowed them both inside and closed the door behind them. “My name is Doctor Gustave Ketab and this is my coworker Eliza Cohen.” 

You brought the two over to your lounge and sat down at the sofa. “I would offer you two some tea or coffee but I don't really want you in my apartment so can we cut to the chase?”

They glanced at each other before Gustave took the lead. “We heard that you recently woke up from a coma-”

“-If you call three years recently okay.” You interrupted him. “Look cool you guys got reactivated but I'm never going to be the same as I was and I've already been discharged. I'm actually quite happy living my little life here.” 

“It's not you that we are looking it's about someone you worked with.”

“You want information?” You cocked a brow. Despite having to write reports about everything you didn't blame them coming to the source, there was a lot of information that was omitted from those reports. 

Eliza pulled a folder from the inside of her coat and placed it on your coffee table. With the corner of your pinkie finger you flicked it open to be met with Gerald's face. A breath of air was sucked through your teeth and your brows shot up. A chill ran down your spine and your heart ached at the thought of him. You hadn't seen him since that night. 

“Gerald Morris. That's uh a name I haven't seen in a long time.” You looked away from a moment as you pressed your lips together. “He was my superior, my mentor I guess. What do you want to know about him?” 

Each word had your heart race and you could practically hear the blood rush in your ears. “Can you tell us what he was like?” Gustave asked. 

“A real fucking hard ass. Let me tell you he pushed you to the limit. A real bastard but he took care of me.” You swallowed. “He took care of his team. Was pretty instant on sticking to the book.”

“We're you close?” Gustave asked. 

Sweat stuck to your bra and you were sure if you were glad that you had been working out of not. “I mean yeah, he was my mentor. We were close, sure.” 

You leaned back against the sofa back and looked at them. “Why? He's not still at Rainbow is he? Should have retired by now.” You mumbled. 

“You haven't had any contact with him since waking up?” Eliza asked. 

“Last time I saw him was ah probably what ah 12 years ago? Is he okay?”

Eliza turned the page on the folder and you started to read the file properly. 

“I don't- no he wouldn't.” You frowned. “Gerald cared about his team. He wouldn't-” You cut yourself off with a frustrated sound and rose to your feet. “He wouldn't kill Bogart.” Your teeth clenched and you walked away from them. 

“I'm sorry this must be hard for you to hear-” Eliza started. 

“-We were a team. I didn't even know Daniel died.” Your voice grew quiet and you leaned on the back of the sofa. “We always had each other's backs.”

“Can you tell us anything about them?” Gustave asked. 

“What can I tell you? They were both good men. They both cared so much about helping and saving people. Both of them trained me but then again who didn't in Rainbow? I was everyone's little pet project.”

“Pet project?” Gustave prompted. 

“Everyone had something for me to improve on. With Gerald it was hand to hand, Daniel helped me with improving my marksmanship, when he had the time Six would help improve my stealth, Bishop would teach me tactics when she could, you get the idea.”

“Your record says that you were a marksman, yet you had Bogart teach you?”

“That man was insane. Definitely one of the best shots I've ever seen. I would have been a fool to overlook his help. Why did Gerald kill him?” You were fast to get the question out and be done with the small talk. 

“There's a lot that's happened. It's best if you read it.” Gustave answered and you sighed. A link blink later you sat back down on the sofa and resumed reading his file. 

For five minutes you didn't say a word. All you could do is reread the file over and over. 

“We're wonder if you would know of anything that would set him off and lead him down this path.” Eliza explained when you glanced at them. 

“I don't know. I was already in a coma when all this happened.”

“Look if there's anything at all?” Gustave leaned forward and you could see the implication behind his eyes. 

“If there's something you wish to ask, doctor, ask it.” Your nails dug into the sofa. 

“Were you sleeping with Morris?” Eliza immediately asked and the man slowly turned to face her. The question certainly wasn't subtle.

*No.” You spoke without hesitation. “I didn't sleep my way to my position if that's what you were wondering. Six brought me on because he saw the potential in me and because I was fucking good.”

A breath left your lips and you forced yourself to calm down. It was a reasonable thought, you were young and one of the only women there. “Things weren't left entirely professional though.”

“What do you mean?” Gustave asked. 

“The last time I saw him, we had an argument. He wanted me to train in overtime and I wanted to have a break that night. Things got heated and he kissed me before I rejected him.” 

“You weren't afraid of the consequences that it would have on your career? Normally rejections don't go well for most people.” Gustave asked. 

“I was more worried about the consequences it would have on him and his family to be honest. I’m not sure if I loved him.” A lie. “But I certainly cared about him and I like to think he cared about me. It wasn't a rejection based on unrequited feelings. It was a matter of circumstances. Gerald isn't that man- wasn't that type of man. He wouldn't let it affect our work life but it didn't really matter in the end did it?” You bitterly chuckled to yourself. 

“I wanted him to be happy with his family but it seems he had other ideas. I guess I didn't know him as well as I thought I did. Maybe at all.”

“Would you come back with us and speak to Gerald. We are hoping that he will open up to you.” Gustave asked. 

“Gerald isn't that type of man. His principals are always going to take priority over how he feels. I won't do jack squat and I really don't feel like being used to get a reaction out of him.”

“It-”

“-You lot seem like good operators hmm? I mean your part of Rainbow. You don't fucking need me to do your job. Figure it out.”

“Join Rainbow again. We could use your skills-” Eliza started and you barked out a laugh. 

“-Are you fucking insane? Rejoin Rainbow? I thought I made myself clear earlier. Fuck no, I just fucking said I don't want to be a puppet in your game. Do you people not listen? Is that a requirement for being a Rainbow op these days? Now I think you two have outlasted your stay.”

“He's hunting us down. Even in captivity he seems rather certain he has plans to kill us all. Currently that's 62 operators. He has the skill, the smarts and the information to do so. Every day we don't get through to him is another day that he gets close to accomplishing that goal.” Eliza leaned forward and you could heard the desperation in her voice, the slight crack in it. 

“These are our people. Our friends and right now your one of our biggest leads.” Gustave backed her up. 

“What about his wife and kids? Did you dangle them in front of his face too?*

“Non. They believe he is dead, it's nicer that way.”

“Why not just let me believe the same?”

They didn't answer you and you sighed. “I will talk to him but I'm not being your puppet. I will say what I want to say to him and what I want him to answer. There's not going to be any integration room or one way mirror. No cameras. I want to talk with him normally in a fucking room.”

Gustave started to make a sound of protest but Eliza spoke. 

“Done.”

“May we request someone to be there with you? For your safety. At least.” Gustave asked. 

“No. I told you. This is for me. Not for you, say what you want afterwards I don't care. I'm not being your puppet.” 

“Okay.” Eliza nodded and stood up. Gustave didn't seem happy but didn't complain. “Here's a flight back to base, we will meet you there.”

“At Hereford?”

“Yes.”

-

It was strange being back. Somehow the place was completely different but almost exactly the same at the same time. A guest lanyard stayed around your neck as one of the operators showed you around. 

“Here's were you will be staying. It's close to the SASR ops but the walls are pretty thick.”

“Thanks Campbell.” He opened the door and you dumped your duffle back on the bed. There wasn't much for you to take. 

“Please call me Miles.” He smiled warmly. “If you have any questions feel free to hit me up.”

“Alright thanks.” He left the room and you were finally alone. There wasnt anything to unpack, you prefered to keep everything in your bag. The only thing you did get out was a chunky bracelet which you put on and his beneath your hoodie. 

Ten minutes later there was a knock of your door and you promptly opened it. “Cohen.” 

“Normally I would have done this tomorrow but I doubt you really want to wait that long.” 

She started to lead you down the hallway. “There's not a lot of places he can go unsupervised so I'm afraid we have to put him into an integration room if you want to be in the same room with him.”

You started to protest but she continued on.  

“I know this isn't what you agreed to but we can turn off the cameras and the one way mirror. No one will be there with you, you will have complete privacy. It wasn't easy to get you the department leads protested a lot.” 

“...Thanks.” You weren't very overly grateful but it seemed like the right thing to say. 

“You have fifteen minutes and if we don't hear from you someone will come in after. Knock four times when you're ready to leave.”

The pair of you reached the interrogation room relatively fast at her slightly uncomfortable fast walking pace. “He's already in there.”

She looked towards the door. “Black out will happen when you go in.” 

You opened the door and walked inside. The first thing you noticed was the one way mirror turned clear and then the orange light from the camera turned off. Behind your hoodie you hid and sat down opposite to Gerald. 

He didn't say anything, he didn't seem to care about your presence. You took the bracelet off your wrist and placed it in the middle of the table before you clicked the switch on the side of it. 

Curiosity got the better of the man and he spoke up. “What's this?”

“It's known as the bracket of silence. It's microphone jammer.” You looked at hima nd brought your hoodie down. Right away his face softened up and his lips parted slightly. 

“You’re awake.” His chained hand reached towards your face, specificly the scar that had formed on the side of your head. You flinched slightly when he touched you but didn't stop him. 

“Of all the time for you to wake up, it's now.” He seemed frustrated by the thought. 

“I've been awake for three years now.” 

His brows narrowed and he pulled back his hand. 

“Been doing physical therapy and shit like that. Maybe if you visited you would have known-”

“I visited.” His voice raised before he swallowed and repeated himself quieter. “I visited you whenever I could even after Rainbow collapsed. Even after I faked my death I visited you. But after 7 years…”

“You gave up hope?” 

“I accepted that you weren't waking up. I had someone who was supposed to keep an eye on you but it seems like I'm going to have to have a long conversation with them after this if it slipped that you were out of hospital for three years.” His first clenched and his jaw tightened. 

“Does it matter? From the sounds of it, your hunting down all of Rainbow anyway-”

“No, not Rainbow. Not us, those imposters who parade in our name. I could have helped you, I should have been there to guide you-”

“When? In between your terrorist hobbies? In between killing Bohem? Cause it sounds to me like you are killing us-”

“That was an unfortunate sacrifice I didn't have a choice-”

“You always have a choice!” You slammed your hands on the metal desk. “He was out leader, our commander, my mentor, our friend.” Your voice choked nd you looked away. “You made the decision to kill him.”

“You weren't there.” He growled. 

“No shit I was in a fucking coma but it doesn't change the fact you killed him.”

“They set you up!” He jumped up from the table. 

“What?”

“They set you up. Your mission I read-”

“-No I fucked up. I didn't react fast enough.”

“Just listen to me for one moment, woman!” His loud voice had you paused and you nodded for him to continue. “Your entire mission was fucked the moment you got it. There was no possible way that you could have completed it alive. I'm surprised you even completed the objective. Not because your bad, far from it. The mission was stacked against you. They should have sent in more people with you. It wasn't fair to you and they were going to leave you behind when you failed.”

“How am I here then?”

“Because I found out about it. I was on your extraction heli and went in after you when you went dark.” 

Silence grew between the pair of you as you absorbed the information. “Aren't you tired of being a pawn?”

“Yes.” You looked him in the eye. “I am. Which is why I'm in my retirement. Something you could have done.”

“I couldn't just retire.” 

“Why not? You could have been happy with your family. You would have been an honorable man who finished his time.”

“There's still too much work left to do.”

“What? Killing the next generation? Doesn't sound like work. It sounds like you're a bitter old bastard who can't let things go.” 

Gerald stood up for his chair with fury in his eyes and you continued. “You know they offered me a job. If I took it would you kill me too? If I was there instead of Daniel would you have killed me?”

“No. No it wouldn't have reached that. You would have listened to me.”

“Would I?” You titled your head as you challenged him. Slowly you walked around the table until you were next to him and looked at you. “I told you once that I needed breaks because this job could swallow you whole and this is exactly what I meant. I think you need therapy. Proper therapy where you want it to work. 

I think if I was there that day you would have put me in the ground the same way you would put me in the ground now if I got in your way because you see people not as people anymore but pieces. Pieces in the game where only you can win.  It will never be enough though, how far will your righteous crusade go? How many lives must be taken until you're satisfied? Fuck it let's make it a little easier huh.” You grabbed his hand and brought it to your throat. 

“Kill me. That's what you do right? Kill your own people. Betray those you're close to. Who else was closer to you in my team but me right?” 

Gerald stared at you and you watched as the clockwork behind his eyes turned. He blinked and you could tell right away he was back in control of the situation. 

His hand tightened around your neck but he didn't choke you, it was just to hold you. This thumb gently stroked your jugular before he pushed you back against the wall. Gerald's eyes lined with yours and his lips parted. 

“I wouldn't have killed you. Maybe you wouldn't have listened but I never would have had a reason to kill you. I could disarm you with ease. If I had to I would have taken you with me. I would have kept you safe.” He came closer in a proximity that reminded you of last time. 

“You're not a threat to me, you've never been. I couldn't kill you back then for that same reason I won't kill you now. It's the same reason why you wouldn't have killed me if you were in Daniel’s position. You’re not a threat to me.” The repeated phrase of your own words had your hand clench into a fist. You weren't sure what pissed you off more, that or the fact that he didn't take you as a threat. 

“I hate you.” You whispered as his lips brushed against yours. 

“No you don't. I can tell you want to, you really want to but you don't.” His hand moved from your throat up to you jaw where he used it to hold your face as his lips connected with yours. 

His lips moved slowly against your but firmly. It was like he was testing the waters but savouring every last second of it. “You would have done so well at my side.” He mumbled as he parted, his facial hair still brushing against you. “Bishop was wrong to sign you off on that mission. She should have sent me with you.” His other hand cupped the other side of your face. 

“I completed the objective, that was a solo mission for a reason. Bishop’s tactics worked.”

His fists slammed on the wall above your head and the chain on the cuffs rattled. 

“It would have cost you your life.” He hissed and his eyes pointed at yours. You looked away from him and you heard him sigh. Slowly you looked back at him. Gerald calmed himself with a deep breath and his forehead met yours where he gently rested it. 

“It already stole a decade from you. The risk of a solo insertion was too high. I should have been there.” Gerald's voice was quiet. The bottom of his face pushed forward and once again his lips were against yours. Once again there was a sense of slow urgency, as if he couldn't properly speak. Like somehow those kisses could make it better, that they couldn't explain matters. 

“But you weren't.” You whispered when he parted. You ducked down from under his arms and went towards the table. “You weren't there Morris. I went into a coma and you betrayed Rainbow. You became the very thing we were supposed to stop. I heard the stories, how are you any better than Nowak?”

“Nowak was an incompetent arrogant asshole who turned traitor because he didn't have any self worth.” He spun around and grabbed your wrist. 

“Well you have three of those traits down don't you?” You snatched your wrist back and turned away from him dead set on the door. 

“Europa.” 

“You know I think I would have preferred it if they just told me you died. It would have been kinder.”

He called out your name once, twice but didn't move to stop you. 

You took a few steps toward the door and knocked four times. The door soon swung open and you didn't look back. 

[tawus]

African/African-American/Black

Do The Right Thing (1989) On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

Goodbye Solo (2008) This film is touching and humorous. It is the story of an unlikely friendship between a struggling but happy cab driver from Senegal, and a tormented southern man with secrets.

Lincoln (2012) As the Civil War continues to rage, President struggles with continued fighting on the battlefield during the civil war but he also fights with many inside his own cabinet with his decision to emancipate the slaves.

Malcom X (1992) Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam.

Straight Outta Compton (2015) The group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.

The Color of Friendship (2000) Mahree Bok is a white South African teenager and a product of the Apartheid system raised to view dark-skinned people as second-class citizens. Piper Dellums is the daughter of an African-American U.S. Congressman living in Washington D.C. When Mahree is chosen to spend her time as an exchange student at the Dellums's house, she is shocked on her arrival to discover that the Dellums are black, and the Dellums are just as surprised when they realize that Mahree is a white South African.

The Color Purple (1985) Based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple is a richly-textured, powerful film set in America's rural south. It is a brilliant drama about a black woman's struggles to take control of her life in a small Southern town in the early 20th century.

The Help (2011) This academy award winning movie takes place during the civil rights movements of the 1960’s, when an aspiring writer decides to write a book about the African-American maids' point of view on the white families they work for and the hardships they experience on a daily basis.

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Cambodian/Chinese/Vietnamese

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) A senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.

Holly (2006) In Cambodia, Holly, a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, encounters Patrick, an American stolen artifacts dealer. The story follows their strong connection and her unrelenting efforts to escape her fate.

Last Train Home (2009) A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.

Lost in Paradise (2011) Khoi, naive twenty-year-old travels to Ho Chi Minh City from the countryside to begin a new life. It's his first time in the big city and he's looking for a place to live.

Raise the Red Lantern (1991) A young woman becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy lord and must learn to live with the strict rules and tensions within the household.

Sentenced Home (2007) This documentary follows three Cambodian-American men, brought to the U.S. as children by their refugee families. They were raised in the grim public housing of Seattle, among gangs and other realities of that life. Bad choices as teens altered their lives forever, when immigration laws after 9/11 provided no second changes for such children. Though they were raised in the U.S., speak to one another in English, even think in English, each is sentenced to return to Cambodia - separated from family here, possibly forever.

The Joy Luck Club (1993) The story of four Chinese women who immigrated to the U.S. and their first-generation daughters. When one of the women dies, her daughter plays Mahjong with the older women and begins to really learn what her mother endured in China and of her sisters who were left behind. Daughter from Danang (2002) Separated at the end of the Vietnam war, an "Americanized" woman and her Vietnamese mother are reunited after 22 years.

The Last Emperor (1987) The story of the final Emperor of China.

The Quiet American (2002) An older British reporter vies with a young U.S. doctor for the affections of a beautiful Vietnamese woman.

The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000) The plot centres around three sisters, two of whom are happily married (or so it appears).

Three Seasons (1999) An American in Ho Chi Minh City looks for a daughter he fathered during the war. He meets Woody, a child who's a street vendor, and when Woody's case of wares disappears, he thinks the soldier took it. Woody hunts for him.

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South Asian/Indian

Bhaji on the Beach (1998) Hashida, an 18-year old Asian woman, lives with her family in Birmingham. Her father wants her to become a doctor and next month her medical school is going to start. Secretly, she has a black boyfriend – which is an absolute faux pas in some Asian cultures – and has now discovered that she is pregnant. She joins a small South Asian women's group on a trip to Blackpool, a trip that holds life-changing experiences for all.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Teen-aged Londoner Jesminder Bhamra chases her dream of being a professional soccer player while dealing with the objections of her traditional Sikh family.

Gandhi (1982) A biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of non-violent protest.

Slum Dog Millionaire (2008) A teen in Mumbai, India who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" When he is suspected of cheating, he is arrested. During his police interrogation, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

The Namesake (2006) A tale of a first-generation son of traditional, Indian immigrant parents. As he tries to make a place for himself, not always able to straddle two worlds gracefully, he is surprised by what he learns about his family and himself.

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Disease/Mental Illness/Disability

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989) Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.

The Theory of Everything (2014) A look at the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife.

Ray (2004) The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

Still Alice (2014) A linguistics professor and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

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LGBTQ+

A Single Man (2009) The story of an English professor, who one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles. It is a powerful story of his grief and pain for the loss of someone he truly deeply loved.

Boys Don’t Cry(1999) This film is about the true life story of Brandon Teena, a young woman who is going through a sexual identity crisis. She cuts her hair and dresses like a man to see if she can pass as one. She lived life in a male identity until it was discovered he was born biologically female.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) This film tells the story of a forbidden and secretive relationship between two same-sex cowboys and their lives over the years.

Milk (2008) This film tells the story of American gay activist, Harvey Milk, and his struggles as he fights for gay rights and becomes California's first openly gay elected official.

Philadelphia (1993) In this movie, a lawyer, working for a conservative law firm, is diagnosed with AIDS. His employer fires him because of his condition. He tries to find someone to take his case but all refuse except one willing small time lawyer who advocates for a wrongful dismissal suit in spite of his own fears and homophobia.

The Danish Girl (2015) A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

Transamerica (2005) A pre-operative male-to-female transgender takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

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Hispanic/Latino(a)/Mexican

A Day Without a Mexican (2004) One-third of the population of California is Latinos, Hispanics, Mexicans. How would it change life for the state's other residents if this portion of the populous suddenly vanished? The film is a "mockumentary" designed to show the valuable contributions made every day by Latinos.

Babel (2006) Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.

El Norte (1983) The Guatemalan army discovers Mayan Indian peasants who have begun to organize, hoping to rise above their label of "brazos fuertes" or "strong arms" (manual laborers). The army massacres their families and destroys their village to give the new recruits no choice but to follow and obey. However, two teenage siblings survive and are determined to escape to the U.S. or El Norte. They make their way to L.A. - uneducated, illegal immigrants, alone.

Mi Familia (My Family) (1995) This epic film traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Jose and Maria, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930s. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the 1950s. As the second generation become adults in the 1960s, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent.

Sin Nombre (2009) A Honduran young girl and a Mexican gangster are united in a journey across the American border.

Under the Same Moon (2007) Heartwarming story about a mother who leaves Mexico to make a home for herself and her son (Adrian Alonso). When the boy's grandmother dies, leaving him alone, he sets off on his own to find his mother.

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Immigrants/Undocumented

Crossing Arizona (2006) With Americans on all sides of the issue up in arms and Congress in a policy battle over how to move forward, Crossing Arizona tells the story of how we got to where we are today. Heightened security in California and Texas has pushed illegal border-crossers into the Arizona desert in unprecedented numbers (estimated 4,500 a day). Most are Mexican men in search of work, but increasingly the border-crossers are women and children wanting to join their husbands and fathers. This influx of migrants crossing through Arizona and the attendant rising death toll has elicited complicated feelings about human rights, culture, class, labor, and national security.

Dancer in the Dark (2000) An east European girl goes to America with her young son, expecting it to be like a Hollywood film.

El Norte (1983) The Guatemalan army discovers Mayan Indian peasants who have begun to organize, hoping to rise above their label of "brazos fuertes" or "strong arms" (manual laborers). The army massacres their families and destroys their village to give the new recruits no choice but to follow and obey. However, two teenage siblings survive and are determined to escape to the U.S. or El Norte. They make their way to L.A. - uneducated, illegal immigrants, alone.

In America (2002) A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.

The Terminal (2004) When an Eastern European immigrant comes to American to fulfill a promise to his father he finds himself stranded inside JFK airport, making it his temporary residence when he cannot enter the USA nor return home.

The Visitor (2007) A lonely economics professor in Connecticut life is changed forever - and for the better - when he finds a couple of illegals, who happen to be living in his New York apartment.

Green Card (1990) A French man wanting to stay in the US enters into a “short-term” marriage to an American woman so he can get his green card. Complications result when he gets caught lying.

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Indigenous

Avatar (2009) A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) A chronicle of how American Indians were displaced as the U.S. expanded west. Based on the book by Dee Brown.

Once Were Warriors (1994) A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) In 1931 Australia, government policy includes taking half-caste children from their Aboriginal mothers and sending them a thousand miles away "to save them from themselves." Molly, Daisy, and Grace (two sisters and a cousin who are 14, 10, and 8) arrive at their “school” and promptly escape, under Molly's lead. For days they walk north, following a fence that keeps rabbits from settlements, eluding a native tracker and the regional constabulary. Their pursuers take orders from the government's "chief protector of Aborigines," A.O. Neville, blinded by Anglo-Christian certainty, evolutionary worldview and conventional wisdom.

Smoke Signals (1998) Young Indian man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family (and his tough son Victor), and Victor hasn't seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold's remains, but only if Thomas will also go with him. Thomas and Victor hit the road.

The Spirit of Crazy Horse (1990) One hundred years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, Milo Yellow Hair recounts the story of his people-from the lost battles for their land against the invading whites-to the bitter internal divisions and radicalization of the 1970's-to the present-day revival of Sioux cultural pride, which has become a unifying force as the Sioux try to define themselves and their future.

Whale Rider (2002) On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their History dates back a thousand years to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. Whangara chiefs have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand culture, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai must fight a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

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Middle Eastern

Baran (2001) In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

Incendies (2010) Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history, and fulfill their mother's last wishes.

Schindler's List (1993) In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.

The Band’s Visit (2007) A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.

Turtles Can Fly (2004) Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.

Wadjda (2012) An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.

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Pacific Islander/Polynesian

Balangiga: The Howling Wilderness (2017) 1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith's Kill and Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.

Moana (2016) In Ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by the Demigod Maui reaches an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out the Demigod to set things right.

Once Were Warriors (1994) A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.

Princess Kaiulani (2009) The story of a Hawaiian princess' attempts to maintain the independence of the island against the threat of American colonization.

Whale Rider (2002) On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their History dates back a thousand years to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. Whangara chiefs have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand culture, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai must fight a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

——————————————

Women

Āfsāīd = Offside (2006) Struggle of Women in a country that excludes them from entering the stadiums.

The Help (2011) This academy award winning movie takes place during the civil rights movements of the 1960’s when an aspiring writer decides to write a book about the African-American maids' point of view on the white families they work for and the hardships they experience on a daily basis.

Suffragette (2015) The foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.

Water (2005) The film examines the plight of a group of widows forced into poverty at a temple in the holy city of Varanasi. It focuses on a relationship between one of the widows, who wants to escape the social restrictions imposed on widows, and a man who is from the highest caste and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.

Whale Rider (2002) On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their History dates back a thousand years to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. Whangara chiefs have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand culture, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai must fight a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

Ooh amazing, thank you for this! ❤️

I've watched Slumdog Millionaire, Brokeback Mountain, and Schindler's List. And read a Penguin Classics abridged version of Rabbit-Proof Fence as part of my English learning back in my teenage years. Some of the others I'm familiar with tho have yet to watch; and others are completely new to me

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant and Cush Jumbo walk into the Donmar Warehouse’s offices, above the theatre’s rehearsal rooms in Covent Garden, and sit down on a sofa, side by side. Tennant has that look his many fans will instantly be able to call to mind of being at once stressed – with a desperado gleam in his eye – yet mischievously engaged, which has to do with the intelligence he applies to everything, the niceness he directs at everyone. He is wearing a mustard-coloured jersey and could be mistaken for someone who has been swotting in a library (actually, he has been rehearsing a fight scene). If I am right in supposing him to be tense at this mid-rehearsals moment, I know – from having interviewed him before – that it is not his way to put himself first, that he will crack on and probably, while he’s at it, crack a joke or two to keep us all in good spirits. But some degree of tension is understandable for he and Jumbo are about to perform in a play that explores stress like no other – Macbeth – and must unriddle one of the most dramatic marriages in all of Shakespeare’s plays.

This is star billing of the starriest kind. Tennant, at 52, has more triumphs under his belt than you’d think possible in a single career (including Doctor Who, Broadchurch’s detective, the serial killer Dennis Nilsen in Des, and the father in There She Goes). Jumbo has been seen on US prime time in The Good Wife and The Good Fight and in ITV’s Vera. But what counts is that each is a Shakespeare virtuoso. Jumbo, who is now 38, won an Ian Charleson award in 2012 for her Rosalind in As You Like It and, in 2013, was nominated for an Olivier for her Mark Antony in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar. More recently, she starred as a yearningly embattled Hamlet at the Young Vic. A dynamo of an actor, she is described by the former New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley as radiating “that unquantifiable force of hunger, drive, talent usually called star power”. Tennant, meanwhile, who has played Romeo, Lysander and Benedick for the RSC, went on to embody Hamlet and Richard II in performances that have become the stuff of legend.

Jumbo settles herself cross-legged on the sofa, relaxed in her own body, wearing a white T-shirt, dusky pink tracksuit bottoms, and modestly-sized gold hoop earrings. She looks as if she has come from an exercise class – and she has in one sense – no need to ask whether rehearsals, at this stage, are full-on. As we shake hello, she apologises for a hot hand and I for a cold one, having just come in from a sharp November morning. She is chirpy, friendly, waiting expectantly for questions – but what strikes me as I look at her is how her face in repose, at once dramatic and pensive, gives almost nothing away, like a page waiting to be written on.

Max Webster, the director, is setting the play in the modern day and Macbeth, a taut and ageless thriller, is especially friendly to this approach. I want to plunge straight in to cross-question the Macbeths. Supposing I were a marriage counsellor, what might they tell me – in confidence – about their alliance? Tennant is a step ahead: “There are two versions of the marriage, aren’t there? The one at the beginning and the fractured marriage later.” And he then makes me laugh by asking intently: “Are they sharing the murder with their therapist?”

He suggests Macbeth’s “reliance” on his wife is unusual and “not necessarily to be expected in medieval Scotland” (another excuse for the contemporary production): “I look to my wife for guidance: I don’t make a decision without her,” he explains. “We’ve been through some trauma which has induced an even stronger bond.” Jumbo agrees about the bond and spells out the trauma, reminding us the Macbeths have lost a child, but hesitates to play the game (I have suggested she talk about Lady Macbeth in the first person): “I want to get it right. I don’t want to get it wrong. I don’t know what to say… If I improv Lady Macbeth, it will feel disrespectful because you don’t know if what you’re saying on her behalf is true. And then you’re going to write what I say down and she [Lady Macbeth] is going to be: ‘Thanks, Cush, for f-ing talking about me that way.’” She emphasises that, as an actor, you must never judge your character, whatever crime they might have committed. And perhaps her resistance to straying from the text is partly as a writer herself (it was her play, Josephine and I, about the entertainer and activist Josephine Baker, that put her career into fast forward, opening off Broadway in 2015).

She stresses that the great problem with Lady Macbeth is that she has become a known quantity: “She is deeply ingrained in our culture. Everyone thinks they know who she is. Most people studied the play at school. I did – I hated it. It was so boring but that’s because Shakespeare’s plays aren’t meant to be read, they’re meant to be acted. People think they know Lady Macbeth as a type – the strong, controlling woman who pushed him to do it. She does things women shouldn’t do. The greatest misconception is that we have stopped seeing Lady Macbeth as a human being.”

For Tennant, too, keeping an open mind is essential: “What I’m finding most difficult is the variety of options. I thought I knew this play very well and that it was, unlike any other Shakespeare I can remember rehearsing, straightforward. But each time I come to a scene, it goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.” He suggests that momentum is the play’s great asset: “It has such muscle to it, it powers along. Plot-wise, it’s more front-footed than any Shakespeare play I’ve done.” And is it ever difficult for him as Macbeth to subdue his instinctive comic talent? “Well, yes, that’s right, there are no gags! But actually, there are a couple of funny bits though I’d never intentionally inflict comedy on something that can’t take it. I hope I’m creating a rounded human being with moments of lightness, even in the bleakest times.” Jumbo adds: “Bleakness is funny at times”, and Tennant, quick as a flash, tops this: “Look at our government!” (He is an outspoken Labour supporter.) Later, when I ask what makes them angriest, he says: “Well, she [Suella Braverman]’s just been sacked so… I’m now slightly less angry than I was.” Jumbo nods agreement, adding that what makes her angriest is “unkindness”.

It is Tennant who then produces, with a flourish, the key question about the Macbeths: “Why do they decide to commit a crime? What is the fatal flaw that allows them to think that’s OK? I don’t know that they, as characters, would even know. Has the loss of a child destabilised their morality?” In preparation, Tennant and Jumbo have been researching post-traumatic stress disorder. “PTSD is a modern way of understanding something that’s always been there,” suggests Tennant – and the Macbeths are traumatised three times over by battle, bereavement and murder. “We’ve looked at postpartum psychosis as well,” Jumbo adds. They have been amazed at how the findings of modern experts “track within the play”. Tennant marvels aloud: “What can Shakespeare’s own research process have been?” Jumbo reminds him that Shakespeare, like the Macbeths, lost a child. She relishes the play’s “contemporary vibe which means it’s something my 14-year-old niece will want to see. Even though you know the ending, you don’t want it to go there. It’s exciting to play that as well as to watch it.”

A further exciting challenge is the show’s use of binaural technology (Gareth Fry, who worked on Complicité’s The Encounter, is sound designer). Each audience member will be given a set of headphones and be able to eavesdrop on the Macbeths. “The technology will mess with your neurons in a did-somebody-just-breathe-on-me way,” Jumbo explains. “You’ll feel as if you’re in a conversation with us, like listening to a podcast you love where you feel you’re sat with them having coffee.” Tennant adds: “What’s thrilling is that it makes things more naturalistic – we’re able to speak conversationally.”

Fast forward to opening night: how do they manage their time just before going on stage? Tennant says: “I dearly wish I had a set of failsafe strategies. I don’t find it straightforward. I’ve never been able to banish anxiety. It can be very problematic and part of the job is dealing with it. I squirrel myself away and tend to get quite quiet.” But at the Donmar, this will be tricky as backstage space is shared. Jumbo encourages him: “When I’ve played here before, I found the group dynamic helpful,” she says, but explains that her pre-show routine has changed since her career took off and she became a mother: “These days, I no longer have the luxury of saying: I’m going to do five hours of yoga before I go on. When I leave home at four in the afternoon, I might be thinking about whether I’ll hit traffic or, whether my kid’s stuff is ready for the next day. You get better at this, the more you do it. The main thing – which doesn’t sound that sexy – is to make sure to eat at the right time, something light, like soup, because when I’m nervous I get loads of acid and that does not make me feel good on stage. I have a cut-off point for eating and that timing has become a superstition in its own way.”

In 2020, Tennant and Jumbo co-starred in the compulsively watchable and disturbing Scottish mini-series Deadwater Fell for C4. How helpful is it to have worked together before? Tennant says it is “hugely” valuable when tackling something “intense and difficult” to be with someone you are “comfortable taking chances with”. Although actors cannot depend on this luxury: “Sometimes, you have to turn up the first day and go: ‘Ah, hello, nice to meet you, we’re going to be playing psychopathic Mr and Mrs Macbeth.’” And Jumbo adds: “I’ve been asked to do this play before and said no. You have to do it with the right person. I knew this would be fun because David is a laugh as well as being very hard-working.” He responds brightly with a non sequitur: “Wait till you see my knees in a kilt…” Are you seriously going to wear a kilt, I ask. “You’ll have to wait and see,” he laughs.

It is perhaps the kilt that triggers his next observation: “We’re an entirely Scottish company, apart from Cush,” he volunteers, suggesting that Macbeth’s choice of a non-Scottish wife brings new energy to the drama. He grew up in Paisley, the son of a Presbyterian minister, and remembers how, in his childhood, “whenever an English person arrived, you’d go “Oooh… from another worrrrld!”, and he reflects: “Someone from somewhere else gives you different energy.” And while on the Scottish theme, it is worth adding that Macbeth is the part that seems patiently to have been waiting for Tennant: “People keep saying: you must have done this play before? I don’t know if Italian Shakespeareans keep being asked if they have played Romeo…”

I tell them I remember puzzling, as a schoolgirl, over Macbeth’s line about “vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’other” – the gymnastic detail beyond me. Tennant suggests that what Macbeth has, more even than ambition, is hubris. But on ambition, he and Jumbo reveal themselves to be two of a kind. Tennant says: “Ambition is not a word I’d have understood as a child but I had an ambition to become an actor from tiny – from pre-school. I did not veer off from it, I was very focused. When I look at it now, that was wildly ambitious because there were no precedents or reasons for me to believe I could.”

“For me, same,” says Jumbo, “I don’t remember ever wanting to be anything else.” She grew up in south London, second of six children. Her father is Nigerian and was a stay-at-home dad, her mother is British and worked as a psychiatric nurse. “At four, I was an avid reader and mimicker. I got into lots of trouble at school for mimicking. My ambition was similar to David’s although, as a girl, the word ‘ambition’ has always been a bit dirty…” Tennant: “It certainly is to a Scottish Presbyterian.” “Yes,” she laughs, “perhaps I should have said Celts and Blacks… Girls grow up thinking they should be modest, right? But I had so much ambition. I knew there was more for me to do and that I could be good at doing it.”

And what were they like as teenagers – as, say, 14-year-olds? Tennant says: “Uncomfortable, plooky…” What’s plooky, Jumbo and I exclaim in unison. “A Scottish word for covered in spots.” “That’s great!” laughs Jumbo. “Unstylish,” Tennant concludes. Her turn: “At 14, I was sassy, a bit mouthy, trying to get into a lot of clubs and not succeeding because I looked way too young for my age. And desperate for a snog.”

And now, as grownups, Tennant and Jumbo are, above all, keenly aware of what it means to be a parent. Jumbo has a son, Maximilian (born 2018); Tennant five children between the ages of four and 21. Parenthood, they believe, helps shape the work they do. “Being a parent magnifies the job of being an actor,” says Jumbo, “because what we’re being asked to do [as actors] is to stay playful and in the present – be big children. As a parent, you get to relive your childhood and see the world through your child’s eyes as if for the first time and more intensely. We don’t do that much as adults.”

Tennant reckons being a parent has given him “empathy, patience – or the requirement for patience – and tiredness. It gives you a big open wound you carry around, a vulnerability that is not a bad thing for this job because it means you have an emotional accessibility that can be very trying but which we need.” But the work-life balance remains, for Tennant, an ongoing struggle: “Just when you think you’ve figured it out, something happens,” he says, “and you have to recalibrate it because your children need different things at different times.” Jumbo sometimes looks to other actors/parents for advice: “To try to see what they are doing – but you never quite get it right.”

And would they agree there is a work-life balance involved in acting itself? Is acting an escape from self or a way of going deeper into themselves? Tennant says: “I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive though they sound as though they should be – I think it is both.” Jumbo agrees: “On the surface, you’re consciously stepping away from yourself but, actually, subconsciously, you have to do things instinctually so you find out more about yourself without meaning to.”

And when they go deeper, what is it that they find? Fear is another of the motors in Macbeth – what is fear for them? “Something being wrong with one of my kids,” Tennant says and Jumbo concurs. And what about fear for our planet? Tennant says: “There is so much to feel fearful and pessimistic about it can be…” Jumbo finishes his sentence: “Overwhelming.” He picks it up again: “So overwhelming that you don’t do anything.” Jumbo worries about this, tries to remind herself that doing something is better than doing nothing: “If everybody did something small in their corner of the world, the knock-on effect would be bigger.” Tennant admits to feeling “anxiety” and distinguishes it from fear. Jumbo volunteers: “I recognise fear in myself but don’t see it as a helpful emotion. It’s underactive, a place to stand still.”

As actors who have hit the jackpot, what would they say, aside from talent, has been essential to their success? Tennant says: “Luck – to be in the right place at the right time, having one job that leads to another.” Jumbo remembers: “Early in my career, I had a slow start. You have to fill your soul with creative things, which is not always easy if you can’t afford to go out. You have to find things that are free, get together with people who are creative and give you good vibes and not people who are bitter and jealous or have lots of bad things to say about the world. This tends to bring more creative things to you.” Tennant observes: “As the creative arts go, acting is a difficult one to do on your own – if you’re a painter, you can paint – even if no one is buying your paintings.” Jumbo chips in: “Because of that, it can be quite lonely when it’s not happening.” “Tennant concludes: “It’s bloody unfair – there are far too many good actors, too many of us.”

And are they in any way like the Macbeths in being partly governed by magical thinking – or do they see themselves as rationalists? (I neglect to ask whether they call Macbeth “the Scottish play”, as many actors superstitiously do.) “I am a rationalist. I’m almost aggressively anti-nonsense,” Tennant says. Jumbo, unfazed by this manifestation of reason, speaks up brightly: “I’m a magical thinker, I’m half Nigerian and that’s all about magical realism and belief in energy. If something goes my way, I think: God, I felt that energy. And the thing that drew me to theatre as a kid was its magic.” And now Tennant, alerted by the word “magic”, starts to clamber on board to agree with her – and Jumbo laughs as they acknowledge the power of what she has just said.'

[hand-picked-star]

Let's talk about some heavy stuff. I don't mind watching something problematic as long as it is portraited as such.

When I watched this episode then and even now I don't find it out-of-character as some might find,I had reason I'll discuss. did I find it problematic? yes,sure, he was not reading her body language right,she was terrified. was it portraited as problematic? yes, I never felt that the show was trying to romanticise this situation inspite of the romantic music. Because the music and the song was for Arnav only, not for them as a couple.If what he intended to do was successful, then I would have a problem with it. To my understanding,Arnav was having a different types of turmoil in his mind.

I will talk about two things.

Arnav's abandonment issue

Arnav's PTSD

This was the episode that was telecasted on 13 august, 2012. I have a post highlighted many days that have the probability of being the last day of their contact marriage, mainly because it was fun. And also if anyone watched IPKKND now,they have no way to tell which is the last day as no character mentioned it.But since 2012, the episode where he said 'I love you, damnit' was the last day of their contact marriage as canon for me.So, I watched this episode and still do with the mindset that it's the last day.

Arnav's Abandonment issue

Arnav was terrified of losing people he loved,that didn't need any explanation.That fear came from losing his mother, who he loved most.Also because his mother left him instead of staying alive for his sake. Arnav had been on a emotional roller-coster ride since the moment he met khushi. He fought so hard to not fall for her,but end up doing the very same thing that destroyed his parents. That day on terrace, among many thing, he lost the girl he loved as well. That's a different kind of pain.the person was not dead,she was even his wife,but to him he lost the girl, he loved and dreamt to have a future with. That marriage was as painful and toxic for him as it was for khushi.

Then against all odds,he got her back again,which was very short-lived,his fear almost came true,she stopped breathing. just notice what he was kept chanting '' you can't do this to me ''. And then he continued to go through situation where he could lose her again and again.He started to feel detached from her.

And then he just got her back home by using all the tricks in his arsenal - trying to be vulnerable, threat,manipulation and what not.I think Arnav understood to a extent the reason behind her leaving home under the guise of buaji's illness,as she couldn't live in a house where everyone is bothered by her.He understood that khushi was making herself responsible for everyone's pain and punishing herself as such.Remember how he was having a conversation with a sleeping khushi about how di would understand.Then he tried his level best to make her comfortable in his home,to make shantivan her home too.All the gifts were indication of that,then return to her fav bed side,trying to establish her status in his household.

But return of dadi and her defiance to accept khushi,surely bothered Arnav to a great extend.She started to antagonise khushi with every chance she got. And the clock of contact marriage was ticking.Even if it was not the last day, how dadi was trying to throw khushi out of the house, At that point if khushi again tried to leave Arnav,it would had been very difficult for Arnav to get her back again.Then khushi started talking about their marriage not being complete. I got a feeling here that Arnav was planning something for convincing khushi of his love, but with return of dadi, returned his PTSD,that rendered him unable to perform what he was planning.But if they consumated the marriage, then it would mean a great deal to khushi and she would not leave him if she accepted him as her husband.I think he became desperate here. And as khushi best responded when she was challenged to do something, he selected that method to achieve his goal. So, in the last day of contact marriage, he tried to consumate their marriage. And together with his triggered PTSD, the situation in hand became very messy.

Arnav's PTSD

It was established in the show that when Arnav is triggering his untreated and unaddressed PTSD reared it's ugly head and he ended up doing terrible things.

I just see a pattern.If his PTSD was not triggered,then he would have been patient and more in-tune with khushi just like he was on bachelor night.

But this post isn't a justification of his action. I just understand why he did whatever he'd done that night like I understand why he tore her dori the very first time he met her. He was absolutely wrong in both situation.

I just feel very bad for both Arnav and khushi in this episode. Bitwa just wanted that one thing in his life to go smoothly. And khushi wasn't letting it happen,so he was very angry at her.And on the other hand the dadi, who was very essential for him in his childhood just kept pestering him.And khushi, oh baby, God bless you. Just a few days khushi, then you wouldn't need any proof of his love,you would be so sure of that.

My scattered thoughts (8/?)

[raytorosaurus]

hi Raytorosaurus, in the beginning of your post you said Ray has done interviews, podcasts, and blogged in recent years, can you please link me to those things? I would be extremely and eternally grateful <3

yes ofc!! this one by tom bryant (author of not the life it seems) is my favourite! and not just because ray talks about how much he loves being a stay at home dad doing chores while his wife gets her master's degree. it's just sweet, and goes a little more in depth into remember the laughter's concept than some of these other interviews.

this one isn't remember the laughter related, but tom bryant also did this interview with him the year before, after he released for the lost and brave dedicated to leelah alcorn (cw non-graphic discussion of suicide). it's really fucking sweet. ray talks a lot about his family and about fatherhood and about how he wants to raise his kids to be as kind and socially conscious as possible in pretty much all of the interviews i've linked here, but i really fucking love this thing he says in this one in particular:

"If ever my son was having a rough time I would just hope that he would trust me and allow me to be there for him. It’s common for parents and older people to look at youth in a negative way and to not respect the young as people. My wife always says that a lot of parents treat their kids like property – the whole, ‘this is my house, these are my rules and you must abide by my law’. You have to put yourself on the same level as your kid, you have to relate to them as a person. I hope that there’s more understanding about the differences between people in the future that my son grows up in.”

at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this one is also really fucking sweet. again he talks about the values he wants to impart on his kids, and how his son is featured in the lucky ones playing his child's percussion set :'''')

this one is a bit longer and just rly cute lol like just fun vibes

there's a couple of shorter ones here and here that are also worth a read. there's also this review that i like - it's not 100% positive but the writer does make a point of saying he's shocked the album didn't get much attention despite ray having been in mcr. yeah me too dude :(

this is a podcast he appeared on - he did at least one or two others but i think sadly they've been lost to time :(((((( but god this one is so sweet he's just sooooo. so <3. ray also says the band broke up a few weeks after his son was born in september 2012 which is interesting lol.

sadly a bunch of his blog stuff has been lost to time because the wayback machine has done a spotty job of archiving it but you can try to explore around the archived pages a bit. if you click around to different dates or subpages you can see some of his photography (tho sadly a lot of it hasn't been saved :((( ) and a few blog posts. you might even come across his shitty vent poetry lol <3333

and then i love this interview sooooo much too like this writer really gets it. ray talks about how he got obsessed with this free climber after watching a mountaineering documentary which inspired the great beyond, so the great beyond actually features a fucking chalk bag as a percussion instrument because he's insane and i love him. it also has the line "enthusiasm leaking from him like a punctured capri-sun" LOL. and then it wraps up with this statement that i really love:

Mixed, engineered and almost entirely performed by Toro, ‘Remember The Laughter’ is very much this man’s pride and joy. Every nuance of the record is explained with intricate detail and the subject matter held within comes straight from his heart. Whether you like it or not remains to be seen, as its influences are often drawn from well outside the My Chemical Romance sphere. Whether you listen to it or not, though, really comes down to this: do you want to hear some honest music?

because honestly that's the one common thread through all of mcr's discography and every single one of their solo projects. they are all 100% earnest. they all access that honesty in different ways and ray's definitely not a super accomplished lyricist so some of the lines on rtl verge on corny or schmaltzy sometimes but they never, ever sound fake or inauthentic. he wrote the album imagining he was speaking the lyrics to his son to instill a sense of hope in him about the world so he'd grow up with the belief that he was capable of making it a better place and he fucking means every word of it bro. he's ray toro :( i like him :((((

[manyunhappygreenies]

I agree with the tier list but I'm curious why idw and 2007 are on the bottom half and not like 2012 splinter? Or even rise they were both pretty bad fathers

I'll answer rise and 2012 first because 2007 and idw fuel me with so much anger.

DISCLAIMER: I love Rise Splinter and 12 Splinter but they are not without flaws!!!!!

Trigger warnings will be in tags please adhere to them!

[Rise Splinter Start]

I put rise splinter in "you're okay" tier because Hamato Yoshi (will be calling rise splinter "Lou" from now on for context) did his very best and tried to make the very best out of a terrible situation.

He had lost his mother at a very young age and dealt with an emotionally neglectful grandfather who had only cared about a Hamato's duty to their clan up to his late teens into adulthood. [This undermines Karai's sacrifice in the first place. As she had sacrificed herself out of love for the world around her and the love of her father. Not because of a sense of duty.]

Lou moves to America in order to separate himself from his trauma, never addressing it but rather repressing it. In hopes he can move on and start a new life, which he fully intended when he proposed to Big Mama. [Though it's never spoken directly or stated directly in the show, it's implied Splinter was ready to even have a family with her because he loved her so much]

This is quickly torn to shreds when Big Mama reveals she's a Yokai crime boss [essentially] and human traffic [yes. HUMAN TRAFFICS] Lou to New York to become a champion in her Battle Nexus. While in the beginning of the show it's depreciated as Lou Jitsu loved being a Nexus champion we quickly learned in "Many Unhappy Returns" he in fact did not relish being a champion and was clearly traumatized by Big Mama's actions.

> Enter Baron Draxum

Lou is human trafficked once again and this time is experimented on, his DNA used to create turtle super soldiers that will be trained and raised to murder humans. [This show is super fucked up now that I think about it.]

And after completely destroying Draxum's lab, being freshly mutated into a rat man. Stripped of his humanity, he now has 4 turtle sons dropped into his lap.

TLDR: Rise Splinter did the very best he could in a terrible situation and struggled to overcome his own generational trauma. His actions are explained, not excused. He needs therapy, his sons needs therapy. He needs to make up for his neglectful behavior [which we do see towards the end of season 1 and into season 2] and understand his children are in no way shape or form obligated to forgive him.

[End of Rise Splinter]

[Start of 2012 Splinter]

My reasoning for putting 2012 Splinter in "Seek therapy before having kids" tier is because Hamato Yoshi [will just be calling him Yoshi for context] has been a parent before, while brief and tragically separated from his child for many years, on top of losing his wife.

Yoshi did as I would feel did the best he could but could have definitely done better. He's freshly traumatized, well into his 30s, maybe early 40s [?] And moves to America from Japan. [Clearly he needs therapy]

Yoshi clearly was not expecting to be a parent again, so soon after losing his only daughter. [perceived]

He loves his children, though he more often than not struggles to actually connect with them and see them as his sons rather than just clan members. I would consider this emotionally neglectful [?]

I personally always headcanoned this as a trauma response. A subconscious way to protect himself from the hurt of losing another child. And it's clear that Yoshi's trauma over losing miwa has manifested for his sons as well, as we see in the episode "Panic in the Sewers" one of the first episodes we actually see Yoshi PUT HIS HANDS ON HIS SON outside of training. And it's very clear that he was in fact hurting Raph. [Intentional or not. He still hurt his son.]

He loves his sons very much. But please. Get therapy.

[End of 2012 Splinter.]

Cracks Knuckles

[Start IDW Splinter.]

FUCK THIS STUPID ASS RAT I HATE HIM SO FUCKING MUCH. ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY AFTER THE EVENTS OF CITY FALL.

YOUR SON IS CLEARLY TRAUMATIZED BY NOT JUST OROKU SAKI BUT YOU, HE IS AFRAID OF YOU ANGRY AT YOU AND DESPITE YOU KNOWING THIS YOU STILL CHOOSE TO INVADE HIS SPACE, PRIVACY AND COMFORT ZONE. FUCK YOU!

That being said the entire Trauma and storyline with IDW Leo being brainwashed was handled poorly and clearly written from a stigmatized view. I'm not surprised that his recovery was handled just as poorly.

[End of IDW Splinter]

[Start of 2007 Splinter]

Fuck you. You literally look like the cheetah from Cheetos you nasty, emotionally and physically neglectful fuck!!!

The only time you EVER paid attention to your sons was when Leo came home. 2 YEARS AFTER YOU SENT HIM TO CENTRAL AMERICA.

You did NOT care about Raphael's feelings about Leo's departure or return, nor the abandonment issues he had developed and the resentment that he had for you and his older brother.

You did NOT care that Donnie had to pick up the slack and pay bills so YOUR CRUSTY CHEETO LOOKING ASS COULD WATCH THE NEWS AND YELL "BOYS" WHEN LEO CAME HOME AND THEY CONVENIENTLY WENT OUT TO FIGHT CRIME

I DON'T THINK YOU EVEN ACKNOWLEDGED MIKEY UNTIL THE END OF THE MOVIE AFTER LEO WAS SAVED

TLDR: FUCK 2007 SPLINTER.

[foxilayde]

Danny!!! I just binged Season 2 of Case 63 last night! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it (if you're willing to share them)! 💕

You want to hear my thoughts on case 63? Oh dear sweet lovely anon, please buckle up because I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS

I listened to season one probably 4 times in the past year and season 2 twice already (I have a lot of down time this week) and i took notes on the timelines because i thought i was going crazy and it honestly turned me into Charlie Day a little bit with the red string and notes and maps on the wall, “And i march down to Eliza’s office and say “Beatrix!! Beatrix!!’”

Anyway, spoilers below the cut.

I kind of want to start with season 2 episode 9, that thing that Vincent says to Eliza “peter didn’t send you here to save the world, if you’re his wife in one of the timelines and if peter lost his wife in 2060 when she was 38 because of Pegasus, his wife has to be born in 2022. And if you were, or will be, Peter Roiter’s wife, for her to be born in 2022, then you Beatrix should have died in 2022, but you didn’t. He knew you had to die, but he couldn’t lose you. Think about it, why did he need YOU to do the injection? He needed to get you to the extraction point. He tried to hide you and protect you from your death. He sacrificed millions to send you to the past to delay your death.”

That part reminded me so much of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that movie, but the protagonist, Joel, is running through his memories with his ex girlfriend Clementine and trying to hide her away in places she doesn’t belong, just so she can live in his brain for a tiny bit longer. It’s just so romantic and it makes sense why then Peter didn’t sound upset when Eliza told him that she couldn’t inject Marie, he doesn’t even give a shit about the timeline anymore. He just wants her to be able to LIVE and be happy adfdskjas;defsdfk

But i can’t talk about this without talking about the inconsistencies…. **play Serial theme** One of which here is Helen Vince, Peter Roiter’s wife From the future, is supposedly born in 2022 in one of these timelines, yet in the 2012 timeline she’s born in 2012? Did i miss something here? The only theory i have on that is related to that thing Peter says about “time protects us” and that’s why travelers can’t KILL Marie. I think it works in reverse as well, that you can’t escape your time coming, things will shift and bounce to fit your time clock. Which is super tragic when you think about how that’s Peter’s only goal, to give Eliza more time.

That bit IS confusing, but ALSO so is the inconsistencies with Peter’s age at some points. Like when he talks about the Egregor and being 9 years old and people dying by their own hand because of it, yet the math says he was 6 when the Berlin Purge happened and he says it was 2030 at one point and 3035 when Eliza asks for clarification.

And some other things too, he gives two separate dates for “the end of the world” (unspecified event!) and despite the Great Deletion happening, he claims that the Garnier Malet effect is “taught in all schools” since 2034, but the great deletion happened in 2033, and at another time he said it was actually in 2053???

and there are several more inconsistencies but what I’m trying to SAY is that he’s obviously not lying…. Right? Because the time travel is real, we have seen that. So the thing that he MIGHT be lying about is that “a traveler can only travel once” rule. I have a feeling this Peter Roiter has been alllll over the damn place. Probably unsanctioned missions? In order to hide Beatrix in one time or another to avoid her death.

And let’s TALK ABOUT THE NAMES OK. So we are introduced to an “Eliza Beatrix” and Peter straight up calls her Beatrix, so I THINK HE’S MET HER BEFORE and I’m not Fukin talm bout Helen Vince here. Roll with me, because when Eliza goes to Vincent’s timeline and meets herself, she tells her ten years younger self that SHE should start going by Beatrix! THAT’S PETERS BEATRIX. And that 10 year shift? Would explain a lot of the TIME INCONSISTENCIES ARE YOU WITH ME??

Let’s also not forget that i suspect that Beatrix is the Beatrix from the recording at the end of season 2, the one that Oliver Collins gives to Marie Caldwell. ALSO A STRANGE HAPPENING for him to be giving that to her because he was hysterically telling Eliza to discredit herself to Marie… very interesting.

Also super weird of Vincent to be acting the way that he was after Eliza DIED. Odd. Hmmm. Yes lets talk about Vincent Caldwell. The photo on the wall that made the bedroom look like Rome! To close the loop on the Garnier Malet! Such a cool twist in that. And when Eliza says, “By sending me here, he ensured the continuity of the dream” GUTPUNCH. There is one thing that bugs me about closing the loop and that would be the “take a flight to Rome on December 31st. Platform 23 at 4pm” thing that Peter said. Because BRO KNOWS THAT HELEN VINCE IS GOING TO BE BORN DECEMBER 12 so really and truly what the fuck was that about?? He knew that shit wasn’t ever going to happen, right? IT BUGS ME.

Also, bonus heartbreaking tidbit:: in the recording that he gives Eliza he makes it sound like “I’ll have 40 years to contact the organization to get this information to you” but bro knows that little baby Peter Roiter is going to be born sometime in 2023 (or 2024 depending on the inconsistencies) so he’s got 2 years max to live. And he doesn’t want Eliza to know.

Interesting tidbits, in the 2022 timeline, she’s in a bathroom in jfk terminal 4, but when she wakes up in 2012 she’s in terminal 8, so it’s not the “exact same spot” like she was telling herself. (Truly don’t know if that’s relevant.) And just a fun fact, when Peter is talking about his wife Helen he mentions that he did most of the cooking in their relationship and when Vincent talks about his late wife he says he did most of the cooking as well. So Peter is canonically skilled in the kitchen in every universe lmao.

I loved the tidbits about our sci-fi movies being influenced by The Project ever since 1948, i thought that was a thought provoking parallel to our current time.

I really love Marie so much. She hears and accepts all this stuff from Eliza and then she says you know what? I’m going to prevent covid from ever happening. And she does! I mean, she couldn’t prevent the nuclear war, but i thought that was pretty badass of her to change the world like that, way to go, Marie!

Biggest mystery i can’t wait to have solved: how is it she’s able to co-exist alongside herself and have a conversation with herself when “one entity must die in order for the other to be born”? Hmmm? And I’d like to add, Peter cautioned her against interacting with herself saying “meeting yourself WILL create a vortex” MEANWHILE daddy Vincent says it’s okay. In FACT Vincent just drops his own little “oh btw i had a Garnier Malet that you needed to talk to yourself, byeeee” i love him— such a goober. But it all seems very key.

I’m very struck by Peter’s repetition of the phrases about broken timelines and having to travel all alone and be invisible, it sounds very personal. Idk maybe I’m projecting. But i think there’s a lot to his story that he maybe couldn’t share with Eliza.

I loooove the way Peter explains time travel, “to go into the future, the key is speed. To go into the past, the key is gravity.” I love everything about that and the “circular beams of light” I WANT TO EAT HIS WORDS and lets not forget “They call it entanglement which is a way of saying I’ve always loved you.” NOT TO MENTION the infamous, “I don’t CARE about 7 billion people” monologue. It’s like what Vincent said, this is at its heart— a love story.

I will be thoroughly shocked and impressed if anyone decided to read all that. But if you did, thanks for sticking around and please let me know about your thoughts/speculations about any and everything regarding the story!!

[sha-n-dowbannedlol]

One Step Ahead

Jotaro Kujo x Ex Wife!Reader

Jotaro has known you for two decades and had been married to you for one which made him fairly confident that he already knew everything there is to know about you... but it seems he's not the only one hiding something in this family.

I lost the request, but it was something along the lines of Jolyne's mom having a stand and who was shy but protective of Jotaro and Jolyne CW: Spoilers for Stone Ocean The Visitor Arc Word Count: 2.5k

MASTERLIST

The year is 2002, Jolyne's 10th birthday and though it was unfortunate that her father had more pressing matters to attend to, you still did your best to make this day as enjoyable as it could possibly be for your only daughter. Hearing the muffled voice of your daughter playing with her friends in your backyard, you allow yourself to get lost in your own thoughts.

Jotaro, your husband, had never been one to show his affection, only when in the privacy of your shared room does your husband ever allow himself to lower his walls and show you a more vulnerable side to him, after years, however, you're still able to tell that he has yet to open up to you completely—and that's alright, you keep telling yourself.

He'll open up to you.... eventually. Though, even you, yourself, is starting to doubt that.

Slipping your hand through your pants' pocket, you retrieve the pendant that Jotaro had placed in your palms the night before he left. However, you accidentally pricked yourself in the said pendant. A loud hiss escapes your lips as you pull your hand back, feeling the warm liquid already trickling from your wound, and without glancing at it, you immediately press your finger against your shirt.

Much to your surprise, however, as you pull your finger back from your still clean shirt—not a wound can be found on your finger when you definitely felt... no, perhaps, you were just being dramatic? Scrunching your brows in confusion, you examine your finger more thoroughly, only to find nothing.

That was bizarre.. It was like... the wound healed itself.

You let out an exhale to calm yourself, remembering Jotaro's worried gaze from last night, a slight frown pulling the edges of his lips downward as he voices out his concerns.

"I'm not as around as much as I want to be," He reminds you, pulling you close into his arms. "You seem tired. Take care of yourself,"

Maybe it's just your exhaustion catching up to you after having to work full-time all while taking care of your 10-year-old on your own because your husband is usually away. Deciding to just chalk it up to exhaustion, you shrugged the event off to admire the pendant that is still in your hand. With a smile, you opened it to be greeted by the sight of a weird-looking stone and a picture of you and Jotaro.

"If Jolyne ever finds herself in serious trouble, give this to her," Your husband told you, both hands encasing yours as you hold onto the pendant in your palm. You wanted to ask more about it, but Jotaro's eyes were borderline pleading, and you had a feeling he won't tell you anyway.

You sigh as you close the pendant once again before sliding it back into your pockets, turning your body to head towards Jolyne's group of friends, completely unaware of what you have just gotten yourself into.

The year is now 2012. Jolyne is now 19, and you've had this... weird.... ability with you for almost a decade now. You no longer have a husband, with you and Jotaro divorcing each other years ago—a mutual decision, the two of you growing further and further apart the more time Jotaro spends abroad and the more time you spent learning more about your ability.

You dared not utter a word of this to anyone, even to the man himself, Jotaro. When you tried to ask about the sharp rock in Jolyne's pendant, he simply responded that it was something his grandfather gave him when he was young, something that brought him courage when he was feeling hopeless—a lucky charm, if you will—and he hopes that it would be something that will give Jolyne courage in her times of trouble as well.

There were times when you thought of telling him about this weird ghost-being that you've been seeing around for years, and one that you can command as well. But you never did, for some reason. Maybe because as the years went by, the man you once saw as your husband ended up being just an acquaintance that happens to sleep in the same bed as you once or twice a month.

When Jolyne got arrested, you thought twice about whether you should give her the pendant or not. But being reminded of your promise to Jotaro all those years ago, you ended up giving it to her lawyer for her to receive. You already broke one of your promises to Jotaro, you shouldn't break this one too.

A good decision on your part, as the pendant was the first thing Jotaro had asked as soon as the two of you caught sight of your daughter entering the visitation room.

Jotaro, on the other hand, had not expected to see you here. He always knew you were a great mother to Jolyne, and he has no regrets that he has chosen you to be the mother of his child, so he shouldn't be surprised about your appearance here... but still, the reason why he divorced you in the first place was because you're too good, he didn't want you to be involved in this stand business in any way possible, not if he could help it.

But, as always, he doesn't have a choice, does he?

You were bound to know about this one way or another, and it saves him time that he only has to explain this once to his girls, so the situation still has a silver lining somehow.

As he explains the situation to Jolyne, and by extension, to you, he can't help but feel uneasy as you quietly listen to his words. You always were a bit on the shy side, never wanting to cut him off when he tells you something, but the fact that he's practically laying all this information that he never told you before and you're barely even reacting makes him uncomfortable. You never once dared to look in his eyes, that was until he asked Jolyne whether she gained an ability yet.

It wasn't surprising for him as he kept his abilities from you for a decade, even though he knew you don't see Star Platinum anyways, he still ended up not using his stand when around you. He kept telling himself it was to protect you from such a harsh side of the world, but in reality, it was because he didn't want to be a stand user when he was with you. He wanted to just be a normal person, wanted to just be Jotaro.

The only thing he wanted to worry about was what he wanted to have for dinner, instead of worrying about stand arrows ending up in the wrong hands. He wanted to do laundry with you, do the dishes, and maybe teach Jolyne how to read and write—such mundane things he longed to have but was immediately stolen from him the moment he turned seventeen.

"That's the Stand ability," Jotaro spoke, already quite dreading the fact that he had to do this whole spiel all over again,

"Stand..." Jolyne trails off, before looking at him, "Then, you too?"

Your own surprise was still as clear as day on your face, and you seemed like you wanted to say something, but haven't found the right words to explain it. Again, not surprising to Jotaro. This probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you, so of course, you'd have questions.

He was immediately proven wrong, however, the moment Johngalli A attacks. It happened so fast that he hasn't processed it completely at the time, the sound of your chair scraping against the floor, your voice shouting Jolyne's name drowned by his own as he called for his stand, activating his time stop to save his daughter.

Relief filled his entirety as he saw that Jolyne used her ability, her strings to weave something to stop the bullet, silently commending his own daughter for her quick thinking. Now that he wasn't in a panic about his daughter's safety, only then did something else in the room catch his eye.

Jotaro's heart dropped to his stomach.

A stand.

There's another stand in this room.

It's reaching out to Jolyne, whether to protect or to attack her, he wasn't quite sure.

Jolyne was shot from the outside, so there's a high possibility that Johngalli A's stand is in the hall, the guard is knocked out, Jolyne is using hers and Star Platinum is right beside him. And so, by process of elimination, this stand......

His gaze went from the stand and to you, and he wanted to bang his head against the wall for even considering the possibility that you were a stand user too. Of course you weren't, not you, if you were, he would have known.

......right?

And if you weren't a stand user, then this can only mean that there are two enemies. At this thought, Star Platinum swiftly moved to deal damage but Jotaro had already reached his limit by this time and had no choice but to deactivate his time stop. Much to his surprise, the stand was swift enough to block Star Platinum's blow. Though it wasn't strong enough to fully stop it, the astonished look on your face that surprised Star Platinum's user was enough to make the stand freeze.

"This... is your stand, isn't it?" you turn to look at Jolyne who was also surprised by the sudden turn of events, "And... you have... strings?"

Jotaro opened his mouth to speak but immediately remembered the dire situation, testing his theory, he used Star Platinum to pull on your stand. In all honesty, he didn't know how to feel as you flew with your stand towards the wall, the same direction as Star pulled on your stand.

"You have a stand?" Jotaro practically growled, eyes hardened as they glared at you while you try to make sense of what was going on.

"I was right, it was the stand thing you were talking about,"

"Yes. Since when did you have a stand?"

"Of course, you wouldn't notice if mom had a stand, you were barely home!" Jolyne hissed and Jotaro turned his glare toward his daughter

"You knew?!"

"Of course not! I'm just as surprised as you!"

"Wait, since when did you have a stand, Jolyne?!"

The sound of a gunshot was enough to shut the three of you up, but not without Jotaro getting the last word in

"We'll continue this later,"

-

Apparently, "later" meant after your family breaks the law and escapes from prison because what better way to fix a broken family than to become a bunch of fugitives.

You watch with furrowed brows as Jolyne talks back to her father, with Jotaro still being as clueless as ever and you thought of comforting her, but held yourself back from doing so—you knew Jolyne had pent-up frustrations with her father, and you knew Jotaro deserved to hear what she has to say anyway—no matter how harsh they could be.

"Listen," will he finally open up to his daughter? "Something's strange,"

You didn't know what you even expected, especially in a situation like this.

Jotaro was swift to tell Jolyne to duck and pull you to hide behind the wall with him. Allowing yourself to be pulled, you stayed beside your ex-husband as he peeked through the corner, you can hear voices from a distance and you can feel the hair on your arms stand on end—but not because of the voices of the possible guards, but because of something else.

It was said that humans have a sixth sense, one that was reserved for when someone is observing them, whether from afar or somewhere near, an individual would be able to feel it to some extent when eyes are glued to them.

Following your instincts, you ignore the gunshot that rang out and let your eyes wander—there, you saw it.

Another stand, a goopy one, at that. But it wasn't observing you as you had initially thought, its attention is focused on your husband instead, almost as if it was waiting, anticipating something... but you didn't know what. Turning your head to Jotaro, you open your mouth to warn him, but he was a step ahead of you.

The sound of his name being called out by you was easily drowned by the sound of his own voice as he activates his own ability. Surveying his surroundings, he noticed that your eyes were neither on him nor on your daughter, but is focused on something else which prompted Jotaro to turn his head in the same direction.

That's when Jotaro finally realized what was going on.

There were two enemy stand users, and one he had not accounted for. They were waiting for this exact moment—this moment where he has no other choice but to use his ability to save his family, and he walked right into their trap. Either way, it doesn't matter. The safety of his family was his top priority, even above his own, and with a scowl, he lunges forward just in time to save both Jolyne from a barrage of bullets heading her way.

This is when White Snake finally saw his opportunity.

"You were one move behind," Was the stand's taunting words towards Jotaro, "Kujo Jotaro... I was waiting for this moment!"

However, just like how Jotaro hadn't accounted for another stand user to make its way into the battlefield, so did White Snake. And just like Jotaro, he was a move too late when he realized what had happened.

Everything happened far too quickly, one second, Jotaro was about to turn to face the other stand who had approached him, and the next, he felt your hands push him away and he fell to the floor on his bottom, eyes widened in shock as the other stand used its ability on you.

Jotaro's and White Snake's minds drew blank for a moment as they watch discs protrude from the side of your face, both of them were a step too late, and you were a step ahead of them.

White Snake was only snapped out of shock when he noticed that the glazed-over look on Jotaro's eyes suddenly vanished as they narrowed, with the stand now annoyed at the mishap that could have easily been avoided had it paid more attention to you, it had no other choice but to swipe your memory and stand discs—perhaps, these could come in handy; your stand had incredible speed, he can make use of that, and your memory disc can be useful in terms of luring Jotaro in the future. With that, the stand swiftly moves away from the scene to escape Jotaro's wrath.

You suddenly felt dizzy and weak, perhaps, it was just the adrenaline rush finally wearing off. You felt like you could no longer hold yourself up as your legs turn into jelly, and the last thing you heard was the sound of gunshots along with your daughter's battle cry, and the last thing you felt was warm hands catching you before your body met the cold, hard floor.

[inklessletter]

AU, circa 2012, there's a family reunion, everybody is there with their own families now and at some point in the evening Taylor Swift's 'Red' starts coming out from a background radio, and a very much adult Steve Harrington doesn't want to, but he tears up. He laughs, too, he sings along.

Nobody says a word. They don't change the station either. They let him be.

Dustin's twins, all weirded out, wait until they're back at home to ask his dad why uncle Steve cried with Taylor Swift.

Dustin gazes at his wife, Suzie, and sighs. Then, looks back at them.

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't but I'm going to tell you about how your uncle Steve met and lost the love of his life in less than a week. Matt, Ross, sit down."

[airyairyaucontraire]

watching a National Geographic series called Lost Treasures of Egypt in which there is an American archaeologist couple, Drs John and Colleen Darnell, who... go around cosplaying as 1920s Egyptologists? While actually also doing Egyptology, but how can anyone take them seriously? Everyone else in this series, whether Egyptian, American or European, is wearing normal modern-day clothes suitable for grubbing around in ruins (one nice Dominican archaeologist puts on waders to very bravely crawl through an incredibly creepy partially flooded tunnel hoping to find Cleopatra's tomb - she hasn't found it yet). In all the Darnells' segments they're just strolling around in temple complexes pointing out hieroglyphic inscriptions, so they don't have to get their outfits dirty.

I thought they were quite weird so I looked them up and found out they are Scandalous, Adulterous, Unethical and Generally Shady:

Colleen Manassa studied for her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Yale, gaining her B.A. in 2001 and Ph.D. 2005. In 2006 she joined the faculty as an assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies. She was promoted to associate professor in 2010. In January 2013, a scandal broke that Colleen Manassa and fellow professor John Darnell had been carrying out a long-running affair. Within the small Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) department, they were the only two faculty members in the even-smaller Egyptology program. "Four individuals with close ties to the department" claimed the relationship was common knowledge within the department, and Assyriology professor Benjamin Foster reported "the basic situation has been known for a very long time." In divorce documents filed by Darnell's wife Deborah Darnell on November 5, 2012, she asserted that the affair began in 2000 when Manassa was an undergraduate student under Darnell's direct supervision. On January 8, 2013, John Darnell admitted to the affair with his student and accepted a one-year suspension without pay. Darnell also admitted to "participating in the review" of Manassa's hiring and attempting to cover up his multiple policy violations. In August 2013 the university prohibited Darnell from holding an administrative position until 2023, and Manassa until 2018.

(Source - Wikipedia)

so if you are in Egypt and you see two crazy white people*, the woman looking like she's trying to be Phryne Fisher and the man looking like he destroyed his marriage and seriously damaged his professional reputation for her goofy ass, it might just be them!

*disclaimer: am white, differently crazy

[terapsina]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @isagrimorie (thanks, this looks fun 🤩).

---

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

120

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

324,790

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I'll just copy-and-paste from ao3, cuz I'm not writing all that down.

The Vampire Diaries (TV) (25), Legacies (TV 2018) (12), Person of Interest (TV) (9), Once Upon a Time (TV) (9), Leverage (US TV 2008) (7), Shadowhunters (TV) (7), Doctor Who (2005) (5), Arrow (TV 2012) (4), Merlin (TV) (4), Captain Marvel (2019) (3), 苍兰诀 | Love Between Fairy and Devil (TV) (3), Batwoman (TV 2019) (3), The 100 (TV) (3), Willow (TV 2022) (3), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV) (2), The Magicians (TV) (2), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (2), Supergirl (TV 2015) (2), The Originals (TV) (2), Star Wars - All Media Types (2), The Old Guard (Movie 2020) (2), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types (2), The Good Place (TV) (2), Avatar: Legend of Korra (2), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV) (2), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) (2), Charmed (TV 2018) (1), Angel: the Series (1), Wednesday (TV 2022) (1), Star Trek: Voyager (1), Teen Wolf (TV) (1), Star Wars: Rebels (1), Sweet/Vicious (TV) (1), Star Trek (1), Star Wars: Ahsoka (TV) (1), Lost Girl (TV) (1), Legend of the Seeker (TV) (1), Hustlers (2019) (1), Stargate SG-1 (1), Revolution (TV) (1), Sanctuary (Canada TV 2008) (1).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

5 Times The Doctor Talked About River Song With Graham (+1 Time The Fam Finally Met Her) - the 13/River fic where Graham finds the Doctor's missing wedding ring and she gradually opens up about her wife.

“Her name was River Song.” She says once he’s already taken a few steps. He stops, turning around, giving her the opportunity to continue or not as she needs. “She was an archaeologist. And a professor. And a criminal. And she was brilliant and absolutely mad.”

“She must have been. Married you didn’t she?” Graham jokes before he can help himself.

But Doc just grins like she agrees and laughs to herself.

Something uncoils in Graham’s chest at seeing Doc’s face regaining its natural brightness, however tinged with grief. The grief isn’t new either, he’s seen shadows of it in her all along but this is the first moment she doesn’t seem to be trying to hide it. Or maybe the first time she’s not trying to hide from it.

The Suspicious Case of Tribbles - the 13/River fic where River tries to "borrow" the TARDIS for lil'bit.

"Don't mind me. Carry on!" The woman says, dropping a bag of something heavy that sounds like a bag of rocks to the floor and hurrying towards the TARDIS controls. "I'm only here to establish an alibi. A short hop over to the other side of the hemisphere and some 38 planetary hours in the past should do it. I'll send you lot right back to him none the wiser. It'll be our little secret."

She's Come Undone and Set Free - Elejah, Bonbekah, Klaroline and Elena/Caroline/Bonnie/Rebekah friendship story that deals with Elena and Caroline getting to be angry and making Damon pay for what he did to them, as well as supporting each other and beginning to heal. (WIP, but there's only 2 chapters to go).

“I want you to know, that’s not why I will always hate you, Damon.” She strengthened her hold on his face at the look of caution that was surfacing at her words, likely because he’d just now been remembering that not that long ago she’d broken his neck. “I won’t even hate you because of the sire bond. Though I wasn’t lying, it felt like being a slave to your every desire, whether or not you actually voiced them. And the funny thing? I’m not sure I’ll ever know how much me there was when I was making any of the choices that lead to Jeremy dying.”

“What’s your point?” Damon asked and grabbed her hands in a vice-like grip that made it impossible for Elena to try again what she'd done nearly two days ago when she'd regained her humanity. But she'd already known there wasn’t a point trying now that he'd be expecting it, so she didn’t fight to escape him.

“She’s my best friend, Damon. I will never forgive you for what you did to her,” she said and did absolutely nothing as Damon’s eyes widened and he tried to turn around. He wasn’t fast enough. He’d been too consumed by Elena to pay attention to any other heartbeats around them, and despite her age, Caroline had always been an unusually fast vampire.

Morai's Call to Hope - my Star Wars, time travel, Snips and Skyguy fic where Anakin gets pulled into the World Between Worlds three days before his Fall, watches as Darth Vader is about to kill Ahsoka... aaaaaaand jumps forward to stop him. (WIP and I'm very ashamed about it, because I loved writing this story and really hope to get back to it someday)

From behind Anakin there comes again a whisper from a different time: ‘I would never let anyone hurt you, Ahsoka… never…’

But in front of Anakin comes something else.

‘Then you will die,' the Sith says in direct contradiction to everything Anakin has ever promised both aloud and inside his own heart to the closest thing he’s ever had to a little sister or a daughter. And every single cell of his body rebels against a time where he would ever utter those words to Ahsoka. So even as the red lightsaber ignites in the Sith’s hands, Anakin rushes forward and through the fragile line of a portal separating his reality from theirs.

As the Sith’s lightsaber finishes the arch of its blow instead of encountering Ahsoka’s white dual sabers it’s stopped by the intervening block from a blue lightsaber in the hands of the Anakin Skywalker sixteen years out of his time.

You know who you remind me of? - the 13/River fic where the Doctor is in the middle of hiding under a table with Yaz for plot reasons when she hears the sound of her wife's laughter and is immediately distracted from the mission that brought them there.

The laugh is thick with mischief and a galaxy of secrets.

She knows that laugh.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to. I adore comments and really truly appreciate receiving them, so I do try to respond to them. But sometimes I get into a kind of slump where replying just feels exhausting. And by the time I'm over that, it might have been like two weeks, and then it feels embarrassing to respond.

And sometimes I just don't know WHAT to say.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Last Words. I do have quite a few angsty fics but I usually end them either happily or with an open ending that's got light at the end of the tunnel. But this once I came up with an idea for soulmate-identifying-last-words and then wrote a Korrasami fic for it.

Asami had known that Korra was her soulmate. And like everyone else she was in no hurry to see it proven. And there she might be counted lucky, because she did not learn it for many years to come. They survived the war with Kuvira, and then returned from their vacation in the spirit world, and survived many more battles beyond that. The Avatar lived a long life.

But Asami Sato lived a longer one.

So that has the saddest ending.

Well, that, or maybe what's the point of greater good, which is my Queliot (with a side of Wickoff) story where Julia talks to Quentin during the time Eliot was possessed by the Monster.

She finds him stubbornly looking through the mountain of books, searching for any and every scrap of information on Enyalius they can get. He looks like he hasn’t slept since the moment weeks ago when Eliot managed to surface for those brief few moments to tell them he was alive. Hope’s a bitch that way.

“We need to stop him Q.” Julia says, from behind him.

Quentin’s shoulders freeze in place and he leans forward, hands clenching the spine of the book he’d just been about to pick up.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Like I said, I tend to mostly write happy endings. But if I have to pick what I considered as the happiest one, then here's a story that's full of angst in the middle, which made the ending feel even happier because of the contrast.

6 Times Bellamy Tried to Forget That He Was in Love With Clarke (+1 Time He Couldn’t Anymore) - exactly what it sounds like. My big look into Bellamy's head through most of the seasons. Canon almost to the end, where I sharply switch tracks and give Bellarke the happy ending they goddamn deserved.

The first thing he saw as the delinquents pulled aside the sheets of scrap metal to let their two missing people in was Clarke running in front, scraped up but seemingly uninjured. He wished that the relief that overtook him was entirely selfish, that it had to do with the fact that he had his partner back and he wouldn’t have to carry the burden of their people’s lives all by himself. But that was crap.

It was vastly overpowered by the simple joy of seeing that Clarke was alright.

“Hey, we heard an explosion. What happened?” she fired out rapidly as soon as she was in front of him. Face serious and eyes focused entirely on Bellamy, - and it was something that had gotten to be so familiar to him that it almost felt like having her there was akin to getting back a missing limb.

He almost, almost fell to the instinct to pull her into his arms because he was just so damned glad that she was alive that the only thing that saved him was the fact Jasper got there first.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not a lot. But there's been a few occasions where I have gotten some, yes. Mostly the 'this was a waste of my time' variety.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not... really? On a few rare occasions I've written a bit of spice but I don't think that people that read smut would give me more than 2.5⭐ out of 5⭐.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Yes. When the idea for one strikes. And I don't know if I'd say it's the craziest one, but definitely a fun one is my Stargate SG-1/Leverage crossover where the Stargate Program needs to recruit some thieves.

The Homeworld Security Job. (incidentally this is also the fic that got me the most amount of hate comments).

“I know, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that no one at SGC can go, you need thieves for this mission. And this is a big planet, you guys must have some good ones between those 7.5 billion people. You get me a few of them and I can teach them how to play a wealthy minor Goa’uld long enough to get in and out. But I can’t teach someone to be a good enough liar to not get caught. Not with the time we have here.”

“What do you want us to do, Vala? Grab a bunch of criminals off the street and hope they don’t decide that stealing a Stargate and selling that to the highest bidder instead would be a more lucrative business plan?” Cameron asks.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Once. My Lunarry fic the ones that seek and find (six years in the relationship of harry and luna) has a translation into Chinese Mandarin 探寻和发现（哈利与卢娜相处的六年).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. It's always sounded kinda complicated.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I do NOT have a one single favorite ship. But there are a few that I will probably never let go of and those are: Elejah, Swan Queen, Hizzie, Bellarke, Spuffy, Doctor/River, Clizzy, Bering and Wells, Kahlan/Cara, Parker/Hardison, Graylora and DFQC/XLH.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of them 😭.

But especially the Star Wars time travel one I mentioned earlier. I love that one so much. And I want to go back to it and finish it. But the stars aren't looking all that bright.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'd like to think that I'm good at getting into characters' heads. Their inner monologues tend to be the easiest part to write (it's the dialogues and surrounding scenes that trip me up).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Grammar. English isn't my first language, so the fiddly parts of the grammar is what I've picked up through osmosis while reading, which isn't exactly... a flawless way to do it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done it a few times (mostly in my Clizzy fics, because Izzy's character peppers a decent bit of Spanish in her dialogue on the show) and have nearly always kind of regretted it (I've needed to do fixes nearly every time, had to learn that google translate cannot be trusted the hard way).

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If I remember correctly, then I think that was a very terrible attempt at a BtVS/Stargate SG-1 crossover that has been deleted since then.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is a very predictable answer but that's She's Come Undone and Set Free, I'm just really proud of this story for a lot of reasons. And though there are a few other of my fics I love more than others, this one is just... my favorite of all of them.

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Tagging: @vorpalmuchness, @jennifersminds, @muse-oleum, @amandamonroe and whoever else wants to.

[mbabeys]

Part 2 of the PSG OG clownery 🤡

that i forgot to repost after it glitched

i've had people asking in the previous post what happened in the elevator back in 1998, well the former President of RC Lens himself recounted the story and said that the first reaction the back-then President of PSG had when the elevator stopped working was 'i don't know how, but i know it's your fault'.

in 1977, PSG reached Division I and splurged on Carlos Bianchi. For those who don't know, Bianchi was nearly blind as a bat, and confessed that the reason he didn't play any closer from the penalty box was because otherwise he just couldn't see the goal. He still went on to become PSG's top scorer for forty years, until Zlatan came along, then Cavani, then Kylian.

in 1997, the club was so desperate after a loss in the first leg against Bucarest in the UCL they paid a marabout to predict them the outcome of the second match. Literally. They needed to score at least 4 goals. The marabout predicted 5-0. PSG did win 5-0 but didn't make it out of the group stage.

in 2005, during an OM-PSG clasico, Marseille (allegedly) poured ammonia all over the Parisian locker room to prevent them from entering. The players had to change in the hallway and in various staircases. OM denied, saying their own locker room smelled even worse. PSG went on to claim that they lost because Marseille had also sent Clara Morgane, a notorious porn actress and Marseille-fan, to distract the players ahead of the game, when she specifically said she hadn't seen any of the players despite being in the stadium. Paris went on to seize the LFP. Imagine the headlines after that.

in 2012, in the weeks following Ibra's transfer to Paris, his wife got mugged Place Vendôme. PSG offered to replace her designer handbag, until they found out its cost went beyond €30 000. They promptly rescinded their offer. (Ibra was more pissed because inside was his hunting permit.)

in 2013, PSG players gathered at an A-list restaurant in town to watch a UCL match live. The place was new and constantly had powercuts, which messed up with the router. The owner was beside himself trying to make it work, until Ibra said 'I'll try'. He fixed it in the end, but the owner said the restaurant got real quiet for a while

that time in 2018 where Verratti nearly peed his pants trying to avoid Tuchel standing in the way of a Parisian restroom, just so he wouldn't be told off for staying out late

during his tenure, Pochettino (reportedly) told Kylian a few times to 'leave [him] alone' and 'please go to sleep', because Kylian kept texting him late-night gameplans and tactical plays until 2 or 3am

Dr. Rolland, the former club doctor, is the reason Verratti is still smoking. Take it up with him.

[scotianostra]

On March 24th 2012, just two days after his 62nd birthday Scotland lost a legend when John Thomas "Jocky" Wilson passed away at his home in at Kirkcaldy.

Jocky spent most of his early life in orphanages after it was deemed his mother and father were unfit to bring him up, his jobs included a couple of years in the army, a coal delivery man, fish processor, and also a miner at Kirkcaldy's Seafield Colliery. He also worked for a time at the Lister Bar, the local where a 19-year-old Wilson first learned to play darts, he never thought when throwing those first arrows that he would ever become the champion of the world and a Scottish legend.

From his debut at the World Championship in 1979 until 1991, Wilson managed to reach at least the quarter-finals of the tournament on every occasion. Wilson also lifted the British Professional Championship four-times between 1981 and 1988, as well as the British Open and Matchplay titles.

Wilson was also generous with his time for charity and had a neat line in self-deprecation. He was known as 'Gumsy' because his constant sweet-eating and refusal to brush his teeth - 'my Gran told me the English poison the water' - meant that he had lost his last tooth by the age of 28. Following the 1982 triumph, Wilson paid £1,200 for dentures. But he never took to them. They made him belch when drinking, he complained. And once, celebrating a victory, they flew out of his mouth and on to the oche. In the end, they were employed as a ball marker in pool games with Bristow.

'People might think that having no teeth snookers you when it comes to eating,' Wilson wrote in his 1983 autobiography, Jocky. 'But I can manage just about anything with my gums. I can chew a steak provided it's well done. I can even eat apples. Great Yarmouth rock and nuts are the only two things that defeat me.'

Other tales include the time he kicked Bristow's shin before they were due to play each other - the Crafty Cockney, who became Wilson's firm friend, was forced to shake hands on stage with a bleeding shin. And after one defeat he fell off the stage.

Sadly after being diagnosed with diabetes Jocky gave it all up, he became bankrupt and spent the remainder of his life, with his Argentinian wife, Malvina in a council flat in the town he grew up in, as virtual recluse, shielded by his wife when visitors knocked on his door, be it journalists or just well wisher fans nobody got through the door.

I will always remember the early days of television darts and Wee Jocky, at the oche, a true character. When he won his first world title at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke, Sid Waddell announced him as "Jocky Wilson , The lad has the psychology of a claymore!”

RIP Jocky!

[offender42085]

Post 0496

Brett Kanoff, New York inmate 14A2758, born 1990, incarceration intake June 2014 at age 24, placed on parole 06/04/2019, with full discharge 09/28/2024

Manslaughter

Kanoff was sentenced in Orange County Court for killing Cameron Louis Kanoff by smothering him with a blanket at home in Port Jervis.

Kanoff was originally charged with second-degree murder and faced up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. He took a plea deal to manslaughter against his lawyer’s advice, in exchange for the four-to-12 year sentence.

A 23-year-old upstate New York man has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for suffocating his 1-year-old son in 2012.

Brett Kanoff pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in the death of his 1-year-old son, Cameron. Kanoff was accused of suffocating the infant with a blanket in September 2012.

“The autopsy showed I didn’t suffocate my son,” Kanoff claims. “I took the plea as a way to get things over faster.”

Benjamin Ostrer was Kanoff’s attorney throughout the court proceedings. Ostrer sought to exclude the confession, arguing that police took advantage of a grieving father. Ostrer’s position was that Kanoff falsely confessed due to a desire to please authority. The autopsy findings, he stated, do not corroborate what Kanoff claimed to have done in his “wacky confession.”

The autopsy revealed no signs of trauma or assault, no bruising on the infant’s face, gums or lips, no petechiae (ruptured capillaries) of the eyes. The findings, however, did show carbon monoxide in Cameron’s bloodstream, and also that he was suffering from bronchitis and pneumonia.

“I was not aware of his illness until the autopsy,” Kanoff said. The baby, said his father, was born with a bronchial condition and suffered from back problems.

According to Kanoff, the autopsy results initially attributed his son’s death to sudden infant death syndrome. The cause of death, he says, was subsequently amended to “suffocation” - “only because of what I said.”

Kanoff took the plea deal that gave him four to 12 years, against Ostrer’s advice. Ostrer maintains that his client is innocent.

“I do not believe he did it,” said the attorney. “Brett was very emotionally fragile and scared of trial. He feared getting 25 to life if he was convicted of the top charge.”

“I have nothing to hide,” Kanoff insists. “That’s why I’m so open to discuss this.”

He was “overtired” that September morning, Kanoff remembers. “I had been in the city working with my uncle, doing 70 hours a week, leaving at 7 a.m. and not getting home until 9 p.m. I was sleeping on the couch with Brett Jr., not even five feet from my youngest. My son was crying and I got up and gave him his bottle and put a blanket over him and went back to sleep.”

Upon waking about 11:30 a.m., Kanoff recalls “thinking everything was fine,” and went outside for a cigarette. When he returned, he says, he found his son “not moving.”

Port Jervis police responded to the 911 call from the address of Kanoff’s father, with whom he had been staying. Upon arrival, Brett’s grandfather, Herbert Kanoff, came running out of the house carrying Cameron in his arms. Emergency CPR was not enough to revive the baby, who was taken to Bon Secours Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“I felt like I wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out because losing my son tore me apart,” says Kanoff. “The memories are painful, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.”

Cameron Kanoff was born Aug. 22, 2011. His twin brother, Caleb, died at birth. “My wife and I were heartbroken when we lost Caleb.” Kanoff says. “We did everything we could, but sometimes when you’re alone and look at pictures and see a family of four (including older brother, Brett Jr.) and know it should be a family of five, it is so hard ... Cameron was our miracle baby.”

Kanoff was married on Nov. 17, 2010 to Samantha Finch in Port Jervis. The couple has been estranged since shortly after the death of their son and Kanoff’s subsequent imprisonment. “She stayed by my side for a year,” Kanoff says, “but at a time when your spouse is looking at 25 to life, what do you do? She moved on.”

In the months leading up to Cameron’s death, Kanoff recalls struggling with finances, and the pressure to provide for his young family. “I would never change the age I had my kids,” Kanoff says, “but there were moments that were hard.”

While in prison, Kanoff is leaning on faith to help cope. “I want the (Port Jervis) community to know I’m not the person they think I am,” he says. “I am not a monster. I love Port Jervis and I love the people in it.”

“I take it one day at a time,” Kanoff says. “I won’t lie, some days are a lot harder than others. I find myself reading my Bible a lot to get through the hard times.” He believes, he says, there will be a day of reunion with lost loved ones. “The love I have for my children goes beyond this life and into the next.”

Samantha Finch, however, is left with the task of helping her surviving son cope with the loss of his siblings and the absence of his father. “I love and miss my children more than anyone will ever know,” she said. “It’s very hard to explain to a 4-year-old that his brothers are gone and not coming back. I’m in so much pain, but I try to do my best with everything.”

“I had my oldest son come to me asking about Cameron,” Finch said, wistfully. “He said, ‘he’s taking too long to come home.’ He told me how he loves and misses Cameron, and how he wants to give him this pair of shoes that don’t fit him anymore.”

3j