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ladystoneboobs · 3 years ago

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Family, Duty, (Dis)Honor

so, something i've put way too much thought into is the parallels between two of my fave westerosi fams, houses tully and lannister. it's to the point that i wonder how much was even intentional. like catelyn/cersei are definitely meant as foils and probably jaime/brynden too in their interactions. but was it intentional that every single tully-named* member of the present main line can be considered a foil/mirror with one of the main lannisters? because imho they all can be.

consider:

hoster tully/tywin lannister

both are great lords whose eldest grandsons are rival teenage kings in the war of 5 kings. king robb saved hoster and his castle through his first victories in battle and hoster expressed pride in his most lucid scene on his sickbed. meanwhile king joffrey frustrated his grandfather and tywin felt he was winning joff's war for him.

[Catelyn, to Hoster:] [...] “Riverrun is free again, Father."

Lord Hoster smiled. "I saw. Last night, when it began, I told them … had to see. They carried me to the gatehouse … watched from the battlements. Ah, that was beautiful … the torches came in a wave, I could hear the cries floating across the river … sweet cries … when that siege tower went up, gods … would have died then, and glad, if only I could have seen you children first. Was it your boy who did it? Was it your Robb?"

"Yes," Catelyn said, fiercely proud. -Catelyn XI, aGoT

[Tywin, to Joffrey:] “Aerys also felt the need to remind men that he was king. [...] And any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king at all. Aerys never understood that, but you will. When I’ve won your war for you, we will restore the king’s peace and the king’s justice.” -Tyrion VI, aSoS

both lords are compared to kings on the day of their funerals. (although in hoster’s case it’s flattery from a near-stranger newly married into the family, while tywin’s praise came from a close and longtime lannister toady after he had served as power behind the throne to multiple kings.)

[Queen Jeyne, to Cat:]"Lord Hoster looked as noble as a king, my lady," murmured Jeyne. -Catelyn IV, aSoS

[Pycelle, to Jaime:]"I have served six kings, but here before us lies the greatest man I ever knew. Lord Tywin wore no crown, yet he was all a king should be." -Jaime I, aFfC

both lords lost their wives in chirdbirth and chose never to remarry, despite having only one surviving son and only one able-bodied son, respectively. hoster's lack of a second marriage to try for another son was likely just as much due to acceptance of catelyn as heiress presumptive after edmure as due to his love for his wife. while tywin's prolonged unmarried status even after his least favorite child became his legal heir could only have been due to his love for joanna and his stubborn refusal to accept jaime's status in the kingsguard.

both lords had brothers who recalled their love for their dead wives and it’s believed they were never the same after losing their ladies.

[Catelyn:]"[...]Once he called me by Mother's name."

"He misses her still," Ser Brynden answered.

.... Lady Minisa Tully had died in childbed, trying to give Lord Hoster a second son. The baby had perished with her, and afterward some of the life had gone out of Father. -Catelyn I & IV, aCoK

[....]Lord Tywin seldom spoke of his wife, but Tyrion had heard his uncles talk of the love between them. [...] “He was not the same man after she[Joanna] died, Imp." his Uncle Gery told him once. "The best part of him died with her." -Tyrion V, aSoS

both lords had brothers they had contentious relationships with. though hoster only had the one sibling, while tywin had 4 total and 2 of them remained loyal admirers. gerion left home and disappeared and we know tywin once froze out genna for half a year when she told him a truth he couldn’t handle, but that’s not as long as hoster and brynden’s voluntary estrangement (while still in the same country) of around ~15 years when the series starts. (perhaps this is down to tywin’s control freak tendencies making it impossible for him to let go of any close kin.)

[Catelyn, thinking about Brynden:] He was Lord Hoster's brother, younger by five years, but the two of them had been at war as far back as Catelyn could remember.

[...]The war had not ended until the day she and Lysa had been wed. It was at their wedding feast that Brynden told his brother he was leaving Riverrun to serve Lysa and her new husband, the Lord of the Eyrie. Lord Hoster had not spoken his brother's name since, from what Edmure told her in his infrequent letters. -Catelyn VI, aGoT

[Genna, to Jaime:]That shadow Tywin cast was long and black, and each of them had to struggle to find a little sun. Tygett tried to be his own man, but he could never match your father, and that just made him angrier as the years went by. Gerion made japes. Better to mock the game than to play and lose. -Jaime V, aFfC

[Tywin’s] relations with his brothers Tygett and Gerion were notoriously stormy. -The World of Ice and Fire: The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II

both lords conducted themselves as widowers such that the daughters who idolized them could not believe they ever had a mistress after becoming widowed, despite the evidence of a dead sexual partner right before her eyes in cersei's case.

She could not believe it. Her brother Edmure, yes; it would not have surprised her to learn that Edmure had a dozen natural children. But not her father, not Lord Hoster Tully, never. -Catelyn I, aSoS

My lord father had no use for whores, she thought. After our mother died he never touched a woman. -Cersei I, aFfC

both lords were very ambitious regarding dynastic marriage matches for their offspring, especially their daughters, which led to an attempted match between jaime/lysa.

in both cases their matchmaking ambitions could trump their children's personal feelings or any chance of their happiness: tywin meant to re-marry cersei against her will after she was a widowed mother of 3 and dowager queen in her 30s, while pressuring tyrion--a grown man whose dwarfism made tywin feel he could still treat him like a child--to marry sansa, daughter of an enemy house bound to hate the lannisters, to steal her claim to winterfell, as a replacement for tyrion's rightful claim to casterly rock. after the jaime/lysa match fell through and lysa revealed her pregnancy by petyr baelish, hoster responded by wedding her to jon arryn, a man older than hoster himself.

[Cersei:]"Three children is quite sufficient. I am Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, not a brood mare! The Queen Regent!" [Tywin:]"You are my daughter, and will do as I command." [....]You are the queen, Tyrion wanted to tell her. He ought to be begging leave of you.[....]"Since you stand no taller than a boy, I have found it easy to forget that you are in truth a man grown, with all of a man's baser needs. It is past time you were wed." [....]"You asked me to reward you for your efforts in the battle," Lord Tywin reminded him forcefully. "This is a chance for you, Tyrion, the best you are ever likely to have." -Tyrion III, aSoS

[Catelyn, about Lysa:]Lysa's match with Lord Arryn had been hastily arranged, and Jon was an old man even then, older than their father. -Catelyn I, aSoS

(cont. from above point) their matchmaking ambitions also trumped courtesy to other great houses. tywin was deliberately rude to the unnamed princess of dorne regarding the prospect of a jaime/elia or cersei/oberyn match. and according to tywin, when jaime ruined their plans for a jaime/lysa match, tywin offered tyrion as a replacement and hoster rudely refused. later, hoster basically extorted jon arryn into marrying lysa by threatening to withhold his military forces, even though the ned/cat match should have already tied him to the rebellion, not to mention that one of his own bannermen had been murdered with rickard and brandon stark. (a situation not too unlike walder frey--tywin’s red wedding ally--extorting 2 betrothals from catelyn/robb when he already owed support to his tully overlords or show!tywin forcing a cersei/loras match by threatening to name loras to the kingsguard.)

[Catelyn, to Hoster on his deathbed:]"You made him take her," she whispered. "Lysa was the price Jon Arryn had to pay for the swords and spears of House Tully." Small wonder her sister's marriage had been so loveless. The Arryns were proud, and prickly of their honor. Lord Jon might wed Lysa to bind the Tullys to the cause of the rebellion, and in hopes of a son, but it would have been hard for him to love a woman who came to his bed soiled and unwilling. -Catelyn I, aSoS

[Tywin, to Tyrion:]"I once hoped to marry your brother to Lysa Tully, but Aerys named Jaime to his Kingsguard before the arrangements were complete. When I suggested to Lord Hoster that Lysa might be wed to you instead, he replied that he wanted a whole man for his daughter."

So he wed her to Jon Arryn, who was old enough to be her grandfather. Tyrion was more inclined to be thankful than angry, considering what Lysa Arryn had become.

[Oberyn, to Tyrion, about their parents:]"Years later, on her deathbed, she told me that Lord Tywin had refused us brusquely. His daughter was meant for Prince Rhaegar, he informed her. And when she asked for Jaime, to espouse Elia, he offered her you [at a time when Tyrion was not only a dwarf but a dwarf baby expected to die in infancy] instead." -Tyrion III & X, aSoS

both lords committed violations against their children relating to control over their sex lives. hoster effectively poisoned lysa to abort her pregnancy by petyr baelish without her knowledge, partly to facillitate marrying her to a husband old enough to be her grandfather. this may have been the cause of her later reproductive troubles, resulting in multiple miscarriages and stillbirths. as stated, after giving cersei to a husband who physically and sexually abused her, tywin planned to marry her off again, despite her protests. and tywin also organized a gangrape of tyrion's first wife, tysha, for her crime of being a peasant who dared to consort with a lannister, and ordered tyrion to participate. hoster's response to lysa's first pregnancy was sadly but likely typical of what some other lords would do in his place. and at the least, he felt genuine regret about what he did to lysa on his deathbed, especially because of the (perhaps unexpected) amount of bleeding. otoh, tywin's interest in tyrion's sex life was pathological. he never expressed any regrets and likely went to hell still thinking he was right in all his abuses of his children.

[Tyrion to Bronn:]"[....]Lord Tywin brought my wife in and gave her to his guards. [....] He sat me down in the corner of the barracks and bade me watch, and at the end she had so many silvers the coins were slipping through her fingers and rolling on the floor, she . . . " The smoke was stinging his eyes. Tyrion cleared his throat and turned away from the fire, to gaze out into darkness. "Lord Tywin had me go last," he said in a quiet voice. "And he gave me a gold coin to pay her, because I was a Lannister, and worth more." -Tyrion VI, aGoT

[Hoster on his deathbed, to Cat, thinking she was Lysa:] "That stripling . . . wretched boy . . . not speak that name to me, your duty . . . your mother, she would . . . " Lord Hoster cried as a spasm of pain washed over him. "Oh, gods forgive me, forgive me, forgive me.” [....]

"Forgive me . . . the blood . . . oh, please . . . “[...] His hand groped for hers. "You'll have others . . . Sweet babes, and trueborn. [...] Forgive me," he said, so softly she could scarcely hear the words . "Tansy . . . blood . . . the blood . . . gods be kind . . . " -Catelyn V, aCoK, & I, aSoS

both lords punished disobedient vassals with a massacre which killed innocents. however, tywin's destruction of the reynes and tarbecks was on a larger and more unprecedented scale than hoster's destruction of villages in the rebellion. the survival of the freys with their continued oath-wavering is proof enough that hoster was never feared nearly as much as tywin was.

Lord Tywin did not suffer disloyalty in his vassals. He had extinguished the proud Reynes of Castamere and the ancient Tarbecks of Tarbeck Hall root and branch when he was still half a boy. -Tyrion III, aSoS

[Notch, a member of the brotherhood without banners and native riverlander:]"This was Lord Goodbrook's village. When Riverrun declared for Robert, Goodbrook stayed loyal to the king, so Lord Tully came down on him with fire and sword. After the Trident, Goodbrook's son made his peace with Robert and Lord Hoster, but that didn't help the dead none." -Arya VIII, aSoS

and both lords had overmighty vassals who resented them and attempted to replace them, though as above noted, those attempts ended very differently, mostly because the freys had tywin’s backing.

[Jaime:] "Every great lord has unruly bannermen who envy him his place. My father had the Reynes and the Tarbecks, the Tyrells have the Florents, Hoster Tully had Walder Frey." -Jaime VII, aSoS

brynden tully/jaime lannister

both knights were widely known by a sobriquet, to the point that they are addressed that way more often than by their first names alone. the difference is that the blackfish was able to embrace an epithet originally meant as pejorative, while "kingslayer" is almost always meant as an insult and jaime never stopped being hurt when he was called that instead of jaime.

During one of their louder quarrels, when Catelyn was eight, Lord Hoster had called Brynden "the black goat of the Tully flock." Laughing, Brynden had pointed out that the sigil of their house was a leaping trout, so he ought to be a black fish rather than a black goat, and from that day forward he had taken it as his personal emblem. -Catelyn VI, aGoT

He drew up a yard from Ser Brynden, and inclined his head to the older man. "Kingslayer," said Tully.

That he would make that name the first word from his mouth spoke volumes, but Jaime was resolved to keep his temper. "Blackfish," he responded. -Jaime VI, aFfC

both characters are known for their way with words, brynden's on full display in parley with jaime. both men can also be very stubborn about what they want and believe. the blackfish is known for a give-no-fucks attitude and saying what's on his mind. though jaime tries to affect a similar attitude he actually has a hellava lot of fucks to give, and often his spoken words hide his true feelings, sometimes even lying to himself.

brynden was very close to the 3 tully siblings growing up, practically another parent more than an uncle. jaime did not have the same relationship with cersei's 3 kids, though he is their bio father as well as uncle. (i've always thought not coming out of the incest closet was the one area where cersei was the more rational twin, but it is a bit hypocritical to fuck jaime right next to her passed-out drunk husband, and yet think an uncle taking an interest in his twin's children when they all live in the same household would be too dangerous.)

Nonetheless, during all those years of Catelyn's girlhood, it had been Brynden the Blackfish to whom Lord Hoster's children had run with their tears and their tales, when Father was too busy and Mother too ill. Catelyn, Lysa, Edmure … and yes, even Petyr Baelish, their father's ward … he had listened to them all patiently, as he listened now, laughing at their triumphs and sympathizing with their childish misfortunes. -Catlelyn VI, aGoT

[Jaime, to Cersei:]"He[Tommen] is my seed. He's never called me Father. No more than Joffrey ever did. You warned me a thousand times never to show any undue interest in them." -Jaime IX, aSoS

both men refused the dynastic matches made for them by their lords (elder brother and father, respectively) and still refused to marry anyone else years later. however, while jaime's reasoning in this matter is clear, we are given no specific reason for the blackfish's chosen bachelorhood.

[Hoster, to Cat:]"I told him . . . commanded him. Marry! I was his lord. He knows. My right, to make his match. A good match. A Redwyne. Old House. Sweet girl, pretty . . . freckles . . . Bethany, yes. .... [...] Spit on the girl. The Redwynes. Spit on me. His lord, his brother . . . that Blackfish. I had other offers. Lord Bracken's girl. Walder Frey . . . any of three, he said . . . Has he wed? Anyone? Anyone?" -Catelyn XI, aGoT

Cersei took him aside and whispered that Lord Tywin meant to marry him to Lysa Tully, had gone so far as to invite Lord Hoster to the city to discuss dower. But if Jaime took the white, he could be near her always.

[Tywin, to Jaime:][...]”You are the heir to Casterly Rock. That is where you should be. .... And it is past time you were wed. [....]"

"NO!" Jaime had heard all that he could stand. -Jaime II & VII, aSoS

both knights made their reputations in rebellions which ended in the death of kings. jaime is infamous for his murder of the mad king during robert's rebellion, while the blackfish is famed for his feats in the war of the ninepenny kings, the last blackfyre rebellion, which saw the death of the last blackfyre pretender. though the would-be king maelys the monstrous was killed by another of jaime's foils, barristan selmy, not brynden. both men are known as formidable fighters and jaime thought that single combat between them would have been quite a fight, if he still had both hands.

.... at that age, no girl interested Jaime half so much as Hoster's famous brother, who had won renown fighting the Ninepenny Kings upon the Stepstones. -Jaime V, aFfC

jaime's served in the kingsguard for over half his life (which strained his relationship with his father), though he broke his oath to aerys through kingslaying and later committed treason against robert with cersei, fully willing to kill him too if the need arose. brynden served his kin in house arryn loyally for ~15 years as knight of the bloody gate, guarding the border of the vale (which put further distance in his relationship with hoster), until he left the post to do his duty to house tully defending riverrun. jaime refused to quit the kingsguard when his maiming gave him an out, and tywin demanded he do his "duty" to house lannister. but he was in effect still serving his most immediate family as the king is his own nephew-son and the queen mother is his twin sister.

both knights serve royal nephews, as grand-uncle and uncle-father, respectively. when they meet at the 2nd siege of riverrun, jaime is under orders from the queen and acting in the name of his 2nd kingly nephew-son, while brynden is still acting in the name of his dead kingly grandnephew under orders to protect his queen. both of them recently lost a teenage royal nephew when each of their kings was murdered at a wedding, and each knightly uncle was miles away during the fatal feast.

neither knight was ever head of their house, but they were both very important war commanders in the riverlands campaigns. brynden was made warden of the southern marches (of the northern kingdom) by robb before the red wedding, holding the tully domains in the place of his liege edmure and in the name of his king, in which capacity he held riverrun under siege until jaime forced edmure to surrender. jaime was twice sent to conquer the riverlands, in the name of his king(s), and on the orders of his liege(s), tywin and cersei.

related to the above, brynden tells jaime that the boredom of the siege was the only reason he met him in their failed parley, with siege-based boredom being the same factor brynden counted on to lure jaime into the trap he planned with robb. despite the dullness of sieges and the fact that brynden would be more likely to defeat one-handed jaime, jaime cannot bait him into a fight the way he himself was tricked during the first siege. even after the surrender, when jaime may have thought he’d avenged his own prior defeat there, he finds out instead that brynden has escaped and will not be captured like jaime was.

both knights used harshly pragmatic tactics in the 2nd siege of riverrun. brynden expelled all “useless mouths” from riverrun and picked the land bare for miles around. jaime achieved a bloodless surrender of riverrun only by making horrific threats to edmure. the difference is jaime’s tactics were more unconventional by the “rules” of war and also more melodramatic. (shooting a baby from a trebuchet has to be one of the most needlessly ott ideas for infanticide possible and could only come from a drama queen like jaime.)

jaime claimed to brynden that it should not matter how robb stark died, yet it seemed he shared brynden's opinion on royally-sanctioned murders when describing the details of rickard’s and brandon's deaths to cat.

"I would have slain Robb Stark in the Whispering Wood, if I could have reached him. Some fools got in my way. Does it matter how the boy perished? He's no less dead, and his kingdom died when he did." -Jaime VI, aFfC

[Jaime:]"[...]Answer me this, Lady Stark-did your Ned ever tell you the manner of his father's death? Or his brother's? [....] After, Gerold Hightower himself took me aside and said to me, 'You swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.' "

[....]Catelyn could taste bile at the back of her throat. The story was so hideous she suspected it had to be true. -Catelyn VII, aCoK

catelyn tully/cersei lannister

lysa tully/cersei lannister

both ladies had secret forbidden loves from childhood who were their first kiss, first sexual experience, and impregnated them. lysa's love was her foster brother, petyr baelish (an inappropriate match because of his lower noble status), who sired her first pregnancy, which was aborted by her father. cersei's lover is an actual blood brother, her twin, jaime, who fathered all three of her children when their affair continued into her marriage.

[Catelyn, about her own and Lysa’s first kisses with Petyr:]How young they all had been—she no older than Sansa, Lysa younger than Arya, and Petyr younger still, yet eager. The girls had traded him between them, serious and giggling by turns. [....] "He tried to put his tongue in my mouth," Catelyn had confessed to her sister afterward, when they were alone. "He did with me too," Lysa had whispered, shy and breathless. "I liked it." -Catelyn XI, aGoT

[Jaime, about Cersei:]"I can't remember when we first began to kiss. It was innocent at first. Until it wasn't." -Jaime VII, aFfC

both ladies had early sexual experiences where their partner used the name of the woman he actually wanted to be with. for lysa this was her first time with petyr (when he was too drunk to know what was going on), who preferred her sister, catelyn. for cersei, it was her wedding night with robert (who was also drunk but could have at least been aware he'd just been married), who she did not love and who never got over his dead betrothed, lyanna stark.

[Lysa, to Sansa:]"That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt. He told me he loved me then, but he called me Cat, just before he fell back to sleep." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Cersei, to Ned:]"The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister's name. He was on top of me, in me, stinking of wine, and he whispered Lyanna." -Eddard XII, aGoT

both ladies were originally intended by their fathers for betrothals which fell through, lysa for handsome knight jaime and cersei for handsome prince rhaegar. instead, they were given as wives to other men as a result of events in robert's rebellion, stuck in unhappy and loveless marriages. lysa was disgusted by her husband, jon arryn, because he was old and missing half his teeth. cersei was disgusted by her husband, king robert, because he was fat and persistently drunk.

[Lysa, to Sansa:]"Jon Arryn was no dwarf, but he was old. .... Half his teeth were gone, and his breath smelled like bad cheese. I cannot abide a man with foul breath. Petyr's breath is always fresh . . . " -Sansa VI, aSoS

[Cersei, recalling sex with Robert:]The wrong man came back from the Trident, the queen would sometimes think as he was plowing her. In the first few years, when he mounted her more often, she would close her eyes and pretend that he was Rhaegar. She could not pretend that he was Jaime; he was too different, too unfamiliar. Even the smell of him was wrong. -Cersei VII, aFfC

both ladies eventually killed their unwanted husbands using wine, for reasons relating to their lovers and their children. lysa poisoned her husband on petyr's advice, motivated by a wish to stop him from sending their son to dragonstone, with a cover story blaming the lannisters for his murder. cersei had her cousin give robert strengthened wine during a hunt so he would be mortally injured in his fight with a boar. she wanted to stop him being told that her children were really jaime's, and the crime was covered up as a hunting accident.

[Lysa, to Petyr:]"[....] You told me to put the tears[of Lys poison] in Jon's wine, and I did. For Robert, and for us! And I wrote Catelyn and told her the Lannisters had killed my lord husband, just as you said." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Varys, to Ned:]"Oh, indeed. Cersei gave him[Lancel] the wineskins, and told him it was Robert's favorite vintage." The eunuch shrugged. "A hunter lives a perilous life. If the boar had not done for Robert, it would have been a fall from a horse, the bite of a wood adder, an arrow gone astray . . . the forest is the abattoir of the gods. ...." -Eddard XV, aGoT

both ladies then donned performative mourning dress for their murdered husbands. though lysa made use of her dead husband’s own sigil, and cersei used the colors and gemstone associated with rhaegar targaryen, robert’s enemy. (in contrast, mourning dress is never mentioned regarding catelyn, genuinely mourning the husband she loved and did not murder.)

The Lady Lysa wore black silk, with the moon-and-falcon sewn on her breast in pearls. Since she did not look the sort to join the Night's Watch, Tyrion could only imagine that she had decided mourning clothes were appropriate garb for a confession. -Tyrion V, aGoT

All of them were clad in black, she realized with a feeling of dread. Mourning clothes ...

The queen wore a high-collared black silk gown, with a hundred dark red rubies sewn into her bodice, covering her from neck to bosom. They were cut in the shape of teardrops, as if the queen were weeping blood. -Sansa IV, aGoT

both ladies could be quite possessive about their secret lovers, refusing to believe the men could have their attentions turned on another woman (or girl, in sansa's case), despite any evidence to the contrary.

[Lysa, to Sansa:]"[....]You think you can have any man you want because you're young and beautiful. [.... ]But you are mistaken if you think big eyes and strumpet's smiles will win you Petyr. He is mine." She rose to her feet. "They all tried to take him from me. My lord father, my husband, your mother . . . Catelyn most of all...." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Melara, to Maggy the Frog, in Cersei's memory:]"Will I marry Jaime?" she blurted out. You stupid girl, the queen thought, angry even now.

[Kevan, to Cersei, about Jaime:]"[....]on his way back to Riverrun he left his tail and went off with a woman."

[.... ]Her. The queen remembered the Maid of Tarth, a huge, ugly, shambling thing who dressed in man's mail. Jaime would never abandon me for such a creature. -Cersei VIII, aFfC & I, aDwD

both ladies arranged positions at court for their childhood lovers, so that they could no longer be separated.

[Lysa, to Petyr:]"[....]It was me who got you your first post, who made Jon bring you to court so we could be close to one another." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Jaime, remembering when Cersei seduced him to join the Kingsguard:]By morning Casterly Rock seemed a small price to pay to be near her always. He gave his consent, and Cersei promised to do the rest. -Jaime II, aSoS

both ladies disliked their lovers’ facial hair.

Littlefinger stroked his chin, where his beard had been before Lysa had asked him to shave it off. -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Cersei, to Jaime:]”I had hoped that by now you would have grown tired of that wretched beard.” -Jaime III, aFfC

both ladies have young sons who inherit their titles before the age of 10. both act as regents for the boys, but each has an uncle who doubts their fitness to rule.

"A woman can rule as wisely as a man," Catelyn said. [about Lysa]

"The right woman can," her uncle [Brynden] said with a sideways glance. "Make no mistake, Cat. Lysa is not you." -Catelyn VI, aGoT

[Kevan, to Cersei:]"[....] and from what I saw of Joffrey, you are as unfit a mother as you are a ruler." -Cersei II, aFfC

both of the said uncles deserted the ladies, so they could return to the family home, refusing to serve their nieces because of choices they disapproved of.

[Brynden, to Cat, about Lysa:]"[....] I asked your sister for leave to take a thousand seasoned men and ride for Riverrun with all haste. Do you know what she told me? The Vale cannot spare a thousand swords, nor even one, Uncle, she said. [....] Well, I told her she could bloody well find herself a new Knight of the Gate. Black fish or no, I am still a Tully. I shall leave for Riverrun by evenfall." -Catelyn VII, aGoT

[Kevan, to Cersei:]"[....]I will remain and serve His Grace . . .

[ . . .] so long as you name me regent as well as Hand and take yourself back to Casterly Rock.

[....]If you will not yield the regency to me, name me your castellan for Casterly Rock and make either Mathis Rowan or Randyll Tarly the Hand of the King. [...] You may make Moon Boy your Hand for all I care. My brother is dead, woman. I am going to take him home.” -Cersei II, aFfC

related to the above two points, both ladies were seen as unfit mothers and had men close to them who wanted to separate them from their sons, as well as a disapproving sibling. in lysa’s case, this was jon arryn, her husband and father of her only living child who was himself old enough to be her (grand)father. later, her sister catelyn expressed a similar sentiment about the boy’s need for fostering. for cersei it was first her own father, tywin, then later even her brother jaime had the same wish. jaime, who is her children’s true father, and thought of cersei as if they were husband and wife. (uncle kevan also shared tywin’s desire to get cersei away from tommen.) the difference is in the boys themselves and how their mothers influenced them. lysa’s smothering and coddling of sweetrobin left him immature for his age and sharing his mother’s fear of outsiders but he is not vicious or sadistic like joffrey was. (and while cersei encouraged joffrey’s arrogance and cruelty, raising him to rule as a tyrant, tommen is little like his brother. cersei is abusive to tommen but to think the only problem with that is an inevitable joffrey 2.0 result ignores all other factors of influence and the children’s own inclinations.)

She[Cat] glanced at her nephew and sighed. "The boy is utterly without discipline. He will never be strong enough to rule unless he is taken away from his mother for a time."

"His lord father agreed with you," said a voice at her elbow. She turned to behold Maester Colemon, a cup of wine in his hand. "He was planning to send the boy to Dragonstone for fostering, you know … oh, but I'm speaking out of turn." -Catelyn VII, aGoT

[Tywin, to Jaime:]”[...] and I want him[Tommen] away from his mother.”

My sweet sister, the deceiver. He would need to find some way to winkle Tommen from her clutches before the boy became another Joffrey. -Jaime VII, aSoS & VII, aFfC

both ladies were resistant to remarriage, relishing the chance to rule on their own. lysa would only agree to marry petyr, the only man she really wanted to be with, who was finally seen as a fit match for her once he was lord of harrenhal. cersei is determined never to re-marry, as jaime is the only man she really wants, but she knows they'd never be allowed to be together publicly. (and unlike lysa, who willingly gave power to petyr once they married, cersei has no wish to relinquish her power to anyone, including jaime.)

[Brynden, to Cat, about Lysa:]"[....] She swears that this time she will choose her lord husband. [....] it seems to me Lysa is only playing at courtship. She enjoys the sport, but I believe your sister intends to rule herself until her boy is old enough to be Lord of the Eyrie in truth as well as name." -Catelyn VI, aGoT

[Cersei, to Jaime:]"[....] I will not have another husband. You are the only man I want in my bed, ever again. [....] I want to be your wife, we belong to each other, but it can never be, Jaime. We are brother and sister." -Jaime IX, aSoS

both ladies' lovers thought they drank too much, and they also gained weight reflected in their gowns, though cersei is in denial about that.

Her aunt's breath smelled of wine. [....]

[Petyr, to Lysa, as she threatened Sansa and spilled his secrets:]"Have you been at the wine again?" -Sansa VII, aSoS

Petyr had given her his late wife's wardrobe, [....] though the great bulk of it was far too large for her; Lady Lysa had grown very stout during her long succession of pregnancies, stillbirths, and miscarriages. -(Sansa II/)Alayne I, aFfC

[Jaime, watching Cersei:]The queen was in her cups, Jaime realized. Of late, Cersei always seemed to have a flagon of wine to hand.[...] -Jaime II, aFfC

[Cersei:][....] her wretched washerwomen had shrunk several of her old gowns so they no longer fit. -Cersei V, aFfC

both ladies are protective of their young sons to the point of paranoia. lysa, because she lost all her other babies and sweetrobin has always been weak and sickly. cersei, because of a witch's prophecy, which supported her prejudice against tyrion, feelings which increased after her firstborn son was killed right in front of her. both mothers are driven by their paranoia to make threats against their own siblings.

[Cat, recalling her parting with Lysa:]She had offered to take Lord Robert with her, to foster him at Winterfell for a few years. The company of other boys would do him good, she had dared to suggest. Lysa's rage had been frightening to behold. "Sister or no," she had replied, "if you try to steal my son, you will leave by the Moon Door." -Catelyn VIII, aGoT

[Cersei, to Tyrion, after capturing Alayaya:]".... You've been scheming against me since the day you came to King's Landing. You sold Myrcella, stole Tommen, and now you plot to have Joff killed. You want him dead so you can rule through Tommen. [....] If Joff should be killed, however, or if Tommen should fall into the hands of our enemies, your little cunt will die more painfully than you can possibly imagine." -Tyrion XII, aCoK

both ladies had an abortion, the only named characters i can think of who did. (as opposed to the more common moon tea, which appears to be more like a fantasy plan b potion) but lysa's was a forced abortion without her knowledge after she told her father she was pregnant by petyr baelish, the boy she loved (who she also raped). cersei chose to abort a pregnancy by her hated husband, robert (who raped her repeatedly), and the man she wanted to be with, jaime, helped her do so.

[Lysa to Petyr:]"I would have given you a son too, but they murdered him with moon tea, with tansy and mint and wormwood, a spoon of honey and a drop of pennyroyal. It wasn't me, I never knew, I only drank what Father gave me . . ." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Cersei, to Ned:] "Your Robert got me with child once," she said, her voice thick with contempt. "My brother found a woman to cleanse me." -Eddard XII, aGoT

both mothers used a whipping boy for their young sons, a practice which doesn't seem to be common in westeros.

[Lysa, to Sansa:]"[....] We keep a whipping boy for Robert, as is the custom in the Free Cities." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Cersei, to Tommen:]"If you lie to me, I will have no choice but to send for Pate and have him beaten till he bleeds." Pate was Tommen's whipping boy, as he had been Joffrey's. -Cersei V, aFfC

both ladies threatened sansa's life when she was in their care and was a prospective daughter-in-law. lysa did so after she saw petyr kiss sansa, and cersei did so during the battle of the blackwater, purely out of spite, so that sansa could not outlive joffrey if he were defeated. (and by the time of lysa’s threats, sansa was outwardly living a bastard’s life as petyr’s natural daughter, alayne stone, without the public protection of her true noble name. years earlier, cersei had made an implied threat against her husband’s actual daughter and actual vale bastard, mya stone.)

[Sansa, to Cersei:]"And if the castle should fall?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Cersei did not wait for a denial.

[...Cersei, to Sansa:]"I do not mean for him[Stannis] to have us alive. [....] So perhaps you had best pray again, Sansa, and for a different outcome. The Starks will have no joy from the fall of House Lannister, I promise you." -Sansa VI, aCoK

Lysa Arryn was frightening her[Sansa] as much as Queen Cersei ever had.

[.... with Lysa at the moon door:]She tried to wrench free, but her aunt's fingers were digging into her arm like claws. Lysa gave her another shove, and Sansa shrieked. Her left foot broke through a crust of snow and knocked it loose. There was nothing in front of her but empty air, and a waycastle six hundred feet below clinging to the side of the mountain.

[...] As they[Lysa and Littlefinger] hugged, Sansa crawled from the Moon Door on hands and knees and wrapped her arms around the nearest pillar. She could feel her heart pounding. There was snow in her hair and her right shoe was missing. It must have fallen. She shuddered, and hugged the pillar tighter. -Sansa VII, aSoS

both ladies are prone to blaming innocents, while denying the faults of the evildoers they love (2nd husband petyr, and elder son joffrey, respectively). lysa blamed sansa and cat for enticing petyr (yet also blamed cat for rejecting him), while denying petyr's forced kissing of sansa. cersei blames tyrion for their mother's death and blames arya for joff's abuse of sansa, while minimizing joffrey's abuses whenever she can.

[Cersei, to Sansa:]"Joffrey will show you no such devotion, I fear. You could thank your sister for that, if she weren't dead. He's never been able to forget that day on the Trident when you saw her shame him, so he shames you in turn." -Sansa IV, aCoK

[Lysa, to Sansa, after Petyr kissed her:]"It was you, just as I thought. You are as wanton as your mother." -Sansa VII, aSoS

both ladies were victims of patriarchal violations against their bodies but also sexually abused others. lysa first had sex with petyr when he was too drunk to consent and thought she was cat, and she refused to realize the truth of what she'd done. cersei hurt her victims intentionally. she twisted tyrion's penis when he was a baby, and years later tried to re-enact her own marital rapes when having sex with her friend taena.

[Lysa, to Sansa, recalling her first night with Petyr:]"[....] he drank until he passed out at the table. Uncle Brynden carried him up to bed before my father could find him like that." -Sansa VII, aSoS

[Cersei, recalling her marital rapes, then later having sex with Taena:]She wondered what it would feel like to suckle on those breasts, to lay the Myrish woman on her back and push her legs apart and use her as a man would use her, the way Robert would use her when the drink was in him, and she was unable to bring him off with hand or mouth. Those had been the worst nights, lying helpless underneath him as he took his pleasure, stinking of wine and grunting like a boar. [....] Cersei pinched the nipple now, pulling on it hard, twisting it between her fingers. The Myrish woman gave a gasp of pain. "You're hurting me." [....] She twisted Taena's other nipple too, pulling until the other woman gasped. "I am the queen. I mean to claim my rights.” -Cersei VII, aFfC

both ladies accused tyrion of murder and tried (and failed) to have him executed. lysa had no previous grudge against tyrion and knew he was innocent of killing her husband because she herself was the murderer. cersei wanted tyrion dead for years, and in her prejudice and paranoia, she genuinely believed he murdered joffrey.

lysa was murdered by her lover, petyr, and cersei's lover, jaime, is a possible murderer of her according to a prophecy. cersei would never expect this of the brother she loves, but lysa never saw petyr's betrayal coming either. unlike petyr, who never actually loved lysa, jaime was devoted to cersei for most of their lives. however, his feelings about her have recently changed, at one point dreaming of knocking out her teeth and at another shooting down ilyn payne’s suggestion of murdering cersei only because of tommen. (which would not be an issue if tommen and myrcella predeceased cersei as prophesied.)

just as cat/cersei both had a son murdered at a wedding, lysa/cersei both have a beloved son who was/is victim of a poisoning plot involving petyr baelish. lysa’s death left her son vulnerable to his stepfather’s plan to slowly kill him through the same drugs used to treat his illness, because petyr is now the boy’s regent through his marriage to lysa. meanwhile joffrey’s death left cersei vulnerable to a downward spiral which could end in her own murder after all her children are dead, if the prophecy comes true. unbeknownst to cersei, the poison used to kill joff was provided by petyr and administered by the tyrells, the boy’s kin through his own short-lived marriage.

edmure tully/jaime lannister

both knights are uncle to their boy-kings through their sister. edmure's kingly nephew robb was a better general than he is and is even seen as a military prodigy, like king robert or daeron the young dragon. edmure tried to respect his much younger king even though he also envied robb's glory. jaime had no respect and little, if any, affection for joffrey, despite joff being his own son as well as his nephew. joffrey was better compared to the mad king than his putative father robert or bio dad-uncle jaime, and even though jaime was captured by robb, he was still considered joff's most valuable warrior.

both knights suffered embarrassing early defeats in the war between their families, partly due to their own rashness and glory-seeking--both men are thought to be emotional and shortsighted. jaime caught edmure before his army was fully gathered to defend riverrun, defeating edmure and holding him hostage. then jaime was defeated and captured by robb after ignoring the loss of his scouts and heedlessly chasing after the blackfish, falling into a trap. in jaime's 2nd riverlands campaign he was more careful with scouting, determined never to be caught offguard again. while edmure's victory at the fords may have been a pyrrhic one, the fact that he won suggests he also learned a lesson and made better use of defensive tactics.

[Ned, learning how Edmure had spread his men to defend all the riverlands]And that may be precisely what Lord Tywin wants, Ned thought to himself, to bleed off strength from Riverrun, goad the boy into scattering his swords. His wife's brother was young, and more gallant than wise. -Eddard XI, aGoT

[...]Jaime Lannister, the gilded knight who men said had never learned to wait at all. "The Kingslayer is restless, and quick to anger," her uncle Brynden had told Robb. And he had wagered their lives and their best hope of victory on the truth of what he said. -Catelyn X, aGoT

related to the above point, both knights unwittingly fucked up a plan of their overlord (robb and tywin) by going off on their own without thinking things through, attacking an enemy whom their commanders hoped to lure into the west instead. edmure wasn’t told of robb’s intent to lure lannister forces back into the westerlands until it was too late (and imho there was no need to keep it secret from him), but he should have realized that keeping tywin away from riverrun and harrenhal would either keep him in the rest of the riverlands indefinitely or send him to king’s landing to defend joffrey instead, either of which would just lead to more problems. edmure was likely blinded by his need to avenge his earlier defeat by jaime and a desire to not be outshined by robb. jaime was blinded by anger over tyrion’s capture when he confronted ned in the street, which left ned too injured to go after gregor clegane himself, which is what beric dondarrion surmised tywin expected and wanted as a way to take ned hostage in return (or kill him). jaime was motivated by his love for tyrion, one of his redeeming qualities, but his fuck-up was both more cruel than edmure’s and more stupid because even with no idea of tywin’s plan, it should have been obvious killing ned could endanger tyrion and killing ned’s men just to punish ned didn’t help the lannister side at all. (show!jaime/show!tywin’s first scene with jaime being lectured about his attack on ned gives me similar vibes to edmure getting chewed out for his “folly of the fords”.)

[Brynden, to Edmure:]"When you stopped Lord Tywin on the Red Fork," said the Blackfish, "you delayed him just long enough for riders out of Bitterbridge to reach him with word of what was happening to the east. Lord Tywin turned his host at once, joined up with Matthis Rowan and Randyll Tarly near the headwaters of the Blackwater, and made a forced march to Tumbler's Falls, where he found Mace Tyrell and two of his sons waiting with a huge host and a fleet of barges. They floated down the river, disembarked half a day's ride from the city, and took Stannis in the rear." -Catelyn II, aSoS

[Harwin, to Arya:]"It was a trap, milady. Lord Tywin sent his Mountain across the Red Fork with fire and sword, hoping to draw your lord father. He planned for Lord Eddard to come west himself to deal with Gregor Clegane. If he had he would have been killed, or taken prisoner and traded for the Imp, who was your lady mother’s captive at the time. Only the Kingslayer never knew Lord Tywin’s plan, and when he heard about his brother’s capture he attacked your father in the streets of King’s Landing. [....] He[Jaime] killed Jory," Harwin agreed, "and your father's leg was broken when his horse fell on him. So Lord Eddard couldn't go west. He sent Lord Beric instead, with twenty of his own men and twenty from Winterfell, me among them. There were others besides. [...] But Gregor was waiting for us at the Mummer's Ford, with men concealed on both banks. [...]” -Arya III, aSoS

edmure tried to defend all his lands and protect all his people, out of a sense of chivalric duty and family honor. when he's not trying to kill children, jaime too tries to protect innocents, also acting from a mix of chivalry and pride.

[Ser Rodrik to Cat, reading Edmure's message:]"[....] He vows to you that he will yield no foot of Tully land without first watering it with Lannister blood."

Hundreds of smallfolk had been admitted to the castle, and allowed to erect crude shelters against the walls. Their children were everywhere underfoot, and the yard teemed with their cows, sheep, and chickens.

[Catelyn:]"Who are all these folk?"

"My people," Edmure answered. "They were afraid." -Catelyn VII, aGoT & V, aCoK

[Tyrion, about Tysha:]"Jaime and I were riding back from Lannisport when we heard a scream, and she came running out into the road with two men dogging her heels, shouting threats. My brother unsheathed his sword and went after them [....] Jaime was all in a lather to hunt down the men. It was not often outlaws dared prey on travelers so near to Casterly Rock, and he took it as an insult." -Tyrion VI, aGoT

[Jaime, about Pia:]One of the Mountain's men had tried to rape the girl at Harrenhal, and had seemed honestly perplexed when Jaime commanded Ilyn Payne to take his head off. .... When Ser Ilyn presented Pia with his head, she had smiled through her ruined teeth. -Jaime IV, aFfC

though jaime is outwardly more confident, both knights are insecure about their reputations (edmure as a “floppy fish” and jaime as both a kingslayer and later a disabled knight) and their father's views of them (especially edmure). however, jaime has the more cold-hearted father while he is still known as tywin’s favorite, and edmure is right in thinking his father favored cat.

[Edmure, to Cat:]"Tell Father I have gone to make him proud. [....] I mean to give him better reason than mere birth." -Catelyn VI, aCoK

Jaime wondered whether Lord Tywin had received the goat's demand for ransom, with or without his rotted hand. What is a swordsman worth without his sword hand? Half the gold in Casterly Rock? Three hundred dragons? Or nothing? His father had never been unduly swayed by sentiment. -Jaime VI, aSoS

both knights had a sister and a sibling of their father's (uncle brynden and aunt genna, respectively) who doubted their abilities to act in their father's place.

Catelyn knew that Edmure had a soft heart; sometimes she thought his head was even softer. She loved him for it, yet still . . .

[Brynden, to Edmure, about his pyrrhic victory at the Stone Mill]"Had it been me I would have flayed you for your stupidity rather than praising this folly of the fords." -Catelyn V, aCoK & II, aSoS

[Cersei, to Kevan:]"[....] Jaime is gallant, but a bit of a fool, let us be frank." -Cersei II, aFfC

[Genna, to Jaime:]"You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak . . . but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you." -Jaime V, aFfC

both knights had important ceremonial roles at their father's funerals, which left them uncomfortable. edmure had to light his father's funerary boat but was too emotional to shoot the arrow true, dealing with grief and guilt for not visiting hoster more when he was dying. jaime stood guard over tywin's corpse, attempting to keep vigil for a whole week. he felt no grief but more guilt for his role in tywin's death through freeing tyrion. both men didn't want to accept aid with their tasks, though edmure ended up letting brynden shoot the last arrow to light the boat, and jaime left his vigil to comfort tommen.

both men were admirers of (known hot-headed fool) brandon stark, from what they knew of him in their boyhood. edmure served as brandon's squire in his duel with petyr baelish, and jaime wanted catelyn to know that he liked brandon better than ned.

Her brother had acted as Brandon's squire at the duel, and Littlefinger would not forgive that. -Catelyn VII, aGoT

[Jaime, to Cat:]"Brandon was different from his brother, wasn't he? He had blood in his veins instead of cold water. More like me." -Catelyn VII, aCoK

both knights were unmarried at the start of the series, and were resistant to the marriages that were arranged for them. however, edmure just wanted to choose his own bride to avoid an ugly wife and did eventually agree to marry a frey for the sake of robb's war effort, while jaime was motivated by his incest with cersei and still remains unwed.

both men were absent from the wedding receptions where their royal nephews were murdered. jaime wondered how edmure could consummate his marriage while robb and cat were being killed, just as cersei tried to guilt-trip jaime by asking why he couldn’t return home in time to help protect joffrey at his wedding.

"You should have come sooner," she[Cersei, to Jaime] murmured, when he took her in his arms. "Why couldn't you have come sooner, to keep him safe? My boy . . .“

[Jaime, to Edmure]"I am told your wife is pretty. She'd have to be, for you to bed her while your sister and your king were being murdered." -Jaime VII, aSoS & VI, aFfC

both men had important emotional scenes while taking a bath. jaime was sharing a bath with brienne when he revealed the full truth about his kingslaying, a bath which ended in embarrassment when jaime passed out and heard brienne calling him kingslayer. edmure was in a bathtub when jaime threatened him into surrendering riverrun, choosing to play up his reputation for villainy as opposed to the more sympathetic side he displayed in his own bath scene. this traumatic bath also ended with humiliation when jaime called in a singer who happened to be the same man to make a song about edmure's "floppy fish".

the conflict between their families is bookended with each man making choices concerning their children which had major consequences, though jaime’s was a violent choice and edmure’s a peaceful one. the first overt act was jaime pushing bran stark from a tower, to stop him revealing jaime's incestuous relationship and endangering cersei and all their children. later, edmure surrendered riverrun to save his unborn child (among others), after jaime threatened to fling the baby from a trebuchet as soon as it was born--an upward arc which is the opposite trajectory from the straight downward path edmure's nephew bran took when jaime defenestrated him. this surrender can be said to mark the end of the war between the lannisters and stark-tullys, or so jaime hopes.

*(i say tully-named because cat and lysa’s kids are still half-tully as much as they are, but only robb really has a clear, direct lannister foil in joffrey to the same extent as their mothers do with each other.) the outcast of the lannisters, tyrion, does not have a tully counterpart because other than he and lysa both being abused related to their sex lives, i don’t really see any specific comparison points regarding personality and life circumstances as with his siblings and father. anyways, the point is that the golden twins may project all over the tyrell siblings but i see way more parallels between the tully trout and the lannister lions.

#asoiaf meta #house lannister #house tully #tywin lannister #jaime lannister #brynden tully #hoster tully #cersei lannister #catelyn tully #catelyn stark #edmure tully #lysa arryn #this one is super long #longer than i thought #tho i guess i shouldn't be surprised by the length of the lysa/cersei list #Pride of Lions #one fish two fish red fish blue fish #i started this behemoth before posting cat/cersei separately so that's why some quotes are repeated #(c)lsb

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evandearest · 4 years ago

Text

The Garden of Eden | Part IV: Betrayal

Pairing: James March x reader (you) | ~Part: (4/4)~

Summary (Part Four): Warnings are to be remembered, although most stored away for future use only to be forgotten. Cycles repeat to teach lessons; to warn of future events. Threats may remain even if not for the blind eye to see. However, ignorance might be the biggest threat of all.

Warnings (in this part): murder, blood, death, poison, religious twists, dark themes

Word Count: 5,018 (haha this part ended up with the most words... to end it off I suppose!)

Notes: This is the last part of the Garden of Eden! I just want to say thank you to all who read - especially @etoile-writings , for supporting me. Please go check out her series Adam and Eve, as it is a literary masterpiece and she deserves so much recognition.

I have seriously had so much fun writing this - it really has been my pleasure. I also want to apologize to all those who may have been waiting for awhile for the final part! Disclaimer: I tried my best to edit the grammar and everything in this but this is the best I could do! I hope there’s not many mistakes I may have missed. Please ask any questions and give me all your comments about this finale - I’d love to hear any and all thoughts! I also hope everyone is safe, healthy, and happy :) Feel free to send in other requests, whether it be AHS or Supernatural.

Also a heads up - keep a look out for the final review and analysis if you are interested. It is still in progress but it should be out within a couple of days at best.

A few side notes - the Countess and James are still legally married here, as they are in the show, but in this situation it is only because they haven’t gotten the chance to divorce. This part may seem to have very long sentences, but I just wanted to let you guys know that it is a writing technique that I used to create mood, tone, and theme. That’s all, thanks!

Tag List: @etoile-writings @haileyybird @ietss

Something about the young couple in the bar had your mind reeling. Their hands remained interlocked on the table, both of them staring at one another with all the joy and adoration that only true love can bring. Their relationship was new and exciting. The honeymoon phase was always so perfect. You remembered how that had felt with James; so invigoratingly energizing. It was enough to make you feel as if you ruled the world; love blinding a vision of truth. It was, for many years, what you had considered paradise to be.

Paradise.

You realized now that it never had been perfect with you and James. There were so many things standing in the way, so many hidden threats. When you were younger, it had been your parents and their obsessive need to marry you off like an object to a rich man. Even as he had began his journey to success, James’ social status as new money hadn’t seemed good enough to them. When you had first gotten back with James only just around a month ago, you had thought that you’d conquered everything. You had been blind to the truth which was right in front of you once again. You should have expected some kind of change in James. It was inevitable, after all that time spent apart.

But now, however, right at this present moment... well, now, everything was out in the open. Now, you and James truly understood one another. Now there really was nothing in your way. You could see no obstacles ahead, no threat, so long as James was by your side. All you saw was James, and all that clouded your mind was your admiration and devotion to him. He was your everything; your soulmate, your leader, your God. He had dragged you from the fire and brought your paradise back to you; good, true, and everlasting this time around. Your precious Garden of Eden, controlled by none other but you and your God.

Your God; who had been the utmost of clever in his recent schemes. He’d been outraged when he did it, but it wasn’t to say that he wasn’t brilliant. He was of excellent prosecution; his statement out in the open and clear. A Sunday morning: police finding piles of dead bodies compiled with numerous copies of nothing other than the book of God himself. It was sadistic and morbid, but it was perfect. It was everything that James needed to say. He was on the verge of something momentously renowned.

Once James was finished, no one would ever forget his message: religion was the worst thing to happen to society. It controlled the will of man, when truly nothing in creation could stop anything. Everyone was put equal on the Earth to sin, to live in the most pleasurable way.

It was the entire reason Adam and Eve had been cast down. They were sinners, except the garden was a place controlled by God’s rules. They had wanted to control their own lives, so God banished them to Earth. James, however, had created his own paradise; his own Garden of Eden. He had climbed so far above all other men that he now controlled the garden. He had to prove to others the ridiculousness of holiness--for all were meant to sin. Religion was, essentially, suppression. To some, it may seem horrible, but to you, it was art. A simple expression of belief that most didn’t understand.

Voices floated into your ears, startling you out of your thoughts. Soft echoes through the lobby of your beloved’s name piqued your interest, your feet immediately carrying you to the railing without much thought. You left your drink on the bar’s counter--still full, but long forgotten. Your eyes landed on four men clad in black suits, shiny gold badges on their shoulders reflecting light from the chandeliers above. You scanned the area, noticing a certain maid standing close by, listening in, much like you were.

“We have suspicion based upon evidence that Mr. March was involved in the murder this past Sunday. We have already taken the time to get a warrant for his arrest,” one of the officers explained to the receptionist at the front desk. Time seemed to take a standstill, your heart seeming to stop completely as your brain registered the man’s words. No, this couldn’t be happening.

The cycle was repeating again. They were trying to tear you apart again.

You didn’t understand how this could’ve happened. He said he was careful, and you could never see James making a mistake with something this important. He was detail-oriented, his brain practically ran off of the certainty of perfectionism. He would never let a small mistake ruin everything for him.

The entire empire he’d built, and everything you’d rebuilt, was about to be destroyed all over again.

Your body seemed to catch up with your mind as you sprung into action. You twisted around, your feet pushing you forward only to come to a halt at the close proximity of the once unknown presence behind you. Your eyes widened, a sharp breath escaping your lips at the stop you made compared to your sudden momentum. You stared into the eyes of none other than The Countess, clad in only the most extravagant clothing and makeup.

“That’ll be a hard one to get out of,” she said, although her face was seemingly expressionless. You stared at her, your frenzied brain jumping to the first conclusion you could make.

“Did you...” you trailed off, your breathing suddenly heavy. James couldn’t have made the mistake, so that means that somebody else had to of given the police some kind of tip in order for them to seek James out. The woman standing before you was quite possibly the number one suspect. “Did you do this?” Your voice held tones of disbelief and anger.

Would Elizabeth really go to such extent when she hadn’t even expressed a major disliking? She hadn’t talked to you at all since that first time, in fact the only interactions you’d had with one another were passing glances. She’d seemed to have just steered clear of anything to do with you or James. You had no idea what she had thought, but you had supposed that she didn’t care about you and James, otherwise she would have spoke her concerns. Had you been wrong about her? Could a simple mistake end it all over again? Elizabeth scoffed, her face hardening.

“Oh God no...” she said wryly, a small sarcastic grin forming on her lips as she looked at you quizzically, “what would I get out of it now? As I am still his present wife, I don’t need James dead to use his money. And besides, now that he has you he no longer bothers me.” She was smug as she spoke to you. She grinned, all teeth and mischief, her eyes sparkling. “It’s a winning situation for the both of us if you ask me.” She paused, her grin falling slightly as her gaze wondered off to peer down into the lobby.

“I could bet I know who the rat is, though,” She said, turning back to you. “I’m wagering it’s his loyal minion. That poor woman has been in love with James since the beginning of time.” She paused, her eyes intense as they rested on your face. “And based on your expression you think so too.” She smiled at you and then turned, walking slowly away from you. “Good luck,” she called back to you without turning around, your eyes watching her back as she went.

You stood contemplating her words for a moment. Elizabeth was smart and straightforward, and from what you could tell if she had a problem she would speak her mind. And what she had said made sense. Miss Evers was in love with James, but her love was unrequited, and that’s why she constantly seemed at odds with you. She could never even have a chance to be with him, so long as you were around.

Your feet carried you quickly as you raced to the elevator. The police were still conversing with the receptionist, but you knew it was only a matter of time before they found out where James was. You recalled a conversation you’d had with him in the morning, concluding that he had to be caught up attending to his hobby.

The police would find him in his office, in the middle of his business, and it would all be over. He would be taken from you once again.

You didn’t even knock upon arriving; you opened the door and closed it quickly behind you. You turned to face James, in all his blood-covered, god-like glory. You took in the scene of James’ office quickly, your eyes tracing over every detail. A large bin sat in the center of the room, a rugged corpse contained within it. James had been busying himself with pouring a substance over the body, of which could only be acid, as it had sizzled upon impact with the dead man’s skin. At your arrival, James halted his methods in confusion.

Several items were scattered across the floor, one of which catching your interest. The glass of the vase; a damp spot surrounding the area where the unaltered mess remained. The roses remained too, the petals wilting from lack of nourishment. You paused, your mind trying to puzzle out their unmoved position. Miss Evers had to have been in here since last night, so why wouldn’t she move them? She might have been scheming, but she was extremely adamant on being neat when it came to James’ specific rooms. You couldn’t see her ignoring it, and yet here it was sitting puzzlingly. You were caught off guard for a reason not entirely known to you. Something about their appearance had you alarmed, a string of words suddenly ringing out in your head; perhaps a memory brought to the surface.

“If you betray the rose, the rose no longer profits you.”

The old woman was suddenly prevalent in your mind, her warning dawning upon you, your heartbeat stuttering at the looming echo of her words. James was waiting for you to explain yourself--the police were coming--Miss Evers had betrayed you--everything you and James had worked so hard for was crumbling down around you. Your heartbeat was fast, the pulse beating quickly, perhaps the reason for the pounding in your head.

You looked James in the eyes, studying his features. He was so handsome--even before you knew him, that day in the garden when you had first seen him--you had marveled at his beauty. And that was before he’d become such a man; his features sharp and masculine, beautifully sculpted by the gods. His dark brown eyes and hair, so dull yet so prominent--a symbol of his darkness. You could stare at him for eternity and never bore, your love for him everlasting.

And yet, here you were at the end with no escape, hell a threat once again hanging above your heads, looming just around the corner. Just a few more minutes and everything would be over. Just a few more minutes and you’d be lost again, stranded without your guide; your purpose--your God.

“James,” you gasped, stumbling slightly as you made your way to him. You’d just managed to get to him before you fell over slightly, your arms reaching out to grasp onto his tightly. He caught you, keeping you level as his face filled with concern. The pounding in your head was intense, beginning to drown out your thoughts and quicken your breath.

“Darling, tell me--what is it?” James demanded, his voice panic-stricken. He lifted your chin to look you in the eyes, his widened orbs meeting yours with intensity.

“I-it’s--the- the police,” you barely managed to get the words out, clinging onto James like he was your lifeline. Nothing seemed right; your thoughts suddenly taking too long to form into words, your breathing heavy, vision blurry, and it was becoming much harder to stand. What was happening? You stared into James eyes, shifting all your focus into him. “They’re here to arrest you.” One hand gripped his arm firmly as you brought the other to rest upon his cheekbone, leaning chest to chest as your body began to collapse into him. He held you steady, forever the one and only thing to truly support you. “They’re going to take you from me,” you sobbed, an onslaught of tears overcoming you. “Again,” you cried quietly, gasping for air.

The door opened, your heart skipping a beat at the intrusion, your mind going straight to the thought of the police. Your eyes landed on Miss Evers instead, confusion settling on you once again. She’d gotten what she wanted, hadn’t she? Why was she here now, to prove something? You wished you had the strength to question her, to say anything, but everything felt heavier and heavier as more time passed.

“Tell me,” James barked at her just as she’d closed and locked the door, “what in all creation is happening? Speak right this instant, and quickly.”

“The police are here,” Miss Evers explained, James grip on you tightening as you leaned onto him for support. He glanced down at you, worry glinting in his eyes as you just barely managed to look up at him.

“Darling,” he whispered, “what is happening? Are you ill?” A moment of silence passed as you tried to respond, your mouth opening but no words becoming audible. A moment of silence passed, the only action being James assessing you. Your words couldn’t seem to form, a burning spreading through your entire body. It was unlike anything you’d ever felt. You began to wonder yourself if you were somehow ill.

“It was supposed to be me!”

The maid across the room suddenly shrieked, desperation clouding her judgement as she flung her arms up in the air. “I was the one for you!” She sobbed, stumbling slightly as an expression of hurt formed upon her face. “I always loved you, and these women--they never did! They used you, and I always cared!” James eyes widened, shock coming across his features. He stared at the woman, contemplating her words.

“But you never saw,” the woman said sadly, her head hanging in shame before her face went emotionless. “And so I did the only thing I could.” She looked at him, dead in the eye, a type of malice suddenly overcoming her. “You’d be surprised how easy it was.” Her eyes settled upon your frame, your head moving slowly to get a glance at her. You stared, blinking rapidly as your vision faded in and out. You could barely comprehend what she was saying, but you felt as James’ breath quickened. It was taking all of your willpower to stay awake--you needed to, for James.

“What?” he stated, his voice deeper than you’d ever heard it, a rage within his eyes even you had never seen before as he stared at her. He was tense, as hard as a rock, glaring daggers at the woman who had seemingly betrayed him.

“I--,” Miss Evers hesitated, obviously intimidated by his fury, but decided to continue. “I’ve found that you have a secret stash of cyanide in the bar.” She faltered once again, her eyes shifting away from James and to the floor. “I wanted us to be together, and she-” she pointed at you, “-she was always in it for the money! They all are, all but me!” She burst into tears, falling onto her knees in hysterics. Your eyebrows furrowed as you racked your brain to gather all of the information. She poisoned you at the bar. You remembered brief flashbacks of the one tiny sip you’d taken of your previously forgotten drink.

James seemed to be shaking as he gently moved you to sit in a chair by the wall, turning away from you for only a moment. Your eyelids began to flutter as sleep beckoned you, visions of James’ movement around the room the only thing to hold your focus. A loud pop suddenly reverberated off of the walls as it rang out, causing you to sit up slightly from your slouched posture, your eyelids flying open to search for the source. James stood over the body of his betrayer, smoking gun resting within his palm.

You felt so weak, your thoughts jumbled, unable to focus on only one. Only now you knew it wasn’t just an overreaction. You’d only taken a mere sip of the drink from the bar, but you supposed now that it had been enough for the poison to go into effect. You wondered briefly how she’d gotten the cyanide into the drink in the first place, and exactly how much she had put in for it to have such a potent effect on your body.

Your eyes traveled to her corpse, and to the fresh blood splattered across the wall from the headshot. You blinked, barely registering what had just occurred before you. You were too dazed to process the incident, even if you understood what had occurred subconsciously. Relief was the only thing you felt; relief for one less thing to worry about standing between you and James.

Eyes shifting slightly to the left, you stared at the browning roses, the sweet old lady’s warning once again echoing, a distant memory brought to the surface of your mind. James crouched in front of you, suddenly the only thing in line of sight, his lips moving but you couldn’t hear his voice over your own in your head. The roses were dead. You left them on the floor. You betrayed them for--

You sprung up once again as a loud banging at the door shocked you back into your senses. James glanced briefly at the door before turning back to you quickly. He pulled you out of the chair, holding you up and close to his chest as he stroked your hair tenderly.

“James,” you just barely whispered as he shushed you.

“I know, darling,” He said reassuringly, pulling back to look into your eyes. “It’s all going to be okay, dear. It’ll all be over before you know it.” He smiled charmingly as you nodded weakly, holding tightly onto the cloth of his shirt to maintain stability. And you believed him in that moment, as he always seemed to find a way.

One way, or another.

You rested your head on his chest, closing your eyes as the pounding on the door increased. Or maybe it was the pounding in your head; at this point you couldn’t decipher what was real and what was just a figment of your imagination. Cold metal pressed against the skin of your temple, your brain too bleary to question it. Mere seconds passed as you contemplated moving, but suddenly it was as if everything had settled away. James’ warm body faded from your grasp.

-🤍-

Your eyelids fluttered open, eyeballs moving back and forth as you tried to become familiar with your surroundings. You recognized the familiar room immediately, for it was your bedroom when you had first moved into the Cortez. You felt strange. Zen, almost, but maybe that was just because the pounding was gone. You felt... disconnected. It was the most out of touch with yourself you’d ever felt.

You climbed to your feet from the floor, thoughts running rampant at what was unknown to you. Where was James, how did you get here, how long had you been here, and why did you feel so cold? Flashes of what seemed to be both years ago and only moments ago clouded your mind, filling you with dread. Scenarios of what could be frightened you and sent you into a state of panic, pushing you forward.

Out of the room you went, through the quiet and empty halls, searching, searching, searching--no fixed destination ahead except something, anything, that could lead you to your James.

It seemed that days had passed before you finally found the lobby of the hotel. Navigation through the building was proving to be much more difficult than you remembered. Why was it taking so long?

The lobby was sparsely populated, unlike the usually crowded area that you were used to. You glanced around, noticing only a few people in the bar, the receptionist, and someone asleep on the sofas. Your feet carried you to the hotel entrance, pushing the first door open, the sunlight peeking through the opaque glass surprising you. If it was the daytime, then why was the hotel so empty? On ordinary occasions people came and went like flies; the Cortez was a hotspot in the city of Los Angeles, after all. Your hands reached out to push open the door to the outside, the metal handle of the door cool against your skin, and then suddenly nothing. In front of you was the door no longer; profound confusion coursing through you as you stared at the walls of your bedroom once again. You had been there one second, and in the next it was as if you had been teleported back in time.

And so the cycle repeated for what seemed like years; many times set adrift through the halls, eventually to the lobby where the sunlight no longer shone through the windows and unusually few people inhabited. You were reaching forward for the handle of the first door for what seemed to be the hundredth time, only to freeze at the call of your name from a familiar voice.

“Y/N.”

Your name sounded of honey dripping off his tongue. It was like hearing that voice for the first time again. All your worries deflated and anxieties subsided--for you had found your God once again. You turned to face him, to see his face--the face you had longed to see for what felt like years but may have been minutes. You still didn’t entirely understand the detachment from your body you felt; it was as if you no longer had a life source, no blood running course or lungs cycling air. You felt out of place and trapped at the same time.

Just as your hopes had soared, they plummeted at the sight of the bare lobby. Emptiness sat instead where you had expected James to be, crushing all sense of direction. You wanted to cry, to scream, to tear the hotel to shreds with your bare hands. But just before you gave up all hope completely, your eyes caught on the tiniest of details.

Barely noticeable, unless payed close attention to; unless already a prominent object in one’s mind. Small, dainty, white petals lay scattered in high correlation, leading on to an unknown but obviously specific destination. You treaded lightly as you followed the path closely, afraid any disturbance would somehow make them disappear.

Unease settled through you, possibly just a usual feeling as of late, but considerably appropriate when meeting the isolate hallways once again. You began questioning your sanity; was this just yet another repeat in the cycle? You’d been lost for so long, was this just another loop? What was the energy here, and why did it not feel like you and James’ beloved Cortez, the place you called home? You felt like you were stuck in a punishment of some kind; a purgatory; a hell.

And at last, you arrived; the room in which this cycle had began, or ended. The office of James Patrick March: Room sixty-four. You paused, contemplating, before making a bold decision and gripping the handle, opening the door and entering the room. There you stood in what was once James’ office, now empty of most furniture, only few items remaining. And there it remained: the vase on the table in the center of the room, petals leading straight to their source.

Inside sat the very white roses themselves, southern California glory and all. They looked just like the ones in that very first garden: huge, bright and beaming, petals spread with all the beauty and radiance of nature and purity. And just behind them stood their God; the master of the garden who held the utmost control in his realm. Your God, who’d saved you from hell; who’d broke all cycles.

The feeling you felt at sight of James did not fail to excite you just the same as it had on that first day years ago. Something about his presence next to yours soothed you, for you knew that he was still there, that he hadn’t been taken from you, that no matter what had happened you were still okay so long as he stood next to you.

You rushed forward and into him, basking in his embrace. His arms wrapped around you, but the challenge once again presented itself: an unignorably apparent absence of warmth. It’d been just before you’d first woken up what seemed like years, or maybe just hours ago, that you’d been in his embrace just the same, his warmth seeping into you and igniting your soul as you had faded in and out of consciousness. But now, you couldn’t feel it. You felt his body wrapped around yours, but nothing inflaming, the detachment from your own warmth just the same. It was missing, a shell of a comfort that used to always be present; something you had gotten entirely used to, for to be absent of warmth was to be dead...

You gasped, pulling away from James to look him in the eyes, the reality setting in and the drunkenness fading away. Your mind was becoming clear, all clarity suddenly bestowed upon you.

“James, are we...” you froze in panic, for it felt as if you didn’t have lungs, the normal rise and fall of the simplicity of breathing gone... the feelings of life were all gone...

And it clicked.

“James,” you whispered, your eyes tracing over the details of the room. The blood stains on the floor and walls were the only evidence of foul play left. You felt strange, for people didn’t normally expect to see the place of their death after the fact. Realizations settled over you as you stared at the room, just as you had initially when entering to warn James of the police, the truth of the events that had happened finally dawning upon you. In your poison-induced state of mind, it’d been hard to realize. You had been dying, the poison slowly but surely shutting your body down. You’d barely processed it when James had held the gun to your head and pulled the trigger, ending your pain.

“Yes, darling?” James replied to you, bringing you back to your conversation. You stared at him longingly. Although you didn’t entirely understand why you were still here, or the concept of the afterlife, you were glad to have James next to you. A moment of silence passed as you tried to pinpoint what you wanted to ask him exactly.

“I have so many questions,” you said, deciding to just speak your mind. You furrowed your eyebrows, blinking rapidly as you tried to sort out your thoughts. “I-I’m so lost, James.”

“Of course you are, dearest,” James said reassuringly, his hand brushing the stray hairs away from your face. He stared at you sadly. “I’m terribly sorry for all that happened, you must feel perplexed beyond understanding my dear.” He paused, his eyes traveling over your features as you stared up at him, listening intently. “This was simply my only choice, darling. You were succumbing to the poison’s grip long before I finished your pain. Miss Evers...” He trailed off, his jaw clenching tightly. “Nevermind that. I came to a conclusion upon the authorities’ arrival, and that was that if I was damned to be put away I might as well flee with you, my queen... it was the only right option.” He smiled down at you softly.

You smiled right back at him, your love for him the only warmth left inside of you now that you no longer had your body to call home. You basked in the feeling of being close to him as he pulled you to his chest, his lips leaving a soft kiss against your scalp. Even if you didn’t feel warmth, simply the love you had for him was enough. He tenderly stroked your back, calming your nerves. It amazed you how he could ease your mind so easily, if only just a little. However, you couldn’t shake your thoughts away. Sure, you could just let it all go, but the truth of the matter was simple.

Your entire life had been a cycle. A cycle of undeniable foolishness; you’d been ignorant of the truth for all of your living years. Oh, how it angered you. You hated something truly for what seemed like the first time in your life. You hated yourself; you’d let yourself believe false truths just to live in an illusion that you thought was happiness. You were na��ve. And ultimately, that was what had ended you.

You’d ignored all warnings and left the roses to wilt, betraying the one thing that had always been on your side. You’d ignored all threats and committed yourself to making paradise in the land of the evil; it was simply impossible. The Garden of Eden wasn’t a place for the living. It was a place of freedom, and so long as you’re living, you can never truly be free. For in life, one threat always remains: death. You could never truly be protected. You could never truly have paradise.

But with James, in the Cortez, in the paradise he’d created for you... even death didn’t stand a chance. It was a gateway to greatness; a place where nothing truly stood in your way, where no threats were great enough. You couldn’t be harmed, or imprisoned, or separated here; you were finally utterly invincible; real Gods. Hell and Earth were no longer a threat. It was your true paradise that James had promised you.

Your Garden of Eden.

---------

Series Masterlist: The Garden of Eden Series

Main Masterlist

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staywritten · 4 years ago

Text

A Love That Lasts│Epilogue

A Love That Lasts │ Epilogue

Synopsis: You’ve spent the last two years, helping your very handsome next door neighbor raise his adorable daughter. The two of you fell into a routine before you knew it. And now you had this little family. You couldn’t help but fall for him.

Genre: Parent!Au, Dad!Bang Chan, Fluff, Nonidol!Au, Smut

Word Count: 3044

Part I │Part II │Part III │Part IV │Part V

A Love That Lasts Masterlist

Masterlist. AO3

“Today’s the day! Today’s the day! Today’s the day!” Minseo jumped up and down on her father’s bed, waking him up with a belly flop. He chuckled, wrapping his arms around his daughter, kissing her hair softly and pulling her back into bed.

“Why are you so full of energy?” he smiled into her fluffy hair. “I’m the one getting married”

“Because after today I have a Mom!” she chimed.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to look at his daughter. “You’re really happy about this aren’t you?”

“The happiest!” she beamed. “This is gonna be so cool! I get a Mom, and two new grandparents and it’s the best” She hugged him as tight as she could “And grandmas helped me pick out a dress and it’s so pretty!”

“Baby a lot is gonna change, I want you to let me know if it gets overwhelming.” he looked down at her sincerely.

“I’m fine!”

“You’re getting a mom… I’m getting a wife...we’re moving into a new house...our family is getting bigger- wow in laws… in laws that probably hate me...” he mumbled to himself, a frown forming as it finally all sank in just how much his life was gonna change in the matter of a few hours.

“You ok Daddy?” you pouted pressing the furrow between his brows.

“I think I’m getting cold feet…” he sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“I’ll get you socks!” she chimed, wiggling out of his arms.

You were prepared for a stressful wedding. The planning process proved to be more challenging than all your years of med school and your residence. Dealing with not only your overbearing mother, but also Chan’s. Every decision you made followed by another five. You were happy to get this wedding over with.

You wanted nothing more than to just legally call Chan your husband and Minseo your daughter. “Just a few more hours” you sighed.

You frowned looking down at your phone while getting your hair done. The last time you saw him was yesterday afternoon since your mom was so superstitious. She made you stay in your childhood, not wanting Chan to see you until your wedding. You texted him the moment you woke up but he hadn’t said anything back. You know he read the message, it was so unlike him to not reply but it was your wedding day perhaps he was just overwhelmed getting ready.

Minseo ran inside the hair salon with your mom trailing behind her. “Today’s the day!” she cheered running into your arms.

A smile instantly appeared on your face as you kissed her cheek. “Today is the day!” you grinned, nuzzling her nose. “You ready to get your hair and nails done?”

She nodded “Can I have matching nails with you?”

“Of course you can Baby” your eyes softened, squishing her face. “I missed you, did you sleep well?”

“Mhmm! But I wish you were home”

“Me too” you pouted “How did your Dad sleep? Was he ok this morning?”

“He slept well~ But he has cold feet! I gave him extra socks before I left”

You frowned “Cold feet huh?” she smiled, shaking her head. “Well you were super smart to give him extra socks” you touched her nose. “Thank you”

“Minseo, let’s get your nails started” your mom called out to her walking her over to the nail tech, to sit with Chan’s mom.

You sighed when your mom walked over to you, crossing her arms over her chest. “Mom please don’t start” you knew exactly where this conversation was going.

“The boy has cold feet, what are the chances you think he’s actually going to show up?” she whispered to you not wanting to make a scene.

“Here we go again” you rolled your eyes “Mom it’s a wedding, everyone gets nervous. Stop making this into a direct attack on Chris”

“Maybe you’re rushing into things”

“And there it is” you looked to your mom and shook your head.

You introduced Chan and Minseo to your parents not too long after you started dating. They always knew about them since you talked so fondly of your neighbors but they weren’t too surprised you started dating. Your mother just wasn’t too fond of you dating a man that had a child. She instantly fell in love with Minseo the moment they met, who couldn’t? She was a bundle of joy. But she always looked at Chan like he wasn’t good enough. Both your parents were Doctors, you were their only daughter and sure, your relationship with Chan wasn’t conventional, but it never was. You knew she looked down on him, even if she didn’t explicitly say it.

“Mom I’m not having this conversation again, especially not on my wedding day.” You glanced down the salon and looked at Minseo animatedly speaking to her grandma and smiled. “I love Chris and Minseo so much…And I know it’s not what you wanted. I know that you would rather me marry some doctor with no kids and that we started a family once we got married but I chose this. I fought this feeling I had for him for years and I’m tired...I just want to be with the man I love. Chris has been my family long before this wedding”

“Look, I understand that you have feelings for Chris, he’s a nice young man, but-”

“No buts. No more buts.”

“What about the girl's mother? Is she really out of the picture? Who abandons their daughter?”

“The girl has a name. And Minseo is my daughter now. As for her mother, Chris will tell me when he’s ready I’m not pushing him on this.”

“But”

“No. Who I marry is a nonnegotiable.” you stood up, moving over to the makeup artist table.

Bickering with your mom was nothing new, especially when she got a little too pushy, But you did wish that Chan would at least respond to your text to ease your mind.

After a few hours of hair and makeup, you stared at yourself in the mirror, a little speechless. You were really doing this, you were gonna be married. You smoothed down the dress, running your hand over the embroidered lace. You had that ah-ha moment when you were dress shopping but there was something about seeing it all put together.

Hearing the little chime of your ringtone you frowned. There was no reason that Felix should be calling you a few minutes before the wedding. Taking a deep breath you answered. “Hey?”

“Hey~” his tone a little too casual given the timing. “Um… so you must be wondering why I’m calling”

You sighed heavily “Felix what is it?”

“Ok, don’t be mad but-”

“Don’t start with don’t be mad!”

“See now you already sound mad and I’m too scared to tell ya”

“Felix!”

“I may have misplaced something…”

“You’re the best man Felix! Did you lose the wedding rings?”

“I’m offended! Those rings cost more than the down payment on my car” he scoffed. “They are safely tucked away in my blazer”

“Then what did you lose? Oh no, was it Chris’s tux?”

“Nah, I lost Chris”

“You what?! What do you mean! Felix!”

“See I asked you not to get mad, and yelling sounds a lot like being mad”

“How the hell did you lose a person?”

“I don’t need the attitude, he’s a lot faster than Minseo and can cover a lot more ground, I didn’t know he was a flight risk” he sighed “Look Jisung is calling him, and I’m checking around the venue, I’ll keep you updated”

“Please do…” you shook your head, hanging up.

Well this was a turn of events. Your wedding planner made sure you had at least three back up plans for any other decision you made but there was no plan for a run away groom. You looked at the time, there was still thirty minutes before you had to be in the wedding hall, so you figured you’d look for your fiance. You needed to make sure he was ok, especially since he never shut you out before. You switched out of your strappy heels and into a pair of sneakers, hiking up your dress so that you could see your feet.

There was a small knock at the door before it cracked open. You looked up and your eyes met a very tired Chan. He chuckled seeing you slip on your sneakers. “Runaway bride?” he grinned leaning on the door frame.

You released a relieved sigh. “I’m not the runaway! Your groomsmen said you left?”

He laughed before walking inside and closing the door behind him. “I literally told Changbin that I was going to the venue first because I needed to talk to you” He took your hands into his rubbing his thumbs over your skin. “You look so beautiful…” his dark brown eyes practically twinkling as he looked at you. “Wow…” his cheek dimpled as his smile widened, he spun you in his hands as he took you in.

You shyly looked at him, the warm way he stared at you making you more embarrassed than ever. “Should I be concerned that you wanted to talk to me before the wedding?” you frowned a bit “You’ve been ghosting me all day”

He gave you a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry...I just needed some time”

“To think about us…?”

“No, not us” he smiled “We’re solid. I love you...but” he brought your fingers to his lips. “I just...I felt a little guilty. I wanna give you all of me...but I just..I’m a little worried that all of me isn’t enough...”

“Chris…” you frowned, taking his hand and bringing him over to the couch to sit with you. “You’re more than enough...if you didn’t know that then I’m...I’m not showing you how much I love everything about you…”

“I have a ways to go...but I always try my hardest...I’m not there yet but I’m trying-”

“You are perfect.” your tone, absolute. There was not a single thought in your mind of how perfect he was for you.

“Your parents must hate me...They raise a beautiful, independent kind doctor and she settles for a single parent who make music-”

“Hey, that’s my soon to be husband you’re talking about. I’m not gonna let anyone trash talk you Chris, including you.” you squeezed his hand “And that last time I checked, I was the one marrying you not my parents.”

“But-”

“No buts. Yes you’re a parent. A parent of the literal light of my life, I can’t imagine my life without Minseo...I love her so much and you being her father will never be a negative...and yes you make music, you pour your heart into your passion and I love watching how you light up when you talk about it…. Chris I’m not settling for you in any capacity. I chose you to be my partner, my best friend, my soulmate, and my husband”

He let out that shy sweet giggle he had that you loved so much, his shoulders shrugging along with it. “I still don’t think I’m good enough but I’ll try to be…”

“Then I’ll spend the rest of my life as your partner, showing you that you are more than enough” you leaned in pressing a sweet kiss against his lips.

“I love you...and I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure that you always think I’m enough.. I’m really happy you’re gonna be my wife” he grinned at you pressing his forehead against yours.

“Any more concerns? I want to rid you of your worries” you smiled lovingly at him.

“I want to give you the world…”

“Chris you already have… You and Minseo are my whole world”

He pulled back, lacing his fingers with yours. There was something else that’s been weighing in the back of his mind, he always pushed it away because there was never a proper time to bring it up. He wanted to get married once, and to be fair to you he figured he should finally come clean about his life. “I wasn’t planning on telling you this minutes before we got married but...About Minseo’s mom…”

“Chris you don’t have to” you were always curious, but there was just something about his eyes that made you not push further.

“But I want you to, I want to be fair to you...To know me” he took your hand placing it over his heart. “Know all of me…”

“Then, I’m here for you”

And for the first time in five years he opened up to someone. Felix and his parents were the only people who really knew the details. But there was something about coming clean to you that made him feel like a huge weight was lifted. He told you about his first love. The first person he gave his heart to, and the first time he dealt with heartbreak. She was stubborn, strong, independent, and dedicated to her job. Everything that he loved her for became the reason they broke up.

“We didn’t plan for Minseo, but we did everything to prepare for her. To make sure she was loved. I was surprised at first but the moment I heard her heartbeat I knew I was going to do everything I could to protect her….As I got more invested in all of the prenatal care, my girlfriend seemed to lose a part of herself… It was like she powered through it… She was never the type to want to be a mom but I thought she changed her mind...But as soon as Minseo was born she left. Gave me full custody and a goodbye letter.”

Your eyes watered hearing his story, seeing the pain in his eyes. You pulled him into a tight hug, rubbing his back softly.

“Despite that… I don’t hate her... Because in the end, it was just so her...She couldn’t be tied down and I used to love her for that… And I thought I could change her... that maybe she’d pick me and our child and stay with us” he let out a broken and bitter laugh. “But if she stayed we would have been miserable...She would have resented me...Minseo wouldn’t have had a happy home, and for that I have no regrets” he looked up at you sheepishly, giving you such a sad smile. “If you’ll still have me… I’m all yours.”

There were no words of comfort you could offer him. Because this was a wound that he’s already healed. It was just one that he’s kept hidden. There was nothing more you could do to heal it, but you could show him that you love him, and everything he came with. “Christopher, I’ve told you before… I'm your partner, I’m not going anywhere”

“Promise?” and there was something about how he looked up to you with his big, warm, brown eyes. The vulnerable look of hope as he held his pinky out. You couldn’t help but smile at how similar he was to Minseo.

“Promise” you wrapped your pinky around his, pressing your thumbs together, sealing the promise. “You ready to get married?”

“Absolutely”

“I’m gonna go wait for you down the aisle” he pecked your lips again before heading out.

You couldn’t help but smile, practically beaming and watching him leave. It was go-time. You changed back into your heels and took a deep breath. One final longing look at yourself before your father came in. “You ready?” Your dad watched you warmly, a smile never leaving his face. “You look so beautiful” he pulled you into the biggest warmest hug. “I can’t believe I have to give you away”

You laughed leaning into your dad as he walked you toward the hall. “You and mom both”

“Your mom means well...You know how she is?”

“I do but I just wished she wasn’t so hard on Chris...He works hard, he does what he loves and makes sure that his daughter wants for nothing. I appreciate him...I fell in love with his kindness first...Dad, he’s my home”

“I’m gonna be honest I thought he was an opportunist, and I didn’t see what he offered you at first but...the way you look at him… the way you stand up to your mother...how you are with Minseo. I see it.” he smiled, rubbing your back softly. “You chose your home and I’ll love and respect you for it.”

“Thanks Dad…”

He kissed your forehead as you reached the wedding hall, the music from the piano chiming as they anticipated you. “You will always be my Baby… but you’re gonna be that man’s wife, and that sweet little girl's mom.. You ready for that responsibility?”

“I am” the sureness in warmness in your voice was all the reassurance he needed. Your mom would come around eventually, but for now having your father's support and the love of your new family gave you the strength to support Chris.

As the doors swung open your eyes instantly went to your fiance standing by the altar, Minseo in his arms, eyes practically sparkling as she happily whispered to him, pointing at you. Even Though he’d spent the past twenty minutes by your side with you in your wedding dress, it really didn’t hit him until this moment that you were going to be his wife.

The nerves finally hit you as you walked down the aisle. It wasn’t that you were anxious, you were just excited to finally start this part of your life. Your new family was waiting for you.

And although you knew that you guys weren’t perfect, and there will be obstacles in your way. You were sure that with Chan you two could overcome anything.

End.

Thank you for sticking with me all this time, we’re finally saying goodbye to this series. I’m sure I’ll make a oneshot for it here and there, just because I really like writing Minseo.

And *cough* I’m also *cough* maybe working on a short series/one shot for Minseo’s mom as the reader >.>

∘Tags List:

@skzsprinkles @tophuphu @hugs4chan @channieboyo @cobbiebaexqueen @minnieskz @em0cleo @chwrryeols @binki-g @mythicalamphitrite

#stray kids #stray kids fluff #stray kids reaction #stray kids x reader #stray kids scenario #bang chan #bang chan scenarios #bang chan imagines #skz fluff #skz scenario #skz fanfic #a love that last series #staywritten #kpop #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #kpop scenario

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years ago

Text

MEET THE PRESS

August 3, 1969

You are clued into the frank and tough talk to come by the way Lucille Ball swipes away with her handkerchief at the flies threatening the hors d’oeuvres The kerchief almost snaps like a wet towel.

The scene is the pool patio of her home on Beverly Hills’ Roxbury Drive and a cocktail party is in progress for visiting television editors.

Lucy has just emerged from the main house. She wears a powder blue double-breasted slack suit and saucer-sized sun glasses. In the blazing sun her orange hair has the color intensity of hot coals.

She has counted heads. Husband-producer Gary Morton is there. So are Desi Arnaz IV her son, and Lucy her daughter. And her TV side-kick Gale Gordon with his wife. Plus a half-dozen of her staff and CBS emissaries. There have been introductions all round to the newspaper types. It is time, she announces, to talk and she waves everybody into the big and comfortable pool house. A table has been positioned so that she can sit there presiding as she used to do at the stockholders’ meetings of the old Desilu Studios.

Almost immediately some wag fields her the question: “Lucy do you run the show?” She flashes him that big innocent TV look of hers. A staff member jumps up “Let’s all answer that one for her” There is a resounding “YES” from family-and-cast. Everybody laughs uproariously.

Very few questions are required to prime the pump. Lucy, it seems, has some matters of personal irritation on her mind and as far as she is concerned they come tumbling out without any prodding from her would-be interrogators.

First of all, she asks rhetorically, what’s all this business about whether she would retire? “I never said I wanted to quit or retire. There was a time when I was willing to quit but nobody asked me. Now I’ve set a date when I’ll retire”

A lot of ears perk up Somebody asks slyly — when? She’s waiting for that. Her answer is smilingly emphatic: “When I drop dead in my tracks.”

She turns then without anybody’s questioning to the matter of her longevity in television. This is her 18th year on the tube and it used to be talked about that she traded her popularity to CBS in return for its buying other shows produced by her company. This evokes an almost visible jet of steam out of the top of her carrot locks. “I never at any time sold any of the 20 shows our company produced on the basis of my returning each season. I’ve said that literally hundreds of times and nobody believed it.”

She went on to make it clear that she also dislikes the “big business” image which has adhered to her over the years. “I never like to talk about big money. I make my deal and that’s all. It’s been mostly a matter of legal procedures.”

As the star wades into these fiscal subjects your eye roams over the assemblage. Young Desi in tennis togs impassively studies the smoke curling up from a cigarette. Young Lucy clutches her hands around her knees and stares intently at her mother. Husband Gary sitting on a ledge at the back of the room swings his legs and smiles.

There has been no mention of Desi the elder the former husband Lucy’s co-performer and co-founder of Desilu Studios (now sold). Earlier this writer had chatted briefly with young Desi. He said he saw his father off and on and spends his summers as a rule at the father’s beach home at Delmar, south of Los Angeles.

The youngster asked if I knew his grandfather Dr. Desiderio Arnaz who lives in Coral Gables. (1)

But back to Lucy She’s telling us how many years it took to realize that as Lucille Ball she had attained V.I.P. status.

She reviews the years she spent trying to make it in show business, first on the stage, then as a model, and finally in the movies. Much of the time she says she stagnated. Until television came along.

“I never had any sense of importance. I was very pliable always willing to do what I was told It wasn’t until one day I saw in print somewhere some actress described as a ‘Lucille Ball type’ that I knew suddenly I was somebody and a part of the business.”

From there on the interview jumps from subject to subject.

I ask her whatever happened to the project Dean Martin’s producer Greg Garrison had for starring Martin, her, and Jackie Gleason in a revival of the musical “Guys and Dolls.” (2)

“I never said I would do it. Garrison kept publicizing it, but he never cleared it with me. I do still want to do ‘Diamond Jim’ with Jackie It’s just a matter of finding the time.” (3)

A lady editor wants to know how Lucy keeps her sinuous figure.

“I don’t particularly like food. I’m not very fond of meat, for example, except in the morning.”

Which brings a snort of disgust from her husband. “Can you imagine what it’s like to have to watch her eating corned beef or hamburger at 6 o’clock in the morning?”

The questions now go to the children. What are Desi’s plans? Does he want to make acting his future? “I want to be an actor for awhile but I don’t think I ever want to be one certain thing.”

Young Lucy, who, at 18, is two years older than her brother, is more sure of her future “I’ll go to college for awhile but I like acting. I’ll stay at it if I can.”

Would she somebody asks join the campus protest and carry a sign? Only if it says ‘wet paint’ quips she.

Lucy now introduces her cast veteran, Gale Gordon. He pays her extravagant compliments and talks a bit about his radio and early television days.

The interview’s late arrival is venerable George Marshall, who is now the show’s director. Lucy introduces him as “our sexy senior citizen.” Marshall goes back to the dawn of movies and is filled with fascinating anecdotes about his years in the business. (4)

The conversation turns to TV’s talk shows. Somebody suggests to Lucy that she would be a highly likely guest for Merv Griffin’s new show starting on CBS Aug 18. (5)

Lucy's answer comes lancing back “That’s what you think. I don’t like him.” Which rocks everybody back. Why not? “Because he doesn’t know how to interview. He’s rude to his guests and he monopolizes the conversation.”

She doesn’t wait for the next question. “I’m wild about Dick Cavett (on ABC) I think he’s great And I told Bill Paley (board chairman of CBS) he should have him on our network. But Bill said ABC got him first and we’re out of luck.” (6)

Everybody is suddenly distracted by three teen-age girl fans leaning over a fence way up front. They’re begging to be allowed on the grounds. Morton jogs forward to shoo them away.

“This happens all the time,” says Lucy. “My God they used to picnic right in front of the house until our police department stopped them. Jimmy Stewart, who lives up the street, finally told me how to keep them away. Turn on the lawn sprinklers.”

Morton returns and takes everybody for a tour of their luxurious but very lived-in home. Lucy tells us a funny story about how Jack and Mary Benny had once been their next door neighbors sold their home then asked her to try to mediate a re-sale of the place back to them. Then we take our leave.

# # # FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) Dr. Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y Alberni II (1894-1973) was a Cuban politician and the father of Desi Arnaz. He graduated from the Southern College of Pharmacy in 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia. Desiderio Arnaz II was the youngest mayor of Santiago de Cuba (1923–32). When president Machado was overthrown in August 1933, Arnaz was arrested and jailed. Six months later, he was allowed to go into exile. He married Dolores "Lolita" de Acha y de Socias in 1916 and had one son, Desiderio "Desi" Arnaz III. He later had a daughter, Connie Arnaz (1932), with Anne M. Wilson, whom he married in 1941.

(2) Guys & Dolls was a 1950 stage musical by Frank Loesser, based on the stories by Damon Runyon starring Robert Alda, who appeared on several episodes of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy”. It was filmed by MGM in 1955. During that time, Lucy and Desi were also under contract to MGM, so they prevailed upon “I Love Lucy” to insert a clip from the film into “Lucy and the Dummy” (ILL S5;E3). After its initial airing on October 17, 1955, the clip was removed from the film print, and for legal reasons, has never been restored. It is unclear whether Garrison’s project with Martin, Ball, and Gleason would have been a film revival, or a stage production. Whatever it was to be, Lucy wanted to have no part of it, perhaps remembering the rigors of performing on stage in Wildcat (1960). During her film career, Ball was in two films based on Damon Runyon material, The Big Street (1942), a film she claimed as her favorite, and Sorrowful Jones (1949). She also did a radio version of Runyon’s “Tight Shoes” in 1942. Ball and Gleason would have been cast as Miss Adelaide and Nathan Detroit, while Dean Martin would have played Sky Masterson, the romantic lead. Those roles were played by Vivian Blaine, Frank Sinatra, and Marlon Brando in the film. Obviously, the project never came to be.

(3) “Diamond Jim” was a project that Lucy dearly wanted to make with Gleason. He would play Diamond Jim Brady (1856-1917) to her Lillian Russell. Ball even went so far as to have a script written to further grab Gleason’s attention. Despite their best intentions, Gleason and Ball’s schedules never allowed for enough time to make the film.

(4) George Marshall (1891-1975) had directed Lucille Ball in Valley of the Sun (1942) and Fancy Pants (1950). He was considered an expert at location shooting, so when “Here’s Lucy” wanted to spend the first four episodes of Season 2 on location, Marshall was hired as director. He stayed on for seven more episodes of the sitcom before bowing out.

(5) Despite Lucille Ball’s rather harsh public assessment of Merv Griffin (1925-2007) at this August 1969 press party, Ball appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” four times between 1971 and 1980! During her first appearance, the aforementioned George Marshall was also a guest!

(6) Lucille did seem to enjoy doing the talking to Dick Cavett, although she only got to do his chat show once, on March 7, 1974, in conjunction with her press tour for Mame.

#Lucille Ball #1969 #Press Party #Dick Cavett #Merv Griffin #TV #Here's Lucy #Gary Morton #Lucie Arnaz #Desi Arnaz Jr.#Guys and Dolls #George Marshall #Jack E. Anderson

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alien-romantic · 4 years ago

Text

A thing for Kodie about films /nbh

I really like films with hidden meanings and easter eggs and things you only see on the second or third run through. I really enjoy films by Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim etc). I love analysing films too and would love to incorporate film analysis into my university course more.

As I said before, my memory isnt that great and i really struggle to recall what films ive watch, not just in the past few months, but like, ever. So when people ask me what my favourite film is, chances are its a film I cant remember because ive only watched it one and it's not ingrained, imbedded into my brain like films such as "Howl's.." is or "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" (good film btw). So to find my favourit film, I need to Dig Deep... And maybe scroll through Netflix to see if I can remember what I've seen

The Old Guard: I loved this film. I watched it last year round my friend's uni house by the beach and it was amazing. I really liked what they did with the characters. The pacing was good, although I could tell that it was adapted from a comic book in the way they had to skip over certain things.

Stand By Me: an adaption of a Stephen King short story, The Body. I really enjoyed this film; its about four young boys who hear that an older boy has gone missing and they go in search of his body. It really encapsulates for me ideas about youth and friendship. I really enjoyed this film when I saw it.

The Nice Guys: a neo-noir comedy starring Ryan Gosling. Im not the biggest fan of comedies usually but I liked this film. My mum and step-dad often like to put on films in the evenings and sometimes I end up watching them. While I cant remember the entire plot, I know that there were many aspects of this film that I liked and would watch again.

American Psycho: (this is a funny one, actually) I told my parents at Christmas that I hadn't seen this film and that they might like it, and so we watched it on Christmas Day. On Christmas Day!!! Now while there's some elements of this film that aren't great (some questionable things, you know?), I would watch this film again.

Films that I do not like

Im not the biggest fan of big macho movies about GUNS and MILITARY and ALIEN INVASIONS. Im not the biggest fan of romcoms either, unless they kinda fit into a very specific niche of "'90s romcoms produced by Richard Curtis" (Like Notting Hill or Four Weddings and a Funeral). I dont like that certain genre of comedy films that are specifically aimed at men ( Paul, The Hangover) because I think theyre trash. I would be happy to watch a jumpscare based horror film if I was in the company of someone I trusted, so by living (kind of) alone, I dont watch any (and hey, arent horrow films always best watched with someone?)Ive had The Devil All The Time on my list for AGES and need to find the right time to watch that.

I think my knowledge about tv series I enjoy/have enjoyed is much better than my film knowledge lol

(Im really tempted to do this again but with books because there are many books that I've read once but I adore, so I might save that for next time :D)

Honorable Mentions: Knives Out, Divergent (only the first one though), The Time Traveller's Wife, What We Do In The Shadows, Ender's Game, Spirited Away, Call Me By Your Name (But fuck whatever Armie Hammer's thing is) , Legally Blonde (although I prefer the musical), Shawshank Redemption (another Stephen King classic!)

#do not reblog #for kodies eyes only #everyone else?#'i look away i do not see'#/lh #misc #ar.post

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pseudophan · 4 years ago

Note

can you tell us the summary of your love of your lives case? I don’t wanna watch the video I don’t have the patience to watch it

it's such a complicated case but in short(ish):

1993 in west memphis arkansas, three eight year old boys go missing and are later found murdered in the woods. the community is freaking the fuck out and because it's 1993 small town arkansas and satanic panic is sweeping the nation people go ITS SATANISM IT WAS A SATANIC RITUAL and the police keep interviewing this 18 year old named damien echols because he was into witchcraft and listened to metallica and wore all black (genuine points brought up in court like this is what the entire case is built on). im skipping some details here cause its all oh so convoluted but basically they eventually interrogate a 17 year old named jessie miskelley jr who confesses to the crime and implicates damien and damien's best friend jason baldwin (16, looks about 11). so then ofc they all get arrested

issue is: jessie is a minor with a reported iq of 72 and they interrogated him non stop for 12 hours with no parent or attorney present (his dad agreed to let them speak to him but they didnt tell him it was an interrogation) and less than an hour of it was recorded. jessie claims the cops coerced him into his confession and even on the 40 something minutes of interrogation we do have available to listen to you can hear the cops just continuously leading him on like theyll ask when this happened and he says a time and they go no the kids were in school then it was later wasnt it and he's like yeah it was [later time] and theyre like no it was around 8 wasnt it? and hes like yeah yeah it was then and it goes on like that foreverrrrr

ok im getting into too much detail here im sorry theres so much more anyway anyway TRIALS HAPPEN and its all a whole bunch of bullshit and hbo recorded it all for hit documentary paradise lost (watch it) and hhhooooooly shit!

theres way too much to talk about w the trial but besides everyone being fucking cracked and damien being a smartass and the judge looking bored out of his goddamn mind throughout the whole thing (FUCK that judge) one notable part that didnt come out until later is that during jury selection this one guy was hell bent on getting on the jury cause he wanted them convicted and not only was he let on the jury he became the jury foreman which goes against like every law cause juries are supposed to go into court with no preconceived notions of what happened. also jessie had a separate trial cause he wouldnt testify against jason and damien which means his "confession" wasnt admissible in their trial and the jury werent allowed to consider it, but the jury actively discussed the confession while making their decision (jury members have said they did + it was written on their goddamn whiteboard) which. h

ANYWAYYY so jessie and jason get life in prison without the possibility of parole and damien gets sentenced to death. damien is 19 at this point with a newborn baby. jason isnt even 18.

so then they go away and the documentary paradise lost comes out and everyone collectively loses their goddamn fucking minds cause how the fuck did this happen they didnt even have a single piece of actual evidence except a piece of hair that MAY match damien but also its the early 90s and they dont actually have a fucking clue

years go by, everythings happening so much, their appeals get shot down one by one cause its the same fucking judge and ofc hes not gonna admit any fault. the public suspect john mark byers (rest in peace he died like a month ago in a traffic accident, btw he also didnt do it but thats also a lot to go into. interesting guy, definitely inbred, violent tendencies but not a murderer) one of the kids' stepdads (technically adoptive dad cause he legally adopted the kid after he married his mum but hes generally referred to as his stepdad) of having done it cause hes fucking massive and is quite possibly the most colourful character ive seen in my life like that guy had no idea what was going on ever and he was hell bent on the teens having done it and wanted to kill them all UNTIL! until. 2007, they test the dna in the case and SHOCKINGLY turns out none of the west memphis 3's dna is anywhere to be found, the shit they had that could be damien's turns out to not even remotely match him in the slightest and suddenly theyre there like. well. now theres nothing. and yet theyre still in prison cause everyone who got them convicted is like NO THEY DID IT :) but the public outrage is so much by this point and finally they get to take it to the supreme court who take one look at it and are literally like ??? what the fuck happened here give them a new trial what the literal hell (theres a video of it their faces are literally so funny they all look like they absolutely cannot believe this required their help) so in 2011 they finally have the opportunity to retrial with a new judge but SUDDENLY the state of arkansas go um actually we are gonna offer you an alford plea which basically means they legally plead guilty to the charges while still saying they didnt do it and then they get let out but the state wont have to admit fault or reopen the case cause in their eyes these three are still guilty but theyre gonna let them out anyway cause that makes a whole lot of sense i guess. lol basically the state realised there was a real chance they could get exonerated in which case they were gonna get sued to hell and back and went FUCK give them a deal

now jason didnt want to take the deal he wanted to wait for the new trial and risk getting found guilty again cause he said this isnt justice for the kids cause the real killer or killers are still free and its not justice for us cause we have to plead guilty to save the asses of the system that failed us all BUT all three of them have to agree for it to be valid and damien's execution date, which he's already narrowly avoided on several occasions like its already been postponed multiple times, is once again coming up and if the new trial somehow goes wrong and hes sent back to death row he's gonna be killed so jason decided fuck all of that and agreed to the plea exclusively to save damien which ok ride or die king

i havent gone into who really did it cause once again there is SO much but the majority of people think it was terry hobbs (the stepdad of another one of the victims) including the kid's mother whos now his ex wife who he abused to no end. theres a Lot to this theory and while theres no concrete evidence cause they did a shittyass job with everything theres already more dna linking him to the scene than the teens. god i really wanna go into everything that points to terry being at least somehow involved but this has already gotten so out of hand

anyway follow damienechols on instagram all he does is post about witchcraft and cats. also watch the hbo paradise lost trilogy and west of memphis. and if u want even more details listen to the three true crime garage episodes on the case. also theres books. theres so much. i have so much more to say. someone stop me

#answered

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flowerpowell · 5 years ago

Text

Unexpected (Drake x MC)

PART SIXTEEN

A/N: It’s official, this is the longest series Ive ever written. I was waiting for SO long to finally get this chapter out. Since I’m not really not on Tumblr anymore, I’m hoping to schedule the rest of the chapters so I can finally finish this series and not have ‘obligations’ on Tumblr, lol. I hope it made sense. The characters (but not Dani!) belong to PB!

Rating: PG

Word count: 1876

Tagging: @gardeningourmet @delightfullypinkglitter @desireepow-1986 @hopefulmoonobject @dcbbw @kingliam2019 @the-soot-sprite @thequeenofcronuts @badchoicesposts @burnsoslow @annekebbphotography @alesana45 @axwalker @walkerduchess @ao719 @texaskitten30 @lodberg @cordonianroyalty @emichelle @siriusxxvideos @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @samihatuli @choices-lurker @i-miss-trr @drxkewalker @nikkis1983 @innerpostmentality @msjr0119 @bascmve01 @mind-reader1 @edgiestwinter @drakesensworld @queenjilian @princessleac1 @saivilo @yukinagato2012 ♥

“Oh no,” Drake muttered as he smelled something burning. “No, no, not my bacon. Not again.”

He quickly ran to the kitchen and took the frypan away from the stove. He wasn’t sure why but he had been burning his bacon every single day since Riley left. No matter for how long he was frying it, it always came out burned. And he blamed Riley for it. He blamed Riley for everything.

Drake poured himself coffee and put the bacon on top of his sandwich. Burned or not, he still needed food.

Ever since Riley left, he felt his life was falling apart. Again. This time was much worse though because he knew what it felt like to be happy, and now he lost it.

He didn’t understand her. He tried to hate her but he couldn’t. He knew she had some issues but he was pissed she would rather run away instead of talking to him.

“Who am I kidding,” the talked to himself, “I don’t talk about my feelings, I’d probably run off as well.”

And he hated how he understood Riley that well. He hated it.

He bit his bacon sandwich which tasted like broken dreams and he heard someone knocking on the door. Without hesitation, he threw the rest of the meal to the trash can and went to open the door.

“Mr Walker, I hope I’m not interrupting.”

“No, not all all, come on it,” Drake let the guest in and closed the door after him. He was a bit surprised his lawyer would visit him in person instead of calling him and started panicking that something had happened.

“Is everything okay?” he asked nervously.

“Nothing new about your sister, sir. But there is something I thought needed to be discussed, in person.”

“Go ahead,” he let the lawyer talk.

“Mr and Mrs Beaumont filed for full custody again, arguing that you and your wife, Mrs Walker, are separated and the child needs a full family.”

“I knew she was going to do it! It was her plan all along” Drake hit the wall with his fist.

“That’s not all... Mr Beaumont found an official document in his office signed by Mr Bertrand Beaumont and his wife, Savannah, stating that in case of something happening to them, it is Mr and Mrs Beaumont who should be legal guards of Bartie.”

“The... WHAT?!” Drake’s eyes windened.

“Mr Beaumont said he had forgotten about the document his son gave to him because he didn’t believe something would happen. Now that they found it... They are going to use it against you. And with your current situation, they have at least ninety percent of winning. If not more.”

“My sister, would NEVER sign such thing. NEVER,” Drake hissed.

“The document is legal and the signatures have not been faked. I brought a copy for you so you can familarize yourself with the content. I’m really sorry.” The lawyer handed him the document and Drake stared blankly at it. It was indeed, his sister’s signature. She had the worst handwriting and Drake could always tell what was written by her. And that document right there was most certainly signed by her. He sighed.

“Thank you, Mr Collins. I’ll contact my wife and let her know about it too.”

“I’m sorry I had to bring such bad news. I wish you two the best,” the older man smiled sadly and headed out, leaving Drake alone with his thoughts.

~~~~

“Maybe I should help you with that,” Riley frowned when Dani almost fell while carrying her bag.

“I’m fine. I think I just need some sleep, I haven’t been able to sleep properly for weeks. I just need to finish packing.”

“You’re not leaving until like, next week.”

“Yeah but I’d rather be prepared. I hate last minute packing,” Dani answered and suddenly felt dizzy again. “Okay, maybe I do need a break.”

“Dude, you should see a doctor. Or at least call your doctor from back home. Maybe she’ll give you something to calm you down or make you sleep again. I’m worried.”

“I’m fine. I’ll be better soon, I always get sick before starting a new job or school.”

“Taking some chill pills won’t make it worse and can help so please, at least consider it,” Riley insisted and her sister smiled at her.

“I promise.”

Riley took the bag from Dani and put it back on her bed. Her phone started ringing and she froze seeing Drake’s name on the screen.

“Hello?” she picked it up hesitantly, for the first time in weeks.

“Riley? I mean, yes, I know it’s you, thank you for answering, finally,” he said and she sighed. She deserved that. “I need you to come here to see something, it’s urgent.”

“Drake... I don’t think it’s a good--”

“I said it was urgent. I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t. Don’t worry, I don’t want to see you either but it’s something about Savannah, Bertrand and Bartie.”

“Oh,” her heart sank. “Okay. If-- If it’s about them then I’ll come,” before she finished talking, Drake already hung up. She swallowed hard knowing she deserved that. She deserved the worst after what she did to Drake.

“You’re going to talk to Drake?” Dani asked, suddenly feeling and looking much better.

“Yes, apparently something’s wrong with the whole Savannah thing. Come with me?”

“Umm, no? I’m sick, remember?” Dani covered herself with a blanket. “Besides, it is between the two of you. You are still married after all.”

“Please, I don’t want to be there alone with him,” Riley pouted but Dani only raised an eyebrow.

“Good, maybe you’ll finally deal with it like a grow-up woman you are!”

“Ugh, fine. But you’ll call a doctor to get some pills, ‘kay?”

“’Yes, sir!” Dani smiled and waved Riley goodbye as her sister left. She took out her phone and stared at it for a few moments.

“I hate making phone calls,” she murmured to herself, “why can’t my doctor just answer text messages?”

She thought a for a few minutes about what she needed to say and typed everything in bullet points on her phone. Only then did she finally dial the number.

~~~~

Drake was studying Riley’s face as she was reading the document for the third time. She looked just as confused as he was when he first got the paper.

“And Barthelemy said he just found it?”

“Yeah, apparently he forgot about it and now that they filed for custody again, he conveniently found it,” Drake shook his head.

“And the lawyer said it was a legit document?”

“Yes. And I can tell that Sav’s signature is definitely hers, she has the messiest handwriting. And her ‘a’s are the weirdest.”

“So... Maybe the document is legit? Maybe they really wanted Bart and Maddy to have Bartie? I mean, it was their son after all.”

“You really believe that? After all Madeleine did, you still think it’s all legit?!”

Riley sighed and rubbed her temples. “Maybe we’re just reading too much into it. You said it yourself, this is Savannah’s handwriting. The document is legit, what else do you need to believe it?”

“Are you serious right now?” Drake was losing his patience.

“I am but you’re not. If Savannah and Betrand thought their son should be with the Beaumonts then who are you to question it? Honestly, at least Bart has some experience with kids,” she added and quickly bit her lip, realizing she might have said too much.

Drake narrowed his eyes, “And what does that mean?”

“It means that you didn’t even know how to hold Bartie properly when I first saw you with him. It means that maybe they truly want the best for Bartie.”

“And you believe that?”

“Yeah...” she answered but she wasn’t convinced either.

“You know what? Great. Let’s just get that stupid annulment so I don’t have to see you again, let me give Bartie to the enemies who most likely killed my sister and let me just stay here alone.”

“Drake...”

“Just... go.” Drake shook his head and went to the kitchen, leaving Riley in the living room.

She sighed as she took her purse. She took a one more look at the document studying everything in detail, like Dani would. She went to the kitchen and handed Drake the document.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I really hope you’ll find Savannah, she seemed like a great person. And she had a lovely middle name.”

“What?” Drake turned to her, surprised. “What middle name?”

“Helena. I think...”

“Helena? Savannah’s middle name is not Helena. She doesn’t have one!”

“But... I think I saw it right though? Here,” she pointed to Savannah’s signature. Drake’s eyes widened when he read the messy ‘Savannah Helena Beaumont’.

“I don’t understand,” he murmured. He didn’t pay too much attention to it before, still being shocked but now that Riley pointed it out he carefully analyzed it. “Savannah doesn’t have a middle name! None of us have. My mom said middle names are only a problem cause you never know where to use both of your names.”

“Maybe you just weren’t aware of it,” Riley suggested but Drake shook his head.

“No. She doesn’t have a middle name. But this is her handwriting, how--,” he started and his face paled when he saw something.

“No.”

“What happened?” Riley asked as her phone started ringing.

“It doesn’t say ‘Helena’ it says ‘Helpme’!”

“WHAT?!” Riley raised her voice, as she tried to ignore he sister calling.

“Sav had the worst handwriting but I can read it, pretty sure, I’m the only who can. It says ‘help me.’ She must be alive, she must have been forced to sign it and it wasn’t found in Bart’s office.”

“You need to tell Liam. And don’t confront Madeleine, she can’t know we know anything,” Riley said and Drake nodded. Dani kept on calling so Riley finally answered the phone.

“Dani, can I call you back? I’m a bit busy.”

“Riley?” Her sister’s voice was shaky and Riley started feeling nervous. “I—I’m sorry but can you come please? It’s... It’s urgent and I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m coming,” she said before throwing her phone into her bag. “Talk to Liam, I need to go to my sister.”

“Drake only nodded absent-mindedly, reading the document over and over again, trying to find more clues.

~~~~

“Dani? Dani! I’m here, what--” Riley started but didn’t finish as she saw her sister’s pale face. She looked scared and was shaking.

“Dani? What happened?”

“I-I called the doctor and told her everything and she told me to... and I did and--” Dani stopped to take a deep breath before taking something out of the drawer.

“And?” Riley asked, her heart beating faster than it should.

“I’m pregnant.”

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jj-lynn21 · 4 years ago

Text

Cozy Cove: Emotional Turmoil

Saved by an Angel , A side of tits with your pancakes ,Fires Burn Hot , spending the nights , Learning and Loving , The end is not always the end, Axel Grease, Big Decisions, Sex and Jet Skis, Late night fun , Old Wounds , Storms pass, Dangerous Waters Nursing the patient , Making it Work , Never Have I Ever , The Masquerade , The Proposal, Emotional Turmoil, sneaking

tag: @dragsraksllib @super-pink-a-palouza @loomiz @waywardtigersandwich @shkaboodle @theskarsgardcult @babyboy-cody @bskarsgardlove92 @bill-skarsgard-owns-my-ass @shenevertricks1831 @hornyhetero @taintedglass @grandpa-sweaters @bskarsgardlove92

Warnings: the title says it all, dash of fluff and angst

Axel shivered wrapping his arms around himself as he got off the plane in Ohio. He had not even thought of the temperature difference when he got on the plane in jeans in a thin black t-shirt. He bought a I LOVE OHIO sweatshirt on his way to the rental car area. They had his car ready as soon as he showed his ID, insurance card and signed the paperwork.

He was glad the black Infinity QX80 SUV had a GPS and the heater warmed the vehicle up quickly. It was 3am by the time he got to the hospital. Axel did not think they would let him see her this late so stopped for a quick restroom break before heading to the ICU. Her parents were in the waiting room.

“Axel.” Her Mother whispered to him as he came around the corner. “She is just getting settled. The receptionist said we could see her for a few minutes, tonight. I can’t believe you flew all the way here tonight.”

“I love your Daughter so of course I did.” Axel muttered.

Her Father smiled. “Good man. Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

“I was just going to crash here until they let me see her again in the morning.” He covered his mouth as he yawned.

“None sense.” Mr. Quinby told him. “You are staying with us tonight. You could use some sleep, so Susie doesn’t reprimand us for treating you poorly.”

Axel chuckled. The night clerk looked at him sternly and pointed to the quiet sign. He mouthed he was sorry. A nurse came out. She walked over to Susie’s parents motioning for them to follow her. Axel went along. Susie was hooked up to an automatic blood pressure cuff, heart monitor and had IV fluids hanging.

“You can only stay a few minutes.” The nurse glared at Axel. “Who is he?”

“I’m her boyfriend.” Axel didn’t move his eyes from looking at his sleeping angel hooked up to all her medical needs.

“You should wait outside.” She said gently as not to provoke the obvious, to her, hoodlum

“No, he should be here for her.” Her Mother reprimanded softly. “Is she doing alright now?”

“Your daughter will be taken to a regular room in the morning.” The nurse informed them. “She will be released in the afternoon. Her toxicology report showed a blood alcohol level well below the legal limit. There was Fentanyl in her system that could have caused her to pass out. Somebody,” she looked to Axel. “must have slipped it in her drink. The police will be asking her about it tomorrow.”

“I think I talked to the guy who did it.” Axel smirked. “This really creepy blond guy was trying to get her back in the party while she was video chatting me. I scared him off. I would definitely recognize him if I saw him.”

“I see.” The nurse smirked. “So, you were not with her all night?”

“I was in California.” Axel was trying to keep his composure even though this nurse seemed to be trying to blame him for drugging Susie.

Susie’s Mother put her hand on his should. Her Father told the nurse to let their family have the room for the few minutes they were allowed.

“I’m sorry that nurse was rude to you Axel.” Mr. Quinnby shook his head. “People can’t see beyond their own fears sometimes.”

“I would never hurt her.” Axel gritted his teeth as he sat by the bed to hold her hand.

“You take a minute alone with her.” Mrs. Quinnby suggested. “We will be right outside the door.”

“And I will talk to that nurse’s boss.” Mr. Quinnby opened the door to lead his wife out.

Axel kissed Susie’s knuckles as she laid there sleeping. Susie’s lips were dry and flaky. He kissed them anyway before he got up to leave. A good night's sleep would be a good idea. He was starting to crash from the adrenaline that pushed through his system just a few hours ago.

“Axel?” Her eyes fluttered focusing on the unbelievable sight. “Is it really you?”

Axel rushed back to her side. “Yeah, I’m here for you, Babygirl. Your Mother and Father are right outside. They are making us leave soon.”

“drink.” She murmured hoarsely.

He poured her a glass of water and held the straw to her lips. “Here, just little sips. I’m not sure how you will handle it since they pumped your stomach.”

She took a small sip and her stomach retched. “Maybe ice on my lips. I’m tired.”

Axel lightly brush ice over her lips. “Go to sleep. We will be back as soon as they let us in in the morning.”

The nurse opened the door and more politely said, “I’m sorry Sir...”

Axel stood. “I’m leaving peacefully Nurse Rachet. She woke for a minute for a drink. I think a sip made her feel sick.”

“That is to be expected.” The nurse replied. “She just needs some rest. And I am sorry I insinuated you had anything to do with this. It was unprofessional and wrong.”

Axel just nodded. He was used to people thinking he was the bad guy because of his tattoos. His neck tattoo only showed the first two words in the sweatshirt, but it was enough to get subjected to instant criticism. Susie’s parent put their arms around him when he came out. Maybe it was his exhaustion or worry for Susie, but he just broke down crying there.

Susie’s Father drives Axel’s rental while her Mother cared for him as she drove home. “Susie will be fine now Axel. I think you just need some rest.”

“Yeah,” is all Axel managed embarrassed by his emotional outburst. He was still sniffling and holding a tissue to dab his eyes as he looked out into the early morning before the sun was even ready to rise.

They set Axel up in the guest bedroom. Her Mother made him some calming tea. He was laid out cold before he finished it.

The Quinnby’s didn’t wake Axel when they started their day. Mr. Quinnby went for a morning walk as his wife got to work on a huge stake of pancakes, sausage and hash browns. A large pot of coffee was brewing also. As soon as Axel smelled all the goodness he sat up. He was a little disoriented for a moment. Then remembered it all and jumped out of the bed to shower and get back to his girl’s bedside.

Mrs. Quinnby heard his feet on the wooden surface that only had a runner rug to pad his steps. She waited a few moments for him to get in the shower before knocking. She inched the door a hair open so he could hear her. “I hope you slept well Axel. Breakfast will be ready shortly. Fresh cloths are on top of the dresser. They should get you by for today.”

“Thank you, Sandra.” Axel mumble as he was letting the water beat down on his neck. “I’ll just take coffee to go. I want to be there when Susie wakes.”

“We all do, but first a hearty breakfast.” Her voice was insistent. “We can’t get in to see her for another two hours. You can eat with us.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Axel sighed.

She closed the door. Axel was tense. He felt bad about flaking on his brother and leaving his workplace to someone for at least two days without much notice. But he would have been going nuts not seeing Susie was okay himself.

Axel is surprised yet grateful for the huge meal Mrs. Quinnby had ready when he walked out to the kitchen. He sat and she slid a cup of coffee his way. “We have several different flavors of creamer and sugar if you need it Axel.”

She smiled kindly like he always thought a Mother should. She was so different than the Mother he had for a time in his life. The maid always made him cereal or sometimes eggs. Nothing like the feast that was laid out in front of him. “I just take sugar. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble to make a huge breakfast just because I am here.”

“Don’t be silly.” She chuckled. “This is normal for us. I just usually make slightly less. It was no big deal. The pancakes are not even as good as you are used to, I am sorry to say.”

He poured syrup over them and took a bite. They were missing a little something, but they were light and fluffy. “Good, thanks.”

Mr. Quinnby came in and kissed his wife on the cheek squeezing her around the waste as he whispered something that made her laugh. He sat across from Axel. “Good morning young man. How did you sleep.”

“I slept good enough, Richard.” Axel cut a piece of sausage with his fork and stabbed at the hash browns to. “Thanks for the hospitality.”

“You’re welcome.” He took a sip of the coffee his wife put down for him. “Thank you for breakfast sweetheart. So as soon as we eat, and I shower we will go check on Susie. Sound like a plan?”

“Yes, Sir.” Axel continued to devour his food. Susie’s Mother filled his plate again as her Father went to shower. “Thank you. I hope I am not eating more than my share.”

“don’t be silly.” She was smiling at him like nothing made her happier than to make sure he was full. “It would just go to waste if you didn’t eat it Axel.”

Axel’s mind was blown. This was a different world. With a Mother that seemed to care. Even care for him when he was not her kin at all. He thought this was the way it should be. The way a Mother should act. The way Susie was going to treat their children someday.

It fucking blew his mind even more something like that even crossed his mind. Even though he loved her, there was no guarantee she would want to come back to him when her education was over. He pushed that out of his mind as he finished a second cup of coffee and second plate of breakfast.

They arrived at the hospital minutes before visiting hours. The desk clerk in the waiting area was just sitting down when Axel went up for the group to ask if they could see Susie. The clerk got up and went to check with the nurse.

“Miss Quinnby is just getting ready to move to Eight East.” The clerk told the family. “If you take the elevator up to the eighth floor, take a right, she will be in room 805 shortly. I would check with the desk to make sure. Sometimes room assignments change.”

“Thank you.” They said in unison. They walked to catch the elevator.

“She must be doing well this morning to movie to a regular floor.” Her Mother felt some relief.

“Yeah.” Axel mumbled in the elevator.

“That is a really good sign.” He patted Axel on the back. “No worries, Axel. She is alright.”

Susie was being rolled in a wheelchair into her room as they made their way down the hall of Eight East. They stood outside a moment for her to get settled in the bed. Axel let her parents go in first.

Susie looked up with a smile. “Hi guys, sorry I worried you. I...” She saw Axel when he stood up straight behind her parents. “Axel? I thought I dreamed you were here last night.”

“It’s no dream Susie Q.” Axel smiled with relief.

“We are glad you are feeling better Susie.” Her Dad stood behind his wife who sat in the chair beside her bed.

Her Mother took a deep breath, “What were you doing at a party like that anyone? Not one of your friends had each other’s back. Those are not good friends. I don’t think...”

“Please, Mom stop.” Susie looked away from everyone. “I get it. I fucked up. I made the decision to go out. The decisions leading up to this moment were on me not on my friends. Of course, I could have stayed home but I chose not to. The bad decisions are done now. Don't blame my friends.”

“I’m just glad you got on the phone with someone that helped you.” Her Dad added. “It could have been much worse. Do you need anything?”

“I think I will be going back to the dorm this afternoon.” Susie sighed as she looked back at her parents. “Thanks Dad.”

“Let’s leave the kids to talk sweetheart.” He squeezed his wife’s shoulders.

She got up. “Just be more careful Susie. That is all we ask.”

Susie just nodded.

Her parents left and Axel sat beside the bed. “I would have come without the hospital stay. You just had to ask, Babygirl.”

Susie smirked. “And here I thought getting myself into a dangerous situation was the only thing that would get your attention.”

They stared at each other for a minute. Then broke out into laughter.

#Axel and Susie q #axel cluney #cozy cove #emotional turmoil #love story #crying #hospital stay

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tabloidtoc · 4 years ago

Text

National Enquirer, October 12

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Queen Elizabeth’s 73-year sham marriage to Prince Philip collapses

Page 2: Kanye West is in top-secret talks to launch his own TV network and is crowing it will be bigger than the Kardashians -- he wants it to reflect his lofty vision of what the world should be and to provide a spiritual awakening for the masses but he doesn’t realize there aren’t a lot of people who want to spend hours a day listening to him rant about how the world would be a better place if he was in charge -- meanwhile Kim Kardashian is at the end of her rope again

Page 3: Furious Angelina Jolie is tearing into Brad Pitt’s new girlfriend Nicole Poturalski blasting her as a scheming psycho and as a borderline stalker who is dating Brad just to get famous and it’s going to end in disaster for the whole family not just him so she’s already told Brad to keep Nicole away from their kids and she’s looking to make this part of their ongoing legal case

Page 4: Newly single Kelly Clarkson has enlisted fellow country star Maren Morris to help her find a new man -- Maren advised Kelly to use her talk show to connect with men she admires but Kelly may have taken her advice a little too literally when she had her crush Keanu Reeves on the show and was drooling all over him though she knows it’s probably wishful thinking

Page 5: Ellen DeGeneres kicked off her new season by publicly apologizing for allegations of misconduct on her talk show but body language experts blasted her remarks as tone deaf and missing the mark totally

Page 6: Jimmy Fallon’s wife Nancy Juvonen is furious over the time he spends nurturing his bond with close pal Kathie Lee Gifford -- Jimmy loves to reminisce about the old days at NBC with the former Today yakker especially during today’s challenging times and he worships her and he’s the only late-night host who treats Kathie Lee like an A-lister but Nancy can’t stand Kathie Lee’s constant self-obsessed talk and considers her a squeaky third wheel

Page 7: Cher keeps trying to turn back time with plastic surgery but the results have been disastrous and although she insists her most recent work is a facelift her kisser is frozen and packed with Botox and fillers and lip injections -- she also appears to have had a nose job and a face and neck lift to achieve a smooth jawline and neck and the results have left Cher barely able to move her face and even made it difficult for her to speak let alone sing, disgraced chef Paula Deen had emergency eye surgery this summer in a desperate bid to save her sight -- Paula had been suffering from declining vision for months and was shocked when doctors told her the cornea was dying and going under the knife was necessary to save her sight

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Tiger Woods took a brief break during practice, Leighton Meester caught some waves in Malibu, Kristen Taekman in a New York Jets bikini, Dolph Lundgren doffed his mask after leaving a lunch date in Beverly Hills, Dominic Cooper took his electric bike for a spin in London

Page 11: Cash-strapped Tori Spelling and husband Dean McDermott are back in couples therapy and on the verge of filing for bankruptcy -- they’re in counseling for the same old stuff which is their constant fighting and spending money and work that isn’t happening -- the parents of five were hit with tax liens totaling nearly $1 million and were also sued by American Express over an unpaid credit card bill of almost $90,000 which Tori asked her mother Candy Spelling who is worth about $600 million to pay but Candy refused and after Candy revealed her plans to leave her fortune to animal charities Tori and Dean may file for bankruptcy because they both love to spend, Bravo bigwigs are hoping hotel heiress Kathy Hilton will fill the vacancy left by Denise Richards and Teddi Mellencamp on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and producers are trying to keep ratings high by getting veteran Kyle Richards to recruit sister and former castmate Kim Richards and half sister Kathy -- Kathy is said to be high on producers’ wish list because of her wit and humor and is also considered old-school Beverly Hills and show brass want her to bring a certain glamour and sophistication to the show

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Demi Lovato at a NYC screening party (picture), when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve in Times Square Anderson Cooper won’t be there because he would rather be at home with his baby boy, The Bachelor has cut all ties with Colton Underwood after his ex Cassie Randolph got a temporary restraining order against him, Teresa Giudice plans to move to NYC after listing her New Jersey mansion but she still wants to keep her job on The Real Housewives of New Jersey and to get around that Teresa hopes to pretend she’s moved into her brother Joe Gorga’s home in Jersey

Page 13: John Legend revealed couples therapy helps strengthen his marriage to Chrissy Teigen and said they keep their romance going strong by communicating and being considerate and listening, Jackie Stallone was more than just Sylvester Stallone’s mom -- she was also one of the world top astrologers and psychics who predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall and Kanye West’s presidential run

Page 14: Crime -- convicted Melrose Place killer Amy Locane is in lockup again for a fatal 2010 drunk-driving smashup that took one life and nearly took another after a New Jersey Superior Court Judge said she got off too easy by serving two years behind bars and sentenced Amy to eight more years in state prison

Page 15: The gruesome house of horrors where Drew Carey’s ex-fiancee Amie Harwick brutally met her untimely end is on the market for $1.5 million and her family can’t wait to get rid of it, Shannen Doherty is in pretty good spirits amid her ongoing battle with stage 4 breast cancer according to her former Beverly Hills 90210 co-star Jason Priestley

Page 16: Cover Story -- After decades of turning a blind eye to her husband’s cheating Queen Elizabeth’s 72-year marriage has shockingly collapsed and Prince Philip is now banished to a remote cottage far away from the monarch -- despite royal courtiers painting a rosy picture of the couple quarantining together at Windsor Castle since March the truth is their marriage has been a sham for decades and they’ve been living separate lives for over 50 years and all this forced togetherness was simply too much for them -- Philip has been cheating on Elizabeth since before they were married and has several love children; he has rumored to have had flings with actress Helene Cordet and Daphne du Maurier and Pat Kirkwood and Jane Russell and Merle Oberon and Zsa Zsa Gabor and Princess Alexandria and Sacha Duchess of Abercorn and most recently Lady Penny Romsey -- there will be no divorce and they will just quietly continue their separate lives to the end of their days but the queen never wants to see Philip again

Page 18: Larry King’s estranged wife Shawn Southwick is demanding $33,000 a month in spousal support because she claims she gave up her music and TV career to marry the frail talk show host and then raise their sons Chance and Cannon, Hollywood Hookups -- Halle Berry and Van Hunt dating, 90 Day Fiance stars Ashley Martson and Jay Smith split for good, Justin Duggar dating Claire Spivey

Page 19: Tom Cruise is set to shoot the first major movie in outer space and he’s headed to the International Space Station in October 2021 with director Doug Liman -- the two and possibly one additional actor will hitch a ride aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to film the unnamed project, the IV needle allegedly used to administer the fatal dose of propofol to Michael Jackson on June 25 of 2009 is up for auction by the estate of the late singer’s father Joe and the chilling item used by Michael’s physician Dr. Conrad Murray is reportedly still stained with Michael’s blood -- it was submitted to the auction by Michael’s cousin Marsha Stewart who says she took it from Michael’s bedroom days after he died, Sharon Stone has pressed her lips on a long list of Hollywood hunks but picked Robert De Niro as far and away the best kisser but rated her other leading men as kind of like meh

Page 20: Stars Playing Stars -- how they did it -- Muhammad Ali and Will Smith, Frida Kahlo and Salma Hayek, Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx

Page 21: Marilyn Monroe and Michelle Williams, Queen Elizabeth and Helen Mirren, Billie Holiday and Diana Ross, Bob Dylan and Cate Blanchett

Page 22: An adopted son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen has charged it was his mother not his father who was the monster in the family -- Moses Farrow says Woody did not molest adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992 and that he can no longer stay silent as Woody continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit

Page 26: Less than nine months after Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash a vicious feud has ripped the family apart -- the row erupted between his widow Vanessa Bryant and her mother Sofia Laine after Sofia went on TV to publicly accuse her daughter of tossing her out of the family home -- Vanessa feels she’s already given her mom so much and then she heard through the grapevine that Sofia complained she should have more -- it does seem cold that Vanessa would take such action against her mother but she’s ready to take on anyone using her husband and child’s deaths as a selfish cash grab and that includes Sofia

Page 27: Danny Masterson’s rape trial is looming and the Church of Scientology is doing everything in its power to back the scandal-scarred actor -- the church’s leaders have assigned their top lawyers to aid Danny who is a prominent member of the religion and the lawyers are scouring every law on the books to get the case thrown out or get him acquitted -- the church has previously been accused of trying to get the other side’s defenses dismissed or judges thrown off cases and using all manner of tactics to delay due process

Page 28: American Life -- Bighearted ex-billionaire Chuck Feeney has spent 38 years giving away nearly all of his vast fortune and the generous do-gooder said he wouldn’t have had it any other way

Page 29: Famed stoner Willie Nelson can’t stop sampling his own marijuana products and now friends fear the 87-year-old music legend is smoking himself to death -- Willie’s a believer in the powers of cannabis and promotes it passionately but years of smoking has done a number on his lungs and he can barely breathe at times, Julia Duffy has been keeping close a tragic heartache for more than a year -- her only son Danny Lacy committed suicide at age 29 after years of suffering from mental health issues

Page 34: Comic Kathy Griffin has seen her popularity plummet in recent years and it’s played a role in her plans to sell her sprawling Bel Air estate -- Kathy has burned a lot of bridges and concerts and TV appearances have dried up because of her many industry conflicts so she’s trying to unload her massive manor with wine cellar and movie theater and eight bedrooms for $16 million -- she didn’t want to sell it but the cost and size have become too much for her to handle

Page 36: Health Watch

Page 38: CIA bigwigs once hired a psychic to determine if there was life on Mars -- the misguided mission was said to be part of Project Stargate which was launched in 1978 and somehow cost an astronomical $20 million after the CIA hired a man who claimed he could see the surface of the planet in his mind -- the unnamed man claimed he could see huge pyramids and an obelisk structure and road networks on the Red Planet as well as living creatures, John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman shocked the parole board when he admitted he deserved the death penalty even as he begged for his freedom at his last hearing -- his murderous motive was seeking self-glory -- the board denied his parole saying they found his statement infamy brings you glory disturbing

Page 42: Red Carpet -- London Fashion Week

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Luke Bryan and his dog Choc

Page 47: Odd List -- doctors remove granny’s football-sized tumor

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sharkmobster · 5 years ago

Note

spider verse coffee shop au??

Anon im sorry i wanted to draw the coffeeshop au but ive been so tired lately so imma just overshare about what goes down bc this au is just (thick tombstone voice) : “everybody’s traumatized bitch lets get you a latte”

• this au is incredibly villain centric bc uhhhhh all i do is think about villains

• its also very aaron davis centric bc time to project my anxiety onto a grown ass man babey!!

• anyway this takes place in a normal world where there’s no superheros or avengers or what have you, everyone’s super average

• like i said this is more or less aaron centric and focuses on him readjusting to society and making connections with other people, and just healing in general. Aaron’s whole deal is that he was wrongfully arrested for defending himself against an off duty cop who was harassing him and ended up with a 10 year sentence (but was let off a year earlier for good behaviour). He’s got a lot of guilt bc of this if only for the fact that he feels like he let down his brother and Miles (who was a small lad at the time).

• Fun Fact! Jefferson was the one that picked up Aaron at the jail when he served out his sentence! The ride back to brooklyn was awkward! but also jefferson loves his brother and even tho they’ve had their falling outs he never once stopped believing that his brother was innocent. Jefferson also made sure to pull some strings and ended up getting an apartment set up for Aaron (even though jefferson and rio were 100% down to open their home to him for as long as it took him to get back onto his feet but of course aaron denied them bc he didnt want to be a burden) Aaron’s grateful but he tends to avoid his own family…a lot….

• it’s ridiculously hard to find a job bc nobody wants to hire an ex convict no matter the circumstances and Aaron’s legitimately about to lose hope when he spots an expensive looking shop nestled in between an old arcade and a knick knack shop

• ‘Vanessa’s Cafe’ is neatly printed above the door in fancy gold lettering. it’s obvious that the owner has serious cash bc the shop looks too damn good and too well maintained to be a regular mom and pop shop. there’s a help wanted sign hastily scribbled on a piece of notebook paper in the middle of the window which is odd since it off sets the professional vibe of the place. But hey it’s worth a shot so Aaron walks in ready to be denied another job only to find the weirdest looking group of people he’s ever seen.

• The first guy that catches his attention is the very large albino man who looks way too stressed out and manic to be working in a coffeeshop, but the job must pay well because he’s very well dressed.

• “Liv, for fuck’s sake! Clean your goddamn station!” he’s whisper shouting? Is that even a thing? oh look at that he’s got a full set of razor sharp teeth. huh. that’s a hell of an aesthetic he’s going for.

• The lady in question isn’t even giving him the time of day, just enthralled by her phone with a smile that looks too peaceful given what’s happening around her. She’s got wild hair tied up messily in a knitted bandana, weird glasses (custom made??) and when she glances up at aaron, her eyes widen in interest like he’s some anomaly to be cracked open. aaron looks anywhere that isnt the wild eyed lady at the counter.

• Theres another big guy that’s hanging around the back, heavily tattooed and lifting stacks of heavy boxes. Aaron takes notice of his prosthetic hand and the tattoo guy takes notice of Aaron.

• “Lonnie. Customer.” The Tattoo guy seems nonplussed about Aaron and walks into the back. aaron assumes that he’s offended him by staring at his prosthetic for longer than necessary which yeah….yeah he’s probably not happy about the staring.

• lonnie’s got a bad case of resting bitch face so he’s glaring at aaron without actually glaring and he’s just rough around ALL the edges so his tones got that nice bite to it as he shouts from across the counter (which is not something you do to a customer but it’s lonnie…..) "Hey! Ya looking for a job, skinny jeans?!“

• Aaron blanches at the idea of working with these people but he is absolutely desperate for a job at this point.

•"Yeah. I just got out of-”

•"Great, you’re hired! We’re speed running this whole introduction thing, string bean.“

•and that’s all i got other than like small details like:

•Peter B Parker owns a ”“’'cafe”“” across from Vanessa’s and its literally just a burger joint that h a p p e n s to sell coffee and Parker will fight you if you call his place a deli ahdhdj

•Liv and May are dating (big shock) and peter b has to constantly deal with seeing his competition over at his place all the time and it’s yikes

• Tombstone and Noir will 100% throw hands on contact. They don’t hate each other tho??? Its weird they just like to fight. gives them a chance to work on their banter i guess. Noir works the coffee machine at Peter’s “'cafe”’ so i guess he’s the “”barista”” of the joint but he drinks the coffee more than the customers do

• Miles and the rest of the spider kids “”“”“"intern”“”“” at the cafe which basically translates to free labor

• spider ham works there but he isnt a pig he’s just john mulaney. i know its weird. nobody actually sees him tho so he’s a complete mystery as to what he looks like so he could be john mulaney you never know. the only person who’s seen him is noir and that’s only bc they’re a thing???

•oh speaking of everyone being gay: everyone’s gay

• Lonnie and Gargan (tombstone and scorpion) are 100% dating but everyone legitimately thinks that the both of them are straight old men despite the fact that they live together, go to work together, hang out afterwards together, and they’re just always together

• lonnie’s daughter (janice) visits every other week (def the product of a divorce he went through years ago) she’s alright with gargan but she’s very distant towards her dad and def has that teen angst phase that she’s going through

• (lonnie can and will talk to you for hours about how much he loves and supports his daughter despite the fact that their relationship is very estranged)

• you can find janice hanging out with the cute blond punk girl at that weird burger/coffee place across the street

• oh gargan’s big and strong despite the fact that he’s missing three limbs, liv works in robotics on the side and constantly tweaks and repairs his prosthetics when they start acting up which leads to them having this weird friendship where they both borrow each other when they need something and dont really expect anything in return (like gargan’s good for getting her supplies and doing heavy lifting when she needs it and liv’s always down to run check ups on gargan)

• oh yeah liv used to be a scientist but immediately lost her license and phd when she started going above some board members heads to buy less than legal things through super illegal sources

.• that’s another thing, kingpin tends to just hire ex cons and criminals to work in his cafe just bc he believes that a person willing to work hard to better themselves deserves a chance to re enter society again.

• like they’ve all done bad things but still ended up with a job at the cafe. aaron fought a cop, liv did some shady deals for an illegal experiment, gargan used to run a drug ring years ago due to personal reasons but once he was free from jail he never dealt with the stuff again, and lonnie killed a dude (allegedly. he never went to jail bc they couldn’t prove anything but hey word spread around quick and everyone knew not to go anywhere near this guy)

• kingpin is in this au btw he’s just……a very depressed man who’s still grieving over his wife and son dying in a car accident

.• he rarely shows up to run the cafe bc its too much for him being in the place that his wife loved and built up from the ground. he used to be the manager after she died but couldn’t handle it and mostly left lonnie to take care of it

• which holy fuck lonnie is trying his best to keep this cafe alive and well and there’s only two other people working there so like its enough to have him scrambling all over the place trying to find more help (thanks aaron)

•miles doesn’t know aaron’s working at the cafe across the street and aaron def wants it that way bc even tho he’s out of jail he hasn’t actually……visited miles yet….. it’s the shame that’s keeping aaron from reaching out to him which is….sad bc miles doesn’t care what happened he just wants his uncle back.

• oh oh one more thing RIPeter used to run the deli across the street but had to leave brooklyn to go volunteer at homeless shelters across the states indefinitely so theres no telling when he’ll be back, so he left the cafe under the guidance of pb parker (peter b parker voice: my cafe now)

•and uhhh thats all i got, like i said this au is just found family trope + the healing we all want + bad people getting redemption which is all the tropes that i love all compacted together in the most cliche au you can imagine!

#itsv #aaron davis #the prowler #liv octavius #doctor octopus #lonnie lincoln #mac gargan #hi i work at a starbucks and it's hell so this is how i cope babey!!#spider verse #spiderman #the life and times of a robot prince

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onepunchmiss · 6 years ago

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OPM s2e7 Live blog

“The S Class Heroes”

IM SCREAMING ALREADY I ONLY READ THE EPISODE TITLE ALRIGHT OK SO IT BEGINS TODAY, MY DEATH guys I am so pumped for the S Class focus thats about to begin with this episode like from here on out they become main players in the series and asfdbfhirksvfjkevfsnjkvfnjek how is it legal for ONE SERIES to contain SO MANY FAVES. Anywayyy Before I get started I’m actually wondering- this is the 7th episode of the second season… do we know how many episodes the season is supposed to run for? S1 only had 12 i think. I’m… I’m not even close to ready for it ending. Now that they’ve introduced Orochi, I’m not even sure where a good break in the plot would be?? Random concerns aside, lets get to the episode. As always, I’m watching this as someone who has read the manga and web comic to date

OROCHI IS PINK HE IS HOT PINK THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY BEFORE THE TITLE SEQUENCE HITS ME LIKE A GUT PUNCH EVERY SINGLE TIME AND I STILL PAUSE IT AT ZOMBIEMAN OK off to a great start woo

Oh thank god we’re starting with the tournament I can stop quite literally holding my breath. Alright its Choze time. I’m actually excited for him to do things, his face has been nothing but terrifying thus far and hes one of those characters that are just fun to hate unapologetically. I love over-the-top Nazi stand-ins for that reason tbh

OH FUCK OH GOD I LOVE HIM also GAROU hiya welcome back I know it’s only been 2 weeks but i missed you so much thank you for gracing my screen for 5 seconds OH HECK the dramatic music and beginning of the internal monologue just being blatantly REJECTED caught me off guard I cackled AH WAIT WAIT

EYESIGHT DOGMAN ASDFGHK MY BABY IS COMING IM DEAD IM FUKKIN DEAD ALREADY I MISSED HIS CUTE VOICE hey no wait that was very quick?? I must withhold my bias, we’re at the point now where I have SCRUTINIZED every single panel of the manga over and over because of all of my faves, so even the smallest differences will be glaring to me. As much as I want all the action to be drawn out as it is in the manga, I know that’s never been how the anime has rolled. I must bite my tongue.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THE ONLY TIME WE’LL EVER SEE HIM AND YET!!! oof i had to pause for 2 minutes to chill out and actually type. I. I just. juST. BOI ARE YOU OK WHERE ARE YOU ARE YOU WELL AND WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE G4 tell me your secrets

WAIT COME BACK i dont give 2 SHITS about sweet mast HECKK

speaking of whom get off my screen u creep I have a personal bone to pick with u disrespecting the bae as you will

[SCREAMING]

Oh god this whole scene is so EXCITING and TERRIFYING child emperor’s face as Pig God just eats her, speaking of which -QUIT CUTTING BACK TO THAT TERRIFYING IMAGERY ASDFGHJ

YES THEY KEPT IT YES YES YES YESYEYSYEYS YOU DONT UNDERSTAND how much Ive been looking FORWARD to that little scene??? im crying how is it possible to work myself up so much of this please help

ok ok back to the tournament give my heart a break phew Hey Choze if you’re genes are so superior then where are your eyebrows????? You dont pull it off HALF as well as Z does. Jeez everything about this guy is so absurd I can’t help but laugh irl the damn DNA helix rolling across the screen dude just stop you’re embarrassing yourself

although you DO know how to strike a pose. change ur name to Poze. Wait no. Your name is now GMO Corn I lied.

AGAIN GETTIN ME WITH THE WEIRD COLORS Hundred Eyes Octopuss is red and blue OK SURE

DEATH GATLING DEATH GATLING ASDFGHJKL guys I cant look at Narcisstoic oh no “no you’ll do no good”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I WASNT EXPECTING THIS THIS EPISODE BUT I SHOULD HAVE I WASNT PREPARED I paused it I’m afraid to push play he’s not on the screen yet i can still turn back and make it out alive -

Behold. the moment I died

I actually have this thing with eye gore and seeing it in motion fucked me up I had to skip 10 seconds but anyway FUCK he’s so SPARKLY and PRETTY

Noting also the music there totally gave me flashbacks to the Darkmatter Thieves invasion for a split second and that sequence in general was really well done I like how they emphasized the suckers sticking to the concrete and everything- it have the monster a lot of weight imo. Of course the studio would be fools to not give Tatsumaki the the utmost respect like that sooo

SPARKLY and PRETTY and TEMPTING FATE YOU FOOL yo I was so excited to this scene but I feel like they didn’t make his response angry enough it’s funnier when it so uncharacteristically mad I might do a redraw with the face he makes in the manga………….. FUKKIN was smiley face man just yelling noises to cover flashy’s voice???? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

OH MY FUCK WE’RE GETTING MONSTER CELLS THIS EPISODE. OH MY HECK WE’RE COVERING MUCH MORE GROUND THAN I THOUGHT WE’RE ONLY HALF WAY THROUGH THE EP

plot progression plot progression plo t p r ogr e ss i on hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Kamikaze being the badass that he is i lov

SPEAKING OF LOVES LOOKY LOOK God i love those three Okamaitachi is a WIFE and IAI is a BAE HEY WAIT let them speak come back they said words i want voices!!!!!!! this is going so fast??? Oh my god I was absolutely not expecting to get the Suiryu fight this episode holy crap holy crap?? Ok but I’m getting pumped the music is hype “trying to hide his nervousness by looking like a doofus” “this is how I always look” Oh saitama why do they do this to you. Jeez as much as I love everyone else I forget how much I miss him.

Oh and he’s getting his hopes up again sweetheart no

This is so good I’m hardly pausing to type my thoughts I’m too invested AND NOW ALSO IM DIGGING THIS MUSIC this is good v good yes and there goes Saitama being a genuinely good person offended by this jackass Saitama is too good for this world

His voice… I love him sm. aaaaaaaaaaaaaand its over. hmmmmmmmmmmmm so I have a guess as to what the post credits scene will be but let’s just see

YUP I KNEW IT cause we skipped it last week and now that we’ve introduced the monster cells it was only logical Genos no bby stop getting completely obliterated mannnnnnnnn

In all, no real complaints??? My children?? Have began to appear finally??? I just wish they literally went word for word shot for d\shot with Drive Knight if only because I’m STARVED for DK content in general. But based on the pacing of this week’s episode, will definitely cover a lot of ground and be pretty intense. I should be less, uh, screaming? Next week too. I’m exhausted from spazzing every 10 seconds hah. Well, I just skimmed the manga again and there might be some but yeah I think I can calm down for maybe 2 weeks. maybe. take a wild guess who should show up right around that time. ANYWAY Thanks for reading see yall next weeeeekkkkk

#opmiss mumbling #live blogging #gouketsu #child emperor #saitama #suiryu #flashy flash #tatsumaki #drive knight #pig god #watchdog man #im exhausted #uhg #one punch man #season 2 #opm

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ruinedthatfriendship · 5 years ago

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Start Again

A/N: Okayyyyy so I was talked into posting this, and yes I am aware it is the most trashy fanfiction trope I have ever written, and I was mildly disgusted when I found this in my drafts. 2014 me was a dumbass. This was also evidently supposed to have more chapters that were never completed. I’m actually not sorry about abandoning this one, though...

I’m sorry this exists?

It took too long. Everything just took too long. It took an ambulance too long to navigate traffic, too much time to get her out of the wrecked car. Too much time to clean up her battered face before anyone even recognized her, too long before she got a bed in the ER. Too long before one of the doctors finally realized what was really going on, shoving a couple residents out of the way with a burr hole kit.

By the time they got the pressure down in her brain, and sent her up to surgery, she’d already had one seizure from the bleeding inside her skull, and she’d crashed in the elevator, arriving to the surgical suite with a nurse still riding on the gurney doing CPR.

By the time anyone found her emergency contacts, she’d been in surgery for two hours, without any word. By the time they got to the lobby, the driver of the car that hit her had been pronounced dead.

Simon hadn’t even known she’d set his information as an emergency contact. And apparently, it wasn’t just him she hadn’t told. Like every other detail of that horrible day, he would never forget facing Dianna and Eddie in the waiting room and spreading his hands helplessly, letting them shout at him while the only thing he had to offer was that he didn’t even know. And they were wasting time splitting hairs, couldn’t they see that? It didn’t matter anymore who Demi had been spending her time with or if he was too much older or her boss or anything else, not when they didn’t know if she was going to wake up. They didn’t have time to argue in the lobby of the emergency department, he just wanted to be able to see her.

A nurse had been anxiously watching the face off, clearly trying to remain professional even though this was probably the most gossip-worthy day of her career. “Mr. Cowell, sir, uh, Miss Lovato does have an advance directive in place and--”

“She made it after she got out of treatment,” Dianna cut in tearfully. “She said it was just in case,”

The nurse gave her a polite nod to acknowledge her, and then turned back to Simon. “We need to speak with you--”

“No!” Dianna protested, squeezing her husband’s hand. “That’s my daughter, he doesn’t get a say, I’m her mother, you can say whatever you have to say in front of me.”

The nurse--her nametag read ‘Angelica’--looked at Simon, waiting. “Sir?”

“It’s fine,” he said heavily, hardly believing that any of this was real. “And it’s just Simon, please.”

Angelica nodded, glanced down briefly at the chart in her hands. “Miss Lovato named you as her medical proxy, which means that you have the power--”

“I know what a medical proxy is.” Simon interrupted, feeling shock numb his body while his heart rate increased. Demi, baby, what did you do? “It shouldn’t be me. Give it to her parents, I can’t--”

“We don’t have that power.” Angelica said apologetically. “It’s a legal document that Miss Lovato signed willingly. We can take you back to wait, she should be out of surgery soon.”

“I’m coming,” Dianna insisted. Angelica just nodded at her; she was immediate family too, they wouldn’t refuse her.

A tense elevator ride later had them sitting in hard plastic chairs in a waiting area outside of neurosurgery, the sign itself almost giving Simon a heart attack. Brain surgery, because someone crossed the median while she was driving. And she’d gone to the trouble, sometime so long ago, to put her fate into his hands.

If what Dianna had said was true, that she’d written these things just after getting out of treatment, then it would have been before they were ever together. It would have been while the extent of their relationship was annoying one another at the judges’ desk, back at the very beginning. When the most he’d ever done was hug her and pinch her nose and call her a brat, she’d looked at him and imagined a day like this and signed her life into his hands.

“It shouldn’t be me.” he mumbled again, staring at his hands in his lap. “I don’t know what she was thinking.”

“You’re right, it shouldn’t! I don’t know what you ever thought you were doing with my daughter, she’s my baby and you can’t just take advantage--”

“Dianna,” Eddie murmured, squeezing her hand. His eyes were angry too, he looked ready to strangle Simon, but they were making too much noise in the waiting room.

Demi’s surgery took six endless hours. And when the surgeon finally came out, Simon already knew. The set of his jaw and the look in his eyes wasn’t good news, he could only hope it wasn’t a death sentence.

“Is she alive?” he spat out in a low voice, fists clenched and not sure if he was ready for the answer.

The surgeon nodded shortly, sending a rush of relief through Simon that was quickly tempered by the rest of his words. “She’s still unconscious, and not anywhere close to out of danger. We’re keeping her heavily sedated for now, and you can see her, but I want to warn you, she does have a lot of tubes right now, she won’t...look like you expect.”

“I don’t care.”

“Her vitals are good, but she did sustain severe trauma to her brain. I trust I don’t need to tell you how serious that is, Mr. Cowell. She’s alive and stable, but I can’t make any promises about her recovery until she wakes up.”

“What are you saying?”

“She may have cognitive deficits. We just have to wait and see. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but I can take you to see her now.”

“What does that mean?” Eddie asked quietly, holding tightly to his wife’s hand. “What...what can we expect?”

The doctor shot him an apologetic look. “We have no way of knowing, right now. Injuries like Demi’s have had a variety of outcomes, from full cognitive function to brain death. Obviously, given that her responses to stimuli are intact, she’s in as good a place as we can hope for right now. If we were to see any negative effects when she wakes up, it would likely be fairly mild.”

Eddie seemed to relax just infinitesimally at those words, and he was first into the room after the doctor, Dianna on his heels. Simon, exhausted in every possible way, didn’t bother fighting them and followed slowly, trying to brace himself before laying eyes on her.

Nothing could have prepared him, really. She looked peacefully asleep, if not for the washed-out paleness of her skin and the unceremoniously shaved side of her head, a line of stitches crossing her scalp.

Her lips were cracked and parted around a tube in her throat, cuts and bruises and butterfly bandages littering every visible inch of her skin as she lay there, looking tiny and helpless in that hospital bed.

Dianna sobbed and lurched forward, reaching for her daughter’s hand. Demi had a grey plastic clip on one finger, and an IV running into the back of her hand, and hers stayed limp while Dianna held on.

Eddie moved to stand beside her bed as well, one gentle hand tracing her hairline and sweeping the long side of her unplanned undercut off of her forehead.

Simon just swallowed hard, temporarily frozen. Demi belonged on the stage, larger than life with her incredible voice, she belonged laughing and stumbling in high heels and bodily attacking him with the promise of getting him sick. She belonged barefoot in the kitchen with her nose wrinkled up in concentration as she tried to cook, on the floor playing with his dogs, on the couch in a heated debate about Netflix. She belonged with fire in her eyes and love and laughter on her lips, she was not meant to lie here, so fragile and broken.

He found himself moving to the other side of her bed, ignoring the glares of her parents, and tracing the word on her wrist as he reached to grab her hand. “She’s strong,”

The doctor awkwardly returned just then, telling them that Demi was technically only allowed one visitor at a time, and Dianna stayed at her bedside while Simon and Eddie went back out to the hard plastic chairs.

***

It marked the beginning of the worst week of Simon’s life. He cleared his schedule and spent it almost entirely in the hospital, as did Demi’s parents. And if she’d been awake, she’d have scolded all three of them and set the record straight. Without her, and unwilling to alienate her family while she lay unconscious, Simon just endured their anger, pushing back only when they tried to keep him away from her. But he still couldn’t really blame them.

He’d had to give his permission for them to pull her off sedation and remove her machines after the third day. Tonight would be the eighth since the accident, and Demi still hadn’t woken. Her doctors were at a loss, explaining only that sometimes the body needed more time. That she wasn’t quite in a coma, yet. Simon knew what they weren’t saying, though. Her chances of recovery went down with every day she remained in an unconscious state.

For the moment, it was his turn at her bedside, while Eddie had finally convinced Dianna to let him take her home and take a breather. Simon was sitting on the edge of her bed and looking down at her face, which only looked more sleep-like and tranquil as her bruises began to fade. He rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand, swallowing hard. “Come on, Dem,” he murmured. “If you can hear me, baby, I need you to wake up. Please,” he added in a whisper, fear threatening to choke him.

He’d lived over half his life without her, and she’d come in and rearranged everything so completely in such a short time. And now he was facing down the possibility of her leaving as suddenly as she’d come, permanently, and leaving him to live the rest of it without her. It was a bleak existence he didn’t particularly want to contemplate. One that might require some tattoos of his own to get through it. But it wasn’t going to be like that. She was going to make it through this.

Simon leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead gently, wishing he could hold her properly. She was cold and still so fragile and she smelled like the hospital and faintly like the burning metal of her accident, and he wanted nothing more than to take her home and deposit her in a warm bath, wrap her up between his sheets and hold her and never let her leave again.

But for that, she’d have to wake up.

“You’re such a brat,” he whispered, trying for humor. “Making us sit here waiting on you.”

Demi did nothing but breathe, her heart monitor beeping rhythmically in the silent room. Simon sighed, and squeezed her hand again. “Come on, Demi. You can do this. I love you, brat, just open your eyes.”

He collapsed back into the chair at her bedside, still without letting go of her hand, and bent his head over their laced fingers like he was at prayer. And he hadn’t given himself permission to cry--he didn’t cry--but there were tears falling onto her cold fingertips anyway, and when Eddie roused him later with a firm hand on his shoulder, it was with a bleak expression and red eyes.

Her father said nothing, and Simon just sighed and stood, feeling his back pop in retaliation for sleeping in that damn chair. And he was just about to let go of her hand when he felt the clip on her finger shift. It was a fool’s hope, he’d probably just bumped it with his own hand, but it was enough to glance back at her one final time.

And it was weak and uncoordinated, but her fingers moved, tightening around his hand as best they could, in a gesture no one could mistake. Simon’s heart jumped in his chest, and he turned to Eddie without ever letting go of her. “She squeezed my hand,”

And then Eddie was smiling over his shoulder with tears in his eyes, and Simon glanced down again to find her brown eyes looking up at him with such a quintessentially Demi bemused expression that he almost broke down crying again in relief.

“Hey, love,” he said softly. “You scared the hell out of me.”

Demi coughed, making a face, and looked straight past him. “Dad?”

“I’m right here, Demi.” Eddie assured her.

“Dad, my head hurts.” Demi whimpered, scrunching up her face. Simon reached over to press the call button at her bedside, earning a tentatively grateful nod from her father for it.

Demi dropped his hand quite suddenly, reaching toward Eddie, and Simon tried not to feel hurt. She was here, she was alive, she was awake. She was talking and aware, her brain wasn’t damaged, she was here. He’d take what he could get.

“I don’t understand,” she was saying weakly, looking between Eddie and Simon as quickly as she could without moving her head. “What--I…”

Her doctor and a nurse interrupted her, Dianna hot on their heels. “Baby!”

Demi’s face initially brightened, but then crumpled again in confusion. “Not you,” she was murmuring, almost to herself. She’d let go of Eddie’s hand now, too, and stared down at her own fingers, turning them over in examination almost as if she wasn’t quite sure she was real.

“How are you feeling, Demi?” the nurse was asking, an expression on his face that said he was entirely over the number of people crowding his patient.

“I’m...did I overdose?” Demi asked in a small voice, still not looking at anyone.

“No,” Simon rushed to reassure her, wishing he could be closer than where he’d ended up, almost in the doorway. “It was a car accident, darling.”

Instead of relief, Demi’s face only registered further alarm. “A car accident? Why...why was I driving? I’m sorry, Mama!” she burst out, panic in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to, I don’t know what I did, I--”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Dianna reassured her. “You’re okay, baby. The other driver was on the wrong side of the road. Not you.”

“I wasn’t supposed to leave,” Demi whispered, sounding terribly ashamed.

“Baby, I don’t know what you��re talking about,” Dianna was almost crying again. “You’re okay, Demi. It’s okay!”

“Demi, is it okay if I ask you some questions now?” her doctor cut in, smiling politely. Demi nodded weakly, and Dianna reluctantly took a step back.

“Okay, can you go ahead and tell me your full name, hun?”

“Demetria Devonne Lovato,” Demi returned, still looking down at her hands like she didn’t quite know what to do with them.

“How are you feeling right now, Demi?”

Demi shrugged. “My head hurts. Everything...kind of hurts.” she tried to play it off, but Simon could see the pain in her eyes. “I guess it makes sense if I was in an accident,” she mumbled.

The doctor nodded swiftly. “We can start you on some painkillers. Something non addictive, don’t worry. Do you remember your accident at all?”

Demi shook her head, looking agitated again.

“Okay, what’s the last thing you do remember?”

She hesitated. “Um, therapy. My session in the morning. I’m guessing it’s not today anymore, though?”

“Demi,” Simon started, ignoring all of the looks suddenly shot his way. “You didn’t have therapy that morning, darling.”

Demi made a familiar irritated face, starting to wave him off in her usual fashion, before she paused, her eyes flicking over his form rapidly. “Wait a second.” she said slowly. “I know you.”

Simon’s entire body went numb at her words. “Demi?” he said hoarsely.

She snapped her fingers impatiently. “You’re...I sang for you, you didn’t stand up. American Idol. You’re the judge guy, the rude one...Sa--Si--Simon. Simon Cowell.” She looked momentarily pleased with herself, and then made a face that would have been comical in any other situation. “Why the hell are you here?”

#i refuse to tag and publicize this #please accept my apologies #I swear I can write better than this #don't worry #better fic will be posted after this

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