#Alicia gets to be a little scary as a treat!

[alwaysmanages]

“Be not afraid!”

[deeptrashwitch]

Lights, camera, action

The beggining (part 12)

-A what? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you well-muttered Luke raising an eyebrow

-Look, I only know the name in spanish, but I think it's like a sorbet-said Alicia scratching her neck-since I can remember, they don't sell it here, maybe I've never seen it around

Both of them were walking around the base back on their usual mood, which was a relief for everyone. That day was calm and they were taking advantage of it to talk and train a bit more, right they were going for something to eat.

-Aren't you talking about the...piraguas?

-Piraguas? Hmm, now that you mention it, yeah, they are the same

-Then I know what you meant, those things are delicious

-Agreed

Once they arrived to the kitchen, they heard the muttering and whispers from inside. They shared a look before getting in just to notice that everyone was having lunch and hearing the news, now the world knew about all the dirty secrets of Elijah's old superiors. Alicia didn't say anything and just went for a portion of food while felt some satisfaction hearing about the scandal.

-Freakin' hell-murmured Luke while giving her a bottle of juice-she actually did it

-Told you, she has a lot of contacts, maybe even more than me

-And that's scary, for real Captain, what's with your family?

She just shrugged before starting to eat.

-This...this mean something for the trial?-asked Francis with curiosity

-I have no idea-muttered Jackson-but if it does, I hope it is the last nail to the coffin of those three

-But, where did they got that information?-questioned Noah while Elijah went to answer a call from his lawyer

-I have a little idea-whispered Edward to himself, looking Alicia through the corner of his eye

She noticed him and just nodded, which gave him the answer.

-So, all gunnery power, Captain?-muttered Luke with a smile-you really stained theirs and some others reputation

-Just my work, and we're independant. If they don't like it, they can kiss my ass

-If they ever know, probably they'll gonna come for you

-I'll be waiting

That made the man laugh, that would be a really interesting thing to watch. And so they continued the lunch after they changed the channel, this time putting the NFL and starting the bets inside that place.

Later all went to their own duties or to do something to kill time. Elijah just looked to his phone in absolute silence but smiling with his eye filled of tears, the news that his lawyer gave him...were amazing. He went to look for someone, first inside the offices, then on the cafeteria, the medic bay, the plane and even inside Noah's workshop.

Then smacked himself in the face when he remembered where they usually were. Elijah ran to the hangar that become Luke's workshop, seeing that the doors were open. And he looked out to be sure they were inside, and fortunately they were.

The red-haired was working on a black Chevy Impala while talking with the woman, who smiled really thankful to the man as he wasn't looking.

-I really owe this one, Luke-said Alicia calmly-you even treat it better that I do

-C'mon, have passed a long time since I saw this kind of car in this good state, it's my pleasure-joked him before looking her while cleaning his hands-but I can accept that you lend it to me someday

-Keep dreaming, boy

-I'm only three years younger than you

-Still

Then Elijah knocked on the door, and his superiors just looked at him.

-Uh Captain, Lieutenant...

-What is it?-said at the same time

-I just wanna know, about the scandal, you gave the media that information, didn't you?

-Why do you say that?-asked Alicia raising an eyebrow

-None of you were surprised about the news, neither curious, almost like you already knew what it was about-answered looking at them both-and I might be wrong, but exactly after Nicholas called you about the first public declaration it was just a matter of hours and days until everything came out. I know for a fact that most of journalist around here wouldn't let go something like that declarations unless they have something better

-It could've been Wraith-said Luke crossing his arms-the information was something she could get

-I don't think she cares that much about us, does she?

-Good point, I guess

-Whatever, what I wanted to say was...Lucius called me about what happened and he said that this will give us advantage-explained Elijah scratching his neck-apart of the fact that now they can face defamation charges, he explained me that if the Army wants to avoid a bigger scandal, is basically sure that they will be dishonored discharge even if we won the case or not

-Good news then, I'm glad

-Yeah, it feels good to know that even if it's not how I expected...there's some justice. For me and the others victims

Elijah stayed in silence for a second before gulp and walk towards the Captain. Without looking at her, he hug the woman with a big and relived smile. Alicia was surprised and Luke was speechless, but the black-haired patted the back of her soldier not knowing what to do.

-Thank you, Captain-muttered with his voice shaking-for everything

-I...

-You saved my life and many others with this, thank you so much

After that he broke the hug and smiled happily, then went to hug the Lieutenant too also muttering "thank you" again and again. Once again he scratched his neck before saluting and run back inside to talk with Noah, leaving the other two inside.

-I thought you didn't like being touched-said Luke looking the direction Elijah went away

-I don't-answered Alicia before smiling a bit-but this is an exception

-Already picking favorites?

-No, but...

-But?

-This is the first time it doesn't feel wrong or as a threat

Luke smiled when she said that, but didn't say anything and just went back to fixing a spark plug in the car. It was difficult to hear Alicia say something like that, but it was good to know.

-One day you should go to Rochester, or maybe to New York City

-NYC I get, but Rochester?

-You said you'll show me Arlington when we have some free time since is your native city, it's only fair to show you mine, isn't it?

-I suppose

A week later

Alicia was inside her office reading some if her paperwork with the news on the background, those days they started to have the first reports about things that might require their intervention. She left some of the locations, groups, and objective for an extensive research later and once they are sure what mission they'll be taking. Soon the news talked about the recent scandal and the discharge of two officers and one non-commisioned officer, when hearing that she scoffed while doing her work.

Good riddance.

But she was a bit worried, some of her contacts told her about the erratic behavior of one of them the day they were required to leave Fort Hamilton. Even if the base and the team as a whole were protected, they as individuals...not so much. It was something to be alert.

Soon someone knocked her door, and it was Wraith.

-Dominique, what brings you here?-asked taking her glasses off

-To make you keep your promise-said Wraith seriously-you said you'll take care if some of them came here personally

-...Which one is it?

-The Mayor

The black-haired just sighed and walked with the Coordinator to the entrance, watching through the cameras how the man was mumbling to himself.

-Is he a threat to himself?

-Not that we're aware of, but you know this kind of people

-Loose everything and you can do anything

-Be careful

The Captain said nothing and just went to talk with the man, while Wright stayed near the entrance as the team arrived to see what was happening. And as the woman approached, she noticed that he was probably drunk or under substances, so she sighed once again.

-Sir, please leave this place-ordered firmly once she was in front of him

-Ohh, look who's here! Are the fuckin' patron of this dumpster?-said the man with mockery

-Please watch your mouth, and leave. This is government property, you are prohibited of being here

-I'm not watching anything! I don't owe any respect, dumbass-growled as he lean trying to intimidate her-not after you ruined my life

-I haven't done anything, and even if you think you don't owe me any respect, at least have some for yourself-said unimpresed while looking him in the eyes-you were an officer before you did that...crap. Now, leave, this is the last warning

After saying that, she started to walk back shaking her head dissapointed. That was until something was thrown to her and smacked her in the back. She stopped her team with a sign while pinching the bridge of her nose, this was starting to be annoying.

-Stop that and go the hell away-said without looking at him

-Ha! Won't you even look at me? Pathetic-he mocked with some arrogance-just like that little bitch you shelter. Cowards, all of you

-Listen, I won't fight you since you're not in your right mind

That just pissed the man even more, and he threw something again. A rock, heavy, this time she recognized it after it smacked her in the head. Her anger was increasing, but just looked him with a dead look.

-No reaction? How sad, or maybe you'll make a lawsuit?-asked with a maniac laugh-this time even Wilson can give the lawyer an incentive, if you know what I mean

-...That's enough-muttered before approach him and grab him by the shoulder, thightening the grip until it was painful-I don't care what you say or do to me, I've passed through worse. But I'll tell you something. I created this team, they're under my command and I'm the first Specter. This. Is. MY. Team, alright? Lay a finger on my people, you loose the hand. Say something about them, you loose your toungue. Do anything to them...

Then she lean to look him, with her eyes absolutely frozen. It gave the veteran a chill, mostly with how she looked with her scars. Even more menacingly that anyone.

-And no one will found you again

-Uh...t-that's a threat, you cannot-

-And you attacked me, so, I can excercise my right of self-defense. Do you want to risk yourself?

He didn't say anything and Alicia just let him go. She walked once again, passing a hand through the place where the rock hit. Fortunately there was no blood nor pain, apparently whatever he was into made him weaker.

-...You think you're doing something good, huh Marchant? That you're doing something different from the last time?

-What?-muttered Alicia stopping once more

-Answer me, do you think you're protecting this people? Do you expect a different result?

-...We have nothing to talk-said before continue walking

-They'll die again, right in front of you, just as the last time-said the man with a malicious smile-once again you'll see them die. These soldiers are cursed just from being near you, and we both know that

-...

-Maybe they'll pass the same hell those boys did. I might be really interested to see that. See how you loose everything. The stone Guardian fell once, what about a second one?

After that he laughed and went away, at the same time Alicia got inside the base. She ordered to close the doors as she started to walk quicker, suddenly stopping in front of Wraith. She didn't looked any of her soldiers, which were both worried and confused, but just unzipped a knife sheath and gave it to her.

-I might do something really stupid-said before going inside the barracks again

Dominique just nodded heavily as she looked the Karambit inside the sheath. Luke and Jackson tried to follow Alicia, as well as the rest of the team, just to be stopped by Wraith.

-Don't

-But Wraith, what if the Captain has a wound on her head? Or a contusion? You saw that rock-discussed Jackson with a frown, to everyone surprise-let me at least be sure it won't be like the last time

-No, it's better for everyone that you leave her alone

-Why? In this cases it's better to be sure this kind of situations are treated on the medic bay-said Luke

But inside he was really worried when he saw the hands of the Captain. They were shaking, violently. And no one had seen that, Alicia was always under control.

-Why? Because if any of you do a single wrong movement, she'll kill you. And I'm not joking, neither is a metaphor. She will

Everyone went silent.

And while that happened outside, inside the barracks, Alicia was locking herself on her room. Her heartbeat was racing and it was difficult to breathe, she had to put a hand on the wall to avoid falling to the ground because of her head spinning. Those things he said...it brought her back to two years ago, to what happened.

While she was trying to take air, in the background of her head she heard the screams, the pleads and more. The scar on her neck, the one caused by a burn, started to itch, a hellish itch sensation. By force she kept her hands far form it, and every little sound that usually will occur inside the base, now scared, no, terrorized her while the world became bigger and bigger around her.

As a step got in front of her door, her hand reached for the knife to try and attack whoever entered. Once she noticed it wasn't there, a cold sweat ran down her face and the ghost feeling of the blood on her body appeared again. Flashes brought memories, the escape, that cracked in a second.

-No, please no...-whispered trying to calm down

-Captain?-asked Elliot knocking at the door-are you okay over there?

She didn't answer, but recognized the voice and made herself say something.

-I'm...fine-said with difficulty-I'm fine

-You sure? Jackson asked me to take you to the medic bay

-Jackson?

-Yeah, we were surprised when he admitted he was worried about you

-Did he?

-Yep, all of us are worried to be honest, mostly because of that damned rock-answered the engineer with a chuckle-but I have to say, you did an amazing job remaning calmed out there. I swear we even saw how you breathed fire...

She didn't paid attention to the rest, just focusing on the voice and not the words. As Elliot continued speaking she took deep breaths with every word, slowly going back to reality. Soon her mind processed where she was, and was able to stand up...when did she ended on the floor?

In silence reached the door, focusing too in the cold of the metal and the weather outside. Then opened and nodded, unable to say something without her voice cracking. And so they walked to the bay in silence, where Jackson was already waiting and just shook his head before point the stretcher.

-Aparently Elliot did what I couldn't-joked the blonde SEAL with a little smile-thanks

-It's okay, Sergeant, see you

Once the man get out of the medic bay, the medic started to check the place where the rock hit, near the neck.

-Well, you're lucky it didn't caused a wound, it's just a bruise...have you felt headache or dizziness?

She shake her head.

-Captain, I need you to talk to me, just to be sure

-...No, just nausea

The blonde raised his head abruptly, surprised to hear the frailness on the woman voice. For a second he didn't say anything, then went for a cup of water to give her.

-You're pale-said while leaning against the wall

-Hmm

-...We were worried about you, Edward, Luke and me, really worried. You were trembling, and honestly I had to stop Eager to go and commit a crime...I thought that would be Luke

-Edward was that angry, huh?-muttered the Captain with curiosity

-It was needed that Alexander helped too, I never thought he was THAT strong!

-He always has been

-Maybe that's why he became friends with you

-Maybe, but I never expected you were worried for me between all people

-Call it medical vocation-muttered while looking away

-...Thanks Jackson, I'm really glad you're here with us-said as she drink the water-people like you is difficult to find now

-What? Grumpy?

-No, selfless and caring...even if you're grumpy sometimes

The medic blinked surprised before he scoffed and laugh.

-All the team is like that

-I'm lucky then

-Well, we are soldiers, since the beggining we're selfless-said with a smile-but if we all care so much, it's because we don't want to dissapoint you, Origin

-I doubt you can dissapoint me, and, Origin? What's with that?

-Francis and Marcus, they were talking about what happened outside and said it sounded like you were the origin of the team-answered as he shrugged-then Noah heard it and called Luke and...

-I thought it could be a good callsign-said the Lieutenant from the entrance-how you feeling, Captain?

-Better, how's everyone?

-More calm, is she free to go, Doc?

-For now, but bring her if there's a headache, nauseas, dizziness or any kind of problem-said Jackson before going back to the rest of his work-and for God sake, don't let Edward end in here, deal?

-Don't worry, I'll get it

Soon Alicia and Luke were walking again in silence, then the woman started to chuckle and that brought the red-haired atenttion.

-Alicia?

-So, now I'm Origin apparently, huh?-said with a smile-I like it

-You do? I'm glad-muttered Luke relieved-I thought you would keep your old callsign

-Are you kidding? I told you that "Guardian" doesn't exist anymore, now there's only me

-And that's good to hear. Back to work, do we have a mission in line or not yet?

-We have reports, but nothing concrete. However, if I have to give an opinion, our possible first mission could be on the Pacific Region

-Especific location?

-We have some, the one that worries me the most is South Korea

-A rescue?

-Not so much, it's something I'm familiar with. Traffick web

-Guns? Animals? Humans?

-All of it, these people call themselves 'Six Aces' and the leader as far as we know, is referred as 'Red Dragon'. They have operations across three continents, Asia, America and Africa

-Nothing inside Europe?

-Not that we are aware of

-That's new, but I guess our trip will be to Korea

-No, that's just one of the places. The reports came from China, Chad, South Korea, Sudan, Singapur, Morocco, Indonesia, Brasil, Argentina and India

-I see

-Get prepared, Harlem, the work awaits and we might need some help to lead with this

-Yes ma'am

[annzybwrites]

TRICK OR TREAT !!

happy halloween >:))

Aaah Happy Halloween!! Here’s my treat:

“You have to be making this up!” Little My insisted, hands on her hips as she glared up at her younger brother. “Why would people just give out candy to whoever knocks on their door?”

“Because that’s the holiday, Little My,” Snufkin explained calmly, seated on a log with his legs crossed.

The usual youngsters of the Valley all surrounded his campfire, intending to tell ghost stories to commemorate the transition from summer to fall. But the change in season reminded Snufkin of a different tradition he’d heard in a far away land.

“Besides, you don’t get candy for no reason,” Snufkin continued, looking up at the stars. “You have to have a good costume, usually something scary like a zombie or a vampire. And if someone doesn’t give you candy, then you can play a prank on them.”

Little My’s eyes lit up. “What kind of prank?”

“Please don’t give her any ideas,” Moomin practically begged. He was seated right next to Snufkin, of course, his ears flattened back. “She’ll probably test them out on me.”

Snufkin snickered, patting Moomin’s shoulder consolingly. “It’s more of a prank against the household. Like throwing eggs at their door and windows.”

“Why would you waste good eggs?!” Sniff exclaimed, practically offended.

“They don’t have to be so mean,” Snorkmaiden huffed, crossing her arms. “Maybe the house just ran out of candy! They shouldn’t get their house egged.”

“Oh, not too many people play pranks,” Snufkin assured, chuckling at how excitable everyone became. “Besides, most places have no trouble giving out some sweets.”

“We should have a holiday like that in Moominvalley!” Sniff announced, bouncing in his spot atop a fallen tree trunk. “Where everyone gives us candy!”

“But we’d have to wear scary costumes,” Snorkmaiden reminded him. “I don’t really want to be a zombie or a vampire.”

“You could be something else,” Moomin started.

“Yeah!” Little My interrupted, grinning. “Like a tyrannical queen!!”

“Or a witch?” Moomin finished, pouting at Little My.

“Oh, Alicia’s not scary!” Snorkmaiden argued.

“Well, her grandmother was when we first met her.”

“I kind of liked the queen idea,” Snorkmaiden admitted. She sat up taller atop her own log, sticking her snout into the air before proclaiming in a haughty, uptight tone, “Off with his head!”

The others all started laughing, and Snorkmaiden soon joined in.

“You did that too well!” Moomin complimented, the corners of his eyes a bit watery.

“I almost took you seriously!” Sniff added.

“A queen is perfect for you!” Little My was jumping in excitement now, her hands balled into fists. “We have to do this! Let’s make posters and tell everyone tomorrow!”

“What was the holiday called again, Snufkin?” Moomin asked, wiping at his eyes.

“Mm…” Snufkin scrunched his nose up, trying to remember. “I think it was ‘Happy Hollow Bean’?”

“What an odd name,” Snorkmaiden hummed.

“Whatever!” Little My placed her hands on her hips, grinning. “By the end of the month we’ll have our own Hollow Bean!”

“What should I be for Hollow Bean?” Sniff asked, putting his paws to his cheeks. “I don’t really like scary things.”

“I think you’d make a good werewolf,” Little My said. “A cowardly one, sure, but you’d at least look good.”

“Or maybe a mummy?” Snorkmaiden suggested. “They’re usually pretty harmless. Just undead.”

While the girls tried to come up with a costume idea for Sniff, Snufkin chuckled and glanced over at Moomin. “What about you? Any ideas?”

“Hmm…” Moomin thought about it for awhile, tapping at his chin. “I could be the Groke?”

“How chilling,” Snufkin joked, laughing when Moomin pushed at his shoulder.

“And what about you, Mr. World Traveler?” Moomin huffed, though his smile only held amusement. “You’ve probably heard about a lot more monsters than me.”

“Perhaps,” Snufkin replied vaguely. “But I think I’ll go with a classic — a vampire.”

“Really?” Moomin’s ears perked up, his eyes looking Snufkin up and down once before he nodded. “That suits you well.”

“Thank you.” Snufkin looked at the others for a moment before leaning closer to Moomin, whispering, “Little My should be a pixie.”

Moomin snorted once before bursting into laughter, needing to cover his mouth to contain the loud, overjoyed sound.

Little My somehow seemed to know he was laughing at her, as she bounded over and began poking his leg. “What? What’s so funny!?”

“N-nothing!” Moomin kicked his legs to get her away, continuing to laugh a bit longer. “Go back to Sniff!”

“I don’t want to be a dragon, either!!” Sniff whined.

“But a fearsome queen needs a dragon!” Snorkmaiden insisted.

The entire group continued to talk, argue, and occasionally squabble through the night. Snufkin would sometimes join in, but otherwise just enjoyed the excited, familiar, and almost comforting voices around him. They’d probably continue to think of new costume ideas through the whole month, but that was half the fun. The other half was, of course, the candy they’d get when going “trick or treating.”

Yes, this would most definitely be a happy Hollow Bean.

[hollands4s]

Alicia: * I hope that when he goes to work, he will start to treat everything more responsibly ... What if not? To be honest, I don't want to be alone in this city!  I don't know anyone yet, and Sam is very supportive of me!  And I'm not afraid with him ... But if he continues to behave like this ... You have to do something with this ... Maybe you should start getting to know someone?  Sam is just my friend and I don't even see any hints of any relationship from him ... But where can you find someone here?  And in the bars and on the streets there are only military men and scientists who are several times older than me ... It's not that ... Although ... What am I talking about?  Who would like a girl with freckles all over her face, with small eyes and such a scary nose ... Who am I kidding?  It seems that my personal life is doomed ... The longer I look in the mirror, the more scary I look ... Maybe I'll change a little with age?  At least for the better ... Finally, a warm bed ... Work tomorrow and that's it, the weekend! May I dream of something good ... *

[seragamble]

Season 12 of SPN but Better

This is my rewrite of s12 in which the main changes are after Lucifer knocks up Kelly he fucks off back to the cage, the BMOL are actually scary, and the narrative finally interrogates how people who aren’t human are treated. Note: I use monster and non-human interchangeably here. (Thank you @autisticandroids for your help with this post.)

The season starts off the same. Sam is perhaps a little more suicidal during his kidnapping, having just lost Dean and fresh off of having to be around Lucifer.

Sam’s myriad of mental health issues pop up here and there throughout the season, after Lucifer and dealing with what Lady Bevell did to him. He does his best to make sure none of this is seen by his family, but Dean eventually figures it out.

At least two episodes where the A Plot is Cas and Crowley investigating a case.

“American Nightmare” is just the start of a theme we see throughout the season of Sam bonding with monsters/non-humans/the ‘other’. He becomes a resource for them and in turn connecting with them helps him feel better about himself.

Cutting the Hitler episode because that was seriously just… :l

Instead Aaron comes back and it’s just a fun episode

Samantha Smith is amazing as Mary but please just take a moment to imagine “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox” if Mary’s actor was actually ~28

At the end of “LOTUS” Lucifer goes back in the cage 

The events of First Blood take place over two episodes so we can gets stuff like: 

Cas and Mary hunting together

Cas and Mary (separately and together) threatening people they think can help them find Sam and Dean

Dean and Sam (Sam especially) losing their grip on reality whilst in confinement 

Instead of the American hunters largely rejecting the BMOL many of them embrace them. Mostly thanks to the weapons they freely provide. The BMOL also import their idea of “Hey shouldn’t ALL monsters be dead actually.” This becomes a serious issue as we get to see that there are plenty of monsters who aren’t hurting anyone, but are now being hunted.

At the end of “The Raid” we get our first foreshadowing of what else the BMOL are doing when that hunter, who betrayed them to the vampires, is taken to an onsite facility full of various monsters in cages.

The boys have a case that ends up being hunters who fucked around by going after innocent monsters, and found out. It’s a not at all subtle allegory about two monster siblings, where the older sister killed a pair of hunters to protect her little brother. This is the tipping point where Dean finally has a major mental shift in how he views and treats monsters.

There’s also a case where they look into weird supernatural phenomena and it turns out to be the result of hunters disrupting completely (super)natural stuff. It’s an episode about a supernatural creature that has zero interest in killing humans, they’re just strange and otherworldly, and hunters persecuting them has caused a major local disruption in the world.

Instead of the BMOL having their students fight one another to death, they have them kill monster children. We get a flashback of Mick killing a crying werewolf boy.

After Mick has his change of mind about what the BMOL are doing they don’t kill him. Instead he is taken to the facility (seen previously at the end of “The Raid”). This is where the BMOL experiment on monsters, as well as dispose of humans by using them as test subjects. There’s a scene where we see that hunter from before get injected with something, go through a weird mutation, and dies.

The timeline has to be shifted around a little, but instead of Cas being off in heaven trying to find something to find Kelly (which lead nothing to the narrative and went nowhere) the BMOL just make it seem like that’s what he did, while really they have him locked up.

Their reasoning being that if a nephilim is going to be born they want to know all they can about angels, but also they just genuinely don’t see anyone who isn’t human as a person so why not experiment on them. The whole experience is really dehumanizing.

Ketch is there, and I would like to remind everyone about the line, “I do enjoy an angel,” which is a) haunting, and b) implies Ketch has dealt with angels before.

Remember how in “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” Cas can immediately identify that angel blade as being Benjamin’s? Ketch has a few and taunts Cas about what he may or may not have done to their owners.

They torture Cas/do a lot of medical experimentation. The torture is “extremely horny for no reason, shave your chest father of two it’s fanservice time”-y (thank u autisticandroids).

On the brighter side, Mick and Cas bond during their captivity because Cas deserves to have a friend who isn’t a Winchester. Also go ask @autisticandroids about this.

We see Mick question his long held beliefs about monsters and grow more as a character. He also gets turned into something, perhaps a Shapeshifter.

During this time we get to know various other monsters being held and undergoing experimentation.

Instead of Mary finding out Mick is dead she finds out about the facility. Same thing happens as in canon where they brainwash her. This time she’s just killing hunters who won’t fall in line with the BMOL, instead of all American hunters (which I feel made no sense).

Garth comes back at some point because of course he does. Why have an entire season about people who want to eradicate all monsters and then not bring back their one friend who would be most affected by this? His whole family and community are at risk of death if the BMOL have their way.

“Twigs and Twines and Tasha Banes” happens next season because I want Max and Alicia to be part of the attack on the BMOL and it’s better for their narrative if they disappear for a while before coming back after that episode. Instead they show up in a standard motw episode to drive home the fact that it’s fucked up to automatically consider witches to be evil.

One of the narrative points would be how the BMOL tolerance of witches is extremely conditional on them only using their magic for them, and the presence of the BMOL in America has led to an increasingly hostile environment for the Banes family.

The people the Winchesters recruit to help them attack the BMOL facility are a mix of monsters they’ve helped out, and hunters who respect them/didn’t fall in line/have noticed their friends getting murdered. 

The end result is the beginning of a new relationship between hunters and non-humans.

It might be odd after a season long narrative about not demonizing people just because they’re not human, to have the Winchesters still be all “Let’s forcibly abort this fetus,” but, with the added element of Sam dealing with his Lucifer trauma all season, I think it would make sense to have Dean be in extra Protective Mode™. That combined with Cas, fresh off of having to be rescued and feeling even worse about himself, decides to take the Kline issue into his own hands. The narrative follows along with canon. Since Lucifer isn’t around it’s AU!Michael who kills Cas and Mary tackles back through the rip.

Alternatively if you hate that and want something more domestic you can picture the following: with their newfound POV TFW rescues Kelly and takes her back to the bunker, promising they’ll take care of her child.

[ashesgraves]

An Orcs Promise part 3

The Date

Link to part 1: https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/646150675798032384/an-orcs-promise

Link to part 2: https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/646294553661423616/an-orcs-promise-part-2

Part 4: https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/646477938321244160/an-orcs-promise-part-4

Part 5: https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/646486100736638976/an-orcs-promise-part-5

The chosen: Ellera https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/646559933035364352/an-orcs-promise

The chosen: Oridan https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/646771371691622400/an-orcs-promise

The chosen: Killian https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/647330998732881920/an-orcs-promise

The chosen: All https://yourlocalorcishbandit.tumblr.com/post/647482818600009728/an-orcs-promise

The dates: Oridan

Warnings: Mama Alicia is angry other than that none!

You woke up this morning feeling pumped after your date with Ellera. Knowing the siblings constantly tried to out do one another you had some higher expectations for Oridan. Sure he was a flirt but could he walk the walk or simply talk the talk. You’d have to find out and maybe today you’d dress a little nicer than your last date. Yet you had no idea what to wear, you didn’t know what Oridan planned for you. He and his sister wouldn’t tell you shit!! How were you supposed to guess if you were mountain climbing or going to the nice tavern. You weren’t. The element of surprise you were told whenever you asked, frankly you didn’t mind but you just wanted to know how to dress.

Deciding on a more formal article of clothing you fixed up your hair and wore a few jewels to maybe match Oridans aura. Maybe he might not show up? What if he got cold feet maybe his sister scared him off. Would you make a fool of yourself? Would he hate the alone time with you? So many thoughts now raced your mind. You weren’t as nervous as you were with Ellera but, you knew her better than you did the twins. You were scared they wouldn’t like you just by yourself.. what if you talked too much or you didn’t talk at all?? Would Oridan think you’d be a good partner for the rest of his life? Would you think he would be a good partner?

“Darling Oridan is here!! Please hurry and come downstairs “ You could hear your mother’s sweet voice travel around the house. He was here early is that good or bad??? Oh you didn’t know.

Scurrying down the steps you smiled softly when you saw him. Oridan stood tall and proud with some flowers in his hand his skin much darker than Elleras. For she was mossy and soft, he was bold and dark emerald green. Truly and simply handsome with his hair braided up and decked out in the finest of jewels, you felt appropriately dressed this time! Success.

“I picked these for you nearly died by some hornets.. but for you I’d happily go through hell and back if you so wished” A true words man your date hadn’t even begun and he was making you blush. Maybe this won’t be as bad as you thought.

“You’re too sweet.. thank you they are beautiful and I know any of you would do that for me.. did you get any boo boos you want kissed better” laughing a bit at your own comeback as you gently took the flowers from his hand and put them in a vase. His face grew a beautiful shade of dark green as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Now where are we going ? “ maybe this time you’d get lucky and learn what was happening for your date!

Oridan smiled softly showing off his tusk bands as he took your hand. “We are going out to lunch than to a show later on today I hope that’s alright with you “ His confidence seemed to falter as he spoke almost as though he was worried that you wouldn’t like his plans.

“That sounds absolutely wonderful! I look forward to what kind of show you have in mind” He actually told you! You know what’s happening, at least now you can plan your actions and thoughts a little better now. “Which tavern are we going to?” There were two in your village and one closer to the edge of the village.

“Hmm oh we’re going to the Drunken Dragon it’s a little far but the food there is to die for and they have the best desserts and I figured you might not have been there yet. “ You held his hand tighter smiling wider as you felt all giddy. He was so kind this was certainly a side you hadn’t seen from him before yet.

“It does sound lovely my mouth is already watering at the thought!! I’ve always heard the food is really good, isn’t it run by a few of the fae I’ve heard they had the best cheesecake in the kingdom !! “ You laughed a bit as you mumbled on about how much you couldn’t wait to try their desserts. Oridan smiled softly listening to your enthusiastic voice talk about all sorts of different sweets. He’d have to keep that you have a sweet tooth in mind, oh how he could listen to you speak for hours and never grow tired of listening.

“Good I’m glad you’re just as excited as I am. Frankly I was worried this wouldn’t go all that well after Ellera bragged so much. I’m glad my feet didn’t grow cold” You held his hand tighter knowing how he felt. Nodding and humming in agreement with his words you were glad he came though. You’re really enjoying your time together.

“Here I know a little shortcut to get there quicker, do you trust me ?”

“Hmm well seeing of how you were such a brave boy with those hornets to get me such lovely flowers.. I trust you. “ Oridan smiled and picked you up carefully and held you close. He’s probably feeling a little jealous that Ellera had gotten to carry you but, you don’t mind it’s nice being carried. Watching as the trees flew past your face Oridan ran almost full speed and barely broke a sweat it amazed you at how he was so nimble and graceful. “So how short is this short cut?”

Laughing a bit breathlessly Oridan smirked as he set you down. “Short. We’re here “ you stated up at him in amazement completely in awe at his speed.

“Wow.. that really was short and you barely.. broke a sweat how’d you do that ??? “ Oridan laughed and gently wrapped his arm around your waist as he walked you to the doors of the tavern opening the door and letting you in first.

“I’ve got stamina honey bee” He said with a wink leaving you a blushing mess as you hid your face in your hands for a moment. Composing yourself you smacked his arm though you’re sure it felt nothing more than a fly landing on him.

“We are in public you can’t make remarks like that!! Oridan!” Staining up at him bright red you felt everyone’s eyes on you. He only laughed a bit as he ruffled your hair.

“Relax no one here pays attention to couples except for Mama Alicia she keeps the kids all in check for such a small woman she has so much anger, it’s terrifying. “ Shaking his head Oridan lead you to a table more in the back and farther away from the more rowdy customers. It was a nice tavern perfect for eating in the middle of the day or drinking the night away. Mama Alicia did a good job.

“What can I get for you two huns?” A small woman with curly bright orange hair waddled her way over to your table. She seemed so sweet with her rosy cheeks and small accent.

“I’ll have- “ Oridan tried to order first giving you some more time to decide on what you wanted. Everything seemed so good you couldn’t decide between the Thief’s stew or the adventurers breakfast! They both had everything you liked plus a side of fruit of your choice!!

“Manners boy!! Dates first I thought I taught you better Oridan. You should most certainly know that by now. Always fawnin over them and treatin them like royalty when you serve them yet now with one of em in front of ya you forget everything I taught you !! Disgrace a shame. “ smacking Oridan with mighty force Mama Alicia made her point quite clear. Turning back to you a sweet smile on her face as if she hadn’t tried to murder your date with a small booklet. “Now what can I get for you hun. “

“Oh I can’t pick between these two.. do you think you can help me? “ She had a wider smile as she looked at your choices. You’d be a perfect fit for Oridan in her mind you’d keep him in check and on the right path.

“Of course, they both have great qualities but if you’re going out again after this I suggest the breakfast over the stew that will keep you full for days and if you want dessert after. “ Making your choice you kept with the breakfast while Oridan got the knights feast. Waddling away Mama Alicia got to your orders and brought you some freshly made berry juice.

“I told you. Little woman lotta rage. Scary thing she is. “ Laughing a little you couldn’t help but check his arm for any bruises you swore that woman could’ve taken his arm off if she wanted to. “I’m fine honey bee but I do feel all flattered you’re worried for me. “ smirking a bit to hide his nerves as you checked his arm. You felt his skin grow warm under your touch and it was nice.

“So you work here? I thought you would’ve been off working as a blacksmith with how you carved that blade.” Satisfied with your check of his arm you pulled away and glanced up at his face. Admiring his chocolate brown eyes for maybe a little too long than you intended.

“Hmm oh I do work as a blacksmith just up in the strong hold with my uncle down here I work to gain a few extra coin to treat myself or to treat someone else.. I haven’t had the chance to do the second until now and I must say it’s very nice I’d be happy to treat you again.. “ Your face went red as you shook your head, scarfing down your drink trying not to say something that could get you far more embarrassed. Yet you wanted to, you hadn’t felt confident in saying things on your mind before. Nows as good a time as any.

“Hmm picking up an extra job for little old me you’re too kind and maybe I like being treated by you.. “ You added your own little wink and smirk mimicking Oridans own actions. You couldn’t hold your laughter in Oridan nearly spit his drink out his nose! He wasn’t ready for you to make such a comeback!

“Honey bee now where did that come from ? I’m not complaining but wow I think I’m rubbing off on you “ you only laughed more as he tried to recover, suddenly realizing how loud you were you quickly quieted yourself down. Oridan loved your laugh it was like sweet music to his ears he loved hearing you laugh so hard you’d snort. Staring at you with such love in his eyes he truly hoped you chose him.

“Oh foods here.. wow that’s a lot of food” Mama Alicia smiled as she placed down your plates of food then waddling over to Oridan and giving him his plates. “Thank you so much Mama Alicia!” You couldn’t wait to dig in. It smelt so good and your mouth was watering.

“Enjoy huns “ she refilled your drinks and left you be. You could be polite and not eat your weight right now in front of your date but, you were with an orc the last thing he’d do is judge you for how and what you ate.

“Hey can you take these? I don’t really like them.” You handed over some vegetables you weren’t really fond of and his face seemed to light up that you were sharing your food with him. Nodding his head he easily scarfed them down. Impressed at watching you devour your own food.

“Where’d you fit all that you have the stomach of an orc honey bee. “ laughing softly as he stole some of your food which got him a smack to his hand and a mighty glare. Laughing more Oridan pulled out his coin sack and left a handful down on the tables edge when you were both done.

“I have a large appetite thank you very much. How’d you know.. right you work here you must have everything memorized strange man” Getting up from your seat you smiled as you waited for him. Oridan smiled more as he wrapped an arm around your waist leading you out of the tavern then it struck him you missed your show time.

“Oh I’m so sorry I got so caught up I completely forgot what time we were supposed to be there “ By this point you had completely forgotten about the show having too much fun with Oridan.

“Hey hey it’s okay!! I had fun anyways I like spending time with you besides there’s always another time. I suppose we should start heading home it looks like a storms coming soon. “ Nodding his head a bit relieved you weren’t upset for missing the show Oridan lead you home parting ways with a soft kiss to your cheek. Once he left you rushed to your room all giddy flopping on your bed and kicking your feet. Your expectations for Killian were set high.

You couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

[letterboxd]

Sick Beats.

Blade-reboot director Bassam Tariq talks to Alicia Haddick about partnering with Riz Ahmed on Mogul Mowgli, how to open a film, the clash of colonialism and art, and the escapist joys of comic-book movies.

“We’ll make films, we’ll die, who gives a shit? Right? But how we lived and all that stuff, I feel like that matters.” —Bassam Tariq

Standing alone on a dimly lit stage in a New York music venue, Zed appears to have it all. He’s on the brink of a musical breakthrough in his rap career, with a growing legion of fans and fellow artists inspired by his work. Yet at this moment, on this stage, with the audience barely visible in the shadows, there is so much more going on.

Riz Ahmed has had a couple of blistering opening performances in films this past year, but where Sound of Metal’s first moments track his character’s hearing loss, the opening scene of Mogul Mowgli—written by Ahmed and director Bassam Tariq—feels like a physical manifestation of the emotions that come with tackling what it means to be a London-bred, Pakistani-Muslim rapper.

Zed is unsure where he belongs in a complex web of cultural and social ideas defined by a family that raised him, a religion he treats with skepticism, and a country that colonized his parents and their ancestors. Transforming these questions into art won’t make them disappear, but music at least gives Zed a measure of indirect control over his problems. That is, until the diagnosis of a degenerative autoimmune disease puts the brakes on his career.

As Zed’s father struggles to reconcile his own past with caring for his son, Zed’s illness manifests itself in apparitions of a mysterious figure, whose face is veiled by a sehra (the decorative groom’s headdress worn at Pakistani weddings). The man refers to himself as Toba Tek Singh, which is both a reference to a city in Pakistan named after a Sikh religious figure, and the name of a satirical story about Partition.

Mogul Mowgli is Tariq’s debut narrative feature. It had its premiere at Berlin in 2020, winning the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and gaining notice for its director, who has been confirmed to helm MCU’s Blade reboot, with Mahershala Ali in the leading role. Tariq previously co-directed the highly rated 2013 documentary These Birds Walk, and the 2019 documentary short, Ghosts of Sugar Land, each centered on Muslim life and experiences, one on the streets of Karachi, the other in Texas. Mogul Mowgli is a more introspective—and more surreal—exploration of these ideas, couched in the dingy halls of a UK hospital, and in the lyrics of a rapper searching for himself.

Tariq chatted with us over Zoom about his friendship with Ahmed, the production challenges of keeping a set alive, and his film inspirations, from Abbas Kiarostami to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Riz Ahmed and Bassam Tariq on the set of ‘Mogul Mowgli’.

I know that you and Riz worked together on the film for a number of years while you were coming up with the story, and there was also a lot of mutual respect for each other’s work. How did the two of you first meet? Bassam Tariq: We met through my co-director of These Birds Walk, Omar Mullick, who introduced Riz and I to each other. At that time, I was running a butchery in the East Village in Manhattan. That’s where Riz and I met and we just became fast friends. Things kind of took a few years for us to figure out what the project would be that we would do together, it took me about three years, four years. But you know, he was shooting The Night Of, and then slowly his career was skyrocketing and it was like, “oh, great, we’ll probably never see him again”.

Yet he would always stay in touch because I think he had a desire to tell something that was very specific to him. All I knew was how to tell things that are specific to me, I didn’t know anything else. So I think that’s why it kind of worked really well for both of us, because he became quite great at playing other characters, but to do something that was very close to him, I think that was quite new.

And it gave you both the opportunity to tell your own stories through that. That’s the exciting thing. It’s so exciting when you’re able to pull from some unique things that only you can tell, and particularly working with actors that also share that part and then bringing it alive through them. It’s just gold, it’s such a gift. Why would you try to hide that from them or mask that from them?

Speaking of These Birds Walk, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between how you observed and captured the work going on in Karachi and the intimate filming style used in this movie. What were the challenges in jumping from documentaries to this film, and were there any lessons you learned from that field of work that then factored into the production of Mogul Mowgli? I would say that the big learning curve for me was timing, like, you’re burning money as you have a day of production. Every day that you’re in prep and every day that you’re in production, you’re burning money. So the financing is very different because there are stakeholders involved. We were blessed with amazing partners with BBC and Cinereach that weren’t the crazy ones that you would expect when you think of stakeholders, they were amazing partners. It was more of a family vibe than anything. But you’re still burning someone else’s money, right?

I think that was something that I didn’t take stock of and I wish I was a little bit better with, but I think I finally realized what it means to “make your days”, to “make your minutes”. How do you keep everybody engaged? How do you keep your crew engaged? Is this going to be a long production? How do you do this? How do you keep it all alive? And we’re doing it in the thick of winter in London, you know, we couldn’t afford heaters and stuff.

And we were just blessed with such an amazing crew. I didn’t have a crew with These Birds Walk. It was just me and my co-director, and then I had an editor, Sonejuhi Sinha, who came on board for free. It was just people out of the goodness of their hearts, whereas with Mogul Mowgli, it was both the goodness of their hearts and they were getting paid a little bit. No one was getting paid great money. But it was still this desire to make an excellent film.

I think what I had to learn was to communicate clearly what this film was with everybody involved. That was a really exciting and new thing for me, because it wasn’t just me and a co-director. We have a ship and everyone on the ship needs to know what this film is and how we’re going to make it look, how we’re going to make it feel. These are friends I care about, I care about Riz, he’s a dear friend of mine. And I wanted to make sure that he was being respected, that I was being respected and I was doing right by everybody on my team.

And I think that’s really the most important thing for me, because man, who cares? We’ll make films, we’ll die, who gives a shit? Right? But how we lived and all that stuff, I feel like that matters. You could give somebody a very empowering experience.

Riz Ahmed as Zed in ‘Mogul Mowgli’.

While your own experiences were a major inspiration on a number of areas of the film, what research did you do for the medical aspects of the movie, especially with how crucial it is to telling this story? Oh, it was massive, we did a lot of research. We pulled a lot from our own families’ histories, but we never named the illness. That was quite important to us. It was quite allegorical, but also based in a very real concern, a very real thing.

I think something that I will say that is true is that a lot of first-generation immigrants have autoimmune illnesses, and it’s because of the body coming into a new terrain and new climate. Sometimes there’s trauma in the body from past generations. The Body Keeps the Score is a book that I think everyone’s been reading these days, but it’s about epigenetics and this idea that the psyche doesn’t know time. It doesn’t understand time, so you can’t hide it.

We have this false idea that time will heal wounds, but it’s such bullshit, because if we don’t confront these traumas, we can then pass those traumas onto our family members, which is something that I think is very real.

There are a few moments while Zed’s coming to terms with his condition in which he encounters the image of Toba Tek Singh. What inspired their appearance in the film and their place as a confronting figure for Zed? I think there’s a few things. One is that he’s an allegory, he very much symbolizes the illness, he is the illness. But then there’s another part of it where, like, I feel that I never know how to connect with our culture. I’ve always had a hard time understanding how to connect with it. So that’s the reason why he’s almost veiled from us as well. It’s like I don’t want to be able to see him—I don’t know what he is.

We have this very social-realist film, and we filmed the movie chronologically. So what I remember is that in the prayer scene, the first time he looks over and he looks back and then we have the guy in flowers I was like, “I can’t believe I’m making this movie, am I really doing this?” And you know, good on Riz. This is why having good partners along with you to be like “yeah, this is what we’re doing and we’re committing to this”, because there’s a version where they didn’t exist.

I also have to ask about the opening scene with the concert. I know that you had originally taken footage from one of Riz’s own concerts, but then you re-recorded it. How difficult was that scene to put together? It was scary! It was our first day of shooting, it was the first day of Riz and I working together. I’d filmed him a little bit here and there, like in a hotel or this or that, I filmed him in Pakistan when we were having fun, but it was all fun. Now we’re putting on the concert, people are there to see Riz perform, it’s the first day of filming, you know what I mean? The crew doesn’t have the language yet, we’re still figuring out who we are, how we’re all going to speak to one another, and then we have to do this big concert scene.

I will say that it was so important to make it feel like he is a real performer. I think I wanted to see him unleash a bit, because I wanted that energy from Riz to be real. I want him to unleash in a way that we haven’t seen him perform in concerts before. We did a few takes on it and then it was like, no, we got to go further, now we got to go further. And that was great to see how both of us were egging each other on to go further with it.

It was a really powerful introduction. It’s something that makes you sit up and take notice, if that makes sense. Thank you. I love openings of films. I remember my co-director on These Birds Walk, they taught me that how you open is everything. So I always knew that I wanted to open with a concert and then end with the concert. But I wanted the last concert to be in the bathroom. And I’m happy they were able to bring it to life.

‘Mogul Mowgli’ director Bassam Tariq. / Photo by Ryan Lash

Were there any opening scenes that inspired you when thinking about that scene? One of my favorite movie openings is Under the Skin, because I think it tells you very clearly what the film’s about, it grabs your attention. You’re about to watch a story about humanity and about, you know, what does the construction of a human look like, which is phenomenal, like, what is under the skin? Literally, what is under our skin? There are others. Narc has an incredible opening.

What were the films that most inspired the overall production of Mogul Mowgli? You know, there’s this one film by Alonso Ruizpalacios called Güeros. It’s one of the best debut films I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s so radical. It’s so singular. It’s so special. It’s so specific. And there’s probably a thousand things I don’t understand about it, but I love that about it. I’m walking into a world that I haven’t seen.

I would also say that the TV show Atlanta is a deep inspiration for me. Another film that I’m just so in love with that I watched a few times with Omar Mullick was Ida. Then I would say Son of Saul, and how that dealt with trauma, was really powerful. And all three of these films were also shot in the Academy ratio, which is the 4:3 ratio that I think we unwittingly decided to do.

Were there any particular filmmakers that really inspired you growing up or that made you think “yeah, this is what I want to do”, and pushed you to make the films you are today? No, I don’t think it was in the filmmakers I looked at, but more just the wonder of film that I loved, the escape of film. So my earliest films that I always loved were, like, Back to the Future. I watched a lot of, it’s weird to say, but even the bad Marvel movies I’ve seen, like The Punisher, Captain America, those early ones, I would watch those because I loved the comics. So for me, the comics were an escape, and ’90s X-Men, the ’90s Spider-Man, that was my life. My first introduction to Blade was that bit when Blade [appeared] on Spider-Man in one of those episodes of the animated series. And then, of course, the movie Blade.

I will say that one filmmaker I’ve come to who’s given me permission to make films is Abbas Kiarostami, the Iranian filmmaker who died a few years ago. He’s just a phenomenal voice, a singular voice in Iran. And Mohsen Makhmalbaf and then his daughter Marziyeh Meshkiny, who made the film The Day I Became a Woman. But these are films that are so unapologetically unique and of them. I want to be able to do that as well. They’re not in response to, or reacting as a discriminated member of some community, but instead they’re like, “no, I exist and I am”.

I feel like so much of the content that comes from communities that I’m a part of can sometimes feel like we’re sloganeering to white people or to the heteronormative or whatever. It’s just, like, come on. Andrew Haigh’s Weekend is one of the films that really moved me and made me be like: “Oh, wow, this is uniquely queer, it could only be two queer people having a one-night stand. It couldn’t be anybody else. And it had to be made only by that filmmaker.”

That’s it, that’s filmmaking, that’s cinema to me, that’s exciting. Just like the movie The Fits, where it could have only been written by women, directed by a woman, edited by a woman, it’s so specific. It’s one of the films that I also look to that I’m, like, what she did in that film, I’m still in awe. I can never have that experience, but I can relate. I can connect to something so vulnerable and so true. Because when it’s true, it’s undeniable.

Just one last question, the obvious question: top three films of all time, what would you say they are? I’m going to go with Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky, and I will say The Matrix because, you know, whatever, I’m lame like that. Then I’ll say another very expected answer, City of God. If I could add two more to the list, though, I would say Güeros and Dog Day Afternoon, for sure.

They’re all very different from one another. Yeah, but that’s what’s so great about cinema. You’re fluid. Genre, it could be anything.

Related content

Citizen Bane’s list of films and shows that pass the Riz Test

Hip Hop Hooray: Darren’s comprehensive list of hip hop and rap films

Best Directorial Debuts of 2020: as voted by Letterboxd members on Twitter

Follow Alicia on Letterboxd

‘Mogul Mowgli’ is currently screening at Film Forum (NY) and Nuart (LA), and coming to more screens soon.

[ariyadaivaris]

- oh god vic please come back. where have you gone. we miss you

- NEW GEAR! NEW GEAR FOR TONY the track jacket is obviously new (its very cute i like the rolled up sleeves+tape up to wrists look a lot) and his new goofy lil emblem on his kneepads. also its the same candy red as ariya's. unbearable! i can't stand them. good for him

- "a red wedding of sorts, if you will" HUH? YOU CAN'T SAY THAT. WHY DID HE SAY THAT

- ARIYA DID THE SLASH ACROSS THE THROAT THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT FEELS LIKE LIFETIMES SINCE HE'S DONE IT i love him. terrible. awful. scary <3

- the windup on ariya's elbow drops <3 he is a delight to watch...

- god i wish wish WISH 205 had some fucking storylines again!!!!!!!!!! i love tony and ariya and i love the bollywood boys, you know this, but if i have to watch another mostly directionless tag match that won't go anywhere or lead to anything because the cw division's plot-important stuff is relegated to nxt with an entirely different group of people and none of these guys are considered in high enough regard to reap the rewards of a division they built and carried on their backs for the last 5 years with NO fucking help or faith in them at all i'm going to go off the deep end. i would take an in-ring promo at this point. anything at fucking all   - commentary keeps pushing the "they're working harder than ever to get a title shot" thing and it's just so. i'm insanely depressed about it. does ANYONE genuinely believe, watching this, that they will ever be given a title shot? do the four men in this ring right now have any hope that they will ever see that title on their show again, never mind get a chance at it?   - ariya really isn't ever gonna be a champion is he. the division gets some steam and he's never going to be a part of it. i'm so mad all the time. lol

- its...a struggle to watch 205 recently. it is a struggle to do fucking anything recently but this especially is hard because 205 is like. My Thing. that is the one thing that i am in it for, this is the one thing i have to look forward to on a weekly basis, to mark the passage of time for myself. and i just can't keep doing this! watching alone, having to sustain interest on my own, ignoring the parts of the division that have things going on because its dudes ive never seen on 205 and have no interest in and because its a lot of miserable shitheels and predators that dubya considers relevant for reasons i will never understand (their loyalties have always been clear but given how little anyone cares about like, devlin, who has never done anything in dubya at all even if you ignore That, its like what tradeoff could possibly be worth this unless you want to just signal that you will protect abusers which EVERYONE KNOWS ALREADY), watching and desperately finding scraps of character development in reruns of the same three match configurations over and over and over again involving more dudes that you don't really care about even after all this time because they joined post-plot-or-character and its all with no build, no leadup, no EXCITEMENT, while everyone has already kind of moved on from it for reasons that seem better and better all the time. i don't want to let go of it or stop hoping because i WANT to see if anything happens, i care about ariya and tony's weird fuckin story arcs that much if anything and honestly i think letting go of it at this exact point in time is admitting a loss that i could not withstand at the present moment, but its so...i have to force myself to watch it at this point. and i know it all sounds sooooo pathetic because it is, but i'm just. im so tired!!!!!!!! im so fucking tired of it all

- OHHH SAMIR'S SAVE INTO THE NECKBREAKER OWNS

- ITS FUCKIN SUNIL TIME BABEY!!!!!!!!!! SUNIL SINGH EPIC MOMENTS COMPILATION!!!! GOLD STANDARD DOESNT STAND A CHANCE LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

- ariya tagging tony in and just kind of collapsing and rolling through the ropes to have a little lie-down on the apron. sunil singh unstoppable, undefeatable, cannot be survived

- ARIYA KNOCKED HIMSELF OUT ON THE POST. ARIYA

- TONY TWO KNEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- TONY GET CLEAN PIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARIYA WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- oh my guy ariya's not lookin too good lol

- he’s fine <3 (he IS okay if you are worried)

- oh now lorcan cares about the cruiserweight division again huh! interesting ^_^

- legado del fantasma should be allowed to do that. i think its okay

- i don't really care about him besides going huh, fun aesthetic i guess, but i like grey's entrance music a LOT. maybe it's just the vocals making it distinguishable from whatever new team is doing the themes and making them all the same boring generic hinting-at-metal pop punk instrumental shit. oh well

- commentary making suuuuuuuch a big deal over grey doing things The Right Way to beat mansoor and IF I DO RECALL CORRECTLY tony as well and ignoring that he cheated to beat ariya. ariya gets cheated out of the recognition he's earned once again i see...pretty sure grey wasn't doing it The Right Way when he put his feet on the ropes against the BACKBONE, the BLOOD, the SPINE of the cruiserweight division but whatever............

- you know what i miss? high flying. that thing that 205 was originally about showcasing in a lot of ways? where did that go (to the corner to sit through timeout for being too good apparently) god i miss lhp i miss cedric i miss babyface moose i miss angel and humberto and AKIRA!!!!...i even miss buddy...wails and gnashes my teeth. i miss alicia and kenta and lio and the kanellises though i am glad they are out of dubya. some of these people aren't high flyers which was the original point whatever i still miss them. i need to rewatch 205 so i can try to have fun and not freak out over just how much of it i have to skip over

-  he is so handsome <///3

- ariya is both very VERY interested in august cheating to beat him and furious that he's not cheating to beat anyone else. why WOULD he do that? he didn't care about it when he had to beat ariya. ariya's not the ONLY heel in the division, and not the only person who would cheat to win. august can position himself as righteous--he's doing things HIS way, after all--and noble, but ariya knows better. august is losing by doing this, too! he's not WINNING! he cares more about his principles than about the win, which is CERTAINLY news to ariya. turnabout is fair play against him, apparently, because It's Daivari and anyone can do anything to him and get off scot-free. ariya watches grey refuse to cheat against anyone else, and he listens and he is commended as a hero for it, and it is driving him up the wall to watch. of course, ariya getting humiliated and treated like shit by people who then get lauded as clean babyfaces who continue thinking of him as a dirty cheater beneath them as they do the same things is uh. he’s encountered it before

- "YOU blew it! you let your pride get in the way! YOU blew it! don't ever forget that!" HM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- this is so fucking juicy. ariya ranks winning through any means above his pride! ariya would rather win dirty than lose clean. he's disgusted that grey won't use his brain to see that a win is better than a loss. ALSO! ariya going "you let your pride get in the way" is SO interesting! self righteousness as arrogance in his eyes feels very illuminating. NO he's not exactly PROUD of the shit he's done but it's the smart thing to do. he's survived, hasn't he? how many other cruiserweights could say that? did mustafa survive? did cedric? did akira? did their principles help them survive? did akira having his arm ripped off just to outlast ariya The Right Way do anything to help him in the long run? what good is doing things the right way when it is so so so fucking hard not to die in here already? on the other hand, ariya is also kind of proud at times! ariya's pride being wounded is what led to the huge character shift he went through to begin with. his pride got in the way of joining drew and tony on the same level and it got in the way of fixing things properly between him and tony until they had to grow back together, and when i say grow i mean it in the sense of...like...a tree. slow and deliberate and taking fucking forever. and it's still never been addressed out loud, really. when ariya says grey's pride got in the way of somethig, he has some idea of what he's talking about ugh. UGH!!!!!!!!! this is all so fascinating. ariya daivari top five characters of all time

[readersguidetotheuniverse]

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

The Book of Regrets

Ariadna: I love how the author puts them down on paper —or on video, considering Hugo’s version of the library. Regretting past decisions is part of our human nature, and most of us live in societies that, even though improving, do not give much space for vulnerability and emotional talking. I found it very interesting how writing them down and reflecting —or acting, as Nora does— on them may help us improve, be more gentle and understanding with ourselves and, in turn, with others around us. I think it is a great symbol of how our regrets weigh us down and how we can deal with them in order to raise above them and grow.

Alicia: If I had in front of me a book of everything I regret and I had the chance to change things, would I? Yes. Hundred percent yes. Cause I am a very regretful person and I have done bad things, treated people badly and just fucked up in many many ways. So if I could I would change about a million things, no doubt. However, I don't have that book. And I can't change things from the past. I can only make sure I don't make the same mistakes in the future. Having regrets is natural but also a royal pain in the ass, pardon my French. I have had sleepless nights cause I remembered that one time I embarrassed myself in front of a guy I had a crush on when I was twelve. It sucks. And I'm slowly but steadily trying to come to an agreement with myself that everyone has done things they regret and it's okay, and I just have to move on. Hopefully one day I will fully embrace this thought.

Marina: I’d like to think everybody has a Book of Regrets, be it a literal book or an imaginary one. We all have made choices that we may regret later on in life even though we thought they were the right ones at the time. The fact that Nora sees them all in writing is, comprehensively, overwhelming; I too would feel pain if I were shown all my regrets in one sitting! But otherwise, it’s a way to show the character (as time goes on in the narrative) that she can overcome them, they were the choices that made her Nora, not Nora the swimmer, not Nora the singer, just Nora. And that’s what I take away from the book: life is not pretty and we may regret some choices, but in the end it’s what makes us real and how we got to this point in our lives, even if it’s not the best of times, we will endure.

The library/videoclub store/restaurant, etc (or why it changes from person to person)

Ariadna: At first, it seemed weird that there existed other versions of the «library». Don’t get me wrong; it seems very organic to me to start reading a book or a movie and being transferred to that particular life, I understand how that plain of existence shapes itself according to the psyche of the individual to accommodate them, make them feel secure, calm, at home, in a way. It just didn’t make sense that you ate spaghetti bolognese and were transported into a life in which you’ve moved to a small village in Tuscany and worked as a photographer in a vineyard state, for the lack of a better example.

Alicia: I think it was such a smart move to have different people go through the same thing but with a different setting to fit each individual's life. It made so much sense to me. Everyone goes through different experiences and feels attached to different things, so the most logical thing would be to have a specific setting for each person according to what they feel the most connected to. I like the library the most, especially because the idea of each life being a different book for you to read is fascinating. But I couldn't help imagining an infinite Blockbuster full of movies of your other lives and I love the concept as well. Now that I think about it, mine would probably be some kind of online streaming service. An afterlife Netflix of sorts.

Marina: I found this part very beautiful. The fact that it changes from person to person to best fit their personalities. I thought about what this in-between place would look like for me but I honestly couldn’t come up with anything! There’s not a place that I associate with complete and utter happiness. I have been happy in many places and sad in many others, so to choose just one is very difficult for me. 

The ending (it cuts abruptly)

Ariadna: Suffering mental illnesses myself, the ending pissed me off. It is predictable, clichéed and plainly boring. Too “feel-good” for me. I think Matt Haig, having suffered depression too himself, could have taken the opportunity to dwell on real ways to deal with this kind of mental illnesses, instead of creating an imaginary place after commiting suicide where you are given a magical second chance (or third, or fourth, or twentieth). This is straightforwardly triggering and naive and does not give much other message than “you just wait, some day you’ll reach rock bottom and suddenly, if you don’t die, you will be awarded a magical 180 degree turn in your life and everything will be better in a split second”. I get it, he wants to highlight how seeing things from different perspectives may help, but that’s not the way to do it, not at all. I think you already got how pissed I am, so I’m leaving it here.

Alicia: The ending was pretty predictable, some parts of it. For me, at least. But still I liked it. Being a person suffering from anxiety and a bit of depression I know it's not that easy and nice and cute. But, at the end, it's a book and it's fiction and I'm not going to try to solve my life with it. What I took from all the lives and the ending is that there are always going to be regrets, no life is perfect, thinking about what could have happened doesn't help anything. Nora realizes what she wants in her life, what she misses, what she did wrong and works to fix that and be nicer to the people around her. I think it's a nice take. Realistic? Probably not. Depression is not gonna just leave. But I think it's quite optimistic and hopeful and that's not always a bad thing.

Marina: To be completely honest I expected how the book would end from pretty much the beginning. So the fact that it ends where and when it does did not surprise me much. I think Matt Haig  could have done a better job. Talking about it with Ariadna and Alicia we have come to the same conclusion: how does Nora deal with her depression? Does she all of a sudden get cured? Or does she still have mental health problems from time to time? It would have been a better ending if it addressed some of those issues but overall it was expected that it wouldn’t.

Mrs. Elm

Ariadna: We all tend to idealise people who do us good or help us in hard times, specially as children. If we are to recall them, we remember them wiser, warmer, prettier... Imho, the library version of Mrs. Elm is an idealisation of the real Mrs. Elm. Being the only supporting adult in her childhood, more specifically, when her father died, Nora considered her a reference, an idol, if you want, so her mind has idealised her like some sort of a gurú or wisewoman. I would have loved to see how, meeting her again in real life, Nora could pinpoint the differences between them and acknowledge that even her young days’ idol has flaws and is a human being like any other. In the end, we tend to love people more because they’re flawed that we would if they were perfect.

Alicia: I think we all have met someone at some point that we looked up to. That person doesn't have to be perfect, or the smartest, or the best person out there. Probably we don't even know that person fully well. But for some reason we find comfort in them, we feel safe. The Mrs Elm from the library and the real Mrs Elm are not the same person. Sometimes we create a mental picture of people that doesn't 100% match with reality, but that doesn't mean it's not true for us. Real Mrs Elm said she was a bad wife and not a good mother, she maybe wasn't the person Nora thought she was, but she was still kind to her and took care of her when she needed it the most. Everyone can make mistakes sometimes but some things can't be faked, like true kindness. Maybe it's a bit naive of me, but I think mistakes can be forgiven if the person really is pure of heart. I think these kinda people are rare. At least, I haven't found many. (Truth be told I tend to easily see the bad in people so I am not the greatest example here). I think that in my library I would find a literature professor I had in my freshman year of college. I rarely talked to him outside of class, and if I did it was barely greeting in hallways, but I admired him so much and I felt at peace when I listened to him speak. I think he would be my Mrs Elm.

Marina: The differences for me are obvious: Mrs Elm in real life is a person, just another normal human being with problems and regrets. Her library counterpart, however, is just an entity that guided Nora through her regrets and helped her “overcome” them. So, in a way, we could theorize that the Mrs Elm in the library is really Nora’s own conscience trying to help her through her mental state.

Quantum theory or the multiverse

Ariadna: I love the idea of the multiverses (who doesn’t, after the whole MCU multiverse, timeline altering mumbo jumbo), of how a single minor decision can change your life drastically. I found it somehow inspiring and terrifying at the same time. It is scary to consider the power every little decision has in your life, how it can turn your life upside down but, at the same time, it offers billions of possibilities, it encourages you to try, to get past the infamous Book of Regrets, for you never know if a «bad decision» could have turned otherwise even more awful than what you think is your life now. It’s all about perspective.

Alicia: I am completely enthralled by the concept of the multiverse and also confused as heck. I am not one for science so really specific explanations just sound like gibberish in my mind, but the idea of an infinite number of universes existing simultaneously blows my mind. I keep seeing it in movies and TV shows and I fall for it every single time. At the same time, it stresses me out a little bit. It makes me wonder what I am doing differently in those other universes, am I happier? Am I successful? What if in one universe I worked harder or wasn't as picky and I managed to get a job I truly enjoy? What if I moved to a different city like I have always wanted to? What if I wasn't as afraid of living...

Marina: I geeked out a bit, not gonna lie, when Hugo explained the whole quantum theory of the multiverse. I’d like to think there’s one Marina out there that, for example, knows how to speak perfect Chinese; or runs marathons every year  (though that would be very hard!); or dresses like a hipster or a million other things. I do believe that every choice we make turns into a different reality; but, just the same as it creates a new universe, it makes me who I am. It makes me the woman that writes about books for fun, that likes to have dinner with her friends and get a little tipsy on one cocktail or too shy to talk to anyone but will power through a public talk because she is also a bit of a badass (if I do say so myself ;P). And even though I get sad sometimes because I regret some choices I made, in the end, it brought me here and I have to believe it’s where I am meant to be. I sound way more chipper about it than I actually am sometimes… I mean, I do try to look on the bright side as often as I can!

Nora’s “perfect” life and why she didn’t choose it

Ariadna: Maybe you’ll call me spoilsport, but I think nobody gets their real “perfect” life, that it does not truly exist, because then accomplished turns out to be underwhelming. I think that’s what happened to Nora, why she couldn’t stay in that fairytale version of her life: because she was, in some way, bored. She had everything she ever wanted, therefore, she had nothing to really fight for, nothing to make her life motivating and interesting. I think, in the end, life is just the not-so-perfectly balanced mix of good and bad times, successes and failures. If all we did was win, we would end up not valuing the successes and living a bland, boring life. I think one of the main morals of this book is precisely to learn how to value good and bad times equally, to learn to find the good in the seemingly awful and the bad in the seemingly perfect to find the right in between.

Alicia: I knew quite early on that she'd end up going back to her original life, I think it was quite predictable and expected. However, that didn't stop me wishing she decided to stay in her 'perfect life' with Molly and Ash. Mostly cause I was rooting for her and that happy ending she seemed so desperate to find, and this seemed to be it. She could finally be with someone good who loved her, have a loving family, a good relationship with her brother, have a nice career in philosophy... it was just perfect, but it wasn't hers. And being honest, I also wouldn't want to live another life that wasn't mine. Even if it belongs to myself from another universe, it is still not mine to live. I rather have a life in which everything I have, I earned.

Marina: We all would love to have that “perfect” life, or what we think is a perfect life, right? To have a bigger house, a nicer car, a sexier body, or whatever you think “perfect” means. But not many people can say they actually live their perfect life. Nora gets that choice and, as I think many of us would realize,  it’s not altogether what she imagined. Yes, she gets the guy; yes, she gets a great daughter that loves her, but is she happier there than she was in her crappy apartment with her crappy job and her cat? In a way, I guess, but ultimately no. She is aware that this is not the life she created for herself, nor the life she will get to live. I feel like this would happen to all of us if we had the opportunity to live our “perfect” lives, we would get everything we wanted but at what cost? What did we sacrifice to get there? Would it be a price worth paying? As the Stones say: “You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes, well, you might find / You get what you need”.

[couldnt-think-of-a-better-name]

OKAYOKAY i’ve actually sent an ask about this yesterday but anyway I got my tpn manga volumes recently and when reading the little doodle pages between the chapters in volume 4, there was a page with a list of items in the grace field house including a well with the caption/description, “the secret of the backyard”. I haven’t seen posts of this anywhere so I thought I should bring it up to the best tpn theorist I know. Okay but is the well THE SECRET ESCAPE ROUTE OF GRACEFIELD??? Not only is it connected to WATER (atlantis theory) but it is also a HOLE (escape route possibly a hole theory) I know you’ve theorised that it is probably in the middle of the 5 plantations, but could the well be the escape route?

Thank you for the submission @heyvapesauce! Sorry, it took me a while to get to this!

This volume extra page that you pointed out is very interesting actually, and I think it is full of clues to various mysteries and plot points!

Since you made another submission about the well later, I will not talk about it here, but address it in the other post. Instead, I want to talk about the various items, and their significance as I think there is more to them than it meets the eye. Let me get a better picture:

Pocket Watch

~Mom is always running things on time.~

We know that this is in reality is the tracker device. However, there is a significance given to time in later visuals, and the pocket watch re-appears on volume 13. I think I understand now what this is about, but I am writing a whole different post on that, just bear in mind that there is more to this item as well…

Letter Opener

~What was written in the letter?~

This is talking about Grandma’s letter to Krone, as the knife was used then. You can’t really read the writing (apart from a signature that looks like Sarah), but it is fairly easy to deduce what that letter was about. What is a mystery still however is the bait that Ray wrote for Krone and she showed Grandma. Shirai-san has said in an interview that this bait “letter” will be explored in later plot. My personal thoughts are that Ray confessed to receiving various items from Isabella, but rather than admitting being a spy, he would have given the reason as being Isabella’s biological son, and getting preferential treatment from her. I think it may be revisited once we explore how things get shipped to Gracefield from the human world (Krone confirmed that clothes toys etc get supplied from there).

Master Key

~Which door should we open?~

This key was used by Don and Gilda to get into Isabella’s secret room. Later Krone also gave a key mold to Norman, which was used to gain access to medical supplies. However, we can assume that the kids kept the mold, and if it can open other doors at the various Gracefield plants, then we can expect them to use it again when they break back into Gracefield.

This is a ball

~There are several of these.~

This seems more like a statement to me than a clue, but perhaps I am just missing something. Perhaps it is just a reference to the fact that toys supplied from the human world are factory made.

First Aid Kit

~You never know when you will need it.~

The first aid kit was used to remove Ray’s and Emma’s tracking devices, as well as to treat their wounds. The need for this featured again when kids ran out of medicine in the aftermath of the Goldy Pond fight, as well as for treating Christy and the mission to get him medicine. I am not sure if it will come back again since it has already featured in the new arc.

Lantern

~With this the house at night won’t be scary.~

The lantern is a traditional symbol for leading the way, it makes passage safe by giving light. During the escape Don signals that the cliff is safe to cross with a lantern, and later we see the use of glowing crystal plants in a lantern in Mujika’s cave by both Mujika and the kids. More importantly I have noted that the colour spread with the tiny kids inside the lantern was a direct reference of a scene in Peter Pan where Tinkerbell is locked inside one. Tinkerbell’s golden fairy dust allows passage to and from Neverland just like the golden water in TPN allows passage over the Seven Walls. It makes sense for the Moon to be required for a safe way, after all it lights up the night sky like a natural lantern.

Bell

~Can’t wait for mealtime.~

The bell is used to signal mealtimes at Gracefield, but its first appearance is with IsaBELLa… Ray and others also use it later, and it features later in the Mother’s Day omake as part of a mystery about Isabella. I believe the hidden clue here is Isabella’s association with TinkerBELL, who in Peter Pan is an antagonist to the female lead, Wendy, yet not completely an enemy, just like Isabella is to Emma. Will it feature again? Maybe, but it might be as the alarm bells being rung at Gracefield when they break back in to save Phil and co.

Baby Mobile

~Do you remember the last night that you slept well?~ These don’t feature heavily in the Escape arc. I wonder if they got included here to draw attention to a similar display we see in a Lambda spread, but with different characters. The lambda baby mobile includes planets, spaceships, and multi-eyed aliens (demons have many eyes too…). I have thought that this is a clue towards my theory on the origin of demons as extra-terrestrial bacteria. It would make sense then to draw attention to it.

Carol’s Stuffed Animal

~Can you write your own name?~ Again, this item doesn’t seem to have a lot of importance in the Escape. We know from additional info that Isabella names all the children, sometimes based on real life people, and my theories often include names that are references. Actually, nevermind, I think I have figured this one out now, but this will also have to go into my new theory post.

Alicia’s Stuffed Animal

~Just like Little Bunny, it looks handmade.~

The point about this toy as well as Little Bunny is that despite having access to factory toys from the human world, Isabella took the time and effort to handmake farewell gifts for the children getting shipped. Not only that, we know from Don’s and Gilda’s discovery that she kept each and every personalised gift. I think these actions speak volumes about how despite the circumstances, she did also love those children, and this was most likely part of her coping mechanism with their loss and her guilt. There is another significance to Little Bunny and to highlighting Alicia here, but unfortunately again it has to be explained in my new theory post. I apologise, but it’s a fairly complex and big thing that none seemed to have noticed so far, but was there from the beginning, so I want to explain it properly in its own post.

Globe

~Where could this be?~

The globe features in the discussion when the kids debate where Gracefield could be located in the world. We learn later that they are in the demon world, which seems to be uncharted to normal humans, just like the deep sea… Notice that this globe with its question shows us an ocean? Pretty straightforward if you consider my demon world is like Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean theory…

[aidanchaser]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Everyone Lives AU

Table of Contents beta’s by @ageofzero, @magic713m, @ccboomer, @somebodyswatson and Aubs

Chapter Fourteen Felix Felicis

Herbology was an excellent class to talk in, given the noisy nature of practical work. On their long walk down to the greenhouse Tuesday morning, Harry told Ron, Neville, and Hermione what he’d learned from Dumbledore in his lesson the previous evening.

Neville shivered in the cold morning mist. “I’m glad he didn’t go to school with us. He sounds awful.”

“Yeah, it’s a scary thought,” Ron said, and pushed the door open for everyone. “The Boy You-Know-Who.” He shook his head and accepted the set of protective gloves from Hermione. “But I still don’t get why Dumbledore’s showing you all this. I mean, it’s really interesting and everything, but what’s the point?”

Hermione pulled her thick hair back from her face. “I think it’s fascinating,” she said. “It makes absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else will you find out his weaknesses?”

Neville pulled a pair of protective goggles on and headed straight for one of the Snargaluff stumps. Harry watched as what had looked to be a half-rotted stump sprang to life. Thick, thorny vines erupted from its center, doing their best to beat Neville back and prevent him from retrieving the pods buried beneath the roots.

Harry took some time adjusting his goggles. “How was Slughorn’s party?” he asked.

“Oh, it was quite fun, really,” she said, with a tone that surprised Harry. He’d spent so long mocking the suppers with Ron and Ginny during his conveniently scheduled Quidditch practices, that he had assumed Hermione had been miserable at them, but he supposed he and Ron had just pretended that she hated the dinners for so long, they’d believed it must be true.

“I mean, he drones on about famous ex-pupils a bit,” she added, “and he absolutely fawns on McLaggen because he’s so well-connected, but he gave us some really nice food, and he introduced us to Gwenog Jones.”

“Gwenog Jones?” Ron spluttered. “The Gwenog Jones? Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?”

“She’s Ginny’s favorite,” Harry said, surprised both by Hermione meeting such a popular Quidditch star and by this strange fact that had leapt unbidden to his tongue.

“Yes, that Gwenog Jones,” Hermione said, and gave Harry a curious look. “Ginny was quite shocked to meet her. Though McLaggen did put a damper on her enthusiasm. Personally, I thought she was a bit full of herself — Jones, I mean, not Ginny —”

Before Harry could ask what McLaggen did this time, other than be himself, Professor Sprout came by their table and urged them to get started. Neville had already retrieved a pod all on his own. It was impossible to discuss who someone’s favorite Quidditch player was and why that information was pertinent when a Snargaluff stump was busy protecting its pods with thick whips and constricting roots.

Hermione was the one who reached her hand into the center of the stump while Ron and Harry held back the vines. She triumphantly emerged with a glowing, pulsating pod about as big as a fist. Once she’d pulled the pod free, the vines retreated into the stump and it once again appeared to be an innocent piece of dying tree.

“Don’t be squeamish!” Professor Sprout said. “Squeeze it out; they’re best when they’re fresh.”

Hermione, with a look of disgust, dropped the pod into the bowl Harry passed her. She did not look like she had any interest in squeezing pus from the pod, protective gloves or not. She passed the bowl to Ron and said, “Anyway, Slughorn’s going to have a Christmas party, Harry, and there’s no way you’ll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come.”

Harry groaned, and Ron, who had been attempting to squeeze the tube’s juices out by pressing down on it, stood and used his entire weight to push on the pod in the bowl.

“And this is another party just for Slughorn’s favorites, is it?” he said, though he was looking down at the pod when he did, and it was possible the frustration on his face was at the pod’s resistance to being squeezed. Possible, but not probable.

“Just for the Slug Club, yes,” said Hermione.

The pod slipped out from Ron’s hands after a particularly violent push. It flew across the green house, smacking into the glass ceiling with an unattractive squelch and plopping down onto Professor Sprout’s hat. Harry hurried to retrieve it.

When he returned, Hermione was saying, “Look, I didn’t make up the name ‘Slug Club’ —”

“Slug Club — It’s pathetic!” Ron’s disgusted face could no longer be blamed on the pod, because Harry was now the one holding it. Ron’s hands were tightened into fists on the table and his face was slowly turning red. “Well, I hope you enjoy your party. Why don’t you try hooking up with McLaggen, then Slughorn can make you King and Queen Slug —”

“We’re allowed to bring guests,” Hermione snapped, “and I was going to ask you to come, but if you think it’s that stupid then I won’t bother!”

Harry knew Hermione well enough to know from the rough edge in her voice that if he looked up, he would see tears in the corner of her eyes. As it was, he had absolutely no desire to look up, and instead looked back over his shoulder to see if Neville could provide him with an escape from this, but Neville was showing Professor Sprout the jar full of pus he had already collected.

So instead, Harry banged the pod against the bowl as loudly as he could manage, but it was not loud enough to drown out Ron and Hermione’s conversation.

“You were going to ask me?” Ron said, and he no longer sounded like he found Snargaluff pods and the Slug Club equally disgusting. It was a surprisingly soft voice for Ronald Weasley.

Hermione, though, was still furious. “Yes. But obviously if you’d rather I hooked up with McLaggen —”

Harry grabbed a trowel and beat the pod with the flat side of it. The slaps and squelches did not cover Ron’s very soft, very gentle answer.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

Harry missed the pod and the bowl shattered beneath the trowel with a loud crash. He repaired it quickly, but the crash had reminded Ron and Hermione where they were and who they were with. Hermione hastily dug through her bag for her textbook, intent on hiding her face from everyone for a moment. Ron gave Harry a slightly apologetic smile, but he seemed pleased with himself. Harry didn’t blame him. He wondered if this was finally going to be the end of Ron and Hermione’s bickering and he could finally have some peace.

“Hand that trowel over, Harry,” Hermione said as she ran her finger over a page of Flesh-Eating Trees of the World. “It says we’re supposed to puncture them with something sharp.”

Harry handed over the trowel and pod and eagerly dove back into the stump for another pod.

He thought perhaps this might be the beginning of a new chapter for Ron and Hermione, but he observed no identifiable changes between them over the next few days. They were more polite to each other, at the least. But there were no whispered conversations, nor solitary walks like Harry might’ve expected from his friends, like Harry remembered from his brief relationship with Cho Chang. But perhaps it was better as it was, considering the way he and Cho had gone. Perhaps Ron and Hermione simply being friendly again was what they needed. Hadn’t he learned from watching his parents that friends made the best partners? But he’d also learned the opposite watching Remus and Sirius.

Only time would tell. Harry didn’t care to play matchmaker between his friends; instead he had a Quidditch team to sort out.

As Halloween passed, and the Slytherin game came ever closer, Harry reluctantly admitted he would need to replace Katie Bell. She was still being treated at St. Mungo’s, and there was little chance she would be recovered in time for the match. Even if she was, she hadn’t been training with the team, and he needed time to make sure his Chasers flew well together. And as Harry had no interest in wasting another Saturday with the circus of tryouts, he knew he would have to ask someone to fill in as Katie’s alternate.

The next best flyer from tryouts had been Dean Thomas, a choice that Harry made reluctantly for several reasons. Least of which, Dean and Seamus were both good friends, and choosing one over the other would upset Seamus. But Harry swallowed down this fear, cornered Dean after Transfiguration class, and offered him the position.

Another reason Harry had wished for a choice other than Dean was the way other Gryffindors whispered about his choices. Granted, Harry had a good deal of experience with Hogwarts spreading rumors about him and whispering behind his back. As irritating as it was to have his housemates annoyed that he had chosen some of his closest friends for the Quidditch team, it was nothing compared to people thinking he was the heir of Slytherin, or that he was half-mad and cared about nothing but his own fame.

There were other reasons Harry disliked having to choose Dean Thomas, but he didn’t dwell on those. Instead, he comforted himself with how well they flew at their first practice together. Dean, Ginny, and Demelza were as synchronized as Katie, Angelina, and Alicia had been. They passed the Quaffle with practiced ease, like they had been doing it for years. Harry knew that his Chasers had what it took to crush Slytherin. His Beaters, too, were getting better with each practice. Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote were not natural flyers, not the way Fred and George had been, but they had enthusiasm and took correction well.

It was Ron who was proving troublesome. His confidence was flagging, and it seemed to get worse daily.

Harry knew if he did not win this match against Slytherin, he would go down as one of Gryffindor’s worst captains who had ruined the team’s winning streak by choosing only his friends for the team. The trouble was, he did not know how to boost Ron’s confidence. Harry had not witnessed the game in which, by some miracle, Ron had saved every goal and Ginny had snatched the Snitch from under Cho Chang’s nose. He did not know what Ron needed to calm his nerves before their match against Slytherin in just two weeks.

After a particularly awful play, in which Ron punched Demelza Robbins in the face and broke her nose, and Ginny hit Ron with the Quaffle as often as she scored — Harry was certain that it was intentional, but he had no way to prove it — and Peakes caught Harry with a nasty Bludger to the shoulder, Harry called an end to practice an hour early.

Ginny stormed off to change without a word to even Dean, which Harry found both pleasing and unsettling. He wanted to run after to check on her, but Dean was already on it. Harry decided as Captain, he ought to focus on Demelza and Ron.

Fixing Demelza’s broken nose was easy enough with all the practice Harry had received over the summer; Ron’s ego was an entirely different matter.

“I played like a sack of dragon dung,” Ron said as he touched down. And while it was true, Harry refused to admit it.

“No — not at all.” Thankfully, no one was left on the pitch to refute Harry. “You’re the best Keeper I tried out, Ron. Your only problem is nerves.”

Ron still looked pale as they headed to the changing rooms, so Harry kept the encouragement up as best he could. He reminded Ron of his better saves, of his championship game against Ravenclaw last year, of his perfect tryout score. It helped — at least, Harry thought Ron looked marginally cheered by the time they reached the castle.

They took their usual shortcut up to Gryffindor tower. Harry pulled back the tapestry that hid a staircase and was greeted with a vision that would haunt him for months to come.

Ginny Weasley and Dean Thomas had apparently moved on from whatever sour mood Ginny had been in, because Ginny’s hands were twisted tightly into Dean’s t-shirt, pulling him closer, and his hands were on her hips — no, lower — pulling her against him. Their lips were pressed together just as tightly, parting only for a moment, long enough for Harry to hear a sound from Ginny that burned all other thought from his mind.

“Oi!” Ron shouted.

Harry had hardly heard him, but as Dean and Ginny parted, the hot white anger dampened slightly, just enough for him to process the conversation around him.

“What?” Ginny snapped, though she did not let go of Dean’s t-shirt as she turned to look at Ron.

“I don’t want to find my own sister snogging people in public!”

“This was a deserted corridor till you came butting in!”

Harry considered letting the corridor return to being deserted and doing his best to pretend what he had just witnessed was a nightmare. He also considered doing something outrageous and drastic, like punching Dean Thomas.

Dean, for his part, had let go of Ginny, and seemed to be looking to Harry for sympathy. He even smiled with a little embarrassment but not proper shame on his face. Harry found himself unable to do anything more than stare back, and hope the anger that burned in his stomach was not visible on his face.

“Er… c’mon, Ginny,” Dean said. “Let’s go back to the common room.”

“You go!” Ginny finally let go of Dean only to fold her arms over her chest. “I want a word with my dear brother!”

Dean did not look too upset at being sent away. He was surely familiar enough with Ginny’s temper. Harry was, too, but he had a feeling that if he followed Dean he would do something he would later regret.

“Right.” Ginny tossed her hair over her shoulder with a haughty glare. “Let’s get this straight once and for all, Ronald. It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them.”

Ron’s face was as red as Ginny’s. “Yeah, it is! D’you think I want people saying my sister’s a —”

“A what?” Ginny shrieked with a sort of anger Harry had never truly seen on her. She even pulled her wand from her pocket. “A what, exactly? I s’pose you and McLaggan —”

Harry got between Ron and Ginny, though it seemed a dangerous place to be. “You know Ron’s never spoken two words to McLaggan. He doesn’t mean it.”

“Yes — he does!” Her anger did not wane at all with Harry between them; it seemed to increase. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve all said about me. I don’t care.” The heat on her face and the tears that slipped down her cheeks belied her apathy. “Ron’s just jealous that he’s never snogged anyone in his life — just because the best kiss he’s ever had is Auntie Muriel —”

Harry could hear Ron fumbling for his wand and a small, distant part of Harry thought Ron should be better prepared in case of a duel.

“Shut your mouth!” Ron said.

“No, I will not!” Ginny no longer seemed to care that Harry was between them. She grabbed his shoulder and tried to shove him aside.

Harry thought himself particularly stalwart to hold himself there, to not make an attempt to grab her hand, though his stomach twisted with an unbidden electricity.

“I’ve seen you with Phlegm,” Ginny shouted over Harry, unable to get around him, “hoping she’ll kiss you on the cheek every time you see her. It’s pathetic! If you went out and got a bit of snogging done yourself, you wouldn’t mind so much that everyone else does it!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ron, now, tried to move around Harry to get to Ginny. Harry put his hand on Ron’s shoulder to hold him back in a way he dared not do with Ginny in this moment.

“Just because I don’t do it in public —” Ron said, but he was cut off by Ginny’s laughter.

“Been kissing Pigwidgeon, have you? Or have you got a picture of Auntie Muriel stashed under your pillow?”

An orange streak flew past Harry and missed Ginny by inches. Harry shoved Ron back into the wall, instinctively, unsure which of them he was trying to protect.

“Harry’s snogged Cho Chang!”

Though he had his back to her, Harry could hear the tears in Ginny’s voice.

“And Hermione’s snogged Viktor Krum!”

Harry wanted so desperately to turn around and say something comforting.

“It’s only you who acts like it’s something disgusting, Ron!”

Harry wondered if he held her, would Ginny feel better? If he let her cry into his arms —

“And that’s because you’ve got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old!”

Ginny stormed down the corridor, towards the common room, and Harry maintained his hold on Ron not just to keep Ron there, but to keep himself from chasing Ginny as well. She would go back and cry on Dean’s shoulder, and there was nothing Harry could do about that.

When Harry was certain neither he nor Ron were going to start a duel the moment they walked into the common room, he let go. They did not move, each absorbed in their own all-consuming anger and frustration. It was not until Mrs. Norris rounded the corner that they felt compelled to hurry up to bed.

They made it up seven flights and passed the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. “Out of the way!” Ron snarled at a small girl, who was clearly out after her years’ curfew. She jumped in fright and dropped a bottle of toadspawn.

Harry vaguely registered the crash of glass on the stone floor, and thought Ron, as a prefect, ought to tell her to get back to the common room, but all thought seemed distant. His mind was elsewhere, wandering hidden corridors with Ginny.

“D’you think Hermione did snog Krum?” Ron asked suddenly.

Harry was stunned by the question, and had to drag his thoughts away from the corridor and back to the present.

“Oh — er…” Though he did not dare give it, Harry knew the answer to Ron’s question. He didn’t think Ron would like the answer anymore than he would like to walk in on Harry snogging Ginny.

Ron, it seemed, interpreted Harry’s nonanswer just fine. “Dilligrout,” he grunted at the portrait of the Fat Lady, who swung open without comment.

They headed straight for bed without a word. As Harry undressed and set the two-way mirror on his bedside table, he considered calling his parents. He had checked in with them after the full moon, and was glad they were alright. Though his father’s pallor had been worrisome, they had both assured him that everything was fine. They’d also promised to be at Harry’s Quidditch match.

Harry didn’t know what he would say to them if he did check in tonight. There was nothing on his mind except Ginny Weasley in the corridor. That was not something he wanted to discuss with his parents. Maybe with Sirius.

The clearest non-Ginny related thought Harry had as he dressed for bed occurred briefly and sharply. He wondered, just for a moment, if what he’d felt when he’d seen Ginny and Dean in that corridor was anything like what Sirius felt about Tonks and Remus. Was that why Sirius had taken a mission so far away for so long?

Harry buried his face into his pillow and hoped that Sirius would come to his Quidditch match. He did not know who else he could talk to, who else would understand. He wondered if he would be able to focus much at Quidditch with his head muddled like this. Though they were nothing like the nightmares he’d had last year, Harry’s dreams were unpleasant and full of furious Rons and Ginny Weasleys, showering him and each other in curses.

Harry found that he preferred dreams of Cho Chang being upset about chocolate frog cards. He spent much of his morning lying in bed, wondering why the fury he felt towards Dean was so much stronger than the frustration he’d felt with Cedric back then.

Harry did not find his answers as the days went on, and Ron’s mood did not improve. Instead, it grew worse, and so did his Quidditch playing.

Off the Quidditch pitch, Ron was predictably rude to Dean, was not speaking with Ginny, and was unusually snide with Hermione. Hermione was bewildered by this treatment, and no amount of peace-keeping on Harry’s part seemed able to resolve the situation. When Hermione warned him against dropping his knarl quills into his potion before stirring, Ron snapped that he knew perfectly well what he was doing, and why didn’t she pay attention to her own potion. Harry, whose book told him that it was better to add the quills while stirring, did not know how to help them.

On the Quidditch pitch, Ron was both unusually aggressive and a terrible Keeper. He and Ginny sniped at each other, and he managed to criticize each player on the team, despite how terribly he himself was playing — or perhaps because of how terribly he was playing. At their last practice before their opening game of the season, Ron went several steps too far, and made Demelza Robbins cry.

“Enough!” Harry finally shouted. The fury in Ginny’s eyes was likely to turn into a Bat-Bogey Hex at any moment, and Jimmy Peakes looked ready to launch the next Bludger into Ron’s face.

“Peakes, pack up the Bludgers. Robbins — pull yourself together. You played really well today. And Ron —” Harry dropped his broom down beside Ron while the others left the pitch. “Listen, Ron — you’re my best mate, but carry on treating the rest of them like this and I’m going to kick you off the team.”

Harry was braced for Ron to hit him, to react out of the anger that had been boiling over all week, but to his surprise, Ron dropped down a few feet, as if it was his anger that was keeping him afloat.

“I resign,” he said. “I’m pathetic.”

This was not the response Harry had hoped for. True, Ron had failed to save a single one of Ginny’s goals, but Harry knew how great a player Ron could be when his heart was in it. Since encouragement hadn’t been working, Harry tried a different tactic.

He grabbed the front of Ron’s robes and pulled him closer. “You can save anything when you’re on form. It’s a mental problem you’ve got!”

“You calling me mental?”

“Yeah, maybe I am!”

For a moment, Harry thought the fight had returned to Ron, but it left just as quickly as it had appeared, and Ron shook his head. “I know you haven’t got any time to find another Keeper, so I’ll play tomorrow, but if we lose, and we will, I’m taking myself off the team.”

Harry tried to imagine the team without Ron. He would have to replace him with Cormac McLaggen. Just the thought of it made Harry’s stomach turn.

But no amount of cajoling or criticizing or cheering would lift Ron’s spirits. Even when they went to dinner, Ron seemed more interested in snapping at Hermione than in any conversation Harry tried to have about Quidditch. Even when Hermione went up to bed early, tired of Ron’s attitude, Ron did not care to hear Harry’s insistence that the team would be devastated if Ron quit. Harry’s words were undercut by the Quidditch team, huddled together and throwing Ron nasty looks. Nothing Harry did worked.

That night, Hary put together a plan. He would not lose tomorrow’s match — he couldn’t. It was his first match back since Umbridge’s ban and his first match as Captain. He could not let down his team nor his house. Also, he was determined to crush Draco Malfoy. He just needed to guarantee that Ron would have a really good day….

The weather that Saturday was perfect for a game. The excitement in the Great Hall was overwhelming. Slytherins booed as the Gryffindor Quidditch players entered the hall for breakfast, and Gryffindor returned the favor. Even Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were decked out in reds and greens to support their friends in this intensive rivalry game. The entire Gryffindor table and half of the Hufflepuff table cheered as Ron and Harry entered. Harry grinned, used to this treatment, and Ron did his best to smile back, but he looked as pale as he had before his very first match.

“Cheer up, Ron!” Lavender said, passing by the two of them unusually closely. “I know you’ll be brilliant!”

Ron didn’t seem to notice her.

“Tea?” Harry offered as they took a seat. “Coffee? Pumpkin juice?”

“Anything,” Ron said, and took a bite of toast.

Harry waited until Hermione had come downstairs. She’d taken to waiting to join them for meals, and Harry didn’t blame her, given Ron’s attitude. Today, when she approached she gave Ron a wary glance.

“How are you both feeling?” she asked.

“Fine,” Harry said, as cheerily as he could manage. He handed Ron a full glass of pumpkin juice. “There you go, Ron. Drink up.”

Hermione stared as Ron lifted the glass. As he put it to his lips she snapped suddenly, “Don’t drink that, Ron!”

Ron hesitated. “Why not?”

Harry looked up at Hermione with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, Hermione, why not?”

Hermione stared at Harry in utter disbelief. “You just put something in that drink.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I saw you. You just tipped something into Ron’s drink. You’ve got the bottle in your hand right now!”

Harry tucked the small golden vial into his pocket. “Don’t know what you mean.”

“Ron, I warn you — don’t drink it!”

“Stop bossing me around, Hermione,” Ron grunted, then downed the glass in one big gulp.

Hermione leaned close to Harry and hissed, “You should be expelled for that! I’d never have believed it of you, Harry!”

“Hark who’s talking,” he hissed back. “Confunded anyone lately?”

Hermione frowned. She apparently did not have it in her to take attitude from both Ron and Harry today, but Harry didn’t mind that she stormed off. He only prayed that she would wait until the end of the game to tell a teacher.

As they headed up to the pitch, Ron still looked a little green.

“Lucky the weather’s so good,” Harry offered. There was still a chill in the air, but to have such a clear sky on a Quidditch game day was lucky indeed.

When they got to the changing room, the girls were already in their Quidditch robes. Ginny, as had become her habit, ignored Ron and turned to Harry.

“Conditions look ideal,” she said.

Harry nodded. His tongue had taken to turning into lead when Ginny was around. He found that was probably safer than saying something he might regret.

“And guess what? That Slytherin Chaser Vaisey — he took a bludger to the head yesterday during their practice, and he’s too sore to play! And even better than that — Malfoy’s gone off sick too.”

Harry, midway through pulling his robes over his head, turned to face Ginny. “What? He’s ill? What’s wrong with him?”

“No idea,” she grinned, “but it’s great for us. They’re playing Harper instead; he’s in my year and he’s an idiot.”

Harry finally got the robes over his head and tied off the golden laces. He wondered why Malfoy wasn’t playing. It seemed strange that Malfoy would willingly back out of a Quidditch match against Harry, after so many years of vicious competition. The score between them currently sat at two wins for Harry and one win for Malfoy, though Harry’s second win had been dampened by Umbridge’s declaration that Harry was banned from Quidditch for life. Harry had been certain Malfoy would be looking to settle a score.

“Fishy, isn’t it?” Harry whispered to Ron. “Malfoy not playing?”

“Lucky, I call it,” Ron said. He pulled his gloves on. “And Vaisey off too — he’s their best goal scorer. I didn’t fancy — hey!” Ron froze, helmet half on, and stared at Harry.

“What?”

“I… you… my drink —” Ron dropped his voice and leaned closer to Harry. “My pumpkin juice — you didn’t…?”

Harry, who knew how illegal fixing a Quidditch match with potions could be, said nothing. “We’ll be starting in about five minutes. You’d better get your boots on.”

When they walked out onto the pitch, the crowd shouted an equal measure of cheers and jeers, depending on which half of the stadium they were seated on. Harry waved to the Gryffindor half of the stands and turned to the teacher’s box. He shielded his eyes against the sun and caught sight of his parents, seated near Professor McGonagall, waving at him. He did not see Remus nor Sirius. He was, though, glad his parents weren’t sitting with Hermione. He didn’t want her to say anything that might force him to forfeit the match.

“Captains, shake hands,” Madam Hooch said, pulling Harry out of his worry. He turned to face the Slytherin Captain, Urquhart. They shared a crushing handshake.

“Mount your brooms,” Hooch said. “On the whistle… three… two… one…!”

The frosted grass snapped beneath Harry’s boots as he kicked up and into the air. The Quaffle went upwards, too, and within seconds it was in Urquhart’s hands. Harry, for his part, soared towards the edge of the pitch, where he could keep an eye out for the Snitch, away from the chaos of the match. It also was helpful as Captain to get an eye of his team. His Chasers were right on Urquhart’s tail, flying in perfect sync. It was hard to pull himself away from watching them to keep an eye out for the Snitch, but he forced himself to.

The replacement Slytherin Seeker, Harper, was low to the ground, zipping across the pitch. Harry pulled himself higher, hoping that in the bright, clear day he would see the sunlight reflecting off the tiny Snitch.

“Well, there they go,” the announcer’s voice filled the stadium, “and I think we’re all surprised to see the team that Potter’s put together this year. Many thought, given Ronald Weasley’s patchy performance as Keeper last year, that he might be off the team, but of course, a close personal friendship with the captain does help.”

As the Slytherin side of the stadium reacted to this inciting statement, Harry looked for the commentator’s box. Lee Jordan, who had held the position for Harry’s previous five years on the Quidditch team had finished at Hogwarts last year. Instead, Harry saw an unfortunately familiar, skinny, obnoxious Hufflepuff in the commentator’s box. Zacharias Smith, who had been a member of the D.A., was providing the play-by-play of the match. His criticism of Harry’s leadership abilities, it seemed, extended not just to illegal Defense lessons, but to Quidditch as well.

“Oh, and here comes Slytherin’s first attempt at goal,” Smith said, as Urquhart drew close with the Quaffle. “It’s Urquhart streaking down the pitch and —”

Harry couldn’t watch.

“— Weasley saves it! Well, he’s bound to get lucky sometimes, I suppose.”

Harry grinned, glad to hear Smith playing right into his plan. This game was going to go well. He could feel it.

And it did. As surely as if Ron had taken Felix Felicis, he saved every goal. Gryffindor had not shut Slytherin out in years, but they did it in this game. Ron did it.

And the Chasers played flawlessly. They passed the Quaffle with ease, and the few Bludgers that did get through Coote and Peakes, they took in stride, and did not break formation. Harry had to begrudgingly admit that Dean and Ginny made a good team. Even Zacharias Smith, who could no longer pick on Ron, and could not move onto Ginny, who not only had an excellent Bat-Bogey Hex she was not afraid to use on him, but had scored four of Gryffindor’s six goals, had to admit Harry’s team was doing well.

“Of course, Coote isn’t really built for a Beater,” Zacharias Smith said, deciding that if he couldn’t criticize the Keeper or the Chasers, he may as well start in on the Beaters. “They’ve generally got a bit more muscle.”

Harry zipped past Coote and said, “Hit a Bludger at him!” but Coote just grinned and sent his Bludger sailing at Urquhart, who took the hit soundly, and fumbled the Quaffle. Ginny was there to scoop it up and score as surely as if Urquhart had announced he was passing it to her.

As Ron made another save with just the tips of his fingers, the Gryffindor side of the stadium roared with approval and began a chorus of “Weasley Is Our King.” Ron threw the Quaffle to Demelza Robbins and waved gratefully to the crowd.

“Thinks he’s something special today, does he?” Harper sneered, and rammed against Harry, then darted towards the other side of the pitch.

While Seeker-smashing was not legal, Hooch’s back was turned, so Harry thought he’d take the opportunity to return the favor. He rubbed his shoulder and shot after Harper.

“And I think Harper’s seen the Snitch!” Smith announced. “Yes, he’s certainly seen something Potter hasn’t!”

Harry grunted, unable to comprehend Smith’s stupidity. Had he, too, missed the crash-and-dash, like Hooch? But he saw the glitter of gold ahead and his stomach sank. No, Harry had been too busy watching the game to remember to keep an eye out for the Snitch. Gryffindor was only up a hundred points. If Smith got the Snitch now, the hard work of Harry and his team was all for naught.

Harry accelerated, but he knew he could not catch up with Harper. Harper had too much of a head start. His hit had been intentional, knowing that he couldn’t outdo the Firebolt and Harry’s flying unless Harry got off to a slow start. But Harry was not about to let this be the end — not after Ron had played so well, not after Harry had even let go of his jealousy to let Dean Thomas on the team.

“Oi! Harper!” Harry shouted over the wind. “How much did Malfoy pay you to come on instead of him?”

It was a desperate attempt, a shot in the dark, but it worked with incredible success. As Harper glanced back in shock, the Snitch slid through his fingers. He was unable to bank and turn back around by the time Harry had reached the Snitch. He clutched his gloved hand around it and the whistle that marked the end of the game sounded throughout the stadium.

Two hundred and fifty to zero. It was Gryffindor’s best game since Harry had joined the team. He held the Snitch high above his head as he sank to the ground, cheers abounding from the Gryffindor side of the stadium. Harry grinned up at his parents, who were the loudest cheerers in the professor’s box, right beside the commentator’s box. A streak of red flew past them and into the commentator’s box.

“Miss Weasley!” Professor McGonagall’s voice carried across the pitch.

“Sorry, Professor!” Ginny shouted over her shoulder. She was already heading back down to the pitch, not nearly as bruised as Zacharias Smith had to be. “I forgot to brake!” And then she was landing on the pitch and pulled Harry into a hug. It was a brief victory hug, and she quickly moved on to give Dean a longer hug, but Harry stored the memory of the moment somewhere in the darkest corners of his mind to ruminate on later. Now was not the time. Now was a time for celebration.

He clapped Ron on the shoulder and then the pitch was full of a mob of Gryffindors, all cheering for their team.

“Celebration in the common room!” Seamus shouted at Harry, any bitterness between them long forgotten. Harry grinned and waved in acknowledgement. Several more Gryffindor students, and notably Luna Lovegood with her roaring lion’s hat, shook Ron’s hand and clapped Harry on the shoulder. Finally, Harry and Ron managed to extricate themselves and get to the changing room.

Ginny, Dean, Demelza, Jimmy, and Ritchie had already hurried to change and get to the party, it seemed, so Harry and Ron were alone.

It was just as well, because Hermione forced her way in. Fortunately, Harry and Ron had already pulled on their trousers.

Ron still had his shirt in his hands though, and he hastily pulled it over his head.

“I want a word with you, Harry,” Hermione said, twisting her scarf in her hands. “You shouldn’t have done it. You heard what Slughorn said. It’s illegal.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Ron. “Turn us in?”

“I’ll tell your parents, Harry! You know I will!”

Harry turned around to hang his robes and to hide his smile. “What are you two talking about?”

“You know perfectly well what we’re talking about! You spiked Ron’s pumpkin juice at breakfast! With Felix Felicis!”

Harry pulled on his jacket and turned to face her with a raised eyebrow and a thinly concealed grin. “No, I didn’t.”

“Yes you did, Harry! That’s why everything went right. There were Slytherin players missing and Ron saved everything!”

Harry slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the small, glittering gold vial, wax seal still intact. “I didn’t put it in.” He turned to Ron. “I wanted you to think I’d done it, so I waited until Hermione was looking to fake it. You saved everything because you felt lucky. You did it all yourself.”

Ron blinked as Harry returned the potion to his pocket.

“There really wasn’t anything in my pumpkin juice? But — the weather’s good. And Vaisey couldn’t play. I honestly haven’t been given a lucky potion?”

Harry shook his head. Ron had always been a good player; he had just needed a confidence boost. Harry was glad he had been able to give it to him.

Then Ron rounded on Hermione and Harry felt all his hard work crumble beneath the three of them.

“You added Felix Felicis to Ron’s juice this morning! That’s why he saved everything!” Ron mimicked in a cruelly shrill voice. “See,” he said, “I can save goals without help, Hermione!”

Hermione blinked back tears. “I never said you couldn’t, Ron — You thought you’d been given it, too!”

But Ron was already walking past her, uninterested in her defense. The door to the changing room slammed shut behind him.

Harry searched for words of comfort, unsure why everything had gone so wrong. He’d expected Ron’s success to improve Ron and Hermione’s relationship. He’d thought if Ron got his confidence back, he could go back to the brief politeness that Ron and Hermione had shared.

“Er…” He struggled for something reasonable and came up empty. “Shall we go up to the party, then?”

“Oh, you go!” Hermione wiped a tear from the corner of her eye that threatened to spill out. “I’m sick of Ron at the moment, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to have done!”

She stormed out after Ron. Harry wished he had words of comfort for her, but he was not sure how to tell her that what she had done was kiss Viktor Krum. It sounded unreasonable, even to him, who had been there to see Ron’s temper.

Harry headed out of the changing room, head down, lost in thought and walked right past his parents.

“Hey — Snitch!”

He looked back to see that his parents had been waiting for him along the path back to the castle. In the wake of everything with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, he had forgotten how excited he was to see them. That excitement boiled up into a laugh despite his troubles, and he doubled back down the path to hug them both.

“Great game,” James said.

“Better than any your father played,” Lily said, and kissed his forehead.

“That’s unfair; I wasn’t a Seeker! It’s not comparable.” But James was laughing as he protested Lily’s jab.

Harry took a moment to take in his father’s smile. It seemed that there had been so few of them this summer. It was nice to have this moment, to have joy in something simple.

“I missed you at breakfast,” Harry said.

“We tried to get here earlier,” Lily said, “but we were helping Frank and Alice — will you tell Neville they said hello?”

“Sure. Everything alright?”

“It is now,” James said. “We had a run-in with Bellatrix Lestrange and Travers late last night —”

“Early this morning,” Lily corrected.

“Right. Everyone’s fine now, though. Worked out okay. Lestrange got away, but we got Travers. I expect you’ll see it in the papers, and I expect we won’t be mentioned.”

Harry looked his parents over and did not see any additional scars or new wounds. They looked as they always did; they looked even better than they had during the summer holidays.

“Er — no Remus and Sirius?” Harry asked.

“Sirius is still north, I’m afraid,” said Lily. She took Harry’s hand and James’s hand and started up the path. “We haven’t heard from him for a few weeks…”

“But there’s good news,” James said hurriedly. “Remus has agreed to come home and take his potion and he’s got his wand with him, so he can Apparate safely when he needs to. He’ll be home on Monday for his first dose.”

“That is good news,” Harry said, though it did not erase his fears about Sirius.

“Is everything alright with Hermione?” Lily asked. “She looked terribly upset when she passed by.”

Harry told them about Ron’s fight with Ginny. He left out his own jealousy, still afraid to put words to it. He was not yet ready to admit to his parents he liked Ron’s sister, a girl he’d grown up knowing, a girl his parents knew fairly well. He wondered if they knew anyway.

“Ron will grow up,” James said confidently. “And Hermione’ll learn to be more honest with her feelings.”

“How do you know?” Harry asked.

“Because we had to learn that,” Lily said.

“But why do I have to suffer in the middle of it?” Harry grumbled.

James laughed. “Remus, I believe, was stuck between Lily and I. Maybe you can talk to him tomorrow night, if he stays long enough. Somehow, Sirius always seemed to prefer it when we fought.”

“Sirius was just used to us fighting. He understood us better when we were angry with each other than when we got along,” Lily corrected. She squeezed Harry’s hand. “We heard about Katie Bell. Are you doing alright?”

“Me? I’m not the one in St. Mungo’s.”

“Your mum and I read Tonks’ Auror report,” said James. “We know you were there.”

“I’m alright. It was… scary. But I’m fine. You don’t need to worry.”

“And how are lessons?” Lily asked.

“Fine,” Harry said readily, eager for a change in subject. He considered telling them about Dumbledore’s lessons, but decided that there wasn’t time for that conversation. “Snape’s terrible, as usual. It might be the first year I fail Defense.”

“Impossible,” James said. “It’s your best subject. You came along excellently as a duelist this summer.”

“You didn’t teach me nonverbal spells!”

James frowned. “Nonverbals already?”

“I started nonverbals with my fifth years,” Lily said as they reached the castle. “I didn’t expect them to master it, but most professors expect it by sixth year. You’ll get the hang of it, Harry. It’s just focus and practice. I’d say let’s have a practice duel now, but you’ve got a party to attend.”

Harry wondered if the atmosphere of a party would encourage Ron and Hermione to make up. He thought it unlikely.

“What if I didn’t go?”

“You’re the captain!” James protested. “You have to be there.”

Reluctantly, Harry hugged his parents goodbye and trudged upstairs to the Gryffindor common room. He took the long way there, rather than the usual shortcut. It gave him time to sort through his worries about Sirius and the few secrets he had chosen to keep from his parents. It was hypocritical of him, wasn’t it, after so many years of begging them to be honest? They’d shared the truth of why they were late so easily. They’d been honest about where Sirius was, about what was going on with Remus. Surely Harry owed them honesty in return.

There was just a month left until Christmas, Harry told himself as he gave the Fat Lady the password, and he would tell them everything then, when there was time to discuss it all. When there was time to be worried.

A resounding cheer filled the common room as Harry entered. Several people asked him where he’d been and he smiled and gave them non-answers. He didn’t see Hermione anywhere, but it was hard to make out anyone past the Creevey brothers, Colin and Dennis, who demanded a blow-by-blow account of the match. He’d only just managed to get away when a group of fourth-year girls got between him and the drinks table. He remembered Romilda Vane from the train ride, and she was heavily hinting that she wanted to attend Slughorn’s Christmas party with him. He wondered how she’d even heard about it.

He managed to slip away from her and right into Ginny. She sloshed the two drinks in her hands all down the front of hers and Harry’s clothes.

“Sorry —”

“S’alright,” Harry said, and avoided looking at her as he used his wand to Vanish the spill and clean up their clothes. Her cat, Puck, was slipping between her ankles and clawing at her leggings, trying to get at the Pygmy Puff on her shoulder.

“Were you looking for Ron?” she asked, and he finally looked up at her.

“What?”

“He’s over there,” she grinned and pointed, “the filthy hypocrite.”

He followed her finger to a corner of the common room where Ron and Lavender were entangled in each other, snogging at least as passionately as Dean and Ginny had been, but in sight of everyone in the common room, rather than a hidden corridor.

“It looks like he’s eating her face, doesn’t it?” Ginny said casually as she refilled her two drinks. “But I suppose he’s got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry.” She knocked her elbow against his side in congratulations, and even just that small gesture sent Harry’s stomach plummeting.

He looked away as she returned to Dean with their drinks, but knew he could find no solace in Ron, who it seemed would not likely be leaving Lavender soon. He was just about to look for Hermione when he thought he caught her leaving the common room. His stomach sunk again, with a much less pleasant sensation.

Harry barely managed to evade Romilda Vane and the Creevey brothers a second time and hurried into the corridor.

“Hermione?” he called, but the corridor was empty. He tried the nearest unused classroom and found her sitting alone on one of the desks. She had her wand out, and a flurry of yellow canaries circling her head. They’d only just learned the charm in Transfiguration that week, and Harry was impressed she was able to conjure it now, as distraught as she looked.

“Oh — hello, Harry,” she said, and though she smiled at him, her voice cracked. “I was just practicing.”

“Yeah — er — they’re really good.” He wasn’t sure what to say, exactly, but he knew he would rather be here than in the common room at the moment, so he sat on the desk next to her and watched the yellow birds flitting over their heads.

She was quiet for a long moment, so long Harry wondered if perhaps she had not seen Ron and Lavender after all. But then she said, “Ron seems to be enjoying the celebrations,” and a sniff at the end of her statement told Harry all he needed to know without seeing the tears on her cheeks.

“Er… does he?”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t see him. He wasn’t exactly hiding it was he?”

Harry struggled to find an answer, and was saved by perhaps the most unfortunate event. He thought Voldemort intruding on his and Hermione’s private conversation would have been better than Ron throwing open the door and dragging Lavender in by the hand.

“Oh,” he said, which Harry thought particularly ineloquent of him, not that Ron was the most eloquent of his friends.

“Oops.” Lavender giggled, and tried to tug Ron out of the room. It seemed she had nothing more eloquent to say herself, and slipped out of the room. “Come on, Ron,” she called, but Ron seemed rooted in the doorway.

“Hi, Harry,” Ron said, with an uncomfortable and overly friendly smile. “I wondered where you’d got to.”

Harry found himself at as much a loss for words as he had been for Hermione.

Hermione, however, was never at a loss for words. “You shouldn’t keep Lavender waiting outside,” she said, in the same brittle tone she’d greeted Harry with. “She’ll wonder where you’ve gone.”

“Er — Right.” This did not seem to be the response Ron had been prepared for, and he looked relieved that it was nothing worse.

Harry wished it had been something worse. Harry wished Hermione had gotten angry with Ron, then maybe Ron would give up whatever this was with Lavender and things could iron themselves out.

But Ron did not move, and it seemed that Hermione’s temper was only thinly restrained. “Oppugno!” she said, and the flock of yellow canaries that had been circling the room dive-bombed Ron, pecking and scratching, until Ron finally left the room, and they scratched at the door until they disappeared in a puff of yellow feathers.

Hermione choked on a sob. Harry decided words were useless anyway, and wrapped his arm around her.

“I’m sorry, Harry.” She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “I’m ruining your party.”

“I didn’t want to go anyway,” he admitted.

“Because of Ginny?” She pulled herself out of his arms and he let her pull herself together. He knew Hermione well enough to know that as much as he was trying to comfort her, he was probably embarrassing her more than anything else. She didn’t show her vulnerable feelings to many people.

“And other things,” Harry said.

Something tapped at the glass window panes, and for a moment, Harry thought Hermione had managed to create the canaries again. But when he looked, he saw Hedwig trying to get in.

Harry hurried to let his owl into the classroom. She dropped a scroll into his hand and hooted at him. Harry fished in his pocket for a treat, but came up empty.

“I’ll get you something back in the dormitory.” He rubbed her cheek with his finger, and she bit him irritably, but she didn’t fly off.

“What is it?” Hermione asked, still drying her cheeks with the sleeve of her jumper, and Harry thought she was eager for a distraction.

“It’s a letter,” he said.

“Don’t be stupid.”

Harry broke the seal and unrolled the rather lengthy piece of parchment.

“It’s from Cedric.”

“You’re writing to Cedric Diggory?”

“I told him about my lessons with Dumbledore.”

“Does he know about the prophecy, too?”

“Yeah — it felt right to tell him. He was there for all of it, all the duels with Voldemort, I mean.”

Hermione held her hand out for the letter and Harry, with a mischievous smile, handed her the blank parchment.

She looked at the front and the back and frowned. She dropped it on the table and said, “Specialis Revelio,” but the paper refused to give up its secrets. She frowned, and Harry thought a puzzle was the best distraction he could have offered Hermione. She pointed her wand at the desk and a blue flame ignited on the corner of it.

“Whoa — Hermione —” Harry snatched the letter back from her.

“I wasn’t going to burn it! I thought that heat might reveal the letters!”

“What? Heat?”

“It’s a Muggle trick!”

“Muggles have invisible ink?”

“Yes, they do. I thought you liked James Bond films?”

Harry could not recall invisible ink being used in any of the Bond films Sirius had taken him to see. “Well it’s not Muggle ink. Fred and George had it made for us.”

“Let’s see it then.”

Harry suddenly felt very uncomfortable sharing this secret between him and Cedric, this secret he had not shared with anyone else. But he did not see how he could reasonably tell Hermione that he didn’t want to tell her. So he said the revealing half of the incantation.

“With the Snitch up ahead and the wind in my hair.”

The ink curled out from the center of each word, slowly filling both sides of the parchment with Cedric’s words.

“Oh!” Hermione said. “That’s a helpful charm. Did you and Cedric choose the incantation?”

“Yeah — something we’d both remember.”

“Well, what did he say?”

“Well, I don’t know Hermione, I haven’t read it yet.”

Harry —

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to write sooner. Things haven’t been well at the Ministry. I don’t know exactly what they’re reporting in the Prophet, but if it’s half as bad as things are, it’s a wonder the entire Wizarding World isn’t in a panic. I know they reported on Stan Shunpike’s arrest, whatever good that’s doing. Probably because we’ve let so many others slip through our fingers. I haven’t managed to be involved in much of the action, but I heard Proudfoot and Savage — Aurors — got into a duel with a pair of Death Eaters in Knockturn Alley. They survived, but the Death Eaters got away. A couple of shops in Knockturn Alley decided to close their doors because of it. Williamson and I have been tasked with making sure the people who leave their shops aren’t doing it because they’re being threatened, or worse, they’re missing. And just last night, the Longbottoms got into it with Bellatrix Lestrange and Travers. I heard your parents were there, too. I can tell you some of the Ministry was not happy to hear that, but they got Travers out of it, so they couldn’t really complain.

I heard from Tonks about what happened at Hogwarts. I’m glad you’re alright. It sounds like the Healers are optimistic about Katie, too. I didn’t know her too well at Hogwarts, but I remember she was an excellent Chaser, and a really good duelist. She and Alicia did not have the patience for Umbridge. Their snide remarks were encouraging.

From what Tonks said, it sounded like you were part of the reason Katie was able to get help so quickly, and it may have saved her life. I know what you mean about feeling helpless, but I hope you know you weren’t. You took action quickly, and you helped in a way that got Katie in the hands of people who could counter the curse, and that’s not something everyone knows how to do.

If you were hoping for more answers about who cursed Katie, I’m afraid we don’t know any more than Dumbledore. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you, but I thought it worth letting you know. It’s interesting that you think Draco Malfoy is the one who cursed Katie. I can’t believe that a student would be able to pull off something like that without Dumbledore knowing about it. I know Malfoy Manor’s had its fair share of raids, too. With Lucius Malfoy’s arrest, they’ve had a lot of Aurors go through their house, looking for dark artefacts. It’s hard for me to believe that they’ve managed to keep anything hidden, but maybe they did. Maybe Mad-Eye should go through their house with that magical eye of his.

Katie’s curse aside, Draco Malfoy having the Dark Mark is a serious accusation. From what the Ministry has come to understand, it’s a mark reserved only for those most intimate in Voldemort’s organization. Certain Death Eaters have had it, but there are plenty of Dark Wizards who follow him who aren’t marked. For Voldemort to choose Draco Malfoy to be in his intimate circle seems like a stretch. I’ll keep it in mind, though I don’t know what good I’ll do with the knowledge. You’re the one who’s closest to Draco Malfoy right now.

As for your lesson with Dumbledore, you’re right, there isn’t much I can learn about Tom Riddle’s history just knowing he was born at some orphanage in London. It must have been unnerving to see Voldemort as a child, though. I can’t imagine what it must be like for people like McGonagall and Dumbledore, who got to see him grow up.

A lot of the things you pointed out about Voldemort — his secrecy and isolation — make sense. They’re definitely things that help us understand him better, and with any luck will help us catch him faster. I can’t help you with the collected items. I have no idea why Dumbledore would think that was important. Was he using them for a spell? I know he was just a child, but you did mention he had a strong grasp on magic, even before attending Hogwarts.

I couldn’t find much on Tom Riddle himself. It seems he was awarded for special services to Hogwarts at some point during his time there, but that was stripped recently, and I couldn’t find any further information on it. I’m sorry I’m not much help this time, Harry.

I’m writing this at Grimmauld Place, which seems to have become the only place in my life with any peace and quiet, and Sirius and Emmeline Vance just walked in. They’re fine, and I expect they’ll have a proper report ready for the Order shortly, otherwise I’d tell you everything now. He says to tell you hello, and that he’s sorry he missed your Quidditch game. I hope it went well. It’s your first game as Captain isn’t it? Captain is stressful. I don’t miss it, though I do miss playing. I hope you had fun, whether you win or lost, though I guess against Slytherin there’s only one option, isn’t there?

Stay alert, Harry. And stay safe.

— Cedric

When Harry had finished reading, he handed it to Hermione. He was glad to know that Sirius was back from whatever his mission had been, and he hoped that Sirius would stick around until Christmas. The full moon fell on Christmas Eve this year, and it would be nice to have everyone home for the holiday. Harry hadn’t had a proper Christmas at home for a few years. He hoped this one worked out.

While he wished Cedric had been able to tell him more about Malfoy and Riddle, he hadn’t expected much. He hoped that he would have another lesson with Dumbledore soon, but it seemed unlikely it would happen before the holidays.

“What did Cedric tell you in his last letter?” Hermione asked.

Harry had forgotten how quickly she could read. He took the letter back and hid the ink again. While he folded the parchment up and put it in his pocket, he told her what Cedric had told him about the Gaunt family, how Marvolo Gaunt and Morfin Gaunt had been arrested, and Morfin had eventually been arrested for murdering the Riddle family.

“Why didn’t you tell us any of this?”

Harry shrugged. “It was interesting, but it didn’t tell me anything about Voldemort, really.” He’d also felt like his letters to Cedric were something to be kept secret. He hadn’t wanted to share them with anyone. The only reason Hermione knew about them now was because she’d been upset when Hedwig arrived. At least it had cheered her up. And at least Ron didn’t know. Harry had a feeling that Ron might rib him for having secret letters with Cedric that were sealed with a couplet.

“It’s odd, though, isn’t it? That Morfin Gaunt murdered them all those years later. And why wouldn’t Dumbledore tell you about that? Voldemort’s father being murdered by his uncle seems like an important detail.”

“Why’d he tell me all about Tom Riddle collecting things as a kid? What Dumbledore thinks is important isn’t what we think is important. I guess when we’re a hundred-and-eighty-five, we’ll understand it, too.”

This made Hermione laugh, and Harry thought that even though the party itself had been terrible, and his plan to get Ron back in a good mood had backfired, he could at least count this part of his day as a win.

[obsidianarchives]

The Mane Thing About Nova

A puddle was beginning to amass under Nova’s right side as she pulled out the map Angelina shared with her. It was two hours before dinner in the Great Hall, so the corridor of the seventh floor was empty as everyone unwound from classes and prepared for the meal. As she tried to remember the instructions Angelina had given her, she could still hear Pansy Parkinson’s taunts during Quidditch practice.

“Oi! Sweettrickle! Next time maybe don’t land in the lake! What an absolute loon! You look like a wet poodle! Here girl! Here!” Pansy made kissy noises at Nova as the other Slytherins laughed while she pulled herself out of the lake. The kind of noises you would use to call a dog to your side. 

“Do you want a treat, girl?” Pansy and the Slytherins roared with laughter as she held out her hand with an imaginary treat.

Clearly, Nova had not meant to land in the lake, but she was so focused on chasing the Snitch that she hadn’t seen the tentacle of the giant squid as it emerged from the water. The collision bothered the squid very little, but knocked poor Nova clear off her broom and into the lake.

“Looks like a bit of water has done that nest on your head some good, Sweettrickle!” Pansy teased. 

If she could have, Nova would have cursed Pansy bald, right then and there. But she didn’t know how, so punching the little snob in her throat would have to do until she could learn. Nova balled up her fist and made a beeline for Pansy who was too busy laughing to see what was about to happen. Before she could pull back to hit her, a tall girl with skin the color of deep sepia, a head full of tiny black braids, and Gryffindor Quidditch robes stepped in between them.

“You’re one to talk about hair Parkinson, with that stringy mess you’ve got!”

“No one was talking to you, Johnson!” Pansy hissed.

“Well I’m talking to you, Parkinson!”

Another girl stood next to Angelina, hair slicked back in a sleek and sexy ponytail, also in red and gold robes with S-P-I-N-N-E-T on the back.

“Ok so her hair is a little wet because she fell in the lake, Pansy! But you always walking around looking like Snape with titties, so what’s your excuse!?”

Two other girls — clearly twins, in robes of yellow and black, with caramel colored skin, freckles that actually sparkled (that had to be an enchantment, right?), and hundreds of bright red curls held up on opposing sides by Hufflepuff bows — laughed.

“Yeah Pansy,” the twin with the left bow said, “all this magic...”

“And you STILL look tragic!” the other finished.

The group of girls laughed. Pansy turned red as a howler. She was clearly outwitted and outnumbered, so she went for the jugular.

“Right. Like I even care what you people think!” 

She hissed the insult, hard and fast, careful to make eye contact with each girl so they could feel the weight of her words. The pitch went quiet like the moment just before a Dementor’s Kiss. The joyous laughter left Angelina’s face as she stepped up into Pansy’s personal space. The girls followed her lead and flanked her sides, making even more of a wall between Pansy and Nova. Pansy looked to the group of Slytherins on the side of the field. No one was coming to her aid. She had gone too far. They knew it and so did she. She was on her own.

“Probably a good idea if you headed into the castle to get ready for dinner, Parkinson.” Angelina’s voice was steady and low, but the threat it carried was loud and clear.

“I...I...I don’t take orders from you, Johnson!”

A sly, half smile slid across Spinnet’s face. 

“No, Ang. Let the trick stay. Hermione just taught us that new spell and I would LOVE to use Pansy as my guinea pig!” She lunged forward, but the twins held her back.

Pansy jumped back in surprise and rushed to compose herself.

“Whatever! I have more important things to do!” and she stomped off in the direction of the castle. 

Nova stood there, still wet, a bit in a daze. Pansy had been making fun of Nova for the last month. Enchanting paper airplanes to fly into Nova’s hair. Constantly bumping into her and then commenting in a poorly acted stage whisper how she “found” a “gross curly hair” on her robes. She had really been the absolute worst. Everything in Nova wanted to strangle her, but every time she tried, she remembered her Aunt Quinta.

She had taken her in when her parents disappeared. Nova was eight years old then and Aunt Quinta raised her and loved her like she was her own. When Nova turned eleven and got her Ilvermony letter, she was so proud of Nova, even though she hadn’t done a thing to earn it. When her Hogwarts Student Exchange Letter came a year letter, Aunt Quinta smiled for days. This all made her aunt so happy, so she promised that she would behave and do well. But Pansy never let up no matter how nice she was. In fact, being nice almost made it worse. 

Then today, this group of girls who she didn’t really know came to her rescue. They stood up to Parkinson. Most of the kids in her classes just pretended they didn’t see, not wanting to earn Pansy’s attention. But these girls didn’t give one lick about her. They were amazing!

“You ok? Uh…” 

Nova hadn’t realized anyone was talking to her. 

“Huh? Oh! Me? I’m...I’m Nova. Nova Sweettrickle. Ravenclaw, second year,” she answered Angelina.

“Oh wow! Oh cool!” Right Twin said.

“We’re also in the second year of school!” Left Twin finished. 

“Do they always do that?” Nova asked Angelina.

“What? Rhyme? Or finish each other’s sentences?” 

“Both?”

Spinnet laughed. “Finish each other's sentences? Yeah most of the time. The rhyming thing…well SOMEONE thought they could cheat their way to rap fame.” She playfully eyed the twins.

“Thank goodness this is only temporary!” 

“If we stayed like this, it would be so scary!” They nodded in unison. 

Angelina smiled and shook her head. 

“Left bow is Charli. Right bow is Cyn. I’m Angelina and this is Alicia.” Alicia, the girl with SPINNET on the back of her robes, who had lunged at Pansy, quietly nodded as she pulled her long ponytail over her shoulder. “I don’t remember seeing you last year.”

“Oh, well, I’m an exchange student for Professor Dumbledore's Magic Abroad program. I did my first year at Ilvermorny. My grandfather was actually a Hogwarts alum.” Nova shivered as she answered. 

“Damn Ang! You see the girl is shivering. Maybe less third degree and more drying off?” Alicia said.

“Oh yeah, sorry! Of course!” Angelina apologized. 

“Uh… let’s see…” she pointed her wand toward the lake soaked girl…

 “Aer calidus totalus!” and a gust of hot hair wrapped itself around Nova. 

Suddenly her socks were dry. No…wait... just her left sock was dry. Also the left half of her skirt, her undies, her top, her robes. Everything was suddenly dry on one side! Even her hair. HER HAIR!? Oh no! All that water, then just a hurricane of hot hair. She could only imagine what a poofy frizzy mess she must be. The girls' faces really said it all. Quick as she could, she flipped the hood of her robes up. If Pansy saw this…Merlin’s beard! It would never end! Hard as she tried not to, the tears started to well up.

“Oh, hey girl, please don’t cry!” Alicia begged, “Sometimes Ang is a bit more powerful than she realizes.” Angelina nodded and shrugged. 

Alicia looked back at Angelina, “Ang, how the hell did you dry one side of her!?”

Nova was really having trouble controlling the tears and each tear seemed to panic Alicia more. 

“Hey, it's ok, really. It’s not that bad, right girls?” The twins whistled and looked everywhere but at Nova. “It’s nothing a smoothing spell won't fix. Do you know any good smoothing spells?”

“No.” A huge tear fell and Angelina began to look a bit sheepish.

“I know it might not sound like fun,” Cyn started.

“But what about a spell for a ballerina bun?” Charli finished. 

Nova just shook her head this time. Her face was getting hot. Every suggestion upset her more and more. 

“My Aunt Quinta says my curls are too much...so she uses this straightening potion. It’s supposed to last for 3 months and then she re-applies when she visits. But I don’t know how to make it. And I’m not…I’m not...I’m not…” Nova was fighting back the tears as hard as she could but it seemed to be a losing battle. Angelina finished her thought.

“Not supposed to get it wet? Yeah. We all been there.” All the girls looked at each other with embarrassed expressions and nodded. “Hey Nova...would you give us a second?”

Angelina’s question caught Nova off guard. 

“Uh...yeah,” she sniffled. “Sure.” 

The girls walked away, just out of ear shot. They huddled and immediately began whispering fervorously. After about a minute, Cyn giggled and Charli whooped, Alicia shushed them both, and Angelina stood up straight, crossed her arms and nodded, as if a very important decision had been made. They walked back to Nova, surrounding her in a little half circle. As always, Angelina spoke first.

“Alright, Sweettrickle! Executive decisions have been made!”

“Believe it or not,” Charli started, “cause it true...”

“You’ve got spunk,” Cyn finished, “so we like you!”

Alicia spoke next.

“You were ready to knock Parkinson on her ass and anyone who wants to punch Pansy in her fat, racist little nose is a friend of ours. Plus…we gotta stick together.” 

Nova understood what the “we” meant. It had not escaped her attention that Hogwarts had far fewer wizards of color than Ilvermorny. She thought she was prepared for how few there would be, but she was so shocked by the reality. It hadn't really bothered her too much until Pansy started in on her and she felt more isolated than before. 

“You should sit with us at dinner, Sweettrickle. But first, we gotta handle that hair.” Angelina pulled what looked to be a folded piece of parchment from inside her robes. "Being friends with 'The Chosen One' has its advantages…"

And that was how Nova had found herself pacing the seventh floor corridor, just opposite an odd tapestry that looked like trolls doing…ballet? She looked at the map again. Hundreds of tiny footprints moved across the map of the school, including the girls, whom she could see where near the Quidditch pitch with a few other kids she didn’t know. In a bathroom on the third floor, she saw two sets of footprints squished into a small wash closet. She didn’t know who “Dean Thomas” was, but his foot prints were awfully close to whoever “Hermione Granger” was. She regained her focus and tried to remember what Angelina had told her. She just had to think of those words while she paced this corridor three times. 

"I need Aso’s help," she thought to herself. She could already see the evil smirk on Pansy's face at dinner if this didn't work. Two first year Hufflepuffs scurried by her with wide eyes.

"I need Aso’s help.” Her thoughts became more frantic. This was stupid. They hadn’t even told her what was supposed to happen. They were probably having a laugh at her, just thinking about how gullible she was. The dumb American…but they seemed so nice…and they rescued her from Pansy…stood up for her. They were the only ones who had helped her in all this time.

She took a breath and tried to steady her nerves. Without realizing what she was even doing, she wished the girls were right and honest and wanted to be her friend. She wished it with every fiber of her being. Then she paced the corridor one last time.

“I need Aso’s help. Please,” the final words actually spilling from her lips in a whisper of desperation.

She opened her eyes and waited for several beats before the disappointment set in. For the second time today, tears began to well in her eyes. There was nothing. No one. She was still there, alone, hair still dripping wet but also a giant frizz, in partially soggy robes in the same corridor as before. Same dumb statues at the other end. Same dumb tapestry of the same dumb dancing trolls in their dumb tutus. Same dumb door. 

Wait. Door? Was that door there before? Nova was pretty sure it hadn’t been. But now here it was. Was this why the girls had sent her here? Was this what would help her?

She cautiously reached for the door, turned the knob and opened it. As soon as she stepped in, her jaw dropped. 

“Whattha, whattha...”

The scene laid out before her was strange and yet familiar to Nova all that the same time. 

To her left, three young witches of various shades of brown, magazines in hand, sat with their heads under floating bubbles that looked like sparkling plastic. Inside the bubbles, though not touching the girls, little orange and red fire salamanders ran round and round, chasing each other, creating an orange cloud of heat that was drying the hair of each girl. 

To the right were three small waterfalls that looked like they were pulled directly from nature (how was the water flowing directly from the wall!?). They spilled into small whirlpools but there was no water on the ground. It was like the whirlpools were just…there. Nova could see the soap bubbles disappearing into the water but where they went Nova couldn’t say, since there were no drains that she could see. Two young ladies sat back, an empty station between them, hair in the whirlpools beneath the waterfalls, while two ladies, bare foot with dresses of finely woven kelp and faces that more resembled seals than humans, washed their hair.

In the back of the room, atop a large wet rock (where was the water coming from?) sat a chubby girl with a head full of big, brown curls, a round face, and a joyous smile, flute in her lap. She sang a song Nova had never heard before but already liked.

“I do my hair toss, check my nails! Baby how you feeling!?” The lyrics seem to speak to Nova. She was almost drawn to the girl beyond her will. But the sight, center stage, had distracted her. 

In the middle of everything sat the largest spider Nova had ever seen! Atop the head of the large, black creature was a beautiful yellow head wrap covered in bright blue peacock feathers. At the end of each of its eight large legs were three fingers (Nova didn’t know what else to call them) and each finger had a little claw that was painted hot pink. Two ladies sat in front of it, one on each side, floating mirrors directly in front of them. The first two arms on it’s right ran a hot comb through one client’s hair. The first two arms on it’s left were parting the other woman’s thick, fluffy hair, preparing it for large braids. Around the spider’s mid section, two arms worked quickly, almost faster than Nova could see, creating a beautiful silk magenta bonnet with dragonflies. As soon as a dragonfly was knit, it would shake, as if coming to life, and turned from magenta to a sparkling gold, before settling back into the weave of the bonnet. The last two arms (or were they legs?) took the silk coming from it’s iridescent backside and quickly worked it into the thread the middle two arms used to knit the bonnets. A second spool of silk from its backside hung in a mass from the ceiling, keeping the creature floating and able to reach freely around the room, which it did from time to time, checking in on the other shop patrons, and grabbing tools and supplies from around the shop. This was NOT like any salon they had back home.   

“What cha here for, girl?” An accent she couldn’t quite place spoke to her. “Girl,” the spider said, “what cha here for? Braids? Curls? Press? Weave? I’m a busy lady, Sakuri.” Nova suddenly realized all eyes, including the spider’s eight, were on her. 

“Oh, uh, just a press please.” 

“A press, eh? And who sent you, chile?”

“Um. Angelina Johnson.”

“Aye. I should have known. That girl…” Nova missed the last words she said. The girl on the rock had begun singing again and for a reason Nova could not quite place, she was mesmerized. 

“Boss up and change yo life...” If Nova could just touch her, maybe she would be her friend. Maybe they could hang out all the time…forever. Forever? What a weird thought. Was it weird though? What was so wrong about her being the girl’s friend?

“Let me simplifyyyyyyy…” Gosh she was so amazing. Nova was just thinking about how she could listen to this song and nothing else for the rest of her life when the music suddenly stopped. A voice cut in...

“Melissa, sweetie,” the spider said, “The song is coming along nicely, but how ‘bout we take a break, eh?” The girl shrugged, picked up her flute from her lap, placed it to her full lips and played a quick melody, before saying “BYE BITCH” and poof, disappeared! As soon as the girl was gone, it was like Nova had released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. She could think again. Everyone laughed. 

“Sorry, chile. Melissa is half-siren and sometimes has trouble controlling her powers around newcomers. I’m Aso.”

“Huh…oh uh…yes. It’s nice to meet you…uh...ma’am. I’m Nova.” Without thinking, Nova curtsied. Everyone laughed again. 

“No need to bow to me, chile.” 

Nova felt stupid. Of course she didn’t need to bow, but in all honesty, she had never seen anyone like Aso, so she wasn’t really sure what to do. Not that she should have been surprised. Since learning she was a witch, her life had gotten so freaking weird that a giant, hair-styling spider really should have been expected. 

“I suppose you’ve never seen anyone like me?” Aso asked. While the spider removed her cape, the lady on the right was admiring how smooth her hair was. 

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but no.” God, did she really need to broadcast how out of place she felt even when she wasn’t speaking!? Aso laughed. She had a nice laugh, one that calmed some of the nerves in Nova’s stomach.

“Well, no worries, girl. I don’t plan on eatin’ ya. I enjoy making money too much. You have money, don’t cha?”

Nova pulled a purple, velvet bag from beneath her robes. 

“Yes, ma’am, I do. My aunt gave it to me for school stuff and a little extra for emergencies…”

“Well your head is definitely an emergency, if I do say so, myself. But I’ll get you fixed up, no worries, Sakuri. Go see Rian.” 

One of the girls beside the small waterfalls waved to her with sharp nails atop webbed hands. Nova nodded and headed toward the girl. She wasn’t sure what “Sakuri” meant, but hearing Aso call her that, it reminded her of her Aunt Quinta and made her feel safe somehow. Almost like she was at home. 

As Rian washed her hair, Nova tried to settle into the atmosphere. Rian’s little claws felt amazing on her scalp and the shampoo smelled of fresh rain and pineapples. Nova’s hair tingled right down to the root. Suddenly, she could feel every strand on her head and they were thrilled to be caressed so delicately.

Rian washed and scrubbed and rinsed Nova’s hair as she gossiped the other girl, whose name Nova learned was Siobhan, talking in a way Nova barely understood. It wasn’t exactly English. More like Spanglish, except instead of Spanish, the two girls spoke a language made up of growls, barks, and grunts mixed with heavy Irish English. Most of what Nova understood was from Aso’s responses. What Nova understood, she laughed along with. What she didn’t, she waited for Aso’s response and responded in kind. 

Once her hair was washed, Rian took her over to the fire salamander dryers. Only one girl was there now. The girl who had been getting large braids was done and gone now and two new girls sat in front of Aso. One was getting what looked to be a neon green bob, and the other, a finger wave. Rian, took out the two small salamanders that had been in the dryer when Nova had arrived. She gently placed them in a small tank. Inside, a small rock glowed red with heat and they both ran to lay on it, falling asleep coiled around one another. Two new salamanders were placed inside the dryer as it was placed atop Nova’s head. Nova looked up to see them through the bubble. As soon as they saw each other the chase began and the heat built up. 

Nova watched, mesmerized as Aso worked quickly. Aso, Rian, and Siobhan worked in sync, fluid like dancers who changed partners often. Aso had already finished the girl with the finger wave. With skin like obsidian, she admired her hair in the floating mirror. The silver color really suited the girl, but Nova noticed what was truly unique about the girl’s hair. Along her hairline, her baby hairs had been slicked down in beautiful intricate designs, like lace and every few minutes, the design of the “lace” changed. One moment it was soft waves around her face, the next it was a quilted pattern with tiny crystals that sparkled at the intersections. Nova had never seen hair like this.

As she took a last look in the mirror, the girl next to her was running her fingers through the fresh, neon green bob.

“Ok, Monae,” Aso said, “Now shake it.” Monae gave Aso a look like she didn’t quite understand. “Oh for heaven’s sake, girl. Will ya trust me and shake ya head!”

Monae shook her head as she was told. Slowly, from the tips up to the roots, her hair went from green to bright blue. Both Nova and Monae’s eyes grew in surprise. Aso laughed. She had a rich laugh that felt like all the ancestors, past and present, laughed with her. 

“Again!” Aso commanded. Again, Monae obeyed. This time, her hair went from blue to hot pink. 

She turned to Aso and smiled. Now understanding, she shook her head once more and her hair was back to neon green. Monae was overjoyed. 

“Oi! Aso! This is brilliant, mate! I’ll be the talk of the common room for days!” Monae handed several gold coins to Aso. Aso handed her and the other girl a bonnet each. The girls thanked her, put on their yellow and black robes, and headed for the door. 

“Ok missy...your turn!” 

Nova stood up and sat in one of Aso’s chairs. 

“So, Little Miss Nova, tell me how you got to be such a mess in the first place.” 

As Aso parted and combed her hair, Nova told her about wanting to be on the Quidditch team like her grandfather, who had been a Hufflepuff Seeker before he opened his sweet shop and moved to the States… about the squid and Pansy… about how she always struggled to get her hair right, so Aunt Quinta had relaxed it and how that almost made it harder. So many rules to keep it “tame.” Before she knew it, she was crying a bit and telling Aso everything. 

“Oh now chile,” Aso wiped a tear with one massive spider hand, “no need to cry. Aso has just the thing for you.” Before she could see herself in the mirror, Angelina, Alicia, Charli, and Cyn popped in. 

“Hey Miss Aso! Over there looking like an eight legged goddess!” Alicia playfully bowed.

“Hush yo mouth, girl!” Aso dismissed Alicia’s silliness with a half smile that showed her top fangs. “Angelina, you send this girl to me!?”

“Sure did, Miss Aso. She needed your magic hands and I see you did your thing.” Angelina’s compliment made Aso blush. 

“Oh hush girl.”

“Wowie, wow!” Charli said. “Lookie here girls…”

“Our Little Miss Nova has a head full of curls!” Cyn concluded. 

Nova had almost forgotten to look at herself. Charli and Cyn were right! She suddenly had curls. Hundreds of them, honey brown with red highlights that brought out her brown eyes. They framed her face like a fiery, golden halo. She almost didn’t recognize herself. 

“Now I know you wanted a press Miss Nova,” Aso said, “but it would be a shame to hide such beauty. This is special, just for you. Rian!” 

Before Nova could ask what she meant, Rian splashed a small stream of water directly at her! Instinctively, Nova put up her hands, trying to protect her hair, but the water never even made contact. Siobhan tossed a small pebble from the base of the waterfall. 

“Hey now!” Nova said, but like the water it never made contact with Nova or her hair. Four inches before it reached her, it just lost momentum and fell to the ground. Nova was amazed. 

“Whattha, whattha…”

“It will take a lot more than that girl to mess up your hair now.” The way she spat the word “girl,” Nova knew Aso meant Pansy. “You just trust Miss Aso, now, ya hear?”

“It's so beautiful, Miss Aso! Thank you so much! Honestly I’ve never seen it like this before. Aunt Quinta is gonna flip.”

“You tell Quinta I said hello, ya hear.” Before Nova could ask what she meant, Alicia read Nova’s look. 

“Girl, our Spider Goddess knows everyone! Ain’t that right, Queen!?”

“I done told ya to hush now, girl!” Aso playfully batted at Alicia. 

Angelina gently elbowed Nova. 

“Give her 1 Galleon and 10 sickles. Give 3 sickles to Rian and Siobhan as well.”

Nova did as Angelina said, leaving Aso’s payment last. 

“Miss Aso,” Nova said, “thank you so much!” And before Aso could respond, Nova gave her a hug where she could reach around her exoskeleton. 

“Of course, girl.” The giant spider patted her head, hair bouncing right back into place. 

“Don’t forget your bonnet, Miss Nova,” Aso said as Nova pulled back to see Aso had placed a beautiful, peridot green bonnet, with gold dragonflies in Nova’s hands. 

“Oh! Miss Aso! This is my favorite color! How did you know!?”

“You heard the big mouth, girl! Miss Aso knows everything, chile!” Alicia feigned a hurt look. 

“Come on, Sweettrickle. Can’t wait to see Parkinson’s stupid little face when you walk in looking like that!” Angelina and the girls made their way to the door. 

“Yeah yeah it’s time for dinner!” Cyn said. 

“When Pansy loses, you’re the real winner!” Charli finished.

“Thank you again, Miss Aso.” Nova said.

“Of course, chile.”

As they stepped through the door, back onto the seventh floor corridor, Aso’s Salon disappeared. The girls started down the hall, and Nova took one last look at where the door had been.

“Come on you guys!” Angelina lead the pack, “Let's go show off Sweettrickle!”

Alicia teased and mocked Nova, “Oh Miss Aso!” She laughed as she mimicked Nova with a comically high pitched voice. “You’re such a goodie goodie, Nova!”

“Shut up, big mouth,” Nova said playfully. 

The girls all froze and turned to Nova. Had Nova gone too far!? The girls looked at Nova and a look passed between them. Suddenly, they burst into laughter. Relieved, Nova laughed, too. 

“She got you, Alicia! You took her for a dummy!”

“But it turns out Nova is really quite funny!” The twins laughed. 

And as they walked down the corridor to the Great Hall, smiling and laughing, five carefree Black witches, Angelina looked to Nova and shared a smile. 

“I think you’re gonna fit in just fine, Sweettrickle. Just fine.”

[isashopperfirst]

Patagonia

Caves in Última Esperanza show that humans, known as the Aonikenk people, have inhabited the region since 10,000 BC. In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to visit the region. In the late 19th century, estancias formed, creating a regional wool boom that had massive, reverberating effects for both Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. Great wealth for a few came at the cost of native populations, who were all but wiped out by disease and warfare. With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, traffic reduced around Cabo de Hornos and the area’s international importance diminished. Today fisheries, silviculture, small oil reserves and methanol production, in addition to a fast-growing tourism industry, keep the region relatively prosperous.” Lonely Planet

After three centuries there are now only about 60 or 70 from each of the different Nomadic populations left. The ship we see cruising on can accommodate about that number of people. It brings the facts into sharp relief. There were several very distinct groups with their own languages. The Kaweskar were they only ones that shared language knowledge and dealt with other groups. In a number of the groups the women were the hunters and the ones that traded seal skins, shells and seafood with the people from Punto Arenas. There are records showing the women diving naked into the water to collect crustaceans. Man! that would take some courage.

The cruise has been an amazing experience. The ship carries a very small number of passengers and the staff very much treat the guests like family. The food has been amazing, like most cruises food is constantly offered, but here there are no generic buffets here. Lunch and dinner have all been set three course meals accompanied by a different range of wines at each sitting. Seafood has featured heavily. But the absolute highlight of the trip is the scenery and many excursions. Glaciar Perito Moreno is the stunning centerpiece of the southern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It measures 30 miles long, 5 miles wide and 60 meters high. It the only glacier in the park that is not retreating. It is advancing at around 2 meters per day. Unfortunately, this is the only one advancing, all the others are retreating. Huge building sized blocks fall off into the water and create mini tsunamis. It is hard to believe that what you are seeing is real. Glaciers seem to appear around every corner and they shine absolutely blue in the sun. Several times a day we moor up close to a glacier and climb into zodiacs and onto the shore. We have been blessed with sunny weather and little wind. The plant life is incredible, with an incredible variety of shrubs, grasses and lichen. The ground looks like it has been landscaped by an elite team of Japanese gardeners. The first full day finished with one of the most spectacular experiences I have ever had. We all loaded into a small ice breaker and travelled into a small bay to see the Fernando, Captain Constantino and Alipio glaciers. The water was full of icebergs and the sound of them crashing into the side of the boat was a little scary at first, but once you braced for the collisions it was fairly exciting. The water was like a mirror and the mountains and clouds were reflected perfectly. The boat was large enough to hold about 80 of us, but small enough to get up close and personal with the glaciers. During one of these investigations we were privileged to see s truely iconic South American bird. We were close of the cliffs looking at (and smelling) colonies of cormorants (imperial shags) and rock shags, when the most enormous hunting bird I have ever seen cruised down onto the rocks. It was a condor. It sat on the rocks and methodically worked its way through the nests raiding the eggs. When it took off it’s wing span was around 3 meters, (they can grow up to 5 meters) a truely magnificent sight.

After travelling for about another half and hour the crew hauled in some chunks of iceberg and we enjoyed a few (too many) glasses of 12 year old scotch with 30,000 year old ice cubes. While the scotch was warming us from the inside we travelled over to moor a few feet from a large waterfall. The whole day was like a series of cascading events, each one more wonderful than the last. This would have to be one of the highlights of our lives. Some very special memories, such as lying warm and snug in soft white sheets with Len and watching glaciers glide past the picture windows; playing dominoes and drinking pisco sours with Alicia and Juan and we sail to another destination; chatting to the crew and other guests at meal times, and just having the time to contemplate the world go by.

[americannoona]

A Slide Starts to Look like a Hill

There was my big scary teddy bear, sitting up in bed looking at me with open eyes. He had changed so much. He looked frail and his eyes looked weak. They didn’t twinkle like they once did. His will was as strong as ever though! That’s right, Marco! You showed them! They wanted to give up on you, but I knew you were coming back! They don’t know you like I do.

I sat with him, holding his hand, until they came and kicked me out. They said he needed to rest. I knew he did, but I felt selfish, and I didn’t want to leave him. I had been there for hours and it wasn’t enough. Kissing his cheek, I told him I would be back the next day, and I left. It was so tempting to ask him a million questions, but I didn’t. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because he said he couldn’t remember anything. He didn’t remember what happened to him or who had done it. The doctor told him that his memory may come back to him, but it was very likely that he would never remember the things that happened just before his coma. His body had healed, and he was ready to begin physical therapy after the weekend. They would give him fluids and vitamins until then, and start strengthening him. He would be back to mountain status in no time. It was a different story for me, however. I felt like a pane of fractured glass. The next little thing that happened was going to shatter me. I felt completely out of control. I was like a chess pawn, being pushed to whichever square these boys thought I should be in next. I guess that would make Alicia the Queen, and now Zico was her King. My emotions didn’t know which way to run. I was experiencing pain and joy and confusion and clarity all at once. It made me feel numb. The next stop I made was Ji-Yong’s room. I painted a big fake smile on my face just like I was an expert makeup artist. He was also all smiles. “I see that you are feeling much better,’ I said. “I am now! Come over here and hug me,” he said. I did as I was told. Like I always did. I’ve really got to quit doing that, I thought. I leaned over to hug him, and he put his arms around me and pulled me up into his lap. “Well! Someone is feeling way too good,” I said. “What kind of pain killers do they have you on and can I have some?” He laughed. “I have no idea, but they are miracle workers he said. He kissed me. And kissed me. And kissed me… I can’t lie. I kissed him back. It felt wrong and right. It felt rebellious and vengeful. It felt strange and comfortable. It felt like a salve on my open wounds. “Ji-Yong! Someone is going to come in here,” I said. He grinned. “You are blushing,” he said. “You just wait until they release me. I’m going to try to keep you blushing for days.” That really did make me blush. “Ji-Yong!” “I’m going to take you back to my place, strip you down and hide your clothes. Then I’m going to have my way with you in every room, and on every surface of my house,” he said. Now he’s just saying things to embarrass me. “You know? I’ve never thought about you having a house. You have a house?” “Of course I have a house,” he said. “Well, it’s an apartment. Where did you think I went when I went home?” “I never thought about it,” I said. “Why have we never gone to your apartment?” “Reporters sit outside my place waiting for photo opportunities. I didn’t want to expose you like that,” he said. I stuck my bottom lip out in a pout. “You’re ashamed of me,” I said. “I am NOT!” he said with a guilty laugh. “Yes you are! You are ashamed of me. You don’t want anyone to know about me,” I said. “Elizabeth! Everyone knows about me and you! I’m extremely proud to call you mine! I was doing you a favor. I didn’t want anyone to say something bad about you,” he said. “You don’t really think that do you?” I ran my thumb over his bottom lip and said, “I guess you will have to convince me.” “Oh really?” he said. “So that was a fake blush.” He scooted over and pulled me down to lay beside him in the bed. We stayed that way, talking and kissing, until we were interrupted by someone clearing their throat loudly. Seung-hyun was standing at the end of the bed with a raised eyebrow. “Now, Elizabeth! This boy is sick and on drugs, and you are taking advantage of him. You should be ashamed,” he said. “I tried to fight her off, Hyung. She overpowered me. She kept trying to molest me, and I was too weak to fight her off. You came just in time,” said Ji-Yong. “If only you could have done the same for me last night,” said Seung-hyung. “I wasn’t as lucky as you. I fought hard, but she’s a tigress. Did you show him your wounds, Elizabeth?” I gave him a look that said, Shuuush! And shook my head. Then I looked over at Ji-Yong and smiled. “What wounds? You got wounds? How did she get wounds?” he asked and looked up at Seung-hyun. “It was my fault,” he said. Ji-Yong sat up, leaning back on his hands. “You wounded her? What did you do? I put her in your care, Hyung,” he said. I got out of the bed. “It was an accident,” I said. I mumbled to Seung-hyun as I walked behind him, “I wasn’t going to say anything!” “You thought he wouldn’t see it eventually?” asked Seung-hyun. “I started sleep walking again.” Ji-Yong got out of bed at that, pulling his I.V. “Come over here, Elizabeth,” he said. “What did you do to her?” “I bit her,” he said. “You BIT HER?” asked Ji-Yong. “It’s okay, Ji-Yong,” I said. “Let me see.” I pulled the collar down on my turtleneck and showed him the bandage. He gently pulled on the edge until he could see the bite. “What the hell, Seung-hyun? Why did that crap start up again? What’s been going on?” “I don’t know,” he said. “Well, she can’t stay there anymore,” said Ji-Yong. “She most certainly can,” said Seung-hyun. “She knows what to do now.” Ji-Yong climbed back into the bed. “But what if she’s asleep? What if you kill her before she wakes up?” “That’s not how it works, and you know it,” said Seung-hyun. “I feel guilty enough already. Now you’re going to say she can’t stay?” I was just looking from one to the other, wondering when they were going to include me in the conversation. They all automatically assume that I have no say in where I go or stay or anything for that matter! “I just worry. At least give her a weapon,” said Ji-Yong. “HEY!” I said. They both looked at me like they had forgotten I was in the room. “I hate to break it to you two, but I’m a person with a brain and a will of her own. I can make my own decisions. You all act like you are fighting over custody of a child. Even Zico!” “We just want to make sure you are safe,” said Ji-Yong. “We don’t mean to make decisions for you.” “Yes we do!” said Seung-hyun. “We are well versed in this business, and we know what is safe and what isn’t. We know Seoul. We know where you can go and where you can’t and we also have security everywhere. You don’t see them, because you aren’t supposed to. Our homes are secure, and most of the functions that we attend are secure. This city is dangerous enough for a regular woman, but you have people actively seeking you out to harm you. We get death threats every day, and we even get them against you. A lot of these fans are insane. They think they own us, and they see you as a threat. They have crazy ideas that one day they will come to a fan meet or a concert, and we will fall in love with them. If you get in the way of that, they have to get you out of the way. That’s why you can’t walk around by yourself. That’s why Woo Jiho has guards around you all of the time. You know about the one visible body guard that he lets walk around with you. You don’t know about the other three that follow you everywhere” “What? What other three?” I asked. “They are in this hospital right now,” he said. “He knows what kind of danger you are in all of the time. Why do you think he panics so much when you don’t answer your phone?” “That’s how he always knows where I am!” I said. “Yes, that’s how he knows everything,” he said. “I understand,” I said. “I didn’t realize all of that.” “I know you didn’t. Now you do so you will be a good girl, and stop getting yourself into so much trouble. You are making all of us crazy!” he said. It was quiet for a minute and then we all laughed. We talked for another hour before Seung-hyun and I left. I didn’t know I was staying another night with him, but that was decided for me too.

Zico was not happy when he found out that I was staying with Seung-hyun. I was talking to him while Seung-hyun walked around the kitchen making dinner and listening in to our conversation. “Why don’t you stay in your new apartment?” he asked. “It hurts my heart. It’s lonely there, Zico.” “Are you falling for Seung-hyun?” he asked. I laughed. “No! As a matter of fact, I may rethink my plan to return to America after all. At least until after the fashion show in November. I’ve been talking to Ji-Yong, and he offered to let me live with him if I stay. I could still work for you and finish getting ready for the show. I wouldn’t have to worry about rent or anything else.” “You don’t have to worry about that at our apartment!” he said. It didn’t escape my notice that it went from being ‘your apartment’ to being ‘our apartment’. Zico knew that he could come and go as he pleased in that apartment, and I couldn’t let that happen. I would keep getting my heart broken over and over. “I love that place, Jiho. I really do. But like I said, it’s so lonely there. Why don’t you reconsider and take Alicia there?” “Because it belongs to you. I can’t stand the thought of her in that place.” “Well, dinner is almost done. I just wanted you to know that I’m okay,” I said. “I don’t want you to go,” he said. “I was also thinking about something else,” I said quietly. “I think we are going to have to start treating our relationship as a work relationship. This is the last time I’m going to call you to tell you where I am. I’m very well taken care of. It wouldn’t be fair to Ji-Yong for me to keep this going.” He was quiet. “Zico? Are you still there?” “I don’t know if I can live with this,” he said. “You can. You are Zico! You can do anything! I have to go,” I said. “I love you,” he said. I hung up. My heart was breaking.

I’m the one who had the nightmares that night. Zico had tried calling back and sending texts all evening. I had to turn my phone off. I tried not to think about him. That made it harder not to think about him. That night when I went to bed, I prayed for relief or death. Whichever, would make this constant ache in my chest stop. I didn’t get to sleep until early in the morning so Seung-hyun let me sleep late. When I woke up it was after noon. I found a fresh set of clothes waiting for me. Seung-hyun had chosen a bright red dress for me to wear today. He came up to check on me when I was mostly dressed. I was fastening the strappy red shoes over the sheer shiny tights he had selected. They had the tiniest ruby gemstones throughout the fabric that only sparkled when the light hit them just right. “Come over here, and let me do your hair,” he said. “I have a surprise waiting for you downstairs for lunch.” “I feel like it’s my birthday,” I said. “I keep getting all kinds of surprises from everyone.” “Everyone loves you,” he said. I sat down in front of the mirror. “That’s definitely not true,” I said. “Everyone feels sorry for me.” “No. You feel sorry for yourself enough that we don’t have to,” he said. He pulled the sides of my hair up into tiny pigtails on top of my head that he tied with bright green ribbons. He let the long tails of the ribbon flow down through the back of my hair. “Seung-hyun! That was mean,” I said. He looked at me in the mirror. “I wasn’t trying to be mean. I’ve been broken hearted before. Being dead would hurt less, but the pain doesn’t last forever. The best cure is a new love, and you already have one waiting for you. So, you get one week.” “One week?” I asked. “For?…” “To pout and mope around. Then you have to get to work on your new relationship. It’s not fair to make him wait longer than that,” he said. I put on makeup as we talked, and when I was done, I had to ask, “Am I an apple today or a cherry?” “You are a cherry of course. Cherries are the candy of the fruit world. You are the candy of Ji-Yong’s world.” “Oh, Seung-hyun. That was weak,” I said. “It made you smile,” he said. “Besides, red is his favorite color, and you look amazing in bright colors.” It did make me smile. “I look like a little girl,” I said. “You are adorable,” he said. “Are we going to see Ji-Yong?” I asked. “We are,” he said and pulled me up from the chair. “I have to go see Kim Marco too,” I said. “Of course. But first, lunch. Eat a lot. You have a long day coming,” he said. I’m not even going to ask. I feel faded today, as if I’m a thin sheet of tissue paper. I’m just going to let him move me around the chessboard, however he likes.

“We might as well eat outside since we don’t have many more nice days to do so,” he said. I followed him out to the side garden. I saw my surprise before we even got to the table. He stood up, all smiles and excitement, and obviously dressed by Seung-hyun as well. When I reached the table, he lifted me off the ground in a tight hug and swung me around. “Ji-Yong! You are going to hurt yourself!” I said. He kissed my nose. “I’m fine. But not as fine as you!” he said and held me at arms length to look me over. “You are going to make me blush again,” I said. “So I found something else that makes you blush,” he said with a big teasing grin. “Shh…” I said and looked at Seung-hyun. “Don’t bother being secretive, Elizabeth,” said Seung-hyun. “You are one of the most modest people I’ve ever met. Big bananas make you blush.” I hid my face behind my hand, “Oh my gosh, Seung-hyun!” “See!” he said. “Can we just eat?” I said and sat in the seat that Ji-Yong held for me. When I was seated, Seung-hyun handed me a banana. Ji-Yong laughed. I wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of my embarrassment. I very slowly peeled that banana, ran my tongue up the length of it, and nibbled the tip. Then, inch by inch I ate that banana. They both silently watched me, squirming a little in their seats, and there was no more laughing. When I was done, I handed the peel back to Seung-hyun and said, “Thank you. I was starving.” He took the peel and said, “Would you like another?” “Now that she’s had her potassium, I think she needs some other nutrients,” said Ji-Yong. “Just serve the damn omelets, Hyung.” “You’re no fun,” said Seung-hyun and served the breakfast around the table. I really was starving. “Seung-hyun said that we have a long day ahead. What are we going to do?” I asked Ji-Yong. “Well, I thought I would take you shopping. Then, Hyung has a party planned for tonight,” said Ji-Yong. “What are we shopping for?” I asked. Ji-Yong looked at me like he thought it was cute that I was clueless. Like I was a puppy with my ears pricked up. “For whatever you would like. I want you to buy whatever your heart desires. Clothes, jewelry, shoes, anything.” “But why?” I asked. “Because I want to,” said Ji-Yong. “I do have a slight ulterior motive though.” I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. “Which is what? “Our shopping excursion is going to be a bit of PR. You could say that we are going to show off for the paparazzi,” he said. “But why? I thought we wanted to keep a low profile,” I said. He took a bite of bread. “Ji-Yong has a solo project that he’s been working on,” said Seung-hyun. “He needs to be seen and talked about and most of all, photographed.” That made sense. “Isn’t it bad for you to be seen with me though?” I asked Ji-Yong. “Normally, yes, but sometimes it’s good to be seen dating. Since there was so much press before about my fight with Jiho over you, it will actually help me to be seen with you,” he said. I thought about that for a second. “Won’t that make Zico look bad though?” I could tell that it bothered him that I was protecting Zico. “No. Alicia leaked her pregnancy and engagement. So everyone knows that he’s with her.” The word engagement made my stomach sink. I couldn’t eat another bite. “I can’t let you buy me things,” I said. “Just imagine how jealous Alicia Wright will be when she sees the press,” said Seung-hyun. I did like the sound of that. “It will be fun,” said Ji-Yong. “You need to get used to it. I plan to spoil the hell out of you.” I fought a smile, but it won. “That’s better,” said Ji-Yong. “You aren’t doing this because I said you are ashamed of me are you?” I asked. “That did bother me,” he admitted. “Because it’s not true. I have been thinking about this for a few days though. So not really.” I turned to Seung-hyun. “You didn’t say anything about a party!” “I did so!” “You most certainly did not! I would have remembered that,” I said. “I told you about it the second day that you were at my house.,” he said. “How was I supposed to remember that? Much less know that was for tonight?” I said. Ji-Yong started laughing. “I have to stop letting you stay here,” he said. “You two fight like a married couple.” I looked at Seung-hyun who looked very amused and we both laughed. He looked at his watch. “If you two are finished, you had better get going,” he said. “Are we on a schedule?” I asked as Ji-Yong held my chair for me. “Well, it may have also been leaked anonymously that I was going to be in a certain part of town at a certain time today,” he said. I got up and stretched. “You guys are sneaky,” I said. “That’s the business,” said Seung-hyun.

I had never been in this part of town before. That’s because I could never afford anything in this section. Not even coffee. I went into shops that didn’t look like shops. They were more like art museums. If I wanted to see what an outfit looked like on someone, they had a model put it on and come out to show me. He was right. I felt like royalty, but guilty royalty. I kept wanting to apologize for being a bother. “You aren’t bothering them,” said Ji-Yong. “They get paid very well to be bothered.” “It just feels like too much,” I said. “That dress is still not going to look as good on me as it does her.” He kissed my cheek. “It’s going to look better.” Then he whispered, “One of my favorite things about you is your curves. All of them. I love that you don’t starve yourself into a stick figure. I love taking you to dinner and watching you actually eat.” Then he licked my earlobe. It was a quick flicker, but it made my whole body shiver. “I’ll take that dress,” I told the shop girl. We went to so many different shops that my head was spinning. He bought me clothes and shoes and lingerie. We went into a jewelry store and that was where I was going to put my foot down, but Ji-Yong managed to talk me into getting a tiny charm to go on my bracelet with the butterfly. I didn’t tell him that Zico had given it to me. He added a tiny pink pearl. “A pink pearl symbolizes success, fame, and good fortune,” he said. “Does everything have a meaning in Korea?” I asked. “Many things do,” he said. “Oh! I meant to ask you, what is your power animal?” He gave me a strange look. “What do you think?” “Um… a dragon?” I asked. “What else?” He smiled that beautiful smile of his. “What do you know about power animals?” Then he put his index finger in front of his mouth and said, “Wait! Seung-hyun took you to see Dong-Hyun didn’t he!?” “Yep!” I said. “Never take or drink anything that those two hand you. It never turns out well,” he said. “Well, I did find out my power animal is a butterfly,” I said. “Naturally,” he said and put his fingers through mine. “Then I had a wonderful nap and I was able to finish my all of the drawings for my collection,” I said. “I didn’t see any bad effects.” “You were lucky. I had nightmares for a week,” he said. I noticed that we didn’t actually stay around and pay for anything. He would tell the shop person that he would take it, and we would leave. “Ji-Yong?” “Yeah?” “Why aren’t we actually paying or taking anything that we pick? Is this all just for show?” I asked. He smiled without looking at me. “The company takes care of it, and everything will be sent back to my place.” “Oh,” I said. I felt like a dumb country bumpkin. Rich people really do have advantages that the rest of us don’t share. “Ji-Yong?” “Yes?” “Can we go into one more store? I want to get something for Marco,” I said. “Of course we can. Where do you want to go?” he asked. I pointed at a store and he gave me a skeptical look. “You want to get him something from in there?” I nodded. “Elizabeth, Kim Marco is a big hardened assassin. Why do you insist on treating him like a child?” he asked. “I don’t!” I said. “We have a special relationship. Marco has two sides, and he lets me see the other one.” “Oh alright,” he said. “Lead the way.” I took him into Build-a-Bear. I searched around until I found the perfect set of bears for him. One was a big brown bear. I had them put it in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie. They put a little gun on it’s side for me and a teddy bear piercing in it’s ear. Then I paired it with a smaller white bear. She wore a blue dress with tiny daisies on it and she had a crown. I tied their hands together with a red ribbon. While I was shopping, I lost Ji-Yong. When I had finished, I saw him talking to one of the shop girls. I went over to him and she smiled at me, bowed, and walked away. “Are you flirting with other women right in front of me, Ji-Yong?” I teased him. “I would never! I was just settling the bill,” he said. “I’m guessing that bear isn’t me.” “You can pretend that it is,” I said and smiled over at him. He shook his head, laughed, and put his hand on the small of my back to lead me out of the store.   He waited for me to get into the car before getting in himself. “About the party tonight, if you aren’t up for it, you and I can stay upstairs. Seung-hyun won’t care.” I rubbed the tattoos on his fingers. “Is it going to be like the last party?” He shook his head. “No, that’s his big party. This is a shisha party with only a few of his art world friends.” “Do you want to go?” I asked. “I’ve only been to one. It’s like hookah except Seung-hyun has a special formula made for his parties. It’s up to you. If you go I’m definitely going to be there. I don’t want you waking up with naked people that you don’t remember like he does.” We both laughed. “Ji-Yong.” I said. “Yeah?” “Dragons aren’t real,” I said. “Wanna make a bet?” he asked and winked. Putting his fingers under my chin, he lifted up my head and kissed me. It was a slow sweet kiss. “This one is.” I wouldn’t tell him, but Zico was much more of a dragon than he was. Ji-Yong seemed more like a big cat. Sensual, beautiful, and powerful. He had a quiet power. His presence commanded attention when he was in the room. People were drawn to him. I was drawn to him. He was magnetic.

Seung-hyun dressed me in a very sweet maroon dress with tiny white flowers. It had a sheer maroon overlay that swished a little when I moved. He left my feet bare. Ji-Yong wore a black sweater and jeans, while Seung-hyun looked amazingly sexy in a white button up shirt, black vest and striped tie. His gray slacks were shiny and skin tight. I didn’t mind that one bit. He had hired a caterer, and while the boys were busy talking, I snuck down to the dining room to eat. I was really hungry after all of that shopping. Marco had loved his bears! He kept them in the bed with him, and when the nurse tried to move them, he growled at her.   I didn’t know what a lot of the Korean dishes were, but there were hamburger and chicken sliders so I ate some of them. I had been hungry a lot lately. More so than normal. That’s when a scary thought came to me. Oh God! What if I’m pregnant? I tried to think back to when I knew I was definitely not pregnant, and I couldn’t remember. I didn’t have any other symptoms though. It’s probably just stress. I’m not going to panic until there is something to panic about. The doorbell rang. Seung-hyun stuck his head in the door and said, “Party time!” He wiggled his eyebrows at me which made me laugh. I smacked my hands together to get rid of the evidence, and went out to the pool. Ji-Yong seemed to be a part of the decorations. There were colorful lights and flowers floating in the pool as well as lights strung over our heads. He was laying in a lounge chair with his sunglasses on, looking perfect. He was scrolling on his phone. The shisha pipe was surrounded by big fluffy pillows. It was quite elegant, but it looked like a silver and blue octopus sitting in the middle of a colorful cloud. I went over and sat at Ji-Yong’s feet. He sat up and putting his hands on either side of my head, gave me a deep kiss. “You sure about this?” I nodded. “Look, we are big news already,” he said. He held up his phone and showed me pictures and articles of us shopping. I couldn’t read what they said, but I didn’t think I needed to. He told me they were very positive articles. A few girls were extremely upset, but overall, the comments were good. Most people were happy to see Ji-Yong happy. They also liked how well he treated his girlfriend. Seung-hyun brought his friends out to the party area and introduced me. He introduced them as friends, which wasn’t very helpful. One girl who already knew Ji-Yong took to me quickly. Her name was Yoo Ha-Joon and she was very sweet. She spoke English pretty well so I could actually talk to her. The rest of his friends didn’t and they mostly just smiled at me. I did the same. Seung-hyun opened the patio doors to the dining room and everyone began mingling. He was smart to put people together that had never met. I sat between Ji-Yong’s legs, leaned back against him, and watched everyone get to know each other. He kept putting his face into my hair and softly kissing my neck. It was driving me crazy. I was pretty sure how this evening was going to end, and I was fine with that. “Hungry?” asked Ji-Yong. “I am a little,” I said. I didn’t tell him I already had three sliders. “There is something I want you to try. It’s my absolute favorite, and I think you will love it,” he said. I wrinkled up my nose. “What is it?” “Ganjang gaejang,” he said. “Does that have intestines or octopus or something yucky in it?” I asked. He laughed and leaned down until he was right in my face. “Those things are delicious, which you would know if you would try them. And no. This is crab in soy sauce.” I frowned. “Don’t they cook crabs alive?” “Nope,” he lied and went off to make a plate. “Yes they do,” I mumbled to myself. “Who does what?” asked a gentleman who had just walked by to lean against the wall behind us. “Oh, sorry. I was talking to myself,” I said. He smiled and forked a carrot on his plate. “I do that all of the time,” he said. “And I answer myself. I always seem to know all of the right answers.” “That is a sign of insanity you know,” I said. I figured if he was going to be open then I could too. He laughed. “Really? I thought knowing everything was a sign of intelligence. Hm. That explains a lot,” he said. I didn’t know if he had misunderstood me or he was being obtuse on purpose. He came over to sit in the opposite lounge chair. Bowing his head slightly, he said, “I’m Gong Ji Cheol. You probably know me as Gong Yoo. You can call me Yoo if you would like. I know it’s easier for American’s sometimes.” “I’m Elizabeth. I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with many pop stars here,” I said. He really laughed at that. “No,no. I’m an actor. But it’s okay. I’m actually glad.” “That’s what Ji-Yong said when I didn’t know him,” I said. He kept laughing and stuffed food in his mouth. “I bet that shocked him! Oh, you Americans! I just love you guys.” Should I be insulted? I never know here. Ji-Yong came over with our plate, and straddled the seat right behind me. “Hey,” he said to Gong Yoo. “Ji-Yong, this is…” I looked at the man because I had already forgotten his name. “I know Ji Cheol,” he said. “She doesn’t,” Yoo said. “She didn’t know me either,” said Ji-Yong. “That was the best thing about her.” Yoo stood up. Looking back as he walked away he said, “Not the best thing.” I looked back at Ji-Yong. “What did he mean by that?” I asked. He shrugged. “Try this,” he said and held out a pair of chopsticks holding crab. I looked at it with apprehension. It did look appetizing. “But they cook them alive,” I said. “They shoot cows when they are alive,” he said. “But that’s a fast death,” I said. “These crabs died fast, he said. “Besides, they are already dead. Should their sacrifice mean nothing? If we throw it out, they died for nothing when they could be nourishing our bodies.” Dammit! He has a point! “Alright. You are right,” I said and ate the food he held out for me. It was fantastic! “Crabs have tiny little brains,” he said. “They only have enough brain power to move, eat, and have sex. They don’t feel much pain.” He was making things up to make me feel better. It was very sweet. Our attention was drawn to the other side of the pool where a commotion was happening. “Oh no,” said Ji-Yong and laid his head on my back. “What’s wrong? Who is that?” I asked. A woman had just arrived who looked to be a younger than me, dressed in a glamorous black dress that was topped off with a purple and black top hat, and shiny purple stilettos that looked like something a dominatrix would wear. “It’s Savannah,” he said. “That tells me nothing,” I said. “Don’t worry,” he said against my back. “You’ll find out soon enough.” “She doesn’t look Korean,” I said. I felt him shake his head against my back. “No. She’s from Georgia. In America. Not the country. She’s an interior decorator friend of Seung-hyuns.” “Wait! Is she THAT Savannah? The famous one?” I asked. “The very same,” he said. “Oh gosh!” I said. “I’ve taken out subscriptions to decorating magazines because of her.” “Want to go inside?” he asked. “But I want to meet her,” I said. He sat up. “Then can I go inside?” I kissed his cheek. “You don’t like her?” “She’s great,” he said. “She’s just…after me.” It took a minute for his meaning to get through my dense head. “Ohhhh, okaaaay!” I said. I laughed. He laughed a little too. “It’s not funny!” he said through his cute grin. “That doesn’t bother you?” “It would,” I said. “But from your reaction, I don’t think I have much to worry about.” “You don’t,” he said. “Why don’t I?” I asked him. “She’s gorgeous!” He shook his head. “She is, but she has an idea that I can’t go along with.” “IS she a dominatrix?” I asked. “I mean her shoes…” “No,” he said. “She wants me and Seung-hyun at the same time.” The image came to me immediately, and I giggled. The thought actually did bother me a little.   “Stop laughing! It’s not funny. And it’s NOT going to happen. EVER!” he said. “Elizabeth!” I heard from across the pool. It was Seung-hyun. “Come over here.” I turned to Ji-Yong. “Come with me,” I said. “Please don’t make me,” he said. “If you go, I can establish my ownership,” I told him. “Ownership? I think you have that backwards,” he said and cocked his head to the side with a crooked grin. “If you say so,” I said. “Come on. I’ll protect you.” He stood up. “Oh, alright. But you’re going to regret it.” Then I heard him mumble under his breath, “Not as much as me.” We went over to where Seung-hyun sat with Savannah. He stood when we approached and he had a giant grin on his face. “Elizabeth, I would like for you to meet my friend, Savannah,” he said. She stood to shake my hand, and in her shoes, she was about two inches taller than me. “Elizabeth! Give me a hug!” She pulled me into a bear hug. “You are just as cute in person!” “You know me?” I said. NOW I was starstruck. “Of course! I watched every episode of Gold and Diamonds. You were my favorite! It’s very exciting to meet you!” she said. “I was telling Ji-Yong how excited I was to meet you! I never imagined someone like you would know me,” I said. She grabbed Seung-hyun by the arm. “Someone like me? How should I take that, Tabi?” “That’s a compliment,” he said and smiled at me. “She thinks highly of you.” I could tell she was from Georgia by her slight southern accent. She must live there, but she wasn’t born there, I thought. “It’s very much a compliment,” I said. “I have to admit that I’m a little starstruck.” “By me?” she said and laughed. “I’m a nobody. I know how to put furniture in a room is all. But you! You make people beautiful. You give them confidence and make them feel special.” “You are both brilliant!” said Seung-hyun. It was obvious he was trying to break up the butt kissing party Savannah and I had going. “I think it’s time to get this party started, now that the party is here,” he said indicating Savannah. She leaned around me, “Hi Ji-Yong. Don’t think I didn’t see you back there.” “Hi, Savannah,” he said and wrapped his arm around my middle. I turned and wrapped both of my arms around him. “Doesn’t he look absolutely delicious tonight?” I asked her. “He always looks delicious,” she said looking him up and down. And up and down. “Yes he does,” I said. “Almost as delicious as he tastes.” Ji-Yong’s eyes were huge. He was giving me a Hush! look but I couldn’t help myself. She grabbed my free arm as we walked over to the shisha pipe and said, “Please tell me that you have nibbled those tattoos.” “Every single one,” I whispered back. “Oh we are going to talk!” she said and took a seat on the pillow next to Seung-hyun. I could tell that I was going to like her very much. Ji-Yong sat on the opposite side and pulled me down onto his pillow. “What was THAT?” he whispered loudly. “That was staking my claim,” I said. “I don’t understand women,” he said. “Don’t try,” I whispered. Seung-hyun took one of the hoses and drew in a big breath. I watched as everyone else did the same. I noticed that Gong Yoo was staring at me. When our eyes met, he smiled at me and winked. I gave him a tentative smile back. After Ji-Yong was done, he handed his to me. I had no idea what to do. He let out his breath, and said, “Just breathe it in like you would take a big breath.” I had expected the air to be hot, but it wasn’t. It was actually cold. I looked closer and could see ice in one chamber of the pipe. I drew in another breath and it made me cough. Ji-Yong took it away from me. “Go slow with this stuff. It’s not normal shisha. I don’t know what it’s going to do to you.” We took turns for about fifteen minutes. That seemed to be long enough for whatever was in Seung-hyun’s special tobacco to get into our bloodstream. All of a sudden, I really wanted to touch Ji-Yong. All over. I wanted to run my hands through his hair, and run my hands down the silky heat of his back. I NEEDED to take off his pants. His clothes were irritating me. He stood up and said, “I need water.” Then he went into the house. A hand reached down for me to take. I didn’t pay attention to who the hand belonged to. It didn’t seem to matter. I put my hand in that strange hand and let the person lift me up. I was being pulled over to the pool. I knew this person, but I couldn’t remember his name. He slipped into the water and reached his arms up to me. I sat on the side of the pool and let him pull me in. He held me up, and I wrapped my legs around him. I remembered. It was Yoo. He settled himself against the wall of the pool. “Let go and float,” he said. With my legs still wrapped around his waist, I let go of his neck and allowed the rest of my body to float on top of the water. I closed my eyes. It felt like I was half on earth and half in the atmosphere. For a moment, I saw Seung-hyun standing over us and he was talking, but I couldn’t hear him. All I heard was bubbles from the water and music that was muted. Yoo began to run his hands over my thighs, and then upwards until he was stroking my sides and my stomach under my dress. The dress was floating around me in the water. When it floated over my skin it tickled, but in a wonderful way. Everything felt good. Evey touch seemed like a new sensation as if I was a newborn baby. Nothing was off limits. The ache in my chest was gone. My brain felt foggy, and I couldn’t concentrate on anything if I tried. All of a sudden, someone new was behind me. This person pulled me away from Yoo, and swirled me around to face them. It was Ji-Yong. He was saying things, but his words weren’t connecting. They weren’t making sense. I heard Yoo or it could have been You. I also heard him say Me and Mine and  Don’t. There were some other words, but they disappeared like haze on hot asphalt. He helped me onto the ladder and pushed me up and out of the pool. I felt heavy. My dress stuck to me, so I unbuttoned it and took it off. When he was finally out, I went to work taking off his sweater. It was soaked so it was hard to remove, but he helped me. When I tried to unbutton his pants, he took my hands in his, and said something else that I didn’t get. He put his arm around my wrist and pulled me behind him into the house. All the way there, hands were reaching out to me, touching my body and my hair. He took me into a room that I didn’t recognize. That didn’t mean that I hadn’t been in it before. I wasn’t recognizing anything. It didn’t even occur to me that I was walking around in my skimpy underwear in front of a bunch of strangers. It must have occurred to Ji-Yong, because he found a robe, and wrapped it around me. I loved it. It was silky and made my body feel like I was covered in butterfly wings. My foggy brain was getting worse instead of better. Everything that I was experiencing was disconnected. I was inside of a dream that didn’t hold together in any way. I saw Ji-Yong and then Seung-hyun. I was walking through a hallway. I saw Savannah who was also in her underwear. I thought that she must have been in the pool. I laid in a bed that was covered in white silk sheets. I was thinking that they were so white that they were blinding. The whiteness flew around the room. It reminded me of a storm of doves. In the whiteness I saw Yoo’s face. His beautiful dark hands surrounded my head and then he was kissing me. His tongue searched my mouth for a moment and then it was gone. The whiteness was gone and then replaced by darkness. I became afraid. I thought I had gone blind. I rubbed my eyes. In the darkness, I heard Seung-hyuns voice by my ear say, “It’s okay. You are in a safe place.” I was laying in a bed again and this time the light returned, but it was dim. I was beside Seung-hyun. We were both in our underwear. He was laying on his stomach, but facing me. He was still talking, but I didn’t hear the words. Arms came up from behind me and pulled me back against warm skin. I knew it was my Ji-Yong because I could see his tattoos. The three of us were going to sleep in the same bed and all of a sudden it was funny to me. I started laughing and I couldn’t stop. I asked Seung-hyun, “Isn’t this strange to you?” I saw his lips form the word “What?” “The three of us in bed together,” I said. “No,” he said and smiled at me. I rolled over to face Ji-Yong. His eyes were closed. It made me feel sleepy to look at him, so I closed my eyes and then I was asleep. When my eyes opened, I was still cloudy headed. Someone was shaking me awake. When I looked up, I was looking into the eyes of Zico. My body flooded with happiness. “I didn’t know you came to this party,” I said. I’m sure my words were slurred. “Come with me,” he said. I scooted down out of Ji-Yong’s arms and to the bottom of the bed. Zico put a jacket around me. I followed him until I was outside. The air was cooler than it had been. I became very interested in the feel of the soft paving stones against the bottom of my feet. That’s when Zico picked me up and carried me. I imagined I was flying. Looking up into his face, I said, “I think I became a butterfly.” “You’ve always been a butterfly,” he said. He sat me back on my feet and helped me sit down in his car. I must have fallen asleep in the car. The next thought I had was of floating because of the movement of an elevator. Then I was in bed again, but this time, the only one there was Zico. It was dark except for the moonlight flooding in the window, and I could see tattoos on skin, but these were different. These were Zico’s. I wanted nothing more than to run my finger over those dark lines. So I did. Zico flexed and stretched and rolled over to face me. His eyes opened slowly, and he said, “You shouldn’t touch me right now.” Those words meant nothing to me. I reached out to trace the letters across his chest, but he gently took my hand in his. “If you touch me, I’m going to want to touch you,” he said. I scooted over closer to him, and said, “Touch me.”   “I can’t do that. Not while you are under the influence,” he said. “I’m not drunk, silly boy,” I said and put my forehead against his chest. He froze. “Please don’t do this to me, Elizabeth.” I stuck my tongue out and ran it slowly across his nipple. It tickled my tongue. He rolled me over onto my back in a rush and held my hands against the bed by my head. He growled, “Stop it! I know this isn’t your fault, so I’m not mad. I want to stay in here with you, but if you don’t go to sleep, I’m going to go sleep on the couch.” I held my head up and flicked my tongue across his lips. He jumped away from me, and got out of the bed. “That’s it! Stay here and go to sleep. I mean it!” He grabbed a pillow and left the room. I watched shadows of leaves on the ceiling for awhile, and then I was finally asleep.

The next coherent thought that I had was that my head hurt so bad that I wished it would fall off. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I laid there and concentrated on each pound of my head and how it matched my heart beat. Then, feeling like a dumb ass, I realized that the pounding was the pulse in my head so it WAS my heartbeat. My belly growled. My mouth was dry and sticky. My muscles kind of ached. I also had to pee. I opened my eyes to bright sunlight and I couldn’t see anything. I sat up very slowly and squeezed my eyes shut against the pain. When it became bearable, I opened my eyes. I looked around. I had no idea where I was. NOTHING was familiar. It has to be one of Seung-hyun’s bedrooms right? Zico was right when he said he had a lot of bedrooms. I hope all of those other people went home, I thought. I didn’t realize that I was only wearing my underwear until I stood up. Ohhh. This can only be a bad thing. I wish I could remember last night. Never again Seung-hyun. I’m done with your parties. This lifestyle isn’t for me. I wound the sheet around me and went through the door that looked like it would lead to a bathroom. It did. Something about this bathroom was familiar, but I had no idea what. I took care of things, and then went to find the hallway. If I could get to the hall then I could find my way back to Seung-hyun’s room. But what if there are a bunch of naked people in bed with him? I thought. I decided to look for the closet room. I would get dressed and then go to the kitchen. I needed to find Ji-Yong. I knew he was here somewhere. I found the hallway, and I did recognize it, but it wasn’t the hallway I had expected. Making my way into the living room, I was completely confused. How in the world did I get here? Zico was asleep on his belly on the couch. I scratched my head and tried to remember but I couldn’t. Tiptoeing into the kitchen, I hoped there was some kind of food in the refrigerator. There wasn’t. I didn’t think that Zico had been back here since the day that he showed it to me. So, once again I was in a predicament. I was stuck in a place with no food and no clothes. I was starving, and I couldn’t leave. I didn’t even have my phone so I couldn’t call Kim Hwan to come and get me. I was a little afraid of what would happen when Zico woke up. He was going to be a bear, and I had no answers. He had to have brought me here. But….how did I end up with him from Seung-hyun’s house? I was looking out the window at the river, lost in thought, when I heard, “Ay.” I jumped. I turned to see him getting off of the couch and stretching. His hair was sticking out in every direction, and his eyes were swollen. I didn’t know if he didn’t sleep well or if he had cried before he went to sleep. “Hi,” I said, but it came out broken. My mouth was still dry. He came over to where I stood. He reached out to touch my arm and I flinched. I didn’t know why. It just happened. He pulled his hand back. “Are you afraid of me?” I shook my head. “No! Of course not,” I said. He pulled me into a hug. “Please, please don’t ever be afraid of me. I would never hurt you. EVER!” “I know that,” I said against his chest. Being in his arms was making my heart hurt more than my head. He was wrong that he would never hurt me. “Are you hungry?” he asked, still holding onto me. I nodded. I could swear that I could feel my brain rattling around and it hurt! “I’m going to shower and order food,” he said. He let go and started to walk toward the hall, but then turned back. “You know what? Why waste the hot water? Come on.” He grabbed the sheet I was wearing and pulled me into the bathroom with him. I was resistant so he ended up undressing me like a child. I felt shy. I had seen him naked many times. I had touched every part of his body. I didn’t know why it felt different. I now felt like I was betraying Ji-Yong. He called and ordered the food, and then pulled me into the shower. I stood there and let him do everything. He washed my hair and my body without being sexual at all. He was finally able to see all of the damage that was done by Seung-hyun when he bit me and how far down the bites went. He looked at the marks for a long time. I helped him to wash when it was his turn. He washed his hair while I took care of his body. I missed his body like crazy. He wrapped me in a towel and then himself, and then he left the room. When he came back, he had the bag that I had packed the first night that we had come here. “Oh, thank God!” I said. “I thought I was going to have to wear a towel around.” I dug through and found something to put on. He put on the clothes that he had come here in. We did everything in silence. I thought Zico was working through what he wanted to say, and I was right. The food came, and we sat across from each other at the table. He served us both, and we continued to eat in silence. I had so many questions, but it just didn’t seem like the right time. All of a sudden, he threw his chopsticks down and got up from the table to pace around. I realized that he was crying. “Zico? Are you okay?” My voice was shaky. He came back over to the table. “Why do you still sound like you are afraid of me?” “I’m sorry. I’m not afraid of you,” I said. “Did they say something to scare you? To keep you away from me?” he asked. He was definitely crying.   I shook my head. I couldn’t look at him. “I’ve been going crazy! I’ve called and left a thousand messages. Did you change phones or numbers?” he asked. I shook my head again. Quietly I said, “I haven’t charged my phone for a couple of days.” “So it’s you. You are avoiding me,” he said. “I guess you were having too much fun out shopping with your new boyfriend to take a call from your boss.” I didn’t answer. He kept pacing. “I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “I try so hard to keep you safe. I have other things to do you know! I have a job that takes a lot of time, and I have an absent designer which makes my job a lot harder!” “Zico?” “WHAT?!” He yelled and spun to face me. “How did I get here?” I asked. “You are lucky that I was paying attention to my social media accounts last night! Someone at that party took pictures and posted them. I saw you with your legs wrapped around some strange guy in the pool, among other things.” “I wonder if Seung-hyun knew that someone was taking pictures,” I said. “I don’t care! I’m glad they were. I came over there, and found you and brought you home. People were laying everywhere drugged and half dressed. I found you between Seung-hyun and Ji-Yong in the bedroom, and I don’t want to know what happened before I got there. I NEVER WANT TO KNOW! DO YOU GOT THAT?!!” he was yelling again. I could remember when that was the status quo with us. “I don’t remember what happened,” I said. “I’m sorry.” “WHY DO YOU DO THESE THINGS?” he said. Then he stopped pacing and closed his eyes. He was collecting himself because his anger was starting to flare up. “Don’t you realize what is going to happen to you? Clearly these people don’t care what happens to you.” “I don’t know why I did it,” I said. “I’ve been having a hard time dealing with losing you, and I thought maybe if I could forget for a little while, the pain would go away.” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know what to do anymore. So, I’m going to do the only thing I know to do. I don’t care if you don’t like it. I don’t care if they don’t like it. I’m not going to stand by and watch you become one of them.” He came over to where I sat and got down on his knees. He laid his head in my lap and wrapped his arms around my legs. “You are going to hate me, but I can’t care about that. All I care is that you don’t end up addicted to something and being used by all of those assholes. Look at what Seung-hyun did to you. I don’t care if it was a dream. He’s dangerous! He could kill you in your sleep. And all of his so called friends see you as a party favor. Do you know what they call it when Korean men fuck white girls? They call it riding the white horse. It’s something they go and brag about. They collect horses,” he said and looked up at me. “Don’t you get it? No one loves you like I do. No one is going to take care of you like I do. Not even Ji-Yong. If he cared for you, he wouldn’t have had you anywhere near that party.” Every time that Zico talked about them, I got confused. I just couldn’t see them the way that he said they were. He made sense though. He was right that he never would have let me go to parties like the ones that Seung-hyun gives, and he would definitely never give other men an opportunity to do anything to me. Why is Ji-Yong okay with that? Does he trust Seung-hyun that much or does he just not care? “I’m not letting you leave here,” said Zico. “What does that mean exactly?” I asked. “It means that you are staying here and staying safe,” he said. “You can’t just make me stay here. That’s kidnapping,” I said. “Then consider yourself kidnapped,” he said.  

[briangroth27]

The Exorcist Season 2 Review

I came into Season 2 wary of the show’s direction—in Season 1, I loved the Rance family plotline but found the papal conspiracy boring—so I was glad the show shifted focus almost completely to the “possession of the season.” Not only is a family in peril easier for me to relate to and invest in, but the conspiracy element has never felt very “Exorcist” to me and I’m glad it all but disappeared by the end of the season (even if the homage to Exorcist III’s famous hospital hallway scene was well done). In Season 2, a family was once again under siege by a demon and only Fathers Ortega (Alfonso Herrera) and Keane (Ben Daniels) could help them. This time, the family consisted of Andy Kim (John Cho) and the several foster children under his care (Brianna Hildebrand, Cyrus Arnold, Hunter Dillon, Alex Barmia, Amelie Eve, and eventually Beatrice Kitsos). I liked that the kids’ diversities—be they blindness, homosexuality, developmental issues, etc.—were utilized for characterization, but those were never the kids’ sole defining characteristics. I really hope fans didn’t take issue with the kids, Andy, and Rose (Li Jun Li) all representing some facet of diversity; this is what the world looks like and I’m glad the show fully embraced it. It’s also cool that a foster home run by a single dad was treated as just as viable a family as a traditional nuclear family.

Full spoilers…

I liked what all the kids brought to the family, particularly when their differences collided with each other, like Shelby’s religious beliefs and Verity’s torture at the hands of “pray out the gay” conditioning. However, it did seem like there might’ve been one too many children to fully dig into in terms of screentime. It felt like they all had solid, distinct personalities; they just didn’t have much to do. Early on it seemed like Caleb might have a bigger role to play, but outside of his initial adventure on the old well and a few moments of his blindness being used to create tension when he couldn’t see the possessed Andy, it felt like his story was a little thinner than it could’ve been. Ditto for Truck, who was sent away midway through the season. I definitely expected Shelby to become something of a junior exorcist when Marcus and Tomas arrived at the Kim household, but not doing so didn’t feel unfinished (particularly when you take into account what we learned of Marcus’ past with eager exorcists). I liked that he was identifying the unholy signs early on, though, and perhaps they could’ve nodded at him wanting to become an exorcist one day in the future. Harper didn’t get much time at the Kim house before things went crazy, but I did like that we got to see how the family adjusted to a new kid through her introduction. Verity got the most mileage out of the writing and Hildebrand crafted a compelling teen who didn’t always get along with her new family, but clearly loved them despite the front she sometimes put up. Going back for a book Andy had given her was a touching moment and I was happy she was the one to stick by Andy longest. I totally fell for the trick that “agoraphobic” Grace wasn’t real, though her “brave face”—the creepiest pillow case-turned-mask ever—should’ve been a major clue.

John Cho brilliantly balanced Andy’s grief over his wife Nicole’s (Alicia Witt) suicide, guilt for not seeing the signs of her depression, care for the kids, affection for Rose, and the demonic side that overtook him as the series progressed. I loved the layers of hallucinations the demon inflicted on him as it attempted to bond with him permanently by enticing him with a “fairy tale” life with his wife. Witt did a great job playing both the caring and troubled Nicole and the maliciously tempting demon trying to entrap him. I’m a fan of puns, so “the kids are in the garden” was a particularly fun bit of dark and ominous humor from her. The battle for Andy’s soul was intense and I liked that Andy had moments of lucidity where he was able to keep the demon from harming Verity, despite the demon’s attempts to convince him the kids distracted him from seeing Nicole’s depression and that Verity might’ve had a hand in driving Nicole to suicide by mocking her issues. Andy’s final act—keeping the demon tethered to his soul so it couldn’t possess anyone else, even if killing it meant dying with it—was tragically perfect. I wanted him to survive, but Verity was right: once he started killing people, no one would believe him. It wouldn’t have been much of a life for him to be arrested for murders he didn’t commit, but maybe he could’ve gone on the run with the priests or something. As things turned out, Andy’s sacrifice worked on an emotional level and the final battle with the demon was tense, touching, and scary in all the right ways; Andy’s goodbye to his kids almost made me cry. I liked that the kids got to start a new family with Rose, who Li Jun Li had made into a solid, supportive, and strong presence the entire season. I also liked that Rose was so open to inviting exorcists into the home to examine Andy; usually there’s a lot more skepticism to break through before the people around the possessed open themselves up to that possibility.

The tests of Tomas’ resolve when it came to saving Andy this season worked very well. I had a hard time knowing when he was in reality and when he wasn’t, making for some great twists and putting me in his confused mindset perfectly, particularly when the demon turned the exorcism around on Tomas. The demon dangling a vision of Tomas as a bishop was great, especially when it included Casey Rance (Hannah Kasulka) to try and guilt him for leaving his parishioners in Chicago to become an exorcist. I was a little surprised they didn’t have the demon play up Tomas’ temptation to stray from the strict celibacy commanded by the church, as we saw in Season 1, but I suppose we’ve already seen that and Tomas has grown. His apology on behalf of the church officials who tried to force Verity to be straight was a great moment and a nice recognition that not everyone in the church—even priests—is opposed to homosexuality. It was good getting to know Ben Marcus’ past more this year. Both his tragic family history and his past with Mouse (Zuleikha Robinson) worked well to illuminate him. I was surprised he left Mouse behind after her possession and I liked that his inaction then was juxtaposed with his resolution to stay and kill the demon possessing Andy in the present. Not wanting to repeat that mistake has probably driven much of his dedication to exorcising demons, even after falling from grace within the church. Marcus’ father killing his mother was also a clever tie to the island’s history of parents killing their families. Finding a bit of romance with Peter (Christopher Cousins) rather than continuing to drown in sadness was another nice touch. I wonder if Marcus actually did get a message from God at the end. If so—and if they can do something different than what Supernatural and Constantine have done—bringing in angels and God could be an interesting, fresh spin on The Exorcist mythos. Mouse joining Tomas as his new partner should make for a cool change in the exorcist dynamic, given she’s much quicker to jump to killing whoever needs to be killed as long as the demons are vanquished. That should play off Tomas’ relative pacifistic nature very well, unless he’s been changed by the experience with Andy. Mouse having been possessed herself and Tomas’ mental link with the demon here—opening him up to being possessed as well—should also give them a unique background to bond over. Since Tomas’ true desire was to see the demon die moreso than an eventual shot at the papacy, I wonder if Mouse will propel him along a more violent path or if she’ll recognize her own past eagerness to be an exorcist in him and council him against it. Either way, the two of them are going to have some very interesting discussions about a lot of things, including being mentored by Ben! And if Marcus has a new directive that’s different from anything we’ve seen from exorcists or the church, it should throw the three of them into an even more interesting dynamic. What if he shows up saying that demons possessing people is somehow part of God’s plan and they should stop exorcising demons altogether?

I really enjoyed the evil history of the island and the season’s shift to a self-contained demon after revisiting Captain Howdy (Robert Emmet Lunney) and Reagan MacNeil (Geena Davis) in Season 1 proved the series doesn’t need to rely on direct connections to The Exorcist to create compelling monsters. The demon forcing multiple parents to kill their children was scary, particularly played against a found family like this one, where the foster kids depended on Andy to keep them together. The series once again found a polished yet creepy aesthetic that didn’t avoid gore, but also never reveled in it. That worked very well to set the tone and setting things on a remote island gave the season a totally different feel than Season 1’s Chicago. Making everything more remote worked to establish classic horror tropes, but the season never felt derivative. If the show gets another season, I wonder where they’ll take it to create an entirely different feel this fall.

Like last season, I'm content with where the story ended with the priests and the Kim family, so if they end up not getting a third season, I would accept it. I like that it's mostly contained each year; focusing on a single family in danger makes for smart insurance against cancellation. It would be a shame to lose characters like Tomas, Marcus, and Mouse, though. Even if I’m not a fan of the papal conspiracy, seeing them grow with each new case and the threat of each new demon makes for a strong series arc for them. A message from God does seem like it holds more promise than whatever the demons are planning with the papacy, so it would be a shame to see this always solid show end here.

[cult-of-kai]

The Face of True Love

Thoughts on episode 6, ‘Midwestern Assassin’:

The controversial opening scene- the mass shooting- is good. We’re thrown immediately into action but frantic to figure out what’s going on because the two known cult members we see- Ivy and Harrison- seem frightened themselves. And then we time-jump back and spend the rest of the episode finding out how the characters involved got there.

Vin’s call to Ally is subtle but so effective. He sounds *reasonable*, grounded in reality, rightly doubtful of there being a murderous clown cult. He thinks of how the lawyers might use Ally’s (correct!) suspicions against her. He says what sane people should say, so his manipulation really is the flipside to Kai’s. Of course he can’t force Meadow to stay. Do they know each other, Vin and Meadow? It doesn’t seem like it. I remain intensely curious about the true level of his cult involvement. I think a twist is coming, but what?

Ally still spends some time flopping around like an overly-dramatic fish, but I sense that her strength is a gathering storm. She *knows* now that she’s not crazy and that everyone really is out to get her. She doesn’t have to doubt herself anymore. Her “fuck you” to Dr. Vincent, an evil psychiatrist who wants to commit her against her will? Lana vs. Thredson tease. And Ally is Oz’s birth mother! I didn’t expect that. He looks so much like Ivy that I thought she had to be.

Speaking of- I think Ivy may well be the most unpopular character so far this season, but I still rather like her. She’s really such a conflicted and human villain, and Alison Pill is doing so well. Ivy’s participation in the cult begins as blackmail, but Kai manages to find something he thinks he can give her. Nonetheless, her commitment to the whole enterprise seems shaky as hell. And while Ivy is a very extreme example, her story reflects an unfortunate truth- non-biological parents *are* sometimes considered less than biological parents. Please recall, however, that Oz can’t even tell Winter who his birth mother is. So how much can Ally have really treated Ivy as the secondary and inferior mother? Ivy has spun her understandable pain and frustration into bitter resentment for over 10 years. Her clown costume is pretty badass, though. That blued-out sequence of her coming down the hall in Sally’s house is gorgeous and scary and fraught. The sound is used very effectively as well.

Mare Winningham got two scenes and she was batshit amazing. I don’t know exactly where her character would have gone, but she is the one I would have loved to see stick around for a while. There is so, so much packed into her dialogue. Her final line to Kai at the zoning board debate is electric. “You can thank me for this one day. A young man’s certainty is also his burden. I’m going to relieve you of both.” What an elegant threat! Also, Sally smoking weed? Alicia Spencer tease. Sally spitting at Kai’s mask and him hitting her in the face with a dick nose was… symbolic. Evan’s line-readings while typing out Sally’s “suicide note” were amusing and cruel. That whole scene turned out to be wildly different than I was expecting based on the trailer cap. RIP, Sally Keffler. It was short but sweet.

Meadow is- to the very last- a favorite. And Kai/Meadow was unexpected but absolutely one of the best things this season has given us so far. It’s also terribly sad. I knew she was still culted up the whole time because the situation was so suspicious. She’s in a hole and then suddenly she’s out and banging on Ally’s window? Nah. But even still, I kept thinking her involvement was kind of superficial and based on her attachment to Harrison. I thought her seemingly endless supply of ennui- Oprah for president!- would save her from truly buying in. But, no. She was the most devoted of all, wasn’t she? She drank the (lead) Kool-aid. And given Kai’s enthusiastic reaction to her cutting Tom Chang’s throat, Meadow’s sassy little strut toward Serena right before sinking a knife in her gut takes on new meaning. She was performing for her man, y’all. And I *love* how Kai’s demeaning words and threatening knife-wielding while Meadow is being hogtied a third of the way through the episode wrap back around at the end and lead into the sex scene, which is a cracked-out blend of sacred and profane. RIP, dear lost Meadow. RIP, Meadow’s awesome clown costume.

Who is manufacturing those clown outfits, anyway? Meadow had the masks in a bag at one point and handed them out. If she made them, she was talented beyond simply drawing. Her final sketch was a bunny mask. Interesting.

The situation with the mysterious green mist trucks and the birds is surprisingly anticlimactic, but at least we have an explanation now.

I get so stressed by all the forensic stuff. Some of the clowns don’t even wear gloves. I know they have a cop in their pocket, but jeez.

I’m not a big Colton Haynes fan, but I do think we should get some kind of back story on how Detective Samuels got involved with the cult.

Part of Kai’s conversation with Ivy half-ass fills a plot hole from last episode- Ivy and Winter vs. Gary- but meh. Gary was gross, actually begging to kill Sally. Ew. I find him so unlikable.

You know who I’m missing? My girl Winter. Come through, episodes seven and eight.

I love the competing signs on the Anderson lawn.

How is AHS this fun, seven seasons in? How are there people who think it sucks? Imagine. I’ve not decided whether it or ‘11/9′ is my favorite so far, but I loved this episode. It did just about everything right. Fingers crossed for the rest!