#Carrie Levine

[leoruby-draws]

Decided to post some more random, mostly minor characters from the DC universe, mostly ones that seemed they would be fun to draw. I guess technically these drawings are all based in my TrWh au, as always. Here they are:

Wanted to draw heroes with wings, I draw Vanessa quite a bit so I had to learn wings and feathers. Still working on it, but its fun. You can see Vanessa there at the bottom middle, looking a little menacing.

The girl with red wings is called...Redwing aka Carrie Levine. I thought she was a sweet kid, so her ultimate fate was pretty sad. Wonder if she'll come back to continuity at some point.

The guy with the mohawk is Northwind aka Norda Cantrell, part of Infinity Inc the earth 2 version of a Teen Titans group. He honestly didn't get a whole lot of focus in Infinity Inc, like the writer didn't know what to do with him. Maybe they should've made him into the magic fighter of the group, almost felt like thats what they were going for him before they wrote him off.

The girl in yellow is Dawnstar, part of the Legion of Superheroes. I haven't read much of LoSH, mostly some 90's issues. But her design is soooo pretty I had to draw her, her costume here is a mix of her various outfits.

Lastly, here's Bluejay aka Jay Abrams again, part of Justice League Europe. Kinda thought JLE was a bit of a letdown, I mean the team's made up of mostly americans not europeans! I think Crimson Fox was the only european, I thought her set-up of being two people was cool.

Little extra Infinity doodle, here's Hector Hall (Silver Scarab) hating on poor Norda, with Lyta Trevor (Fury) looking on with confusion. Hector's just a hater (tho there's reasons for it ig), an archetype you see sometimes in some superhero groups, like Roy Harper or Guy Gardner. The plot-line of Hector's resentment of Norda was kinda interesting, but like with most things in Infinity it didn't get the focus it should've gotten. Speaking of Infinity, here's some more doodles:

There's Rex Tyler (Hourman 1) with little Rick Tyler (Hourman 2), enjoying some father-son time. Apparently Rick's first costume isn't well liked (so says reddit). I thought it seemed cute but maybe it works better as a kid's or sidekick's kinda costume?

In the middle is Jack Knight (Starman) suffering as he interacts with Sylvester Pemberton (Skyman, formerly the Star-Spangled Kid) and Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl, actually she should still be S-SK but whatever). In my au he actually joins Infinity Inc, since everyone becomes heroes earlier he's actually around when the team's still running. I suspect his dad (Ted Knight) forced him into it. Also Courtney doesn't respect Jack at all, he's so annoyed at this. Look at her mini-staff, I presume Ted made it for her.

Also there's Beth Chapel (Dr. Mid-Nite) and Jesse Chambers (Jesse Quick) looking cool. Jesse also joins Infinity Inc in my au, will there be a love triangle going on between Beth, Rick and Jesse? Don't think Rick's gonna survive that, aw well.

Look at baby Jade and Obsidian, Alan is overwhelmed by their antics.

In another post someone asked if I could draw more of the Relative Heroes, a super obscure hero group. So @draculaura1660, this one's for you. Here they are:

I kinda had a hard time drawing this group, cuz their costumes are so complicated! I wished there was a reference/concept art for them cuz it was a struggle trying to figure out the details, the comic art did not help matters at all. You might have noticed I changed details anyways, I tend to simplify costumes for my au both to make it easier to draw and also to signify their younger ages. It's just fun to play around with costume design ig.

Some more characters!

Jinx, who looks very different between her comic and cartoon self. I did like her pink hair, so decide to see how it would look on her comic self. There's Kole, who also has different designs in comic/cartoons. I think her comic costume is so cool, esp that color pallet! But I love her pink hair in the cartoon, so she's got pink hair here! Just like pink hair a lot lol.

The other pink haired girl is Laethwen, love interest of Ray Palmer in Sword of the Atom. I think I made her hair more pink to better differentiate her from Starfire, also, again I just like pink hair. I wished she and her little kingdom didn't die, in my au Ray saves them! Maybe he relocates them to his backyard or something?

Little Donna and Vanessa doodle, did you know they never once interacted on panel? The closest is when Donna brings her stepsister Cindy to talk to Vanessa instead. I wonder how they would even interact, I know Vanessa wanted to be wonder girl (and resented Cassie for 'taking' it from her). Did she look up to Donna, or wanted her out of the way? Funnily enough Donna wasn't even Diana's sidekick when post-crisis started, due to both their origins being reworked and contradicting each other's timelines. It's all very confusing.

Anyways, some bonus doodles:

Had fun making a new outfit for Laethwen, I imagine she took some inspiration from indigenous groups from the Amazon, seeing as that's where her people crashed into.

Kole's costume is just so beautiful but so complicated, maybe that's why she got killed off so soon in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Lastly, here's Bette bugging Dick with Barbara being super amused about it. I said in my post about her that I didn't really care about her crush on Robin, which is true, but I still wanted to doodle something making fun of it. Poor Dick is doesn't know how to get outta of this social situation.

Well that was a lot, hope you liked all that.

[agent371]

[thesufferingsapphic]

Being a titans fan means fixating on the most unknown forgotten characters that were mentioned like twice in he 80s

[87dvhnk]

accurate representation of what it feels like to be looked at by a man

[dcforgetmenot]

[abagofmagictrix]

Kevin Levin, Master of Solutions

[garrothromeave]

for a system so set on not having monarchies they sure do suck at upholding that in mcd! like obviously that's one of the points, o'khasis trying to reestablish themselves as a monarchy - but like. the rest of the villages?

after the 15 year skip, we see that levin, cadenza, and nicole went on to pursue lordship. that's not even cadenza's THING, she never expressed interest in lordship prior to season 2. (neither nicole, but her situation was complicated.) obviously a lot changes in fifteen years, duh, and maybe all of these characters decided to go on to become lords because they WANTED to be lords, but all in the same i don't think jess really thought through the idea that it's supporting monarchy rather than democracy or whatever other system they had. at least new meteli had a council system - that's a step forward and was really dope, but all in the same, cadenza still became the lord. so. idk 0_0

you could probably twist it into a storytelling thing, where within the years without aphmau things have only gotten worse and it was regressing further than when she got there - i think that was a general idea that was being upkept through s2? so this is either brilliant writing or her not paying attention/caring. and this is jess. so take your pick

[mrsaltieri-real]

His Perfect Victim (Mickey Altieri x OC!Dahlia Levine)

Chapter Twelve: Plaything (Mickey’s POV)

Words: 3.5k

Warnings: language, mentions of sex, mention of Mickey’s murder and backstory, conflicted feelings, talk of murdering Dahlia, deception, betrayal, threatening, Nancy Loomis being a cunt, etc.

A/N: we’re getting into the nitty gritty of it all, the pace is going to be picked up after this. Expect smut, angst, fucking feelings and everything in between. Writing from Mickey’s POV is so much fun, especially when he’s so torn and confused about his own feelings and actions. Who knows how this is going to turn out? I know, @bisexual-horror-fan who has once again helped me by beta reading and editing this knows. Thank you again, you absolute fucking star!

Tag: @lizey-thornberry

Dahlia was fun to play with, at least initially, but watching how worked up and upset she’d get every time her phone would buzz, how she’d jump at the sound and the flash of fear that took over her features was beginning to concern me, something I’d never expected to feel. Maybe I cared about her more than I wanted to admit, maybe Nancy’s relentless phone calls to her were messing with her head too much, and it bothered me enough to mimic the feeling of worry, at least part of me hopes it is mimicking it, as opposed to me actually worrying. Either way, it had to stop.

I looked down at Dahlia, fast asleep with her lips slightly parted, her dark curls framing her pretty face, and I sighed, rubbing a hand through my hair and down my face. I pushed myself up slowly and carefully from beside her, trying my best not to jostle her awake.

It was easy to pretend to care about people that I felt absolutely no connection with, Sidney, Randy, Derek and Hallie, it was a lot more difficult to pretend like I didn’t care about her when she’d somehow managed to find her way underneath my skin.

My phone buzzed quietly from her bedside table and I picked it up quickly, seeing the name printed across the screen; Bankroller.

I didn’t bother throwing anything on other than my sweats before leaving her room as quietly as I could to take the call, already feeling the anger building in my chest as I pressed the phone to my ear and hissed out, “Nancy, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Nancy Loomis scoffed at me down the phone, I could picture her snooty eye roll as she exclaimed, “Well, good morning to you too, Mickey. You’re late. We were supposed to meet an hour ago.”

“I’ve been busy.” I snapped, immediately hushing my voice as soon as it raised, “But you already knew that. Why are you calling her?”

I heard Nancy sigh before she said, “We’ll discuss this when I see you. You know where to go. Don’t keep me waiting,” before the line went dead, and I heard the dull hum of the dial tone.

Fucking bitch.

I gripped the phone tighter, pulling it down to my side as I let out a sharp breath, glancing back at the door and hesitating for a moment, eyeing the door knob.

The plan was in place, it had been for a while, I wasn’t having any doubts about it, about my motive. I knew what I had to do, what I wanted to do, but Nancy was already beginning to cross a line.

They were mine to torment as I saw fit. It has been made explicitly clear that I do what I have to do, get as close to the three of them as I possibly can, learn everything about them, their routines, habits, down to their favourite kind of drinks. It was fine with Randy and Sidney, fine with Derek and Hallie. But I’d found myself beginning to feel something for Dahlia.

Do I care about her? Probably. Do I care enough about her to stop what’s to come?

Fuck no.

I pushed the door back open, trying to be as quiet as possible as I stepped in, beginning to pull my clothes on, eyes fixed on her sleeping form. She’d rolled over onto her side, arms curled around her pillow with her face buried in mine. She looked so peaceful, her face was perfectly smooth, and her full lips had turned up into a small smile.

It was hard not to take pride in the fact that I’d made her this way, gradually snipped away at the deadbeat, emotionless shell of a person she used to be and dragged out this version of her, so endearing and warm and soft. Once dressed, I leaned down and brushed some of her hair from her face, pressing my lips softly to her forehead in hopes I would not wake her up. She always smelt amazing, like vanilla and coconut, it’s something that I’d found myself getting used to and missed when she wasn’t around.

What the fuck was going on with me?

Maybe it was selfish of me to have wanted to test this out in the first place, see how far I could get with her. But the plan remained the same, Dahlia was going to die alongside Sidney, alongside her precious Randy. But what if that wasn’t in the cards, for her, anyway?

I thought about it as I walked off campus once I’d left her dorm, thought about all of it. Maybe she didn’t have to die. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to die. Perhaps the sole reason she’s still alive was an act of fate. She had died back in Woodsboro, but she’d come back, and something about that had been sticking in my brain like crazy for the last few months. Who the hell was I to test and play fate like that? She was obviously still here for a reason.

Was I the reason? Was I supposed to meet this girl, find her and make her a part of my life, heal her, make her feel something for me, make her feel things again in general? Would killing her be a monumental mistake? The last thing I wanted to do was give a great big fuck you to the universe. I had my own reasons for being here, she must have one too.

Nancy was sitting in the regular coffee shop a couple of miles off campus, just outside of town, her head bent over a notebook she was scribbling in erratically, clearly planning out the next move. I couldn’t help but wonder her future intentions with Dahlia as I cleared my throat once I reached the table, eyebrows raised expectantly.

She looked up at me, brown eyes blank as she raised a hand, gesturing to the chair in front of her with a simple, “Sit down, Mickey.”

With a roll of my eyes, I sat, thumping my hands against the table and drumming my fingers against the wood, staring her down just as she was to me, dropping the notebook in front of her.

“So?” I asked after a few moments of increasingly uncomfortable silence, “Why are you bothering her so much?”

Nancy’s hands clasped together as she leaned forward to speak in a hushed tone to me, “The question is, why do you care? Look, Mickey, I understand that you are getting frustrated with the waiting, that you want to go ahead and begin all this, but this girl is distracting you. You’re supposed to be getting closer to Sidney, but it would seem as though you’re wasting your precious time with Dahlia.” She spat out her name as though the taste of it disgusted her and picked up her cup, taking a sip of coffee. I felt a twinge of anger flicker in my stomach and frowned, my fingers halting the drumming motion to dig into the table.

“Why are you calling her, Nancy? It isn’t time-“

“I am the one who makes these decisions. Not you.” Her tone was firm, as though I was a child, and she was a parent, disciplining me. I couldn’t help but laugh a little, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms as I called her out, “Who are you, my mother? I don’t take orders from you. I’m doing this because I want to. Don’t forget, you need me a whole lot more than I need you. You sought me out, not the other way around.”

Her cockiness wavered for a moment before she sucked in a sharp breath, her hand moving to press against her temples as though the conversation was exhausting her.

So dramatic.

“I’m calling her because this was always part of the plan. She’s part of the reason my son is dead, Mickey. My son, my Billy, stabbed her, Sidney caught him off guard, and now he’s gone. You always knew you’d have to kill her, why does it matter if I’m doing this?”

“Because it’s not fucking time.” My voice raised a little, I noticed her recoil slightly at my tone and her hand dropped back to the table, her head tilting a little before her eyes widened in sudden realization.

“Mickey, don’t tell me you’ve come to care for this girl?”

I scoffed again, head falling back with a loud groan, before I looked at her dead on with a hissed, “Don’t be ridiculous. She’s my plaything, you told me to keep myself entertained, that’s exactly what I’m doing. So, leave her alone.”

“No.”

I scowled at her, feeling the anger bubbling in my chest once again. “I’m warning you-“

“No, I’m warning you. I might need you more than you need me, but remember, I can pull the plug on this. I know your past, I know what you’ve fucking done. Those people in your hometown, what you did to your family? I have the receipts of our conversations. I can turn you in, Mickey. Don’t think for a fucking second that I won’t if you don’t get back on board.”

I watched her face for a second, trying to find a bluff in her little speech. I couldn’t, and she knew it. A smug smile lit up her pinched face, and she said softly, “Don’t think you're not replaceable. You are. Get back to being the killer I’m paying you to be.”

I pushed away from the table shortly after that, stepping toward her, so I could bend down to whisper into her ear, “Leave her alone. I’ll kill her, but she’s mine, Nancy. I mean it.” Before turning my back on her and leaving the café, feeling her beady eyes glued to my back as I walked out the door.

Being bossed around like I was a child was beginning to piss me off, I wasn’t her son and I didn’t appreciate her treating me like I was.

Maybe I cared about Dahlia more than I wanted to let on. I knew I was suppressing these feelings, not wanting them to take a hold of me. But saying the words, “I’ll kill her,” out loud sent something unfamiliar and uncomfortable through my chest, something I hadn’t felt before.

I have killed a lot of people. It’s fun, adrenaline induced and manic. Nothing compares to holding someone’s life in your hands and being the one to snatch it away, the sight of watching the light of life leaving someone’s eyes. I always thought of myself as unfeeling, uncaring. I didn’t care about absolutely anyone, but maybe I cared more about her more than I cared about that.

But did that mean I wasn’t going to do this? Absolutely not. Maybe to some extent Nancy was right, I had allowed Dahlia to distract me. I did need to get my focus back on the task at hand, but I didn’t want to stop playing with her, see how far I could take things with her.

It’s all about balance, after all.

My phone buzzed in my back pocket and I grabbed it quickly, expecting to see Dahlia’s name printed across the screen. It took me by surprise to see Randy’s and I halted in the street, pausing in hesitation for just a moment before my thumb pressed on the green button and I spoke into the phone, “Yeah?”

“Mickey, hi. Um, I was wondering if we could talk? It’s about Dahlia.”

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked sharply, turning around to look back at the café.

“No, no, nothing! I just need to talk to you about her, can you meet me outside the library?” Randy spoke quickly, the clear backtrack of his previous words evident, and I let out a small sigh before agreeing to meet him.

It’s not that I hated Randy, as a matter of fact I didn’t really care much about any of them. I’m not a jealous person, I just can’t wrap my head around why Dahlia cares about him as much as she does and needs him as a part of her life so much.

Initially I thought he wanted to fuck her, who wouldn’t? Even before when she was practically a zombie, she was still one of the most beautiful and endearing things I’d ever seen, it was hard to imagine anyone not wanting her. But maybe I was wrong, maybe it really was entirely platonic. Either way, I already hated that she needed anyone else other than me in order to feel whole. I was the one who had fixed her, not fucking Meeks.

As soon as I was back on campus, I walked slowly toward the library, seeing Randy sat perched on the wall, his feet dangling as he sat and waited for me. His head was leaning against the brick as he stared dimly into space, jumping when he suddenly heard my voice, “Okay, Randy. What’s up?“

Randy turned himself around, so he was facing me, a nervous look evident on his face. I couldn’t help but feel a little amused by his anxiety. Was I that intimidating to him? I wasn’t even trying.

“Mickey, I, uh…” He kept trailing off, eyes dropping to his hands and back up to my face every so often, until I finally lost patience and asked him to, “Fucking spit it out.”

“Okay… Look, Dahlia is my best friend, she always has been. I know her better than anyone, and I know she really does care about you for some reason.”

I couldn’t help the small smile that broke across my face when he said that, you had to admire the balls on the kid.

“I promised her that I’d try and get along with you, even though I really don’t know what she sees in you.” I could visibly see the confidence he had in his own words, it was oddly kind of sweet, in a pathetic sort of way.

“I just want to ask you for one thing, please don’t fuck her over, Mickey. She’s been through enough, and I don’t want to see her fall apart again.”

My smile immediately fell, and I frowned at Randy, head tilting to the side as I asked, “You think I would?”

“No, I know you would. I’ve known you longer than she has, I saw how you are with girls. Dahlia is a sweetheart, but sometimes she’s really fucking oblivious to when someone has bad intentions.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I finally clicked onto what this talk was about, actually having to lean against the wall for support as I managed to get out the words, “Oh, for fuck's sake, Meeks. Is this that if you hurt her, you’ll have me to deal with speech? For God’s sake, man.”

Randy’s face flushed slightly, clearly not liking that this was my reaction to his pitiful attempt of intimidation.

“I’m serious, Mickey.”

“So am I. Come on, Randy. You really think I’m going to fuck her and dump her? I thought we were closer than that by now.”

It was Randy’s turn to scoff at me, and I thought for a second that I really had to do some more work on getting him to like me. Not for any other reason that to make him actually fucking trust me.

“I’m not going to hurt her.” I made sure my tone sounded as genuine as possible, watching as Randy jumped down from the wall and stood in front of me, about as intimidating as a fucking kitten.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Her voice made even me jump, fuck, she was stealthy. I turned around and looked at her, ignoring the slight flutter in my heart as she stopped next to me and I felt the warm, smooth skin of her arm brush against mine.

“Just… Doing what you wanted. Getting along.” Randy’s voice was practically dripping with sarcasm and I don’t know if she noticed and chose to ignore it, but Dahlia smiled so big I thought her face might split. I felt her hand slide into mine, squeezing it gently as if saying thank you before looking at Randy and asking, “Hey, Randy. Are you ready?” To which he nodded his head, eyes dragging away from me and settling on her, expression immediately smoothing out to an obvious affection.

“Ready for what?” I asked her, looking down at her curiously.

“We’re hanging out, it’s obviously been a while.” Randy said, his tone very obviously targeted. Dahlia shot him a look, and he smiled as if in apology.

“No, you’re right. It's been a while since the two of you have hung out, you should.” I told her, my free hand reaching to push a strand of her hair behind her ear before tilting her head up by her chin with my fingers. “I’ve got a lot I need to get done tonight anyway.”

Dahlia smiled at me, that fucking smile that made my stomach flutter and reached up on her toes to press her lips softly against mine, her scent automatically making me unconsciously melt into her.

She really did have some kind of weird hold on me. No matter how much I tried to suppress these feelings, they’d constantly bubble up to the surface. It was unfamiliar, but not necessarily unwelcome. I never thought I’d end up caring even slightly about her, certainly not surpassing my initial fascination with her built-up purely out of boredom and morbid curiosity. I tried to tell myself I was feeling this way because I wasn’t killing, I didn’t have anything to do. Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t. But I knew I’d just enjoy whatever I was feeling until I inevitably grew bored with her.

“Can I come by your dorm after?” She asked once she pulled away, and I nodded immediately, eyes briefly flickering to Randy who was uninterested by the entire interaction, focused on his phone before I focused back on her.

“Of course, I’ll be waiting.” I confirmed, letting go of her hand in favour of cupping her face, pulling her back to me, so I could kiss her again. It was like I physically couldn’t stop myself from touching her, it was an unconscious reflex.

I felt her breath hitch, felt her heartbeat drumming against my own chest as her fingers gripped my shirt tightly. If I could have, I would have fucked her there and then, in front of Randy, in front of half the student body. I wanted to. To prove that she was mine, whether she was just my plaything or not. But I didn’t, regardless of the fact that I wanted to, I wanted to wait. Instead, I let her go, watching as she and Randy began to walk away toward the exit of the campus.

As I watched Dahlia walk away, her head falling back and hearing her laugh loudly at something Randy had said, playfully pushing at his shoulder, my mind raced back to how I felt about her. I’d dated girls before. A lot. I knew I had a reputation, it never bothered me, and it still didn’t. But serious relationships? I’d only been in one before. Lexi.

Lexi was a girl I’d dated back in my hometown during my final year of high school. She was the opposite of Dahlia, Latina with thick black hair and a confidence that was almost overwhelming, but beautiful. Not as beautiful as Dahlia, but stunning all the same. We’d ended things on bad terms after a particularly awful argument after sex. I did and said some things that any ordinary person would see as just awful, to me, it was pretty regular and mundane. She’d told me, all dramatic, that she’d make sure no girl ever went through what I’d put her through. I hadn’t thought about Lexi in a while, but for some reason, the fight we’d had the last time I’d seen her kept poking and prodding around the corners of my mind.

I didn’t love Lexi. Thinking back, I don’t think I ever cared about her at all. As I watched Dahlia slowly disappear, my mind shifted back to her and I realized I’d never want to treat her the way I treated Lexi, but what if I simply couldn’t help myself? I didn’t care about anyone, why was this girl that was just supposed to be someone I could use to entertain myself having such an effect on me?

Once they were out of sight, I shook my head out, sinking against the steps of the library and resting my head against the cool brick.

I thought about what Nancy had said about Dahlia distracting me. I really didn’t want to be off my game. Would the bitch really turn me in? I didn’t want to be caught until I was damn good and ready, but even now I couldn’t help the one nagging thought that repeatedly began swirling through my mind.

When I went through with this, after they were all dead, if I didn’t end up going through with killing Dahlia, would she ever forgive me?

[mikheleworld]

[kickmag]

Chaka Khan, Missy Elliott, The Spinners & DJ Kool Herc & George Michael Were Inducted Into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

Missy Elliott, DJ Kool Herc, The Spinners, Chaka Khan, George Michael, and Don Cornelius were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Elliott is the first female rapper to have the honor. Queen Latifah introduced Elliott before she performed a medley of her hits onstage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn during the induction ceremony on Saturday, November 4th. Jazmine Sullivan introduced Khan, who performed "I Feel For You" with Common rapping Melle Mel's part. H.E.R. and Sia joined her while she sang "Ain't Nobody," "Sweet Thing," and  "I'm Every Woman." Khan brought Tony Maiden from Rufus after she accepted her award. New Edition put on a well-choreographed show in tribute to The Spinners, while a Soul Train scenario played out in the background in honor of Don Cornelius. Andrew Ridgeley, who was one-half of Wham with Michael, inducted his later former bandmate. Miguel, Adam Levine, and Carrie Underwood performed some of Michael's classics, including "Careless Whisper" and "Faith." 

[the-football-chick]

via bluesky.com

Some well known Pisces

[agent371]

I have finished. The girls are here. This took 17 hours. God there's a lot of tags

Ignore the fact that Karen doesn't have her wings in the 1st one I forgot to add them.

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: The Unicorn Anthology

Editors: Peter S. Beagle, Jacob WeismanAuthors: Marina Fitch, Dave Smeds, Nancy Springer, Carlos Hernandez, Karen Joy Fowler, Sara A. Meuller, David D. Levine, Carrie Vaughn, Jack C. Haldeman II, Margo Lanagan, Caitlin R. Kiernan, A.C. WisePublisher: Tachyon PublicationsReleased: April 19, 2017Received: NetGalleyFind it on Goodreads | More Anthologies Book Summary: Did you grow up on fairy…

[novasintheroom]

Ghost who, under “orders” from his army therapist (and with Price’s encouragement), starts looking around for hobbies when he’s on leave.

Not sure what to do at first. Tries gaming but gets bored of it and the PS4 stays gathering dust in his flat. Plants don’t appeal to him because he won’t be around enough to take care of them. Thinks about knitting, but is a bit too embarrassed to walk into the local craft shop to start making doilies.

Finally goes to the library after seeing a flyer advertising a painting class and thinks, “Hell, why not.”

Shows up in his hoodie, black face mask, and black baseball cap. Gives most of the old ladies attending the painting session a good scare

Until he rolls up his sleeves to avoid getting paint on his good hoodie. Then those old ladies are ogling his forearms and the tattoos painting his skin.

Is very attentive to the hired artist leading the session. Hasn’t got an artistic bone in his body, but dammit, he’s going to report back to his therapist that he tried if it’s the last thing he does.

Two little old ladies, Mrs. Levine and Ruby, pluck up the courage to sit beside him and start chatting him up. Compliments his painting, talk about their grandkids, how one of Ruby’s grandsons is into heavy metal (assuming Ghost is as well). Ghost listens half-heartedly, just trying to get the brown right for the deer he’s putting on paper. They manage to weasel out his name:

“Simon,” he announces gruffly.

“Oh, what a good name,” Mrs. Levine says.

He goes to the next activity as well: polymer clay creations. His hands are big and meaty and he has to take more clay than is probably reasonable to make the little pig he’s got going.

Mrs. Levine and Ruby are there too and sit right next to him to chat with him again. They love his idea of a pig and make a cow and sheep to go with it. When the hired artist comes around to see how everyone’s doing, Mrs. Levine announces that the three of them “have a little farm going” and that “Simon’s the farmhand.”

He's glad he's got his face mask on. He can feel his ears going red at the look the artist gives him.

Again, he’s very attentive to the hired artist, watching her hands carve into the soft clay with her nails to get texture on her dinosaur. He tries to do the same, giving whispy little hairs to his pig. It’s not pretty, but he feels a smidge better about going when it’s all done.

Mrs. Levine and Ruby get more information out of him as time goes on and he attends more activities. Soon their friends join in on the conversation, and Ghost – Simon – is well-known at the library for being the military guy who attends every Saturday when he’s not deployed. The little old ladies love him, even if he “doesn’t say much.” He’s helped them carry their bags of books and crafts to their cars, listens to them prattle on about activities and their aches and pains, and even scared off some hooligans who were trying to disrupt their library activity.

(They’ve all got little old lady crushes on this big man who takes time out of his day to better himself, and they love his dry/dad jokey humor)

(And he won't admit it, but these are his little old ladies now. Clarice brought him brownies that he absolutely devoured when he got back to his flat they were so good, and he can't help but laugh at how often they try to set him up with their granddaughters. And how they "trip" often just to hang on to his big arms. Birds are birds, no matter their age.)

[ruethos]

I can't WAIT for the Lore Dump boys to rip into the singular thing that destroyed my love of BioShock Infinite ♥️

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Neil talking about the responses to Good Omens Season 2 - from the Neil Gaiman interview with Brian Levine for The Gould Standard (x,x)

BL: The audience that you have built is a very passionately engaged audience. They, frankly, they love you. And one of the reasons they love you is that you fit into what I think of as one of two great divisions in art. There's, or in writing, um, there is: I'm entertained, I'm amused. I may be even enchanted; and then there's this hits me at a visceral level. You understand me as no one else does. You have touched something very central to my experience. And it seems to me that Much of your writing, maybe all of your writing, actually reaches your audience at that latter level. You know. I would say in the former category, sort of my quintessential and beloved example would be P. G. Woodhouse. He amuses me, but I don't feel like he's revealed my inner self at a very deep level. Um, were you aware that you were going to be able to achieve that? Um, that this is something... was it a startling thing when people began coming up to you, who'd read your work and said, this means so much to me?

Neil: Yeah. It was huge. And it wasn't expected. I... if I had a mountaintop I was heading towards, it was gonna be P. G. Woodhouse. Um, I wanted to be a proficient entertainer with a clear prose style who could tell stories. Um, it probably wasn't until Sandman that I found... I started to realize that in order for a story to work, I had to show too much. In order for a story to resonate, in order for a story to matter, I had to let it matter too much. And, and I remember the first people who would start coming up to me and saying, um, you, you know, your, your Sandman comics got me through the death of a loved one. Your death character got me through my child's death, through my parent's death, through my partner's death, through my friend's death. Um, and that left me kind of amazed. I'm like, well, I didn't write it to do that. I wrote it to feed my children. I wrote it to satisfy myself. I wrote it because nobody else had ever written it. And if I didn't write it, it wouldn't be written, but I don't think I wrote it to give you what you've taken from it. And I spent really about 20, 25 years feeling awkward about that. And then my father died, in March 2009, and never got to cry about it. Never... I, you know, I've, I've got on a plane and I went to the UK and dealt with the funeral stuff and organized all of that stuff and came back and go toff the plane and went and did Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report and wearing the funeral suit because and that was all I had with me and carried on. And then, somewhere in the middle of summer, I was reading a friend's script. They'd sent me a script and said, can you look this over? And I'm reading it, and on page 20, the lead character meets somebody, and on page 26 maybe, she's dead, and I burst into tears. And I'm bawling. I am sobbing. It is coming out of me in giant racking waves. And I realized that it's everything that I'd been, hadn't let myself feel, or hadn't been able, hadn't stopped enough to let myself feel, was suddenly being given permission to feel by the death of a fictional person who I'd met six pages earlier, ia script. And I thought that... and it was huge for me, and I thought, okay, that's that thing that people are talking about sometimes, when they come tome and they say, you, you did this. So right now, I'm in this weird, wonderful place where I think a lot of people in Good Omens Season 2 thought they were signing up for the P.G. Woodhouse, and didn't know that, no, no, no, you've, you've signed up for the whole thing. You've signed up for the feelings. You've signed up for the emotions. I... it is my job to make you care and to make you feel and to feel things you haven't felt before. And which meant that the first week or so after Good Omens came out, I was getting angry, furious, deeply upset messages on every possible social medium telling me that I had betrayed people, and it was awful, and they couldn't stop crying, and why would I do that to them, and did I hate them? And they hated me. And then a weird sort of phenomenon happened as people would watch the show again. And again. And now they started to know, okay, this is where it's gonna go, this is what's gonna happen, this is how it works. And they started realizing that they were actually feeling things, and that was good. And that they were caring about two people who don't exist. You know, I made them up, and then and Terry Pratchett made them up, and then, um, David Tennant and Michael Sheen gave them life, and then they get to walk around on a screen and you know they don't exist, but you can cry for them, you can love them, they can make you laugh, they can make you exult, and most important of all, they can make you care. And the number of people who are now writing to me, saying, 'This was so important to me. This has changed my life. This makes me feel like I belong. This makes me feel like I can cope. And it's let me sort of find myself. P. S. I hope you get to do Season Three.' is, is huge.