#Danny became king a long time ago in his universe

[emacrow]

You have something that belongs to me.

The world was shaking within a void of Glowing Green as the Justice League was listening on what John was explaining that the Infinite King that supposedly is a Protector has been gone off the rails in straight panic for the past 4 months straight because something very life or very death Important was taken from him and he been on a rampaging hunt throughout the multiverses, literally tearing and reforming them as he went, as John described the tip from Deadman.

Unfortunately, what was important to the Infinite King is on this earth. John immediately cut off Bruce as trying to fight him all together even with Superman that Infinite King would easily squish Superman like a mosquito with only just a tiny breath.

Just let the Infinite King find what he is looking for and pray that it is safely unharmed so we may survive afterward.

That was 3 hours ago after Batman went back to gotham, as Batman stared in horror of a larger then Life elderitch being had both of his arms deep in Jason's chest.

"You have something that belongs to me." The Infinite King hissed.

Just hearing the hitched Gasp in Jason's voice was reeling in the terrible flashback of that night that triggered his fight instinct, only for the very shadows seemingly holding him back by literally force.

Only for the Infinite King to pull out a tiny lararus Pit coated goopey naked 4 year old girl sobbing out daddy with her arms stretched out, doing tiny gimme hands toward the king.

"Oh Ellen..."

Jason's body was seemingly unharmed, beside the raspy breathing that was slowly developing into a hyperventilating hysteria after being chased like a hunted rabbit from a savage starving wolf for three hours straight by this elderitch being in Crime Ally.

The Large humaniod Elderitch being with several glowing green eyes that was a nightmare fuel, mixes together with stars, galaxies, and secrets untold slowly shrank more and more becoming more human in a gruesome fascinating way that would Haunt Bruce's nightmares for years to come.

the Infinite King was now a Teenager with glowing white hair defying gravity, tanned star coated skin, large teaey icy blue eyes in a black winter suit with a DP symbol delicate, holding the whimpering little goopey girl close to his chest, covering her with a star covered cape now blanket as he kissed her forehead looking at Jason.

"Jason Peter Todd, I am sincerely thank you for letting my daughter possess your core after she accidentally went off on her own and accidentally dipped into the deep end up Tainted Ecto portals. Your core will be healing in a few months after Ellen had kept using yours to save her own destabilizing."

"I must go now before she began to destabilize more, but here is my contact ritual." The infinite King disappeared into a clearer glowing green lararus Pit portal after a good bow, leaving behind a note on Jason's lap.

The coms were suddenly back on as Tim's voice could be heard.

"So the reason why Jason was all Trigger gun happy was cause he was accidentally pregnant with the infinite king's daughter?"

[rabbitwitch2poems]

Part 2 to the prompt by @ready-to-read7 of Diana as Danny phantom mom.

Clockwork stared at the image of a child of the gods holding the reincarnation of his godson and smiled softly his face shifting between old and adult. It had only been a month ago that all hell broke loose as Danny had beaten pariah dark, became the king of the ghost realm...and the unfortunate loss of his family (while his father was on his side his mother despised him, she believed he was either a wild ghost pretending to be her dead son or something possessing him) his friends had long since moved on from their middle school life, had they kept in touch Clockwork could see a future of joy but I unfortunatly this was not that timeline.

      Danny had fled to him in the ghost realm his eyes red from crying and his core thrumming with emotional pain. While he saw it coming the pain his godson felt still caused pings of pain for himself. Danny was losing focus and stopped focusing on his obsessions. The young ghost boy fell into a depression that caused him to almost fade. Clockwork had no choice, he showed Danny multiple other universes asking him to pick on. He told him of a way to help the pain fade, to start a new in another world.

Danny chose a world filled with heros and a universe he could explore to his hearts content, was the first time in months that clockwork saw a smile on the younge ghosts face.

"It won't be easy Danny, this universe will have to accept you, you may lose some if not all of your memories from before but who you are as a person will not change, your obsessions will remain and so will your kindness."

Emotions of all kinds flickered through the young boys core worry/sadness/hopefulness/ before finally landing on determination. "I need a new start CW, no matter the risks"

Clockwork sighed and nodded his child head before opening a portal, a blue earth with a grey moon and what looked to be a large building floating in space appearing between the green oval of energy. "I will always be here, keeping an eye on things. Never hesitate to call for my aid" were the final words the ancient said to the young boy before watching him take a deep breath and jump through the portal.

[bonewaryreblogs]

I’ve decided how Batman meets Danny Phantom.

While connecting characters between DC and DP, I came across the DC villain Pariah, who shares a name with DP villain Pariah Dark. I’ve decided that these two are the same person and fighting him will bring Danny Phantom into contact with Batman, or at least get Danny onto his radar as someone to look into further.

But first, some backstory...

Since we don’t know much about Pariah Dark, other than being sealed away a long time ago, I’ll mostly be pulling his backstory from Kell Mossa, a scientist who accidentally brought his universe to Anti-Monitor’s attention and watched it be destroyed as the only survivor, renamed Pariah by his savior, Monitor (Anti-Monitor’s “good” twin brother). He involuntarily watched Anit-Monitor destroy several other universes, blaming himself for (supposedly) releasing Anti-Monitor, though he is later assured that Anti-Monitor was just doing what he had always done and Pariah had simply diverted his path of destruction. Pariah is dropped off in a random universe, where he tried to live a normal life, though he was constantly drawn to impending disasters that he had no hope of preventing, as no one heeded his warnings (like a mix of Pokemon’s Absol and Greek’s Cassandra); he was killed and revived a few times, only to eventually fall through the cracks of reality and driven insane. Instead of being found by Flash and sent to the “paradise world” called  Earth-Flash.1, Pariah became the first inhabitant of the newly formed Ghost Zone pocket dimension and declared himself the Ghost King, sometimes calling himself Pariah Dark. (He may or may not have connections to the cosmic Great Darkness, I haven’t decided)

Pariah decides to use the ghosts of the Ghost Zone to invade the living realm of Earth but now he needs a lieutenant he can trust...

After turning completely evil, Eclipso was replaced as the Wrath of God (yes, THAT God, cuz apparently He exists in DC) by Aztar, who instead calls himself the Vengeance of God, and is bound to a human host to keep him from turning evil like Eclipso did. He’s had many hosts over the millennia and his most recent host, James “Jim” Corrigan, had been the hero Spectre with Aztar since Jim’s “death” around 1940, but he was getting old and had chosen Detective Crispus Allen of the Gotham Police Department as his replacement in 2005. The ritual to transfer Aztar’s host was interrupted by Pariah Dark and Aztar was “recruited” as Pariah’s lieutenant, killing Jim and leaving Cris unpowered and in distress. Pariah convinces Aztar to join him by promising freedom to choose his own path rather than be tethered to some goodie-two-shoes human and Aztar accepts. Danny is called on to defeat Pariah by the ghosts that don’t want to serve the self-proclaimed King (most of whom end up being Danny’s various Rogues Gallery) and is thrust into leading the resistance; meanwhile Cris enlisted the help of Batman and the rest of the Batclan (and maybe some members of Justice League Dark), who join the resistance as well.

I’m thinking this will be the first big crisis Damian will participate in as Robin, though I’m not sure if I want Duke Thomas (Signal) to have been recruited yet or not; if he has been recruited already, he’s still in training and hasn’t become Signal yet. I’ll get my timeline ironed out for my next post.

Various other connections:

There is a Pandora in both continuities, so after she “accidentally” released the Crime Syndicate (evil JL) into this universe, she decided to move and found the new Ghost Zone to be acceptable, as the inhabitants amused her. She recognized the ectoplasm that saturated the pocket dimension as being related to the Fountain of Life but didn’t bother looking into it or telling anyone because she didn’t want to risk them ruining her fun. She let the Box Ghost steal her box and toyed with Danny before agreeing to help him retrieve it. She could probably take down Pariah on her own but that would be really hard and this resistance thing sounds like more fun than she’s had in ages anyways.

DC Cronus is more-or-less the same as the god from Greek mythology but has also been equated with Chronos, the Greek god of time. After Cronus was imprisoned in Tartarus by the Olympian Gods, Clockwork was given his duties as the God of Time by Hera, loosely working with the Quintessence’ Observants.

Speaking of, DP’s Observants seem to fulfill a similar role as DC’s Quintessence, so I’ve decided that the Quintessence are the gods in control but they employ the Observants to catalogue and categorize events for the Quintessence so they don’t have to do everything themselves. The Observants are the ones who decide what deserves the attention of the gods in charge. I’ll probably have the Quintessence decide the fate of the Ghost Zone after Pariah Dark is defeated.

The Guys in White are an obvious reference to the Men in Black. Looking up various government agencies in the DC Comics, the Bureau of Normalcy (formerly Bureau of Oddities) seems to serve a similar function, so I’ve decided that GiW and BoN are both departments of the larger Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO), where the GiW are specifically focused on eliminating threats from ghostly (and similarly paranormal) origins, while the BoN handles cover-ups and convincing the public that everything is “normal” and work both in the field and in cyber security. BoN people often accompany other agencies to run interference so the other agencies are able to do whatever they need to do without fear of being seen or regular people getting in the way. The GiW was beginning to investigate the uptick of paranormal activity in Amity Park and would have contacted SHADE if they ever discovered Danny Phantom was anything more than an ordinary ghost.

Other departments include Knightwatch (general military enforcement), the Suicide Squad (generally works with Knightwatch, enlisting the aid of established heroes and villains alike, the roster constantly changes), Squad K (which is specifically designed to take out Superman if he ever went rogue), the Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive or SHADE (focused on talent acquisition), Project Cadmus (technically Research and Development, but actually trying to clone heroes for SHADE), the Department of Metahuman Affairs or DMA (the public face of SHADE), and probably others I couldn’t find in my quick search. 

[cecexwrites]

Writeblr Intro

My name is Cecily, but you can call me Cece. I'm in my 30's and I primarily write fanfiction. I do have a large original project in the works though.

My Pinterest Fic Masterlist Character Masterlist

My Current Focus(es)

Small Town Paranormal

An Original Universe

Witches and Werewolves, Vampires and Demons- all hidden in plain sight. From a supernatural sanctuary created by a vampire to a college for witches. Small Town Paranormal is a series of stories all connected by their shared universe

Prince of Wrath

A Blaise Zabini Fanfiction

Torn apart four years ago by the impending war, the Zabini's and Fawleys reunite for an old family holiday tradition- an entire summer on a Grecian Island. Pushed together for the first time in year, Blaise and Reid Fawley have to learn to navigate their new circumstances. Not to mention her boyfriend, his memories from the Battle of Hogwarts and a past mistake coming back to haunt them

OC(s): Reid Fawley (Jessica Alexander) Tate Fawley (Luke Eisner)

Story Masterpost

Nevermore

A Rabastan Lestrange Fanfiction

Merit Vander Wende hates me.

A fact she's never kept secret, but when her darling fiancé crossed me he all but signed her death warrant.

Merit might hate me, but she will be mine.

OC(s): Rhiannon Lestrange (Sydney Sweeney) Merit Vander Wende (Rachel Zegler)

Coven Wars

A Teen Wolf Fanfiction

TBA

Wasting Time with Rabbits

A Disney Descendants Fanfiction

Once upon a time, King Adam declared an end to the darkness. He sent the Villains to the isle and magic became obsolete. Twenty years later, his son is ready to make things right by bringing over the children of the Villains he banished. Including the daughter of his father's greatest enemy, Gaston. Galston is just looking for a good time. She definitely didn't mean to be the catalyst for a war decades in the making

OC(s): Galston Legume (Kaia Gerber) Cedrick Facilier (Luka Sabbat) Quinn Queen (Rachel Zegler) Aleksander Westergaard (Danny Griffin) Winter White (Matt Cornett)

Red Riding Hood

A Disney Descendants Fanfiction

All her life Scarlett's been stalked by The Wolf. Always looking over her shoulder, terrified of the dark. After the death of her only protector, Auradon is her only hope. Fate has no hold on her.

OC(s): Scarlett Edon (Maia Mitchell)

Beyond the Star and By The Angel

A Shadowhunters Fanfiction

It all started with the Academy. When the Academy finally opened it's doors to warlocks, Max Lightwood-Bane was the first to jump in, alongside his older brother, of course. Neither of them had any idea that when meeting Romy Thornhill they would be meeting the woman who would change all their lives forever. (part of the Angels and Demons Series)

OC(s): Rowena 'Romy' Thornhill (Meg Donnelly)

Swing for the Fences

A Sandlot/Stranger Things Crossover Fanfiction

The summer of 1962: Scott Smalls and Benny Rodriguez along with their baseball crew did the impossible, they rescued their ball from The Beast. Cementing their friendship for until the end of time.

November 1983: Scott Smalls is getting a divorce, living in Hawkins Indiana with his two kids. The day his best friend Benny, and Benny's daughter, move to Hawkins to help him with the transition to single parenthood, Will Byers- Scott's daughter's best friend- goes missing and the mystery of Hawkins beings to unravel.

OC(s): Lou Rodriguez (Jenna Ortega), Emma Smalls (Mckenna Grace), Phillip Smalls (Walker Scobell), Charlie Baker (Felix Mallard)

Read it on: AO3

My Finished Stories

Prince of Ruin

A Theodore Nott Fanfiction

Once upon a time, long long ago, The Nott family and The Selwyns were the closest of friends. Two families who loved each other with their entire souls. Did I mention that was a long long time ago? Now, Theodore Nott can't stand the Selwyn Twins, especially the loud and rude Cordelia Selwyn. However after a incident of revenge gone wrong, Theodore finds himself stuck with the woman, until death do they part (Part one of The Serpents Club)

OC(s): Cordelia Selwyn (Model fc is Vika Bronova, actress fc is Odeya Rush), Bastian Selwyn (Model Fc is Alessandro Dellisola, Actor fc is tentatively Tanner Buchanan) Story Masterpost

[menolly5600]

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For the purposes of further angst and guilt you could play with the different versions of DC's parallel dimensions.

Something to consider is that there's many different 'canon' versions of parallel dimensions in the DC universe. And even the mainline comics universe has had significant shifts in canon history due to in-universe events where characters' backstory changes, because the timeline was changed or multiple universes were merged.

So while cartoon Young Justice dimension is rough on Kon, his relationship with Clark in other parallel worlds either started off somewhat better and/or improved over time. Even Krypton's stance on cloning is different based on which version of canon you're pulling from. Sometimes the version of Krypton used cloning for reproduction, but sometimes cloning was seen as abhorrent.

Even Kon's name doesn't mean the same thing in Kryptonian in every parallel dimension. In at least one version he was named by Kara, and kon means abomination. I think in other versions someone else named him and it doesn't mean abomination or garbage.

There's also some dimensions where more Kryptonian bloodlines survived. In some, Brainiac stole and shrank an entire Kryptonian city and kept it in a jar terrarium thing. In some dimensions some Kryptonians left long before the planet exploded and settled on another planet and stopped calling themselves Kryptonians.

In some versions, Kon was taken in by Ma and Pa Kent. I think eventually he became family with Jon, Lois, and Clark.

So for angst purposes, what if by the time the ghosts brought the petition to Danny, Clark had already improved his relationship with Kon. Sure, maybe he didn't take the news of Kon well at the start, but he's gotten his head on straight since then, and Kon is family now. Or maybe this is the wrong version of Kon entirely, where there's a Kon out there in the multiverse that's still being treated badly, but this world's Kon is part of the Kent-Lane family now.

But ghosts don't pay much attention to the passage of time, especially when in the Infinite Realms, because they're functionally immortal. And time in the Realms doesn't necessarily pass at the same rate in every dimension of Earth. And are all these ghosts even all watching the same version of Kon?

So from Clark's POV, this interdimensional King rocks up and tells Clark that because of his rocky relationship at first with Kon, years ago, all the ghosts of his dead family declared him a child abuser. And now he's here to steal Kon away from his family.

Does Kon even know about this? This King likely hasn't even talked to Kon about this yet, either, otherwise he'd know that they'd been building a better relationship together. Does the King, and the ghosts of House El, even care what Kon thinks? They certainly don't care about what Clark thinks, or how hard Clark has been trying to do better by Kon. Kon knows though. Right? Of course he does. Kon's so much more independent than Jon, but surely he knows how much Clark cares about him.

Clark wants to say hell no to losing Kon. But will that cause an interdimensional incident? A war?

How can Clark save Kon from being basically stolen away by a sort of undead fae King, never to be heard from again? They think he's Kon's abuser, how can he possibly convince them not to take his boy, Kon, away? Can he even stop them from just portalling in and kidnapping Kon?

Clone

~

Danny has heard about Superman's dislike for his clone,

Dead men do tell tales.

Danny grows angry with Superman,

There he was showing hate to his clone, his flesh, his blood,

Conner wasn't in the wrong,

He was just a child

He didn't ask to be created this way.

Danny hated Clark Kent

More and more with each story he heard from the ghosts around him, Danny knew what it was like to be cloned to feel that violation of his person, but he could never hate Ellie,

His clone

His cousin

His sister

His daughter

His family

She was precious to him and her being a clone would never lower the amount of love he held towards her.

So to see this hero, this adult, not give two shits about Conner?

Oh that burned

So he decided to do something about it, If Superman didn't want Conner then he would take him, show him the love and care that should have been his from the very beginning from what should have been his own family.

Danny could teach him more about Krypton than Superman could ever wish to know, show him his birthright.

~

Danny & Ellie on their way to surprise adopt Conner: "New family, new family~!"

Connor: "Why do I feel like something very important is going to happen?"

~

Superman feeling like he's being followed

The Krypton ghosts following him around being disappointed in him, and going back to the King to tell him all the things he's done.

~

The Justice League summoning King Phantom

Danny takes one look at Superman and is ready to give him the beating of his life

Danny: "You want a deal? Sure! In return for it I want 20 minutes alone with Supes over there, no reason why!

~

Danny seeing Superman after another ghost told him how bad he's been treating Conner:

~

Just an Idea

[sakuraswordly]

Dark shade: God. What we call that... is God. And it is our duty to bring God back to our world and finish what he started long ago.

Sonic: I have no right to tell you how to live life to the fullest. I am not human like you. You have your own. So actually, this is nothing more...I want you... to live a life you're proud to be.

Danny: You promise me to live by your true name and your true self when your secret eventually becomes known to everyone.

Punch: God, my a**s! You're just giving yourself an out and manipulating other people! I've had enough of it! I won't let you or everyone change me or use me again! Exterminate the world?! Rewrite the universe?! Who the hell wants to do that @#$%&*?! I'm starting to hate humanity! I hate everything about this world!! I hate everything around me!! I'll get wiped this universe if I can! I'm humanity's biggest enemy! Got it?! I'm the worst girl who ever lived! I may be the enemy of the whole universe. I had no place to call home where I belong. But I'm your friend, Chester. You did destroy my life, yes and I can't be a good girl. And I don't want to be a god. But when I saw someone cry say no one needs them. I want to tell them it's not true!!

Even Punch had a good life and always happy like Sonic, but she was pressured by human society to be cold and selfish. She's only her likely mother could understand her. Original Punch is very much like Sonic. She was also sensitive, believe in herself, hate oppression and did not like to touch. But because where she lives makes her arrogant. Because she was very sensitive what make her hate the world. She felt how people around her hurt and it was unfair. She wants responsible for the world by herself and make her walking path alone. She doesn't want friends or people to be close to her because she doesn't want to hurt them. She knew she was powerful and non-human. She knew she was a freak. 

Actually, Punch is usually a polite person. Punch is a neat and lovely person. Be loved by the people around her like Sonic. Punch is humble and bashful sometimes like Sonic.

But when come to Gilgamesh every time, Punch will be like this Kid Gilgamesh from Fate Grand Order. I mean both his voice and mind are just like Punch lol 😂 .

Note: Don't make her angry. She can kill you.(Sometimes she will use swear words as a warning or cold stare like Gilgamesh) 

Punch: This reality is cruel but I still love this reality. Even if I sacrifice everything, I will protect the hope to the very end. Even if this is a mistake, even though I lost myself, even I lost my way into nothingness, I never had a regret from the beginning I was born.

Gilgamesh: I hate you for never knowing any trouble. That's why I want to win. I wanted you to praise me, just once…! Why can't you let me have a little thing like that…! I almost died every day. I always looked at myself in the mirror, wanting to die. But I was scared of dying, and I didn't want to disappear by myself…! I always believed that someone would come to save me. Someone I love and treasure the most! But Peter...you never came...I quit being human…? Of course! I haven't been treated like one for a long time. I was changed so I could become King of Babylon. I know I'm crazy. But it hurts, and the more I begged them to stop, the more delighted they became and the more they tampered with my body. The myth said I am sexual. Desire sex right? You know what? I was raped. So I'm not like you. It's not like I can do everything like you. All I can do is take my pain out on others. But is that my fault? The ones who made me like this. I didn't become it because I wanted to…! I was forced to become one because everything around me cornered me!!

Note: You need to understand both Punch and Sonic first, and you will know why one day Gilgamesh will say things like that in the future.

Enkidu: I like you, ”Punch”. I've always watched you, and I wanted you to smile. …Yeah. I wanted to believe that you had it better the more I suffered.

Syaoran: Punch's Punch. Her heart doesn't change, no matter how much the shadow or the darkness swallows her.… I'm the one who made her like that. This would never have happened if I hadn't gotten scared back then.

Peter: But I will protect you! I will protect you from everything! It might be my imagination. But my ideal is always to protect those I love. And I will not lose someone I dear the most again!

[alifeofred]

Danny and Sam looks pt. 4

Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for.

The moment our ship became real.

Phantom Planet.

So say what you will about Phantom Planet, but I genuinely enjoyed it. The first half was a bit lacking, and sure Danny was being a colossal jerk. But we kinda knew where he was coming from.

More on THAT later because I have a whole other post for that analysis.

The show really kicks up after Danny's 'I don't give a fuck' montage. The moment Sam lays the smack down.

And She. Is. Pissed.

Danny is clueless, but he does let her in on what his reasons are. Aka, he wants to protect the people closest to him...especially her.

But she isn't listening. To her, Danny's given up.

But the show really kicks off from this point on. Not surprising considering this is one of the best bit of dialogue on the show. And it gets the point across.

Disasteroid strikes. Everyone is panicking. And Danny Fenton has a plan.

It takes all that he has to accomplish. And he nearly loses his life...again.

The thing about this scene is that everyone leaves as soon as Danny goes into leader mode, but she stays a moment longer because she knows THIS Danny as well. The one that risks his life to save others. So at odds with the devil may care Danny of a few days ago.

Plus the fire in his eyes.

So she concedes. And trouble starts for Danny. The ghosts are out for revenge and Danny is a neat punching bag.

Fear not though, Phantom is back and stronger than ever. Notice how the ghostly wail didn't even weaken him. He really has gotten powerful now.

And the moment wouldn't be complete without...

It's always been you.

Kinda seems like she's saying something else, amiright?

Moment interrupted, we have plans to execute. We'll have time for this later.

So when later comes. And it's time to go. He's not ready. And she is definitely not ready.

Which is why she pulls the classic...

Promise to bring it back.

With yourself. In case that wasn't obvious.

And he's stalling, because there are words he wants to say and none of them are adequate enough to convey just how much he...feels for her.

Notice the desperate longing on both their faces. My oh my.

She makes the first move. And he's taken aback.

But he makes his split second decision. There may be a mountain of words left unsaid between them, but he'll be damned if he doesn't at least convey one small bit of it. Considering the imminent suicide mission that is.

This. Shot. Ruined. Me.

He...and she...and they! Like, what? Look at him! Looking at her! Because she feels lost. And she might be thinking that maybe I pushed him away with being so forward, it is Danny she's dealing with. The king of denial, next to her highness.

But then!

The soft way he holds her chin. So in contrast with her kiss with that douchenugget Gregor/Elliot.

Danny's just...staring her and she's...still lost. But so is he. And then he just!

IT HAPPENED!

The-th-the way he's framing her face with his hands. Holding her. It's just so darn tender.

And it was this moment that I realized I ain't ever getting a Danny of my own. Ever. Sad.

Ending this segment with the after moment.

Notice the sad boy, sad girl faces just blossom into similar grins. Not to mention...he's leaning his forehead...against hers. And it's...too much!

Or not enough.

We were robbed of a season 4 where we would've seen these two be together on a more universal level and they would've worked out so perfectly and Tucker would've been sick of it, and them. The amount of jokes he would unleash on these two.

And they would've remained blissfully in love.

Is it just me or would we have seen a more territorial side to Sam had the series continued? Just imagine someone flirting with Danny and Sam just...pulls the claws out.

Not to mention, Danny himself would've had the ghostly green eyes out every time someone made a come on at Sam.

We were robbed!

And I've run out of picture limit. So onto the next and final part of looks, that will feature so many other looks from so many other episodes.

So onto part 5.

[tcm]

Pioneering Black Actors of Hollywood By Susan King

Clarence Muse and Rex Ingram by Susan King Thirty years ago, the legendary Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier reflected on the Black performers who paved the way for him in the Los Angeles Times: “The guys who were forerunners to me, like Canada Lee, Rex Ingram, Clarence Muse and women like Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers and Juanita Moore, they were terribly boxed in. They were maids and stable people and butlers, principally. But they, in some way, prepared the ground for me.”

Poitier prepared the ground for such contemporary Black actors and directors currently in competition during the 2021 awards season such as Regina King and Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods), the late Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday) and Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah).

But it is imperative to remember the veterans from the 1930s-1960s who tried to break out of stereotypes and maintain dignity at a time when Hollywood wanted to “box” them in.

Clarence Muse 

Muse appeared in countless Hollywood films often uncredited. And as Donald Bogle points out in his book Hollywood Black, Muse spoke his mind to directors if he felt he was being pushed around or when his characters were stereotypes. Bogle stated, “At another time when Muse questioned the actions of his character in director King Vidor’s 1935 Old South feature SO RED THE ROSE, Vidor recalled that Muse was quite vocal in expressing his concerns. A change was made. Vidor could not recall exactly what the issue was, but he never forgot Muse’s objection.”

The 1932 pre-Code crime drama Night World screened at the 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival to a standing-room only crowd. The film stars Lew Ayres, Boris Karloff and Muse as the doorman at a club owned by Karloff. The audience was surprised that such a stereotypical role was anything but thanks to Muse’s poignant performance. Instead of being forced to be the comic relief, Muse’s Washington is a man worried about his wife’s surgery at a local hospital. Though his boss doesn’t treat him as an equal—after all it is 1932—Karloff’s Happy shows general concern toward Washington.

Muse, said Bogle, “also worked in race movies, where he realized there was still a real chance for significant roles and narratives.” One such was BROKEN STRINGS (’40), which he also co-wrote. It’s certainly not a great film, but Muse gives a solid turn as a famed Black violinist who wants his young son to follow in his footsteps. But the son wants to play swing with his violin.

Muse, who was a graduate of Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, also co-wrote the Louis Armstrong standard “Sleepy Time Down South.” In the 1920s, he worked at two Harlem theater companies, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players, and 23 years later he became the first African American Broadway director with Run Little Chillun. He continued to act, appearing in Poitier’s directorial debut BUCK AND THE PREACHER (’72), CAR WASH (’76) and THE BLACK STALLION (’79) and was elected to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. He died one day before his 90th birthday in 1979.

Rex Ingram 

Tall and imposing, Ingram had a great presence on the big screen and a rich melliferous voice. No wonder his best-known role was as the gigantic Genie in the bottle in Alexander Korda’s lavish production of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (’40). Born in 1895, he began his film career in movies such as Cecil B. DeMille’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (’23). Ingram also has the distinction of playing God in THE GREEN PASTURES (’36) and Lucifer Jr. both on Broadway in 1940 and in the 1943 film adaptation of the musical CABIN IN THE SKY.

Ingram also brought a real humanity to his role as the slave Jim in MGM’s disappointing THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (’39), starring a miscast Mickey Rooney, who was way too old at 19 to play the part. Ingram, though, breaks your heart when he talks to Huck about how his dream is to earn enough money to buy his freedom so he could join his wife and child living in a free state. And when he runs away, Ingram explains to Huck why he had to flee the widow Douglas: “If one of them slave traders got me, I never would get to that free state. I would never see my wife, or little Joey.”

He also is superb in Frank Borzage’s noir MOONRISE (’48) as Mose Johnson, the friend of the murderer’s son Danny (Dane Clark), who lives in a shack in the wilderness with his coonhounds. Noble and thoughtful, Mose is the film’s conscience and helps guide Danny to do the right thing after he kills a bully (Lloyd Bridges) in self-defense.

Ingram was one of the busiest Black actors at the time and at one point even served on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild. But the same year MOONRISE was released, he was arrested and pleaded guilty for transporting an underage girl from Kansas to New York. He served a prison sentence and for a long time his career was derailed. He even lost his home. Though his film career was never the same upon his release, he worked in TV and on the Broadway stage, appearing in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and died in 1969 at 73 shortly after doing a guest shot on NBC’s The Bill Cosby Show.

Ernest Anderson 

Anderson never achieved the notoriety of Muse and Ingram, but the actor gave an extraordinary performance in the Bette Davis-Olivia de Havilland melodrama IN THIS OUR LIFE (’42) directed by John Huston. Born in 1915, Anderson earned his BA at Northwestern University in drama and speech. He was recommended for his role in the movie by Davis, who saw the young man working at the commissary on the Warner Bros.’ lot.

Anderson plays Parry, the son of the Davis-de Havilland family’s maid who aspires to be a lawyer. Davis’ spoiled rotten Stanley Timberlake gets drunk, and while driving she kills someone in a hit-and-run accident. Stanley throws Parry under the bus telling authorities he was the one driving the car.

Initially, the script depicted Parry in much more stereotypical terms, but Anderson went to Huston and discussed why he wanted to play the character with dignity and intelligence. Huston agreed. And for 1942, it’s rather shocking to see a studio film look at racism as in the scene where Parry tells de Havilland’s Roy why he wants to be an attorney:

“Well, you see, it’s like this, Miss Roy: a white boy, he can take most any kind of job and improve himself. Well, like in this store! Maybe he can get to be a clerk or a manager. But a colored boy, he can’t do that. He can keep a job, or he can lose a job. But he can’t get any higher up. So, he’s got a figure out something he can do that no one can take away. And that’s why I want to be a lawyer.”

Needless to say, such monologues were cut when the movie was shown in the South. Despite strong reviews for his performance, Anderson never got another role with so much substance. But he continued working through the 1970s and died in 2011 at the age of 95.

[renegade-is-in-my-blood]

It’s been a tought week for Starks. I’m sure we can all agree on that. We stand 2 Hero Starks. Two true legends from both Marvel and Game of Thrones universe.

Tony Stark and Arya Stark.

Just a couple of hours since I watched Avengers:Endgame and wrote my many thoughts about that in my Avengers: Endgame point by point article, I found myself setting my alarm clock to early morning time (thank you time zones) and watching very anticipated battle of Winterfell.

Again just like 2 times before already as in my Lets reflect on Game of thrones s08e01 and Lets reflect on Game of thrones s08e02, I have many thoughts about this one episode as well.

Clearly many spoilers ahead.

No leaked episode this week. I’m 99% sure it’s because everyone was so occupied with endgame and couldn’t handle any more emotional trauma. We all tried to save some time I guess.

I don’t know if it’s because I was expecting some true horrors but I was left kind disappointed. Sadly I was expected to bawl my eyes out and sure I did some embarrassing screaming but that’s pretty much it. I feel like all of the deaths from episode 3 were very well expected.

It was still great episode…

BUT. In my opinion it was over too quickly. We’ve been introduced to Nigh kings army in first episode of Game of thrones. Eight seasons ago. Eight years ago. Everything has been leading up to this major fight between the living and the death. And it’s been done in 82 minutes? Ehm.

I hoped we could see the fight for at least 2 episodes.

Well to be precise I hoped we could SEE at least something.

I get that it’s the Long nigh and the darkness adds to suspense and to drama of the death. But JFK I had no idea what was going on most of the time. My site is pretty bad as it is and I literally got headache from squirting my eyes so hard to make some poor shapes and find out who’s dead and who’s kicking ass.

We can all agree that the lightning was terrible.

I just love the tons of memes about Game of thrones poor lightning that are swamping the internet. My favourites:

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First of all, who thought it was a good idea to put Gendry on the front line?

He is a badass fighter yes, but still he’s no soldier, he’s the head smith and they have another war coming up literally right after this one is done. How could they make him so unguarded? They deal with ridiculous politics most of the time and yet they make this stupid strategic move?

Or maybe they know he’s Aryas boo now therefore his plot line is protected for future purposes.

Same goes for many other characters that you just knew wouldn’t die this episode.

Their stories are protected.

Like Jamie for example. I’m sure he’s gonna reunite with Cersei so no matter how dangerous situation he found himself in, he just walk right through. I couldn’t say the same about Brienne. She was knighted last episode and I believed that was the highlight her character could get. My heart stopped like 3 times when it almost looked like she was gone. Now we know for sure she’ll play important role in next 3 episodes otherwise the writers would get rid of her by now.

Podric is another one I was sure would die in this battle. Incorrectly. He’s the sweetest, incredible singer I love him and he has magic dick but can somebody please share with me what is his true purpose?

  Lyanna Mormonts fate was sealed the moment she refused to stay in the crypts and Jorahs when he picked up that sword from Sam. Still my baby girls Lyanna is the best and she went out in big big big style.

Theons death was sort of useless this way. What did he expected to happen when he ran to the Night king like that? You can argue he was just trying to buy Arya some time or that he was fulfilling his destiny. But he had no idea Arya was coming and therefore his suicide mission left Bran on the open.

Theon Greyjos character developement was piece of art and he will be missed.

You remember last episode right ? The “crypts are the safest” were mentioned at least three times. Of course the death from the crypts would rise. So obvious. Next.

Danny and John. You can feel the tension and I can’t wait till we explore that further in next episodes. I get their plan was to stand back with dragons and wait for Night king himself to show up but how well could that have worked out? There were parts of the fight where I was screaming dracarys myself. Like when the living army pull back from the field and you had the dead standing on the other side of the fire , just standing there waiting, that was the perfect moment for dragons fire to strike. Such a wasted opportunity. I was so mad.

Both Danny and John played very small role in this episodes. Sure they did some badass shits like Danny fighting in combat besides never training or John having a screaming match with a dragon. I was expecting much more from both of them.

My humble prediction was that John or Danny or preferably both would kill the Night king. You know to fulfill the Azor Ahai prophecy. I never imagined it would be Arya and I feel kind of ashamed for underestimating her this way.

Looking back it makes perfect sense.

Although it’s kinda funny that everything John was able to talk about for so so so long was Night king and how they all need to fight him. And yet he doesn’t get to be the one to kill him but his baby sister does? Poor guy.

Sadly I don’t even remember Johns personality before the dead army so I’m really curious about that one.

Arya Stark single handle saved the world with the dagger that started it all. I was mesmerized by that library scene. How she moved so quietly to be even able to sneak up on the freaking Nigh king and his sidekicks.

And with an apparat concussion?

She really is that bitch and finally everyone sees that.

I adore the fuzz Arya is causing these days. First of all having consensual sex on Game of thrones, what clearly upsets many people. Secondly having the authenticity to fulfill the prophecy of Azor Ahai that people argue was not hers to do so.

Arya know death. She fought her, cheated her and even became her. I can’t stress enough how poetic that is.

We have seen so many characters in this show whose main purpose was to form Arya or to keep her alive like Beric or the Hound. Hound loosing his shit with the sight of fire, his one true fear, made this harsh bastard personality so humanly. I even felt so sorry for him.

I felt so nostalgic with the mention of Syrio. I’m so glad they changed his catch like from the book one “fear cuts deeper than the sword” to “what do we say to god of death? Not today.” Fits better.

What scares me now thought, is what happens with Arya now that the deed is done. I can’t dare to hope for happy ending for her even though I wish for my girl to finally rest.

Game of thrones once again made me realize how focused it is on female characters.

The best characters ever written has to be females of GOT. The sophistication, the bravery and the brains they all posses is unbelievable.

What would the men of GOT do without them this episode?

Men of GOT stood their ground and did great job. But it was the women of GOT that made a change.

Melisandre setting Dothrakis weapons on fire or setting the barrier on fire. Late reminding Arya of her true purpose. Sansa might seem useless this episode but she was ready to fight her way through her dead relatives. Daenerys’s strength and courage is unquestionable not only in this episode. Lyanna taking down a giant while being crushed to death !? Excuse me? And finally Arya the saviour of the world.

I just can’t wait for next episode when everybody finds out it was 18 years old girl who saved their asses.

Episode 4 looks promising.

    Game of Thrones s08e03 reflection It's been a tought week for Starks. I'm sure we can all agree on that. We stand 2 Hero Starks.

[scientifically-strange]

Prompt idea villain teleports the avengers team into the ghost zone and they wander before danny finds and saves them

When Clint opened his eyes, his first thought was something on the lines of, damn it, another concussion?

He later learned that no, it was not, but he wish it had been because then maybe the green skies and purple ground would have made more sense. He blinked, his vision bleary for a moment before finally clearing along with his mind. He slowly became aware of a prodding at his side, and he looked over to see Natasha pushing him with her toes, giving him that look that she always does. The one that was saved just for Clint.

"Where are we?" He asked her. She held out her hand and he took the offer, gliding gracefully to his feet. He swayed slightly, and he had a feeling the sky was having a negative effect on his depth perception.

"We don't know. Stark's suit isn't able to make contact to our world, and unless we see that vampire guy again, there's no getting back."

"So, in simple terms, we're screwed?"

"Pretty much," she said, giving him a small smile. They were in the crapper, but at least they were there together, like a team should be.

"Do we have any sort of plan?" Clint asked nobody in particular. Steve was looking around, eyes wide under the mask as he looked this way and that, and Hulk was kind of just chilling off to the side. Stark was messing with his armor with his face plate up, unable to get a read on anything due to the strange electromagnetic atmosphere, and Thor was looking like he was constipated. However Clint knew that face. He was worried. Like he had seen here before...

Oh.

"Thor, do you know anything?" He asked the mythological warrior.

"Aye," he said, his eyes almost hyperfocused. "I have ventured here before many centuries ago..." he trailed off. In that moment, they all saw what an old soul Thor was. It was easy to forget that he used to be an actual myth and has been around for hundreds of years. "Loki and I were playing in the forest when something opened up and we were transported here," he explained. "My father was the one to come and relieve us from this terrifying world."

His tone didn't bode well for the team. If this place scared even Thor then they were screwed.

"Well, maybe it's not as bad as you thought it was," Clint suggested. "I mean, you were just kids after all. Things are always scarier when you're younger."

"Then why is my chest feel tight with fear?" Thor asked his friend. His blue eyes showed fear and worry for both him and his team, and unless you had known him for a very long time, you wouldn't have been able to see it. But Clint noticed things like that. It was a part of his job description.

"Well, what do you remember?" Steve asked, trying to get them back on track. Any information from Thor could possibly help them escape this alternate universe (?) and get home, where that vampire guy was still hanging around.

"I remember a man with blue skin and a scar over his eye. he didn't say anything, just floated by. It felt as if he was staring straight into our souls. Loki had nightmares for weeks after that, thinking that the drauger was at the foot of his bed."

"Wait, what's a drauger?" Natasha asked.

"I believe you mortals call them spirits or ghosts. They're those, however draugers are much more powerful and much more destructive. They've slain thousands of Asgardians. Only magic can repel them."

"Does your hammer count as magic?" Tony asked.

"Yes, but that power comes from Odin. We need banishing spells and incantations. Loki would be the one to call for these types of situations, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, that's a no," Tony grimaced. Even the thought of teaming up with Loki made his stomach turn, and one glance to Clint told him he felt the same way.

"Then what are we going to do?" Steve asked. He dug into his thoughts for a plan but not one came up. They didn't have the right stuff for this job.

"Well, I might know a guy."

They all whirled around, only to see a scrawny, white haired teenager floating cross legged in front of them. He looked at them with wide eyes, astonished to see them. None of them knew whether it was because they were famous or because they were human.

"Do not listen to him," Thor snarled, stepping forward so he was in between the Avengers and the monster. His hammer was held so tight his knuckles were white, and he looked down right murderous.

"Who is this kid?" Tony asked, flipping his mask back down.

"A drauger," Thor hissed. The spirit was holding its hands up in defense as it eyed Thor and his hammer warily.

"Hey, woah man I'm just trying to help. You guys are the Avengers or something like that, right?" The teen asked, stretching out a gloved hand in a friendly gesture. His toxic green eyes seemed earnest and held back excitement at meeting actual heroes. At their wary nods, he continued. "That's really cool what you did in New York. Anyway, name's Danny Phantom. My friend can help you guys get back to the human world."

"First," Natasha said, glaring daggers at him. He seemed pretty unfazed by it though, which was impressive in and of itself. "Where are we?"

"Oh, that's easy. You guys are in the Ghost Zone. Yeah, some people, when they die, end up here. Like, maybe they had an obsession strong enough to pass through the veil or something. Or maybe you're just a buildup of ectoplasm that formed a conscious."

"So not everybody who dies comes here?" Steve asked, stepping forward. Danny nodded.

"Yeah, exactly. But not all ghosts were human, either. Some ghosts can even be born. Like, my friend Princess Dora is pregnant with twins right now. It's pretty cool, I guess."

"Mind games," Thor snapped. Danny flinched from the sudden outburst, dropping his legs and letting them turn into a wispy, translucent tail. He was ready to bolt if things went south, and if he did that there would be no way of getting out of here.

"Wait!" Steve said, pushing himself in front of Thor, holding him back with one hand as he reached out for the young ghost with the other. "We're stuck here and really need to get back. Do you know a guy with blue skin and a scar over his eye?"

Steve had no idea if that guy was good or bad, but it was a risk worth taking if it meant they had a chance at getting home.

"Does he have a giant grandfather clock torso thing? Can switch to an old man and a baby?" Danny asked, an eyebrow raised as he turned back to them. Steve looked back at Thor, whose eyes were narrowed at Danny as he nodded, his jaw clenched.

"Aye, drauger."

"What the hell is that?" He asked, looking confused.

"So you know him?" Tony asked, coming forward to stand with the other two.

"Well, yeah, that’s Clockwork. He's the master of time and all that. He can help you guys get back to the human world by opening a portal with his staff or whatever."

His legs returned and he stepped on the ground. Steve almost jumped back when ice shot out from his feet, but the kid didn't seem to notice as he turned around and started walking, an ice bridge being made with every step he took. He turned back around, frowning when he realized nobody was following him.

"Are you coming or not?"

---------------

It was strange, walking over an ice bridge but still having complete traction. And then there was Hulk, who somehow wasn't breaking it with his weight. Or all of their combined weights. It was interesting to see ice glitter in a new way since he had been thawed out.

Steve was walking alongside Danny, who refused to meet him in the eyes, but Steve could see him trying to sneak looks form the corner of his eyes. He smiled to himself as he looked down at Danny, taking his shield off of his arms.

"You can hold it if you want," he said, trying to start a friendly conversation. Danny's eyes were like Christmas, sparkling and lighting up with a unique joy that Steve had never seen before. He often got that same look when kids realized who he was, not with dead teenagers.

Dead teenagers.

Danny was a dead teenager.

Steve mulled this over as Danny looked over the shield that was now strapped to his small arm, running his fingers lightly over the edge.

"How did you die?" Steve asked, his voice quiet. Danny's head shot up, the excitement gone as he dropped his arms and looks away. Steve sighed. "Listen, if you don't want to talk about it I won't make you. But you're so...Young. You deserve better."

Danny was silent for a little while as they walked, and Steve could swear that it got colder the more Danny thought it over, trying to decide whether or not he should tell a complete stranger. But something inside of him told Danny he could trust this guy. After all, he was Captain America.

"I was in a lab accident," he said after a while. He seemed to struggle finding the right words to describe everything. But when he did he never met Steve's eyes. Just kept his eyes on the ground or ahead of him. "See, my parents are scientists. They actually specialize in ghosts. They built a portal to this place, but it didn't work. My friends convinced me to go in, and I tripped. The on button was on the inside of the portal, apparently, and I accidentally hit it."

"What happened after that?"

"I was electrocuted with 100% ectoplasm. It's...Weird, though. I mean, I'm dead but also not? The ghosts here call me a halfa-half human, half ghost. Said I;'the savior or something. But they try to kill me, and my parents try to kill me, and-honestly, it's just a mess. That's why I usually hang out with Clockwork or Frostbit when I come here."

"And Frostbite is...?"

"The King of the Far Frozen. He and his people are yetis that specialize in ice cores. He helps me perfect mine, and helps me discover new things I can do. Like ice coming from my feet," he gestured in front of him.

"What do you do when you're in the human world?" Steve asked. He felt bad for the kid, what with both of his kinds wanted to kill him. Especially for something he had no control over in the first place.

"School, mostly, and I hang out with my friends. They help me hunt ghosts and send them back here."

"Jesus, that sound like a lot of work for a kid."

"Hey, I'm fifteen! That's not a kid," Danny hilariously tried to defend himself, and behind him he heard Clint laughing.

"Oh my god, you're a baby!" He laughed. "Am I right?" He asked Hulk, who was smirking at the ghost child while Hawkeye elbowed him in the ribs.

"From the looks of it he's more of an adult than you are, Mr. I-eat-frozen-pizza-for-breakfast," Stark defended, giving Clint a raised eyebrow from under the mask. Clint stopped laughing, which made Hulk practically bust a gut as he slapped Hawkeye on the back, sending him forward on the ice bridge.

"Hulk likes ghost kid," Hulk said proudly as he crossed his arms over his chest with a smile. Danny grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"Ah, hello, Daniel," someone said. Danny turned back around to see Clockwork, his cloak billowing in the nonexistent wind and a kind look on his face. "Avengers," he nodded to them. Steve stuck out his hand, but Clockwork just twisted his staff a couple of times before slamming it down on the ice, opening up a unique portal.

"Go with them, Danny," he said.

"Why?" Danny asked, going up to Clockwork.

"Time will tell. Time always tells. Now go. Hurry up and save your town."

One by one the Avengers went through, and Danny turned to Clockwork.

"Dude, what is this about?" He asked.

"Just go. Help them. They're going to need it."

"Fine. But you so owe me some of those biscuit things you made that one time."

"It's a deal, child. Good luck."

Danny flew through the other side of the portal and was greeted with a catastrophic scene of some New York street. The Avengers were fighting someone they couldn't even touch. Danny sighed and flew up, giving his old nemesis a painfully powerful uppercut.

"Seriously, Vlad? New York? You couldn't be original for once?" Danny yelled at him. Vlad growled as he powered up his hands, glaring at Danny and the Avengers that now surrounded him. Danny put a fist into his palm and popped his neck by turning it to the side.

"Let me show you guys how it's done in the Ghost Zone."

Danny charged, feeling like he was finally a part of something right. The feeling in his chest said this was what the universe wanted with every punch he gave until Vlad finally retreated back to the Zone. Danny was barely even winded.

The Avengers stared at him with expressions of awe, and Tony marched up to him, his mask flipping up as he did so.

"Do you wanna come get shwarma with us?"

[austinpanda]

Dad Letter 101119

9 November, 2019

Dear Dad--

Our home begins to look and feel much more like home. The landlords, Maine Real Estate Management, have made life difficult by creating two new trailer pads near the entrance to the park, and designating them “1A” and “1B,” when previously the trailers had only been numbered. The big computer in the sky just can’t handle that. Google maps thinks our home is a mile from where it actually is. I have no idea where the police or ambulance will go if we ever have to call 9-1-1. 

But, together with MREM, we’ve convinced the appropriate parties of our existence. The mailman knows where we are, Spectrum finally dispatched someone who gave us access to the internet again, and UPS, Fedex, and food delivery people all seem to be able to find us. We got our first utility bill yesterday, with a yellow Post-It note on it, kindly asking us to contact the electric company to let them know we’re 1A, and not lot 1. Welcome to my world, assholes! I couldn’t update my address online, and didn’t feel like calling them, but I was able to switch us to paperless billing online, so we won’t receive mail from them any longer. 

Minor problems abound.

My nice computer speakers now produce a loud hum whenever they’re switched on, regardless how you adjust the volume knob. Turning it up and drowning out the hum seems effective. 

Our fridge only cools stuff down to about 55 degrees. It’s supposed to be closer to 40. We don’t like drinking milk anymore, because it isn’t cold. 

We only have about six minutes of hot water in the shower, and then you’re DONE. You might not be done, but when the hot water goes, you’re DONE. 

There’s a minor leak over the back door when it rains heavily. Fortunately, the previous tenants installed plastic hooks on the top corners of the door to hold a towel in exactly the right place to catch the drips!

The back door light isn’t working. The bulb had shattered, somehow. When I tried to get at the bulb, the whole light fixture fell apart. So that’s kind of nasty.

We have a one-meter cement cube next to our kerosene tank and I don’t know what the cube is for. 

I suppose I need to advise the landlords, to see what can be fixed. I just don’t want to, because you have to call them and ask. You may sense a theme here. Calling people to ask them for shit is not my favorite pastime. We had to call Spectrum five times before they sent someone to install our internet service.

Here’s the thing, though: Now that we’re settled in, receiving mail, about to have new driver’s licenses, we need to get jobs. And having a job, and having to go to that job, and do that job, and stay at that job till the workday is done, over and over, is nowhere near as fun as NOT having a job. I know the only answer to this problem is, “Tough titty. Get a job anyway,” but I need no further reminders about the uncaring nature of reality. 

What kind of job to get? Marijuana is legal here, perhaps I could get a job on a pot farm, if there’s one near me. I could get some die-dyed bib overalls, and chew on a marijuana stalk as one would a wheat stalk, and say things like, “The ballast on the HPS needs replacing over the Bubblegum Northern Lights Gorilla Glue Strawberry Cough hybrids, ayup.”

I could work foodservice. I don’t care; I like cleaning things. Problems with that: severe flat feet and assorted ankle bullshit means I can’t stand up for more than an hour or two without significant and increasing pain. Also the pay sucks.

There’s a university nearby. This seems like a good possibility for employment. I can type quickly, and I’d be surrounded by young, horny college students. I’m sure they’re fun to be around!

Either way, I need to think long-term with the job. Need some security, some chance for growth, as little customer interaction as possible, and some bennies. Perhaps it’s not too late to attend medical school. That’s an inexpensive pastime!

Of course, one of the biggest reasons we did this, was that we wanted to live someplace where we didn’t have to work so hard just to keep the rent paid. And we did well on that score! We got twice the floor space, and our rent has dropped from $1,050 per month to $825. The rest of our bills should be comparable to Austin. Electricity: we’ll use less in the summer, more in the winter. Our car insurance and internet cost a bit less, but now we have to pay for kerosene and plowing.

So that will be the next goal, finding employment. That will make the transition from Texan to Mainer complete. Also we want a second cat. And we hope that this will, in no way, imply failure or shortcoming on behalf of Samuel L. Jackson, Cat. We just want two, to see if the cold will help encourage them to be friends, and sleep on top of each other. 

There’s not much else going on here. The movie version of Doctor Sleep has come out! I have seen it, and would like very much to tell you how it differs from the book, in terms of who gets killed and who doesn’t, but I shan’t! And the book is better, because it spends so much more time with the characters, and Danny’s alcoholic backstory, etc. Still, not a bad movie, with a few good scenes. Doesn’t quite compare with the original, but Stanley Kubrick was from a whole different world of movie making. Also Stephen King famously HATED the original “The Shining” movie. Maybe he feels better about this one. I’ll ask him the next time I go take pictures of his house, if he comes out. 

We got our first snow a couple of days ago! It didn’t amount to much more than a dusting, but it lasted most of a day, and was so lovely to look at. It was like every window of this home became a winter screensaver. Most of the views out of this trailer are of other trailers, or the nearby McDonald’s, but some of the views are of big tall evergreens that surround us. The trailer faces north, so we get sunlight through our starboard side in the mornings, port side in the afternoon, but we’re so far north that the sun now sets at about 4:15 pm. It’s really weird!

We have purchased snow boots, parkas, a snow shovel, and a car scraper thingy to clean my windshield. I’ve got my Maine driver’s license, some Maine car insurance, and I’m working on getting my car registered in Maine. I heard that, if you don’t know how to drive on icy, frozen roads, you just, “Pretend you’re taking your grandma to church. There’s a platter of biscuits and 2 gallons of sweet tea in glass jars in the back seat. She’s wearing a new dress and holding a crock pot full of gravy.” I guess this means driver slowly and cautiously. We are prepared! 

Much love to you both! More updates to follow!

[just-another-busy-fangirl-writes]

Laura’s Reading List: Jensen x Jared

Let me know if you have any other fic recs for me to read & put on this list!

[awesome list]

{another list}

Out of the Darkness by aelia (on LJ) ***Comp   Towards the end of Supernatural, Jared and Jensen are slowly drifting apart until there is nothing of their friendship left and they literally go separate ways. When they coincidentally meet eight years later, Jared finds his former best friend not only pysically changed but also mentally hurt. Can Jared and Jensen find each other again? And can Jared help Jensen to leave behind the darkness that has been encasing him ever since that accident has changed his life?

Got me so blind I can’t see by @ashtray-thief, NC17, 20k ***Comp   Jensen has loved Jared ever since he came to court. But Jared is the king’s half-brother and Jensen is just a commoner. There’s nothing Jensen can do but focus on his career in the military and bury his feelings. But when the king sends him to protect Jared on a diplomatic mission and Count Amell pursues Jared with intent, Jensen can’t hide his feelings any longer.

The President’s Man by dont_hate_me01 (on AO3) ***Comp   When Jared’s father died ten years ago, Jared became involved with drugs and bad friends. Luckily, he had more than one person in his corner who looked out for him. Things started to look up, but the past became the present and left Jared in more danger than what he thought possible.

It Never Gets Easier by fatebegins (on AO3) ***Comp   Jared’s not so happily married. He married Jensen young, and had kids before he was ready. Before Jared knows it his life isn’t his own. Pushing down his own feelings, Jared makes a mistake that will change his life forever- maybe for the better.

Claret and Clarity, by firesign10, 3k and 15k, NC17 ***Comp   Jensen is a vampire who hasn’t been hungry in a very long time. Danni brings a very special treat to tempt him.

The Love that Remains by lulyls (on AO3) ***Comp   It’s a story about loss. About an 11 year old boy who falls in love with a boy with blue hair at a summer camp. This is a story about how both boys part ways too soon, but change each other’s lives forever. This is a story about dreams. About how, years later, a guy meets a homeless man, is drawn to him in a way he can’t explain, and feels an inexplicable need to help him. A story about how the heart knows, even when the eyes don’t. This is a story about destiny. There’s a boy named Jared and there’s another named Jensen, and this is their story. How they lost and found each other, and how they must battle their inner demons, have faith in themselves and in one another. This is the story about two boys fighting to finally have the happy ending they’ve been dreaming about their entire lives, and to find their own definition of happiness. It’s a story about love.

Screw You, We’re From Texas by makeit_takeit (on LJ) *** Comp   Everyone knows the story - Jensen had plans to enroll at Texas Tech and become a Physical Therapist, Jared was heading for the University of Texas to become an Engineer. Instead, they both got against-all-odds breaks in Hollywood and ended up on a totally different path. This is the story of what could have happened if fate twisted differently, if they never got those big Hollywood breaks, and instead ended up living the lives they grew up expecting to lead.

Faint Stars and Bright Satellite Skies by marishna (on LJ) ***Comp   It’s a story made for Hollywood- a chance encounter between a regular, down-to-earth guy with his whole life planned out for him without a second thought and a well-known, popular movie star turns into something far bigger than either man could ever anticipate. Neither Jared Padalecki nor Jensen Ackles expect or want the complications that arise in their lives from their fast friendship- especially when it develops into something neither anticipated. While Jared accepts and tries to deal with his growing feelings for his famous friend, Jensen fights it every step of the way until his strictly controlled life, hidden behind a public persona, spins out of control.

A Supernatural Love Story by MsImpala67 (on AO3) (Ch 10 5/12)  The story of how Jared fell in love with Jensen, how Jensen was already in love with Jared, and what happened after that.

Beautiful Disaster by nyxocity (on AO3) ***Comp   Rock Band AU. Jensen’s the lead guitarist in the number one rock band in the country. Justin’s the lead singer, and they’ve been doing this together since middle-school, been together since just after high school. As on top of the world as they are, Jensen’s starting to become disillusioned with the lifestyle and his crumbling relationship with Justin. And then he meets a new roadie on the crew named Jared who’s got a voice like an angel and a heart to match, and everything starts to change.

Homework Verse by nyxocity (on AO3) ***   Jared’s eighteen and in his senior year at a private school in San Francisco. He’s coasting pretty on his parents generous school donations—until his seventh period Physics teacher gets replaced with the maddening, infuriating, gorgeous Mr. Ackles. Jared’s gotten by all his life on his money and his charm, but Mr. Ackles seems to think he needs some… lessons in self-control. The journey their relationship eventually takes them on turns out to be far more than either of them ever bargained for. ((Toppy!Teacher!Jensen in glasses and Student!Jared in private school uniform included))

It Takes Two ‘Verse by ObsidianRomance (on AO3) ***Comp   Jared and Jensen first meet when pro wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys Jensen decides to improve his game with some ballet lessons from famous Polish ballet dancer Jared. Jared thinks Jensen is brutish and Jensen thinks Jared is prissy, but you know what they say- opposites attract.

Alpha Mates by sanshal (on AO3) ***   What happens when two rival alphas are forced into a mating bond?? In a world where alphas hold power and mated-betas are naturally submissive to their alphas, two business competitors are compelled into accepting the other as their life-partner. In spite of the inevitable clash of wills and egos, the duo manage a fragile peace…but will the others’ secrets shatter the careful truce they managed? And will the two rivals ever manage to attain domestic bliss?

Honey, Flower, Apple, and Lime by veronamay (on LJ) ***Comp  The year is 1855. Jensen is the scion of a wealthy Dallas family, heir to a ranching empire that stretches across the American Southwest. Until now, he has led a life of carefree abandon, charming his way into boudoirs and out of entanglements by dint of his silver-tongued wit. After his father’s sudden death, Jensen is sent to London by his stepmother to acquire a wife during the Season. Threatened with disinheritance should he make an unsuitable match, he arrives on the doorstep of his friend Welling’s household prepared—reluctantly—to do his duty. Everything changes, however, when he lays eyes upon the Wellings’ newest footman. Padalecki is tall, strong, intelligent and beautiful—everything Jensen admires in a man. From the moment they meet, Jensen is willing to risk everything to gain the gorgeous Texan’s love. But Padalecki wants nothing to do with Jensen … or does he?

Phoenix by Xenodike, NC17, 111k ***Comp   It’s a nineteen hour drive from San Francisco, California to Evergreen, Colorado. When Jensen drives out of the roundabout and onto the compact dirt road leading towards the two thousand four hundred and fifty-six acres of The Phoenix Ranch, it’s nine o’clock in the morning and he’s been traveling for twenty-three hours straight. Coming home to the ranch Jensen left ten years ago, he has to face his past, present and decide what he wants going forward. All while juggling a baby, a broken relationship, his grandpa, dad, part-time stepmom, four uncles, a cousin, the mother who abandoned him and Jared fucking Padalecki. It’s complicated…

Of Princes and Prophecies by Zubeneschamali, NC17, 44k ***Comp   Jared has lost everything thanks to the usurper High King. He can’t take any of it back, but he can strike out the only way he knows how: kidnap and ransom. The High King’s fiancé is riding across the country and through Jared’s forest, and wouldn’t he be a fair prize?Jensen has not quite resigned himself to the fate of being the High King’s second spouse when bandits strike. If he can get away from them, it might be his only chance for a life of his own. But once he finds out who the bandits’ leader really is, everything will change, for himself and for his kingdom.

Guilty series by Theboys on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on both of us, because we let it happen. Jensen and Jared are both guilty. The only question that remains is whether or not they’re willing to do anything about it. (parts 2,3 and 4 have Daddy Kinks)

You Are My Hero by A_Touch_of_Hope on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Jared’s finished school, and it’s finally the summer. He plans on spending it with his best friend Chad. Jensen, Chad’s father is going through a rough breakup–Jared never expected that listening to Jensen berate himself would hurt so much. Feelings develop, and he feels like he needs to get away. But Jensen finds him. “I’m thirty-nine. Not getting any younger. If you want me, let this happen. If you don’t, stop me, and I promise you that I will never make an advance on you, Jared.”

I’ve Got A Jared Waiting At Home For Me by A_Touch_of_Hope on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU. Jensen needs to be with Jared, not stewing in his cubicle, just waiting for the clock to strike five. Yes, Jared had given him mind-blowing head as a wake-up call birthday present, and then proceeded to ride him like a cowboy—it had been fucking spectacular—but not enough to grant him the patience to remain here, when it’s the last place he wants to be right now.They have stuff to do, no time to sit around.

Teach Me, Daddy by littlefirefly31 on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 AU.  Prompt: Hey, man! I’ve missed your stories so much, I’m glad you’re back! I have, yet, another request - Age difference J2 with younger, bottom!Jared and lots of daddy kink? (ages 11 and 21)

[kc-anathema]

Happy Endings To All in the Alternate Universe

Happy Endings To All in the Alternate Universe

Background: This is a response to the spec challenge, what if a vampire was made by a different vampire? This started out as a long story, akin to Fresco, but I got lazy and decided it would work better as a short flashback. But I still wanted a happy ending!

Disclaimers: I don't own these vampires, Anne Rice does.

Spoilers: Well, since this is all screwed up, it's not spoiling any of the vamp chron, is it? Well, maybe IwV. And TVL. And QotD. And...oh hell, all the damn Chron, okay?

Warning: Mild implied slash and violence, and some age tampering with Daniel and David. Hey, it's an alternate universe, they could be born at slightly different times!

Lestat sat perched on the roof of the small house he shared with his beloved fledgling. He wondered where his mother was, as he did every night. The last time he'd seen her was so very long ago, when he'd made her a vampire. She'd sent a letter a few years ago, but he hadn't heard from her since. He knew she was all right, running through the jungles of South America. Still, he wished she'd get in touch more often.

Marius had been so angry when he found out about her, he smiled sadly. His maker didn't like the fact that Lestat had made another vampire and turned her loose, but when he'd found out who she was to him, it was difficult to scold. Lestat had thought it would be hard to live with him after that, but then they'd found Armand soon after, and once they rescued him from the Theatre, Lestat was free to roam.

He'd felt a little sad after the battle, watching Marius cradling Armand and kissing him. The fight had been a hard one, not only destroying the nest of monsters but also getting Armand out safely. In fact, that was the only reason Marius had made Lestat in the first place. He'd walked in on Magnus, who had just finished draining Lestat, and immediately recognized the madness in the old vampire. Instead of finding help from Magnus in searching for his lost fledgling, Marius had helped destroy Magnus, but then he'd still needed assistance finding his fledgling...and Lestat had been right there, the chosen of Magnus.

So Marius remade Lestat.

At first Marius made it clear that Lestat was just a guide, saved only because he was needed. As time wore on, though, Marius grew to like this youngster, who was so brash and so frightened at the same time. Marius taught Lestat everything he needed to know, and showed him exactly what a pleasant relationship could be, without the fear or pain. They'd cultivated a close friendship, and Marius had told him all about Those That Must Be Kept, although he'd never shown them to him.

Still, they'd only made it to being friends, because Armand almost immediately came into the picture. Lestat'd felt slightly abandoned when Marius turned all of his attention to the small vampire who'd flown into his waiting arms, but he knew it was for the best. He'd returned to Nikki, and they'd been happy for awhile.

Nikki's playing only became more impassioned once he was given the Dark Gift, though, and soon he was so involved with his violin that he started to forget Lestat. A few years later he left him for a career on the stage, where he still played to this day. They still wrote each other and lived on civil terms, but now they were only friends.

"Lestat, it's getting early!"

"Coming!"

He turned fast and slipped in through the window, shutting it behind him. Books cluttered the entire room, stacked on desks and chairs and put in tall piles on the floor, threatening to trip him up. Of course there were shelves, but they were all full. He just shook his head with a smile and nimbly stepped around them, practically dancing down the stairs.

"Louis!"

His green-eyed beauty turned with a broad smile and held his arms out, catching Lestat up and whirling him around. His pretty fledgling was a wondrous creature; living with him was as miraculous as making him had been. Lestat had been as gentle as possible in giving him the Gift, and Louis had shown him what he'd missed when Marius had made him. Things had been so rushed in the castle, with the piles of blonde bodies around them and the knowledge that he was only alive to help his maker. Louis, though, was a creation of pure love, since Lestat knew then what it was like to be without love. He wanted his fledgling to have the happiest life possible, especially since his mortal life was so painful, running from his family and all.

"You must learn to come in earlier," Louis scolded him softly. "One of these days I will have to drag you inside, partially singed."

"Never, I promise," Lestat laughed. He tried to sit down and found a book on his seat. He picked it up and plopped into the sofa. "Charles Dickens again? But chere, he is so boring! Shakespeare is much more fun."

"If it were up to you, we would have nothing but Shakespeare in this house!" Louis smiled, draping himself across Lestat's lap.

"Well, at least we would only have thirty-seven plays and a volume of sonnets," Lestat replied. "Not these waterfalls of books teetering on the edges of shelves and tables."

"You said we were going to move soon."

"Yes, and we will, once I find the right place. Somewhere in New Orleans, the Garden District, I think. Out of these street apartments."

Louis sighed and lay his head on Lestat's chest. He didn't say anything, but his look told Lestat exactly what his fledgling was thinking about. Any mention of moving usually brought memories back of their first move, and the violent argument that had ensued.

"You can't forget her, can you?" he whispered.

"No," Louis sighed. "I wish...I wish I had not run by her, I wish I had done something for her."

"It's my fault for making you upset," Lestat said quietly. "I had not meant to make you cry that night, but I never expected you to run from me."

"I never thought you would chase me. I thought you were going to hurt me, I don't know why. God knows you haven't ever so much as raised your hand to me before."

"No one thinks clearly when they are distressed."

Louis just relaxed deeper into his arms. "I heard someone crying, and I turned, and...she was such a little girl. I could see her mother there, already dead. She looked at me, Lestat. She looked right at me! I wanted to go inside and help her...but then I heard you calling my name, so I ran away. I just wish I knew what happened to her."

"I'm sure she was all right," Lestat insisted. "What did you want me to do, make her one of us?"

Louis shook his head. "No..." He sighed and closed his eyes. "She's dead by now, isn't she?"

Lestat nodded. "It's been over a hundred and fifty years, at least. No mortal can last that long."

"I wonder where she is now. If my brother is with her..."

Lestat shook his head. "No, don't think about things like that. You know it only makes you sad, and then I get sad that gives me a headache."

Louis smiled and kissed him, wiping away the tears building in his eyes. "I'm sorry, my love. I just want to know if she is happy, and if my brother is happy."

"You won't know until you see them."

Louis shook his head. "No, that can wait for a long time to come. I don't want to leave you. Oh, but that reminds me, Armand called. He wanted to ask if he can borrow our copy of Phantom of the Opera."

"Why? He's already read it."

"Yes, but Daniel hasn't. Armand wants him to know what the book is like, since his fledgling still thinks the movie was an original screenplay."

"Danny isn't very bright, is he?"

"He's not that silly."

"You're only saying that because you gave him an interview."

"I never expected Armand to take him in."

"Neither did Marius. How is he getting along with that stuffy British man, anyway?"

"You did not hear?"

"Hear what?"

"David is one of us now." Lestat blinked hard. "You mean...eww, but David was so old!"

"He was only forty. That isn't such a bad age, not now."

"Maybe he could exchange with someone for a younger body," Lestat suggested.

"What odd ideas you have!" Louis laughed. "Personally, I was more surprised that Armand made Daniel so young."

"Fifteen isn't too young. He probably wanted someone he could see eye to eye."

"Lestat!"

"Well, it's true."

"You're going to get into serious trouble one of these nights, my love."

Lestat decided that now was probably not the best time to mention that he wanted to go back on stage as a rock star. Better wait 'till tomorrow. For now, though, the sky was beginning to turn a lighter shade, so he tightened his hold on Louis and picked him up, carrying him downstairs to their daytime sanctuary.

In the basement, Louis had designed a room that would withstand fire and flood and lock up tight so no one could get in. His most prized books were down here, but they were neatly packed on a shelf. The Oriental rug was three inches thick and spread to every corner of the room. There was one mahogany desk with a computer, but Lestat detested having to work in the bedroom. He insisted it was a room meant for relaxation alone.

The bed was a testament to that belief. A king's size, it was made slippery silk sheets with feather blankets and a velvet cover on top. The pillows were also stuffed with down and covered in silk, and the headboard was carved with flowers and vines. Despite Louis' modest nature, he loved this room.

Lestat turned on the small lamp, creating just enough light to see by. They both disrobed, putting their clothes away. Convincing his fledgling to change clothing night to night had taken some time, but finally Louis was no longer wearing shirts and pants to rags. Of course, having him nude in bed a marvelous plus.

Lestat slid into bed, pulling the covers back for Louis, who eagerly took his place beside his maker. Louis snuggled up to him, kissing him a few times, and didn't move as the blankets were pulled up to his throat. They couldn't see the sun, but they could feel exactly how close it was to rising.

"I love you," Louis said, putting his arms around him.

"And I love you." Lestat lay his head against Louis' shoulder. Long ago Louis had somehow gotten him to relinquish all power in bed, and it was one of the best things he'd ever done. The love and trust in this relationship was well worth the vulnerability. "Sweet dreams."

"Pleasant dreams," the fledgling replied, and turned off the light.

The End

[dannyphantomluver2]

American Victorious Twilight winx titans phantom book 1

Authors note -

Sorry for the long wait for A new stories don't hurt me! ( hides behind Danny)

this is based off A Larping thing me and my friends do.

MY FIRST CROSSOVER YES!

Danny Phantom Season 4 crossovers

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THEY ARE OWNED BY WHAT they're OWNED BY COPYRIGHT IS Nick, Disney, Rainbow,4 kids TV, cartoon network/boomerang, Summit Entertainment.

DP Winxclub ADJ L Victorious Twilight, Teen Titans

this has nothing to do with any of my other stories so Dani hasn't returned yet.

Danny - I HAVE COUSINS OTHER THAN DANI!

Me - Yes now shut up and let's get to it

Some are introduced before others

I've been trying really hard and I think I got the writing down, let me know thanks.

Post PP

6 months after PP

and after

ADJL Series Final

Twilight American Winx Titans Victorious Phantom

No one's POV

Amity Park

It was A Typical Normal Day In Amity Park. Kids heading to School People heading to work.Ghosts attacking, What!.? that's not normal?! you ask. Well, it is to me you see Amity Park is the most haunted city in the world.How do we protect ourselves you say?

Well we don't protect ourselves you see Danny Phantom does who revealed himself to being Danny Fenton the son of professional ghost hunters ironic, isn't it? He saved the planet from the Disasteroid and revealed his secret to the world. So let's see how he's doing.

Danny's Pov

Sam and I were walking to my house after our date at the Amity Bowling Alley, I won by two. It was Friday so that meant date night for us.It's just not as private since I revealed myself after the Disasteroid Incident. The Camera crew of Amity Park News was A few feet ahead of us. Which meant the Paparazzi and Fans weren't far behind. I grabbed the mail As we entered Fenton Works. Scheming through the mail I noticed A specific one with A Chinese symbol of A Dragon on it. It was addressed to my Mother. Sam looked at me concerned, I must have spaced out. ''What is it? she asks, ''A Letter addressed to my Mom.''What's that Emblem on the Envelope?. ''A Dragon I say still examining the Envelope, she gave me A bewildered look.'' I don't understand either maybe I should give this to my Mom and ask Questions later. Sam nodded in agreement and we headed down to the Lab.

New York

Jake's POV

''Yo Mom what's with All the Packing! I asked as I entered the house and stared at all the Clothing around the Living room.''We have A Family reunion at Aunt Kathy's my annoying goody-goody little sister Hailey said glancing up from her book. ''Whaaaat, I say glancing at my Mom. ''Now Jake I know you don't care for your Aunt Kathy or cousin Gregory.''Which I quite frankly agree with you about. '' But It would be A good gesture, besides certain family members I haven't seen In A long time will hopefully be there.''Who Mommy? my sister says in her little perky annoying voice. ''My Sister's Maddie Fenton, Miriam Sparks, and Alisha Wu.'' I haven't seen them in years. '' If you saw them you wouldn't think we were related. She said chuckling slightly.''We never told you this but your Grandmother was American. ''She was born here not one ounce of Chinese in her blood. ''Wow Mommy! that's interesting ! ''right Jake? said, Hailey. ''Ya whateves,' I said.''When are we leaving? ''Next Saturday she tells me. ''Do you know if they have any kids?Hailey asks our Mom with excitement in her voice. ''Probably honey but maybe around Jake's age. I saw my Eleven-year-old sis bow her head in sorrow before I said goodbye. ''Alright I'm gonna head over to Gramps shop see yaz. I tell her before heading out then Dragoning up and heading to Gramps shop.

AmityPark

Danny's POV

'' Mom? you down here?! I yelled down the kitchen stairs that led down to my Parent's Lab. '' Yes Sweety. I hear her say. As we head down to the Lab, where we saw her in her usual Jumpsuit with Hood and goggles on, tinkering with the Spector deflector. I shuddered hoping she modified it to work with me than against me. ''Uh?Mom? I yelled over Mom's fire flare. ''Sam and I just got here and I got the mail and theirs one that really got our attention! I finally got my Mom's attention when she stopped what she was doing and took off her hood to look at me with those Amethyst eyes. ''What got your attention? she asked. ''This letter it's addressed to you with some Dragon symbol on it. I said as I handed her the letter. .We waited while she opened and read the letter her eyes bulged as if something horrible happened. ''What's wrong Mom? I asked after two minutes of A very awkward silence. ''It's A letter from my Cousin Kathy theirs A Wu Family Reunion Next Monday and since it's Spring break we have time to pack but Knowing Susan she Probably already started packing. ''Really Should we start Packing? I said looking at her curiously. ''Yes it's Next Saturday.'' I'll tell your Sister when she gets home. ''Well Sam and I are going to go meet Tucker for patrol I said. ''Alright sweety Oh you still need to tell me and your Father how you became Half Ghost. ''I will after Patrol alright? I told her, ''Sure sweety she says. ''Bye Mom I said before grabbing Sam by the hand and leading her up the stairs. ''Bye Mrs. Fenton, Sam says as we head out the front door.

New York

Jake's POV

We were ready for the Reunion we just needed to pack all of Gramps Magical Mojo.''Yo G, I said while picking up A box.''What'sThe Deal with the Reunion! all of A sudden it's messing with my Schedule Rose and I were going to go on A Date? ''Young Dragon you and I both know that you as the American Dragon has many responsibilities even if it's sometimes not Dragon related. G told me.

in Jakes' head

It's hard to believe him he always looks like he's pulling something.

out of it but still spaced out

''Sometimes that includes Family get together's like this. ''Aya! '' Jake are you even listening to me! (back to Earth) ''Sorry G, it's just I don't want to see the same annoying Family we see every year. ''This reunion will be different young one. ''How? I asked. ''My Daughter's Alisha, Miriam, and Maddie may come this year. ''Why hadn't they come before. I asked. ''Alisha had no children and thought being A dragon was unuseful so she skipped her Generation like your Mother. ''Miriam and Aunt Maddie didn't but I don't think they use it much. ''But they have gifted Children Miriam with her Fairy abilities and Maddie with Brains much like your sister. ''Maddie went to Wisconsin University Where she met your Uncle Jack. ''Another son In law out of the Chinese line no Dragon powers. My Grandfather said disappointedly shaking his head.''Miriam went to Alfea school for Fairies. ''Wait wait wait fairies? as in this size fairies. I said demonstrating An inch the size of A toothpick. ''Well no human size but she can miniaturize. ''Did they have Children? I asked. ''They did Maddie and Jack has two kids Jasmine and Daniel Fenton. ''Really? ''Yes Jasmine is seventeen and Daniel is fifteen. ''Miriam soon left the Palace and Married King Oritel of the planet Sparks. '' ''Whaaaaat?'' King, Queen? I said confused by all means .''Oh, I forgot to mention you your sister and your Cousins are Royalty young one.''Sorry, we never told you but you were too young to understand. ''It's ok ''When's the Reunion? I asked. ''Next Saturday G said. ''Oh alright where's Fu? ''Out with A poodle G says. ''Of course, I say. ''Well catch you later G. ''Goodbye young one. He says as I head out the door to head to my Date with Rose.

Amity Park

Danny's POV

''I'll miss you. Sam tells me as we were packing the R.V to head to the Airport to go to New York. ''I'll miss you too, I tell her. ''You sure you and Tuck can handle AmityPark without me for the weekend? ''Of course, Go mingle with your Family. ''Alright I love you. she tells me. '' I love you to tell her. She then grabs the collar of my shirt and gives me the most passionate kiss I had ever felt from her since we started our relationship.

''See you soon. she tells me. ''See you, I say getting into the R.V sitting next to my Sister, Just as the R.V started up and we rode off out of AmityPark heading to the Airport to head to New York to meet my Mom's side of the Family. I hope they don't think I'm odd because of my powers. Because I know they heard the News after I saved the Planet.

Jake's POV

''I'll miss you. My Girlfriend Rose tells me. ''I'll miss you too I tell her.

She gives me A kiss and leaves. ''Come on Jakaroo my Dad tells me If you want to meet your new Cousins you better hurry and get in the car. ''Dad? ''You Just Found out six months ago that you married into A Family of Magical Reptiles.''You really want to go diving head first into it. '' I mean they're probably going to freak when they find out you know. ''Mom what about the Dragon Council? ''Well Jake I just don't know she tells me. Awwww Maaaannn.

No one's POV

Little Did the Ghost Boy and the American Dragon knew is that Prince Aragon and the Dark Dragon would team up to defeat The American Dragon and the Infamous Danny Phantom.

Author's note

HURRAY! MY FIRST CHAPTER OF MY FIRST CROSSOVER YEAH! MORE WILL COME AND I PROMISE IT WILL GET BETTER. THANKS FOR READING REVIEW! DANNY AND JAKE WANT YA TO.

Jake - Dooooooooooo itttttt doooooooo it

Danny - you know you want to. We know you want to right Cuz?

Jake - Oh ya yo press that fav and follow button!

Danny - Press it press it press iiitt!

Box Ghost - BEWARE! Do not press the mysterious button of horror!

Danny - Press itttt! SHUT UP BOXGHOST! BE RIGHT BACK ( BEATS UP THE BOX GHOST IN 15 SECONDS AND SUCKS HIM IN THE THERMOS) WHERE WAS I OH YA PRESS THE BUTTONS!

[grapsandclaps]

Graps and Claps does Guest Blogs Part 3 - True Grit Wrestling

Hello everyone!  Ben Corrigan here, feeling very honoured to have been invited back to present another guest edition of #GrapsAndClaps.   My last stint as a GUEST GRAP CLAPPER was a few weeks ago when I told you about my trip to 3CW; you can read all about that one (as well as a bit of background on myself) here: https://grapsandclaps.tumblr.com/post/165973966028/graps-and-claps-does-guest-blogs-the-755-show. This return edition will focus on my recent visit to True Grit Wrestling, held at Fibber’s in York last Saturday (21 October 2017).  This was my 59th live wrestling show of 2017, with the big 6-0 coming the following night in Leeds at TIDAL Wrestling (which I’m sure your regular #GrapsAndClaps host Andy will be along to tell you all about shortly).   This one wasn’t really an “away day” for me: it was the local-est of local graps, taking place a mere 10 minute walk from my front door.  Thanks to Storm Brian, however, that brief walk was cold, wet, windy and rather unpleasant, though did give me chance to consider whether “Brian Storm” would be a good wrestler name (I concluded that no, it would not…). The venue itself, Fibbers, is a noted live music spot in York.   I used to come to this building years ago when it was ‘Toffs’ nightclub.  It’s since been ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Tru’, and as of a couple of years ago now plays host Fibbers at the back, York’s Barvarian-styled Bierkeller at the front and a, erm, “gentleman’s club” club upstairs.  While regular readers of this blog will be horrified, the local nature of this show meant that I hadn’t planned on visiting any of the local drinking establishments beforehand.   Given the inclement weather, though, there was no chance of me queuing outside so I popped into the aforementioned Bierkeller to dry out and wet one’s whistle.  In true bierkeller fashion, they offer a variety of German beers served as either pints or steins.  I was tempted by the Warsteiner, but settled on the Lowenbrau at a reasonable £4.40 a pint.  Wunderbar. As for True Grit Wrestling, they originally started running shows in Leeds nightclubs in 2014, then moved to Wakefield for a single event, before stopping altogether when that venue became unavailable.  Those original shows were effectively the “big grown up sister” events to West Yorkshire-based GRAPPLE Wrestling, very strong on in-ring action and featuring many of the top names in northern BritWres.  GRAPPLE itself has been running Fibbers for over a year now, with the shows there recently rebranding under the returning True Grit banner.   As a university city, they’d put effort into marketing the show to students and it paid off, with the biggest crowd I have seen packed into that venue (150, I’d say), mainly young adults treating it as a night out.  It’s an ‘intimate’ setting for wrestling, with the all-standing crowd gathered looking down on the ring, which is set low down in a pit (the ‘dancefloor’).  The room and set-up doesn’t offer great sight lines unless you manage to get to the front of the standing areas (as a gig venue, it’s mainly intended for everyone to see the stage, not low on the floor), so it’s worth getting there a little early if you can.   I was lucky enough to get a decent vantage point (though next to the constant dripping of the leaking roof…), but with the strong attendance on this occasion there were plenty that were struggling to see. Inside waiting for the show to begin, we were treated to a soundtrack of WWE themes both old and current, including Seth Rollins, Sheamus, Kane, AJ Styles (that had people singing along!), Evolution, Los Guerreros, Ember Moon, Sanity and more.  There was chance to go to the bar, which has everything from your usual draft lagers to an impressive selection of bottled real ales and canned craft beers.   I started on the Goose IPA at £4.80 a pint (“One!” “Two!” “GOOSE!”  No.), before later moving onto Becks Vier (£3.90) until it ran out halfway through the show, pushing me onto the Stella Artois (also £3.90). The show itself opened with ring announcer Ricc “Dombrowski” (the name being a spoof on the former 1PW commentator) introducing Danny O’Doherty as the “host” for the show.  He was really good in this role, drinking beer, engaging with the audience, chipping in with comments before each match and leading chants during them.   He set the tone for the show as being a fun night out and encouraged people to get involved.  Good stuff. The first match saw The Evil Within (Sean Only & BA Rose) retain their GRAPPLE Tag Team Championship (or, to quote what is hilariously misspelt on the rather-crap-looking title belts, the “CHAMPIONATOS DE PAREJAS”…) over ‘Amazing’ Matt Myers and Ace Matthews.   The match was good, with Evil Within beating down their opponents and Myers & Matthews making spirited comebacks.  Rose reminds me of a mini Dave Mastiff, not only in the looks department but also with much of his offence (back sentons and cannonballs).  It was Only that scored the fall, though, pinning Ace after a curb stomp. The next match started off as a friendly bout between popular fan favourites the “Bhangra Bad Boy” Amir Jordan and “Hot-Blooded” Dom Black.  Black is pushed as “York’s Own”, and he did have his vocal fan club in the crowd there specifically to see him.  He’s a talented young performer that shows a lot of potential.  All friendliness came to a halt a few minutes later, though, as “Your Naan’s Favourite Wrestler” faked an injury as an opportunity to get a jump on Dom.   From that point on it was a heated brawl, with the entertaining Jordan showing annoyance at the audience’s support of Black.  The pair brawled out into the crowd, and referee Mark Rolls had no choice but to count them both out.  It was at this point that it was revealed that True Grit’s return date would be 20 January 2018, featuring a championship tournament with tonight’s matches acting as qualifiers.  As Black and Jordan were both counted-out, it was announced that both would be in that tournament.   So, the rivalry is to be continued, by the looks of it.  I like that they’re building some rivalries now that they seem to be running here semi-regularly – it always makes the matches more interesting than basic goodie vs. baddie. Next, former Super League player Luke Menzies showed off his power in dominating and beating Olly and Bradley (apologies, I missed their surnames) in a handicap match.  I’ve been incredibly impressed with Menzies on the few times I’ve seen him now; as I mentioned in my last appearance in #GrapsAndClaps he looks to have all the tools and aptitude to be a star in this business.   So this match was basically him just launching these two kids all over the place with ease and it was BRILLIANT.  Luke quickly put them out of their misery with a huge powerslam.  Consider me well and truly aboard the Luke Menzies train. The final match of the first half was billed as a “RI:SE guest match”, where WWE:UK’s MUSCLECAT Saxon Huxley bested Joe Vega with a shoulderbreaker.  RISE runs gritty cool-looking “underground”-type shows in Leeds gig venues, themed around attitude-fuelled brawling and out-of-control action.   They have a show coming up on Saturday 28 October at ‘Temple of Boom’, so that got a heavy plugging here.  I do want to check out a RISE show, as they are pretty local to me and do look very cool and chaotic in a good way, but they always tend to clash with other shows I’m already attending (as is the case with their show next week, as I’ll be in London for wXw that day). Vega was a regular on the north-west scene a number of years ago, but then had a long spell out with injury.  He was good here as the arrogant little prick.  Much of what Musclecat does is basic, but I noticed that he does do those basics very well indeed; he’s a solid and capable wrestler.  Danny O’Doherty spent most of this one leading chants of “JESUS!  JESUS!” over the microphone, based on Saxon’s biblical appearance. After an interval in which drinks were refilled and raffle tickets were bought, Boris Koslov beat The Pop Punk Kid in a colourful and entertaining contest with the air raid crash.  Boris, an alter-ego of longtime British wrestling personality JC Thunder, is no longer the “Russian Nightmare”, but a dancing, drinking friendly Russian party animal.  PPK is billed from Chicago and came out with a box of pizza to match his pepperoni pizza tights.   This match was daft but also loads of fun, with pizza getting thrown around (and out into the crowd) and Boris Cossack dancing and swigging from his vodka bottle to power-up his moves. A number of lounge chairs were brought into the ring next (then taken out… then put back in…), together with a potted plant, for a segment only described as “SPEED DATING WITH COWBOY JOHN PARKER”.   Cowboy John Parker is a manager on GRAPPLE/TGW shows, and wears a cowboy hat and cowboy boots.  Like a cowboy, you see.  He also fancies himself as a bit of a lothario, so this was about bringing out some of the female wrestlers (including Ruby Radley and Evee Black) for him to “woo”.  Instead, he insulted each of them in turn, before Evee smacked him round the head, called the segment “the most degrading thing I’ve ever been involved with in wrestling… and that’s saying something…” and challenged Parker to a match on the next show.   This whole thing was nowhere near as cringeworthy as I thought it could be; a daft bit of throwaway fun. Before the next match, in which THE LION KINGS Seb Strife & Nsereko beat Bison Reid and (a partner whose name I didn’t catch), it was time for that all-important raffle, often the highlight of a British wrestling show.  Starting a theme that would last all weekend, I only went and won the top bloomin’ prize – a family ticket to the 20 January return show.  So there.  The match itself was fine, a good showcase for the Lion Kings and featuring plenty of “RRRAAAAARRRR”ing.  Oh, and Bison Reid is literally the best name for a wrestler. The main event was a rematch from the last True Grit show in Fibbers, in which Martin Kirby had defeated ‘The Grafter’ to relieve him of the GRAPPLE Championship.  This return match was a streetfight, and while neither man “brought their jeans” for the occasion, it did involve an entire bagful of Poundland’s Halloween toys, including a severed hand which made a wonderfully satisfying noise when Kirby used it to chop Graves.  Being a streetfight, it was quite fitting that they went outside Fibbers and FOUGHT, on the STREET.  Most of the audience ran outside to watch, but I stayed inside and waited for it all to calm down…  Sure enough, they fought back to the ring, where they bumped the referee and Kirby hit a Sablebomb on top of a pumpkin for a desperate nearfall.  I am not making this up.  After surviving such devastation, Graves hit Kirby with a spear to win back his belt. And that was that.  Actually, no it wasn’t, because the show closed with a massive brawl between all the guys in the 20 January tournament and more.  Referees & trainees couldn’t separate them, and it was only when the onlooking Big T Justice jumped in to lend a hand that everyone thought “f*ck that” and wisely backed down. And THAT was that.   A fun little show that I really enjoyed, and I’ll likely be back for the 20 January championship tournament show (I did win the raffle, after all).  Good local undergraps.  Some good upcoming talented performers in a good atmosphere. And nothing that could be described as “bad”.  You can find out more about that show and True Grit Wrestling in general on Facebook and at @TrueGriPromote on Twitter.  As for me, you can read more about my adventures at @BritWresAwayDay and maybe one day back in another guest edition of this blog… Until then, keep supporting Andy and #GrapsAndClaps, and I’ll see you out there!

[viralhottopics]

Three days with The Dice Man: I never wrote for money or fame’

His 1971 novel was a countercultural sensation, selling 2m copies. But the author has surrounded himself in mystery. Why?

When I read The Dice Man 15 years ago, I wanted to know who had written it, and why. It read more like an act of survival than a novel, but whether it was the authors survival or mine, I wasnt sure. I had stopped drinking alcohol and I was looking, simply, for another drug. The book made me high; it offered multiple universes, all of them safer than vodka.

The Dice Man is seemingly an autobiography, narrated by a bored, clever New York psychiatrist, Luke Rhinehart. He is a nerd run mad. He decides that, in pursuit of ultimate freedom or nihilism he will make decisions using dice. He offers the dice options, and they choose for him. The dice tell him to rape his neighbour, but he fails because she wants him. The dice make him tell his patients what he thinks of them (my favourite dice decision). It was a perfect novel: a fantasy of escape and, for me, a search for an absent and charismatic father.

The book was published in 1971, an era devoted to psychoanalysis (not the mocking of it), and it was not an instant success. But over the course of 45 years, it has become a famous book, with devoted fans. The Dice Man has sold more than 2m copies in multiple languages and is still in print.

Dicing became a minor craze. Richard Branson said The Dice Man had inspired him, although he used the dice for only 24 hours because it was too dangerous to carry on longer. The entrepreneur Jeremy King opened a series of London restaurants due to a dice decision. In 1999, a Loaded magazine writer, who described Rhinehart as the novelist of the century, took heroin after a dice decision, while his girlfriend performed in a strip club. In 2005, comedian Danny Wallace published a memoir, Yes Man, in which he travelled the world saying yes to everything, again loosely inspired by Rhinehart.

As his notoriety grew, journalists came to interview the Dice Man. But Luke Rhinehart does not exist: he is the pseudonym of a man called George Powers Cockcroft, who shielded his real identity from his readers for many years. There was no Dice Man in these interviews, but there was no one else, either. Cockcroft played his part as an avuncular blank who liked dicing and drinking, a sort of Robert Mitchum pastiche; and of Cockcroft, whom I increasingly found more interesting than Rhinehart, there was almost nothing.

Why write a perfect novel, give all the credit to a ghost, then never write its equal again? I have been emailing Cockcroft since 2002, when, in a frenzy of half-hearted self-destruction, I attempted to dice my way through a Conservative party conference in Brighton. It was for an article, and I sought his advice, which was friendly and encouraging. The choices I gave myself were timid would I order a hamburger or a steak? though I do remember pretending to be Jesus Christ in the restaurant of the Grand hotel. The article was not a success, and was never published. The appeal of the dice is: how much power will you give them? I gave them nothing, and they gave nothing in return.

I have tried to interview Cockcroft before. I even met him once, in a hotel bar in London 10 years ago. He looked large and alien amid the pale chintz of Kensington, wearing a stetson that almost reached the chandelier. Last year, around the publication of his most recent novel, Invasion, which is about a friendly and intelligent alien who comes to Earth and is bewildered by our stupidity, we had a telephone interview in which he claimed, at 84, to be multiple selves, describing himself as we. We he and I were on a conference call with his publicist, and I asked him where The Dice Man had come from. You must realise, he told me softly, his voice a little hoarse, I have always conceived of myself as being multiple having, you know, a dozen different selves, if not a thousand different selves, at any given moment. He sounded croaky and crotchety, and I didnt push him. Instead, I asked if I could come and stay with him in upstate New York.

***

George Cockcroft, I say for the tape recorder. Yes, he says. Here I am.

We are in a large white house in Canaan. The houses are widely spaced here, on hills around a pond of ice; there are spindly trees on the horizon. The house is warm, comfortable, shabby, with wind chimes on the terrace.

Cockcroft is very tall and lean, his face weather-beaten from years of sailing and working in the garden. It has a kind of luminous joy that is very childlike, unless he is weary. His voice is deep, hoarse and excitable. He is, in some ways, very conventional for a myth: he chops wood, drinks whiskey, eats chocolate biscuits, feeds the fire. When he wants something, he shouts for his wife, Ann. They have been married for 60 years and there is deep love between them. I can feel it all through the house.

Cockcroft at his home in Canaan, New York. Photograph: Reed Young for the Guardian

Slowly, he tells me the facts of his biography. He is warm, courteous and curious; at one point, when I mention I need money to buy a house, he offers, very seriously, to lend it to me. Sometimes he says he cant remember things. Sometimes he says he doesnt know why he does things. Sometimes he repeats that he has multiple selves, and cant access the one who has the answer to my question. (I begin to think he does this when he feels threatened; if it were habitual, wouldnt he they do it all the time?) Then he will give a sorrowful grin and we retreat: he to his study, to write or to answer emails from fans, I to the sofa to read a novel Ann wrote many years ago. Later, we try again.

Cockcroft grew up 30 miles away, in Albany. His grandfather was the chief justice of the supreme court of Vermont; his great-grandfather was the governor of Vermont; so the creator of The Dice Man was born to New England grandees. I ask about his family. My parents were both college graduates, he says, a curious first observation from a novelist who doesnt care about class. His father Donald was an electrical engineer, his mother Elizabeth went to Wellesley College. She was clever and expected cleverness from her two sons.

As a boy, he was shy and compliant, and began to use the dice at 16. He was a procrastinator: So I would make a list of things to do in a day and the dice would choose which one I did first. Then he began to use the dice to force myself to do things I was too shy to do. If the dice chose it, then somehow that made it possible.

He says he didnt have a single original thought in his adolescence. He went to his fathers school, again showing how little originality I had, and studied electrical engineering, like his father. I cant believe how naturally and easily I was conforming to everything, Cockcroft says. His younger brother James, an expert in South American politics, was a rebel; even today, his website describes him as author, lecturer, revolutionary. But I was a total conformist, he says. I was intellectually dead until I was 20.

He also studied psychology and English literature. He worked nights in a psychiatric hospital, and considered being a lawyer. (I long to meet a dice lawyer.) The dice chose Ann for him. He was driving home from the hospital and saw two nurses. He got out his dice. If it was odd, he told himself, he would offer them a lift. One of them was Ann.

She looked like Rita Hayworth, and he fell in love with her immediately, applying to Columbia University to be close to her in Brooklyn. They married in 1956 and had three sons: Corby, Powers and Christopher, who has paranoid schizophrenia and still lives with them. Cockcroft avoided the draft to Korea because he had varicose veins: I hate to think what would have happened if I had gone into the military, he says. (The dice soldier.) Instead, he taught English literature at a series of colleges in America and beyond.

With Ann in 1956, minutes after proposing to her. Photograph: courtesy of George Cockcroft

He says he has no idea why he began writing. He read outsiders, and men who railed against belonging: Tolstoy, Kafka, Hemingway. His first attempt at fiction was about a young boy who is locked up in a psychiatric institution because he thinks he is Jesus Christ. He abandoned it after 80 pages, but one chapter featured a psychiatrist called Dr Luke Rhinehart. He was a minor character, Cockcroft says, but there he was.

The year he began writing The Dice Man, 1965, there was a crisis in the marriage. He and Ann were living in Mexico with James and his family. Ann was pregnant with their youngest son, and developed hepatitis. She was very frightened for herself, for the baby, Cockcroft says. She felt isolated, and felt I was somehow closer to my brother than her. She came back from Mexico very resentful of me, and frightened in a way she had never been before.

He was reading Zen and Sufism, which he describes as attacks on the self. Somehow writing the book and reading these philosophies enabled me to be detached from any bad places I was in, to not be enmeshed in them. He wrote slowly, 50 pages a year for five years. His previous writing had been laboured and self-conscious, but this was different. As soon as I began writing The Dice Man, he says, I felt I had found my natural voice. I didnt think of it that way at the time, but the book is about what makes human beings unhappy and how they can escape.

He admits the writing was psychoanalysis, a way of understanding, and processing, his brief estrangement from Ann. The Dice Man involves some of the things I could do if I could free myself from Ann. But the book went way beyond that. There is, for instance, much adulterous sex.

Lukes wife in the book, Lil, funny, sexy, a good mother, is something like Ann. He admits that the children are based on my own children. But he couldnt go as far as Luke. My dicing has always been very limited, he says. I was wise enough to know that I didnt want to risk my marriage by giving options to things that might ruin the marriage. I never gave an option that would hurt people.

Upstairs, above his and Anns bed, there is a painting of two Georges one good, one bad by Ann. Her paintings fill the house. I wasnt consciously angry, Cockcroft says, of the trouble in their marriage. Sad is closer than angry. I never get very unhappy. Every year that goes by, you realise how unimportant everything is. I dont think Ive asked much of life since I wrote The Dice Man. I was ambitious then. Ive mellowed. Pretty soon Ill be a liquid lying on the ground.

Above the couples bed hangs a painting by Ann of two Georges one good, one bad. Photograph: Reed Young for the Guardian

Is Luke your repressed self, I ask. Because, for all his wit, Luke Rhinehart is a raging man, and George Cockcroft is not. But he wont answer the question. Remember, he says, there is no single you. So that is a question I would not answer. Later, he does go further. Luke is the hard, cold version of George, he says, then adds: What I have come to love about the Luke of the novel is his willingness to be a fool, his willingness to laugh at himself.

He shows me an excerpt from his diary, dated 10 June 1969, written in Mallorca: I must finish the Dice Man novel. I know that if I open the novel and begin to read it, I, and it, will live, and my desire to work on it and complete it will bloom again. I am the Dice Man in a way I am no one else. It is the idea which my life has created. I am not good for a second one. I am not a professional writer. I am without talent in any way. But the theory of the dice man, the ironic spirit of his life, grows as naturally in my rocky soil as do boulders here along the rocky coast of Mallorca.

Cockcroft came across the journal three or four months ago and was startled: he doesnt remember feeling that way. Later, in a restaurant by the frozen lake, I ask if the description of Luke that opens the novel is him: I am a large man, with big butchers hands, great oak thighs, rock-jawed head and massive, thick-lens glasses. Im 6ft 4in and weigh close to 230lbs; I look like Clark Kent.

Id have to look at it again, Cockcroft says. Physically, its not me. I made him a much bigger man. Hes overweight.

Luke is overweight? Ann says. I dont remember that.

Thats how I always picture him, he says.

Ann replies: I always picture him like you.

***

When Cockcroft was a child, there was a calamity. His father developed cancer in his 30s. He decided he wasnt going to put himself and his family through any more pain, he says, and he called up his doctor and said he was going to shoot himself and to come over and handle things, and he shot himself. Its the longest single sentence Cockcroft utters. He was eight or nine at the time. He cant remember exactly. He says his mother greeted him at the door after school and said, Father is dead. His only memory, after that, is, going out to the garage and not crying and wondering if I should cry. He was not close to his mother. She was a Vermont puritan, and not a naturally warm person. Did you ask her what happened to your father? No, he says, and for a moment I can hear the compliant boy. I mean no.

Do you forgive him? I admire him, he says wonderingly, as if the question is ridiculous. But it was a savage act of separation; his father didnt say goodbye.

Cockcroft says he remembers almost nothing of his life before his fathers death. He shows me fragments of an autobiography he has not finished, because he has not solved the problem of writing a narrative by multiple selves.

Was our childhood so traumatic we cant face it? he writes, in the third person. Our brother, Jim, thinks so. Jim is three years younger than we are and he remembers a cruel father that used to whip him with a belt. We dont have a single memory of being beaten with a belt. Jim is unrepressed, remembers a cruel father; we are repressed, remember nothing. Saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. We have no painful memories pre-Dads death-day, nor any happy ones.

***

In 1969, while teaching in Mallorca, Cockcroft found a publisher for The Dice Man called Mike Franklin, and swiftly wrote the second half of the book. Franklin called it a near masterpiece and got a huge advance for the American edition.

It did badly in America, partly, Cockcroft thinks, because of a cover jacket featuring a naked woman lying on a bed. But it did better in Europe, particularly in England, Sweden, Denmark and now Spain, where it was for a time the most requested library book in Spanish universities.

No publisher asked for another novel, so he didnt write one. He fell into indolence; he was busy sailing and raising his children. Another example of my life of ambition, Cockcroft says, sarcastically. All through my 20s, I was fighting ambition. My mother had made me very ambitious to be successful at whatever I did, and I felt that was a sickness. I never wrote for money and I never consciously wrote for fame. The Dice Man was part of a lifelong process to get me to relax and enjoy things as they are, and not aspire to more than I have.

The film rights to The Dice Man were sold, and he wrote screenplays for a film that was never made. He and Ann travelled for years, often on boats; they smoked marijuana. He sank a catamaran in a storm in the Mediterranean, after Ann had prayed for three nights on deck while he apologised, precipitantly, for drowning their children. (They were picked up by a Scottish freighter 40 miles off the coast of Africa.)

The family settled in Canaan after following a Sufi cult to New York state. The Dice Man grew in fame, but Cockcroft didnt. He spent his money, and earned more. He discouraged any questions about his real self, and people rarely asked. They interviewed Luke Rhinehart and that was it, he says now. I wasnt being secretive so much as simply preferring to keep the two identities separate. Rhinehart allowed him to have a private life. Acquaintances in Canaan do not know he is the author of The Dice Man.

Cockcroft with his sons Powers (left) and Chris in 1972. Photograph: courtesy of George Cockcroft

He wrote books only when the mood, or the advance, came: White Wind, Black Rider; Whim; Long Voyage Back; The Book Of Est, a guidebook to a popular 70s cult; The Book Of The Die; and Naked Before The World, a novel alluded to in The Dice Man. Jesus Invades George is a very funny tale of George W Bush being possessed by Jesus Christ. He wrote The Search For The Dice Man, in which Luke ends up in a Japanese monastery, but it is the work of a sleeping writer: Luke barely appears and, when he does, he is a cipher.

In 2012, an email announcing his death was sent to 25 friends, apparently from Ann: It is our pleasure to inform you that Luke Rhinehart is dead. He very much wanted us to tell you this as soon as possible so you wouldnt be annoyed that he wasnt replying to your emails. But people were upset, and he later apologised for his thoughtlessness, blaming Luke. To pretend to die while sneakily lurking here and there in the darkest shadows is the lowest of the low. But we can expect no better from him.

Ask me about Invasion, he says now. He wants another roll; he is enjoying the attention. This latest book is full of his politics, which are the politics of Bernie Sanders; its tone is amused disgust, and it is very funny, if you can handle an alien protagonist who looks like a beachball, and whose beachball friend is called Molire.

I try to find a tactful way to ask him: do you mind that The Dice Man, your first book, is your best book? But my opinion doesnt bother him, because he cant agree. Right now, he says, using the multiple pronoun, we have no idea of the relative merits of our novels. At this moment, Invasion is liked very much by most of us, more than our previous books. Two years ago, we told people our favourite novel was Whim. After I finished writing Jesus Invades George, it was our favourite novel. If Invasion fails to sell, he says, he doesnt think it will bother him for more than a single afternoon.

At the end of my stay, I ask Cockcroft again about his father. He tells me he has nightmares about the garage attached to the house in which he grew up, in which he tried to weep after his fathers death. He has an image, he says hesitantly, too faint to be a memory, of a maid washing blood off the walls in the house, at the top of the stairs. I feel morbid, prodding him. He has already told me more than he has told any journalist, and he doesnt believe in cause and effect. He cannot see a connection between his fathers suicide and the creation of the Dice Man, so I stop.

But a few days later, after I have returned to England, he sends me an email. Last night I had a really remarkable dream, he writes, using the first person. For the first time in months, if not years, I was outside the house where my father committed suicide. I was walking over to our neighbours house, where contractors were arriving to do some sort of work that involved both the neighbours property and ours. I said with great confidence and authority in the direction of the contractors (not seen), I am George Cockcroft, the owner of this property. I think the subject line, in capital letters, is a joke at my expense. It says, Im CURED!

Invasion by Luke Rhinehart is published by Titan at 8.99.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2msMTKK

from Three days with The Dice Man: I never wrote for money or fame’