#Eugen deserves his horses back

[idiotthatdrawsakaartist]

My husband :3

[thesilvertheorist]

• missed you •

Carl Grimes x reader

REQUEST: anon asked -

"I LOVE your headcanons for Carl!!

I was wondering if we could get a FIC more in detail with the whole Carl giving us his hat when he wants attention thing? Maybe he misses reader who’s been busy lately so he runs up and puts his hat on our head and then runs away and we go to find him and it’s just lots n lots of fluff please please please? :3"

plot: you're away for a week, carl doesn't cope well, fluff ensues.

warnings/tags: fluff, sfw, soft!carl, worried!carl, anxious!carl, established relationship, cuddles as therapy, carl receives the love he deserves, hat (iykyk), alexandria era.

word count: 3095

Masterlist

Carl had always been impatient, snippy, and downright rude if things weren’t going his way. His attitude was no different lately as you were away for an entire week. Rick had assigned you to join the negotiation team heading for Oceanside and Carl was pissed that he wasn’t able to join you. He had asked his dad a million and one times if he could go, to which Rick always responded with a head tilt and a sharp “no, y’ can’t”.

You’d been assigned to the negotiation team as you’re level headed but always quick thinking. Rick knows that you’re better there, fairly negotiation on ammo supplies, as opposed to sending someone like Eugene…who’d outwardly disrespect the rules of the agreement and end up getting everyone killed. It was best for you to go along with the group, but you still didn’t want to. You’d prefer to stay here and do your casual shifts around Alexandria…maybe spend some time with your adoring boyfriend…

When you were packing to leave, Carl sat on the edge of the bed and huffed in disapproval as you packed only your essentials: a few spare clothes, toothbrush, small comb, weapons, ammo. Your boyfriend was insistent that he’d sneak out of the walls and follow you. Knowing exactly what he’s like (and how likely he is to follow through on that threat) you stand in front of him as he’s sat, and pull him into a hug, Carl nuzzling into your waist.

“Don’t go” he insists gently.

“I’ll be fine, I’ll be back before you even realise I’m gone” you assure.

“I know you’ll be fine, you’re strong, but I’ll need you here” he pouts as he leans back to look at up you.

Your heart builds and breaks for your poor boy. The two of you have been inseparable since you were ten, and now you’re leaving for a week…to negotiate with a new community…over ammunition. What could go wrong? You knew that Carl would be fine, he’d carry on with his duties, snapping at anyone who dare even look in his direction. He’d have to sleep in your shared bed alone for a week, not feeling your warmth or love, only the scent of your shampoo to comfort him. It both warms and shatters your heart that he’s like a puppy dog with separation anxiety.

With everything packed, plan organised, and group prepared, Carl walked you to the gates of Alexandria, carrying your bag for you - not dropping your hand for a single second. He only grips you tighter as you reach the gates. The group has opted to take horses instead of cars, so you’ll be on the road for at least a day. You give Carl a long hug and a loving kiss before mounting your horse (Carl being the gentleman he is, giving you both a leg up AND using his hat to cover your butt from any prying eyes as you get situated).

You can see the tension in him rising; his jaw is clenched tight and he’s stood stiff. He only moves when his dad tells him to get the gate. He waves you off as you leave and you blow him a kiss, smiling to him before the group is out of sight. You carry him in your mind whilst the group makes it’s way over to Oceanside, Michonne keeps you company and talks all your worries away. She’s under no illusion about how Carl gets when you’re not around, she knows exactly why you’re on edge about it too. Needless to say, she puts your mind at ease and reminds you that you’ll be back before long and you can take your pretty boy somewhere quiet and smooch the living daylights out of him. You smile at Michonne’s little jokes, thinking to yourself that her idea is actually quite preferable.

The ride to Oceanside takes the entirety of the day and by the time you arrive, everyone is exhausted. There were a few small herds of walkers on the way and the forests were littered with who knows what. The horses were well behaved, and you were grateful for having remained seated whilst wading through all that sludgy dead stuff. The girls at Oceanside help you put the horses away for the night and your group is informed that negotiations start in the morning, bright and early. Fantastic…not.

The next four days go as planned. Negotiations are going well and appear to be fair on both sides, tensions haven’t risen as of yet and the atmosphere is one of mutual respect. In this moment, you commend Rick on his decision to send an all-girls negotiation team that had Michonne at its wheel. Very smart decision. This was actually getting somewhere, for once. Although, even with things going better than anticipated, your heart ached and missed the boy you’ve left back at home.

The remaining few days pass agonisingly slow, you’re unable to rip your thoughts from what Carl might be up to. Usually, he’d have today off and he’d play with Judith at home. He’d try his best to make her breakfast and subsequently fail, he’d clean each of your boots of any mud that clung to them over the previous week (taking extra care to get the forest floor mulch out of the grips on the underside of yours, knowing how you hate to feel that under your feet), he’d read a comic or two, he’d do all of this with you. You wonder if he’s done any of this today…or has he picked up another shift from his dad to keep himself busy? He must be going insane…just like you are.

Michonne snaps you from your thoughts yet again, reminding you that the group travels back home tomorrow morning. Finally! You smile over your shoulder at her and imagine Carl’s cute happy face when he sees that you’re home, safe. You slept that night, eager to wake up and go. Nothing motivated you more than your boy.

The ride back home was the same as it had been on the journey heading out, mucky. A walker had spooked one of the younger horses and caused the others to become skittish. After dealing with the drama that had amassed, the group had to high-tail it to a more open position so nothing else went awry. Frustratingly, this would take longer to get back home. You decide to dismount and walk along the group for a while, dealing with walkers before they became an issue, doing your best to get back home on time. Nothing would stop you getting home on time to see him. Once cleared, you re-mounted and lead the group home.

The light was dwindling as the group approached the familiar gates of home. You’re surprised as they open before you even reach them. Michonne whistles for the group to pick up the pace and everyone rushes over. You barely make it inside and off your horse before Carl is pulling you into a bear hug. He must have been on watch all day waiting for you; he’s barely holding himself up, leaning on you almost entirely.

Rick snaps you both back to reality insisting that there needs to be a debrief, the council needs to be aware of what’s happened and what was decided. Understanding the importance of what he’s said, but still not wanting to leave your boyfriend, you plant a kiss on Carl’s cheek and head on over to the church with the rest of the group, ready to spill the beans to Rick about what a wonderful holiday you’d all had away…not.

As you’re climbing the porch steps of the church, you hear Carl’s footsteps behind you. You’d know them anywhere… to your surprise, he doesn’t cling to you or whisk you away. Instead, he places his hat on your head and turns to walk off, presumably heading home. Carl is EXTREMELY precious about who can touch his hat. He’s got so possessive over it that he even dislikes Rick touching it unnecessarily – and it used to be his! Nowadays, if Carl isn’t wearing it, and it’s not hung on the bedpost on his side – it’s on your head.

This act of placing his hat on you and darting off isn’t something new that your boyfriend does. He’s been doing this for a while…it started about the same time Lori died….now you think about it. He’ll get so stressed with what’s going on, with no outlet for his emotions…and some frustrating circumstances will forbid him from seeing you immediately so you can help him through it, so he’ll put his hat on you instead and run off to a quiet corner, waiting for you to come and return it to him. As you always do. This occasion would be no different.

Over time, this little ritual of his has become situational, sometimes he needs your help, other times he just wants your attention and needs to reserve your next available moment before someone else snatches you up. Even the group have come to recognise this as an indicator of Carl reserving your time. No one ever mentions it, but everyone gives you those small smiles as if to say that they know and they won’t take up too much more of your time.

Once debriefed, Rick double checks that you’re okay, making reference to you being covered in walker blood and forest mulch. You laugh slightly and assure him that you’re perfectly fine, better now you’re home. He commends you on how helpful you were during the negotiation, having heard from Michonne that you were invaluable to ensuring a fair deal. You smile at him and thank him for his words, feeling a sense of accomplishment – knowing that you’d done your best by those who do their best by you. Finally, you’re dismissed.

Your feet carry you quickly back home, taking you up the porch steps leaving muddy footprints as you go. You remind yourself to leave your boots by the door, Michonne would kill you if you tracked dirt through the house, plus she’d make you clean it – not fun. After your boots are off, you race through the house, noticing that only the lamps are on, no ceiling lights…interesting. You prefer the lamps, it’s better for your eyes, but only one person knows this. Carl. You take yourself up the stairs, poking your nose through Judith’s door, seeing her fast asleep. Perfect.

You turn to your shared bedroom door, opening it to see Carl, waiting on the bed – sat exactly as he had been whilst you were packing to leave, picking at his callouses nervously. You enter and shut the door behind you, Carl standing up and meeting you on that side of the room. This time, you pull him into a hug, tightening your arms around his waist, pressing your nose into his shoulder. Carl wastes no time in reciprocating – pulling you close, relishing in the feeling of your body against his.

“I missed you” he breathes out, his voice a shaky whisper.

You feel his body begin to tremble where he’s standing. You soothingly run your hands over his back, reminding him that you’re both here and safe – and that he’s in your arms. His trembling wanes but doesn’t cease…he’s barely keeping it together.

“Sit back down for me, Pretty boy, let’s get comfy, hm?” you calmly suggest, Carl letting you lead him back over to the bed.

This time, you set him down so that his back is against the headboard, over the covers. You climb up on the other side and get situated before opening your arms to him, letting him wrap himself around you and get comfortable. He leans his head into your neck and shoulder, entangling his legs with your own, clinging to you for dear life as you run your fingers through his hair and trail your nails gently down his arm in small patterns. He’s still trebling as you wrap him up in the small throw blanket that was hooked over your bedpost – which reminds you that you’re still wearing his hat!

You take one of your hands away from soothing your boyfriend to reach for the hat on your head, wanting to place it back in it’s rightful spot on Carl’s side, but just as you reach away to put it back, your boyfriend stops you.

“N-no, keep it on. I need you right now…” he worriedly speaks out.

You know in an instant what he means, he wants you to be his strength – he wants you to be the source of his comfort. He wants you to hold him, to care for him, to shower him with love, and to stay here…returning his hat means you’ll leave sooner – return to your duties or let something else consume your time. You wouldn’t let that happen, not whilst he’s like this, so you leave his hat on your head and bring him back in close.

“I’m here, I’m not going anywhere now.” You reassure him, your hands automatically going back to comfort your boy.

He doesn’t ask about the negotiation, you don’t ask about his time spent here over the last week. You both just savour this moment. You relish having your boyfriend so close, heart breaking over the fact he’s so messed up about having missed you so much. Your only job now is to comfort him, and to stay with him.

As the patterns you trace onto Carl’s arms and back start to regulate him, you bring your other hand up to sweep the hair from his face, feeling him let out an eventual sigh of relief at finally being able to relax, accepting that you’re back with him. You place kisses to his forehead and the top of his hair, spending as much time here as he needs. He moves slightly more into the centre of your chest, placing his ear against you, the sound of your heartbeat creating a calming rhythm for him to listen to as he drifts off in your arms.

“I’ve got you, Precious boy. It’s okay…I’m here, we’re safe.” You whisper, continuing your movements along his arms and back.

As he drops to sleep, you take a second to look over his face properly, his freckled face is tear stained and his eye has a dark grey semi-circle below it…he must have barely slept over this last week. You knew that your absence would be difficult for him, but you’re torn apart at seeing him like this. He’s always so strong around the group – especially his dad – but he’s a nervous wreck underneath it all.

You don’t stop loving up on him whilst he sleeps, somehow you feel as though he ‘d notice if you stopped and he’d wake up. You need him to get some rest so that you can talk about what’s happened when he’s more stable. You can’t deal with the idea that he’s been suffering this badly whilst you’ve been away. No wonder he raced to you so quickly when you got back. You kiss the top of his hair once more before letting yourself drift off with him, pulling him impossibly closer to you.

You wake up what must have been a few hours later, Carl still exactly where he was – sound asleep. The only issue is that your leg has fallen asleep beneath you. You try your best to move it out of the warm entanglement you’ve got yourself into, but regardless of how slowly you’re moving, Carl wakes up.

“Whe-where’re you going?” he panics again.

“Nowhere, Angel, my leg is asleep.” You smile back at him, cupping his cheek with your hand.

He lets out another relieved sigh before adjusting so that you can move your leg, feeling the pins and needles as it comes back to you. You wonder if now is the right time to ask Carl about what happened whilst you were gone, or would it just upset him more? You decide to bite the bullet, eager to know if you can ease his pain.

“What happened whilst I was away Carl?” you whisper to him, feeling him shift at your question.

“I- I uh…I’m better now.” He replies shyly, hiding his face against you.

“I know you are now, what happened whilst I was away?”

Carl takes a minute before responding, likely wondering if he can get away with waving most of his struggles off, deciding it was no use and you’d find out anyway – he swallows his pride and fills you in on his week.

“I couldn’t sleep so I took some extra watch shifts, but I got so tired and passed out when I came home. I got so panicked when I woke up and you weren’t here… your boots were gone, your gun was gone, your side of the bed was empty, you didn’t leave a note. I was so scared – I ran downstairs and dad stopped me, reminding me where you were. That was maybe…day three, I’m not sure.” He rambles out.

Your heart breaks; shattering everywhere, shards of it attacking your other organs, taking you out piece by piece. Carl had been here, having panic attacks about you being gone, working himself into the ground to try and distract himself… and you couldn’t do anything about it as it was happening. You weren’t there for him.

“Carl…”

“I just missed you,” he begins, his voice shaking again “so much.”

You cup his face with your hands and bring his lips to meet yours, hoping to express your love for him through your affection. He kisses you back eagerly, seemingly having forgotten how nice you feel. You spend time kissing him – small, romantic kisses that convey nothing but love, adoration, and tenderness. You pull away to test your foreheads together, closing your eyes.

“I missed you too.”

The remainder of the night was spend whispering sweet nothings to each other and cuddling close in the other’s warmth. You managed to get Carl into some more comfortable clothes so he could sleep and you’d taken off your clothes from your long day of travel, deciding to deal with that specific pile of laundry in the morning. With Carl cuddling up to you, under the sheets this time, your shared world seems to be at peace. You speak to Carl about the possibilities of the future, setting up a comic date with him outside the walls in a few days’ time. Life was liveable again, now you’re home. Now you’re with Carl again.

All Rights Reserved ©thesilvertheorist 2025

DO NOT REPOST

reblogs welcome <3

[nikikikiko]

Procrastinating while writing the fic (simultaneously! I'm multi-tasking :] ) Let's throw out some headcanons!:

At least one ""prank"" of Lucilla, Liberta and Eugene's was an organized attempt at a concert for a very early morning "i-just-woke-up" Gavus, and it consisted of Liberta playing the pots and pans (banging them together at random intervals), Lucilla somehow got her hands on an instrument and that was getting played (she was not talented, Gavus is pretty sure she was playing it wrong) and Eugene simply dancing badly in the background (he knows how to dance, he simply chose not to)

Eugene says it's a celebratory welcome back, Gavus says his ears have not felt true pain until that day

Lucilla has a pet spider!! another one !!! her name is Mountain Destroyer of Gods and Mortals but everyone calls her Cupcake

Liberta does not choose to be part of the mischief, he's just dragged into it

Gavus has a beer mug with 'dad of the year' etched into it and he has never put it down ever

it's his favorite mug

He's 99% sure it was stolen from a nearby pub but it's his favorite mug

Lucilla has, on multiple occasions, brought home:

a snake

another spider

a scorpion

a lizard

two lizards

a frog

a mouse

a puppy

a cat

and at one point she managed to get her hands on a horse but then GaGene realized she stole it by accident and that was a conundrum in of itself

either way, she has tried and failed to get more pets but Gavus is partial to a cat or a dog, mostly both. A dog to help protect their home and a cat to keep mice out of the house.

So he and Eugene are planning on surprising her and Liberta with a dog and a cat respectively (so they get to name each one)

Liberta complains about the pranks and Lucilla's immaturity at times but he cannot help but get sent into orbit whenever someone else falls victim

It takes EVERYTHING in his arsenal to not laugh and his thought process is "Don't laugh it's not funny don't laugh it's not funny don't laugh it's not funny" and he laughs anyways because it was pretty funny

Kadrin !! He makes visits when he can , or the family will come to visit him, but they try to make sure he's not seen with Lucilla or Eugene too often since, well, Hypogeans are still bad for business unfortunately. Kadrin is referred to as "Uncle Kadrin" by the kids and it makes Kadrin feel ridiculously old

How did he get a nephew and a niece.... how did his life turn out to be this way

and why is it the fault of a Rubik's cube ?????

He gives the kids gifts when he can and pointedly ignores Eugene's argument that HE [eugene] should get a gift too because no Eugene, your existence in Kadrin's life does NOT mean you deserve a present

Eugene and Gavus do have pretty sweet and tender moments together, mainly they spend a lot of time just quietly enjoying each other's presence. After being separated for so long, they aren't quite ready to let each other go, and that's okay.

[mydarllinglover]

Alone || Karma Catches Up

Previous

"You drop 'em now!" A mans voice shouted.

Natalia looked up, a blond man, who's half of his face was burnt, with Daryl's crossbow, had a hold of Eugene, forcing the man to his knees.

"Natalia. Get up." Daryl told her in a low voice as they gathered around on the tracks.

Natalia followed his order standing up and away from the woman.

"Well, hell." The man breathed. "You got something to say to me?" He looked at Daryl "You gonna clear the air? Step up on that high horse?" Daryl didn't answer him. "No." He smiled. "You don't talk much."

"Who the fuck are you?" Natalia asked him, her jaw clenched.

"Oh, sweetheart, me and this guy go way back. Hurt that you don't know." He looked at her, eying her up, before nodding at his men, who walked towards them, frisking the three, taking their weapons.

"Still getting the hang of her." The man said, gesturing at the crossbow in his hands. "Kicks like a bitch, but..."

"I should've done it." Daryl spoke up.

"Oh, what's that?" The man taunted. "Seriously, I didn't catch what you said."

"I should've killed you." Daryl told him.

"Yeah, you probably should've. So, here we are. Kind of begs the question, right? Who brought this on who? I mean, I get that you'll just have to take my word for this, but... she wasn't even the one I was aiming for. Like I said, kicks like a bitch." He laughed. "It's nothing personal."

"You sick son of a bitch!" Natalia stepped towards him, but one of his men knocked her down on the tracks.

Daryl, without thinking, went to grab the man, But the blond aimed his crossbow at the woman.

"I wouldn't, or she'll be next." He threatened. "And that would be a damn shame for everyone, wouldn't it sweetheart." He repeated the pet name, staring down at her, fuelling Daryl's anger.

Daryl clenched his fists, breathing deeply as he stared hatred at him.

"Look, this isn't how we like to start new business arrangements, but, well, you pricks kind of set the tone, didn't you?"

"What do you want?" Rosita asked him.

"I'm sorry, darlin', I didn't catch your name. I'm D, or Dwight. You can call me either. So? What's your name?"

"Rosita. What do you want?"

"Well, Rosita... It's not what I want. It's what you and Daryl and, her?" He nodded at one of his men to pick the woman up from the ground. She smacked his hand away, standing up by herself.

"Natalia." She gritted through her teeth.

"It's what you, Daryl and Natalia are going to do." Dwight continued. "You're going to let us into your little complex. It looks like it's just beautiful in there. And then you're going to let us take whatever and whoever we want..." His eyes trailed back to Natalia. "Or we blow Eugene's brains out. And then yours. And then hers. And then his. I hope it doesn't come to that, really. Nobody else has to die. We just try and start with one. You know... maximum impact to get our point across. So what's it gonna be? You tell me."

"You wanna kill someone, you start with our companion hiding over there behind the oil barrels." Eugene told him. "He's a first-class a-hole and he deserves it so much more than us four."

They looked over at the oil barrels, but no one was there.

Dwight pulled out his gun

"Go check it out." He ordered one of the men.

The man listened, heading over.

They watched in anticipation as he grew nearer.

Eugene reached over, biting Dwight right in the dick, causing him to let out a scream.

At the distraction, Natalia bent down, picking up her gun and shooting one of the men down.

More shots fired from the tree, more of Dwight's men dropping to the ground.

Daryl grabbed his knife, slitting one of their throats, grabbing his gun and shooting.

Walkers were starting to gather at the noise.

Dwight threw Eugene off of him as they both fell on the tracks.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Dwight shouted.

Natalia aimed at the man, shooting him in the shoulder, before aiming at a walker who headed for Eugene.

His arm started streaming in blood as he held it, running for the trees with the last few members of his team.

They fled the scene.

Daryl jumped from behind the car, grabbing his crossbow and heading after them.

"Daryl, stop!" Natalia shouted at him. Rosita followed.

Denise was gone, and they had to bury her.

Eugene had ended up getting shot in the side during the crossfire, Abraham, who had been the one hiding, joined their side.

"You alright, they hurt you?" Daryl asked Natalia, holding her face as he scanned her.

"No, I'm fine." She assured, pulling his hands off, wrapping her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. "I love you, I love you so much." She told him as she brushed her fingers through his hair, hiding her face in his shoulder.

Natalia had only said it once before, the night they had slept together for the first time, she had to tell him again after what Denise had said, before she was killed.

"Mhm. I love you." He replied, in that raspy voice, his arms were tight around her. "I ain't gonna let anything happen to you, ever."

Natalia pulled away, cupping his face, forcing him to look at her.

"We're going to kill him, okay, we will, I don't know when or where or how, but we will, the both of us, together, but not now, we can't now, we need to get home and we need to get Eugene safe, but I promise you, we will, but they need us." She told him. "What he did, that was nothing to do with you, it's not your fault either, none of it is your fault, but we are going to end him."

Daryl nodded, closing his eyes.

"A lil help over here!" Abraham called, as him and Rosita tried to get Eugene up.

The couple separated, running towards the three, Daryl grabbed Eugene's other arm, helping him up as Rosita and Natalia grabbed his legs.

Getting back to Alexandria, they rushed Eugene to the infirmary, patching him up.

"Ricks coming." Abraham announced when he walked back in. "How is he?"

Eugene was asleep as the other three stood around the room.

"Bullet just grazed him." Rosita said. "But it's a good thing we got him back when we did. Antibiotics we picked up could save him from an infection. Could save his life. That's what Denise did."

"I gotta go get Evie, take her home, try and explain how she's lost another person under my watch." Natalia walked towards the door. "Keep me updated."

"Nat, wait." Rosita called after her, but she ignored it, leaving the infirmary, slamming the door behind herself.

Evie had taken it better than Natalia could assume a six year old would.

She had asked what had happened, Natalia told her that some bad guys had done it and that they were gone, cried, then asked if she could sleep in her bed for the night, Natalia had said yes.

Daryl had gone out to bring Denise's body back, him and Carol burying her.

"I'm sad that Denise is gone." Evie started, it was dark as they layed under the covers, Evie was playing with Natalia's hair. "But I'm glad you're still here."

"I know, sweet girl." Natalia kissed her head, hugging the girl tightly. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I get scared when you leave, that you won't come back, like Daddy, and now Denise, but your tougher than the monsters, you always come back."

"They were tough as well, and so are you."

"I love you, Natty."

"I love you, too, so, so, so much."

"I'm glad you took me in, that you're my mom now." Evie admitted, before yawning, it was late.

That was the second time she said it, Natalia didn't know what to do about it, she loved the little girl unconditionally and she was so young, but she knew Evie had her mother in her life, and she didn't want to take that spot from her, but if that's what Evie wanted, if she wanted her to take on that role, who was she to tell her not to.

"I'm glad you chose me."

Evie was asleep when Daryl came home, he saw the two in the bed, walked towards Natalia's bedside table, placing something on it before leaving again, not bothering to acknowledge her.

Natalia looked over her shoulder, grabbing the thing he had put down, looking at it in the dark.

It was the keychain Denise had picked up, with Evie's name on it, the one Natalia had told her to hang on to, to give the girl herself, and now she couldn't.

When news of the incident at the train tracks was spread, Maggie had made plans and schedules for the people of Alexandria, setting up more watch points and guard patrols.

Enid and Carl had offered to watch Evie as well as Judith whilst Natalia went with Michonne and Glenn, to talk to Maggie.

She hadn't even mentioned her birthday was tomorrow since the morning before.

The four were stood around a gun bin as they conversed about what to do to protect Alexandria.

"We'll have these, but we should hide a few. That way, we can find them, but strangers can't." Maggie said as they checked the magazines. "In case anyone gets in."

"They won't." Glenn assured her.

A motorcycle engine revving caught their attention.

Daryl was on his bike, ready to drive out the gates.

"Fuck sake" Natalia cursed as Michonne muttered "Oh no."

Natalia jogged after him.

"Daryl." Natalia called after him as the others gathered round, he was opening the gate for himself when Rosita hadn't. "I told you, not now."

"Don't care." He told her. "You ain't coming. Don't follow me." He then got on his bike, riding off before anyone could stop him.

Natalia chewed her lip as she walked towards the van, Michonne and Glenn followed her as she got in the drivers seat, turning on the engine.

"I told him we'd fucking do it together." She fumed.

"We're gonna find him." Glenn assured.

"Woah!" Abraham jumped in front of the van as she began to drive out the gates, braking harshly in order to not hit the large man. "Make room for my freckled ass." He hit the hood.

"No." Rosita said, walking over. "Cover my watch. You stay."

"Hey, we should keep numbers here." Glenn said from the back, leaning over the seats to talk out the window.

"I know where Daryl's going." Rosita told him.

"Rosita, just hurry up and get in." Natalia breathed, revving the engine.

"Maybe I should drive." Michonne told her.

Natalia turned and stared at her.

"I got it." She then drove out the gates, after her boyfriend.

"You should of stayed back." Michonne told her.

"I'm not letting him go out by himself." Natalia answered, her grip tightened on the steering wheel. "If it was Rick, you'd be out here looking for him."

That was the end of the conversation.

They had got to the train tracks, Natalia parked the van and they got out, a walker was feasting on Dwight's men, who they had killed the day before.

Denise's blood was still wet along the tracks.

"That's where she died." Rosita told Glenn.

"Alright, so he had to start from here." Glenn nodded, looking around.

Natalia walked in the direction the men had ran the day before, a trail of blood led her, she hoped it was Dwight's from where she had shot him.

Michonne pulled back some leaves, revealing Daryl's bike.

"He did." Michonne confirmed.

"Let's go." Glenn nodded at where Natalia was walking off to. "Nat, wait up."

Rosita was still staring at the blood.

"Rosita?" Glenn grabbed her attention.

"We should let him do this." Rosita said.

Natalia stared at her, pausing from where she was stood by the tree's.

"But he doesn't know what he's doing." Glenn disagreed. "We don't. Maybe him trying this makes you feel better about it right now. Maybe they keep knowing more about us than we know about them. Or maybe Daryl's gonna get himself killed."

"So, lets hurry up and go after him." Natalia said. "I'm not losing him too, I can't" Her voice broke as she practically begged them to go. "I won't. With or without you guys."

She headed for the trees, they followed after her.

They had caught up with him, he heard them approach, shooting an arrow in the tree beside Rosita.

She ripped it out as Natalia marched towards him.

"Watch the hell out, asshole." Rosita said.

"I did. You shouldn't have come."

"No. You shouldn't have left, we had a deal, and you ran off without me." Natalia hit him in the chest. "You had no right to do that. Not even thinking to tell me, I would have gone with you."

"When I split off from Sasha and Abraham, he was out there in the woods, in that burned-out forest with them girls, put a gun to my head, tied me up." He turned on her, glancing at the others before shoving her hand off of him, walking away. "I even tried to help him."

"So, you think it's your fault?" Glenn asked.

"Yeah, I know it is." He turned back, replying to Glenn. "I'm gonna go do what I should have done before."

"Daryl, wait!" Natalia told him.

He didn't listen.

"What, for her?" Glenn shouted after him, catching his attention. "She's gone, man. You're doing this for you."

"Man, I don't give a shit." He continued on.

"Daryl..." Glenn walked in front of him. "We need to get back there and figure this out from home. Our home. We need you, and everyone back there needs us right now. It's... it's gonna go wrong out here."

"I told you we would do it, yesterday, I told you we're going to kill him, together, with a plan that ends up with us both making it through the end, don't do this, we can't right now. Please, just come home, I'm not letting you get yourself killed, I need you back home, we all do." Natalia pleaded with him, grabbing his hand, squeezing it. "Please."

"I can't." He shook his head, pulling away from her.

"Daryl." Glenn called him, again.

"Man, I can't!" He raised his voice, marching off.

Rosita followed him. "I can't either."

Natalia didn't know what to do, she wanted to follow him, but she couldn't, he had walked away from her, he didn't want her there, he had chose to ignore her and go off on his own.

"Come on." Michonne said gently, taking a hold of her arm, steering her back where they came from.

Natalia wiped at her eyes as she followed her friend, she had to get home, protect Evie.

"Thing is, those men could be back in Alexandria right now." Glenn said, as they walked through the woods.

"If they are, they're dead." Michonne said.

"I hope not." Glenn countered. "We need them alive. We need to find out more."

"No, we don't. If more are out there, we'll find out either way, they don't get to live." Natalia told him.

They had reached some water, Glenn turned back, looking in the direction the two had went.

"We just got stuck with each other." He said. "We were lucky. We figured it all out together. It felt like we did. After everything, we did. The worlds not what we thought it was. Hilltop, the Saviours, it's bigger."

A whistle sounded from the trees.

Glenn and Natalia raised their guns as they looked in the direction.

A man came out from behind a tree.

Natalia shot him on sight.

But he wasn't the only one.

More had come, aiming their guns at the woman who just shot their friend.

Dwight came out from behind a tree.

"Don't shoot her just yet." He said, when they all cocked their guns. "She'll get what's coming to her, they all will."

"Nat, put it down." Glenn told her, putting his own gun down, there was too many to take on.

"Should listen to your friend, Natalia." Dwight agreed, when she hadn't, stepping closer to them.

"Natalia, just do it." Michonne told her.

She inhaled, as she threw the gun on the ground.

Three men had stepped forward, frisking them before roughly tying each one up, gagging them as well.

"You're gonna get what's coming to you, bitch." One of the men told her, throwing her on the ground by a tree, the others had pushed Glenn and Michonne down beside her.

They had set up camp, starting a fire as the three sat and waited for what was going to happen to them, why didn't they just kill them?

Through the trees, they could spot Daryl and Rosita hiding.

Daryl put his finger to his lips, telling them to keep quiet.

But what he couldn't see, was Dwight sneaking up on him.

Glenn tried warning him, so had Natalia as they fought to shout at him through their gags, but it was useless.

Dwight aimed his gun at Daryl's head, making his presence known to the other man.

Another came up behind Rosita.

When he had turned, Dwight shot him, causing his body to fall to the ground.

Natalia screamed, trying to get to him, but was pushed to the ground, the man held her there as she thrashed around, trying to reach him as her eyes welled up, tears rolling down her cheeks at the sight of her worst fear coming true.

He'll live, for now." Dwight told her, as he dragged Daryl's unconscious body towards them. He walked towards Michonne, grabbing a piece of her hair and cutting it off, as she tried to pull her head away, he handed it to one of his people, who walked away with it. "Get them in the back."

The man who was pinning Natalia to the floor, picked her up, the others doing the same with her family, as they dragged the five to a truck, shoving them in the back, cutting the three's ties.

When Natalia's hands were free, she grabbed the Swiss army knife from her boot, spinning around and lodging it in the skull of the person who freed her, killing him.

She knew it was reckless, that it was going to get her killed, she didn't care, they hurt him.

"Nat!" Michonne cried.

Another man knocked her down, his fist flying into her cheek, he kicked her in the ribs as she hit the ground, making her let out a pained groan.

He placed a boot on her stomach, putting weight on her so she couldn't get up, aiming a gun in her face.

"Do it, asshole." She spat at him.

"No, please, don't!" Glenn begged as guns were aimed at them if they tried to fight as well.

"Wait." Dwight called, pulling out his radio. "Don't shoot her, just yet."

He walked a distance away as he radio'd to whoever, most likely his boss, of course the slimy prick wasn't in charge.

When he got his orders he went back.

"Boss is gonna deal with our friend Natalia, want's to meet her, alive." Dwight told his men. "Throw her in the back with the others."

The man took the weight off of her, lifting her off the ground by her arm, tossing the small woman in the back Michonne grabbed her instantly as they were submerged in darkness.

"What the hell was that?" Rosita hissed. "Are you trying to die?"

Natalia ignored her, shrugging Michonne off of her as she crawled towards Daryl, blood was spewing out from where he was shot, it wasn't fatal, he'd make it through, but it still filled her veins with rage.

She brushed his hair away from his face, placing his head in her lap, kissing his forehead.

"You're an idiot, Daryl Dixon." She mumbled into his skin, wrapping the blanket they had thrown at the man, tighter around him.

She could hear the people talking outside, before the vehicle started moving.

They didn't know how much time had passed when Daryl gained conciseness again.

"Easy, baby, easy." She told him as he went to get up, the others gathering around.

"Daryl, you were shot, take it slow." Glenn said.

"You alright?" He looked at Natalia, cupping her face, noticing the bruise forming on her beautiful face, in the dark, she'd been hit, hard. The only light coming from bullet holes in the interior.

"I'm okay, I'm fine." She whimpered, kissing his palm, as she placed her hand over his.

"Natalia, this isn't going to end well, especially not for you." Michonne spoke, seriously, as Daryl looked at her, his brows furrowing.

"We're gonna be alright." She replied, not taking her eyes off Daryl. "We're gonna get through this."

"You killed two of their men, their boss wants you alive, because he wants to meet you, personally." Rosita said pointedly, she was pissed off at the woman, letting her anger seep through her voice. "And you think you're gonna make it out of this, you fucked up, royally, Moore.

Daryl looked back at his girlfriend.

"What the fuck did you do?" He asked her.

"What I had to, my only regret is that it wasn't Dwight." She told him.

He was mad at her, but they might all be dead in the next hour or so, he pulled her into a hug, she hugged him back tightly, breathing in his scent.

"I love you, Natalia Moore, my stupid woman." He grumbled into her shoulder.

Some more time had passed, the truck had pulled to stopped.

More voices sounded before a loud chorus of whistles went on, the truck had filtered out a lot of the noises, they couldn't even make out what was going on.

Then, the truck door was opened.

Big fog lights blocked their vision, stopping them from seeing what was happening, where they were.

"Come on." The voice of Dwight said. "You got people to meet."

Men came, grabbing them, yanking them out.

Rick and the others were kneeled in front of the men with guns, all in a line, Eugene was covered in bruises and cuts, like he had been beat, Maggie looked like she should be on her death bed.

"Maggie?" Glenn had asked, when he set his eyes on her, but he was pulled back from running to her.

"On your knees!" Dwight told them.

"All right!" Another man, cheered. He was tall with a moustache. "We got a full boat. Which one of you is Natalia?" He asked, looking over the new additional women.

"This one." Dwight pointed at her.

The man walked towards her, eying her carefully, Daryl went to move towards her, but was stopped.

"You?" He asked. "You're Natalia?" He glanced up at Dwight, who nodded, she had only stared up at him, her chest rising and falling. "Goodness gracious" he laughed, "Guessing your bite is much worse than your bark. Oh ho, he's gonna love this."

He then stood up, walking towards the Alexandrian's RV.

"Let's meet the man." He knocked on the door.

It creaked open, another man walked out of it.

He was sporting a leather jacket, a red scarf around his neck, tucked under, his hair was jelled back and stubble covered the lower half of his face, he carried a bat on his shoulder, it was wrapped in barbed wire.

"Pissing our pants yet?" He asked, a grin on his face. "Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close."

He walked along the line of people on their knees, checking them all over, assessing them.

"It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon. Which one of you pricks is the leader?"

"Its this one." The man with the moustache pointed at Rick. "He's the guy."

The man with the bat sighed, as he looked at Rick.

"Hi." He greeted Rick. "You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But I think you're gonna be up to speed shortly. Yeah. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes." He grinned widely. "Yes, you are, but before I get to that, which one of you little bitches, is Natalia?" He stepped away from Rick, assessing the women. "It ain't you, is it?" He looked at Maggie.

"Me." Natalia voiced, sitting tall as she glared at the man.

"Holy shit, you ain't lying to me, are ya?" Negan asked as he strutted down the line towards her.

"That's her." The man with the moustache confirmed.

"Really?" He let out a belly laugh he crouched down in front of her. "Hi, Natalia, my word, I gotta say, this is surprising. Ain't you a damn sight. Got me thinking about things I don't wanna think about at a moment like this, Negan and Natalia, got a nice ring to it, don't you think? Though, you did kill my men, two, only today, that's gonna be tough to get over, looking at ya, though, got me thinking it was their own fault if you managed that."

She didn't reply, just stared at him harshly, as the others watched, fear seeping into them.

Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Carl and Maggie had been very aware of the woman's temper, and her lack of care for herself or remorse for others she didn't deem important to her, they had known her the longest out of anyone there.

"Come on, you ain't even a little scared, look how many men are here, pointing guns at you and your friends, even Rick over there, is tearing up." He pointed at their leader.

Daryl had gone still at the sight, praying she didn't do anything rash, just sat there and listened, he was terrified, more than he had ever been in his life.

"All it looks like to me, is a bunch of pussies, who's scared, hiding behind their big boy tous." She told Negan as his men oohed and hissed. "Got more theatre production going on then an high school play."

"Ooh, words hurt, darlin'" Negan touched his heart, reaching towards her, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, which she leaned away from, her face pulled in disgust. "Don't worry, who ever damaged that pretty face of yours will not go unpunished, ruining it for the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, still hot as shit."

Daryl wanted to kill him.

"I like you, Natalia. You got bigger balls than any of us, here. Think Imma get back to you. Haven't fully decided what to do with you, just yet." He then stood up. "Gotta finish my conversation with your pal, here." He winked at her.

He then walked back, towards Rick.

"You see, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order." He went back, acting as if he hadn't even paused the conversation. "And the new world order is this, and it's really very simple. So, even if you're stupid, which you very may well be, you can understand it. You ready?" He asked the man. "Here goes. Pay attention." He took his bat off his shoulder, pointing it at Rick. "Give me your shit... or I will kill you. Today was career day." He began walking down the line. "We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do. You work for me now. You have shit, you give it to me. That's your job. Now, I know that is a mighty big, nasty pill to swallow, but swallow it... you most certainly will. You ruled the roost. You... built something. You thought you were safe. I get it. But the word is out. You are not safe. Not even close. In fact, you are pegged, more pegged if you don't do what I want. And what I want is half your shit. And if that's too much, you can make, find, or steal more, and it'll even out sooner or later. This is your way of life now. The more you fight back, the harder it will be. So, if someone knocks on your door... you let us in. We own that door. You try to stop us and we will knock it down. You understand?"

When Rick hadn't answered, he cupped his hand to his ear, bending towards him.

"What, no answer?" He stood back, wiping his mouth. "You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, now, did you? I don't want to kill you people. Some more than others" He winked at Natalia again, who stared at the RV, blocking him out completely. "Just want to make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you? I'm not growing a garden. But you killed my people, a whole damn lot of them. More than I'm comfortable with." He touched his chest. "And for that-- for that you're gonna pay. So, now...  I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta one of you. This-- this is Lucille, and she is awesome." He was talking about the bat. "All this, all this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honour." He walked the line again, stopping at Abraham, who was still standing tall, even on his knees, staring at Negan.

"Huh." He wiped his mouth again. "Ugh, I gotta shave this shit." He then walked towards Carl. "You got one of our guns." He knelt in front of the kid.

Natalia's heart was starting to race, Jesus had shared how he killed a sixteen year old before, Carl wasn't far from that.

"Whoa. Yeah. You got a lot of our guns. Shit, kid, lighten up. At least cry a little." He laughed before standing up, tucking the gun in the front of his pants, he walked the line again, his next victim was Maggie.

"Jesus." He winced at the sight of her. "You look shitty. I should just put you out of your misery right now." He raised his bat.

"No!" Glenn shouted, going after Negan. "No!" He cried when Dwight pushed him to the ground, kicking him.

"Stop it!" Maggie screamed.

God--." He fought against the man, who aimed Daryl's crossbow at him.

"Nope." Negan dismissed. "Nope, get him back in line."

"No." Dwight dragged him to his spot as he sobbed. "No. No. Don't. Don't" Glenn begged.

Negan laughed at him.

"All right, listen. Don't any of you do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. First one's free. It's an emotional moment, I get it." He pointed at Glenn. "Sucks, don't it?" He turned back to Rick.  "The moment you realise you don't know shit." He looked at them again, his eyes settling back on Carl, he pointed his bat at him, looking back at Rick. "This is your kid, right?" letting out a laugh. "This is definitely your kid."

"Just stop this!" Rick shouted.

"Hey!" He turned back on the man. "Do not make me kill the little future serial killer. Don't make it easy on me. I gotta pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order." He walked down the line, whistling a tune.

"I simply cannot decide." Negan turned his back on them, rubbing his head, before turning back. "I got an idea. He laughed, walking towards Rick, pointing his bat at the mans head."Eenie" He went down the line. "Meenie miney mo..." He reached Natalia, staring down at her, she didn't pay attention to him. "Catch..." he used his bat to push her chin up, making sure not to nick her perfect skin, then moved down the line, towards Daryl. "A tiger... by... his toe. If... he hollers let him go. My mother told me... to pick the very best one... and you... are... it. Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father. And then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."

Then he swung his bat down.

Next

[blade-that-was-broken]

Half Life Notes Pt. 2

So here is a bunch of notes for my Human AU, Half Life

Please note there are spoilers ahead that may be used for writing at some point. So proceed with caution!!

If you have any notes, suggestions or questions - don't be afraid to ask!

Brandy is actually one of Delta’s relatives best friends - Taylor. Spruce and Taylor kind of become friends through John. They get pretty close but not nearly enough to be romantically inclined with one another. She does start helping him get involved with stuff, whether it be with the family, school, etc. Spruce does learn some swimming from Brandy eventually but is able to float and stuff before then. Anyway, Brandy spent the semester as an exchange student abroad and came back in time for summer. Taylor talks about her and eventually introduces them, thinking they will get along. She’s right. Like very right. She becomes invested in getting them involved romantically; it’s kind of hilarious. 

Floyd is actually the one who scratches Spruce’s CD. He wanted to listen to it as he got more into music and wants to know why his brother loves it so much. Spruce freaks out because it’s the only one and he can’t find the songs anywhere else. 

Eugene 100% has an old stage at his place, possibly under a roof or in the barn and they do karaoke and performances there. He and Constance host tons of family friendly parties and other events for both their family and the community. 

Floyd is actually a music prodigy. He quickly picks up instruments and music things far quicker than anyone expects. Does school solo and ensemble and rocks it. Features in his choirs and probably joins the swing choir. 

Clay joins baseball and loves the rivalry with another school. He also likes the fact he can hit a ball as hard as he can. It helps with his anger. He isn’t bad either. He’s also big into sad books, which worries John. He’s a bit of a math whiz. 

JD sometimes thinks he got all the dumbass genes. 

Spruce eventually does want John to have some happiness and encourages him at some point to start dating. Clay catches on and confronts him. He’s not happy about it (he’s scared to lose the Dawn family, their support and some of his friends) but Spruce tells him John literally gave up his life for them so deserves something. They both, however, kinda want John and Delta to be together. 

Clay and Spruce join 4-H. Clay learns to ride horses and shows them. He even joins one of the drill teams (this is where he meets Viva). He is keen on learning a lot of disciplines and picks up with English and Western riding. He’s one of the few boys involved in some of that (outside of rodeo stuff) and so he’s pretty popular with the other girls. 

Spruce does cooking and baking, mostly in 4-H. He bonds with Sofia and Constance with baking, jams and other things. He bonds with Declan and Eugene and a few others with grilling, meats and other cooking dishes. John teaches him to fish. 

Viva is in Clay’s 4-H club and also rides horses. They don’t really interact at school in the beginning but become buddies at drill team and it blossoms from there. They kind of become rivals a little. Clay picked up riding fast - as he wants to prove to everyone he can - and Viva has been riding her entire life. They become partners at drill and once it starts, it does not stop. 

Poppy is a newborn at the beginning of the story, making her about a little less than a year younger than Branch. Peppy is the leader of the area (perhaps the next town since the one John lives in is so small? I’m not sure yet how that works honestly)

Sofia watches over several of her family’s kids frequently and volunteers at the nursery at church often when she is not consulting at a law firm/taking the odd case. Has considered opening a daycare. She’s a serious empty nester. 

County Fair in summer.

This may be how Spruce finds out about John’s old garage band. Spruce and his buddies sneak in when it is late and minors aren’t supposed to be there. John is reunited with some of his old high school buddies after one dies and they invite him to do a performance. One of said old high school buddies became a musician and still sells their single CD and advertises them. Brandy is the one who notices and she races to find Spruce. She is one of the few that have been able to listen to the CD he loves. 

John gets more involved with school activities as time goes on and he adjusts. He goes on walks with Rhonda and Branch and pretty much becomes known as the hot dad where he walks /shrugs//

One time Clay lets it slip about something his father did one time to Viva during drill and she told the most powerful and strong person she knew (her dad), scared for her friend. It was a bit early in their friendship. He didn’t go to anyone, but he confronted John at his house and pretty much openly threatened him, even though John had literally no idea what he was talking about. Clay is furious with Viva because he finds out/hears and it is so awkward. 

Clay confronts Viva and almost blows up on her. When he explains, she apologizes but Clay is so upset because this could interfere with John’s custody and doesn’t know if he can forgive her. 

John does tell him that it’s fine and not to worry and that he should not let this come between him and Viva. She didn’t know and wanted to help him. 

Peppy maaayyyyyy go talk to JD again to apologize. As he should. 

Yes, Branch’s first words are calling John dad. He learns to talk a fair bit before actually speaking anything. So it might even be a full sentence. 

John does teach Floyd guitar and some piano. He takes on it extraordinarily quickly. 

Spruce gets worried his new buddies will think he is weird for liking to bake. Haha, NO because they LOVE to eat and not only to make requests but LOVE being taste testers. (Literally I’ve never known a man who was upset that another man could bake/cook cause dudes love to eat. My HS cooking class was ALWAYS full.)

Floyd likes games; video games, board games, card games etc. He loves Mario especially and finds his voice hilarious. 

JD can draw fairly well and might be something that Branch picks up eventually. 

Rhonda loves all the boys and is protective of all of them but she hangs around Branch a lot and is protective of him, especially when he starts walking. It’s probably because he is the youngest and she knows he can defend himself the least. She also has a soft spot for Spruce (we think it’s more emotional) and he is more active in her life. John is her go to always. 

JD is an introvert forced to be an extrovert. 

Spruce and Clay - extrovert 

Floyd - introvert/ambivert 

Branch - introvert

They all bond with Delta somehow. Idk entirely how yet. 

She teaches Clay how to ride and might even lead his drill team. 

Floyd struggles to not see JD as a dad. 

JD, even when convinced to attempt dating, thinks it won’t work with him raising his brothers. 

JD and his old garage band get back together when one of them dies and he goes to the funeral. Spruce goes with him. When JD goes up to the mother, she talks about how much he loved JD and how proud she is of what he has done. She kisses his forehead and is a general sweetheart. 

They end up getting together and talking. One of the guys is a musician and has used the CD they made when they were kids to help his career. He gives JD some money to try and give him a share, saying it wasn’t enough. JD doesn’t want to take it but he insisted. 

Upon finding out about John’s bonds with the Dawn family, he feels replaced, especially when he walks around John’s house for the first few days. There weren’t many photos, just a few of John and Delta and a few other people. 

He doesn’t realize these photos are mostly celebratory wins for John when it came to his custody battle and such. 

Clay has a temper and tends to hold a grudge until he feels justice has been served. He has noticed his parent’s neglect in the form of rarely being around, clothes that no longer fit and some restriction of food. Clay has learned to eat almost anything, despite hating a lot of goods.

Clay doesn’t see a lot of abuse that went around. He has been put down sometimes but rarely hit. He has been so goofy and clumsy, his parents seemed to get mad at him less but they think he’s an idiot. He realized this and has a growing concern of being perceived that way once he’s safe. 

Floyd can be sensitive and hates conflict. He loves music and dreams of being a musician but has learned quickly his parents do not think he is capable or are supportive of that route. He has also learned things are okay when he is quiet, small and unnoticeable. He does not make a ruckus. So unless he is with his brothers, Floyd does not talk a lot and has never told anyone his inclination for music since he was very young. Clay knows, only by accident until it is revealed when John gets custody of them. 

His mother has hit him twice, each time apologizing profusely that he has accepted. 

He is a bit gullible and forgives easily because he doesn’t like being upset with loved ones, since he doesn’t have many. 

Spruce was furious when he found out his parents were pregnant with Branch. He didn’t say anything until Branch was born and when he let his displeasure slip, he got hit and wasn’t allowed near the baby for six months. Spruce didn’t care much, as he wasn’t happy about the baby and he was angry at John who was not sneaking visits and phone calls anymore.

It was late one night and his parents weren’t around and the baby was crying. He went to the crib and Spruce picked him up and brought him to his room. The baby crawled around and eventually found a pair of JD’s goggles. He seemed to like them and Spruce started telling him about their older brother, as well as some of the theories why John hadn’t contacted them. “He doesn’t know about you. He might not ever know about you.” 

Spruce became the caregiver for the baby after that. He knew it wouldn’t be long until Branch was in the same boat as the rest of them. They liked the new baby smell and the cute little children. 

Spruce is called Bruce by his old friends who are embarrassed by his real name. This leads to him having negative thoughts and feelings about his name. But then he remembers his brother is named after a fish and he feels better. 

[mariacallous]

I meet Malcolm Harris, voice of millennials and anti-capitalist crusader, at a Brooklyn coffee shop, suggested by his publicist for a book-tour interview. He goes for a guava croissant along with his $3.75 drip. He hints this is not an endorsement of a bourgeoisie micro-luxury, but an ironic jab at the media tycoons of Condé Nast who are picking up the tab.

Harris, a spry 34, is generating considerable buzz with his book, Palo Alto. He knows the town and the tech industry it sits at the heart of well. He grew up there, was schooled there, and even learned journalism at Palo Alto High School under Esther Wojcicki, mother of the (recently retired) YouTube CEO Susan and former mother-in-law of Sergey Brin. His antitrust lawyer father took on Microsoft in a major trademark case in the mid-aughts. But as an author, Harris is less into forging a first draft of history than using research to promote his preexisting point of view. “It’s not a work of journalism,” he says of his book. “It's a Marxist history.” 

Whatever you call it, Palo Alto is epic—an unrelenting 700-page indictment of capitalism, California, and the town that railroad baron Leland Stanford named in 1876 to honor a tall tree that still stands, and soon after made the home of his new university, which still dominates the region. Some might view Harris’ book as a companion piece to another doorstop-sized chunk of tech rejection, Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. But Harris thinks Zuboff’s book overemphasized the surveillance part and went too easy on the capitalism. “It doesn’t really get to the global political economy,” he says. 

Harris’s book gets there, in spades. In his sprawling, colloquial narrative, history isn’t a sloppy progression but a nefarious plot serving capitalism’s theft of people’s labor and dignity. His touchstone is the system by which Leland Stanford bred racehorses, which combined genetics with a novel emphasis on pushing horses to run faster at an earlier age than was the custom. (Kind of like Move Fast and Take Things.) Harris applies this “Palo Alto System” as a metaphor throughout, branding everything from venture capital to Tiger Woods’ training methods as inhumane descendents of Stanford’s original sin. Of course, one might argue that, having been nurtured in the town’s famed school system and its tech community, Harris—a deft wordsmith and an effective marketer—is himself a product of the Palo Alto System.

Harris has no problems digging up more villains than a thousand Marvel-verses. There’s Stanford, of course, and the first president of the university he founded, David Starr Jordan, who allegedly murdered Stanford’s widow. (At least that’s what Harris thinks.) The university’s early psychology pioneer Lewis Terman not only promoted eugenics-based IQ tests, we learn, but also slept with his students. Harris even attacks well-meaning leftists like congressman/activist Allard Lowenstein for working too deeply inside the system. (Harris heaps scorn on the Grateful Dead wing of the protest movement; he’s the guy at the SDS meeting who screams at the stoners in the back of the room.) More recent scoundrels include Silicon Valley’s vaunted founders. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are smelly “jerks,” he says, but “more meaningful as personifications of impersonal social forces.”

Harris has a genuine supervillain, though, in William Shockley, the Nobel-winning physicist. Shockley, father of the transistor, Stanford professor, and founder of a Silicon Valley semiconductor company, was a racist bully who fully deserves Harris’ one-word summation: asshole. 

Hold on, I say to Harris, wasn’t Shockley such an outlier that his nastiness led eight of his brilliant engineers to abandon him and start their own company, Fairchild, and from there populate the Valley with other upstarts like Intel? Wouldn’t that mean that the modern system of VCs funding startups—and ultimately, companies like Apple and Google— was based on a counterreaction to the white-supremecist ethos that Harris finds tucked away in every corner of his hometown? Harris pushes back on that theory. “They made chips for bombs!” he says of the “traitorous eight.” 

But for all his verbiage, Harris falls short when it comes to proposing remedies for the wage exploitation, racism, ecological carnage, and suicides he sees rippling outward from Palo Alto. He doesn’t provide a prescription for ending capitalism, short of waiting for its horrors to reach a point when ragtag survivors will finally pull the plug on it. He does have an idea how to fix Palo Alto, though.

Brightening as he speaks of the concept, he wants Stanford to return its 8,000-acre campus to the 614 people recognized as remaining members of the Ohlone, which once indigenously prowled that very turf. It’s a tall order, he admits. But giving back the campus, all of it—the football stadium, the Hoover Tower, the palm trees, the hospital, the Memorial Church, the classrooms, the buildings named after Gates and other capitalists who donated some of their ill-gotten gains to the university—is “low hanging fruit,” he tells me. I opined that this was fruit even higher than the tallest branch of the Palo Alto tree. Even Harris admits that the university is unlikely to embrace his idea.

I’m actually in agreement with a lot of Harris’ critiques of systems that reward harmful market power (and of course I am with him in condemning shameful behavior toward people who are from indigenous communities, Black, or Asian). While proponents of the status quo claim that Silicon Valley is the engine of wealth creation, income inequality is worse than ever, with the Bay Area a case in point. But my preferred solution is to constrain capitalism rather than employ Karl Marx’s playbook. I realize that significant change is difficult when the most destructive forces have the money and power to thwart reform.

But while we struggle to improve conditions for those not lucky enough to afford Palo Alto’s Craftsman homes, can’t we at least acknowledge that some of the technological benefits that have sprung from the system, tainted as it is by over-rewarded founders and exploited workers, have made our lives easier and richer? Even the scary technology of the moment, generative AI, has potential to perform amazing services for all walks of life.

Harris will have none of this. In a typical passage in Palo Alto he writes, “There’s no emerging artificial superintelligence that will automatically arbitrate the thoughts and claims of people. There is just capitalism, an impersonal system that acts through people toward the increasing accumulation of capital, the amassing of exploiting value.” Iconic words from the guy whose previous book was called Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit. 

Before we break, I ask Harris if he has a favorite gadget or service. Is there something that has emerged from the evil Palo Alto System that has brought him joy? He sheepishly pulls out his Android phone and shows me Recorder, a Google app for capturing and transcribing conversations in real time. He shows me how it captures a dialog and even identifies different speakers.

My first impulse is to agree that this is an unalloyed marvel. But then I recall a Google gambit of some years ago. In 2007, the company released a service whereby dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 from a cell phone or even a landline would connect you to free voice-based directory assistance that helped you find local businesses. While this ad-free service seemed like a miraculous freebie, it was actually a way for Google to capture millions of human voice interactions to train its algorithms. Users weren’t getting something from Google—they were giving something to Google. Once the company had what it needed, it discontinued the service. I imagine that the Recorder transcription app might be doing the same kind of thing for Google right now—exploiting our labors in the guise of helping us out. Still, despite its agenda, the service seems damn useful. So much so that it’s impressed even the most unforgiving of anti-capitalists. As does the guava croissant. “Pretty good!” says the Marxist.

Time Travel

Harris rejects the popular narrative that the hippies started a computer revolution. But as he knows from reading my book Hackers (which he generously cites in Palo Alto), some pioneers of the personal computer had their roots firmly embedded in the anti-war movement. I wrote extensively about one of them, Homebrew Computer Club moderator Lee Felsenstein, who also designed the famous Osborne computer, the first portable.

Lee dropped out of Berkeley in 1967, and began alternating between electronics jobs and work in the movement. In 1968, he joined the underground Berkeley Barb as the newspaper’s “military editor.” Joining the company of such other writers as Sergeant Pepper and Jefferson Fuck Poland, Lee wrote a series of articles evaluating demonstrations—not on the basis of issues, but on organization, structure, confirmation to an elegant system …

He insisted that demonstrations should be executed as cleanly as logic circuits defined by the precise schematics he still revered. He praised demonstrators when they smashed “the right windows” (banks, not small businesses). He advocated attack only to draw the enemy out. He called the bombing of a draft board “refreshing.” His column called “Military Editor’s Household Hints” advised: “Remember to turn your stored dynamite every two weeks in hot weather. This will prevent the nitroglycerin from sticking …”

Felsenstein had his effect. During the trial of the Oakland Seven, defense attorney Malcolm Burnstein said, “We shouldn’t have these defendants here … it should have been Lee Felsenstein.”

Ask Me One Thing

Simon asks, “Which of the FAANG companies do you think is most at risk of being caught on the back foot by new and emerging tech?”

Great question, Simon. A lot has been made of Google being jarred by Microsoft’s quick embrace of OpenAI’s technology. (And by the way, the FAANG acronym needs an M in there—Microsoft’s market cap trails only Apple’s among tech firms.) But Google has been working on these and other exotic technologies for years. Speaking of Apple, one may question why its Siri assistant can’t converse as eloquently as those new chatbots from OpenAI and others. But I don’t think that will affect the company’s business much. The long-term threat to Apple is that augmented reality devices will replace the need for screens, like the ones in iPhones and Macs—and that’s exactly why Tim Cook and company are exploring AR glasses.

Meta, though it does have a considerable investment in AI, has a unique problem among the tech elite: No matter how good generative AI is, the company’s core mission is to connect people, not to connect people to well-versed robots. So that’s a problem. 

But since you use the “N” in your grouping, let me throw out this curveball. Maybe the entire entertainment industry will be disrupted when AI makes it possible for anyone to generate things like fantastic movie-length videos from prompts or an engine that translates words to visual scenes. Google already has an experiment along these lines. In the long term, one might even imagine that you could cast these productions with representations of living human actors (assuming they will license their images). This might be bad news for Netflix, unless the company gets ahead of that curve.

[realcreacher]

Here is a family AU that I had copilot write:

As the sun began to rise over the rolling hills, casting a golden hue over the landscape, Rapunzel stepped out of their colorful caravan. She breathed in the crisp morning air, appreciating the peace and quiet of the early hour. Her long, golden hair caught the light, shimmering like a waterfall of sunbeams.

She scanned the outside of the caravan, searching for the pans to start breakfast. Maximus and Fidella, their loyal horses, were grazing nearby, enjoying their well-deserved rest after a long day of travel.

As she rummaged through the storage compartment, Rapunzel's ears picked up on a faint whispering coming from the front of the caravan. Curious, she paused, straining to catch the words. She could just make out the hushed voices of Eugene and their adopted daughters, Catalina and Keira. The words "steal" and "run" sent a chill down her spine.

Frowning, Rapunzel made her way to the front, where she found Eugene, Catalina, Keira, and Pascal huddled together. Eugene was crouched down, drawing something in the dirt with a stick. They all looked up with wide eyes when they noticed her approaching.

"Oh, hi there, Sunshine, um..." Eugene stammered, clearly caught off guard.

Rapunzel crossed her arms, her stern expression making her concern evident. "Eugene, what’s going on?"

Eugene glanced nervously at Catalina and Keira, who both shifted uncomfortably under their mother's gaze. Rapunzel's eyes narrowed as she turned her attention to her eldest daughter. "Catalina, what’s going on?"

Catalina hesitated, then looked over to her younger sister for support. Rapunzel's patience was wearing thin as she directed her question to Keira. "Keira?"

Keira sighed and looked down at her feet. "Dad…Dad wanted to go and…steal some supplies since we were out of money."

Rapunzel's eyes snapped back to Eugene, who hung his head in shame. "He said it would only be a one-time thing, so we decided to go along with it. I’m sorry, Mom," Keira added quietly.

Eugene stepped forward, trying to explain, "Rapunzel, I—"

But Rapunzel turned her back to him, her heart heavy with disappointment. "Eugene, don’t."

Eugene's shoulders slumped as he watched her walk away. "If my family is going to betray me like this, then I’m just going into town by myself. We’ll have a LONG chat later, when I get back," she said, her voice tinged with hurt.

Eugene scratched the back of his neck, his face etched with regret as he watched Rapunzel stride away. Pascal, sensing the tension, scampered up to sit on Eugene’s shoulder, his small eyes filled with worry.

As Rapunzel made her way into town, she couldn't shake the feeling of betrayal that gnawed at her heart. She had always trusted Eugene and her daughters implicitly, and to find them planning something so underhanded was a blow she hadn’t expected.

The town bustled with activity as Rapunzel arrived, but she was too preoccupied to notice the usual sights and sounds. She wandered aimlessly through the market, her thoughts a jumble of emotions. She knew they were struggling financially, but stealing was not the answer.

After spending the morning in contemplation, Rapunzel finally decided to head back. She knew that running away from the problem wouldn't solve anything. It was time to face her family and address the issues head-on.

When she returned to the caravan, she found Eugene, Catalina, and Keira waiting anxiously by the door. Their expressions were a mix of remorse and anticipation.

Rapunzel took a deep breath, ready to have the difficult conversation that awaited them. "Let's sit down and talk," she said, her voice calm but firm.

As they gathered around the fire, the tension between them palpable, Eugene finally spoke. "Rapunzel, I know what I suggested was wrong. I was just so desperate to provide for our family. But I understand now that it’s not the right way."

Catalina and Keira nodded in agreement, their eyes filled with sincerity.

Rapunzel sighed, her heart softening as she looked at her family. "We need to find a solution together, one that doesn’t compromise our values. We'll make it through this, but we have to do it the right way."

They spent the rest of the evening brainstorming and planning, determined to find a way to make ends meet without resorting to theft. Their bond as a family grew stronger as they worked together, proving that love and trust could overcome even the toughest challenges.

[peppermint-joys]

Being Eugene Fitzherbert’s Child Would Include…

Reader is like 4-6

You’re not Eugene’s biological child, but he found you and loves you so as far as he’s concerned that makes you his. In every way, that matters.

He found you during one of his exploits outside of Corona. You were rummaging the bins for something to eat. He pitied you and gave you an apple he’d “bought”. His last one.

Oh, you were sticking to him. Much to his initial annoyance. You followed him like a puppy. He couldn’t seem to shake you.

Eventually, he realizes you’re a really good distraction. When you cry people watch, and sometimes try to console you. And your sweet (e/c) eyes often move vendors to give you hand outs. You’re an asset. He’s keeping you.

On the rare days he doesn’t have a scheme he lets you lead. As a treat. Picnicking, reading in the library, flower picking, whatever you want, it’s your day to choose.

Over time, you endear yourself to him, so much so that he can’t imagine being without you.

The first time you call him dad, he low-key cries. He realizes at that moment that it’s not just him, he has a duty to you, to keep you safe. And he absolutely wants to give you the world.

You’re one of the few ones to know his true name, Eugene Fitzherbert. You can’t/don’t tease him. After all, you're (y/n) Fitzherbert.

He retires you from decoying.

He keeps you in the dark about his true actions. You’re a decoy, nothing more. He doesn’t want to involve you in any of his crimes. He never lets you be seen by any of his “partners”, knowing that would potentially put you at risk.

This means that sometimes he has to leave you alone. He always sets up a cozy camp in a well-hidden place, promises to be back for your bedtime story.

You’re never really lonely, even when he’s not there. You always find something to do to keep yourself occupied; tea parties with “fairies”, making friends with the woodland creatures, coloring.

But things change when you visit Corona.

He has to leave you again. He once again promises to be back in time to read you a bedtime story. Heck, he’ll even bring back a new Flynn Rider story. He gives you a little Eskimo kiss and heads off into the woods.

You’re so excited you love Flynn Rider stories, but your dad isn’t back in time. Your bedtime arrives, and he’s nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, Eugene is in hell. He stole a tiara from the royal family with the intent of backstabbing his partners, only to be foiled by a freak'n horse. Now he’s trapped by some blondie, basically blackmailing him just to see some stupid lanterns.

The tiara, it was supposed to be his last heist. Enough for him to make a life for himself and you. Give you the childhood you deserve. A fresh start for both of you.

He does not bring up the subject of you around Rapunzel. He wants to ditch her as fast as humanly possible and get back to you. But it seems she’s just as hard to shake as you were.

You worry. What if he doesn’t come back this time? What if he left you? For the first time in a while you begin to feel alone.

After the dam collapses, and they both almost drown, Rapunzel heals him with her hair. Her MAGIC hair. He decides to tell her his real name and, more importantly, tell her about you.

Rapunzel puts a halt on their quest for lanterns. They’re going to get you right then. She knows what it’s like to be left alone for days at a time. She doesn’t want to be part of the cause for that feeling for someone else.

They arrive at the hidden encampment in the morning. You’re still asleep. Nestled in your sleeping bag, cuddling a bunny stuffed animal Eugene had stolen for you sometime ago.

He gently shakes you awake.

After a moment of processing, you engulf Eugene in a hug. You’re absolutely ecstatic that he’s back. You go on rambling having to show him all the things you’ve made and tell him about the tricks you taught some bunnies. Then you notice…

“Dad, there’s a princess behind you.”

You take to Rapunzel immediately. She looks just like the princesses in the books you read at the library. Only with much longer hair, and she’s friends with a chameleon. Eugene might not be your favorite person anymore.

You have so many questions, as they try to explain they’re taking you to see some lanterns, mostly for Rapunzel (e.g. “It’s your birthday!?” & “Are you sure you’re not a for real princess?”)

Meanwhile, your dad gets attacked by a horse. Fortunately, you have an apple to offer them and Rapunzel convinces them not to arrest your dad for the time being. Again, you have some questions.

Maximus gives you a ride all the way into town, while Rapunzel and your dad walk beside you.

You notice and suspect they like each other.

You have the absolute time of your life. You meet other children who help you braid Rapunzel’s hair, get cupcakes, visit the library, Rapunzel teaches you a bit about drawing with chalk. It’s amazing.

You’re so tired you fall asleep on Max before the lanterns. Eugene doesn’t want to wake you, so he has Max keep an eye on you.

The horse loves you, so of course he’ll stomp anyone who disturbs you.

You awake when you feel Max moving. You awake to his panic and following his gaze you see your dad calling out for you and Rapunzel being dragged away by palace guards.

You and Max share a look. You both know what you need. Help.

Max takes you to the Ugly Duckling to assemble recruits. Max does charades trying to inform the bandits of the dire situation. Unfortunately, they don’t understand. Then you appear at the door. They give a cheer, they’d do anything for you.

(A story for another time.)

With help from the bandits, you and Max manage to help your dad escape prison. And boy, do you give your dad an earful. He shouldn’t steal because stealing is wrong. He’s so relieved you’re okay he sort of ignores your words and hugs you tight.

He forces you to stay with Max while he climbs up the tower to rescue Rapunzel. Max will keep you safe.

You know he has to this time, but you really don’t want him to leave you again.

You’re left at the base of the tower, wondering what’s happening. If Rapunzel and your dad are safe. When a woman is pushed from the window, you hide behind Max, watching in horror as she turns to dust.

You’ll be having nightmares for weeks to come.

When Eugene and Rapunzel emerge from the tower, you rush to Rapunzel, thrilled she’s okay. Favorite person.

Rapunzel is reunited with her parents, the king and queen. And you and your dad move into the Palace.

You get to live like a princess. The treatment your dad always knew you deserved. You’re completely supportive of his and Rapunzel’s relationship, though icky when they kiss, and Rapunzel adores you. Honestly, the whole kingdom does.

Not a princess by birth, but you are one in every way that matters.

[angelthefirst1]

The Reset is the Great Tribulation (The great woe and the unveiling) after all...this is a show about the end (Coda) of the world 🌎

Part 2

When Daryl gets out of the tunnel in Acheron 2, he comes across a $100 note with a message on it from a lost child to their father, saying they waited 3 weeks before leaving, they have to go, but they will turn the Radio (Sirius/Beth) on everyday at 10. And, that they will see each other soon.

Daryl finding this note here (in the underground tunnels that represent the French class struggle) is a hint to him finding Beth in France but is also yet another woe he is relieving about the three weeks after losing Beth (Sirius)

Side note: @frangipanilove deserves huge accolades for her finds on the Sirus and radio symbolism, it is, in my opinion, one of the biggest finds (along with the biblical links) to Beth, we have had this past decade, helping to unlock so many other meanings, so...👏 👏 👏

At the same time Daryl is in the tunnels, Eugene is telling the Commonwealth that while travelling with his companions (which will be replicated by Daryl in France) he found a working radio he used every night, hoping someone would answer back, and that one night Stephanie did.

Eugene was desperate to meet her, thinking she was the love of his life, and that she might make a man of him.

During this exchange Eugene is very much stepping into Daryl's character in terms of his own love life...he is not very experienced with the fairer sex, and with Daryl we have still yet to see him kiss another female. And yes...while they alluded to Leah and Daryl, it's very interesting they showed nothing intimate on-screen between them.

Eugene is also extremely nervous to the point he is sweating and his hands are shaking...

Which gives me major throwback vibes to this 👇

The time when Norman tweeted about listening to 'Very nervous and love' during the making of Still. (Eugene is very nervous and looking for love while Daryl is relieving Still in the river of woe)

If they are in part using Eugene to shadow future Daryl story through the radio/sirus love connection, then it makes sense we will see Daryl being very nervous in love, and it will correlate with another version of the class struggle we see represented in the tunnels and the Commonwealth.

1102 is a template for Daryl in France, both him in the tunnels and Eugene with the Commonwealth. Eugene gets taken to the Commonwealth like this...

In a horse and cart and when he gets inside he meets Stephanie, a fake version of Eugene's true love.

This is important because Daryl has already told the story of his fake love with Leah, and meeting Leah again is the next thing that happens chronologically, when the whole Reapers group are introduced in the following few episodes.

Not long after Eugene is "very nervous and in love", and being questioned by the Commonwealth, we see Maggie's group again, first we see Gabriel with the Sirius one eye look up to the starry night.

While Daryl looks at Dog (Sirius)

Maggie then asks Daryl what he found in the tunnels (France) and he talks about the $100 note with the radio/sirus 3 week reference. Beth...

This next part is important, as it's another one of Daryl's woes...

Maggie talks about taking a detour to a hidden supply depo, that her and Georgie set up all over...when they were looking for survivors. For Daryl it's a reminder of the funeral home being someone's supply depo.

He is extremely thoughtful when she mentions this...

This is his next woe about Beth...

Continued in part 3 😁

[ajbwasntwriting]

Daughter!Reader X Negan, Reader x Daryl: Chapter 13. Flames

First | Previous | Next

(we using the same gif cause I couldn’t get the bridge gif to work sorry no sorry)

I’ll only post more chapters if previous chapters get a good reaction so if you enjoy this please heart it, reblog it, and/or reply to it. Interaction inspires.

if you wish to be added to the tag list please dm me. All chapters can be found under the tag AJ’s Negan’s Daughter AU

Soon the camp was left near barren. The saviours had made up more than half the work force and as far as it seemed you were the only one left. You spotted Daryl sitting in front of a white tent eating an apple. You bee-lined past Eugene and Rick to him, sitting on the chair just opposite from him.

“Hey” Daryl greeted you warmly. You just smiled at him then went back to staring in the middle ground, leaned down in the chair and your arms crossed. You sat there in peeved silence for a moment, just not wanting to be alone right now. “Heard the yelling match you had-”

“Don’t” You said, closing your eyes and shaking your head in annoyance. “I feel stupid enough as is.”

A hand landed on your knee and Daryl’s gruff voice said “You ain’t stupid, Darlin’”

That made you smile whether you liked it or not. You looked at him through the side of your eye, leaning forward and looking at you with so much love. “Darlin’, huh?” you commented on the new pet name. You uncrossed your arms and took his hand in yours, ignoring how sticky it felt from the apple he was eating. “I could get used to that.”

“Anything I can do for you? You name it, I’ll make it happen.” Daryl said.

“Just sit with me a while.” You droned, clearly exhausted. “Before you gotta up and go again.”

“‘Course” he reassured you, kissing your knuckles. You detached your hands so he could finish his apple and you were happy to sit with him. The noise of the camp was gone and there wasn’t anything you could do, but with Daryl you always felt at ease. Though something seemed off about him. A kind of anger was boiling under your skin. Maybe he was pissed the Saviours up and left too.

Jerry arrived back on horse and was talking to Rick. You didn’t bother yourself with it but Daryl’s interest seemed to be piqued. Especially when he walked by talking rapidly into a walkie talkie. You tuned into the conversation out of curiosity.

“I need you to get an urgent message to Alexandria… If Maggie Rhee shows up, delay her at the gate and alert Michonne right away. Do not... repeat… do not let her in without an escort. Over”

“What’s happening?” You asked Daryl. He didn’t look at you as he stood up. You stood up after him and walked behind

“And, Maggie, if you're listening… let's talk.” Rick tucked the walkie back into his belt.

“Hey. What’s goin’ on?” Daryl asked as he approached.

“Maggie's headed to Alexandria.” Rick explained.

“Is that bad?” You asked.

“She's about do something she might regret.” Rick explained further, grabbing the horse.

“Hop on. I'll take you.” Daryl said.

“You sure? We got enough fuel?” Rick asked, already moving to Daryl’s bike

“Yeah. We’ll get there quicker.” Daryl said, climbing onto the bike. “I’ll be back soon, Darlin’” he called to you.

“Better be in one piece” you shot back.

“I’ll make sure of it, Y/N!” Rick replied. You watched as they took off down the road, leaving you in a crumbling camp.

You wandered around the camp, finding the Alexandrians had left too and what was left of hill top and oceanside were scattered with talk of leaving. You eventually came upon Carol. She was packing up with a group you recognised as the kingdom's people. “You leaving too?” You called, grabbing her attention. You settled onto the heel of your feet and placed your hands into the back pockets of your hips, watching as she asked a nearby man to finish packing up the crate.

“This place is bust, Y/N” She said, walking towards you. “I know you tried earlier but-”

“Yeah” you hissed through your teeth. “I get it.” She looked away, seemingly embarrassed. “You're going back to the kingdom I see.”

“There’s room on the wagon if you want” Carol offered, seemingly remorseful.

“No.” You replied “I told Sanctuary I’d be back.”

Carol shook her head in disbelief then chuckled as she threw her head to the sky then back to you. “I don’t get it. You hated it there!” She expressed while you nodded along in agreement. “But you wanna go back?”

‘I was trying to cover my ass but now everyone who knows me is dead’ you thought. Though that wouldn’t fly. Your childhood made you an adept liar though. ‘No granny those aren’t vomit stains on the carpet I just spilled my porridge. Yes, I eat porridge now.’

“I was scared. And lonely. But in time it got less so.” you explained, not breaking eye-contact. “I don’t know the Saviours you knew, but the ones I know appreciate my work. And they’ve got nothing. I had nothing and Daryl came to me, gave me a shot. I wanna extend that to them.”

“We won’t help,” Carol said. “Too many people were hurt.”

“Well if you’re gonna turn away starving children and hard working people,” You retorted. “We’ll go elsewhere.”

“You’re a horrible liar,” Carol chuckled.

“Right back at ya,” you turned to leave and pack your things when Carol called you. She came up to you and offered you a revolver and a belt holster.

“You’ll need it,” she said. You took the belt and weapon.

“Thanks, Carol.” You said. She pulled you into a hug that you returned with gusto then parted so you could pack your things.

You didn’t have much, mainly your knife and the clothing on your back but Enid had forgotten some valuable supplies in the infirmary. Between that, the change of clothes you had and a couple apples you had hidden away in your tent for later, your bag was bare.

You were about to set out and start dismantling one of the tents to bring back when you heard bullets fly. You immediately got low to the floor and pulled out your gun, checking if it was loaded.

The rounds sounded too rapid to be one sided. You walked out the back of the tent and noticed the shoot out. It was a small group of saviours going after Carol’s group. You took a deep breath and ran out of the tent and behind a nearby tree, then peered out the side and took two quick shots at the group. You managed to hit one and the larger group was now caught off guard. In the time it took you to unload the barrel you downed another two and the fire fight had ended with Carol’s group victorious and a number of the Saviours running back into the woods. They disappeared as quickly as they appeared. You ran over to Carol’s group.

“Is everyone alright?” You asked.

“They got Fred!” one of the hilltoppers yelled. You looked at the armoured body and knew in an instant he was gone from the axe wound alone.

“You gotta come with us,” Carol said to you. “The shots would’ve attracted the herd.”

“Alexandria’s the safest bet with the way that herd is moving” Jerry put in.

“Alexandria it is then,” you agreed, helping load up now. The tents were abandoned. Someone from Oceanside radioed that the camp wasn’t safe but no one checked for a response. Everything was loaded up and the carriages were moved.

Off in Alexandria, in someone else’s world. Maggie entered the dark basement cell. Her face was illuminated by what little light creeped between the shutters. Negan chuckled.

“Aw, she just gave up the keys, huh?” He jested “It's a shame. She got the blade, but you...You got the fire. My money was on you.”

Maggie looked into his cell. He sat on his bed, shrouded in darkness. “So you remember me.” She spoke into the darkness”

“'Course I do.” Negan Replied “It's why I thought you were gonna win.”

“Good.” Maggie swallowed hard, emboldening her resolve. This was it, she was going to give this monster what he deserved. “Get on your knees.”

“You know, I remember you screamin' in that clearing.” Negan muled aloud, standing up and walking closer to the bars yet not completely out of the darkness “I remember how much I broke you breakin' open your husband's head like I did.”

“Glenn.” Maggie snapped “His name was Glenn.”

“So now what? You finally come for…” Negan paused for intentional dramatic effect “revenge?”

“Justice.”

“Damn.” Negan gasped “Thought you'd do this a hell of a lot sooner. It take you this long to work up your nerve?

“I was always gonna settle this,” Maggie retorted, her voice growing in volume “what you did to my husband. Get on your knees.”

“What I did to him?” Negan pressed “You mean how I cracked open his skull and popped out his goddamn eyeball? How I bashed his big, beautiful brains into the ground over and over while you and his little friends watched? Is that what you mean?

“Ah, I used to say that I didn't enjoy killin'.” Negan sighed with satisfaction “That was a lie. Your old man… Christ, I forgot his name again. But he was different. Killin' him the way I did, ooh, now, that was fun.”

Maggie pressed the key into the lock, the teeth rolling over the internal mechanisms echoing in the dark cell. Negan took to his knees, as had been requested of him.

“Get to it. Have your justice. Kill me. It was worth it.”

“Lemme see you in the light.” Maggie demanded.

“Come on.” Negan beckoned her on “Kill me.” She turned the key, the lock clicking loudly. “You not have it in you?” Negan teased “Don't you punk out like Rick.”

“Come into the light.” Maggie demanded again.

“Kill me. This is what you came here for!” Negan demanded, his tone becoming desperate “You kill me!”

“Move into the light.” Maggie spook through her teeth, peeved.

“Kill me.” Negan’s head went down and he began to cry. Maggie finally lost her patience, pulling the door open and tearing Negan from his cell and into what little light there was in the room.

“Please. Please.” Negan began to beg. He was disheveled and cowering on the floor in a useless pile. “Please kill me.

“Why?” Maggie asked

“You have to. Just do it.”

“You tell me why!” Maggie began to yell at him “Tell me! Why should I?!”

“So I can be with my family!” Negan cried out “So I can be with Lucille! And with my Y/N!” Negan sobbed silently.

“I should be dead.” He began to ramble “I have to be dead. And it's supposed to be you. It has to be you, because I can't do it. I can't do it. I've tried. I can't. I can't be like this. Please, please don't make me stay like this. It's... Settle it.” He was so distraught every other word he was gasping for air. “Settle me. Kill me. Please.”

“Get back in your cell.” Maggie ordered

“No.” Negan protested from the floor where he lay “No. No. No.” He sobbed “Why?”

“I came to kill Negan,” Maggie said “and you're already worse than dead. That settles it.” Negan hid his face as he sobbed “Go.” she ordered.

He knew better than to argue with her, especially how she pulled him out of the cell without breaking a sweat. “It wasn't supposed to be like this.” He protested weakly, “It wasn't supposed to be like this.”

With that Maggie locked the gate and left the cell, content that her husband’s murderer was suffering.

“What the hell was that?” One of the kingdom’s people said when they were far enough away, clearly talking to you. In their eyes you were the last saviour. They strode up behind you.

“I don’t know” You muttered, pulling one of the horses along the road

You were walking as fast as you can, basically dragging the horses and carriages and this man wanted to fight. “What do you mean you don’t know!”

“I don’t know!” You yelled back, continuing to move. “People do stupid shit when they’re scared!”

“They killed Fred!”

“We killed them!” You finally let go of the horse and turned around to face the man. “And you’ve been killing them for a long time!”

“You don’t know what they-”

“The war?” You cut him off “I know that there is a factory full of people who are starving, working their ass off to get you ethanol, and have no protection.” You were too caught in the moment to notice the wagon train had stopped moving and too angry to hear Jerry and Carol calling to you “Not fighters! Workers! People who didn’t get a chance to defend themselve in your precious fucking war and are paying the price for it!”

Horses trotted up to meet you halfway in the road. You recognised Maggie, Eugene, Tara, and Michone and a few others. Daryl rode up from the back of the group on his bike.

“What happened?” Maggie rode up to the group and asked Carol.

“Saviours jumped us. Ended up shooting each other.” Carol explained. “The gun fire could’ve attracted the herd so we left.”

“Where’s Rick?” Daryl asked.

“He’s not with you?” You shot back.

“What if he headed back to the camp?” Beatrice, a girl from Oceanside, pitched. You could feel the panic set in the group. Daryl disembarked from his bike.

“I know a shortcut. Come on!” He lead the way into the forest. You and a large group instantly took off on foot, following him closely. Within minutes you were back at the bridge to a horrifying sight.

Countless walkers were crossing the bridge. The herd was so thick no sunlight was travelling through and standing at the end of the bridge, with all those walkers heading right towards him, was Rick. Daryl already had his bow out and was picking off the walkers that got too close to his friend.

“What is he doing?!” Maggie yelled.

“He's hurt!” Michone cried. You noticed his clothes were soaked in blood

“That herd that went right through Hilltop.” Daryl gasped “He's trying to bring down the bridge.”

In the next instant Michone had her sword out and was running towards the herd. You called after her and ran after her.

“We turn them around. Fight 'em back.” Maggie followed close behind you

“Fire your guns.” Carol ordered “Try to divert them.

Michone called to Rick as you all ran to the herd, but a moment later the herd caught in flames. Michone stumbled back as the orange heat climbed above your heads. She stood there a moment, shocked into place. You looked through the flames and felt yourself thrown back into your army days.

Rubble and sand were all around you. The air was heavy with debris. It was you, five other servicemen and countless civilians trapped into a crumbling building while bullets flew outside. Children were crying and parents could do nothing to calm them. There was a moment of calm. A moment to get the group through a gap in the rock fall near the back of the building. You got them through while the others lay down ground fire, keeping the enemy at bay. You pulled yourself through the hole after the last of the civilians made it out and went about helping your fellow soldier. They were nearly clear when an explosion went off in the building and you were both sent backwards. You could feel the heat from the explosion on your face, but your ally could feel their life seeping out of their lost leg. He screamed out in complete agony.

The same way Michone screamed out. When you felt yourself come back you noticed Maggie and Carol were holding her back and you had fallen to the ground.

“Y/N!” Tara yelled to you, pulling the rest of you into the present “We have to go!” You nodded rapidly and pulled yourself to your feet. You all retreated back a ways so the herd wouldn’t come to you right away.

“I need to find him,” Michone sobbed. “I need to help him.”

The smoke was rising above them in thick clouds. The radio was going crazy with people who were seeing the smoke.

“What was that?”

“Was that the bridge?”

One of the people with you got on the radio. “Rick!” he called breathlessly “He blew it to stop the herd!”

Everyone around you was in shock and crying horribly. These people had followed Rick, and now they seemed lost. You were in no way a leader but-

“We can look downstream.” You spoke up. Pale and contorted faces looked back at you. “If he fell in the water he’ll be downstream… If he got hit by the blow back he’ll be on the road bu-”

“You heard her.” A man with long hair in a bun and a beard. His face was red but he was already tired of crying “Downstream.”

“I gotta-” Michon spoke, shaking as she got back to her feet. The man beckoned her. In the next moment a small group had run past to look downstream.

“I gotta go to Sanctuary” You announced to those left. Carol nodded, tears streaming down her face. “They gotta know what happened here.”

“Go,” she croaked out, “and bring them back to kingdom.” Beatrice immediately got angry at the notion but before she could speak Carol silenced her. “Without that bridge they’ll starve. Rick didn’t fight for that.” Carol looked back at you. “Go.”

~Tag List~

@felicisimor​ @bodeckersbitch​ @lauren-novak​ @aestthete

[disney-rapunzel-merida-vanellope]

@grunnies watched it sooner than i expected 😂

- watched cinderella 2015 today so my sister decided we should watch cinderella 3, she loves this one a lot.

- I feel extra bad for cinderella in this movie cause when she finally got her happy ending, it goes back in time, when she finally reaches the prince he doesn’t remember her, when he almost remembers SHE IS ALMOST DEPORTED, WHEN SHE IS GETTING READY TO MARRY SHE GETS STUCK IN A PUMPKIN LIKE OMG LET HER BREATH

- love cinderella and the prince cute interactions so much

- I don’t have a favorite step sister in the og movie, but I really love Anastasia in the sequels. Glad disney made her sympathetic

- the evil step mother is even worse here. Everytime she’s on screen I have chills. She really wants revenge and goes too far imo 😭😭😭 SHES TOO OP REVERSING TIME???? WOMAN CHILL. She could have made herself queen right there with the wand but noooooo she WANTED cinderella to know they knew she was the girl from the ball while seeing other girl take her place. She had to made a point of destroying cinderella deeper than ever. Pure evil

- the animation is so good and clean for a straight to dvd disney sequel. Cinderella looks extra pretty here I think

- the songs are really good ngl. I love the cinderella song so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I sing that "I want much more than dream" (that’s how it goes in the pt dub idk the eng lyrics😶)

- SHE GETS INTO THE CASTLE WITH A SMILE 😭😭😭😭 PURE & CLEVER CHILD. The men smiling too kkkkkkkk

- idk the name of this blue dressed lady but I was so happy when I saw she was in the movie cause I recognized her from cinderella 2 😭. It then she was a big pain in the ass…. Don’t remember how she was in the other movie but I suspect bossy there too

- cinderella is so clever. She would have done this whole mission so fast if the others didn’t have the wand

- the prince is so lovable and unintentionally funny I love him 😭😭😭😭😭

- NOT HIM SAYING THE ONLY CLUE HE HAS IS THE SHOE SIZE. BOY YOU STARED AT HER THE WHOLE BALL. YOU MUST HAVE PICKED ON OTHER FEATURES 😭

- HIS FACE WHEN HE ENTERS THE ROOM. HIS NOSTRILS. "AM I IN THE RIGHT ROOM?"

- he did know it wasn’t Anastasia so I guess he did pick on other features

- he tried so hard to make them leave in the most polite way. He’s precious

- I was never a fan of how Cinderella’s hair looks let down but I do like seeing it with the white cloth headband thing

- THE WAY SHE SMILES AT HIM AND HES LIKE 😃 "you need help hun?”

- "maybe it was another prince" 😒

- the way he knows her from the feel of her hands sounds really stupid tho. Maybe her hands are so damaged from the years she spent working that her hands really are like any other 🙂 but like, she was wearing gloves at the ball SO HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW HER HANDS FEEL LIKE 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨😳

- jaq and Gus are such good friends. They really saved the day. Encouraging her to go after the prince, spying for her, singing the events to the prince…. True friends

- I wanna eat every cake in that room. But like omg they cooked all that in 1 day or something? Rich people things

- the way the prince is describing Anastasia to the king…. He’s such a gentleman…. He really would have described her like that even without the spell i believe. He’s just that nice

- my sister really doesn’t give 2 shits about the 1st cinderella movie, but she loves this one so much. And the prince even ranks in her faves along with Shang and Flynn

- Anastasia dancing is EXACTLY like me in the obligatory dance classes we had at school during PE 😬 having bad memories rn

- it actually hurts how she believes he’s in love with her despite the magic….. girl deserved better

- love the shell and the story

- cinderella is such a boss in this movie. Got into the castle like it’s hard and now is undercover in the lion’s mouth

- she’s so sassy with the step mother oh I love it "we’ve won" " I don’t think so" TELL HER

- Lúcifer on screen is always a bad time I really hate that cat

- sliding on the stairs’ rail cause she tends to lose her shoes on the stairs

- SHE GETS THE WAND BUT IS STILL STOPPED OH I HATE THIS SO MUCH SHE WAS ALMOST THERE

- their bodies on the mirror I can’t cope

- this whole talking to the rats scene is so hilarious 😂😭 love how he just goes along with the craziness. He’s trying, so patinete and willing to listen. A KEEPER

- the song IS A BOP

- my sister hates how she loves the movie so much and has watched it many times but I’m the only of the 2 who knows the lyrics of the songs kkkkkk 😂

- HIM CALLING HER CINDERELLI TOO 😭😭😭😭 that’s precious

- POOR FUCKING KING HIS SON IS TALKING TO RATS AND JUMPING THROUGH WINDOWS. THE PRINCE IS A KEEPER BUT HES CRAZY

- I’m so glad the whole internet knows about the jumping from window thing. This was meant to be memed

- girl lived as a slave all her life and was really gonna be sent away to god knows where, without even her rat friends while her abusers lived her destiny…. Cruel… I hate this movie

- the horse riding scene reminds me so much of eugene going to save Rapunzel at the end. I do love me some badass in love disney princes 🥰😍

- HOW IS HE SO GOOFY AND HEROIC AT THE SAME TIME 😭😭😭😭 HE JUST YETED HIMSELF BUT STILL LANDED IN A COOL WAY

- "want to marry me cinderelli?" "It’s actually cinderella" "wrong girl then"

- I love the facial expressions on Anastasia and her mother when they are found out and deciding what to do. Anastasia was so devastated

- poor king only wants grandkids……

- EVERY WEDDING DRESS CINDERELLA WEARS IS A BANGER

- this cloning cinderella thing always freaked me out so much. It’s so evil, twisted and repulsive. Great plot point tho, this is a Disney sequel but they went all out

- even in the ragged dress she looks good 😭

- I love cats, but Lucifer deserves hell

- "not gonna miss my wedding" GO GET YOU MAAAAN 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

- the priest is so funny looking

- cinderella protecting Anastasia and the prince protecting them both….🥰

- love how her distransformation mirrors Cinderella’s transformation in the 1st movie

- the king telling her everyone deserves true love even after all she did…. Love that for her

- another banger wedding dress

- "old life?" Yeah they really lost relationship progress cause of that evil bitch. So upsetting but at least after all this rollercoaster of bad luck for Cindy, she got the man

- everytime we’d finish the movie, my sister an i would put the music video of the credits song. It’s so good

- this is a hard movie for me to qualify, I have always had mixed feelings about it, a love hate relationship with it. Cinderella is my least fave princess, but I still love her here. Love her too much in fact cause I just hate how very step she takes towards the prince, the step mother has her take 10 back. It’s heartbreaking, I always feel so frustrated watching it cause has she not gone through enough in the 1st movie?? Why all this torment of ruining the only good night she had, the only love she felt?? But it’s still super entertaining and funny and genuine. Really felt like they had a story to tell instead of just doing it for the money like some sequels. And it’s a good story. The animation, music, comedy, the epic moments… all so very good. It’s a frustrating good time I think that’s how I feel.

[kingofthewilderwest]

ask meme: bluegrass fandom go on do it i dare you

nghnghnfhghfnghgnfijgjfdndhgnf you had to ghfnfgh gnfhgnfhdnhghgae;rojg okay okay okay I guess we're doing this

Context / info given for all poor readers wondering who the flip flap dippity dap I'm talking about.

Send me a fandom and I’ll tell you my

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most) From Flatt & Scruggs: Earl Eugene Scruggs, his thick black eyelashes, and his dorky gap-toothed grin. Earl Scruggs and his soulful, earthy, expertest banjo picking that makes me react ferally (in ways no other banjo picker can do for me... look, he's the Father of Bluegrass Banjo!!! We're all playing after Earl to an extent!). Earl Scruggs, the inspiration for why I have a banjo sitting next to me rn. That Earl.

I know way too much information about his life, don't test me, it's bad, it's endless Scruggs lore, I won't shut up for five months.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped) From the Del McCoury Band: Delano Floyd McCoury, who has the happiest smile-laugh ever. Look at his squint! He's so squinty! Every time I see a photo, I smile back until my cheeks hurt. Del is the human personification of a hug. Unlike other folks I've listed, Del's alive and touring (at the young age of 83). He's a vital living link to traditional bluegrass and earlier years of the genre.

Another scrunkly is Burkett Howard Graves, better known as Uncle Josh from Flatt & Scruggs, *THE* dobro player who developed the technique and inserted the instrument first in bluegrass, a fun comedian, and not sore on the eyes. ;)

Oh right, and literal tiny child Marty Stuart in Lester Flatt’s band is a GIFT.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave) From Flatt & Scruggs: Dorris Paul Warren! There were tons of extraordinary early bluegrass fiddlers. But Paul does not get enough recognition and respect for being one of *THE* most-heard bluegrass fiddlers, member of the highest profile group (Flatt & Scruggs) for decades. Our relative lack of public biographical information is a travesty. A TRAVESTY I SAY!!!!

Also on this list: English Tullock Jr. (Cousin Jake) from Flatt & Scruggs, because badass bassists deserve more love; Rob McCoury, the banjo picker from the Del McCoury Band; and Wilma Lee Cooper, who has a BIG VOICE and dominated vocals in the early years when (what we now call) bluegrass was like 99.5% male.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week) Gary Scruggs, eldest son of Earl Scruggs. He did not get the public love and attention that Earl's middle son, Randy, got. I am president of the Give Gary Appreciation Committee. Look, if you can't appreciate his sexy pose and sword, we can't be friends.

poor little meow meow (“problematic” / unpopular / controversial / otherwise pathetic fave) Jimmy Martin falls here, as does Carter Stanley of the Stanley Brothers. Both were well-recognized for lead singing, but made interesting life choices. Jimmy Martin was a CHARACTER, the type of obnoxious butthead you'd laugh at from a distance but hate irl. Carter unfortunately had drinking problems, but his social personality was endearing. I love his loyalty to baby brother and music partner Ralph through everything. Like, it's movie-worthy loyalty. THEY MADE A PLAY ABOUT HIM!!!

If we go out of bluegrass and mention traditional country, gotta shout "Hank Williams".

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason) Does this count? Regarding Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe, whom others revere to a nearly religious level? I like to call him Daddy Boi Billiam. And other things that'd make him roll in his grave. Look, he's the reason we're all here, his music composition skills are top notch, and his decades and decades of ever-improving work is unparalleled...... but he was human, and I like making glib comments to keep him off the collective pedestal.

Saying obnoxious, cheeky things would be enough to torment this stoic man. So it counts. I want to make him squirm.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell) I... have conflicting thoughts about Louise Scruggs, manager of Flatt & Scruggs. On one hand, I respect her unparalleled business acumen that led the band to international fame. She's historic as the first woman in her field, too, for country music. But I also... she... there's... stories... of business decisions she made that I find cold. I also put her as largely responsible for why Flatt & Scruggs's music output diminished in quality during the 1960s and why Flatt & Scruggs broke up. So I guess her? Doesn't feel nice for me to say, though.

Oh. Oh wait. John Duffey from the Country Gentlemen / The Seldom Scene pings me wrong. I guess him. Multiple famous bluegrass blokes made comment about his pranks feeling "mean," him acting too arrogantly for his skill level, etc. Don't get me wrong, he was a remarkable tenor vocalist. But yeah. From what little I know of him.

[invisible-pink-toast]

So something that I’ve wondered for a while is what would happen if Eugene did die in the tower, and the tear didn’t bring him back. What would Rapunzel do and how would that change her story. 

And I wanted to look into Rapunzel’s life in the tower and her sort of warped perspectives on things through what Gothel taught her (and her reactions to finding out her entire life was a lie). And for some reason last night I was compelled to write it and now it’s become a bit of an ongoing project (it’s already 10k rip) with a lot of angst but also some comfort and I thought I’d post the start here! 

(also spoiler alert but Eugene doesn’t stay dead long term (because fuck that) but I did want to deal with grief and confusion and change so he stays dead for a while...)

______________________

Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fates design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine. 

No glow. No movement. No response. 

Eugene had let out one last breath, and had faded. But Rapunzel hadn’t let go. She stayed and held him close, and tried to bring him back, voice going hoarse and words choked with tears as she repeated the healing incantation over and over and over again. 

But he doesn’t wake up. She feels Pascal come and sit on her shoulder, burrowing into her in comfort and she starts to sob. 

She cries, great wretched sobs that shake her entire body and have her gasping for air, that sound more like screams and wailing. It hurts, the crying, but nothing could ever hurt as much as the pain in her heart, seeping through her veins and her bones into every inch of her, pain at the knowledge that Eugene is- is dead. 

He’s dead. 

She weeps until she can’t anymore, until a welcoming darkness comes and takes her. But her sleep isn’t peaceful - Mother is grabbing her and Eugene is hanging and then he’s lying and red red red stains the floor and brown hair wraps around her, tightening, choking until she gasps awake. 

She doesn’t open her eyes. Doesn’t want to see anything. She lies with her head on Eugene’s chest, but his chest doesn’t move. His heart doesn’t beat. 

In the Snuggly Duckling, when the pub thugs had slammed the door shut and gathered around them to grab ‘Flynn Rider’ - Eugene had put himself between her and Hookhand, holding out his arms to protect her. When the guards had come thundering down the secret passage he’d put his arm around her to urge her forwards. And when the water came rushing in and they couldn’t see, he pulled her back up and brushed the hair back from her face. 

He was always protecting her. Right up until his final moments. He was warm and kind and reassuring. She could go out and take on the world with him by her side. 

But now he was cold. And still. And silent. 

After a long time, Rapunzel looks up. Broken glass is scattered around them. Brown hair lies around the room. It’s dark, she’s not sure how long she cried, or how long she slept. It doesn’t really matter. There’s nothing for her to do. 

What now? 

She’s the lost princess. But what does that mean? Would she be able to prove that? Why would she even want to? The King and Queen are her parents - but this is the King and Queen that sent Eugene to be hanged. How he managed to escape that, she has no idea. But anyone who would want to hurt Eugene can’t be good. 

Mother isn’t- wasn’t good. Mother’s not even her mother. 

All those years, her entire life, locked away in this tower. And for what? 

And there’s so much world out there, it was so exciting and colourful and beautiful - but Eugene’s gone. Eugene’s dead. His blood is on her hands and her hair is on the floor and what’s so beautiful about the world anyway? Why should it get to be beautiful when Eugene is gone and she’s in so much pain? She can’t stay in this tower, doesn’t want to stay in this tower, but she doesn’t want to go into the world either.  

What now? 

She just wants to lie down. Go to sleep again. She’s so tired. She doesn’t want to do anything ever again. 

Well that’s the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream. 

She’d seen the floating lights. They were beautiful and important and everything she’d ever hoped for. More so, because of the man beside her. And she found her new dream, with his smile and his touch and his heart. And his company had filled up her heart and warmed her soul and made her want and dream for things she’d never dared to before. She had found her new dream. 

But he’s gone. And he’s never coming back. 

You were my new dream.  If you do this - then you will die.  You need to go find a new dream. 

Eugene had died for her. Eugene had come back for her, sacrificed himself for her. That couldn’t be for nothing. That was so big, and so painful, so it had to mean something. Eugene had given her his life in exchange for hers, she needed to make sure that sacrifice wasn’t in vain. She needed to live. But she was so tired. 

What now? 

Eugene’s face looks peaceful. Almost like he was sleeping. She hopes he’s at peace. That he’s somewhere warm and good. 

Where do you go after you die? 

She’s never wondered that before. Mot- Gothel never talked about it. Rapunzel didn’t even know about death until she was nine and she’d choked on a fishbone. She couldn’t get any air in and began to panic. Mother had gone white as a sheet and ran over and slammed her hands against Rapunzel’s back several times, so hard it hurt, but the fishbone moved and she could breathe again. Mother had been furious, yelling about waste and dying and hair. Mother never brought fish back to the tower again. Mother didn’t want her to die. 

Because she had wanted Rapunzel’s hair. Gothel didn’t care who else died. 

Eugene’s dead. 

He’s gone. 

The light in his eyes and his smile and his kind and beating heart. Gone. But his body is still here. 

How easy would it be for Eugene to come back? His body is here. Where’s the spirit gone? Why can’t he come back? 

He’s not coming back. 

Hot tears slip down Rapunzel’s face. They taste like salt. 

Rapunzel strokes her fingers against Eugene’s cheek. He shouldn’t stay here. Trapped forever in this tower prison. He should be under the sky, free. 

Two days ago they had walked by land that was covered in stones with names on them. Eugene had explained that it was a graveyard, and people were buried there after they died. Rapunzel had freaked out, the thought of being trapped underground- but he quickly tried to calm her, explaining about funerals and tributes and how it was about saying goodbye. 

Eugene was gone. He should get a funeral and a tribute. She didn’t think she could say goodbye though. 

Maybe not ever. 

But he deserved a proper goodbye. An important one. And a stone with his name on it, and the good things he’d done. 

Rapunzel makes herself stand up. Walks past the broken glass and the brown hair and gets some water, and gives some to Pascal too. She walks to the window and looks down. 

She blinks in surprise when she sees Max waiting at the bottom of the tower. The white horse looks relieved to see her, but not surprised. Pascal chirps on her shoulder, he talked to Max while she was asleep. A smile almost graces her lips. Max came back for her. He must have helped Eugene escape. That was kind of him. 

Then she sees Mother’s cloak. And the smile is gone. 

Mother is gone. That’s good. Mother was bad - Mother was Gothel, she wasn’t her mother, but she was Rapunzel’s everything for all her life, but she stole her away and locked her away and used her hair and told her lies she lied and lied and lied but she held Rapunzel when she cried about the lightning storms, and she bought her paints and complimented her art and she made her favourite soups and she lied and hurt and pulled and chained her up and she killed Eugene. She stabbed him right through and stole the life from him just like she stole Rapunzel’s life. Gothel was gone.

Rapunzel covers her eyes. She doesn’t want to cry. Doesn’t want to cry for her, because she was bad and she lied and she hurt, but Rapunzel still cries.

She turns away from the window and sees the knife on the ground, right where Gothel dropped it after Eugene cut her hair. The knife is clean, Gothel must have cleaned it, but then why can Rapunzel see the blood on it? Eugene’s blood. That knife killed Eugene. 

And something in Rapunzel snaps. She storms over, over the broken glass and the hair and she grabs the knife. She marches back to the window and she throws the knife, throws it as far as she can, away from her and away from Eugene. Then she rushes to the sink and washes her hands, scrubs as hard as she can, because she touched the knife and there’s blood on her hands, Eugene’s blood on her hands, and she scrubs and scrubs and scrubs until her hands are red but there’s no blood. 

A funeral. 

Eugene deserves a funeral. 

She’ll take him outside. She’ll bury him there, so he’s outside under the sky. 

He deserves that. And it’s something that she can do. Something she must do. She owes him her life. She won’t let her life go to waste. But she won’t leave him, not like this.

[kingreywrites]

Our Paint Chips Away

Fandom: Tangled

Word Count: 2865

New Dream Appreciation Week Day Seven: Memories

Summary: In the aftermath of Pascal running away from home, Eugene can't sleep. He keeps thinking about seeing the tower again, for the first time since... since it all went down. He also keeps thinking about the way Rapunzel went inside alone, and how he hadn't been sure he could have followed her in if she asked.

Note: this story is a coda to Pascal’s story!! not sure it fits the prompt but when am i ever afgsgdh it’s very late because inspiration struck me uh... very late too, but i hope you’ll still enjoy it!! this week was amazing, thanks to @gleamful-lanterns and @autumn-ravenclaw for organising it!! <3

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The day Pascal ran away, Eugene saw the tower again for the first time in more than half a year. Rapunzel did, too. It was way more difficult for her than it could ever be for him, because the tower had been her home and her prison for eighteen long years, and he knew it, he knew that she needed all the support he could give. His heart broke when she stumbled back, her voice trembling, but she had always been brave, and she raised herself up again, ready to confront her worst nightmare. She needed to go up there alone, and he was worried, of course he was, but he also felt incredibly proud, because she was the most courageous person he knew, and he admired her more than anyone.

More than himself, for sure.

Because the thing was, he shouldn't be scared. Or a little maybe, but certainly not more than her. After all, he hadn't even spent the equivalent of a whole day in this tower and like, the whole death thing had lasted for what, thirty minutes tops? If Rapunzel could find the courage in herself to brave the tower, he should too.

But he couldn't. His stomach was twisting on itself as he held Rapunzel close to him, and his hands were trembling, and his throat was so dry he worried the girls could hear it as he tried weakly to make light of the situation. He didn't want to be here. And when Rapunzel said she was going in alone, the relief in his heart might as well have been poison for how sick it made him feel. He should... He should have tried to help her, but he couldn't.

If she had asked him to come with her inside, would he have been able to?

The question started to haunt him as soon as he sat on Maximus to wait, hoping the horse couldn't feel how jittery he was. It haunted him for the entire time she was inside, and he couldn't see what was happening to her, couldn't know if everything was okay. It haunted him as he tried his hardest not to look to the spot where he knew Gothel fell, where he remembered digging a shallow grave with Rapunzel to bury what was left of the woman she thought to be her mother for most of her life. (It was nothing more than folded clothes, and some ashes, but they had tried their best.)

It kept haunting him even when she came back down, with Pascal in her hands, looking emotional but happy and safe. He held her tightly on the ride back, hoping to bring her comfort just as much as he was trying to ignore the dread still sitting heavy on his chest.

This was ridiculous. He was ridiculous.

Because even when Rapunzel went to sleep, still giving all her attention to Pascal because the little guy deserved it, Eugene couldn’t shake his own uneasiness. His mind kept going back to the tower, and to that door he hadn’t been able to cross, despite wanting to. If Rapunzel had needed help, would he have been able to go up there? Was he really so much of a coward that some bad memories were enough to stop him from supporting the love of his life when she most needed it?

Eugene couldn't sleep. He… He wanted to think that he could have overcome his fears if the situation called for it, but the fact was - he didn't.

Before he could think better of it, Eugene pushed his cover off abruptly, and got up. He put on his clothes quickly, and laced his shoes with trembling hands. He- he needed to prove to himself that he could do it. It was even better that way, he rationalised; he could come to terms with whatever was troubling him without bothering anyone, especially not Rapunzel. He'd go in the tower, see that it was no big deal, and come back to the castle before the sun was up.

Flawless plan, no doubt.

It wasn't too hard finding a horse that was neither Max nor Fidella, and the path to the tower was burnt into his mind. He hadn't expected to go there earlier, and the surprise had made him fumble with his words as his heart sank, but he was ready now. He was ready, and so it made no sense for his pulse to get faster, or for his hands to clench tighter around the reins. He was…

He was fine. He repeated that to himself, as he dismounted the horse, and came face to face with the tower again, heart in his throat. Vaguely, he noticed that he had never seen the tower at night - he had truly not been here long enough for that to happen. That was all the more reason to not be scared, he told himself, trying to ignore how menacing it seemed, looming over him with the moonlight shining down on it.

He could do this. He should do this, just to show he could, and that was it. Just in and out, no one would have to know, and he could sleep in peace that night.

So why was he stuck in front of the door? His right hand laid flat on the cold stones of the tower, and he felt frozen in place, heartbeat echoing loudly in his head. He had gone down this way once, after he- after Rapunzel brought him back. He had been on those stairs, and he hadn’t cared, because he was too worried about Rapunzel's state of mind to be scared of a tower… So why was he now?

The chilly air of the night made him shudder. He clenched his jaw tightly.

"Okay," he muttered, "in and out, I'm just going in and out."

Eugene took a step. Then another. The stairs were dark, the walls covered in moss, and it all smelled of dust. This was an abandoned tower, which couldn't hurt him, and he just had to get over it.

Rapunzel hadn't put back the panel blocking the entry. Eugene climbed up easily, and there he was.

In the tower. For the first time since-

Shaking his head, Eugene started to dust off his clothes, before surveilling the room around him. He hadn't spent a lot of time within these walls, and yet they were sickeningly familiar, even in the darkness.

Around him, still on the floor, was Rapunzel's hair. The one he had-

Before he could try to stop himself, his eyes traveled to the window, and to the staircase where the- the chains that had held him were lying broken, just like they had left them. They hadn't known what to do with them back then. He had still been dizzy, though it was more from fear than blood loss, and Rapunzel had been scared and lost and… They had just left, without looking back.

He took a trembling step towards it. He was alive, he repeated to himself. He was alive, Rapunzel had saved him, and this was simply a place, nothing more. He had no reason to be scared, because he was alive and-

He still remembered how cold he had been, barely able to hold himself up as his own blood coated his side.

Eugene felt himself pale at the memory, and he stumbled back ungracefully, wavering in place as he tried to stay on his feet. He was- he was stupid, this was just a tower, and he- Rapunzel had surmounted it, and he needed to- to-

He had backed himself to the other side of the room. The side right across from the window, the… The side where Rapunzel had been held in chains, fighting to get free as her screams for him were muffled by-

This time, when Eugene tried to get away unsteadily, he tripped on his own feet and fell down heavily. His breathing was loud, and he knew he was well and truly pathetic. This was Rapunzel's tower. The place where she had suffered for eighteen years, trapped with the woman who called herself her mother. And despite the pain and the fear she undoubtedly faced, Rapunzel went up here, and she was fine. Definitely shaken up, but fine.

So why couldn't he be?

He knew she was stronger than he had ever been. She showed it everyday, when she overcame challenges after challenges, while staying optimistic even through the bad times. Eugene simply… He simply wanted to know that she could count on him, even in the hardest moments. He wanted to be able to stay at her side if she asked, no matter the place. But here he was, sitting defeated on the ground, because a few memories made him so tense he trembled.

Eugene closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. He just- he was… He needed to get a hold of himself. He needed to move on from this, because everyone thought he did already, and he- he- well, Rapunzel knew he still struggled sometimes, with the nightmares and the memories, but he needed to be fine, he…

He was scared.

His nails were biting into his palms. He opened his eyes slowly, looking down at the wall to avoid looking at anything that might make him panic again, when he saw it.

The small, uncertain lines of a drawing obviously made by a kid. The scribble was messy, but it was easy to recognise who it was supposed to be - a girl with long blond hair and a smile too big for her face.

Rapunzel.

Slowly, he moved closer, his hand brushing the wood faintly. She had to have been… so young, when she did this. Nowhere near the artist she was now, but with as much joy and imagination, trying to create something to express it. There was a little sun next to the drawing, its rays uneven. It was so easy, to imagine a small, maybe five or six years old Rapunzel, doodling away with a smile on her face.

Eugene let his eyes wander softly on these walls. He got up again, still feeling numb, his gaze going up to more refined drawings, with different styles and quality as Rapunzel experimented. No matter what, though, they were always bright and sunny. There were plants, and birds, and so many Rapunzels smiling and laughing, their hair flowing with an invisible wind.

Each painting, each stroke, hid a part of Rapunzel within it. It was her, so young still, scribbling a sun with too many branches, remembering without knowing the kingdom that was missing her dearly. It was her, growing up, painting flowers upon flowers even though she could barely see some of them through her window, imagining a world she wasn't allowed to live in. It was her, charting the stars on her wall, a painting he could only slightly see in the darkness, but knew was here because she had told him of much time and patience she had needed for that.

He couldn't even see half of it from where he was, but already, he had gotten a glimpse into the world that was hers not too long ago. And… And he was still scared. He still couldn't look at the exact spot where he died, not when there was nothing here to do but think about it.

But, as he was gently tracing the contours of a little Rapunzel, looking longingly at a bird flying next to her, Eugene felt a small smile forming on his lips. This tower was full of memories. Some were painful. Some were not. It was the place that Rapunzel turned into her world, while she waited to be allowed into the real one. It was the place where she grew up, braver and kinder than anyone could have been in her situation. It was also the place where he met her, completely thrown by this determined girl with a lot of hair and a frying pan she wasn't afraid to use. It was a place full of memories, yes, but these memories were hers - these memories were theirs, and there was nothing about Rapunzel that Eugene could hate.

This tower hadn't been their ending. It had been their beginning. Rapunzel's beginning. And Eugene was still eager to leave, hoping to never come back again, but he had his answer now.

For her, he would brave anything.

------

There was a soft knock at her door. Rapunzel nearly didn't hear it - she had been asleep, after all, and had a pretty long and tiring day before that, so she could have missed it really easily… but she didn't. Opening her heavy eyes slowly, she sat up, careful to not wake up Pascal at her side. It was still night, but the sky was getting clearer, so the sun had to be coming up soon.

"Yes?" she whispered, unsure that the person behind her door would hear it.

The door opened to a crack, and Eugene poked his head through.

"Eugene?"

"Hi, uh…" he trailed off, looking embarrassed. She waved him closer, faintly concerned because Eugene never seeked her during the night. He shuffled forward, and she noticed he wasn't wearing his night outfit - had he even slept yet?

"What's wrong?" she asked softly, glancing down to make sure Pascal was still sleeping as she straightened up. "Are you- Did you have a nightmare?"

Usually, she was the one knocking at his door because of them. She knew he had some too, but he always tried to keep them to himself, so the fact that he was here, avoiding her gaze, immediately made her more alert.

"Something like that, I guess... I- I needed you," he admitted in a breath, something indescriptible in his eyes as he finally met hers. "Sorry, I-"

"Come here," she said, patting the empty space to her right. He didn't even protest, instead coming to sit next to her, throwing a glance at Pascal too to make sure the little guy wasn't bothered. Eugene was more thoughtful that he admitted, and she loved him for it - though right now, she was more worried about what was bothering him.

He looked at her, his eyes soft, and full of an emotion she couldn't name. Before she could ask him again if something was wrong, he gently brought her into a hug, and she held him back tightly against her.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, "please don't worry, I just…"

"Needed to see me?" she finished softly. He nodded. "Okay," she whispered, before adding: "You can sleep here if you want."

He hesitated a little, and nodded again. It was a little awkward, but they both shuffled under the covers, one of her hands in his and the other resting on his chest.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Maybe not right now," he murmured after a while, gaze wandering to her walls. "Did I ever tell you I loved the mural you painted?"

"Yes," she smiled, her eyes still on him. "You always compliment my paintings." She didn't say that she was still surprised, sometimes, that he did. Gothel had nothing against her paintings as long as it didn't inconvenience her, but she also never encouraged it, or even told Rapunzel she was good at it. Having someone in her life genuinely appreciate her creations always made her heart flutter.

"Do you plan to do more? Like…" His free hand vaguely gestured at her still blank ceiling. "That part?"

"I… Yes, I think so. I simply… I want it to mean something," she whispered. "In the tower, I painted every little things that came to mind. Birds, flowers, pretty dresses… Painting helped me feel better when I was lonely, or scared." He was looking at her again, now. His eyes were shining in the darkness. "But now, painting isn't my only source of freedom," she grinned, squeezing his hand tighter, "and I want… I want my room to be full of meaningful memories for me. Things that I can look up to and be proud to have lived through, if that makes sense."

"It does," he breathed, pressing a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"I still haven't figured out what it'll be," she admitted, caressing the side of his jaw, "but I know already that you will be there for all these new memories."

His eyes widened, before he softened again, looking way more comfortable and sleepy than when he first came in. "I can't wait," he whispered, voice full of emotions.

"I can't either," she whispered back, slowly brushing his hair away as he relaxed.

It had been a difficult day for both of them, she knew. Eugene joked a lot when he was scared, and she… She was glad he came to her, in the end. She was glad he was there with her when she needed him, and she could do the same thing when he needed her. Looking up at the blank space she still needed to fill, she knew that, no matter what, she would treasure all the new memories she made with him.

She really couldn't wait.

[shimmershae]

So.  Thanks to my new anonymous friend, this is going to become a thing.

Shae’s thinky thoughts about the latest episode--Acheron:  Part 2--beneath a cut. 

Because spoilers, however vague they might be.  

Let’s be real here.  This is more a stream of consciousness than anything else so if that’s not your thing, you are most welcome to nope right on out of this post.  Trust me.  I’ll completely understand, lol.  Sometimes?  I wish I could nope right on out of my own brain and the way it operates.  

That said?  Without further ado--

Episode 2′s opening, though.  Maggie trapped with hungry Walkers converging?  It totally gives me Glenn under the dumpster vibes.  I don’t know if that was intentional or just happy coincidence but way to link Maggie to her dearly departed better half, show.  

Is it just me or has Father G had more OOMPH to him these last few seasons?  Again, I have to ask--Rosita’s influence or no?  Regardless, I bet Seth Gilliam is loving the job these days.  

Side note:  am I gonna have to go to bed early every Saturday night from now until the end just so I that I might be able to SEE?  Something?  Anything?  My curtains are flimsy-ass.  I admit it.  But this is more frustrating than TXF.  Angela, WTF?  

No, seriously.  It’s like complete guess work who’s in these subway scenes.  Some of that has to do with them being overly populated by redshirts and the rest of it has to do with me having to squint and turn sideways to make out their facial features. 

Look at Daryl busting through concrete walls!  Should I call him the Kool-Aid Man considering NR has once again allowed himself to be led right into a biased, shipper trap?  Hmm.  I might.  

Imagine seeking refuge in those dark, filthy subways.  Any second now I expect to hear the skittering of rats.  Will Dog lose his effing mind a la Divergence?  He’s been shown to go off half-cocked that way, lol.  Oh well.  Guess it’ll be in character if he does.  

Impressive graffiti storyboards.  Does it mean something that it immediately cuts to the Commonwealth storm troopers afterward?  Maybe.  Who really knows at this point?  They been trying to gaslight us forever.  

LOL at Princess yet again.  Yumiko is just like da fuq is this person?  

No, really.  LMAO.  “That was her.  From last night.  Did you see how she was looking at us?”  

Then you have Eugene, hahaha.  “Oh God.  Why did he tell off the big guy?”  Like the man is totally me in this type of situation.  Not even gonna lie.  

“That’s right.  We want to talk to the manager.”  

I literally cannot wait ‘til Carol and Daryl meet Princess.  Can.  Not.  Wait.  

How sad is that note on that $100 bill?  Small moment but it totally gives me Season 4 vibes when they were on their way to Terminus seeking sanctuary.  

Hmm.  Remember how that place wasn’t what they thought it was?  I’m sure neither is the Commonwealth.  But I feel like what’s left of Team Family is totally going to do Rick proud, lol, and prove they’re messing with the wrong people if they try something.  

Daryl, Man.  You gonna have to get a better handle on your headstrong Fur Son.  I wonder if Dog would listen better to his mama?  Things to ponder.  

Sounds like Miko has this group’s number.  Or does she?  

Princess and Eugene totally look like they’re waiting their turn for the Principal’s office, LOL.  

“Stop moving!  You’re taking my nerves over the edge to a proverbial 11 on a scale of 10.”  I feel you, Eugene.  I do.  Also you, Princess.  Two of the most relatable TWD characters right there, I’m telling you.  

Princess is me when I really, really, really have to pee.  TMI?  Sorry, lovelies.  LOL.  I just...she’s so relatable.  

LMAO.  “If that fine ass dude in the orange suit...”  Princess and Mercer incoming in 3-2-----

Princess’s excitement over the toilet paper=PRICELESS.  

Eugene, Man.  You desperately need to develop a poker face.  

There’s Daryl getting another cool camera shot.  Angela?  You playing favorites again?  

Carol’s claustrophobia could have never.  I bet that’s in the back of Pookie’s mind.  You can’t tell me it’s not because Carol lives in there rent-free.  

Ohhh.  Back to the subway car.  Looks like we got the Maggie redshirts leading the way.  First sacrificial “lambs”?  

Maggie pistol-whipping Negan was kinda deserved, but he wasn’t all wrong so.  

Damn.  I’m no Gage fan.  He can fuck all the way off for what he did to my baby Lydia.  But Maggie over there with ice in her veins.  

Yep.  I think the dude just got one of the most gruesome deaths in a while.  Yuck.  

I think Alden’s faith in Maggie definitely took several hits.  I feel like he kind of had her on some sort of pedestal dating back to Hilltop times.  Father G, though?  The man is continuing to show himself a SAVAGE MFer.  

Josh gives Eugene such believable tics and mannerisms.  He IS Eugene.  

Thank you, Maggie, for lighting that flare.  I could not see a damn thing.  

What are these bad memories Negan alludes to?  Hmm?  Him being a shit husband to Lucille back when he was still taking her for granted?  

Father G on Gage’s Walker--”All that is, is a shell of a man, who died a coward.”  Kind of ironic considering Father G’s own origins, huh?  Has he any warmth in there for anybody but Rosita and Coco?  Does he equate it with weakness?  

“There are worse ways.”  And Maggie proceeds to paint us a horror story with mere words.  

Dark Maggie really surpasses anything certain fans have ever accused Carol of being.  Is she too far gone?  Who the hell knows?  I think it’s clear that she and Carol are both on a sliding scale of sorts when it comes to being able to compartmentalize shit to survive.  Personally?  I feel like Maggie might have leap-frogged Carol in this episode but it matters none because of the double standards so deeply entrenched in this fandom.  Both women have endured and had to do some horrific things.  It’s not a contest.  But it’s probably going to be turned into a season-long one.  

It’s almost like Kang was like, “Ya’ll bitches think Carol’s dark?  I’ll show you DARK.  Check and mate.”  

Whatever the reasoning, Maggie just got exponentially more interesting to me if not likable.  And before anybody out there comes at me, it’s entirely possible to be on a character’s side in some things and not be all up their ass in love with them, lol.  Like I’m attached to her because she’s family and Glenn loved her.  There’s a loyalty there and she absolutely is justified in her hatred of Negan.  But I’m not going to pretend her shit don’t stink like everybody else’s.  

Speaking of my baby Glenn.  What would he think of this version of Maggie?  I think he would be gutted and heart stricken that events led to her being like this but he’d understand because he’s pure like that.  Don’t mean he’d be A-OK with it all.  

Dog must be protected at all costs.  

Confession.  I know not the fuck who Pony Boy is, but I know him because all my fandom friends have pointed him out to me, lol.  RIP, Man.  I think you’re number’s up or close to it.  

Okay, though.  I admit it.  I am kinda LOVING Badass Father G.  

That scene in the subway car with all of them working to take all the Walkers out was already badass.  Then Daryl arrived and made it, in @freefromthecocoon’s words, HAWT.  LOL.  

Eugene staring at that little black book like it contains torture tools, hehehe.  

“Processed?  As in administratively?  Processed as in bologna or other meat stuffs?  This inquiring (enquiring?) mind needs to know.”  OMG, Eugene.  I admit it.  Even if it makes me look like a lunatic, LOL.  I straight up LMAO at that one.  I mean, ten years later and Terminus still fresh on the man’s mind.  

“You like feeling nervous?”  Well, no.  None of us that do, Mercer?  Do.  

Then he proceeds to make me howl with his “You can’t lie for shit” to Eugene.  

Josh McDermitt?  I love you, Man.  40 year old virgin, LOL.  

All this talk over the seasons of Daryl’s virginity and we have Eugene, hahaha.  But was he telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?  

Finally.  Some daylight.  Where I can see.  

Eugene’s relief at seeing his friends safe and sound was such a beautiful thing to see.  I loved those hugs.  

Mercer’s face when he snarled “beat cop” in disdain to Ezekiel.  I think I’m gonna love this dude.  

“I went to West Point.  Asshole.”  Yeah.  I am.  

I know they probably catfishing Eugene right here because spoilers tell us that ain’t Stephanie.  But my heart still did a little d’aww.  Angela.  Don’t play with his poor heart like that.  

What’s got Daryl so pensive, huh?  Is it that the note reminds him of kids being lost or taken from their family? Or separated from their family?  Is he thinking of those Grimes babies and wondering if Michonne will ever make it back and why and how she was able to leave them behind?  Tell me it ain’t that Find Me nonsense.  

“This place sure has gone to shit since the last time I was here.”  LMAO, JDM.  I mean Negan.  Sorry.  Sorry.  I still hate Negan, but JDM has me entertained at least since they gave the asshole some shades of gray.  And speaking of shades of gray.  I’m loving the gray beard.  JDM’s looking GOOD (hear that NR?  Embrace the gray).  Negan can still kick rocks, lol.  

Anyway.  That scene was CREEPY AF.  Not even gonna lie.  

The Reapers strutting right on up to our group like it’s The Purge:  ZA.  

My bad, Pony Boy. Now RIP.  

Dark, dark episode with loads of tension broken up by some welcome humor by Princess.  The girl is fast becoming a fave of mine.  

My baby’s back next week!!!

I’m just going to plug my ears and pretend they’re trying to capture/recapture the horses because they’re pets.  Not because they’re starving so bad they feel the need to eat them.  La la la la la.  I can’t hear you.  

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - The Return of the King

So we’re back to the quasi-filler stuff. This episode does set a few things up for the finale, like bringing Edmund to Corona, but none of those things are actually good and it’s still mostly filled with irrelevant shit alongside the more important stuff. 

Summary: King Edmund arrives in Corona to see his long-lost son, Eugene, and to give him the royal sash of their bloodline. Eugene wants nothing to do with him, but Rapunzel invites him to stay. Later, the sash is stolen and a ransom note is left behind. Edmund and Eugene decide to go and retrieve it. Meanwhile, the Stabbington Brothers plot revenge on Eugene as they are both viewed as a joke by the other criminals.

So How Did the Stabbingtons Escape the Prison Barge 

Last we saw them they were stuck on a prison barge along with Lady Caine and all of the other season one villains. How did they escape? Did Lady Caine or anybody else make it out? If so then where are they this season? 

We’re not going to get any of those questions answered are we? 

Man this is just sloppy continuity. Which ironic, because these two were only brought back this season because of continuity. They need to be “redeemed” so that they can be at the wedding. I guess it just sucks to be you if you’re an original villain for this show and not named Cassandra. 

Why Is This Deserving of Ridicule? 

Like...We’re talking about a world renowned thief and adventurer and his magical royal girlfriend who are well known enough outside of Corona to be mentioned and there for no doubt people know how they both defeated monsters, daemons, and several criminals besides just there two guys, right? 

This plot point makes no sense. 

You could just kick these dumbasses butts and be done with it. I doubt they’d bother picking on you again if you did.  

Did we really need even more motivation for them to want revenged against Eugene?

Rapunzel is Back to Being Her Bossy Self 

Rapunzel has not earned the role of “wise administrator” yet. She’s only been out of the tower for two years now and she has yet to prove to the audience that she has managed to learn anything since then. By jumping the gun and forcing her into a role that she hasn’t grown into, and by ignoring that this whole show started out as a coming of age story, it just makes Rapunzel unpleasant to be around. All her “advice” is just her ordering people about with a veneer of chipperness to try and mask her controlling nature. People who should know more about their own lives than she does and have no reason to listen to her.  

So We’re Showing Rapunzel Being Responsible... By Having Her Avoid Responsibility? 

Part of why the writers made her “acting queen” for the first half the season was to get her to grow into the role of becoming full time queen. However they screwed this up by not having her actually learn anything and having her avoid the real duties a queen preforms. 

What Rapunzel is doing her is just being a socialite busybody. The only administrative thing she does is approve some low-scale building plans for a small business. A thing that would have been handled by a lower official in an actual functioning government.   

Once again Rapunzel is being selfish and doing what she like, ie bossy people around while having them kiss her ass, as the real work of running the kingdom is left to someone else. This isn’t being responsible, it’s being hypocritical, but don't expect anyone to ever call Rapunzel out for this. 

Pointless Action Scene is Pointless

At this point, the low stakes action sequences are just cringe. Like is this an adventure show or not people? Stop forcing crap like this and give us some real conflicts instead.  

How Did You Get Here So Fast Edmund?

It took Rapunzel and company nearly a year to get to the Dark Kingdom. Even if Edmund wasn't delayed with pit stops like they were, it would have still taken him several months to get here by horse. 

Did he take a boat, or have four to six months already past since Rapunzel’s Return? 

I would argue that this episode was aired out of order and should have been later in the season, but Cassandra’s appearance at the end of this story, and Hamnuel’s appearances in later episodes, would suggest otherwise. 

Crap like this is why season’s three timeline doesn’t work unless you stretch everything out to two years instead of one. 

Read the Room Rapunzel

One could argue that Rapunzel is just trying to be polite, but that doesn't really hold water. 

For starters Eugene is clearly upset and has every right to want to set boundaries between himself and Edmund. Ignoring that is incredibly rude and if my significant other ever did such a thing, well they wouldn’t be my significant other for very long. 

Secondly, Rapunzel could have offered other accommodations if she felt pressured to be polite to Edmund. Not only are their lots of inns in a port town known for trade, many of which are probably well-to-do, but there’s also that convent that was mentioned back in season one. It has to be somewhere in Corona itself and as the so far only mentioned major religious organization in the country it would no doubt have stately quarters for when royalty and nobility would visit. 

So not only would it be a suitable place for a visiting king to stay in, as it would be made for such things, but it’s also far enough away that Eugene wouldn’t feel like his space is being invaded but close enough that Edmund could come and go as he pleases. 

By that point it’s still between Edmund and Eugene and Rapunzel can stay out of it, like she should. 

Eugene is Right

These are all valid reasons for cutting someone out of your life. Furthermore, you don’t even need a reason. If you don’t want to associate with somebody then just don't associate with. It’s your life. You don’t have to justify how you choose to live it and people who actually care about you should respect that. 

Unfortunately no one respects Eugene.  

Not Edmund, not Rapunzel, and most certainly not the writers. 

Then Why Don't You Get Closer to Edmund, Rapunzel?

I understand Rapunzel’s viewpoint here. Edmund is the only person she’s ever met who has experienced the same isolation that she has. He’s one of the very few people whom she can empathize with. 

However that doesn’t give her the right to force her views upon her boyfriend. If she cared so much than she could just befriend Edmund herself and leave Eugene out of it. 

Trying to encourage a child to have relationship with a parent who neglected them is super tone deaf at best and outright disrespectful at worst. It’s also highly hypocritical seeing as Rapunzel cut Gothel out of her life for similar reasons and Eugene only ever supported her for it. 

No really, flip the situation. If Eugene tried to encourage Rapunzel to give Gothel a second chance everyone would be slamming him for it. So why does Rapunzel get a free pass? 

Shorty Already Did That, Eugene. Don’t You Remember? 

I mean, you were literally right there when it happened. Are we forgetting season two the same as season one now? 

So Why Are Stan and Pete Suddenly Back, But Not Cap?

I mean we went through all that trouble in Rapunzel’s Return to write them out of the narrative and here they are without any explanation. Why are simple set ups so dang hard for this show? 

Rapunzel is Overstepping Her Bounds Here

Ok, giving Edmund a place to stay is one thing. Suggesting to Eugene that he should give Edmund a chance is not appropriate but still forgivable. But this? 

This crosses a fucking line! 

Eugene is not Rapunzel’s subject. He’s her boyfriend, and a prince in his own right. Rapunzel can’t just volunteer him for crap without his consent. That’s just indirectly ordering him about like she would a servant.  

Once again, flip the script. If Eugene tried to force Rapunzel to work with Gothel everyone would be up in arms. Why is this then deemed okay? 

This is Coercion

Not only is Edmund and Rapunzel trying to guilt trip Eugene here but she even fucking elbows him!

Like this isn’t “cute couple bickering” here. That kind of stuff is reserved only for inconsequential shit. 

This a woman trying to strong arm and guilt trip her husband to be into having a relationship with his abusive father! Because guess what? Neglect is still abuse! 

Rapunzel has zero say in Eugene and Edmund’s relationship. It’s none of her fucking business! Trying to force her into this plot just makes her look like an asshat. 

I mean look at this smug smile! The fucking bitch is proud of being a shit human being and a terrible girlfriend. 

And of course don't expect the show to call out this behavior as wrong because of out of date sexist double standards. If you think any of this is okay then just role reverse Eugene and Rapunzel here and then tell me its still alright. 

The Show Missed a Real Trick By Not Naming Him Horus Instead

Horus, the sun god, would have been a nice bit of irony and given meaning to the name while keeping the joke virtually unchanged. You could have had both lore and a punchline. 

And I would argue that the joke as is, isn’t even funny. Horace is indeed a lame name, but not for the reason that the show gives. It’s lame because it’s not unique enough. There’s already a Disney character named Horace and I’m sure there are real people out there with that name as well since it’s not completely unheard of. So the joke falls flat and winds up insulting anyone with that name. 

Don’t Expect Any Pay Off for Eugene’s Identity Issues This Season

Yeah the show makes a big deal out of Eugene having a mid-life crisis through out season three, but then never resolves it in any meaningful way. 

Edmund Is an Asshole 

I don’t care how “crazy” he is. Calling someone by a name they don't wished to be called is just plain rude. Acknowledging someone’s preferred name is just a basic common courtesy that is expected of everyone. Once again, this isn’t funny, quirky, nor charming, just unpleasant. 

So the Animators Wasted a Model on a No-Named Character Who Only Appears Once

Someone said this little girl appears in season one, but it’s not noticeable if she does. She also doesn’t have a name and this is her only speaking role. What a waste of money. Just have one of the braided girls from the movie instead. You already built models for them and haven’t really used them. 

And before some mentions race here, this is poor rep already cause the character has no impact. 

Turns Out, Varian Didn’t Even Need Those Truth Serum Cookies

Not only does this dumb down Pete to a ridiculous degree, but it also invalidates everything Varian went through in The Alchemist Returns and the grief he got from everyone for using the truth serum. 

Oh, and it’s also lazy writing and a plot contrivance.  

That’s Not Figgy Pudding!

This is Figgy Pudding.

It’s a boiled “pudding” that’s more like a cake with dried fruit in it. During the 14th through 18th centuries such bread puddings were made to be carried around in ones pocket or knapsack for eating on the go. They’re nothing like the creamy custards we call puddings today. 

It also looks nothing like what’s shown on the screen below. 

That’s like a half eaten loaf of wheat bread?  

That’s jelly filled .. apparently...?

Once Again, If You Have to Make Everyone Else Incompetent to Make Your Hero Useful to the Plot Then You Need a New Plot

Rapunzel has zero business in this plot. She doesn’t even need to be in this episode beyond a cameo. Trying to cram her into the protagonist role in a conflict that doesn’t involve her is just a disservice to everyone.  

Winnie The Pooh Is More Mature Than This Show

More of that meta commentary I was talking about last episode, and it just as full of shit as ever. 

Seriously Find Her, Keep Her is the best script I have ever seen in any show. It’s perfectly balanced so that anyone of any age can relate to it. It’s real and heartbreaking and perfectly suitable for small children to understand. There’s no shock value, no darkness, no modern satire, but its far more mature and complex and deep than anything TTS has tried. 

Also Rabbit is a far better father than any dad in this show, while still being cut from the same trope. There’s no shame in being a children’s show when its done well and this now 30 year old kids show runs rings around what ever mess Tangled is trying to sell. 

Eugene Isn’t Exaggerating Here and I Don't Know How to Feel About That

Turns out Eugene did grow up with these guys the same as he did with Lance. It’ll be confirmed only two episodes later. That just recontextualizes everything. He didn’t just betray some rando guys that he held no feelings for, he betrayed people that he’s known and worked with since childhood. 

Now just because he’s known them doesn’t mean that they were family to him like Lance, but like the fact that he keeps claiming then as such through out the episode would suggest that perhaps they were like siblings. 

That’s ... ingenious. That makes Flynn Rider retroactively an even worse person and gives the Stabbingtons real reason for vengeance. 

Only the show doesn't do anything with this!  It just makes Eugene an even bigger jerk in the movie for zero reason. 

Let Me Reiterate, Edmund Is an Asshole 

Just like with Frederic, Cassandra, and Rapunzel the show uses framing to try and make the audience side with people who do unforgivable things. 

Edmund is an abuser. He neglected his own son for 25 years. But the show presents him as “funny” and “quriky” and “look at his pouty face, he’s so lonely”.... 

No!

Edmund isn’t deserving of anything and how he treats Eugene here is garbage. 

This show is utter crap writing wise but boy does it know how to gaslight its own audience into siding with bullies and abusers.  

Eugene Is One Thousand Percent In the Right Here, But Don’t Expect the Narrative to Acknowledge That

There’s nothing you can do to make up for that. 

Eugene might forgive him. Eugene might move on from it. Eugene might decide a relationship it still worth having with Edmund. But the horrible thing still happened and it happened because Edmund allowed it to happen. There’s no going back from that and everything going forward has to be on Eugene’s terms alone. 

But the narrative won't allow Eugene that agency. 

Even as he makes his grand proclamation about being done with Edmund the cameras chooses to focus on Edmund and his feelings. The story is already priming the audience to prioritize Edmund over Eugene so that when the forced and contrived forgiveness scene comes we won't question it. But it only comes because Chris doesn’t deem Eugene as individual person with thoughts and feels of his own, but as an avatar to fulfill his wishfulment fantasy regarding his own personal daddy issues. 

Rapunzel’s Characterization in Season Three is Just....Off

Ok, even ignoring the major stuff, like not recognizing what she’s done wrong, putting her into roles she’s not meant to carry, and making her a shitty girlfriend suddenly, Rapunzel just behaves contrary to her character all through out season three even in small subtle ways like here. 

On the surface this seems like a clever call back to Great Expotations, but lets examine more closely, shall we. 

On one end we have yo-yos; an invention that’s been around since ancient Greece and is so wide spread across the globe that the word “yo-yo” itself is theorized to come from Indonesia and the Philippines.

On the other end there is Rapunzel. A woman who spent 18 years isolated inside of a tower, because of this she is both ignorant of somethings and insatiability curious and eager to learn.  Or at least she was, until striking out onto a year long road trip, and having now been out of the tower for only two years, claims to know better than the entire fucking world about this object who’s existence she didn’t even know about until only a year and half ago! 

Like what kind of sense does this make? Why would you abandon the core of her drive and motivation, to learn, explore, and grow, and then call it “development”? 

How Did Edmund Get Beat By These Guys?

Edmund took out Adria. The Brotherhood is suppose to be the best physical fighters in this world and Edmund is supposed to be best out of all of them. Yet he’s taken out by two random, mediocre dudes who didn't even jump him. They gave him time to respond and he stood up to fight them. 

Was all his physical prowess tied into that axe? Is the axe magic? 

If you characters have to be depowered for unexplained reasons for the plot to work than you haven’t a good plot. 

This Isn’t as Heartwarming as You Think It Is Show

If Edmund knew where Eugene was this whole time then he could have actually provided for his son. He could have arranged adoption with someone by letter, sent money, food, clothes, ect, maybe even wrote to Eugene directly and kept up a long distance relationship to be there for him emotionally. 

There is literally no excuse anymore for Edmund to hide behind. He literally neglected his duties as a parent, just cause. 

Finding these things shouldn’t make Eugene happy. Finding these things should piss him off even further because that’s how any logical adult would respond to this bullcrap. 

I sure know I’m angry. I’m angry that Eugene is a pawn for the creators’ writing wank-off rather then being treated as human being; as an actual character. 

“Nice” Isn’t the Same Thing as Kind, Rapunzel

One could argue that she’s not even superficially nice in season three, but the real problem here is that the show, and by extension Rapunzel herself, doesn’t understand the difference between being “pleasant” and actually being a good person. Outwardly polite people can stab you in the back, can kill you even, and not care, as Rapunzel has demonstrated repeatedly since season one.   

Do They Have to Be “Family” for Eugene to Give a Damn? 

Can’t Eugene just do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do? People don't need to be friends and family to care about each others lives. Kindness isn’t transactional. Empathy and true charity doesn’t come with strings attached. If Eugene’s whole arc is about becoming a better person, then making the Stabbingtons “family” kind of undermines this. 

Don’t Reward the Dude for Doing the Bare Fucking Minimal 

No seriously. Edmund forfeited the right to ever be called “dad” by Eugene a long fucking time ago. He doesn’t get to be called that now just because he stopped being a piece of scum and showed the bare minimal of human decency. Even if Eugene decides to have a relationship with Edmund after this, it doesn’t mean that  he has to be recognized as his dad or that that relationship will be a parental one.  

Eugene, and by Extension the Show, Places Rapunzel Upon a Pedestal to  the Detriment of All

Only 4 villains out of 20 get redeemed in this show. Four, and yes I’m counting the Stabbintions as one entity here. That’s 16 times Rapunzel failed to give someone a second chance just cause she didn’t feel like it that day, and even here she did fuck all in trying to give the Stabbingtons any sort of chance. That was all on Eugene. 

The more this show goes on, the more it looks like Eugene is just in love with the idea of Rapunzel rather than who she actually is as a person. It’s a disservice to both their characters but it damages Rapunzel most of all because the show perpetuates this over idealization to everyone she interacts with. 

It’s really sickening to watch and terrifying to know that some uphold this selfish brat as a “role model” for little girls. There’s nothing empowering in being an inhuman “goddess” who can do no wrong....even as they do several wrongs and never gets called out on it.    

This Isn’t “Cute”

Eugene can’t even have an opinion on a fucking toy!

Look if you still like New Dream despite how horribly written it is this season, then good for you. That is completely understandable, especially since this is mainly a problem with season three and not really in the first two seasons and certainly not in the movie. 

But if you try to deny that they aren’t toxic in season three, that people who do have problems with how they’re written aren’t valid in their concerns, than you’re either someone who hasn’t been paying attention or someone who has gross double standards for women in relationships. 

This Scene Is A Waste of Time

This doesn’t tell the audience anything. It contradicts what was previously established concerning her powers without explanation and then just throws the creepy girl voice in there for a lazy hook. It doesn’t work at foreshadowing since we repeat this info all over again in the next episode and it doesn’t expand upon neither Zhan Tiri’s nor Cassandra’s characters.

 In fact it kind of contradicts Cassandra’s characterization in the last episode as well. Is she a remorseless bad bitch or a vulnerable woobie? She can’t be both. Not in the way show is going about it anyways. 

It’s poor time management and poor storytelling. 

Conclusion

It was mildly better than Rapunzel’s Return, but that’s not saying much. Everyone’s character is still circling the drain and there’s no escape line in sight. 

But before I close out, here is a real world update. I had to quit my job at Amazon for personal reasons and am currently job hunting. I’m not hurting right now, I do have money saved up to cover me for at least a month and I’ve been doing commissions here and there, however despite having more time technically to write these reviews, I’m now having to juggle it along with artwork and job hunting. 

If you would like to support my reviews and other personal projects you can send me a tip over at Ko-Fi and more public commissions will be opening soon over there as well.  

https://ko-fi.com/rachelbethhines