#Gayle Retirement

[n7punk]

"Our Love Is God" Fic Notes

OLIG finished off yesterday! For once I almost nailed the length, I was expecting 12 chapters but didn’t want to commit early on. HI I TRIED TO POST THIS SO MANY TIMES but apparently it was TOO MUCH TEXT in a single block and it wouldn't give me that error, I just had to GUESS because I knew that's been a problem before. Anyway. Here it is finally.

Playlist:

Obviously the West End and Off-Broadway cast recordings, but also I did still primarily use a separate curated playlist:

Good For You — Dear Evan Hansen (original Broadway cast)

The Worst Person Alive — G Flip

Ego Talking — Fletcher

Take Your Time — Chloe Moriondo

You Don’t Want Me Like That — Rachel Bochner & XANA

leave me for dead — GAYLE

pity — Charlotte Sands

Bodybag — Chloe Moriondo

spite — Charlotte Sands

butterflies — GAYLE

Tantrum — Charlotte Sands

Killbot! — Chloe Moriondo

LOVE IS A… — PVRIS

I Don’t Like The Quiet — The Haunt

Celebrity (Blood Bunny Version) — Chloe Moriondo

Doing Better — FLETCHER

Bad Girl — Daya

Not To Be Dramatic — Zoe Clark

My Perfect — Gen and the Degenerates

Often — Lauren Sanderson

Pretending — FLETCHER

Epilogue Life:

The original cast of Heathers played on stage for just over a year before most of them move on to other projects with the major cast change. Heathers (gay version) runs for about two years, going through two more cast changes, before closing. The original cast does go to see the new cast and cheer them on, but it is kind of weird to see someone else acting out a role that became like breathing to them. Overall the remake is taken very well but has just run its course by the time it ends. There will be another revival in a few years and it actually uses both the straight and gay versions of the musical between cast changes.

Catra carries Shot in the Dark for its entire two year run before it dwindles into a temporary retirement and gets revived with a new cast a few years later (same sets and such). She’s the defining lead for the show and obviously on the cast album. She’s really, really proud to have originated a magicat-led show and makes her new origination goal a sapphic role.

After Shot in the Dark, she takes a supporting role in another musical for eight months before leaving early to join Adora and Netossa on a new project. They don’t actually interact a lot in the show and aren’t love interests or anything, and they’ve long since learned to balance their careers while in different shows, but it does allow Adora to propose to her during final bow (with approval from Netossa). Adora tipped their parents off and they’re both in the audience to watch her say yes.

(Adora knew she was going to accept, hence the public proposal, and Catra’s relationship with her mom has gotten better now she’s a successful, independent adult. Also Felina would have been So Sad to miss it so Adora told them both). Oh also they moved in together as soon as their leases came up lmao.

Adora led one show in the mean time between Chicago and their show together, but it was smaller, not as demanding as Veronica, and she was really excited to hop on a project with Netossa and Catra again. She decides to make originating a gay role and collecting cast albums her career goal, in addition to getting in a few specific shows she and her mom looked up to when she was growing up. She already feels pretty fulfilled with her early career though and considers everything else the cherry on top.

Rest of the cast quick hits: Mermista plays Velma center stage in Chicago along with Adora. Fitting her braid in that wig cap is definitely a challenge lol. Sea Hawk starred in a Hello, Again short revival run which Catra and Adora were dying sitting through, but they support all their fellow cast members when they move on to new shows. Perfuma finally got up the nerve to ask Scorpia out on their very last night performing in Heathers together, getting her flowers and then revealing after the show — when everybody was already crying about it ending — they were from her. It was a very confusing confession until Perfuma was finally able to spell it out for her that she wanted to go on a date with her. Scorpia enthusiastically agreed (still crying before the whole “last show” thing), and then gushed to Catra later about how she couldn’t believe Perfuma liked her while Catra nearly tore her hair out listening to the obliviousness. Glimmer and Bow got to play a couple that were already-together side characters in a musical and that’s what finally gets them together because Bow realizes oh, I can’t risk losing this, and Glimmer is done trying to play the jealousy game because it clearly didn’t work and she doesn’t really have a flirty relationship with any of her new cast so they can finally just be honest with each other.

Chapter 1: Auditions

⦁ Things like homophobia and Christianity are usually world aspects I avoid in my fics, but they’re both present in the musical so they had to at least be mentioned in this.

⦁ Oh I should say this will have mentions of all the triggers warned for in the fic.

⦁ Adora and Catra both gave good but not necessarily the best auditions of the day separately. Catra’s was really good when she got permission to do it in her natural register and threw in a growl (she wasn’t actually audibly straining yet, but Netossa scouted her specifically for her voice and knew she was pushing it up near the top of her range), but her Candy Store was a little more uneven thanks to the lack of practice and register change. Adora did just fine in her regular song and really good in her Beautiful reprise, but there were people that did sing a little better technically. That doesn’t mean they would have been better over the course of the show itself, though, and what Catra and Adora had going for them was it looked like they were considering involving fists (the sexy or the fighting kind, take your pick) the moment they were on stage together. They eyefucked their way through both songs with such insane chemistry Netossa was like oh we can sell Fight For Me with these two EASY.

⦁ (Fight For Me is the second song in the musical where Veronica basically see JD in a fistfight and thinks it’s so fucking hot she immediately falls for him, and then they actually spend time together and it seems like they have similar views of the high school around them. And they do! But they definitely have very different solutions. Anyway, it’s a quick romance plot setup that doesn’t pretend not to be based solely on sexual attraction at first but that works and is realistic! The actors just need to have chemistry to make it read right, and damn do Catra and Adora have that).

⦁ Okay, every Veronica has been pretty, but there was some metric that made them not perfect conventional. For the first two Veronicas this was pretty much being brunette with messy hair lmao. For the West End, Veronica was played by Carrie Hope Fletcher, who I think is gorgeous and has blonde curly hair, but she faced a lot of backlash for being “too fat” to play Veronica. Adora is close to the Hollywood ideal, which is the point Netossa is trying to make: someone who could play Heather Chandler in one version of this show ends up the Veronica because she commits the sin of not meeting society’s hetereonormative expectations. Bigots will throw you out for any association with queerness. However, still meeting all those other metrics is what allows her to slip in with the Heathers as long as she helps them out and dresses femme — that’s part of her transformation, going from jeans in the opening number to skirts for the rest of the musical until the final sequence. When show starts, she’s wearing jeans and a ratty flannel with her hair in a ponytail. It’s a quick change outfit, so she runs behind the set to pull it off to reveal her main outfit beneath, brushes her skirt into place, and lets Netossa fix a scrunchy with a big bow on it on top of her existing ponytail to complete her transformation into a feminine popular girl.

⦁ “Janis Dean” is a reference to Mean Girls, and yes, that’s in-universe.

⦁ Catra got the casting call specifically because Netossa needed someone to match JD’s register — plus the growls in the right places added a lot of emotions to his songs. Including the sex ones.

⦁ Changes in Netossa’s version: - The aforementioned “Pretty Veronica” thing. When the Heathers give her the makeover she puts on the iconic skirt and has to wear skirts for the rest of the show, performing femininity in every extra way she can, to make up for her “deviance” of being bi (also, she’s bi. It’s another thing where any degree of deviation is grounds for rejection). - The line delivery (and some content) has been tweaked for the fatphobic stuff to match the changed metanarrative that comes from Scorpia, someone who isn’t actually overweight, playing Martha. The commentary then becomes that nothing is good enough and society’s fatphobia is thrown into light as completely unreasonable. The whole point of that aspect of the show is that it illustrates how awful the characters are, but genuine fatphobia and using it as a plot device to show a character is morally corrupt looks awful similar, so by having someone who is basically just tall and strong play Martha it makes it extremely obvious that the demands are unreasonable. This ties in well with Heather M’s story, where she does have that model body type and is pretty and popular but develops an eating disorder because she’s afraid of losing that. - Obviously a lot is different with JD. She “chooses” to be a lone wolf/outcast because of her personality and views on society, but there’s obvious undertones in their dialogue in the 7/11 that even if she did want to choose differently, she couldn’t because she would be rejected for being a dyke, so is she really making a choice at all then? She goes by JD specifically because it’s more gender neutral than Janis. She couldn’t ever be a Heather and she couldn’t even be a Veronica either, because Veronica could at least be comfortable putting on a matching skirt with her friends while this JD is butch, so she hangs out in her trench coat at the fringes of society. There’s also undertones to her being the only magicat in school due to her father moving around and not caring if he brought her into a hostile — conservative, racist, homophobic, etc — area. - Heather M. is only in with the popular girls for safety and there’s some dialogue around this in the bathroom scene with Veronica. It’s kind of public information (not officially stated but implied in her social media) that her actress, Perfuma, is trans. This wasn’t planned at the time of the casting call, but Netossa worked on it during workshops and the backstory became that Heather M started transitioning how she could before high school and is continuing to “in secret” now. Some people have clocked her though and she sticks so close to the other Heathers to keep herself from being the target of terrible bullying. As long as the Heathers tolerate her (Heather C is on a bit of an ego trip about having blackmail material on her and essentially owning someone in the palm of her hand), she’s given a pass and “has the best (cishood) assumed” about her. - Veronica and JD’s relationship is a little more secretive in this version, but the Heathers do know and Duke later tell her to just be careful not to “dyke it up” at school or they would out her (currently she’s just kind of clocked by some, not confirmed to the whole school). After Heather C’s death, Duke basically threatens Veronica to stay at her heel like Heather M or she’ll out them both.

Chapter 2: Workshop

⦁ You would have to be fucking blind to not realize Adora and Catra have history even in the glances of them Netossa and Spinnerella saw, and Netossa spent the first part of workshop trying to unpack whatever was going on with them. She had to put together the clues to figure out what it was. Once she decided exes was a likely story, she confronted Catra about it because she figured talking about it was the only way to handle the resentment. She was partially using reverse psychology and partially being honest about not resolving all of it being good for the show.

⦁ I made Freeze Your Brain more homoerotic. In the musical, JD does his entire song facing Veronica or walking around the stage and then offers the drink to her at the very end. He does not get in close and offer her the drink and then sip from it after her in an indirect kiss with her lipstick prints on the straw, but mine’s better.

⦁ In the actual show, Heather Chandler doesn’t put on any death makeup. The Off-Broadway would shine a blue light on her after she died to give her an other-worldly appearance and the West End didn’t seem to do anything at all, which was a mistake imho. In this one, when she “rises from the dead”, she does it a bit more dramatically and zombie-like under a blue light, and then she on-stage reaches over for her vanity and starts powdering her face, looks back at Veronica and says “What? I want to look good for eternity” and finishes as Veronica and JD write the rest of the suicide note before collapsing so the cops can find her.

Chapter 3: Previews

⦁ Once again changing the staging for my version (jokes on you, this isn’t just a Catradora fic, it’s me writing my ideal version of Heathers). Usually Heathers has some kind of bi-level stage. This one has catwalks hidden along the backs of the lockers, but they also have more sets. They have house facades they slide in front of the high school set/lockers for the croquet scene (Freeze Your Brain is the closest song) through to Heather’s murder, sliding them away again for The Me Inside of Me. They come back for Our Love Is God, although the second level with JD’s window isn’t brought back until the very end of the show. Kurt tries to climb the same trellis Adora used to get into JD’s window to escape JD as he chases him down. The full facade doesn’t come back until it’s time for Meant To Be Yours so JD can climb through Veronica’s window (that was once his). It is wheeled out as the entire stage narrows in on the center stage for the pep rally and finale.

⦁ Veronica doesn’t rebutton her shirt until after the nightmare scene in the West End version (I honestly can’t remember for off-Broadway), but for this show Adora just isn’t super comfortable hanging out shirtless in front of crowds every night, especially knowing some people are perverted about the lesbian version of Dead Girl Walking, so Netossa said buttoning her shirt and putting her clothes back on before they fall asleep was fine back when they were deciding what Catra was going to do since JD rips his shirt off undoes his buckle during this scene. Adora could have done it (she wears the bodysuit for Mona, after all), but Netossa didn’t mind making that small tweak for her. Catra cared less, but also because she’s not in the kind of underwear that straight guys like. They decided she would have a high-coverage sports bra, the kind that can pass for a binder, on (for this scene and for the entirety of the show since Janis Dean is supposed to be firmly butch). Catra does most of JD’s usual choreo here, minus the belt thing, because they do the version of the choreo where they never stand up and Catra isn’t wearing a belt at all.

Chapter 4: Candy Store

⦁ No wonder she was what way indeed, huh, Catra? Well, multiple. No wonder she was so frustrated, because Catra is infuriating when she wants to be. No wonder she was so hung up on her, because Glimmer also wants to fuck her inexplicably. No wonder she lived and breathed the word homoerotic, because Catra made sure they lived on the razer edge of it at all times. No wonder she was down bad, because again — see the last two point. This line is less of an insult and more of Catra being too magnetic for anybody’s good, honestly, but that annoys Glimmer because she doesn’t want to like her (like that, or at all) so it definitely comes out like an insult and Glimmer is good with that.

⦁ I need you to picture Catra’s “What?” after the brat comment in the same tone of voice as Elle Woods saying “What, like it’s hard?” because Catra definitely wants it hard.

Chapter 5: We Can Start and Finish Wars

⦁ I was nervous about doing this scene just from a trigger perspective, but I figured it would be okay if I kept it all contained to this one chapter, and it was something I really wanted to cover. It was my first thought when I heard You’re Welcome (since it was a new song). I also wanted to explore the support a cast really gives. You don’t have to improvise every night or anything, but there’s always something that pops up over a show and you have to adapt for when you’re doing shows night after night. This is why casts really have to have each others’ backs and are often close. Every person on that stage would have done what they could to help Adora get through the show, but Catra, Bow, and Sea Hawk were the only ones who could have helped in that specific scenario due to their roles, and Adora was good enough at covering it up that only her best friends noticed.

⦁ This chapter was a turning point for them between the lines with the show and reality blurring and Catra realizing (though trying to repress it) how important Adora is to her.

⦁ They do workshop a version of the scenes where Kurt and Ram just don’t come as close in contact to Adora and end up being even more slapstick with each other in place of the more aggressive choreography moments, and during Never Shut Up Again they don’t even come close to Veronica, instead running around the stage to tell the audience/school. They only use it once on Adora’s signal, and Bow voluntarily opts for it once based on vibes and Sea Hawk immediately adapts, but Netossa is right: it’s a good thing to have, and she’s really glad Adora agreed to collaborate on something.

⦁ This last scene wraps up the rest of the show to verify it goes well, but it’s mostly here just to showcase Good Director™️ Netossa. She really cares about her people a lot even when she’s a hard ass.

⦁ Adora doesn’t keep up too much with comments due to what she mentions about knowing there will be homophobia in them, but she’s not totally tuned out on them and a long flood of notifications still draws attention. After this time she becomes more committed to not reading them much, though.

⦁ Yes they’re going to the same dinner place featured later.

⦁ While out at dinner, Glimmer and Bow try to ask her how she’s doing and she gives them an even more abridged version of what she told Netossa and Catra because she just doesn’t want to think about it anymore, but of course Glimmer and Bow are super supportive, and Bow is really enthusiastic about them choreographing an alternate version of the scene because he just wants Adora to be okay and is proud of her for taking that step.

Chapter 6: No Time to Knock (I’m a Dead Girl Walking)

⦁ Chapter title from DGW

⦁ Dead Girl Walking honestly didn’t look that different that night, and Netossa did miss them making out after the lights went down because she was scrambling looking for a scrunchy, but she could tell Catra was going further with the choreo than she was supposed to, especially with the kiss during the kitchen scene when Netossa had given up looking for it until the show was over, and in a situation like that Adora couldn’t say no or stop her without changing the intent of the scene, hence Netossa threatening Catra about the consent issue despite how Adora didn’t seem upset. It’s just something she has to do as director. I ended up reducing it to a one-sentence mention later in the fic, but I thought about having a scene where, after a few nights of them kissing on stage, Netossa goes to Catra’s dressing room and asks her if Adora ever gave her permission for that, to which Catra says yes she’s fine with that, and Netossa corrects her and says did Adora ever give you verbal, explicit permission for that at which point Catra goes quiet and Netossa then demands she go to Adora’s dressing room and secure it before she’s allowed to leave for the night. Cure Catra awkwardly standing in Adora’s doorway asking Adora if it’s okay for them to kiss during the show as Netossa stands down the hall and waits for her. Adora was very bewildered but could tell Catra was being put up to it from the way she kept glancing to the side so she just agreed because she didn’t want them to get in trouble and Catra quickly fled. It just didn’t even up fitting in the flow of the story because it meant verbally acknowleding what they were doing earlier than they were supposed to so that’s why I changed it to Netossa privately asking Adora instead of forcing a confrontation, which is the better thing for Netossa to do anyway rather than force Adora to deal with it if she really were uncomfortable (the reason she did it in this version of the scene was because she was 100% certain it didn’t bother Adora but was doing her duty as director).

Chapter 7: Happiness Comes / When Everything Numbs

⦁ Chapter title from Freeze Your Brain.

⦁ Forever thinking about ND’s “and it was” comic.

⦁ Real shoutout to the person who informed me about the official stage recording of the later version of the West End Heathers because I definitely did not remember any of the dialogue outside of songs and it let me take notes to write scenes like the croquet scene, which is like 50% similar to the one that actually takes place in the musical. A lot of the dialogue not overtly related to Veronica’s queerness is the same, but a little bit of the action was changed around to extend the scene for the extra dialogue and include using an actual ball, because Glimmer being frighteningly accurate at hitting things with a giant mallet felt right.

Chapter 8: Fight For Me

⦁ Heather tries to get Veronica to admit she’s into girls so much so that she can have blackmail over her to keep her in line, although she doesn’t actually need her to admit it, she just knows Veronica would be more afraid of the threat whenever she makes it if Veronica is aware it’s something Heather has 100% confirmed to be true.

⦁ I didn’t include it because I didn’t want to have to cover every scene with differences in here, but in the 7/11 Heather bothers Veronica more about clearly being into girls and is mildly homophobic to JD. Then, in the scene after Dead Girl Walking and Veronica’s nightmare, as Veronica is freaking out about getting to Heather and making amends before Monday, she tells JD in clear terms “She’s going to out me and tell the school I’m bi” which is what Adora was referring to in chapter three when she mentions this version of the musical having the word bisexual in the opening act.

⦁ I know what y’all are going to think this was inspired by, but it’s actually inspired by a fucking Try Guys Korean bbq video where they went karaokeing afterwards. I’ve never been to a karaoke place like that and it got me thinking.

Chapter 9: Big Fun!

⦁ When the show started, Bow and Sea Hawk were both given like packs of the exact same underwear (one in blue variants, one in red variants, and one in black variants) so they could match throughout the show. It’d be easier to coordinate if it was all the same pair, but they wanted the variety for people who came to multiple shows. They actually have a lot of fun coordinating and then, on their own, decided to get a pair of those classical heart-print boxers that they throw in occasionally. Sometimes that’s just based on a day when they don’t want to wear something as revealing as the tighty-whities they usually wear, but usually it’s as a gag.

⦁ It was too awkward to shoe-in here, but part of reworking the choreography around You’re Welcome included the decision to have robes backstage for Bow and Sea Hawk, which they don’t often use, but if it’s a night where Adora is getting overwhelmed intermission is a lot more comfortable if Bow and Sea Hawk aren’t wandering around naked. Sea Hawk’s has feathers along the collar and cuffs.

⦁ Glimmer’s best friends all have abs and she has no idea how sharp her elbows can be.

⦁ Glimmer did realize she was flying a little too close to the sun with Adora if she responded to Catra’s flirting.

⦁ Yeah Catra brought her strap.

⦁ Catra was just a little tired during that show, so she asked Entrapta for some of the drain cleaner as a pickup since it has a lot of sugar, and she was taking a few seconds to rest before she had to go be feral on stage again.

⦁ When I first told my friend Meta I was doing a Heathers fic, Catra downing the fake drain cleaner like shots was one of the first jokes they made and I had to include it.

⦁ Adora thinks there is — a chance — that Catra wants to be dating after this exchange where she says it’s not “a problem”, but she’s definitely worried about saying anything too soon or too presumptive and scaring her off, so she’s just going to lowkey keep acting like they’re seeing each other and hope Catra will open up enough for them to have a conversation about it eventually.

⦁ The people at stage door the night they got “dinner”, and the night they actually got dinner, and the night they went home together, all definitely thought they were dating but only the ones from the first night even thought that might be news. The girl who was a big fan of Catra kept it to herself and her friends, but one half of the couple publicly tweeted the picture they got with Catra and Adora that night mentioning they got to take photos before they went off on a date, but that picture didn’t make its way back to Catra because she wasn’t tagged in it and not that many people “noticed” per se. Final bow was when everyone was like ah so there is something fruity going on there, but even then a lot of people weren’t sure, and it’s something that just got solidified over the coming months as they were seen together more, kissed in public, got a little sappy on Instagram, etc and everyone retroactively realized they were right.

Chapter 10: Beautiful

⦁ Usually the chapter titles are either lyrics that match the chapter or a song that features in a chapter, but in the case of “Beautiful”, it was a thematic match. Beautiful features Veronica picturing her future and the next phase in her life. For this chapter Catra is also exploring her future and her next steps. And also she’s gay for Adora.

⦁ The First Contact scene started as a Mass Effect joke (iykyk) and then I ended up including it. I honestly thought I was going to cut it because it’s kind of random but the point was to show how long they’ve known each other and they have their own world of games and jokes that they lost when they lost each other, so I ended up keeping it.

⦁ Cheekbone > Clavicle > Cupid’s bow (aka Achimenes longiflora) > Gums (aka Alveolar process).

⦁ Catra freezes up after Adora asks what she gets for a good show because she can’t bring herself to say “Me.”

⦁ Shot in the Dark is one of the episodes of the show I’ve rewatched the most, when they find Melog and Catra learns about the power of friendship. The musical was either going to be called that or White Out tbh (real ones know my relationship with that episode) but Catra is playing a magicat specifically in this role so going with the Melog episode felt right.

Chapter 11:

⦁ The blanket came from Lance, actually.

⦁ What’s my ideal choreography for Meant To Be Yours? So glad you definitely asked. This scene is usually presented so abstractly I don’t think someone unfamiliar with the musical/movie would even know Veronica is hiding in her closet. My ideal version (with the staging already set up in this play) is the house facade with the window being rolled in on one side of set (only one just cuz there isn’t time) and JD appearing on the other side of the window (with the light off so it’s more like he’s creepy in the dark) and doing his knock knock thing. Veronica in the middle of the stage panics and runs to the back of center stage, where it’s carefully choreographed for the ghosts (Kurt and Ram) to be rolling in an open doorframe that she runs through and Heather slams behind her. Then Kurt and Ram would lean against each side of the doorframe making fed up and “can you believe this dude?” faces at each other as JD has his whole villain speech in center stage before going to pound on the door and finally wrenching it open to reveal Veronica hanging on the other side with Heather kind of “in the corner” making a comedic fake shock face looking between JD and Veronica as JD breaks down. When he leaves and Veronica struggles to get down for a second, Heather would roll her eyes and help as Kurt and Ram wheel off the door and then quickly move the house facade off stage as it transitions to Dead Girl Walking (Reprise).

Chapter 12:

⦁ My idea for this AU was that Catra would have a “stage mom” and then their acting coach would have been Shadow Weaver to get that Trauma Backstory™️, which means Catra needed actual parents. I already had the pair from Trade Today For Tomorrow, so I wasn’t going come up with a new set of names, but it does feel kind of wrong to have changed Leona to be a “bad” mom. In general, if/when I do use them again, I’ll be using their TTFT personalities. Also, in this AU Leona isn’t awful or anything, but she really wanted to be an actress and it didn’t work out so she has been pushing her child in that direction even when it was painful, which gave them a tense relationship. Most of my other Catras would be thrilled to have parents like this, but Catra doesn’t have that context for None or Very Bad parents, so she’s just another person with an awkward relationship with her parents and doesn’t think about it too much.

⦁ Catra used to spend Christmas ever at Adora’s house and then Christmas at her own/moms’ when they were kids.

Chapter 13:

⦁ My original idea for a childhood dream musical was to stick Adora in Wicked because you know Mara is a sucker for that show, but for mezzo-soprano it’s mainly Elphaba, and the whole point was giving her a role that wasn’t lead. I settled on Chicago because something LGBT is happening in that prison and I think Mara and Hope would both like the show. Adora is going to play Mona in Chicago, a fairly minor character who gets a solo verse in Cell Block Tango when describing why she killed her lover for cheating on her. She appears (namelessly) in more songs but also gets off-stage time, and that song is absolutely ICONIC, so Adora is really excited to get to take part in it, even if it’s pushing the absolute limits of her dancing ability. She does a lot of practicing leading up to the show, so Catra is worried for a bit about her getting too busy and their relationship faltering about, but it balances out after the initial push. Adora’s moms are super psyched when they hear she’s going to be in the show and the marketing team ends up releasing the Broadway cast’s version of Cell Block Tango online at the open of the show to drum up hype for it, so Adora really hits one of her big career dreams — though still with room to grow, if she can get it with a larger role and a full album. This role shows her that headlining isn’t all there is to musical theater, though, and having smaller parts can really by worth it for the off-time.

⦁ Uh so. Mona’s outfit. The outfits for the inmates in Cell Block Tango are usually pretty close to lingerie. Adora has a bodysuit, because it works for the song and she’s more comfortable being covered in something skintight than just wearing two pieces, but it’s still quite a Lot for her parents to see it. They know what they’re in for though and everybody just neglects to address it after the show when they praise her voice. Catra loves Adora in the outfit though.

⦁ Based on my previous formatting Shot in the Dark, Chicago, and Hello, Again should actually just be written out without italics, but because the nature of the titles (length and formatting) make it confusing without italics and clunky with quotes, so I ended up just being inconsistent between them and Heathers.

Original Outline:

I outlined this one pretty heavily going into it, in the way I used to for my fics where I’d write like a one-sentence summary of every scene planned in a chapter going in. Of course, I knew I would add and change scenes as I went, but I was pretty faithful to the outline outside of additions. I was outlined out to chapter 8 but thought it would expand to about 12 chapters between the ending I hadn’t outlined (I needed to be closer to it to know what the right conclusion was) and scenes adding themselves in along the way to up the count, and I finally put that count on the fic when I was writing chapter 10 or so, but then I realized I fucking forgot about the cast album and I got the idea for the bar scene so all of Chapter 12 ended up getting added and expanding it to 12 chapters.

The only “big” thing that didn’t happen was the catnip thing, which was mostly a joke I outlined anyway, but it was just too much from several angles so I cut it before I finished it. The idea was someone pulling a prank on Catra by putting catnip on her vanity and getting her lowkey high. Non-destructively pulling something on a castmate’s dressing room is pretty common antics, but this felt… very targeted and tense even though the castmate was doing it fairly innocently and just ignorant of that angle to it, so I didn’t want to go through with it. Catra was going to corner Adora though and demand if she fucked with her dressing room, and when Adora was obviously confused by the confrontation, fall into her arms and aggressively scentmark her even as she growled explaining the vandalism, which Adora offered to clean up for her and let her use her dressing room to change so she didn’t get more exposure to it. Again, the “getting a castmate a little high” thing, even accidentally (they didn’t realize it had much of an effect) was just not a line I — or the cast — wanted to cross, though.

Upcoming:

The 4th anniversary SPOP Big Bang is going to run May 12th-18th and I’ll be posting daily for the first few days with my magical realism AU Lightbeam along with my amazing artist partner who made an illustration for every chapter! Keep an eye out for it :)

[thoughtlessarse]

Long before the 2001 trial started, then-St. Louis County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Keith Larner decided the butcher knife used to kill Felicia Anne Gayle Picus was “worthless” as a piece of evidence. On Wednesday, Larner testified in court that he had concluded there was no additional forensic testing that needed to be done on the murder weapon used in the 1998 killing. The knife handle had been analyzed for fingerprints, but none had been found; blood on the blade matched Picus. Larner said he saw no problem with his repeated handling of the weapon without using gloves in the months leading up to the trial of Marcellus Williams, who Larner would prosecute and send to death row for the murder. Now, the retired prosecutor was defending his actions during a one-day hearing held as part of an effort to overturn Williams’s conviction. “There was nothing to link anybody to the crime on that knife,” Larner insisted. Williams, who is scheduled for execution in September, maintains his innocence. Until last week, the knife was central to proving his claim. Williams sought testing of the weapon before his 2001 trial, but the judge denied his requests. DNA testing done in 2016 excluded Williams from handling the weapon. Instead, the results revealed unknown male DNA. Last week, a new round of analysis confirmed that Williams’s genetic material was not on the knife, but it could not exclude either Larner or his investigator as the source of the unknown DNA. Whatever DNA might have existed connecting the perpetrator to Picus’s murder was irretrievably lost — thanks to the prosecution’s handling of the evidence. Now, the contamination itself would be at the center of current elected county prosecutor Wesley Bell’s efforts to overturn Williams’s conviction. According to Bell, the state’s willful mishandling of the evidence before trial had violated Williams’s rights, meaning his conviction and death sentence must be overturned.

continue reading

US "justice" would be a joke if it didn't have such serious consequences for its victims.

[mimi-0007]

Gayle Andrews.. Her first year at FSU was in 1969. Andrews solidified her own piece of history at the University when she became the first black cheerleader to make the squad at Florida State. Andrews went on to be an educator and guidance counselor for 35 years before retirement.

[hauntedwizardmoment]

Huge proponent of j2 retiring to be hot arm candy to his normal old man husband but I’m also gonna propose secret middling-leaning positive J2 ending: popstar to wholesome-brand daytime tv talkshow host like Kelly Clarkson (I think j2 could go pop post breakup with Jace + the Jaces but maybe that’s just me). Fantasy Anne Hathaway is on the show and lovingly owns him during one of the minigames of “guess the song” bc she recognizes his own hit song before he does

YEAHHHHH oh my god. and kelly clarkson is such a good pull too bc she recently went through a divorce and covered gayle's ABCDEFU but made the lyrics about her... j2 could do this. he's petty and he has the voice of an angel and is a DARLING in the public eye he's getting on that stage and making everyone who hurt him regret it!!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David A. Lieb and Jim Salter at AP, via HuffPost:

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man was executed Tuesday for breaking into a woman’s home and killing her, despite calls by her family and the prosecutor’s office that put him on death row to let him serve out the rest of his life in prison. Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was repeatedly stabbed during the burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.

Williams’ hopes of having his sentence commuted to life in prison suffered dual setbacks Monday when, almost simultaneously, Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied him clemency and the Missouri Supreme Court declined to grant him a stay of execution. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday. Williams was put to death despite questions his attorneys raised over jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case. His clemency petition focused heavily on how Gayle’s relatives wanted Williams’ sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole. “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the petition stated. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.” Last month, Gayle’s relatives gave their blessings to an agreement between the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office and Williams’ attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison. But acting on an appeal from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s Office, the state Supreme Court nullified the agreement.

Williams was among death row inmates in five states who were scheduled to be put to death in the span of a week — an unusually high number that defies a yearslong decline in the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S. The first was carried out Friday in South Carolina. Texas was also slated to execute a prisoner on Tuesday evening. Gayle, 42, was a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Prosecutors at Williams’ trial said he broke into her home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard the shower running and found a large butcher knife. Gayle was stabbed 43 times when she came downstairs. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.

[...] Tuesday marked the third time Williams had faced execution. He was less than a week away from lethal injection in January 2015 when the state Supreme Court called it off, allowing time for his attorneys to pursue additional DNA testing. Williams was hours from being executed in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay. Greitens appointed a panel of retired judges to examine the case. But that panel never reached a conclusion. Questions about DNA evidence also led St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new testing showed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecutor’s office who handled it without gloves after the original crime lab tests.

Marcellus Williams was unjustly executed last night at the prison in Bonne Terre, MO.

See Also:

The Guardian: Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ push to overturn conviction

[45cementry-gates]

My thoughts on the current ipl points table that absolutely no one asked for :

(part-1)

1. They're the og champions...very chill, very fun vibes.

soo happy to see them on top. They really be feeling like royalty rn lol.

Also in the end, I'm just a girl 🎀💖 some I absolutely adore their jersey.

2. Yaar.... I know Hyderabad is a great team and everything but.... Do you guys have to go this hard?

Other teams come to play a match, this team comes to crack open your morale and bring you to your knees.

Baki teams khel rahi hai, Yeh log toh seedha gunda gardi kar rahe hai Yaar.

Watching Abhishek, our Indian player, a youngster, bat like that feels amazing tho.

3. Kolkata.... Man.

Gautam bhai aaye, and suddenly Sabka Chris Gayle bahar aagya.

I feel like sunil will take both purple and orange caps this year and gambhir bhai has already planned on picking the trophy this year so... Yea.

PS : once gautam bhai is done someone pls convince him to come as ICT's coach.

4. Chennai = 7 letters = thala for a reason.

They're doing great, but their recent performances makes me worried about what will happen to this team when Mahi Bhai retires.

If they don't start taking more responsibility now there's a good chance csk will crash land in the bottom next year. Hope thT doesn't happen tho.

5. LSG, you beauty....

They look like they are a weak team but they've defeated rcb, gt, pbks and...sabse importantly.... CSK.

But their next matches are quite tough too... So we'll see where they end up after 2 - 3 more matches.

The way kl Rahul hits sixes is just beautiful.

6. Mumbai.

I...... Have no idea what mysterious substance this management was on tbh.

If you want to remove someone from the captaincy, there's gotta be a better way to do that so the fans aren't offended and the player also isn't disrespected. Look how kohli left rcb's captaincy for example.

Then, if you wanted to look towards the future, Bumrah and Surya, both who have captained team India and have stayed with the franchise despite having so many opportunities to earn more if they leave should have been considered.

Or they could have just choosen Ishan. Just like csk and gt choose youngsters, Ishan could have been a good option too. Plus He's captained his team during u-19 in 2016.

But no. They choose Hardik.

Tbh, I feel so sorry for him cause in his mind, when MI offered him captaincy and called him back, he would have been happy to go back to his old team...like going back home.

But the sad truth is, MI management saw how successful he was in gt, winning in the first year and then reaching the finals in 2nd year....and it pissed them off that their player is doing well in some other team. So they brought him back.

Despite so much backlash from fans, so much hatred and trolling against Hardik, this shitty management never held one press conference to clear up misunderstandings and give answers to their fans honestly. Because they knew, if the truth comes out, they'll be on the receiving end of this hate.

Fuck them.

The only mistake Hardik did was leaving gt. But... Oh well.

(I ended up ranting lol.)

[twistedtummies2]

Top 5 Portrayals of Irene Adler

The past three lists I discussed some of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson’s most notable allies: Mrs. Hudson, Inspector Lestrade, and Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft. However, no detective and his sidekick would be able to function without cases to solve…without villains to conquer. While Professor Moriarty is the most famous and recurring Holmes antagonist, Holmes solved many, MANY other cases, and faced many other rogues, aside from the Napoleon of Crime. I think it’s time to give some of the more noteworthy criminals Holmes went after their fair due. Just to warn you, these lists will be simple, quick Top 5s rather than Top 10s, and once again, the descriptions will be brief. This is typically for one of three reasons: a.) there just aren’t that many versions of the character out there to begin with, b.) all the versions after a certain point sort of gel together in terms of my personal preference, or c.) a bit of both. With that said, let’s start with arguably Holmes’ second greatest adversary: Irene Adler, the Mistress of Disguise. In the original story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Adler is actually one of the few criminals to escape and thoroughly outwit Sherlock Holmes. Notably, she is the only woman to outsmart the Master Detective, which is one of the reasons Holmes refers to her as “The Woman”: a sign that she is, in his eyes, the finest of her gender. It’s heavily implied in the original stories that Holmes is in love with Irene, or, at the very least, she is the first lady he has come truly close to loving. He loves Irene not so much in a sensual or physical way, but more for her incredible wit, daring, and mystique. While Adler is an antagonist in the story, on that note, she’s not by any means the worst of Holmes’ opponents. In short, Adler is the original Femme Fatale: the alluring, morally ambiguous, dangerous female who both entrances and hinders her hero. The Catwoman to Sherlock Holmes’ Batman, if you will. Various adaptations and reimaginings since have toyed with this idea, and especially latched onto the romantic overtones, ever since. There are lots of versions of Irene Adler; she’s one of those characters who falls into Point B, as I mentioned earlier: after a certain point, a lot of them just sort of gel together for me. However, picking my Top 5 was fairly easy; it’s just harder to do any number beyond that. With that said, let’s waste no more time: The Woman is waiting. Here are My Top 5 Portrayals of Irene Adler!

5. Anne Baxter, from Masks of Death.

In this made-for-TV movie, Peter Cushing and John Mills play an aging Holmes and Watson on their final case before retirement. Anne Baxter appears as an equally “advanced” Irene Adler, in a relatively small but important role in the story. It’s primarily the uniqueness of this Adler that gets her in my top five: Baxter was a great choice in casting, her interactions with Cushing as Holmes are fantastic, and the idea of these old adversaries re-encountering one another in their twilight years is an interesting one indeed.

4. Gayle Hunnicutt, from the Granada Series.

It’s largely due to Hunnicutt’s “scene partner” as Holmes - the unmatchable Jeremy Brett - that nails her placement on the countdown. Granada’s adaptation of “A Scandal in Bohemia” was actually the very first episode of the Brett series, and it serves as an excellent first impression for the show as a whole, with Hunnicutt playing a very book-accurate take on the character. (Albeit with a different pronunciation of the name from the usual, with an accent at the end of “Irene,” so that it is pronounced “Ee-Rain-uh” instead of “Eye-Reen���...unusual.) While Hunnicutt’s calculating, cunning Adler is phenomenal, I personally feel other versions that go “beyond the books” make her even more interesting.

3. Rachel McAdams, from the Guy Ritchie Films.

Conan Doyle fans seem polarized about McAdams’ take on Irene Adler. For me, I personally think she’s an excellent, albeit somewhat different, interpretation of the character. This version heavily ups the romantic side of her relationship with Holmes, and really plays up the moral ambiguity, as she helps Sherlock out almost as often as she gets him in trouble. Using the earlier analogy, she’s at her most “Catwoman-esque” here. It’s eventually revealed - SPOILER ALERT - that Irene is working for Moriarty, although it’s not altogether clear why. She is seemingly killed off early in the second movie, when Moriarty feels she has become a liability. Sad.

2. The Version from Moriarty the Patriot.

This is a rather weird one, to be honest. It’s hard to talk about this version of the character without giving away some MAJOR spoilers for the series as a whole, but I will do my best. Irene first appears in an adaptation of “A Scandal in Bohemia,” entitled “A Scandal in the British Empire” (which borrows some minor influence from “The Bruce Partington Plans”). Weirdly enough, she’s actually EXTREMELY book-accurate here, and the way Holmes’ relationship with her is showcased is equally so: the two aren’t depicted as being romantically involved so much as being, I suppose, “flirtatious best friends.” This is fitting, since the strong romantic overtones in THIS series go between Holmes and Moriarty…but that’s another story. Speaking of, after this initial story arc, Irene’s character goes into some…UNEXPECTED territory, but it does nothing to make her character any less interesting.

1. Lara Pulver, from Sherlock.

Once again, much like the Guy Ritchie version, Pulver’s incarnation heavily emphasizes the romantic tension between Adler and Holmes. Also like the Ritchie version, this take on Adler ends up embroiled with Moriarty, although things end rather differently in this interpretation. This Adler, I felt, hit a good balance between a proper villainess - and a very fine one, at that, able to prove a solid match for Holmes - and the more sympathetic love interest at the same time. 

[beardedmrbean]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday as attorneys working on behalf of Marcellus Williams seek to save him, just a day before his scheduled execution.

Oral arguments were scheduled for Monday morning in the hearing before the state Supreme Court. Williams, 55, is set to die by injection Tuesday evening for the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle in University City, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb.

Williams has long maintained his innocence. DNA evidence raised enough questions that a previous governor halted an execution in 2017, and St. Louis County's current prosecutor challenged Williams' guilt in a court hearing last month.

Attorneys for Williams also have an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a clemency request before Gov. Mike Parson focuses largely on how Gayle's own relatives want the sentence commuted to life in prison without parole. The national NAACP also is urging Parson, a Republican, to stop the execution of Williams, who is Black.

The execution would be the third in Missouri this year and the 15th nationwide.

Williams was hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay after reviewing DNA evidence that found no trace of Williams’ DNA on the knife used in the killing. Greitens appointed a panel of retired judges to examine the case, but that panel never reached any conclusion.

That same DNA evidence prompted Democratic St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new testing showed that the DNA evidence was spoiled because members of the prosecutor’s office touched the knife without gloves before the original trial.

With the DNA evidence unavailable, Midwest Innocence Project attorneys reached a compromise with the prosecutor’s office: Williams would enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole.

Judge Bruce Hilton signed off on the agreement, as did Gayle’s family. But at Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s urging, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing, which took place Aug. 28.

Hilton ruled on Sept. 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would stand.

“Every claim of error Williams has asserted on direct appeal, post-conviction review, and habeas review has been rejected by Missouri’s courts,” Hilton wrote. “There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding.”

The clemency petition from the Midwest Innocence Project focuses heavily on how Gayle’s relatives want the sentence commuted to life without parole. “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the petition states.

Parson, a former county sheriff, has been in office for 11 executions, and has never granted clemency.

Issues of racial bias in Williams’ conviction also have been raised.

The prosecutor in the 2001 first-degree murder case, Keith Larner, testified at the August hearing that the trial jury was fair, even though it included just one Black member on the panel.

Larner said he struck just three potential Black jurors, including one man because he looked too much like Williams. He didn’t say why he felt that mattered.

Executing Williams would perpetuate a history of racial injustice in the use of the death penalty in Missouri and elsewhere, NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote to Parson last week. The NAACP is opposed to the death penalty.

“Taking the life of Marcellus Williams would be an unequivocal statement that when a white woman is killed, a Black man must die. And any Black man will do,” Johnson wrote.

Prosecutors at Williams’ original trial said he broke into Gayle’s home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower, and found a large butcher knife. When Gayle came downstairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.

Authorities said Williams stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the laptop in the car and that Williams sold it a day or two later.

Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was jailed on unrelated charges. Cole told prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and offered details about it.

Williams’ attorneys responded that the girlfriend and Cole were both convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward.

[hitchell-mope]

If they had a proper crossover.

Now I know that one of the Treehouse of Horrors had the Simpsons visit the restaurant. But this is what I think should happen if they did a proper crossover like Simpsorama. Also. Heads up. I’m not a fan of Marge or Lisa so watch out for that.

Linda would probably be one Homer’s new best friend and the Darling of Moe’s tavern. And then have to be physically carried to the car in the morning.

Marge would probably make a lifelong enemy of Bob when she tries to offer up suggestions on how to make the restaurant more family friendly.

Tina meets her match in Bart when she offers to babysit. The experience would either make her stronger or break her completely.

Lisa wouldn’t be able to stop herself from criticising Gene’s music and/or eating habits to the point that Louise threatens her life.

Louise Belcher and Maggie Simpson. Partners in crime. Enough said.

Ned would drive Jimmy Pesto to tears with his unrelenting niceness and religiousness. However. Rod and Todd would get on with Jimmy Junior and the twins oddly well.

Zeke would try and get Nelson (and possibly the other three) to change their ways. To varying levels of success. Ie. Not much.

Frond and Skinner would share horror stories about their students.

Calvin and Burns would have a competition to see who was more evil.

Felix would get into debt with Fat Tony and try to sell Calvin’s kidneys on eBay as Slightly Calcified Faberge Eggs. And wouldn’t be seen again for the rest of the episode.

Waylon and Ron would bond over having bosses who don’t appreciate them.

Patty and Selma would find someone they hate more than Homer in Gayle.

Rudy and Milhouse would bond over their asthma.

Somebody (not Louise) unleashes Milly on the Lovejoy’s. The church is never the same again. Some would say for the better. More would say for the worse.

Gloria and Al get kicked out of the Retirement Castle. Much to Linda’s joy and Bob’s horror. Abraham and Jasper will miss them very much.

Clancy and Bosco end up in physical brawl over how to handle a case

Barney, Lenny, Carl and Teddy also get into a fight. But it’s over who’s a better friend.

LaBonz and Hoover disagree over teaching methods.

Ralph gets lost at Wonder Wharf and is rescued by Mickey.

Big Bob gets into a fight with Apu over business practices. Apu wins. Mostly because of the octuplets and Manjula. But Big Bob gave as good as he got.

[isfjmel-phleg]

Timeline of The Ray (1992 and 1994)

Because there actually is a mostly coherent timeline there! In a story that covers multiple generations and some time-travel shenanigans, keeping track of the chronology of events was an evident concern for the writers. There were maybe a few discrepancies, but I have chosen to ignore/adjust them.

The 1992 series is set that year, but the 1994 series moves the action down a couple of years to keep it in the immediate present, and since that retconned timeline is the longer-standing and more developed one, my conjectured timeline will adhere to that one.

1921 - One of the Terrill brothers is born (This is the birthdate on Thomas’s grave, but he died impersonating Happy and is buried as “H. Terrill,” so it’s unclear whose birthdate this really is. Happy was definitely born sometime between 1915 and 1924, because shortly after meeting him in 1994, Ray speculates that his father would be in his seventies if still alive. And his birthday is March 28, according to a DC calendar from the 1970s.)

December 7, 1941 - Happy goes up in a balloon for a news story and comes back down with light-based powers, Ray time-travels and gets involved

1941-1945 - Happy as The Ray uses his powers for the war effort

circa 1945 - Happy marries Gayle

February 1946 - Joshua Terrill is born (about nine months after V-E Day)

1950 - Happy learns that his powers were not the result of a freak accident but part of an experiment

1950-1954 - Happy works with the Freedom Fighters

circa 1952 - Nadine is born

February 1954 - Joshua’s eighth birthday, death of Gayle (assuming it actually happened), Joshua is put in cryogenic stasis, Happy goes into retirement

circa 1974 - Happy meets and marries Nadine

July 14, 1976 - Raymond C. Terrill is born and given into the custody of Thomas Terrill

July 14, 1982 - Ray is given a bat and baseball for his sixth birthday and risks going outdoors at dawn to play with them after they get given away

July 14, 1984 - eight-year-old Ray has a flare-up of his powers after being accidentally exposed to a camera flash at his birthday party

1989 - thirteen-year-old Ray attempts to run away and is sent back home by a disguised Happy

circa spring 1993 - Ray gets a rare opportunity to leave the house to attend junior prom as Jennifer Jurden’s date

circa May or June 1994 - Thomas Terrill dies, eighteen-year-old Ray learns that he has light-based powers and his real father was The Ray

summer/early autumn 1994 - Ray joins the JLA

October 1994 - Ray moves into an apartment, creates Death Masque, communicates with the Light Entity, and learns that his mother is still alive

circa autumn 1994 - Zero Hour event

October 1994-May 1995 - Ray works primarily with the Justice League Task Force

early May 1995 - Ray does some accidental time traveling, has a short-lived romantic relationship with Dinah Lance, and Death Masque takes Happy captive and assumes his identity

May 13, 1995 - Ray saves an airplane from crashing but can’t save every passenger, Jennifer Jurden turns down his proposal

mid- to late May 1995 - Death Masque rises to power, Ray quits the Task Force and begins working for Vandal Savage

autumn 1995 - Joshua escapes from the cryogenic chamber, Ray starts visiting his mother while claiming to be her nephew 

October-December 1995 - Ray goes to space to help the Task Force with a mission

December 25, 1995 - Joshua is found by a couple who help him trace Ray in Philadelphia

December 1995-January 1996 - Ray meets Joshua, defeats Death Masque, and is reunited with his mother after she learns who he really is

autumn 2016 - in a dark possible future, forty-year-old Ray has gone evil and is killed by one of his many enemies, and his girlfriend Gaelon time-travels back to 1995/6 to avert this

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

OC Musings #3

Today's Musing: Where does your OC work? How much are they paid, and would they prefer a different job? Why? Jesse: His first "job" is working at his family's restaurant/store, his pay is basically an allowance, and he'd definitely prefer a job in the entertainment industry—which he gets the opportunity to jump into the summer after his junior year (which puts him on the path to become a very successful performing magician). But when he has to retire from the magician stuff, he turns to running a little floral shop <3 Olivia: Her job in the Shark Army is her life—almost a little too literally. She ain't getting paid either, but she's here both due to obligation and...ulterior motives. Miranda: Like Jesse, did "work" at their family's shop, but eventually gets the opportunity to intern under Cyrus Borg and eventually works her way up into being one of his data analysis specialist when she's older ...and then keeps growing up the ladder from there. And it is definitely very lucrative. Bridget: Also "works" for the Shark Army, but had originally been in college as a Technical Engineering major. What happens in the future...may be a little too spoilery to discuss now. Sunni: Doesn't currently have any kind of job, but the summer after her sophomore year she starts to intern under Gayle Gossip in her bid to become a weather girl—which eventually lands her the role of head anchorwoman during the post-times of The Merge (...if only because no one else was currently around to do so, haha.) Weather still remains her top passion though Harleigh: Doesn't currently have a job, unless you count her plundering around as a pirate, but eventually enters into a much more productive and respectable career as a map-maker and seller (which is quite the profitable self-business when every other Realm comes crashing into your homeland and changes the geography entirely and no one knows where the hell anything is anymore...and the Green Ninja himself seeks out your work)

. . .

Question Inspired from this Prompt List

[leilost]

Welcome to my space.

Hey people! This is my new blog for all of the creative shit that I love, whether I've created it myself or I'm appreciating someone else's creations. I was originally sharing my work/progress on @leiwritess. Decided to put it into retirement and start fresh.

I’ll most likely update this intro veeery soon once I get some more direction for this.

About me

My name is lei (pronounced “lay”). I'm a 25-year-old black autistic they/them dyke from BK who lets stories and storytelling lead their life. I consider myself a cultural worker. I love to read, write, talk about music, infodump about my ocs, collage, annoy my cat, misty and more.

About my Work

I wanna be more intentional about the things that I create so I've decided to expand this into a work space rather than just a writer's corner. I enjoy writing, I want to learn to draw, I love collaging, I've always wanted to do photography and much more so this blog is going to reflect that. Nothing but love to those who join me in documenting my progress as an artist.

WIPs + Brief Descriptions

The Blues and the Blues Stage in Gayl Jones’ “Corregidora” | literary essay

This is an essay I wrote for a Black Aesthetics class, and decided to make it a personal project since I loved it so much. It's an exploration of the role of the blues as a way to document and the blues stage as a space of resistance for the black woman blues singer in Corregidora by Gayl Jones.

An Unopened Letter to the Grim Reaper | new adult fiction

Dusting off this work that I started late last year with an oc of mine and @purrfectwriting’s, I'd like to reintroduce this sapphic love story:

Trishe Horton refuses to accept her parents' decision to sell her grandmother's Baton Rouge home six years after her sudden death. Between working part-time as a cemetery administrative assistant and barely winning against senioritis, Trishe's vivid night terrors have become the least dull part of her life. It's only when she bumps into an old high school crush, Lina Khan, off the pages of their many penpal letters and face-to-face for the very first time, that she finds hope that revival is possible. What she doesn't realize is that sometimes, she just doesn't dictate what survives, and what comes to a close.

Socials

Pinterest | Spotify

[wutbju]

Jimmy Dale “J.D.” Herchenhahn entered into the presence of his Lord and Savior whom he so earnestly loved and served Thursday morning May 11, 2023 at the Lower Cape Fear Hospice LifeCare Center. Some people called him Dr. Herchenhahn, many others knew him as Pastor, but to us he was forever our precious Dad and Papa. His faith has become sight, and we believe he heard a big “Well done, good and faithful servant” when he entered heaven’s gates!

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of over 54 years, Jean Herchenhahn; his parents, A.B. and Iva Herchenhahn, two brothers, Allen Herchenhahn and Fred Herchenhahn; and five sisters, Lucille Jones, Jean Brunson, Gayle Mattheiss, Dawn Gunderson, and Louise Bates.

Jim loved his family dearly and will be most missed by his three children, Janna (Jeff) Attoe of Hampstead, Jay (Gina) Herchenhahn of Lancaster, SC, and Joy (Brad) Barth of Kernersville, NC; grandchildren Jensen (Ray) Rivera, Jonah Attoe, Jayse Attoe, Kalli Herchenhahn, Kassi Herchenhahn, Khloe Herchenhahn, Caleb Herchenhahn, Cooper Barth, Colton Barth, and Copley Barth; great-grandchildren, Vincent and Halston Rivera; two sisters, Wilma Jones and Judy Ray; many nieces and nephews. Janna, Jay and Joy would like to thank Steve and Joanna Groves, David Groves, and Tom Hayden for faithfully and lovingly caring for our dad. We would also like to acknowledge and thank David  and Cathy Lane, Edna Lancaster, Mark and Nancy Cramer, and Jimmy Sibbett for loving our dad and being the hands and feet of Jesus in dads time of need.

Jimmy Dale was born April 25, 1941 in Macedonia, Mississippi. During his junior year of high school in Pensacola, Florida, he received Christ as his Savior under the ministry of Dr. Dolphus Price.  As a senior, he surrendered to preach the Gospel.  He attended Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina before serving two years with the United States Army. He was a Vietnam Veteran.

Jim finished his college education at Tennessee Temple College in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was involved in many aspects of college life including playing on the baseball team and serving as student body President. It was there that he met and married his sweetheart. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1968.  He pastored the Fellowship Baptist Church in Trion, Georgia for three and a half years during his tenure at TTC and afterwards. Then in 1970, the Lord called the Herchenhahns to Wilmington to work at Grace Baptist Church—first as Assistant Pastor under Dr. Ray Noland, and then starting in 1971 as Senior Pastor of Grace and President of Wilmington Christian Academy.   

The Lord used Pastor Herchenhahn in a great way during his thirty-six years in leadership of the church and school.  Hundreds of people came to know the Lord under his ministry, and many others grew in their faith.  A number of men and women were called to various areas of “full-time Christian service” under his leadership.  Many missionaries, pastors, teachers, and others are still serving the Lord around the world.

He retired from Grace at the end of December 2006. That freed them up to do some short-term mission work in Guam. After that he began filling pulpits for preachers in and around the Wilmington area. That ministry led them to Riley’s Creek Baptist Church in 2010, where he was called to be their Senior Pastor. He retired from Riley’s Creek in 2021 for the primary purpose of taking care of his beloved wife and soulmate who was declining in health. He wanted to spend as much time with her as he possibly could, and that he did.

Only eternity will reveal the impact of the life and ministry of Pastor J.D. Herchenhahn. He was an exemplary pastor, faithfully preaching the Word and sharing the gospel, as well as humbly serving and caring for people. He often quoted these lines from a poem: “Others, Lord, yes, others, let this my motto be, “help me to live for others, that I may live like Thee.” He certainly reflected Jesus through his life.

The family will receive friends for visitation from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 13, 2023 at Grace Baptist Church, 1401 North College Road, Wilmington, with a  memorial service honoring Pastor Herchenhahn will be immediately following. Close family friend and co-laborer Rev. Mike Meshaw will officiate along with Rev. David Lancaster and Rev. Jay Knolls.. There will be a graveside service at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at  Oleander Memorial Gardens. with Rev. Brian Beaver conducting the service.

In lieu of flowers  memorials  may be made to Lower Cape Fear LifeCare Foundation, 1414 Physicians Dr., Wilmington, NC 28401. We will be forever grateful for their gentle care and compassion given to our dad.

Online condolences may be made by selecting Tribute Wall.

[isabellehemlock]

Tag 10 people you want to get to know better!

Thank you so much @nalyra-dreaming for the lovely tag! I love these 🤗

Relationship Status: married (met in 2004, married since 2007) 💒

Favorite Color(s): green and purple (I can’t help that they’re Tinkerbell’s colors, it is what it is lol)

Song Stuck In My Head: abcdefu (angrier) by GAYLE

Last Song I Listened To: Ain’t Your Mama by Jennifer Lopez

Three Fave Foods: any kind of pasta, bread, and cheese combo works for me lol

Dream Trip(s): Ireland (we hope to semi-retire there, might be good to visit first lol), back to Germany to see family (and I received good news this week at my pulmonary app that with some oxygen, I’ll be able to - we are aiming for next summer!), Canada (simply because I’m only four hours from the border for the last fifteen years and STILL HAVEN’T), and the Nordic countries for my husband’s ancestry, and oh, Italy! And Japan!

Last Thing(s) I Googled: how to archive the discord channel after the oscar event was done lol

Anything I want: oh gosh, this feels almost existential, but honestly? Just wrapping up the last of a few little things on my to do list before Easter, and then spend weeks on spring cleaning, organizing, and home repairs before kids are home for the summer. Like, it’ll be busy for a little while, but if I can find the energy and no one gets sick - we might have a relaxing summer for the first time in years??

Tagging some recent mutuals as well as friends:

@katdulac @kaliwashere @lynnenne @emoauti37 @flawedamythyst @strawberryxfieldz @complicitsacrilege @vexbatch @soitamulle @fablesdelightme

[ordinaryschmuck]

Bob's Burgers Thanksgiving Specials Ranked (So far)

(Because screw it, if I did Halloween, might as well do Thanksgiving)

11. Putts-Giving--A pretty decent episode about the bond between the Belcher children. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is more of an after thought with this one, making it more of an episode that can happen at ANY time, not just Thanksgiving. So, for this particular ranking, it's dead last, even though it's not even that bad of an episode.

10. An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal--The show's first special and I love that it quickly establishes that Thanksgiving is Bob's favorite holiday. Bob's love for cooking is a neat aspect of his character and it makes sense that a day all about great food is the day he loves the most. It's just too bad that the first Thanksgiving special includes the family being careless towards Bob's desire to still have a family Thanksgiving despite the plan Mr. Fischoeder convinced them into. It's genuinely sweet, and it hurts that the family dismisses it. They all have their reasons and the ending ALMOST saves it, but it doesn't entirely succeed as this episode feels a bit mean spirited, even for an early season episode.

(Also, what was up with that My Neighbor Totoro reference? That came and went out of nowhere)

9. Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid--Now would be a good time to mention that I'm not a fan of the "kids tell stories" episodes. There's SOME good jokes, but they're always kind of meh to me. This one's no different, though it does get points for a warm ending and the brief bonding moments between Gene and Bob. Their relationship is always cute when they're on the same side and it's no different here. Wish we could have had it in a stronger episode, but that's what "Boys Just Want to Have Fungus" and "The Laser-inth" is for.

8. Gayle Makin' Bob Sled--Quite possibly the most irritating Gayle's ever been in the show. You actually FEEL Bob's anger and annoyance with her, with every bit of it being justified as Gayle's not at top form here. There's SOME good jokes, but not enough. Thankfully the subplot of Linda and the kids struggling to cook a turkey is entertaining enough to save it...barely.

7. Stuck in the Kitchen with You--I love Bob and Louise's father/daughter relationship. It's always adorable, even if they're at odds with each other like this because it results in a sweeter ending. And I love that Bob wanted Louise in the kitchen with him, wanting to depart some wisdom. What holds the episode down is a pretty weak subplot of the other kids doing a fake parade for the retiring home, which is more awkward than funny. But there's also a subplot featuring Linda that's carried by Sargent Basco's hilarity. So, I guess it balances out to a decent episode.

6. The Quirk-Ducers--Not particularly funny, even with Linda thinking that a potato looks like her grandpa, but the ending REALLY makes this one strong. Bob bringing the potato to support Linda's quirk of the week was sweet, I love that Louise learned for herself that she went too far (even if it was too late), and Tina bringing it all home with a pretty uplifting message SHE wanted, ending the play HER way. The journey was a bit of a mess, but the destination made it worth it in the end.

5. I Bob Your Pardon--A lot of this adventure feels forced, not just with its resolution but also with its conception. Tina convincing the family to save a turkey reminds me of an episode of Steven Universe where Steven makes a big deal out of a small thing and the Crystal Gems go, "Why should we care?" Thankfully, Bob's Burgers does things better by having the characters slowly care more about the adventure and having some great lines and interactions with these entertaining characters. Bob especially killed it as the straight man (per usual), and Linda cracking me up with how serious she took things. So while the story definitely takes some leaps, it proves that even a weak plot can work perfectly with entertaining characters driving it.

4. Turkey in a Can--The chaos in this one is TOO GOOD, with Bob freaking out over who dunked the turkey, Louise trying to catch the culprit, and, of course, the turkey counter guy who hints that Bob might be a little bisexual. It's all good stuff with a pretty warm ending that came as a decent enough twist.

3. Now We're Not Cooking with Gas--Knowing that Thanksgiving is Bob's favorite holiday is what helps sympathize with him here. He's desperate to make the perfect turkey, and with one he's been waiting to have for five years, so you can't blame him for going a little nuts. I mean, you CAN blame him a little bit, but you can understand why he acts so insane about a turkey. At least he learns his lesson on his own without anyone telling him to not go too far and the resolution feels a lot more genuine than in "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal." I DO wish the episode ends with Bob NOT getting what he wants for some Thanksgiving miracle, but it also ends in a perfectly messy Thanksgiving dinner that works best for this family. So...I'll take it.

2. Dawn of the Peck--A pretty intense situation for the characters to be in, but still featuring some funny moments like everyone giving the birds the bird and Linda getting to the top of the pecking order. But the funniest bits come from Bob not realizing there was a city-wide catastrophe because he was inside the house getting drunk. It presents a pretty great contrast between great danger and laid-back humor, something I could only accept through a show like this.

1. Thanks-Hoarding--A great character study of Teddy that pretty much solidifies WHY he's the sixth member of the family. The Belchers all care about him and wants him to feel good, even if his quirks tend to drive them up a wall (especially Bob). Also, this is the first time Bob made the perfect dinner (twice) with little to no problems. Oh, there's stress, and this episode definitely nails the stress that comes with making the perfect dinner on this holiday, but it also nails the calming love that comes when you eat with family and friends that are family. It's a solid special that happens to be a solid episode, can't get much better.

And that's it. Weirdly enough, no Thanksgiving special this year either. Which feels especially wrong considering how it's Bob's favorite holiday. Bet HE'S salty about it. Still, there's probably SOME reason the writers have this year. Not that I'll ever find it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[litcityblues]

'Elemental' --A Review

Here's a question to ponder: has Pixar ever made a truly bad movie? I think the answer to that question might be no. I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to watch this movie. Internet chatter seemed to think it wasn't that good and the box office hadn't been that great for it-- but we had heard from some people we know that they had enjoyed it quite a bit. As it turns out, the direct reviews we got from our friends were correct and a slow start at the box office apparently didn't mean much in the end, because as of November 1st, it's grossed nearly half a billion dollars worldwide. So... (shrug emoji)

Elemental opens with fire elements Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi) immigrating to Element City where they join a diverse metropolis that contains all the classical elements, but Fire elements are treated with disdain and distrust. Eventually, they find where the Fire community lives and set up their Blue Flame which represents their traditions, and start a convenience store for the local community they call The Fireplace and they have a daughter, Ember. (Leah Lewis)

The movie then flips forward to the present day, where Ember, now grown, still struggles to control her fiery temper but wants nothing more than to make her parents happy and take over the store so her Dad, Bernie can finally retire. One day, he allows her to run the store by herself, but she loses her temper again and runs off to the basement where her fiery outburst causes a water pipe to break and the basement to flood and that's when Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) shows up-- he's a city inspector and water element who notices the faulty plumbing and despite Ember's best efforts to stop him, submits a report to his air element boss, Gayle Cumulus (Wendi McLendon-Covey) who will have to shut the Fireplace down.

Unwilling to face her parents with the news, Ember and Wade convince Gayle to cut them a deal-- turns out, that Wade was investigating a leak in the city canals before he found himself in The Fireplace and proposes to Gayle that if they can find the leak and fix it, she will forgive the violations. She agrees and together they track down the leak and fix it first with sandbags and then Ember demonstrates her glassmaking ability to make a better seal.

Eventually, she visits Wade's family at a luxury apartment, where she uses her fire to fix a broken glass pitcher, which impresses Wade's mom, Brook (Catherine O'Hara) so much she recommends Ember for a glassmaking internship that freaks her out-- because it's the first time she's realized that she doesn't want to take over The Fireplace when her parents retire.

Bernie finally announces his retirement and that Ember will be taking over the Fireplace, but Wade takes her on one last trip to the flooded Garden Central Station to see the vivesteria flowers she wasn't allowed to see as a child because of prejudice against Fire Elements. They dance afterward and realize that they can touch without harming one another, but Ember's sense of duty to the Fireplace and her family's prejudice against Water Elements is too much, so she breaks up with Wade. He shows up at Bernie's retirement party and confesses his love to Ember and also accidentally reveals that it was she who broke the pipe. Ember still rejects Wade, but her Mom, Cinder, senses some genuine feelings for him but it's too late. Bernie renounces his retirement and refuses to give Ember the store.

Soon after, Ember's seal on the dam breaks, and Firetown floods. She saves her parents and the Blue Flame, but she and Wade are trapped inside the Fireplace and he evaporates from the enclosed heat after the flood recedes, Ember finally confesses to her Bernie that she doesn't want to run The Fireplace and has feelings for Wade. She then realizes that he's seeped into the stone ceiling and plays 'the crying game' to get him to drip back into his normal form. The movie ends with the two of them sailing off to travel the world so Ember can study glassmaking and they go with the blessing of Ember's parents.

Overall: I don't think Pixar has ever made a truly bad movie and I'd put this one squarely in the upper tier. The animation was gorgeous, Element City's imagination sprung to life, and using the classical elements to tell a story of the immigrant experience worked brilliantly. (Apparently, the director drew on movies like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Moonstruck, and Amelie-- all of which I can totally see in this movie.) The cast was great, the story engaging and, like all Pixar movies, it works on two levels-- entertains the kids, but a genuine, mature enough story to keep adults interested as well which always gets my seal of approval for animated movies.

I do not get the buzz that this movie was in any way one of Pixar's weaker offerings, because it's just not. I think very quietly, this one might place itself up there next to some of their best- especially if they don't fall prey to Disney's apparently inescapable urge to give everything these days a sequel.

My Grade: **** out of ****. Pixar don't miss. This one looks beautiful, tells a beautiful story, and is more than up to their usual standards.