#He had a perfectly healthy number of friends his own age all through his childhood of course

[edennill]

If you asked Maedhros when Fingon became his best friend, he'd say he liked him well enough before but it was probably codified sometime around the other's second coming of age.

If you asked Fingon... well, he was two years old when, asked who his best friend was, without any deliberation he replied Maitimo.

[linkspooky]

Can I Be a Hero?

Shigaraki and Hawks are two children who started with the exact same dream, to become a hero only to take completely opposite paths in life. One raised from childhood to be a hero by the hero association, and the other raised by AFO to become a villain. 

These two characters are written in parallel, as intentional hero-villain foils. They’re destined to meet in canon one day and just keep barely missing one another so until then let’s explore more of their relationship under the cut.

1. The Same

First, there are several similarities in both their characters and their origins. 

They both come from abusive households. In Hawks’ case it’s only implied but, one he lives in trash and squalor with a beer bottle in the background. The dysfucntion in Hawks’ household life from an early age is obvious, to the point where having his life uprooted by the hero commission is considered a privilege because they promised to pay for everything. 

Shigaraki came from what seemed on the surface to be a healthy household. His father was a succesful businessman, the family owned the house, even the in-laws were happily invited to live in the house. Hawks is implied to have grown up in isolation, whereas Shigaraki grew up surrounded by people. However, Tenko suffered from a quieter, and subtler more insidious form of domestic abuse where he was the scapegoated child of an otherwise “Happy home.” Tenko was treated as the problem child and made constantly to feel bad for suffering his father’s abuse like he provoked it by breaking the rules. 

They both were born into a sort of lineage. Hawks is most likely related to the Great Theif Takami who Endeavor captured, and Shigaraki is the grandson of Nana Shimura. 

They’re both adversely affected by the circumstances they were born into. Hawks’ household was probably in that condition because his father was a villain, or his father was captured and he was living on his own. Shigaraki was targeted by AFO because he was Nana’s descendant, and Kotaro carried his feelings of Nana’s abandonment with him for life and this eventually turned him into Tenko’s abuser. 

They both have an event that sets them on their life course.

Tenko’s quirk activates on accident killing his whole family. 

Tenko sees a truck accident and uses his quirk to save several people. 

As a result of these incidents they are “saved” from their abusive households. It’s important to notice the difference, Hawks conforms by being offered a chance at education and a better life if he decides to become a hero. However, Shigaraki destroyed the household that demanded conformity from him in the first place. He becomes outcasted as a result to the point where nobody even notices him suffering on the street. 

They’re both saved by predatory people who take their original names away:

Takami’s name is suppressed and he’s given a hero name instead. He’s literally renamed as a hero.

Tenko is renamed with AFO’s last name. He’s literally renamed as a villain. 

On a third note they are both children who you would never look for if they went missing: Hawks was poor, Tenko was literally neglected in the middle of the street in broad daylight allowing AFO to kidnap him. 

That’s even literally brought up by All Might and Gran Torino. If they had ignored Nana’s request, and actually monitored her child Kotaro and his family then Shigaraki never would have happened. 

They’re both defined by their quirk, to the extent that their whole lives have been defined by it. 

Shigaraki was born with a quirk suited for destruction, and this is what several characters insist that’s all he’s capable of. Shigaraki is then raised to be a symbol of fear who lusts only for destruction. 

Hawks was called a genius for his quirk, and raised as a prodigy hero. His quirk is ideally suited for saving people and he’s done so his entire life. His own wish was to become a shining light that inspires everyone the same way Endeavor inspired him. 

This is where they start to diverge. There’s more details I could go on about with all the differences, but I’ll summarize it like this. They present themselves as literal opposites. That is, the character they show to others. Their image. Etc. 

Shigaraki is regarded by everyone he meets as a man child. He has visible scarring on his face that he hides. He’s frank and honest, and always tells everyone exactly how he’s feeling. 

Hawks’ thing is being “The Man who goes too fast.” If Shigaraki never grew up, then Hawks grew up far too fast. Hawks is deceiptful, never shows his true face even though he doesn’t wear a mask. He’s considered traditionally attractive, does modeling, and is extremely popular and well liked. 

2. But Different

If there’s one way to summarize the main difference between Hawks and Shigaraki it’s this. Shigaraki externalizes everything, every feeling, every little bit of trauma he has, instead of holding it all inside of him he pushes everything out. Hawks internalizes he has a rich inner world, but everything on the surface is vapid, it’s shallow, it’s just a performance for him. All of his trauma is inside of him, and he keeps it there. His real self is hidden somewhere in a cage deep within. 

The reason they rely on these different strategies of expression is entirely to do with how they were raised. Hawks was raised inside of the system, and was taught confromity. Shigaraki was raised outside of the system. He was taught the exact opposite, to never conform to anybody’s standards. 

They both grew up inside of an assigned role. Shigaraki was told it was his job to destroy whatever he likes, Hawks was told it was his job to save people. However, Hawks is not a better person, or a better victim than Shigaraki. Interanlization is just as bad of a coping strategy as externalization, and just as unhealthy. They are both characters who are barely coping with a lifetime worth of the trauma as being raised as literal child soldiers and exposed to so much violence a young age they’re both desensitized and numb to it. They’re hurting all the time, but also they’re numb. 

They’re so similiar down to the fact that they both have the same internal desire. Shigaraki longs to be free from all of his trauma, and Hawks longs to be free from the weight of his responsibility, but it’s still the same longing. 

But they are different. 

It would be easy to say that Hawks is the more selfless character because he devotes himself to saving others, whereas Shigaraki is the more selfish because he lashes out at the world from his trauma. However, there’s no such thing as a perfectly selfless person. Hawks is capable of shockingly great feats of selfishness. Shigaraki is someone who can be selfless and do things for other people. 

Hawks will go out of his way to destroy people too, just like Shigaraki.  Hawks will destroy his own friends. 

There’s a marked difference in the way Hawks and Shigaraki both treat Twice, someone who is a victim with many things in common with the both of them. Twice is someone who did not get saved and fell through the cracks like Shigaraki. Twice is someone who grew up in abject poverty and had to rely on his quirk to survive like Hawks. 

Twice is constantly more of a burden to the league than an asset. He’s the reason Magne died, because his too trusting nature had him invite someone like Chisaki without knowing the risk. A normal villain would throw Twice out for his incompetent mistake, but instead he’s comforted. 

Shigaraki says the two of them can work together to fix his mistake. Instead of being thrown out, he’s told he’s needed. He’s asked to stay together with the league for everyone’s sake. Twice at this point is still too traumatized to use his quirk properly. Afterwards, he fails even to duplicate Chisaki’s special bullets. However, Twice has value to the league no matter what his quirk can do. He’s valued as a person. 

He’s humanized, both by Shigaraki’s and Toga’s actions together. 

However, Hawks reacts differently. He dehumanizes the people who need his saving the most. When he’s at his most vulnerable, Hawks corners him and rutlessly mocks him. 

Look at the opposite way they show their faces. Shigaraki shows his full face for the first time to Twice when Twice, whereas when Hawks reveals his true intentions his face is almost completely obscured. 

Hawks dehuamnizes twice in two regards. One, he insists that Twice conform to his black and white standards. Hawks divides people into good people worthy of saving and bad people who are not. Every member of the league is a victim like Twice. However, Hawks only considers one of them a good person, and one of them is worth saving. Even when Twice says they’re all his friends, Hawks demands Twice betray all of them for the sake of himself. Of course Hawks would, Hawks doesn’t even know what it means to have friends. 

The second way Twice is dehumanized is that Hawks only sees him as the potential damage his quirk can do. Twice is not a three dimmensional person, with reasons for what he’s doing, thoughts, and feelings. Hawks only sees him as a time bomb about to go off. This also relates how Hawks sees people in general, he always, always, always strips them down to their worth to him. Endeavor is someone he can position to be the next number one hero. Twice is someone to use to get closer to the league, and then destroy because he’s too trusting. Hawks only got close to Tokoyami because he wanted information about Class A, even though he did grow a little bit more fond of him. 

Twice makes mistakes over and over again for the league, but he’s never thrown out. Even when Twice is the reason the raid is happening, Dabi rushes as fast as he can to save him, Toga almost loses herself avenging him. Twice’s life had value. 

Except to Hawks. 

Here we strike upon the difference between them and it’s almost entirely in how they treat the people closest between them. They’ve been raised all of their lives as tools, but Shigaraki doesn’t treat other people as tools. Shigaraki accepts people and gives them shelter, Hawks throws them out. 

Shigaraki also used to be like this. He used to throw away all the recruits that AFO gave him and waste them on stunts like the UA Invasion. However, it’s something he grew past.

Which is one more difference between them. Shigaraki has this great capacity for change that Hawks has not shown us so far. They both long to be free, but Shigaraki is the only one of the two of them that actually fights against something for that freedom. 

Shigaraki will always choose to make his own decisions, to be his own person. 

However, Hawks is given that same choice and chooses the opposite. He wants his decisions made for him. He wants to remain inside the cage because it’s safer there. 

It’s not just that though - it also extends to how they treat other people. Shigaraki liberates those he interacts with. Twice, Himiko, Dabi, Magne, Spinner, Mr. Compress (whatever his issues are) are all given a place of belonging within the league. 

However, Hawks will take away the freedom of other people too. He does so to Twice. He possibly did so to Best Jeanist. He pushes others to conformity, believing that is what saves them because it saved him. 

Utlimately what’s different about them is the choices they make despite their circumstances. Hawks was given a choice to be free. He’s given the oppurtunity to get better but doesn’t. Every time Shigaraki fails he learns from his lesson. Shigaraki is rising up, and Hawks is spiraling downward entirely because of the choices they made. Shigaraki has friends, Hawks has none. (Because he murdered the only real friend he did have). 

That’s not to judge on whether they’re good or bad people. It’s just the direction their arcs are taking them. Shigaraki has always been on a self improvement kick, getting better with every failure. Hawks tragically is consumed by his failures and gets worse and worse, hence why there are so many references to Icarus in his character. 

It’s been built up for a long time now that Hawks is going to meet Shigaraki at some point. In fact his desire to meet Shigaraki is what caused the hero raid on the PLF in the first place. 

Those two are destined to meet in a Javert / Jean Valjean fashion. However, the question is what will Shigaraki do now? Hawks is someone who at least had a chance of Shigaraki sympathizing with him before because Shiga takes in all kinds of strays. However, now with Hawks chosen action to kill Twice who genuinely sympathized with him - he must have murdered off any chance of that.

Either way the two have so much in common that they have to meet. At which point Hawks’ fate will be left in Shigaraki’s hands. It’s likely even if Hawks is to be saved, it will be Shigaraki’s job to do it, because Shigaraki is the character with the most in common with him. 

Either way their meeting has been building for a long time, and when they do finally meet something will change about both of them. That’s how integral both of their parallel stories are about one another. 

[heidianderson]

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐃𝐈 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍.

[DANIELLE ROSE RUSSELL, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER] who’s that? oh it’s {HEIDI ANDERSON}. i hear they’re {SIXTEEN} and a {JUNIOR} at {CRAWFORD COUNTY DAY}, have a voice like {SELENA GOMEZ} and are part of {CANARIES & FILM SOCIETY}. they’re known to be {COOPERATIVE & PRIDEFUL} and {TIMID & UNTALENTED}. some people say they remind them of {THE SCENT OF DISAPPOINTMENT, PITCHY TONED VOCALS, LATE NIGHT PODCASTS, AND PERFECTLY COILED LOCKS}. only one way to find out!

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Heidi June Anderson

NICKNAME(S): N/A

AGE: Sixteen

DATE OF BIRTH: August 31st

HOMETOWN: Los Angeles, California

CURRENT LOCATION: Lima, Ohio

ORIENTATION: Pansexual

RELIGION: Her dad wants her to practice Scientology, but she refuses, so no religious affiliation

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat

OCCUPATION: Student/Vocal Adrenaline Slave

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Lives w/ dad

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: English, some Mandarin Chinese

FAMILY

FATHER: Cooper Anderson

MOTHER: June Robinson-Anderson

SIBLING(S): N/A

EXTRA

SUN: Virgo

MOON: Gemini

RISING: Virgo

LIKES: True crime, being noticed, the color blue, making her dad proud, gold jewelry, headbands, freshly ironed cotton shirts with matching cardigans

DISLIKES: Disappointing her dad, feeling like she’s not living up to her mom’s potential, New Directions, anyone who doesn’t go to Carmel, bright colors, manipulation

HEADCANONS

When Cooper Anderson travelled back to Lima in the spring of 2012 to visit his younger brother what he was not expecting was to meet a girl eight years his junior studying literature at Lima’s Ohio State campus. June Robinson was exactly the kind of girl Cooper liked to get his hands on. Pretty, recognized his celebrity status, and was smart enough to keep up a conversation with and while normally their story would have ended after their one night stand, they decided to exchange numbers and keep in touch. This led to nightly texting which turned into good morning texts which turned into FaceTime calls which turned into June hopping on a plane to California (the same week as Cooper’s own brother’s wedding). By the time June had landed, Cooper had been given the news that his younger brother had gotten married to his high school sweetheart, the older Anderson just had to retaliate. There was no way he was about to not be told about his own brother’s wedding let alone not be in attendance to cause a disturbance, so he did what any sane person would do. He proposed to June, without a ring, but he covered that one up by telling June that there were going to go to a jeweler and pick out a ring that she wanted. The two didn’t plan to get married that week or even that month, but somehow after June had her pretty engagement ring on, they were running down to a local courthouse.

After the marriage was finalized, June had the most amazing trip in Los Angeles before going back to Lima and finishing up her semester before fully transferring to a campus in LA where her and Cooper could live together and start their life. For two people who jumped the gun on getting married, they surprisingly handled domestic life fairly well. They were happy. Cooper was acting. June was writing. Their income was fairly stable, even if sometimes Cooper had to pick up a random commercial gig or June had to do freelance article work just to make sure they could pay rent for the month. They made things work and despite Cooper’s poor acting chops, he managed to make it big doing random B-list movies and playing roles in random crime shows. Everything was just so good and one thing they agreed on. No kids. Why would they mess up something that was already so perfect?

Well, that was all said and done until they were coming up on their 8th anniversary. Maybe they did want children or maybe they were having a bad case of relationship boredom. They had already travelled, excelled in their careers, what more was their to do besides have a couple of kids? Which is exactly what they did. Heidi June Anderson was born on August 31st, 2024 happy, healthy, and giggling. And again, things were completely fine until they weren’t. It wasn’t long after Heidi’s birth that things started to go south. It had nothing to do with Heidi specifically, but more of the events that transpired after her birth. June got lonely, she wasn’t writing as often, and she was in a rut. It didn’t help that Cooper had some hot blonde as a co-star either on his new movie while June was still recovering postpartum. So, she found solace in a close friend of hers and it wasn’t long before Cooper pieced things together and found June with another man in their own bed. Incoming divorce and custody papers. Everything happened when Heidi was way too young to even piece together a memory of her mother and wanting to move on from the life she built in Los Angeles, she moved away to some European country but that wasn’t the last time Heidi saw her mom. They worked out an agreement where Cooper got full custody, but June had all the visitation rights she wanted as long as she was in town. That wasn’t very often though and by the time Heidi was ten, the visitations stopped altogether. 

Growing up with Cooper as a dad wasn’t the worst possible situation. They had pizza for breakfast and cereal for dinner and Cooper always made Heidi watch any movies or tv shows he had been in and made her review and critique them all (Heidi was always one to point out Cooper’s lack of pointing in certain scenes). This meant she had to sit through many, many hours or Cooper “starring” on multiple crime dramas and she gripped onto that. Her entire life she had been shown the showbiz side of life, getting chucked into singing, dancing, and acting lessons and even though she was still watching her dad’s content, she fell in love with crime shows, begging Cooper to put on episodes that wasn’t even his. She wasn’t about to up and become some kind of criminal, but the cases were just so entrancing. 

At some point during Heidi’s childhood, Cooper began to realize that he couldn’t raise Heidi by himself. He needed some sort of help from his family so Cooper packed himself and Heidi up to Lima, Ohio. Partly for help via his own family, but he also was more hopeful that June would visit Lima to see her parents more than come to Los Angeles to see her ex-husband and daughter. While in Lima, Heidi spent most of her time with her paternal grandparents while Cooper would be off travelling back and forth to Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and anywhere else he could find work.

Now in her formidable teenage years, Heidi had almost chosen to go to William McKinley High School. They had an okay academic and arts program and she lived in the district, but her dad would stand for no such thing. Him and his brother both attended Dalton Academy for most of their teen years and Heidi’s own mother had attended Crawford County Day and was a crucial member to the Canaries during her own high school years, Heidi’s options were limited and she knew the path her dad wanted for her. She was an Anderson! She was born to sing and act! So, she ended up at Crawford and opting to go for uniforms and rich girl tactics and quickly joined the ranks of the Canaries. 

The only problem with Heidi being in the Canaries is cut down to one simple fact - she’s simply untalented. She can’t sing, dance, or act very well. This is something her own dad would never say to her, but she’s simply an okay performer. The only real reason she’s still able to compete and be on the team is because with her extensive background of dance classes and vocal lessons, she can hold a pitch and she can learn choreography and her slight athleticism has allowed her to keep up with whatever's thrown at her on the Canaries. She may not be a lead, but she certainly adds character and a booster by the name of Cooper Anderson.

EXTRA LINKS

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[dented-nado]

Only if you want but maybe 18 “I can’t breathe” with superbat? It might be more angst than fluff but maybe supes is helping bat calm down from a panic? Love your stuff! 💕

[[Sorry this took so long! But once I got writing! I couldn’t stop! So I hope you enjoy this ficlet! It takes place in canon-verse - Dick has just quit as Robin and Bruce has a lot of rules for being Batman. Enjoy!]]

 Batman as a meaning, sometimes changed… depending on what Bruce either wanted to enforce or punish himself with.

It could be something as simple as “Batman doesn’t eat Nachos” or “Batman doesn’t eat a lot of sweets”.

Those were rules meant to control his diet and discourage himself from emotional eating. Though it also meant he didn’t always let himself have a little fun when it came to dining at all.

Being dedicated as he was to organization, he had all the Batman rules written down - in a small black book he kept in a locked drawer in the bat-cave.

Rule #1: Batman doesn’t cry

Bruce hated crying, especially in front of people. It made him feel vulnerable, it made him feel weak… and most of all, when he cried, he couldn’t control it. Not being able to control some part of himself no matter how small infuriated him. He sometimes wished he was a cyborg or a computer that was easily programmable and he could do being Batman and doing his work without pesky emotions or trauma getting in his way.

There were some times - times he wasn’t very proud of, he had felt tears slip out of his eyes among his teammates, he had the bat-cowl to hide them. But he knew that both Clark and J'onn knew every damn time he had started crying. J'onn didn’t tend to bother him about it, and would pretend he didn’t notice, because he knew Bruce didn’t want it to be noticed.

Clark would do the same… for the most part. Bruce knew he tried, hard, for his sake, because he knew that -especially in the Batsuit- that Bruce didn’t want to acknowledge he had gotten emotional over something, or something they encountered had brought up old feelings, opened old wounds that had never healed or gone acknowledged. Except… Clark would bite his lip and look over at Bruce with sad eyes, like he wanted to talk, somehow encourage Bruce to open up, somehow convey that it was okay even for the Bat to sometimes cry… because he himself struggled with the fact that even the man of steel was allowed to cry.

But he didn’t, at least not in the moment, because if he called it out, Bruce would shut down and lash out, deny it, because Rule Number One: Was Batman Doesn’t Cry.

Even if Bruce Wayne cried, Batman couldn’t cry.

Rule # 2: Batman doesn’t panic.

Batman always had to be in control. Of himself and the situation. He couldn’t panic. He wasn’t supposed to panic. If he panicked… who would be the one to figure it all out if not him? So, he absolutely could not panic.

Except he had panicked before. He had broken that rule.

Sometimes it was in a quiet ‘silly’ way, like when he had been in the bat-cave with the cowl down - Clark right by his side after they had a long day dealing with various catastrophes - when asked:

“Hey B… you sure your okay? After today?”

Bruce’s brain had short-circuited when asked if he was okay for some damn reason and had answered:

“Peachy-keen and Squeaky Clean.”

“…What?”

Clark had swallowed hard to keep from chuckling. Bruce put his head in his hand.

“Fuck… its something Dick used to say.”

“Sounds like a young Dick Grayson thing to say…” Clark had paused, Bruce willed the pink in his face to go away and pleaded with every higher power in existence that his ears wouldn’t turn pink as well and stand out like a damn stop-light on his pale sun-deprived skin.

“Were you thinking about him B?” Clark had asked slowly.

“……”

This came up against Rule #3: Batman doesn’t lie for stupid reasons.

Bruce found himself having trouble following this one the most.

“No…”

“Bruce.” Clark had said in a disappointed tone.

“Yes.” Bruce immediately replied, changing his answer. It was a little ridiculous how Clark could manage to get him to stop lying the same way Alfred could just by speaking in that ’oh your better than that.’tone.

“Have you talked to him lately?” Clark asked.

Bruce knew Clark was perfectly aware he was treading on dangerous territory, but it didn’t seem to phase the super-man at the moment.

“… I don’t think he wants to talk.”

“I know he quit as robin but…”

“He was furious at me for not telling him about Batgirl… among other things… I think… and we haven’t talked since.”

They sat in silence as Bruce stared forward blankly at his computer.

“I’m never doing it again…” He had said finally in a low voice.

Clark had landed on the ground from his floating position and put a quiet hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “Doing what, B?”

“I wasn’t a good parent. I wasn’t ready to be a parent, I… I think I was projecting onto him, so I thought our goals were aligned, but they weren’t… I don’t know why I thought… I would be good for him, I was terrible for him.” Bruce found himself babbling.

He had just broken Rule #4: Batman doesn’t talk about feelings or personal events to anyone.

But then again… his cowl was down, so maybe it wouldn’t count… but on the other hand he was still in the suit.

At some point along the way of becoming friends with Clark Kent, he had broken and completely obliterated Rule #5: Batman doesn’t trust anyone. Because he had come to trust Clark. Batman had come to trust Superman. It felt dangerous… the way Clark had slowly gotten him to open up, feel safe, feel comforted. It scared him… but he treasured it at the same time. So sometimes… the fact he had broken that rule didn’t always feel so bad.

“I think you did the best you could given the circumstances… and maybe your goals were aligned at one point and he just… changed. And I don’t know B, I was peeved at my parents when I was about Dick’s age.” Clark said with a slight shrug.

Bruce’s head whipped towards him. “Why? I mean maybe I don’t know parents well but… yours seem so…”

Clark smiled and chuckled. “Perfect?” He floated back up in the air and 'sat’ on nothing next to Bruce’s chair, criss-crossing his legs. “No, but really. I thought about running away even… I was going through some stuff, it was… hard going through puberty, gaining powers, and realizing your an alien that fast. I briefly resented them not telling me… it was worse than just not knowing I was adopted, I was an adopted alien. I felt lied to, and like I didn’t belong anywhere.”

Bruce leaned forward curiously. He had never heard Clark really talk about his childhood or teenager-hood before. “Eventually I realized… they were just trying to give me a normal childhood, where I could feel like a normal kid. They never wanted me to feel like I didn’t belong, and eventually we talked about it.”

He twiddled his thumbs. “I know its far from a one-to-one with what your going through with Dick… I’m sure you both have a long list of things you could have done, should have done… and it just… blew up without either of you realizing it was blowing up. ”

Bruce nodded quietly in response. “I probably had it coming. I don’t think I taught him how to deal with his anger in a very healthy way. I’m not exactly a model of mental health…” Bruce mused. “I know sometimes been letting fighting be a way to deal with things rather than dealing with them… that’s probably not a good thing, is it?”

“Probably not… but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a single person in the league that doesn’t sometimes use fighting as an emotional crutch.”

“Hmm…” Bruce had replied quietly.

They sat in silence for a long moment again, Bruce drifting back into deep thought, that was until a warm hand covering his surprised him and jolted him out of his thoughts.

“I think you’ll talk about it eventually, B, he isn’t going to stay mad forever, and you still raised him.”

“I just hope he finds what he’s looking for… but it honestly… might be in his best interests to… to never see me again.” Bruce said, his own hand now covering his own mouth as he felt himself dangerously get close to breaking rule #1.

“I… I don’t want it to bother me, I don’t… I don’t want to think about it…” Bruce stammered.

Clark’s hand traveled up Bruce’s arm and he wrapped his arm around his shoulders pulling him into a tight hug. “It’s okay to be upset about it B… I’d be more concerned if you weren’t upset about it. He’s your son.”

“I don’t… I don’t think he sees me as his father, why would he?”

“B…” Clark said softly.

“I keep… loosing people, I don’t… I don’t know why… I don’t know why I keep…. I keep…” Bruce made a growl of frustration as his eyes began to water. “I’m… sorry.”

“It’s okay don’t apologize, you don’t have to apologize for feeling.”

“I … I can’ breathe…” Bruce stammered in-between gasps of trying to force himself to pull himself together.

“Don’t try to force yourself to stop,  It’s okay, B, really, just let it out, its okay…” Clark whispered calmly and softly.

“Batman doesn’t…”

“Forget Batman for a second, your more important. Besides! Who says what Batman can and can’t do?” Clark said pulling Bruce into an even tighter hug.

Bruce couldn’t help a sniffle. “I did. I have a rule-book and everything.”

Clark sighed and pressed his cheek against Bruce’s. “Of course you did you goofy-bat.”

Bruce grumbled but slowly closed his eyes and let himself feel Clark hold him as he slowly began to calm down and breathe again.

“I just want to be… better… I wish I had been better.”

“Well if you want to be 'better’ - which is not the word I’d pick by the way…  don’t leave out the possibility of talking to Dick once you’ve had some time apart… You both need time to sort yourselves out. And you could also start by not writing silly rules for yourself and holding yourself to an impossible standard.”

Bruce snorted. “If I don’t make the rules for Batman, who will.”

“Hmm.” Clark replied.

—

A week later, Clark visited Bruce again in the cave. He and Dick still hadn’t talked, or run into each other. It still… hurt. But Bruce was now open to talking when it was time, but now wasn’t the time.

“I got you a little present.” Clark said, once again hover-sitting next to Bruce.

Bruce raised his eyebrow at him. “What’s the occasion? I didn’t forget my birthday again, did I?”

“You’ve forgotten your own…” Clark began before shaking his head. “No, that’s not it, and the occasion is 'your my friend and I wanted to do something for you’.” He replied with a sheepish smile.

He handed Bruce a very carefully and meticulously black wrapped flat present with a yellow bow on top. Bruce had to smile a little on how it matched the Batman aesthetic, clearly, Clark had an attention to detail that he had to appreciate. Clark waited patiently as bruce went through his routine of very carefully unwrapping the gift to avoid ripping the paper and found a maroon colored notebook inside.

Bruce glanced up at Clark curiously before opening the notebook to find Clark’s hand-writing inside.

“Superman’s ”“'rules”“ for what Batman can and can’t do.”

Bruce smiled a little wider and kept reading.

Rule #1: Batman is allowed to cry.

Rule #2: It’s okay for Batman to not have everything figured out right away.

Rule #3:  Batman can have some fun and laugh sometimes because he has a smile and a laugh that lights up a room and has probably the cutest dimples I’ve ever seen.

Bruce’s heart skipped a few beats.

Rule #4: I’ll always be your friend, and I care about you, a lot… so Batman should never forget that.

Rule #4.5: I love you. Batman doesn’t have to feel the same way, but he should know that.

Bruce looked up at Clark with wide eyes. Clark was turned slightly away, face beet red.

“I know… I can’t help being a hopeless romantic, I’m sorry… but…”

“Clark… I…” Bruce’s words caught in his throat, heart feeling like it was going to fall out. “This is… really… really … sweet… thank you.”

Clark glanced back at Bruce finally with a little shy smile. “Your welcome.”

“I do have to add one little thing though…” Bruce said with a slightly cheeky look, getting out his pen.

Clark looked him over slightly startled “What’s that?”

Bruce quietly with a calm smile wrote down the words that had caught in his throat, but he wanted to say in one way or another anyway.

Rule #5: Batman loves Superman too… and thinks he should know that too.

He turned the book slightly so Clark could read the additional rule, he was incredibly amused by the way Clark lit up and looked so over-joyed he might actually start glowing.

“Do… Do you think maybe Batman could change his rule about no dating within the league?”

Bruce leaned forward with a hum. “Everyone else seems to break it all the time anyway so it might not be a very good rule anyway.”

Clark laughed. “The team is still together even with the drama it can cause from time to time.”

“Then I think I will get rid of that rule, and maybe Rule #6 - is "Batman can date” especially if I don’t want to break rule #3" Bruce stood as he and Clark quietly locked hands.

“That’s true, I’m going to hold you to that one especially.” Clark said decidedly.

“I always thought my laugh was scary… Is it also weird I didn’t even know I had dimples?” Bruce asked, feeling a little giddy for once.

“Well when you force any laugh its scary, but when I’ve seen you genuinely laugh before….” Clark almost looked a little wistful “It… makes me swoon a little…. it is kind of bad you didn’t know you have dimples B, but its okay.”

“Hmmm…” Bruce hummed. “Guess there’s still things for me to learn.”

“Guess Batman doesn’t know everything.” Clark teased playfully.

“No, and he doesn’t have to know everything, Rule #2.” Bruce replied now leaning against Clark slightly.

“Rule #7 that I just made up, there’s always still time to figure things out. And that’s okay.”

“That’s a good one, I have to write it down really quick.” Bruce said reaching for his pen.

—

Bruce handed Clark his old notebook as he replaced it with Clark’s sweet gesture of a rulebook, allowing Clark to flip through the old rules.

“Why Nachos specifically? Do you like Nachos?”

“I fucking love Nachos.” Bruce replied with a mournful sigh.

“Wow, good to know. Sounds like you have a sweet tooth too?”

“I do. It’s horrible.” Bruce argued.

“Oh no its not.”

“It is when you eat your feelings, and I don’t have super-metabolism, I didn’t get spend ages getting these rock hard abs only to fuck it up by filling myself up with all the nachos and sweet things I’ve always wanted to eat and forced myself not to.”

“Point taken, but for the record, you can  enjoy yourself and eat things you like. Besides, Alfred has told me you don’t eat enough anyway.”

Bruce grumbled. “Oh great, please tell me he hasn’t already shown you my baby pictures.”

Clark gasped. “No But I’m definitely going to ask him next time I talk to him.”

“Fuck.” Bruce groaned.

“Rule #35 Stop getting excited whenever Clark is around… you get excited when I’m around??” Clark said cheerfully.

“…. No….”

“B…”

“……..Yes.”

“Awww, B!”

Bruce mumbled and grumbled for a moment because he couldn’t help himself.

“That’s so sweet.”

“Your the sweet one here, don’t accuse me of such things.”

“You’re sweet too though! Sweetest bat around.”

“Clark.”

“Bruce.”

Unable to keep up his grumpy facade, Bruce smiled very slightly and sighed over-dramatically. “Well… thank you.”

They both locked eyes for a long moment, then jumped suddenly when Bruce’s phone dinged and scared the crap out of both of them, making them jump.

“Who the hell is…”

Bruce picked up his phone and looked at the name over the message that had been sent and froze.

“It’s Dick…”

Clark’s eyes grew wide and he floated forward slightly.

“Hey… idk if you want to talk about it. I talked to Barbara, I think we should. If you want, idk.”

Bruce immediately tapped the message open, wondered if he should wait so it didn’t seem like he was desperate or constantly checking his phone to see if Dick had texted him, then decided “fuck it” and answered anyway.

“Yeah, we should talk about it. Catch up. Let me know when/where works for you.”

Dick replied almost as fast as Bruce had. “You sure you don’t need to work around…. … work?”

“No. This is more important right now. Work can wait.”

“Okay… I get off work in an hour, can you get to Bludhaven by then? I’ll send you the address.”

Bruce found himself tilting his head, curious as to what job Dick had gotten since he quit as robin.

“Cool. I’ll be there. Hope your doing okay.”

“…Yeah… you too. See you then.”

Bruce looked up at Clark. “You were right… he wants to talk…”

Clark beamed at him and put his arms around his bat-boyfriend. “Good. I’m glad.”

“I…. thank you… so much Clark. I’m still worried I’ll mess it up but…”

“It’s going to be okay B, your going to be okay, he’s going to be okay, we’re going to be okay.”

Bruce leaned against Clark’s chest and sighed. “Yeah… It’s going to be okay…”

[yvillegasvera18]

*Rhetoric as Narrative*

The critical questions that I will be examining are What is a narrative that is important to me or U.S. culture? What truths does it promote? What truths does it limit or ignore? What are the societal/ethical advantages and the disadvantages of this narrative?

To examine these questions, I chose an American YouTube channel Cocomelon as my rhetorical artifact. Cocomelon is all about educating children especially toddlers through nursery rhymes. The show narrates the important knowledge that a toddler should know from learning essentials like using the bathroom to learning how to make friends in school. The nursery rhymes use language and actions through the characters that function in a way to encourage the image of the stereotypical traditional family by representing the mother as a caregiver of the whole family from the father taking care of all the hard labor for the family. Children should be shown by parents through a lens of equality especially through early childhood education. 

Cocomelon has been both on Netflix and on YouTube for a couple of years now. Cocomelon has not been taken off of Top 10 on Netflix because children watch it a lot. Cocomelon is educational through nursery rhymes that children love to have on repeat. Learning how to do the potty dance, who to go to when they have an injury, to learning the wheels on the bus.  The main character of Cocomelon is J.J who is about two years old along with his older siblings Yoyo and Tomtom. Mommy and daddy are also a big part of the nursery rhymes that teach toddlers about eating healthy, loving your family, and staying safe. J.J also goes to daycare where he and his friends learn things such as primary colors and secondary colors, how to prepare for the first day of school, and how to be creative. There are also some songs that come from books, traditional nursery rhymes, and breakfast songs with his stuffed animals. 

Palczewski, Ice, and Fritch (2012) explain that narratives are knowledge that is taught to one another with morals. Whether these morals are right or wrong they are being influenced by everything around us. Palczewski, Ice, and Fritch (2012) state “Narratives create culture and community by teaching cultural values, explaining casualty and entertaining”. Through this Cocomelon is seen as a teaching cultural value by teaching children how to say their first words, their knowledge of important social skills they need for going to school and life in general. The values and morals that Cocomelon has projected through their videos. Their views on parental guidance and interactions with siblings along with interactions with friends. These influences are most targeted to these children watching and singing along to the songs. The most important part of early childhood education is being able to show them ethics and morals at an early age.

One of the narratives that are shown in Cocomelon is that it presents children with the stereotype that all mothers are all caregivers. When a child gets hurt they immediately go to their mommy. In the song “The Boo Boo Song” J.J, YoYo, and Tomtom get hurt and cry out to mom. In which they use the following phrase, “Mommy mommy make my boo boo better now”. This emphasizes that the mother is the only caregiver who can make everyone feel better. This limits the parental role where dad is not seen as a suitable person for the job where he could be perfectly capable of being able to address wounds also. Every child cries out to their mother but if one of them could have at least cried out to their father then it would show that Father is also someone who they can go to when they get hurt. The father is also portrayed as incapable of treating his own wound when he hit his thumb. Again this emphasizes the mother as the immediate caregiver of the family. 

Another narrative that is portrayed through Cocomelon is again showing that the mother is the immediate caregiver of the children in the family. Through the song “I want to be like mommy” Yoyo sings about how she wants to be like her mother. Yoyo sings “Look at the many things my mom can do she cares for me and you” she also proceeds to confirm that she can do it too by stating “Look at the many things my mom can do I can do it too!”. Yoyo is determined she wants to be like her mother by stating “I want to be a mommy like you and do the things that mommies do”. In the song the mother’s duties require getting the baby ready after waking up, feeding the baby, taking the baby a bath, putting the baby to sleep. Yoyo follows everything her mother does by using her doll and pretends that it is a baby. Yoyo is motivated to be just like her mother using many of the examples the mother is being the nurturing mother by taking care of her baby all day. In Yoyo mimicking the actions of the mother this is is the image that many other children are seeing through this song. Women are mothers who are supposed to attend to their children all day every day and they should be like their mothers. The mothers are portrayed as being gentle. caring, and love is being a mother.

 The last narrative that is portrayed through Cocomelon is the masculine qualities that fathers should have. Through the “My Daddy Song” J.J is being tucked into bed and he states “He helps me not to be afraid when he turns out the lights”. With this verse in particular it is emphasized how J.J says he’s not afraid because dads are tough and are not scared of anything such as turning off the lights at night. To a child that can be quite scary and in seeing this on a screen a child can understand that a father has no fears placing the stereotype that all men should be fearless. Furthermore, in the song, Tomtom states “He always takes us places like camping or on bikes”. These are outdoor activities that dads are supposed to do with their children. Out in the wild again, showing a tough and fearless image of a father. The last verse stood out to me the most because the mother states “He listens to my problems. He knows just what to do. He’s my biggest hero”. In this verse though, the mother gets a flat tire and calls father to tell him about the problem. He fixes the flat tire as she proceeds to call him her hero. This gives an image of only men being able to do the hard labor of changing a tire. This image shows that fathers have to do all the manual labor for his family. 

Although this narrative might be unproductive for toddlers to understand the roles of parents, overall Cocomelon is very productive when it comes to educating children on basic knowledge. A child knowing their alphabet, numbers, and understanding that vegetables should be eaten is productive. It helps parents with their children. However, there are a few lessons that a child could learn through this narrative and it’s that parenting roles have changed. Traditional parental roles require the mother to be a stay-at-home and care for the children along with taking care of the house. The father’s traditional role is to work and provide for the family along with taking care of the heavy lifting in the household. The disadvantage of still having this mindset is due to the changing roles in parenting. Mothers are more than capable of doing more than just taking care of children and fathers are more than capable of being able to take care of their own children. Fathers can help a child take care of a wound, they can feed their babies, and they can most definitely stay at home if they wanted to. These changes are important because children should know that either parent will be there for them. It’s unfortunate that some children grow up without one or both parents. That’s also something to look at too. Being inclusive although is not the best picture to paint. 

Hegde, R., & G. M., T. (2016) explains how narrative works with how teachers are able to teach their students from their knowledge how to tell stories and see how their students approach the world through these teachings. Through the experiment, the students were told to tell a story and questioned throughout it. The whole point was to see how organized and how well it flowed together. Hegde, R., & G. M., T. (2016) states, “The “truths” of narrative accounts are not in their faithful representations of a past world, but in the shifting connections, they forge among past, present, and future”. The way the students were able to tell their narratives allowed us to see how the teachers were doing with the knowledge they had learned. Just like teachers are meant to teach children toddlers are being taught through Cocomelon. Again through nursery rhymes children can learn the slightest thing which can also affect the way they see the world. When Cocomelon reflects their own values it also has an effect on those who watch their videos.

Cocomelon is taking over the televisions and parents’ phones. Children love Cocomelon because of its rhymes and ability to keep children entertained. This narrative that Cocomelon uses is very productive for educating children with life skills they should learn at an early age. Yet, it is excluding the parental roles and how they are changing. Society is changing with accepting the shift in traditional parenting. It would be best if that was shown to the children. Stereotyping is what we are trying to discourage and being able to teach children that first makes it easier for society to accept. 

  Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes. (2019, Apr. 9) Boo Boo Song | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs [Video]. Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YltYCrPZos

Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes. (2020, May. 5) be Like Mommy | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs [Video]. Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ypyksuijLs

Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes. (2019, Jun. 11) Daddy Song | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs [Video]. Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1QcEGDbnjI

Hegde, R., & G. M., T. (2016). Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions with the Narrative Inquiry Approach. Language in India, 16(7), 150–158.

Palczewski, C., Ice, R., Fritch, J. (2012). Narratives. In Rhetoric in Civic life (pp.117-146). State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc.

[cat-brodsky]

The Secret History: Abridged (part 1)

Fair use disclaimer: The following text is intended as a parody and literary commentary of the published book “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt. Some direct quotations from the book, constituting a very low percentage of the original, have been integrated in the parodic text where appropriate. The author of this text neither profits nor intends to profit from it.

Dramatis personae

Richard Papen, the narrator, a perpetually starry-eyed youth with all the agency of the proverbial sexy lamp

Julian Morrow (played by King Julian of Madagaskar), a Greek professor who doesn’t actually teach

         The Toffs, as viewed through Richard’s rose-tinted glasses:

Henry Winter, a young genius, deeply devoted to Julian

Bunny Corcoran, an uncouth older student with a heart of gold deep inside

Francis Abernathy, a refined yet sensitive youth

Charles Macaulay, a young man who sometimes has a bit too much to drink

Camilla Macaulay, an exquisite beauty, the only girl in the clique

Judy Poovey, the only character in the book with both brains and heart

Georges “I told you so” Laforgue

the greek chorus (played by a person in a floral bedsheet toga with two sockpuppets)

The Fans, seated in the front row of the audience

The farmer, brutally murdered by four rich kids on a drug trip

     Chapter 1, in which Richard joins a cult (and the greek chorus monologues)

Richard: My name is Richard Pipen and I like pretty things. Maybe that’s cause my childhood was real poor and real awful.

Richard: I even picked Hampden College cause it looked pretty in the recruitment brochure. I have no friends, I failed pre-med, and the only thing I’m okay at is Greek language. …Guess I’ll take Greek.

Georges (the French teacher): Monsieur, I’m afraid zat will be a problem. You see, ze Greek teacher is incredibly… selective about his students. And by selective, I mean on a personal level.

Richard: oh, so he’s gay.

Georges: Non! He isolates his students, he grooms them to have ze same views as himself, and ze only reason ze school puts up with him is because he refuses his salary!

Richard: I dunno, my dad beat me before and after dinner, so this sounds perfectly healthy to me. Guess I’ll go knock on his door.

    Richard: knocks on Julian’s door …Please let me study Greek.

Julian: Why, that’s rather quaint of you, young man, but I’m afraid my class is filled to the brim. Only got space for five people, you see. Very rigorous, that. Anyway, excuse me, I have a princess to tutor. Istrami royalty, though I don’t assume you would know. pauper

Richard: But-

door slam

    Henry and the Four Toffs: stroll the campus, looking pretty

Richard: drools

But I watched them with interest whenever I happened to see them: Francis, stooping to talk to a cat on a doorstep; Henry dashing past at the wheel of a little white car, with Julian in the passenger’s seat; Bunny leaning out of an upstairs window to yell something at the twins on the lawn below. Slowly, more information came my way. Francis Abernathy was from Boston and, from most accounts, quite wealthy. Henry, too, was said to be wealthy; what’s more, he was a linguistic genius. He spoke a number of languages, ancient and modern, and had published a translation of Anacreon, with commentary, when he was only eighteen. The twins had an apartment off campus, and were from somewhere down south. And Bunny Corcoran had a habit of playing John Philip Sousa march tunes in his room, at full volume, late at night.

Not to imply that I was overly preoccupied with any of this.

the greek chorus: yeah riiight

Richard: totally not eavesdropping on The Four Toffs studying Greek

Bunny: Ablative!

Charles: That’s Latin, you dumb-

Richard: Excuse me? I’m sorry, but would the locative case do?

Bunny: Thanks, man, you helped a lot. Wish you were in our class.

awkward silence

Henry, appearing out of nowhere: Ah, yes, the archaic locative. Are you a Homeric scholar?

Richard: …I like Homer.

Henry: Oh, you “like” Homer? Name all the 1,186 ships in the Catalogue.

Henry: fake fans smh

    Richard: All my life, I’ve dealt with poor jerks, so dealing with rich jerks sounded way more appealing. I figured I’d do what worked with my old man - lie my ass off. Excuse me, Dr. Roland, I need uh two hundred dollars from my financial aid? It’s for my uh car, it’s the uh transmission.

the greek chorus: that’s 548 dollars in 2020 money. also, is everyone in this book named after a historical figure?

Richard: knocks on Julian’s door again, having bought one hundred [274] dollars’ worth of expensive clothes

Julian: Oh my, and to think I mistook you for a peasant the first time. Come in, young man - any relation to French kings? Are you from California? What do you do in California?

Richard: Oh, you know… money, orange groves, money, ennui and more money - wow, he’s actually buying it.

Julian: Even Plato knew that class and conditioning and so forth have an inalterable effect on the individual. cough that’s why I only tutor rich and classy students. cough I’m afraid my students are never very interesting to me because I always know exactly what they’re going to do.

the greek chorus: fly, you fool

Richard: listens with stars in his eyes

Julian: Young man, I will take you on as a student, but you must take me on as your academic counselor, drop all your classes and pick up the ones I tell you to. Most of them are going to be with me - you know, a great diversity of teachers is harmful for the young mind.

Richard: Oh wow, that sounds elite and exclusive and totally not like a weird cult.

    Georges “The Voice of Reason” Laforgue: Mon Dieu, are you serious? Do you understand how isolated you’ll be from ze rest of ze college? What if you have a disagreement? What if he is unfair to you? And this man is so elitist - why, that’s ze first time he’s accepted a student on financial aid! …Does he know you’re on financial aid?

Richard: I’m not gonna tell him.

the greek chorus: annnd he switches majors

    Francis: Cubitum eamus?

Richard: what? who?

the greek chorus: did he just say “Wanna fu-”

The Fans: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohh!

Bunny: Get a load of this guy. Henry actually bought himself a Montblanc pen just cause Julian loves them. And he used to say they were ugly. What was it, three hundred [822] bucks?

Henry: You “studied” Greek? Recite every single Greek poem.

Henry: fake fans smh. Now I’ll speak Latin and flex on you some more.

Bunny: Don’t be a prick, Henry.

Julian, coming in fashionably late:

He was a marvelous talker, a magical talker, and I wish I were able to give a better idea what he said, but it is impossible for a mediocre intellect to render the speech of a superior one – especially after so many years – without losing a good deal in the translation.

the greek chorus: do you know what it means when someone talks big and beautiful and yet you can’t remember the talking points? means they’re talking nonsense

Julian: Though after all your Xenophon and Thucydides I dare say there are not many young people better versed in military tactics. Because, as you know, ancient Greek battle tactics are still valid in our modern age! Do you feel sufficiently special and superior, my lab m- lovely students?

Henry: The six of us could conquer Hampden town!

the greek chorus: this is new england, you’d get shot like deer

Richard, stars in his eyes: Awwwww he said six of us!

Camilla: recites from Aganemnnon

How quiet he sinks now - his soul starts from his mouth:

with one jerked gulp he brings up his own blood,

spatters me dark with the scarlet dew in his breath.

And that dew falls on me as the gods’ spring rains

fall and bless harvest back to the long-parched earth.

Julian: Now, why is this so beautiful?

the greek chorus: cause there’s no mention of the dying king voiding his bowels

Francis: It’s the meter - iambic pentameter.

The Greek Chorus: In a way, the discussion that follows is some pretty hefty foreshadowing. The subject is horrible - a dying man gurgling, choking on blood, spits it out all over his killer - but the way it’s described is poetic and makes the reader enamored with the act of murder.

This is exactly what Tartt does later on.

Five rich, entitled young people have a drug-fueled orgy, trespass, and beat an innocent farmer to death. But call an orgy a bacchanal, and it’s suddenly classy and beautiful.

Henry: Death is the mother of beauty.

The Fans: oooooooooooohhh!

Julian: And what is beauty?

Henry: Terror.

The Fans: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!

the greek chorus: this toxic belief is so not gonna backfire

“Are we, in this room, really very different from the Greeks or the Romans? Obsessed with duty, piety, loyalty, sacrifice? All those things which are to modern tastes so chilling?”

I looked around the table at the six faces. To modern tastes they were somewhat chilling. I imagine any other teacher would’ve been on the phone to Psychological Counseling in about five minutes had he heard what Henry said about arming the Greek class and marching into Hampden town.

the greek chorus: richard, you idiot sandwich

Julian: The Romans’ genius and fatal flaw was their obsession with order! The Greeks knew not to deny the irrational! This is why Romans, usually so tolerant of foreign religions, persecuted the Christians mercilessly – how absurd to think a common criminal had risen from the dead, how appalling that his followers celebrated him by drinking his blood. The illogic of it frightened them-

The Greek Chorus: The Romans valued loyalty to the state, which meant practicing the state religion. Local beliefs were okay as long as they didn’t contradict that.

Christians placed their god, monotheistic God, above the emperor. The First Commandment forbids the worship of other gods, and this includes refusing to take part in feasts, to offer incense to the emperor - this was disloyalty to the Empire. Judaism, it seems, got a pass on the same because of the ancient origin of the religion.

Furthermore, the persecution of Christianity was sporadic until Decius’ decree mandating participation in public sacrifices, and even then this edict was not universally obeyed - the Empire was far too large and too diverse. Not to mention, a lot of the accounts of persecution and martyrdom were invented by Christian historians.

Julian is full of it, and a five minute Google search can tell you as much.

Richard: wow, #deep

Julian: …And that’s why Bacchanals are good fun for the whole family!

    Chapter 2, in which Bunny invites Richard to dinner (and then nothing happens)

Judy: So you’re hanging out with those posh guys now?

Richard: What if I am

Judy: I don’t know, they’re bad news. Like, I was at a party, everyone was slam dancing, and this girl was walking across the dance floor for some reason and got mad when I slammed into her. And like I threw a beer at her, it was that kind of night, and this Henry guy and her brother Charles came to yell at me? And my friend Spike saw that and came to defend me, and then Henry and Charles beat Spike to a pulp. Those people are crazy.

Richard, stars in his eyes: Gee whiz, Henry is badass.

Judy: Aren’t you hot in this tweed jacket? Like, here, you can have another one for free if you like it.

    Bunny: Nice jacket, dude

Richard: Thanks, it’s a family relic

Bunny: Anyway, why are there so many [slur omitted] working in restaurants? Oh man, I remember when we pulled a dine and dash here, all in good fun, and then Dad took us here for drinks and it’s a good thing he was so soused he didn’t notice the waiter putting it all on his bill.

the greek chorus: boy, it sure is a good thing the cops don’t get called on rich people

Bunny: And Henry’s so damn smart, you know? He was in a bad car accident, had to stay in bed reading all those old books, and now he’s really into it and he speaks seven to eight languages, even reads them hieroglyphics.

Richard: well, Bunny’s kind of an ass but he’s not an ass to me, sounds good

Bunny: Whoops, forgot my wallet.

Richard: …never mind

the greek chorus: the bill is, quote, two hundred and eighty-seven dollars and fifty-nine cents [786 dollars]. without the tip. twenty percent more is about tree fiddy [950 dollars]

Bunny: …I’ll call Henry. He’ll be chuffed to bail us out.

Henry: is not chuffed Bunny freeloads off people all the time.

Richard: wow that’s… imagine doing that haha

    Richard: totally not eavesdropping again

Henry: Should I do what is necessary?

Julian: You should only, ever, do what is necessary.

the greek chorus: this will definitely not be taken at face value

    if richard had a tweeter

“Reading The Great Gatsby. #relatable #billionaire-life”

“Attended a party, mingled with the hoi polloi. Plebs. How I long to be elsewhere.”

    Camilla: Come to the country house with us

Richard: totally not freeloading

    if the secret history was a movie

Happy times montage. Classical music plays over the country house; it is revealed that Charles, quite drunk but still composed, is playing the piano. Henry and Camilla are in a rowboat together, with Henry monologuing, unheard to the viewers, as she listens with rapt wonder. Bunny is pouring champaigne from a teapot. Occasional moments of foreshadowing in between the happy times - a pot of laurel leaves boiling on the stove, Richard wandering the house in the middle of the night and finding that everyone is gone - and back to happy times, playing cricket, fancy dinners with Julian. Everything looks pretty, classy, and expensive.

    Chapter 3, in which Richard is more an idiot than usual

The Five Toffs: leave for the winter holidays

Richard: I need a place to stay. Henry’s place is empty, I could ask my other friends to sublet to me, or split the bills with somebody… Nah, there’s this hippie who lets you live for free in his warehouse. I’m in.

The warehouse: literally has a hole in the roof

The Hippie: It’s all a metaphor, man. The situation is obviously dysfunctional, but Richie boy just assumes that it’s normal and he’s gonna be fine. Deep, man.

Richard: I’m sure I’ll be fine. gets pneumonia

Henry: Good thing I came back early, or you’d be dead.

Richard: Y-you saved my life, man. …Can you please bring me a mag to read?

Henry: …You must be raving. Here, I brought you a Pharmacology Update from the lounge.

    Bunny: comes back

Henry: is avoiding him

the greek chorus: that’s all, really

    Chapter 4, in which something finally happens

Bunny: Richard, man, Henry is not who he pretends to be. Be careful.

Richard: You mean, he’s gay? That can’t be right. My gaydar says it’s Francis; Henry’s straight. And I’m not gay, but if I was, Bunny wouldn’t be attractive. I mean, he’s handsome, but he’s rough trade, you know what I mean. Not my type.

    Richard: Oh no, I left my book in Henry’s apartment. I’ll have to find it there. …Weird, why does he have a flight to Argentina reserved? And why were the four of them, minus Bunny, absent from classes?

cheesecake in the fridge: please don’t steal me, I’m on financial aid

Bunny: Mm, too lemony but tastes better flavored with tears.

Richard: Haha, screw the poor

Bunny: Man, Henry’s a bit of a Jew. I like him tho.

    Bunny: keeps making weird crime-and-punishment jokes before class

Richard: Good old Bunny, such a jester.

The Toffs: tell a weirdly rehearsed story about their absence

Julian: notices absolutely nothing

    Henry: Don’t you want to know about our trip to Argentina? By which I mean, I know you snooped.

Richard: Man, why the secrecy? It’s not like you murdered someone.

Henry: Yeah, about that...

flashback time

Henry: The four of us must flee to Argentina. But there’s no way I can get my hands on more than thirty thousand [80,418 dollars]. Francis, you have a trust, right?

Francis: Yeah, I can withdraw one hundred and fifty thousand [402,090] a year. ...Bad news, my mum cleared it out.

The Toffs, in unison: What? Do you mean we’d have to live like the poor? Or worse, resort to menial labor? That is inconceivable.

the greek chorus: and they didn’t go to argentina.

Henry: We had but a meager five thousand [13,403 dollars] between us. Anyway, why did you cover up for us?

Richard:

Henry: So yeah we decided to take drugs, party, and fornicate, like everybody else in this college does. Except we’re rich and smart and we’re calling it a bacchanal, because it’s classier that way.

Henry: Julian knew and approved, by the way, but you’re not gonna learn this until chapter five.

Henry: And Bunny just wasn’t taking our posh rave seriously. I caught him eating when he was supposed to be fasting. Barbarian.

Henry: Anyway, when we all came down from our trip, we were drenched in blood and there was a corpse of a middle-aged middle-class man with his neck broken and his brains splattered and a huge gash in his stomach. And worse, he was wearing an ugly plaid shirt.

Henry: I haven’t been so upset since I hit a deer with my car. Oh, hi, Francis.

    Chapter 5, in which we forget about the farmer

Francis: oh no did you just tell him

Henry: Oh yes I did.

Richard, still starry-eyed: Why didn’t you call the police?

Henry: Yeah, right. We’re too rich to be judged by poor people.

Francis: It was just an accident, a little harmless fun.

Henry: Imagine being tried for my life by a Vermont circuit-court judge and a jury box full of telephone operators.

Francis: They’d just say that we are a bunch of rich entitled kids who got high and trespassed on private land and tore an innocent man to pieces.

the greek chorus: THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID

Henry: If Bunny snitches, we’re dragging him in too. He has no alibi. Can’t prove he wasn’t with us. He saw us dressed in bedsheets and covered in gore and got upset for no reason at all. Dropped a pint of ice-cream on my antique rug. Honestly, that was the last straw.

Henry: I paid for our trip together in Italy to shut him up, but then he found my diary - in which I happened to write a poem about our Bacchanal in iambic pentameter. I didn’t think the rube could even read. I slapped him rather hard, and he took offense to that. And now we have no choice but keep letting him mooch off us!

Francis: It's a terrible thing, what we did. I mean, this man was not Voltaire we killed. But still. It's a shame. I feel bad about it.

Henry: But not bad enough to want to go to jail for it.

Francis: snorts No, not that bad.

Henry: So... wanna play cards?

    the greek chorus: here comes a turning point in the story. will richard do the moral thing, will he turn his friends in?

the greek chorus: yeah, right

    The Toffs: Time for a road trip!

Richard: It’s odd how little power the dead farmer exercised over an imagination as morbid and hysterical as my own. Oh well, nobody cares about poor people.

Julian: In America, the rich man tries to pretend that the poor man is his equal in every respect but money, which is simply not true. A poor man who wishes to rise above his station is only making himself needlessly miserable. And the wise poor have always known this, the same as do the wise rich.

Bunny: You don't care about a goddamn thing, do you? Not a thing but your own self, you and all the rest of them!

the greek chorus: edmund corcoran, the bigot, the idiot of the group - the only one who cares about the murder

  Richard: And now Bunny’s acting like a huge ass to me and to my friends. Gee, that’s no fun at all.

Richard: He’s nagging Charles about him being a drunk, Francis about him being gay, and me about being poor! And Camilla about being a girl, but women are inherently inferior in Greek language, nothing personal. And he’s implying the twins sleep together!

the greek chorus: all of these are true

    Henry: I know! I shall poison my traitorous friend with death cap mushrooms mixed in with fun trip mushrooms. The ancient Arabic treatises on poisons must still be relevant.

the greek chorus: textbook high Intelligence low Wisdom

Henry: Richard, my friend, weren’t you in pre-med?

Richard: Uhh I guess, let me just... add the number of mushrooms, carry the one - jeez, that’s some advanced calculus...You know, the concentrations in chemistry are measured in moles, so we have catch a mole first...

Henry: I tested it on two dogs. Sadly, one lived.

Richard: Oh, Henry, you’re such a rascal. First a farmer, now a dog? Anyway,   those mushrooms are just too funny-shaped. It’s just too hard.

Henry: Why don’t you weigh - you know what, nevermind, I can see I’m dealing with a genius.

    Julian: I’m so concerned for young Edmund! He’s such a lovely and smart boy...

Richard: yeah, right - I mean, bright. Very bright.

Julian: I fear he may be about to convert to Christianity! Not even Catholicism, but something plebian. He keeps asking me about sin and forgiveness - how very... not Greek of him.

    Bunny, piss drunk in the middle of the night: Richard, man, I can’t take it, I just have to confess - they killed a man! Tore him to pieces!

Richard: Guys, this is bad, Bunny just told me.

Henry: Welp, got no choice but to kill him. He’s acting so irrational.

Richard: Yeah, and he’s been real racist and bigoted lately -

Charles: I know, right? Why can’t he be more like us and hate on poor, classless people instead?

Henry: re-rolls wisdom We’ll push him into the ravine in the forest he conveniently loves hiking in. Piece of cake.

     Judy: Rich, there’s gonna be a big party, come have fun!

Henry: Who’d have known there would be a party? Aside from, I mean, everyone who doesn’t live in their own Greek bubble. Oh well, guess I’ll dig for ferns instead.

Bunny: Hey, guys, whatcha doing?

Henry: Oh, you know... killing time. Now, who wants to see a flying rabbit?

[thel3tterm]

Our Author is Dead

This is my current novel project. I’ve been working on it for ~5 years, and its been through many painful drafts and revisions.

Current status: about halfway through the final draft. ~23 chapters and counting.

Read it here!  What is it about?

When Rouge’s boyfriend, Michael, goes missing under mysterious circumstances, he leaves behind boxes of incomprehensible research, and a realization that he hadn’t been the meek eccentric they always believed.

Rouge wanders from town to town, trying to piece together what happened and hopefully bring him home.

Along the way, they have to deal with biological monstrosities, an enigmatic being who eats words, a vigilante in a rabbit mask, overpowered teens on the run from a nightmarish organization, and worst of all- a war over who gets to be the protagonist of the story they apparently live in.

The World:

Our Author is Dead takes place in a country known as Doma.

Doma is very similar to our contemporary society. There’s junk food, convenience stores, comic books, air conditioning, interstates… but no electricity. The east is bordered by an ocean, and its western desert ends in an incomprehensible, uncrossable ‘wall’ of abnormality.

Lets Talk Biomancy: All technology is based upon living organic tissue- a field known as Biomancy. The field is completely normalized in their world. It gets them from place to place, lets them communicate long distances, runs the factories, does pretty much everything electricity does for us. In many cases its unnoticeable, running through the walls or inside of gadgets one might not even suspect are alive. The most noteworthy examples though, are full fledged lab created ‘animals’ of sorts. They might be pets, household assistance, or most commonly, vehicles. Zap Heads: Some people actually do study electricity, and believe in the merits of it as an alternative means of engineering. …Of course, we all know that its just a fringe science and that there’s no way to actually use electricity for anything substantial. People who study it call themselves Electricians. Everyone else calls them Zap Heads.

Novus: A subgroup of people in this country are known as Novus. A Novus, for one reason or another, is born with a slight or major split from their own body. Most people are only able to have an influence within themselves. They are only able to think inside their heads and move what’s attached to them. A Novus is able to have an influence outside of themself, which can manifest in a myriad of ways. Some might bend reality around them to their will, some might be able to reach into another person’s head and change things around. -Novus are looked at negatively by most of the country, and are often disparagingly called ‘Wiz’, based on the thought that they’re like witches. -Medical researchers believe that it is some kind of a birth defect, but are unable to determine if the root is environmental or genetic. -They’ve been noted to have a much higher average body temperature, and a weaker immune system. Flexing their 'abnormalities’ seems to require an extreme amount of energy, so they need to eat a lot more than average and struggle to keep a healthy weight. -Religious people believe that it is caused by a moral failure, and that Novus need to have more self discipline to 'correct’ themselves. -Upon discovery, Novus are immediately documented and given a facial tattoo and serial number. -Most Novus wind up being seized and taken to a 'rehabilitation’ center before they reach the age of eighteen. Few will ever actually leave the rehab centers. Only a small number remain free to adulthood. The Bones: One of the oldest and most prestigious families in Doma is known as the Bones. Despite appearing frequently in history textbooks, newspaper and magazine articles, interviews, important dinners, parties, and the like, very little is ACTUALLY known about the Bones. Here are some definite knowns: -They invented Biomancy several hundred years ago. -They are the only family who actually knows how to make a Biom from scratch, and they hold this secret very close. (Factories merely assemble the Bioms, but an outside party is not able to make a working one unless it comes from them.) -All of their children are women. No Bones has ever been a man. -They seem to have an extreme influence over all the goings-on in the country. Politics, Novus control, science, media, you name it, they’re there. Melissa Bones is currently in charge of their family operations, and her daughter Pamela is the up and coming heir. Characters: Rouge: -27 years old -Novus -Non-binary (they/them) -Very thin, brown hair (unless they dye it) usually in a sideshave or shaggily uneven, long face, tan skin, chipped front tooth, average height -Almost always wearing a patched up and shabby blue coat. -Anxious, self loathing, self-described as 'completely ordinary and boring’, sarcastic, artistic, tenacious -Was diagnosed a Novus at age 17 in a freak accident. They had never caused anything to happen before, and have done nothing unusual since. -Was rescued from a rehab center under equally bizarre circumstances by a childhood friend, and is a rare 'adult’ Novus. -Has a taste for the finer things in life, and likes to critique food and visual design -Loves outlandish fashion, but has no money for it -Is looking for someone dear to them who mysteriously went missing Valence: -Is that even her real name? -19 years old -Extremely powerful Novus. Perhaps the most powerful there ever was. -Can bend reality around her, create bursts of light and heat, move objects at a distance, alter the shape and material of things -Stocky and muscular, on the shorter side, round face, tan skin, black hair typically kept short -Prefers masculine clothing -Prone to anger, determined, stubborn, courageous, strong moral compass, black and white mentality, fiercely independent -Both of her parents are well known 'Zap Heads’. Her siblings are well known activists and researchers. While smart, she was more drawn to music, and felt trapped under the expectations placed on her by her family. -Was friends with several vigilantes and rogue freedom fighters who knew her family -Was taken at age 18 after snapping someone’s leg in half, and brought to a secret facility run by the Bones -Broke herself out and has been on the run since -Was in a shitty garage band. Plays bass. Loves comic books and underground music. Tariku: -14 years old -Novus with the ability to 'see’ into people’s inner selves and mess with their heads, plus a few other things I won’t mention here yet. -Dark skin, thick hair, short because he’s still young but will grow to be tall, on the thinner side -Prefers to dress crisply, usually opting for collared shirts -Wears a blindfold most of the time to prevent accidentally spying on people. (Also because he was taught that his ability is a sin, and he can’t turn it off…) -Thoughtful, cautious, strategic, quiet, prone to guilt, shows little emotion but feels things intensely, rarely shares what he’s thinking about, extremely curious but is often too afraid to explore or take risks -Never swears or uses contractions while speaking -Grew up in a facility with several other Novus with similar abilities who were being trained for a specific, mysterious, goal -Knew Pamela Bones -Decided to escape with Valence after an incident he is keeping a secret, for now -Is curious about 'normal’ things people his age do, but is so far underwhelmed by the reality of the outside world Corvid: -??? -This thing seems to show up randomly in Rouge’s room at night. Is it even real?  -It talks in garbled voices patched together  -Wears a raven mask. Who knows what it is or what it wants. Is it even human? Michael:  -A childhood friend of Rouges, then boyfriend -Tall, gangly, dark curly hair, freckles -A bit of a know-it-all, passionate about everything, pleasant and friendly, keeps things to himself, doesn’t like to share uncomfortable details of his life -Difficult family life, a lot left unsaid -Might be involved in really dark and shady things -Got kidnapped and who knows where he is now Proto: -Lives in the woods -Always wears a rabbit mask, even while they’re sleeping, like a weirdo -Supposedly a friend of Michael’s, but Rouge had never heard of them -A friend of Valence’s as well, and worked with her family -Vigilante, destructive Pamela Bones: -20 -Pale skin, freckles, bright red hair kept long, perfectly aligned teeth, green eyes, a bit on the shorter side, fit, curvy figure -She’s everywhere, it seems. An international icon -Sounds bubbly and friendly enough, but there’s something wrong with her voice, and her eyes, and her smile. It seems a bit uncanny, a bit... off somehow Read it here! ________________________ Tag list: @leonajasmin-writeblr @zburatorii

[burtlederp]

My OCs (A Masterpost)

So, you wanna get to know my OCs, eh? Great! That’d make my day! I appreciate your interest more than you know! :) I have a lot of OCs, I will admit, many more than will ever show up here on tumblr. I will only include, in this post, those that have had drabbles written about them and/or people have expressed interest in. The current number of OCs featured on my tumblr is 12; Milo, Anton, Jackson, Valerie, Elias, Risa, Samson, Cindy, Moe, Damien, and Marcelo.

Character bios are below the read more, because, trust me, there is a LOT more to read!

Milo’s Story: A Complete and Utter Mess

Milo O’Malley He’s lean, he’s definitely not mean, and he’s nearly exactly five feet of skin and bone and little else. Beaten down repeatedly through his life, this kid (who doesn’t even look like a kid anymore) resigned himself to a life of harsh, relentless work until his body inevitably gives out on him when he turns 26. Oh, except, it seems a very powerful tiger sprite is trying to possess his body, and he actually doesn’t want to die. And he’s been “adopted” by a giant pick-axe wielding dad-friend named Jackson, who also insists he lives on. Milo isn’t much of a looker, not anymore, with a gaunt, ghoul-like face, dull green eyes, and a shaved head (easier to keep clean when you don’t really have a place to get clean). He is, as I mentioned earlier, five feet tall, thanks to malnutrition through his early years, and dangerously thin. He’s of Irish descent, though his pale skin has long become a sickly gray. After living with Jackson for a while though, his red hair’ll grow out a bit and he’ll get back some of that snow-white European paper skin. As far as he knows, Milo is straight, but he’s never really been in a relationship before. Milo’s Playlist

Jackson Pitolua Jackson is the ideal dad-friend. He’s kind, he’s caring, protective, intelligent, and has a witty sense of humor. He’s been through some very rough times in his life, has had his fair share of terrifying, nightmare-inducing experiences, but this refining fire has left him who he is, and he doesn’t soon forget it. Not all his emotional wounds have completely healed, though, but at least his coping mechanism is seeking to help others as much as possible. As much as he’s grown, he’s still young, and he still hungers for adventure, doing so regularly as both a hobby and a profession. This has led him to meeting and literally adopting Anton, and figuratively adopting Milo. In terms of physical descriptions, Jackson is 6-feet-10-inches and over 200 lbs of pure muscle, with short black hair, a large nose, warm brown eyes, and wide smile missing at least one tooth. His Polynesian descent grants him darker skin, and he’s gotten his fair share of tribal tattoos, with one climbing up his arm to just under his left ear, and another adorning his right leg. His adventuring has led him to be in need of a patron, and so he has chosen one, his allegiance to his Samoan goddess of choice emblazoned all over his back. If he were to be put into any Dungeons & Dragons class, it would be barbarian, because he favors little armor and wields a pickaxe that weighs twice or perhaps even thrice that of Milo. Jackson is straight. Jackson’s Playlist

Anton (Pitolua) Anton is a bit different from others, in that he is not human. He’s from a race of humanoids known as the Night People, carnivorous humans with a very base, tribalistic society. Anton left it in a heartbeat to go with Jackson when he was around the age of 17, after hearing all the wonderful, magical things the modern world had. Anton had his first taste of indoor life and decided he would never go outside ever again. Jackson didn’t allow for this, but Anton has remained rather partial to his static, sustained environments. Anton is a strange one in terms of personality, having lived in a competitive survival situation his whole life and suddenly plopped into one where everyone’s on fair ground. He’s picked up the english language quickly, but he’s still working on his mannerisms, so he can often come off rather cold or harsh, but he means well. He’s protective of his new family, and would give his life for them in a second. Appearance-wise, I am still undecided. I’ve sketched multiple designs, but I haven’t found one that I really enjoy yet. Some features I have decided on though are sharp claws instead of nails, sharp teeth, clawed, long-toed feet with rotating ankle joints and opposable thumbs. Distinguishing features for Anton specifically are his long, black hair and the long scar down his left arm from a nasty fall he took in his youth. Anton, sexually-speaking, is very young and not sure about anything and, for now, forbidden from the act of it by Jackson, who’s nervous he might take after the rather… animalistic sexual habits of his people. Luckily, Anton plays Fortnite and doesn’t get out a lot, so Jackson doesn’t need to worry too much (yet).

Valerie Floraison A wood elf in a modern world, Valerie was raised mostly in Detroit with her nine sisters. Their family made trips back and forth between home and their parents’ home in another realm throughout her childhood so she could still retain her culture. Her family struggled financially all her life, a combination of poor decisions and bad luck, when left Valerie hungry for a life outside of the projects. She moved to D.C. after graduating top of her class at a college in the other realm, and joined the newly-publicized Magic Affairs Agency, becoming head of resource management in no time. She’s got a fiery, stubborn spirit about her, and it’s easy to see her as shallow and materialistic, but she really does care about people. Well, except maybe Jackson. Her sister was engaged to Jackson, and died fighting with him against a manticore. Valerie blames Jackson for her sister’s death. She’s not quite over it yet. As courtesy of her job and career, she’s quite good at wearing a pleasant face, even when she may or may not desire to strangle you. She has a habit of getting a bit physical when angry, never anything beyond a slap, and she does tend to feel bad about it afterwards.  Valerie is almost exactly 6 feet tall, with a thin and willowy figure. She has those long elf-ears, which bear a moderate number of piercings each. She has darker skin with long, wavy black hair that’s usually down, falling over her shoulders, and purple eyes. She favors the finer things in life, so it’s rare that you’ll ever see her out of a dress or not wearing heels. On her left hand is a small rune she had tattooed there that grants a permanent illusion perfectly-applied make-up on her face (no, this did not come cheap). Valerie, in college, double-majored in finances and illusion magic, with a minor in magical cloth manipulation. If she’s not wearing Gucchi, she’s wearing her own couture.

Elias and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Life

Elias Benson Native to the lands of Utah, Elias has never really had an outstanding good time in his life. His family never liked him and kicked him out of the house before he was a legal adult, which resulted in him moving across the country on his own before he was really ready. He’s had relationships before too, and none of them were healthy. He’s a gentle soul, but the world hasn’t really given him a chance to prove it, so he’s turned out to be a bit of a punk, and a lot of an idiot. Even so, he’s a truly good person, even if his language (and observable intelligence) belies it. Elias, before he meets the bounty hunter Risa, is about 5”9, and is pretty gaunt. He’s not quite Milo-levels of emaciation, but he’s not exactly looking great either at around 130 lbs. He’s got short, curly brown hair and big, green eyes, and a little nose stud on the left side. Bruises around his neck were pretty much perpetual from his girlfriend. He also was never terribly clean, so he was usually kinda grungy. After meeting Risa, things more or less took a sharp 180–he got and stayed clean, and bumped his weight up to almost 200 lbs through healthy diet and strict workout regimen. If he gave thought to it and knew it was a thing, he’d identify as asexual or straight.

Elias’ Playlist

Risa Literally out of this world, I like to describe her as a psychopath who accidentally gave herself a soul–because she kinda did. She’s from another planet in the future in a different universe, and was originally a complete sociopath. Not the “mwahaha I like murder because it’s fun” kinda thing, but she just didn’t feel things the same way or at all as other people, literally incapable of most emotions. She was wicked smart though, and after many years of learning about machines and how to be a witch, she complete switched her weak, fleshy body for a metal one and a computer chip brain. Due to an error on her part, however, this robot brain opened up neural pathways for her to experience and use emotions other than want and annoyance. Not that that slowed down her bounty hunting career in the slightest. She’s a planeswalker of sorts, meaning that she’s particularly good at finding her way around the multiverse, and takes advantage of it and the many job opportunities presented because of it. She’s a grade-A badass, also a bit op, and she’s lets people know it. She (kidnapped? Adopted? Enslaved? Took in? There is no good word for how she got Elias) got Elias as her henchman because she was bored and accidentally got attached. Risa is cold, calculating, greedy, and apathetic unless there’s money in it for her. She also has a sense of humor and sarcasm that usually smacks harder than a bullwhip. When she’s not on a job or in a rush, she can also be incredibly, horribly, awfully petty, and takes advantage of her often-if-not-always superior resources to smack down her enemies like flies. She’s a very practical person, and will always choose the most logical pathway in any situation. Risa is lesbian, but the only people she’s ever been attracted to in any way at all is her computer wife Carol, and a giant, sentient, anti-orbital gun she met once on a distant world. Risa is the most difficult to describe in words for me. She’s designed her body to be lightweight but incredibly strong, with minor force manipulation. Thanks to a very expensive coat of paint and arrangement of parts inside her, if she goes ten minutes without direct observation, she becomes completely invisible and partially intangible. She’s not powered by fusion or fission, but rather, a captured god that resides in an enchanted jar in her chest cavity. Her body lacks a lot of humanistic features, being mostly a very smooth, rounded head with antennae on either side that resemble ears, and often move like them too. It wasn’t until she got Elias that she finally installed a proper mouth on herself as well. Risa’s Playlist

Samson Callidan Samson is a very gentle soul who speaks softly, and tends to not speak for long either. He’s wise and observant and a very good listener, because likely, no matter who you are, he cares, at least a little. He had a harsh mother who taught him whats-what, growing up in deep Texas. He has the ability to force people to do as he says, as long as he’s commanding them, like a built in command spell from D&D. Luckily, his mother knew him better than he realized and she was always able to stuff something in his mouth and taught him that his power wasn’t to be misused. Samson is not a young man anymore, but is old, and his parents would say he’s been old since he was about twelve. He’s a religious man, a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, though he didn’t join until well into his twenties, after mission age. He still has done his fair share of traveling, and some of it he even enjoyed. One trip into another realm left him handicapped, with only one functioning eye, and he’d say in a heartbeat that that was the worst time in his life. Luckily, his second wife, Cindy, thinks eyepatches look cool. He and Cindy live alone, way up in the mountains of Utah in a tiny little cabin he and she built together. They have had no kids together, but he plays grandfather to Cindy’s children from a previous marriage of hers. Samson is a gentle giant, roughly 6’’5 and of various European descent. He has tan, leathery skin, with a kind, gray eye, and his hair has long-since grayed, though once it had been a lovely gold. He’s built thick, with a strong figure that Cindy keeps filled out, and despite his age, he’s retained a generous portion of strength from his youth. He’s got a large scar that stretches across his face, going over his left eye, nose, and just barely missing his mouth. His nose, once handsome, is disfigured at the tip, and his eye is a badly-healed, still-freshly scarred pit in his eye socket, though one does not usually see it beneath his eyepatch.

It’s Too Damn Cold To Be A Superhero Today

Damien Lowry Yet another upcycled character, I’m still kinda pulling off the cobwebs and dusting him off, so his backstory may be subject to change. But, as a person, Damien is stubborn as a mountain, and the kind of person whose idea of ‘relaxation’ is more work, but work he wants to do. He’s pretty easy to get along with, but he won’t tell you if he doesn’t like you, he’ll just avoid you. He bounced between homes as a child, traded constantly between his sweet-yet-frail grandparents, his constantly sick or injured mother, or his perpetually drunk father. He’s pretty quiet, a result of too much time spent alone, or too many voices in his head. The voices, fortunately, give him a handful of powers to use as he pleases, and he does so, wielding them under the guise of the superhero, the Alchemist, so named for his ability to summon substances at will. Unfortunately, the power is very specific, and Damien never graduated highschool, so chemistry is a bit foreign to him. But he manages. Damien is mostly only interested in women, a couple men catching his eye throughout his life, but nothing ever really progressed further than crushes, and he’s never had a steady relationship. Damien stands at roughly 5’‘10, and while he’s not starving or emaciated, he’s still on the skinny side, but is deceivingly strong. He has some Native American in him, giving him darker features, including brown eyes and shaggy, usually un-kept black hair. His teeth are noticeably crooked and slightly yellowed, so he usually doesn’t smile with his teeth. He’s built sturdy, and hey, maybe someday he’ll fill it out.

Marcelo Blackwood Marcelo is, honestly, not that different from most super villains. He’s disgustingly rich, wicked smart, and seeks power. He does take the path less traveled from here though, because Marcelo is not mean nor conniving nor evil. He’s a rather nice mayor of a small town in Alaska that’s best well known for having the only superhero in upper North America. The superhero’s name is the Alchemist, and he has but one main foe: the Roman. Who is the Roman? Marcelo is the Roman. By day, he plays the role of the town mayor, a kind, courteous fellow with more money than he knows what to do with, and by night, he is a super villain, blowing things up and robbing banks. What is his motivation? Well, it’s his hobby. Keeps things interesting. His wife is his greatest supporter and literally his partner in crime. Marcelo is, despite all this, a very kind person. He’s very smart, he’s patient, and tries to do his best by the citizens of his town. Even when he’s playing the role of the Roman, he avoids true wanton destruction or harming innocents, bystanders, and law enforcement. Mayor Blackwood is 6’‘10, with pale skin, piercing blue eyes, and always well-styled black hair. He has a perfect nose, a nice jawline, and is all around a strikingly handsome fellow. He may be in his late thirties, but it’s hard to tell. The mayor is always dressed well, rarely dressed down any lower than business casual, and all his clothes are custom-tailored. As the Roman, he wears boots with thick soles so that he is 7 feet tall, and wears a expertly-made and expertly-applied fake beard under his Roman centurion helmet. The helmet also has a visor to further hide his identity.

A Menagerie of Disasters (Everyone Else)

Moe Moe is an older character of mine, and for the writing blurb I used him in, I was really recycling him just for the specific scene in mind. As of now, there isn’t much to say about him. He’s a pained, mentally-distressed individual with a very rowdy demon trapped in his mind.

---

That’s all, folks!

[ohneweiterebedeutung]

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with 11Freunde. This is my translation of Max Dinkelaker’s interview, which can be read here.]

Club player Enrico Valentini about his love for 1. FC Nürnberg

„I’ll shout some abuse right back“

Enrico Valentini joined 1. FC Nürnberg when he was only five years old. Since then he’s not just been a Club player, but a passionate Clubfan as well. Here he talks about car processions through the city, the commitment of the ultras and a bus ride for all eternity.

Enrico Valentini, you don’t just play for Nürnberg professionally, you were born in the city and have been a Clubfan since childhood. Do you listen to the fans’ songs and chants during a game? Of course, sometimes I sing along myself. When we walk out onto the pitch for example. Or when they sing „Die Legende lebt“.

Did you ever get any funny looks from opposing players for that? No, I don’t sing out loud, just to myself. Sometimes only in my head. It’s just that I do know the songs, I’ve stood there in the block myself often enough. And some songs, you’re just simply defenseless against them.

You lived so close to the stadium as a child, you should know the songs by heart. I do. On Saturdays we could follow the games merely by the noise. I just crossed the street, climbed through a hole in the fence and there I was on one of the training grounds.

The house you grew up in was also your parents’ restaurant. Did you have to help out there a lot as a child? Much less so than my older siblings, compared to them I was lazy and ducked out a lot. I was the youngest, the little prince. But the restaurant still had a big influence on my childhood. We ate at completely different times than other families, dinner was never before 9 pm. My father once told me that when I was a baby he often got me out of bed at 1 am when he returned from work. He laid me down on his chest, just to have some time with me at all.

When did your parents move from Italy to Germany? In 1980. My father started off „classically“ as a waiter in a trattoria and in 1989, when I was born, he opened his first own restaurant. These days he owns a vinotheque (?).

Was it your father, as well, that got you into football? Yes. He was and still is a fanatic Juve fan and, ever since moving here, a Clubberer as well. He introduced me to many club legends: Dieter Eckstein, Sergio Zarate, Alain Sutter, Stefan Reuter, Samy Sané. Even though some of them played before I was born, he showed me videos of them. Samy Sané for example, he was quicker than the ball. He was quicker even than his son Leroy Sané is today. Unbelievable.

Do you have an all-time-favourite Nürnberg player? Out of those I’ve watched myself in the stadium it’s Jacek Krzynowek. His left hammer was amazing. What a great guy. Also I was lucky enough as a youth player to sometimes get to train with the first team. It was the time of Hans Meyer. So there I was on the pitch next to Zvjezdan Misimovic, an awesome number 10. Because he wasn’t very fast he solved everything with his great technique. He played to his strenghts perfectly. No frills, no tricks, always straightforward.

So as a teenager did you freeze in awe of such gifted footballers like Misimovic? In the beginning yes, completely. I was a bit intimidated. Up until then I’d always mercilessly put all the professional players up on pedestals. Most of all Alessandro Del Piero. To me he seemed beyond reach. Not even human, an alien. And it was similar with the big names in Nürnberg. But then suddenly I sat next to them and I realised: They’re just normal people.

Why were you so fascinated by Del Piero? His style of play, he was unique. He entered the box from the left side and then fired the ball into the top right-hand corner. In Italy they call it „Tiro all Del Piero“. In A-Jugend [aged 19 and under] I had a phase where I scored exclusively like that. When Del Piero scored against Germany in the world cup semifinal in 2006 I was so happy for him! As if he was a family member. I’m getting goose bumps just talking about it.

You were so happy, even though he inflicted a really painful defeat upon the German team? Don’t get me wrong: I’m extremely grateful to Germany for everything I get to experience. But I feel Italian. I still have lots of family there, I try to go there at least once a year. I only started speaking German in kindergarten.

About the same time, in 1994, as a five-year-old you joined the Club and up until 2010 went through all of its youth teams. Was there one coach with a special influence on your career? Every coach was important at his time. Concerning my personality I benefitted from René Müller the most, who trained me in the amateur team. He taught me a lot especially concerning life after football.

Like what? Broadening my horizon. We talked about faith, about the importance of money, the importance of football. He helped me understand that my personal happiness doesn’t depend on my career alone. Before that, it was like this - if I played well I was happy. If I played badly I was unhappy. It wasn’t healthy.

As a youth player were you automatically a Nürnberg fan right from the beginning? Yes. I always completely identified with the club and, consequently, suffered along with the players even as a child.

When did you suffer the most? The worst was the final home game in the 1999 season. I was there as a ballboy. Frank Baumann stood there, completely free in front of Richard Golz and had the biggest chance, he just had to dip it in from two meters away. But he missed. And almost at the same time Åge Fjörtoft scored in Frankfurt - and we got relegated. I’ll never forget the reactions then. The noise in the stadium, the shock of the masses after Baumann’s miss, it’s burned into my memory. It’s lucky I was so young. You get over such things more quickly. I probably went and played football.

[Bundesliga Schlusskonferenz 1999. (A nightmare).]

Do you remember your first stadium visit? Yes. Must have been the season when we played in Regionalliga Süd, so in 1994. The team played in front of kind of a bleak backdrop. Well, it was great by Regionalliga standards, just not by Club standards. Unfortunately I don’t remember the opponent, I do remember it was a second team. So all in all rather dismal. And yet I was there all the time after that in the following years. As a ballboy, as a mascot, with my friends, with my family, in the stands. I was there for pretty much everything.

Your greatest experience as a fan? The Pokal win of course. Jan Kristiansen into the top corner from 30 meters, in extra time, an incredible evening. I was there in our pub, banging on the table from sheer joy. I went completely berserk. Afterwards my cousin and I joined the car procession, with him sounding the horn, me at the window. Then on to the Plärrer (big square in Nuremberg, editor’s note). A perfect highlight of a night.

These days, as a professional player with the know-how that comes with that, standing in the stadium you probably assess many situations very differently than us would-be-experts. Does that cause problems? Does it ever! When people around me start hurling abuse in the direction of the pitch, I shout abuse right back at them. It’s always the worst on the grandstand, because the expectations are the highest there. I’ve gotten into fights with people many times there.

For example? Once, I was playing for Aalen at the time and was on a visit to Nürnberg, Marcos Antonio made several mistakes in a game against Stuttgart and in the course of that was at fault for [FCN] conceding a goal. Except for the ultras the entire stadium was booing him. At some point it got just cruel. I got a really tight feeling in my chest. I thought about going home, it really hurt. Then I got into a fight with an elderly gentleman. I don’t remember everything that was said, apart from the last bit.

Which was? I told him he’d lost his marbles.

Does that inhibit you, as a player, knowing exactly which kinds of reactions a mistake can cause in the crowd? No, it actually rather spurs me on. Because I know how superficial these reactions can be. And I’ve long gotten past carrying my mistakes with me for weeks. It’s not like I’m killing anybody. A mistake is still just a mistake in a football match.

In 2010 you left the Club because you didn’t see any perspective for yourself in the first team. Was it liberating for you playing in Aalen for a club that you weren’t as personally connected with? On the one hand, yes. On the other hand I didn’t take long to identify with the club and the town. People like to smile down on clubs like Aalen, Sandhausen or Heidenheim. So that made it extra nice to play away and win. You always knew: after a home defeat against Aalen, the opponent’s coach would be called into question. I think during my time at Aalen alone we fired three opponents’ coaches. Just because they lost to us at home.

At Aalen you managed to establish yourself as a professional under Ralph Hasenhüttl. You went on to KSC, where in 2015 under coach Markus Kauczinski you almost made the leap into Bundesliga. In the second leg of the relegation play-off against HSV you were only a few seconds away from promotion… When Marcelo Diaz took that free-kick I was standing in the wall.

HSV had only this one last shot to escape relegation. Did you catch any of what was being said between Diaz and Rafael van der Vaart? Allegedly they discussed which of them would take the shot. Yes, they were talking and both standing close to the ball. I was completely convinced that van der Vaart would shoot. I told the other guys in the wall „100% van der Vaart, 100% van der Vaart.“ I kept repeating that. It was completely clear to me that in this moment their greatest player would take the ball. I didn’t expect Diaz at all. We had analysed their scorers before the game, in the entire season Diaz hadn’t taken a single free-kick.

[KSC-HSV]

But Diaz did in that moment - and put the ball into the top corner. How did you feel in the hours after missing promotion? Immediately after the final whistle I was very emotional and cried. Then we were standing in front of the fans and they sang „Ein Kompliment“ by Sportfreunde Stiller: (singing) „Ich wollte dir - nur mal eben sagen - dass du das - Größte für mich bist!“ [„I just wanted to tell you that to me you are the greatest“ (…)] One of the nicest moments of my career. After that we finished our round and I saw my family in the stands, 20, 25 Valentinis. They were all crying. Everybody. My father, my mother, my wife, even my best friend. It felt like they were sadder than I was. Somehow that made me happy. It’s weird to explain, but experiences like that hurt less when they’re shared. Having people with you that feel you so much, that’s great consolation.

How long did you take to get over this shock? It only really hit me square in the face a few days later when I was already on holiday. I realised then what had actually happened. I was 26 years old, these two games had been my chance to play in the Bundesliga. Maybe - very probably - the only chance. And there were players like Dominic Peitz, Daniel Gordon and Dirk Orlishausen. Men over 30 for which it had definitely been the last chance. After this realisation it really, really hurt.

But then, three years later, you personally got there after all, you made it to the Bundesliga. And on top of that with your club, 1. FC Nürnberg, to which you had returned in 2017. What pictures are there in your head when you think back to last May? We beat Sandhausen and we were through. Already on the way back to Nürnberg we partied like crazy. At some point we ran out of beer, the bus had to stop so we could get some more. At the service station we met fans, so we stayed and celebrated with them for a bit. When we drove on at every bridge [across the Autobahn] there were people celebrating, and Club banners. When we finally arrived back in the city we didn’t immediately go out to the fans. We went into the changing room through the back door, the fans had no idea when we’d come back. And this knowledge, shortly we’ll run out and start [-], the anticipation, that we’d go out and they’d see us and light their bengal flares, the excitement, it was overwhelming.

There was a video going viral on the internet that showed the entire team loudly bawling a Juve song in nearly accentless Italian. You must be a good teacher! No, no, I don’t deserve any credit for that! The thing with „Storia di un grande amore“, that was the idea of our captain Hanno Behrens and Tim Leibold.

You’ll have to explain. On the second or third day of the season I was in the showers after training. Suddenly I heard the song come over the speakers in the changing room. I ran there, still naked, to see who was responsible. Hanno and Tim were waiting for me. I was all „Whut?!“ and Hanno replied „This song is wicked!“ After that the song accompanied the team through the entire season.

In which you missed only one game - but of all games, it had to be the derby against Fürth at home. Where did you watch it? I was standing in the block [Nordkurve, among the ultras]. Though I couldn’t really join in the chants, because I was too focused on the game. But it was very interesting to me, seeing just how much work the ultras invest into the atmosphere. I hadn’t really realised before, because I'd been standing too far up, but against Fürth I stood down at the bottom, close to the Vorsänger [what’s the proper term? The people with the megaphones, that lead the chants?]. I became really aware of just how exhausting it is for them. They practically work as hard as we do on the pitch. The prodding when it’s not loud enough - there are some real fights there.

Things happen fast in football. Half a year after the huge euphoria you find yourselves in last place of the Bundesliga table with Nürnberg. Is a 0-7 defeat at Dortmund especially excruciating to you, because you have so many private connections to the club? All the people in my environment, practically without exception, are either fans or at the very least big Club-sympathisers. Immediately there’s the question „What happened?!“ And I don’t have any other answer besides „Well what do you think happened? We got beaten up 0-7.“ It can be quite gruelling. On the other hand my phone explodes especially after victories. I get many more reactions then.

What gives you hope that it’s yet possible that you won’t get relegated? The team. We still have a great team spirit. And also there’s much quality in our squad. As a team we have what it takes to get through this.

[arthurian]

The Weight of Silence

Fandom: The Maze Runner (all media) Pairing: Newt x Thomas (Newtmas) Chapter: 1 / 8  Premise: When the world is overcome by a deadly virus that threatens the population, young aspiring doctor, Thomas, is one of the first to volunteer for a research team searching for the cure. What starts as a humanitarian imperative soon morphs into race against time when Thomas meets Newt, a college student diagnosed with the Flare who's volunteered to participate in clinical trials. Their bond grows stronger as time runs out, and the ultimate question must be answered: Can Thomas make Newt the first person to survive the Flare?

Day One : Thomas

If there was one thing Thomas knew about life, it was that it was a cruel and unfair thing, but it was balanced. Nature was a peculiar mistress. It would lob every challenge your way, build a wall around you thirty feet high, but leave you an old and fraying rope to pull yourself out. The solutions it offered you were often even more difficult to stomach than the original problem granted toward you, but they existed.

Balance. Thomas believed in balance.

Thomas was a perfect example of his own theory. He was an orphan, raised in foster care and relinquished to the world at age 18 with little more than the clothes on his back. He’d never known his parents, had never fit in very well anywhere. People liked him well enough, but never enough to keep him. So he’d spend a year in one place before moving on. He’d learned early in life that the only person he could rely on was himself.

Balance had given him brains. His above-average IQ and quick feet had picked up the slack for the opportunities he lacked. Straight A’s and a top spot on his high school track team had given him a free ride to college.

Thomas was only 19, but he was already through with his bachelor’s degree and working on his master’s, interning at the medical clinic on campus in Disease Research and Management. He was going to be a doctor.  That seemed balance enough for the childhood he lacked.

But this - this was something Thomas couldn’t fathom.

He’d been staring at the blood sample in his slide for what felt like hours, watching the diseased pathogens spread like wildfire until every platelet and cell was coated in a slick of dark, as if black oil had coated it and refused to be removed. The blood sample had been clean when he’d placed it on the slide. Fifteen minutes after Thomas had introduced the pathogen, everything was destroyed.

The end of the world had begun with a flare. A seemingly freak incident - a flash of light that spanned the globe. Four seconds of near blinding white, and then nothing. Scientists had called it a freak astrological event. Conspiracy theorists had called it a sign of impending doom.

Neither of them had been wrong.

There was a problem with the Earth's atmosphere. That's what governments and agencies would tell the world later. Something had faltered, wavered, and let in too much of the sun’s powerful rays. It was harmless, so long as the world started taking the proper precautions.

What came later was a sickness. One the world couldn't begin to understand. It started with fatigue, with the veins in one's hands going dark as tar. And then it became violent. Those who had been exposed lost all sense of humanity. As their brains began to decay, so did their self control. They were close to zombies; attacking anyone in their path until finally the virus ate them away to nothing.

You were smiling, and then you were sick, and then you were dead.

It became known as the Flare.

And Thomas was determined to cure it.

The only issue standing in his way was this - Thomas had been working with the United States’s leading scientists for months, and they’d discovered nothing. Logic told him there was a good chance the Flare was incurable. Something inside of him insisted there had to be a way.

Nature is about balance. There has to be a cure. Thomas couldn’t count the number of times he’d repeated those words in his head. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d repeated them to hopeful faces, staring at him through heavily lidded eyes with tubes emerging from their skin.

There was a tally in his notebook. One he told no one about. Not Dr. Paige, his mentor, or Teresa, his research partner and best friend. They’d only worry about him if they knew the obsession with which he kept score of the battle he was waging against the Flare. A battle he was losing sixty-four to zero.

Sixty-four people had died while under his care. Sixty-four people had looked at him with hope and longing and belief, and he’d failed all of them. Thomas didn’t know how to express the heavy weight that rested on his shoulders from all of those lives lost.

“Thomas?”

Thomas lifted his head and turned towards the entrance to the lab. Teresa was hovering in the doorway, looking like she might have been there for awhile. Her black hair was tied in a knot at the back of her head, making her features look more severe and serious than he was used to. She looked more haggard than usual, like she hadn’t slept in days. Thomas wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case.

It was coming up on the one year anniversary of her mother’s death, and Thomas knew that memories often kept Teresa awake at night. Thomas was here in the lab, studying the Flare, by chance. He was here because he’d been curious. Teresa was here because the Flare had taken something from her personally. Her mother had been one of the first confirmed fatalities.

His chest hurt to think she’d been in this lab, day in and day out, for eleven months with no results. They’d grown close in their search for a cure, forged a friendship that felt like it was meant to last, like it had been there from the very start. Looking at her now, with her skin so pale he could trace the veins across her temples with his eyes, Thomas could feel the weight of the pain on her chest. And he hated that he could do nothing to take it away.

No. He could do something. And he was doing it. Progress was slow, but they would find a cure. They would. They had to.

“Yes?”

Teresa furrowed her brows, like she could hear the sympathy in his voice and wanted to slap him for it. “We have a volunteer. No symptoms yet.”

Thomas’s brows rose in surprise. Most of the patients they got were well on their way out of this world and on to the next by the time they landed in the patients ward. Most patients didn’t volunteer to be a guinea pig until they were three inches shy of the grave. A patient without symptoms was - well it was unheard of. Thomas didn’t think he’d ever come across anyone with the Flare who’d caught it and volunteered early enough to give themselves much of a chance.

“He’s in exam room A5. Can you get his blood samples and get him settled?”

Thomas response was automatic. “Of course.”

He didn’t ask Teresa why she couldn’t do it. Looking at her told him enough. Thomas didn’t think she had enough strength left in her to watch another person fade away when they’d come to her seeming perfectly healthy. She didn’t take on patients. Teresa confined herself to the lab.

She let out a relieved sigh and offered him a weak smile. “Thank you,” she said, disappearing through the doorway and back to whichever lab she’d sequestered herself to today. Thomas made a mental note to force her out of the lab tonight for coffee or dinner. Anything that would make her breathe real air. He had a bad feeling she’d been sleeping in the on-call rooms again instead of going home.

After putting away his most recent slide and washing his hands with mechanical movements, Thomas gathered his lab coat and set off down the hall. He passed several closed-off labs, and doctors and interns who smiled at him with too-cheery expressions and jovial eyes, before entering the patient wing. Exam room A5 already had a note plastered the door.

Room in quarantine. Immunes only beyond this point.

Continue reading this chapter on AO3.

[coolvillerp-blog]

Under the cut you’ll find a SAMPLE APPLICATION that I put together for the skeleton I will be playing in this roleplay: The Ditz. I hope that if anybody needs guidance for what I expect to see in an app, this can help you out! I may have added a few extra things, so please don’t feel pressured to write more than you’re comfortable with! As long as you convey the spirit of your character, I’ll be happy with what you submit! 

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION:

LABEL: The Ditz. FULL NAME: Lark Rutherford Sinclair. AGE: 22 Years Old. GENDER + PRONOUNS: cis-male, he/him pronouns.  FACECLAIM: Tarjei Sandvik Moe.

EXPLORATION:

3+ HEADCANONS:        –– Is there any blessing greater than to have two healthy children? With all the money they could want, Laurel and Andrew Rutherford-Sinclair never realised that they were missing something until they had it: their sons, their twins. Lark and his brother were doted on from the very first moment, cherished and adored by everyone who came in contact with them. Childhood was a golden kind of bliss, neither boy knowing the meaning of the words fear or worry. At least, they didn’t until the night the Bogeyman came. A summer night with sweltering heat, a rasp of their bedroom window sliding open. Lark watched with wide eyes while a monster took his big brother away from him. Something twisted and cruel and stinking, with dirty shoe-prints pressed into the pale carpet of the room.        –– Lark feels blessed when he enters High School, a year later than he should have. The delay seems like fate when he thinks of it later. After all, if he’d gone when he was supposed to, he may never have made the friends he did. He approaches it as he approaches all things, with cautious optimism, and a smile fixed perfectly in place. Lark makes friends easily, with a grace that comes naturally to him. Lark is a delight to teach, because Lark is always polite and happy, even if he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Lark is always polite and happy, because that is how he has trained himself to be. The perfect son, attempting to sooth the ache of missing things. Everything bad gets stamped down, and replaced with a serene smile. He doesn’t get scared any more. He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t lay awake at night still thinking about the Bogeyman, a phantom at his window.        –– He knows what he wants to be. He is sure of it. An investigative journalist, the man who asks questions and solves mysteries and does it all with style and grace. It feels like a safe way to harbor this obsession he has with crime, with weird old men wearing masks, with little kids who get stolen away. He wants to be the man to expose corruption. He works himself to the bone, harder than one should probably have to, to get his grades and get accepted into university. For the past three years he’s worked with confidence, through every hurdle, to make sure he becomes the person he longs to be. Someone cool, someone confident, someone skilled at the art they have chosen to pursue. People still underestimate him, even at college, but he tries not to let it get to him. He holds his head high and pushes forward, and knows they’ll all regret thinking he was only some soft frail thing. 

2+ TROPES:        –– Genius Ditz: Everyone knows that Lark is a little slow on the uptake. Not the brightest crayon in the box, the sharpest tool in the shed. When it comes to cars, however, Lark is just about the smartest guy you can find. Cars seem to make sense in a way that few other  things do, with their parts carefully put together. They’re things of beauty, and Lark has always loved beautiful things.        –– Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet, gentle, polite. A long fuse, rarely driven to anger. Lark is skilled at staying cordial and kind in any number of stressful situations. Perhaps only witnessed once before, however, his temper flares up like a volcano when you push him hard enough. 

1+ PLOT IDEAS:        –– O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Jordie’s disappearance will always haunt Lark. He’ll have always sat and watched while a strange man stole his brother. He’ll always feel that absence. For so long, he really did believe it was a monster. The Bogeyman. But he knows better now, knows that there’s no such thing as monsters like that. That doesn’t mean he isn’t scared of it, though. Thoughts of Jordie, and whoever or whatever took him, are the thing that can make Lark freeze up quicker than anything. He hopes, someday, to know what happened to him, to finally get closure.       –– Friends without Benefits: Is there anything softer than staying friends with the boy you dated in High School? Strictly friends, because you realised after a few quick months that this relationship was going nowhere fast, that all you really wanted to do was keep each other, not necessarily in a romantic way. But the familiarity never fades, like an emotional comfort blanket. Someone you know will always look out for you, always have your back. Lark is a loyal little thing, and he doesn’t let go easily. 

EXTRAS:

( aesthetic moodboard )

EXTRA HEADCANONS:        –– Lark drives a baby pink tesla that his parents bought for him when he got his drivers license. The car is his pride and joy, something he loves more than any other thing he owns. When he was in High School, he loved nothing more than driving his friends around with him, going to the movies or down the small roads on the outskirts of town.        –– Lark is a nervous eater. He’s usually carrying around some kind of candy to pull out when he wants it. Anything from bubble gum, to lollypops, to chocolate bars.��       –– He has a tattoo on his right wrist. Two tiny little birds, simplistic and small. ( x ) 

[perfectisme-georgette]

Summary: All about Georgette pretty much ahaha I had started this when I was trying to figure out who in the world I was going to end up with and finally finished it completely todayyy!!!!

Trigger Warnings: Rape

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Georgette Ryelyn Midler

Nickname: Close friends call her Georgie and are the only ones who are allowed to do so (she’s very particular with who can give her a nickname). Her dad calls her his Princess.

Reason for name: She was named after her paternal grandmother, who passed away when her father was very young

Birthday: October 25th, 1993

Age: Twenty-Three

Gender: Female

Place of birth: New York City, New York (Manhattan specifically)

Places lived since: Up until now that she lives in Swynlake, Georgette has only lived in NYC. She has vacationed and traveled practically every where though.

Parents’ names, backgrounds, occupations: William and Addison Midler. William is a famously known news anchor in NYC and Addison is currently a stay-at-home mother/wife. Addison was in the pageantry life and had won Miss America two years straight. It was in an interview about her win that William and Addison met and they had hit it off since then. On top of their careers, both of Georgette’s parents hail from old money.

Number of siblings: None, Georgette is the only princess

Relationship with family (close? estranged?): In the beginning, Georgette was very close, especially with her father (she was such a daddy’s little girl). Now, however, with making her stay quiet about her trauma and then practically shipping her off after their master plan of keeping quiet severely screwed their daughter up, Georgette has no relationship with either one of them.

Happiest memory: Her happiest memory was her very first pageant win because after that very first win Georgette practically took the pageant world by storm and even broke the record for the most wins to date.

Childhood trauma: Georgette’s childhood was absolutely beautiful. It was full of glamour, luxury, everything. There really wasn’t any kind of trauma in sight. That came later in life.

Children of his/her own?: None

If so, relationship with their mother/father?: N/A

Age he/she gave birth/became a father: N/A

PHYSICAL

Height: 5’ 7” (wow she’s actually pretty tall)

Weight: 120 lbs

Build: Slim

Nationality: American since she was born in the states.

Disabilities (physical or mental, including mental illnesses): Georgette is currently suffering from PTSD, but she’s not exactly aware of it since she’s never been formally diagnosed with it. She is unstable as far as her spiraling is concerned haha. She’s taking into drinking, wouldn’t say she is an alcoholic, but the drinking does help her forget about her trauma.

Complexion (freckles, acne, skin tone, birth marks): Georgette has clear and clean skin, currently without acne or any blemishes. She’s very into skin care and keeping on top of her own skin.

Distinguishing facial features: Her eyes!!!!!!! Ughhh Georgette has gorgeous, and beautiful ocean blue eyes!!!!!

Hair color: Blonde

Usual hair style: Georgette’s hair is usually up, most of the time in a very pristine ponytail, but lately it’s been down and loose in waves which is her natural hair.

Eye color: Blueeeee

Glasses? Contacts?: None

Style of dress/typical outfit(s): Georgette always dresses to impress. Never has anything less than designer clothing on. She has a very clean-cut, classy look to her. Comfortable for her means a pair of heels. She’s very into skirts and dresses prefers those over pants, but is definitely not oppose to jeans as you’ll see her wear them when she goes out, that or a cocktail dress.

Typical style of shoes: Heels!!! Louboutins, stilettos, pumps, you guys get the deal haha

Health (is this person usually sick? or very resilient?): Physical wise, Georgette is very healthy. She’s extremely into keeping fit, and goes to the gym daily. She has a gymnastics history on her. A talent is needed for pageants and she has been doing gymnastics since very young.

Grooming (does she/he wear makeup? shower daily? wear only clean clothes? pluck her eyebrows?): Georgette never steps out of her place without looking completely immaculate from head to toe. She is hugely into make-up. In fact, she does her own make-up, rarely did she like when make-up artist had to do it for her during photoshoots and/or commercials. There is never a hair out of place or a nail undone. Her clothes are pristine and Georgette showers a lot!!!! Ever since the trauma she can’t find herself clean enough.

Jewelry? Tattoos? Piercings?: The standard two piercings on her ears. Her parents disapproved of anything else. Now, she does have a long dream catcher tattoo that covers her entire right torso. It’s covering a scar she had gotten during the night of the rape. She got it done much to her parents disapproval when she began her spiral. She actually really likes it and ended up getting another tattoo, a star, on her left foot that could sometimes be seen depending on the heel she’s wearing.

Accent?: A New York accent if that counts for anything? But she’s really good at turning it off.

Unique mannerisms/physical habits (bites nails, talks with hands, taps feet when restless): Georgette is very expressive with her hands and talks with them a lot especially when angry. She’s very horrible with having patience (we are working on that haha) and you can tell when she’s reaching her limits because she starts tapping her fingers on the nearest counter. If she’s very nervous, aside from the normal body tensing, Georgette tends to incessantly turn whatever bracelet she has on on her wrist.

Athletic?: Actually, yeah she kind of is haha. Georgette makes an effort to hit the gym daily because she does believe in keeping her body fit. She also has a long gymnastics history behind her. After the trauma, she took up kick-boxing and self-defense classes.

INTELLECT

Level of education (high school drop out, undergrad BA/BS, PhD, MD, etc.): Georgette graduated from Columbia University in New York. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business and Chemistry. Business was more so for her parents who pushed towards making sure she had something such as that under her belt. Chemistry was her own personal choice. Georgette is very into make-up so she became interested in the properties involved with it. She needs to make sure whatever she puts on her skin is healthy and would not cause her damage!!!!!

Level of self esteem: To the public eye, Georgette appears to have an extremely high self esteem. She always has her head up and exudes confidence. She can have a cutting bite to her words when necessary and could appear very full of herself. Inside, however, Georgette feels like extremely used goods, and basically hates herself.

Gifts/talents: Georgette can singggg. Shocker hidden talent there haha. She took singing lessons around the same time she started her gymnastics because she didn’t want to have just one talent to present while doing her pageants. She can actually sing pretty damn good!!!

Shortcomings: Homegirl doesn’t exactly have the best of patience. She can also have quite the temper and be very feisty. She has no problem barking back when the temper hits and Georgette can be pretty spoiled. (It’s some thing that is also being worked on haha)

Style of speech (loud, mumbler, articulate, etc.): Georgette is articulate with her manner of speech, at the same time though when that temper gets spiked the woman can get loud. Rarely does she curse, but again get her angry at just the right angle and she’ll give two flying shits about cursing not being lady-like.

“Left brain” or “right brain” thinker?: Ummm, she’s probably a bit more of a left brain person, but not all the way, so maybe sort of a mix.

Artistic?: Aside from her musical talents in singing, nope not at all. She can appreciate all forms of art, but she can’t draw for shit or do anything along those realms.  

Mathematical?: Now math she is very good at, probably ten times better then me!!!! Which means I’m screwed, but like she majored in Chemistry so that sharpened her math skills tremendously.

Languages? Georgette can fluently speak French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. She knows Latin as well, but you know that’s a dead language soooo. Her parents thought it was very important for her daughter to have a variety of languages under her belt.

Makes decisions based mostly on emotions, or on logic?: Emotions. I really wanted to say logic because she has been raised to do so, so like it’s second nature to her, but Georgette can be very impulsive and will react to emotions in a heartbeat.

Neuroses: None

Life philosophy: If you want something done perfectly, you have to do it yourself.

Religious stance: She doesn’t have a particular stand

Cautious or daring?: Daring. Maybe in the beginning she might have been a little more cautious because she had the media constantly behind her tail, but not really anymore.

Optimist or pessimist?: Probably a bit of both. She’s more so of a realist than anything, at least now she is.

Extrovert or introvert?: Extrovert!!!!

Level of comfort with technology: Very comfortable!!! Georgette basically grew up around technology.  

RELATIONSHIPS

Current marital/relationship status: Single

Sexual orientation: Heterosexual

Past relationships: Georgette has been in a couple of relationships here and there. None lasted super long. She definitely had her flingsss. Her last relationship was her longest and she thought that her ex would be like the #one and yeahhhh umm things went bad haha.

A social person? (popular, loner, some close friends, makes friends and then quickly drops them): Georgette is like a social butterfly. She does love talking to people, especially those that giver her attention hahaha. She’s not so much like that now. She’ll talk to people, yeah, but she keeps a little distant too because of the trauma that she has been through. Plus, she use to be heavy in the media and now that she ran off she’s not trying to have that many people know her.

Most comfortable around (person): Right now she doesn’t know a whole of a lot of people in Swynlake, so she’s probably the most comfortable around Perdita since they were close childhood friends.

Oldest friend: Tiffany is her oldest friend and her best-friend who funnily enough she isn’t speaking too right now haha. Aside from her, her oldest friend would have to be Perdita.

SECRETS

Life goals: Ummmmmmm right now she’s in the process of trying to figure out what exactly that issssss since her life has been turned COMPLETELY upside down. Before though, she wanted to be successful in her pageantry career and then settle down with like the perfect husband and all that jazz. Now she barely believes that there is such a thing as a healthy and sweet, genuine relationship and she finds love to be all bullshit.

Dreams: Georgette’s biggest dream was to become Miss America and even beat her own mother’s run, but it doesn’t seem like that dream will be happening what with everything that has occurred.

Greatest fears: That would currently be that what had happened to her could end up happening again.

Most ashamed of: Georgette’s the most ashamed of the fact that she had listened to her parents when she had returned home after the rape had occurred. She’s ashamed of the fact that she never reported it, never went to the police and essentially allowed a criminal a free card to what had happened to her.

Compulsions: Every time Georgette drinks wine or even champagne, she needs to gently twirl her glass cup three times, or she won’t drink it.

Obsessions: Chocolate, she loves chocolate. Any kind makes her very happy. Georgette is a chocolate addict okay, just like shower her in chocolate!!!!

Secret hobbies: Georgette actually loves scrapbooking!!!!! And she looovvessss dancing.

Secret skills: Georgette is extremely flexible. It stemmed from her gymnastic background, but she’s also double jointed on her arms and legs since she was young. It was the reason her mother had placed her in gymnastics, since Addison realized the potential that could bring for her daughter.

Crimes committed (and was he/she caught? charged?): Let’s seeeeee, well she was never charged for anything. Mommy and daddy Midler were good at paying off who ever needed to get paid to keep things under wraps. She really only started going cray cray after what happened to her. She has driven while drunk, gone skinny dipping, has tried prescription drugs, and ummm anything really stupid that a person would do while being very drunk Georgette has most likely done. Yeeaappp.

What he/she most wants to change about his/her current life: That the night of the rape had never occurred!!!! It ruined her life and Georgette wishes for nothing more then it to be erased from existence.

What he/she most wants to change about his/her physical appearance:Nothing actually, Georgette loves her physical appearance. She finds herself to be divinely beautiful. Errr well we’re having issues with that right now because presently she hates herself and can hardly even look at herself in the mirror because of it, BUTTTTTT before hand pffttt Georgette was like in love with herself hahaha.

DETAILS/QUIRKS

Night owl or early bird?: Night Owl

Light or heavy sleeper?: Heavy

Favorite food: Italian food, anything Italian she loves. She kind of has a guilty pleasure for pizza. I mean NYC does make the best pizza aroundddd, but you know for a rich girl who’s suppose to be eating healthy and whatnot, Georgette would stuff down a pizza asap. Screw eating ettiquteeee.

Least favorite food: Sea food. She does like shrimp though, but other then that Georgette isn’t a fan of any sea type food.

Favorite book: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Least favorite book: The Great Expectations by Charles Dickinson.

Favorite movie: Mean Girls hahahaha I am so mad too that that is her favorite movie

Least favorite movie: She’s not that much of a fan for comedy movies. They hardly ever make her laugh, and half of the time she finds them more pointless then anything.

Favorite song: I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston. Georgette is such 80′s trash when it comes to music.

Least favorite song: Anything that’s basically Heavy Metal. She just has never been able to get into that she feels like it’s all basically screaming.

Coffee or tea?: Coffee annnddd of course Georgette always has some complicated ass order when she asks for a coffee.

Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?: Smooth

Lefty or righty?: Righty

Favorite color: Pink!!!!!!!!!! That shouldn’t even be a question for Georgette hahaha

Cusser?: Georgette was brought up to be an absolute lady hahahaha sighhhhh, buttttt get her angry enough and she’ll forget all of that and will start cursing.

Smoker? Drinker? Drug user?: Never smoked, but she does drink. Drinking has sadly become like a medicine of sorts for Georgette. She isn’t a drug user, but she can’t say she hasn’t tried some prescriptions during parties she has hopped into. Wow Georgette you are a mess…..  

Biggest regret: Georgette’s biggest regret is the same as her biggest shame. She wishes that she would’ve reported her rape, spoken up, ANYTHING. She feels like it’s too late to do anything about it now and it’s a guilt that eats at her a lot!!!

Pets?: She has a POODLE!!!!!! hahahaha I couldn’t resist I’m so sorry!!!!! Her name is Peaches, you know like Georgia peach hahahahahaha sighh I think I’m funny xDD

[ronjeremypony]

Begin Again/Gensis

Begin Again/Genesis

The Honeymoon of Taylor & Regina

Most of the records about before Category Z have been scattered to the winds, but the few known facts remain.  One of those is the most likely cause of the virus that single handedly changed the world into what it is now.  It’s believed that it started out as an experimental vaccine for the flu. Said vaccine, Nu-Omega-Chi 88313, was the latest medical breakthrough in fighting influenza. The government had assured the public that the vaccine was perfectly safe; clinical trials performed by the Food and Drug Administration proved the vaccine performed flawlessly in the lab. To test it out publicly, the small Appalachian town of Wind Gap, Pennsylvania was chosen for public trial testing. At first, everything went well. Those vaccinated came out the other end of the influenza season season untouched by the illness; the residents of Wind gap showed no signs of side effects or allergy. All had gone according to plan and the F.D.A. declared the trial a complete success.

It wasn’t until the summer that things started to go wrong in Wind Gap. Residents young and old would drop dead at the slightest thing; physicians for the FDA and the CDC were at loss as to why these perfectly healthy people just up and died. Soon, there was a log jam of corpses piling up at the city and county morgues all around. The coroners could turn up no reason for why all these people just croaked. The CDC investigated further. They found that those the had recently died had been part of the FDA trial of N.O.X. 88313. Before further investigation could be mounted, the first of the deceased victims rose out of his morgue slab, the former Al Jacobs, and proceeded to take a chunk out of a CDC lab tech. After that, the infection began…

The Federal Government had did it’s best to minimize the threat. Conservatives in Congress declared that the so-called “zombie virus” didn’t really exist. The F.D.A. downplayed the whole thing, saying that the vaccine was still safe and highly effective. It wasn’t until the virus struck at Washington, D.C., that lawmakers took notice and tried to something about the outbreak. By then, though, it was already too late; the infection was spreading rapidly and there was little shelter to keep the uninfected. That was fifteen years ago…

In the interim, safe zones or havens were established at various cities. Major population centers like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Atlanta were lost at once when the outbreak hit it’s stride. Smaller cities, like Denver, Chicago, Dallas, Tulsa, and Fargo, were able to erect makeshift barricades to keep out the reanimated dead. Mayors in those cities then began to implement martial law; many civil liberties were suspended in lieu of the crisis. New laws were enacted to keep the remaining populace safe, though a few pieces of legislation were throwbacks to a darker, less civilized age.

Such was the case of Darren Rutherford, mayor-cum-Governor of the city-state of Denver, now renamed Freemount. While his citizens were in the grip of panic, he laid down laws the solidified his position of power, formally organized the city police into his own private militia, and instituted mandatory rationing of food, water, and fuel. He, of course, was getting the lion’s share of these precious resources, but you wouldn’t know by how gaunt he always appeared… Although he enacted many dreadful and Draconian laws, his piece-d-resistance was the new Prima Nocta law: any couple marrying within the city of Denver was now subject to The Governor’s Blessing. What that meant was that a newly married had to submit to the will of the Governor’s Agents and “allow” the bride to spend the night in the Governor’s, or his appointed agent’s, bed for the first night of their marriage.  He would call it Blessing the union.  From there the word Blessing became foul.  There was nothing holy about the word, nothing stretching to a forgiving or loving God.  No, the word had become the worst vulgar term anyone could ever use.  And the Blessings were connected with the fact that it was well known that Rutherford’s obsession with history and his own paranoid nature saw the law acting as two fold.  To him it would allow weakness to be bred out of Freemount, and it would also test the loyalty of those close to him.  Those who failed the test would be cleansed from Freemount.

It was this very law that Taylor dreaded. Growing up in the city-state, he heard a number of his relatives and friends speak about Prima Nocta, about the Blessings, with disdain. He had seen the women who spent a night in the Governor’s mansion; they had a drawn out look, like their very souls had been hollowed out of them. Most everybody knew what happened to them. They were raped, often repeatedly by Governor Rutherford or his Sheriff, Jim Benson. It was this law, and none other, that made Taylor longed for a life outside of the Freemount haven site.

The chiefest reason for this desire was in the person of his oldest childhood friend and the love of his life, Regina. Growing up, they had become very close. Their families has lived in the same neighborhood, since the Category Z cropped up, in the same houses. As they became teenagers, they fought the mutual attraction they felt for each other, but for Taylor is was awfully hard. Regina was a classic beauty, with porcelain skin, wide hips, a pert bosom, and the lithe body of a dancer. Her strawberry blonde hair was always tied back into a long, tight braid; left straight, her hair fell past her elbows but just above her knees. Her emerald eyes were set in perfectly almond shaped eyes framed by high cheek bones.

She turned heads wherever she walked. Girls wanted to be her, boys wanted to bed her. In the last year, she and Taylor had been falling deeper and deeper in love. They knew that under Governor Rutherford, they would never have a perfect wedding night. Regina would be ravaged by either Rutherford or Sheriff Benson and that thought alone sent his blood boiling. So, to avoid that unfortunate event, he and Regina had saved their vouchers. It took a long nine months to properly save up for it all, but it was worth it to escape the enclave. Being that hard currency was almost unknown in sections of Freemount like Little Russia it was hard to come by.  Those that had it didn’t like to use it or show it off.  Most simply accepted the digital vouchers that was sent down into their tracker chips in their hands.  Still, getting the vouchers proved to be possible.  It meant doing jobs that both of them knew their parents would’ve have balked at.  Still they ended up with enough food, electricity, and medical vouchers they could trade for what they needed.

First was a pair of nano disruptors; they would disrupt the Radio Frequency Identification signal the nano-chips emitted, making Taylor and Regina virtually invisible. The next step was to pay a surgeon to remove the chips. Where they were going, they didn’t need them. The last step was to find a cleric willing to perform a perfectly illegal elopement ceremony. That had proven the easiest task, really, as most of the clergy in town despised the Blessings.  Father Seth, the Priest over the only orphanage in Freemount, had not only agreed to marry them, but also said that he did so because what they wanted was pure in the eyes of God.

Nine months, three days and fifteen hours of preparation later, the newlywed couple had gotten out of Denver through a crack in the retaining wall. A scout report pilfered by Taylor from a guard tower showed that Category Z activity was nil around the enclave; they could theoretically walk in any direction away from the city-state and be free of reanimated dead. It had taken days of slogging through The Wild, urban areas reclaimed by nature that turned once paved roads into weed-choked paths, but it was worth the effort and strain.  The house they found seemed mostly together.  They had shied away from something inside of what had to have been an old town, and instead found refuge in what appeared to be an old farmhouse a couple of miles outside of it.

The sounds of the world outside of the dirty glass filled the room. The wind whistling through the streets, the cold draft coming down through the ancient fireplace filled the room with a sort of energy that can only be found in winter. The clank and thud of the old oak tree’s limbs striking the side of the house when the wind blew, and finally the unnerving quiet of everything else.

“This is nice.”

Taylor looked at the girl with him. Like himself, her face was dirty, her long hair had since been braided and locked down with a scrunchie; her clothes were covered with the same kind of grime that his was covered with and were showing signs of serious wear. Six days of looking for a place to hold up had taken its toll. He breathed out, leaned against the old faded wallpaper and slid down to the floor. Exhaustion washed over him, as what little strength he had remaining drained from his body.

“Tired already?”

“It’s been a helluva a couple of days,” Taylor breathed, “Ah jest wanna close mah eyes fer a bit.”

“Taylor, don’t go to sleep yet, please,” Regina pleaded.

Taylor sighed, “Regina, Ah’m tired. Ah feel like mah pa dun had me doin’ the job of ten men. Lemme git a little sleep.”

She walked toward him, finding a place beside him, her hand finding his own. He felt her move slightly. It was a movement he’d felt and seen her do before. It was a gesture from their childhood, a slight movement Regina employed when she was in the mood to be serious. The scrunchie was coming off, and the simple braid was coming out.  The times she had done this was always followed by wanting everything to be serious, or at least taken seriously.

Regina breathed, “It’s our wedding night, Taylor, or at least we can finally have a wedding night.”

He laughed at that. Six days ago they had been back in the haven. Six days ago they had been talking with Seth the Preacher, and six days ago they had gotten married. The City-State’s government didn’t know, there wasn’t any papers on it, and there never would be. He’d be damned before he let a sheriff’s deputy, or the sheriff himself, bless their union. He felt her head rest on his shoulder. Her strawberry blond hair threatening to devour his view.

“Taylor, we’re safe, at least as safe as we can be. I want my wedding night.”

He looked toward her. Her face was set in a way that meant business. They had known each other since they were children, brought up together, and became closer each year that passed. He learned to read her, and she learned to see the signs he had. She’d win this argument. She’d win because he wouldn’t have the heart to win. He did have a weapon in his arsenal that might delay the inevitable…

“I’m getting hungry, Reggie,” Taylor began, “how ‘bout some vittles before we get down to business, as it were.”

Regina looked sternly at her husband, her motherly smile creased into a thin line of of mock anger.

“Always with your stomach, Tay-tay,” she quipped, “You’re lucky that your teeth are intact or else you’d have jaw your food, or I’d have to chew it for you.”

“Like I’d let ya,” Taylor retorted, “we got enny of the peach cobbler left over?”

“I think so,” Regina replied, “lemme check my pack.”

Taylor would never admit it, but he was no cook. The tin’s and cans of food they brought with them was the only food they had. During their trek, they had not run afoul of Category Z, but they also hadn’t seen hide nor hair of wildlife. Taylor could probably take down a deer or two with the ancient Mauser rifle he plundered from the Sheriff’s armory but there were few chances to use it on the trail. He also limited ammunition for the weapon. He would need to scrounge for some whenever an opportunity to present itself.

“You’re in luck, Tay-Tay,” Regina said, breaking the momentary silence, “we got two cans left o’ peach cobbler. And, I managed to find some old M.R.E.s at the bottom. Thank you, Sheriff Benson!”

Regina passed out the food, fished out the can opener she lifted from the neighborhood market, and opened both Taylor’s and her own can of cobbler. They ate, sharing a mildly pleasant if nervous conversation. The words were punctuated by the sounds of forks and spoons hitting tin or plastic. Soon, they ate their fill; Taylor’s stomach was pleasantly full of food. That need was fulfilled, but as he watched Regina pack up their trash and rummage in the pack she carried, he felt a new need rise up in him. That desire was strong within him, for he was young and at the prime of his life. If only he could shake his anxiousness; he never been with a girl before, in the biblical sense. He was sure Regina was the same way, but he did not want to make any assumptions. “To assume make’s an ass outta you and me,” his father once told him.

“Where?” Taylor asked.

“Where what?” Regina teased, her eyes screwed up in a playful squint.

“We-well,” Taylor stammered, “where-where do ya wanna- consummate our marriage?”

“Ah,” Regina beamed, “How about over there? Right there in front of the fireplace. We can build a fire, get comfortable, maybe find something to lay on.”

Nodding, he got up and followed her. Her threadbare jeans moved, worked, and framed the very thing she wanted to give him. A quick look around showed a lack of much firewood. The tinder was barren, likely emptied long ago by the previous tenants. There was a coffee table, which soon found itself in pieces, and a couple of old wooden chairs, but there wasn’t enough to have a fire burning for long. Still, he set on to getting the fire started. He felt in his pockets and found the aging Zippo lighter he had won in a hand of poker a few years before.

Like most things from the time before the Category Z emerged, the Zippo was valuable in its own right. A bit of fluid, some pieces of flint, and you had a portable way of starting a fire. He searched around and found a dusty yellow book. Tearing pages from it he crumpled them up, lit them on fire, and let them warm the flue. He began to burn a few more pages with some of the wood, and slowly the weathered old pieces of the coffee table began to catch. A gentle warmth flooded through the room, and he felt Regina’s hands on his shoulders. She leaned against him, letting her breasts rest on his back.

“That feels heavenly,” Regina sighed.

Taylor agreed,“It is purty nice.”

“Taylor, I love you.”

“Ah love ya too. Ah do.”

“I know,” Regina breathed, as she shifted astride of Taylor’s lap, straddling him with her heavenly thighs, “and I want this. I keep telling myself that I want this. I want to be your wife, I want to have your children, and I want… It’s stupid. There’s so much to be afraid of, and I’m scared of what we’re getting ready to do.”

“Ah’m scared, too,” Taylor whispered.

She looked at him. A look of disbelief covered her face. The man she loved, this hulking man, was admitting that there was something that frightened him. She placed a hand on his cheek with the most tender touch she could offer.

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” she proffered, “If we’re both scared then maybe we’ll try to not make it hurt.”

Taylor had heard stories from some of the boys. Stories about how the girls would cry out when the were taken by the officials. The blessings had left a mark on their girls. He could see their eyes looking deader and more empty than anything outside of the Havens. That’s why the Zone’s government couldn’t ever know. He wouldn’t let that happen to Regina. While he never think to claim Regina as a piece of property, it had always been his mind that she belonged to him, so her innocence was his take and none other. He felt it went roughly the same way for her, that his innocence was hers to take and hers alone.

He felt her move, her legs still straddling him, her face so close to his own that he could see into her eyes, and what he saw made him realize he made the right choice. There was a look of determination, of love, and of need. He leaned forward and kissed her. It started like the play kisses, but it changed. It became deeper, warmer, and the warmth threatened to overpower the fire’s warmth.

For moments they simply held each other, content with the kiss, content with how they were, but soon there was a need. He felt it growing. A feeling in the pit of his stomach, moving out, stiffening in his crotch, filling him with a primal desire he had no idea of how to explain. Instead, he listened to the instinct that had awoken, stifled the inkling of doubt that surfaced briefly, and he moved.

The next few moments were a blur of activity. It was awkward, unorganized, messy, and yet it was perfect, beautiful, and pure. Regina found herself facing the fire, her body now relieved of her clothes; she was impaled on Taylor’s rod, her last piece of her childhood dissolved. She didn’t really feel any different, there was no instant declaration of womanhood pushed onto her, and she didn’t feel suddenly gifted with all of the maternal knowledge of the ages.

What she did feel was closer. She felt closer to Taylor. She felt more a part of him than she had before. His arms flexed slightly, pulling her closer, letting her share in his and the fire’s warmth. She looked up at the fire, now dying, and felt peaceful. There was no moans here, no warbling howls, or crying in the night. There was just the sounds of the night, the quiet, and now the sounds of their hearts beating.

It didn’t last long, their first bout of lovemaking. Taylor was as pure as Regina when ti came to sex. Still, she could feel it when his staff pushed into her, taunting her senses with an orgasm. She felt it building, burning brightly like a lamp. Her legs acted of their own accord, wrapping around her lover’s waist, trapping him to her body, forcing him to penetrate deeper. Then she felt Taylor stiffen in her grasp. His staff, already swollen stiff, enlarged itself within her depths and then began to twitch. She could feel his seed spilling into her, splashing along the walls of her canal and coating her interior with his love. She felt some of it seep out as he continued to thrust. When at last, his hardened pole stopped spewing seed and went lax, Taylor slipped out her. His worn body and mind sought comfort in his lover’s form, wrapping her luscious and glowing body tightly in his arms. The last vestiges of consciousness were leaving him.

“Night, Reggie. Love ya.”

His voice sounded so tired and yet so happy.

“Goodnight, Taylor,” Regina replied, “Ah love ya, too.”

Maybe she could talk him into staying here a while. There were no Category Z around, not like there had been outside of the safe zone. Maybe this was the place they could rest. Maybe this would be home. That would be a worry for another day…

[heidianderson]

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐃𝐈 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍.

[DANIELLE ROSE RUSSELL, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER] who’s that? oh it’s [HEIDI ANDERSON]. i hear they’re [TWENTY] and are known as [THE TEMPEST] around [NEW YORK]. they’re also a [SOPHOMORE] at [NEW YORK UNIVERSITY], and are part of [WNYU-FM]. they’re known to be [COOPERATIVE & PRIDFUL] and [TIMID & UNTALENTED]. some people say they remind them of [PERFECTLY COILED LOCKS, TV STATIC POURING THROUGH A ROOM, & PERFECTLY TIMED ANNOUNCEMENTS]. only one way to find out!

TW: parent abandonment

basic information

FULL NAME: Heidi June Anderson

NICKNAME(S): N/A

AGE: Twenty

DATE OF BIRTH: August 31st

HOMETOWN: Los Angeles, California

CURRENT LOCATION: New York, New York

ORIENTATION: Lesbian (closeted, identifies as pansexual)

RELIGION: Her dad wants her to practice Scientology, but she refuses, so no religious affiliation

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat

OCCUPATION: Student/Radio Host

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Lives off campus in an apartment (roommate needed!)

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: English, some Mandarin Chinese

family

FATHER: Cooper Anderson

MOTHER: June Robinson-Anderson

SIBLING(S): N/A

extra

SUN: Virgo

MOON: Gemini

RISING: Virgo

LIKES: True crime, being noticed, the color blue, making her dad proud, gold jewelry, headbands, freshly ironed cotton shirts with matching cardigans

DISLIKES: Disappointing her dad, feeling like she’s not living up to her mom’s potential, bright colors, manipulation, people using her full name

headcanons

When Cooper Anderson travelled back to Lima in the spring of 2012 to visit his younger brother what he was not expecting was to meet a girl eight years his junior studying literature at Lima’s Ohio State campus. June Robinson was exactly the kind of girl Cooper liked to get his hands on. Pretty, recognized his celebrity status, and was smart enough to keep up a conversation with and while normally their story would have ended after their one night stand, they decided to exchange numbers and keep in touch. This led to nightly texting which turned into good morning texts which turned into FaceTime calls which turned into June hopping on a plane to California (the same week as Cooper’s own brother’s wedding). By the time June had landed, Cooper had been given the news that his younger brother had gotten married to his high school sweetheart, the older Anderson just had to retaliate. There was no way he was about to not be told about his own brother’s wedding let alone not be in attendance to cause a disturbance, so he did what any sane person would do. He proposed to June, without a ring, but he covered that one up by telling June that there were going to go to a jeweler and pick out a ring that she wanted. The two didn’t plan to get married that week or even that month, but somehow after June had her pretty engagement ring on, they were running down to a local courthouse.

After the marriage was finalized, June had the most amazing trip in Los Angeles before going back to Lima and finishing up her semester before fully transferring to a campus in LA where her and Cooper could live together and start their life. For two people who jumped the gun on getting married, they surprisingly handled domestic life fairly well. They were happy. Cooper was acting. June was writing. Their income was fairly stable, even if sometimes Cooper had to pick up a random commercial gig or June had to do freelance article work just to make sure they could pay rent for the month. They made things work and despite Cooper’s poor acting chops, he managed to make it big doing random B-list movies and playing roles in random crime shows. Everything was just so good and one thing they agreed on. No kids. Why would they mess up something that was already so perfect?

Well, that was all said and done until they were coming up on their 8th anniversary. Maybe they did want children or maybe they were having a bad case of relationship boredom. They had already travelled, excelled in their careers, what more was their to do besides have a couple of kids? Which is exactly what they did. Heidi June Anderson was born on August 31st, 2024 happy, healthy, and giggling. And again, things were completely fine until they weren’t. It wasn’t long after Heidi’s birth that things started to go south. It had nothing to do with Heidi specifically, but more of the events that transpired after her birth. June got lonely, she wasn’t writing as often, and she was in a rut. It didn’t help that Cooper had some hot blonde as a co-star either on his new movie while June was still recovering postpartum. So, she found solace in a close friend of hers and it wasn’t long before Cooper pieced things together and found June with another man in their own bed. Incoming divorce and custody papers. Everything happened when Heidi was way too young to even piece together a memory of her mother and wanting to move on from the life she built in Los Angeles, she moved away to some European country but that wasn’t the last time Heidi saw her mom. They worked out an agreement where Cooper got full custody, but June had all the visitation rights she wanted as long as she was in town. That wasn’t very often though and by the time Heidi was ten, the visitations stopped altogether.

Growing up with Cooper as a dad wasn’t the worst possible situation. They had pizza for breakfast and cereal for dinner and Cooper always made Heidi watch any movies or tv shows he had been in and made her review and critique them all (Heidi was always one to point out Cooper’s lack of pointing in certain scenes). This meant she had to sit through many, many hours or Cooper “starring” on multiple crime dramas and she gripped onto that. Her entire life she had been shown the showbiz side of life, getting chucked into singing, dancing, and acting lessons and even though she was still watching her dad’s content, she fell in love with crime shows, begging Cooper to put on episodes that wasn’t even his. She wasn’t about to up and become some kind of criminal, but the cases were just so entrancing.

At some point during Heidi’s childhood, Cooper began to realize that he couldn’t raise Heidi by himself. He needed some sort of help from his family so Cooper packed himself and Heidi up to Lima, Ohio. Partly for help via his own family, but he also was more hopeful that June would visit Lima to see her parents more than come to Los Angeles to see her ex-husband and daughter. While in Lima, Heidi spent most of her time with her paternal grandparents while Cooper would be off travelling back and forth to Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and anywhere else he could find work.

During her formidable teenage years, Heidi had almost chosen to go to William McKinley High School. They had an okay academic and arts program and she lived in the district, but her dad would stand for no such thing. Him and his brother both attended Dalton Academy for most of their teen years and Heidi’s own mother had attended Crawford Country Day and was a crucial member to the Canaries during her own high school years, Heidi’s options were limited and she knew the path her dad wanted for her. She was an Anderson! She was born to sing and act! So, she ended up at Crawford and opting to go for uniforms and rich girl tactics and quickly joined the ranks of the Canaries.

The only problem with Heidi being in the Canaries is cut down to one simple fact - she was simply untalented. She can’t sing, dance, or act very well. This is something her own dad would never say to her, but she’s simply an okay performer. The only real reason she was able to compete and be on the team was because with her extensive background of dance classes and vocal lessons, she can hold a pitch and she can learn choreography and her slight athleticism allowed her to keep up with whatever was thrown at her on the Canaries. It also helped that her dad was a huge booster.

After graduation, Heidi originally had her eyes set on Los Angeles. The sun, her hometown, the gorgeous people, but after visiting New York University on a whim during her senior year, she fell in love with the campus. As much as she wished she had hated it, she didn’t. Now she’s studying at Tisch with a cinema studies major and she’s really happy about it all. Initially, Cooper wasn’t happy with her choice, wanting her to go for something in the dramatics, but he’s come to realize that path might not be for Heidi. 

Heidi’s recently started working at her school’s radio. She didn’t mean to, but it provided some extra credits and looks nice on resumes, so she decided to tack her own weekly radio show on. She gets to play whatever music she wants and talk about whatever’s going on in her mind and Heidi’s starting to get really comfortable being in front of the mic every Tuesday.

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[deafeningcreationperson-blog]

Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

"Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

Ive heard the car insurance one, not very solid. I also have heard there will be hardship exemptions and certain levels of income earned that will determine how much help will be given in purchasing insurance. Just looking for somethings to note when someone brings up this part of the bill

BEST ANSWER:  Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://financeandcreditsolution.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr 

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How much does a Yamaha YZF R125 cost? And how much is insurance/tax per year?

Cheers :)

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Who do you think has the best car insurance rates?

Who do you think has the best car insurance rates?

Car Accident Advice: Someone hit me and doesn't want to go thru insurance?

Someone recently hit my car while it was parked across the street from my house. I almost thought it was a hit and run till I found their business card on my windsheild. I called her and she said she'd rather not go through her insurance but pay me directly for the damage to my car. I have been in accidents where I was hit but usually the other person just gives me their insurance info and I call them and get my car fixed fast, no problems. So I was already a little hesitant about agreeing to this, but I figured as long as it gets fixed it should be alright. So I did like she said and got an estimate from a body shop, then called her with it. Right off she said, Oh thats really high,(almost a 1000) and I reminded her that the damage is pretty severe, she backed into my rear passenger door, now entirely dented and scratched up. I know the estimate is fair compared to other work I 've had in the past. So anyways, I thought she'd decide right there like she had told me before, if it was affordable for her she'd pay me if not she'll go through her insurance. So since she acted like that was so much money I asked well does that mean you want to just use your insurance? She still sounded unsure and said she needs to figure this out. So it's been another day since that, still waiting, she did call again and say she's running it by her insurance agent to see which way would be better for her, insurance or pay me off. So I am still waiting, it's only been a few days since the accident but I am getting anxious because I kind of wish she would just give me her insurance info and go through it, my car would probably be in the shop already and this would be taken care of. But instead I 'm waiting for her. She still has not given me her insurance info, I don't have her license plate # or even what her car looks like, just a business card. And its a big inconvenience because I know I will be without a car for a at least 2-3 days, and even if she pays me she sure didn't mention a rental car. So my question is am I being too nice by waiting for her to decide whats best for her... and even if she wants to pay me should I have gotten her insurance info, like is that my legal right. So how long should I wait for her to decide?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as obviously I should act fast. Thanks""

How Important is having Earthquake Insurance in California?

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Looking for insurance with marcs and sparks?

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Where i can get cheap auto insurance?

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How much will the auto insurance cost?

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If i was buying a car and its a class C would this increase my car insurance?

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How much would car Insurance be for a 16 year old girl?

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Cheapest California Auto Insurance?

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What cars are listed as sports cars for insurance?

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Rental Car Insurance?

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More to pay for tesco car insurance after 1year?

I have tesco car insurance and now after having 1 year tesco car insurance they wanna increase me to pay more monthly . why ? I have same car and same conditions . should i change car insurance?

Is there Constitutional precedent for requiring people to buy health insurance?

Car insurance is mandated because you're licensed to drive and the license can be revoked, but you're not licensed to live, so is there legal standing for requiring purchase of a product (health insurance)?""

Is there a website for health insurance quotes?

im goin 2 b 19 & my current health insurance will exp. i need to find health insurance fast as well as as dentist insurance. sum ppl told me not 2 get eye insurance cuz payin da monthly payment vs. getting da benefit isn't worth it. meanin u pay more than u get out of it. but i want ur opinion as well sum other ppl told me 2 go 2 a hospital 2 ask sum ?'s of what health i should get, meanin like find out what im cover 4. like i don't want 2 pay hidden charges. like basically i need help cuz nobody is guidin me on what 2 do after im not cover. like im on my own.""

""I got my first ticket today, will my insurance go up?""

I have had my lisence for about a year, im 17. i got pulled over today for going 29 in a 20 school zone. i got a 66 dollar ticket, but i really need to know if my insurance will go up... so can i get some help please?!""

Health insurance question?

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Is there a website for seeing what class of car you have for insurance to see how much it wil be.?

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How much car liability insurance should a person have for complete coverage without over insureing?

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Rover75 rear hit by a 4x4. Garage says not repairable what do I do? how much will the insurance pay?

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Should I change Insurance carriers?

Located in Ontario, Canada. Currently with The Personal Insurance Company. My friend got in an at fault accident while she was driving my car. Her husband said he would take of it on his insurance. He never did, they are now divorced and there is no way he is taking responsiblity for it. Result, my insurance went up $80.00 per month. This was five years ago. Recently, I moved to a new location and I have to park on the street, because of this my insurance will go up $30.00 a month. So now I have to pay $230/month. I have been driving and with the same company for over 25 years but they won't give me a break. Should I change companies, any suggestions? Thanks""

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I am probably going to get my license in April, I'm 16, I'm a girl. My cumulative GPA is a 2.9. My current GPA is a 4.25. My parents have no history of accidents. My mother's car (the car I'd be driving) is a 2005 blue Kia Spectra. I am not asking for an exact amount, just maybe someone who has been through this situation and can give me an estimate.""

Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

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Can I buy 1 month worth of car insurance?

So my car insurance coverage ends on January 4, 2014. Yes I know it is last minute but now I'm looking at extending or buying 1 month of insurance just so I have a month to shop around. I live in Alberta, is that possible with every insurance company to buy a short term 1 month coverage?""

Auto Insurance Questions?

In the household there are 3 cars, but 18 driver is only listed under 1 car,(mom) If the other 2 cars are on the same house (but different names auto insurance) he can drive those car with no insurance coverage problem right?""

How much is car insurance for 16 year olds?

How much is car insurance for 16 year olds?

""Health insurance, pre existing condition?""

what is the difference between a pre existing condition in health insurance and pre existing condition exclusion period. im reading from howstuffworks, health insurance but still confuse. i understand employer waiting period. here is the link for pre existing condition http://health.howstuffworks.com/health-insurance12.htm here is the link for pre existing condition exclusion period http://health.howstuffworks.com/health-insurance13.htm""

How much life insurance do I need?

We have recently applied for 2 million in life insurance and I am wondering if this is a good amount for us. It is a 30 year term and is only in case of death of husband. Thanks for the help. Facts: Husband 31, Wife 26 Wife- not working, will be starting nursing school next year but has a bachelors degree if needed to use. Husband- Income ($100,000) We plan on having two kids in the next 5 years. Debt- two cars ($70,000) Student loans ($20,000) to be paid off next year. Savings ($100,000)""

What company do you have your home owner's insurance with?

Buying house and need to get some home owner's insurance, need a few places to get quotes from.""

Insurance quotes?????????

I am about sit my practical car test so a thought a'll look for a car and insurance but the weirdest thing is that a got cheaper insurance on provisional liecense (which i had for 2 years) 2011 reg renault clio =1200 and if i pass 2100 does anyone no y?????

Do I need road tax to get insurance?

My car was SORN declared and now I need insurance to get road tax. I did not keep on my insurance as it was off the road for some time. I have the MOT but do I need road tax to get insurance? Bit of a catch 22 situation!

Average insurance cost for teen drivers in Ohio?

Can anyone give me an estimate by any chance? I know the best way is to just get a quote but right now I'm trying to get some figures up there before I convince my mom into getting a quote.

Is it possible to get Car Insurance for a 17 Year Old Boy under 2000!?

Looking on GoCompare I can not find car insurance for less than 2K anywhere! Does anyone have any suggestions I can afford to pay 150 a month, not cheap but it's realistic. I found a company called Young Marmalade who can do it for that, but they also have restrictions which I could do without! Any help and suggestions would be appreciated :/""

The candidates are drum about affordable health insurance?

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What does an insurance broker do?

I know it is something to do with insurance, but that's all I know. What schooling do you need for this job and what is the general pay? What does a typical day usually look like for a broker? Do they work for a company or on their own?""

It is regarding SR 22 Insurance.?

I know am totally doomed. But I need little help here, 1. I hold a California Driver's License and Got convicted for DUI in New Jersey. 2. New Jersey did not suspend my Driver's License it just gave me a ticket and transferred the case to California. California Ordered me to have a SR 22 submit to them. 3. I do not live in California any more. So when I take SR 22 for which state should I take it for California or for the State am living in? 4. California still holds my suspension. And how do I get rid of that ? I know it is a complicated case. All ready went through a lot. So please help me out of this.""

Does individual health insurance qualify for tax deduction?

I am employed, however i am paying my own personal health insurance instead of opting for the group insurance which my employer has since it worked out to be cheaper than group insurance. Now when i am filing my taxes can i claim medical insurance premium as tax deductible.""

Which is the cheapest 50cc moped to insure?

Looking at getting a 50cc moped to get to work and back at the lowest price possible. im 20 and still getting high insurance quotes. i was originally looking at the Honda CBR 125 but the insurance was 2000.

Am I paying too much for my health insurance?

I'm 23 year old and non smoker, I got my health insurance from my company's employee benefit, and I'm pay $29 a week for this coverage: $20 office visit $115 ER They pay 80% I pay 20% Deductible $470 Out of Pocket Max $3500 Am I paying too much? How much would I be paying if I get this benefit by my own and not from my company?""

Who pays for the home insurance when you let your house?

I ask this question on behalf of my friend, who lives in Malaysia. He wants to know what the law in England will be in this case. My friend is gonna let his house to another, so that he can have some income. A question arises: They need to buy a home insurance in case there is an accident like fire. Apparently in Malaysia, a homeowner doesn't have to buy insurance for his house. So in this case, who should pay for the home insurance, the homeowner or the tenant? I mean, the rental period is 2 years, and the insurance, if paid, will cover for 2 years only.""

Insurance on 2006 Ford Mustang and 2004 A4?

Hey, I'm a 16 year old student (turning 17 this year). I'll be getting my G2 in March of 2014, and I'm having a hard time deciding which car to save up for. It was between a 2004 Audi A4 or 2006 Mustang the whole way through. Which car would you recommend for a student? I'm having trouble finding an A4 for under $8,000 with decent kilometers. I was wondering how high the insurance would be for me on both cars, also I did not take driving school. I've also heard that if I write my mother's name as the primary driver, and my name as the secondary driver its cheaper.""

How much Car insurance cost?

How much Car insurance cost?

What's the average public liability insurance cover figure in the United States?

What's the average public liability insurance cover figure in the United States?

Which auto insurance company offers non-owner's insurance?

Which auto insurance company offers non-owner's insurance?

Education determining car insurance...?

Here in NJ (USA) auto insurance differs by your level of education. I have an associates degree but if I were to put on my insurance that I have a bachelors for cheaper insurance would that be alright? I have been in an accident once and used insurance once and they never asked to see my degree or transcripts.

Car Insurance Companies + Excluding Drivers?

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Does each driver of a specific vehicle need to have car insurance?

Does every person who plans to drive a specific car need to have their own insurance? My husband and I are about to buy a car, and we're wondering if we both need insurance or if just one of us could have it. We would both like to be able to drive the car. (we'll be living in Idaho, if that makes a difference)""

How much does car insurance cost?

Im turning 18 in November and I feel like it is time for me to buy my first car. Im really interested in buying a 1998-2000 Jeep Wrangler or Jeep Cherokee. These cars are typically on the cheaper side (They usually dont exceed $4000). What I really want to know is how much will insurance cost for a teen with that kind of car. Please correct me if Im wrong but wont insurance for a car like a jeep be less than that of a car like a mustang? Anyways, I dont really have a well-paying job (minimum wage) and I dont want to ask my parents to pay for it because I feel like this is my responsibility. Can anyone give me an average price for what you paid for your car insurance when you were a teenage driver? Thanks a lot for the help!""

Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

Ive heard the car insurance one, not very solid. I also have heard there will be hardship exemptions and certain levels of income earned that will determine how much help will be given in purchasing insurance. Just looking for somethings to note when someone brings up this part of the bill

""I'm 19, have a permit, but do I need insurance to drive with my mom?""

Ok I got a permit, I got it last year..it expires on April 30th. So I was wondering..if i go out and drive with my mom who has a license, do I need to get my own insurance as well? My moms car is insured. I live in California. I haven't driven a whole year because i can't afford my own insurance right now. Lol so do I need to get my own insurance even though my mom and her car are insured? If I get stopped by the cops will I get in trouble? Thnx in advance""

Just broughta motorhome o2 fiat where cheapest and best insurance?

Just broughta motorhome o2 fiat where cheapest and best insurance?

Average motorcycle insurance?

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Help about choosing car insurance?

I'm 18 and I need to start paying for my own car insurance. Any suggestions for lowering the cost? I live in New York which means my parents are finacially responsible for me until I'm 21. I know that everyone says to try and stick it out but that is not an option. I'm going to be living with a close friend and we need to keep our expenses to a minimum. Any tips concerning car insurance, OR health insurance too would be great.""

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i am an 18 yr old male and i am in the market for a new car. i just recently feel inlove with the mitsubishi outlander, mitsubishi endeavor, ford edge, jeep cherokee. i figured out all the prices and payments and everything, but i am not sure about how much the auto insurance will be... any help anybody?? thanks""

Average teen car insurance?

I have a '98 pontiac grand am thats in nice condition. can someone just give me a rough estimate, or what their insurance is or was as a teen""

How much would car/motorbike insurance cost me?

My parents decided to move out somewhere where I have no tube connection and need to take stupid bus or train everywhere and it would take me ages to see my boyfriend which would live then like just 25 minutes away from me but 1h 10minutes by public transport. So here is my question, I'm only 18 and I want to know how much would car insurance cost me, if it's a lot then I was thinking about getting scooter or motorbike but I'm sure those need insurance too so how much would that be too ??""

Which car would insurance be higher on?

Hi, I'm 16 and I'm getting my first car. I've saved up a chunk of money to make the down payment and 2 or 3 of the monthly payments (my parents are paying for the rest). I've narrowed it down to 2 cars of about the same price. A 2004 MiniCooper and a 2005 mustang (v6). My parents will be paying for my insurance so I was hoping you could tell me which one would have a lower rate so I could make it easier on them? I already know it's going to be high because I'm a teenage driver so whatever helps really. A mustang is kind of, sort of, sports car-ish (I'm not big into cars people, ignore my ignorant terminology) so I figured that would have an effect on the insurance. On the other hand, a minicoop is very small and I don't believe they're made in the U.S like a mustang is so parts and stuff would be higher if I'm correct? Thank you very much for any help!""

Temporary car insurance california?

So im spending my summer in california, my unbcle lives here and has a car and maybe ill hae the chance to drive it. I was thinking that I need an insurance, I come from france and only have an international drivers license, so I was wondering is it possible to get an insurance in here? Thanks, no mean answers plz""

Astra van Mk4 Insurance for 17 year old...?

Hey, I know its probably thought as weird but for my first car/van I want a Vauxhall Astravan as I love the shape and the car/van itself. The thing is the New model (06-TO current) have the 1.3 CDTI engine which is good but if you want a decent one there all 3000+... The Mk4 astravan (98-06) only go as low as a 1.6 Deisel. Could I be insured on this or would it be a big bill, or is it just worth getting a normal car? Chris""

Where to get Motor Trade insurance?

I'm 23 years old and I live in Bradford so getting a quote is near impossible. I've called a lot of Motor Trade insurance companies but none have been able to quote me either due to me being under 25 or because I live in Bradford. Do you guys know any companies I can try?

Can i get insurance now?

I recently had my wisdom teeth taken out, and they said i needed to come back and get my teeth cleaned, and they said I'm gonna need some fillings or something, but there wasn't another appointment until June.. well i don't have dental insurance, so i had to pay for this all on credit cards, which is do-able i guess, since we dint use those cards for anything else, but i was wondering could i get dental insurance between now and then? or would it not cover the appointment thats already scheduled? where can i find affordable isurance?""

Car insurance policies?

Okay so a friend of mine hit my brothers car in our driveway today. We live in Alabama ... my friend has Alfa insurance and my brother has country financial. Both have full coverage. When we called to make the report the officer that came said that since it was on private property my friends insurance will not pay that my brothers insurance will.. my brother has a 500$ deduct able. So basicly I have 2 questions. 1.) Just because its private property why will my friends insurance not pay for it? 2.) How much will be played out of pocket because the damage is about 1500 if not more. (Its a new car 2011, the door is pushed in to the point the door can't open and window can't go down)""

Please Help...Will i be able to get any health insurance?

Im a 21 yr old female, who benefits from deferred action. im currently working two jobs and going to community college. money is TIGHT. i know being protected under deferred action will not provide me any health insurance help but can i still be able to get ANY help? im a type 1 diabetic as well and the cost of insulin and doctor visits skyrockets every single time. i live with my parents but i dont receive money from them. i guess long story short. can i get any type of health insurance? if i dont die from diabetes ill die from the cost of it hahaha. i live in Southern California if thats any help. thanks in advance :)""

Would I still need to keep the insurance up on my truck if my license was suspended for DUI?

I was wondering if I still need to keep my insurance during the suspension period or do I cancel it and then wait till the end of my suspension period. I got my DUI on May 6th. I guess for now I'm sticking to riding a bicycle anytime I want to go somewhere which it takes longer but at least it gets the most gas mileage of any vehicle which is infinity miles per gallon.

2006 cadillac cts insurance rate for teens?

i want my dad to give me his car but i wanted to know how much the insurance would be its the base 2006 2.8L cts and its salvaged , so yeah state farm rates would be a +, State of California""

Does anyone know of affordable family health insurance?

Does anyone know of affordable family health insurance?

Can 2 insurance policies go on 1 car ?

hello all .. i sold my car today basicly because i couldnt insure the insurance or fuel anymore as my hours have been cut in work . now my question is .. can i insure my mums car which is already insured by her .. reason i ask is if i cancel my current policy i will have to pay the full years worth of the car i had previous which would be 1000 pound , so i was thinking to insure my mums car to keep my insurance going ? is this possible ?""

How much would the insurance cost for a 2005 Mazda rx8?

I'm 17, I live in Georgia, & I'm about to obtain my license. I've had my permit for almost a year now, & I am deciding on getting an rx8 for Christmas, but I don't know if the insurance will be high or not. Could anyone possibly tell me? btw, we are on Allstate.""

Where can I get a free auto insurance quote?

I would like to know of a website that offers a free auto insurance quote?

Insurance and child support?

If my husband provides insurance through his work to his daughter and is also paying child support on her is he going to be responsible for the co-pay everytime she goes to the doctor? His daughter also has a secondary insurance through the state that her mom collects we were just wondering if the secondary insurance would pay or who would be responsible. The mother or him???

How much would insurance be for me?

I'm 16 and I've had my license for about seven months now. We've had financial problems so we've held off getting insurance. But, now we have a situation where I would need to drive the spare car to and from school. (I would only be driving a total of 16 times, 32 if you count round trips) It's a Hyundai 2010 Elantra, but I may also be driving the 2012 Mercedes C250. Would it be more affordable if I were to go under my mom's insurance? Possibly my father's? My parents are divorced. My main guardian is my mother, but my father only has had one car incident while my mom has had several. All, however, have been minor. And, separate question, but is it possible to only get insurance for a month? If so, I think I would be able to pay for it myself, but if not, I would need a fairly cheap insurance policy.""

Where can I get scooter insurance?

I am looking for insurance for a 150cc Scooter. I can not find any companies that want less than $1500 a year. Geico quoted me that, but I think they thought I had a motorcycle. Any ideas on companies?""

Car released to my insurance company?

my car has been released to my insurance company, for them to ascertain whether my car is repairable or is a write off, the car an MGTF Convertible was burnt to dust at the week-end and no courtesy car has been provided, making my journey to Edinburgh from Glasgow and back again every workday a bit of a nightmare, has anyone any idea how long this process of making me an offer will take, as it is costing me a fortune in rail fares""

Car insurance estimate?

Hi i'm currently 16 and soon to be old enough to take driving lessons, but first off i have a question. What would be the likely insurance premium for a 2009 BMW Z4 23i kept in a public place with viper alarm system and a steering lock.""

Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

Ive heard the car insurance one, not very solid. I also have heard there will be hardship exemptions and certain levels of income earned that will determine how much help will be given in purchasing insurance. Just looking for somethings to note when someone brings up this part of the bill

Would i need goods carrying vehicle insurance?

If i was to transport mechanical tools or a regular basis in a vauxhall combo van, would i need to get goods carrying vehicle insurance instead of normal car insurance? I'am a bit new to this so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks""

How much do you pay for full coverage?

I pay 375 for my car note a month and 250 for full coverage a month. Does this seem about right? I'm 20 and about 8 months ago I had gotten a ticket for something I didn't do and finally went to court and was proven not guilty. But I don't know if state farm insurance was high because of my age or because of the traffic ticket. Maybe both. Would I be able to get a cheaper price anywhere else. I'll be 21 in 6 months.

Car insurance while deployed...?

My husband is in the military and is currently deployed overseas and I had a question about his car insurance. It does have a loan out on it so that requires us to have full coverage on it normally...I was wondering that while he is deployed and since his car is not going to be driven (there is no way I can drive it since it's a stick shift and I can't drive those lol) if we could lower the insurance on it. I'm just not sure if we'd be able to because of the loan...or does it depend on the bank/insurance company? Thanks for any info!!

Car Insurance Change?

Hi. I currently own a car insurance with Commerce Insurance Company. It will be expiring this month end. I am thinking to change to Progressive Insurance starting next month. Will this switching of Insurance will be a smooth process? please advice the steps. thanks

Can i pay gor someone elses car insurance?

Right so my mum bought a car and I love my mummy so I offered to pay for her car insurance but she said I won't be able to do that for some reason so (I'm her son btw) what I'm asking is if I put all the details in her name but put me down as an additional driver can I pay for the car insurance ?, it's cheaper that way too (for me) lol""

Car insurance. Confused.com?

Hi, I have to do the car insurance for my dad. My dad used confused.com last year. I have all the information stored there and i want a new quote. What to do press because the page has changed and I don't know much about these things. I want to get a new quote with filling anything in again. What to I do? Thank you very much.""

Can a 17 year old get insurance in his own name?

im 17 years old and my dad wont put me back on his insurance. can i just start my own/ If so whats a good cheap one to get liability on?

How do insurance companies determine a vehicle's value in a crash? Do they look at the Kelly Blue Book Value?

How do insurance companies determine a vehicle's value in a crash? Do they look at the Kelly Blue Book Value?

Cheap Health Insurance?

I'm from Kansas City, MO i'm looking for cheap health insurance can anybody help me?""

Health Insurance for getting pregnant?

I'm thinking of getting pregnant, can anyone tell me what is a good insurance that would cover most of the bills I would have with dr. visits, delivery, etc. I can't afford to pay a lot.""

Where can i get the best and affordable health insurance?

company does not provide it anymore. where can i get the best and affordable health insurance that i pay for myself. thanks

Our daughter has just passed her driving test ( aged 21 ) does anybody know of any cheap insurance companies ?

We are willing to buy her a small car but the insurance quotes she's getting are idiotic.

Riding a 125 motorbike on fully comp car insurance?

hi does anyone know, if you can ride a 125 motorbike with l pates and cbt on a fully comp car insurance, i know i can drive other vehciles on fully comp insurance but it turns into third party only , can it be done with my motorbike , thanks .""

Motorbike Insurance 600cc ~ 1000cc?

Iam 24 years old ( will do the bike test later this year ) I would just like a rough figure on what would it cost the insurance for these bikes. CB 600 hornet HONDA CBR 1000 KAWASAKI Z1000 KAWASAKI ER 650 YAMAHA R1 YAMAHA R6 Iam asking because iam abroad and i cant do the quotes else i would not loose time asking If someone could be kind enough to help out just with a near figure iwould gladly apreciate the help.

License and Insurance?

Well, I got my license nearly seven months ago. I am sixteen turning seventeen in about four/five months. I don't have my own car yet so I've been driving my parent's cars if I need to. I am now looking to buy a car for summer and such, but my parents want me to do some research before we make any final decisions. So, I was wondering if anyone could give me an average or general idea on how much our insurance would go up once I buy a car?""

Insurance boyfriend and girlfriend.?

Well as topic says I need an insurance for me and gf (I don't have one yet) and I live in newyork and she lives in georgia I need some plan that can have me and her on same thing and I can pay for it. Your help is appreciated

Car insurance problem..help!!!?

my bf crashed my car and was trying to cover my car with his insurance they said since i gave him permission to drive that i had to cover it.. i callled my insurance they said since he was at fault that i have to cover my own car out of pocket..is there anything else i can do ...

Unemployment insurance in california?

Last year I was unemployed. To make a long story short, i took a job and was there for less than 2 weeks. I was forced to pray, and listen to scripture that was muslim. I am very understanding in all religions, but do not practice myself. I was very uncomfortable and left. EDD decided that i left without cause and that i did not deserve insurance. they made me pay back what they paid me and 30% more. I did so even though I didn't agree. Now that I am laid off again, I filled out a claim and got a response saying that I was eligible, and they gave me the forms to fill out for the first two weeks, the standard claim forn. I filled it out, and now got back letters saying that i am not eligible for benefits until i have filed a claim for each of the 5 weeks in which i am otherwise eligible for benefits. I haven't received new claim forms. I am assuming that I will get these, and I will fill them out for 5 weeks, and then they will pay me? So I am looking for clarification, after claiming 5 weeks they will give me my benefits? Thanks for your help, to anyone that has gone through this. It is so unfair! I paid them so much, for something I felt I was justified doing, and now I am still being punished! I would rather be working and not have to worry about this, but it is so hard to find a job :( not a great holiday.""

How I get discount on car insurance?

I am from Liverpool and wanted to have good discounts on Car Insurance.. Can someone please suggest.

""Why is Unitrin car insurance so cheap? Are they really a good, reliable insurance company?

I got a quote for about half of what I'm paying with another company with the same coverage.

Insurance or no insurance?

My husband told me he wants out. We have been married for a long time. He doesn't want to tell anyone and he keeps saying he is leaving but he's not. (I don't want him to go so that part is fine.) My problem is my company has been our families insurance, I pick up the premium through payroll deduction. Now is the time to make any changes and I only have til the first of July to do this until next year. Should I drop his coverage and let him fend for himself or do I just keep paying for the family plan as always.""

How much will my insurance be?

I only have 90 bucks on me, im buying a 1985 mazda for 700... Im going to go on my parents insurance and my older sister is also on their insure, so they're insurance will be covering 4 cars including mine... Will my insurance be under 90? Any extra payments?""

What is the approximate cost of minimum coverage auto insurance in Ohio if you are young and drive a small car?

I know this depends on a lot of factors, but from the information given, just GUESS. How much? How much for someone that is about 22 years old, been driving since 17, never had an accident, never gotten a ticket.""

Breast implants covered by insurance in houston tx?

I heard some doctors bill your insurance for your breast augmentation surgery. Any one heard of this if so where?

What is a fast car that is in a relativley low insurance group?

I was looking at a 1.6 Honda Civic Type S as that is insurance group 6, but they seem to be hard to come by. They are mostly 2.0 and that is group 11 which is too high as I am only 19. Budget is around 3500. Any ideas welcome. Can go over budget and put the car on finance for the right car.""

Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

Ive heard the car insurance one, not very solid. I also have heard there will be hardship exemptions and certain levels of income earned that will determine how much help will be given in purchasing insurance. Just looking for somethings to note when someone brings up this part of the bill

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/affordable-family-insurance-gregory-roberts/"

[sweetiecutiedarling]

Penelope "Pennie" Karity Mays

This November I will be participating in NaNoWriMo, today I am working on some pre-writing for Try Not To Die. Here is the character sheet for Pennie, one of my two main characters.

Age: 22 Height: 5′ 6″, 133lbs Eye color: Clear blue Physical appearance: Pennie is an athletic woman; professional cheerleading and horseback riding, and it shows. She has long, lean legs and a six-pack. Other than looking athletic, Pennie is a beautiful woman. She comes from a long line of southern women and carries herself as such. She is always wearing makeup and taking care of her hair and skin, and yet her beauty looks effortless. She has naturally clear skin, bright eyes, and hair that seems to settle into gorgeous beach waves on its own. Her hair is naturally blonde, a lighter blonde but not quite the nearly see-through blonde of her childhood. She is also naturally tan from all of the time she spends outside. Strange or unique physical attributes: Pennie has a scar on her right leg from where she snapped it in half and out of the skin in middle school, riding a horse.  Favorite clothing style/outfit: Pennie is very ‘in style’. She wears skinny jeans, boots, and sweaters in the winter with a thick dark grey parka-type coat. In the summer she wears dresses with converse or short boots. Where does he or she live? What is it like there? Pennie lives in an apartment in Boulder, CO outside of her school (University of Colorado, Boulder). She enjoys being a little far from school because it provides quiet that she enjoys. It isn’t ‘walkable’ per se, but she has no trouble driving everywhere. It is a new looking apartment, very modern, that her parents pay for while she goes to school. There are two bedrooms, one for her to sleep in and one that serves as a recording room for her makeup work. It looks like it is out of IKEA, and is a very peaceful abode for her. She also loves hosting and has friends over all of the time. Defining gestures/movements (i.e., curling his or her lip when he or she speaks, always keeping his or her eyes on the ground, etc.): Pennie twirls her hair a lot without noticing it, especially when she is thinking. She maintains eye contact when she talks, and always looks happy (pulled from her training in cheerleading). She doesn’t really have any anxious ticks because she isn’t an anxious person.  Things about his or her appearance he or she would most like to change: Pennie is very confident, but she doesn’t have a unique look and wishes that she had a tattoo or unique hairstyle or something. Speaking style (fast, talkative, monotone, etc.): Pennie speaks like a good southern girl- sweet, as if her words themselves twinkle. She gets a deep accent when she is upset.  Pet peeves: Unsweet tea and people who aren’t southern polite and welcoming. Fondest memory: The family reunion her first year in college, it was a wonderful time with all of her brothers. It is when she finds out that her SIL Susana was pregnant with her and Jamie’s first son. Hobbies/interests: She enjoys cheerleading, horseback riding, doing makeup, shopping, and spending time with her friends. In addition, she is religious and is known to sit down and read the bible and listen to pod-casts from the church she grew up with. Finally, she likes to read Forbes and BusinessWeek. Special skills/abilities: Pennie is very good at makeup, with a nice 2.6 million followers on Instagram, and is especially business savvy. Most of what she does on her Instagram, however, is show people how to home make (mostly) vegan body/face/etc products. Insecurities: Pennie feels very plain and boring. Quirks/eccentricities: Pennie is obsessed with country music and pop music, and is known to line dance when she is really drunk. She’s also known to give a surprisingly excited rant about business if you give her the chance. Temperament (easygoing, easily angered, etc.): Friendly and kind, with a sassy turn when she feels insulted. Negative traits: She judges people on their outside appearance. She is 22, but she has a hard time being independent of her family in front of them, even though she disagrees with their (specifically the Mays) antiquated opinions. Things that upset him or her: She can’t stand animals being hurt, she doesn’t like people bullying her friends or family, and doesn’t like bugs of any sort. Things that embarrass him or her: With few exceptions, Pennie dresses very modestly, and is very embarrassed when any part of her appearance doesn’t feel comfortable.   This character is highly opinionated about: Animal rights. She only purchases food for her home from farms that are humane, and only uses vegan products for makeup and other uses. Also, feminism (inclusive feminism, which means LGBTQ+ and BLM), though she doesn’t share this with her father. Any phobias? Pennie does not have any phobias.  Things that make him or her happy: A home cooked meal, a perfectly put together outfit, a nice spa night, and dinner with loved ones. Family (describe): Pennie is the youngest of 5 children, all boys.  -Jamison “Jamie” Gerald Mays, M 30 --Married to Susana (F, 28) with two children Mary (F, 3), Jamison “JImmy” (M, 2) and another on the way -Jackson “Jack” Harrold Mays, M 28 --Married to MaryAnne (F, 27) with twins Marigold “Mary” and Elisabeth “Lizzie” (F, 2) -Joeseph “Joe” Charlie Mays, M 25 --Closeted gay man, only Pennie and Dustin know that his ‘roommate’ Michael Macalister is his boyfriend (would be married if Mays family knew) -Dustin Samuel Mays, M 24 --Recently single, seemingly uninterested in settling down Her parents are Jamison Franklin Mays (M 58) and Sarea Lee Karity-Mays Nee Karity (F 54). The Mays family is a very rich Texas family known for their wildly successful corporate law firm. The Karity family is a farming family, and her mother is the only child. Because of this, despite Jamison working inside of Houston, the family grew up on the main farm/horse ranch. All kids were sent to a part-time boarding school, overnight from Monday-Friday, in Houston that was religious.  The Mays are a close family, they have family reunions every year. The Karity family is much smaller, but it is nearly entirely women (they all kept their name) and very strong women at that.  Deepest, darkest secret: Pennie was raped by her high school mathematics teacher in her senior year. The reason he or she kept this secret for so long: She believes it is her fault and feels deep shame for it. It is how she lost her virginity and had previously planned to wait until marriage. Additionally, she shared (part) of it with her older brother Jamie, and he shamed her for it. Other people’s opinions of this character (What do people like about this character? What do they dislike about this character?): People like that Pennie is so kind and strong, though many judge her for her father’s actions and that of the Mays family. Also, because of her sweet tone and overly polite demeanor, she can come off as insincere. She’s also very “basic” and many consider her vain. Favorite bands/songs/type of music: Pennie loves country music, Carrie Underwood is her number one favorite singer and she tends to love female artists. She also enjoys pop music, though she veers away from dubstep or otherwise computer type music.   Favorite movies: Old romance: Dirty Dancing, Grease, Pretty Woman, etc. Favorite TV shows: The Bachelorette, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, etc. Favorite books: Anything Nicholas Sparks Favorite foods: Chicken fried steak, bbq, and smoothies Favorite sports/sports teams: She does not like sports Political views: Pennie is fiscally conservative and socially liberal  Religion/philosophy of life: Pennie is Christian, and doesn’t believe it interferes with her politics in the slightest. Physical health: Pennie is very healthy, though she is diabetic, it is something that she maintains with healthy diet and exercise.   Dream vacation: Pennie has traveled a lot but has never been to the Greece beaches and would love to go there. Description of his or her house: Her apartment is modern and clean, IKEA meets Pinterest. There are many pictures of her friends and family and also plenty of art. It is very clean, as any good southern girl’s home should be. Description of his or her bedroom: Her bedroom is crisp and fresh, and her closet is large. Any pets? Pennie has a small corgi that is her diabetic alert dog (once upon a time her diabetes was far from under control). His name is Sweetums and he is white with light brown spots.  Best thing that has ever happened to this character:  Pennie values her education more than anything else. Going to school away from her family allowed her to develop opinions separate from her parent’s opinions.  Worst thing that has ever happened to this character:  Pennie was raped by her high school mathematics teacher in her senior year. She decided to share this information with her oldest brother, and he shamed her for it. Superstitions: Pennie is religious and doesn’t believe in sex until marriage. Three words to describe this character: Bright, kind, shamed If a song played every time this character walked into the room, what song would it be? All American Girl, Carrie Underwood