#I forgot to mention Edmund is also very hot

[bethanydelleman]

Edmund Bertram, Love him or Hate Him?

For the life of me I can’t decide!

Edmund starts strong, he is sixteen when Fanny comes to live at Mansfield and his kindness when he finds her crying in the staircase is very empathetic, especially for a teenager. But then he just seems to slide downhill. “Fanny must have a horse” (Ch 4) he declares and then trades one of his own! So heroic! Then Mary Crawford shows up and all of this Fanny needing to ride for her health goes right out the window. Mary likes to ride and she borrows “Fanny’s” horse for a whole week, resulting in Fanny becoming very ill. Edmund admits: “His own forgetfulness of her was worse than anything which they had done.” (Ch 7).

But then again, is that fair? All of the burden for Fanny’s care should not be on Edmund, and yet, I can’t help but be irked by his failures because he knows that he’s the only one who cares. And he seems to think of himself as her protector, “he led her directly, with the kind authority of a privileged guardian, into the house” (Ch 35)

Unlike the rest of his family (or like every other character in the book, except Sir Thomas and of course, Fanny), Edmund is willing to give up immediate pleasure for someone else’s comfort. Knowing that Fanny wants to go to Southerton, Edmund offers to stay with his mother so his cousin can go (Ch 8). Julia is so unwilling to give up this trip that she leaves the room so no one will suggest that she should volunteer as well. Now does Edmund totally forget that Fanny wanted to see the avenue, yes, but at least she got to go!

And yet, Edmund is selfish, though in a less obvious way than the rest of his family. When he tries to talk to Fanny about Henry Crawford, he actually talks about himself and Mary (Ch 35), and Fanny is even bold enough to redirect him. When he writes to Fanny finally in Portsmouth, he doesn’t even ask how she is and then wants her to come back for his own benefit (Ch 44). He wants Fanny to accept Henry so he has a better chance with Mary (not the primary reason, but it is there). When he picks up Fanny from Portsmouth, and she’s literally starving and looks sick, he says, “Fanny, think of me!” (emphasis author’s, Ch 46). And unlike other faulty Austen men, he never gets better, he forces Fanny to listen to him whining about Mary for months! (Ch 48)

But on the positive side, Edmund has all the responsibility of an eldest son but none of the fun. He takes over management of the estate when his father and Tom leave for Antigua (Ch 4). When Tom returns, he almost instantly leaves again and Edmund dutifully remains, caring for something he will probably never inherit. He really wants to go to London to propose to Mary, but chooses to stay with his parents instead “he could not leave his father and mother just when everybody else of most importance to their comfort was leaving them” (Ch 38). Familial duty was far more important in this era and Edmund is the only Bertram sibling who displays any.

In addition, Edmund doesn’t seem to hate or resent Tom, even though he must at least suspect that Tom lost him half his inheritance gambling (Ch 3). They don’t seem to have a great relationship, when Edmund tries to disagree with the play Tom basically shuts him down by saying that he is the heir (Ch 13), but Edmund is the first to see sick Tom and his primary nurse for his illness. Pretty selfless given that Tom’s death would be the best thing ever for Edmund.

However, Edmund is fully aware that Fanny doesn’t have a fire in her bedroom in the winter, but he does nothing about it, he just tells her not to read too long in the cold (Ch 16). When Mary visits the East Room to practice Act III of Lovers Vows (Ch 18), she notices the empty grate and Edmund comes in soon afterwards. He also goes to Fanny’s room to deliver the gold chain. Neither time does he notice or seem to care that Fanny, his sickly cousin, is being left in the freezing cold. This irks me because when Sir Thomas comes in, he notices right away, demands an explanation, and then fixes it (Ch 32). Could Fanny have been warm earlier? Or is Edmund not brave enough to challenge Mrs. Norris directly? He’s basically in charge of the estate for two years!

Edmund does not listen to Fanny or have any respect for her judgement, even though he “formed her mind” (Ch 7) He tries to force Fanny to sanction his participating in the play against her better (and correct) judgement “I am more sorry to see you drawn in to do what you had resolved against, and what you are known to think will be disagreeable to my uncle. It will be such a triumph to the others!” said Fanny, prophetically (Ch 16) but he disregards her (not only is she right about Sir Thomas, Maria and Tom do delight in their triumph over Edmund). Sounds a lot like Mr. Collins ignoring Elizabeth’s sound advice about Mr. Darcy. He also ignores her and thinks up a ridiculous excuse when Fanny tries to warn him about Henry and Maria during the play (Ch 12). In a more distasteful example, when Fanny tells Edmund the truth about how she feels about Crawford he says, “This is not like yourself, your rational self.” (Ch 35) How downright dismissive of her feelings! Can Elizabeth Bennet please appear and yell, “[she is a] rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart!!!” at him a few times? Please?!?

Edmund also sits back and facilitates Henry harassing Fanny by pretending to read a newspaper (Ch 34).

Despite his profession being chosen for him, Edmund actually wants to be a good clergyman. He continues in this conviction even though Mary, the lady he totally has the hots for, doesn’t want him to be “useful in his parish” (Ch 9). Mary hints that she could accept him if he took the money and hired a curate, but he won’t do it. This is despite the fact that Mary (regardless of her amorality) is a CATCH, the kind of girl any second son would only dream of. But then again, he talks of how important it is to live in his parish, but he was supposed to inherit two. So how do you square that circle?

The moment where Edmund and Sir Thomas work together to keep Aunt Norris away from Fanny and William during his first visit is very cute (Ch 24), but is that enough to make me forgive his other faults?

Edmund doesn’t listen to women, he doesn’t change his behaviour over the course of the book, he doesn’t learn from his mistakes, and he doesn’t respect the heroine. He’s not a hero, he’s a villain. Mansfield Park only has a heroine, no hero. (Unless you count the heroic William Price) Edmund Bertram: His only redeemable trait is being less awful than his family, which is why, “she was of course only too good for him” (Ch 48)

Well, I got a little passionate there, I think the real issue is, I want to know that Edmund can finally see Fanny as an equal, not an extension of himself or a weak, dependant, but actually a woman with a mind in her own right. We get that for Emma, for example, despite Knightley lecturing her, he does respect her intelligence. But because Edmund and Fanny’s entire love story is off-screen, we never get that. So it’s really hard for me to love Edmund or the final pairing of him with Fanny.

[erazonpo3]

hey look ma i made a map (not to scale please and thank you)

This is something I had fun playing around with on Inkarnate and it’s still liable to change in some ways but I’m generally happy with it! The idea was to make a map that extends beyond Corona to include all sorts of named regions from disney properties (and some of my own), but also be compliant with TTS (for the most part. I’m not responsible for in-universe incongruences for one thing). 

Side note: I made a Spreadsheet with all of the named Disney kingdoms that appear in extended media (like books and comics n stuff) so that I could nab them and cry ‘it’s canon whatever mom’ but more so I didn’t have to come up with names. You’re welcome to peruse it and use it as a resource too! it’s all disney props

To go into a bit more detail; 

Canon stuff

A majority of the map is me trying to keep the S2 journey in mind, with stops like Lumbard’s Pass and the Forest of No Return being necessitated by mountain ridges etc that would make detours around them a huge pain in the ass. For instance, it’s faster to reach the spire from Corona by flying over Kresten Loch, so the spire needs to be positioned in a way that it would be a straight line from Corona but requires a trip through the FoNR by foot. 

In Freebird Rapunzel mentions the “cliffs of Koto” so I took that for them being either in Koto or adjacent to it. Then in King Pascal Eugene mentions the black rock path leads them to the water/ocean, so that necessitated this huge bight in the land where they can then get knocked off-course to Terapi Island. More mountains because why in the hell would they go through Lumbard’s Pass + The Great Tree if there was easy access any other way? And yeah they could go by ocean but I figure the caravan just isn’t meant for open sea travel for very long, and shipping a caravan across a long voyage is a steep price even for a Princess. 

I know this does make travel between Koto and Blavenia virtually impossible but whatever. There probably are plenty of travel paths but most of them require mules and you don’t take a caravan. Anyway then they reach Skoteníyi which is what I’ve named the Dark Kingdom (It’s based on a headcanon I won’t get into now), and then of course Rapunzel + co minus Cass fly back to Corona via hot air balloon. 

The obvious thing here is that technically the distance between Corona and the Dark Kingdom isn’t particularly far, but the terrain is awful to travel by foot/wagon which is why the S2 journey takes as long as it does. Extra notes are that Lost Lagoon lists Yultadore, Dionda and Antipe as kingdoms that lie on Corona’s border so I squeezed them in where I could. 

My touches to the map

Points where I’ve put my personal spin on things is largely in the geography of all the regions surrounding the S2 journey and how those mountain ranges might affect/inform the geopolitics etc. I put in some big mountains encircling Corona which makes the wall a very strong strategic piece of defensive infrastructure, which only makes sense if Yultadore + Bayangor + Dionda were historically its rivals. 

Bayangor has since allied itself with Corona but maybe doesn’t get as much help as it would like. As you’ll see in my 2nd pic of the map I’ve outlined the 7 Kingdom Alliance as per the named kingdoms in Beginnings, and notable exceptions to this alliance are Yultadore + Vakretta and Equis. So Yultadore + Vakretta get to be historic rivals of Corona, and Equis gets left out because nobody likes King Trevor. (I definitely wanted to have Equis on a peninsula that’s landlocked entirely by Corona to say that yeah, this kingdom does have sovereignty but only because Corona lets it exist and they all know it). 

The 7 Kingdom Alliance in this verse is necessitated, I imagine, by how god damn terrible travel is through the northern half of this region and if Corona (one of the strongest trade regions by dint of connecting the north to the south) wants to make a trade pact with you in return for some political pressure, then you’re sure as hell going to take it. Another fun tidbit is that the Dark Kingdom is so far across the continent from Corona and so difficult to reach it sort of does make sense why Corona just. Forgot about it. 

(Note also that while a lot of the land in Skoteiníyi is infertile, there are edges on the border that are free for the taking by its border friends. Have fun with that, Edmund.) Refugees probably headed south to Yuwabe and Zaria as less hostile/difficult regions and spread from there, which is why Adira and Hector can be found wandering the southern half of the continent in the CTA AU. 

I’ve also spoken about the region of Eltaire-Sère before as the region in which Ilione lives, and I’ve settled on it being in Dionda- which now places Dionda as Corona’s south-eastern rival. As you can see there’s mountains almost completely encircling the region so it’s nearly impossible to stage military battles there so it just gets passed back and forth in treaties, and as of current TTS the region belongs to Corona even though it’s actually outside the wall and looks like it should belong to Dionda. Culturally, the region is a pretty strong blend of both Corona and Dionda (probably leaning more towards Diondan) so Lio gets two for one. 

Cassandra’s (first) journey

I’ve mapped out Cass’ journey in blue and it’s not really set in stone because I care less about the where of where she’s going and more about what’s happening there, but nevertheless I wanted it to be visually distinct from the S2 journey which is why she travels south before making a stop at Terapi Isle (hello Lady Caine funny seeing you here) and finally catching up with Alphecca in her homeland of Vakretta. It’s also worth mentioning here that one of the upsides to being a Lich in this verse as opposed to a ghost is that there’s no limits on where Alphecca can physically travel, and she spends a lot of time wandering around which is why Cass first runs into her in Jeojin/Yirov.  

I haven’t figured out as much on the geography of the southern section of the continent because unlike the S2 journey I can do whatever the hell I want with it, so I have full creative control but also I don’t have any markers like “Cass HAS to pass through here so make a detour impossible”. Nevertheless I like that the southern part of the continent is largely flat; compared to the northern half travelling is a breeze, which means the timeline is simply up to however long I want Cassandra to spend in one place. 

I figure in her 2nd journey she heads up north towards our dear friends in Arendelle as she travels around Sídiros (Iron Kingdom) in what coincides with Varian’s journey, but I haven’t really figured out what that’d look like yet. 

Varian 7K stuff

Timeline-wise Varian’s journey doesn’t start until Cassandra gets back from her 1st journey. Nevertheless I’ve mapped it out because I like being able to visualise it, and it lets me work in the 7 Trial Kingdoms into the map and worldbuilding. 

Jeojin is the “Fire Kingdom”, Dovena is the “Water Kingdom”, and Ardhyewa is the Air Kingdom. I didn’t want Cass and Varian’s journey to completely overlap, but Cass does visit Jeojin on her way out of Dionda and she hits up Ardhyewa to give Nuru + Ara a cameo. Torres is actually one of the named disney properties but I figured it’d make a perfect “Earth Kingdom”. Varian then travels through Yuwabe to hit the Dark Kingdom and then Sídiros as the “Iron Kingdom”, and the outline never mentions how the hell they get back to Corona from there so I figure they probably double back to the Dark Kingdom in which an air balloon is waiting for them. Idk it’s not my problem. 

A fun fact is that Varian’s journey intersects with Cass’ 2nd journey in the Iron Kingdom/Sídiros, in Solanales- if you’re familiar, Solanales is where the Countess Violante rules. Cue Cass trying her damn hardest to shuffle these kids THE HELL out of dodge. Countess Violante is also one of Donella’s biggest rivals in terms of her crusade against the IK aristocracy, so Cass + Donella work together in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation, which is of course hilarious when Varian assumes Cass has turned evil again because she’s working with 'the bad guy’ of his journey. 

He thinks she’s evil again and she’s like do you want Violante to commit a genocide hello??? funny stuff

Conclusion

so anyway thats it i love talking geopolitics

[hannaswritingblog]

Hiii and congrats on your milestone!!! Your blog is getting bigger and bigger!! But, I mean, it isn't a surprise because you totally deserve it 😤💜

And for your celebration, can I get a ship? ✨

My fandoms are: The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and Stranger Things!

I don't really have a preferred gender, but If I have to chose, then let it be male.

Random things about myself (the hardest part):

☆ I like trying new things (but with someone, friends, family, just someone), but also reading books or watching movies or just chilling in my home. My room is my safe zone, haha

☆ I drink a lot of hot drinks every day. Whether it's teas of different flavors, grain coffee ("Inka") or even cappuccino or hot chocolate! A day without a hot drink is a bad day 😞

☆ My guilty pleasure are sweets. Every kind of sweets, really. Oh, but I don't remember if I ever ate licorice, and if I did, whether I liked it or not, hmm. Additional facts: I like giving and receiving hugs, and I have a younger brother!

I hope that's enough (and not too much) facts. Again, Congrats my dear, thank u in advance and have a lovely day! 💜🌸

Oi, I forgot about emoji---

Sorry Hanna! 🙏🙏🙏"💘"

Oh, don't worry about that! Could happen to anyone, and you made it clear that you're asking for a ship so it's fine. ;)

And thank you! 🥰💜 I'm really happy my blog is doing better and better, but I wouldn't do it without my lovely followers, including YOU! And to think we probably wouldn't be talking to each other if I didn't start writing here-

But let's get to what you asked for! I ship you with...

...Edmund Pevensie!

You're the second person I ship with Edmund in this celebration but hear me out! He totally wouldn't mind staying at home with you and reading a book or just sitting together and maybe chatting; since he loves sweets too, he would make sure you have something tasty to eat at hand, and you'd never run out of fresh, warm tea or coffee during your meetings. Your dynamic would be interesting because you have a younger brother and he is the younger brother (while also having a younger sister), but knowing each other might help you understand the struggles of your own siblings.

...Mirana Crimms!

I know you mentioned you have a preference for male characters when you have to choose, but I hope you don't mind me shipping you with Mirana, since I feel like you would really go well together! In my head you have very similar gentle vibe and you'd take good care of each other. Mirana might not understand your love for warm drinks that much that's why I wanted to ship you with Tarrant for a moment haha, and she doesn't have that much time to bond with you over a cup of tea or coffee, but she puts your well-being first, so she'd allow you to sneak into the kitchen and prepare yourself something you like. She'd also make sure you like it in your room by decorating it, and you'd receive gifts from her like new books or sweets whenever she can't spend time with you because of her duties as a queen. Bonus: she'd probably give you a lot of hugs.

...Jonathan Byers!

Another repetition, I know - am I so bad at shipping people with other characters or does my blog attract one type of you that matches you with the same ones? Either way, I ship you with Jonathan because, similarly to Edmund, he'd understand when you need to stay at home and he would offer you some music to listen to when you stay inside with a book, but he'd also be a great companion to try new things with, even those that you have to leave your house for. You could go and sightsee, or maybe you'd go to a park to chill out there and take some photos, and on your way back home you'd grab some coffee at your favourite local cafeteria and drink it while chatting about what you experienced. Both of you having younger brothers is obviously a plus, you could exchange your experiences and maybe they would become friends too?

Want to get a ship too? Join my 100 followers celebration!

[pigeon-princess]

whats the story behind "steal the bag edmund"?

OK SO STRAP yourselves in for this one because it’s a GREAT STORY but also a long one. So I think I’ve mentioned this adventure briefly before but this all started when we picked up a quest from a warlock called Lily when we were hanging around in the capital city of Naos waiting to have a chance to talk to the princess. 

So Lily was a little weird to say the least, in exchange for A LOT of gems she asked if we would kidnap someone for her patron. She said that occasionally her patron, who she called “Lollie” would ask her to take beautiful people and put them in this magical bag that would send them to him for a year and a day. Immediately hearing “A year and a day” I was like OH BOY we’re dealing with another Fey, which made Eddie extremely on edge. The person Lily wanted us to kidnap was a very handsome young lord, who we all called Fantasy Zac Efron because that’s exactly what he looked like. She had tried to put him in the bag before but his bodyguards had broken her leg. 

After showing us the bag, which looked like a regular small velvet sack, Cide decided he was going to send his owl familiar Hamilton inside and use his eyes to have a look. Inside, Cide saw a green forest with thousands of wildflowers, lots of green skinned humanoids basking in the sun, and swimming in a large lake around a lush green throne made from the roots of a tree. On the throne sat a GORGEOUS green skinned fey man, with long braided hair decorated with flowers, when he looked up and saw Hamilton he snapped his fingers and the vision cut off, meaning that Hamilton had been killed (he’s a fiend so he’s fine). 

After Cide discussed what he had seen, the decision definitely split some of the morality of the dnd party but eventually we all agreed that the amount of gems was worth it (we were desperate for coin) also the argument was that we were sending him to a hot fey man for a year and a day, how bad could that be? 

We snuck into the upper class district of the city, broke into his house and started combat with his VERY strong bodyguards. I clearly remember as Eddie, I misty stepped into the room where Fantasy Zac was cowering in the corner, said “I’m sorry but you’re going to a better place!”, shoved the bag over him, which stretched to fit him inside and then rolled backwards out a broken window all in one round. So after our successful kidnapping, we received our payment and went back to the tavern to sleep. 

We all thought that would be the end of it but oh no, The Winter Prince had something to say about all this. So during this time in our dnd sessions, the other players still didn’t know the identity of Eddie’s patron, so when Eddie would speak to him, everyone had to go into the other room so they wouldn’t hear. When Eddie went to sleep that night, he woke up in the Winter Prince’s castle and saw him pacing back and forth frantically. He started muttering that the bag must be a portal to the Spring Court in the Feywild and it might be a way for him to return home, he ordered that Eddie must steal the bag. 

The next day, as everyone sat around at breakfast I said “OK SO UH?? I’m going to be stealing the bag… If anyone wants to help me you’re more than welcome?” Of course Cide was immediately on board with theft but the other members were uncertain, especially because Eddie couldn’t tell them why he needed the bag. We had a very mission impossible style break in to get to Lily’s room in the inn she was staying at, only for Cide to end up knocking on her door so she would come out. As we all hid in the hallway, Cide made small talk with Lily before trying to snatch the bag from her, she said, “Oh I see, you want to come inside the bag too?” and she pulled Cide into it with her. Eddie jumped in after followed by Amados, Amnis, Bryzalle, Reira and Syp. 

We woke up in the incredible green forest we had heard Cide tell us about earlier, with not a trace of Lily in sight, however lounging naked in the lake was the gorgeous green man, a couple of other nymph like people and FANTASY ZAC EFRON. We waved at him and he looked absolutely terrified of us (He looked like he was having a good time though). 

The man came out of the lake, still very naked, and smiled at us. Amnis was very polite, apologising for disrupting him but it was when Eddie asked “Is this the Spring Court?” that Lollie’s eyes snapped to Eddie, recognition in his eyes. He smiled patronisingly and said “Oh? I didn’t realise we were in the company of royalty, It’s good to see you youngest Prince of Winter.” My DM then immediately asked me to roll a wisdom save and I failed, so The Winter Prince took over Eddie and started threatening Lollie. IT was that moment that the rest of the table started losing their shit. I remember Cide’s player saying “OF COURSE YOUR PATRON IS FEY, OF COURSE!!!” 

All of the nymphs and Lollie’s other followers were sniggering and laughing when Lollie was shit talking The Winter Prince, until a small pixie came over and was about to say the Winter Prince’s real name before Eddie’s hand snapped out without his control and crushed her in his hands. 

On top of all of this, because of the banishment curse, having The Winter Prince take over Eddie’s body was causing Eddie to take damage every couple of minutes. I was at the table taking more and more damage and we were all freaking out. 

We started to work out that the place we were in was not the Spring Court, but was instead a pocket dimension of it that Lollie had created to play around with mortals. When the Winter Prince started to blackmail him about alerting the rest of the Faerie Court of his little dimension, Lollie agreed to let Eddie leave without consequence, however the others had a price to pay. They had to offer something to Lollie in exchange, a song, a story or something valuable, Amnis played a song that the Fey didn’t enjoy which really affected him, I forgot what the others gave but I remember that Cide???? decided to?? give a year of his future memories?? So that when the year was up he wouldn’t remember anything past this point? That self destructive bastard. Although now in the events post- Cide having to kill Syp, I guess I understand his thought process. (we’re absolutely going to find a way to break this agreement, I’m very determined). 

When we finally were thrown out of the bag, our DM rolled a dice and we were VERY lucky that time had not passed while we were in there, it could have been weeks, months or years. The Winter prince glitched in and out of control of Eddie a few times on our way back to our Taven to check that everything was still alright and it was when we all returned to our room that Eddie finally told the party the whole truth about his Patron. 

BONUS: What everyone should take away from this story is that there is more than one Winter Prince and he’s the YOUNGEST AAAA

[maealbert]

Sisters From The Same Mister. (Part 10)

AU Multiple Part Fiction Characters: Emily Prentiss x OC (Lillian Prentiss)

A/N: Hit ten parts! WOOHOO! And we’re not done yet! Also, how do you all like Margaret? Say hello to the newest antagonist!

I ALSO WANT TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE LONG WAIT BETWEEN PART 9 AND PART 10! I’ve been way too focused on the other fics and AUs that I completely forgot about my sisters. Geesh, I’m horrible....

WARNING: MENTIONS OF SELF-HARM AND DEATH! BE AWARE! I AM ALSO SO VERY SORRY!

(previous parts)

“Margaret went after Lillian?” JJ asked as she and Emily headed down the hallway to the bullpen from Garcia’s bat cave. Emily was telling JJ of the events that took place at the family dinner last night. After Margaret had her private “word” with Lillian she went after her again in the kitchen.

“Oh you have no idea.” Emily said. “She is against Lillian coming into the family. So she went psychotic in the kitchen. Cornered Lillian threatening her and her baby.”

“Just when I thought that no one could be worse than your mother.” JJ giggled.

“Oh!” Emily exclaimed. “Not only did Margaret corner Lillian in the kitchen, prior to that she threatened her upstairs outside of the bathroom. Grabbed her hair and everything.”

“Your family is crazy.”

“Eh, just Margaret.” Emily said shrugging her shoulders. “Everyone is pretty standard.” Emily said as she pulled open the glass doors and letting JJ walk into the bullpen first. Upon their arrival to JJ’s desk, Emily notices someone in her office. She excuses herself from the group and heads up to her office. Opening the door she sees Lillian hunched over in one of the chairs with her face buried in her hands. “Lil?” She says taking a seat next to Lillian. “What brings you here?” Lillian lifts her head. Tear stains lining her cheeks, her eyes red from all of her crying. “Gosh, Lillian.. Why are you crying? What happened?”

“My stepfather called...” Lillian sniffled. “It’s about Dylan..”

“What happened with Dylan? Is he okay?”

“He’s dead..” Lillian whispered.

“Lillian.. I-.. I’m so sorry.” Emily said as she wrapped her arms around Lillian’s shoulders. “How did this happen?”

“He wasn’t told.. They have to conduct an investigation and an autopsy before they can confirm anything.”

“How did they find him?”

“His wrists were slit and he looked as if he bled out... One assumption that they have is that he slit his wrists on the sharp corner of the bed frame and was already dead by the time security reached his room.” Lillian sniffles as she wipes her face from the tears. “My stepfather asked me to come back to Rhode Island to attend his funeral.”

“Do you want me to come? You know.. With your mom and all...”

“Please?” Lillian’s voice cracks. “I know you have so much to do here, but-”

“No, it’s okay.” Emily said. “I can take some personal leave for a few days to go with you. I’ll just have Rossi be put in charge until I get back.”

“Thank you.” Lillian says as she throws her arms around Emily’s neck. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”

“Hey, what are sisters for?” Emily says. “Come on, in the meantime how about we go get something to eat? Gotta keep that baby healthy.”

“I’ve been in the mood for chocolate.”

“I was thinking something more healthy.” Emily says as she stands up.

“That’s all I have been eating.” Lillian groans as she stands up as well. “JJ’s sent me home made meals according to what she ate when she was pregnant... With both her boys.. Oh and don’t get me started on Garcia.. She did so much research and even called my doctor to confirm what foods and drinks that I could and couldn’t drink that she got together with JJ and made a special diet for me until I have this baby.”

“Good thing I never had kids.” Emily joked. “Now come on. I know the perfect place for you to eat and it’ll still safe for you and for the baby.” She says directing you towards the door.

Lillian collapses onto the couch as she rubs her stomach. Emily sits down beside her and props Lillian’s feet up onto her lap. “Eat good?”

“I’m stuffed..” Lillian says as she leans her back. “And my feet are killing me.”

“Mind if I give you a foot rub? I used to give JJ foot rubs when we were away on cases on the jet and in the hotel room after long nights.”

“Then you must be good.” Lillian says. “My feet are waiting.” Emily smiles before she grabs hold of Lillian’s feet and begins to rub them.

“So Dad called me the other day. Says he spoke to Margaret.” Emily spoke as she massaged her fingers in Lillian’s feet. Lillian rolls her eyes in disgust about Emily’s announcement and she lays her head back on the arm rest of the couch. She moaned when Emily hit a sweet spot in her feet. “I told I give good foot rubs.” Emily giggled. “Anyways... About your brother’s funeral-”

“You can’t, can you?”

“I can still go.. It’s just.. Your mother...”

“I plan on staying as far away as I can from her.” Lillian says. “And so will you. After that fight you got into with her I don’t think you should be anywhere near her during the funeral.” Lillian sits up pulling her feet away from Emily’s hands and pushes herself up off the couch.

“Where are you going?” Emily asks.

“In the kitchen.. I have a major craving for root beer floats right now.” Lillian responds as she wobbles off to the kitchen.

As the weekend approached the anxiety got worse for Lillian. Every time it crossed her mind, her heart would race and her hands would shake. Her brain would start thinking up excuses to use so she wouldn’t have to go to the funeral. But then she would start to think about Emily and how she would call bullshit and still make her go.

Standing up from her bed she walks over to her closet when her head begins to spin. Grabbing hold of her head she tries to walk back to the bed when her legs give out from under her. Just like the snap of someone’s fingers the dark clouded her vision.

Knocking on Lillian’s apartment door Emily tapped her foot impatiently on the hardwood floor of the hallway. Sighing she checks her watch again. It read 8:30am. They were supposed to be on the road to Providence by 8:15 that latest. “Lillian!” Emily calls as she knocks on the door again. “Lillian, are you even awake? We’re running late! We have to be in Providence by 2:30 for the funeral!” She knocks once more before a little old lady steps out of her apartment.

“Is she not answering?” She asks approaching Emily.

“No..” Emily says. “And she never gave me a key to get in.”

“Well here dear!” The lady says as she digs in her pocket and fishes out a key. “Lillian gave a spare to me when she first moved her just in case of an emergency or if she went out of town and needed someone to water her plants and feed her cat.” She unlocks the door and allows Emily to walk in.

“Thank you..” Emily says as she walks into the apartment. “Lillian?” Emily calls. “Lillian, are you even awake?” She hears a meow and matched the sound with Lillian’s black spotted cat as he walked out of the hallway. He meowed again before sauntering over to Emily and biting her pant leg and trying to pull on the fabric. “What is it buddy?” She says following the cat to Lillian’s bedroom. The cat squeezes through the crack and into the bedroom. Emily pushes open door only to find Lillian unconscious on the floor. “Lillian!” She exclaims running over to Lillian.

“Oh my goodness!” The lady gasps as she covers her mouth.

“Call 911! Now! Please!” Emily shouts as she presses her index and middle finger to the side of Lillian’s neck.

“Emily!” Emily turns around to the sound her name being called. Seeing her father running down the hall of the hospital she runs towards him throwing her arms around him. “Everything’s going to be okay, sweetheart.” He murmurs into her hair.

Emily pulled away as she ran a hand through her hair. “I-I-I-I... I have to call her stepfather.. We were supposed to be on our way an hour ago to meet up with him in Providence so he could get us settled in their guest house.... Dylan’s funeral is this weekend... And if she can’t go...then she’ll be even more crushed..”

“You just go get some water and sit down. I will handle calling her stepfather and fill him in on what’s going on, okay?”

“But-”

“Emily, I got this.” Edmund says as he directs Emily back to Lillian’s room. “I’ll be back once I finish the phone call.” He says kissing her forehead and heading back for the double exit doors to the waiting area.

Finally waking up again, Lillian adjusts her blurry vision to find herself in a hospital room. Instantly she moved her hand to her stomach only to find her growing bump still there. She sighed in relief as she laid back down in the pillows of the bed. She hears the door open and in walks Emily carrying a hot cup of coffee in one hand and her other hand dug deep into her hair. Her eyebrows were creased together. Emily eventually notices Lillian from the corner of her eye. She quickly sets the cup of coffee down on the bedside table and sits on the side of the bed. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”

“Drained...” Lillian says as she lays her head back. “I’m just glad that me and the baby are okay.”

“Me too.” Emily says. “Gosh I was so scared when I found your unconscious in your room.”

“I guess the stress and anxiety of the funeral really effected me..”

“Boy did they..” Emily giggles. “But nothing too serious.. They ran ultrasounds on the baby and it’s perfectly okay. Oh and I called both your dads. One of them is on the phone with the other. I was supposed to call your stepdad but I was so worried about you I couldn’t even focus on getting words to form on my lips.”

“Was he upset I couldn’t make it?”

Emily shook her head. “He understood. Stepdaddy, though, is making it his mission to come here after the funeral to check up on you. I think he was more freaked than me and dad put together.”

“And my mom?” Lillian asks even though she might already know the answer.

“Your stepdad said that he’d inform her on your situation.” Emily says as she leans on the bed. “But don’t stress yourself out over your mother. Right now you need to only focus on you and your baby’s health. Okay? I will handle your mother..” Lillian raises an eyebrow and her blinks her eyes at Emily. “Okay, dad will handle your mother. In the meantime, get some rest.”

“I’ve been sleeping for the past twelve hours and I’m starving..”

“I think the cafeteria is still open.”

“Ew.. No.. Baby doesn’t like that..”

“Baby doesn’t like that or you don’t like that?” Emily says with a smirk.

“Both of us.. Hospital food is gross.”

Emily smiles. “Okay fine.. How about I drive down the road to the ice cream shop and pick up some rolled ice cream?”

“Ooooo that sounds good. Strawberry preferably.”

“You got it.” Emily says before exiting the hospital room. Lillian pulls herself up in the bed and slowly moves her legs to the side. Holding her stomach she hobbles over to the window to look outside. Peering down to the entrance of the hospital, she sees Edmund talking to Emily. He’s shaking his head while running a hand through his hair. Emily lays a hand on his shoulder to empathize with him. Emily leans in to say something in his ear before quickly running off to her car. Lillian watches as Edmund watches Emily run off. He turns to take a look up at Lillian’s window spotting her immediately. She sees him sigh and head for the entrance.

Walking back over to her bed she sits down crossing her legs and pulling the covers up over her legs. A few minutes later the door to her room opens and her father walks in. “Everything okay?” Lillian asks.

“Lillian... Your stepfather informed me about something that you should know..”

“What could be worse than my brother’s funeral and my passing out?”

“Well.. This is were the bad news comes in.” Edmund says as he grabs hold of Lillian’s hands.

Cliffhanger! Oops! But it is getting late so I have to go to bed.... Find out soon what the bad news is.. Uh oh..

IIIIIIIIf you like this chapter than be sure to leave a like, reblog, and leave some looooooooove!

Thank you! :)

[empressmanuscript]

We’ve been paying attention to the wrong thing in The Last Battle by CS Lewis. 

“She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations.”

And that seems to be the only spot where we just... stop. We’re all rightfully pissed, but we should’ve paid more attention to what was said afterwards. 

“Oh Susan!” said Jill. “She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.” “Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”

As readers we have every reason to be pissed and feel for her. Why didn’t he elaborate? If I lost my whole family in a train accident I’d be devastated, why didn’t he talk about that? But Lewis was concentrating on Narnia, on the characters who went back and chose to continue remembering. 

What we didn’t notice was that second part. The bolded part. Reading a number of Lewis’s other work, he’s brought up how toxic that mindset is for a child and an adult. That he became an adult when he stopped trying to rush at it and stop looking at children’s work like fairytales as “too childish”. It’s kinda blowing my mind that he blatantly put it for Susan since the beginning of the series, blatantly had a character mention it, and all we noticed was the “nylons and lipsticks” part. 

I guess I can understand why people see it as misogynistic because Lucy and Jill are always seen as more tomboyish than Susan, but that’s still up for interpretation. Lucy may have done more fighting than Susan, but she cared about her looks at times too. Peter’s “no friend of Narnia” line is very Peter and and Jill’s “nylons and lipstick” one is very Jill. They’ve always been very hot-headed characters, at least Jill has. The downside is Edmund and Lucy should’ve said something, but that doesn’t mean she’s NEVER gonna see her family again. 

Also if we ever got a movie, I feel like a lot of our sadness and misgivings towards leaving Susan behind will actually be addressed. In the LWW and Voyage movies Edmund and Eustace are a lot more likeable than their book counterparts. Edmund tries to use humour to mask his sadness and Peter takes it as rudeness. Eustace is a bit of a brat, but he’s not nearly as snide as he is in the book. Even when he grabs Reepicheep’s tail it’s completely accidental, as opposed to in the book when he sneaks up on the mouse and grabs him out of malice. 

Sometimes Lewis can be pretty tone-deaf with the way he writes every character, not just Susan. I think that has a lot to do with how children and fantasy were perceived in the 1950s when he wrote these books. 

But my main point stands. Susan didn’t forget Narnia because she got into makeup and parties. She forgot about Narnia because she tried too hard to grow up. 

[readbookywooks]

HOW HELP CAME TO THE KING

Bur his misery did not last long. Almost at once there came a bump, and then a second bump, and two children were standing before him. The wood in front of him had been quite empty a second before and he knew they had not come from behind his tree, for he would have heard them. They had in fact simply appeared from nowhere. He saw at a glance that they were wearing the same queer, dingy sort of clothes as the people in his dream; and he saw, at a second glance, that they were the youngest boy and girl out of that party of seven. "Gosh!" said the boy, "that took one's breath away! I thought - " "Hurry up and get him untied," said the girl. "We can talk, afterwards." Then she added, turning to Tirian, "I'm sorry we've been so long. We came the moment we could." While she was speaking the Boy produced a knife from his pocket and was quickly cutting the King's bonds: too quickly, in fact, for the King was so stiff and numb that when the last cord was cut he fell forward on his hands and knees. He couldn't get up again till he had brought some life back into his legs by a good rubbing. "I say," said the girl. "It was you, wasn't it, who appeared to us that night when we were all at supper? Nearly a week ago." "A week, fair maid?" said Tirian. "My dream led me into your world scarce ten minutes since." "It's the usual muddle about times, Pole," said the Boy. "I remember now," said Tirian. "That too comes in all the old tales. The time of your strange land is different from ours. But if we speak of Time, 'tis time to be gone from here: for my enemies are close at hand. Will you come with me?" "Of course," said the girl. "It's you we've come to help." Tirian got to his feet and led them rapidly down hill, Southward and away from the stable. He knew where he meant to go but his first aim was to get to rocky places where they would leave no trail, and his second to cross some water so that they would leave no scent. This took them about an hour's scrambling and wading and while that was going on nobody had any breath to talk. But even so, Tirian kept on stealing glances at his companions. The wonder of walking beside the creatures from another world made him feel a little dizzy: but it also made all the old stories seem far more real than they had ever seemed before... anything might happen now. "Now," said Tirian as they came to the head of a little valley which ran down before them among young birch trees, "we are out of danger of those villains for a space and may walk more easily." The sun had risen, dew-drops were twinkling on every branch, and birds were singing. "What about some grub? - I mean for you, Sir, we two have had our breakfast," said the Boy. Tirian wondered very much what he meant by "grub", but when the Boy opened a bulgy satchel which he was carrying and pulled out a rather greasy and squashy packet, he understood. He was ravenously hungry, though he hadn't thought about it till that moment. There were two hard-boiled egg sandwiches, and two cheese sandwiches, and two with some kind of paste in them. If he hadn't been so hungry he wouldn't have thought much of the paste, for that is a sort of food nobody eats in Narnia. By the time he had eaten all six sandwiches they had come to the bottom of the valley and there they found a mossy cliff with a little fountain bubbling out of it. All three stopped and drank and splashed their hot faces. "And now," said the girl as she tossed her wet hair back from her forehead, "aren't you going to tell us who you are and why you were tied up and what it's all about?" "With a good will, damsel," said Tirian. "But we must keep on the march." So while they went on walking he told them who he was and all the things that had happened to him. "And now," he said at the end, "I am going to a certain tower, one of three that were built in my grandsire's time to guard Lantern Waste against certain perilous outlaws who dwelled there in his day. By Aslan's good will I was not robbed of my keys. In that tower we shall find stores of weapons and mail and some victuals also, though no better than dry biscuit. There also we can lie safe while we make our plans. And now, prithee, tell me who you two are and all your story." "I'm Eustace Scrubb and this is Jill Pole," said the Boy. "And we were here once before, ages and ages ago, more than a year ago by our time, and there was a chap called Prince Rilian, and they were keeping this chap underground, and Puddleglum put his foot in - " "Ha!" cried Tirian, "are you then that Eustace and that Jill who rescued King Rilian from his long enchantment?" "Yes, that's us," said Jill. "So he's King Rilian now, is he? Oh of course he would be. I forgot - " "Nay," said Tirian, "I am the seventh in descent from him. He has been dead over two hundred years." Jill made a face. "Ugh!" she said. "That's the horrid part about coming back to Narnia." But Eustace went on. "Well now you know who we are, Sire," he said. "And it was like this. The Professor and Aunt Polly had got all us friends of Narnia together - " "I know not these names, Eustace," said Tirian. "They're the two who came into Narnia at the very beginning, the day all the animals learned to talk." "By the Lion's Mane," cried Tirian. "Those two! The Lord Digory and the Lady Polly! From the dawn of the world! And still in your place? The wonder and the glory of it! But tell me, tell me." "She isn't really our aunt, you know," said Eustace. "She's Miss Plummer, but we call her Aunt Polly. Well those two got us all together partly just for fun, so that we could all have a good jaw about Narnia (for of course there's no one else we can ever talk to about things like that) but partly because the Professor had a feeling that we were somehow wanted over here. Well then you came in like a ghost or goodness-knows-what and nearly frightened the lives out of us and vanished without saying a word. After that, we knew for certain there was something up. The next question was how to get here. You can't go just by wanting to. So we talked and talked and at last the Professor said the only way would be by the Magic Rings. It was by those Rings that he and Aunt Polly got here long, long ago when they were only kids, years before we younger ones were born. But the Rings had all been buried in the garden of a house in London (that's our big town, Sire) and the house had been sold. So then the problem was how to get at them. You'll never guess what we did in the end! Peter and Edmund - that's the High King Peter, the one who spoke to you - went up to London to get into the garden from the back, early in the morning before people were up. They were dressed like workmen so that if anyone did see them it would look as if they'd come to do something about the drains. I wish I'd been with them: it must have been glorious fun. And they must have succeeded for next day Peter sent us a wire - that's a sort of message, Sire, I'll explain about it some other time - to say he'd got the Rings. And the day after that was the day Pole and I had to go back to school - we're the only two who are still at school and we're at the same one. So Peter and Edmund were to meet us at a place on the way down to school and hand over the Rings. It had to be us two who were to go to Narnia, you see, because the older ones couldn't come again. So we got into the train that's a kind of thing people travel in in our world: a lot of wagons chained together - and the Professor and Aunt Polly and Lucy came with us. We wanted to keep together as long as we could. Well there we were in the train. And we were just getting to the station where the others were to meet us, and I was looking out of the window to see if I could see them when suddenly there came a most frightful jerk and a noise: and there we were in Narnia and there was your Majesty tied up to the tree." "So you never used the Rings?" said Tirian. "No," said Eustace. "Never even saw them. Aslan did it all for us in his own way without any Rings." "But the High King Peter has them," said Tirian. "Yes," said Jill. "But we don't think he can use them. When the two other Pevensies - King Edmund and Queen Lucy - were last here, Aslan said they would never come to Narnia again. And he said something of the same sort to the High King, only longer ago. You may be sure he'll come like a shot if he's allowed." "Gosh!" said Eustace. "It's getting hot in this sun. Are we nearly there, Sire?" "Look," said Tirian and pointed. Not many yards away grey battlements rose above the tree-tops, and after a minute's more walking they came out in an open grassy space. A stream ran across it and on the far side of the stream stood a squat, square tower with very few and narrow windows and one heavy-looking door in the wall that faced them. Tirian looked sharply this way and that to make sure that no enemies were in sight. Then he walked up to the tower and stood still for a moment fishing up his bunch of keys which he wore inside his hunting-dress on a narrow silver chain that went round his neck. It was a nice bunch of keys that he brought out, for two were golden and many were richly ornamented: you could see at once that they were keys made for opening solemn and secret rooms in palaces, or chests and caskets of sweet-smelling wood that contained royal treasures. But the key which he now put into the lock of the door was big and plain and more rudely made. The lock was stiff and for a moment Tirian began to be afraid that he would not be able to turn it: but at last he did and the door swung open with a sullen creak. "Welcome friends," said Tirian. "I fear this is the best palace that the King of Narnia can now offer to his guests." Tirian was pleased to see that the two strangers had been well brought up. They both said not to mention it and that they were sure it would be very nice. As a matter of fact it was not particularly nice. It was rather dark and smelled very damp. There was only one room in it and this room went right up to the stone roof: a wooden staircase in one corner led up to a trap door by which you could get out on the battlements. There were a few rude bunks to sleep in, and a great many lockers and bundles. There was also a hearth which looked as if nobody had lit a fire in it for a great many years. "We'd better go out and gather some firewood first thing, hadn't we?" said Jill. "Not yet, comrade," said Tirian. He was determined that they should not be caught unarmed, and began searching the lockers, thankfully remembering that he had always been careful to have these garrison towers inspected once a year and to make sure that they were stocked with all things needful. The bow strings were there in their coverings of oiled silk, the swords and spears were greased against rust, and the armour was kept bright in its wrappings. But there was something even better. "Look you!" said Tirian as he drew out a long mail shirt of a curious pattern and flashed it before the children's eyes. "That's funny-looking mail, Sire," said Eustace. "Aye, lad," said Tirian. "No Narnian Dwarf smithied that. 'Tis mail of Calormen, outlandish gear. I have ever kept a few suits of it in readiness, for I never knew when I or my friends might have reason to walk unseen in The Tisroc's land. And look on this stone bottle. In this there is a juice which, when we have rubbed it on our hands and faces, will make us brown as Calormenes." "Oh hurrah!" said Jill. "Disguise! I love disguises." Tirian showed them how to pour out a little of the juice into the palms of their hands and then rub it well over their faces and necks, right down to the shoulders, and then on their hands, right up to the elbows. He did the same himself. "After this has hardened on us," he said, "we may wash in water and it will not change. Nothing but oil and ashes will make us white Narnians again. And now, sweet Jill, let us go see how this mail shirt becomes you. 'Tis something too long, yet not so much as I feared. Doubtless it belonged to a page in the train of one of their Tarkaans." After the mail shirts they put on Calormene helmets, which are little round ones fitting tight to the head and having a spike on top. Then Tirian took long rolls of some white stuff out of the locker and wound them over the helmets till they became turbans: but the little steel spike still stuck up in the middle. He and Eustace took curved Calormene swords and little round shields. There was no sword light enough for Jill, but he gave her a long, straight hunting knife which might do for a sword at a pinch. "Hast any skill with the bow, maiden?" said Tirian. "Nothing worth talking of," said Jill, blushing. "Scrubb's not bad." "Don't you believe her, Sire," said Eustace. "We've both been practising archery ever since we got back from Narnia last time, and she's about as good as me now. Not that either of us is much." Then Tirian gave Jill a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The next business was to light a fire, for inside that tower it still felt more like a cave than like anything indoors and set one shivering. But they got warm gathering wood - the sun was now at its highest - and once the blaze was roaring up the chimney the place began to look cheerful. Dinner was, however, a dull meal, for the best they could do was to pound up some of the hard biscuit which they found in a locker and pour it into boiling water, with salt, so as to make a kind of porridge. And of course there was nothing to drink but water. "I wish we'd brought a packet of tea," said Jill. "Or a tin of cocoa," said Eustace. "A firkin or so of good wine in each of these towers would not have been amiss," said Tirian.