#I left out a lot of stuff like exact street addresses and stuff haha

[edwardashley]

How much background info is there on the Gibsons? 👀

Hi, I am happy to share all the info I've uncovered in my research to fellow Gibson fans! However, I do ask that if you do use it any fanworks or reference it any posts that you PLEASE credit me directly through a link as I spent a fair amount of time on collecting this info. Thank you!

Stuart Gibson was born in 1785 in Edinburg Scotland, he would go on to marry Mary Tweedie Carlyle (one year younger than he). They would petition to be granted a loan to move to South Africa which would be denied, so they would stay in London instead. Mary died around 1837, after she had four children (three of whom lived).

Stuart would quickly re marry and this is a point I'm still doing a bit of research on b/c i have conflicting accounts, but SOME claim that the new wife was only a few years older than Billy. #drama But then I have hospital records for her giving birth that lists her as older HOWEVER this birth date doesnt match up with any of the verifiable Gibson sibling birthdates from other docs like the census so idk maybe its a different Mary and Stuart Gibson. It's hard b/c Gibson was a pretty common name haha. Anyway, Stuart Gibson and Mary 2.0 would have four known children, three of whom lived. Billy would have left for the Navy right after his step-mother joined the family so he really wouldn't know the younger ones too well.

The Gibsons would move residences every couple years, but generally stuck to living in Marylebone. Stuart Gibson's shop was in Islington.

Charlotte would marry on Christmas 1848 while Billy was on the Franklin Expedition. When Billy is officially announced dead in 1853 (which is really funny b/c his age in the death register at his local church says 31) the government eventually hands over some medals for valor from his China expeditions (which Charlotte kept) and his backpay which Stuart and all the Gibsons (except Charlotte) would then take the July, 1854 ship VESTA, travelling from London to Adelaide.

Eventually they would settle in Victoria. Alfred Gibson later goes on to join expeditions into Australia's interior and ends up getting "lost" presumably dying of exposure and/or thirst. There is a desert and a plant named after him. Alfred is described as being a decent singer (in the, he got the spirit at least way), not fond of washing, judgmental about how long others liked to cook meat for, and very fond of his personal gardens. He died at the same age as Billy did, on the other end of the world.

Here’s an age range of Living Gibsons based on 1848.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #366

“you can’t take me from me”

If you’re a girl, have you ever had the urge shave your hair? No. Do you live by a forest? Not anymore. :( How old are your parents? Late 50s. What do you prefer: Small cars, hybrids, trucks or SUVs? Uh, I guess normal ones? Like the ones with four doors and not that horribly low to the ground. What’s the scariest book you’ve ever read? I've never read a book that was scary to me. Do your parents drink? Dad doesn't anymore, and Mom very rarely does, usually just for special occasions. Does downloading music without paying make you feel guilty? Yes, so idk why I still do it. .-. Do you have any pet fish? Nah. What’s your favorite seafood to eat? I only like shrimp. Does your house have air conditioning? Yes. Name the creepiest horror movie character for you: Ghostface, ever since I was a kid. I was horrified of him, and I still think his design is mega creepy. How many college degrees do you want? I wanted to get at most a Bachelor's (I never saw reason to go higher in the fields I was interested in, except for my brief wildlife biologist aspiration), but now I know I'm not getting any degrees. Do you like animals? I love animals. Have you ever written anything longer than 10 pages? Yes. What do you wear to sleep? Pj pants and a tank top. How many keys do you carry with you? One. Have you ever attended a professional sporting event? Yeah. Sometimes Dad and I would go to hockey games together. I don't really care for sports, hockey included, but it was still something we bonded over since I was normally in the living room on the laptop while he was watching it. Which do you value more, intellect or work ethic? Work ethic. Both are important, but I'd rather have a dedicated, worthy employee versus a lazy one that just happens to have brains. Have you ever been covered in mud? Yes, as a kid. Ever been to a cabin on a mountain? No, but omG I fucking wish. Ever lost your voice? Yes. Do you take your time when making an important decision? I take way too much time because I obsess over doing the right thing. Are you a cautious person? Very. Do you chew gum? Sometimes. What makeup product do you never use? A lot, really. Bronzer is literally never, I haven't touched blush in forever, and the same goes for foundation. Have you ever been offered drugs on the street? No. Have you ever seen a jellyfish? Only at aquariums. Do you ever put bread in your soup? UGH, NO. Bread should NOT be soggy. Do you want some soup? No, I don't even really like soup. Is there anything in the USB key slots in your computer/laptop? Yeah, the sensor thing for my wireless mouse. Did anyone ever draw on your face when you were sleeping? I don't believe so; I'd certainly feel it and wake up. Have you ever done that to someone else? Pretty sure no. Is there any TV show you watch religiously? No. Do you like the window seat or aisle seat on an airplane? WINDOW. I hate the aisle seat, mainly because I get dizzy when I can't see outside for some reason? I really don't know how that works, but when I sit at the window and can see what the plane is doing, I don't get dizzy. I also really want to just stare outside as I listen to my iPod. Has anyone ever really insulted you? Yes. Do you ever make banana sandwiches? I have a peanut butter and banana sandwich rarely. What’s your favorite movie soundtrack? Probably Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Phil went HARD, y'all. Did your parents teach you how to cook/bake when you were growing up? There were rare occasions where I helped cook, but I never really learned. If you could own any three fictional objects from any book/movie/show, what would you choose? (does not have to all be from the same book/movie/show) Ohhh, interesting. I'm going to include games in this, because that's what I'm most informed in. ... And I'm still blanking. OH! Definitely a Dreamvisitor from Wings of Fire, as I think it'd be pretty cool or even useful to see into other's dreams and even communicate. The Obsidian Mirror from the same series would also be pretty cool, but also seems somewhat immoral to me, I guess, to be able to spy on others. I mean it could be useful in some cases, but still. I somehow can't think of a third one, even after expanding my options to games. A lot of game objects are just too specific to their fantasy universe and not helpful in real life. What’s the shortest amount of time you’ve worked somewhere? Not even two hours lmaoooo. Have you ever negotiated a pay raise? No. Have you ever been a victim of identity theft? No. Do you know anyone who’s had their kids taken by Child Protective Services? No. What is your favorite smell/scent? Cinnamon rolls. How long can you run without stopping? I honestly don't think I *could* run without my knees immediately being like "um excuse the fuck out of you" and crumpling. What age do you want to live to? I know this varies from person to person, so I can't say an exact age, but I do. NOT. Want to live to where I'm a liability/require other people to take care of me, like give me a bath and stuff. No. Fuck-ing. Thank you. If you had a time machine, when would you go to? I'd honestly want a glimpse into my future, just to see how I'll be. At the same time though, I feel like knowing would suck if I saw something bad instead of a good life. Like, I'd possibly be suicidal again if it's just crap. I feel like if I was legitimately offered this, I would say no. Have you ever been infatuated with someone and you didn’t even know why? No. I think. Have you ever felt an earthquake? No. Is your more photogenic side your left or right? Well, because of how my hair is positioned, my left side. My hair is parted very far to the left, so the right side of my face is sorta cut diagonally by hair. Do you currently owe money to anyone? No. If you were ever to be on the news, what would you want it to be for? Something heroic, I guess. What’s the fastest you’ve ever driven? Accidentally, probably up to like 80 on the highway. Have you ever donated blood? Have you ever done a blood test? I have to both. Have you been inside of a burning building? What happened? Z O I N K S no. Do you believe in astrology/horoscopes? Nope. Have you ever dined alone at a restaurant? No. Have you been in a car accident? What happened? Yes. Some idiot was carrying wood in the back of his truck, and it wasn't secured whatsoever. He hit a bumpy spot, and some of the wood dropped to the road, and he began to swerve out of control. Nailed the side and bumper of my mom's car. Mom drove into a ditch, but in some manner to avoid us flipping over, which judging from the impact point, cops theorized was "supposed" to happen. Nowadays I am terrified to ride or drive behind trucks carrying anything in the back. Have you ever lived alone? No. Have you ever been stung by a bee? Once, on my leg. Have you ever bought stuff at a thrift store? Yeah, I love thrift shops. What was your very first email address? The one I still use now, so I won't share it. It fits me well, but I still hate sharing it, haha. It's just not very "adult-ish." How often do you take naps? Just about every day. Have you ever won a game of pool? Idr. Have you ever seen a tornado in real life? NOOOOOOOOOOO. Have you been in a long-distance relationship? Yes. Have you swam in the ocean? Yeah, I love it. Have you gone ziplining? No, but it'd be cool! Have you been rock climbing? No, just those mock walls at school field days and stuff. Have you hitchhiked? No. Have you had stitches? Where? My chin and then at the very base of my spine. Have you ridden in a taxi? What about an Uber/Lyft? None of those. Have you ridden on a horse? Not legit, but at childhood festivals where there are some horses that walk in a circle... the poor things. I would LOVE to ride a non-restrained, tame horse. Ugh, I wish I could have a horse in general. Their ability to bond with humans is magical. I'll never actually have one, though. I could nooot do all the care they require, and I don't plan on living somewhere where having a horse is appropriate. Have you taken part in a protest? What for? No, just boycotting. Have you ever signed a petition? Yes. I can't remember all of them. Have you ever been fired from a job? Why? No. Have you ever given someone else a haircut? No. What is the longest your hair has been? Just past the small of my back. Have you ever been stranded because your car broke down? No. Thank god for phones, lol. Have you performed on stage? What did you do? Yes, for school band concerts as well as dance recitals. Have you ever used a tanning bed? What about tanning spray? No. How do you prefer to celebrate your birthday? Just quiet and chill with my family, but still give me alone time, please. Who is the best cook that you know? /shrug Do you believe in Bigfoot? What about the Loch Ness Monster? The Loch Ness Monster I don't, but I find surviving sasquatches very possible. There's just too many reported sightings to be totally ignored. I'm not 100% on them still being around, though. I feel like we would've caught one by now. Do your friends tend to be male or female? Female. If you could change anything about human nature, what would it be? Our proclivity to violence when angered. Have you ever fainted? Yes. What skills would you like to learn? Cooking, how to handle money in various contexts, social skills... There's a lot of things. What animal do you have the most possessions *of*, or featuring? Meerkats, for sure. If you smoke marijuana, what is your preferred or typical method? I don’t. Do you remain friends with anyone you met at your first job? No. Are there any flowers planted outside your house? No. Do you have a favourite outfit that you like to wear for nights out? I don't have "nights out." When you have a soft drink, do you prefer it in a bottle or can? I like cans because the metal helps it stay cold. Who was the last person to embarrass you? What did they do? I don't know. When you’re upset, do you tend to comfort eat or lose your appetite? I am a BAD comfort eater. Who was the last person to send you a message on Facebook? Does/did that person go to the same school as you? My online friend Sammy. No. Has a stranger ever offered to buy you a drink? No. When was the last time you used a public toilet? Ummm I think for my birthday lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Who did you have your first kiss with? Do you remember what colour his/her eyes were? Jason has brown eyes. Are there any themes from TV shows that you like to sing along to? That '70s Show and especially Supernatural.

[turnabouttoothbrush]

Reckoning, Chapter Twelve

Today’s sporkers: Chill, Kiri, and Anna.

Anna: I just realized that in the last sporking, we said we were going to update @askprincessmyshkin in the next week.

Chill: Boy, that sure ended up happening, didn’t it?

Kiri: We literally don’t have an excuse anymore. All we’ve done for the past couple weeks is just lay in bed and slowly starve ourselves.

Anna: Shhh.

Chill: Roll fic!!

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Just thinking," he said. I smiled, but felt a little bitter.

"Just thinking…" I said, "about Luxord?" He didn't answer me and I knew I was right. "Did he injure your heart or your mind?" I asked, sliding my fingers along his chest. I was surprised when he shivered as I touched him. When he still didn't answer, I pushed him down gently.

"What are you doing Roxas?" He asked, clearly surprised as I kissed first his chest then his forehead, both deliberately slowly and lovingly.

"Whenever my dad would get angry and hit me when I was little, before my mother passed, she'd kiss me where I was hurt like that and I'd feel better," I said, running my fingers along the tattoos on his cheeks. "Was I wrong?" I asked, widening my eyes a little.

Axel smiled at me warmly. "No," he said, "I feel much better."

Kiri: *yawn*

I smiled down at the red-head, glad that I'd made him feel better.

Chill: I don’t know if anyone’s brought this up before-

Kiri: Probably, this sporking’s running on a bit long and we’re not rereading previous chapters before doing a new one.

Anna: When are we doing another intermission, again?

Chill: Anyway, this fic has a tendency of just kind of ending the chapter randomly in the middle of a scene and then picking up again literally half a second later in the next chapter. It’s really annoying, like, why end the chapter there? There’s no reason to.

Anna: Yeah, ending a chapter mid-scene should only happen if it’s a cliffhanger.

Chill: The way this fic is, it’s like the chapters just ended wherever the author decided they didn’t feel like writing anymore that day.

Kiri: Considering how short the chapters are, I believe that actually is the case.

"So are you gonna tell me about yourself?" I asked, still draped over him.

Axel laughed. "That's a lot of information. What do you want to know?" I pursed my lips, looking upward in thought. What to ask, what to ask… I ended up with going with the first thing off of the top of my head.

"Have you always worn boxers?" I asked.

Chill: Ah, I see we’re getting into the deepest facets of his characterization here. *nodnod*

I could tell he hadn't expected that, and saw amusement flash across his face before he laughed lightly.

"Yeah," he said, "have you? Or have you only ever worn mine?" he asked, fingering the black fabric he was referring to. I flushed a little before nodding, making him laugh again. I thought some more then asked more questions that came to mind.

"How did you become the leader of this gang?

Anna: Why does he have to stop and ponder twice before thinking to ask such an obvious question?

Kiri: Because he’s dumb. Next question.

Tell me about your family. Do you have any?" I asked, hoping I wasn't asking too much at once.

Axel looked at the ceiling searchingly for a few moments as if wondering where to begin. "I never knew my parents," Axel finally said. "My grandfather, who was the original head of my gang,

Kiri: Is this a street gang or the fucking mafia?

Chill: I don’t think the author knows the difference.

Anna: I think the only research the author did was watch West Side Story once or twice.

Chill: With The Godfather in between...?

didn't like my mother, so when my father died soon after we were born he took us away from her. He was very… influential."

"Us?" I asked.

Axel nodded, "Yeah, my twin brother Reno and I." Ahh, Reno. The person Axel'd killed Vexen for.

Anna: *as Roxas* He’d seemed unimportant, so I’d forgotten about him.

Axel paused, looking up at the ceiling again as he thought. "For some reason, the old man always liked me more, so when he passed on, he made me the leader of his gang about five years ago, not leaving Reno anything. Reno wasn't too happy about it. We ended up having a falling out and he left. I didn't hear any news of him until he joined Vexen's gang about a year ago just to spite me, since he knew that I hated the man and we were huge rivals."

Kiri: This is organized crime we’re talking about. He wouldn’t join a rival gang out of spite. He’d join a rival gang for a means to kill members of your gang, i.e. you, considering the jerk grandfather is dead. Yet you phrase it like he decided to go to a college whose sports team is at odds with grandpappy’s alum.

Anna: Again, West Side Story.

Kiri: People died in West Side Story!

He paused again to look at me. "I'd finally worked things out with him though about a month before I saw you for the first time," He said. "We'd just gotten on good terms again when got killed by Vexen."

"Your gang was started by your grandfather?" I asked,

Chill: *as Roxas* Your grandfather lived long enough to meet his grandchildren? And knew who his bastard children were well enough to know when they had bastards of their own?!

Kiri: I’d say the author has a romanticized view of gang life, but that would imply that it’s on some level based on reality.

thinking about the first thing he'd said and wanting to wipe the look of regret off of his face. I'd raised a question in my mind, even more so when he nodded. "But when we were at the hospital, a doctor said that the gang was new."

"Well," said Axel, "Most people confuse it for being new, since I implemented a lot of drastic changes and changed more or less everything.

Kiri: Of course, how he changed things will never be addressed.

Chill: But we know it involves more burning people alive! :D

Although my grandfather liked me, I wasn't so fond of him," Axel said a little bitterly. "I suppose it is newer than most of the gangs in town. Most've been around for far longer." I blinked, remembering what Zexion had said about using fire, wondering if that was new, but didn't press about it at all. I didn't want Axel to be mad at Zexion.

Anna: Considering it’s obviously part of the gang’s reputation, you could just say you heard it somewhere else.

Chill: Nah. Axel knows that Roxas doesn’t go anywhere or do anything without him and/or his cronies. Hearing it somewhere else implies Roxas has been somewhere else.

Anna: Oof.

"Why did you try to get to know me? What about me caught your attention?" I asked. The question had been brought on by the mention of Vexen.

Kiri: And totally not a desire to flatter your own ego.

Axel smiled, staring into my eyes once again.

"At first," he said, looking away as though he felt guilty, "I just wanted to steal you away from Vexen because we were rivals. Call it childish of me, but it's true."

Chill: Wow, literally admitting you see your partner as property/an object to be stolen and showboated. What number red flag is this by now?

Anna: It could be worse. It could be HIEQ2.

Chill: Hmmm.

I was about to scoff at him but then he opened his mouth to continue. "Even from a distance, I could tell that you were really pretty," he said, looking at me again, "but when I saw you up close, I thought you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen," he added, making me flush a little.

Kiri: *as Axel* So since you’re so hot and all, I figured that’d make for even better showboating, and the rest is history.

He smiled suddenly, at the remembrance our first encounter. "When you wouldn't look at me, even when we were alone, up until you rejected me, I became even more interested in you," he said

Anna: Telegraphing a lack of interest makes him more interested? What kinda creepy rapist shit is this?

Chill: +1 to the red flag count!

"What about after I rejected you?" I asked. "How did you feel about me then?"

"I wasn't resentful about it," he said, sighing, "Just… confused and a little upset. You were the first person to ever reject me in my entire life.

Kiri: Well, that explains the creepy rapist shit.

Chill: Haha, he’s just like the “One way or another, you will be mine!” villain from some bodice-ripping Mary Sue romance. They’re so used to having women ukes swooning at their feet that when the Strong and Independent™ Don’t Need No Man©️ lead rejects him, he gets obsessed and starts twirling his mustache and stuff.

Kiri: The main difference here is that Axel is not a villain and is, in fact, the love interest.

Anna: Didn’t Vexen have the exact same attitude, though?

I honestly was wondering if there was something wrong with me," He said. The statement made me feel guilty and angry at Vexen. "I almost didn't kill Vexen because I thought that you were happy," he said, recapturing my attention.

Anna: Seriously? He was gonna abandon his revenge quest just because the object of his vengeance had a hot boyfriend who might get sad?

"What made you change your mind?" I asked, shocked.

"Xaldin assured me that you were far from being even remotely happy," Axel said staring angrily at the ceiling. I made a mental note to thank Xaldin later. "He wouldn't say why, just that you weren't," Axel continued. "It was most likely to stop me from doing anything stupid, like going after the bastard all by myself."

Kiri: I don’t understand how these two concepts are related.

I nodded, remembering how he'd saved me from my dad all on his own. Not the wisest choice he'd made. He'd almost died for it.

"You would've forgone your plans for revenge for Reno, stood off to the side and watched me be happy with somebody else, just so that I could be happy? Even after I'd rejected you and even though you didn't know me?" I asked. I'd still been subconsciously tracing the tattoos on Axel's cheeks, but stopped as soon as I'd asked.

Axel looked at me. "Yes,"

Anna:

he said. "Perhaps I was just being irrational because I liked you a lot, call it love at first sight if you will, and I didn't want to hurt you."

I felt myself flush a little deeper at the confession. "Axel…" I whispered when a hand found its way to my face, caressing my cheek.

"I'm glad that I didn't have to though," he said. I smiled down at him.

"Me too," I whispered back.

Chill: This is corny. I thought I was corny.

Kiri: This scene exceeded WAFF and went to, I dunno, food poisoning.

Anna: Is it really WAFF if it’s got rape in it, though?

Kiri: There isn’t any in this chapter...

"Thanks for today," I said, after a long pause. "The funeral, the drive, the fissure; thank you so much for everything."

"…Roxas," Axel said, hesitantly.

"Yeah, Axel?" I asked.

"First, any more questions?" he asked. I shook my head no.

Kiri: Yo. Why was there a linebreak between this section of text and the last? It’s the same scene.

Chill: Not like we’d changed POV either or anything like that...

Anna: The author got bored mid-scene and ended it there for the day, then continued the chapter tomorrow. And failed to realize that just because you took a break writing there doesn’t actually mean you should put in a linebreak.

Kiri: It’s literally the same scene!

"Can I kiss you then?" he asked quickly after that, searching my face to see how I was taking his question. I was honestly surprised he'd asked. I'd never been asked for permission before.

I stared down at him, wide-eyed until he looked away. "Never mind," he said, sighing lightly and looking away. I scoffed at him for giving up before I'd even given him an answer. I wasn't sure if I wanted him to kiss me or not right at that moment, but the action had made me a little angry.

Chill: lol calm down

Gripping his chin I made him look at me. "Roxa-" was all he managed to say before I pressed my lips to his. I pushed my tongue inside his mouth in a forceful manner, briefly brushing it against his own tongue before pulling away. It'd only been a brief kiss, but I'd managed to turn his cheeks a light shade of pink.

Anna: Maybe the ‘change’ that the linebreak indicated was actually Roxas changing from a uke to a seme.

Kiri: Every time we use one of those terms I get instantaneously transported back to 2009.

Chill: This fic’s from 2009. Well, 2008-2011 anyway.

Kiri: Writing a fic for three years? Wild.

Chill: Aren’t you writing a fic longer than War and Peace?

Kiri: What’s your point? I started work on it June 2017 and if work continues at its average pace so far I’ll be done by this time next year. This fic’s only 89k words - counting author’s notes - while FeetGround’s at about 267k as of the time of this publishing.

Anna: Uh huh. And LAL was posted in April 2014 and the Janaverse still isn’t completed.

Kiri: I...! That...!! That’s different!!

"Did I say no?" I asked, looking down at him. He shook his head no, obviously surprised by my assertiveness.

Chill: *as Axel* Hey, that’s not how things are supposed to go!

"Then why did you give up?" I asked, bending back down, allowing him to slide his hand to the back of my neck.

"The look on your face… I thought…" he said, gripping the back of my neck lightly, stopping when I smiled at him.

"I was shocked," I said in an attempt to explain. "That's the first time anybody's ever asked for my permission to kiss me." I waited until a look of understanding came across his face before continuing. "The answer's yes, by the way," I whispered, just above his lips.

Anna: No shit?

Chill: *as Roxas now* Sure, I kissed you, but I just decided that the answer was actually no, so the campus rape police’ll be along shortly.

"If you get scared," Axel said before doing anything, "call my name to remember it's me.

Kiri: Okay, I kinda like that.

Chill: Why am I not surprised?

Kiri: Shut up.

Anna: How’s he supposed to call his name if he’s got his tongue down his throat?

If that doesn't work, tell me to stop, okay?" he asked, probably not wanting to scare me or make me cry again. I nodded. As soon as I did, Axel immediately raised his head just enough to capture my lips. I trembled against him as he ran his fingers along my neck, patiently waiting for me to open my mouth.

Anna: Haha, what? You were being all dominant a second ago, why are you shivering like a terrified virgin bride on her wedding night now?

Kiri: The seme-uke switch was a fluke and therefore very temporary.

I relaxed my jaw, allowing his warm, wet tongue to slip past my lips and part my teeth. My eyes fluttered shut as he began to explore my mouth slowly, as if memorizing it. I started to kiss him back but ended up gasping into his mouth when he pulled me closer and rolled so that he was on top. Axel tilted his head slightly before delving deeper into my mouth, urging me to participate again, which I did. By the time he pulled away I was breathless.

Chill: Why do I get the feeling that when Axel and Roxas finally smash it won’t be described as... sensually... as this kiss?

Anna: They’re still kissing?

"Can I continue?" he asked giving my lips a quick peck. I stared up into his emeralds,

Chill: wondering how much they were worth,

uncertainly, wondering what else he wanted to do… how far he wanted to go… before nodding in consent. It's not like I still had my virginity, so I wasn't nervous about going all the way,

Kiri:

Anna and Chill:

no, but every time I'd been raped, going all the way hadn't been a pleasant experience. It'd hurt like hell because I fought it.

Kiri: No, fucking really?!

Chill: I can’t decide if I like the implication that being raped is comparable to getting rained out at the beach, or that it wouldn’t have necessarily been an unpleasant experience if he hadn’t fought it.

Anna: I would have thought that being raped (RECENTLY) would make you way more nervous about going all the way than being a virgin would, but what do I know?

It didn't take long for Axel to kiss me again, then work his way down to my neck. I shivered, grasping his shoulders when teeth grazed my neck but shook violently, when he bit my neck, immediately reminded of Vexen. I shakily called his name twice, trying to keep myself from panicking. It wasn't working very well. I was just about to call his name for the third time when he pulled away from my neck and kissed me on the lips again, instantly calming me.

Chill: Is this the part where we make fun of them for using a safeword during vanilla sex?

Kiri: That’s enough.

Anna: At least they are using a safeword. Though if either one of them had a single brain cell to share it might have occured to them to get a rough idea of what Roxas is comfortable with beforehand.

Kiri: ...isn’t Roxas underage?

Chill: Haha, yeah.

"I'm tired," Axel said, probably not wanting me to feel bad for getting scared when he pulled away. "Wanna go to sleep?" I looked up at him gratefully for being so understanding before nodding.

Axel moved off of me, going to turn off the light as I got under the covers. When he came back he got under the sheets as well. I didn't protest when his arms wrapped around my waist and he pulled me closer to him until my back was pressed against his chest. He murmured something into my hair that I didn't quite catch. "What?" I whispered, turning my face toward his.

Anna: *as Axel* I said I was gonna collect that ass eventually and I meant it.

"Nothing," he whispered, just before a feather soft kiss brushed against my cheek. "Goodnight, Roxas," he whispered, settling his head against his pillow.

"Goodnight, Axel," I whispered back before doing the same.

--

I woke the next morning, opening my eyes wide when I felt arms wrapped around me loosely. I was just about to elbow whoever it was in the stomach to cause them pain

Kiri: As opposed to all the other reasons you might elbow someone in the stomach.

while I made for the door, 

Kiri: Oh.

Chill: Well now it just sounds like he’s simultaneously elbowing someone on the bed and getting out the door on the other side of the room.

Anna: That’s a loooong elbow.

but froze when I looked over my shoulder first and saw that it was Axel. Maybe tomorrow I should face him before falling asleep, I thought, glad that I'd looked first. I turned around in his loose grip, trying to be careful so I wouldn't wake him up. My movements, no matter how small, however, must've woken him anyway. His brilliant green eyes fluttered open almost immediately.

Anna: He’s a light sleeper, because if he wasn’t then it’d be too easy for his bitch to escape. :)

"Roxas," he said, tiredly, "good morning."

"Good morning," I said, smiling at him apologetically as he yawned. "Sorry for waking you."

Axel just shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he said, looking distracted when he fully woke up.

"Is there something on your mind?" I asked, immediately getting pulled closer.

Kiri: Cliché morning wood setup?

Chill: *as Axel* You have to take care of it. Blue balls hurt, you know.

"Roxas," he said, seriously and tense. He relaxed a little when I raised my hand and ran my thumb along his cheek, "I know that you probably won't like what I'm about to say," he said, refusing to meet the intense gaze I was giving him, "but I want you to quit the gang."

I stilled my hand.

"What?" I whispered in disbelief.

Anna: I’m going to assume he’s in disbelief because that’s probably the first time in this whole fic that someone’s said something that reasonable.

Kiri: Yeah. We’ve already gone over ad infinitum why a street gang is a totally inappropriate environment for someone of Roxas’ background.

Chill: Even besides that, he kinda just got kidnapped and raped and stuff because of gang business on his literal first outing for them, so like... what the hell was he expecting here? Obviously he’d get kicked over that, he’s a danger to himself. And others. Demyx got shot because of him, right?

Anna: Though if Axel didn’t try to kick him out and the entire incident just kinda passed without further comment... I don’t think we would’ve noticed...

Kiri: Well, it’s not like it’s really occured to anyone else all fic that Roxas shouldn’t be in a bloody street gang.

Anna: It’s just gonna get milked for drama anyway. Even if Roxas isn’t technically part of the gang anymore he’s still gonna be hanging out with them foreverrrrr.

Chill: Because staying with the SO you had at age sixteen for the rest of your life is a good idea, right?!

Kiri: Urk.

Anna: Anyway, tune in next time for... drama milking...!!

To be continued!

[fadedtoblue]

Recap of the Defenders panel at SDCC, pt. 2 (aka just a beat by beat recap of episode 1...)

If you missed, it you can catch part 1 here. I’m sure you can find videos of the panel out now, but if you wanted my additional commentary, there you go, haha :).

I’ve been writing bits and pieces of this since Friday night, so needless to say, I’m starting to get a little fuzzy on the order of the scenes and specifics b/c I was in such a state of shock while watching (and I don’t get the benefit of rewatching it right away 10 times in a row, lol), but I’ll try to recollect as much as possible, as best I can. I’ll also share some of my opinions and theories at the very end.

Some brief, non-spoilery thoughts: This was definitely a set up episode for everything that is to come, so as much as I know everyone wants answers to certain questions, you’re just not going to get to them right away. The show doesn’t hesitate to pick up the threads left from each individual series though, so don’t expect it to be slow at all. They also did a lovely job making each Defenders’ scenes look and feel like their own shows, while still bringing them all together into a new kind of feel and style for The Defenders. I was impressed by that. Anyway, if you have any more general questions, feel free to send me an ask or note.

And now...I shouldn’t have to say this, but just in case...HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE DEFENDERS UNDER THE CUT! (Apologies for any mistakes, I wrote too much and just want to get it posted rather than spending even more time editing!)

Opening scene:

Very first scene opens in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. An unnamed man is being chased by a woman in black wielding double katanas and shrouded in darkness down some sort of sewer-like corridor, exchanging blows, and the man is clearly getting overwhelmed in the fight. Before she can land the killing stroke, Danny appears out of the darkness and jumps into the fight to draw the woman away. Danny is holding his own, but the woman is clearly a superior fighter, and lands a nice slice across Danny’s tattoo; in his shock, the woman gets the opening she needs and stabs the mystery man to death. Danny tries to chase down the woman, who is running away, and manages to land one Iron fist-packed punch on her, which sends her flying, but she disappears as quickly as she appeared. When Danny returns to the man, Colleen is with him, and we see that he’s clearly dying. After a bit of back and forth, the man tells them that their fight is not there, it’s in New York. Very mysterious, and Danny is extremely frustrated. This has apparently been one of their biggest leads in their search for the Hand, and just like that, he’s gone. Also, it’s pretty obvious this woman is Elektra, and the most impressive thing was how much her fighting skills had supernaturally improved. A small hint at the power of the Black Sky! (Note: there’s really no hint as to who this guy could be, and I originally assumed maybe he was affiliated with the Hand, like Bakuto’s faction or something? But the end credits mention Shaft, who was announced as a character on the show, and plays a big role in the Chaste, so that’s an interesting tie in!)

Opening credit sequence:

New song and graphic styles, I really can’t recall now, but think the instrumental had a kind of synth-y vibe. The backgrounds are basically outlined, lit up, 3-D maps of New York, but they form each of the different characters in their main color palette. It’s super cool. The names on the credits also utilize an effect on certain letters to make it look like a subway line design (i.e. Charlie Cox’s name has a C in a circle). It’s a cute touch and really drives the whole “New York is the fifth Defender!” thing home.

Okay, this is where the order of these scenes gets a little iffy in my head, not to mention we do switch between the characters pretty often this episode...I think I’m fairly clear on the details themselves though! I’ll basically try to summarize everyone’s scenes in one go and then summarize the closing act on its own!

Jessica Jones:

Jessica is (surprise, surprise!) passed out drunk in an empty bar and gets rudely awakened by the bartender, who helpfully informs her that it’s morning and she should probably get out of his bar. Next, we see Trish is running across the street to keep her car from getting towed, but the cop is an ass and refuses to unhook it. Suddenly, we see the car get pulled off by an inexplainable force! Turns out it’s Jessica, who snarkily asks the cop if he has a problem, and Trish has trouble holding back a smile. Now we see Trish and Jessica walking down the street with coffee cups and fighting over Jessica’s life state post-Kilgrave, one that involves a lot of drinking and zero working, which greatly concerns Trish. Trish lets Jessica know that she’s been getting a lot of interest in her story and wants Jessica to take some interviews, if only to make some extra money while she’s not working. Trish says something to the affect of, only you (Jessica) could take a personal triumph and turn it into despair, or something like that. Jessica tries to tell her not to worry. Trish takes a sip of her coffee and nearly spits it out -- turns out Jesica had handed her coffee to Trish and Trish finds out the coffee has whiskey. This got a pretty good laugh during the screening :). Jessica is then shown walking down the hallway to her apartment -- the window is boarded up and clearly hasn’t been fixed since JJ S1. There are two people standing outside the door as she approaches, a woman who seems well-dressed and pulled together, and her teenage daughter, who is snarky and disdainful toward Jessica. The mom heard about what Jessica did and wants her to take a case -- her husband has been missing for a week -- and Jessica flat out says no. As the woman presses her case, Jessica goes into mocking mode, and suggests that everyone thinks THEIR partner would never do anything like this, but usually they’re always cheating. The daughter lobs a few snarky comments at Jessica and the mom, and finally the two of them leave. Jessica seems to have a moment of remorse as she’s opening the door, turns around, and calls out to them. The woman turns around hopefully but Jessica only says that she hopes they can find him soon. The inside of Jessica’s apartment is still absolutely trashed from all of the Luke / Kilgrave stuff from S1 -- part of the scenes are shot through the hole in the wall, which is hilarious. She gets a phone call, and someone using a voice scrambler warns her not to take the case. Dun dun dun! We know what that means!!

Later on, you see Jessica sitting at her desk with her laptop open, using her expert Googling skills to learn more about missing mystery man. At this point, Malcolm strolls in, which pisses Jessica off -- she’s already told him to stop coming into her apartment, he says she gave him a key, she counters that he made himself his own copy of the key, he helpfully clarifies because he was helping her get her locks changed, banter banter banter. I want to know that Malcolm has beefed up a lot for this show. It was noticeable lol. He immediately notices she’s on her computer and absolutely lights up, asking whether she’s taken on a case? She insists she hasn’t taken it...yet, and he’s basically celebrating that she’s totally taken the case and runs over to hover over her shoulder while she’s researching, which pisses her off. They talk briefly about the guy who’s missing, and Jessica mentions that the only reason why she’s even doing this is because she got a call from someone using a voice scrambler who doesn’t want her to look into it, but surely they covered their tracks and won’t want to be found. At which point Malcolm posits the possibility that the guy is actually an amateur, and what if she could track the call back? So Jessica pulls a Jessica and calls the operator, pretending that she received a call from her grandfather who is missing from dementia and gets the number. They find the address the number is connected to, which Malcolm immediately recognizes as a super shady neighborhood that people generally used to get off the grid to use drugs, etc.

Jessica shows up at the building Malcolm helped her identify. Inside, it looks and sounds sketchy as hell -- flickering lights, sounds of people fighting and/or having sex, a real ball. She heads up the stairs to the specific apartment she seems to have identified as the exact location of the call. She bangs on the door, telling him (I assume she thinks it’s James -- the husband -- hiding out in there) that the landlord / someone already told her he’s inside. After getting no response, she does her patented doorknob breaking move (the scene we saw in the first trailer) and goes in. There’s a TV on, but the place is otherwise dim and abandoned. She slowly walks through, peeking into the bedroom and rounding back out to the living area. She spots some boxes, opens one up and inside is either weapons or explosives (I’m leaning toward the latter) -- the camera paused on it for a quick few seconds and I didn’t absorb the writing as thoroughly as I’d like, but it’s obviously something really bad.

Luke Cage:

We start out with the scene of him walking down the jail corridor, while the inmates cheer him on. It’s not super clear in the beginning, but we soon discover that Luke had his charges cleared, thanks to the excellent lawyering provided by one MR. FOGGY NELSON, who is clean shaven and sporting a very short haircut (gotta look the part at those big firms I guess!). Luke asks for Claire, but Foggy tells him only lawyers are allowed. Luke decides it’s time to hop on a bus and get back to New York ASAP. Before he leaves, Foggy gives him his business card and lets him know he can always reach out if he ever needs help starting over. Luke assures him he doesn’t need to start over, just need to move forward. Foggy helpfully lets him know that most people call him Foggy, to which Luke quips: “And you let them?” which earns a great laugh from the room :).

Now you see Luke on his bus ride back to NYC, and this scene is basically just the same scene in the first trailer with him looking out the window and seeing things like Pop’s barbershop as he drives by. He gets off the bus (which is plastered with a New Harlem Renaissance ad, so you can assume Mariah is still going at it) somewhere in Harlem and as the camera pans out, you see Ms. Claire Temple looking like her damn fine self, leaning against the wall, waiting for his return. They end up back at her apartment and immediately rock that cup of coffee, like wow, it was...physical hahaha. Think overturning furniture, going at it all over the place, I’ll admit to being slightly concerned for Claire b/c damn Luke is a strong guy, but she seemed like she was having a good time lol. In the trailer I thought they were leaning against a headboard - nope, it’s a table turned over on its side on the floor, haha. They have a nice chat afterwards, mostly focusing on what Luke might do now that he’s back in New York. He calls Claire out a little bit, saying that he knows she kept some things from him in the letters they exchanged while he was away. She confesses a lot of things happened and are still going on in the city, and she’s concerned about Luke trying to be a hero (cue the dialogue from trailer #1). At this point, there’s a knock on the door, and it’s...Misty! She’s bemused to see Luke at Claire’s place so quickly after being let out, and asks if he can take a walk down the street with her.

They exchange some small talk, apparently Misty has been made head of some sort of city-wide initiative, which is probably how they’ll take her out of Harlem and into some of the other neighborhoods in the Netflix Marvel world. They end up at a burnt out car that’s decorated with flowers, and Misty explains: there’s been a rash of somewhat unexplained deaths that bear striking similarities -- all young men from Harlem, who were recently employed at some sort of mystery job, moved their moms out of Harlem and into nice houses in what I presume is a more gentrified neighborhood of New York, but end up dead under mysterious circumstances. It could be drug running or it could be something more nefarious -- Misty doesn’t know. Luke wants to help, which Misty reacts to with skepticism (she makes a “Really? I’m going to send the guy who just got out of lockup?” kind of joke) but she mentions that this particular memorial is actually for the brother of Candace Miller, who died in LC S1. Apparently she had two brothers, so Misty tasks Luke to track down the last brother, who she last heard wasn’t exactly on the right side of the law, and talk some sense into him before the mother of that family loses her last child.

Luke heads over to the apartment building of the third brother, another interior with flashing lights, except this time with loud music. Luke encounters a group of guys in front of an apartment and asks them where he can find “insert brother’s name here b/c I honestly can’t remember it out” -- they’re about to snap at him for interrupting them and realize it’s Luke Cage, at which points their jaws snap shut and they direct him one floor up. Luke lets himself into the apartment, sees the brother, and walks up to an expensive looking speaker set up to turn down / off the music. The brother angrily exclaims, thinking that his friends are messing with his equipment and is surprised to see it’s Luke. Luke says he’s here to pay his respects, and the two have a conversation in which the brother pretty much stubbornly refuses to listen or provide any information on his brother who just died. Luke notices that for a kid between jobs, he seems to have some pretty nice things (the music / speaker system, spacious apartment, really nice shoe collection) and asks if he might have taken on the same job his brother had before he died. The boy is silent, Luke says something wise, and then leaves.

Matt Murdock:

His scene opens in his apartment, focused on some sort of Braille printer? Matt is practicing an argument for an upcoming case as the pages print off. Suddenly, he catches on the sound of someone getting mugged and you see him going into Daredevil mode and hearing the situation unfold -- Matt is visibly tensing and literally willing his body not to rush off. As he’s listening, he also hears the police approaching and containing the situation. He untenses his body and resumes practicing his speech. At this point, we switch immediately to the courtroom, where Matt is grilling a man on the stand. I couldn’t exactly follow what the incident was and what product the man’s company made, but whatever it was, it was responsible for injuring a young boy, putting him in a wheelchair. Matt is really in his element and manages to pin the executive on the stand into a corner and goes in for the kill. Then we are suddenly outside the courtroom, actually in the same courthouse we were in for the Castle trial, and the news media is there -- Matt won the case and the family of the boy who was injured were awarded $11 mil. The parents of the boy walk ahead to talk to the reporters, while the boy, sitting in the wheelchair, hangs back. Matt has a really lovely scene here when he steps back to talk to the boy, who is clearly having a hard time adjusting to his new circumstances, and gives him a Matt Murdock pep talk about handling adversity and very specifically, coming to terms with a life changing injury (wish I could share more of what he says, but I just can’t remember it and don’t want to butcher it!! It was good though). It does seem to get through to the kid, who then goes back to join his family during their little hallway press conference.

Matt turns around, and we see Karen, who was in the courtroom covering the case for the Bulletin. Karen congratulates Matt on winning the case and is complimentary toward him and what he did in the room. I think Matt also mentions Karen’s work as a journalist and she does her aw shucks Karen thing. She mentions that she needs a quote from him for the story she’s writing, and suggests that maybe they do it over a drink or a bite to eat, which Matt seems surprised at, but agrees to. (This suggests to me that they really haven’t spoken much, since the end of S2 reveal, though they’ve likely crossed paths politely since then.)

Matt and Karen are sitting in a diner, and while the atmosphere is a little awkward, it’s still friendly. They exchange some small talk about their jobs -- Karen asks Matt about his lawyering and I think this is where Matt reveals he’s doing pro bono work, although it’s possible he mentions it at the courthouse, and Karen talks about how she really feels like this is what she’s meant to do. She lowers her voice a bit and asks Matt whether he’s missed being Daredevil. He basically lies and says no. That he doesn’t regret it, but he doesn’t miss it either. Karen seems to be satisfied with that response. She has a whole line about how she really feels like they needed some time to figure themselves out and it sounds like she believes that both her and Matt are in better places now than they were before. She mentions she’s been covering the police beat and she really thinks the police are doing a good job handling the crime, at which Matt cracks a bit of a cynical smile, so maybe he actually did it...he was the hero this city needed and now they don’t need him anymore. But she thinks that right now the city needs more of Matt Murdock, and btw, she still needs that quote, and that’s just about how the scene ends. Very friendly.

EDIT!!! Didn’t realize a huge chunk of Matt’s section was missing from this recap. Damn it Tumblr, you’ve eaten parts of this post like 5 times already. This re-recap will be a bit of a rush job, sorry! Anyway, after the meeting with Karen, Matt goes to find Father Lanthom for confession. He says it’s been three days since his last confession, which suggests to me that he’s been going consistently, and often. He initially brings up the meeting with Karen, and talks about feeling bad about lying to her about not missing being Daredevil. In order to remain transparent, I will say he did use language to refer to Karen as someone he loves, but the impression didn’t come off as romantic, but more out of friendship / deeply caring for her. I really do believe he is sincere in wanting to become friends again. And nothing about the diner meeting or the conversation here feels like it’s moving toward anything more than trust building, which Matt already kind of fails at since he lies to her face there. Anyway, this part of the conversation didn’t last for very long since Lanthom takes the temperature on the situation and immediately gets to the heart of what’s bothering Matt, which I won’t bother recapping b/c you can see it in the scene below:

Danny Rand:

Since Danny was such a big part of the opening scene, he doesn’t get a traditional intro scene like the rest of the defenders in the first act of the episode, so after we’ve touched base with all of the Defenders, we bounce back into his story and find him flying back to New York on his jet with Colleen. It starts with him, alone in the bathroom, and this is where we get that dramatic scene of him wiping the mirror from the trailer. There’s little bit of editing trickery here, as he notices some weird blood splatters on the wall behind him, and he goes from the mirror to tearing off a piece of the wall? Or pushing aside some sort of curtain? And we segue seamlessly into Danny walking into some sort of eerie, abandoned hallway, all torn and tattered. We quickly notice the hallway floor is covered in bloody bodies, bodies of the dead K’un Lun monks. He passes through another doorway and there’s a whole group of them, standing in formation, covered in blood and staring down at him accusingly. He is clearly overwhelmed and confused, and turns around, only to see himself, dressed in robes and looking serious. He says something to real Danny (again, sorry about being spotty on the actually lines), which prompts real Danny to basically breakdown screaming. At this point we hear Colleen in the background, shaking him awake from what’s obviously a nightmare. She tries to get him to talk about the screaming, which he tries to shrug off as turbulence terrors, but she’s not buying it. They talk about the man they hunted down in Cambodia and it’s clear that he’s feeling guilty about his death, and is still feeling guilty about the not being at K’un Lun to protect his city. Colleen insists that it’s not his fault, but Danny remains unconvinced. Danny and Colleen return to the city and are taking a helicopter ride over the city. They’re holding hands. She’s marveling at the view and they’re discussing home -- New York is basically Colleen’s home but for Danny, even though he grew up here, he still doesn’t know if this is his home.

Alexandra:

Our introduction to Sigourney’s antagonist Alexandra lacks any bombast or fanfare, but you definitely feel...unsettled in a lot of her scenes. We first see her in some sort of nondescript building, and she’s waiting for an appointment, looking classy af. A person comes up and leads her to a really bare, empty room, and asks Alexandra to change into a patient’s gown. The nurse brings her out of the room and to a larger room with a CAT scan machine. The doctor greets her warmly but has bad news for her, which she seems to be expecting -- her red? white? blood cell count is precipitously low and her body’s organs are starting to shut down. She asks what the doctor is going to do about it, and he says there isn’t anything they can really do, which is an answer that clearly doesn’t satisfy her (“That’s not what I asked.”). When she asks how long she has, he guesstimates around a few months.

Edit: Embedded the released preview clip that corresponds with the below scene :)

We see Alexandra again in what I assume is Central Park (sorry guys, I don’t know NY!), sitting on a bench and feeding the pigeons. Again, she looks amazing. Madame Gao (woohoo!) comes into frame and says she thought she’d find her here, it’s always been her favorite spot. Alexandra muses about how surprised she is this place hasn’t already been razed to the ground and replaced with high rise buildings, she remembers when it used to be forest. She starts into a mini history lesson about New York City and how the Dutch bought it for 24 dollars -- then she drops a burn -- it was 24 dollars too much. She delivers it with such classy disdain, I love it. There’s also a hint of “Hey I was here when this happened” which tracks nicely with the hints Gao has given about her longevity / immortality...clearly Alexandra has quite a history herself. Anyway, they move onto discussion of more important things, like nefarious evil plans? Madame Gao updates Alexandra about some part of this plan and says in a few months they should be ready to make their move. Alexandra quickly shuts this down, which seems to take Madame Gao by surprise. Instead, Alexandra wants to make her move now, which Gao tries to talk her out of -- she doesn’t think it’s a good idea, they still need more time, etc etc -- but knowing what we know about Alexandra’s updated life expectancy, she obviously can’t afford to wait to make her move. At the very end of this scene, Alexandra quite flippantly tosses her bag of bird seed at Gao and orders her to finish feeding the birds. So there’s a really obvious and interesting power dynamic here...whoever Alexandra is, she’s quite used to calling the shots!

The last scene we have with Alexandra takes place after all of the scenes from the other characters, and on some sort of fancy rooftop -- it’s the one from the trailer, and I think it might be the same one Gao met with Fisk in S1? I’m not 100%. Gao lets her know that things have begun, which seems to please Alexandra greatly. And at this point, we start to see what exactly that plan is.

Closing scene:

It starts out with a rumble, almost like mild earthquake tremors. Matt is back at home after his confession with Lanthom, and his apartment is bathed in red. When the shaking starts, he freezes almost seems like he’s not sure what to do. The shaking intensifies, dust and debris flying off, and he seems actually scared at this point, kind of crouching over and covering his head. Jessica, in the mystery apartment she’s tracked down, is also looking around in a mixture of confusion, fear, and WTF as everything shakes around her. In the streets, you see huge tremors and rows of cars being propelled upwards with some sort of strange force before slamming back into the ground. At the memorial for Candace’s mother, you see her standing outside of the car and looking around in shock as the city shakes around her. A streetlamp breaks and starts to fall, but Luke appears and immediately bears the weight of the falling lamp and pushes it back up and away from her. Danny and Colleen have just gotten off the helicopter, unaware of what’s going on on the ground, but in just a few moments as they walk off the landing pad, the ground cracks beneath them and between them.

As everything crumbles outside, Alexandra calmly turns from the edge of the rooftop and walks over to Elektra in the black cloak, and says that iconic line, “It’s just a city. You’ll get used to watching them fall.”

And basically while the city is falling apart and all of our heroes are like WTF, the episode ends. I know, we were really disappointed lol.

Interesting things of note:

There’s a little scene transition device they employed, at least for the first episode, as you go into a scene for a specific character -- it was sort of a quick-cut style with visual snippets and ambient sounds and slightly colorized for each Defender. I haven’t watched Jessica Jones since it first aired, but it reminded me of that show. Not too surprising because the director for the first 2 episodes of Defenders is the same director who did JJ!

I wrote the heading for this section 2 days ago so while I may have had interesting thoughts then, I certainly don’t now, sorry lol!

[canaryatlaw]

Well today was pretty all around good, so yay for that! Alarm went off at 9 am and I got myself up, thankfully, and made my way to church, even though it was raining and fucking freezing all fucking day AGAIN which didn't make the journey very pleasant at all but I did make it with some time to kill since I was going to service first (I use the same time set up to get to church, and when I'm in the babies room first I need to get there a bit earlier, so when I'm going to the service first I end up being early) so I went to the awesome volunteer lounge they have that's always stocked with amazing food and had some of this chicken and dumplings combination and I definitely used the chili toppings of sour cream, cheddar cheese, and oyster crackers and mixed it all together, and it was pretty damn awesome. So then I sat in the lounge and talked to people I know, including a discussion about 13 reasons why based off my Facebook post from yesterday (and I was speaking with the mom of teenagers so that of course brought up some important stuff to be mindful of while watching) which got over 30 likes so I felt was pretty successful. Went to service, and I feel super bad about this but I was definitely feeling rather sleepy during it and I legit can't remember pretty much any of the message haha which is bad. I think it's the new melatonin I'm trying, it's the same amount as all the others but maybe I think I'm letting too much of it dissolve in my mouth or something stupid like that so I managed to stay awake guru didn't get much out of the message unfortunately. Thankfully, I knew that only happened when I was sitting and not actively doing anything, so I wouldn't get sleepy while in the babies room. So I make it up there once the service ends, one volunteer from the last service is sticking around to pack things up a bit. I forget if I've mentioned this before, I probably have at some point, but my church has to move off site for the month of May for construction, so after today's service we had to pack everything up to move. But things were quiet at first and there was a very cute little 5 month old girl I was playing with, and I settled her to be rather content in one of the little rockers with toys hanging from above. I don't remember the exact order, but we got a few more babies shortly after, including a little girl who's apparently been having a hard time staying and not crying for quite a while now and her parents were convinced she was gonna start screaming as soon as they left, and then she was good for pretty much the entire service, like I think there was maybe 1 minute worth of crying the whole time which was pretty impressive. Then we got a quick influx because they were doing baby dedications today in this service so after they do that they take the babies to the nursery of course so we had like 4 of them come in. We weren't doing too bad because for the most part everyone was cooperating so it was only a little chaotic. A mom and her son who's also had troubles came in and she sticks around for him, and there's this really cute little girl who can walk and such but just really likes being held, so once the other official worker and I were dealing with actually crying babies she just went to the mom and basically was in her lap the whole time and it was too cute haha because I know from previous conversations she has 3 little boys and would like a little girl. We may actually ask if she wants to join the team working in the babies room soon haha since she seems to be doing well with it already. I had one of the adorable twins that was dedicated for a little while because she was crying, they're normally very docile and almost never cry but thanks to the dedication they missed their nap so she was cranky and ended up getting passed off. Then the 5 month old girl I was with originally started crying so I held her and rocked her for probably the last 20 minutes, she stopped crying fairly quickly but didn't seem all that interested in falling asleep even though I could tell she was tired, so we just hung out and it was fine. So yeah, a bit chaotic but overall pretty good turn out for that number of babies and few volunteers. At the end of the service the two other babies team coaches who are married and lawyers showed up (they had served in an earlier service) to help with the packing and transition, so I stuck with them for a while and packed stuff up, and then we had a little powwow with everyone there on what the plan was and there was a funny little moment where they were trying to explain what would be happening to the building that made it so we couldn't be in it, and they said something like they "have to build in easements" for something about the seating but easements are a concept in property law so as soon as they said that word all 3 of us just looked at each other and smothered our giggles. It was around this time though that I realized the rest of it was probably gonna be a lot of lifting and carrying, which I really should not be doing with my back, and after voicing it the two of them told me to get out of here and go study for my finals because they had enough people haha and I didn't really have any good arguments against so I did (after grabbing a slice of crappy papa johns pizza and a less crappy ice cream bar). I wasn't gonna go all the way back up north to home since I would need to be around there for the babies team meeting we were having tonight anyway, so I went over to the Starbucks I've been chilling in when I have time to kill in that area to get some work done. I had my first experience with "pink drink" because up to this point whenever I'd asked they said they were out of the stuff to make it with. I was somewhat skeptical because I'm not really a coconut fan at all but I wanted to try it, and it was actually really good! So I'm a fan, lol, typical basic white girl I know. But then I got down to business to defeat my paper, 6 sections left out of 21, which I was able to knock down to 2 sections left after today (which is really 1 1/2 half sections because one is partially answered). Basically, I have everything except the revenue and expense budget because I have no fucking idea where to even start with that, but I'm gonna consult the actual textbook (if you could call it that) that we got for the class that I stopped reading out of after the second week of class and hopefully they can help with some guidance there, and if not my bs skills are pretty universally well-tuned, so hey, I may just be able to pull it off anyway. After that I'll just have to write the appendix which should be fairly short, and some sort of works cited page (I was pressing him for what kind of citations he wanted and he's like "I really don't care, whatever works" and I was like THATS SO UNHELPFUL lol but I think he was generally trying to communicate he doesn't care about all the technicalities that have been hammered into our brains as vital for all these years and he just wants the content to be good with an understandable cite, so I can handle that. I'll probably have to do some editing to different sections to make it flow together better, but I should be on track to finish it tomorrow and hopefully have some time left to study for crim pro. I'm currently at 26 pages of full text, no blank spaces, and just over 9,000 words, so I think I'm in a pretty good spot because I did aim to get as close as possible on all the word limits so it would feel like I have enough content. So I'm happy with that for now. While I was at Starbucks I got a text from the babies group leader who was hosting the meeting tonight saying they had been a miscommunication with her roommate and we couldn't meet at her apartment tonight, so we ended up moving the meeting to this cute little pizzeria. So now I just had to figure out how to get there. Plugged it into my maps and the best route seemed to be the bus that runs the street that I was on north, and then a shorter ride east to the address. Okay, this should work. Except for some reason my bus time tracker app didn't have the second route listed- like it just skipped over route 70 for some reason. Weird, but whatever, I still had google maps which was pretty good with that stuff. So I hopped on the bus and took it a good ways north, then got off and waited for the next bus to come....and waited....I finally figured out how to get an arrival time off another app and it was still ten minutes out at which point I was really like 😡😡😡😡 because in case you've forgotten it's still really rainy and fucking cold out and standing out there for a prolonged period of time was about as miserable as you can get, so I was not a happy camper by the time the bus came, but I was very glad it did show (and coincidentally, the name of the place we ate at was named happy camper). It was a cool place, pretty big, they ID as soon as you walk in lol so we got a booth and just talked normal chat for a while, and then when our food came we started getting down to business. A lot of it had to do with the move and transitioning of course, and how to best help our families with that. Since the church will be meeting in an elementary school for the next month the kids rooms are actually gonna be in the building next door, so that's gonna be somewhat difficult to navigate at first so we wanted to make sure we were ready for that. And yeah, we just did other basic talk about any problems we've been having, any suggestions we have, and looking to expand the volunteer team, because apparently our church volunteer base is lower than most churches, which seems very odd to me because I feel like everyone volunteers, but that's probably because I'm a volunteer and that's how I know them, lol. Apparently we have about a 17% volunteer rate out of our typical 1,500 person congregation (I didn't know this number so that was cool to learn to) and most churches have their numbers in the 20's or 30's, so we'd like to work on that. And yeah, we basically just talked and laughed and had a good time. I ordered a pizza with Parmesan, tomatoes (that I mostly ended up picking off, lol) and pesto sauce and omgggg it was amazing and I would definitely get it again. So that was overall a productive meeting. As we're getting set to leave I'm trying to figure out my options to get home from here, and it looks like if I walk a few blocks over I could either catch a bus north that gets me pretty closer to my apartment (second closest after the 50 bus I take to work) or there was a red line stop, but if I took the red line I would have to walk 15-20 minutes home in the freezing miserable rain- but I could also get stuck outside waiting for the bus and I was not about to do that again. So I check the arrival times for the bus and it's like, 3 minutes, and 20 minutes. Well crap. At this point I just figured I'd head in that direction and see what happens, and I kept tracking the bus and saw that it was still a little bit out, and when I got to the intersection it had just pulled up to the bus stop- which was on the diagonal corner from where I was, which with crosswalk signals make it pretty much impossible for me to get there. But they had a red light so I ran to the other side of the street, then contemplated running into moving traffic several times, but I managed to get across without any cars coming and just as their light turned green I managed to signal to the bus driver that was still about 15 feet away that I was coming, and he graciously waited for me, and I've gotta tell you, I was so glad in that moment haha because I so did not want to have to be out in the weather any longer. So that made me happy. The 22 bus is a nice view on the ride north, it's just not particularly fast so I don't always utilize it, but it was enjoyable tonight. Got home shortly after 9, and against my better judgment watched Chicago Justice, which I think I'm officially quitting because this goddamn show is going to give me an aneurysm out of the sheer amount of anger and frustration that builds up in me watching them just get legit everything wrong about the legal system and try to pull off these ridiculous stunts with charging people with certain crimes that in real life would get thrown out in a SECOND, and seeing that week after week is just incredibly irritating, and they manage to get all the stupid stuff wrong to like objections and I swear nobody on this damn show knows what a cross examination is because literally all of them use it as counselor testifying but nobody objects. So I think I'm giving up here. Apparently though there were a few people on Twitter that were enjoying my commentary of how full of bs it was, lol. Oh well. I went to Riverdale then, which mostly just made me roll my eyes. I was never really into the whole teen drama scene, not counting Smallville because that's not really a "drama" anyway, and what makes it even more absurd is it seems like the kids here are all mostly normal but all their parents are out of their fucking minds and going to end up in jail for running a criminal enterprise or something, lol. So I was meh at best about that. Then I stuck around for an episode of friends before getting ready for bed, and here we are. Get to sleep in tomorrow thankfully, so looking forward to that, then getting the pedal to the metal on studying/writing as we hit these last 3 days. By Thursday I'll be totally done with the semester! Seriously, can't wait. Sigh, until then. Goodnight babes. Sleep well.