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neighborhood-goblin · 3 years ago

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COF Highschool au Chapter 1

“We can just put it back,” Sev said, studying the golden objects on the table.

“What do you mean ‘just put it back’? Look at it!” Tristan exclaimed. It was true that perhaps the trophy was a little worse for wear. The figure on top had snapped off the base pillars, and the side of it was splattered in mud. This is the worst day of my life.

“Let’s clean it off, glue the top back on and stick it back in the case. Easy-peasy.” Tristan was already shaking his head even before Sev finished speaking.

“It’s already daytime, people will see us, and I bet they’ve already noticed the missing trophy!” Tristan ran a panicked hand through his hair and spared the broken trophy another look. He froze.

“I know what to do,” He spoke slowly, carefully, glancing towards the closed door.

“What?” Sev asked, curious as to what Tristan could possibly have thought of.

“We hide it. We hide it somewhere where it won’t be found and we don’t tell anyone what we did.”

“It’s a trophy, not a murder, Tristan,” Sev reminded him, despite the fact he was already coming up with possible places to hide it. His house would be the obvious choice, since Tristan’s dad was the principal and they couldn’t risk him finding out about the broken trophy. “But I guess I can find a spot for it at my house.” Tristan’s face broke into a grin.

“Thanks, Sev. Will you be able to hide it for the school day?” Sev nodded and shoved the trophy pieces into the depths of his backpack.

The pair emerged from the empty classroom into the flooded hallways. Students were everywhere, clustering around lockers, chatting in the middle of the halls, and making their way to first period. Sev and Tristan nodded quickly at each other before separating and disappearing into the crowd.

***

Nyk had to sprint to Spanish in order to claim the seat beside Anders before Latham could. The older boy raised an eyebrow at her as she flopped down on the chair, panting.

“I want to join the cheer squad,” She breathed out. Anders grinned at her.

“Finally! We’re desperate enough for members that I even asked Sev to join. Sev!” He exclaimed. “Come to the gym during lunch, you can try out, and we can get you your uniform.” Nyk let out a relieved sigh and thanked Anders. The bell rang. A binder slammed down onto the table.

“You’re in my seat.” She looked up to see Latham glaring at her.

“Jeez, okay, I’m moving..” Nyk gathered her stuff and retreated to her usual spot in the back, next to Kade. He was reading something on his phone and glanced at her when she sat down.

“Have you seen the school’s website?” He asked. She shook her head and he held his phone out to her. She took it and skimmed the page in front of her.

Recently Auzerec’s High’s first place soccer trophy was stolen. We are asking any and all students involved to come forward and return the trophy by the end of the school day. If the trophy is not returned by the end of the school day today, then students may be pulled for questioning.

Nyk laughed and handed Kade back his phone. “This is ridiculous. It’s a trophy! They can just get a new one.” She quickly quieted as their teacher, Mrs. Dee entered the classroom. Nyk pulled out her phone and held it under the table to text Tristan.

Nyk: did you see the website lol

♥ Tris ♥: No? What does it say?

“His contact name has hearts in it?” Kade’s voice was practically disgusted. Nyk’s face heated.

“Mind your own business!” She hissed at him.

Nyk: some kids stole a trophy apparently

♥ Tris ♥: Did they say who did it?

Nyk: no but their gonna be questioning people

♥ Tris ♥: They’re*

Nyk: ok

A hand tapped on the wood in front of her. “Phone please, Veronyka. You can pick it up after class.” Nyk met Mrs. Dee’s eyes, quickly silenced her phone, and handed it to her, embarrassed that she’d been caught. Kade smirked at her as their teacher walked back to the front of the classroom. She stuck her tongue out at him and turned her attention to Mrs. Dee as she began to write verbs on the whiteboard.

***

Nyk :) : some kids stole a trophy apparently

Tristan froze. Surely if he’d been busted he would’ve already been called to his father’s office. Right? He tapped out a response with shaking fingers.

Tristan: Did they say who did it?

It took Nyk an agonizingly long minute to respond. Tristan bit his nail and waited for her to finish typing. Did Sev get caught with the trophy?

Nyk :) : no but their gonna be questioning people

He grinned in relief.

Tristan: They’re

Nyk :) : ok

He rolled his eyes and pocketed his phone before the teacher caught him with it. It was far too early in the day for him to be doing statistics, but that didn’t stop Mr. Ellet from passing out worksheets. Tristan frowned at his, noticing that it was different from the sheet belonging to the kid sitting next to him. Again? I need to have a talk with my dad; he can’t keep doing this. Nevertheless, he picked up his pencil and began to fill out the paper.

The bell signaling the end of first period rang, and Tristan rose from his seat. He hurried out into the hall and shot Sev a few texts.

Tristan: They know the trophy’s missing.

Tristan: You still have it right?

Tristan: Sev

Tristan: SEV!

Sev: jhgfkdjhgkdjf

Sev: Yes I still have the trophy

Sev: You can relax

He opted not to respond to Sev’s last text.

***

“That was great!” Anders shouted at Nyk. She beamed at him. “Okay come over here so I can get your size and uniform.” She jogged over to the other side of the gym “Alright, you can go back to lunch now.” She nodded and grabbed her things.

She hurried to the cafeteria and slid into an empty spot at her table.

“Guess who’s officially a cheerleader!” Nyk exclaimed excitedly. Kade grinned at her and Tristan congratulated her. Latham didn’t bother to look up at her, probably still peeved that she had briefly borrowed his seat during Spanish. She glanced around for Elliot and Sparrow but they weren’t there.

“That’s cool, Nyk,” Tristan flashed her a smile. She offered one back, and could practically feel Kade rolling his eyes at them. Latham stood up and walked away, most likely leaving to track down Anders.

K: Ugh get a room you guys

Nyk smirked at her phone.

Nyk: someday youre gonna have a crush that i can tease you about

Kade took suspiciously long to respond.

K: unlikely

“Are you guys seriously texting each other while I’m right here?” Tristan gave each of them a mock offended look. Nyk and Kade rolled their eyes at him. “Very uncool, guys.” He paused and glanced at their table. “Hey, why doesn’t Sev ever eat with us?”

Nyk thought for a moment. The question was kind of out of the blue, honestly. Sev showed up for the study group and then they occasionally waved to him in class or in the halls. But that was it. He wasn’t really friends with any of them. She’d never really thought about what Sev did when he wasn’t with them. Did he even have friends at all?

“I was under the impression that he didn’t want to,” Kade said. Nyk had forgotten that Tristan was still waiting for an answer.

“Well I don’t think he’s really hanging out with anyone else. We should see if he wants to have lunch with us tomorrow,” Tristan nodded as he said this, as if confirming that he liked his idea. Nyk and Kade looked at each other. Kade shrugged and returned to his salad bowl.

***

Sev twisted the key through the lock and yanked the door open. Hestia would be home soon, so he quickly grabbed the trophy pieces and shoved them in the back of his closet, where hopefully she would be unable to find them. His phone chimed several times in a row.

Tristan: Did you hide the trophy?

Tristan: Did your parents find out about it?

Tristan: Sev

Sev: You have got to stop

Sev: Yes the trophy is hidden, no my mother did not find out about it

Tristan: Thank heavens

Tristan: Hey do you want to have lunch with the study group tomorrow? You don’t usually eat with us.

Sev: Hard pass.

Sev: Stop texting me.

Sev turned off his phone. He didn’t want Tristan to keep trying to convince him to hang out with the group. If he was being honest, he was pretty close to quitting it. He didn’t really fit in with them. He was always the outsider. It felt pointless to attend their study group if no one except Tristan was even going to try to engage with him outside of it. He tossed his phone on his bed and went to kill time before Hestia got back. He could probably fit a movie in.

***

This is so bad. I can’t do this. I’m going to say the wrong thing oh my-

“Come in, Tristan,” His father’s voice sounded from the open doorway. Tristan slowly walked in and sat down in the chair that was closest to the principal’s desk. Unsurprisingly no student had come forward and returned the trophy, so interviews were being conducted. Tristan met his father’s eyes.

“Now, obviously this is just a formality.” Cassian informed him. “But still. Where were you on the night before last?” Tristan began to panic.

We didn’t have a cover story! What am I supposed to say?!

“I was hanging out with my friend, Sev,” He began. Cassian nodded for him to continue. “We got some food and went back to his place to watch a movie.” He opened his mouth to continue, but his father held up a hand.

“That’s good enough, you can go.” Tristan thanked his father and quickly left. I did it!

His feelings of relief were quickly halted when he saw who was being interviewed next. It was Sev. Tristan hastily grabbed the other boy’s arm and whispered in his ear: “We got food and watched a movie at your house.”

Sev gave him a brief nod and disappeared into Cassian’s office. Tristan returned to class and worried about Sev and the trophy. Then he went to his next class and worried about Sev and the trophy. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Tristan: Okay I know you told me to leave you alone but please tell me nothing went wrong in your interview.

Sev: It was fine. We got burgers, fries, and shakes, then watched Spirited Away

Tristan: Studio Ghibli?

Sev: Yeah it’s a good movie.

Tristan: Never seen it.

Sev: Well don’t go around telling people that, we’ve got to keep our cover intact

Tristan: What, are you a spy now?

Sev: You’re the one who wanted to hide the trophy

Tristan: That’s fair.

***

When Tristan got home, it was clear that his father was frustrated with the theft of the trophy. He and the school’s safety officers had interviewed the bulk of the students and found no viable culprits. Tristan had never been a very good liar, and he was afraid that he might crack if his father continued to chase his own tail in an effort to find whoever had stolen the trophy.

Tristan: I think we need to tell my dad that we did it.

Sev: ???? why

Tristan: He’s getting very frustrated at the whole situation.

Sev: Ok? He is a grown man he can deal with himself

Tristan: I really just think we should

Sev: Ok then go tell him if it’s making you so upset

Tristan: I don’t know if I can.

Sev: Then don’t Tristan: I feel like I have to.

Sev: Then do it

Tristan: I’m worried about getting in trouble.

Sev: dude just stop

Truthfully, Tristan wasn’t quite sure of what to do. On one hand, telling his father would get the whole situation over with, and he wouldn’t have to worry about keeping any covers intact. But on the other, he was facing some probably pretty serious repercussions for what he and Sev had done. It had been his idea too, to take the trophy. He only wanted to take a picture of it, to send as a joke to the study group chat. Instead the trophy had fallen and broken, and he had gotten stuck in this mess.

Finally, he poked his head into his dad’s office. His father was on the phone with someone, so Tristan waited until he hung up.

“Who was that?” He asked, hoping to get a somewhat pleasant conversation going before he confessed. Cassian graced him with a rare smile.

“That was Sevro Lastlight, calling to tell me that he was the one who took the trophy.” What?

“Really?” Tristan responded after a moment. Why would he do that?

“Yes, really,” His father replied, sifting through a stack of papers on his desk. Tristan slowly retreated from the room. He still hadn’t fully processed what had happened. Why would Sev confess for me?

Tristan: You called my dad??

Sev: Yeah

Tristan: Why?

Sev: eh I’ve already done worse things than stealing a trophy

Tristan: That was really awesome of you, Sev.

Sev: np

Tristan: np?

Sev: No problem

Sev: How do you not know that

Tristan: Hey, have lunch with the study group. I know you already said no, but you’re my friend and I feel bad that you eat alone.

Sev: I don’t mind eating alone

Tristan: Please?

Sev: Fine.

Tristan cheered. Maybe today wasn’t that bad after all.

#Crown of Feathers #Crown of Feathers au #Heart of Flames #Wings of Shadow #Nicki Pau Preto #Tristan Flamesong #Veronyka Ashfire #Nyk Ashfire #Sevro Lastlight #Kade #Elliot #Sparrow #Latham #Anders #Tristnyka #Sevade #Antham

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sj-thefan · 3 years ago

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300 Followers!!!

Thank you all so much!

Below are a few paragraphs from some stories I've been working on. If it is part of a series that has already started, I have linked the other parts.

WIP: I’m Okay, You’re Okay, We’re Okay (David Budd) – P.2

“Charlie?” she called. He glanced at her, his eyes filled with tears. “Come ‘ere.” She extended her free arm, letting him come in for a hug. “It’s going to be okay.” Charlie snuggled deeper into her neck.

“Where’s Daddy?” Ella asked.

Charlie pulled away slightly to peer at Y/n. He wanted to know the answer too.

Y/n wiped Charlie’s tears away before answering. “There was a problem on the train, and Daddy offered to help. He’ll be back soon.”

The kids were quiet for a few minutes before Ella spoke up again. “Mummy says Daddy needs help. Does that mean he has a problem?”

WIP: Ramsay’s Lady (Ramsay Bolton) – Next Part

She could hear the screams as she made her way through the corridors

“Please, cut it off! Cut it off! Cut it off!”

The yelling quieted as she pushed open the door. Ramsay was standing in front of Theon. “I win.”

“You started without me?” Y/n pouted playfully.

Ramsay turned around to see his wife. “Oh, my lady,” he smiled devilishly, “the fun has only just begun.”

“No,” Theon huffed. “Please.”

“Ah, ah!” Ramsay turned around, holding his knife up. “What did I say?”

Theon didn’t respond, only hung his head and stifled a sob.

“Round two,” Ramsay continued. “Same rules.” He turned to Y/n, holding out the knife. “My lady, pick a body part.”

WIP: Under the Moonlight (Ahkmenrah) – P.4

Inside, the world was bright with life. Bones of a dinosaur moved as the creature sniffed its old friends. Y/n’s eyes were open wide as she tried to take in everything at once. She had seen the Smithsonian and been present when some of the Pyramids were built. She had seen some of the most beautiful places the world had to offer but nothing compared to seeing the place her husband had spent so much time in without her. The tablet brought this world to life, and it was spectacular. Creatures from every age roamed freely, conversing with each other as friends. Oh, how she wished she could have helped Ahkmenrah build this glorious world.

She sighed, wondering where she should head to see Ahkmenrah. Larry had instructed her and the others to head to the basement to wait until he could explain their arrival, but she couldn’t just head downstairs to wait when she was already so close. She spotted a map of the museum ahead and searched for the Egyptian exhibit.

“Larry?”

She heard the familiar voice echo through the large hall over the other excited chattering. She glanced up, searching for the source.

“Larry?” Ahkmenrah exited one of the hallways. His eyes landed on the woman standing near the bottom of the stairs. Their eyes met, and his breath left his chest. “Y/n?”

WIP: Inheritance (A Ransom Drysdale x Reader One-shot)

“For the record,” Detective Lieutenant Elliot said, “we’re here with Y/n L/n, Harlan’s…” he paused, glancing over his notes. “We have a couple different comments on your relationship with Harlan; how would you describe it?”

Y/n sat in the library in front of the detective, Trooper Wagner, and a yet-to-be-identified man in the back. Usually, she was most comfortable in the library, but with the men in front of her scrutinizing her every word, she was tense.

“Harlan and I are—were friends. We met years ago when I was dating his grandson, Ransom. Even once we broke up, Harlan and I remained friends. When I found out I was pregnant, he offered to have me move in with him so he could ensure the safety of myself and his great-grandson.”

“So, you and Ransom have a child together.”

“You could say that, although Ransom hasn’t met Harry.”

“And is there a reason for that, or…”

Y/n smiled sadly. “Ransom and I didn’t exactly end on the best of terms. He cheated on me.” The room was silent, the men exchanging grim looks. “I wasn’t exactly eager to return to a man who broke my heart. Plus, Ransom… well, let’s just say after our breakup, he didn’t want anything to do with me again. I was alone, and the only one who cared was Harlan. He helped me keep Harry hidden. Now that Harry is getting older, though, Harlan and I were thinking about introducing him to the rest of the family. That was one of the reasons I attended this party—to get the family used to seeing me again.”

WIP: An Unnamed Robb Stark x Reader Series

Two short raps sounded on the other side of her door. Slowly, Y/n pulled the heavy door open, revealing Robb Stark, dressed in his finest clothes. She, too, had donned her finest dress for the occasion.

“Everyone’s asleep,” he whispered, a smile stretching across his face as he took in her appearance. “Jon and Theon are in the Godswood already.”

The question returned. Are you sure? She wouldn’t ask again. She had asked too many times before and wouldn’t bother him with another. Still, that nagging voice wondered if they were making a mistake: if their choice would turn out disastrous.

Robb could read her face like a book. “I love you.” He pulled her into his arms. “I always will.”

They raced towards the woods, keeping their steps as light and soundless as possible. Every now and then, they ducked into a dark corner to avoid being spotted by one of the guards on watch.

From the outside, the woods were thick and darker than the inky night sky. Robb and Y/n had spent much of their youth running through the forest and had memorized the way to the Weirwood Tree. They carried no torch, hoping to avoid being spotted by someone in the castle. Theon and Jon had gone ahead, bringing torches to light up the area around the sacred tree.

It was a truly beautiful sight as the couple entered the small clearing that surrounded the pond and the Weirwood Tree. Jon and Theon had set two torches on either side of the tree, letting the light bounce off the water and make the red leaves of the giant white tree glow as they danced in the wind.

The boys jumped up as they heard the couple enter.

“Are you sure about this, N/n?” Theon asked, taking his sister’s hand from Robb. “I’m quite certain you can do better than that halfwit.” He gestured to his best friend taking his place in front of the tree.

Y/n kept her gaze locked with Robb’s. “There is no one I would rather marry.”

WIP: An Unnamed Sirius Black x Reader One-shot

Mr. Weasley paused. “Harry, would you swear to me that whatever you might hear, you won’t go looking for Black?”

“Mr. Weasley, why would I go looking for somebody who wants to kill me?”

Mr. Weasley didn’t have a good answer, but Harry promised anyway.

As he was walking back to his seat, his eye was caught on one of the posters. This one wasn’t just of Sirius Black. Beside his photo was a woman he seemed to recognize. He read the caption under the picture.

“Y/n Black hasn’t been seen in 12 years. She is wanted for crimes against society and for questioning about her husband. Do not approach. Reward available.”

Harry gulped; his eyes focused on the woman as he realized why she was familiar. She was years younger, and her hair was longer, but he was certain. It was his Aunt Beth.

#sj writes #300 followers #celebration #david budd x reader #ramsay bolton #ramsay bolton x reader #ahkmenrah x reader #ransom x reader #ransom drysdale x reader #Robb Stark x reader #Sirius Black x reader

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randomestfandoms-ocs · 4 years ago

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Glee OC Masterlist

Name: Aurora Anderson

Story: Somewhere Only We Know

Face claim: Kaylee Bryant

Love Interest: Sebastian Smythe

AO3 | FFNet | Wattpad

Summary: Aurora had always known that Andersons go to Dalton, she just didn’t think that she would be included in that legacy. But after the incident at the Sadie Hawkins dance left she and her half-brother in the hospital, their father told them that Aurora would be the first female student in Dalton history, regardless of what she wanted. Of course the Dalton Brotherhood had always been her family, and being with her closest friends was exactly what she needed, but when a spy shows up in their midst, she knows that her home is going to be changed forever.

Name: Abbie Hudson

Story: Brutal

Face claim: Savannah Lee May

Love Interest: Sam Evans

Name: Betty Fabray

Story: A Family Matter

Face claim: Sabrina Carpenter

Love Interest: Sam Evans

Summary: Freshman year of high school was supposed to be the start of the best years of your life, right? That’s what Betty Fabray thought when she walked through the doors of William McKinley High School for the first time. It’s what she thought when she joined the Cheerios, it’s what she thought when she heard about a singing club, and it’s what she thought when she got accepted to the New Directions. But then she got slushied, her position on the Cheerios was threatened, and her big sister was kicked out of their house. Now Betty has no idea what to think, but between Sue Sylvester and Sectionals, no one is giving her time to figure out what she wants, other than to get her sister back.

Name: Christina Hummel

Story: Don’t Stop Believing

Face claim: Laura Marano

Love Interest: Sam Evans

Summary: Ever since their mother died, Kurt and Christie Hummel had somehow gotten even closer. They did everything together; voice and piano lessons, dance classes, working in their dad’s shop, enduring the daily torture that was McKinley High, and, of course, joining glee. But there was one thing that the twins didn’t agree on: Finn Hudson. While Kurt saw him as their knight in shining armour, just because he offered them the barest hints of dignity while his friends tormented them, Christie saw him as just as guilty as the rest of his teammates, watching their endless humiliation and letting it happen. Despite their polarizing opinions, the twins had always been able to look past that - to not let Finn Hudson come between them. But when Finn joins the glee club, bringing even more jocks and Cheerios with him, their seemingly indestructible bond is going to be put to the test.

Name: Daphne Carter

Story: Anything Goes

Face claim: Ashleigh Murray

Love Interest: Leon Elliot, Mike Chang, eventual Sam Evans

Summary: Daphne Carter didn’t miss Lima. She hadn’t been there since she was five, back before she booked her first commercial and suddenly found herself as The Child Star of her generation. And ten years later, starring on Broadway across from her best friend and dating one of the biggest up and coming rock stars around, Lima didn’t even crossed her mind enough for her to miss it. But once the drugs and drinking that her parents had always chosen to ignore made her the front page of every gossip rag across the country, something had to be done. Not for her well being, of course, but because addiction wasn’t profitable. And that’s how Daphne Carter finds herself being shipped halfway across the country to live with her parents’ childhood friends, and being dragged into the McKinley High Glee Club.

Name: Delilah Puckerman

Story: Wish You Were Me

Face claim: Vanessa Morgan

Love Interest: Sam Evans

Summary: Delilah Puckerman hadn’t actually wanted to leave her boarding school. Of course, her expulsion hadn’t been a surprise considering what had happened, but being sent to public school? Unfair and unnecessary, in her opinion. But nobody cared what the crazy girl wanted, and she found herself sent off to McKinley High. She honestly thought that things couldn’t get any worse, until she meets a boy named Noah Puckerman.

Name: Dylan Ayers

Story: Bet On It

Face claim: Liz Gillies

Love Interest: Brittany Pierce

Name: Eliana Lopez

Story: Get It Right

Face claim: Victoria Justice

Name: Faye Anderson

Story: Teenage Dream

Face claim: Vanessa Hudgens

Love Interest: Sam Evans

Summary: To any outsider, the Anderson twins had it all. 4.0 GPAs at Dalton and Crawford, lead soloists of their respective glee clubs, a big house in Westerville, and a celebrity brother. They didn’t see behind the curtain; didn’t see the absentee parents, the lonely, empty house, or the brother who only texted a few times a year. But Faye was happy. She loved her school and her glee club and her brother. And then Blaine decides to go to public school, and her parents decide to send her to McKinley with him. And although she loves her twin, and would do anything for him, she can tell that her teenage dream is about to become a teenage nightmare.

Name: Gilbert Hummel

Story: Anthem

Face claim: Casey Cott

Love Interest: Blaine Anderson & Sam Evans

Name: Jason Conwright

Story: All Or Nothing

Face claim: Ross Lynch

Name: Jeanie Boyer

Story: Loser Like Me

Face claim: Grace Phipps

Love Interest: Ryder Lynn, eventual Marley Rose

Name: Joy Schuester

Story: By Its Very Definition

Face claim: Lili Reinhart

Love Interest: Noah Puckerman, Brittany Pierce, Mike Chang, Sebastian Smythe, eventual Sam Evans

Summary: Joy Schuester knew what glee was - how could she not? Her dad never shut up about the good old days, his glory years at McKinley High. He even named her after something his old coach would say - by its very definition, glee is about opening yourself up to joy. Big whoop, she’d never really cared. Really she was just interested in cheer, drama club, and dancing around her room while singing along to Taylor Swift. But then her dad takes over the glee club and Joy has no choice but to join. She expected the showtunes, the divas, and even her dad’s white guy rapping. She didn’t, however, expect to fall in love, and she definitely didn’t expect to find herself caught in the middle of a war between her coach and her dad.

Name: June Harris

Story: All Rhodes Lead Home

Face claim: Hailee Steinfeld

Love Interest: Jesse St. James

Name: Kendall Pierce

Story: Songs Of The Heart

Face claim: Meg Donnelly

Love Interest: Mike Chang

Summary: Maybe it was her age. Maybe it was the special Pierce… intelligence. Maybe it was just that she was a better person than most students at McKinley High. But whatever it was, Kendall Pierce didn’t understand why she couldn’t cheer and sing. She didn’t understand why Quinn Fabray was so insistent that she not join Glee, or why the New Directions were so suspicious of her “intentions”. She loved to sing and she loved to cheer, it should have been simple. But when Quinn Fabray suddenly joins the club, with her sister and Santana in tow, Kendall starts to realize that nothing about high school is as simple as it seems.

Name: Lilibeth Anderson

Story: Untitled

Face claim: Olivia Rodrigo

Name: Logan Hayes

Story: Dream Maker

Face claim: KJ Apa

Name: Luci Meadows

Story: Maybe This Time

Face claim: Maia Mitchell

Name: Marilyn Pillsbury

Story: Life Can Be Beautiful

Face claim: Madelaine Petsch

Love Interest: Brittany Pierce, eventual Quinn Fabray, possibly Quinn Fabray & Sam Evans

Summary: When Marilyn Pillsbury was ten, her mother died. When she was twelve, her dad was arrested. When she was thirteen, she moved in with her aunt Emma. And when she was fourteen, she started at William McKinley High School. And she was nothing but the weird guidance counsellor’s weird niece. But then, after a fateful encounter with three Cheerios in the girls’ bathroom, Lyn finds herself being dragged into the spotlight. She becomes a Cheerio, she’s hot and popular and the school loves her, she’s everything she ever wanted to be. And when Quinn joins the glee club, Marilyn is right beside her with Brittany and Santana; finally she can do what she really loves without fearing the consequence. She’s on top of the world, life is beautiful. And then she finds out that Quinn is pregnant, and she has to make a choice. Will she seize the opportunity to rise to the very top, or will she stay loyal to the girl who brought her up from the lowest of lows?

Name: May Taylor

Story: All Rhodes Lead Home

Face claim: Hailee Steinfeld

Love Interest: Mike Chang

Name: Paige Callahan

Story: Light Up The World

Face claim: Zendaya

Love Interest: Mike Chang

Name: Robyn Conwright

Story: All Or Nothing

Face claim: Olivia Holt

Name: Roxie Flores

Story: The Greatest Star

Face claim: Camila Mendes

Love Interest: Noah Puckerman, Sebastian Smythe, eventual Sam Evans

Summary: Rosalind Flores was used to living in Quinn Fabray’s shadow. Quinn was the head Cheerio, even though Roxie was the better cheerleader; Quinn got the boys, even though she had a stick up her ass; Quinn had the friends - lackeys, even though she treated them like dirt. And then Mr. Schuester takes over the Glee Club and Roxie sees a refuge from her life as Quinn’s understudy. And it’s great. Sure, Rachel is as obsessed with being number one as Quinn, but Roxie loves to sing and she’s really, genuinely happy. It’s everything she hoped for; it’s perfect. And then Quinn Fabray walks into the choir room and Roxie’s sanctuary collapses around her.

Name: Savannah Evans

Story: Rumour Has It

Face claim: Dove Cameron

Love Interest: Valeria Ramírez

Summary: The first thing that the Evans siblings learned when they moved to Lima was that rumours spread much faster than they did back home. The second thing that they learned was how to lie. And lie they did. They were just three siblings; their financial struggles were because of their dad’s job; they absolutely most definitely didn’t have another sister who’d been in the hospital for as long as they’d been in Ohio. And everyone believed them. Right up until Rachel Berry sees Sam hugging some blonde girl outside of a motel and drags the entire glee club on a witch hunt that ends with them meeting the Evans siblings in their motel room. All of the Evans siblings. Even Savannah, Sam’s twin and best kept secret who, rumour has it, it about to start at McKinley High.

Name: Valeria Ramírez

Story: Rumour Has It

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Love Interest: Savannah Evans

#glee oc #masterlist

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abduct-me-helen · 4 years ago

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Class 108′s Apocalypse Field Trip | Chapter 3.

Katie was the first one to recover, turning her knife on Mr. Sims and charging forward. Martin yanked him out of the way.

“Woah! Woah, woah. Hey!” he said, waving his arms to get her to calm down.

“Katie.” Rosie barked, which in that tone meant “stand down.”

Katie withdrew, not taking her eyes off her former teacher. “You can’t be real. You obviously aren’t human, and-”

“If you put down the knife, I promise I’ll give you answers.” Jon said, hands up and breathing steady.

Katie glanced over to Rosie, who narrowed her eyes in thought then gave a quick nod. She begrudgingly lowered her weapon, eyes still locked with the two newcomers in the room.

There was a moment of silence.

“What the fuck just happened?” Riko asked, slipping her glasses off in disbelief.

“I…I smited him.” Jon answered awkwardly. “Okay, how about we get everyone in here and then we can have…a class.”

“A class.” Katie deadpanned. Jon nodded, and she shrugged, standing up and gesturing for Riko to come with her while she fetched Elliot and Raphi, who were still in the other classroom. Probably kissing. Ugh.

An awkward silence filled the air, before Tabitha turned to the window and tilted her head. “Who opened the blinds?”

The rest of the kids shook their heads, and Tabitha sighed, turning the rod to the right and shutting the outside world out of sight.

“Eyeball daddy must’ve wanted to say hi.” she said thoughtfully.

Jon choked, and Martin had a look of mild horror on his face as he patted Jon’s back to stop him from coughing.

“E-exuse me?” he stammered.

Tabitha was unfazed.

“Eyeball daddy. You know, the great voyeur? The big smexy eyeball in the sky?”

Martin keeled over wheezing while Jon dropped his jaw.

“The-the Beholding?!” “Smexy?!”

Tabitha wrinkled her nose. “That’s a stupid name. All hail eyeball daddy.”

“All hail eyeball daddy.” The rest of the kids said in unison, looking bored. It was more of a reflex for them at this point.

Martin and Jon shared a look of horror, before Riko entered with Katie, Elliot and Raphi following her.

“Okay then, take a seat. I’ll explain, but, it isn’t pretty.”

“Really? The apocalypse isn’t pretty? I had no idea!” Raphi snarked. Elliot batted him on the head, and Jon was painfully reminded of a similar interaction between Tim and Sasha in the past.

No, he thought, there’s no time to dwell on that.

“There are fourteen entities called the fears that previously existed in a different place outside of our universe. They all have domain over different fears, and people that serve them get…abilities in exchange for feeding the-”

“Like the spiders! And the masked people! And the-” Tabitha cut herself off, “sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself,” she muttered, wringing her hands and tapping her foot.

“No, go on.” Jon prompted her to continue.

She hesitated. “W-we’ve just been noticing patterns…I call them categories. They’re like…really angry colors? If that makes sense?”

Jon looked impressed. “And you just figured all that out?”

She nodded.

He sighed. “Well, you’re not wrong. These “really angry colors” are called the fear powers. Some think them alike to gods, but they don’t have any true motives other than to feed. They aren’t like humans in that respect. They have no motivation.”

The class watched, enraptured as he continued his explanation.

“There’s the Slaughter, fear of war and violence. The Lonely, fear of isolation. The Web, fear of-”

“Being controlled.” Rosie said quietly. Jon nodded.

“Exactly. And-”

“Spiders.” Tabitha shivered, remembering being cocooned in their webs; the feeling of legs crawling over her skin and weaving her in threat.

Jon made a gesture to show that she was right. He continued to explain the rest of the fear powers, until he stopped abruptly.

“And then there’s the Eye.” He said, looking to the closed window. He realized he was running a tape recorder, but at this point he couldn’t care less. The Eye saw everything anyway.

“Wait, hold on, how do you even know any of this?” Elliot asked him, eyes narrowed.

Jon sighed. “Getting to that.”

“The Eye-”

“Eyeball daddy-” “shut up Tabitha-”

“-is the fear of being watched, or being known. I know this one better than all the others, because I…serve it.”

“You what?!” Riko exclaimed, and Katie inched towards her knife.

“I wasn’t exactly given a choice,” he said shortly, rubbing his temples with his palm. “I assume you all know the Magnus Institute?”

Rosie nodded hesitantly. They’d all done their fair share of research on their enigma of a teacher. You would too, if someone like him showed up out of the blue and said cryptic things all the time.

Things that made far more sense these days then she would’ve liked.

“Well, the position of the Archivist, which is what I am, is more or less a trap. You can’t quit, and you become very connected to the Eye. It…changes you.”

“That’s ominous.” Katie muttered. Jon ignored her.

“What’s your connection to all this?” Riko questioned skeptically.

“That’s,” Jon breathed, “that’s a long story.”

“Cut out the boring bits and tell us; it’s not like we have anything better to do.” Elliot shrugged.

“Well, I suppose I started the whole thing.”

“What?!-” “No!-” “How dare you-” “I will fuck you up-”

A chorus of anger erupted in the room, and Martin stepped to the left of Jon’s side.

“He didn’t start it. He’s just guilty about-.”

“If I had fought it-”

“You know full well that wouldn’t have worked. I’m tired of you trying to make yourself the villain.” He stared Jon down begrudgingly.

“Look,” Martin sighed, “I’ll explain since he sees it fit to make himself out to be the enemy here. Our boss, Elias Bouchard, who is actually Jonah Magnus but back to that later, manipulated him. He basically had him marked by all the fourteen fears, and then forced him to complete the ritual that opened the eye. He had no choice in the matter.”

Katie withdrew, and they all relaxed.

“It’s not your fault, then, Mr. Sims.” Sydney said with furrowed brows.

He shook his head. “I…if I hadn’t opened that letter then none of this would’ve happened. I’ve done some bad things.”

“l laughed while one of my best mates got murdered,” Said Tabitha, getting off a desk covered in sharpie doodles.

Jon sighed. “You were under the influence of the Web.”

“And you were under the influence of the eye. How is that different?”

Jon ran a hand through his hair, looking to Martin, who was gazing down on him expectantly. “Fine, yes, I see your point.”

Tabitha nodded, satisfied.

“Why were you here in the first place?” Elliot asked.

“The Eye tells me where to go, and when I found out all of you were alive I decided I needed to come back for you.” Jon answered him, looking to the closed window briefly.

“Come back for us? But we’re safest here!” Sydney protested.

Jon hesitated. “They Eye preserved you because of your connection to me, at least, that’s what I think. It might have been Elias, maybe as a gift? But if I choose to…reject this “present” then you’ll each be thrown into different domains.”

Beat.

“Well fuck.” Tabitha said.

“Language.” Jon said half-heartedly.

“What are you going to do, send her to the principal?” Raphi retorted sarcastically. Tabitha tilted her head towards him and raised her eyebrow at Jon, signifying her agreement

A few people grumbled in agreement, before a pall of silence took over the room.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Asked Cal, who’d been uncharacteristically silent while processing all that had happened.

Jon clenched his fist. “The Panopticon.”

“You mean the tower? That’s not far from here!” Elliot told him.

“Yes, but…space doesn’t work like it used to. We’re going to have to venture through every domain until we can reach it.”

“And what’s the plan?” Katie questioned, expression blank.

“Don’t die? And reset the world” Martin offered.

“That’s it?” Katie said incredulously, her tone affronted.

“It’s a work in progress.” Jon defended.

“Oh well fuck-” “We’re screwed-” “Eyeball daddy, I’m coming for you-” “Bold of you guys to assume I don’t want to die-” “Cypress are you okay-” “If I get into hell I call lava bath-”

Jon facepalmed.

Martin was honestly both concerned and impressed about how they were handling this. If it was him, at this age he would’ve been freaking out and crying, not complaining.

“How are you so calm about this?” He asked, brows furrowed in surprise.

Raphi shrugged. “We’re Gen Z. We had lockdown drills all the time preparing us for a shooter, and once you think of that shit enough it’s not like you aren’t surprised when it happens. We’ve never been afraid of dying, we’re just afraid of watching the world burn,” the other kids nodded in agreement, “and look where that fucking got us.”

Martin was honestly stunned, but he chose not to comment.

“How poetic of you, Raph.” Elliot cooed.

“Oh, fuck off.”

There was a bittersweet moment of hesitation, before Tabitha yelled. “We’re going to win this, fuckers! We have the power of God and Anime on our side! Hiya!” She did the motions from the vine, and the rest of the class followed.

“Hiya!”

“List?” Rosie asked, checking supplies off her clipboard.

“Check!”

“Everyone have a weapon or something they can use as one? No, Elliot, I do not count your “bulging muscles” as a weapon. Stop pouting.”

“Check!”

“Everyone grab a buddy. Sydney will be with Tabitha and I, so everyone else should be in pairs. I think that’s everything.”

Rosie turned to Jon and Martin, who were waiting for her to finish the roll call. Jon raised an eyebrow.

Rosie rolled her eyes. “It helps to have some semblance of order here.”

Martin elbowed him, and Jon grumbled something Rosie didn’t understand.

And so, class 108 started their field trip.

“Elliot! Raphi! Cypress! Stop making videos! We need to move.” Jon called irritably, annoyed at the loud, bad music that these kids were filming themselves dancing to. It made absolutely no sense to him.

He didn’t like it.

“But we’re doing Tik Toks, Mr. Sims!” Cypress called back.

“You-you’re doing what?” Jon asked confusedly.

“Tik Toks!” Elliot repeated, which did not help at all.

“I-what’s a Tik Tok?” Jon ran his hands through his hair.

“Google-y-eyes it!” Elliot answered.

“Not funny.” He muttered, already getting a headache.

“It was, actually. His puns are great.” Raphi, who’s hearing was only secondary to Katie in the class rankings, (they made a list a few years back), heard him muttering and shouted to him without stopping the dance.

“Fine-what the hell is that?” Jon said, affronted as he began to Know what these “Tik Toks” were.

Insidious.

“That’s a Tik Tok Mr. Sims!” Cypress told him.

“Why are they dancing?”

“To get Tik Tok famous Mr. Sims!”

Jon was notably distressed, so he took out a cigarette and discretely lit it.

Tabitha whipped towards him. “Chris, is that a WEED?”

“W-what?”

“I’m calling the police!”

Christ, these kids were going to be the death of him.

#tma #the magnus archives #teacher jon #teacher jonathan sims #season 5 #tma season 5 #tma spoilers #jonmartin #tma fanfic #the magnus archives fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction

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multimetaverse · 4 years ago

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Jamie Johnson 5x08 Review

Tonight was one of the best, if not the best, Jamie Johnson eps so far. Dillon faced some of his toughest obstacles yet in his coming out journey and we got some sweet Delliot moments. Let’s dig in!

This British kids soccer show continues to make history. We saw some very nuanced and mature discussions between Dillon and Elliot about being gay and coming out; how often on tv do two gay kids actually discuss their sexualities? Elliot gave Dillon some great advice and perhaps more importantly told Dillon that he was in fact brave and a winner on and off the pitch

You’d have to be daft to deny that Dillon and Elliot have crushes on each other after this ep. Seeing both Dillon and Elliot trying their best to look nice before meeting up with each other was cute and their handhold at the pitch was very sweet. Lots of soft smiles and longing glances and we even got a hug before Elliot left

Laquarn has confirmed that he’s not in any more S5 eps and doesn’t know if he’s back for the yet to be filmed S6. I can only hope he’ll come back. It would be a waste of great chemistry and an engaging character if Elliot was just meant to help Dillon with his sexuality before passing the torch to Ruby. He clearly left the door open for a future reunion when he told Dillon to call him when he was ready. Patrick confirmed in an interview today that he’ll be back for S6 and presumably Dillon will be playing for Foxborough or some other pro team. Being in a relationship would certainly be a good spur for Dillon to come out more publicly. And Elliot’s love of astronomy is a perfect set up for a date under the staahs

It’s true that the show has not really focused on ships in a big way; the most we’ve gotten was Boggy and Nancy and the low key Jack, Jamie, and Michelle triangle. But at the same time if Dillon can take Indira out and kiss Sienna then he should be able to date a boy he likes. It would be tragic if the closest Dillon gets to having a boyfriend or kissing a boy is Liam outing Dillon and claiming that Elliot was Dillon’s boyfriend and that he thought they were gonna kiss

And it’s a bit shady that Eric of all people is suddenly getting a female love interest out of nowhere. I just hope when the show eventually ends that it doesn’t turn out to be another Andi Mack where Cyrus was able to kiss a girl twice and go on dates with a girl and use the word girlfriend when none of that happened with a boy

Jamie Johnson really covered a lot tonight with Dillon. We had a very helpful run down of Dillon’s past with girls and the show carefully explains that Dillon never liked Sienna like that, he never wanted to kiss her, he never had a crush on anyone else like she thought, and he never liked Ruby as more than a friend (at least Duby shippers still have Alba and Liam for an Osborne-Simmonds ship). It wasn’t subtle but I think it was necessary to really drive home that Dillon is really gay and there’s no going back. And we got confirmation that Elliot was Dillon’s first crush, he’s obviously never beaten anyone up on this show and the way he phrases it makes clear that he’s never really thought about liking boys that way until very recently

And boy did this ep ever tackle homophobia. Graham Simmonds was seriously out of order this ep. He clearly didn’t want to believe Liam but Dillon using his aftershave already primed him to believe he was trying to impress someone, he just assumed it had been a girl. He really ran through the homophobe’s greatest hits collection: blaming Ruby’s gay parents, saying being gay was a choice, saying that being gay would end Dillon’s career, and disowning and kicking Dillon out for being gay. I suspect that quite a few of the parents watching JJ with their kids hold some of the same views or act the same way and this ep really holds up a mirror and reflects how ugly that kind of behaviour is. We also see Graham praising Dillon’s accomplishments and character right before Liam outs him which just exposes his hypocrisy even more. I do give the show credit for not shying away from Graham’s awfulness, it’s not going to be a quick change for him to suddenly accept Dillon and I’m excited to see his journey to atoning for his mistakes

Thankfully Mrs. Simmonds returned from her banishment to the shadow realm to tell Dillon she loved him and to tell him to return home. Shaun Duggan said he hoped this ep would be a lifeline for kids watching who may be living in homophobic homes (he also mentioned that CBBC rules don’t allow eps to allow on cliffhangers so he has to end an ep showing that the characters are at least physically okay)

It also challenges the audience, most of whom are probably young boys and men, as to whether they will suddenly stop liking Dillon just because he’s gay. It was a real gamble on the show’s part to have their fan favourite character and the effective second lead of the show come out as gay but it has the tremendous pay off of really making the audience question their assumptions and hopefully for some of them it will change their world views

Dillon and Elliot also discussed homophobia in sports. Dillon correctly notes that there aren’t any out players in the top professional teams. Shaun Duggan mentioned in a BBC interview that they like to bring on professional soccer players when they’re having the kids going through things but this time he wasn’t able to have anyone come on to help Dillon because there are no out players. So it falls to Jamie Johnson to basically create that reality themselves by telling Dillon’s story

Patrick Ward did a phenomenal job tonight and he really is the best of the kid actors. He’s mentioned in interviews that he did a lot of research by watching shows and movies with similar gay story lines. In particular his breakdown set to Behind Blue Eyes by the Who was very well done (and once again the show has great taste in music). And of course, Shaun Duggan did an amazing job writing this ep. He’s openly gay himself and that makes all the difference in bringing an authenticity and depth to this story line. On Andi Mack of the 5 textual gay eps only one, 3x11, was written by a gay man and not surprisingly that was the best written by far of those eps

We were 19 minutes into the ep before Jamie himself briefly showed up. And he was 5th in the credits tonight with Dillon and Elliot taking the number 1 and 2 spots. Actually this whole ep had a very small cast and only a few locations, it really helped focus this ep on Dillon. Having Dillon seek out Jamie is interesting in that they’ve been foils for each from the start. But also because it sends a message to have Jamie Johnson himself praise Dillon, it’s a way for the writers to speak directly to the audience through the title character

We’ll doubtless get some more development on Dillon’s story line in the rest of the season but they’ve done historic work so far. A lot of what we’ve seen so far: the depiction of homophobia, coming out to parents, and two gay kids discussing their sexualities has yet to happen anywhere on Disney. Hell this ep alone had more uses of the word gay than Disney has yet to have

I loved how extra the black and white boxing match cold open was. Not surprising that Dillon sees Mike as the supportive (and non homophobic) father figure he wishes Graham was

This was a big step backwards for Liam’s redemption arc tonight but at least at the end he didn’t seem to buying into his dad’s bullshit about them being the only men left in the house. Liam is by no means blameless but he’s also a victim of his dad’s emotional abuse and his pitting his sons against each other. That little meet up with Eric was interesting because they’re foils for each other in some ways and I’m curious to see what lies ahead for Liam and the U13 crew and for how Liam makes this up to Dillon

Looking Ahead:

Finally we get back to the real meat and potatoes of this show; online gaming! Looks like Mike is bored of gardening at the allotment and wants Jamie to get back into real soccer. We’ll see if Jamie makes into the online tournament

Again, not really sure why Eric suddenly needs Ayesha but we’re getting some Freddie anger over Eric choosing lasses over lads

Until next week Jamie Johnsoners

#Jamie Johnson #Delliot #Dillon Simmonds #Elliot #Ruby Osborne #Graham Simmonds #Liam Simmonds #Jamie Johnson Reviews

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all-things-skam · 6 years ago

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87, 96, 100 Elu please

87. ‘‘I can’t breathe.’‘

96. ‘‘Go back to sleep.’‘

100. ‘‘Make it stop.’‘

Title: Silent signal

Ship: Skam France | Lucas Lallemant and Eliot Demaury (Elu)

Jeudi, 21 Mars

Lucas didn’t realize where his legs were taking him until he stood in front of Elliot’s apartment building. He fixated on the brown, wooden doors, trying to find the courage to walk up to them and up the stairs but, his petite legs were glued on the sidewalk.

He almost sent a message to Eliott saying he was outside but Eliott still hadn’t returned any of his text messages and Lucas didn’t want to force himself on him. If Eliott didn’t want to talk to him, it was his choice.

One last try, Lucas told himself as pulled out his phone and posted a picture of the apartment building on his Instagram story, hoping Eliott would see it and know he’s outside. When he stayed over at the flat, he had told him he had post notifications turned on for him so, he should see it.

He sighed sitting down on a bench across from the apartment, praying that Eliott would see his Instagram story. At the same time, that came with its own troubles, even if he did attempt to go in, what would he say to Eliott’s parents. They must be still there. According to what Lucille said, they didn’t want their son around someone like him.

His thoughts were interrupted when a light, on the same floor as Eliott’s apartment, was turned on. A tall silouhaite stood behind the thin curtains, creating a dark shadow in the window.

Lucas stood up when he saw the light flicker. Eliott was there, in the window. He had seen his post. Or, was his mind tricking him? He was so tired, he could very well be hallucinating. Sometimes, when you’re really tired, the brain tricks you into thinking you’re seeing something where there is nothing. To make sure he had seen right, Lucas took his phone and checked his Instagram story, going down the list of users who saw his story: srodluv.

When Lucas looked up, the light was off…only to be turned back on…and off, as if it was a signal, asking- begging Lucas to come up.

He took a deep breath, deciding that he needed to do this for them. Eliott was in a vulnerable place and it was Lucas’s turn to take care of the older boy. He had to show him that there was more to their relationship than just sex or kissing. That he was actually falling in love with him. He had to somehow protect Eliott from his own mind, from his own self doubt.

Taking a deep breath, Lucas walked towards the door, ringing the bell to be buzzed in. He didn’t know which number what Eliott’s place so he tried all the numbers, waking some angry neighbors in the process. At some point, someone let him in and Lucas sprinted up the stairs to Eliott’s floor, climbing them two by two to get there faster.

When he got to the door, Lucas froze. What was he going to say to Eliott’s parents? It was almost 10pm, will they even let him in? Shaking his head, the brunet tried to calm himself down so that he wouldn’t look suspicious to Eliott’s parents. He knocked on the door trying to keep a cool and calm look.

The door was pulled open after two knocks, the familiar scent of Eliott’s home filling Lucas’s nose, memories of the last time he was here clouding his head.

Lucas stood nervously looking up at Eliott’s mom, already dressed in her night robe and pajama. “Sorry, I was looking for Eliott. Erm, he asked me to come over.”

The woman pulled her eyebrows. “Are you certain? Eliott hasn’t come out of his room in…a long time.”

“Yes. He texted me and asked to come over. I-I know about…” Lucas spoke up nervously, he was desperate to see Eliott and he was willing to go to great length to do it.

“Did he? He hasn’t said anything. And, it’s late too,” she said, hesitating whether she should let Lucas in or not.

“Please, Mrs. Demaury.” He gave her a desperate look, knowing that his eyes probably looked sad and worried.

She sighed. “Okay, you can go in for a little bit, maybe it can cheer him up a bit. He has barely eaten anything today.” She too was concerned about Eliott that she was willing to do anything to see her son cheer up a bit. Maybe this young boy could change things.

She let Lucas walk in and gave him a small smile.

Lucas walked past her, slowly making his way to where he knew Eliott’s bedroom was. His heart started beating faster behind his chest as he got closer to the door, finding it hard to believe that Eliott was so close yet so far from him.

He knocked once and pushed the door open, letting himself in.

The room was dark aside from the little lamp that Eliott had turned on to warn Lucas that he saw his message. Eliott was curled up in bed, his body looking small and fragile as the black duvet covered him. The mere sight of Eliott looking so broken shattered Lucas’s heart. He just wanted to get in bed with him and hold him until he got better.

Lucas closed the door behind him and got closer to the bed, catching sight of the untouched plate on the nightstand, a tall glass of water right by it followed by two small bottles of medication.

Lucas sat on the edge of the bed, placing his hand reluctantly on Eliott’s shoulder. He didn’t know what to say or if even saying anything at all was appropriate. “Eliott,” he whispered quietly, just wanting to take a look at his face. He hadn’t seen it in [so] long; he missed his beautiful face.

Eliott didn’t respond verbally to Lucas’s reach. He simply leaned into the young boy’s touch, exhaling as if a weight had been lifted off of him. Lucas took that as his cue to lie down beside Eliott, right behind him. He gently snaked an arm around his waist and held him close. He knew they were going to need to talk but, if what Eliott needed right was to be held by Lucas, he’ll do just that.

Lucas nuzzled his face in Eliott’s back, bathing in his scent that clung to the bedding. Lucas [loved] it. His sheets at home didn’t smell like him anymore and it made him sad.

They stayed like that for a little while; it was clear that both of them needed each other’s touch more than anything right now. Lucas would kiss Eliott’s shoulder once in a while to be greeted with a sigh of relief every time.

Eventually, Eliott managed to turn around, finally facing Lucas. His eyes were heavy, dark circles underneath and, by the state of his scruff, you could tell he hadn’t shaved this morning…nor yesterday.

“Hi.” Lucas flashes him a small smile, not expecting anything in return.

Eliott looked away, avoiding Lucas’s eyes, scared to see his blue pools filled with sadness.

Lucas didn’t want to push him for answers so he kissed his forehead and caressed his cheek, his touch gentle and delicate as if he was afraid to break him. “I’m deeply sorry for what I said about ‘crazy’ people the other day. My mom’s not crazy, you’re not either,” he apologized, coming to peace with himself.

A part of Lucas was afraid Eliott hadn’t returned his messages because of what he had said about not needing crazy people in his life - which was all bullshit. Although Lucas didn’t talk to his mom or visited her often, he still loved her and cared about her. They had gone through rough times but his feelings never changed. She had hurt him but he loved her unconditionally.

“I care about you a lot, you know. You’re so important to me, Eliott,” he whispered quietly just wanting to comfort him.

Eliott’s gray eyes teared up, some of his doubts diminishing. Lucas cared about him…despite everything. Losing Lucas was Eliott’s biggest fear. He felt so much for this boy, it would tear him apart if Lucas didn’t care about him, if Lucas didn’t want anything to do with him anymore.

A whirlwind of emotions and dark thoughts clouded Eliott’s mind, it had been for the past week, and Eliott was sick of feeling like this. It was as if he was stuck in this constant numbness and it was exhausting.

“Make it stop.”

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “Make what stop?”

Tears slipped from Eliott’s eyes which alerted Lucas. He had never seen Eliott cry before and the sight was breaking his heart. “This is too much. I can’t breathe, Lucas. Make it stop.”

Lucas pulled the crying boy to his chest and rubbed his back, hoping it’ll bring him some sort of comfort. He kissed his hair as Eliott nuzzled his face in Lucas’s sweatshirt. “Shh. I’m here, Eliott. Go back to sleep.”

Around midnight, Eliott’s mother opened the door of her son’s bedroom, about to tell Lucas he should go home now, only to come nose to nose with a sight she wasn’t expecting: Eliott sleeping in the boy’s arms, fingers clutching Lucas’s shirt. Lucas was sleeping too, his jacket forgotten and crumpled on the floor. She smiled, picking up the plate from the nightstand to take it to the kitchen and closed the door, leaving the two boys to sleep.

#skam france #elu #eliott x lucas #lucas x eliott #eliott demaury #Lucas Lallemant #skamfr #skam france fic #elu fic

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thecomicsnexus · 5 years ago

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SUPERMAN #423, ACTION COMICS #583 SEPTEMBER 11986 BY ALAN MOORE, CURT SWAN, GEORGE PEREZ, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER AND GENE D’ANGELO

This is an imaginary story (which may never happen, but then again may) about a perfect man who came from the sky and did only good. It tells of his twilight, when the great battles were over and the great miracles long since performed; of how his enemies conspired against him and of that final war in the snow-blind wastes beneath the Northern Lights; of the two women he loved and of the choice he made between them; of how he broke his most sacred oath; and how finally all the things he had were taken from him save one. It ends with a wink. It begins in a quiet midwestern town, one summer afternoon in the quiet midwestern future. Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky... but no: it's only a bird, only a plane. Superman died ten years ago. This is an imaginary story... Aren't they all?

SYNOPSIS (FROM SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE)

Summer has come to the Midwest, and the only thing that breaks the warm peacefulness of this little village this afternoon is the ring of a doorbell. The door opens framing a beautiful woman. "Ms Lane?" a young man asks. "It's Mrs. Lois Elliot, now," corrects the woman, opening the door for him to enter. "You must be Tim Crane, from the Planet," she says, and the young reporter the Daily Planet had sent to interview Lois for the Superman Memorial Edition makes himself at home on the couch.

To break the ice, Tim Crane tests his tape recorder then begins by asking about the two year period leading up to Superman's disappearance. "Were those happy times?" he asks. "Happy?" puzzles Lois. "I don't know... at least they were quiet," she begins. As if in a trance, Lois starts to tell her story. "Luthor had been quiet," she began, and "Brainiac had been pounded into scrap metal, save for the head that had never been recovered." Mostly, Superman worked in space doing research for the government, until one day he returned and found complete city blocks horribly destroyed. Jimmy rushed up to tell him that Bizarro had gone berserk, smashing buildings and injuring innocent people.

Walking into the shell that had once been a department store, Superman saw the destruction Bizarro has caused, and called to his imperfect replicate. "This am part of genius Bizarro self-improvement plan," laughed the grotesque creature, telling Superman that he had already destroyed Bizarro world, as Krypton had been destroyed. Then, realizing that to be the perfect imperfect double he must do everything opposite of Superman. If Superman cannot kill, Bizarro must kill millions, and if Superman is alive, then Bizarro must die. Holding a large piece of blue Kryptonite before himself, Bizarro collapsed to the floor, smiling. "Everything...him go dark," whispered Bizarro. "Hello, Superman. Hello." It didn't make sense even by Bizarro standards; genocide, homicide then suicide.

Several days later, at the WGBS television studios, two packages arrived just before Clark Kent made his daily newscast. Opening the smaller box, Lana Lang saw a group of Superman action figures and told Clark that they worked when the legs were squeezed together. Lifting one from the box, Lana demonstrated on one, and suddenly heat rays shot from its eyes. Suddenly, all of the figures became animated, and flew out of the box focusing their beams on Clark. "They're slicing him up," screamed Lana racing toward Clark, but Jimmy grabbed her. "It's too late. We can't save him," he yelled. But as the smoke cleared, Clark stands before them, his suit torn and burned revealing the familiar blue and red costume of Superman. Lana stared at him in amazement. "Clark, it was you. All of these years...it was you all of the time."

Their amazement is challenged when the voice of the Toyman and the Prankster crackled over small speakers in the figures. "He just combed his hair and stuck on a pair of glasses!" they laugh. "What a great gag!" "How did you know that I was Clark Kent?" screamed Superman. "Why don't you look in the big box," they replied, laughing wildly. The box was lead lined, but when Superman ripped it open the body of Pete Ross, who had known Superman's true identity since they were boys in Smallville, fell into view. The Prankster and Toyman continued to laugh hysterically at their apparent victory. "Do you know what radio waves look like..." Superman yelled, taking off faster than the eye can follow. Seconds later he smashed through the walls of their hideout. "...Because I do!" The next day, the world is shocked to read the headlines of the Planet that no one would have ever thought true: "Clark Kent Exposed as Superman." Later, at Pete Ross' funeral, Superman mused, "They were all just nuisances. What turned them into killers? If the nuisances from my past are coming back as killers, what will happen when the killers come back?"

Using a sophisticated detector, Lex Luthor searched the arctic circle, and finally located Brainiac's head. At first Luthor is ecstatic, but then he noticed the mask amazingly disassemble, then moved rapidly up Luthor's body to his head. With a disgusting "sludge", probes attached themselves to Luthor's skull, and took control of his motor and vocal pathways. The new Brainiac-Luthor team had been born. Turning slowly, Luthor began walking, stiffly, inexorably toward civilization one step, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another...

Several days passed before another event, almost as an omen, took place. In front of the Daily Planet building, an army of Metallos, hundreds of them, began climbing up the sides of the building, crashing through the glass breaking into the newsroom. Each of the Metallos attacked a member of the staff, a friend of Superman. But one sought Lois Lane, grabbed her, and threw her out of the broken window. "You alien loving tramp," he screamed at her. The reds and blues flowed together as Superman sped down and saved Lois as he has done countless times before, then turned upward to the roof. Using super-speed, he magnetized the giant planet on the top of the building and used it to gather up all of the Metallos.

But the danger was obvious. Superman decided that he must take all of his closest friends to the Fortress for safety. One by one, Superman transported Perry and Alice White, Lois and Lana, then Jimmy Olson. Almost on cue, Krypto returned from space, and stared at a life-size photo of Supergirl, almost tearing that she was killed in Crisis. The tension was so thick that focused heat vision could not cut through. Perry and Alice, at ropes end in their marriage, headed off to separate rooms. Lois and Lana, for so long rivals, consoled one another and themselves in their own fears.

Suddenly, the air crackled and the time bubble of the Legion of Super-Heroes appeared. Stepping from the bubble were all of the Legionnaires, including a young Kara... Supergirl. Brainiac V moved forward. "We thought you might appreciate the sight of a few friendly faces," he said. Then Kara greeted her cousin with a hug. "Is it cheating if you tell me if I grow up to be pretty," she asks. "You... grew up beautiful, Kara," choked back Superman. As the Legionnaires looked around the Fortress, Brainiac V took Superman aside and presented him with a gold statue of him holding a Phantom Zone projector. "We came here to meet with you again, and salute you," said Brainiac V solemnly. Superman looked at him sadly. "And pay your last respects, is that it?" Supergirl interrupted the tense moment. "I just thought of something," said Kara. "I thought I couldn't materialize in an era where you already existed?" "You're right," says Superman. "Right now, Supergirl is in the past."

Tearfully, the Legionnaires boarded their time bubble and slowly disappeared in an electric crackle. Left alone, Superman and Krypto sat quietly among their many trophies, the tributes to their heroic deeds... and their thoughts. "He never told me exactly what had happened the night before the siege began," says Lois. "But as soon as I saw him the next morning I knew something had upset him. He looked funny. He looked as if he had been crying."

Lois and Tim Crane take a break to have a cup of coffee. The wonderful aroma attracts Jordan Elliot, Lois' husband into the room. Sitting at the table, Crane looks at Elliot and asks whether he minds that his wife is being interviewed about her life with Superman. "Nah, I can live with it," dismissed Elliott. "He weren't nothin' special. Us workin' slobs, we're the real heroes." Turning, he left them to resume to their interview and Lois continued. "We stood on the balcony and watched as he destroyed the golden key. I think that's when we first realized that he was preparing for a siege... Superman's last stand."

Inside, the people were tense. Perry and Alice bickered. Lois and Lana waited. Outside, the villains gathered. Brainiac-Luthor and the Kryptonite Man emerged from Brainiac's rebuilt ship and to their amazement, Saturn Woman, Cosmic King and Lightning Lord, members of the Legion of Super Villains, arrived from the future hoping to share in the victory. "Why should I share," asks Brainiac-Luthor. "Because, in the future, we know things," said Saturn Woman. "According to legend...Superman met his greatest foe in battle and was no more," said Lightning Lord. "It is said that during Superman's last days, all of earth's champions flocked to help him," added Cosmic King. Brainiac-Luthor returned to his ship. "I shall erect an impenetrable force-screen immediately," the voice drones and a huge bubble, two miles across appeared enclosing the fortress.

Around noon, they began firing on the fortress with weapons from Brainiac's ship. Superman was able to destroy most of the weapons with his heat vision, but the force generator was too well protected, and a frontal assault by him and Krypto was turned back by Kryptonite Man. Soon, other heroes arrived. Friends, rivals, lovers; none of them could get through the barrier. And when night finally fell, everyone assumed that they had until morning.

As quiet came, Superman sought out Perry white. The two men spoke of fear, and dying in hushed voices. "I think I'm going to die," said Superman sadly, "and I have so much to get straight, like me and Lois, and me and Lana. They've wasted their love on me while I couldn't love either of them the way they deserved. I wish I had explained. I wish I hadn't been such a coward." His voice tailed off. The noble are always the ones most troubled by conscience.

Suddenly, a flickering flashlight captured a figure moving in the darkness. "Lana, what are you doing here?" asked Jimmy. They looked at each other realizing that each had come to help. Locating the serum that had once transformed him into Elastic Lad, Jimmy lifted the flask with a wry smile then drank. Before them is a pool of water that had once given Lana temporary super-powers. Telling Jimmy to turn his back, Lana immersed herself in the water, and one-by-one her senses expanded: x-ray vision, microscopic vision, and super-hearing... then overhearing a voice... of Superman. "When I was Superboy, Lana was the only girl I loved, but since I've grown to become a man, there's only ever been one woman for me. Lois. I love her Perry, but I can't tell her without hurting Lana. I'd never hurt Lana, so I'll just walk around with this secret, the weight in my heart. I'll carry it in my heart, and neither of them will ever know."

Standing, Lana lifted herself from the pool and dressed in the costume hung in the trophy case behind her. "Are you ready yet," asked Jimmy. "We'll show 'em," Lana says. "Nobody loved him better than us. Nobody!" and they sped from the fortress.

Brainiac had assumed that Kryptonite Man would keep Superman and Krypto at bay, so what happened took them totally by surprise. First Lana pummeled Kryptonite Man while Jimmy ran to disable the force projector. Then Lana turned on Brainiac-Luthor. The Brainiac portion spoke in bravado, but the part that was still Luthor pleaded with Lana. "Kill meee... Lana... Please... Kill me... Do it now," said Luthor, his voice feeble and weak. Lana landed a thundering blow which snapped Luthor's neck, collapsing him into the snow.

But then the Legion of Super Villains took command. Cosmic King used his elemental transmutation powers to turn the radioactive particles of the pool into normal body salts stealing Lana's powers from her. Lightning Lord approached Lana, offering a hand, but electrocuted her. Elastic Lad had watched this, and leapt at the villains from the future. "You murdering scum," he screamed. "The force screens wrecked and you're finished," but no sooner have the words left his lips when a blast from a ray pistol struck a fatal blow, and Jimmy lay dead in the snow.

The Villains wondered where the blast had come from, and then saw Brainiac stand clumsily, stiffly. "I.. am Brainiac...reducer of Kandor...and his greatest foe. My victory...is preordained. Do you think... that I would let... the death of this body... stand in my way?" The villains look at the scene in amazement. Kryptonite Man then noticed that even though Jimmy had destroyed the force generator the screen had not collapsed. "Some other force must be maintaining the screen," wheezed Brainiac who then ordered that they prepare for their final strike and launched a nuclear missile.

The nuclear blast had little effect on the fortress other than to open a gaping hole in one side. Inside, Perry rushed from his room and saw a wall begin to crumble on Alice. Quickly, he knocked her aside, saving her life. Safe for the moment, the two look at each other and realize that, even now, they still had love one another. The thing they did not have was time.

The first villain to approach the fortress was Kryptonite Man. Passing through the hole in the fortress wall, he called out defiantly, "Where are you Kryptonian?" The response came from a different Kryptonian than he expected, when Krypto blasted through the wall. Kryptonite Man radiated the dog, but Krypto kept coming, biting a slashing at the villain. "I'm killing you, you stupid animal. Don't you understand?" Krypto did understand and was unrelenting. In a pool of green blood, Kryptonite Man died, and with his final breaths, Krypto emitted a mournful howl then joined the green man in death.

With Lois in his arms, Superman flew through the fortress witnessing the destruction. Using his x-ray vision he located Perry and Alice, but told Lois that Jimmy and Lana were nowhere to be seen. "Perhaps they're dead," laughed Lightning Lord. "Want to buy yourself some time, Kryptonian? Why not throw me the woman to fry the way I fried your other girlfriend." "You hurt Lana?" Superman screamed. His eyes glow red, with the heat of many suns, and slash out slicing Lightning Lord's shoulder. Saturn Woman is completely taken aback. "He's prepared to kill," she says and the trio, knowing that Superman is to be defeated this day, rushes hurriedly to their Time Bubble and escape to the future.

Together, Superman and Lois fly off to face Brainiac. As they approach, Superman can see that rigor mortis has developed and Brainiac can no longer control muscular function. Luthor's body betrayed Brainiac in death, collapsing in the snow. Disengaging himself from Luthor's skull, Brainiac walks, crablike toward Superman. "I am coming for you Kryptonian. My victory in inevitable.' But Brainiac could only move a few inches, powered only by pure malice. In a blink, it, too, expired.

It's over. But no! There are too many loose ends. The force field is still intact. No one can enter or leave. As they return to the fortress, the truth suddenly dawned on Superman. "Mxyxptlk!" he screamed, and the 5th Dimensional imp appeared, changed somehow, darker. "What do you do when you're immortal," he asks, "other than fill time." Part of the time he was good, part of the time funny now he is evil. "Did you honestly believe that a 5th Dimensional sorcerer would resemble a funny little man in a derby hat? This is how I really look," he screams and again changes into a distorted, grotesque apparition with height, length, breadth and a couple of other things.

Suddenly, Brainiac V's meaning dawned on Superman. The statue he was given... facing his greatest foe... he was holding a Phantom Zone projector. Racing through the fortress, Superman sped to the chamber where the projector was hidden, with Mxyxptlk right behind him. "Time to die!" screamed Mxyxptlk. "That's right, Mxyxptlk," says Superman. "Time to die."

It takes a moment for Mxyxptlk to recognize what Superman had in his hands, and in that moment, he realized that there is no escape for him, save one. As the Phantom Zone projector beam hits Mxyxptlk, he yelled out his name backwards. A numbing scream rends the air. As he attempted to return to the 5th Dimension, he was also sent to the Phantom Zone; torn in half between dimension.

And now it is over. But was it. In the fortress Superman appeared distraught. "I broke my oath," he sighed. "I killed him. Nobody has the right to kill. Not Mxyxptlk... not you... not Superman. Especially not Superman." "Superman turned and walked down a hallway," continues Lois to Tim Crane. "I ran after him, calling his name. He didn't reply. Opening a chamber labeled "Gold Kryptonite" he entered and walked into the gold light. He turned and looked over his shoulder. He smiled at me... I never saw Superman again."

The force field crackled and disappeared and the heroes of earth approached the fortress. "Carnage and destruction was everywhere," adds Lois sadly. "Bodies of his enemies, and his most loyal friends were strewn on the ground. They found me outside of the Gold Kryptonite chamber, but Superman was gone. They found a passageway leading out of the fortress and it is believed that he walked out, powerless. They never found his body. As far as I am concerned, Superman died in the arctic. I was there."

As Tim Crane gathers his notes and prepares to leave, Jordan Elliot walked into the living room with his son, Jonathan. Once alone, the couple settled in for the evening. "I guess the media won't be bothering us for at least another 10 years now," says Lois. "Let's hope so," added Jordan. Sitting Jonathan down beside the fireplace, the couple hugged lovingly. "Work was great," began Jordan. A friend brought in a photo of his grandchildren and they had worked on a '48 Buick. "You really love it, don't you? Going to work everyday, taking out the garbage, changing Jonathan's diapers... all the normal stuff," says Lois knowingly. "Yep. Can't beat it," laughed Jordan who casually glanced at his son, now black from coal soot.

"You were pretty hard on Superman earlier," admonished Lois. "Superman was over-rated," laughed Jordan. "Too wrapped up in himself. 'Thought the world couldn't get along without him." At his feet, young Jonathan playfully squeezed the coal in his hand. Opening it he stared gleefully at a large, glimmering diamond.

"What's for dinner," asked Jordan. "Pizza, then bed, a bottle of wine," winked Lois, "then we can live happily ever after. Sound good to you? Grinning widely, Jordan walked to the door, and stared out at us. He nodded, then winked, then closed the door.

CONTEXT

REVIEW

Yes, the dog dies.

There aren’t many sad Superman stories (at least not that many that do not end with some kind of hope). To me this story gets sadder with the Legion sequence. Everything about those pages is sad, including the last splash page. That is the moment Superman confirms he is about to die.

Some fun facts: Jordan Elliot is a homage to Jor-El. Lois’s son is named Jonathan for the reasons you already know. (Jonathan Kent).

On the cover of Action Comics #583, you can see DC people, Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Jenette Khan and and Julius Schwartz.

There are some things I consider “off” in this story that I forgive for the emotional factor. Time travel logic in particular seems fishy. There are a couple of rules mentioned, but the intervention of the Legion of Super-Villains kind of breaks history (unless of course, that they were there all along in some kind of loop). The same way with the golden statue, was that there all along?

It’s unclear to me if the force shield covered everything under earth as well, as Superman could have easily made an underground tunnel and put all his loved ones in another safe place.

Then what about the crazy room full of Golden Kryptonite? Is that safe to have around?

One thing is cool about the “suicide” ending. We saw Bizarro take his life earlier with Blue Kryptonite, and he does the opposite, so I take that as a clue that he is not dying.

I also like the small character moments. Lana and Lois in particular as they weren’t treated with respect all along (one of the reasons Byrne did away with the love triangles). But also Perry and Alice have a beautiful moment.

Lana, Jimmy and Krypto sacrifice themselves. As Jimmy said, “it’s time to pay the price for being Superman’s pal”. Lana died a hero and Lois pretty much helped Superman figured out how to end the menace.

Moore did good use of Superman’s supporting cast, something that most writers usually ignore (as they are usually used to fill pages or help with quick expositions).

I always forget George Perez inked the first chapter. It is clearly Perez without losing Swan’s style (but you can find Perez’s style in the backgrounds).

This is the end of the Bronze Age for Superman. To be honest, I do not know if this is a Bronze Age or a Modern Age story. I think both would be correct, but because it feels more in harmony with Modern Age stories, I decided to put it in that category.

I give this story a score of 10.

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etherealellaelf · 5 years ago

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So I just saw Cats 2019 and here are my thoughts:

(I’mma talk about the good and bad things) So I went into this movie both worried about the cursed design and also as a longtime fan of Cats: the Musical. I first watched the 1998 filmed stage production on PBS when I was a little girl, and then I revisited it when I was older and became a fan of all the colorful characters, the haunting music, and the great dance performances. It’s based on the Poetry book by T.S. Elliot “Old Possum’s book of Practical Cats”. Since it’s a poetry book, there is a problem: each poem about the cats doesn’t flow very well into a cohesive plot. So the new movie fixed that. Here are some other good things about the 2019 Cats movie: *spoilers*

(And before I start I was sitting beside an old woman who told me that she saw the very first stage production of Cats in London many years ago and she said to me in a very concerned voice after the movie was over, “It wasn’t THAT bad, was it?” I looked her in the eye and shook my head and I told her it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t lie. It was just a little bad. But my heart went out to her nostalgia.)

-Victoria is the main character now, so the audience is seeing the cats through her eyes. She’s our vehicle. That makes the songs that the cats sing introduction songs; they’re introducing themselves to us and Victoria.

-Like I said before, the plot is a lot more cohesive. The new script explains what jellicle cats are, the purpose of the jellicle ball, and who macavity is. They also added a ton of stuff, like Macavity kidnapping the other contenders to become the “Jellicle choice”, the cat that the leader will choose to be reborn(like, cats have 9 lives? It’s a bit weird, just go with it), because he wants to be chosen. Macavity didn’t really do this in the old one, this cements him as the villain. Also other cats like mungojerry and rumpleteazer and bombalurina are helping macavity.

-I have mixed feelings that Grizabella is being shunned because she used to work for Macavity. It does give the other cats a better reason to hate her, but they don’t hate mungojerry and stuff. I’ll talk about that later.

-These new additions to the story made it a lot more palatable, but at the same time I like the old version as well. They’re both good. This one is just a lot more cohesive.

-All of the ballerinas, dancers, and singers were really good, and the acting was pretty good too, for people pretending to be cats. I thought taylor swift’s rendition of “macavity” was really good, and they brought a new facet to her character and the odious nature of the song, as it’s now a villain song and she is a villain.

-Tom Hooper as director. I really liked his style in Les Mis, and I guess it kind of worked here. (Also I love you so much Tom Hooper I feel bad that this movie did so badly because I want you to succeed, you have a great style and vision and it really worked for Les Mis.)

-They left out that awkward *scene*. You know the one. The o-r-g-y scene. Good on them. Thank you. I read somewhere that it was there, but when I watched the movie, it was not there. I’m confused by some reviews saying it was there. It wasn’t there?!?!?!

Now let’s talk about what I didn’t like.

-The “cursed” design. Clearly everyone agrees with me about this. I forgot about it within the first ten minutes of watching. I really liked the look of Old Deuterotomy, who was a very fluffy, long-haired cat. That’s what made the old designs from the musical so memorable: the wigs were really big and poofy and the leg and arm warmers looked like fuzzy cat legs. The floofiness gave them character. Making all the cats shorthaired just made them look pretty naked, and I know they did this to accentuate the line of dance(it’s why dancers wear tight clothes), but they should have had fluffier cheeks, fluffier heads, and fluffier limbs. That would’ve prevented all the naked-looking cats. I understand the animators wanted to try something new, but they should’ve taken a page out of Sonic the Hedgehog movie’s book and redesigned.

-They totally changed Mungojerry and rumpleteazer’s song! It used to be a vaudeville production and it was so mischievous and fun. Now it just doesn’t have much tune.

-They cut the Pekes and the Pollicles, the song where the cats are making fun of how clumsy dogs are. But I suppose it’s probably for the best. Lots of people like dogs nowadays.

-Grizabella getting shunned because she used to work for Macavity??? The integral part of her character is just that she’s old. They should have made the Jennifer Hudson cat look a lot older, with greying fur and hair and stuff. The other cats shun Grizabella because she’s a reminder that they will die one day and she used to be beautiful and wonderful like them, once. It’s a big part of their character and despite them trying to explain and gloss over why everyone hates her, my friend who’s never seen cats was still confused. I wish they hadn’t said she worked for Macavity, but at this point it’s canon so who am I to question it.

-They totally cut Munkustrap and Macavity’s fight.

-Although they cut out the weird scene, there was a really strange scene where all the cat’s tails quivered in the moonlight and they started just acting so strange. Then suddenly everyone started dancing! I could’ve done without the tail quivering.

-The cockroaches and at times, the mice, with their human faces, were a bit weird. Especially when Rebel Wilson ate some of the cockroaches. Also a bit weird was when she unzipped her skin, but it’s fine, she did that in the stage version, too.

-The Rum Tum Tugger did not need to catch Victoria’s foot the way he did, as it was really close to his mouth and it was just a really weird decision.

-I’m sorry, but when the Cats rubbed their heads against each other’s heads, it was a bit weird. In the stage production, head rubbing is done very fast. It’s over with. It’s done. In this one they lingered and stared a lot. I guess real cats do that. But anyway. It’s whatever.

-Some cats wore clothes and took them off at points as well while other cats did not wear clothes. I think it actually was good that the train cat wore suspenders and the fat cat, Bustopher Jones, wore a top hat and evening jacket. It was charming for them. I don’t think Idris Elba’s fedora and trench coat needed to come off of his body at all. He should’ve kept them on. Just make his ears poke out of his hat or something. He totally looked naked.

-”Jellicle” is a weird word. There is a jiggly sound associated with it.

-The opening orchestral music is, at times, hit or miss. I personally like it because it sounds eerie and strange, sinuous and slithery, like how a cat do. It can come across as creepy though, especially during the song “The Naming of Cats”. In the stage production I can’t really watch because those cats all, as one, look at the audience, staring into my soul, and chant the song in one voice, and then they advance on the audience and it’s creepy but I guess it’s interesting. Idk how to convey in words. I am glad they cut that particular element about that song from the movie.

Okay, now I’m going to address people who won’t give it a shot:

-Give it a shot. You forget about how they look like ten minutes into the movie. If you think about it as an arthouse film about dancers pretending to be cats, then it is enjoyable.

-There was a lot of time, money, talent, and effort put into this production. All the ballerinas and other dancers are very passionate about their performance and it shows.

-The animators for this movie were only given 7 months to model and do special effects for every single character on this movie, and there are hundreds of cats. Toy Story worked on its movie for 4 years. So I guess it’s easy to accuse the animators, but they were just doing their jobs; they weren’t given a lot of time to make the designs look fantastic, and they couldn’t deviate from what their art directors told them to do. I’m sure that some of them wanted to do the stage makeup and hair and whatnot, but you have to remember; the actors and director had no idea what the finished product would look like. Don’t blame them.

-Let’s just face it: Cats is a really weird concept to begin with. Andrew Lloyd Weber had some good ideas, like Phantom of the Opera, and he had kind of strange ideas, like Cats. It was really popular in the 70′s because the play has music that is very 50′s themed(note the malt shoppe that is a milk bar in the movie and Rum Tum Tugger is supposed to be like an Elvis character) and 20′s themed(the vaudeville Mungojerry, Rumpleteazer, and Macavity themes), so in its time, this show was a lot like Stranger Things for us. It was a nostalgia trip. And even amongst theater fans, there is a tiny niche who love Cats. This is not a huge fanbase. I liked it by accident, stumbling upon it by coincidence. I don’t understand why they put so much money into it knowing this. They should’ve cast much smaller celebrities and advertised much smaller, but we all know that Andrew Lloyd Weber is Mr. Moneybags and Mr. Outlandish, so of course he wanted to attract a younger fanbase to keep the spirit going for years to come. I, as a dance and musical fan, liked the stage production. I think if you’re willing to overlook the cringe, how a lot of the cats wear clothes and others don’t, and Idris Elba’s neon green contacts, you could like it. I don’t know. I’m not you. I just think this movie was made for certain people who like the old version of Cats, and they should’ve marketed it to them, and the reason why they tanked so hard is because they didn’t. They should’ve put them in stage costume and makeup and only CGI’ed some things.

-Maybe it would’ve worked better as an animated movie, where the designs for the cats was simply a cat who does ballet. It worked for the stage production because we used our imagination and we thought they were cats with emotions, personalities, attitudes. I think if you squint you can imagine this on this movie as well. But the thing is there was just too much backlash and nobody wanted to see it. Fame is dictated by social media these days, and if they meme you, you’re done. There’s really nothing you can do.

-The moral of the story is maybe see it, but if you don’t want to, don’t. But keep in mind Cats isn’t for everyone. It’s only for people who liked the Cats musical. So if you did, great, if you don’t, then you don’t have to see it.

#cats #2019 #review #I actually liked it #cats appreciation post #andrew lloyd weber #they shouldn't have tried to revive it #tom hooper #cursed #1998 #idris elba #appreciation #they tried

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hawkland · 8 years ago

Note

for the in depth fandom questions: svu

@adarafaelbarbas also asked for my SVU thoughts, so here you both go!

And it got long, so I’m putting it all behind cut….

Top 5 favourite characters: Top 2 are no surprise to anyone: John Munch & Fin Tutuola of course. After that? At the moment I’d probably have to say Casey Novak, George Huang, and Don Cragen. But that can vary a bit depending on which episodes/seasons I’ve been watching recently.

Other characters you like: Hmm, well, I’d say I “like” most of the regulars through the years, or else I wouldn’t be a fan in the first place, would I? If I had to pick say five more to round out my top 10, though, I’d probably go with Melinda Warner, Alex Cabot, Olivia Benson of the early seasons, Nick Amaro, and Rafael Barba.

Least favourite characters: Chester Lake, any of the ever-changing ADAs from seasons 10-12, Dale Stuckey (you bastard you killed O’Halloran!), Elliot Stabler from about season 6 onward, Olivia Benson from at least season 16 onward (though she started annoying me at times far before that, especially in her attitude toward Rollins and Amaro in Season 13).

Otps: Munch/Fin, of course, before any others! I also ship Cabenson pretty hard; it was probably my first ship when I was watching the show originally.

Notps: Eeeeeh, I always sort of tread lightly around declaring NOTPs because there are a lot of ships I don’t particularly care for, but my reasons can be weird/personal and I don’t like stirring up wank talking about them or the reasons why. But I will say that I definitely never liked E/O as a romantic ship, only as friends. And I have a personal squick for shipping Fin with anyone but Munch because I just want them to be together (and yet I’ll ship Munch with pretty much anyone else, though maybe not as an endgame ship, so I’m kind of a hypocrite that way? IDK…) I didn’t care for Tuckson, and Barisi…I just honestly don’t really see it, and while I’ve tried reading it in fic I’ve rarely found a story that convinced me or felt in character to my mind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Favourite friendships: Munch/Cragen, Fin/Amanda, Munch/Amaro, Munch/Benson, Bensler (early seasons before it all got fucked up)

Favourite family: I guess I’ll say Fin, because as messed-up as it may be, I do enjoy the episodes featuring Ken & I love the idea of Fin becoming a grandfather. I also really really want Ken & Alejandro to be together and be happy!

Favourite episodes: With so many seasons it’s hard to narrow it down to even a top 10. But some of the ones I will always rewatch when they’re on include Remorse, Nocturne, Legacy, Manhunt, Countdown, Denial, Careless, Painless, Haunted, Scavenger, Parts, Raw, Screwed, Alternate, Cold, Authority, Zebras, Anchor… ie, most of the very Fin and/or Munch-centric ones.

Favourite season/book/movie: Seasons 2 and 5 are my favorites—2 for the way the team really came together and so many of the cases/episodes featured ALL of the detectives working as a unit. 5 for some of the most interesting cases and the whole loss of Alex/introduction of Casey storyline.

Favourite quotes: Ah, so many but a few off the top of my head:

“If you don’t question authority, you lose your humanity.”

“I just know stuff.”

“That’s my Jew.”

“Once god gives you a uterus, then I’ll listen to your sermon.”

“Even a turd can float.”

Best musical moment: The final montage in Screwed set to Mark Isham’s “Sense of Touch”. The music is perfect and the ending of that episode always gets me emotional.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: How do I even narrow it down?!?! Munch and Fin sharing a motel room in Manhunt, maybe, and finally having a bit of a heart-to-heart. That or when Ken has dinner with John to introduce Alejandro because I still insist there is no possible heterosexual context to that scene whatsoever.

When it really disappointed you: Oh so so many times but, probably one of the biggest disappointments for me was last year, all the hype about “Munch returns” when he ended up having all of about 2 minutes screen time—and really didn’t get to have any good interactions with anyone other than Benson & Noah.

Saddest moment: Munch’s retirement. You know, I still cannot watch that episode in its entirety? I’m not ready for the emotional gut-punch.

Most well done character death: Mmm…I might go with Sonya Paxton on that, because it was emotional and sad and yet she also was able to at least, in her death, provide evidence to catch her (and others) killer. Unlike Sister Peg and O’Halloran’s deaths which just felt cheap and unnecessary…and I won’t even go into how I feel about how they killed Mike Dodds (that’s why @ladyzootie and I are working on a story to set THAT right!)

Favourite guest star: Robin Williams in Authority, though I also loved Jeremy Irons, especially in his second appearance in Totem. As much as I love Huang, I would have enjoyed seeing more of Dr. Jackson as well; Irons was perfect in that role and brought a lot to the show with his character.

Favourite cast member: Don’t make me choose between the Belz and Ice-T! I love them both too much to pick a favorite.

Character you wish was still alive: Mike. Dodds.

One thing you hope really happens: That the show either brings on a new full-time detective for the unit or starts using more supporting characters again: show the detectives going to the morgue, working with TARU, working with a psychiatrist instead of having Benson diagnosing and doing everything herself. But, I’m not holding out great hope for that.

Most shocking twist: Shocking in a not-good way: Tuckson. Sorry, I never bought it, I don’t see all this so-called evidence that the writers were “setting it up” for seasons before it happened. Total WTF??!?! for me.

When did you start watching/reading?: I actually vividly remember watching the pilot episode when it first aired in 1999. I’ve pretty much followed it on and off since then, watching regularly at least on thru Season 9 or so and I think that’s about when I lost at least some of my interest. But that said, I was mostly a casual fan until about 2 years ago when I really fell hard into it in a “fannish” way, after rewatching old episodes in reruns.

Best animal/creature: THE MONKEY IN THE BASKETBALL

Favourite location: The original squad room.

Trope you wish they would stop using: SAINT BENSON IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN DO EVERYTHING IN THE SQUAD. ENOUGH ALREADY.

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: Errrr…hmm. These days I can’t think of anything it does better than other shows besides bore and/or annoy me, sorry. In the earlier seasons I’d say it was unique in the way it tackled messy, painful, and often controversial issues of sexuality and “sexually based offenses”. It wasn’t always perfectly PC but it did a good job of presenting complexity and showcasing how societal ideas were changing and being challenged—without just feeling like a soapbox.

Funniest moments: All of Wildlife is pretty hysterically bad but in an entertaining way. In fact Mr. Hawkland just saw it for the first time this weekend and was laughing hysterically at some of the lines in it. But also Countdown, for having such a dark plot, is one of my favorites for all of the great one-liners and funny scenes ( “I’m not tipping all of you”, Munch and the empty coffee can, etc.)

Couple you would like to see: Ha ha ha ha, well of course Munch & Fin, but I know that will never happen. And honestly, even if it did I wouldn’t want it to be acknowledged as canon until the very last episode. Because the writers would surely fuck it up otherwise the way they do every other romance on this show. Otherwise I do kind of like Rollisi, not in an OMG I LOVE THEM sort of way but I do see potential for chemistry, and that Carisi could be a good kind of stabilizing influence on her with her crazy family life. But, would she in turn be good for him? That I’m not so sure about.

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: I would SO love to see more of Bayard Ellis. His character was great and such a good foil to Benson. I’d love to see Andre Braugher return to the role.

Favourite outfit: Any of Fin’s suits in season 2.

Favourite item: Fin having a picture of Spartacus and Maximus (Ice’s dogs) on his desk (which I never noticed until @sammael77 caught it!)

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: A few fan-produced t-shirts, magnets and other odds and ends, my MunchFin iPhone case, and seasons 1-15 on DVD

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: My “squad goals” would be the team from seasons 5-8: Munch, Fin, Benson, Stabler, Cragen, Novak, Warner, Huang. That’s my all-time favorite team.

Most boring plotline: Anything involving the Stabler family.

Most laughably bad moment: “Redchannit”

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: Eh, I think the few times they’ve done as much haven’t been very good. I know I really disliked the way they repurposed season 1 footage for Manhattan Vigil to change what those scenes were initially about.

Most layered character: All right so it’s maybe my bias talking, but Munch! Especially because I “cheat” and include all of his Homicide characterization too. But honestly…Munch really is a lot more than a sarcastic conspiracy theorist. I think where I really love the complexities of his character coming through are his struggles with issues like suicide and assisted suicide, which came through not just in Painless but also Mercy. On one hand he’s such a strong personal choice advocate and on the other, he knows first-hand how difficult it is for family members when a loved one commits suicide. And what about protecting those who are not being given the choice to end their life or live?

But also, I love that he’s one of the few (main) characters the show ever allowed to remain childfree, yet he was also shown to be incredibly caring and good with children (illustrating that not all childfree people hate or are bad with kids; they just know they aren’t meant to raise one full-time.) He has complicated feelings about women, sometimes (especially early on) seeming incredibly bitter and cynical but deep down he is a lonely romantic.

Most one dimensional character: Honestly, at this point, St. Benson the Holy Redeemer of All Rape Victims.

Scariest moment: Hmmm…I’m having a hard time pinpointing this or narrowing it down to a single “scariest” scene. In general I get freaked out any time they show a serial killer’s “work den”, like in Manhunt or Signature. Because thinking about what those victims had to go through before being killed just makes me really feel sick to my stomach and horrified.

Grossest moment: Hyena vomit

Best looking male: Dammit, don’t make me pick between Munch or Fin because I can’t.

Best looking female: Casey Novak

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Of the current cast, only Fin, who just seems to be getting hotter with every passing year. Of all years, of course Munch, but I also crush on Casey and early season baby!butch Benson.

Favourite cast moment: I think I’ll just say all of the episode Countdown, because to me that was ensemble perfection.

Favourite transportation: Eh, doesn’t really seem to apply here to this canon, does it?

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Still gonna go with the end of Screwed, because I love that final scene with Fin, Ken and Darius on the courtroom steps.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:

Hahahahahahahah so many so many….

Continuity/plot error: It still bugs the crap out of me (especially as a fic writer who is anal about canon facts) that in Season 2 they messed with Munch’s background from Homicide, and tried to make it sound like he grew up in New York. THAT IS WRONG WRONG WRONG. I’m not going to throw away the family/childhood details we got in Homicide just because the SVU writers were lazy. And it really pains me because it comes up in two of my otherwise favorite episodes (Legacy and Manhunt), so when I’m writing anything where that might come up I have to go through mental gymnastics to explain why he might lie. Or just ignore SVU’s “canon” on that

Unanswered question: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO KEN & ALEJANDRO’S BABY? THAT POOR SURROGATE HAS BEEN PREGNANT FOREVER. Unless that’s just something they’ve completely forgotten about and we’re just to assume Fin is a grandfather now and never talks about it at work while everything and anything Olivia or Amanda does has to relate to them being mothers.

Best promo: Well, I really liked USA Network’s recent “Fin-a-thon” promo…especially for Ice talking about Fin & Munch.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: I’ve mentioned this before, but the funny moment when I went from being a casual viewer to developing my current obsession was in Spousal Privilege when Fin said to Amanda: “ I learned two things in my 15 years here at SVU. One: you can’t take this job home to you. Two: you can’t take anyone from this job home with you.” I hadn’t been watching regularly for a number of years so immediately I was like, “WAIT A MINUTE DID HE JUST ACKNOWLEDGE HAVING A THING WITH MUNCH?!” It’s weird the things that set my shippy brain off. Suddenly I wanted to catch up on everything I missed, and that made me then want to rewatch EVERY episode, and mild fannishness became a total obsession.

#snaafu #thanks for the ask #svu #svu thinky thoughts #wow this got long #like a goddamned essay

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stewartry · 8 years ago

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Persuasion - Jane Austen

I say this a lot, but it's been a very long time since I read Persuasion. I know the movie (Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root, for me the only one worth watching) very very well, and it was a pure joy to be reminded of how utterly and beautifully faithful it is to the book, and another joy to be reminded of all of the elements that did not make it into the film. Karen Savage's reading was lovely and just enhanced my enjoyment of the story.

I wonder if the book's title came from the prevalence of the word throughout the text, or if Miss Austen went back and threaded different forms of "persuade" into it afterward. (Wikipedia's messy article on the book (really, if someone's read Austen I would have thought that meant they could use proper English) indicates that the book was untitled at Jane Austen's death and that her brother named it – therefore, I guess, the former.) It's a pernicious little word, and quiet in its poison. Nineteen-year-old Anne was not bullied into giving Frederick up, nor ordered to do so, nor forced – nothing so loud and against her will. No, it's worse: she was persuaded. Lady Russell poured poison into her ear and sweetly nudged and subtly herded and full only of concern for Anne and only in her best interests steered her away from him until Anne bent to her will, became convinced that such a marriage would be bad not only for her and her family but also for him, and she turned him away. I don't doubt but that was quite a bit less quiet.

I like Anne, a great deal. She was, I think, not so much weak as pliant and obliging when she was young; she retains some of that pliability, but the pain she has lived with for eight years has woken her up and steeled her spine. She is willing and content to do for others, even those who are tiresome or who require rather than request, but she has a mind of her own, and it's a good one.

I don't know if I would love Wentworth without Ciaran Hinds's interference; I would like him, at least, and sympathize with him; I don't think it would be a Boromir-saved-by-Sean-Bean situation. He sounds like he was a bit free-wheeling when he was younger and courting Anne – he made a good deal of money and spent it, though Miss Austen declines to say on what. He does not seem to be a gambler of any sort; my semi-informed guess would be that he spent it on things he liked and on his sister and brother and friends.

I despise Lady Russell. I said so on a Goodreads Austen group, and was (genteelly, as befits an Austen group) jumped on for it and in all ways declared to be in the wrong. ("She stops the marriage with Wentworth because she cares so much for Anne and wants to protect her. Wentworth is penniless, was about to go to war and could have died.") I backed off, thinking my opinion must be faulty because it was based mainly on the film and not the book; the movie, I thought, must have slanted the character to encourage my dislike.

But it didn't. Listening to the book, I was a little surprised – and a little gratified – to find that while Lady Russell has to her credit a genuine affection and care for Anne, she is every bit as ludicrously snobbish and closed-minded as I thought – as much so, in fact, as Sir Walter himself. She. Ruined. Anne's. Life. Eight years of it, at least, and her interference was only remedied by chance. Also: Frederick's life, ruined. For eight years, both of them existed in some degree of misery because of Lady Russell. She took their love lightly, counted it as far less important than Anne's countenance and position, and never took into consideration the fact that in her concern for Anne's future security she was thoroughly sabotaging Anne's present and future happiness.

Was Lady Russell well-meaning? Of course. I never questioned that she honestly loved Anne. Was Lady Russell wrong? In theory, no. In practice, very much so. And in the end, criminally. The article I link there talks about how Lady R was trying to save Anne from making the same mistake as her mother – but she did not, apparently, trouble herself to determine that Frederick was very different from Sir Walter Elliot, nor that feeling ran deep on both sides. Anne might have had eight years of worrying over Frederick being injured or killed in the wars, but in the end …

Was Anne at fault as well? Of course. But she was nineteen years old. And it wasn’t a 19 comparable in any way to 19 years old today; it was a sheltered 19 used to being guided by her guardians, unused to having her voice heard or heeded. She relied on Lady Russell as she would have her own mother. And Lady Russell was dead set against Wentworth.

Put it this way: if she had continued to allow herself to be guided – to be persuaded – by Lady Russell at the age of 27 there's a damn good possibility she would have shortly found herself married to Mr. Elliot; that good lady despised him as much as Sir Walter in the beginning, and swung entirely over to his side with surprising quickness. Despite what she knew of his past, she saw an agreeable face and manners and an evidently decent fortune and set her persuasiveness to the end of pushing Anne toward him as she had pushed her away from Wentworth. If Wentworth had been married; if he had indicated he couldn't stand the sight of Anne; if Anne had fallen out of love with him; if she had not at that moment had Wentworth filling her eyes and heart Anne might have been once more persuaded. And that would have turned the story into a tragedy.

Another part of that discussion on Goodreads that completely shocked me was about how Wentworth victimized Anne – "8 years after what happened between them, Wentworth did not forget, he came back to avenge for his broken heart; 8 years is more than enough to forget and forgive! Wentworth was decided to hurt Anne. He was indulged with the Miss Musgroves though he had no intentions of going beyond flirtations. He did it to rub it in Anne's face" …

I didn't fight it then and there; I did protest, and happily was backed up by someone else; but, again, I didn't go into detail because I wasn't entirely sure of my ground, and my partisanship for Frederick Wentworth is obviously influenced by my infatuation with Ciaran Hinds in the role. Who knew but that the movie whitewashed Frederick a bit and slandered Lady R? Well. It didn't. Wentworth re-emerged into Anne's life because he had little choice in the matter. He could have shirked it, told his sister that he had to be elsewhere – but he's not that kind of man, and besides which they were renting the Elliots' house for an extended period. He had to know he wasn't going to be able to avoid the Elliots for the whole time, and – in keeping with his character indicated by his naval actions and advancement – he did not try to avoid it, letting very little time pass before he entered the fray and went to visit his sister. Was he rather cutting with her? Sure. It would take a saint to refrain completely from at least a few cutting remarks. She broke his heart eight years ago and he has not found anyone else in the intervening time to mend it. He genuinely loved her: "I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant." "Weak and resentful" – he admits it, he was unforgiving when they first met, and he has regretted it. But eight years is hardly "more than enough to forget and forgive" – anyone writing that has never had deep feelings for someone. She wronged him in such a way as to wreck both their lives. Eight years is nothing at all with that kind of pain.

"…He had no intentions of going beyond flirtations". Nonsense. He had built himself a successful career, and now in this time of peace all he hears is "you'll be finding yourself a wife soon, of course!" He had been severely hurt by Anne, and my guess would be that he had no intention of even thinking about considering the least notion of courting her, ever again. She was never demonstrative, and was still working her way through her own feelings, so she could not and would not and did not offer him any sort of encouragement. And there at the Musgroves' and most certainly in Lyme, with two pretty girls flinging themselves at him (literally, in the case of Louisa) and Anne very much not flinging herself at him, how could he not entertain the idea that one of these girls was a possibility? He was expected to settle down; he had a desire to settle down. He was … persuaded … that he ought to choose a wife and, since he could not apparently have the love of his life it might as well be the bright and vivacious Louisa, not least because everyone around him (including Louisa) took it as read. Then silly Louisa fell, and he saw how Anne reacted in the crisis – both the immediate emergency and in the trying days after – and gauged her reactions to him, and doesn't seem to have given Louisa, much less her sister, another thought. I believe he gave some serious thought to the Musgrove sisters – which is my belief if for no other reason than that it would be a rather repulsive man who would toy with two young girls just to get back at an old flame, and Anne would not continue to love an ugly-spirited man.<br /><br />What, I wonder, would have happened if Frederick Wentworth had returned to Anne's life under different circumstances? As a lowly lieutenant or commander, not having caught the luck and bounties that Captain Wentworth could rejoice in? Would Anne have been strong enough to see that he still loved her, and to accept a renewal of his courtship?

In the end, Lady Russell does redeem herself. She is forced to face the fact that she was wrong – about Wentworth, about Elliot, about Anne.

The only one among them whose opposition of feeling could excite any serious anxiety was Lady Russell. Anne knew that Lady Russell must be suffering some pain in understanding and relinquishing Mr. Elliot, and be making some struggles to become truly acquainted with, and do justice to Captain Wentworth. This, however, was what Lady Russell had now to do. She must learn to feel that she had been mistaken with regard to both; that she had been unfairly influenced by appearances in each; that because Captain Wentworth's manners had not suited her own ideas, she had been too quick in suspecting them to indicate a character of dangerous impetuosity; and that because Mr. Elliot's manners had precisely pleased her in their propriety and correctness, their general politeness and suavity, she had been too quick in receiving them as the certain result of the most correct opinions and well-regulated mind. There was nothing less for Lady Russell to do, than to admit that she had been pretty completely wrong, and to take up a new set of opinions and of hopes.

One note I can't resist making in counterpoint to the article in defense of Lady Russell:

When Lady Russell objects to Frederick’s having “no connexions to secure even his farther rise in” the navy, we should not interpret this as an example of her “value for rank and consequence” (11). (It is interesting to speculate that Frederick must have never mentioned to anyone other than Anne during his initial visit to Somersetshire that he had a naval “connexion” in his sister, the wife of Admiral Croft. Mrs. Croft says in 1814 that she has been married for fifteen years and thus would have been married to the admiral for seven years by 1806.)

He wasn't necessarily an admiral as yet in 1806.

If for no other reason, Persuasion is one of my favorite books because it contains one of my favorite passages, one of my favorite letters, fictional or non.

Frederick: I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W. I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.

Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from.

I imagine not.

~View all my reviews~

#Jane Austen #Persuasion #five-star book review #Frederick Wentworth #Anne Elliot

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emouradian · 8 years ago

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Grief: 1 Year Later

Well, it’s been a year. I’m all better now.

I don’t know what I thought was going to happen, as if the one year anniversary of my dad’s passing was really an inordinately-sized, ceremonial switch that was going to flip, once I had succeeded in - what? - surviving the first year without him? Would balloons fall from the sky, and sirens blare, celebrating me as the 1,000,000,000,000th person to have a dad who died a year ago? It seems ludicrous now, standing on the other side of this milestone. To paraphrase Tig Notaro, it was just a day - another day, slightly smaller, because my dad wasn’t in it.

I woke up nervous, like you do when you drink too much the night before. I slowly opened my eyes and took stock of the situation around me: Am I hungover? Did I throw up? Ugh, did I throw up on myself? Are there any clues of another person in here? Wait, am I fine? Wait, no I’m not. Wait, yes, I am.

Bad days, when grieving, have a tendency to sneak up on you like a really good twist from a really great TV show. That lady falls down the elevator shaft, Buffy sacrifices herself, we’re in a flash-forward not a flashback (I called that one, btw, and to date, its my greatest achievement. In life.). It’s not the days that you expect. His birthday, for example, came and went, while my birthday, was a day I was completely overcome, grief washing over me like Robert Redford shampooing Meryl Streep’s hair. My birthday, unexpectedly was a day I fell into that familiar and oddly comforting grief quicksand, where the harder you struggle to get out of it, the further into it you sink. I didn’t see it coming – like finding out we’ve been in the Bad Place all along! – and that shock added to my inability to cope with the day.

After a weekend in New York celebrating my father and this milestone with friends and family, I ached to be alone. This, in of itself, is odd, because I live alone, fairly isolated from the bulk of my vast network of support, something I have been homesick for all year, if you can still be homesick at 35 years old (and if ‘homesick’ can be used as an adverb). My cousins, who live nearby, invited me over for dinner, but I declined. My friends called and texted, while I replied with heart emojis saying that I didn’t feel like talking. They were all reminders of why, despite the constant hum, the seemingly endless current of missing my dad, and the distance it has put between me and my life, I am so lucky to have people ready to lift me up. Being alone for me is a choice, a choice many others don’t have. I’m thankful for that.

I spent the day of the anniversary at the movies. It is an escape I’ve sought out more and more these past few weeks, I suppose a way to be alone, without being completely alone. I saw La La Land, a movie about dreamers and movie magic that I loved despite the current swell of backlash, and Fences, a movie about fathers and sons, so, you know, ouch (But Viola Davis FTW!). I ate McDonald’s for breakfast, like I did when I was a kid going fishing with my dad and cousins, and popcorn for lunch. I got home and went down a pretty deep rabbit hole of Dying Loved One movies: Other People (mother, cancer, dead), One True Thing (Meryl Streep, cancer, dead) and Miss You Already (Toni Collette, best friend, dead). They were all oddly comforting and cathartic in a weird, self-mutilating way. Dazed from so much time spent in the dark, I went to sleep and woke up on the anniversary of the day after my dad died. I FaceTimed with my mom and niece, and agreed that yesterday was just another day. Today would be better, worse, the same - it just wouldn’t be January 24th.

Years ago, when I first started working with my old boss Jenn, we had a lot of drive time, which is how we forged a bond so strong that I once threatened to drive us both off a cliff in retribution to a piece of feedback she gave me and all we did was laugh about it so hard that I almost did accidentally drive us off a cliff. Once she asked me, maybe a year into working together, if I was close with my parents. I was stunned. I turned to her and stated, simply: We are the Mouradians. It’s kind of like how when people ask me if I like living in Maryland, my answer is a simple: It’s fine, but, I’m from New York. It’s a non-answer that I think is actually the best answer, but, in the end, is the answer that most makes me seem like a dick.

It was shocking to me that someone wouldn’t know that we were close within the first 90 seconds of meeting me. It’s part of my brand - big Armenian family, tight-knit, adorably corpulent. To be fair, I’m not close with my parents in a Lorelai-Rory Gilmore kind of way (Side note: there is a whole dissertation coming on how watching Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, with my mom after I had back surgery, was like watching my life unfold on screen), but rather in a Coach/Tami/Julie Taylor way. They are my parents and we are close because they are my parents. I never thought of needing more than that, of that not being enough. Closeness to my parents was about proximity, endless reservoirs of support and love – it’s hard to define and that’s what makes it special, irreplaceable, and as it turns out, unbearable, when missing.

To that end, as I continued to struggle with the loss of my dad, it was my mother who said to me that she didn’t realized how close I was to my father. And I had to stop, pause for a second and think about what that meant, because I guess, it was something I hadn’t realized either. I didn’t call my dad to talk about the ‘game’, we both would’ve been lost on that front, although sometimes we did that with Survivor; He loved fishing, I loved reading while he was fishing. In the end, we had more in common, more core traits and similarities than a love of the same things. As it turns out that brought about a closeness that is deafening in his absence because it could only exist once he was gone. I had never made any kind of important decision in my life without talking to my dad, without knowing he was in my corner, without his support. Without that I feel lost, even unsafe, and untethered. Less so every day, sure, but still there, a part of me, a voice hollow and echoing, rattling around my brain like a movie quote you can’t quite place or a commercial jingle you keep humming.

There are a lot of things that I’ve learned this year, things I’ve tried to work through with all these essays. Sharing my grief, to a point, felt very selfish. On the one hand, I had too much to say, too much to feel, to keep it all to myself. Here is my gift to you all, share my grief – you’re welcome! I feel confident when I say: people preferred it when my gifts were personalized Christmas stockings. On the other hand, it was an easy way to answer a whole series of questions about how I was doing, without having to answer any of them directly. Mostly, though, it was the easiest way to keep my dad with me – tangibly, literally at my fingertips – for as long as possible. This is perhaps the biggest lesson to learn of all, that for all my might, for all my trying, he will never be as close as I want him to be, which is, of course, here, with me. And each day, I feel him slipping further and further away. And writing this post in particular, finishing this story – A Year’s Worth of Grief – is him finally slipping through my grasp. I am not saying I will forget him, that I won’t think of him, but maybe it won’t be every day, maybe it won’t be as detailed as it has been. How cracked the heels of his feet were compared to how soft his bald head was. I keep a blanket that was my grandmother’s in my guest room closet, but I don’t let anyone use it, because it still smells like her. I don’t remember what my dad smells like anymore; it’s not something I can summon immediately to my mind like a magic trick, as I can his laugh - the peaks and valleys of it, the perfect shades of it. This, in some ways, is a different kind of ending, a different form of loss.

My 12th favorite movie of all-time is Billy Elliot. In the movie, Billy lets his dance teacher read a letter his mother wrote to him before she passed away. Mrs. Wilkinson says: “She must have been an amazing woman.” Billy, only a kid, responds, “She was just my mum.” People say to me all the time, how incredible my dad was or must have been, how proud he surely was of me. My dad wasn’t some super human, I know that; He was funny, and nice and stubborn and far too set in his ways. I wish he was a little more of a fighter because when I give up on something, I think that it’s my worst trait and I wonder if I get it from him. He was averse to risk and might’ve voted Republican in this election but his heart was bursting with love and support and kindness (Well, maybe bursting is the wrong way to put it, considering he died of heart disease, but you get the idea). He was a good friend, a good man, and I know he’s proud of me without anyone having to tell me (although, nice to hear, of course), and that’s the greatest gift he left me with: Just missing him, simply him - no regrets, no deep-seeded issues other than him being gone. He was just my dad. And that was amazing.

Thank you to those who’ve read these posts, who’ve encouraged me and shared them. It’s been hard, but worth-while, along the way, I hope I helped someone, somewhere.

#grief #grieving #loss of father #gilmore girls #the good place #billy elliot #heart disease #lost #la law #buffy quotes #buffy summers #buffy the vampire slayer #tig notaro

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justanotherdumpingground · 5 years ago

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Chapter Reviews: May 14-18, 2019

Across the Void Chapter 22:

The fighting sequence was pretty intense. I bought the reflective armor just in case anything goes wrong. Turns out a lot of things go wrong if I don't pay diamonds, primarily on Holmes, Zaniah, and Oberon. I may not be attached to them in any way, but it's really idiotic to have to spend diamonds to save characters's lives when strategic choices would be a better option.

That was an anticlimactic ending. I expected a long scene showing the consequences of my decision to hand the astral charges to the Vanguard and Jura, but nope. All I saw is everything fading to black while my MC and Sol just stood there as the Vanguard and Jura receive the astral charges. This is just...

Honestly, never in my have I felt cheated from something I promised than this story. The first half of the story is sluggish, I barely know about the setting aside from Lektra and Matara, the Vanguard vs. Jura conflict is never fully explained, and the characters are largely underdeveloped. Kepler gets the most development, but that's not saying much. Not to mention that having to pamper a bunch of mostly worthless passengers doesn't immerse me into the story. There's so much wasted potential that could fit in a blog post that I won't bother cramming in here. Unless Pixelberry doesn't add proper epilogue scenes for the final choice and the characters who can live or die, I'm never touching ATV again. And if PB sventually does that, chances are still extremely low. The damage had already been done.

High School Story: Class Act Chapter 14:

No surprise Rory won against Lorenzo, and I'm relieved the latter took his defeat well. Still rather salty that he and Amber were never punished for endangering the kitten, but I'm mostly relieved that the election drama is over. It's boring me to no end.

Aiden making a wood pun was so funny I wish I could replay the chapter just to get a screenshot of it. Clearly old MC's dad has influenced him. I swear, it's always a delight to see my old MC and Aiden together.

Speaking of delight, I'm so glad my new MC gets to be official with Skye. Honestly, this book would've gotten worse if it wasn't for her. Not only did she express her concerns about the election drama tearing her friends apart, but she also urged Rory and the twin to cooperate for once. Pity I didn't spend my diamonds on her for most of the time, but I will if I replay Class Act.

Wishful Thinking Chapter 6:

I'm so glad I adopted the cat and puppy. Reading their thoughts is funny, especially the part where Jaime fed the puppy peanut butter whenever the MC's away. Even the cat wanting to be pampered is adorable. So glad I got to adopt those two.

Does anyone think Charlie is up to no good? Sure he seems like a charming person, but he seems to have an agenda, and I want to investigate him further. I hope Anna will be fine.

I freaked out at Mira Banerji's model recycled for a lawyer, along with her outfit. What kind of lawyer wears an apron? Why didn't PB just have Mira make a cameo appearance preparing food for the gala guests?

For love interest, it's a toss-up between Jaime and Anna for me. I'm not invested in the romance aspect, so I'll take my time.

Power outages are a nuisance, and the one in the studio is no exception. But do the ones here have to freak out so much that it comes across as slightly melodramatic?

Passport to Romance Chapter 10:

Great, Ahmed just screwed himself up by staying up late. To be honest, his coach was right to scold him for such irresponsible behavior. He really should've returned to the hotel early in the previous chapter.

Oh hi, Julian Castillo! I miss seeing you in High School Story.

Kinda glad Marisa saved Ahmed's game by giving him the food he desperately needs. He should've eaten a light snack first, I think.

I got the soccer terms from Elliot mostly right, though it's a mix of guesses and my own knowledge. I'm no soccer fan, even though it's popular from where I'm from. Still no fan of Elliot using it to act condescending towards MC. It doesn't help matters that he didn't bother inviting Marisa and Sumire to his private box, just the MC. Hmph!

Honestly, how dumb is this MC? They're always late to stuff, they're clueless on what they're blogging about, they couldn't bother looking up their friends's names unless told to, they invaded someone's privacy, and they dragged their friends into countless fiascos. What was Yvette thinking when she hired them in the first place? And now they missed the flight due to carelessness. I swear, this story's nagging me.

I even read someone commenting that livestreaming a soccer match is copyright infringement, which makes it really stupid of MC and might spell doom to the magazine as well as the vlog.

Nightbound Chapter 5:

The fight scene was okay, and I think Cal having visible body hair is a nice break from the clean shaven chests found in all other male characters. I think it's part of being a werewolf. And it's great of the MC to tackle the cheater trying to make Cal lose.

During the meeting with the werewolves, I chose to accept Octavia's challenge, and I managed to impress her. I wish this scene is free instead of paywalled. That would've given some means to persuade the pack in case it comes in handy.

Speaking of the pack, can these people realize that the MC is innocent of Kristof's death? He was the one who wanted a bloodwraith as a trophy, and the one that got summoned killed him. In other words, he brought this on himself. I hope Octavia can be persuaded to calm these people down.

Open Heart Chapter 14:

Dang, this is another intense chapter, and I like it as well! First of all, Landry deserves to be kicked out of Edenbrook. How dare he act like he has the higher moral ground by saying it's the right thing to inform even though he sabotaged MC's pager, delaying their ability to treat patients. I know he's a suspect, but to see him stoop that low just to get to the top spot and impress Ethan pisses me off.

The subway train derailment accident was so tense thant I though I'll accidentally kill patients if I give them the wrong tags. I gave a red tag on a patient in a vegetative state, and Ines said there's nothing that can be done for him, which left me scared that I'll mess up. On a brighter note, helping Aurora focus on treating patients when she was overwhelmed felt good. Sure, she was cold and aloof towards others, but in a situation with so many injured patients, it's imperative to toss away old grudges and focus on the bigger picture. Besides, Aurora deserves my sympathy for having to deal with sycophants trying to exploit her aunt's status as chief of medicine. Not to mention she's good with patients, apart from the incident with Dolores, which turned out to be a crafty ploy to put MC at the top of the list.

Rafael just earned my respect. On one hand, I was scared upon seeing him severely injured after rescuing a little girl. On the other hand, I admire his courage as a paramedic willing to rescue others and ensure their safety, even at great risk of his own life. It was a no brainer for me to pick the premium option to operate on him. He deserves a speedy recovery.

Speaking of no-brainers, that premium option to accompany Sienna as she breaks up with Wayne was super sweet and satisfying. I was pissed off at him dismissing the subway train accident in favor of dinner time with Sienna, then had the gall to assume she dumps her responsibilities on others. I even called him by the barrage of expletives.

Man, I'm worried for my MC now that he confessed to giving Mrs. Martinez thd medication. I know his career will be saved, most likely with Ethan's intervention, but situations like this aren't meant to be taken lightly, and I respect Harper's stance on this issue. On another note, I wanna comfort Aurora after her aunt said she's disappointed in her. She did her best in treating the patients, especially since I helped her regain her composure.

Bloodbound Chapter 1:

Finally Book 2's out! I miss playing Bloodbound that I replayed Book 1 and spent diamonds on Kamilah and the portrait fragments. I managed to complete Book 1 before starting Book 2, so I feel ready for this.

The MC's dream with Nicole Anderson's ghost, a mysterious woman in white, and a bleeding tree gives me the creeps. My guess is that this figure is the First Vampire or one of the vampires created by her, just like Gaius Augustine. That makes her an important figure in the story, especially for lore and the storyline. I'm already excited.

Something doesn't feel right with Jax's assistant Nikhil. He claimed to be turned during the early 19th Century and went into hiding until his discovery, even though the clan system was established during the 1920s. Not helping matters is the disappearance of a dozen humans in Central Park. Scholar Jameson and Gaius Augustine are the prime suspects, but Nikhil shouldn't be ruled out, especially considering his resemblance to the woman in white.

Speaking of my MC and the love interests, I'm so glad to see them again. I'm proud of Lily for creating an app allowing vampires to connect together. This better come in handy for everyone in case things go south. Even better, the Shadow Den looks nice and spiffy from much-needed funds. My only insecurity is that I have to see Priya and The Baron again. As anyone knows, I have nothing but contempt for those two, though Lester's not far behind.

That scene with the hooded guy attacking and kidnapping the MC got me worried for her well-being. Nevertheless, I can't wait for more.

#choices stories you play #chapter reviews

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justanotherdumpingground · 6 years ago

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Chapter Reviews: April 30-May 4, 2019 + Thoughts on Upcoming Stories

Wishful Thinking Chapter 4:

I actually replayed the book again just to get the cat, and it was worth the purchase. Her lines amuse me.

Anyway, back to the chapter. The part where MC helped Louis and Sara reconcile was sweet, though I laughed at Sara saying that she received anti-wrinkle cream by accident. Nevertheless, it's a good start for MC to explore and develope her mind reading ability.

I have a soft spot for most animals, and the puppy is no exception. Even his dialogue is so adorable, especially when coupled with Jinx. I hope to see more of those two.

The library investigation was kinda fun, especially with the premium choice to go after the guy with the documents. Seriously, that got me intrigued. And hello again, Anna. It's nice to finally see her again despite being away for her boss, who happens to have a recycled model.

Bah, I can't stand Alec. First, he's initially dismissive towards the MC's ideas unless proven otherwise. Then, he forces Ellen to overwork only to shut her down (she may be no saint, but she's still entitled to fair working conditions as well as therapy). Seriously, I'd like to have him ejected and replaced with a better boss. I don't care that he takes back his word on the library after the MC's investigation. What really matters is that he should stop playing favorites. Nothing against my MC, just wishing that Alec would just behave or beware.

Gee, playing Wishful Thinking makes me miss Hero. It's not super good, but I still had fun playing it. Oh, how I wish Book 2 will be released soon. At least Wishful Thinking is fun to play so far.

High School Story: Class Act Chapter 12:

For the candidate I picked to stay, I chose Rory. Arts are underappreciated in Berry High and one one with the least focus compared to sports, which already has played significance on the plot (Book 1 of the first trilogy, for instance). I get that the twin's family, but they're still a freshman and probably not the strongest candidate, as well as particiapting in the election just because instead of having a more concrete motivation like Rory. I didn't go see Emerald with Rory and the twin, however.

I'm glad Ajay has found a support system in the form of talking with kids with divorced parents. He needs help as soon as possible, and I'm glad Emma has provided it. I wonder why the first trilogy MC is absent. After all, they mentioned in a premium scene that their parents are divorced as well.

Didn't attend Rory's cousin's wedding because Rory's not my love interest, so no interest in discussing it. Anyway, I just want this election drama to end and Lorenzo to realize that his platform is futile.

Across the Void Chapter 20:

Dang, that was another intense chapter. Sucks that I have to pay diamonds to save Aquari's life, but I did it anyway. Not to mention that the operation was a success with only one injury. Glad everyone's okay.

I'm gonna skip through the romance bits and jump straight to the upcoming landing on Cyber. I'm glad the MC is smart enough to ask Lyra about the meeting between the Vanguard and Jura on Cyber. After she said it was Barlow's idea, I'm now worried how the Atlas can disarm the trap the Void laid on them. I'm excited to see what's next.

America's Most Eligible Chapter 16:

I'm not surprised that Adam wears a tux and proposes to the MC, especially when Omar grabbed something from him in an earlier chapter. It was kind of romantic to propose after he was voted the most eligible because I chose not to pick the premium option to talk to the jury. Oh, well. Glad to see that my MC and Adam will spend the rest of their days in bliss, though I don't think an extra book just to get them married is necessary.

Ugh, can Piper be any more intrusive? If boasting about the Game of Love with Jen was bad enough, she had to barge into the mansion and bring up the smack talk. Glad Jen rejected the offer to join Piper's show, and Wrenn stood up against Piper. I didn't pick the option to give Piper a piece of my mind, but at least it was satisfying enough to watch Jen become showrunner.

Overall, I find Book 2 much weaker than Book 1. The double eliminations pretty much ensure that multiple people get eliminated, especially most of the new contestants. It's a shame, especially since Bianca could've been a proper love interest but was shoved aside in the end. While I appreciate Ivy, Vince, and Slater espousing a gray morality in their view of things, it remains untapped potential. Like, how can it be used to develop them further, especially Ivy because she's a contestant since Book 1. It gets worse when Ivy and Slater are practically interchangeable, effectively watering them down to the same person. And why do we need another marriage-based book? Do we already have enough?

Nightbound Chapter 3:

Luc seems nice and helpful, though I'm not still not sure whether my MC will pursue him. And the same goes for Cal, who seems to be a nice guy despite being a werewolf. I'm not pleased to run errands, but he does sound like he cares for his brother. And what's with Kristof having Nikolai Petrov's model? Made me wince, thought at least the octopus tattoo is gone.

Great. Another collection set. This time, it's similar to the portrait fragments in Bloodbound. I wonder what secrets do they unlock. I wouldn't be surprised if it allows us to learn more about the person who's after the MC by sending that bloodwraith.

Anyway, I'm still excited for this despite my lack of concrete thoughts on it because it's still too early.

Passport to Romance Chapter 8:

Great, sibling drama between Elliot and William. Not only is their arguing forgettable, but Elliot sounds so entitled. He left his responsibilities on his company to his brother, who also misses their parents. Seriously, what's with this guy? I was initially relieved that he's out of my group to recover, only for him to reappear in the last scene. Oh well. He better behave, though.

So far, this story's just meh. Not too excited for Marisa's birthday, though I'm expecting drama along the way.

Open Heart Chapter 12:

This chapter is emotional, and I love it. First, it stings that the nurses except Danny are no longer nice to the MC. I have my top suspects, but I still think everyone is innocent until proven guilty. That includes Aurora and Landry. There's no reason why I should hate them both.

Did I adopt all three animals? Yup. I'm a sucker for these lovely creatures, and they're already a joy to have with me. The turtle's the one I like the most so far.

If there's one character in this chapter continually gives an emotional punch, that would be Mrs. Martinez. It was fun and satisfying to steal the needed medication from Declan Nash. I was overjoyed to see Mrs. Martinez getting better and traveling around the world after the hospital held a farewell party for her. Most of all, hearing that she died in her sleep was so painful to hear that it left me shocked and speechless. Even though she went out in a blaze of glory by living out her dream of traveling the world, I still couldn't contain my grief. Even more aggravating was when Harper said that Mrs. Martinez's family is suing Edenbrook, particularly the MC, for malpractice. And let's not forget that Dr. Banerji has a month left to live, yet another point of anxiety.

Ride or Die Chapter 16:

That was a fun showdown to watch. It was fun to see Mona's impressed reaction to the MC outwitting the Brotherhood, them pointing their guns at one another amidst their confusion, Mona taking the bullet for the MC, and Jason getting arrested by the FBI and MC's dad. If there's one thing that I'm annoyed at is that I have to pay diamonds to take Mona to the hospital while the free option is to leave her behind. I'm not upset that Mona gets arrested. I'm upset that the free option doesn't save the cops more time to ensure Mona's recovery, even if she disregards herself.

The graduation may be short, but I'm glad to see Ingrid being friendly towards the MC, and that they'll be attending Langston together. The ending just feels oddly surreal on the MC's uncertainty of her future, though.

Honestly, I'm disappointed but not surprised that RoD will get a second book. The story's overrated and full of clichés and wasted potential. Not to mention that it has one of the most irrational fanbases in the Choices fandom that partly ruined the story for me. A lot of the vocal fans, especially on Instagram, worship it like it's groundbreaking or revolutionary. At least there are some rational fans out there who acknowledge its faults while still enjoying it.

If there are any ways the second book could improve on the first one, I'd say introduce a morally gray setting and execute it better. There are traces of it, though they aren't well done because the narrative depicts the Brotherhood as just evil when their members should be just as varied as the Mercy Park Crew. Same goes for the MPC, since defining them as black or white doesn't work on them.

The Elementalists Chapter 8:

I thought Atlas was gonna die from the MC's attack, but I'm glad he survived and is put under care. I just wish he'll trust his twin and their friends again.

Honestly, I need to keep an eye on Alma. She's still really fishy and may have an ulterior motive for descending on the earth, especially when the MC receives another letter from Kane. Is the MC a plaything or what?

Since I roleplay my MC as a typically curious Air-Att, I picked the premium option to go to the gardens with Beckett so he could have a leg up for a future class with Professor Kontos. A bit miffed that the gardens of Aurelia are recycled, but here's hoping there will be a leg up.

Helping Griffin with his scholarship is kind of fun, and I'm glad I picked the choices that give me scholarship points. Even more so when I chose to help him rather than sabotage Amy. The second option sounds counterproductive, to be honest.

After touching the treasure chest and a vision of Kane's followers, I have a feeling that I'll encounter this hidden group of pranksters at some point in the story, and there might be an option to join them, especially with the letter from Kane. It may also be part of the morality system like many choices before, which leaves me excited.

Thoughts on upcoming stories:

Honestly, the only stories I'm looking forward to are Bloodbound and the new fantasy story. Platinum could surprise me, but I have low expectations of it. The Royal Heir looks like an attempt to milk as much money from die-hard fans as possible, though a part of me misses playing as the MC. BSC's just meh. RCD's an utter mess since the beginning, and any potential it once had is dead and buried since the end of Book 2. Sunkissed and Bachelorette Party just scream forgettable, so not excited for them. This is gonna be one bleak summer.

#choices stories you play #chapter reviews

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