#NO roach is Catherine i think

[arsenicflame]

hes a bit of a prick (affectionate)

[familyromantic]

For the challenge!

I wondered carefully on which ship to choose to share to you all, and made my mind on Catherine and Christopher. Not the Dollangangers, the Roachs, from a novel called Relations (also known as The Story of the Weasel, as Cathy thinks of Chris as being weasel like and the book is about him and their relationship). Their canonical relationship, by the way. Unlike the Dollangangers, this Cathy and Chris have a fully consensual relationship (albeit they do start to engage in sex at a way too young of an age), but they don't get a happy ending. At least not in the book, but that's why we have headcanon and post canon fics.

When I say they started their relationship at a very early age, I mean that Cathy was only 10, while Chris was still only 12. It all starts when they find their deceased father's porn collection. I don't think they could have truly known what they were seeing, but that didn't stop them from mimicking it.

“Christopher regarded me strangely, and moved in my direction. He told me to lie down on the floor. I obeyed unquestioningly. He looked at me darkly it seemed, with piercing clarity, for he knew the exact nature of my thoughts at that moment. I, of my own accord, removed my undergarments, and placed them beneath my head. I had a strange view of him thus; he seemed very tall from my lowly position on the floor. He seemed dominant with the red bulb glowing; but a slight nervousness hovered about his eyes. I smiled at him. He lay down on top of me, and put his member inside my body.”

When recalling this scene later, Cathy feels a “small throbbing in [her] private parts”, so even after all this time, she still gets turned on by the thought of her brother.

Around the same time Cathy and Chris started to experience sexually, their Mamma began to date Richard, the Frenchman. One day, when Cathy was eleven, Mamma has Cathy deliver a letter to the Frenchman and he has her try on a corset over her clothes, since she was too shy to remove them, and then gifts her a pair of white silk stockings. The next day, Chris returns the stocking to the Frenchman, telling him his sister has no need for such clothing.

The Frenchman is a pervert and Chris gets very concerned about his interest on Cathy. He gets jealous of it as her 'boyfriend' and protective as her brother.

When Cathy catches pneumonia, Chris helps to nurse her back to health and keeps her company while she lays in bed.

“The fever would not leave me. But nor did my brother. […] He held my head patiently and his eyes never shut in his vigil.” “I think now that Christopher and I half-died together in that terrible week, and afterwards, when the terror had passed, we were never quite the children we had been before.”

About an year goes by and Chris tells Cathy that they shouldn’t have sex anymore, and Cathy gets upset. He tells her that later, when she is grown up, she might come to regret their relationship, and he doesn’t wants that, which is why he is breaking it up. Cathy, however, hates that they were breaking up and is very hurt.

“‘I don’t think it’s right for us to do it - being brother and sister. I mean I’ve always known - or rather always felt more than known - that it wasn’t right.’ […] ‘No. And I don’t know what you’re talking about. It is better because we are brother and sister, because we really know each other; we are the same. I cannot see that it is bad.’”

We known from her narration at, even at an older age, Cathy never came to regret her relationship with Chris. In fact, she only gets married with someone else because Chris keeps pushing her away.

After the breakup, Chris moves to his uncle's farm in Cape Town to get far away from Cathy.

“I cannot imagine what I will do without you, Cath: I cannot imagine a day without your face, or your sweet companionship.  I do love you. But this must be for the best.”

Chris remains away for a long time, only returning after five years when Cathy was nineteen. They have a heartfelt conversation and, at night, after the rest of the house has gone to sleep, he visit’s Cathy’s room. She asks to cuddle with him until she falls asleep and he agrees, climbing into her bed. Just when they are kissing, their older brother, Edward (who I had neglected to mention until now) lunges into the room, catching them together. He explained that he had always suspected something, but it wasn’t until he had grown up that he understood the noises he heard coming from Chris and Cathy’s bedroom. He orders Chris out of the house and Cathy weeps, begging Chris to stay and denying to Edward that anything has happened.

Chris leaves as ordered and goes back to South Africa. Eventually, he enlists as a soldier at the Boer War. From the war front, he writes Cathy a letter, telling her that he still loves her. The book ends like this, with Chris in Cape Town and Cathy trapped in a unloving marriage.

But that doesn't stop me from creating scenarios in which Chris goes home to England as a war hero and and he and Cathy run away together. The story is set in 1900, back when it was easier to disappear and start again. Maybe after the war, Cathy goes looking for Chris and they get married in a land where no one knows they are siblings. They have loved each other their whole life, there's no reason to assume that they won't find their way back to each other.

A few more quotes that I want to include but I didn't know where to place them:

"I did not find it sinful; the closeness between my brother and me was a true joy; it sustained me in my darkest moments, and indeed still does to this day, though tempered with much sorrow now." "Because even on that day, which was the beginning of a singular relationship between my brother and I, even on that day there was a spiritual and love bond between us." “I would not be so oppressed if I could but feel that my past was wicked and scandalous. If I believed that, I could gladly submit to the institution or the grave. But some buoyant spirit within me keeps insisting that what I had was fine, and contained elements of true beauty hard to capture in any existence.” “The old house creaked and groaned, and in the darkness I only felt secure because I was close to my brother.”

Even if I don't win, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about my favourite Chris and Cathy. No shade to the Dollangangers, but Chris and Cathy Roach are the better ones. Their story was left unfinished by the author, allowing us to make them whatever we want them to be. I love the angst on Chris's part, him being scared that he's taking advantage or corrupting his sister, while all that Cathy wants is to be with him.

It's a lovely book. The only reason I don't tell everyone to go read it is that it's very hard to find, as it has been out of print since forever (afaik, there has only been two prints of the book). There a few copies being sold on Amazon, so if you like incest books, try to grab one while you can.

XoXo, @litcest (since I can only send asks in my main blog)

Thank you for a good write-up as usual! I hate endings like this, and I certainly wish your interpretation of it was canon. Also, while they started their relationship early, there's no grooming or icky age gap, this I appreciate much.

[marmiteprinter]

That evening, Quentin stepped up his campaign of harassment against Catherine. Perhaps hearing or suspecting their good news, he came over and kicked over their bin, causing an infestation of roaches.

Catherine discovered the scene when she took out the rubbish.

"This is disgusting," she muttered under her breath. "There had better not be any more of these things lurking anywhere in the house."

And then, dunderhead that he is, Quentin marched up again, bold as brass, and kicked over the bin again right in front of Catherine. She watched him in absolute astonishment before confronting him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she shouted.

"You know exactly what!" he replied. "You've stolen my wife and youngest son from me; you deserve everything that's coming to you."

"I didn't steal anything, you idiot! She made the decision entirely on her own. And if you're that concerned about your son, how about not causing trash and roaches to pile up outside the house he lives in? Do you want him to get sick?"

Quentin stomped away, grumbling to himself under his breath.

Catherine made the (entirely sensible) decision to move the bin inside her boundary fence. As she put the rubbish back into it, she said to herself, "At least this way we'll actually have proof of him trespassing if he kicks it over. I wonder if Victoria is still interested in that police role? I'll have to call her again and ask..."

[lichengrass]

Ok not to be corny but since I haven't had a beta in forever, my thoughts have been left unvocalized except through this fic so let me rant.

The woes of not having a beta-reader continue. I have these self-criticisms about my own writing which I don't exactly know anyone who would be able to inform me on. For example, while writing this chapter, I had the greatest of concerns that by symbolically representing Siobhan as fire and Arthur as bones, I was lending the dualisms of the relationship to pure stereotype. The kind of stereotype broads like Karen Warren, Catherine Roach, & Amanda Rooks (all of whom I admire greatly for their work in feminist literary criticism & ecofeminism) would just rip to shreds. And as a girl writing a fanfiction about someone my age in a relationship that would be absolutely detrimental to anyone's mental health if it were real, I feel compelled to be super hyper-vigilant about how I portray my glorified self-insert OC, Siobhan <3. Which is so stupid, I know. But sometimes I read my shit and I'm like, "Is this even feminist??!! NO? Pack it up, bitch!"

Of course, there's a glaring heap of shit in this fic that is just so, so, so NOT feminist of me, and I own that. At least that which is not beneficial to the self-perception of womanhood, I am aware of and (sometimes) try to censure; whalebone. whalebone. whalebone. (Then comes the realization that as someone throwing subliminal feminism and anti-feminism at my readers comes the responsibility of not glamorizing that which is bad and not romanticizing that which is harmful... fuck fuck fuck fuck Marlene Longnecker shield your eyes)!!!!

Not that I'm trying to write a feminist fucking manifesto, but I certainly use fanfiction as a way to organize my thoughts on the world from different perspectives. And I certainly want my symbolism to be a coherent reflection of that even when it sometimes comes out satire or ironic and other times downright hypocritical. And while we're on the topic of that, something that has been SO bugging me since the beginning of this endeavor is exactly that; the difficulty of portraying my thoughts on THIS world in a fic about THAT world. Fuck, the amount of times I have written some of Siobhan's sections and sat back and went, "Hold the fuck on, this reads like a TERF." IS DUMBFOUNDING. Trying to funnel modern opinions on the ever-changing landscape of social womanhood into a story about a teenager in 1899 is NOT EASY. Very fun though.

I mean, I love historical accuracy, but I don't want to write bigotry; sue me! Of course there is bigotry within a lot of my characters because at a certain point you have to acknowledge what the fuck is up before you go and write an 1899 American bucolic fucking wonderland. Having trans beta last year super helped, she weeded out the nearly rowling-esque garbage I came up with, but that bitch quit! I'm all alone!

At the end of the day, I am not complaining. I am insecure about a lot when it comes to my writing but not exactly this. It is more like an elated specificity of purpose and self-expression. I am super open to making mistakes and learning from them. It would honestly be so flattering if I got a comment one day that was like, "Who the fuck do you think you are, Louise Gluck? This paragraph right here is exactly what Cixous meant about a woman shackled, you are a lunatic and a bad feminist." And then I would have to question everything and have an actual, concrete perspective to look at my attempts at feminism from.

This shit is fun.

Blah blah blah. (Bitch just get a journal). Blah blah blah, (is any of this about the actual goddamn story? no?) blah blah blah. Thank u for reading this if you read this lol.

[amourise]

marina : that fucker is going to be squashed like the roach he is.

catherine : ooof, bad date?

marina : no , best friend’s bad boyfriend.

catherine : eh?

marina : your pet roach.

catherine : when will you two get along ? honestly , I think i’m gonna lock you both in a room together until you do.

marina : awww , you’re so generous!

catherine : wait what do you mean?

marina : you wanna pay for his hospital bills , that’s honestly so considerate!

catherine : jeez —

[schwhoopsie]

again, nobody asked for this, but i did it anyway

a while ago i was rewatching glee and around season three i started to make a list of the musical characters i thought the glee characters could play, so here’s the current version of that list: 

Quinn Regina George from Mean Girls Elsa from Frozen Hermione Granger from A Very Potter Musical Jane Seymour from Six the Musical Cordelia from Falsettos Jenna Hunterson from Waitress

Tina Janis Sarkisian from Mean Girls Christine Canigula from Be More Chill Ginny Weasley from A Very Potter Musical Eliza Schuyler from Hamilton Anne Boleyn from Six the Musical Dawn from Waitress Bugette from Starship

Brittany Anna from Frozen Heather McNamara from Heathers Craphole from The Trail to Oregon

Santana Katherine Howard from Six the Musical Mimi Marquez from Rent Angelica Schuyler from Hamilton Slippery When Wet from The Trail to Oregon Charlotte from Falsettos

Mercedes Becky from Waitress Jenna Rolan from Be More Chill Catherine Parr from Six the Musical

Mike  Bill from The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

Kurt Professor Hidgens from The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (an odd choice, I know, but I love the idea of him singing show stoppin number) Robin from Holy Musical B@man Professor Quirrell from A Very Potter Musical Roach from Starship

Rachel Trina from Falsettos Fanny Brice from Funny Girl (I have no say over this one because I only know the things that glee told us about funny girl and I haven’t seen it, but I just thought it would be weird if I didn’t put Fanny Brice)

Blaine Boq from Wicked Ogie from Waitress Mark Cohen from Rent Harry Potter from A Very Potter Musical (i could never give this role to any other glee character. a very potter musical just wouldn’t be the same without darren criss)

Sam General McNamara from The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (really just any starkid role played by Jeff Blim) Ron Weasley from A Very Potter Musical Bill from Mamma Mia

Finn Goyle from A Very Potter Musical

Kitty Heather Chandler from Heathers Catherine of Aragon (but I think Marley could also play Catherine of Aragon)

Marley Any role that Mariah Rose Faith plays in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, but specifically the greenpeace girl Zoe Murphy from Dear Evan Hansen

Unique Anna of Cleves from Six the Musical

Puck Voldemort from A Very Potter Musical Batman from Holy Musical B@man

[notjanine]

2020 in books!

the only kind of new year’s resolution i made as a naive baby last january was to try to read 40 books for the year. (i read 37 in 2019, for context.) well, with all of my commuting time eliminated and an increased need for immersive escapism, i ended up surpassing that goal three times over lmao (thanks library ebooks!)

idk how to summarize my year in books in a way that makes sense but

(f) = fiction, (nf) = nonfiction, (p) = poetry.

books that rewired my fucking brain:

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer (nf)- GOD?!?!?! good. dr. k is right. ostensibly a book about plants, but actually a book about shut up and go outside. consumerism and capitalism are doing their damnedest to fuck you up, but you can just choose to value different things. take care of yourself by taking care of your environment. etc etc.

wasp by richard jones (nf)- lissen. when i got this book, my wasp-phobia was so severe that i had to put it away face down on a high shelf because there are wasps on the cover and i couldn’t bear to RISK even GLIMPSING them. now i am like... a wasp evangelist. (also due to the bugs 101 course on coursera it’s so good.)

wag by zazie todd (nf)- i have a dog, but i am NOT a Dog Person (i.e. i love my dog, but please keep yours away from me, thanks.) this book helped me understand my little guy better, plus it gives actionable tasks and activities to do with and for your pup! plus, y’know, learning about things you’re scared of helps to lessen that fear. i’d recommend this to anyone who has, wants, or regularly interacts with a dog.

a closed and common orbit by becky chambers (f)- is this series complete fluff? absolutely. am i fundamentally different after reading this one? maybe.

the best we could do by thi bui (nf)- this is so far outside of my personal experience but somehow still made me come to peace with my relationship with my mom?? and it’s barely even about that?? idk. this is probably objectively the best book i’ve read this year.

books that were just fun as hell:

mexican gothic by silvia moreno-garcia (f)- this book made me YELL out loud

death on the nile by agatha christie (f)- i grew up on agatha christie shows, but never actually read her before this year! she really was That Bitch. read this before the movie comes out

cosmoknights by hannah templer (f)- i read this in one sitting through the worst headache i’ve had in years. it is a goddamn DELIGHT. this book has everything: spaceships. mech suits. fighting the patriarchy. a perfect otp. fun art in bright colors with clean lines. onomatopoetic WAPs from before the song gave that hilarious context. 800 lesbians. this is an antidepressant in graphic novel form.

stiff by mary roach (nf)- ms. roach is like the 4th most represented author on my bookshelf because she 1. stays writing about shit i’m interested in and 2. manages to talk about gross and ridiculous things without resorting to sensationalism. it takes skill to write a hilarious book about corpses.

black sun by rebecca roanhorse (f)- excellent sexual tension between a horny siren pirate and a hot doomed... monk, kinda? set in the pre-columbian gulf of mexico with magic and shit.

cuisine chinoise by zao dao (? n/f)- this graphic novel about chinese food history/mythology is BEAUTIFUL.

the color of magic by terry pratchett (f)- you’d think a hardcore douglas adams stan would have gotten to this sooner, but no, i had to date a nerdy white boy to get here. it’s fun though! i’m not gonna read them all, but this one was good. bonus: contains one (1) great himbo.

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir (f)- like 500 pages of action and mystery and jokes and space necromancy. harrow the ninth gets a special mention bc it has a meme reference that took me out so hard i had to close the book, lie down, and groan for an entire minute before continuing.

other minds by peter godfrey-smith (nf)- i love octopuses. on one tma bonus ep, jonny sims says that if a creature can choose to do evil, then it’s a Person. octopuses are People. but anyway frfr this has an explanation of the evolution of consciousness that is cool af. (this one is much better than the other recent popsci octo book which i will not name out of politeness.)

the perfect predator by steffanie strathdee and thomas patterson (nf)- i read this bc my microbiology prof recommended it and it’s cool as heck! it’s got adventure, drama, mystery, Science-with-a-capital-S. i’m biased bc i’m a bit of a microbes nerd, but i had a blast with this. (but only bc we know going in that everything works out okay; if i hadn’t known that, i would have been TOO stressed!)

books that were a little less fun but still very readable:

my sister, the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite (f)- i couldn’t find this as funny as other people bc i, too, have a beautiful sister who’s an insufferable narcissist, so it hits a little too close to home, but. it is a wild ride.

piranesi by susanna clarke (f)- idek what to say! i went into this one blind just bc it had a cool cover and title, so i guess i’d recommend that for other people too.

the sixth world series by rebecca roanhorse (f)- monster hunting! a post-apocalyptic take that doesn’t feel tired.

the shades of magic trilogy by v.e. schwab (f)- easy escapism. some ideas feel a little first draft-y, but idk, it’s also a pretty simple premise (which isn’t a bad thing). it’s a decent urban fantasy set in ~georgian?-era london. very actiony. suffers from a bit of i’m-not-like-other-girls disease, but i didn’t even notice until book two or three, so.

the only good indians by stephen graham jones (f)- starts off a little ??? (and reeks of being Written By A Man) but picks up. the pacing’s great and there’s just a super fucking cool monster.

robopocalypse by daniel h. wilson (f)- this reads like a tv miniseries so much that i can’t believe it isn’t one yet.

confessions of the fox by jordy rosenberg (f)- not my usual cup of tea, fiction-wise, but still compelling. a fresh take on the white-male-english-professor-self-insert? but not insufferable. gets weird!

spinning silver by naomi novik (f)- rumplestilstkin, but make it interesting! a great, richly-told fairy tale, but like, large scale. good to read on a cold day while you’re wrapped up in a blanket with some hot tea.

interior chinatown by charles yu (f)- compulsively readable. a couple things bugged me, but not enough to make me dislike it. a fun companion piece to how to live safely in a science fictional universe. i like this guy’s style.

cannibalism by bill schutt (nf)- COOL. mostly covers the animal kingdom (fun), spends too much time on the donner party (less fun), ends with a SPICY take on prions that i cannot get out of my head!!!

buzz, sting, bite by anne sverdrup-thygeson (nf)- BUGS! broad but not overwhelming, neither dumbed down nor overly scientific, short enough to finish in a day or two. recommend this to literally everyone.

books that made me want to read everything else in the author’s ouevre:

the time invariance of snow by e. lily yu (f)- this FUCKS but it’s too short!!!

an unkindness of ghosts by rivers solomon (f)- okay this book is SO good and so well-written and interesting and blah blah blah all the good things, but... the whole time, i was just like?? why???? why is this what you’re choosing to write about??? (i did also read the deep and blood is another word for hunger after this one, and i did like them both, especially the latter, but i think they can do better! like i think they could write a perfect book and i am gonna be *eyes emoji* until then.)

the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (f)- a fine debut novel, but i want to see her do something a little more... idk, refined? i think she overreaches here, like it’s a little... idk looper? this is how you lose the time war? there’s a better comparison, but i can’t think of it, but you get the idea. and then halfway through it shifts gears to mad max. there’s something weird about one of the central relationships, like it’s not complex enough to take as long to resolve as it does. idk idk. there are just a lot of little nitpicky things. it’s not bad! but i think she can do better and i look forward to finding out.

postcolonial love poem by natalie diaz (p)- thinky! like i tried to read this before bed, but it’s not the sort of thing to parse out while you’re falling asleep, it requires more attention than that.

books that Learned Me Somethin:

smoke gets in your eyes by caitlin doughty (nf)- i am a self-professed death obsessed weirdo, fascinated by death and mourning, but i didn’t know all that much about what happens to a body between the dying and the funeral! this book isn’t big, but it covers a lot and doughty’s writing style is engaging and honest. it’s very memorable.

queer by meg-john barker and julia scheele (nf)- i’m gonna be totally honest and say Queer Theory is above my intellectual pay grade, but this book takes you by the hand and explains the basics.

vitamania by catherine price (nf)- LMAO my fellow americans, never take a supplement. this book is great and well-researched, but normal folks don’t need to read it, just listen to season two of the dream podcast, which definitely cribbed from this.

vegetable kingdom by bryant terry (nf)- this is a fine cookbook, my favorite of his that i’ve read so far. gets a special mention bc i had a religious experience just reading one of his kohlrabi recipes. absolutely gutted that i didn’t have an opportunity to try it this year, since the pandemic put the kibosh on all family bbqs.

the best american food writing 2020 edited by j. kenji lopez-alt (nf)- this really is just a great collection.

are prisons obsolete? by angela y. davis (nf)- yes.

i moved to los angeles to work in animation by natalie nourigat (nf)- before reading this, i had basically zero knowledge of how the animation industry works. now i know like three things.

the secret lives of bats by merlin tuttle (nf)- BATS! okay this book is more about the adventures of being a bat scientist than it actually is about bats, but there are bats in there. insectivorous bats basically shit glitter, you should know this.

books from valuable perspectives:

hood feminism by mikki kendall (nf)- a breakdown of who’s getting left out of feminist spaces, why that’s happening, and why it shouldn’t be happening.

all you can ever know by nicole chung (nf)- a (transracial) adoptee’s take on adoption and learning more about her birth family. the personal storytelling of this one really stuck with me.

motherhood so white by nefertiti austin (nf)- a single-mom-by-choice’s take on the foster system/adoption process. walks you through some things i always wondered about and some things i wouldn’t even have thought about.

this place by kateri akiwenzie-damm et al (? n/f)- i, like a lot of non- native americans, only know that history in broad strokes. getting this many highly specific stories in one dense and beautiful book felt like a lucky find. and taking that perspective into the future in the context of that history is v good.

empty by susan burton (nf)- eating disorder stories are important to me bc i care about food so much. this one is so relatable- not in its specificity, but rather its generality. it’s easy to empathize with her perspective because it’s like, Oh, i don’t have that exact problem, but i struggle with different problems in a very similar way. (feels like the opposite of roxane gay’s hunger, in a way.)

obit by victoria chang (p)- this exploration of grief is... woof.

short story collections are hard to evaluate bc you’ll never read one where every single story hits but i generally enjoyed these:

a thousand beginnings and endings edited by ellen oh and elsie chapman (f)

how long til black future month? by n.k. jemisin (f)

her body and other parties by carmen maria machado (f)

books i revisited:

the broken earth trilogy by n.k. jemisin (f)- i read the series backwards this time and like... i can’t really find any faults in these books, man. they’re just the best.

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by jomny sun (f... but is it really?)- half of this book’s sales are from me buying it for other people bc it’s the only way i know how to say i love you. i reread it every time just to make sure it still feels right and it always does.

other honorable mentions:

white is for witching by helen oyeyemi (f)- not to pit two bad bitches against each other, but this book does what akwaeke emezi’s freshwater was trying to do. it’s a little weird, a little haunted, a little of a lot of things. read this only in the dead of winter. (and with stephen rennicks’ score for the little stranger playing in the background.)

homie by danez smith (p)- there’s a lot going on here, but this just made me crack a smile a couple times in a way that no other book of poetry has ever done.

the murder of roger ackroyd and murder in mesopotamia by agatha christie (f)- That Bitch!

blues by nikki giovanni (p)- she sure has some Things To Say

the three-body problem by cixin liu (f)- interesting concepts, but... idk something’s missing? felt weirdly soulless to me. i’m probably not gonna read the sequels. but it did make some points!

the sisters of the winter wood by rena rossner (f)- i’m a slut for shapeshifting, okay. but this is a good fairy tale, it works!

parable of the sower by octavia butler (f)- i read this in march, when the pandemic was just kicking off and boy that was not the right time. def my least favorite of hers so far, but an octavia butler i don’t love is still better than a hell of a lot of other books. no idea when or if i’ll get to a good enough headspace for the sequel.

faves:

saturnino herrán by adriana zapett tapia (nf)- i got to learn new things about my mans and see some of his paintings i’ve never even seen online! GOSH.

on food and cooking by harold mcgee (nf)- yeah yeah, i’ve already mentioned this book half a dozen times on here this year, but i don’t care. this book lives off the shelf in my home bc i reference it like every other fucking day. this book is a part of me now.

[xioyume]

Today, she finally has debuted

This is my Captain Underpants fc, Catherine Hutchins! She's Harold big cousin.

She goes to middle school and her dads goes to Piqua, Ohio every summer to visit Grace, Harold and Heidi. Catherine and her dads currently live at the Bronx, New York. She loves reading about a lot of things and loves movies for little kids (Disney, Barbie, etc.)

Relationships with other characters:

Her family: She loves them! Her relationship with her dads is really good, she often talks with aunt Grace about her "girls problems" (but she also tells her other relatives) and likes to be with Heidi.

Harold and George: They always hang out in summer. Harold loves her and George really enjoys her company. They often watch movies at Harold's house.

Mr. Krupp: She doesn't dislikes him, but doesn't think he's the best either. Cathy used to attend Jerome Horwitz elementary school before her family moved to N.Y. Krupp thinks she was the only student that wasn't a troublemaker back in her days, but little does he know, Catherine pulled up a couple of pranks without getting caught.

Captain Underpants: She was shocked when Harold told her what happened, but she's ok with it. She thinks Cap is a really cool dude and that she thought she would never see Krupp with a smile that wasn't malicious.

Melvin: They get along well, although she doesn't like when Melvin treats bad her kids.

Rest of the Jerome Horwitz students: She likes almost everyone, but she's really close to beat the shit out of Jessica.

Extra: Cathy is a very sweet girl, but she's kind of sassy too. She's a very good talker. Somehow, she always knows how to avoid a problem by talking.

Name: Catherine Hutchins

Age: 12

Height: 1.48

Birthday: March 2

Temperament: 4/10

Intelligence: 6/10

Fears: Roaches and horror movies

Little sketch I did of her with George and Harold in the series style and at the bottom she's protecting Harold from a random villain.

[lizabethstucker]

Happily Ever After by Catherine M. Roach

Subtitled: “The Romance Story in Popular Culture”.

Catherine M. Roach, also know as romance writer Catherine LaRoche, looks at Romancelandia somewhat in depth, from who writes and reads it, why and how the genre resonates with so many readers, and the types of tropes that can be found.  Before you dismiss the author out of hand as being one of "those" women, something I've heard from non-romance readers in the past, who are viciously dismissive of the genre, be aware that Roach is Professor of Gender and Culture Studies in New College at the University of Alabama.

I found this to be an accessible read for both academics and romance readers wanting to dive more into the story, if you will, of the genre.  Yet I was surprised at the lack of history and the influence of writers such as Georgette Heyer, mentioned so briefly early on before she was pushed away along with Jane Austin.  Heyer, in particular, is frequently mentioned by many historical and regency romance readers as their gateway drug into romance, even if Heyer herself hated that classification of her works.

Perhaps it was page constraint that caused many of the "founding mothers" of the genre to be essentially ignored or barely touched upon.  Yet fanfiction, m/m, and slash fiction all had more content.  Which, don't get me wrong, I appreciated that the three were mentioned as too many so-called studies tend to ignore them completely.  Overall, I mostly liked this.  I just think it could've been expanded more upon.  3 out of 5.

[navigatethestream]

At The Vocal, Catherine Bouris uses the term to describe some of the insults she’s received from strangers, including people calling her a “whale” and a “hippo.” A 2016 Medium post from a writer using the alias Your Fat Friend, meanwhile, uses the term to describe an incident in which a stranger told her his sadistic fantasy: “[H]e wanted to hold my arms down while I struggled to get free.” Fatcalling can also take the form of concern-trolling, in which non-doctors, for the most part, dole out fat-phobic remarks under the guise of free health advice. (Thanks, but no thanks.) And it doesn’t just happen on the street, either. It can happen at the gym, on subway platforms, at restaurants, and in online comments sections. (For further proof, look no further than the comments on Refinery29’s own 67% Project manifesto, where you’ll find everything from concern trolls to remarks about Refinery29’s 67% stock photo models.) These experiences show how fat people are made to feel as if our bodies aren’t only aesthetically unacceptable — they don’t even belong to us. We apparently exist only for other people to mock, criticize, or verbally assault. And while catcalling has been placed at the forefront of the national conversation around street harassment, it seems like fatcalling is still something you have to experience to know it’s happening. So why aren't we talking about this more? A huge factor is likely shame coupled with numbness. It's amazing what you can get used to when you're around it every day. (New Yorkers, for instance, regularly sidestep heaps of trash, roaches, and rats without batting an eye.) The first few times I was fatcalled after my weight gain in 2014, I was mortified. It didn't matter what neighborhood I was in, what I was wearing, what I was doing — someone always seemed to have an opinion to share about my appearance. But these days, I've learned how to tune out the voices of rude passerby by clinging to my own sense of self-love and body positivity. In a twisted way, I became more comfortable with my body precisely because it made other people uncomfortable. I felt like I was more in control of my reality — like I was actually living for myself. And no, I don't mean that I started eating more fast food, or whatever the concern trolls might be thinking. I'm actually more comfortable in, say, workout clothes now than I was at a smaller size. It's almost as if I'm daring people to judge me, to share their uninformed opinions — and it gives me more confidence to know that their words don't have power over me.

Why More People Need To Know What "Fatcalling" Is by Meghan De Maria

[crowleytakesall]

Books Read in 2017

I really don’t know what else to say at this point. Other than I toned it down a bit from last year. ;)

OH actually: I noticed I was being a failure at listing the illustrators of graphic novels. So I’ll try to do that from now on. I apologize to all those artists I’ve neglected to include in my bylines, but thankfully I believe you are all listed on the linked pages. Which is better than no credit at all....

Total: 144

All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister

Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation ed. Brett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick

But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman

Culture and Customs of Korea by Donald N. Clark

Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 by Grace Elizabeth Hale

サイレントヒル by Sadamu Yamashita

A History of Nepal by John Whelpton

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos by Bounsang Khamkeo

Game On!: Video Game History from Pong and Pac-Man to Mario, Minecraft, and More by Dustin Hansen

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

DC Universe: Rebirth - The Deluxe Edition writ. Geoff Johns, illus. Gary Frank, Ethan van Sciver, Ivan Reis, and Phil Jimenez

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Silver Child, Silver City, and Silver World by Cliff McNish

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

A Modern History of the Somali: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa by I. M. Lewis

Uzumaki Vols. 1, 2, and 3 by Junji Ito

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman

One-Eyed Doll by James Preller

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J. K. Rowling

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson

Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1-5 and The Kane Chronicles #1-3 by Rick Riordan

Draw The Line by Laurent Linn

Somalia: A Nation Driven to Despair: A Case of Leadership Failure by Mohamed Osman Omar

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology by Valerie C. Scanlon and Tina Sanders

Ultraviolet and Quicksilver by R. J. Anderson

Harmony House by Nic Sheff

Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda by Scott Peterson

Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca

Cultures of the World: Somalia by Susan M. Hassig and Zawiah Abdul Latif

The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away by Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge

Half Bad by Sally Green

The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 by Christopher Ehret

Omega City by Diana Peterfreund

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

The Dragons of Noor by Janet Lee Carey

Asylum, Sanctum, Catacomb, and The Asylum Novellas by Madeleine Roux

Unraveling Somalia: Race, Violence, and the Legacy of Slavery by Catherine Besteman

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

Unnatural Creatures ed. Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture by Heather Marie Akou

The Foundry’s Edge by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz

Diagnoses From the Dead: The Book of Autopsy by Richard A. Prayson

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin

A Silent Voice #2-7 by Yoshitoki Oima (read the first one last year)

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings

Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History by Rebecca Romney and J. P. Romney

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Things Happen by Eric Liu

The Father of Forensics: The Groundbreaking Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, and the Beginnings of Modern CSI by Colin Evans

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson

It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class - And What We Can Do About It by Richard Florida

An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal

The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It by W. Chris Winter

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford

Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner by Frederick Zugibe and David L. Carroll

Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture - And What We Can Do About It by Kate Harding

ワンパンマン Vol. 1 - 3 writ. ONE illus. Yusuke Murata

Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America by Elliot Jaspin

Forensic Nurse: The New Role of the Nurse in Law Enforcement by Serita Stevens

So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme, and the Murder that Shocked the World by Peter Graham

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper

The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Beyond Monongah: An Appalachian Story by Judith Hoover

Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favelli and Francesca Cavallo

The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer by Skip Hollandsworth

These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas

Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley

Inferno by Dan Brown

Paper Girls Vol. 1 writ. Brian K. Vaughn, illlus. Cliff Chiang, Jared K. Fletcher, Matthew Wilson

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Warcross by Mary Lu

Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani

Head First C: A Brain-Friendly Guide by David and Dawn Griffiths

A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting it Done by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser

Coding for Beginners in Easy Steps: Basic Programming for All Ages by Mike McGrath

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening writ. Marjorie Liu, illus. Sana Takeda

Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan

Native Son by Richard Wright

Courage is Contagious: And Other Reasons to be Grateful for Michelle Obama ed. Nick Haramis

This is the Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister

The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness by Jill Filipovic

Coding for Dummies by Nikhil Abraham

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Artemis by Andy Weir

Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom

C Programming: Absolute Beginner’s Guide by Greg Perry and Dean Miller

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island, and Other Ancient Monuments by Lynne Kelly

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

[ssocatherine]

My email to SSO: Suggestions!!!

Wrote this email to sso, feel free to write your own email to them with suggestions like these.

Hi my name is Catherine Candlehaven and i have a few suggestions for the game.

1. New human hair styles: I think the game definitely needs new hairstyles. Perhaps something longer and less stiff. Also hijabs and afros and curly hair styles are a must! for myself, i really want long, pulled back styles like a half up half down with perhaps a braid in the back or something like that! It would look so so good in the game.

2. Full blankets: I think a cool addition to the game would be full blankets. A use for these other than cuteness would be if you put them on a non-cold resistant horse such as the oldenburg or the english thoroughbred, that the horse would then be cold-resistant as long as it was wearing it.

3. Human body options: In todays day and age it is really surprising you guys only have one body option: Thin thin thin. I think you guys should introduce new body types, perhaps sliders to make the character more chubby or taller or whatever the player wants to do.

4. New horse hair styles: With the advances in the game i feel like the horses need new styles. Perhaps braids that dont look like lightbulbs and a braided tail with it would be cool. Maybe a short style like a roached mane too, and also a shorter style that hangs on one side of the neck rather than both.

5. Different bridle styles: Maybe it would be cool if you guys introduced things like hackamores and rope bridles and double bridles so instead of just one bridle style, there could be tons of options and therefor more spending which equals profit for you guys.

6. Halters: I think this game would be much cooler now that we have the awesome HS, if we had halters. Especially if we could buy the halter however many times we want to so the horses in our stable could all match or not match depending on what look we want.

7. More backpack space: this is self explanatory haha

8. More realistic looking character: Aswell as more body options, i think our characters faces need serious help. They are bad quality and unrealistic with small noses and HUGE eyes. These absolutely need to be more realistic or at least have an option.

9. Visitors in hs: I think we should definitely be able to take our friends into our home stables, to visit and sit and see all of our horses in one place.

10. Test ride: Theres no denying that alot of the new horses are super expensive. I think that we should be able to have a horse for 24 or 48 hours to test ride around for a few days and make sure we want it for sure before wasting money on a horse we could regret buying.

11. More realistic horse accessories: Martingales and open front boots would be very cool aswell as bell boots and stuff like that! More realistic polo wraps and stuff would also be great.

12. Horse gender: When buying a horse i think we should definitely be able to choose what gender it is. I think this will also help for whenever breeding is introduced to the game.

13. Lower prices: Im sorry but this game is incredibly over priced. Especially the sc. If your gonna ask that much, at least make the horses around 600sc instead of 900.

14. Hitching posts: I think this game needs hitching posts to add even more realism now that we can lead them! Itd be cool to be able to tie our horses anywhere.

15. Wandering horses: I think that if our horses wandered a little when left alone, itd be really cool and add a fun element to the game.

16. Whistling: If on foot, i think there should be an option to whistle and have your horse come to you.

17. Paddock: I think through the back door of our stable we should enter a big yard with some paddocks, maybe to keep more horses in, or just keep our horses in in general. Perhaps the same place from the app in which you raise a foal? Itd be cool if when the horses are out they wandered and ran and interacted with eachother though that would be a big project to animate.

18. Petting: PLz let us pet our horses.

19: Piercings: Idk might be too adult but piercings would be a cool additive :D

Thats all for now, ill make sure to attach pictures of examples of stuff i mentioned here.

Attached file: 

[stcrgcze-blog]

starter based off of this post

as ryder made his way down the road, he chuckled to himself thinking about how far he’s come. just months prior, he had lost someone so close to him, someone he confided in and that wasn’t done very much. especially with ryder. he had given up the drinking and the anger that he held onto for so many years and finally got it. he got accepted into the police academy after years of trying to clean himself up for the job. he couldn’t believe he was so close to his dream job and-, SKRRRRT his car came to a stop in front of the house. the house that his late girlfriend had live at before she died. but, it wasn’t he house that had gotten ryder to stop. it was the female dancing along in her room, the same room she had been dancing in. as he narrowed his eyes, ryder could have sworn it was her. it was catherine. without a thought, he brought his car to the side, putting it in drive and stumbling towards the front door before ringing the doorbell plenty of times than enough he thought. was it her? was it catherine? it couldn’t be right? he saw her get buried, he saw her. but, it quickly ended as the door was swung open. “uh.. hi, sorry.. i was.. i got a call about a roach infestation?” 

[tarasstorybook]

Mission Gone Wrong

“So Holden is sure they’re behind this?” Brixton questions. “I thought we took care of the issue after they took Tara all those years ago. We captured their director in charge.”

“They’re roaches Johnny, they can manage without him. They’ll just find somebody better than him.” Tara does her best to explain a little, she never liked Lucas, same species or not she only ever held feelings of hatred towards the man.

“And it doesn’t matter if he’s like her or not. They’ll just find somebody smarter and better than him, I hate to entertain the idea but they might have found someone already to replace him.” Colt adds on.

“I can't stand the idea of going back.” Tara shutters at the idea of the corporation rebuilding again. “I still have repressed memories because of them.”

“And that’s why we need to end this.” Scarlett emphasizes. “Too bad Catherine couldn’t be here, I’m sure she would have loved to see them end once and for all.”

“I don’t see the point of me being here.” Tara lowers her gun down when she speaks. “I thought I was too close to the case to be involved.”

“There’s a method to Holden’s madness.” Colt tries to joke.

“Yeah I guess.” Tara gives a half hearted smile, her stomach was twisting in knots and she had a bad feeling something bad was going to happen.

Their team had figured out that the remainder of the taken down corporation were hiding out in a decommissioned factory. It had been shut down for years, dust lined the floors, doorways, and windows undisturbed for years until recently. There were rumors that people were seen going in and out of the old decommissioned factory, Tara just hoped to god that the rumors were wrong. Tara’s heart pounded loudly in her ears as they checked every room and every corner, she didn’t care if the others saw her fear, she just wanted to get this over and done with.

The four of them had split up to cover more ground, Johnathan going with Scarlett and Tara going with Colt. The two of them moved through the building in relative silence, keeping an ear out for anything or anyone. Tara’s muscles were tense as she walked, inspecting abandoned buildings was her least favorite thing to do. She wasn’t a huge fan of how small their numbers were to begin with, she would have preferred if Holden sent them out with a bigger team than just them. There wasn’t a whole lot she could say on the matter now, they were already there and just about finished checking the building over. Despite it all though, Tara’s hands trembled slightly with fear. Nobody scared her more than Lucas and his own team, they knew how to take someone like her down in under five minutes and that terrified her.

“Hey relax it's okay.” Colt nudges her in the side, cracking a smile at her. “Nobody’s here, we’re going to get through this whole place and we won’t find a single person here.”

“I really hope you’re right, old places put me off bad things always happen.”

“Well it's a good thing you’ve got us with you then huh?”

“Yeah I suppose so.”

“But?” Colt gives her a questioning look, he had been working with her long enough to know when she had more than what she was saying.

“But I can’t shake the feeling there’s going to be an ambush, someone trying to stop us or something. A location sweep is never quiet Colt, when was the last time a location sweep was this quiet?”

Colt opens his mouth to answer her question but two gunshots echoing through the building catches their attention. Tara looks to Colt with worry before the two of them take off to go find Scarlett and Johnathan. It turns out Tara had every right to be as worried as she was, her fears about it being a trap had come to life. She looked over to Colt with an I told you so look before helping Scarlett and Johnathan.

“LSTF! Drop your weapon and nobody has to get hurt!” Tara raises her weapon, hiding the fear she felt as she took on an authoritative tone. Scarlett, Johnathan and Colt all follow her lead. The other agents make no move to follow her orders but are also unmoving.

“Drop your weapons.” Tara says again. “Come quietly and nobody will have to get hurt.”

“Not a chance.” One of them says before firing off a round in their direction.

Tara moves out of the way just in time, pushing Colt to the ground as she moves. The two of them scramble for cover, Scarlett and Johnathan doing the same as the shootout began. A bullet whizzed by Scarlett’s head, barely missing her while another one hits it's mark and gets embedded in Brixton’s shoulder. Brixton quickly ducks down behind cover, holding his now bleeding shoulder he takes a moment to recover.

“You okay?” Scarlett looks to him checking to see what the damage was.

“Shot in the shoulder but I’ll live.” Brixton pulls his hand away now covered in blood, he had dealt with worse, this was just a minor set back.

“You sure? Tara heard you scream and is looking quite concerned over there.” Scarlett nods over in Tara’s direction, she wasn’t lying when she said Tara was worried.

Johnathan noticed the look he was getting from her, he gives her a thumbs up to let her know he was fine. Tara bites her lower lip but nods in understanding before she goes back to helping Colt.

“You sure you’re okay? It looks bad.”

“I’ll be fine Scarlett, really. I’ll have the med team patch me up when we get back.”

Scarlett lets out a frustrated huff but nods regardless. “Alright, just know there’s no shame in tapping out.”

“I know Scarlett.” Brixton smiles as he returns fire.

The fight goes from guns blazing to fists, both sides running out of rounds to fire off. At least that’s what Tara and her side believed, the fight was evenly matched between both sides. Tara had gotten a few good hits in, receiving some power hits herself, she wouldn’t be surprised if she found bruises later in the day when they returned to LSTF. Tara was so preoccupied by the person in front of her, she had no idea that another person had joined them.

“Tara your six!” Brixton calls out, quickly moving to shove her out of the way.

Things suddenly move in slow motion, Tara hears the gun fire twice before she sees it. She finds herself on the ground, she hears Brixton scream, the grunt of someone getting hit with a knife and the thud of someone hitting the floor. Colt hauls Tara to her feet, Scarlett is the one who ends the fight taking the gun of the newcomer and shooting the others.

“Johnny!” Tara breaks from Colt’s hold and runs to Brixton’s side. He had been shot in the back, and laid motionless on the floor.

“Oh shit.” Colt mumbles under his breath.

“You’re a dead man Johnathan Brixton.” Tara says, removing her coat she bunches it up and puts pressure where he was shot to try and stop the bleeding.

“We need to get him back to LSTF and fast.” Scarlett says, holstering the gun.

“He’s not going to make it.” Tara says, dread in her voice.

“We’ll speed, people know who we are. We’ll make it back and save him.” Colt reassures her.

“We have to leave now Tara.” Scarlett places a hand on her shoulder.

“Okay.” Tara looks up at her. “Let’s go.”

The three of them work to get Brixton to the van and back to LSTF headquarters, Colt called it in while Scarlett drove with the van going as fast as it could. Tara held pressure to Brixton’s back, coat be damned she could always get a new one when she had the time. Tara prayed and begged for Brixton to fight and hold on, saying how they were almost there, more to reassure herself than anything.

The med team met them once they got there, quickly taking Brixton back to the infirmary while the three of them let the doctors know what happened and how he wound up in the situation he was in. The doctor reassured them that they would do everything they could to help him.

“By the looks of things he lost a lot of blood and will need a transfusion.”

“That’ll help him?” Scarlett asks.

“Yes, it’ll be one of the things that helps him.”

“But?” Tara presses.

“But we would have to order the blood from a blood bank and that could take a little time.”

“There isn’t time.” Tara stressed. “It took us a while to get here even with speeding, he needs it now doesn’t he?”

“Yes but-”

“So then take mine.” Tara says, rolling up her sleeve. “Mine is universal in more ways than one, Catherine and I were hunted down once just so our blood could be used.”

“Tara I don’t think-”

“Take mine, it’ll take less time I’m right here I’ll bounce back fine you just have to give me an hour between withdraws. Please, use mine.”

“Very well.” The doctor sighs and relents, motioning for her to follow him.

Despite her hatred towards needles, Tara managed to hold still long enough for them to take hers and give to Brixton. They took care of the most severe wounds, treated Tara for her minor ones and looked over Colt and Scarlett before giving the three of them the all clear to go back to work. Brixton remained in the infirmary still in critical condition, the doctors and nurses keeping around the clock eye on him.

Tara never left his side, she was too worried about him to leave and go work in the lab. Scarlett and Colt had tried to convince her that it would be better if she worked to distract herself, every time she told them that she would be fine where she was and wanted to be there when Brixton woke up. Both tried to tell her that she would have quite a long time to wait, each time she told them she didn’t mind, she was determined to stay put.

It took about a week for Brixton to come around and regain consciousness. Brixton found Tara’s hand entangled with his, she was passed out at his bedside when he looked over. A small smile graced his face when he saw her, he tried to push himself up but winces and grunts in pain at the effort, waking Tara in the process. Tara picks her head up when she hears him, relief to see him awake and okay floods her face. She stands up to hug him, mindful of the I.V lines and his wounds.

“Johnny thank god, I thought you wouldn’t make it.”

“I’m glad to see you’re okay too.” He does his best to hug her back. “How long was I out?”

“A week.” She sits back down and takes his hand again. “You were at death’s door when we brought you back to LSTF, I thought we were going to lose you.”

“Thanks to Tara we were able to perform an immediate blood transfusion.” The doctor walks in to check and see how he was doing. “You had come pretty close to dying Brixton, you got lucky this time around.”

“You donated your blood?” Johnathan looks to her, he knew they were close in biology but he had no idea how close they were.

“Yes, afterwards I called my dad to see if it was the right choice and what would happen after I did.”

“And?”

“You’re going to be fine, maybe get a little stronger thanks to me but fine. Oh and your aging has been stunted for the next twenty years, you won’t look a day over twenty four.”

Brixton stares blankly at her for a few moments, processing what she had just told him. “I’m sorry what?”

“There’s health benefits to my blood, Lunarisor blood in general, I mean it can’t cure cancer but it’ll help you live a little longer and stop the aging process for a while.”

“So when twenty years is up is the aging going to catch up with me?”

“No, it’ll just start back up. When you’re in your fifties you’ll look like you’re in your thirties and so on. In the long run you’re going to be fine, and if anything it’ll benefit you.”

“You’ll still have to remain in the infirmary until we clear you Agent Brixton.” The doctor adds on. “You may feel fine now but the pain and soreness is going to catch up to you.”

“Despite mine and my dad’s reassurances that you’ll be fine they still want to make sure that you don’t react negatively to the blood transfusion.”

“I understand, you look like you need to sleep. How long were you awake for this time Tara?”

“I don’t know.” Tara shrugs. “I slept recently but that was mostly my body shutting itself down.”

“Go home and rest Tara.” The doctor tells her. “I’ll tell Holden we sent you home to rest, she knows about your insomnia and will agree with our choice.”

“But I’m fine.” Tara protests.

“Do I have to get your sister?” He raises an eyebrow at her.

“No, no, there's no need to get Catherine involved, I’ll go home.”

“I’ll come see you when they release me.” Brixton promises.

“Please do, I was worried.” Tara kisses his forehead before standing to leave. “I love you Johnny, see you later.”

“Love you too, see you later.”

After spending a few days in the infirmary, Brixton was finally given the all clear to go back to work and go on field missions once more. He kept his promise to Tara and went to see her when he was released. Tara was glad to see him up on his feet, going out for lunch she catches him up on what he missed while he was there and in a coma for a week.

[msfehrwight]

Love Across the Atlantic (Roehampton 2017)

*flop* So that’s that conference done. It was really interesting – I’m not often in events so heavily attended by film people! Some really interesting papers, and some I didn’t expect to find exciting but did! Of particular interest I found one titled “Bridget Jones’s Special Relationship: No Filth, Please We’re Brexiters”, “Towards Something Fresh?: P. G. Wodehouse, Transatlantic Romances in Fiction and the Anglo-American Relationship” and the keynote “Transatlantic Love: Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder – Love and Romance Across the Miles in the Work of Elinor Glyn”. Seriously, I want to read more about and by Elinor Glyn now. (She wrote a lot about time and ships, as in, Cunard line ships! Titanic type stuff. Super interesting!)

My presentation went well. It was not exactly a packed session – there were the three of us presenters, our chair, and one member of audience. For the second paper and mine we gained a second audience member (none other than Catherine Roach!), but yeah, small and intimate! I think I did a bit better than I’ve done before, possibly because there were so few people and also we just all agreed to sit down to present. All I’ve ever learned goes against that, but since everyone else was doing it I thought I’d follow suit. It did stop me from fidgeting! And both my fellow presenter and one of the audience members declared afterwards that they would like to read Lady Amelia and Lady Claire! The other audience member told me I did well, which I was a little surprised about, but obviously pleased. I’ll get the hang of this guys!

The cocktail hour and dinner were irreplaceable, largely from the point of view of networking – my field buddy from the same panel only made it to the first but we had bonded pretty much the moment we introduced ourselves to each other during the break before our presentations. She’s VASTLY awesome! During the cocktail hour I met a Greek lady, a newly-minted doctor, what an absolute peach of a person, yet another person with whom I got along with like a house on fire. Later on we were joined by a mutual friend of both, and she’s awesome too? What a concatenation of great. This is what is best about these things, you meet people who are into interesting things and make friends who are at the same time possible future collaboration buddies!

This ends my conference report. If you wanna see more of what we got up to, the twitter tag is #LATA. It’s a bit disjointed since we had parallel sessions, but there’s some pictures that are of interest, especially of the keynote!

[hobbitsetal]

tagged by @youcalledmeatlas; thanks, man!!

A - Age: 24 (and a half)

B - Fear: frickin’ roaches

C - Current time: 9:22PM

D - Drink you last had: water with lemon

E - Every day starts with: my alarm

F - Favourite song: ooh...i have like four. “Be Thou My Vision” is my favorite hymn, “make you feel my love” by Adele, “featherstone” and “halcyon” by the paper kites

G - Ghosts, are they real: Idk. I do believe some cases are probs just demonic activity like the Bible talks about. << that. i don’t think the Bible supports dead people waltzing around and playing with light switches.

H - Hometown: Louisiana

I - In love with: words

J - Jealous of: people who can dance really well

K - Killed someone: listen, if you’re gonna FLY INTO MY WINDSHIELD LIKE A MANIAC

L - Last time you cried: i actually don’t remember!

M - Middle name: catherine

N - Number of siblings: 5 bros and 4 sis

O - One wish: unlimited travel

P - Person you last called/texted: my older sister

Q - Questions you’re always asked: ten kids?? (yes)

R - Reasons to smile: so many. so so many. my friends getting married, babysitting my punk children tomorrow night, my sister having a baby, another sister coming down in like 10 days for a visit, theological discussions, good fellowship, good food, summertime’s a’coming...y’all, i am blessed.

S - Song last sang: i think i sang along with “forever young”

T - Time you woke up: 6:00AM

U - Underwear colour: why

V- Vacation destination: Somewhere beautiful with a lot of history<< that or the beach

W - Worst habit: i...have several. messing up my sleep schedule consistently, small selfishnesses, procrastinating....

X - X-rays you’ve had: dental and also one of my wrist

Y - Your favourite food: i’m gonna have to go with chocolate ice cream. i will literally always eat ice cream.

Z- Zodiac sign: gemini

i’m tagging @aliceaviatrix, @jayykesley, @spillywolf, @thisbibliomaniac, @thelittleredheadedmusician, @mohawk-yeshua, @wandering-heartbeat, @dangerously-human, and @brandonsgame