#No wonder she loses two children out of three and dies at 23.
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stromuprisahat · 2 years ago
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In 93 AC she [Alysanne] attended the wedding of Prince Baelon’s eldest son, Viserys, to Lady Aemma of House Arryn, the eleven-year-old child of the late Princess Daella (their marriage was not consummated until the bride had flowered, two years later).
Fire and Blood (George R. R. Martin)
their marriage was not consummated until the bride had flowered, two years later 
Wow, I’m feeling so much better now! Thirteen! He didn’t fuck her ‘till she was thirteen! And she had Rhaenyra at fifteen! SO OLD! WTF is wrong with these people?! What did poor Aemma do to deserve that? But hey, Viserys loved her SO VERY MUCH!!!
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theartofdreaming1 · 3 years ago
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As usual, my thoughts regarding this week’s prompts and random thoughts on chapters 25-27 are below the cut.
heart
The imagery that really caught my attention this time was Peeta pointing out the changes in the moon to Katniss: The only indication of the passage of time lies in the heavens, the subtle shift of the moon. So Peeta begins pointing it out to me, insisting I acknowledge its progress and sometimes, for just a moment I feel a flicker of hope before the agony of the night engulfs me again. - So for one, we see another example of Peeta focusing on the small details in life (which I’ve previously hypothesized to being an important element in his recovery from his hijacking) as well as Peeta being the one to give Katniss hope, even if it’s just for a brief moment. Also, it’s a nice parallel to Katniss looking at the moon and desperately wishing for it to be “her moon” back in chapter 23. As a nocturnal person, I also love watching the moon from my living room window🌙
mind
Hmmh, I don’t think that Katniss and Peeta’s win was predetermined - although I do believe that by introducing the romantic angle, they significantly improved their odds. A Career winning the Games is not really that special and exciting, since it happens so often (although Careers generally satisfy that excitement for violence/blood/gore, that plenty of Capitol people seem to share). As a volunteer from District 12, who achieved an extremely good training score and proved herself to be very capable in the arena already, Katniss definitely had an edge by playing into the classic underdog story, which offered another exciting “narrative” for the Capitolites to follow - that, coupled (heh) with the romance angle Peeta introduced? Katniss (and Peeta) definitely had the entertainment (and excitement through novelty) factor on their side. Ironically, Cato’s chances of winning were not as good as he expected, precisely because he was playing it by the book.
soul
Poor Peeta (and Katniss), it hurts that their relationship was in such a rocky place by the end of the book. Especially those weeks right after the end of Book 1, when there were still cameras around District 12 and they had to pretend while hurting must have sucked big time🥺
Chapter 25
Ugh, the muttations are just so unsettling... *shudder*
Honestly, I’m just so impressed by Peeta’s presence of mind to draw that X on Cato’s hand, after he had just most of his calf ripped off, only to be grabbed and put in a headlock by Cato! He and Katniss work insanely well under pressure
God, Cato’s death is just so gruesome and awful... In the end, his “gift” from the Feast doesn’t help him win at all, but instead ends up prolonging his suffering a cruel amount... I wonder if in general these “gifts” come with a string attached (aside from the expected danger of trying to get them, I mean) - because the Gamemakers also intend for Katniss’s “gift” (medicine for Peeta) to force an even more cruel outcome on her - saving him from blood poisoning only to be forced into killing him herself... 🤔
I’m not sure if this is exactly medical protocol, but I’m terrified that if he drifts off he’ll never wake again. “Are you cold?” he asks. He unzips his jacket and I press against him as he fastens it around me. - Katniss is terrified of the idea of Peeta dying; at the same time, Peeta worries about her freezing - I can’t with these two 😩
Peeta begins to doze off now, and each time he does, I find myself yelling his name louder and louder because if he goes and dies on me now, I know I’ll go completely insane. He’s fighting it, probably more for me than for him - Katniss can’t lose any more people she cares about 😢; on a different note, Peeta fighting his unconsciousness “probably more for [Katniss] than for him” points out one of the crucial elements Katniss brings into Peeta’s life - she is that someone for whom he will fight - including for his own life and well-being - even when it feels easier to give up... Having that person in your life that keeps you going can make all the difference - if Katniss hadn’t had Prim and promised her “to really, really try” to win (and later also made Rue the same promise), I’m not sure she would have made it this far; it’s the thought of Prim anxiously watching her after Rue’s death, that forces Katniss to keep going, to not give in to despair after that particular traumatic event - Peeta, on the other hand, didn’t really have that kind of person in his life, as he will point out on the beach in CF (and Katniss acknowledges herself that the only person who will be devasted if Peeta dies is her)... that is not to say that neither Katniss nor Peeta aren’t fighters on their own - but it helps to have someone that inspires you to not give up
the adrenaline pumping through my body would never allow me to follow him, so I can’t let him go. I just can’t. - We’ll see the mirrored version of this by the end of Mockinjay 
Pity, not vengeance, sends my arrow flying into [Cato’s] skull. - Another act of rebellion, technically (sure, this can be spun as Katniss killing Cato so she and Peeta may win - before Peeta dies from blood loss - but we know better - Katniss’s motivation was compassion for her supposed enemy)
We inch down to the tail of the horn and fall to the ground. If the stiffness in my limbs is this bad, how can Peeta even move? - Peeta is tough as nails, yo!
Before I am even aware of my actions, my bow is loaded with the arrow pointed straight at his heart [...] I drop my weapons and take a step back, my face burning in what can only be shame. “No,” he says. “Do it.” [...] “I can’t,” I say, “I won’t.” - In spite of her initial reflex, Katniss chooses Peeta/ chooses not to kill him; it’s a recurring theme in their relationship (despite her wariness of others, she chooses to open up to Peeta eventually; although she vowed to never marry and have children, she’ll choose to have a family with Peeta); also, my psychology-brain just noticed how this moment illustrates how harmful thoughts/impulses don’t have to determine your actions and are not an indicator of who you are - it’s about what you choose to do
“You’re not leaving me here alone,” I say. Because if he dies, I’ll never go home, not really. I’ll spend the rest of my life in this areny trying to think my way out. - Again, makes me think of MJ; also, I think that from this point onwards, Katniss and Peeta are officially linked together forever; the bond they forged during this traumatic experience will connect them to each other until the day they die
“On the count of three?” Peeta leans down and kisses me once, very gently. “The count of three,” he says. - My heart😭
Chapter 26
... while our muscles are immobile, nothing is preventing the blood from draining out of Peeta’s leg. Sure enough, the minute the door closes behind us and the current stops, he slumps to the floor unconscious  [...] Through the glass, I see the doctors working feverishly on Peeta, their brows creased in concentration [...] I’m not sure, but I think his heart stops twice. - Peeta was in such a bad shape by the end of the Games; I’m still kinda salty that the movie really glossed over this fact :/
... they’re taking Peeta but leaving me behind the door. I start hurling myself against the glass, shrieking and I think I just catch a glimpse of pink hair - it must be Effie, it has to be Effie coming to my rescue - when the needle jabs me from behind. - Oh geez, in Catching Fire Katniss will also get sedated in a hovercraft because she’s upset about being separated from Peeta 😢 (also, Katniss thinking that Effie is coming to her rescue 😭)
While she [Lavinia, the avox] adjusts my pillows, I risk one question. I say it out loud, as clearly as my rusty voice will allow, so nothing will seem secretive. “Did Peeta make it?” She gives me a nod, and as she slips a spoon into my hand, I feel the pressure of friendship. - Katniss is so considerate of Lavinia’s situation, and Lavinia’s giving her a gesture of comfort and support; they’ve never been able to have a proper conversation (Katniss doesn’t even know Lavinia’s name), but still they managed to build up such a bond - compassion certainly is a strong thing to behold 😭 (and this whole scene is just through and through about compassion, with Katniss asking how Peeta is doing!)
Home! Prim and my mother! Gale! Even the thought of Prim’s scruffy old cat makes me smile. Soon I will be home! - Katniss is so excited to see her home and her loved ones again
I want to get out of this bed. To see Peeta and Cinna - Aww, the two people she grew closest to over the course of the past weeks (Haymitch will be added to that list in just a smidge)
Or do I hear a man’s voice yelling? Not in the Capitol accent, but in the rougher cadences of home. And I can’t help having a vague, comforting feeling that someone is looking out for me. - Thank God for Haymitch! 
And behind one of them [doors] must be Peeta. Now that I’m conscious and moving, I’m growing more and more anxious about him [...] “Peeta!” I call out, since there’s no one to ask - Katniss is sick with worry over Peeta; romantic feelings or not, she cares so fricking much for him by now!
I run for them [Effie, Haymitch, and Cinna] and surprise even myself when I launch into Haymitch’s arms first. When he whispers in my ear, “Nice job, sweetheart,” it doesn’t sound sarcastic. - These reunion scenes are so intense and heartwarming! And then Katniss asks about Portia and Peeta because their presence would make this scene complete 
when I asks for seconds, I’m refused. “No, no, no. They don’t want it all coming back up on the stage,” says Octavia, but she secretly slips me an extra roll under the table to let me know she’s on my side - It’s moments like these that help humanize Katniss’s prep team - they might be shallow, they might be completely oblivious and ignorant, but they aren’t that bad [of course, the prep team chattering about their mundane lives while talking about the event that ended with the deaths of 22 children shortly after, leaves a bad taste in our mouths]
I immediately notice the padding over my breasts, adding curves that hunger has stolen from my body. My hands go to my chest and I frown. “I know,” says Cinna before I can object. “But the Gamemakers wanted to alter you surgically. Haymitch had a huge fight with them over it. This was the compromise.” - God, the idea that the Gamemakers wanted to give a boob job to an unconscious, malnourished 16-year-old girl makes me sick 🤢 (Also, what’s the flipping deal about boobs?! As a pretty flat-chested gal, I’ve always been annoyed that there are barely any bras my cup size that are not push-up ones; I’m not self-conscious about it, so stop making me pretend that I’m bustier than I actually am!)
“I thought it’d be something more... sophisticated-looking,” I say. “I thought Peeta would like this better,” he [Cinna] answers carefully. Peeta? No, it’s not about Peeta. It’s about the Capitol and the Gamemakers and the audience. Although I do not yet understand Cinna’s design, it’s a reminder the Games are not quite finished. - Ugh, that sinking feeling when Katniss and the reader realize that the Games are still not over... Sidenote: Peeta flirted up a storm with grimy, bloodied Katniss and complimented her when she wore Cinna’s first, absolutely badass costume (”You should wear flames more often”)... Katniss’s girlish outfit  has nothing to do with Peeta and she knows it... Cinna could have dressed Katniss up in a trash bag and Peeta would have been smitten - although a trash bag by Cinna would probably still look pretty good ;)
“How about a hug for luck?” Okay, that’s an odd request from Haymitch but, after all we are victors. Maybe a hug for luck is in order. - Aww, Katniss actually wouldn’t have minded giving Haymitch a hug just because - sadly, this is about survival tips instead :/
But what was it Haymitch said when I asked it he had told Peeta the situation? That he had to pretend to be desperately in love? “Don’t have to. He’s already there.” Already thinking ahead of me in the Games again and well aware of the danger we’re in? Or... already desperately in love? I don’t know. I haven’t even begun to separate out my feelings about Peeta. It’s too complicated. - Poor Katniss... she didn’t have the time and peace of mind to sort out her feelings regarding Peeta before they all got tied up and muddled with her need for survival. Now she’ll be having an even harder time trying to untangle that mess :(
Chapter 27
Then there’s Peeta just a few yards away. He looks so clean and healthy and beautiful, I can hardly recognize him. But his smile is the same whether in mud or in the Capitol and when I see it, I take about three steps and fling myself into his arms [...] He rights himself and we just cling to each other while the audience goes insane. He’s kissing me and all the time I’m thinking, Do you know? Do you know how much danger we’re in? After about ten minutes of this, Caesar Flickerman taps on his choulder to continue the show, and Peeta just pushes him aside without even glancing at him. - Man, their reunion here always gets me - it would be so fricking good if Katniss didn’t have to worry about their potential doom 😒😔 - she barely has time to just be happy to see Peeta alive and well before slipping back into survival mode while Peeta is just genuinely thrilled to have her in his arms, completely unaware of the pressure and immediate danger Katniss experiences in this moment... It hurts so bad
I’m with Katniss - How did the previous victors endure rewatching those horrible moments from the Games?! I guess because they had to, but oof... I think I’d just completely shut down, blocking out the footage shown, ugh
But I do notice they omit the part where I covered her [Rue] in flowers. Right. Because even that smacks of rebellion. - In such a callous and cruel place as Panem, any act of compassion can be regarded as rebellion, it’s crazy. In a place filled with apathy, hedonism, greed, and cruelty, the most radical things you can exhibit are love, kindness, and respect!
A wave of gratitude to the filmmakers sweeps over me when they end not with the announcement of our victory, but with me pounding on the glass door of the hovercraft, screaming Peeta’s name as they try to revive him. In terms of survival, it’s my best moment all night. - Again, another instance where Katniss’s genuine feelings/reactions to Peeta are get muddled with her need for survival
The one thing I never do is let go of Peeta’s hand. - irrevocably linked with each other
Despite Haymitch’s running interference, I’m determined to see Peeta privately. - Katniss just wants to have an honest and open talk with Peeta 😢 (I get where Haymitch is coming from, and maybe in this instance it’s the right call, but we’ll see a similar situation in the beginning of CF when Haymitch advises Katniss not to tell Peeta about President Snow’s visit and that time, it doesn’t go so well...)
Then Peeta’s there looking handsome in red and white - for someone who isn’t sure whether she’s into him or not, Katniss sure mentions how good Peeta’s looking a lot 😏
“Well, there’s just this and we go home. Then he can’t watch us all the time,” says Peeta. - 👀👀 Peeta is so thirsty here; reminds me of when he pulled Katniss close to him in the cave before they set out to hunt... He clearly believes she’s also “already there” regarding their relationship; he’s never this “suggestive” (can’t think of a better word right now) with her once she lets him know that she doesn’t really know how she feels about him - I feel a sort of shiver run through me and there’s no time to analyze why - Katniss totally isn’t averse to what Peeta’s suggesting here, either (though there’s probably also a healthy amount of fear mixed in with the thrill of being wanted - letting people in can be terrifying)
I can feel Peeta press his forehead into my temple and he asks, “So now that you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?” I turn in to him. “Put you somewhere you can’t get hurt.” And when he kisses me, people in the room actually sigh. - It’s me; I’m people 🙋🏼‍♀️ (also, the “turn in to him”?!?!! it just suggests such a closeness, I can’t-)
Katniss burying her face in Peeta’s shirt when she’s afraid she might cry learning that he lost his leg 🥺 (how awful it must be to be constantly on display while you’re dealing with your private feelings, ugh)
“... The moment when you pulled out those berries. What was going on in your mind... hm?” [...] It seems to call for a big, dramatic speech, but all I get out is one almost inaudible sentences. “I don’t know, I just... couldn’t bear the thought of... being without him.” - It might not be a super eloquent way to put what she was supposed to say, but this way, Katniss is being perfectly honest (and frankly, if she’d had the chance to properly process her feelings, she would have been able to voice this sentiment with less hesitation)
I go back to my room to collect a few things and find there’s nothing to take but the mockingjay pin Madge gave me. Someone returned it to my room after the Games. - For one, Katniss didn’t think of that pin (again), but also - was the pin returned to her simply because it’s standard procedure or did someone (like Plutarch, for example) arrange for Katniss to get the pin back, to keep her connection to this symbol going?
I stare in the mirror as I try to remember who I am and who I am not. - Poor Katniss! She’s been through so much, experienced so many traumatic events in short succession recently (aside from the trauma she already had), already had problems defining her identity beyond sheer survival, and now the Capitol also keeps pushing an identity onto her and a romantic relationship, when she hadn’t even had the chance to figure out how she felt about that yet
“... Haymitch has been coaching me through the last few days. So I didn’t make it worse,” I say. “Coaching you? But not me,” says Peeta. “He knew you were smart enough to get it right,” I say. “I didn’t know there was anything to get right,” says Peeta. - Oh boy. It’s always so painful to see Peeta realize that he’s been completely out of the loop; again, we’ll see how Katniss and Haymitch adopt a similar strategy in the beginning of CF: banking on Peeta’s good social skills and eloquence and keeping him in the dark. In a way, it’s a sort of compliment they pay to Peeta for being good with people, but, by not telling him, they are also using him for their purpose (which is motivated by caring for and wanting to protect Peeta, but still). Peeta is right to be upset about it - he has always been very clear about not wanting to be used as a piece in anyone’s games, really. And, as we will see later in CF, they are way more effective as a team when they are open and honest with each other.
“It was all for the Games,” Peeta says. “How you acted.” “Not all of it,” I say, tightly holding on to my flowers. “Then how much? No, forget that. I guess the real question is what’s going to be left when we get home?” he says. “I don’t know. The closer we get to District Twelve, the more confused I get,” I say. He waits, for further explanation, but none’s forthcoming. “Well, let me know when you work it out,” he says, and the pain in his voice is palpable. - It’s just so goddamn painful😢 They’ve both been done so dirty by that forced star-crossed lovers of Distrct 12 routine. (Sidenote: I appreciate that Peeta actually gives Katniss the chance to explain herself here - still, it’s too much to deal with on the spot so I can understand why Katniss ended up dropping the ball, even though it’s frustrating to read.)
That it’s not good loving me because I’m never going to get married anyway and he’d just end up hating me later instead of sooner. That if I do have feelings for him, it doesn’t matter because I’ll never be able to afford the kind of love that leads to a family, to children. And how can he? How can he after what we’ve just been through? - Oh Katniss, you certainly are skipping a couple of steps here; I’m pretty sure there are some options in between dating and being married with kids you could look into. Also, she’s just assuming that this is what Peeta wants, but she doesn’t know that at all - As someone who also has this stupid habit of imagining how whole conversations could possibly transpire and then resigning myself to the hypothetical outcome of said imagined conversation instead of actually having them: Don’t do that. ‘Never assume - it makes an ASS out of U and ME.’ 
I see Peeta extend his hand. I look at him, unsure. “One more time? For the audience?” he says. His voice isn’ t angry. It’s hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me. I take his hand, holding it tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go. - Ma babies! They are both so hurt and both just want to be with each other 😭 But they’ll need some time apart, to figure things out before they can do that.
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immaturityofthomasastruc · 4 years ago
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#10: Felix, Part Two: The Episode Itself
Here’s Part 1
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So, uh... here's the thing. I was going to divide this post into three parts, but I had to cancel the third part where I analyze the stuff involving Astruc defending the episode on Twitter, specifically a certain scene that really showed off some serious double standards in regards to the way Adrien is being written, because Astruc deleted most of his tweets regarding the episode. I wonder why he did that? I thought he wanted to expose himself publicly and interact in a peaceful way.
So yeah, instead of a big three-parter, this is going to be a two-parter, and I apologize for that. I might be able to do a third part if anyone has any screenshots of some of the tweets Astruc made after “Felix” aired. If you did, I would really appreciate it, but if not, it's fine.
Either way, let's just get this over with, because I have SO MUCH to talk about. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about Season 3, Episode 23 of Miraculous Ladybug, “Felix”?
So we start off with what Gabriel does for half of his scenes when he isn't Hawkmoth, monologuing to his (possibly) dead wife, Emilie about how Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous will soon be his and all that crap. Sure, he's sent God knows how many Akumas after Ladybug and Cat Noir, and they've all failed miserably, but I'm positive he's getting close to his goal.
After he finishes cleaning his and Emilie's silver wedding rings that sadly don't allow them to transform into Ultraman Ace, Gabriel goes to check on Adrien, singing to a statue of Emilie (glad to see the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree), intending to tell him that he is Hawkmoth.
Gabriel: There is something important I have to talk to you about. I think about telling you every day, but I don't know how to find the right words.
Adrien: I think I already know, father.
Gabriel: But, how?
Adrien: I've noticed how close you and Nathalie have become. If she can make you happy again, then... as far as I'm concerned, she's already part of our family.
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Yeah, apparently it's obvious that Gabriel and Nathalie are close or something, with how casually Adrien assumes they're planning on starting a relationship. I mean, it's not like Nathalie is close to Gabriel because she's his secretary or something like that.
Gabriel's response isn't any better, as he immediately jumps down Adrien's throat for daring to assume he might try to move on from his wife.
Gabriel: How could you possibly think such a thing?! Nobody could ever replace your mother! As long as she is still in our hearts, she lives on!
Even Adrien's face shows he's a little taken back by his father's brief outburst.
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Part of me likes to assume that Plagg is trying to not break out into laughter at how crazy Gabriel sounds, while Nooroo is mentally questioning the sanity of his master.
Plagg: Wow! Your father's like a piece of tomme cheese, where the rind's so thick it's almost impossible to get inside the center.
Adrien: Don't be so hard on him, Plagg. It's been a year today since Mom... went away forever.
Oh my God, just say she DIED already! Why are so many kids' shows afraid to say the D-word? How can I cite an episode of Caillou of all shows as something that that actually talked about death to it's audience in a nuanced way?
It turns out that Adrien's aunt is visiting for the day, as it's the one-year anniversary of Emilie's “going away forever”. We also learn that the gene pool in Adrien's family is so shallow, a toddler could swim in it, because Emilie's sister looks exactly like her.
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Even better, her name is Amelie. I bet the parents thought naming their kids Emilie and Amelie was hilarious for like three minutes.
And of course, she also brought her son, the asshole of the hour.
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Someone cue the Imperial March.
So Felix is finally here, and of course, he looks just like Adrien. It's almost like the animators didn't want to create any new character models for this episode, so they thought nobody would notice if they just reused a few. Seriously, towards the end of the episode, we see Felix wearing the Cat Miraculous on his hand, and none of the animators noticed it.
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So while Adrien is happy to see his cousin, Felix isn't. I'll talk more about it in a minute.
Amelie mentions that the wedding rings are actually heirlooms in her side of the family, so she naturally wants them back. Of course, Gabriel, being Gabriel, responds accordingly.
Gabriel: These rings are obviously very special to me.
Amelie: And they're very dear to me too, Gabriel. Those jewels have always been in the Graham de Vanily family, not the Agreste's.
Gabriel: We'll discuss it later.
“Yeah, yeah, these rings are priceless family heirlooms or whatever, but why can't you think about how important they are to me?”
Meanwhile, Marinette and her friends are planning on recording some messages for Adrien to cheer him up on this day, but Marinette isn't sure what to say before she decides to confess her love to him. I'm sure Adrien will get the message and return Marinette's feelings this episode... and Cliff Hanger will finally escape that cliff he's been hanging from for years.
Speaking of, Adrien and Felix are hanging out in the former's room where we learn that Felix's father passed away recently. We don't know how long, but with the way they talk about, it's clear the funeral wasn't too long ago. Keep this in mind.
So while Adrien leaves the room to get a chess board for the two to play a game of, Felix, for no reason, decides to search through Adrien's things and crush a piece of cheese that Plagg had been aging for two weeks. And here is the interaction that helps this episode go from mediocre to aggravating, just because of what they imply here.
Adrien: Listen, Plagg. Felix lost his dad not so long ago, he's probably not himself.
Plagg: I'm sorry, but there's just no excuse! You never touch my cheese, and yet, you just lost your mother not so long ago, right?
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Yes. The show is actually implying that Adrien is better than Felix because Adrien isn't acting out because his mom “went away forever”. Keep in mind, we know that Felix just lost his father, while Adrien has had a year to cope. I'm not saying he can't be sad anymore, as everyone processes grief differently, but you can't set up Felix as a foil to Adrien just because they both lost a parent, as their situations are entirely different.
Oh, and when Plagg's statement upsets Adrien, it isn't because he's angry at Plagg for making the comparison, it's because he mentions Emilie. And this argument is never brought up again.
I still can't believe this episode is basically saying that even if you lose a loved one, that's no excuse to get emotional. This isn't just a horrible lesson to teach children, but it pisses me off on a more personal level. Why?
My grandfather died last year after a long battle with lung cancer.
He had been in and out of the hospital for a few years at this point, and part of me was relieved that he was finally free of the pain. I tried not to let it bother me, as I had already mentally prepared myself for the day he would die whenever he was readmitted to the hospital. But it was still painful to go through because he was so important to me. Instead of simply telling someone how I was feeling, I threw myself into my schoolwork in an effort to distract myself from actually confronting my emotions. After seeing A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a movie where the main character made peace with his father on his deathbed with some encouragement from Mr. Rogers, it made me think about how unhealthy it was to bottle up my emotions, so I started to open up more about how I was feeling. When I told my mom (who was his daughter) about why I was so conflicted regarding his death, she said it was completely understandable, as she had been an emotional wreck as well. I also talked with my therapist about how this was affecting me mentally.
What does this have to do with the episode? I don't think Felix had access to this kind of emotional support when his dad died, or that he tried coping the same way I did initially.
And the worst part is that this could have been used to teach people a lesson on how to cope with losing a loved one. Maybe Adrien could have helped Felix find a healthier coping mechanism, or simply help him open up emotionally, teaching him that it's okay to be upset when someone close to you dies, but that you just need to be honest about your feelings.
But no, rather than portray Felix's actions as a troubled youth lashing out because he's angry at the cards the world dealt him, Felix does several awful things this episode for no other reason than because he's evil, even though he has a good reason to hate Adrien and Gabriel.
So the very next scene, we see Felix has stolen Adrien's phone and is going through the messages that Adrien's friends sent him, but not before insulting his crush on Ladybug. I'm not sure if that's supposed to reflect the fandom's criticism of Adrien's crush on Ladybug, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Nino's Message: Hey, my dude! I'm not quite sure what to tell you, except that, you're my man, dude! And bros are always there for their guys!
Felix: (Mockingly) “Bros are always there--” blah, blah, blah! Moron.
Rose's Message: Unicorns have a saying: even when there's nothing but gray skies and rain, all it takes is one little sunbeam for a rainbow to appear!
Felix: Loser.
Max's Message: It's one hundred percent proven, you should feel fifty-two percent happier with a healthy dose of laughter. So Markov has uploaded a few jokes for you! Starting with--
Felix: Freak.
Chloe's Message: When my mother left for New York, I felt so sad. It felt like she was... (sighs) She came back, and I know how lucky I am. So, you can count on me, my Adrikins.
Felix: Chloe. Just as annoying as usual.
And that line right there is the only time Astruc actually liked writing Felix, as it gave him the chance to satisfy his need to insult Chloe.
And then when he sees Marinette's message, he deletes it because... hell if I know
Again, this scene could have worked if it was interpreted as Felix saying stuff that he wasn't dependent on others for support and that he could easily power through life on his own, but nope! Instead, he hates Adrien's friends and only deletes Marinette's message instead of all of them simply because he's evil, heart blacker than Don Cheadle.
Felix continues to show how awful he is by dressing up in Adrien's clothes and—Oh, son of a bitch, SERIOUSLY? This is the SEVENTH evil doppelganger plotline we've had in THREE SEASONS! You're telling me this isn't doing the same thing over and over again, Astruc?
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Yeah, so Felix records some messages to send to his friends that, once again, could have worked if this episode was actually teaching a lesson about dealing with grief.
“Adrien's” Message:  First of all, thanks so much for all your messages, guys, really. Sending me messages on today of all days... (angrily) to remind me how sad I'm supposed to be feeling? Why, that's great! Really, Thanks a lot!
But because nobody ever considers how Felix is feeling, it's never acknowledged, because that would actually involve writing him with complexity.
Gabriel gets a message from Lila, who recently became one of his confidants to spy on Adrien, tells him about the fake message, and decides to use the negative emotions felt as an excuse to get rid of his in-laws. No, seriously.
Gabriel: All this disappointment might just help us get rid of our unwanted guests.
To be fair, I'd probably do the same thing just so I wouldn't have to talk to some of the people I hate at my job.
And so, Hawkmoth akumatizes Alya, Juleka, and Rose into the Punisher's Trio, who are basically just their previously akumatized forms Lady Wifi, Reflekta, and Princess Fragrance. Because why would you expect anyone to use an original character model for this episode?
All joking aside, this development raises several questions. First, why wasn't Nino one of the Punisher's akumatized? He's Adrien's best friend, so shouldn't be just as upset as everyone else? Hell, the whole reason he was akumatized into the Bubbler in Season 1 was just so he could throw Adrien a birthday party after Gabriel said no. Then there's the fact that Chloe could have also been akumatized because she's just as close as Adrien, which is another wasted opportunity here.
Second, why bring back Reflekta and Princess Fragrance of all villains? It doesn't even make sense when you consider their motifs are based off of the circumstances that led to them getting akumatized in their respective episodes. Juleka became Reflekta because of her anxiety over easily blending in, so she got the power to turn everyone into an exact copy of herself so they could understand the feeling. Rose became Princess Fragrance when Chloe destroyed her letter and perfume bottle dedicated to the prince of a foreign nation, so the perfume bottle was the basis of her powers. At least Lady Wifi makes sense as the akumatized object this episode is a tablet used to record the messages to Adrien, but Reflekta and Princess Fragrance have nothing to do with the plot of this episode, and just feel tacked on. If it was just Lady Wifi or the Bubbler, I'd get it, but this just doesn't work.
Third, what exactly is this show's obsession with Reflekta? We saw in Reflekta's first episode that her powers had a huge drawback as if either of the heroes is zapped by her, she can't get their Miraculous, like what we saw happened to Cat Noir. Yet, this is the second time this season that Hawkmoth had the bright idea to bring back Reflekta (even giving her a giant robot to amplify her powers). At least Lady Wifi and Princess Fragrance's powers worked together well (Lady Wifi could freeze someone in place, while Princess Fragrance can brainwash them with her perfume), but Reflekta just feels like the odd one out here.
Fourth, and most importantly, why did we only get to hear the line “At your service, Princess Fragrance!” A single time this episode?
So the Punishers head to Adrien's house to take their revenge, but see Felix, still dressed in Adrien's clothes, and are naturally confused. Adrien pretends to be Felix by running away while laughing evilly (so not too far off from how Astruc sees Felix), while the real Felix and Nathalie put up a good fight against the Punishers.
And then... here is the moment that shows just how skewed Astruc's view of Adrien really is.
Felix pretends to confess his love to Ladybug as Adrien, trying to force a kiss on him, making Ladybug punch him in the face by claiming that the real Adrien “would never be so pushy”.
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BULL. SHIT.
Yes, Ladybug doesn't know that Adrien is actually Cat Noir, but it's clear that this scene is meant to solidify just how Felix is far worse than Adrien because according to Astruc, he would never do that.
But maybe I'm being too hard on him.
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It's not like Adrien has ever forced himself onto Ladybug, right?
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I mean, imagine if the show just ignored something like that.
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All while trying to teach kids the importance of saying no when someone harasses them.
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Can you imagine if someone was that oblivious to their own hypocrisy?
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I'm not saying that the lesson is a bad one, but you can't call someone out for doing something bad, and then ignore one of your main characters doing the exact same thing!
Even in the context of the episode, the comparison doesn't work. We know that Felix is only doing this to make Adrien look bad, and has no romantic feelings towards Ladybug like Adrien does. Felix knows what he is doing is wrong, while Adrien doesn't. Whenever Cat Noir tries to kiss Ladybug, he is never aware that what he is doing is wrong, and while he is almost always stopped from kissing Ladybug for one reason or another.
Like when the episode tried to compare two different characters reacting to losing loved ones when there are different circumstances regarding them, the comparison DOESN'T WORK.
And to add insult to injury, Cat Noir shows up just to insult Felix by implying he doesn't have a lot of friends because of the way he acts, because why would he? After all, he's a complete loser that nobody would want to be friends with, and if you like him, you're an idiot for thinking so! At least, that's probably what Astruc was going for.
Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, leading to a brief Mexican standoff, until Felix steals the tablet containing the Akuma, making a deal with Hawkmoth that he'll help out the Punishers as long as he gets the wedding rings. Do you hate Felix yet? Come on, do you hate him? WHY WON'T YOU HATE HIM, GODDAMN IT!?
This whole bit is completely pointless as Ladybug immediately finds a way to stop all four of them and de-evilize the Akuma.
And when it looks like Felix is actually apologizing for his actions this episode, it's naturally a ruse he put on to steal one of the wedding rings from Gabriel to give to his mom. Because why would Astruc even think of portraying him sympathetically, or at least have him learn a lesson?
So Felix stares out the window with an evil look in his eye (possibly foreshadowing another appearance), as Gabriel takes Emilie's wedding ring to wear for himself, and the episode mercifully ends.
It also means that I never have to watch this episode ever again.
Do you understand why it took so long for me to fully analyze this episode? Hell, it would have taken longer if Astruc didn't delete his tweets defending the kiss scene and how Cat Noir is totally a gentlemen unlike Satan, I mean Felix.
What else do I have to say about this episode that hasn’t already been said? Well, I do have one thing.
I’m not that big a fan of Felix.
I think he’s an okay character in fanfics, but I’m more indifferent to him and fanfics that ship him and Marinette together. I don’t know, maybe that’s because there are so many Felinette fanfics that are heavily seasoned with salt, or it could just be because I’m complete Love Square and Lukanette trash.
But just think about the fact that the scathing criticism of this episode was delivered by someone who isn’t that into Felix. That is how bad this episode is.
In addition to being an obvious mouthpiece for Astruc to yell at fans why they’re idiots for actually liking Felix, it does so by touching on delicate subject and trying to act like it’s easy to tell how Felix is worse than Adrien when the circumstances are nothing alike.
But the fact that Astruc takes a popular character just to portray him as a complete menace just to antagonize his fans is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.
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dedandgon · 3 years ago
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( robert pattinson, 30/1000+, cis male ) did i just see FINN MIKAELSON in town? you know, THE ORIGINAL FAILURE? i heard they’re an ORIGINAL VAMPIRE and one of the RESURRECTED. they’re AGAINST the dead being back and apparently they HAD FATHERED CHILDREN WITH A SECRET PARTNER BEFORE TURNING. but what do i know? they just remind me of sign of the times by harry styles (thea, 23, est, she/they)
PINTEREST
basics.
full name: finn mikaelson
nicknames: n/a
age: 1057
date of birth: june 24th, 970 a.d.
zodiac: cancer
place of birth: norway
gender: cis male
pronouns: he/him
sexuality: bisexual, polyamorous
species: original vampire
family.
father: mikael
mother: esther
siblings: freya, elijah, niklaus, kol, rebekah, henrik
children: 2 biological children
physical.
hair color: brown
eye color: blue
height: 6′1″
personality.
morality: chaotic neutral
positive traits: astute, altruistic, conscientious, steadfast, vehement.
negative traits: choleric, fickle, narrow-minded, pessimistic, vindictive
background.
the second child of esther and mikael, first boy.
was very close with freya growing up and boy was he traumatized when dahlia took her, causing him to cling to his mother.
finn never really got to connect with his younger siblings, fearing he’d lose them too.
eventually, finn met his lovers. a married couple from the village.
he was very secretive, never telling anyone where he was going, but truthfully he figured no one would really notice him gone, but his mother. he snuck out of the house most non full moon nights to go be with his bf and gf.
finn told no one about being in love, about the days and nights spent with his partners. he especially told no one when the three found out there was a baby on the way. there was no way to know which of the two men were the father but finn was terrified that dahlia would come to take the baby just like she had taken freya. his fear only grew with each subsequent child his gf had.
when henrik died, finn was pretty much numb. everything after that day happened so fast that he could barely process it. he had barely any time to mourn his youngest sibling before his parents had decided to turn him and the rest of his siblings into vampires and finn was being killed for the first time.
finn hated being a vampire, absolutely despised it, but being the momma’s boy that he was he also figured out a bunch of the rules of the game before his siblings did. finn knew his blood could heal humanS and that if they died after consuming it they too would turn, and so he extended that option to his partners so they could spend eternity together
before finn could help them through their transition he and his siblings were on the run from mikael, leaving him to wonder if they had even gone through with turning or if he had been right about being able to turn people to begin with. he was proven right a few years later when his siblings turned aurora, tristan and lucien.
finn eventually met sage. she was the first person since his bf and gf that he was able to be open with. he told her nearly everything and they formed a genuine connection. the kind that would be once in a lifetime had finn not been immortal. the two remained together for about 100 years before attending a party in italy with his siblings where the mikaelson’s would be daggered and finn left in a box for 900 years.
finn never told anyone about his family. he took that secret to the grave with him, knowing the consequences of anyone finding out he had had children before turning. the only respite to vampirism is that it meant none of his siblings could reproduce and drag dahlia back into their lives and they wouldn’t live with the same fear that he did.
finn’s consciousness slowly returned, while his body remained dead leaving him to suffer in his coffin while the world moved forward. the only thing that got finn through his near millenia in a coffin was the hope that his partners, their children and sage could be out in the world living their lives, happy.
 after being undaggered and reuniting with sage, finn gets killed by matt donovan of all people. it was after his death that everyone realized that every vampire in his bloodline also died with him.
finn is resurrected after the birth of his niece hope and seeks revenge on his siblings and rid the world of vampires with esther.
finn is eventually killed a third time. rip bestie. (i’m leaving tht in)
finn is eventually killed a third time, and dies surrounded by his siblings.
now he’s back again and not too thrilled to be a vampire again. mans can not catch. break, any hope that maybe his kids or partners came back is currently squashed by the fear of dahlia or his parent also returning
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bonjour-rainycity · 4 years ago
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Odin’s Ward ~ Chapter 14
Link to previous part:
https://bonjour-rainycity.tumblr.com/post/638547377817550848/odins-ward-chapter-13
Pairing: Loki x female reader
Word count: 3943
Warnings: Mentions of violence (non-graphic)
True age: Y/n: 1449 // Loki: 1575 // Thor: 1827 // Audunn 3213
Human equivalent age: Y/n: 23 // Loki: 25 // Thor: 29// Audunn: 51
Loki’s POV
“He planted his seeds in my half of the land,” the farmer spits, red in the face with anger. Odin’s expression is calm, but I, as much as this annoys me, know him well enough to tell when he is putting on a facade.
“I should get what’s sown! It’s my land!”
“But they’re my seeds,” the other farmer counters, face equally splotchy.
I sigh deeply, unfathomably bored with these trivial exchanges. It’s the third Thursday of the month, a time when peasants and nobles alike can bring their concerns before the Royal Family. We occupy the throne room, an intricate chair for us each placed in an intimidating line. I sit to my mother’s left, Thor to Odin’s right. A familiar anger boils within me. Of course the Golden Child sits at the King’s right. Not that I want to be any closer to Odin, but Thor’s position clearly communicates his status: he is next in line for the throne. The bitterness builds. Really, was there ever any contest?
Without warning, Farmer One lunges at Farmer Two, knocking him over the head with a sharp punch. I keep my calm exterior, but internally, my interest piques. Maybe this won’t be a completely wasted day after all.
But to my disappointment, four guards quickly put the skirmish to an end. Both men are taken to the dungeons.
Problem solved, I guess.
The interest I felt only seconds ago abandons me as I see a nearly identical pair to the last come forward.
I slouch.
“Stop her!”
The shout, which comes from a guard outside the throne room, is followed by a loud clamoring as armored guards chase after an unknown offender. And although I logically know it’s probably just some widow trying to cut in line, my hand inches towards my mother, ready to take her to safety if need be. Thor stands, putting on quite the show of a dutiful son. I suppress the urge to roll my eyes. Against all odds, the noises don’t subside—they get closer to our location. Mother shoots Odin an alarmed look.
But when the intruder enters the throne room, my stomach drops to my feet.
I straighten, back stiff with tension and I can do nothing but stare on in complete shock. I feel my fingers straining with the grip they have on the throne’s arms, but I barely take notice. All I can notice is the shaking, muddy, tear-stained and windblown woman standing in front of me.
It’s Y/n.
A messy, frightened version of Y/n, to be sure, but it’s still her.
My heart aches with a feeling I thought I had long-ago purged.
Thor is the first to break from the shock and hurries down to Y/n, waving away the guards who have attached themselves to her arms. Noticing her tattered dress and shivering form, he takes off his red cloak and wraps it around her, looking at her with the concern and surprise I’m sure we all wear on our faces.
In a hoarse but firm voice, Y/n addresses us. “May I approach the King?”
In a pinched voice, Odin responds. “You may.”
Y/n curtsies as best as she can and takes two wobbly steps forward. Thor hovers near her uncertainly, obviously wondering if she’s about to collapse.
Y/n gives me a fleeting look and my mouth runs dry.
She turns her attention back to Odin. “I’ve come to request aid from Asgard. Two days ago, my husband raised an army against my father. Since then, the realm has been thrown into chaos. Brother murders brother and citizens switch sides as the tides of the battle change. It’s civil war.” She swallows, finding it difficult to continue. “Casualties are estimated at three thousand so far, but I have been gone for several hours. That number has likely risen.”
Odin has the nerve to sound dubious when he speaks. “And just how did you end up here if the realm is indeed engulfed in chaos as you say?”
Through my shock, I still find room to be annoyed by Odin.
Y/n seems to steel herself and looks him right in the eye. “My husband locked me in the dungeon with others deemed to be a threat to his reign. I believe he would have killed me if it were not that his claim to power dies with me. He’s been so preoccupied with trying to overthrow my father that those loyal to me were able to take advantage and help me and my maidservant escape. It took a long time but we were finally able to sneak through the castle and into the observatory, where we took the Bifrost to Asgard.
Odin purses his lips, seeming unaffected by Y/n’s story. “And this maidservant. Can she corroborate your tale?”
Y/n’s face flushes. “It’s not a tale! Your Highness, people are being slaughtered. Look at my shoes!” She kicks one off and holds it up for us to see. Mother stifles a gasp. Y/n’s shoe is caked with blood. Dark, clotted blood sticks all over the bottom and side of her shoe. Upon further inspection, I see that it continues over her ankles and the lower parts of her dress. “Blood like this is running through the castle halls. I can only hope the fighting is confined to the castle and that the carnage has not yet reached the lower town.” Y/n takes another step forward, stronger this time. “Your Majesty, please. They may live far away, but they are still your people. I fear that if we wait much longer, Audunn will take control and anyone loyal to me or my father will be executed.”
Odin squints, mulling over his options. “My help does not come freely.”
Oh how I hate this man.
Y/n grits her teeth but nods. “Then let us negotiate quickly.”
“Asgard’s army will step in and restore your father to the throne. Your husband and his supporters will be put to death or imprisoned.”
Y/n’s lack of reaction is noticeable.
“Your husband’s death does not trouble you?” Odin’s voice seeps with judgement.
“Audunn has made his choices. He must suffer the consequences.” Knowing Y/n so well allows me to detect the malice in her voice. I stifle a mirthless chuckle. So it seems we’ve both been hardened by the world.
Odin nods. “Very well. Since you will be without a husband and my son is still unmarried, I propose the obvious solution.”
My heart stops.
No.
“You and Thor will wed.”
“Father!” Thor’s explosion is the loudest, but Y/n provides her own objections as well. I swallow mine down, retreating into myself. He will get everything that was ever dear to me. I really shouldn’t be surprised at this point, nor feel the hurt, but still, it stabs deep into my chest. I put a lot of effort towards not letting my pain show.
“Father, you are well aware of my intentions to wed Jane. I love her! Y/n is like a sister to me, I would never consent to be her husband.”
“I will not have the next Queen of Asgard be human!” Odin slams his staff into the ground. “For all I care, you can take Y/n as your wife and keep Jane as your mistress. But make no mistake, Jane will never be your wife, nor will her children be heirs to my throne.”
Odin’s proposal clearly sickens Thor, but Y/n just looks blankly at the ground, noticeably quiet now. The two men continue in their argument, each getting louder than the other with every new point.
“Thor please,” Y/n interjects, her voice breaking on the last word.
Silence rings through the room as all eyes turn to her.
She addresses Thor directly, desperation evident in every inch of her body. “My people are dying. An entire realm will be condemned to slaughter and chaos if we cannot reach an agreement today. I am familiar with a husband who keeps mistresses and am very good at being discrete.”
The heart that I thought had long ago hardened breaks a little.
“I promise our marriage will not interfere with any more aspects of your life than absolutely necessary. We can work out the specifics later but for now, I beg for your cooperation.”
Her earnestness is clear and, with a defeated nod, Thor agrees to make my once lover his wife.
Unable to stand it any longer, I stalk from the room.
Y/n’s POV
Loki strides out of the room, looking bored. That’s it?
It’s not like I expected loud objections and an offer to marry me himself,—it has been over two hundred years and all—but I did expect, at the very least, some recognition. Loki gave no indication that he knew or cared who I was. Even through the shock and exhaustion and fear, hurt still manages to find its way into my heart. I try to shake it off. The task at hand is much more important than my feelings.
“If you are ready, Your Majesty, my people will be eagerly awaiting Asgard’s aid.”
Odin doesn’t look at me. Instead, he gestures to a guard. “Have the warriors gathered and ready within the hour. Thor and I will accompany them to Alfheim.”
Frigga interjects before I can. “What about Loki?”
If he stays in Asgard with me and Frigga, the people might view him as cowardly for not going to fight with the men.
Odin purses his lips unpleasantly. “He has not yet regained my trust.”
What?
Frigga looks away, her mouth set in a hard line. Odin exits the throne room, sparing no one any further glances. As Thor passes me, he gives what I think he hopes is a reassuring smile.
“All will soon be well, Lady Y/n.”
I nod, hoping he’s right. When he’s nearly exited the room, I remember his cloak.
“Wait,” I call, hurrying to him. He drops slightly so I can throw the cloak over his massive shoulders and secure it under his chin. Shame keeps me from looking him in the eyes. After all, if he dies, it will be my fault. I don’t want to marry Thor, but he was a dear friend to me at one point, much like a brother. I don’t want to lose him. “Be safe.”
He nods and gives my shoulder a hesitant squeeze. Then, without another word, he follows Odin out of the room. I can tell it will take him a long time to accept our eventual marriage.
Not like it will be any faster for you.
“Come, sweet Y/n.” Frigga’s voice startles me and pulls me from my thoughts. “I believe you need a hot bath, some supper, and a change of clothes.”
I let out a noise that sounds scarily similar to a heaving sob. “Yes, please.”
{***}
The water is hot and the steam curls the ends of my hair. One servant scrubs the dirt from my nails and another, my back. I sigh, feeling some of the tension finally beginning to leave my body.
Then, comes the guilt.
I’m here in Castle Asgard being pampered by servants, sitting in the company of the Queen, while my people are dying. To distract myself from the strong desire to wallow in guilt and despair, I decide to question Frigga about something that’s been bothering me deeply since my arrival.
“Is Prince Loki alright?” I try to sound casual but don’t quite pull it off. “He seemed…not like himself.”
Frigga exhales heavily, and heartbreak settles in her expression. My stomach clenches in anticipation. Whatever it is, it can’t be good. “It is not really my story to tell…but you have a right to know and I doubt he plans on telling you himself.”
I dare not breathe as I wait for her to continue.
“Odin and I have never been the perfect parents. We’ve made many mistakes over the years, but one has stood out amongst them as the most damaging. And my poor son bore the brunt of the hurt from something that isn’t even his fault.” Frigga takes a moment to fiddle with her hands, not meeting my eyes. “Loki is adopted.”
What? I feel my brows furrow as I try to make sense of this. How is someone just adopted into the monarchy? Royalty is based on blood and marriage, not adoption.
“During the last major war with the Frost Giants, Odin came across a baby. A Frost Giant baby — a son of Laufey, no less.”
I heave a sharp intake of breath. “What?”
She continues, giving me a teary-eyed look. “The baby had magic and unknowingly used its abilities to capture the likeness of an Asgardian child. Odin felt for him and brought him home. You have to understand, Odin and I had been trying for another child for over two hundred years, without success. It had seemed Thor would be our only child, but then the gods dropped this blessing into our laps.” The tears fall then, and she cuts me off as I try to interject with questions. “Because Loki is a blessing, you see. He is my son just as much as Thor is, and I would not trade him for a biological child.” Her voice takes on a desperate, scratchy quality that I’ve never heard from her. “I love Loki. He is my child. And he is part of this family!” Frigga sniffles pitifully and, if I were not naked and soaking with suds and water, I would jump up and hug her. “Unfortunately, Loki does not see it this way. He did not find out the truth from us, but by accident.” A pained look crosses her face. “He thought he was a monster. He still thinks that. And yes, some of his recent actions have been like those of a monster, but I know he isn’t. My poor child is hurting, and he does not know how to handle it.” She takes a steadying breath and turns her eyes to the ceiling. “Odin has essentially sworn Loki off, and Loki has done the same for the rest of us. He still holds some affection for me, but all is lost for his father and brother. He even tried to kill Thor and Jane. Thankfully, the attempt was unsuccessful, but that makes it no less terrifying. It’s a horrible thing to have your sons on opposing sides. After that, Loki—” she shudders violently. “He—he fell off the Bifrost. Well, he was going to fall, and Thor tried to pull him back up, but-but Loki let go.” Her voice breaks and the tears fall freely now.
He…tried to kill himself? I feel a lump rise in my own throat and my breath stops all together. The bath water seems to turn ice cold. My mind races to try and draw the connection between the Loki I knew and the Loki in Frigga’s story.
What happened to him?
“He fell for who knows how long. It was many months before he resurfaced again, though he was not the same person. Not at all. My poor son! He had been brutally tortured and his anger only amplified during his time of isolation.”
I feel my muscles tense and lock into place. Someone tortured Loki? The fury I feel surprises me, scares me even. Never have I wanted to hurt someone like I want to hurt the person who caused Loki pain.
“Loki had grown up his whole life to believe he was destined to be a king. When he realized his true parentage, Loki knew Odin would never allow him to rule.” She frowns. “Odin should not have encouraged him so during his childhood only to rip the possibility away later. But the entity who tortured him—he still won’t tell us who—made Loki believe that he could be king of Midgard. Loki used the Chitarui to attack a Midguardian city and try to force the realm into submission to him. Many people died.”
My heart beats so loudly that I’m sure everyone in the room can hear it. I’m surprised the vibrations aren’t causing waves in my bathwater. As much as I want to cover my ears or run out of the room and denounce Frigga’s words as lies, I can’t. Because no matter how horrifying and outlandish this story sounds, I can’t ignore the fact that the Loki I saw an hour ago was not the same Loki I knew two hundred and fifty years ago. Yes, people change, but not like that. Something really, really awful must have happened to bring about this new Loki.
Frigga continues, sounding weary. “A Midgardian fighting group Thor associates with defeated Loki and the Chitauri. Loki was brought back to Asgard in chains. Odin sentenced him to a five hundred years of imprisonment. There was nothing I could do to lessen the sentence and, of course, Loki has too much pride and hatred for his father to try and lessen it himself. But not long after his imprisonment, the Dark Elves launched an attack on the Nine Realms.”
I furrow my brow. I hadn’t heard of this. How had Alfheim not been aware?
“Loki broke out of prison and aided Thor in the fight against the Dark Elves.” Frigga gives a tearful smile. “Finally, they were on the same side! Loki nearly died in the fight. He protected Jane with his life. Thankfully, Thor was able to bring him back to Asgard in time and the Healers and I saved him with our magic. At mine and Thor’s behest, Odin begrudgingly ended Loki’s imprisonment. We all agreed that Loki’s sacrifice and willingness to protect the Nine Realms atoned for his crimes. I truly thought that was the turning point and that my Loki would be back.”
She sighs, looking at her hands once more. “But Loki is still a changed man. The lies, betrayals, hurt, and anger penetrated too deeply into his soul. Now he is cold, distant, spiteful, and he always wears a mask. No one can ever guess what he is feeling, because he refuses to give any indication of it! I worry he is not letting himself heal. And he is trying to push away the people he loves most.” Her voice softens, and she places a tender hand on my soapy cheek. “Do not be surprised if he does the same to you.”
{***}
Since my most immediate needs have been taken care of, I have ample energy to worry.
My stomach, in a near-constant state of unease since my escape from the dungeons, churns. My mind darts from thought to thought as I try to cope with fears for my people and my father, my anger at Audunn, shock at all I’ve experienced, pain and frustration at my engagement to Thor, and deep, deep hurt for Loki. There’s some anger there, too. Maybe more than some.
I huff.
Definitely more than some.
How could he be so stupid?! Yes, it’s absolutely terrible what he went through, but resorting to realm-domination and murder? Uh-uh. No way. Unacceptable. And the attitude on him! What the Hel is that?
“Ugh!” Some of my frustration leaves me at the spot where my foot kicks the table.
It immediately returns upon registering the pain.
“My Lady, please sit down!” Ragna worries over me, trying to pull me into a plush, high-backed chair. “You have been through so much, you need to rest.”
I scoff, yanking my arm from her grip. “There’s too much going on to allow time for rest, Ragna. And yet there’s nothing I can do about any of it!” I drop my arms to my side, defeated. “I hate that there’s nothing I can do.”
She frowns, unsure of how to help me. It’s then that I notice how tired she looks herself. A deep scratch runs from her temple to her hairline—she got that from a rogue guard when we were escaping Alfheim. She’s been through just as much as you have.
I give her a weak smile, hoping I look reassuring. “You and I both have been through a great ordeal. Please, let me call a servant to show you to your quarters. Take as long as you need to bathe, eat, rest, whatever you need.”
Ragna hesitates, but she’s so tired that she’s swaying on her feet. I nod encouragingly. “Al-alright, My Lady. Thank you.”
“Of course.” I go to the wall and pull on the string that will ring a bell in the Servant’s Quarters. Within minutes, a young serving maid enters the room with a knock and a curtsey. I send Ragna away with instructions not to come back until she is fully fed, cleaned, and rested.
But once I’m alone, the thoughts come racing back. While there’s nothing I can do right now to help Alfheim, there is something I can do to help myself.
I let out a loud, guttural groan, knowing what I have to do.
{***}
I haven’t been in the palace in over three centuries, but little has changed. Queen Frigga insisted I retake my old living quarters, so the path is one I know well.
He doesn’t seem surprised when I bypass a servant and enter his chambers without knocking.
“Leave us.” While my throat feels tight, the command is clear, and the five servants hurry from the room.
Loki doesn’t look up from his book when he says his first words to me in two hundred and fifty years. “Well, that was rude. What a terrible first impression the future queen of Asgard has given them.”
I scoff, crossing my arms, trying not to let the jab at my imminent marriage to Thor hurt me. “You want to talk to me about manners? All you do is scowl and stalk out of rooms.”
He gives an unaffected shrug. “Think what you like.”
The silence weighs on me and I can feel my heartbeat echoing through my body.
“Stand up.”
Now it’s his turn to scoff. “Why? Planning on impaling me with your dagger?”
Tempting. “Stand. Up.”
He sighs but humors me, setting down his book to stand with his arms spread mockingly wide. “Happy?” He fixes me with a hard, emotionless look.
I steel myself and barrel forward, throwing my arms around him in a tight hug.
He stiffens. “Lady Y/n, whatever you hope to achieve—”
“Shut up.” I squeeze tighter, turning my face so my cheek is against his chest. He sighs again and lets his arms hang, refusing to hug me back. I press on, forcing myself to say what I came here to say. “Listen. You’ve done some really bad things and turned yourself into a pretty awful person to be around.” I swallow, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice. “But regardless of where we stand or what is in the past or future, you need to know that I am always on your side. I want you to get better. I don’t want you to feel pain or be sad or hurt or anything bad. But you have got to stop self-sabotaging. You need to let yourself heal. The people who love you can only protect you from so much.”
I push away from him and leave the room without another look.
A/n Happy New Year! My requests are open so message me if there’s something you would like for me to write :) Let me know what you thought of this chapter and if you would like to be added to the tag list!
Link to next part: https://bonjour-rainycity.tumblr.com/post/639618035738607616/odins-ward-chapter-15
Masterlist
Tag list: @80strashbag @dark-night-sky-99 @what-am-i-doing10 @chxrryycola @ravenclaw5606 @hiddlebatchedloki @jooordanharrrop
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manychocolatefactories · 4 years ago
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CatCF Milk Chocolate: Part 1, the kids
About this version: Milk Chocolate was inspired originally by a mix of the book, the vibes of the 1971 movie and the Tim Burton movie aesthetic. A bit more goofier and whimsical than the other versions. In term of era, I thought of it as a mix of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
In this version seven Golden Tickets are spread throughout the world, and each time one is found the same female reporter (her character is a reference to the musical) goes to interview the children. Another recurring joke is that while the hunt is going on for the Tickets, there are all sorts of ridiculous debates on television such as: do the Golden Tickets really exist, or is this just a hoax ? Do the Golden Tickets give cancer? Can animals go on a tour like humans? What happens if a Golden Ticket winner dies before the tour? Are the Golden Tickets linked to the rise of youht delinquence? Are the Golden Tickets a proof of Wonka's alleagiance to the obscure sect of the Golden Bird?
  First Winner: Augustus Gloop
(Based on Augustus Gloop)
This Augustus was actually based on an idea Stained-by-the-sea allowed me to "borrow" a bit. Stained noted that Augustus always made him thought of this section from the movie "North", about Buck and the Texan parents. If you don't know what I am talking about, I'll leave links down there. And this is such a perfect matc I had to dig a bit down there.
This Augustus is basically a mix of all the archetypes associated with Texas and Nevada. But more precisely, he is basically "Buck" from North - a boy whose family (and his own mindset) embody the motto "bigger is better".
The Gloop family always thought that they should be "the biggest and the bests" and that "bigger is better". Ironically, the Gloop parents themselves are regular-sized people, but they clearly enforced this mentality on their son. Augustus is a big boy. Literally. He is tall, he is thick, he is fat, he is very, very big. He is probably one of the tallest, and definitively the largest boy on the tour (in fact, he once or twice gets stuck in the doors of Wonka factory). He eats ten meals per day, and we are not talking of regular sized meals. We are talking piles of ribs, kilos of potatoes, entire chickens... His parents also prepared for him a "big" and "best" future - paying the local sportive teams to claim he is a sports champion despite Augustus never setting a foot on a sports field, arranging his marriage with the local beauty queen of the state he lives in, already preparing the three different houses he will live with his fifteen kids... As a result, Augustus isn't just big and fat physically, he also has a massive and bloated ego. He thinks that he is the best at everything, and that he should have absolutely everything he wants.
The Gloops themselves are actually the masters of the state they live in, so to speak. They are the wealthiest and most influential industrials of the area: they built highways, casinos, hotels, private villas, they are cow-farmers, owing a lot of slaughterhouses, and also dig for oil and gold. They want their business to be the "biggest there ever was" and all they do is exaggerately big: their villas are enormous, their hotels are everywhere, their farms hosts several thousands cows, their mines are among the deepest in the world...
Trouble is that, due to their expansion and consumption of everything, they are a threat to the landscape and the environment - destroying forests to build their roads and buildings, drying out the lands to feed their farms... in fact, part of the reason why their state looks like the most desertic parts of Texas and Nevada is due to their actions.
Think... Buck from North. Think Art Land from Mar Attack. Think an evil (and obese) version of Clay Bailey from "Xiaolin Showdown". In fact, if I remember well in one episode Clay turns into a sumo for one of the Showdowns... this would probably be Augustus' appearance in this version: sumo Clay Bailey. (Edit: Yes, I checked out, it is episode 23 of the series).
 Second Winner: Clarence Crump
(Based on: Clarence Crump)
Clarence didn't had any kind of personnality in the original drafts outside of a desire to prove he was right. As a result, I decided to have a lot of fun and create my own character.
The idea of vanity has already been touched several times with the other brats, but I wanted to give it its own character and kid. I also wanted to create a polar opposite of Augustus, denouncing the fact that being skinny can be just as bad as being fat when in excess. As a result, Clarence Crump is here a boy obsessed about being thin, and proud of being too skinny for his own good.
Mr. Crump is a pseudo-health guru that keeps writing phony and very dangerous diet books, the kind that will advice you to stop eating altogether to lose weight. As for Mrs. Crump, she is a beauty pageant champion (local and regional, and while she acts as if she was some national beauty champion, she always failed at nationals). From their union was born a child who inherited their vanity, pride and obsession with "health"
Black haired, very pale, very thin, very slender, to the point his bones show, Clarence delights in being skinny, and works as a teenager model promoting the "thin-fashion". He is also the embodiment of fat-shaming, never missing an occasion to insult fat people (in fact he often calls Augustus a big fat cow). He uses however the excuse of health for that (a trick his parents taught him) - promoting extreme thinness by talking about health and fat-shaming people in the name of health allows one to be much more horrible than normally accepted.
A good proof of how Clarence actually is just very vain and obsessed with being thin, and not at all defending health - Clarence condemns sports for being unhealthy, because according to him "muscles are unhealthy because they don't make you look beautiful, they make you look ugly".
He always wears short and black sleeveless tank-tops, the point being that he needs to show as much as his body to the world as possible, to be a "living example". He even wears his black short and tank-top during the tour (despite it being winte - the only thing he wears on top of his clothes to not get cold is a skunk fur coat).
  Third  Winner: Miranda Grope
(Based on: Miranda Grope)
This character was based on Dahl's own character of "Miranda Grope" from early drafts of the story, the horrible and atrocious girl allowed to do "whatever she wants".
In my version, the Grope parents are hippie-like people, the father having a very long beard and being covered in fleas, while the mother is covered in flowers and oss (plants that grew over her), and both always wearing rose-tinted glasses. They are the kind of parents that refuse authority and orders, seeing these (and social norms as a whole) as a "dictatorship". They prefer to trust their daughter to find her own way in the world, believing that experience is the best teacher in life. The result? They lazily raised her by telling her they would never forbid her anything and that she could do anything she wanted.
Miranda is a devilish little girl who does only what she wants, and becomes extremely violent when prevented from doing something. Or when people say something she doesn't want to hear. Or just when people she dislikes are near her. She shouts, the screams, she insult, she kicks, she hit, she throw enormous and terrifying tantrums. She has a very wide range of insults, and a truly evil mind : most of the things she wants to do are borderline crimes. It seems for her only chaos and destruction is "fun", a true little punk.
Miranda has a disastrous haircut because she cuts her hair herself, and she is always wearing the same clothes that she rarely washes): a white shirt, a blue sweater with long sleeves, and a plaid tiles skirt. An outfit that looks strikingly like a school uniform - but it is pure irony, because Miranda hates more than anything in the world school. She doesn't go to school, and the only time she went near one was to try to burn it down. (Her appearance is in fact based on Lauren Child's illustrations for Miranda, if you are wondering).
  Fourth Winner: Veruca Salt
(Based on: Veruca Salt)
For this Veruca, I wanted to do something slightly different... here, Veruca doesn't want everything just because she is a spoiled rich brat. She is still one, but she is also the product of post-WW2 consumerism.
This Veruca was born surrounded by advertisements, logos, slogans and product placements. On television, in the streets, in shops, in journals, at the radio... She grew up with them and was influenced, brainwashed by them. As a result, she is obsessed with obtaining everything that was advertised, and she herelf looks like a walking billboard since she is covered in big, flashy logo and keeps reciting different brands' slogans and mottos. As soon as she sees something she saw publicity of before, she needs to obtain it at once. She is a true zombie, only hearing the call of the shopping mall and of the television advertisements.
One idea I had was that the Salt parents actually worked for (or where at the head of) a wealthy advertisement company, known to produce, design and create all kinds of famous publicities and slogans - and that they used their daughter as a guinea pig for their tests, and delighted in Veruca being so addicted to consumerism. In fact, they may have named her Veruca because at the moment of her birth they were working on advertisements for an anti-wart product, so that's all they had in mind.
  Fifth winner:  Herpes Trout
(Based on: Mike Teavee)
I went with this version of Mikee Teavee with the focus on "violence" already present in the original work, but also heavily used in the opera (and touched a bit in the 2005 movie).
This Herpes Trout is the embodiment of the fear of kids becoming violent upon watching television and playing video games (his only two passions in life). He has a true fascination with guns and firearms - US soldiers shooting aliens, gangs shooting each other, cowboys shooting at bandits, it's all he ever plays and watches. Herpes worships violence, and is absolutely obsessed with war (here I am thinking of all the wars present from the 60s to the 80s, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars...). War propaganda and the fight being glorifyed heavily influenced him - as a result his biggest dream is to go at war in some foreign country to kill everyone there and come home a hero.
Herpes comes from a family of rednecks and hillbillies from the deep country. They are not poor however, they are wealthy enough to have television and several video games, but they are uneducated people full of stereotypes, discrimination and hate. They named their son Herpes because they ignored what it meant but just thought of it as an "intelligent" name. Herpes has everal brothers and sisters, and all have a disease name.
Herpes himself is a big and strong kid, who followed body-buildings process a la Charles Atlas and military training, becoming impressively muscular. However, he retained a soft, childish and chubby "baby face", which kind of ruins the effect of this massive, muscular, almost adult body. Always dressed in a military outfit, he carries everywhere with him guns and firearms, the question being: are they real? Or are they not?
  Sixth Winner: Violet Glockenberry
(Based on Violet Beauregarde)
I wanted with this version to take back the idea of a competitive and "sportive" girl obsessed with contesting and winning - introduced in the Tim Burton movie.
This Violet is a tall, muscular and strong girl. She won numerous sportive competitions, but this doesn't make her just arrogant and prideful like in the Tim Burton version. In my version she is also very aggressive and violent (a bit like in the original novel). She is a nasty and rude bully easily prone to anger (in fact, if she keeps chewing gum it is mostly to calm her down sot hat she doesn't punch everyone around). Her parents originally pushed her towards competitions to manage her anger issues, but sports only gave her more strength and destructive power. In fact, they became terrified of her, while she considers them losers here to serve her - she basically thinks of herself as self-made, literaly.
  Seventh Winner: Charlie Bucket
(Based on: Charlie Bucket)
For this Charlie, I wanted to go with a Charlie similar to the original illustrations of the character: blond hair, blue eyes, a white boy...
Basically, he is the original Charlie. Very sweet, very innocent, a gentle kid, the best of the group.
However I changed slightly his background. Charlie in this version is not the grandson of four grandparents, but rather the big brother of four younger siblings - and his family here struggles with trying to feed five children (and a total of seven mouths) despite having very humble and low-paid jobs. I think Charlie has taken the role of a parentive figure for the siblings, but at the same time him spending so much time with young children helped him keep in touch with his "childish" side.
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chikoriita · 4 years ago
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Secret Agent Elf
Here is my @mlsecretsanta fic for @xiueryn! I really hope you enjoy it!
Read on AO3
"Let me understand what you're saying." Alya stirred her hot chocolate languidly. She furtively looked over Marinette's shoulder to find the boy in question. He seemed innocent enough as he bagged his customer's purchases. "You believe that Adrien is an elf? Not even a Lord of the Rings elf, but one of Santa's helpers!" She could barely keep her laughter contained.
Marinette shushed her. "Not so loud!" She took her own look to make sure no one, especially not Adrien, heard her. If she lingered a little longer than necessary, Alya thankfully did not comment.
"Marinette, you've had a few too many late nights. Adrien is not magical to anyone except you." Alya raised a knowing brow. "Is this an excuse to avoid talking to him?"
"No! I talk to him all the time." Marinette maintained eye contact with her best friend. Her tiny crush on Adrien had nothing to do with her suspicions. If anything, the only thing holding her back was her certainty of his elfin origins.
She made the connection three weeks prior, at the start of the Christmas season for Agreste Fine Goods. One of the largest department stores in the city, Agreste Fine Goods catered to every need of the Parisian family. From couture to off the rack, from interior design to furniture kits, the store had it all.
"It all" included the opportunity to intern directly under Gabriel Agreste. Out of the entire city, Marinette was chosen to be the fall intern. Unlike past interns, Gabriel chose her himself. As part of her course, he guided her through everything from designing to marketing to in-store operations. Personally.
She did not mind the extra scrutiny. Gabriel built the business from a tailor's shop to its current state. Any knowledge she could glean from him was worth it. Even if her internship coincided with the dreaded retail season of Christmas.
Gabriel, the Mentor, was tough, but when it came to Gabriel, the store owner, and the Christmas season, he took no chances for disaster. It was the most profitable time of year. Thus he took on dozens of new employees in preparation. Adrien was one of the seasonal hires. He arrived at the store with a cheerful attitude on November 1st.
(Marinette should have started suspecting then; what retail worker was cheerful during the Christmas season?)
"Magical things happen when he's around!"
Alya snorted. "Fine. If you can bring proof that he's a "Christmas elf", then I will believe you. But!" She held up a finger. "If you can't, because he's a human being, you have to ask him to our New Year's Eve party! Either way, I win."
--
Observation Report 1
Date: December 20
Subject: Adrien
Setting: Santa's Workshop
21:00 - Subject observed tinkering with the decorations in Santa's Workshop. I put up those decorations. What did he feel like needed to be fixed? Could those sparks be coming from his fingers?
Note – Upon his exit from the workshop, collided with the subject. The subject smelled of peppermint and marshmallows.
Observation Report 2
Date: December 22
Subject: Adrien and Staff
Setting: Break Area
12:00 - Subject brought copious amounts of hot chocolate to the common area for staff only. Two hours later, the normally hectic, frantic, and grumpy restockers wore grins of joy. The cashiers did not shed one tear that morning. A peek into the customer service room indicated that there was some magic afoot. Upon entering, they wished Gabriel and me a "Merry Christmas". (The last time we ventured to Customer Service, even Gabriel hesitated to cross the threshold into their lair)
Note – he brought me a personalized mug of the chocolate, and there was no aftertaste of any added ingredients. Thus, it must have been magical to calm the staff in their mania.
Observation Report 3
Date: December 23
Subject: Adrien
Setting: Loading Dock
22:00 – Subject found with a large sack of packages in the trunk of his car (a rental). The packages did not have the AFG logo on the wrapping, and thus not packages from the store. When Subject was approached, he had a bashful grin. The packages were going to a local homeless shelter.
Quote: "A benefactor asked me to drop these off to make sure the children have presents to wake up to on Christmas morning. Every kid deserves to have a present to unwrap. Please don't tell anyone you saw me with these gifts." Sidenote: The look in his eyes was heart-melting; how could I not listen to him? Second Sidenote: His ears were looking pointier than normal. Could it be a side effect of Christmastime?
22:45 – After helping Subject stuff the gifts in the car, I returned home to find a similarly packed gift in my purse. Upon inspection, it was far more delicate than the other gifts in his car and had a note attached to it.
[Attached Note Contents]
Marinette,
For all of the cherished memories you’ve helped make since we met. You were the best part of my Christmas, by far.
Love, Adrien
--
She reached the logical conclusion the next night in her makeshift office.
Adrien was definitely an Elf.
Marinette wanted more than anything to inform Alya of her observations. After all, she was right, was she not? Telling Alya was the whole point of the investigation. Still, there was something that held her back.
After all, if Adrien was an elf, then it followed that Santa was also real. Santa Claus, the same jolly fellow that sorted the people of the world into two distinct lists. And if she outed one of Santa's actual elves, then there was no doubt which Marinette would be on for the rest of her life.
Her eye caught the package he had given her the night before. Inside had been a lovely pair of jet earrings. More importantly, she thought as she ran her hand over the note, what would he think of her?
Well, that only left one option didn't it?
--
To tell the truth, he hadn't expected anyone to follow him out of the store on Christmas Eve. At this point in life, Adrien knew better than to lose track of his surroundings. Even in the safety of such a nice neighborhood, anything could happen. Though he could admit, if he had to choose someone to accost him in the street, it would be Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
A surprisingly strong arm looped through his elbow and pulled him close. "I've been waiting for you!" Marinette gasped.
He looked down into her wide eyes. "Why?”
She furtively glanced around. The back alley of Agreste Fine Goods was not the best place for a conversation. "We need to talk. We can go to my parent's bakery." She tugged him toward Rue Gotlib. "They're closed for Christmas Eve, and we'll have privacy there."
Adrien would have lingered longer on the privacy if the thought of delicious pastries had not intruded. In any case, his feet were following her lead.
Before he realized what was going on, she had him settled in the bakery with two steaming mugs of coffee and the end of day croissants.
“Sorry, it’s not much.” She grinned and took a sip.
On a cold and snowy night like this, he was in a cozy bakery with the cutest girl from work. He thought it was perfect.
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes. "Adrien." Marinette placed her mug firmly on the countertop and sighed. "I need to confess."
He met her gaze. She seemed burdened by something. What on Earth could she need to confess? On Christmas Eve no less?
"I know your secret."
In hindsight, maybe drinking something hot was not the best choice when having such a conversation. "My what?" He choked. How could she have found out? He thought he had been so careful.
To be fair, he wasn't surprised Marinette found out. Over the last few weeks, she paid closer attention to him than any of the other seasonal workers at the store. Only… Only he hoped it was for a more affectionate reason.
"I figured out your identity. I didn't mean to, but it was so obvious. After all, when you're around everything seems more magical," she blurted out.
Magical? "I'm not sure I follow," He said slowly.
Marinette began to pace back and forth. "Alya said I was being silly, but now I know I'm not. You're so beyond my reach, especially with my internship ending and you leaving. I don't want things to change between us."
He felt his stomach hollow. "Does the truth really have to change how you treat me?"
"I don't want it to change," she repeated softly. "You're wonderful."
He grabbed her hands and stopped her pacing. Pulling her close, he gently said, "Marinette, look at me. Does knowing the truth make a difference of how you feel?" Adrien hoped more than anything that she would deny it.
"Feel?" Her breath smelled of mint chocolate.
"Knowing the truth shouldn't change how we feel about each other." He leaned closer and placed his lips on her cheek. "My feelings certainly won't change."
"This probably won't work. The geographical distance is too large." Marinette sighed.
"I won't be that far away."
She giggled. "The North Pole is pretty far Adrien."
"That is true- Wait what?!" He wrenched back.
"The North Pole. Where you live? Isn't that what we've been talking about?" She sat down on a barstool.
This girl had a way of knocking his world off-axis in more ways than one. "Not to my knowledge." His voice came out higher than he expected. "What exactly did you find out?"
To her credit, she turned redder than a tomato. She mumbled her next words, but he could swear he heard "elf" somewhere. Were his ears deceiving him?
A small spark of mischief entered his voice. "Come again?" He teased. He had a feeling they would enjoy this in future Christmases.
"That you're a Christmas elf on assignment from Santa Claus. Now I realize that might sound far fetched, but I had my reasons!" Marinette quickly said. She narrowed her eyes and held up a finger before he could speak. "And before you say a word, Mister-" The fire from her voice died down. "What is your last name anyway?"
Oh this was going to be great. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and leaned down to her ear. "I realize that I never properly introduced myself. My name is Adrien Agreste."
Her body stiffened in his embrace. He slowly turned her around to see the dumbfounded look on her face. Adrien took the few moments of silence to study the enigma of Marinette. He saw the gears working behind those expressive eyes of hers. She blinked once, then twice. He braced for anger and possibly humiliation.
But Marinette never reacted how one would expect. Her mouth widened into a grin. "It's slightly disappointing, to tell you the truth." She batted her eyes at him.
He scrunched his mouth in confusion. "Disappointing?"
Marinette grabbed him around the waist and pulled him closer. "Don't you think flirting with a Christmas elf would be rather exciting?" She heaved a sigh. "I guess I will have to settle for the boss's son. Although, I did hear a rumor that he was some kind of model."
If he hadn't seen the wink, he might have taken a bit of offense. Instead, he played along. "Take me out of my misery, Miss Dupain-Cheng! I adore you."
"I might adore you as well. But please explain a few things to me before we continue with all our adoration." She released him, and patted the seat next to her.
“Ask away, milady.”
She pulled out a small notebook from her bag. Flipping to the back, she began, “What were you doing in Santa’s Workshop four days ago?”
He was impressed. She had notes. Real notes. Only Marinette, he thought with a smile. “I was fixing the lights on the chair. The photographer was complaining that the bulbs were interfering with his “art.” It made more sense to rewire the lights to not twinkle.”
“That explains the sparks…” Marinette murmured.
“What else do you have for me, Secret Agent Elf?”
“What about the hot chocolate?” She smirked.
Adrien felt his ears burn. He had heard enough about that from his father that day. “I… Um…”
“Yes?”
“I brought spiked hot cocoa to the break area. My roommate wanted to play a prank on my dad, and there was some collateral damage.” The Customer Care department in particular was hit hard. Their antics tipped Gabriel off to what happened.
“I drank the same cocoa, and nothing happened to me!”
Marinette stared him down with her big blue eyes, and he couldn’t help but tell the truth. “I made yours by hand,” he mumbled and dropped his face in his hands.
“That is so sweet.” She rubbed his shoulder. “One more thing, and then we’re done. Where did all the gifts come from?”
He groaned once more. “You really can’t tell anyone about this. Father and I use the “wages” that I earn to send those gifts to the shelter. My mother, she used to volunteer there. He does not want anyone to know we are the donors.”
“Why not?”
Adrien lifted his head and shot her a cheeky grin. “To be fair, in any other conversation, the explanation wouldn’t be nearly as funny. He made a deal with the director at the shelter. They would keep his name private, and instead, I would deliver the gifts dressed as an elf in lieu of Santa Claus.”
She snorted, which led to her bursting into laughter. Even her laugh was enchanting. Before long, he joined in, thinking of the silliness of it all.
When they had a chance to relieve all their tension, Adrien wore his jacket and scarf once more. “I should probably head out. Your parents probably want to see you at some point this evening.”
“If you must,” she wistfully said, walking him to the door.
“Hey.” He lifted her chin and leaned close. “Since I will be closer than the North Pole, would you like to go on a date? A real one? A date nowhere near Agreste Fine Goods?”
“Of course I would. I still need to ask you to Alya’s New Year’s Eve party.” She tilted her head higher.
“Two dates!” Adrien laughed. “Miss Dupain-Cheng, I would be delighted.” With those words, he lowered his lips and spun her around.
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let-it-raines · 5 years ago
Text
let-it-raines cs fic masterlist
AO3: |Here|
Multi-Chapters:
Betting on the Bullseye: Emma Swan loses a drunken bet that means she has to ask her celebrity crush - if you can call him that - to be her date to her office’s annual fundraising gala for Boston’s Children Shelter. Killian Jones is that celebrity. She expects all kinds of humiliation and for her dignity to be completely lost all because of the ridiculousness of the situation. What she doesn’t expect is for him to say yes.
What she truly doesn’t expect is to actually like the man.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr with artwork Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18| Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Bonus Scenes: 1 | 2 |
Catch Me If You Can: 298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.
But then he came back and won the World Series.
It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.
Asking her out live on-air will do that.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40
Extra scenes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Not Your (soul)Mate: Killian Jones doesn’t like the idea of soulmates. He sees how happy his friends are with theirs, but he still doesn’t like the idea, not when he’s found love and lost it time and time again only to still not know his sign. He has no markings on his skin, no voices in his head, but then one day he meets Emma Swan and everything changes. Because, well, he may not have ink on his skin to tell him who to love, but the very first time that he hears Emma’s voice he knows that she’s the one for him. Then again, that could simply be his desire talking. After all, for every word she speaks, he becomes aroused.
It’s not the worst thing in the world to be incredibly attracted to a beautiful woman, but things aren’t that simple when she doesn’t have any interest in being his soulmate.
He’s screwed. And not in the good way.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Rising From the Ashes: When her husband died, Emma wasn’t sure that she could ever move on. He left her with a broken heart and a baby who was only three-months old. It’s enough to take most people down, to make them not want to keep going, but Emma Swan isn’t most people. She’s stronger than she has any right to be. And after years of heartache, she’s found ways to move on…one of those being in Neal’s best friend, Killian Jones. As she’s always known, however, things are more complicated than they ever seem to be.  
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21
Second in Command: Life as the “spare to the heir” isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be when you’re the supposed screw-up of the family, but people don’t know what really happens behind closed doors.
Found on AO3 | Here |Tumblr Chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Sequel (epilogue) Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
Extra scenes on AO3: | here |
Extra scenes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
another kind of green: Emma Swan spends her days in pretty white dresses and heavy layers of makeup. Day after day and dress after dress, she poses for pictures and acts like she’s in love and having the happiest day of her life with the man standing next to her.It’s not. This is all a gig, and at the end of the day, she’s no longer the girl in the pretty dress who’s faking getting married for a magazine cover or a wedding convention. Instead, she’s the girl who probably never wants to get married.Little does she know, she already is. 
| Based on two-trope game forgotten first meeting + accidentally married | 
Found on AO3 | Here | 
Found on Tumblr:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Single Riders Won’t Stay Single: Emma Swan gets in the “single riders” line for a rollercoaster only to be paired with a handsome stranger for what turns out to be the ride of her life.
Found on AO3 | here |
Found Tumblr with artwork | 1 | | 2 | | 3 |  | 4 | | Extra
Christmas one-shot: A Single Riders Christmas
One shot: Look Ma, I’m on the Internet
No Longer Blue: Killian Jones met Emma Swan on one of the worst days of his life. That day continuously plays over in his mind, and as much as he wants it to stop, he never wants to forget.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found Tumblr with artwork  | Part 1 |  | Part 2 |  | Part 3 |  | Part 4 | | Part 5 |
Sea Dogs: Emma Swan and Killian Jones met as children and have been friends ever since, learning to navigate all of life’s ups and downs together. They’ve always known that when they have no one else, they have each other. It’s been a constant in their lives, so when their futures are up in the air, will that constant stay the same?
Found on AO3 | Here |
One, Two, Three Shots:
At Least For Now: Detective Killian Jones is fond of his partner on the force, David Nolan. They work well together, and he thinks it’s a nice partnership. He’s also fond of David’s sister…who he didn’t realize was David’s sister when they met. He and Emma have an entirely different kind of partnership that David knows nothing about. At least for now.
Found on A03 | Here |
Found on Tumblr: | Part 1 | | Part 2 | | Part 3 |
Indirect Deposit: It’s the oldest story in the world, isn’t it? Falling in love with your neighbor. Killian’s sure that he’s seen hundreds of books and television shows starting off that way, and he’s always thought them all to be entirely unrealistic. That is until he started getting to know Emma Swan, who just so happens to live across the hall from him, and he has absolutely fallen for her in a way that he hasn’t fallen for anyone in a long time.
It’s the oldest story in the world…until it isn’t. Because it’s not just Emma he’s fallen in love with. It’s her unborn child too, and while everyone he knows thinks he’s crazy for falling in love with a pregnant woman, he knows that he’s not. Some things in life are worth taking the risk.
Some people are worth loving. And some things about life may surprise you.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr: Part One | Part Two | Part Three
Drabble | Here |
Additional Artwork | Here |
Frozen Peas: Emma Swan and Killian Jones are not coworkers. Okay, they kind of are. Emma Swan and Killian Jones are not friends either. Okay, maybe they kind of are. Honestly, Emma’s not sure what’s up and what’s down when it comes to Killian Jones…well, that’s also not true. She knows one thing that’s up.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found Tumblr with artwork  | Part 1 | | Part 2 |  | Part 3 |
Seasick: Sometimes moving home when your life falls apart isn’t a bad thing. But sometimes moving home does lead to things you never thought were possible. Or so Emma Swan learns.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found Tumblr with artwork  | Part 1 |  | Part 2 |
Palms and Recreation: Bartenders at hotels are just supposed to serve you drinks, not change your entire life, but Emma Swan’s life never seems to go as planned.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found Tumblr with artwork  | Here |
His Voice Keeps Calling: They were together…and then they weren’t. But just because you’re not with someone anymore doesn’t mean you stop loving them. And it doesn’t mean that their words stop playing over in your head, even if new ones are being said.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr with artwork | Here |
Lunchboxes and Taxicabs: Sometimes strangers steal your cab from right under your nose. And sometimes those strangers aren’t strangersanymore.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found Tumblr with artwork | Here |
Unraveling the Thread: Returning home is never something anyone wants to do when they’ve been trying to leave for their entire life, but it seems to happen to most everyone. It’s just not something Emma ever thought would happen to her. But after getting let go from her job and refusing to work in another office answering phones for the next ten years of her life, she moves back home to Storybrooke and has to deal with all of the loose threads that she left behind.
It’s easier said than done. She’s still going to do it.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Magical Rings and Mystical Donuts: Discovering you have magic in a world where it doesn’t exist is scary enough. Having yourself exposed as some kind of magical being because onion rings are falling from the sky might be even worse.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found Tumblr with artwork | Here |
A Simple Favor: Killian Jones is a pirate. He’s no longer a Naval man or an admirable man as he once was. He’s a pirate, and that’s all he’ll ever be to the outside world. That is, until he meets a woman who changes his entire world…and then who changes it again when he has an encounter with her father.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr with artwork | Here |
Mistress of the Sea: He comes into the tavern whenever he’s docked in Misthaven, always following his crew and settling down at the table in the center of the room, ordering a rum before falling into telling a rousing story that has the entire room roaring with laughter. It’s like that for years, and Emma gets used to watching Captain Killian Jones in his element on land, idly wondering what he must be like when at sea. They speak to each other, enough to know names and to be comfortable in conversation, but he’s rarely around long enough for her to truly know him, his mistress of the sea always calling him home.
And yet he always returns to Emma.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr: Part One | Part Two | Part Three
Striking Out: For someone who has never picked up a bat, Emma Swan knows more about baseball than some of the guys on the field. To be fair, she’s that way with every sport. It’s her job, and it’s one she takes seriously. She’s been an on-air sports broadcaster for the past four years, and she’s damn good at it, better than some of the former professionals and pundits that she works with every day.
So when she gets a chance to cover the World Series, a chance to follow her home team, she knows that nothing is going to stop her from doing her job.
Well, except for Killian Jones asking her out on live television.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Another Bad Christmas Movie: Emma Swan’s life is not a Christmas movie. Sure, there are some aspects of it that are similar, but that’s true for everyone who has a pulse and has ever heard All I Want For Christmas is You (don’t lie, you probably sing along to it). So maybe she’s a little frustrated and annoyed with some holiday traditions, especially the cheesy ones in the movies, but Killian Jones is going to help change all of that.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr with artwork Part 1 | Part 2
I Have a Method: Finding your neighbor drunk and nearly passed out in the snow isn’t exactly a great way to become friends. But that’s exactly how Killian Jones becomes more of a friend to Emma Swan than he has been in their years of knowing each other. And it’s exactly how the both of them learn to be a little less alone.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
The Writing is on the Other Side of the Wall: Emma Swan’s favorite author is her next door neighbor, but just because she loves his writing doesn’t mean she loves him. She doesn’t even like him. In fact, one could say that she absolutely hates Killian Jones and the way he blares his music through their shared walls and how he is always incessantly flirting with anything that breathes.
He drives her insane, and she’s about one three am wake-up call away from breaking into his apartment and throwing his speaker out the window. Or maybe she’s one three am wake-up call or one knock on her door away from her life beginning to change forever.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Pitching A Tent: Emma Swan does not want to go camping. Who even goes camping anymore when things like air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and the internet exist? Why would anybody in their right mind sleep on the ground instead of the softness of a mattress? David says that it’s an adventure, and while she doesn’t believe him those first few hours of trekking through the wilderness, she does once she drunkenly wanders into a British man’s tent in the middle of the night.
Created by the 2 trope game of | wilderness + awkward first meeting |
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Every Monday Morning: Emma Swan likes her routines. She wakes up at four in the morning, goes to work as a host on The Morning Show, spends her day doing segments about cooking and this season’s fashion trends, and then she goes home to spend time with her son and help him with his homework. She’s finally found something stable, and she doesn’t like change.
So when the show’s regular chef retires and is replaced by Killian Jones, it throws Emma for a loop that she doesn’t necessarily like.
At least not at first.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Storybrooke Haunted Farms: “Want to be chased through a corn maze? Take a ride in a trailer full of hay in the middle of the woods? Play paintball with zombies? Explore a haunted ghost ship? If this sounds like fun to you, come to Storybrooke Haunted Farms where the fun is cheap and the thrills are terrifying. Open from October 1st - October 31st.”
Emma Swan has been working at Storybrooke Haunted Farms for the past four years, and she’s done everything from work the haunted hayride to chasing paying customers through a corn maze with a fake chainsaw. It’s always been a good way for her to make a little extra cash for the holidays for her son, and it’s most likely the best time she’s ever had working.
That is until her assignment changes and she’s made to work on the pirate ship exhibit with Killian Jones, quite possibly the most obnoxious man alive.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
it’s all an act (until it isn’t): High school drama teacher Killian Jones doesn’t have time for drama off the stage. He’s had enough of it in his life, and no part of him is searching for more. But then the day before his theater class’s modern day interpretation of a fairytale begins its four-week run, his two leads get sick. There are no understudies, no one to fill the roles, but as they say, the show must go on.
With him in it, apparently.
Having Emma Swan, the music teacher and woman who has avoided him since her first day of work at Storybrooke High, fill in as the starring role opposite him is the complete opposite of what he expected.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Yellow Flowers In Your Hair: Emma Nolan has been raised in a privileged household and has never wanted for anything other than freedom to live her life on her own terms. Her parents want that for her as well, at least to a certain extent, but when her father unexpectedly passes, Emma is left with two options: marry a man she doesn’t love or lose the home filled with memories of her beloved father as well as memories of her first love, a man with blue eyes and a kind smile who left for the Navy years ago and hasn’t been home since.
But what if her first love were to come back?
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr: Part One | Part Two | Part Three
Tell Me It’s Real (it’s real): Killian Jones has done a lot of stupid things in his life. The stupidest, however, was telling Liam that he and his best friend Emma Swan are dating after Liam presses him on why he hasn’t started dating again after his last breakup. It’s fine. Liam lives an ocean away, and Killian has time to figure out how exactly he’s going to deal with this before there are any actual consequences.
That is until Liam shows up at Emma’s parents’ house in Storybrooke four days before Christmas thinking that Killian and Emma have been dating for months.
Emma’s going to murder him.
(A Fake Dating AU)
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
what a plot twist you were: Emma’s life is solid. She has her few friends, a job that pays decently enough, and a schedule that works for her. She doesn’t want any of that to change. But when she gets a call saying she’s been left a house in Storybrooke, Maine, she ends up leaving Boston intending to deal with the house and then return to her life like nothing has changed.
Intentions never quite work out, however, especially when she runs into a blue-eyed bartender who just might entice her to stay.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
The Spectacular Ms. Swan: 1959. New York City.
Women aren’t supposed to have their own voices and opinions, and they certainly aren’t supposed to be funny. Emma Swan, however, has a lot of opinions and is damn funny. She also doesn’t care what anyone thinks.  
Except maybe Killian Jones, a comic who has been her supporter since the day she bailed him out of jail after one of his comedy routines.
Found on AO3 | Here |
Found on Tumblr | Here |
Tumblr Prompts:
Found on AO3 | Here |
On Tumblr on my page under the header “prompt stories”
I’d list them here, but Tumblr won’t let me add in all of those links on one post 😊 
104 notes · View notes
rosezure · 4 years ago
Text
Songbird 2 - New Beginnings
Songbird - Chapter 2
A/N:  This chapter focuses more on certain BNHA characters, but there's still some Asa thrown in there.
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the BNHA/MHA universe, nor its characters. This work is intended for entertainment purposes only. My own characters are, however, of my creation.
Content warning: mentions of jumping from planes, talk about character deaths, !spoilers for the manga!, some AU stuff cause what is cannon if not a suggestion, tattoos, talk about physiotherapy and injuries, swearing/language. If I forget anything, please let me know so I can correct/add it!
Summary | Chapter 1
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If Keigo knew anything, it was that he hated the Hero Commission more than he hated Endeavor. And that was saying something, considering his longtime idol was a child abuser. He hated that they made him into a monster. They took an innocent child and distorted his reality. 
Keigo decidedly hated a lot of things. 
But he couldn't hate Aizawa. Not after everything that's happened. Not ever, actually. The man was every bit the hero Keigo once thought Endeavor was. Yet, he couldn't help but feel like the teacher had ulterior motives. The two sat across from each other on a small wooden table in a secluded pub. It was just on the outskirts of Musutafu, which made it the perfect place for this kind of encounter.
"I want you to teach at the UA."
There it was. The ulterior motive the hero Hawks was trained to identify. Keigo cursed in his mind. He really didn't want to find a reason to be suspicious of Aizawa of all people.
The man had literally sacrificed an eye and a leg for others, for fuck's sake!
"Shota... I don't think I can. What could I possibly teach? I'm a monster... These kids need an actual role model. Not some bastard murderer with a hero title." Keigo's voice was small and quiet. He was miles from the great Hawks he was supposed to be.
"We've all done things we're not proud of, no matter how big or small. You did what you thought you had to do. In the heat of the moment, it was your only option." The older hero sighed.
Aizawa looked at the young man in front of him. He looked so broken and fragile. But he understood. Killing Twice, someone so vulnerable yet dangerous, weighed more than Keigo let on. The Winged Hero Hawks died then and there in Keigo's mind. And Aizawa knew it was taking a long time to heal from that loss.
"Look," Keigo looked up from the table, "Killing Twice-" He visibly flinched, but Aizawa pressed on, "That wasn't the best thing you could do. The man could've been helped. Maybe he could've become a great hero or teacher even." 
Keigo was about ready to stand up and leave at that. He wasn't going to sit and listen to yet another person throw his wrongdoings in his face. He didn't need it. His mind was cruel enough.
"You're right in feeling like shit. But I'd be more worried if you weren't. You're still a hero, Keigo. You saved lives that day, even if you took a drastic measure. Even if your decision was a horrible one." Aizawa took a deep breath. "You know it was wrong. You know it was cruel. But you had good intentions-"
"Hell is full of good intentions, Aizawa." Keigo gritted, hitting a fist on the table and standing up. 
Aizawa stood up as well. "Then teach those kids to not make that mistake. Teach them about good intentions and good actions combined."
With that, the older male went to the cashier to pay for their drinks. Neither of them had taken one stingy sip, but Shota still thought ordering drinks was the polite thing to do. 
The two left together. Being grounded was new to Keigo. Sure he walked every once in a while, but he'd be flying to his penthouse by now. He'd be soaring through the skies. The thought of the wind blowing through his feathers made Keigo look up to the sky. He longed for the day his wings grew back, then he'd flee and never return.
"I know that look," Aizawa's voice snapped him back to reality.
"The day I have my wings back..." The blonde whispered, "I'm leaving and never coming back, Shota. I'll be free."
"Will you?" 
"Will I what?"
"Will you actually be able to leave?"
Keigo stopped in his tracks, making Aizawa pause as well. Would he really be able to run away? Would he be able to just take flight and never look back? Keigo wondered if he'd have the guts to do that. 
"I don't know," He admitted with a sigh before starting to walk again.
"But I'd sure love to have the chance to find out."
On the other side of the world, Asa was packing her bags. She had very little time to prepare, and she wondered why the Queen and Santos hadn't informed her of this mission weeks ago. From Asa gather through the reports and files she read, the confrontation between heroes and villains in Japan was months ago. So why was she only being sent now?
She'd have to go through the other files Santos gave her. Maybe then Asa would know what was really going on.
"Asa!" Caique's voice rang from behind her door. Asa smiled softly.
"Come in, punk!" She shot back.
"Can you believe it? I'm Commander! I went from Captain to Commander!" He looked like a puppy that's just been given a new toy.
"Oh, shut up!" Asa laughed at his happiness. 
"So, my subordinate," Caique sauntered over to Asa, putting an arm on her shoulder, "My first order is that you let me kick your ass once." He grinned cheekily.
Asa rolled her eyes and pushed his arm off her. "No way in hell, babe. I've got a rep to keep, you know?" She winked over her shoulder as she walked to her closet to gather more items.
"Hey!" Caique pouted. Asa giggled at his face, shaking her head.
"Don't pout," She scolded playfully, "It makes you look five."
"Right, and you hate children," He added teasingly.
"I do not!" Asa shot back laughing, "It's them that hate little ol' me." She shrugged.
"That's not true," Caique huffed and took a seat on her king-sized bed. "By the way, I never really understood why I got the position and not one of the generals."
"Cause I've been preparing you for the position for three years now. I was gonna retire right before the summer festivities."
"Retire?! Girl, you're like 23! The fuck you mean retire?"
"I've been at this for almost 16 years, Caique. And I'm unhappy."
Her words silenced Caique. He knew very little about his Commander. Asa was strong, intelligent, agile, cunning, and charming (if she wanted to be). She was 23 years old, soon turning 24, and she was quite attractive. But that's all he knew about her.
"You never really told me how a 7-year-old became a soldier."
"And I don't think I can ever tell you. I can't remember it myself without having a breakdown!" Asa tried to play it off as a joke, but they both knew this was a sensitive topic.
"So, are you done packing?" Caique quickly changed the subject. It was her last day here, and he didn't want Asa to be tackled by ugly memories.
"Almost. Most of my things are already on the plane." Asa gave him a small smile. "I slept a total of zero hours last night. Santos was adamant that everything needed to be loaded onto the plane before sunrise. And I mean everything!"
"That man is wound up way too tight," Caique shivered. "Is there a way I don't have to deal with him directly?"
"Sorry, but that stick in the mud is your issue now." Asa bit her lip to stop herself from laughing at Caique's disdainful expression. 
"Thanks, that's really encouraging," His sarcasm made her lose her composure and laugh, "What's the mission anyway?" He looked at her attentively.
"You know I can't tell you that..." Asa trailed off, unsure how to keep her promise to the Queen without shutting Caique out. 
"Ah, you're right. If the Queen asked you to keep it a secret, then you must," Caique offered Asa a small smile.
Ever since they met six years ago, Caique and Asa were joined at the hip. Neither went into battle without the other. It was common knowledge among the guards and soldiers that one should never mess with either of them. Now they were being separated, and it already felt like they were miles apart.
A few more minutes pass as the two make jokes and chat. Asa began to think about how she could remember her last moments in Pindorama forever. She needed something to look at or touch every day. Asa never dealt well with homesickness. As Caique helped her fold some clothes, an idea hit her. She grabbed his hands, inspecting the many drawings inked into his skin.
"What's up? Why are you suddenly so interested in my tattoos?" Caique chuckled as he let Asa twist and twist and turn his arms around. 
"Let's get a tattoo together."
"What?! Now?!"
"Yes, right now. Call the artist!"
Keigo couldn't believe this was happening. He took Aizawa's offer and applied to a position in the UA High School. However, he didn't think they'd actually accept him. And he was even more surprised to learn the Commission authorized it. Had everyone gone insane?
The world really did turn upside down...
But here he was: sitting in Nezu's office and listening to him drone on about the rules, the teaching plans, and other things Keigo wasn't paying attention to. Shit, he actually got in. Now what?
"If you have any questions, feel free to ask Aizawa. I've put him in charge of your training. Please be prepared to start in April next year." Nezu smiled at Keigo, standing up to shake the blonde's hand.
After that, Keigo left the headmaster's office in a daze. The last six months were hell: grieving the loss of fellow heroes, dealing with his demons, going back and forth from the hospital and his residence... Keigo couldn't remember a time in which he felt carefree and at ease. And now he's shaking whatever peace he still had.
"What have I gotten myself into?"
"Probably your greatest challenge yet." Aizawa lazily lifted the corners of his mouth as he limped towards Keigo. 
"Oh, I don't doubt it..." He muttered to himself.
"Follow me. I'll give you a short tour, then we can head out for some coffee." Shota offered as he pointed his chin to the hall he came from.
"A tour would be nice, I guess..." Keigo shrugged his shoulders and followed the older man. 
Aizawa could be surprisingly chatty, it seemed. He showed him as many classes as he could. He took Keigo to see the event arenas and other facilities. Last but not least, he took him to the teachers' room.
"We prepare our classes here," The hero explained, "Over there, we have the cabinets with students' tests and reports. Next to that, we have the teachers' lockers. You can keep some personal items in there." 
Keigo walked over to the lockers, tracing the names of the heroes that taught at the UA. He recognized some of them. These lockers had belonged to some of the fallen heroes. Keigo's back ached with phantom pain. Seeing those names triggered the torturous memories from six months ago.
"They haven't had the heart to remove the names," Aizawa explained.
"They shouldn't." Keigo placed his fingers over Midnight's name tag, "She'd want us to remember her."
"Other teachers survived and will be returning."
"They won't be the same."
"No one's the same."
"Nothing's the same. Everything and everyone is different," Keigo sighed, "And different is bad."
"Different allows growth."
"So it seems." Keigo scoffed at his own words. 
Was he even still capable of that? Growth was such a foreign concept for someone who was fabricated. Oh, the irony. He was built from scratch, molded to the Commission's wishes. He "grew" under their supervision. Would he have grown at all if they hadn't taken him in?
"How about that coffee?"
"I think I'll pass. I want to start working on the material I'm gonna present in class."
"I suggest a more hands-on approach. Depending on which class you're assigned to, theory won't get you anywhere. I speak from experience." Aizawa thought of the many setbacks a specific class had due to the students' tempers.
"Right. Still, I'd like to-"
"Form a strategy? Make a plan? You're not patrolling, and you're definitely not in an undercover mission. This is teaching," Aizawa paused, trying to think of the right words, "You need a base, but you're gonna have to improvise from time to time. And these are teenagers, not villains. The most they can do is piss you off." He smirked teasingly.
"Got it," Keigo answered simply, already flipping through a book on teaching methods he found lying about.
Aizawa rubbed his face, watching the ex-hero with something akin to pity. The boy had never been a real teenager. How was he supposed to deal with so many of them at once? He'd need a lot of support, that's for sure.
The two sat at the table near the pantry. Keigo was reading aloud some parts of the book he found, asking Aizawa for his input. Whenever the older hero gave a tip, Keigo immediately recorded it on his phone's note app. Halfway through the fourth chapter, Principal Nezu walked in.
"Aizawa, I just received great news from Tokyo!" His ears twitched in excitement.
"What news?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow.
"The Prime Minister has successfully contacted Pindorama. They're sending the hero we discussed last week. She'll be arriving next week!" Nezu informed with a smile.
"You mean the one with the practically extinct quirk?"
"Yes, exactly."
"I heard she was trouble."
"Oh, I doubt she'll be a burden to us."
"Sorry to interrupt," Keigo lifted his head from the book, now curious about the person they were talking about, "Who are you talking about?"
"Oh! Hawks!" Keigo stiffened at the use of his hero name, "I forgot to mention it to you earlier, but you won't be the only newbie. A special guest is coming from another country to help with things around here. She has a very rare quirk, which will greatly help us as a country bounce back from the events of March." Nezu beamed, folding his paws in front of his chest.
"What kind of quirk?" Keigo squinted his eyes.
"It's of a healing nature, but no one is sure of how it works," Aizawa explained, "There's not much written about this quirk. The only group of people that knew everything about it are all gone." He slumped in his seat, feeling sleepy already.
"So, there are no records on it? How can we trust this stranger?" Keigo frowned. 
"That's a reasonable question," Nezu lifted himself onto one of the vacant chairs and looked at Keigo, "But there's no need to worry. She's a show of the alliance between the two countries. If anything goes wrong, it'll be a war declaration."
"That just makes her even more dangerous. I don't think we should let someone so-" Aizawa interrupted Keigo by clearing his throat.
"Rest assured, Keigo, that she won't be a problem to any of us," Nezu added. He smiled widely once more before hopping off the chair and bidding the two heroes goodbye.
A few minutes passed as Keigo continued to read the book and ask Aizawa questions. Meanwhile, the raven-haired man was fighting to stay awake and help the young man understand the methods and concepts. But he had drained himself during his physiotherapy session that morning. He needed a nap, or he'd pass out right there.
Sensing the older man's tiredness, Keigo decided to excuse himself. He told Aizawa he'd continue reading at home and that he'd take notes of any doubts that might surface. After packing his things, Keigo bid the teacher goodbye and left.
The next time the two men met, Keigo was at the school to look for more teaching supplies. They greeted each other at the gates with a quiet nod each. Aizawa seemed better, stronger, Keigo noted. Maybe his physiotherapy sessions had been paying off. Eri's contribution probably helped too.
Aizawa had once told him that Eri wanted to heal him and give him his wings back. But Keigo had refused. He didn't want them back, not like this. Hawks died, and if Keigo had any say in it, he'd stay dead. So, if his wings grew back, he wanted to earn them and start anew.
For days, he and Aizawa would sit together near the pantry in the teacher's room. Keigo would read excerpts from teaching books or bring teaching plans and ask for Aizawa's input. Day in and day out, the older man would reassure the blonde that the material was suitable. And day in and day out, Keigo would create different versions on the same plan. He swore they were only backups in case he forgot to prepare for a class or something. But Shota Aizawa knew very well that the young man was scared of messing up.
After what happened in March, Class 1-A was going to need a lot of support. So Aizawa often found himself praying to a whatever higher energy that they'd be okay. That every student and teacher would find solace in being a hero and saving lives. He prayed for everyone to find a way to cope.
These prayers always startled Shota. He wasn't religious at all! He never cared about gods or spirits or ancestors. But he sure as fuck hoped that something was watching over them and that things would be fixed. He knew better than anyone how naive thinking like this was. But he also knew it was better than wallowing in self-pity.
Yet, Aizawa felt like Keigo would be the one getting support from the students.
Aizawa just wished Keigo would accept any form of support.
"Ready when you are, Siren!" The pilot yelled over the radio system of the plane, "We are one minute away from the drop-off point!"
"Roger that, Captain!" Asa shot back, preparing her equipment and adjusting her suit.
Her first mission was to infiltrate the HPSC building and bug the president's office. If she had time, Asa was going to try and bug any other high-ranked offices too. She had to be precise and fast. One slipup and the whole mission could be compromised. 
Once they reached the drop-off point, Asa removed her protective headset and put on her goggles. She waited for the crew to open the plane's doors while she made sure everything was ready. The plane's doors opened, and Asa saluted the soldiers behind her before throwing herself out of the plane.
Asa had missed the exhilaration of jumping into the night. She forgot how thrilling it was and how powerful she felt. The dropping point had been 14000 feet (around 4267 meters) high, so Asa had about a minute of free-falling before she could open her wings. Having done this many times before, Asa successfully landed on top of a building south of the HPSC headquarters. 
She retracted her wings, thankful for her suit being backless, and prepared to jump onto the next building. They dropped her off a little away from the premises to not alert any busybodies. 
Asa wasted no time getting to work. In just under 10 minutes, she had made it onto one of the windows on the 14th floor of the HPSC's building's south side. And in less than 20 minutes, Asa had located the president's office.
Asa managed to open one of the smaller windows and slithered in. She placed a bug on one of the far corners of the giant window behind the desk. She also placed another under the desk table and one behind a few books. Asa put the fourth and last bug under the clock that hung over the entrance door. After that, as quickly as she got in, Asa was out. She checked her watch. Asa had some time left before a helicopter picked her up at the designated rendezvous point. So, she decided to find the vice-president's office, or maybe a lab of some sort. 
Flying around the building, Asa used her enhanced vision goggles to see if she could locate any useful information. On the west side, she found a lab with the words "authorized personnel only" printed on the door. Squinting, Asa flew closer and found a way in. Smirking at her findings, she bugged the lab as thoroughly as she could.
Once she was outside again, Asa dropped onto a nearby building and sprinted to the rendezvous point.
"This is Siren speaking," Asa's voice was barely above a whisper, "Heading to the pick-up point." 
Asa dropped down from a building, disappearing into the night.
Chapter 3
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papermoonloveslucy · 4 years ago
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THE HEALTH FARM
May 7, 1950
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"The Health Farm” is episode #87 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on May 7, 1950.
Synopsis ~  Liz and Iris are fed up with their husbands taking them for granted, so they check in to a fat farm. 
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This episode features elements that later went into the “I Love Lucy” episodes “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3 ~ October 29, 1951) and “The Charm School” (ILL S3;E15 ~ January 25, 1954).  Lucy Carmichael and the Countess Frambois went to a fat farm run by Mr. Mooney in “Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight” (TLS S3;E21) on  February 15, 1965.
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“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.
MAIN CAST
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Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.
Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.
Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.
Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.
Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) does not appear in this episode. 
Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.
GUEST CAST
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Elvia Allman (Mrs. Fataway) was born on September 19, 1904 in Enochville, North Carolina. She started her performing career on radio in the 1920s, as both a storyteller and singer. This led to work voicing cartoon characters for Warner Brothers. Simultaneously, she was pursuing stage acting, appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. Allman made her film debut as an actress in 1940’s The Road to Singapore as a homely woman who pursues Bob Hope. Allman played the strident forewoman of Kramer’s Kandy Kitchen in “Job Switching” (ILL S2;E1).  She would return to the show as one of Minnie Finch’s neighbors in “Fan Magazine” (ILL S3;E17) and as reporter Nancy Graham in “The Homecoming” (ILL S5;E6). She made two appearances each on The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour“ and ”The Lucy Show.“
EPISODE
ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers today, we find George in his office at the bank. Suddenly, the door bursts open and in strides Mr. Atterbury, his boss.”
Mr. Atterbury is upset that somehow Liz’s girdle got entered on his balance sheet. George is worried about Liz.  She has been buying lots of new clothes lately.  Mr. Atterbury tells him the trick of combating new clothing bought by wives.  When they try it on and ask “How do you like my new dress?” you say “What new dress?”  They immediately return it as looking just like her old one!  
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Liz and Iris are out shopping.  Liz shockingly says she’s not going to buy anything today.  She is doing it because of George’s concern about her budget.  
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They see a sign: GET YOUR SPRING TUNE-UP!  WE CAN MAKE A 1950 MODEL OUT OF AN OLD WRECK! SPEND 11 GLORIOUS DAYS AT FATAWAY FARM
Liz sees some ‘dirty words’ that tempt her: “Gigantic Clearance Sale!”  Liz attempts to turn her back away from temptation, but when somebody is looking at the same dress she likes - she give in to temptation. 
Liz and Iris arrive home with their shopping.  They go to the bedroom to put Liz’s new things away: a dress, a bag, and shoes.  She now has to think about what lie to tell George before the bill arrives in a month. Iris tells her that George won’t notice if she wears the dress because husbands only notice OTHER women!  
IRIS: “Every time I get a new dress I show it to Rudolph and he says ‘What new dress?’ and as long as he doesn’t know it’s new, I keep it!” 
Iris dares her to put the new dress on and see if George notices.  George comes home and Liz takes the dare.  Liz parades in front of George in the new dress.  Just as Iris said, George doesn’t notice anything.  She finally breaks down and asks him about her new dress.
GEORGE: “What new dress? I’ve seen it a hundred times!”
Liz is indignant that George takes her for granted and bursts into tears.
ANNOUNCER: “As we return to the Coopers, we find Liz and Iris Atterbury down at the corner drugstore. Iris is trying to console Liz, who believes George takes her for granted.”
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LIZ: “What are you supposed to do when you think that you’re the apple of your husband’s eye and find out you’re the core?”   IRIS: “You’re not alone, Liz! The world is full of single apples and married cores. It’s part of living.” 
Iris tells Liz that she’s expecting her husband to act like a fiancé!  Liz realizes she’s let herself go.  She’s taken herself for granted.  They remember the ad in the beauty shop and decide to go for the free tune-up - if not the whole overhaul!   They decide to tell their husband’s that they are staying at Marge Van Tassel’s country place. 
At Fataway Farms, they arrive at the office.  Mrs. Fataway (Elvia Allman) greets them, and outlines their plan.  They get scared of their fierce founder, but they are locked in!  
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Mrs. Fataway leads Iris and Liz in exercises, which they struggle with mightily. Next Liz and Iris try out the steam cabinets. 
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LIZ: “If they don’t come soon, they’ll have to pick me up with a blotter.”  
Liz is a limp rag when Mrs. Fataway finally opens the cabinets. She announces a two-mile hike!
LIZ: “Keen dipped in pickle juice.”
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On their hike they finally reach their destination.  They have the option to ride back or march back. Liz is to weak to even express an opinion, and ends up walking back.  
After 11 days, Liz and Iris arrive home, feeling rejuvenated and revitalized!  Their husbands greet them with affection.  
George notices that Liz looks thin and calls her a plucked chicken.  Liz breaks down in tears. 
GEORGE: “I didn’t want you beautiful. I want you just the way you were.”
Liz is relieved and starts to gorge herself with food!  Iris is just about to join in, when Rudolph stops her!  
MR. ATTERBURY: “I like you just as you are now!” 
End of Episode
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In the live Jell-O commercial tag, Lucille plays a siren from ancient mythology and Bob LeMond a sailor being lured toward the rocks. 
Lucille’s first line as a siren is to imitate a police siren.  She then lapses into a chirpy, pinched nosed voice.  
LUCILLE / SIREN: “Oh, sailor!  Oh, sailor boy!  I have Jell-O tapioca pudding!”  
He asks her if she has Jell-O orange coconut tapioca. 
LUCILLE / SIREN: “A wonderful blend of refreshing orange and tropical coconuts?” BOB / SAILOR: “Yes!  Do you?” LUCILLE / SIREN: “No.  I just wanted to see what happened.”
The siren lures him to the rocks. The sound effects end with a motorboat crashing with a big boom!
ANNOUNCER: “Watch for Lucille Ball in today’s issue of Parade.”
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rikkie-jpg · 4 years ago
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I was walking by the beach and saw Rhiannon "Rikkie" Marx! I wonder what they’re doing here all by themselves. they’re apparently creative and driven, but also flighty and a perfectionist. When I think of them, I think of menthol cigarettes, black coffee, and bruised knuckles. Well, I hope to run into them in the future! (24, cisfemale, she/her)
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she/her. lesbian. 23. ☼ aries. ☽ saggitarius. ⬀ gemini.
tw: eating disorders, depression, death, homophobia (slight)
rikkie doesn’t really like to remember just how she got here. she doesn’t like to remember the blowout fights with her parents, the stress and support of therapy programs, or the way her shaking hands once did up her school uniform, only to find stability behind the camera. but for the sake of reminding herself that she's not a cloud of smoke who doesn’t exist on this plane sometimes she has to think about it.
the chaos of her upbringing didn’t start at the beginning. when she and her brother were born, they were received by a loving home in the valentine cottages, to two exceptional parents. johnathan marx and mackenzie ess did their best for a long time. they covered the fighting, they put their kids first, they focused on the security of their family. but that facade could only last so long. it wasn’t until the was 12 that she felt that shift. her father moved back to his home town of paterson, nj, while her mother maintained the home and shop in cornell beach. she and her family left, while her mother stayed behind. back in those days, rikkie feared that her mother simply hadn’t tried, hadn’t fought for them to be together, but that wasn’t entirely true. now, as an adult, she had a better understanding of the break down of her family. even though her summers were spent in cornell, it was clear that the longer she left, the more she didn’t want to come back.
the next upheaval was when rikkie was 15. mackenzie got sick, so rikkie and her brother moved back to cornell beach and spent their summers in paterson. johnathan marx was nothing if not loyal, and he had raised his children to be exactly the same way. there were no other options, other than to go back. she wouldn’t be able to handle it if she did. but rikkie has always run like a wind up toy, and the gears were starting to slow down. she wasn’t going to be able to keep going the way she was. the hole that had always been in her chest, that had opened even wider when her family split was starting to get bigger. watching her mom suffer was hard, taking care of her was harder, and no one noticed that she was starting to lose herself in her own mind. food, calories, and exercise consumed all of her free time. she had nothing else to do to cope. she didn’t know where she was going, what she was doing, and no one seemed to notice it anyways. so she found herself on her knees in front of the toilet, praying to a god she didn’t believe in and purging herself of the chaos in her mind, and whatever transgressions she had committed to deserve this fate.
seventeen was a worse year than any had been before it. sweet seventeen was rock bottom for rikkie. her mom’s cancer became metastatic, and within six months, she was gone. her last breath like a whisper of love and light, and somehow the darkness encroached from there, consuming rikkie. destroying her from the inside out. she went back to new jersey, a ghost of her former self, and finally someone noticed her. noticed the way she had wasted away, the way she seemed to suffer. that was the first time she was sent away, truly on her own. residential inpatient program. those three words still make the hair on the back of her neck stand up. it was two days after her eighteenth birthday when her father had the intervention, just short of two months after her mother’s death. she went, she did her best, she really tried to get better. but she wasn’t ready. she couldn’t have been, or at least that’s what she tells herself. because just a year later, it felt like dejà vu all over again. another intervention, another inpatient to php to iop style program, another year lost to losing her mind. another prescription to lexapro; god, it all felt so repetitive. when she finally had the all clear to leave, she did the only thing she knew how to do. she returned to cornell beach, the town she had left behind without so much as a backwards glance, five years prior. she and her brother moved back into her mother’s old home, craving a slower pace to life than what she had back in new jersey. she converted her mom’s old office into a small music studio, a haven in the home she once knew, and hopefully, she can make this work out. but who knows? maybe she’ll just pick up and disappear again.
that wasn't to say her personal relationships didn't feel the wrath of her disappearing act. she had ghosted her former girlfriend (accidentally, but she won't admit it) during an intervention gone wrong. her father confiscated her phone, and it wasn't returned to her until it felt too late to say anything. so instead, she let her believe that she was just done, let her believe she had no explanation for her disappearing act. because rikkie wouldn't be caught dead telling her republican, fire-fighting father about who or how she loved, and she wouldn't talk about her slow descent into madness either. so she let it simmer, because what was the worst that could happen?
chaos bullet points about rikkie
don’t get her started on bagels or pizza
doesn’t like to talk money bc she doesn’t know what to do with it
mom’s from cornell beach, dad is from paterson
kind of a callous bitch. always short, keeps ppl at arms length
doesn’t do vulnerable bc she’s got a ton of issues
literally loves music too much for her own good
bumps so hard to brand new it should be a crime
favorite color is pale yellow
so gay but has no game. literally drools over pretty girls & can’t think
absolute klutz
dumb as fuck when she drinks. climbs on laundry machines, disappears on adventures, will talk in ad nauseam about vines
loves weird jokes. will laugh at literally anything
she ghosted literally everyone after her mom died & just didn't come back one summer because of program
she likes to sing n dance n play guitar bc when ur in program u have a lot of time to master ur amateur guitar skills
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duhragonball · 4 years ago
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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (138/?)
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.
[23 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]
Through his mastery of the alchemical arts, King Rehval III Trismegistus had conquered the universe. The Saiyan had merged his life essense with the Planet Nagoka, making both impervious to any attack. The bulk of the Saiyan species had bound themselves to his will, and any galactic powers who dared to defy him would suffer the wrath of giant earthen creatures that he could control like puppets. The cult of Saiyans who served him had been in high spirits. Their greatest enemy, the Super Saiyan Luffa, had failed to destroy them, and she had fled the Nagaoka System, disgraced and alone.
Then she returned. King Rehval believed she had come back to die in a blaze of glory. For all her power, she was no match for him, or his army of alchemically powered Saiyans. He expected his warriors to hunt her down within a matter of hours.
Eight days later, Luffa was still at large, and the morale among Rehval's followers had declined sharply.
What frustrated everyone was that no one understood Luffa's plan. If she only wanted to die in battle, then there was no need to drag things out. Whatever she was trying to do, she needed at least eight days to make it happen, and in the meantime, Rehval's cult had been powerless to figure out what it was or how to stop it. The two prevailing sentiments among the cultists were:
"Why doesn't Trismegistus do something?"
And:
"Trismegistus has it all under control. Trust the plan."
Because of these contradictory opinions, the growing list of Luffa's victims were viewed both as "heroic martyrs" and "unfaithful losers".
From her lowly position in the cult, Lesseri heard it all. Scrubbing the breeding pits, she would catch parts of a conversation from passers-by. Trimming wicks for the candles, she would overhear idle chatter from the barracks. Disposing of diapers in the nursery, she would see how frightened the children were when they could sense Luffa's ki on the attack. There were a multitude of perspectives, but it boiled down to just two. Either their omnipotent leader couldn't kill Luffa, or he was allowing this terror to continue for unknown reasons.
Lesseri's own thoughts were usually focused on binaries like these. Strength and weakness, acceptance and rejection, good and evil. Of all the cultists, she had actually trained under Luffa during a brief period in her former life. The cult had a dim view of this past association, and Lesseri had been struggling to redeem herself ever since. She found herself awed by their grace, but also frustrated with the way they punished her for something so trivial.
For Luffa, that training camp had been a passing fancy to try to teach other Saiyans her ways. For Lesseri, it was just an opportunity to get close enough to kill her own mother. Vigurd had abandoned Lesseri and her sister in a gestation facility, and Lesseri had been bitter about it ever since. It seemed strange to Lesseri that the cult approved of her ruthless assassination, but not of the way she had manipulated Luffa to achieve it. It wasn't as if Luffa had passed on forbidden knowledge to Lesseri and the others. Mostly, Luffa had nagged them all for not being "Saiyan enough". Lesseri had dismissed Luffa as a hypocrite a long time ago, but the cult still demanded more contrition from her.
But now that Luffa was here, and Lesseri could sense that immense Super Saiyan ki once more, she was reminded of just how deeply Luffa's harsh words had cut. Luffa accused other Saiyans of cowardice. On Nat-Chezz, they had encountered a pair of aliens with the ability to to fool ki senses. They used this power to bluff stronger warriors into surrendering without a fight. Only Luffa had the courage to stand up to them, not because she saw through the deception, but because she alone wanted to fight enemies stronger than herself. The lesson of that incident had been lost on Lesseri that day, but now, Lesseri was experiencing it all over again. Nagaoka was supposed to be an invincible stronghold of power, and yet Luffa had dared to attack it all by herself. Rehval's followers had the advantage, and yet they were still anxious about what would happen to them. None of them were eager to die when they were so close to achieving final victory.
It hurt Lesseri to think about it. She had given herself over, body and soul, to Trismegistus, and yet her old frustrations and doubts still lingered. It had been convenient to blame everything on Luffa, but now she wondered if Luffa's only crime had been to point out the problems that had always been there. And now, she had come to Nagaoka to pass final judgment on them all.
Lesseri didn't know or care who would win in the end. She only knew that, no matter what happened, that Lesseri would surely lose...
*******
The surface of Nagaoka was desolate, but not completely uninhabitable. The persistent cloud cover made the scenery especially gloomy, but enough sunlight made it through to support some vegetation. Most of it was inedible, although Luffa had discovered some roots that were nutritious enough to justify the effort of picking them. Game was scarce. The apex predator in the grasslands of Nagaoka was a small, four-legged dinosaur that chased after rodents. It took patience to catch them, but that was no problem. She needed something to pass the time anyway.
As she chewed on the raw carcass of a fresh kill, she walked back to her latest campsite, which was little more than a small fire and a Saiyan skull she had been using to carry her stone tools. The only other item was her prisoner, a cultist she had captured on one of her raids, three days ago.
"I killed six more," she told him as she slung the carcass by the fire and picked up the skull. "They sent more after me, but it didn't help much. I think Rehval's trying to do a pincer thing this week."
The man lay helpless on the ground, his arms and legs fractured in several places. Luffa had hurt him so badly that he lacked the ki energy to be sensed by his comrades. She estimated that he would die in another day, if not sooner. She kept talking to him anyway.
"Pincer. You know what I mean? Spread out his forces across the planet, then when one group is close enough to engage, some of the others can come in from the other direction and cut off my escape. What he doesn't get is that it just gives me a bigger target to shoot at while I run away."
The man groaned, either from the pain of his injuries, or from hunger, or terror, or delirium, or from all of these. Luffa ignored him and began carving up her kill.
"Funny, that's the same thing Jerk Number Seven said when I killed his six buddies," Luffa said. "You should have seen it. They tried to surround me, but I rushed right into a group of them, like I was trying to slip between them. Then I set off an explosive wave right in the middle of them. The six died right off, but the seventh was far enough away that he just got hurt really bad. He's probably still alive, though. For now."
"Triis... mej... isssss..." the man tried to say.
"He's not here and he's not coming to save you," Luffa said. "You can pray to him all you want, but he doesn't give a damn about you. Idiot. You sold your pride to that fool, and he doesn't even know you're still alive. I doubt he'll bother giving you any medical attention, not after that stunt I pulled on their hospital ward a few days ago. No, he'll want to conserve his supplies for the healthiest troops. The ones who stand a chance of pulling through in time to defend his sorry ass. That won't be you."
She put the bulk of the dinosaur on a spit she had fashioned from a spear she had taken from one of her victims, and carefully positioned it over the fire. "Ahhhh," she said. "This is really gonna hit the spot. It's like the old proverb: hunger is the best seasoning. So how was your day? Anything cool happen while I was gone?"
"Wh-wh-why... are you... doing this?" the man whimpered.
Luffa lay down on the ground, propping her head up on a pile of brush she had gathered. "Really?" she asked. "I mean, we've been over all that, haven't we? I told you all about it. How Rehval's a monarchist fool. How he took my son from me. Twice. He wrecked my marriage-- although I'll take partial responsibility there. And he even showed me that my own species is a worthless band of hooligans that deserves to die. Oh, and he's trying to conquer the universe, which wouldn't bother me so much except for the rotten way he's going about it. Magic potions. Really, what is that?"
"Nooooo..." the man whispered. "Not that... Why...... why... keep me... alive?"
"Oh, that," Luffa said. See, it's actually pretty simple. I learned this when I was a kid. I guess your parents never filled you in on it. See, when you're up against a superior force, you can even the odds with some psychological warfare. Wreck their morale, they start making little mistakes. Before they know it, their advantage starts to fritter away. That's why I hit their medical supplies. I'd like to taint their water supply too, but I haven't planned that out yet. I may not have time to get around to it, actually. Make sure you tell Rehval that when you see them."
"See...?"
"Yeah, they should track down this camp before too much longer. If not, I'll just transform and they'll come running. I'll be long gone when they get here, but they'll find you. And you can tell them everything I've been telling you this whole time. Every last word. Or as much as you can remember. I think the message will get across."
"M-message...?"
"Yeah," Luffa said. "See, I'm not 'keeping you alive'. You'll die eventually, no matter what. But I want the others to see what I've done to you, and hear what I've said to you, and I want them to realize exactly what it is they're dealing with."
She reached into the pockets of her yellow pants and pulled out a wooden stick, about five inches in length. There were several notches cut along its length. As she spoke, she stared intently at it.
"I think a lot of them see me as some sort of ultimate foe, and they get to have this big epic showdown with me, or at least they can die for their master, quick and clean. Makes sense. I'm the Legendary Super Saiyan, and Rehval's taught them all that I'm the devil or something. They want a big dramatic battle, like in a movie. A few of them might get their wish. But not you. No, you get to suffer. And I want them to know that any one of them might get the same treatment as you. Or not. Some of them might luck out and take a Vengeance Cannon through the brain and die painlessly. Some choice, right?"
He shivered, either due to the cold, or the onset of some infection he had contracted, or perhaps simply because Luffa's words horrified him so. Luffa simply did not care. She watched her meal cooking, monitored enemy movements with her ki senses, and then carved another notch on her stick with her thumbnail.
*******
[25 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]
"The water supply? You're absolutely certain that's what he said?"
The cultists who found Luffa's prisoner bowed low to the ground as they murmured in the affirmative. "He was insistent on this point, Master," said their leader. He rambled like a madman, repeating everything she had said, including many unspeakable insults towards you and your ancestors, but--"
"Enough," Rehval said. "Return to your duties. No, wait. You three." He gestured to the trio of men on the right side of the group. "Go and help the repair efforts on tunnel six. Dismissed."
Normally, he spoke to his followers in more parental tones, closing with words like "Let my triple-blessing be upon you," or "Go with Jindan, my children." But Luffa had been laying siege to his planet for ten days straight. He no longer felt the mood to keep up his role as Trismegistus, the almighty Alchemist Supreme. Even the easy diplomacy of King Rehval seemed to escape him these days. Nearly two thousand of his followers had been killed since Luffa had arrived on Nagaoka, and with each hit-and-run attack, Luffa always found a way to hint that this was only a warm-up act.
"Having trouble, dad?"
He had begun to find a measure of comfort in his daughter, the Princess Seltiss. In his heart of hearts, he had always viewed her as more of an apprentice in statecraft, or a great bridge he had engineered to lead the way to the future. Now that she was back in his life, and now that they were stuck together on this planet, he finally began to appreciate her as family. Of all the Saiyans on the planet, she knew him best, and was never afraid to speak her mind.
"You saw the man they brought in this morning," he grumbled as she walked into his chamber.
"Yeah, I just came from the infirmary. They just pronounced him dead," Seltiss replied. "I came over to tell you. His last words were something about the water resevoir--"
"I already know," Rehval said. "It's bait. It has to be. There's fresh water all over Nagaoka. Even if she does poison our wells, even if she takes out our geothermal stills, it would only be a minor inconvenience."
"Like the spaceport," Seltiss said. "And the medical supplies. And Tunnel Six. She's not interested in striking decisive blows. She's wearing us down, a little bit at a time."
"It's more than that!" he insisted. "She's... building towards something. She threatened to kill us all, even me, when she already knows that's impossible!"
Seltiss shrugged. "She probably thinks that if she kills enough of your followers, then you'll lose the power you took from them, and that'll weaken your connection with the planet," she said. "Could that work?"
"Not well enough to do her any good," Rehval said. "I need the Saiyans. Without them, my work has been in vain. But there are other Saiyans in the galaxy. Weaklings, and not many of them, but enough for me to begin anew. As for this planet, my connection to it is complete."
"Cool beans. Then you have nothing to fear," Seltiss said. "It's like you told us before. Luffa's no threat to you anymore."
"That doesn't matter!" Rehval shouted. He rarely raised his voice. He considered it one of his more admirable qualities. What surprised him more than his outburst was the way he had slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne. Without thinking, he had pulverized it, and sent cracks running down the right side of the seat.
Seltiss had never seen him like this before, and though she tried to mask the shock with cool indifference, he knew better. He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his forehead. "She is the serpent in my garden," he said. "Rebelling, even when there's no possible way for her to win. I have to kill her or control her, or my authority will never be absolute. Her defiance proves that I can never tame the Saiyan heart, no matter how completely I control the others."
"So control her," Seltiss said. "You keeps saying you have the power. Find her, and put an end to this."
"She can mask her ki, and somehow use it at the same time," Rehval said, more despondently than he meant the reply to sound. It was unseemly for him to whine before his own child. "I suspected that she could do something like this, but I didn't realize to what extent. The squads can't find her."
"Then take away her hiding places," Seltiss said. "We know she's living off the land. Like, you keep saying you are the planet now. You can do with it as you please, right? Take the land away from her, and what does she have?"
Throughout this crisis, a thin beard had begun to grow on Rehval's face. He had been too preoccupied to shave. Now, he rubbed the stubble thoughtfully as he considered his daughter's advice.
*******
[30 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]
Luffa waited for the squad of cultists to fly directly overhead, and then she attacked, transforming into her Super Saiyan form so quickly that none of them had time to react. There were twenty of them in all. The first died instantly, and she used an explosive wave to kill two more, and throw the rest off balance. Then she flew away, leaving the other seventeen to wonder what had gone wrong.
As she flew into the clouds that covered the Nagaokan skies, she took a moment to admire the destruction taking place on the surface. Rehval had finally grown impatient enough to order a carpet bombing of the wilderness. As before, there were groups of twenty or more Saiyans spread out across the planet, but instead of hunting Luffa, they were now scouring the land with ki blasts. This suited her perfectly. With so much Saiyan energy being tossed around all at once, Luffa could fly much more freely across the planet without being detected.
Adjusting her trajectory, she propelled herself directly into the path of another squad two hundred miles away, and powered down so they wouldn't sense her approach until it was too late. Then she transformed again, and tore through them like so much paper. Just as they began to get their bearings, she flew away again, leaving them completely disorganized.
She repeated this trick again and again, picking off targets across the entire planet. It would have been glorious, if she wasn't so furious with them all.
"It's not like it was in the Federation, is it?!" she screamed as she impaled a warrior on his own short spear.
"Boxing me in, forcing me to jump from planet to planet to keep you from hurting innocent people!" she screamed as she broke another's neck three thousand miles to the southeast.
"You thought you could wear me out! Well I'm still standing!" she yelled while blasting four of them with a barrage of energy needles.
"And now you're the ones on the back foot!" she roared. At the equator, one of them managed to get off a decent shot at her, but she pulled one of his teammates into the line of fire.
"You've got nowhere to run!" Her boot slammed into a Saiyan's back at twice the speed of sound, and she grinned at the wet snap she heard on impact. Nearby was Nagaoka's fourth-tallest active volcano.
"This time you're trapped here with me, and I've got nothing and no one to protect!" Near the south magnetic pole, her Vengeance Cannon technique cut through five of them in one shot.
She doubled back to the fourth-tallest active volcano and shoved a woman face-first into a lave floe. "You all move so slow you might as well be standing still!"
She found a beach and decided to stand her ground for a few minutes. This wasn't for sport, but just to remind them that she could. The squad she attacked seemed almost grateful for the chance to try to fight back, but they soon found that their numbers weren't as effective as they'd hoped.
"I've been fighting you clowns for months!" she screeched as she slashed her nails through a Saiyan's throat. As he fell back and clutched his bloody neck, Luffa rolled forward and caught one of his partners with her legs. She flipped him over and sent him crashing down to the surf below, and then fired ki blasts down at him, then towards a third Saiyan who was trying to catch her off-guard.
"All that ganging up you punks do? It doesn't mean anything to me anymore! I've seen all the routines a dozen times! Hah!" She suddenly flung her left hand under her right shoulder and fired backward to catch a Saiyan coming up from behind. "Six? Ten? Twenty? It won't save you!"
One of them had the good sense to focus his ki on protecting his vital organs. Luffa punched him in the forehead and was surprised that he withstood the blow. She kept on punching him, like a jackhammer, until his skull finally gave way.
Before long, she had finished them all off. She sensed reinforcements coming, and by the time they arrived, they found her in a half-squat position, charging her power. Once they were within range, she unleashed it all at once, creating a massive explosion all around them.
"Still alive..." she observed as she flew towards handful of survivors. She rose up into the air above them and swung out her arm at the ground. "Now that's what I like to see!"
Her follow-up fused the sand into glass, but could not penetrate more than a few feet into the ground, thanks to Rehval's mystic power that tied him into the planet. Instead, the energy Luffa released was reflected back upon her targets, and they were helpless to resist the intensity of it. A few survived, and Luffa slaughtered them, lopping off their heads by using the edge of her ki-charged left hand like a knife.
"Enough, Luffa!"
She turned and found a familiar face, and she grinned savagely at the sight of it.
"Well, well," she said. "Look who's finally come out to play."
The ground behind her had swelled up, forming a hill, which gradually shaped itself into the image of a man: King Rehval.
"I'll say this for your stupid alchemy powers," Luffa said, "You've made this planet a lot sturdier than anywhere I've ever been before. I can't destroy it, but that's kind of handy too. It's nice to know I can cut loose while I fight your lackeys, and not have to worry about the whole planet exploding out from under me."
"I command you to stop this immediately!" he shouted.
Luffa responded with a Gallick Gun to his stony face.
"You can't harm me in this form!" he said. Indeed, the attack had left his earthen avatar completely undamaged. Luffa didn't find that very disappointing.
"Don't worry," she said. "That Gallick Gun was just a baby, Rehval. When I'm ready to hurt you, you'll know it."
"Damn you, woman!" he seethed. "You know this is pointless!"
"Sure it is," Luffa said with a grin. "And you came all the way here to remind me, just in case I'd forgotten how pointless this is. Very thoughtful of you."
"If you already know that, then why do you persist in this--?! Arrgh!"
As he had spoken, she gathered her energy and plowed directly into the avatar's body, then released it in a massive explosion. The surrounding area was reduced to charred wasteland, and Luffa alighted near one of the largest fragments of the rock-Rehval she had destroyed. Slowly, it merged with the ground below it, and rose up again to form a new body.
"Will you--! Stop that?!" Rehval seethed.
Luffa laughed again. "What's wrong? If what I'm doing is so pointless, what does it matter whether I do it or not? Don't tell me the almighty god-alchemist, his royal majesty King Revahl the Third is getting flustered over little old me."
"I'm not!" he shouted, and then he attempted to regain his composure. "I just... I don't like when you... when you flout my authority. I wish you would... not do that."
Luffa raised her hand high over her head and extended her middle finger. "And I just don't like you. I don't like your authority much either. I don't think anyone else on this planet likes it much either. I'm just the only one around here with the guts to do something about it."
"I'll kill you," Rehval said. "You won't be able to avoid my forces forever, Luffa. There's only so much habitable land on this planet, and there's less of it each day. Once you run out of hiding places, you'll have no choice but to face the full force of my power."
"It's a date," Luffa said. "You're going to rue the day you first heard my name, Rehval. But right now, I gotta go. See you real soon!"
With that, she shot into the sky like a rocket, just as another squad of Rehval's followers arrived.
"My lord," gasped their leader as she fell prostrate before his earthen likeness. "We came as quickly as we could..."
"The Saiyans who joined us," the rock-Rehval said. "Seltiss's band, the Free Companions. Have they received the Jindan power yet?"
"N-no, Master," the leader said, now rising to an upright position. "There hasn't been time for them to complete the initiation rites, and--"
"I don't care about the rites!" he snapped. Go back and prepare them immediately. I want them as strong as possible, so that I can crush that vile little throwback once and for all!"
The leader was gravely disturbed to hear this, but she was too loyal to question the command. "Yes! It shall be done right away, Great One!"
Then they flew back in the direction of their base. Having no further use for the rock-creature, Rehval allowed it to collapse back into the ground.
From her hiding place in the sky, Luffa saw all of this while she listened in on the comm-link she had stolen from one of Rehval's soldiers. She made a grim smile, then cut another notch in her stick.
*******
[3 December, 233 Before Age.]
As Trismegistus, Rehval had established a lengthy series of rituals and trials for initiates in his cult. He claimed that these were necessary to make the applicant worthy of receiving the potion that granted the Jindan power. In truth, their actual purpose was to brainwash the cultists and erode away their sense of independent thought. Now, as Rehval became more desperate to put an end to Luffa's rampage on Nagaoka, he chose to skip the protocol and dispense his potion to the newest recruits into his fold.
His daughter, Princess Seltiss had assembled a band of independent Saiyans, with the idea of establishing a new Saiyan nation in her father's absence. She had allied this Free Company with Luffa's Federation, but then switched sides, rejoining her father once it became clear that he was unstoppable. Seltiss considered herself a pragmatist above all. In her mind, joining her father in his moment of triumph was completely consistent with turning against him during his apparent madness. The decision was simple. There was no hope in opposing an invincible enemy, one who held every card and offered no weaknesses to exploit. And yet, she still feared for his sanity. The decision to join him had been a simple one, but it was by no means easy for her.
On the other hand, convincing the Free Companions to accept the Jindan potion had turned out to be very simple and easy. Luffa had killed over three thousand Saiyans since she arrived on Nagaoka's surface, and most of these had been Free Companions. The Jindan-empowered cultists were stronger and faster, and while Luffa had killed plenty of them as well, the Free Companions made much easier targets. As much as Luffa despised the cult, she had a real talent for driving Saiyans into Rehval's open arms.
In her quarters, Seltiss contemplated the bottle containing her own dose of the Jindan elixir, the last one. The cultists seemed to trust her to drink it, or perhaps they didn't see her empowerment as a high priority, since Seltiss didn't have a high power level to begin with. There was really no point in anyone checking to make sure she took her medicine. It was a matter of survival now. The curious red liquid might be the only thing that would save Seltiss' life during Luffa's next attack. And even without Luffa rampaging in their midst, she had already resigned herself to drink when she ordered her ship to surrender and land on Nagaoka. Things were happening faster than expected, but the cold equations had not changed. Her continued survival depended on swallowing her father's concoction, and then washing it down with whatever was left of her pride. What was she waiting for? Seltiss herself didn't seem to know.
And then, just as she brought the bottle to her lips, she sensed that terrible ki once more. Luffa was on the move again. Startled, she dropped the bottle, and so great was her dread that she didn't even notice it until the glass shattered on the stone floor. All that remained of the potion was a strange discoloration on the rock, and some maroon stains on her pink Montablanian leather boots.
Seltiss wasn't sure whether to be relieved or afraid. As she sensed the rising powers of her father's followers, she realized that it might not matter how she felt any longer.
*******
There were no names for the places on Nagaoka, and even if there were, Luffa wouldn't have known them. She had chosen a particular location to make her stand, but mostly for aesthetic reasons. It was a dry lakebed surrounded on all sides by buttes and mesas. It reminded her of some of her favorite hunting grounds on Dorlu Prime. More importantly it offered the best of both worlds for a battle: The lakebed was a wide-open space for fighting, while the surrounding topology allowed plenty of nooks and crannies to hide behind for ambushes. Luffa didn't expect any of this to matter, but she had a sentimental reason for choosing her battleground.
She expected it to be her last.
Rehval's forces had destroyed most of the terrestrial life on the planet by now. His hope was to cut off Luffa's supply lines by taking away the flora and fauna that she fed upon in between her hit-and-run attacks. But he had utterly failed to consider the seas, which were abundant in edible wildlife. While his followers had scoured the land in a desperate attempt to flush her out of hiding, she had been diving under glaciers for aquatic mammals. In the lakebed, she now chewed on a piece of blubber while she prepared herself for what came next.
The skies of Nagaoka were perpetually overcast, but on this night there were peals of thunder that hinted at a storm. It was completely dark, save for an occasional faint flicker of distant lightning in the clouds. Luffa took the stick out of her pants pocket and felt the notches that she had made in the wood. Satisfied with the count, she cut one last notch with her fingernail, and then tossed the stick to the ground. The time was right.
She transformed. Since coming to this planet, she remained in her Super Saiyan form only long enough to attack or to outmaneuver an enemy. This time, she stood and waited, letting the yellow glow of her aura illuminate the desiccated ground. She could sense Rehval's minions all over the planet, searching in vain for her. Now that they could sense her power, now that she was staying in one spot, they all began to converge on her position. Within minutes, she was surrounded. Thousands of Saiyans stood on the rocky outcroppings in all directions, all of them dressed in dark red uniforms, and carrying short spears, which seemed to be the signature weapon of the cult. The tips of the spears glowed a pale blue color. Luffa had been dealing with these weapons for some time now, and could only guess that there was some trick to making them work. Every time she had taken one for herself, it only behaved like an ordinary spear.
They all kept their distance. Luffa might have accused them of cowardice, but she couldn't deny that it was the smart play. Anyone who might have broken ranks to rush at her prematurely was probably already dead from all of the previous skirmishes. Those that remained knew that best hope of defeating her was to put their combined might into a single, concentrated force. If they could cut off her escape, if they could keep her surrounded and attack her on all sides, then they would have the power to overwhelm her.
Or so they believed.
At last, King Rehval himself showed up, after a fashion. She could still sense him staying behind at his underground compound on the opposite side of the planet. She had expected as much. He was a coward, above all else. Instead of appearing in person, Rehval used his avatar again. By whatever mystic alchemy he used, he formed a mass of earth and rock to rise up from the ground and assume the shape of his own body, more or less. The eyes of this two-hundred foot tall creature glowed purple as he glared down at her.
"Enough, Luffa. This time, there will be no escape," he announced.
"That's what I was about to say to you," Luffa replied.
"I thought you had some plan," Rehval said. "But I see now that you really did come here to die, after all. You just decided to drag things out for as long as possible. You wanted to kill some of my flock to get a measure of revenge, but now you've run out of hiding places, haven't you? Why else would you stand still and raise your power level? You practically summoned us here to destroy you. You've clearly given up hope."
She turned her head and spat on the ground. "You don't get it, Rehval," she said. "I already gave up hope before I came to this stupid planet. Everything since then has been rage. And patience. The waiting is over, Rehval. I'm ready to kill you all now."
"You don't have the power for that," Rehval said. "And even if you did, you could never kill me, Luffa. I have transcended beyond the mortal realm. I am more than anything you could imagine. I have the power of this entire solar system behind me. What do you have, besides that garish transformation?"
Luffa smiled. "Let me show you," she said.
And then, she began to yell.
Rehval and his forces held back, unsure of what to expect. Luffa's body glowed brightly, and for a moment, some of them expected her to attack, but instead she fired a ki blast straight up into the sky. The energy dissipated into the clouds, and for a moment the thunderheads turned yellow from the light. Then they parted, opening up a hole of clear skies directly above Luffa's head. For the first time in untold centuries, starlight shone down upon the surface of Nagaoka. The hole expanded in diameter, until at last, the clouds had retreated to the horizon, leaving only a panoramic view of outer space.
And there, high above the battlefield, was Nagaoka's moon.
It was full.
Luffa looked straight up to admire it. Her lips curled into a wicked smile, and her green eyes suddenly turned blood red in the moonlight.
"No..." Rehval said quietly as he realized what was happening. Panicked murmurs could be heard among his troops, as the ones who understood explained it to the ones who didn't. Luffa could barely hear them over the pounding of her heart in her chest.
"The tail!" Rehval shouted. "Destroy her tail! Now, before she has a chance to--!"
But it was already too late. Luffa began to laugh, and then a wave of golden energy spread out in all directions. Then another, and another. The Saiyans attacked, firing their own energy in unison, but none of their ki blasts could penetrate through to Luffa herself. They couldn't even see her.
But they could hear. The lakebed echoed with the giddy laughter of a Saiyan woman with nothing left to lose. And they heard this laughter gradually transform into the low, feral growl. Bolts of yellow lightning arced out across the lakebed, dancing from one mesa to the next.
At the epicenter of this terrible disturbance, Luffa continued to stare up at the moon. Her heart beat harder and faster with each passing moment. She let the transformation carry her away, neither knowing nor caring where it would take her. Normally, her body was only sixty-three inches tall. Now, she expanded with each breath, swelling to ten feet, then twenty, then thirty, and more! Her limbs and torso changed proportions as she grew, and a thick coat of fur sprouted from her skin. Her face contorted, warping her nose and mouth into a savage muzzle lined with sharp teeth, and her ears formed slight points on top. Her clothing was ripped to shreds by this awesome change, but this was the furthest thing from Luffa's mind. In that moment, all she cared about was power, and the retribution it would bring.
At last, when the transformation was complete, and her enemy could finally see her clearly, she loomed over them in the form of a giant ape. The Saiyans knew the Oozaru form well, but this was different. For Luffa's Great Ape had glowing yellow fur instead of the usual dark brown. Her blood red eyes glowed with murderous intent, and her bestial lips twisted with fury as she looked down upon them all.
By now, Rehval's followers had been fighting Luffa for some time, and they had allowed themselves to believe that they were used to the idea of what Luffa had become. Now, as each of them felt their blood run cold, they realized that they had no idea what to do. They all stood transfixed at the sight of this new horror, unsure what would happen next.
Luffa threw back her head, and began to pound her fists upon her chest. And then, she made a deafening roar.
NEXT: The Golden Oozaru.
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the-sheep · 5 years ago
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ID GO ABSOLUTELY BONKERS IF U TYPED OUT HIS ENTIRE HISTORY FBFBFBFB i would like 2 see it..........
alright right right
This ended up being A HUGE POST so all info is under the cut.
Unless you’re on mobile, in which case, enjoy scrolling.
It all starts on flight rising. Well, Heart starts on FR. It REALLY starts with my webcomic/animated series.
It wasn’t well drawn or animated at first, but it steadily got better. One of the plot holes, back in 8th grade, was “who created priscilla and Jake?”
It was mostly summed up to “Penny made all the bots its all simple” but i was a middle schooler and i needed a complicated (and edgy) story. 
Thing is I had already made Fandragons of a good chunk of my ocs on flight rising.
I bred two dragons to get my main characters, so why not just use them?
Christy Suggested the name Cavet, and I liked it.
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Yeah this is my first digital image of him as a human and he DOES NOT LOOK RIGHT
no necklace, no beard, orange eyes…
horrific.
So I made human designs for them both, but Chrysanthemum remains forgotten, not even canon to Mechanical Fury anymore.
Here’s old art of her and Cavet back before she got wiped out from existence.
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the art is bad btu the Heart gimmick is there
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Here’s him in his second image ever. The one that pretty much defined his design.He also quickly gained a husband
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Anyway he quickly morphed into a villain several time more dangerous than the main villain
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He’s responsible for the deaths of not ONE, not TWO, but THREE children.
Two his kids, one the younger sister of a character that one of the dead kids liked.
One of his dead kids got his own story, the other was literally a main character.
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Chloride, (Charlie) in all his glory, lucky enough to get resurrected as an android but after finding out he’s not who he thinks he is, has to attempt to live a normal Human life… when his two best friends are paranormal investigators, his love interest having lost their arm and their only remaining sister to the main villain.
He originally found out he was an android by finding his own blueprints, hearing his Mom cry about it, and then cutting open his face (for his signature scar) and running off. 
Running into Cavet’s husband, Nathair Liu. He stitches him up, know all about robotic n all that but he is.
also a secondary villain….
youtube
I hate the art in this video but its not my worst.
(Video was Vendy’s debut, too. tho Vendy was more Nate(logan/mind/princi/whatever)’s kid than Cavet’s)
Okay i’ve gotten off track.
Yeah at this point I was really loving Cavet, on FR, and wrote an entire long story between him and Skittles based on the events of Mechanical Fury.
This was where I got the idea for reincarnation.
I needed an explanation for why the same character was in two different universes, and it was perfect. In fact, it lead to an amazing way to end it. 
But what is in control of all this? What does he see in the in between?
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Well, Death was packaged with two other red herrings to keep people from thinking she was more important than them from the start, when in fact, she was. One of the plot points is that Cavet dies. He continues causing havoc, but nobody can figure out why or how. he doesn’t have a body.
Except he does. Death.
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She was scary, but that was just her, she was a literal robot grim reaper. Nobody suspected she was spreading a virus to make robots susceptible to Augap’s control everywhere she went. Not even her. Cav liked hanging out in the AI scape, AKA the robot afterlife or virtual heaven.
What a fun way to make a real grim reaper.
I never really kept track of the transition from “cute robot char” to “cute real god char”
and i guess it never happened. Heart still thinks of her as she was, as cute little Litty. Except when she’s not. He gave form to the literal concept of DEATH. And became her friend. She still calls him Papa, sometimes.
In any case, Cavet’s doodles started being more and more revolving around his angst with the reincarnation.
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in fact, i had a few character in the same boat as him, as I had made a couple dragons into MF characters as well.
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I called them The Artifacts. It didn’t seem rounded out with only four, so I added a 5th. To give me more leeway in case I make a character i like enough to bring with them.
and turns out. I did.
I was sad enough about Cavet losing the love of his life, betraying him, creating a rift between them with his descent into obsession.
So he came with them.
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They’re inseparable.
after a few lives of getting revenge on him for killing his sons and some adult humans and a BUNCH of robots, (not even counting his crimes in the vampire life he committed because he thought he lost Liu forever) Soul revealed to him something about Heart’s 6th life, which Mind doesn’t remember.
But he was there.
Long story short, he was Captain Shuggazoom. Yeah 10 lives of stuff he forgot before he started remembering his past lives. Messed Heart up.
ANYWAY BACK TO DEVELOPMENT!
I went around, making original characters to fill in Heart’s lives. I put him in a LOT of stories, but a notable one is My Old Ask Blog, @ask-musical-monsters
In which Heart is our lovable Tweedle, Bean.
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He’s the bird. (this is also the blog where Willow was made!) (also a character i referenced when putting antauri on the baldi blog)
I still hadn’t abandoned MF so Bean has a lot of influence from Cavet. 
I REALLY liked bean. It occured to me here-ish that Heart isn’t constrained by being my oc. He can be whoever he wants and nobody will care. 
So of course I immediately declare him purple guy. No drawings of him, but I know I said he was purple guy at some point. Also at this point in time I started organizing the lives by number order, and making a simple arc for Heart and the others to follow.
1000 lives. 
I made a brief description of heart’s 1st life, but made it purposefully very superfluous so i can change it whenever i want. All i know is he had albinism, and a desire to live forever.
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That summer I got an amazing idea. I would take advantage of the Baldi’s basics trend with a ASK BLOG.
It was a mathematically calculated success. I did as many things as possible to generate more audience. MAIN thing being posting as often as possible, and being REALLY funny. 
But knew I wasn’t going to like adding to the ask blog if i didn’t like the main character
I already knew he was going to be Baldi, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to characterize him either. 
Turns out making him heart solved both of those problems. He’s always been Heart.
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And Princi has ALWAYS been mind.
Even if they don’t always show their artifacts, they always were the same people as all these other things ive made. They have a DEEP connection to both each other and me.
At some point, I re-re-discovered SRMTHFG. The first few seconds I saw SK I knew he was Heart. It was so perfect it scared me.
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HE EVEN DOES THE POSE!!!!! RED EYES!!!! AAAH!!!
I got an idea for a storyline based on formless and regret and monkeys… so.. uh
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Anyway that kinda brings us to today, where the events of the blog have happened based on Heart things, and i can play around with Heart as much as I want.
And Willie’s next life? Well, 23 is my favorite number. It’ll be cool, but I’m not sure how. All I know is 23 wears a striped shirt, and is a vamp again.
In summary, Heart is the most important character I’ve ever made, and I will never come close to anybody as wonderful and as complicated as him. He’s the greatest formless, the best villains, the heroes, and one character i want to hold out for finding irl.
 I love them even in scribbles i find on bus seats, in fanart of him, love her in songs i hear, in flowers i see in the wild.
Whoever they end up being, it’s safe to say I’ve fallen in love with Heart. 
If you want me to describe his in universe story, I’ll need a seperate post.
Other Heart Resources:
The Spreadsheet
The Playlist
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lilacmoon83 · 5 years ago
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Lightning in a Bottle
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Also on Fanfiction.net and A03
AN: Welcome to my newest Snowing story! I'm really excited about this one and blending the worlds of Once and Manifest. I did not classify this as a crossover, because that's not really what it is. This is a Manifest type story with mostly Once characters. I have kept a couple Manifest characters and a few minor ones may pop up. The notable Manifest characters I have kept so far are Vance and Olive as Snowing's daughter. You also do not have to worry about any love triangles for Snowing. That's not my thing and this will always be a Snowing story.
Another thing to note is that I've taken some liberties with the relationships as well. Most notably, Emma and David are siblings and they grew up with Mary Margaret, so Emma and Mary Margaret are very close as well. Due to Robert being a drunk after Ruth dies, David and Mary Margaret pretty much raised Emma while raising themselves. Another thing to note, Henry is in the place of Cal here as Snowing's son and Emma's nephew. Most everything else will become clear as you read. I hope you enjoy this new story and join me on another journey. This one will update on Monday nights. Chapter 1 tonight and chapter 2 next Monday. Then this one will go to bi-weekly updates on Monday nights. Please leave a review and give feedback! It is much appreciated and most know that I always respond to reader reviews at the beginning of every chapter. Enjoy!
Lightning in a Bottle
Chapter 1: Lightning Crashes
April thirteen, two thousand fourteen. It was a day that would be burned into her brain forever. For it was the day that her entire world collapsed to ruin.
The day had started out wonderfully. It was the end of their family vacation and she awoke as she always did. Ensconced in the arms of the love of her life.
Things had been difficult lately. Not really in their marriage; that had always been and always would be solid and wonderful. Love had never been difficult for them. It was everything else around them and with their son's cancer, it was taking its toll on them all. They were facing the very real possibility of losing him in six months to a year and they didn't know how they were going to get through it.
The trip had been her idea and she had begged him to go. They needed this time as a family, away from the reality of their day to day lives, and mostly away from the hospital.
After their first day there, he admitted right away that she had been right. For this short week, they had been able to almost forget about their son's cancer. Everyone had and it was a blessing. But today, they would return to reality and she was not looking forward to it.
They had spent the morning in bed, making love and marveling at how even after fifteen years of marriage, the passion hadn't dulled and their love had only grown. If only they weren't facing a crushing death sentence with their son. Even together, they weren't sure how they were going to get through it.
Inevitably, they eventually arrived at the airport to catch their flight and she couldn't know that was when their lives would irrevocably change forever.
To look at them, they seemed like a typical family, though she and they had always known that the love they shared was unlike most. Not very many people believed in true love anymore, let alone actually found it. But they had and it was prevalent and evident in all aspects of their lives.
But to the casual passerby, they seemed very typical. David and Margaret Nolan. The Nolan family. They had been married for fifteen years now and had twins, a boy and a girl. Then there was David's younger sister Emma, who had also been Margaret's best friend since they were all kids. Since childhood, Mary Margaret had been a part of their family and the three of them had always been thick as thieves.
Mary Margaret's mother had died when she was just ten and it was then that she dropped the Mary in her name and started going by Margaret. Her mother had always called her Mary for short and it became pretty painful then. Emma and David had always affectionately called her MM anyway, so Margaret was an easy transition for them. After her mother Eva died, her father, who was a wall street King, poured himself into his work even more than before and her nanny, Johanna, had mysteriously quit after Eva died. But Margaret spent most of her time at the Nolan house anyway at that point.
David and Emma's parents, Ruth and Robert, loved her as their own. Unfortunately, Ruth was killed not long after Eva, when Emma was only ten and it had been devastating. She had been a victim in a convenience store shooting. Robert, a former alcoholic, had fallen off the wagon at that point, leaving David to grow up faster than he should have and take care of his little sister. Fortunately, he had Margaret around to help him a lot. Emma always joked until this day that her brother and his wife might as well be her parents, despite only being a couple years older than her.
Knowing of her husband's drinking problem in the past, Ruth had left her children the life insurance money in a trust. A mysterious financial adviser saw to it that the money was used to make sure they were cared for and never lost their house. They had never met the financial adviser, as he had always sent a man named Jefferson to oversee their finances until David turned eighteen.
Robert had spent the rest of their childhood, mostly drunk and in and out of rehab. The final straw had come when he was arrested for drunk driving and David gave him an ultimatum that he either got help or they were done with him. He had been getting ready to graduate high school at that point and ashamed of himself, Robert finally got clean and saved himself from losing his family.
Things had been ugly between David and his father for a very long time, but since Robert hadn't touched a drop in almost fifteen years, they had rebuilt something of a relationship and Emma had too. But when she had issues and problems, it was always David and Margaret that she went to. Her same-age parents as she liked to joke.
Though home life had been a little rough at times, he knew he handled it better than most would have because of Margaret. They were that couple that had already been holding hands in eighth grade and despite all the razzing from their peers, their love had only grown as they did.
David and Margaret married during their college years, as they refused to wait any longer. Robert couldn't have been happier for his son and the young woman that he considered a daughter. He was still deeply ashamed of his past alcoholism and eternally grateful that they had allowed him to be involved in that joyous occasion. He had cried and told them that he knew Ruth was looking down and smiling upon them too. They knew it to be true too, for Ruth had adored Margaret as well.
Robert had come on the trip with them, ecstatic to spend that time with his family and especially his grandchildren. He spoiled them rotten and it was obvious that sometimes he was trying to overcompensate since he wasn't there for David and Emma the way he should have been. But none of them begrudged him that and the kids loved spending time with their grandpa. The trip was ending now though and reality was getting ready to set back in and he couldn't help but smile at his wife and sister, as the former prodded the latter about the marriage proposal that had sent his sister running away from home, even if it was only for a week.
"MM…" Emma complained, as Margaret brushed a hand through her blonde hair.
"Say yes to Killian...he loves you and not everyone finds true love. Your brother and I did and we want that for you too," Margaret said. David looked up from the magazine he was flipping through to give her a smile that had her shooting him a glare.
"She's not wrong…" he chimed in.
"Shut up," Emma complained.
"Killian Rogers loves you...you should be running to the altar. We did," Margaret argued.
"You just want to plan a wedding and we are definitely not you guys. You two really are that all encompassing true love that seriously doesn't really exist anymore, except with you two, because you're weird," Emma argued. Denial and bluster were two of Emma's best moves.
"Okay, forget comparing yourselves to us, cause we are pretty amazing," Margaret said, casting a coy look at the man of her dreams.
"But love is love and you need to stop torturing yourself like you don't deserve happiness or something," Margaret told her.
"You know she's right," David agreed. She rolled her eyes. Sometimes their ability to be in sync and finish each other's sentences was endearing and sometimes, like now, it was annoying.
"How can you two be so infuriatingly optimistic?" she demanded to know in frustration.
"I ended someone's life...how can you think I deserve happiness after that?" Emma murmured. He watched affectionately, as his wife put her arms around her sister-in-law.
"It was an accident," she reminded her.
"It doesn't change the fact that someone is dead because of it," Emma reminded her.
"Maybe...but denying yourself happiness isn't going to bring that person back. You have to forgive yourself so you can heal. And take it from two people that know...love can heal anything," she said, as her emerald eyes met her husband's cerulean ones. He knew she was speaking from a place of hope. Hope that they could get through what might be ahead for them with their son.
And with that thought, he cast a loving glance at their twin children. Olive and Henry. They were ten now, but whether or not Henry was going to reach eleven was in serious question and weighing on them all heavily.
It was that moment though that Margaret would later recall as the moment that would change her life forever.
"Attention passengers. Flight 23 is overbooked. We are offering vouchers to anyone willing to take a later flight to New York," the announcement came.
"Whoa...that sounds like a great idea," Emma said, as she jumped up and headed for the counter. Margaret sighed.
"I'm not sure she should be alone," she said, as she bit her bottom lip.
"You have that teacher-in service early in the morning," he reminded her.
"I know…" she said dejectedly. He rolled his eyes and got up.
"I'll stay with her," he offered and she smiled up at him, before tugging him down by his collar so she could kiss him.
"I love you, my Prince Charming," she cooed in his ear and it always made him get shy. She had been calling him that since they were just kids and always told him how well it fit him.
"If I'm Prince Charming...that makes you my beautiful, fair Snow White," he said, as she watched him follow Emma fondly.
"Mom...can I stay with Dad?" Henry asked anxiously. She glanced at her husband and he smiled.
"Yeah, we can have guy time and your mom can have girl time with Ollie. We'll only be a couple hours behind you," he said.
"Okay...go on," she urged, as she kissed his cheek.
"Guess you and I can watch one of those sappy rom-coms that the boys hate when we get home," she said, as she nudged her daughter. Olive smiled.
"Okay...but if I'm being honest, I kind of like the super hero movies like Dad and Henry," she admitted. Margaret chuckled.
"Well, don't tell them...but me too," she agreed.
That had been it then or so she thought. She had kissed her husband and her son goodbye, expecting to see them in just a couple hours. But the plane carrying her husband, her son, and her sister-in-law disappeared, shattering her world and sending her into despair. She was a shell of her former self and spent months in bed. She felt so bad once she had finally managed to pull what was left of herself together too. Her father-in-law had stayed with them and pretty much cared for Olive and her the whole time. But he didn't seem to hold it against her and though she knew she would never be the same again, she managed to return to a bit of a normal routine six months after their plane went missing. She apologized to her daughter for forgetting her and they resolved to be a united front from then on, facing life without the rest of their family together now.
Her father-in-law returned home and then it was just her and Olive most of the time, though he checked in frequently. She returned to teaching her fifth grade students and what people would consider a normal routine. But she was just going through the motions at that point.
Naturally, after a couple years, the people around her started to drop hints that perhaps it was time for her to move on. It was subtle at first. They would drop hints that they knew someone that would be perfect for her and that they could introduce her. She declined at first. She had already met the perfect person for her and he was gone now.
She knew people started to think she was weird. After all, people moved on all the time after they lost their spouse. They just didn't seem to accept or understand that when she had lost David, it was like he had taken half her heart and soul with him. She knew what it sounded like so she never told anyone that. They could never understand the depth of her love for him.
But to keep people off her back about moving on, she started agreeing to have coffee or dinner with some prospects. She hated it all. If this was dating, then she wanted no part of it. Dating David had never been at all like this was, but then they were always so insync that it had never been awkward like it was with these other men.
It never went much beyond one date. She gathered that most of the men got the drift that she just wasn't into it. But there had been one doctor that she agreed to a second date with. Victor Whale, but that had ended up being a disaster. Their first dinner date had been amiable enough and then she had agreed to go for a drink with him after work the next night. But a little alcohol had resulted in her dissolving into her grief and she had been a mess. To his credit, he hadn't left and let her talk and cry on him. But then she learned why he had stuck around and he was kissing her soon up against a wall.
In her inebriated state, she had even made it all the way back to his place with him. In her grief, the idea of being held by a man again was very appealing. But in a moment of clarity, she had realized what was happening and how much she would later regret a one-night stand. She may have been a widow now, but her heart was still very much married to a husband that was lost to her.
Or so she thought, until November eleventh, two thousand and nineteen.
The plane was back. Flight eight two eight was back, five and half years after disappearing without a trace. Five and a half years after disappearing and shattering her world. Five and a half years after stealing her heart and soul, irrevocably fracturing her for the rest of her life, or so she thought.
Olive could only stare at the television screen in disbelief, as the news story broke and wasn't surprised when the glass in her mother's hand slipped from her grip and shattered on the floor. She gripped her phone and her hands shook, as she attempted to call Robert. Olive took pity on her and took the phone.
"Mom…" she said.
"Can it be?" she uttered. Her daughter smiled.
"I hope so…" Olive said, smiling at her. Her daughter had always insisted that her brother was out there and by extension, her father. The twin thing. But was it really true? Did she dare to hope that a miracle had happened?
"Remember what Daddy always told you…" she said.
"I will always find you," she could hear his voice in her head. He had been telling her that since they were just kids on the playground and he had never once broken that promise.
"I'll call grandpa," Olive said, as she dialed him, but it proved to be unnecessary, as Robert arrived at their door three minutes later. He had jumped in his car the moment the news broke and it was almost like she was in a trance, as he drove them to the airport. She didn't dare believe it yet; not until she saw them with her own eyes. But if it was true...then it was a true miracle and she was one of very few people in existence that was about to get not only a son and a sister back. But the love of her life; her soulmate back. If this was true...then she promised she would never ask God for anything else, because he had just answered every single wish she had ever asked for...
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teaboot · 5 years ago
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hello! i’m writing a story where a bunch of ghosts befriend a still-alive person, and i was wondering if i could ask you about cemetary caretaking in dms? (because that’s the setting, and i know nothing about cemetary caretaking.) or if not, could you point me in the direction of others who know more?
Yep! Keep in mind though that each Cemetary can have different rules about what markers, headstones, and offerings are allowed, so. There is that.
1. The older parts of the Cemetary are recognizeable because the headstones there are usually upright land in a bunch of varied shapes and sizes. They don't stand in tidy rows, and some of them sink into the ground and tilt or fall over completely. Pieces break off all the time, too, and can get launched back at you with a weedwacker or damage the lawnmower blades, so they have to be moved.
2. A serious concern for maintainance workers is potentially being hit by falling stones, so when they fall down, they tend to stay down until they are paid for to be properly replaced or repaired. My mom said she knows a guy who died that way.
3. Some stones from the late 1800's have weird dog-looking figures carved in- those are lambs, and are put on christian children's graves. They look odd when they erode.
4. Some older graves will be homemade, or have countries of origin included. Some will simply say "baby", "mother", or "father".
5. Some headstones only have one date- those are typically for infants who didn't live long, or were stillborn. Sometimes they won't have names, either, but a few do.
6. When cleaning a headstone, first you now as close as you can through rows, then you go to each individual headstone with a weedwacker and remove whatever's been left to cut the grass down. Then, you put whatever isn't broken or a hazard back as close as you can, and take a leafblower to the whole place so the loose clippings don't end up sticking all over and looking terrible. This takes twice as long when there's a whole pile of stuff, so some places won't let you leave anything at all. I believe in finding a happy medium, but that's me.
7. Loads of local critters and wildlife use headstones and other constructs as shelter. I'm always keeping my eyes out for small birds, snakes, toads, etc- toads are the most common, I try to move them to nearby woods, bushes, or finished areas so they don't get cut or run over.
8. I don't know about anyone else, but I liked to talk to the folks sometimes. A simple 'hey nice flowers' or 'sup kiddo nice truck'. I think it might be cause I used to work with a morgue and it was easy to chat with the people who came in, but Idk. Dead people aren't nearly as eerie or creepy as TV makes them out- I guess it's a tiny bit sad, especially with kids, but like... what can you do, you know?
9. You gotta watch where you step, because some places- especially older ones- are FULL of small holes or sudden dips. These can be from animals, but more often graves that don't get enough dirt on top or super duper ancient ones where things have caved underground let the earth sink in over time. It leaves about a person-sized divot that's easy to trip on and needs extra attention.
10. Some people like to leave candy or bottled drinks for their loved ones. I.... understand the sentiment, but. It gets gross, over time, when the packages fade and split, and critters get in, so most places don't allow it or throw it out.
11. Wal-Mart knicknacks. Are the bane of my life. Little hollow statues that break and get full of wasps nests, wreaths made in China where the flowers pop off, five hundred individual fabric flowers stuck into the ground one-by-one that you have to painstakingly remove and put back every single time, with sharp rusty metal ends and wire cores that pull the equipment apart... just. Ugh. I understand, I do, and I get that it's not something people generally think about, but... just. Whatever you're thinking of leaving, give it a quick shake. If something comes loose, I can't recommend leaving it.
12. Some headstones are homemade by friends or family, with glass beads or shells in cement. Those are sweet,and I like to see them.
13. The back of your neck will burn. No amount of sunscreen will prevent it. I recommend a collared shirt, or tying a bandanna around your neck. There is nothing else you can do.
14. Your whole body will be covered in sweat. I wore jeans, boots, a tank top tucked in, and a sleeveless T over top, with a bandanna, safety goggles, and a hat. The jeans got sweaty every day, and rubbed my upper thighs red-raw after the first three weeks. The skin grew back dark and dry and I need to apply moisturizer constantly to avoid cracking. My old sunburns have turned, and some of the worst ones left strips of dry, papery, red scarring that took forever to fade. Again, moisturizer and sunscreen. Constantly. I still have a callous at the base of each finger on both palms.
15. Your whole body will sweat. Your whole body will be covered in grass clippings. Some will fly up your ears and nose. Sometimes tiny rocks will hit your shins and face and feel like bee stings. You have to towel off every couple hours and drink water damned often, because you will literally sweat full litres every day. You will attract flies. They will crawl on your skin. You will learn to ignore them, because at least they aren't mosquitos or ticks.
16. There is no bathroom. The men will disappear in the woods or behind a tree. I would go to the bathroom at home and just make sure I didn't drink more than I could sweat, I guess. I'd take the worst days of my period off and stay home because there was no way to deal with that on an eleven hour shift with no washroom break. Ta-da. I still worked longer and harder than most of the men, though, so whatever.
17. It's unskilled hard manual labour, and our group had no toilets and long hours. Most of our workers came fresh out of prison, but I can't speak for everybody. We were small town, no-union farmers and kids with free time, and most our new guys quit after a day or two. Literally. We had one dude three years younger and over half my size who showed up for 45 minutes before quitting.
18. Your fingers get stiff and hard to move, and your elbows and feet get sore. It took me a while to make it more than two days in a row without a breather day in between, but three and a half was my max. By the end of it I'd be stumbling, missing spots, irritable, sore, and tired. Given a day or two to get back on my feet, and all was good. But there were some older folks who'd been doing that work for thirty years without a day off, and Damn. They've got my respect.
19. The skin on your feet and hands gets hard like leather. Be ready for that.
20. The older guys, or whoever's worked there longer, will have stories about some of the graves. Special ones they're extra careful with, or spots where old school buddies or family is buried. I'd like to say we treat them all equal, but I guess you can't help but be a little more thorough for the young mom who's daughter just turned nine, or the baby from 1920, or the brothers who died in a house fire. It's like... we're supposed to die from old age, after living a full life, right? It sucks a little harder when you know someone didn't get to have that.
21. You can't work through rain or lightning. You see a strike overhead, you haul ass to the truck and see if you can wait it out. That shit'll blow the bark off a tree.
22. You lose weight, gain muscle, turn darker, and your hair bleaches out at the ends. After about a month I was five pounds lighter, with bigger biceps and shorter hair 'cause it was too hot to leave long.
23. Water grass. Is hell. It's thick, it grows fast, it loves rain, and it's a bitch to cut. It will grow a foot high in two weeks, I shit you not. You gotta come back two, three times a month to keep it down.
24. Hearing damage from not having proper protection is a noticeably advancing issue
Best part of the job: feeling yourself get stronger, seeing your work at the end of the day, plenty of time to think and daydream, regular eating and sleeping schedule, easy to save money because you have long hours and no time to spend anything.
Worst part: physical discomfort, aches and pains, the repetition makes it feel like an ordeal of Greek damnation, always exhausted, coworkers keep quitting.
I can't think of anything else right now but ill update if I can! Hope this was helpful!!! :D
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nanshe-of-nina · 5 years ago
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Wizarding Russian Empire and USSR || Sarafian-Kostov family
Zabel Afanasiyevna Sarafian (3 December 1852 – 23 June 1937) Zabel was born in western Georgia on the coast of the Black Sea to a halfblood family. Her father, At’anas Sarafian, was a somewhat prosperous Armenian wizarding merchant. She had one older brother, and three older sisters. At’anas was an extremely conservative and controlling man who was so protective of his daughter's chastity, he didn't even want them to marry on the grounds that no man would be good enough for them.
When she was 16, however, she met secretly met a handsome young Crimean Tatar who called himself Anastas Timurovich Kostov and quickly came to believe that she was madly in love with him. Shortly after, they eloped back to the Crimea together. Her father was enraged when he was and declared that Zabel was dead to him. At some point, at her behest, he converted to the Armenian Apostolic Church (having been raised as a Sunni Muslim) and they married shortly before the birth of the first child, a daughter named Ripsimiya. They then had two sons, Afanasiy and Ivan, in 1872 and 1873. Shortly after the birth of Ivan, Zabel found herself longing even more to see her family again. This longing was increased by the fact that her new husband was not the perfect man of her dreams he’d first appeared: he was uninterested in seeking work, preferring to live off other people as long as possible and she suspected that he was often unfaithful.
In 1874, her father died and she decided to attempt to take her three children with her to attend his funeral, hoping they could reconcile. Things did not go that way. Her mother informed her that her father had died of a broken heart because of her betrayal. Meanwhile, things got even worse when she received word from the Crimea that her husband (whose name at birth was actually Timur Chingizovich Bulatov) had married another woman in Sunni Muslim ceremony. Without any place to go, Zabel had little choice but to remain in Georgia. After six months, her mother and sisters caved and allowed her and her children to live with them. They soon became rather fond of her children, but their relationship with each other remained strained. 
Zabel never saw her Bulatov/Kostov again, but received sympathetic letters from his father, Chingiz Arslanovich Bulatov, who denounced his son as a worthless creature she was better off without, but she had best keep their children on a short leash so that they wouldn’t grow up to be like him.
Her youngest son, Hovannes/Ivan, died when he was six and afterwards, she pinned all her hopes on her second-born, Afanaisy (who first began using the surname Kostov in the 1890s), and was determined that he would get a formal education. She managed to get him admitted to Koldovstortez on a scholarship, but he was expelled in 1889, which prompted her brother, Sarkis, to declare that he was taking after his worthless father. Zabel had little contact with her only son afterwards, though she was present for the births of his children in 1903 and 1905. After the death of Selardi Vardanovna Vardanyan in 1906, though, all contact was broken off and she afterwards continued to live with her three sisters, all of whom never married. In 1914, her widowed daughter, Ripsimiya, was crippled for life after a fall from a broomstick and returned home to their mostly wizarding village.
Zabel, Ashkhen, and Ripsimiya were all moved into a comfortable home in Batumi in 1922 at the behest of Kostov, shortly after he’d reunited with his first two children, Avdotya and Ivan. Previously, during the Civil War, Zabel also convinced her son to marry Lyudmila Konvalinkova, a half-Czech, half-Russian witch he’d had a daughter, Yuliya, by in 1914, after Lyudmila and Anfisa Zoranovna Krupina asked for her to intercede with her son.
In the 1930s, she became extremely fond of both of the Aslanyan sisters, Anahit and Nane, and their brood of children. In her memoirs, Nane Aslanyan’s stepdaughter, Valentina Vyalitsyna, recalled Zabel as a mischievous and clever old woman with a fondness for love songs and dirty jokes who clearly deeply loved and missed her only son.
Ripsimiya Anastasovna Sarafian (25 February 1870 – 9 October 1944) The eldest of the three children of Anastas Kostov and Zabel Sarafian, Ripsimiya was raised in a mostly wizarding village on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia by her mother, three aunts, and maternal grandmother after her father abandoned their family. The youngest child, Hovhaness (or Ivan in Russian) died of an illness when he was six-years-old. Because their family were able to afford Koldovstortez’s fees for only one child, she was educated at home. As a child, she was very close to her younger brother, even though she somewhat resented that their mother constantly favored him. Because of her strong dislike of her father, she used her mother’s surname, Sarafian, all her life.
She was a self-taught herbalist as well as a midwife for local witches, having becoming the apprentice of Barbale Maisuradze, the mother of Armazi Vashadze, in 1887. Long misidentified as a spinster, Ripsimiya actually married a half-Armenian, half-Georgian squib named Sanasar Haykovich Mirzoyan in 1889, who was also the older brother of the notorious revolutionary terrorist, Baghdasar Haykovich Mirzoyan. How this misconception arose isn’t clear; either Kostov himself mislead people or it was the result of assumptions made by British historians.
After Kostov and Baghdasar were expelled from Koldovstortez in 1889, they briefly lived with Ripsimiya and her husband in Batumi while becoming involved in revolutionary activities, but were forced to flee in 1890, after the Storozhey raided their home. In September, she gave birth to a stillbirth daughter, which she blamed on the Storozhey for falsely prosecuting on her “innocent” brother and brother-in-law. Over the next thirteen years, she had four miscarriages, three more stillbirths, and her only living child, a son named Sarkis, died at the age of 3 in 1895. Despite their sadness over their lack of children, Sanasar and Ripsimiya’s marriage was still nevertheless an extremely happy, loving, and passionate one.
In 1903, she and her mother received an owl from Kostov informing them that he’d gotten married and his new wife was pregnant. Zabel was simply delighted, but privately wondered what kind of husband her son would make, while Ripsimiya was insulted that he hadn't bothered to write before. Nevertheless, as a midwife, she helped deliver her new niece on 1 May 1903. Kostov was only able to return to Georgia in March and left to go into exile (though he was vague about where) with his wife and daughter. Selardi and her daughter later returned to Georgia in November 1904 after finding out that she was pregnant again, because she wanted have Ripsimiya deliver the child. Selardi gave birth to another child, a sickly son named Ivan, in February 1905. Around the same time, Sanasar, who was in Baku with Kostov and Baghdasar, was one of the many who murdered in the anti-Armenian riots. Ripsimiya was distraught by his death and refused to ever marry again. Until the day she died, she dressed in black and wore a locket with a lock of her dead husband’s hair in it. Because of her husband's murder, she thereafter developed a lifelong grudge against Azeris.
But worse was yet to come. In August 1906, young Ivan fell gravely ill and it seemed likely that he would most likely die and Selardi became sick with grief. She prayed all night to ask God to spare her son. It seems as if her prayers were answered, because Ivan recovered, but his mother then sickened and looked to be at death’s door. Ripsimiya sent word to her brother, who rushed back to Georgia, only for Selardi to die the following day on 23 September 1906. Kostov was grief-stricken. Two days after Selardi's funeral, Ripsimiya tried to comfort him, because she understood the pain of losing a beloved spouse, but rebuffed her, insisting that she couldn't understand and acted sulkily when she reminded him that he had two children to remember Selardi by. The conversation turned into an argument when he made it clear that he was planning to leave again. She accused him of being exactly like their father and reminded him that she had also lost her spouse, which he might have remembered if he wasn’t so self-obsessed. Kostov said nothing in response and began packing a bag and left. In hindsight, that was the end of their good relationship.
Kostov never forgot what she said to him and held against her for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, the Vardanyans begged Zabel, Ripsimiya, and the aunts to allow them to raise the two children, as they were all they had left of Selardi. The Sarafian women agreed, but visited them often.
Revolution During and after the Revolution, Ripsimiya continued to live with her mother in the Caucasus and played no role in her brother’s rise to power. By this point, she was an invalid as a result of numerous pregnancies in quick succession and an ill-timed fall in her early forties. Secretly, she wrote often to her sister-in-law, Lyudmila, and her nephew, Ivan, and sympathized over their repeated clashes with her brother and asked them to visit her if they needed to get away.
However, she may have been indirectly and partially responsible for the probable assassination of her former brother-in-law, Baghdasar Mirzoyan, in 1923 on her brother’s orders. In addition to behaving increasingly erratically, in 1921, Mirzoyan had boasted while drunk, that he’d regularly “comforted” the widowed Ripsimiya between 1906 and 1907. Whether he was telling the truth is unknown, but such gossip circulating did nothing to improve Kostov’s already strained relationship with his sister.
She played a direct role in role in politics only once, when Armazi Vashadze begged her in 1930, to intercede with her brother to pardon Ripsimiya Sarkisovna Nazarian, his sister-in-law and her namesake (as she had delivered Nazarian in 1891). Though generally uninterested in politics, she agreed to try for once, while also writing to Nazarian and advising her to grovel. Whether or not her plea and advice had any effect is unknown, but Nazarian was indeed temporarily forgiven in 1933.
In 1932, her sister-in-law and her brother’s children all visited her and Zabel in Georgia. Lyudmila also took two of her sisters and their children along for the visit. In her memoirs, Vlasta Ilyinichna Andropova, daughter of Dragomira Konvalinkova, vividly recalled Zabel and Ripsimiya. She said Zabel was extremely kind and friendly to everyone, even though she had trouble talking to them, because she was only spoke Armenian and Georgian, and insisted on giving all the children presents. Ripsimiya, on the other hand, was a dour, gloomy, and boring woman whose conversation was limited to three topics: religion, illness, and death.
After Lyudmila’s death, Kostov asked her to come to Lysaya Gora to care for his three teenage daughters. She refused, saying that she didn't like the climate and couldn’t leave their mother, but he could send his girls to come live with them instead. He didn’t like the idea, though, and instead let the subject drop. After her mother’s death in June 1937, she was joined by her nieces, Avdotya and Zoya, after Zoya’s husband, Vardan, and his family were all arrested on her father’s orders. Like her nieces, Ripsimiya was stunned at this development, but didn’t even bother to question her brother about it, as she knew she'd get no answer.
Death In the middle of 1942, Ripsimiya fell seriously ill and her condition worsened throughout 1943. When it became clear she was dying, Avdotya asked her aunt if she wanted to send for her brother. She refused, saying, “Don’t bother. There’s been no love between us for thirty years or more and what's the use pretending now?”
She finally died 9 October 1944, with three of her nieces at her side, and was buried without fanfare. Avdotya tactfully changed her aunt’s last bitter statement into a wish not to bother her brother, but she and her sister later admitted the truth in the 1960s, after their father’s death.
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