#also Lucas is a very good liar :D

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

@steddiemas Day 6 - Baking & Cookie Decorating

pairing: pre-steddie | word count: 1,911 | rated: G

A couple days later finds Eddie on his way to Steve’s house at the early as fuck hour of 8:30am

“AARrugh–fuuck!” he curses again, trying to stifle down another cracking yawn, “It should be illegal to be up this early.”

“You mean the normal time people get up?”

“No, normal is lunchtime. Realistic is two.”

“God, you’re such a loser.”

“And yet you still hang out with me.”

“Uh, no. I hang out with Steve and El and Lucas and sometimes Dustin. You’re just there by association.”

“Ouch Red, that hurts my soul.” He winces dramatically 

“What soul?”

Eddie grins at her, “Touché, Maxine”

Her tiny, pointy knuckles meet his bicep as he pulls Bessie into the Harringtons’ driveway.

They’re having a pre-thanksgiving dinner with the party before they all have actual Thanksgiving with each of their families, and Max insisted on coming over early to help Steve with preparations.

“If we don’t go help, he’s going to do it all by himself you know.”

“Robin will be there, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, he’s gonna do everything by himself. You know Robin is moral support at best.”

“And what are we gonna be, huh? You think I’m any better?”

She had huffed at that. “We’re going, Munson.”

So, here they are. Like Eddie suspected, as soon as they breach the front door, Robin is visible on one of the stools at the island, sleep rumpled and a mug in hand, and Steve is standing at the stove already.

“Good ‘morrow to you, Lord and Lady Buckley,” Eddie bellows, startling them both, “Myself and the young Miss Mayfield have traveled far to be with you on this momentous day, and to offer to you our services.” he gives them a dramatic bow, glancing up through his lashes.

Steve is grinning, Robin has collapsed forward onto the counter in front of her, Max is groaning. 

He stands straight again, “We may only be a couple of lowly peasants in your Kingdom, but the call to help was unavoidable.”

“Eddie did not want to come help, lemme make that clear.”

“Shut up, Max”

“You shut up, liar–”

“Okay, okay!” Steve laughs, interrupting them, “Many thanks to you both for making the trip; your help will be greatly appreciated.”

Eddie’s stomach goes soupy, he loves when Steve plays along.

“So, what can we do?” he asks, clapping his hands once and rubbing his palms together like he’s itching to get started.

“Well, it is still pretty early (“I told  you.”, “Shut up, Eddie.”), so right now you can help by telling me how you like your eggs.”

The turkey goes into the oven halfway through breakfast, Steve having prepped it last night, so Steve starts to cipher out what else he needs to make.

“Dustin said that Claudia was making a pumpkin pie for us, so we’re set there, I’m making the sweet potato casserole, Lucas said that his mom is sending over a pan of greens with him and Erica, Robin has the stuffing covered–”

“I make a mean can of Stovetop.” Robin cuts in from the sink where she’s washing the few dishes from breakfast.

“Pretty much everyone else is bringing something…” Steve looks lost for a moment, then his expression turns tense, that crease between his brows cuts deep into his skin.

Max must see this too because she says, “What about cookies?”

“Cookies?”

“Yeah, like the sugar cookies you made everyone a tin of last year?” “You made everyone sugar cookies?? Why wasn’t I given any?” Steve rolls his eyes, “‘Cause last year you were just Eddie “The Freak” Munson,”

“Hey–I resent that,” Eddie pokes Steve in the chest, “I’m still Eddie “The Freak” Munson, thank you very much.” “Many apologies, Your Freak-ness, how ever shall I make it up to you.” His tone is sarcastic, but the words make a whole matter of unsavory retorts gather on Eddie’s tongue.

“C’mon Steve, I want those damn cookies!” Max demands, smacking a palm onto the counter to really sell it.

“Hey! Language.” 

“I also want some of those damn cookies.” Robin agrees.

“Yeah c’mon Stevie, I didn’t get to have any last year and now I’m curious.” “Dude, they’re the best cookies ever. I hate that he only makes them once a year.”

“Okay, okay, fine! Lemme make sure I have everything I need.”

He does, so he gets to work as requested demanded, though he does send Max and Robin (with her newly acquired license) to the store for powdered sugar. “For the frosting..I’m sure you want frosting on these, right?”

Eddie sticks close after they leave, watching Steve work and passing him ingredients.

At one point, Eddie scoops up a cup of flour for him, only to have Steve wrap his hand over his on the handle of the cup and start to stir the flour in it with a fork.

“Uh, do you always need to stir your flour before putting it in?” Is that a thing? Eddie has never done that, even within the few times he’s ever actually baked something before.

“You do if the person scooping packs it into the cup like this.” Steve teases, spinning the fork around in his hand to scrape the now-overflowing heap of flour off the top of the measuring cup and back into the bag with the handle. “Flour doesn’t get packed down to measure, fluffy and loose measurements only.” Steve pulls Eddie’s hand forward and upends the cup over the mixing bowl. 

Eddie’s mouth feels like it’s coated in flour.

“There! Perfect. I’ll need another cup just like that one.” Steve smiles and passes the fork to him.

He lets Eddie's hand go and turns back to the bowl, mixing the flour in with one of those rubber scraping spatulas instead of using the electric beater he’d used for the eggs and sugar.

“So,” Eddie re-wets the inside of his mouth so he can talk correctly, “Why do you only make these once a year?” He carefully scoops up another helping of flour.

“They’re usually Christmas cookies and I– aw shit.”

“What?”

“I don’t have any non-Christmas themed cookie cutters.”

Eddie immediately thinks back to one of the last Christmases he had with his mom. Ouch…damn it. 

He gulps down the lump in his throat. “Do you have any empties?”

Eddie can feel Steve watching him as he works, carefully cutting the tops and bottoms off a good sized bag of empty soda and beer cans over the sink. He cuts the new aluminum rectangles in half lengthwise and sets the strips aside.

“You’ve made these before?”

“Yep! Easier to make your own than buy them, y’know?”

Steve chuckles, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“My mom liked to make new ones every year, so I have a lot of practice doing this,” Eddie pushes on, picking up a strip of metal and folds it in half lengthwise. “We’ll need some tape for the open side, but basically you fold it like this, shape it however you want, and fold the ends over each other to keep them closed.”

He demonstrates, making a messy heart shape pretty quickly. “You can link more than one together if you want, too. Make bigger ones…Ta da!” He shows off the ‘finished’ shape.

“Sweet!”

By the time Robin and Max return, Eddie’s got a pile of aluminum strips ready to go, and Steve’s done with the dough.

“Perfect timing, ladies, come help us make cookie cutters.”

Max pulls up a stool immediately, grabbing a couple of the metal strips, but Robin huffs. “Aw, what? We have to make the cookie cutters first? I thought I’d come home to a house full of cookies, Steve.”

“The dough has to chill in the fridge for an hour, and we don’t have any Thanksgiving themed ones.” Steve says, rolling his eyes at her. “Also, you weren’t even gone that long!”

Robin pulls up a stool, “Excuses, Steven.”

Turns out, there’s not that many shapes associated with turkey day, so after the obligatory pumpkin shape, and a surprisingly well-shaped turkey-looking blob, they make whatever else they feel like.

Robin uses a ruler she found in a drawer to fold some ridges into a circle shape, “It’s a pie, obviously.”, Steve uses a few strips to make what he says is an elephant, “Yeah, an elephant. These are the two ears and this is the trunk.”, Max uses two of the strips to make some sort of flower shape with five pointy petals, “A…poinsettia?” Eddie asks; “A demogorgon.” Steve and Max say at the same time. Ah., and Eddie spends his time linking a good few together to make the Hellfire demon. 

“I hope this doesn’t get all blob-y.”

Steve looks over at his creation, “It shouldn’t, the dough holds up pretty well when it’s baked; that’s why you let it chill for a bit.”

He stands then, retrieving the saran-wrapped hunk of dough from the fridge and gets to work rolling it out.

Eddie watches the muscles in his arms bunch and pull, and, like a sap, thinks about how they’d feel wrapped around him. He likes hugs, okay? Sue him.

The four of them cut batch after batch after batch of cookies (each of them sneaking bites of the dough as they do), and by time they are baked and fully cooled, the sweet potatoes are in the oven, the stuffing is sitting done on the stove, there’s a sheet of rolls waiting to go in after the casserole, the others start to show up.

“Oh sweet, cookies!” Dustin’s finger immediately dunks into the bowl of frosting Steve just finished whipping up.

“Hey! Hands off, asshole, I still need to color some of that.

Steve passes Eddie a bowl of the stuff, a couple of drops of food coloring sitting on top. “Mix that up, will you?” I’m making the orange, that’s yellow.”

Eddie gives him a mock salute, “You got it boss.”

“Henderson, grab the sprinkles, you’re helping with these.”

The island is a disaster by the time they are done frosting the cookies. There’s colored sugar everywhere, loose M&Ms, broken pretzels, and there’s even a glob of red frosting hanging precariously from the underside of one of the far cabinet doors (somehow).

Each of the new arrivals grab up a couple of the cookies to decorate once they get in, adding their own goofy-looking additions to the heap.

Mike and Nancy are the last to arrive, toting a huge bowl of fluffy mashed potatoes, and they dig into the turkey soon after. 

They eat and eat and eat, laughing and eating some more, that by the time anyone gets around to the cookies, the very outside of their frosting has hardened to a crust and the inside is still soft and sugary.

“Oh my god, Steve.” Eddie moans, “This is the best cookie I’ve ever tasted.”

Steve’s face flushes pink, but he smiles wide. “I’m glad you like them, Eds.”

“I need to take some home to Wayne.”

Steve passes him a tupperware container of their creations as he’s leaving, along with an index card with Steve’s distinct handwriting is scrawled across it; the recipe for the cookies.

Eddie gets home that night just before Wayne heads in for his shift. “Y’have a good day, son?” he asks, plucking out one of the cookies from the container Eddie holds open for him as they pass each other in the doorway.

He smiles wide, “Very..”

other parts! Pt. 1 (Day 1) | Pt. 2 (Day 2) | Pt. 3 (Day 5) | Pt. 4 (Day 6) [YOU ARE HERE] | Pt. 5 (Day 7) | Pt. 6 (Day 11) | Pt. 7 (Day 13) | Pt. 8 (Day 18) | Pt. 9 (Day 21) | Pt. 10 (Day 25) also on AO3! this year

[thomas-mvller]

Cw: mentions of abuse

I saw it, to my dismay i saw it, i saw the video greenwood's girlfriend filmed of mason. I remember exactly what she said, she said "mason, stop" and if I'm not wrong he started cursing at her, telling her to shut up and do the thing. There was also that horrific video of her bleeding which ended up in every newslestt possible. Till this day i still don't understand how come she POSTED those videos on social media, shit went VIRAL on twitter and STILL people decided to side with him. Cristiano was summoned by a courthouse bc the woman FILED a lawsuit against him. Usamerican authorities gave him MULTIPLE chances to go and cooperate with the investigation, and upon refusal they SAID if he ever steps a foot on the united states he was going to be arrested for lack of cooperation. We ALL witnessed how he avoided going to the united states like the plague, even his new club at the time -juventus, who had already settled doing pre season at the US- EXCUSED HIM from attending pre season for "no apparent reason" even though we all heard the fair warning authorities gave, aka it was clear he wasn't participating in pre season bc he feared he'd be arrested. When arsenal had an unbeaten streak and stayed at 1st position at premier everyone shut up about partey's accusations, but when arsenal eventually lost the title suddenly everyone wanted partey out. Lucas hernandez's wife SUED HIM for assault but for whatever reason dropped the lawsuit, a couple of years later she filed for divorce and accused him on social media of completely forgetting about his children. Like these cases go on and on and yess the accusers have been dropping their cases but that doesn't mean they went "oh well, my scheme didn't work lmao" but rather them KNOWING they have zero to no support, that they have absolutely no chances against the professional football player with a fuckton of money and access to very good lawyers. Name ONE time male football fans (and even women) have actually supported one (1) one single solitary accusation of abuse made by a woman towards a football player. To their eyes their football boys are saints and all the accusers want is five minutes of fame. They literally don't believe victims and that's why it's hard for them to come forward with public accusations.

Just like it happened during the infamous d*pp vs heard trial: I'd rather look back and see i stood by a potential liar than ever defended a potential rapist

[lucas-taylor-rpg]

The Second It Began, Part 8

((Previously))

A few more minutes had passed. Lucas finished sipping his milk, prompting his father to comment, “Finally! Took you long enough.” Lucas frowned at him. The commander ignored that. He took the empty cup—and, much to his son’s disappointment, filled it up with more milk. Lucas frowned again. “Don’t give me that look, kid,” Taylor said while putting the cup back on the table. “You’ve got to drink.”

“No, I don’t,” Lucas replied. “I’ve had one cup, I think that’s enough for now. Actually, I think that’s enough for eternity.”

“Come on, it’s one cup,” Taylor urged. “Can’t you handle drinking just one more cup?”

“I can handle it with no problem,” Lucas claimed. “I just don’t want to.”

Taylor blinked. “Really? No problem?” he questioned. “It seemed to me you had a pretty big problem with the first cup. You were sipping it for half an hour.”

“I—” Lucas opened his mouth as if to respond, yet it took him a couple of seconds to find his words. Taylor raised his eyebrows at him. “That wasn’t because I couldn’t handle it!” the young man defended himself. “That was…” His voice trailed off.

“What?”

“You know what?” he said, leaning forward. “Here.” He grabbed the cup of milk and raised it to his lips. After giving his father a look, he downed its contents at once. Good grief, was it gross! He had to fight hard not to grimace at the taste—or, god forbid, puke. In spite of his efforts, there was a frown on his face as he put the empty cup down. He exhaled, then looked up at his father. “Happy?” he asked.

“Very,” Taylor said, smiling. “Want another one?”

“No!”

“Okay, then.” Taylor chuckled.

“I mean,” Lucas said, “I could handle it, you know? I could, believe me,” he insisted. He really did not want his father to think he was too much of a wimp to handle drinking something only because it did not taste great. “I just don’t want to because…” He paused for a second. “I want to save it for later.”

“If you say so…” Taylor took the cup and put it and the bottle into his bag. Afterwards, the commander leaned back. He eyed his son. The boy had been sitting in that chair for about an hour by then. While he had promised the kid two, he figured one was enough to get at once. “Hey, can I suggest something?” Taylor spoke up. “I know you still have an hour in my chair left, but how about you get it some other time? We could go walk through the rest of the colony now. I don’t know if I’ll get called away again later, and I was kind of hoping to get that done today.”

“Sure.” Lucas gave a nod. Immediately, his feet were down on the floor.

“Really?” Taylor asked while Lucas stood up. “You don’t mind?” He had not expected his son to agree so readily.

“To be honest with you,” the boy said as he stretched his body, “I was sitting in the same position for so long, it was starting to get uncomfortable.”

Taylor laughed at that. Lucas frowned once again.

(_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_)

They were walking through a part of Terra Nova which was surrounded by the wooden fence yet contained nothing but trees. His father insisted on showing him the entire colony, even the parts where nothing had been built yet. It was like walking through the jungle, except he knew he was (supposed to be) safe.

“Dad?” Lucas spoke up as they walked, prompting Taylor to look at him. “Can I ask you a question?”

“What?”

“Was it hard? Staying in the jungle on your own?” Lucas inquired. Taylor gave him a look, and Lucas added, “I mean, obviously, it must have been hard, but… I, I guess I’m trying to ask how hard it was. It’s just…” He paused, trying to find the right words. His father waited for him to finish the thought. “Well, you see, when they first told me what happened with the portal—that it malfunctioned when you walked through it and… Honestly, my first thought was: ‘He must be dead now.’ I mean, four months. That’s insane! The idea that you would survive out there, with all the dinosaurs and everything, all alone, for so long… It seemed impossible. But you survived.”

Taylor nodded. “I know what you mean,” he said. “If I had been in your place and heard this happened to somebody, I wouldn’t have thought they could have made it, either. Even now, having gone through it myself, I wouldn’t find it likely. It was a tough experience.”

“Yeah, but… you seem pretty okay now,” Lucas replied. “You’re still alive. You don’t even seem scarred by that. And I don’t mean just physical scars. I mean, you seem so happy here, like you really love this place. One would think you’d hate it here after what you went through.”

“Why would I hate it here? It’s not like it was Terra Nova’s fault I got stuck here alone.”

Lucas considered saying that Taylor clearly did not have a problem with hating people for things that were not their fault, but he decided to stay on topic. “So how hard was it?”

Taylor took in a breath. “Some days were… really hard. Some days were more or less okay,” he replied. “You know, it’s funny, most people think the hardest part about living out there was fighting off dinosaurs, but honestly? The worst part was being alone all the time.”

“Being alone?” Lucas questioned. “That doesn’t sound dangerous.”

“It wasn’t ‘dangerous’ per se; it was just hard to handle,” Taylor told him. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying living among dinosaurs wasn’t hard. It was. But it was more of a… occasional hardship. Every now and then, I’d have a really big problem, but most of the time, I managed to steer clear of them. But the isolation? That was constant. I couldn’t hide from that.”

“Yeah, but still,” Lucas said, “it’s just being alone… I’m not saying it sounds like fun, but it doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Actually, in some ways, I’d go as far as to say it was good for me,” the father claimed. “It gave me a lot of time to think, you know? About life, about what’s important and what’s not.”

“Really?” The boy chuckled. “You never struck me as the philosophical type.”

“Well, there are only so many things you can think about when you’re alone,” Taylor said, chuckling as well. “To be honest, sometimes I kind of want to go back there. Not for long, just for a day or two. Maybe even a week. Like on a vacation, to take a break, clear my head. It really helped me figure things out. On the other hand, being alone for long 118 days… That felt awful. Never being able to talk to anyone, not even see anyone… It’s not easy to be isolated for such a long time. It’s not easy at all. Frankly, there were days I worried I’d go crazy from the loneliness.”

Lucas was surprised to hear that. Taylor had never struck him as all that social, either. Sure, the man had friends, but they were only the people he knew from work. In fact, he barely spent any time with them outside of work. Lucas had not realized those people were so important to his father. “If you say so…” Besides, he still found it hard to believe that loneliness could be more difficult to deal with than the threat of becoming dino-food. After all, he had been lonely ever since his mother had died, and he was still alive nearly five years later. He did not think he would survive five years among dinosaurs. Shaking off that thought, Lucas spoke up, “So, Aristotle…” He chuckled to himself. “Amuse me: what is most important in life?”

A little smile appeared on Taylor’s face. “Family,” he answered.

“Ha!” Lucas laughed, and his father’s smile suddenly turned into a frown. “Come on!” the youth said. “You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you?”

Taylor blinked. “What, you don’t think family’s important?”

“I’m not saying I don’t think so. I’m saying I don’t believe that you think so,” Lucas clarified, his voice gaining a mere hint of bitterness.

“Oh, you think family doesn’t matter to me?”

Lucas shrugged and nodded at the same time.

Taylor snorted. “Why do you think I wanted you to come here, genius?”

“Because if I had stayed in 2143, you wouldn’t be able to get on my nerves?” His father shook his head while Lucas chuckled.

“Let’s be honest,” Taylor replied, “that’s probably the reason you came here.”

Lucas smirked. His father was not far from the truth. Not far at all.

(_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_)

They went around the whole colony. Taylor told Lucas not only about the places that were already there, but also about pretty much everything that was planned. Lucas wondered how many of those plans would come about before his employers would pillage the planet. He hoped it would not be a lot. The smaller the colony was, the easier it would be to defeat it.

Eventually, their walk led them back to where they had started—their house. “And, as you already know,” Taylor said, nodding towards the yellow building, “this is your new home.”

‘Home.’ It felt strange to hear his father say that. Not so much because it was new, but because he knew it would not last. Because he knew he could not want it to last. He had to hate it, did he not? A place he hated could not be considered ‘home.’

“Hey, I have an idea,” Taylor spoke up.

The young man looked at him, noting the father had a smile on his face. “What?”

“Why don’t we take a picture here?” Taylor suggested.

“A picture?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s take a photo in front of the house. Our first picture together in Terra Nova.”

Lucas considered it for a second, then shook his head. “I don’t want to take a picture.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t like taking pictures,” Lucas claimed.

Taylor wrinkled his brows. “Since when?”

“Since you want to be in the picture, too.” After all, wouldn’t his handsome face fade in comparison with his father’s ugliness? He mentally laughed at the thought.

“Oh, come on! Just one photo, that won’t kill you,” Taylor insisted. He looked into the bag he was carrying and starting rummaging in it as he spoke, “Years from now, we can look at it and remember the early days of the colony and the time you arrived and how nice that all was.”

‘Nice’? Lucas had spent his first day feeling so sick he ended up vomiting, and Taylor still called it ‘nice’?

Finally, the father found what he was looking for. He pulled out a small, flat device with a tiny camera installed in it. He looked up at his son. “Let’s do this.” The man put his left arm around Lucas’s waist and pulled him in front of the house’s main entrance. Lucas groaned, but Taylor ignored that. Keeping his arm around the boy, he stood next to him. He raised his right hand, extending it before them. A screen on the device showed a preview of the picture they were about to take. They were standing a little too close in Lucas’s opinion (he would have preferred standing at least five feet apart), but he did not comment on that. Taylor smiled for the camera and got ready to capture the moment.

Realizing his father was not going to relent, Lucas complied and looked at the camera as well. The expression on his face, however, remained displeased.

“Come on, smile!” Taylor urged.

He did not feel like smiling, not in the slightest. Nevertheless, he wanted to get it over with, and so he forced a smile as bright and toothy as he could manage.

One second later, a quiet click was heard. Taylor lowered his hand. “There we go,” he said to himself. He tapped the device’s screen, and the image he had just taken reappeared. “Aw, look at us.” He chuckled, showing his son the photo.

It was an ordinary picture of two men, one young, at the mere beginning of adulthood, one older, with white hair to prove his years of wisdom. They were standing close next to each other, smiling at the camera. It looked sweet, actually. There was nothing in the picture to suggest it was fake. If it had been a photo of anybody else, Lucas would have been fooled into thinking the relationship between the two men was warm and loving. Into thinking the two led happy lives. ‘If only…’

“Isn’t it nice?” Taylor said, admiring the photograph. “You have such a pretty smile there.” It was not a smirk, it was not a grin of gloating amusement. The smile in the picture, while feigned, looked like a genuine smile of happiness. It was a beautiful sight in Taylor’s opinion. Not only because it meant his child was happy—a father’s greatest dream—, but also for the resemblance he bore to his mother. Taylor could always see Ayani’s features on Lucas’s face (to a certain extent, anyway), but nothing made it as obvious as the smile. “You should smile like that more often.”

“Oh, I smile plenty often,” Lucas claimed. “Just not when you’re around ’cause…” His voice trailed off. The boy gazed aside as if he was lost in thought. “You know, it’s strange,” he said, sounding confused in spite of the fact he was anything but, “I never feel like smiling when we’re together for some reason…”

Taylor narrowed his eyes, prompting Lucas to grin—not a happy grin, but a mocking one. The commander sighed. “Anyway…” He turned off the device and put it into his bag. “So now that we’ve finished our walk,” he said, looking up at his son, “what do you think of the colony?”

Lucas took in a breath. “Well,” he answered, “it’s no Chicago.”

Upon hearing that, Taylor furrowed his brows. “You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing.” Lucas shrugged. “Oh, please!” the commander replied, frowning. “That place is filthy; this world is pristine. Don’t tell me you’d rather live there.”

“I’m not saying that,” Lucas responded. “I’m just saying this place could use some work.”

“Believe me, people are working hard on it every day.”

Lucas did not find that hard to believe. If he were being honest with himself, the colony was bigger and built better than he had expected. For a place that had been founded mere five months earlier, he could see the beginning of a real town there. While impressive on the one hand (plus, he had to admit—the more advanced his new ‘home,’ the more comfortable his stay, however short), he was not glad there were such capable, industrious people.

“You know,” Commander Taylor spoke up, “there is one more place I want to take you to. And when we’re there, I promise you’ll see how great the colony is.”

“What place?”

Instead of answering, the corners of Taylor’s lips turned upwards. “It’s a surprise,” he said.

Lucas blinked. The look on his father’s face seemed rather sly. When he considered what a crazy place he had come to, the smile made Lucas feel a little nervous. “Seriously, where do you want to take me?” he asked again.

“Uh-uh. I’m not telling you,” Taylor insisted. “You’ll have to come with me and see for yourself.”

Lucas sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Can you at least tell me how long it’s going to take?”

“Not more than an hour.”

“An hour?” The boy thought about it for a moment, then said, “Okay, but I’m going to need to use the bathroom first.”

Upon hearing that, Taylor’s gaze narrowed. “You’re not sick again, are you?” he said, looking his son up and down. After all, the last time Lucas had announced he needed to use said room, he had gone there to puke.

“No,” Lucas assured him, “I just need to pee.”

“Okay, then.” Pleased to know that, Taylor nodded towards the house. “Go on.”

Lucas opened the front door and headed for the bathroom at the back of the house. In the meantime, Taylor walked into the kitchen. He put his bag onto the counter, then poured himself a glass of water.

A minute later, Lucas returned—with his right arm over his left shoulder. He glared at his father, eyes angry enough to kill. “Oh, no,” Taylor said when he took in what his son was doing. “Are you scratching again?”

“Yeah,” Lucas confirmed, scowling.

“I thought it stopped itching.” After all, Lucas had not scratched the whole time they were at his office. Nor while going around the colony. He had not even squirmed like he had while they had been watching the brachiosaurs.

“It did stop,” Lucas grumbled as he scratched his shoulder blade. “I don’t know. I guess when I was sitting there, I was thinking about other things…” He switched his hands, but the attempt was as futile as all his previous ones. “Then you asked me if I was sick again, and it got me thinking about how I was sick before and how I had the leech and how itchy it was, and suddenly it started itching again. This is your fault!”

Taylor gave a shrug. “Well, just stop thinking about it again.”

“I wish I could…” Lucas tried extending his arm as much as he could. His shoulder made a cracking sound, but he did not scratch his intended target.

“Your shoulder is cracking again.”

“I can hear,” Lucas all but snapped.

“Then stop scratching! You know you can’t reach the spot, anyway.” Lucas stopped, only to glare at his father, then resumed the desperate activity. His shoulder cracked once more. Taylor shook his head. “Lucas!” The son paused, looking at him. “Enough,” Taylor said. “Listen, when I take you to the place I want to take you to, I’m sure you’ll forget all about your itch.”

The young man frowned as his attempts to scratch proved to remain unsuccessful. He let his arm drop. “I hope you’re right.”

“I know I am,” Taylor said, sending the boy a little smile. Lucas began to walk towards the door, but Taylor stopped him. “Actually, you know what?” he spoke up. “I think I’m going to relieve myself, too.” Lucas nodded, then proceeded to scratch himself again. Why he was still trying was beyond Taylor’s comprehension; then again, Lucas had always been stubborn. Deciding not to comment on it further, Taylor reached for his bag. “Before I go…” The man took out the bottle of milk. When Lucas saw it, he could not help but groan. Taylor chuckled, then poured his son a glass and set it down onto the counter. “Enjoy.” Finally, he went to the bathroom.

Before his father could walk in, Lucas spoke up, “Dad?”

“What?” the man asked, looking back at his son.

“This might be wrong, but… Do you think it could be the gauze?”

“The itching?” Taylor questioned.

“Yeah,” Lucas replied, nodding. “I mean, I don’t know what it’s made of, but it’s not the same as my shirt. Do you think it could be the fabric?”

“Well, I don’t know, but…” Taylor shook his head. “I don’t think so. It’s probably just the wound healing.”

“I don’t know.” Lucas sighed. He tried to scratch himself with his left hand again. “Could you take it off?”

“I don’t know if that’s—”

“Just in case,” Lucas cut in. “It might not help, but maybe it will, you never know.”

Taylor flattened his lips for a moment. “Did the doctor say how long you should have it there?” he asked.

“Well, she only put it there because it was still bleeding a little. I’m sure it’s fine by now.”

Taylor walked toward his son. “Let me see.” Lucas turned around, lifting his shirt. There was a square of white gauze between the lower part of his shoulder blades, taped to his skin from top and bottom. The father took hold of the right edge of the upper tape and started peeling it off. Slowly, carefully, making sure not to disturb the bottom tape. Once the top was separated from Lucas’s skin, he took a look at the wound underneath. He frowned. “You’ve got a pretty big scab there,” he said.

“Is it bleeding?” Lucas asked.

“No, it doesn’t seem to be anymore.” After those words, he pulled off the bottom tape—fast. Lucas flinched. Given how gently his father had peeled of the top, he had not expected the sudden pain. Taylor heard Lucas let out a small gasp, and he could not help but chuckle at him. Lucas scowled. He pulled his shirt back down while Taylor threw the gauze in the trash. “Is the itching any better?” the man asked, looking up at his son.

Lucas shook his head. “No, it’s not,” he grumbled. He started to scratch himself once again. “It’s itching like crazy!”

“I told you it wasn’t the gauze,” Taylor replied, shrugging.

Lucas sighed. He was anything but happy about his father being right. “Just go to the bathroom… or whatever it is you wanted to do.”

Taylor turned around, walking towards the room in question. “And stop scratching already!” he ordered, looking at Lucas over his shoulder. “You know we agreed you’d only get two hours in my chair if you wouldn’t scratch.”

Lucas sighed again, but he lowered his hand, anyway. Taylor gave a nod, then went to the bathroom.

As soon as the door closed behind his father, Lucas began scratching his shoulder blade. The spot that itched, however, remained untouched.

He stopped a few seconds later. The boy shook his head. ‘This is useless,’ he thought, leaning against the kitchen counter. ‘I’ll never reach the spot on my own.’ Suddenly, he got an idea. What if he did not reach it on his own? What if he had help? Not his father’s help, of course; the man had made it clear he would leave Lucas to twist in the wind. But what if he had the help of an instrument? If he could not reach it on his own, perhaps he could find something around—a long, sharp object, preferably—to scratch himself with.

(_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_)

Commander Taylor walked out of the bathroom, only to hear Lucas utter a bathroom-related word. “Sheet,” Lucas said under his breath while staring at his right hand.

“Hey!” Lucas nearly flinched as he looked up at him. He lowered his hand, shielding it from Taylor’s view behind the counter. “Watch your tongue!” the father said.

“Sorry,” Lucas apologized.

Taylor went closer to the boy, eying him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Lucas quickly replied. “Doesn’t matter. Would you excuse me for just a second?” Sending his father a polite smile, he started to walk towards the bathroom.

The commander furrowed his brows. “Where are you going?”

“I need to pee,” Lucas claimed, not stopping in his tracks.

Taylor blinked. “You did that five minutes ago,” he said.

Lucas had reached the door by then. He opened it but did not walk in. Instead, he looked at his father and told him, “Yes, but then I drank the glass of milk, so now I have to go again.”

Lucas stepped into the small room while Taylor looked at the counter. The glass was standing at the same spot as before—and what more than that, not a single drop of milk was missing. “But the glass is still full.”

“No, it’s not,” Lucas called out from the bathroom, then closed the door.

Taylor looked at the glass once again. Unless he had gone mad and his eyes were deceiving him, it was full to the brim. He looked at the bathroom door, then back at the glass and back at the door. One thing he was sure of: Lucas had not gone to pee. He went over there. Not bothering to knock, he opened the door. He found Lucas crouching in front of the sink. The doors of the cabinet underneath it were open; he must have been searching it. However, as soon as he heard the bathroom door open, Lucas’s eyes shot up to his father. The youth scowled. “Excuse me!” he said. “Can’t I get some privacy? This is the bathroom.”

As he looked at him, Taylor noticed something concerning on Lucas’s hand—blood. A small amount of it, to be fair, but even that was more than there should have been. “What happened to your hand?” He bended over and tried to take hold of it to have a closer look, but the boy pulled away. “What—”

“Okay, just,” he cut in, looking up at his father, “just promise you won’t get mad.”

Taylor furrowed his brows. If his son was asking him not to get mad, that probably meant he would, in fact, get mad. However, he could see in Lucas’s eyes (the kid was staring hard at him—why was he not blinking again?) that he would not get an answer unless he complied. “I promise.”

Lucas studied his father’s face. He knew the man had broken similar promises in the past. Then again, he seemed to be in a good mood that day; perhaps he would not be angry. Lucas blinked and heaved a sigh. “My hand’s fine. I wiped that off my back,” he admitted. He got up from his crouch, getting on the same level as the commander. “I think I may have—accidentally, mind you…” Lucas paused for two seconds. Taylor raised his eyebrows, already suspecting how the sentence would end. “…scratched off the scab.”

“What?” Taylor replied, even though Lucas had said exactly what he had expected.

“I don’t know. I can’t see it, but—”

“Let me see.” Taylor went behind Lucas and lifted his shirt up. Sure enough, red was trickling down from the spot where the leech had bitten him.

Lucas tried turning his head back, but he did not manage to see the condition of the scab. “Is it off?”

“Mostly,” the old man confirmed. “It’s hanging there by one edge, but it’s not covering the wound.”

“Damn,” Lucas muttered while Taylor let go of the shirt. The boy crouched again, looking into the open cabinet.“Hey, where is the healing spray?” he asked. “Do we not have it?”

“Top shelf, in the back, but…” Taylor took in a breath. “Son, I think you might better go back to the infirmary.”

“What?” Lucas glanced up at him, then shook his head. He looked back into the cabinet. “No. Come on, it’s not that bad, is it?”

“Well, I don’t know how deep the leech bit you, but didn’t you say the doctor rubbed some ointment on the wound to help it heal?”

“So?”

“Don’t you think you might need the ointment again since you re-opened the wound? If the spray had been enough, she could have just sprayed it in the first place,” Taylor said.

“I’m sure the spray is enough. Ah, here,” Lucas said as he found what he was looking for. He took out a small, gray bottle of medical spray. He stood up straight and held it out to his father. “Can you spray it?”

“No.”

“Dad—”

“But I can take you to the infirmary.”

He did not want to go back there. Especially not with his father. The doctor would surely lecture him for scratching the wound. Then his father would find out he had lied about scratching being allowed. And then his father would scold him, too. He was hoping to avoid all that. Lucas shook his head. “I really don’t think it’s necessary.”

“Well, I really…” Taylor paused. “Actually, I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I’m not taking any chances.” He snatched the spray from Lucas’s hand and placed it onto the sink’s edge. “We’re going.” After those words, he headed out of the bathroom and to the front door.

Lucas took in a deep breath. His eyes traveled up towards the ceiling as he mentally asked higher powers he did not believe in for mercy. Afterwards, he followed his father.

Taylor was already at the door, but when he reached for the handle, he stopped. He turned around and looked back at Lucas, his eyes as narrow as his mind (at least where his son was concerned, or so Lucas thought). “How did this happen, anyway?” the man asked. “I thought you couldn’t reach the spot.”

“I couldn’t,” Lucas replied. “Not with my hands, anyway…”

“Oh. What did you scratch with?”

Lucas shrugged. “Just… something I found nearby.”

It was at that moment that Taylor’s eyes landed on the kitchen counter Lucas was standing next to. The answer was lying right there in plain sight. Taylor’s narrow eyes suddenly widened. “A knife?” he questioned incredulously. Lucas shrugged again. “Are you kidding me? You scratched a scab on your back with a knife? Of course you scratched it off! What were you thinking?!”

Lucas frowned. He had known his father’s promise not to get angry would be broken. “I wasn’t thinking. I was itching,” he grumbled.

Taylor shook his head, then opened the door. “Come on, you genius,” he said and proceeded to walk out.

Lucas stayed behind for a moment, fuming. His frown turned into a scowl. ‘Genius.’ Good god, he hated it when his father used that word ironically! He went after his father, but he slammed the front door shut when he left the house. Taylor did not seem to notice that.

After a few seconds, Lucas caught up to the old man. Together, they walked in the direction of the infirmary. Once again, Commander Taylor shook his head. “I told you to stop scratching,” he muttered. “I told you, but you just wouldn’t listen…”

The son sighed. “In my defense,” he spoke up, “the wound’s not itching anymore, so, you know… At least it worked. That’s a good thing, right?” Taylor sent him a glare. “Okay, I’ll shut up now,” Lucas concluded, looking away.

He walked the rest of the way in silence. When they arrived in front of the building that was the infirmary, Taylor held the door open for him. He took in a deep breath, then stepped inside.

Oh, he really hoped the doctor would not scold him…

(_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_)

“Come on, I told you not to scratch the wound.”

Damn it! The doctor’s tone sounded awfully similar to the one his father would use when admonishing him. Lucas frowned.

When Taylor heard what she said, Lucas’s ‘I’m sure it’s fine’ came back to mind. The father gave his son a look.

Lucas shrugged. “I forgot.” Taylor shook his head, seeing through the lie.

The doctor sighed, then said she was going to get more ointment.

(_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_)

“There we go,” the doctor said after cleaning the blood and applying the ointment. “But no scratching this time, all right? Just leave it be for the day. It’ll stop itching in a few hours. Okay?”

“O-kay,” Lucas uttered. What, did she think he was an idiot? That he had not learned his lesson? That he was too weak to control himself? He barely knew her (he did not even remember her name, in spite of the fact she had introduced herself to them when they had first arrived), but he already disliked her.

She stepped over to a nearby table, where she took some tape and a piece of gauze. As she was about to cover the wound, Commander Taylor stopped her. “Actually, you know what?” he spoke up. “I was thinking, do you have anything around here that could help relieve the itching? Another ointment or something?”

Lucas’s eyes snapped to his father.

“I can take a loo—”

“I don’t need another ointment,” Lucas interrupted her, glaring at his father. What, did great Commander think he was weak, too? Of course he did. In fact, he had held that opinion for as long as Lucas could remember. It gleamed in his eyes whenever he looked at his son.

“If you didn’t need it,” Taylor told him, “we wouldn’t be here right now.”

And there he had it. The look was confirmed by his words (not that it was necessary). Lucas scowled. “That’s not true!” he argued, telling it to himself as much as he was telling it to his father.

The doctor looked at him, then at Taylor. Taking a step forward, she said, “I will go—”

“Hang on!” Lucas stopped her. “I don’t want any ointment or anything else for the itching. I can handle it.”

Taylor eyed him, clearly not of the same belief. “Are you sure about that?”

“Positive.”

In spite of Lucas’s wish, the doctor still looked at Taylor to see if she should go get something for the itching or not. Apparently, it did not matter to her that he was an adult, that he was in charge of himself. In the doctor’s eyes, the great, greatest Commander Taylor ruled everyone. He really disliked her.

Taylor just shrugged when she looked at him, and so she proceeded to tape the square of white to his back. Before letting him go, she reminded him one more time not to scratch the wound. Lucas bit his lip. Hard. His nostril flared a bit, but he did not say anything in response. A part of him wanted to snap at her; however, he figured it would be best not to make enemies just yet. (Sure, he had to consider everyone there an enemy, but he did not want to be considered an enemy himself. He had to keep up appearances until he finished his job.) Instead, he decided to leave. He quickly put on his shirt, practically jumped off the bed and headed straight for the main exit without bothering to say goodbye.

Taylor followed him, wondering why it was that Lucas was walking so quickly.

Once they were outside the building, Taylor spoke up, “So are you ready for our trip?”

Lucas groaned.

“Well, gee, don’t be too excited.”

“Do we have to go now?” Lucas asked. “It’s been a long day.”

Taylor furrowed his brows. “It’s only afternoon. And you slept for almost twelve hours last night,” he said. “Are you all right?”

Lucas sighed. “I’m fine,” he lied.

“You don’t look fine.”

‘Oh, what do you know?’ Lucas thought in annoyance. Since when did his father not fall for the ‘I’m fine’ reassurance? True, he had not said it very convincingly, but he had not thought it would be necessary.

“What’s going on, son?” Taylor asked.

Lucas shook his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he replied. Taylor raised his eyebrows, tilting his head a little. Lucas stuck his hands into his pockets, shifting his weight on his feet. “Look,” he said, briefly glancing at the ground, “I’m… not in the best mood right now.”

“Is the wound itching again?”

“Not yet.” Thank god.

“Then why are you in a bad mood?”

“I don’t know. I just…” Lucas took in a breath, glancing away again. “Sometimes moods just happen, you know?”

Taylor heaved a sigh, then decided not to question his son any further. He suspected the mood was not random (although he was not sure of its cause), but if Lucas wanted to keep it to himself, he would not force him to do otherwise. “Well, trust me,” the father said, “the place I want to take you to will make your mood a lot better. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood there.”

‘I don’t think a place like that exists…’ “Let’s go, then,” Lucas said, forcing a smile. Taylor returned it with one that seemed a lot more genuine. After giving a nod, the commander started walking. Lucas followed him. “So where is it we’re going?” the boy inquired.

“First, we’re going for a car,” Taylor said. “We’re going to drive there.”

Drive? Was the place in the jungle? That did not seem safe. Then again, his father probably knew better if it was safe or not. Unless his father was taking him there to kill him… Geez, why did that thought occur to him again? Mentally shrugging it off, Lucas spoke up, “And we’ll be back in about an hour, right?”

“Yeah, probably,” Taylor confirmed.

Lucas gave a nod. “Can I get the second hour in your chair as soon as we come back?” he asked. He was not sure why, but sitting behind the dino-desk had felt empowering. He figured he needed that.

“Oh, you’re not getting the second hour,” Taylor said—rather nonchalantly, Lucas was disappointed to note.

As soon as he heard what his father said, Lucas stopped dead in his tracks. “What?”

Taylor came to a halt as well. He looked at his son and sighed. “I’m sorry, but that was meant to be a reward. You didn’t earn it.”

Lucas glared at him, but when Taylor returned the stare, his gaze softened. “But you promised,” the boy all but whined.

“The agreement was you’d only get two hours if you stopped scratching,” Taylor countered. “Which you clearly didn’t do.”

“But I—”

“Commander!” a familiar male voice interrupted their conversation. Upon turning his head in its direction, Lucas found Lieutenant Guzman rushing to them.

Commander Taylor took a few steps toward him. “Guz, what is it?” he asked.

When Guzman reached him, he explained the situation to Taylor. Lucas did not catch the whole conversation (partly because they were not standing right next to him and were using more-or-less quiet voices, partly because he just did not care enough to listen and so let his mind wander), but he overheard a mention of Washington and the barracks. Based on the little information he had, Lucas guessed his father would need to leave.

After a minute, Taylor and Guzman exchanged nods. While the latter began walking away, the former came back to Lucas. “I knew I would get called away again,” Taylor said, more to himself than to Lucas.

It appeared Lucas’s guess had been correct.

“Listen, I have to go now, but I’ll be back within half an hour. We’re going to go as soon as I come for you, okay?”

Lucas shrugged. “I guess…”

“Go back to the house and wait for me there. This won’t take long, I promise.”

Ah, another promise Lucas was sure would be broken.

He did not mind, though. In fact, he was glad to have some time away from his father. He needed a break from the old man’s presence. After he gave his father a nod, the commander left, and Lucas went back to his new house.

((Continue here))

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being a Party Member

Stranger Kids x reader

warnings:

a/n: 💖💖 these ones were kind bad but i hope you like!

prompt: anonymous: “Hi! Can you make a headcannon for Stranger Things of just being in the party? Sorry if its too vague. Thank you so much for giving us so much free content!!”

you’ve known the boys for a long, long time

your mom was friends with joyce in high school, so you knew will your whole life

he introduced you to mike and soon lucas and dustin had joined the mix

let’s face it, you guys weren’t the most popular, but as long as you had each other it was fine

“at recess do you want to play castle?”

“yes! but we need to make up our characters”

will the wise was born that day, it just stuck

you guys were obsessed with star wars when it came out

“i’d totally be a jedi” -mike

“mike, you’d cry at the sight of any alien creature”

“not true!”

“i think lucas would be a kickass pilot, though”

“i’d get the princess, too” -lucas

dustin ended up playing lightsabers with you, though

you’ve accidentally knocked down tons of stuff in mike’s basement

“cut it out, you guys!”

“soooorryyyyy”

“you are not!”

AV club was just the 5 of you acting afool under adult supervision

mr. clark was still proud of your young minds, though

D&D campaigns, you were the rogue

you were also easily distracted during the game

“anyone want chips, im gonna get some chips”

“no! you can’t leave now!”

“watch me”

playing with mike’s toys while he’s not looking

battling them with lucas, dustin, and will

until mike started protesting

bike rides around town until sunset

SLEEPOVERS

“who the hell is snoring?”

“i think it’s dustin”

“PILLOW FIGHT!!!”

“kids, time to sleep!” -any parent

“let’s watch a scary movie”

“no! i mean—i’m tired” -mike

depending on which house you were staying in, you’d have a great time

will’s brother, jonathan, was always nice to you

nancy...not so much

“hi na—” *door slams* “oh...”

erica always intruded on your sleepovers at lucas’s

“i wanna play! can i play?”

“no, erica, go play somewhere else”

“you’re so mean, lucas”

“bye!”

dustin didn’t have any siblings, but he did have a cat who was pretty nice

“hi mews!”

the night will disappeared was a night you’ll never forget

you were so determined to find him, he had to be around somewhere

you ended up getting in deeper water than you’d originally thought when you met eleven, who apparently had superpowers

“mike!!! you’re mom is gonna kill you for bringing a random girl in the house”

“i know! shhhhh”

she was weird to say the least

and it was pretty scary sneaking around with her

“dude...she has the force”

“shut up!”

after a long week of fighting with your friends and encountering inter dimensional monsters and the government, you realized your life would never be the same

your mom was pretty protective over you for a while

the party had to come to your house instead for the next few months

“sorry guys, she’s just...really upset about the whole thing”

“it’s okay, y/n. we don’t mind”

being each other’s support system

especially when it came to will, he really worried you guys

“today is will’s doctor visit, hope it goes okay...”

spending HOURS in the arcade, struggling to beat other people’s high scores

“i’m gonna do it! i’m gonna get the top score!”

“in your dreams, y/n”

hAlLoWeEn

you knew you weren’t supposed to dress up at school but no one was paying attention to you when you told them

unfortunate.

there was a new girl who mike hated right off the bat

but lucas and dustin wouldn’t stop fighting over

“you two are the worst, you know that?”

trick or treating and dumping your candy later on to trade, the most effective way to get the best halloween

“nougat, disgusting. anybody want it? i’ll give it to you for free”

*dustin and you simultaneously* “ME!”

dustin’s “pet lizard” scaring the hell out of you

“dart makes me...uncomfortable”

max pulling you aside to ask why mike hates her

“uh...he’s a dick? i don’t know”

you and max ended up getting along pretty okay, though

she did complain about mike a LOT though

and when lucas filled her in on the demogorgon/upside-down/eleven situation, EVERYONE was pissed

you guys realized that the upside down stuff was not over and there was an epic teamup with all of you yaaaay

steve harrington adopted you it’s true

eleven came back

that was cool

you gave her a hug bc like duh??? you missed her

steve babysitting you guys and then getting beat up by max’s stepbrother, billy

“can i hit him? i wanna hit him”

“do it!”

doing dumbass shit in the tunnels that ended up working out anyways! yay!

“we’re all gonna die we’re all gonna die oh my god i’m too young to die”

“Y/N STOP”

in the end everything was (mostly) okay but like, that was scarring

summer rolled around and el and mike were dating, max and lucas were dating, and dusting came back from camp and claimed to be dating some girl from faaaar away

“liar”

“i’m not lying!”

steve sneaking you into movies

he also gave you (and only you) free ice cream but only bc he knew you wouldn’t tell anyone else

robin and you talking while you hid in the break room to eat your ice cream

“so...what do you do for fun”

“kill monsters”

“oh...okay”

kinda sick of the party’s shit for a while, so dustin and you were off scheming with the scoops employees

bad ideaaaa!! the russians!! you were almost killed!!

rescue mission for steve and robin

“they’re high as shit”

“nO YOu aRe”

“wonderful, we’re screwed”

losing them fhdhdhsh

“y/n?!”

“what? i’m not a babysitter!”

being chased by russians but also the rest of the party showing up and updating you but also adults finally making an appearance and you wanting to cry because like what the fuck is happening

being chased by the mind flayer

“GUYS IF WE DONT MAKE IT I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW I LOVE YOU”

“Y/N. STOP SAYING THINGS THAT MAKE US THINK WE’RE GOING TO DIE”

eek that night sucked

you also almost fell down the hill that cerebro was placed on

and then uhhh hopper died so that was really bad and will ended up moving away with el and everyone was very sad

your mom cried when joyce left :(

you cried way too much

might i add going over to lucas’s to hang out with erica bc now you guys are friends lmaooo

“why are you here, y/n?”

“erica wanted me to come over”

“you two are impossible”

and to end this on a high note, the remaining party members in town were finally working through their differences as you all grew up and knew that it’d be impossible to separate for good

also pizza nights every week (sometimes accompanied by an older teen bc why not)

“if you guys eat all the damn pizza we’re gonna have a problem”

“we can’t help it! we’re growing!”

taglist: @locke-writes // @queenofthehairharrington // @praellee // @bonniesbabybunnie // @lotsoffandomrecs //

[kaypeace21]

i’m a survivor too, and i found that certain scenes/stuff will said just really struck me as ‘csa-survivor’-like? i felt a bit uncomfortable about headcanoning it happening to someone else, especially for a fandom as wild as this one, but your metas have really been a comfort to me because they’ve been able to pick out and explain things that i couldn’t necessarily find the words for myself.

and yeah, i would love to have a character like me that is powerful and who finds love and who gets a happy ending. the people who call the theory disgusting always kinda hit wrong with me because although csa is a difficult subject, we shouldn’t be ashamed about sharing it. they sound like they’re trying to say that it’s a bad topic to talk about and implying that it can’t happen to kids, which uhhhhh-

(i’m sure that’s not what they mean, precisely, but it’s still what they sound like, and i wish that they would stop implying that we can’t exist, especially in popular media. we do, and i’m not gonna pretend we don’t, and if they feel uncomfortable with the topic they can just use the block button. we deserve to have some well written representation just as much as anyone else. also, i really really hope that will gets a happy ending.)

anywayyyy i love your theories and i can see your post in the tag so i think you’re fine?? have a good day ❤️❤️❤️

SORRY, this ask took so long to respond to. It always warms my heart to hear other survivors speak and say they found comfort in my theory.

Yes, I think I and a lot of c*a/r*pe victims (subconscious or otherwise) were triggered by some of the symbolism/visuals in s1-3. And s3 made it hard for most of us to ignore the past imagery- since s3 wasn’t as subtle.

I get why people have reservations about the theory. But the debates to the contrary are usually just plain offensive. Or people trying to be respectful but being the opposite. There’s the obvious bad-apples . I got many anons after part 1 of my DID theory saying it “ruined/tainted byler”, and “if that happened to Will i’ll stop shipping byler” , or that it  “ruins the best gay character” ,  and to “remove the post immediately”. And this was when I was open about being a gay c*a victim. I obviously blocked them. Many survivors don’t come forward because they’re afraid people will see them as “tainted”, “ruined”, “ just their trauma”, or blame them for what happened. So yeah, it pisses me off when people say similar stuff about Will (and thus other c*a victims). Not even diving into the messed up psychology about byler/mileven shippers (knowing i was a lesbian c*a victim) but purposely spreading bs rumors about me being a p*do that was into Will/Noah-all because of the theory. -_-

Then there’s the people who try to be “respectful” but literally do the opposite.

I’ve heard numerous times it’s somehow “less offensive” to just use r*pe imagery to make monsters scary. Rather than have  the monsters have that imagery cause Will created the monsters from his memory/imagination-and st is a story of Will healing from that trauma. SORRY- I disagree. Using the worst experiences of peoples’ lives (and triggering their trauma) for no real purpose- except to make their monsters scarier to the normal/general audience who haven’t gone through it so won’t be triggered like us - is MORE OFFENSIVE to victims! NOT LESS! At least to me.

Then there’s the people who say “c*a should never be talked about (in stories).” Which I disagree with. V*ctims have already been told by ab*ser’s  and enablers of the ab*ser- to never talk about what happened to us  . So it rubs A LOT of us the wrong way when people say this.  Because (subconscious or not) you remind some of us of the people who used to hurt/silence us. People say this -simply for their convenience (like ab*sers) and cause deep down they’re uncomfortable with our existence and equate the despicable act to us the innocent v*ctim ...or just want to deny the horrible reality of the situation (like many enablers who deny the truth and hurt us because they don’t want to accept reality) . And 1) It brings us back to a time where they told us to NEVER talk about it- and makes us feel like we did something wrong when we didn’t! 2) Every psych professional says with-holding/keeping the ab*se a secret is detrimental to our mental health.

Plus, there’s a HUGE difference between sugarcoating/minimizing trauma or WORSE glamorizing, condoning, or romanticizing C*A in stories (ex: pretty little liars) VS showing how the action is wrong, causes trauma, but showing recovery and happiness is still possible for v*ctims.  if the story shows how accurately traumatizing it is (instead of minimizing/glamorizing it)- it’s incredibly rare for that character to get a happy ending. Having a story about recovering from that type of trauma and finding happiness despite such hardships would be amazing for US survivors! We rarely get stories with a happy ending-  it’s more harmful to us survivors to never see ourselves get happy endings in tv/film/books. How can some survivors (in a dark place) think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel- if it’s never shown?Also if Will has DID too- it’s good mental health rep, along with queer rep (and survivor’s rep.) All 3 groups rarely are treated well or get happy endings in media. A lot of people may feel more heard, seen, and a bit more hopeful for the future - If Will (and other characters) get a happy ending.

And even though st has many themes- like say homophobia. To try and hand-wave all the disturbing  r*pe imagery away  as ‘Will is just gay so the monsters are like that”. IS SOOOOOO offensive. Trigger warning for examples. I’m sorry what part of Max saying when Billy had c*nsensual s*x it’s “good screams” but when possessed by the mf he causes Heather to do “bad screams” read as gay???! Having the possessed ch*ke/dr*g people before throwing them in trunks (like it’s implied Lonnie did to Will -since Jonathan checked Lonnie’s trunk for Will in s1)?Tying their arms and legs up/ g*ging  them and  getting on top of them and saying “stay VERY still it’ll all be over soon”-before a monster shoves it’s tentacle into someone’s mouth and inserts a goo - just gay??? Similar to the sentient vine/shadow monster forcing itself down Will’s throat. Let alone Will saying things like “he made me do it”, “i felt it everywhere”, or being tied to a bed and screaming “help! stop! it hurts! let me go!” While Jonathan is the only one who’s visibly triggered by this and has to literally turn away and hug someone . Or barb, billy, and El spiting up a white liquid from their mouth (similar to will spitting up a slug and lying to his mother about it ).El/billy touching a suspicious looking slime with their hand and looking at the substance confused . El drawing Papa with 3 legs (the middle one being shorter) ,  trying to undress in front of the boys , and Benny saying “I think she’s been ab*sed or something”.The theme of ab*sive dads- brenner , Lonnie, and Neil . Even when the demogorgan (called in d&d the “deep father”/ in the show “a man without a face”) attacked Barb it’s chopped up with scenes of Nancy having c*nsensual sex (the monsters are doing the opposite symbolically). There’s way more examples but NO- to try and hand wave /equate ALL OF THIS to just “gay imagery” or an “a*ds metaphor” is WAY more problematic. And just offensive (specifically to gay people) than just admitting what it may actually represent. R*pe imagery and gay imagery is NOT THE SAME THING!

Also ST has never been a kid show- maybe rewatch the show and see the rating of tv-14 . Goodness sake- s1 has a st*ged su*icde, k*dnappings, m*rder, discussions of physics, h*mophobia, and s*x (with stancy in s1 & jancy in s2-s3). S2/3 discuss at their finalies recovering from tra*ma . S2 had gra*ic de*ths,  a man causing a women br*in damage/ and faking her m*scarriage, and a gang of vigalantes k*lling criminals. s3 had critiques on capitalism /media/s*xism, many d*eaths, and questionable imagery like the prior seasons. The Duffers constantly reference  movies & events from the 80s (capitalizing on 80s nostalgia /subverting 80s motifs that middle age people  from that time remember)! Those people were their intended age demographic . Most 80s centric refs go over most kids’ heads (heck a lot went over my head too since I wasn’t alive in the 80s XD).The Duffers even said in the book “worlds turned upsidedown”  “it’s not a kid’s show despite having kids”. And maybe it’s a coincidence but when Lucas in s3 hands Will the “devil’s baby” firework (a hint about Lonnie) he says “18 and over only.” Which idk is a weird/random af line unless it’s foreshadowing that the show will get darker about various themes- and maybe even change ratings.

I get people wishing nothing bad ever happened to Will or Jonathan. And being apprehensive and not trusting the Duffers to do such a story justice (cause it’s difficult to do). But personally i trust them to do so tastefully with tact and not be exp*itative, (overly gr*fic) or offensive to v*ctims. You can disagree and think the show is about something else (or not trust the Duffers)- but it’d be great if people could stop using these other messed up talking points. While trying to appear ‘(fake) woke’ and like they care for victims- cause we see through it that you really don’t.

Have a lovely day anon ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Update- I just really agreed with and appreciate the tags in this reblog

[lunas-kingdom-of-shadows]

You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

How easy is it for your character to lie? Is your character a good liar? Do they lie often? What is the biggest lie they've ever told?

Thanks for the ask!!!

I’m just going to let them list themselves in order, since it’s different for most of us.

Luna: It really depends for me, little lies are easier, big lies unless thought off beforehand are too much. Though I’m better at lies of admission, I mostly withhold information. Biggest lie I ever told, one time when me and Lucas were younger, after mom left, I may or may not have eaten all the chocolates, in one afternoon, and most certainly did not get sick that night and clean it up myself all without Lucas knowing.

Lucas: / I knew she ate the chocolates, did not figure out the rest though. I’m not a very good liar. I don’t like it, though I also am one to withhold information, which is easier because literally no one asks me, mostly because they know I won’t answer unless needed. So it’s super easy. Biggest lie I ever told was when Solar asked me if I had seen his game. I had seen it, I had it.

Clarissa:* Yes actually, it’s easy to do, hard to justify, I don’t lie because of morals, but it is easy for me to do. I got away with a lot of stuff . You know, went to some parties, met Draco, got married, had a kid... My parents still don’t know, or need to.

Draco:/* You don’t run a kingdom without lying, it’s as simple as that. Lilith was in shambles when I ‘claimed’ the throne, so it took awhile to fix it so it was better off. Biggest lie, since I’m you know, anyhow I took part in the centuries old passing of the throne, and no one figured out it was me.

Stella:// No I don’t lie, I’m an honest person, the only lies I tell are the ones to Earth kids about Santa, Easter bunny,  ect. ect. I was always an honest kid, and the favorite.

Solar:\ Of course, I lie and get away with things all the time. Plus how do you think Stella let me have the lab/jail? Certainly not because I wouldn’t use it. Though there are a select few people I don’t lie to, namely Spark.

Spark:/\ I don’t like lying, and more often than not hurts other people. I would much rather just hold information than lie about it. Though I work in and like theater, so I’m pretty good at it. Biggest lies I’ve told where to my parents, I had to lie to them all the time.

I’m going to put the rest under the cut, since these have the main ones down, and it gets long.

Lily:\/ Nope! I don’t lie. I trust Spark, he and Luna don’t get overly mad at me, so there is no need to lie. 

Sapphire: :: Meh, my parents never had a problem with me, just kind of let me d my own thing. So not really. I don’t think I’ve told any big lies, no interesting ones at least.

Storm: ; Sure, it’s easy enough. I only lie about little things though. Or when I work with children, but not about anything big still. Just stuff about playing pretend and what not.

Mica: % No I don’t lie, I hate lying, and I don’t like liars. I’m an honest person, and I don’t lie about anything really.

Damion: ^ Lying is easer, but I am also one to just keep quiet rather than lie.

Riley: + Lying is surprisingly easy for me. I lie to my parents all the time. They still don’t know I hang out with everyone instead of just going on walks.

Willow: = I’m also a good liar, you don’t become the trickster at school without lying at all. I have never once been caught. And no one suspects a thing, except the rest of the royals all love hearing my stories about it.

Destiny: > I’ll just say it, I suck at straight up lying, I’m better at keeping up a façade, but other than that I can’t lie.

Derrick: < I also am no good at lying, or really keeping a façade, I don’t lie, or i get busted, either or.

Soulstar: _ Don’t need too, only Luna can hear me, so I always speak my mind. 

[rebelliouslala]

Hate Is A Strong Word

Second and Final part- enjoy! first part here :)

ꨄ- Timeskip

ఌ- Flashback

~ఌ~- unknown

You sighed softly and leaned back on your bed, loneliness consuming you. It had been three whole months since you and the Dreamies separated, the Slytherin’s taking Mark’s side.

“We looked at his wand, it had no spell like that!” Jaemin protested.

“Liar! Everyone saw it!” Jeno frowned back, “Renjun did it himself! He’s one of the smartest Dreamies!”

“Y/N?” You opened your eyes from the memory, and looked at the open threshold to see Mark. His hair is blonde. You gulped.

His hair made him look extremely hot.

“How. . .How is the spell going on for you?” His voice is soft, but you turn away, crossing your arms. “What do you want?” You snapped, frowning as you sat up. “Nothing much, really. Just one favor.” His voice sighed, and the wood creaked underneath his weight as he strode over. You glared at him, how had he turned so arrogant? So rude? He even started to ignore you in class. Renjun would glare at him as well, bringing out his wand secretly in order to protect you. “I made myself clear, Lee. Stay away. I don’t want to hear—,”

Mark steps closer, and raises an eyebrow. You felt your stomach churn. You hate that. He looked really hot. “Give me a chance. Not to explain. Not to do any of that, baby.”

“D-Don’t call. . .” You felt yourself becoming weak as he raised his hand slowly. You don’t smell pinewood. You’re simply attracted to him.

Shit.

“I have a proposition for you, Y/N. I’ve been extremely,” he gripped your chin after a soft nod of your approval. Your body knew already. You hated that. But it made you flutter your eyes, full of lust.

“I’ve been stressed. I tried to relieve myself but, God, I would love to just relieve myself, with you.” He leaned down, and you finally grabbed onto him, swallowing the kiss. You hated this. You hated how you’re using him. But you wanted to. This should at least be good enough for the both of you.

“Fuck me,” you moaned as Mark grabbed your hips, growling in your ear when he locked the door behind him, “With pleasure, doll.”

ఌ

Bianca covers her eyes as Mark takes his wand from his pants, using his arm to cover your revealed skin. “Obliviate!” Mark whispers and Bianca falls to the ground before he whispers another spell to make her wand to float, as well as Bianca herself. You turn to him, and Mark sighs softly, his body slumping down. “Get dressed baby. We can do this another time, maybe after class?” He smiles softly as he looks up. He softly pecks your lips, getting up.

You kiss back, looking at your roommate. “Uh, Mark?” He looks up, putting his shirt on as he helps you with your bra, “Yes, babydoll?”

You pause. Was it overkill? He had just Oblivated your best friend. Out of nowhere. Was he being like that asshole fuckboy all those years ago? “Why did you do that?” You say finally, and he stops moving. His ears turn pink, and he says softly, “Uh, well.”

“I-I thought,” you murmur, looking at how his wand leaks out the memory, “I thought you wanted us to be happy together.” He looks up after a small moment of hesitation and whispers, “I-I just wanted it to be private. This one time; I thought it could be special.” You sigh softly, and kiss his forehead, “So did I.”

“I’m sorry baby, it was just instinct. But I’ll be better for you. I promise.” Mark smiles and he helps you put your shirt on, “Let’s go to class.” You purse your lips as Mark takes his wand and hides it once he helps you be clothed. He wraps an arm around you, looking down at you with a smile. Bianca stands back up, holding her head as she looks around, “H-Huh? Mark? Y/N?”

“Hey, you fell down. I think you forgot something in your room, right?” Mark holds her head, and she looks between you two, “What are you guys doing?”

“We kind of, made up.” You smile and he looks back, his face pink and you laugh a little. “Wait, what about Renjun? He said all these things!” Bianca grabs her satchel, and follows you two, “Didn’t Mark use some sort of spell on you?” Mark shakes his head, “I never did. I wouldn’t do that to Y/N.” He holds your hand gently, smiling before Bianca stops and frowns. “Wait a minute. . .” You and Mark turn back, and you can feel something shift in his cloak as Bianca grins. “WERE YOU GUYS KISSING?” She screams. You turn red and so does Mark as he clears his throat, brushing his hair with his hand, his wand slipping back to his hiding place in his cloak.

“Uh. . .”

“We were.” Mark mumbles and Bianca screams. “OH MY GOD Y/N YOU—,” You put a hand over her mouth. “Please, don’t tell Renjun. I think he’ll be really mad.”

“D-Don’t tell Haechan either,” Mark says softly. “He’s really angry at the other Dreamies, and he’ll be mad at me if I. . ‘went soft.’” You hold his arm behind your back, rubbing it softly and you all start to walk. “This is some weird Romeo and Juliet thing,” your friend smiles with a nod and wink, “Your secret is safe with me. Also, uh, I met one of the Triwizard boys. Y/N I know you’re with Mark now but they’re VERY hot.”

“Hotter than me?” Mark teases before they see one of the other students. You recognize him. He almost stared into your soul earlier, and he was one of the taller boys. “Hello,” his voice is deep, not as deep as Lucas’ but it somehow frightened you. It was still so sweet, no wonder Bianca was into him. But yet you felt, uneasy by his stare that you grip more on Mark’s arm.

“Hi, what school are you from?”

“Mahoutokoro. I’m Xiao Dejun, you may call me Xiaojun.” Why was that name so familiar? You run Mark’s arm more, in a circular motion, and Mark gives a nod, understanding. How did you miss your non verbal conversations with him, it was so relaxing, so easy to just tell Mark everything just by a little move. “He’s really sweet, he even knows how to sing!” Bianca hugs him, and Xiaojun shyly hugs back. Mark nods, clearing his throat as you sigh softly, leaning on him and observing Xiaojun. He has a sort of sweet light chocolate brown hair, bangs that cover his matching brown eyes. He smiles, a deep rumble of a laugh pouring out as he hid in Bianca’s neck.

You wondered if it hurt, because of his sharp jawline. “I wanted to go to Hogsmeade, I’ve only been to Hogwarts once before.” His accent was actually spot on, you were surprised. You couldn’t even try a British accent if you wanted to, and you’ve lived here since you were 14.

“Where did you learn that?” Mark asks, smiling as you all start to walk to class, looking up at him. Mark really did look best with blonde. Especially like this, happy; with you. Why did you even hate him before? “Oh, uh,” Xiaojun shrugs, moving his bangs slightly, “I used to practice at Mahoutokoro. I know I’ve heard of you before, Huang Y/N.” You tighten your grip softly on Mark, and he rubs your hand. The memories of the jade palace of the school are blurred in your mind, and the sound of someone’s laughter echoes.

“Oh, I don’t know. My brother used to go there,” you say nonchalantly, and Mark counts your knuckles by tapping on them with his thumb. Just like he used to. “So I was right! You’re the Huang Twins! You both switched out and got here! It’s me! Remember?” Xiaojun smiles and stops in front of you. You didn’t know why, but you felt he was right. The way he almost sang it out, it was so compelling. Furrowing your brows, you inspect closer, stepping away from Mark.

“Xiaojun,” you breathe softly, and you feel tears come to your eyes. “Hi Y/N,” he smiles wide, just like when he was little. All those years ago. “Miss me?” He whispers as he leans in close, a hum behind his tone.

~ఌ~

“I don’t want to leave,” you sighed, leaning back on the roof of Mahoutokoro. “I know, I’ll miss you, Y/N.” Xiaojun was leaning on your back, and you both seemed separated. You towards the West, to Hogwarts. Him to the rest of the school. The sound of his humming seemed to make the stars brighter when you opened your eyes finally, the jade seemingly swirling around you as you sighed softly. “I don’t want to go, I want us to be here, forever.” You looked up, your eyes teary. “We can make spells forever. We can cuddle, we can sing forever.” Xiaojun put a small jade ring on your finger, and you sobbed in his neck.

“My love,” he whispered, holding your face, “I will always be here for you. We’ll find each other again. Don’t worry.” You whimpered and looked up, “Promise?”

“With every single star under us, love.” He sang, and you closed your eyes as you cried. “Want me to sing you your favorite song? So you can remember it forever~,” he stroked your hair, petting you as you nodded. He sang, with a clear, lovely yet whispery voice that echoed in your mind as the stars fade in and out, making you almost sleep. It was like a dream.

~ఌ~

Mark pulls you back before you remember more, and the dream stops. What was wrong with you? That guy was just humming, whispering some sort of song and Bianca was starting to look confused too from how close he was touching you. It had only been a second and Mark regretted even letting you go to him. Were you sleeping? Did he put some spell on you? He couldn’t see you, nothing on what you were thinking.

“Xiaojun!” You smile, and Mark shakes his head, whispering, “Baby no—,”

“Hi Y/N,”

“Mark, let go please.” You say, stiffly. Mark sighs, but let's go with a pause of hesitation. He had to figure out what Xiaojun was doing to you. You fly back into Xiaojun’s arms and cling on as he smiles, “My love,” he sang with a coo. “How could I forget about you? I-I’m so sorry, that must be why you remembered me.” You say, holding him closely. Mark and Bianca exchange an odd look.

“You went to Mahoutokoro?” Bianca asks gently and you turn around. Mark details your eyes, how bright they looked. For the past five years he had never seen your eyes glow like that before. “Baby,” Mark whispers. He has no other choice, nothing else came to mind, so he kisses your lips, tightly but lovingly, cupping your lips. He watches as Xiaojun gives a quiet growl. So it was him, he’s doing something to you. Mark pulls away and you immediately respond, “Yes—Mark? Huh? What happened?”

“Stay close to me, okay? How do you feel?” Mark whispers, kissing your lips, your cheeks, your nose, your forehead. He wanted you to forget whatever just happened. You hold his hair and scrunch your nose as you think, “Weird. I have a song stuck in my head.” Mark sighs and strokes your hair, “Let’s go to class. Nice to meet you, Xiaojun.”

Xiaojun raises an eyebrow, and merely smirks back as Bianca stays close to Mark as well. “Nice to meet you as well; Lee.”

ꨄ

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?” It was the fourth time during the past 20 minutes Mark had asked that. The cauldron bubbling between you two, the smell of literal heat in the air, the Potions classroom could’ve been making Mark crazy. “No? Baby what’s wrong?” You frown and hold his bicep, kissing it gently. Mark sighs and he hides in your neck, shaking his head softly, “I’m fine, it’s you I’m worried about. I just didn’t like him. I wanted you to be safe.” You hold and brush his hair, your heart melting. This is the Mark you know and love. He just needed some kisses. So you kiss him again, holding his cheeks, gently nibbling on his bottom lip and kissing him again. “You’re cute, Lee.” You feel his face heat up and you giggle when you feel a hard nudge and Mark is out of your arms.

“Y/N.” His voice is hard, cold, low. Fuck. “Outside.”

You and Renjun Apparate and you sit on the bench outside, your arms crossed. Renjun inhales slowly, his fingers pinched on the bridge of his nose. “What the fuck.”

“Injunnie—,”

“No. Don’t call me that. Y/N you guys were sworn enemies yesterday!” Renjun leans closer, frowning, “Do you smell pinewood?”

“N-No,” you say, crossing your arms tighter. Renjun paces, his Chinese as sharp as before as he repeats the phrase, “If a boy punches you, you punch him back twice as hard.” You hold yourself, shrugging, “He’s changed, I bet that Legilimency stuff was just a rumor! He doesn’t deserve that. He cares for me, loves me,”

“You don’t know that, Y/N! What has he done to prove it?!” Renjun starts to yell. “I LOVE HIM! AND HE LOVES ME!”

Renjun and you pull at your wands. At the same moment. At the same second. Both are each other’s throats. Had it come to this? You were fighting with your own brother, your own blood over Mark Lee. “He doesn’t deserve you.” Renjun shallowly exhales.

“You can’t control me.” You say fiercely. Renjun finally widens his eyes, and you realize it a second after. He saw the hickey Mark had left only a night ago. “Y/N. . .you are punching back.”

You found a hand around your waist, and Xiaojun pulling Renjun away. You look up and Mark kisses your head, “Get behind me.” He mumbles, pushing you back. “What spell did you put on her?” Renjun yells. “I didn’t do shit and you know it!” Mark says, holding your arm and rubbing it. Renjun hisses at him, “You fucked her didn’t you? Some sex spell!”

Xiaojun widens his eyes, “A sex spell? Isn’t that dark magic?”

“Shut up you snake.” Mark frowns as he looks back at you. It made Xiaojun raise his eyebrow. Not as hot as Mark’s, but it gave you a chill. All these men talking for you, it made you angry, so you got out and stood next to Mark, your wand aimed at Xiaojun's throat. “Y/N—!”

“Love,” He smirks, almost singing, cooing you down. Making Renjun turn his head as Xiaojun steps toward you. The way his voice sounds so airy, so sweet. “You don’t want to hurt me.” Xiaojun whispers, his voice echoing your mind. Your knees shake, and the wrist holding your wand quivers. You don’t— he was too powerful and too beautiful to be harmed. You feel your hand drop your wand, and you lean forward. His voice, you want to be blanketed by it. His humming stops and Mark‘s lips are the only thing that wake you up from the dream.

You open your eyes and you’re back in class, with Mark holding you close and his face in your neck. “I could’ve stopped it. Baby- my babydoll.” He whispers, holding your face as you hear some yelling and conversation outside the classroom door. You nod slowly. You had no idea what had just happened with Xiaojun. You had no idea if your wand was okay. “Mark—,”

“Stay near me. Okay? I’ll protect you, babydoll. I don’t know what’s going on, but we’ll figure it out.” He softly pecks, taking in your bottom lip and biting it, he kisses you again. “I love you.” You let him. Bite you, kiss you. Tell you what to do. Because honestly, you didn’t know if he was really trying to get into your pants. If that Xiaojun guy was dangerous. Or if your own brother had gone crazy. All you knew, is that you didn’t know anything anymore.

You were helpless, with Mark Lee controlling you all over again.

ꨄ

The room smells of dry and old caramel, the walls dripping of what Renjun could only assume was the candy butterbeer was churned out of. He looks around nervously at the young man that sat on the barrel of Butterbeer, his eyes fixated on him. “Y-You. . .”

“You gotta remember me, Renjun, come on.” Xiaojun raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “I don’t even have my wand, so trust me.” Renjun sighs, and he inspects Xiaojun’s Fir wood wand, frowning, “You’re powerful and intimidating, I see. How did you seduce my sister?” Xiaojun shrugs and he hums, smirking. Renjun drops the glowing wand out of fright, letting out a loud gasp. The wand hovers the exact moment Xiaojun sings a high note.

“A S-Siren.” Renjun pants, and Xiaojun takes his wand from the few inches above the ground it hovers. It couldn’t be. “We were friends, remember? Me, Chittaphon, Yukhei, Kun, Sicheng, Yuta, Guanheng and Yangyang. The whole gang!” Xiaojun smiles wide, and Renjun points his wand to him. “Don’t lie, or use that magic!”

“I can only use it on those attracted to me. Yes I’m fairly attractive, but obviously you don’t hear me whispering in your ears.” Renjun looks around, gulping. His hand clutches the wand and he closes his eyes to remember. All those years ago, back in Mahoutokoro, the tall, isolated jade palace. Robes of all sorts of colors, storm clouds you and he used to travel on to go back and forth from your home in China. The memories are filled with broomsticks, dragons in the air, the hot style for Cherry wands, and Xiaojun singing with you, both of you strumming and playing guitar.

The whole gang; It really had been such a long time, he forgot his own best friends. Xiaojun crouches down and smiles. Yet Renjun shivered at the intention, “So, you do remember, Injun. We’re back~,” he sings, laughing a little. Xiaojun sits down next to him and crosses his legs. “Well, sort of. We really missed you, y’know. They’re inviting more Chinese and other Asian students to Mahoutokoro, instead of Japanese. But we’re kind of mad because fucking Hogwarts took you and Y/N.”

“Huh?” Renjun shifts in his place, watching as Xiaojun rolled his eyes back in annoyance. “You’re the most powerful wizard and witch in school. Besides that Mark. I want to help you guys win. In honor not for this stupid Brit school; but for you, the Huangs.” Renjun looks at the wand, and gulps, “W-What?” Xiaojun’s voice grows deep, making Renjun shiver. “I’m a bit more powerful than Kun and Sicheng. Kun knows what you and those Dreamies have been doing with your own spells. He’s extremely smart, and Sicheng is currently spying on your sister and that Mark guy. Mark could get in the way of our plan.”

“What do you want exactly?”

“Your help. Do what you did to Mark five years ago.”

“How did you—?” Xiaojun clenches his fists, his face turning into a scowl as he grabs Renjun’s shirt and brings him in close. “Just do as I say, Renjun. If you remember correctly, I’m the reason why you have all of those scars.” He leans in closer and softly whispers in his ear, Renjun practically shaking to the bone. “Just put Mark Lee in the shadows again, and we’ll help you and your sister win.”

ꨄ

“Y/N!” You turn and Mark slams down five dusty books. You cough, using your cloak to cover your face. “Mark what—,”

“I’m researching on who- or WHAT, the fuck Xiaojun is. He’s been hypnotizing you, baby, and I’m getting sick because I can’t control it.” Mark opens a book, frowning, “I think he made some sort of spell. Like Jaemin’s. But it’s not scent.” You sigh, holding his arm and gently making him close the book. “Stop. I’m fine.”

“No, no babydoll you’re not. He almost kissed you! He’s dangerous, and I want you to be safe.” You purse your lips more, feeling even more insecure. Mark taking control, letting you have only a little say. He always was, admittedly, but now it was worse. “Baby—,”

“Aha!” His eyes shine as he looks back into a book, “Doll, look! I think he’s some sort of like, Seducer Wizard or something, Jaemin was too, remember—?”

“I have to go,” you say quickly, standing up. You would rather avoid him than tell him. It worked for a few months, so why should it not work again? Mark stands with you, frowning, “What? Doll, please don’t leave,” he holds your hand gently, but you pull away, shaking your head. “Mark, I can’t do this anymore. You- You’re not my boyfriend. I have a say too and I say, please leave me alone. I need some time to think.” Mark pants softly, and he shakes his head, “I-I just want you to be safe, we don’t know what’s going on, but together we can!”

“You’re not my boyfriend.” You scowl. “I am old enough to know right from wrong.” He looks down, and you sigh, holding yourself. “I like you a lot, but I don’t know what the fuck to do. Please, please Mark, don’t make this hard.”

“Y/N, do you know?” You stop putting your cloak on. “What?” Mark looks up teary eyed, “The spell, that was never me. It was your brother. Renjun stole my wand from me. I would never, ever, hurt you. Especially with Jaemin’s spell.” Your heart sank slowly, like molasses. Renjun? Your own brother? Your flesh and blood? “You’re lying.”

“Never,” Mark says gently, so sweetly. It was a lie, all of it. You did not want another word out of his stupid mouth. His hands slide on your waist but you pull away, smacking him. “LIAR!” You scream at him, holding your head. Professor Junmyeon to walk over, “Miss Huang? Is Mr. Lee disturbing you?” You shake, and Mark’s soft brown eyes. They’re like chocolate. Shattering into little pieces, revealing the emptiness you provoked.

“Y-Yes,” you can barely say, and turn around as the Professor leads you away.

ఌ

Renjun clasped his hands together, around the pinewood wand. It didn’t feel right. None of it did. But the thought of Mark Lee’s hands on you, the way he kissed your neck. He looked behind him from the bookcase, and saw Mark’s hands on your stomach, holding you close on his thighs, his dark hair mixing with yours. Renjun gagged softly, and growled.

That fucker.

He’s doing it for you. Mark has no right to touch you. No right to be anywhere near you. He had seen Mark even study Legilimency, whispering to Haechan on how he was planning on using it on teachers, then with the rest of the group. He must be good, since he seemingly predicted your actions, moving with your actions. The fucker was already using it.

Mark is going to pay.

With a quiet prayer, Renjun felt his hands shake, felt his own wand shaking as he whispered the spell on you. Mark’s wand shakes in Renjun’s hand, not knowing the spellcaster, yet with Renjun’s power, it obeys, as you look up in hopelessness.

Once Renjun Apparated Mark’s wand back, he went with the Dreamies at how your entire body moved closer to Mark’s. “He used Jaemin’s spell on her!” Renjun yelled, watching the other Dreamies pull you off Mark. They both make eye contact once you’re pried off, and Mark shook his head. “He did it,” Renjun repeated, his hands clenching tighter on his own wand, scowling.

“Mark Lee hypnotized her.”

ఌ

You cry in your pillow, holding it tight. Mark didn’t deserve it. But you couldn’t believe it. You refuse to believe your brother did it. Renjun couldn’t keep a secret, he and you always told each other your secrets. You flip on your back, sniffling and holding your stomach.

You felt sick.

Mark and your benefits relationship. It made you want to be sick. Not because it was gross or you hated it. Because that’s the only thing you can think of. His biceps around you, his wet kisses and bruised lips on your neck. He was so hard, yet so gentle. He knew you like he knew a spell and you hated you were so in love with that.

You sit up, holding your knees to your chest, and you sniff again, shaking your own head. His voice whispering to you the little words of love, of truth. You always fell asleep, or you couldn’t keep yourself awake to hear his apologies. He wanted you. He would do anything for you. You just thought that was a thing to turn you on; some sort of praising thing. But it was his feelings. His true, raw feelings.

And you shattered it like glass.

You throw the book on your bedside table at the wall, screaming, “FUCK!” More tears pour down, and your hands cover your face. He had given you everything, including the truth. You wish you can cut off your tongue, go on your knees in front of Mark and let him have his way with you. In any way, Yelling at you. Kissing you. Forgiving you. You don’t deserve him.

And you don’t even feel it; you just let your body control as you go on your knees, clinging onto the bed sheets. Your entire face is red, full of embarrassment, of regret. You feel your body shake and instead of clinging onto your bed you feel yourself light and you Apparate.

“Mark!” You cry, your body and your magic somehow knowing his location. He’s in the Room of Esired, on the ground. Where you and he used to meet for your sessions. His blonde hair is wild and in a frenzy.

“Doll,” Mark whispers, his voice is shaking. He must be crying too. You run towards him. At the sound of your footsteps, he backs away, shaking his head. Revealing himself slowly, he turns around, his voice cracking and his eyes puffy. “Baby, babydoll don’t. Stay right there.” Frowning, you take another step closer, “A-Are you mad? I understand, really. I don’t deserve you, something as kind, as caring, even as hot as you, Mark! You told me the truth and I walked over you.” Mark steps back, but his hand is outreached, “Baby—,”

Fuck it.

You run to him, not caring anymore and you feel the shield block you and him. It’s a good 6 inches, but you put your hand on it. Your eyes tear up again and you whisper, “I love you so much, Lee. I hate to say it but you were right.”

“You always hate to admit things,” Mark laughs through his own tears, and he sighs. “I want to kiss you, and hug you. I’ll always forgive you. You know this babydoll. But you were right too, I am not your boyfriend, I should’ve just told you everything, doll.” You cry only harder, his voice muffled, and you whisper another apology, touching the shield. You sniffle, “W-Who did it?”

“Professor Kyungsoo. I tried everything.”

“Nothing I can’t do. Wait for me here, I’ll get my wand. We can finish our kisses, you and I, we can win the tournament. Mark Lee and Huang Y/N, against the world,” you laugh and you trace where his own hand was, biting your lip. Mark chuckles, and he whispers, “Kisses and the fact you’re horny? Baby did you just come back because you were horny?” You turn even more red, and he laughs only more, nodding, “Go, I’ll be here. I—,”

“I love you more, Lee.” You whisper, looking at him in the eyes. Mark looks at you lovingly, his ears and cheeks turning pink, “You hated saying that, huh baby?”

“Shush before I take it back,” you scrunch your nose, and you stick your tongue out before Apparating away. You land back outside the Potion’s classroom, recomposing yourself as you hear a soft hum. “Oh Y/N, hello.”

Sicheng’s wand swirls around the surrounding dead winter trees, having pretty flowers bloom easily before escaping back to his shadows. Xiaojun leans back on the bench, strumming his guitar. His hair is pretty blonde now, and his nose is pierced. He looks hot. Did you have a thing for blondes?

You turn around, rolling your eyes. No. You need to focus on Mark. You push back the curiosity of his sudden new look, so you grab your wand, smiling. “Aw love, you know that won’t work.” Xiaojun strums his guitar, moving his hair back, and raising an eyebrow. You walk towards the classroom, before you hear his voice.

“Baby,” he sings, and you can feel his breath. It’s like it’s on your neck. No. No no no no no.

You step closer to the door, thinking of Mark. His blonde hair. His dorky smile. The way he winks at you. But you hear Xiaojun’s voice go higher.

“My love, step closer.” He strums his guitar, matching the note perfectly with his voice. You; it’s not even you. It’s the song. You turn around. “No!” You cry, closing your eyes, trying to grab your wand.

“Step closer,” his voice echoes and your leg steps in front. “M-MARK!” You scream. You know he can’t hear you. You know he’s far away. “MARK!” Your voice is filled with despair. You’re helpless.

“He’s gone, my love. Now take another step. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.” He stops playing his guitar, and he puts his hand on his leg. His finger motions you, and you take another step. “How obedient, just like when you were at Mahoutokoro.” He leans in, humming a song and your body matches his beat. You try to turn your head back.

“M-Mark,” you whisper, the wand falling out of your hand at another note of his humming and guitar. Xiaojun sings another note and you’re in his lap. “Come on my love, sing for me. Sing for him. Before I tell him myself,” Xiaojun grabs your ass, and you turn your head away. Your hands feel like they’re filled with weights, and you’re unable to move them to sock him. “What happened to you, hmm? Sing it. Come on~, you remember~,” he growls in your ear.

You close your eyes. You didn’t want to be here, you want to be in Mark’s arms. Him hugging you. “M-Mark—,” you whimper out. Xiaojun holds your face and you feel the tears pour out, “I can’t—!”

“Baby~,” he sings, and your own throat seems to be full, and you gulp. “Do it.” Xiaojun commands.

“Mark,” you stutter out again, softly, quietly, singing. The memories wash back. Not the fun ones either. You hated how hard they came back, like a tsunami in your mind. “Bring him here, or else.” Xiaojun leans in and bites your ear, making you shiver. His hand on your thighs makes you shake as you sing softly, your voice echoing throughout the courtyard, “Mark. . .b-baby. . .come here. . .”

“A Siren’s work never ends. I missed that voice of yours. So sweet, so pretty,” Xiaojun whispers and another tear falls down. “Please, let me go.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Xiaojun sneers, and you try to move even more. “MARK!” You scream, and you see him run down, standing at the clearing of the courtyard. “Let go of her, you Siren!”

“Of course, until she admits it.” You shake your head, looking at Xiaojun, “D-Don’t, he won’t understand.”

“Y/N what is he talking about?” Mark aims the wand at Xiaojun. You say it, but you can’t hear it. “I-I’m so sorry Mark, I should have known—!” You said, your voice cracking so much that you don’t even know what is real and what isn’t. “NOW!” Xiaojun roars, leaping up from the bench, and pushing you off him. You can only hear yourself scream for Mark, before everything fades away, and he’s gone from your fingertips.

ఌ

The feeling of your blood was stuck to your tongue, and you groaned in disgust. The roof on Mahoutokoro was unstable, not like your other “memory.” It was hard to keep balance, and the whipping cold winds on your 13 year old body was untenable. “Okay,” he winced, “Let’s say it.” Xiaojun said. He looked so small, and his voice was higher. The words are foreign, so foreign that when you told Yuta a few months later after, even he could not translate it. You both chant it, and you breathed outward as you both harmonized. The storms above the school rumbled, and green lightning struck you both as you hit your highest notes.

Your bodies shook and you felt something from your voice box fade away. Not even fade. Ripped and scratched out. The pain was unbearable, and your hands clawed at your throat. To distract yourself, you look at Xiaojun. His robes turned a light grey in the dark night, and yours were too. The pain escalated, it felt like you were being choked. Like you were about to die and pass out. Before your voice box was completely annihilated out, you bit your tongue.

You and Xiaojun were knocked away from each other, and his robes turned white while yours were splotched. You crash against one of the decor wood that stuck out, knocking the wind out of you even more than the spell did. Renjun was the one who caught you, thankfully, and Guanheng caught his friend.

“What’s wrong? What happened?!” He looked around in fear as you tried to talk, half conscious. “Injun—,” you choked out.

Yuta and the Professors ran to you, as your brother was trying to translate your Chinese, but you couldn’t keep talking anymore. Renjun and you quickly cast a spell on your and Xiaojun’s robes, making them as dark as before, as Xiaojun’s eyes are closed. “What happened?” Yuta whispered in Korean, his eyes wide as he looked at the scene. “I don’t know,” Renjun said softly and your eyes fluttered. “Y-Yuta- Spell, S-Siren.” You said in a strange mix of Chinese and Korean, before passing out.

You didn’t wake up for a month, but when you did, everyone was there. You couldn’t hear yourself, or move your mouth. They had sewn your mouth. The Headmistress frowned at you. “Yes or no question, Miss Huang. You’ve been here for six years. Now, did you and Xiao Dejun do the Siren spell?” You reluctantly look down. You gave a soft nod.

“And, you changed the color of your robes?” You nodded again, looking away in shame from your friends. “I should expel you. But your brother told me it was both of your ideas. It takes an extremely powerful witch, and wizard to do a spell like that, survive, and do a spell after.”

“I taught them actually,” Yukhei, or what he went by then said. He hugged you and your brother, “I can see their potential.” You leaned into his abdomen, because he was right. He taught you, and he was the older brother to you and Renjun for a long time. “So did I,” said Chittaphon, standing in front, “I care for them a lot. Especially with—,”

The Headmistress took out her own Cherry wood wand, scowling, “Listen closely. All four of you. It is my decision on what to do. I have contacted the Headmaster of Hogwarts.” Xiaojun stood and the Headmistress frowned. “No. You will not go. You will be trained here. If Hogwarts found out about your spell, you and Y/N could be hurt. Many Magic Societies will try to test you both; and I would rather have you both separated because of the spell.”

You nodded, understanding. You could not even speak, so you wanted to do anything about it. “We will have to change your memory, Y/N. They will pick you up by the end of the year. you will only remember the memories of your last days, understood?” Nodding frantically, you bow your head.

ఌ

But you remembered. You didn’t keep it hidden, and your secret is out, your powers have been realized, fulfilled.

Sicheng covers your mouth, you try to thrash and kick, biting his fingers but you’re met with nothing. He and you both watch from the shadows, where he always was, even back in Mahoutokoro he always hid. You try to repeat Mark’s name as Renjun replaces who was pushed into the courtyard, his features becoming yours, and he lands on his knees. Inside you you can’t help but think about how Mark was right. Renjun was the one that broke the pact.

Mark was innocent all along.

“LEE STOP IT SHE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” Xiaojun exclaims, his voice laced with desperation. The other Professors gasp and take Mark, “Mr. Lee! What are you doing?”

“T-That’s not Y/N! Professor Sehun please listen to me! That’s—!” The Professor smacks his head, shaking his head. “Lee, do not argue. I thought you knew better then to duel her now, especially with her own wand.”

You bite your teeth down, trying to break Sicheng’s flesh. You couldn’t stand the sight of Mark like that. His eyes looking around frantically. He doesn’t deserve this. Sicheng grips you tighter as he forces you to watch the only boy who cares about you, the one who tries to find you in the shadows. Renjun, an exact copy of you, is led away by Professor Baekhyun and you sob only harder. The courtyard takes so long to be empty, and you’re swallowed by darkness until you’re spit back out, in the tower of Astronomy. Kun is there, practicing spells, the Dreamies spells with his hazel wood wand. He smiles warmly at you. You remember faintly how he used to cook food for you and your brother. Now you don’t even want to look at Renjun or Kun anymore. “Oh my gosh, is this her, Sicheng?” He hides his wand, standing up.

Xiaojun Apparates in, and he coos and kisses your forehead. It’s a soft brush with his lips, but you shove him off, your eyes tear filled. “Indeed. You guys remember my Siren partner, Huang Y/N. Her voice is just as beautiful as a mockingbird’s. Literally.”

“I don’t sing.”

“Ah, no singing. But wait!” Xiaojun’s jaw drops as he holds your chin. It’s not like Mark’s grip, where he knows you want it to be soft around his finger pads, and his breath on your lips is hot and soothing like coffee in the morning. Xiaojun grips your chin tightly, his fingertips dig into your skin, and his breath is harsh and feels rough. “Didn’t you seduce Mark? You brought him to that fate, not me.”

“Speaking of which, I’ll go check on him, make sure he isn’t doing anything.” Sicheng goes back into the shadows. “X-Xiaojun don’t do this—,” you whimper and he whispers, “Well, maybe love, if you just continue to respect me and do as I say, I’ll let you go. Kun, take care of Renjun, make sure he’s acting well.” You shiver at the way his lips go near your neck, “Calm down, okay? We used to do this.” He leans in, and his lips connect with yours, his tongue softly taking you in. It was not like when you were younger. He didn’t even hold your own hand. He blushed if you wanted to even make eye contact. Xiaojun was so shy but you felt his tongue hum against your own.

You pinch the back of his arm and in retaliation, Xiaojun grabs your hair, pulling it as he growls with rage. You shake your head as you pull away. “Get off,” you mumble. Xiaojun whispers, “Aw come on baby, don’t get all fussy.” Shivering, holding your arm tightly you vocalize a soft tune. He starts to move even closer. “Step back.” You command with a soft voice, and Xiaojun only steps closer, his eyes shining as he hums back.

“Back.” You command again, as Xiaojun laughs wickedly, “I’m much more powerful than you, love.” How you wish you had your wand. Renjun probably had it, trying to talk, speak as you. Everything was wrong. You wanted to cry into Mark’s chest as you did so many nights when you woke up with a nightmare. “Just let me go. . .” Your eyes tear up again and Xiaojun uses his wand to pin you against the wall, shrugging.

“Mm, after I finish my work with Mark. Until then, stay here, and think about all of the good times,” he hums, and immediately your head is pulled back. Your eyes tear up even more, your lip trembling before Xiaojun’s hallucination takes over you, and you slump your head down, letting him dream for you.

ꨄ

Mark never liked meeting with the Headmaster. When he was accepted here from Canada, he was overjoyed. Headmaster Taemin was as popular as the last Headmaster, Dumbledore. The first time he met Taemin it was intimidating, as Mark had been called in for already knowing the basics of the History of Magic and Potions. He was put in a class with where he met you. It was the Headmaster who nicknamed that class the Dreamies because of your special abilities as a whole. The second time it was because Chenle accidentally made the tarts the elves cooked into some sort of brownie. Mark knew exactly what it was once he tasted it, and said it was a Muggle drug. Once Mark crashed from the drug he went to Taemin’s office, and he was actually extremely kind, and understood the process. Every time after that, Mark proved more and more that Taemin was just a tall, kind teacher who favored especially the Dreamies. And was overbearingly lovable to you all.

Now that Mark sits here, grown up, blonde hair and a few cuts from the beating. He feels awkward as Taemin pushes his hair back. “So. . .” He says softly, holding Mark’s wand and your own. “I’m telling you, Headmaster I would never hurt Y/N. That,” Mark points outside the door, where Renjun was, “That is not Y/N. That’s Renjun, and I don’t know what those Mahoutokoro students are doing but I know that Xiao-De- what ever his fucking name is, is hurting her!”

Taemin stands up at the curse word, and sighs, “She’s fine. The Mahoutokoro students are taking care of her. From the first time I saw you and Y/N together I knew you both were going to be lovers, but I did not expect this.”

“Headmaster,” Mark says, his hands clasping together, “I will never lie to you. I love her so much, I won’t ever hurt a single hair on her head. I can feel it, she’s in danger.” He sighs and sits back down, and Mark’s foot bounces with anxiety. “Mark, how do you know?”

“I’ve known her since her third year here, when she was new. I know the Dreamies like the back of my hand.” Taemin leans back, moving his hands in an affirmative way, “Then tell me where is Jisung?” Mark does not have to even close his eyes, or use his wand. He simply smiles, “Jisung is in class. He’s humming to himself and he heard rumors about Y/N and I. He hopes Y/N is okay and he is chewing on his wand.”

Taemin uses his own wand, a hazel wood, and the scene pops up, ripping like an ocean. “Close your eyes and continue, Mr. Lee.” Mark obeys, his frizzy hair that was over his ears slowly lifts from the energy he must summon to continue his vision. “He’s eyeing Chenle, and he wants to make a joke. He’s going to summon a small dragon to fly over and burn Chenle- Oh shit he did it.”

“That’s enough.” Mark opens his eyes and Taemin sighs, “So, you can spy on the Dreamies?”

“No. I cannot. I used to study Legilimency. However, Y/N wanted it far more than me, so I stopped when the duels began.”

Mark gulps, leaving out the main reason. He only stopped so he can focus on pleasing you more. Taemin raises an eyebrow and he clears his throat, “Then can you see the difference between Renjun and Y/N?”

“I-I don’t like using it.” Mark says softly, looking down. The flashback of how he would accidentally tune in on you changing made his ears turn pink. “Honestly I only used it right now, and it’s kind of giving me a headache.”

“Mark, I have seen a lot of student’s potential. This is amazing, Lee. I know you’re powerful, but not like this. You have to see Y/N and Renjun, and I can help you.” He sighs, Mark rubbing his temples before his hair once again floats, and he watches through your brother’s eyes. “Renjun is talking to the flexible- one of the Mahoutokoro boys. Renjun feels. . .regretful. But he can’t sense his sister.” Mark opens his eyes, his temple throbbing. Kun stares back, the Headmaster is gone. “Thanks for helping—,” Kun’s wand flies out of his hand and he is thrown to the wall as Mark turns to Haechan, Taeyong and Ten. Taeyong hands him his wand, Ten takes yours as Haechan smacks Mark’s blonde hair. “You’re stupid.” Mark rubs his head, hugging his friend tightly. “I know,”

“All for Y/N? A HUANG?” Haechan emphasizes the name as if it was a curse word, and Mark shakes his head. “I saw in her head. Hyuck. She’s hurt. I’m the only one—,”

“Sounds yucky and romantic. Are you sure you need me?” Whines Haechan as Mark brushes his hair back. “Yes, Haechan you’ve always been there.” He flips his hair back and, with his Dogwood wand, “I guess I have. But you better promise that these guys are just bark and no bite.”

“The Dejun guy is. I don’t know about the flexible guy, but did you call—?” Ten opens the bookshelf, and from the wall, out walks the American wizards. Mark stands straight, intimidated. “So,” says the tallest, a 6 foot man, “Who are we protecting?”

“Huang Y/N,” Mark says your name confidently. It could be because he’s getting you back in your arms. For good. Nothing else shielding you. Or, it could be because he was sick and tired of dueling. “Well, first we need a plan.” The other boy says, his voice deep, and his smile playful. It almost reminded Mark of Chenle’s.

“Oh, yeah, that.” Mark says, tapping his chin.

ꨄ

You knew this was a dream. You weren’t at all surprised. The memory of Xiaojun humming, strumming his pink painted guitar, autographed by Renjun. His voice is sweet. That’s the only thing you did believe. He did have the most beautiful voice. And you and he would sing on the roof with everyone else. Until Yukhei would come in and sing with his bass-like voice, making Xiaojun roll his eyes. “You ruined our song!” He would whine. “Uh huh, but Y/N can save it.” You hum, trying to go from Yukhei’s note to the harmony with Xiaojun, and you smile. Everyone claps, and you bow, he smiles wide at you. Sicheng stops dancing from the song, and instead he bows, sinking onto the roof. “So, Japanese, hard isn’t it?” Yuta teases his younger friends, and Kun, the second oldest looks up, “Oh hush! Chinese is so much harder!”

“Then show me a Chinese tongue twister,” Yuta says before Guanheng rolls his neck around. His tongue fits around the words perfectly, before he slips at the second to last syllable, making Yangyang groan but Yukhei cheers him on. You’ve seen this memory for a good 11 times, and Xiaojun kept changing his line each time as he whispers in your ear something.

“Wake up.”

“I can’t,” you whisper back. The younger Xiaojun kisses you before the memory repeats itself. You open your eyes and it’s Mark’s lips you feel. You struggle in your state as you kiss him more and more, before he pulls away, you chase his lips. “Mark!” You whimper out, and he holds your cheeks, kissing your face just as he did. You had forgotten what pure joy felt like for the past few hours. “Babydoll, are you alright?” Mark mutters as he kisses you deeply. You kiss him even deeper, his lips full on yours. You nibble and bite on his bottom lip, as he sighs on your lips.

“I get memories from this, Mark,” you smirk and Mark laughs, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you sometimes, doll.” Mark kisses you softly, letting some tongue slip in your mouth as he pulls away. “Mark,” you say his name softly, and you feel the restraints Xiaojun had on you fade away. Delighted, you wrap your arms and legs around Mark, kissing his neck. “I’m so glad, now I can help fight that Xiaojun bastard—!” you look down at Xiaojun’s body, his jaw red with blood, his eyes sleepily half open.

“What—?” You say as Haechan pushes you off Mark. “Sorry no touching! We still have to talk to the Headmaster.” Haechan pouts and you hug him tightly. “I missed you, Full Sun.” He clears his throat, making Mark laugh as he mumbles, “Whatever Huang.”

To your surprise, Headmaster Taemin was with Renjun and Sicheng already, the tallest American wizard, Johnny had found them and told him everything. After a revealing spell, the Mahoutokoro students and your brother were on their knees in front of you, the Ilvermorny students, and the other professors.

“So, you come seeking revenge, Xiao Dejun.” Taemin says slowly. It gave you and Mark chills as you watch, holding his hand. Your brother’s cheeks were tear stained, and you wanted to touch him, tell him that you forgave him.

But Mark holds you close, whispering, “Don’t worry babydoll, we’ll find a way,” He kisses your cheek as Xiaojun nods, his lips also sewn like yours, years ago. “Well, as punishment, you are stripped. You will be Obliviated for a full year. Xiaojun, you will be mute for that whole year as we figure out how to undo that spell.”

You gulp, holding your neck. That was impossible. If he was stripped of his voice box, so were you. The curse was strung between you two like a string. Xiaojun seemed to know, as he started to laugh, almost manically before the Professors removed him, moving him to Madam Promfrey’s as Taemin held his black chestnut wood wand in front of the boys. Your brother. You hold your wand close as Mark holds your arm, shielding you.

“Baby what are—?”

“Not right now.” You whisper his color spell into his ear, using your wand to amplify your voice as Taemin Obliviates him.

ꨄ

Xiao Dejun has been in Azkaban for the past 4 years. His tongue had been cut off, and he was in extreme security. Kun went back to Mahoutokoro, now a teacher, training to be a Headmaster. Sicheng was now part of a circus, somewhere in Budapest. But that was not on your mind.

Nor was it on your fiancé’s, Mark’s. He had won his 800th duel, and you and he were celebrating. Haechan had invited the rest of the Dreamies, even the fresh out of Hogwarts boys, Chenle and Jisung. You stand up, your stomach puffed out making Chenle snort and sing, “Baby stomach~!” You smack him, making him scream as you raise your glass.

“Our last year at Hogwarts was the one that brought us all closer. I cannot thank Mark for being my friend, my enemy, and lover.”

Jaemin rolls his eyes and he pushes you, “Come on!”

“Gross!” Cries the youngest as your brother smacks them gently. “Go on,” Renjun smiles, his magic drained, but he still looks happy, holding your hand. “I hope, with me practicing with you, you win even more duels,” you raise your glass of virgin chocolate liqueur, taking a sip before Mark stands up from across the table. His face was filled with gentle scars, and his body grew muscular, he had changed, but not that teasing grin. Everything seems to freeze as he gets on a knee, making you raise an eyebrow. “Mark—?”

“As your enemy, I ask for your hand.” Mark says. His voice had gotten deeper after all of these years, and he chuckles at your puzzled reaction. He had used your weakness against you still. You look at the beautiful dragon’s gold band, holding the Goblin diamond placed perfectly, carved well. He must have used all of his Dueling money on this.

“M-Mark,” you breathe, choking up before you smash your lips. He slips it on your finger, kissing you back deeply. “Is that a yes?” He tries to force the answer out, chuckling when you push him away with a laugh.

Holding him close to your body and swaying with the applause, you grumble against Mark’s lips with a smile, “I hate you Mark Lee,”

[maneaterwithtail]

I was answered TWICE in this Q&A

Helps also put in perspective their production, aims, and the influences

Helps as really unpacking along with @pirateshenani and @cartoonemotion the influence and differences and aims with the adaptation

Thanks to all the Toonzone Forum Members for submitting questions to the Fangbone! Fan Q&A! Your questions were awesome and so were the creators’ answers! We hope you enjoy reading through the answers as much as we did. Participating in the Answers portion of the Fangbone! Q&A were the creator and book series writer, Michael Rex and the tv showrunners Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott. (Editor’s Note: Questions asked were edited for brevity and clarity.) Will Fangbone! be renewed for Season 2? (superkeegan9100 and SparkleMan) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: By Grom’s bottomless dimples, it shall be so! (we hope) Michael Rex: Fingers crossed! --- Will Fangbone! air on any additional countries, networks and in other languages? (Ryan, RandomMe, NeoplanDan, I.R. Shokew) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: Absolutely. Fangbone! will appear across the world in a multitude of tongues in a multitude of places – that are too numerous for us to list (or remember). Perhaps one of our many traveling salespeople who criss-cross the world with a suitcase full of Fangbone! might chime in here… In all seriousness, Fangbone! Distributor DHX Media, has currently sold the series into Disney XD US, South East Asia, Taiwan, and Latin America. Hope to announce additional countries in the near future. Stay posted. Will the books be translated into other languages? In what other languages/regions can we expect to see the books published? (RandomMe) Michael Rex:Right now, there are no plans for translating the books. I’m hoping as the show starts playing in different countries, the publisher, Putnam, will solicit the books to foreign markets. --- If you could be one of the characters on the show, who would you be? (D-nice is the man) Simon Racioppa: Drool’s giant badger monster. He’s clearly just misunderstood and trying his best every day for an unappreciative master… Richard Elliott: I would definitely be a Shadowstepper – skulking in the shadows and outwitting barbarians sounds like a good time to me. Michael Rex:I’ve always thought of myself as Bill. At the end of 3rd grade, my school closed down, and I was sent to a new school. Literally all of my closest friends went to another school. So, when 4th grade started, I was very lonely and desperate for a best friend. Eventually, a boy named Mark moved into my hometown in New Jersey, and we became great friends. He was fun, and a bit wild, and had long black hair. We’re still friends today. Will Fangbone! have Christmas and Halloween episodes? (Ryan) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: Skullbanians don’t celebrate Christmas or Halloween. But they do have many other holidays – like Troll-smasher’s Eve and The Feast of Stoneback’s Feast. Endless possibilities for fun and adventure as you look at, compare and try to understand how Skullbanian’s celebrate versus how we do things here on Earth. What would Fangbone! think of Halloween? What would a Holiday Tree look like in Skullbania? Stay tuned. --- Does Fangbone! have parents? (Eggy) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: He has the mightiest of parents! But they are away in far off lands on an epic quest. However, those of you with the eyes of a blood-eagle may catch a glimpse of them in an upcoming episode. If you do not have the eyes of a blood-eagle, they nest on sharp mountain peaks. But be careful – they peck! Michael Rex:Yes. They’re on a great quest somewhere in Skullbania. Also, how did Venomous Drool become Fangbone! and Bill's worst enemy? (Eggy) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: If someone was keeping your detached big toe from you and wouldn’t give it back, you probably wouldn’t be pals with them either… Michael Rex:They’ve got his toe, and he needs it back. And, they keep beating him, and they’re only kids. It drives him nuts. --- How do you take an episode from concept to it airing? (martikhoras) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: Let us explain… No, there is too much. Let us sum up. First, five or six NERDS gather in a small room and try to imagine what insanity could happen to Fangbone! this week. They argue and fight and cry and hiss at each other until the showrunners (that’s us!) are satisfied they’ve worked their butts off to come up with the best of all possible stories in the universe and beyond. They’re sent away to dank dark holes to write their scripts, which are then torn apart by the rest of the nerds and reassembled until they’re so full of adventure and comedy that they leak all over the floor. Then trumpets are sounded and ACTORS assembled in a recording studio – where they ACT with such passion it drives everyone to tears (of joy). At the same time, ARTISTS design all the new locations, characters, and props that the writers say they desperately need (liars!) to make their script work. Then trumpets are sounded again and the finished script, designs, and recorded actors are handed over to a story-bored artist… Sorry, story BOARD artist – who listens to the writers explain how amazing their script is, then drinks enormous amounts of coffee and draws PANELS from the script one by one, matching the recorded actors and making that ‘amazing’ ‘script’ and ‘amazing’ ‘acting’ even better. Those panels go to the DIRECTOR, who along with an EDITOR, assemble it into an animated and voiced storyboard that we call a LEICA on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and an ANIMATIC on Tuesdays, Fridays, and the weekend. When the animatic/leica makes everyone giddy with excitement, it moves onto ANIMATION, where thousands (twenty-five) animators fight each other to animate the most exiting scenes – matching the animatic as closely as possible. The episode gets a few more passes to make it even better (fix all the mistakes) and then moves on to the real stars of the show – sound effects and music – who make everything approximately one million and a half times better. Then it’s a final pass for last minute mistakes and TA-DA! One finished Fangbone! episode ready for people to share for free on the Internet (please don’t share it for free on the Internet). What are your favorite parts of the show’s creative process? (Harley) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: Seeing a goofy idea that started in the writers’ room as a “what if…” become a real finished episode. Also, the creative process of deciding what to order for lunch. Then the creative process of regretting what we ordered for lunch. --- As a fan of the tv show, how familiar will jumping into the book series feel? (jfoley85) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott: As familiar as traveling to an alternate reality where everything’s kinda the same but your parents are snakes. So mostly familiar with some specific differences. Michael Rex:They’re actually pretty close. One of the things that I am most happy with about the show is that it IS the books. While the stories in the books are a bit more involved than an 11-minute episode, the entirety of season 1 goes much deeper than the books. On the down side, the books don’t have a cool song at the beginning. Every adaptation is a challenge from visuals, to performers depictions, and direction and framing. I'm noticing some changes from the two GNs (1st and 3rd) I've read to the episodes I've seen (pretty much up to Back of Stone). What would you say has been added, changed, or dropped and what is the purpose of these changes? (martikhoras) Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott:While the books are wonderful gateways into imagination, there’s only three of them. The television series is a hungry monster that requires more. Always more... MORE characters. MORE stories. MORE episodes. MORE human sacrifices to GROM! Michael Rex:Everything that has been added was done to open up the show, and allow for more varied stories. Skullbania doesn’t get much time in the books, but the creative team felt that it needed to be a big part of the show. Twinklestick was created as a way for Fangbone! to stay a bit more connected to his home world. Drool was greatly expanded on as well. He only lurks in the background in the books. Even though his actions are constantly felt, he doesn’t really get to do much. --- What did you read and watch as a kid? What were the inspirations for Fangbone! and Skullbania?(martikhoras) Michael Rex:Growing up the early 70’s, “Planet of the Apes” was everywhere. 5 movies, a TV show, and an action figure line made it easy to get wrapped up in. “Star Wars” came out in 1977 and it affected me deeply. Like many others in my generation, it felt like my 9 year-old imagination had been transported directly to the screen. I started reading about movie making, and I tried to understand the mythology Lucas was using in his films. (As a 10 year old, Joseph Campbell was a tough slog, but I tried.) Fangbone! is directly inspired by the 1982 film, “Conan The Barbarian,” which I saw in 8th grade. It was funny, gritty, violent, and exciting and I just loved it. Conan had always been around when I was younger, I’d see his comics and cheap paperbacks in drugstores, but I didn’t know much about him until the film came out. When I was older, I eventually got around to reading the Conan books by Robert E. Howard. As I was gearing up to write the first Fangbone! book, I devoured a huge pile of Marvel’s “Savage Sword of Conan.” Oddly, now that I think about it, Skullbania’s vast deserts and rocky vistas are probably inspired by “Planet of the Apes.” It’s hard to escape those early influences.

[prettylittlesmartass]

How The AD Reveal Should Have Gone (Alex's Backstory)

When Alex left her adopted home, she begged/borrowed/stealed/etc enough money to get to the states in order to find her real parents. During this time, she met Wren, and he became infatuated with her. This was 2 years before Ali disappeared. 

Alex, at first, thought Jessica was Mary. She visited the DiLaurentis household and explained who she was and the horrible life she had endured. Jessica played the part of Mary, internally freaking out about the amount of chaos Alex’s reveal would undoubtedly cause.  She put Alex up in a hotel room while she asked her to be patient as she got up the nerve to explain to her family about Alex’s existence.   At this point, Alex was not aware that she was a twin, let alone that her twin lived next door to her “Mom”. Jessica immediately went to Peter, and the two of them devised a plan. Jessica would use her authority on the board at Radley to commit Alex as someone with multiple personality.  Peter, being genetically related, signed Alex in as “Bethany Young”.  They used Alex’s true back story (one which Alex originally had no problem agreeing to) as proof that she had a mental break, complete with accent.   Once Alex/Bethany was in Radley, Jessica kept tabs on her, and after the mind numbing drugs kicked in, would occasionally take Alex/Bethany on outtings. This is when she would insist Alex call her “Aunt Jessica”.  This was also why Jessica had told Ali you can “never turn your back on a Hastings”, because she was well aware that she could never share her knowledge of Alex’s existence, and if Ali had ever seen Alex, she would think she was Spencer.

There were a few times that Alex/Bethany was able to escape.  

(photo credit to PLL Theories)

The first time was Ian’s Halloween party.  While there, she overheard Noel talk about his and Ali’s plan to scare the girls.  At this point, she hadn’t yet seen Spencer.  Alex had fuly intended to severely hurt/kill Ali in that abandoned house, though Ali was stronger that she thought.  Once the girls were freed from the locked room, Alex finally saw Spencer and she seethed with rage. She realized the true reason behind Jessica betraying her, and instead of leaving town, as she had originally planned, she opted to go back to Radley and devise a new plan. Before she did, she befriended Ian, who was a member of the NAT club.  At that point, she both flirted with Ian, as well as paid him with money provided by Wren, and convinced him to film Alison and her friends. He didn’t understand why “Spencer” wanted to be filmed, though Alex incorporated it as part of her flirting, telling Ian she wanted to see how Ian saw her in his eyes.   Alex’s first priority, however, was still hurting Ali.  Alex/Bethany would never forgive Jessica for having her wrongly commited.  She starts writing to Ali, although when Ali visits Radley to see her, Alex has her roommate(Kimberly Brown) pretend to be “Bethany”.  Ali, being the mean girl she was at the time, enjoys playing with her new toy.  

When Ali begins to get “A” messages (from Mona), she begins to wonder if it isn’t Bethany sending them.  She antagonizes Alex/Bethany through letters and “visits”, making things even worse than the already are.  At the same time, Ali isn’t completely certain that “Bethany” is behind the threats, so after receiving the lipstick note on the mirror, she devies a plan to either expose Bethany or have her take her place.   Ali drops of an exact duplicate of her outfit at Radley, with a note for Bethany to escape and come meet her so they can finally work things out.  Ali figures she and Bethany can either hash things out for good, or that if someone is trying to kill her, having Bethany run around dressed as she is hedges her bets a little bit in case it is someone else threatening her.  

At this point, Alison believes that the other Liars are innocent, and not the ones leaving messages.  That said, she can not have them in her way for all that is about to go down that night.  So, she drugs them. Meanwhile, Jessica receives a phone call that Alex/Bethany has escaped.  She freaks out, and forbids Alison from leaving the house at all.  

Spencer and Ali argue.  Ali walks back towards her house and Spencer walks towards the woods/house.  Melissa hears heard the argument between Ali and Spencer, as do the girls (Aria, Hanna, and Emily), in a drug induced haze. The girls arrive in the bushes in time to see someone dressed like Ali, hit Alison. Mrs. D also sees Alex hit Ali from the window.  Mrs. D rushes from the house as Alex runs away.  The girls, again drugged, begin to chase Ali’s assailant.    Mrs. D, believing Ali dead, buries her.  Mrs. Grunwald pulls Ali from the grave. The girls, chasing Alex through the woods, finally lap back around to the gazebo area and attack Alex.  As they begin to attack her, they start to hallucinate that it is Alison, and finally stop.  They leave Alex’s lifelss body in the gazebo area, and Melissa stumbles across it.  Seeing only the clothes and hair, Melissa thinks Spencer killed Ali, and buries her to hide the evidence.

At this point, Alex’s roommate, Kimberly Brown, who had escaped from Radley with Alex, leaves their meeting spot and comes looking for Alex to figure out what is taking so long.  She sees Melissa burying Alex, and as soon as Melissa leaves, she digs out the grave and saves Alex.

As it turns out, this was the worst mistake Kimberly could have made.  Alex, now set on burning down everything to do with Spencer, and the other liars, kills Kimberly Brown on the spot, switches clothes with her, and buries Kimberly in the grave.  That way, when her body is found, no one will expect she is alive and able to exact revenge.   At this point, Alex still believes she has killed Alison.

Mona sees Ali walking along the road, sends her out of town.  Ali knows for sure that someone is out to kill her, and that her Mom buried her without hesitation.  There is no reason to stay.

Alex then spends the next year devising a plan to get revenge on the liars for trying to kill her.  She enlists Wren to start dating Melissa, to get his way into the Hastings trust, and to learn more about Spencer.  As it turns out, Wren starts falling for Spencer, which only makes Alex hate Spencer more.

She starts communicating (electronically) with Mona, Lucas, and Jenna, who she learned from the NAT tapes had hated Ali as much as she did, as was also picked on by the liars.   When Aria returns to Rosewood, Alex gently nudges Mona to start sending A messages to the girls again.  She tells Mona that she will be an outcast agin, now that the Liars will be together again. In essence, she sets Mona free on the girls to torture them, knowing at some point she will escalate the game to her own level. 

When she notices the DiLaurentis house is sold, and that workers start to dig around the gazebo area, she knows she will need to get ahold of that body to switch around medical records.  “Bethany Young” has to remain dead, or Jessica and/or Peter might start searching for her.   She pays off some cops and people in the morgue and is able to alter paperwork, and steal the body.  

She noticed Jessica and Charlotte together, and eventually figures out how Charlotte fits in to the story.   When she first approahces Charlotte, Charlotte does not believe her.  She thinks it is Spencer trying to figure out where Ali is, if Ali is alive, and that she still wants to find her and hurt her.  Once Alex gains Charlotte’s trust, and Charlotte realizes how awful Ali was to Alex, Charlotte becomes a double agent, though doesn’t immediately tell Alex that Ali is still alive.  (Alex is still wondering what happened to Ali’s body)

Alex tries to burn the girls to death in the lodge fire, and that is the night she realizes Ali is still alive.  However Ali goes immediately back into hiding.  Alex then spends Season 4 trying to find Ali, and using the Liars to do so.   It is Alex that kills Mrs. D, and Mary takes the fall for her (as she did for Spencer with Eliot)  Once Alex heard thought Mona (via Shana) that the girls found Ali, Alex knew that Mrs. D that had to die, because Alex couldn’t have Mrs. D spilling the secret that Spencer had a twin.  

Alex has also realized that Charlotte had been lying to her about Ali, and that is why Charlotte agrees to “take the fall” as Big A- to protect Alex.  Season 5 up to Charlotte’s reveal is about laying the groundwork to have Charlotte take the fall with everything wrong done towards the girls.  At this point, Alex is mostly done with revenge, and just wants to live her life out with Wren, Mary, and eventually Charlotte (once she is released). Then Charlotte is killed, and Alex is denied her family.  She thinks one of the Liars did it, though doesn’t know which one.  She enlists the help of Mary, Eliot (Charlotte’s true love), and Wren to help figure out who killed Charlotte.   Then... Alex starts to fall for Toby.  While Alex had never really been jeaous of Spencer’s life before (I mean, who would with Peter as a father?), she did start to covet Toby.  There were two problems here- Yvonne and Wren.  Alex believed she could deal with Wren, though Yvonne would have to go.  Therefore, she set up the car accident, and while Toby was knocked out (and before help arrived) further injured Yvonne so that her injuries were mortal.

Next, she had to convince Wren that she would kill Spencer, and take over her life, allowing her to be with Toby.  This met with more resistance than she expected, and she eventually killed Wren, worried that he would tip Spencer off.   Alex knows she is playing the long game with this, and uses Aria and Ezra’s wedding (with Toby’s return) as her in to fully take over as Spencer and work toward getting Toby back.  As for Mary, it could go either way as to whether she knew Alex’s ultimate plan to take over as Spencer until the very end.  I am going to say that until Spencer was kidnapped, Mary did not know, and by then, it was too late.

[namethat-i-oughttohavetoldyou]

(Part 3)

31.

Also a time lapse. Sigh...

32.

And another one.

33.

Barbara: Well, Alexander, now we’re in the middle of our only break, while Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer are on stage. How are you feeling, as it is our first run-through? Alexander: Pretty good! It’s going very well, I’d say. Barbara: Sweat, baby, sweat? Alexander: (sings) Sweat, baby, sweat... No, I don’t sweat. I don’t sweat during the show. (A.N.: he’s a dork. And a liar XD)

34.

Barbara: None of us sweat, I think. Alexander: Nope. I just showered before. [both laugh]

35.

....anyone got a bottle of water for these poor exhausted cats?

36.

Vienna Griz leaving the rehearsal stage...

37.

...and giving the camera some love. I’m too tired to look up who she is, so you’ll have to do with her instagram tag for now. “Hello, instagram.”

38.

No comment needed.

39. + 40.

Barbara: Anna Carina, Carina, Cariinaaa... Hello! Anna Carina Buchegger (Rumpelteazer): Hello! Can you see my flushed face? Barbara: No, you’re bathed in blue light. Anna Carina: That’s good. [both laugh] Barbara: Say, what’s the most essential thing for you in the show? Anna Carina: Hmm... breathing. Breathing and surviving. Barbara: I understand that, I understand that very well. We’re still practicing hard to get that right.

41. + 42.

Barbara: I now have my light expert with me: Andrea Luca Cotti, our Mungojerry. Perfectly illuminated. Andrea Luca Cotti: Yes, I am the light employee (he probably meant light engineer or something XD) here in the theater. Barbara: Yeah. [both laugh] How are you? Andrea: I’m great! Exhausted, but great. Barbara: Nice! Thumbs up.

43.

Text: I have to take a breather before singing, too ;-) Barbara: I will take you with me, now that I have the opportunity. As you know, I play a split track, Jellylorum and Griddlebone, and for that I have to take a few steps to my next entrance. Unfortunately, I can’t show you where exactly that’s going to be, but at least I can show you the way.

44.

Text: Our Macavity ladies.

45.

Utter chaos. No comment needed.

I won’t translate the rest, the only things that are left is one selfie of Barbara with a technician and her and Alexander Auler picking up their dogs from dog daycare. I really need to go to bed now. This took more time than I thought it would!

I hope everyone is as excited for Vienna Cats as I am!! :D

Instagram Takeover by Barbara Obermeier (Jellylorum) - translated

(Part 1)

Only with screenshots, sadly, because I can’t screen-record :( But it’s better than nothing, or so I’m told.

This is gonna be a long post, so it’ll go under the cut. Also, some things will be a little paraphrased because it’s 2 am and I don’t really have the energy to look up vocabulary XD Enjoy!

Keep reading

[thebestplltheories]

PLL 7x13 Hold Your Piece - thoughts (confirmation Charlotte is alive in this episode?)

Overall, a general step up from last week’s episode which was one of the worst of the series. Still disappointing, and I still want to know when the love letter to the fans begins.

We started off interesting and then it went straight to filler. Ffs.

HERE’S AN IDEA... WAIT FOR THE IPHONE TO DIE AND DON’T CHARGE IT??? 

The Hanna doll was creepy! I loved that. And cutting into the doll was a clever interpretation of appendix. Even I didn’t think of that Hanna, nice!

Making Aria, out of all the liars, be the tech genius was definitely fan-service to the Aria is A theorists. And I love that the writers did that. They respect the fans. It’s the final season and they want to satisfy everyone; Aria won’t be A, but it’s about time they showed Aria be stronger than usual (both physically - pushing Sydney and also in terms of how smart she was by planting the GPS tracking chip in Sydney’s bag).

I like that Sydney got some clarification but my gosh - will we ever find out who was the fourth person to the picnic in 505?

I’m going to cop hate for this. But I LOVED not having Alison around. I’ve always been a firm believer that this show started going down once Alison came back alive, mainly in season 5. With just the simple absence of Alison, it felt like a good old season 3 or 4 episode. And I loved those vibes. I love seeing the group of 4 without Ali, sometimes.

Yvonne dying honestly shocked me! It happened out of nowhere! Good job writers, for shocking me. I definitely knew it was coming, I’m not shocked that she died, but more so the way and time she died. One second she’s confessing how happy she is, next second, literally, she’s gone. I really felt so terrible for Toby.

Fury and Spencer. Get absolutely lost. Couldn’t care less. I can’t believe how much time they wasted playing ping pong. I understand fillers. But THAT much is just stupid.

I liked that short, cute Spaleb scene. “I like how easy that was”

Caleb helping with the board game.. thank god. If they waited until episode 9 to enlist Caleb, I would’ve been so frustrated. At least we can get some sort of satisfaction that the girls are somewhat trying to beat the game.

“Hey Loser” ... try harder AD. Sounds like a threat the kids on the playground use. And stop using the Spongebob Squarepants font, please!

The final scene had me so so so disappointed. I initially thought it was a betrayal scene - Fury is working for AD! They had him in black, with gloves, an A package, everything! But no. It was him as a police officer opening a package from AD. Bummer. I would’ve LOVED a betrayal there (Fury working for AD).

LUCAS MADE THE BOARD GAME. I still stand by this. It’s what PLL does - they make the characters fall in love with each other (not literally in love) only for a massive betrayal to happen. Right before Toby was revealed as A in 312, Spoby hooked up. Right before Ezra was revealed as “A”, Ezria spent the entire episode together. And now, right before Lucas is going to be revealed as working for AD, Hanna says all that lovey-dovey stuff about being a great friend. It’s a normal tactic used in TV: let the character confess their love so that the betrayal is even more shocking.

I can’t help but think that AD gave Spencer a soft/easy task because AD is Spencer’s sister (a Drake). I mean, the writers went out of their way to highlight that Spencer got it easier. Maybe this is important.

The finger is surely Rollins’. 5 years later??? It can’t be Jessica’s. I think this is the beginning of AD revealing what the girls did.

Can I get a hell yeah for no new characters!! It’s almost like the writers learnt their lesson from 712, yet obviously they didn’t because this episode was made months ago. But still. No new characters = at absolute least 4/10 on my scales. Hence last week got a 2/10, and didn’t even get a reactions post like this. My screen did not get a brick through it tonight because Addison wasn’t in it. Thank god. My screen is safe.

And finally. This episode, for me, almost confirmed that Charlotte is alive. I haven’t seen anyone else say this which is surprising me because it’s the very first place my mind went. Like, instantaneously my mind went there. Sydney said there’s an Anonymous Donor paying for Jenna’s surgery. Ummmmm... last episode, Jenna literally told us that Charlotte agreed to pay for another surgery for her eyes! I pray to god Charlotte is not AD but she could just be an anonymous donor without being AD, if that makes sense.

And wow, the promo for next week!! No way are we actually going to find out who killed Jessica in a random, non-finale episode. I don’t expect to get solid confirmation. We won’t hear the explicit sentence “X killed Jessica because Y”. We will find out more clues, but I am 98% sure we won’t get solid confirmation. It’ll be another Sara Harvey. Heavily implied it is someone, but not 100% confirmed. (But all the clues will point to Peter. He’ll be the one this reveal will base around.)

Overall.. 6.5/10. For the final episodes, I’m still somewhat disappointed, but it was a step up from last week. I can’t give it more than 7 because we missed our queen Mona. 

[shadowclarys]

i’m a little late, but i just watched the pll series finale and i’m a little mad and SO UPSET

don’t proceed if you don’t wanna get SPOILERS (although i believe everyone’s already watched it)

i thought it was shit that AD was twincer (alex drake) - mainly because most of spoby scenes in this season, apparently, it wasn’t spencer, so I’M VERY UPSET, which kinda makes me question WHAT SPOBY SCENES IN THE SERIES WERE REALLY SPOBY, so

btw, someone from the cast or the crew (maybe even marlene, idk) - i don’t really follow their tweets/interviews bc i’m always busy af so - said AD was there since the pilot?????? does that mean maybe alex was pretending to be spencer in a scene or more? THEY KEEP MAKING THIS TWISTED GAMES WITH OUR MINDS WHEN IS IT EVER GONNA STOP

and when hanna was hold captive and spencer appeared in some kind of illusion to her, i thought the twincer theory was a good one, but they kinda managed to make it a bad thing for me as i had imagined it would go totally different at that time (if it were real) - the theory started in early s7, so we couldn’t have known it was a real deal back then but i already pictured some things happening later in the series if it were true - btw, it was a good theory back then to me also because then spaleb could be fake BUT NOOOOOOOOO NOW WE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT WAS REAL AND WHAT WAS NOT WHAT WAS SPENCER WHAT WAS ALEX I SRSLY AM SO MINDFUCKED RIGHT NOW

besides, alex doesn’t really have a motive to torture the girls????? it’s not their fault, not even spencer’s, that she got a terrible life. it’s not the girls’ fault that charlotte died. it’s not their fault that it took so long to find out who killed charlotte. it’s not like they were better, smarter, idk, than the police to figure it out???? WHAT IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS? you could say it’s because she’s insane and just evil but still wtf (and she certainly wasn’t before she met wren and knew about charlotte etc so????)

(ok i don’t remember how jenna got blind after her surgery, but it doesn’t matter, i guess) (this does tho: i don’t remember many things about the series bc a lot happened so i might be wrong about this one, but still) SERIOUSLY, JENNA KEPT BEING BLIND? she was one of the most motivated people to hate the girls, to want to screw them over, etc BUT SHE STILL NEVER ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING AGAINST THEM WITH THE INTENTION OF DESTROYING THEM. she only got in the AD team because she needed money for her surgery, NOT TO RUIN THE LIARS’ LIVES. she even WARNED them (through toby, but still) that spencer wasn’t truly spencer, but a twin sister she didn’t know about until now. ps: ‘i may not be able to see, but i can smell a bitch a mile away‘ will be forever in my heart JENNA IS A FUCKING QUEEN AND SHE DESERVED BETTER

btw, what happened to sydney? they just simply forgot about her lol

i wanted SO BADLY, right from the start, for lucas to be in the A(D) team. we were so close to that, and i was so happy, only to be even more frustrated later in the finale. we didn’t even get to know more of his story with charles, which could be something to make him be a part of the AD team. UGH SO MUCH POTENTIAL WASTED, I’M SO MAD

and let me just add here: that idk where from accent was SO BAD. not because troian isn’t natural from somewhere with that accent or because we’re used to her american one, but it didn’t really add much to the character? it just kept distracting me from the story alex was trying to tell and every word she spoke just made me make an ‘ew’ face.

btw was i the only one who saw RIGHT AT THE MOMENT it wasn’t a mirror AND THAT IT WAS ANOTHER PERSON (obviously, the twincer) when spencer was touching her hair and alex did the same so she would think it was a mirror and bla bla bla? i guess some people might have jumped off when she said ‘boo’ haha but anyways that reveal was epic, i must admit it. not the mirror illusion thingy, i thought it was kinda cliché tbqh, i always expected that if the twincer theory was real, but the ‘boo’ was nice lol

moving on tho, i thought the liars didn’t get a certain end. spoby was just mentioned, we never saw them getting together again. we deserved at least a hug or a kiss scene (after alex was arrested, to be obvious it was spoby). toby was doing that helper thingy and stuff, but he needs to make some money to live????? spencer just got into law school, i mean???? does that mean she’s still living with her parents? ezria had the wedding, but are they gonna get money only from the movie of their book? they should have gotten a definitive job idk. and ok they’re gonna adopt a child, but i wanted to see more of that. haleb got that boring elope AND I WANTED A WEDDING, HANNA IN A BEAUTIFUL DRESS, CALEB IN A TUXEDO, EXCUSE ME, I DEMAND THIS SCENE TO BE SHOT!!!!!!!! emison never found out their babies’ father was wren????? and are they still teaching at the school?

it also doesn’t make sense that alex accepted mona in the AD team after knowing she was the one who killed charlotte, so?????

and IS MONA REALLY NOT IN A SANATORY AFTER GETTING IN THESE MANIPULATIVE GAMES SO MANY TIMES, HOW COME SHE GOT TO LIVE OUT OF A MENTAL HOSPITAL??????? or if that little world of her is actually a sanatory, HOW would they allow her to play with mary and alex? and how would she get a boyfriend? THAT WOULD BE LIKE THE GUY’S ABUSING HER wtf it might be a sanatory, but i think it isn’t, so... and how did she get mary and alex out of prison and locked them in her own ‘dungeon’???????

i srsly think alex and mona should have died, especially alex, but whatever

also WON’T HALEB EVER GET THEIR HONEYMOON???????????

I WANNA SEE EZRIA’S HONEYMOON TOO

fuck, so many cool things from their lives were left out i’m so sad ): i wanted to see emison’s labor, emily holding alison’s hand, the babies’ names (maybe if it were two boys one would be named after emily’s dad, or if it were girls they could name them after other beloved people - idek if the babies are boys or girls smh) the liars waiting outside; i wanted to see the girls making a career, getting their lives together, A PROPER HALEB WEDDING, A PROPER SPOBY ENDGAME SCENE, ezria and haleb’s honeymoons, ugh

EMISON WEDDING REPRESENTING LGBT+ COMMUNITY <3

perhaps ezria deciding to get pregnant through emily’s belly (since she didn’t carry her own children, it would be sweet, you know) or even alison’s

maybe aria’s, hanna’s and emison’s kids playing with each other :3

the only ship that got a full ‘circle’/closure, with a wedding, a honeymoon (even if it wasn’t shown), a future planned and kind of concrete was ezria. haleb got a crappy ‘wedding’ and a (2-second-announcement - if it was even that long - of) pregnancy (i’d like to see caleb kissing her belly, they finding out the baby’s sex, picking a name...), emison got a shitty proposal (although they had some cute scenes, like the picnic one), spoby didn’t even get a kiss, not even a hug, fml, i’m so angry.

can i just say “i'll think of all that might have been” (quoting evermore from batb bc it just fits right in lol - i’m actually crying as i type ‘lol’ tho)

it left us with unsolved things that probably will never be explained (perhaps there’s not even any explanation, since it wasn’t planned from the start and it turned into this gigantic mess with no links at all and no way to be fixed)

the show was supposed to end with answers but all it gave us was more questions

i’m upset :/

[aion-rsa]

You: Subverting the Nice Guy Trope

http://bit.ly/2MJ5HAk

The cast & creators of You discuss subverting the Nice Guy trope, making unwitting parallels to Gossip Girl, and changes from the book.

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Kayti Burt

Feb 1, 2019

Lifetime

This article contains spoilers for Gossip Girl. Just so you know...

You, both the 2014 novel by Caroline Kepnes and the TV adaptation that is now available to watch on Netflix, gains its power from a brilliant trope subversion. The story takes you inside the mind of Joe (played in the TV series by Penn Badgley), a NYC bookstore manager who falls in obsession with a beautiful stranger named Beck (Elizabeth Lail). Joe uses social media and other modern technology to stalk Beck, molding himself into the perfect boyfriend and removing any obstacles to their burgeoning relationship.

The story is chilling for the ways in which, from a casual outsider's perspective, Joe is the ideal man women have been conditioned to seek out. He's smart, handsome, and literally saves Elizabeth's life when she falls onto the subway tracks in Brooklyn. It's only the viewer, who is given access into Joe's internal monologue and most disturbing of actions, who understands that this isn't a romance; it's a horror.

read more: You Pilot Review

"My experience with Joe as Beck is great in a lot of ways, in that sense that he rescues me, he reads, he's smart, he's handsome," Lail told Den of Geek at last summer's ATX TV Festival. "Beck's experience of him is a bit of a romantic comedy, in more ways than one."

Kepnes, who was involved in the adaptation, wrote the book as a way of looking at the way our culture can "romanticize people who seem romantic," she said at the ATX TV Festival.

"That's where I started with it," she said. "'Oh, a guy in a bookstore, holding books and being sweet and sensitive.' It's so easy to assume that's it, and this is why taking that dream and looking inside of it and what that experience is really like to be that person, and be in this romance, when we have all this social media, and all this communication, and how it affects us and how it enables us to do things."

read more: You Season 2 Moves to Netflix

Sera Gamble, who created the show alongside Greg Berlanti (yes, he has another show on TV), has proven adept at subverting, exploring, and embracing tropes in her work as showrunner of The Magicians.

"I really love books, or any written word, that take something that you've been taking for granted, and ask you to look at it in a more realistic way, to look under the hood at what's really going on," Gamble said.

And I was really struck by how much I believe in those romantic comedy tropes. I grew up loving Say Anything, and kind of believing that Lloyd Dobler's the perfect guy and reading this book, it made me contemplate that she had said no, and he was standing outside her window at night, not taking no for an answer.

"It really appealed to me that we could make a show that both tells a very modern, very specific, kind of twisted love story," added Gamble, "but also is giving a very hard look at those kinds of stories."

A subversion of the Dogged Nice Guy trope isn't the only meta commentary that is happening in You. Avid teen drama watchers may know two of the show's cast members, Penn Badgley and Shay Mitchell from hits Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, on which they played Dan Humphrey and Emily Fields, respectively.

Both shows share themes of surveillance culture with You, though Gossip Girl in particular treated the use of modern technology to stalk as a mischief-making inconvenience rather than something horrific or invasive. It makes the casting of Badgley in You, whose character turned out to be the eponymous Gossip Girl in Gossip Girl, yet still managed to hold onto his role as a romantic lead, particularly interesting.

read more: You Season 1, Episode 2 Review

"In my mind, the pilot episode's first scene is Dan Humphrey," said Badgley, who admits he didn't notice the similarities before actually viewing the finished pilot. "When I saw it, I was like... that is way more similar than I'd ever personally wanted, but then, what it does is, from the second scene to the last scene of the pilot, it progressively is like, you don't know what the hell you're getting into here."

Did the show's creators set out to cast Gossip Girl himself in You's lead role?

"In all honesty, we never talked about it," said Gamble. "I mean, obviously, we were aware that [Badgley] had done really good work on that show, and I watched some of that show. I really like the meta thing, but that happened organically ... If you're doing a show that is partly about the hyper-connectiveness of technology in 2018, then I guess you're bound to find a little meta-thread of any other thing you've ever done."

The meta threads may not have been intentional, but that doesn't mean they're not a whole lot of fun for media-savvy viewers who like to make those kinds of connections.

"Now, having seen a lot of the series, and having shot the series," said Badgley, "I actually, personally, am really into that [comparison], so I'll say that."

Of course it's not just previous TV shows You is in conversation with. The adaptation, like all adaptations, is also in conversation with its literary source material.

"Without giving too much away, I will say that we do a lot of the same stuff in the show," said Kepnes. "Not all of it, but a lot of it. However, there are some deviations and surprises for fans of the book."

One of those changes is in the narrative's point-of-view. The book stays claustrophobically close to Joe's perspective, but, while the You pilot stays inside of Joe's head, later episodes will give us Beck's perspective, too.

"In an early episode, we switch to her POV," said Gamble. "We wanted to widen the world and make it more expansive. There is plenty of world inside Joe's head, but I think, to be a functional TV show and also really to earn the relationship when you're watching the characters onscreen, I thought that we had to get to know Beck a little bit better, if we were asking people to watch 13 hours about her."

Another new addition is the character of Paco (Luca Padovan), a young boy neglected by his parents who lives in Joe's apartment building. Joe takes Paco under his wing in what is the most sympathetic moment for the generally unsettling character in the show's first episode.

"This is the genius of Greg Berlanti," said Gamble, noting that Paco was Berlanti's idea. "I think part of the reason that he is maybe the most successful producer maybe in the history of television, certainly one of them, is because he has x-ray vision to find the heart in a story.

I think we talked so much while we were developing the pilot when we were writing it together is that Joe doesn't enjoy doing bad things. He just has a very strong personal code. And he has an especially strong personal code when it comes to the woman that he cares about. And there's this sort of, almost an old-fashioned chivalrous affect to it, but he believes in and it gives his life a certain kind of meaning, ina way. He knows what side of his code he always wants to be on and so Greg was just like, 'You know what we need is a kid. We need a five-year-old kid.'

Badgley said he loved working with Padovan, the young actor who plays Paco and he sees the scenes featuring Paco as "evidence of where Joe is trying to do the right thing." For Badgley, the addition of a character like Paco is the kind of change from source material to on-screen adaptation that makes perfect sense.

"The narrative paradigm that Caroline's used [in the book], that it's all in Joe's head, is so compelling and chilling," said Badgley. "But you can't do that in a visual medium ... That is why it was really necessary to have something like Paco, whereas in the book, I think the fact that something like that doesn't exist is similarly brilliant. The book is a little bit like: 'You're not getting Paco.' He's nowhere to be found."

As the actor inhabiting the character of Joe, Badgley's scenes with Padovan were "a respite" from the darkness of Joe's mind and his obsession with Beck.

"With Paco he's like, 'I'm actually going to be really open with you' in a way that he is not with others, surely due to all of his unwitting misogyny," said Badgley. "He doesn't have that with this young boy who reminds him of himself, for better or worse, often for worse..."

The You book is available for purchase on Amazon or your local independent bookstore.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

from Books http://bit.ly/2DNgiYi

[oxfordeliterp]

❝ Damn the exquisite measuring of depth.       take me away from the water;   i can no longer see my reflection from such a gruesome height.❞

Nicholas Mercer | twenty-three (III) | The Riot Club | Douglas Booth | taken

Nicholas is a series of uncertainties, but one thing has never been debatable about him — he is a sweet talker that could convince flowers to bloom with the sound of his voice and turn their leaves red with nervousness. He has always been known for it, charming and self-confident, winning over, one at a time, his whole middle school, two high schools that he changed in his Sophomore year and, soon the way he used to see it, the world. Because who could resist to an intelligent mind who knew how to smile as well? Yet, as soon as he got accepted into Oxford and met his colleagues, Nicholas faced the shock of his life: suddenly, he was no longer the only one with a witty remark on the top of his tongue. Suddenly, his light faltered as he looked around and realized that the sky was full of stars just like him, maybe even brighter. The boy who had been constantly told how special, how out of the ordinary and how irresistible he was finally met not only an equal, but dozens. The university was crawling with clones of him, sometimes even improved, for most had the funds and parental support impressed almost equally. For the first time in his life, Nick understood envy from the other side, for he was used to being the subject of others’. Yet, he didn’t give up. Although the thought of not being an original bothers him to this day, two to three years later, he is mostly pleased with himself: he has managed to get in the top ten best versions of the IT boy archetype. Taking it to the next level after getting to see the crème de la crème in action, he stepped up his own self expectations and became good according to the high society’s standards. But he isn’t just good, not the way he sees himself; he is a God and nothing can stay in the way of his dreams. The frustration regarding financial possibilities is still breaking his heart because he just knows that if he had these boys’ upbringings, he would have been the sun, not just a star, but he learned an alternative way of getting there. At first, it was strategically shot compliments at the ladies who came to eat in the restaurant he used to work as waiter in. The compliments became dates and he became a handsome resort for lonely rich women who found him so full of potential and delightful. This scheme only works for a limited amount of time, though, so he came up with a long term solution to his problem. Although he doesn’t want to marry so soon and especially in such circumstances, he is positive that it is the only safe way to immediately see himself in a manor after graduation, so the fishing has started. Despite him being the one pushing for it, he feels like it is him the one making the selection of who deserves to be the spoiled girl, lucky enough to have her minds to twisted by him and him to sweep her off her feet. He doesn't like to think about it, for the mere reminder of why he is doing it and the fact that he is blacken the walls of his brain and disappoint himself, because what happened to the boy who genuinely thought his only powers were enough to take over the world? Less idealistic and dreamy, but feeling repulsed staring at the bathroom mirror painting his own reflection, Nick doesn't know what this school has made of him and isn't entirely sure if it was the environment or simply the path he would have gone on out of his own initiative. He can't accept to have ruined himself and his integrity willingly, so he denies the very existence of his materialism and pretends to be genuine with every step in hopes that he would not only fool a stupid rich girl, but also the smart poor boy hiding in his shoes. He never meant to be so shallow and wicked, which is why if he wasn't handling it all with the biggest possible ray of confidence, he would be too disgusted to even lift his eyes from the ground. Coming home to his mother, the woman who adores him the most, without even the pretty words and batting of eyelashes flirtatiously, turned from the most expected event of the season into a burden, because he cannot look in the eyes of the woman who raised him and feel so impure about himself. Yet, he can't have it any other way, needing the Riot Club, needing the level of high life and the glimmer that comes with it all. No matter how intelligent and prepared in any sort of situation, the man can't seem to get off the burning train of taking advantage of his friends and apparent social title, because he has got acquainted with the spotlight and it caused him to become addicted. He can't seem to give up his plan and he needs it more than ever, because he can't afford not succeeding — though it is as true as the fact that he wants to come clean and become a decent man again that most of the times he asks himself why, realizing that all the people he knows are accomplished and rich because somebody from their family, at one point or another, was in Nick's shoes and chose success over integrity. He doesn't know what is more important to him, but, from the looks of it, he is leaning towards the temptation and needs financial balance even more than he wants it, which is enough to begin with, anyway.

Victoria de Terreros Nick isn’t a gold digger — he says — but a curious boy who finds it fascinating that somebody so out of the quotidian studies at the same university with him. That is what he tells himself to justify what of Victoria’s company is worth seeking, in order to feel better about taking interest in the girl just because she is a duchess. Yet, Victoria isn’t mature enough to realize where the line between genuine friendship and friendship based on interest can be crossed, which is why she can’t tell that she is being used for the nice ring her name has to it. She actually considers Nicholas to be quite a gentleman, and his company always makes her feel better, as the charming boy knows exactly what words to use to get under her skin… for no reason whatsoever. He is charming and dreamy and just like the unwritten book hero of her life. Alexandra Rossessen Alexandra is the only ones he couldn't possibly fake liking the company of. She might be younger than him by far, but it is not like he sees her as a potential target anyway. The two met as a result of her catching him lying and recognizing potential that looked just like what was lying inside her heart as well. The two hit it off rightaway and just as she is a little sister following him all the way to Oxford to him, Alexandra sees the big brother she never had and a shoulder to lean on in him, which is something she never had before and never imagined she would find, as she has always felt pretty different from everybody else and as if nobody deserves her friendship. Now, the two liars — one more at peace with her doings than the other — go out together, having teamed up and taking the lying game to a whole new level, even if they don't need fake identities to get into most of the parties and even if causing a staged scene eventually causes them to get kicked out of the club earlier than planned. It's entertaining and something both of them do to keep themselves away from becoming dusty. Lucas Lockwood Lucas doesn't know how he found somebody he can relate to as well as to Nicholas and, for that, he is grateful to have him as his best friend. He enjoys his company and doesn't even realize when he is paying for both their drinks — or, rather, he doesn't mind and care enough to ask why, which is the little tact he has, all coming into play for a platonic relationship rather than a person he is trying to impress. In fact, romantic interests matter too little to Lucas compared to his friendships and the loyalty he has towards the Riot Club in general. Nick can't say he agrees on that, no matter how much he enjoys the club and all of the perks that come with it, but he does care about Lucas right back, even though it all started as using him for a living wallet that wouldn't even realize some of the money went on things other than his own. Lana Chambers Instead of running away from her origins and pretending to be part of the game in the true sense of the word, Lana stands out being proud to be here on a scholarship, just because her mind is brilliant enough to deserve it. Nicholas doesn't understand it and little would he have cared about it and her if they didn't know each other, having grown up in the same town. What a small world we're living in. The young woman remembers him well — because how does one forget somebody like Nick? — but she is skeptical towards him just seeing his behavior and how he is trying to bury his roots as deeply as possible. Although it isn't something she is actively trying to achieve through manipulation of a sort, she wishes to have him exposed in front of his posh friends who, mostly, think he is as rich as they are, which is why, to him, she is the most dangerous person on campus and he resents her for the power she now has over him.

[hot-craving]

Hi all you Pretty Little Liars Fans is time for another fun fanciful recap from our last season ever of the show.  Let’s get started.

This time we are mesmerized with some thrilling conversation, she wrote sarcastically :),  from Hanna and Mary Drake. It is by the by the most boring exchange of information I can remember on this show, not only does it seem to be in black and white for no good reason other than maybe because it is dark outside.  Anywho, it turns out that Mary who is a family secret of the Delarentis, wasn’t holding Hanna hostage in only her underwear but some other perv who has yet to be found.  Mary just happened to show up to Hanna’s rescue on that dark road in the middle of nowhere.  I have to say that is some kind of coincidence.  Cue theme song.

  Back at Spencer’s house, the gang begins to piece together the pieces that they have gathered based on their own preconceived notions and ideas.  I am pointing this out because we always get new formations of ideas, new pieces and new people half the time that are supposed to be the torturer or A or A.D. or whoever the villian happens to be this week. This time its Mary Drake they think despite her Sally Sunshine, ha attitude with picking up Hanna to help her even though she might be the perpetrator because they believe its pay back for Alison killing Charlotte.  Spencer points out that yes Mary was also in Radley, as a thought I remember that time that doctor mentioned a Delarentis being in Radley besides Charlotte and we thought it was Alisons mother obviously we now know it was the secret family member, twin. It’s all speculation of course, but why not run with it.

Caleb at some point gives Hanna back her engagement ring, hmm was it left by the bedside table?  Yikes!  Then Ezra gets the door to find a bunch of funeral looking flowers with a note from A.D., saying thanks for the help glad we are on the same team.  Not much later Caleb and Hanna decided what happened with them was a slip and it was because she always felt safe with him.  Not sure who is fooling who here, but we all know these two belong together.  Who else can deal with Hanna’s foolishness for very long.

In the hallway, Spencer and Emily stop to chat about Hannas wild eyed look after what happened to her its not surprising, they plan to keep an eye on her.  Caleb takes Spencer home minutes later and I remember they are still together at this point of the season,  Oops spoiler for those who have not seen it all. Despite Emily’s urgings Hanna is not in any hurry to call Jordan who knows nothing of the A. D.-Ness of it all lol.

Now Caleb it with Spencer playing double time I think.  He has only hours ago given Hanna the look that said they could totally get back together now he is kissing Spencer trying to get her back into his bed.  Years ago when I first met Caleb I never thought he would be a “playa”.

Sometime in the morning the next day, Emily gets an urgent call from Alison saying she needs help.  I have to confess I am totally obsessed with Emily’s lashes.  Yeah sure they are fake and Shay doesn’t need anything extra to make her Bea – u- ti-ful, but the lashes are to die for LOL. So be warned this season will be peppered with them, just so you know.

They distracted me from the urgency of the call but I digress.  AT the hospital they won’t let Emily see Alison per Elliot’s orders and he gives no good reason other than its not in anyone’s best interest, can he be any more VAGUE, NO!

At the Radley 2.0 we see Lucas 2.0 aka Money Bags with Hanna discussing their boring business.  He wants her to be Awesome designer Hanna and blah blah blah I’m-not-good- enough-smart-enough-make-me-feel-better-my-life-is-amazing-but-I-can’t-see-it version of Hanna.  Seriously, how much work does it take to get someone to take MONEY, in the world I live in it don’t take that long!!

Emily goes to Spencer looking for support in finding a way to get in to see Alison.  She suggests using Mary Drake since she is related to Alison.  Spencer is not going for it and turns her down, eye lashes and all.  HMMPH!

Meanwhile Aria is breaking it off with Liam, using the good old, I had no idea how my life was such a mess in Rosewood speech.  We all know its Ezra but she can’t say that to him he already has a fragile ego.

Aria’s tassel earrings are kinda cute, very much her to be trendy.  I have seen so many different tassel versions since I started making my own earrings…but this isn’t about that.

  Back at Lucas’, Hanna signs the agreement without reading it that was the first mistake, then we had to endure two minutes of how she met Jordan flashbacks.  He was at the bar being obnoxious by putting his sweaty glass down on the important phone number she stupidly wrote on a napkin. Such a non-exciting meeting by the way, they ate and talk and talk as other came and went, end of flash.

Over at Alison’s house the girls tag team on Elliot’s a** but to no avail he still refuses to let them see her.  He goes to get a call and suddenly A. D. sends a message, “no take backs” she is mine.  You know with all the time and resources I have to wonder how did Charlotte get killed on A. D.’s watch.  What was it the one night she went to get more hoodies? LOL

Anywho, next thing we see is Hanna all dressed in hooker heels sitting at Jordan’s desk wearing trendy orange lipstick.  Wasn’t he in a different state or out of town? I know logic isn’t the strong suit in this show.  She basically is setting herself up to see if she is as hot for Jordan as she is for Caleb, but she tells him she wants to reinact their first meeting, did anyone see that coming? Yep!

How ugly are those pointed hurtin’ looking shoes.  There is a good reason her feet are ono the desk.  It is the only way to wear them, feet up. Ugh!

For the second time in the episode, Emily asks Spencer to help her get Mary Drake to go see Alison, she is more worried after the way Elliot behaved as though them seeing her would be so entirely harmful.  Spencer is considering it now, you can tell by the look in her eyes,  maybe she and Mary could swap stories about that creepy baby’s area.   I think Emily should just approach Mary on her own.

Earlier when Liam spoke with Aria he surprised her by telling her that he is now inc charge of completing Ezra’s book.  During her little break up speech as I said before Aria made it clear Rosewood drama was why she was unclear about her life now about Ezra.  It’s not surprising that when Liam sees them together in the town square that he does look very upset.  You know, since she basically lied to him.

The entire scene with Liam and Ezra seemed like two little boys on the playground.  One is already to play a game of basketball while the other is harboring ill will from previous games so his perspective is not in the present.  Liam thinks that Aria and Ezra are not a good match so instead of him saying hey I saw you too and its never going to work, in my opinion.  He makes it seem as though the book is some how inappropriate and even that the character which is based on Ezra is a predator.  The idea is deep but we all it just silly jealous talk .

For the second episode in a row, Mary Drake met up with Spencer alone.  If this was another show, one that I had not already seen to the end, I could easily believe that Spencer was seeing things.  I digress.  Mary tells Spencer that in her youth she bailed her sister Jessica out of a bad baby sitting gig, by going over to take her place.  Later when the parents came home they found the baby dead.  Mary insists that Jessica had killed it before she had left. No one believed Mary which is why she was in Radley.

When Ezra sees Aria again he insists that Liam was angry and had given him the third degree at their meeting. He doesn’t know what the guys problem is but he wonders how much of his and Aria’s history Liam might know.  Aria looks worried.

Over in New York or wherever Liam and Hanna happen to be, Hanna has a complete meltdown including yelling at the construction workers, when she sees that bar from her memory no long exists.  It makes no sense how this little image in her head would fix how she feels about Caleb, but oh well.  She uses this moment to break up with Liam, who says, “You know I would move heaven and earth for you.”  WOW Hanna you do have some issues.

Its quite interesting how we are supposed to feel sorry for Mary after she tortured Alison last season or maybe even before.  Now she is all over the place telling her story with tears in her eyes just being so transparent, REALLY, what version are we suppose to believe.  I hate this manipulation of emotions, seriously tell a good story stop “yanking or chains.”

Moving on, so Mary is roaming Radley the restaurant, and sees Emily who is filling out an application, she gets every job she applies for by the way.  I know its the eyelashes LOL.  She finally talks to Mary about going to see Alison.  Its weird a lot of what Mary says is the same as what we heard earlier, it makes me think that she was listening.  She even offers to go with Emily after at first saying she thinks Elliot is doing a good job.  Yeah she is acting a little “crazy town” at this point, changing her mind minute to minute, making odd comments about the old Radley.  Why doesn’t Emily notice?  I supposed Emily has a one track mind today, that is to go see Alison.

On the way to the new sanitarium we get a quick stop with Aria and Liam.  He tries to figure out what happened with Aria and Ezra while Aria makes some not so veiled reference to how her life is good because of all the messed up things that happened to her.  Liam is as confused as the rest of us, no really think about it that is a non-commital type answer at the very least.

Finally Emily sees Alison who is highly drugged considering her mutterings about dirt, her mother and being really cold. She of course things Mary is mom, but no one including the nurse bother telling her anything else.  I found that stupid how Emily just went along with crazy talk, but I guess she only had so much time to try to figure out what it all might mean to Alison.  Elliot arrives of course only moment later to kick everyone out leaving Alison in the dark.  He calls Mary into her office and we see right away they are STILL working together.  She wants her money an he just seems to want revenge.  Emily can see from the outside window they are arguing.

Back with Spencer and Caleb we learn that Spencer got fired from her job for being gone too much and what we all knew from the start, her time with Caleb was going to end when he rescued Hanna one too many times.

The end of the episode is one for all of us who have seen the end of the series, will recall it as a pivotal but made no sense at all then or now point of the series.  Alison is drugged and taken to an operating room.

Tada that is it for episode 2, it seems longer than the first but leave comments if you enjoy.

      PLL S07 Episode 2 Secret People Hi all you Pretty Little Liars Fans is time for another fun fanciful recap from our last season ever of the show.  

[jenmedsbookreviews]

  Man. Where to even begin this week. Well. I will start by saying my reading achievements were next to none. Not quite none. But near enough. Work has been very demanding, I have been very tired and my heart just was not in it. No reflection on the books, more a reflection on my weary and rapidly ageing bones and brain telling me to take a break. In fact I am writing this post in stages as I know where my head is currently at so it if makes no sense come the end … well nowt new there really but this time there is an excuse at least 🙂

So, anyway. Aside from being generally ancient (turned 42 this past week don’t you know) I was preoccupied with something else. Lordy 42. Do you remember being a kid and thinking that people in their forties were ancient? Well I’ll let you into a secret – when you finally reach your forties you bloody feel it too. Just kidding. Age is just a number. Like my chest, mine is just larger than some, that’s all. But back to my point (wandering mind comes with age too…) I was away from home from Thursday until Sunday this week because I took the plunge, packed my backbone in a small holdall and made my way to Harrogate for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival.

It’s an interesting festival, very different in tone to Crimefest, geared very much to a social atmosphere but encouraging and enticing readers with a healthy and steady supply of books. I say healthy with my tongue in my cheek (not easy to do without biting said tongue – don’t believe me try it), as carrying around the dang things all day has knackered my shoulder but hey ho. 

As book hauls go, this week was mega. It was also rather big in terms of meeting people. I met a whole host of bloggers this weekend who I’m not going to try and name for fear of missing someone and causing great upset, but it was a pleasure to meet you all either finally or again (and you super lovely ones already know who you are 😉 ). I also met quite a few authors that I admire, including Robert Byrndza and the lovely Jan, Caroline Mitchell and Mel Sherratt, Graham Smith, Sarah Wray, Claire Seeber and also got to meet Keshini Naidoo (yes – a small Bookouture bias in this post I think).

It was also lovely to catch up with Kim Nash, Karen Sullivan, Steph Broadribb, Amanda Jennings, Lucy V Hay, Amer Anwar, Felicia Yap, Patricia Gibney, Bernie Steadman and Fiona Cummins again, and to get to say hi to Paul Burston as I absolutely loved his book The Black Path. I even remembered to take pictures of some of them (but not many as I suck at that). Oh yes, and it was nice to see Rod Reynolds again even if he did show Jo and Emma the terrible selfie he took at Crimefest (terrible because I was in it). And lovely to finally meet Graeme Cumming and have a catch up chat with Gabriela Harding in the quiet times. I’m just hoping I haven’t missed anyone and if I have I’m sorry and I do love you too. (Well at least like and admire – love is such a strong word 😉 ).

Have to give credit to Abbie Osborne for the selfies as I would totally not take those 😀

As well as generally milling about I did attend a couple of panels, though not as many as I perhaps would have liked so I’ll try better next time. The Friday night panel chaired by Sarah Millican and featuring Lee Child, Mark Billingham and Val McDermid was hilarious as you would expect. And I totally agree with Sarah Hilary’s shout out for Chris Whitaker as a totally brilliant writing talent. I also went to a blogger/author event organised by Orion where we met Mari Hannah, Emma Kavanagh, Stephanie Marland (aka Steph Broadribb, aka Crime Thriller Girl) and Lara Dearman, a forensics talk in which I learned many important things to include in ‘Killer’, and a quick start talk on writing crime fiction with Isabel Ashdown and Sam Eades.

And I had two lovely evenings out, firstly with Abigail Osborne, Leah and Jill of Jills Book Cafe, and then with Tracy Fenton and the guy and gals from TBC. Thanks for the company all.

And then there were the books… So. Many. Books.

I got the following:

The Devils Claw by Lara Dearman (Kindle pre order 7/9/17);

My Little Eye by Stephanie Marland (Kindle pre order 2/11/17) Happy dance moment :D;

The Wrong Child by Barry Gornell (Kindle pre order 2/11/17);

The Lost by Mari Hannah (Kindle preorder 2/3/18);

Murder at the Mill by M.B. Shaw (Kindle pre order 30/11/17);

Shadow Man by Margaret Kirk (Kindle pre order 2/11/17);

Beautiful Liars by Isabel Ashdown (Kindle pre order 19/4/18);

I Found You by Lisa Jewell;

The Seagull by Ann Cleeves (Kindle pre order 7/9/17) – The only book I actually purchased all weekend.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo;

If I Die Before I Wake by Emily Koch (Kindle pre order 11/1/18);

Give Me The Child by Mel McGrath;

Eyes Like Mine by Sheena Kamal;

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell (Kindle pre order 5/10/17);

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent (Kindle pre order 29/8/17);

The Mountain by Luca D’Andrea;

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes (Kindle pre order 14/9/17);

The Collector by Fiona Cummins; (soooooooooooo excited about this one and so new there are no Amazon links yet!!! :D) If you don’t know why I’m excited and haven’t yet read Rattle (and if not why not?) then you can order it here and get yourself ready for next year. Did I mention I love that book? I do. I was so excited I may have actually started reading this in bed instead of the books I should have been reading. Oops. (Sorry – not sorry). All the eeeeeeeeeks and squeeeeeeeeals.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (pre order January 2018);

Consent by Leo Benedictus (pre order 1/2/18);

Perfect Remains by Helen Fields;

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughn (Kindle pre order 11/1/18);

Strange Magic by Syd Moore

So all in all a great book haul of a weekend. And I visited Betty’s and treated myself to a belated birthday cake. Go me.

Now the weekend wasn’t without it’s down moments too but least said, soonest mended so lets move on.

Now as if all that wasn’t brilliant enough, before I left for Harrogate I received some absolutely stonkingly fantabulous book post from the wonderful Louise Ross (LJ Ross). Now I knew I’d be getting the signed book as I won it in a charity auction, as well as the chance to be a named character. But I wasn’t expecting to receive a DCI Ryan series mug as well. I actually collect mugs as well as books so this couldn’t have been a better gift for me and will take pride of place in the collection.

And, totally not book related but my new cushions and mugs turned up. How fab are these?

The McMoos by Jennifer Hogwood – You totally need to check out the website.

Just the one book order this week (just as well) which was Bad Sister by Sam Carrington. It’s due out on 5th October and I can’t wait to get my mitts on a copy.

Just the one Netgalley this week too (just as well) which was The Good Sister by Jess Ryder. It’s due for release on 16th August.

I see a theme here. Kind of reminiscent of my life. I have one of each. I’ll let them fight over which is which 😉

I also received an ARC of I Know A Secret by Tess Gerritsen, the brand new Rizzoli and Isles novel which is due out on 10th August.

Now I am hoping that all of these exciting things I’ve been rambling about above will distract you from my reading tally which stands at the grand total of 2. Lorraine at The Book Review Cafe will be laughing at me this week given her mammoth reading achievements and rightly so. If only I’d saved the bloody Mr Men books… When I say reading tally it was one read, one listen as I only completed one book and then listened to an audio on the way too and from Harrogate. Failed blogger I am then (this is not news but now we have evidence).

Books I have read

Red Is The Colour by Mark L. Fowler

A GRIPPING NEW POLICE THRILLER Bullying. Corruption. Murder.

It is the summer of 2002. The corpse of a 15 year old boy, who has been missing for thirty years, is discovered in Stoke-on-Trent. The city is on the cusp of change and Chief Superintendent Berkins wants the case solved quickly. 

DCI Jim Tyler has arrived from London under a cloud, moving to Staffordshire to escape his past. He is teamed up with DS Danny Mills to investigate the case, but there is tension between the detectives.

When the dead boy’s sister comes forward, describing a bright, solitary child, she points a finger at the school bullies, which puts important careers at stake.

Then one of the bullies is found brutally murdered and when Tyler and Mills dig deeper they start to suspect a cover-up.

What is the connection between the death of a schoolboy in 1972 and this latest killing? 

With the pressure building, and the past catching up with DCI Tyler, will he and DS Mills be able to put aside their differences in order to catch a cold-blooded killer?

I’m reviewing this for the blog tour next Monday but I have to be honest and say that this was a really well observed look at childhood bullying an the people who were involved, both directly and indirectly. With a thirty year old victim it is a tough ask for newly transferred DCI Jim Tyler to bring the killer to justice in this new police procedural from Mark L. Fowler and Bloodhound Books. It is released tomorrow, 25th July, and you can buy a copy here.

…

  You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood

It’s easy to judge between right and wrong – isn’t it?

Not until you hear a convincing truth.

Now it’s up to you to decide…

An unnamed defendant stands accused of murder. Just before the Closing Speeches, the young man sacks his lawyer, and decides to give his own defence speech.

He tells us that his barrister told him to leave some things out. Sometimes, the truth can be too difficult to explain, or believe. But he thinks that if he’s going to go down for life, he might as well go down telling the truth.

There are eight pieces of evidence against him. As he talks us through them one by one, his life is in our hands. We, the reader – member of the jury – must keep an open mind till we hear the end of his story. His defence raises many questions… but at the end of the speeches, only one matters:

Did he do it?

Oh my life. What an intriguing novel. Taking courtroom drama to brand new heights this is a story which will not only challenge your idea of right and wrong but also the whole idea of how courtroom dramas should be. Set as a series of court transcripts and told in the defendants voice the author takes you on a journey and you as reader are set to act as jury. I listened to the Audio book of this and I have to say it was absolutely perfect in this format. My review will follow but you can order a copy of the book here.

…

That is all. Thankfully I was fully prepared on the blogging front so I had posts everyday.

#BlogTour Guest Post: Dying Art by Malcolm Hollingdrake

#Booklove: Katherine Sunderland

#BlogTour Review: The Other Twin by Lucy V Hay

Review: Blind Justice by M.A. Comley

#BlogTour Review: Her Deadly Secret by Chris Curran

#BookLove: Jane Cable

#GuestReview: Another You by Jane Cable

…

The week ahead is a bit of a mixture. I start with a review, then some #Booklove with Helena Fairfax, followed by blog tours for The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond, and then The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan with a very special Author Q&A in between, rounding out the week with more #Booklove with Jack Steele and another blog tour, this time The Lost Wife by Anna Mansell.

Hope you have a brilliant week all. I’m reading all day today before going back to work and some more training tomorrow. Boo hiss to that one but someone has to do it. Going to Chester Zoo on Saturday so think of all the animal/nature pics I can share with you next week. You can’t wait can you? Hope they still have the Pudu’s and the Kimodo Dragon. I love them!!!

See you next Monday.

JL

P.S. since penning this post Sunday evening I have been online and preordered three books from Goldsboro (it’s now Sunday bedtime). We’ll just ignore those, pretend I ordered them after midnight and I’ll fill you all in next week 😂

Rewind, recap: weekly update w/e 23/07/17 Man. Where to even begin this week. Well. I will start by saying my reading achievements were next to none.