#also where did Eliza go during phase 2

[bardofthefreaks]

dude i left lsodm because I was so scared because someone spoiled it to me and I didn’t want two of my comfort characters dying, until the end goes on for so long omg I just rushed through it so I could read hbl and val showed up I SO ANGRY LET IT BE ABOUT THE DEAD MEN. FOR ONCE.

Have I mentioned yet how much I love Hopeless? No? Well, that is a crime.

[sanctum-of-ramshackle]

Objection!!! [TWST: Ghost Marriage Event]

[Synopsis]: Miyeon had enough acting logically and decides to unleash every worst nightmare for a delusional being.

[TW]: Vulgar language, and (attempted) disturbing descriptions

[(A/N)]: I know, I know. I’m late. Just been busy IRL. I had played the event and oh boy. I barely held together during the chapters. Anyway, I want to write my OC having to act out their “dark side” and projecting it onto Eliza. Also don’t mind the gifs I used in here (It’s for visualization) and I may made up some dialogue to try piecing everything together in this writing (Because I didn’t actually finish the whole event. ㅠ_ㅠ

[Wedding Venue]

Miyeon: So…This is the bridal princess everyone is talking about? These damn ghoulish bastards kicked me and Grim out of my own Sanctum because of this. What a waste of fucking time.

Eliza: *Scoffs* And who you may be?

Miyeon: *Points at themselves* I’m the one who’s proposing to you. My proposal is showing your previous life to your eyes only.

[Everyone was confused by their professor’s words.]

Ace: *Loudly whispers* You idiot. What are you doing?

Miyeon: *Whispers back* Saving your lives.

Eliza: My life? I do hope you realize who you are speaking to.

Miyeon: Oh, I know. Except you don’t know who I am and how much you pissed me off. So much that you will regret stepping into NRC this time.

[Miyeon casts the Mirror Dimension surrounding the entire college.]

Riddle: Here we go again.

[She then manipulates the dimension’s cafeteria to shatter into shards and plants them around Eliza as a dome, separating her from the groom (Idia).]

Eliza: What is the meaning of this?!

Miyeon, only her booming voice: Showing my objection to this marriage! Your delusional standards are nothing but childish fantasies.

[Eliza tries to phase through her imprisonment, but to no avail. She bounced off of every attempt to escape. Then Miyeon teleports behind Eliza. She starts implanting illusions within the bride’s mind, conjuring a spell and whispering incantations.]

[Eliza’s mind was occupied by memories of her important day. With these mind tricks, what she sees now is herself standing outside of a church where it was filled with guests and important figures from across many countries. Alive, and exhibiting excitement to meet her Prince Charming. Except now her world is falling apart: the ground quakes as it pulls apart, causing Eliza to fall into the cracks and be sent below. Into the dark abyss are whispers and gossip about her, how she will never have a happy ending. Then silver chains flew from the darkness and binds her tight in one spot.]

Eliza: Let go of me this instant!

Miyeon: *Manifested behind Eliza* Just be patient. I have something to show you. *Channels another illusion*

[Now seeing before her eyes was a deserted, foggy graveyard surrounded by damaged headstones addressing names of royalties from fallen kingdoms. Then one such grave starts breaking open, crawling to reveal the deceased groom from Eliza’s wedding. Tattered clothes, hollowed eyes, decaying fleshing, visible deteriorating bones as his jaw barely dislocated.]

Dead Groom: Eliza…Why did you leave? Why did you disappear?

Eliza: No, no, no. This is not what it seems.

Dead Groom: Why did you leave?

Eliza: I-I didn’t leave. That day was went I died-

Dead Groom: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HIM OVER ME?!?!

Eliza: PLEASE, STOP!

Dead Groom: WHY?!?!!

Eliza: AAHHHHHH!!!!! PLEASE! STOP THIS! I’M BEGGING YOU TO SEIZE THIS MADNESS!

Miyeon: *Reappears* I don’t think so. You trespassed the college’s grounds, kicked everyone out of their daily activities, enforced a marriage on a student, smacked my friends of humiliation! The most disgusting part you displayed is your engagement to the one I’m already Player 2 with.

Eliza: P-Player 2?

Miyeon: That’s right. Now I’m sending you to the further depths of Hell, and you’ll never pass on to the next life.

[Miyeon breaks open a portal through the cafeteria floor, able to “escort” the princess to the underworld.]

Miyeon: Prepare to face the consequences of your actions-

Puffy: STOP!

Miyeon: Oh what now, Stay Puft? Afraid you never confess your love to Princess Eliza?

Puffy: *Looks heartbroken*

Miyeon: Oh. You…have feelings for her? *Breaks the illusions*

Eliza: *Snaps back to reality and she heard everything* What? Puffy, is that true?

Puffy: Yes, it is true, Princess Eliza. Oh Great Sorceress, please spare her with me. I, as one of many who is supposed to protect her highness, will sacrifice my existence to shield away great torment to Eliza. If you find anything in your heart, she was only looking for her one true prince.

Eliza: Puffy, wait. You can not leave yet.

Puffy: Eliza, please. I can’t bear to see or think of you sadden forever while being trapped in Hell. That is how much I care and love for you.

Eliza: *Smitten* Oh, Puffy…

Miyeon: *Feeling guilt* …I can’t. *Uses her amulet to fix the damages by reversing time itself*

Puffy: Huh? Sorceress, what are you doing?

Miyeon: *Sighs* I’m not sending Eliza away. I may have pushed too far since this whole thing wouldn’t have happened because of Crowley and his unpredictable choices. I forgot I’m supposed to protect everyone and not be blinded by pure rage. *Turns to Eliza* Your highness, I’m sorry for putting you through mental Hell. I should have approached you in another direction, but I could never let any NRC student be in danger. As a temporary professor it’s understandable, but as one from another world who defends for others, it’s something I can’t bear the guilt if someone loses life too soon. I hope you understand.

Eliza: *Nods* I see you have to go through the troubles and those last words you said. It sounds like you went through much more than that.

Miyeon: Yes. Also you looked smitten by your admirer’s declaration of love. Sounds like you actually found your Prince Charming

Eliza: *Giggles* Yes. Well, the groom is already with someone, then this wedding is seize to continue.

Miyeon: Wait, your highness. This beautiful ceremony shouldn’t be wasted and since you and Puffy found each other. Why not unite you two?

Eliza: *Gasps* Great Sorceress, you truly are thoughtful.

Priest: Do you take Puffy, as your lawfully-wedded husband?

Eliza: I do.

Priest: Do you take Eliza, as your lawfully-wedded wife?

Puffy: I do.

Priest: Then I pronounce these two as husband and wife of the afterlife. You may seal this moment with a kiss.

[The newly-wedded couple sealed in with a kiss as the ghostly guests cheer with happiness with the students forced to join in clapping their hands for them. Later the guests returned back to their realm and everyone actually cheered that the ghosts are leaving NRC. Even one student shouted out, “NEVER COME BACK!” After Eliza exclaimed she’ll return with Puffy and some bundles of joy.]

Ace: Holy shit. Never do that again.

Epel: Yeah. You almost lost yourself while traumatizing the Ghost Bride.

Vil: What kind of magic were you using? It isn’t Eldritch Magic.

Miyeon: *Sighs* It’s magic I learned a little from another user back home. The kind I had to forbid myself from ever possessing. Now…I have a few words with your headmaster about not providing safety precautions to protect students from danger like what happened tonight. I can’t see another one gone from death too soon.

Vil: What do you mean by that?

Miyeon: Oh, nothing. Just professor talk. Everyone, clean this shit up. I need to restrain myself before seeing Crowley. *Disappears through the cafeteria exit*

[PSA: Miyeon didn’t use the ring Sam gave to everyone as they’ll keep it for something else.]

[Bonus Content]

[(A/N)]: I GOT SUITOR IDIAAAAAAAAAA!!!! YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

💫Reblog for more content✨

[facelessxchurch]

What we’re your thoughts about the book?

Some asks were answered already in this post already so I just smacked those asks in here at the part where I talk about the topic in question, which is why the answer may not 100% fit the question.

Massive “Seasons of War” spoilers below the cut:

First off, of all, this book read like GoT/any zombie movie ever. With the necromancers being like the white walkers, Vile is the night king and daugar are the wights. even with the necromancers crumbling away after Vile got killed Tell me I’m not the only one seeing that.

I think there was a lot of fanservice and some confirmed headcanons in the book, which I really liked. Saracen magic got revealed, there was a return to the Leibniz dimension, the Vile vs Vile fight so many wanted finally happened (tho that was kinda underwhelming) and the Dead Men returned which I’m sure made a lot of people happy. 

Ravel poisoning Saracen during the war and Vile being so powerful bc of being dead were two popular headcanons that got confirmed. And I am personally so happy that this book killed the ‘there is no sarcasm in the Leibniz dimension’ headcanon bc I bloody hated that.

Finally, Landy tries to please the old fans instead instead of what feels like purposefully pissing them off. I guess the phase 2 book sales weren’t that great so far (nice try blaming it on the pandemic, but no). 

I’m also glad that the romance in this book was kept to a minimum bc The Val/Militsa kiss in the beginning, yikes, fanfiction has better written kisses than that. And the the dialog for the lesbian love triangle (bc for some reason Ms.Wicked aka Laura’s self insert is Militsa’s ex??) was cringy and stiff as hell, it felt more like first graders trying to do a dramatic play and not natural at all.

Surprisingly enough Mevolent’s and Serafina’s relationship seems to be the most healthy and romantic in the entire series and I have no idea if that was on purpose or if Landy just has twisted views on relationships.

I however am actually kinda happy with how Mev was written. He was sympathetic and charismatic, tho some of the stuff he did doesn’t fit to they way he’s characterised when he’s on screen (I know he is probably lying 90% of the time he speaks, but still). Like, banning all languages apart from English doesn’t seem like something a man who cares about culture, literature and art would do. It also seems kinda stupid bc those languages will be forgotten eventually and if they need an old text translated no one will be able to do it. Also, why English? Isn’t Mev old enough that his first/original language should be Gaelic? So weird. I have the feeling this was mainly done so Valkyrie (and with that the audience) can understand what the people on the continent are saying bc I very much doubt she understands/speaks any languages apart from English. 

But I loved that Mev was also shown as insanely smart. He managed to outsmart Val multiple times. And I love how he doesn’t need his magic to fight, how quick and agil and skilled he is. So I take it that his fighting style is more based on agility and not getting hit, and he uses brute force only when forced into it (by Darquesse/the Unnamed). I was wondering about that bc his armor is made of leather and chainmail instead of metal plates which is considered light armor and not something a tank type of fighter would wear.

What really rubbed me the wrong way tho was when he was talking Tanith and Skul and more or less stated the war wasn’t a challenge anymore ever since Skul died. Or when he was talking to Val being like ‘you’re more powerful than I could ever hope to be’.It bothers me even more knowing that Val is based on girlfriend!Laura. Does really everyone and everything in-vers, even a big bad like Mev, rub Skul’s/Landy’s and Val’s/Laura’s ego? Big yikes.

Crespular Vies is surprisingly fun. At first I thought the two men going after the Obsidian Blade were hired by the Unnamed, but since that wasn’t the case, I think Crespular Vines hired them that so he could show up in time to save Omen and his friends. I think him opening up to Omen about being Skul’s former partner came too unprompted, too quickly and that he is trying to gain Omen’s trust so he can get close to Skul through him. I think another giveaway that that’s the case is bc one of the men Omen had to meet to get his brother back wore a Cleaver outfit and Vies gave that man probably the same reasoning Omen gave him.

That said Omen’s chapters were surprisingly enjoyable. By what I had heard of others I expected a sad sack that can’t fight worth a damn. 

I’m not found of the Temper/Kierre stuff, it came out of nowhere.

Val is overpowered AF, it seems that she can get on Darquesses level with more practise/learning how to keep the doors open. She certainly needs to be nerfed.

Also I skipped the Darquesse chapters bc I’m giving negative fucks about her and the plague doctor.

The last 10% of the book were too rushed and felt like half finished thoughts.

Also I was kinda really bothered by the citizen of the Leibniz dimension. They were cartoonishly racist and it was very pretty black and white for the most part AKA everybody good is in the Resistance and all other sorcerers are evil/corrupt. That is also shown by there being children in the Resistance camp while there was no mention of children in the mage cities. In reality, most people are fairly mellow and it’s just a small percentage that is either really good or really wicked. I would have liked to see more racism towards mortals in form of apathy or ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ like I’ve seen it from Serpine in DotL. You know, make it a little less black and white.

Also, I understand the mermaids, but the bats in Europe were random AF. Like, I would understand it if they were just in Romania/Transylvania as a nod to the Dracula-typ vampire legends originating from there. As a plot-device they weren’t really needed to keep the protagonists from flying bc the danger of getting spotted by necromancer by doing so should be enough of a threat to keep them on the ground. This might seem nit-picky of me, but the bats just seemed so bloody random to me like wtf????

And also bc I’m a slut for magical creatures, I would have really liked to see more of them than just daugar and giant bats. Some undead cut together and resurrected necromancer experiments would have been pretty cool tbh. Like whatever the hell this is.

Something like zombie bears would have also been acceptable, I mean, bears are fucking terrifying on their own, let alone when undead and decaying.

I’m kinda pissed at China that she wanted Skul to kill Nef, but it does seem in character. Of course I still don’t like it bc I headcanon as Nef, Eliza and China having been besties during the war (no matter what canon says, I’m keeping that headcanon). I’m surprised Skul didn’t let Wreath have Nef considering that. Then again, he thought Nef might still be useful. And he was right. I loved how Nef actually had an essential part in saving the world by throwing the bomb. So proud of my boi <3 But Skul refused to kill him even after that. Could it be that Skul is finally getting character growth and development? 👀

Aaaand, China’s continuing to be a tyrant. With Tanith’s sense of justices flaring up shown when he killed the city governor, Erato, and Nef being shown to go after people that betray him (Lorien) I think those two are being set up to go after China to kill her (and to probably kill Creed too). Imagine Eliza joining the team bc she want a piece of China too.

I feel sorry for Baron, but at least he got a few speaking lines this time around. Still, I really wanted Nef to save him. :C Like, he suffered so much before he died too considering he spend a year alone starving and thirsty with broken legs in the middle of nowhere wft, why is Baron getting fucked over like this? #BaronDeservedBetter2020 he is the only honorable person of all faceless followers and he’s the one that gets screwed over in every book he shows up in, why tho- 😭

Speaking of Nef, I absolutely loved him in this book, he was a delight and stealing the show whenever he was on the page, despite being used as  punching bag through pretty much the entire book. If people have always treated him that way I can see why he turned evil jfc that poor man. Despite that, he was still being such a clever, funny and relatable bae <3 He’s described as ‘cynical, and nasty but also kinda cheerful’ and as liking to ‘needle’ people (aka trolling and roasting) by Val and that essentially describes every shitposter on the internet ever. And I so loved the way he roasted Saracen lmao

And how he’s so clever, like the Lorien part was my favourite scene closely followed by how Nef essentially talked Remus Crux into getting himself killed, just 👌 smart snek boi, I love him <3 Also I hope he keeps poisoning everybody thoughts against Skul like how he had already been doing it to Tanith, he’s poison in human form and that’s just my jam.

That obedience bracelet was kinda fucked up tho.

Why does this thing even exist? Aren't electro shocks or any other form of pain enough instead of shutting his nervous system down/rendering him completely defenceless? I feel like some messed up mage 100% used it to keep himself (sex) slaves at some point in time :/ Landy might have gotten that idea from some fucked up hentai. Even the implications of the name "obedience bracelet".... I can’t be the only one that got creepy perv vibes from that thing, right?

Btw what the fuck happened to Harmony? You know, Leibniz Serpine’s girlfriend. She hasn’t been mentioned again. Did she die? She didn’t seem too found of him in DotL, was she plotting against him and he found out about it, killed her and fled the Resistance? Or did she die prior to him leaving and it was part of the reason he left bc she was the only thing that had tied him emotionally to the Resistance?? Or Landy just forgot  she existed. I would not be surprised.

Of course my biggest issue with this book was how he retconned Nef’s magic and how he took his trademark, his red hand, away, but more about that in a different post.

TL;DR: Nef was a delight even though he was done dirty. Mev’s scenes were a 50/50 split between good and bad. I actually liked the Crespulare and Omen chapters. The Unnamed was a disappointment. The last 10% of the book were to rushed and the final fights that were supposed to be the biggest were underwhelming. The rest is meh, didn’t really care tbh. Let’s be real here, I only bought this book bc Nef played a bigger role in it, anyways.

[truthbeetoldmedia]

The 100 6x02 "Red Sun Rising" Review

Phase 1: Survive. Phase 2: Populate. It seems like such an easy charge to fulfill but this is The 100 and if this show’s taught us anything, it’s that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Red Sun Rising opens up 236 years in the past (for those trying to track the timeline: The current in show year is 2281, which means that we are in the year 2045 at the beginning of this episode; 7 years before the apocalypse, 3 years after Diyoza launches a terrorist attack in Washington D.C., 2 years after the Eligus III is sent to the Asteroid Colony and 104 years before the show’s own pilot episode), with Josephine (later revealed to be Josephine Ada Lightborne-and that sounds mighty familiar) and Gabriel Santiago taking in the eclipse.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I loved everything about the opening for this episode. While we spent the Season 6 premiere, Sanctum, waking up our main characters and getting them into their places for the rest of the Season, Red Sun Rising sets up the beginning of a mystery that will, I hope, propel the plot for the episodes to come-and it’s all done in a masterful six minutes of screen time. We discover several important facts in this time:

The Lightbornes are a family of 3: Simone (Mom), Russell (Dad) and Josephine (daughter), a makeup exactly the same as Clarke Griffin’s.

Simone is a doctor, Russell is an astronomer and Josephine is a taxonomist (a biologist that groups organisms into categories).

They’ve only found three evolutionary species on the planet when they arrive: Insecta (insects), Rodentia (rodents) and Reptilia (reptiles).

Jospehine names the planet-Sanctum

Gabriel Santiago is a geneticist (a biologist who studies genes and heredity).

The need for sex for reproduction is implied to be unnecessary as there are “embryos”.

They’ve been on Sanctum for 21 days before the first eclipse happens.

Josephine and Gabriel hear a sonic anomaly.

Russell, the first affected by the eclipse, kills his wife, his daughter and several others.

Gabriel escapes.

Josephine mentions to Gabriel “We both know you’re obsessed with me.”/ Mr. Lightborne states “The last thing I need is a broken-hearted geneticist.”

Whew! That’s a lot of information crammed into a relatively short amount of time, and I believe that it’s all relevant to a broader theory that I’m beginning to develop. I’ll get back to that soon enough, but for now, read on below for my review of Red Sun Rising.

On Planet Alpha (AKA Sanctum):

Sanctum doesn’t seem like much of a refuge for our homeless buddies as we crash back into the present day. Within hours of their arrival our group is attacked by locusts, Shaw is killed in a radiation barrier and Emori is stabbing Murphy in a fit of rage. We return to them in this episode, discussing what made Emori fly off of the handle and almost murder Murphy in the process. They quickly discover, thanks to the book found in the school room in the episode prior (written by one Josephine Ada Lightborne-interesting that), that the plants emit a toxin that causes psychosis in most inhabitants of the planet and Emori was likely the first affected because she fell directly into a pile of them early on. Miller’s immediate solution is to...somehow prevent the air from entering the building they’re in and Echo is quick to help him-handing him jackets to seal the open spaces around the door. The tactic is humorous in its absurdity because that’s not how air flow works, but Miller and Echo (and later Murphy) aren’t the science guys so I’ll give them a pass. Eventually, they come up with a plan to use the cuffs located around the compound to secure themselves, and it’s a solid one, I hope they’ll stick to it (can you tell that they don’t?).

I found it interesting that Echo chose to stay with Emori while Bellamy, Murphy and Clarke are together in the school room and Jackson and Miller are in an upper level, but I’ll explain why in just a bit. Everything about Bellamy screams “Dad!” during the time they spend getting situated, from forcing Murphy to put his cuffs on to holding on to everyone’s keys (although he does entrust his own to Clarke). Bellamy seems to have forgiven Clarke for her betrayal in Season 5, notable when everyone else around her is determined to hold on to their (deserved) anger towards her, after learning from Madi-and confirming with Clarke in the premiere of Season 6, that she did indeed call him everyday to maintain her sanity, but he does seem aware that he can’t force the others to forgive her, even as he comes to her aid.

Murphy’s attacks on Clarke have been relentless and it seems that he and Raven are the angriest at Clarke. I hate to say it, because I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I don’t believe that their anger is unfounded. There’s been a lot of noise in fandom about the fact that Clarke is owed forgiveness (a lot of times the complaints almost read as Clarke being owed deference) because she’s saved everyone’s lives countless times, but there are issues with this idea. As we listen to Murphy begin his listing of Clarke’s crimes, we see that he is not talking about just the issues they ran into in Season 5, when Murphy is shot by one of the Eligius prisoners after Clarke provides intel to them, but reaching all the way back to every sin Clarke has committed against him and Emori, whom he loves. Murphy reaches back to Clarke’s  willingness to force Emori into being a test subject in Season 4, stopping at the last minute when an attack of conscious hits her and her role in his Season 1 hanging (Clarke led the charge when she falsely accused Murphy of murdering Wells, riling up an already unstable crowd of teen delinquents), even as Bellamy steps in to take credit for the latter (“In fairness that was me.”). Murphy even goes so far as to label Clarke’s apparent disregard for the lives of others, he uses the word “disposable”.

Unfortunately for our girl, it’s not an unfair charge. Clarke has often been lauded for her ruthlessness, her willingness to do whatever it takes to save the people she claims as her own, no matter the cost to herself or others. It becomes a central piece of her character during the Season 2 finale when she takes on Dante Wallace’s advice of “bearing it so they (her people) don’t have to, although I hesitate to say that Clarke has ever actually born the weight of the choices that she’s made alone even if she feels she has. Although Clarke usually formulates the idea for the people-saving win each Season, an idea is nothing without implementation (usually handled by Monty or Raven) and execution (usually handled by Bellamy). Usually Clarke’s ruthlessness works in her favor, people are-seemingly-grateful for her ability to make the life or death choices, but in Season 5, Clarke’s “people” have boiled down to Madi and Madi alone after a Season spent ostracized by a combination of choice and force and thus, her actions to save Madi (at any and all costs) pit her directly against her friends-even as they were working to find a solution that saved everyone. It’s a bitter pill for them all to swallow and, although Clarke isn’t the only one who has betrayed people that she cares or will eventually come to care for, the others have had the opportunity to hash out their differences with each other because they’ve spent six years trapped together in space. What else was there for them to do? Now, it’s Clarke’s turn to face the music and it seems harsh and unrelenting because they’ve all ganged up on her at once, but their charges are not unfair and the open discussion of past hurts will hopefully be a catalyst for real development of relationships Clarke has not had the time to build since Season 1.

With all of that said, I still cheered when Clarke finally got fed up with Murphy’s barrage and accepted responsibility-however harshly-for her own failings. Eliza’s delivery of the line: “Is that what you want to hear? That I’m the bad guy? Fine, I’ll be the bad guy. When I’m in charge people die, isn’t that what you said?” is phenomenal. There’s so much anger in the line, but there’s also guilt and grief and pain. In this moment, Clarke is lashing out at everyone, not just Murphy but also Bellamy. Like Murphy she’s still upset about words spoken in anger years ago, back in Season 3 for us, but over 130 years ago in canon (even though for our characters, it’s been 6 years since that moment) and it’s telling that in this moment, where Bellamy is actively supporting Clarke and Murphy is on the attack, Clarke’s anger is reserved for Murphy’s words but her pain is reserved for Bellamy. Perhaps Bellamy’s words-years old-hold more weight for Clarke because her relationship to Bellamy has always been central to her journey and as such it’s harder to shake his truths off.

The argument is interrupted by banging and yelling overhead where Jackson and Miller are chained and Bellamy immediately prepares to head up and ensure everything is OK. Clarke isn’t going to let him go off by himself and after a quick key swap, our resident power couple is charging off to save the day, differences temporarily cast aside. When they rush up the stairs and finally get Jackson to open the door, we see Miller in the throes of a hallucination.I’d previously speculated that the dead bugs in the terrarium were meant to be used as an early warning system in the event of an eclipse,and Jackson confirms that thought process before saying that Miller, in checking out the terrarium had accidentally knocked it over and now believes himself to be infested with bugs. Miller doesn’t want to die like the Grounder Octavia experimented on with the worms in Season 5 and it initially seems as though Jackson is fine and just wants to be released to check on Miller, but as soon as he’s uncuffed it becomes evident that Jackson was caught in Miller’s hallucination from the get go. He finds a knife and makes quick work of stabbing into Miller to free him from the illusory bugs, but Bellamy and Clarke manage to subdue them.

There’s a brief pause and it’s fitting that Clarke is the one who realizes they “have no idea how to survive down here.”. She’s spent 6 years alone surviving in conditions less than favorable, have her small piece of safety destroyed, find a new haven and have it begin to destroy them immediately. They’re both mystified by the idea of joint hallucinations (which is a recognized phenomenon-called Folie a deux or shared psychosis) and, although showrunner Jason Rothenberg has stated the hallucinations are far less important than we believe them to (and I do believe this as we were saturated with psychosis from the first trailer and The 100 traditionally buries the lead), I would love the opportunity to see more episodes of shared psychosis.

Ironically, although Miller and Jackson have been tranquilized and are now out of commission, Bellamy and Clarke are now the bigger danger, both of them are uncuffed and we see Bellamy beginning to unravel as they return to the school room to find Murphy missing. Bellamy-having used his tranquilizer on Jackson-goes down to gather Echo’s in order to decommission Murphy, but Echo (probably wisely) refuses to open the door, instead injecting herself with the tranquilizer when the psychosis starts to sink in for her. This leaves Murphy on the run and our first glimpse of him is huddled on the roof of one of the buildings,clutching a gun and muttering to himself and it’s easy to believe that Murphy has also been affected by the psychosis, but Josephine’s book tells us that “ So few are safe” implying that some people are immune to the effects of the eclipse and I believe Murphy is one of them. Although Murphy has run, it makes sense that he would. Bellamy and Clarke have gone up to check on Miller and Jackson and all the others can hear is screaming and banging. Having been attacked by Emori under the effects of the psychosis and realizing it’s spreading with Bellamy and Clarke completely unchained, it’s logical that Murphy would free himself and hide to prevent being a sitting duck. He even goes so far as to shoot at Bellamy (and Clarke) when he realizes that Bellamy is trying to get into the room where Emori (and Echo) have been chained up, perhaps in a bid to protect her from Bellamy who is spiraling.

When Clarke realizes how out of control Bellamy is, she takes herself off, in an attempt to find another way to subdue him and winds up hearing Abby’s voice crackling through the radio. It’s evident from the beginning that this is the psychosis as we know the radios haven’t been working and there are specific events taking place in space that would prevent Abby from reaching out to Clarke. This is our first glimpse into Clarke’s mindset in quite a while, I’d wager we haven’t seen her this emotionally vulnerable since Season 3, and she breaks my heart. We know that Clarke has been struggling with the weight of her choices since killing Finn in Season 2 and that each additional act she commits only adds to the burden she carries, letting the bomb fall on Ton D.C., abandoning her people in Season 3, guilt related to Lexa’s death, guilt related to almost using Emori as a test subject, and so much more. All of this weight seems to erupt out of her at once, releasing a perhaps long pushed down belief that Clarke herself is the root of the problem, or in the voice of HallucAbby, the toxin. It’s striking to see how far gone Clarke is and when she holds the knife to her throat, even though I know her status as the lead keeps her safe, my heart still leapt into my throat. Luckily, Murphy comes upon her before she carries out the act and it seems that, just as Bellamy getting the insight from Madi into Clarke’s mental state during the six years she was virtually alone has helped him to reevaluate his feelings for Clarke, Murphy realizing that Clarke is hurting and lost and does carry guilt for her actions is what it takes for him to begin the walk down the road to forgiveness for her. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the two of them forge a deeper bond this Season based on their shared experiences with feeling worthless and unneeded (see Season 5 Murphy).

Because Clarke is only a danger to herself Murphy is successful in convincing her (appealing to her logic) to help him save Bellamy before he hurts himself or others. That turns out to be easier said than done. Bellamy is deep in psychosis by the time they manage to begin putting their plan into action and he’s a formidable foe, especially with Murphy already weakened by gunshot and stab wounds, and he’s determined to “keep us safe” even from Murphy. He deals handily with Murphy, almost drowning him before he hears Clarke-desperately fighting the hallucination as she tries to get to Murphy and Bellamy. It’s clear immediately that Bellamy sees Clarke as a threat while mired in his hallucination, stating “Here we go again. How many times have you tried to kill me now?”, before he advances on her. It’s such a turn from Bellamy’s previous behavior with regards to Clarke that it’s shocking. Since learning of Clarke’s radio calls he’s been kind and friendly to her, openly trying to make her feel more comfortable and a part of the group. If we’re to believe that the psychosis has something to do with inner demons (“Face Your Demons” and all that), it’s a hurtful moment when you realize that means Bellamy is not nearly as OK with Clarke’s actions as he’s tried to be, but it also makes sense.

I have a working theory that the psychosis is directly triggered by conversations that you might have had prior to the onset. Miller’s psychosis manifests as being infested with bugs and he expressed guilt in the premiere for the cruel acts he performed under Octavia’s command. Jackson’s psychosis is a byproduct of Miller’s which also fits with the conversation they’d had the previous day where Miller says that “I did things, you didn’t stop things.” This time Jackson is going to stop what’s happening. The trigger for Emori’s psychosis has thus far eluded me (if you can think of it let me know in the comments below!), but Echo’s is clearly brought on by Emori taunting her by calling her a “Good little spy,” who is “always following her master’s orders” as she is besieged by voices (that I assume to be Nia and perhaps Roan), telling her to “bring me her head” and “slit her throat”. The triggers for Bellamy and Clarke are some of the most interesting for me. I believe that Bellamy was triggered by Murphy’s use of the word “disposable” as it relates to how Clarke treats people. We hear Murphy recite Clarke’s crimes going back into Season 1 and it appears that that might have forced Bellamy’s mind to darker times.

Even though Bellamy and Clarke have had conversations about her seemingly dismissive treatment of him and logically Bellamy has even acknowledged that at times she’s had “no choice” that doesn’t mean that he’s actually fully thought out or processed the harm her actions have done him. In each Season there’s an instance we can pinpoint where Clarke has done something that would indicate that she might see Bellamy as disposable:

In Season 1, she closes the Dropship door on both him and Finn (Bellamy later acknowledges that she had no choice, but it might be something that’s still paining him).

In Season 2, she sends Bellamy into Mt. Weather after rejecting his “Inside Man” plan on the premise that he would get himself killed saying “It’s worth the risk”.

In Season 3, she apparently sides with the Grounders after they’ve arranged an attack that has left almost all of Farm Station dead and after Bellamy has just risked his life attempting to save her from Roan.

In Season 4, she holds a gun on him and even fires a warning shot after he decides he’s going to open the door for Octavia, consequences be damned.

In Season 5, she literally leaves him behind knowing that death is an option because Octavia has gone power mad.

In every Season, Clarke has shown Bellamy’s subconscious that she views him as disposable even if we as the audience understand that these actions cost Clarke a great deal. Because they’ve never actually had the time to really sit down and flesh out the actions (unlike the Space Squad with their six years in space) there’s a lot left unsaid between them. Bellamy is determined to separate himself from Clarke, even mentioning when the psychosis first began to sink it’s hooks into him that he “didn’t need her anymore”, which I believe is also a callback to Bellamy himself believing that he does need Clarke, which is strongly evident in 2 instance in Season 4, when Jaha tells Bellamy that he keeps Clarke centered to which Bellamy responds “You’ve got it backwards.” and when Clarke advises Bellamy he needs to be both head and heart and Bellamy says “I’ve got you for that.”. Bellamy has managed over the course of the past 6 years to lead with both his head and his heart, but it’s a burden to carry all of the leadership on his own and I believe that perhaps Bellamy saying “I don’t need you anymore.” is an expression of Bellamy’s own upset that he does still need her.

I believe Clarke’s psychosis was triggered by herself, which is perhaps why she’s only a danger by herself. In that speech I mentioned above where she states: “Fine, I’ll be the bad guy. When I’m in charge people die, isn’t that what you said?”, which aligns with her psychosis manifesting as a voice (her mother’s at that) telling her that she is the toxin, because Clarke had already accepted that herself earlier in the episode. It also makes sense that it’s Abby’s voice-not just because Abby as her mother is someone who we would expect to love Clarke no matter what, but also because the moment Clarke really delved into “Survival at all costs.” was in Season 2. Season 2 had two large scale instances of Clarke deciding that the few are worth the many, the first being when she, influenced by Lexa decides that it’s better to save themselves and allow the majority of the Grounder leadership to perish in the bombing of Ton D.C. (a moment which causes Abby to view her daughter in a horrified light-even if only momentarily) and when she suggest that the only way to save her people is to irradiate the others. It’s after this moment that Abby tells Clarke that “Maybe there aren’t any good guys” a moment reference directly by HallucAbby over the radio. If we are making Clarke delve deep into her treatment of people as “disposable”, Season 2 is a really good place for that. I hope that the exploration of the feelings everyone has for each other and-importantly-giving them all the opportunity to express them and work through them together continues. It’s been an aspect of the show that’s been vastly underdone until now.  (Heather over at TVSource also has some clever ideas about Clarke’s hallucinations-find them here: https://bit.ly/2HiCUk3)

Aboard Eligius III:

Our first moments with Eligius are spent watching Octavia and Niylah spar. Initially it appears they are just training, trying to pass the time now that they’re both awake, it quickly becomes something ugly when Octavia misses Niylah and rams her fist into the interior of the ship-although its obviously painful she keeps hammering into the object until her fist is raw and bloodied. It’s not even close to our first clue that Octavia is severely damaged, nor is it our first clue as to how Octavia deals with her damage, but we’ll return to this because that transport ship that was stolen in the premiere? Well it’s docking, and the four masked intruders immediately gas their welcoming party (Jordan, Octavia, Niylah and Abby), checking Octavia’s hand and realizing that these individuals are not Nightbloods. As descendants of the original Eligius mission to Alpha (also all Nightbloods-as we see when Russell attacks his family),they are familiar with what to expect of the Eligius crew and-although they don’t encounter them-they still proceed with an almost rehearsed ease to take the ship and head directly to the bridge.

They manage to corral almost all those who are awake on the ship into the cafeteria, perhaps not the best place for Octavia to be at the moment considering almost all of her former bunkermates hate her, and Abby realizes they have an advantage-Raven is somewhere out there and, because Raven is clever, she immediately wakes Charmaine Diyoza. Poor Diyoza is still pregnant (“She kicked!”) and honestly-I’m going to have an entire bottle of wine for her this coming Mother’s Day because, wow. The banter between Raven and Diyoza is a gift! Diyoza’s first line of the Season being “How bad is it?” is something that I’ll be chuckling about for the rest of the year. Ivana Millicevic is uniquely talented and she brings an instant excitement to every scene she’s in, no matter her scene partner. Raven questions her decision to wake the former leader of a terrorist group, but she’s also smart enough to know that she doesn’t just need her brains-she also needs a military strategist and Diyoza puts her smarts to work immediately, taking care of two of the intruders (who had thus far been using non lethal force) with a simple but effective ploy-luring them into the cryo bay and stealing one of their weapons. The initial plan works but their foe aren’t fools and realize quickly that something isn’t quite right.

Meanwhile, The Breakfast Club (this is what I’ve chosen to call our cafeteria group) is calmly having lunch (the fact that Monty kept the algae on tap is another clever invention of his and a quirky glimpse into Jordan’s childhood). Jordan is willing to provide Octavia with food but Abby says that “Serving Octavia is how we got into this mess.” which is an interesting way of ignoring her own culpability, as one of the most drastic things that happened under the bunker was the forced cannibalism-something Abby not only suggested to Octavia but also encouraged-because Kane had to survive, at all costs. Octavia is tired of waiting around and decides to kick her way out of the cafeteria-which clearly isn’t very effective and when Jordan points out why, she’s quick to snarl at him-insulting his father.

Thus far, Jordan has been played as a soft-spoken, gentle man, very reminiscent of his father, but the change in him when Octavia insulted his parentage was swift and I was immediately reminded that, while his father loved peace, Harper was his mother and I’m sure she taught her son some tricks. The way he slowly unfolds his body from the bench as he stands up is threatening and it’s exactly what Octavia wants. When Jordan chooses not to engage, she eggs on one of her former followers and he lashes out harshly, slamming Octavia into the stair rail. The others join in and Octavia is brutalized but she seems to be enjoying it. We find out soon enough why-Octavia hoped they’d kill her. It’s what she wanted (in that moment). Unable to die as a hero in Season 5, it appears that Octavia is still determined to die, but unable to do it herself. It’s clear that we’re supposed to begin to feel sympathy for Octavia in this moment. I’m unable to. Octavia has spent years on a downward spiral and was honestly at her best as a character when she was an unrepentant villain. There’s nothing appealing to me about a character who has committed atrocities for personal gain (of her own accord-simply to maintain power) only to lapse into a huge well of self pity when her plan doesn’t work out. Octavia needs to own what she did and begin to make apologies and work to be better or go away. Even as she craves the pain she’s decided is her punishment, she’s unable to inflict it on herself, forcing others to sink to her level in a depraved game of “You’re just as bad as I am.” It’s unsettling and sickening and not a plot line I am actively looking forward to.

Back on the bridge, Raven and Diyoza have managed to temporarily hold the bridge takers at bay by pretending that Raven is one of them. It’s a clear fakeout and they don’t buy it at all as Raven is smaller than the person who’d originally been in the suit. Just as things are getting tense, Madi makes a hell of an entrance, dropping from the ventilation system and shooting one of their would-be hostage takers. There’s an odd exchange here as Faye lays dying. She implores the older woman (who is perhaps her mother) to “take care of” the bodies. The response? “I know. I’ll take care of it.” It’s an interesting statement and one I believe ties into a theory I’m going to share with you all at the end of all this-so stay tuned for this. In the wake of Faye’s passing and severely outnumbered, the lone Sanctum resident surrenders and is forced to take a search party out to find the missing members of the Eligius group. Jordan’s face when they land is perfect-he’s a space baby, just like our original group in the pilot episode and the awe and wonder he expresses at his first sight of land is beautiful and heart wrenching. Our original group didn’t maintain that sweet innocence for long-let’s hope that Jordan gets the opportunity to. Octavia has snuck aboard the transport ship-once again imposing her presence on a group who had no desire for her, with Raven rounding out the group. Initially our Sanctum resident doesn’t want to go with the group-she’s unwilling to leave her family, claiming it’s “not safe for them”. Interesting comment considering they’re all dead now. What other threats can harm them now?

Another offhand comment is made as they walk towards the castle. “The trees have probably consumed your friends.” and I’m sorry but what? We know the plants emit toxins but they’re also eating people? I don’t have time for that. It’s not long before they come across Shaw’s grave and Raven’s reaction is so depressingly minimal. Although she initially tries to run to him, her single tear at seeing his grave is...it’s unfair. Raven has been so beaten down that she is apparently unable to do more than cry silently at the loss of one more person who she’d permitted herself to love and be loved by. She deserves a measure of real happiness.What does she have to do to find it?

Reunited and It Doesn’t Feel That Great...

It doesn’t take them long to reach the castle and the initial panic at finding Bellamy, Clarke and Murphy splayed out in the red dirt (Bellamy and Clarke with legs draped over each others almost forming a heart) is taken care of quickly. It takes a simple caress to wake both Bellamy and Clarke, and Bellamy’s face when he feels the pain in his leg from Clarke stabbing him and then realizes why she’d felt the need to do so-call 911 because my heart is breaking. Now we know that, after the psychosis is ended, you are still aware of what you’ve done. That means those affected will need to talk to each other and hopefully make amends for what they’ve done. Bellamy’s guilt quickly falls to the wayside however, as he notices Octavia there and his “What’s she doing here?” is a reminder to all and sundry that he has in no way forgiven her for her actions last Season and doesn’t seem close to doing so either. Murphy isn’t waking up, and his veins have gone black, perhaps this is the price you pay for being able to withstand the toxins? But before we can deal with that, Bellamy also catches sight of the mysterious newcomer, but before his query about her identity can be answered-a rush of children, climb the stairs towards the castle. They are initially disquieted by the new visitors to their world, but an older girl, Rose, asks a question that sends Clarke and the others reeling: “Are you here to take us home?” It looks like they’ve been waiting on Sanctum for the Earth to be habitable again-they’re going to be massively disappointed when they realize that’s a crapshot.

And now...a Theory:

You’ve already read my theory on what triggers the hallucinatory subject matter of the psychosis (and because it’s not meant to be a huge part of the Season, I won’t add on to it here), but I hinted at another theory-sparked in the first six minutes of the episode, and I am hoping that I’m right, because if I am, The 100 will have really pulled a game changer. Keep reading for what is potentially my favorite theory ever:

When Josephine first tries to get Gabriel to have sex with her, he brushes her off, stating that they have the embryos, clearly stating they don’t need to have sex for population efforts. As a geneticist it’s likely a part of his job to maintain and develop these embryos. We also have Josephine state that “he’s a bit obsessed with her” and Russell state that “he doesn’t need a broken hearted geneticist.” In that same scene Russell also chides Josephine for twirling her hair-the camera even zooms in on her doing it. Shortly thereafter, Russell succumbs to the effects of the toxin and-in a fit of possessiveness, begins murdering the other residents of Sanctum. Gabriel is one of the only ones we see get away. My theory is that, after the effects of the toxin have worn off and Russell comes back to himself-aware of what he’s done, he finds Gabriel and the two of them work together to recreate their massacred colony. I believe that-using genetic material taken from their dead colony members, they introduce it to the embryos, thus creating clones of a sort. I think that Gabriel does indeed develop an obsession for Josephine, if he didn’t have one already, and in his grief is determined to recreate her, down to the quirk of her hair twirling, and that he will keep trying until he succeeds.

I think this is supported by the title of the next episode “The Children of Gabriel” (points to Yana of TVFanatic for catching some hints about this-read more about that here: https://bit.ly/2Ye0gOw) and the label of “Primes” for the founding families of Sanctum. Human DNA is made up of two “primes”, we know DNA to be a double helix, but when unraveled they are two clearly distinct strands, both have distinct sides, one referred to as 3’ prime and the other referred to as 5’ prime. The fact that there is a bowl in front of a picture of the Lightbornes-in which blood has been dropped is another possible clue. Perhaps this blood belongs to the clones of the Lightborne and they perform the ritual of the blood drops as a way to pay homage to their successors. This would also explain how Josephine Ada Lightborne wrote the book Bellamy finds in the school room “Red Sun Rising” in after she’s already died, because she’s been cloned. I also believe this is why Faye’s last words are about recovering the bodies and why our Sanctum Guide is unwilling to leave her family initially-saying it’s not safe. They want to get the bodies back to the lab where the embryos are kept before the genetic material is unusable because they too are clones.

I hope that this is the direction they’re going in, because if it is? We’re talking about a fun and exciting twist that would really help me believe that this new Season actually is a new “book” for us to enjoy. This might have been my longest review ever, which says a lot about how exciting this episode was for me personally.

Random Observations:

Bellamy has a choking kink: He’s now choked the Mt. Weather guard, Echo, Murphy, Clarke, an Eligius crew member and more. It’s getting out of hand sir.

Echo felt forced this episode. It seemed like-because they’d removed her from the main equation early, they felt they needed to have her verbalize her concern for Bellamy by yelling. It came off...oddly.

I’m all the way here for a Murphy/Clarke friendship and I hope that’s what’s going to develop after their shared moments in this episode.

I need all the Jordan Jasper Green. He’s a delight.

Hopefully Diyoza is delivered of that baby sooner rather than later. It’s got to be exhausting being pregnant for over a century.

It’s interesting that Octavia was able to survive walking into the radiation field (and yes, I’m aware she was pulled back), but Zeke wasn’t. Qwhite interesting.

Madi isn’t too pleased about being stuck aboard the Eligius ship, I’m guessing she’s going to wind off sneaking away soon.

Just because Josephine only discovered 3 Orders of life in their first 21 days, doesn’t mean there aren’t more.

Love it or hate it? I’d love to know more-tell me all about it in the comments below.

The 100 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

April’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝.5

[sapphicscholar]

Letter 72

March 22, 2012, 4:26pm

Morning Alex!

I know, I truly live such a hard life. Basically reenacting Dickens over here. I’m excited to tell you all about Paris! And it’s not weird: no matter how much fun it’ll be to see France for the first time and catch up with some friends who've been scattered all across Europe, I’ll miss you too.

Oh the nihilism of determinism…bringing me right on back to philosophy classes, Danvers! Interesting choice with the future because then you could fuck anything up, and it wouldn’t matter because you could come back and not do things that way. But then there are questions like, with the knowledge you have now, will you necessarily act in different ways? Not in a deterministic sense but would simply having additional information impact the way you act? Probably, right. And maybe some of those new choices would save you from pain, but they might also change good things down the line. Like, say, if kid me knew giving a card to Eliza would blow up in my face to the extent that it did, I might not have done it, but, shitty as all of that was and continues to be, would I have then tried to fight harder and change myself in unhealthy ways to appease parents who loved me only if I met certain criteria? Our experiences make us who we are, of course, so maybe it’s simply that I can’t quite imagine being where I am now without having gone through them, even if I wish I didn’t have to in some cases… I was gonna ask if you think you’d seek yourself out while traveling, or if you were of the camp that believes that seeing yourself would mess it all up. I guess if you’re the type to seek yourself out (and I kinda think I am…), that means time travel doesn’t become a thing before we die because I’ve yet to meet future me… Or maybe future me knows some shit about how bad things would be if she popped on back here. Who knows!

Yeah…I don’t know. Obviously I owe my aunt a huge debt of gratitude, and we made things work, but it was hard. She wasn’t quite old enough to suddenly be given a teenager, and it certainly wasn’t a choice she’d made so much as one that by necessity she felt compelled to accept, and now she’s getting a chance to do it right with some guy that makes her happy and a little son she’s getting to raise from the very beginning. I wasn’t in a great place when I moved in with her, and it really took a long time to open up at all, and by then, I was just about ready to move out to college. And I didn’t want to keep bothering her then, so I got jobs on campus for the summer that came with free housing, so we saw each other but…not much. I don’t know, sorry for rambling.

I get it, Alex, really, I do. But I suspect she misses her big sister. And I doubt that she’s expecting perfection from you—not that there’s anything wrong with you either! It’s okay to be figuring things out. You’re in your 20s! You don’t have to tell her everything right away if that’s not something you two do, but you don’t have to be the strong one all the time. You don’t have to shoulder the weight of those expectations for everyone else. And, speaking from personal experience, there’s never really a great time to open up…it’ll be easy enough to find an excuse or a reason for why it’s not the perfect time. But if—and big if here—you think it’d make you feel better or be a good thing for you, don’t let worries about timing be the only thing stopping you. And I’m always here to talk and listen if you think that maybe now isn’t the right time to be talking to Kara for you personally.

Now please tell me you also have photos of said punk rock phase. How punk rock are we talking?? Ah yeah, that makes sense about the phone and charger. If all my futuristic devices were for communication, it makes an equal amount of sense that your “must haves” are to support the people who matter most in your life. You shoulder a whole lot of responsibility, and I hope you’re getting all the support you need.

Oh wow…sounds like a delightful birthday! I’m so glad you have video evidence, especially if you’re still friends with any of those kids! My best birthday was definitely my 19th. I was in college, and my birthday was during finals, and also just…no one had any reason to do anything for it? I mean, we knew each other, but not for that long or anything, and they all had busy lives. But my roommate invited over all of my friends and packed our tiny-ass room to the brim—scared the shit out of me when they all jumped up when I got back, but it was great. They’d even made me a homemade cake with the absolute messiest icing decorations I’d ever seen, and it was amazing.

Not that my lucky number does anything for me, but it’s 16. I like that it’s a perfect square, as is its root. It’s neat and clean, and I love it. Also it’s even, and that’s important.

I could see you looking great with short hair! I mean, you look great now too. You get what I’m saying, right? I had bangs when I was a kid…not a good look. I don’t know who told hairdressers that all kids should get bangs, but they definitely shouldn’t. Especially not kids with thick hair.

Bahhaah no, Danvers, it’s nothing like the hanky code! Oh my god, now I’m envisioning all the possibilities that you could have conjured up based on that code… No there’s some comedy routine about it, but also like, in addition to the borrowed shoes, I know some people are very worried about the sanity of those willing to stick their fingers into germ pits and then go right back to eating nachos and act like they don’t have ebola or something.

Hope the bucket list creation is going well!! And if there are any items on it I can help with while you’re in Italy, I’m always down to help! Hah oh god! If it meant seeing you in a Lara Croft costume, though, I’d happily suit up in a dinosaur onesie. I will say, though…uh, looking at sizing, they seem to think all adults are brontosaurus-sized (what “average” adult is 5’9”-6’0”???). I may be a little closer to the 5’ end of the spectrum…

On to your questions!

1. Hogwarts House? Hufflepuff with as much house pride as a Slytherin

2. What do you wish you knew more about? So many things! But I’d really love to know more about alien cultures. I think it’s fascinating because we’re so used to the way things are here (and even getting out of a U.S.-context, we still generally understand how things work elsewhere because there’s a lot of interconnection and communication between cultures), but who knows what life is like out in space! Maybe it’s really different or weirdly similar—in any case, I’d love to know

3. What are some small things that make your day better? Ooh, good question! Hmm…talking to other people? Or, not just people in general, but people I can really have a good conversation with. I think your emails qualify, and our Skype dates definitely do. Then I also like getting to talk to my students or sit down with some of the other teachers. Oh and dogs. Dogs always make a day great. Unless you can’t pet them. Then it’s a bummer.

Questions for you! Do you people watch and, if so, do you ever make up stories about the people you see going by? What’s your least favorite question to be asked/compelled to answer (icebreaker games are also acceptable here)? If I set you loose in an art museum, then came back for you, where would I find you? The last question may or may not be inspired by extensive research about all the art in Paris…

T-19 days, Maggie

[meimyselfandi-blog]

In Love With A Ghost : Talk A Little Bit Less, Smile A Bit More

Summary: Alexander Hamilton was known to be a hurricane. A relentless force of man.Yet somewhere along the line that hurricane died down and Hamilton started to change. It was the little things at first, like how he’d tense up when Thomas approached him a little too fast. How his hands began to shake as he poured his morning coffee. Then, Thomas had noticed the first time Alexander flinched when Washington had raised his hand to pat his shoulder.It’s funny, how fast people change. How fast things can change. How fast people can change other people.

Author’s Note: A B U S E  P LE ASE  B E  W ARN ED!! I’m glad people are enjoying this as much as I enjoy writing it. 

Pairings: Alexander Hamilton/Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton/Charles Lee, Maria Reynolds/Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler, James Reynolds/Maria Reynolds, John Laurens/Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette/Hercules Mulligan

Warnings: Abuse, Abusive relationships, Cursing 

Chapters: 2/?

Ao3 Link: Here

Chapter (1) 

Shit.

Fuck.

Shit.

Blankly, Thomas started at the time on his phone, it was 8:40, he had to be at work by 9:00. Twenty minutes, twenty minutes, he had twenty goddamn minutes. He blinked out of this stupor then practically jumped out of bed. Thomas threw on his suit and ran in his living room gathering all his papers, making sure to grab Hamilton’s papers as well. It was 8:45 already, ah no, 8:46. Thomas let out an elongated sigh that sounded more like, “Fuuuuuuck”. He snatched his keys of the table, threw everything he needed in his briefcase, slammed the door shut locking it with a click, and proceeded to sprint towards his car. He threw his bag in the passenger seat and pulled out the driveway. He pressed his hands together and silent mock pray that traffic wouldn’t be bad.

Thomas walked into his office, his tie only slightly crooked, thank god, and huffed throwing his bag on the chair. Somehow, he had managed to get to work in around 15 minutes, give or take, that truly was a new record. After getting settled, Thomas walked out of his office in search of his favorite liquid caffeine drink. He thought of going to a cafe, but after such a hectic morning he was bummed out, so the break room would have to do.

When he walked into the break room he noticed Lafayette and Hercules sitting quite close, almost in each other’s laps, whispering furiously, if it could even be considered whispering. But, they were so engaged in their conversation, they didn't even notice him come in. As Thomas walked got closer to the coffee machine and likewise Lafayette and Hercules he could practically hear their entire conversation. As he was pouring his coffee and eavesdropping, he quickly realized that this conversation was not one he wanted to hear.

At all.

Ever.

“He isn’t in work yet and he is not picking up his phone!” Lafayette hissed quite viciously. Thomas heard Hercules sigh and reply back, “Gil, don't jump to any unreasonable conclusions, his phone is probably off or dead and-”

“-and Lee is probably beating the shit out of him, merde!” Out the corner of his eye, Thomas could see Lafayette bury his face in his hand out of distress, and he dumped sugar in his coffee not bothering to stir, he needed to get out of there.

“Gilbert!”

“I’m sorry, but we both know, hell everyone does, and I think it's about time we talk to him.” Thomas gulped, and stirred his milk in, closed the cup, and grabbed his phone. He was grateful for the fact they hadn’t said Hamilton’s name.  

“It's not going to be easy, remember last time?”

“I know, I know, but I'm done waiting. Hercules, what if he really hurts Ale-”

Thomas coughed, purposefully interrupting Lafayette, he couldn't bear it. To hear his name, it made everything a bit too real, it hit a bit too close to home, Thomas preferred it when he could distant himself from a situation he couldn’t do anything about. Quickly, he tried to escape the break room, coffee in hand, yet he could feel both men's piercing gaze upon his back.  

“Thomas,” He heard the Frenchman say, and in result stopped dead in his tracks. Why did Lafayette have to be so damn confrontational?

“Lafayette,” Thomas replied and turned around to face him, feeling himself starting to sweat. He really did not want to have this conversation.

“Dites-moi, Thomas, combien avez-vous entendu? (Tell me, Thomas, how much did you hear?)”

“Enough.” he replied back in English, trying to shuffle closer to the door.

“Écoute, s'il te plaît, ne parles pas ŕ pers- (Look, please don't go telling any-).”

“-Je le savais déjà, Lafayette. (I already knew, Lafayette.)” Thomas said cutting off the Frenchman looking. He just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. But, then he saw Lafayette looking downright miserable and guilty as if everything was somehow his fault and Thomas felt a twinge of guilt.

“How long?”

“A while, J'ai reconnu son comportement (I recognized his behavior).” Lafayette looked pensive Thomas could see the cogs in his mind churning, but then he looked up and smiled, granted it didn't reach his eyes, “Have a good morning, mon ami.” For Thomas that signified the end of their conversation so he nodded and replied, “You too.” Then all but ran out of the break room trying to put as much distance between him and the Frenchman as possible.

---

Lafayette had been friends with Alexander for the longest time. Almost 15 years they had known each other. Lafayette had seen him go through the hardest of heartbreaks, darkest of times and yet this was, he considered, rock bottom for Alexander.

He would know, he knew the Caribbean well.

All too well.

He was there when Alexander’s father had left when his mother passed. He was the one along with Hercules and John, who had consoled him, who was there for him. He was the one who introduced him to Eliza, was there when he and her had Philip. He was there when they got married, then divorced. He was the one who helped Alexander take care of Philip when he got custody. He watched him and John dance around each other pushed them together, even though his heart ached. He was there when Alexander and John broke it off, helped them both through it till they were friends again.

He was always there.

He knew Alexander and yet as he watched him fall and tumble and chase after a man who couldn’t care less, he felt useless. He would watch every day as Alexander got a little quieter, a little smaller, talked a little less, smiled a bit more.

Lafayette let out a sigh as he watched Thomas leave the break room. He turned back around to face Hercules.

“You alright Gil?” he heard Hercules ask him and he gave him a small smile, “Come on let's go find, Alexander.” Surprisingly, they didn't have to search that far, as they were nearing the entrance, Alexander was also coming in. When Lafayette saw him he smiled his worries slightly subsided then it fell as Alexander came closer. Lafayette felt his blood boil.

Alexander was limping.

Again.

Did that man have no control?

He turned his head quickly to meet Hercules’ eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining anything. Hercules had nodded his handsome features twisted in an angry grimace.

“Alexander,” Lafayette began, trying to keep his anger from seeping in his words, “You were quite late today, are you okay?” “Laf, Herc, Good morning!” Alexander said smiling brightly. Both men were taken quite aback. What the hell was going on? But, before they got to question him he continued, “I'm good, Charles wanted me to stay a bit that's all.” Lafayette swore he could see hearts in Alexander's eyes, this was so wrong.

It was all so so wrong.

“What did you guys do?” Hercules asked, nonchalantly, as if he didn't know. Alexander didn't say anything, but he blushed his skin a flame. That completely answered Gilbert’s suspicion and Hercules question at once.

He was done.

He was absolutely done watching this torturous cycle, go around and around. He knew it well, he knew it all too well. The tension would build between them, leaving Alexander to walk on eggshells around Lee, god forbid one of them break. He would walk around work with his head down, wincing at every too-loud noise, at every slam of the door. Alex would try to stay away from as many people as possible, because his eyes are always filled to the brim with tears, waiting, waiting.

Yet, no matter what Alexander did Lee would explode on him. And, Lafayette would watch Alex come to work hurting, always hurting, an arm clutching his side, wincing when as walked, his eyes red, and cheeks almost stained with tears, Lafayette could always tell when he had cried. But he’d still try and pretend everything was fine.

Then, there was this phase, where Lee treated Alexander like he was the world like he actually cared about him. Alexander was always so happy during those times, his eyes would sparkle, they would glow, and he’d talk a little bit more his restrained passion seeping through, it's how Lafayette could tell. Sometimes, during those days, Lafayette would wonder if that is why Alexander stayed, for those days.

But, he was done waiting, waiting, waiting, for Alexander to come to him for help, to tell him he was done dealing with all the pain. He was done waiting for when Lee went a bit too far, pushed Alex a bit hard. Lafayette needed to get the Caribbean alone so they could finally talk about his relationship, the and workplace wasn't ideal.

“Mon ami, this evening how about we go out, you, me, Hercules and John?” Lafayette knew the answer, but he couldn't help but try, he could never forgive himself, if he didn't at least try.

“I can't, you know that, I can't, Laf.” Alexander said very quietly as his arm wrapped around the left side of his stomach. Lafayette clenched his teeth, there was probably a bruise there, Alexander tended to be protective of those areas.

“Then, when?”

“Friday night, Charles is leaving for a business trip and ‘Liza dropping off Philip in the morning.”

“Okay, Friday night, it is then, I'll keeping touch okay, mon lion.” Lafayette watched sadly as Alexander figure receded into the hallway. He turned to Hercules and the man just sighed and shook his head in response. The Frenchman opened his arms and Hercules walked into the embrace.

“I have to go.” Hercules said his voice slightly muffled against Lafayette’s shoulder.

“Mmm, I know.” Lafayette released him and gave him a smile, yet he couldn’t help turning to the hallway Alexander walked down.

“He’ll be alright.”

Lafayette shook his head.

“No, he won’t.”  

---

After Hercules had left back to his tailoring shop, Lafayette found himself down a familiar pathway to John’s office.

“Mon ami, John, we need to talk.” Lafayette said quietly leaning over the freckled man's desk. John hummed in acknowledgment, “What about?”

“Alexander.” John perked up at Lafayette’s serious tone putting down his pen and focusing all his attention on the Frenchman.

“Alexander and-”

“Yes. It's getting worse and worse, he came in limping, again, this time clutching his waist. I'm more than sure this is at least the third time this week! And yet, all of this and he still looked so happy, so happy.”

John looked down his brow furrowing in contemplation, taking in all of Lafayette's words. “What are you planning?”

“Friday, I asked him to meet us.”

John hummed catching on quickly, “What else?” Ah, he was so quick-witted, one of the many reasons Lafayette had fallen in love with him.

“Get in touch with Eliza, Peggy, and Angelica, tell them Friday, 9:00, my house.”

Lafayette watched enamored as John’s freckled little nose scrunched up, god the man was adorable, “This isn't going to end well, Laf.”

“Never does, mon cher, never does, but I'll be damned if we don't try.” John smiled at that and Lafayette felt just a little bit better, yet in the back of his mind, he couldn't help the nagging worry for Alexander.

---

Alexander woke up to a warm arm gripped around his waist. He fidgeted slightly to grab his phone and squinted, 5:30, he needed to get ready. He began to maneuver and squirm trying to get away from Charles as quietly and as quickly as he possibly could. But, as soon as he felt an arm tighten around his wrist he stopped immediately. “Stay, Alexander.”

Alex turned faintly to look at Charles, but he could barely see him in the dark of the room, “Charles you know I can't...,” Alexander felt himself trail off, “...I have work..”As soon as he said that Alex didn't even get why he tried, Charles always won, always has his way, always got what he wanted, and if what he wanted was Alexander he’d get Alexander. The arm tightened around his wrist, hard, Alexander almost yelped out in pain but managed to restrain himself. He heard his partner groan while he sat up to face Alexander, “You’re never here, always leaving for work so early, Alexander,” Charles's voice was dripping with venom as he continued his tirade, “You don't love me do you?”

The arm around his wrist tightened with every word, it was gonna bruise, and Alexander bit into his lip trying not to cry out, Charles loved it when he cried.

“Why do you always leave so early?” Charles hummed and closed his eyes pretending as if he was deep in thought then snapped if fingers as if he had the answer to everything, “Probably running off to some else? Such a slut you are, Alexander.”

“Charles I'm not... there is no one else...”Alex tried the desperation dripping from his voice, Alexander was sure Charles relished in it.

“Whoever you’re running off too, you’re just a good fuck to them, I'm the only who actually loves you, Alexander. Do you understand?” Charles paused waiting for something and Alexander quickly realized he wanted an answer.

Alexander nodded fervently, “Yes, Sir.” Charles’s smile was like a Cheshire cat, so pleased. He loved it when Alexander called him “sir” almost as much as when he cried.

“Repeat it, 3 times, baby, for me, just so I know you understand.” And, Charles loved to humiliate him, Alexander almost considered it one of his favorite pass times.  

“I’m just a good fuck to them, You’re the only who loves me, sir.”

“Again.”

“I’m just a good fuck to them, You’re the only who lo-oves me, sir-r.” By the end of the second one, Alexander could feel himself tearing up, he hated it when Charles made him do this.   “Mmm, one more time, Alex.” Of course, Charles was grinning ear to ear Alex could feel the smugness radiating off of him he was so happy, and it made Alexander’s eyes glisten a little more. “I-i’m j-just a good fu-fuck to them, You’re t-the only w-who lo-loves me, sir-.” But, Alexander didn't want to, to give Charles that satisfaction of seeing him cry, but Alexander couldn't help it.

“My Alexander,” He felt Charles’s hands run over his face brushing his warm tears away,  “I hope you understand now, I wouldn't have to do this if you didn't go to work so early, If you just stayed here with me, I’m the only one who could ever love you.”

He sighed, “Lay down, Alexander.” Defeated and mentally stressed out Alexander had given in, he didn't want to find out the consequence of not laying down, anyway. However, before he laid down, Alexander tried to place his phone back on the dresser but then he heard Charles shift towards him-

“Give it to me.”

“Charle-”

“Give it.” Charles growled and Alexander flinched, handing his phone to Charles he didn't want to piss him off any more than he already did.

“Good boy.” Charles cooed condescendingly. He smirked at Alexander and shut off his phone completely, throwing it off to his side of them bed, it was completely off-limits for Alexander now. The taller man laid back down and dragging Alexander closer. Alex laid his head on Charles’s chest and felt an arm tighten around his waist right where a healing bruise was. Alexander immediately realized that he’d be hurting a lot more, very quickly.

“Does it still hurt?”

“....”

Alexander didn't know what to say.

He felt his throat close up, and a warm, vulgar, impending feeling well up in his gut. It was always a mystery with Charles. If he said yes; then Charles would get pissed at him for being such a little bitch, and hurt him more. But, then again, if Alexander said no, well, Charles hated it when Alexander lied to him, it was one his ten little rules.

"Alexander, does it still hurt?” Charles said impatiently.

Alexander chose the latter and prayed for the best, “..No.”  

“Liar.”

Fuck.

He felt a flash of pain in his lower abdomen and fingers digging, pressing into the yellowish-purple marking and he knew he got the wrong answer. He began to whimper, plead and pray quietly against Charles’s chest as if he was in church and Charles was his savior. Because, It hurt, god, it hurt.

“Charles, Charles it does hurt, stop it, stop it, please, I’m sorry.”

He didn't stop, Alexander knew he wouldn't, but god help him, it hurt and he wished Charles would have mercy, but he kept on pressing and pressing, harder and harder.

“You think you can just lie to me? Baby, all I want is for you to tell me the truth.”

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Charles, please let go, please.”

“I know, I know, it hurts baby, so, stop going to work so early.”

He pressed harder.

“Stop fucking other men and women.”

He pressed harder.  

“And stop fucking lying to me!”

He pressed harder.

Alexander screamed.

[marjorierose]

9. Name five songs from musicals that make you cry.

1. It is probably not interesting to mention that I cried during “It’s Quiet Uptown,” especially since the first time I heard it was when I saw the show, with the full emotional weight of EVERYTHING happening at the same time. It might not make me cry now, just because I went through a phase of having it stuck in my head and I had to stop e.g. sobbing while riding my bike to work, so I listened to it until I could get past the immediate gut-punch response and hear that the song is actually beautiful. What is more interesting to me is that after I’d seen the show, I started crying every time I heard “Helpless.” I have a hard time articulating my feelings about Eliza, her arms-flung-wide embrace of a fairly limited role in life, and especially the absence of any shadow on young Eliza’s certainty that her choice of husband is the right one and will make her happy. It’s a set of feelings at the nexus of identification/rejection/wanting to save her/wanting her to be happy/wanting this system she’s accepted to be as good to her as she trusts it will be, while also wanting to burn the whole system down. I’m not sure I honestly feel all those things simultaneously because it’s too many, but it’s a longstanding and powerful set of feels regardless.

2. I saw a production of Flower Drum Song earlier this year produced by Mu Performing Arts, an Asian-American theater company here in Saint Paul, with a revised script that was written by David Henry Hwang for the 2003 Broadway revival. The first song in that show is “A Hundred Million Miracles,” which was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s attempt to write something plausibly Chinese without really departing from their native idiom in any way. In one verse a bunch of people came onstage in uniform and raised their Little Red Books up high to sing, “My father says/the sun will keep rising/over the eastern hills.” That startled some tears out of me, of the “oh NO” kind, especially since those people all then attacked the protagonist’s father, although there’s a failure at this point since it’s not at all clear why they’re going after him. For defecting? Still it was a REALLY interesting case, I think, of Hwang going into the existing songs to find something he could use, and discovering that some fairly anodyne lyrics about sunrise could be rendered as propaganda, which is in turn a pretty stark reminder of how propaganda often works.

3. At this point it is probably clear that I can’t talk about my emotions without intellectualizing them a lot, but hey do you know Merrily We Roll Along? Do you know that it runs backwards in time, such that you hear the protagonist’s ex-wife singing to him, in rage and frustration, “Not a day goes by/not a blessed day/you’re not somehow a part of my life/and you won’t go away,” and then later you hear the two of them sing the same goddamn song to each other at their wedding? You might not know this, since the show only ran for two weeks in its initial Broadway run and has been sort of under the radar since then, but WOW did I cry at that song when I saw the show as a teenager. Man alive is it devastating. Honorable mention to “Good Thing Going.”

4. Also, when I was maybe thirteen, I remember playing “On My Own” on the piano and singing it to myself and just sobbing my heart out. I am kind of over that song these days; when the film came out, I was much more affected by the Valjean storyline.

5. “Ring of Keys” is the obvious standout number from Fun Home, but the song that made me cry when I saw it was “Raincoat of Love,” the faux TV theme song about a family where everything is all right so long as they’re together. I think it’s kind of like “Helpless”–it’s moving because it expresses a character’s desire for such a simple, wholesome, seemingly achievable kind of happiness, and we the viewers know that she won’t get to have that.

[markgottliebliteraryagent]

Old Writers Never Die. They Just...

Rather than give up a love affair with words, old writers, with decades of footprints in the book trade, simply change genres, refurbish stories, and stay delightfully crazy.

My falling in love with storytelling happened at nap time in my grandmother’s bed. It was some time in the year of 1949. She fell asleep in the midst of reading a story. I did not, and poked her with my elbow to get her voice going again, a voice honed on decades of reading the Bible aloud, with its old-world rhythms. Since my grandmother seemed to worry that I would be the first female in our family to go to prison, she dropped me off each Sunday in her church’s Children’s Class. There, I heard Bible stories that were older even than my grandmother, a realization that led me to my first profound thought: if stories could last so long, they must be something we need. Like air, food and water—or a good purse.

“I called writing the magic of silent language.”

I decided then I wanted to be a storyteller. I saw each sentence as the fingerprint of a particular mind left on what started out as a blank page. I aimed for that—not just to last, but to have the chance to burrow down into the soul of a reader where my existence might influence another life. I called writing the magic of silent language. I could write words I could not even pronounce. To me, it was becoming a link in a chain of existence, one mind to another. And at the age of eight, I turned in a novel to my third-grade teacher written totally in dialogue about a dog who wished to sing. A dog whose mother could not even shut up. Now after more than fifty years of the writing life, here’s what I can tell you:

1. If you are in high school, and on a Saturday morning, find you’d rather stay in your room and write something, than meet your friends at the just-opened hamburger fast food joint (in my case, Krystals), nor join them at the bowling alley—where an all-night birthday party has allowed parents to say, "Yes, you can be there, because you won’t be driving around getting into some kind of embarrassing trouble"—you’re a writer.

“This is your signal that gobs of sweat, as well as the agony and the ecstasy of carving a perfect sentence, lies in wait for you.”

2. In college, if the revered professor of creative writing allows you into his class, then introduces you to famed visiting writers, such as, in my case, Eudora Welty and Robert Penn Warren, you can assume you have the write stuff. Then, if in loose moments, you hear your professor make comments that seem to come from his jealous streak, you can assume you definitely have promise and have entered that dangerous phase, in which Old Hemingway cautioned, saying something similar to "having promise is like syrup. Some won’t pour." This is your signal that gobs of sweat, as well as the agony and the ecstasy of carving a perfect sentence, lies in wait for you.

3. If you are so curious about the life of another person, that you will sit down next to a stranger and strike up a conversation, then keep them in your memory, along with the way the lines in their face curve when they speak, the way their fingers move, the sound of their voice, and the way you preserve them with genuine affection, then you have the makings of a toolbox.

4. When the publisher of your first novel loves your New York Times Review, and also the reviewer for the Chicago Tribune says he can’t get your characters out of his mind, and yet your publisher fires you, explaining that your work “does not sell,” and “your work is too much like so and so, and seems to have no reason for being…” you go out and buy a new typewriter and eventually a computer to write your next novel anyway, not only because you have faith in yourself, but also because you can’t shut off the valve of words that flow from your first love affair. Well then, you are a writer with grit.

“...you know you have an obsession with what you have told yourself you were meant to do.”

5. When you discover that your basic temperament has no patience for performing in public. If you hate, like the dickens, to be the center of attention, but bite your lip and learn to do it anyway and develop media skills, honing a hidden talent for sparring with commercial radio hosts, and prepare witty remarks for almost everyone, you know you have an obsession with what you have told yourself you were meant to do.

“...being an author who teaches can unveil the best part of yourself: the one who is kind and generous, humble and in awe of another’s imagination.”

6. If you are asked—and you surely will be, after publishing something—to be part of a writing faculty to teach aspiring writers, you will discover that being published is no license to stomp on someone else’s work. There is not ever permission to snip away at someone’s dream. When you feel a reverence for the passion that has called an aspiring writer to write, you realize being an author who teaches can unveil the best part of yourself: the one who is kind and generous, humble and in awe of another’s imagination.

“And you know you have finally reached nirvana, that bus stop where there is freedom from pain and worry and you have made peace with the disturbing desire that set you on this path in first place.”

7. And then, if you are lucky enough to live long, as I have, you will have desk drawers full of unpublished work, and your university can ask for your papers, so that one day, some young scholar might discover that your love affair could be worth studying for a graduate degree, and you begin seeing how you can switch from writing novels to essays, to nonfiction, to children’s books, to... And a wise voice whispers, skip poetry; poets suffer enough. And you know you have finally reached nirvana, that bus stop where there is freedom from pain and worry and you have made peace with the disturbing desire that set you on this path in first place.

8. It is then that you can give thanks for what pushed you to a life dedicated to the love of words and the power of story. You have not watered down your ideals, your passion, your jaw-gapping reverence in the presence of a well-written sentence from a questing mind. And when those qualities are recognized by a good agent who becomes a business friend and supporter, well... you can write your own rock song about getting satisfaction from sticking it out in a love affair that caught you young and would not let you go, so that, by then, you grasp the final truth… You have become the story.

Shelley Fraser Mickle grew up in a small cotton town in Arkansas, graduated from the University of Mississippi and studied writing at the Harvard Extension School and Wellesley College. Her first novel, The Queen of October, was a New York Times Notable Book and a Library Journal top 10 book of l989. Her second novel, Replacing Dad, won a Friends of American Writers Award and was made into a CBS/Hallmark Channel movie starring Mary McDonnell, academy award nominee for her role in Dances with Wolves. Shelley's latest novel The Occupation of Eliza Goode, researched and written over seven years, illuminates women's history, featuring a camp-follower prostitute during the Civil War as she transforms herself from prostitute to laundress to nurse to officer's wife. Her forthcoming book is Borrowing Life: The Story of the First Successful Organ Transplant, weaving history into a story of significance—one of the most valuable scientific discoveries in the 20th century—where two Nobel Prizes were awarded to American surgeon Joe Murray and British zoologist Peter Medawar for this science, distributed by Simon & Schuster.

#WritingInspiration #ShelleyFraserMickel #TheBorrowingLife #Writhingcommunity #WritingTips #WritingGoals #Writinginspiration #TridentMediaGroupLiteraryAgentMarkGottlieb

[austenmarriage]

New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/third-times-the-charm-more-fun-facts-about-austen/

Third Time's the Charm: More Fun Facts about Austen

Though this may not be as exciting as Sheldon’s “Fun With Flags” segments on The Big Bang Theory TV show, today’s episode features the “Third Time’s the Charm Quiz” with questions about Jane Austen’s life and times. (It’ll also be the last quiz, so all those who stress over test-taking can look forward to a quiet future.)

For those who want to revisit the previous torture, here is Quiz #1 and here is Quiz #2. (Hint: Each will help with one question today.)

Like John and Fanny Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility winnowing their contribution little by little to their stepfamily, the number of questions has been reduced in each quiz, but by and large the questions have gotten harder. Today’s quiz may tax your Regency knowledge. It pertains to people and events current during Jane Austen’s time, but not all of them popped up directly in her novels. Let’s call these the graduate-level questions. However, two questions relate to the earlier quizzes, and one is included for extra credit. As before, there’s no rhyme or reason to topics or order. The answers appear below each question to avoid vertigo from excessive scrolling.

Rating scale:

0-5: You’re the bumbling Mr. Collins of Austenia.

6-9: You’re Edward Ferrars/Edmund Bertram: solid but dull.

10-12: You’re Henry Tilney, learned on topics from muslin to crown lands to Udolpho.

13-15: You’re Liz Bennet, fiercely demolishing all comers.

The quiz:

Why were both the French and English slow to let women fly in hot-air balloons?

Both the French and the English hesitated to let women ascend in a balloon for fear of the effects of altitude on their “delicate” bodies.

Beyond the possible biological effect of altitude on women, what was the major fear about women “going into space”?

Just as it was considered improper for an unengaged man and woman to have private carriage rides, society was concerned about the morality of an unchaperoned couple in a hot-air balloon. One can only wonder what Elinor’s reaction would have been in Sense and Sensibility if Marianne and Willoughby had soared alone into the wild blue yonder. (She would not have looked on benignly as she does when Willoughby brings Marianne flowers, in the above photo from the 1995 movie!)

Even before they read the newspapers that came from London, how would ordinary citizens know of a British victory in the wars with France?

To celebrate British victories, the coaches were decorated. At night, candles and lamps were lit, and formal illuminations were held in large towns.

Lord Nelson won the major sea battle at Trafalgar, off the Spanish coast, that ended the threat of a French invasion. How was hero-worship for him expressed?

Egyptian-style ladies’ hats celebrated his earlier victory on the Nile; special needlework stitching was created; and housing developments were named for him. Jane Austen satirizes the commercialization of military victories in her last, unfinished novel, Sanditon. A real-estate developer laments his having named a building Trafalgar House because “Waterloo is more the thing now.” However, he’s keeping Waterloo in reserve for the name of a housing crescent (a semicircle such as in Bath).

What was the major cause of death in the French army during Napoleon’s catastrophic winter retreat from Moscow in 1812?

The French suffered hideous losses from typhus as well as from defeat in battle.

What likely most antagonized the British public over the behavior of His Royal Highness as both Prince Regent and later as King George IV?

Though his philandering and his personal attacks on his wife, Caroline, riled many citizens, his worst fault was extravagant spending at a time when England was heavily in debt from the war. Repayment of his personal debts earned its own line item in England’s budget. When the Prince Regent, now George IV, died, the Times of London remarked that “there never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures.”

What were the political ramifications and the unintended consequences of the tax on hair powder during the Napoleonic wars?

A tax on hair powder in the early 1800s made it possible to tell political affiliation at a glance. Tories wore wigs, paying the hair-powder tax. Whigs, who opposed the war, stopped wearing wigs to avoid the tax. By the time the government reduced the tax, a more natural hairstyle had become fashionable. This marked the start of the Romantic era, when hair could be as wild as the heath.

Though Janeites recall the intelligence, wit, and character of her father and brothers, what medical problems did the males in Jane Austen’s family suffer?

Austen had an uncle and a brother who suffered the same serious mental and physical handicaps, apparently genetic. Both were reportedly “deaf and dumb.” Both lived away from the family. The son of her cousin Eliza died of epilepsy. More distant male family members also suffered serious neurological problems.

Before England ended the slave trade in 1807, how much did slaves cost in the West Indies and other British possessions?

The average selling price for a healthy adult male was about £50; women and children were less. It was usually cheaper to work a slave to death and buy a new one than it was to feed and care properly for a slave.

Several Austen family members, including Jane, were abolitionists, or at least no fans of slavery. Did Britain’s 1807 abolition act end slavery?

No. In the U.S., “abolition” usually meant the end to slavery, which did not begin to occur until 1863. In England, “abolition” meant only the end of the slave trade—the capture and sale of slaves in Africa. The hope was that the end to the slave trade would lead to better treatment of existing slaves. Both sides of the argument thought that the end of the slave trade would eventually end slavery itself. After the legal end to the slave trade in 1807, the British government did little to enforce the ban until 1811, when violation of the act was made a felony.

Two generations of Austen naval officers—her brothers Frank and Charles and their self-named sons—intercepted slave ships.

England did not abolish slavery until six months after the death of the great abolitionist William Wilberforce in July 1833. The end to slavery was phased in over several years, beginning in 1834. Slave owners received twenty million pounds in recompense.

Does Jane Austen ever touch upon the slave trade in her novels?

Yes, a surprising number of times. In Mansfield Park, the Bertram family’s wealth comes from a sugar plantation in Antigua. The heroine, Fanny Price, brings conversation to a halt when she asks about the slave trade. In Emma, both Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Elton make a passing reference to it. Mrs. Elton’s remark is hypocritical. She claims that her family, which has likely been involved in the slave trade, is “rather a friend to the abolition.” In Persuasion, Mrs. Smith’s estate is tied up in the West Indies, meaning a slave-based business. In her barely begun novel Sanditon, Austen introduces a wealthy “half mulatto” teenage girl. The wealth would have come from her white parentage, almost certainly a slave business. It’s unclear whether Miss Lambe would have become a major character.

What were the most dramatic changes to transportation during Jane Austen’s lifetime?

Steamboats and railroads entered service in England in 1812, though railroads did not become commercially feasible until 1825.

What was an obvious marker of the huge disparity of wealth in England during Jane Austen’s lifetime?

The cost of housing. The finest houses in London rented for £750 a year—more than what Jane Austen earned in her lifetime from writing.

Why did Jane Austen’s cousin, Eliza de Feuillide, give up her carriage in 1797?

The major reason was a new tax on carriages to support the war against France. These taxes would have affected all the wealthy in Austen’s novels, not only for carriages but for sporting horses. In December 1797, Eliza, who was soon to marry Jane’s brother Henry, complained: “These new Taxes will drive me out of London, and make me give up my Carriage.”

What Austen relative narrowly escaped hanging or banishment to Australia?

Jane Austen’s Aunt Leigh-Perrot was acquitted of stealing a card of lace from a shop in Bath. Though the theft may have been a setup by the store proprietors, Aunt Leigh-Perrot had a reputation for kleptomania. Her own lawyer questioned her veracity. Another case against her, for stealing a potted plant, was dismissed when a witness conveniently left town.

For extra credit:

Where did “bobbies,” the nickname for London police, originate?

English policemen are known as “bobbies” after Robert Peel, who created the first English police force, in London, in 1829. Early on, they were also called “peelers.” Peel served in Parliament almost nonstop from 1809 until his death in 1850. A protégé of Lord Wellington and a moderate Tory, he nonetheless supported many liberal reforms that kept the country from coming apart. These included Catholic emancipation in 1829, the voting reforms of 1832, the end to slavery in 1833, and child-labor reform in 1833. Because of the Great Famine in Ireland in 1845, he broke with the Tory Party to help end the Corn Laws, which had kept grain prices artificially high for more than thirty years.

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The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, which traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions, is available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

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[survivordivergent]

KYLE’S JURY SPEECH

Hello there, final 3! Long time no see/talk/whatever. You all clearly did something right or else you wouldn’t be here. And I’m not mad about it. don’t really have much of a preamble to this so I’ll get straight to the point.

First - The biggest twist of this game was by far the aliases. They gave everyone the chance to play a new game and try something they would never do without the cover of being an imaginary person. So my first question to the three of you is: What is one thing you did in this game that you would have never done otherwise?

Second - Having started on the Amity tribe, it only feels right for me to put some consideration on how (genuinely) kind each of you can be. So, I want each of you to list at least one reason why you shouldn’t win over the two people sitting next to you.

Third - Besides aliases, the other big theme of this game was, of course, Divergent. Which member of the final 3 do you think best encompasses the “Divergent” status, and why?

Once again, congrats to all three of you for making it this far, and no matter how this goes, you should all be proud of yourselves. I can’t wait to catch up with you guys once this all ends, and good luck!

JILL

As far as my time in ORGs go, this one was not one that I utilized as an opportunity to be bold and take a risk that I don’t think I would get otherwise. This was an opportunity to play a game without preconceived notions and opinions about what I will or won’t do based on my past performances. This opportunity to play a game without a reputation is honestly a blessing and was a great experience. It was more about being able to actually play the game instead of people deciding when I didn’t get to play anymore. 

The reason I should not win over Lake is because he is a fighter. He was the scapevote for the first three rounds of merge, but was relevant enough to someone during each round to actually make it to the end. With the target he had the entirety of merge, it is truly amazing that he made it here and it could be enough to be rewarded for that. 

The reason I should not win over Melissa is she had a strong game. She was well liked, got saved, and no one ever really targeted her. She has a few comp wins under her belt, and had a hand in some of the strategy. I cannot confidently say I would be here without her and she definitely played her way to get here and deserves it as much as anyone.

I would have to say that Melissa earns the “Divergent” status out of the three of us. First and foremost, she survived death when Eliza reset the sim and saved her. Divergent as fuck. To add to that, Melissa’s mist was enough for Eliza to see that losing Melissa was worth a reset. Granted, Melissa and I really convinced Eliza we planned to be F3 and I am sure Eliza did not foresee us turning on her so using it for herself probably did not cross her mind, I don’t really know.  But yeah after Payton left Melissa was never talked about as an option to vote out and I feel that encompassing the five traits are what can help someone get this far and not have a vote cast against them (save for the round that was just a sim).

LAKE

hey Kyle! So to answer the first part of your question, something I did in this game that I wouldn't normally do is play under the radar. In pretty much every game I've played I was targeted for being a threat and when I noticed that for once I never seemed to have a target on my back I kept up with the more under the radar game to see how it would play out.

Secondly, Melissa should win because she was always very friendly to me this entire game and I think she played a well rounded game, apart from getting voted out once lol

Jill should win this game because she was very accepting. There were times where we weren't on the best of terms and she was open to giving me a chance and working with me even though I had previously called her trash.

Thirdly, I would say Jill most lives up to her trait because she spilled everything I ever told her. I guess that's being honest?

MELISSA

1. Usually in games I’d end up with the Ed edit (the Ed-it, if you will) of burning bright too early and needing to either work my ass off to get to finals or die mid-merge as a threat boot. This game, particularly at the start of merge, I really let myself sit back and not try to call any shots until the merge group settled into its new rhythm. This isn’t to say I was passive at all, if something were about to happen that I thought wouldn’t be good for my game in the long run, but I was more than happy with Dani’s name coming up by group consensus, for Kyle’s name to come from Eliza, for Otto’s name to come from Payton. Then my ass died so you know I had to turn the game back on and fight for my place so that ethic died a little but I was enjoying my little quiet presence for a while, it was a nice change.

2. The reason that Jill should win over me is because her social game was terrific. From the second Eliza left, Jill has been queen social bitch, everyone felt connected to her, everyone had a personal story to tell from this game that involved her. Social is one of the key tenets of the game and she did that better than either Lake or I did. And that should be recognized. The reason that Lake should win over me is because he’s the one that wasn’t really supposed to make it here. He got to the merge without any truly strong connections, I don’t think in any alliances, he had the hardest road to get here. Playing from the bottom is tough and sometimes completely demoralizing when you don’t have a say in anything that happens to you, and he got through that to be here. And that should be recognized. Also, neither of them needed two lives to get here. I think the way that I bounced back from that experience to take control of my fate should be recognized as well, but it is a knock against me that it took me two tries to get to the end.

3. I think that I’m the most Divergent of the three because my time here was divided into three separate phases, each representative of a faction. In the tribal phase, I was Abnegation, I was selfless, I was interested in the benefit and growth of the group, and making sure that each of our members got as far as possible. I was all about the team and rallying us together. In the early merge phase, I was Amity, all friendly and bonds and mutual goals among the people I was working with. Post-reset in my new life, I was Dauntless, fearless, willing to push anything and break any bonds I might have had to get to the point I’m at now. I think I’ve had to shift and adapt enough to get the Divergent title. Other than Eliza, that is, who literally said the words “I am Divergent - reset the sim, but like not all of us can be that iconic.