#and of course all of this centers or ends up centering around henry

[smeagol-on-my-deagol]

the fact that richard sees/wants us to see judy poovey as sort of dumb, while also seeing/wanting us to see julian morrow as some revolutionary mind when they're having the same damn thoughts is crazy to me

like near the end of the first chapter when we hear some about the class discussion, one of the points julian discusses (in simple terms lol) is how people who tend to bottle things up and stay composed all the time end up causing greater amounts of destruction when they "lose control" than people who allow themselves to lose control on occasion, but he does it with many words and references

and richard is like "wow this is awesome how sick is this guy"

then at the beginning of chapter two, judy poovey is telling richard about the time henry beat the fuck out of spike romney and she says something about how when uptight people lose it they REALLY lose it, but in terms just as simple as those

and richard just goes "yeah, i guess"

which there for sure is something to be said about the way people use words and the difference that use of language has on the way people feel about certain concepts, but you know

[cxrrodedcoffin]

Don’t Call Me Kid - Aaron Hotchner

“don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby, look at this godforsaken mess that you made me.”

——

Likes are always appreciated but reblogs and feedback keep artists going!

Summary: Reader confesses their feelings for Hotch, they have an angsty yet adult conversation about it.

Word Count: 2.5k

A/N: I was originally not going to give this a happy ending but I got too sad writing it and changed my mind, also yes i’ve been writing a lot don’t criticize me lol

TW: alcohol mention, angst, age gap, slight physical touch (all respectful, nothing sexual), slight implied daddy issues, fem reader

Rating: G

——

Aaron Hotchner was not a man one could approach without a level head. He was rational, always thinking of the most reasonable course of action, weighing every outcome before making any decision. He had to be, as hasty decision-making had cost him more than he cared to discuss.

You knew that, you’d worked under him for two years now and although he didn’t discuss his private life all that frequently at work, these weekly team meetups at the local bar taught you more than enough about him as a person. The usual stoic head of the team was kind, funny, encouraging, albeit a bit quiet until he knew you a bit better.

About a year into your time with the team you let slip that you’d never explored the city, and Rossi wasted no time letting Aaron know about it. A week later he was driving you around, explaining the history behind the popular monuments you had requested a visit to, then spending an hour at the Folger Shakespeare Library to admire the historic architecture and impressive selection of literature, and ending the day at the Moongate Garden, watching the sunset on a bench surrounded by cherry blossoms.

From that day you knew if there was anything you needed, all you had to do was ask. He’d shown you your favorite restaurant, the coffee shop you sat in every free morning you had, reading books he’d suggested you read. You didn’t want to admit it, but you had fallen hard for him, and over the last year those feelings became harder and harder to push down.

It was 2 a.m. and the bartender had announced last call, earning a disappointed groan from Penelope.

“We were just getting started!” She whined, her speech slightly slurred.

“You’ve had more than enough for tonight Babygirl, let’s get you home.” Derek caught her waist, steadying her as she rose from the booth the team had been sitting in.

“I better get going too, Will has to work early so I have to take Henry to school in the morning.” JJ added, playfully rolling her eyes.

The rest of the group finished up their drinks, wrapping up the current conversation before shuffling out of the bar. You said your goodbyes, giving parting hugs before pulling out your phone, ready to order yourself a rideshare home. Your cell service was almost non-existent and the app was taking forever to load, the chill in the air causing goosebumps to form on your bare legs. You raised your phone in the air, trying to gain a better signal as you walked back and forth in front of the bar, growing increasingly frustrated.

Aaron exited the bar as you made another pass by the entrance, tripping as your ankle wobbled in your heels. He was quick to catch you, helping you find your footing once more.

“Do you have a ride home?” He asked, offering you his suit jacket for warmth.

“I’m trying to order a taxi but the app won’t load.” Your frustration was evident, each tap of your finger against the glass of your smartphone just a little too firm.

“You don’t live far, correct? I can walk you home.” He offered, his hand still lingering on the small of your back to steady you. You weren’t drunk, not by a long shot, but you didn’t handle your liquor the best and although you were mostly there mentally, your center of gravity had been better.

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to go out of your way for me.” You countered, always raised to decline at least once when offered anything to remain polite.

“I want to make sure you get home safe, it’s really no trouble.” You knew he was earnest, always such a father figure to every member of the team. You put your phone in your bag, throwing it over your shoulder before turning to walk down the street that led to your apartment building.

You walked in silence for a while, his hand hovering behind you just in case your clumsiness kicked in along your walk. His suit jacket was surprisingly warm, the stiff fabric shielding your bare arms from the cold. You weren’t sure why you’d chosen to wear a short sleeved blouse when it was nearing the end of fall, but you suspected it subconsciously had something to do with how well the v-neck showed off your cleavage. You felt a bit pathetic sometimes, finding any way you could to attempt to pull his attention. It never worked, Aaron respected you too much to stare at your figure no matter how provocatively you dressed.

After a few blocks your heel caught on a storm grate, making you stumble forward. His reflexes were impressive as ever, his arm reaching out to catch your waist.

“I swear I’m not usually this clumsy.” You joked, straightening your skirt as you started again on your journey home. He didn’t say anything, but the slight smile his lips formed told you he found your try at humor in an awkward moment amusing.

“It’s just around this corner, I’ll be fine from here.” You tried to wave him off, dying to disappear into your apartment to prevent further embarrassing yourself.

“I’m walking you up to your apartment, I need to see you home safe.” He stated, turning the corner with you. Butterflies fluttered in your stomach, his domineering yet caring tone making your heart race. This was all becoming too much, the protectiveness, the slight touches, you could feel something burning in your chest, the urge to spill your guts growing stronger by the minute.

He waited for you to punch in the code to the front door of your apartment building before holding it open for you, following you to the elevator up to your floor. You took the quiet ride up, him continuing to follow you down the hallway to your apartment when the doors opened. You opened your bag, fiddling around for your keys for a moment before finding them, your hand shaking as you tried to unlock the door. You finally got it, pushing open the front door and stepping into your messy living room.

“How are you getting home?” You asked, setting your bag on the small table next to the door.

“I’ll order a taxi, I’m just glad you’re home safe.” He began to pull out his phone, and the liquid courage coursing through your veins told you to invite him in.

“Do you want to come in while you wait?” You offered, handing his suit coat back to him. He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him and making sure to lock it, never too cautious.

He laid his suit coat over the back of your coach, taking a seat before taking out his phone again to order his ride.

“It won’t be ready for another 30 minutes, I hope I’m not overstaying my welcome.” He was far too courteous, and all you wanted to do was tell him how badly you wanted him to stay forever.

“You could never.” You told him, kicking off your heels before sitting next to him on the couch. You took a deep breath, trying to settle yourself as you picked up the book that was resting on your coffee table. You watched over the top of the pages to see him glancing around the room, scanning the contents until he stopped on the media console across the room. He stood from his place next to you and walked over to it, taking a knee to get down to the same level as your record collection.

“You have impressive taste.” He stated matter-of-factly, his long fingers brushing across the spines of each album. You gave a quiet ‘thank you’ as he began to pull a record out, and you placed your book down again to see what had caught his eye.

“I didn’t know you listened to The Beatles.” He held up the jacket of the band’s white album, looking to you in slight disbelief.

“Of course, The White Album is one of the greatest of all time.” You were excited to talk music with him, it was a topic you’d never discussed before and you were always eager to learn more about him. That may have been to your own detriment, because the more you learned about him, the harder you seemed to fall.

You knew a relationship between the two of you could never happen, he was your superior, not to mention twenty years your senior, but something felt like it was pulling you to him no matter how many guys you tried to distract yourself with.

“You never fail to surprise me.” He smiled, the outer corners of his eyes crinkling just so. You could’ve died right there, content to collapse into a puddle of yearning. You didn’t know what came over you, but you found yourself clearing your throat as a rush of adrenaline coursed through you.

“Aaron, I have to tell you something.” Your voice shook, but you remained strong in your conviction.

His faint smile turned to a look of concern, quickly rising from his knee to join you on the couch again.

“What is it?” He questioned, brow furrowed as he angled his body toward you.

“I-It’s, nevermind.” That burst of adrenaline quickly faded, his eyes on you feeling like a cigarette burn.

“Y/N, whatever it is, you can trust me. I understand if you’re not comfortable telling me, but don’t let fear hold you back on my account.” He reassured you, resting his hand on your knee sympathetically. You had to do it, there was no way you could face him every day if you brushed him off without an explanation.

“I’m in love with you.” You blurted out, hanging your head, too afraid of what his reaction would be to dare look him in the eye. The silence that sat between you two felt like it carried on forever, tension thick enough to cut with a knife. After what felt like an eternity he cleared his throat, still holding his hand on your knee.

“Why do you feel that way?” He asked, trying to understand where this was coming from. He couldn’t deny that he had felt chemistry between you, but it wasn’t something he could ever entertain acting on.

“Over the last year I’ve gotten to know you in ways I never dreamed I would, I’ve never felt this way for anyone before, even those I once thought I loved in the past. You’ve been so kind, Aaron, you’re an incredible friend, father, leader, how could I be anything but amazed by you?” You felt as though you were rambling, but he seemed so invested in your answer that you didn’t care if what you said was rational.

“I understand.” He confirmed, turning silent as the gears turned in his mind. You could tell he was fighting something internally, the look of concentration on his face seeming almost painful.

You pulled your knee out from under his hand, your nerves convinced that he was looking for a way to fire you without creating an HR nightmare. As quickly as you pulled away he had moved closer to you, his hand finding its place on your knee once more.

“Look at me.” He said, thumb rubbing soothing circles against your skin. You did as you were told, tears threatening your waterline as you did your best to hold his gaze.

“I’m not going to lie to you, you are a very charming young woman and I’d be honored to pursue something more intimate with you, but we can’t. I’m your superior, and you’re young enough to be my daughter.” He explained, the pain in his expression serving to break your heart in two.

“I don’t care.” You were not thinking rationally in that moment, your heart speaking for you instead of your head.

“You should, this is your future.” His tone held frustration this time, finding your childish response disappointing.

“I am not a child Aaron, I can make my own decisions.” You told him, a tear slipping down your cheek as you grew increasingly frustrated with his stonewalling.

“I know that, but you’re young, you have so much to experience and you shouldn’t put that on hold for me, or anyone else for that matter.” Even through his anger he was just trying to steer you in the responsible direction, thinking more about your future than whatever desires he held.

“I have all I’ve ever wanted, my dream has always been to work for the FBI. I don’t have any delusions of grandeur, I never have. I want a job where I’m doing good and a family to come home to when all is said and done.” You explained, and it wasn’t a lie. It’s not that you weren’t driven, you clearly had to be to even make it to the bureau, but that was as far as you wanted your drive to take you.

“For this to work, I can not be your boss, and I won’t ask you to step down.” He continued evaluating each possible risk in your dynamic, and for once you were one step ahead of him.

“You don’t have to, I put in for a transfer to the financial crime unit last week.” You finally let the other secret you’d been keeping slip, and you watched his face drop in disappointment.

“The team is going to miss you more than you know.” He told you, wishing he had known so he could have convinced you otherwise.

“I know, but I couldn’t bare the thought of being around you every day while I feel like this, and I was fascinated by the way their team handled the case we partnered with them on last month. The timing felt right.” You explained, needing him to know that it was not his fault, but a conscious decision you made.

“I just want to try.” You pleaded one last time, hoping he’d let his walls down just this once.

“If this is really what you want, I’ll take you out next weekend. If we’re going to do this, I’m going to do it the right way, you deserve that much.” He gave in, letting himself do something personally risky for the first time in years.

“I would love that.” You agreed, all of the anger and frustration that had been building up over the last year finally starting to dissipate ever so slightly.

How it would pay off, only time would tell, but for now, you were content to just get to know him more and show him who you are the best you can.

——

Part 2 can be found here

Tag List: @pleasantwitchgarden @lover-of-books-and-tea

DM me or send me an ask if you’d like to be added to my general or Aaron Hotchner taglist :)

[gffa]

Hi Lumi. This year I’ve watched The Clone Wars, Rebels, Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and Tales of the Jedi and I’m watching Ahsoka as episodes are released. But I feel like I’m missing some context as to why people are wary of Filoni. What things should I know so I’m caught up, so to speak, in the fandom discussions?

Hi! That's a lot of Star Wars to watch in a year, I hope you're having fun with it all! And I will gently remind everyone that Filoni is not the be-all-end-all of Star Wars creators--Henry Gilroy was there for TCW and Rebels, too. George Lucas was holding writers' meetings years after the show started (at least into 2010!). The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are far more Jon Favreau's shows. The Bad Batch is Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett. Resistance was developed by him, but was run by other producers. It's just that Filoni tends to get the most camera time and has become the face of Star Wars creators. That said, the issue with Filoni is kind of two-pronged, though, they overlap. 1. He's done a lot of interviews where he's said a lot of anti-Jedi things that have drifted from reasonable critiques in the beginning to eventually "Qui-Gon Jinn was the only true Jedi. [blatantly wrong citations]" This has put a lot of people off him as a creator, because we love the Jedi Order that Lucas talks about and established, which Filoni has actively contradicted over the years, despite being promoted as someone who follows Lucas' themes. And it's hard not to be aware of his interviews when watching his shows and it's hard to enjoy shows that do your faves dirty, you know? 2. His writing has become weaker over the years for a lot of us--Rebels is a show most of us love and found to be incredible. Many of us really love The Clone Wars, which he was heavily involved in/was probably the central voice after Lucas started phasing out. But his biggest story told over the course of those series--basically, the story of Mandalore's history and fall to the Empire--has been extremely thin for a lot of us. And a lot of us get frustrated at his inability to be objective when it comes to Ahsoka's character, that we love her as a character very much, but it hasn't felt like Filoni really knows what to do with her character arc and yet almost everything he writes is centered around her. His final season of The Clone Wars? Gave her the walkabout arc and the Siege of Mandalore arc, both of which often did not hold up well under scrutiny. His episode of The Book of Boba Fett? I actually really loved it, but it absolutely just stopped the pacing of that show to focus a lot on her. More on Luke, but he couldn't resist putting her in there, either. Tales of the Jedi was half devoted to Ahsoka and so much of it wasn't even about her time as a Jedi! We're frustrated because he doesn't set things up well anymore--Morgan Elsbeth is a Nightsister?? Why wasn't that established in The Mandalorian instead of pulling out randomly in Ahsoka? Why does Sabine Wren suddenly so badly want Jedi training, when they barely even had a conversation in Rebels?? There's a lot of good that Filoni has given to Star Wars, I think he genuinely cares about the Force and what it means--he's very consistent on how it's not easy and how it takes discipline and control, that he has been consistent on how anger and fear are paths to the dark side, even his episode of TBOBF had Ahsoka saying, yeah, attachment is a path to the dark side, because the Jedi mean "attachment" in a more Buddhist-aligned way. A lot of his writing for the character of Ahsoka is actually pretty good, like I've been enjoying her being a prickly, traumatized hot mess in the show! It's just that I kind of hate all the interviews he gives and I think he's a lot less objective than a lot of fans and media coverage that would hold him up as a perfect writer/interviewee about all things Star Wars, and it all comes together to make him kind of a hot-button topic.

So, a lot of people LOVE Filoni's work, a lot of people are frustrated by it, a lot of people are casually fine about it, a lot of people HATE Filoni's work and it can be a fun mix of any of the above or even other issues that come up. (And that's all fine! I have my views on Filoni's work, but it's fine if others hate it more than I do or love it more than I do, there's room for us all, all of it is valid.)

But I think if you want to understand some of the roots of this corner of fandom's frustration, two (admittedly long as heck) homework assignment reads would be:

- My own rebuttal to Dave's behind the scenes Mandalorian Gallery talk (this is jokingly referred to as "Davegate" because I refused to take it too seriously) - @david-talks-sw's collection of comparisons between Lucas' commentary on the Jedi and Filoni's commentary on the Jedi

This response itself is more focused on laying out the problems a lot of people have with Filoni's writing, but also honestly I still have my giant collection of Jedi source material citations that quotes his commentary, I still bring up Filoni's quotes in current meta a lot, I still talk positively about the things I enjoy from his shows, so overall there's equal amounts of both praise and criticism here. So, as short as I can make it (which isn't very, shut up, I know! XD), that's basically what people mean when they say they're wary of Filoni.

[aemiron-main]

Father And Son: TFS, Brenner, Cat Stevens, The Cycles, Cat’s Cradle, 8:15gate, Radiationgate and Cat’s In The Cradle

So, during TFS, Brenner says the following to Henry, specifically saying “father and son” to him at the end:

Which, that made me think of the 1970 Cat Stevens song, Father and Son, because Brenner’s dialogue is worded the EXACT same same way as the song title:

And you might be thinking “this is a stretch, Brenner just saying ‘Father and Son’ doesn’t mean it’s connected to the Cat Stevens song, ‘father and son,’ is a common phrase, right?” and usually, I’d agree- however, Cat Stevens, and specifically, the EXACT ALBUM that Father and Son is on has ALREADY BEEN REFERENCED in ST specifically in the context of Brenner.

Where?

In the newspaper (because of COURSE it’s the newspapers again)- look at Brenner’s crossword here:

It says “tillerman’s beverage,” as one of the hints- and the answer is tea. As in Tea for the Tillerman. As in the exact album by Cat Stevens that Father and Son is on:

And not only does it appear in Brenner’s crossword, but they specifically showing him crossing that one off:

And there’s him having written the answer in, down vertically from 60- “tea”:

And what is the song “Father and Son” about? Well, it’s basically about what the title says- a father and his son. But specifically, it's about a the difference in perspective between father and son re: his son leaving/it's about the generational divide between father and son, and was written about the idea of a son wanting to leave to join the Russian Revolution.

This is also all interesting regarding the idea of anachronistic song references in TFS, specifically, songs from the 70s, such as Chuck E’s In Love being referenced in TFS versus Father and Son being from 1970:

And while I don’t think Brenner himself was necessarily referencing the song (although it’s possible because as evidenced by him knowing the answer to that crossword, he’s clearly aware of the album Tea for the Tillerman), it’s still yet another reference to a 70s song in TFS.

And speaking of TFS, Father and Son was originally supposed to be a musical (and of COURSE there's an Edward involved LMAO):

Versus the musical number in the church in TFS and the musical Oklahoma being reference repeatedly in TFS/Ted Wheeler sings a song from it.

However, there’s also more to this whole ST referencing Cat Stevens thing- because it’s something I talked about on discord quite awhile ago-

-but basically, summarizing those screenshots, this all connects to “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight,” playing over a scene of Karen in s3, because that song has these lyrics:

And that “curtains are closed, cat’s in the cradle,” lyric is interesting for the following reasons:

a.) the whole “behind the curtain” thing in ST plus the whole TFS play/curtain thing

B.) “Cat’s in the cradle,” versus the book Cat’s Cradle from 1963 by Kurt Vonnegut- which has some VERY interesting connections to ST.

So, in Cat’s Cradle, the narrator is a writer that introduces himself as Jonah (but his name is really John and he’s never named again), and he sets up the plot as a flashback. The plot centers around when Jonah was planning to write a book called The Day the World Ended about what people were doing on the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Which, the connection to Hiroshima is interesting considering what I talked about in this post regarding how 8:15 gate connects to Hiroshima & to James’ radiationgate posts.

And in the book, John also includes snippets from religious texts called The Books of Bokonon. Most of the events of the novel occur before the narrator was converted to his current religion, Bokononism.

And while researching for his book, Jonah heads to Ilium, New York, the hometown of the late Felix Hoenikker, who was a co-creator of the atomic bomb, because Jonah wants to interview Hoenikker's children, coworkers etc.

When he gets there, Jonah finds out about a substance called ice-nine, created for military use by Hoenikker and now likely in the possession of his three adult children. Ice-nine is an alternative structure of water that is solid at room temperature and acts as a seed crystal upon contact with ordinary liquid water, causing that liquid water to instantly freeze and transform into more ice-nine. Among several odd unfoldings in Ilium, the narrator meets Hoenniker's younger son, Newt, who recounts that his father was doing nothing more than playing the string game "cat's cradle" when the first bomb was dropped.

Which, all of the ice-nine stuff has me staring at the lack of water in the UD, and the song “Cold As Ice” playing during S3, during a scene where Mike has a Lynx behind his head (which, the Lynx thing is something I’ll come back to in this post bc it ties into all of the “cat’s in the cradle,” stuff, esp being in the same season/possibly the same ep as that Karen “cat’s in the cradle scene” and Victor’s burning cradle scene vs the taxidermy lynx in the Creel house).

And also, the book even has its own Papa- the dictator called “Papa” Monzano, who is introduced when Jonah goes to the fictional Caribbean island San Lorenzo, which is also where Jonah gets introduced to Bokononism.

Bokononism was founded by Bokonon, who was a former leader of the island, and who created Bokononism as part of a project to give people hope and community in the face of the island's poverty. As a deliberate attempt to give Bokononism an alluring sense of forbidden glamor, the religion is outlawed, which forced Bokonon to live in "hiding" in the jungle.

Which, Bokonon hiding in the jungle reminds me of all of the stuff re: Henry supposedly hiding in the darkness versus Will hiding in S1.

And also, Papa Monzano, threatens all Bokononists with impalement on a large hook (despite the fact that Monzano himself secretly practices the religion, and the hook punishment doesnt really get used)- which this makes me think of all of the impalement imagery in ST, such as Billy being impaled by the fleshflayer-

(which is extra interesting considering the visual parallels between this shot of Billy’s impalement pose versus Vecna’s attic pose & how Vecna also gets impaled by the tentacles when they plug into him)

-plus Phineas Gage having been impaled by a rod-

(which is ALSO extra interesting considering how the Phineas Gage scene/“No Longer Gage” ties into TFS with Alice saying that “Henry” is “Not Henry,” and how right before that Alice-Henry exchange, Henry had these weird appendages grow out of his back, which is extremely visually similar to the Vecna attic scene I just mentioned, and therefore also ties all of this back to Billy’s impalement, especially considering the parallels between Billy and Max versus Henry and Alice, although Henry doesn’t treat Alice the way Billy treats Max, there’s still parallels + Max has unending Henry parallels, especially re: sibling death & Billy’s death vs Alice’s death)

And also, Monzano has an adopted daughter, Mona- which, that immediately makes me think of Patty being Mr Newby’s adopted daughter, especially considering Mr Newby’s Brenner parallels, such as Mr Newby having stolen Patty versus Brenner stealing kids-

-AND Mr Newby being very authoritarian/dictator-esque when it comes to how he runs the school & how he runs his family.

And also, Monzano is ill from cancer- which, as we know, there’s SO many references to cancer in ST, considering what I’ve talked about re: the connections between regen healing and cancer plus the idea that Peter Owens may have had cancer.

And also, Monzano wants his successor to be Frank Hoenikker, who was both Monzano's personal bodyguard and, coincidentally, Felix Hoenikker's other son. Frank achieved this position by giving "Papa" Monzano a piece of ice-nine.

However, Frank doesnt want to be the new leaser and somewhat randomly offers Jonah the presidency. Although Jonah is surprised at at first, he accepts after he finds out that this means he’ll get go marry Monah. Soon after, the bedridden "Papa" Monzano commits suicide by swallowing ice-nine, whereupon his corpse instantly turns into solid ice-nine.

Papa Monzano being bedridden has me staring directly at Brenner Sr (who Brenner Jr also calls Papa), who was bedridden and dying after his return from Dimension X.

Frank Hoenikker admits to giving Monzano ice-nine, and the Hoenikkers explain that when they were young their father would give them hints about the existence of ice-nine while experimenting with it in the kitchen. After their father's death, they gathered chunks of the substance into thermos flasks and have kept them ever since.

Which, this has me staring at the scene of the Bingham kids in the kitchen, and how Peter Bingham puts in “too much salt,” versus the salt and ice used for sensory deprivation tanks, versus ice-nine, PLUS “Peter” Bingham versus what I mentioned earlier about Peter Owens and cancer, PLUS what I mentioned about Mr Newby versus all of the parallels between Mr Bingham and Mr Newby and Suzie versus Patty etc etc.

And after Monzano dies, celebrations for Jonah’s presidential inauguration begin, but during an air show performed by fighter planes, one of the planes malfunctions and crashes into the seaside palace, causing Monzano's still-frozen body to fall into the sea.

Instantly, all the water in the world's seas, rivers, and groundwater transforms into solid ice-nine. The freezing of the oceans immediately makes tornadoes ravage the earth, but Jonah manages to escape with Mona to a secret bunker beneath the palace. When the initial storms subside, they emerge and search the island for survivors, and discover a mass grave where all the surviving San Lorenzans committed suicide by touching ice-nine. Grieving for her people, Mona follows suit and dies.

This makes me think of a.) the complete lack of water and complete lack of people in the UD, and b.) all of the bunker stuff in ST, specifically, the NINA bunker + Murray’s bunker, and how Murray has a bunch of Creel references in his bunker, like his his Billie Holiday record + his WW2 posters which then also connect to the Peter Pan and Skull Rock and Eddie-Edward stuff but that’s a post on its own- but that also makes me think of what I said earlier re: Phineas Gage getting impaled because Scott uses that skull graphic that reminds me a lot of Murray's poster:

I also now have to wonder- if the UD was once a normal timeline that got devastated in some apocalyptic manner, could there still be PEOPLE there?? In bunkers?? After all, we’ve only seen UD Hawkins, but if the UD extends to other parts of the world, then what if there’s an UD NINA bunkers that still has living people inside of it??? Or hell, what about Murray’s bunker in the UD?? They’ve never shown it to us, but for all we know, there could be living people/alternate timeline versions of people in there, having survived however long it’s been since the disaster.

And at the end of the book, Jonah lives with some other survivors in a cave- versus TFS Henry having ended up lost in a cave in Nevada, and ending up contracting the shadow as a result, and Brenner says that Henry “changed, like my Papa,” due to Henry’s time in the cave, which brings us back to what I said earlier about Brenner Sr.

And anyway, setting all that aside and going back to the other reason why that “cat’s in the cradle,” line fron I Just Died In Your Wems Tonight is interesting, there’s also C.) “cat’s in the cradle,” versus the song Cat’s Cradle by Harry Chapin.

Which, “Cat’s in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin is about a father not being able to find time for his son and then his son growing up without him and not being able to find time for his father- basically, the son becomes just like his father, ironically, as a result of his lack of interaction with his father, which, the whole “becoming his father,” thing has me staring DIRECTLY at the lines in TFS re: “you have to BE your dad”:

And the “Cat’s In The Cradle,” thing is extra interesting because that song CONSTANTLY gets misattributed to Cat Stevens, who has an album called Cats Cradle:

Which, that reminds of all of the mistaken identity stuff in ST, especially regarding Brenner and Richard vs Martin/the identity mixups there and Eddie Munson delivering subtext for Edward & Eddie Munson being wrongfully accused of murder & Victor also being wrongfully accused by Wayne versus “the man who did this,” and how that connects to Brenner.

And speaking of “cat’s in the cradle,” there’s also all of the cradle imagery with Victor:

And there’s also all of the cat imagery in ST, specifically the silver cat/lynx stuff in S3 versus the stuffed silver cat/lynx in the Creel house and Victor talking about a wildcat:

Not to mention that again, that lyric is from “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight,” versus Henry literally “dying” in Victor’s arms:

And it’s also interesting that this seems to be a REALLY specific song choice for S3/they really wanted “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight,” because the use of this song is anachronistic, as S3 is set in 1985, and I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight was released in 1986- which is also interesting considering what I talked about earlier re: TFS and song anachronisms.

Point is, I think that Brenner’s TFS dialogue re: “father and son,” is meant to reference the Cat Stevens song “Father and Son,” and that there’s a bunch of other connections re: “cat’s in the cradle ,” and Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” and Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s In The Cradle,” and all of Victor’s cat and cradle imagery.

And I also won’t be surprised if we get the song Father and Son on the s5 soundtrack.

[sugarywishes]

How did the Aftons react to Evan's death via the bite?

About time I get an angsty question, let's dive right in!!

The Afton Family (we'll get into specifics in a minute)

- Well, it was a death in a established/popular entertainment location. Not to mention a gruesome death, so obviously everyone and their mother not only made several tabloids and news reports, they also interviewed/interrogated EVERYONE AT THE PARTY

- so what a joy it was to not only have the company's name slandered, but your family was constantly harrassed about the whole situation too!!

- Michael and Elizabeth's classmates would always ask them about the incident, to the point where William pulled them out of school for a while

- Their neighbors became extremely nosy abt it as well (asking about funeral plans, if they were gonna have Michael arrested etc) and the family itself was already pretty isolated, so they basically became antisocial afterwards and avoided talking to people

- I briefly mentioned this in the Charlie post, but William was kicked out of the company shortly afterwards (my version of Henry was originally kind of a self-centered, prideful man before Charlie...yk ☹) bc of the bad publicity towards him and the fact it was fucking up the business now (I'll list more reasons in a bit) so now the only friend the Aftons had was giving them the cold shoulder and cutting ties with them to avoid affiliations

Okay specifics time!! (This might be a long post so grab some 🍿)

Michael Afton (not the Michael color, I know, there's no gray!!)

- All Mikey wanted to do was just prank Evan, teach him a lesson for getting him in trouble more than usual.

- Nice going, Michael.

- Oh boy. This guy went to a literal state of shock (I'm talking HE FROZE IN FEAR KINDA SHOCK) as soon as Fredbear's jaw closed

- He didn't even manage to 'wake up' until they were already in the hospital (Lizzie dragged him there)

- and of course Mike was scared and remorseful, his prank was quite literally meant to be a funny haha moment which ended up as him technically becoming a murderer 😭😭

- He nearly vomited and passed out as soon as he heard Evan died

- When Michael returned to school, best believe he lost all his popularity, now everyone knew him as the guy who killed his brother (the other kids involved in the prank distanced themselves as far away from it as possible) and so he became a friendless outcast :(

- Even Jeremy stopped talking to him, mostly because of what Jeremy's mom said about them for clout

- which totally didn't help his now declining mental health

Elizabeth Afton

- Lizzie was actually hanging around the bathroom area talking with Charlie when the bite happened, she would've been too late to stop it anyway

- She literally lost her twin. It's not the best feeling in the world.

- Of course she felt terrible about the whole situation but also,,,a sense of liberation??

- like, the one person who stood in the way of her gaining her father's love is dead. Mike doesn't give 2 shits about Will, and Clara is already in a loveless relationship with him. So now it leaves her as his new favorite

- she surprisingly was able to move on faster than the rest of her family (at least on the outside, as I said she did lose her baby brother)

- but it's not a fun life afterwards, considering she no longer had friends at school now since Will pulled her out quickly (and plus, Henry started cutting ties with the Aftons so now she couldn't hang out with Charlie!!) And again, she started losing her mind just like the rest of the family

Clara Afton

- Girly was just tryna to find a camera in the car outside, she didn't see or hear the bite thankfully (she did have to see the image of her bleeding son being carried out by his father though)

- Evan's death is truly what got her motivated enough to actually start fighting against Will's constant mistreatment of her and the kids

- but of course that doesn't last long. (Guess who ends up in Ballora?)

- because of the news (and more specifically, one particular news article made by a Mrs. Helen Fitzgerald, mother of Jeremy Fitzgerald,,,👀) she was now labeled a neglectful, hosebag mom who was probably in it for those Afton bucks 💸 which ruined her relationship with her neighbors and friends

- Remember, EVERYONES reputation was terribly slandered by the bite (and by the media wanting to cause more drama)

- She was already a stressed out, meek person because of her marriage with William, she got a lot worse after her baby died

William Afton (his is the LONGEST sorry for the text walls)

- He was just about ready to carry out Evan's birthday cake as soon as he heard the screams of terror

- He reacted almost instantly. William is not a very physically strong looking man, but he is powerful enough to break a robot's jaw open.

- He pulled Evan's body out (as best as he could, he was rushing to save him so who knows if some...chunks were still left inside 🤢🤢 sorry for the mental image)

- He didn't acknowledge ANYONE else in the room. And he didn't even have the rest of his family get into the car, he placed Evan in the back with a blanket wrapped tightly around his head and drove off, leaving the rest of the family to find another way to the hospital

- but of course his efforts were all for nothing.

- Everyone kinda expected him to become deranged and violently (publicly) abusive but for a while he was just...numb. and detached from everyone and everything. He wouldn't talk to a single person and would isolate himself in his workshop/basement to grieve

- (he didn't even bother punishing Michael for the accident, which set off a lot of red flags for Mikey who knew that something would snap inside his father soon)

- His already inconsistent sanity started cracking when his name and family were considered pariahs now (thanks a lot Helen for further spreading rumors about them)

- it became even worse when Henry kicked him out (According to Henry's excuses, he knew Will was likely never going to recover from the bite so he might as well give him an 'early retirement')

- (Basically, Will wasn't coming to work at all and wasn't making them money, his damaged reputation would ruin the now shitty rep of the diner more, and bc of the Aftons now being associated with the words 'horrible' 'neglectful' and 'irresponsible' , Henry just decided to tie up loose ends and get rid of him to save face) (Remember that Henry was an asshole and only got to his redemption journey once his daughter died)

- So, great. But what's this?? The closed Fredbear's Family Diner Fredbear animatronic is acting?? Off?? Sort of seems...alive??? You bet it is!!

- And of course, we all know what happens from there.

Thanks for asking! If you want more just ask!!

[fideidefenswhore]

So Anne Boleyn didn't want her nephew Henry Carey at court cause he was supposedly disabled? Just like Gregory, Borman turned a good thing Anne did for her sister into a nasty thing? What evidence does she shows for Henry being disabled, or Anne not wanting him around? And for goodness' sake, isn't it strange that some historians and fiction writers seem to hate Anne (like Borman or Weir) but can't help to end up writing about her, because, let's face it, ANNE BOLEYN SELLS! They must feel so bad for always having to return return to this woman they are so eager to portray as the Worst Human Being Ever.

Literally none, and I'm not even joking. There's no citation, no additional information or details, she doesn't even name this nephew so I don't even know if it's Henry Carey to whom she's referring, or one of the Stafford children (whose existence/survival remains disputed), or even the later Elizabethan priest, George Boleyn, dean of Lichfield, who has been erroneously labeled as the son of Viscount Rochford, George Boleyn(illegitimate at times, by marriage other times), Julia Fox has argued for the likelihood he was some distant Boleyn cousin, and I'm inclined to agree. The claim is dropped into a paragraph about the perils of childbirth to contextualize Anne's own potential fears as if from the sky:

Worse still, Anne's closest female relations had suffered an unfortunate history in this respect. Her mother had lost several babies in infancy and her sister, Mary, had borne a son with mental disabilities whom Anne would not suffer to be at court. But in her favour was the fact that her health was generally considered good, and as one observer remarked, she seemed 'likely enough to bear children.' --Elizabeth's Women, Tracy Borman

So...yeah, if who she meant here was Henry Carey, I have no idea what she's talking about, A, and B, this is the sole* "factoid" she chose to mention about their relationship? Not that she had wardship of him, not that she arranged for him to receive his education from the scholar she patronized, Nicholas Bourbon, alongside Henry Norris (the younger), Henry Dudley, and the son of Nicholas Harvey, her 'strong partisan' and the husband of her great friend, Bridget Wingfield...all signs which point to Carey being in Anne's favour. I have no idea if he was ever at court, but if there's no record of him at court while Anne was queen, does it not seem more plausible to attribute this to A) how brief that time was and/or B) that his mother was banished from court due to the marriage she had made without royal permission?

I just don't...know, with Borman, really? It'd be interesting to have the unedited interview footage from BSR because I was surprised how overall sympathetic she was towards the subject, honestly. And I can't speak to the new book, I haven't read it, but the PR push for it has centered around praise of AB as an individual, as to her character.

For Weir, I mean, she received the deal to do that fictionalized serial on the six Queens of Henry VIII, of course AB had to be included. If I'm being perfectly honest, I feel like everything she has done since Lady in the Tower has had this weird self-animus pushing behind it, guilt over having further popularized a figure she hates so implacably. Her original view ("a total bitch...she alienated so many people that that must be true") has been evident in all her subsequent works and interviews; from claiming in one in 2017 that there exists a letter extant in AB's own handwriting where she orders Lady Shelton to beat her stepdaughter (there isn't), to depicting AB in her latest novel as having been so ugly and "painfully thin" naked that it was an instant boner-killer for her poorest little meow-meow.

*I believe other sections of this book are dedicated to the Careys so hopefully she expands later...I can't remember if she does. So far in my current read she has not mentioned the wardship and it was in 1528 and the book is now in 1533, so....

[rongrii]

*Post may update over time.

"...You all have been called here with a purpose to end everything, end to an immortality. You remained alive and dead for a while, haven't you?..."

This post is a detailed information shout my FNAF AU - Immortal Remains!

It's completely centered around remnant and ghost concept along with immorality. All actions occur in FNAF 6 pizzeria, where Henry Emily reunited people directly related to the events in the pizzerias in order to finally put an end to everything.

He couldn't just burn everything down right as everyone came, because that wouldn't fix the problems left at Freddy's. So, with all characters back, they go on different missions together, "forgetting" about grievances for the sake of a common goal.

Every character of course have their own goals and secrets they hide from each other. Even the most honest looking people hide many skeletons in their closets..

All main characters have some relation to remnant in some way.

Like William, Elizabeth and Evan being souls(ghosts if you please), and Henry and Michael immortalised by remnant.

More about the plot:

Michael found Elizabeth at sister location and recognised her quickly, so they got out from Circus Baby's pizza together. After they've reached the surface Michael found a way to free Elizabeth by destroying Circus Baby. Remnant spilled and Elizabeth was finally free in a form of a soul. Michael kept in touch with Henry, so after Mike decided to work with Emily.

Henry at this time decided to check the old Afton house for his own purposes. In the house he found Evan, left alone with nightmares. Emily took the poor child with her, and they began to live together in Henry's house. They have become close, and Evan already considers Henry part of his family.

William was locked in a safe room for 30 years and had no contact with his family. As soon as his body was transferred to the horror attraction, he woke up. As Springtrap, he lost part of his memory, but all this time he was thinking about the past, trying to remember it. When it was clear that a living animatronic was wandering around the attraction, they tried to close it, and by coincidence, William was able to get out. Being on the loose, he was found by Henry and brought into the building.

Henry needed to be brought together in such a way that everyone had the opportunity to help with Emily's goals. For this, Henry even burned Springtrap body so that he would be freed and take the form of a soul.

After the reunion, main objective for characters is to clean up after all the events in Freddy's. Free the restless souls, fix anomalies and other things characters will do together - even if they may have conflicts with each other along the way.

And here is lineup of Aftons icons!

(Still working of full character references)

This au is still in progress, and this is one of my first FNAF projects I want to continue for a long time. I will be happy to receive feedback and any suggestions you may have!

Thank you for attention!!

[springbloomer]

*YAWNNN* 💤

(I HIT 100 FOLLOWERS THANK YOU?!?!?1//1?!) <3 <3 <3

Gif by me (i used: flipanim.com)

Gist: You show up in front of each brother in a very tired/ sleepy condition (for context it was either really late at night or super early in the morning) Also I guess this is a hundo followers special

Characters: Lucifer, Mammon, Levi, Satan, Asmo, Beel, Belphegor

Lucifer [in the kitchen to make more coffee~]

He’s surprised to see you up so early in the morning, knowing very well that you always end up oversleeping

*yawn* “Here’s the documents you tasked me to fill out..” In your hands was a thick stack of papers he gave you last night (and for some reason told you to finish it as soon as possible)

Shoot, now he’s guilty for making you do such a thing-

But of course, he wouldn’t let you know this, and lucky for him, your eyelids felt so heavy that you gave up on even trying to open your eyes

Another prolonged yawn escaped from your lips as you groggily walked around to find something to eat

Lucifer shook his head and sighed at your condition

He told you to go back to bed, but you were still so sleepy that you just blocked out all other sounds and ended up falling asleep to the coldness of the fridge~

As he tried to pull you away, you hung onto the refrigerator door and refused to get away from paradise (“lemme sleeeeeeeeep…”)

“Let go MC. We both know that his is no place to sleep.” “Don’t wanna!”

Meh, eventually you gave up and let him carry you, bridal style (sir i-)

He internally screamed seeing how cute you looked snuggling up to him, but still managed to carry you properly without loosing his composure

Unless he wanted you to snuggle up to him more, he's made the decision to never let you sacrifice any of your sleep over some documents

Mammon [he walks in on you in his room]

Who would've guessed? Because of his overflowing debts, Lucifer wasn't going to let it slide anymore

Pretty unbelievable, but the entire time, he's been hiding from his older brother's wrath and actually succeeding????

The determination this man has-

It was already 3 am when he finally had the chance to hide and lock himself in his own room to get away for the rest of the night (well, really early morning now)

Nearly screamed when he saw you in the center of some sort of circle of stacks of what looked like... his bills? It was 3 AM for crying out loud, what the heck were you doing?!?!?!?

"Oy! Whatchya doin' here, human?! And what're ya-" *yawn* "I couldn't sleep anyway, so I thought about helping you with your debt problems, and seriously..."

You didn't have the chance to finish your sentence when you started to drift off to sleep

Like it was already a regular reflex, Mammon caught you right before you fell on the papers you worked so hard on to organize

Got all flustered at your current state and kinda wanted you to stay like that forever

Nahhh, he had to make sure you'd at least be comfortable during your slumber, so he set you down on his bed and put away those debts...

You wouldn't have known till the moment you woke up that he clung onto you, listening to your steady breathing that lulled him to sleep

Leviathan [in his room, that otaku i swear-]

It was expected of the otaku to still be wide awake in the quietest of hours, and that's why you went to him

But what he didn't expect was the sudden drop of your weight on his back (bro was just chilling when you just dropped on him-)

FORTUNATELY HE HAD THOSE BLANKETS ON HIM TO KEEP HIM WARM

Still, that made him panic a bit, paused his anime and confront your very sleepy state

"H-henry?! Wh-what- why- how?!" He's a flustered mess now as he tried to pick you up without trying to make you feel uncomfortable in his arms

"H-heyyyy, I wanna sleep like this~" Really, with your back arched on blankets plus Levi under all those?

Um, he knew his bathtub-bed wouldn't be any better than that, so he made a mini-bed with those blankets and positioned it right next to his usual watching spot

The rest of the time, he's pretty much distracted by the fact that he gets to see you sleep right next to him of all people!

Satan [in the libr- I mean his room]

He was on his usual read-till-the-crack-of-dawn-literally when he heard a pile of his precious books fall

His first instinct was to go all out, transforming into his demon form and torturing whoever interrupted his session (and make his precious collection fall)

"If you thought you could sneak around and take my books for selling Mammon, then you're DEAD wrong." (the man's pissed...)

Satan actually did transform in his demon form out of annoyance, only to find you yawning and hanging upside down when he snatched the culprit using his tail

He's honestly surprised and wondered what business you had with him at such an hour (quick time check, it was 3:03 am)

"I was getting pretty lonely in my room, decided to crash at yours..."

This wasn't a problem at all to him; he likes it when you come to him for help, comfort, or just for company

Too bad he his bed wasn't for people anymore, there were mountains of books piled on top of it-

That's when a sly grin crept on Satan's face

You ended up falling asleep on his lap, your head resting against his chest while he continued to read a few more chapters of his current book (he even gave you a small peck on your forehead awww)

Asmodeus [up for his looooong morning routine]

You were lucky that Asmo was already done with the face mask part of his routine, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to hold in your laughs, despite how sleepy you still were

Like the only decent person in the house, you knocked on his door before landing face-first into his soft, silky bed

“Oh my, MC! What are you doing up so early in the morning, dear? And on my bed on top of that~”

“So soooooooooft~” was your only reply. Seriously, how come Asmo has the comfiest bed in Devildom?!?!??

It took him a little while, but when he finally did, he decided to join you only for a couple of minutes (he had to get back on schedule for his routine after)

Also, a suuuuuper soft bed plus the touch and feel of Asmo’s extremely soft skin? Boy, have you ascended to heaven already?

It made you snuggle up to him even more, which honestly he had hoped (and pretty much expected) would happen

He secretly took pictures of you sleeping on his bed and thought that they were absolutely adorable

Beelzebub [in the kitchen, where else?]

You planned to get up extra early because of some schoolwork you said you’d finish last night and ended up sleeping on it

But before you dove into that, some coffee would really be helpful to kickstart your brain

With that said, you’ve made your way to the kitchen when surprise! You caught Beel in his morning raid. again.

Well, it was expected from the Avatar of Gluttony and his bottomless pit of a stomach together with the raging appetite

Quietly making your way around to not disturb his round, you grabbed a whatever clean mug there was and turned on the kettle

Too bad that he’s heard your extended yawn and greeted you with his mouth filled. “Goagh mortfning MC.” *proceeds to snarf down the remaining food left*

*yawnnnnn* “Morning Beel…” You greet him back with closed eyes

Both of you began some small conversation until you began to nod off unintentionally (amazing how you can sleep while standing up for a few seconds-)

Your legs gave away though, but Beel easily caught you in his arms

Poor guy didn’t know what to do first. Help finish your coffee or carry you to bed?

It was too early for him to be making such conflicting decisions, so he ended up doing both; carrying you back to your room with one arm and holding your mug on the other

Gently placed you back to your bed and mug on the nightstand right next to you

His man is such a cinnamon roll, he’d make sure that you were comfortable in your sleep. I’m talking about this guy plumping up your pillows, pulling that blanket over you and putting up a “I’m still asleep so please don’t disturb” sign outside of your door

He tried very hard, but he still sneaked a few sips of your coffee before quietly leaving your room

Belphegor [on the roof of HOL]

You’ve tried your best, but no matter how much, you couldn’t get away from the heat of your room, preventing you from falling asleep

Hours later… you were still staring at the same wall with no chance of sleeping at this rate

You’ve tried your best, but no matter how much, you couldn’t get away from the heat of your room

It was preventing you from falling asleep

Hours later… you were still staring at the same wall with no chance of sleeping at this rate

Until an idea reached in your head: if anyone would help you instantly get back to sleep because of his cuddles, it’d be the one and only Belphegor

Plus you just HAD to leave your room of a microwave, so a win-win

First you checked the attic, the very familiar room that you knew Belphie would take his naps on most days. It was empty

Next you checked the twins’ room, slowly peeking inside to not disturb any of them. Not even Beel was in there (he’s busy it’s that fridge-)

Where else could this demon be? That’s when it hit you: he did mention once that he liked to gaze at the stars on the rooftop of the House of Lamentation

The cold night breeze was like some sleeping powder to you; the moment you felt it your eyelids starting drooping

“Couldn’t sleep?” His voice reached you as he guided you to his usual spot and cuddling close to you

Only then you realized how tired you were; so tired that you had no strength to respond with words and just nodded

Luckily, at that very moment, everything helped you doze off. Belphie’s pillow and his steady breathing, the star-lit night sky, the cool breeze.

I freaking need a Belphie to spoon me like this please

The two of you had the best sleep in the entire three realms, holding each other and never wanting to ever let go.

[henrysglock]

Something about Vecna's Left Hand 🤔

This post centers around the patterns of handedness in the NINA sequence and Creel flashbacks as it relates to Henward's bloodstains.

Honest to God, though, I'm trying my damnedest to find a good way to organize all the pictures I've annotated about this guy. I decided it was best to just go by jumpsuit, so I'm using Em's current naming system (JA-JE) for cohesion between sources. I also decided to try to narrow the main shots down to ones that include hand use, since that's what I really care about in this post (even though some others will be included for speculation purposes). I'm not diving into injuries or bodies, even if there are annotations about those topics, because those aren't super applicable in regard to this analysis.

Also, Em just posted his big jumpsuit bloodstain comparison analysis:

HERE!!!

You can find all the details about this stuff on that post.

Here are the background posts for this analysis:

Changing Vecnas

Comparison Of MF And Vecna Suits

Comparison Of Vecna/MF Suits To The 5 Known Massacre Suits

Lefty and Righty vs Henry Creel

First, a TL;DR recap:

Righty (Henry):

Righty (Suspected Henry):

Lefty (Suspected Edward):

Good? Okay, let's get started.

JA.

He's not the Vecna we see in the transformation sequence from 4.07, nor is he the one we see in the Mindflayer shaping sequence.

He's a lefty, though:

JA is associated with El's initial eye blood pattern:

But not with her second eye blood pattern:

He also seems to be the gauntest of our Henwards, especially in comparison to JC:

Which...lots to think about there, considering this:

I won't rule out the possibility of him being a Vecna, of course. He's just not the thicker one we're shown concretely by the transformation sequence in 4.07.

Anyway. Moving on.

JC.

This is our guy. This is the jumpsuit that we're told goes with our main Vecna via the transformation sequence in 4.07.

He's a lefty.

JC is also the only bloody Henward we see doing hands-free moves, interestingly enough.

His Jumpsuit matches Vec-Ward's, as seen here:

JD.

JD's only appearance is at the very end. He does not appear before El slams him through the mirror.

He isn't shown using his hands, but his jumpsuit matches the guy who shaped the Mindflayer (as seen here):

Which means we can say he is also a lefty:

JD is associated only with El's second eye blood pattern:

A Quick Recap:

JA, JC, and JD are all lefties. We have seen no right-handed Massacre-Henwards so far.

The only bloody Henward I have questions about is JE, and that is solely because his sequence is shot through a mirror, presenting a lefty as a righty.

He's holding her chin in his left hand, but the camera choice presents it as his right hand. I can't, of course, rule anything out (especially given all the "mirror/holding up a mirror" stuff with him).

At the end of the day...it is meant to be recognized as his left hand, otherwise they wouldn't show us the mirror at all. They would just cut to him using his right hand normally. So, unless I have reason to think otherwise, I'm assigning him working-lefty.

I also can't concretely assign the bloodless JB suit.

This is because his only move is the hands-free one that we see JC do in the previous shot:

For now, though, I'm also assigning him working-lefty. This is based on the direction of his head tilt, which is the same as our other known lefty:

In conclusion:

Concrete Lefties: 3

Working-Lefties: 2

Concrete Righties: 0

I won't say that we don't have Henries in this sequence, because of course I can't say that. If he is shown on screen, though...he's either JB or JE, one of our two inconclusive lefties.

However: As it stands, we do not have any concrete righties, which would be an indisputable indicator of Henry's status as a mass murderer. If they wanted it to be indisputable, they would have made it that way.

[handeaux]

Cincinnati Barbers Of Old: Shave And A Haircut, Plus Dentistry, Surgery & Leeches

There are not many old-time barbers left in Cincinnati, probably none at all. Before you start pointing out some venerable tonsorial establishment boasting a marble counter, leather chairs, a stack of vintage magazines and a painted barber pole out front, ask just one question: Is there a jar of leeches in the front window?

Back in the day, your barber did a heck of a lot more than shaves and haircuts. Barber shops were very much like urgent care centers. The inimitable Edwin Henderson, who wrote under the penname “Conteur,” described [Enquirer, 10 July 1919] the experience of a German immigrant barber named Peter Muschler:

“In those days, many of the white barbers cupped and leeched and pulled teeth in addition to shaving and hair dressing. Muschler used as many as 6,000 leeches in a year. For several years after their arrival the broils of rival fire companies of the old schools of volunteers and of the contending factions of the ‘Brighton,’ ‘Mohawk’ and ‘Texas’ districts, and the use of fists generally in all sorts of personal differences were so frequent that leeches were in general demand all over the city.”

A generation raised on the belief that the best cure for a black eye is a bag of frozen peas probably can’t understand that paragraph. To clarify: Leeches were applied to black eyes and other bruises to drain the accumulated blood and to reduce swelling. Cupping, popular today as an alternative therapy, was practiced by barbers as a cure for fevers and general aches and pains. Minor surgical tasks such as these provided solid income at a time when, as the old knocking rhyme has it, a shave and a haircut cost two bits, or just twenty-five cents. An old-time barber told the Enquirer [19 August 1900]:

“The revenue derived from this work also provided quite a substantial amount in our pockets at the end of each week during those days. I remember that frequently I made not less than $25 cupping, bleeding and leeching while the proceeds from teeth extracted also provided a nice little sum.”

Conteur reports that barber Peter Muschler also did a fair amount of tooth pulling. When Muschler moved his shop in 1865, he disposed of a peck (about two gallons) of extracted teeth by tossing them into the furnace.

So closely were barbers associated with surgery that, according to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine [October 2001], it was Henry VIII of England who in 1540 recognized the Worshipful Company of Barbers and Surgeons, affirming the right of barbers to perform bloodletting and tooth extraction, while prohibiting surgeons from cutting hair or trimming beards.

Of course, dealing with rowdy patients fresh from barroom brawls must have tried the patience of many a barber, no matter how royally worshipped. A Cincinnati barber named Christopher Eberle discovered this one fateful night. According to the Cincinnati Gazette [25 January 1879]:

“Wm. Nielis, a hostler living on Boal street, and James Toale, living at 434 Sycamore street, came into Dr. C.C. Eberle’s barber shop, No. 388 Broadway, about 9 o’clock last night. Toale was in a pitiable condition. Both of his eyes were closed, his face cut up and bloody, and his lips swollen so big as to prevent the man from speaking. They asked for some leeches, but when Eberle asked for his pay the couple assaulted him and made trouble all around. Eberle called in the police, who took the men to the Bremen Street Station. They fought the officers all the way to the lockup. The charges against the men are disorderly conduct, personal violence, and assault and battery.”

The connection between barbering and blood is memorialized in the traditional barber pole with its red, white and blue stripes. According to lore, the red symbolizes arteries and the blue represent veins, while the white indicates skin. It’s more likely that the stripes are a sanitized version of the ancient barber signs that showed a realistically bleeding arm. Some really old barber signs were topped by a golden bowl of the type once sued to collect blood.

Eventually, barbers got out of the surgical line. The Cincinnati Post [1 December 1927] reported on an emergency appeal for leeches to save the life of a sleeping-sickness victim in Somerville, Ohio. The physician treating the patient believed that applying leeches would keep the patient’s blood circulating until the effects of the disease had subsided. Boy Scouts in Cincinnati took up the cause and sloshed through every creek and river around the city in a fruitless quest for blood-sucking annelids. Having exhausted the natural habitats of the creatures, the scouts turned to their urban haunts.

“In Cincinnati Scouts scoured local drug stores for leeches. Late Saturday ‘ran down’ some in a small downtown barber shop, where they were kept as reminiscences of the old days when barbers also were physicians, and are still used occasionally for blackened eyes. The leeches were sent by special delivery to Somerville.”

The patient’s condition improved remarkably.

Some barbers extended their services into less bloody ministrations, according to William C. Smith in his delightful 1959 memoir, “Queen City Yesterdays”:

“Barber shops of the better class provided another service in addition to their regular vocation of shaving and haircutting. These shops displayed signs in the window reading ‘Baths Twenty-five Cents.’ The regular price for shaving was fifteen cents; for hair cutting, twenty-five cents; and tips were unknown.”

There were certainly a lot of barbers in old Cincinnati. An article in The Penny Paper (later to be known as the Cincinnati Post) [5 July 1882] provided a census broken down by the ancestry of each proprietor. According to that article, Cincinnati had 1,000 barbers, of which 795 were of German extraction, 91 were African American, 50 were Irish, 46 were “Americans by blood and birth,” five English, four Jews, four Italians, three Scots, and two Frenchmen. The city population that year was just over 225,000.

Some of these tonsorial practitioners were very curious indeed. An old-timer told the Penny Paper that he knew of an excellent barber who was totally blind but had learned his trade as his sight was failing and was renowned for his skill. There was a one-armed barber working in Covington who also had a sterling reputation.

[lilliad-dreams]

Heavy tw for child abuse, drowning, and alcohol abuse.

Writing under the cut! I've been working on this scene in my head for a long while, and while I'm unsure if I'm happy with the end product, and will probably end up rewriting this as it's just sort of the first draft, I wanted to post my first version!

Sitting in his studio, Henry was plagued by the whisper of nightmares. He couldn’t sleep, and why would he? It wasn’t like he had anything meaningful to rest up for. He could waste away around the comfort of his paintings, let the migraine settle in his head as he tried to fight the thoughts swirling in his mind.

Perhaps it was the mere ghost of it all- The distant memory that had Henry clenching his fists at his hips and his head pounding like the sound of hooves against gravel. He didn’t want to remember the horrors of that night, the humanity he’d lost in the span of hours. Did anyone apart from Henry know how the event carved at his very being?

Even with the headache- Henry found himself leaning into the softness of his own arms, slouched over on his desk, his eyes fluttering closed under the dim candlelight.. And a dream overtook him in his sleep.

“Henry! Look!” She’d yelp, pointing excitedly to the hopping amphibians on the surface of the water. Henry’s foolish naivety as it was, he hadn’t thought to do anything but shout at her. She was too close to the edge, her feet tapering at the foot of the water, her silky pink slippers anything but suited for the terrain.

“Mother told us to stay away from the water, Clara!” Henry had yelled back, boyish as he was, sitting at the center of the clearing. It was dark at this hour, and Clara had wanted to hear the frogs croak. Henry sat, bored, sitting against a insect infected log. Clouds floated overhead in the sky, and Henry could tell rain was upon them, should they remain outside.

"You haven't even looked yet, brother. Please?" The whine was shrill, and the teen stood with a groan. Look at the frogs, he told himself, and make the little one hush. Father would want them home soon, and the old man would surely bugger him straight for not keeping her away from the water.

"Clara, so help me god- If you've gotten wet," Henry bit his inner lip, stifling his anger. Clara was always being shoved into his arms. Henry adored his little sister, of course. Normally, Henry wouldn't be so sour. But he'd already had a row with his father, and it had gotten him bitter. Very bitter, indeed.

"No, Henry. I'm fine!" The eight year old fledgling crooned, extending a pale arm to him, beckoning him closer to see her precious frogs. "See them hop? See them, see them, see them?" She said hurriedly, pointing out to the lillipads. One of the little slimy things danced to it with agile precision, the motion spreading little ripples through the calm water. Henry wasn't impressed, but he watched, if only for his sister's delight. He did, after all, care about her.

He watched, if only momentarily, but his eyes were drawn to the flowers growing from the bushes by the lake. Beautiful petals, they had, as they sprung up in the ligrusht of day. Now, their colors were darkened, only illuminated by the light of the moon. Henry thought they thrived in the day, but they had another beauty to them in the night.

It was his slight distraction that led him astray, not noticing when Clara's footing slipped and she tripped into the water. Only when he heard the splash did he, panicked, look over to her. "Clara!" He'd shout, watching her in horror, but he did not move- Something within him stilled his body, and he could not bring himself to move. He willed himself to jump in after her, but he could not swim, he would only cause more trouble- Trouble, yes, is all his father thought of him. The son he didn't want, the accident. Henry gritted his teeth in his anguish, his panic overwhelming him, and he stifled the tears as he called out to his sister. "Clara! You must float!" He shouted. But she could not, her dismay overtook her, and she thrashed in the water, unable to find herself at the surface. The water was too deep for her to set foot on the ground, and she was weighed down by her clothes- She would drown.

Henry fell to his knees, watching in horror as his sister's cries were muted by the water, her head going underneath the horizon of the lake. She did not reemerge.

He did the only thing he could think to do, and he ran to his parents aid. He crashed into the house, akin to a rolling boulder with the intensity of which he ran inside, and gripped his father's arm by the cuff of his sleeve. "Father, father-"

His father held up his palm. "Calm yourself. It is unbecoming of a Granville." He would snap, peeling Henry's fingers from his cuff. "What is it, boy." His voice dripped with malice, as if he could not stand to even be near his second son.

Henry shook with the mixture of panic and unease. "Clara and I- We were by the lake- She fell in!"

His father's expression soured beyond the point of return. "You are not meant to go near the lake, Henry." He barked, a hand clasping over Henry's shoulder with a bruising grip.

"I know- I told her to stay away!" Henry retorted, and he was met with a growl.

"Do not back talk me, boy! You allowed her to fall in?" It was like a scene in a play, the way rain suddenly rammed against the windows, the way thunder pounded in the sky. It was theatrical, and dramatic- And terrifying. Henry could hear his mother creep behind his father, her hand sliding up his back, horror evident in her face. She did not stop her husband's abuse. His father took him by the collar, the rage pumping a blood vessel between his brows. Henry's brother crept from the hallway, watching silently, if for just a moment. "You allowed her to die?"

He was released, but his father's hands did not go still, and Henry was met with the harsh crack of his father's backhand against his cheek. Henry fell to the ground in a heap, the tears he'd been carefully stifling starting to fall. The boy, a mere five and ten, convulsed on the ground with his sobs, and his brother rushed to his side.

"Father! Stop this!" Randolph, ever perfect Randolph, cried out.

The old man had the audacity to rub his knuckles, as if he was the one truly plagued by the action. "Take him away, Dolph. Get him out of my sight." Yes- His father felt he was the one injured, while his son lay crouched on the ground, hiccuping and sobbing.

Randolph swallowed his pride and helped Henry to his room. "It wasn't your fault, Hen. It wasn't- Really-" Henry shook his head. As he collapsed in his bed, he could only hear his sister's cries.

He woke up then, every night, like clockwork. He'd hear the subtle click of the door closing, the sign that Randolph had left, and he'd wake- Adult in his time spent alive, but only in time, for his soul was still that scared little boy. So when he awoke, it was not the touch of Benedict's lips he felt or longed for, but the mighty backhand of his father.

He trudged along, his exhaustion akin to drunkenness, which was entirely suiting for a man who was rummaging through liquor bottles, searching for whatever was strongest. He popped the cork and took a mighty swig, the liquid gold burning on its way down. He seldom ever drank this way, it was ungentlemanlike- But when a man was at his wit's end, he did not care much about what wasn't gentlemanlike. Perhaps his eagerness to the alcohol was because he meant to drown his own guilt, because it was the truth he hid from.

That night was his fault.

He took another hefty swallow.

[awkwardsizeshifter]

Dug up more of the AU bs feat. Eve's ref since she's the main character in this AU

Anyways, the puppets in this AU are part of a now cancelled children's show (cancellation was due to supernatural things happening on the stage, film crew members getting mysteriously injured/winding up dead) which the public/showrunners collectively blamed on the puppets (although it was directly the alternates looking to cause as much death/harm as possible)

Speaking of the puppets, the puppets were created by Gabriel and O'Brien (unlike canon, these two are different people. their dynamic works like William Afton and Henry Emily from FNAF, Gabriel being William and O'Brien being Henry), though Gabriel decided the puppets had little 'soul' and...well. sent alternates to kill 4 specific victims. Rather than "replacing" their victims, however, they take the victims life force (well, in layman's terms, souls)

Cue the puppets ending up possessed by all four victims

Onto Evelin, she was hired to watch over the puppets and make sure no ill-intentioned burglars found their way into the warehouse the puppets are stored in. Of course, a few nights in and she begins to feel watched by the 14'0 ft puppets looming in the center of the warehouse. Which, come morning, has her making a mad dash to her shitty little Toyota Corolla and peeling out of there

Which only serves to make the puppets more curious about her, she's small and cute (in a platonic sense), so on the 5th night, poor girl damn near has a heart attack when there's a puppet staring at her while she's reorganizing the shelves in the warehouse, practically hovering over her

Safe to say, she leaves early, throws her flashlight at said puppet (Jonah) and dips.

She does eventually befriend the puppets, specifically Jonah and Adam. They're immediately protective of her and growly (rarely even allowing Mark and Cesar to hold her).

A few small side notes, to finish off this lengthy post

This AU takes place during 2009-2010. a little after Volume 3 and 4 but post Catalyst

Thatcher, Dave, Ruth and Sarah are the only other humans in this AU, Thatcher's the oldest at 37, Dave's 36, Ruth's 34 and Sarah's 20 in that order (all ages are just speculation, since Alex is vague as hell/lh)

The puppets are eldritch in some form, though it only really shows up if alternates are around/Evelin's being threatened

Evelin has a bastard of a supervisor, who's a one off OC named Stanley Clark. The puppets dislike him a lot and have put the fear of god into him so he'd leave Eve the hell alone

Small addition I forgot to add: Evelin's a foster kid in this AU, though she was kicked to the curb by her foster family at the time. Thankfully Dave found her, unfortunately it was a year after Mark disappeared ;w;

[ice-sculptures]

it's been a long, long time 🛡️❄️

I’m very intrigued about this one 👀

hi sandy!! so as you probably already know, i'm a huge fan of steve & bucky, and when i first started shipping byler i couldn't help but notice how many similarities their story shared with stevebucky, and the little goblin in my brain encouraged me to start writing a retelling of CA: TWS (movie of all time) but with the ST characters, starring:

mike as steve (the paladin, knight in shining armor)

will as bucky (possession arc & brainwashing arc)

max as natasha

lucas as sam

the first half of the fic will be centered around the friendship between mike and max (and later lucas) and the second will be more focused on mike and will, like the original film. of course, it wouldn't follow the plot exactly, since i do want to incorporate henry, brenner, and hawkins lab into the story, as well as add a few more scenes to explore mike's mental state once he comes out of the ice and adjusts to modern life, but most of the major beats of the movie will stay the same and most importantly, will and mike's emotional bond will be given the respect it deserves 😤 (and a happy ending ofc)

i also wanted to switch things up a bit and give peggy's role in the story to nancy (non-romantically, obviously 😅) since peggy's conflict about not being taken seriously as a woman in her workplace is very similar to what nancy faced in s3, and i think it would be more impactful for mike to have a platonic, familial bond from the past.

i wish i could give you a snippet, since i actually have the iconic 'who the hell is bucky will' scene fully written, but it's on my other laptop, which is currently being repaired 😭 but i do have this little concept that i wrote a while ago, if you're interested in reading it :')

[firstprince-ao3feed]

i'm the one on the phone as you whisper

by crybabie Their phone calls were, of course, still centered around getting off. But as time went by, Henry noticed that they both lingered at the end. Ever since Alex had opened up to him about his family over Christmas all those months ago, they were becoming real friends. Or so Henry hoped. It felt like playing with fire, allowing himself to get closer to the other man, but he thought it would kill him to stop now. Besides, this was the best sex he’d ever had in his life- and he’d had his fair share of good times. It would be stupid to let it go over a crush. - or, phone sex 2.0 Words: 3763, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 3 of you try on calling me baby (like trying on clothes) Fandoms: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston, Red White & Royal Blue (2023) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Alex Claremont-Diaz, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Additional Tags: Lingerie, Phone Sex, Mutual Masturbation, Praise Kink, Dirty Talk, both of which are fairly mild bc i'm a weenie, Webcam/Video Chat Sex via https://ift.tt/bBiWpHv

[fideidefenswhore]

AB hate must be a cottage industry. It seriously comes across like certain authors are devoting their whole lives to destroying her 'myth'.

Saying she wasn't politically savvy is trying to make out she doesn't deserve respect for making it in a man's world, never achieved anything, has no legacy and was a total failure in life. If she doesn't get jobs and money for her supporters, she's ungrateful, cold and can't read the room. Like she's so selfish human emotions just confuse her.

Same people tell you AB was an all powerful chessmaster cruelly luring Henry away from his "real friends" and straight up forcing him to kill More and Fisher.

Like the anon said, other queens are entitled to loyalty, but Anne has to "earn" it like she's beneath her own courtiers and there's got to be something in it for them. Like she has to bribe everyone bc she's worthless, and when she can't do it it's funny. And everyone who demands stuff from her just deserves it and is "owed" no matter what.

As many are personally invested in their fandom and/or 'apologism' of AB, just as many are personally invested in their outrage about any upcoming publications, productions, etc. that center around her life, for...sure.

And as far as patronage networks, there's double standards there, just as there are for pretty much everything else. Anne's predecessor ceased payment to scholars she patronized as soon as any of them told her she should accept annulment and retirement. Her party gave bribes and used other tactics of 'encouragement' and/or intimidation to secure favorable verdicts as far as that went, just as the Henrician/English 'party' did.

I number AB among the most influential and important Henrician councilors. Wolsey and Cromwell also had patronage networks, and failed to secure support at times from individuals regardless of their influence and power (one example for AB is the attempt to offer Elizabeth Barton a place in her own household). And even if they had never failed to secure any individual to their allegiance, the political alliances they had built and fostered, in the end, did not prevent their arrests. Nobody risked their careers to insist their benefactor was not guilty of treason and that some great injustice was being committed there, either. The Boleyn 'failure', if one insists on naming it such, had the added anchors of any who might otherwise have used their networks for the defense of their patron, also arrested and left to defend themselves (particularly the heavyweights, Norris, Rochford, and Brereton) after accused of crimes in the same 'conspiracy'. This was not the case for Wolsey and Cromwell, and yet they are not termed political failures.

Here's the rub, for all of the above: there were definitely people that they all 'alienated', and there was, actually, a rather obvious way to avoid all that. Had they abandoned their pursuit of power and faded into obscurity, none of the above would have secured the enmity of so many. This was not the choice they made. So, the weird animus and anti-fandom of sorts that exists, of course, only for the only woman of the bunch above... it's not really even so much about, oh, she was so politically unwise, and lacked intelligence, and had she not made all these missteps in her pursuit and then position, of power, she could have been secure. That's fallacious on its face, because one does not come to that position of power and influence by lack of political wisdom and intelligence (again, this is rarely, if ever, claimed for Wolsey and Cromwell). Really, it's about the resentment that she ever did come as far as she did, and it's all very obvious in these attempts to vindicate their own aggressively dismissive ...for back of better term, 'hot takes'.

[kmomof4]

Christmas Miracles for Storybrooke: A New Christmas Fic by @kmomof4

Hello everyone!!! I am so excited to begin posting this years Christmas offering, I thought I’d offer y’all a sneak peek! This fic is inspired by the 1979 made for TV movie Christmas Lilies of the Field starring Billie Dee Williams, which was itself a sequel to the 1963 movie Lilies of the Field starring Sidney Poitier. The fic is complete with five chapters. It’ll start posting tomorrow, so the last chapter will be posted on Christmas Eve. 

Without further ado, here we go!

~*~*~

“So,” Killian began, looking around the kitchen at all the children and out the window over the sink at the rest of the compound. “Where does everyone sleep? I don’t see any new buildings around, and I know you don’t have the room in here for all of them.”

“We don’t,” Sister Astrid agreed. “They sleep in the barn.”

Killian couldn’t contain his shock at her statement. “What?”

Mother Superior turned to him, her face just as he remembered when he was under her care- like stone, eyes flashing, daring him to challenge her. “It is safe, warm, and dry. We have no other place for them and we certainly won’t be turning them out when they have no one else to care for them.”

Killian’s shock and dismay disappeared as quickly as it came. “Of course, you wouldn’t. No one would expect you to, Mother. But sleeping in a barn is no place for children, or expectant mothers.”

Mother Superior’s shoulders fell. “I know. Child Protective Services has given us until the end of the year to get adequate accommodations built or they’ll be collecting and separating the children.”

“I’d like to see them try to separate us,” Will interjected, angrily. “This is my family, and I’m not going anywhere without a fight.”

“The battle is the Lord’s, William,” Mother Superior reminded him. “The battle and the victory are His. We just have to have faith.” She turned toward Emma who was sweeping  the floor in the common room where they’d eaten. “Emma will be eighteen in October, they won’t have the authority to take her if she doesn’t wish to go, but her baby will be born by then…” she trailed away and smiled at the girl with soft affection before turning back to him. “Cora Mills, one of the ladies in our congregation, is hosting a bazaar Labor Day weekend to raise money for the building of a kindergarten so the children won’t be separated. She’s Henry Mills’ widow, very rich, and a bit eccentric, but she’s continued supporting us since Henry passed. Her donations make it possible to keep all the children fed and clothed.”

“Oh, I remember Mr. Henry, and I’ve already met Ms. Mills,” Killian acknowledged with a roll of his eyes. “She came to the office earlier today and introduced herself before asking… insisting really… on housecalls.”

Mother Superior rolled her eyes as well and one side of her mouth twitched up in a smirk. “I’m not terribly surprised. She claims to have a very rare and serious form of agoraphobia.” Her voice rose in exaggerated concern and Killian had trouble containing his chuckles as she continued. “She can’t leave her house unless she’s going to be surrounded by many people. At all times. And if those people she’s surrounded with just happen to think very highly of her, then so much the better. If she were to, say, go grocery shopping, alone… why, it would leave her bedridden for days afterward from her anxiety. She just can’t possibly… unless, of course, she’ll be the center of attention, or at least very visible, like on the front row of a church service, for example…”

She stopped abruptly and made the sign of the cross over herself as she lifted her eyes heavenward. “Lord, forgive me my uncharitable thoughts.”

“And who will be building the kindergarten?” he asked.

Mother Superior cut her eyes toward him furtively and Killian raised his eyebrow at her.

“You and Liam did good work for us when you built the chapel all those years ago…”

“Yes, we did, but you never paid us for the work, if you’ll remember,” he reminded her.

“You were both gone before I could!” she exclaimed. “I know now, of course, where you went and why, but neither of you informed us then. I had no idea where to find you! And besides,” she continued, with a hint of a smile, “the chapel still needs bells.”

Killian pressed his lips into a thin line. “I could probably reach out to Liam and see what can be done about that, but back then, we couldn’t get bells the right size without paying extortionate prices that you wouldn’t have approved in the first place!”

“How about this,” she offered. “If you will build us the kindergarten, we’ll pay you for your work on both.” She held her hand out for him to shake. He reached out and took it.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Mother. We’ll be cutting it close getting it built,” he observed, his brow furrowing. “I’ll only be able to work on it in the evenings and on the weekends.”

“The Lord is faithful and He will provide,” she assured him.

Killian grinned. “Indeed.” He looked around the clean kitchen, finding it empty.

“It is time for the evening vespers. Will you join us?” Mother Superior asked.

“Ah,” he scratched behind his ear in nervousness. He still believed, and tried to live his life accordingly, but he hadn’t stepped foot in a church since he left home to go to college. Mother Superior gave him an appraising look and looped her arm around his. She wasn’t going to give him the option, so he sighed in acquiescence. “Lead the way, Mother.”

~*~*~

Thank you for reading and sharing! Ch1 will be posting tomorrow!!