#and the only reason I got really into learning about my Nana’s family history is because we weren’t allowed to talk about it. family rule

[mycological-mariner]

As it turns out, after being really impassioned to learn about my Nana’s side of the family that I am a descendant of one of my ‘historical enemies’

Rest in fucking peace.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 281, Replies Part 1

1) “Alright, now that I finally regained control over my mortal form, it is time to continue where we left- which was… Ah, right, Machia was about to kill everyone around him, and then we cut to Shigaraki about to drop the most devastating burn that Endeavor ever got. Yeah, I remember now, so, let us jump in on Chapter 281: Plus Ultra

Oh this title does not bode well for some reason…”- Befitting his status as an evil counterpart to Izuku and a hero to the villains he leads, it’s Tomura that starts going beyond his limits and kicking everybody’s shit in, just when it looks like the tables are turning agaisnt him. He’s alone, outnumbered, and handicapped…and all that does is make him even more determined to win, no matter the abuse he puts himself through physically.

2) “And okay Shigaraki, I know you got hurt, that I have no way or want to deny, but… Your father was not a hero, and your grandma had two choices, either abandon him and allow him to live or let him stay and die with her, I suppose you know that AfO killed all the other holders of OfA, right? or that your grandma was one of them? You do know that, right? right?

3) "And, well, what other heroes have you know are hurting their families (again, Endeavor does not count) unless you’re equating endangering and dying in the line of fire as hurting their families, in which case… Well, I mean, you are part of the problem.”- Tomura very much still doesn’t know about OFA, AFO and their connection…and he even more emphatically doesn’t give a shit about it. Yeah, he has the counterpart to Izuku’s Quirk, on a greater level of strength than he can wield himself, and he’s basically destined/being compelled to target him, but that’s all a side-issue to Tomura. What Really matters to him, is none of the history stuff that’s gone into this combat been the good and evil Quirk users of the past generation, it’s his own suffering and torment that drives him onwards, to avenge himself on those who slighted him and abandoned him and refuse to comprehend him.

At the same time, this counter-intuitively makes the current generation of heroes even more unlikely to understand him, but Tomura’s fine with that. As he is now, he doesn’t see anybody being capable of offering a saving hand to him, doesn’t think that’s a possibility in this world even if he emotionally wants one, and because he’s being disappointed by that, he’s lashing out and hurting others. It’s a self-destructive spiral of emotions and pain and just extending all that torment to others so he can make himself feel even slightly better about his suffering, and yes, it makes him part of the problem, but as much as he recognises it, he doesn’t care anymore. Tomura and the league are a fascinating middle ground between heroes and truly hateable villains like AFO, occupying a space where they could be better, if they had the right set of circumstances, but with everything they’ve learned in their lives, they’ve come to the conclusion that nothing will ever get better for them, so there’s no point in trying to be better, which is what tips them towards ‘villains who need to be stopped’ rather than ‘saved’.

They’re being selfish and focused on their own wants, despite their sympathetic qualities, which contrasts with heroes who try to be ‘selfless’ in the line of duty, but yet ironically, Tomura’s situation was in fact created by Nana’s own attempt to be selfless, putting her son in care so she could try and stop AFO and protect others from him, only for him to then go out of his way to utterly trample all over her efforts in the aftermath.

4) “No time to philosophy, there’s muscles to flex.”- Tomura’s flexing his debating muscles so much, his body’s starting to crack like a jigsaw puzzle…or a chrysalis, with the power he contains starts to reach the limit of his mortal ‘shell’.

5) “Alright Aizawa, do tell me, your quirk requires constant line of sight or not? Because if it doesn’t then why the fuck you’re here for, just to die a senseless death? You damn heroes hurting your families, you have a daughter back home waiting for you!”- Aizawa’s Quirk just requires him to make eye contact once and then not blink, but I think it has increased effect if he’s looking directly at the target for an extended period. At the same time, his broken leg from the high-end grabbing it is preventing him from being easily able to run away…and the need to carefully regulate his eyes being moisturised in case he blinks whilst running or such means Rock Lock and Manuel can’t make fast progress escaping, especially since Tomura has insane jumps and can easily catch up. 6) “Alright, let the speech roll, I want to see the point you want to get to, and I hope it is a good one, I don’t want to lump you with the villains who make no sense.”- It’s a simple one, but that also makes it impossible for others to understand him, which in turn becomes his point. He hates the world because it never helped him, so he wants all the power he can get to tear it down in revenge. Despite that, part of him is still frozen in that moment, awaiting help, but because no hero exists who can see past the monster he’s become, he won’t get that desire satisfied, and the disappointment, loss and loneliness he feels keenly because of that further enforces his desire to tear it all down. And even when he says this outright to the heroes, that he wants to tear down society because of its flaws, the lack of context and everything that’s gone on in his past means they don’t understand where he;s coming from – which again, Tomura’s come to the conclusion that they’ll never understand him, so he’ll just keep destroying thigns to make himself feel better, having his negative actions rebound on his innermost wishes and in turn redoubling his self-destructive efforts because they’re inherently incompatible.

He’s literally targeting one of the most empathetic heroes out there, but because he’s turned into a ranging monster from all his power and the hatred that courses through him, Izuku doesn’t get what drives him, just seeing a demon that tears through those he cares about to get to him, and when he’s done with him, will turn his carnage on everybody else 7) “Ah, alright, now with that I can see where you’re trying to get to, but unfortunately that first part about families was a bit unsubstantiated. Yeah, heroes are merely a facade, there are people hurting and suffering, but they pretend that everything is okay to keep the appearances of a just society, alright Shigaraki keep the words coming”- Tomura’s drawing from his own experiences to bring up the point about families, but the truth of his words in applicable in other circumstances as well. We know there are heroes out there with selfish motivations and don’t quite measure up to Izuku and All Might’s example, and the fact that these issues aren’t widely known about and discussed, with everybody only seeing the good in society, because of censorship that enforces the narrative of ‘heroes good, villains evil’ – that’s what Drives Tomura and the other villains, with their own disparite histories having some kind of common ground in this same fact – that nobody wonts to admit that the world isn’t perfect and ignores those whose existence proves it. 8) “And that was exactly the moment I was thinking about, the day his trust in heroes was completely shattered.

Well, gonna be honest, that was more of a society™ fault rather than a hero not wanting to help him. The people got too complacent, thinking that they have no civil obligations because “some hero is gonna help” and shrug because it’s not their problem

Society failed Shigaraki, but of course, he sees Heroes as merely another part of this problem.”- At this point, his power is merely to make sure no heroes will stand in his way. Heroes are the weapon of he society that hides behind them whilst rejecting Tomura, and so, Tomura needs to be strong enough to tear through all of them in order to get his desire to destroy sated. In a way, it almost verges around to ‘nothing personal’ with him – his hatred is for the people hiding behind the heroes, whilst they’re fighting him and putting their lives on the line, which he seems to somewhat respect, at least in Aizawa’s case 9) “YEAH YOU, YOU BITCH, YOU ARE THE ONE AT FAULT HERE. YOU MONSTER, YOU ABSOLUTE MONSTER, YOU LET THAT CLEARLY TRAUMATIZED AND HURT KID ALONE

Although we can’t deny that everyone on that street is at fault. Apathy to others is the real villain of the story.”- I’ve heard it said that Apathy is the opposite to Love, not hate, because hate is still focusing on somebody with an intense emotion, whereas Apathy is complete and utter rejection, which is what isolated Tenko in the first place and left him vulnerable to AFO. 10) “Again, Society™ is the real villain all along

And I’m not even being facetious, this whole thing, I already mentioned a lot of time, does not work. Quirks are part of people, there should be a balance to be reached rather than suppress everyone and only let a small group use them freely”- The thing is, it’s Too Late. If the issue had been addressed sooner, then maybe next-generation heroes like Izuku could have made steps when they undertook their hero careers to reach out- we’ve already seen examples of this in Gentle. But AFO’s plans allowed Tomura to reach a level of strength to start a war on society before he could see that it was possible for people out there to still save his soul and empathise with his pain…and now, the pandora’s box is opened, there’s no going back, and all the pain and bloodshed spilt on this battlefield will only deepen the divide as the fighting eslcates… 11) “I wouldn’t say “corrupt” there, but it is a rather vicious cycle. 

Again, apathy and extremes restrictions created this society, and people only perpetuate it rather than trying to fix it. And the ones that supposedly had intentions to break this system have not the best of intentions, re-destro does not want to free people out of goodness, he just wants to be the one on top instead.”- In a warped sense, getting confronted with this viewpoint is a good thing for Izuku. Tomura is an ideological counter to the perception that ‘heroes make everything better’ that kids are being raised with nowadays, so by appearing before him when he’s still forming his ideas about what kind of hero he wants to be, Tomura acts as Izuku’s biggest opponent in an emotional/idealogical standpoint, rather than a physical one. Their fight is not really about who hits harder, it’s about who’s right, who’s wrong, and what parts of their philosophies deserve to win in the end. 12) “That I can’t deny

But I still don’t rule out this being all due to AfO, all the pieces being placed there to fall the way he wished.”- The absolute lack of AFO’s presence in the backstory, despite the hints that he could be manipulating this, give it a further interesting dimension to Tomura’s motivations. Because, rather than AFO being the source of all his problems, the fact that it’s something as insubstantial as society itself, rather than an individual, broadens the scope of his motivations, pushes him to go further beyond just one person to hate, make him become someone, something, powerful to destroy it all. Even if it does get revealed that it was AFO all along, Tomura no longer really cares. To him, the motivation that drives him still exists regardless of that fact, and by holding onto it, he actually becomes his own villain, rather than ‘another holder of AFO’ to oppose Izuku. In a way, Tomura has developed into a villain in his own right, who wants to fight Izuku and the rest of the heroes for himself, not AFO, with the whole OFA/AFO conflict being an unnecessary hang-on to this fight, even a detriment, thanks to his master starting to worm his way into his head. 13) “Welp Shigaraki, I’m sorry to say, but although you are a villain, you were also a pawn, guided to this conclusion by someone that is truly and undoubtedly a villain.

There is a lot for you to respond for, but the real reasons you are who you are right now has less to do with society and more with a mastermind using you to further his own plans.”- And yet, despite this possible outcome, it doesn’t detract from the fact that Tomura’s still dangerous, more so now than even AFO himself, and a villain who needs to be stopped regardless of the part he plays in the mastermind’s grand design. Their separation has turned Tomura from AFO’s follower into somebody who stands separate from him, on perhaps even an equal level to him now with the immense power and conviction he wields.

The image of him here, mirroring his younger self, highlights this, a monster on a first look, but a crying child pleading for aid with a second introspective one. A monster, and a victim in one, a saviour to the villains, and an unstoppable destroyer for the heroes. Holy, and unholy in one. He’s stepped out from his master’s shadow, such that AFO’s threat now comes from him working inside Tomura’s mind to overtake his immense power, rather than being a direct threat to Izuku. 14) “Dammit Shigaraki, you started monologing and let him recover. Well done you idiot, at least make sure to kill him before you start the next speech.”- I mean, it also let Tomura’s battered body get a few seconds breather as well, especially since he’s starting to hit his own physical limits with the healing turned off. 15) “Well Endeavor, you see, he has those things called “muscles”, it is all the rage nowadays, all the cool villains have them”-  Muscles, backed by pushups, situps, and plenty of milk. Tomura went ultra-jacked, so he can tear through anything. Actually, Izuku should really double-down on his own workout, assuming he survives this.

16) “Yeah, one might say he’s going plus ultra right now

Honestly, I don’t remember the last time we actually saw someone saying that in this series. It was so prevalent back at the first few arcs, it’s like not even the characters believe it anymore.”- This war is basically the villains all going plus ultra, getting their turn to tear down the heroes and never stopping, best symbolised by how Tomura’s not even defending himself anymore, he’s just taking the hits and striking back in the same instant like a rabid animal, focused only on killing, not on self-preservation. A destroyer, reduced to using just his bare hands to fight with, but still, the instinct to attack is over-powering anything the heroes hit him with.

17) “ OH WOW OKAY OUCH THAT FUCKING HUTR JESUS CHRIST SHIGARAKI THERE WAS BETTER WAYS TO GET BACK UP”- Yeah, but this way, he’s attacking Gran Torino even as he’s rising up. His destructive emotions are practically being channelled with every move he makes, him using everything he can to lash out and destroy first before thinking of his next move. 18) “I’M SORRY FOLKS, I DON’T THINK THERE’S ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE TO SAVE HIS FOOT RIGHT NOW. THIS TORINO IS NO LONGER GRAN, DARE I SAY.”- His foot will be less of a concern to him than the massive gaping hole gouged in his stomach. 19) “Good fucking job Gran Torino, jumped in just to be immediately caught and about to be murdered. Well Done you fucking moron. At least you brought Shigaraki a bit of joy on killing another hero.”- Well, better the old man than Endeavour I guess. On average, Endeavour can do more damage to Tomura with his flames than Torino’s kicks could, so you could say he took one for the team. 20) “Huh, is that Nana? Back when she gave her son away? Tell me, were you watching it Gran Torino? Because I doubt this is Shigaraki’s mind right now.”- He was there to support his friend on the most painful day of her life- and it wasn’t even the day that she died. 21) “I fucking knew it you goddamn dramatic asshole.

Alright, now let us see more of that particular moment that set forth most of the tragedies that ensued, and of course, this moment right now where Gran Torino’s foot went to Valhalla”-  You have to wonder just how AFO found out about Kotaro in the first place. Nana went through all these lengths to hide him, yet he seemingly kept up the search for her relatives even after she’d died, just out of sheer spite for her memory, apparently. 22) “ah jesus I knew this would turn sad

We know this wasn’t an easy decision, we know there was no choice, but seeing Nana crying over it was not something I ever expected to see, even though I knew it happened”- Nana has always been remembered by All Might as this smiling, bright happy woman, so Gran Torino’s memories shown her letting the mask of that slip and showcase her inner anguish that she hid from everybody, even her protégée, hits harder. 23) “…

Oh god, I just realized the irony of this phrase right now

“hurt your own family to help complete strangers”

Nana had to erase all traces connecting her to her son to save him from AfO, by all intents and purposes they were complete strangers to each other

She was all alone, her only family was now herself.She hurt her family to help a complete stranger”- And that same action rendered Tomura a complete stranger to gran Torino, his grandmother’s closest confidant, such that they are now at mortal blows with each other with Tomura not giving a damm anymore.

@thelreads

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 306: the beginning of the WHAT

Previously on BnHA: Nana and the Gang were all, “hey Deku, we can read your thoughts and feelings so we should already know the answer to this, but for some reason we want to quiz you on whether or not you’d be down to kill Shigaraki Tomura.” Deku was all, “um okay, well tbh, probably not seeing as Saving People has been my entire thing since literally the start of the series.” The Vestiges were all, “yes that makes perfect sense and again we already knew that, but well, good for you buddy and I’m glad we had this talk. Anyway I guess we should ask these two cryptic fuckers in the corner to finally turn around now before we run out of -- ” and then the chapter ended. Because OF COURSE IT DID.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, WOULDN’T IT BE SO MUCH BETTER IF I GAVE YOU A CONFUSING CHAPTER WHERE EVERYONE FINALLY LEARNS ABOUT OFA, AND GOES BACK TO THE DORMS, AND THEN THE CHAPTER ENDS WITH DEPRESSED NOMAD DEKU STANDING ON A PRECIPICE WITH GRAN TORINO’S TATTERED CAPE FLOWING IN THE WIND.” Everyone is all, “???????????” Horikoshi is all, “also the parents are moving to the U.A. campus, and Jeanist’s neck is two and a half feet long, for everyone that was wondering.” Everyone is all, “WHERE ARE KACCHAN AND TODOROKI AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHO ARE THE SECOND AND THIRD USERS”, and Horikoshi is all, “:)” and fades away into nothingness like the fucking fae he is. Like a fucking imp who’s kept his end of the cursed bargain. What, the, fuck.

okay guys, so after the longest Thursday of my fucking life, during which I was secretly hoping that my spoiler containment net would be somehow be breached, inadvertently exposing me to theta spoiler radiation, so that I could be all “oh no... spoilers... there’s nothing I can do... I have no choice but to look” (which sadly did not happen), it is finally Friday and the chapter is finally out. so I’ve got my clown kit at the ready and other self-deprecating memes on standby, and I’m ready to go. and I should note that I’m also ready for Horikoshi to pull some absolute bullshit and be like, “oh you know what, we haven’t checked in with Rat Principal in a while have we” and spend the entire chapter on nonsense like that. I’M READY FOR FUCKING ANYTHING so bring it

(ETA: it would be nice if this man wouldn’t call my bluff every now and again.)

oh, right, we were due a color page! wow look at this

isn’t this supposed to be the future?? what’s with all of these staticky CRT TVs

anyway, so! is this the first time we’ve seen Tomura’s stylish finger prosthetic glove thingy in color?? because I didn’t expect it to be red. also, at some point you just have to give in and change your pants into cutoffs or something, Tomura. start a new trend of stylish villain capris

meanwhile Deku is dressed like he’s going on a journey into the desert to find a mystical oasis. actually this cape looks a lot like Gran Torino’s. I have to go back and see if Gran’s is all raggedy like this

(ETA: it wasn’t before but APPARENTLY IT IS NOW. I also forgot that Horikoshi had showed it sitting on a side table in the hospital a few chapters ago.)

lastly, AFO looks like someone’s thumb after they’ve been washing dishes for twenty minutes. you are just the ugliest dude in history, and as always, fuck you

HAHAHA SOB I KNEW IT

oh, Twowy McTwoface is finally starting to turn around? better CUT BACK TO DEKU’S HOSPITAL ROOM THEN. wouldn’t want to accidentally ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS or SOLVE ANY MYSTERIES, god forbid

well, whatever. whatever!! anyway so now someone’s knocking at the door. I say “someone” but we all know it’s Hawks

yep

they were actually standing outside the door for a while hoping they’d overhear another juicy plot conversation, but no such luck this time

lmaooo Jeanist wtf

acting all embarrassed, but you’re really just as curious as Hawks is. making him do all the dirty work for you huh

ARE YOU SERIOUS THIS IS AN INJUSTICE

so like two seconds after Katsuki gets dragged away you open the door for the rest of them!! well, fine!! I really want it to be a more private/personal moment between the two of them anyway so let the other kids check in on Deku first then

and in the meantime, time to see Hawks put the thumbscrews to All Might’s resolve lol

I wonder how much of it Hawks has already put together in the last five minutes. One for All is something connected to All for One that Tomura seems to want. Tomura was apparently targeting Deku. that’s more than enough to make a few deductions right there. I wonder how much Hawks knows about Deku’s quirk. he did watch the sports festival, and he ran into the kids interning under Endeavor that one time

okay well maybe he hasn’t put the rest of it together just yet, but Hawks is making a pretty reasonable pitch here to All Might

also this is a pretty spectacular view. is this a hospital or a hotel??

AHLKJLKJLKJ ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO TELL THEM

OH MY GOD HE IS?!?!

JUST LIKE WE ALL EXPECTED, THE NEXT TWO PEOPLE TO LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT OFA ARE GOING TO BE HAWKS, AND BEST FUCKING JEANIST

-- LFKLKKLDK ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS. ARE YOU --

( •̀_•́ )

[sitting cross-legged on the ground pulling up little clumps of grass and letting them fall from my fingers one by one] yeah. sure. okay. fine. sure

-- OKAY, NO. NUH-UH. NO

everybody better hold tight cuz I’m about to pick up this whole chapter and yeet it into the ocean like a fucking frisbee lol

HORIKOSHI I DON’T CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE SITTING HERE WATCHING TV WTF

-- OH

well okay then. proceed. though lord help me if they’re about to reveal the secret of OFA to the whole fucking world skdkj

oh snap

well, there it is. pretty much what I expected, but it’s good to actually get to see this moment with him taking responsibility

though at the same time, thank you Horikoshi for not forcing us to sit through the rest of that

their fucking faces omg. okay but seriously, what nation doesn’t secretly love a good scandal

the Endeavor Pamphlets, part two. thank you for giving the country something to opine about on twitter in these trying times, Enji

so now they’re asking about Hawks and Jeanist but I cannot even focus on anything all of a sudden because what?!

is Jeanist even a real actual human being you guys?! are we sure he’s not three kids sitting on each other’s shoulders?? are you related to that one guy with the really long neck from the Jedi Council?? are you Orochimaru, bro??

so now Hawks is apologizing for the murder of Twice, and for hiding the connection with his dad

the fact that he has to give this serious formal apology and beg forgiveness for the shameful crime of Having An Abusive Father is really something else, though. just. it’s realistic, but I still hate it

moving on now to the one thing he actually does owe the public an explanation for

not to go all “Hawks did nothing wrong” on you guys yet again, but seriously. 100% facts. fandom can (and no doubt will) debate this until the end of time, but if Twice had gotten away they wouldn’t be having this press conference right now because there wouldn’t be any heroes left to give one. anyways though, I’ve already said more than enough about that in previous posts

so now some severe-looking lady with the weirdest fingers I’ve ever seen is saying that her mother was injured during Machia’s rampage

and she’s basically all “a fuck lot of good ‘I’m sorry’ does us all about now.” true true

wow she’s really getting fired up

and now Enji is basically saying that he understands that an apology isn’t enough, and what they really need now are solutions. okay, well! SO THEN WHAT IS THE PLAN THEN

hmmfsdgh

this eloquent PEZ dispenser makes a good point you guys

wait, hold up

CERTAIN citizens?? um excuse me, what??

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit

holy shit. well, this will go over well

okay! so this tells me a number of things, though

basically the minute that Hawks learned about One for All, he realized that anyone connected to Deku (e.g. Inko) would be a target for AFO. AFO wants OFA, meaning AFO wants Deku, and one of the easiest ways to get to Deku would be to target his family

Hawks therefore realized that Inko needed to be placed into protective custody

but the fact that ALL of the hero course students’ families (and is it only the U.A. hero course, or all of the hero course students across the country?) are being given protection tells me that Hawks and co. don’t want to single Deku out as being important. so then it looks like they’re not going to tell everyone about OFA (or at least not the public. which, good). so rather than drawing suspicion by saying “we’ve got to protect everyone connected with this one kid”, they’re making it seem like all the U.A. kids’ families are getting this treatment

but since the heroes are now spread so thin, they can’t just send a protective detail to each and every family, so they’re bringing all of the families to the same place instead to better keep an eye on them

so that’s all well and good, and a very smart move. except that idk how all of this is going to go over with the general public, all of whom are probably feeling unsafe at the moment, and who will probably see this as preferential treatment -- basically just the heroes looking after their own and leaving everyone else to fend for themselves

(ETA: okay so @hanashimas​’ translation clarifies that U.A. is offering their services as an evacuation shelter for everyone who wants it, not just the families of the U.A. students. that’s much more appropriate so I withdraw my previous “wtf” reaction lol.)

anyway though here’s Mitsuki and Inko

can we take this as confirmation that the two of them really are friends? that’s one piece of fanon that I’ve always hoped was true, so I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s confirmed

(ETA: also this means that Hagakure’s parents (or maybe “parents” in quotation marks) will supposedly be moving in as well. sure am curious as to how that’s going to go.)

now someone in the press crowd is asking whether U.A. can provide adequate security, which is honestly the LAST thing I expected these people would be outraged about lol. shows what I know I guess

(ETA: again though, this makes sense if the “certain civilians” thing was just a translation error.)

LMAO DAMMIT ENJI

YOU CAN’T JUST ALWAYS PULL THE “JUST WATCH ME” TRICK AND EXPECT IT TO SHUT DOWN THE CONVERSATION EVERY DAMN TIME YOU ASSHOLE

-- OH MY GOD RED ALERT

TIME TO ANALYZE THIS BECAUSE OMG

WASH CAN’T BELIEVE HIS FAMILY GROUP CHAT IS STILL SENDING HIM FUCKING MEMES AT A TIME LIKE THIS. HE DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK IF THE DABI DANCE IS TRENDING ON TIKTOK, MOM!!

FOR A MINUTE I THOUGHT MT. LADY WAS HOLDING MIDNIGHT’S TORN-UP MASK, AND BY THE TIME I REALIZED THAT’S ACTUALLY HER MASK AND NOT MIDNIGHT’S, I HAD ALREADY CONSTRUCTED AN ELABORATE HEADCANON IN WHICH MT. LADY AND MIDNIGHT WERE SECRETLY DATING BUT HADN’T COME OUT TO ANYONE YET, AND THEN TRAGEDY STRUCK, AND NOW MT. LADY IS GETTING READY TO SET OUT TO SEEK VENGEANCE. AND WELL, NOW THAT THIS HEADCANON EXISTS IN THE WORLD, I’M NOT SURE IF I’M READY TO GET RID OF IT

MIRKO HAS GOTTEN HERSELF A PROSTHETIC (ROBOT??!) ARM, NOTHING ELSE THAT’S HAPPENING IN THIS CHAPTER IS EVEN SLIGHTLY IMPORTANT!!! HELLO!!!!!

AIZAWA WITH THE EYEPATCH GOOD LORD. THE WORLD ISN’T READY. HE LOOKS LIKE HE HASN’T SLEPT IN NINETY-EIGHT YEARS, BUT SOMEHOW HE MAKES IT INTO THE HOTTEST THING EVER AS PER USUAL

WHO THE FUCK IS THIS FUCKING GUY. ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HIM? IS THIS KAMUI?? WAS THAT THING WHICH I ALWAYS ASSUMED WAS HIS HAIR ACTUALLY A HELMET OR SOMETHING WHAT

LOL AND MEANWHILE

you tell me, Dabi! weren’t you the one who said that wouldn’t be enough to kill him? what even is your endgame here. I’m starting to worry about the villain brain cell supply you guys. I feel like Compress took most of them with him when he left

OH??

“when asked about One for All, Endeavor fucking lied through his teeth.” well, well, well

SLKDFJLSKGDJLKLKGJL THE DORMS

( ⁰ ⌂ ⁰ )

SLDKJFLKJWLKJLK

WLKDJSLKJFWKELKSDJLKHGLK

HDSMFLKGKL:GDSELK

OCHAKO’S HAND IS SHAKING OH MY GOD

THERE’S YOUR KAMINARI, EVERYONE!!

RHA’S SCANLATION TEAM REALLY THREW DEKU’S HANDWRITING UNDER THE BUS HERE HUH

HE TOLD EVERYONE!?

WHY THE FUCK IS HE WRITING IT AS A LETTER

(ETA: 9. also if he really wrote every kid in his class then that means the U.A. traitor -- or Hagakure as we like to call her around these parts -- also knows about OFA, and knows that Deku has run the fuck off and isn’t at U.A. anymore. so that’s just great!)

OH HELL NO

the hell does that mean, you must leave. leave to go where. son you are not up and leaving to go power up and lead us all into a timeskip. and I swear to GOD, if you left Kacchan too...!!

MY GOD I CAN’T PROPERLY ABSORB ALL OF THESE OCHAKO FEELS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I’M TOO TERRIFIED TO SCROLL TO THE LAST FUCKING PAGE, FUCK

I JUST GOTTA DO IT. I JUST GOTTA SUCK IT UP AND DO IT. FUCK

FUCK

WHAT. THE. FUCK

y’all I’m not even gonna waste your time with more keysmashing, JUST ASSUME THAT I AM DOING IT NONSTOP, FOREVER. and let’s just jump RIGHT IN HERE

okay so here I thought that All Might and co. had taken him away somewhere to train, but that is CLEARLY not what’s going on here. this kid is standing here in his Apocalypse Aesthetic hero costume which has CLEARLY seen better days, with Gran Torino’s cloak (GUESS THAT EXPLAINS THAT, THEN?? SO DID GRAN FUCKING DIE EXCUSE ME WTF), and a fucking backpack. this little green idiot has RUN AWAY FROM HOME. this is the absolute LAST THING ON EARTH I ever expected to happen so PARDON ME WHILE I SCREAM CONFUSEDLY INTO THE VOID

he does not look okay. you guys he doesn’t look okay at ALL. he has NEVER looked like this. this isn’t just a “I’m sad because I’m leaving all my friends behind” kind of look on his face, or even just a “Gran Torino died maybe and I’m still having emotions over it” look. this is an EXHAUSTED, dead look in his eyes. something terrible has happened

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ARMS DEKU. THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING DOWN WITH YOUR ARMS GODDAMMIT

love how this random building is just straight up collapsing, like that’s just a normal thing that happens every day now. lovely

APRIL MEANS IT’S NOW FULL ON SCHEDULED ALL-MIGHT-DYING-HOURS, BUT LET’S COMPLETELY IGNORE THAT THOUGH BECAUSE FUCK THAT NOISE

“THE SECOND USER? WHO KNOWS? CERTAINLY NOT ME” HORIKOSHI I SWEAR TO GOD

“BAKUGOU? NEVER HEARD OF HIM!” HORIKOSHI PLEASE

WHERE. IS. KACCHAN

did he go with Deku?? did he get a chance to talk to him before he left?? did he get his own private letter which he read and then promptly blew up in a fit of panicked rage?? is he going to go after him?? DOES HORIKOSHI KNOW WHAT HE’S DOING TO ME RIGHT NOW?? OF COURSE HE DOES, DON’T BOTHER ANSWERING THAT

omg. though actually the fact that we’ve already jumped a few weeks forward makes me hopeful that there won’t actually be another timeskip, or at least not much of one. I’m sure that’ll be the big debate of the week, but I don’t think we can jump too far forward here. for starters because of that All Might prophecy I mentioned. and also because TomurAFO isn’t just going to wait around for months. and also because I’m 100% sure that Deku’s running-away backpack is just filled ENTIRELY WITH NOTEBOOKS and this asshole cannot possibly survive more than 3 days on his own. UNLESS SOMEONE COMES TO HELP HIM THAT IS. OR SOMEONES, EVEN. OMG. omg omg omg. fuck this chapter lmao

[gotmilk5101520]

Trollhunters Book (2015) the weird book that would be the start of Tales of Arcadia

Trollhunters book. Read it and... what was all that?

Some spoilers below the cut.

So many things were different from the series we know and watch. It has a lot of horror and it was suppose to be a live action series adaptation of the book (Hey, Hollywood, if you want to do a live action remake of Trollhunters then just base it on the book. We already have the cartoon don’t want you ruining it like Rise of the Titans did) There were a lot of differences from the show i know, but it also had somethings that would be told differently from the book.

Instead of his mom, Jim lives with his dad James “Jim” Sturges Sr (And Jim’s last name isn’t Lake but Sturges which is actually important) who is a paranoid and traumatized man after losing his brother Jack Sturges in 1969 under a bridge and seeing some monster. Oh, and everyone lives in San Bernardino not Arcadia Oaks (So i guess it’s Trollhunters: Tales of San Bernardino?) And Barbara was the one that walked out (The book never gave Jim’s mom a name, but going with the series i chose to still call her Barbara) Oh, and Jim’s dad invented the Excalibur Calculator Pocket (Jim wielding Excalibur was foreshadowed as far as the book)

Jim is short. Like really short. Claire is taller than him (Okay am i the only bugged by that? Why didn’t the series let Claire be taller than Jim? Where are the aus where Claire is taller than Jim?) Tobias is called Tubby or Tub not Toby, and he’s Jewish, and he still lives with his grandma (The book doesn’t call her Nana) Claire is Scottish, apparently her birthday is May 2nd which is a day after Jim’s (Which is May 1st, but the series changed his birthday to October 10th) and her baby brother Enrique doesn’t exist in the book.

Steve is still Steve just more brutal and can get away with everything, his last name is Jorgensen-Warner, and is a Changeling (Though the show was going to make Steve a Changeling like in the book. But they changed their minds, as shown in episode 7 To Catch a Changeling, and his troll form was reworked into Draal. Now i have to wonder if Changeling Steve would’ve been better than what happened to him in the movie)

Blinky is an octopus like troll, with eight eyes (Four of them are blind) Aaarrrgghh is a female here with black fur. Gunmar the Black is red even though they call him the Black (I guess Gunmar the Red didn’t sound good) And the history of trolls is very different from the show. Also Killahead Bridge is called Killaheed Bridge.

The school actually has more teachers than the three in the show (Coach Lawrence still exists in the book) There is: Principal Cole, Miss Pinkton the math teacher, Miss Leach the drama teacher (Miss Leach probably later became Miss Janeth in the show) Senor Uhl doesn’t exist in the book. There are other characters like Professor Lempke (Someone i’m gonna talk more about later) Tubby’s dentist is named Dr. Papadapolous and not Dr. Muelas (Or as i like to call him. Guillermo Del Toro the Dentist) Sergeant Ben Gulager (Probably later became Officer Brennan)

There are different types of trolls like Nullhullers, who can vomit out all of their organs save their hearts to become faster. If i had to learn about this, you should suffer too. But i won’t say how Changelings replace their baby counterparts. It’s something you have to read yourself but it’s really really disturbing.

The Amulet of Daylight isn’t called that, and the Amulet is a Medallion that translates troll (So it doesn’t give you a suit of armor, or gives you a sword to fight trolls) The Trollhunters are different too. It’s the Amulet of Daylight that picks a troll to become the Trollhunter, with Jim being the first human Trollhunter. That is not the case here in the book. The Trollhunters were always humans and they fought the trolls that kept eating them. The Sturges are one of the family of Trollhunters, and towards the end of the book it’s revealed Claire is one too. And Merlin and Morgana have nothing to do with the book.

Jack Sturges was an interesting character to me and it makes me mad that he was one of the characters that wasn’t in the show. Hey i’m just saying, they could’ve made him be Barbara’s missing old brother if they didn’t want James in the series.

There were moments from characters that i always found strange and surprised the book didn’t confirm that.

Starting with Steve not Palchuk but instead Jorgensen-Warner. Now the book reveals he’s a Changeling cause Tub touched him with a horseshoe and Claire kills him. Some of Jim’s classmates would be among the kids that begins to disappear. And then later Claire gets taken as well. The book never confirms or denies it, but i believe Steve was the reason Claire and some of his classmates were taken. I say this cause when Claire tells Steve off (Which by the way was an awesome scene and i think she also Rule Number 3 him) and he walks away angry and then later she gets kidnapped. I found that weird and too convenient. And now that i’m thinking about it. Steve was bullying Jim and Tub before Claire tells him off. Thinking about it i think if Claire didn’t interfered then Steve would’ve picked Jim and/or Tub to get eaten by Gunmar. But that’s just my headcanon.

Another character i want to talk about is Professor Lempke, who i feel was split into two characters in the show, Strickler and Nomura. Lempke is an arrogant man who is also working to restore the Killaheed Bridge. Doesn’t that familiar? The book never confirms it, but it’s possible that Lempke was a Changeling too and was restoring Killaheed for Gunmar. Why else would he talk about how great the bridge is and went through all the trouble to get it to San Bernardino? And when Gunmar was freed and fighting, Lempke, as Jim said, was overjoyed at the battle and then after the battle Lempke disappeared. That last one honestly seemed like a sequel hook.

Given how somethings were i feel like, if Tales of Arcadia didn’t happen, then the book would’ve become a series. Trollhunters was from Jim’s point of view, and i feel like if we got the book series instead of the cartoon, then there could’ve been spin off books sequels and prequel. Maybe Trollhunters spin offs one from Tub’s point of view and one from Claire’s point of view, Trollhunters prequel on Jack when he was taken, Trollhunters sequels that may had them dealing with Lempke and possible other enemies and finding other Trollhunters. Who knows.

But all and all. The book was a good read and it really shows what would influence the show. Truth by told reading the book made me lose my appetite for a while.

[tw-anchor]

33. Olivia and Lydia vs. The Darach

Anchor

Stiles Stilinski x Original Character

Episode: 3x09; The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Word Count: 7,103

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence + gore, attempted murder of main character, kidnapping, sacrifices

Author’s Note: Sorry for not updating in a while. My Gram is in hospice and I haven’t been into writing. I hope you enjoy the chapter! Please make sure to reblog, like, and let me know what you think!

Masterlink in Pinned Post!

Olivia had only been to Peter's apartment downtown once before, and that was to bring over a polite welcome-home casserole that he probably didn't eat. Now, she had business to attend to. She had questions for Peter. Questions about herself and Lydia.

Only a half-hour before she made her way downtown to talk to Peter, she left Lydia in her bedroom after a couple of bad hours. Lydia and Olivia had been going out for ice cream with Allison before they went back to their house for a girls' night, when Lydia drove them to the school. Not only had Lydia been drawn to the area—just like she had the night she found the body at the pool—but Olivia, herself, had felt the same thing as Lydia.

She just didn't know if it was because she and Lydia shared abilities or because she was so connected to Lydia due to their shared DNA or relationship. Her only option for answers was to go to her father.

"All right, tell me again what happened," Peter blinked the sleep out of his eyes; it was around one in the morning when Olivia knocked on his door and woke him from a deep sleep.

"Lydia found another dead body," Olivia repeated herself. "What ever your bite did to her, it led her to the body and I felt it to. Now, I know you bit Lydia for a reason. That's why she was able to bring you back with that ritual. I want to know what she is and how it's affecting me."

Peter sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead, exhausted. "Okay."

"I want the truth," she said firmly before he could begin. "No changing the story this time."

"All right, fine," he agreed. "To start off, you have to know what your mother was. Grace was eighteen when she inherited her abilities. She was a banshee."

"A banshee," Olivia repeated in slight belief; she hadn't known that banshees were a real thing. They weren't even in the Argent bestiary.

"A wailing woman, harbinger of death, same thing. They're not really like the Irish myths. They don't attach themselves to a family line, and their echoes don't cause death, either" he informed her. "Only females can be banshees and their abilities are inherited from their bloodline."

Olivia knew what he was getting at. "So, Mom got her banshee abilities from Nana Lorraine and because Uncle Thomas is a male, he passed it down to Lydia."

Peter nodded. "Exactly. The only reason you're not a banshee is because the werewolf genes you got from me. Anchorams are rare, very rare, but there have been two recorded instances before."

"As results of a banshee and werewolf union," Olivia assumed.

"Yes. You're neither werewolf nor banshee, but instead you have some abilities of both," he crossed his arms over his chest. "Instead of predicting just anyone's death, you're connected to your pack—that's the werewolf part of you. That's why you knew Boyd was going to die."

Okay, that made sense. It also explained the screams that came out of her when her pack members were in deep trouble, like when Erica had her seizure from the kanima venom or when Mrs. Argent was trying to kill Scott. It was the banshee side of her.

"So, that's how I'm connected to Lydia."

"Banshees are drawn to each other. And you're related to Lydia, which gives you two a deeper connection. On your own, you wouldn't have felt the dead body tonight, but because you were with Lydia, you did."

"But I can hear her scream even if I'm far away," Olivia pointed out. "That night when Boyd and Cora were out of control, I could hear her scream from the public pool. I screamed with her."

"It might have been because it was the first time her powers really came through," Peter said thoughtfully. "I mean, other than the time when I got into her head."

Olivia narrowed her eyes at him, wishing he hadn't brought that up. It still infuriated her that he took advantage of Lydia when she was in such a delicate place.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Sorry," he apologized without meaning it. "Everyone is different, though, and since you're, what, the third Anchoram in history, some things we're gonna have to figure out as we go."

Olivia nodded. She realized that. It was just hard to comprehend. She hadn't even gotten to the bottom of her collection of abilities, and already she had a lot. It was a little daunting to know that she had more to learn to learn about her abilities, along with honing them.

"Okay," she said finally. "Can you tell me more about banshees?"

"Sure thing, sweet pea."

"So, I can find dead bodies," Lydia scoffed as Olivia pulled into the school's parking lot. "You know what, I can already tell that this banshee thing is gonna be a pain in the ass."

"You can do more than that, though," Olivia reminded her while parking next to Stiles' Jeep; it was empty, but she knew—thanks to his text message—that he was going to eavesdrop on his dad, who was supposed to be talking to the principal before school started. "You'll experience something like me, like the whispers or the warnings in your head."

"Yeah, and you handle those so well," Lydia grumbled.

"I know I don't, but they also help," Olivia stated firmly. "I know when my pack is in danger and it helps because most of the time, I have a warning and we can stop whatever is supposed to happen. You'll know if someone's dying, Lyds. What if you're able to stop it?"

They got out of the Olivia's new car—courtesy of the insurance company and Peter, who wanted to spoil her instead of being a good parent—and started making their way up to the school. Olivia was supposed to meet Stiles by the main office but she wanted to make sure Lydia was okay before she left her.

"I guess you have a point," Lydia conceded finally. "It's just a little..."

"Scary?" Olivia offered; Lydia nodded. "I know. But I'm gonna be there for you, Lydia, I swear. You don't have to go through any of this alone."

Lydia sighed and pulled Olivia into a tight hug. "I love you," she rubbed Olivia's back; Olivia awkwardly patted her back, making Lydia laugh. "I know, I know. No PDA."

"It's okay," Olivia assured her as they parted. "I love you too, by the way."

"I know you do," the corners of Lydia's eyes crinkled as she studied her cousin and the awkward face she was making. "You know, the fact that you can only be lovey-dovey with Stiles is really disappointing."

"That's not true," Olivia said adamantly. "I'm lovey-dovey with you, too. I just don't like showing my affection for people out in public."

"It's the Hale in you," Lydia shook her head with a smile. "All right, you're released. Go on and meet Stiles."

"Thanks," hurriedly, Olivia kissed Lydia's cheek and ran away from her, waving teasingly. "Love you!"

She knew that her show of her love would amuse Lydia. It was the only reason why she did that. She had to make an exception for her person.

Outside of the main office, Stiles hid behind a pillar. His eyes were sharp and his ears were perked as he spied on his father, one of his deputies, and the principal. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear much. In fact, the only thing he did hear was Noah excusing himself from the conversation when he locked eyes with Stiles.

"Hey!" Stiles frantically pulled his backpack up over his head as he rushed to get away from his dad; unfortunately, Noah was pretty quick for a man in his forties. "Hey, hey, hey, back it up," he sighed and turned to face his father. "I know what you're thinking. I know you've got all these ideas about patterns and people dying in threes—"

Stiles cut him off. "Dad, they were murdered," he then corrected himself. "Sacrificed, actually."

"I've got half the state, including the FBI coming in on this," Noah told him. "They're not getting away with killing one of our own."

Stiles almost deflated at his father's words. Up until then, he hadn't thought about just who was sacrificed. It was Deputy Tara. She had been Noah's right-hand woman ever since he was elected to be sheriff, and she was a big part of Stiles' life after his mom died. She used to bake him cookies and helped him with his homework when he was having trouble. She was a good woman.

"Dad, they killed Tara," his voice was shakier than he cared to admit. "You know, how many times did she help me with my math homework when I had to wait at the station for you?"

Noah inhaled deeply and Stiles could see the sadness in his eyes. "Just, uh, get to class, okay?" he nodded behind Stiles and greeted Olivia, who Stiles hadn't even noticed had walked over to them. "Hi, Olivia."

"Hi, Sheriff," Olivia waved at him politely.

Noah went back to his conversation with the deputy and the principal, leaving Stiles and Olivia to themselves.

Olivia gave him a sympathetic look. "How are you feeling?"

"Not the greatest, but I'll live," Stiles took her hand and locked their fingers together.

"Well, if you need to talk, I'm here," she promised him, letting go of his hand and ignoring the pout he sent her to wrap her arm around his waist.

"What happened to no public displays of affection?"

"I'll think I'll make an exception for just today."

"Just today?" Stiles stopped walking and when she tilted her head up to look at him, grinned down at her.

"Just today."

"Well, then I better make the most of it," he remarked before ducking his head and slamming his lips to hers in a passionate kiss. She easily returned his affection but when he attempted to slip his tongue into her mouth, she pulled back. "Sorry, too much."

"A little," Olivia laughed. "Come on, we have English and I don't want Ms. Blake to tell on me to Derek."

"Would she really do that?"

"God, I hope not."

-

"Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes; all tools the writer uses to tell their story," Ms. Blake stated as she walked around the classroom. She paused in between Olivia and Lydia's desks, glancing down at Lydia's drawing of a tree. "Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents."

"You and ever guy I've ever dated," Lydia smirked up at her, causing Olivia to snicker.

"Oh," Ms. Blake was surprised by her reply. "um, well, that was an idiom, by the way. Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture..."

Olivia did not like the meaningful look that Ms. Blake gave her, Stiles, Scott, and Lydia. They all knew that she knew about werewolves—she was there when Boyd died, after all—but they didn't need her to act like an amateur and blow the big secret by acting nervous.

"They're phrases that only make sense if you know key words," she continued. "Saying 'jump the gun' is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race, or a phrase like 'seeing the whole board.'"

"Like chess," Stiles offered.

"That's right, Stiles," Ms. Blake smiled down at him. "Do you play?"

"Uh, no," Stiles shook his head. "My father does."

Ms. Blake smiled at him again and faced the rest of the class. "Now, when does an idiom become a cliché?"

Olivia raised her hand to answer and Ms. Blake gave her the go-ahead.

"When you say the idiom too much," she reported. "It's like saying, 'it's raining cats and dogs,' Eventually it'll catch and more people will say it. It's an overused idiom."

"Great answer, Olivia," Ms. Blake grinned at her and then went on with her lesson.

Once Ms. Blake was far enough away that they could whisper to each other, Scott leaned over in his seat to speak to Stiles and Olivia. "I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

Olivia scowled at the mention of one-half of the alpha twins while Stiles asked, "What do you want to do that for?"

"The druids are emissaries, right?" Scott pointed out. "What if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?"

Olivia pressed her lips together in agreement. "You've got a point."

"Thank you," Scott grinned at her and then turned to Stiles to wait for his response. "So?"

"So, I can't believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like 'what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?' actually makes sense to me," Stiles huffed. "Second of all, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"What's that?"

"Going through Aiden," Stiles stated matter-of-factly. "Ever since he's been back at school, they're always together. How are we gonna separate them again?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Olivia tried to think of something that would distract Aiden. She didn't like the guy whatsoever, so the only thing she knew about him was that he liked to hook up with Lydia in Coach's office.

Wait.

"I have an idea," she spoke up. When the boys looked at her curiously, she nodded toward Lydia, who was still concentrating on her spooky drawing of the tree.

Feeling eyes on her, Lydia looked up at them and sighed, "What now?"

-

Just staring at Ethan's face made Olivia want to slap the shit out of him. Normally, she would think that she'd be somewhat friends with Ethan. But with the situation they were in now, she doubted that she would ever want to be. She didn't see what happened with Boyd, but Isaac had given her some details. She knew that Ethan and Aiden had picked up Boyd's electrocuted body and dropped him onto Derek's claws. She knew that they watched as Derek's claws ripped up his internal organs, and she knew that they walked away without a care that they had left a teenage boy dead behind them.

However, at least she wasn't joining Stiles and Scott in order to talk to Aiden. She didn't know if she could even look at his stupid smug face without attacking him. She didn't even care if he was ten times stronger than her. Ideally, she'd be able to calm his ass down and then Stiles or Allison could get the drop on him. Lord knows that Scott wouldn't.

"Why are you even talking to me?" Ethan asked, his eyes flitting between the three of them. "I helped kill your friend. How do you know I'm not gonna kill another one?"

Olivia gritted her teeth at his words and when he looked at her toward the end of his question, she stiffened. Stiles did, too. In fact, his temper flared at the way the alpha talked about Boyd and how he had the audacity to look at Olivia, like she hadn't been affected by Boyd's death.

"Are you look at her? Are you threatening her?" he snapped at him, standing up straight and stepping closer to Olivia. "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to break off an extra-large branch of mountain ash, wrap it in wolfsbane, roll it in mistletoe, and shove it up your fucking ass, you absolute dick—"

"Okay, Stiles," Scott cut him off nervously, while Olivia gently grabbed his arm and reached through their tether to calm him down. She loved that he was willing to stand up to an alpha to protect her, but she didn't want him to get hurt. "Woah, we get it."

Stiles gave Scott an irritated look and wrapped his arm around Olivia's shoulders, exhaling deeply as his anger started to concede.

"Look," Scott looked back at Ethan, who had been staring at Stiles blankly throughout his whole rant. "We're talking to you because I know that you didn't want to kill Boyd. And I think that if something like that happened now, you wouldn't do it again."

Ethan shook his head shortly. "You don't know what we owe them, especially Deucalion," he told the three of them. "We're weren't like Kali and Ennis when we met him. We weren't alphas."

"What were you?" Scott asked.

"Omegas," Olivia frowned at Ethan's answer; he and Aiden really didn't deserve any sympathy but she was going soft and couldn't help but feel a bud of it. Being the type of omega that had a pack—not ones who chose to be by themselves, like Derek had been—was said to be horrible. "In actual wolf packs, omegas are the scapegoat; the last to eat, the one who has to take the abuse from the rest of the pack."

Stiles raised his eyebrows. "So you and your brother were, like, the bitches of the pack?"

Olivia hid the smirk that threatened to spread her lips and nudged Stiles as Ethan gave him an annoyed look. "Something like that."

"What happened?" she spoke up instead, wanting to know how he and Aiden managed to make it into the alpha pack.

"They were killers," Ethan shook his head in disgust, which Olivia found to be ironic. "I mean, people talk about us as monsters. Well, they were the ones who gave us the reputation. And our alpha was the worst of them."

"Why didn't you guys just fight back?" Stiles brought up a good point. "Form Voltron-Wolf, you know, and kick everyone's asses?"

"We couldn't," Ethan stated flatly. "We didn't know how to control it back then."

"Deucalion taught you," Scott realized.

Ethan nodded. "And then, we fought. We took down the whole pack, one-by-one," his voice got a little vicious. "and by the time we got to our alpha, he was begging for his life. We tore him apart, literally."

"What about your emissary?" Ethan shook his head at Scott's question. "They're all dead? Kali and Ennis' too?"

"All of them except for Deucalion's," he confirmed.

"You mean Ms. Morrell?" Olivia gave him a pointed look and then paused as her mind seemed to leave her body and then zap right back into it. "Oh, my God."

Cora...Cora...Cora...

"Livvy, are you okay?" Stiles asked as Ethan grunted in pain.

"What's going on?" Scott asked both of them.

"My brother's hurt," Ethan answered at the same time as Olivia told Stiles, "Something's wrong with Cora."

It didn't take long for Stiles to put the pieces together; Cora and Aiden were obviously fighting somewhere nearby. "Where are they?" he asked as her eyes flashed back in forth between purple and blue. "Babe, you gotta focus."

"I...I," she stammered before she was able to pass through into Cora's tether and find out where she was. "They're in the boys' locker room."

The four of them took off into the empty hallways, trying to get to the boys' locker room before any more damage was done between Cora and Aiden. Luckily they weren't far from Coach's office and they made it to the locker room just in time to see Aiden whip Cora in the head with a fifty-pound weight.

"Stop, stop!" Olivia shouted as Scott and Ethan took a hold of Aiden on each of his arms. She didn't bother visualizing the anchor that she put on him, she was too angry about him hurting her cousin that it came easy to her.

Aiden's wolf features immediately melted away, calming down in his brother's hold.

"You can't do this," Ethan reminded Aiden as Olivia and Stiles knelt down by Lydia beside Cora's injured body.

"She came at me!" Aiden shouted. He would have growled, but Olivia's hold was still over him.

"It doesn't matter! Kali gave Derek until the next full moon. You can't touch him, Cora, or Olivia."

Stiles placed his hand on Olivia's back and glared up at the alpha twins. "Get the fuck out of here."

It looked like Aiden wanted to argue but Ethan wouldn't let him. Without a word, the twins left the locker room. Olivia hardly noticed, she was too focused on her cousin and the huge wound on her head that was pouring blood.

"She's really hurt," she said softly. She looked at Stiles and Scott and asked, "Can you help me get her up?"

Once Cora was up on her feet, Olivia escorted her over to the sinks. She got some paper towel and dampened it in order to wipe the blood off of her face. Cora was not pleased with her cousin's hovering and grunted a few times when Olivia cleaned the wound.

"Stay still," Olivia got some antibiotic cream from her bag and gently smeared it over the wound. "You're such a bad patient."

"Shuddup."

"Are you okay?" Scott asked Cora.

Lydia scoffed. "She doesn't look okay."'

Cora gave Lydia an irritated look and carefully pushed Olivia away from her. "I'll heal," Almost immediately after she took a step away from the sink, her legs weakened and she faltered. She would have fallen if Scott wasn't there to grab her and keep her steady. "I said I'm fine."

"Stop being so stubborn," Olivia sighed and wrapped an arm around her waist. At least Cora would let her help.

"Do you realize how suicidally crazy that was?" Stiles pointed out sternly. "What were you thinking going after them?"

"I did it for Boyd," Cora snapped back at him. "None of you were doing anything."

Olivia sighed. "You know that's not true, Cora."

"We're trying," Scott added.

"And you're failing," Cora addressed all her ire at Scott, Stiles, and Lydia. "You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around, thinking that you can stop people from getting killed, but all you do is show up late. All you really do is find the bodies."

"Cora, shut up," Olivia's voice had hardened as she turned and carefully dragged her cousin out of the locker room, not hearing Stiles' comment about the both of them definitely being part of the Hale family. "I know you're grieving and you're angry and hurt, but you can't say things like that to them."

"Why not? It's the truth."

"You shouldn't say it because we're trying our hardest to figure this out," Olivia stated, annoyed. "And I get it, I can feel Boyd's loss, too, but you can't take it out on people who are doing their best to help you and the whole town."

Cora let out a drawn-out sigh and winced when a flash of pain went through her head. "I'm not apologizing," she said stubbornly.

"That's fine. Just give them some slack."

"Hey!" they heard Stiles call from behind them; he was soon at their sides. "Do you need a ride?"

"Um, yeah," Olivia nodded. "I can leave my car here and pick it up later tonight."

"Sounds good."

Halfway to their journey to Derek's loft and after three attempts to make contact with Derek, Allison called them. She informed them that she and Isaac had been searching her dad's desk and found a Celtic knot that was labeled with each group of the sacrifices. She listed the groups of sacrifices that had already happened and then the two that had yet to come.

"Philosophers?" Olivia asked in surprised. What exactly did that mean? There were a lot of occupations or people that could easily fit into that category. It would be someone like Plato, or a teacher, or a scientist, or even a really smart person. But, at the same time, how did Deputy Tara fit in that category?

"And guardians," Allison added; that made more sense in Tara's case since she was a police officer. "which after last night, has to mean something like law enforcement. Stiles, you have to tell your dad. Tell him whatever you need but you have to get him to believe. Tell your dad, warn him."

"Okay, okay, okay," Stiles said quickly, his mind racing a mile a minute. "I know."

Olivia ended the call and looked at her boyfriend, seeing the anxious look on his face. "You're gonna tell him right?"

"I have to," Stiles nodded. "but I'm gonna need both of your guys' help."

Olivia nodded and took his hand from the steering wheel, squeezing it tightly. "Whatever you need."

-

Olivia watched from Stiles' bed as her boyfriend paced back and forth, trying to come up with something to tell his dad. Personally, she had never gone through telling a parent about the supernatural world and because she was pretty sure that Natalie had some sort of knowledge about it—and she was in deep, deep denial that Olivia and Lydia were a part of it—she wouldn't really need to. She couldn't put herself in Stiles' shoes properly and it annoyed the crap out of her because she wanted to be there for him like he was always there for her.

"Okay, okay, okay," Stiles murmured under his breath. "Yes, okay...No, no..."

"Stiles?" Noah cleared his throat.

Stiles quickly faced his dad. "Dad, I'm sorry. I'm just...I'm trying to...I'm just trying to figure out how to start here."

"Hey," Noah said sternly. 'I don't have this kind of time."

Stiles blew out a heavy breath, causing Olivia to speak up encouragingly, "Stiles, just start with the cases."

"Right, right, the cases," Stiles nodded jerkily and looked back at Noah. "Okay, um, for the last year, you've had all these cases that you couldn't figure out, right? I mean, all the murders involving Kate Argent, and then Matt killing all the people who drowned him, and all these murders right now. It's like...it's like you've been playing a losing game."

Noah stared at him, unimpressed. It was clear that he didn't know why Stiles was going through his "failed" cases. "Stiles, the last thing I need right now is a job performance review from my own son."

Stiles rubbed his forehead in frustration. "I know," he looked over at his dresser in order to pull his thoughts together and spotted the chess board he and his dad would play with from time to time. "Okay, see, but that's—that's just it, Dad."

He hurried to his dresser and grabbed the chess board, which folded into a case to keep all of the pieces together, and then set it on his desk. "The reason that you're losing the game is cause you've never been able to see the whole board," he opened the game and tossed out all the pieces. "I need to show you the whole board."

While Stiles carefully labeled each and every chess piece with sticky tabs, Olivia let Cora lean against her. She made sure that she didn't fall asleep, but soon she was swept up into an episode. She could hear Lydia screaming and it took all of her control—and biting down on the inside of her cheek—to make sure she didn't scream too (she didn't realize that it would have helped Stiles convince his dad that the supernatural life was real until afterward).

Noah did not look over at her—and therefore, did not see her purple eyes—because he was too concentrated on watching Stiles label and explain each supernatural creature and the names of his friends that matched up with them. By the time Olivia was pulled away from Lydia's tether and back in control of her mind, Noah was sufficiently caught up.

Well, kind of.

"Scott and Derek are werewolves," he said flatly, looking across the desk at Stiles.

"Yes."

"And Kate Argent was a werewolf?"

"Hunter," Stiles corrected him, pointing to the piece where he labeled Kate with a purple tab. "That's...Purple stands for hunter."

"Allison and her dad are hunters, too," Olivia told him, leaving out the part where they were supposed to be retired. If Mr. Argent and Allison were retired, then normal grandparents would be working overtime.

"Yeah," Noah gestured to Dr. Deaton's piece. "and my friend, Deaton, the veterinarian, is a kanima?"

"No, no, he's a druid, okay?" Stiles stated. "Well, we think."

Olivia and Cora exchanged a look. They didn't really think that Dr. Deaton was a druid, they were 99.9% positive that he was one. Then again, Olivia could see why Stiles said what he said, Noah could only handle so much.

"So, who's the kanima?"

"Jackson," Olivia responded, thinking of her friend; she missed him.

"No, Jackson's a werewolf."

"Jackson was the kanima first, and then Peter and Derek killed him and he came back to life as a werewolf," Stiles explained. "Now, he's in London."

Noah frowned. "Who's the da-rack?"

Stiles corrected his pronunciation. "It's da-rock."

"We don't know who the darach is," Olivia piped in.

Stiles pointed at her in agreement. "We don't know yet."

Noah blinked at them. "But he was killed by werewolves?"

"Slashed up and left for dead."

"We think."

Stiles pointed at Olivia again. "We think, yeah."

Noah sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. "Why was Jackson the kanima?"

"'Cause sometimes, the shape that you take reflects the person that you are."

"And what shape would an increasingly confused and angrier-by-the-second father take?"

"Uh, that would be more of an expression like the one you're currently wearing," Stiles replied nervously.

"Yeah," Noah heaved himself off the chair and started toward the door.

Stiles scrambled out of his, too. "Dad—Dad, would you wait?" he begged his father. "I can prove it, okay? Cora's a werewolf and Livvy's an anchor. You ready?" he asked Olivia and Cora; they nodded and Olivia helped Cora stand. "All right, Dad, just watch this, okay?"

Olivia didn't know if Noah managed to see any sign of their supernatural nature or not. Cora's name popped up in her head and she was dragged down to the floor when Cora collapsed.

-

"I wished you would have answered my calls," Olivia muttered to Derek as they sat side-by-side in the hospital waiting room while Cora was being examined and placed in a room.

"I know, Ollie," Derek replied softly. "I'm sorry."

"I don't understand why she's not healing. She should have healed by now."

"We'll find out why she's not," Derek assured her and squeezed her hand. "I already called Peter. Hopefully he knows something we don't."

"Hopefully," Olivia sighed; her phone started vibrating in her hand. When she was that it was Scott, she excused herself from Derek and walked over to Stiles, where he was talking to Melissa. "Hey."

"Hey, is Stiles with you?"

"Yeah, hold on," she waved to Melissa silently and grabbed Stiles' arm, pulling him into an empty hallway; she put him on speaker. "Okay, you're on speaker."

"All right, it's philosophers as in teachers," Scott told them hurriedly. "Allison and her father just found Mr. Westover."

"That makes sense," Stiles glanced at Olivia. "Tara, she wasn't always a cop. She used to teach middle school."

"Then the last one's gonna be another teacher."

"There's close to a hundred teachers employed at the high school," Olivia pointed out worriedly. "There's even more at the middle and elementary schools."

"And they're all headed home," Stiles added.

"No, no they're not," Scott said after a few seconds of silence. "They're all going to the recital."

"Fuck," Stiles cursed in annoyance. "All right, I'm gonna go talk to my dad."

"I'll borrow Derek's truck and head over there now, Scott," Olivia took the call off speaker as Stiles walked away to find his dad. "I'll only be a couple of minutes."

"Okay, but Liv..."

Her eyebrows furrowed at the worry in Scott's voice. "What's wrong?"

"I talked to Morrell. She told me that the alpha pack wanted me because I'm supposed to be a true alpha."

"A true alpha?" she repeated in disbelief. "Wow, Scott."

She was impressed; true alphas only came around once in a while and the fact that their own Scott was going to be one was special.

"Yeah, but that's not the only thing she told me," Scott sighed; Olivia braced herself for more news. "She told me that the alphas want you, too. She said that anchors are rare and you have powers you haven't even untapped. Deucalion thinks you be a good addition to the pack."

Shit, shit, shit, shit...Olivia cursed herself. Why did I have to be a rare species?

"Well, that is not good," she breathed nervously before collecting herself. "but we can deal with it later. We need to stop the darach before someone else dies."

"Yeah, we do," Scott agreed. "All right, I'll see you in ten."

"Okay, be careful."

"You too, bye."

The recital had already started by the time Olivia arrived at the school. A storm was brewing overhead and the faint music she could hear coming from the auditorium made the environment even more eerie. She ran through the parking, wishing that she hadn't worn heels that day, and rushed into the building.

She got to the lobby but stopped right in her tracks outside the main part of the auditorium, her gaze taking on a purple tint. An indescribable feeling flashed through her body and then she moved, letting whatever the feeling was take her where she needed to go. It was like the time that Derek had been shot with the wolfsbane bullet and she was led on autopilot throughout the school until she found him.

Lydia...Lydia...Lydia...Lydia, Lydia, Lydia...

She found herself in the English hallway, automatically making her way to Ms. Blake's classroom in a daze. She stopped just outside of the classroom when she heard Lydia and Ms. Blake talking.

She didn't take time to listen to what they were saying. She stormed into the classroom but was immediately airborne. Her back hit the wall painfully and she was risen until her feet were a couple feet off the ground. She was stuck and she was useless.

"Glad you joined the party," Ms. Blake—no, fuck that, I am not giving her any respect by calling her anything but her stupid first name! –smirked at her. "I was wondering when you would come for her."

"Let her go," Olivia snapped at her, her eyes darting to Lydia, who was terrified and staring at her with wet eyes. "What do you even want with her?"

"Nothing special," Jennifer shrugged. She flicked her hand toward a chair and Olivia flew to it, slamming against the hard, wooden back. "You, on the other hand..."

Olivia was unable to move as Jennifer used duct tape to secure her hands and legs to the chair. When she was finished, she picked up a small wooden dowel and started wrapping a length of strong cord around it. She was making a garrote.

"What are you doing?" Lydia whimpered, still fighting off unconscious from the hard hit she took from Jennifer when she first walked into the classroom.

"What's necessary," Jennifer stated. "I'm still surprised none of you seem to get that. You call them sacrifices but you're not understanding the word," Olivia rolled her eyes at her dramatic monologue. "It's derived from the Latin 'sacrificium', an offering to a deity, a sacred rite. A necessary evil."

"Oh, shut up," Olivia groaned, hoping to get her attention away from Lydia. "I'm pretty sure that killing fifteen innocent people isn't necessary."

"You know, on the outside, you appear so tough, emotionless," Jennifer stood from her crouched position in front of Lydia and sauntered over to Olivia. "but I know you're afraid right now. I know you're afraid all the time. This shell?" she poked Olivia in the cheek. "Well, it's all an act."

"Who cares if it is?" Olivia hissed right back at her.

"Oh, I don't care. I was just taunting you before I kill you and your precious cousins. The useless ones, I mean," Jennifer grinned maliciously. "I think I'll keep Derek around."

Olivia harshly snapped her jaw together, speaking through her clenched teeth, "Stay away from them."

"I would but I won't," Jennifer giggled. "See, you were my target. Deucalion wants you and you're powerful. If I kill you now, he won't be able to use you against me."

Olivia's heart started to race and her own name was starting to be repeated over and over in her head. Scott had to know that Lydia had disappeared and that she never made it to the auditorium. She had to stall so he could get there. "So, you're doing this to go up against the alpha pack?"

"Correct. Let's just say that you don't know the alphas like I do," Jennifer twisted the garrote in her hands and stepped behind Olivia. "And because they currently don't know my plan, I think Lydia is going to have to go, too. She knows too much. First, she can watch you die."

"No, no, no," Olivia said frantically, locking her scared eyes on Lydia, who stared fearfully back at her.

"Stop!" Lydia whimpered. "Stop, stop!"

Jennifer didn't stop. Before she could fully press the garrote against Olivia's throat, she forcefully tore the duct tape around her right hand and slipped it between her flesh and the cord. She gasped as the cord dug into her fingers. "Lydia!"

As if they had rehearsed, Lydia let out the loudest scream that had ever passed through her lips. Olivia screamed only a second later, unable to fight the urge that came from Lydia's tether. It was kind of weird, warning people of your own death.

Olivia's scream died out first and then a couple seconds later, so did Lydia's. Jennifer dropped the garrote from her hands, letting it hang on Olivia's neck, and walked over to stand in front of Lydia.

"Unbelievable," she gasped, studying Lydia intently. "You're a banshee. A wailing woman, right before my eyes. You're just like me, Lydia. Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it."

"She's nothing like you," Olivia spoke up fiercely, her voice hoarse.

Jennifer shrugged, the comment not bothering her. "It's too bad, though, and too late," she walked back over to Olivia, taking her place behind her and picking up the garrote. The garrote pulled tightly around Olivia's neck, making her choke. "One last philosopher."

Olivia couldn't breathe. There was no room for her trachea to move, causing her to suffocate. It was almost as if she could feel her throat being crushed, causing her to panic and squirm around in the chair, kicking her feet to try to fight back.

Olivia...Olivia...OLIVIA, OLIVIA, OLIVIA!!!!

"Stop, stop!" Lydia shouted frantically, choking on her tears as she watched Jennifer pull out a knife from her person and hold it up to Olivia's throat; the second part of the three-fold death.

"Drop it!" a new voice joined Lydia's.

With Jennifer sufficiently distracted, the garrote dropped from Olivia's neck. She took in a deep breath, her throat sore inside and out. Something urged her to look over at who had interrupted Jennifer, but she recognized the voice. Noah had ran into the classroom, gun cocked and aimed right at the darach.

As soon as she laid eyes on her boyfriend's father, Jennifer whipped the knife that was going to be used on her at him. It lodged itself into his shoulder so forcefully that it splayed him flat on his back. Noah wasn't technically in her pack, but he was someone Olivia cared for very much; that meant that she knew he was in danger, but he wasn't going to die. She couldn't explain it, but there was a different between the whispers that warned her of a pack member in danger and then the ones that warned her of the pack member's death. Noah was okay, for now.

Jennifer turned back to Olivia, intending to finish what she started, but a roar filled the room. Scott had arrived, his werewolf features fully on display as he snarled at Jennifer. He lunged at her, but Jennifer easily dodged each of his blows. She was more powerful than him and the way she sent him flying across the room and into a pile of desks proved it.

Olivia didn't know exactly what Jennifer did to him, but it was obvious that she did something else to him. Scott was spitting up blood and hitting desks that didn't weigh much didn't seem like it would do something like that to him.

She whimpered through the pain in her throat, "Scott!"

Her attention was dragged away from Scott as Jennifer slid her desk across the room and right into the door, slamming it closed. Before she could even wonder why Jennifer had done that, she saw Stiles' head pop into view from the small window at the top of the door. He was slamming his whole body against it, but with the weight of the desk, it wouldn't budge. He couldn't get into the room.

With Stiles and Scott taken care of, Jennifer focused on Noah, who had grabbed his gun, got to his knees, and aimed it at her.

"There was a girl," he said tiredly as Jennifer took slow steps toward him. "years ago. We found her in the woods, her face and body slashed apart. That was you, wasn't it?"

Jennifer glared at him. "Maybe I should've started with philosophers with knowledge and strategy."

She closed in on Noah and he pulled the trigger, shooting in her in her right thigh; Jennifer simply shook it off and continued on to him. "Healers," she grabbed him by the knife in his shoulder and held him high in the air, the blade slicing through the fleshy part of his shoulder. "Warriors..." she ripped his badge off of his shirt and crushed it with her fingers. "Guardians...Virgins..."

"God, leave him alone!" Olivia shouted to the best of her ability as Jennifer placed a wet kiss against Noah's mouth. Jennifer's face warped into a horrifying figure and screeched while she grabbed Noah and flew toward the windows. "No!"

Jennifer had disappeared with Noah. Scott had woken up from whatever daze Jennifer had put him in and the force that was shoving the desk against the door had disappeared. While Scott had rushed toward Lydia—on Olivia's insistence; the redhead was unconscious from the blow Jennifer had landed on her—Stiles rushed into the classroom and to the windows.

"Dad?" there was no answer to Stiles' call and it hit them all like a punch to the gut. "Dad?!"

(Gif is not mine)

[the-hidden-writer]

An Odd Family Tree

A series of snippets from the lives of the FitzSimmons family, set post 7x13. Also, the series of events that lead up to the birth of their grandson.

Available to read on AO3 and FF.net.

Comments make my day!

Chapter 26: Ever After

“So please, just tell me once and for all… who did I name my son after?”

Jemma turned to Fitz for help, she truly didn’t know what to say, but her husband was still frozen in his place, his mouth moving but not quite managing to form words.

So it was up to her, then. She took a deep breath- if she was going to tell her daughter the truth, then she might as well tell her everything rather than insult her intelligence.

“Alya, d-darling, do you remember the mission we told you about? The one where we were sent to the future to save the world from getting torn apart?”

Alya was quiet for a few moments before she replied. “I remember.”

“Well,” Jemma continued, her voice sounding as heavy as her heart felt in the unusually tense kitchen, “do you remember how we got back to the present?”

“Something to do with Uncle Enoch, right?” Alya questioned skeptically. She only had very vague memories of Uncle Enoch, but there were plenty of pictures showing the pair together. What she definitely couldn’t remember was him being a robot. He’d always just felt like a part of the family.

“Y-Yeah.” Fitz affirmed. “It is. B-But in order to get us home, h-he-”

“He needed backup.” Jemma said, and Fitz shot her a grateful look. “And so an… um, ally we’d made in the future offered to help. We all thought it was a suicide mission, but we think he ended up getting sucked in by the tiny piece of the monolith that was near him. He came back to our time and timeline too.”

“You never mentioned bringing someone back from the future with you! That’s a huge change to history.”

“We know!” Fitz exclaimed.

“We didn’t mean to.” Said Jemma. “But he came back with us and tried to help us.”

“Tried?” Alya questioned.

“He got shot and had to have emergency surgery.”

Fitz gasped and snapped his attention towards Jemma. “He got shot?! You never told me- oh no…”

Alya looked between them, her face darkening with concern. “Who was he, Mum?”

Jemma continued to purposefully ignore her. “Even after he got shot, none of us really had time for him. We treated him so horribly. I always thought that I did better than the others, but just now I realised that it felt more like an act back then. Like I was obliged to be nice to him. B-But I shouldn’t have…”

She choked back a sob then, and Fitz quickly rushed to her side to comfort her.

Alya couldn’t find it in herself to find sympathy. She glared at them, the same question reflected in her expression.

“You know, he told me once about his family.” Fitz said whilst rubbing Jemma’s back. “He was a… a slave, I think. All humans were in that future. He told me that his mum had been murdered in front of him when he was just nine-” his voice cracked at his own words- “and his dad was sent to die.”

Alya opened her mouth to say something, but Fitz didn’t let her.

“B-But that’s how he learned to survive!” He said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. “He came back, started a whole company and was super rich and- and we left him…”

He covered his face with his hands and Jemma gently pried them off his face to kiss his cheek.

“He chose to stay behind.” Jemma reassured. “Without him, we wouldn’t be here, and this timeline might not even exist.”

“What was his name?” Alya whispered again, her skin a sickly pale hue.

Jemma and Fitz shared a look of devastation, because there was no going back or even going forward without revealing the inevitable. The silence in that moment was thick and heavy. It felt like no words would ever be able to cut through it.

Luckily, no words were needed. From outside, Deke’s sudden loud burst of giggles could be heard over Owen’s playful shout of exasperation.

Jemma’s head turned towards the window, though her vision was too blurred with both age and tears for her to focus it properly.

She smiled a wobbly smile.

“His name was Deke.”

Both Fitz and Jemma’s hearts broke at Alya’s cry of anguish. They watched her fall to her knees as she covered her mouth in an attempt to hide her shock. They both had strong instincts to comfort her, she needed it more than they did after all, but neither of them could find it within themselves to do so.

They felt like they didn’t deserve it.

“I-I thought you might have looked into the future or something.” She sobbed. “Not- not this! Not from that future!”

In-sync as always, Fitz and Jemma’s parental instincts broke them out of their guilty stupors and they hurried to their daughter to help her back to her feet.

“He was a hero.” Jemma said as she brushed the dirt off her daughter. “And trust me, once we’d brought him back he was genuinely the sweetest man I’ve ever known.”

Fitz let out a small scoff… that turned into a broken laugh… that melted into a sob.

“You said you left him.” Alya said, wiping away her tears with her sleeve almost childishly. “Where? Why didn’t you go back for him?”

“Our final mission.” Fitz supplied, knowing that his wife’s memories of those final moments of that mission were hazy. “In order to get us back to our timeline from the screwed up one and take all those chronicoms back with us, someone needed to activate the quantum device from the other end.”

Alya gasped with sudden understanding.

“Deke volunteered.”

“That drawer.” Stated Alya. “That’s-”

“All we could find left of him on the Zephyr once it was all over.” Jemma answered. “That tape we used the walkman with is all him. He stole the songs, but that was his voice.”

“I… I don’t believe…”

Her parents didn’t need to be prompted into wrapping her into their arms. They did so, and Alya let them hold her as she shook and cried and mourned.

“Why are you sad?”

The trio turned their heads towards the owner of the little voice, who was standing in the doorway where Alya had caught them. He was fidgeting with his t-shirt again, his brown spiky hair was all tousled and full of mud, and his face was full of such genuine concern that made it look strange upon such a small child’s face.

“Oh, my little monkey.” Alya called, sniffling. “Come here.”

She immediately knelt down and opened her arms out for a confused Deke to run into. Her hands closed around him like a trap that wasn’t going to let go of its prey any time soon. And everyone was fine with that.

“I’m so, so proud of you.” Alya’s voice was muffled by the fact that her face was buried into Deke’s bony chest.

“We love you very much, sweetie.” Jemma said, planting a kiss on Deke’s free hand. “More than you can ever know.”

Fitz ruffled his already messy hair. “Seriously, you’re the best, Baby Deke.”

“I’m not a baby!” Deke stuck his tongue out at his grandad, satisfied that his family wasn’t sad anymore. “Stop saying baby!”

“You’re right.” Jemma said warmly.

Fitz smiled, linking hands with his wife. “You’re our big Deke now.”

The pair noticed that Alya squeezed their grandson tighter. They shared a knowing look.

Deke grinned widely, the gaps in his teeth becoming more clear. There was an air of innocence around him that neither Jemma nor Fitz had ever gotten the chance to see before.

“Thanks Bobo, thanks Nana. You’re the best too.”

~-.-~

Leo and Jemma Fitz-Simmons had thought that they’d gotten their happy ending the very second Alya was born. It had been the happiest day of their lives, despite the team being missing, because they were finally a family.

But since they’d completed the mission that they’d been preparing for years, it had felt like something was still missing. They’d lost Enoch. They’d lost Deke.

They didn’t really have time for mourning back then. They had to set up proper lives for themselves. Raise a daughter and actually live normal lives. Still, that void left by those losses felt like it could never be filled.

At least, that was the case until Fitz stumbled upon Owen Shaw.

Meeting Owen brought them hope. He brought the chance of healing the open wound, of mending something that was permanently broken. Or, in their case, permanently stuck in a disastrous reality that he never should have been in.

It had taken many, many years, but Deke Shaw was finally born and with him that void had started to close. Slowly but surely.

The couple had known since his birth that they would have to tell Alya the truth at some point, but time passed quickly and they didn’t know how to proceed. They grew older and older, but so did Deke.

Alya was angry at first, as any mother would be. But after a lot of explaining, she understood. They gave her the power of telling Owen if she wanted to, and she decided against it. For as much as the memory of Deke influenced her son, she wanted him to be his own person.

Or at least, that’s what she told her parents. But they knew her well enough to know that she was just trying to distance him from the orphaned slave as much as she could for the benefit of her own mental health.

Yet, perhaps for some unrelated reason, the rift that had formed between Owen and Deke began to close. Owen grew closer to his son and by some miracle began to treat him in such a kind way that would never be associated with the boisterous Owen Shaw.

Alya herself had grown almost inseparable with her son. She comfortably changed her job to a part-time position in order to be able to spend more time with him. This extra time allowed her to take him to a dietitian to help improve his physical health. Though his ribs were still visible, he was no longer underweight, and that in itself was a huge achievement to Alya.

She’d also grown a lot closer to her parents. Though for a while they’d been distant due to work demands, they ended up visiting a lot more often and having little adventures in the garden. She knew that they needed support, and she wouldn’t hesitate to give it to them. They were her everything. As was Deke.

Deke, as all children do, grew up too fast. One day he was a mischievous five-year-old, the next he was a mischievous nine-year-old. He was considered a genius in his school and did end up moving up a class. Since he still struggled with making friends though, he fell to his grandparents. He never failed to make them laugh, and would boast to his classmates about how cool his Nana and Bobo were. That they used to be spies!

And FitzSimmons? Well, time passed for them too. Also too quickly. They renovated the Deke Drawer into the Deke Shelf. A shelf in a display cabinet filled with little trinkets in the living room, there for all to see.

They knew that, however much time they had left, they didn’t want to spend it keeping secrets or worrying over loose ends. They’d long since dismantled their lab and all prototypes and equipment within it. Their consciences were free. They were free.

Fitz grew his fabulous grey beard to a ridiculously long length. Jemma convinced him to trim it. This was the sort of adventure they liked now, the sort that involved only laughs and no danger or SHIELD or loss.

And they were happy. They’d had to wait half a century for it, but the universe had gifted them with uninterrupted happiness.

This was their true happy ending.

There will be 2 epilogue chapters following this. Thank you for reading!

[binkysteebnpewter]

All of them 😤

Ehehe 😂💗

1. What’s your middle name, and do you like it?

Grace is actually my middle name, and somewhat. I just don’t like it when my family calls me by first and middle together.

2. are you artistic?

Somewhat?

3. Have you had your first kiss?

Yes

4. What is your life goal?

It’s cheesy and a little cliche, but I want to find Home.

5. Do you have any experiences with a famous person?

Nope

6. Do you play any sports?

Not anymore but I used to play football and I was on the wrestling team in HS

7. What’s your worst fear?

I have two that are sort of equal with another but I’m afraid of losing the people I care about and people seeing me the way I see myself.

8. Who’s your biggest inspiration?

My late Nana, Gloria.

9. Do you have any cool talents?

Answered in previous ask

10. are you a morning person?

Not at all

11. How do you feel about pet names?

I love them

12. Do you like to read?

Absolutely

13. Name a list of shows that have changed your life.

NCIS, Criminal Minds, and any marvel movie

14. Do you care about your follower count?

Not really, I’ll celebrate milestones but that’s just to show everyone I appreciate them following my trash pile. I didn’t start writing to have a high following, I started writing to better my skill and also make people happy.

15. What’s the best dream you’ve had?

I don’t remember most of my happy dreams

16. Have you ever kissed someone of your same gender?

Yep!

17. Do you have any pets?

I have three dogs 🥺💗

18. Are you religious?

No. They only thing I actually believe in is ghosts.

19. Are you a people person?

Not really

20. Are you considered popular?

Nope, and I don’t care to be

21. What is one of your bad habits?

Overthinking

22. What’s something that makes you feel vulnerable?

Opening up my emotions to other people

23. What would you name your children?

No clue

24. Who’s your celebrity crush?

There’s a bunch ig

25. What’s your best subject?

Science and history

26. Dogs or cats?

Dogs, I love cats but I’m super allergic

27. most used social media besides tumblr?

I don’t use a lot of social media tbh, so tumblr is probably my most used unless you count youtube

28. best friends name

Duke

29. who does your main family consist of

My friends and my brother. Family isn’t just blood

30. Chocolate or sugar

Both

31. have you ever been on a date?

Yep

32. Do you like rollercosters?

Absolutely love them

33. Can you swim?

Yes 💗

34. What would you do in the event of an apocolypse?

Clearly, I’d do what everyone else does. Panic and try to survive.

35. Have you struggled with any kind of mental disorder?

Yes, I struggle with anxiety and depression

36. Are your parents together?

Nope.

37. What’s your favourite colour?

Dark green and Dark Blue

38. What country are you from/do you live in?

Unfortunately, the U.S

39. Favourite singer?

Uh... there���s too many to list? But my favorite people to listen to is The Oh Hellos

40. Do you see yourself being famous some day?

Nope, I run from being the center of attention.

41. Do you like dresses?

Not really

42. Favourite song right now?

Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra

43. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

Sort of.

44. How old were you when you first got your period?

No clue, I don’t remember

45. Have you ever shot a gun?

Yep

46. Have you ever done yoga?

No

47. Are you a horror girl?

YES 😈

48. Are you good at giving advice?

I suppose I am?

49. Tell us a story about your childhood.

I don’t have a lot of happy memories but one that sticks out is: I used to go to a private Christian academy and I was in first grade when this boy in eighth grade (the entire school was k-12) came over to me during my lunch. I was super scared and shy as a kid so my schedule was tailored so I was able to eat lunch with my brother whose nine years older than me. Our mom forgot to pack our lunches so we were gonna just get some stuff from the vending machine, well my brother gave me my money to get something and this boy came over to me before I could put it in the vending machine. He hit me and took my money, buying himself something with it. My brother seen it and got into a fight with him.

50. How are you doing today?

Eh

51. Were you a cute kid?

I looked like Shirley Temple when I was a kid

52. Can you dance?

I can swing dance and slow dance, but that’s it.

53. Is there anything you do that you can’t remember ever not doing?

I always look for exits and bathrooms when I go somewhere, I’ve always done it 🤷🏻‍♀️

54. Have you ever dyed your hair?

No because I’m a ginger. I can’t just dye it back if I end up not liking the color I dyed it to.

55. What colour are your eyes?

Brown

56. What’s your favourite animal?

Answered in previous ask

57. Have you ever made a huge fool of yourself?

Multiple times

58. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

My relationship with my dad is rocky but my relationship with my mother went up in flames a few yeaes ago 🤷🏻‍♀️

59. Do you have good friends?

I have some amazing friends🥺💗

60. Are you close with anyone of the lgbtq+ group?

Yep!

61. What’s your favourite class?

My favorite class was Psychology

62. List all the tv shows you are watching.

I’m rewatching Criminal Minds right now.

63. Are you organized?

Somewhat?

64. What was the last movie you saw? Opinion?

I don’t know if it counts as a movie but I just finished a Ted Bundy Tapes Documentary. I think Bundy was a little bit of an idiot.

67. Which tv character do you relate to most?

Spencer Reid

68. What are some things that stand between you and complete happiness?

Anxiety, Depression, overthinking

69. If you received enough money to never need to work again, what would you spend your time doing?

I would probably still work, I’m not a fan of sitting around and doing nothing for large amounts of time.

70. What would you change about your life if you knew you would never die?

Find a way to die, I don’t want to live forever. That’s just torture 👀

71. What would you do differently if you knew that no one was judging you?

Nothing. I’ll act the same as I always have because I am who I am, there’s no reason to change yourself from when someone is watching and when someone isn’t.

72. If you could start over, what would you do differently?

A lot 😂

73. Would you break the law to save a loved one?

Yep

74. When was the last time you travelled somewhere new?

I went to Disney with my Chorus Class in Junior Year of HS, it was my first time to Disney.

75. When you think of your home, what immediately comes to mind?

Nothing, I’m looking for Home. Home will be someone I feel safe with, someone I can be completely myself with— someone I love wholly.

76. What have you done to pursue your dreams lately? How about today?

I— idk?

77. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

I wanted to be a nurse 🤦🏻‍♀️

78. If you dropped everything to pursue your dreams, what would you be risking?

Im not sure

79. When did you not speak up, when you know you really should have?

Ooh... uh, something happened to me all through 7th, 8th, and 9th grade that I should’ve spoken up about but was too scared.

80. Describe the next five years of your life, and your plans, in a single sentence.

I will work hard to love myself and pursue my dream job.

81. What would happen if you never wasted another minute of your life, what would that look like?

No clue tbh

82. If you could live forever, how would you spend eternity?

I don’t want to live forever but I guess I’d find a way to take away my immortality or find someone else who is immortal to love

83. How would you spend a billion dollars?

Id put a lot into important causes and then save some with interest.

84. If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future?

I’m not sure, I think I wouldn’t go anywhere because I want to live in the moment. Except 2020, fuck 2020.

85. What motivates you to succeed?

Failure motivates me to succeed.

86. What dream that you’ve had has resonated with you the most?

I don’t remember most of my happy dream, I usually can only remember the nightmares 🤷🏻‍♀️

87. Would you rather live in the city or the woods? Why?

Woods, its peaceful.

88. Do you believe in life after death?

I don’t really believe in anything 🤷🏻‍♀️

89. What teacher inspired you the most? How did they?

I had a teacher named Ms Eagan and she inspired me to always be myself.

90. What’s your fondest childhood memory?

Meeting Lily

91. If you could have dinner with any one person, living or dead, who would they be and why?

Lily, because I really miss her.

92. What would you have to see to cry tears of joy?

Anyone being nice to me makes me cry—

93. What is the hardest lesson you had to learn in life?

Sometimes the people you call family don’t truly love you.

94. What do you think happens after we die?

Idk and idrc either tbh

95. What would you do if you would be invisible?

I’d probably scare some people

96. What’s something you can’t do no matter how hard you try?

Speak in public or ask for something at restaurants

97. Would you want to choose the sex and appearance of your offspring?

Eh

98. How did your first crush develop?

They were nice to me when no one else was

99. Is there a feeling you are trying to ignore? What is it?

Yes, I’m trying to ignore how upset some people can really make me.

100. Do you live or do you just exist?

I think I’m somewhere in between, where sometimes I’m just existing and sometimes I’m living.

[oh-theres-a-woman]

8, 25, 67 from the ask game! 🤍

🌼🌹✨Thank you for the ask lovely! These are so much fun, I have to dig up the questions from the other one you sent me because I never got around to answering them!!!✨🌹🌼

8. Top 5 (insert subject): - English/Language (Writing, Reading, Literature) - Although, I didn’t do well with the public speaking side of the subject.  - Work placements (both youth-based centres) - my first I had just turned eighteen and was working at a Youth Centre during the day as well as when the youth normally attended. This was a very eye-opening experience for a number of reasons but very rewarding which I enjoyed. The second was when I was nineteen years of age and I actually taught at a centre of alternative education for young people; although I did face more complications due to the work environment, I found this rewarding because it catered to the need of children with learning difficulties (much like I struggled with in early life until now). Thus, during my training and education, this was one of my favourite subjects. 

- Society and Environment (Australia ever-changing subject; it’s had about five names in the time of my school-life) - for a basic, this subject was a compiled study of; history, environmental studies, geography and various things that worked and considered with each other. Among this subject my favourite units were; Aboriginal History, Education of the Founding/History of Australia and World War One Studies. 

- Science (only in highschool) 

- Music - For as long as I can remember I’ve always enjoyed singing. Still do; just more wary and shy now. Since I was actually bullied in high school on a number of occasions by people. Things that left me not at all confident in my ability and for a long time made me hate singing. 

- Personal Stressors (Course) - A notable unit in my Certificate III of Community Services had us identifying personal stressors and enacting plans to assist with improvement or goals to overcome. This was unit which allowed future workers in the industry of Community Development and Community Service (larger client-based organisations) into identifying some plans people might have to enact for clients by at first look at themselves. 

25. Someone you miss: Due to quarantine and some really personal matters regarding family. I miss a lot of people or perhaps, the simpler times I’ve had with them. When others weren’t involved or pushing judgements. In some regard, I personally miss the level of my old self. Some things have changed and led me to be where I’m at now. But I grieve for certain traits and beliefs I used to have in myself and other people. 

Mostly, who I miss at this moment; my mum and my nana. 

67. Have you ever been in a car accident? I have been in two. One of which happened the week before I got my licence. No! I was not the driver in either, hahaha. I was passaged in both. 

Oh gosh! That was fun! 💕💕 Thank you for asking Leah @smallheathgangsters 

[shamrock96]

So I’ve been thinking about Polyamory lately...

I started watching this show called Siren where this couple meets a mermaid and all three of them slowly start falling in love with each other and this is my first exposure to polyamorous representation and I think it’s a great triad relationship the writers have going here to explain the more complex emotions involved in a polyamorous relationship.

If anyone gets bored gong through this or knows you’re in for a long post as least know that this is the main idea of this post before scrolling past it: The best kind of love is a healthy tender relationship to people you can trust and who love you unconditionally. 

Now I’m not poly myself, I don’t know what I am to be honest, so I don’t know what’s all involved. I’ve done research and I know that there are many different types of polyamory for it to just be whittled down to one example but what really strikes me and fascinates me about the polyamorous relationship depicted in Siren is the deep love and commitment each of the partners have with each other. 

In the past I’ve joked about polyamory in the sense “haha let’s just forget this bogus love triangle and have everyone just get together” and after hearing other people’s stories and learning about their relationships I know there’s a lot more to it than just saying “screw it, let everyone just have sex!”

So I’ve put together a list of other possible areas where other writers could have gone this way. Because representation is important and love triangles have become an extremely cliché and toxic trope in television and movies to the point I don’t think writers really know what a healthy relationship between partners looks like anymore. 

I got a lot of these from Triad of the Day but I just wanted to explain more in depth why I think these characters would be so good together

1. Veronica Lodge and Cheryl Blossom and Betty Cooper

So I’ve got to admit, I don’t actually watch Riverdale and this is probably a bad example to start with because my reasoning for these three being a triad is: just look at them. They’re obviously in love. And they can all still have their men on the side if that’s what they want but from what I’ve seen of gifs and on other people’s blogs, there is a strong feminine power here that transcends just being friends/frenemies/whatever. 

2. Harley Quinn and Catwoman and Poison Ivy a.k.a The Gotham City Sirens

Harley and Poison Ivy are already renown for their amazing sapphic relationship but I feel like Catwoman is a good addition to their love because of how often she gets snubbed by Batman (a man she clearly has feelings for a who has feelings for her) for embracing her darker side. Harley, more than anyone, understands being sidelined and downright abused by someone you care about and I think Poison Ivy would praise Selina for embracing the side of her that come more naturally. Harley and Poison Ivy already have a great and more or less healthy (as healthy as trauma inflicted villains can be) and Selina could really use some of that love in her life. 

This is also probably my inspiration for the whole Veronica/Cheryl/Betty triad I have above. 

3.  Kathy and Don and Cosmo

Again, so I haven’t really seen this movie in its entirety yet (just bits and pieces) but I’ve seen enough to know they were all just meant to be together. Especially in the “Good Morning” number where they talk about “danced the whole night through”. Like what is better than one person finding two other people they can laugh and have fun together until dawn? This just seems super figured out to me.

4. Miles O'brien and Keiko O'brien and Kira Nerys

This is one where I think things get a little complicated for so many reasons. For starters it’s a great example how a polytriad relationship works when children are involved. For those who aren’t familiar with Star Trek: Deep Space 9, the story between these three are that Miles and Keiko have been married ever since they were on Star Trek: The Next Generation. They even have a daughter who is about four when the couple are expecting their next baby. Due to a transporter malfunction Kira is accidentally impregnated with Keiko’s baby. This was the writers’ way of explaining Kira’s actress, Nana Visitor’s, own pregnancy (coincidently with other co-star, Alexander Siddig, but that’s a whole other story). 

Anyways, once Kira is unexpectedly carrying the O’Brien’s child she moves in with them so that they can still experience the pregnancy and become closer to their new surrogate. As a result Kira also becomes closer to the O’Brien’s and their daughter Molly. The birth of Kirayoshi is a really touching episode and it’s obvious that Kira has become extremely attached to the baby. After the birth the O’Briens make Kira Kirayoshi’s godmother (and also kind of name him after her) and she becomes a part of the family, like an aunt.

The only reason this gets complicated is because of Kira’s work relationship with Miles. While Kira and Keiko become super close and it could easily have turned into something romantic there’s not a lot of that bonding going on with Miles. And I know there are relationships where person A (Kieko) has a strong relationship with persons B (Miles) and C (Kira) but persons B and C aren’t as close, but my main objective in putting these characters together is to form a perfect triad where everyone loves and is loved equally. The writers could have also easily done this by having Kira and Miles bond more emotionally rather than professionally but they didn’t so we don’t get to see what that would have looked like except in fanfiction. 

5. Elphaba and Galinda and Fiyero

Like I think a majority of the fans of Wicked agree that these three were all in love one way or the other. Some ship Glinda and Elphaba, Glinda shipped herself with Fiyero, and the mainstream is that Elphaba and Fiyero utlimately belonged together. And while the musical puts a heavy emphasis on the “friendship” between Glinda and Elphaba, anyone who ever watches “For Good” can tell you that their relationship was way deeper than your average best friends or sisters for that matter. Not to mention in “One Short Day” the two fo them make a point of saying “we’re just two friends” “two good friends” “two best friends”. The whole “just friends” has been used to keep LGBT+ couples in the closet since forever. 

We also know Fiyero and Elphaba were given a wonderfully laid out relationship which has a very important role in the musical. Fiyero’s relationship with Glinda can be analyzed as what society wants to see vs. Fiyero and Elphaba’s relationship which is something society doesn’t want to see. Perfect vs. Unconventional. HOWEVER, Fiyero and Glinda did have a connection, so much so that Glinda did mourn losing him (to her “best friend” nonetheless). The reverse could also be argued that Glinda was mourning losing Elphaba to Fiyero. OR it could be argued that the two people she loved most ran off into the sunset (albeit, as fugitives) without her and she was left behind. In a polyamorous relationship nobody would be left behind singing a reprise of “I’m Not That Girl”. I haven’t seen the full musical in a while but I think Elphaba gave Glinda the chance to come with her and Fiyero and Glinda opted to stay behind in the public figure position she was given. I could be wrong about that, like I said I haven’t seen the musical in a while, but if I’m not wrong the that decision to stay behind could have all sorts of different analyses for the relationship between the three. 

Let’s not forget to mention that Glinda and Elphaba were ROOMMATES! Ok, memes aside, these three had a lot of chemistry and history together that bonded them. For me, one of the saddest parts of the ending wasn’t the “For Good” scene where Elphaba “sacrifices” herself because Glinda knew full well what Elphaba had planned with Fiyero, leaving Glinda as the last one standing and being the one left behind to fix the corrupt government in the land of Oz. She was sad because she knew Elphaba had to stay dead in the eyes of the people if she was ever going to live a normal life after all that had happened. The actual ending of the book is way sadder so I’ll take the canon ending of the musical any day but I can’t help but feel like the life Elphaba and Fiyero started after running off into their official sunset probably felt a little incomplete without Glinda. 

6. DJ Fuller and Steve Hale and Matt Harmon

THIS ONE. Never has an audience ever been given the run around about a heteronormative live triangle than they have been with Fuller House. As soon as I saw this on Triad of the Day’s list of polyamorous couples I was just like YES! When DJ chose Steve I was a little skeptical and torn. Both of these men seemed really great and had great chemistry with DJ. I stan the whole decision for DJ to choose herself the first time around and take some time to figure out who she was (especially so soon after the death of her husband). But immediately after that decision the writers went and gave Steve and Matt a great bro relationship. THEY EVEN HAD STEVE AND MATT KISS!!!! Although that was before they became friends. And they were SO into that kiss and we ALL loved it! The fact that it was used for laughs is such a pity. Fuller House could have pulled a Modern Family by creating a positive social commentary on polyamorous families and play off the title of the show (Fuller House) more than they already do by adding both men to the family. Instead one of them got pushed away and to be honest I stopped watching after season 2. I love the wholesome family vibes Fuller House gives out and even the ones given out by Hallmark (which Candace Cameron Bure and Lori Laughlin are major actresses in) but something these wholesome shows and tv networks forget is that you can represent LGBT+ relationships without the emphasis of sex. It’s like if someone were to pitch a gay Christmas romance movie to Hallmark the board would immediately say, “Nice idea, but this is a family friendly program.” My definition of family friendly is a group of adults who are in loving and healthy relationships with each other who all love and take care of the children in their lives. And my definition of wholesome is lack of profanity and vulgar humor and displays honest values (just for the record). 

Fuller House really missed out on taking a step forward into the modern age by not making these three a polyamorous triad. 

7.Victor Van Dort and Emily and Victoria Everglot

So I’m not sure about this one because I REALLY love how it ended (with Emily getting justice for her murder and then being emotionally liberated to the point she burst into a kaleidoscope of butterflies). Not to mention Emily and Victoria didn’t exactly get much bonding time throughout the movie though I think Emily can heavily relate to Victoria’s overly sheltered life and especially to getting screwed over in the marriage department (although Victoria luckily dodged that bullet). But I feel like that would make Emily (and Victor) all the more protective of Victoria when it comes to those who would abuse her. And maybe Emily could have taught both Victor and Victoria more about standing up for themselves. I know Emily can seem naive and like she doesn’t have much life experience (for obvious reasons) but we’ve seen how strong, powerful, and dedicated she is. I don’t think anybody would be surprised if Emily scorched the earth for Victor and Victoria. Also Victor needs some strong women in his life. I feel like the implications of what these three would have been like in a polyamorous relationship is pretty obvious and has no doubt been written about a thousand times in fanfiction. As much as I love Emily being released from what was tying her down to earth, this would have been a good alternative ending as well. 

8.  Tulio is dating Miguel and Chel

These guys. Need I say more?

I think I might because while we see the obvious attraction between Tulio and Chel and the fanmade art and fanfiction of Tulio and Miguel, that still leaves out the question of what Chel and Miguel’s relationship would be like. Obviously in the movie Miguel wasn’t a big fan of Chel moving in on his and Tulio’s “bromance” and while jealousy doesn’t have much place in an ideal triad relationship (from what I understand anyway), I think they could make good partners in crime. 

9. Flora and Fauna and Merryweather a.k.a the Three Good Fairies

Now these hoes. I’ve heard some dispute somewhere that they may or may not be sisters but I distinctly remember them only being referred to as “the three good fairies”. Older women (fairies) who have known each other for a very long time. But they dead ass raised a daughter together as mortals, in the same cottage for 16 years. We’ve seen said cottage and we’ve seen Aurora’s bedroom but anyone can see that there’s no way there was enough from in that cottage for 3 individual bedrooms or even one room for three twin beds (maybe bunk beds if they had existed in the 14th century). They’re depicted as incompetent characters in Malificent but they aren’t that way in the 1959 Sleeping Beauty. In fact, they’re portrayed as willing to do anything for their daughter. Not to mention the constant bickering of Flora and Merryweather being pacified by Fauna. That is typical married old couple behavior right there. Being 1959 there’s no way anyone was ready for a polyamorous triad of fairies in a children’s animated feature but that’s basically what they gave us. 

10. Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington and Jonathan Byers

This is also a hard one. Because similar to Glinda and Fiyero’s relationship Steve and Nancy were together for high school politics. In this scenario Steve is Glinda because he gets left behind to ponder on his life as a shallow popular high school king. But protecting Jonathan and Nancy with that homemade nail bat from that demagorgan is what any good partner would do for his other partners. 

The reason this one is tricky is not only because Steve got left behind but also because the relationship dynamic is pretty unequal. Because while Nancy and Steve are together at the beginning of Season 2, it’s clear they’re still putting on a facade that things can go back to normal for them during their senior year of high school. By the end of Season 2 Nancy is officially with Jonathan and Steve is not only left behind but he’s left behind to take care of the kids. 

Not to mention Steve and Jonathan don’t necessarily have a good relationship with each other. Although I think Steve has been humbled down in Season 3 after realizing his glory days are more or less behind him. But we don’t get a lot of interaction between these three anymore. 

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this one besides the fact that I think there’s some potential somewhere here. Especially with the introduction of Robin. I feel like she could be a great sexual awakening for a lot of the characters in this show. 

BONUS:  Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin and just about anyone

It doesn’t have to be Raven. Honestly it could be any character who has a good relationship with both Clark and Bellamy. I think it’s safe to say a majority of the fandom is holding out for Bellark to ride off into their sunset but I think they’d be pretty inclusive to someone else they have a strong relationship with. I haven’t watched the series in a really long time so I don’t know if there is a character left alive who fits that description but the characters have definitely formed a pack mentality of survival and sticking close. I imagine if they (Clark, Bellamy, and their third partner) would have kids they’d have the same protective circle. 

[lingthusiasm]

Transcript Episode 27: Words for family relationships: Kinship terms

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 27: Words for family relationships: Kinship terms. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 27 show notes page.

[Music]

Lauren: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! I’m Lauren Gawne.

Gretchen: And I’m Gretchen McCulloch, and today, we’re getting enthusiastic about words for family members – kinship terms! But first, we’re looking forward to 2019. It’s almost here. We’re very excited to continue with the regular show. We have some exciting plans – like video episodes.

Lauren: We’ve had a really exciting 2018. We’ve done lots of really cool stuff. You’ve been along for the ride, and we’re really looking forward to continuing with regular episodes and other exciting things in 2019.

Gretchen: And we just hit our goal to make a special video episode about the linguistics of gesture, which is super exciting.

Lauren: It was also really great to have Gretchen in Australia when we hit the goal for the gesture videos. That happened while she was out on her trip to do the live shows. We had celebratory ice cream. It was very exciting.

Gretchen: Yes, so that was fantastic. We’re looking forward to the next goal, which is going to be a special video episode interviewing a deaf linguist about the linguistics of sign language. Stay tuned for which sign language and which linguist we’re going to be interviewing for that once we hit that goal.

Lauren: Our latest bonus Patreon episode is a Q&A that we did while we were in the same geographic location, which you can find on patreon.com/lingthusiasm.

Gretchen: Yes, as well as 20 previous bonus episodes, which is almost an entire double Lingthusiasm. You should definitely check that out if you haven’t already.

Lauren: We also both have other exciting 2019 adventures. I am having a baby, which we mentioned a couple of episodes ago. That will take up a fair amount of my 2019, I feel.

Gretchen: I feel like babies are pretty busy. But the episodes will continue as scheduled. I have a book coming out in July 2019, so you’ll also hear –

Lauren: A book baby!

Gretchen: A book baby! I wonder which one is gonna be cuter. We probably shouldn’t have that competition.

Lauren: They’re cute in their own ways.

Gretchen: One of them will eventually learn to talk back, and it won’t be the book. If you wanna see what the cover looks like, and for pre-order information, you can check out the link in the show notes or on my website as well.

[Music]

Gretchen: So, Lauren, here is an important linguistic question – what are you gonna have your baby call you? Are you gonna be a “Mama,” a “Mum,” a “Mummy?”

Lauren: I haven’t thought about this, which means I guess that I’m just gonna go with my socio-cultural norms, so I’m probably gonna be “mum.”

Gretchen: Okay, that’s very standard, yeah. It seems legit.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: I mean, I have some friends who called their parents – or had their kids call them by their first names.

Lauren: Oh, yeah, that always seems really weird to me. If I call my parents by their first name, it’s because we’re having some kind of very silly conversation.

Gretchen: I think I only do it if I’m at a grocery store, or a park, or something, and I need to catch their attention, and saying “Mom” or “Dad” isn’t working, and so I’m like, “I guess I should say their name to get them to turn around.” Maybe that’s a thing you could do.

Lauren: I love how it’s such a conscious decision for you.

Gretchen: Definitely not part of my norm, but it is part of some people’s norms.

Lauren: Yeah, I know people whose kids call them by their first name just because they find the idea of being “Mum” or “Dad” really weird.

Gretchen: I also know people who find the idea of “Mum” or “Dad” being weird. They go by something like “Mama,” or “Papa” or, you know, things like –

Lauren: Or they have some kind of cultural – I have people whose families have Italian heritage, so they’re “Mama” or “Papa.” I knew someone at school who had a “Grandmother,” but her friend at school had a “Nonna.” And she was like, “Well, that word sounds cool.” And so she just started calling her very Anglo-Australian grandmother “Nonna” even though there’s no family history of Italian naming in their family.

Gretchen: That’s very cute.

Lauren: It was really cute. So sometimes people will deviate – every family has its own idiosyncrasies. Sometimes, they pop up in the kinship terminology that people use.

Gretchen: I think, especially for grandparents, those seem to be a little bit more idiosyncratic, whether cultural or there’re just more names for grandparents. Like, “Mama,” and “Papa,” and “Da-Da” seem to be very common across different languages. Whereas, whether you say “Nana,” or “Nonna,” or “Opa,” or “Oma,” or these kinds of things, tend to be a bit more different.

Lauren: We have both a “Grandfather” and a “Pop” in terms of my grandparents.

Gretchen: Yeah, I had both “Grandad” and “Papa,” then, for the grandmothers, both “Mimi” and “GG,” which are idiosyncratic names.

Lauren: “Mimi” and “GG?”

Gretchen: Yeah, my –

Lauren: Where did they come from?

Gretchen: Well, so “GG” comes from the fact that that grandmother was named “Gretchen,” who I was named after. So “GG” stands for “Grandma Gretchen.” And her grandmother –

Lauren: Oh, that’s so great. Like, lovely and meta.

Gretchen: Yeah, and her grandmother was also named “Gretchen,” who she was named after, so she had a “GG.” Sometimes she used to say, “Well, my GG blah blah blah…” So I’ve always known in a weird way that if I had grandkids, I already have a grandma name.

Lauren: Wow, that’s a lot of presupposition there, Gretchen.

Gretchen: Because, clearly, I have to continue the tradition of “GG” if I have kids – if I have grandkids.

Lauren: It’ll be a nice story.

Gretchen: Yeah, and “Mimi” – I, apparently, at around the age of one or two, gave this name to my grandmother because I was the oldest grandkid on this side. That’s what I apparently started calling her, and it stuck.

Lauren: Cool. You created language change within your family.

Gretchen: I was pre-linguist!

Lauren: You’re a linguist innovator.

Gretchen: Yeah, but my grandmother Mimi used to joke that “Mimi” and “GG” sounded like two little French poodles or something like this.

Lauren: They do. It’s very cute.

Gretchen: I think, especially in English, kids often end up creating or using different terms from different cultures because it’s really useful in a family context to be able to distinguish between maternal and paternal grandparents. And yet, this is not something that English has built-in words to do. Whereas, other languages do.

Lauren: Yeah, and when you start looking at – we have all these different things that we call different members of our family – so different kinship terms – and we start looking at how different parts of the family get segmented up and what different languages and cultures pay attention to. You start to realise that some languages lump together a whole bunch of people that we might separate out into different terms. English is very good at lumping together groups of people that have distinct kinship terms in other languages and cultures. It’s always really fun to learn those different systems and start thinking about how your family relate to each other in different ways.

Gretchen: Yeah, I haven’t really – most of the languages that I’ve worked with have been European, so I haven’t done a whole lot with languages that have other kinship terms. But there’re some different forms in Syuba, right?

Lauren: Yeah, when I’m in Nepal, when people ask about my family, I suddenly have to start thinking about – for example, aunts and uncles. It varies depending upon whether they’re your uncles on your dad’s side or your uncles on your mother’s side. In Syuba, your “Ao” is your father’s brother, and your “Ashang” is your mother’s brother. So your uncles on each side have different names. And then, in terms of your aunts, there’s actually a whole bunch of different terms. The aunts on your mother’s side all get called “Ama,” which is the same as the word for mother –

Gretchen: Oh, interesting.

Lauren: – and so you distinguish them by saying “Ama Chombo” or “Ama Chame,” which means your “big mother,” your aunts that are older than your mother, and your “Ama Chame” are your aunts on your mother’s side that are younger than your mother.

Gretchen: Oh, so that’s also distinguished – the older versus younger side.

Lauren: Yeah, and it’s not that people don’t know – just to make it clear. It’s not that people don’t know that their mother is different from their aunt. It’s just that that’s how the system – I know that my uncles on my dad’s side are different to the uncles on my mom’s side. I just don’t think about it that much day-to-day.

Gretchen: But something I find really interesting is that English doesn’t distinguish between uncle-by-marriage or aunt-by-marriage versus uncle and aunt that are actually your blood relatives.

Lauren: No.

Gretchen: Personally, I have a distinction, I guess, between uncles and aunts that were already in the family when I was a kid and the ones that have subsequently married my uncles or aunts after I got older because the ones that were in the family when I was a kid, I call them all “Uncle” and “Aunt.” And that’s fine. The ones that showed up when I was already a teenager, towards adulthood, I’m like – I just call them by their names because I didn’t have that – they were first introduced to me, I guess, as, “This is the boyfriend or girlfriend or person that so-and-so is dating.” And so, I spent a couple years knowing them just by their name for that reason. And then, when they got married, I didn’t switch over to calling them “Uncle” or “Aunt” even though, technically, they are. But somehow, that doesn’t work for me in the same way as the ones that I’ve known as part of the family ever since I was a kid.

Lauren: It’s like, for you, the terminology involves some kind of entrenchment within the family system.

Gretchen: Yeah, or like, “Did I know you as a child,” or something like that seems to be the factor, which is definitely not a factor that is officially encoded into any kinship system I’ve ever encountered but seems to be encoded in my personal kinship system.

Lauren: Which always makes these things more interesting.

Gretchen: Yeah, there’s the official kinship systems and then there’s the personal, idiosyncratic kinship systems. But there are languages that have different terms for relatives by marriage as well.

Lauren: Yeah, so your aunts on your mother’s side are your “Ama,” but if it’s your father’s brother’s wife it’s “Tsitsi.” Whereas, your aunts who are your father’s relatives – so younger sisters – are “Ani.”

Gretchen: Oh, interesting. Okay.

Lauren: And so, you know who was married into the family as opposed to who is a sister of your father.

Gretchen: And there’s more terms on the aunt side than on the uncle side?

Lauren: Because aunts can marry into families or marry out of families. In this culture, it’s the women who move house when they get married. So your uncles are always around whether they’re your father’s brothers or your mother’s brothers. Whereas, women aren’t bringing uncles into the house, necessarily. They’re less important to you.

Gretchen: Your uncles-in-law – you’re gonna have less contact with them, so they don’t have a distinct term for them.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: I mean, you could say “uncles-in-law” or “aunts-in-law.” I don’t know why we don’t.

Lauren: I find the whole “in-law” terminology in English very confusing. If I were gonna fix English –

Gretchen: You would fix the in-laws?

Lauren: The kinship system does need a bit of a makeover, and the in-lawing is very confusing because – I mean, to me, it’s confusing because so many people in my family have long-term partners who aren’t married. I like to refer to them as “out-laws.”

Gretchen: I think a lot of people use the out-law terminology as a jocular version of in-laws.

Lauren: But it does kind of upset my grandparents.

Gretchen: See, my family says “out-laws” all the time.

Lauren: Whereas, it amuses me that – say, my brother’s partner technically has the same terminology as my partner’s sibling’s partner.

Gretchen: Yeah, that double layer. Maybe there should be “in-law-in-law.” Like, “brother in-law-in-law” should be the one that’s two steps from you?

Lauren: Yeah, I guess it depends on how close you feel to people as well. I generally don’t refer to my “sister-in-law.” I just refer to her by name.

Gretchen: Yeah, I mean, that’s fair, too.

Lauren: It’s a bit like the aunts-and-uncles thing. It’s too hard to assimilate you into my pre-existing kinship structure.

Gretchen: Well, and that’s the thing because, especially, if your siblings are having partners – assuming you’re fairly close in age to your siblings – you’re probably encountering those partners – you’ve already gone through your childhood acquisition of who your family is. And then, suddenly, your sibling’s bringing in somebody new. And it’s like – at what point do you switch over to that? Is it when they start living together? Is it when – do they have to have a formal wedding? Where do these things change? Maybe that’s part of the idiosyncratic system.

Lauren: We’ve distinguished some cultures have terms that vary depending whether it’s on your mother or father’s side, terms that differ depending on if someone’s older or younger. And, again, Syuba distinguishes siblings that are older or younger. “Older sister” is “Adzi,” but “younger sister” is “Nomo.” “Older brother” is “Ata,” and “younger brother” is “No.” When people ask me about my family, they ask, “Do you have siblings?” And I can say, “Yes, I am ‘Older Sister,’” and it – immediately, I have to say I have a younger brother and a younger sister. I immediately situate myself in my family structure.

Gretchen: If you say, “Older Sister,” that means you’re the oldest because that’s what your siblings call you?

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: If people say, “Do you have brothers or sisters,” and I say, “I have two siblings,” I think that immediately implies, “Okay, they’re different genders,” because if I had two sisters, I could just say I had two sisters.

Lauren: It would be – for an English speaker, you are giving an insufficient quantity of information by using “sibling.”

Gretchen: Yeah, I was giving a less-informative answer than I could. My sister and I both say, “Oh, yes, I have two siblings,” but my brother says, “I have two sisters.” And this always surprises me because I think of myself as being one of “siblings.” I don’t think of myself as being one of “sisters” because I have “siblings.” I don’t have “sisters.” But, of course, you know, at some point, it breaks down.

Lauren: Which brings us to some cultures focus on defining kin terms by gender. We do have a lot of terms in English. Your parents get distinguished by gender, your aunts and uncles, your grandparents. But not everyone does. “Cousins” is a good example of that. “Siblings” is a good example of that.

Gretchen: Yeah, “cousins” is especially interesting because English has this elaborate cousin system. And yet, for a lot of people, it’s fairly obscure. They’re aware of the terminology involved, but they don’t actually know how to apply it.

Lauren: I’m in contact with a fairly extended range of my family, and we all have just agreed at some point to just refer to each other as “cousins.” If someone’s really curious about why I have a 60-year-old cousin in Canada, I will talk them through the family structure. I can calculate out second-cousinses and once-removeds, but we just end up using “cousins” because it’s so much easier. We really aren’t very good at calculating it.

Gretchen: I mean, I have this very distinct memory for “cousins,” which I don’t have for other terms, of when I was about nine or ten. I had been seeing a bunch of one corner of the family tree, sitting down and calculating how all of the once-removeds and how all of the first-and-second-cousins-thing worked. When I did that, I memorised which of the people were which and which of the people weren’t. I call them all “cousins.” I’m not like, “Hi, Second Cousin Bill,” because I don’t think anyone really does that. But I can also be like, “Oh, I have a cousin in Australia.” He’s actually my first cousin once-removed because he’s my mom’s cousin. There’s a removal of generations.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: I’ve had to explain this system to adult, native English-speakers, who, in principle, you’d expect to know the kinship terms of our own language, but the “cousins” system –

Lauren: And like, learning them at nine or ten is very late in language acquisition. A lot of kin terms we learn really early off. They’re some of our first words.

Gretchen: Especially for family terms, yeah. It’s one thing to be learning the extended numbers system. Like, maybe you don’t know what a “quadrillion” is at age nine or ten, or you don’t know some of the more technical vocabulary, or business jargon, or these corners of the lexicon. But kinship terms are very basic. They’re often learned very early. 

This brings me to one of my favourite cross-linguistic studies, which is the one that finds that “Mama” and “Papa” are words that children use to address their mothers and fathers – are some of the very, very first words across a whole bunch of languages that are completely unrelated.

Lauren: Yeah, this is one of those it-seemed-so-obvious-when-I-first-learnt-it facts about language.

Gretchen: Yeah, about 60 years ago, the American anthropologist G.P. Murdock did this survey of over 500 cultural groups around the world. He found that about half of societies use some sort of combination of /mə/, /mɛɪ/, /na/, /nɛɪ/, /noʊ/ to mean “mother.” And another half, not necessarily the exact same societies, uses some combination of /pə/, /poʊ/, /ta/, or /toʊ/ to mean “father.” So /mama/, /mɛɪmɛɪ/, /nana/, /nɛɪnɛɪ/, /papa/, /tata/ – these kinds of things. He’s like, “This is a weird coincidence. Why?”

Lauren: Linguists get really caught up in historical linguistics, trying to use the relationship between lots of current languages to trace back to an older language. Some people thought maybe this relates to some fact of history. But Roman Jakobson had a completely different theory, and one that I find really compelling, which is that when you have an infant, and they’re learning to use their mouth, they’re gonna start with the sounds that are the easiest to make. The very easiest sounds to make are exactly those sounds that you mentioned in Murdock’s paper.

Gretchen: Especially, you know, /a/ is very easy. You can scream it. Many other sounds aren’t very scream-able. Babies can scream it. And /ma/, /pa/ – the sounds that involve your lips – are very also easy to make – very straightforward for the baby to learn to make. It doesn’t involve as much control as using the tongue or further back in the throat. It’s just a straightforward open-and-close thing. You’re not trying to do bits of vibration, or bits of frication, or other types of more complicated things. And maybe the baby can see what their parents are doing – you can see when someone else is using their lips. He figured it’s kind of a property of babies, but it’s also a property of parents thinking, “I’m so important in my child’s life. Clearly, this baby’s saying my name.”

Lauren: It’s a self-reinforcing fact across generations where parents are like, “Oh” – take what is essentially a child babbling and learning how to use their mouth as – “They’re talking to me! They’re saying my name!”

Gretchen: “They’re saying my name!” Which I think is also beautifully human of us in a very different sort of way.

Lauren: Which is why even though we say the proper English names are “Mother” and “Father,” if you ask people what their children’s first words were, you’ll often get them to say, “Oh, she said ‘Mama,’” even though that’s not what we think of as the normal English term. We accept very low standards from children in those regards.

Gretchen: It’s very charming. It’s also interesting that “Mama” and “Papa” are a lot more common as first names than “Amam” and “Apap,” which are made out of the same sounds but putting a consonant and then a vowel is much –

Lauren: Easier.

Gretchen: Is much easier. And some languages don’t let you begin words with vowels. But every language will let you begin a word with a consonant and end it with a vowel. Or some languages won’t let you end a word with a consonant. But consonant-vowel is a good basic syllable in every language. /ma/ is a better word than /am/, and /pa /is a better word than /ap/ for babies to learn and for languages to produce. You don’t get “Apap” and “Amam.” You get “Mama” and “Papa.”

Lauren: I’m gonna go from talking about some of the most primary and parentally instinctual vocabulary about kinship to sharing some really cool stuff in Australian languages, because one thing I find really interesting is when you have a culture that, over time, manages to create these incredibly elaborate and complex kinship systems – I think, in some ways, our inability to process our word for “cousins” is potentially a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing, right? We don’t use these terms very much because we don’t really talk about or track our extended families very often in our culture.

Gretchen: Right, but in cultures where people are less likely to move to cities, and are more likely to have larger families, and continue living in the same villages with or areas with a lot of extended family around, it’s useful to distinguish between all these different kinds of relationships. Especially to prevent people from having kids with people who are too closely related to them, which is, you know, useful for the continuation of the human species and shows up in different cultures a lot.

Lauren: When you have cultures that have been together, living in close-knit, complex societies for generations and generations, you can get some really cool kinship stuff. And Australian languages seem particularly well-disposed to this. One thing that’s really nifty is people calculate “harmonic generations.” This is where – to use your family as an example of what a harmonic generation is – in some ways, your lineage of GG’s is an example of harmonic generations, where grandparent and grandchildren are treated with the same kin term or treated as being part of a cohort together.

Gretchen: Oh, that’s interesting. I mean, I guess it’s kind of the case in English in the sense that they both get the prefix “grand.” Whereas, you don’t have that for parent/child, mother/father, daughter/son. They don’t have the prefix. Whereas, grandchild/grandparent have a symmetrical prefix.

Lauren: So in the Waanyi language, the term for “grandparent” can actually be used reciprocally to refer to a grandchild as well. There’s a really nice paper on that that I’ll link to in the show notes. Another really interesting thing is all of the relationships we’ve been talking about so far have been about my relationship with another person or your relationship with another person. And a lot of kin terms, you start with the individual in the centre of the diagram, and you’re like – “my aunt” is about my relationship with this person. Or “my grandparent,” or “my grandchild,” is about my specific relationship with a specific individual. And then – my grandparent is not your grandparent because we are not related to each other.

Gretchen: That is true.

Lauren: Whereas, tri-relational kin terms are terms that encode three different relationships. There are reasons why these come into being, but I’ll give you an example of one first.

Gretchen: Okay, I can’t even visualise this right now.

Lauren: Well, the good thing is there is a visualisation. There’ll be a link to this article by Joe Blythe. In Murrinhpatha, there is a term that is used by a male speaker when talking to their son or daughter about the son or daughter’s grandmother on the other side of the family.

Gretchen: Okay, okay.

Lauren: It’s not saying – it’s not a word for “my mother-in-law.” And it’s not a word for “your grandmother.” It’s a word that specifically means –

Gretchen: “Your opposite-side grandmother.”

Lauren: “Your opposite-side grandmother.”

Gretchen: “Your grandmother who is not my mother.”

Lauren: Yes.

Gretchen: And is it a prefix that’s used for any of the relatives on that side?

Lauren: No, there are entirely different forms depending on different relationships – for your son or daughter’s maternal grandparent on the other side of the family. And the reason that tri-relational kin terms like this one evolve is because there are taboos within the culture on men being able to speak to or about their mother-in-law.

Gretchen: Okay.

Lauren: That explains that one. But there are other tri-relational kin terms that don’t have to do with these taboos. It’s just about triangulating everyone in the relationship.

Gretchen: I guess that makes sense in the sense that – so when I’m talking to, especially, younger relatives, like ones that are little kids, I might refer to my own mother as “Aunt Whatever” if I’m talking to my young cousin because I know that if this kid is two or something, they don’t quite understand how all of the complex kinship terms work. So I’m gonna use the one that places myself in their position.

Lauren: Yes.

Gretchen: Or especially, if you see a young child, and you’re like, “Where’s Mummy,” you don’t mean where’s your own mum, you mean where’s the child’s mum.

Lauren: Yeah, so we can do these triangulations. We just do them in our own head and position ourselves like the other person.

Gretchen: Right. And we don’t have an additional set of vocabulary for it.

Lauren: This is an entirely separate set of vocabulary to help navigate the three-way relationship.

Gretchen: Yeah, that’s really interesting.

Lauren: It’s super interesting.

Gretchen: I can definitely see why that would be useful in certain circumstances, especially if you have a complex network of kin.

Lauren: There are complex words that are encoded into the language that aren’t encoded into ours, but there are also examples in Australian languages where these things get encoded into the grammar as well. In Kayardild there is – coming back to this harmonic-generations thing. I will use a different pronoun if I’m talking about me and someone in my own generation, or me and my grandparent, compared to me and my father, or my child, because the father or child are not – they’re disharmonic generations. Whereas, my siblings and my grandparents and my grandchildren are my harmonic generations. So there are entirely different pronoun forms depending on whether I’m referring to a group of people in my harmonic generations or non-harmonic generations. There’s a whole paper on this that I really love from Nick Evans back in 2003 that I’ll link to. The thing I really love about it is that Evans refers to this kind of phenomenon as “kintax.”

Gretchen: “Kintax?” Oh, that’s really good!

Lauren: Where the kinship system is so ingrained into the language that it becomes part of the grammar.

Gretchen: The kinship system is in the syntax. It’s “kintax.”

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: That actually – it sounds like a kind of tax that – a fee that you impose upon your family a little bit.

Lauren: Only if you’re not thinking of it with your linguist brain.

Gretchen: Only if you’re not thinking with your linguist brain. “Kintax.” That’s really good. Another linguistic system that I find really interesting that encodes family relationships in a different sort of way is the situation in Icelandic. Icelandic speakers will have names like – you might get, like, “Leif Erikson,” who is the son of Erik the Red, which a famous Viking. And then –

Lauren: Oh, yeah, “Erik’s son.” Sorry, just have to point out the obvious.

Gretchen: Who’s, literally, “the son of Erik,” yeah. But then Leif’s son doesn’t become something-something-also-Erikson. He becomes, I don’t know, like, “Sven Leifson.” This system is vaguely familiar to English speakers because we have names like “Davidson,” and “Peterson,” and “Johnson,” and stuff like that that have the “son” in them. But they’re no longer active.

Lauren: There was a recent History of English podcast episode where Kevin Stroud looks at how this changes in the Middle English period. We did have – you would be “Christopher Robertson.” And then, you’d have “William Christopherson,” who would then be having children who were like, “Thomas Williamson.” But then, eventually, those names froze. The whole idea of surnames is really central to English and really weird to Icelandic people.

Gretchen: Yeah, whereas in Icelandic, all of these get created. You also have the equivalence of, you know, like, “Leif’s daughter.” She’s not gonna get the last name “Leifson.” She’s gonna be “Leifsdottir.”

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And in Icelandic, when you refer to someone, you know what their father’s name is, or sometimes their mother’s name – if they get named after their mother. They don’t have the custom of referring to people by their surname in formal contexts. Political leaders or dignitaries in Iceland – the correct formal way to refer to them is by their first name because the only context in which you would use “So-and-So’s son,” or “So-and-So’s daughter” is when you’re saying the full name, not as a replacement for their name.

Lauren: I love that everyone’s been on a name bender at the moment because, obviously, with an imminent human to name so have I. But there’s also a great Allusionist episode recently where Helen Zaltzman chats to some people in Iceland about their naming conventions and about the way that surnames aren’t static, but they change with each generation.

Gretchen: Yeah, and I found the Iceland thing really interesting because I realised that in the context where I’m figuring out who all my second cousin once-removeds are, I also generally know, when I’m introducing myself in a family reunion context, which of my family members I need to name in order for the person I’m talking to and I to figure out how we’re supposed to know each other.

Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: I don’t have this encoded in my name anywhere except for the fact that I happen to be named after my grandmother. But like – it’s part of conversation even in a more limited context.

Lauren: Yeah, going to family reunions or weddings, and then, I’m Lauren, “Chris’s daughter.”

Gretchen: Yeah, exactly. Or like, “Who are you here for in this wedding?” Like, “Which side of the wedding are you here for?” Even if you’re not a relative, you can be like, “Well, I’m So-and-So’s friend from university.”

Lauren: Yeah, that’s putting you in the extended non-kinship group.

Gretchen: Yeah, or like, at academic conferences, you’re like, “Oh, well, I’m So-and-So’s advisee.” And they’re like, “Oh, I know So-and-So.” Or like, the kind of extended networks.

Lauren: Humans have this need to triangulate where they sit within social relationships.

Gretchen: Yeah, absolutely. It’s also interesting – I was intrigued to learn when researching this episode that the word “sibling” in English is both fairly new and also very old.

Lauren: Hm, new in terms of its current use?

Gretchen: Yeah, so it comes from Old English. “Sib” is actually related to the word for “self.” But in Old English, “sibling” is just any family member. And then, in the early 1900s – 1903 – geneticists started talking about inheritance, and they were like, “Guys, it’s getting really annoying to keep saying ‘brothers and/or sisters’ this whole time. It’d be really great if we had a gender-neutral term for this umbrella category because inheritance doesn’t care.” And so they reached into Old English and pulled out this term that had meant “any relative” and started using it to mean “brother and/or sister.”

Lauren: Useful.

Gretchen: I was like, “This seems like a totally unremarkable word for me. It’s totally part of my active vocabulary. I didn’t acquire it when I was ten, like third cousin once-removed.” And yet, it’s a surprisingly recent innovation.

Lauren: I didn’t realise it was that recent. But one recent-ish innovation that I’ve enjoyed bringing into my vocabulary is a word on analogy, which is, instead of saying “nieces and nephews” all the time, saying “niblings.”

Gretchen: That’s fantastic. I like “niblings” a lot.

Lauren: Which has the double benefit of being cute. It was first used in a 1951 article by a linguist who was talking about kinship terms across languages and was like, “Look, a gender neutral-term like ‘sibling’ is really handy, so I’m just gonna coin ‘nibling’ while we’re at it.”

Gretchen: That’s great. I’ve also been seeing some people who are non-binary or gender queer trying to come up with terms for like, “Oh, well, one of my siblings is having a child. I want that kid to call me something, but I don’t want to be called ‘Aunt’ or ‘Uncle’ What other term can I come up with here?” I’ve seen a couple examples. I don’t think there’s one “nibling” go-to yet, but there’s a bunch of options like “pibling,” “parent-sibling.”

Lauren: Oh, I like “pibling.”

Gretchen: It’s kind of cute. It works very well in analogy or portmanteaus like “Auntle” or “Ancle.” I’ve seen “Unty,” which is like “Uncle” and “Aunty.” Or “Titi,” which is, I think, based on the Spanish – “Tio” and “Tia” are used for “Uncle” and “Aunt,” respectively. “Titi” is combining those. Or “Zizi,” similarly, for “Zio” and “Zia,” which is the Italian equivalent.

Lauren: And we’ve seen lots of examples of individual families innovating terms. I feel like if the system isn’t working for you within kinship, making it work for you and your family, however it’s structured, is a great idea.

Gretchen: Yeah, I think it’s very easy to make it to catch on in an individual family because if you tell a kid, “Here’s what to call me,” the kid doesn’t know any different. It works great for grandparents, and I think it should work really well for other family members as well. It’ll be interesting to keep following that,   because maybe in another generation or two, people will be like, “What do you mean ‘pibling’ was only invented in the 2000’s? It’s clearly part of my active vocabulary. You mean ‘nibling,’ and ‘pibling,’ and ‘sibling,’ were all once innovative?” Which I think is a really interesting corner of the lexicon.

[Music]

Gretchen: For more Lingthusiasm, and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or wherever else you get your podcasts. And you can follow @Lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. You can get IPA scarves, IPA ties, and other Lingthusiasm merch at lingthusiasm.com/merch. I can be found as @GretchenAMcC on Twitter, my blog is AllThingsLingustic.com.

Lauren: I tweet and blog as Superlinguo. To listen to bonus episodes, ask us your linguistics questions, and help keep the show ad-free, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website. Recent bonus topics include: hyperforeignisms, multilingual babies, and a Q&A with both of us. You can also help us pick the next topic by becoming a patron. If you can’t afford to pledge, that’s okay too. We really appreciate it if you could recommend Lingthusiasm to anyone who needs a little more linguistics in their life.

Gretchen: Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne, our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producers are A. E. Prevost and Sarah Dopierala, our editorial manager is Emily Gref, and our production assistants are Celine Yoon and Fabianne Anderberg, and our music is by The Triangles.

Lauren: Stay lingthusiastic!

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[forsythiias]

hey ! i’m rachel. i’m 20 - almost 21 ! - she / her pronouns, gmt timezone ( i live in ireland and spend like a week in england every month at this rate . u guys will get used to it ). a fun fact abt me is that i spoke to hugh jackman & gave him a wolverine pin rly recently . that’s all i got . anyway. i’m playing jellybean jones, the baby of the fp jones fam ! she’s my absolute KID and i would LOVE to plot , so please feel free to shoot me a message or smash that like button and i’ll come at you in the not so distant future. 

⌜   genderfluid, she / they / he   |   out of time by the rolling stones, the local record store, the pop culture fiend   ⌟   ⏤   hey, isn’t that FORSYTHIA PARTHENIA JONES? the NINETEEN year old SOUTH SIDER has lived in town for their WHOLE LIFE, and has always denied their resemblance to DIANA SILVERS. they’ve been a STUDENT & WAITRESS for a while now, and i guess it makes sense - they’ve always seemed so TENACIOUS & INDIVIDUALISTIC, though i have heard that they can be pretty GARRULOUS & ACERBIC. did you hear about how they SOLD JACKED CARS IN TOLEDO TO PUT THEMSELVES THROUGH COLLEGE? i always knew that there was something up with them. you can check out her pinterest board HERE and her stat page HERE.

you can CHANGE the world, girl,                                     you really, truly can.

part one of three : bullet point history. trigger warnings for talk of infant health issues.

august fifth, 2000. it was a sticky autumn night when FORSYTHIA PARTHENIA JONES entered the world with a pitiful cry. the only daughter of two south siders, gladys and fp, and the younger sister of a one jughead jones, she wasn’t born to MUCH ; which made all that she did have matter all the more. a mother and a father who loved her? check. an older brother she would someday idolize and love like no other in the world? double check. a small ventricular septal defect, discovered only after her birth? triple check.

forsythia was, it seemed, destined to be a sickly child. her first few months were dotted with trips to the emergency room and visits to a local doctor, something always seeming to be wrong. infant colic was ten times worse. she caught a chill when she was two weeks old and needed to spend a WEEK in the icu because of the resulting chest infection. the doctors who treated her at birth had been confident over time that the hole in her heart - jellybean shaped, on the very first ultrasound - would close by itself, as many do. hers, however, didn’t. as she got older, the effects became more pronounced. she kept catching chest infections. she couldn’t seem to put on weight. breathing was, at times, a struggle. and she was SLEEPIER than any baby they had ever known before. the original plan had been to wait and see and hope that her tiny heart healed on it’s own. at ten months old, it became apparent that this would never happen ; and the surgery was scheduled. 

your baby is supposed to be PERFECT. she isn’t supposed to take ill every few days and ultimately be wheeled into a room for open heart surgery. it was likely a very harrowing experience, and those first few months of her life were understandably marred - but if there had ever been any doubts before, it became clearer than day when she came out of surgery that the youngest jones was a FIGHTER, through and through. they’d been prepared for a month long wait to bring her home again - it ended up being a fortnight. she didn’t cry, after. she didn’t FUSS. it was as if she had known that the first little while had been tough, and was trying her hardest to make all of their lives that little bit easier. lord knew that the jones’ needed it, especially when the stress of all that was going on with her had combined with their bills. 

now affectionately named jellybean for the defect she had survived, she grew into a remarkably NORMAL child. there were differences, of course, between her and the kids that she grew up surrounded by - she required regular checkups, she needed to dress extra warmly in winter, and she always got that little bit more wiped out than everybody else - but anyone told the story behind the scar in the middle of her chest gaped in shock. the girl who swung from the lower boughs of the trees at the edge of sunnyside trailer park and sprinted after her friends at full speed had once had a hole in her heart? impossible. that sort of health issue was reserved for those with a lot less life in them than the high spirited girl that jellybean became known as being, and never once did she allow it to define her. she was a SPITFIRE, pure and simple, and she’s proud to say that never once did she let herself sit out of an experience just because she was worried about what would happen if she partook.

life was not all sunshine and adventure, though. not every child notices the cracks in their home life appearing. jellybean didn’t. not until the rug was pulled right from under her feet. to her wide eyed and rose colored self, everything seemed to happen overnight. one day, they were happy. the next, her dad was an alcoholic and she and her mum were in transit to toledo, where they would move in with stony faced grandparents who treated her with corporate coldness. she didn’t understand the why of it all - couldn’t have even hoped to, when she was still so young. the reality of her father losing his job and their lives going to shit thanks to it didn’t sink in. all she knew was that she had lost the father she idealized and the big brother that she had always wanted to BE. 

she spoke to them both on the phone, of course. she was even lucky to see jughead a couple times, though their grandparents never wanted to hear about it afterwards, no matter how excited she was. it must have been jarring for him the first time he turned up to find that the pigtailed little girl who loved kids pop that he remembered had sheared her hair and was now listening strictly to pink floyd and other classics. but none of it was the same. not really. it wasn’t having her family together. to say that her drastic transformation might have stemmed from a place of resentment towards whatever forces were at play in ruining her family - that starting to go by JB, so similar to the FP that her nana and granddad refused to allow be mentioned around them might’ve been an act of defiance - wouldn’t have been incorrect. she wanted things to go back to normal. the fact that they didn’t killed her.

and they never really did. she and her mom returned to riverdale, a new opportunity spotted, but things never went back to how they had been before. she learned not to talk about it, though - and now she’s older, wiser, and she knows how to hide her feelings behind an easy bluff. there’s nothing to do but make the most of what she does have, right? a new brother. a new life. a new self. she has to stop dwelling on what she used to have, she supposes ; though sometimes, it hurts to think about what she’s lost. 

part two of three : headcanons.

jellybean is gonna be a lawyer someday, but she NEVER really wanted to be one. her dream from ages 3 to 11, she wanted to be a princess. she overheard some of the older serpents sarcastically referring to the jones family as royalty, and she really chose to run with it - refusing to take off a makeshift crown for the first month and getting called princess jellybean by her father for the next few years. after that phase had passed, though, she found her real passion - and for most of living memory, she’s wanted to own a record store. nothing too extravagant, really, just a first floor, one room sorta deal - she’d plaster the walls with posters of the greats and keep the merchandise in crates resting on rickety tables, and every friday night she’d hold a jams night where people could come and lounge around the floor on beanie bags, listening to some of their favorites. she had it all planned, and it’s still something of a dream - but if there’s one thing that jones’ family knows how to do, it’s sacrifice their dreams for harsh reality. with penny peabody DISGRACED, the serpents and southsiders in general need someone who knows them to represent them, when things go to trial, and feeling a sense of duty to the people she was raised around, jb bit the bullet and stepped up. she’s got a love for arguing and a knack for winning, so much so that god HELP whoever goes against her in a courtroom, someday.

she has yet to officially join the serpents ( her parents wouldn’t approve of it, for one, not now, and there’s a whole host of OTHER reasons ) - but jb went right ahead and got a tattoo on her right hand anyway, cause as a jones, she’s still serpent adjacent. the only difference between the picture linked and the one she has is that hers is done in white ink - her way of keeping things lowkey while still honoring her heritage.

miss her with a motorbike. they’re COOL and all, but jb values her life a little bit too much to trust a two wheeled death trip waiting to happen. she’s more into classic cars, anyway, and has pretty recently invested in the frame of a 1979 pontiac gto from the scrapyard that she plans on fixing up to perfection.

her style is southside meets cute. of course she loves her leather and fishnet combos - but jb is ALSO a huge fan of dungarees and sloganed t-shirts in a whole assortment of colors. anything ‘edgy’ she wears ( big boots, mesh tops, the list .. could go on ) gets coupled with something a little less so ( pink scrunchies, colorful makeup, a disney bag … again, the list could go on ), and that makes her her.

and finally, for now, cause i’m not sure i’ve done a good job of conveying it - jellybean is a good kid. she REALLY, truly is. she’s got some bite to her ( enough of a short fuse that it’s advisable not to test her limit ) & wouldn’t be her fathers daughter if she DIDN’T, but she’s also genuinely sweet. being a serpent doesn’t equal being a bitch, and so long as people out there treat her with respect, she’ll do the SAME. jb doesn’t turn unless she’s given reason to … and if they do, she won’t hold back.

part three of three : wanted connections.

fp & gladys jones ! 

kids from the south ( or north ) side that are in or around the same age, who jellybean would have grown up with / went to school with !! they might have reconnected after she returned to riverdale and now know her as who she’s become, but they also might be people who she lost contact with for a LONG TIME and who never got to see her post transformation - any and all variance on this wc would be fun!

anyone attending carson college who she might, maybe, rub shoulders with !!  i’d love the most mundane of connections - maybe they sit with each other during lunch, or they help each other study, or one time, jb dropped a book on their head in the library and they’ve been friends / enemies since! gimme anything !

regulars at pops / the speakeasy. 

so .. she’s pretty self sufficient, and she’s paying her way in terms of college by working shifts at pops and picking up extras in the speakeasy. she’d know a lot of people from that, i’d wager, and i’m sure she has her favorites!

more people southside serpent adjacent who she can play off of !! one of jb’s goals in life is to become an OFFICIAL member of the gang, which she hasn’t yet - but she is something of a southside princess, and that means she’d know most of them in some way!

p much anything else !

[romomele1970-blog]

A lot of people wouldn't recognize those things as daddy issues but l, speaking as a woman who has her own, I can recognize them from a mile away. You stop and listen to men talk about their own feelings (or avoid talking about them) and learn about their family dynamics, you can get a pretty vivid picture. Some of those guys have done a lot of healing, a lot of them won't ever heal because they refuse to get to the root of their pain.. If it's just a couple hundreds of people, I'd take it with grain of salt, but 53k isn't a small number. The meme, which tries to convey how bad Shingetsutan is, doesn't reflect in that specific number. While there are much more viewers out there, but if we were to limit the number down to those 53,000 people, you can see how they feel 남원출장마사지 about it.. We get to this one house and I knock on and say my piece, still in my school uniform from that day. The guy whose house it is was about 60 years old and listens to my sponsor plea and looks at me dead on and says, 'I'd do anything for a girl in uniform'. My neighbour swiftly marched me away.. I looking at the Rieker website now maybe I have no taste but I do like some of their shoes! But I have large feet for a woman and generally like masculine shoe styles. Bass, which is only in the US so I have to scope out the stores when I down in the States for cat shows lmao. Really nice quality shoes and very reasonable pricing. Yeah, teaching can be a bear, but learning AP World History is no stroll down some 15th century promenade, either. During the 2017 2018 school year, students got three hours and 15 minutes to take the final exam, which included a 95 minute multiple choice and short answer section and a 100 minute free response section. Sample questions touched on ancient Mesopotamia, the Mauryan dynasty of India and a quote from Chinese philosopher Xunzi, none of which would be included on future exams if the Board sticks with its current plan. The 9 year olds who loved Frozen in 2013 are 15 now. They'd cringe at another fluffy Olaf teaser. A large scale action adventure might reel them in.. Would also chime in that in certain circumstances social workers need to take a step back. If a clients behaviors are self destructing and have consequences (ie eviction) who are we to not let life happen? There is a fine line between helping and enabling. Certain rules and behaviors need to be abided by to maintain stable housing. I am so sorry for your loss, please 남원출장마사지 do not believe there is causation between your dreams and the loss of a loved one. Being psychic takes it toll on your well being (my nana sees loved ones passing through a card reading a lot). Your precognition did not cause the events to unfold and I would love for you to take your time to heal from this, spend time away from spells and focus on meditation if that helps, and above all look after yourself. I thought I had low brows and then I got microblading and she mapped where my brows were "supposed" to be. This entailed tweezing of the ends basically and microblading them tails up higher. I think they look way better and my eye is more open and looks younger. Next, I was diagnosed with Hashis and my doctor told me "no more gluten". It been 2 months and my face isn AS bad but nowhere near the progress that less than a week gave me on a low carb, keto diet. Also, I have substantial KP on my arms, now to my forearms, upper back of thighs, and buttocks.

[woodedcove]

Waiting for the Blessing

Mom, Dad, Nana and Gaga

Since the age of fourteen, I had wanted to be married. Ever since I had received the Gospel of Jesus Christ and understood that marriage can be eternal and families can be forever, it was one of the greatest desires of my heart. So I prayed about it.

Time passed. I left home and went to CalArts, received my BFA, and started working in the animation industry. I had boyfriends and even a couple of relationships that were fairly serious. But when my parents asked me whether any of these young men were “the one”, if I looked down deep into my heart, I knew they weren’t.

"The one" had a special meaning in my family. See, when I grew up I heard the story about how my Grandfather first saw my Grandmother at the boarding house that was run by her aunt and how, without knowing her, my Grandfather told his brother that she was the one he was going to marry. He finally got my Grandmother’s attention when he sat down at the boarding house piano and played “The Rustic Dance”. He just knew she was "the one". They met and the rest was history. 

A similar thing happened when my Dad met my Mom. He was a traveling salesman selling school supplies and my Mom was a teacher at an elementary school. Dad had just finished his presentation and was putting away his materials in a room adjacent to my Mom’s classroom. He had the radio blaring while he packed up, so my Mom came in and told him off for disrupting her class. Later, after her class was dismissed, she came back and apologized. They ended up talking for hours, so long, in fact, that my Grandfather drove over to the school to check on her because she hadn’t come home. Before she left my Dad asked my Mom out on a date and she said yes, but she didn’t tell him where she lived. She figured if he wanted to go out with her, he would figure it out. So, on that fateful night, my Dad drove three and a half hours from L.A. to the tiny town of Orange Cove in thick San Joaquin Valley tule fog, found my Mom and they went out on their first date. They went out for Chinese food and after they ate, my Dad proposed to my Mom because he knew she was "the one." She accepted. 

Both were beautiful romantic stories about how they just knew “the one” when they met. I guess I thought I would have the same experience.  But, no. Not even in the slightest.

One summer, while I was still going to CalArts, my friend and roommate and I worked for an amusement park called 6 Flags Magic Mountain. I remember one night, while we were munching down some McDonalds, she was lamenting about not having a boyfriend. Only a few days later she met a guy named Dave. Nice guy. Talented. Funny. Cute. They hit it off and it seemed her prayer had been answered. She wanted me to get to know him so she introduced us to each other and we became friends. They ended up getting married, but after several years my friend decided she wanted to end the marriage. Dave was pretty devastated but he slowly got over it and moved on. Meanwhile, we were still friends. Now and then we would go fishing or stargazing or just get together, have lunch and gab. I would tell him my latest adventures in dating he would do the same. He also watched over me, took me to the hospital, or brought me home from procedures. It was comfortable being around Dave. We were buds.

Dave with Applets and Cotlets.

On the way to the Swan Princess wrap party.

Meanwhile, at church, I remember hearing a talk about prayer and the phrase “weary the Lord” with your request stuck in my mind. Okay, I thought, I’ll just pray for a husband until the Lord blesses me with one. So, morning, noon, and night I prayed for a husband. I prayed with sincerity and I'm sure I tried to present my case from every angle like a little kid trying to convince their mom of the reason they really needed a new X-Box. It didn’t take long before my social life brought me into contact with a bunch of guys that ... had issues.  Among those men was a stalker. No really, a bonified stalker who knew everything about me before I had ever even met him. I went out on one date with the guy. When he took me home he hugged me. That was okay, but then he didn’t want to let go. Thankfully, my roommates at the time had a dog who started barking at the door. When one of my roommates opened the door he finally let me go. He called a few days later and asked when my roommates would be out. Fortunately, he took the hint when I told him I didn’t want to see him again. I had another guy who was married but had decided that I was his soulmate so he started sending me videos in which he talked about what our life together would be like. And I had another fellow, about forty years older than me who had emphysema and was on oxygen. He had a “revelation” that I was supposed to be his wife. Funny, Heavenly Father didn’t tell me about that. That was when I stopped praying for a husband. Instead, I waited.

While I waited, I learned some important things about getting along with people. The first thing was that “bridling “ my tongue was a really good thing to do. I learned that, once the words were out of my mouth and they’ve injured someone, I had no control of when that person would forget or heal from what I had said. Even if I apologized, the wound is still there. It is always better to wait, pray, and try to calm down, then say what needs to be said. Most of the time I found I didn’t need to say anything and then I was so glad that I kept my mouth shut.

Dave with Bear

Another thing I learned was that, even though we all speak “English” in America, it doesn’t mean we’re speaking the same language. People and Families, communities, and regions have different ways of using words. Meanings of the same word can change and baggage can be attached to a word or a phrase that will press a person’s buttons and send them off in a rage. So I had to be careful. If something I said made someone else angry, then instead of reacting, I needed to humbly ask what I said that made them angry. There may be a miscommunication and by doing this I could avoid an argument and possibly damaging a relationship. These lessons were vital for me to learn if I was to maintain any form of relationship, but they were especially important for a marital relationship.

When I was forty-three I was given a wonderful opportunity to move to Utah and teach at BYU. I took the job and as I was packing my friend Dave came to lend a hand. When the time came for him to leave, we hugged each other and he asked me to please not get married to some idiot within the first six months of being Utah. I promised I wouldn’t, and he left. The next day I grabbed my cat and a couple of friends and set off in a caravan made of one CRV and one Uhaul truck. After I was in Utah and unpacked, my friends had left and the only familiar face living in Provo was my cat’s, I started to wonder what the heck I was doing there. I had some pretty long conversations with Dave as I tried to overcome culture shock. My friend of 23 years was someone I missed and it felt good to talk to him. Then I went back to L.A. for Thanksgiving and Dave and I began to realize that we might have something more going on than friendship.

Dave visits me in Utah.

We talked about what kept us from taking our relationship further and one of the reasons was religion. Dave offered to convert to my church, but being a member of my church is not a good idea if you don’t know what you’re getting into. When a person is baptized, they make a promise to the Lord that they are going take upon them His name and do their best to keep his commandments. It's important to understand what those commandments are before committing to such a promise. At the same time, a lot of people who, while well-meaning (at least some are) have very wrong ideas about what we believe. I also have had quite a bit of literature given to me telling me I was going to hell because of things I supposedly believed and bigotry born of misinformation was not uncommon. In the end, Dave offered to go to church with me and I have tried not to push him. So, at age forty-four, I was finally married. And you know what? When I asked myself the very same question my parents used to ask me, it felt right. Why? Because Dave was “the one”.

What it all comes down to is this. The Lord knew what I desired. He knew the importance of marriage even more than I did. But He also knew that there were things that I needed to learn if I was going to have a lasting relationship. And perhaps there were things that Dave needed to learn as well. So though the Lord knew what I wanted, He also knew the timing in which things needed to happen and what I needed to learn along the way. 

It can be so hard to wait when you’re lonely and when it seems everyone has someone but you. It can be so hard to be patient when there’s a dream that you’re chasing but it always stays just one step out of your reach. But the Lord sees the big picture as well as the microscopic picture. He knows the beginning to the end. He wasn’t punishing me (though I sometimes wondered if He was) He just knew what best for me. I’m not alone in this. The scriptures are replete with examples of people who have had to wait on the Lord. But when they waited, they were always blessed with something even greater than what they hoped for. 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a man who is an apostle in my church, said this:

“Patience is a process of perfection. The Savior Himself said that in your patience you possess your souls. (Luke 21:19) Or, to use another translation of the Greek text, in your patience you win mastery of your souls.  Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most. This was true in the time of the Savior. It is true in our time as well, for we are commanded in these latter days to ‘continue in patience until ye are perfected.’” (Doctrine and Covenants 67:13)

Again, the Lord loves us. He loves us so much that He wants to give us the righteous desires of our hearts. But those blessings need to happen in His time because that is when it will be best for us. I can’t imagine being with anyone other than Dave. He’s my best friend and my sweetheart all rolled into one. All I had to do was wait.

[legendofgrump]

For the ask meme- Snail: 12, 17, 50; Andy: 15, 20, 44; Rory: 1, 14, 26, 56; Cookie: 2, 29, 40; Lyar: 3, 7, 30, 45; Wolf: 14, 19, 24, 31; Ant: 43, 51; Gigi: 5, 23. Hope that's not too much, hahaha

never too many! I’m excited to go all in for this~ (I’ll put it under a cut because its soooo loooong haha)

Ask questions for my OCs!!

Snail

12. How would/does your character feel about roller coasters?

Haha Snail looooves roller coasters! They don’t get spooked by them at all really and they love to get onto them and scream super loud just for the fun of it. They almost always throw their arms up too. The only ones they don’t like are the ones that just go around in a bunch of circles (because it makes them feel super sick) and the boats that like go upside down and way too high up and shit because those are wild and SHOULDN’T EXIST.

17. Does your character have any irrational fears?

Those boat rides at amusement parks haha. Also they don’t particularly like elevators, especially glass ones. The way they move makes them feel a little...almost...lightheaded? And if they can see all the shit below them as it goes up it just makes it all worse. So it also kinda translates into a fear of heights, but it really only manifests in elevators. (Can you tell I’m talking from experience haha)

50. What is your favorite thing about your character?

Aww uh so much because they’re basically a self-insert haha. I mean, I really like their general laid-back aesthetic. And I really love how buff they are while still be soft and chubby. And I respect their confidence, even though it’s mostly outward and they have a lot of internal shit they need to work on haha.

Andy

15. What music genre would your character listen to?

Both on totally different ends of the spectrum: EDM and love songs! Andy really likes the heart and soul that goes into making love songs and of course they’re a hopeless romantic. But they also really just like the energy from EDM and its good to listen to when they’re trying to get things done and be productive!

20. What is the most surprising thing about your character?

Apparently they like EDM ;). But seriously I mean I’d have to say their origin I guess? I mean, it’s so hard to tell from how they act after they got socialized by their friends and (especially) Daniyal that they were made in a heavily capitalized industry that wanted them to be a living sex doll. And also all the abuse they faced in that time of their life, because they don’t see that it was abuse and so they don’t really seem “conventionally” affected by it. But if they told anyone what happened the other person would most likely be like “yo what the fuck” because stuff that happened then is Pretty Fucked Up.

44. What is your character proud of?

Andy is constantly proud of Daniyal!! The two of them are growing together all the time and they really love and respect how far he comes with conquering his fears and being better to himself and all. And after Zelda is born, they’re super proud of her too! Andy is very family-oriented so if there’s one thing they constantly talk about its their loved ones!

Rory

1. What is your character's biggest fear?

Some of these questions get real dark whoops. His biggest fear is honestly himself. Since he has the ability to see people’s death, but never really had the ability to come to terms with it, he struggles a lot with it. He doesn’t have any explanation for the ability, so he doesn’t know if he’s the one that triggers those events or if he has some ability to change it. And he’s also afraid of wasting that time he has with someone and trying to make every moment perfect, so when something goes wrong he feels like he failed.

14. What is the cutest thing your character has ever done?

When he was really little and lived with his Nana he used to hide under their kitchen table and considered that like his Fort. And he would hang out under there and play or make things and when his Nana walked by sometimes he’d pop out and surprise her with a big hug because he’s a big lovable boy. I think it’s really cute~ But he also calls Daniyal Daffodil which is a REALLY close second because G O D.

26. What is your favorite headcanon for your character?

Personally, it’s that he pierced his own ear with a cattle tag to make the other cows feel better about the fact that he had to put them on them too. When he first started farming cattle, he wanted them to know that they could trust him and that there was a sense of respect between him and all of them, so he felt like that if they were going to have to get tagged, then he might as well tag himself in an act of solidarity sorta. Haha he’s a big dweeb that loves his moo babies.

56. What's one of your character's quirks?

Well I mean he can see the moment people die that’s a pretty big quirk. But on a lighter note, since Rory can’t see he relies on his other senses obviously, but his favorite one is smell! He loves becoming familiar with smells! And he can 100% identify tons of things by their smell, like Daniyal or Andy (or most any of his friends honestly) and he even really likes the smell of cow, which probably isn’t that pleasant to most people.

Cookie

2. What is your character's favorite memory?

I think it’d be pretty hard for him to pick just one in particular, but anytime he worked in the kitchen with his mom would be something he looked back on fondly. No matter what, Cookie and his mom always bond and have a great time in the kitchen together and he finds cooking to be a very relaxing hobby anyway, so its always a fun, light, chill experience. Plus it’s just a really good time for them to talk and share stories and laugh with each other and it’s super good for both of them~

29. What would be your character's favorite food?

He’s definitely a baked goods boy~ I would think it’d probably be something like banana bread (his mom’s recipe because Of Course) because it seems like something he and his mom make together a lot. It’s probably a comfort food that he makes whenever he’s feeling down or when he wants to bring someone else’s mood up. And it always reminds him of home~

40. What would be your character's favorite school subject?

Cookie has a really good memory (unless he’s in Panic Mode) and he’s got a great knack for pneumonic devices so he’s actually really really good at history. But his FAVORITE subject was probably science, especially Biology/Zoology because he loves learning about animals. He’s not super science-minded, but he always loved learning things that would just make him go :O

Lyar

3. What is your character's least favorite memory?

Any kind of grooming his parents did to get him into the political realm. He hate hate hates formal dinner parties where he has to be nice and prim and proper with everyone. He doesn’t like Events or dances or anything where he has to wear attire for someone else. Not to say he doesn’t like to dress up, but he doesn’t like to wear it because someone expects him to or because if he doesn’t it’ll offend someone. He likes to do it because he wants to, y’know?

7. How does your character feel about their name?

Interesting...I feel like he likes it well enough. He’s kind of become numb to it, where he answers out of habit more than actually identifying with the name. But he doesn’t have any desire to change it, necessarily. Sometimes he’ll tell people different names when he introduces himself just because he’s a compulsive liar, but he never sticks to the same one and he just picks names off the top of his head not for any particular reason.

30. Would your character have any hobbies?

He really likes fashion!!! He loves seeing different ways of dress and style! He’s fascinated with makeup and jewelry too, just because they’re kind of like additional pieces to outfits. He likes to dress himself up, but he also really likes dressing other people and trying to make them look The Best. He’s extremely creative in this regard, too.

45. What would your character change about themselves?

He’d completely remove himself from the public eye, that’s for sure. He hates that everyone knows him as The Diplomat’s Son. He doesn’t want to be known and he sure as hell doesn’t want to be known for political affiliation. He prefers to be kind of faceless, just like an average someone that no one really bats an eye at.

Wolf

14. What is the cutest thing your character has ever done?

He wags his tail when he’s happy! And he’s actually very paternal, too. He’s very soft and loving around little kids (especially his little siblings) whereas he’s usually kind of cold and aloof in an attempt to not get anyone too close to him emotionally. But he will 100% go out of his way to protect, care for, and make sure little kids are happy. Which isn’t really like a Specific Thing he’s done, but it’s still really really cute.

19. What is your character's deepest, darkest secret?

Probably Fang. Not that he doesn’t necessarily want people to know about them, but the wound that losing them made is still so fresh and makes him so vulnerable that he doesn’t like to talk about it. He doesn’t like the very real possibility that people can use his loss and his feelings toward Fang to manipulate him and he’d much rather deal with the heartbreak and trauma on his own than risk opening up to someone and having it bite him in the ass, if that makes sense.

24. What prejudices does your character have

He actually has an extreme disposition of falling in love with vampires. He is pretty much almost exclusively attracted to vampires and he honestly couldn’t tell you why, probably wouldn’t even make the connection if no one pointed it out to him, it’s just his personal preference.

31. What social media would your character use?

Wolf would probably feel most at home on tumblr. It’s like a place where outcasts don’t have to be outcasts so.

Ant

43. What is your character insecure about?

Their level of usefulness. Ant very much measures their worth in how useful other people perceive them to be. If they feel like they don’t provide anything to a situation their brain starts to bombard them with insecurities about why they’re even there or what their purpose even is, so they feel much better when they have a sense of belonging.

51. What is your character's favorite animal?

Ant is more of an insect person soooo unsurprisingly ants. If they had to pick an “actual animal” probably rabbits. They like wild rabbits because they just eat grass and shit and are kinda skittish and fluffy. But ants are definitely the preferred haha.

Gigi

5. Describe your character's dream date.

Gigi’s dream date is Definitely Not With a Girl (totally with a girl) where she gets taken out for dinner and dancing. Gigi LOVES dancing so much, especially swing dance. (I’m probably mixing eras at this point but who caaares.) And she also loves comfy diners and that cliched sharing a milkshake trope because it’s Super Romantic. And then she’d love to finish it out with a movie at the drive in where they could hold hands and maybe (gasp) cuddle in the comfort of their car while they watch some romantic drama movie.

23. Is your character morally gray or black or white?

Well she’d like to believe she’s always morally on the Right Side. But she’s also fairly bigoted because of her background. I mean, she’s from a time period of active segregation and heavy, heavy racism and homophobia/transphobia (even more so than today yikes) and she’s a very socialized young white girl, so she’s conditioned to believe a lot of things that aren’t actually good to believe. It takes a lot of learning for her to even get on the right track (and a lot of self-discovery) but she does work toward correcting herself as she becomes more educated. But yeah, she’s definitely morally gray in that respect.

[gocchisama]

Thorns x Roses : Story of Moriya Akane (守屋茜）

Sometime the first impression is the right one. Is it what you call love at first sight? In Moriya Akane’s case, i absolutely didn’t noticed her when Nogi’s sister group hold their first press conference. Not someone who stun you with their beauty like Shirashi Mai, or would give this cuteness vibe like Nakai Rika from NGT48. But Moriya Akane, Akanen, has unveiled herself as one of the fiercest, most well rounded character in Keyakizaka46. Her lean figure bloomed like a rose and her hate of losing is sharp, like thorns. She is the blade of Keyakizaka.

”Even if it’s life most severe, most painful thing, there will be no regrets. If i say Ok, let’s do this one more time, i will certainly do it” - Moriya Akane

There has been many hints of Akanen trait. First, in Keyakitte, Kakenai video introduction, she proudly shows off her tennis awards and certificates. In her “jibun history” (my story), she shows her old video winning a judo battle against a girl bigger her size. This girl likes to win. But was it always like that? Well not really, in a recent BUBKA interview, she said at first she wasn’t particulary mad at losing, but she changed when entering Keyakizaka.

Akanen was 17 when passing Keyakizaka audition, and as every japanese highschooler, she had to make a choice after graduation. It was a tough decision between going to the audition or going to college. While her family and friends were concerned of her choice, she didn’t wavered and took Keyakizaka audition. Since there was so much at stake, she was determined to give it her all as a member, thus explaining her “hate to lose” character. She also started to be self-aware of her apparence and professionnal attitude, learning make up or how to appeal to fan (she already knew her catchphrase). At the very debut of Silent majority, people noticed her change. “you give me a strong feeling” they said. Exactly, for akanen, it wasn’t college activities. To her, Keyakizaka is “work”.

“Akanen is the kind of girl you would think twice before approaching”

But as the fanbase grew larger, different opinions emerged. “You are kind of scary” “You are S, are you?(sadistic)” “You’re a tryhard fisher”. Akanen realized that being sharp was a double edged sword, that would put some fans off because she would look unproachable. Not only she has the beauty that makes wota think “she’s too pretty, i have 0 chance” and the attitude “if i talk to her she will feel i’m weak and i will be rejected”. As a matter of fact, she is not the easy-going type. Once again, there was a choice to make at the debut of “Sekai ni wa Ai shikanai” promotion. Either she would tone down, and hang over the cute field as a try, or she would pursue her “serious” character and definitively be recognized from it. Things have been decided during the “karai queen (spicy)” challenge when she ate a whole bowl of spicy tofu, to the point of crying right after. She doesn’t like spicy food, but she doesn’t like losing even more. For the first time, Akanen stole the show through determination.

It was a significative impact. Imaizumi Yui was known as the best singer, Sugai Yuuka had this lady personality, Neru was the most intelligent and Yurina was the Wondergirl. Despite the minor drawback, Akanen stayed true to herself and showed her ferocious competitive character. It was the best choice because no one in Keyakizaka had claimed the “strong type”. Her individuality was set in stone, and it was just the beginning. There was no guarantee it would work, but Akanen took it anyway. Because it fits her the most.

”When the time comes to do it, i’ll do it. And when i do it, i win.” - Akanen

What became an hot topic was the famous sports festival episode, when Akanen was the captain of the “serious team” against Yuuka’s team. Akanen not only displayed her natural sense of competition but was also credited as viable leader, pumping up her team spirit and lifting their morale. In a young group as Keyakizaka, a leader/sempai is often mandatory for the group cohesion. Throwing some taunts at the other team to make things funny, shaking her teammates up when they were questioning their ability to win, Joking with the MC to loosen up the tight atmosphere; once again Akanen shone in her natural environnement : competition. But what probably was the turning point was the last sprint against the second fastest member, Koyabashi Yui, where she managed to bite few meters on her but eventually lost by half a feet.

Not only you could feel from the screen she put everything on this sprint, raising the excitement to the max, but you also witnessed Akanen bursting into tears from losing to Yuipon. What could be seen as a bad loser attitude ( being fair play, you would shake hands with the winner) but in the case of Moriya, it was more of a genuine reaction for deceiving her teammates at the last second. Even though it was obvious she got paired up with the weakest members ( Yuuka’s team had Neru AND Koyabashi), even though she was like 6 meters behind, she blamed it all on herself. On her own incapacity to bring victory.

Fans felt sympathy toward Akanen and praised her strong will. The cold, hard to approach Akanen vanished to make way to Akanen, the girl who do everything with passion. Her being fired up is actually fuel for others to do their best, and her presence in Keyakizaka took another meaning.

“If it’s for my beloved teammates, i will do everything” - Moriya Akane 

She can be seen as harsch sometimes, but the one she’s the most severe with, is actually herself. Her strong will to win can be interpreted as a strong will to not disappoint those who believed in her. A strong character, is also someone people rely on. She want to be that kind of person to Keyakizaka46. During Sekai ni wa Ai shikanai, she didn’t remorse her position in second row, she accepted it. “In that place, i have a goal, a reason to move forward. “This is also a place i can learn a lot from” She said. An humility, unfamiliar with people who are self-centered. Akanen is not the kind of person who think of things as granted. She wants to earn things, with her own strength.

It paid off. In Futari Saison, she finally became front row, increasing even further her visibility and popularity during keyaki single promotion. Sugai Yuuka, who will be promoted to captain, congratulated her for her senbatsu position and wrote that Akanen is an existence that put her at ease when confronting tense moment like live performance. “Big sister” Akanen was also a significant trait that made her being loved by teammates in backstage. At the time, the girls didn’t known each other very well, especially Hirate Yurina who was the youngest. Akanen felt it was her responsability to make things easier and decided to break the ice by inviting Yurina to a meal together. Little by little everyone got along and the training room atmosphere got lively, thanks a bit to Akanen. Moriya Akane is working hard as an individual, but isn’t neglecting teammates bond, which is essential for Keyakizaka unity. Akanen truly loves the group.

“When Akanen is around, i allow myself to act like a spoiled child” - Techi

Akanen is a lethal weapon, with great use of visual, sexiness and flawless smile. But she uses her ability to protect those she loves, being a reassuring older sister when members finish rehearsal and are exhausted, being a leader when the girls are doubting. A versatile jack of all trades that allow Keyakizaka to hold it’s ground on a solid base. When you realize Moriya excel in visual but truly show her amazingness with her personality, you can’t help but be admirative. “Ah, Keyaki is in good hands with her” some fans on the internet said.

If she’s such a good leader, why isn’t she captain, you would say? Well another quality in Moriya, her “hating to lose” character doesn’t mean she crave for the spotlight as well. She has this self-awareness that holds her from having bad decision that would disturb Keyakizaka balance. Sugai Yuuka, who she’s very close to, has a refined style that may suits more as a representative. Moriya natural strictness balance well with Yuuka’s natural sweetness. Together, they make the ultimate captaincy. Moriya is definitively a girl to look forward, either it’s about her, or her interaction within the group. As we speak, she’s Tier 2 (she’s solding out round 2 of handshake event, she’s still not fans top priority) but Akanen’s potential shows no boundaries.

“If Akanen is S, does that mean her fanbase are all M? LOL” - Oda Nana

[the-onewho-reads]

What do you love and why do you love it?

(It's 9 am and I just got out of work an 11 hr shift so if my spelling and structure doesn't make sense I'm so sorry) Something I love and why? Alice. Alice is the love of my life,my partner, my fiancee, my love and the most wonderful person in my life. I wouldn't call them an it though. I miss them insanely, but that's besides the point. There are so many reasons to love them. Let's see, 1. When I went up to see her in October she made me homemade muffins for when i first got there and she almost always makes sure there's food I like. 2. Random attacks of affection!!!3. Once I went like a day without eating and she made me pancakes!! 4. She's the first person I could talk about things because I trusted her.5. I never get tired of her. 6. She never gets tired of me which helps! 7. I've known her forrrrrrr 4 years and to this day I still get giddy when i see her name on my phone (i gasp and yell, "My fiance!" my mom says its annoying), i still get insanely happy if i see her smile of hear her laugh. Her laugh and smile makes me laugh and smile if that makes sense? Her smile and laugh could light up a room. 8. She was the first person to really put me first and always deals with my problems (even if its the same one over and over again) 9. She spent the first few months reassuring me (And I her) 10. I have NEVER doubted that she loved me.11. THE DIFFERENT ACCENTS I LOVE TO DEATH THERE ARE SO MANY (my favorite will always be when she says mi Amor) ASDFGHJKL12. I'm engaged to the most beautiful human being in the world.13. I know she'll always have my back and choose me and keep me safe 14. She gets my characters drawn and she got the engagement speech drawn and sent it to me and I cried 15.She surprised me with my first engagement ring and then the diamond one. (I always hated surprised but i mean i like Alice's surprises)16.She let me into her life and now i'm so unbelievably happy and in love17.She helped me realize that maybe i deserve things and also helped me cut off some toxic people and learn i shouldn't destroy myself to help others 18. SHES REALLY INTELLIGENT AND A HISTORY MAJOR HOW COOL IS THAT19. She's my home, my safe haven. She was the first person that made me feel like i really belonged and like i was wanted.20. She sends me things that reminds her of me/gets me things all the time and she needs to stop spoiling me rotten at some point oh my god21. She got me ornaments of my grandparents and asdfghjkl22. SHE HAD A CRUSH ON ME FOR LIKE A WHILE BEFORE WE STARTED TALKING SHE ADMITTED AND I'M STILL SO SURPRISED AND I REALLY LOVE HER OKAY AND I USED TO BUY COOKIES FROM HER BECAUSE SHE WAS REALLY CUTE AND I DIDN'T KNOW HOW ELSE TO TALK TO HER 23. She's pretty great at keeping me calm. Its like i can face anything with her. The nightmares, the anxiety, the depression,it's still there but its easier to handle.24. When Nana passed and nights i couldn't handle it she stayed up with me so i wasn't alone. 25. She handles my moms and family's bullshit + unpredictability without getting too mad/leaving. I don't think you need a reason to love someone, you just do. But her doing anything she could to help me an be there for me and love me definitely contributes to it. There have been so many small things that have contributed over the years. I can't tell you what exact thing made me love her, but I can tell you I was laying on the couch while she excitedly told me a story of when she was younger that I realized this was my great love. I know I can always tell her when somethings wrong or i'm uncomfortable. I know that I trust her more than anyone else and she is my family. I can tell you I get so overwhelmed by how much I love her that I want to cry. I can tell you she's the light of my life, a reason for me to keep fighting and the person i want to spend the rest of my life with. I do most things for us or Alice. I know that there are a lot of more reasons that I love them and that these are only some of them. Just talking of Alice makes me happy. Alice is my Alice and i love Alice a whole fucking lot.