#annie green hates girls

[music-tourney]

We have 72 songs, this can be raised if 96 if the need arises

Pokerface by Lady Gaga 

Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

Toxic by Britney Spears

Sk8ter Boi by Avril Lavigne 

All my Life by Foo Fighters

American Idiot by Green Day

1985 by Bowling for Soup

Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand 

Somebody Told Me by the Killers

Hey There Delilah by Plain White Tees

Feel Good Inc by the Gorillaz

Sugar we're goin down by Fallout Boy

Brave as a noun by AJJ

Hot N Cold by Katy Perry

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) by Beyonce

The Dog Days are Over by Florence + the Machine

Seven Nation Army by White Stripes

Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down

She Hates Me by Puddle Of Mudd

Stacy's Mom by Fountains for Wayne

All the Small Things By Blink 182

Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson

Hurt by Johnny Cash

Hey Ya by Outkast

Rehab by Amy Winehouse

Stan by Eminem

Do you realize by The Flaming Lips

Sexyback by Justin Timberlake

Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus

Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me) by Train

Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Fireflies by Owl City

TiK ToK by Ke$ha

Gives you Hell by All American Rejects 

Paper Planes by M.I.A.

Can't get you out of my head by Kylie Monogue

I write sins not tragedies by Panic! At the Disco

Short Skirt/Long Jacket by CAKE

Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus

Bring Me to Life by Evanescence

Before he cheats by Carrie Underwood 

Vida La Vida by Coldplay

Photograph by Nickelback

99 Problems by Jay-Z

Hash Pipe by Weezer

A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton

Love Story by Taylor Swift

Unwell by MatchBox Twenty 

Yeah! by Usher

Dilemma by Nelly and Kelly Rowland

Beautiful by Christina Aguilera 

My Hips Don't Lie by Shakira

I gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani

Watcha Say by Jason Derulo

Drop it like it's Hot by Snoop Dogg

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

Numb by Linkin Park

Umbrella by Rihanna 

Crazy in Love by Beyonce and Jay Z

How to Save a Life by The Fray

Get the Party Started by P!nk

Survivor By Destiny's Child

Everytime we touch by Cascada

Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston

Bad day by Daniel Powter

Chop Suey By System of a Down

I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley 

The Middle by Jimmy Eat World

Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk

Chewing Gum by Annie

[hunnysnoops]

˗ˋ𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕋𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕙 𝕋𝕖𝕖𝕟𝕤ˊ˗

Chapter One: Undone

Kylie Broflovski x fem Reader

If you want to destroy my sweater, pull this thread as I walk away.

Also available on Ao3 and Wattpad!

Premise: Despite having almost inseparable families, you and Kyle couldn't hate each other anymore than you already. The second you saw him you had your claws out and we would be ready to hold a knife to your throat, like wolves you devoured each other until a bump in the road sent you tumbling into a new dynamic. Maybe you two can find new ways to fall apart.

Warnings: Vulgar language+humour / mentions of smoking and drugs / Cartman gets called fat

MASTERLIST

Kyle was the only one who knew how truly competitive you were. He couldn't figure out how no one else saw especially during your sports matches, you always had to be forward, had to score the last point, had to win, and you craved it as compulsively as the nicotine you sucked from your fingernails when you ran out of cigarettes to burn through.

Your parents had always been close to Kyle's since high school allegedly; being constantly forced to jump back and forth between each other's houses for family dinners and game nights didn't aid in the fact that you wanted to tear each other's throats out with razor-sharp teeth. They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder and this absurd proximity made the both of you sick with a frothing rage.

You couldn't pinpoint exactly where this hatred started, it was likely back in middle school where it was taboo for boys and girls to hang out, and those kids acted like it breached scripture if you did. Truthfully you didn't remember being friends but there was photo evidence of you playing as children so you couldn't deny it.

He has seen every inch of your life inside and out from the seventeen years that you were cursed to spend side by side. He knew that you had some fun habits such as swallowing back a little bit of synthetic sunshine in the form of little tabs of acid and how you would take a joint for a stroll in the dead of night.

For every secret he held over your head, you dangled one of his right before his green eyes. This is the only thing that kept all hell from breaking loose.

"Good practice girls, I'll see all of you on Thursday," Coach Jackson said, with no indication of pride for the team's gruelling efforts on her tanned face, not even a dribble of sweat on her brow since all she did was stand in place and yell at you.

As soccer practice finally came to a close the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting an orange glow on the team where you all lay on the ground of the pitch next to your bags, trying to catch your breath. Nichole chugged down her water so fast that it was dribbling down her chin and droplets had soaked into her tee shirt.

You were the most composed of all of them despite being a little short of breath, you wiped the sweat from the bow of your lip and began to peel off your sweaty shin guards.

"How are you so okay?" Annie asked, red-faced, strands of her curly blonde hair sticking out and flying loose in the wind while she sipped on a Gatorade.

You shrug "I run a lot," It was the truth, you liked the feeling of burning in your lungs along with the fact that you built up good stamina and in turn were able to withstand your coach's harsh practices.

"I should start running with you," Annie says, panting heavily before she throws herself flat against the cool grass.

"I don't know if you could keep up," There's something of a smile playing on Red's face while she shoves her gross gear into her duffle bag. "I see her run by my house every night." She had a bit of trouble keeping her shag cut tied back in a ponytail, any attempt to get the layers to stay in a braid or bun was futile so she settled on a black headband to at least keep it out of her face.

Off in the distance, Bebe honked her car horn, she had shown up early to pick up her friends and due to this in the last fifteen minutes of practice you could hear classic Justin Bieber blasting faintly from her car. "Annie, we gotta go," Nichole says.

"Ugh," Annie draws out in her dazey state. Nichole paid her friend the service of grabbing her bag and trying to drag her up to her feet.

"C'mon," Nichole mutters, hooking an arm around Annie and yanking her up to her feet. Annie finds her own footing and detaches herself from Nichole, she's still in her shin guards and cleats. "Are you coming to Wendy's later?" Nichole looks at you, sweat shimmering on her ebony skin beneath the setting sun.

You think about it for a moment before ultimately shaking your head "I gotta pick my brother up."

"What about after?"

"Too crammed with homework," You were lying through your teeth, your social battery was just running a little low and things with your dad weren't going too great. You made the decision that you needed to lock yourself in the bathroom run the shower over your skin and scrub until the water washed away the stress of your week or get high with Kenny until you felt your face go numb. Just something along those lines.

"Too bad," Annie frowns, eyes half-lidded and breathes shallow.

"See you tomorrow then," Red waves at you before heading to her car, bright hair sticking out in the green landscape.

“Love ya, Red,” You look around at the rest of your team, all cooling down and conversing "Anyone need a ride home?" Everyone looks around and shakes their heads "Isla?"

"No," She says "I'm going with Kelly."

"Alright," You sling your bag over your shoulder, clutching your carabiner in hand, it has a little keychain of a Volkswagon bus on it, a cowboy hat knick-knack and of course your actual keys. "Bye guys, see you on Thursday."

Your words are met with collective 'goodbyes' from the girls. You walk off the pitch, and despite your legs feeling like jello you manage to step off of the grassy field and land on concrete, lazy steps leading you back to your car.

Tossing your bag into the backseat, you tap around on your phone to connect to the speaker, turn it up as loud as it goes and roll down your windows. You liked your music so loud that you couldn't even hear your own thoughts, just your playlist on shuffle as you absentmindedly sang along to it. You grabbed some body spray and doused the car in it to cover up the subtle linger of cigarettes from your late-night drive the previous evening.

The air was warm and carried the scent of fresh-cut grass as you drove through the familiar suburban streets. With the windows down, you felt the gentle breeze tousle your hair, a welcome relief from the day's heat. You hummed along to the music, mind drifting as you navigated the familiar route.

As you turned the corner onto the neighbour's street, the sun painted the sky in a breathtaking array of colours - hues of orange, pink, and purple blending seamlessly against the evening sky. You couldn't help but steal a moment to admire the beauty of the sunset, the vibrant colours reflecting in your eyes. It was nearing six pm when you finally pulled into the Broflovski driveway.

You step out, looking a little worse for wear. You had taken off your shin guards and cleats but left the knee-high socks on as well as a tee shirt with the Park County cows logo on it and a pair of athletic shorts. It was one of the warmer days since it was nearing summer though South Park had a way with erratic weather that couldn't make up its mind, you were sure there would be a storm tomorrow to cancel out the nice weather.

Knocking on the door, you put on a smile, expecting to see Gerald or Sheila though you were unpleasantly met with their oldest son, Kyle. Your smile drops immediately and it's easy to see that he isn't too excited to see you either. "Oh." You push passed Kyle and into his house "Weston," You call out "Time to go!"

Kyle wrinkles his nose "You smell like hand sanitizer," He says, speaking on all of the body mist you had sprayed in the car.

"And you look like orphan Annie," You turn quickly to face him before calling up the stairs "Weston, let's go!"

"Did you leave your windows down at the car wash?" His eyes rake up your body at your sweaty form, little strands of hair sticking to your neck. 

"Go on Accutane, matchstick," You retort. This nickname came about when Kyle began to outgrow his friends, with a lanky body and a mop of curly red hair, the nickname struck you in a moment of genius. As of now, he was wearing his hat, he hardly ever took it off, especially out in public. You'd only seen it come off his head when he was swimming or when his mom forced it off.

Something about the Broflovski house was always comforting even if you hated one-fourth of the family, you loved the other three. The scent of whatever Sheila was cooking always lingered in the air, right now the smell was sweet and faint. You assumed she hadn't been home but caught a glimpse of a cookie rack set out on the kitchen counter. 

His eyebrows furrow "My acne isn't even that bad," He was right, you just knew that it got under his skin "Crash," He says, a little less creative than your nickname for him, born from the time you did acid and woke up in his backyard, luckily before his parents noticed you but not after Kyle took pictures of you passed out on the grassy lawn as well as a few rumours that had been spread about you.

"Sure, ginger, sorry you have a hard knock life," You had run out of insults to call him after seventeen years. In middle school, you ripped on him constantly for how scrawny he was along with voice cracks and his acne, though in recent years, he had passed puberty, had a deeper voice, sorted out his pimple issue, and taken to running, basketball, lacrosse, and going to the gym to tone up. You could still rag on him for it but it has less impact when it wasn't true and god knows you wouldn't go mocking his religion, you may have hated him but you had morals. All you had left to make fun of was his hair colour.

It was similar to the way he couldn't make fun of you for being ugly, unpopular, or stupid like he used to since puberty hit you like a bus and you were almost unrecognizable from the brace-faced awkward kid you used to be. You were also a little too confident and erratic for his liking. 

You were going to make your way upstairs to Ike's room where you assumed the two boys had been until you heard the familiar sound of upbeat electric rhythms and horribly overacted lines of Fury Fighters, a classic 1v1 fighting game. You move away from Kyle and turn in to the living room where you see your little brother and Ike on the couch, hyper-focused on the game ahead of them. "Did you go deaf suddenly or were you just ignoring me?"

"I was ignoring you," Weston says, bluntly. His hair is an untamed mess and the collar of his wrinkled tee is stretched out. He doesn't even look back at you but Kyle cracks a smile at his words.

"C'mon shrimp, we gotta go," You say, crossing your arms.

He lets out a groan "Can I stay like thirty more minutes?"

You shake your head "Nah, Kyle's cologne is giving me a headache."

Ike snorts a laugh and glances back at his brother, his smile falls when he looks at you; he's putting on his tough guy persona. He clears his throat and deepens his voice in the slightest "What's up?" It was clear that the little brother had a crush on you though no one brought it up, you could tell it bothered Weston.

"Hey, Ike," You give him a tight-lipped smile, watching as he turns back to the TV, fingers clicking over the controller aggressively. "You can finish this round and we're out."

"Yes!" Weston says "Thanks, love you," He says with haste, thinking that it'll butter you up.

You plop yourself on the carpeted floor in front of the couch to watch the match play out. Ike was playing as Tempest, a mage who was wise and old, a long white beard yet he somehow had an absolutely shredded pixel body. Weston was playing Sable, a pink-haired woman in a short nurse's uniform who used surgical tools as weapons, she was your go-to back when you still played Fury Fighters with your friends. You would refuse to play as a man because it breached your pre-teen code of feminism.  Watching them play made you feel nostalgic. 

Kyle leans his elbows on the back of the couch, hands clasped together to watch the game, the same as you. "Kick his ass, Weston," Kyle says, rooting for your brother, purely to annoy his.

"Hey!" Ike exclaims though he doesn't move his unwavering gaze from the game "Whose side are you on?"

"Smoke him, Ike!" You say, a little louder than intended to balance out the cheering section. 

Sheila always kept the household neat which was a miracle with Ike and Weston always running around, recently she had taken to a love of houseplants and had at least one in every corner of the home. There were framed pictures strung up on every single wall without fail, lots of the family, Sheila's wedding day, and a collection of you and Kyle actually getting along when you were kids. There's one of the two of you playing under a sprinkler in rain boots, another of you standing and smiling brightly by a snowman you made, and a picture of Kyle covering all of your little scrapes in Spider-Man band-aids. In every photo of you after the age of seven, you were with the rest of your families on opposite ends, as far away from each other as you could get.

You look back to the TV where Ike's character, Tempest summons the dead with his staff, grey decaying hands rise from the 2D ground and drag Sable down. "Fuck!" Weston yells, panic quickly spreading across his face, his eyes shoot back and forth frantically from the controller to the TV. 

Sable jumps back up and readies herself into a fighting stance, Tempest moves his staff, a green diamond on the end, horizontally and jabs Sable in the stomach over and over until she rolls back to the ground. Ike has a huge grin on his face, shaggy black hair framing his pale features, he desperately needed a haircut but for now, he was relishing in watching Sable's health bar move down.

"By the elements, I shall prevail!" Calls out Tempest, his voice actor had really put his all into making him sound deep and gruff. Ike randomly spams the buttons, sending out an erratic combo. The characters were fighting in the center of a dark alley, blue and red lights flashing every few minutes.

Sable pulls a long scalpel out of her thigh-high socks and charges towards Tempest, slashing him. When Tempest's health bar falls, Sable speaks out a voice line "Every wound has a remedy," Her sultry voice makes you cringe just the slightest, you hadn't remembered her to sound so sensual.

Tempest rises back up, jumps toward Sable and greets the character with a heavy uppercut, sending her flying through the air. You find your fingers digging into the carpet, you had hoped that Sable would win just from the fact that you used to play as her. You almost wanted to grab the remote from your brother's hand and show him how to play as her, you had memorized all of her combos and moves, and they became muscle memory to you. "You're demise is written in the stars!" The buff wizard raises his hands to the sky, gearing up to cast one final blow.

In the midst of this, Sable jumps up, pulls a bone saw out from behind her back and slices Tempest's head clean off before he can finish casting his spell. Ike drops his controller, moving his hand to grab his hair, eyes wide and mouth agape in shock while he watches his character's health bar plummet to zero. The wizard's head rolls around on the pixel ground before Sable picks it up and kisses it "Nurse's orders: Stay down," She says before drop-kicking the head out of frame. A title card covers up the scene that reads 'It's a wrap!’

"Fuck yeah!" Weston says, giving Kyle a firm high five. He looked happier than you had seen him all week, middle school was kicking his ass and you had to pull some time aside almost every night to help him with algebra. You would've scolded him for playing video games instead of studying for his social studies test if you hadn't been doing the same at his age. 

"How the hell did you do that?" Ike's head whips to look at his friend who just shrugs.

You push yourself off the floor, giving your brother's hair a little tussle "Let's go, shrimp." 

With a groan Weston up to slip his shoes on at the rack, "See you tomorrow, Ike," He grabs his bag where it sits by the coat stand. Kyle hurdles himself over the couch, taking Weston's place on the sofa and picking up the free controller to play "Bye Kyle!" He says, lacing up his sneakers.

Kyle looks over the couch and at him with a smile "See you later buddy."

The second you think Weston is looking away you stick up the middle finger to the red-headed boy across from you but it surely didn't go unnoticed "Why are you flipping Kyle off?" Weston asks, furrowing his eyebrows as he looks up at you.

You drop your hand "I'm not, I was waving at him." You lie, trying to form a cover-up. You place a hand between his shoulder blades to guide him out the door.

"You're sweaty," He comments.

"Thanks, I had no idea," You open the door and close it behind you before Kyle can say anything to your brother's remark. It's already colder than when you entered the house and you race to get to the car before you get a chill.

Weston hops into the passenger seat, scrunching up his nose at the music you're playing "Can you put on Lil Shovel?" He asks. It was one of the many rappers he had attempted to imitate. He thought they were cool for decking themselves out in designer brands and sticking dollar bills into women's thongs in music videos.

"I'm not playing that shit," You start the car and turn out of the driveway.

"Why?"

"Because it makes me want to hammer nails into my ears," You answer, eyes focused in the road while you glide through the suburban street. "Listen to Eminem or something."

"Dad doesn't like Eminem."

You wrinkle your nose "Why?"

"Because he said that thing about the gerbil."

Recognition hits you and you nod "Yeah, that checks out," Your dad was a pretty modest guy, he didn't care about anything overly vulgar. He basically mandated your life, he was the reason you were in so many extracurriculars and were the last person in your grade to get a phone, something Kyle would've teased you for if your parents weren't so similar.

"Can you drive me and Ike to the quarry on Friday?" Weston has one hand sticking out of the window moving it up and down like it was a plane, it was something you used to do before you were the one driving, a little mannerism he picked up off you.

"I have track practice and then I gotta help Heidi and Wendy with their fundraiser, sorry, shrimp," You take note of every house you pass, swearing you could put a name to every single one. You felt the fatigue hit you all at once, you knew that night your bed would become a casket and you would have to be pried from it like a floorboard. "Ask Kyle." 

"We did, he has basketball practice."

"Bummer," You say. It had slipped your mind completely that he was on the team and you hated it and how your friends gushed about Kyle before catching themselves and sending you apologetic glances. "Guess you gotta bike then."

You remember when you were your brother's age, twelve years old and you came home every night at sunset with a new scrape to show for the adventure you set out on. You gave bruises out like gifts and collected them like stickers, some sort of pride when parents would silently judge you for having purple busted-up knees.

"Mhm," He nods "Hey, can we go to Burger King?"

"No," You say almost immediately "Mom's making dinner right now."

Weston scrunched up his nose "Yeah but she had the crock pot out on the counter when I left for school today," Nothing good came from your mother's crock pot. "Can we please get Burger King?"

"First of all, Mom will kill me if I load you up with more fast food, second of all, she's gonna make you eat her dinner anyways, so just be nice and tell her it's good."

"Ugh," He grumbles watching wistfully into the distance, his thoughts stuck on the combo he was craving. "I should've stayed at Ike's for dinner."

"Yeah, me too," News of the dreaded crock pot had only worsened your day. Sheila on the other hand was an incredible cook, as much as you loved your mom and the effort she put into her meals, nothing would compare to Sheila's brisket. The thought of it almost made your stomach grumble. If you lived with Broflovski's you would've weighed three hundred pounds more. 

Your mind ricochets back and forth between going home or heading to Wendy's with the rest of your friends though the thought of being alone with tobacco burning your throat soothed you.

The drive from the Broflovski's to yours wasn't too long, truthfully, your brother was perfectly capable of walking. The sky transformed into a canvas of deepening shades, the last traces of sunlight giving way to the embrace of twilight. You stole glances at your brother, his animated chatter filling the car with warmth.

You park the car in the driveway behind your dad's car, he would surely yell at you to move it in the morning but that was a problem for future you and a decision you would regret making. You pull up on the street right in front of your house. Weston was quick to hop out of the car, he rushed across the lawn and waited by the front door for you to turn off the car, but you didn't, you just watched and waited for him to go inside.

"Are you coming?" Weston asked.

You stick your head out of the window "Tell Mom I'm stopping by Red's, I'll be back before dinner," Weston rolls his eyes at this, he didn't care for Red, since you started being friends with her you had even less time to spend with your brother. Nights of staying up late with Weston and playing Stardew Valley turned into you hanging out with your friend and getting high. 

"Tell Rebecca to eat a dick!" Weston cups his hands around his mouth.

"I won't do that but good suggestion," You call back before stepping on the peddle and moving back down the familiar streets. It was just past six and there hadn't been anyone outside, everyone was tucked away in their respective home, warm lights from windows spilling into the darkening sky. 

You didn't go to Red's, you just kept driving until you ended up at a gas station on the outskirts of town. It had long passed the dinner you promised to be home for, instead of eating the crock pot monstrosity, you opt for something with a sweeter taste, a cigarette and a bag of teriyaki beef jerky. You sat on the curb watching cars roll past, their headlights framing you like you were on stage. You just craved the aloneness you so rarely got.

You shuffle through the cafeteria line, undecided on what you want to eat but settling on one of those sugar-free drinks that are worse for you than just grabbing a regular soda for a drink. "Keep it moving, Junkie," Cartman says from beside you. God how he irked you, it was in his nature to be unbearable.

"What? Not like it's going anywhere, I'm more worried for the people in line behind you who have to eat crumbs."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" He asks adding a paper plate of ribs to his tray and then another.

"It means you're fat."

He shrugs "Doesn't bother me," Cartman had grown to be a little more self-aware, by a little I mean a very small smidgen.

"You're a fat-fat fatty, keep eating fatty," your voice was unwavering. You hadn't had too much of a problem with Cartman throughout school, sure he had been a dick but you never interacted enough for him to be on your radar until he started a rumour about you shooting up heroin in the janitors closet which led to him telling everyone you were a drug dealer. This cursed you with the nicknames of crash, popper, and of course, junkie. When it first happened you weren't even aware, you just sat confused about why everyone was adding your Snapchat and asking about buying stuff from you. Eventually, staff caught wind of this and it only got worse from there.

"Fuck you, crash," He sticks up a middle finger at you "You're a dyke."

You return the gesture "At least I get pussy, lard ass."

"I have tons of sex, you faggot."

"Your hand doesn't count," You say examining the food in the chafing dishes which looked surprisingly good for school food.

"I don't care if you're a girl, I will kick your ass," He starts to get in your face but you don't bother to acknowledge it, still looking through the food options. 

"I bet if I pushed you over you would just keep rolling."

"Whatever bitch."

"Hurry up, butterball," Bebe cuts in front of Eric who has a look of pure seething rage on his face. She looks beautiful as always, blonde curly hair falling in perfect ringlets and framing her dainty face. She's wearing a red off-the-shoulders sweater and low-waisted jeans, it's such a simple outfit but Bebe manages to make it look unique and expensive.

"Fuck you, Bebe," he turns a middle finger to her, "Go shoot up with your little lezzy girlfriend." That was another rumour that he successfully sparked, that you and Bebe were secretly dating. The two of you found it funnier than the heroin thing and played into it on occasion. 

"You're so fucking stupid," Bebe wrinkles her nose in distaste of the chubby kid in front of her "Don't crack the floor when you waddle over to your table, fat ass," She adds a yogurt parfait onto her tray and keeps moving down the line, you follow in suit.

The two of you hand the lunch lady your cafeteria card but your eye snags on something else entirely "Where's Wendy?"

Bebe looks in the same direction as you where your entire friend group sits, minus Wendy who you could've sworn was there only moments ago. Her tray still sat in front of her spot on the table "She's talking with Stan I think."

"What?" You look at the blonde text to you while you find your table "Are they getting back together or something?"

"She was saying she wanted to work things out with him last night, you'd know if you were there."

"Why didn't she tell me?" You furrow your eyebrows as you glance at Stan's regular table where he was also absent from. The second thing you noticed was how irritated Kyle seemed, likely because his best friend would be opting to spend time with Wendy again instead of him. Cartman plops himself down next to the ginger, only making Kyle more agitated. When Kyle looks away for a split second, Kenny steals food off his plate and blames it on Eric. “I would never steal food from a dirty Jew!” He says, voice carrying over every other conversation in the room.

"She might not have told because you can be a little-" Bebe searches around for a word that'll soften the message "Abrasive?"

"I'm not abrasive," You say as you sit yourself down at the cafeteria table, immediately met by curious glances from the rest of your friends. This made you question yourself. Had you been so blunt that your best friend didn't want to tell you what was going on in her life? Yes. You didn't know how else to be, it was wired into your system; born from the way you were raised, like a wild animal who fought for scraps, if you didn't kill, you wouldn’t eat. Your family wasn’t really complete, it was more like something like a mom who worked herself to rust and a dad who popped in and out like some kind of disappearing act.

No one bothers to dig deeper into your sentence, already enraptured in their conversation. "I wonder how Tolkien feels about it," Lola asks, leaning in a little to where Nelly sits on the other side of the table, seemingly hanging onto every word.

"I know!" Nelly says, unable to fight the smile that formed on her face every time she gossiped "Did you notice how he isn't sitting where he usually is." At this, everyone turns their heads to Tolkien's regular table, where he’s MIA from.

Halfway through sucking the meat off of his ribs, Cartman notices everyone at your table staring them down. He glances around the table before deciding that you are looking at him, barbeque sauce smeared over his mouth and down his fingers. "What the fuck are you looking at?" He calls out, now drawing the attention of the cafeteria to you and your friends who quickly avert their gazes back to their food.

You meet Kyles's eyes for just a moment, you can read loud and clear that he's annoyed Wendy's back in the picture and she'll be poaching his best friend from him. Despite the act he's trying to portray of being indifferent, you can tell there's a storm brewing beneath his green eyes.

In your pocket, your phone buzzes and you look at it.

McWhoremick: what was that about?

You: Cartman looking rancid

McWhoremick: fair

McWhoremick: wanna hang later?

You: fo sho

You: junkyard?

McWhoremick: yup

McWhoremick: see ya :P

"What's that?" Red peaks down at your phone from next to you, her chin resting on your shoulder "Is it Wendy?"

"She's been weird lately," Jenny says, she doesn't look up from her mac and cheese, just pushes it around absentmindedly with her fork.

"Probably because all of you are talking about her like she's not our friend," Heidi peeps up for the first time in the conversation. You're a little surprised that she's eating lunch with you, in recent days she's been so busy with sustainability club that it's taken up all of her lunch breaks.

Heidi was right as usual. It didn't feel right to be talking about Wendy when she was twenty metres away, it didn't feel right to talk about her at all. The group fell quiet at this, trying to search for another topic that didn't involve speaking poorly of your friend.

"So," Red starts "Who's excited for the basketball game?"

You really weren't, you had no intentions of going though you were sure your parents would make you go to support Kyle. "I think I'll go to watch Kyle," Nichole comments. Your head whips to look at her immediately, it only made sense that she was over Tolkien after what happened with Wendy but you hadn't expected her to go for Kyle.

"Uh oh," Annie says, a small smile playing on her face. Lately, she had taken good care of her curls, a stark difference from the frizzy mess that was stuck on her head all through middle school.

"Nichole," You say, staring her down "Are you okay?"

"Sorry to say this," Bebe pipes up, not one hundred percent tuned into the conversation "He actually isn't the piece of shit that you make him out to be."

"You don't-

"Know him like I do?" Heidi finishes your sentence for you. Something you had repeated over and over again when trying to get your point across that he was evil and no one could see it but you.

"I'd do it," Lola shrugs and your face contorts in disgust.

"Ew," You say with haste, fighting the urge to gag on your food. "Do you guys realize that he's ginger under that hat?"

Everyone is unsurprised at your disdain for him, even though you tried not to talk about him so you didn't seem obsessed, every now and then, the start of a rant would slip out and that would turn into you rambling on and on about every little annoying detail about him. You wondered for a brief moment if he did the same when walking about you.

"What is it that you hate about him anyway?" Red asks.

You rack your brain for a truly solid reason you can't say that it irritated you how Kyle ran the opposite way of you on the trail on your nightly run, it was the most dreaded part of the day, brushing past him and pretending not to notice. You also couldn't delve into the fact that he always had a bored, unimpressed expression on his face when he talked to you. "Everything." You answer "I hate everything about him."

"Okay gang," Mr Waterman claps his hands together once everyone is finally seated. "I know we're getting close to the end of the year and it's exciting but there is always work to be done." He was in his thirties, a little on the shorter side, with brown hair, glasses, and lean for a teacher though it made sense since he doubled as the basketball coach. He had tried his best to be funny though his jokes usually fell flat but you found yourself laughing out of pity like it was second nature.

Wendy sat next to you, you hadn't pressed her about Stan (despite wanting to) and she hadn't brought it up. Kyle sits next to a guy whose name slipped through the cracks of your mind and stays completely silent while the teacher gives his spiel about hard work and effort.

"This will be our final seating change for the year, so if you're next to someone you don't like know it'll be over by the end of June," Mr Waterman sits himself at his desk dead in front of every lab table, shares his computer screen to the projector, showing the new seating arrangments "Alright, here are your lab partners until semester end."

You scan the whiteboard for your name and your breath hitches in your throat when you see it next to Kyles. Kyle whips his head to look at you, your gazes matching in utter terror. You had relished in the fact that You had gone the entire semester without talking to Kyle a single time in biology class.

There weren’t desks in the science labs but black tables built for two people since they worked out better for experiments, there you were stuck at the back of the class with the ginger demon spawn.

"Mr Waterman?" You raise your hand but speak before he even calls on you "You need to move me or I'll kill myself."

"Woah," He puts both of his hands out "Let's not joke about that-

"I'm not joking," You cut him off, tone dead serious. Wendy tugs at the hem of your shirt, trying to get you to sit back down, you just cast her a glance before looking back to the short teacher. "I will kill myself." 

"Can you and Kyle please come up here so I can talk to you," At Mr. Waterman's words, Kyle shoots you a malicious glare. 

"When you cause a scene about not wanting to sit next to someone it can be hurtful," Mr Waterman addresses you, his tanned hands grasped together. Bless his heart, Kyle thought he was getting in trouble and it would put a dent into his perfect record, the kid never even missed a day of school. You and Kyle stand side by side, in front of Mr Waterman's desk, careful to keep a distance between you.  "Think about how Kyle feels right now-

"I feel like I wanna slit my wrists." He deadpans, face unreadable as ever.

"Do you guys need someone to talk to?" Mr Waterman furrows his eyebrows, lowering his voice.

"No," You say, crossing your arms “Not unless it's to get a gun so I can blow my brains out."

"Okay," He repositions himself to sit taller "Can you please tell me why you don't want to sit next to each other, I'm sure we could work this out." You waste no time trying to get yourself away from Kyle, listing off all of his little habits that annoy you. Kyle, on the other hand, bites his tongue. He didn't want his teacher to think poorly of him, not when there was still a little over a month left of the worst year of school he'd ever put himself through.

"Kyle?" You furrow your eyebrows, waiting expectantly for him to go off on how you were disruptive and rude but he sort of just stood there. For a brief moment, you thought he was having a stroke.

"It's fine," At his words, your mouth goes ajar and your eyes widen. You had thought that the two of you stood in solidarity for one thing, you wanted to get away from each other. 

"Is it really?" You say through gritted teeth. 

"Yeah," He looks at you then back to Mr Waterman "It's just a childhood rivalry, we're just being immature," It took a lot for him to swallow his pride. Kyle just knew he had to get through June and then senior year would be smooth sailing. 

"Well," Mr Waterman says and you can tell he's prepping himself for a speech "It seems to me like the two of you could benefit from this seating arrangement. When you get jobs you won't get along with everyone you work with-

"We both have jobs already," You cut him off and Kyle shuffles awkwardly where he stands while the rest of the class chats idly and waits for the lesson to start.

Mr Waterman casts you a look and clears his throat before picking up where he left off "And I understand that sometimes, personalities clash, but we're a team here, and teamwork requires cooperation and understanding. You both have so much potential, but that potential can only be realized when you learn to work together, to support each other, and to lift each other up, rather than tear each other down."

Kyle's mind must've been somewhere else completely, it was like he was in airplane mode, nodding along to everything Mr Waterman was saying. Though you could feel boredom creeping up, fighting yourself to pay attention to the genuinely useless pep talk.

"I want you to take a moment and think about what it means to be part of a team," Mr Waterman urged, his voice gentle yet persuasive. "Think about the strength that comes from unity, the power that comes from collaboration, and the joy that comes from shared success. Both of you are strong students and I can see you doing very well working together on labs and assignments, okay?"

"Yup," You nod your head, giving a thumbs up so he would excuse you and this would blow over.

"Okay," Kyle says.

A smile forms on Mr Waterman's face, he leans further back into his desk chair. "I think I can sense a friendship forming here, now go take your seats."

You laugh awkwardly, quickly brushing past Kyle to sit in your new spot at the back of the class. You were stuck sitting next to Kyle and behind Eric Cartman, how did he get into AP biology? You weren't one hundred percent sure though you heard Isla say that it was a misplacement that never got corrected.

Once again, Mr Waterman calls the class to capture their attention. Writing about the new unit on the whiteboard in a red dry-erase pen that was squeaky and running out of ink. You ruffle through your backpack, trying to find your binder while everyone else is rapidly taking notes. You pull out a stack of textbooks and some personal reading for English, finally finding your science binder. 

"Why are you reading Mein Kampf?" He looks at the book that rests on top of the stack, it's old and beaten up and smells a bit like stale orange juice, the cover holds the jarring image of Adolf Hitler.

"Because I'm racist," You say, sarcastically but Kyle doesn't pick up on this and seems a little taken aback "Joking, obviously, it's for history."

He averts his eyes back to the whiteboard. Mr. Waterman speaks briefly on physiology, before wiping the board clean and unfreezing the projector where he set up a slide show. As most science teachers do, he clicks through the slide show and waits for his students to take notes, answering the few questions that the kids have.

"Shit," You mutter as the teacher skips to the next slide before you could finish copying what was on it. You glance at Kyle "Uh, did you write all of that down?”

Wordlessly, he pushes his paper towards you to copy it, he keeps his eyes trained on the board. His writing was neat, it looked like it could've been a font, each word spaced out almost precisely from the next. Cartman snakes his head around and then moves his entire body when he sees the two of relatively civil. 

"Jews got a boner for the junkie," Cartman says, a little louder than intended. Next to him, David looks beyond annoyed, he’s gripping his pencil so tightly that you wouldn’t be surprised if he broke it.

"Shut up, fatass," You and Kyle manage to say in sync before you look at each other in disgust that your thoughts matched up.

"I fucking hate high school." You say under your breath, turning to look back at your notes and pushing his back toward him.

"Me too," Kyle says and you're actually on the same page for a change, you're not sure if you like it.

A/N: I hate this but here it is anyway 😔 I promise it gets more interesting. Open to head cannons and requests rn. Thanks for reading!

[peacefulharu]

Ok now that i have time to write a bit, i kinda wanna share my thoughts on this pic coz they are 💯💯💯🤭🤭🤭

Honestly, i LOL-ed the first time i saw this pic. The fashion sense for most of them kinda be liek all over the places but i love itt.

Eren honestly is wearing sucha terrible combo of clothes loll. the black shirt + tracksuit/ loose pants?? or whatever that is reminds me of construction workers/hard labor workers in japan. my hc is he ends up as one after trying many times to fit in in corporate world (rmbr isym's recent QA?? he said Eren probably be changing jobs a lot so yeahhh)

And that teal coat is probably last min addition given by Mikasa before they all started their journey to Nagoya. My shippy jeanmika heart is of coz saying that she grab it from Jean's closet coz she knew Eren wont have any decent clothes ready (hence the super mismatched clothes) while Jean went to Reiner's to wake him up so they wont miss the train.

Mikasa's clothes is just A+++. Girl knows shes cute and know what to wear to look cuter. The maroon jacket + pink one-piece is 💯💯💯💯. And of coz, since shes the most prepared of them all, she's the one with the tour guidebook, checking the attractions/ food outlets that they gotta try.

My boi Jean is of cozzz the most stylish of them boys! grey jacket with white pants + the sunglasses suits him. am obviously biased but he deserves the best dressed boi award here lol. I just wish he drop that chain wallet thingy coz thats just too extra (i just hate it welp🫣🫣🫣). Loves his dark brown loafers though!

Jean tries to imparts his fashion style to his buddy Reiner but it kinda fall short a bit. The blue shirts + blue pants are ok though but that dark brown coat gotta go! it doesnt match, Rainaaa 😫😫😫

Love that they be matchy matchy with the sunglasses though 🤭🤭🤭 but again, chain wallets should be a thing in the past alreadyy, let it gooo 🥲🥲🥲

Armin though, hmmm. honestly his clothes are kinda ok but somehow dark color doesnt suit him?? is it just me feelin this?? sorry bby

I kinda love Annie's clothes thoughh. the blue skirt is pretty and match with the white tops. My issue is only that her clothes do not look warm enough like the rest of the gang???? Liek yoo, everyone be wearing many layers but there she is, dressing in one piece of tops and a skirt onlyy. (ok sure, she has a sweater drape on her shoulders but welp it still doesnt look warm enough to me 🥶🥶🥶)

Levi... hmm is also wearing a kind of disaster combo there??? that blue shirt (he probably stole from Erwin) + off white sweater + green jacket + ugly cap are just too much for me lol. also most of them is having a small bag / no bag at all but there he is with that huge bag. Either he's gonna be staying in Nagoya for a while or he's a heavy traveller (which is what i alwys hc him to be)

Hanji is honestly me lol. this is what i always wear coz comfy > lookin pretty for me so yepp. also am usually too lazy to dressed up so its cool 🤭🤭🤭

[delicatebluebirdruins]

The screaming staircase reread

notes made whilst reading my paperback copy of the book

also the foreward where Stroud talks about the show and his first image of the story has me feeling so many things (I love this bookmark so much)

16th October 2024

3 I love the opening

4 Lockwood’s sillyness

5 “I spied a movement: something shifting in the halls black depths”

6 “all the usuals emotions featured” glad that the law states part was give to Lockwood in the show

9 “when entering the house…” I love this bit and the house description and “halls, landings and staircases are the arteries and airways of any building”

Bright death-glow, the landing on top feeling would never come across on screen “then we find ourselves a ghost”

15 ‘It’s the simple things that matter most”

16 “already checked everything back in the office’ did you though?

17 “lamplight glimmered darkly in his flop of hair” and “irony is cleverer”

17th October 2024

19 Harry Crisp

20 “she felt as if something was looking for her, that it knew she was there, but couldn’t find her…”

23 “a nail being hammered into wood” love the implications for this because how would Annie know the process of what Fairfax did to conceal his crime?

27 “scary things with your eyes” don’t blame George

29 “I saw a girl sanding there”

31 I love the terms being explained even though we have a glossary

33 Lucy’s sing song voice

37 Iron to the face.

40 “It’s my responsibility”/ “to make bad decisions?” Lmao “Sun coming out, Lockwood’s glare softened to a grin”-> what tipped you off that Mr Hope was a geologist?

47 knocked the filings

51 “She was prettier than me”… “she looked to be like the kind of girl I’d always instinctively disliked” internalised misogyny Ding! Ding!

53 description of body

55 “would you call that even the slightest bit controlled? Nope I would not”

18th October 2024

57 the locket! I love this description

60 “sooty grin”… “suspended together between heat and cold”

66 Highgate Terror and the Mud Lane Phantom

68 the terror of the abuse not being finished with death… seven girls? Lucy is baby

72 Penny Nolan + pretty field of flowers

73 mustard coloured jackets and first sunrise corporation

74 Fittes Manual for Ghost-hunters; all sisters apart from Mary left home; advancement and ambitions; all her team died as “Jacob began to lose his nerve” (you know in the show they changed the name to Moorgate Mill? Real place in Wessex apparently)

80 “more accurate” piss off and an update on what happened to the mill and leaving for London

19th October 2024

84 corner shop my love

87 Umbrellas, walking sticks and rapiers

88 Lockwood smile, green and white spotted handkerchief “Almost here”

90 Murton Colliery Horror

92 “when he smiled at me, a warm light seemed to suffuse the room”

97-98 blessed scene- did the Skull first and the three (good, bad and indifferent) at the same time

100 “don’t care wave”

104 attic and more books

106 I love this bit in the show with the gag of Lucy pushing the lid and revealing the insult (It would have been funnier if George called Lockwood out on the time change or cases messed up)

108 Joe and Esmeralda (their namesakes Marissa’s ghosts) we can have them in the show it would just be them getting repaired

110 Uncle Lockwood- Hey Kensal Green!

112 I love Lucy talking about Lockwood and complaining about George

115 “Walking into darkness with Lockwood at my side”

119 dismissing his grandchild Lockwood’s pointed questions (spiders attracted cats repelled)

124 Clever Lucy wish we could have seen this scene in the show

128 love Cameron delivering this line in the show “you’d think…” love the talk about George

Part three the Necklace

133 “like dragon scales”

135 I wish this scene was in the show. Lockwood talking to Lucy and telling her they're going to the hospital. Alas we might have got it if Netlflix wasn't allergic to anything more than eight episodes (or the episodes were longer)

138 “adrenalin in the ambulance and stopped the rot”

140 Lucy don’t be dense hate this scene

143 how big a reward? Is it still applicable?

146 I am so glad this storm cleared

20th October 2024

153 “Barnes liked the rules more than most”… “inexpressibly old”

156 four weeks to two in the show and Barnes dissmissal of other cultures (so really upping the stakes in the show)

158 “it’s easily started by grotesque shapes” George!

160 now people cancelled the cases… did she?

165 “I messed up and disaster followed”

168 ghost-fog is so cool and Annie is so creepy here

172 “the smiley giraffe” 173 George is so funny

180 "maybe I just wanted to save something of her, so she wouldn't be completely lost..."

183 "this necklace is more significant to Annabel Ward than her own bodily remains..."

185 wanting to save Annie... how hot was the Sheen Road fire?

191 Lockwood requests and asks her to connect with Annie's memory

195 "marks of their profession and status"

200 here here George "I say it's a crime to refuse free food"

201 Gibbet hill?

203 Lockwood's wolf like smile

205 the moment that sparked a number of questions all boiled down to did Kipps know Jessica and like her? (personally I think they were friends)

207 Love this bit "almost got it Kipps" wish we got to Jack Bandeira jump around a bit in the show

209 a note of when this begins again Hugo Blake is 100% guilty

216 I want a mint

218 "doesn't really add anything" LOCKWOOD WHAT

219 Lockwood's aesthetically long coat hindering him again

21st October

222 casually threatening children

225 "she was so radiant it was like the other-light was already on her"

232 potential murderer

237 "this was our house, our home"

240 I like the change in the show "can I offer you some tea" intruder using the ghosts as distractions and weapons

255 Compliments on ghost-wards

258 ingratiation with the trio

265 missing boy of the Fittes team :(

271 George and Lucy team up

273 Lucy's scary eyes

278 "obviously guilty" HOW? (I really want to know Lockwood's thought process as it so obvious that he was suspecting Fairfax quite early on)

282 the Skull? "talking quietly in the next room" (when Lucy is showing Annabel the group* picture) I wonder how this story would have changed if the Skull was heard by Lucy earlier on? how many more insults would we get?... as I was typing this up I came to ask myself am I the Skull? when reading this book? and the answer might very well be yes

*good idea she should have got a copy and cut it up and just showed the other people one by one see what happens

284 worried Lockwood is my favourite

287 *sarcasm* I wonder who else is in the picture

22nd October 2024

289 Lmao Lucy

291 dear Cousin Throckmorton (i had the exact same reaction the first time I read the book)

292 ululation is a word I forgot the meaning of (and all I could think looking at it is Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds)... I love a map... blackface of course the crimes Fairfax has commited is varied for sure

294 "not really relevant" but isn't it though? not a thought in this girls head honestly

302 "Lucy's terribly jaded"

309 "the house was just the gate"

313 Lockwood's customer service voice must be great. It has to be.

315 another puzzle piece

320 "we worked together" a well you say? well, well, well

324 Lockwood talking about what type of man Fairfax is "a dreadful one isn't it obvious?" to me? Yes both times I've read the book and even without watching the show first. George and Lucy however? not so sure it is

23rd October 2024

328 disconcertingly bright death-glows

332 "I didn't like it's face"

334 clever George

337 Lockwood not believing in the Screaming Staircase

345 hello smell of blood

347 more bright death-glows

348 "It looks like blood, it smells like it. it'll do as blood for me" (I like the show altering this line a little bit to make it run better)

353 lmao Lockwood "You're a girl aren't you meant to be more sensitive"

362 those poor cats- hey Lucy does have a brain it just took a minute to catch up

365 poor little boy "his other-light lit nothing but himself"

368 I love this converstation and Lucy being pleasant about it

372 "Lockwood was too good a leader to ignore so strong a warning"

377 "it had come from the locket... A burst of energy" Aw Annie is trying to help

378 Lockwood "No Lucy, that's not the way it's going to be"

385 funny George... don't worry Lucy will slap Lockwood you just have to wait a bit

386 Castle Sherbourne? 388 Lockwood noticing the smoke

389 Fairfax a self made man my aunt fanny

393 "Don't give me that. You had no idea" George might have actually and just didn't share it like Lockwood did

394 "she was an actor too... she'd had a promising acting career, but had given it up because of... something or other"

400 Lockwood is cool, calm and collected

402 "feel free to shoot the girl' Lockwood said something, but I didn't hear what" okay what did Lockwood say?

406 "pretentious, self-regarding sort of fellow"

407 "Will Fairfax" the acting name but Will Fairfax ever grow up?

409 "passion between them" concealment and performance of secret relationships...

412 Forgot? Good for Annie though

413 Clever Lockwood sending a message to Barnes (also why did DEPRAC show up in the show?)

415 Grebe seeing and recognising the silver glass and going "uh oh"

421 Starkins being spooked by DEPRAC is so funny

424 Barnes is so great "in keeping with tradition, Inspector Barnes managed to remain deeply annoyed with us while grudgingly congratulating us on a job well done."

425 Lockwood defending his choices and the "fullest most radiant smile" is so great

427 prep school nice (have fun kids)

428 Sad "His name was Sam McCarthy. For the record, he'd been twelve years old." (I do love the show for having Penelope approached and thanked the trio personally and having them attend the funeral as well)

431 party time hello "harp"

433 "we met each others eyes, smiled, and looked away"

435 I LOVE Lucy telling Lockwood about the Mill Incident

437 I giggle quite a bit at Lucy going "I don't need lights" and immediatly trips over a box

439 Lucy has no time for your nonsense

440 Lockwoods laugh and how well Lucy knows him "He'd thrown his head back, I could tell"

[l0v34sp3nc3r]

"there is always a choice."

welcome to my blog!

info -

logan / johnny / cas , he / they / it + neos / xenos , british , white

19 ('05) , trans man, gay , asexual, polyamorous , cane user , collector

DNI -

-18 , nsfw heavy blogs , edsh blogs , proana , proisrael , dsmp/qsmp fans , lovejoy/wilbur soot fans , tcc , anti recovery , racist , homophobic , transphobic , ableist , zionist , trump supporters , anti agere/petre , romanticises serial killers , jkr supporters , noah schnapp supporters ect , anti shifting , hates on my faves , neil gaiman supporters

boundaries -

keep all terms used for me masculine or gender neutral , do not ask for my personal information (location , deadname , ect) , do not flirt with me (platonically or romantically)

interests -

overwatch , call of duty , valorant , arcane , tlovm , criminal minds , star wars , mcu , titans , the batman , forza horizon , roblox (dti, rh ect) , fnaf , poppy playtime , indigo park , law and order svu , rdr2 , dbh , acnh , monster high , harry potter , tua , musicals , heartstopper , young royals , greys anatomy , good omens , fantastic beasts hogwarts legacy , xmen , genshin impact , tlou (show and game) , the mandolorian , new girl , dolls , lego , books

music i like -

my chemical romance , twenty one pilots, taylor swift , james marriott , fall out boy , korn , slipknot , green day , ariana grande , nf , ajr , hozier , noah kahan , sleep token , ghost , tyler the creator , post malone , 5sos , jls , 1d , adele , amy winehouse , the stupendium , ashnikko , bbno$ , black veil brides , billie eilish , avril lavigne , bo burnham , boygenius , gracie abrams , chappell roan , charlie xcx , chase atlantic , cody fry , idkhow , conan gray , djo , gigi perez , imogen heap , james arthur , radiohead , jeff buckley , lemon deamon , lily allen , maya hawke , linkin park , palaye royale , paramore , ptv , sleeping at last & more

musicals i like -

poto , moulin rouge , wicked , hamilton , deh , grease (1&2) , hairspray , sweeny todd , les miserables , la la land , heathers , high school musical , annie , mean girls , beetlejuice , waitress , the greatest showman , mama mia , tick tick boom , into the woods , in the heights , little shop of horrors , lemonade mouth , descendants

DISCLAIMER ; i do not support jkr. unfortunately, her work has been one of my main interests for a very long time (harry potter, fantastic beasts ect) but anything I buy to do with those things is either fan merch OR second hand. I do not buy things where my money is directly going to her.

my tags -

#—﹒lo's rambles﹒⊹ - talking / basic posts

#—﹒lo's f/o's﹒⊹ - my f/o's (platonic , romantic or familial)

#—﹒lo's fictional faves﹒⊹ - my favourite fictional characters

#—﹒lo creates﹒⊹ - anything I create (moodboards ect)

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casian / cas , saint , charlie / char , william / will

pronouns I use -

he / him / his

star / stars / starself

rot / rots / rotself

pup / pups / pupself

they / them / theirs

it / its / itself

vamp / vamps / vampself

[coolchevistianofficialsite]

Owlphibia Vs Disney Television Animation Next Era - When I Learned That Serialization Can Be Bad In Excess....

The night i posted this, i didn’t bothered with it beacuse i was ready to hop on an airport to Acapulco for the weekend, returning on Tuesday evening, i was surprised by the many QRTs, Replys and Reblogs as the tweet went viral over-night to the point of cringy Tik Toks and YT Shorts where putting made up bs.

Since the announcement that Disney Branded Television will stop the serialized era at Disney Channel for the 2020s and from now on will focus on musical episodic comedies specially many of them created by Big City Greens with exception of Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur who was confirmed to be serialized later on, there has been some bias againts the current and future Disney TVA lineup for Disney Channel from the Owlphibia fandom (Owl House and Amphibia) this has been prominent since Q3 2021.

These past years i haven’t been bothered by that beacuse right now im 24 years old and im more focused on finding my first animation job after finishing college by next year and starting to save money for equipment of my art, to bother if people i don’t know cry if their favorite storytelling on the medium of animation for a multimedia company will go away

However recently the Owlphibia community has been on a very toxic situation with future Disney TVA shows by simply existing that finally decided to speak up, specially with some things that have been bothering me with the community that i have been carrying since 2021 to a point where someone attemped to “cancel me” and decided to finally writte this over the following bs that happen during the Annies weekend where OPs pic scares away potential fans of both TOH and DTVA shows

1) TREATING BIG CITY GREENS LIKE THE SECOND COMING OF SATAN 

Big City Greens is a curious case where a fandom hate goes so much, beacuse im tired of going to the BCG tag on Twitter and evey 5 or 3 tweets i see a Owlphibia fan hating the show beacuse the bitter truth “JEALOUSY” recently these people treat this show as a soulless project that only exists just to cancel serialized shows to give it more attention, BCG dosn’t have any fault of that, Dana has explained that the show was axed due Gary Marsh leadership at DBTV on 2020 or on 2021 where TC was delayed and the Owlphibia fandom was pissed that a BCG marathon was replaced instead.

Im tired of repeating myself with this point but the show is very popular with it’s target demographic aka children who support the show legally as opposed to Twitter & Tumbrl who searches the latest MEGA as soon at is posted AND barely supports it’s official release on legal platforms,Bob Chapek’s LGTBQ+ scandal was a fair boycott and i respect it if that case made you NOT want to support any official release of TOH & Amphibia to give Disney money, if that was the case i completly understand.

However Big City Greens, the show and it’s crew dosn’t have the fault of being the cancelation of TOH or delaying True Colors as that’s illogical and dosn’t make any sense and if you have following me you know that im glad that their Alumnis like Natasha Kline,Cheyenne Curtis,Monica Ray,Amy Hudkins and Raj Brueggemann as well The Houghton Brothers mentor C.H Greenblatt will do their own Disney shows and being succesful with their own franchises as Disney has faith in them to make big hits and becoming next storytellers and honestly that’s fine, im sure you will love them and speaking of future Disney TVA shows...

2) APATHY TO ANY OTHER NEW DISNEY TVA SHOWS ON THE WAY.

This where real tweets when these shows where announced and got me a laugh out of me, the first one beacuse on the same day Disney literally announced two serialized series for Disney+ under the Disney Europe Animation (The Doomies & Dragion Striker) while ignoring The Witchverse and Rhona Who Lives By The River and the second one was beacuse we literally confirmed that InterCats will be a more mature comedy for kids and teenagers ala Regular Show which explains it’s Disney+ greenlight.

Or recent attacks to The Witchverse for being a show about witches and being the major blamed for Owlphibia for TOH cancelation or Owlphibia fans crying when Phineas And Ferb announced a revival, being angry at Hamster and Gretel making a dark blood joke or throwing a tantrum over Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur aka a Marvel IP getting merchandise right off the bat and bothering Disney TVA excs on Twitter to ask them to break NDA to know if there’s a new serialized show on development.

I understand being afraid however things change as well and it’s very obvious that the era of Gravity Falls alumni-leading projects at Disney is over as S.H Cotugno and Emmy Circiega and others have left Disney for good now that TOH is over or that their development deal is now over however this dosn’t excuse to  look with apathy to this new era as this new shows might even surprise you and is interesting that other animation communities of other countries are open to this new era than American cartoontwt and cartoontumbrl recently one Facebook page from Latin America posted the first photo and the community commented on this with positive reactions with the new episodic era, here are some of the highlights

1 - In my opinion, it's good that they let this type of series rest with deep serious plots and deep character developments. The truth is, I was already fed up with those fandoms that fought with everyone and among themselves, defending tooth and nail every idea or theory that It arose throughout the series and that when it ends, the fans want answers about what happened next or they want a continuation of it, and they don't understand that if it's over, it's over, period.

2 - Well, I think it was time to put this kind of series to rest, over time they began to fall into the Adventure Time and Gravity Falls formula, it worked well, but perhaps that genre of storytelling in the medium needs a reinvention.

3 -  I feel sad that they are stopping these type of animated series with that format. Rebecca Rose said it months ago that this is the new approach because it is easier for the target demographic to get into the series and get hooked on a random episode that happens, but it doesn't mean anything bad ,there is Molly Mcgee and other projects that don’t look bad

4-  Serialized shows are good, but once in a while, you need a break, something simple, to watch over a meal and for that, the return of Phineas & Ferb is appreciated

5- I'm not saying that the GF-type "formula" should disappear, but that Disney itself stagnated with it...  Pretty much like the anime, the tropes started to be repetitive a lot like "a normal person arrives in a magical world and blah blah blah..." I think they can be more creative than that

6-  Im fine with it, at the end of the day Disney knows how to reinvent itself, this will not be the end of the company or Disney's animation units.

7-  People prefer to watch shows without following a plot so much, it's normal that they want to put that aside for a while.

As for me im pretty excited that finally Harvey Beaks/Big City Greens alumnis are getting their time to shine besides More Than Us from Disney Wish, Encanto’s song What Else Can I Do? is what represents what i feel with this new era:

Before finishing an aclaration with this editorial im not forcing you to like every new Disney TVA series for Disney Channel, im just asking nicely to the Owlphibia community to level down their hatred with other Disney shows for simply existing and direct your anger to older dumb excecutives instead of other shows who don’t have any fault of a cancelation.

And be positive that at least that someone still greenlights original animated series in this sea of cancelations based on the betrayal of Netflix Animation and the mess that is WBD, Cartoon Network Studios WISHES right now to have someone as passionate on animation as Ayo Davis and Meredith Robers.

Finally im my opinion overall on this is pretty much “Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever. Sometimes, you have to let it go” and with this new era of episodic musical comedies by BCG alumnis well “But, of the things you let go, you'd be surprised what makes its way back to you.” -- Anne Boonchuy.

Take care and support animation - Seb

[marigoldbaker]

you are my flower

sooooooooo what if as an experiment i posted 10k words of fic under the cut. here. just to see how it felt. a few things here and there might not mesh perfectly with all that sapphic old woman mystery fic when it's done, but i loved this so dearly when i wrote it and i want to start setting some of my backlog of writing free, if only here! i have been talking for so long about things without any context so maybe it is time to provide a BIT more :) as such: the story behind how thea acquired marigold. (warnings for blood + implied violence + a bit of murder. unsurprisingly, probably.)

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Of course it started to fucking storm at midnight. Thea woke up with the rain hitting her face and let out a long, frustrated sigh, rolling onto her back. She was seriously considering just stopping the adventuring outright.

It wasn’t half the worry it had been once, leaving the girls at home alone, but traipsing aimlessly through the woodlands wasn’t half the joy she remembered it being. She missed her little ones. Norie, fierce little spider, hated thunderstorms but refused to admit it; she would despise this weather and cuddle close under some complicated pretense that Thea would have happily indulged. Rosie loved any sort of big weather; she said that it was like the sky was trying to give them a bath, or share all the water in the world with them, or some other such nonsense that Thea would remember better with her here and dancing dangerously through the thunder and lightning.

Lianne had woken up too. She was shaking Chester awake; he grunted unhappily and put a hand over his face to cover it, then said, “Turn off the fucking water, Annie.”

“It’s not water,” said Lianne, in a put-upon sort of voice that Thea had to try not to laugh at. Didn’t work too well. “It’s storming. We need to find better shelter.”

Thea pulled out the parchment. Fucking thing was waterproof, of course. No new messages from Jaheira, outside of the old one: if you are in the area, there is a secluded grove some distance west of the rumored treasure. Mention my name there in case of emergency.

Meddling old hen. Thea wrote, WE’RE FINE. FUCK OFF, mostly because Jaheira had better things to do than check up on her every ten seconds whenever she went out of town. She pocketed the parchment again.

“Writing the wife?” said Fawn, sweetly.

“Oh, fuck off,” said Thea. Fawn laughed. “Annie’s right; we need to find a better camp. Think there was a bit of a path through the woods, yeah?”

“We don’t know what sort of people live in these woods,” said Lianne uncomfortably.

Gods, these fucking kids. Thea sent a look to Fawn, who made a bit of a sorry-about-them face, which, all right, yeah, she’d take it. Were their positions reversed, she’d have wanted her girls given a little leeway. “Pack your kits up,” she instructed, “we’re moving. Annie, if the people in the woods aren’t the nice sort, I’ll bash their faces in. That help?”

“…Um!” said Lianne, wincing.

“Teachable moment, kiddos!” said Fawn brightly. “You’ll have to get used to all sorts of violence if you’re interested in becoming an adventurer. Some party members, like Thea here,” she gestured with a little flair towards Thea, who would have really liked for them to get fucking going, actually, “may be much more comfortable with physical solutions to disputes, rather than tactical ones, which I know you two often prefer.”

Not for the first time during this journey, Thea debated just telling them all outright that the kids were not fucking suited for the adventurers’ life. But Fawn was an old friend, and she’d called in a favor, and it was the sort of favor that adventurer-Thea would have made a face at, which meant that mum-Thea had to actually fucking consider it. Course, the whole notion of serving as adventuring guide to a few green kids was horrible. When she’d explained it to Jaheira, Jaheira had looked at her for a few very astonished minutes before saying, “Is this some sort of situation where the mother is dying? Or do all of your friends simply call in life-debts solely to aid and abet phenomenally absurd situations?”

(Gods, she loved that woman.)

“I just think that there are ways to resolve situations without blood!” Chester suggested, in one of those voices that could really only come from a kid who was old enough to come up with thoughts but too young to realize people had already had those thoughts before them. “So unless it’s really necessary—”

“Teachable moment, kiddos,” said Thea tightly, “it is fucking thunder and lightning out here. Move your arses.”

The kids set to packing up their soaked-through bedrolls. Thea reached over and tucked some of Fawn’s hair behind her ears. “You’re getting too old for this,” she said.

“Which is why I brought you, High Hammer!” said Fawn, and grinned.

“Call me that again and I’ll start killing shit in front of your kids,” Thea threatened. “Scar them for life.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind that; they’d get sick of the road and we’d all get to go home,” said Fawn. “I’m giving them the authentic experience.”

“Mum tricks?”

“Mum tricks.”

They smiled at each other. Hysterically, Lianne called, “MUM! There’s a frog drowning in the rain!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” said Thea. Fawn hurried over to help.

Lianne tucked the frog into her pack, which was the sort of thing that Ros would do, which made Thea miss Ros all over again. Gods, she really wasn’t fucking cut out for this; she’d have to ask Jaheira how she managed when she got home. She had, of course, packed her shit up much quicker than the kids; Chester seemed to be trying to wring out his bedroll in the rain, which was ridiculous. “IT’S ALL GOING TO GET WET,” she shouted over the thunder, shepherding the kids forward. “KEEP MOVING!”

There was a bit of a path through the forest, which Thea had noticed before and hadn’t intended to take. Path looked man-made but ill-used—it had been cut out near a decade ago, if she had to guess, but it was starting to grow over, which usually meant a cabin with a rotting hermit corpse inside, and she wasn’t actually trying to scar Fawn’s kids for life. Still, needs must in a situation like this, so Thea ushered Fawn and the kids forward.

Lightning struck too fucking near them. Thea kept her calm. When she was Norie’s age, she’d been scared half to death of thunderstorms just the same, and Faenor Glorie, who’d done most of the job raising her, had told her what she told Norie at home: the thunder and lightning were the gods saying that today was an important day, somewhere, a day that you needed to pay attention to—electric fingers from the heavens, pointing the way. Thea had always thought it was a bit stupid, mind, but so had Norie, and Norie always liked saying that things were stupid, and thinking about Norie was enough to get anyone through any storm. Her wonderful, dreadful girl.

Lightning struck again. Lianne shrieked and grabbed for her mother. Chester, trying valiantly to look the part of a man rather than a boy with only half a patchy beard, steeled himself dramatically against the storm. Thea squinted forward, trying to see what lay ahead. She thought she could make something out—

There was a coppery taste to the air. That wasn’t right. Thea knew the electricity, knew the rain, but there was something else about this night that felt unsettling. She was a battle cleric; she knew in her blood and bones when something was wrong up ahead. “Fawn, I’m going ahead,” she said, leaning in, shouting anyway because the rain was getting that fucking bad. “You keep the kids back.”

“What?!” said Fawn. “Thea, it’s storming!”

“Fucking really?” said Thea. “I hadn’t noticed!”

She didn’t provide any further details, mostly because she didn’t know them—just pressed ahead, faster now, moving towards the end of the path and a dilapidated little house with the door hanging open. It was dark, but the house was lit, and the light streaming out of the front room—

Oh, fuck, thought Thea, her blood running cold, and she knew now she could not let Fawn and the kids go towards that home. She desperately scanned the area for something, anything she could lead them towards instead, and saw with a dizzy rush of relief that there was a barn just adjacent to the house. Wind in her face, rain streaming down, she sprinted back towards Fawn and the kids.

Fawn had seen it. Thea could tell. Her face had gone white and she wasn’t saying anything about how Thea was being ridiculous anymore. “Barn up ahead,” said Thea. “You take the kids there.”

There was her sensible adventuring girl: Fawn nodded, tightly, just as she had all those years ago, and bundled her kids towards the barn, angling them away from the house.

Thea didn’t wait to see where they went. She charged back up that path and towards the house. The door. The little girl.

The girl had been carved open. It didn’t look like a ritual; Thea knew the signs of a ritual, and the cuts, while sometimes just as violent, were usually accompanied by some sort of sigils or candles or something. Took place indoors, too, usually, and the way she was lying looked like she’d been flung half out of doors. Her hair was soft and red and she was the smallest thing Thea had ever seen—smaller even than Norie, somehow, all stick limbs and ill-fitting clothing.

Had she been living here by herself? No. Someone else had done this to her. She hadn’t fought back—no blood under her fingernails, no bruises, nothing but the carved-open chest.

“Oh, Lady of the Fray, show us mercy,” Thea whispered, her heart hammering, hurting. It had been easy, once, seeing kids like this, when she didn’t have kids of her own. She’d said a prayer, she’d moved on, end of story, but now—gods, who had done this? They were in the middle of the fucking woods, what was the purpose to brutalizing a girl like this?

And it was so fucking stupid, but she did it anyway, never mind the blood and the pulpy mess: she checked the girl’s pulse.

It was nothing. Next to nothing. A single jump under her fingertips, followed by the awful and familiar stillness. The girl’s eyes were glazed and open, lips parted. She had died that very second. And that meant—

Thea acted without thinking. Gathered the girl up into her arms, never mind the blood all over her armor; it had seen worse, anyway. Cradled the fragile little bones close and sent that call forward like a pulse: you come back, now. You come home.

She felt the girl stir, felt—oh, gods, the hunger, the immediate trust in response to a single tender touch! The girl’s face turned towards her without hesitation, curling into her arms, barely alive but alive enough to cling, never mind that surely the last thing she remembered was being stabbed to death.

She was still bleeding. Near dying. Thea fumbled in her satchel for a healing potion, forcing it past the girl’s lips. The girl blinked—golden eyes, bright and sweet as the summer sun—and sipped obediently.

She didn’t seem half aware of where she was, who Thea was, and her eyes were already slipping shut again, but the color was returning to her cheeks, so Thea wouldn’t begrudge her a bit of a nap. Scooping the little one into her arms, she stood, making her way carefully over to Fawn in the barn.

The children exclaimed when they saw Thea. There was an odd ringing in Thea’s ears, though, so she couldn’t half make out what Fawn was saying, only knew that she would not let anyone else touch this girl. Fawn was a fighter, not a healer, and the kids didn’t know shit, and the girl was on the very fucking brink of death, and here they were in the middle of fucking nowhere—

“—Jaheira,” Fawn was saying. “She said something about a, a grove—”

Thea let out a sobbing gasp and sat down hard on the ground.

“Oh, lovey,” said Fawn, all shaky, “it’s okay! She’s stable, isn’t she? We can move her. Here, we—I won’t touch her, just—just put her down, all right? See how those potions are helping. Doesn’t look like she’s bleeding as much.”

The girl’s flesh was knitting back together—badly scarred, Thea realized, because she’d gone for a fucking healing potion instead of her divine fucking magic, gods take her, she was fucking useless in a crisis. Her eyes were closed, her breathing raspy, but she was breathing, which was the best fucking news Thea’d gotten all day.

She reached out and touched the girl’s face. The girl mumbled something incoherent and almost smiled, rubbing her cheek against Thea’s gauntleted hand. Didn’t even make half the fuss Norie and Rosie did about the cold, prickly metal—it was enough for her to just be touched.

“Thea,” Fawn was saying. “Thea, Jaheira’s sent a—”

Thea reached for the parchment and realized Fawn must have taken it. She would have felt angry if the world was working the right way. With bloodstained hands, she gripped the parchment, staring down at Jaheira’s anxious script, clearly in response to whatever Fawn had told her: That does not at all sound like Althea. Is she all right? Give her over to me.

Thea wrote, Grive directins, distantly aware that things were being misspelled.

Althea, what has happened?

Thea couldn’t tell her; it was too awful. Help, she wrote instead, which she knew would worry Jaheira, but fuck if she didn’t need it right now. The girl was going to fucking die in front of them.

Jaheira didn’t respond. Fawn said, “We do have the grove directions already. We’ll wait out the storm—”

“No,” said Thea.

“Thea, you need to think critically,” Fawn pressed. “We can stabilize her here to the best of our abilities—”

“I have to do it,” said Thea, “or someone else who knows how, and I’m already fucking it up; I can’t cast like this. I c-can’t focus like this.” She touched the girl’s face again, heart steadying when the girl repeated that sweet little motion—reached up, this time, to brush her fingers sleepily against Thea’s own in return. Oh, the sweet little thing! “She needs to be at that grove now, Fawn.”

“You can’t just—”

Thea wasn’t listening. She picked the girl up again and moved past Fawn and the kids, which wasn’t too hard; they weren’t expecting her to really leave, because she was their guide, she was sensible, she kept a cool head in a crisis. Well, this went far past crisis and well into cataclysmic. Suppose Faenor Glorie had been right about thunder and lightning, all along.

The girl was mumbling in her sleep—something about animals, or angels. Thea smoothed wet hair away from her face. Her horrible little dress was muddied and bloodied; Thea resolved to get the girl a hundred new dresses as soon as they reached Baldur’s Gate. As soon as she was well again. She knew it in her bones, knew like she’d known Norie, Rosie, Jaheira: this girl was one of hers.

“…sorry,” the girl shivered. “Sorry s-sorry sorry.”

If Thea wasn’t wearing the stupid fucking armor, she’d be able to hold the girl close, keep her warmer. She tried not to think about that. She pressed forward.

The path went sideways into the forest, so Thea followed. Hard to navigate when the world spun with rage and grief, but she was doing her best. She knew which way was westward, anyway, and as soon as she got the girl settled she’d have it in her to go back for Fawn and the kids, so that was a plan. She was planning. It was fine.

Her foot caught on something. With a warrior’s training, she steadied herself and the girl, squinting in the rain and the low light to see what she’d almost tripped over.

Another fucking body. What a fucking day. No, that wasn’t right, Thea had tripped over a root—and it looked like whoever had fallen had done the same thing, tumbling down at exactly the right angle to half crack her head open on a tree. She was forcing herself to her elbows, the rain on her face, the blood coming down with it. So white she looked like a ghost, with long, limp black hair that could have been pretty, once.

Her eyes were unfocused. She didn’t look right. Instinctively, Thea drew the girl closer.

The movement caught the woman’s attention. Her eyes landed on the girl, bloodied, and she looked back up at Thea like Thea was judge, jury, and executioner. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. There was blood under her fingernails, on her beautiful dress, blood that even the rain hadn’t washed out.

For the first time in a very long time, Thea wanted to kill someone. She was a battle cleric, yeah, but that had never meant she was the sort to savor death, to go out of her way looking for an excuse to bring her hammer down. She did it for the good of whatever battle she was trying to win, not—not because this woman had blood on her dress, and was staring at Thea with horror—and, crucially, without guilt. She was unhappy to be caught.

Thea said, voice shaking, “Who’s this girl to you?”

The woman didn’t answer. She said, “Mari? Marigold. Marigold, you’re being a tad dramatic, don’t you think?” and at this point, Thea realized that the woman was dying. “Marigold,” said the woman, “you look at me when I’m talking to you. You look at me. You’re burdening our guest. I have—” She coughed up blood of her own. It trickled down her mouth. “I have set the table with the silver tea set,” said the woman. “I have the ribbons in my hair, the ribbons from my youth, I—I am a lady, I am Lady Olympia Northaven, I have waited so long for a fair stranger to come and—and rescue me—from my drudgery—”

“This your daughter?” said Thea.

The woman’s eyes flashed and she said, “She is a mistake.”

Only the thing was—Thea was realizing this—if she stood here any longer, her little girl would die. She could put Mari down, smash the woman’s brains in against the tree, feel the fucking wonder and the righteousness of it, but Marigold would die. And, gods, she’d never wanted to kill someone more, never, but standing here in the rain was wasting seconds she did not fucking have. She bundled Marigold into her arms and kept moving.

“Mari?” the woman called. “Mari! No, you’re not here for her, you’re here for me! You’re here for me!” She was screaming it, loud enough to near drown out the rain, hysterical, dying. “I’ve waited! I’ve waited!”

Thea walked past Lady Olympia Northaven and brought to mind all the best things in the world, the calming things: Norie’s rare, wicked smile, and Ros scrambling over like an eager puppy to hug her whenever she came home, and Jaheira, who would hear this story, weeks from now, and somehow know the rightest, wisest thing to say about it.

Marigold’s fingers curled against the metal of Thea’s armor. Against her heart.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

The grove was fucking five minutes away. Felt ridiculous to have worried so much about it. Thea forced Jaheira’s name out of her lips—not that she’d much needed to throw it round; the druids saw the girl and didn’t even bother asking any questions. One of them tried to scoop Marigold away and Thea held on tight, and another one said, “We only wish to help your daughter, saer, I promise,” at which point Thea realized in full what she’d gotten herself into and her legs gave way. So then the druids were fussing over them both, for some reason.

Marigold was in the same room as her. The druids were willing to compromise on that. Thea watched her like a hawk, shaking, terrified that at any moment the potion and the spell would prove themselves too weak a tether to keep the little one alive, and then she’d be gone, and Thea wouldn’t have even fucking killed the monster who did this to her. Her own armor was removed; she was looked over, and healed, though she didn’t need it. It didn’t help. She watched Marigold.

One of the druids asked, “Was there anyone else in your party?”

“Fawn,” said Thea. “Lianne. Chester.”

“And what happened to them?”

“Barn,” said Thea. “They’re—sheltering, I—they weren’t hurt.” It was an immense effort to string together a sentence. She was halfway to another one when her eyes landed on—a druid. A druid with silver hair, feline grace, and a drawn, terrified expression, hurtling up to her and—

“Althea, you imbecile!” said Jaheira, and pulled her into a shockingly tight hug. She was soaked to the bone, just like Thea, which probably meant she’d been out in the rain too.

Thea let her cheek fall exhaustedly against Jaheira’s shoulder. “Got here fast,” she said weakly. Usually she would have argued with Jaheira about her being there when she’d a thousand more important things to do, and gods only knew how she’d gotten to the grove as fast as she had, but just having her there was—she didn’t have the words for it.

“You wrote help!” said Jaheira. “You never do that!” She pulled back to get a better look at Thea’s face. Thea realized that she’d stopped looking at Marigold and looked past Jaheira, who followed her gaze. “What…?” Jaheira breathed.

“Her mum killed her,” said Thea, and then again, hysterically, “her mum killed her.”

Jaheira raised a nervous hand halfway to Thea’s face, let it sort of hang in midair, and said, shakily, “And have you not seen worse in your time on the road? What has happened? Really?”

“No, I’m done,” said Thea fiercely. “I’m fucking done. I fucking hate it out here; I want to go back and see my girls. She’s so little, she’s—” Gods, was she crying? Who fucking gave one? It was the night for it. That little girl had died under her hands. “You’d never,” she said, grabbing Jaheira’s hands in her own. “You would never.”

“Of course I would never,” Jaheira whispered. “No mother would.”

“How do you do it?” forced out Thea. “How did it not—you love your kids, I know you do, and they love you. How can you keep doing this without going fucking mad?”

Jaheira’s mouth trembled and her fingers laced with Thea’s. She said, “I am sustained by the love and the grief of my friends. They hold what I cannot. And you—you hold so much in your heart that you are spilling over.” She tugged a hand free, swiping a tear away from Thea’s cheek with her thumb. “I must insist that you stop adventuring,” she said. “You will see worse if you continue. This is…” She looked truly worried. “I have never seen you like this.”

“I’d half stopped already,” said Thea raggedly, “I just—thought, I don’t know, showing Fawn and her kids the ropes could be—and she asked, and I do owe her, and—”

“This sort of thing is hardly a usual occurrence,” Jaheira pointed out. She removed her hand from Thea’s face, pulling out a soaking wet handkerchief, and dabbed very awkwardly at Thea’s cheeks.

“What,” said Thea, “trying to make it worse?”

Jaheira let out a startled bark of laughter that knocked a laugh out of Thea as well. The smile on Jaheira’s face—oh, it did settle her. Brought the world back into focus, at least a bit.

“The route you chose was sensible, uneventful, and you assumed reasonably that it would be relatively unpopulated,” Jaheira observed, in the tone she used for Harper briefings, continuing to stubbornly dab at Thea’s face with the wet handkerchief. Thea tried to wriggle away and found herself held fast. “There was no possible way you could have predicted stumbling upon whatever the hells this was.”

Thea swallowed. She said, “Ran into her mum.”

“Oh?” said Jaheira, dangerously. The handkerchief paused.

“Probably dead now,” said Thea. She added belatedly, “I didn’t kill her.”

Jaheira’s eyes flicked over towards Marigold and back again. She said, “I think that I would have.”

Thea felt a rush of feeling too big to be contained. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said, breathlessly. “I did need you, Jaheira, I’m—I’m so glad you came.”

Jaheira’s face trembled like she’d been waiting to hear something like that for a lot longer than just her showing up at the grove that night. “Hethtalos, I will always come when you ask,” she said. “You are my constant.”

“Gods,” said Thea, smiling miserably, “I’m too fucking tired to figure out how to make you regret saying that.”

Jaheira let out a wet laugh and squeezed Thea’s shoulder. “I will talk to the rest of the druids. You keep an eye on your daughter.”

Bless her girl. She always knew the shape these things took.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Marigold ached. She wasn’t where she last remembered being; it was softer and warmer than anywhere she could remember, at least recently, and someone was singing to her. Something about flowers.

There was a hand in her hair. Couldn’t be mum, then. There was something about mum that she needed to remember, but she didn’t need to now, so she let it go. She felt scrubbed clean, and the fabric against her skin was soft, and there was a hand in her hair. The voice was low and a bit croaky and it shook sometimes, in places.

Someone said, “I will—I will have to leave, you know, I was in the middle of—”

The singing stopped. The low voice said, “Even half a second of you’s enough to put the world to rights. You go where you’re needed next, Commander; I have this well in hand.”

A soft noise. A rustle. The hand in Marigold’s hair left, for a moment, before returning. The song resumed. Marigold tried to listen to the lyrics, but they felt as though they were coming from underwater.

Thank you, she wanted to say, but she was ever so tired, so she reached for the hand in her hair and held it and hoped that that would be good enough. It didn’t feel like mum’s soft hand; it was rough and broad and the fingers shook when they closed round hers, like they’d never been touched nicely before now. Marigold hung on tighter.

“Marigold,” breathed the voice. She’d never heard her name said like that before. She wanted to hear it again, forever.

It was so, so hard to speak. She tried anyway. Whisper-soft, she murmured, “Can you—sing? More?”

The voice started up again. Shook a bit more, this time. Marigold held onto the hand until she’d fallen asleep again.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Marigold woke up slowly. It hurt. The world around her felt lit with a soft glow, warmer than the cold barn and the rain, and she had the distinct sense that she was forgetting something important. She felt a hand stroke her face, which she wasn't used to; it felt like a hungry gash of teeth was opening up in her at just the touch. She pressed her face into the hand.

“There's a good girl,” said a voice she didn't know, or half-knew; it sounded like a voice she might have dreamt, maybe. It couldn't be familiar when she only knew Elodie and Reverie and mum—her thoughts did a funny stutter-stop, refusing to dwell on their names. She tried to open her eyes all the way.

“No, you get your rest, don't start pushing yourself,” said the voice, but Marigold knew that no one really meant that when they said it; it was a snare trap meant to get you to close your eyes so they'd tell you later how lazy and useless you were. She forced her eyes open.

The hand on her face belonged to a woman—smaller and stockier than mum, and a lot older, with a lined, scarred face that looked like it should have been angrier than it was. Her eyes were as soft as the little animals Marigold saw in the forest sometimes. She was looking at Marigold like Marigold was someone she knew. She said, again, “Get sleep, why don't you? It's been a day and change. You need your rest.”

Marigold wanted to say something, but the words stuck in her throat. Words could warrant a knife to the chest. (She didn't know why she'd thought that.) She stared at the woman, unmoving, because if she didn't move, the woman wouldn't take her hand away, probably, and they could stay like this forever.

The woman's hand moved from Marigold's cheek to her shoulder. She said, “You going to lie down, then, or just stare?”

Marigold squeezed her eyes tightly shut, just in case staring was wrong and she hadn't realized.

“Oh, Mari, it's all right, you can look,” coaxed the woman.

Marigold's eyes flew open. How do you know my name? she wanted to ask, but that meant speaking, and she wasn't sure she could do that. She always seemed to say much too much when people gave her room to speak, and she didn't want to ruin whatever this was with her mile-a-minute mouth. 

The woman tilted her head at Marigold, smiled, and said, “Well, your name couldn't be anything but Marigold, could it? That hair of yours…”

Marigold hated her hair. It was red and curly and ugly and it wasn't anything like her family's. It wasn't Northaven hair, it was elf hair. Rotten hair. Wrong.

The woman seemed to see the shadow crossing Marigold's face. “What's wrong?” she asked, gently, in the same tone of voice mum used when Reverie or Elodie was hurt.

Tears sprung immediately to Marigold's eyes. She tucked her head forward. The ache in her chest was spreading and it felt enough to bleed and kill. 

The woman caught Marigold's face in her hands again and pressed their foreheads together, briefly, which wasn't the sort of thing anyone had done to Marigold before. The ache worsened. “Budge up,” said the woman, and shifted onto the soft bed next to Marigold, tucking her into her side. She was a bit smaller than Marigold, but she felt bigger, somehow. “Now, what sort of stories do you like?”

Marigold didn't like that question. It made her think about sitting on the barn roof and staring in at mum in between Reverie and Elodie in bed, telling them stories with the window half-open like she knew Marigold was listening, only she'd caught Marigold up there once and threatened to push her off herself if she caught Marigold up there again. She had only heard some of the stories, and they'd all been sweet enough to make her chest hurt, lords and ladies and princesses. She would have loved those stories if she'd been allowed in the room for them.

She didn't want to be here. She didn't know why she was here. She didn't want to be anywhere.

“Easy, bunny,” breathed the woman, and Marigold realized she was shaking, which was hardly respectful of how nice this woman was being to her for no apparent reason. “Nothing too scary, then? All right. Why don't I tell you...ah, fuck,” she muttered, and Marigold looked up at her, delightedly scandalized. “I've not got a single story without blood in it.”

Marigold wanted to say something, now, so badly, and if the words would stick together long enough to make a sentence she would do it. She wanted to say, please, please, please tell me a bloody story, because that wasn't one mum would have ever told to Evie and Ella, proper ladies in the making. She stared eagerly at this suddenly very interesting woman who said rude words in front of children and couldn't think of good bedtime stories for little girls.

The woman took in Marigold's expression with surprise, at first, and then it gave way to a somehow even warmer look. She moved forward and pinched Marigold's cheek. “Little ghoul,” she said, but words that would have stung from mum didn't sting, here, at all. “You're the sort who likes a good battle, then?”

Marigold nodded and nodded, curls bouncing.

The woman's eyes went all soft and she said, “Brave little warrior girl.” She pulled Marigold in close and settled them both against the pillows. “When I was a girl—much older than you, I suppose, but forty to dwarves is still barely grown—there was a woman who they called the Whisper-Dagger, on account of the way she could kill with just her words. Not a wizard, mind, she just knew the way the world worked, and who made it work, and how, and those paying enough attention to do that can wrap the world round their little finger if they like.”

That sounded interesting. Marigold hoped that the Whisper-Dagger was the hero of this story.

“She was…” The woman turned a funny color, and said delicately, “a friend of mine, at the time. She was second in line to inherit her family's title, but she didn't mind all that; her sister could be the face of the family and she could do what she wanted on the side. Only one day, her sister turned up dead in the middle of family dinner, and because she and I were, were friends, she asked me to look into it, investigate.

“Well, I did, and what I found was fucking awful. The sister had been a good sort, but she'd had a lover before her husband, and the lover hadn't taken kindly to her marrying someone else. He had ties to the worst parts of the under-city, so there wasn't a court in the world that would touch him—no chance he'd end up jailed for what he'd done, no matter what it was. And that was a good girl he'd killed, all because he couldn't have her.”

Marigold shivered. The woman tucked her hair behind her ear and asked, “Too much for you, bunny?”

She shook her head. She didn't care what was being said if it was being said to her, for her to listen to.

“Well,” said the woman, “I was angry as the hells and twice as ready to burn the bastard down. The Whisper-Dagger couldn't do what she'd used to without putting the whole family at risk, now that she was the head of it and people were paying attention to her, so it fell on me to handle the thing, and handle it I did. Marched right into that fucker's office and challenged him to a fight at dawn—and I was young, and small, and didn't have half the muscles and scars I did now.” With her free arm, she flexed, surprising a whispering laugh out of Marigold. Her eyes shone with delight.

“So of course he said yes. Bastard thought it'd be an easy fight. But I brought my hammer when he was ready for a sword. I remember,” the woman smiled fondly, “he started laughing when he saw me, said gods, of course the dwarf would bring a hammer to a duel! But that's the thing, bunny,” she tapped Marigold's nose, “I said fight, he heard duel. Duels mean you have rules. Fights mean you don't. I ran in, broke his knees, pummeled him half to death, and that—” She stopped, searching Marigold's face. “You're sure you're all right hearing this?”

Marigold nodded with infuriated eagerness. They could hardly stop now!

“That,” continued the woman, “was when he started begging for his life. Started saying oh, please, please, Thea, it was a crime of passion, I was just so angry, I'll never do it again—” She smiled grimly. “And I didn't say anything back, because that was the Whisper-Dagger's sister. She was a good girl who'd done nothing but love, and love truly. Made the mistake of loving wrong once, but she hadn't done it again. She'd deserved life. He'd taken it away. Laughed in my face when I told him he should see justice for what he'd done. Second chances are for people who know they've done wrong.”

Marigold imagined mum under Thea’s hammer for half a moment, then flinched away. She didn't want to think about that.

Thea’s expression twisted nervously. She pulled back a little and said, “Sorry. That's—” and then Marigold realized that maybe Thea thought she'd said something wrong, which wasn't right at all, so she moved forward and wrapped her arms tightly round Thea’s neck. Thea made a muffled noise of surprise, then reached up to hold her, and said, “Bunny,” in that tone of voice you used when you were going to keep something forever, come hell or high water.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

The High Harper was soaking wet in their kitchen. The only unusual bit about this sentence was the soaking wet bit, not really the High Harper bit or the kitchen bit; Jaheira in their kitchen was really just every other week, usually. Norie took this in, then went to go get the towels from upstairs, which meant it was Ros's job to sort out the hows and the whys of this whole situation.

“Everyone all right?” she asked carefully. She knew Thea wasn't dead, because if Thea was dead, Jaheira would have looked twelve times worse. But something had happened, because it wasn't even misting outside. “Fall in a canal?”

Jaheira sat down heavily at the kitchen table. She massaged her temples. “Your mother will be a few days late returning,” she said. “She asked me to let you know as soon as possible.” 

“O…kay,” said Ros slowly. “Still doesn't explain why you're drenched.”

“It was raining,” said Jaheira.

Ros turned slowly to look at the bright, sunny sky out the window.

“Not here,” said Jaheira. “There. Where your mother is.”

“Sorry,” said Ros, eyes widening, “you were with her?”

“Now is not the time,” said Jaheira shortly. She raised her head to look at Ros, with those steely eyes that meant she was about to say something really fucking important. “She is bringing back a little girl,” she said. “Fifteen. A year older than Lenora, but much smaller. Delicate. You and Lenora need to be prepared.”

Norie, who had been coming back in with the towels, stopped with a very pensive look on her face, which Ros understood completely. Thea didn't just go around picking up kids willy-nilly, and Jaheira didn't just drop everything she was doing to go check up on Thea—well, all right, Jaheira did do that, but usually not long-distance, and definitely not unless Thea asked her to do it, which in and of itself was a pretty fucking rare occurrence.

“What's this girl like, then?” Ros asked lightly, testing the waters.

Jaheira said, “Her mother stabbed her to death.”

Ros flinched back. So did Norie. Jaheira looked at them as if to say see? “She is an incredibly fragile sort,” she continued, “and she is not likely to respond well to…exuberance.”

Well, that one was clearly for Ros.

“Or antipathy.”

That one was clearly for Norie.

“Be gentle,” concluded Jaheira. “Both of you. As much as you can. With her, and…” She wavered. “And with your mother. She was badly shaken when I arrived.”

Ah, hells. “Is she okay?” Ros asked anxiously. “Should we—I don't know, go and visit her too?"”

“It is a bit of a ways away,” said Jaheira, smiling wryly, “and my means of transportation was very much emergencies-only. Your mother asked that I assure you both she is doing better now, which I can corroborate.”

“How are you?” Norie asked. It was the first thing she'd said since coming back with the towels.

Jaheira's face softened and she said something in Elven that Ros didn't know, but that made Norie blush a little and smile awkwardly. In Common, she said, “I am fine, spider. Thank you.”

Norie leaned down to drape the towel round Jaheira's shoulders, tucking it in place. Ros said, “Look, stay a bit, why don't you? We'll make you something nice.”

“I…” Jaheira wavered.

“You're dead on your feet, Commander,” Ros pressed. “Stay.”

She didn't bring out Commander often. It was part of the reason she tossed round stepmummy like she did, because when she did call Jaheira Commander, Jaheira looked startled, then touched, then gave in without very much arguing, which was what happened now. “…I could do with some of Lenora's hot chocolate,” she conceded, “if it is not too much trouble. The rain was quite cold.”

“Spiked?” Norie offered.

"You are fourteen; you are not supposed to know how to do that," said Jaheira severely.

“Spiked?” Norie repeated, as if Jaheira hadn't spoken.

“Hmph!” said Jaheira.

“We both know that's not a no. I'm putting alcohol in,” said Norie, and headed towards the cupboards. Jaheira smiled with annoyed appreciation and drew the towel a bit closer round her.

Ros followed Norie. As quietly as she could manage, she whispered, “Hey, Norie, what'd she say to you?”

“The translation is a bit ambiguous,” said Lenora. “The word can mean either busy-body or meddling daughter.” She smiled sweetly. “I like to think it's busy-body.”

“It isn't,” said Jaheira.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Marigold was a lovely name, of course, but Thea had landed on bunny and it was hard to stop after she'd started. The girl was twitchy, soft, wide-eyed, and she had a way of tilting her head that was a bit rabbitish in nature. She trembled when touched, but she didn't move away, just stared and stared with golden eyes that held the warmth and brightness of twin stars. She would smile on occasion, a barely-there little twitch of the mouth, and Thea always felt like she'd won a thousand medals of valor, bringing that smile forward. 

She ate sparingly. It was hard to convince her to eat at all, and harder still to find out why, but Thea thought it might have to do with that stick-thin woman in the woods who looked like she hadn't eaten a day herself. 

“I own a bakery in the city, you know,” she said. “Baldur's Gate. Bit of a distance from here, but the things we make! Breads, pastries, hot chocolate, fruit juice when the fruit's in season. You like fruit juice, bunny?”

This earned her only a blankly curious expression. 

“You ever had fruit juice?”

The red curls shook no.

“Oh, now, that can't be abided by,” Thea gently teased. “When we get home, we'll see what we can do.”

Marigold froze. She looked more frightened than Thea had ever seen her. The red curls shook no, again and again, no, no, no, no, no.

“Bunny,” Thea breathed, catching her gently by the shoulders. Marigold tried to squirm away. “Bunny, bunny, look at me. Look at me. What's wrong?”

Marigold shook her head. 

“You don't want to come home with me?”

Marigold's hands moved to her chest. The scar. The—

“Oh, fuck no, I'm not taking you back to her,” said Thea furiously, which stilled Marigold immediately into shaky relief. “I'd rather fucking kill myself. I say home and I mean my home, Mari, not your home. I want to take you to Baldur's Gate.” She hesitated. “It is a bit of a distance,” she said slowly, “so if you—want—to stay here, in the grove—”

Marigold let out a hiccupping sob. Her hands moved up and over Thea's hands on her shoulders like she couldn't half believe they were there. Held Thea fast, where she was.

“Do you want to stay?” Thea asked. 

Marigold shook her head, not half so urgently this time.

Heart pounding, Thea asked, “Do you want to come back to the bakery with me?”

Nodding, emphatically, so hard the little girl was shaking in place all over again.

Thea cupped Marigold's face in her hands. She said, a wet laugh in her voice, “We'll make a baker of you yet,” and Marigold smiled brightly enough to rival the sun.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Heading homeward. 

Jaheira traced the lines with her finger before responding. How is Marigold?

I'll give the quill over.

A long pause, followed by a few curious, swirling scribbles—then, charmingly, meticulously, Thea's own words mimicked in a wobbly hand, letter by letter. I'll give the quill over.

Clever girl! Jaheira wrote, enchanted. Should I assume she has not written before?

Clever girl! echoed the quill, still in that unsteady handwriting. Should I assume she has not written before?

Then, in Thea's print, Never, I think, but she's fucking obsessed with the parchment. You mind writing some things she can copy?

Jaheira considered. She wrote Marigold, and watched the quill repeat it, then write it four more times with increasing excitement; clearly Thea had explained what the word was. She wrote Thea, and after a long pause, this one was picked up and written all over the parchment, everywhere, every corner, scribbled frantically and delightedly and with too much love for one piece of parchment to contain. 

When the writing had faded away, Jaheira considered, then, testing out a suspicion, drew a perfect heart.

Another pause—not as long—and then: 

Marigold ♥ Thea

Marigold ♥ Thea

Marigold ♥ Thea

Thea ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Thea Thea Thea

This seemed as though it might be going on for quite a while. Jaheira set the parchment aside. When she picked it up again, Thea had written, Fuck you; I nearly started fucking crying in front of her and that's your fucking fault. Go fuck yourself.

Jaheira ♥ Thea, Jaheira wrote back. Satisfyingly, Thea did not seem to have a response to this.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Roslin, Marigold wrote. Lenora. Thea. Marigold. Marigold. Jaheira. Marigold. Roslin. Thea. Thea. Thea. Lenora. Roslin. Thea. Marigold. Jaheira. Some of the names meant things to her and others were only abstract ideas. She wanted to ask Thea how to write bunny, but she'd need more words for that, and she still didn't have them yet. 

It was nice, too, that Thea didn't ask her to talk, or—well, do anything, really. Mum usually had something to say about what Marigold was or wasn't doing, but all Thea seemed to want to do was spend time with her, which was usually warm and cozy and involved Marigold listening to lots of different stories about all the things Thea had done. She was old—older than mum, even, who was the oldest of the people Marigold had known—and she'd done a lot of traveling, gone everywhere, but she said her favorite part was her girls at home, which did make Marigold a bit nervous. She'd been part of a family, a mum and two girls, and that hadn't gone well, so maybe this wouldn't either. What if she got there and the girls didn't like her? What if the girls not liking her made Thea stop liking her too?

Roslin, she wrote. Lenora. She tried to imagine them. Reverie and Elodie had names that sounded almost the same, but they couldn't have been more different. Lenora, Thea had said, was a human, but Roslin was a tiefling, and growing up in the woods with mum and her sisters meant that Marigold hadn't ever met a tiefling before. Or a dwarf, before Thea. She'd decided that she loved dwarves, based largely on the fact that one of them was Thea.

Tieflings had horns. Thea tried to draw one on the parchment, and then the parchment drew a better tiefling than Thea, and Thea wrote fuck off on the parchment, which Marigold had started to recognize by sight by now. She didn't exactly remember Jaheira, but apparently Jaheira had been there when Marigold had been healing. There were still parts of this that didn't make sense, but she didn't quite know how to ask about them. She almost didn't want to. She was afraid that asking would make it all fall apart.

The ride back to the city was long, and Marigold spent most of the road-time writing on the parchment to Jaheira, who would give her words to copy. Balance. Sunlight. Tree. Grass. Sky. Flower. Marigold was a kind of flower, so she wrote Marigold and flower next to each other, and Jaheira drew a little heart, which Thea had said meant love, so Marigold decided that she loved Jaheira too. Marigold ♥ Jaheira, she wrote, and Jaheira didn't write any more words for a few minutes, which made Thea laugh and laugh and laugh. “It's not on you, bunny,” she managed. “She's not used to people saying they love her. Doesn't always know how to say it back.”

Well, Marigold would make her used to it. She wrote Marigold ♥ Jaheira until it covered the paper, at which point Thea said that it'd probably take more than just one day to get the message across, and didn't Marigold want to learn a few more new words? Then she wrote something on the paper that Marigold didn't yet know how to read, but that got Jaheira to start writing long sentences back. 

The times they weren't on the road, they were in cities, with Thea getting food for her and for Marigold and having long conversations with people about how much money was too much money for food. Marigold tried honey and liked it so much that Thea bought her seven jars, and said that they couldn't eat it while they traveled but they could bring it home and she could have more there. “On bread,” she said. “Can't just eat sugar.”

Which mum had said to Reverie and Elodie before, but not the way Thea said it to Marigold—a loving reminder, not an indictment. Marigold ate four slices of bread with honey and no one said she was stuffing her face. Thea said she was so glad to see Marigold eating.

Thea wrote bread, honey, city, Baldur's Gate. Thea wrote fruit, apples, berries. She got them a sunmelon when they were three days from the city and chopped it with an axe, which Marigold hadn't even known women were allowed to do; mum had always said the knives and the axes weren't for girls. But Thea was strong and wore armor and chopped sunmelons, and the chopping was the best, because it meant Marigold could sink her teeth into the red, watery insides and let the juice run down her mouth.

Jaheira wrote green, red, brown, silver. Jaheira wrote blue, purple, pink, green. She wrote green a few times, like she was trying to make sure Marigold remembered it. Thea said, “Jaheira's a druid who lives in the city and it's hard on her sometimes,” which made Marigold wonder what kind of city Baldur's Gate was. They'd been to a few cities now and Marigold liked them so much more than nature, where there was no one around. Cities, everyone was there, and everyone had things to say. They'd say get out of the way, they'd say five silver pieces for a butter roll, they'd say a dress for the little one, saer? And Marigold got to watch Thea say YOU get out of the fucking way, fucker, or five silver for some moldy bread? You're fucking kidding me, or make it seven dresses, which was probably the best thing she could have ever said. Marigold got to change out of the clothes the druids had made her and into a dress that was yellow and green.

Thea said, “Norie might steal that when you get home, you know,” and off of Marigold's nervous expression, hastened to say, “Oh, you'll still keep it! Norie likes to embroider. She'll add some pretty flowers to the dress, give it back to you, it's just she doesn't usually ask before she adds things.”

Marigold didn't really see the point in asking to add flowers to someone's dress. Dresses were unilaterally better with flowers. Lenora sounded like she was just being smart about it.

Jaheira wrote, Scornubel, Triel, Elturel, Candlekeep. Rivington. Baldur's Gate.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Thea came back on a big old cart with fruits and breads piled high in the back. She jumped down and ran over and hugged Roslin and Lenora like she hadn't seen them in years, then pulled back to look at them, smiling all wobbly. “I'm not leaving,” she said. “I'm done.”

“Wow,” said Roslin, “this latest trip must have been really fucking terrible if you're all done making trips out of the city—”

“Missed you girls too much,” said Thea, which shut Roslin up. Lenora's heart swelled. “How's it been, spider?”

“Oh, you know,” said Lenora. “There was a wet Jaheira in the kitchen a few days ago.”

“So basically, yeah, you really do need to be home more,” said Roslin, which made Thea go crimson.

Lenora shoved Roslin sideways. She fell over laughing. 

There was a rustle of movement from the cart, like someone was trying to hide behind some of the fruits. Thea turned, her face softening. “Going to have to coax her down,” she said. “Give us a minute.”

Roslin and Lenora watched as Thea moved back up towards the cart. The girl really was little, Lenora thought; she looked closer to eight or nine than fifteen, which seemed a lot like Jaheira's daughter Rion, who had grown up slower on account of the half-elf thing. She was indeed a bit thinner than what seemed healthy. She stumbled a bit getting out of the cart, and gripped Thea's shoulder.

“Oh my gods,” said Roslin. “Oh my gods. Norie, I know Jaheira said no exuberance, but she's literally the cutest thing I've ever seen. I thought we were getting, like, another you or something?! But she's a baby?!”

No antipathy would not be half as hard a directive to follow. Lenora knew exactly what Roslin was talking about. The girl was barely taller than Thea and clung to her side as though the rest of the world was all shadow-monsters. 

“Mari,” Thea coaxed, “this is Ros, and that's Norie. Ros, Norie, you want to introduce—?”

“I'M ROS!” said Roslin very loudly, then clapped her hands over her mouth. “Fuck!” she said, mouth covered. “Sorry! You're just so tiny! Anyone ever told you how tiny you are? You're the littlest thing I've ever seen! You're—”

“Stop that,” said Lenora. “You're embarrassing yourself.”

Marigold's nervous expression was giving way to one of fascinated curiosity. Her eyes lingered on Roslin's horns. Jealously, Lenora wished she had horns, if it meant the little one would pay attention to her.

“Norie?” Thea prompted.

Lenora tried for a smile. It came out more of a nervous grimace. “I'm…Lenora," she supplied. “I like your dress.”

Marigold waved at them both, frantically and still a bit apprehensively. Her free hand tightened on Thea's shoulder. 

“You'll warm up to each other,” said Thea, mostly to Marigold. “They're good girls. Ros's just a bit overexcited; she's the older-sisterly type, and she always likes taking care of girls younger than her. And Norie…” She smiled, and said, “Norie's scary, isn't she?”

Marigold took this in. A small, sweet grin illuminated her face as her eyes flicked towards Lenora. She shook her head.

Lenora was now certain that she would burn down a thousand cities for that little girl.

“No?” said Thea, mock-surprised. “Well, should have known that someone as brave as you wouldn't be felled by our Norie.”

Marigold fidgeted. She rummaged in her satchel. Thea said, “Oh, she's been working on something for you! Wouldn't show it to me, even, so it'll be a surprise for all of us,” and then she stopped, mouth trembling, as Marigold held the drawing up.

Carefully and shakily rendered in black ink: a tiefling, a human-ish figure, a slightly small and curly-haired girl, and a dwarf of about her size, all holding hands. The drawing had been captioned Hello! I'm Marigold! every letter formed inexpertly but with clear effort.

Roslin burst into tears. Lenora didn't even make fun of her for it. She knelt down in front of Marigold and said, “You got my hair just right,” softly, running her finger along the black ink of the drawing. 

Marigold smiled very shyly.

Lenora tried to imagine anyone stabbing this girl to death, and couldn't. It was Ilmater, wasn't it, who watched over those that suffered the most? Who eased their suffering, one way or another, and ensured that it ended? Ilmater, then, must have saved this girl, because imagining a world where Thea had never reached her in the single minute that could be used to revive her was a sickening fucking thought. She would leave an offering. She would become a cleric, maybe. Absolutely. She would be a cleric of Ilmater.

Tongue between her teeth, Marigold reached out to absently touch Lenora's hair, then jerked her hand back as if expecting a reprimand. Lenora said, “It's fine, Mari, Ros does worse to my hair all the time. Don't you, Ros?”

“I style it,” said Roslin, who was fighting to maintain composure.

“She turned it into a birds' nest last year,” said Lenora. “A literal birds' nest. Put fake birds in it. She never does this to her hair, just to mine—”

“Um, if I do it to my hair, you'll make fun of me,” Roslin countered. “If it's done to your hair, you get to complain to everyone about how annoying I am, which I know you like.”

“Shut up, I'm bonding with Marigold.”

“I'm bonding with Marigold! Marigold likes me better!” Roslin scrambled forward. “Mari, who do you like better, me or Norie?”

“Don't crowd her!!” said an outraged Lenora, elbowing Roslin away.

Marigold was watching them both with that adorable little half-smile. She turned the parchment over and was immediately handed a quill by Thea. She turned away from them all, scribbling on the back of her drawing, and held up the paper again.

Marigold ♥ Thea !!

“Oh, that's not even fair,” said Roslin. “She has an edge! She literally just spent the last three days buying you dresses and fruit and things. Well, I have money, Marigold, I can buy you even better dresses and fruit and things—”

“Thea's all our favorites,” said Lenora to Marigold, deciding to ignore Roslin. “We have that in common; that's nice, isn't it?”

Marigold nodded so emphatically that her curls shook. Lenora decided to visit the temple of Ilmater in two days' time and ask about what it would look like to be a cleric.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Jaheira came to visit the next day with a bouquet of wildflowers: mostly marigolds, but there were quite a few daisies and violets in as well, and some sweet-smelling herbs. It was a visual cacophony. Thea was entirely unsurprised when Marigold lit up, hugged the bouquet, set the bouquet down, hugged Jaheira, hugged the bouquet again, gave the bouquet to Thea, and hugged Jaheira one more time.

“What was it you are calling her?” said Jaheira. “Bunny?” Her hand rested atop Marigold's head. “Seems apt.”

Marigold butted her forehead against Jaheira's hand. She let go and ran off into the kitchen.

Jaheira lowered her voice. “Althea, how—how are you? When we last spoke—”

“I can't half think about that night,” said Thea. She swallowed. “She is the sweetest little girl I've ever known. Loves easy as breathing. Trusts me with her life, and I can't say I'd do the same in her position—”

“You can't say you'd do the same?” Jaheira echoed skeptically. “Not even after you—?”

“We're not talking about it,” said Thea shortly, “I don't know how much she remembers, and I'm not dragging it up unless she mentions it first.”

Her eyes were still halfway following Marigold, who was running round the kitchen between Roslin and Lenora, standing on tiptoe to try and see what they were doing. Roslin caught her on one of her sprints and lifted her up to the counter, which made Marigold squeak and laugh in a way that at first seemed halfway frightened, then quickly became all the way joyful. Roslin called, “MUMMA COME IN HERE, WE'RE MAKING SCONES!”

Thea smiled wryly at Jaheira. “Duty calls.”

“The Lady of the Fray's strongest soldier,” said Jaheira. She squeezed Thea's shoulder. “You grow good things here.”

[quietblueriver]

15 questions for 15 friends

Tagged by @gingerniiiija. Thanks, friend! This was super fun.

Were you named after anyone? I was. In good Southern (US) fashion, I have a double name that incorporates my grandmother's maiden name, which was also my mom's middle name and is now one of my niece's names.

When was the last time you cried? Today. I took one of my dogs to board at the same time that a pup was coming for their last vet visit and watching him surrounded by his crying family while an instrumental version of a Brandi Carlile song played over the vet speakers broke me. Managed to keep it together until I got to the car. Before that, Thursday during Critical Role.

Do you have kids? I do not. I do have wonderful nieces, and being their aunt is one of the best things in my life.

What sports have you played/do you play? I played church basketball and soccer when I was little. As an adult, I've played rugby but I tend toward activities like running, yoga, swimming, and hiking/wandering with my dogs.

Do you use sarcasm? Yes, in a dry humor way. My entire family is dry as hell, so it's a big part of my sense of humor, although I rein it in with strangers so as not to be a tool. I'm typically called a golden retriever gay, but one of the highest compliments I have ever received was one of my oldest friends telling me that Sister Michael from Derry Girls reminded her of me.

First thing you notice about people? I genuinely don't think I have a pattern here. Voice, maybe? Or smile? I do often appreciate and take note of people's style as well, especially shoes.

What is your eye color? Green

Scary movies or happy endings? Whichever has the better queer storyline

Any talents? I come in clutch in the following trivia categories: pop culture (non-reality tv); 90s country music/modern women of country; name that song; US history and politics and/or law; and queer things. Per my nieces, I am very good at the "funny faces" feature on FaceTime, a solid water slide escort, and an acceptable makeshift jungle gym. I have been told that I'm an excellent driver; I enjoy driving and have driven both a passenger van and a U-Haul up most of the East Coast of the US.

Where were you born? A military base in the United States.

What are your hobbies? I love writing, feeding/spending easy time with friends, reading (preference for fiction, poetry, and comics, although I do love some philosophy and theory as well), exploring good food and new places (solo or with friends, my own city or others), live music and theater, playing board games and Switch, watching tv and movies (my oldest niece and I see a movie every time I visit them in person and it brings me great joy), and being silly with my nieces. I'm a lawyer and a law nerd, so I also spend time following SCOTUS and listening to legal/political podcasts.

Do you have any pets? Two dogs, Annie and Buffy, a big doofy retriever mix and a tiny poodle-ish terror respectively.

How tall are you? 5' 8"

Favorite subject in school? Growing up, English/Lit, closely followed by History. At university, I majored in History and Gender & Sexuality Studies.

Dream Job? Obligatory note that I do not dream of labor. But I'm actually currently working on a career shift, so I'm giving this a lot of thought. I'd love to be a writer, journalist, professor, or preacher (last one is more complicated, for probably obvious reasons).

Would love to see answers from anyone who wants to do this! Tagging @korralone, @kasadilla11, @antlereed, and @overnighttosunflowers. Pls forgive me/disregard if you hate this, ha.

[gemprincess10]

Toy Time - Sunny Disposition

Annie leaves a toy on her bed and then leaves the room.

On a desk near the bed lies a round teenage doll in a purple sleeveless dress with a short black afro. she starts to move and begins to shout across the room.

Sparkle: Alright everyone! Annie's got a new toy, I'm gonna give them a hello. Sparkle hops over to the bed, she sees a doll with a wearing a green long sleeved blouse, a pink Jumper skirt with a sunflower pattern, and pink boots. She has a medium sized black afro with a pink hairband on top and freckles on her face. she is about 12 years old.

Sparkle: *clears throat* hello there.

The 12 year old doll still lies motionless in her freeze mode.

Sparkle: you can move now it's just us, Annie left the room.

Still nothing.

Sparkle: Hmm.... maybe you haven't figured how to move? The doll suddenly begins to move.

Doll: I know how to move.

Sparkle has a slight jump of surprise.

Sparkle: oh! well that's good then. why weren't you moving then?

Doll: I didn't feel like it, besides not it matters much. all of us toys are meant to be thrown away anyway, so I figured why not wait to move after that happens and live on my own.

Sparkle takes a moment to contemplate what the doll just said.

Sparkle: wow you must be the life of the party... what's your name?

Doll: my name is Sunny.

Sparkle: That's a ironic name if I ever heard one.

Sunny: hey, have you gotten a rip before?

Sparkle: no, why?

Sunny: Well in that case you might want prepare for that to happen, cause once that happens I imagine that Annie girl is gonna toss you away rather quickly.

Sparkle: What!? no! Annie would never do that.

Sunny: yeah well, you wouldn't be the first toy to think that and be proven wrong.

Sparkle: Right... well hey in the meantime you might as well meet the other toys and get familiar with them

Sunny: oh true! I can prepare them for their eventual discarding.

Sparkle: no that's what I meant! they hate that mood

Sunny's eyes beam up with excited mischievous glee after hearing that.

Sunny: see ya! I gotta go tell them.

Sunny proceeds to get off the bed and dashes towards the other toys. Sparkle hears Sunny having several conversations that end leaving the toys in tears or fears about Annie getting rid of them.

Sparkle facepalms and has a heavy sigh.

Sparkle: Oh this is gonna be a long a day.

[allisluv]

Career!Annie hates when people from the districts hate the Capitol, but they would act exactly the same way if they were in their spot. She knew finnick wasn't like that at all. Bc both of them, even as kids they were noticing something here is wrong. Like one tie, at training, when they were still kids and she was new at the career academy, she couldn't kill an animal. She didn't want to be violent. So her coach and the other kids were telling her that she's weak. But when the sea green eyes of the blonde boy from the older grade gave her a sympathetic look, she could finally ignore them. When she finally did manage to kill it though, she thought he would be disappointed at her. Instead he gave her a sympathetic, but also not too serious look that gave "same girl, same". She will always remember this moment

anon im taking notes on this one ✍️ annie wouldn't be able to kill an animal, it's just not an option for her. she would rather die than harm another living thing so when she locks eyes with finnicks sympathetic gaze, she's not surprised that all it does is make her more determined to defy her trainers

[wizardiest-wizard-of-oz]

if anyone wants I have a musicals playlist that's over 200 hours that has I think around 205 musicals here's an alphabetized list let me know if I'm missing any I should add (I don't like Andrew lloyd Webber musicals and I'm also not a huge fan of jukebox musicals more specifically mamma Mia) and if anyone wants a link please ask me

13

21 Chump Street

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

35MM

36 Questions

42nd Street

The Addams Family

Aida

Aladdin

Alice by Heart

Allegro

Amelie

Anastasia

Ani

Annie Get Your Gun

Annie

Anything Goes

Avenue Q

Back to the Future

Bat Boy

Beauty and the Beast

Beetlejuice

Be More Chill

The Big One-Oh

Billy Elliot

Black Friday

Bombshell

Bonnie and Clyde

Book of Mormon

Brigadoon

Bring it On

Once More With Feeling (Buffy musical)

Bugsy Malone

Bye Bye Birdie

Cabaret

Camelot

Carousel

Carrie

Catch Me if You Can

A Catered Affair

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Chess

Chicago

A Chorus Line

Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein)

The Colour Purple

Come From Away

Company

Crybaby

Curtains

Damn Yankees

Days of Wine and Roses

Dear Evan Hansen

Desperate Measures

Dog Man

Dreamgirls

Dreamland

Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Drowsy Chaperone

Duolingo on Ice

Elegies

Epic (all released sagas)

Everybody's Talking About Jamie

Falsettoland

Falsettos Revival

Firebringer

Flora the Red Menace

Follies

Fosse

Frankenstein

Frozen

Fun Home

Funny Girl

A Funny Thing Happened

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Grand Hotel

Grease

The Great American Trailer Park

Grey Gardens

Gutenberg

Guys and Dolls

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

G*psy

Hadestown (broadway)

Hadestown (off broadway)

Hairspray

Hair

Hamilton

Harmony

Heathers

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hello Dolly

Honk

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (this one is just for Patrick page)

How to Dance in Ohio

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Hunchback of Notre Dame

In the Green

In the Heights

Into the Woods

In Trousers

It Shoulda Been You

Jekyll and Hyde

Kimberly Akimo

The King and I

Kinky Boots

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Legally Blonde

Lempicka

Les Miserables (english and french)

The Lightning Thief

The Lion King

Little Do They Know

The Little Mermaid

A Little Night Music

Little Shop of Horrors (english and german)

Little Women

Lizard Boy

Love in Hate Nation

Love's Labours Lost

Mad Ones

Make Me a Song

Mame

A Man of No Importance

March of the Falsettos

Marguerite

Martin Guerre

Mary Poppins

Matilda

Mean Girls

Merrily We Roll Along

Miss Saigon

Monty Python's Spamalot

The Music Man

My Fair Lady

My Heart Says Go

My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

Nerdy Prudes Must Die (I only have one song because I'm waiting to watch it with my friend before adding more)

A New Brain

Newsies

New York, New York

Next to Normal

Nightmare Time

Nine

Octet

Oklahoma

Oliver

Once On This Island

Once Upon a Mattress

Only Murders in the Building (Death Rattle Dazzle)

The Pyjama Game

Parade

Pippin

The Prince of Egypt

Prodigal

The Producers

The Prom

Ragtime

Ride the Cyclone

The Rink

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Schmigadoon

Schmicago

Scottsburo Boys

Seussical

She Loves Me

Sherlock

Shrek

Shucked

Six

Smash

Some Like it Hot

Something Rotten

The Sound of Music

South Pacific

Spiderman Turn off the Dark

The Spitfire Grill

Spongebob

Spring Awakening

Starship

State Fair

Sunday in the Park with George

Superhero

Sweeney Todd

Sweet Charity

The Theory of Relativity

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Tick Tick Boom

The Time Traveller's Wife

The Trail to Oregon

Twisted

Urinetown

A VHS Christmas Carol

The Visit

Waitress

Wait Wait Don't Kill Me

West Side Story

Wicked

Water for Elephants

Wizard of Oz

The Wiz

Zombie Prom

Zorba

[music-tourney]

Here are the entries to the 2000s tourney:

Pokerface by Lady Gaga

Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

Toxic by Britney Spears

Sk8ter Boi by Avril Lavigne

All my Life by Foo Fighters

American Idiot by Green Day

1985 by Bowling for Soup

Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand

Somebody Told Me by the Killers

Hey There Delilah by Plain White Tees

Feel Good Inc by the Gorillaz

Sugar we're goin down by Fallout Boy

Brave as a noun by AJJ

Hot N Cold by Katy Perry

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) by Beyonce

The Dog Days are Over by Florence + the Machine

Seven Nation Army by White Stripes

Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down

She Hates Me by Puddle Of Mudd

Stacy's Mom by Fountains for Wayne

All the Small Things By Blink 182

Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson

Hurt by Johnny Cash

Hey Ya by Outkast

Rehab by Amy Winehouse

Stan by Eminem

Do you realize by The Flaming Lips

Sexyback by Justin Timberlake

Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus

Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me) by Train

Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Fireflies by Owl City

TiK ToK by Ke$ha

Gives you Hell by All American Rejects

Paper Planes by M.I.A.

Can't get you out of my head by Kylie Monogue

I write sins not tragedies by Panic! At the Disco

Short Skirt/Long Jacket by CAKE

Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus

Bring Me to Life by Evanescence

Before he cheats by Carrie Underwood

Vida La Vida by Coldplay

Photograph by Nickelback

99 Problems by Jay-Z

Hash Pipe by Weezer

A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton

Love Story by Taylor Swift

Unwell by MatchBox Twenty

Yeah! by Usher

Dilemma by Nelly and Kelly Rowland

Beautiful by Christina Aguilera

My Hips Don't Lie by Shakira

I gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani

Watcha Say by Jason Derulo

Drop it like it's Hot by Snoop Dogg

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

Numb by Linkin Park

Umbrella by Rihanna

Crazy in Love by Beyonce and Jay Z

How to Save a Life by The Fray

Get the Party Started by P!nk

Survivor By Destiny's Child

Everytime we touch by Cascada

Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston

Bad day by Daniel Powter

Chop Suey By System of a Down

I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

The Middle by Jimmy Eat World

Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk

Chewing Gum by Annie

Lollipop by Mika

It's gonna be Me By Nsync

Low by Flo Rida

Fuck the pain away by Peaches

Misery Business by Paramore

It's my life by Bon Jovi

The Past Is a Grotesque Animal by Of Montreal

Work It by Missy Elliott

Butterfly by Crazy Town

Caramelldansen by Caramell

In da Club by 50 Cent

4 minutes by Madonna and Justin Timberlake

White Flag by Dido

Beautiful Day by U2

Fallin by Alicia Keys

All for you by Janet Jackson

Bootylicious by Destiny's Child

This Love by Maroon 5

Milkshake by Kelis

Smooth Criminal by alien Ant Farm

I'm a Believer by Smash Mouth

Sandstorm by Darude

I believe in a thing called love by the darkness

Float On by Modest Mouse

[thatchronicfeeling]

It has come to my attention that it's Period Drama Appreciation Week 2023. I love period dramas and grew up watching them. They have been a formative part of my life and I'm now too disabled to watch video. Even gifs are too difficult for my brain to process. It is also Bi Visibility Week and I'm posting this on Bisexual Visibility Day. Since I can't safely post a pile of gifs, here is a list celebrating actors/characters/moments from period dramas that have been significant to my bisexuality. [Yes, this is a big list. I am missing out on watching and re-watching A Lot of awesome period dramas and I hate it. This list is helping me reclaim a bit of joy. Also I've probably forgotten some favourites and may update this.]

Lori Petty in A League of Their Own

Jodhi May in any period drama

Mary Wickes in any period drama

Freddy Honeychurch in A Room with a View

Anne Hathaway playing cricket in that rust-coloured dress in Becoming Jane

Esther Summerson (disabled heroine!) & Allan Woodcourt in Bleak House

the freshly-painted yellow cabin door swinging shut with the names 'Calam & Katie' painted on it in Calamity Jane

the sequence where Doris Day sings 'Secret Love' in Calamity Jane

Michelle in Derry Girls (and James too, a wee bit)

George Eliot & Lenore in Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party

the moment where Emma and Mr Knightley start dancing together and it feels like you're inside the music in Emma

Polly Waker's haircut in The Enchanted April

Matthias Schoenaerts in Far From the Madding Crowd

Idgie & Ruth in Fried Green Tomatoes

Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack

recognising Marian Lister as a bisexual who hasn't realised it yet in Gentleman Jack

Mary Agnes McNue in Godless

Bel & Freddie in The Hour

June Allyson leaping over a hedge (or is it a fence?) as Jo March in Little Women

the Patricia Rozema adaptation of Mansfield Park

the whole sequence where Judy Garland strides onto the neighbours' porch to sock The Boy Next Door in the jaw in Meet Me in St Louis

Katie the cook in Meet Me in St Louis

the moment where Benedick braces his arm against a doorframe in a desperate panic to stop Beatrice from going to eat Claudio's heart in the marketplace in Much Ado About Nothing

Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing

Mr Thornton's hands (ok, and also his face) in North & South

tomboy Doris Day in On Moonlight Bay

Valentine in Parade's End

all of Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Papi in Pose

Lizzy Bennet declaring that she would never marry someone she did not love in Pride & Prejudice

Mr Darcy diving into a pond in Pride & Prejudice

both Angel and Joanne in Rent (the 2008 broadway version)

Martha the maid in The Secret Garden

Lelia Walker in Self-Made

swashbuckling Margaret Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility

the dance sequences in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

the whole Thomas Kent situation in Shakespeare in Love

Maria (when she is not a nun) in The Sound of Music

Kitty Butler onstage in Tipping the Velvet

Annie and Janette and Jacques and Linh in Treme

Audra McDonald and Anne Hathaway and Raúl Esparza in that promotional photo for Twelfth Night

Julie Andrews and her male co-star singing a version of 'Home on the Range' with the line 'and the deer and the antelope are gay' in Victor/Victoria

Justine Waddell in Wives & Daughters

[highwaytothedangerzone502]

Foxtrot Alpha Alpha - Chapter 31

Pairing: Hangman x Female OC

Word Count: 1629

Warnings: Talk of death, PTSD

Summary: Hangman learned his lesson a long time ago to never show his true feelings when someone's words or actions hurt him. To do so showed weakness that could be exploited, and Seresin men couldn't show weakness. Of course, there was an exception to every rule, and Jake's always came in the form of women, three in particular: his mom, Juliette Kazansky, and the girl whose name he could no longer bring himself to speak. She was the girl that got away; she was his biggest 'what if' and his biggest regret; she would forever be the ghost that haunted his dreams. Jake believed that's where she'd stay, for he would surely never see her again after what he did.

Or so he thought.

Notes: This is the sequel to India Lima Yankee; I'm using the same callsign for the Female OC as in Ghost Story because I just really like it, but they are different characters; chapters in italics are flashbacks.

Chapter Songs: The Reason Broken Halos

****

Ghost

Juliette waddled purposefully to the garage before giving either of the aviators a chance to argue with her. Ghost and Rooster were hot on her heels. They slid into Bradley's Bronco, and Juliette floored it to The Riptide. Ten minutes later, they swiftly entered the dimly lit establishment and found Hangman sitting at the bar, his cheek plastered to the dark wood of the counter. His green eyes were half shut, but he recognized his friends immediately, although he didn't appear exactly pleased to see two of them.

"I called Princess," he slurred, frowning. "What're youse doin' here?"

"You might've called Juliette, but you gave the bartender my callsign," Ghost explained, looking him up and down. "I happened to be with them when he called."

Jake sighed dramatically. "Shit. Sorry, Annie, uh, I mean, Annalise… youse can go. I'm… I'm good."

"It's fine," Ghost responded gently, gingerly placing a hand on his back, "but I'm not leaving here without you."

"Our place is closest. Let's bring him there. The sooner we get him to a toilet, the better," Juliette remarked, taking Jake's credit card from the bartender.

Rooster grabbed Hangman by the shoulders and pulled him into a sitting position. "Ghost, can you help me carry him back to the truck?"

"On it." Ghost and Rooster each grabbed one of Jake's arms and threw it around their shoulders, then proceeded to carry a deadweight Hangman out of the bar and into the back of the Bronco. He mumbled incoherent protests, but none of them listened. Ghost hopped into the back of the car first before helping Rooster slide Hangman onto the seat with her. Jake promptly slumped over into her lap. Ghost cradled him, heart thundering in her chest as she thought of everything that could've possessed him to drink so heavily. Never in all the years she'd known him had he ever drank that much. Hangman hated to lose control, and drinking did just that. She'd seen him tipsy, but never drunk, especially not like this.

"Jus- just take me home," Hangman mumbled.

"Negative, Ghost Rider," Juliette responded, glancing at him from the rearview mirror. "Our place is closest, and all that alcohol is going to come out one end sooner or later, and if it's from the top end, we want to make sure you don't choke."

Hangman sighed and whispered, "I'm not anyone's responsibility… I don't- don't wanna be a burden."

Juliette nor Rooster reacted to the comment, causing Ghost to believe they hadn't heard him. Otherwise, Juliette absolutely would've said something to dispute his claim, whether Hangman could've comprehended the response or not. Ghost took matters into her own hands and softly responded to him, "You're not a burden."

His green eyes narrowed in on her, perplexed. He opened his mouth to say something, but when Juliette slammed on the brakes and let out an impressive string of swear words at a driver who cut her off, Hangman clammed up. The group arrived at the Bradshaw household a few minutes later. Ghost and Rooster once more threw Hangman's arms around their shoulders and escorted him into the house. Juliette opened the door for them and said, "Let's get him to the guest bathroom. I have a feeling he's going to be sick soon."

"I'm fine," Hangman slurred before letting out a big belch.

Rooster scoffed skeptically as he set the aviator on the floor across from the toilet. "Yeah, and my last name isn't Bradshaw."

Ghost sat next to Jake, who had slumped against the wall. Juliette wiped the toilet lid with a Clorox wipe before she lowered herself to the ground by the cabinets diagonally opposite them. Rooster leaned against the door frame, keeping the curious German Shepherds at bay. Hangman scanned the room and asked, "Why are y'all here?"

"We're worried about you," Ghost replied, pulling her knees up to her chest.

Hangman snorted and slurred his words as he said, "You haven't been worried 'bout me since-" he hiccupped- "since the accident. Bradshaw only worried 'bout me when he competed against me for the position on the mission and when he thought I was makin' a move on his girl. Princess is the only one who worries 'bout me, but she shouldn't. I ain't worth the stress."

"You're my best friend, Jake," Juliette said sincerely. "You're worth the stress."

"It's… it's not good for you, though," he insisted emphatically. 'Specially when you're pregnant and-and have proclamsia."

"Preeclampsia," Rooster corrected.

Hangman rolled his eyes, "That's what I said."

"No, you said- never mind. So, what brought this drinking binge on?"

"W-why would I tell you? So you can give me another callsign? Least this time, it won't be based on me killin' someone…"

Rooster winced at the slight. "I never intended for it to stick."

"Yeah, well, it did. Got to be reminded of Ghoul's death every fuckin' time someone said my-" he hiccupped again- "my callsign until I managed to convince people it was because I'd leave them hangin' in the air rather six feet deep. You're lucky I'm so fuckin' persuasive, Bradshaw," Hangman said, pointing a finger at him. "Otherwise, the memory might've sent me over the edge that day before Coyote stopped me."

"What are you talking about?" Ghost inquired quickly, a dreadful sensation running through her veins at his words.

Hangman weakly shook his head. "Don't matter."

"Jake-"

"No. It's not of import. Besides, not tellin' someone who doesn't care and not tellin' it in front of Princess, who does care and would probably freak out. She's gotta be careful with that preplamsia."

"Preeclampsia," Rooster corrected again.

"Whatever. I don't-" Hangman hiccuped for a third time and covered his mouth, turning a sickly shade of green. He lurched forward to the toilet and hurled the contents of his stomach three times. He groaned and said, "This never leaves the room."

"Doubt anyone would believe us if we said you got smashed." Rooster looked to his fiancée. "Honey, I'm going to take the dogs out. They're getting antsy."

Juliette nodded and slowly pushed herself up with Rooster's assistance. "I'm going to find some Gatorade. He's going to be dehydrated, throwing up so much."

The couple disappeared, leaving Ghost alone with Hangman. He scooted back against the wall next to her, and Ghost, disliking the uncomfortable silence, broke it with a question. "Why'd you give my name but Jules's number?"

Hangman shrugged. "Musta got you two mixed up. Y'all remind me of each other. When I first met her, she reminded me a lot of you with her love of fighter jets and music. Probably why I fell for her. She's the only girl I thought I could love after you."

The news came as a shock to Ghost, who'd only ever believed Hangman had loved her like a best friend, maybe a sister at most. "I didn't- I never knew that."

"Why would you? I never said anything, and you think you meant nothing to me at the end of our friendship. Because, you know, what reason could I have to cause me to ignore you after the crash?"

"What was the reason?"

 Hangman fell quiet, staring intently at the toilet. Ghost couldn't tell what he was thinking- if he even was at all- but she allowed him the silence. He evidently didn't like the direction of the conversation with the way he shut down, and Ghost wouldn't push him. They weren't close enough for that anymore, and in no small part because of her. Still, wanting to keep him awake, she asked kindly, "What caused this? You've never gotten this drunk before."

"Got a call from my father today. I figured since I'd already fucked up my best relationship the night before, a good way to punish myself would be to open the door to my most toxic one," Hangman mumbled, wiggling his body so he inched up the wall to sit straighter. "I'm not sure who was more surprised I answered- me or my father. But I sure as hell was shocked when he apologized for being so shitty to me growing up. Explained he thought I'd been the child of an affair my mom had, only to find out she'd been tellin' him the truth the entire time that I was, indeed, his son. His own flesh and blood. And then..." Hangman trailed off, his brow furrowing. He slid down the wall a little.

"And then what?" Ghost prodded.

"He- he started breathin' funny, chokin' on his words. And then he was... gone. All I heard was the flatlinin' of his monitor. I-I stood there in shock because he was number four. I thought I had to be in the hospital for it to happen, but no, apparently talkin' on the phone halfway 'cross the country does the trick too. I mean-" Hangman held up his hand and lifted a finger for each person he rattled off- "You, Mom, Ghoul, Father. All y'all died 'cause of me."

"Jake, Ghoul didn't die because of you. Neither did I, your mom, nor your father. Is that- I know you blamed yourself for the accident, but we didn't- is that why you never visited me?"

Much to her dismay, although not to her surprise, Hangman refused to answer. Even drunk out of his mind, some small part of him actively remembered not to tell his reasoning to her. She'd been close to getting it out of him. They were on the verge of the truth, but Ghost wouldn't poke too much. Not in his state.

"Forty-one," Hangman said, voice barely above a whisper. He remained in the same position, staring straight ahead.

Ghost frowned. "Huh?"

"Forty-one," he repeated. "That was your heart rate when I entered your hospital room."

****

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[winters-on-the-wing]

🦢-annie's little intro-🦢

hey, fellas! welcome to my blog! here are some fun facts about me. if you like the same things as me, i would love to be friends! :)

🌅 my name is annie!

🌅 my pronouns are he/she/him/her, and when people ask my gender, i just say that i am a lesbian (i hate gender labels).

🌅 i am filipino-american, and very proud of my heritage!

🌅 i am nineteen years old, and i am in college studying to be an actor and a choreographer in the theatre industry!

🌅 my main fandoms are maida's little shop (a fandom of which i think i am the only member LOL), anne of green gables/anne with an e, the secret garden, sofia the first, dance moms, and animal crossing!

🌅 fandoms i am trying to get into are pokemon (i only really play the games and don't know any lore), the marauders (my best friend really wants me to get into it, and i am trying my best to get caught up on the lore LOL), and stardew valley (i am only on spring 1 of the gameplay, i fear).

🌅 i have been a prominent member of the sanders sides fandom for a really long time, but i am separating myself from that now because thomas has been pissing me off lately, and the show's quality is deteriorating. also, a fandom with no girl characters is so boring, bro.

🌅 my main thing is writing, though i am more of an ideas guy than an actual writer. i think writing is actually rather boring. i also like to draw, but not seriously. you will catch me drawing stick figures of my au concepts. edits are fun to make, but again, i don't take them too seriously. i mostly just float around and come up with ideas for stuff that nobody cares about. it is very fun!

🌅 please do not interact with me if you are younger than fourteen (i might sound like a boomer but i think young kids being on social media is extremely dangerous and i'm not gonna perpetuate it), if you voted for/endorsed donald trump, if you positively discuss eating disorders or endorse eating disorders (i am in recovery from a very intense ed), or if you ever plan on flirting with me (this sounds like such a pick-me thing to say, but trust me, it has happened numerous times and it is so cringe).

🌅 i am firmly anti-censorship and you will never find me using a censored spelling of a word. i will use content warnings for basic things like blood and heavy themes, but if you ask me to censor things like food or something dumb like that, i will say no. minding personal triggers isn't my responsibility - it's yours. and i will not contribute to the mass censorship that the world of social media is pushing because all it does is create more fear and eggshells to walk on. sorry if that seems mean, but i will always prioritize knowledge over caution.

i hope you all like my blog! always feel free to send me a message or an ask if you want to. bye!

best wishes,

annie 🌟

[agirlwithbigdreamsforher]

THE NEW ASSISTANT

THE NANNY: ONE SHOT

THE NEW ASSISTANT.

Pairing: Andy Barber x Annie Johnson (OFC)

Summary: Andy hired a young beautiful assistant and Annie suspects he is cheating on her.

Warnings: mentions of infidelity, insecurity. A bit angst, fluff, smut.

A/N:  English is not my first language, any mistakes are my own.

Disclaimer: I do not give permission for any of my works to be copied, used, translated nor reposted anywhere else but here on this blog. Do not steal what you didn’t work for. Minors and ageless blank blogs don’t interact with me or my works. Reblogs and likes are always welcome. Thank you for reading this work of fiction.

Word count: 1347

GIFS not mine, you can find the credits in each gif :)

                                     ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Andy has become a very busy lawyer in the last few months, and having a pregnant woman back home, he thought it would be a good idea to have an assistant, someone who help him with his meetings, files and cases. He wanted to have everything prepare for when he had to leave once the baby came.

It was around noon, when Annie walked into the office, said hi to Neil and turned to see a curvy young woman in the desk outside Andy’s office. She had curly dark hair and green eyes.

“Neil, who is that?”

“Oh! That’s Meghan, she is new.”

“Hmmm.”

She walked until she was in front of this Meghan girl.

“Good morning, I’m here to see Andy.”

“Mr. Barber is very busy at the moment.” She politely said with a sweet voice, “Perhaps you can leave him a message, I’ll made sure he gets it.”

“I’m his wife.” Annie said as she rubbed her 5 months belly.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry Mrs. Barber, I didn’t know.” She stood up, “He said you were coming. Let me announce you.” She walked to the door swaying her hips, “Mr. Barber, your wife is here.”

“Perfect!” You heard Andy’s cheerful voice.

“Do you need to sit down?” She stared at her belly. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Hi, honey. Ready for the appointment?”

“Yes. We are late.”

“Meghan, please if anyone calls take the message. Finish the files I gave you and then you can go. I won’t be back today.”

“Sure, Mr. Barber.”

“Why didn’t I know about Meghan?” Annie asked Andy once they got in the car.

“It’s her first day. I needed help, the office has been chaos lately”

“Hmmm.”

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just I’ve been asking you every day what’s new at work, and you always said nothing.”

“Maybe I forgot.” Andy shrugged.

“Yeap, you did.” Annie pursed her lips and looked out of the window.

It’s been a month since Annie knew who Meghan was and if she was honest she hated her. Andy wouldn’t shup up about her, every single day, Andy came out with some story of how this girl was so intelligent and funny, and it made Annie sad. It didn’t help either Andy hasn’t been intimate with her for the past four weeks. Perhaps it was the hormones but she didn’t like how Andy praised Meghan, no one bit.

Today, it was particularly late. Andy send Annie a text telling her he will be out for a beer with the people at the office. The problem was, he told her once she had dinner already made. Jake had gone to bed already and she was sitting in the living room waiting for her husband. She didn’t know when she fell asleep, but she was awaken by the sound of the door opening and Andy humming the tune of an 80’s song.

“Hey, honey.” He walked towards her and gave a small kiss on the lips, “Why are you here?” He noticed her sleepy eyes, “Oh, honey, you were waiting for me. I’m sorry, I lost track of time. I should’ve told you not to wait for me.” Annie didn’t respond, “Come on; let’s go to bed.”

Annie laid down on her side while Andy was undressing by the foot of the bed.

“Hey guess what? Tonight Meghan brought…” Andy heard her sob, he turned and saw she had her face hidden in her pillow. “Honey? What’s wrong?” He walked to her side of the bed and sat next to her. “Honey? Talk to me.”

“Are you cheating on me?” She asked softly against the pillow.

“What? Where is this coming from?” Annie sobbed even harder, “Ok, turn around.” Annie stayed in the same place, “Baby, we can’t talk if you keep hiding like that. Turn around.” She obliged, her face wet and red eyes met Andy’s baby blues.

“You always talk ‘bout her.” She sniffed, “Every day.” She sat down, her back against the headboard, “She is so curvy and fit and has big boobs and ass.” She paused for a moment, “Are you cheating on me because I’m fat?”

“Wow! Honey, you’re not fat, you’re pregnant.”

“It’s the same thing!”

“Honey, I’m not cheating on you. I promise, you are the best thing that had happened to me, why would I risk losing you?”

“You always praise her. Saying she is so intelligent and funny.”

“So? I said the same about Pam and Lynn.”

“This is different!”

“Why is it different?”

“I don’t know! But it is!”

“Honey,” Andy sighed.

“No! Don’t honey me! This girl shows up and then we don’t have sex, what do you want me to think?! We haven’t had sex in 4 weeks! Do you know how horny I am?!”

“Actually no, I didn’t know, I’m sorry. It’s been a lot at the office lately, that’s why I hire Meghan so she could help me.” Annie crossed her arms over her chest, and Andy look at the ceiling like he was asking for some help from above. “Look I’m not sleeping with anyone, you are the only woman in my life that can get me hard, just by seeing you.” He got closer and kissed her under her ear.

“Andy, don’t…”

“Come on, honey, I know that’s your sweat spot.” He kissed her again and she moaned a bit. “How about if I show my lovely wife, how much I love her and how much she turns me on.” Annie gulped, “Lay down, honey.”

She did as she was told, Andy soon hover over her, his lips kissing her with passion, his tongue dancing along with hers. His lips traveled to her neck, hook his finger on the noodle strap of her camisole. Her now full rounded breasts were on display for him to do as he please. He took a nipple in his mouth, his lips sucking it slightly.

“Oh Andy!” His hand traveled south in between her legs feeling her arousal coat his fingers.

“Such a good girl, ready for me to play.”

Andy moved down the bed putting her legs on his shoulders.

“Andy wait.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Ammm, it’s just, I haven’t shave in weeks, so maybe we could just stick to put your dick inside.”

“Oh no, if you think I will lose the opportunity to taste this sweet pussy just because you aren’t shaved you’re out of you mind.” He lifted the hem of her camisole and licked a long stripe of her pussy making her thrown her head back. He kept his ministrations, inserting a finger inside.

“Fuck!” Andy took her clit and suck it as he pumped his finger in her. Her hips started to move, “Andy!”

“I know.” He flicked his tongue over her clit making her come.

“God, Andy.”

“I’m not done with you yet.”

Andy took 3 more orgasms out of her that night. Annie was curled up against his chest, drawing imaginary circles with her finger on his hair chest. Andy was drifting off.

“Promise you would tell me when you stop loving me. I don’t want to find out you cheated on me.”

“Are we going on with that?” Andy moved to be eye level with her, “Honey, I mean it, I’m not cheating on you. You are the only one I love.”

“It’s just she is so beautiful and…”

“And she has a girlfriend.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Meghan dates a girl named Paris. We met her today.”

Annie blinked a couple of times her mouth a little agape. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was about to tell you, but you were crying and then you accused me of cheating on you.”

“Argh!” She hid her face on his neck.

“Hey, it’s ok.” Andy stroke her back, “At least I know you still want me to be with you.”

“How can you doubt that?! I married you and I’m pregnant with your child.”

“So, are we good?”

“Yeah, we good.”

“God, those hormones are really messing with your head.”

“Don’t blame my hormones!”