#but that could be more tye fact that i have seen so much stuff about these ships that its all like “popular” in my brain hehe | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

haddonfieldwhore · 1 year ago

Text

torn - vince dunn

vince dunn x fem!reader (x platonic! matthew tkachuk)

summary: with seattle on an 8 game losing streak, it’s even more difficult to choose who to cheer for; your boyfriend or your best friend

word count: 4k

warnings: language, a sprinkle of angst, drinking, nsfw themes implied but nothing explicit, mention of cheating

you fiddled absentmindedly with your fingers in your lap as you sat in the audience, paying little attention to the practice skate happening in the rink. your mind was elsewhere, unable to focus on your boyfriend vince dunn and his team as you thought about his instead. matthew tkachuk had been your best friend for as long as you could remember, and while you should have been overjoyed at the fact that you got to see him tonight, the fact that he was on the opposing team did slightly complicate things.

while it was just a game at the end of the day, it wasn’t at the same time. it felt like a double edged sword; while you knew you would be happy with whoever won, that also meant that one of your two favourite people had to lose, and you didn’t want that.

you breathed a sigh of relief that this was their last regular season game against eachother, the panthers and the kraken not meeting up too often. you felt you phone buzz in your pocket and checked it to see a text from matthew.

you looked up at the clock on the wall, which read 10:49am, meaning the kraken were almost done and you wouldn’t miss too much if you snuck out now.

you gathered your stuff, sneaking out without drawing attention to yourself, and not noticing the green eyes of your boyfriend flickering up to notice your empty seat. it was only about 15 minutes before matthew arrived, meeting you outside the cafe by sneaking up behind you and wrapping his arms around you. you let out a shriek, earning a few weird looks from people around the room as you turned around.

“you scared me!” you punched matthews chest lightly, before throwing your arms around his neck in a bone crushing hug.

“that was kind of the idea,” he laughed, holding you tight as he laughed. it had been months since you had seen him, and you always missed him like crazy when you were apart.

“you cut your hair!” you commented on his appearance as you finally looked at his face. you had obviously seen him on tv and in pictures since you last saw him in person, but it wasn’t the same as being fave to face. “last time i saw you your curls were crazy,” you smiled, remembering how long his hair had grown out.

“yeah, it’s a lot to fit under the helmet,” he smiled, and finally let go of you.

“also,” you began. “happy belated birthday! i can’t believe we were one day off from getting to spend it together,” you pouted, thinking of his birthday that had been just yesterday.

“thank you. we can celebrate tonight- after the game. i think we’re sticking around in seattle until at least tomorrow morning so we have all night.”

“deal,” you smiled, shaking his hand.

•

after a quick shower, vince towel dried his curly hair and threw on a kraken hoodie and some shorts, taking advantage of the warmer than usual weather despite it being mid december. usually after practice you were waiting for him outside the locker room, but he had a pretty good feeling that you wouldn’t be there to greet him today; the empty hallway confirming his suspicions as he sighed.

“everything okay? she’s never not here.”

vince looked up to nod his head softly at tye kartye, one of his teammates and one of your close friends. “where is she?”

“with tkachuk,” dunn replied, not meaning to sound so bitter. “he’s her best friend; they never get to see eachother,” he recovered, not wanting to give the impression that he was upset about it. he had no issue with you having friends that were on other teams, especially since you had been friends with matthew far longer than you had been dating him.

“sharing trade secrets about our practice?” tye joked innocently, and vince punched his arm.

“you know she wouldn’t. and besides, i don’t think she was really paying attention anyway,” he laughed. he pulled his phone out of his bag, checking to see if you had messaged him, trying not to be too disappointed when he saw no notifications on the screen.

•

you and matthew were walking around seattle, not straying too far from the arena, when your phone went off.

you smiled at the message, and didn’t notice matthew had stopped in front of you until you ran straight into his chest.

“loverboy wondering where you are?” he teased innocently.

“he’s just checking in. their practice just ended.”

“any-“

“don’t even ask. i am sworn to secrecy,” you scolded, with a finger pressed to his lips to quiet him. he smirked, raising his hands in surrender.

“i see how it is. does that mean you’re cheering for him tonight over me?” he asked playfully.

“i’m cheering for both of you. i don’t want either of you lose,” you admitted, and matthew threw an arm around your shoulder.

“i know. and i’m sorry they have to lose but-“

“hey!” you laughed. “don’t be an ass.”

“sorry,” he smiled. “and i promise to try not to hit him too hard in to the boards-“

“hey!” you repeated, but you knew that he was only messing with you.

“okay okay i’m done.”

•

you had gone home to vince’s apartment once matthew had to go to the panthers practice, giving you some time to get ready before the game. you and the birthday-boy would be going out straight after the game, so you had to get a little fancier than you usually did for a game, knowing you wouldn’t have time to do your makeup or anything.

putting on an outfit appropriate for clubbing and doing your hair and makeup took a little longer than usual, and soon it was time to head down to the arena with vince. he walked out of your shared bedroom dressed in his suit for the evening, a dark purple colour with a subtle blue plaid pattern. no matter how many times you saw him get dressed up, it still made butterflies erupt in your stomach.

“you really do look great in a suit,” you smiled, smoothing out his blue tie and brushing that one curl that never seemed to stay put off his forehead. he leaned down to kiss your lips softly.

“you look amazing. although i have a weird feeling this isn’t all for me..” he said hesitantly, his hands landing softly on your waist.

“i mean of course it’s for you,” you paused, kissing the side of his neck softly. “but i do have plans after the game with matthew,” you admitted, feeling guilty even though you knew he wouldn’t mind.

“i had a feeling,” vince laughed, but kissed your forehead. “you are still cheering for us during the game though, right?” he smiled.

“yes, but he’s gonna be a bummer to hang out with if they lose, so think of me if that happens,” you laughed as he kissed you again, before grabbing your bag for you and getting the door. you weren’t sure how it was time to go already, but you were only getting more nervous standing around waiting, so you were happy to get going, following close behind vince as he left the apartment.

•

you and vince arrived at the arena, but split off since he had a few things to do before the game; usual player stuff. you were in the back when the panthers arrived, and while most of them didn’t pay you any mind, a certain player with golden curls sent you a wink as he walked by and into the visitors locker room. you decided that while yes, you were hoping that seattle won the game (florida could afford the loss more than the kraken could right now), you would still be an encouraging friend, texting matthew a quick ‘good luck 🥰’.

you put your phone away, and took a deep breath, trying to ease your nerves. you and a few of the other players girlfriends went to your seats, and you tapped your fingers on your knee, drowning out the conversation going on around you. a hand in your shoulder snapped you out of your trance, and you turned to look at valerie, who was engaged to jared, one of the forwards for seattle.

“you okay?” she asked, and you smiled.

“yeah - just a little nervous if i’m being honest.”

“what’s going on?”

“my best friend plays for florida, so i’m just a little upset that one of the teams had to lose,” you laughed, and val giggled.

“aww. it’s okay honey. that’s the game; someone wins and someone loses - and i’m sure both vince and your friend know that.”

“you’re right,” you sighed, her words making you feel better. “thanks val.”

“no problem. are you and vince going out after the game? you’re all fancy today.”

“no, actually i have plans with matthew - my friend.”

“tkachuk?”

“yeah.”

“so you have a bit of a type, huh? tall, curly hair, a little dangerous…” she teased.

“shush.”

“i’m kidding, i’m kidding,” she bumped her shoulder against yours softly. “i won’t tell anyone if you secretly cheer for florida,” she whispered in your ear.

“i still want us to win,” you took a sip from your drink. “i just don’t want the other team to lose.” you both laughed at the redundant statement, and the players came out into the ice to skate around before the game began.

“what’s tkachuk’s number again? i want to keep an eye on him for you,” val asked.

“19,” you smiled. “i’m sure he’ll make his presence known.” as if on queue, you saw matt in the starting lineup out on the ice, and he nodded his head towards you, and you smiled.

“yeah, you definitely have a type.”

•

the first period went by without too much excitement, besides vince getting a penalty for a high stick. while you would never admit it to him, you always thought he looked hot sitting in the penalty box. florida got a few more power plays in the second period, but yamamoto was still able to score the only goal so far, giving seattle a 1-0 lead. you noticed vince and matt give eachother a couple shoves as play was whistles down for a save from seattles goalie, daccord.

bellemare scored the second goal for seattle, giving us an even bigger lead, and while i was happy for the kraken, my mood fell as my eyes landed on matty. he was sitting on the panthers bench, chewing on his mouthguard instead of wearing it properly, as always. on his next shift he got a good shot, but it was deflected, and the start of a fight broke out between vince and one of the other panthers, but it was quickly broken up.

wennberg intercepted a pass and got a breakaway to score seattles third goal, and your gaze went to the florida bench again. as your eyes found matthew, you realized he was already looking at you. you mouthed a sincere “i’m sorry” at your best friend, and you knew he understood it when he tilted his head sideways with a shrug; but you could tell he was frustrated.

florida pulled their goalie with five minutes left in the game, and tolvanen scored an empty netter to secure the victory early. the girls were cheering next to you and you smiled as they announced that vince got an assist on the goal, adding to his already impressive tally of points on the season so far. the time dwindled down to nothing, confirming the win for seattle and in turn earning daccord his first nhl shutout.

the fans cheered as the kraken skated around celebrating, and the panthers headed back to the locker room.

•

you were leaning up against the wall talking with some of the teams girlfriends when you felt arms wrap around your midsection from behind, and a soft kiss being placed on the junction between your shoulder and your neck. you giggled as vince’s stubble tickled your skin, and you turned around and kissed him on the lips.

“hey,” you smiled, admiring the sparkle that always appeared in his eyes when the kraken won.

“hey yourself,” he smiled, kissing you again, before his eyes traveled up and down your body, taking in every inch of your outfit. “you’re sure you’re not gonna hang with us? we’re going to kartye’s place, it’s gonna be a good time….” he trailed off, his fingers drumming softly against your hips.

“i’m sad i’m missing it, but i promised matthew; it was his birthday yesterday and i haven’t seen him in forever,” you pouted, and vince nodded.

“i get it, don’t worry. i just thought i’d ask.”

“you could come with us?” you offered, and he smiled, but shook his head.

“i don’t wanna third wheel,” he teased. “go have fun. i get you all the time, he can have you for one night.”

i raised an eyebrow, and vince seemed to realize the error in his wording.

“not like that,” he scolded, a light blush on his face, and you laughed.

“i’m kidding. you’re the only one who gets me in that way.”

“good,” vince said, his confidence returning as he kissed you deeply, before the rest of the team started exiting the locker room.

“hey, you coming out with us?” yamamoto asked, and you shook your head, but vince answered for you.

“she’s got a date with the enemy,” he replied, and you shot him a glare for throwing you under the bus, but knew the team wouldn’t care. they hazed you for a minute, but you laughed it off before they stole vince from you, him calling out for you to text him if anything happened. you waved to the guys and said goodnight to the girls before heading towards the visitors locker room to find matthew.

the panthers were still inside when you got there, so you sat on a bench in the hallway while you waited. about 10 minutes went by before anyone exited the room, and finally a defeated looking tkachuk walked out of the door. he perked up slightly when he saw you, and you stood up, gasping slightly as he lifted you up in the air. to not fall, you wrapped you arms and legs around him like a koala bear, laughing as he spun around.

“stop you’re gonna drop me!”

“i would never,” he replied, but set you down on your feet anyway. “you ready to go?” he asked, and you looked at the white button up shirt he had on with some dark jeans. his hair was still slightly damp from his post-game shower, and he smelled like his usual cologne.

“yeah, what the plan?”

“there’s gotta be a club around here somewhere right?” he asked, and you nodded, remembering the handful of times you had gone out with the team to celebrate after a game.

“yeah, i know a place.”

“well what are we waiting for?” he smiled.

•

a few hours and many drinks later, you found yourself being pulled onto the dance floor by matthew, some throwback hip hop song blaring through the speakers of the club. his hands were on your hips as you danced to the music, your back to his chest as your bodies got closer together. the club lighting was low except for the flashing stove lights, casting different colours across the people in the room.

“what are you thinking about?” matthew asked, his breath fanning across your ear as he leaned closer so you could hear him over the music, and you realized you must have zoned out.

“i’m sorry you guys lost the game.”

he laughed, using his grip on your waist to turn you to face him, his hands never leaving your body.

“it’s fine,” he shook his head, but his eyes didn’t meet yours, so you could tell he wasn’t too happy about it.

“sorry, i shouldn’t have brought it up. kinda ruined the mood.” his gaze found yours now, the bright blue of his eyes slightly hazy from the alcohol.

“and what mood was that?” he smirked.

“we’re celebrating your birthday, matty,” you smiled, throwing your arms around his neck and burying your face against his collarbone. you felt another laugh rumble in his chest, as his arms encircled you, and you breathed in the way he smelled; expensive. you looked up at him, and found him already looking at you, his eyes half closed, either from intoxication or tiredness. without thinking, you placed a soft peck on his lips, and then both of your froze. his eyes were wide now, and you stuttered incoherently.

“i didn’t mean to do that,” you finally said.

“you didn’t?”

“no,” you confirmed.

“okay,” he laughed, and you hit his bicep softly.

“it’s not funny matty, i fucked up,” you said seriously, and he cleared his throat.

“okay, just breathe,” he said as you began to panic. “let’s get some fresh air okay?” he led you outside, the cool december air helping to sober you up quickly. there was no one stood outside the club except a couple people smoking a little ways down the sidewalk. you leaned against the side of the building as you continued to freak out. you had to tell vince- and now, before some paparazzi posted a photo of it and he found out some other way.

you pulled out your phone, and matthews eyes widened again as his hand gently wrapped around yours.

“what are you doing?”

“i have to tell him,” you mumbled.

“tell who what-“

“tell my boyfriend that i just cheated on him, matthew. oh god-“ you cried, tears welling in your eyes.

“are you sure you should call him right now? you’re hyperventilating.”

“he needs to know. and he needs to hear from me first before he finds out from someone else,” you insisted, somehow managing to calm for breathing down, though your heart remained pounding against your ribcage.

“okay. you’re right,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “it’s not like it meant anything, right? it was a stupid drunken kiss.”

“yes. i love you, but not like that, dude.” you both laughed, and you were glad to be on the same page about it. matty would always be your best friend, and there had never been anything romantic between the two of you.

“agreed,” he smiled. “i’ll give you some privacy, but i’m not leaving you out here alone. i’ll be over there if you need me,” he said, and walked down the side of the building, keeping you in his line of sight under safe watch. you took a shaky breath, and scrolled through your phone to vince’s contact, and pressed the call button.

“hello?” he answered, and you could hear loud music in the background.

“vince - it’s me. can you hear me?” you replied, and you heard the sound of a door and the music getting quieter, like he had gone into another room.

“hey, babe. yeah i can hear you now. is everything okay?” he asked, a concerned tone in his voice.

“yes - well no- but yes, i’m fine. i need to tell you something.”

“what is it?” he asked.

“i accidentally kissed matthew,” you admitted, closing your eyes like it would stop you from hearing his reaction. “we got really drunk and it just happened and it was one tiny little kiss and i’m so sorry,” you blabbered, before listening to a long painful silence on the other side of the phone.

“it didn’t mean anything? it was just a mistake?” he asked calmly, and you were a little shocked. you hadn’t exactly expected him to yell at you, but you thought he would at least sound… angrier.

“god no - of course it didn’t. i love you so much and i’m so sorry.”

“does he know it didn’t mean anything?” he asked, the expected anger a little more present in his voice this time.

“yes, vince. we’re just friends; i promise,” you insisted, and you heard him sigh on the other end.

“okay. i mean i’m not happy about it but if it didn’t mean anything i i’ll get over it. i’ll kiss one of the guys and we’ll call it even, okay?” he teased, and you laughed, slightly in relief but also in disbelief.

“have you been drinking?” you teased, and he gave a genuine laugh.

“maybe a little. but seriously - if it was just an accident i forgive you. are you guys staying out for a bit? do you need me to call you a cab or anything?” he asked, and you smiled at how much of a sweetheart he was.

“i think we’ve both had enough partying for one night. i’ll get a cab home, okay? are you and guys staying out much longer?” you replied.

“okay, text me when you’ve made it home. i think we’re almost calling it a night, so i’ll be there soon.”

“okay. i love you.”

“i love you too.” he said, and the call ended. matthew saw you put your phone away, and walked back over to you.

“is he coming here to kill me?” he asked, and you rolled your eyes, wondering how he could joke at a time like this.

“no - i have the best boyfriend in the world and he said everything is fine since it was just a drunken mistake.” speaking of vince your phone went off in your hand and you looked at the screen to see a text with a picture of larsson and yamamoto kissing him on either cheek, a big goofy smile on his face. below it was a text that just said “now we’re even 🩵” and you shook your head, smiling as you showed matt.

“i don’t know him too well but he seems like a good guy.”

“he is,” you smiled. “i’m gonna call it a night, and you probably should to, considering i’m sure you guys have to be in the road pretty early tomorrow.”

“yeah you’re right,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “i’ll see you during the holiday break, right?” he asked. the teams always got a few days off at christmas and you usually spent at least one of them together. that meant it would o it be a few weeks before you got to see each other again.

“of course,” you said, wrapping your arms around him in a hug, suddenly sad to be saying goodbye so soon.

“okay,” he smiled, returning the hug as your cab pulled up. “tell dunn i’m sorry. and congrats on the win.”

“i will. text me in the morning?” he nodded in response, and pulled out his phone to call a cab of his own. you sighed as the car pulled away, and you shut your eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted.

•

you were home long enough to shower and get into your pyjamas, which was just one of vince’s t-shirts and some shorts, before you heard his keys in the door. you ran over to him and he wrapped you in his arms immediately, his familiar scent filling your nose as you buried your face in his chest.

“i’m sorry,” you mumbled.

“i know. i forgive you,” he laughed softly. “i am a little sad i don’t get to take that outfit off you, but i might like this one even more.”

you smiled, placing soft kisses up his neck until your lips connected. he walked you backwards to the bedroom and let your fingers undo the buttons of his shirt. once he was down to his boxers, you both crawled into bed, your head on his chest as his fingers traced little patterns on your thigh.

“i love you,” you mumbled, very sleepy after a long day.

“i love you too.”

“i love you more than anyone else on earth,” you clarified, and it was the truth. vince smiled, though you couldn’t see it, and kissed the top of your head.

“i know. goodnight baby,” he said softly, and you were out before you could say anything back. while he wasn’t exactly happy about what had happened, he felt better knowing that at the end of the day, it was his arms that you were falling asleep in.

disclaimer: all screenshots, events, and/or interactions depicted in this are a work of fiction. i have no association with any parties mentioned

#vince dunn #vince dunn fic #vince dunn x reader #seattle #seattle kraken #matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk fic #florida panthers #nhl #nhl fic #hockey fic #real person fiction #hockey

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katerinaaqu · 1 month ago

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Hello :) firstly I wanted to say that I love your analyses and I love all the information and knowledge you’re able to give us, thank you soo much for that.

Secondly since you know so much especially about the odyssey and Odysseus and I’ve recently seen a post where you explained the calypso situation I wanted to ask if you’ve made such an in-depth analysis on the Circe situation? I’m convinced the whole thing wasn’t consensual but there are always ppl saying stuff like “what Hermes said isn’t important” “Circe was at his mercy when she asked him to do the deed with him so he tricked her into doing it” “Odysseus was invulnerable to her powers so that means he wasn’t in danger meaning he willingly slept with her” and since I haven’t read the odyssey in a while I wanted to ask you .

Tysm for your time and I hope you have a wonderful day

Hello and you are very sweet! I really feel happy you do enjoy them and I am also grateful to receive comments and thoughts from you under my work 🙏 it always means so much when people get interested in the ancient texts much more when they honor me with their trust on tye matter.

I believe you are referring to my latest answer then where I re-analyzed the Calypso matter.

OF COURSE I can! I would be happy and delighted to especially since their relationship is so complicated and fascinating to begin with. The way in which it evolves in a very interesting degree and the way both characters share common traits is also fascinating. Circe is called also wily or with tricks which also seems to correspond to the essence of Odysseus himself. A power couple no doubt. But indeed so misunderstood by the media and their interpretations.

So here goes sorry if this is long:

I find it so interesting how far selective interpretation goes 🤔 😆 I find it interesting that indeed there are people out there that read the passage where Hermes SPECIFICALLY mentions how Odysseus has no choice and say that "oh it doesn't matter really!" Hahaha so to be more precise the passage goes as such;

Then you shall not refuse the goddess's bed if you want her to release your comrades, and she shall offer entertainment to you

(Translation by me)

The passage is clear. Hermes tells Odysseus he has no choice but to accept the bed of Circe's if he wants to save his men and see them again in human form. I find it quite interesting that people ignore that or they claim it is unimportant to the plot. This is literally the reason why Odysseus is there. What is more I find the notion of the moly immunity funny because Circe was not a force to be reckoned with only with her magic. In fact Homer also writes afterwards;

However make her swear a sacred and great oath that she will have nothing else bad in store for you so that she won't hurt or unman you when she has you stripped naked.

(Translation by me)

Hermes clearly states that Circe does not need to turn him into an animal to be dangerous. In fact as someone else said before me, it almost seems like Circe might as well kill or castrate him while she has him naked and vulnerable. Hermes clearly states that Odysseus is not safe even if he is immune to her power at that specific moment. It also shows that Circe could harm him at every moment and the only reasons she didn't were this promise that he extracted from her and perhaps her own feelings for him (curiosity or other). Throughout the passage Odysseus was speaking on the fear he was feeling even from moment number one;

And she opened the fine doors calling me in and I followed her with a heavy and grieving heart

(Translation by me)

Odysseus was literally frightened. All the time. As he said he had a grieving heart (ἀκαχήμενος ἦτορ) and he continued to be distrustful of her and afraid even if he had extracted that oath from her.

However my heart could not be pleased for I was distracted as my mind was always thinking on dark thoughts

(Translation by me)

I adore how Homer uses the word ἀλλοφρονέων (=to think differently, to be distracted) but the word αλλόφρων also used in modern Greek to speak on someone who is mad or crazy and is also used as a phrase to indicate someone who is not just worried but someone crazy in fear. Odysseus has extracted the promise, he has accepted the attentive care of Circe and her handmaidens in the bath and he is now sat before a real feast and he is crazy in fear and doubt. His continuous sense of anxiety is obvious in the passage. So to say that Odysseus was just fine and that the whole adventure with Circe was a breeze and that he was safe against her just because he had eaten the Moly at that time seems to me funny since every part of the passage shows how he was afraid. What was more, there is no guarantee that the Moly would protect him forever from Circe's magic not to mention that as we said before, even without her magic Circe had plenty of aces up her sleeve starting from her animal entourage till a potent knife at the time that she had Odysseus under her mercy (thus the need for a promise on her part).

Also even if we say that Moly would keep him immune forever, what about his men? His men had not consumed Moly and it was obvious that the only reason that Odysseus was there was to rescue his men. What guarantee did he have that Circe wouldn't enchant his men again if he misbehaved? Quite frankly as I said above, Circe's likeness for his boldness or potentially his mind plus the oath he extracted from her seems to be the only thing that prevents Circe from using his men as hostages once more. Quite frankly the whole adventure with Circe was a very big hostage business. Odysseus was thinking on his men's safety (not to mention the rest of them waiting by the ship) apart from his own and as you see he was already very much afraid as it was.

I also find it interesting that the reason why Circe seems to be getting Odysseus immediately to her bed is that she knew he would come. Just like Polyphemus knew by a prophet that Odysseus would blind him (although she didn't know the nature of the person that would blind him) Circe says that she knew from Hermes that a certain Odysseus would arrive at her isle on his way back from Troy. So in one way someone to say that Circe was out of options seems at least funny as a notion. It seems that she knew who was coming she just didn't seem to know the conditions that would bring him there.

Now was Odysseus attracted to her?

In my opinion there is no doubt about it as he describes how beautiful Circe was. Would he consider to sleep with her if it weren't of Hermes's advice? In my opinion no. Odysseus would absolutely be finding Circe attractive given her beauty and her divine nature, which is no surprise there but finding attraction to one person and act on it are two different things. In my humble opinion I do not think that Odysseus would act according to that attraction. Would he be curious on the experience with an immortal goddess? Absolutely. He is a naturally curious person and he wants to gain knowledge from other experiences in his life. Would he act up that one? Again I think not.

The reason why I think so is that the essences of loyalty in marriage are not as cut and clean as we usually think of in modern times. True if we judge from Hera myths, it was not preferable for a man to have extramarital affairs but it was generally tolerated. Agamemnon speaks on the affairs he had and many others had affairs. Odysseus would have no reason to hide his actual attraction towards Circe (and he doesn't given how he does speak on her very warmly eventually). Throughout his narration he mentions many things negative about himself including but not restricted to; the conquest and enslavement of Ismarus, his mistake to insult God Poseidon, self-destructive thoughts, feeling of fear towards Circe or Calypso, his moments of sadness and isolation etc. All of these things would be considered embarrassing or even diminishing for him. Why would he hide affairs at a world that was more tolerant towards the affairs and instead say all these others that would make a king or a warrior embarrassed?

Now there is an interesting question of course as to why did Odysseus remain there for a year?

It is indeed food for thought to think about it because once his men were back to human form in theory he could leave right? That in my opinion is not cut and clean like that. For once he had to wait until his men were back to good health and spirits to travel and he might as well take advantage of Circe's hospitality to refill their batteries. However there is also the moment where in the Odyssey his men arrive personally and scold him that he forgot about their country and their homeland for the arms of Circe. So one can think indeed; did Odysseus indeed forget himself?

In my opinion it is possible. His men are not the only ones who wanted to refill their batteries. So was Odysseus. In fact he has MUCH MORE in his plate than the average human already. He has already been at war, he has the war crimes on his mind anyways and he has also witnessed most of his men dying in horrifying ways (Cicones, Polyphemus, Laestrigonians etc) and he has just witnessed the results of his actions as well with the Curse of Polyphemus and the way that the sack of Aeolus fiasco happened. Odysseus already was suffering a lot. Regardless of the fact that he was always afraid of her, the hospitality she offered was very much needed. He could rest and enjoy some safety of dry land for a change after everything he had been through and Circe kept her promise and was a very good hostess to them. Odysseus too needed that break. It is possible that he forgot himself at the care of Circe and quite frankly Circe seems to be also wishing to keep Odysseus by her side so she does seem to make it as easy as possible for him to stay.

So Odysseus enjoying some nice rest after so long, even in the arms of a goddess that scares him makes it cheating? In my opinion no. What is more it seems that the fear of Odysseus was always apparent. It seems that he was avoiding requesting from Circe to let them go the whole time. It almost felt like he was putting the whole thing off out of fear for her anger and refusal. He almost seemed to be gathering off the guts to tell her. When his men straight out demanded it he didn't seem to have a choice but to comply. So it shows how scared he was when he literally BEGGED Circe to let them go by falling on her knees.

And then I climbed onto Circe's beautiful bed and hugging her knees I begged her to set us free with a cry.

(Translation by me)

So basically Odysseus felt helpless before her and he had to do the employing ritual to her (you can see my other post about this ritual) so that he would be sure that Circe wouldn't refuse him or be angry at him. That same fear continued later for when he came back from the Underworld, he preferred to stay by the ships. He was literally brought back in by Circe herself who gave him some advice.

But while most part of the text in the Odyssey indeed implies the lack of free will or lack of options etc someone would think why would Odysseus be considered a cheater in the hands of Circe?

I think the answer lies to the general idea that many people have that we should consider Odysseus as an unreliable narrator and that all the details he lists are lies to cover his cheating.

Although as a logic seems to be very generalized, and it COULD hold some water in regards to some details, I still am not convinced as mention above that Odysseus is lying here. For starters he was already very emotional when speaking to the Phaeakes and an emotional Odysseus is the most honest Odysseus (we saw his emotions betraying him with Polyphemus, with his revelation with the Phaeakes or later with Penelope). Odysseus was already in a very strong emotional state so I do not think his narration is inherently doubtful. What is more, he does seem to have so many details in his narration about himself that are not positive about himself. He would have no reason to hide the specific one. And Odysseus mentions how Circe never had his heart before (see also my other answer here). I cannot find much of a reason for him to lie about that when he has literally admitted everything else that could paint him in an unpleasant light (especially his hubris with Polyphemus).

So to sum up yes I think he was being forced. His men were held hostage and he had to save them. Circe was never helpless regardless of the situation and she had many different ways to kill him if she wanted to. Would he be curious anyways? Absolutely. Would he act according to that curiosity? In that case I think not. He does say so himself and his imprisonment in Calypso's island in his narrative was supported by other characters and the poet so why would he lie for Circe either. One can definitely think about his emotions and how strong they would be about Circe but I think regardless of that, he wouldn't have necessarily act towards that curiosity given how his psychological state was originally

But I guess this is everyone's guess.

I hope this helps. It definitely it is up to you what you want to interpret and I will be happy to offer more passages inside the future reblogs and such! ^_^

#katerinaaqu answers #katerinaaqu analyzes #greek mythology #tagamemnon #odysseus #the odyssey #homeric poems #odyssey #circe #odysseus and circe #aeaea #circe and odysseus #homeric epics #homer's odyssey #homer odyssey #homer #homer's odysseus #homer's circe

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redpandaramblings · 4 years ago

Text

The Art of Blind Dates. Deku x GN! Reader

This piece was written for @rat-zuki 's the deku agenda escapes no one collab. Happy Birthday to our favorite broccoli.

Content warning- This fic rated PG-13. Aged up characters, Allusions to sexual activity, swearing, gender neutral reader.

“You know, we really have to stop meeting like this.”

You jumped, the spray can you had been using left an unsightly streak of bright red across your masterpiece. You scowled behind your mask as you turned to face the man who had spoken.

“We do. You keep making me mess up my hard work!”

You smirked, pleased with yourself as you saw Deku, the number one pro hero, recoil at the sight of your mask. It had taken a few weeks to convert the All Might mask into an ahegao face, but it was worth it if it horrified your number one pain in the ass. Izuku blinked a few times, sighing and bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was clearly choosing to ignore your choice of disguise.

“I wouldn’t have to mess with your work if you chose to do things that were, you know, actually legal? You’re talented, Brushstroke. You could get paid to do murals or something instead of…” Deku gestured towards your latest creation. You were rather proud of it. It had taken a good amount of planning to manage to paint a fifty foot tall mural of pro hero Dynamight mooning the city with the bold caption ‘The Hero Commision can kiss my ass.’ It would be perfect if not for the red streak from where Deku had startled you. With a contemplative hum you shook your spray can and quickly turned the offending mark into a cartoonish lipstick print. Midoriya sighed heavily. “I’m standing right here, you know.”

“I know.” You grinned behind your mask. The voice distorter you used did nothing to hide your chipper tone. “I also know you like it. And you can’t tell me Dynamight wouldn’t love it. He literally said that on live interview!”

“Yes, but not with his pants down to his knees.”

You bent over, throwing your cans of spray paint and climbing gear into your duffle bag. It wouldn’t do for your nemesis to get his hands on some of the tools you used. Mei’s stamp was all over it.

“Which is such a shame. The man’s got cake for days.” You chuckled as Deku pulled a face.

He observed you, hands on his hips. “And where do you think you’re going?”

“Away, obviously.” You said as you threw the strap of your dufflebag across you.

“And I’m just going to let you go?”

“Oh no. You’re going to chase me like you always do. And I’m going to escape like I always do. And it’s going to drive you crazy because you can’t figure out how I keep doing it.” You began stretching, exaggerating each movement.

“A teleportation quirk isn’t that hard to figure out.” Izuku began stretching as well, rolling his shoulders and popping joints.

“Guess again.” You sing songed, bouncing on your toes.

“Wouldn’t have to guess if you just told me.”

“But that’s no fun. Unfortunately, I do have to be going. Catch you later, hot stuff!” And with a sprint, you raced to the side of the building and jumped off before activating your quirk.

Time slowed around you. It was like you were hovering in the air instead of falling. Freeze Frame was a quirk you had learned to perfect over the years. Between the quirk and the assorted gadgets in your bag and on your person, it was definitely enough to baffle the number one pro hero. Speaking of, you better work quickly before your quirk wore off and splatted you across the sidewalk.

Freeze Frame was named after what your quirk looked like from the outside. It was as if you teleported, or you had frozen time around you for everyone except yourself. In reality, you were a speedster. When your quirk was active, you were able to move at speeds so fast you were undetectable to others, and to you it seemed like everything was paused in time. You probably could have been a phenomenal hero or villain if you wanted. But currently, it was much more fun to thwart a certain green haired man.

With a press of a button, you deployed a grappling hook, snagging it on the building across the alley. You swung over, keeping a countdown in your head. Would you be lucky enough and have time to…? Yes. There! A balcony door was cracked open slightly. You gracefully landed on the balcony and used the door to slip into what appeared to be someone’s bedroom, thankfully unoccupied at the moment. Taking no chances though, you slip into the closet just as the effects of your quirk wear off. The other reason you had never turned to heroism or villainy- no matter how much you trained, you could only keep your quirk activated for ten seconds at a time. It wasn’t a lot. Plus you could only activate your quirk a couple dozen times a day without getting seriously ill. But it still was usually more than enough to be able to give any law enforcement the slip. Just like now.

Deku curses as he runs to the edge of the roof. You’re nowhere to be seen. “Brushstroke! Get back here, you damn brat!” He shouted, running a hand through his hair in frustration. One of these days he was going to figure out your quirk and how to counteract it. And when that day comes he was going to take you over his knee and… No. He shook his head, blushing to clear his thoughts. What to do with you. Well, he wasn’t sure yet. You weren’t a villain, really. More of a public nuisance. The murals you did showed a lot of talent and a good chunk of the population agreed with the social commentary behind them. But that didn’t change that you had painted ten foot tall asscheeks on a building without permission. And, technically, it was within his job description to apprehend you. “Brushstroke!” Deku called again as he made his way down to the ground. There was no sign of you anywhere. Invisibility quirk maybe? Though it would be unusual if you could turn all the stuff you had been wearing and carrying invisible as well.

Meanwhile, as Izuku was getting lost in thought, you were getting naked. You stripped out of your gear and paint covered smock, moving as quickly as you dared while still remaining quiet in your hidden location. Just because the bedroom had been empty doesn’t mean the rest of the place was, after all. You shoved everything into your dufflebag, pulling out a clean set of clothing from a zippered pocket. Getting changed was a simple affair, as was ruffling your hair, messily getting it to look like a different style. One of your favorite tricks happened when you pushed a hidden button on the edge of your duffle bag. The previously dull gray bag quickly morphed into a loud riot of tye dyed color. Chameleon bags, Hatsume called them. Still in a prototype stage, your friend and employer would probably make a mint on them if you put them on the market. After a final brush off and deciding you looked acceptably civilian, you peeked out the closet door. The bedroom was still empty. You crept out slowly. The balcony wasn’t a feasible exit anymore. Not without the gear you had had to store away. You were going to have to sneak out the front door. You activated your quirk, feeling a little queasy at having to use it again so quickly in succession. It was simple to race through the apartment and out into the hall within your short time limit. In fact, with your speed, you were easily able to exit the entire apartment complex. You still had a few seconds to spare when you shot out the door. You grinned at seeing the number one pro hero standing in the middle of the street. You knew you shouldn’t do what you were thinking. Instead you should use your last few spare seconds to put some distance between yourself and the large, green haired man. Instead, you quickly dug around in your bag and found your tube of lipstick. You applied a nice thick coat as you waltzed up to him. With a giggle, you planted a firm smacking kiss on his cheek, leaving behind a clear and perfect lip print. With a grin, you hurried back to the apartment complex. It was easy to make it seem like you were just coming out of the door as time snapped back to its proper speed. You watched, hiding your smirk as you observed the clearly frustrated hero scanning the crowds for any sign of you. His eyes passed right over you, barely giving you a glance. You almost felt hurt that he thought your normal look was that unremarkable. But that was the point, after all. As Deku continued to call out for your pseudonym, you turned and walked away, blending into the crowd. You were almost out of earshot when you heard a loud cursing exclamation that would have been more in character for a certain blond hero. You bite your knuckle to muffle your laughter. Someone had informed Deku of the lipstick mark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You sipped from a bottle of water as you watched Mei work her magic. It was strangely relaxing to watch her in her element. Though it seemed chaotic the first few times you had witnessed your friend work, there was a clear method to the madness if you just knew where to look. And you knew exactly where to look now that you had been working with her for the past three years. You were simply listed as one of her assistants. Most days that involved a random jumble of cleaning, paperwork, schedule management, and coffee making. The real reason Hatsume loved having you around however, was days like this.

“Okay! Set!” She chirped happily. “You good to go now?”

You nodded as you slid down, and walked into the testing area. “Remind me what I’m looking for again?”

“Well, obviously the usual. Make sure it’s not lethal, of course. And then I want to make sure the grid is deploying at the right time. Should be about a quarter second after detonation.”

“As long as everything looks good, want me to be full blown dummy this time?”

Hatsume tilted her head, and considered a moment before nodding. “Yeah, should be fine. Have the explosive levels where they should be. If anything messes up it’s going to be the grid deploying too soon or too late and not restraining you right.”

You gave her a thumbs up as you got into position. She counted down, though that didn’t matter much to you, honestly. One of the best perks of your quirk was that it gave you insane reflexes. You waited until the moment you saw the detonation begin to happen and activated your quirk.

As usual, it felt like time slowed to a crawl around you. Hollywood directors would give a kidney to have access to the detailed slow motion you could experience every day for free. You walked around the device, looking it over. It was meant to be a capture aid for pro hero Cellophane, a small explosive that would shoot nets of tape in all directions. It had to be safe and effective. Better to have a few civilians stuck to the walls than to risk letting a villain escape, after all. You peered into the explosion that was slowly rippling outward. Everything looked good so far… Yep, there were the grids starting to deploy. Sure that everything was safe, you deactivated your quirk and instantly were thrown backward and stuck to a padded wall of the testing room.

“Looked great!” You called as Hatsume entered the room. “I think you’ve finally got it!”

While she cheered and began praising her baby for performing so well, you tried wiggling. No luck. You were stuck rather firmly. Apparently she had upped the strength of the adhesive. After a minute, Hatsume finally noticed your struggles.

“Oh good!” She chirped. “Looks like the new formula is holding up nicely. I mean, I still need to test it out against, like strength and fire quirks, but looking good so far.”

“Little help, please?” You ask, giving her a look.

“Maybe in a bit.” She said, turning her back and leaving you there, pinned. “Want to test how long it holds. Besides, I have some questions about your last escapade and how my babies held up.”

You let out a resigned sigh. Of course. Your friend had found out about your after hours hobby about a year and a half ago. Instead of discouraging you, it hadn’t surprised you that much when she blackmailed you. She wouldn’t tell the police or heroes…. If you used some of her experimental babies on your future excursions. You had been dubious. Hatsume’s babies could be a little dangerous in the prototype stage. But it ended up working great! Your pieces went from small tagging jobs to huge fifty foot murals. Though that had caught the attention of a few public figures, including a certain green haired pain in your ass.

“I didn’t use anything directly against Deku this time.” You sighed, going limp to test if the tape would hold your weight. It did. “Grappling hook works great. The painter drones are okay for filling in large areas, but aren’t able to do clean lines well. The gecko boots continue to be amazing, but the gloves need a lot of work. The control for when they release still isn’t great.”

Hatsume nodded, quickly making notes about everything you said. There was a bit of a quick back and forth where she asked questions and you answered. Though ten minutes passed and you were still stuck to the wall. She eventually sets her notes aside and turns to face you fully. “So,” she drawls. “You saw Deku again.”

“I always see Deku nowadays!” You groan. “I swear Mei, if I find out you’re tipping him off or something...”

“Aww, come on! He’s nice! Would you rather be dealing with Dynamight?”

You frowned, not meeting her gaze. “I mean, the variety might be nice?”

“You like that with the help of my babies you’re able to out fox the number one pro hero, admit it!”

“It might be a little satisfying,” you mutter.

“And it doesn’t hurt that he’s hot either! Heard you two get all flirty during chases. The tabloids loved the kiss mark, by the way. Enjoy finally kissing him?”

“Hatsume!” you groan. “Subject change, please! Anything else!”

“Anything?” she grins at you.

“Oh god, I’m going to regret this.”

“It’s not that bad, I promise! Just, would you be interested in a blind date?”

You blink. “A date?”

“Yeah! One of my friends from school has a lot of trouble meeting people organically. You know how the industry is. Ridiculous schedules, maintaining reputation, trying to make sure they like you for you and aren’t just a fan.”

“Yeah… I guess I can understand that.”

“Well, I just think you and him would be a great fit! He’s a huge nerd in a lot of the same ways you are, but a real good guy once you get past the awkward. Plus,” Hatsume dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper “I happen to know for a fact that he’s a fan of Brushstroke’s work.”

You sighed, rolling your eyes. “You know it’s extortion to try to get me to agree when you have me literally taped to a wall.”

“I know!” Hatsume chirped happily. “So are you going to agree? I made the adhesive pretty strong this time. Who knows how long it would take to wear off on it’s own?”

“Bitch!” You can’t help laughing. “Alright, alright, I’ll go. Just get me down from here!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You fidgeted with the ring you were wearing as you stared at the building in front of you. Maybe it wasn’t too late to bail? You don’t know exactly what you had been expecting when Hatsume had told you about the somewhat shy, nerdy man she had set you up with, but you hadn’t expected him to choose the fanciest restaurant in town as your date location. You were wearing your best and still felt underdressed. Well, if the date was a disaster, at least you knew what building you were going to spray paint next. The glistening white exterior would make for a great canvas. You chuckled quietly at your own thoughts.

Squaring your shoulders, you took a deep breath and marched in. You could do this. You were an infamous tagger. You faced off against the number one pro hero regularly. Your day job was working with Hatsume. You’ve got this. With an air of newfound confidence, you gave your name to the maitre d. It was a surprise when you were led through the restaurant to one of their private curtained rooms. This guy you’d been set up with was apparently going all out. Maybe you were going to like him after all, you thought as you were ushered in. Then you looked up.

Fuck.

Standing to greet you with a stupidly flustered look on his damn stupid handsome face was your nemisis. The number one thorn in your proverbial side. The giant broccoli himself.

That BITCH had set you up with Izuku Midoriya!

You froze. In the back of your mind you were aware that your mouth was hanging open. The green haired man shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Hi,” he said quietly, scratching the back of his head.

You continued to stare.

He cleared his throat, glancing to the side. “Sorry about the secrecy, but I think it’s understandable.”

You nodded weakly.

Izuku bit his lip. You realized with a start that he might be even more nervous than you are. As much as you planned to murder Hatsume later, this wasn’t Midoriya’s fault. You could get through this date at least. Eat some expensive food, drink the best wines, make some meaningless conversation, say your goodbyes, and then go home to plot the demise of your former best friend. Long, slow painful demise. Good thing about being an artist, you had lots of traps, so clean up should be easy. Looking at the worried expression on Izuku’s face, you realize with a start that you still haven’t actually said anything to him. You open your mouth to offer some sort of generic greeting. But what comes out is-

“I’m going to fucking murder Mei!”

Izuku blinks. Blinks again. Then he starts laughing loudly. He leans one hand on the table as he cackles. You stare before starting to chuckle yourself. Soon you’re both wheezing with laughter. You both slump into your seats, trying to collect yourselves. Midoriya speaks first.

“Yeah, I… I get that. I’d think that’s a common emotion when hanging around Hatsume.”

You can’t help your smile. “Only at least half of the time. But that’s what makes it fun. No one else like her.”

“That’s for sure.” Izuku leaned back in his seat, looking you over like he’s studying you. “So, I suppose we should actually introduce ourselves. I’m Izuku Midoriya. I do hero work.”

You laugh. “Y/N Y/L/N. I work for Mei and freelance art when I can.”

“Art, huh? What kind of stuff do you do?”

You’re briefly interrupted by the arrival of the first course. After the waiter leaves, Deku apologies. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to order for you, but this is one of those places where you pay them and they tell you what you’re going to eat.”

“It’s fine.” You say as you stare at the delicate wisp of some sort of thinly shaved vegetable with a dollop of strangely colored foam on top.

“You were saying what kind of art you do?” Deku cautiously was poking at the tiny fancy appetizer.

“A few different things really, but my passion is mural work. Latest job was in a maid cafe. They wanted something cute and floral, but they let me do what I wanted within that theme.”

The night continued on and was surprisingly easy. The food was delicious, the wine was better, and you were pleasantly surprised by the company. Maybe it was the wine softening you up, but as you looked across the table where Izuku was animatedly talking about how influential All Might’s example had been for him, you admitted to yourself that the green haired man was very handsome. And funny. And interesting. And you were trying very hard not to think about the way Midoriya’s large scarred hand wrapped around the delicate wine glass. It was a surprise when the final course was finished and Izuku was quietly taking care of the bill. He escorted you out of the building and you both stood awkwardly outside. Deku cleared his throat.

“If it’s not presuming too much, I’m not quite ready for tonight to end. Is it alright if I walk you home?”

“I’d like that. Like that a lot, actually.”

He smiled at you, and it was like the sun. You walked and talked animatedly. The conversation was so easy and fun, and a little flirty. Somewhere along the way your hands brushed together and holding hands became the most natural thing in the world. Time flew by as you walked together, your true destination long forgotten. You were only brought back to reality when out of the corner of your eye you saw a massive mural of pro hero asscheeks. When Izuku saw what you were looking at, he groaned.

“Could you please not check out my friend’s ass while we’re on a date?” He joked, gently elbowing your ribs. You laughed.

“I mean, you can’t blame me. It’s hard to miss.” You made a mental note to tell Mei that her paint formula was holding up beautifully.

“It’s a little embarrassing. Brushstroke is talented and all, but every mural is a time I couldn’t catch them.”

Maybe it was the wine still buzzing through your system. Maybe it was the thrill of it. Maybe you just wanted to see those beautiful green eyes widen. But you couldn’t help the next words out of your mouth.

“Well you might have an easier time if you ever actually figured my quirk out.”

“Yeah I…” He stopped. Stared. “You…” He stared harder, pulling away slightly as he looked your figure up and down. “You!!!”

“Surprise?” You laughed, and grinned at him. He was always so handsome when he was angry. You weren’t scared at all as he hauled you close.

“Do you have any idea how infuriating you are?”

“Pretty good idea, actually.”

“You’ve been leading me on goose chases for months!”

You grinned “Yes, will be our anniversary soon.”

Izuku groaned as he wrapped his arms around your waste. “You irredeemable brat!”

You would have replied, but in the next second he was fiercely smashing his mouth against yours. The kiss started harsh and desperate. The results of months of teasing and flirting. It gentled as the two of you stood there in the night, soft and sweet and full of affection the two of you had yet to put into words. The thought occurred to you that you’d have to thank Mei later. Your eyes opened as the two of you pulled away for breath. You started giggling almost immediately. Izuku pressed his forehead against yours.

“What’s so funny, darling?”

You smirked. “I never thought we’d have our first kiss while being mooned by Dynamight.”

Izuku groaned loudly before sweeping you up into his arms. You squawked and clung to him.

“That’s it.” He rumbled. “I’m going to spank you when I get you home, you fucking brat.”

“Promise?” you giggled.

You didn’t mind in the least when he shut you up with another kiss.

#the deku agenda escapes no one collab #izuku x reader #midoriya x reader #deku x reader #deku x y/n #deku x you #gender neutral reader #izuku midoria x reader #aged up characters #bnha reader insert

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

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Survey #306

i’m v talkative today so pardon my jabbering below.

What is the strangest type of candy you have eaten? I think I've had one of those lollipops with a bug in it before as a kid? I don't remember. What would be your most ideal profession? A freelance photographer. But I'm honestly starting to lose hope. Have you tried those coloring books for adults? Yeah; it's funny you mention 'em, 'cuz a family friend got me one for my birthday earlier this month. What is a topic you definitely don't want to talk about with anyone? I don't like talking about my sexual history, doesn't matter who you are. It's just uncomfortable. What was your first gaming console? An Atari. Is there something you're eagerly waiting for? What is it? *SLAMS FISTS ON TABLE* MAY NEEDS TO FUCKIN' HURRY. My tattoo appointment is set then. :''') Do you/have you ever belonged to an organization? If so, which one? I was a Girl Scout when I was young. What is something you're very passionate about? Nature conservation, gay rights (equal rights in general, really), the pro-choice movement, and then there are less "important" things like certain hobbies interests and such. I'm sure there are more big ones that are just slipping my mind right now, considering I feel passionately for a shitload of stuff. What are you studying or what was the last thing you studied? I majored in Art & Design with a focus on Photography in college. But guess who dropped out. What was the last present you gave someone? I don't know... I mention enough that I don't have a source of income where I can really buy anything. I think the last thing I did was a Christmas gift for Mom a year or two back of a drawing I did of our late dog Cali, whom she absolutely adored. Do you enjoy plays? If so, what was the latest one you saw? Not really, no. What was the last thing you achieved? PHP has helped me focus on little victories, so prepare for an underwhelming answer haha, but it's something. I Facebook messaged an old friend I really wanted to catch up with, and everyone in group cheered for me. :') It was really heartwarming. What a shocker that this program is really helping me once again. What is something you would like to achieve at some point in your life? I would love love love to take at least one "famous" or award-winning photograph. It'd be such amazing validation that I'm talented at something I love so much. What is one philosophy you have regarding life/living/purpose? That's... difficult to answer seeing as I'm trying desperately to find my purpose. I do try to live by this old quote a therapist said once: "Deal with life, or life deals with you." I think it holds an incredible amount of depth and meaning in such a short phrase. How would you design the inside of your own home? I don't know the details of it, really, besides that shit is gonna look like a Halloween house year-round. I can imagine wanting black furniture, too, and having loooots of decor expressive of what I love and find comfort in. Gotta make a house feel like a home just for me. What is a band you remember liking from your childhood? Backstreet Boys, duh. Do you ever get mad at people for not having the same opinion as you (i.e. abortion being wrong/right, meat-eating being wrong/right)? Two things: it depends on the topic, and "get mad" is the wrong term for what I feel. It's more disgust; ex., I'm repulsed by anti-gay rights people and want absolutely nothing to do with 'em, but I'm not like, mad at them. Do you edit any of your pictures? In what ways? Oh yeah, and it definitely depends on the raw photograph. I edit depending on the mood it emanates; like if you've seen my roadkill photography versus nature shots, there is an extremely distinct difference in editing style and vibe. I'd say in general though, I tend to like to brighten my photographs and add more vibrance. If you like to take pictures, what is your motivation? God, I could write an essay on this. I just love and am so thankful for the fact we can literally freeze time forever with the click of a button and look back on fantastic sights, beautiful moments, memories... It's just magical to me, and I adore contributing to that art. Would you ever consider living anywhere cold? Well yeah, that's my preference, actually. What is your absolute favorite food? The spicy shrimp fritas from Olive Garden, jfc. Would you ever wear snake-skin pants, or other animal clothing? Fuck to the absolute hell no. What foreign country would you like to go to for a shopping spree? Idk, considering I'm not well-versed in the artistic creations of other countries. Perhaps India? Japan? I dunno. If you met your favorite musician, what would you ask him/her? I'm asking for his fucking autograph and a hug while I smile my face in two AND cry lmao. What do you spend most of your day thinking about? I ain't gonna bullshit nobody, my PTSD. In some way or another, he's lurking in that head of mine through memories, flashbacks, wonders of what could have gone differently... but thank God it's no longer in the forefront of my mind after my first PHP. I've come very, very far, but especially when trying to blank out my mind to fall asleep, parts of PTSD strangle my brain until I'm just finally out. I really hope that changes someday. Where is a busy place you would like to go to? Yikes, nowhere, really. I like to avoid busy locations. Do you think video games cause people to become violent? Absolutely not. You are responsible for the decisions you make; music, games, movies, etc. have no deciding voice in stupid shit you do, and it's bullshit that people blame art and entertainment for such things. Vocabulary: What was the last word you learned? I'm unsure. Have you or could you build your own site? Absolutely not from scratch. The closest I've gotten to that is my photography website, but it was through the assistance of Wix. What's the best thing you can cook yourself? Scrambled eggs, haha. I do make some bomb eggs at least. Are there a lot of graffiti around your neighborhood? No. Do you have a hobby that forces you out of the house? If so, what is it? Nature photography. Would you stop eating meat, if you had to raise and slaughter it yourself? Absolutely. God, I want to go vegetarian again... Besides English, what other languages can you speak? I can speak a very little bit of German. Took four semesters of it in high school and became very good at it, but lack of practice has pretty much ruined that. Besides English, what other languages can you read? I can read German well; as in, I can pronounce most words I see, but that doesn't mean I understand what is written. Do you think you could make it as a chef? Gordon Ramsey would deadass kick me off his show on day one, lmao. What's your favorite kind of tea? It marvels me JUST how many tea and coffee questions are in surveys. Anyway, I don't like tea. I am an embarrassment to NC culture. What thing/person/happening has made you the happiest you've been? lask;dfjal;wekrjwe What's the most freeing thing you've ever done? Stealing my happiness back from someone who had no right to hold it all in its entirety. That shit's mine. Do you think today's kids are really impatient? Most, probably, but in some ways I can understand it - at least, in the sense that with the assistance of modern technology and advancements in satiating our wants so quickly, kids just expect it. I definitely believe that patience is something to try to be deeply instilled in everyone, though. I don't have an ounce of it (in most situations) and wish I did. Have you ever tasted birch sap? No. How about the young buds/shoots of spruce trees? No. Which edible flowers have you tasted? One of my favorite Southern experiences is finding a bunch of honeysuckles and tasting the honey (is it technically even honey??). Tastes amazing. My family's hairdresser lives down a beautiful path that sprouts a massive amount of them, and as kids, my sisters and her two boys would go tasting them while our parents talked for so long, or if we were waiting our turn. Good memories. What has been your worst restaurant experience? I'm not sure, really. What's the most immature, adolescent thing that still makes you laugh? "Inappropriate humor type jokes." <<<< They can get me sometimes, too. Have you ever had a life-threatening condition? If so, what was it? No, thankfully. Have you ever had a custom print done on a shirt? If so, what was it? I don't believe so, no. Besides making a tye-dye one in HS with our school colors. Wasn't my idea and never wore it, haha. Do you ever read other people's survey answers? It depends on the person. If it's a friend, absolutely, because I love learning usually obscure things about them I wouldn't have known otherwise. If it's a user I don't know from wherever I got the survey, sometimes, depending on how short the answer is and my eyes kinda just scroll over it. Do you like daytime or night time better? Why? Daytime, especially mornings. I'm generally happier when there's light around. What's your highest level of education so far? Some college. Describe your ordinary day: My average day is embarrassingly uneventful. It's sitting on the laptop doing shit on various sites, none of which are actually important, and playing WoW, which is also without true substance, save for social interactions with my friends on there. I spray Venus' terrarium everyday multiple times as well to keep the humidity up, and obviously eat and handle that kinda bodily needs stuff. Would you ever have a UV tattoo? Ugh, that'd be so dope. I've seen some awesome ones, but idk if I'd get one, considering when am I actually going to be under UV light?? Like I wanna be able to see my tat. What is the brand and color name of your favorite lipstick? I have one black lipstick, but it comes right off so I don't even like it. I only ever put it on to take pictures. What do you like on your tortilla? Just ham and cheese. How about inside your pita bread? I've never had pita bread, actually. What do you like in your burger? It depends on where I'm getting the burger. My basic is cheese, ketchup, mustard, a bit of mayo, pickles, and a light sprinkle of diced onion, but sometimes I add bacon and take away the onions. How about on your pizza? I have three I tend to pick from: pepperoni, jalapeno, or meat lovers. Do you work better alone or in a group? Alone, definitely. Which body part would you not mind losing? I'ma be extremely honest, with just how horribly weak my legs are, I could live without them, I guess. Not saying I want to by any means, it's just exhausting using them. Ideally, I'd take away something minor, like a finger or something. What common saying people use is absolute BS to you? “'Everything happens for a reason.'” <<<< Fuckin' colossal "same." I won't rag on people who believe it, especially if it gives you courage to keep moving forward, but I don't believe it in the slightest. If it were so, I'd like to talk to whoever is in control of those "reasons," please. What is the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week? I had no idea elephants were pregnant for two years, like holy shit, can you imagine. It was in an article I saw on Facebook about a mother and daughter elephant who are both expecting and doing well. Wonderful to hear. What’s the most useless talent you have? Ha, I'm a master in the arts of catastrophizing and jumping to conclusions involving people hating me in one way or another. What’s something everyone looks stupid doing? I'm one of those people who hate dabbing done by anybody, like you look like you're just smelling your armpit. Which kids’ movie scarred you for life? I wouldn't say "scarred me for life" by any means, but when I was little, I was terrified of the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz and even had nightmares about her. It sucked because my little sister was obsessed with that movie, haha. In one sentence, how would you sum up the Internet? A source of incredible knowledge but also hate and misinformation. What would be the most ridiculous thing for the government to make illegal? I literally dread the idea of Roe vs. Wade being reversed. Banning abortion would kill so many people with operational uteruses and cause absolute pandemonium. How many friends do you have on social media and how many of them do you know for real? On Facebook, I have 124 friends, and I'd say I know most of them "in real life." However, having been on the Internet since I was so young and befriending loads of incredible people, a good chunk are "online friends." Hell, I'm more interested in their lives than most "real" ones. Long-distance friendships are so valid. What fact amazes you every time you think of it? Lots of things, generally regarding the stupidity of humanity. What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done? Probably going to the beach w/ my old friend Colleen. We had zero plans of doing it, but she just called me one morning and asked if I wanted to go, and off we went. It was a fun day. What has taken up too much of your life? I'ma be real, WoW. I don't think I'm addicted to it like I once was seeing as I go through spans where I barely want to play it at all and don't, so I truly am capable of not playing it, but rather it's just the most entertaining way to kill time in my life. I just don't like how much time I've invested into a game over six or seven years regardless. Where do you not mind waiting? Uh, nowhere lmao. Is there an app you hate to use, but still use every day? No; why would I use it if that was the case? Who is the funniest person you know? My friend Girt is fucking hysterical. What three words describe you best? Complex, passionate, and creative. What makes you think you’re smart? Lol who says I think I'm smart? Who inspires you? Korean Jesus. Okay on a serious note, not just him, of course, but he's #1 in an entire universe of ways. Do you aspire to be like somebody else? If so, who? No; I want to be my own authentic self. How did you meet your best friend? YouTube, back when it had more social aspects. Which one of your accomplishments are you the most proud of? I want to say my recovery, but like... I wonder a lot if it's "enough" to be proud of with how scarred I still am? I still struggle with a lot and feel like I could be so much better by now if I tried harder. If I'm completely honest with myself, I think it's finishing high school in the top percentile of my graduating class. There was a ceremony for the handful of us and all, and I cherish my plaque probably too much. Reminds me of a time when I knew what the fuck I was doing. What's the strangest thing you ever did as a child? Thinking I had "animal powers" where I could invoke the traits of certain animals at will, like what the actual fuck, Brittany. What did your mother teach you? Christ, a lot. Dad didn't do a lot of the raising, honestly, so much of my core values and whatnot were instilled by my mother. She taught me to care for and be nice to others, respect myself, try my best in everything, and most importantly that she is always there for me and my sisters no matter what and can tell her absolutely anything. She was very serious about us going to college and saving sex for marriage when we were younger, but she diverged from those ideas as absolutely necessary with experience. I'm extremely lucky with who I call my mom, overall. What did your father teach you? Eek... Read above. Not a lot as a kid (save for riding a bike and playing softball); most he's taught me has come following reuniting with him after my parents' divorce. I remember we went to lunch once and talked about my breakup, and he talked to me about sometimes, you just have to let people go in order to be happy, like with him and Mom. He's very serious now about ensuring us girls know that he is always there for us and will help us in any way he's capable. What makes you feel powerful? "Powerful" isn't something I really feel, if I'm being real. What are you ready to let go? It would be inexplicably fantastic if I could let every speck of Jason go in both my head and heart. What is your most bizarre deal-breaker? I don't really find any of my expectations and limits as "bizarre?" They're all valid to me. Well wait, idk if you'd find it strange that I absofuckinglutely would not date someone who hunts, but it's not to me. That's a difference in a very serious value to me. Would you rather be hated or forgotten? Hated. God, I don't want to leave this earth having given just nothing. I can live with some people hating me for whatever reason. What’s the biggest personal change you’ve made? Accepting my bisexuality, probably. That's something that I consider pretty big for two reasons: 1.) I could end up with a woman forever, and especially 2.) I was originally homophobic. I still have difficulty in fathoming how I ever was. What are some of your short-term goals? PHP is finally starting to make me build these again. I want to get better at selfcare, draw, write, and read more, I want to drink a lot more water, exercise way more... Lots of things, really. What is the weirdest thing about you? Uh. I dunno. Probably that I RP meerkats, which is a very obscure RP niche for sure.

#survey #surveys #questions

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adampage · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on fyter fest? Bc I know your wrestling opinions are always valid

I don’t have the full picture! I went to go eat when it started, so I missed the first few matches.

My stream started while MJF was cutting the promo on the crowd and antagonizing them, though, and that was fucking beautiful. He’s so talented on the mic, and he plays his douchey rich college frat boy really well and I love it. He really does rival the Miz on that front.

The match that followed his promo, was so good! I mean, not just because my fave wrassle cowboy was in it, either. And tbh, he wasn’t even the best one in the match. Jungle Boy? Is a fucking legend, he’s so great! I gained a Lot of respect for him in this match. Jimmy Havoc, great as always and MJF was, still, a very good heel. It really makes me wonder whether they’re already setting this up for MJF to be Adam’s next opponent, whether he wins the AEW title or not.

Cody versus Darby Allen? Okay someone shoot me because I kinda ghosted this match, and I think it was because Cody came out wearing that Thronebreaker shirt of his and it really annoyed me. Like, a lot. Because at this point? They need to Stop using their anti-WWE stance as a way to get people to watch their stuff. It was a Fabulous way to get people to watch Double or Nothing, granted, and to gain traction with wrestling fans, but now? It’s just downright immature. That should’ve been a one-and-done deal, and then their marketing strategy after that should be “we have great quality matches, stellar quality story and character work, and the accessibility for our fans is a top priority,” not “hahaha fuck triple H and fuck vince.” So yeah, I kinda. Blanked out of the match because of that, up until the last five minutes. Darby Allen seems like a great wrestler, really swift and agile. But I had no emotional investment in the match and Cody threw me off. It was nice to see that Darby could hold his own with the de facto leader of the company though.

Now, I liked that Shawn Spears came out at the end of this match. It made me interested again, and it pulled me right in. I was all, “ooh, it’s Tye!”, until he hit Cody in the motherfucking head with a steel chair. That shit doesn’t fly around here, babes. That was fucking idiotic and stupid and I don’t know what that was meant to prove? Like was that a heel turn? I’m sure you could’ve done that a whole lot better because all it did was make Cody look like a fucking idiot for allowing himself to take that unsafe, complete unnecessary hit, and it made Shawn look like fucking unsafe bastard of a wrestler and that’s not cool.

You’re gonna laugh, but I blanked out a lot on the next match too. And it’s for the Absolute Dumbest reason: Kenny’s hair. What is he thinking? It looks awful. It’s so bad. Why does he do this? Anyway, it knocked me out cold up until I heard the bell ring and saw that the Elite won and I was like, “really, boys? really? all of y’all just gonna keep winning your matches?” but like. It’s their company I suppose and I guess I’ll give them a few more PPVs before I start getting Actually annoyed at them winning all the time.

Finally, the unsanctioned match. Joey Janela versus Jon Moxley. The fact that the ring announcer came back in, and explained the whole situation was good. Gave it that big match appeal. The lights going out? Fantastic. I still hate the idea of unsanctioned matches tho. Because I’m like. Why are the commentators still here. Why is the ring announcer announcing them. Why do they still get entrance music. Why are the cameramen still working. They should be clocked out. This shit is unsanctioned why is the president/CEO/whomever still allowing the rest of their employees to continue airing this while getting paid? Maybe I’m just a big idiot but I hate that lol.

But anyway, I love that you can Easily Feel how absolutely Excited Jon is to be back to his former character’s glory. It oozes out of him in everything he does. The walk to the ring, his saunter, his mouth, his facial expressions, his everything. I am so Damn Happy that he is doing well for himself right now. This is what he was made for. And I know I’m not talking much about his opponent, but I’ll be honest, I know next to nothing about him. He was great, though. I loved his cockiness, his confidence, how wonderfully goofy he was. It wasn’t the kind of character I expected to go toe-to-toe with Jon Moxley, but it worked. It did work. And I respect the Hell out of both of them for those barbed wire spots, table/ladder spots, and oh my god those thumbtack spots. My god. (Emi: chair shots to the head are SO UNSAFE. Also Emi: KILL EACH OTHER WITH BARBED WIRE !) lol uhh. we’re all hypocrites here I suppose.

Anyway, after the match, I did actually enjoy Kenny beating the shit out of Mox. (Tho his hair was still....awful). I mean, an eye for an eye right? Mox came out and roughed Kenny up a lil bit last time, so Kenny came out to return the favor. Once they get on TV, though, I hope it happens less. I’ve always felt like opponents should do their best to Stay Away from each other, as opposed to always seeing each other before their matches, and on a frequent basis. It makes me lose the anticipation. But because I’ve only seen them twice, about a month apart between PPVs, it worked.

I absolutely Have to go back and watch the first few matches. I heard Nyla Rose killed it in hers? I def have to go back and see.

#emi replies #astrobeam #lol i wish i couldve.#had more opinions. but legitimately the Dumbest things make me tune out Nowadays #it’s the habit you form when all you watch for the most part is shitty wwe programming #aew #fyter fest

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marredbyoverlength · 6 years ago

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Year-End Awards 2018

2018 sucked personally, professionally, and politically. But hey, at least the movies sucked too!

Ok, there were plenty of good movies. But the bad vastly outnumbered the good, and the highlights weren’t especially high. Even my favorite filmmakers had weak years: Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers both put out some of their most mediocre films in 2018.

But no year is devoid of value, and damned if I won’t do my best to find it. Let’s dive into the only blog post I still do, the year-end awards.

(Honorable mentions, as always, are listed in no particular order.)

Best Lead Performance: Paul Giamatti & Kathryn Hahn, Private Life.

Giving this to two people is a cheap trick (and one I’ve used before), but this is my blog and I make the rules. Private Life is a powerful, painfully realistic film about a middle-aged couple, played by Hahn and Giamatti, going through IVF to get pregnant. Their relationship is at the core of the film; singling out one for praise would be a disservice to the other.

A film like this could easily be a one-dimensional tragedy about baby angst, but both lead actors go through a broad range of emotions that are at once inarticulable in words but instantly recognizable. The highs and lows of their journey and the stress it puts on them and their relationship come out in every expression, every movement of their bodies. This is the highest praise you can give actors: that they portray something that can’t be portrayed any other way.

Honorable Mentions: Olivia Cooke, Thoroughbreds; Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here; Toni Collette, Hereditary; Ryan Gosling, First Man; Viola Davis, Widows; Olivia Colman, The Favourite; Emma Stone, The Favourite; Annette Bening, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.

Best Supporting Performance: Anton Yelchin, Thoroughbreds.

Enough has been written about this already, but Anton Yelchin could easily have become one of the greatest actors of our time had he not died such a weird and sad death. His performance in Thoroughbreds is the perfect example of why I say that.

Yelchin plays a kind of guy that everyone knows, the wannabe operator who hangs out with, and deals drugs to, kids much younger than him and feels cool for doing so. He slips perfectly into that role, but what makes it better than just a caricature is how he captures the character in the scenes where he’s out of the element he’s chosen for himself: once after two high school girls violently rob him and once at the end after he sees what one of the girls has become. He is shaken and unsure, and letting that façade drop in real time is an impressive feat of acting.

Honorable Mentions: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?; Alison Pill, Vice; Oscar Isaac, Annihilation; Jason Isaacs, The Death of Stalin.

The Costner Award for Worst Actor: No Winner

Before going into more detail, I’d like to point out that I didn’t see any Gerard Butler movies this year, so take this with a grain of salt.

There were a lot of god-awful movies this year. But all those movies are awful for reasons distinct from acting. Bruce Willis was boring in Death Wish, sure, but his character was boring. Tye Sheridan was annoying in Ready Player One, but his character was annoying. Travolta was actually pretty good in Gotti, even though the movie was a total disaster.

In fact, I can’t think of any performances this year that made me angry in the same way the Kevin Costner makes me angry. Congratulations to actors, I guess? If you know of a truly heinous performance, let me know.

Nicest Surprise: Aquaman

Aquaman is a superhero movie about a very strong, very stupid dog in the shape of Jason Momoa (just look at his dumb face!). There is also a giant octopus who plays the drums. That’s about all you need to know about Aquaman.

Honorable mentions: Mission: Impossible – Fallout; Game Night.

Most Insulting Moment: “Street Weapon,” Robin Hood.

In Robin Hood (2018), Little John (Jamie Foxx) trains a fledgling Robin (Taron Egerton) in the art of hoodery. At the completion of this training, he says to Robin, “you’re going to need a street weapon.” Then he hands Robin this:

“Patrick, is that a full-sized bow with brass knuckles tied to it?” Yes, yes it is. You know, for the streets.

Honorable Mentions: Queen Saves Live Aid, Bohemian Rhapsody; Tactical Furniture, Death Wish; Pretty much all of Ready Player One.

Winter’s Tale Memorial “What the Hell Am I Watching” Award: No Winner

I almost gave this award to Gotti, a movie so widely panned that the marketing campaign explicitly told potential viewers that critics are scum. But then a friend of mine live-blogged his first viewing of The Book of Henry, the current title-holder, and I was reminded of just how gonzo bananas a movie has to be to get this award.

Sure, Gotti is an incomprehensible failure tornado that somehow had enough money for John Travolta but apparently not enough for, you know, lighting and sound guys, but it’s not bewildering like Winter’s Tale was, or like Book of Henry was. A winner should make me ask not just “what the hell is going on” and “how the hell did this get made,” but also “why the hell would anyone want to make this?” I didn’t see anything that prompted that last question this year.

Prettiest Movie: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I used to give out an award for technical filmmaking, but in hindsight, I don’t know enough about filmmaking to confidently give that award. But I am an expert on the topic of “things I find visually appealing,” and since film is a visual medium (despite what the Academy would have you believe), I’m bringing the category back in this form.

Anyway, the winner is Spider-Verse, no contest. It’s the most brilliantly animated film I’ve seen in years, and easily the best-animated CGI film ever produced. In a world drowning in endless round-and-shiny Pixar clones, Spider-Verse made something entirely unique, influenced by the styles of comic books through the ages but ultimately producing something all its own. The end sequence, with manifold universes spiraling out of a black hole and bleeding into each other, will no doubt be the most impressive feat of animation for years to come.

Honorable Mentions: Mandy; Annihilation; You Were Never Really Here.

Best Picture: Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.

After seeing this beautiful film, I resigned myself to the fact that it wouldn’t receive any Oscar buzz. I was more right than I realized: not only did it not get any nominations, it didn’t even qualify for consideration. The Academy considered this a Film Stars a 2017 movie, as it was released on a very limited run on December 29, 2017. I didn’t hear the name until I saw a trailer for it in January of this year, and I didn’t get to see it in my city until February. This is the great crime of Oscar season: everybody tries to put their stuff out as late as possible, and real gems like this one get crowded out by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a movie that gets worse every time I think about it.

I’m correcting this injustice. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is the only great movie of 2018. The script is heartbreaking, the acting is profoundly human, and the fluid cinematography masterfully blends past with present, creating a portrait of the last days in the life of Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) in all her messy detail, seen from her own perspective as well as that of her former lover, the much younger Peter Turner (Jamie Bell). Where those perspective diverge is where the film is at its best, and those moments are easily the most moving of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Annihilation; The Death of Stalin; Private Life.

That’s it, that’s the whole post. Peace out.

#Film #Oscars #Best list #Awards #italiano

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earlyandoftenpodcast · 7 years ago

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(Pictured: the territorial changes of Carolina, later split into two colonies. The Albemarle region, where North Carolina was founded, is circled in red.)

We move down south for the creation of North Carolina, the first of the post-Restoration colonies, peopled by hardy outcasts from Virginia. When a dispute over taxation meshes with a constitutional crisis in the young colony, the result is rebellion. Or is it?

>>>Direct audio link<<<

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Transcript and Sources:

Hello, and welcome to Early and Often: The History of Elections in America. Episode 14: Culpeper’s Rebellion.

Last time, we wrapped up the first few decades of New England’s history, and I’m afraid I have to issue a small correction. Last episode, I said that in some towns in Massachusetts married women had on average more than 9 children each. That was correct, but what wasn’t correct was when I said that that meant over half of women therefore had more than 9 children. That would’ve been true if 9 had been the median, but it wasn’t the median it was the mean. So that was incorrect. Thanks to tumblr user Deusvulture for catching that.

Today, I’m going to begin a new set of episodes, this time about the Restoration colonies, which were created in the years after the English Civil War. That includes the Middle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, which were formed out of the Dutch colony of New Netherland after its capture by the English. And it also includes North and South Carolina, which were founded together as a single colony. That’ll be the topic for the next two episodes.

Well, this episode will focus on North Carolina and the next one will focus on South Carolina. From the start, the two were governed separately, even though they were technically part of the same colony. They wouldn’t be formally divided until the 1700s, but I’m just going to call them North and South Carolina, for convenience’s sake.

So. We begin in 1660. With Charles securely on his throne, England was finally escaping the uncertainty of the last two decades. Policy makers had space to look to the future and to look abroad. We’ve already seen how they accepted the Chesapeake colonies and New England back into the fold.

They also took care to strengthen the mercantile system, in order to more tightly bind the colonies to England. Beginning in 1651 under Cromwell, but especially in the 1660s under Charles II, Parliament passed a series of so-called Navigation Acts. The Navigation Acts said that England’s various colonies were only permitted to trade with England itself, and not with anyone else, for instance with the Dutch in New Netherland. And shipping had to be done on English vessels. Another act in the 1670s put a tariff on the export of tobacco. Needless to say, these policies were very unpopular in the colonies, since they were paying more in order to benefit others.

But England didn’t just want to tighten control over its current possessions. Expansion was a goal as well. The King owed a lot of money and a lot of favors, and new land in the New World would be a good way to pay down his debts without actually spending much money. Certainly they coveted New Netherland, which separated their current colonies. But they also wanted to press south from the Chesapeake, into what is now North and South Carolina. The failed colony of Roanoke had been located in North Carolina, but the region was still mostly uncolonized by Europeans.

A group of eight wealthy and well-connected men had approached Charles with a plan to colonize Carolina. One of these men was Anthony Ashley Cooper, the First Earl of Shaftesbury. The Earl of Shaftesbury had in his employ a young John Locke -- the same Locke who would go on to become one of the most important philosophers of the modern world. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Locke doesn’t really enter our story until next episode.

More importantly for today’s story, another one of these investors was our old friend William Berkeley, recently restored to his post as Governor of Virginia and currently in England on business. His older brother John, a close friend of the King, was another of the investors.

These eight men together managed to convince a somewhat reluctant King to give them an extremely generous charter for lands which stretched from Virginia almost down to Spanish Florida. Thus in 1663 they became the Lords Proprietor of Carolina, and they ruled their new province under the same legal terms as Lord Baltimore ruled Maryland. That is, nearly absolutely in principle.

However, the new proprietors of Carolina had no desire to emulate the Baltimores’ active management of their colony. Instead, they wished to operate more as real estate owners. They had the right to all this land, so why not just sit back and let others pay them for it? Let others take on the risks of colonization. Well, there were a few independent expeditions sent to Carolina, but they were slow in coming and the settlements they built didn’t last long anyway. So for a while, there wasn’t too much activity going on.

There was only one real center of population, and that was in North Carolina. These settlers lived along the Albemarle Sound, which was an estuary about 80 miles south of Jamestown. Basically it was the next big body of water if you moved down the coast. They had been there since the 1650s, so before the colony of Carolina was actually created. The settlers of the Albemarle were mostly former servants who had come down from Virginia in search of land, plus some Quakers.

I’ve mentioned before the importance of good harbors in the development of colonial America. Well, the harbors in North Carolina were terrible. The Albemarle Sound was too shallow, and its constantly shifting sandbars were a serious danger to shipping. So the region languished economically. Goods had to be shipped to Virginia before they could be exported to England, raising costs. And you could hardly even get to Virginia by land, since the two areas were separated by the so-called Great Dismal Swamp, which lived up to its name.

So there was plenty of land in North Carolina, yes, but there wasn’t much you could do with it, at least not profitably. Thus there were few migrants. The population was perhaps a thousand in 1660. And those who did come were often outcasts from Virginia. Runaway servants, debtors, etc. The region therefore developed a reputation for unruliness. A later governor of Virginia said that North Carolina “alwayes was and is the sinke of America, the Refuge of our Renagadoes”.

The region was all backcountry, basically. Isolated farms in a big swamp. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, went there on a missionary expedition, and his journals describe a rough people living in very rough terrain. He mentioned one woman who would “carry a gunn in the woods and kill deer, [and] turkeys . . . shoot [down] wild cattle, catch and tye hoggs, [and] knock down beeves [slaughter cattle] with an ax.’’ Apparently, she could ‘‘perform the most manfull Exercises as well as most men in those parts.’’ So not quite the aristocratic gentility of Virginia’s First Families.

But although the region was poor, it was more egalitarian than the other southern colonies. Three quarters of North Carolinians owned land, a huge contrast to Virginia at this point. Naturally, there were few servants and slaves. And relations with the Indians were actually pretty good, perhaps thanks to the fact that unlike elsewhere, there wasn’t a huge ongoing influx of new settlers.

Probably North Carolina wasn’t too different from the outskirts of Virginia, the parts furthest away from the big plantations. But in Virginia those outskirts didn’t have power, while North Carolina was nothing but those outskirts. So the happenstance of how the border was drawn wound up making a big difference in the development of an independent political culture.

When William Berkeley returned to Virginia, he was tasked by the other proprietors with the administration of North Carolina, because he was so much closer. He was in charge of laying out the basic structure of government, as well as appointing a governor. Unsurprisingly, he kept very close to the familiar Virginian model of doing things. Governor, Councilors, an Assembly with powers of taxation. All that good stuff. The man he chose to be governor, John Drummond, had, interestingly enough, started out as an indentured servant. He had even tried to escape once, only to be caught and publicly whipped in punishment. But he had risen through the ranks after attaining his freedom, serving in various government posts.

The new Governor Drummond went south, to the Albemarle. There may have been some rudimentary government before he arrived, but it wouldn’t have been much.

We don’t have many records of his time in office, but he may have been a bit of a populist, as befits a former indentured servant. According to Noeleen McIlvenna, “folklore holds that he invited every man in the region to the first meeting of the Albemarle Assembly in February 1665, a gathering held under an oak tree on a knoll overlooking Hall’s Creek in Pasquotank.” And later on, the Assembly, which was unicameral, would just meet in member’s homes, since there was no capitol building. And courts were sometimes simply held in taverns as well.

You won’t be surprised to hear that North Carolina had a quite different political culture than in the Chesapeake, despite their common origins. There were no big planters to appease, so the laws reflected the interests of smaller freeholders. For instance, a law was passed limiting the size of plantations to no more than 660 acres, to prevent the formation of large estates like in Virginia. Another law was passed protecting debtors, who were after all common in the province. Laws ultimately had to be approved by the proprietors, but in general the Assembly did its own thing with little outside interference.

However, the greater availability of land and the greater political openness weren’t enough to overcome the Albemarle’s considerable economic disadvantages and the colony showed no signs of growth, dashing the hopes of the Lords Proprietor. And after a few years Drummond and Berkeley had a falling out. Berkeley removed him from office and Drummond returned to Virginia.

Berkeley’s next choice for governor, Samuel Stephens, had actually been born in Virginia in the early 1620s, but he had even worse luck. He died suddenly in 1670 and his wife quickly remarried to Governor Berkeley. Berkeley was losing his interest in Carolina, so instead of appointing a third governor he just let the Assembly there nominate an acting governor instead.

The proprietors other than Berkeley were also losing their interest in the Albemarle.

I’ll discuss this more next episode, but it was around this time that the proprietors decided to take a more active role in the colonization of South Carolina. Their hopes that others would do the hard work for them hadn’t panned out, and so they decided to fund a new settlement on their own. The south was starting to seem more promising than the north.

They also wrote, with the help of John Locke, a new, very elaborate constitution for Carolina. This constitution technically applied to the Albemarle, but in practice it never went into effect there. (It also never really went into effect in the south, but I’ll talk about that next time.) The whole thing was basically suspended indefinitely, since it was far too complex to be workable in such a small society. So without a formal constitution in place, North Carolina’s government was authorized instead by various sets of instructions sent over by the Lords Proprietor. But those instructions left a lot of gaps, since they were dealing with specific issues here and there rather than laying out broad principles of government. So basically they were constitutionally winging it.

But here’s how things worked in general, at least at the start.

There was a governor at the top, of course. In principle he would be chosen by the proprietors, but in the event of a vacancy the Council could appoint an acting governor, which happened often enough.

Below the governor was the Council. Some of the Councilors were appointed by the governor, while others were appointed by the elected Assemblymen, which gave the people a somewhat larger share in the higher levels of government than elsewhere in the South at the time. Like in the early days of Virginia, the Councilmen were necessarily fairly close to the people of the colony, and not in a social class of their own.

Below the council were the elected delegates to the Assembly. North Carolina was divided into four regions, each of which could elect four representatives to the Assembly. A few other minor posts like constable were elected as well, although there were no local governments yet, since there was no need.

All freemen could vote, not just those who owned land. And it’s unclear whether voting was by ballot or not.

So, overall, not too complicated, though perhaps more complicated than you’d expect for such a small colony. There were serious weaknesses, though. Most especially, the procedures for selecting new governors were seriously confused. These sorts of ambiguities helped turn a rivalry between two factions into a small, bloodless rebellion, which broke out at almost exactly the same time as both Bacon’s Rebellion and King Philip’s War.

The narrative of Culpeper’s Rebellion is rather confused. The two main accounts I’ve seen differ substantially, but I’ll try to synthesize everything as best I can. Just know that the sources are a bit thin and that they require some guesswork to turn into a narrative.

I mentioned that the English government was starting to to more strongly enforce the mercantile system. The colonies could now trade only with England, and only on English ships, plus they had to pay more in taxes. There were even new taxes on trade between the colonies themselves.

North Carolina was particularly hard hit, since its tobacco had to be sent up to Virginia before it was exported to Europe. Naturally, smuggling soon took off, often thanks to the help of New England merchants. Even members of the Council in North Carolina were happy to participate in smuggling. But in general, the colonists were concerned, and not just about the Navigation Acts. They were worried about taxes. They were worried that the Lords Proprietor would take a more active hand in governing the region. They were worried about falling back under the domination of Virginia. Basically, they were worried.

But for a few years nothing much came of those worries. Smuggling had allowed them to avoid the costs of the Navigation Acts, and in any case no one had cared enough about North Carolina to bother enforcing the new rules. No one had really asked them to collect customs and so the government just hadn’t.

But finally, word came down to the acting governor, John Jenkins, that the Albemarle had to shape up and start enforcing the law. So Jenkins appointed some men to collect the revenue, including one guy with the excellent name Valentine Bird. But neither Bird nor anyone else actually bothered to do their job and no money was raised. That maintained their popularity with the common folk, at least.

It seems like North Carolina was dividing into two factions. On the one side, you had most of the colonists in what might be called the anti-proprietary faction, which was opposed to the interests of the proprietors and opposed to the enforcement of the Navigation Acts. That included men like Governor Jenkins, as well as John Culpeper himself, after whom the rebellion would be named, although he wasn’t the main leader or anything.

Culpeper was a surveyor from Barbados who had settled in South Carolina in 1670. He was a member of the Assembly there, but he soon became disenchanted with the leadership in Charleston. After he helped lead a failed protest against the governor, he was stripped of all his land. So he headed north to the Albemarle and settled there instead. He continued his anti-authority streak by becoming one of the leaders of the anti-proprietary faction.

On the other hand, you had a smaller number of men in the proprietary faction. They were led by a man named Thomas Eastchurch. The proprietary faction supported the collection of customs and the rights of the Lords Proprietor. I don’t think that the proprietary faction loved the proprietors or anything. For instance, another leader of the faction, Thomas Miller, an Irish apothecary, called them “turned fooles or sotts.” It’s just that the proprietary faction saw more benefit in sticking with the current arrangement. (Plus both men had personal grievances against a large number of their fellow colonists, which may have led them naturally into opposition. It’s easy to look back at the struggles of the past and assume they were all about ideology, but personal quarrels could matter just as much, especially in such a small colony.)

In any case, in 1674 Jenkins’s term as acting governor expired and he stepped down. The Proprietors, busy with other affairs, neglected to name a replacement. Elections were held and Eastchurch, who became Speaker of the Assembly, took it upon himself to begin acting as governor, although he didn’t actually become the acting governor, which would have required approval from the Council, I believe.

So even though Eastchurch’s authority was dubious already, he went well beyond just attending to routine administration. Not only did he begin enforcing the Navigation Acts and collecting customs, he also had the former governor Jenkins arrested on no particular charges.

Naturally, this outraged the colonists, who began plotting among themselves about what to do. Pretty soon they broke former governor Jenkins out of jail. The colonists then elected him “Generalissime”. He took command of the little rebellion and together they took back control of the government from Eastchurch, who fled to England to complain.

Okay, but let’s take a step back. I called this a rebellion, but were they actually rebelling against the proprietary government? After all, Eastchurch appeared to be seriously overstepping his authority. Now, the legal situation here is complicated but I’ll try to explain it as best I can.

As far as I can tell, the actual legal situation was this: there was no actual legal situation. North Carolina was still technically under the authority of John Locke’s Fundamental Constitutions, but those had been indefinitely suspended in practice. And as we’ve already seen, the proprietors had been lax in doing things like “making sure to appoint a governor” or “formally authorizing the Assembly”. As a result, the existence of any government at all in the Albemarle was of dubious legitimacy. Things went okay for a few years, since both the colonists and the proprietors were content to just keep things going the way they were, but when that amity broke down, the constitutional problems suddenly became acute.

Eastchurch had claimed the powers of the governor, but that was arbitrary. Even the Assembly that had made him Speaker had been elected under technically improper circumstances. Of course Jenkins and his faction didn’t have any real authority either. No one did, as best I can tell. They did claim popular support, which was true, although Carolina was no democracy. I guess if they’d wanted to, they could’ve claimed to be operating under a social contract in the absence of higher authority, like the Mayflower colonists, but that would’ve just moved the dispute to the realm of philosophy.

But even if the anti-proprietary faction lacked real authority, it certainly had real power. After taking back the Albemarle they then accused Eastchurch’s associate Miller of treason and blasphemy, for some anti-monarchical things he had said. Culpeper took him up to Virginia to stand trial, I guess since Berkeley was a proprietor, but this was right as Bacon’s Rebellion was breaking out. Governor Berkeley quickly acquitted Miller, who also left for England to join Eastchurch.

By the way, John Drummond, the first governor of North Carolina was still in Virginia at the time. He became one of Bacon’s biggest supporters, and after the rebellion was suppressed he then became one of the 24 men old Governor Berkeley had executed. It was a very up and down career I suppose.

Anyway, while in England, Eastchurch and Miller met with the Lords Proprietor of Carolina and convinced them that they were in the right and that the anti-proprietary faction was in the wrong, which was probably not too difficult. The proprietors officially made Eastchurch governor and sent him back to Carolina.

But while he and Miller were sailing back, they stopped at the island of Nevis [NEE-vis] in the Caribbean. There, Eastchurch quickly met and married a widow with a “considerable fortune”. Eastchurch suddenly found that he had better things to do than try to run a dirt poor, marginal colony where most people hated his guts and so he deputized Miller to go and govern North Carolina in his stead, although this was an illegal appointment, since the Council had to approve acting governors when the real governor was absent. So again, North Carolina lacked proper authority.

But when Miller arrived in the Albemarle he nevertheless summoned the current Assembly to notify them that he was now acting governor, and then he dismissed the Assembly and refused to recall them. He began running things on his own, appointing his friends to various offices and fining people for violations of the Navigation Acts. He had his opponents convicted on various charges without proper trials. And when he called for new elections to the Assembly, he used those convictions to disqualify his enemies from holding office, as well as making other alterations to electoral procedures which had no basis in law.

So when the elections were held, the colonists ignored Miller’s changes and just elected anti-proprietary men anyway. However, Miller only counted those votes that had been cast according to his new rules, and so he declared his faction to be the victors regardless.

In response to these outrages, the settlers once again began meeting in secret to figure out how to get rid of Miller, this time partly under the leadership of John Culpeper. The rebels soon captured Miller yet again, along with his top officials. They then issued a manifesto, called the “Remonstrance from the inhabitants of the Pasquotank area concerning their grievances against Thomas Miller”, signed by 30 men. Their very first complaint was that Miller had “denied a free election of an Assembly”. The rest of the brief complaint was about taxation and abuses of office of course, but it’s notable that elections made the list.

The counties of the Albemarle then elected a new Assembly under the old rules. The anti-proprietary faction, of course, won handily. A few hotheads wanted to declare the Fundamental Constitutions overthrown, but cooler heads prevailed. They did prepare to try Miller for treason and blasphemy again, but as this was all happening word came that Eastchurch had just arrived in Virginia and was preparing to assert his authority as governor. Unlike Miller, Eastchurch had a much stronger claim to legitimate authority.

The Carolinians nevertheless prepared to raise a militia against any invading force, but then Eastchurch promptly got sick and died. And in any case Berkeley’s replacement as governor was none too keen on sending troops through the Great Dismal Swamp.

But with that threat out of the way, yet another one cropped up. One of Miller’s men escaped custody to Virginia and then to England, where he too appeared before the proprietors. He tried to paint the rebellion as an uprising of the lower classes against lawful government, which might pose a threat to English control of its other colonies. But this time the anti-proprietary faction sent representatives as well. They plead their case and pledged loyalty to the proprietors.

The proprietors just wanted this to go away. They didn’t want to waste time on an unprofitable part of their colony any more than they had to. One of the old proprietors had sold his share in Carolina to another man, Seth Sothel [SO-thul]. This new proprietor agreed to go to the Albemarle and serve as governor, which seemed to the Lords Proprietor like a neat way to resolve the issue, but while en route to North Carolina, Sothel was kidnapped by Turkish pirates and taken to Algeria. (Really. Pirates abducted the governor of North Carolina. But he’ll be back in a later episode, by the way.)

So instead of Sothel, the proprietors instead named as governor John Harvey, a longtime resident of the Albemarle who had remained neutral in the crisis. North Carolina finally, after several years, had a governor with uncontested authority who was actually physically present in the colony. They also sent instructions formally authorizing the government.

That should have resolved things, but then Miller escaped from prison, where he had been stuck for two years after he had been convicted on those treason and blasphemy charges. He too went to England, but instead of going to the Lords Proprietor he went to the Privy Council, the King’s top advisors. This was a serious escalation, and the Privy Council took the matter seriously. Well, they didn’t care about who ran North Carolina so much as about that lost customs revenue. It wasn’t much money really, but the Crown didn’t want to let them get away with it nevertheless. They delegated the matter to the Committee of Trade and Foreign Plantations to investigate.

As it happened, John Culpeper, who had been appointed as North Carolina’s new customs officer, was in England at the time and he was arrested. He was the only North Carolinian at hand and so at his trials he sort of represented the rebellion as a whole. Because he was the only major figure to be charged with anything, the rebellion came to be named after him, but he wasn’t the equivalent of Bacon or anything. There was no single leader. But it was still Culpeper who stood trial, first for the missing money and then for treason.

You’d think that the proprietors would have sided with Miller and the proprietary faction, but actually they didn’t. Men like Miller were an annoyance who made them look bad. They had supported him and Eastchurch before but they had nothing to show for it. Mostly they just wanted peace and quiet and to make money. The proprietary faction, through its unpopular misrule, had disrupted that. The proprietors preferred to work with men who could actually get support within the colony, so long as they paid their taxes.

So the Lords Proprietor actually sided with the colonists’ right to rebellion, surprisingly enough, though not with their failure to collect customs revenue. The proprietors said that Miller had not been properly in charge, and so rebellion against him wasn’t actually treasonous. If Eastchurch had ever made it back, then rebelling against him might have been treasonous, but he didn’t, and so the power vacuum had remained. This might have actually been the case, though it’s difficult to work through all the legalities, but it’s still a surprise. After all, the anti-proprietary faction was clearly the one acting in contradiction to the will of the proprietors, even if they weren’t technically rebelling.

But according to McIlvenna, it was easier for the proprietors to side with the victorious rebels, so that’s what they did. North Carolina mostly mattered to them insofar as it affected their control over South Carolina, where the money was being made. Apparently keeping the Albemarle quiet was deemed wiser than trying to teach them a lesson.

Anyway, at the trials the proprietors openly supported Culpeper and opposed Miller. In fact, during Culpeper’s treason trial, apparently Lord Shaftesbury “unexpectedly appeared at the Tryall as a witness for the Defendant.” Thus, Culpeper was acquitted and no one was actually punished. As for the customs revenue, some compromise was worked out.

That was essentially the end of the matter, although Miller pressed the issue further, accusing even the Lords Proprietor of colluding with the rebels. Needless to say, his charges went nowhere.

So what was the end result of Culpeper’s Rebellion? What, if anything, had been accomplished?

Well, I’d say that the outcome was fairly ambiguous. The colonists had more or less forced a change in leadership, yes, but in terms of policy the victory seems much more minor. They were, after all, still enmeshed within the overall mercantile system of England, and sooner or later the taxman would prove unavoidable. Nothing about North Carolina’s fundamental situation had changed. That being said, a certain degree of restlessness in the colony was perhaps useful, since it showed that the North Carolinians weren’t just pushovers. Their interests had to be taken into consideration, otherwise they could cause considerable annoyance.

Culpeper’s Rebellion reminds me in particular of the Thrusting Out of Governor Harvey in Virginia back in the 1630s. In both cases there was an ambiguous legal situation with two sides both claiming to be the proper government. In both cases a widely hated governor was ousted in a quick armed coup by the men of the region. That little uprising helped the Virginians win back their Assembly, but it wasn’t a revolution or anything.

When you compare the Thrusting Out of Governor Harvey and Culpeper’s Rebellion to Bacon’s Rebellion, though, you can see why the bloodthirstiness of William Berkeley was rather shocking to contemporaries. Obviously minor rebellions weren’t that uncommon. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they were an accepted part of government or anything, but they were clearly a somewhat regular occurance. The colonists, since they had only a limited say in government, would therefore have to go outside the law to get their grievances taken seriously. And officials, aware that the “rebels” weren’t generally looking to overturn the whole social order, would therefore be relatively merciful when handing out punishments, if only to appease the rest of the colony. The law was important, yes, but it was only one ingredient in the successful running of a colony. Which side of Culpeper’s Rebellion had been legally in the right was in fact a somewhat secondary question.

Obviously this sort of thing could get out of hand, as it did in Maryland sometimes, and in Bacon’s Rebellion. Left unchecked, a rebellion can become a revolution, after all. But excessive harshness could kill a colony’s prospects just as surely. So minor rebellions were an occasional part of life in the colonies, a threat to the existing order, but not an existential threat.

Next episode, we’ll continue the story of the Carolinas, jumping down south to the new settlement of Charleston. Plus a look at the life of the English philosopher John Locke, and his impact on the American colonies. So join me next time on Early and Often: The History of Elections in America.

If you like the podcast, please rate it on iTunes. You can also keep track of Early and Often on Twitter, at earlyoftenpod, or read transcripts of every episode at the blog, at earlyandoftenpodcast.wordpress.com. Thanks for listening.

Sources:

The Colonial Period of American History Volume II by Charles M. Andrews

The Colonial Period of American History Volume III by Charles M. Andrews

John Locke, Carolina, and the Two Treatises of Government by David Armitage

"The Sinke of America": Society in the Albemarle Borderlands of North Carolina, 1663—1729 by Jonathan Edward Barth

Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia by Warren M. Billings

History of Elections in the American Colonies by Cortlandt F. Bishop

The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 1607-1689 by Wesley Frank Craven

Declaration of Independence

Voting in Provincial America: A Study of Elections in the Thirteen Colonies, 1689-1776 by Robert J. Dinkin

Thomas Hobbes by Stewart Duncan

The English Sugar Islands and the Founding of South Carolina by Richard S. Dunn

Locke, Natural Law, and New World Slavery by James Farr

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

Hybrid Constitutions: Challenging Legacies of Law, Privilege, and Culture in Colonial America by Vicki Hsueh

A Very Mutinous People: The Struggle for North Carolina, 1660–1713 by Noeleen McIlvenna

Algernon Sidney: A father of the Declaration of Independence by David Kopel

Legal Aspects of Culpeper’s Rebellion by Mattie Erma E. Parker

Upheaval in Albemarle: The Story of Culpeper's Rebellion 1675-1689 by Hugh F. Rankin

Remonstrance from the inhabitants of the Pasquotank area concerning their grievances against Thomas Miller

Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy by Sharon A. Lloyd and Susanne Sreedhar

In Charleston, Coming to Terms With the Past by Ron Stodghill

Locke's Political Philosophy by Alex Tuckness

The Influence of John Locke's Works by William Uzgalis

John Locke by William Uzgalis

Colonial South Carolina: A History by by Robert M. Weir

American Nations by Colin Woodard

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cruisinforarubberman · 7 years ago

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Everybody this is Bart, Bart meet Everybody.

Y’know ending on a bang is kinda overrated. I’ve had ideas like this for a while, and I want to elaborate on them, maybe even write a fic dedicated to Bart learning how to skateboard, never really mastering it, but becoming bomb at rollerblading. And I’ll do that on my new Ao3 account...that I don’t have yet XD But yeah I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who’s liked and reblogged my fics this past Bluepulse week, it means so much. So I’ll still post Bluepulse stuff here from now on, but check on Ao3 in the next few days cause I’m gonna have an account with this same name; cruisinforarubberman. Anyway, onto the last fic!

Day 7: Friends

---

“Man, I wish we could get there a little faster.” Bart said while nudging Jaime's side, hopefulness in his voice. Sure they were in civvies and in public but no one was around since it was almost dark. Would it have killed Jaime to walk a bit quicker? Bart was resisting everything in him not to lap him as they continued down the sidewalk.

A smile was the only response he got. Jaime for his part didn't seem perturbed by Bart's...Bart-ness. If anything he looked far too amused as he continued at his bug-awful pace.

“Blue, you're killing meeeeee.” whined Bart. “I thought you were excited about this? Isn't Tye your friend and everything? You seriously gonna keep him, and me, waiting?!”

“Tye is going to get there at a normal speed, too. If he's waiting for us, it won't be much longer. Besides, I know you're just trying to get me to tell you where we're going.”

“Pllleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee?” Bart plead, grabbing onto Jaime's bicep and practically leaning completely on him. It was killing him not knowing. It had to be somewhere good, Jaime's been showing him so many cool retro things lately.

“Nope.” A single syllable reply. And the fastest thing Jaime's done in the last ten minutes.

“Ugggghhhhh...will you at least tell me what those are for?” He asked, pointing at what the other boy was carrying.

What Jaime was carrying was interesting, to say the least. In one hand, dangling by one of the straps, was a helmet. It was odd looking for a helmet, too. It only went over the top of the head, which Bart knew because he'd tried it earlier, and strapped on under the chin just barely going around the ears. Tucked under Jaime's other arm was...well...it was basically a plank of wood with wheels on it. Except the plank was rounded on each end and also kinda bent on those ends as well. There was also a design on the bottom, the same side where the wheels connected. Bart had no idea what the design was supposed to be, but it looked crash in any case.

“I promise it'll make a lot more sense once we get there, chiquito.”

Bart puffed out a sigh. “Fine.” With motions so quick Jaime couldn't see, he snatched the helmet from his hand and plopped it back onto his own head. He didn't fasten the straps, instead decided to bat at them from where they dangled. Looks like he would have to entertain himself for a while.

Jaime laughed when he finally caught up.

“How does Tye put up with you?”

“He's pretty great like that.”

“Sounds like he is. He seemed crash.”

Jaime quirked an eyebrow as he guided Bart around a corner. “Seemed? Not “seems”?”

Bart furrowed his brow a bit, thinking. “Yeah, that's the right tense for that sentence. Isn't it?”

“I'm sure it is, Bart. I just didn't know you'd met Tye before.”

“Yeah, it was during um...you were on mode...”

“Ah, I see.”

“Yeah well...anyway he and some others helped the team and I recognized him from the picture you showed me on your phone. Didn't really get to talk to him, or any of them, back then.”

“Well, good news then; you're gonna get to know all of them better. Tye is bringing the “others” with him, too. Like I'm bringing you.”

Bart couldn't help smiling up at him for that comment.

“And Bart?”

“Yeah?”

“We're here now.”

Bart blinked and took a quick look around him.

Oh wow...

“What do you think?”

Bart's mouth dropped open a bit, somehow still managing to read the sign out front of the fenced off place. “El Paso Skate Park?”

“Si. This,” Jaime lifted the plank with wheels, “is called a skateboard. And this,” he reached over and took the helmet off Bart's head before settling it onto his own, strapped and all, “is the helmet you wear so you don't bust your brains out.”

“Crash...” Bart breathed.

“Huh? ...yes I know you could make me a better one.”

“What?” Bart finally tore his gaze away from the sight in front of him and turned to Jaime.

“No, ese, I have to wear this one...I'm sure it would be more effective protection, but it would also blow my cover. No, the answer is no.”

“Oh. Is Buggaboo giving you some grief in there?” Bart asked, finally catching on to the fact that Jaime was talking to the scarab on his back.

“Si. And he also told you not to call him that.”

“When he can tell me that himself, I'll be sure to do that.”

Jaime gave a little wince before snickering. “Ooh, he did not like that at all.”

The two shared some laughter as they walked into the park. It wasn't long before they were greeted.

“Yo, Jaime!”

The two looked across the park and saw Tye after he had called out to them. He was standing with three other people, a girl and two other boys. Bart recognized them all and saw that they each had one of these “skateboards” with them.

Tye said something to the three and then started heading over to Jaime and Bart.

“Jaime?” Before Tye got there, Bart just had to ask.

“Hmm?”

But couldn't find it in him to look over at Jaime as he asked, “Do you think they'll like me?”

Even if he couldn't see him directly, he knew Jaime was looking right at him with a smile as he replied, “Trust me chiquito, before today is over, you're gonna have yourself four new friends.”

Oh that did it. Bart just had to give him a big old grin at that. When the two turned to greet Tye, and the others approached to give their own introductions, Bart just hoped Jaime had seen the “Thanks, Blue.” in his eyes.

#bluepulseweek17 #bluepulse #jaime reyes #bart allen #tye longshadow #the runaways #skateboarding #own fic #I did the thing

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thegloriouscollectorlady · 8 years ago

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Paying the bill/Tunnel symbolism

So I have this idea and I am very excited about it. I have no idea if anyone else has thought of it too but it’s this. . . I think the stuff Tye was saying about paying the bill in 5X9 is very relevant to the Beth story line. So relevant that it may even be the heart of Beth’s story and really it may also be a key factor in the story overall. I think paying the bill can mean a variety of different things in the walking dead world and like most it probably has a few layers of meaning but I think there is one particular meaning that applies to Beth’s story. I think that meaning is about cause and effect relationships and the idea that nothing in the walking dead universe happens without a payoff of some variety hence the cause and effect relationship. That being said I am going to delve into this theory.

The first part of this theory has to do with the title card symbolism we see in the opening credits. I am open to correction but I believe unless otherwise corrected that Chad and Emily were the only two main cast TF actors to ever simultaneously share a title card in the opening credits. They shared the tunnel title card starting in S5. Later during the second half of S5 after Emily and Chad were removed from the title card Michael was moved from the baby shoes title card ( a symbolic title card for him) to the tunnel card until he was moved back to the baby shoes tunnel card so that Sonequa could be placed in the tunnel card. I would also note that from what I’ve seen it isn’t uncommon for title cards to remain in the credits but empty. The tunnel title card could simply have remained empty for the remainder of S5 until they added Sonequa to it. Moving Michael to the card was obviously done with reason. Four actors whose names were placed in the tunnel title card who “died” on the show and in exactly the order that they were placed on the title card Emily, Chad, Michael, and then Sonequa. Emily “died” before Chad and she was placed above him on the title card but because the writers wrote Emily into Chad’s final episode they were removed from the title card at exactly the same time. In S5 when Sasha has a flash back of Beth and Tye their title card is placed back into the opening credits for that particular episode because they are both credited. Then Michael is placed on that title card for the remainder of S5 after Beth and Tye’s deaths before being moved back to the baby shoes title card. Abe of course dies after Beth and Tye and then Sonequa is the final person to have that title card before Sasha’s demise. I don’t believe that they’ve ever done this on the show before and I just watched the opening credits for multiple seasons to confirm this. They’ve never had a single title card that housed so many people on it. Title cards are usually specific to certain characters and once that character is gone the title card sometimes stays but is empty but they don’t appear to place multiple people on that title card after a characters death. In this particular case though four different actors were on the title card and they all “died”.

The other interesting thing about title cards is they often represent something about the character. Rick’s for example is his colt, Daryl’s his vest and the wheel of a bike, Maggie’s her burning picture, Morgan’s the forest, C@rol’s her knife. These are all symbols of who these people are. However instead of getting a symbol of their character Beth, Tye, Abe (for part of S5) , and Sasha got a tunnel title card. Which seems to indicate that something about the tunnel title card is important to their characters arcs much like Rick’s colt is important to his or Daryl’s bike and vest are important to his. In fact think about it this way the bike and vest are symbol of Daryl’s arc these past few seasons with those items constantly being taken from and then returned to Daryl as the story unfolds. A similar example of this would be Glenn’s watch being Steven’s title card symbol. We watched even in S7 how his watch was symbolic of his arc after his characters death. The interesting thing about this is that as far as I am aware tunnels have only ever been mentioned in reference to one character and that character was Beth. It was Norman who repeatedly referred to Beth as Daryl’s light at the end of a tunnel. So we can conclude from the shows use of the title card that something should be inferred from the use of that particular card for those four particular characters. Something about tunnels is important to these characters and their arcs.

So following that line of reasoning what links these four characters together and what does this have to do with tunnels and paying a bill? Well here’s the thing we’ve seen two instances now of leaders who demand that people pay their bill through the system they control. Those two leaders were none other than Dawn and Negan. At Grady the cops deliberately injured people, brought them back to their hospital, treated them, and then demanded they work for them to pay off the cost of their medical care. Essentially the system was one where the wards had to pay their bill in order to leave. Of course the bills just kept accruing so it was an impossible situation for the wards, essentially indentured servitude with no end in sight, but the idea was that the cops were providing the greater good and the wards were paying for it through their service to the cops. A twisted system but a system none the less. The cops provided safety and security and medical care and the wards work for them to pay for it. This is exactly the same type of system that Negan uses. He believes that he is the greater good holding civility together and that the brutality he inflicts upon people is an unfortunate result of that. In Negan’s mind the Savior’s are creating law and order and holding everything together and the people they extort are therefore paying through goods and services for that law and order and ultimately protection. These people didn’t ask to be brought into this system (Grady or the Saviors) but once they are brought into the system it is next to impossible to leave it. The cops at Grady and the Saviors are in positions of power and they aren’t keen to relinquish the benefits of said power. So they don’t willingly release the people providing the goods and services that they are benefiting from. We also know that both systems use survivor guilt to try to control people. Noah tells Beth that they left his father after telling them that only one of them could be saved. Beth is also led to believe that Daryl possibly died at the funeral home. With Negan the groups being extorted are told that their member died so that they could live. In both instances the people left behind would be left feeling like their loved one’s death should mean something. So they’d be inclined to cooperate as a way to honor that sacrifice versus bucking the system and making their loved ones death potentially meaningless. On the most micro of scales Beth paid the bill for Noah with her “death” and in regards to Negan Abe did the same for TF. He willingly offered himself up in order to protect his family but I think this idea of the tunnel and paying the bill is even more complicated than that.

So when Tye is hallucinating in 5X9 the writers make sure that it is clear that Tye is questioning the cause and effect of what has happened over the last several weeks. He is questioning what happened at the prison (The Governor), what happened at Terminus (Martin), what happened at the cabin (Lizzie & Mika), what happened with Bob, what happened with Beth and the overarching theme is about paying the bill meaning that things that are put into motion have effects which can’t be ignored or mitigated. There are consequences for the things that happen and this creates an interesting juxtaposition between the idea that Mika and Bob both put forth that things were always going to happen the way that they were going to happen and nothing is going to change that. Both of these themes have merit because there are consequences to the characters actions and choices but looking back and questioning that is useless because in TWD world you can only move forward you can’t go back. So essential there are consequences to characters choices but if a character gets mired down in second guessing those choices it can become a dangerous situation for them (Tye, C@rol). So while at first it might seem like there is a conflict between paying the bill and Bob and Mika’s theory of what is going to happen is going to happen in reality there isn’t and these two themes are actually very much one comingled theme. In 5X9 we see a micro version of this cause and effect paying the bill scenario in regards to Tye’s story. It starts with decisions he made at the prison and ends with his death in 5x9 and everything that happens in between is a domino effect of choices which leads Tye to his final end in 5X9. So we learn in 5X9 that the writers very much believe in cause and effect so let’s examine the connections between the tunnel title card characters and their connections within the bigger story because starting with Beth in “Coda” there is a domino effect of sorts that continues on and includes Tye, Abe, and Sasha. Tye’s story is the micro version of the tunnel and cause and effect whereas Beth, Tye, Abe, and Sasha’s story as a whole is the macro version of the tunnel and cause and effect.

So well Bob isn’t a main cast character his death begins the sequence of events I am about to delve into. Bob convinces Sasha that there is good in the world and this is demonstrated by their game of the good from the bad. Bob is an optimist and he helps Sasha who is a realist to find some balance and hope. Opening herself up to Bob is huge for Sasha and then when she loses him it is extremely traumatic for her because she is second guessing what she allowed herself to feel. This will later play into Beth’s arc and ultimately in the conclusion of Sasha’s.

Next we have Beth who is kidnapped by the Grady folks making her one of their wards. Beth befriends Noah another ward and later when they attempt to escape Beth gets Noah out even when she doesn’t get herself out. Therefore in the Grady system Beth now owes them not only for herself but also for Noah whom she helped to escape. Then C@rol is kidnapped by the folks at Grady creating a situation where Dawn and the Grady folks feel that TF owes them three people in exchange for the three people they want. Dawn feels that Beth, Noah, and Carol belong to their system and in order to get them back TF has to return three people to them. TF could have chosen to go with Rick’s original plan to rescue Beth and C@rol. They could have just gone in and forcefully taken back what they consider to be theirs however, that plan did have risks and those risks posed a problem for Daryl. Tye suggested his plan because he wanted to avoid more bloodshed. Daryl agreed to his plan because he wanted Beth back safely and he was willing to do whatever he had to in order to make that happen. Rick deferred to Daryl because these two people were the most important people in his life and it was ultimately his choice how they handled the situation. In the deleted scenes we see Rick tell Daryl that if it were Carl and Judith and the deal went bad then they would kill everyone. There is a reason Rick talks about both Carl and Judith because he mentions the two most important people in his life at that point and time and Carl and Judith are the equivalent of Daryl’s Beth and C@rol. Beth and C@rol are at that point in time the two most important people in Daryl’s life. We can later infer from Tye’s guilt in 5X9 that he suggests his plan to Daryl because of the brutality he sees TF inflict upon the Termites. He feels like what happened to Bob (his leg) is what fueled that brutality and that it is his fault because of Martin and the fact that he could not make the hard choice and kill Martin back at the shack near Terminus. It’s all a domino effect starting from Tye’s inability to kill Martin which stems all the way back to both Lizzie and Mika and even further than that to what happened with the Governor. This is why Tye later feels responsible for Beth’s death because it’s his plan that went wrong and his plan stemmed from a set of beliefs that no longer seem compatible with the world TF finds themselves living in.

So Daryl chooses Tye’s plan and they are able to kidnap three Grady cops. TF starts out with Officers Shepard, Licari, and Lamson who also happens to be named Bob. Coincidence? I think not because Bob targets none other than Sasha as the ploy to his con to try to get away. But I digress for a moment. So with the original three cops TF has one cop to trade for every person they are hoping to free from the Grady system (Beth, C@rol, Noah). Sasha the ultimate pragmatist is drawn in by officer Bob because of her very fresh loss. Officer Bob reminds Sasha of her Bob and therefore she lets her guard down. Partly this is because of her conversations with Tye. By letting her guard down he gets away and Rick ultimately chases him down and kills him. This creates two problems one is that TF now only has two Grady people to trade and two is that according to the scales of justice one TF member should die to replace the Grady cop whom TF kills. Rick kills Officer Bob and in the end Dawn “kills” Beth. But here’s the thing it’s actually a little bit more complicated than that. Grady is a system of give and take. It’s about owing for services provided. What service did the people at Grady want more than any other? They wanted to be rid of Dawn they just couldn’t figure out how to make that happen. I would argue although I can’t quite figure out what his angle was that officer Bob’s attempted escape had something to do with trying to take down Dawn. There was a reason he didn’t just wait it out he either was afraid of being turned over as a hostage or something else was fueling his escape plans but whatever it was had to do with the fact that he was the one the other officers felt would replace Dawn. But the idea of owing and being paid comes up over and over again within the Grady story line. So at the exchange TF gives two officers Lacari and Shepard in exchange for two TF members who end up being Noah and C@rol. Beth ostensibly “dies” in exchange for Officer Bob. She arguably gives up her life for Noah but in terms of the trade and actually numbers she dies because Rick kills Officer Bob. That would make an even trade. Rick killed Officer Bob and Dawn “kills” Beth. TF gets Noah and C@rol and Grady gets Shepard and Lacari however it doesn’t end there. When Dawn shoots Beth Daryl steps forward to take down Dawn creating a situation where on the surface it appears like Grady lost an extra person to TF. That should mean that TF should owe Grady for another person but it doesn’t mean that because the Grady people wanted to be rid of Dawn. They welcome the fact that Daryl shoots her because it solves a major problem for them moving forward. It frees them of a terrible leader and it breaks the cycle of them having to take down their own like they did to Dawn’s mentor. They get to start over free and clear and therefore they now owe TF for that service and not only do they owe TF but they specifically owe Daryl. This is something important that I think will come into play later on. Grady will have to pay that bill and in doing so that payment should be in the form of something important to Daryl.

Then of course we have Noah for whom Beth appeared to give her life. It was the injustice of Dawn demanding Noah back that had Beth stepping forward to attack Dawn. Symbolically Beth took Noah’s place when she died at Grady. Many a viewer has commented on the fact that Beth died for nothing because Noah died only a few episodes later in S5 however here’s the thing. Well two things one Noah served as an extension of Beth as a way to help justify TF heading North to Virginia. Beth became symbolic of Washington D.C. when she picked up the spoon at the country club in “Still” and without Beth in the story Noah became an extension of Beth to help propel the story in that direction. However, remember that Eugene also talks about being the one to help propel TF to D.C. in the same episode in which Noah dies. The writers are reminding us that TF was already headed in that direction and had a reason to head to D.C. even without Beth. Also remember that D.C. is symbolic of something to TF. Originally D.C. represented a cure or as Eugene called it a reset. I don’t believe and this is just my opinion that there is actually a cure for the plague but I do believe the symbolism here is about restoring order in the chaotic world that has resulted from the apocalypse. I believe that’s why they choose D.C. of all places because pre apocalypse it was the seat of government and law and order. The ASZ and other communities are the cure because they are the cure for what ails humanity. Machiavelli talks about it when he talks about base human nature and what happens when government fails and chaos reigns. People loss their humanity and become monsters and we’ve seen that on TWD. The zombies have become less of a threat as people have lost more of their humanity and become more of a threat. The monsters are no longer the zombies but the people themselves and the only cure for that is a restoration of order. That’s what the ASZ stands for and that’s what communities like the Hilltop and the Kingdom will stand for as well. Rick is also very symbolic of this because in his past life he was a sheriff. We see his role restored on a micro scale when TF arrives at the ASZ. Rick represents and always will the rule of law and order. So if Beth is symbolic of Washington D.C. then she is in some way linked to the cure for what ails humanity and therefore the created of new order in the world. This all links neatly into the fact that Rick was a cop and that he and Michonne were dubbed constables upon arriving at the ASZ and it also dovetails neatly into Abe’s mission. This idea would also fit very nicely into Rick’s flashback in “A” where he puts his sheriff hat on Beth and calls her the new sheriff in town. From the ruins of D.C. the cure for humanity will come from the rebuilding of civilization. That rebuilding will come from leaders like Rick who still believe in the good in the world and the righteousness of real law and real justice. Not a perverted twisted version of it.

So Noah becomes an extension of Beth and serves the purpose of getting TF to the ASZ and then he is promptly killed. If Beth “died” to save Noah shouldn’t he have lived for at least a while as a way to honor her sacrifice? Well yes theoretically if Beth was dead then he should have but remember Beth “died” so that Noah could live. That was part of the exchange it was two for two however if Beth did not die then the exchange would become uneven. Not only that but Beth specifically offered her own life in exchange for Noah’s. Therefore symbolically if Beth did not die than Noah could not live. The exchange had to be even and the bill had to be paid. In order for Beth to live Noah had to die.

So the question then becomes what does this have to do with tunnel symbolism and how do Sasha, Tye, and Abe fit into all this? So the tunnel title card appeared in S5 with Beth and Tyrese appearing to indicate that the tunnel symbolism began there and continued with Abe and then later Sasha. So my current theory is that the tunnel symbolism mirrors other symbolism we have seen around the railroad tracks meaning it is about a journey somewhere. We often see the railroad tracks and specifically a crossroads when a major character is facing an important crossroads in their life. Sometimes the characters follow the tracks (Tye for example) which indicates that their course in life is set. The difference between train tracks and a tunnel is that one is light and the other dark. The one interesting place we see this symbolism combined is in S4 with Maggie and Glenn’s reunion. In those scenes there are both train tracks and a tunnel. But typically a tunnel is a dark and inescapable place where you have to travel from one end to the other or turn around. There is no veering off mid journey. Typical tunnel symbolism also encompasses things such as a journey from one place to another both spiritually and physically, a passage from one phase of life to another, a journey from darkness into light spiritually or symbolically, and finally tunnels can be symbolic of spiritual rebirth when characters make it from one side to the other. So the interesting thing about this is that at the micro level none of the characters on the tunnel title card make it out of the darkness. If a tunnel is symbolic of each of their journey’s then they never make it to the other side as characters because they are not reborn. You could argue I suppose that each of these characters was destined to die fulfilling symbolism related to journeying from life to death in regards to the tunnel and typically title card symbolism is related to something important about each particular character however the unique way this title card was used seems to point to something larger than a specific characters arc.

I believe this title card actually points to a particular theme or arc on the show itself and that these characters are part of that arc. Given that the title card appeared in S5 and continued through S7 with Sasha’s death I believe it represents TF’s journey toward finding and establishing Alexandria and its surrounding communities as their home. They had to travel through a dark tunnel with a lot of loss before they were able to come out the other side. The tunnel is symbolic of TF’s journey from homeless nomads to people who are willing to fight for their home. Mid-season 5 through the end of S7 is about this transformation and theme. It’s about what spurred TF on this journey, TF being brought to Alexandria, about them finding a place there, about them adopting the people there as family, about them expanding into outlaying communities that will become a part of the greater good, and about them finding a reason to fight for that greater good. Sasha’s sacrifice at the end of S7 is the death knell for Negan’s reign. It is the point where TF finds something greater than themselves to fight for. They have come through the tunnel of darkness and they see a brighter future. S7 saw the transformation and development of Rick, Michonne, and Maggie as leaders. Daryl is also on a path towards a leadership arc. Those journey’s will be fulfilled by the end of Negan’s reign of terror.

So what does this have to do with paying the bill and Beth? Here’s the thing. First off Norman himself referred to Beth several times with different variations of the same idea saying essentially that she was Daryl’s light at the end of the tunnel. After her “death” Norman has said many times that he is in a dark tunnel. Even in interviews for season 7’s “The Cell” Norman talked about being in a dark tunnel and hoping that the light at the end was coming. He talks about how TF had to be broken way down so that they could be built way up so that they could get to the light at the end of the tunnel which essential summarizes S5b through the end of S7. Episode 7X16 was about this. By Sasha giving up her life for her family she is lighting the spark that propels TF to the end of the tunnel. So is Beth really the light at the end of the tunnel? I believe the answer to this is yes and here is why. Beth’s iconic last line to Dawn is exactly why I believe that she is the light at the end of the tunnel. Through her intimate experience as Dawn’s captive Beth learned a lot about people who lead through fear and intimidation. When she say’s “I get it now” she is saying I see you for who you are. I see that you are weak and full of fear and that the things you said to me and did to me are about breaking me down so that I don’t fight you but I am not afraid anymore. Beth even says she is strong and she finds that strength in knowing herself and in finally seeing what Dawn is which is a weak, fearful, powerless woman. I actually don’t believe that Beth ever intended to kill Dawn when she stabs her with the scissors. I think she intended to wound her in order to show everyone else how weak she really was. I think she thought that she would do that and that Dawn would then back down and allow them to take Noah because Beth knew and saw that Dawn was actually a coward. After a lot of thought I don’t believe that it was emotional. I think it was a very thought out and calculated move on Beth’s part where she thought she would get the upper hand. She underestimated though I think how someone who is so full of fear will respond in situations like that. She anticipated Dawn backing down and giving up not that she would get shot. It was a horrible mistake and I am confused as to why TPTB have never clarified this for the viewers. Emily has said it was moment of over confidence for Beth while Gimple has tried to paint it as a moment of passion. The difference is that passion is spontaneous and what Beth did was not spontaneous. She had the scissors on purpose and her statement to Dawn clearly indicates that she’d thought this through. She got what was going on. That wasn’t anger or passion it was overconfidence and miscalculation but the thing about it is that she so far seems to be the only member of TF who now understands people like Dawn who are also people like Negan. These aren’t people that are strong. Strength comes through making the hard decisions and stepping up much like what Beth did with Dawn, much like what Abe did in the lineup, much like what Carl did when Negan threatened to cut off his arm. That is strength. Dawn was weak and she knew it which fueled her fear. Negan is weak and he knows it. His whole empire is a house of cards predicated on the idea that he is strong. He cultivated that image in people’s minds through his brutality and through other things like having a harem of wives. The minute that image is shattered is the minute his entire empire falls apart around him because the people following him see that he is really weak. The fact that Negan knows this is what makes him doubly dangerous because he understands what he has to do to maintain the allusion of power and what is riding on that allusion.

That is what Beth could bring to the table that no other character on the show so far appears to understand. The psychology that is unique to people like Dawn and Negan. Let’s suppose for a minute that we are right and that Beth isn’t really dead. Let’s suppose that Tye’s flashbacks in 5X9 are an actual indication that TF had to leave Atlanta fast and that possibly Beth got left behind. After all every one of the other flashbacks we see at that point in time is the aftermath of a lost loved one for Tye. We see what he sees as Rick punches him after he loses Karen, we see him watching C@rol as she puts Lizzie down, then we see these original scenes of TF finding the vehicles they are then driving in 5X9. We have to therefore assume that those original scenes take place between 5X8 and 5X9 and are related to the aftermath of Beth’s “death” and what happened. So it seems to indicate that they are all running and panicked and trying to find vehicles which seems to back up Emily’s interview statement where TF had to leave Atlanta fast. That coupled with all the other oddities we’ve seen seems to indicate that Beth was left behind in Atlanta and that they weren’t able to take her out of the city with them. It’s why we don’t see a funeral. Otherwise narratively speaking it would have been much more powerful to bookend burials in 5X9. They could have started with Beth’s and then continued 5X9 and ended with Tye’s. They didn’t do that and those scenes where they agree to take Noah to Richmond appear to happen after TF finally stops running to get away from Atlanta. The writers alluded to things that were never shown and those flashbacks of Tye’s further support that idea. So let’s suppose for a minute that Beth was left behind in Atlanta or really that she was left behind anywhere although I think Atlanta makes the most sense. Where did they leave her? I think given the fact that TF appears to be searching for vehicles in what appears to be a city like area seems to indicate that the fire truck never left Grady with them. My favorite theory and I think a valid one is that a herd came, the firetruck wouldn’t start, and TF had to run and that they couldn’t help both C@rol and Eugene who were both injured and also take Beth so they left Beth behind because they had too and because there was no other choice. This could conceivably create a scenario where the Grady folks found Beth. There are a million ways this could have happened but the fact is that Grady had a skilled doctor who owed Beth, medical equipment, and with Dawn gone people that weren’t so bad. In fact the people left at Grady owed Beth and even more importantly they owed Daryl. That is a bill that has to be paid. A debt that was never settled up or in story telling a lose end. Grady could pay their bill to TF by possibly providing medical care to Beth and saving her. It would also tie up some lose ends such as Edwards using Beth to kill Trevitt. It would make them even because then Edwards would have saved her.

So Grady could conceivably pay their bill to both Beth and Daryl by saving Beth but what does this have to do with Sasha and Tye and Abe. Well I think this has to do with paying the bill as well. Both Tye and Sasha were shown to be haunted by what happened with Beth. Tye’s death episode 5X9 is all about the idea of paying the bill or facing the consequences of ones actions. Tye is battling with himself and his guilt over the decisions he made and how those decisions affected others. Tye’s guilt goes all the way back to losing the prison and his interactions with the Governor. It can be surmised that Tye thinks that if he had seen what the Governor was that he could have done something and then the prison would not have fallen. If the prison had not fallen then maybe Mika and Lizzie would not have died. Then maybe he wouldn’t have been so traumatized and he might have killed Martin instead of leaving him. If he’d don’t that then maybe Bob wouldn’t have gotten his leg eaten by the Termites and died the way he did and possibly if Bob hadn’t died the way he did then Beth would still be alive. It all terminates with Beth in Tye’s mind. She is the final thing he can’t get past and that’s the reason she sings him into acceptance of his fate. Because it’s all too much for him and he just can’t face it anymore. When he says to turn the radio off it’s because he doesn’t want to see it (the world) anymore. The last thing Tye hears on the radio is about cannibals and the mutilation of children and young mothers. This is all about Terminus, Mika and Lizzie, and Beth and Tye just can’t face it anymore so he turns it off. The thing that is alluded to by all of this and not outright said is that Tye feels this way because it is those experiences that lead him to suggest his plan to Daryl and Rick. It is because of what he saw TF do at the church to the Termites that he suggests a peaceful prisoner exchange. Because he couldn’t handle anymore brutality. It’s interesting because Tye focuses so much on the pictures of Noah’s twin brothers in 5X9 which doesn’t seem to make sense yet does. Sasha and Tye are very much like these twins. They are opposites in many ways. Sasha is pragmatic and Tye is emotional. Sasha is harsh and Tye is soft. There is symbolism in the fact that it is one of the twins that bites Tye just as there was symbolism in the fact that Tye couldn’t kill Martin but that Sasha brutally stabbed him to death. Sasha and Tye are two halves to the same whole.

So it is Tye’s plan that Daryl chooses to rescue C@rol and Beth and initially TF has three Grady cops to exchange. They have Officers Shepard, Licari, and Lamson. However Officer Bob Lamson manages to get the drop on Sasha because of Sasha’s Bob. She is actively still mourning and messed up and Officer Bob because of his name (no coincidence there) and other things reminds her of her Bob so she tries to help him. In trying to help him she lowers her guard and he gets away. Because of that Rick kills him resulting in a situation where TF only has two hostages to trade for what is essentially three people. There is no way this doesn’t end up haunting Sasha. She knows that she let her guard down because Officer Bob reminded her of her Bob and she knows that’s why he was killed and they showed up at Grady one prisoner short for the exchange. Sasha was in that hallway. She understood that if they’d still had Officer Bob then they would have had an even three for three exchange. That’s why we see Beth in Sasha’s flashbacks in S5 while she is suffering from her PTSD. Bob’s death created a spiral effect in Sasha’s world. If Bob hadn’t of died then she probably wouldn’t have been taken in by Officer Bob. If they’d had the three prisoners to exchange then Beth wouldn’t have needed to confront Dawn and she most likely wouldn’t have died. If Beth hadn’t of died then possibly Tye wouldn’t have given up due to his guilt over the situation. These outcomes are all related in a cause and effect way and the characters at least are acknowledging that. Tye acknowledges it in his death episode. Sasha acknowledges it during her PTSD. It is Sasha’s struggle that initially attacks Abe’s attention. He sees what she is going through and he can relate to it because of his own struggles. It creates a bond between them and that’s why he pursues her. It’s Sasha’s connection to Abe and his death that finally pushes her into making the sacrifice she makes in 7X16. The really interesting thing here is that Tye and Sasha’s decisions in S5 unfortunately led to Beth’s death. If Tye hadn’t suggested his plan then they would have used Rick’s plan and most likely been successful. If Officer Bob hadn’t gotten the drop on Sasha then they would have had three officers to trade. Sandwiched in between Tye and Sasha’s deaths is Abe’s death.

Abe’s death is important because of the way that he died. He could have died much as he did in the comics. In fact he died only a couple of episodes later. However Abe did not die his comic book death for several reasons. The first is the writers wanted Daryl to be traumatized by that death because it was carried out with his bow. In order for that to happen the death had to be someone Daryl was close too. Given the parallels and symbolism we’ve seen develop between Dwight/Sherry and Daryl/Beth in S7 it had to be someone that reminded Daryl of Beth in order to fuel the conflict between Daryl and Dwight. Therefore that death had to be about Denise. The interesting thing the writers do in 6X16 is that they have Glenn die as well as Abe. Glenn’s death is important because it propels the story forward for both Maggie and Daryl but the writers could have written and legitimately so only Glenn’s death in 6x16. Following the comic would have made sense. They also could have chosen any other character to take the second death if they had wanted to play it that way. Instead they choose Abe who happened to be on the tunnel title card for part of S5 and who happens to die by standing up to and challenging Negan. Symbolically Abe’s death is another example of a character saying I am strong and challenging a leader who is essentially weak. Negan is Dawn just on a much grander scale. He is weak like her and he rules through brutality and fear. Most everyone else in that line up was terrified. Daryl being the exception as he was simply just there but barely so and mostly had retreated into whatever part of his mind he had gone to in order to protect himself. Abe however was defiant and strong which the writers conveyed through his words to Negan, his goodbye to Sasha, and the fact that he gets up and takes the second hit the way he does. Abe stands up to Negan in much the same way Beth stood up to Dawn and he pays for it with his life. Beth stood up to Dawn in order to protect Noah. Abe stands up to Negan in order to protect his family. His sacrifice becomes an inspiration to others in his family and I believe will greatly impact Eugene’s story moving forward. It certainly had a huge impact on both Sasha and Rosita’s. The other interesting thing about these scenes is the way the writers choose to write Glenn’s death. When Daryl attacked Negan after he taunts Rosita I believe that he thought he was going to die or at the very least that he would be punished for what he’d done. However, it is Glenn who pays the bill in Daryl’s place and I think that is very significant to this theme because on a micro scale it illustrates the writers adhering this cause and effect. Glenn’s death becomes not about paying the bill for TF which Abe’s death achieved but about paying the bill for Daryl’s actions.

So let’s say the writers are purposefully linking together the title card tunnel symbolism and these four deaths Beth, Tye, Abe, and Sasha. Is there other evidence for this? Well yes I think that there is. For example Beth “dies” in episode 5x8 but the writers purposely wrote her into episode 5X9 so that both Emily and Chad’s names were removed from the title card together. Of course the point of Beth being in Tye’s last episode was to show the direct connection between Beth’s death and Tye’s and to link both these characters to the immediate beginning of an arc involving Sasha. But it also creates a situation where Beth gets no funeral and no silence. It creates an ambiguity of sorts because Emily plays a significant role in 5X9 even though her character is supposed to be “dead”. It actually makes sense when you think about it that there wasn’t silence at the end of 5X8 because Emily is immediately part of 5X9. It appears that the writers used this to create ambiguity. Beth didn’t receive a funeral but Tye did. Beth didn’t get silence at the end of her episode but Tye did. It intertwines these two deaths to a ridiculous degree which is even demonstrated by the fact that these two actors shared a title card. None of that is coincidental. It makes it sort of impossible to discern where ones story separates from the others and it links both of these characters directly with Sasha and her arc to the point where they are both in her flashbacks and therefore both resurrected on their title card in S5 for Sasha’s PTSD episode. So you have Tye die in 5X9 and there is no theme song in the credits, you have the sun rise on Sasha’s final arc in 5X10 and the music box plays, the music box plays again in 5X16, in 6X16 Abe dies and there is no theme song in the credits, then in 7X16 the sun sets on Sasha’s arc and she dies and the theme song plays in the credits. I think the theme music playing at the end of 7x16 is a symbol of the sun setting and the conclusion of an entire arc on the show or the tunnel theme. I think it was similar to an act in that the silence with Tye’s death signified the beginning and the music with Sasha’s signified the end of the act. The siblings death’s bookended the arc which was signified with both silence to begin it and then music to end it. Tye’s death ushered in the sunrise on Sasha’s final arc and her death was the sunset and sandwiched in the middle of that was Abe’s death. The tunnel arc was about finding Alexandria and making it a home and providing TF a reason to fight for it. Tye’s death was about a literal dead end. It was the end of hope. Noah’s community was gone and hope was gone and Tye’s death was a final crushing blow to TF. When the sun rises on Sasha’s arc and the music box plays it is about hope and good news and the promise of a home. But that promise comes with lots of complications and TF’s journey to accepting Alexandria and its surrounding communities as a home is a dark tunnel with lots of loss and struggle. While they are in that tunnel Abe’s death provides inspiration and it is Sasha’s death in 7X16 which finally propels TF to the end of the tunnel. Negan’s defeat was a huge blow for him and a huge confidence booster for TF. The light is now at the end of the tunnel for them. Rick, Maggie, Michonne, King Ezekiel, and C@rol are beginning to see what they could create with their communities and the good they can do in the world.

The final thing they will have to do though is defeat Negan for good. By defeating Negan TF can begin to build a better world. One where the real monsters of the world (people) can be held in check by law and order and community. This is the true greater good and the cure for what ails humanity. The beginning of S8 marks a new chapter in this story and the sun is going to rise again. With that sunrise comes the potential for the music box to play again. Why should it? Negan is a manifestation of Dawn. He is a representation of a system. If the writers never intended for Beth to “die” and she was always intended to return to the story as part of the cure for humanity then the writers had their own bill to pay. Although Daryl would never blame them for it Tye and Sasha’s actions leading up to Grady directly contributed to Beth’s death. If any one thing had changed or happened differently it would have changed the way the story went. They had a bill that they had to pay for that. The guilt of their decisions and actions directly influenced the choices they made and those choices impacted others. There is also the idea of the yin and the yang of the world. I surmised earlier in this theory that Beth “died” to free Noah. Sort of an exchange of sorts however if Beth wasn’t really dead than Noah could not really live. They wouldn’t both get to live and the writers knew that. Also sort of like how writing wise for Beth to come back would mean that another character would have to take her place. In the tunnel arc that character would appear to be Abe. Beth surviving Dawn would create a clear juxtaposition to Abe’s death at Negan’s hands. Both characters confronted desperate brutal bullies with strength and courage and one lives and the other dies. It’s all about the writers paying the bill.

So the question then becomes why would the writers go through all this trouble to create such a complicated arc and why pretend to kill Beth off. On the most basic level I would argue that Beth had to be removed from the story in some manner or form in S5. That had to happen for two reasons. One was about Beth’s development and the other was about Daryl’s. The writers set Beth and Daryl up on an arc that would potentially propel Daryl into a leadership role but the only way to truly achieve this was to remove Beth. The entire Dwight/Daryl story was contingent on that happening. It’s one of the reasons why Beth’s death episode is so unfulfilling and confusing. If one approaches it assuming they were trying to kill Beth and examining it through that lens then the scenes make little sense. I would suggest changing ones perspective and examining it from this angle. If the writers wanted to make it look like Beth was dead and leave the story itself unresolved and open ended how would they go about doing that? Well let’s see first of all they would be sure that Beth and Daryl had no closure to their relationship and no goodbye, then they would be sure that the audience recognized that this character has grown and changed (potential unfulfilled), then they would have to orchestrate something that looked like a death but wasn’t. Well in TWD world how would you do that? First you’d have to make sure that TF wouldn’t think to put the person down (we see them do this routinely in S5 Bob and then Tye) so how would you avoid this inevitability? One answer a head shot. Then you could credibly argue that TF thought she was brain dead. Then you would have to orchestrate a scene where Beth gets shot in the head hence why she stabs Dawn in the shoulder. The angle needed to be close enough that it would look like Dawn could have credibly shot her in the correct place severely limiting the area’s where Beth could stab Dawn. Secondly the wound would have to be superficial enough for Dawn to react back. For example if Beth had stabbed Dawn in the neck she would have been so wounded that her attention would have been on her neck not on responding by shooting Beth. Hence why Beth stabs Dawn in the shoulder. A different perspective gives new meaning to these scenes and possibly a better understanding of where the writers are coming from. Examine the end point of what the writers were trying to achieve and then examine what the way they got to that end point and their choices leading up to that end point in regards to writing make better sense. Writers write to achieve an ending or purpose. Everything that leads up to the ending or purpose plays a role in how writer’s characters get where they are going. Writing is purposeful and planned and the end point is usually visualized before what leads up to that end point. Therefore from a writing perspective we can assume the writers knew where they wanted to go with the story before they knew how they were going to get there. The where is the important part the how is the icing on the cake that makes it meaningful and when the how doesn’t make sense it means there is a reason for that because it’s the where that’s the most critical to the direction of the story. The writers knew how the Grady story line was going to end before they wrote what led up to it. Beth is not Andrea. The reason Andrea’s story line was so unfulfilling was because the show runner was writing with no end purpose in mind. The story was leading him he wasn’t leading the story. It’s how Andrea as a character was written into a corner until there was literally nothing the writers could do to save her. That is the mistake that got the previous show runner fired. He had no vision for his characters and no plan for how that vision would be achieved. It is why TPTB chose Gimple to take over the show as show runner. He is the ultimate planner and visionary. All the eggs and hints we see buried in the show point to the planning that Gimple has done. He lays out the end points of the stories well in advance (Tye, Abe, Sasha) and weaves these beautiful and complicated arcs together. Beth is not an exception. She is just as much a part of Gimple’s plan as any other character on the show. Coda isn’t sloppy writing it’s an example of how the end point of the story is more important than the how you get there. You know where you are going and you construct the how you get there around the where you are going.

Finally there is the question of why have Beth come back at all and that is a question that requires a post all its own. Plot wise there are million reasons why the writers could bring Beth back and of course this is fiction so these types of things potentially make a story more unpredictable, entertaining, and fun. The main reasons however mostly revolve around how intertwined Beth and Daryl’s arc are and what that means for Daryl’s leadership arc moving forward in the story. But really in the end I would go back to the Country Club and Beth picking up the Washington D.C. spoon. Washington D.C. in TWD world was essentially symbolic of a cure. Everything about getting there was about a reset and curing the plague. I don’t believe such a cure exists not in this particular story but what I do believe is that another type of cure exists. Abe was willing to give his life for Eugene in the pursuit of a cure. I think in the end he gave his life for another type of cure. That cure being people like Rick and Daryl leading communities and being the types of leaders that reset the world. They will bring back what was once lost because they are good people. They will make the world good again. TF is now near D.C. as Alexandria is just outside it. If Washington D.C. is symbolic of the cure for what ails humanity and Eugene was a false profit of that cure then we have one other person with whom this symbolism is linked and that person would be Beth Greene. Beth became a symbol for Daryl of good people being worth saving. She will be his inspiration for that type of life. I would also posit that Eugene will play a role in bringing about this change. His arc began by being about a cure and I believe it will end by being about a cure. If the cure is really about bringing back community and law and order than Eugene’s arc at the Sanctuary will put him in the middle of that happening. It’s the only way his arc can come full circle. Much like Eugene is part of the cure so is Beth. There are too many symbols around Beth that relate back to being about curing humanity of what ails it. She picked up the Washington D.C. spoon, she is symbolic of good people, she is symbolic of hope, she is the light at the end of the tunnel, the music that still sings, the fire that helped to cleanse Daryl of his past. Most of this symbolism goes back to two key themes light and perseverance and those themes are key to Daryl and his arc and it will be intriguing to see how they play out over the story yet to come.

#bethyl #team defiance #Team Delusional

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xfirespritex · 8 years ago

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Falling For the Perfect 10, Chapter 1

This is my first time posting fanficiton to Tumblr. And it’s my first time writing a story with Tye Dillinger. I don't like to point the finger but since it was the writing of @wwesmutdonedirtcheap and @hiitsmecharlie that inspired me to work on the fanfiction in my brain, I’ll blame them.

If you want to find some incredible stories, check their pages.

Story Summary: Told from the point of view of an original female character we follow the ups and downs of dating, and falling in love with, Tye Dillinger. Pairing: Tye Dillinger X OFC Chapter Summary: It is Becky Lynch’s birthday party and she demands that her friends go out and have some fun. Tye Dilinger complies, only to find himself in a position he hadn’t expected --with a shot at getting the girl he’s wanted for nearly a year. Note: No warnings for this chapter. Sexual tension, innuendo and other such things can be found but at this time, this chapter could be considered safe for work.

Please let me know if you like the start of this story and I will happily post more!

Thanks!

-Brittney

Chapter 1: A Birthday Party

My alarm rang at 6 AM and I turned it off quickly, sliding out of bed and forcing myself out of my comfortable oversized shirt and into the workout clothes I’d laid out the night before. It was Friday and now pretty much everyone from both the main roster and NXT was back in Florida. I was thrilled because, even though I’d wished her a happy birthday on Monday, Becky was back in Florida and tonight, after training, we’d all be going out to celebrate properly.

Grabbing my bag and gear I left my small apartment and jumped in my car, heading to the performance center to train with a few of the NXT girls. When I got there I spotted Liv and Ember in my rearview mirror, pulling in right behind me. Aside from our cars there were only a few other cars in the lot. The big truck I recognized as Matt Blooms’ and the rest were unknown to me.

“What’s up girly?” Liv said as she walked over and looped arms with me.

“Nothing, you’re bright and chipper this morning,” I commented.

“That’s cause she’s ready to go out tonight and blow off some steam,” Ember said, laughing and she joined us. The three of us walked in together and immediately headed for the machines.

We all stared on cardio, we always did. Liv and Ember always said they liked to get it out of the way, I always felt that it warmed me up properly. As I ran on the treadmill with music blaring from my headphones, drowning out the sound of my feet on the treadmill and the machines around me I just kept running.

Ember and Liv, though in great shape, finished their cardio portion sooner than me and moved on to strength training. I ran for maybe thirty minutes longer than them before stopping the treadmill and taking a long drink from my water bottle.

By now more and more wrestlers were showing up, the guys starting on their strength training first. I smiled as the guys filed in and saw the three of us there already. “What, do you girls get up with the sun?” Johnny Gargano asked as he walked by. I laughed and tossed a towel at him.

“We like to finish our workouts early and move on with our day,” I responded. He rolled his eyes and with Tommaso Ciampa, they went to one of the leg press stations.

I joined Ember and Liv at the hanging leg raise. I jumped up, ignoring the laughter from the other two as I was shorter than both of them, and neither were tall. As I did my workout I watched the door occasionally and nearly lost my grip when Tye Dillinger walked in.

Scolding myself internally I averted my eyes and kept moving. Liv and Ember both looked and then rolled their eyes, both of them knowing all too well about my crush on Tye.

When my set was done I forfeited the space to Liv and took my earbuds out. Ember came to stand next to me, making sure her back was to the rest of the room. “Are you ever going to make a move on the man?” she asked.

I laughed. “You’ve known me long enough to know that answer,” I responded.

Ember sighed and shook her head. “I don’t get,” she said. “He’s sweet to you, all the time. What makes you think you don’t have a chance?”

I shrugged. “He’s gonna be up on the main roster soon anyway, even if it was possible…why start something when he’ll be gone so soon?”

“You know the Rumble entry wasn’t his call up, right?” Ember said, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Yes, I know that,” I said.

“So what makes you so sure he’ll be called up?”

“What makes you so sure that if he isn’t I have a chance? You’ve seen the girls that flock around him, Tye and I are friends and I’m okay with that. It’s just a crush, it’ll fade.”

Liv dropped down from the bar and crouched next to us. “Crushes fade over time,” she said.

And my feelings hadn’t.

I shrugged and moved on in our workout, each of us finishing up around roughly the same time.

“You headed home?” Liv asked. I shrugged and looked around the gym, deciding I wanted to run a few more drills.

“Drills?” Liv said.

“Yeah, just for about an hour, clear my head a bit more,” I said.

“Whatever floats your boat,” Ember said.

“You’re driving tonight, right?” Liv asked.

I laughed. “Don’t I always?”

Liv smiled brightly at me. “I love you, you know that?”

“Do you love me or do you love that I don’t drink?”

“Both,” Liv said, smiling hugely and kissing my cheek. Ember laughed and hugged me.

“Don’t go too hard on the drills,” she advised. “We’ve got dancing to do tonight.”

I nodded and waved to them as they left, heading into the area of the gym with all of the rings. I picked an empty one and started my drills, focusing on each move carefully, making sure I got at least twenty of each perfect before taking a breather.

“You look good in there,” a voice said.

I jumped and spun to see Tye on the ring apron, leaning on the ropes I hadn’t been running on and smiling at me.

“Hey Tye,” I said, smiling as my stomach did summersaults.

He smiled and climbed into the ring. “You’re going pretty hard in here today, any reason?”

I shrugged and ran a hand through my hair, tugging out my ponytail holder and redoing the tail. “There’s always room to improve,” I said.

Tye nodded and smiled down at me. “Wanna grapple a bit? All the guys are going full out on the weights today and I wanted a bit of a tumble today before going home.”

I nodded, feeling my throat go dry. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d grappled with Tye but the thought of him so close to me always made my body react in funny ways.

He smiled at me and put his stuff aside, fixing his own hair before meeting me in the center of the ring. We locked up and he quickly moved me to a side head lock before slinging me into the ropes. We continued this back and forth a bit, each of us going for different holds until Tye tossed me into the corner. He stood in the middle of the ring for a second before coming at me, like he was going to hit a move but he stopped less than a foot from me and smiled. I knew that was his way of calling off the grappling, he’d have hit any mood and if this had been a real match after that move he could’ve rolled me up for the win.

I smiled back at him and made to move out of the corner but Tye lunged at me, putting his arms on either side of my head on the ropes, putting me back in the corner. We didn’t make contact but our faces were mere inches apart.

“If I’d gone for a move, what would you have done?” Tye asked.

“Get my boot up,” I said.

Tye smiled down at me, his breath coming out of him a little roughly and I didn’t realize mine had kicked up too. “I’m glad that the only moves later will be dance moves,” he said, smiling at me and reaching one hand to brush hair from my forehead.

I barely repressed a shiver. I laughed instead. “Yeah, you gonna dance tonight, Tye?”

He smiled down at me. “Only if you save me a dance,” he said.

My heart skipped a beat.

“I’ll do that,” I said. Tye smiled, leaned in and kissed my cheek before backing away.

“See you later then?” he said, his smile growing.

I nodded. “See you later,” I stated.

He left the ring and waved to me as he left the gym. I was grateful that everyone around us had been occupied with their own workouts. I dropped to the mat and rolled out, grabbing my things before going to the locker room and getting my bag.

When I got home I saw I’d missed a call from Becky so as I walked through my apartment to the bathroom I called her back.

“Hey!” Becky said as she answered the phone.

“You rang?” I said, smiling as I turned on the shower.

“Yeah, was thinking you wanna get ready at my place tonight?” Becky said.

I sighed. “You and the rest of the girls just wanna place dress up with me, don’t you?”

Becky laughed into the phone. “Come on, we’re all getting ready here, it’ll make it easier than you driving everywhere to pick everyone up.”

“I like how you avoided the question,” I said as took my hair down.

“Aw, come on, we promise not to go overboard.”

“Okay, fine, consider this your birthday present,” I said, sighing. “But I’m bringing my own clothes!”

“You can bring ‘em but I can’t guarantee you’ll wear them out tonight,” she crowed as she hung up. I sighed and put my phone on the bathroom counter and stripped down, getting into the shower. It was three in the afternoon and I had a few hours to shower and find my best outfit before going over to Becky’s house. Letting the water hit my back I resigned myself to my fate.

If it was just dinner tonight it wouldn’t be a problem but the fact that we’d be doing dinner and dancing, I knew I’d be in trouble outfit wise. Between Becky and Liv I was already pretty much screwed but depending who else was there I was definitely going to be in trouble.

When I got to Becky’s my hair was already blow dried but that was all I had done to my appearance, knowing full well that whoever was inside would want to do something with my hair and makeup on top of forcing me into whatever outfit they seemed suitable. In the bag I had with me, aside from my clutch purse and keys, I had tight pants and an emerald green halter top, an outfit I thought was sexy enough with my highest black heels that I’d shoved into the bag as well. Still, when Becky opened the door and her hair was curled and done up and she had just a robe on I knew I was screwed.

“Come on, let’s go,” she said smiling as she tugged me inside.

I followed her to her bedroom and saw Liv and Ember there as well as Alicia Fox and Carmella.

Doomed.

I sighed and dropped my bag to the ground and all the girls turned to smile at me, their smiles reminding me of sharks. “Just promise me one thing?” I said before they could swarm.

“What’s that?” Carmella said, idling twirling a strand of hair around her finger, as if she was innocent.

“Can I please at least wear the shoes I brought?”

Alicia dug in my bag and pulled them out and nodded approvingly. “Okay, but the rest of this is a no-no,” she deemed, dropping my bag back to the ground. I sighed and walked over to Becky’s bed and sat down.

“Don’t make me look like a hooker, at least,” I said.

Liv smiled down at me. “I’ve got just the dress for you.”

“Don’t you mean just the dress for Tye?” Becky said, laughing.

Everyone broke out laughing except me. “Is that still going on?” Carmella said.

I sighed.

“Honey, we’re going to dress you up so well that Tye is gonna have to fight for your attention tonight,” Carmella promised.

I shrugged and the girls went to work, discussing my hair and makeup while Liv went and got the dress she wanted me to wear. It was a right fitting, emerald green choker dress, a crisscross over the chest connecting to the fabric at the neck. The dress was form fitting and looked to have a built in bustier. My jaw fell open when I looked at it.

“You’re insane,” I said.

“You promised,” Becky countered.

Sometimes, having only brothers and not being the most feminine in the group sucked. I’d automatically become the other female wrestlers living equivalent of a Barbie doll.

“Just try it on,” Becky coaxed.

“Tye won’t know what hit him,” Carmella said, waggling her eyebrows at me.

I thought of Tye, of how badly I wanted him to see me, to be drawn to me like I was to him. I looked at the dress and realized that if it didn’t get Tye’s attention at least I’d look good next to the other girls.

I shrugged and stood up, taking the dress from Liv and stalking into the bathroom to try it on.

“Shanna Hyde, as I live and breathe,” came the voice of Colin Cassady as all of us girls walked out into Becky’s living room. Enzo Amore and Cass were there too, riding with Carmella, Liv and Alicia to the restaurant and the club.

I tugged at the hem of the dress and Carmella hit my arm lightly, laughing at how uncomfortable I was under her boyfriend’s gaze.

“Damn, you look like that all the time or just on Friday nights?” Enzo said. Liv laughed and walked over to him as Carmella did the same to Cass. The girls kissed their boyfriends as Alicia threw an arm around me. “She cleans up nice, right?”

I rolled my eyes and turned to Becky and Ember who just smiled and came into the room. We all grabbed our coats, glad that it wasn’t too cold out yet. Piling into our cars we all left Becky’s place, going to meet up with everyone at the restaurant.

Jimmy, Jey and Naomi were in the restaurant lobby as was Gargano, Ciampa, Bayley and her fiancé Aaron, Alexa and Buddy Murphy and lastly Tye.

Jey Uso whistled low and Jimmy did a double take. Naomi laughed at her husband’s overly dramatic reaction but it was his reaction that made Tye turn around to greet our group as we walked in.

His eyes scanned over me from head to toe and I shifted uncomfortably. Becky leaned in and whispered in my ear, “If this were a cartoon his jaw would be on the floor and his eyes would be the size of his body.”

I laughed and pushed her away, towards the group so she could say hi to everyone.

I walked over and smiled at Tye. “Hi,” I said, feeling my throat tighten a little around the word.

“Hi,” Tye said, his lips forming a smirk that made my knees weak. “You look amazing,” he said, stepping back to look at me.

I blushed and he laughed. “You’re not so bad yourself,” I said, noting his dark pants, suit jacket and button up shirt that was nicely tight across his chest. He smirked down at me.

All of us walked into the back area of the restaurant together and I watched suspiciously as everyone quickly found seats, leaving two open next to each other for me and Tye. Tye took a few quick steps ahead and pulled my chair out for me. I smiled up at him and sat as he pushed the chair in for me. He sat next to me and smiled brightly before turning to look at Becky who sat at the head of the table next to us.

“So, birthday girl,” Tye started. “What the agenda for tonight?”

“Celebrate turning the big 3-0, go big, have fun dancing our asses off and be thankful we don’t need to fly out until Monday,” Becky said, laughing as she looked over the wine list.

The waiters came over soon the table was filled with drinks, appetizers and food. All of us sat around talking and laughing and I found myself feeling comfortable, despite the outfit. With Tommaso on my other side from Tye I felt safe, they both looked at my face rather than my more obvious than usual chest and when a chill hit our area of the restaurant Tye immediately put his jacket over my shoulders.

His scent on the coat made my breath catch in my throat, the warmth and the smell coming from the fabric tricking my mind into thinking that this would be what it’d be like to be held by Tye. Tommaso objected, saying he wanted to be the gentleman and he fake challenged Tye to duel in my honor and I just laughed, rolling my eyes at Bayley who sat across from me at the table. She smirked and winked, her eyes drifting to Tye quickly before anyone else could see.

I rolled my eyes but pulled the jacket closer around me.

We all finished dinner, ending with a sparking cake for Becky before heading out to the club which was directly down the street from the restaurant, the reason Becky had chosen these locations.

When we got to the club we all showed our IDs and paid the cover fee, the girls getting in at a discounted price to the guys which drew a comment about sexism from Enzo who was quickly silenced by Liv as she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the club, making a beeline for the VIP area we’d reserved.

We put our things down and collapsed into the booth and chairs, I slid in next to Bayley who smiled hugely at me. “You look great,” she shouted over the music.

“So do you!” I shouted back, smiling at her.

“Tye can’t keep his eyes off you!” She shouted. I made a hurried shushing motion as Tye walked over at that very second to sit in one of the chairs on the other side of the booth’s table. Aaron laughed and pulled Bayley into him. Liv, Enzo, Carmella and Cass had already disappeared onto the dancefloor and soon everyone was moving that way. I got up and allowed Bayley and Aaron to escape into the crowd and when Jey spotted a girl he wanted to dance with it left me and Tye alone.

I looked at him from my seat and smiled at him. “So, looks like you’re stuck with me,” he said.

The song changed and I recognized the beat and I smiled back to him. For some reason I felt brave in that instant so I stood, holding my hand out to him. He looked at my hand then up at me, a question in his eyes.

My bravery faltered a bit as I tried to say over the music, “Looks like I’ve saved all my dances for you.”

Tye, getting the joke from early put his hand in mine and stood, pulling me close to him before releasing my hand as he shed his suit jacket, leaving only the tight button up on. He leaned down and shouted into my ear, the music so loud it sounded still like a whisper, “You’re the only one I want to dance with anyway.”

I felt myself go red as he took my hand again and pulled me to the dancefloor, right next to Becky who was dancing with Tommaso, both having fun without being too close. She got an excited look on her face as she saw Tye pull me close to him and I rolled my eyes. Tommaso noticed too and the pair high fived. Both of their significant others couldn’t make it tonight and I knew they’d long agreed to stick together. Seeing me and Tye had to be the highlight for them.

Tye wrapped his left arm around my waist and used his right hand to turn my face towards his. His right hand slide from my chin to my cheek and held my gaze for a moment as we stared to dance. I could feel my hips sway to the music and I tried to just dance and not to be hyper aware of Tye but it was impossible.

We were close together, the crowd pushing us close and Tye’s left arm keeping me tightly to him. I shivered at the sensation of my hips brushing against Tye’s as we danced. He kept his grip on me and I looped an arm around his shoulders, letting my nails slide over the back of his neck and into his hair lightly.

The song changed smoothly and I smiled, glad to know not only the beat but the words to this one. I rolled my body against Tye to the beat of the song and I watched his face shift slightly from a sweet smile to a slightly more focused look on his face. He took my hand and spun me, pulling me back against him so every inch of his chest was pressed against my back. His arms came securely around me, settling on my waist and hips to keep me close to him.

His breath ghosted over the back of my neck and I could feel his lips moving against the skin of my neck, just below my ear. I realized he was mouthing the words to the song and I leaned back against him, letting my head fall back to his right shoulder and wrapping my arms up around his neck. I felt more than heard the groan that got from Tye and realized, that given our angles and the low cut emerald choker dress Liv had put me in Tye had just been given a very nice view of my chest.

His right hand gripped my hip and I bit my lip. My mind wandered as we danced, I could feel every inch of him and it was as amazing as I thought it would be. I was thankful that while dancing he couldn’t decipher the shivers from my hips rolling back against him, it’d have been far too obvious how turned on I was otherwise.

We danced like that for a while until Tye turned me back around to face him. He put his forehead on mine and I smiled up at him. My chest was pressed against his, the hand that had been wrapped low around my waist coming up to the middle of my back to press me to him. I let my hands wander from around his neck to down his arms, pushing on them slightly so he’d have to pull me closer.

His body moved with mine easily, neither of us was really leading, we were just following one another, chasing each other’s movements. His forehead came back to rest on mine and I caught by breath, my eyes immediately going to his lips. Hopeful. “Want some water?” he asked. I couldn’t hear it but I’d been so focused on his lips that I’d been able to read them.

I nodded, feeling slight disappointment but then he took my hand, lacing our fingers together and leading me to the bar. He ordered two waters and paid the bartender, his hand never leaving my own. We went back to the VIP area and Tye sat down, on the edge of the circular booth putting his water bottle on the table. He reached up and grabbed me by my hips and pulled me down onto his lap. The feeling of closeness made me shiver and I shifted so I wouldn’t need to lean into him too much for balance.

Trying to be casual I opened my bottle of water and took a sip. Tye watched and when I looked down at him he had just finished licking his lips, the sight of it sending a shiver I couldn’t hide through me. He smirked and opened his own water, taking a long drink before settling his arms around me again.

“So,” Tye said, an attempt to break the silence.

“So?” I responded, lamely. I could feel how tight my throat was and I quickly took another sip of water. The warmth of sturdiness of Tye underneath me was taking my body down a path that I wouldn’t be able to hide much longer. I knew I was breathing quickly, more from being turned on than the dancing and I was sure my pupils were dilated as well as a wetness beginning to pool in my core, threatening to expose me at any moment.

“Are you going to tell me why all night everyone has been looking at us and why Becky and Tommaso nearly had a fit when we started dancing together?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them” I said, feeling my skin heat up as I looked around the dance club, pretending to be looking for our friends rather than anywhere but him.

Tye’s left arm was around my waist again, keeping me in his lap and his right hand, just as he’d done on the dance floor, turned my head to face his. I looked down from my slight height advantage into his eyes and waited.

He stretched his neck out, putting his lips to my ear and speaking just loudly enough so I could hear him. “I thought it was because they all know I’ve wanted you since the day I met you.”

My heart stopped and all sound retreated from the world around me.

“What?” I asked, pulling back and looking down at him.

“You’re gonna make me say it again?” he said, his eyes half hopeful and half horrified.

“Outside, now,” I said standing up and taking his hand. I was shaking and I knew he felt it but I had to get to where I could actually hear him, where I could think.

The bouncer at the door that lead outside from the VIP lounge stamped our hands so we could get back in and once outside I turned to face Tye, wrapping my arms around myself as the night air felt cold compared to the inside of club.

“You’re gonna have to run that by me one more time,” I said, staring at him. My hands were shaking and I felt weak. “Cause either I’m dreaming or this is a prank.”

“It’s not a prank. Though it’s nice to hear I’m in your dreams sometimes,” Tye said, a smile returning to his lips as he stepped close to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. The warmth from his skin seeped into my and I sighed at the feeling.

“Tye…what are you doing?”

“Keeping a promise and giving Becky her birthday gift all in one go,” he said.

“What?”

“Becky said that if she got you here in a green dress then I had a shot with you. She’s been on my case for months now about telling you how I felt and she made me promise, for her birthday, to tell you. I made her promise to make sure I wouldn’t be making a complete ass out of myself when I did it but that doesn’t seem to be going so well.”

I stared down at the dress the girls had insisted I wear then up at him. “The dress is a code?”

“Greenlight, or so I thought,” Tye said, shrugging and rubbing the back of his neck. It was then I realized that he was embarrassed…upset.

“Tye…” I said, taking his hands in mine.

He looked at me, his eyes looking tired all of the sudden.

“You should’ve told me sooner,” I said, stepping closer to him.

“Why is that?”

“Because, like you said, I’ve been dreaming of you,” I said, smirking up at him. My words registered on his face and the grin was back.

“Oh yeah?”

I nodded. Tye leaned down, taking my face in his hands. He brushed his lips over mine and just as I was about to lean up to kiss him properly the door to the club opened and our entire group of friends poured out.

We pulled back from each other awkwardly and my body screamed at me to go back to his warmth.

“Time to go, kids,” Enzo said, clearly a little intoxicated. Cass rolled his eyes and led his group off to the car. I looked over at Tye and sighed. “I drove the girls here,” I said.

He nodded, “I drove everyone else.”

“Talk to you later?” Tye asked.

I nodded, feeling my throat tighten.

Once in the car with Becky, Alicia and Ember I drove off to Becky’s at top speed. Alicia was crashing there and Ember’s place was on the way to mine. I got home pretty quickly and went into my apartment, feeling my eyes already stinging from the unshed, frustrated tears.

Timing was everything and I’d just missed my chance with Tye.

#WWE #wwe fanfiction #tye dillinger #tye dillinger X OFC #angt #romance #fanfic #fanficiton

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