#charlotte has a lot going on she certainly does not need a dead husband

[branw3lls]

if henry jocelyn branwell-fairchild dies in chain of iron i am going to go absolute bonkers, babe

[simptasia]

hc questions 5, 6, 7, 26, 44 & 47 for any or all of the science team members if you want? :)

oh bless!! thank you!! i’ll go with My Beloved Three, as usual, the sci trio

Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)

my hcs on this have wobbled over time but overall i imagine dan, char and miles are all like, fairly, neat. tho they all have a tendency to leave papers around

and miles doesn’t make the bed as much. cuz imagining miles napping in rumpled quilts is a very cute mental image. hair disheveled

i think a good term for whats going on with dan and char is Organized Chaos. they’re both scientists (and a musician) for heck’s sake. it doesn’t look like they know what they’re doing but they do. but ur not gonna walk into their house(s) and be like “ugh gross what the fuck”. it’s nice. dan tends to make the bed

and i imagine dan keeps The Rat Room (yes, you heard me) immaculate because you reeeeeeally want that area to be well cared for

as for personal, lets get this out of the way, none of them are yucky. but dan is showering the least, just due to absent mindedness and hyperfixation. like ya really get into a project and then suddenly oh fuck i need a shower. but thats relative. he’s not a stinky gross boy. i imagine miles washes the most because like, he has body piercings and those GOTTA be cleaned every day, especially the downstairs one. miles values his dick, he don’t want an infection

also its amazing how much more you shower/bathe when you have a partner. or in this case, two partners. in general and for sexy purposes. hell yeah

well thats enough of me picturing these three showering, moving on

Eating habits and sample daily menu

its odd how often i’ve pictured these people eating together

dan: eats the least (and for once that isn’t a skinny joke, he could eat cake every day and he’d still be like that) because for the most part he doesn’t have much of an appetite. he eats what he needs, with random bursts of being really hungry (it’s a neurodivergent thing). i imagine he has a extra fondness for pasta and can put a surprising amount of it away when he wants to. tho typically for ease, he’ll stick to noodles. he takes his coffee mild and decaf. i hc him as a vegetarian due to not being able to process meat. his body also cannot handle alcohol and the one time he tried it he needed to be hospitalized. his ice cream preference is vanilla with chocolate sprinkles. or honeycomb. favourite vegetable is capsicum (which he’d call a bell pepper because he’s american), favourite fruit is pineapple. on that note he likes pineapple pizza. overall he eats simple but isn’t against trying new things. he has a very neutral disposition towards food

char: of the trio, i define charlotte as the Loud Passionate One so obviously being a big eater goes with that, likes a big breakfast (eggs, sausages, sometimes french toast!), sometimes skips lunch when she’s working at the museum due to focus, has a ravenous sweet tooth (i haven’t been subtle that i’ve made her ADORE chocolate but in general i see her liking sweet things), she can handle eating less tho because she’s gone on plenty of expeditions and such. so i think she eats a lot under normal circumstances because, like, she can. i don’t think i need to tell you what her ice cream or starbucks preferences are, do i? takes her coffee with three sugars, two coffees and creamy. likes mochas and hot chocolates too. with marshmallows. naturally, her fave kind of chocolate is galaxy because she is an English Woman. another fave of hers is cadbury’s creme eggs. but lest you think Good Lord Sapphire This Woman’s Entire Body Is A Sugar Molecule, don’t worry she does eat well. like veggies, fruits, meats, she’s fine. of meats, she has a fondness for fish (i have no further information, im terrible with fish. but she’s a pom, so...). favourite fruit is pear, favourite vegetable is peas. likes a bacardi, or rum and coke

miles: he eats a “normal” amount but he’s a grazer. which means, not so much Set Meal eating than eating/snacking thru out the day. he takes his coffee black, no surprise, but with sugar! see, its a metaphor. for him. likes fried eggs and hash browns. his fave food is very cheap mac and cheese. i think in general he really likes cheese. he doesn’t have complicated tastes, like, he grew up poor. he likes seafood (in particular fish tacos) but not lobster as he discovered when he got cashed up. he likes salty food but likes sweets too, in particular i can imagine him snacking on m&ms, skittles, gummi bears. little things. doesn’t have a fave vegetable because he doesn’t care enough, to him veggies are things to eat so you won’t die. doesn’t hate him but isn’t excited to eat ‘em. fave ice cream is mint choc. he’ll drink whatever (except for vodka) but is used to beer. thinks pineapple on pizza is an abomination, espech since he really likes pizza otherwise. i consider him a food opportunist, like, oh theres food here? yoink. or like, oh hey, if everybody else is eating, i’ll have whatever’s going on

....i feel like whenever i write hcs about these guys my brain takes on their tone. like, that was a lot of short, eh whatever, sentences for miles there

Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time

dan:

- reading (really depends on how you define Wasting Time). also he composes music and when he was alive, that was considered wasting time (ugh)

- sometimes even just doing hobbies or work or whatever, even then, he tends to have this feeling of never doing enough due to his Perfectly Healthy And Supportive Upbringing [seethes] so uhhhh basically, anxiety? like this was a dude raised to think anything other than his work was a waste of time. it didn’t exactly work but a decent amount of that Pressure has to still sit with him

char:

- watching tv, espech star trek

- not a waste of time if you’re enjoying yourself

miles:

- card and board games (weren’t expecting that, were ya? i’m not saying that's his Fave Thing To Do, but he considers that a good chill out thing to do. something to do when ur bored but you don’t feel like watching tv or having sex)

- “it’s something to do”

Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t workout?

dan:

for original lifetime dan, it was Do Science, Make Mom Proud (tiny voice: and maybe spend the rest of my life with charlotte. if i’m lucky. maybe. please? love?) cuz i imagine dan, although very focussed on the future, actually doesn’t think/care about HIS future. i just don’t think he cares about himself enough

limbo dan is like Make Music, Love Charlotte. which is fair. and then Love Miles on top of that. so yeah, just wants to be a good musician and husband. and one day, father. with char actually in his life in this world, thats def on his mind. he won’t bring it up tho, he’ll wait for her to mention it :3

(dan’s canon contingency plan for things not working out is hydrogen bomb)

char:

alive char, like, ADVENTURE! ISLAND! SOLVE MYSTERIES! that makes it sound like she’s a fucking scooby doo character. i mean, her Goal was to find the island and find out what the fucky duck is going on. she did that. and overall his goals seem like adventure/career orientated. i hc that this version of char never intended on getting married or having kids. she wasn’t Against the ideas and she’s certainly had romances but she was more thinking of other things. (that and i think deep down char thought nobody would ever wanna marry her)

in limboverse There Is No Mystery but she still has her great job(s), that is she works at a museum and i think she goes on expeditions sometimes. so theres that, she’s got the great career. really, her Plan for the future in this world is live the live she couldn’t before. she (and dan!) died young so they’re gonna like, actively adore each other and get married and have kids. and also miles is there. ha, that sounded so rude. she loves miles too. (besties/fuck buddies turned Hey You Wanna Join Me And Dan’s Relationship and miles like... yeah sure)

miles:

step one: get money to fill gaping hole of sadness in chest

step two: ????

step three: die

and even my limbo miles whomst i’ve put with dan and char doesn’t have any plans for the future, besides like, do his job and maybe become a dad again (context: i hc that miles had two kids with richard when he was alive). so he’s still chilling but without the depressing ache of loneliness and bitterness

so basically long story short for all of them (in limboverse): Love & Family

Superstitions or views on the occult?

ohooo i like this one

dan: didn’t grow up believing in magic and such (which is super ironic because his mother is a fucking other) but he has a very open mind. i think he’ll believe it if he’s thrust into the situation. it’s interesting really, dan is known as the science guy and that's great but he’s super fucking accepting of not science shit. tho of course, he’s not seeing the island time travel as magic but science. but more importantly, he regards miles’ powers with zero doubt or questioning. he doesn’t even seem confused, he is absolutely on board with miles being able to talk to dead people. this all implies miles told him off screen and dan believes him

so basically he’ll accept whatever is presented to him as true

which honestly, is what a good scientist is like. the trope of the scientist character who is ultra non believing of the supernatural, even when they’re seeing it before their eyes, is annoying. like, you know the ones? the ones who get angry about it. the overly skeptical scientist. hate that. dan is not that

and his character arc includes embracing free will over destiny so there's that

char: she’s not superstitious and doesn’t believe in magic or the supernatural at all. tho thrown into bizarre situations she’s like ???? but has to accept it. and she KNOWS something is up with the island. she knows its different. i just mean, under normal circumstances she’d regard magic stuff as funny nonsense. i hc that char, in living life, doesn’t believe miles can speak to the dead. really fucking weird this isn’t addressed in the show but hahaaaa they wasted char! anyways and like, if presented with the concept that dan’s brain damage is being healed by the island, she’d look confused, say thats impossible but she’d think on it

what i’m saying is she’ll rule out magic concepts at first, on reflex. but would grow to accept them, especially with stuff she knows/has repressed

she doesn’t believe in ghosts, psychics, visions, magic healing and all those exist in her world, so it’s all a matter of experience

miles: WELL WHADDYA THINK

actually it’s funny. miles has magic powers but he’s 0% superstitious and i imagine outside of his own powers, he really doesn’t believe in the occult. i hc that until he personally proved otherwise, he grew up thinking he was mentally ill. and once he realised it was true, thought he was some kind of freak

and he’s incredulous when he finds out hurley has powers too. tho miles, being miles, does roll with the punches a lot in the show, he’s skeptical when it comes to hurley's power. and i find that interesting. also i fucking love how when hurley describes his power, miles says “thats not how it works”, like ???? babe???

but overall his attitude on the island is like “well. this is happening”

i do think thru his life, despite his power, he doesn’t believe in All Magic or occult or whatever. i also hc that he attracted those kind of people who are REALLY into astrology and auras and stuff like that and he found them exasperating. (i think he’d be a lot more okay with it if it was claire who was talking about astrology and palm reading with him. he’d be endeared when its her)

and i think he thinks other psychics he’s met or seen on tv are straight up bullshit. he can believe he has it but he’s skeptical of other people. just assumes they’re scammers. hell, he was a scammer. who just happened to have the power. he was like “well i have this, i may as well get some use outta it”

oh and in limboverse, they all kinda have to accept their situation. and they take it with ease due to appreciating getting happier lives

How do they express love?

a dan who loves you will pet your face and look at you like ur his entire reason to live. a char who loves you will squeak at your jokes and will never once let you feel bad about yourself. a miles who loves you is sorry he isn’t better at this stuff but he really is trying... sure we can cuddle if you wanna, that’s cool v///v

the dan and char we saw in the show was them holding back and i find that very amusing because they were HEART EYES AS FUCK for each other and so affectionate and so soft hearted, like oh my gosh. canon show dan/char is them when they’re pining... when they’re not even a couple (yet, damn it)

imagine them at full power

i figured it out, dan/char couldn’t be an Official Couple because then jeremy davies and rebecca mader would have destroyed us all, especially me

anyways. they’re both very protective of each other. they... they touch each other a lot. like a lot for people who aren’t dating and whomst don’t think the other one loves them. like char is surprised when dan says he loves her. that fucking astonishes me. HE’S NOT SUBTLE. char are you okay???

dan is more open about the love than char, seeing as he said it. and double downed on it. char i feel was holding back for different reasons than dan. dan was holding back (fucking barely) because of eloise’s Love Will Only Bring Pain upbringing, which’d give somebody a serious complex. so he was adverse to actually pursuing a relationship AND i figure he thought “she wouldn’t wanna be with me anyways”. but char i imagine, a deep seated insecurity and need to be defensive, but also! dan was like REALLY mentally unwell before the island. and that's the dan that char knows (and loves) but she’d feel guilty if she pursued anything with him. like she’s taking advantage of a brain damaged person

ah fuck i went on a big thing about why they didn’t become a couple instead of like.... the question. how do they express love? like they did in the show. smiles, touches, longing gazes, protectiveness. they would die for each other

as for miles, how does he express love? Not Well. at first

whoever is the first person he fell in love with (i imagine richard), he was not good at... being open about that. i don’t think miles is good with love. lived his life pretty detached/bitter about the concept, which i imagine is due to having cynicism about life and death. everybody you love is gonna die, so why bother? (his mom dying hit him pretty hard) so uhhh its gonna be... baby steps

slowly becoming more open about liking somebody, becoming more affectionate, more... uh, couple-y (and later throuple-y). it’d take time and he will always be miles, but hey, he gets there. he’ll still always have his snark but he won’t be a Genuine Asshole to people he loves. heck, i imagine he’ll be downright soft in the right situation. and he can be gentle and kind. he’s a salty boy not a cunt

but i digress. basically he’s a little “yeah, yeah, i love you too, shut up” about it but he does have that soft gooey center. basically those who know him, and love him, know his true heart. it’s just a part of being miles “defensive walls” straume

feels love (and even that takes him a while to realise, cuz he hasn’t been a romantic relationship kinda guy, most of his life his relationships have been a Just Sex thing), not Great at like... Doing Love, you know what i mean? but like once he’s used to it, he can be quite a tender little pudding cup, actually

[dork-empress]

Hive Minds Vs. The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

So I’ve been increasingly loving Starkids’ latest musical “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” I’ve seen all their musicals that are on youtube, and I’m a bit hit or miss with them. Overall I think they have improved with time, so if the only one you’ve seen is “A Very Potter Musical” go check out some of their other musicals, but first check The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. 

The Premise is Aliens have landed on Earth and are slowly infecting people’s minds, taking over their bodies to be part of elaborately choreographed musical numbers. It has a Zombie Apocalypse sort of feel to it, following Paul (a guy who, you may have guessed, doesn’t like musicals) and his friends as they attempt to escape the alien spores. 

What I love about it is the Hive Mind presented in the story, and I’m fascinated about how it works. From what I can tell, the aliens take over a person, and have them express their feelings, unwillingly, through song and dance. It IS the original person’s feelings, though. So theres a question of balance, is the alien a single mind, as it were, reading the memories of the drones and then making them recite them? Or do the drones have some semblance of themselves hidden in the hive?

There are two real thoughts to hive minds. First and most well known is the Borg. 

The borg evolved through the series’s, but I’m going to go based off their Initial introduction. No Hugh, no Queen, no spheres, nada. The borg are not a species, they are a force, like a storm. There is no reasoning with them because there’s nothing to reason with. Every drone you see is just one part in a grand machinery. Essentially what’s happening is, there are so many minds that the individual mind gets drowned out into the one thing all life forms are built for: Expansion. Procreation. Because thats essentially what assimilation is, isn’t it? making more of itself. 

The other is the Braniac/Ultron version. Neither of those are thought of as a hive mind, because, well, they’re not. They’re a single mind, just put into different bodies. If even one piece of Braniac is maintained it can rebuild, because its all just a bunch of minds working together simultaneously. Read Ancillary Justice if you’d like to see an interesting version of this, where the minds have to deal with stupid realistic things like, communication over great distances. Anyway, Braniac and Ultron have a similar goal as the borg: Expand, make more of itself, absorb information. 

Now, the meteor in TGWDLM is considered to be kind of like Braniac. It came crashing down, spread its spores, and is now controlling them through the central hub. Professor Hidgens describes it as: On one level, they are individuals, but on another they are all appendages of a much larger organism all connected by a central brain.

He and Emma theorize that if they destroy the meteor, they’ll make the drones fall Night King style (Game of Thrones joke)

So Paul attempts it and, spoilers, blows up the meteor. But it doesn’t work!

We don’t see what happened after the bomb went off, so here is what we know. Emma got off the island. Paul got infected. Paul and several other infected souls also got off, to infect the hospital Emma was staying at, before or after Paul is revealed to Emma is unclear. 

Emma talks with a couple of people before Paul is revealed. One of them is clearly infected later, but the other isn’t seen again. I am going under the assumption she is also infected. The infected have shown they’re CAPABLE of speech, it’s just usually in sync

So why would they try to hide it from Emma by speaking? Because this hive mind has the one thing no other hive mind has. 

Several times the hive is foiled in its attempt to expand and take over because it/they were so busy with their dance number, they didn’t get the chance to assimilate. Paul is especially immune to this given, well, he doesn’t like musicals. This is why the Hive takes such an interest in him. 

Compare with Charlotte. She, Bill and Ted (and their excellent adventure...sorry) only realized something was up watching people come and go out of their bosses office singing. They didn’t get the full presentation themselves, like Paul did. When Charlotte does get serenaded by her infected/dead husband, she argues, but is eventually pulled in and killed, then infected herself. We don’t know if Emma would have been taken, she only avoided it by not drinking the coffee at her work, but it was Paul who told her to run. Paul isn’t intrigued by the Hive’s musical shenanigans, not for a minute, which gives him power, and makes him the Hive’s worst enemy.

The hive wants more than to just expand and conquer, though thats certainly part of it. The hive wants to expand so it can Put on its show.

Theater kids, amirite?

The idea of not liking your individuality taken is reasonable, but not liking MUSICALS? Heresy! thats what makes Paul special to it, and what makes this hive special in the grand schematic. 

I wanna talk about 2 moments. Moment one is the One That Broke My Heart.

So, here’s your trivia question of the day: is this Alice? Or the hive? 

The key of musicals is taking peoples thoughts and emotions and expressing them for the audience in song, steps, metaphors. Characters can have secrets from each other, but not from the audience, in song. 

There are several theories here. 1) Alice is clutching her head just before this verse, so perhaps a little bit of the real her is breaking through the hive, singing this song. I find this one unlikely.

2) The hive has absorbed Alice’s memories and has turned it into a theatrical heart breaking production.

3) The hive has absorbed Alice’s memories and is singing a song it knows will enthrall Bill, leading him to his suicide, which he only doesn’t go through with because Paul stops him. This is supported by the song “untie me now” where Charlotte’s husband sings what he needs to in order to enthrall and infect her. 

4) human emotions have infected the hive and now its feeling pain and love and all sorts of things. 

That last one is most interesting to me, though #3 is most likely. One way or another the Hive is a Dramatic Bitch and I Love Them. 

But how much individuality is maintained. In Paul’s words “Is this me? Or is this you?” 

Paul is such a unique main character. I'm a script writer and reader and let me tell you, the main thing you want for a protagonist is a motivation. A goal, a stake, something. Something to show how the story will progress. 

We don’t get a whole lot of that from Paul. Sure, he likes the Barista and flirts with her, but he doesn’t exactly do a lot to pursue her. Even at the dramatic conclusion, he is disgusted enough by her blood vomit to just Nope out of there.

He’s a normal guy. He likes black coffee, money from his job, not to be harassed by green peace. He’s not Bill, whos trying to get his daughter back. He’s not Charlotte, who’s trying to make her marriage work. He’s not Emma, trying to grow a pot farm in her sister’s memory. Everyone AROUND Paul has great motivations and stories, but not him. Not until he’s just a little infected by spores. 

He’s a main character finally. He fits into the Hive Minds narrative. He wants something (to be happy). But is this him? Or is this the hive just working through him? And if so, for whom? Is Paul still in there, watching himself come to this realization? Is this even his real feelings, or is this what the Hive is projecting through him, trying to convince him to join in on they’re/it’s fun?

Keep in mind, everyone else that we’ve seen has been dead when they were infected (that we know of.) So this song sung BY Paul is FOR Paul. And it ultimately doesn’t matter because Paul blows the thing up. And then....

Presumably, Paul died in the explosion. And, while its possible he was just unsuccessful in destroying the meteor, I find it more likely that Hidgins and Emma were wrong. The spores are more like Braniac, they carry on without a central hub. 

But how much choice is brought into becoming a drone of The Hive. Did Paul eventually side with the Hive? Probably not, but thats what he sings to try and convince/serenade Emma. 

So, what do we know about the Hive?

The hive came down in a meteor. I presume that it killed many people, but no one knew because they got up immediately after. This certainly includes Sam and Zoe, possibly Deb, Paul’s boss, and Greenpeace girl. 

The infected went in relative disguise, trying to sucker people in with musical numbers. Most people probably assumed it was a flash mob and were entertained long enough to be killed and infected, except for Paul who noped the fuck out. 

Once revealed, their songs were to get you to do what they want, follow police, untie person, etc. 

They have a strong sense of narrative. They like love stories, strong motivations. This is why Paul drove them nuts, and they took a special interest in him, making him the main character. 

They use people as puppets, getting them to do choreography, play out stories, etc. because....that just be how writers are my dude. They use the real emotions of the people they inhabit to take other people. The audience is their next supposed victim. 

They want to conquer, but not for the sake of conquering, maybe its for the sake of exploring these interesting narratives. Resistance isn’t futile. But the Apotheosis is Inevitable. 

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 1x06 His Sister’s Keeper

I’m a new fan of The 100, who first binged it last year, August to November. This is my first full rewatch of the show. I was planning to start it anyway and finish it before the season 6 premiere on April 30, and when I saw that Fox Serbia was airing a rerun (Monday to Friday, 40 min. after midnight, with repeats the next day), starting on 1st February, it was a great opportunity to start my rewatch in HDTV on my beautiful new TV. I decided to do write-ups and tag other fans on SpoilerTV website, as I did when I was first watching the show. But my posts turned into full blown essays. So, finally, after over a week, I’ve realized: Why don’t I post them on my Tumblr blog, too? I’ll copy my write-ups of the first 7 episodes, and then I’ll post my rewatch posts after I watch each episode. (The next one, 1x08, is on Monday’Tuesday.)

Spoilers below for all 5 seasons of the show. I go of on a tangents and make a lot of references to future events.

Rating: 8/10

Flashbacks to characters' past on the Ark are always one of my favorite things. i wish we'd get more of them. So far, IIRC, there's just been 3 episodes with flashbacks - 1x03, this one, and Join or Die in season 3. They really did a good job making both Bob and Marie look younger in the flashbacks. I do think that telling a 6 year old child it's his responsibility to take care of his sister is messed up, but on the other hand, what choice did Aurora Blake have? I can't judge her for it, since she was in a terrible situation, and it's the Ark system that's to blame for it all. And I've seen people hate on Aurora way too much. Some even go as far as to bring up that terrible "poor people should not have kids" argument, which is awful (classism, eugenics..). . (Another mini-rant upcoming) Speaking of weird things I've seen said in the fandom, I was really puzzled to learn that a lot of people did not realize Bellamy and Octavia have different fathers, and act like that's a big surprise, or that I've even seen people say that "the show never gave indication that they were half-siblings"?? WTF? The show never gave any indication that they were anything but half-siblings. For starters, I don't know why those two being full siblings would be anyone's default assumption, or why some people apparently think that women can't conceiving children with more than one man in their lifetime and that half-siblings are such a weird, rare and unheard of thing? But once you've seen this episode, the probability that they have the same father becomes microscopic. They're 6 years apart, there is no father in sight when Octavia is born, no one ever mentions a father, and Aurora is not in a regular relationship with anyone at the time Octavia is born. If Octavia's father died or was floated, it would have happened very recently, and they would have certainly mentioned it. In fact, I think that they would have definitely mentioned it if either of them knew they had a father who had been floated. I'm not sure what the deal was with Bellamy's father, whether Aurora had a serious relationship with him, whether he was around when Bellamy was very little and what happened to him (but even if he was in the picture at any point, he clearly couldn't have been around much, because Bellamy never mentions him), but in case of Octavia's father, he's clearly not in the picture and it's almost certain Octavia doesn't even know who he is. The two biggest revelations of the flashbacks were: that Octavia was discovered when Bellamy tried to let her have a life, for the first time, by taking her to see the Moon through the window and taking her to the dance to have fun and meet people; and that Shumway was the one who made Bellamy shoot Jaha in exchange for a place on the dropship. Not the greatest mystery The 100 has done - it was always going to be one of the few notable characters on the Ark, it was getting obvious it was not Kane, Diana hasn't even been introduced at this point, and the show never made the whole Jaha - Diana conflict remotely interesting or meaningful. Just how awful would have the lives of the Blake siblings been if they had spent their lives on the Ark? Octavia would have probably never met anyone other than her mother and her brother, never had a chance to have any kind of life except hiding. And Bellamy would have probably never had a real romantic relationship or a close friend (I always assumed he never had any of those on the Ark, because he kept people at a distance), never giving himself a chance to have a family of his own other than his sister, because of having to keep such a huge secret from everyone. Re: the Earth/present part of 1x06, it takes place fully on Earth (which was such a relief for me at the time, because at this point, I was sick of the Ark and hated pretty much every major character there other than Abby) and it's mostly about Bellamy taking a group of Delinquents (including Finn, who was asked to come as a tracker, and a bunch of kids who volunteered) to find Octavia, who was caught saved by Lincoln at the end of 1x05. One of the kids who volunteers is Jasper, the others include Bellamy's FwB Roma, John Mbege, some kid named Diggs, and Monroe (her first appearance). Three of those are redshits that end up killed by the Grounders. The rest almost meet the same fate, if Octavia hadn't asked Lincoln to help save her brother, so he used the signal horn to send a fake warning about the acid fog. which of course had the Grounders running away. I've seen a theory that Bellamy stopped sleeping around (minus that thing with Raven later in S1) because he felt guilty over Roma's death, because, as he says, she only joined the rescue party because of him. It may also be the turning point where he notably starts caring more about all of the Delinquents and not just his sister. As for the scenes with Lincoln and Octavia... eh. Lincoln will get much better writing and become one of my favorite characters in season 2, but in season 1, they were writing him really poorly. He was clearly meant to be mysterious and give the wrong first impression as a scary dangerous dude, which is why he doesn't talk until the very end of 1x07. But that doesn't actually make sense - there's no reason whatsoever, if he's already helping Octavia and doing things not sanctioned by the other Grounders, that he couldn't just talk to her and explain the situation, rather than chaining her up in the cave after healing her. The B subplot is again the love triangle. Or to be fair, the development of the relationship between Clarke and Raven, which is not just about the love triangle. Clarke reveals the info about the shelter to Raven (which Finn is not happy about) and they go together to search for things Raven could use to fix the radio with and contact the Ark. They have a conversation about their mothers, too. Clarke is still very angry at her mother because she blames her for her father's death, but won't talk about it, while Raven thinks Abby is awesome and wishes she had a mother like that, comparing her to her own alcoholic, neglectful mothers. We also learn more about Finn's role in her life - they knew each other as children, and he was the neighborhood boy who was giving her things and helping her survive. Which is consistent with Finn's character - he's always focusing on the girl he's in love with, doing everything for her and doing everything to make sure she feels that she needs him. 

Then Raven figures out that Clarke and Finn had hooked up, because she found the origami deer and she's smart, and confronts Clarke about it I don't like the way Raven is catty to Clarke here, as opposed to the fact that she later doesn't confront Finn about it (until much later, when she realizes he's in love with Clarke). I always hate it when women blame only the "other woman", but not their own boyfriend/husband who's the one who cheated. But, again, I love the fact that Clarke absolutely doesn't do the "catty and fighting for a guy" thing. Instead, she points out that she didn't know about Raven.,but also tries to smooth things between Raven and Finn by pointing out that they thought Raven and everyone on the Ark would soon be dead and they would never see them again. This is, however, way, way too generous to Finn, because he was flirting with Clarke already on the dropship and pursued her constantly from day one. But I'm not sure that Clarke is even fully aware of it. She may be thinking that he really wasn't planning on hooking up with her till that moment at the end of 1x04, when he lost hope in contacting the Ark. She has very little romantic experience, after all, and seemed too distracted by everything else happening around them, the fight for survival, trying to save Jasper, Wells' death, the drama with Charlotte etc. to even notice how much Finn was hitting on her. The same way that, in season 2, she was far too distracted by planning the war and worrying about Bellamy and the Delinquents at Mount Weather and didn't seem to notice Lexa giving her heart eyes, until Lexa surprised her by kissing her. She's really not the most attuned to these things. Raven\s remark that "he could have waited for more than 10 days" (yes, exactly) gives us the first explicit clue about the exact timeline. The painful Octavia/Bellamy confrontation at the end of the episode is one of the best dramatic moments on S1. It gets resolved at the end of S1, but now I can't help thinking that it's just the first of the many times throughout all 5 seasons where Octavia blames Bellamy for pretty much everything ever. I remember that Bellamy takes back what he said here in the S1 finale - telling Octavia his life didn't end when she was born, it began - but does Octavia take back any of what she said to him, blaming him for their mother's death and her imprisonment and all? I don't remember that, but I'll pay attention in 1x13.

Timeline and body count at the end of 1x06:

The first 6 episodes took place over 10 days. The first 3 episodes must have been something like a day, then there was a week between episodes 3 and 4, and 4--6 were about a day or two.

Body count: 

at least 320 dead people on the Ark, 10 dead Delinquents on the ground: 2 killed in the crash landing (and due to their own stupidity), 3 (Trina, Pascal, Atom) killed by the acid fog (that is, the Mountain Men) - though technically Clarke mercy killed Atom, 2 killed by the Delinquents themselves (Wells - murdered by Charlotte, Charlotte - suicide, mostly sue to pressure from Murphy),, 3 killed by the Grounders (Doggs, Mbege, Roma). "The 100" are The 90 now. As of the start of season 6, they'll be The 4.

[sociallyineptpersona]

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

I’ve been watching “Raising Dion” recently and it’s really good! I know a lot of people say that Netflix originals are crap, but when you give them a chance they’re so intriguing! I really hope that it doesn’t stop at just one season because I’m really interested now. The plot is interesting too, it’s deep but has it’s funny moments as well.

I love some of the characters too! Kat is such a great sister. She’s willing to do anything to help her sister, even risk her job. I love Pat as well, he’s really awkward but in a cute way! Nicole is working and trying so hard, but she’s going through a lot and I think that’s where people will get sick of her. At the start I didn’t really like her but when you realise exactly what she’s going through, you understand that she’s doing her best. I don’t really like how she treats Pat. It’s like one minute she’s all for him helping her and Dion but the next she doesn’t want anything to do with him. I really hope they sort things out soon because I think it would really help Nicole to have someone there for her. Pat just needs to give her time, she’s not ready to move on from her dead husband, Mark, especially not onto her child’s godfather and her dead husbands best friend. Charlotte is a good character too, even though I don’t fully trust her yet. She seems like she’d be a great mentor for Dion. I love Tessa as well, I think she’s a good friend to Nicole even though she doesn’t know much about the situation she’s in.

I really don’t trust Biona, but if you watch it to the point I’m at in the series and you look into stuff like I do, I don’t think anyone does or will. They’re just really sketchy and Suzanne is everywhere watching everything. It’s weird but it’s intriguing.

Overall I recommend this series to anyone who loves drama, Sci-Fi, superhero’s and a sad sort of plot. I know I haven’t explains fully what it’s about but I know I’d say too much and probably spoil the whole thing. I really hope they don’t stop at one season because they certainly have me hooked on it.

[thehighseasrpg-blog]

↪ Name: Rose Clayton ↪ Age: 23 ↪ Gender: Female ↪ Role: Civilian / Military / Pirate ↪ Class: High / Middle / Low ↪ Occupation: Lady/Former Governor’s Daughter ↪ FC: Jenna Coleman

“ Like a mermaid in sea-weed, she dreams awake, trembling in her soft and chilly nest. ”

TRIGGERS: Death, Murder

Perfection, an unattainable pursuit, which was demanded from a fair haired girl the moment her eyes peeled open to welcome the world. Born in the heart of summer, when the gardens were littered with blooms and the aroma of roses flooded the master suite of the Clayton family manor. For many years they had prayed, hands caught together in hope, desperate for someone to come from the legacy. A son was most desired, far beyond the soft gaze of daughter, but the latter was what they were gifted with. Refined until she practically sparkled, her appearance almost as impeccable as the pearls which decorated her mother’s slender neck. Their delicate little flower, their rose, was desperate to live up to the high-standards set, despite the willfulness in her heart. But she’d dream she were a bird, flying above the land that kept her chained. Her mother’s hollering followed her, always, a constant demand on Camila’s lips. Being the Governor’s daughter meant perfection, it was what she had been bred for, this beautiful dream.fair haired girl the moment her eyes peeled open to welcome the world. Born in the heart of summer, when the gardens were littered with blooms and the aroma of roses flooded the master suite of the Clayton family manor. For many years they had prayed, hands caught together in hope, desperate for someone to come from the legacy. A son was most desired, far beyond the soft gaze of daughter, but the latter was what they were gifted with. Refined until she practically sparkled, her appearance almost as impeccable as the pearls which decorated her mother’s slender neck. Their delicate little flower, their rose, was desperate to live up to the high-standards set, despite the willfulness in her heart. But she’d dream she were a bird, flying above the land that kept her chained. Her mother’s hollering followed her, always, a constant demand on Camila’s lips. Being the Governor’s daughter meant perfection, it was what she had been bred for, this beautiful dream.

For many years, Rose played her part well and did so without complaint. Although, in the dark of night, she would sneak downstairs into the servant’s quarters, to talk with the butler or laugh with the young kitchen maid. She had not always been concerned by proprietary, or the order of things. In fact, she rather thought that many within her own social circle were nauseatingly bland. The set course had been crafted, her future designed by master hands, who wanted to live vicariously through the daughter’s triumphs. A marriage on the rocks, fortified by the remarkable nature of their only child. Of her two parents, Rose likened herself more to her father, who certainly held more compassion than her ambitious mother. So when her mother came to her room, stone-faced, hands clenching a withering letter, a sob had tore from her mouth. The Governor was dead, her father was dead.

Life did not get easier, the pressure only mounted up more. For many years, Rose had been betrothed to a faceless lord,  and her mother wanted to make certain that the agreement would not fall with her husband’s death. Caring for such matters was at the back of her own mind, as she crept away to her father’s private library, where only the best books were housed. For hours she hid away, avoiding the taunts and demands, desperate for a respite from her own life. It was exhausting, the pursuit of perfection, and nothing she did was ever good enough. Amongst friends, Rose was the most graceful and yet still lively,  unlike so many. Her presence was highly demanded, and cherished, well-wishes on the lips of many.lord,  and her mother wanted to make certain that the agreement would not fall with her husband’s death. Caring for such matters was at the back of her own mind, as she crept away to her father’s private library, where only the best books were housed. For hours she hid away, avoiding the taunts and demands, desperate for a respite from her own life. It was exhausting, the pursuit of perfection, and nothing she did was ever good enough. Amongst friends, Rose was the most graceful and yet still lively,  unlike so many. Her presence was highly demanded, and cherished, well-wishes on the lips of many.

When her betrothed died at sea, it only caused her mother to sneer in disgust. Camilia snatched herself a second husband, proclaiming that she would not live a life without the helpful influence of a powerful man, even if she liked to tug on their strings. To her mother, it was an insult that she was not yet married. Without her father’s input, Rose was free to choose and she would certainly not do so quickly, or foolishly. Still, her desire to scream out in frustration remains, and often she wants to forget the shackles of her life and just live. For a night, a week, a lifetime, she wished to unburden herself - but that too was a dream. Her step-father seemed just as determined as her mother to use her as a tool for power, since he knew she was the key to the Clayton fortune. Whilst the title was not hers to inherit, the wealth would go to her husband or child.

Despite the ornate nature of her cage, bars still restricted her life and she demanded that they be shaken off. Her mother and her father’s demands she could bow to, but one more person and it was simply too much. She screamed at the top of her lungs, whipping her head from side to side, a vase colliding with the vanity mirror. Charles Harrington was plucked from the masses, a real catch her mother said. His grip was too sharp and gaze far too familiar, a breath on her neck causing chills of fear to thrum in her veins. Intentions lay behind his dark eyes, his hand upon her thighs, demanding she be his. Travelling from prison to another was a fate worse than death, and the desire for more caused her to do something unspeakable.

With gold lining the pockets of Rose’s favourite maid, poison was slipped into the man’s bottle of wine. No witnesses, but a deadly act. Freedom was hers, and for the first time she ought to have been able to breath. Instead, she felt the grip of her guilt, an enduring torment for what she had done. Charles was a horrible man, many could attest to it, but her hands were stained by his death. Innocence had always glimmered in her eyes, until she called for another’s death. Nightmares haunt her, tears caught in her throat. Everyone marvelled at her perfection, but they didn’t see how broken she was.

↪ Positive Traits:

↪ Graceful - From dancing to the art of sitting, everything was crafted to measure up to her mother. It came naturally, her movements and soft tones. It’s no secret that she is a image of softness and purity, and many turn to look at her as she walks past. Poised, perfect, it soon became a mask to hide her despair.

↪ Educated - A lady of her standing should be remarkable in many ways. Her opinion did not matter, but intellect still did. Her tutors admired her ability to absorb information quickly, locking it away in the depths of her mind. She always loved learning other languages.

↪ Imaginative - To keep herself entertained, mostly in childhood, she invented and dreamed, plots crafting in her mind. Rose knew how to tell an excellent story, to think what others might have missed. Going beyond the box has always been a skill of hers, and to keep herself sane she’s taken to the depths of her mind for adventure and excitement.

↪ Negative Traits:

↪ Frustrated - Her life has been a constant source of frustration, and due to her lack of confidence to act out, everything has been internalised. Her nature is willful, defiant, and yet she has never voiced her rebellions out loud. Anything out of line, has always been completed in the cover of darkness.

↪ Easily-bored - Since childhood, Rose has been unhappy with her life and the expectations set. Paying calls and going to dinners, marrying and having their child, it’s all terribly mundane. Hobbies came and went, and she never really felt like anything she’s done has been worth while.

↪ Self-deprecating - Always thinking the worst of herself, no one has a lower opinion of Rose. There were many crimes which Charles ought to have been locked up for, but she will always been tainted by his death. For such an act, Rose now beleives she is the lowest of the low. However, prior to this, she was taught to believe that her best was not good enough, and that more ways always needed. Never has she stopped to think about any of her achievements .

↪ Her only constant companion since her late teens has been a golden labrador named Gardenia, whom she adores with all her heart. Animals have always held a special place in her heart. Her favourite moments are when she sits in the gardens, amidst the roses, her dog’s head lying across her feet as she reads.

↪ Despite her unfortunate luck, she is something of a romantic and dreams of love. Rose knows that in a man’s world, love through marriage is unlikely. But she idealises it, and sighs in contentment when she sees a couple appear as though they love one another, hands locked tenderly.

↪ She loathes her step-family, despite her warm-hearted nature. Not only does she detest her step father for arranging the marriage to Charles, but they all seem to be tainted with a darkness which unsettles her. Rose wishes that her mother had never remarried, the whole lot of them are horrid.

Rose is played by Charlotte

[aurriii]

10 Books That Will Transport You To The Beach If You Can’t Go IRL

Maybe you’re social distancing. Maybe all of your friends are. Maybe your funds are tight. Many of us have a good reason our summer is not quite like summers of our past. We miss the waves just as much as the next person not within walking distance to the ocean, so we’ve compiled a list of books where we can all escape to a far away island or beach town, no sunscreen needed. Or hey, lather it on. We’re not opposed to a little sensory enhancement.

Click on book in slideshow to see it’s lowest price

Big Summer: A Novel

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

The Vacationers By Emma Straub

The Jetsetters: A Novel By Amanda Eyre Ward

The Guest List: A Novel By Lucy Foley

Beach Read By Emily Henry

Sex and Vanity: A Novel By Kevin Kwan

Hello, Summer By Mary Kay Andrews

The Summer Set Aimee Agresti

  1. Big Summer: A Novel

by Jennifer Weiner

Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time—she doesn’t even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media—so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.

Drue was always the one who had everything—except the ability to hold onto friends. Meanwhile, Daphne’s no longer the same self-effacing sidekick she was back in high school. She’s built a life that she loves, including a growing career as a plus-size Instagram influencer. Letting glamorous, seductive Drue back into her life is risky, but it comes with an invitation to spend a weekend in a waterfront Cape Cod mansion. When Drue begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of cute single guys, Daphne finds herself powerless as ever to resist her friend’s siren song.

A sparkling novel about the complexities of female relationships, the pitfalls of living out loud and online, and the resilience of the human heart, Big Summer is a witty, moving story about family, friendship, and figuring out what matters most.

Source: Publisher

2. Beautiful Ruins

by Jess Walter

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio’s back lot, searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier. What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion, along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow. Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Source: Publisher

3. 28 Summers

by Elin Hilderbrand

A “captivating and bittersweet” novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of ’69: Their secret love affair has lasted for decades — but this could be the summer that changes everything (People). When Mallory Blessing’s son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he’s not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It’s the late spring of 2020 and Jake’s wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election. There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other? Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother’s bachelor party. Cooper’s friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere — through marriage, children, and Ursula’s stratospheric political rise — until Mallory learns she’s dying. Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.

Source: Publisher

  4. The Vacationers

By Emma Straub

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

This is a story of the sides of ourselves that we choose to show and those we try to conceal, of the ways we tear each other down and build each other up again, and the bonds that ultimately hold us together. With wry humor and tremendous heart, Emma Straub delivers a richly satisfying story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole.

Source: Publisher

  5. The Jetsetters: A Novel

By Amanda Eyre Ward

When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the Become a Jetsetter contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can’t seem to find a partner; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday. Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young, when she was a single mother who meant everything to them.

When she wins the contest, the family packs their baggage—both literal and figurative—and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed and old wounds are reopened, forcing the Perkins family to confront the forces that drove them apart and the defining choices of their lives.

Can four lost adults find the peace they’ve been seeking by reconciling their childhood aches and coming back together? In the vein of The Nest and The Vacationers, The Jetsetters is a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood.

Source: Publisher

  6. The Guest List: A Novel

By Lucy Foley

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner  – The bridesmaid – The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

Source: Publisher

  7. Beach Read

By Emily Henry

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

Source: Publisher

8. Sex and Vanity: A Novel

By Kevin Kwan

The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPY fiancé of her family’s dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can’t stand him. She can’t stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can’t stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. “Your mother is Chinese so it’s no surprise you’d be attracted to someone like him,” Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world–and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

Source: Publisher

9. Hello, Summer

By Mary Kay Andrews

New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads Mary Kay Andrews delivers her next blockbuster, Hello Summer.

It’s a new season…

Conley Hawkins left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks.

For small town scandals…

When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister, who is trying to keep The Silver Bay Beacon afloat—and she doesn’t exactly have warm feelings for Conley. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.”

And big-time secrets.

Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman—a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets. As an old heartbreaker causes trouble and a new flame ignites, it soon looks like their sleepy beach town is the most scandalous hotspot of the summer.

Source: Publisher

  10. The Summer Set

Aimee Agresti

Recommended by Glamour * Bustle * Popsugar * Booklist * Playbill

Charlie Savoy was once Hollywood’s hottest A-lister. Now, ten years later, she’s pushing forty, exiled from the film world and back at the summer Shakespeare theater in the Berkshires that launched her career—and where her old flame, Nick, is the artistic director.

It’s not exactly her first choice. But as parts are cast and rehearsals begin, Charlie is surprised to find herself getting her groove back, bonding with celebrity actors, forging unexpected new friendships and even reigniting her spark with Nick, who still seems to bring out the best in her despite their complicated history.

Until Charlie’s old rival, Hollywood’s current It Girl, is brought on set, threatening to undo everything she’s built. As the drama amps up both on the stage and behind the curtains, Charlie must put on the show of a lifetime to fight for the second chance she deserves in career and in love.

“A page-turner set in the intoxicating theater world, The Summer Set considers the price of fame, the power of second chances and the enduring nature of love. A truly enjoyable read!” —Elyssa Friedland, author of The Floating Feldmans

Source: Publisher

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[chickeninthewoods]

2004 films

| The Bachelor | Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004 (late-nite) | Pulled from the pile of purchased DVDs at the folks'... to great disappointment. This is a bad, bad film, and Chris O'Donnell truly sucks. Phoned-it-in sucks. This explains why he hasn't worked much in the last 5 years - which was a bit of a mystery up until now. Avoid this like the plague.

| Spanglish | Dec. 27, 2004 (afternoon) |

| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004 (late-nite) | Dark and long. The kids are growing up, and the films are, as well. I think my mom is borrowing this from my sister. She has all three, unfortunately mostly in fullscreen.

| Snow Falling on Cedars | Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004 (late-nite) | Fantastic and incredibly sad. This was pulled from the stack of purchased DVDs at my parents' house over xmas vacation (who knows why they buy what they buy).

| Rivers and Tides | Saturday, Dec. 25, 2004 (afternoon, w/ the 'rents) | A gorgeous, nearly-meditative study of the work of Andrew Goldsworthy, who creates sculptural installations in and from nature.

| Seabiscuit | Saturday, Dec. 25, 2004 (w/ the 'rents) | Oddly-paced, but exciting. A book moved to the screen doesn't always work well, though, for the reasons well-illustrated here. The historical snippets might have worked well as chapter introductions, but they make for a confusing set of transitions on screen.

| De-Lovely | Friday, Dec. 24, 2004 (evening) | A mess of a film, though pretty and entertaining. But maybe that was intentional. Porter's life was a mess, albeit an entertaining one.

| Before Sunset | Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 (late-nite) | I had planned to watch this on the plane to Indy, but after watching the original last night, I couldn't help popping this one in today before my trip. I'm frustrated as hell by it, and the sudden ending, but I guess that's the reality part.

| Before Sunrise | Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004 (late-nite) | Luminous, like Julie Delpy's skin.

| 24: Season 3 | Week of Dec. 17, 2004 | My current policy is to review television series all at once, rather than a disc at a time, but I wanted to begin by noting that this season does not start out well. The tech is particularly bad, and I don't really care about what happens next.

| The Door in the Floor | Saturday, Dec. 18, 2004 | A little less dark than I thought it might be, and more tangible. I haven't read any Roth, ever, and now I'm prompted to start. I'll have to rent it again to watch the commentary and featurettes -- I'm fascinated by writer/screenwriter collaborations, and the adaptation process (so long as the writers can also talk).

| The King of Comedy | Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | I think it's not possible to watch a film on the recommendation of someone who says its their favorite. I just don't have much to say about it.

| Jersey Girl | Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004 (afternoon) | Ooh, this was cute! 13 Going on 30 cute, 3 Men and a Baby cute. The kid was great, and the Sweeney Todd bit was cute even in its un-cute-ness. A definite recommendation for parents and families who want to see a decent movie.

| A Home at the End of the World | Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | I'll admit, I rented this for the much-anticipated kiss between Colin Farrell and Dallas Roberts. It wouldn't have been worth waiting for, if that's all there was to this film. But all the things I disliked about marginally similar films, I liked about this. Where Forrest Gump was nearly campy, this was understated and honest. Where the Myth of Fingerprints was sarcastic, this was lacking all irony. At the same time, where Big Eden was celebratory and fantastical, this was pretty raw. So I don't know exactly how I feel, but I'm glad I saw it.

| Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004 (afternoon) | Reviews were generally positive, but I had received a recommendation against watching it just a few days prior. I enjoyed it, and would certainly keep it out of the "never again" bin, though it probably won't end up on a best list. As other reviewers noted, its the emotional core that saves this film from a bad sort of quirky, and I did appreciate that. But I felt it didn't go far enough exploring the morality of doing such a bizarre and radical thing. I would have preferred a "what if" movie with a love/life story running through it, to a love/life story with lots of other stuff piled around it. Jim Carrey didn't annoy me, though, and that's a rarity. Kate Winslet is yummy.

| Capturing the Friedmans | Nov. 27, 2004 (afternoon) | Truly one of the most amazing films, ever. While working on a short film about children's pary clowns in NYC, the filmmaker happened upon an extraordinary story of a family caught in an avalanche of molestation charges and media frenzy in the mid-1980s. The film includes footage shot by family members during the time of the arrests and court proceedings, as well as present-day interviews with police and other persons involved. If netflixing, be sure to get Disc 2 as well, as there are hours of additional footage and follow-up interviews with the filmmakers.

| Maze | Nov. 1, 2004 (afternoon) | This scared me off initially, fearing it was a Rob Morrow vanity piece, but then I forged ahead on faith in Laura Linney. And I wasn't disappointed -- the film is quite lovely, surprisingly nuanced, and I forgive Rob Morrow his salary whining in the 90s (Janine Turner, however, is getting her just desserts in dry-eye commercials)

| Ghost World | October 25, 2004 | I held off on seeing this when it was playing at York Sq., but it was fun on dvd. Scarlett and Thora bring so much to the table.

| The Apprentice, Season 1 (all discs) | Oct. 20, 2004 | Addicted to S2, thought S1 might be good. Soapy fun.

| Seeing Other People | Oct. 20, 2004 | Julianne Nicholson is always great, but the movie wasn't my favorite. Vulgar and ultimately a little boring.

| Dopamine | Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004 | I like Sabrina Lloyd, and the story here was interesting, but I didn't ever really latch on to anything in this picture. There was so much unexpected darkness, maybe that pushed me away. | Normal | Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | I was so skeptical... but this was handled with about as much grace and dignity as I could ever have imagined.

| Uptown Girls | Sunday, Sept. 19, 2004 | Decent fluffy entertainment.

| Dinner for Five: Season 1, Disc 1 | Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004 | Never as interesting as it promised.

| High Art | Saturday, Sept. 11, 2004 | Not as hot on the most recent viewing, but I'm sensing the ambition element more clearly each time I see it.

| Alias, Season 2 (all discs) | Week of Sept. 6, 2004 |

| Tuck Everlasting | Sunday, Sept. 5, 2004 |

Alexis is a wonder, and I'm so glad she has a spot on the WB for a while.

| Charlotte Sometimes | Sometime in September, 2004? |

| 13 Going on 30 | Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004 | I watched this on the plane, BDL>>DTW, and finished in the wrap place in terminal B. Cute, cute, cute entertaining fluff.

| Mona Lisa Smile | Monday, Aug. 9, 2004 | I don't know why I haven't returned this yet; it was good, though not in the Wonder Boys-kind of way I had hoped. Not much new to say, though it was interesting to watch how the juxtaposition of super-smart-capable and wanna-be-housewifey played out

| Watching You | Friday, July 30, 2004 | This was a set of short films, all lesbian-themed in some way. I got it because I was looking for a short called "travelling companion," which had been on another set of shorts on VHS a few years ago. The quality of gay-themed cinema has come so far in the last few years, though. My favorite ("10 rules") was actually in the "extras" section, though I wasn't sure exactly why there was that division. The title short, "Watching You," was set in Israel (??), though that never was mentioned explicitly.

| The Cucumber Incident | Monday, July 27, 2004 | This was an indie (so indie it's not even in IMDB yet) documentary, viewed on the Sundance Channel's DOCday. It tells the story of a group of three women in a family who basically raped and beat the husband of one of the women, who had been molesting his daughters. It's complicated and awful -- the wife who let her husband back in the house after he'd been to prison for molesting her older daughter, the child protection system which didn't intervene after subsequent charges (and let him back in the house after his imprisonment), the complicated revenge / scare tactics they exacted, and the overwhelming weight of the justice system that fell on them as a result. Everything about this is awful, and though I never felt like we really got to the heart of the women's fury as they prepared to terrorize this guy, that may be as much a result of midwestern stoicism as it is a comment on the film's ability to draw out their story.

| A Mighty Wind | Saturday, July 24, 2004 | I've watched this more than once now - I don't know why, but it's silly and entertaining and even ok musically.

| Travelling Companion | Tuesday, July 20, 2004 | I watched this on an interminable train ride from New Haven to Boston, when the train literally broke down in the middle of rural Rhode Island. Nice.

| Casa de los Babys | Monday, July 12, 2004 | I may need to give this another look before I comment too much. I rented this while my sister was visiting, and I'm not sure we finished it.

| Along Came Polly | Sunday, July 11, 2004 | B+

| Girl With a Pearl Earring | Sunday, July 4, 2004 | Watched this at T's up in New Hampshire -- it was a lovely portrait, and a really creative and daring way to make a film about a painting.

| Dead Like Me (entire first season) | July, 2004 | So bummed I don't get Showtime anymore... rent the dvds if you get the chance, it's almost as good as Six Feet Under (the first year of SFU)SHO

| Things You Can Tell Just by Looking At Her | Wednesday, June 30, 2004 | I watched this in the car, driving from my parents' house in Michigan down to visit my sister in Indianapolis. It's not a bad car-movie (if such a category exists), except that I did get a tad claustrophobic at one intense point. I really thought I had seen this before, but I had only vague moments of deja vu as I watched it. The women were just amazing -- Glenn Close, Callista Flockhart, Amy Brenneman, Cameron Diaz (and more) -- but I was particularly amazed by Callista Flockhart. I don't think it's reasonable to question her talent after watching her work in this film -- something so far from Ally McBeal, so different and difficult. The movie is a set of one-acts, each focusing on a different character. The supporting characters in each act are extremely sparse, though there's a bit of connection woven throughout the film, between the characters. It's important to understand that they're living in the same time, the same world. Glenn Close is an Ob/Gyn with real emotional maturity and intimacy issues; Cameron Diaz is a relatively well-adjusted blind girl whose sister (Amy Brenneman) is taking a backseat; Holly Hunter is a successful, albeit lonely bank officer who reels at the pointed analysis of a homeless woman who buns her cigarettes; and Callista Flockhart is a woman tending to her dying lover (Valeria Golino). There's also a piece with Kathy Baker who infantilizes her new short-statured neighbor, but I found it really odd and jarring compared with the rest.

| Raising Victor Vargas | Tuesday, June 29, 2004 | Watched on the plane from Detroit to Hartford -- though I think I'll want to see it again when I can hear and concentrate better. This would make a great double-feature with "Real Women Have Curves", for the sheer heart of both

| The Banger Sisters | Sunday, June 27, 2004 | Watched mostly on the plane between Hartford and Detroit, and finished up at my parents' house in Michigan -- this was a fun little showcase for a variety of veteran and newcomer talent. Goldie Hawn's butt really is amazing, Susan Sarandon proves she can give up scenery-chewing for Lent, and Eva and Erika somehow manage to look like sisters (though moreso if their parents were Susan and Goldie...)

| Nobody's Baby | Monday, June 14, 2004 | Caught this one on Showtime, found by the Tivo's Radha Mitchell wishlist. I'm not sure what Radha's doing playing these desert waitresses (e.g., When Strangers Appear), but this one wasn't bad. A little anachronistic, maybe, but not awful.SHO

| All the Real Girls | Saturday, June 12, 2004 | Though I really like some of the actors, I just didn't find this movie that compelling. It was slow, and maybe would have been better if I had seen it on the right kind of day (e.g., long, slow, cold and weathery).

| Trembling Before G-d | Saturday, June 12, 2004 |

| Purity | Saturday, June 12, 2004 | I watched this nearly in a double-feature with Trembling Before G-d, and it was so stunning. Clearly bitter and biased, but stunning.

| Saved | Friday, June 11, 2004 | Saw this Heathers-in-a-Christian-High-School in the theatre, opening weekend. Not terribly crowded, which was surprising. The movie was just delightful; funny and interesting and terribly attentive to the details, which was important. It's fun to see someone like Mandy Moore play a character this deliciously saccharine, too. Go see.Orange

| Marathon | Thursday, June 10, 2004 | Caught on the Sundance channel -- and couldn't tear myself away. It's a faux-documentary of a girl who does an annual 24-hour crossword puzzle marathon in NYC -- mostly on noisy subways and buses. The dialogue is minimal, the plot is pretty much nonexistent, and yet its riveting to watch, for some reason. It's one of the few times watching a film where I felt like I was in that zone of a conversation where I was truly getting to know someone.

| Out of Season | Sunday, June 6, 2004 | A surprisingly ok new grrl movie, which is unusual. And since I wasn't expecting anything at all, I was a very thrilled little camper. This definitely goes on the recommendations list, maybe even above 'Go Fish' (though after 'Get Real').| Soldier's Girl | Friday, June 4, 2004 | A really wrenching look at the story of a particular casualty of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (pre-"Don't Pursue," I think). I don't know how close to the truth this story was, but I'm not sure it matters. It was beautiful.

| The Company | Wednesday, June 3, 2004 | I've been dying to see this ever since it came out, but I was a bit disappointed. While the dancing was just out of this world, I had trouble adjusting to all the jumps between performance and slice-of-life/rehearsals and story. I think that was intentional, but it just didn't work for me. I love the Joffrey, though, and it was worth the time spent just to watch them dance. Neve included. While I'm usually the first to scrunch up my nose at something that appears to be a vanity piece, this is most certainly not one of those times. No one hires Altman to do a vanity piece, for starters. For an Altman-esque look inside the ballet, this is what you want. But I still prefer Center Stage for the energy of the dance world (as soapy as it can be).

| xx/xy | Tuesday, June 1, 2004 | I wasn't sure what to make of this -- it sounded too much like that other film with Kathleen Robertson in a menage a trois -- but with Mark Ruffalo, I wanted to give it a shot. It was interesting for the blurriness and for the look at a particular kind of person's behavior in a relationship, but I didn't love it.

[megairishrose]

The new normal chapter 4

Another day of sightseeing, this time a bit slower pace. It was the art museums, even though Henry was bored out of his mind. But they did a quick walk through before they went out into the busy street. They all like to be a part of the action, surrounded by the buzz of the city. New York was certainly the city that never slept. From their hotel room, they watched people late into the night. The lights and noise never stopped. Amelia noticed quickly she couldn't see the stars, that was only thing that disappointed her about the city.

They walked the streets, Amelia had a tight hand inside of Neal's while Neal had a hand on Henry's shoulder. They were not going to lose each other, not after everything they had gone through.

"Cassidy? Neal Cassidy, is that you?" A stranger came up to Neal, Amelia and Henry on the busy New York street.

Neal stared for a second before a huge grin broke out on his face. "Jacob! It's been forever!" His hand was out for a handshake which turned into a hug and heavy pats on the back.

"Well, whose fault is that? You disappeared, just fell off the face of the Earth. Lisa! Look who the cat dragged in!" Jacob called to a woman down the street.

She saw Neal and smiled brightly. "Neal! How have you been?"

Henry slightly turned to Amelia. "Who are these people?" He asked under his breath.

"I don't know, just smile." She said in the same tone.

Neal returned her hug. "I moved…" He would have added more but Jacob stopped him when he saw Amelia and Henry.

"Neal, you didn't introduce us to your…?"

"Wife and son. I'm Amelia." Amelia smiled and held out her hand. So Neal had a life before coming to Storybrooke.

Jacob shook her hand but Lisa pulled her in for a hug.

"Congratulations! Neal, you really stuck gold with her." Amelia had to force herself not to laugh after that comment, she glanced over at Henry, who thought the same thing.

"How do you know Neal?" Amelia asked, she really wanted to know this.

"Jacob and I used to be on a bowling team with Neal once upon a time." Lisa answered. And again, Amelia and Henry had to keep a straight face. Then Lisa turned to Henry.

"I'm Henry." And he accepted the hug.

"How old are you?" Jacob asked.

"Fourteen." Henry answered.

Jacob turned to Neal, confused. "Wait what? Did I miss something?"

"It's a long story…" Neal started to say.

"You know what, how long are you in town? We should meet up for dinner. We can do all the catching up that we need then." Jacob suggested.

"We are free tomorrow night and would love that." Amelia answered for them.

"Great, sounds like it's going to be interesting. Neal, you know exactly where go." Jacob actually shook his hand this time and Lisa gave them all hugs.

"See you tomorrow night." She said before they both walked down the street.

At soon as they were out of ear shot, Amelia turned to Neal. "You used to bowl? What else don't I know?"

"At this point not much." Neal answered.

"Dad, so where are we going tomorrow night?" Henry asked.

"The small place we used to go after our bowling nights, you guys are going to like it."

It ended up being a small pizza place. They got a high top table and the five of them sat down.

"So Neal, where have you been hiding all this time?" Lisa asked, starting off the conversation.

"I moved to Storybrooke a few years back, that's where I met Amelia." Neal began the story.

"Oh tell us how you met." Lisa was so engrossed in the story, knowing it was going to be good.

"I'm the head librarian, but at the time I was doing odd jobs for Neal's father…"

"Neal, I thought your father was dead?" Jacob cut in, confused.

"He was dead to me. It took a while but we are on good terms now. He's happily remarried and has a daughter now." It was harder than he thought to tell Rosie that he wasn't coming to dinner during the week. That little girl had him wrapped around her finger.

"Aww, you are a big brother. Amelia, when does Neal come into the picture?" Lisa asked.

Amelia decided to give the lie version. "I needed Neal to help with a library event and he came into town. Things just kind of snowballed from there."

"Was it love at a first sight?"

"No, I don't believe in that. There was interest though. And now we are very close to our one year wedding anniversary." She reached and held Neal's hand.

Jacob turned to Henry. "And your mother is…?"

"Emma Swan. She and Dad had a brief relationship and gave me up so I could have a better life. I have an adopted mom back in Storybrooke." Henry never really had to explain his large crazy family to people. But there was a first time for everything.

"Do you get along with his other mothers?" Lisa asked Amelia.

"Emma, she's nice, we have similar experiences and histories. Regina on the other hand, I have wanted to murder her. Got one good punch on her once…"

"When was that?" Henry asked, shocked.

Amelia turned to him. "You were hanging out with your great grandfather at the time."

"Ohh." Henry still wanted to block that whole misadventure from his mind.

"But Regina is really nice now, she turned over a new leaf and now is married to my best friend." Amelia said.

"And Emma, is she happy?" Jacob wanted to know.

"Yeah, she's with my ex…" Amelia actually knew a little bit more but she didn't want Henry to know, yet.

"Basically holidays are crazy?" Lisa guessed.

"It could be a million times worse, like when we all first met…." Neal shook his head. Those were messy times and he was still shocked no one killed each other.

"We had to trust each other a lot, through all the craziness. We are one big happy family now. Actually I have pictures." Amelia pulled out her phone and began to scroll through. "Here's our wedding day…" She started to name people. "That's my adopted parents Michael and Helen… Jordan is my adopted sister, Aiden is her husband, those are their children Richard and Charlotte. The man walking me down the aisle is my other adopted brother, Derek. That's Neal's father and step mother…"

"Wow, Neal you look like your father…" Lisa commented.

"Yeah, I get that a lot…"

"That's Regina and Robin…"

Jacob turned to Henry. "So your adopted mom and step dad?"

"Yep. Robin has a son from his previous marriage. Roland is like my shadow. He's my first sibling, so far…" Henry said, glancing over at Amelia and Neal.

"And this is Emma and Killian…" Amelia continued her story, trying to ignore Henry. He really wanted siblings, but things took time.

"Emma's so pretty. Henry, you are a perfect combination of both of your parents." Jacob stated.

"That's your ex? He's… wow… why on earth would you end it with him? He's gorgeous…" Lisa was almost speechless. Yes, Killian had that effect on women.

"He like to word as 'devilishly handsome'. Killian and I wouldn't have worked out. We are much better as friends."

"Still think you are crazy. No offense Neal…"

"So this is Central Park? It's beautiful and peaceful. Almost reminds me of home." Amelia snuggled closer to Neal on a park bench.

"Home Storybrooke, or home Enchanted Forest, or home Prydain?" Neal had to ask, there were so many choices.

"Home Storybrooke." That was going to be her home forever.

He placed a kiss on her forehead. "I'm glad."

"I'm not going anyway Neal. You are stuck with me forever." She said then looked around and for a moment couldn't see Henry. Panic rose in her stomach. Then she saw him, talking to a girl. "Who's that girl talking to Henry?"

Neal looked over, confusion on his face. "I don't know. Maybe he just met her."

"They seem awfully friendly." Amelia took out her phone and snapped a picture.

"What are you doing?" Neal asked.

"Sending the picture to Emma. She and Henry lived here. Maybe she knows." Amelia didn't have to wait long for a text back.

"That's Violet, she and Henry were classmates. Come to think about it, he has been texting her a bit for the past few months."

Something clicked in Amelia's mind. "Neal, Henry really wanted us to come here. Kept saying it would be fun…"

"He wanted to meet up with her…" Neal finished her thought.

"He duped us. Smart kid." Amelia had to give him credit. Now, should they embarrass him? Maybe a little, they were the parents after all.

Amelia got up and walked over to Henry and his friend. "Henry, aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"

Henry looked up, they had figured out his plan. Well, neither Amelia or Neal were dense. "Mom, this is Violet, my classmate when I lived here. Violet, this is my mom."

"I thought Miss Swan was your mom?" Violet was a pretty girl about Henry's age.

"Sorry, Amelia is my step mom; my dad is over there on the bench… no now he's coming over here."

Neal had come over with an outstretched hand. "Hi Violet, nice to meet you."

"Hi Mr…"

"Cassidy. Neal Cassidy. Buddy, you should have told us you wanted to meet up with someone." Neal actually found the whole thing funny.

"So, where are you living now, Henry?" Violet asked.

"Storybrooke Maine, quiet little town right on the water. Mom, Emma's happy there. That's where her family is. Actually my whole family is there."

"Maybe I could come visit you sometime?" Violet asked, hoping for a positive answer. She seemed a little shy. It could have been because Amelia and Neal were standing right there. But in all honestly, they were tame compared to Emma and Regina.

"Yeah, that would be great." Henry would love for Violet to visit him in his crazy home town.

"Well, I have to go. It was great to see you." Violet began to walk off.

Henry had a silly look on his face as he watched her walk away. "What?"

"Oh nothing. So you want her to come to Storybrooke?" Neal asked.

"I think we can keep our craziness to a normal level." Amelia wasn't complete sure but they could try.

"Hey Henry, you all packed? We are going to be leaving soon." Amelia walked into Henry's room. She didn't see him at first, he was standing on the balcony looking over the City. Even with his back to her, Amelia knew what was going through his mind. She went to stand next to him. "Do you miss the city? This place has an energy that Storybrooke doesn't."

"No… kind of. It doesn't matter, Storybrooke is home." Henry didn't turn to look at her.

"But, you lived here for a year, you had a life here, your home was here even if it was fake.

"Home isn't a place, it's a person. Or in our case, a lot of people." He finally turned to her.

Amelia was taken back. He really surprised her sometimes. "You know, you are wise beyond your years?"

"I keep hearing that." A grin crossed his Henry. Amelia pulled him into a tight hug. She didn't know how she could get any luckier.