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cecilysass · 7 months ago

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Shine On (15/16)

Read on AO3 | Tagging @today-in-fic

Chapter 15: Walled Garden

Farrs Corner, Virginia February 25, 2015 Ten minutes later

Jackson and Rose burst back into the kitchen, both pink-cheeked and sweaty, and promptly start chugging glasses of water. Mulder’s back at work with the crowbar, and Scully decides to make herself useful and start sweeping up some of the wood chips on the floor.

“We ran five miles,” Jackson announces to them.

“Pretty far,” comments Mulder.

“I don’t think I’ve ever run five miles before. It’s a personal record.”

“That’s amazing,” Scully replies back encouragingly. She can’t help but watch Rose out of the corner of her eye. She’s holding the cool glass of water to her cheek, watching the rest of them.

“We went a different route than yesterday. There’s this really pretty stream near here with a path, and we followed the path for a while.”

Mulder and Scully both nod knowingly. “Yeah, that’s a good run,” Mulder says. “I’ve done it many times.”

“We saw the ruins of an old mill from the 1800s,” Jackson says, walking over to Mulder and Scully with his glass of water. “I made Rose stop and read the historical marker. Didn’t I?”

“Yep,” Rose answers him, a small, subdued smile.

“Almost nothing in Wyoming was built in the 1800s,” Jackson says. “Things in Virgina are old.” Some kind of lightbulb goes on in his mind. “Wasn’t George Washington from Virginia? Can we go see where he lived?” He stops abruptly and looks down. “Does this house have, uh, termites or something?” He’s staring at the pile of wood chips at Scully’s feet.

“Just some mold,” Mulder says. “Don’t worry. We’re getting rid of it.”

Jackson looks at the pile analytically. “Mold can get in anywhere. I read an article.”

“What are your plans today, Rose?” Scully asks, changing the subject.

“Well,” Rose licks her lips, rotating the glass in her hand. “I need to go home at some point, back to Maryland. I have a few things I need to take care of.”

Jackson is bending his leg in a hamstring stretch, wobbling a little for balance. “But you’ll come back, right?”

Scully and Mulder’s eyes both dart over to Rose, interested in her answer, too.

“Yes.” Rose peers back at Jackson through the glass, her image refracted. “Of course I will. When I can.”

Jackson seems to remember something and drops his stretch suddenly. “Oh hey, Mulder.” He swivels to face Mulder, suddenly all energy again. “Rose said that Clifton, Virginia isn’t very far from here.”

Mulder looks at him curiously. “No. It’s about ten minutes. Why?”

“That’s where the Bunny Man Bridge is. Where the ghost of the Bunny Man haunts people every Halloween? I read about it in that book you have about the ghosts of Virginia.”

“Yeah,” Mulder says, an irresistible smile. “That’s right—it is. The bridge is over Colchester Road.”

“Is the Bunny Man real? Have you seen him?”

“I haven’t actually gone over to check it out,” Mulder says. “I’ve been out of the monster business.” He throws Scully a begrudging look. “And to be honest, that story seems sort of along the lines of an … urban legend.”

Scully raises her eyebrows with cool significance, but Mulder avoids her gaze.

“Can we go see the bridge?” Jackson asks, leaning into another stretch. “Before I go home?” He stops, furrows his brow. “I mean—not home. Wherever I’m going next.”

“Sure, we can drive by,” Mulder says, upbeat, putting his hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “What else is in that book? I wonder how many of those ghosts Scully and I investigated before.”

“It’s upstairs in my room,” Jackson says.

“Let’s go get it,” Mulder suggests. And Scully suspects he adds something else privately to Jackson in his mind, too, because Jackson immediately glances between her and Rose.

“Yeah,” Jackson agrees.

That’s quite the dynamic, Scully thinks wistfully, watching as they bound up the stairs after one another. Identical gaits, she notes. Consciousness entangled. She wonders if she’ll ever be able to separate out her envy from her joy.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Rose says in a voice so quiet Scully could almost miss it.

Scully leans her broom against the door. She’s still unsettled by having thoughts so transparent, but she wants to take it more in stride. This is what having telepath children must be like. She lifts her chin, armor up, and turns to take in the young woman across the room.

“Are you envious, Rose?” she asks casually. “Of Jackson?”

Rose lifts a shoulder. “Maybe a little.” Her eyes begin to roam around the room. “He’s lost his parents, same as I did, but he’s found this, too.” She gestures around her with her hand. “I knew a long time ago I wasn’t going to have anything like this.”

Scully feels herself frown. She doesn’t understand this kind of statement, and it hurts her in ways she can’t even pinpoint. “Rose,” she asks, “do you mind if I ask you questions about your past?”

The young woman had been leaning against Mulder’s desk, but she stands up instantly, like she’s prepared. “No, of course not.”

“Good, because I’ve been wondering…” Scully takes some uncertain steps towards her. “You knew where we were for years.” She hesitates. “But …you never contacted me.”

Rose doesn’t bat an eyelash. Strong and straight. “No, I didn’t.”

Scully blinks in confusion. She can’t really help it; her whole world is bifurcated when she looks at Rose. In one jagged half: this young woman, standing impassive like a warrior—reminding her of her father the sea captain, reminding her of herself. In the other: the memory of a tiny child, crouched over playing, bangs and shy eyes, reminding her of Melissa, reminding her of innocent lives lost.

Somehow she has to hold this together, make these two broken pieces make sense.

“Why didn’t you?” Scully says, and her voice wobbles. “Were you… angry with me?”

Rose’s stoic expression flickers a little. “No,” she says. “Why would I be angry? I liked you. I knew that… if I let you know I was alive, you’d want to see me.”

“Then why?” Scully’s vision is blurring a little, but she blinks the tears back determinedly. She doesn’t want to cry right now. She wants to think logically enough to understand.

Rose walks across the room to Mulder’s small dining room table and sits down with her glass of water. She bends her knees to sit in the chair with her legs criss crossed. This makes her seem younger, like the very young woman she is. Like someone who should be going on spring break trips and taking Physics 201, Scully thinks. Like someone who should be putting her hair up in messy buns and pulling all nighters and getting drunk with friends.

All of that seems to have nothing to do with this strange, remote girl.

Scully trails like a ghost and sinks down in the chair across from her, staring wordlessly, waiting.

“You know already that I’m not the same as Jackson,” Rose explains kindly, her eyes wide and serious. “He’s all yours. Genetically he’s entirely derived from you and Mulder. In a relatively normal, human way.”

“So you couldn’t come live with me … because Mulder isn’t your biological father?”

“No, no,” Rose says, shaking her head firmly. “I couldn’t live with you because no one is my biological father.”

Scully sucks in a breath slowly.

“You saw—the cyst on my neck, right? The toxic blood? When I was little?”

Scully nods without speaking.

“I’m dangerous to humans, Dana,” Rose says. Her gaze does not waver, her eyes like a calm sea. “It’s just the truth. Not just the blood. Other things, too.”

“You wouldn’t have been dangerous to me,” Scully says in a fierce voice before she can stop herself. “I could have taken care of you. I would have known what to do.”

“How could you have known?” Rose smiles sadly. “No one knows everything about what we are. We’re something new. Not entirely human, not entirely inhuman. We’re still discovering things about ourselves.” Her smile fades. “And truthfully, it’s not only that we’re dangerous to humans—it’s also that they can sometimes be dangerous to us.”

“I would have protected you. Mulder and I would have protected you. I was prepared for that.”

“You would have tried. I know you would have,” Rose concedes, looking down. She takes a drink of her glass of water. Her eyes spring back onto Scully. “But how long would it have been before you ended up like the Sims? Like the Van De Kamps? When they explained that to me, that risk… I couldn’t see it happen.”

“Who explained that to you?” Scully asks, suddenly on alert. “How old were you?”

Rose looks away evasively. “The group I’m with, the Walled Garden, that’s the whole point of what we do—we’re all products of the hybrid program. We’re the same. We protect one another. We take care of one another. It’s how it should be.”

“The Walled Garden,” repeats Scully.

“Yes.”

“The group that was trying to kill Jackson. The group that actually did murder his parents.” Scully emphasizes each word carefully, hoping it will penetrate. “Take care of one another? Protect each other? How can you trust people who would do that?”

“I don’t trust all of them,” Rose replies defensively, lifting her chin. “There are dangerous elements within the organization. There always have been. We’ve had to be so secretive, and sometimes, in the name of keeping secrets, some of us have done … too much. Gone too far. Like with Jackson.”

Scully realizes her own hands are trembling. Everything inside of her is crying out to tell Rose: this is what evil organizations always say, this is how they always begin. Keeping secrets justifies all manner of unjustifiable acts.

“They’re my family,” Rose says in a different, more vulnerable voice. She looks at Scully like she wants something. “The only people who are really like me on the planet.”

“That’s not true. There’s Jackson.”

Rose smiles weakly. “Yeah. You’re right. Apparently there’s Jackson.” She taps her dark red fingernails lightly on the table. “Which is… interesting.”

Scully says nothing, concentrating on blinking rapidly, holding back the tears again.

“Really, despite its flaws, the organization has so much good in it. We have the best interests of humanity at heart,” Rose says. “We really do. We’ve saved humanity before. It’s our ultimate goal.”

That’s what the Syndicate said, too, Scully thinks bitterly. That’s exactly what they said. But Rose’s eyes are round and earnest, and Scully sees she won’t be able to make a convincing case against the Walled Garden. Not right now. Not without evidence.

She can deploy persuasive arguments against ideas, but not against family. You can’t use logic when it comes to family.

“But that’s exactly it,” Rose argues abruptly, placing her palms flat on the surface of the table. “You can use logic when it comes to family. You have to use your head sometimes to protect your family, even when it isn’t what your heart might want.” She leans forward, speaking intently. “You know that, Dana. You, of all people, know that.”

Scully feels her lip trembling. This isn’t a lesson she would ever, ever want to impart.

“Understand that I wanted to see you,” Rose says urgently. “When I was little especially. Little kids want to have moms. But I … had to protect you. Just like you had to protect Jackson. Don’t you see that?”

There is a moment of silence, except for the clock ticking in Mulder’s kitchen. Scully shifts uneasily in her chair.

What can you say to that? Scully thinks. What can you say to mistakes made out of love, even mistakes that leave such scars?

She reaches out across the table and firmly takes Rose’s hands in her own.

“Do they listen to you?” Scully asks purposefully. “The leadership of the Walled Garden? Do you have their respect and trust?”

Rose hesitates before answering. “For the most part … usually. Yes.”

Scully’s eyes narrow. She takes in the line of Rose’s determined chin, the tiny crease between her eyebrows. Scully exhales heavily. “Okay,” she says. “Okay. I understand.”

Rose’s shoulders immediately fall in relief. “I’m so glad,” she breathes, her eyes shining. “I’m really happy. I wanted you to understand that it’s not like … I didn’t care.”

“We’ll get to see you more regularly now, right?” Scully asks tremulously. “You won’t vanish from our lives? I would like to … I would like to see you.”

Rose nods tightly. “You should know there will be risks,” she says. “It’s not entirely safe for us to have a relationship.”

“That’s fine,” Scully promises, tightening her hold on Rose’s hands. “We can deal with that. Please don’t worry about that.”

“I want to see you, too.” Rose’s voice is suddenly high. In Scully’s bifurcated vision she sees both the woman clasping her hands and the little girl on the floor coloring. Two in one, the same.

“Do you definitely have to go home today?” Scully asks. “You’re sure you can’t stay and have dinner?”

“I do,” Rose nods. “There’s something important to take care of. And I need to go back and check in—or they’ll worry.”

Scully nods somberly, not sure what to say to that. Her lip twitches involuntarily, thinking about the Walled Garden, about the many questions she has about where Rose lives, how she spends her days. Would she ever be able to see Rose’s accommodations? Would she ever be welcome there? Does Rose work or go to school?

“I should probably get going soon, actually,” Rose says, beginning to stand up from the table. “My car is parked about a mile away. I should start–”

“Rose, the Walled Garden operatives who came after Jackson,” Scully interrupts without stopping to think.

Rose freezes where she is. “Yes?”

“They mentioned that there were those in the organization who viewed Mulder and me as their flesh and blood.”

“Yes,” Rose says, nodding slowly.

“But Mulder isn’t related biologically to you.”

“No.”

“Yet they included him in that statement.”

“Like I told Mulder, most of the hybrids don’t have living family.”

“Most.” Scully feels her stomach knot.

“There are … a few others that do. Besides me.”

She considers her words for a heavy beat. Mulder must have thought of this, too. Scully knows he must have. Maybe he’s protected himself from thinking too much directly about it.

“The agricultural clones,” Scully guesses. “They are some of the hybrids that have family, too?”

Rose nods shortly. “One agricultural clone specifically,” she says.

Scully wonders if there’s some part of Mulder deep in denial that has kept him from asking Rose questions about this.

But she knows there’s a more important part of him that will, someday, want to know. That part of him that refuses to let things go. The dogged, loyal, ever-faithful part that puts family first, that never gave up on fixing things in their relationship, that always wanted to make things right with William, that set in his sights finding his sister for all those years.

It might be the very best part of Mulder. The part that made her fall in love with him. The part that went dormant when he was most depressed, and that had brought him back to life again recently.

When he’s had a chance to really think about this agriculture clone, Scully doesn't think that he’ll let go of hope where she’s concerned either.

“This clone. Does she… know she has family?”

“She does,” Rose says. “But … I don’t know what the idea of family means to her. The agricultural clones were raised differently than I was, you know. She’s older than me, but she didn’t have language until later in life.”

“What does she … what does she call herself?”

“Molly,” Rose says. She tilts her head. “Come to think of it, I think she chose it as a variant of her original’s last name. So maybe family does mean something to her.”

“I imagine Mulder might want to meet her someday.”

Scully remembers, for a moment, Mulder wanting a bigger house. More guest rooms.

Rose nods soberly. “I’ll mention it to her. See what she says.” She looks around at the kitchen, at the breakfast dishes, at the framed photos of Mulder’s parents. “Family definitely means something to Mulder, doesn’t it?”

Scully smiles. “Like it does to you.”

“I guess that’s right.”

“All those years,” Scully says wonderingly. “Were you happy? Were you loved?”

Rose’s eyes grow distant, as though she is replaying the events of the past to come to a decision on her answer.

“In some ways I was happy,” she says. “In some ways I was loved.” She pauses. “In some ways I was … neither.”

She begins to walk away, and Scully thinks to herself that she may never stop having questions for her. She may have to start making lists.

But suddenly Rose stops, and turns around halfway, speaking thoughtfully. “I think I did know what it was to love. To have that feeling ... directed towards someone else.”

She starts walking again, and her next words are almost to herself. “I’ll always be grateful to you and Jackson for that.”

***

#xfiles fanfic #the x files #x files fanfic #fox mulder #dana scully #x files #xf fanfic #msr #jackson van de kamp #x files revival #my fic #shine on

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harritudur · 1 year ago

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The Rose both Red and White by Richard Clifton-Dey (1970)

#margaret tudor #the tudors #history #I LOVE THIS ART SO MUCH #maggie my girl <3

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guttersniper · 7 months ago

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LIST 5 SONGS THAT INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE YOUR MUSE.

trouble's braids, tom waits

nature boy, nat king cole

running kind, merle haggard & the strangers

old man, neil young

the city of new orleans, arlo guthrie

bonus songs: the partisan, leonard cohen; hot and dirty in the city by labi siffre; you should've seen the other guy, nathaniel rateliff; hobo's lullaby, pete seeger + playlist

LIST 10 QUOTES THAT INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE YOUR MUSE.

try explaining a life bundled with episodes of this -- swallowing mud, swallowing glass, the smell of blood on the first four knuckles. -- richard siken

those years gaze up at me like a hound. the centuries watch as we walk off the sheer cliff of them. my eyes adjust to the dark, but my heart never. -- hua xi

one of the things i try to do: memorize the smallest, most mundane and ordinary, unprepossessing, and virtually invisible of physical moments: the look and feel of a certain wall at a certain time on a certain day. those walls, those little shacks, those cats in the sun: all that is lacking in self-consciousness i seek to hold in vision, memory. (simple composition, color tints, a wash of light, crumbled brick, cold shadow, stillness, rose-color dirt, a twitching whisker.) -- michelle anderson-binczak

people talk of "social outcasts." the words apparently denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but i feel as though i have been a "social outcast" from the moment i was born. if ever i meet someone society has designated as an outcast, i invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness. -- osamu dazai

he knew french and german. he knew the periodic table. he knew--as much as he didn't care to--large parts of the bible almost by memory. he knew how to help birth a calf and rewire a lamp and unclog a drain and the most efficient way to harvest a walnut tree and which mushrooms were poisonous and which were not and how to bale hay and how to test a watermelon, an apple, a squash, a muskmelon for freshness by thunking it in the right spot. (and then he knew things he wished he didn't, things he hoped never to have to use again, things that, when he thought of them or dreamed of them at night, made him curl into himself with hatred and shame.) -- hanya yanagihara

the girl fits her body into the space between the bed and the wall. she is a stalk, exhausted. she will do something with this. she will surround these bones with flesh. she will cultivate night vision. she will train her tongue to lie still in her mouth and listen. the girl slips into sleep. her dream is red and raging. she will remember to build something human with it. -- lucille clifton

what voice is this cut in the air as though a wound itself had speech / give her small hands / give her dark hair / give her a wound no word can reach -- christian wiman

what does it feel like to be lonely? it feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast. it feels shameful and alarming, and over time these feelings radiate outwards, making the lonely person increasingly isolated, increasingly estranged. it hurts, in the way that feelings do, and it also has physical consequences that take place invisibly, inside the closed compartments of the body. it advances, is what i'm trying to say, cold as ice and clear as glass, enclosing and engulfing. -- olivia liang

maybe it’s better to have the terrible times first. i don’t know. maybe then, you can have, if you live, a better life, a real life, because you had to fight so hard to get it away--you know?--from the mad dog who held it in his teeth. but then your life has all those tooth marks, too, all those tatters and all that blood. -- james baldwin

out there where small things scratched and sometimes touched. where words could be spoken that would close your ears shut. where, if you were alone, feeling could overtake you and stick to you like a shadow. out there where there were places in which things so bad had happened that when you went near them it would happen again. -- toni morrison

bonus quotes: there is nothing in this story that’s not a dagger. (hieu minh nguyen); this may be unpleasant to consider, may even be a bad place to begin, but if there were a nicer way to tell this story it wouldn’t be this story. (catherine lacey); most of it happened without music, the clink of a spoon from the kitchen. / someone talking. silence. / someone sleeping. someone watching somebody sleep. (marie howe); look now: my heart is a fist of barbed wire. (analicia sotelo); now you wear your skin like iron and your breath as hard as kerosene. (townes van zandt); i seize on little things / you can tell a lot about people / by the way they comb their hair / or the way they don't look you in the eye. (nikki giovanni)

#i could write sooooo much more #but i stopped myself #guys!! do this! do this guys! you guys!#hc.

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brokehorrorfan · 7 months ago

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Phantoms will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on July 16 via Scream Factory. The 1988 sci-fi horror film is based on Dean Koontz's 1983 novel of the same name.

Joe Chappelle (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers) directs from a script by Koontz. Peter O'Toole, Rose McGowan, Joanna Going, Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Clifton Powell, and Michael DeLorenzo star.

Special features will be announced at a later date.

In the small village of Snowfield, Colorado, something evil has been awakened from its centuries-long slumber … something with the power to wipe out humanity as we know it. The unsuspecting Dr. Jennifer Pailey (Joanna Going) brings her sister Lisa (Rose McGowan) to Snowfield, only to find the town empty but for a few survivors. As the tension and terror mount, only the few who have been left behind — the Pailey sisters, a noted journalist (Peter O'Toole), the town sheriff (Ben Affleck), and his deputy (Liev Schreiber) — stand between the mysterious entity that lurks beneath Snowfield and the rest of mankind … if they can survive.

Pre-order Phantoms.

#phantoms #dean koontz #peter o'toole #rose mcgowan #ben affleck #liev schreiber #clifton powell #scream factory #dvd #gift #horror #90s horror #1990s horror #joe chappelle #bo hopkins

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alices-cakery · 10 months ago

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WOOH WOOH GAME TIME

Guess what happens in the endings just from the names

1. Snack

2. Resting/Bad ending

3. ..Good ending?

4. True ending.

5. Whoops!

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lightsonparkave · 10 months ago

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The future is yet to be written, its pages fresh and untouched. The dawn of a new year brings great possibility and hope for a better life, a better world.

The theme for Lights on Park Ave Round 51 is hope. As a reminder, each round will now be two months long, at least for the time being.

Here are the prompts:

Waymond telling Evelyn that he chooses to see the good in things to survive in the Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once

"Insha'Allah" by Danusha Laméris

A quote from The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket about hoping for the best despite the odds

"Arrival of the Birds" - The Cinematic Orchestra

"Transformation" - The Cinematic Orchestra

Sookhee throwing Hideko's glove, fake wedding ring, and fake mustache overboard as they escape to a life of freedom together from Park Chanwook's The Handmaiden

Almond Blossom by Vincent van Gogh with accompanying information about the painting

"Let there be new flowering" - Lucille Clifton

Dom telling Yas's ex that he doesn't know how things will end with Yas, but the day they spent together was one of the best and weirdest days ever from Raine Allen-Miller's Rye Lane

A quote about being tortured by hope from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

An excerpt about turning hope into action from Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

"Agape" - Nicholas Britell (If Beale Street Could Talk OST)

A sentence about the moment before arrival from Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson

A text post about the significance behind the Voyager Golden Record

The Doctor saying that out of the entire universe, the one thing he believes in is Rose from Doctor Who

Steve realizing they won and smiling at Tony after the Battle of New York in The Avengers

Round 51 will end on February 29, 11:59 PM ET (what time is that for me?). It's a leap year so you have one extra day!

As always, you’re free to jump in whenever you’d like during the round, a wide variety of work types is accepted, and there are no minimum work requirements. Unfinished works and works for other fandom events are allowed. You can find more information about Lights on Park Ave and the participation guidelines here.

#stevetony #superhusbands #stony #steve/tony #stevetony prompts #stony prompts #lightsonparkave #round 51

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bdslab · 2 years ago

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Best BD Character Tournament

Nominations are closed and the bracket is set! It's time to see who comes on top! Polls will open on Feb 24 at 6AM EST and will run for 1 day each. I'll include links to each poll here after it goes live.

Honorable mention: Weekly (Blacksad) also received a nomination but unfortunately was randomly chosen of the nominees with one vote to sit out of the contest.

The Favorites (most likely to make it to semifinals): Gaston Lagaffe (Gaston) - 12 nominations Astérix (Astérix) - 7 nominations Blutch (Les Tuniques Bleues) - 7 nominations Fantasio (Spirou & Fantasio) - 6 nominations

Round 1

Gaston Lagaffe/Gomer Goof (Gaston) vs Gretchen Webb (Zombillénium)

Lady d'Olfine/d'Olphine (Benoît Brisefer) vs Billy the Cat (Billy the Cat)

Corto Maltese (Corto Maltese) vs Timber Smurf (The Smurfs)

Léon Prunelle (Gaston) vs Brainy Smurf/Schtroumpf à Lunettes (The Smurfs)

Haddock (Tintin) vs Navee/Nävis (Sillage)

Zorglub (Spirou & Fantasio) vs Ian/Yves Lebrac (Gaston)

Getafix/Panoramix (Astérix) vs Dodji (Seuls)

Mélusine (Mélusine) vs Guilhem de Landrey (La Rose Écarlate)

Fantasio (Spirou & Fantasio) vs Calculus/Tournesol (Tintin)

Cacofonix/Assurancetourix (Asterix) vs Clifton (Clifton)

Lucky Luke (Lucky Luke) vs Joe Dalton (Lucky Luke)

Léonard (Léonard) vs Vicky (Les Nombrils)

Obélix (Asterix) vs Seccotine (Spirou & Fantasio)

Dogmatix/Idéfix (Astérix) vs Rasputin (Corto Maltese)

Jérôme K. Jérôme Bloche (Jérôme K. Jérôme Bloche) vs Rubine (Rubine)

Chesterfield (Les Tuniques Bleues) vs Shimy (Les Légendaires)

Astérix (Astérix) vs Valérian (Valérian)

Benny Breakiron/Benoît Brisefer (Benoît Brisefer) vs Philip Mortimer (Blake & Mortimer)

Jimmy Mc Clure (Blueberry) vs Grouchy Smurf/Schtroumpf Grognon (The Smurfs)

Mister Invincible/Imbattable (Imbattable) vs Jokey Smurf/Schtroumpf Farceur (The Smurfs)

Tintin (Tintin) vs Spip (Spirou & Fantasio)

Snowy/Milou (Tintin) vs Eusèbe (De Cape et De Crocs)

Blacksad (Blacksad) vs Sammy (Sammy)

Averell Dalton (Lucky Luke) vs Le Scrameustache (Le Scrameustache)

Blutch (Les Tuniques Bleues) vs Tootuff/Titeuf (Titeuf)

Julius Caesar (Astérix) vs Sonny Tuckson (Buck Danny)

Blueberry (Blueberry) vs Lili (Lili)

Peewit/Pirlouit (Johan & Pirlouit) vs Régis Renaud (Les Petits Hommes)

Spirou (Spirou & Fantasio) vs Zantafio (Spirou & Fantasio)

Yoko Tsuno (Yoko Tsuno) vs Armand de Maupertuis (De Cape et De Crocs)

Gil Jourdan (Gil Jourdan) vs La coccinelle de Gotlib (Rubrique-à-brac)

Lou (Lou!) vs Jadina (Les Légendaires)

#i still don't think the other tags are active so I'll leave it there #I'll tag the series when it's the individual polls though #Good luck!#text #Best of BDs contest

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ollie-olliebaby · 4 months ago

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"Hello? This is Ollie!" Their voice was chipper as they answered the phone that aftertnoon. Balancing a box of files and a freshly made beverage in their grasp, they almost didn't catch the name that was being said on the other line.

"Uh..hello, my name is Clifton Malo. I'm looking for an Olivia Malo?"

Stopping dead in their tracks, it took them a moment to process what was being said. They hadn't heard their birth name in years. Dropping the box sending its contents scattering across the apartment floor, their drink going with it; Ollie's heart dropped.

"Hello? Hello?" The voice said again. "...please don't hang up." They begged.

"It's...uh....my name is Ollie Malo...can I help you with something?" They asked, the weariness of someone twice their age very evident.

"Oh, uh sorry, Ollie. I uh....jesus how do I say this.." He mumbled. "My name is Clifton...and I uh, well if what I've found to be correct.." There was a moment of poignent silence. Like he was trying to find the best way to break this news.

"I'm your father."

Stumbling back a bit into the nearst hard surface, in this case their hallway wall, Ollie couldn't bring themselves to speak. Frankly all they wanted to do was chuck their phone across the room and pretend it had never happened. But, they couldn't do that, could they? They still had an option to hang up.

"How did you find this number?" They asked after silence on both of their ends. Ollie was already starting to build up the needed walls to protect their heart. If anything, this wouldn't be a reapeat of what happened with their mother.

"I uh, well I've been searching for your moth-...well for Raina. For decades now, and when I finally hit a break through a few years ago she addmitted, albeit very reluctantly, that she had a child. And that the child was mine. Seems we both had the same intention. She mentioned meeting you and how that went."

The tears were starting to sting the back of their eyes. It was taking everything in them not to just let the flood gates open up. "Okay....I do-don't...what do you.." Words were hard. Thinking was hard.

This was hard.

Clifton let out a sigh, running his fingers through his salt and peppered hair. "I know...this is a lot to ask of you. This is a lot for anyone to go through. But, I would like to meet you. I want to explain myself? If that would help anything. I promise you if I had known you were in this world, I wouldn't have let her give you up."

"Please...can we meet? Anywhere that you are comfortable, I just...I'd like a chance. If you are willing to give me just once chance and then if you never want to see me again, I unders-" Clifton was starting to babble a little bit. A trait Ollie must have picked up from them.

"Enchanted Rose Cafe. Thirty minutes." And with that statement they hung up the phone.

Ollie wanted nothing more than in that moment to sink into the baseboards of that hallway floor. To let the all of the knots and cracks in the wood stain to swallow them up and make them disapper. But this was what they wanted, right? To find their family.

It took another ten or so minutes for OIlie to peel themselves off the chestnut polish on the ground and get ready to leave.

They tried their hardest to not think too hard as they went down to the cafe. "I wonder what he looks like? Is he old? Does have grey hair?I wonder if he chews at his nails like I do." Too many thoughts were spinning through their brain as they came up to the door. About to grab the handle, a tember voice stopped them.

"Ollie!" Clifton called out from his spot at one of the outside tables.

There he was. Standing in all is 6'2 glory. Clifton Malo.

Ollie's Father.

Ollie hated how much they looked like their parents. They could see it when they had met their mother, they could see it even more now meeting Clifton.

"Hi.." They said gently. Their usual bubbly personality locked and protected behind the wall they had newly constructed. Unsure of where to take things now. "Please, come sit." He said gesturing over toward a table that already had one of their favorite drinks sitting there.

"I uh wasn't sure what you liked, but someone that worked here seemed to know you, so they made this." Taking a seat, he waited patiently for Ollie to join him and when they finally did, a sort of relaztion settled into his shoulders.

"So...what did you want?" Ollie asked, wanting to get right to the point.

"A chance." He replied. "A chance to say that I'm sorry for what you have been through. To try and make up for lost time? I know it's probably a lost cause. So much time has been lost and I know I am partially at faul-"

"It's not your fault you didn't know about me." Ollie stepped in. "...it was my mo-...it was Raina's fault." Picking at the skin around their nails, Ollie couldn't bring themselves to meet his gaze quite yet. "You say that if you had known about me, you would have wanted me?" They questioned.

Clifton nodded his head. "If there is one thing I've always wanted, it was kids. I always wanted to have a family. I thought I would have had that with Raina, despite her having children from a previous relationship, I was ready to take on that responsiblity."

"How noble of you." Ollie almost sneered.

Licking at his lips, Clifton let out another sigh. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I can say outside of that. Just know that I did want you. I do want you, Ollie. If you'd give me the chance, I'd like to get to know you more. Introduce you to family. You've got aunts, uncles, cousins and a very lovely set of grandparents that want to meet you, whenever you are ready."

Ollie swallowed hard, there eyes glazed over with fresh tears. Again, it was something they had always wanted. To have a family of their own. One that looked like them, shared stories of family members long since gone. With the cheesy nicknames and the family love that just about every other family had.

"And what if I'm never ready? What if I've found a family that loves me and cares for me. Who calls me on my birthdays and invites me out for holidays. Who lets me call them at 2am because I had a bad day and I needed to talk to someone. What if I have that and I don't want anything to do with you?" There was a bit of venom in their words. Which was rightly justified. Clifton new that, which was why he took it in stride.

"Then we will part ways after today, and I won't try and contact you." Watching him reach into his pocket, he pulled out a little business card. "This is my information. My personal cell phone, address and email. If...if you ever want to know more, I am ready to tell you anything."

"I've spent years! Searching for people who were mine. For people that were my blood. I understand that Raina fucked us both over, but you can't just waltz in here thinking things are going to be right as rain now." Ollie could feel themselves getting a little hysterical. "I've always wanted a father." They said after a brief pause to reflect. "Someone who would protect me..from everything in the world. To protect me from myself when the days got to rough. But, I didn't get that. I had to learn to protect myself. No thanks to you or Raina."

The tears had started to flow at this point, with little sign of stopping. Clifton picked up a napkain, reaching it out to them Ollie hissed and recolied. "I don't want anything from you." They murmured, finally meeting his eyes. "Right now, I don't want anything from you. You may have aided in my birth, but you are not my father." Getting up from the table, Ollie watched as the light in Clifton's eyes seemed to dim. He had been hoping for this moment as much as they had.

Eyes glancing down again to the business card, they picked it up off the table. Turning it over a few times in their grip, Ollie let out a shaky breath. "This....today was a mistake. I thought I would be ready...but I'm not."

"So...maybe one day?" Clifton ventured, a tinge of hope in his voice.

"Maybe." Ollie replied as they backed away.

"Just not today."

And with that, Ollie turned and left. Leaving a sad, yet hopeful Clifton in the dust as they ran back home.

#muse #drabble 2 #tw dead name mention

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