#credit to mailman for the head references

[z0urcherri]

Some cool Graham Payser icons you can use on your Tumblr or your Discord. Background was made by me and heavily inspired by that one War Paint in TF2 :)

[latibvles]

one hell of a reunion.

a continuation of this, but from Buck’s point of view, which was fun to write. this is for the prompt "reunited". trigger warning for discussion of character death & depictions of injuries — Viv references a beating but doesn’t go into explicit detail. Our favorite pilot isn’t doing too well! Don’t look too hard at any historical inaccuracies it’s my party and we can have some inaccuracies for the plot as a treat.

—

i.

There is nothing quite like it: the dread of waiting.

He’d felt it during the week without Bucky, when Brady showed up asking for him about three days after Buck himself had wound up here. It was miserable, waiting at that fence like some kid waiting for the mailman. Miserable still, when Inez and Harriet came the day after Bucky, asking about the rest of their crew, and Buck quickly realized he was not done waiting.

They talk about it: what and who went down — although it’s more like Inez talks about it and Harriet’s head hangs low in a way Buck’s never seen before, and it kills him a little bit. She’s got a black and blue bruise curling around her eye that he doesn’t ask about for the sake of not losing his own mind on one of these guards.

Two unlucky bastards from the 95th were their stand-ins for Willie and Jo, the former in the hospital, the latter probably on her way to the flak house. He could see it, Viv fighting to get in the air anyway because everyone else was going.

“It was like our whole tail got blown off,” Inez is holding Harrie’s hand tightly, like she might slip away otherwise. “Fighter jets tore up our whole waist. Then there was a rocket. Engine fire on the way out. We lost Fern, Carrie, Lorraine.”

There are two sides to waiting.

Knowing that three of them wouldn’t be coming home doesn’t bring any comfort. Knowing three of them were still out there, probably, perpetuates the restlessness Buck has been feeling for days.

June, Lena, Viv — Benny starts pacing around so often that Buck thinks he just might start digging a trench that takes up the whole block. Bucky and himself are little more than ghosts staring at the fence when the siren goes off, a few steps behind Inez and Harrie, the former clinging to the fence like a lifeline or a promise.

As much as they all knew nothing was guaranteed, there were still parts of them that wanted to believe some things could be. Even Buck himself wasn’t immune to it: being shot down never once occurred to him, Bucky being shot down two days later never occurred to him. The prospect of Viv dead somewhere never once crossed his mind. To his credit, neither of them would ever let him think like that if they could help it.

And so he hates this: this waiting, the hoping, and the dreading, and all that comes with it.

There is no privacy here. They feign it anyway. They pretend not to hear Harriet’s quiet sniffling on the first night, up in the third row of bunks. That nearly kills Buck. By the fourth night, Bucky laments in a quiet mumble how he didn’t set things up right with an air of finality to it that doesn’t sit right in Buck’s bones. He doesn’t push for details. He doesn’t have to. Your move, Viv, is all Buck thinks, into the silence of the room. Now or never. 

That last part, even in his head, sounds like her.

It is four more days of trudging along. Eight days — longer than a week, and on that eighth day, Buck doesn’t bring himself to wait by the fence anymore, and neither does Bucky, so Crank goes instead with the girls. There’s something implicitly unsafe about leaving them alone in a place like this, and Crank’s been good to them. Kept his head on straight, miraculously enough, and for that, Buck is grateful. Better than Benny, who paces, or he and Bucky, who are being consumed by their waiting, or Brady, who looks guilty for things he can’t control.

Willie’s back in England after all, but of course John Brady will be guilty over the one, minimal comfort he has.

On the eighth day, Harriet practically knocks the door down — a bat out of hell — and Buck can’t believe he’d forgotten how much of a livewire the girl could be. She’s flush-faced and panting, but still points decisively.

“Need… hah… one’o you big boys… Cap ain’t walkin’ right,” is what she says between wheezes. “M’not… not tall enough.” And Buck startles, half-because he thinks Harriet’s about to collapse but she bats his hands away with a smile and a “Not me, you goof! Over there!” Gesturing wildly to the outside, and Buck follows her as Brady moves to get Harriet water and guide her into a chair. Bucky’s right behind him as they step out into the grayscale yard.

They walk maybe a couple feet before stopping and Bucky says exactly what Buck is thinking.

“Holy shit— Viv?” Disbelieving, gaping, even from a few feet away. Buck recognizes the faces instantly: the bright red of Lena Connolly’s hair and the golden blonde of June Cielinski.

“That you, Cleven?!” It’s Lena who speaks, not Viv. Viv currently has an arm slung over Crank’s shoulders, leaning on him. Buck knows it’s taking Bucky everything in him not to break out into a run like a madman, but they’re both moving with a sense of urgency.

It doesn’t take a genius to know they’ve been through hell.

There’s a split running through June’s lip and the three of them look gaunt and tired. Lena still smiles from ear-to-ear and he reaches out to give both June and Lena’s arms a meaningful squeeze. They were careful now, with the girls — not wanting to draw attention to them with loud welcomes and tight embraces. But he lets Viv use his shoulders as Lena recalls that their pilot’s been limping since the crash and took a hard fall on the train platform. There’s something relieving about the weight on his shoulders and how real it feels.

“Should get that checked out. We could ask around about a doctor.” He keeps his voice low. Viv shakes her head and lifts her gaze and Buck finally sees how tired she looks, dark circles coupled with a bruise on her cheek that has his jaw clenching.

“Don’t need it. I’m fine.” Her voice is hoarse, scratchy. Buck’s brows furrow.

“You kidding? You can barely stand.”

“But I am.”

“Viv—”

“Cleven I swear to God—” Viv snaps. Cleven, not Buck, not even Gale. He doesn’t think he’s heard Cleven leave her mouth since Nebraska. He isn’t sure if those fingers digging into his shoulder are a means of grasping onto him tighter or a means of warning him like the way a dog bares its teeth. And then she reels back and breaks away from looking at him — her voice softer like she’s remembering who he is. “Just… I just need to sit. And get the boot off.”

This is not the woman that he knows. Maybe he’s seen her in passing, but Buck’s not used to these bared teeth being flung around so carelessly. She’s already made up her mind. Bucky gets the door on the way in, and June and Lena take off with that whirlwind swiftness that’s so intrinsic to that whole damn crew. Viv hasn’t said a word still.

They make it to their room, to girls in a tight embrace, and they wait until Viv’s eased into a chair to shower her with the same relieved affection. Her eyes just flutter shut for a moment with a long sigh as Harriet hugs her head. Everything is in motion, except for Viv herself, and that sight unsettles Buck to his bones. June is walking past to throw herself into Benny’s embrace, so tight that Buck thinks for the briefest moment they might crush each other into dust as Benny buries his face in her hair.

He doesn’t miss the stiffness to Bucky’s shoulders as he grabs another chair and goes about undoing Viv’s boot, he doesn’t miss how neither of them have hardly said a word. Viv reflexively reaches for Buck when he pulls the boot off, squeezing the life out of his wrist and face contorting into a wince — her whole damn ankle swelled up like a baseball. Bucky looks up, Viv looks down, Bucky looks at Buck.

“I’ll go poking around for ice. Maybe an extra pillow.” He rubs on her ankle for a moment before Harriet goes to snatch one of the pillows from an unclaimed bottom bunk to put on the chair as Bucky rises and sees himself out of the room.

Buck would hardly call it a reunion.

ii.

The Vivian that Buck knows and the Vivian that arrived at the Stalag feel almost completely different, and Buck knows that he isn’t the only one to notice the shift. She’s quiet, more often than not. She still waves off any attempt to help her, which she’s always done — but the patience is gone. Maybe not gone, maybe just in short supply; he’ll be the last to complain about anyone being in a bad mood, and it’s not like she’s started breaking things.

She stumbles, once, and there’s at least eight hands there to keep her upright, and it’s the first time Buck’s seen her look ashamed. Avoiding eye contact with anyone who helps her — no exceptions — and he’s pretty sure that part of it is killing Bucky a little bit. It’s killing him too, if he’s being completely honest, in the same way that Harriet’s sniffling on her first night did. The same way that waiting did.

Sometimes cracks of the woman Buck knows seeps through: when Lena says something especially sarcastic, or June and Benny start bickering quietly over their sad excuse of a dinner. He always finds himself looking over at her, hoping for a smile. The most he gets these days is the steely gaze softening a little, a small twinge of the corner of her mouth.

He keeps a careful eye on the other four girls and doesn’t try to hover too much. Bucky keeps things within reach of her hands or in places where she doesn’t have to move too far, but just enough to keep her a little bit independent.

“She’s just gotta get her head right,” The reminder sounds more like her voice than his own, even as he says it aloud. Bucky gives him a skeptical look. “It’s this place. Once she’s walking right it’ll be different.”

“You really believe that?”

When did Buck become the optimistic one?

“I do.” Another week has gone by, and it doesn’t take a genius to know that this place has a way of sucking the life out of you. You either end up restless or resigned. He can really only imagine what it feels like to show up half-alive already.

He gives Bucky’s shoulder a squeeze before heading into the billet, and stepping into the room.

Viv is sitting at her usual spot at the table, foot propped up. They couldn’t do much in the way of ice, so rags doused in water and left out to freeze overnight were the next best solution. Beside her is a half-eaten breakfast of bread and potatoes. He eyes the book curiously, before letting a small smile creep onto his face.

“Don’t let Bucky catch that, he’ll never let you hear the end of it.”

“Oh he gave me the earful last night when I asked him for it,” Viv peers over the battered copy of Runyon a la Carte. “‘Takes a crash landing and an ankle sprain for you to give it a shot’ he said. Kept going on and on…” She trails off, head bowing like a dog with its tail between his legs. Buck can see it now: Bucky, probably trying to make her laugh, and Viv not being able to give him much in the way of a reaction. Do you really believe that?

It’s really the most she’s spoken in days, and Buck feels almost greedy to keep her talking. Like it’s some proof of progress.

“And that ankle?”

“Hurts.”

“Could be worse.” Viv snorts, something sardonic and venom filled as she shuts the book with a shake of her head.

“Oh yeah,” sarcasm seeps into her words, “I could’ve blown up somewhere over Germany. Give you all one less problem to deal with? That’s way worse.”

“Is that what you think?” Gale asks, somewhere between hardly believing her words and understanding them completely. Viv gestures to the space around them.

“That’s what I know,” she counters, like she’s taking root in her stance with no intention to change it. “You’ve got that… that radio you’ve been working on. And when it’s not working right that’s how Bucky keeps himself useful. Benny’s fucking knitting. Most I’ve done since fucking Bremen is taken a beating in a transit camp ‘cause they thought I was lying about June being American. So don’t—” her voice cracks a little bit as it trembles on each word. She looks away for a moment. “Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not a problem sitting here doing fuck-all. I know what I am.”

There’s so much that Buck wants to say, but he’s combing through the words. Because he could tell her about how even in the moment that they’d seen her it was like they could all breathe again. No longer the kid waiting for the mailman — he didn’t care that she wasn’t going straight to work. They just wanted her to be here.

And then Buck thinks of Viv promising to get Bucky back to barracks when he calls it an early night, and Viv wrapping her knuckles after knocking the teeth in of a stranger who’d gotten too close to a replacement, and Viv worming her way up to the control tower to count forts — and doing it on the tarmac, too, hair all mussed from the helmet, scratches on her face. The letters she’d written to crews’ families just because she knew them and would call them friends. A runway in Nebraska, star-filled night: none of this works if you’re not onboard with it, too, Cleven. Don’t make me haul you up here with me.

Christ, she’d been making herself useful since the beginning. Didn’t complain, didn’t have a fit about it, didn’t even expect a thank you. Viv was the last person who should’ve been worried about being a problem.

“Think you’ve earned it — it’s not any trouble, you know that, too,” Buck reaches over to grab the back of her chair, pulling it closer to his own before reaching under the table leg for the half-finished radio he’d been working with for the past few days. “What you are, is alive, and you could ask anyone who comes through that door if they think you’d be better off dead and I think you’d already know the answer to that,” he continues, then sets the radio on the table. “But if you want to be useful, hold this in place for me.” He gestures to the wooden platform that the radio’s being built upon.

Viv looks at him for a long moment, like she’s waiting for something. She looks… small, in a way that he’s only seen in minor increments — when it dawned on them that Curt really wasn’t coming back, or when Dye pointed out how many crews they’d lost by the time he hit twenty-five missions. But she doesn’t quickly mask it like she might’ve before. Her lips, in spite of that small, bordering on kicked-puppy expression, curl into a smile. Something proper and alive, as opposed to the ghost of a lip twitch that she’d been giving sparingly.

“There she is,” Buck can’t help it, and Viv lets out some type of breathless laugh, knowing what he means. She rolls her eyes in a way that’s both playfully annoyed and so, so familiar.

“Shut up, Buck.” She holds the base steady while Buck fiddles with screws and wires.

It’s one hell of a reunion.

[blood-moon-night-coining]

Vultureliege

[PT: Vultureliege]

Vultureliege, a term to refer to someone who’s gender is both Xenic(link) and Gorture(link), but they full embrace their Gorture side while connecting closer to being Xenic.

(Basically someone who is extremely Gorture but connects with being Xenic over it)

The “eye” is the Xenic symbol

[ID: Three almost identical flags with nine stripes. The fourth and sixth are the thickest, followed by the second and eighth, outermost, and middle. Colors top to bottom are light red, red, darker red, dark red-brown, pale orange, dark magenta, darker magenta, bright magenta, and light magenta. The left and right flags have a black profile of bird head and the left one has a white spiral with a thin oval over it in the place of the eye. End ID]

(ID credit: @accessmogai)

[Tagging] @radiomogai, @horrormogai, @gorevesil, and @accessmogai

[Gourture maker] @gender-mailman

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press: A Thorough Breakdown of All the Marvel Easter Eggs on WandaVision

POPSUGAR: WandaVision has finally arrived, and it’s chock-full of hidden goodies for Marvel fans to devour! While the series is built upon a mystery that we’ll be spending a reported nine episodes trying to figure out, the smallest details in each episode provide clues on where the show is heading. From supermarket banners to foreboding commercials, viewers have an abundance of references and callbacks to classic comic lore and pivotal MCU moments. Are they setting the stage for a big reveal at the end, or are they just fun details included for fans to enjoy? While we try to figure it all out, scroll through to see what we’ve gathered! And check back every week for an episode-by-episode breakdown as WandaVision progresses.

  WandaVision Episode 5 Easter Eggs

Wanda and Vision’s brand new house, suitable for a family of four, is reminiscent of homes in ’80s sitcoms such as Full House and Growing Pains.

When Agnes comes in to offer her babysitting help, she refers to herself as “Auntie Agnes,” which is eerily close to her comic counterpart’s nickname, Auntie Agatha.

An uncomfortable break in conversation leads Agnes to ask Wanda if she wants her to “take it from the top.” Though Wanda appears confused for a moment, she readily smoothes the conversation and carries on. Vision is visibly perturbed, though Wanda attempts to redirect his attention. It seems like the facade is fading all around.

To the surprise of their parents, Tommy and Billy age up five years while the two argue over Agnes’s break in character.

This episode’s opening sequence shows Wanda and Vision growing up, which we know didn’t happen in real life for the synthezoid. The theme song sounds very similar to those from Family Ties and Growing Pains, and consists of lyrics noting that “we’re just making it up as we go along.” Sounds pretty close to how things are going with Wanda and Vision!

When Wanda’s scans come back, they’re inconclusive and show up blank. Considering Monica gains her powers due to bombardment by extradimensional energies in the comics, it’s entirely possible that the blast from Wanda back in episode three, coupled with passing through the forcefield around Westview twice, have given her those abilities. We could be seeing the rise of Photon!

While Jimmy Woo is explaining Wanda’s backstory to the agents of S.W.O.R.D., Director Hayward asks if she’s ever used a “funny nickname” like the other Avengers. She hasn’t, in fact, she’s never been referred to as Scarlet Witch in the MCU ever. Since her powers are different from her comic book counterpart, there’s never been a reason for anyone to call her a witch.

That never-before-seen post credits scene from Infinity War has officially made its debut. Director Hayward reveals footage of Wanda entering S.W.O.R.D. headquarters to steal Vision’s disassembled body. The video harks back to a moment in the comics where Vision was kidnapped and taken apart — but still very much alive. Much like that Vision, the one in Westview has his memory wiped and doesn’t remember anything before he woke up in his new world. So, the question is whether Vision is actually alive or not. Wanda’s hallucination from episode four might suggest he’s a walking corpse, but there’s more to the story.

Jimmy mentions that Wanda’s stealing of Vision’s body violates the Sokovia Accords, which haven’t been mentioned since Captain America: Civil War. Unfunnily enough, the Accords were a direct response to the mission gone wrong in Lagos where Wanda lost control of her powers and caused the death of many civilians.

Darcy mentions that Vision is playing “Father Knows Best in Surburbia,” referencing the ’50s sitcom.

Tommy and Billy find a dog that, with the help of Auntie Agnes, they name Sparky. The Vision family has a dog with that exact name in the King and Walta comics, but he’s green. Sadly, he meets a similar fate as his live-action counterpart.

Wanda blatantly uses her powers in front of Agnes, who has seemingly handled the magic around her with ease. It’s almost as if she’s used to magic.

Darcy calls the Westview anomaly the “hex” because of its hexagonal shape. Although the magic has been taken out of the phrase, Wanda’s powers are known as hexes in the comics.

Jimmy, Monica, and Darcy try to understand how Wanda can revive Vision and control the Hex, which takes much more power than she’s ever displayed before. Monica notes that Wanda has always been powerful, being the only Avenger who was close to taking down Thanos singlehandedly, which Jimmy interjects to note that Captain Marvel could as well. Both are empowered by Infinity Stones, with Carol’s Kree biology giving her a power boost.

When Jimmy brings up Captain Marvel, Monica is visibly uncomfortable and changes the subject back to Wanda. What happened there?

Vision’s office mates learn about the sweet glory that is dial-up internet! But when he and Norm open their first bit of electronic mail, it’s a transmission picked up from S.W.O.R.D. talking about the Maximoff anomaly.

Vision breaks through Norm’s conditioning, revealing that he’s under the control of a woman (alluding to it being Wanda). He directly references his family, a conversation that Jimmy mentioned in his notes in the last episode.

The twins have aged themselves up to 10 by this point and are seemingly completely aware that Wanda has control over certain aspects of life, like time. They point out that it was Saturday when they woke up, but Wanda says it’s now Monday. She apparently changed the day to send Vision to work. Is their awareness because they also have magic or because she doesn’t control them?

Monica sends an ’80s drone into Westview after working out that Wanda’s Hex is rewriting reality to suit each era occurring in the bubble, and the drone would need no era-appropriate change. Though she attempts to speak with Wanda through the drone, Director Hayward commands agents to fire a missile at Wanda instead — directly ignoring that Monica said she doesn’t see Wanda as a danger. The action results in Wanda leaving the Hex and confronting the S.W.O.R.D. agents outside. She’s wearing the suit we last saw her wearing in Infinity War and Endgame and has her accent back, although it’s much thicker than it’s been since Ultron.

Episode five’s commercial is more pointed than any of them have been. Lagos brand paper towels directly reference the city in which Wanda accidentally killed several people in Civil War by blowing up a building. Thus, the Sokovia Accords were born.

While Wanda and the twins are searching for a missing Sparky — with no one calling out the fact that Wanda disappeared for some time — the mailman tells the boys that their mom “won’t let him get far.” It seems almost like a dig at how no one can leave Westview, like the doctor mentioned during episode three.

When Agnes reveals that Sparky died after eating too many azalea bush leaves, the boys ask their mother to reverse his death. Agnes seems particularly surprised by the idea of Wanda having that ability despite having seen other displays of her power and watching the twins age up rapidly twice. Wanda tells the twins that they can’t reverse death as there are still rules to things, which almost seems hypocritical considering her circumstances. Is she trying to say that she hasn’t revived Vision? Or is she simply trying to keep her boys from expecting too much from her?

Later that night, Vision reveals that he unearthed Norm’s repressed memories and demands to know what’s going on. He tells Wanda that she can’t control him, which she cooly responds asking him, “Can’t I?” Although the credits start rolling, their argument continues as Vision unleashes his frustration with not knowing his past and his confusion over their circumstances. Wanda tells him that she doesn’t control everything, saying, “I don’t even know how all of this started.” Vision believes it began subconsciously, but chastises Wanda for letting it get that far. Wanda reiterates that she isn’t controlling everything, which gives weight to the theory that there’s someone else behind the scenes. But who could it be if Wanda isn’t the “she” that Norm was referring to?

Mid-argument, the Vision family doorbell rings, which Wanda states she didn’t do. I’m inclined to believe her because when she opens the door, she is genuinely shocked speechless. At the door is her “brother” Pietro, now sporting the face of Evan Peters. Darcy asks the question we were all thinking as the episode closes, “She recast Pietro!?”

  WandaVision Episode 4 Easter Eggs

This episode opens with the heartbreaking reveal that Monica Rambeau was one of the people lost to the Snapture from Infinity War. She returns from Endgame’s Reverse-Snap in a hospital where she had been awaiting news after her mother Maria’s surgery.

As Monica is waking up, we hear familiar voices echoing in her head. It’s Captain Marvel calling her by her childhood nickname, Lieutenant Trouble.

As Monica weaves through the chaos of people reappearing in the hospital post-Reverse-Snap, she finally locates someone who recognizes her. Although Maria survived the surgery five years ago, she died from cancer three years ago in real time, having not been blipped with her daughter.

We finally have some information on S.W.O.R.D.! The acronym stands for Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division, rather than the meaning in Marvel comics, which is Sentient World. It sounds a little more ominous, right?

Maria’s badass legacy continues well past her friendship with Captain Marvel; according to S.WO.R.D.’s acting director, Tyler Hayward, Maria helped build the agency during its inception. She was the acting director until her death.

Tim gives Monica a mission to help out the FBI in the town of WestView, NJ, where something super freaky is going on with a missing person’s case. This confirms that WestView is, indeed, a very real place.

Welcome back, Jimmy Woo! Monica’s FBI contact is none other than Scott Lang’s parole officer and semifriend, Agent Jimmy Woo.

Jimmy reveals that a person in witness protection has somehow dropped off the map in a town that no longer seems to exist where no one recalls anyone who lived there. In an attempt to figure out what’s going on, Monica sends in a S.W.O.R.D. drone that vanishes inside the forcefield. It’s revealed to have transformed into the retro-style helicopter that Wanda picks up in episode two! We can only assume that since it’s an item from the outside world, it gained color when it entered Wanda’s reality to show that it doesn’t belong.

Darcy Lewis is back! Now a doctor in astrophysics, Darcy is called to help figure out what’s gone wrong with WestView. She’s the one who figured out a signal for the broadcast and is the owner of the hand we saw watching Wanda and Vision in episode one.

The mysterious beekeeper from episode two is revealed to be S.W.O.R.D.’s Agent Franklin, who journeyed through Westview’s sewers to investigate. His hazmat suit became a beekeeper’s uniform, and the cable around his waist becomes a jump rope as he travels through the tunnels.

Darcy explains that the sitcom that’s become Wanda and Vision’s life is literally being broadcast through the signals that S.W.O.R.D.’s viewing, with an audience and everything. There’s no explanation for how this is happening, but Darcy and company watched those first three episodes just like we did, credits and all.

Darcy also points out that Vision is supposed to be dead-dead, which leaves his presence in WestView still unexplained.

While Darcy and Jimmy can identity a majority of the neighbors we’ve met in WestView to their real-life counterparts, Dottie and Agnes are the only ones who are missing real information.

It’s revealed that Agent Woo was the voice behind the radio disruption, just as we suspected! But while we can see Wanda and Dottie’s reaction to the call, Darcy’s broadcast didn’t show the same thing. She explains that someone is “censoring” the visuals they’re receiving, which means someone knows they’re watching.

Back in the sitcom WestView, we see that Monica’s slip-up resulted in Wanda blasting her through the house and the energy field. It’s the first time we physically see Wanda using her powers again, so she still has them. But the lapse in her facade has consequences — when Vision returns from his talk with Agnes and Herb outside, Wanda hallucinates him as she last saw him in Infinity War, a corpse with his head crushed in.

It’s important to note that Vision seems to become more aware of the strangeness of their world with each episode. It makes sense because no matter how human he may seem, he’s still a synthezoid who has always been able to see beyond the superficial. It harks back to his “birth” in Age of Ultron. He’s omnipotent and always learning.

When Monica lands back in the real world, all she says is, “It’s all Wanda.” That seemingly serves as an answer to what’s going on in WestView, but it’s not a whole answer. Wanda seems just as confused and unaware as everyone else, but she is willing to stay in her “perfect” world. The question is, who put Wanda in the position to have her perfect world?

  WandaVision Episode 3 Easter Eggs

Much like the comics, Wanda magically becomes pregnant! But this time around, things are progressing much more quickly, and her doctor isn’t Dr. Strange.

The first of the episode’s weird glitches happens with Wanda and Vision’s neighbor Herb, who is attempting to saw through the brick fence separating the two houses instead of trimming his hedges. When Vision points out that his aim has gone a bit askew, Herb’s detached reaction is a bit creepy. He thanks Vision but keeps sawing through the wall! And unlike the previous weird behavior, there’s nothing that triggers the moment, especially not from Vision or Wanda.

Wanda and Vision contemplate what to name their baby boy, with Vision suggesting Billy and Wanda throwing out Tommy. (The argument becomes moot when they have twins!) These are the names of the pair’s sons in the comic, who later become members of the Young Avengers. In the show, Wanda chooses her name because it’s “all-American,” which is also a fair indicator of why her perfect reality is framed around sitcoms. Vision cites William Shakespeare as his inspiration and uses a quote from As You Like It that seems pretty on the nose. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” seems like a pointed reference to the fact that WandaVision is, in fact, all a show.

Wanda decorates the nursery using Simser brand paint, which is most likely a nod to Jeremy Simser, a storyboard artist for Marvel Studios and WandaVision.

The second glitch appears when Wanda says the residents of WestView always seem “on the verge of discovering our secret.” Vision has a moment of sobering clarity where he notes that something is wrong in WestView, citing the incidents with Mr. and Mrs. Hart and their neighbor Herb. A second after his says this, reality glitches and the scene starts over with Vision seemingly worry-free. The last time this happened with the beekeeper, it was clear Wanda was the culprit in turning back time, but in this case, she doesn’t seem to do anything to force the change. This suggests someone else is pulling the strings.

Wanda mentions that their child could be human or “synthezoid,” a term that originates in the comics. Although fans like to joke that Vision is an android, he’s technically a synthetic human. He’s not made of metal or machinery — in the comics, his body is composed of the bioengineering tech of Dr. Helen Cho, while in the MCU, he’s made of organic tissue mixed with vibranium and “powered” by the Mind Stone.

Vision jokes that Billy will be just like his mom, which is funny because, in the comics, Billy has magical abilities similar to Wanda’s powers. Tommy ends up having superspeed abilities like his uncle, Pietro.

It’s time for the third commercial! Much like the previous episode’s watch promotion, this break references Hydra — though a tad more directly. It’s all about Hydra Soak, and the message is decidedly more pointed than we’ve had before. “Escape to a world all your own, where your problems float away,” the announcer says. “When you want to get away, but you don’t want to go anywhere: Hydra Soak.” Marvel: Agents of Shield fans will recall that Hydra Soak HAS been mentioned on the show. During the series’s Framework arc, Phil Coulson claims that Hydra is brainwashing people using soap, so he makes his own. Is the commercial another sign that Hydra is behind the mystery of WestView? Is it a warning that no one in the town will be able to get away? And what’s that about finding the goddess within?

The actors in this ad are the same ones as the previous ones, Victoria Blade and Ithamar Enriquez. Their recurring presence might mean they have some significance in Wanda’s life. Maybe they’re her parents?

In what feels like an ominous follow-up to the Hydra Soak commercial, the doctor reveals that he and his wife won’t be taking their trip away after all. “Small towns, you know, so hard to escape,” he mutters, pointedly. I think we’re starting to get the hint, folks! Wanda mentions she is a twin and that her brother was named Pietro. It’s been a hot minute since anyone has talked about MCU’s Quicksilver — he made his debut back in Age of Ultron, the same film in which he was shot and killed.

When Geraldine lets it slip that she knows about Pietro’s death at the hands of Ultron, Wanda interrogates her and discovers her necklace bears a familiar symbol — it’s that damn S.W.O.R.D. logo, and Wanda is apparently not a fan.

In another sign that something is UP, Agnes and Herb seem to warn Vision about Geraldine. They note that she’s “brand new” to town with no family and start to say that “she came here because we’re all —” before they’re cut off. It’s worth noting that the two figures that may be MCU versions of formidable Marvel characters are the ones who seem to understand that strange things are going on in WestView. If Agnes and Herb are the MCU’s Agatha Harkness and High Evolutionary, they would definitely be the ones in the know. But why would they try to warn Vision about Geraldine if WestView is a trap?

Agnes is wearing her infamous brooch as a necklace that could be referencing an MCU supervillain mentioned before. The necklace has three figures close together, with the center figure holding what looks like a giant scythe. Is it another clue that the Grim Reaper is on his way?

Wanda literally throws Geraldine out of town — though she tells Vision that she had to run home — and Geraldine passes through what seems like a magical forcefield. While fans have been assuming WestView is a fake town, this shows us that physically, it’s a very real place. But it’s currently bubbled off with a barrier that Wanda can apparently allow people in and out of. And the song that plays as Geraldine finds herself outside the barrier? “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees. It seems pretty appropriate for a situation that feels like a surreal dream.

When Geraldine lands on the outskirts of real WestView, she’s instantly swarmed by cars and agents all bearing the S.W.O.R.D. logo. Since we know Teyonah Parris is playing the adult Monica Rambeau, it’s safe to assume Geraldine was an alias she used to go undercover in WestView. Combined with the mystery agent watching the show within the show from episode one, we can conclude that Wanda and Vision are being closely observed by S.W.O.R.D. for some reason. But they clearly aren’t the ones in control, since Monica is so easily forced out. What will they do next?

While the opening credits of this episode are a reference to The Brady Bunch, it’s the end credits that give us another clue about the big bad coming our way. Just like the previous episodes, Wanda and Vision are framed in a hexagon as the end credits roll. The symbol is so important because it’s the preferred shape of the creators at Advanced Idea Mechanics, or AIM, who are last seen in Iron Man 3. Remember the beekeeper suits that resemble AIM agents’ clothing? It seems like the evil organization might be making a comeback.

  WandaVision Episode 2 Easter Eggs

The opening credits for this episode aren’t just an adorable homage to Bewitched but a whole bevy of Marvel Easter eggs! The illustration of the moon happens to be surrounded by six stars, and we can’t help but be reminded of the Infinity Gauntlet.

When Vision phases through the floor, there’s a dark shape that looks exactly like the helmet worn by Marvel supervillain Grim Reaper hidden in the space. In the comics, he’s the brother of Wonder Man, whose brainwaves were used in Vision’s creation.

When Wanda goes to the supermarket in the opening, three references hang above the aisle! Bova Milk refers to Bova, the humanoid cow who raised Wanda and Pietro on Mount Wundagore. Auntie A’s kitty litter is a witchy reference to Auntie Agatha or Agatha Harkness, whom we’ve discussed before, and her cat-like familiar named Ebony. And Wonder Mints is most definitely a cheeky reference to Wonder Man, aka Simon Williams, the superhero who Vision’s brainwaves are based on in the comics!

When animated Wanda and Vision settle on their couch, the small figure on their side table is a statue of the Whizzer. Featured in 1982’s Vision and the Scarlet Witch, the Whizzer thought he was Wanda’s father but later discovers he was wrong. Whizzer and his wife were offered the chance to adopt Wanda and Pietro when they were kids on the mythical Mount Wundagore, but they declined.

When Wanda hears a crash outside the house, she heads out to the front, where she finds a colorful toy helicopter in an otherwise black-and-white world. Not only does the red-and-yellow helicopter have the number 57 stamped on it, but it also bears the S.W.O.R.D symbol! The number is likely in reference to Vision’s first appearance in Avengers #57, while the symbol hints to the presence of S.W.O.R.D outside Wanda’s perfect world.

The creepy, cult-like refrain spoken by the fundraiser organizers of it all being “for the children” seems to be a reference to Wanda’s involvement in the comic event The Children’s Crusade. The story follows her son, Billy, who’s trying to gain control over his reality-warping abilities by looking for a missing Wanda.

Well, here’s another blast from the angsty past! The Strücker timepiece is a very obvious callback to Hydra and Baron von Strücker. The watch bears the unmistakable octopus skull symbol of Hydra, and Strücker is the Hydra leader who recruited Pietro and Wanda for the experimentation that gave them powers. He was later killed by Ultron in his prison cell. Does anyone else hear that ticking noise? Remember good ol’ Herb? In the comics, a character named Herbert is also the High Evolutionary who runs Mount Wundagore, the very same safe haven where Bova delivered the Maximoff twins. Time will tell if the super-scientist is the same character, but it can’t be a coincidence.

Wanda and Vision’s magic show has two gems that we’ve noticed! First thing, the literal Mind Stone happens to be the design on the doors of the Cabinet of Mystery that plays a huge part in their act. Second, Wanda and Vision use the names Illusion and Glamour for their actor, which are also the names of the magicians that Vision goes to see in an issue of The Vision and the Scarlet Witch.

Though we all enjoy a good jam, The Beach Boys’ “Help Me, Rhonda” gets interrupted by someone asking, “Who’s doing this to you, Wanda?” And doesn’t that voice sound an awful lot like Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo?

While it may seem weird that Wanda shows her pregnancy in an instant, it’s in line with what goes on in the comics. Wanda uses magic to help her have children, which checks out since her husband is a synthezoid.

Oooh, that mysterious beekeeper! Not only does their presence lead to the reveal that Wanda has some control over the reality they’re in, but it also sets off some alarm bells. Even though the beekeeper’s suit bears the S.W.O.R.D logo on the back, the costume is reminiscent of the yellow costumes worn by A.I.M., a military science organization founded by Baron von Strücker. Could this be a sign that Wanda is being watched by more than one organization? And is this a hint that Hydra is back!? (Obviously, it is.)

  WandaVision Episode 1 Easter Eggs

When Wanda accidentally smashes a plate into Vision’s head, he jokes about his wife and her “flying saucers,” and she comments back about his “indestructible head.” Considering that Vision died after having the Mind Stone ripped from his head, it’s a dark joke to kick off the series.

Vision’s work tie has a visual reference to his comic-book alter ego! In Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s Vision, whenever the character dresses as a human, he wears a tie clip that emulates the diamond pattern on his chest.

Vision’s boss, Mr. Hart, is likely named after comic creator Steve Englehart, who created 1985’s The Vision and the Scarlet Witch with Richard Howell, a miniseries that heavily influenced WandaVision. It’s been heavily implied that Kathryn Hahn’s Agnes is the MCU’s Agatha Harkness, a witch who helped train Wanda’s magic back in the ’70s and ’80s.

When Wanda magically saves dinner, the bottle of wine she pours from is Maison du Mépris, which translates to house of contempt or scorn. As fans have pointed out since the trailer drop, this seems like a reference to the House of M comics storyline in which Wanda bends reality into a new world ruled by her family.

The Stark commercial break refers to two things: Avengers icon Tony Stark and his part in Wanda’s dark past. As Wanda and her twin brother, Pietro, explain in Avengers: Age of Ultron, their parents were killed by an explosive Stark Industries device, leaving the twins trapped under rubble. The Maximoffs were trapped by a Stark Industries shell for two days, expecting it to detonate before they get rescued. Even though Wanda eventually fights beside Tony in the future, there’s still some trauma from that experience and her brother’s death. If it weren’t for the Starks, Wanda could have been a completely different person.

The episode closes with a mysterious observer watching the “show” and taking notes on a pad with the logo of S.W.O.R.D. on the cover. For those who don’t know, S.W.O.R.D stands for Sentient World Observation and Response Department and is a subdivision of S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s a counterterrorism and intelligence agency that deals with extraterrestrial threats to world security. Expect to see them around more.

Press: A Thorough Breakdown of All the Marvel Easter Eggs on WandaVision was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

[wordborne]

drabble challenge #19

Thank you so much for the prompt! :D

19. Another credit card?!

The newest addition to Devil May Cry was a busted mail box that Dante had gotten just so Vergil could stop whining about all the bills that the mailman slid under the small space under the doors. Nero always made sure to check if there was anything there when he came over in case he saw a late bill that the twins had to pay in the next couple of days or so -you'd be surprised at how many times he'd found just that because Dante couldn't be bothered to check that thing every day and Vergil simply refused to do it, claiming the task was “his little brother's responsibility”. His fingers closed in on a lone letter and he fished it out, scoffing when he saw the name and logo of a shady bank on the front. “Seriously, old man? Another credit card?!” Nero said as he stared at disbelief at his uncle before he tossed it on the desk. “What? I need to pay the one I got a couple of weeks ago.” The devil hunter explained with a careless grin as he dropped the magazine he was reading and ripped the letter open unceremoniously, pulling out a shinny white and red card and picking off the excess glue that had gotten stuck on the back. The phone was on his ear in a blur, and he simply held one of his hands up when he saw Nero open his mouth to protest, putting the kid's scold on hold as the agent on the other end of the line began her long and scripted spiel. Nero merely shook his head and opted to plop down on the couch, pulling out his phone to text Kyrie. He stopped typing when he heard Dante refer to himself as 'Tony', still finding it hard to comprehend why the hell the old man had two identities. The legendary devil hunter was Tony Redgrave, a guy with a perfect credit score thanks to Morrison, and Dante Sparda, an old sap without a penny to his name. It was still unclear when he started abusing the system by pretending he was two drastically different people -and it was a miracle no one had caught him red handed just yet. Dante got off the phone in what seemed like forever, letting it down with a satisfied thump. He didn't need to see the kid's face to know he had an annoyed scowl plastered on his face, one that made him look a little too much like Verge. “What the hell did you buy with the other one?” Nero questioned, knowing Dante's awful track record when it came to money. Dante and credit cards shouldn't even be in the same sentence if the old man wanted to keep the building to his name. It seemed a tad too excessive to get a whole ass different card to pay his debts, so whatever he got had better be worth it. “A coat.” “A coat?” Dante stood up, brushing some imaginary dust off the red coat he was wearing. It certainly looked nice and expensive-ish, perhaps worth a couple hundred if Nero was being generous. “How much?” Dante hummed as he sat down, seemingly trying to recall a number that he most definitely knew by heart. “Around 8 thousand.” “You paid 8k for a damn coat?” “Hey, it's not any coat! It's pure leather imported all the way from Italy.” Nero simply stared, deadpanning as his brain processed the sheer absurdity of it all. “At least you didn't spend all that money on fucking pizza.” “Nah, of course not.” Dante agreed. “The pizza bill was only 2k.”

[tropicalsuki]

Do You Copy? - Steve Harrington x fem!reader

Summary: Y/n, Steve’s girlfriend of over a year, is gone all of summer for a camp counselor job in the middle of nowhere, meaning the only way to stay in contact is through letters. Dustin and the party are sick of seeing Steve mope around, so they decide to set up a surprise date between Y/n and Steve. 

warnings: FLUFF, some angst, language, sexual references/making out, slight season 3 spoilers if you squint

word count: 2,566

A/N: this was supposed to go up Monday but my internet went down Sunday night and we just got it back today, so sorry for the delay! I hope you all love it and enjoy! Also, I’m up for writing a part two if enough people want it.

---------------

Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Will were all at Steve’s house, arguing over what movie to watch. It was their monthly movie night, and everyone was there. Well, almost everyone.

“Does anyone know when the hell Mike and El are gonna be here?” Dustin asked, annoyed with their constant flaking. 

“How are we supposed to know? They show up whenever they’re done kissing. It’s bullshit,” Lucas answered.

“Woah, language!” Steve acted offended as he walked into the room with two large bowls of popcorn. Max quickly grabbed one and sank into the couch, shoveling the snack into her mouth. “You better share!” Lucas yanked the bowl from her and the two began bickering like they usually did.

Everyone stopped talking when the doorbell rang.

 “Is it them?” Will asked as Steve went and opened the door. He came back in the room a moment later with a letter in hand. “No, not them. Just the mailman,” Steve said as he opened the letter with a slight smile. 

“Is that another letter?” Lucas asked. Max sat up, interested, “from who? Y/n?”

Steve didn’t answer their questions as he read the letter, a stupid grin on his face. 

“Ooh, let me read it!” Dustin went to grab it but Steve quickly yanked his arm away, “no, absolutely not! This is a private letter for my eyes only.”

“Aw come on! Let me see!” Dustin complained. As Steve and Dustin were arguing, Max came up behind Steve and grabbed the letter, running to the other side of the room to read it. Steve ran after her, but Lucas, Will, and Dustin tackled him as Max began reading aloud.

“’It’s only been a month since I left, but it feels like forever. I’m counting down the days until I come back to Hawkins. I miss the sound of your voice and the smell of your cologne and the way you kiss me and how you-’ ohmygod, you two are disgusting!” Max stopped reading, her face going red. 

“What? What does it say?” Lucas demanded.

“Read it for yourself! I’m not saying that out loud,” Max shook her head. 

“Will you all stop?! That’s a private letter!” Steve yelled.

Lucas and Will ran over to Max, peering over her shoulder to read the rest of the note. Dustin didn’t budge from his spot on top of Steve. As the two boys scanned the page, they went wide eyed. “That is... graphic,” Lucas finally said, trying not to laugh. 

“You two must really love each other,” Will spoke, making Steve sigh. “We do. And that’s why the letter is so important. So can you please give it back?” he asked, defeated. Dustin got off of him and Max handed over the letter. 

“Why don’t you just call her? I don’t see the problem,” Lucas said. 

“Because they don’t have phones in the middle of the woods, dipshit,” Max snipped. 

“Jesus, I forgot. No need to be so rude,” Lucas huffed as Steve got up, the doorbell ringing once more. Will ran towards the front entrance. 

“Mike and El are here!” Will called, walking back into the room a moment later with the the two teens in tow. 

“About time” “Great! We can finally start the movie now!” Max and Dustin said at once. Lucas went over to the tv, shoving the VHS into the slot. 

“What movie?” El asked, picking up the bowl of popcorn that Max left on the table. 

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail; only one of the best movies of all time,” Will stated excitedly. “Ooh, good choice,” Mike flopped down on the couch, pulling El down beside him. The others got comfy and happily chatted away as the movie began. Max shushed loudly when the opening credits were over and everyone quieted down. 

Throughout the movie, as everyone was laughing and making comments, Steve stayed quiet. Dustin took notice and waited for his chance to talk to the others. When Steve left to go to the bathroom, Dustin ran over to the tv and paused the movie.

“Dude! Why’d you stop it? This is the best part!” Mike complained. Lucas and Max chimed in with agreement.

“The movie can wait. But right now we need a plan to help Steve. He looks miserable,” Dustin answered. 

“Maybe he does not like Monty Python,” El suggested. Will sighed, “No, Dustin’s right. He’s been acting like this all summer.” 

“Why? Because of Y/n? She’s coming back in, like, three weeks,” Mike shrugged.

Max rolled her eyes, “please, Michael, if El was gone for half that long, you’d be complaining everyday.”

Mike didn’t respond, knowing she was right. 

Dustin nodded decidedly, “alright then. What’s the plan?”

-

Steve told the group he was going to the bathroom, quickly leaving and heading up to his room. He wanted to have a fun evening, he really did, but the letter stuck in his head and he couldn’t think of anything else. 

Walking over to his desk, Steve opened a drawer and set the new letter over a pile of identical ones. You and Steve sent letters back and forth at least once a week, but it still wasn’t enough. All he asked for was to hear your voice, but not even that wasn’t possible. Two months away as a camp counselor in the middle of fucking nowhere. Steve thought he would be fine without you for that long. 

He was wrong. 

Steve snapped out of his thoughts and closed the drawer, taking a deep breath before heading back downstairs. As he reentered the living room, the kids immediately stopped talking, all turning to look at him. 

“What did I miss? Did something happen?” Steve asked, looking between the six of them. 

“Nope. Nothing at all,” Lucas said casually.

“We were just waiting for you to come back. So we can keep watching,” Max added. Dustin quickly got up and started the movie again. 

Steve was too mentally exhausted to care what they were talking about, so he sat back down without question. 

-

A week passed before you got another letter in the mail. But it wasn’t from Steve. This time, it was from Dustin Henderson, claiming that Steve was in the hospital and you needed to come home immediately. 

As soon as you read the letter, you ran to your boss with tears in your eyes, begging to be sent home early. Your boss knew there was no hope in arguing, so he complied, and you sent off a letter to Dustin saying you were on your way back to Hawkins as soon as possible.

“Y/n’s coming back!” Dustin announced, waving the letter in his hand as he walked into Mike’s basement. 

“I still don’t think it was a good idea to lie to her about Steve,” Max replied. 

“She’s probably gonna have a heart attack before she gets here,” Lucas agreed. 

“Listen, I know it was messed up, but we literally haven’t seen Steve leave his house in over a week. It was necessary,” Dustin defended himself, but the others didn’t seem convinced. Dustin continued, “Y/n will be at the airport tomorrow at noon. We need to meet her there before she goes looking for Steve.”

“That’s nice and all, but how are we going to get there? None of us can drive,” Max pointed out. The others looked at each other knowingly, already having two people in mind.

-

“You told her Steve was in the hospital?!” Nancy exclaimed, looking at the six kids in front of her like they were insane before turning to her boyfriend, “Jonathan, did you know about this?”

Jonathan shook his head, “I did not. Because if I did, I would of told them it was a stupid and cruel idea.”

“That’s what I said!” Will huffed.

“Look, I fucked up. I get it. But it’s already done, so can we move forward please?” Dustin said, frustrated. 

“Yeah, whatever. It’s 11:30 so we need to go,” Nancy and Jonathan got up, leading the younger teens outside and to the car. Nancy got in the drivers seat and took them all to the airport.

When the group finally saw you coming off the flight, you were a mess. Your eyes were red from crying and your clothes and hair were all over the place. You spotted the eight of them and ran over, dropping your bags to pull Nancy into a hug, “oh god, it’s so good to see you.”

Nancy smiled, hugging you back, “I know, I missed you. We all did.”

You pulled away, looking at everyone carefully. “Is... is he okay?” you asked quietly, scared of what the answer may be. 

They all glanced at one another, silently arguing over who was going to tell you that Steve was perfectly fine. You took their silence as the exact opposite, and suddenly began crying. Jonathan pulled you into a comforting hug as Mike elbowed Dustin hard, forcing him to speak.

“No! No, don’t cry. Steve’s ok. He’s perfectly fine, and not in the hospital. He never was... I, uh, lied. to get you to come home early,” Dustin explained quickly. 

You moved away from Jonathan, your sadness and worry turning to confusion then anger, “what?”

“Yeah, uh, sorry about that,” Dustin gave you the sweetest smile he could manage. 

“You lied about my boyfriend being in the hospital?! I left my job and paid for a last minute plane ticket - and for what? What was this all for for?!” you said angrily, trying your best to keep your voice from rising. 

“Steve has been miserable all summer. But it’s gotten worse the past few weeks. We wanted him to feel better, and the only way to do that was to bring you home,” Will stepped in to explain. You sighed, having a hard time to get mad at Will; he always meant well no matter how messed up the idea. 

“Where is he? Does he know I’m here?” you questioned, wanting to see him as soon as possible. 

“No! No, he doesn’t. He can’t. We have this whole plan and we’re gonna surprise him so you can’t see him until tonight,” Lucas said quickly. 

You didn’t want to wait that long, but you doubted the kids would let you anywhere near Steve before their plan was complete. So you looked to Nancy instead, “this has all been very emotionally draining. And I need a drink.”

Nancy smiled knowingly, “I got you covered. Let’s go back to my house.” 

You nodded heavily and turned back to the kids, “you can tell me your ridiculous plan on the way there... and this doesn’t mean I’m not still beyond pissed at you all.”

The six of them nodded quickly, not wanting to push you. You followed Nancy outside, Jonathan grabbing your bags for you and hurrying after the group.

-

Dustin, El, and Mike banged on Steve’s door. He didn’t answer the first time, so they persisted. Finally the door was yanked open and Steve answered with groan, “what?!”

“We have a surprise for you,” Dustin grinned. 

“Does it involve going out?” Steve asked. Dustin nodded. “Then I’m not interested,” Steve decided. 

“Just listen to us! It’s about Y/n,” Mike said quickly.

Dustin began explaining before Steve could say anything, “we’ve been trying to find away to get into contact with Y/n, and we finally figured it out. You know my ingenious invention, Cerebral? Well, we sent a letter to Y/n and there’s a way you’ll be able to talk to each other!” 

Steve watched him, a blank expression on his face, “nice idea, but that’s not possible. If phones don’t work there, how is your stupid little radio going to?”

“It’s different. Landlines and radios work on different frequencies, and interact in different ways. There’s no phones at Y/n’s camp, but there’s radios. So it’ll work. We’ve tested it,” Dustin insisted, trying his best to be convincing. 

“It’s true,” El nodded. Mike smiled at Steve in support. 

Steve was desperate, and willing to try anything, “fine. When?”

“In an hour. So go take a shower - you smell awful,” Mike said. 

-

An hour later, Steve was hiking up to the highest point in Hawkins, while you hid a bit further down on the other side of the hill with Lucas and Max. Dustin, Mike, El, and Will lead Steve to where Cerebral was set up, talking to him about how you were waiting on the other end. 

“This better work or I’m going to beat you with your own equipment,” Steve said to Dustin, no hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

“It’ll work. I promise,” Dustin assured, sitting down by the main radio. Dustin pretended to work on getting a proper connection, but it seemed to be failing, and Steve was growing impatient. 

“I swear to god, Henderson, you took me all the way up here and got my hopes up and the damn radio wont even work,” he said angrily. 

Dustin didn’t reply, turning a few more knobs as you sneaked up the hill and stood behind Steve.

“Steve?”

When he heard your voice, Steve quickly moved closer to the radio, surprised that it was actually working and how clear your voice sounded, “Y/n? Y/n, is that you?”

“Steve,” you said again, a bit louder, and he froze, realizing the voice wasn’t coming from the radio. Turning around, his eyes landed on you and a grin spread across his face. 

“Hi,” you grinned back and Steve ran over, scooping you up in a tight hug and spinning you around, both of you laughing from happiness. 

He put you down and pulled you into a deep kiss as you wrapped your arms around his neck. The kids watched on, proud of their work. 

“You came home,” Steve stated, keeping you close. 

“The kids told me you were in the hospital. I came home as soon as I could. They were lying, obviously,” you explained. Steve was too happy to have you back to be mad about that right now, so instead he just pulled you closer to him.

“I missed you so much,” you breathed, running your hands down his chest and kissing him. Steve kissed you back with an almost desperation, and the six kids realized things were about to get heated. 

“Should, we uh...,” Lucas trailed, pointing down to the bottom of the hill. “Yep. Mmhm,” the others nodded and the group quickly ran off, leaving you and Steve on your own. 

You pulled Steve down so the two of you were laying on the grass, never breaking the kiss in the process. He moved you on top of him, running his hands through your hair. You pulled away slightly to catch your breath, “I love you so much.”

“I love you too. It hurts how much I love you,” Steve answered, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. 

“Did you get my last letter?” you asked as you ran a hand across his cheek. 

“I sure did,” Steve smiled slightly.

“I meant every word. And those things I promised I’d do to you when I got back...,” you started playfully, but was cut off when Steve rolled you over so he was hovering over you.

“I know you’d never break a promise. So just kiss me, idiot,” Steve said teasingly. You grinned and pulled him down to meet your lips once more. 

-

End.

[aion-rsa]

WandaVision: What Does Agnes Really Want?

https://ift.tt/3aJPatL

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

Pulling off twists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe means playing with what comics fans think they know. To those who read Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run, there was no surprise in Bucky’s unmasking during the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but then you get the Skrulls in Captain Marvel, who were played much more sympathetically than their comics portrayals.

That’s what has kept us guessing with WandaVision’s Agnes, otherwise known as Agatha Harkness. Kathryn Hahn’s been playing the hell out of the character, but for much of the season, she’s had us second-guessing everything. The reveal that Agnes is Agatha Harkness was something many fans had figured out from the very beginning, but what did that mean in the grand scheme of things? What was her role? In the comics, Agatha was more of an ally than anything else, so it wasn’t exactly clear what she was up to. While the show even tried to make her true identity less obvious by treating her as helpless in the face of Wanda’s powers as fellow neighbors Herb and Norm, it wasn’t until the latter half of the seventh episode that we were sure she was up to no good.

Accompanied by the Munsters-like theme “Agatha All Along,” we got to see Agnes throughout the show, working her magic in the shadows. But just how “guilty” is Agatha? Let’s take a look at all of Agnes’ scenes on the show so far and see what we can figure out about what’s going on.

Agatha Makes Her Entrance

The “Agatha All Along” segment shows Agatha appearing in Westview as a witch and transforming into a black-and-white 1950s character seconds before making her first actual appearance on the WandaVision show-within-a-show.

“Agnes” appears and greets Wanda for the first time, talking up her mother-in-law’s visit as the reason she was out of town. At first, this is a throwaway line, but it’s also Agnes’ way of showing up after Wanda and Vision had settled in while having a cover story for being a longtime local. It was also really suspect by the third episode when it was established that exiting and entering Westview isn’t the easiest task.

As the first episode is fairly straightforward as outside of the Lynchian dinner moment and the “SWORD is watching” color cliffhanger, there isn’t too much to really grab onto, even with Agnes’ heavy screentime. She simply builds a rapport with Wanda as her new best friend for the sake of building trust.

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Fittingly, the Glamourous magazine she insists on reading to Wanda has an ad on the back cover for a detergent called “Coy.”

Agnes shows up later for the dinner date with lots of food to help Wanda. She comes off as seemingly too well-prepared. Regardless, Wanda doesn’t want her to see her superhero secrets and kicks her out. Notably, Wanda does so while calling Agnes out as being “naughty,” which will get a neat callback several episodes later.

The big elephant in the room is Agnes’ husband Ralph. She brings him up three times, talking about his love for beer and beans while jokingly lamenting that he hasn’t been very hands-on with her lately. Ralph has yet to appear on the show yet, raising the question of whether he exists and, if he does exist, in what form?

Another interesting question to wonder in this episode is whether Agatha was behind Mr. Hart choking on his food. With Mrs. Hart (who curiously asks about their lack of kids considering what follows) pleading with Wanda like an emotional broken record, we’re meant to think that Wanda is trying to silence him, but as I’ll get to in a second, Wanda might not be aware enough to do that just yet.

Agatha Secretly Uses Magic at the Talent Show

Not counting her cartoon counterpart, Agnes first appears in the second episode when Wanda is checking out the colorized helicopter toy in her bushes. Agnes excitedly calls her “the star of the show,” only to cover by claiming that she was talking about her pet rabbit Señor Scratchy, prepared to be part of Wanda and Vision’s magic act.

One notable thing here is that there’s a brief moment of Agnes interacting with Dennis the mailman, giving us the only non-commercial sitcom moment in the first few episodes that doesn’t include Wanda or Vision. Dennis himself – the first character to have any interaction with our protagonists – seems to be a riddle himself, but time will tell on that one. Agnes jokes with Dennis, checks him out from the back, and waits for Wanda to return so she can drag her away from the lawn and distract her from the helicopter situation.

Once they get to Dottie’s place, Agnes is very much about getting Wanda to conform with the timeline and the neighborhood. She also talks up Wanda’s future children by saying that befriending Dottie can help with her children’s schooling.

At the scene with the housewives hanging out, Agnes is mostly in the background. Her money line is how Dottie claims, “The devil is in the details,” and Agnes notes, “That’s not the only place he is!” On paper, it’s a jab at Dottie, but it’s also an obvious tie in to Agnes connection to the occult, further fueling the rumors that Mephisto might be involved in the show’s plot.

Read more

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One other note about this is when the women all say, “FOR THE CHILDREN,” in unison, they make sure to obscure Geraldine’s face. She’s likely not saying it or is looking confused, but we’re spared from that little crack in the narrative.

Agnes appears at the big talent show in the audience, cracking a joke about making Ralph disappear. This is the first time we, the viewer, notice something is up because why wouldn’t Ralph be at this function? Anyway, the “Agatha All Along” sequence shows that Agatha was using her magic to cause a bit of havoc with the magic act, not like she was needed. Of all the snippets in that reveal, this is the one that seems the most open-ended. What exactly did she get out of Señor Scratchy running off?

What appears to be the important part is how the cast conveys the cult-like, “FOR THE CHILDREN,” to our heroes a few times over. Not only that, but it’s during the brief stretch of time in-between our couple having sex within Westview and Wanda realizing she’s pregnant. If anything, that appears to be part of Agatha’s grand plan.

Was she hammily applauding because everything was going according to her plan or in spite of Wanda and Vision succeeding? It’s hard to say.

An important detail to note is how the flustered Wanda greets Vision at the talent show. After the third and fourth episodes, it’s easy to see the helicopter toy scene as Wanda realizing that someone’s infiltrated her fantasy world and is out to stop her, but that’s not what’s going on. She’s genuinely confused. She actually tries to tell Vision about it, as well as the exploding radio incident, but never gets around to it.

Wanda doesn’t fully give in to this world until she discovers she’s pregnant. After that, she’s hooked in.

Is Agatha Controlling Herb’s Mind?

The third episode is when we start to question if Agnes is really in on what’s going on, when in reality it’s the first time we truly see her messing with our heroes for the sake of keeping Wanda on track.

Agnes takes a backseat initially, only appearing very briefly in the opening credits. It comes off like Geraldine is starting to usurp her position as Wanda’s best friend and confidant and it is easy to see Agatha as feeling threatened by that. It’s especially threatening if Geraldine can successfully get through to Wanda.

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It seems clear that Agatha messes with Herb’s mind. Did she momentarily wake him up? Did she simply take over his mind? It’s hard to say, but they’re able to lay the seeds of doubt in Vision…all while keeping Vision away from Wanda lashing out at Geraldine. Agnes and Herb make Wanda come off as something truly horrifying in front of Vision and damn if Hahn’s performance isn’t convincing. That rapid, scared shake of the head at Herb is so good.

What’s certain here is that Agatha wants Vision to think of Wanda as a monster. Considering that nervous smile Vision gives Wanda a minute later (as shown in the next episode), she has succeeded.

“Agnes” Doesn’t Have a Real Name

The focus is outside Westview this time around, but there’s a big moment that puts Agnes into question once again: of all the players in the WandaVision sitcom world, she’s one of the only “actors” who doesn’t have a true identity. The plot thickens.

Agatha “Directs” Wanda

Agnes appears to help out with Wanda and Vision’s crying babies. As she’s about to get started, Vision gets a bit too neurotic and stops her from getting near the kids. Suddenly, things get tense as Agnes appears lost and breaks the fourth wall. At first glance, she appears to fear Wanda, but it now appears that she’s more about insisting to Wanda to let her continue with the “script” and help the babies despite Vision’s reluctance. You can almost read this as Agatha giving Wanda direction.

A major part of this scene is how Agnes doesn’t bat an eye at Billy and Tommy suddenly aging several years. She just shrugs it off and talks about how hard it is to control children.

In terms of directing fiction, children and animals are infamously hard to deal with, which is what Agnes might be referencing here. This could be connected to Wanda’s inability to use her powers on the stork from the third episode.

She returns later on with a convenient doghouse for Billy and Tommy’s newly-found dog. Wanda has become lax with giving into the “hidden powers” part of their status quo and barely hides her magic abilities in front of Agnes. After all, if Wanda is giving into her fantasy more and more, why should she hide herself?

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But she is right that Agnes isn’t second-guessing any of the weird stuff going on, especially when Billy and Tommy age themselves up once more.

Wanda and the kids later find Agnes with the dead, wrapped-up body of Sparky the dog. Agnes claims that the dog ate some toxic leaves, but we now know that she’s directly responsible for the dog’s death (at least that’s what she claims in the song). She sheds some crocodile tears and watches as Billy and Tommy ask Wanda to bring Sparky back from the dead. Agnes asks if that’s possible for Wanda and Wanda doesn’t really answer.

Even if she can reverse death, Wanda knows that she shouldn’t. Agnes lets out a sigh and, sad scene or not, it seems in retrospect that Wanda’s goodness and sense of responsibility inadvertently foiled Agatha’s scheme.

Fake Pietro’s appearance has always come off as being there to prevent Vision from convincing Wanda to reject the fantasy world they live in now that we know that Agnes is the puppet master here. Of course, that brings us back to square one with Pietro because right now it’s up in the air whether he’s evil, if he’s just being controlled, or if he’s the X-Men version of Quicksilver at all.

Agatha Fakes Out Vision

So yeah, in the first episode, Wanda calls Agnes naughty. Now she has “NAUGHTY” bedazzled on the back of her sweatpants. And, of course, the theme song refers to her as “naughty Agatha.”

Whatever Pietro’s deal is, he’s either under Agatha’s control or he’s in league with her for this episode. That means he’s trying to get Wanda’s trust and figure out her secrets. He’s getting more intel about taking over the town and answer any lingering questions Agnes has. All in all, he isn’t very successful and completely blows it with that crack about Vision being dead.

Agnes’ big scene is Vision coming across her car and waking her up. Even on the first watch, it shows that she’s from out of town due to her non-New Jersey license plates and her confusion over directions of a town she claims to have grown up in. Her reaction to Vision is comparable to that of Norm in the previous episode, so we once again have reason to question her role in everything.

Maybe she is a red herring.

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Now it seems likely that Agnes was merely playing with Vision. With that knowledge, comparing that to Vision’s scene with Norm and the reveal that Agatha was messing with Herb’s mind, it’s notable that although Agnes claims Wanda won’t let them think of escaping, Norm doesn’t actually name his tormentor. He just says “her” and “she.” That puts into question who is torturing everyone’s minds. Is it Wanda or has it been “Agatha all along?”

So what is Agatha’s play by lying to Vision? Other than hiding her guilt, she could be doing one of two things. It’s possible that she’s out to take Vision off the board by pushing him towards his inevitable, painful death outside of the Hex. It’s also possible that she’s hoping Vision will die so that Wanda will resurrect him again and Agnes can take notes.

Agatha Harkness Revealed

And so, we get the big reveal. Before Agnes reveals herself as Agatha Harkness, Vision spends the whole episode unable to get closer to his wife due to the current sitcom narrative rejecting it. Agnes convinces Wanda to let her take the twins away for the day. Billy, overwhelmed by all the psychic screams in Westview, notes that Agnes is “quiet.” Soon the twins go missing and we’re left to wonder their fates.

Wanda is left alone as the world around her starts to glitch. Due to the mockumentary gimmick of the episode, Agatha “the director” is still there to gaslight her into feeling like the villain in her own story. And, yes, she is a villain, but the question is whether or not she is THE villain.

When Monica breaks into Westview to confront Wanda and talk sense into her, Agnes steps in to prevent that conversation from reaching a rational conclusion. Soon enough, she’s able to trick Wanda into going to her creepy basement, introduces her true self as Agatha Harkness, and overwhelms her with purple energy. Cue catchy theme song.

All that, plus “Pietro” catches Monica snooping. Are they going to fight it out or work together?

Now that we’re caught up, what exactly is Agatha Harkness’ plan? What does she actually want?

Other than simply using Wanda’s powers as sustenance (as hinted at in the Yo-Magic commercial from episode 6), Agatha’s interest seems to be in learning from certain abilities Wanda has that go against the natural order of things. Wanda’s powers aren’t magic in the traditional sense, but essentially cosmic due to her connection to the Mind Stone and the universe itself.

Wanda apparently used her powers to bring Vision back to life. Not only did she bring someone back to life (robotic as he is), but she did it by recreating the Mind Stone in some way. Even when Vision is being torn apart from being outside of the Hex, the new Mind Stone seems to stay intact. If Wanda wants to, she probably could bring her brother back the way she remembers. What else could she bring back?

Similarly, it appears she willed those twins into existence. I don’t expect a Disney property to go into detail, but Vision’s not exactly equipped to sire children. They exist because Wanda insists on it. With a little prodding from the neighborhood at Agatha’s behest, Wanda has been able to create life.

You better believe Agatha wants that kind of power. Maybe we’ll find out that Ralph was once real and he’ll be resurrected. Maybe Agatha is going to summon something far, far worse.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

We’ve got two more episodes of WandaVision to get the answers.

The post WandaVision: What Does Agnes Really Want? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2NPtnHM

[paintdriesfaster]

Stops and Starts

(Read here on ao3)

Dean stops.

Stops drinking. Stops sleeping with random women. Stops going to the bar altogether. He stops eating burgers because hey, meat was an animal, and it's wrong to kill something breathing, right? And monsters? They're breathing. So he stops killing them too.

Dean stops lying to Sam. And he stops idolizing Zeppelin. He stops rolling his eyes at Christian rock and he stops the maybe-too-much pride he exhibits when, for once, he knows more than his little brother about that one random historical fact.

He stops stealing credit cards and telling people he's FBI. He stops hitting 'replay' after the tenth time watching his favorite Busty Asian Beauty crawl into bed with the mailman. Hell, he stops watching porn altogether. Dean stops swearing, doesn’t let a single S.O.B. out of his mouth. Yes, he stops saying "Son of a -----!”

Dean stops a lot of things.

Mostly, he stops lying to himself. 

He starts admitting that he likes the way Men of Letters shoes are a little less manly and a little sleeker and a little more stylish. He starts finding new ways to add flavor to salads and he starts trading smirks for neighborly smiles, turning away if the waitress still takes his hearty tip as something more. He starts spending his free time as a volunteer fireman, and eventually he starts working for them too. He starts earning an honest living like an honest man.

When he finds out that the local church hosts meals for the homeless every Thursday, Dean starts dropping off pies. (He does his best to ignore blue eyes, a blue vest, and a rolled up sleeping bag that come with the sight of the Gas N Sip across the street.)

One day, on his usual pie drop-off, a surprise storm outside the church entices him to stay and he start serving the food too, even bows his head when they pray.

Dean starts attending Sunday Worship and Tuesday AA meetings because old habits die hard and he's no longer too filled with pride to admit that.

He starts praying too.

He starts apologizing for every time he's ever fallen to the seven deadly sins and he starts spilling his many, many wrongs in the confessional booth (much to the horror of the priest).

After his sixth or seventh trip to the confessional booth, he starts telling Sam the truth about why he won't eat at their favorite diner anymore, but he's cut off by his own sobs while he explains that he doesn't want to risk hearing the flap of a tablecloth being changed because last time, he looked over his shoulder and expected to see--to see--

He’s quiet for a week after that.

Dean starts calling Jody more often and eventually asks if Claire happens to be on college break and does she wanna help him keep track of the church's youth group tweens? They’re going to the new put-put place in Lawrence and could use another chaperone. Or at least someone that can indulge their juvenile Happy Gilmore references.

He starts living a civilian life - near apple pie life, in fact. Because as much as any one human can, he stopped sinning and started living a life worthy enough to maybe, just maybe, be invited into those pearly gates he used to scoff at.

But he knows he won't make it.

Because the one sin he couldn't stop was envy.

He couldn't stop his hand from crumpling the edge of the letter from Jesse and Cesar, even though they just wrote to extend their condolences.

He couldn't stop the silence from going on too long when one of the church youths confided in him that he liked a boy in his class, nor could he stop his own mind from screaming too little, too late. He could hardly stop his mouth from spitting out a selfish “at least you have time.”

He couldn't stop himself from breaking his phone against the wall when Claire relays what an angel told her. About Amelia and Jimmy's reunion in heaven.

Because no matter how true and holy he tries to live, there's this endless nagging feeling that he'll never be able to clean his soul enough. That his best friend will be forever alone and waiting in their heaven while Dean just gets dragged right back to hell where he belongs.

As he gets older - as his knees begin to lock and his hair begins to gray - Dean stops dreaming. But he starts having nightmares that remind him of Billie’s promise -- that mock him about The Empty and the space there reserved for a Winchester. Any Winchester.

Dean starts waking up in a sweet because even if he was lucky enough to get into heaven when his clock runs out, his door might have two names on it.

But he might be the only one there.

(Read here on ao3)

[dineshwattegedara]

The Ceylon mail post: The milieu of Its present episode.

There is no record of a mail service in operation in the times the Portuguese ruled the island. After bloody wars fought against the Dutch who arrived on the island more than 150 years after their predecessor conquerors and with the Sinhalese predominantly the Kandyans siding with the latter many of the Portuguese provinces were ceded to the Dutch with the signing of the treaty at Goa. The colonial Dutch rulers established five post offices in the maritime provinces in 1798 and they were the first to publish postal regulations and postage rates. The Dutch East India company operated the postal service better known by its acronym monogram corporate logo VOC. 

The Colombo-Kandy mail coach opposite Royal Hotel, Mahahena.

The clamor of the horse's hoofbeats of the mail coach restricted to a small circuit. Thereby, delivery of post on foot became its substitute conveyor. Even today in some parts of the island where the terrain is unreachable by any type of vehicle or bicycle a mailman on foot is not an uncommon sight. Motorcycles were added as part of the postal services' mode of transport. During the 50′s and 60′s postmen on British made BSA – Bantam motorcycles were a familiar sight. As the cities grew in proportion synchronous with its population a postman's area of circulation become smaller thereby facilitating the dispatch of mail by bicycle messengers as an alternative to the motorcycles.  By 1st April 1877, Ceylon had joined the Universal Postal Union but the post-independence made it compulsory that Ceylon as a sovereign state renew its membership with the UPU thereby capitulating to the ensuing decree by joining again on 13th July 1949.  In the late 18th century the Dutch after all that strain of waging battles with the British were nothing but a weakened army. Therefore, facilitating the conquest of the Dutch Republic by the Napoleonic France. The ousted Dutch government was replaced by the Batavian Republic which was in essence under the control of the French. The VOC council assigned with the political and military affairs of the east Indies colonies were in a dilemma who to side with so it was the case in the defense of the Dutch Ceylon. Astonishingly the Dutch Governor of Ceylon makes the fateful decision to favor with the Batavian Republic as the sovereign of the colonies instead of adhering to the orders of their exiled stadholder who had been administering for an alliance with British as befitting and strategically beneficial. Finally, the Dutch troops surrender without causing much bloodshed as a result of an intrigue initiated by the British espionage.

The flag of the Dutch East India Company also referred to in Dutch as Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie.

The Coat of Arms of the British East India Company, with their slogan "Auspicio Regis Et Senatus Anglia," Latin for "By the authority of the King and Parliament of England."

The Dutch East India company and its British counterpart company "The East India company" were the first companies in the history to issue its stocks to their shareholders.  The British  East India company was appointed by the crown of England granting them the monopoly on trade with all countries east of Cape of Good Hope and west of Straits of Magellan. The Dutch postal service operated at an official level and the correspondence of private letters was never entertained. The jurisprudence that legally bound P&O company to the Royal Charter stipulated exceptional power almost parallel to that enjoyed by an autonomy. The governor and his directors had the right to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, commandeered their own fortresses and troops, had authority to form alliances, made peace or war with their adversary and exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction. The signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 affected the ceding of the Dutch territories to the British and in 1815 with the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom Sri Lanka lost its independence to the British. The British reorganized the postal service and in 1882 they established a permanent post office in Colombo. However, the first postmaster General for the British held territories before Ceylon became a Crown Colony was Antonio Bertolucci who was appointed in 1802. Following is a list of Postmaster Generals who served Ceylon under the British crown. 🔱 Mr. A. Kennedy who was an Army officer is considered the first PMG despite his predecessors serving in the same capacity. 🔱 Mr. E. Bletterman PMG for the whole island. 🔱 Mr.Lewis Sansoni. 🔱 Major. G. Stewart who was instrumental in extending the service to the main cities in the country.

The Royal mail truck opposite Colombo post office in 1925.

The fleet of ships carrying mail for the East India Company be it East Indiamen or H.M. hauled them in packets if they were heavier and these ships were referred to by the name Packet Boats. But in 1819 the packet service was abolished and substituted by India letter service. From thenceforth a postage rate applied to the letters on every leg of its journey. The letters required an internal postage fee charged to the port of exit, sea postage, and from the point of entry to the destination within the United Kingdom, an additional postage applied. The formerly known Ceylon Post and Telecommunications Department is credited with many firsts among its laurels. The inaugural Mail Coach Service established in 1832 between Colombo and Kandy was the first in Asia. In 1838 a second mail coach was installed between Colombo and Galle. The proprietors of the Galle Royal Mail Coach Service which had the proprietary franchise of Mrs. Joanna Morris, Dr. P.D. Anthonisz, Henry Andre was headed by its manager W.F. Janz. The horse-drawn mail coach left its bookings office at Pedlar Street at 6.00 a.m. and reached Colombo at 4.30 p.m. It had a night mail service as well which operated both ways starting at 6.00 p.m. However,  it had to be unharnessed during its ferrying across the rivers of Gintota, Bentota, and Kalutara. The first “Travelling Post Office” ran its service between Colombo and Peradeniya in 1892. 

One of the first stamps issued portraying Queen Victoria´s profile.

The Penny Black is the world's first adhesive postage stamp issued in Great Britain on 1 May 1840 featuring a profile of Queen Victoria.

The Penny Black bearing the profile of Queen Victoria was the first adhesive postage stamp issued in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840. The first stamp issued in Ceylon in penny denominations were in 1st April 1857. These too bore the profile of Queen Victoria. The stamp was valued at sixpence which was the postage rate used to send a half ounce letter from Ceylon to England. The first stamps to be issued in the local denomination of rupees and cents was on 1st February 1892. The stamp sheets were printed at Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.

A letter delivered from Colombo to Belgium in 1883. Carried by P&O 'Ballarat. Left Colombo 7/2, Aden 15/2, Suez 15/2. Overland to Alexandria Thereafter, onboard P&O 'Mongolia' 21/2, arrived in Brindisi (Italy) 25/2.

The Postal Route of a letter posted in the 1800's. Mail from Cinnamon Garden, Colombo to Chicago. Carried on P&O 'Australia'. Left Colombo 9/5, Aden 15/5, Port Said 20/5 carried through to arrive at Brindisi on 22/5. Mail arrived in London on 24/5, thence by trans-Atlantic steamer to the USA.

The sailing ships carrying mail were often beset with hazardous weather conditions thus making their traverse inconsistent with a routine timetable. This was not in favor with the merchants who wanted a regular service which guaranteed that the ships docked at their destination at an expected time. The introduction of the steamships as the courier offset this dire inconvenience. In 1837, P&O acronym for Peninsula and Steam Navigation Company spearheaded by a London ship broker named Brodie McGhie Willcox and his partners Arthur Anderson a sailor from North Ireland and Dublin shipowner captain Richard Burne win the contract when the tenders were called by the British Admiralty to deliver mail to the Iberian peninsula. Further acquisition of a tender entitled them to deliver mail to Alexandria in Egypt. The company which had its origins as operators of guns and ammunitions cargo delivery to the ruling monarchs of the Iberian peninsula namely Spain and Portugal fighting a civil unrest aka the Liberal Wars or the War of the Two Brothers won the rights to fly the Royal Colours of Portuguese House of Braganza and the House of Bourbon of Spanish rulers. In 1834 with the ending of the civil unrest their business enterprise was reorganized as an eventuality of fading of the lucrativeness of arms trafficking to form the Peninsula Steam Navigation Company. The regular service ran to the port cities of Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon and Cadiz. The service was extended to Gibraltar. 

P&O badge of the mid 19th Century with the original motto "Quis separabit?" who shall separate (us)?.

The steamships opened up a new route for the mail delivery. The mail and the passengers onboard the P&O steamers, however, were taken in two routes. The passenger and delivery ships arriving from Alexandria in Egypt was separated with the unloading of mail at Cairo. Thereafter, the transit of the mail took the route between Cairo and Suez developed by the pioneer of the postal expressway Thomas Waghorn. The delivery for the traverse was made on camel back. The passengers, however, made the long journey all the way down the river Nile stopping at Luxor where the passengers were treated to the comfort of sightseeing of the ruins of Luxor. On the next leg of their journey, the passengers crossed the desert to the small Red Sea port of Quseir. The 1840's were a time when the P&O was contemplating on expanding its service to cover the Eastern mail route between Suez and Bombay which was under the monopoly of the East India company. For this purpose, the company needed to grow in its capital in order to have a feasible infrastructure that would bolster its enterprise. Besides the steamers were still in its fledgling days and for its logistical implementation required larger vessels,  coaling stations, docks, supply and repair facilities established along its route. Therefore, the creation of a limited liability company incorporated under Royal Charter and by that virtue raising funds for the investment. 

Map of the overland route across Egypt, 1845 the traveler was offered a choice of two routes for the second part of their journey in the crossing of the desert over to the Suez or the Red Sea. The first steamship to navigate the Calcutta/Suez route through Point De Galle in Ceylon was the Hindustan. The operation of its portage began in the year 1843. The commission of freightage of mail which had been transferred to the Admiralty in 1834 meant that in its administrative capacity all functions adhered to a given conduct. Therefore, a retired naval officer in charge of the mail was present on board during the course of its journey. The naval officer's authority could overrule that of a captain's in order to deliver mail in time. A separate travel class was created for those who could afford it effectuating in the coining of the word POSH acronym for "Port out, Starboard Home". Tickets were issued with these letters stamped on it for the cabins on the Port side of the ship on its onward passage and for the return journey they could travel in the luxury of the starboard cabins. Keeping them in shade on the hottest part of its journey. P&O was involved in the opium trade as far as in 1847 during the aftermath of the opium war. The Eastern route via Point de Galle calling on ports of Singapore/Hong Kong commenced in 1845. They also transhipped silk from China. The Shanghai route was connected to Bombay in 1847. Ships Mary Wood and Braganza are two ships to make its maiden voyages on these sea routes. Mary Wood was also used as a troop carrier during the 1848 rebellion aka Matale rebellion in British Ceylon. The troops were ferried from India to crush the rebellion which had been initiated by the Kandyan peasants on the grounds of unjust taxation levied by the government. In 1852 P&O acquired a contract to operate a mail service from Singapore to Australia. The liners Chusan and Formosa were first of it to leave the docks in their inaugural journeys on this route. P&O was commissioned for the transportation of troops and POW's in the Boer war (1899-1902). Boers or burghers comprising of Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers who were descendants of the colony of Dutch East India Company in the Transvaal and the Orange Free States of the eastern cape frontier were at war with the British Empire. A number of these prisoners were camped at Diyatalawa and Ragama of Sri Lanka.

Steamers and sailing ships at Colombo Harbour.

In 1881 Southampton which had been a port of call of the P&O for nearly four decades ceased its operations. London was replaced as the passenger terminus and the mail was taken overland all the way to Brindisi in Italy. The importance of expediting the development of the Port at Galle was recognized much earlier. Coal was never produced in Ceylon, the fuel that propels the steam engines it had to be brought in coaling vessels and for this purpose coaling stations were established along its conveying routes. The port city flourished in commerce with the laying of its infrastructure and the assembling of the provisions. As a consequence, the wealthy entrepreneurs were lured in by the prospect of trade. The residential was growing in numbers with the higher echelons. The fort at Galle was the capital of the governorate of Dutch Ceylon for nearly 18 years.

                         Galle harbour during 1872. 

The first agent for P&O in Galle was Thomas Twynam. Who was replaced by Capt. Francis Bailey in 1861. During his helm, the P&O office was shifted to Colombo in the early 1880's. A fortalice was built by the Dutch on the promontory located on the southern side of its concave on the Bay of Galle. This was built in 1719 and the southern end of its promenade was called the Klossenburg which is translated from Dutch as the citadel on which the seas roars. Further upwards neighboring to the Closenberg promontory is the Gibbet island what was once a natural islet jutting out into the bay in the present day is a continuous stretch of land between the areas demarcated by these two points of land masses. Filled up with granite stones in the construction of a pier for the Galle harbor project in the 1960's. Today this portion of the land is dotted with buildings that belong to the Ports Authority. The area where it is located is called Magalle within the vicinity of Galle town and en route Galle-Matara highway. Klossenburg was fortified with a battery of two guns. The fortress had been in a state of disuse and abandonment by the time of the British takeover in 1790. Captain Bailey was instrumental in forestalling the deterioration of the fortress when he stumbled upon the neglected Cliff Citadel and was enthralled by its quaint beauty. The captain without much hesitance buys it from the British crown. The respected mariner being a master carpenter and mason designs and builds it into a manor and at the end of the completion of its renovation in 1861 the enchanting architectural marvel was named as "Villa Marina" after his endearing wife. A summer house was built at the edge of the promontory where the flagstaff flew the P&O flag. In 1870 the new breakwater of the Colombo harbor had been built. Thereby,  shifting all merchant shipping activity to Colombo. This compelled Bailey's to bid adieu to their cherished property. The manor was sold to the P&O Company in 1889. 

An early map showing the rocks and the islands found in the Bay of Galle. Closenberg and Gibbet islands are shown in this map.

Therefore, its Proprietorship was transferred to Simon Perera a  descendant of the famous Perera-Abeywardena family and a close associate of Captain Francis Bailey. Their earliest recorded ancestor is Emmanuel Perera-Abeywardena whose family had prospered on the subsistence off the seas. Hauling in fish with draw nets (Madel) in their fleet of boats. Hence the reason of the family being promoted as an affluent of the Karava caste from down south. His elder son Christopher was a ship Chandler and wins a contract with the P&O company to establish a shipping and wharfage company. Christopher married Don Gimara Silva and Simon was one of his children out of twelve. 

The flagmast at the edge of the Closenberg promontory and the panoramic view of the Closenberg bay.

Over a century later "Villa Marina" has been converted into a grandiose hotel and its management is still under the auspices of Perera-Abeywardena family.The neighboring Gibbet Island aka the Frenchman's creek or what the locals would call as the  'Pransa Kande' a translation of its moniker in Sinhala. The island plays its own interesting episode in the annals of colonial rule. The gibbet is a French term for the guillotine. Horrifying tales of torture is spun around this eerie island where the Portuguese mounted their gallows on top of its hillock. The scaffolds location for the execution of felons had remained at the same locale during the jurisdiction of the Dutch. Lexical borrowings from the vernacular spoken by the colonial rulers have spontaneously embellished the native tongue. The lingua franca of the Sri Lankan burghers popularly known as the Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole  (SLPC) is no exception. Two derivatives connected with the execution of felons have overtime seamlessly integrated and spoken commonly in connection with the death penalty are Alugosuwa and Porakaya. The word Alugosuwa stems from the Portuguese word Algoz meaning the hangman and Porakaya from the  Portuguese word forca.  However,  this had not deterred a Frenchmen, an agent of a French shipping company from building his residence on this gruesome island. 

The road  leading  up to the entrance of the Closenberg Hotel.  The Rampart like facade reminiscent of the  fortification architecture could've been one reason the manor was called the 'cliff Citadel'.

The daily Ceylon Observer operated a pigeon post service between 1850 and 1858. The mail ships brought in the latest news dispatches circulated around the world and these were sent to Colombo via pigeon post. The Galle lighthouse was home to the pigeons. The birds made their journey from Galle to Colombo covering a distance of 72 miles in 45 minutes carrying enough manuscript on each bird that would fill the material needed for a single typed page. One shouldn't overrule the fact that P&O was sans any competition there were others who operated mail shipping lines. The following is a brief detailing of the liners. The British India Steam Navigation Company ran a service between Tuticorin and Colombo. These ships were carrying mail collected at Calcutta. The service was extended to Mauritius. Bibby Line founded by John Bibby of Liverpool ran a mail service whose local agents were Carson and Company. The mail reached Marseilles from Liverpool and thereafter it was taken on board their steamships calling on ports of Colombo and Rangoon. The premises for the General Post Office building was located at King’s Street (currently the Janadhipath Mawatha). The Edwardian style building was built in 1895 opposite the Governor General’s residence aka the King’s House (currently the President’s House). The Postal Headquarters was moved to its present location at D.R Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10 because of security reasons.  The nine-storied building equipped with modern facilities houses a Postal Museum which is open to the public.

The  newly  built General Post Office and Central Mail Exchange at No: 10, D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10.

[papermoonloveslucy]

No More Double Dates

S1;E21 ~ February 18, 1963

Synopsis

When Lucy and Viv double date, there’s an argument about where to go and what to do. Lucy and Harry decide they’d like to spend a Saturday night alone, so they make up a story about having tickets to see a Broadway show. After being caught doubling back at the trains station, they go to a new restaurant where they naturally run into Viv and Eddie.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael), Dick Martin (Harry Connors)

Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) do not appear in this episode.

Guest Cast

Donald Briggs (Eddie Collins) makes the sixth of his seven appearances as Viv’s on-again / off-again boyfriend.

Leon Belasco (Violinist) was born in Russia in 1902. He was in three films with Lucille Ball before playing the art store clerk in “Lucy Becomes a Sculptress” (ILL S2;E15). He will also play the violin in “Lucy Conducts the Symphony” (S2;E13) and a Maitre d’ when “Lucy Meets Danny Kaye” (S3;E15).  

Rolfe Sedan (Headwaiter) first worked with Lucille Ball in the 1934 film Kid Millions. Coincidentally, he played a cruise ship passenger alongside episode extra Bess Flowers. When Lucy Ricardo ate snails in “Paris at Last” (ILL S5;E18), Sedan played the Chef who was outraged that Lucy wants to put ketchup on his food!  He is probably best remembered as Mr. Beasley the mailman on “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.”

Louis A. Nicoletti (Waiter) was an integral member of the Desilu family, having been a frequent extra on “I Love Lucy.” He made two more appearances on screen in “The Lucy Show” before taking over as Assistant Director in 1966. He performed the same chores for 26 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”  

Allan Ray (Harry, a man in the Danfield train station) was seen on “I Love Lucy” as the clapstick boy at “Ricky’s Screen Test” (ILL S4;E6), a Brown Derby waiter in “Hollywood at Last” (ILL S4;E16), and a male nurse in “Nursery School” (ILL S5;E9). This is the second of his three appearances on “The Lucy Show.” He also played a hotel doorman in the 1963 Lucille Ball / Bob Hope film Critic’s Choice. In 1950 Ray and Gale Gordon were in the film A Woman of Distinction in which Lucille Ball played herself in a cameo. The Pink Pheasant Restaurant patrons (uncredited) are played by:

Bess Flowers (above) was dubbed ‘Queen of the Extras’ in Hollywood and is credited with more than 700 film and TV appearances from 1923 to 1964. She was seen in the audience of Over the Teacups in “Ethel’s Birthday” (ILL S4;E8) and The Most Happy Fella during “Lucy’s Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22). This is the second of her five uncredited appearances on “The Lucy Show.” Not surprisingly, Flowers was a founding member of SEG, the Screen Extras Guild (now part of SAG) in 1945. 

Herschel Graham makes his second and final appearance on the series after being seen at the Cavalier Restaurant in “Lucy is a Kangaroo for a Day” (S1;E7). He was reported to be the highest earning male extra of 1937! Ten years later, he appeared in the film Lured with Lucille Ball. He played a passenger on the S.S. Constitution in “Bon Voyage” (ILL S5:E13) and was a bullfight spectator when “Lucy Goes to Mexico,” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” He was an extra in Lucy’s 1960 film The Facts of Life.  

Bernard Sell is an English-born background player making his first of three appearances on the series. He was also an extra with Lucille Ball and Bob Hope in their films The Facts of Life (1960) and Critic’s Choice (1963). He later turns up on a 1971 two-part episode of “Here’s Lucy” taking place on a cruise ship headed to Hawaii.  

Other train station passengers and diners are played by uncredited and unidentified background performers. 

The night this episode first aired (February 18, 1963) Lucy’s good friend and co-star Ann Sothern appeared on “I’ve Got A Secret”, which was the CBS lead-in for “The Lucy Show.”

Eddie says that while waiting for Viv he’s read the first two volumes of the Bobbsey Twins. These were children’s novels which related the adventures of two sets of twins: Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie. There were 72 books in all, the first appearing in 1904 and the last in 1979. Edward Stretemeyer wrote the first two books under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. In 1953’s “The Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29) Vivian Vance had a line of dialogue that referred to Lucy and Ricky as the Bobbsey Twins.

DOUBLE DATE DILEMMA: WHAT TO SEE?

Searching for possible movies to see, Eddie prefers Ben-Hur (1959) at the Ritz over Two for the Seesaw (1962), because you get more actors for your money. Ben-Hur  famously had a cast of 30,000. The movie was previously mentioned in “Lucy’s Sister Pays a Visit” (S1;E15). Ralph Hart (Viv’s son Sherman) was an extra in Two for the Seesaw. Viv wants to see What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), but Lucy thinks it will be too scary. The film starred Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who will make a guest appearance on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and the Lost Star” (S6;E22). Lucy says she wants to see “the Cary Grant picture at the Danfield Theatre.” She is probably referring to That Touch of Mink (1962). Herschel Graham, an extra in this episode, is also an extra in that film. Cary Grant was mentioned several times on “I Love Lucy.”  

Lucy notes that movie tickets are $1.50. 

On another date, Viv suggests “a good movie at the Bijou” but Eddie wants to see a western at the Danfield. Lucy chimes in that she heard “that new Doris Day picture is cute.” This is probably another reference to That Touch of Mink, since Cary Grant’s co-star was Doris Day. Day will be mentioned again on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy is a Soda Jerk” (S1;E23) and “Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere” (S4;20). Although there were half a dozen westerns released in 1962, the most popular of those were The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring “I Love Lucy” guest star John Wayne, or Lonely Are the Brave starring Kirk Douglas, who will do a cameo in “Lucy Goes To A Hollywood Premiere” (S4;E20). 

For movie times, Viv consults The Danfield Tribune. Lucy and Viv were on the front page of the newspaper in “Lucy Becomes an Astronaut” (S1;E6) and Lucy worked there part-time in “Lucy Becomes Reporter” (S1;E17). One of the headlines says ‘Hospital Fund Reaches Goal Building To Start Next Month’. Could this be the children’s hospital Viv’s women’s club was raising money for in “Lucy the Music Lover” (S1;E8)?

DOUBLE DATE DILEMMA: WHERE TO EAT?

For dinner, Harry suggests going to Tony DiBello’s for Italian food. DiBello’s will be featured in “Lucy Meets a Millionaire” (S2;E24). Viv suggests The Country Kitchen in Ridgebury. Eddie wants to dine where George Washington slept – the 300 year-old Colonial Inn. In season two, when “Lucy and Viv Open a Restaurant” (S2;E24), they transform a run-down cafe into what they name the Colonial Inn, even going so far as to dress like George and Martha Washington to attract diners. Lucy makes one more suggestion: The Café Tambourine, which is probably a gypsy tea room. 

Despite all those suggestions and objections, all four end up at a new restaurant named The Pink Pheasant.

Lucy asks the Pink Pheasant violinist to play “Dark Eyes,” which is is the world’s most recognizable Russian romance song. It was first published in 1843.

DOUBLE DATE DILEMMA: DEPOT DRAMA!

When Lucy and Harry lie about missing their train, Eddie notes that the next one only makes one stop - in New Rochelle. The real-life New York town has already been mentioned several times in the series, establishing that Danfield (and nearby Ridgebury) are similar commuter suburbs of Manhattan.  New Rochelle was also the home of Rob and Laura Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, which was running on CBS concurrently with “The Lucy Show”.  Meanwhile, nightly on Broadway, New Rochelle was being sung about as a housewife’s paradise in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. 

The ‘call a cab’ box in the Danfield Station turned up again on “Hazel” (1961-66) starring Shirley Booth, a Screen Gems television show. The word ‘Danfield’ was covered up, but it is the same prop. 

The top rack of the train station news agent displays a paperback copy of Tender is the Night. The 1934 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald was made into a hit movie in 1962.  There is also a copy of the 1934 Civil War novel Arouse and Beware by MacKinlay Kantor. The book was filmed as The Man from Dakota in 1940. Kantor won a 1956 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Andersonville.

After two round trips to New Rochelle, Lucy remarks that if they’d been traveling in a straight line, they’d “be in Miami Beach by now.”  The Florida resort city was also mentioned in the previous episode, “Lucy and Viv Become Tycoons” (S1;E20). Several episodes of “I Love Lucy” were set there in 1956. 

Callbacks!

The Pink Pheasant restaurant is really just a re-dressed version of The Cavalier, a restaurant seen earlier in the season in “Lucy Is A Kangaroo for a Day” (S1;E7). They even use the same chairs! 

Two couples barely missing each other at a suburban train depot was also the source of farcical comedy in “Lucy Misses the Mertzes” (ILL S6;E17) where the confusion took place at the Westport train station. Westport, like New Rochelle, was a real life commuter suburb for those employed in Manhattan and who took the train to work. 

Two couples indecisive about where to dine is how “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (ILL S2;E21) starts off. In that episode, Ricky Ricardo orders “a sirloin steak; thick and juicy.” Here Lucy Carmichael tells the waiter at the Pink Pheasant to bring her roast beef “about that thick and nice and juicy.” In both episodes shrimp cocktails are ordered as appetizers. Throughout both series’ the writers were prone to describing meat as “thick and juicy.”

Men waiting for the women to get dressed for an evening out is the way that “Lucy’s Schedule” (ILL S1;E33) begins. Here, Harry and Eddie bring along books to read while waiting.

HARRY: “If you’re going to ask me to elope again, it’s a bad night for it. My ladder’s broken.” 

This may be a reference to “Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (S1;E9), in which Lucy and Viv borrow Harry’s ladder to get to the roof and then break it in half. 

Eloping by leaning a ladder to a girl’s second story window was a common romcom trope. It will be seen again when Lucy and Mr. Mooney suspect his son Ted is going to elope with Lucy’s daughter, Chris! 

A hungry Lucy hiding under a table is instantly reminiscent of “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3) - without the dog, of course.    

Blooper Alerts!

Character Count? About Two for the Seesaw, Harry says “there are only two actors in the entire picture”. Although this was true of the 1958 play version by William Gibson, the film expanded the cast to include four other characters only talked about in the play. There were also many other uncredited actors, including “The Lucy Show's” Ralph Hart, who is coincidentally absent from “No More Double Dates”! 

“No More Double Dates” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

[ciathyzareposts]

Missed Classic 61: Wishbringer (1985) – Introduction

Written by Joe Pranevich

When Wishbringer launched, the writing was already on the wall for Infocom. Cornerstone had been thrashing in the marketplace for five months and a successful game launch– or two or three– was the injection the company needed to keep its feet on the ground and its future focused on games rather than business products. At least in some respects, they succeeded: Wishbringer was the highest-selling new game other than Hitchhiker’s Guide, and it would eventually receive both a “Solid Gold” release as well as a novelization. And yet… before starting into this series, I knew absolutely nothing about this game. It had even been relegated to the second “Lost Treasures” set alongside such classics as Cutthroats and Seastalker. How exactly could a game simultaneously be Infocom’s most successful launch at their most dangerous time… and also fade away quite so quickly?

My guess, having not played it yet, is that it has something to do with Wishbringer’s status as the second “Introductory” (previously called “Junior”) title, a successor to Seastalker to bring kids in the door and get them hooked on Interactive Fiction. Am I going to find the game too childish for lasting appeal? This is also Brian Moriarty’s first game for Infocom having done a tour of duty as a backend software engineer working on 6502 systems. I wrote a long introduction to his career last week, as part of my review of Adventure in the 5th Dimension. If you skipped that one because you never heard of the game, please check it out. Mr. Moriarty had finally achieved his dream job; that is the story of how he got there.

Festeron again!

Before I deep dive into the manual, let me tell you my first surprise: Wishbringer is unambiguously a Zork game. I had heard that it was “Zorkian”, perhaps sharing a certain sense of style with the original trilogy, but I had absolutely no idea that it was literally a Zork game. What do I mean by that? This game takes place, or at least purports to, in Festeron in Antharia. This was established in the Zork manuals (which had been recently updated) as being an island province of the Great Underground Empire. That doesn’t tell us when this game takes place and the manual suspiciously only uses two-digit dates, but it’s unambiguous that we’re having an adventure in a new corner of the GUE. I am much more excited than before to see where this is going and how it connects to the other games in the series.

Travel guide to Antharia from Zork II

The story of the “Wishbringer”, the stone that is included in the packaging, is a surprisingly dark one. The manual tells of us a princess named Morning-Star whose mother forced her suitors into difficult trials. One by one, each and every man who would claim her hand in marriage was defeated by their various quests. These quests include references to the previous Zork games, such as the suitor that defeated a grue but was unable to bring its body to the surface. There’s even a suitor that tried to get the Coconut of Quendor which I vaguely recall being mentioned in a later game, although I do not remember if it was Zork Zero or Beyond Zork. (I never made it very far in either of those games and last played more than twenty years ago.) Unfortunately, none of the suitors were worthy and Morning-Star was forced by her mother to remain celibate to the ends of her days. Many years later, an explorer found her heart, now a small glowing lump the size of a stone, filled with the wishes of a life unspent. That’s not dark at all.

The manual further explains that the Wishbringer stone can be used for seven different wishes, but each of them can only be used once. Each also requires you to find and use a special item:

Rain, when you wish on the stone while standing under an umbrella

Advice, when you wish and listen into a seashell

Flight, when you wish while sitting on a broomstick

Darkness, when you wish after drinking the “Milk of Grue” (ewwww)

Foresight, when you wish while wearing a pair of glasses

Luck, when you wish while carrying a horseshoe

Freedom, when you wish after eating candy

We will see exactly how these will be used in the game. I’m a bit disappointed that you can only use each wish once, but other choices might just have invited too many comparisons to Enchanter and Sorcerer, plus Spellbreaker is just a few months away. The only thing left is to play the game!

Starting the game in a dream? Someone played Sorcerer.

We start the game in a daydream as I, the brave hero, am fighting against a magical dragon with a sword. This, as you all probably know by now, is a useless gesture. Dragons can only be defeated with your bare hands or, failing that, by taunting them into attacking you in a room filled with sheets of ice. Fortunately, I wake up before I am doomed by not understanding the basics of dragon-defeating when someone calls me from inside a nearby post office. Should I go in first? Or explore? I consider exploring, but better to go in instead and see what this game is all about.

I head inside and find my boss, the local postman, reading other peoples’ postcards. He says that he has a “Special Delivery” that we have to drop off immediately. The envelope has to make it to the Magick Shoppe by 5:00 PM. It’s just after 3:00 PM now, according to the timer in the corner of the screen, so I don’t have much time. The envelope is one of the feelies from the package and includes the address of the shop:

American-style letters have the return address in the upper-left.

The package is from “The Tower”, although where that is exactly I have no idea. It’s all fairly domestic for an evil plot. Surely if I were some sort of Dark Lord, I would have crows or something to deliver my ultimatum instead of using the postal service. And is that a platypus on the stamp? What evil being would buy platypus stamps? Before I go, I also check out a wanted poster on the wall in case it revealed anything about our villain. It did… in a way. It says that “Professor:” Brian Moriarty is wanted for “Impersonating a Storytelller”. Ha! From what we know about his history, he might have felt a bit like that really given that he was hired just as a backend developer rather than an “Implementor”. I also love this because it’s a return to the practice of having the game credits hidden on some random object somewhere; I haven’t seen that in a few games, although I could have missed the objects.

Heading out of the Post Office, I check the signage. There is a cemetery off to the west of me and the town to the east. I head east first and find a small cottage belonging to the librarian. There’s a poodle outside and he’s pretty much blocking the way. I cannot either enter the house or proceed into the town to the north. The game hints that I may be able to bribe it with something, but I don’t have any items of interest yet. I guess I have to head to the cemetery after all.

Something tells me that poodle is famous…

Entering the cemetery, I get a warning that it is creepy and that I should turn back. I have to answer that I really really want to go in a few times before it lets me. It’s obviously just a retread of the Engine Room joke from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I suppose I can let it pass since younger players may not have played that game.

Just to the north is a gravedigger. He asks to see the envelope that I am carrying, but I refuse and he eventually leaves. Did I make the right choice? I have no idea, but he looked pretty suspicious to me and a good mailman doesn’t show anyone the wrong mail. Once he’s gone, there’s an open grave that I can climb down into to find a bone. On one hand, I bet this can distract the dog! On the other hand… is this a human bone? Am I going to let a dog munch on a human bone? That is more than a little disturbing. Exploring the rest of the graveyard, I find an umbrella and an iron gate leading out to the north that I cannot unlock. The gravedigger is still wandering around and he warns me against going into the graveyard after dark.

With no way out, I go back the way I came and approach the poodle. Giving him the bone makes him happy (and me a bit unnerved), but it will let me head north now. I still cannot enter the librarian’s house without being blocked, but that’s okay. Just to the north, I find the Librarian, Ms. Voss, locking up the library. She gives me a note that she wants to have delivered to Mr. Crisp, the Postmaster. I cannot read it, but it says “Corky” on the outside. Corky Crisp? How cute. She runs off.

Seeing that the envelope says to go to North Festeron, I cross the town and a bridge. I’m not quite sure that I am going in the right direction. I reach a point where the game tells me that I’m getting in deep and I should probably draw a map and that seems like something I wouldn’t be doing at the very beginning of a kids game. Besides, I’m almost out of time already. I elect to explore the town first.

Town map from the end of this post

It takes a couple of games because with only two hours to explore, you really cannot see everything in one go. In that way, it reminds me a bit of the early stages of Zork where you had a limited time period with the lamp, but at least this makes some amount of sense. If 5:00 PM passes, you get fired from your job and the game ends. I hope all this exploration will come in handy later. Rather than give you a blow-by-blow, let me just summarize the areas that I found so far:

There’s a rotary in the town center, around which is a police station (containing an officer and an empty cell), a locked theater, a locked library, and an empty church containing just a candle.The center of the rotary has a statue and fountain; inside the fountain is a coin and a fish.

To the west is a lakeshore and the locked northern entrance to the cemetery. There’s a pile of leaves there and a “Do Not Disturb” sign. If I search the leaves, the wind picks up and they fly away revealing a pit in the sand. It was a trap! But for what? My score goes down by ten points for not following the sign so I restore.

In the northwest of the map, you can climb up to “Lookout Hill” where we can see a tree stump and a horseshoe.

In the northeast of the map, I find a tiny lighthouse, a pelican, and a conch shell hidden in a tide pool. I have no idea why anyone built a scale model of a lighthouse on a beach, but it’s not sillier than anything else in this game.

On the eastern edge is a “Pleasure Wharf” with a video arcade and a mailbox. There’s also a seahorse that I can rescue by throwing it back in the water. I’m reminded a bit of the arcade in Sorcerer, but I suppose how many different kinds of arcades can there be?

And unfortunately, that is it: there is no magick shop in town so I’m going to have to explore north after all. At least I have found ingredients for three of the wishes: a horseshoe, an umbrella, and a seashell. I’ll have to be on the lookout for the rest. It says that the postal code for outside the grid is 23-51-1 which is exactly what is on the envelope. Oh well.

The path up the mountain is simple enough. There’s a not-quite-maze that you have to pass through, but it is easy to map as the exits are listed and distinct. It’s only a couple of rooms anyway. At the top is the magic shop, a quaint little establishment. When you go in, a little bell rings. You know the type. Inside is an assortment of magical things but we’re there on business so we hand the envelope over to the proprietress. She has misplaced her glasses and asks us to open and read the letter to her.

He took her cat! That is evil!

“The Evil One” took the woman’s cat! She’s angry, so angry that she’s holding back tears of rage. She says that she has concealed the Stone of Dreams, the “magick stone” that the Evil One covets. She says that she gave up her childhood and family to keep that stone safe, and now her burden has even cost her her cat. She says that she’s not supposed to tip mail carriers, but she hands me a metal can of mixed nuts anyway. She says goodbye and that we should be getting back to town. She pushes us out, asking if we will keep a look out for her cat, all black except for a white dot on her forehead. Her name is Chaos. She says that if I want to look for her cat, the Stone of Dreams can help me find it… but that she cannot tell me where it is because then the Evil One could hear. With that, I’m out the door and she locks it behind me.

Outside, it’s practically a new world. As the sun sets, fog rolls in across the island. Things are… different. The post office where I started is in the distance, but now it is replaced by a large tower. What is going on? Is the Evil One attacking? I’ll have to find out next time!

Time played: 1 hr 40 min Inventory: metal can, gold coin, violet note, umbrella (plus the stuff I saw but didn’t pick up yet) Score: 24

It’s time to guess the score! While this is Moriarty’s first Infocom game, he is not new to our blog. We recently looked at Adventure in the 5th Dimension, his first published game, and that one scored only 13 points. In contrast, Loom managed to score 65 and is still one of our top games of all time. Moriarty also played much smaller roles in the development of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (65 points) and Fate of Atlantis (82). That is an incredibly wide spread so I cannot possible provide any meaningful score guidance this time. If you absolutely insist, I’d say that the average of the two games (that we have played so far) where he was the sole creator is 39. Is that a good guess? I have no idea.

One final programming note: Fooblitzky has been moved to 1985 and I will look at at after A Mind Forever Voyaging. This game was released in stores in 1986, but was launched as a mail-order exclusive in 1985. I’m still not sure how I will cover this game, but I will figure it out when I get there.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-61-wishbringer-1985-introduction/