#dr rose north

[missr3n3]

affirmations for when u find urself in a tale of the cabin variety

[entropyvoid]

Golden Hour (+ lineart below cut)

I took a picture of the lines for once and did some basic crappy photo editing on my phone, so you could probably print this out and use it as a coloring page or something if you so wish lol. Do with it what you will.

[nimuetheseawitch]

SGA Summer Vacation Recs

So, a few weeks ago, a friend asked for longfic recommendations to read while on vacation, and I did not really realize how many I was recommending at the time. Seemed like a good idea to make a post about it.

Time in a Bottle by astolat, 14K (not originally on my list because it was too short, but it's too perfect for a summer reading list, so I added it), McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.

The Long Dark (series) by @logicgunn, 141K, McShep, Rated G-E but the first is M, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings An astronomical event causes two strangers to crash land on a remote island in the frozen Canadian north. Cue a fluffy slow burn in a survival setting.

Lord John Sheppard Versus Earth by LitGal, 61K, McShep, Rated M, Graphic Depictions of Violence Canon diverged before Jackson found Atlantis. The IOC stepped in and decided to make things more efficient. A gene testing program brought Major John Sheppard into the program earlier, but budget constraints and international treaties have kept Dr. Jackson out of the antarctic. So now John has to find his own team--and his own geek--or he's in danger of being stuck in the mountain forever as a light switch. However, as the universe changes, fate forces some things to return to proper form, and other things… they get wildly out of control. John isn't sure how he came to be Earth's enemy, but he's going to have to deal with the cards he's dealt.

Teamwork by onthewaters, 24K, McShep and others, Rated E, Graphic Depictions of Violence There is an Earth where things have turned out a little differently, and the people who go to Atlantis aren't quite the ones we know. AKA The one where Rodney is a Mountie.

The Doctor and the Sheppard by @hero-in-waiting, 70K, McShep, Rated E They've been in Pegasus for a year before Rodney is finally allowed to go off-world to meet with the mysterious leader of a group of allies against the wraith. The first meeting goes well, sending them down a path none of them could've foreseen, and leaving Rodney with thoughts of the mysterious leader with his bright eyes and dark hair.

The Hard Prayer by Rheanna, 30K, McShep, Rated M One year after the end of the world, John meets another survivor.

In Sickness and in Health by @a-storm-of-roses, 31K, McShep, Rated E "So I told a little lie, just to get you back to Atlantis. It was the only way, so try not to get too mad. I told them we were married.” When John suffers a major, life-changing injury on Earth, Rodney must pretend to be his husband to ensure his return to Atlantis. As he struggles to navigate recovery and accept his new reality, John must also come to terms with his new role as Rodney's husband and the new dynamics in their relationship. A story of healing, recovery, loss, love, and acceptance.

Enigma by sgamadison, McShep, 32K, McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings During an off-world mission, a piece of Ancient technology transports Rodney and John on a one-way trip to a deserted airfield. Working together to get back, it takes a vivid dream to make Rodney realize what's been in front of him all along.

Bridges by bussaiko, 52K, McShep, Rated E Engineer Rodney McKay went to North Carolina's Crystal Coast to help his sister design a series of bridges. He hoped to rebuild his career following a professional disaster; he didn't expect to be drawn into the small community of Athos Island, where he found friendship and perhaps something more with helicopter pilot John Sheppard. But when Rodney tries to learn more about John's past, what he discovers might tear them apart. (non-Stargate AU)

Apocalypse Rising by sian1359, 81K, McShep, Rated M, Graphic Depictions of Violence The Goa'uld are not the only ones who covet Earth.

Zen and the Art of Jumper Maintenance by Indybaggins, 39K, McShep, Rated M The one where Rodney gets sucked in and John… follows. Featuring a quirky John, Rodney in orange robes, crazy Ancient-worship, sheep milking and jumpers that aren't broken but need to be fixed anyway.

Black Helicopters (series) by whizzy, 141K, McShep, Rated T-E but the first is M, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Screw the bet. Rodney was going to prove the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Oh, and incidentally, he might just catch the United States Air Force with their pants around their ankles.

Pegasus Purgatorio by MrsHamill, 127K, McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings It is difficult to write a paradise when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse. It is obviously much easier to find inhabitants for an inferno or even a purgatorio. (Ezra Pound) Yeah, I'd say that about covers it, Ezra. John and Rodney are left behind when Atlantis (and, by extension, Pegasus) is evacuated. While returning to the Milky Way, they decide to bring a few friends along.

What A Wonderful Bunker You Would Make by ocdindeed, 50K, McShep, Rated M Summary in simple words: Rodney is recluse and John has a kid. Summary in not so simple words: Rodney McKay has given up on the world, living a simple life up on a mountain devoid of people. He likes it that way, at least he did until a kid with a full head of dark hair ambled up his dirt driveway and changed his sequestered life forever. (AU - Set during SG1 & Pre-SGA timeline.)

G******, Tramps, and Thieves* (series) by auburn, 372K, McShep and a whole lot more, Rated T-M, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, later fics Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis.

*I censored this title due to a common racial slur

[i-cant-sing]

Dr snow hear me out. So I’m North African right now? Ikr so cool anyway if I was in the 12th century I would be a direct descendant of dihya al Kahina and I would be angsty and upset about the loss of my royal status as princess in the matriarchal amazigh society after the Arabs came so I would train and become the best archer in North Africa and look for ways to restore my dignity and honour the matriarchy of my great great great great grandmother. I would wake up one day and get a tanit tattoo on my forehead and then seek help of the one and only in all of the levant….king Baldwin , we would meet in some random setting in the desert , I would ride a camel and he would have a white horse , I would come unarmed fierce and feisty to impress him with my bravery or so he thought because I did in fact have a dagger strapped to my thigh under my royal blue satin dress with a slit that he can’t see so he would never know I truly was armed…He would see an angsty angry upset wretched hurt soul within me instead of the fake strength mask I had put on through his wisdom and imaginable charisma . We would play chess , I would win , he would agree to help me after that . In the end , he would heal my soul from hostility towards Arabs and from the dangers of revenge and I would become a delicate rose with a tempered soul who was truly strong and possessed a lot of wisdom and compassion instead of an angsty reckless impulsive little girl. We would live happily ever after then and throw balls every season.

idk why but the visuals is reminding me of assassin's creed odyssey and im a sucker for AC games

honestly, yes baldwin would help you but he would 1000% know that you are armed and he would NEVER lose a chess game. im sorry but u could be idk magnus carlson, and baldwin would still be able to beat you. the only way youre winning is if baldwin lets you win because you might be a sore loser and ur angsty ass needs a win for once.

baldwin is the embodiment of beauty with brains, and this dude is so wise and smart, most people actually underestimate him because of his age (because they think age = experience) but its also because baldwin often downplays his intelligence. he's not the type to immediately spring into action, no- baldwin likes to observe, likes to set everything into place and let the dominoes fall into place. he's not someone who waits for an opportunity, no hes the one creates an opportunity. only a fool would wait for the circumstances to be in their favour. baldwin makes the circumstances favour him.

[cillianmesoftlyyy]

The Experiment Pt. 1 | Jonathan Crane x Reader

Summary| Jonathan Crane assigns his students a new experimental project: choose a phobia and research methods for coping with or completely overcoming those fears in test subjects. A student approaches Dr. Crane with an interesting project proposition... can he help her overcome her fear?

Warnings| Teacher x student relationship (both are consenting adults), Borderline sexual assault between a bf and gf, Erotophobia, Smutty stuff yk , Masturbation, P in V penetration, Teasing, Semi-public, Unprotected sex, Begging, Experiments. Extensive discussions of sex and intimacy.

"Oh My God"- Ida Maria 🎵

"Lazy Eye"- Silversun Pickups 🎶

"Romantic Lover" Eyedress 🎵

Word count: 3375k

Minors do not interact!!

.............................................................................................................

He leaned back on the desk behind him, his hands flat against the surface and his suit coat spread like grayish wings against his arms. Dr. Crane looked between his students, landing on a female student,  squinting against the projector’s harsh glare in his eyes. She looked back from her seat near the back of the lecture hall, a small twist forming between her eyebrows as she read the text on the screen just above his head. 

“I expect this won’t be much of a surprise to most of you, considering we’ve been working towards this for the greater part of the semester.” He watched the dozens of eyes in his hall blink rapidly in response and swallowed his distaste. 

“Remember that I study phobias- fear- and from the looks on some of your faces, it appears quite a few of you are afraid.” He chuckled darkly and changed the slide, the light flickered against the students’ faces. 

“Choose a phobia, research it, and develop methods of coping or even ways to overcome this phobia. You should have a test subject and a complete study, all of which should be straightforward considering the work you’ve done with me in the past weeks. The research paper you turn in will account for 30% of your final grade. Take this seriously. These are your instructions. Other questions can be directed to the syllabus. Only come to me if you have specific concerns regarding the experiment- I’m doing research of my own and don’t have time to meet with all of you.” He swallowed, scanning the class again and landing on the girl from before. 

Faye Greyson, why is it that her papers are so well written but she contributes nothing to class discussions? She seemed so pathetic sitting up there on the back row with her big doe eyes caught in the headlights of his lectures…he thought briefly and let it slide from his head as he dismissed the class. The college students around him fled from the room, talking quietly to one another as they scrambled out of the room. The girl came down the steps and brushed past him gently. She smelled like generic soap and rose water. He wrinkled his nose slightly, breathing her in. 

“Sorry, professor.” She apologized kindly with a smile that showed too much of her pink gums. 

“Watch it.” He muttered beneath his breath, giving the back of her head a dark glare and turning to pack up his briefcase. He took the rail to his lab on the north side of town, a book open across his lap. He fingered page 16, running his index against the straight edge of the paper and turning it quickly as he read. The doors opened at one of the stops and he glanced up briefly, fixing the horn-rimmed glasses on his face. He rolled his eyes when we saw Faye board the train from the yellowed platform, hand in hand with another student from his class. One of the boys that took the class because they were naturally gifted but did nothing besides attend some classes and depend on their smarts to barely pass. He would have some harsh realities to face by the end of the semester when he saw his final grade, Crane would make sure of that. 

He hated seeing students outside of class, it prompted them to speak to him when he’d rather both parties pretend they didn’t know each other. To be fair, they really didn’t know each other. Crane didn’t find his students very interesting so he wasn’t concerned with getting to know them. The only aspect he could muster some ounce of thoughtful contemplation for was their phobia projects, where he theorized, they would all most likely choose their own phobias. Knowing their phobias was about as interesting as their lives could get for him. Besides that, he could care less. 

The train was full so the girl held onto one of the rubber handles suspended from the ceiling, but because she was so short, she had to stand on her tiptoes to fully grasp the handle, her knuckles turned white in her grip. The boy… maybe Jason White (Crane couldn’t remember exactly) took one of the ceiling bars easily and slipped his arm around the girl’s waist. Their puffy coats slid against one another as they swayed in the fastly moving train car. The boy's hand left her waist and traveled up, somewhat discreetly, to one of her breasts. With her free hand, she swatted him away but he persisted, thinking that it was a game. Faye happened to glance over in Crane’s direction and recognizing him immediately, turned bright red. The boy’s hand slid over her hardened nipple visible through her pink jersey turtleneck. She tried to cover her chest with her arm but as the train shuttered in speed, she had to stabilize herself with her free hand against a plastic partitioner. Crane cleared his throat distastefully and returned to his book.

For some, the absence of fear is a greater disaster than fear itself. To fear nothing is to have no conception of danger, empathy, pain, or love. Do sociopaths fear? Some scientists have sought to answer this question but the evidence is inconclusive on the subject, though it is nearly unanimous among the scientific community that fear is essential to survival and companionship. It is the primal root of our existence and should be a present factor in every major part of our lives. It is how we make connections with others and how we protect ourselves and our own. For sociopaths who may not fear, they lack a basic foundation of complexity that supports an emotionally ‘typical’ person. They lack love, understanding, and hope because they do not feel the fear of potential loss, misunderstanding, and dread in the same situation. 

“Stop it, Jason.” The girl whispered harshly to the boy. 

“No one’s looking.” He whispered back and kissed her neck, the sound causing a wave of communal discomfort amongst the rail riders. 

“Perhaps not but we can still hear.” Crane muttered beneath his breath and raised his eyes to the young couple. The girl looked to be on the verge of tears, her face so pink it nearly matched the hue of her shirt. Crane noticed the small curvature of her breasts still showing through the fabric. 

“Damn the cold.” Faye whispered and covered her chest with her arm with embarrassment and Jason laughed condescendingly. 

“Don’t go blaming that on the cold….” Jason cornered her against the wall of the rail which Crane assumed would have been attractive to someone who wasn’t standing uncomfortably on a moving public train. 

“Can we at least just wait till we get off? I don’t…” She trailed off, making eye contact with the professor who was now thoroughly annoyed. Jason looked over too, finally seeing Crane across the doors. 

“Hello Mr. White.” Crane hissed, showing his deepest displeasure at having to step in for the sake of every passenger on the train.

“Professor.” Jason responded nervously. 

“Miss Greyson.” He nodded in her direction.

“Professor.” She whispered back in a weak mew of a voice. 

Crane stood, slid his book back into his briefcase, and clicked it shut. The doors opened at his stop and he turned around casually saying, ''behave yourselves,” to the two students and stepped down onto the platform. The doors closed behind him. He turned to face the windows cut into the doors, making eye contact with the girl, now visibly crying, overwhelmed and embarrassed. He tipped his head to the side, watching her, and raised an eyebrow as she looked up and met his clear blue eyes. The train shot away from the platform, sailing against the New York City skyline. 

“Hmm,” Crane hummed to himself and walked away, pursuing his chapped lips to whistle a low note.

——-—— 

His class met twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the evening. He commuted to work, taking a train to the college in the morning and working through the day until he could commute back to his lab and then to his small apartment where he slept most nights when he didn’t fall asleep on his pages of research and diagrams. 

Last night was one of those nights, so he wasn’t in a good mood as he boarded a later train than he usually took for his evening lecture. The train’s wheels squealed as they stopped in the station outside NYU. Crane hurried off and squeezed through the mess of people lining the subterranean station. He walked quickly through the station and raced up the stairs to the street level. He was met by the familiar sound of taxis whizzing by and the annoying laughter of students as they passed on their way to classes and dorms. 

He went straight to his corner office and put coffee on, relaxing as the smell of the brewing grounds filled his small office. He scanned his lecture notes on a pad of manilla paper and with a red pen, scribbled additional thoughts in the rigid margins. The coffee maker sputtered to a stop, steaming up the window just behind it. Crane pushed away from his desk and filled a small cup with the hot coffee. As he placed it on his desk, a hesitant knock sounded at the door. He checked his Rolex and muttered beneath his breath. 

“Shit. What the fuck is it now?” He gritted his teeth, “come in!”

His office door opened slowly and a girl stepped inside the room. Faye Greyson wringing her small hands, took a step toward his desk. 

“Good evening, Professor.” She greeted him quietly. Her nose and the tops of her ears were tinged with red. 

“Miss Greyson, what is it?” He sat back at his desk and cleared his throat. 

“Well, I just…” She trailed off pathetically and wrapped her arms around herself. She was wearing a light blue turtleneck this time with dark blue boot-cut jeans. They were low rise and showed the small pouch of her stomach that surrounded her bellybutton. 

He waited for her to finish her sentence but as the seconds dragged on, he sighed. 

“Would you like some coffee?” He asked with a hint of unkindness. 

“Yes, actually. Thank you.” The girl pulled the chair on the other side of the desk back and sat down, dropping her bookbag on the floor beside her. Crane took a second cup and poured her some coffee. She took it carefully and accidentally brushed her thumb against his. She muttered an apology. 

“Why are you here?” Crane asked plainly, removing his glasses and wiping them with a small cloth. 

“I just… well I just wanted…” she started again. 

“Yes I know, you said that before.” He chuckled darkly and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, losing his patience. 

“Right. I just wanted to apologize for the other night, Dr. Crane.” She said finally, exhaling between her lips sharply. 

“Apologize for what?” Crane furrowed his eyebrows and blew on his steaming coffee, trying to remain patient with his student. 

“For what you saw on the train.” She cupped her hands around the mug, her eyes held tightly to the adjacent wall, refusing to meet his. 

“Ah.” He sat back in his chair. “I’d forgotten about it but I still don’t see why you need to apologize. You’re an adult, Miss Greyson. What you do in your personal life doesn’t interest me in the slightest.” He shuffled through his papers again, searching for the scans he had prepped. 

“I’m glad that you see it that way, sir. Why I felt like I needed to apologize for was the whole scene we caused and how you felt responsible to say something when he wouldn’t… stop. So, maybe what I’m trying to do is thank you?” Her voice ended at an odd nasally pitch. 

“Thank me? For what? For telling you and your boyfriend to behave yourselves?” He was getting more and more confused as to why she was in his office talking to him about a train ride that he had almost forgotten about. He checked his watch again and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. 

“Yes, because he stopped after that, so thank you.” She crossed and uncrossed her legs and he could smell that familiar scent of rose water permeating the air inside his office. 

“Alright, you’re welcome.” Crane exhaled tightly and cleared his throat when she didn’t stand or say anything else. “Is there something else?” She nodded and blushed deeper, shifting in her chair. His jaw clenched and his palms were sweaty. Out with it, he wanted to growl. His lecture started in an hour and at this rate, they would both be late.

“I broke up with him.” She said finally as a tear rolled down her face, gliding along the shallow cliff of her cheekbone. He said nothing, restraining himself from saying anything at that point. She sniffled and hiccuped pitifully. He pitched his eyebrows together with his index and thumb, placing his glasses on the desk between them. 

“Why?” He asked finally. 

“Because I was scared of him.” The girl answered, crying softly and playing with her hands in her lap. She looked up at him with wide eyes, red and faintly smudged. His body subconsciously perked up at the mention of fear and he leaned forward on his elbows, his dress jacket’s elbow patches grinding against the wood surface. 

“Well it wasn’t that I was scared of him but rather what I felt like I’d have to do with him.” She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. Crane took a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it begrudgingly. She took it and blotted her nose where snot was leaking down onto her upper lip. He felt a fixture of disgust and surprise arousal. Her long eyelashes stuck together with sticky tears and she but her lip to keep from crying. 

“I’m not sure I follow you.” He pushed his glasses up farther. He lifted his cup of coffee to his lips and drank deeply. 

“I was scared of having sex with him.” She hid her face behind her shaky hand, the white handkerchief wavered in the movement. Crane swallowed loudly and set the cup down, clearing his throat. 

“Well…” He traced his mouth with the edge of his thumb, reaching for words to respond with. 

“It's erotophobia.” She added and hiccuped. 

“Fear of intimacy, interesting.” He scanned his bookshelf for a moment. “Why are you telling me this?” He sighed and rearranged himself in his chair. 

“I want to do my project on erotophobia,” she took a slow sip from her cup of coffee and took a deep breath, “and I want to be the subject too.” She glanced up, testing the durability of their eye contact. He didn’t look away, he was fascinated. 

“I don’t know about that, Miss Greyson.” He answered smoothly and collected his papers into a neat pile, clamping a large binder clip around the papers. He stood and took one last sip of coffee, still looking down at the girl below. 

“I’ve been looking for subjects since I saw this on the syllabus a month ago. There aren’t any, Professor.” She said timidly, sounding almost exhausted.

“That’s impossible, we live in New York City. You must have been able to find someone!" He laughed and collected his things into his arms. 

“And yet,” she stood and clasped a hand around her opposite arm, “I can’t find anyone. To be fair, this sort of thing isn’t easy to find in the population. Other people in the class will choose their own phobias, why can’t I do mine?” She turned as Crane stepped around his desk and went to his office door. 

“This is a very special situation, Miss Greyson. While I find your project topic surprisingly thought provoking, it’s…” He struggled to find an adjective. 

“Inappropriate?” She offered, lowering her head. 

“Perhaps but I don’t really care. I just worry that by you conducting the experiment and being the subject, you are jeopardizing the entire outcome of your research. It's unorthodox to say the least.” He opened the door and stepped out. The girl grabbed her bookbag and followed, standing off to the side while he locked his office door. 

“Yes, I know sir.” 

He walked quickly and she followed, matching his stride even with her shorter legs in tow. At the door of the lecture hall, Crane stopped. 

“We can talk about this later,” he nodded down at the girl and went straight to his desk on the elevated platform. She smiled shyly and climbed the stairs to the middle section of seats and sat, closer to the front that she had been before. Crane saw the old boyfriend in the same seat as before, chewing on the end of a wooden pencil. Exhaling, Crane dropped his briefcase on his desk and began to unpack the papers he needed for the lecture. 

________

After he dismissed class, he repacked his things and snapped his case shut, the sound echoing around him in the large room. The girl waited just behind him, he could feel her presence like an unseen bug hovering out of reach. 

“I-” Faye started but Crane spun around, interrupting her. 

“Have you tried masturbation?” He crossed his arms across his chest and sat on the desk. His student blushed and laughed nervously.

“See this is why I worry about you jeopardizing your own experiment. I asked you about masturbation, will your subject try masterbating to approach correcting her fear of sex?” He inclined his head in her direction. 

“Yes, she’s tried it,  Professor.” She responded short of breath. 

“And it hasn’t helped?” He furrowed his brow. 

“Not exactly.” 

He licked his lips quickly and brushed a hand across his mouth. “And uh, what does the subject think about while she masterbates?” He watched her shift uncomfortably between her feet and bit her lip. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Hmmm.” Crane hummed and stood up from the desk. He stepped down from the platform and stopped right in front of the girl. She looked up at him, her eyes wet and heavy with color. She took a step back prompting a quiet tittering from her teacher who stopped her.

“Ah, ah.” He closed the distance between them, not touching her but getting close enough to smell the residue of generic soap caught on the goosebumps of her skin. 

Crane leaned in, his wide lips brushing her earlobe as he spoke, “does your subject watch pornography?” Her skin warmed beneath his lips. 

“No.” Her breath hitched and Crane could physically feel her discomfort at his intimate proximity, the rush of blood to her… 

“Has she ever had sex?” He whispered, allowing his lips to rest on the ridges of her small ear. She shivered. 

“No.” 

He pulled away. The girl exhaled and looked up to the ceiling. With strong, angular fingers, Crane pulled her chin down to face slightly so that he could see her eyes. They glistened with inklings of fear- fear. 

“Then that’s what it is.” He muttered more to himself than to Faye, smiling. 

“What?” She asked, tears forming in the wells of her eyes. 

“It’s the physical aspect of it, isn’t it? Having to touch someone, be touched… outside of your imagination?” He crossed his arms across his chest proudly. A few moments of silence passed between them, each watching the other in contemplative stillness, charged with suggestive energy. 

“Yes.” She whispered finally and ran one of her hands up the buttons of her professor’s shirt to his neck. She went to kiss him but he stepped away and chuckled roughly. 

“No, no Miss Greyson. Think of the experiment.” He chided and turned her chin gently away, trailing his hands down a tendon in her neck. 

“Tell your subject to try masturbation and pornography. See where it takes her.” He took his briefcase and pushed past her, leaving a residue of rich cologne in the air around her.

---------

end of part 1 :)

[junostarot]

pick-a-pile reading

🍒 who has their eye on you in your dr?

choose an image above that you feel most drawn to, then scroll down to find the associated pile. don’t force any messages: take what resonates and leave what doesn’t. your selection will reveal who is romantically interested in you, and what your relationship would be like in your desired reality!

PILE ONE

key words & symbols … books. 444. green. nature. red string of fate / soul ties. autumn or changing of seasons.

this individual is likely an animal person, feeling very drawn to care for them and spend time with them. they may also have a dash of golden retriever energy and a more upbeat personality. with physical touch as their love language, they love giving forehead kisses with your face cradled in their hands, or interlocking your pinkies just to feel connected to you. you two may have a bit of a grumpy x sunshine dynamic at times, with your dr self being a bit more reserved or introverted. they want you to feel loved unconditionally, regardless of what you think of yourself and your past. close friends to lovers, or a friend you never expected to fall for. your love is like autumn, like the scent of apples and cinnamon or feeling a crisp breeze while wearing a warm sweater. halloween likely has a special place in both of your hearts.

“I want to stay on the back porch while the world tilts toward sleep, until what I love misses me, and calls me in.” — Dorianne Laux, from "On the Back Porch," Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems.

PILE TWO

key words & symbols … sea, ocean. stars, night sky, starlight. snow/cold. 777. wolves, canines. the letters k & a. the colors white & pink. roses. rabbits or lambs.

this is someone who wants to know more about the world around them, through exploration and introspection. they are dedicated to learning about themselves, healing, and growing on their path. this person may have been a lone wolf for a while before meeting you, but having you around is like following the north star to solace. they care deeply about protecting you and ensuring that you are safe. quality time is important to them, even if it's just sitting in silence while you watch the sky (stargazing or watching the clouds). they prefer silence and keeping their distance from most people, but you're an exception.

“Just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound.” — Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift.

“I touch you, straighten the sheet, you turn over in the bed, tender / sun comes through the curtains / which of us will survive / which of us will survive the other.” — Margaret Atwood, from "There Are Better Ways of Doing This."

“She's waving hi, her other hand's in mine ... She's got my back, she'll follow me down every street, no matter what my crime.” — Amsterdam by Gregory Alan Isakov.

PILE THREE

key words & symbols … butterflies. orange. tangerine. red. yellow/gold. crown. the letter p. angels or angelic/heavenly imagery.

this person has tried hard to be as soft as they are now, especially with their past behind them; they have experienced events that would make anyone else turn to rage and hurt, but they don't want that for themself. they want to be someone loyal and trustworthy, a person you can turn to when you need it most. when other parts of their life feel uncertain or unpredictable, they know that you're a constant. they find comfort in your arms, like listening to a long-time favorite song that never fails to make your heart feel warm inside. they love french fries and trying new foods (they're likely always hungry, possibly due to superpowers of some kind and needing to fuel themselves for extra energy).

“Save me, I'm lost. Oh, Lord, I've been waiting for you. I'll pay any cost, save me from being confused. Show me what I'm looking for.” — Show Me What I'm Looking For by Carolina Liar

“Since I met you, I've felt abandoned without your nearness; your nearness is all I ever dream of, the only thing.” — Franz Kafka, The Castle.

“When you cycled by, here began all my dreams ... And you never knew how much I really liked you, because I never even told you. Oh, and I meant to Are you still there, or have you moved away?” — Back To The Old House by The Smiths

[scarlettscribbles]

prologue

PART OF neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons by the sea DRABBLE SERIES ↠ masterlist

- Lucy Gray Baird & Daughter!OC, mentioned Lucy Gray Baird x Coriolanus Snow

Summary: 1.7k words - The words were on the tip of her tongue before Coriolanus had let it slip that he'd killed three people.

As Lucy Gray became a ghost lost in the wind, so did her secrets.

a/n: i cannot stop thinking about snowbaird !! inspired by my visenya-verse and also bc i love writing about children being loved :)

also, shout out to PlayingTheGameOfThrones' It's Quiet Uptown! i was reading snowbaird fics and i was so happy to find a secret kid fic. literally squealed in excitement bc i was like, that's what's literally in my brain rn

In truth, Lucy Gray was too young to be doing this. Halfway eighteen, with her heart broken by a man — a boy, really — who almost killed her. Ironically, the suspect of her current predicament was the same person. Oh how Lucy Gray hated it that he still haunted her now.

She had Lucy Gray’s tan skin, her baby girl. The wisps of her hair stuck against her forehead were bright blond. Lucy Gray wondered if her hair would darken eventually.

Annabel Rose Baird was a sickly baby. Her heart was weak and every night, Lucy Gray would have trouble sleeping, afraid that she’d wake up with a cradle gone cold. But she was a survivor, her Annie. Much like her mother. (And father.)

But they could not live on that alone. Lucy Gray, barely recovered from birth, wrapped her baby tight on her back with a sling and took their meager belongings in a bag, setting out to find the community up North Billy Taupe had once talked about. Lucy Gray walked for miles and miles, sometimes wishing she hadn’t left behind that lovely orange scarf her lover gave her. It would’ve made for a more comfortable sleep in their journey. She could’ve given it to Annie as her baby blanket, something to remember her childhood by — the one piece of her father she would ever know or keep. But alas, Lucy Gray had left it behind along with the broken pieces of trust she once thought she could rely on.

Lucy Gray found them eventually. Or rather, they found her. It was in the middle of the night and she’d just put Annie to sleep when flashes of light shone through the gaps between the trees. Cradling her whimpering baby close to her chest, Lucy Gray raised a hand in surrender, hoping that she was saying the right words for them to not shoot her.

They took them to their leader and gave them a small cabin. It was cozy and comfortable but it wasn’t home. Not when their leader, with his calculating eyes and access to Capitol broadcasts, look at her and her baby with such intense scrutiny. Lucy Gray’s paranoia increases every time he “accidentally” chances upon her with questions about the Capitol, about the Hunger Games, about Annie. He’s not as subtle as he thinks he is. Lucy Gray endures his questions, answering casually to alleviate the suspicion upon her. Her heart threatens to beat out of her chest every single time. She could only properly breathe again when she’s back within the four walls of their cabin, with Annie safe in her arms, her little puffs of breath warming Lucy Gray from the inside out.

The one saving grace of the place was Dr. Hartree. She was training under some big shot Capitol doctor when she fled, so she knew more than the District healers did despite the meager hospital equipment she had. She diagnosed Annabel Rose with something called moderate Ventricular Septal Defect; a heart disease she had since birth. Dr. Hartree let her listen to the whooshing sound of her Annie’s heartbeat through the stethoscope. Her baby’s got a hole in her heart. Lucy Gray wept.

Dr. Hartree said that the hole might yet repair itself, that she could look for some medicine that could help strengthen Annie’s heart muscles. But if it did not, Annie would need heart surgery which Dr. Hartree was neither qualified for nor equipped to do. In that scenario, going to the Capitol would be Annie’s best hope, said the doctor. The community’s leader approved Dr. Hartree’s request for getting the medicine. In exchange, Lucy Gray had to take on additional work on top of what she’d already been assigned with to earn her keep. Lucy Gray was both thankful and suspicious. She was no fool, a big favor like that didn’t come without heavier strings. But her baby was alive so Lucy Gray kept her head down. (For the moment, at least.)

Annabel Rose grew up a happy child. She was small for her age but her presence filled the room and her heart was so full of love. Whenever she smiled, a deep dimple showed on her cheek and her warm brown eyes would shine like stars in the night sky. Her baby never did grow out of her blond hair, riotous curls tumbling down her head. She looked like an angel; Lucy Gray’s own angel.

She was truly heaven sent. There were no words to describe how much her daughter made her happy, which was something, coming from a songwriter. Oft Lucy Gray wished the Covey had a chance to know her daughter. Annabel Rose fit in alright with the children of the community, but children can be cruel sometimes. Annie’s body was weak and she ran out of breath fast, making her unable to be included in strenuous physical activities. Lucy Gray was not deaf to the whispers of “runt” that surrounded her daughter, whispers that eventually reached Annie’s ears, causing her to come home tearfully, fisting her mother’s skirt and asking what it meant. Once upon a time, Lucy Gray would have been rearing for a fight but everything was different now. She didn’t have her Covey; her and Annie were alone.

Oh, people were nice enough but, like in District 12, they seemed to be able to sense an otherness in her and Annie that made them unable to accept them fully. It didn’t help that the community leader’s demeanor was like that either. The residents liked and respected him better than the strangers they barely knew anything about, so of course they’d follow his example.

Lucy Gray had been missing her Covey so much that she contemplated going back to District 12, back to her family, when she’d heard that an electric fence was put around it, complete with Peacekeepers patrolling the perimeter. They’d never bothered with that area before, but Lucy Gray had an inkling why they suddenly found it important.

So what else could she do but grit her teeth and bear it? Every night Lucy Gray would sing songs to Annie and tell her stories about the Covey, about her family and the colorful nights and laughter they shared. And Annie’s eyes would shine in the low lamplight, humming along to the tunes.

Lucy Gray did not bring her guitar with her during her journey out of District 12, but she was able to obtain a smaller version — a ukulele — from a traveling salesman. His initial offer nearly took all her saved up money to pay for, but she was able to haggle down to a more reasonable price. At 3-years-old, Annabel Rose learned the basic chords from her mother. The first song she learned was to the tune of Lucy Gray's namesake.

It tugged at Lucy Gray’s heartstrings to hear her Annie’s sweet voice in the warmth of their home. She resolved to write a song for her daughter’s fourth birthday as a gift. Lucy Gray had her song, and so did her Capitol boy. It was only apt that Annabel Rose had one too.

It was the night of Annabel Rose's fourth birthday when everything went wrong. Lucy Gray was humming underneath her breath to the tune of a new song, their tiny kitchen fragrant with the smell of a birthday cake she’d stolen half the ingredients for to bake. She lit up a deformed red candle she attempted to mold from whatever melted wax she could find, cupping the flame between her palms briefly to keep it from being blown out. With a satisfied sigh, she wiped her hands on her apron and walked to the bed to shake her daughter awake.

All Lucy Grey felt was the cold skin of her daughter, her breathing shallow and her skin tinged blue. Her heart dropped to her stomach. With shaking hands, she wrapped Annie in a blanket and lifted her into her arms.

On the way to Dr. Hartree’s cabin, Lucy Gray would not realize that she’d been singing the song she’d written for Annie. And she will sing it under her breath while the good doctor examined her daughter, telling her the heart defect had gotten worse. She’d sing it at the back of her mind while Dr. Hartree tells her that surgery wasn’t an option anymore, that the medicine Annie’ll need is only available in the Capitol, that if she wants her baby to live she’ll need to find some way to get her a heart transplant. She’ll sing it and sing it, hoping the girl she’d written it for would awaken long enough to sing it with her.

She would only stop when Dr. Hartree clasped her hands, telling her in a hushed whisper that she’d found a way to get them to the Capitol discreetly. The doctor’s got family among the Peacekeepers in District 12 who was going to go to the Capitol in two days. Some officer fellow that was high-ranking enough to have his own private train cabin, and kind enough to share it with them. Dr. Hartree had given her temporary antibiotics for Annie with an apology that she couldn’t do anything more. When they arrive in the Capitol, Lucy Gray was on her own. Lucy Gray who had no penny to her name, who would probably be shot on sight once the Capitol had caught wind of her existence.

Her mind was racing on the morn she and a barely-lucid Annie snuck out to the gates. They were met with a heavyset man two heads taller than Lucy Gray, driving a military jeep. Time passed quickly and they encountered no hurdles getting to the train station on time. He lent them warm Capitol-style cloaks so they could blend in upon arrival. He’d even made her a cup of tea, noticing the nervousness in her demeanor. Lucy Gray had not been expecting such kindness from a Peacekeeper, no matter how highly Dr. Hartree spoke of him.

It was nighttime when they arrived, snow falling heavily on the ostentatious buildings. It wasn’t only the cold that made Lucy Gray shiver.

Under the cover of the night, Lucy Gray held her Annabel Rose and rapped on the door of the one she’d hoped would help them. If blood was not an enough reason, she could always appeal to their conscience.

The door swung open.

“Tigris, I need your help.”

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Please note that a character currently needs at least 3 submissions to make it into the poll

That said:

Has 3 Submissions or more:

Aquamarin Hoshino - Oshi No Ko

Artemis Fowl - Artemis Fowl

Ash Ketchum - Pokemon

Batman - DC

Bloom Peters - Fate: The Winx Saga

Bojack Horseman - Bojack Horseman

Brambleclaw - Warrior Cats

Charlie Morningstar - Hazbin Hotel

Dr Gregory House - House MD

Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way - My Immortal

Elsa - Frozen

Ferris Bueller - Ferris Bueller's Day off

Frank Reagan - Blue Bloods

Gray Wing - Warrior Cats

Harry Potter - Harry Potter

Izuku (Deku) Midoriya - Boku no Hero Academia

Kvothe - The Kingkiller Chronicles

Kyouya Sata - Ookami shoujo to kuro ouji

Light Yagami - Death Note

Meliodas - Seven Deadly Sins

Oscar - Shark Tale

Owen Grady - Jurassic World

Pucca - Pucca

Rachel Berry - Glee

Rey - Star Wars

Richard Rahl - Seeker of Truth/Legend of the Seeker

Rintaro Okabe - Steins;Gate

Robin - Teen Titans Go

Skullduggery Pleasant - Skullduggery Pleasant

Stuart Little - Stuart Little

The Tenth Doctor - Doctor Who

Velma - Velma

Has 2 Submissions:

Achilles - The Iliad

Arthur Pendragon - BBC Merlin

Bloom Peters - Winx Club

Claire - Ship It

Daphne Bridgerton - Bridgerton

Dawson Leery - Dawson’s Creek

Dr. Heinrich Faust - Goethes Faust

Duck Dodgers - Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 century

Elizabeth - Bioshock Burial at Sea

Elric of Melniborne - The Elric Saga

Emiya Shirou - Fate Stay Night

Eren Jaegar - Shingeki no Kyojin

Ezra Bridger - Star Wars Rebels

Feyre Archeron - A Court of Thorns and Roses

Frasier Crane - Frasier

James Bond - James Bond

Jaune Arc - RWBY

Joker - Persona 5

Kohaku - Dr. Stone

Makoto Itou - School Days

Netsa Archeron - A Court of Thorns and Roses

Odysseus - The Odyssey

Piper - Orange is the new Black

Quentin Coldwater - The Magicians (books)

Riley Matthews - Girl Meets World

Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan) - Scum Villain’s Self Saving System

Tom Paris - Star Trek: vVyager

Wade Watts - Ready Player One

William Afton - FNaF Ultimate Custom Night

Yukitero "Yukki" Amano - Future Diary

Zack Morris - Saved by the Bell

Has 1 Submission

Adrien Agreste - Miraculous Ladybug

Ahsoka - Ahsoka Disney+

Akiyama Shun - Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza

Alexander Hamilton - Hamilton

Animal Crossing New Horizons' Player Character - Animal Crossing New Horizons

Aragorn - Lord of the Rings

Arek - So This Is Ever After

Ataru Moroboshi - Urusei Yatsura

August Landry - One Last Stop

Ayin - Lobotomy Corporation

Bakugou Katsuki - My Hero Academia

BEOWULF - BEOWULF

Betty Cooper - Riverdale

Bill Dickey - The Eltingville Club/Welcome to Eltingville

Billy Buddy/Dr. Horrible - Dr. Horrible's Sing Along

Billy Hatcher - Billy Hatcher and the giant egg

Blake - Pokemon Adventures Black 2 and White 2

Blitzo - Helluva Boss

Bubsy - Bubsy 3D

Caleb Widogast - Critical Role

Charley Pollard - Doctor Who

Choromatsu Matsuno - Osomatsu-san

Claire Fraser - Outlander

Clear Sky/Skystar - Warrior Cats

Colin Bridgerton - Bridgerton

Corrin - Fire Emblem Fates

Cory Matthews - Boy Meets World

Dal - Star Trek Prodigy

Damian Wayne - DC

Data - Star Trek The Next Generation

Dorrigo Evans - The Narrow Road to the Deep North book

Dr. Hanna Heath - People of the Book

Ellison Oswalt - Sinister

Emma Nelson - Degrassi: The Next Generation

Equality 7-2521 - Anthem

Galadriel Higgins - The Scholomance Trilogy

Geralt of Rivia - The Last Wish, The Witcher books

Go Siwon - A Guy Like You

Haruyuki Arita - Accel World

Hermione Granger - Harry Potter

Homer Simpson - The Simpson

Howard Roark - The Fountainhead

Humbert Humbert - Lolita

James Bond - The Sean Connery James Bond Movies

James Holden - The Expanse book series

Jaypaw - Warrior Cats

Jean-Luc Picard - Star Trek The Next Generation

Jeff Winger - Community

Jim Hopper - Stranger Things

JJ - Cocomelon

Joaquin Monegro - Abel Sánchez

John Proctor - The Crucible

Jon Snow - ASoIaF

Jotaro Kujo - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Joy - Inside Out

Jughead Jones - Riverdale

Kade - Down to Earth Webtoon

Kai - The Witch King

Kang Jinha - A Guy Like You

Katara - Avatar the Last Airbender

Katnis - Hunger Games

Kaz Kaan - Neo Yokio

Keiichi Maebara - Higurashi when they cry

Khai - Theory of Love - Thai BL Show

King Arthur - King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Korra - Avatar: Legend of Korra

Koyomi Araragi - The Monogatari series

Kun-chan - Mirai

Lelouch Lamperouge - Code Geass

Leroy Jethro Gibbs - NCIS

Lionblaze - Warriors (Power of Three and Omen of the Stars)

Luna - Retro

Luffy - One Piece

Lyn - Fire Emblem

Makoto Naegi - Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Mal - Firefly

Manaow - Love Senior

Mark Watney - The Martian

Mary Poppins - Walt Disney's Mary Poppins

Merlin - BBC Merlin

Meursault - The Stranger

Mia - La La Land

Michael Burnham - Star Trek: Discovery

Mike Wheeler - Stranger Things

Miyo Sasaki - A Whisker Away

Mordecai - Regular Show

Navier - Remarried Princess

Nessa - Acotar (Later Book)

Nick Carraway - The Great Gatsby

Nicole - Class of 09

Nightheart - Warrior Cats

North Italy - Hetalia

Okajima ""Rock"" Rokuro - Black Lagoon (Anime)

Otis Milburn - Sex Education

Patrick Bateman - American Psycho

Peppa Pig - Peppa Pig

Piper McLean - Heroes of Olympus

Pippa Fitz-Amobi - A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Ramona Flowers - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Ramsey Snow - Game of Thrones

Rebecca Bunch - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV show)

Robert Langdon - The Da Vinci Code

Rodion Raskolnikov - Crime and Punishment

Rorschach - Watchmen

Ruby - Max & Ruby

Ryo Saeba - City Hunter

Sabrina Spellman - Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Sami Reese - Little White Lie

Sasuke - Naruto

Satou Kazuma - Konosuba

Senku Ishigami - Doctor Stone

Shiori - Six Crimson Cranes

Shrek - Shrek

Snow Villiers - Final Fantasy 13

Spike Witwicky - Transformers IDW comics

Star Butterfly - Star vs The Forces of Evil

Stiles Stilinski - Teen Wolf

Sydney Atherton - The Beetle

Tai Kamiya - Digimon Adventure

Takao - Garden of Words

Tara Webster - Dance Academy

Tarl Cabot - The Gor Chronicles

Teriella Rufeon - My Husband Changes Every Night

The Beheaded - Dead Cells

Tom Wachowski - The Sonic Movies

Vanellope von Schweetz - Ralph Breaks the internet

Violetta - Disney's Violetta

Wolverine - X-Men

Wreck it Ralph - Ralph Breaks the Internet

Yu/Ai - Final Fantasy Unlimited

Yuri Zhivago - Doctor Zhivago

Yuusaku Godai - Maison Ikkoku

Available for Resubmission (needs at least 1 resubmission to participate)

Aang - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Atsuko Kagiri/Akko - Little Witch Academia

Beca Mitchell - Pitch Perfect

Clary Fray/Fairchild - Shadowhunters

Elena Gilbert - Vampire Diaries

Eragon - Eragon/Inheritance Cycle

Erika Shinohara - Ookami shoujo to kuro ouji

Harry DuBois - Disco Elysium

Katarina Claes - My Next Life as a Villainess

Kiris - On the Emperor's Lap

Kirito - Sword Art Online

Rand al'Thor - Wheel of Time

Scott McCall - Teen Wolf

Scott Pilgrim - Scott Pilgrim

Sophie Foster - Keeper of the Lost Cities

Tim Jackson Drake - DC

Tori Vega - Victorious

Wanda Maximoff - MCU

Wei (Ying) Wuxian - Mo Dao Zu Shi

Xander Harris - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Currently unavailable for a new Round:

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius/Celaena Sardothien - Throne of Glass

Alex Eagleston - YIIK

Anakin Skywalker - Star Wars

Bella Swan - Twilight

Caillou - Caillou

Coriolanus Snow - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Dean Winchester - Supernatural

Evan Hansen - Dear Evan Hansen

Gregory - FNaF Security Breach

Harry Dresden - The Dresden Files

Heywood Floyd - Space Odyssey

Holden Caulfield - The Catcher in the Rye

Kazuya Kinoshita - Rent-a-Girlfriend

Mal - Descendants

Marinette Dupain-Cheng - Miraculous Ladybug

Naofumi Iwatani - The Rising of the Shield Hero

Peter Griffin - Family guy

Peter Pan - Peter Pan

Ross Geller - Friends

Stolas - Helluva Boss

Ted Mosby - How I Met Your Mother

Tony Stark - MCU

Victor Frankenstein - Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Walter White - Breaking Bad

Y/N - Fanfiction

Zoey Redbird - The House of Night

[datubooty]

Day 4: Found

for @camilamamaweek 2024

“I found this at the bookstore the other day and got it for you. I know we don’t really know when your birthday is, so maybe think of it more as a belated job-starting gift?”

Camila offers Hunter a small package with pointy corners, definitely a book by the dimensions and heft. He accepts it first with a hug.

“Mom, you didn’t have to do this.” His face wrinkles with emotion, touched that she did. Every gift-giving between them goes this way, especially if it’s spontaneous.

“Mm, but I did! Go on, open it. I think you’ll like it.”

Hunter carefully unsticks the bow and untapes one end of the off-season wrapping paper. Christmas in July is real and Hunter celebrates with the neatest gift extraction the Noceda family has ever seen. The book slides right out.

“Whoa.” He reads the chunky title on the spine. “The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.”

“That’s a, uh, red-chested nosebeak!” Camila declares with incomplete confidence as she points to the bird depicted mid-chirp on the cover. “Or something like that.”

Hunter gives the compact volume a thumb-through. Pages of winged things he doesn’t have precise names for whiz by, from shorebirds to sparrows. The book is new, but quickly settles open in small surrender in his hand. He’s read enough stiff tomes to recognize someone had kept it positioned like that for a long time. 

Camila gasps first, guilt in her eyes. The illustration of red plumage leaps from the page like a warning flare. Hunter knows what he’s going to see. It’s written above the image like an epitaph:

Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis

He looks at Camila and takes a breath. She does too. They breathe out in slow unison.

“Look, Hunter, I—” she starts but can’t continue.

“It’s okay, mom,” he says and she believes him. “I would have looked for him too. He was a bird after all.”

“He was. Yeah.” Camila nods, recovering, relieved that she wasn’t alone in her thinking or shamed for her thought.

“Yeah.” Hunter forces too much of a laugh, but there’s no pain knit tight within it anymore.

“So.” Camila moves on from her light misstep. That’s all it was. “I know these are creatures from the human realm, but I’m not doing this to say you should visit more, though you know I wouldn’t say no to that. I just thought, this feels right for Hunter to have.”

“It’s perfect. You know why? So many palismen are human realm creatures. This is a book full of so many people’s future best friends, just like I’m gonna make with Dell. I didn’t know it, but this is just what I wanted!”

He holds the book to his chest, the bird on the cover to his heart.

Camila tries not to cry as she gives him another hug. This is just what she wanted, too.

---

This came to me late last night and I had to write it out. What a great time when the fixations align!

The bird on the cover of the referenced Sibley book is a rose-breasted grosbeak, which is also in the cardinal family. I thought it might be fun for Camila to know the name in Spanish but not English, as they do winter in DR and the Caribbean broadly, but picogrueso pechirrosado is too clearly calque-able and lacks that comedic no sé qué.

[archivist-crow]

On this day:

ODDLY PLACED ALLIGATORS

On May 21, 1911, a two-foot-long alligator fell, with the rain, onto the steps of Mrs. Winchell's home in Evansville, Indiana. When it attempted to crawl into the house, Winchell and her friends killed it with bed slats.

In 1960, Mr. and Mrs. Tucker heard a heavy thump and a loud grunt coming from their backyard in Long Beach, California. Upon investigating, they found a sixty pound, five-foot-long alligator, which they assumed fell from the sky since the reptiles do not live in that region.

In 1892, a large alligator was found near a Wisconsin river bank, frozen to death.

In 1877, six miles north of the Savannah River in South Carolina, Dr. J.L. Smith saw something fall from the sky and crawl toward his tent. It was a small alligator. Seconds later another fell. In all, the doctor found six twelve-inch alligators within two hundred yards.

The most oddly placed alligator appeared in 1934, in a U.S. Navy dirigible called the Macon. Leading Chief "Shaky" Davis was wandering uneasily as the airship was crossing into California when a loud splashing came from overhead in one of the ballast bags. Afraid of a major catastrophe, he scaled the rigging. The splashing grew louder. When he got the bag open, he saw a twenty-four-inch, very excited alligator swimming around.

In 1935, near Harlem River, New York, teenage boys had opened a manhole cover to shovel snow into it. Spying something swimming in the water ten feet below, they made a lasso and hauled a seven-and-a-half-foot, 125-pound alligator to the surface. When it snapped at one of the boys, who was trying to take the rope from its neck, they killed it with their shovels.

Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009

[soft-girl-musings]

An Unexpected Proposition (pt. 1)

based on this prompt from @imaginexhobbit, previously submitted under @jawn-i-made-coffee

cross-posted to ao3

part 2

Kíli x fem!Reader

tags: mentions of blood/injury, Reader is described as tall (by human standards), Y/N is used

wc: 1,615

fic summary: An injured dwarf appears on your doorstep. Do you grant him sanctuary on this stormy night?

A/N: posting this is totally self-indulgent and very out of left field for this blog but idc, we just reached 800 ao3 hits on this bad boy (some days we blog for the younger self anyway). I submitted this from my high school blog and revamped it in 2020, might flesh it out beyond pt 2 if the muse strikes.

Thunder and lightning seem to battle for superiority in the storm, chasing heavy torrents North. The evening is dark and damp, but you don’t mind. Your cottage is as safe a haven as any. You sit before your hearth, fire blazing as you bury yourself beneath several blankets, a mug of tea warming your lap. Nothing could ruin your cozy evening alone.

As if on cue, a brilliant flash of lightning illuminates the windows. A bloodied man’s face is pressed against the glass, his lips moving incoherently. You stifle a scream. In an instant you have your sword in hand and cloak about your shoulders, ready to face your intruder. Throwing the door open, you strike a defensive stance and scan the property. To your right, you see that it is no man at all, but a dwarf bleeding out in your garden. Dark hair clings to his face, bruised and battered. Blood marrs his complexion as rainwater drenches him. Before you can speak, the dwarf doubles over and begins to heave into your prized rose bush. You grimace.

"Please," he rasped, "please, I ask for sanctuary." His knees give way with the last syllable. You manage to catch him before he falls into the mud.

"I’ve got you, sir dwarf." Propping him up, you guide him inside. "Poor thing, you're soaked to the bone."

His small frame would not have been so heavy if not for his copious belongings. The dwarf seemed to have packed for a long journey, which had somehow led him to your door. You stumble over to the kitchen and deposit him in a chair, his head lolling to one side. You pour a cup of water and help him drink.

“Thank you,” he manages to rasp after downing a second glass. Life seemed to be returning to him already. “I do not mean to be a bother.”

You tilt your head quizzically. “If anyone’s bothered, sir dwarf, it’s you. Come, let me help you--” you assist him in his efforts to remove his belongings from his weary shoulders. He shivers fiercely, but does not refuse your help.

You notice how cold and pale he is. “Best not to strain yourself… let me start a bath for you. Your wounds need to be cleaned before they are dressed.”

You hand him a blanket and lead him to a partition in the next room. “Here, you can wrap yourself in this while I start the water.” The dwarf removes his outer layers and complies, his dark eyes never leaving you as you begin the tedious task of hauling numerous pots of hot water to the tub.

“Why are you helping me?” he finally asks, his face growing more puzzled with each trip you make.

You stop in your tracks, offering a shrug. “Because you asked.”

With that, you leave him to his bath.

You gather the dwarf’s wet clothing and lay each article in front of the still-warm stove. On the other side of the table lay his daypack and weapons. You hadn’t taken the time to inspect them before: the dwarf had been carrying archery equipment, numerous knives, and a shortsword. You examine each piece with reverence. The dwarves were renowned for their craftsmanship in the forges, but you had never seen proof of their handiwork until this moment. The blades were smaller than any you were used to, expertly fashioned with intricate detail.

"Like what you see, then?"

You jump at the sudden voice, dropping a knife. The dwarf had come out dressed in the shirt and trousers you had laid out for him. He stands by the fire, drying his hair.

"I was just admiring your weapons, sir-"

"Kíli."

You nod. "(Y/N)." You notice the color has already returned to his skin and his cuts were clean. He had looked much worse before; in the light of the fire, he was almost handsome. "Feeling any better?"

"Oh, loads. I cannot thank you enough for taking me in." He grins, and you can’t help but follow suit.

"What were you doing out there? Facing that storm as you were seemed like a deathwish."

"I had the misfortune of running into some bad company at your tavern." His body fell heavily into a chair by the fireplace.

"I'm afraid the locals do not take kindly to dwarves," you say with an apologetic smile, standing to join him in your earlier seat. "What are you doing so far West? Your people are native to the mountains, I was led to believe."

You realize how young the dwarf was when his face breaks out in another eager grin. "I'm on a quest. I was on my way to Hobbiton."

You lean forward, intrigued. "The Shire? What kind of quest concerns the halflings?"

Kíli tells you of his Uncle's plan to reclaim Erebor for the dwarves. He makes sure to highlight how dangerous the task may prove to be. You try to hide your amusement, but your shaking shoulders and involuntary simper do not escape your companion's eye.

Kíli crosses his arms. "Is something funny?"

You wipe a tear from your cheek. "I'm sorry, but you look like you've seen nary a battle in all your days."

"What, like you have, lass?" he scoffs, nodding toward your sword propped by the door. "I'll bet you've never laid a hand on that weapon of yours until tonight."

Your expression darkens. "Watch your words, sir dwarf. I have seen and spilt more blood than you would care to believe."

Kíli shrinks back in his chair. "Y-yeah? When?" Even under correction, his excitement could not be diminished.

You tell him of your past days as a soldier. Having always been tall for your age, you had cut your hair and enlisted in a male disguise when you were barely sixteen. You regale him with tales of the lands you had seen and battles you fought as a young woman among hardened men. The fading storm is the perfect backdrop for your stories; in truth, it had been a long time since you'd been able to talk about your fighting days, and you revel in the drama of the moment. Kíli clings to your every word, apparent awe and admiration dancing across his features. Many hours and cups of tea pass between you before you conclude your saga, the fire having long since died down.

You yawn. Dawn was but a few hours away. "It's late. You must leave in the morning, I assume?"

"Yes, I have to get back on the road."

You stand and stretch your aching muscles. "We should both get to bed, then. I have an extra room you're welcome to." You hold out your hand. "Goodnight, Kíli."

Kíli rises and takes your hand, but instead of shaking it as you intended, he leans forward and kisses the back of it. Your face grows warm at the surprising softness of his lips. "Goodnight, (Y/N)."

He turns to leave, but stops and looks back at you.

"(Y/N)?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you leave that kind of life? You spoke so fondly of your time in service."

You give a sad smile. "Let’s just say it wasn’t by choice." You begin to walk to your bedroom, but Kíli grabs your hand as you pass.

"If you had the chance, would you go back?"

You squeeze his hand and wink. "In a heartbeat."

__________

"What's all this, then?" You laugh. From the looks of it, Kíli had been cooking a small feast since before dawn.

"Good morning, my lady!" Kíli wipes his hands on a cloth and bows with great bravado. "I hope you don't mind me raiding your larder. I wanted to express my gratitude for your generosity." He takes your hand and leads you to the head of the table, fixing your plate once you sit down.

"You really didn't have to do this."

"Ah, 'course I did! I'd have drowned if it wasn't for you."

You spend the morning laughing and eating your way through the meal with Kíli, realizing how much you will miss his company in the days ahead. He’s been a refreshing change of pace for the simple monotony you’d build for yourself. As you wash the dishes after your meal, you notice he is dressed in his clothes from last night, weapons and bag secured to his back.

"All set, then?" You know your face betrays you, but you don’t care if he knows how sad you are. You had gained a friend last night.

"Not quite." He practically bounds up to your side, that familiar grin plastered onto his features. "I have something to ask of you."

You set down the plate you had been scrubbing. "And what's that?"

"Will you join me? On my quest, I mean?" His face is radiant with expectation and excitement.

You busy yourself with another dish, shaking your head. “Kíli, I’m not quite sure what to say-"

"Say yes! (Y/N), you told me yourself that you missed your old life. This would be the perfect chance for you to reclaim it!"

Despite all logic, you realize how right he is. Some small but powerful part of you had longed to be on the road with him when he spoke to you last night. You knew it was rash, but your heart was already pumping from the mere mention of excitement, aching to get out in the world once more. The quiet life you had been leading was nice, but it paled in comparison to the journey Kíli now offered. You craved adventure. When else would you have the opportunity to taste it?

"I'll have my things packed within the hour."

__________

A/N: you ever feel an old hyperfixation staring you down, threatening to return if you look at it too long? that might be happening again. only time will tell.

tysm for reading!

[missr3n3]

Augusnippets Day 11

escape/breaking the conditioning/safe and sound

fandom: cabin tales TW: restrains, implied apocalypse, past child abuse, isolation word count: 600 @augusnippets

What did Brandon have to do to convince Dr. North he was better? At least, better enough to no longer stay at the estate full-time, to no longer be confined to the Room.

No matter how much better they said Brandon was doing, he was always sent back again. Back to his tomb of a bed, to the nightmares, to leather restraints biting into his wrists and ankles. It was surely some form of punishment, just like last time. If only Brandon could figure out what he was doing wrong.

But there was nothing to learn, nothing to witness. Only all-consuming terror. Decaying walls closed in around Brandon's under-stimulated mind. The rodents had returned, skittering in the wall behind his head. For a moment that could've been a few minutes or a few hours, only the pests and Brandon's own whimpering kept him company.

He thought he'd jump out of his skin when a new noise joined the anxiety-inducing cacophony. A sound an awful lot like screaming.

Brandon had enough wiggle room to face the small window above him. Normally, he saw either darkness during his sleepless nights, or pale morning sunlight. He wasn't sure how to process the fiery orange glow creeping into the Room.

Tremors shook through Brandon as the screams grew louder, as an all too familiar, dull heat followed the orange light. His body tried to instinctively curl up, his efforts resulting in rattling chains which only further sent him spiraling.

I tried to be good. I really tried!

Then, a new sound. Somehow even more terrifying than the slew of grim reminders.

Footsteps, heavy footsteps. So heavy Brandon couldn't tell his shaking from that of the Room.

“Please,” Brandon whimpered, as if begging himself to wake up. “Please, please. Someone, help me…”

Much smaller footsteps rapidly approached – not from the window, but from the hall in front of the Room's door. Another victim being dragged down to their demise. Brandon flinched; his eyes squeezed shut with a whimper as the door was thrown open.

“Holy shit,” a voice that definitely wasn't either of his parents gasped.

Brandon's teary eyes snapped open. The familiar owner of the voice flinched as well, their bespectacled, golden eyes darting towards him.

“Dr. North?” Brandon rasped around the lump in his throat. She twitched at his words, as if she were scared too.

But… They're never scared… What’s happening?

Even more unusual, Dr. North was the one backing away from him, as if he were a threat.

But if Dr. North came back, then…

“Please,” Brandon weakly begged. “Save me.”

Dr. North's expression softened. Brandon must've said the right thing, as after another look towards the door, Dr. North slowly approached him.

“B-Brandon…” Dr. North softly spoke as she reached the head of Brandon’s bed. “Do… do you know what's going on out there?”

“N-no?” Brandon muttered, biting back a sigh of relief as Dr. North undid the first leather cuff around his wrist.

“Okay.” Once again, Brandon assumed he gave the correct answer as he watched Dr. North's shoulders relax. “That… Well, it's not completely good. But I can work with this.”

With the last of his limbs freed, Brandon scrambled to sit upright.

“B-but, um… I-I thought… uh, I think I heard something outside,” Brandon tried to explain, tried to warn.

“Yeah, you did…” Brandon's eyes widened at Dr. North's words.

They… believe me?

“But we're gonna find a way out.” Though Dr. North smiled at him, Brandon could sense uncertainty in their misting eyes. “We'll get through this.”

We'll get through this… We will survive this.

[jbuffyangel]

The Canary: Arrow 2x05 Review (League of Assassins)

Yeesh there is a lot of Lance drama in the beginning of Season 2. We finally get the backstory on Sara, but it’s the spectacular Oliver and Laurel scene that has me cackling.

Let's dig in...

Sara Lance

They reshot the whole pilot scene between Oliver and Sara only this time, we see what happens to Sara after the boat sinks and she’s swept out to sea. How this woman did not get hypothermia from only wearing a bra and underwear in the North China Sea is beyond me.

This scene just incenses me.  It irks the absolute crap out of me when Sara says, “Laurel is gonna kill me.” Sara says it like she’s borrowing Laurel’s sweater without asking. YOU ARE SLEEPING WITH HER BOYFRIEND.  This destroys a relationship. She’s not going to kill you, but she will absolutely cut contact with you, Sara.

I know he’s pre-island Ollie and he’s just the absolute worst, but the smarmy “Your sister will never know” as he climbs on top of Sara is just so disgusting. I cannot fathom why people would ever want Laurel to be with Oliver after what he did. Forgive him, fine. Date him? Absolutely not.

Okay, the rage is dying down. Hopefully this is the last time we have to watch this scene.

Sara is staying at the Queen mansion, which doesn’t see very covert, but with Moira in jail and Thea sleeping at Roy’s all the time it actually is a good place for Sara to crash. Better than a clock tower at least.

Oliver is still trying to convince Sara to let her family know that she’s alive, but she’s not convinced all family members *cough*Laurel*cough* will be happy to see her. Sara asks Oliver if he ever got back together with Laurel after he returned home.

Oliver: We tried. It’s too much.

Sara: Some things are better left in the past.

After The Gambit sinks, Sara is floating on a door similar to Rose in Titanic when she’s picked up by the freighter.

Source: saralances

We’re all going to pretend the canary landing right next to Sara is not the most obvious foreshadowing in the world. For anyone questioning if Arrow is making Sara their OG Canary – there’s your answer. You know - if the suit, wicked fight skills and sonic weapon didn’t answer it for you already.

The color of the Canary is important though. It’s yellow. Not black. Arrow is drawing a clear distinction between the two. This is an origin story. It’s not Green Arrow and Black Canary. It’s The Arrow and The Canary.

Sara is thrown in a cage on the freighter, similar to Oliver’s current predicament, but Dr. Ivo protects her from the crew members.  He tells Sara he is going to save the human race and invites her to help, so I can only conclude we’re going with Stockholm syndrome in the flashbacks. A twenty something college kid would have very little to offer a mad scientist.

However, Sara’s reticence to return to her family is not related to whatever happened on the island, but rather who she became and what she did to survive AFTER the island. We’re just about to get some details when a man dressed exactly like Malcolm Merlyn comes crashing through a window.  Oliver and Sara fight him, but before we can get any answers the man disappears. This is getting annoying. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN SOMETHING?

Oliver introduces Sara to his team and we get the iconic first meeting between Sara and Felicity.

Source: oliversmoak

Sara does not want Team Arrow to find the assailant however. She knows exactly who he is. 

Sara: He’s called Al Ow-al, “The First.” And he’s a member of the League of Assassins.

Oliver has a very strong reaction to this revelation so we can deduce Sara didn’t join the Girl Scouts. The League is, you guessed it, a bunch of assassins who kill and vanish like ghost - previously thought to be an urban legend by Diggle. The League rescued Sara after the island, remade her into an assassin and she swore them her allegiance.

Sara left after she killed a local diplomat in Guyana and his children found his body the next morning. She didn’t want to be a murderer anymore, but now The League is coming after her.

Source: laurelscanary

Felicity’s humor and compassion put Sara at ease after her horrifying confession and this is why I love this character.  There’s no judgment from Felicity. She sees Sara for what she is – a person in pain, even if Sara doesn’t see herself that way. Not unlike how Felicity looks at Oliver. And just like Oliver, Sara Lance is SMOAKED.

Source: smoakamell

After Felicity finds Al Ow-al, Sara and Oliver argue about whose fight it is. Sara isn't used to playing with others, but you'd think she'd understand basic strength in numbers. This is the guy who trained Malcolm Merlyn. He stops an arrow with his bare hand while his back was turned!

Al Ow-al: The child of Ra’s Al Ghul awaits your return.

I know who Ra’s Al Ghul is from my Batman days, but in Arrow's world he has a kid. A kid who sent Al Ow-al  to collect Sara alive or dead. This is getting complicated. Is there like an employment flow chart we can follow for the League of Assassins?

Oliver: The League of Assassins. Why wouldn’t she tell me what happened to her all those years?

Diggle: Probably the same reason you didn’t tell us what happened to you on the island.

Wow. This is stunning lack of self awareness. Oliver, in case you haven’t noticed, Sara is the girl version of you.

The League has threatened Sara’s family, so Oliver keeps watch over Laurel. Felicity calls Detective Lance to convince him to leave town - while promising Sara to not reveal she's alive.

Source: @noone-seesyou-likeido

Unfortunately, Lance does not listen to Felicity, so Sara decides her secret is not more important than her father’s life. Finally, she is seeing some sense. Diggle, ever the loyal solider, offers to go with as back up, but Sara continues to have this thing about fighting on her own. I guess being an assassin is a solitary job. This does give us one of the best bad ass Sara Lance speeches ever, however.

Sara: Dig, you may be a three tour Special Forces veteran, but I was trained by the people that make the Special Forces look like a kindergarten class. So step aside or get put down.

The reunion between Lance and Sara is all we hoped it could be. It’s not every day your kid comes back from the dead, but Paul Blackthorne does a phenomenal job of moving from shock and disbelief to overwhelming joy.

Source: laurelscanary

Quentin wants answers, but he’s careful not to spook Sara who is still reticent to give details. They go through the nuclear bomb that was set off in their family (the divorce, the alcoholism).  Sara apologizes for the damage she caused, but Quentin insists he was to blame, which is more proof he is a really good dad.

He can clearly see his daughter has changed. She speaks Chinese now and is ready to fight to the death with a butter knife. He pieces together Sara is the woman in black; she knows Felicity, The Arrow and is wrapped up in this League that’s after both of them. How this man has not put together Oliver Queen is The Arrow I will never understand.

Quentin: If these assassins, if they hadn't shown up, would you have ever let us know that you were alive?

Sara: No.

Well, at least she’s honest. Sara promises Lance that she never forgot who she was or him despite staying away for so many years.

Source: OILVERSQUEEN

She takes her father to the clock tower which she’s outfitted with booby traps for when the League comes for them both. Sara and Lance hold their own against the assassins, but when The Arrow arrives they achieve the upper hand. Sara has no problem breaking Al Ow-al’s neck, but allows one assassin to live to warn Ra’s Al Ghul.

Sara: Tell Ra’s Al Ghul that my family is off limits. His quarrel is with me.

She is ashamed to show Quentin who she has become – a killer.

Source:  sohpiabush 

But Quentin feels only pride. How little children understand the depth of a parent’s love. We have already forgiven anything you’ve done or may do the moment you are born.

Quentin: I think you’re a survivor. I think you’re one of the bravest people I’ve ever known. You’re my daughter.

Sara leaves town to lead the League away from her family and Quentin agrees to keep her secret. He will not tell either Laurel or Dinah that Sara is alive because it would get them killed… or something.  The logic is not logical, but I don’t really care. They’ll hold the “Laurel finds out Sara is alive” card for May sweeps.

Source: @laurelscanary

This is not the last we will see of Sara Lance. The Canary’s story is just getting started.

Oliver and Diggle

Despite Oliver's spectacularly hypocritical statement about Sara and honesty, there is serious emotional growth this episode. Oliver making this statement about forgiveness a year ago would have been unthinkable. He did not return home with any hope of being forgiven or even welcomed back. I'm going to give the Lance family a shoutout because they had the most to be angry about with Oliver. He asked both Laurel and Quentin for forgiveness and they each have extended olive branches at various time. Hell, Laurel was ready to get back together with him. So, the fact he's able to offer the same hope to Sara is really a full circle moment.

Source:  anissagraces

Oliver beginning to believe he is worthy of forgiveness is a direct result of the many hours of therapy with Diggle and Felicity. He is finally starting to really hear them. That's why this moment with Diggle at the end of the episode is truly note worthy.

Source: NUGETAE

Diggle should have this date embroidered on a pillow because it's not often Oliver will admit he was right. But Oliver is not done yet.

Source: COPHINES

He breaks out some Russian vodka and confesses to Diggle he was not always on the island the five years he was gone. Oliver is ready to unburden some of the secrets he works so hard to keep buried.

Source: laurelscanary

Oliver is able to see his own demons reflected in Sara and it finally connects the dots for him. He doesn't have to remain isolated in the world like Sara. Oliver can see Diggle (and Felicity) reaching out to him and he FINALLY reaches back. This is monumental character growth.

Sara: You three are quite the team.

Diggle: We have our moments.

Why Diggle and not Felicity? I think it's easier for Oliver to tell his war stories to another solider. He also doesn't have any fuzzy bunny feelings towards John, which makes things simpler between them. But every time Oliver opens the door to the past, and shares his pain, he is one step closer to the future he truly deserves.

Laurel Lance

Laurel is sitting second chair in Moira Queen’s prosecution, which is actually an INSANE CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Marc Guggenheim, you are a lawyer sir. What is this nonsense?  

Never fear! Laurel has used all her pull to get Moira a plea deal - life with the possibility of parole. Understandably the Queen family isn’t thrilled. It’s either life or the death penalty.  Laurel even discussing Moira’s case with Oliver is improper ex parte contact. She should be excluded from the case and sanctioned, but this is Arrow and that’s never going to happen.

In the middle of all of this, Oliver continues to ask if Laurel is okay. She is trying to kill your mother, Oliver. I feel how this is impacting Laurel shouldn’t really be your top concern. He is so exhausting around her. Take the hint, my dude. She doesn’t want your help and I’m tired of you two having the same fight episode after episode.

But this episode is not just another round of the same old some old. No, my friends this is a very special episode because it contains one of the best Laurel and Oliver scenes to ever grace our television. Oliver needs to protect Laurel from the League of Assassins, so he takes her out to dinner. Then he walks Laurel back to her apartment (because assassins) but she thinks he’s come up for a very different reason.

And OLIVER REJECTS HER.  The way I cackled.

I’m going straight to hell, but I don’t care. This moment is glorious. First of all, Laurel did not have a drink at dinner, so she can’t blame the booze and pills. She just flat out reads the situation wrong. Oliver apologizes for sending a mix signal, but he’s a bit confused. Didn’t they decide they shouldn’t be together out of respect for Tommy? Yes, Oliver. Yes you did. WHAT ABOUT TOMMY, LAUREL?!! This woman did not deserve that man.

Source: ILOVEKCASSIDY

Me:

Oliver promises Laurel he will never leave her and has certainly made every effort to help her, but it is the capacity in which he will stay in her life that is really in question. This moment is HUGE in terms of where Oliver is at emotionally. He is drawing a firm line in the sand. There was a time when Oliver would’ve welcomed Laurel trying to climb him like a tree no matter the circumstance, but not anymore. He clearly states that he cares about Laurel but only as a friend. His concern has no romantic undertone to it.

The balance of power in their relationship has always been tipped toward Laurel. This is the first time it feels like a more even playing field. Instead of Laurel rejecting Oliver – he is rejecting her and for a very good reason. Oliver is not stoned on pills and he remembers they don’t work. They tried to go back and it failed. Oliver has not interest in trying again. For the first time, Oliver is looking forward.  

And Laurel, cemented in the past and alone her in apartment, takes some pills.

Stray Thoughts

This secret Moira is keeping is a real humdinger if she’s ok with life with the possibility of parole.

Oliver and Thea promise Moira that she will not lose them no matter the secret. Sure Jan.

"Gee I didn't get you a bag of dirt." Bless this cupcake.

Where did Sara get her suit?

Malcolm Merlyn is also a member of The League of Assassins.

"Oliver’s lucky to have you both as friends. He hasn’t always had the best of luck in that area." Sara’s not so casual remarks about Slade and Shado are friggin ominous. It’s time to get real nervous about the flashbacks.

“You think because you are the beloved that you will be granted your freedom?” We all know who Sara’s beloved is and I’m very much looking forward to her arrival.

"Pain and I came to a little understanding a few years back." Sara takes a licking but keeps on kicking. This is such a bad ass line. The episode is chalk full of them. I love the OG Canary.

Listen to the Watchover podcast reaction to 2x05!!

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me!

[inlovewithregencyera]

Transcript under cut : )

Thornfield House

July 8th, 1818

Isabella: Lord have mercy…

Maximilian: *quietly* Happy birthday Mama..

sniffling* You'd be 50 today had you not....

*deeply exhales*

Left us…

I'm not mad at you for leaving...not anymore at least-

In fact, I'm somewhat happy that you're no longer in any pain and Eleanor isn't …. alone.

*eyes well up* She never liked being alone.

*wipes eyes* Pull yourself together Maximilian!

Papa is laughing at me right now, I’m sure.

I doubt I'll make any of you proud in this life....

*softly sobbing*

I’ll never marry. How could I?

I'd make my poor wife miserable with the way I am. Then if I loved her, and God took her before me, I know I'd be worse than Papa...

*sniffling* I hope you'll both underst-

*rose falls*

Maximilian: ….

Eleanor..?

Thornfield House

May 16th, 1811

*loud hysterical sobs*

Maximilian: *taking hat off* Mama...?

Sophia: Maxie.? *wiping eyes aggressively* When did you-

Maximilian: Just now.

Sophia: Your father didn't want you to come.. he wanted you to focus on Univ-

Maximilian: And not see my sister? No, that was never an option. How is she..?

Sophia: They've given her up Maxie, they've given her up. I cried all last night, we just broke the news to poor Bell this mor-

*Isabella starts wailing louder*

Sophia: Morning..

Maximilian: Bell?

Sophia: No use, the poor child can't be consoled. Ellie had a convulsion a little while ago so your Papa went to go get Dr. North. We-...we don't know what to do.

Maximilian: Who’s in there with her right now?

Sophia: No one, because I just took Bell out before Ellie saw her like this..

Maximilian: M-may I be excused to sit with her.?

Sophia: Maxie...you've not seen your dear sister since February. She looks nothing like how she did then. *sighs* She is the image of emaciation.

Maximilian: *voice cracking* Is it truly that bad..?

Sophia: I'm afraid so. She is much paler and it's even hard for me to recognize my own child. Spare yourself my dear, and just come back for the funer-

Maximilian: I'm going to see her and I'll not leave her side. She will be happy to see me. You even wrote to me that she had been asking for m-

Sophia: *stroking Isabella's hair* Maxie, please listen to me. The disease has robbed her of almost everything, dear. She is too weak to walk anymore and can barely speak. You don't want your final image of her to be-

Maximilian: I'll not abandon her. Forgive me, but I must see her. Excuse me.

Isabella: *wails* He never listens!

Sophia: I know dear, I know. I’m not sure what we are to do.

Isabella: I’m surprised how you pulled yourself together when he came in...

Sophia: Yes, well, he can't see us both upset. Your uncle isn't here right now, so someone must be strong. You'll learn in time my dear how to quickly conceal emotions...

Isabella: What if I don’t?

Sophia: When you become a woman dear Bell, you'll have no choice.

[neodracunyan]

I finally made a book cover for my Smiling Critters AU, "The Hour of Despair". I did my very best to make it look good.

In an alternate universe of Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3, CatNap decided to refuse the Prototype's offer to join his cause for "The Hour of Joy" after he met a shadowy demon lord from the Dark Zone named Darku that gave CatNap and the Smiling Critters an offer that they can't refuse as all 8 of them managed to gain a massive amount of Dark Zone Energy and transformed into the evil, twisted versions of them known as the Dark Creatures as they all devoted their lives to Darku as they all planned their revenge on the people that used them for their experiments by giving them a taste of their medicine by turning them into Smiling Critters that also resulted in losing all of their humanity and every one of their memories wiped cleaned.

Darku even took care of the Prototype when he was about to take out CatNap aka the Sleep Demon and eventually all of the people of Playtime Co. have either been killed or transformed into their loyal and obedient minions as it was the event known as "The Hour of Despair" and soon the entire factory has become their base of operations and eventually they started spreading their chaos upon the world, leading to a post-apocalyptic world filled with darkness and despair as the Dark Creatures are hunting down every last human in the entire planet to transform into Smiling Critters in order to create a perfect world where there is no such thing as pain or anguish.

However, there was only one boy named Y/n L/n (Kenneth Parker) who has the courage and determination to stand up against the Dark Creatures with the help of the resistance team led by Poppy Playtime and the remaining toys that survived during "The Hour of Despair" as he met the Smiling Critters before the Hour of Despair even happened as he was once an orphan living at Playcare and became friends with the Smiling Critters including CatNap until he was soon adopted and hasn't see them for a really long time until the Dark Creatures rose to power and started causing a lot of trouble and chaos upon the streets of Creation City.

Soon after the Dark Creatures began their reign of terror upon the world, the war between humanity and the Dark Creatures rose and the entire city of Creation City and the entire planet was thrown into chaos as everyone struggle their way to survival while avoiding being hunted down by the Dark Creature and their minions patrolling the streets of Creation City. Resources were scarce and tempers flared as the entire planet is on the brink of war, resulting the world to become a post-apocalyptic world for survival.

Out of the chaos upon the world of Creation City, all 8 of the Dark Creatures rose to power, marking their own territory with their own base of operations and a factory where they turn the humans into Smiling Critters as two of eight members of the Dark Creatures ruled each part of Creation City as their own territory and everyone is warned not to go there unless they are prepared to enter their territory with a high risk of getting caught and meet their eternal fate and regret.

In the North region of Uptown Creation City, KickinChicken and Bubba Bubbaphant, now known as KickinHawk and Dr. Damage, leads an army of Smiling Critters with their powers of both brain and brawn. KickinHawk has transformed from a Chicken to a Chicken Hawk as he is the definition of a badass with a give them hell attitude while Bubba Bubbaphant aka Dr. Damage is the brains and head scientist of the Dark Creatures as he created tons of inventions such as traps, weapons, robot minions and many other inventions that is fueled with clean energy to preventing Mother Earth from suffering every form of pollution and corruption upon the world. KickinHawk is very skilled in hand-to-hand combat and can be really deadly with his badass fighting skills and the use of his nun-chunks and dual-wielding pistols. Dr. Damage superior intelligence can be used as a deadly weapon as his inventions and various traps that have been set all around all of the Dark Creatures bases that are designed to confuse anyone that don't have the same amount of intelligence as him. His main weapon of choice is mixing chemicals through beakers that can either cause damage to his opponents, heal his allies, create various gases for CatNap to emit from his mouth or even use them to transform his body into any shape or form to attack his enemies or make a quick escape. He would even use a chemical/syringe blaster gun in case he doesn't have his chemistry set with him.

In the West region of Silver Sands Resort, the vacation resort has become a dark kingdom of nightmares ruled by Craftycorn aka BloodyCorn and Bobby Bearhug aka Death Bear as their territory that became a gothic/fantasy nightmare world as BloodyCorn's loyal subjects treat her like a queen while Death Bear is her proud enforcer as she can bash her enemies with blunt or sharp melee weapons such as a mace, a giant hammer, a battle axe, a broadsword or even a metal baseball bat. Death Bear can even give out the deadliest, rib-crushing monster bear hugs that can crush a titanium metal pole like a Creme puff, but at least she still acts like a sweetheart to her loyal subjects as she treats them like her own kids. BloodyCorn became from a unicorn to an alicorn after her transformation as a Dark Creature as she started learning to cast spells and can create weapons out of blood, hence the name BloodyCorn as she can summon bloody razor boomerangs with the power of her horn, and she can turn the moon into a Blood Moon as one of her greatest masterpieces. Not to mention that she can punish anyone by killing them and use their blood for her paintings and would even use her magic to change the color of their blood to the color she wants to use for her paintings instead of just using the color red. Death Bear would even supply more blood of her own victims for BloodyCorn to use in case she ran out as they both treat other like sisters.

To the East region to the Mother Nature National Park marks the territory of the Bloodshed Sisters, Hoppy Hopscotch and PickyPiggy also known as Killer Bunny and the Butcher, who lived in the woods as their hideout and they always on the hunt for their next victim and cook their meat as exquisite cuisine at The Butcher's Steakhouse (Similar to Texas Roadhouse) as The Butcher is not only an expert in cooking, but she is very skilled with sharp objects like a butcher knife or a meat cleaver as she will not stop until she manages to catch her prey and serve it to her loyal subjects. As for her partner, Hoppy Hopscotch aka Killer Bunny, she is very skilled with katana blades and ninja shuirkens as she is a highly trained ninja warrior as she is faster than a cheetah and quiet as a mouse as she can slice and dice her own victims whenever someone dares enter her territory. These two cold-blooded killers are both extremely dangerous whenever someone has entered their woods as they both lived for the hunt along with their minions that are trained to capture and/or kill anyone that are lurking in the woods both day or night. So you better be careful or you will regret ever entering their woods in any time or day.

And finally at the South Region, lived the infamous Nightmare Duo, CatNap and DogDay, better known as the Sleep Demon and Eclipse Hound, the two leaders of the Dark Creatures as they both rule the city area of Downtown Creation City that went from a normal city to a world of nightmares as they used the City Hall as their hideout that later became a dark castle of bad dreams that looks like it's straight out of a horror movie in Disneyland. CatNap is a master swordsman and a master ninja as he used his katana blade that is made with the pure dark, nightmarish magic from the Dark Zone that not only can cut through almost anything like a hot knife through butter, but it can also send people to the Dark Zone with a single slash, causing them to face their deepest, darkest imaginable as the Sleep Demon uses that special ability to either trapped them for all eternity or use to break their minds into submission as he can control their dreams at his fingertips. He can even use his sleeping gas as a defense tactic to put his enemies to sleep or to make a quick escape, not to mention that after devoting his life to Darku, the sleeping gas is now completely immune to flames that won't cause his body to burst into flames, whether if someone has a lit match or a lighter or when he recieves a massive shock to his body from a supercharged green Grab-Pack hand.

As for his partner, DogDay aka Eclipse Hound, he took the role as the team's Judge, Jury and Executioner as he is the literal grim reaper with his cloak that it's burned at the edges to make it look like it came too close to the sun along with the specially designed gas mask that makes him look more frightening and intimidating that strikes fear to the hearts anyone around him. His gas mask protects him from CatNap/Sleep Demon's sleeping gas that filters the air around DogDay/Eclipse Hound, so he can breathe and protect his face from the gas. He also very fast and agile and has some very sharp brass knuckles that look like edges of the sun that can cut through and shred human flesh as he is a skilled fighter and brawler, making him a very tough opponent to defeat. So whenever you hear the omnious sound of whistling nearby, you know that he's coming to hunt you down as he is known to be the personification of Death himself.

So now that you understand and learned about all 8 members of the Dark Creatures, you're about to see how Y/n (Kenneth) does whatever he can to survive the nightmare and how he became a target to the Dark Creatures as he will do whatever he can to put an end to this nightmare once and for all. After he got adopted and the Apocalypse had begun at the streets of Creation City, he began doing some tasks for any surviving humans that are hiding away from the Dark Creature's minions that are patrolling the streets as Y/n (Kenneth) manages to get the people what they wanted such as food, water, toys, toliet paper, etc. as Y/n (Kenneth) is a born survivor and manages to get away from the Dark Creatures multiple times with the help of his trusty Grab-Pack and his Uncle Henry's Australian Bowie Knife (The same knife that Crocodile Dundee uses, only it's both black and red) as he never let fear get the better of him as he never quits until he finishes the job.

Eventually he was caught by the Dark Creatures, when he tried to get into the old abandoned toy factory, Playtime Co. to find a lost toy for a little girl, which turn out to be a trap and Y/n (Kenneth) does his best to escape until he got cornered by the Dark Creatures, who soon remembered Y/n (Kenneth) back from the Orphanage because of the strange birthmark on the back of his left hand as the planned to turn him into a Dark Creature like them, which actually worked until he somehow managed to break free and escaped the factory that made him into a Smiling Critter known as SC/n (Smiling Critter Name) with the Dark Creatures planning to hunt him down and do whatever they can to make Y/n (Kenneth) aka SC/n a permanent member of their team.

Luckily for him, he managed to get some help from the Resistance team led by none other than Poppy Playtime herself, as she and the other Playtime Co. toys helps Y/n train really hard to get revenge on the Dark Creatures for all of the damage that they've caused upon the world ad he will do whatever he can to take them all down one by one with only one word in his mind and that is....

VENGEANCE!!!

[sonicuniversesmackdown]

Round One Match-ups

Round One will begin on Saturday 22nd July, when all 32 polls in the round will be posted and shall run for one week

Tumblr only lets you tag so many blogs in one post, so the left side will be posted below and the right side in a reblog, along with some notes:

TOP LEFT

Miles "Tails" Prower (OVA) - @tailsshowdown vs Blaze the Cat (IDW) - @blazeshowdown Shadow the Hedgehog & Maria Robotnik - @tragicsibsshowdown vs Dr. Eggman - @stachebracket Amy Rose (Fleetway) - @amyroseshowdown vs SONIC vs. KNUCKLES ~ NORTH WIND - @thepeakofsonicmusic Knuckles the Echidna - @sonicmalematchup vs Metal Sonic - @sonicpoorlittlemeowmeowshowdown Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) - @bestactualsonicshowdown vs Stardust Speedway Bad Future (JP) - @sonic-instrumental-matchup Barry the Quokka - @themurderofsonic-knockout vs E-102 Gamma - @sonicseriesroboshowdown Sonic Adventure 2 OST - @best-sonic-soundtracks vs Shadow the Hedgehog - @edgelord-battle-bracket Ebony the Mystic Mog - @secretsonicshowdown vs Miles "Tails" Prower - @sonic-palooza

BOTTOM LEFT

Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic X) - @sonicxpolll vs Matilda the Ant by @halcyon-pandion & @frostios - @sonic-oc-showdown Bunnie Rabbot-D'Coolette (pre-SGW) - @ultimatearchiesonicbracket vs Amy/Blaze - @sonicshipbattles Sonic's Theme (The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog) - @sonic-instrumental-matchup vs Knuckles the Echidna (Movie) - @knucklesshowdown Dr. Starline - @idwsonicshowdown vs Metal Sonic - @sonicvillaindeathmatch Infinite the Jackal (Post-Redemption) by @dreaminginmysoup - @best-infinite-brawl vs The Master Emerald - @sonic-macguffin-matchup Sonic/no one - @sonicshipbattles vs Stardust Speedway Present (JP/EU) - @thepeakofsonicmusic Rouge the Bat - @sonicgirlsmackdown vs Shadow the Hedgehog (Pre-SGW) - @shadowsmackdown Maria Robotnik - @bestsonichuman vs Sonic the Hedgehog & Miles "Tails" Prower - @adhdvsautismbracket