#eliza neals

[elizaneals]

Thank You @BluesFestGuide for the "Women Rock Day" JAN 3rd #shoutout including myself 💫... Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Etta James, Big Mama Thornton, Janis Joplin & modern artist Joanna Connor, Susan Tedeschi, Danielle Nicole, Ana Popovic, Joanne Shaw Taylor, ( & more) THANKYOU @richard_blondy your photo made the #WomenRock Day #shoutout #concertphoto 🎤 #RockOn Richard if you love photos check his #DetroitRockCity images. This shot from @soaringeagleartsbeatseats 💥#Womenwhorock #Rocksinger #Bluessinger #SoulSinger #Musiclover #letsgo #letloose #rocknroll

[libertyprint]

RED3LICTE Collage couture 4 a good cause

(Wren by Alice Neale and Eliza Conlon)

[reasoningdaily]

Barrett Strong Interview w/ Eliza Neals

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 1 Pt. 8 (Tragedy Strikes!)

Summer was warm and less rainy than usual, and one evening after school shortly after Henford Day, Heather, Holly, and River went over to the Pancakes’ house to do homework and play until supper. But Bob was called in to work last minute, leaving Eliza to make enough grilled cheese to feed six kids, herself, Bob's mother Agatha Crumpcakes, and Agatha's wife Agnes.

Eliza was by far the less domesticated parent in the Pancakes household – she loved her kids, but she loved working out and going out on the town just as much. Daisy appreciated how her best friend could drag her out of her homebody shell from time to time, but her zest for the fast life meant she was the last person who should have been using the old stove that Bob had tinkered with too many times to count.

Bob was a pro and could use the old dials, but the flames jumped so quickly, Eliza was stunned. She tried to put out the fire but inhaled too much smoke, pushing Kash from the flames with her dying breath. Bob rushed home to find his wife gone and the Nesbitt kids consoling his devastated children, with his stunned mother and stepmother getting medical attention in an ambulance.

Daisy was devastated by the loss of her friend, but she and Neal offered Bob all the help he might need, and never said no to the kids when they wanted their friends over. River and Kash played games for hours, Everett and Heather loved to rank their favourite animals, and Malia was drawn to Holly's generous spirit. The Nesbitts and Pancakes were good friends; Eliza's death wouldn't change that.

As Ralph and Tut both got older, the family had to spend more time travelling to Brindleton Bay. Henford was too small for a vet clinic and most of the nearby practitioners focused on livestock, not dogs and cats. Brindleton Bay to the northeast was a quiet, coastal town built on fishing – a factor that drew thousands of strays from all over Simlandia for the abundance of food. But as the fishing industry shifted and changed, so did the vibrancy of the town. Young people left, and older families died off, but thanks to the strays, the animal hospital and shelter drew sims from all over to add four-legged family members.

The first time Heather joined her parents, as she stepped inside the animal hospital she was practically mesmerized. Instantly, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life – she wanted to help other families with sick pets, just as the vets at Brindleton Pawspital did for Ralph and Tut. Her parents were enthusiastic supporters of her dream from the start, but they told her she would need to work hard to raise money if she dreamed of buying a clinic of her own one day. They both did well in their careers and had every intention of helping her, but the last thing they wanted was their daughter to expect not to pull her own weight.

Would Heather continue on a path toward becoming a veterinarian, or change her mind as she got older? ->

<- Previous Chapter | From the Beginning

[housewarningparty]

Whatcha reading right now?

Well, this morning I finished listening to the audiobook version of Any Man by Amber Tamblyn, which was beautifully written and excellently performed. Tough read though - harrowing, very dark, nauseating at points.

Aside from that I'm halfway through two horror short story collections: Blue World by Robert McCammon and The Puppet King and Other Atonements by Justin Burnett. They're taking me forever to get through, mostly bc I've had a hard time focusing on short format stuff lately.

Not sure what I'll start next. Maybe the second Tide Child book? Open to suggestions 👀

My favorite things I've read so far this year are:

Penance by Eliza Clark (fake true crime, very Tumblr)

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (witch horror, translated from Dutch and localized to the US in a really interesting way)

The Bone Ships by RJ Barker (nautical fantasy about a world where island nations go to war in ships made of dragon bones)

Knock Knock Open Wide by Neal Sharpson (Irish folklore horror/queer love story that didn't QUITE stick the landing but was still really, really entertaining).

How bout you? Reading anything good?

[froggywritesstuff]

character list

the title is self explanatory. this is a list of the characters i'll write for. it'll probably change over time, and if you see a character you'd like but don't see them on the list, just ask cause i might've forgotten about them

Hamilton

Eliza Schuyler

Angelica Schuyler

Peggy Schuyler

Maria Reynolds

Alexander Hamilton

John Laurens

Philip Hamilton

Lafayette

Hercules Mulligan

James Madison

Thomas Jefferson

Aaron Burr

Umbrella Academy

Viktor Hargreeves

Diego Hargreeves

Klaus Hargreeves

Allison Hargreeves

Luther Hargreeves

Five Hargreeves

Ben Hargreeves (Umbrella or Sparrow)

Sloane Hargreeves

Jayme Hargreeves

Stranger Things

Will Byers (non female readers only)

Mike Wheeler

Lucas Sinclair

Dustin Henderson

Eleven Hopper

Max Mayfield

Robin Buckley (non male readers only)

Nancy Wheeler

Jonathan Byers

Steve Harrington

Eddie Munson

21 Chump Street

Justin Laboy

The Goldfinch

Boris Pavlikovsky

Theodore Decker

Marvel

Peter Parker (any actor)

Steve Rogers

Bucky Barnes

Sam Wilson

Makkari

Sersi

Sprite (platonic only)

Steven Grant

Marc Spector

Layla El-Faouly

America Chavez (non male readers only)

Kate Bishop

Yelena Belova (platonic only)

Shuri

Namor

Riri Williams

X-Men

Mystique

Kitty Pryde

Peter Maximoff

Rogue

Logan Howlette

Wade Wilson/Deadpool

Scott Summers

In The Heights (movie version)

Usnavi de la Vega

Vanessa 

Nina Rosario

Benny

Sonny de la Vega 

Heathers

Veronica Sawyer

JD (Jason Dean)

Heather Chandler

Heather McNamara

Heather Duke

John Doe

John Doe

Ride The Cyclone

Noel Gruber (male or nb readers only)

Ocean O'Connel Rosenburg

Mischa Bachinski

Constance Blackwood

Ricky Potts

Hatchetfieldverse

Paul Matthews

Emma Perkins

Ted Spankoffski

Bill Woodard

Ruth Fleming

Pete Spankoffski

Richie Lipschitz

Max Jagerman

Grace Chasity

Lex Foster

Ethan Green

Hannah Foster (platonic only)

Heartstopper

Charlie Spring (non female readers only)

Nick Nelson

Tara Jones (non male readers only)

Darcy Olsson (non male readers readers only)

Elle Argent

Tao Xu (non male readers only(headcanoning him as bi or pan is disrespectful and transphobic))

Tori Spring

Imogen Heaney

Isaac Henderson (platonic only)

Do Revenge

Eleanor Levetan (non male readers only)

Drea Torres

Wednesday

Wednesday Addams

Enid Sinclair

Bianca Barclay

Xavier Thorpe

Ajax Petropolus

Eugene Otinger

(young) Morticia Addams

(young) Gomez Addams

Beetlejuice

Lydia Deetz

Tomorrow When The War Began

Ellie Linton

Lee Takkam

Fiona Maxwell

Homer Yannos

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse/Across the Spider-Verse

Miles Morales

Gwen Stacy

Pavitr Prabhakar

Hobie Brown

Margo Kess

Miles G Morales (earth 42)

Miguel O’Hara

Maze Runner

Thomas

Newt (non female readers only)

The Broken Hearts Gallery

Lucy Gulliver

Nadine (non male readers only)

Nick Danielson

Treasure Planet

Jim Hawkins

Enola Holmes

Enola Holmes

Lord Tewkesbury

Turning Red

Mei Mei

Miriam

Abby

Priya

Raising Dion

Nicole Warren

Tevin Wakefield

Dion Warren (platonic only)

Julie and the Phantoms

Julie Molina

Luke Patterson

Reggie Peters

Alex Mercer (non female readers only)

Flynn

Carrie

Abbott Elementary

Janine Teagues

Jacob Hill (non female readers only)

Gregory Eddie

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Jake Peralta

Amy Santiago

Rosa Diaz

Love Victor

Victor Salazar (non female readers only)

Benji (non female readers only)

Felix Weston

Pilar Salazar

Lake Meriwether

Lucy

Mia Brooks

Andrew

In Treatment

Eladio

Laila

Spree

Kurt Kunkle

Once Upon a Time

Emma Swan

Regina Mills

Killian Jones

Mary Margaret Blanchard

David Nolan

Henry Mills

Mulan (non male readers only)

Graham

Neal Cassidy

Peter Pan

Jefferson

Dash and Lily

Dash

Lily

Boomer

Juno

Juno MacGuff

Paulie Bleeker

Summer Days Summer Nights

Debbie Espinoza

Frankie Espinoza

Scream (1 through 6)

Sidney Prescott

Billy Loomis

Mickey Altieri

Roman Bridger

Jill Roberts

Charlie Walker

Sam Carpenter

Tara Carpenter

Amber Freeman

Chad Meeks-Martin

Mindy Meeks-Martin

Quinn Bailey

Venom

Eddie Brock

Honest Thief

Ramon Hall

Beth Hall

Wild Child

Poppy Moore

Kate

Drippy

Freddie Kingsley

Monsters and Men

Manny Ortega

Marisol Ortega

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Trevor Spengler

Phoebe Spengler (platonic only)

Error 143

Micah Yujin

Community

Abed Nadir

Troy Barnes

Annie Edison

Jeff Winger

Britta Perry

The Obession

Logan

Delilah

The New Girl

Lia Setiawan

Stacey Hoffman

Mythic Quest

Poppy Li

Brad Bakshi

Adventure Time

Finn

Princess Bubblegum

Marceline

Marshall Lee

Prince Bubblegum

Flame Princess

School Spirits

Madison

Simon

Charley (non female readers only)

Wally

Rhonda

Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

Simon Aumar

Disventure Camp

Aiden (non fem readers only)

James (non fem readers only)

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

Jane Facciano

Olivia Valdovinos

Nancy Nakagawa

Cynthia Zdunowski

Richie Valdovinos

Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso

Roy Kent

Jamie Tartt

Keeley Jones

Sam Obisanya

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Noah Diaz

Elena Wallace

Mirage

Helluva Boss

Blitzø

Stolas (non female readers only)

Loona

Millie

Moxxie

Octavia

Verosika Mayday

Fizzarolli

Asmodeus

Hazbin Hotel

Charlie Morningstar

Vaggie (non male readers only)

Angel Dust (non female readers only)

Husk

Alastor (platonic only)

Vox

Lucifer

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (rise + mutant mayhem + tmnt 2007 + tmnt 2012)

Donnie

Mikey

Raph

Leo

April

The After Party

Yasper Lennov

Space Force

Tony Scarapiducci

Renfield

Teddy Lobo

Robert Montague Renfield

Undercovers

Bill Hoyt

Amazing Digital Circus

Jax

Parks and Recreation

Leslie Knope

Ben Wyatt

April Ludgate

Andy Dwyer

Jean-Ralphio Saperstein

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja

Randy Cunningham (18+ people DNI unless requesting platonic stories)

The Earliest Show

Josh Bath

House of Lies

Clyde Oberholt

Mean Girls (movie + musical + movie musical)

Cady Heron

Regina George

Gretchen Wieners

Karen Smith/Shetty

Janis Ian/Sarkisian/Imi'ike (non male readers only)

Damian Hubbard (non female readers only)

Warm Bodies

R

Peep World

Nathan Meyerwitz

Your Boyfriend

Peter Dunbar

Invincible

Mark Grayson

Shapesmith

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Sabrina Spellman

Harvey Kinkle

Nick Scratch

Rosalind Walker

Theo Putnam

Prudence Blackwood

Ambrose Spellman

High School Musical: the Musical the Series

Gina Porter

EJ Caswell

[bracketsoffear]

End Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the End Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Anderson, Jodi Lynn: May Bird Andreyev, Leonid: Lazarus

Basye, Dale E.: Precocia Bierce, Ambrose: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Bunin, Ivan: The Gentleman from San Francisco

Christie, Agatha: And Then There Were None Christie, Agatha: Curtain Cook, Eliza: Song of the Worm

Enriquez, Mariana: Alguien camina sobre tu tumba (someone walks over your grave)

Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book Godwin, Tom: The Cold Equations

Hill, Joe: The Black Phone (from the book 20th Century Ghosts) Hurley, Tonya: Ghostgirl Huxley, Aldous: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

Ibbotson, Eva: Dial-a-Ghost

Kedzie, Robert: Shadows from the Wall of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers King, Stephen: Pet Sematary Klune, T.J.: Under the Whispering Door Kraus, Daniel: The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Alchemist Lovecraft, H.P.: Cool Air Lumley, Brian: Necroscope

Márquez, Gabriel García: Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a death foretold) Maugham, Somerset: An Appointment in Samarra McGovern, Kate: Fear of Missing Out Moore, Christopher: A Dirty Job Moreno, Gus: This Thing Between Us Morris, Jonathan: Festival of Death

Ohland, Emma K.: Funeral Girl

Piven, Joshua & David Borgenicht: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook Poe, Edgar Allan: Annabel Lee Poe, Edgar Allan: The Raven Pratchett, Terry: Mort Pratchett, Terry: Pyramids Pushkin, Alexander: The Queen of Spades

Sebold, Alice: The Lovely Bones Shusterman, Neal: Antsy Does Time Shusterman, Neal: Scythe Spark, Muriel: Memento Mori Stine, R.L.: Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel Stone, Jon: The Monster at the End of this Book Stoppard, Tom: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Stroud, Jonathan: Lockwood and Co. series

von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang: Erlkönig Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse-Five

Webb, Catherine: Mirror Dreams Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray Wolff, Tobias: Bullet in the Brain

Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

Anderson, Jodi Lynn: May Bird

"Shy, precocious May Bird wants nothing more than to be accepted. One day she falls through a lake into the Ever After, a world of ghosts. As she journeys through fantastic lands, she gathers an unusual group of new friends who join together to overcome the chillingly evil Bo Cleevil and find their way home."

Andreyev, Leonid: Lazarus

The story picks up where the biblical story leaves off-- what happens to Lazarus after he is brought back to life? There's no attempt at a description that's gonna give the story justice, it is something you need to experience for yourself. Link: https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Laza841.shtml

Basye, Dale E.: Precocia

"Dale E. Basye sends Milton and Marlo to Precocia, the circle reserved for kids who grow up too fast, for their latest hilarious escapade in Heck.

When Bea "Elsa" Bubb, the Principal of Darkness, tells Milton and Marlo Fauster they've gotten too big for their britches, she sends them to Precocia, the circle of Heck for smartypants kids who grow up too fast. There, the children learn adult jobs. William the Kid teaches bill collection. Mozart teaches commercial jingles. And all the students are forced to act, dress, and talk like little adults. Soon, the Fausters realize that Precocia's vice principals Napoleon and Cleopatra want more than to hasten adulthood--they seem to want to eliminate childhood altogether. Can Milton and Marlo figure out their plan in time to stop it?"

Includes depictions of a horrifying alternate reality where people want to age and wither as fast as possible!

Bierce, Ambrose: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

We learn that a man is about to be hanged by a Union captain in the middle of a bridge over raging water in Northern Alabama. After learning how he ended up there, the man is awakened by the cold current of the river, having lost consciousness after the noose broke and he fell from the bridge. His executioners are firing at him from the bridge, he suffers a gunshot wound, comes up for air, dives back under, only to see a cannonball land within two yards. He thinks he's doomed, but then seems to be ejected from the river onto a bank, out of sight and firing range. But then he hears gunshots, escapes through the forest, taking backroads to return to his home. He seems to greet his wife, but then feels a sharp blow on his neck, sees a blinking white light, and all falls to silence and darkness. The end of the story reveals that Farquhar's broken body is still swinging from the side of Owl Creek Bridge, where he died, after all.

Bunin, Ivan: The Gentleman from San Francisco

A 58-year-old American from San Francisco, having acquired a great fortune, sets off with his wife and daughter on a world tour. After a luxurious cruise, they arrive in Naples, where he is dismayed by the unusually bad winter weather and finds that the city does not meet his expectations. They then go to Capri, where he abruptly dies in the lobby of his fancy hotel, causing a stir among the rich clientele. The second half of the story is concerned with the change in the once-deferential staff's attitude towards the gentleman, and in the dehumanizing way in which his body is treated as it makes its journey out of Italy.

The Gentleman From San Francisco is a great reminder that death can come anytime, anyplace. The Gentleman could be anyone, which is why I believe the character remains unnamed throughout the story.

Christie, Agatha: And Then There Were None

Undoubtedly Christie's scariest mystery, the novel represents a countdown for ten murderers on an island, as one by one they all die according to the dictates of a creepy nursery rhyme.

Christie, Agatha: Curtain

"Arthritic and immobilized, Poirot calls on his old friend Captain Hastings to join him at Styles to be the eyes and ears that will feed observations to Poirot's still razor sharp mind. Though aware of the criminal's identity, Poirot will not reveal it to the frustrated Hastings, and dubs the nameless personage 'X'. Already responsible for several murders, X, Poirot warns, is ready to strike again, and the partners must work swiftly to prevent imminent murder."

It's a book that was meant to be published posthumously whats more End-like than that?

Spoilers: The main villain tricks and manipulates people into killing each other(An End avatar, perhaps?). 'X' is so good that he almost makes Hastings into a murderer and makes Poirot into one. Poirot also dies in this one.

Cook, Eliza: Song of the Worm

Banger worm poem. https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/song-worm

Enriquez, Mariana: Alguien camina sobre tu tumba (someone walks over your grave)

This book brings together a series of very particular travel chronicles around the world. The author travels countries and continents to visit something very specific and perhaps unusual: cemeteries. Famous and history-laden cemeteries such as Montparnasse in Paris, Highgate in London or the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and other hidden, decrepit, remote or secretly beautiful graves of famous people -Elvis' in Memphis, Marx in London- extravagant epitaphs, mourning sculptures, sensual angels and an inexhaustible string of legends and stories.

Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book

It tells the story of the boy Nobody "Bod" Owens, who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered.

***

The boy gets raised by ghosts.

Godwin, Tom: The Cold Equations

The story of a pilot who finds a girl stowed away on his spaceship, which is delivering lifesaving medicine to a distant frontier world. The fuel had been carefully measured out, the weight precisely calculated -- and none of it accounted for the stowaway.

Hill, Joe: The Black Phone (from the book 20th Century Ghosts)

Thirteen-year-old Finney is kidnapped by a man named The Grabber. Trapped in a basement room, the boy's only hope may lie in a mysterious disconnected black phone hanging on the basement wall. The phone rings at night with the whispers of the kidnapper's previous (and now dead) victims.

Hurley, Tonya: Ghostgirl

The book is about high school senior Charlotte Usher, a young teenager who dreams of becoming popular in school, but before she gets the chance of that or asking her crush Damen out, she dies from choking on a gummy bear. What follows is a Tim Burton-esque story in which Charlotte is admitted to Dead Ed (a special education class for newly dead teens who have unresolved issues they must confront before they can move on), befriends a goth girl who can see ghosts, Scarlet, and comes to terms with her own death.

Huxley, Aldous: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan A Hollywood millionaire with a terror of death, whose personal physician happens to be working on a theory of longevity - these are the elements of Aldous Huxley's caustic and entertaining satire on man's desire to live indefinitely. With his customary wit and intellectual sophistication, Huxley pursues his characters in their quest for the eternal, finishing on a note of horror.

Ibbotson, Eva: Dial-a-Ghost

The Dial-a-Ghost Agency finds good homes for ghosts. And Fulton and Frieda Snodde-Brittle are looking for a few frightening ghosts to "accidentally" scare their young cousin and heir, Oliver, to death. The ladies at the Dial-a-Ghost Agency have the perfect match: the Shriekers, two bloodstained and bickering horrors. But thanks to a mix-up at the agency, the Wilkinsons, a kind family of ghosts, arrive instead. Can they put a stop to the Snodde-Brittles' schemes before it's too late?

Kedzie, Robert: Shadows from the Wall of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers

The book warns of the dangers of once-commonly used arsenic-pigmented wallpaper. The book also contains 86 samples of said wallpaper. Due to the dangerous amount of arsenic in the work, only five of the original 100 copies have survived. Most copies were destroyed by the recipient libraries. Doesn't even need to be a Leitner to kill you.

King, Stephen: Pet Sematary

Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago, moves to a house near the small town of Ludlow, Maine along with his wife Rachel, their two young children, Ellie and Gage, and Ellie's cat, Winston Churchill ("Church"). Their neighbor, an elderly man named Jud Crandall, warns Louis and Rachel about the highway that runs past their house; it's used by trucks from a nearby chemical plant that often pass by at high speeds. A few weeks after the Creeds move in, Jud takes the family on a walk in the woods behind their home. There, a well-tended path leads to a pet cemetery (misspelled "sematary") where the town's children bury their deceased animals.

After Church is run over while the kids are visiting their grandparents with Rachel for Thanksgiving, Jud leads Louis beyond the deadfall to an ancient burial ground that was once used by the Mi'kmaqs, a Native American tribe. Following Jud's instructions, Louis buries the cat and constructs a cairn. The following afternoon, the cat returns home. However, while he used to be vibrant and lively, he now acts ornery and "a little dead", in Louis's words.

Before long, the Creed family suffers an unfathomable tragedy, and Louis is forced to confront the enormity of his grief and ask himself just how far he's willing to go to make his family whole again. In that quest, Louis will discover the truth of Judd's chilling advice: "Sometimes, dead is better."

***

The premise of this book is that there is a place out in the woods that if you bury a dead animal, it will come back to life - but it comes back Wrong. And if you were to do it to a person, something else would come back, in their body, in their place; something eldritch and evil. I'm sure someone else has already done a better submission of it with a more fleshed out synopsis but I actually want to nominate it because of this thing Stephen King does where he makes your blood run cold by dropping, in the middle of a completely innocent paragraph, "And now Gage, who had less than two months to live, laughed shrilly and joyously." It's chilling and inevitable and you don't have any way to stop it.

This book deals with death in a lot of ways, some of them positive and healthy but most of them /definitively not/. It's very Leitner because of how it makes you think about death conceptually from a lot of different angles, but in the end appreciate its finality. Because the alternative is worse.

***

When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son-and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly car. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth-more terrifying than death itself-and hideously more powerful. The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.

Klune, T.J.: Under the Whispering Door

Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.

Kraus, Daniel: The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch

Synopsis: May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down on the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected.

His second life will be nothing like his first.

Zebulon’s new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there, he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.

Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption?

Propaganda: As stated in the synopsis, Zebulon is killed and, for no apparent reason, comes back to life. It is more like in death, though; he is essentially a very-slowly-rotting corpse who walks. He discovers that he has the power to look at people in the eyes and show them their last moments, which traumatizes them. Finally, in both books Zebulon is surrounded by and responsible for many deaths.

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Alchemist

The story is recounted by the protagonist, Count Antoine de C, in the first person. Hundreds of years ago, Antoine's noble ancestor was responsible for the death of a dark wizard, Michel Mauvais. The wizard's son, Charles le Sorcier, swore revenge on not only him but all his descendants, cursing them to die on reaching the age of 32.

The protagonist recounts how his ancestors all died in some mysterious way around the age of 32. The line has dwindled and the castle has been left to fall into disrepair, tower by tower. Finally, Antoine is the only one left, with one poor servant, Pierre, who raised him, and a tiny section of the castle with a single tower is still usable. Antoine has reached adulthood, and his 32nd year is approaching.

His servant eventually dies, leaving him completely alone, and he begins exploring the ruined parts of the castle. He finds a trapdoor in one of the oldest parts. Below, he discovers a passage with a locked door at the end. Just as he turns to leave, he hears a noise behind him and sees that the door is open and someone is standing in it. The man attempts to kill him but Antoine kills him first. His dying words reveal that he is none other than Charles, who actually managed to successfully fabricate the elixir of life, enabling him to personally fulfill the curse generation after generation.

Lovecraft, H.P.: Cool Air

The short story revolves around an unnamed writer who moves into a dodgy apartment building in New York. Over time, he befriends his mysterious upstairs tenant, an old, reclusive physician who never leaves his room, which he keeps at a perpetual 55-56°. In spite of this newfound friendship, the narrator nevertheless finds something unsettling about the peculiar old man, who has a rather disconcerting obsession with the subject of death...

To say much more would spoil the plot twist. The story can be read online here: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ca.aspx

Lumley, Brian: Necroscope

“DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES…

Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.

In the Balkan mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge.

The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, part of a super-secret Soviet spy agency. Dragosani is an avid pupil, eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the awful skills of the necromancer, gives him the ability to rip secrets from the mind and bodies of the dead.

Dragosani works not for Ferenczy's freedom but world domination. He will rule the world with knowledge taken from the dead.

His only opponent: Harry Koegh, champion of the dead and the living.

To protect Harry, the dead will do anything--even rise from their graves!"

Main character power is communicating with the dead very End-coded

Márquez, Gabriel García: Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a death foretold)

A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion.

Maugham, Somerset: An Appointment in Samarra

It's literally only a paragraph long, just read it

McGovern, Kate: Fear of Missing Out

Everyone has a fear of missing out on something―a party, a basketball game, a hangout after school. But what if it’s life that you’ll be missing out on?

When Astrid learns that her cancer has returned, she hears about a radical technology called cryopreservation that may allow her to have her body frozen until a future time when―and if―a cure is available. With her boyfriend, Mohit, and her best friend, Chloe, Astrid goes on a road trip in search of that possibility. To see if it’s real. To see if it’s worth it. For fear of missing out on everything.

Moore, Christopher: A Dirty Job

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.

It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's got to do it.

Moreno, Gus: This Thing Between Us

It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.

It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago's world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room…

The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape—not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.

Morris, Jonathan: Festival of Death

Synopsis: "The Beautiful Death. The ultimate theme-park ride. For twenty galactic credits, you can find out what it's like to be dead.

But something has gone wrong. Visitors expecting a sightseeing tour of the afterlife have been transformed into mindless zombies, set on a killing rampage.

The TARDIS arrives in the aftermath of the disaster and, to the Doctor's baffled delight, he is immediately congratulated for saving the population from certain and terrible destruction. The only problem is, he hasn't actually done it yet.

Aided and abetted by a drug-addled hippie lizard, a hard-hitting investigative reporter and a suicidal ship's computer, the Doctor has no choice but to travel back in time and discover exactly how he became a hero.

And then he finds out. He did it by sacrificing his life."

Why it's End: A theme park ride that simulates the experience of being dead. Wow. And something went wrong? Crazy. But yeah, there's a lot to do with death and fate in here -- the Doctor is apparently fated to die at the end of his adventure, the crew of the ship being fated to die

Ohland, Emma K.: Funeral Girl

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Richter feels conflicted about the funeral home her parents run--especially because she has the ability to summon ghosts. With one touch of any body that passes through Richter Funeral Home, she can awaken the spirit of the departed. With one more touch, she makes the spirit disappear, to a fate that remains mysterious to Georgia. To cope with her deep anxiety about death, she does her best to fulfill the final wishes of the deceased whose ghosts she briefly revives.

Then her classmate Milo's body arrives at Richter--and his spirit wants help with unfinished business, forcing Georgia to reckon with her relationship to grief and mortality.

Piven, Joshua & David Borgenicht: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook

A handy little manual that shows all the ways that you can survive the worst possible situations. And now that you have the Leitner edition, you'll be putting those skills to good use almost constantly, as every deadly thing described in those pages begins to manifest in your life.

Poe, Edgar Allan: Annabel Lee

Like a lot of the Edgar Allan Poems, this is heavily concerned with the death of young love, and a desire to be reunited in the tomb. Link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Raven

"The Raven" A narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Published originally in January 1845, the poem has a musical quality with stylized language and a supernatural atmosphere. It speaks of a mysterious talking raven's visit to a distraught lover, depicting the man's slow fall into madness. The lover is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of "Pallas", the raven seems to have a purpose of further instigating his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". This poem makes good use of a number of folk and classical references.

Pratchett, Terry: Mort

"‘YOU CANNOT INTERFERE WITH FATE. WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE WHO SHOULD LIVE AND WHO SHOULD DIE?’

Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job.

Death is the Grim Reaper of the Discworld, a black-robed skeleton with a scythe who ushers souls into the next world. He is also fond of cats and endlessly baffled by humanity. Soon Death is yearning to experience what humanity really has to offer, but to do that, he’ll need to hire some help.

It’s an offer Mort can’t refuse. As Death’s apprentice he’ll have free board, use of the company horse – and being dead isn’t compulsory. It’s a dream job – until Mort falls in love with Death’s daughter, Ysabell, and discovers that your boss can be a killer on your love life . . ."

Pratchett, Terry: Pyramids

"Being trained by the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork did not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate. He inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi rather earlier than he expected (his father wasn’t too happy about it either), but that was only the beginning of his problems..."

A prince taught in the school of assassins goes to claim the throne of Djelibeybi. A country that is extremely End-coded culturally, and in reality ruled not by its kings but by Dios who is an End avatar if there ever was one.

Pushkin, Alexander: The Queen of Spades

Hermann, an officer in the Imperial Russian Army, constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night a friend tells him a story about how his grandmother, a countess, lost a fortune at faro, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.

Herman gains access to the countess' (now 87 years old) home through an acquaintance, Lizaveta, and there Hermann accosts the countess, demanding the secret. She tells him that story was a joke, but Hermann persists and threatens her with a pistol. She dies of fright. Lizaveta helps him flee the crime scene.

At the countess' funeral Hermann is terrified to see the countess open her eyes in the coffin and look at him. Later that night, her ghost appears to him and names the secret three cards (three, seven, and ace). It tells him he must play just once each night and then orders him to marry Lizaveta. Hermann takes his entire savings to gamble at faro for high stakes. On the first night, he bets it all on the three and wins. On the second night, he wins on the seven. On the third night, he bets on the ace—but when the cards are shown, he finds he has bet on the Queen of Spades, not the ace, and he loses everything. When the Queen appears to wink at him, he is astonished by her remarkable resemblance to the old countess, and flees in terror.

In the end Hermann goes mad and is committed to an asylum. He answers no questions, but merely mutters with unusual rapidity: "Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!"

This story has the end's favoured motifs: gambling, death, dreams, ghosts. Hermann tried to cheat fate but failed.

Rulfo, Juan: Pedro Páramo

A masterpiece of the surreal, this stunning novel from Mexico depicts a man’s strange quest for his heritage. Beseeched by his dying mother to locate his father, Pedro Páramo, whom they fled from years ago, Juan Preciado sets out for Comala. Comala is a town alive with whispers and shadows—a place seemingly populated only by memory and hallucinations. Built on the tyranny of the Páramo family, its barren and broken-down streets echo the voices of tormented spirits sharing the secrets of the past.

Sebold, Alice: The Lovely Bones

It tells the story of a young girl named Susie Salmon who is brutally murdered. From her unique perspective in the afterlife, Susie watches as her family and friends struggle to cope with her death and unravel the mystery surrounding it.

Shusterman, Neal: Antsy Does Time

Fueled by friendship and sympathy, Antsy Bonano signs a month of his life over to his dying classmate Gunnar Umlaut. Soon everyone at school follows suit, giving new meaning to the idea of living on borrowed time. But does Gunnar really have six months to live, or is news of his imminent death greatly exaggerated? When a family member suffers a heart attack after donating two years to Gunnar, Antsy wonders if he has tempted fate by playing God...

Shusterman, Neal: Scythe

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a Scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Spark, Muriel: Memento Mori

In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone reminds each: "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled, and many an old unsavory secret is dusted off.

Stine, R.L.: Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel

Choose Your Own Adventure books are inherently End-coded; your choices drive your fate along, and no matter what you choose, you will eventually reach an ending. I think that goes double for a CYOA book about murderous ghosts.

Stone, Jon: The Monster at the End of this Book

Grover spends the story dreading what lurks at the end of the book, much like many of us spend our life dreading its end. Grover tries in vain to stop us from bringing him closer to the book's conclusion, but for him the pages pass as inevitably as time does for us. At the end of the actual book the monster turns out to be Grover all along, but in the Leitner version Grover's fear would turn out to be justified.

Stoppard, Tom: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

"Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters, bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a tragic but inevitable end."

Two guys hanging around till the only relevant thing about them, their death, happens. And they will keep dying forever.

Stroud, Jonathan: Lockwood and Co. series

Death permeates the alternate British society of the Lockwood and Co. series. Beginning five decades before the events of the first book, the existence of ghosts became undeniable as an epidemic of deadly hauntings began. Dubbed “The Problem”, it has only gotten worse with time, with the number, strength and range of the hauntings continuing to escalate. Only children are able to detect these dangerous visitors from the other side, who can kill with a single touch. This psychic Talent fades to nothing as they age, leaving adults basically helpless when it comes to detecting and avoiding ghosts until it's too late. As adults hide inside during the night curfew, children as young as 8 are forced to act as Night Watch or as Agents who risk their lives to fight off ghosts. Mortality rates are high and those who do survive often go on to become supervisors of younger Agents, forced into the position of sending children into mortal danger and being powerless to help them. This is a society dealing with basically the aftermath of an End Ritual and/or being in an End Domain, where death and the fear of death is the major driving force for most people. This fixation on death isn’t just only fear for some; there is also a thriving black market for Sources - objects (usually human remains) that a ghost is tied to and allows them passage into the living world from the Other Side.

MASSIVE spoilers for the final book. Seriously, don’t look if you plan on reading this series (which you absolutely should and also check out the incredibly well done TV adaptation):

*Turns out that the origin of this ghost epidemic was caused by the actions of the supposed “Hero” of The Problem, Marissa Fittes, who was the first one to figure out and codify (and profit from) most defences against ghosts. Her expeditions to the Other Side caused the dead to stir and make their way to the land of the living. She was obsessed with the potential properties of ectoplasm, the substance that ghosts are made of and what makes them so deadly, including immortality. Her frequent incursions into the Other Side to harvest and utilise ectoplasm, continued to greatly escalate The Problem, which only served to increase her wealth and fame as the head of the prestigious Fittes Agency. Despite these constant trips to the realm of the dead rapidly ageing her, her experiments with ectoplasm allowed her spirit to possess the body of her granddaughter on her so-called deathbed. Now posing as her granddaughter, she continues her quest for immortality, escalating The Problem even further, which only increases her fame, fortune and power, giving her more resources to exploit both the dead and the living for her personal gain.

von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang: Erlkönig

A haunting poem about an anxious young boy who is being carried at night by his father on horseback. To where is not spelled out; the German word Hof has a rather broad meaning of "yard", "courtyard", "farm", or (royal) "court". The opening line tells that the time is late and that it is windy.

As the poem unfolds, the son claims to see and hear the "Erlkönig" (Erl-King, lit. 'alder-king'). His father claims to not see or hear the creature, and he attempts to comfort his son, asserting natural explanations for what the child sees – a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows.

The Erl-King attempts to lure the child into joining him, promising amusement, rich clothes, and the attentions of his daughters. Finally, the Erl-King declares that he will take the child by force. The boy shrieks that he has been attacked, spurring the father to ride faster to the Hof. Upon reaching the destination, the child is already dead.

Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse-Five

Mostly it's about the non-linearity and the time-fuckery, especially experiencing death well before it actually happens.

Webb, Catherine: Mirror Dreams

"Every dream you've ever had, and every dream yet to come, exists in the Kingdoms of the Void. Every nightmare, too. Because there has to be balance; it's the rules. But the Lords of Nightkeep aren't big on rules; only Conquest, Fear, and Eternal Darkness for All. It takes a powerful wizard like Laenan Kite to keep them in check. But Kite has other worries, and Nightkeep is growing strong. Its Lords hunger for power. And they've turned their gaze towards earth."

Dreams are extremely End-coded and this book takes place in the dreamland. Also certain revelations about one of the characters make this even more End related.

Spoilers: Renna a dreamer turns out to be in a coma in the real world facing the very real possibility that she will get taken off life support.

Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Upon seeing his own striking portrait Dorian Gray is bewitched and offers his soul if only the painting will age while he remains eternally youthful. Believing himself incorruptible, Dorian indulges in a life of pleasure and excess. But what has become of his portrait?

Wolff, Tobias: Bullet in the Brain

The story is about an angry and bitter book critic trapped at a bank during a robbery; when he ridicules the robbers, they shoot him fatally in the head. The rest of the story takes in place in the last few moments before he dies.

Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

This book is narrated by death. Not a god of death, not some kind of herald of it, the abstract concept of death itself. And death permeates the entire story. The book begins with our protagonist, a young girl living smack-dab in the middle of Nazi Germany name Leisel Meminger watching her younger brother Werner die on their way to their new foster home, and it only gets worse from there. Leisel continually strives to save herself and others from the inevitable destruction and end that awaits them, predominantly, of course, by stealing books, but also eventually by harboring a Jewish man named Max Vandenburg, and it is consistently not enough. I'll spare you most of the details in the hopes of you reading it yourself, but the book ends with our protagonist's home being bombed and the deaths of her foster parents and the boy she loves. Leisel herself dies of old age decades later, and death's final words to her (and arguably to the readers themselves) are "I am haunted by humans".

[thehatchetsims]

Welcome to the neighborhood! This is what i like to call the nerd section, since I thought it be nice to have Pete live near his besties, and the Chasity's

at the start of playing the npc house was just empty & the chasity's did not have a pool.

So not much actually happened at the welcome wagon. The boys met their neighbors and Ted was his usual flirty self which made everyone uncomfortable and hate him. Including his little brother's best friends parents.

BTW meet Richie and Ruth's parents.

Seth and Eliza Lipschitz. Eliza is Paul's sister because we thought it was fun to have him be an uncle. Also they have a family cat, Mango. :)

Daniella and Neal Fleming. Not much to say about them. they're nice.

[elizadushkudaily]

White Collar

August 2011. Eliza Dushku plays Raquel Laroque in episode 3x9 On the Fence. (IMDB rating: 8 / 10)

Conman Neal agrees to help the FBI catch other white-collar criminals. In this episode Neal works with Raquel - an expert in Egyptian artifacts - to identify a smuggled amulet. (comedy crime drama)

(credit to IMDB)

[elizaneals]

🏺#Throwback to my #summerinternship in #NYC while in college going to a #TOGAParty 🪩 Uhh that's all I can say about that but the #internship at #NYU working for #TwinVision was a #learningexperience 📝 #TBT #throwback #brunette #flygirl #wayfarers #tan #noclothes #togas 🎀

[unblogparaloschicos]

Cine: Beach Rats (2017)

En público, Frankie (Harris Dickinson) suele reunirse con sus compañeros de tropelías (Frank Hakaj, David Ivanov y Anton Selyaninov) para efectuar algunos robos de poca monta, fumar cigarrillos de marihuana o participar en concursos de humo de cigarrillos eléctricos. Todo, mientras padece los últimos días de vida de su padre (Neal Huff), convaleciente de un cáncer fulminante, y pasa el tiempo utilizando su medicación para pulverizarla y continuar drogándose, oculto de la mirada de su madre Donna (Kate Hodge), que de tanto en cuando le reclama que se busque una novia, y de su hermana menor Carla (Nicole Flyus). 

En privado y de noche, su situación se vuelve aún más compleja: ingresa a “Brooklyn Boys”, un chat de citas de hombres gays, y se contacta con machazos mayores, con los que tiene relaciones sexuales a cambio de un poco de hierba, en ocasiones, en medio de la noche y a metros de la playa. Eso es lo que quiere creer, que lo hace por la droga. Se enamora de Simone (Madeline Weinstein) en un evento con fuegos artificiales, pero sabe que hay algo que no puede (o se niega a) comprender en sí mismo. Algo falla en esa relación y son sus encuentros con Michael (Erik Potempa), uno de esos “clientes”, los que despiertan todas las alarmas. Para peor, cuando su estabilidad económica comienza a agobiarlo, Framkie invita a sus amigos a unirse a su peculiar cruzada para adquirir la mercancía. Porque, a esta altura de los hechos, es lo que dice hacer: juntarse con extraños gays sólo por eso, no por el sexo.

Eliza Hittman, autora y directora del filme, ha recibido once premios (entre ellos, el de Mejor Directora en el festival de Sundance) y dieciséis nominaciones por este doloroso retrato de un adolescente perdido (y en más de un sentido).

[mystical-flute]

Black Coffee & Pumpkin Pie: Chapter 10

AO3 || FFN || Ko-Fi

“Are you sure we don’t look too touristy?” came Lily’s voice among the crowd gathered in the French Quarter. It had taken quite a bit of convincing the group that no, the best parades were not on Bourbon Street, but a look from Eudora had them quieting down rather quickly, and so, the group had moved quickly in the early morning light through the already crowded streets, finding a clear spot along the parade route.

Eudroa, along with Eli La Bouff, had decided to come with the young adults, and while many of them had protested at first, a quick mention of a parents’ group chat started by Regina ceased any opposition. Neal had felt even more pressure to keep everyone safe at the thought of Storybrooke’s Fire Chief, Fire Captain, Mayor, and Sheriff all in the same group chat with his mother.

He was going to die if anything happened during this trip, and he was certain that no one would be able to find his body, given the high ranking people involved.

“Meh, there’s really no such thing as too touristy. Mardi Gras has people dressin’ so ridiculous, it’s hard to tell who really lives here and who’s a tourist. I mean, look at that guy wearin’ Big Bird’s cousin over there,” Charlotte replied with a giggle as she gestured to a man wearing a blue feather coat. “Although, if you start flashin’ your breasts, especially in this area, that would give you away, no question.”

Lily stared at Charlotte, looking like some grand master plan had been ruined. “I thought that was a thing people did!”

“Nah, just tourists,” Neal replied with a grin. “And it’s more common on Bourbon Street. I don’t think you’d get the response you want here. Look at all the kids that are around here.”

“Then you’d end up on social media… where your mom would be able to see it,” Alex pointed out, gesturing to the hundreds of cameras in their view taking photos of a high school marching band marching by. “You know that’d tank your credibility at school too. If you weren’t arrested first, of course.”

Lily sighed, reaching out to catch a set of beads as they flew in her direction. “Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I’ll flash ‘em to someone else, in a more private setting.” A wink was tossed in Charlotte’s direction, who turned as pink as the shirt she wore.

“Oh my God you two, get a room! I thought Emma and Neal were the only two we were going to have to worry about on this trip,” Elaine said with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey, we haven’t done anything!” Neal protested, raising his hands in a show of surrender, before he felt a sudden weight in one and glanced down, a keychain was in his hand, having been tossed from the passing float. It had a swan design, and seemed well made for something getting tossed at a Mardi Gras parade, so he quietly tucked it into his pocket as the conversation continued around him.

“Yeah, that we’ve seen,” Yue teased, sticking her tongue out and dodging a swat from Emma.

Emma rolled her eyes and groaned. “Ugh! You guys are the worst!”

“Nah, we’re not. Otherwise you wouldn’t have invited us,” Eliza declared.

Neal shook his head. Though this group could be… a lot to deal with, he was glad he had a group of friends like them, and he was happy to be able to show off Mardi Gras to them.

The parade continued on, and the group reached up to catch the goodies tossed by the people on the floats, and by the time they made their way back to the restaurant, all of them had a small amount of trinkets.

“Well, that parade sure saved us some money on souvenirs!” Alex said, dropping onto the couch. “Granted, I don’t think Mom and Dad will be happy with just some plastic beads and a cup on it, but still.”

“We’ll take you guys to get some good stuff, none of that boring touristy stuff,” Charlotte promised with a grin. “There’s a cute little boutique with hand made accessories, and a metalworks place where you can get some really cool stuff for people in all sorts of careers.”

“Guess it’s true what they say - go where the locals go,” Roland said with a grin. “This trip has been so much better with you guys showing us around than it would be if we’d gone by ourselves. We really can’t repay you enough.”

“Oh no, don’t you worry about that,” Eudora said with a kind smile. “Any friends of Neal’s are always gonna be welcome here. You all just be careful tonight. The French Quarter might be where the best parades are, but Bourbon Street is where the parties are, and things can get a little wild ‘round here.”

“You may be downplaying New Orleans, Eudora,” Eli said with a laugh. “Bourbon Street is never completely empty during Mardi Gras. There’ll be more people here than you’ve ever seen. And since the weather’s so nice, more people than usual, I’d say. It’s perfect weather for Mardi Gras this year. It’s like the gods were smiling on y’all when you were planning your trip.”

“I mean, you’re just making it sound better and better, Mr. la Bouff,” Lily grinned. “So much to do and see, so many people to talk to, a party that won’t ever end? Sounds like a great time to me!”

“I think I’m gonna stick closer to our home base,” Yue said, with Eliza nodding in agreement as they glanced at the crowds beginning to form outside the restaurant. “Those crowds are making me a little nervous.”

Lily sighed. “You’re no fun, you two. I don’t know how that is considering one of your mothers is the fire captain of our town!”

“Yeah, and you don’t even know half the horrors she’s told us about parties in Chinatown when she was growing up,” Eliza said. “The parades were fun, but if I go out, I’m staying around here with Yue.”

“It’s alright Lily, I’ll take you to all the best party spots,” Charlotte said with a grin.

Eli didn’t look particularly thrilled at the idea, but didn’t say anything.

“There are some fun places around here we can go to,” Tiana said. “Mama’s friend Louis has a jazz band that’s playin’ at Woldenburg Park. It’s one of the more tame things to do this time of night.”

“Now that sounds up our alley,” Yue said. “That sounds like fun!”

“What do you want to do, Emma?” Neal asked.

“I’d love to listen to the jazz band play. We can always party tomorrow night too.”

Lily frowned, but went back into Tiana’s bedroom to change. When she returned, she was in a crop top and shorts, and a pair of sandals. “Alright, alright, fine. Come on Roland, Alex, Lottie.”

The group split then, half going out on the busy Bourbon Street, the others going to the slightly-quieter Woldenburg Park, taking in the sounds of New Orleans with Louis’ jazz band. There were crowds, of course, dancing and clapping along with the music, and Neal just relaxed against the blanket they’d spread out near the stage, a lazy grin on his face.

“Well, don’t you look right at home,” Emma giggled, plopping down next to him, a bottle of water in her hand.

“Shouldn’t I?” he questioned with a grin. “This was my home for years after all.”

“Oh no, of course you should! I just meant -”

He laughed, wrapping an arm around her as she leaned against his shoulder. “I’m kidding, Emma. Don’t worry. By the way, Mama said Louis and the band are willing to give us a backstage tour once their set is over.”

“Really? That sounds great, Neal!”

They sat in a peaceful silence, listening to the band. Take the A-Train, by Duke Ellington soon filled the air, and Neal tapped his fingers along to the beat before he paused and glanced at Emma. “Hey, I’ve got something for you.”

“Hm? What is it?”

Neal reached into his pocket and pulled out the silly swan keychain he’d caught during the morning’s festivities.

“Really?” Emma gasped, taking it into her hand. “You want me to have this?”

“I wouldn’t have given it to you if I didn’t,” he grinned. “It reminded me of the swans that are in the pond at your farm.”

Emma smiled. “It’s beautiful… thanks Neal.” She reached into her pocket and pulled her keys out, attaching the swan to it and holding it up to the stage lights so she could see better. “There. Looks good on my key ring, doesn’t it?”

“Like Cinderella’s slipper fitting her perfectly.”

Emma snorted and rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. “You can be so cheesy sometimes. But I guess that’s part of why I like you.”

“Only part of why you like me?” he gasped, placing a hand on his chest in mock offense. “You wound me, Emma.”

“So dramatic,” Emma said with a roll of her eyes. “You should be studying drama in college, not working as a fireman. You might put others at risk if you’re going to be such a drama king over your girlfriend finding parts of you she enjoys.”

Neal grinned. “Nah. I wouldn’t want to be an actor. Not now that I’m going by my birth name again. It’d be too easy to figure out who I was.”

Emma frowned, slowly nodding in agreement. “Right… we really wouldn’t want to do something like that.”

More and more people around them got up to dance, including Tiana, dancing with someone he didn’t recognize, so he held out his hand to Emma with a smile. “Come on, let’s dance the night away!”

Her face brightened as she took his hand and rose to her feet, Glenn Miller’s American Patrol beginning to play from the stage. “Yeah!”

Neal wrapped his arm around her waist, lacing their hands together with a grin. It felt nice, having her in his arms like this. Neither of them knew exactly how they were supposed to dance to it, so they just bounced around on their feet, swaying to the beat of the songs and laughing, under the starry, New Orleans sky.

------

Alice liked Storybrooke a lot. A quaint little town, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, little congestion, and more stars in the sky than she’d ever seen? Not to mention the kind people who had welcomed her with open arms despite her… quirks, and Margot’s family who had embraced her as one of their own without question. Though she loved her father, his job kept him busy while she’d been growing up, and she’d been bounced around between neighbors whenever her father’s workday ran longer than anticipated. Uncle Killian and Aunt Milah had never been able to watch her.

They had never come to their apartment at all - her and Papa had always gone to their houseboat for the holidays. Looking back on it now, knowing that her aunt had kidnapped Bae from his father and fled with him, she understood why.

But her heart broke for Bae whenever she thought about his life. How lonely he must have been, while Alice had been having the time of her life with a little cousin to play with. Knowing he’d been able to escape and find Tiana and Eudora made her so happy. She didn’t even mind that they had to pretend to not know each other, until her uncle and aunt were found.

What Alice hoped was that her father didn’t know anything about the kidnapping. That he didn’t know what a terrible thing Uncle Killian had done. If he did know… not only would he ruin his career, but he’d absolutely break her heart, and given how awful of a person Alice’s mother was, she really, really didn’t want to have two horrible parents. Not with all the good memories she had with her father.

Dammit, her mind was drifting again. She really needed to stop doing that.

Alice blinked and shook her head, turning her attention to the Zillow page in front of her. She hadn’t told Margot about her idea yet. Though they had discussed putting travel aside for now and settling down somewhere, they hadn’t talked about just staying here in Storybrooke.

“Alice? You in here?” she heard Margot call from the front door.

“In the kitchen!” Alice called back, reaching for her mug of tea and taking a sip before wincing. It was getting cold. She’d been thinking way too long this time, and rose to her feet to dump the cold tea down the sink with a frown before Margot entered the room with grocery bags in her hands.

“Hey, you alright? You’ve got that lost in thought look on your face again,” Margot questioned as she set the bags on the counter and started pulling groceries away.

Alice nodded. “Yea, of course! I just… I’ve been looking at places on Zillow.”

Margot paused, setting a jar of jelly down on the counter. “Zillow? What cities were you thinking of?”

“I wasn’t thinking of a city. I was thinking you and I could stay here. In Storybrooke.”

“Here?” Margot blinked in surprise. “Really? You want to stay here?”

Alice shrugged. “Yeah. Small town, nice people. Bit of a calm away from our crazy travel schedule. And next time we go somewhere, your mum can look after our place for us. Make sure there’s nothing going wrong there, you know? Plus, y’know, your family really accepted me. I feel… I feel happy here.”

Margot smiled softly and wrapped her arms around her. “I think that all sounds great, Alice. I’m glad you’ll be happy here. Did you find anywhere that caught your eye yet?”

“Not yet. Why don’t we finish putting the groceries away and we can look together?” she suggested with a wide smile.

“Sounds like a plan to me. It’ll be nice to have our own place where we can buy whatever we want and have our own space. Getting away from my mom sounds like a dream,” Margot groaned, taking Zelena’s favorite tea out of the bag. “And I never have to buy this brand of tea ever again.”

Alice laughed. “Right, because we have better taste when it comes to tea.”

“Exactly. One of the perks of going to China,” Margot said with a grin. “So did you want an apartment or were you thinking maybe an actual house?”

“A horse. I think I want to try growing a garden. We can have fresh herbs and vegetables in the summer! Do you think your uncle David would be willing to help?”

Margot nodded. “Are you kidding? I’m sure he’d love to. Aunt Mary-Margaret says gardening helps him relax, so any excuse he has to garden he’d jump at the chance to take.”

Alice could only grin, excitement building up inside her. Ever since she was a child, she’d wanted a garden, but it wasn’t easy to have a garden in Hyperion Heights. Not a personal one, anyway. When she’d been a kid she’d been part of a community garden club with her mother, before her mother had completely abandoned her. While Alice didn’t like her mother, she didn’t want gardening to become a sour memory. Having her own, with the help of people who loved her, would turn those sour memories sweet again.

“Yeah, you know, having a house would give us space to entertain. Maybe we can invite some of our travel buddies to visit us too. That way we won’t have to worry about being too loud for our neighbors that share walls with us, like when we were in Spain,” Margot said, breaking Alice from her thoughts again.

“Yeah,” Alice said with a grin. “And maybe we can invite my father to stay too.” She would have to figure out when in order to protect Bae from being discovered, but it would be weird for her not to mention her father if they were talking about having people over to their new place!

“Of course! I’m sure he’d love it,” Margot agreed, closing the fridge after putting the last of the refrigerated items away. “Let’s go check out Storybrooke’s real estate market.”

So they curled up together, a tablet between them, and scrolled through Storybrooke’s limited offerings.

“You know, if we don’t find anything here, Hyperion Heights is only a ten minute drive away. We could check there too,” Margot suggested. “It’s a bigger city, but I know they have houses with yards that you want.”

Alice must have had a frustrated look in her eyes. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We won’t be too far from everyone in that case,” she sighed, and ran a hand through her blonde locks. “Why don’t we take a break for now? We can figure out din -” she was cut off as her phone began to buzz in her pocket. “Papa! Hi!” she greeted when she put the phone to her ear.

There was a large amount of background; noise, almost like a party, before she finally heard her father’s voice on the line. “Ah! Alice! I’m sorry, I thought I found a quiet place to call, but I guess not.”

“Where are you?” Papa was one of the last people that would call her from a party - especially one that sounded that wild and chaotic.

“I’m in New Orleans with your aunt and uncle. I have great news - we think we found Bae!”

Alice froze, her eyes widening in fear. Margot gave her an alarmed look, which she forced herself to wave off as she answered. “Oh - you did? How did that happen?”

“Killian said something about seeing a post about Mardi Gras on social media. Apparently Aunt Milah spotted him in a crowd shot of one of the parades. So now we’re looking to see if anyone knows him, but it’s been hard. I just wanted to let you know.”

Alice grinned nervously. “That’s great news, Papa. Let me know what happens.”

“Of course.”

“Alice, what’s wrong?” Margot asked the moment Alice lowered the phone from her ear.

“Call David. Tell him Killian and Milah Jones have been spotted in New Orleans.”

Margot stared and reached for her phone. “How did you - ”

“Because my dad is Killian’s twin brother! Please, Margot, we have to hurry before they find Neal - or worse, the woman that took him in!” Aunt Milah could be vicious when she wanted to be, and that wasn’t something Alice wished on anyone.

“Right. Okay,” Margot agreed, putting the phone to her ear. “Uncle David?”

-----

“That jazz museum was so cool! I had no idea it came from so many different genres!” Alex said with a grin. “I know exactly what my next essay is going to be on!”

“Oh for God’s sake, don’t remind me of school,” Lily groaned, wrapping her gift shop bag tighter to her wrist. “We’ve still got four days here!”

“It’s not my fault this city is full of inspiration!”

Neal laughed, fingers laced with Emma’s as they walked back toward the restaurant for lunch. Though Mardi Gras was still in full swing, the Storybrooke group had spent the morning exploring museums and landmarks around the city.

“I really am having a great time,” Emma said, moving closer and resting her head on his shoulder.

“I am too. I’m glad Lily invited me along - huh?” he paused and pulled his vibrating phone out of his pocket with a frown. “Tamara?”

Tamara’s voice was nervous and rushed as she spoke. “Neal. Hey. I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, but Mr. La Bouff told me to call.”

“What? Why did he do that?” he asked, gripping the phone tighter. Neal’s sudden stop had paused the others too, and they stepped into a surprisingly quiet part of the street.

“I don’t know the full details, but when I went into your mama’s restaurant to pick up an order, I heard a bunch of yelling. Something about your mama being a kidnapper? Mr. La Bouff came out of the back room and saw me, and told me to call you.”

Neal felt the color drain from his face. “Oh my God. They found me. Thanks Tamara.”

“Wait, what -”

But he didn’t wait another second. He ended the call and ran as fast as he could toward the restaurant, after a rushed explanation to the others. Dawn, Philip, and Emma had already pulled out their phones, trying to call Storybrooke’s police. He paid their conversations no mind as he rushed through the restaurant’s back door. There was no yelling from the office, so he rushed upstairs and burst into the apartment, eyes meeting Milah’s for the first time in six years.

“Hey! Leave her alone.”

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 1 Pt. 10 (Reaffirmations of Love)

Even as they gained new wrinkles with softened physiques as they aged, Neal and Daisy still found each other irresistible. They could steal more romantic moments than they had in years, and rarely wasted an opportunity. They knew their good fortune to have found one another, as friends expressed disappointment with their own spouses. And then, of course, there was Bob. He showed up hours late to the barbeque, and soon the reason why became apparent. He had only recently started seeing Annette Rhoads, Henford’s mayor, though they tried to keep their relationship under wraps for the sake of town gossip. But when Annette found out she was expecting, she stepped down from her mayorship and moved in with Bob and his family.

The kids were wary of their new stepmother as no one had forgotten the memory of their mother – least of all Bob – and Annette was deeply in love but still frustrated that a lovechild had spoiled her political ambitions. But Bob was over the moon to be expecting again – he wanted more but Eliza wasn’t keen – and the Nesbitts celebrated the excitement of new life when little Elizabeth was born.

Daisy finally became a PhD of Pollen, among the top botanists in her field and certainly the best in Henford-on-Bagley. Her yard bloomed with perfect plants, and she loved basking in the smells and sounds of the chickens and bees while she meditated under her cherry trees. She truly lived an Outdoorsy life and loved it. She’d achieved so much, but she still yearned for more. She wanted to try to grow the largest crops the Finchwick Fair had ever seen. And she hungered for that UFO fruit.

To celebrate the end of summer, the Nesbitts again travelled to their favourite vacation spot, Granite Falls, where Neal delighted in the ways his growing children could interact with the natural world he’d loved since childhood. Holly fished beneath the falls for hours while Heather and River went for hikes together, and Daisy stayed close to Hazel at the campground. They were blessed this time with great weather, too. While Neal and Daisy took the tent, the kids pulled out sleeping bags and drifted off under the stars. Neal finally befriended the old hermit in the deep woods; once he got beyond the hermit’s rough and curmudgeonly exterior, he not only gave Neal and Holly plenty of fishing tips, but he also taught Neal a recipe for insect-infused fertilizer that Daisy was all too happy to test on her garden crops.

On the way home from Granite Falls, Neal and Daisy made a detour to Oasis Springs. Now that their kids were older, they wanted to show them the place they married thirteen years ago. The first time, only Heather was “there” in Daisy’s belly, but now all their kids could watch their loved-up parents renew their vows at the little chapel in the desert.

Daisy and Neal had both achieved so much. But what was in store for their next thirteen years together? ->

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[elizanealsusa]

Eliza Neals the blues modern artist is breathing new life into the genre, blending traditional American roots with contemporary influences for a magical and dynamic listening experience. From various guitar virtuosos with one powerhouse vocalist, Eliza Neals is known for her impressive musicianship and emotive live performances. To listen to the deep, magical soulful sound, powerful lyrics, and amazing delivery visit our website now.

[indiepulserocks]

Modern Blues Vocalist Eliza Neals Receives Three Independent Blues Awards Nominations, Vote Now!

Rising modern powerhouse blues vocalist/keyboardist Eliza Neals is nominated in three categories for the Independent Blues Awards 2023, which are “Best Female Artist,” “Best Blues Rock Song” (Queen of the Nile), and “Best Blues Rock Album” (Badder To The Bone). Please cast your votes for Eliza now through September 15 at https://www.makingascene.org/independent-blues-awards-2023-vote-now/. In…