#ellen thompson

[noneedtoamputate]

Flyboys and Flirting

I had a chat with @shoshiwrites earlier this week after seeing this photo of Callum Turner in a turtleneck (thanks @hogans-heroes for doing God's work.) I blame her entirely for my Bucky Egan obsession. Like Ellen, I am not one to like the bad boys, but there is something about him and his character development during Masters of the Air that got to me. I tagged the photo with something like Chuck wouldn't mind Ellen taking off her sunglasses to check Bucky out, and Shoshi said no one deserves to look that good in a turtleneck. Based on our chat, here's a little fun one-off I wrote about Colonel Egan stopping by the tobacco store.

San Francisco

October 1957

Afternoons were usually quiet in the shop, a good chance to catch up on pesky tasks like organizing receipts for the accountant. He called Chuck last week, and Ellen saw the headache start behind Chuck’s eyes. Chuck hated anything to do with taxes.

She decided to get a babysitter for Friday and come into the shop for the day. They’d get everything sorted and then go out for dinner, just the two of them, as a reward for a solid day’s work.

They were in the back room, Chuck at the desk and Ellen perched on the counter next to the sink going over August’s purchases, when the bell above the front door rang.

Chuck sighed and rubbed his temple.

“You keep working. I’ll go out front,” she said as she hopped down, giving his shoulder a squeeze before walking out into the store.

Her eyes widened at what she saw. She forced her mouth to remain closed though her jaw wanted to drop to the floor. 

A curly-haired man with a mustache, aviators, and a bomber jacket, looking better in a turtleneck than any man had a right to, stood in front of the high-end cigars. He must have heard her footsteps, because he looked her way, took off the sunglasses, and flashed her a smile, a smile she knew he put on for everyone and had nothing to do with her.

This was a Bad Boy.

Ellen never had gone for the Bad Boys. She’d always liked the honor roll students, the boys next door. She suspected Chuck had gone through a Bad Boy stage, but by the time she met him, he owned the store and shaved every morning and parted his hair just so and was always on time to everything. 

Every once in a while, she wondered what it would have been like to be with a Bad Boy, the boy who kept her out past curfew or had a motorcycle or had a mustache that normally didn’t do anything for her but made her hot and bothered. 

She congratulated herself on wearing a pencil skirt and heels today instead of her usual shirtwaist dress and flats. 

“Can I help you?” she asked calmly as she walked toward him. 

“Yes, I think you can,” he said slowly, still smiling. “I should introduce myself. Colonel John Egan, United States Air Force.”

“Ellen Grant, co-owner of this store,” she said, shaking his hand. “Cigars, I see. What flavor are you looking for today?”

“Perhaps you can explain my options,” he said. 

Despite whatever game they were in the middle of, she wouldn’t play dumb. She went through what made each cigar different, whether they were flavored with sweet Mexican vanilla or spicy Indian pepper, how each one was rolled slightly differently and had different shapes and filters, affecting their taste. 

“Which one is calling you? Sweet or spicy?” she asked coyly, barely believing those words came out of her mouth.

“A little bit of both, I would say.” He lifted his eyebrows just a bit. “Let’s take a box of each.”

They walked over to the counter.

“I just flew into Hamilton Air Force Base last night for meetings. I’m sure my colleagues will enjoy these tonight,” he said. 

“I’m sure they will,” Ellen agreed. “Any cigarettes? Luckies or Chesterfields?”

He looked at her quizzically. “Luckies. How did you know?”

She laughed. “It’s my business. But for most officers, it’s one or the other.” She rang up two packs. 

They made small talk for a few minutes, about the store and his Pentagon desk job, but mostly about flying.

“You seem to know a lot about planes,” he said. He looked down at her finger, the one with the diamond ring on it. “Is your … co-owner a pilot?”

“Well, he was in planes, but he didn’t fly them. A paratrooper,” she explained.

He looked impressed. “The 82nd?” he asked. 

“No!” Ellen almost shouted. “The 101st.”

“Sorry,” John apologized.

“You should be. Those guys in the 82nd were a bunch of amateurs.” She grinned as she handed him the bag.

“Well,” he said, a little deflated at the prospect of leaving, “This has been a delight. Thank you, Mrs. Grant.”

And with that, the spell was over.

“Likewise, Colonel Egan. Enjoy your cigars and the rest of your trip.”

He smiled, nodded, and walked out the door without a second glance. 

Ellen turned around to walk into the back room when she saw Chuck, leaning against the wall, arms folded on his chest with an amused look on his face.

“What?” she innocently asked as she walked past him.

“You were flirting with that flyboy,” Chuck pointed out. 

“I was not!” Ellen could barely keep a straight face.

Chuck couldn’t, and he laughed out loud. “I heard the whole thing. God, it’s so predictable. All it takes is a pair of fancy sunglasses and a leather jacket and all the girls fall for it.” He shook his head. “Here I was thinking my wife would be better than that.”

“Oh,” she said, closing the gap between them and putting her hands on his shoulders. “Are you jealous?”

“Of that guy?” he asked incredulously. “Please.” 

Ellen tilted her head. 

“I’m not jealous, but nobody should look that good in a turtleneck,” he conceded.

She playfully hit him on the arm. “That’s what I thought!” she said.

“I’m not jealous,” he said again, grabbing her by her hips. “I’m the one who gets to do taxes with you and go out to dinner with you and go home with you,” He gave her a slow, sultry kiss. “When is the babysitter off duty?” he asked

“Nine o’clock. The kids should be asleep,” she sighed as he found the spot on her collarbone that she liked. 

“I hope so.” His hands left her hips and roamed lower. “No, I’m not jealous of that guy who is going to be smoking cigars with the brass tonight while I get to be with you.”

“You know, you can be bad, when you want to be,” Ellen remarked. 

“Very bad,” he agreed.

Ellen didn’t want a bad boy. She didn’t want a hotshot pilot with a mustache. But she liked knowing her clean cut, responsible husband who didn’t own a turtleneck could be bad if he wanted to be. That was enough for her. 

[mercurygray]

Ooh, for the OC ask, #13 for Cord. And #30 for Marj and Ellen, because I have ideas and want to know if you have any thoughts.

13) Does your OC have a rival? How did it start?

...oh my goodness, this is such a good question.

I think the obvious in-story answer to this question is 'Bucky, of course' but Bucky is more of an adversary than a rival. That starts when he arrives in England to assume his role as Air Exec - he's boisterous and perhaps a little ill-suited for the job and for Cordelia, who has been in England several months longer than he has and is coming to the war fresh from losing a guy she liked to a preventable air accident, Bucky's laissez-faire attitude really strikes her the wrong way. (Obviously that changes over time.)

This question does have me thinking about before the war and her time on the Powder Puff circuit. She was in that world long enough to get good, but she doesn't strike me as the kind of person who was ever competing to really beat a particular person (like Laura or Portia). This group is small enough that everyone knows everyone else - they don't really have time for rivalries unless it's something the press comes up with to sell more papers. I could see Portia making a joke about 'her esteemed rival' when she has to make ferrying stops at Thorpe Abbotts.

30) My OC and your OC are friends. This isn’t a question. I’m not asking. (How do they respond?)

Of course they're friends. How would they not be friends? Marj collects people like some people collect stamps. Chuck has married this woman and that automatically means that Ellen is now an auxiliary member of the Girl Gang and is on Marj's Christmas card list and phone tree. (Everyone was very worried about Chuck, after the whole June thing. They are so glad he ended up with someone like Ellen.)

[OC brainrot asks]

[choicesoutofcontext]

wishful thinking | ch 12

[noneedtoamputate]

I should be working on Chapter 9, but this sounds like fun. For Ellen, Patsy, or even Miriam Liebgott.

Send me an OC + and something you think is true about them and I'll tell you whether you're right or wrong.

[goryhorroor]

final/survivor girls

[tomorrowusa]

If you want to know what the US would be like during a second Trump-Pence-Vance administration, just visit some red states.

Utah has just unleashed a wave of book bans and almost all the banned authors are female.

Books by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur and Sarah J Maas are among 13 titles that the state of Utah has ordered to be removed from all public school classrooms and libraries. This marks the first time a state has outlawed a list of books statewide, according to PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman, who oversees the organisation’s free expression programs. The books on the list were prohibited under a new law requiring all of Utah’s public school districts to remove books if they are banned in either three districts, or two school districts and five charter schools. Utah has 41 public school districts in total. The 13 books could be banned under House bill 29, which became effective from 1 July, because they were considered to contain “pornographic or indecent” material. The list “will likely be updated as more books begin to meet the law’s criteria”, according to PEN America. Twelve of the 13 titles were written by women. Six books by Maas, a fantasy author, appear on the list, along with Oryx and Crake by Atwood, Milk and Honey by Kaur and Forever by Blume. Two books by Ellen Hopkins appear, as well as Elana K Arnold’s What Girls Are Made Of and Craig Thompson’s Blankets.

Utah is looking for a way of "legally" disposing of the books because burning them would invite obvious comparisons with Nazis.

Implementation guidelines say that banned materials must be “legally disposed of” and “may not be sold or distributed”. PEN America Freedom to Read programme director Kasey Meehan said that such “vague” guidelines will “undoubtedly result in dumpsters full of books that could otherwise be enjoyed by readers” and that while they stop short of “calling for book burning, the effect is the same: a signal that some books are too dangerous”. Let Utah Read, a coalition of organisations, librarians, teachers and parents among others, has started a petition to “fix the ‘sensitive materials’ law”. “It is a dark day for the freedom to read in Utah,” said Meehan. The list of banned books “will impose a dystopian censorship regime across public schools and, in many cases, will directly contravene local preferences. Allowing just a handful of districts to make decisions for the whole state is anti-democratic.”

I hope that Utah school library users and librarians manage to hide the books so that the MAGA book-banning fascists can't destroy them.

The Republican Party which gave us Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Ron DeSantis, and Marjorie Taylor Greene runs Utah with an iron fist. Republicans have given up on even the pretense of freedom. They have unapologetically gone full blown authoritarian. As such, they should not be entrusted with any elected office at any level in the United States.

[its-to-the-death]

Battle of the Gingers Wave 1 Preliminary Round #56

Whoever gets the most votes moves onto the next round

[abagofmagictrix]

Probably my all time favorite horror movie protagonists

[brokehorrorfan]

Inked Up Merch has released Final Girl dad hats ($25) and beanies ($20) from Proceeds will be donated to the National Organization for Women.

[prettyfamous]

Larsen Thompson | Faddy | Ellen von Unwerth | Fall 2023

[noneedtoamputate]

Every Beautiful Thing - Chapter Ten

Rating: Teen

Characters: Chuck Grant, Original Female Character(s), Joe Liebgott, Original Male Character(s)

Tags: Postwar, Slow Burn, Non Canon Realtionships, San Francisco

Summary: A girl walks into a tobacco shop.

December 1951

Ellen looked at the clock and then over to Billy McNamara, the student she tutored on Wednesday afternoons, who was thoroughly engrossed in a Hardy Boys novel.

At the start of the school year, Mrs. McNamara met with Ellen, concerned about Billy’s reading. Ellen reassured her that Billy read above grade level and there was no reason whatsoever to worry. But nothing Ellen said convinced Mrs. McNamara, and the money she offered to pay Ellen was more than fair.

After their first tutoring session, where they took turns reading from Henry Huggins, Ellen and Billy walked outside. A flashy red Buick sat parked in front of the school building, and a handsome man, not much older than Ellen, walked toward them.

Read the rest and comment on A03.

[blueopinions49]

Horror Typology (Survivors)

Laurie Strode ISFJ SiTi 6w5 sp/so Pisces (Feb,26)

Sidney Prescott ISFP FiSe 9w8 sp/sx Pisces (March,16)

Gale Weathers ENTJ TeSe 3w4 so/sp Aries (April 4th)

Nancy Thompson INTJ NiTe 1w2 sp/so Cancer (July,13)

Ellen Ripley ENTJ TeNi 8w9 sp/sx Capricorn (Jan ,7)

Clarice Sterling INTJ NiTe 1w9 sp/so Capricorn (Dec,23)

Ash Williams ESTP SeFe 7w8 sx/sp Aries (April 8th)

Oj Haywood ISTP TiNi 5w6 sp/sx Scorpio

Maxine Minx ESFP SeFi 3w4 so/sx Libra

Chris Redfield ESTJ TeSi 6w7 so/sx Capricorn

Ana Flores ENTJ TeSe 8w7 sp/sx Aries

Connie Taylor ESTJ TeSi 6w5 so/sx Virgo

Alice Liddle INTP TiSi 5w4 sp/sx Aquarius

Jennifer INFP FiSi 6w5 so/sp Pisces

Fionna Belli ISFJ SiTi 9w1 sp/so Cancer

Henry Townshed INTP TiSi 5w4 sp/sx Aquarius

Cheryl Mason ISFP FiSe 9w8 sp/sx Saggitarius (Winter of 1980)

Ellie Williams ENFP NeFi 7w8 sx/sp Taurus or Gemini (Spring-Summer)

Tree Gelbman ESTP SeTi 8w7 sp/sx Virgo (Sept,13)

Helen Shivers ESFJ FeSi 3w2 so/sp Libra (Oct,13)

[lilydvoratrelundar]

Matilda the Musical (2022)

Directed by Matthew Warchus, choreography by Ellen Kane

[luegootravez]

Larsen Thompson by © Ellen von Unwerth