#he's just out there living life and doing his thing + him and louise are like. barely acquaintances

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

“The VVitch” (2015) and “Nosferatu” (2024) Are More Similar Than You Think

Robert Eggers made “The VVitch” and then thought: what if Thomasin and Black Phillip/The Devil had an demonic sexual love story going on? Time to make my own version of “Nosferatu” (the first script is from 2016).

This man is really out there making historical horror movies about ostracized women making pacts with the Devil.

“Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously? […] Wouldst Thou Like to See the World?”

“You are not for the living. You are not for human kind. And shall you be one with me ever-eternally. Do you swear it? […] As our spirits are one, so too shall be our flesh. You are mine.”

How these films are similar:

Both Thomasin and Ellen pray for something at the beginning of the film, and the Devil answers: Thomasin asks for forgiveness and guidance, Ellen prays for companionship and tenderness;

Both Thomasin and Ellen are ostracized in connection with their womanhood and sexuality: Thomasin is growing into a woman, and Ellen has “hysteric fits” with strong sexual undertones;

The Devil (Black Phillip and Orlok) essentially kills everyone around them, until they are the only left, to force their hand into accepting him (a bit different in “Nosferatu” because it’s a remake);

Both films have a pair of children which are “foreshadowing bombs” in the narrative (Mercy and Jonas in “The VVitch” and Clara and Louise in “Nosferatu”);

In both films, the Devil offers something tempting to both these characters, which they accept: Black Philip promises freedom and knowledge, and Orlok promises eternal passion and sex;

Both pacts involve blood sacrifice and death to seal them: in “The VVitch” Thomasin kills her mother, in “Nosferatu” Ellen kills herself alongside Orlok.

Thomasin was accused of being a "witch", a “whore” and having a pact with the Devil by everyone around her, until she actually did at the end. Ellen is also seen as “deranged”, “diseased” and often compared to supernatural beings ("changeling girl", "sylph", "fairy", etc.) until she becomes just that at the end, too. They are both the Devil’s concubines.

“I’m that very witch. When I sleep my spirit slips away from my body and dances naked with the Devil. That’s how I signed his book.”

Thomasin taunts her sister, Mercy (“The VVitch”, 2015)

In another post, I already explored which demonic figures Ellen and Orlok are meant to be in this adaptation: Babalon and the Beast.

There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple [lilacs] and scarlet [blood], and was glittering with gold sunlight precious stones and pearls [sunlight]. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes, and of the abominations of the earth.

“Scarlet beast” = Orlok, a vampire

“blasphemous names” = names of the Devil

“Seven heads” = heptagram, the seven-pointed star (Orlok and Babalon’s sigils)

“Ten horns” = ten lilac flowers

“Golden cup” = it’s the Holy grail = womb

“Filled with abominations” = sex with Orlok, necrophilia

“Filth of her adulteries” = she’s married to Thomas before God, and she’s defiling that vow on their marriage bed

“She [Babalon] rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she holds the reins, representing the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death.”

Aleister Crowley, “The Book of Thoth”

In some occult circles, this “Beast” is the Devil himself, which makes me ask: is Orlok the Devil?

Not only he’s referred as such several times in the actual film, but also the fact he was one of the Solomonari, a dark wizard, in life, a servant and a student of the Devil. We are told “the Devil preserved his soul that his corpse may walk again in blaspheme.” So… who’s actually walking in that corpse? Orlok’s soul or the Devil? Being a servant to the Devil is being a puppet to the Devil, essentially. This is pretty much what the abbess says to Thomas: it’s the Devil that makes Orlok’s corpse walk.

In another post I already talked about how Orlok prepared his own physical death, because the book containing the “maiden’s sacrifice” was found by Von Franz in Knock’s office, his fanatical servant, which is shady to say the least. The Devil is a deceiver after all (as Ellen herself accuses him of being), so making the heroes believe they are beating him while doing exactly what he wants them to do, it’s not far fetched, and even rooted in religious belief.

Why would Orlok want to die in the physical world? Because he wants his spirit to be set free, he doesn’t want to be trapped in a freaking rotten corpse, which explains why he tells Ellen she’s “his affliction”; she’s the one who trapped in that physical form when she awoke him, probably. He wants to return to spiritual form, and wants to take Ellen with him; which explains their covenant, and their blood sacrifice at the end to seal it. And Ellen was also fully aware of what she was signing for, she knew what her physical death would mean (being forever joined with him in hell, or the Underworld or whatever “celestial sphere”), and that Orlok would die too (obviously).

[yellowloid]

I kinds expect Alex and Miles to not interact that much during the concerts after the whole drama during the last days... really hope I'm wrong. Wanne see our boys happy together

lmao nah anon i honestly think if they do end up acting weird with each other (which i'm hoping doesn't happen, but. yknow. chances are low but never zero), the whole recent drama would be the very least likely reason behind their behavior skfhshks

[katebishopsbow]

SOMEDAY IT WILL ALL BE OKAY • MAX VERSTAPPEN

pairing: max verstappen x driver!reader (platonic)

summary: watching kevin and his daughter, laura, playing together at the paddock makes you emotional as you remember the love that you never get to receive growing up. max is here to remind you that your past doesn't define you, and one day you will be okay.

tags: angst, hurt/comfort, daddy issues, mentions of absent parent

word count: 3.1k

author's notes: based on the real-life event of me tearing up when i saw that video of kmag's daughter playing with his visor. healing my own daddy issues one fic at a time :)

(image is not mine)

─────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───────

Kevin Magnussen is a great dad.

People can say whatever they want about his driving – aggressive and maybe a little dangerous sometimes – but there is no denying that he is an amazing father who puts his daughters above all else. The Dane is always joking about how his two little troublemakers have been giving him a constant headache, but the rest of the grid knows that he would do just about anything for his girls.

Occasionally, Louise likes bringing Laura and Agnes to the track to see their dad at work. Being a Formula 1 driver with all the hectic schedules and non-stop traveling means that family time together can often be difficult to come by, so Kevin cherishes all the time he gets to be as present in their lives as possible. 

The drivers all love it when the Magnussens visit the track, not only because Laura and Agnes are the sweetest little angels ever, but also because they get to witness the rare sight of Kevin “tough guy” Magnussen shedding his hard exterior and tease him about the heartwarmingly softer side he displays to his family. 

And while you would never admit this out loud, somewhere residing deep within you is envious – envious of this kind of love that you never got to receive. Sometimes when you look at Kevin interacting with his daughters – just sometimes – you find yourself wondering what it would be like to have a father who is present, who genuinely cares, who loves you with everything they have so much that you never have to doubt your worthiness.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

You were standing with a few other drivers at the track, idly chatting about the upcoming race and your holiday plans now that the winter break is right around the corner when Kevin suddenly saunters nearby, holding the hand of the most adorable little girl. “Laura, come say hi!” he kneels down and says to her, sporting the biggest and most loving smile on his face as his daughter gives a shy little wave to the crowd of drivers before her.

“Hey there, Laura,” you wave at her, settling on a simple greeting since you have never been particularly great with children. “Hello, little one!” Lando greets with a wide grin as he offers Laura a fist bump, and the girl explodes into giggles when he pretends to yelp in pain at how hard Laura fist-bumped him. Classic Lando – always so good with kids.

“She’s got quite the punch, doesn’t she?” Kevin jokes while he chuckles at the sight, admiring the joyous smile on Laura’s face with the tenderest gaze he only reserves for his daughter. Becoming a father is the best thing that has happened to him, and he thanks the stars every day for being blessed with such precious gifts of life. Laura and Agnes – his biggest pride and joy.

“Here to be dad’s little assistant, Laura?” Max asks, his nose scrunching up in an adoring smile like the way it always does when he speaks to Penelope. The little girl nods bashfully before running to hide behind her dad, holding onto his hands as if he is her safe place, her rock.

Kevin laughs at his daughter’s endearing shyness, picks her up and envelops her in his embrace before placing a kiss on her rosy, chubby cheeks. “You’re the best assistant in the entire world,” he whispers softly, adoration swimming in his eyes while Laura lets out a giggle at her father’s words. The drivers around them cannot help but smile along with them – how can they not at such a heartwarming sight? 

Yet watching Kevin’s doting smiles and the way he looks at his daughter as if she is his entire universe, the initial warm fuzziness within you silently morphs into a dull ache that squeezes at your heart – an odd yet familiar feeling you know all too well. Despite your best efforts to push them away, your mind becomes clouded with hazy memories of the past – the painful past that has broken you and haunted you for years.

In the fogged-up memories of your childhood days, you were never at the receiving end of such an affectionate gaze. The only way your father has ever looked at you was indifference, annoyance, and a sense of uncaringness that tore your little heart up into pieces and left you wondering what you did wrong to be so undeserving of the fatherly love you yearned for. 

He never picked you up and hugged you as if you were a fragile treasure that he cherished. He never held your hand in a way that made you feel safe and certain that nothing could ever harm you because he would be your shield, protecting you from the world and its merciless cruelty. He never once made you feel loved and cared for, ignoring your attempts to gain his validation and approval because he loved himself and his ego more than he would ever love you. 

When you received good grades at school and showed him your report card with the rows of A’s, hoping that it would help you get his approval, he didn’t praise you. In fact, he didn’t bother saying anything. He simply gave you a half-hearted nod before shifting his attention back to the damned television screen in front of him, some uninteresting TV show that never should have mattered more than his daughter. So you stuffed the tear-stained report card back into your school bag, uncaring that it got crushed and crumpled, because in the end your hard work and effort didn’t matter. It never did.

When you had a rough day at school and came home with tears running down your cheeks, your father looked at you for a second, rolled his eyes and walked away. So that night you cried yourself to sleep as you soaked through your pillows with your wallowing tears, wishing that your dad could wrap you in his arms and tell you that everything would be okay. You knew that he could hear your sobs across the hallway, but chose to ignore you anyway. You wondered if he hated you that much, or was it simply because he never even cared to begin with?

And when he finally gathered all his belongings and disappeared from your life once and for all, you surprised yourself when you didn’t cry at the sight of the now-empty house. You had just felt empty and lonely – so painstakingly lonely. The kind of loneliness that seeped into your bones and slithered along your veins and consumed your soul. 

As you grew older, you became familiarized with that emptiness – comfortable with it even. You begin to find yourself pushing people away when they get too close, keeping most at arm's length because that seems like the safest option, breaking your own heart before others can do it because you never want to experience the same heartbreak your father has put you through.

Despite how painful it is, you hold onto that loneliness like a lifeline because how could you not when that’s the only thing you know? How could you love when you don’t even know what it feels like?

Even though it had been years since your dad had left, the emptiness he had left behind never seemed to fade away. They say time heals all wounds, but you call that bullshit, because then why does it still hurt like a fresh stab into the heart? 

Too deep in your storm of thoughts, you don’t realize the tears brimming in your glossy eyes and the way your lips quiver ever so slightly. “Hey… you okay there?” Charles, who is standing beside you, gives you an affectionate pat on the shoulders and whispers hushedly in your ear, worried at your sudden change in demeanor. Quickly nodding your head, you answer him with the best smile you can manage, “Yeah, just remembering some things.”

While most of the drivers still have their focus on Kevin and Laura, a few have also noticed your red-rimmed eyes and quietness. “What’s wrong?” Lando mouths the question silently toward you, eyes wide in concern as he tries not to shift everybody’s attention toward you. You shake your head and mouth “nothing” in reply to him as discreetly as possible, not wanting to ruin the group’s mood with your sudden sentiments. 

As much as you want to stay, you simply need to get away for a moment to recollect your thoughts. “Uh – There’s something I need from my driver’s room, so I’m gonna head off,” you hurriedly blink away the tears and put on the best smile – a skill you learned to master after years of being in the public’s eye. You hope that the excuse you just blurted out is somewhat believable, and you quickly disappear into the distance after your fellow drivers bid you goodbye. 

While making a beeline for your driver's room, you cannot help but feel so embarrassed, so guilty for the sudden burst of emotions that erupted in your chest moments ago. “What is wrong with me?” you mumble hushedly to yourself as you make your way to the garage – irritated and beyond annoyed at yourself that the mere sight of Kevin with his daughter is enough to bring you to tears. 

This isn’t something new to you. It isn’t the first time a good father-daughter relationship has made you tear up. Movies, TV shows, song lyrics – you always get so emotional when you allow yourself to get lost in your thoughts, thinking too deeply about the painful reminders of the love that you never have. 

It makes you feel stupid, because how broken do you have to be that trivial things like these are enough to make you cry? And it makes you feel scared, so utterly scared, because what if you were too broken to ever be capable of loving someone this much, too damaged to ever receive love despite yearning for it, and end up pushing away everyone who cares about you for the rest of your life.

When you arrive at your driver's room, you take a seat in the corner, breathing in and out while the self-blaming thoughts inside your head spiral in full force. This is so stupid, you are being stupid, and you hate yourself for being a fool and letting your past trauma affect you like this. Why were you even crying? There is nothing to be crying for. Stop. You need to stop.

Then you hear someone calling your name, voice faint and soft behind the door – Max. “You feeling okay?” he asks, and your delayed response and trembling voice as you answer him, “I’m fine.” are a clear enough indicator that you are far from okay. “Alright, I’m gonna come in now.” A sigh of mixed emotions falls from your lips – annoyance that you never seem to be able to lie to the man, and gratefulness that he always understands what you really need, and right now it is the company of your best friend.

“Hey, kiddo,” he says to you, eyebrows ceasing in sadness when he notices the expression on your face. Max hates seeing you like this, especially knowing the reason behind your tears is your absent father – someone who will never be worthy of having you cry over him. 

You wipe your eyes with the sleeve of your race suit, guilt weighing heavily on your chest as you apologize, “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to ruin the mood back there. Did the other drivers notice?” Max shakes his head with a frown, refusing to let you blame yourself for something you should never feel guilty for. “You don’t have to be sorry, you did nothing wrong.”

“I don’t even know why I am crying, honestly. Why am I still so angry and sad after all these years? It’s like… am I always going to be like this, broken? Will the hurt ever go away?” you explain truthfully to him while trying to piece your muddle-up thoughts together, yet you struggle to put them into words. How can you begin to explain the years of trauma your dad has left behind? How can you describe the mess of emotions you have for him – the hatred, the resentment, and the fact that you still love and miss him so much even after everything he has done to you?

You don’t need to, because Max understands, he always does. One of the reasons why you two became close quickly is because you share a similar, troubled past – something that is rather unfortunate to bond over, you would argue, but it brings you a great friend nonetheless. Max’s father isn’t exactly absent like yours – Jos Verstappen is still quite prominent in his life, along with his abusive and manipulative ways of raising his kids which he would vehemently deny and claims to be “tough love” instead.

Even though he is there, it doesn’t change the painful truth that the presence of his father has ruined Max. For years, he thought being violent was the way to solve problems because his dad always seemed to be able to solve his with his fist. He used to believe that you had to be perfect to be deserving of good things in life because he grew up with the punishment of “no dinner” if he had performed poorly in a race. He didn’t know if he would ever be capable of loving someone, and then he met Kelly and Penelope.

“You know… when I first met Penelope, I was terrified. I was scared that I could never be a good enough father figure for her, that I was too ruined to show her the love she deserved to have. But then I saw her, and then I realized I love her more than anything,” he confesses as he places himself to sit beside you, a reminiscent smile dancing on his lips while he remembers his first time meeting Penelope, the little girl who has become his family.

He remembers the suffocating fear of ending up like his father when he first held the hands of little Penelope, mind plagued with all the horrible what-ifs. What if he was a terrible dad? What if he couldn’t ever love Penelope? What if he was just like Jos Verstappen and ended up destroying her childhood with his anger and temper the way his dad had with his?

Then Penelope gave him a sweet smile, her tiny hand holding onto his pinky as she looked into his eyes with such trust and comfort, as if she knew that Max would love her more than anything in the world. Max genuinely thought he was going to cry, his heart surging with an overwhelming amount of love and determination to protect the little girl in front of her and give her the home she and Kelly deserve to have, and that’s when he knew that he had nothing to be afraid of – that he was going to do better than his father.

“Listen, kiddo. Time doesn’t heal all wounds, it just makes the pain bearable. But there will be a day when your wound will still be there – it always will be there – but the pain and the hatred will no longer consume you. And you will realize that you can be better and stronger than your past, that you can break the cycle, that you are deserving of such unconditional love too.” You listen quietly to your best friend’s answer, exhaling a relieved sigh at the words you so desperately need to hear, giving you hope that despite all your trauma, one day you will be able to love with such certainty as well.

You are never too broken to love or be loved. You are not damaged goods that need repairing. You are not a monster for being intimidated by love and affection, for pushing people away even though you want more than anything for them to stay. You just need to allow yourself to heal from the hurtful past, to understand that your past trauma does not define you. You need to allow yourself to feel, to accept the depths of your emotions, to understand that your sadness and anger are always valid. You need to believe that you will be better than your father, that you will not follow in his footsteps, and that you deserve to be loved just as much as anyone else. 

Feeling sentimental over this doesn’t make you stupid or a fool, it just makes you human. It is okay to cry over it, to be sad over it, as long as you remember that one day – while things will never be perfect –  it will certainly get better. 

“You’re gonna be okay,” Max tells you with a smile, reaching for your hand to give it a comforting squeeze, and you believe him. For once in a very long time, you genuinely believe that everything is going to be okay. The impact your father has on you will always be there. You can never wipe away the hurt and awful things he has done to you, nor can you simply erase the simultaneous love and hatred you hold for him, but one day you will learn to move on and find closure, and you are going to be okay, just like Max said.

There is a knock on the door, and you can hear your name being called again, this time in the soft and squeaky voice of a little girl. “I’m here,” you answer, and peeking behind the gap in the door is Laura with a cheeky grin on her face. Kevin leads her inside your driver's room with an apologetic smile, “Hey, sorry… Laura says she wants to play with you and insists that I bring her here.” 

You watch as Laura crawls up into the seat next to you and Max, looking at you with the brightest toothy little grin ever, and your lips begin pulling up into a huge smile as well. “Is it okay if she plays here for a while? I’ve got a team meeting in 5 and she never likes coming to those…” Kevin asks apologetically before relief floods his expression when you answer him, “It would be lovely to have a little playdate with Laura.”

“Alrighty, see you later little one,” Kevin leans down to place a kiss on his daughter’s head, reminding her to be a good kid when he is away for the meeting, and you smile at the sight. Not an envious one, or a reminiscent one, but one of contentment because you know that one day you will be able to receive and give such unconditional love to someone too.

Someday, it will be okay. You will be okay.

[lineffability]

He grows tomatoes.

Well, he tries to. Crowley does not usually try to grow plants. He decides to grow them, and they obey. It's vengeance, vendetta. But lately, nothing seems to obey his will. It's weak, that will, broken into smithereens just like his heart.

And he can't even take it out on his plants. That's because Crowley has mercy.

So he tries to grow tomatoes.

It's summer (the first summer without him) and he has lodged in an airbnb in the country, and behind an old ramshackle ram-shack he has made himself a little plot of land. Well - it's all God's stupidly green earth, isn't it. But this two by two piece of earth he claims for himself. He could have at least that, right? He looks up at the sky. Frowns.

Let me have at least that.

Aziraphale liked to do things the hard way. (He's still doing that, Crowley supposes, up there. Up there. He's not dead, but it feels like it. He's gone. Gone to Heaven. Not to a better place.) Aziraphale liked to do it properly, the human way, when it pleased him. Which was often, but not always. Think: French. Nom de dieu de merde. Pardon his French.

Pardon his stupid everything.

Crowley inspects his tomato plants. He's trying to grow them the human way. Funny, that. He nurses them like he nurses his heart, and miracles won't do. He's tried.

I think I should not be encouraged to grow tomatoes, he thinks.

Raindrops fall on red and green: the plants and the vines and the tomatoes and his hair. It's August, it shouldn't be raining this much. It's been a shitty August. It's been a shitty year. Thirteen months and two weeks and one day, to be exact. Not like he's keeping count. Why bother?

There's a spot on one of the leaves, and Crowley's heart sinks before it even had the chance to ever rise. It's only one tiny, dark, black spot, but he knows what it means. It means it's too late.

A horrible month. A horrible life. Not the right conditions to thrive. Disease, rearing its ugly head, grinning. It's already too late. It's always too late. It would multiply and spread. It has already spread, underneath. Invisible to visible. It won't take long, now.

His soul is a tomato leaf.

Black as grief.

He's tended these seedlings, he's raised them, and planted them, too, and here they are before him tall and proud and still alive, and Crowley knows they are already dying. He can relate.

The sensible thing to do would be to discard it all, be done with them. It's not worth the effort, technically, to keep them alive. But to Crowley it's worth it. It has to be. They are worth it. He is worth it. Stupid stubborn perseverance, stupid stubborn hopeful heart.

He isn't immune to foreshadowing. He looks up again. Angry, this time, bitter. A bit of surrender, too.

The rain drips and drops on his face.

He looks back down, snaps the sickly leaf off with expert fingers. Continues to tend to the plants, as he will until they inevitably die. He plucks a tiny tomato. It's so small, fragile, one of the first of a doomed harvest: but it tastes sweet.

Determined, Crowley continues his labor of love, patient as with all living things.

He is responsible for these vines.

Maybe, despite everything, just maybe, he can nurture his heart back to health. (And maybe, just maybe, he is not human and does not do things the human way. When it dis/pleases him. He's always been a rebel. Just a little miracle, a little bit of life-giving defiance. So small no one notices, not even us.) Crowley smiles.

He grows tomatoes.

.

This ficlet was inspired by Louise Glück's Vespers. May she rest in peace. "In your extended absence, you permit me use of earth, anticipating some return on investment. I must report failure in my assignment, principally regarding the tomato plants." read the full poem here

[ivys-garden]

My head cannon endings for all the Hilda cast post finale (Spoilers for season 3)

Astrid

She remains in her home, never moving away. However she makes sure to visit Hilda often, which has become easier now that she's learned to fly again. She also doesn't get to lonely as she invites the Pooka to like with her and helps him practice shape shifting. When she dies she is buried where the fairy mound once was to be closer to her family.

Raven

He travels the world but always returns to Trollburg, on cold winter nights he joins Hilda and her family for tea and games, maybe the yule lads join in too. On his travels he spreads the story on Hilda far and wide even long after she's gone.

Tryla & Baba

They remain at the mountain most days but do ecompany Hilda on adventures during her weekly visit. They still live there long after everyone else is gone, telling tales of Hilda to the next hundreds of generations of trolls.

Anders

He continues living in Trollburg, working on wall and city maintenance with the bellkeeper. He never gets back together with Johana but he does try and be a better dad to Hilda, including taking her on that camping trip.

Johana

Begins selling her paintings to people, she also starts painting things from her and Hilda's adventures, including the Fae Ilse, which she still thinks about often. When she dies Hilda burries her at the fairy mound with Auntie Astrid, but she keeps a lock of her hair in a locket. One day, in the far future when Hilda has finally moved on she hangs that locket at the remains of the cabin.

Tontu

Just keeps doing what he does mostly. Going on adventures with Hilda occasionally but mostly keeping to himself. He remains in the house for a long time, even after Hilda had died.

Alfur

Keeps writing reports for the northern counties but he also begins working with Gerda and the safety patrol, his days are busy but that's how he likes them. When he dies, if elfs even do, he would be given a funeral pyre by the lost clan and Hilda returns to the northern counties to scatter his ashes.

Louise

Would go on many more adventures with the trio and would start to develop a crush on David, one that David would reciprocate. She would eventually become a wildlife photographer.

David

Started researching entomology and now runs an insect focused wildlife centre near the sparrow scout building, enjoying a more peaceful and quiet life than most of his friends. He also assists the linworm in a construction of a new garden on sparrow scout property, sometimes the two of them and Louise have tea together. He was the first to die out of the four and was buried in Trollburgs graveyard, later Louise would be buried with him when she died.

Frida

Finished her training and became a fully fledged witch. She would take over running the Trollburg library from Kaisa after Kaisa was appointed to the witch council. When they were teenagers she and Hilda started dating but they never decided to get married.

Hilda

She still goes on adventures in her teenage years, it wouldn't be Hilda if she didn't. She and Johanna also practised flying with their fae magic. She always makes sure to keep in touch with Astrid and Victoria. She continues to paint and make music and becomes a freelance artist like her mum. Twig also grows big enough to ride when he gets older. She lived in her apartment in Trollburg until her death. She and Frida were buried together at the overgrown remains of the cabin

Woodman

He's still there, deep in the woods. even after everyone else has long since died, perhaps he tells the tales of a mysterious blue haired friend to spirits to the passersby.

Or perhaps he would tell you that if you walk deep enough into the woods, you could find an old forest glen where a cabin once was, and you can speak to her spirit yourself

[jasmine-the-fox]

Saved by technology

azv2448 sent me a very... interesting request... let us all see how it goes yes?

Here we go!

Markov has been suspicious towards Lila Rossi since her first day. While her stories interested the class… Markov noticed she would never show pictures or videos or anything to confirm her stories at all.

Because of this Markov did the one thing no one who believed Lila’s stories ever did… research her online, he found nothing, in fact he only found Alya’s blog as a result on Lila in the end… which told him she was a liar in the end. He tried to inform Max of his research but his best friend and creator ignores him… and then Markov uncovers something horrible and cruel.

After a while, the little robot discovers that not only is the class bullying Marinette while accusing her of doing horrible things to Lila that were simply not true, but Adrien was also harassing her to force her to date him.

Markov knew that what they were all doing was wrong… but it was clear that they were all too blinded to care about it so he took it upon himself to record all of there actions… who harms her physically, mentally, who steals her things, who destroys her things and each time Marinette rejected Adrien and told him she already has a boyfriend… which angered Markov greatly.

For a whole week he records everything… once he believed he had enough… Markov decided to go one last time to Max “Max? Please listen to me… Lila Rossi has done nothing but lie 100% of the time she speaks to you! If you continue down this path you will be no better then Hawkmoth!” he pleaded… but Max instead shut him down “Lila was right. Markov was a failure, I’ll to redo the entire work for the next one so this doesn’t happen again” he says as he throws Markov out the window of his room.

He didn’t care that Tim Drake was walking by when Markov hit him on the head before he caught him “Huh? Isn’t this a little like the little robot Nettie spoke about?” he mumbled to himself before heading to Marinette’s place. When he arrived Mari wasn’t there… instead it was her parent’s and the Kent’s who greeted him before together they got Markov to turn on once more.

“Where am I? Wait… is the Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s parents’ bakery?” he asked making Sabine confirm it… Markov quickly began to tell them everything he knew… Damian and Jason sadly came over at that moment… and had to quickly be restrained from going out to “talk” to the class and Adrien.

Bruce who was there contacted his lawyers while Clark and Louise began talking with Markov to get the footage he collected for an entire week, it was then that Chloe ran into the bakery in a panic “Quick! It’s Mari!” she cried out just as Kagami and Luka brought in Marinette who was injured “What happened!?” Jon asked as they brought her up to the couch to be examined and treated.

“It was Adrien. He ran over to us as we were on our way back and asked to speak to Marinette alone. We moved a little away and heard him trying to pressure her into dating him, she rejected him of course… and then Adrien attacked her. We rushed over to help her and then rushed here” Kagami explained as they discovered that Mari’s injuries weren’t severe.

Tim began to work to look at the data in Markov for the footage and added his own work “I updated your coding with my own… it should protect you from anyone who might try to hack you to wipe everything” he explained making Markov thank him.

It takes a while, but Mari wakes up to Markov apologizing to her for not getting Max to see the truth about Lila, of course Mari forgives him and offers him to live in her home “It’s not perfect but I hope it’s alright” she explained and the robot agreed to the offer. Within a few days, Markov has greatly improved Mari’s life… she wakes up early, is able to schedule different commissions she needs to work on, is able to quickly what she’s running out of and many more things including helping her parents at the bakery.

Soon, Louise and Clark go public with the fact that Lila Rossi is a liar, Adrein harassing Marinette and the footage of everything the class has done to her. Chloe helped by getting the police involved to investigate the entire thing while Bruce makes sure his lawyers help where they can… of course though… there is chaos… in which case Lila once more becomes Volpina who claimed all of this was a lie.

“I have proof!” she claimed as Ladybug, Queen Bee, Ryuko, Viperion, Superman, Superboy and the entire Batfam appeared before her “You mean you have an illusion ready to lie your way out?” Red Hood said as Nightwing knocked her out and released her akuma so Ladybug could purify it… of course Cat Noir wasn’t there… it wasn’t that hard for him to be hit with venom so his ring could be taken… revealing him as Adrien.

Hawkmoth reveals himself to akumatized her but the gang surrounds him and takes him down… revealing him to be Gabriel Agreste. He is quickly arrested for his crimes against Paris, Damocles, Caline and the class get sued for there actions towards Marinette. Due to there beliefs towards Lila, none of them think they did anything wrong to her at all, the lawsuits ruined all of them of course.

Chloe, Kagami, Luka and Marinette all moved to the states where they would be safe and away from the bad guys, they became so famous and popular that news spread all the way to Paris about them. The class of course regretted their actions… but Alya was worse, she tried calling Mari in the hopes she would be forgiven and helped but quickly received a cease-and-desist letter to never contact Mari again which broke her heart as she like the class wondered how their lives would have been had they not bullied her.

The last thing they heard… were Mari to Damien, Chloe to Jon and Kagami to Luka’s weddings. It was the top of the talk and the one thing people kept talking about. Of course the class often heard about it and deeply regretted there actions even more… each of them picturing what they would have been doing for Marinette’s big day had they not bullied her… Alya imagined the post she would have made for her blog (without Mari’s permission like always) Adrien imagined himself marrying Marinette, some imagined the party they have had for her while others imagined helping her pick her dress or what she would have made them to wear for her big day.

Meanwhile… Lila was seething with rage; it wasn’t fair that her life was ruined while Marinette soared into fame! It should be her marrying a rich and famous person, she should be the one having an amazing wedding… but instead Marinette was happy and enjoying her happy ending while Lila suffered for her crimes.

Good thing Max threw Markov out though! It was all thanks to him that Marinette got justice and is now happy!

[fanficshiddles]

Eternally Mine, Chapter 56

When Loki and Claire walked into the teacher’s lounge first thing Monday morning, they instantly knew that something had happened. The mood was quite low and Chris looked concerned.

‘Well… Something clearly happened while we were away.’ Claire said as she looked around everyone as she and Loki took a seat.

‘What’s going on?’ Loki asked and looked at Chris.

Chris sighed and motioned to the others. ‘They’ll fill you in.’ He said, he was still trying to process how risky things were becoming for the vampires.

‘Jessica, Spencer, Matt and I were out for a few drinks on Saturday night. Hunters ended up coming after us. Thankfully, it seemed that one of them was Toshi’s insider. We were all able to get away unharmed, but it was close.’ David explained.

Hannibal huffed from the corner.

Chris’ jaw clenched as he refrained from looking over. No one said anything, not wanting to cause any trouble with him, they knew Hannibal was in a huff for not being invited.

‘Toshi is going to try and make contact with her insider today. Find out why they are able to know our location so well.’ Severus said as he stirred his tea before sitting down.

Loki ran a hand down his face. ‘This is getting dangerous now.’ He hummed and grabbed Claire’s hand, squeezing.

‘They are on our tail, that’s for sure.’ Matt muttered.

‘Maybe you all should start inviting everyone. We all know it’s safety in numbers.’ Hannibal scoffed.

Loki noticed that Chris looked like he wanted to rip Hannibal’s throat out, more so than usual.

‘Bro, can I have a word?’ Loki said as he stood and tilted his head towards the door.

Chris nodded and followed him out.

‘What’s the beef with Hannibal? More so than usual?’ Loki asked as they walked further down the corridor, completely out of earshot from the others.

‘When I came in this morning, he was the first one here. I was ignoring him at first, then he started taunting me. Asking about my weekend with my human. The usual shit, saying how she will die soon since she’s human. That their lives aren’t worth it. That our human soulmates are only putting us all at further risk.’ Chris said angrily as he started pacing.

Loki sighed. ‘You know what like he is. He’s trying to get under your skin, to get a reaction out of you. It’s best to ignore him.’

‘What do you think I’m trying to do.’ Chris snapped at Loki, but quickly calmed. ‘Sorry. I’m just worried right now.’

‘It’s alright. I am too. What can we do though? We can’t live life in hiding.’ Loki said as he folded his arms over his chest.

‘I was thinking about cancelling my show next weekend. All of us in one place is sounding a little risky.’ Chris ran a hand through his hair.

‘You can’t do that. You’ve been working hard and looking forward to it for so long now. Besides, Louise will be gutted. She’s so hyped for it, too.’ Loki said.

‘She is?’

‘Claire said she’s been going on about it a lot.’ Loki chuckled.

Chris looked rather chuffed to hear that.

‘I’m just worried about keeping her safe. We’ve had a few close calls, it’s the not knowing how they are getting the information to our whereabouts that is worrying me most.’

Loki nodded in agreement. ‘We just need to continue being aware, and cautious. Having one or two of us being sober when we do go out. Stay in at least pairs, or more.’

‘I don’t want to control our girls movements or tell them they can’t go out places alone, but…’

‘But for their safety right now, it might be best.’ Loki continued.

‘Yeah.’ Chris hated the thought of asking Louise to only go out if someone was with her, or to be in contact with him more, but he just wanted to keep her safe.

The door at the end of the hall opened and Michael walked in, looking… not so great. Though he never looked great at all, lately.

‘Hey, Michael. How’s things?’ Loki asked softly.

Michael shrugged slightly and tried to put on a smile. ‘The same… Struggling. I’m struggling to afford the carer for her while I’m at work, but I can’t afford not to be at work either right now.’ He sighed, defeated.

Chris reached out and put his hand on his shoulder. ‘Why don’t you take some time off? I’ll sort it so you’re still getting paid.’

‘Who would take my class?’ Michael asked, worried.

‘I can take your classes for now. I’ll sort something out.’ Chris offered.

‘Are you sure?’ Michael asked.

Chris nodded. ‘Take at least a few weeks. Then you can save the carers money a bit.’ He suggested.

‘Ok… Thank you, so much.’ Michael said as he teared up a bit. ‘I’ll just… grab my things from the class.’

‘If you have any time at all, you can make up lesson plans and email them to me. Anything you can do from home. But don’t feel obligated, I know it’ll take a lot of time looking after your daughter.’

‘No, I’ll manage that. Just being there for her meals and helping her when she needs. Thank you so much.’ Michael grabbed Chris in a hug, which surprised Chris and Loki a bit. ‘I’m sorry.’ He said, muffled, as he then stepped back and wiped his face.

‘There’s nothing to apologise for.’ Chris said with a frown.

‘I… Yeah… Sorry… Thank you.’ He muttered quickly, then headed off to his class.

‘Poor guy.’ Loki said quietly.

‘I know. I can’t imagine being in his position.’ Chris said.

They made their way back to the teachers lounge, Loki and Claire headed to their class to get sorted. Chris went to his office, not wanting to deal with Hannibal anymore.

‘I don’t want to be that kind of guy, telling you to keep in touch with me all the time or only going out somewhere with someone… but… things are really risky right now.’ Loki said to Claire while she placed textbooks on to all the desks.

‘You’d rather I let you know where I’m going to be or only go out with you or one of the others, right?’ Claire asked knowingly.

‘Kind of… yeah.’ Loki said as he rubbed the back of his head.

Claire smiled and walked over to him. She put her arms around his neck as she went up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the lips.

‘When was the last time I went anywhere on my own, without you or one of the others?’ She asked with a smirk.

Loki opened his mouth, but couldn’t think.

‘Exactly.’ Claire giggled and kissed him on the lips again. ‘I know you’re just keeping me safe. Even if you wanted to put a tracker on me, I wouldn’t mind.’

Loki chuckled. ‘I don’t think it’s come to that…’

‘Yet.’ Claire said knowingly.

‘Well… yet… yes…’ Loki said sheepishly.

‘Is Chris going to ask the same with Louise?’ Claire asked.

‘I think so. Though he’s worried about doing so, doesn’t want to come across…’

‘Like Ray?’

‘Yeah.’

Claire nodded. ‘I think Louise will be fine with it, she knows Chris isn’t like him and it’s dangerous right now, I think she will understand.’ Claire said, hopeful.

-

That evening when Louise was finished work, she couldn’t leave quick enough. Work was still stressing her out, they were still trying to figure out where the missing money had gone. She was so sure she was going to be in the firing line soon, since it was her job to keep track of all the accounts.

As she stepped outside, she was so caught up in her thoughts she walked right into someone.

‘I’m so sorry….’ She trailed off as she looked up and saw it was Chris, her heart started racing and the biggest smile spread over her face. ‘Chris!’ She jumped up into his arms as he opened his arms to her.

‘Hello, pumpkin. I love how even after all this time together, you’re still happy to see me.’ He grinned and chuckled as he spun her around a little.

‘I’ll always be happy to see you.’ She blushed a little as she looked up at him.

He lightly placed his hand around the front of her neck and dipped down to kiss her on the lips.

‘I wasn’t expecting to see you today. Can’t keep away, huh?’ She teased as he took her hand and they began walking down the road.

‘I wanted to come and walk you home…’

Louise frowned. ‘Something’s happened, hmm?’ She asked knowingly.

‘Am I really that easy to read?’ Chris asked with an eyebrow up.

‘Kinda.’ She shrugged. ‘Come on, what’s up? Did the hunters chasing us at the weekend freak you out? You know we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ She said as she let go of his hand, so she could wrap her arms around his arm and hug into him.

‘Well… yes and no. The others were hunted while we were away. They were directly targeted. Somehow the hunters seem to know our locations at times. It’s… worrying.’ Chris said.

‘Oh, shit. Are they ok? Was anyone hurt?’ Louise asked.

‘They’re all fine, thankfully.’ Chris assured her.

‘Good.’

‘I just… Am really worried right now. We need to be really careful, I don’t know if they would go after the likes of you and Claire… Since you’re humans, but you’re our soulmates, which does put you at risk.’

‘Which is why you’re here to walk me home?’ Louise asked knowingly.

‘Yeah.’ Chris said sheepishly. ‘I was also wondering… Just tell me to piss off if this freaks you out, but I just want to keep you safe. I don’t want to stop you from living your life and doing or going where you want, but, well…’

‘Do you want me to share my location with you?’ Louise asked.

Chris’ eyes widened in surprise. ‘What? No, no… I just… was going to ask if you could let me know when you’re going somewhere. Just for safety. Or if possible, I could come with you or one of the others could. Or just message me when you leave somewhere and arrive at your destination.’

Louise stopped walking, so did Chris. He was worried he was overstepping the line.

‘I’m serious, if you want me to share my location with my phone. Then you’ll know where I am at all times. I honestly don’t mind. I can tell you’re worried about being… like him. This is completely different though. I know you won’t stop me going where I want to go, you just want me to have a chaperone or to have you know where I’m going. It’s for my safety. I get it.’

‘You really don’t mind? You don’t think I’m being controlling or over paranoid?’ Chris asked.

Louise shook her head. ‘You’re being protective, but in a good way.’ She said as she wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him.

Chris smiled and kissed her head as he wrapped his arms around her tightly. He let out a big sigh of relief.

‘Well, if you’re sharing your location with me, then I’ll share mine with you, too. It’s only fair. Then we both know where we are at any time.’ He hummed into her hair.

‘Deal.’ Louise smiled. 'Though you do realise, in the evenings all you’ll see is me traveling from the sofa to the fridge or cupboard and back again… multiple times. In-fact, you can call and tell me off if you see me going for a third time for more chocolate.’

Chris threw his head back with laughter. ‘As long as you keep some for me, I don’t mind how much chocolate you eat.’ He said as he squeezed her tighter.

They were not long back at Louise’s place when Chris got a call from Toshi. He had planned to stay with Louise for the evening, but that plan was not meant to be.

‘Hey, Toshi.’ He said as he answered.

‘I need your help. Right now.’ Toshi said urgently. Chris could tell by her voice that something was really wrong.

‘Where are you?’ He asked quickly.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Prince Edward has paid tribute to his wife, Sophie, as his ‘absolute rock’ as he discussed his family life with Alan Titchmarsh during an appearance on Love Your Weekend.

The episode, which is set to air on March 10, the Duke of Edinburgh’s 60th birthday, will see the Prince sit down with the presenter and open up about his wife, the Duchess of Edinburgh, and their two children, Lady Louise, 20, and James, Earl of Wessex, 16.

Speaking of how much Sophie means to him, the Duke called his wife ‘critical, absolutely critical.’

He continued:

‘She's been an absolutely brilliant rock and I'm incredibly lucky that I found Sophie and that she found me. Hopefully, we've been a really brilliant partnership.

We're very lucky, we’ve got two, of what we would think are particularly brilliant children, who are forging such different paths for themselves. I think that's also equally fascinating.’

Elsewhere he spoke about the significance of Mothering Sunday and described what the celebration means for his own family.

Prince Edward said, ‘Always and it's doubly so when you've got your own children - your own family is very important.’

‘Those days were [important growing up], and these days are really important to remember some very, very special people in our lives.

There should be several times in the year when we make a special sort of effort and Mothering Sunday was very much one of those where you made a special effort just to say ‘thank you.’

So it goes on and that's the lovely thing about it. That's the lovely thing about families and that's what it should be.’

During the discussion, Prince Edward also revealed the lasting memories his grandchildren have of the late Prince Philip, including teaching his daughter Lady Louise to drive a carriage.

It's a hobby, which was a passion of the late Duke’s, and has since been adopted as one of Lady Louise���s.

He said, ‘It was entirely off her own bat. I mean, you know, just one day, ‘Can I go out with you and go sit on the boxes?’

He was like, ‘Absolutely.’

'He never was going to say no! He took her out with the team and I think it was only the second time, he was driving along and he said, ‘Do you want to have a go?’ and she didn’t have time to even answer the question, he just handed the reins across.’

Elsewhere in the discussion, Prince Edward spoke about how much it meant to him to be bestowed the title of Duke of Edinburgh. He said:

‘It was a huge privilege but also quite a lot of weight of expectation as well. I mean, there's an awful lot of legacy that came with that title and everything that my father had done. Especially when you're not inheriting it, this is a choice… that comes with all the expectations that people have.

It's just the weirdest and strangest feeling. You walk into a room and, particularly still today, there are name places on a card and I still look around going ‘Yes, but where am I sitting?’

Explaining how he would describe his father Prince Philip, The Duke called him an ‘extraordinary mind’, adding:

‘He was the Prince Albert of our age. He had an extraordinary mind. He loved design, he loved innovation, he was brilliant with all sorts of people.

Sometimes it didn't necessarily come across that way, but he was actually brilliant with people. He was always, always encouraging everybody. You sort of needed to get to know him.’

The interview comes after Sophie gave her own touching tribute to Edward during a royal engagement earlier in March.

The Duchess gave a rare, gushing tribute to her husband, calling him ‘the best of fathers and the most loving of husbands.’

Prince Edward looked deeply emotional throughout the speech, putting his hands over his face, as Sophie spoke about their love, saying, ‘I am so proud of the man he is.’

[bubbipond]

OK but why am I seeing on Twitter and Tumblr people saying that Tonkla did not love Korn as much as Korn loved him?? Did we watch the same show? Let’s not act like Korn was boyfriend of the year. Tonkla didn’t just wake up one morning and decided to be a murderer. He also didn’t force Korn to also cheat on him??? Korn was choosing his family and the life he lived his whole life over love the entire time. You can argue that love wasn’t more important than revenge to Kla but you can’t argue that he didn’t love and care about Korn or vice versa.

He literally took a bullet for him. He did not have to do that. He knew his time was running out. You don’t do things that Tonkla did in this show and expect to live happily ever after. In my opinion, they had the most realistic end to a dark series. You can love someone and want to be with them, but fate not be in your corner. They were both in retrospect too deep into their individual lives to not die and I find that extremely heartbreaking. To be honest if two people deserve a happy ending it was probably them because their issues were not entirely made by them. Their situations were directly influenced by other people (technically so was Greats but he ended up happy so).

But I feel like deducing everything between Korn and Kla to just a revenge plot is a lack of critical thinking. I know that’s a buzz word and I’m not just saying that because throughout the airing of the series I have been like, “I support Kla’s wrongs and his rights”. But instead, I am saying this because he and Korn are not their actions. They are who they are because of other peoples actions. Kla couldn’t move on with his life after his brother died because there was no justice. He definitely needed therapy and he should not have been going around murdering people or attempting to. But that was a direct Issue stemming from his brother’s death. Korn didn’t want to be the head of the family. He didn’t want to be a crappy brother or a crappy boyfriend. He didn’t want to marry that girl whose name escapes me.

And at the end of it, they were both willing to look at each other and be like you know what!? We are Thelma and Louise, we are Bonnie and Clyde. In the most tragic ways possible. I think that’s the reason they kind of stole the last episode. All of their shit was out there. Neither one of them were cowards and neither one of them were good people. Maybe they were at one time but life and the choices they made changed that. I think their end was perfect because they both succeeded and failed at their motives at the end of the day. Neither one was where they were in the beginning at the end of it all.

Marrying that woman wasn’t going to miraculously make Korns life easier. In the end, she cut her losses anyway. The marriage didn’t help her at that point. So where did he have to go? The revelation that Kla was the one to shoot Great and that Great was part of his brother’s murder didn’t diminish how they felt about each other. It just complicated everything. Attempting to murder the people responsible for his brother’s death didn’t bring Kla solace. It didn’t bring his brother back and if anything it just made life shittier. At the end of the day, there was no out for either of them. They would both still have to pay for things they did and did not do. So even though their story ended, they still had a better ending. They still love each other despite the tough situation they were in.

My favorite part of that last scene is Bas’ facial expressions when he hears everything from Kla. He’s not heartbroken, or angry, he’s not bewildered, Or jealous. He’s all of the above and you can see it written on his face so perfectly. Bas really knows how to show emotion on his face and I love him for that; especially the mix of feelings between the revelation and him pointing that gun. He wasn’t questioning whether or not Kla loved him because what did Kla have to gain from keeping him around at the point of him running? This man was exhausted. He was tired of everything and everyone he was tired of the cards that they all have been dealt up until that point. He knew pointing that gun was a bad idea. But their backs were against the wall and there was nothing left to lose. Until there was. He had to watch the love of his life take a bullet for him. So I will not sit here and let people act like Kla was this master manipulator who only wanted revenge.

Because the saddest part about all of this is, it was just a very unfortunate circumstance that intertwined Great and Dome.

[stargazer-sims]

The DeLuca Family

You've already seen Nora, but I thought I'd show off the rest of the family. Some of you have seen Leo and Ellie before as well, and toddler Elliot, but here they are at their current ages/life stages:

Leonardo Stephen DeLuca (48) - Leo is Victor's cousin and is older than him by only about three and a half months. Leo's father Stephen and Victor's mother Grace are brother and sister.

Leo is a kindergarten teacher, which he absolutely loves. He used to work at the same daycare as Takahiro Suzuki, but decided to go back to school to earn his teaching certification so he could work in the public school system instead. He's a big kid at heart, so working with kids is a perfect fit for him.

He and one of his sisters have the same genetic abnormality as his dad, aunt and cousin, which caused all their hair to go prematurely silver. However, unlike Stephen, Kiki, Grace and Victor, Leo has been dying his hair brown for years in an attempt to hide the silver. He's finally thinking of letting it go back to its natural colour now, though.

Eleanor Louise Britt-DeLuca (47) - Ellie was best friends with Leo and Victor growing up. They called themselves The Team, and were practically inseparable. They've drifted apart in their adult years, unfortunately.

Ellie is a nurse. She spent many years working in the ICU and some time in adult post-op wards, but she currently works in the ER.

When she's not busy with work, she enjoys cross-country running and working out at the gym.

Elliot Julian DeLuca (14) - He's the younger of Ellie and Leo's two kids, and unequivocally his dad's favourite. He has Down Syndrome, but that doesn't stop him from living a happy, healthy life.

Elliot loves dancing, dinosaurs and wizards, and he thinks Halloween should be more than just one day a year. He's learning how to cook, and is turning out to be really good at it. He's excited about doing "grown-up" things by himself.

His favourite person (after his dad) is his cousin Caroline, who taught him how to swim and never seems too busy to watch movies or play games with him.

Family walk ^

Elliot's current obsession is his vampire teeth. He's going to be a vampire for Halloween, but he's going to get as much mileage as possible out of the fake teeth his dad got for him at the costume shop in the meantime.

Also, he's excited to visit the Halloween House with Dad, Caroline and Uncle Victor.

Elliot is a hugger, not that Leo minds at all.

Oh, the maturity!

Dad and Elliot are besties!

[randomfoggytiger]

Collector's Edition: Clones, Clones, Clones

This will be divided into two sections: existential, personal clone fics; and generalized run-ins or case files.

Loose chronological order below~

AM I WHO I AM?

@badforthefish/Scarlet's The Soft Embalmer - Chapter 1

“You sent an Insert outside? I thought we were nowhere near ready for that.”

Mike shrugs. “Well, we obviously aren’t since we’re about to lose this one, but who am I to argue the boss’s decisions? Let’s hope her replacement won’t go digging in her own neck any time soon again. The logistics for these things are a nightmare.”

Simon feels his gut clench unpleasantly. The woman’s pale face hovers in front of his eyes. Not a clone. A person, just like him.

Learn to be monsters.

AU-- Post Ascension Scully was never returned, forever and ever replaced.

@justhereforthechilismoment/Jess Mabe/Jess M.'s The Other Man (keyofx, WBM)

She made the first incision after pricking Mulder with the scalpel and receiving no reaction. Frohike mopped up the thin ribbon of blood that snaked down his neck to the towel as she pulled back his skin and fished gently beneath it with a pair of forceps.

"Anything?" Frohike whispered, and just as she began to shake her head, she felt something touch the tip of the forceps.

"Maybe," she said and felt Mulder stiffen.

"What? What is it?" he demanded.

"Hold still," she said and gave the object a gentle tug. It slipped free easily. She held it up and examined it carefully, but even to her untrained eye, a computer chip was obvious.

A gentle tug from Byers on her left sleeve brought her back down. He pointed to Mulder.

"I think he's passed out," he said quietly.

"What?" Dropping both forceps and chip into the petri dish, she rushed around the chair to find him slumped against the his own arms, eyes closed, breathing rapid. "Mulder!" she said, frantic with no way to tell what was wrong.

Scully (and Mulder) are horrified when the lab pick up something... odd in his blood-- something so odd that it puts into question their entire partnership, and sends them on a rescue mission to Ellen's Air force Base.

Christina M. Simmons's The Road to Emmaus

"If it's not him," said a low voice, close beside her. "Then who is it?" Dana Scully turned haunted eyes up, meeting the expressionless gaze of her assistant director. Skinner's face almost softened... almost... and he almost placed a hand on her arm. Almost. She flinched away... it was a gesture too much like Mulder's. Scully shook her head.

"It's not Mulder. Mulder is..." She broke off, turning sharply away, eyes prickling with tears she would not shed. She had mourned her partner's death... she had wept for him, privately, piercingly, through too many sleepless nights. Even on the crowded street in the dead of night, with police chaos and white-hot spotlights everywhere, the thought was enough to drown her deep in an aching solitude.

Mulder is dead... or is he? Is Mulder even Mulder? And if he's not Mulder, is life worth living?

Louise Marin's Any Other Name

Pulling her hand away from Mulder's touch, Scully turned back to face the Gunmen. "He's been at a place he calls the Clinic. All he remembers is his time there. He escaped and somehow followed his nose to my house. I think…" She swallowed. It was painful to even suggest that he was not the man he was supposed to be. "I think he may be a clone. He said they were planning to wipe his memory of his time at the Clinic. I think, maybe, they were trying to bring Mulder back."

Scully watched as the three faces in front of her all fell at once. When she glanced over at Mulder, she found him looking down at his lap. She looked down at hers too. "He said there were others there like him."

A full minute passed and no one said a word. It was Mulder's soft, low voice that finally stole the silence. "Dana Scully, why do you not believe me?" His downcast profile was unreadable.

AU-- What a disaster: the revelation that Mulder is a clone, the knowledge that nanobyted Skinner knew but kept silent, and the fact that CSM will try to bury everyone's memories of these events.

defnotmeyo/Defnotmeyo's and @wtfmulder's

Unnamed 

She can laugh at him but these punks? One more concentrated burst of laughter and hiding their faces behind their hands and she is going to put them over the bar.

Speaking of.

“I’m serious, Scully. What if they’re abducting cows to study best farming practices in space?”

Another burst of giggles and a glance their way.

AU-- Mulder and Scully overhear a couple laughing at his theories.

Unnamed 

Hank Moody is a clone of Mulder all the way back from when the conspiracy was making clones. That batch went wrong, somehow.

AU-- The X-Files meets Californication.

stellar_dust's (Ao3) Just Coincidence

Doggett stared again at the file he held, tightly gripped, and swallowed. "What d'you know about this picture?"

Pre-This Is Not Happening Scully and Doggett realize who the boys in Herrenvolk were.

Meredith's (Alt. Tumblr) Show of Strength

He has only looked directly at me that first time.

I cried.

She has a stranglehold on my emotions.... The only person I've known that was precious to Her -- how could I not want to touch him, take him into my arms and comfort him? I'd never met the man before and it was all I could do not to burst out in hideous, treacherous sobs.

But he knew immediately, and turned away. Defining me with that simple action as the imposter I am.

Dead.

He knew. And so do I.

AU-- Post Colonization Scully clone is desperate for her own identity.

Jenna Tooms/misslucyjane's (mulderscreek) Shooting Star (Gossamer, mulderscreek)

He closed his eyes, breathing in shuddery gasps. "I knew you," he said, his voice rough. "From the first moment I knew anything, I knew who you were. You were the only thing I had to cling to, the only thing I knew for certain. And now you tell me it's a lie, that my own memories are actually someone else's, that I'm not me? Scully, what does it mean? Who am I, if I'm not Fox Mulder?"

"I don't know," she said. "I don't understand it, I've never understood any of it. I don't know why you were taken away from me in the first place. I don't know why they'd create a clone and kill him—"

"Or hand him over to you," he said bitterly, and she lowered her head and allowed her arms to drop.

"Or that, either."

AU-- Post Requiem Mulder is not returned for many, many years; and even when he is, the truth is a twisting, inconsistent thing-- especially when compounded with intense cognitive issues, potential brain damage, a distant son, and the sense that maybe Mulder isn't who they all hope he is.

cthene's In the Watchfires of a Hundred Circling Camps

“You made me kill him,” he says.

“What?” She approaches him.

“I hesitated,” he explains, watching her in the mirror instead of looking at her directly. “And you forced me to do it.”

Her head kind of shifts on its axis without really shaking no. “I don’t—”

“You willed it, and I had to obey you,” he says.

“Mulder.” She opens her mouth. 

“It’s okay.” He gives the wall a few taps with the back of his head. “It was necessary. He would have killed you if I hadn’t stopped him.” 

“Mulder—” she says.

The floor of his mouth aches, saliva gushing under his tongue, and he vomits into the sink. Strange organs clinch and lurch inside him. A thread of acid dangles from his lips into the basin and he grips the counter, waiting for it to break. He vomits again. 

Post Colonization Mulder is turned-- an inevitability brought on by the Project's tampering since childhood. Scully saves him, by accident... which kicks off another complicated layer of their relationship as they race to Fort Bragg to find their son.

CASE FILE CLONES

@truemyth/TrueMyth's (Ao3) The Arc of Time- Never

How could it dream? It's never known childhood.

How could it dream? It's never touched another living thing.

The dreams that clones don't have.

Pattie's

Their Journey Embryonic

They were tagged, labelled, numbered, inventoried, whatever you want to call it. The offspring of countless women who had suffered the indignities of some godless men with an agenda. Perhaps offspring is a somewhat erroneous term, but many of us believe life is life, and if it contains human DNA, it's more important to us than algae or lichen.

I saw one of then kick.

Erlenmeyer Flask Mulder's disturbing discoveries.

Eugenic Injustice

She spins around in her chair. I love it when she swivels. "All right. What's this all about? A huge piece of evidence? A well-preserved prehistoric Sasquatch?"

AU-- Post Season 8 Mulder finally tells Scully about the destruction of the clone babies and embryos.

After Mandy - Bobby

Bobby produced a tag that had at one time been attached to an I.V. bag in which he had spent part of his gestation.

Mulder swallowed hard, then took a deep breath. The tag read: "Scully, Dana K.", and many other things Mulder found a bit difficult to decipher.

AU-- Post Season 8 Mulder is contacted by the sole survivor of the clone culling: he wants to meet his biological mother before his final deterioration.

Alison

"If your parents aren't here, we have arranged protection for you," Mulder added. "You know what I'm talking about."

"So do the strange people who gave me the bad DNA," Alison cried.

AU-- Post Season 8 Mulder and Scully try to solve a case involving the targeting of an Emily-esque little girl.

We Gotta Get Outta This Place

Well, now that they've had William, Meg, Samantha Ann, the new baby, hybrids Mandy and Alison around a lot, they need a bigger house!

AU-- Post Season 8 Mulder and Scully have a large, blended family of biological and cloned hybrid children.

Youthful Distraction

"You don't look a day over 30, and forgive me if that sounds like a ridiculous comment. I know there are some wild claims about vitamins and cosmetics out there, but... "

Kelly opened a drawer in her desk. "This is the only thing I use underneath my make-up. It's marvelous. It really is. You can keep the jar. I have lots more. Just rub a little into your facial skin every night, and, well, as you can see... And they say it does wonders for men, as well."

Crack-- CSM creates a random clone in order to stop Mulder permanently.

@i-gaze-at-scully/i_gaze_at_scully's No deal

“Go to the bridge. Make the exchange, with one of us. We are expendable. She,” she says, pointing to the woman he thought was his sister, “is not. Save your partner and save us. Please.”

AU-- End Game Mulder learns the truth before he and Clone!Samantha approach the bridge.

@cock-holliday/biggayyeehaw's Fictober 2022 - Day 28 (Ao3)

“How close to the real thing do you think clones are?” He asked softly.

Post End Game Mulder wonders if he will be remembered.

@leiascully's (Ao3) Day 9: Talitha Cumi 

If he got to them first, he’d have two armaments in his arsenal.

Scully would be upset with him for thinking that way. Clones were people to her, not pawns in some endless sub rosa conflict: maybe it was her faith or maybe her science that allowed her to differentiate them.

Post Herrenvolk Mulder reflects on his experiences the past few days.

DBKate's (LJ) Things Bright and Green (LJ)

Scully tried to dissuade him at first, looking at the mute little clone of his sister with nothing but trepidation and undisguised horror. She stared at the girl as Mulder babbled something about drones and bees and dozens of language-deprived children living on a farm that the bounty hunter burnt down. Scully's head throbbed as he begged her for help, to save ... save ... whatever this was.

AU-- Herrenvolk Mulder and Scully go on the run, trying to keep a little Samantha clone alive and safe. Reality, however, doesn't jive with their aspirations.

Karen Rasch's Things Which Are Not

"This clone was created with certain higher neurological functions left . . . undeveloped."

"Undeveloped, how?"

"He does not feel pain," Crawford had explained. "He does not think, as you do. Does not reason or experience emotion. In some ways you might consider him a shell. A copy of your outside with nothing that makes you what and who you are within."

AU-- Pre-Gethsemane Kurt Crawford approaches Mulder with a foolproof but agonizing ruse: pretend to be dead in order to find a cure for Scully's cancer.

@writingwell/RocketMan (xffics)

Way I, Way II, Way III, Way IV, Way V, Way VI, Way VII, Way VIII, Way IX

Bubbles. Huge plastic encasements that housed one child each.

AU-- Post Redux II Samantha doesn't want Mulder in her life, Scully keeps having debilitating nightmares, and the dynamic duo might have stumbled across a warehouse of imprisoned clones.

Emilys, The 12 - Surprise and Emilys, The 13 - Tomorrow

Libby nodded and wiped at her eyes, holding up her finger painting.

Scully saw the paint and felt the blood drain from her body.

"What is this?" she said softly, fingering the paper.

"I saw him today."

AU-- Post Emily Mulder and Scully find another little child (bearing both their DNA); and take to the road, trying to carve out a life as a family.

Long Term Plans

"Gibson Praise. . .his body was found yesterday. . .but it shriveled. . .it was like those clones. Green. . .bubbling."

AU-- Post The Beginning Scully and Mulder have a necessary conversation (and more.)

Craven

The dream faded and she was once again in the whiteness of the White, the very center of everything in the world. This White was all she knew, all she had known since that night when she was six and the window was finally allowed to be open. White and white and then the pale darkness of her fingernails as she dug into her veins. The blood dropped open like spilling treasure on the floor and she watched it run.

She wanted to run. She had not really moved in a long long time. Maybe since she had been six, but that didn't seem right. Maybe she had just not moved today.

The doctors came in at once, cold and silent in their efficiency. They never spoke, and now, she no longer remembered how to speak. There was the White and silence and she only could hold on to one scrap of memory--color.

Scully and Mulder stumble across a secret project carried on miles below the ground: superhuman, stymied clones created from her DNA.

Rising Again

Within that small membrane, about the size of her cupped hands was a baby. A growing moving human embryo.

"What?" she whispered.

Mulder turned to her with his brows knitted closely together, tightly together, his eyes darker than the warm red darkness surrounding them.

"Your clone, Ms. Scully," CSM said with nonchalance.

Post Signs and Wonders Mulder is captured-- which turns out to be a good thing when he stumbles across child clones of himself and Scully.

Marguerite's (Gossamer) Immolation

"I broke her heart. I broke her spirit. She knew the truth all along, and I didn't believe her, and now she's dead..." He pulled himself to his feet, trembling, and went to the table in a few long strides. "Scully, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...Hear me, Scully...I'm sorry..." He took the bag into his arms and began to pull down the zipper.

"Fox! No!" Margaret screamed, horrified.

His hand froze as a gap appeared in the bag. There was a drip on the floor, and another.

AU-- The Red and the Black Scully is dead... or is she? Mulder and Bill Scully believe so; and chaos ensues.

Sarah Ellen Parsons's 180 Words - Samantha's Fate - Version 01

I look at them suspended in greenish liquid - my children.

AU-- Samantha was working with the Project all along.

@aloysiavirgata/Aloysia_Virgata’s (WBM, Gossamer, LJ, Alt. LJ) Singing of Mount Abora

“Theo’s a clone of her father.”

“It’s not possible,” she says, firm. “Theo was born in 1981, they didn’t even have embryonic clones until ‘84 and you’re talking somatic clones.”

AU-- Post Amor Fati Mulder and Scully are scrambling towards a stable relationship (and possibly trying, again, to build a literal and figurative life together) while investigating a case assigned to them by A.D. Kersh and Senator Matheson.

Shoshana's Another Child

It wasn't concealment. She had no idea I had asked the boys to practice their best 'kung fu,' get any leads they could about possible siblings of Emily. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her and that extended to anything, anything I didn't want to tell her of them. The agony she'd gone through almost two years ago was enough. I'd promised her shortly afterward that I'd never hide any truths about her own body, her own physiology again. I didn't promise that I'd reveal the whereabouts of her other children.

AU-- Season 7 Scully must make her peace with knowing another little Emily is living in the world, happily, with her own family.

Zuffy's (tripod, Gossamer) The Coriolis Effect (Gossamer)

His theories still dazzled, she countered with facts, he nodded quietly. This is not their game.

His voice has changed. She hasn't once heard Samantha in his speech. She hasn't heard her own abduction or the cancer or his father's death or her sister's or his mother's suicide or any of the other subterranean layers that make him catch and rasp in the middle of a phrase. She'd searched his place for Valium and Prozac and Zoloft and come up dry.

AU-- This Is Not Happening Mulder is returned after three months. Scully, however, is never quite sure everything adds up.

ML/ML_is_me/ml_griffonnage's (Alt. Ao3, Invidiosa)

155 Words - Dermatology

He flinched at the needle.

It took only moments. The blemish was small. The scrapings went into a specimen case. I dabbed the small amount of blood welling at the site.

Post Three Words Mulder can't seem to reconnect to life, afraid everything's too easy.

Tesla's (Gossamer) After the Ship (WBM)

At one point, when Leatherface was chasing Sally, Mulder wondered: How would he know if he _wasn't_ a clone?

~~~~~

He said as much to Frank Black, over really good coffee in a doughnut shop in Quantico.

The other man's expression didn't change- it rarely did----but he blinked.

Post Three Words Mulder is disconnected, afraid he's a clone.

@agent-troi/AgentTroi's Revenant (Ao3)

She watched him use his hand in a karate chop-like move to slice the head off one of the doctors who had been overseeing his care before turning to face her… and then he stopped.

AU-- Post Deadalive Mulder is terrified when he turns into a SuperSolider.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[cowgirlfxcker]

ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔠𝔞𝔫𝔬𝔫𝔰 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔇𝔩 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔰 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔦𝔯 𝔣𝔞𝔳𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔢 𝔪𝔬𝔳𝔦𝔢𝔰

*Descriptions from Letterboxt and quotes from IMDb

Yui: Phantom of the Opera (2004)

The waiting is over...let the fantasy begin.

Deformed since birth, a bitter man known only as the Phantom lives in the sewers underneath the Paris Opera House. He falls in love with the obscure chorus singer Christine, and privately tutors her while terrorizing the rest of the opera house and demanding Christine be given lead roles. Things get worse when Christine meets back up with her childhood acquaintance Raoul and the two fall in love.

Shuu: Goldfinger (1964)

Do you expect me to talk?

No, I expect you to die!

Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox – and obliterate the world’s economy.

Reiji: The Seventh Seal (1957)

My body is ready, but I am not.

When disillusioned Swedish knight, Antonius Block, returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Laito: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI’s training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Kanato: Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart (2013)

The torment of love can transform people into wretched monsters.

In Scotland 1874, Jack is born on the coldest day ever. Because of the extreme cold, his heart stops beating. The responsible midwife in Edinburgh finds a way to save him by replacing his heart with a clock. So he lives and remains under the midwife’s protective care. But he must not get angry or excited because that endangers his life by causing his clock to stop working. Worse than that, when he grows up, he has to face the fact he cannot fall in love because that too could stop his delicate heart.

Ayato: Pulp Fiction (1994)

You won't know the facts until you've seen the fiction.

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster’s moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.

Subaru: The Crow (1994)

And I say, "I'm dead," and I move.

Exactly one year after young rock guitarist Eric Draven and his fiancée are brutally killed by a ruthless gang of criminals, Draven – watched over by a hypnotic crow – returns from the grave to exact revenge.

Ruki: Eyes Without a Face (1960)

A new face, a new identity.

Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane’s.

Yuuma: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Tell you what, we coulda had a good life together!

Two modern-day cowboys meet on a shepherding job in the summer of ’63, the two share a raw and powerful summer together that turns into a lifelong relationship conflicting with the lives they are supposed to live.

Kou: The Menu (2022)

You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.

A couple travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Azusa: Parasite (2019)

You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all.

All unemployed, Ki-taek’s family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

[dolliebabydoll15]

Day 1: Suspension/Denial

Suspended...In My Feelings.

happy day one of @roudiseshipweek! i have been waiting an eternity to participate in this ship week, so i hope you enjoy my fanfic!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Tuesday. At half past twelve. And what worser place to spend it in than In-School Suspension? Louise Belcher had this thought for the dreadful hours she spent. There she was, sitting in a spare classroom, with emptied desks, except her own. And Regular-Sized Rudy's as well. It felt just as infuriating to be near him as being in this spacious classroom. And, of course, Mr. Frond was supervising them both. Louise tapped her fingers on her desk with a blank expression upon her face. On her right, Rudy shuffled his feet, taking inhaler puffs every now and then, attempting not to look in Louise's direction, as did she. And Mr. Frond was standing in front of them, with a do-not-even-try-to-talk-to-me look.

Louise couldn't help but think, "Looks like I've found the next Mel Gibson." But it wasn't so much of a laughing matter. Even though she had literally watched Braveheart with her dad the weekend before. But that wasn't her main focus. What consumed the majority of her mind is that she was here. All because of....earlier. The cause of her punishment just made her blood boil. And she wished she could say or do every freakin' cruel thing she could think of because of her anger. But there was something...Or someone...who stopped her from doing all of that. But that someone was definitely not Rudy. She thought back to earlier, the moments before she had got sent to ISS...

A few hours ago...

Louise and Rudy had greeted one another at the front of the school, and began to walk for a while.

"So...have you decided who your study buddy is today?"

"Oh, I'm going with Chloe. She was so nice to let me partner with her."

Louise cringed in response.

"She told me I can do all the studying for her, because it hurts her eyes."

Much to Louise's annoyance, she raised an eyebrow.

"It's probably for the best though. I'll do anything to make her happy."

"Rudy-"

"I mean, I don't really want to do all the work, but I'll do what Chloe wants. Maybe she's just a bit troubled. Who knew she was such a good person?"

good person

good person

good person...

That did it for Louise. In the heat of that moment, she did not even bother to strain her tongue. "Rudy, I don't think you understand. You're right, Chloe is troubled. As a person. If you can't stop yourself from obsessing over her like some goddess, then you might as well just live the rest of your miserable life still all over her."

Rudy widened his eyes at that in response. Then, his face turned stern.

"You know, Louise, I think you're just jealous. Even though you gave me my first kiss, and Chloe didn't, that doesn't give you the right to say that."

"Oh, so I'm the bad guy here?" Louise asked loudly, which turned the heads of a few people.

"Yeah, I guess you can say you're the bad guy. Clearly you don't know how to stop being a pushover just because of Chloe."

Louise was stunned. She clutched her fists and was on the verge of doing something she was about to regret. But then, Chloe walked right in front of them.

"Rudy, what's going o-AAAUGH!"

Louise tackled her to the ground. Chloe let out loud shrieks as Louise pulled her long auburn hair.

"LET GO OF ME LOUISE!" she screamed.

But Louise did not stop. They rolled around, hitting and slapping one another as if they were in a WWE match. Rudy then jumped in, trying to break them up. It took a lot of aggressive push-and-shove, but it was no use. Mr. Frond came in, and he was hovering above them, an ominous shadow consuming them in fear. "Louise. Rudy. Chloe." It was practically the end for them. "In-School Suspension. For all of you. Tomorrow." He then noticed the surrounding crowd, with horrified looks upon them.

"What-what are you all looking at? SHOW'S OVER! BACK TO CLASS!" he barked. Everyone obeyed and speedwalked straight to class without another word.

Back in the present...

Well, it was certainly no surprise Chloe wasn't there. It was, and she quoted, "interfering with her hair appointment." Louise could not believe how dumb Mr. Frond was to believe that. She was just so angry at him, angry at what she was being punished for, angry at how agonizing Chloe is. Angry, especially at......Louise didn't have it in herself to form that name. She glanced at Rudy.

"How can I not be mad at him?" she thought. "He was the one who made me the bad person, and it's not my fault he can't see who...sick Chloe Barbash is."

But no matter the perfectly vital reasons, there was something in the way of her anger. Why couldn't she just hate him on the spot? That was officially the last straw for her. Even so, at that moment, Louise thought of everything they had been through, and that was in no way to compare with it. If she could have that much history with someone, yet still have a fallout as brutal as that one, she could possibly feel...Louise shook it off at the thought. That was crazy. How could she feel that way? They were just friends, comrades, partners-in-crime, nothing more. It was so crazy, she could nearly laugh about it. Actually...they were about to be far from friends if she didn't reconcile with him soon. But still, she was a bit infuriated with him about being so delusional. She thought about it for a while and realized that even though that Rudy would always refuse to know the truth, he was better off that way than always pushing it on him and straining their friendship even more. Maybe one day the reality would hit him, but at least for now, Louise decided to apologize. While Mr. Frond's back was turned, Louise quickly wrote a note on a scrap lined paper on the floor, and passed it to Rudy. Rudy looked at the note, and looked back at Louise with a small smile.

"i'm sorry for what i said...and did."

[mzannthropy]

The Count of Monte Cristo limited series Episode 8 thoughts

And so we come to the end. (Spoilers under the cut.)

The count visits Villefort in his office where they discuss the poisoning. The count tells Villefort his protege, Haydee saw Heloise take the vial of brucine.

Danglars visits Monte Cristo in his study and asks for the advance on his investment into railways. Our banker is starting to lose it! The count explains that he will sign on the investment as soon as Count Spada does, which should happen at their marriage signing contract ceremony. During their dialogue, a railway line between Manchester and Liverpool is name-dropped, which pleased me bc I live in Manchester.

Count Spada visits Eugenie (she and Louise are together playing cards) and gives her letters of recommendation that will enable her to become an opera singer in Rome. The letters are signed by the count of Monte Cristo. Eugenie wonders why Spada himself didn't sign them, since he's supposed to be an opera connoisseur, to which Spada responds that he doesn't actually like opera. He says, "see you when we have our marriage contract ceremony unless you've already left for Rome" and walks out the door calling the two of them gorgeous women. I think it's safe to say that Luigi Vampa is the captain the of Eugenie x Louise ship.

At his home, Villefort remarks to his wife that Valentine's inheritance from her grandmother would, once she gets convicted of the murder, go to Villefort and then to Edouard. It seems he is piecing the crime together in his mind and is not liking how it's going. Later he visits Valentine in prison. She says as she told him, she didn't do it. I wondered why she never said anything in her defence when it happened, but from this it looks like she did, maybe they cut it out.

Edmond and Mercedes meet at a cafe, she is wearing widow's weeds. She will be leaving Paris for Marseille, as that is her true home. He advises her to withdraw all her funds from Danglars's bank, bc Danglars will be finished by the tomorrow. Mercedes is angry at him for playing with people's lives. I don't know what the hell her problem is. I get she is upset about Fernand's downfall, bc he was her husband (she must have had some affection for him, even if she didn't love him) and Albert's father, even though she doesn't seem to care a bit about the Ali Pasha betrayal. But idk why she cares that Edmond wants to bring Danglars down. But then, this is a woman who knew about Danglars's insider trading and did nothing, so what do we expect from her. I mean, you might argue that the reason why Edmond wants to nail Danglars is not bc he cares about stock market transparency, but for his own personal reasons. But then, Danglars didn't frame Edmond bc of his loyalty to King Louis XVIII either. Nobody in here is acting in good faith, countess. At least, though, she is not such a painful martyr as she is in the book. Albert doesn't appear again and is not even given a mention. So I take it that in this version, he doesn't join the army and keeps using the de Morcerf name. For all I don't like her, I think the book is too harsh on Mercedes, I don't actually wish any misery on her. I am capable of not liking a character and wishing them well. And Albert deserves a chance at a good life. I like to think that Albert and Franz continued their friendship, as Franz just drops off the narrative after the Noirtier reveal, even in the book.

The next person Monte Cristo meets is Beauchamp at his newspaper. He provides him with the receipts of Danglars's machinations at the stock market. A copy of this paperwork will be given to the police.

At Casa Danglars, people are gathering for the signing of the marriage contract. Eugenie cuts her hair, dons man's clothes (she looks awesome, btw) and escapes with Louise through the window. When they come to look for her, the only thing they find is her hair on the carpet. Next thing, the police arrive to arrest Danglars, Hermine and Debray. Another one down. (Doesn't bite the dust though, lol). The count sends a letter to Danglars in prison, revealing he is Edmond Dantes. Out of the supporting cast, Blake Ritson gave the best performance. (Excepting Jeremy Irons who is in a different league.)

Sabrine, the midwife who attended Hermine's birth, testifies that Gaston is the son of Villefort and Madame Danglars. (She is speaking for the defence as they believe she can provide mitigating circumstances.) Villefort announces he is stepping away from the case and goes home. Here, he finds his wife and son dead on the floor. Monte Cristo arrives, but when he sees what happened, walks away without ever confronting Villefort.

There's a scene of Valentine and Maximilien falling into each others arms, I think, outside the court. It's all we see of them. The book's storyline is a touch fantastical (a substance that makes he appear dead?) and the count played with Max's feelings a bit too much, so this works better for me, for a TV show done in 2024 at least. It would have been good to see Edmond gifting them part of his fortune, but nothing indicates it could not have happened offscreen. This is one of the reasons why I previously said they should have gone for 10 episodes, not 8, there'd be more time to wrap things up more neatly.

Edmond pays off Jacopo and Ettore, with a bonus, and tells them he will keep sending them money yearly until he dies. "Don't die to soon," Jacopo jokes. Ettore wants to go on working for him, but the count says he is leaving France for good. All the furniture in his house at Champs Elysees is covered with white sheets.

The final scene takes place in Marseille, on the shore with a view of Chateau D'If. Edmond and Mercedes meet.

Sigh.

At least for this last scene they could have given her a better hairstyle (sorry for going on about this, but stupid haircuts can make or break a film/TV show for me), a mixture of young poor Mercedes and the middle aged countess, but no. He tells her the memory of her kept him alive for 15 years. Mercedes takes his hand and says that line "love can heal" and that is it. The last shot is of the two of them, from the distance, standing at on the beach. Closing credits. (For a minute I seriously panicked that there was a post-credit scene, living in a Marvel era lol, but no, there was nothing, it was just SVT suggesting what to watch next.)

As far as I'm concerned, this is open ended enough for one's own interpretation. It's possible the showrunners wanted to satisfy both E/M shippers and those who don't like the ship, but in that case I prefer the Pierre Niney film ending, which explicitly showed Edmond sailing away. What's mad about this is that episode 6 ending can be taken as their breakup, so to speak. Maybe they mean that Edmond healed a bit now he's concluded his revenge, or idk... Still I would have liked to see him on that boat. And I definitely don't like Mercedes having the last line. I think on future rewatches, I will press stop before it gets there.

Good job I have imagination.

So as you can probably guess, the line "wait and hope" does not appear in the series. Well, if they would have had to force it in, it's better if it's not there, rather then being there for the sake of it. wait and hope for me symbolises my wait and hope for this series, especially as a Sam Claflin fan (he has had a very long dry season and as of me writing this, there is still no news of when we see TCOMC in UK. I watched it only thanks to VPN.)

I was correct about episode 7 being the last showing for Caderousse and Haydee. I quite like Caderousse having a good ending. I hope Edmond visits him in New York. I think this series was a sort of "nice" adaptation. I once saw someone refer to the 2009 Wuthering Heights (the one with Tom Hardy) as a nice adaptation. I think I watched it, or some of it, and the characters did come across as nicer than in the book. So this can be taken the same way. This series Cadrousse's characterisation differs from the book anyway, he actually helps the count a lot, and seems quite competent, so I don't see why he can't come out of it happy. Maybe even in love, if his affair with de Morcerf maid Marie was a genuine relationship. I can picture them running the bar in NYC together.

As for Haydee, well, they were never going to go with the book's ending, we all knew it, didn't we, we all knew it, and YET. I hoped they would give them a found family or platonic relationship, if they were scared of a romantic one, but in this universe, she was only part of his household for a short time. She departed from the show without any explanation of what she would do next, how or where she would live, so much like with Max and Valentine, it can be assumed the count bestowed some fortune on her. Altogether, though, her storyline was handled well, I loved how gentle he was with her, and like I said, I have imagination. Who's to say he won't meet her again on his travels? Mercedes said "love can heal", she didn't say anything about whose love this was to be.

So that's it. The end. Thanks for reading.

[uniquexusposts]

Her || Charles Leclerc

Main characters: Charles Leclerc x OC Genre: fanfiction, fluff  Story type: novel  Part: 7/? Word count: 1362 Co writer: @mistrose23 Story summary: Matilde Jørgensen, the new Scuderia Ferrari team principal, faced the nerve-wracking challenge of reviving the team's fortunes and aiming for a championship. Leading a historic team as a 'newbie' and separating her work and personal opinions posed a significant challenge. The big question: is she capable to do so?

Previous chapter

Chapter 5. Danish Standards

Matilde was glad she had a moment for herself after a long day full of media duties. Usually, the Thursdays were easy on her. But this year... She was still trying to figure out how to deal with it. She was quite a social person, however, socialising for hours was asking for a lot of her energy. The last meeting had just finished and the track was open to the employees, so Matilde took her shot and decided to go for a track walk. Only to find out she had forgotten her earphones to listen to a podcast. She recently started to listen to 'Help I Sexted My Boss', it was a great podcast by William Hanson and Jordan North to just laugh and think about nothing but the bizarre things they tell. She also loved Leo Skepi, he was teaching about self transformation, but Matilde just loved his energy. But whenever she didn't want to be thinking about serious things, she would listen to William and Jordan.

"Hej," a manly voice said when Matilde just entered the first corner of the track.

Matilde looked next to her and raised her eyebrows, but quickly politely smiled when she noticed it was Haas' driver Kevin Magnussen. "Hej," she replied, slightly confused. It was not like they didn't know each other, they are both Danish and they both work within Formula 1, but they barely spoke to each other.

"This will probably sound weird," Kevin began and joined her for her walk. "By the way, do you mind if I join you?"

"No, please join me."

"Okay, well, hear me out. Louise, my wife, and I went to a birthday party last week. It was the birthday of her best friend and I know her husband. We met a couple of years ago and we hang out regurlarly. His name is Lars Jørgensen. And your last name is Jørgensen. Do you know someone called Lars Jørgensen?"

The eyes of Matilde lightened up. "The teacher?"

"The teacher..." Kevin slowly said, understanding that Matilde knew Lars Jørgensen.

"Yes, that is my brother."

He shook his head and chuckled. "The bastard." He looked at the Danish woman. "It sounds so stupid, but he always spoke about his little sister, living in England, working with cars. He never said it was you, not even last week. And I didn't make the connection until... Literally five minutes ago."

A laugh rolled over Matilde's lips. "It's a small world," she said, still smiling. "But it's quite a known and popular name. I'm surprised we never saw each other at Lene's birthday, like never before."

"Well, we probably did see each other, but didn't realise."

"But it's not like you are an upcoming driver."

"True, unlike you. Honestly, before this season, I never heard of you. Well, not within the motorsport."

"Fair." Matilde realised how nice it was to have a conversation in Danish. Being surrounded by Italian people, or Italian speaking people, was tiring. She was still learning the language and the people in her team barely spoke English. And no one spoke in her mother language.

He was silent for a moment. "I can't process this," he said and chuckled. "Lene and Louise are best friends. Why did Lars never say a word?"

Matilde threw her hands up in the air and laughed. "I have no idea. I mean, he is quite private about his personal life. But other than that, I have no clue."

"Well, I guess we can't blame him now," Kevin laughed. "It's a small world, and yet sometimes connections slip through the cracks."

"It does," she agreed.

They continued walking along the track. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the asphalt, and a gentle breeze rustled over the circuit. While they spoke about their friends and family, Matilde glanced around, taking in the ambience. They both enjoyed the talk, it was about everything but work. It was pleasant to have a talk in your native language, regardless of the person. And the fact that they have a common connection, an important connection, made it even more fun.

When they arrived at the fake harbour, they stumbled against another connection they both had, but didn't know of. Kevin's whistle drew the attention of a runner passing by.

"Bill!"

The runner looked over his shoulder and turned around to run towards them. "Nå, hva 'så?" Asking what was up. He stopped in front of the two people. "What's going on here then?" A playful glint came in his eyes.

"Just two Danes taking a walk on the track," Kevin replied. "Do you know-"

Billi raised an eyebrow, pretending to look scandalised. "A walk?"

"Ah, crap, you caught us. We're actually secret track inspectors, making sure everything is up to Danish standards," Matilde joined the jesting.

"Ah, of course," Billi sagely nodded. "Very important work."

Kevin looked between Matilde and Billi. "Anyway, Bill, Matilde. Matilde, Bill."

Matilde shared a smile with Billi, the good looking Latvian doctor on the medical team, who also happened to speak Danish. The man had deep blue eyes, his beard was trimmed and he just had a haircut. The t-shirt around his torso was slightly too tight, defining his muscles even more. And Matilde knew him too well.

"Come here," Billi said and widened his arms.

Matilde raised her eyebrows. "I will pass, Billi. I'm not waiting for the sweat shower," she widely smiled.

"Oh, come on, it's not like you have not-"

"Next time."

Billi padded her shoulder lightly, slightly uncomfortable.. "It's so good to see you, Mati."

"I'm glad to see you," she smiled.

"Also a connection?" Kevin then asked, watching the two with raised eyebrows.

"Friends," Billi proudly said and wrapped his arm around Matilde's shoulder, making Matilde step away which caused them to giggle.

Kevin looked at Matilde. "I swear, the next time I want to introduce you to someone I know, I will first ask if you know them."

A laugh rolled over Matilde's lips. "Coincidence."

"She practically got connections in every corner of the paddock," Billi said.

She huffed and shook her head. "I wish."

"I will remember that next time I need a favour," Kevin said, having a playful glint in his eyes.

They continued to exchange jokes and laughter, enjoying the lighthearted atmosphere. The three of them strolled along the asphalt towards the pits, sharing stories and poking fun at each other. When the three entered the pitlane, Charles and Carlos were also entering the pitlane; they decided to run a lap as well.

Matilde, Billi and Kevin were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't notice the two Ferrari drivers. Charles and Carlos, on the other hand, had their attention squarely fixed on their team principal, fellow driver and doctor of the medical team. They observed the easy camaraderie between the three, the constant laughter that seemed to be a part of their interaction.

When the Ferrari drivers passed the trio, Charles leaned over to Carlos. "Did you see that?" he muttered quietly.

Carlos squeezed his eyebrows together and stopped running as their lap was completed. "Yeah, they seem to be having a great time. Why?"

"She has fun with everyone," Charles replied, "Everyone but our team."

Carlos chuckled. "Come on. You know she's just being professional with us." He noticed how Charles looked over his shoulder, looking at the group. "She's the boss, after all."

Charles mumbled something under his breath, still not looking away from the trio ahead. He couldn't quite shake off the feeling of annoyance at the sight. It was as if the friendship on display highlighted the distance between Matilde and the Ferrari team, and in particular, himself.

"And she joined us at a very weird time, she's probably still adjusting to the team. She had her contacts from her previous role, plus she had been out of the scene for months. Give her sometime," Carlos continued. "Maybe you should join them for a track walk next time. Who knows, you might find yourself enjoying some Scandi vibes."

"Is Bill from Scandinavia?"

Carlos shrugged. "He is from somewhere up there. Magnussen and Matilde are Danish and Bill seems to keep up with their conversation." He padded Charles' shoulder. "But join them and find out."

A half-hearted chuckle rolled over Charles' lips. "We will see."

Next chapter

[alittledizzy]

I absolutely agree with you on all points regarding the ask about Dan and Phil building an audience back, what's holding them back, etc. When they both started posting a little more regularly again after their coming out videos, and seemed to be hinting at trying to post content again, I was excited. However, I can't say I wasn't disappointed in Dystopia Daily. It's like Dan mentally cannot break free of 2016 internet humor, right down to even his snarking, depreciating humor about his audience being outdated. Phil has gotten much better about being himself on-camera, but you can tell he's still keeping it at arms-lengths. Which is fine, he's certainly entitled to create a healthy barrier, but watching the two of them in 2023 is like trying to straighten a slightly crooked picture but just not quite being able to get it right. Just...off. I think the tours were supposed to be their "grand finale" and now they just want to settle back into how things were before, but don't know how to do that without drawing from what they're comfortable with. Which they haven't done regularly since 2016, so that's their comfort zone. They want things to work within their comfort zone, but that might not happen.

"watching the two of them in 2023 is like trying to straighten a slightly crooked picture but just not quite being able to get it right"

this is the best description of them i've seen in recent history.

it's also something you can compare to other content creators that are still going; most have shifted content away from sit down stare at the camera videos into something softer and more blurred into their life. zoe and alfie vlog, louise vlogs, tyler streams on twitch. they're all still content creation but they've understood that the time for persona heavy youtube creating has come and gone.

i don't think dan and phil could, would, or should vlog. they wouldn't enjoy that. i don't even want phil to stop making sit down videos if he's that attached to the format! but they need to find what is their own middle ground between the rigid division of their pre-coming out selves and finding comfort with an audience. i think youtube for phil feels safe right now but i do not think it is on any level creative or challenging for him. i said something similar before, but watch even his 'questions i wouldn't normally answer' video and tell me he's pushing even a single boundary in it.

and if he is honestly happy with them having made their bank and likely being able to live on the interest from investments and residuals for the rest of their lives, more power to them. i'm here because i love them as people. i will never stop following them with passion and interest.

"I think the tours were supposed to be their "grand finale" and now they just want to settle back into how things were before"

i think this is correct and also where it gets even stickier because they are out of touch. with younger audiences and the content they want. with no video platforms and what does well there. i think they understand the audience they cultivated years ago very well, for better or worse, but that's not going to get them forward momentum.

i think a podcast would be a great way for them to safely do that. but i think their perception of how the audience would react to joint content is skewed too. phil gets numbers on meme tweets but nothing short of dan dropping an hour and a half 'here's a timeline of my relationship with phil' is going to pull ten million views so they've surpassed the era where they need to fear about making major headlines anywhere. they whethered that storm and i'm happy for them, i'm just not convinced they realize that. since obviously to a singular person any amount of direct attention is going to feel like a Lot.