#henry knows exactly what bill is doing lol

[finaltimelineau]

[seiya234]

the haunting of ian beale, 2/?

uh this one got long lol. part one here.

---

Ian looked around him.

He looked at who was next to him, and what he was wearing and sighed deeply.

"Well, it's not the Symbolism Room at least."

Henry nodded. "It's the Symbolism Beach, which will obviously be better."

"Was that a joke?"

"Rest assured, I do not engage in any type of jokes, frivolity, japes or shenanigans."

"Well as long as that's settled."

The beach was... endless, sand in all directions on either side of him, water in front of him. Ian didn't look behind him; something inside told him that he wouldn't like it. Normally that would have had him immediately looking from sheer spite but his gut was telling him

he would see Nothing

truly, Nothing.

could he handle seeing Nothing? no, okay, let's move on then because

this chair was very comfortable.

Henry and Ian were in Adirondack chairs, and Ian knew it wasn't his mind supplying he beach because he had never heard that term in his life. Thankfully, something knew him well enough to pair his swim trunks with a shirt and sun hat.... though considering his trunks were covered in yellow triangles, and his shirt had a Radical Dude Doing Sik Sk8 Trix on it, he was still clearly being fucked with.

Henry, Ian was bemused to see, was still in his weird pre-Transcendence 'preacher' outfit, though tonight at least he had short sleeves on.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Ian looked out at crashing waves, water so dark as appear to black, a blue cloudless sky. It felt... calming. Meditative. The waves were just enough to provide sound, but not so violent as to actually disturb the sense of calm tranquility.

His brain, Ian realized, was quiet.

Quiet in that every time he felt the panic rise, it felt like a big fist came to kindly push on his chest until he settled down.

He should probably be worried about that but

oh. hey. A fruity tropical drink in his hand. Convenient, that.

"What brings you here this time?" Ian asked. "I"m not sure how many after school specials I can handle."

Henry frowned a bit. "I'm not entirely sure myself. Quite frankly I'm amazed I'm here spea-"

Henry disappeared. Ian took the opportunity to will his drink from a virgin pina colada to a margarita.

He looked out at the ocean.

He didn't look behind him.

"My apologies." Henry was still the same, though his glass had now turned into a mug that read 'World's Best Grandpa.'

"Not exactly fun being constantly in the midst of an existential crisis, I get it."

Henry looked around him. "This... this is my daughter's beach."

The mindscape of someone dead a thousand years. But

"You seem... relatively calm, about that," Ian finally ventured.

"You mean, as compared to Alcor?" Ian must have pulled a face, because Henry let out a bittersweet little laugh.

"No. I am sad my daughter is gone. But I am happy knowing since then she has had a hundred different life times to experience joy-"

"-and pain-"

"-and that too but one is not outweighed by the other. It just is. We see each other in-"

Henry kept talking but for a minute all that came out was radio static. Ian had a feeling that even if Bill or Alcor were here, they too would only hear that static as well.

"-also, with all due respect for my brother, it has been a millennium. Everyone and everything involved has moved on."

"But not him," said Ian with full disrespect.

"No." Henry took a drink and adjusted his visor. "in a way, I pity him, deeply. I think he will forever be locked in the trauma of losing everyone and everything he knows. There is a part of him that cannot change, cannot move on, and he knows it."

"Okay, but that's bullshit though?" and oh, was he mad? Okay, he was not only mad, but pretty mad, even with the chest pushing blanket on him.

"I'm sorry, but a thousand years, and nothing has changed? Seriously? Also have we forgotten that vampires also can live a very long time, or dragons, and I don't see them doing... doing-"

Ian waved a hand to indicate everything Alcor had done, ever.

"Vampires don't have infinitely expanding and growing power at their beck and call."

"And that makes a difference how?" Man the combination dreamarita, dream beta blocker, and the constant rage that bubbled under his skin was actually a really good combo, the words were flowing but the heart rate was not accelerating, 12/10 feeling.

"My life, Mira's life... they're different because Alcor is in them- and not always for the better."

"Bill might have happened anyway."

"Point. But would I be missing an eye, would-"

Ian stopped, because he didn't want to tell Henry about the pain, the sadness, the absolutely tremendous amount of stress on all of them, because the preteen with the power of a god decided to come into their lives and play with them like dolls.

He didn't deserve that truth, yet.

Everything was silent for a minute, save for the breaking of the waves and the cry of the gulls.

Finally, Henry managed to say, "I think, I am a little upset to hear you say that. But if I put my emotions aside for a second, I do not think you are entirely wrong, either."

Ian was still. He had seen Henry crush the plastic armrests under his hands, caught the hot iron tang of blood in his nose and a flash of meat in the antlers.

"Has he told you, about my children? His nieces and nephew?"

"No. He hasn't? I'm... sorry?"

For a minute, Henry disappeared. But this time it felt like it was because he chose to do so himself.

Henry blipped back in, now also holding a dreamarita. "My apologies. I did not realize how that would affect me. And I did not hold space for your extremely valid criticisms."

Looking at him, Ian felt a wash of pity come on him. What was it like- no, what had to have happened that even a thousand years later you felt the need to exert that level of control over oneself?

"Anyway," Henry went on. "We had triplets- Acacia, Hank, Willow. They were our everything. Alcor was their fourth parent." The math must clearly have not been mathing on Ian's face because Henry added "We also had my father-in-law with us. No but... I don't regret having Alcor with us, having Alcor raise the kids. He loved them, more than anyone or anything else-"

"-except Mizar."

Henry looked like he bit a lemon.

"Yes. Well. My point is, I don't regret it but thinking about it... we were all affected in some way, letting a demon into our homes, into our bed. And... it wasn't always all good." Henry paused. "But it wasn't all bad, either."

Ian thought about it, really, truly thought about it for a minute.

"It's not all bad," he finally agreed. "But he seriously needs to fix his shit."

"I'll have a talk with him-" Henry's hands and feet blipped, appeared quickly hanging from his antlers, then appeared back where they should be. "Or I'll try to anyway."

They drank their drinks. At some point, a goat wandered onto the beach.

Ian still didn't feel tempted to look back behind him. It felt like being fourteen. It wasn't a good feeling and oh, the calm down hand was pushing him down again-neat!

"I am a little embarrassed that I am just now having this realization," Henry said as he began his second dreamarita. "It feels like something I should have recognized a long time ago."

Ian was now three dreamaritas in and beginning to see 5-D colors. "I wouldn't sweat it, it's probably because your consciousness was violently ripped apart and the resulting energy used to power a demon and now the million fragments of your soul are slowly beginning to piece themselves together and wait, how do I know this?"

"You know the answer."

"Ugh. Him."

"But you are probably correct."

"Orrrrrr, and just throwing this out there- none of this could be real and it's simply my brain trying to process the absolute shitshow of the last few years."

"Perhaps. I know that I, personally, do not feel very 'real' right now, which is also very disconcerting."

They sat. They drank their drinks. The goat was eating a seagull, an image that Ian was almost going to immediately throw on a storyboard for the next episode when he woke up.

"Why are you here? Doing this?" Ian finally asked.

"I don't have anything else better to do. Dipper won't listen to me."

Ian was not going to touch that with a ten foot pole but he went on. "That's not your vibe, that's what assholes like me say."

"I am trying to be witty, but that has never been my strong suit."

Which was why Ian wasn't going to point out that that had been nowhere near wit but-

"-I thought you could use someone to talk to, about all of this."

"Okay, but we already had this conversation and I am pretty sure you are not a licensed therapist."

"Very much not; I was a librarian."

"That tracks."

"So no, I am not a therapist. I certainly can't 'fix' you, nor do I have any intent on doing so."

That flare of anger again. "Okay, but my life would be considerably easier if my brain wasn't constantly trying to crash into the ocean and explode, so I'd rather like some fixing, thank you very much."

Henry held his hands up in supplication. "My apologies, I was trying to go for more 'we are defined by our life experiences.'" He looked down. I'm not always the best with.. talking to people. Understanding them. That was all-"

"Mira." Unbidden, her name out of his mouth.

"Her."

On Henry's arms, Ian could see dozens of little round scars, up and down. His hands clasped his mug, and Ian could see that two or three of his fingers were crooked.

Ian had a feeling why Henry had a hard time with people. It wasn't a good feeling.

"But look. One good talk won't fix everything forever. I think you could use someone to talk to about this a little more regularly. I don't know all of what you've been through, our experiences aren't a one to one comparison but, I get it. Really. And I know in retrospect, I should have talked to someone myself."

"Wait. I'm sorry, you didn't have a therapist? Or anything?"

It was disconcerting to see a middle aged man who could instantly obtain and wear the mantle of Death blush beet red.

Ian could see where this was going. "Henry did you ever talk to your wife about any of this?"

"A... a tiny bit, I think. I hope. But, I think I didn't want to burden her... which in and of itself created a burden on her. I trusted her, more than anything else in the world, but I... I couldn't talk to her."

Henry looked down at the drink in his hands. "It was always so much easier to talk here, than it was in the real world."

Control.

Ian thought about the control it took to keep the anger at bay, keep the temper cool, keep everything inside, at all times.

Control, that was more akin to a prison.

Aloud though, all Ian said was "Oof," because honestly he wasn't sure how to handle this level of honesty from a guy he was only talking to for the second time ever, also who was super dead.

"My apologies, I know that was a lot of- as my kids used to say- 'oversharing.' But I just dont want you to make the same mistakes I did."

A chill trickled down Ian's spine. "Um, I'm actually emotionally available and talk to my fiance like a real person, thank you very much. To say nothing of the multiple therapists I am currently seeing."

Henry ignored Ian's barbs and went on. "I know you talk to Mira-"

"How-"

"I can see inside you," Henry said, nonchalantly.

Not even magic airborne anxiety medicine would keep Ian's heart from immediately jackhammering in his chest, stop his temper from instantly snapping like a twig."

Ian's voice was low. "I am sick and TIRED of people, especially people I don't know, RUMMAGING inside of my head."

Henry was flushing but this time there were stormclouds in his face, which tough shit.

"It all comes down to BILL, always and forever, and apparently that's a legitimate reason to invade my privacy? In the most violating way possible?"

"That was certainly not my intention, could I please explain?"

Ian was standing up now, albeit wobbly because those dreamaritas were hitting hard, and looked out to the ocean beyond. He resisted the urge to dump a devastating one liner and began to wade out into the ocean. He'd just swim until he woke up, and then put "learn how to lucid dream" on his calendar so he could peace out right away next time this happened.

"Wait, Ian you should not go out in that water-"

Ian flipped him the bird and kept going.

"No, seriously, I think that's a rip tide-"

Suddenly, it felt like two hands grabbed Ian's ankles and pulled and now he was flying through the water, further and further from shore. He tried swimming sideways, but the not-hands on his ankles held on tighter and pulled him under."

It was a dream so obviously, Ian didn't need to breathe.

But

Everything around him was wine dark and suffocating. Underneath his feet was tens of thousand of feet of water and more than that was a deep crushing M A W, a great big stingray's mouth that sought out pray and sucked it in to crush it between it's two great grinding plates and he was drawing closer and closer and

Something else wrapped around his waist. Something... wood? It wrapped and it Pulled

And the maw and the wine dark sea and the bird eating goat and the beach were gone, all gone, and it was just him, and Henry, in a blank white space.

"I'm sorry, I tried to take you to my space but-"

For a second, everything flickered around Ian and he was in a forest but flicker again and it was the blank white room.

"-but I think that part of me is gone, right now."

"So. Thank you for saving me, but counterpoint, what the fuck was that murder beach?"

"I did not realize that her beach had.. not quite gotten a mind of its own. Say was akin to a machine left on way too long, running the same processes until it burns out-"

"And those processes are?"

"Eradicate intruders by destroying them, and dispersing their energy."

"And," Ian said after a long minute, "that was your daughter's mind."

"She was going through some things." Henry paused. "In retrospect, quite a lot of things."

Ian sat down, and Henry next to him.

"I don't- it's not on purpose, I promise."

Ian sighed. "I had a feeling. Honestly, you don't give off that kind of vibe. It's just-"

"You've been violated. Several times." There was an edge to Henry's voice and for a second the air around him smelt of blood and pine and wait, was he getting mad on Ian's behalf? Oh, that was... unexpected. But cool, thanks!

Henry closed his eyes, took a breath, and the air cleared. "I want to let you know I am not reading your mind-"

"Oh my stars, is that one theory that souls just watch the living like TV true? Because I got to tell you, I am deeply not sure how I feel about that existentially."

"No. I mean, kind of but-" radio static, again.

"I didn't catch any of that but I'm guessing no one is watching grandma go to the bathroom from the afterlife."

Henry shuddered. "Absolutely not. I can just..." He paused, clearly trying to think of a way to phrase it so that mortals could understand. Finally, he just reached out and gently tapped Ian's chest.

"I see that."

"Are you telling me you can see my heart? Because that is unimaginably corny."

"I can see that you are a good man, who loves and is loved in return."

For once, Ian had nothing to say.

The room began to dim, and Henry looked around. "I think you're starting to wake up."

"Oh, uh... okay."

There was an awkward pause, but finally, Ian extended an olive branch. "It feels like you still have more to say."

"I do."

"Then, I guess I'll see you around."

----

A pillow smacked into his face.

"Dude, why are you groaning so much?"

"Love you too, starshine."

"Seriously though, you practically woke yourself up. Weird dreams?"

Ian's brow crinkled. He couldn't remember anything but-

"Did I drink last night?"

"Um, unless you managed to do it in the 2 minutes we were apart before bed, no?"

"Huh. It's weird but I feel... hungover?"

[will80sbyers]

Holly Wheeler's room in season 5

We have a drawing of ballerinas (like if someone is getting Vecnad), one drawing of an owl (?) (owls in the background = bad omens theory) with a red balloon(?) like in IT and the one near the yellow I don't get exactly what it could be... She also has a blonde Barbie head that I feel like could be both because she's a kid that wants to play at being pretty and because for the symbolism it's an image of her mom I think

Lots of colours and happy vibes, she seems to be a very artistic kid, she also plays something (I think it's most likely a violin)

she loves rainbows, the plushie seems to be either a mouse or a bear but I'm leaning towards the mouse because she has the Fievel poster... I'm curious about that other smaller poster but I don't know what it could be about...

Then we also had this side of her room with the Alf poster

Alf is an alien that "likes to eat cats and comment on the stupidity of humanity" apparently... Demodog/Henry related imo

Plot of the show from Wikipedia:

Gordon Shumway is an alien from the planet Melmac who follows an amateur radio signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners, a suburban middle-class family who live in the San Fernando Valley area of California. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory), and pet cat Lucky. ( Holly Wheeler as a cat... lol )

Willie gives Gordon the nickname ALF ("Alien Life Form"), and, unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home to hide him from the Alien Task Force, a part of the U.S. military that specializes in aliens, and their nosy neighbors Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John La Motta and Liz Sheridan), until he can repair his spacecraft. Though his culture shock, survivor's guilt, and loneliness often cause problems for the Tanners, as well as their fear of what could happen if others were to discover his existence, they grow to care for and love him as a part of the family.

It is later revealed that ALF's home planet, Melmac, exploded due to nuclear war, leaving him and other survivors of his species without a home, and that he survived its destruction because he was away as part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. In the season one episode "Pennsylvania 6-5000", ALF tries to convince the President of the United States to stop the nuclear program, as he fears that Earth could suffer a similar fate to Melmac, though a misunderstanding causes the President and national security to call the FBI to arrest Willie.

Episodes dealt with ALF learning about Earth and making new friends both within and outside the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Kate's widowed mother Dorothy (Anne Meara), with whom ALF has a love-hate relationship, her boyfriend and later husband Whizzer (Paul Dooley), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake (Josh Blake), the psychologist Larry (Bill Daily) and the blind woman Jody (Andrea Covell), who never learns of ALF's true nature, but does know through touch that he is short and hairy.

Changes occur in the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric, who was added to the series because Anne Schedeen was pregnant at the time; ALF moving from the laundry room to the attic, which he and Willie convert into an "apartment", and the death of Lucky in the season four episode "Live and Let Die", which ALF accepts despite having previously attempted to catch and eat him due to having come to love and respect him. When ALF adopts a new cat with the intention of eating it, he grows fond of it and allows the Tanners to adopt it.

(Maybe Henry grows fond of Holly and doesn't kill her because of that???)

In the 1996 movie Project ALF, which follows ALF after his capture by the USAF, the Tanners do not appear due to moving to Iceland.

and some books of foreshadowing that we analyzed previously, Peter Pan, A royal Pain, Nancy Drew and the secret of the old clock... which tbh seems all related to Henry and seeing that he will take Holly at one point it makes sense

These are the covers, it seems she's in the middle of reading the Nancy book because she has a bookmark there

An important note is that one of these books, A Royal Pain, talks about someone thinking they've been switched at birth with someone else, and this switched at birth idea gets also associated with Nancy in season 3 when she talks to her mom...

Then we have obviously the "Nancy" book with the clock being related to Vecna's clock and there's a mystery connected to this clock and then Peter Pan which Henry is sort of a dark version of that when he takes children away to a land where they stop growing........... 💀

people have already talked about this and also about Petergate (the name Peter gets repeated in the show SO many times) and the belief that there might be someone important to the story called Peter that we don't know about yet, or maybe that has been mentioned only once in season 4 aka Owens son that seems to be both dead and somehow, the military thinks he may be related to how Chrissy died so maybe he died in the same way as her?

Because they take his things and put this line in the show for some reason

[majaloveschris]

I live in the NYC area and recently received a local newsletter from my neighborhood showing outdoor summer movies in the local public park.

The reason I’m telling you this is bc something kind of interesting happened. One of the movies they were showing this summer is mrs Harris goes to paris.

In the neighborhood newsletter blurb discussing the movie, they mentioned Lesley manville (the star), AB, and then isabelle huppert.

No mention of Lucas Bravo, Jason isaacs, etc.

It was really bizarre to me bc AB being listed as second billing for a random local newsletter makes little sense to me as she was very clearly not the star or even second star. Lucas B technically should be bigger than her as he has a pivotal role in Emily in Paris which is still going on and hasn’t been canceled, and he was just in a romcom hit with George Clooney and Julia roberts last summer. He’s also a professional model and has been on runways and mag spreads this past year alone.

Ab had WN that got canceled and she didn’t even do any interviews for the second season. She has not been in any large endorsements or gotten any super prestigious roles since, but she did go public with a more famous actor.

If anyone is questioning if the PR is working…there’s your answer. Her name is getting out there and the search algorithm for her name is getting more and more out there as well.

Is any of this due to her own talent and success? (LOL)

Or is it more likely the huge PR boost given to her by someone else’s name?

I think the reason some ppl, esp team real, is doubtful about PR bc AB herself is not doing the legwork to put her name out there for more positive professional recognition. Her very actions/inactions seem to point to her hoping that the PR boost will do the work for her.

Many women who started dating more famous men usually had their own careers or would leverage the association to their professional benefit. Examples: Kaia gerber (mother is supermodel Cindy Crawford, boyfriend is Austin butler), Gigi hadid (already famous in her own right) and whatever her thing is with Leo DiCaprio, Hannah Davis (model) and Derek Jeter, Natalie V (works in the industry) and Henry Cavill. You’ll see most of these women have their own personas and social media and continue to do their own thing outside of being connected to famous men. Even if you feel they dated/married up or are opportunists as well, they still have their own thing going on. They didn’t just go into hiding so all ppl will ever think of is that they’re spending all their time following their man around.

By contrast, the dating rumors began for AB and she immediately pivots to “never being seen” unless it’s to let ppl speculate she’s with him.

She gives the vibes of a person who very much hopes the offers will fall into her lap bc she got her name attached to an A lister. She forgot that she is not marketable by herself and has no IT factor so ppl are still not checking for her. Being pretty on a basic level and attending one fashion show does not make you a star.

I know ATP the discussions on this have hit beyond the point of broken record. But I stand by it - she never wanted to work for fame. She wanted it handed to her, and still does. Her little friends JA and his sister also wanted to reap the benefits by association, and really believed all of their statuses would magically elevate due to their “association” with an A lister.

No wonder CE has spent this entire year mentioning the “industry” and what it makes you do. This was a hint, y’all.

This whole "relationship" definitely gets her name out there. WN was successful, but not enough to give her a name in HW or in America.

I think one of the other really good examples of how big of a boost it is for her can be seen on WN's number. So the official People article came out on November 10, 2022, exactly on the day the show's second season debuted. The first season had never been trending before that. Not when it came out, not when they announced the second season. However, after the announcement, not just the second but even the first season started trending, with the first season in 32 countries and the second season in 70. I've seen that a lot of people have said they only started watching the show because they wanted to see who the woman Chris is dating is. And I will also admit that back in, like, January 2022, I also checked the show because I was interested in who she is.

Obviously, I'm not saying those people didn't like WN or that they just watched two seasons because she is dating him. I'm pretty sure there were people who did it because of that, but I'm also pretty sure there were people who liked the show and the characters, but maybe they didn't even know about it before that. WN is not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it's a bad show. Not at all. But I think the fact that it started trending and that more people started to watch it has to do with their relationship. It has to do a lot, in my opinion.

A lot of Chris fans love them together, support them, and even defend her and their relationship. So yeah, the fact that her name is now connected to his helps her out big time.

It always bugged me that she never really promoted her work. I guess she did a little more when the second season of WN came out, but it wasn't anything special. She also seems reluctant to engage with her fans. They keep tagging her; they write sweet messages for her, but no reaction. Not even a thank-you or anything like that. They were trying so hard to save WN.

I just don't like her or her personality. I mean what we can see from it.

[wheelercore]

It's really interesting how we get 3 versions of the creel plotline:

1. The creel trailer, which has alice and henry running up the stairs excitedly together and alice finding the dead rabbit, not in the playground, but what I assume is either the front yard or the backyard. Also henry and alice are noticeably younger, but children grow quickly so I don't know if that was intentional.

2. The show itself, which has the difference in the beginning entry way scene and alice in the playground.

3. The First Shadow, in which alice strikingly missing, despite the fact that the play still takes place when the creels just moved to Hawkins, supposedly. I believe the first promo refers to henry as the new kid in school, emphasizing that henry may be an only child in this play... somehow.

So either something happened to alice before the creels arrived to hawkins (doubtful, this show places a lot of emphasis on hawkins as a setting and I doubt the it would make its central 'cursed town' irrelevant to its plot twist)-

Alice never existed (?? Lol) -

Or something happened to alice after the creels moved to hawkins and what we see in the show is not what it seems.

The third option isn't exactly out of this world. The show, since the beginning, put a lot of emphasis on PTSD, flashbacks, and repressed memories. It's all the more obvious with El recovering memories of Henry and the massacre, but s2 was filled to the brim with allegories and mentions to flashbacks, starting with Phineas "totally not used in the show as an allegory for the psychological effects of trauma" Gage and how will's supernatural experiences were compared to PTSD.

Vecna's curse was intentionally made to be subtle to the victim. None of them knew they were in a hallucination until it was made obvious to them. And... there are just some very interesting word choices going on here:

Hopper corrects Joyce in this scene but the association of flashbacks and nightmares continue. Victor describing his own vecna vision, reminiscent of his own traumatic memories:

Him describing waking up from his later vision, describing both that vision and his "reality" as nightmares:

We don't see Alice dying. Not even in Henry's pov- it's intentionally obfuscated from us.

In the beginning of s4 nightmares are also framed as a sign of the vecna curse, we see specifically Max's nightmare being more so a flashback, or a memory, to Billy's death. Nightmares are also a core symptom of PTSD so it fits the bill with season 2.

Funnily, enough we see Alice also experiences nightmares- which we know what that's associated with:

What exactly were in Alice's nightmares?

In the beginning we also got these very sus lines by Alice of all people, saying how the home looks like a "fairytale" and a "dream", which you know is what people say when they mean something is too good to be true, the opposite of nightmare, used to mean something that is so dreadful its hard to believe.

These lines arent in the creel trailor, which is... interesting.

Also I wonder if there is a hint to this when Henry gains his abilities in the first place. Weirdly enough this is symbolized by Henry forcing a clock to go backwards, metaphorically into the past (and I am obligated to mention this, but the parallel to fred):

Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and die. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness. I could not pretend. And I realized I didn't have to. I could make my own rules. I could restore balance to a broken world.

Also makes me so curious about the rainbows on the clock during this monologue/scene... a reference to the rainbow room? Makes sense because it seems like the lab kids were killed in a similar fashion to Alice- their jaws weren't broken unlike virginia and the vecna victims. Why?

It's interesting how directly after this scene it cuts to the rabbit being killed- and with the predator/prey theme often represented by animals and a rabbit is definitely a prey animal- and that rabbits body being left for alice, who would later be killed in a similar way.

Why is Henry forecasting Alice's own death to her? For funsies? We see he repeatedly that he used tactics against his parents to hold the mirror up because they've done "terrible things" (still unknown what Virginia's terrible thing is yet). For vecna victims its slightly different, while fred and max fit that bill, patrick and chrissy don't. Their visions were more along the lines of showing them the darkness in their lives that they hide. So it seems to me that vecna shows not just sources of guilt, but the harsh unbridled truth of their lives. So what business did Henry have with Alice?

I'm not saying that there is possibly some weird fucky altered reality/time loss stuff happening in hawkins but. I am.

[carry-on-every-neverland-magic]

The Last of Us rant and MAJOR spoilers ahead

NOT part 2 positive

Its so wild to me that the creators didn't even think about taking the show in a different direction to the part 2 game, as everything I have read seems to point in the direction they're gonna make season 2 exactly as the part 2 story goes. Like fine part 2 exists (even though its the worst thing ever, butchers Joel and Ellies bond and characters and introduces a ton of other characters idgaf about and this is just scratcing the surface of why its awful)

but I wish the writers could have taken season 2 of the show somewhere else, kept the heart and soul of the story alive (Joel & Ellie) made Joel not be an ooc dumbass and stand and wait to be beaten up and worse.

The entire reason I latched onto the Last of Us was Joel and Ellie. Sure I love a post apocalyptic story, love the other characters and atmosphere but the heart of the last of us IS Joel and Ellie, two lost souls finding and healing each other. They gave hope in a hopeless world.

Why couldn't season 2 focus on them in Jackson, explain and show better why Ellie is so mad at Joel over what he did (which any father would have done tbh) and show them heal and fucking watch Jurassic Park together.

The cure was never a certain thing and Ellie has so many dreams and desires and things she loves he simply wanted her to have a life.

I'm tired of part 2 stans saying how we just want a happy ending and should go watch peppa pig or something but like hello?? all my fave media is tragic lol I love tragedy Hell I don't even care if Joel is killed its the WAY he died like an absolute ooc chump that sucks and the way his bond with Ellie was ripped apart and they were kept apart in s2 and for what? Because she's mad over some non existent non certain cure when the world is basically burned to shit and too many assholes have claimed it. What would a vaccine have even saved?

The only good and beautiful thing about part 2 were the flashbacks (most of them anyway, but particularly the museum scene and some other scenes like Ellie holding Joels jacket)

It just makes me sad man that one of my favourite stories had such a shit part 2 and one of my fave shows is looking likely to head in the exact same direction when they could have taken a shot at doing the story that so divided people differently.

It just feels weird to have no excitement for season 2 when all I know is coming is a load of characters I don't care about, Joel dying in the first 5 minutes and Ellie turning into a murderous savage and ending up alone. Like what is good or hopeful or redemptive about this? And I give two shits about Abby because you can't kill off a main character you love so quickly, stupidly and horribly then expect us to buy into her story and care. No.

The Last of Us showed many stories and people, Henry and Sam, Bill and Frank etc and you care because the world they're in, the things they have had to see and do to survive and protect those they love is fascinating to watch. But it doesn't work in part 2 because they ripped away a character in such a stupid brutal way and didn't give us nearly enough time with him and Ellie. I love Joel so much but him dying could be part of the story for sure. But not like this.

I'm rambling now but basically I've never loved characters and a story so much but only half of it. I feel robbed of a proper ending.

[ambrossart]

good morning! before the preview and the next chapter comes out there’s a few thoughts and questions I have that I want to put out to you if you have the time….

first, the sexualizing of Evelyn, a 15 year old girl who’s been described as flat chested and almost kind of child-like, by boys like Martin and Patrick during this story so far breaks my heart. I honestly don’t think it matter what she wore or how long her dress was, the truth is Martin simply had an opportunity to take advantage of her and it’s so sad because the situation she found herself in happens to so many young girls.

second, I’ve been completely team Vic for probably almost 20 chapters now… and I was wondering if or when Vic realized his feelings for Evelyn. was it when he saw Henry at her house and felt jealous? they seem to have a deep history, and Evelyn seems over him but I can still tell there’s lingering feelings there. I just can’t help but root for them…. I’d like to think it could come full circle once they both grow and mature throughout this story and they still could end up together (I’m probably delusional)

speaking of Vic, I’m not sure how your story will play out (which is the most exciting part of it for me) but thinking about how Evelyn would react to Henry murdering Vic (and Belch ofc)…. the heartbreak would be unbearable to read

lastly, I gotta know… Patrick. what the heck is up with that guy? I never know. I know you won’t tell but can you please let me know…. why Evelyn? what makes her so interesting to him? this doesn’t seem like just another obsession anymore. is she still just his play thing, or is he starting to feel something for her? maybe not love but anything for her? if not he needs to leave that poor girl alone (as fun as they are to read lol)

Sorry, I meant to answer this yesterday, but I was focused on cleaning up the preview and getting it ready.

Now let’s get to these questions!

1) I see what you're saying and to a certain extent I agree, especially because we know Patrick and Martin don't have the best intentions. However, I do wanna say that just because Evelyn doesn't have those womanly curves that doesn't mean she's a child or even like a child. Yes, technically and legally she's a child, but she's not a little kid. Evelyn's 15, almost 16, and she has the same urges as many other girls her age. I think we see a lot of the characters making a lot of false assumptions about Evelyn based on the image she projects at school. They think maybe she's a prude or she's super innocent and inexperienced, and that's just not true. Yes, she's not very experienced with sex, but she's not totally innocent. And she's definitely not some frigid little prude, either. She's just very private and protective over her love/sex life. That's why she gets so upset when Hannah-Beth starts gossiping about their classmates' sex lives. In her mind, that's nobody else's business. With that said, Evelyn's very aware of how people view her. She knows she's not as developed as the other girls, and although she tends to keep it to herself, she's very self-conscious about it. It makes her feel less like a woman. Evelyn wore that dress because she wanted people to see her differently. For once, she wanted to feel pretty and, yes, maybe even a little sexy because she doesn't usually get that kind of attention from guys (sure, she’s caught Bill and Stan checking her out before, but that’s not exactly something she can brag about 😂). But she wants it. And it's completely okay for her to want that. So there's nothing inherently wrong with anyone sexualizing Evelyn. What's wrong is Martin taking Evelyn's completely healthy and natural desire (her decision to wear that dress) and turning it into something nasty and worthy of shame. Plus the sexual assault, of course, but that goes without saying.

2) I can't speak about this too much because it’s going to spoil some important moments I have planned, but Vic and Evelyn have a pretty deep and complicated history. As we know, Evelyn developed a major crush on him when they were kids and she never really tried to hide it. When Evelyn likes someone, she wants to be around them all the time, and that can be very overwhelming for someone like Victor. So to kind of answer your question, I think Vic was always aware of his feelings for Evelyn. He just needed time to properly process it. Unfortunately, he took too long and Evelyn moved on.

Of course, it’s not easy to get over your first crush, so Evelyn definitely still has some lingering feelings for him. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t explored an ending where they end up together, but nothing’s set in stone yet. He and Evelyn would need to sit down and have an honest conversation about a lot of things before they can have a successful relationship. Until Vic is ready to be honest about everything that happened in the past, Evelyn’s gonna be guarded and hesitant.

3) Finally, with Patrick… yeah, again, I can’t really answer that directly because it’ll spoil major plot points, but clearly he’s drawn to her, right? I mean, he called her ‘colorful’ and that’s basically the equivalent of calling someone beautiful, at least in Patrick’s eyes. (It’s pretty romantic, honestly, but I digress.)

Basically, Patrick’s been drawn to Evelyn from the beginning of the story. Way before Patrick decided to mess with Henry, Evelyn was already on his radar. The funny thing is, even he couldn’t seem to understand why. One of the first things he says to Evelyn is “I’ve seen you before. Where have I seen you?” He says it was the bullying video, but… was that really it? 🤔💭

Sorry, I wish I could say more about that, but I’d rather show it in the story. The next part is really Patrick-focused, so a lot of those questions will be answered then. 😊

[shinygoku]

gordon gordon gordon gordon

Gordon Gordon Gordon Gordon!!

He's been sneaking into these asks by proxy, so it's finally time for his dedicated session, hehe~

First impression

WUAAAGH what's up with this WEIRD LONG NOT-THOMAS and his FACE?!

Impression now

His face is still pretty weird! But you know what else it is? Part of an Absolute Legend ✨

Like, man, Gordon is such a big presence and interesting character, the entire premise leans heavily on him. I'm inclined to go as far as to say that the Blue Boys of 1, 2 and 4 here are the three most important characters for the franchise (not at all to knock everyone else lmao) and they slot nicely into a Triforce of Courage, Wisdom and Power, and Gordon has Power in spades!

Gordon is The Vain One (not James!). He's legit very strong and the fastest on Sodor (which isn't just being a big fish in a small pond because that island has some crazy cool engines!) but unfortunately he lacks humility. His success seems to have been lodged in his head before the series even begins and this Pride is the source of pretty much every single conflict he's involved in.

But when it isn't his self satisfaction in his actions, it's being smug about being such a grand, magnificent Tender Engine and he is snooty as hell about it. He seems to look at smaller engines [pretty much everyone compared to him lol] as a lesser class, particularly if they're small and cheeky and Tank Engines. This may not be the case exactly, but his way of talking to them and some other things he says are very condescending.

However... as much as a gigantic jerk he is at several points, with Gordon I kinda feel like he plain ass doesn't conceive of his words being out of line. That and having to Unlearn things... he's not innately better than everyone else. He sees things in black and white. There are Useful Engines, and those who should be scrapped. There are Noble Tender Engines and Lesser Tank Engines who exist to do the tedious chores on behalf of the Superior ones. Edward doing shunting is seen as Demeaning and contradicts Gordon’s world view that Tender Engines Don't Stunt™, and he doesn't like that one bit! (Also Edward was crossing the picket line but that wasn't Awdry's concern lmao)

Related is Gordon does seem oddly dense at times, like assuming that Tenders are in of themselves a Status Symbol rather than a large lunchbox of sorts lol, or that Tender Engines like him being too heavy for Branch Lines being because something about Branch Lines are degrading. This might be all Elitist Brainwashing influence. But still, that he just takes these as The Truth means I get to affectionately call him an idiot. And there is no other way to explain how he genuinely believes Bill and Ben were going to murder him if he wasn't missing a few brain bolts in there.

Fortunately, he does eventually start to learn the important lessons.... very gradually, but the Early Gordon is a pretty different beast to Later Gordon, and it's wonderful~

Also, I gotta give credit to him for having some moments of utter brilliance and actual grasp of reality and more complex matters, like culture. (Yeah, I'm rolling with his geniune Opera Knowledge from s6 of all things. It's good!) As much as Awdry himself may have disagreed, Gordon was in the right to want a Station Pilot and the Strike was called for (not bullying Edward for it, but myeah) ...but this leads to my next point: He seems to have a mental block when it comes to Emotions.

Certainly, he's as emotional as the others are, it's not just a scale of Snooty, Arrogant, Condescending, Prideful ....well, it is, but ALSO the more mixed and varied feelings: Shame, Sadness, Fear, Ambivilance, Irritation, Anger, Passion, Amused, Delight and so on. However, Gordon is seemingly unaware of how his words may make the others feel, and even at his cruellest it doesn't look like he's aware he's twisting a knife in. To Gordon, he's being honest, but his verbose manner ends up twisting and wriggling away from any valid point like an overgrown vine that somehow links back to how [Other Engine] is disgracing him, Gordon, by association.

Examples include: Being offended by Henry's new shape (??? Gordon dude he nearly died and this is an improvement, a good thing!), saying that Edward's age and difficulty starting a heavy ass packed load of passengers is grounds to be Retired or even Scrapped, other little insulting things like calling the likes of Thomas and James Little insistently (it seems to vary if he's trying to put them down or actually be affectionate), and many more when in the hands of inept writers who have to wheel out the same Gordon Learns A Lesson Plot every other season.

Like I said in the James post, I also think he kinda poisoned the Red guy with his snooty attitude... but I maintain that I think Gordon was unaware of this. He may know he has Influence, and enjoy that, but he really truly doesn't appear to mean to mould James into a smaller, redder version of himself. He's oblivious and from his own point of view, benevolent. Which is in fact a dangerous combo indeed!

It's... a lot o7;;

Again though, if you're looking at the books and s1-s5 of TVS you can see him grow and change. He does take a while to learn the lessons, but as time goes on he moves 2 steps forward and 1 step back, then eventually less steps back entirely. It's great! And so is Gordon. A big dumb meathead with not entirely uncalled for delusions of granduer. A dramatic so-and-so who is the best engine for his job.

I love this sophisticated jock who grows more kindness~ 💙

Favourite moment

Hm! This isn't as easy to decide lol. We all like Gordon Goes Foreign... but you know what sticks in my mind more?

hOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH

Look, I’m not 100% objective, here! But Ringo’s read of this line is fantastic (and keeps making me expect him to finish saying OOOHH SHIT) and it’s also a well deserved bolt of divine retribution for how rude he was being earlier. (As long as my essay already was, he very much needed the knocking down of some pegs here!)

Idea for a story

While both my fics with him thus far have been variations of Pre-Canon, Full-Arrogance and Snobbish Gordon (and both were a lot of fun!) ...but I cannot bear the same expired horse being beaten more when the story is set waaay later but he’s still up his own ass. Please, PLEASE writers, let him hold what growth he’s managed to gain!

I think it’d be good to accept that he’s gonna be outdated sooner or later, so have him help train another High Speed Engine and take them under his wing. The Christopher Awdry books kinda have something similar with Pip and Emma, but I think a better way of having Gordon be involved would be if he was actively doing some mentoring himself, as well as being a neat parallel with Edward, whose type was once Express only but got outclassed by A1s, and so the same can happen to this big A1 -> A3 lad and he can form a healthy relationship with some bright eyed newbie (and maybe have some self awareness and try to stop their head getting too large, lol).

Unpopular opinion

I know I just said him mentoring would be a cool story idea, but in canon? He is NOT a resident Dad type!! He’s a hotshot young man but he’s also a hot mess. He’s physically large but he’s not got the Energy of someone who dispenses sage advice and a shoulder to cry on. At best, he’s a weird uncle! One who means well but you shouldn’t take his life advice to heart because he’s actually just as, if not more clueless than you!

Favourite relationship

I feel inclined to say Thomas here. Emphatically not because Gordon is ‘old’ and Thomas is ‘young’, but because they’re so damn alike and actually make an excellent, albeit unconventional type of Rivalry.

Both are self important with genuine finesse in their respective talents, both are honest to a fault, both have redeeming qualities to offset their initial abrasiveness, and the first TVS episode is centred on the both of them and sets the tone for the series as a whole. There’s more parallels, of course, but I also wanna point out they’re effectively the mascots of North Western Rail in universe too, and I absolutely love this picture:

I also have immense fondness for the Down the Mine paradigm shift! Thomas gives Gordon grief over the ditch incident and later when it emerges the Fat Controller is gonna send for Gordon to pull him out, Thomas is filled with dread. But Gordon isn’t using the chance to lord over Thomas, he’s actually so amused by Thomas’ mishap and it coming at a time where he’s been significantly humbled, they instead become Comrades and I love it. I eat it up! Paint Pots and Queens isn’t anywhere near as good but I adore the little bit where they’re appealing for the other, equals and watching each other’s back~

But yeah, as Friendly Rivals they both feel very authentic and yet, in a daft way, sweet ;3

Favourite headcanon

He still says “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” when pulling the Express. That’s a HC as I think the show phased it out, but I like it lol. I feel like my essay on him contains most of the headcanon stuff, but it’s all based on what’s shown, baybee!

[marvelslut16]

I Promise

Pairing: Stanley Uris x Bowers!Reader (young) 

Request/synopsis: “Hi! If you’re still writing Stanley Uris, could you write a little childhood piece taking place during the first movie where the reader is one of the bullies’ little sister and hates what her brother and his friends are doing to the losers and starts to hanging out with them and the boys make fun of Stan because it’s obvious that he likes her and one day they’re walking and end up on the kissing bridge and he just starts rambling to her about something he saw and she interrupts him by kissing him”

Word count: 4,390 I think I got carried away

Warnings: Swearing. Mentions of attempted murder? Use of the term flamer, it means flamboyant gay, Stan is called that by Patrick in the books. Mentions a lewd act that happens in the book as well. Violence from a brother. Bullying. Some angst? Pennywise, that should definitely be a warning lmao.  Blood/gore/violence, typical for the IT fandom. Sort of mentions character death.

A/N: Sorry if this wasn’t exactly what you wanted, I tried to do this request justice (since it was my first! Thank you to the anon that asked for it!) but I definitely took it on an angsty ride lol. I definitely focused more on Henry and the time in the sewers than I originally planned.  Sorry this took so long as well, I wasn’t sure how to fit all of my ideas together. I really like how this turned out, but it’s also like two in the morning so there could be typos. 

Do you like being Henry's little sister? Of course not. Siblings or not, Henry treats you like shit too, at least he has the decency to keep it behind closed doors. On top of that, everyone avoids you, expecting you to be just like your brother or Greta. Greta is relatively nice to you, or as nice as demon spawn can be, she never makes fun of you or bullies you, she even tries to include you in her shit. Thinking, like everyone, that Henry actually likes you; and this way she can make a good impression and he can finally ask her out. 

You walk out of the front doors of the school on the last day to see your lovely brother and his idiot friends teasing Stan and his group of friends, stealing the curly-haired boys kippah. Richie, being his typical self, starts screaming and insulting Henry, making him angrier. Henry takes said anger out on Stan, pushing him to the ground and pulling his leg back to kick the smaller boy in the side. 

“Hey!” you scream and rush over to the scene, before you can realize what you're doing. 

“Come to defend your boyfriend?” your brother sneers before laughing like a lunatic. 

“Back off Henry,” you glare at him, stepping between him and Stan. You can hear the poor boy behind you struggling to stand up.

“Or what?” Henry leans in, face inches from yours. He has never made his dislike for you public, even his friends are shocked by his actions. “You gonna run home and tell Dad?”

“Tempting,” you push him away from your face, mindful that your father is on duty somewhere in the ocean of students. As he’s distracted by the shove, you yank the kippah free from his grasp. “You want them, you go through me.”

“That can be arranged,” he grits his teeth, gesturing for his friends to grab you. 

They look shocked for a second, before Belch wraps his large arms around your middle to hold you back. Your brother smirks at you as he advances on Stan, preparing to punch him. Your pleas for him to stop advancing on the loser’s, as they’re dubbed, fall on deaf ears. 

“Let go of me you creep!” you yell at Belch, before slamming your foot down on his. He lets go of you before bouncing around in pain, like a stupid cartoon character. You run between Henry and the Losers, but not before he can shove Richie to the ground. “Go home Henry,” you shove his chest again. 

“You can’t make me,” he flips open his switchblade as he advances on you. The rest of the world seems to still and all you can think is will Henry really hurt you? You hear the muffled cries from the boys behind you get louder with each step your brother takes towards you.

“What’s going on here?” your dad's voice cuts through the haze, Henry backs off and hides his knife before Dad can see. 

“I was just offering her a ride home,” Henry scowls as he turns to your father.

“And I was telling him that I was going to go hang out with my friends,” you use your thumb to point at the boys behind you. Your Dad eyes them wearily before ultimately coming to the conclusion that they’re a harmless group of nerds. He nods at you and sends Henry a small glare that if you blink you’ll miss before heading back the way he came. 

“Watch yourself,” Henry warns before making his way to Belch’s car, friends in tow. You let out a sigh as they drive away, shoulders slumping as your adrenaline wears off.

“I think this belongs to you,” you smile at Stan, handing him his kippah.

“Thanks,” he breathes, he looks like he wants to continue speaking but no words come out. As he grabs the kippah from you, his fingers brush against yours and a blush creeps up his cheeks. You grin at how adorable he is. 

“Are you guys okay?” you glance between him and Richie. Stan just nods and Richie rolls his eyes at the doe eyed look his friend is giving you. 

“I’d say we didn’t need your help, but Stan the man here certainly liked being your damsel in distress,” Richie smacks a hand on Stan’s shoulder and laughs, you soon join in. Stan smacks the boy with the glasses harder than you think anyone realized he could. “Ow, that fucking hurt” Richie whines, rubbing his arm and sulking off to Eddie. 

“D-do y-y-you wan-nt to go-o to the qu-qu-quarry wi-with us?” Bill asks and Richie smirks at the idea.

“I should go before Henry gets even more mad,” you play with the hem of your shirt. “But thank you for asking.”

“Please,” Richie clasps his hands and blinks dramatically at you, sticking his bottom lip out in an over dramatic pout. 

“Why not?” you grin at the losers, but at Stan the most. 

--

Over the following weeks you grow closer to the boys; Bev, Mike, and Ben too when they join the losers club. One day the eight of you are at the quarry trying to ignore the whole killer clown thing. Stan looks nervous about jumping into the water, even though you’ve seen him do it multiple times already. So you decide to grab his hand and pull him down with you withput warning. He lets out a high pitched screech that you almost can’t hear over the wind whipping past you. 

Once you and Stan, the last two to jump down, break the water's surface Richie grabs Eddie repeatedly screaming the word chicken and shaking the smaller boy. Bev grabs Ben’s hand to which he grins at. Richie and Bill share a look before the stuttering boy wades over to you. 

“W-w-will you b-be my par-pa-partner?” Bill smiles at you, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight. 

“Of course!” you smile at your friend, happy that the group accepted you quickly even though you’re a Bowers. You don’t see the glare Stan is sending Bill as he pairs up with Mike. Richie smirks at the rest of the group, you and Stan oblivious to the looks they send each other and their plan to make Stan so jealous he tells you how he feels. 

--

“So Stan,” Richie sings.

“No,” Stan says, watching you and Bev ride your bikes to your house for a sleepover. Her dad was worse than normal lately and she needed an escape, and you loved the escape it created from your brother. 

“I never asked my fucking question,” the boy with the coke-bottle glasses pouts.

“Because nothing good ever comes out of your mouth,” Stan deadpans, finally turning to look at his friends. You rode past the curve at the end of the road effectively taking you out of Stan’s line of sight, so he had no reason not to look at his friends now. 

“You were holding hands with (Y/N),” Eddie speaks up from Richie’s side. “Which is just fucking disgusting! Do you know how many germs-”

 His voice is cut off when Richie slaps his hand over the smaller boy's mouth. The look of terror on the hypochondriac’s face is one that Richie won’t stop laughing at for years to come. 

“She pulled me off the ledge,” Stanley rolls his eyes, suppressing a blush as he remembers how soft and warm your hand was. “It meant nothing.”

“And big Bill doesn’t fucking stutter,” Richie rolls his brown eyes, which look like googly eyes since they’re magnified by his glasses. 

“What?” Stan asks looking at the road in front of him, not wanting his friends to see how red his face and ears are. 

“I thought we were coming up with obvious lies,” Richie shrugs. “You’ve been in fucking love with her since you two got paired up at the beginning of the damn school year.”

“Have not!” Stan tries to lie, but his face darkens three shades deeper. The red instantly gives his obvious feelings away to his smirking friends. 

“It’s that or you have rosacea,” Edidie looks up at the Jewish boy with mock innocent eyes. “Because your cheeks are bright red every time you're around her.” Stan doesn’t respond because he knows they’re right, so he just walks away from them.

--

“Do you like Stan?” Bev giggles at the sleepover. The two of you had been talking about her and Ben prior to the question. 

“Yeah,” you mumble, looking down at your hands resting in your lap. “He’s so nice, and so sweet, and so caring. Plus, he went out of his way to help me when I was confused in class this year.”

“Yeah-” you cut off the redhead. 

“And the way his curls fall in front of his eyes when he’s leaning forward, so he has to angrily huff at it to try to blow the curl away. And the way his face scrunches up all adorably when he’s concentrating on a hard problem.”

Before you can continue fawning over your friend, your door slams open. It hits the wall behind it with a loud crack, where you later find a hole in the wall the handle created. In the doorway is a pissed off Henry, steam practically shooting out of his ears. 

“I thought I told you to stay away from him and the rest of those fucking losers?” he shouts, you’re dad isn’t here to hear him. “And now I hear you talking about that damn flamer with the schools slut no less.”

“Funny that you call Stan a flamer,” you smirk at your brother as you stand from the bed, subtly stepping in front of  Bev so she’s behind you and away from your brother's wrath. “When Patrick gave you a hand job.” 

“How the fuck did you hear about that?” he slams his fist into the wall beside him, knocking off a framed photo of a bird Stan had sketched for you during the school year. 

“I saw it with my own two eyes, dumb ass,” you sneer at him. “Next time you want to get a hand job from your boyfriend, don’t do it at the dump.”

“I’m gonna kill you,” he roars, closing in on you. Bev lets out a small gasp behind you, you feel bad she has to witness this. Especially when she came here to get away from her dad.

“Go ahead, then run off to get your oral from him,” you laugh. Before Henry can do anything else, the front door opens and your dad calls for you two. You sigh in relief as your older brother storms out of your room. You and Bev never bring up what was said or what just happened. 

--

You got separated from Stan while in Neibolt, but luckily Bill was with you. The horrors you all faced in that run down house will forever haunt each and every one of you. You’re shaking slightly as Stan and you cling onto each other as the two of you walk out of that horrendous place. 

You gasp loudly and hide your face in Stan’s chest as Bill punches Richie in the face. Your body starts to shake slightly without your permission, being taken back to when Henry punched the wall a few days prior. Bev pulls you into her side as Stan and Mike help Richie up. Bill goes for Richie again, but Ben holds him back. Richie yells back in retaliation.

“Stop,” you whimper, body trembling worse. Visions of your dad and Henry yelling at each other and shoving one another flash through your mind. A memory of Henry punching the locker beside your head when you were the last two in school floats to the forefront of your mind. “Please.”

Stan immediately rushes over to you and pulls you into his chest, you don’t care if he finds out about your feelings anymore as you grip onto his striped polo. He’s an anchor in the storm of your mind. Even when Henry isn’t around, he’s still lurking in the back of your mind making sure he can hurt you. The rest of the group stops what they’re doing for a minute to glance at the two of you before walking in two separate directions. Bev gives your shoulder a reassuring squeeze as she leaves. 

“How about I walk you home? Stan offers, rubbing his hand in a calming motion on your back. 

“Can we go on a walk instead?” you ask nervously, pulling away slightly. He keeps his arms wrapped around you as he studies your face. He keeps his arm around your shoulder as you walk through the park. 

You and Stan take a seat in front of  the giant Paul Bunyan statue, soaking up the summer sun and the sounds of the birds singing. For the next several hours you and Stan lay side by side on the grass as he points out different birds and tells you about them. Your heart pounds every time your fingers brush against each other as they lay in between you. Your body and heart are aching to slip your fingers through his, but your mind is telling you no. You ultimately listen to your mind, feeling dissatisfied with yourself at the awkward wave he gives you as he drops you off at your house. 

--

The days where the losers are fighting rush by, each of them spent doing something with Stan. before you know it, it’s nearing the end of the summer and Pennywise is gone. You reluctantly take part in the blood oath, wanting to leave this town as soon as you turn eighteen and never look back. But you would do anything for your friends, even risk your life for them again. As you're hugging Bev goodbye, you can’t believe she’s really leaving, Stan comes up beside you. 

“Will you go on a walk with me?” Stan asks timidly, not meeting your eyes. The puffy bandages around his face make your heart lurch at the thought of how much pain he must have endured. 

“Sure,” you nod even though he’s staring at the ground in front of his feet. Bev gives you a smile and a slight shove in encouragement. You give her one last smile as you start off down the trail, Stan taking long strides to catch up. 

“What happens now?” Stan asks, his fingers brush against yours as you walk side by side. 

“My aunt’s moving here, so I’m staying,” you don’t turn to look at him, scared to face more disappointment. 

You stop walking when you two reach the kissing bridge, not that you expected anything to happen, but it was a nice view. You look down to see the small S inside the heart you carved earlier in the year, it sits near Richie’s R + E. You absentmindedly rub your wrist, Henry had grabbed you so hard he bruised you when he caught you with his missing switchblade. But it was worth it, in twenty or thirty years from now those markings would still be there, your own little mark on history. 

“I’m glad,” Stan says it so quietly he doesn’t think you’ll hear him, but you do. You glance up at him and immediately frown as you get a better look at the bandages wrapped around his face. It takes you back to the day in the sewers, the day he yelled at you. 

“Stan!” you scream in fear as you wade through the grey water. Your heart is pounding in your chest, this can’t be happening! You can’t lose him, not Stan. One minute he was with the group and the next he's gone. “What if IT got him?” your voice shakes in fear.

“You can’t think like that,” Richie says firmly, but you can hear the fear in his voice. 

Before you can respond you hear a scream, one eerily familiar to when you pulled Stan off the ledge at the quarry. “Stan!” you scream again as you run past your friends through the dark smelly sewers to find the curly haired boy that you care for. 

You reach the closed door at the end of the tunnel, opening the rusty metal on your own thanks to the adrenaline rush. Your friends' screams of Stanley get louder as they catch up to you. All six of you rush through the door and look for Stan in the large underground room. You walk around and come face to face with the creepy women from the painting he hates eating his face. A strangled sound somewhere between a gasp and a whimper escapes your mouth, alerting your friends that you found him. 

“What the fuck is that?” Richie asks as Eddie shines Stan’s discarded flashlight at the thing. The multiple rows of teeth finally let go of Stan and the lady looks at the lot of you.

“Get off of him!” you scream, reaching down beside you and grabbing a rusty pipe. You chuck the metal at the creature smacking it in the middle of the face, it opens its mouth and hisses at you before retreating. 

You all breathe a small sigh of release, until Pennywise peeks his head out from behind the corner. All six of you let out high pitched screams, but all you can think about is Stan’s safety not your own. As Pennywise hides behind the corner again you run and drop to your knees at Stan’s side, the rest of the boys quickly following suit. You reach out and touch his arm, muttering his name in a soft calming voice, but all he does is scream in terror. 

“Get off me!” he pushes six pairs of hands off of him as he scrambles away from you and the rest of the losers club. “You left me! You took me to Neibolt! You aren’t my friends!” 

“Stan, we were looking for you. We were so worried, I was so worried,” your hand gently touches his cheek, trying to see how much physical damage IT had caused.

“Get away from me!” he glares at you as he smacks your hand away from him. “You're no better than Henry! Worse than him! You tricked me into being your friend just so you could hurt me!”

You rip yourself away from the curly haired boy so fast you fall flat on your ass as you try to move away. You gasp and tears fill your eyes, Bill’s hand gently squeezes your shoulder. He had been with you at Neibolt, he saw that your fear was Henry. Your feelings for Stan were obvious, so the accusations made the rest of the boys angry at Stan for hurting you. Tears fall quickly from your cheeks as you stand and back away from the group. You need to get out of there, away from Stan, away from the pain. 

The rest of the losers back away from their friend and get ready to search for their favorite redhead. You all find Bev quickly, and you smirk as Ben kisses her to wake her up. Pennywise soon appears, attacking Bill first, the rest of you try to fight the clown but it doesn’t work.

“Let him go!” Bev’s plea reminds you of yours from earlier. 

“No, I’ll take him” IT shakes its head with a grin. The killer clown explains to the group how it will eat your flesh as it feasts on your fears. “I’ll take him and only him,” IT offers. 

“Leave,” Bill begs the losers.

“I’m gonna have to kill this fucking clown,” Richie complains. “Welcome to the losers club asshole!” he screams, hitting Pennywise in the face with a discarded baseball bat. 

Chaos erupts, everyone grabs for a weapon to fight the clown with. As everyone starts attacking IT with the garbage they found, IT manages to slip away. You all decide, stupidly, to split up and look for Pennywise. 

“Good morning sunshine,” Henry’s annoying voice whispers into your right ear, dialogue straight from an incident where he almost seriously injured you. “Dad’s not home.” You can hear the smirk in IT’s voice.

“This isn’t real! You aren’t Henry! You aren’t real!” you scream, the losers stop their search for the clown and watch on nervously. 

“It’s time to play sis!” IT laughs like a maniac as he walks in front of you, you're forced to stare up into IT’s eyes. Pennywise steps closer so you step back, which you do again and again. A replica of Henry’s switchblade pops open and is pointed directly at your gut. “Daddy dearest isn’t home to stop me!”

“Go through with it! Do it! Do what the real Henry never had the guts to do!” you scream at your brother- well Pennywise. He has you backed into a wall, switchblade dully pushing into you just above your navel. Your chest rising and falling rapidly as you pant, angry tears mixing with the heartbroken ones from earlier as you stare defiantly at the thing that had been after you and your friends all summer.  

IT backs away slowly, your brothers-Pennywise’s- head tilting to the side as he studies you. A grin too large to be humanly possible splits across Henry’s face, rows of teeth on display as IT laughs in delight. You see your friends inching closer to you and the clown, you make eye contact with Richie giving him a slight shake of your head. He sighs in defeat, grabbing both Stan and Eddie pulling them back, the rest of the losers halt when they realize what the trashmouth did. 

“You were easy to crack,” IT giggles loudly, shifting back into a clown. IT lifts a hand up, finger tracing your cheek down to your throat, stopping directly over your artery.   

“Take me and leave my friends alone!” you glare up at IT. 

As the clown goes to open its mouth, Ben comes out of nowhere and stabs IT right in the back. The rest of the losers start attacking IT again, the clown shifts from fear to fear in hopes of getting one of the losers to stop. It shifts to Bev’s father, so she stabs a rusty rod right down IT’s throat in order to make him go away. The clown convulses and backs away from the group. 

“That’s why you didn’t kill (Y/N) and Bev, because they weren’t afraid of you!” it’s the first time you’ve ever heard Bill not stutter. “We aren’t afraid of you. Now it’s your turn to be afraid, because you’ll starve.” IT flips itself into a hole that leads lower into the sewer system, letting go and disintegrating before Bill can whack IT with a pipe. 

You all stare in shock for a few moments before making your way out of the sewers and towards your homes. The losers all talking amongst themselves, all but you. you’re ahead of the group, wanting to put as much distance between you and Stan as you possibly can. Eddie too, he had already asked what you meant while Pennywise was still Henry. Two conversations you definitely didn’t want to have. 

“(Y/N/N)? You okay?” Stan’s distant and worried voice breaks you out of your memories. “Where were you just now?”

“I’m fine,” you lie and he can tell by the flash of pain that crosses your face. “Just thinking about the other day.”

“I didn’t mean what I said,” Stan frowns, turning away from the carvings on the wood to face you fully. “I wasn’t in the right head space-”

“It’s fine,” you murmur, fingers gently running over the S carved into the wood.

“No it isn’t,” he says firmly, you look at him with wide eyes. You weren’t expecting him to get so serious about it. “IT messed with my head, made me see things that weren’t true and I took it out on you.” 

“Stan, I get it. IT knew how to hurt us most,” you reach over and lightly wrap your hand around his in a reassuring gesture. He stares down at your joined hands for a moment, ears turning a vibrant red, before continuing with his explanation. 

“He showed me a vision of you and Bill kissing,” Stan flips his hand over and laces his fingers with yours. 

“What-” you’re eyebrows furrow as you watch his face grow from pink to red. 

“I like you, (Y/N). A lot. And when IT showed me that it broke my heart. Deep down I knew it wasn’t real, but it felt so real. I’ve liked you since the beginning of the school year, and I never had the guts to tell you. Because why would you like me? You could have any guy, how could you ever possibly want me-” you cut him off by gently pressing your lips to his. It’s a soft and fast peck, but you still pull away smiling. “What?”

“I like you too, you loser. For just as long, I was scared to say anything because of Henry,” you giggle at his shock, mouth open and eyes wide. “Close your mouth or you’ll catch flies.”

“Speaking of Henry,” Stan’s mouth snaps shut before his lips pull into a deep frown. “What did you mean back in the sewers?” You sigh, not wanting to admit it allowed. Stan pushes a strand of hair away from your face before cupping your cheek gently. 

“Henry thought I broke his Atari, so he screamed at me endlessly and threatened to kill me,” you admit softly, rage and sadness battle within Stan’s eyes as he takes in the information. “It wasn’t the first time he threatened that, but it seemed different that time. My dad had no idea, he only heard some of the yelling, which he screamed at Henry for doing. So that made Henry even more mad at me. But anyway, it turns out that it was Belch that broke it.”

“(Y/N),” Stan says softly, pulling you into his embrace. “I’ll never let anyone else hurt you.”

“Promise?” you ask hopefully, could you really finally be happy? 

“I promise,” he kisses your forehead softly. “I know this isn’t great timing, but will you be my girlfriend?”

“I’d love to,” you grin at him, gently caressing the bandages as you pull him in for another kiss.

tags: @crimson-knuckled-queen​ @rexorangecouny​

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 3: From the Ashes

Intro -

Scene 1: Freedom-Alls

Well, folks, we start out with Rosemary and Elizabeth discussing the latest and greatest trend of the western world (or attempt at a trend): Freedom-Alls! Patented in April 1918 by Levi Strauss & Co., Freedom-Alls were a women’s one-piece suit intended to appeal specifically toward ladies who lived out west and wanted to take advantage of the areas and work they did for a living (ranchwork, farming, hiking, et cetera). It was introduced alongside Kover-Ups (a one-piece suit for men) and Koveralls (a one piece denim suit for children). 

You can read a little more about them here.

Unfortunately Freedom-Alls didn’t really catch on; they were, perhaps, a little too ahead of their time. But guess what? It means this season of When Calls the Heart takes place in 1918! 

Rosemary says she’s trying to support Clara’s ideas by trying to sell the Freedom-Alls and that she “can’t run the dress shop forever.” When Elizabeth tries to talk to Rosemary about it, she changes the direction of the conversation to Nathan and Lucas. Elizabeth admits she feels bad for having ridden off on Nathan, and Rosemary gets a weird line: “But who knows what might have happened between you two if you hadn’t?” I’m not sure what to make of this... With modern viewers it almost sounds like they might have had sex or something if left alone, but really I think they want to hint that they might have said regrettable things. I think that line could have used a bit of a tweak.

Elizabeth goes on to say it was right to choose not to be with Nathan but she hasn’t chosen Lucas either, and in fact does not want to even speak to Lucas until his mother tells him the truth about his father. One thing I really appreciate about this scene, and in fact this whole plot, is that Rosemary knows the hot gossip but she doesn’t repeat it to anyone else. In fact, she makes sure Elizabeth knows immediately that Lucas is standing behind her before he can hear her say anything, and when given a very obvious opportunity to intervene (when Lucas says he’s going to call his father) she elects to stay out of it.

I’ve been a little worried about Rosemary’s character writing in the past; they tend to bounce between wholesome and entertaining to cringey and embarrassing without...really meaning to, or without thinking about what kind of person that creates on-screen. This episode, and in particular this first scene, really makes up for a lot of past problems with her writing.

Also, Lucas was just really cute and wholesome at the end of the scene and I liked that.

--

Scene 2: Bill’s Land & The Inquiry

Bill stops Nathan and lets him know that he’s still working on Allie’s official adoption but it’ll still be a few weeks, and Nathan is understanding about this. Bill then brings up his land that Nathan seemed interested in buying. He says he has another potential buyer that’s been asking about it, and Nathan says he changed his mind about it.

Before they can really get into any sort of conversation about it, another Mountie approaches. Bill refers to him by his first name (Andrew) and then his title to congratulate him on a promotion (Superintendent Hargraves). He tells Bill that he learned from the best.

When Bill tries to introduce Nathan to Andrew, Nathan says they already know one another. When Bill asks what Andrew is doing in Hope Valley, he says he has a matter to discuss with Nathan and Bill says he hopes they can find the time to catch up before he leaves town again.

Bill leaves, and Andrew tells Nathan that due to the fact that a Mountie lost his life last year during the shooting, they’re opening up another internal inquiry (which means they already did one) and that Nathan is the focus of it.

“to determine your possible culpability as to whether or not you were at fault.”

Apparently this also means his career as a Mountie is at stake.

There’s not a lot to discuss this early in the episode about this plotline, but I do wonder if Bill actually has a potential different buyer for his land or not. I don’t think Bill is above pretending he has another buyer to push Nathan into making a decision either way, but if he actually does have someone else interested, that could be interesting.

As to Nathan, it’s pretty clear Andrew Hargraves doesn’t care for Nathan.

--

Scene 3: The Introduction of The Chair

Molly and Florence talk about a crate that is sitting outside and Molly asks Florence if it might be the beehive that Florence ordered for Ned for his birthday. Florence shushes her (worried Ned will hear, as this is clearly meant to be a surprise) and says no it isn’t; her order has been delayed.

Molly goes on to say that she’s thinking of taking a cue from Florence and wants to buy Bill something for his birthday. Molly asks for Florence’s advice on what to get and Florence can’t help her:

Florence stares at her with...honestly kind of a sad expression after this? I don’t know what to make of that. Molly tries to say she’s kidding but Florence isn’t stupid enough to believe it. 

I’m not exactly thrilled with this storyline (nobody is surprised yet again lol), but one thing I really hope they bother taking the time to do is...you know...show why Molly might be interested in Bill. They don’t really have a particular chemistry I think, so...right now it just feels like Pair the Spares because nobody else in town is of the right age and available (except Henry and I can’t see that working well). If they’re going to bother with it, I really hope it’s either “Molly’s just lonely, actually” or “She likes him because XYZ” and not that weird middle thing where it’s hard to understand why either person would like the other...which has been a problem in this show’s writing since about Season 4.

The camera pans out to the mysterious crate. Ned wants to guess what’s in the crate but doesn’t get the chance before Jesse announces what it is to everyone (and Ned is sad about this haha). Cute little bit, honestly; you can tell the dialogue in this season has gotten a glow-up.

Jesse is disgruntled about the chair’s existence (why would you ship a chair halfway across the world?) and tries to sit in it to see if it’s a good chair but Lee tells him it’s bad luck to do that. The person for whom the chair was made has to be the first one to sit in it! He asks Jesse to take the chair to his house and move his motorcycle to the mill.

This is overall a nice scene. People feel...like people. And they carried over Lee’s back injury because now he’s wearing a back brace. This follow-through, this continuation from episode to episode, makes a big difference in the quality of writing, IMO.

--

Scene 4: Nichols & Dimes

Fiona is just getting done trimming Lucas’s beard and makes a comment about how if he wants it all shaved off she’ll be happy to do it because she’s curious to see what is hiding underneath it. Faith walks in and when Lucas asks her opinion, she has the same answer: “I’d be curious to see!”

Lucas considers this a moment and asks to think about it. She dusts off Lucas’s shoulders with her brush and asks Faith if she has time to chat and Faith says for a moment. Lucas gets up and pays Fiona, but it’s too much money so she tries to get him to take it back but he insists she keep it. 

“Besides, after I meet Lee about a lumber order, I might need a free haircut.” Fiona only can say after he leaves, “He is so nice.”

Do we have a Fiona/Lucas hint? Or is this to show up how generous a person Lucas is? Or perhaps...how kind the people in this town are that they know to help out where and how they can?

--

Scene 5: Boy Meets Bike

Jesse drops off the chair at Rosemary and Lee’s house and goes out back to uncover the MOTORCYCLE. This is a man in love with a machine right here.

--

Scene 6: The Oil Rig

Lee promises Lucas a lumber order by the end of the week and Hickam stops Lucas to talk about the fact that the men think they should drill further (another 50 feet). Lucas seems to be having some...regrets about having gotten into the oil business (it is lucrative but it’s also a lot of work and with a very serious uh...potential for failure). 

Lucas says (to Lee) that 50 feet becomes 100 feet becomes 300 feet (increasing costs of course, with no guaranteed payout), and jokingly (sort of) asks Lee if he wants to buy an oil well. Lee just laughs and says he doesn’t think so.

--

Scene 7: The Motorcycle No-Nos

Hope Valley really isn’t ready for Freedom-Alls after all. On the plus side, Dottie gets a mention! She sent over a beautiful dress (I think this is the one we see Molly wearing in the promo images for a later episode) from Union City. Clara laments having to replace the Freedom-Alls in the window just as Jesse pulls up on the motorcycle he’s moving for Lee.

Rosemary scolds her and tells him not to make Clara a widow (very insensitive choice, not sure they thought this through before they included that... She already IS a widow...and through no real fault of her husband). Rosemary said the danger is why she wanted Lee to sell the motorcycle and Jesse says, “You know, Lee always said you loved riding on the back of the motorcycle” which seems to upset Rosemary a bit. She tells him that was a long time ago and they’re married now and she wants Lee to sell it to the first person to make a good/fair offer.

--

Scene 8: Editing Woes

Helen is trying to go over Elizabeth’s manuscript with her but Elizabeth is completely zoning out and Helen is kind of sick of it.

She asks Elizabeth what the problem is and they talk about Lucas’s lack of knowledge about his father. Helen doesn’t want to talk about this and suggests they get back to work. Elizabeth asks to open the window (probably hoping some fresh air will clear her head). When she goes to open it, though, she sees Nathan and Bill talking animatedly by the blacksmith/farrier.

Helen confronts her about her feelings for Nathan and for Lucas, and Elizabeth asks if they can get back to work.

This is probably one of the weaker scenes. Helen pries too much and doesn’t seem the type to do so without good reason. I’m not sure how I would word it instead but the audience already knows Elizabeth has feelings for both men, and the scene with Rosemary sufficed at explaining Elizabeth’s stance on things.

I feel like this mostly made Helen look prickly and nosy...and it wasn’t doing either character any real favors.

--

Scene 9: Henry’s Flowers

Henry walks into the mercantile with some flowers and I definitely thought he was going to give them to Ned! (Let the shipping BEGIN...)

He apologizes very thoughtfully to Ned and I can honestly say this is one of the best scenes both men have gotten on this show and I really appreciate it. It was wholesome and kind, and I definitely think with the way Ned brushed things off that he at least read that first letter.

Florence kind of stands up as Henry starts talking (probably thinking she’ll have to yell at him again lmao), but Henry walks up to her and gives her the flowers, saying she was right to be angry with him and he hopes they can move past it.

Henry leaves and Ned’s like heyyy I was the one he yelled at and Florence tells him that’s true, but...she defended him and Ned seems a little...touched by that and says, “Yes...you did.”

Wholesome...good. Nice scene.

--

Scene 10: Motorcycle Absolutely Nots

Jesse brings the motorcycle to Clara again and tries to appeal to her using logic that my own husband would use if it meant he could possess yet another motored vehicle.

Same Clara!!!

I’m a little amused by this and also kind of like...meh about it. These characters had a long time to get to know one another and court before they got married and now Jesse’s just...Like This? It’s not that I’m against the plotline, but...I  don’t know exactly how I feel about it right now. It’s funny but something still feels tonally off about it to me...

--

Scene 11: Inquiry Part II

Bill reads the inquiry notice that was given to Nathan and says it doesn’t seem right to him. Nathan says he tried to explain that earlier (must have been the conversation by the blacksmith). Bill goes on to say the Mounties can of course do this as it’s well within their rights and that...it’s possible it’s just...a formality? Andrew’s a good Mountie and a stickler for detail so--

Nathan seems annoyed at this and says “That’s one way of putting it” which of course prompts Bill to ask why they don’t get along. Nathan will only tell him that they’ve crossed paths before but refuses to elaborate.

It’s pretty clear that in whatever capacity they crossed paths before, it wasn’t exactly...friendly.

I also wonder if this man has been in a previous episode? He seems familiar but I couldn’t find anything with a quick Google search.

--

Scene 12: OIL! And uh, fire. Yeah.

Lucas and Mike Hickam talk about the oil business and Lucas admits that if they don’t see oil soon he’s going to just shut the entire thing down. Mike wants to react to this but there’s a ruckus at the well that isn’t normal so he runs over to the men and insists they get out of there right away.

They get oil! And then a spark catches. If you were confused about what supposedly caused the spark, it was this:

The metal of the wire rubbing against the metal of the pipe, causing friction. To be clear...the wire would be so coated in oil it wouldn’t be likely to catch fire in this scenario, but eh, we can ignore that. It was at least an attempt, and considering some of their past attempts this one was pretty good, actually.

For some reason the town has a real siren (more accurate would probably be a fire bell) and everyone freaks out. 

Bill tells everyone to stay where they are and Fiona says “We can help!” and Bill says if they need more help they’ll call for more men. Fiona’s like:

I kind of missed that line my first watchthrough but I’m belatedly annoyed with that “Let’s make this look kind of misogynistic and make Fiona a Feminist Icon™ (as if she isn’t already good enough like??? what). It’s literally an OIL WELL FIRE. It might burn for WEEKS. It’s INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS and if you get too close you’ll be lucky if you’re not covered in burns. 

They’ll get men because they’re more likely to be wearing the proper clothing and have the proper knowledge. Also, there are plenty of men on sight already. Why risk more casualties (or any if there aren’t already some, which of course Bill doesn’t know about). 

It’s not that I don’t appreciate some good women-getting-involved writing, but this reads very much like it was written by a man.

That said, Henry’s determined face when he saw the fire was GOOD. He’s blurry but he’s MOVING FAST.

--

Scene 13: The Fire

Mike Hickam has burns on his face, Lucas has been knocked down, and everyone is in a panic. NATHAN IS ON THE SCENE.

IDK........I’d ship it.

Nathan asks Lucas how to put the fire out, and Lucas...doesn’t know. How could he know? He’s involved and he’s the owner of the operation, but he has absolutely (or nearly) no practical experience. BOOM HENRY IS ON THE SCENE.

He suggests they get some dynamite. A LOT OF IT.

They gather enough dynamite to blow an entire quarry sky-high. (My husband and I work in construction and this is more dynamite than we use to do blasting in the quarries. A few years ago we did our biggest blasting job ever in our largest quarry and we didn’t even use that many explosives lol...)

I would imagine your average person wouldn’t know that, though, so...I’ll give it a pass. Ned comes to help, and Jesse, and then Fiona shows up just in time to ask if the one more person to help they need needs to be a man. She then proceeds to stand at the back of the group. She’s also the first person to drop the cart lol... -_-

I can’t imagine being in town for all of this. It would probably be terrifying. Imagine being Florence or Molly who lived through the mine explosion. PTSD right there fellas.

And it’s over like...in two seconds.

People hugging all over the place. 

Even though I was a little shocked the drama didn’t last longer, it was probably for the best. As much as I like drama, this isn’t the kind of drama that makes sense to be dragged out. If you don’t act fast there’s no chance to act at all, and you’re either successful with the dynamite attempt or you’re not. Either way, the town would be lost if the fire burned for too long, so it was worth a shot. Just...not with THAT much dynamite.

Also, using dynamite to snuff out oil fires was the first proven accurate method of putting out oil well fires! It basically uses the dynamite explosion to “blow out” the fire by forcing the furning fuel and oxygen away from the fuel source. It’s still used, and its first successful use (that we have record of) was in 1913. You can read more about oil well fires here.

--

Scene 14: Kindness

Lucas and Henry run into one another outside of Abigail’s Café and agree to meet outside the mercantile when Lucas is done chatting with her. Inside Abigail’s, Mike Hickam is dabbing (antiseptic?) on his burned face while Bill and Helen are chatting.

Helen is a bit upset that Lucas helped with the fire because it frightened her—the thought of losing him. He responds by saying he had to help and that she is being dramatic, but then apologizes and says, “I love you, too.” I think this is a sign he understands his mother more than we realize.

They agree to have lunch together at the saloon and Lucas says he couldn’t reach his father. Helen says she doesn’t know where he is but she’ll try to reach him.

Lucas tries to say something to Mike but Mike insists he won’t take a vacation; he was only doing his job.

Then Bill stops by with another plate of food for Mike and insists that it’s free just like the first plate. 

I’m pretty sure this scene + the barbershop one earlier were just showing us how good and wholesome the people in Hope Valley are. They support each other and SHOW THEY CARE. I like it. :)

--

Scene 15: The Letter

At the mercantile Henry finally gets a letter!

It’s from “Christopher Hughes” in Cape Fullerton.

Henry stares at the letter for a long moment but says nothing is wrong. 

Ned limps away as Henry leaves the mercantile to wait for Lucas and Florence scolds him for being stubborn.

There is a Romantic Sort of Moment...

And Florence talks about how gallant Ned was during the fire... A little spice is in the air methinks!!

--

Scene 16: THE LETTER PART TWO

Lucas stops by Henry’s car to say thanks for yesterday (the fire advice) and then tells him that even though he doesn’t agree with all of Henry’s terms/methods he does want him to come back to work.

Henry’s response? “I’ll think about it.”

This man is RATTLED by that letter! Lucas is shocked that Henry isn’t as on board as he was just the other day...

Scene 17: Chair Adjustment

Lee moves the chair around the house trying to find the perfect spot, and he refuses to sit in the chair until he gets his back brace off. It’s a pretty wholesome and fun scene; it manages to be lightly funny without trying too hard, and the best part about it is actually that they take the time to weave other characters into the dialogue more. “Carson wants me to walk; he says it’s good for my back.”

This is the stuff dreams are made of, folks!

Jesse drives up on the bike as Lee comes out of the house and he tells Lee that he wants to buy it off of him. When asked what Clara thinks of it, Jesse says:

This is going to be a big problem later. Lee says Jesse can buy it for $5.00 less than asking and Jesse rides off excited.

--

Scene 18: Trouble at the Infirmary

Florence apparently was successful in her attempt to drag Ned to the infirmary because he’s getting his foot looked at. When asked how he got the injury, he says he must have stepped in a hole or something, and Florence adds her heroic spin on things:

Faith tells Ned there’s some swelling with indicates a mild lateral sprain, and that the best thing for him to do will be to stay off of his foot for a week. She turns to Molly to suggest getting some crutches and Carson steps in to ask what Ned did to himself and begins his own exam, asking Ned which way his foot turned in/which way causes pain.

He then turns to Faith and explains that with a lateral sprain the foot turns inward, but with a high ankle sprain it turns outward (which is Ned’s problem).

Faith tries to explain that if you feel the tendon--

But Carson cuts her off and says that Faith will wrap it up nice and tight for him and he can go back to his regularly scheduled heroics immediately.

This angers Faith and makes Molly uncomfortable.

--

Scene 19: Goodbye Sweet Chair (I Hardly Knew Ye)

Rosemary approaches Elizabeth and they talk about how Elizabeth and Jack want to start a garden in the backyard, but first she has to go to town and speak with Bill. Rosemary offers to babysit and do the planting with Jack herself, and Elizabeth agrees to it.

They go over to Rosemary’s and Jack sees the NEW CHAIR and makes a beeline for it. Rosemary stops him from sitting in the chair but...overcome by curiosity she herself sits in it...

...and it breaks.

--

Scene 20: Elizabeth’s No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day

Elizabeth presumably asked Bill what was going on with Nathan, and Bill explains that one of the superintendents, “an old friend” of his, gave Nathan some bad news. The Mounties are investigating last autumn’s prisoner transfer shooting. She asks why, when it was already completed, and he tries to calm her down by saying it’s an inside investigation and the Mounties always try to better perform their duties (the suggestion here is that they do this by reviewing recent cases).

After Elizabeth pesters Bill about it a little more, he folds and admits that it’s all very unusual and he has no clue why they’d have an inquiry about that case. He promises Elizabeth he’ll keep digging until he finds out.

Just as Elizabeth is reeling from this, Lucas approaches her and asks her why she didn’t tell him about his father leaving his mother. Elizabeth tries to say that she was told that in confidence and couldn’t/didn’t feel comfortable breaking it. She then says, “This isn’t my fault” and Lucas kind of just walks off annoyed/frustrated.

--

Scene 21: No-Work Advice

Clara comes into the barber shop asking Fiona for advice. Jesse asked for the day off to ride the motorcycle to Albert Falls (even though she asked him not to buy it). Fiona’s like “Uhhh...”

Then Faith walks in upset and says to Fiona, “Maybe you can help!” She goes on to say it’s like she’s back in Chicago being ignored like all the other interns!! And Fiona’s like, “Uhhhh...”

Faith realizes Clara is there and apologizes for interrupting. She asks Clara what’s wrong and Clara tells her about Jesse. Faith is like, OHhhhh My GOoDnESS I feel the SAMe wAY about the way Carson is treating mE!!!

And Clara says, “I have some chocolate cake at the cafe.”

And aWAY THEY GO.

Leaving Fiona cakeless (unless she’s gettin’ some of Mike Hickam later; that man is CAKED UP).

--

Scene 22: 

Lee sadly contemplates his broken chair.

And then has a midlife crisis.

The chair reminded him of a chair he built with his grandfather, and he’s getting older and thinking about how he can’t do any of that stuff himself, and he doesn’t remember how to build things anymore. “I don’t make anything, Rosie.”

--

Scene 23: Judge Avery’s Office

Bill walks into his office to see that Andrew Hargraves has let himself in while he was out. Andrew asks Bill if the Mounties can use the judge’s office for the inquiry.

Bill says that, given they have a history, could he maybe tell him what’s going on? The inquiry isn’t adding up.

He goes on to say he was close by and that he stated on the record what happened that day, as well as the fact that everything regarding that event was done by the book.

Andrew says, “A Mountie died. I think that warrants a review.”

Bill says he noticed that Nathan and Andrew aren’t close and Andrew says the same thing Nathan did earlier: that they’ve “crossed paths.”

Andrew says he wouldn’t have achieved his rank if not for Bill; he also says that Bill was a good mentor. (I would argue this means that Bill taught him at the Academy like he did Jack and many others.)

And he suggests that Bill with see that his council wasn’t wasted. Bill replies back, “What appears to be holding a grudge.”

I mean, it’s not as if Bill didn’t have grudges (COUGH HENRY COUGH COUGH) but he never let those impact his work overmuch and he always did the right thing when the truth was uncovered. That’s one thing I have always enjoyed about Bill’s character. He’s suspicious of like, basically everyone but when someone he has reason to actively dislike (Henry Gowen) is innocent he’s the first person to insist the right thing be done.

Andrew doesn’t respond to that; he simply asks if the Mounties can count on use of Bill’s office and Bill agrees. Andrew then tells Bill that he’ll be called on as a witness.

--

Scene 24: Heart to Heart

Helen comes to Elizabeth’s house to visit and almost sits on a block (#parentlyfe).

She notices Jack playing with a little Mountie and a horse and asks about it. Elizabeth says a friend made that for Jack. 

“Hm. A Mountie. Constable Grant?”

“A Mountie. My late husband.”

They’re clearly talking about the figure and not who made it, here. I’m not sure who the friend would be in this case, but it could be literally anyone in town.

Helen admits to Elizabeth that the most difficult thing she’s ever done in life is try to be a mother. She “never discovered what seems to come so naturally to others” (in particular Elizabeth)—the joy of it.

Elizabeth admits that sometimes she can’t recognize the joy in anything, but in moments like that she surrounds herself by people who love her. She asks why Helen has come, and Helen says she regrets having put Elizabeth in a position where she had to keep a secret from Lucas.

Elizabeth thanks her for her honest and Helen admits tearfully she should have said it earlier, in a more forthright manner, but that she doesn’t really know how to be any other way than how she is.

Elizabeth comes to sit with her on the couch and says that it’s understandable to be afraid because being yourself can make you vulnerable. She tells Helen that she is thoughtful and intelligent and asks if she shows that side of herself to her husband. Helen admits she hasn’t for a long time. 

Elizabeth tells her that if her husband doesn’t love her for exactly who she is, then it isn’t love and he doesn’t deserve her...but if she’s not sure if they’ve shown each other their true hearts (i.e., their true selves) then it might be worth considering trying again.

She suggests Helen reach out first. Jack plops on Helen a bit, Helen hugs him, and Helen thanks Elizabeth for being her friend. 

This isn’t a bad scene by any means, but I think I liked it better on a second watching. Still, the dialogue was a bit stiff and hard to follow. I really think it should have been put past someone specifically to see how easy it was to understand/if it hit the correct emotional beats. Rewatching it slowly and making sense of the complicated wording is what made it better. I’m not sure if I was the only one who thought that, though...

--

Scene 25: Faith vs. Carson

Faith approaches Carson and tells him they need to talk. She tries to insist that Molly stay because they all work together...but when Faith says that Carson ordered her to wrap Ned’s ankle without listening to what she had to say about it, Carson tells Molly to leave.

Faith expresses her concerns and he says she’s reading too much into it.

He says he wants to hear about it and then doesn’t want to actually hear about it because he is treating her exactly the same way she was being treated there. I think they’re being pretty lighthearted about that, too; you know she got talked over and overlooked over the male students for sure.

Carson tells her that he doesn’t know what she went through but that they aren’t in any shape to discuss it right now.

She just wants to make an effort, they need to get through this, but he claims he doesn’t know what “this” is and wants to know what she wants.

“You say that you value me as a doctor. You say that I’m gifted. But I don’t just want to hear it. I want to be treated like you mean it.”

Honestly this entire scene I just wanted them to break up. I make no secret of how I feel about them as a couple and this scene, this season’s drama for them, is maybe going to resolve my biggest annoyance about Faith and Carson as a couple. She was SO good on the show, you guys, and then he came on and as soon as he picked up the role of doctor again he completely outdid her at everything and overshadowed her character to the point where she may as well not have even been there.

He’s never seemed to be as into her as he seemed to be into the idea of her. I never got the impression that he viewed her as an equal. I’m pretty interested to see where they go with things this season; I have a feeling it could actually be really good.

--

Scene 26: Lee’s Workshop

Lee comes home and finds Rosemary in the backyard setting up a little workshop space for him.

He confesses that he doesn’t remember how to build anything and she encourages him fully. This scene was really good. It’s sappy and silly but it’s super cute and fun. I always do enjoy these two. I hope they get other good things this season. They deserve it.

--

Scene 27: Axes

Nathan and Bill are talking about the inquiry and Nathan says maybe he is responsible for the Mountie’s death. Bill insists that is not the case.

Nathan continues on to say maybe he should have listened to the demand and let the prisoner go.

Bill cautions him against talking in hindsight and asks if he’s sure Hargraves doesn’t have an axe to grind with him. Nathan says “Yeah” but doesn’t look at Bill when he says it, so of course Bill knows it’s not the truth.

--

Scene 28: Helen’s Goodbye & The Cruel Reality

Helen leaves on the stage with hardly a goodbye, and Elizabeth runs over to ask about it. Lucas tells her that she was determined to catch the last stage (probably for the week or month) and tells her that she’ll be in touch about the manuscript soon.

Lucas is a little uncharacteristically emotional and Elizabeth tries to stop him from leaving in a hurry. He tells her that what upset him about the whole thing isn’t just that she didn’t tell him the truth, but that he thought his parents loved one another.

Elizabeth says maybe they did love each other, though. Maybe they still do. 

And Lucas replies with, “How do you lose that?”

Elizabeth says that she can only tell him what she told his mother: love has to be fought for.

“What would you know about it?” he asks.

Elizabeth stares at him a moment and can only say, “...That was cruel.”

Lucas walks away, and we see Nathan on the other side of the street.

Elizabeth doesn’t go to either of them.

And that’s the end of the episode.

--

Something I think needs to be mentioned is...the audacity of the writing this season. It feels bolder. Definitely better. The writers are taking their time and writing things that feel...mostly interesting or relateable. I never expected Lucas’s parents’ splitting up to be such a big deal to Lucas but adding that touch in there is just SO good. It makes me want to go back and watch the “date” scene where he explained how long it took his father to convince his mother to marry him. Any kind of story can be told in a way that it might sound romantic, or funny, or silly...when that isn’t the reality. 

It’s actually a bit of clever storytelling to take Romantic Lucas and turn the idea almost upside-down. Whether his parents were actually in love or not doesn’t matter (yet); he feels that something he believed in his whole life, something he’s wanted his whole life for himself...isn’t even real. Worse, I think, he had that long conversation with Elizabeth about his parents and how lovely things were there, and...she finds out first that it might have just been...something he made of the situation. 

And then... Elizabeth tells Lucas that love needs to be fought for. First of all, she told Helen it needed TO BE NURTURED and an a language nerd I’m a little annoyed that she used a different word with Lucas because...they aren’t the same thing. Nurturing is a tender sort of care, encouragement, growth. Fighting for love is a different beast.

But I still appreciated Lucas’s cool, irritated (frustrated?) response back. “What do you know about it?”

It’s a fair question. Who is she to give advice like that to Helen? I mean, objectively it’s good advice, but she hasn’t lifted a finger to fight for Lucas OR Nathan, and both men know it. She hasn’t worked to nurture her relationship with either of them. 

The only thing cruel about his response is the time and place of saying it, but like...it’s honest.

If she doesn’t love either man, she needs to say so. She needs to be honest. If she loves Lucas she needs to tell him. She needs to reach out first. If she loves Nathan she needs to tell him. She needs to reach out.

She’s making both of these men do all the work. They both have to be the ones to reach out. Over and over and over while she does the bare minimum to encourage them enough to keep trying. 

And the thing is, they’ve both been incredibly patient, certainly due to her situation. But their patience means she needs to be the one to reach out.

And she hasn’t. She won’t.

Fight for love? Nurture love? Please. What do you know about it, Elizabeth? 

--

I’m really curious to see where they’re going to go with this. I hope they give Elizabeth and someone else a good talk about it. Maybe Clara would be a good choice... Or she could ask Rosemary for her HONEST opinion so that Rosie can give it.

Very much looking forward to the next episode!

[alvie-pines]

Oh damn, now I've seen the post and It's like, it just take demon Tommy to another level

But anyways, that's so cool! I think that Dream would be more "calm" (in a way of looking more calm, than being actually calm, like bill) then Tommy (who if angry would probably just start shouting like crazy and I think that the house wouldn't just start looking like a haunted one, but explode... maybe literally-) (but I don't know how he would act at summons). And if people look closer, there was once a powerful demon, but now there is just a child screaming at them

And Ranboo and Tubbo being the ones who know better how to calm him and how to do not get him angry in first place, maybe? And Tommy being a show off like Alcor, is something I can imagine

And about the reincarnations, is he behind Tubbo's reincarnations, or is he also behind Ranboo reincarnations? Is the flock still the flock in here? Or is it just a bunch of cows? Is the red banquet some type of cult in this?

Sorry for this being long!

Aaa tumblr deleted my entire response TvT here we go again

>And if people look closer, there was once a powerful demon, but now there is just a child screaming at them.

I love that description--And that’s exactly how it is, at least early post-transcendence. Tommy takes longer than Dipper to get the hang of the whole “scary demon” thing, and he doesn’t have someone like Stan to teach him how to con people. So cultists trying to summon Dream right after the transcendence get this confused, scared, angry teenager who doesn’t want to make a deal with them, or touch them, or talk to them, and won’t take their sacrifice… 

& I think the environment’s reactions to Tommy/Theseus’ moods would depend on how he’s feeling. If he’s angry, yes, I can totally see some violent reactions like small explosions or fire. But if he’s sad or having a PTSD episode, I think it would be more like Alcor’s “blood oozing from the walls” episodes. Which is even more terrifying for Ranboo who already has anxiety. Poor kid

>And Ranboo and Tubbo being the ones who know better how to calm him and how to do not get him angry in first place, maybe?

Yep! Tubbo is basically Mabel in this AU, and Ranboo is his Henry (including being the Woodsman, how fun). The biggest difference is that Ranboo joined them sooner after the transcendence, so, while he didn’t know Tommy when he was 100% human, he did see part of his transformation.

>And Tommy being a show off like Alcor, is something I can imagine

Theseus is a show-off like Alcor (demons are the same, lol) and plays the violin and guitar. 

(I know Alcor also plays the violin, but when I asked my band-kid friend what instrument Tommy would play, she said “he would be a violin kid” with such disdain that I had to include it.)

>And about the reincarnations, is he behind Tubbo's reincarnations, or is he also behind Ranboo reincarnations? 

He owns Tubbo’s soul. Tubbo is his Mizar. (Speaking of which, he needs a name like Mabel’s “Mizar”. I havent come up with one yet.) Tommy follows Tubbo’s soul very closely. He also follows Ranboo’s, just like Alcor does with Henry, but not as obsessively as he follows Tubbo. They’re both very close and important people to him & both keep him grounded.

>Is the flock still the flock in here? Or is it just a bunch of cows? 

The Flock is here! And they are cows! Cute fluffy dream-cows and horrifying nightmare cows alike! Tommy also inherited Sapnap and George, two minor demons who are indebted to him, as they were to Dream.

>Is the red banquet some type of cult in this?

Oooh, I already have Bad as a demon. Maybe the eggpire is a cult worshipping him, rather than the Crimson? Maybe they worship him through the Crimson?

>Sorry for this being long!

Never apologize, answering these is so fun!

More possible threads to discuss: 

x Ranboo as the woodsman

x Sapnap and George as demons

x Tommy’s transformation & how he and Tubbo handle it

[starship-squidlet]

New Music: Act 4, Scene 4

Chapter summary: Things escalate at school for the band.

Word count: 2,639

Disclaimer: Preface

Tag list: @the-cowbi @i-am-a-wizard @xbanner-carriedx @celestial-rose-sky (let me know if you’d like to be added to/removed from the tag list!)

Links: Spotify playlist, YouTube playlist, ‘Anything Goes’ on YouTube

A/N: Not going to lie, I love this chapter! Anything Goes is a favorite song of mine, and is also the last song I ever performed (fun fact about Jack: she used to be able to sing in public lol) and I was super excited to be able to use it for New Music! I hope you all love it as much as I do, as we head into the final arc of this story.

Previous chapter: Act 4, Scene 3

Next chapter: Act 4, Scene 5

Jack yawned and rubbed his eyes. Their show the night before had gone late, and getting up for school in the morning had proven… difficult. But he had hauled himself out of bed, and was now trudging along with Race as Cora, Elaine, and Albert chattered cheerfully a few feet ahead of them.

“How are they so awake?” Race groaned, nearly tripping over his own feet as he shuffled along the pavement.

“Witchcraft,” Jack mumbled.

“Keep up, Racer,” Albert grinned, glancing back at them over his shoulder.

“Yeah, don’t want to be late to Pulitzer’s assembly,” Elaine snorted.

Both Jack and Racetrack groaned. “I forgot about that,” Race grumbled.

“Did they even say what it was about?” said Jack.

“No, just that we were supposed to check in with our homeroom teachers outside the gym and that homeroom and first period were cancelled,” said Elaine.

At the school’s property line, as they had become accustomed to, they split off into two separate groups. Normally, they would have met up with some of the others near the property line and split up with them, based on who was going to which class, but today they stuck in the groups they’d walked in—Elaine and Cora with Albert, and Jack with Race. They saw some of the others as they went: Spot and JoJo with JoJo’s sister Cami; Elmer with his older brother and younger sister, walking with Davey and Sarah Jacobs; Henry and Boots with Specs; Mike and Ike and their older and younger brothers. Alan, Bill, Darcey, and Katherine joined Jack and Race as they headed for the gym, then Alan ran ahead to scare Elaine, who chased him down the sidewalk to the school door and vanished into the crowd. Cora joined Davey with his little group of Elmer and siblings, along with Cami de la Guerra. Finch and Mush came from the parking lot, with Tommy and Crutchie a few feet behind them.

Inside the gym, Jack looked around for his friends. They were hard to find, spotted in their little groups of two and three. Finch and Mush joined Elaine and Alan near the front of the bleachers; Jack and Race followed Katherine, Bill, and Darcey into the same row, using Alan, Bill, and Darcey as a sort of buffer between their two groups. Cora, Davey, and Elmer sat with Sarah, Walter, Annia, and Cami a bit to their right and a few rows further up. Spot and JoJo took seats in the front row, and Blink joined them a few moments later. Henry, Boots, and Specs were on the far side of the room; Mike, Ike and their brothers were two rows down and against the wall to their left. Crutchie and Tommy sat in the front row with Smalls, near the door where it would be easier for Crutchie to get out at the end of the assembly without being trampled by the inevitable crowd. On the other side of the gym—there were bleachers on both sides, and they’d all been set up to accommodate the entire student body for the assembly, although it was still a tight squeeze—Jack could see Oscar and Morris Delancey, sitting almost exactly across from him and Race, making faces and sneering at them.

“Do you think they realize how stupid they look?” Katherine leaned over to whisper to Jack.

He snorted. “Who knows what’s goin’ through those thick skulls of theirs.”

As the last students found their seats, Seitz and Bunsen closed the doors to the gym. Something pricked at the back of Jack’s neck; if the Delanceys hadn’t been visible across from him, he would’ve guessed that it was the niggling feeling of them staring holes into the back of his head, but, since he could see that their attention had turned to Crutchie and Tommy instead of him and Race, he didn’t think that they were the source. Jack did a quick look around. Everyone seemed okay. What is this? he wondered. Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?

Katherine nudged his arm. “Hey. You okay?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Just tired.”

The gym fell silent as Pulitzer strode across the waxed floor. There was a single microphone set up on a small platform in the middle of the huge room. He walked up to it, stepped up to the microphone, and tapped it, almost like he was trying to quiet the already silent student body. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said into the mic, the phrase echoing around the room, bouncing off the tin ceiling and wooden floor. Every eye in the room turned to the principal.

Pulitzer looked pleased with himself. He cleared his throat and leaned a little closer to the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen; students of the World. I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve called this assembly today.”

“Don’t really care,” Race muttered.

“It has come to my attention that there has been a petition circulating around the school,” said Pulitzer.

Every member of the band, their friends, and Alan, Bill, Darcey, and Katherine froze. Jack felt his heart leap up into his throat, Katherine squeezed his hand. He could hear Race’s breathing get faster next to him.

“I want to make it clear to every person in this room that actions of that sort are not going to be tolerated in this school,” Pulitzer’s voice rang out, sounding vaguely tinny to Jack. “Under no circumstances will Jack Kelly and the Newsies be performing on school grounds, or at any school function. Nor, in fact, will any similar bands that boast such vulgar-sounding ‘music’ be welcome in these spaces.”

Jack heard Elaine hiss “Alan” from further down the bench, and then, before Pulitzer could continue, a new voice was ringing out through the gym.

“Why?” Alan called. His voice was loud and clear, ringing out to echo just like Pulitzer’s had.

Pulitzer zeroed in on Alan. Jack and Race shrank away, trying to make themselves as small as possible. On Alan’s other side, Elaine looked like she wanted to melt into the floor as she, Mush, and Finch also tried to make themselves disappear. “And you are?” Pulitzer said drily.

“Alan O’Dell.”

Jack was pretty sure he saw Pulitzer’s face twist in disdain at the name.

“My sister’s a member of the Newsies,” Alan explained. “I’ve been to a ton of their shows. Their music is really good. I guess I just don’t understand why they’ve been banned the way they are. It seems unfair, and based entirely on your own, personal, opinions and bias. The Newsies are an extremely popular band, and that’s not just a coincidence. They’re good, and the petition clearly indicates that your student body enjoys their shows and would like to be able to have music they enjoy at their end-of-year dance.”

“Mr. O’Dell, am I to take it that you were responsible for the petition that has led to this assembly?” Pulitzer stuck his thumbs in his vest pocket and rocked back on his heels. He now looked thoroughly pleased with himself.

“Actually, no,” said Alan, crossing his arms over his chest, “but I wish that I had”—

“We started it.”

Every eye in the room shot from Alan O’Dell to Walter Kasprzak and Sarah Jacobs, on their feet and mirroring Alan’s posture. Turning back to look at Pulitzer’s reaction, Jack noticed that Theo and Conrad Duncan—Mike and Ike’s older and younger brothers—were also on their feet. Beside Katherine, Bill and Darcey slowly stood up, and Cami and Annia stood next to Sarah. Jack noticed the teachers around the edge of the room scribbling notes and the sinking feeling in his stomach got worse.

Students around them were whispering furiously at this turn of events. Jack glanced back and saw Davey and Elmer beaming proudly up at their respective siblings. Cora looked a little more like a cornered cat, but still seemed happily surprised by everything going on around her.

“My name is Walter Kasprzak,” Walter said. “My little brother Elmer is one of the Newsies. I’m really proud of him and his friends and everythin’ they’ve done. Their music is amazin’, and I thought they at least deserved the chance to play prom, rather than just bein’ rejected out of hand.”

“And I agreed with him,” said Sarah. “My brother Davey’s in the band too. If other school bands are considered for the dance, there’s no reason that the Newsies shouldn’t be just because the music they play is newer. Like Walt said, the music they play is enjoyable. People our age like it. We want to listen to it. It’s great to dance to. So, we talked it over, and we wanted to do what we could to at least get them considered for the prom.”

“That’s why we came up with the petition,” Theo said. “To give our brothers—‘cause I’ve got two in the band to be proud of—a chance to show their stuff and get the recognition they deserve. If you look over the petition, you’ll find that it’s divided by class, and you’ll notice that there are just as many signatures from the ninth and tenth grade classes as there are from the eleventh and twelfth grade classes. That means that it’s pretty clear: even students who have no vested interest in prom since they won’t be attendin’ it are interested in havin’ the Newsies play it. They think that the band deserves the chance, because they like them and their music.”

“Just because a thing is popular does not mean that it is good or appropriate,” said Pulitzer, almost laughing behind the words. “The music that the Newsies play is wild and unrestrained. If we give into that sort of attitude”—

Before he could finish, Katherine had shot up to her feet and stepped up onto the bench where she’d been sitting. She flung her arms out, threw her head back, and belted: “Times have changed! And we’ve often rewound the clock since the Puritans got a shock”—

“When they landed on Plymouth rock!” Crutchie jumped up and interrupted her to finish the line. They grinned at each other across the gym, then turned to face Pulitzer.

“If today any shock you should try to stem,” Mike popped up like a rabbit, Ike right behind him.

“‘Stead of landing on Plymouth rock,” sang Ike, then the twins slung their arms over each other’s shoulders and belted in unison:

“Plymouth rock should land on them!”

“In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking,” sang Elaine, climbing up onto her seat so that she stood even with Alan.

—“But now, God knows! Anything goes!” Cora hopped up to finish the line. Elaine turned around and they grinned at each other, before turning to glare at Pulitzer.

“Good authors too, who once knew better words,” Davey gave in and stood between Cora and his sister.

“Now only use four-letter words writing prose!” Race popped up, not to be undone by his younger sister. “Anything goes!”

“The world has gone mad today

And good's bad today,

And black's white today,

And day's night today,

When most guys today

That women prize today

Are just silly gigolos!”

Finch was next: “And though I’m not a great romancer, I know that I’m bound to answer when you propose”—

“Anything goes!” sang Mush, standing up next to him.

“When Grandmama whose age is eighty,” Romeo was the next one up, climbing up onto his seat to belt, ever-so-slightly off key, “In nightclubs is getting matey with gigolos!”

“Anything goes!” Elmer shouted.

“When mothers pack and leave poor father because they’ve decided they’d rather be tennis pros,” sang Specs.

“Anything goes!” they all cried before launching into the next chorus:

“If driving fast cars you like,

If low bars you like,

If old hymns you like,

If bare limbs you like,

If Mae West you like

Or me undressed you like,

Why, nobody will oppose!”

“When every night the set that’s smart is intruding on nudist parties in studios!” Blink was next, to his friends’ surprise, given that they’d never heard him sing before.

“Anything goes!” Tommy shrugged and stood up next to Crutchie, who nudged him with his elbow and grinned.

“The world has gone mad today

And good's bad today,

And black's white today,

And day's night today,

When most guys today

That women prize today

Are just silly gigolos!”

Boots and Henry took the next chorus together, the others joining in as it went. Then, JoJo stood for the next line: “And though I’m not a great romancer”—

“I know that I’m bound to answer when you propose!” Spot was on his feet next to JoJo almost instantly, another almost unheard voice from among the band members.

“Anything goes!” Smalls popped up next to Tommy, grinning wickedly.

“If saying your prayers you like,

If green pears you like

If old chairs you like,

If back stairs you like,

If love affairs you like

With young bears you like,

Why nobody will oppose!”

Jack sighed and shook his head. He didn’t like where this was going, but he wasn’t about to abandon his friends again. He stood up to sing the last chorus with his friends. They were no longer the only ones singing; not only had the others who had stood with them—like Sarah, Theo, Bill, and Darcey— started singing as well, but many of the students seated around them had joined in. Even the Delancey twins seemed caught up in the moment, although they weren’t singing. Jack was pretty sure if he ever saw Morris and Oscar Delancey sing he would spontaneously combust.

“And though I’m not a great romancer,

I know that I’m bound to answer when you propose!

Anything goes!”

As the last line died away, almost as if they had rehearsed it, every member of the Newsies filled their lungs with air and shouted as loud as they could, one last time: “Anything goes!”

The gym slowly fell silent again. A few students tried to start a round of applause, but that quickly died out. Pulitzer simply waited for silence to fall and attention to return to him. Once it had, he spoke: “All members of the Newsies, as well as any of you who stood in response to the petition, please take your seats and stay in them. We do know who all of you are, so if you attempt to leave, you will still be punished. All other students are dismissed.”

Jack sat down, a lump in his throat and his hands trembling. That’s what I was afraid of. They sat as still as possible as the rest of the student body filed out. A few whispered encouragement as they passed, but most seemed too afraid of Pulitzer’s retribution to do or say much.

Once the gym had emptied of the other students and teachers, Seitz and Bunsen once again closed the doors, and Pulitzer stepped down from the platform. He accepted a piece of paper from Seitz, who gave an almost apologetic glance to the teenagers before moving aside.

“Sarah Jacobs, Walter Kasprzak, Annia Kasprzak, Theodore Duncan, Conrad Duncan, Camilla Carlotta de la Guerra, William Hearst Jr., Darcey Reid, Alan O’Dell, Katherine Pulitzer,” he read from the sheet of paper. “You are all suspended through the rest of the week. The rest of you,” he looked up, and an evil smile crept over his face, “are expelled. You may collect your belongings from your lockers, and then must leave school property. Once you have left, you may not return to school property for any reason. Officers will escort you in pairs to your lockers. Once they have escorted you out of the school building, you must leave the property. Those of you who are only suspended must leave immediately.”

[eddie-kaspbrat]

hey i loved your streddie headcanons it was so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 so pls stozier highschool au

Ahhh I wasn't sure exactly what you wanted so I hope this is okay!

• These two IDIOTS

• Unless you were one of the losers, you weren't sure if these two were even fucking friends, let alone secretly in love

• Secretly

• Stan refuses to even crack a smile around Richie because he doesn’t want the Trashmouth to know he thinks he’s hilarious

• Richie knows

• There was one day that Stan came in after staying up all night working on a trifold poster board for a science project

• He kept messing up his design and would have to erase it, but would then get annoyed with all the eraser marks across the poster

• The final straw before his mental breakdown was when he fucked up in pen

• A stupid science project on a baking soda volcano turned into a 16 hour long event, and that’s not including making the actual volcano

• So anyway, he came to school that day hyped up on at least four cups of coffee, not including the half finished thermos in his hand

• All it took was Richie to make one stupid joke about Eddie’s height for Stan to fall out of his fucking chair, laughing so hard he started crying

• Eddie kicked him

• Richie kicked Eddie for hurting his Staniel

• Mike kicked Richie for hurting the baby

• Eddie kicked Mike for calling him a baby

• There was a lot of kicking

• There’s a betting pool between the losers over when they’re gonna get together and who’s gonna hike up their skirt and ask

• Bev wins when Richie asks before the end of senior year

• When they pair up together for an Econ project, everyone thinks it’s because Richie needs help

• No one realizes it’s because Richie is offering to help Stan

• Richie’s somehow so good with money, even though he always throws it away on cigarettes

• “I know how to save money. I just choose not to”

• Meanwhile Stan doesn’t understand the difference between fiscal and monetary policies

• “For fucks sake, Richie, you're gonna be the one to deal with this shit when we inevitably get a place together”

• Richie couldn’t help the smile that fought it’s way onto his face at the idea of living with Stanley 

• Platonically

• The smile dropped a bit

• After they turned it in, they actually started looking for apartments together

• Sure, they’d be living in dorms their first year, but that doesn’t mean they can’t look

• Richie was absolutely fucking ecstatic when Stan ran to him with his University of Maine acceptance letter

• It was the only school they’d both been accepted to

• Next comes prom, babey

• You’d think this is when Richie does it, right? Romantic and shit

• Ha

• Prom is so uneventful for Stozier

• Richie got hit on by a few drunk guys

• Stan danced with Mike, then Bill, and when he was finally getting up the courage to dance with Richie, they stopped playing slow songs

• But after prom

• They were all spending the night at Mike’s and laying outside under the stars, because stars are SO pretty when you're drunk

• And Richie pulled that cheesy “but you’re prettier”

• Stan couldn’t stop blushing

• They ended up falling asleep cuddling

• It wasn't until a week before their graduation that Richie finally grew a pair

• They’d just finished classes and had the week off before they got to walk the stage

• Richie had been going on about how “We did it, Stanley! Time to begin the next chapter! We’re starting our lives together!”

• Stan smiled a bit at the ‘together’

• Richie brought them to the playground they met on as a sentimental thing

• He directed them to the sandbox they met in

• Stan had been meticulously creating a sand castle, not a grain of sand out of place

• Some asshole kid named Henry kicked it over and Stan started screaming

• Richie pushed the asshole kid over

• Henry told Richie his dad would arrest him before he went to find some other kid to pick on, and Richie sat down next to Stan, not saying anything until he stopped crying

• It was nearly the end of recess when Stan finally calmed down, but Richie helped him salvage what he could of the castle

• Richie was terrible at this, but for some reason, Stan didn't mind it

• All he had to do was go back in and fix Richie’s mistakes

• Sure it took longer, but hey, it worked

• He started crying again when recess ended because he couldn’t finish the castle, but Richie promised they’d come back and make it even better tomorrow

• Stan smiled at the memory as he looked down at the sandbox

• When he looked back at Richie, Richie was looking at him

• “That was the best decision of my life. Pushing Bowers like that.”

• Richie explained how that day gave him his best friend, the only person in the world he is truly himself with and can tell absolutely everything

• Stan can’t help the slight smile that graces his lips as his eyes glint knowingly

• “You aren’t proposing, Rich. Just ask.”

• Richie looks shocked, but of course Stanley knew

• The next time the losers saw them, they were holding hands and Richie looked absolutely ecstatic

• Stan looked bored, but they saw the happiness in his eyes anyway

Hope this fulfills that Stozier fluff everyone needs lol

Asks are open!!

[lady-gravity-129]

Henry Danger Finale and Overall Show Review

That finale was absolutely wonderful! I was 12 when the pilot first aired and I cannot believe how far everyone has come! I don't really know how to put into words how much watching these characters grow up alongside myself has meant to me. But, let's get into a proper review of the finale and the series as a whole.

First, can I just say how good of a choice it was to bring Drex back for the finale arc? He is arguably one of the most threatening villains the characters have faced (with Rick coming in 2nd) and I feel that bringing him back for one final fight was the best choice they could have possibly made for the show's finale. 

Although, I feel as if there were some miscalculations when bringing him back that really bothers me. It's fairly easy to say that anyone who took history would know that cavemen didn't exist at all 100 million years ago. The earliest human ancestors didn't even walk this Earth until 7 million years ago. I have a lot to say about the historical inaccuracies with all this but let's save that for another post.

Next, let's get onto the characters themselves. Ray, he was still a stubborn child up until that final episode. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when his personality changed from a supportive father figure to...whoever that man we've had in the episodes lately. But, I'm going to estimate that he changed around the beginning of the 4th season. He's had his good moments after the odd personality change but, it's kind of like he reverted back to his old self during the very final episode? The way he wanted to stay knowing fully well that he would die? Perfect. How he was literally begging Henry to leave so he didn't die? Also perfect. That's the kind of person we've been missing. Although it kinda makes sense that this Ray hasn't been around much since there haven't really been any life threatening events like that in the show, huh?

Piper, Charlotte, and Jasper. I loved all of them in this finale. Even though Piper didn't get as much screen time as the others, she was still great. She's come such a long way from the little bratty child she was back in season 1. I feel like she really changed after Sister Twister and I'm not really sure how to explain it. Jasper is still my favorite character because he is just a lovable dork and I love him. How he was beyond excited to receive recognition from Ray gives us another look into his home life in my honest opinion and how his parents probably don't give him a lot of attention. He probably saw Ray as a father figure and it just makes me want to hug him even more and he deserves all the recognition. Charlotte also deserves all the recognition. She's just so smart and sassy and just constantly being amazing? She definitely deserved more attention in the show. I LOVED HER FREAKING HAIR IN DYSTOPIA? The purple? The blue? ALL WAS PERFECT! And the fact she got some sort of enhancements that gave her robot-like powers and became 'Super Charlotte' (according to Jasper)? Like, did she choose to become part cyborg or something? How did she do that? WHEN did she do that? I NEED ANSWERS NICKELODEON!! GIVE US A DYSTOPIA SPIN-OFF! OR AT LEAST A DYSTOPIA MOVIE!

Henry. He was also great in this finale and it broke my heart when he was ready to sacrifice himself to save the city. Like, he hasn't even graduated high school yet. GIVE OUR CHILD A BREAK! I loved how the creators managed to keep Henry getting a new power a secret until the episode. A green forcefield? Amazing? I feel like that matches his protective nature and I just...AHHH...I LOVED IT! I'm going to guess that he managed to work something out with the school which is why he was able to go to Dystopia with Charlotte, and Jasper? That part confused me because in The Beginning of the End one of the episode's main conflicts was Henry realizing he wasn't graduating high school? I feel that off screen Henry managed to work something out with his parents and school and maybe he's finishing school online or something? That seems like the theory that makes the most sense so I'm just gonna roll with it lol.

Schwoz and the Danger Force children. I don't have much to say about Schwoz since he was really just an overall funny character who knew when it was time to be serious but still managed to throw in some humor as well. The finale set up the Danger Force pretty well and I think they have a lot of potential. They are all my children but Bose and Chapa are my favorites so far. I can't wait for Danger Force to premiere so we can get to know this cast of characters even more!

All in all, this finale wrapped everything up very nicely and I am very satisfied with how everything turned out. It's pretty rare for a finale these days to wrap mostly everything up. This finale did that very well and gave us the action and drama that we've been wanting for years now. When this show first aired, it had a lot of potential and I clung onto the hope that it would slowly become something more. A few of the villains throughout the show posed to be a pretty big threat but the creators never really did anything with them (besides Drex). Dr. Minyak was an awesome villain when he first appeared and really had the potential to be the main villain of the series. But did the creators ever do anything? No, I have a feeling the creators brought him down a notch because he was being too good of a villain and they didn't want to make a plot centered show even though HE LITERALLY KNEW HOW TO TAKE AWAY RAY'S POWER! The Time Jerker was a good villain, he could have appeared more times than he did. EVEN GWEN FROM THAT ONE EPISODE IN SEASON 3 WAS A GOOD VILLAIN AND SHE NEVER APPEARED AGAIN! Invisible Brad, yeah he became visible again in Season 5 but before that he could have appeared more and become a good villain! Bill Evil...Works for Evil Science Corporation. HIS LAST NAME IS LITERALLY EVIL! How could they have not made him a more threatening villain? The Toddler was a good villain and I feel that him being a literal insane man-child is what made him threatening. Drex and Rick were the only threatening villains that really left a long lasting impact on the characters and I'm upset they didn't do more with the other villains. Literally all those above mentioned villains could have been so much more if Nickelodeon was open to making Henry Danger a more plot focused show.

Despite all that, I still loved Henry Danger and it will always have a special place in my heart for doing a good job at making me laugh and smile whenever I was having a bad day. While it’s not perfect by any means, it was good in its own way and I am glad I gave this show a chance all those years ago.

[mysideblogofsurveys]

Survey 19

1. Do you wear accessories? Not really, just a thin hair tie on my wrist

2. Do you remember your childhood phone number? Address? Yes, my parents still have the same landline phone number and still live at the same address

3. Have you ever moved? If so, when/how many times? UGH SO MANY TIMES!  We moved the first time in Aug 2012 (from the Midwest to Seattle WA), then May 2014 (Seattle to Florida), then June 2019 (West Coast of FL to East Coast of FL) and we’ll be moving a FOURTH TIME sometime in Oct 2020 - not sure exactly when but we are for sure (back to the West Coast of FL).

4. Do you wear deodorant every day? I don’t >< I don’t trust the chemicals (aluminum) in deodorant so I just wash my pits every day and they’re fine.

5. What was the last thing you bonded with someone over? Umm, I can really only think of bonding with my husband over our shared interests

6. What are your plans for the upcoming weekend? UGH well we had the “Cat 1 Hurricane” that thankfully turned to a Tropical Storm - so we just stayed home and played video games and watched UFC.  Its actually supposed to pass through us today and so far, its just windy and rainy.  Nothing too bad.

7. What TV shows are you watching? I’m kind of between shows right now.  Just finishing Jason Mesnick’s season of the Bachelor on Netflix currently but not sure what I’ll put on after that.

8. What is your favorite music genre? I love so many - mostly Rock/Metal, Anime/Japanese songs and 80s.  I was heavily into Kpop for about 5 years but I’ve recently stopped paying so close attention. I still like it but definitely don’t follow it as closely as I did before.

9. What is something you’re super into right now? Honestly, nothing in particular. I need to find some type of hobby.  I want to start journaling or a journal of games I play (with screen shots) or something. but I never have the patience to sit a do stuff like that. However, I always want to play games like Stardew Valley (its always on my mind.  I just love that game so much).

10. Do you have a celebrity crush? Ok, I have a few haha: - Henry Cavill (Have you SEEN him build a computer? Or his role in the Witcher?? *heart eyes*) - Tom Hardy (I really liked him in Mad Max and Venom) - Do Kyungsoo and Park Chanyeol from EXO (Korean boy band) - I melt every time I hear their voices.

11. Do you have a goal you’re trying to accomplish? Yes but I can never decide what I want to spend my time on so I end up just wasting time.  Like this morning for instance - I get up at 8am, briefly scroll through social media/watched the Bachelor with WIP of a Stardew Valley fic open on my laptop but now its 10:30am and I added maybe 15 words to the fic...WHERE did the last 2 hours go?? I have all of these ideas but for some reason, I have the hardest time sitting down and typing it all out..and procrastinate and do this survey instead ><

12. What was your last dream? Did you tell anyone about it? I had a dream of a Stardew Valley one-shot (which is what I was trying to write this morning) but of course, didn’t get it written out.  I usually tell my husband about them

13. Do you like workouts where you count reps or by 30 seconds? I’ll take either.  I like working out

14. Whats your favorite thing to do on a Sunny day? What about a Rainy day? On a Sunny day, I like going for walks with my Husband and playing Pokemon Go.  On rainy days, I like sitting and studying something (like a language) or even playing games.

15. Do you have a "Rainy Day fund"? No, but I just push most of my income (whatever is left over after paying bills/buying the necessities) into my savings account.

16. Do you "RBF" (resting bitch face)? Not really?  But I get told I look “angry” sometimes?  I hate that I have that expression but I know I frown when I’m in deep thought ><

17. If your house was one fire, what is the first thing you would grab? As long as my Husband was safe, my second thought would be my computers and external hard drive.

18. What is your favorite feature about yourself? Worst feature? I like my eyes and smile, my worst feature..well I guess it’d be my social anxiety ><

19. What is your “must get” from the grocery store? (What item is always on your list?) Lately its been watermelon, a great snack. 20. Do you have a favorite show or song you put on every time you’re sad? Not particularly. I have a playlist of songs that I put on when I’m in that mood but no specific song or show 21. What is your favorite holiday? I like Thanksgiving and New Years Eve/Day 22. What is your dream occupation? UGH I wish I knew.  I’m in the financial field right now and I don’t really like it but its not too bad.  I know I don’t belong in this field but I don’t have experience in anything else to fall back on so I guess I’ll continue with it (plus I’m in my early 30s, I don’t want to have to start ALL OVER again since we’re finally close to getting a house and finally starting a family). 23. Do you like dressing up? Eh, not really.  I like casual, comfy clothes 24. Ever been on a cruise? Bungee jumping? I’ve been on several cruises (they’re a lot of fun!) but I have not bungee jumped..not sure if I’m brave enough for that. 25. Have you ever been on a date?  What has been your favorite date? I have been on quite a few dates!  My favorite one was going to a rock show for our 3 month anniversary (WAY back in May 2010) with my husband (well, he was just my boyfriend at the time :) ) 26. Have you ever been through a Hurricane?  Tornado? Earthquake? Well, Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019...lets hope we don’t have anymore this year >< I have not been through a Tornado or Earthquake. 27. Are you the adventurous type? I’d say so?  I don’t know many people who would move as much as we have 28. Do you live close to your family? No :/ all of my family (and in-laws) live in the Midwest.  Well, aside from my Mother/Father-in-law.  They are snowbirds and have a house on the West Coast of FL and we’re moving back to be closer to them in a couple months. 29. Are you creative?  Is there anything creative you’re working on right now? I WANT to be creative but I have a hard time sitting down and getting something done.  I have half-written about 20 fanfiction pieces (for several fandoms) since 2017 but I haven’t completed any of them. 30. Do you have a morning routine?  Nightly routine? - Morning routine on the week day: Get up, start coffee, take a shower, scroll through social media/watch a show before getting ready for work - Morning routine on the weekend: Get up, start coffee, wash my face, watch a show/play a video game/scroll through social media until my Husband wakes up Nightly routine on the week day: Get my lunch ready the night before, brush/floss, read at least 10-20 min then go to sleep by 11pm to get up at 6:15am Nightly routine on the weekend: Brush my teeth and go to bed lol

[johnwatsonblog-co-uk]

The Hounds of Baskerville

16th March

I've never been happier to see anyone than I was to see Henry Knight. Sherlock had been bored. And trust me, you don't want to be around him when he's bored. He's hyperactive, rude, arrogant and a real pain in the behind.

Yeah I know, same old Sherlock.

Henry, a normal-looking bloke in his late 20s, was clearly very anxious when he arrived at Baker Street. He told us about how, twenty years before, his dad had died. He told us how his Dad had been ripped apart by the Devil.

They'd been out for a walk on Dartmoor when they'd been attacked. Some kind of monster - big, black with red glowing eyes - had killed his father in front of him. Apparently it had taken place near the Government's Baskerville research facility. Sherlock worked out that something must have happened the previous night to make Henry suddenly ask for help that morning. Henry said that his therapist, Doctor Louise Mortimer, had suggested he revisit the location of the attack in order to put old ghosts to rest. Henry had done this and, to his horror, had discovered some footprints. Footprints that appeared to have been made by, what he called, a 'gigantic hound'. There'd been rumours that experiments on animals had been taking place at the Baskerville facility since WWII. And so, Sherlock took the case and off we went into deepest, darkest Devon.

Our first port of call was the local pub. There we found a guy who ran walks on the moors etc. He claimed to know a man from the MOD who'd once said he'd seen giant animals at a government research facility - rats as big as dogs and dogs as big as horses. It wasn't exactly irrefutable evidence but all signs did seem to be pointing at the Baskerville facility. Sherlock had some ID he'd appropriated so we were able to bluff our way in. Again, because of the Official Secrets Act, I can't talk too much about what I saw in there but, as well as seeing some of what they go up to, we met Doctor Jacqui Stapleton and the annoyingly-cheerful Doctor Bob Frankland. Stapleton, Sherlock realised, was the mother of a little girl who'd written to him recently  (in regards to Kirsty’s comments).

We then went to see Henry at his home where he told us that something else had come back to him about the night his father died - two words: Liberty and In. Sherlock then announced his next move - we'd take Henry up to the moors that night and see if anything else attacked him. I'm not sure who was more worried about this, me or Henry.

Turns out we were both right to be worried. That night, I heard the hound. Well, I heard something. The place was so bleak and desolate but I was sure it wasn't my mind playing tricks on me. But it got worse - Sherlock and Henry saw it. Sherlock denied it at first, but back at the pub he finally admitted to me that he'd seen it. I've never seen him so shaken, so scared. He was actually terrified. We parted company and I went to interview Louise Mortimer, Henry's therapist. She was starting to open up to me when Frankland arrived, interrupting us. Things weren't going well.

The next morning, I met up with Sherlock and we discussed the previous evening. He admitted that as well as fear, the worst thing he'd felt was doubt. He'd never doubted himself before and he simply couldn't understand how he'd seen what he'd seen. Luckily, I'd already spotted a clue. A receipt for meat at the vegetarian hotel and restaurant we were staying at. When confronted, the owners admitted that they'd bought a dog to help cash in on the rising tourist trade but that they'd had it put down some time before. It certainly hadn't been what Sherlock had seen the previous night.

And therefore it certainly wasn't what I was about to see.

We returned to the base to talk to Doctor Stapleton. Before meeting up with her, though, Sherlock sent me off to look for any sign of this 'monster' , so i started in the main lab. And I was trapped when it came for me it. I could hear it... And then I saw it... I've been through some terrifying experiences in my life but that was one of the worst. Something that just seemed so unbelievable and so unstoppable... Those eyes...

And then Sherlock rescued me and revealed that I'd been drugged. I saw the hound because that's what I'd expected to see. Obviously, as a doctor, I've seen the effects of a number of different drugs but this... I hadn't just seen the hound. I'd heard it. I'd felt it getting closer. I'd felt the fear inside me...

We met up with Stapleton again and, in her lab, Sherlock examined some sugar from Henry's house. He'd noticed that both and he and Henry took sugar in their coffee which would explain why they'd seen the hound the previous night and I hadn't. It also explained why Sherlock had made me coffee that morning and put sugar in it. He'd used me as an experiment. One day, I will kill him.

There was one thing that had bothered Sherlock from the start and that was Henry's use of the word 'hound'. It was an odd word, old-fashioned. He wondered whether it was another piece of his memory trying to break through and whether it was actually an acronym he'd seen. Using the facility's computers, we managed to discover the existence of an old scientific project, indeed known as H.O.U.N.D. The project had been to design and develop a weapon that could create fear in the enemy. It had been closed down when they'd realised that prolonged exposure had caused people to lose their sanity. And where had the project been developed? Liberty, Indiana. Liberty. In. Henry had been remembering things!

Then his therapist, Louise, called. Henry had lost it. He'd turned a gun on her and fled. She was all right but she was scared about what he might do to himself. We returned to the moors, to the place where Henry's dad had been killed and there he was. He was close to killing himself. His mind just couldn't cope with all the conflicting information - what he remembered, what he thought he remembered, everything. Sherlock knew that he'd started to remember that it had actually been a man who had killed his father and not a monster. Witnessing this as a kid, he'd tried to rationalise it into something different. He'd created the hound out of the various images he'd seen - the crazed man and the acronym which his father's murderer had been wearing on a sweatshirt. H.O.U.N.D.

And then we all saw the hound again. It was coming for us. I knew, I rationalised that it wasn't real, that I was just seeing things but it was there... Coming for us...

And so was the man behind it all. Doctor Frankland. He was wearing a gasmask which told Sherlock what he needed to know - the poison, the weapon that H.O.U.N.D. had created hadn't been in the sugar. It was in the fog! We were in a chemical minefield. As the hound prepared to attack, we shot it and we saw that it was just a dog. And then Sherlock did one of the most human things I think I've ever seen him do - he made Henry look at the dog's body. He didn't need to, he'd solved the case but it was as if he knew that the truly important thing was showing Henry what was real and what wasn't. Maybe the fear and doubt he'd felt, and maybe his experiences with Irene Adler, had humanised him?

Of course, he immediately started raving on in front of Henry about what a fantastic case it had been and I realised he hadn't changed that much.

And later, I realised something else. Sherlock had thought that the poison was in the sugar at first. He'd been convinced . Sherlock had made a mistake.

He is only human, after all.

9 comments

Henry was a "normal-looking bloke"? Really, John, you should become a professional author!

Sherlock Holmes 16 March 12:22

Sounds terrifying!!

Harry Watson 16 March 12:36

It sounds as if the dog's bark was worse than its bite!

Bill Murray 16 March 12:38

LOL!

Jacob Sowersby 16 March 12:40

It's certainly given me paws for thought.

Mike Stamford 16 March 13:32

LOL!

Jacob Sowersby 16 March 13:34

Stop now.

Sherlock Holmes 16 March 13:36

Surely this is just a shaggy dog story.

Bill Murray 16 March 13:47

John, fetch me my revolver.

Sherlock Holmes 16 March 13:50