#hopefully connor contributes

[connormccafferyhater]

y’all better hope cc put on a fuckshit pregame fit tomorrow or we’re in trouble 😊

[pluckyredhead]

Editing The Lost Titans

I get asks about writing advice/craft/tips occasionally, and I always feel a little inadequate when I answer them. While I try to be very disciplined and methodical about my original writing, when it comes to fic, it's something I do for fun and for free, so my method is mainly slapping my hands on the keyboard like a seal until self-indulgence comes out. It's rare that I outline fic or make significant edits, so it's hard for me to point to specific examples.

However! While I was writing The Lost TItans, I did a bunch of major edits - throwing away entire scenes, revising large chunks, adding an entire chapter after the first draft was done. More importantly, all of those edits had really clear reasons they needed to be made, rather than me going "Eh...it's just not right," which means I can actually explain my thought process without just waving a hand vaguely in the direction of the vibes. So I thought I'd write about what edits I made and why, in case it's interesting or useful to anyone. (And if not, who doesn't like navel gazing?)

The original opening scene was entirely different. It served the same purpose - it was still a dream showing the Titans Red world - but instead of all the Titans fighting the HIVE, it was Jason having lunch on the Star City University campus with Toni and Grant. Then, just as in the finished fic, Jason wakes up at Roy's house and talks about the dream over breakfast.

Now don't get me wrong, I loved writing that original opening scene. I love Toni and Grant, I was already invested in this alternate timeline, so getting to play with these characters interacting was super fun for me.

But it wouldn't have been fun for anyone else. Most of my readers wouldn't know who Toni and Grant were, and literally no one would be invested in their relationships with Jason, because I was inventing those out of whole cloth. Also, because the other four members of the team weren't there, it was just tons of exposition of who these characters were, what their team history was, etc. etc. Rose's joke about Roy being like a cool camp counselor was originally from this scene, but because Rose isn't in the scene, it's a joke being exposited rather than told. There was nothing to engage a reader who wasn't me, and also a lot of what was being shown in the scene - that these characters attended the same college - wasn't necessary information (as you can tell by the fact that in the final fic, that isn't even true).

So I cut the scene entirely and replaced it with the opening fight scene. (And obviously made the necessary edits to the subsequent conversation with Roy.) It's much more high energy, and more importantly: it gets the whole team on the page, it shows that they are a team rather than just telling you, and hopefully the banter gets you invested in their dynamic. They're pals being goofy together! I sure hope these are real relationships and not Hank Hall's weird manipulative RPF!

2. The third scene, dinner at Ollie's, originally opened with Roy, Lian, and Jason arriving at Ollie's and all the different Arrowfamily members getting little bits of dialogue or whatever before it was supposed to cut to the flashback of Jason butting heads with Bruce in Gotham. I was actually in the middle of this scene and stalled out for a while before I realized I needed to a) scrap the opening scene like I mentioned above and b) scrap this one, too. Often when I find I'm just stuck and not going anywhere, it's for reasons like this - the scene I'm writing isn't the right one.

In this case, it was similar to the Grant and Toni scene above - I was having a great time writing the Arrowfam, but the scene wasn't actually contributing anything to the fic. The point of this entire sequence was to show Jason's fraught relationship with his own family, and hint that Connor was experiencing the same dreams as Jason. Random banter with Mia or whoever was just getting in the way of the crucial information. I cleared all of the Arrowfamily stuff out of the beginning of this sequence, jumped straight to Gotham, and then used the birthday cake scene to contrast Jason's relationship with the Bats to his relationship with the Arrows, as well as drop that Connor hint.

I want to be really clear here, because I feel like people get defensive about the idea of cutting scenes that "aren't doing anything" or "don't move the plot forward." I didn't cut these scenes because they were quiet or character-driven. Jason and Roy having breakfast is quiet and character-driven. The whole fic is character-driven. I cut the scenes that I cut because they literally served zero purpose except having various characters go "Hello, I exist and I have a relationship to Jason." I replaced them with scenes that did that, and also moved the plot forward, and also made you care about those relationships, and also were fun to read. Please don't feel bad for those scenes because they got cut; they are a collection of words and don't have feelings.

3. The scene where Rose rescues Jason and Connor from Sudden Death got I would say a medium level of revision, in that the beats are all the same but they weren't originally fighting Sudden Death. Initially I just had them dealing with two members from opposite sides of a gang war, and the scene was pretty terrible but it got me where I needed to be, so I left it and finished the first draft of the whole fic.

When I went back in revisions, I realized that in using the gang war hook, I was once again spending time on something - in this case, the intricacies of crime in Star City - that had nothing to do with the fic. This is an easy trap to fall into: I needed to introduce Rose in a fun, badass way, while Jason and Connor were already hanging out, so having her save them while they were on patrol was perfect. It didn't matter who they were fighting, so I put in some generic goons.

But then I had to justify why said goons required three superheroes (four, if you count Roy) to defeat them, and also set up why they were there in the first place, and it just became a long derailment from the story I was trying to tell, with nothing inherently entertaining about it to justify it.

Swapping the goons for Sudden Death meant I could significantly streamline the "why" of the scene: he's a supervillain doing supervillain shit, case closed (although there's still a nod to him working with Brick, a Star City crime lord, to explain why he's in town). His dumb surfer shtick is more entertaining to read than generic goon dialogue. And he's a Hawk and Dove villain, which meant the scene served three purposes now: giving Rose a grand entrance, humor, and foreshadowing. Boom.

4. The scene where Jason and Roy kiss got a pretty thorough second pass. This one is the least helpful one to talk about, I think, because it really was just honing the vibes. I wanted to increase the tension between them, that slow pull drawing them closer, so I put in more about their respective positioning in the room, the way the room looks and feels, little physical details of Roy. If I make the setting more palpable, I make the tension more palpable - or at least, that's the theory I'm working with here.

5. The climax got a MAJOR overhaul. Initially, Hank returned Roy and took him away again, Jason had the team attack him, and there was a whole thing with the team fruitlessly fighting against all these hypertime variants of Hank. Only then did Koryak suggest they stay in the Titans Red universe.

I'd written it that way because...well, it was a superhero fic, it felt like it needed some kind of physical confrontation at the end. But this version of Hank is so powerful that there wasn't actually anything the Titans could do, which made the fight not particularly engaging. It also didn't really make sense for him to be attacked by Koryak, Grant, and Eddie, who were kind of on his side, or Jason, who was torn.

Instead, I nixed the physical fight, and made the actual conflict between the team members, which is the conflict that really matters. I also made that fight much more painful. The argument was already there in the first draft, but the truly cruel lines - Koryak's comment about Rose's mom, what Grant says to Toni - came in the second pass. Because the stakes here aren't really whether they can beat Hank; it's their friendship, and the balance between what they give up by going home, and what they give up by staying in the dream. I needed that decision to hurt, and failing to punch Hank Hall in the face wouldn't accomplish that.

6. I essentially added an entire chapter in revisions. Originally the fic went: Eddie sacrifices himself -> quick paragraph sending everyone home -> Jason and Roy get together -> team reassembles to rescue Eddie. It felt rushed and completely unsatisfying. I had been focused on resolving the plot points directly involving Jason, because he's the POV character, but I'd spent so long on all of the various team relationships that I had to at least give each character a proper send-off.

So I added the scene at the JSA brownstone. I let Grant and Toni make up, gave Grant his happy ending, and hinted at Toni's. I gave Koryak and Rose exit lines, and hinted that Jason thinks of Connor as family and part of what "home" means. I added the Tim scene because I needed to balance the beginning of the fic, and because if Jason was making the choice to return to a world with a fraught family dynamic, I needed to show that dynamic on page. I was worried that it would feel like I was drawing out the end too long after the Big Bad was defeated, but I think all of those scenes feel necessary and (hopefully) healing.

Anyway, hopefully this was interesting and maybe helpful! I find craft super interesting but it can be hard to talk about in concrete ways, so I wanted to get all this down on (digital) paper as clear examples I could point to when people ask.

[msmargaretmurry]

I just read the next next one and am so in awe of your writing and characterization of Connor. I was wondering if you have any thoughts or major points that you go off of whenever you write him.

ohhh, this is such an interesting question. i haven't written connor as a main character since tnno, which was over three years ago now (wtf @ the passage of time), so i would probably write him slightly differently now than i did then, because he's grown up a lot, and because his team has had more success in the interim than they were having back then, and because i as a writer have hopefully grown since then. but i think my fundamental characterization would remain pretty constant!

this answer got kind of long, so please see under the cut for some things i tend to think about when writing connor mcdavid:

first off, that anecdote from juniors (i think from dylan, but i don't entirely recall) about how he would never buy/bring his own snacks anywhere but then would always ask to have some of someone else's food. idk why but this is the funniest and most endearing mcdavid anecdote to me. after he got drafted, him asking to stay and watch the third pick, too — not just as a mcstrome thing, but as a thing that speaks to how his attachments and loyalties manifest. i think a lot about his growth from a seemingly pretty awkward and earnest but shy/quiet/maybe a little untrusting kid who didn't have the easiest time making friends to the guy he is now who laughs when his teammates make "mcdavid? who's that? overrated" jokes.

honestly i base a lot of my characterization in stuff i remember from when he was in juniors, because the public/private divide felt blurrier there and we got more moments that weren't so honed for the media. the draft year miniseries remains foundational to the way i write him, lol.

there's an article from a few years ago about his relationship with his mom that someone mentioned a few asks ago (i am too lazy to go find it but the excerpt they sent is a few posts back in my tnno tag) that's great on the mom front, but also for conceptualizing how seriously he's taken himself and his goals since he was very young, and that contributes a significant amount to my characterization of him as someone who's kind of self-absorbed, but not in a mean way. that picture of his dad holding him while he cried after losing his last ohl game. and there's that clip from right after he wrecked his knee in 2019 of him and leon encountering each other in the hallway at the arena and having this brief but awfully tender moment of comfort and sympathy, which they almost definitely didn't know was being filmed, that's very important to my conception of his relationship with his team now.

if i were to write him as a main character now, i would fold in him being the one to say the oilers should but the EBUG in for the last few minutes against chicago last month — the understanding of what hockey can mean to people and using the opportunity to quietly give them a dream moment about it. him seeming to get more deliberately private about his personal life (and good for him), and, VERY importantly, him being willing to openly take issue with the edmonton media being shitty to him. rip in pieces to jesse spector. i feel like these are things that all jive with how i characterized him in tnno but definitely add some updated color, if that makes sense.

overall my main approach to connor as a character — and why i find him interesting to write, even as a side character — is his role as this hockey savior figure, the intense media scrutiny and incessant coverage, the expectations, the pressure, the public image, the mess of an organization he's supposed to be saving, the set-apart-ness, even from his own teammates, and the fact that somewhere under all that there's a person with real feelings and relationships.

anyway, thank you so much for reading the fic! i'm so glad you liked it! <3

[zody77-blog]

The Villains of Spider-Man 2 2023 For PS5

1.) Kraven and his Hunters

Introduced as only a voice in the first trailer for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Kraven the Hunter finally revealed himself! In the opening cutscene of the recently released gameplay trailer, The Hunter was dissatisfied with his recent prey until one of his goons suggested the villain-infested New York as a new hunting ground. Given a touchpad, Kraven was shown several potential targets, including Peter Parker and Miles Morales, not to mention a slew of past Spider-Man villains, including The Lizard. 2.) The Lizard

The first game established that Dr. Curtis "Curt" Connors had become the Lizard once before but was cured by Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the poor doctor has had a terrible relapse in the sequel, with most of the gameplay showing the Spider-Men tracking down the turned Connors before Kraven's hunters. Another wrinkle is that both Peter and Miles appeared surprised at how big he's gotten, which could suggest that his condition has worsened over the years. But what's more pressing is that Connors is the key to helping Harry Osborn recover from the seemingly incurable Oshtoran Syndrome, hence Peter's fierce determination to turn the scientist back to normal. 3.) Venom

Savvy fans knew immediately that the inky black goo attached to Harry at the end of the original game could have only been the Symbiote, which would no doubt lead to Venom. However, it's unknown yet what origin Insomniac Games will use for the agitating Symbiote. It could have been made in a lab by Oscorp to help his son, similar to the Ultimate Comics, or Oscorp could have found the alien, like the classic origin. However, Peter's first encounter with the Symbiote seems to be at Connors' house, which may suggest he contributed to its creation. Fans seeing Peter's heightened aggression in the Black Suit has led many to theorize that Miles (and the player) will eventually have to fight Peter as a boss. But, of course, Miles won't be the only one fighting a friend. 4.) Wraith

In Marvel's Spider-Man 2 DLC, The City That Never Sleeps, Spider-Man's police contact and friend, Yuri Watanabe, was suspended from the force for attempting to kill Hammerhead. However, at that point, she became so disillusioned with the law that she decided to continue taking matters into her own hands. Moreso an anti-hero vigilante than an outright villain, Watanabe will don a new alias in Spider-Man 2, Wraith, as she does in the comics. There's little doubt she'll be a boss fight or challenge for Peter in the game, hopefully ending with Watanabe seeing the light. 5.) Black Cat

The last time anyone heard from Felicia Hardy's Black Cat was in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales when gone "straight...ish" with Simon Krieger's computer listing her as inactive. Also, it's not as if she was particularly villainous in The City That Never Sleeps. However, if anyone could bring the Black Cat out of hiding, it's Kraven the Hunter. But it could also be as simple as Hardy becoming bored and doing some low-key harmless cat burglary or messing with Spider-Man for old-time's sake. 6.) Taskmaster

In Marvel's Spider-Man, Taskmaster was one of the many optional challenges in the game for players that ended in a boss fight with the mercenary. After being defeated, he revealed to the Webslinger that he was hired by an organization that wanted to "see if worth recruiting" and who'd have paid the superhero "six figures" before disappearing. So, could this mysterious organization appear in this sequel? It would certainly make sense for the game to have multiple criminal factions and that it won't be limited to Kraven's Hunters. 7.) Prowler

At the end of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Aaron Davis, aka The Prowler, corroborated with the police to expose Simon Krieger's crimes, leading to their arrests. The last Miles heard from his uncle was a phone call where he thanked his nephew for making him a better person. It's concerning then that Aaron has escaped prison, seemingly donning his Prowler costume again. Of course, Miles' uncle was possibly released early for good behavior or struck a deal, but this will be one of Miles' side-quests for the game. 8.) Tombstone

After his defeat at the hands of Spider-Man in the first game, it was shown that Lonnie Lincoln, also known as Tombstone, was still imprisoned in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but not in The Raft. So, it appears wherever he was being held wasn't enough to hold him. It'll be curious how Tombstone could even pose a threat again to anyone since Parker originally beat him by creating a counter-drug that neutralized his invulnerability. Perhaps, similar to Connors, Tombstone's condition has evolved, and the Spider-Men will have to make room for him in The Raft. 9.) Shocker

Oh, Herman. Big enough of a villain to have a boss fight but small enough not to be invited onto the Sinister Six. However, it seems like Shocker has gotten the last laugh, as while the rest of the Sinister Six remain imprisoned in The Raft, Shocker is free in Spider-Man 2. How exactly Shocker, of all villains, escaped a facility like The Raft is a mystery likely to be told in the game, but it'll be unsurprising if he just ends up as another two-bit criminal in the story. The Raft Prisoners

One more vague detail shown on Kraven's touchpad was several villains from the previous game stuck in one location: The Raft. According to the map, it seems like Vulture, Rhino, Electro, Otto Octavius, and Kingpin are still being held in the high-security prison. Since it'd just be repeating the previous game to have another big jailbreak, it likely means these villains won't play a huge part in the sequel. Read the full article

[mcu-multiverse-order-review]

Spider-Man - Season 3 (1970)

Spider-Man season 3 was in my opinion, better than season 2, mostly because they returned to the format and tone of season 1.

Generally I can say that I enjoyed most of season 1(when it wasn’t being outright offensive). I didn’t like season 2, and season 3 was fine, but clearly had no budget so it was mostly repeats.

In terms of MCU connections, none yet again. If you're watching things solely for MCU connections I would recommend watching any season 1 episode-a for the theme song, and also Episode 19b “Double Identity” for the pointing Spider-Man meme.

As for Spider-Man mythos; Season 1 introduces a decent number of Spidey’s comic rogues gallery, but only a few of his supporting cast. Season 2 does include Spidey’s origin and the introduction of the Kingpin, but other than that not much more. Season 3’s only contribution was introducing MJ to animation.

Anyway, as usual episode breakdowns are below the cut.

The next series on the list is gonna be good, I can barely contain my eXciteMENt.

Episode 40a - “The Winged Thing”

Nooooooo, the Vulture has lost his infinity chin. A tragic day this is.

Anyway, fucking finally returned to the 10 minute half episode format, and the Vulture’s back, meaning they’ve returned to using actual super villains, thank fuck. Although the episode format has returned back to how it was in season 1, it still retains the moody look from season 2. I’m not overly fond of it, but at least it’s not as miserable as season 2.

And oh look, JJJ and Betty are back, hopefully this is a sign I will actually enjoy watching this season. (Despite the fact that I’m aware that this episode is made up almost entirely of reused assets from the Vulture’s previous episodes.)

Episode 40b - “Conner’s Reptiles”

Ok, so this episode just seems to fucking forget the events of Episode 18a completely, with Billy barely recognising Spider-Man.

Anyway this episode effectively repeats Episode 2a, with the twist that Connors isn’t the Lizard here, instead it’s one of his experiments that has captured him. Spidey dissolves an entire reptile. The fuck?

Episode 41a - “Trouble with Snow”

Pete fights a monstrous snowman and I am hungry… That has nothing to do with the episode, I just thought I’d let you know.

Episode 41b - “Spider-Man vs. Desperado”

And back to our regularly scheduled JJJ blaming Spidey for random shit.

Episode 42a - “Sky Harbor”

o_o

The main villain of the episode is a literal nazi. I have nothing to add.

Episode 42b - “The Big Brainwasher”

Ok, so the actual contents of this are kinda dumb as hell, but it’s good to see good ol’ Willy Fisk back. Also Captain Stacy got completely redesigned for this episode. Let’s be honest here, this episode is important for only one thing…

Characters Introduced:

Mary Jane Watson

Took long enough for the Jackpot to show up, but here she is. For some reason in this continuity she’s Captain Stacy’s niece. I feel like this version of the character is less pure MJ and more a blend between MJ and Gwen.

Episode 43a - “The Vanishing Doctor Vespasian”

The villain in this episode acts like he’s the first to figure out invisibility, but like, did the showrunners forget one of the main villains of Season 1 was an invisible guy? We’re just gonna forget him? Yeah? Alright, fair enough.

Episode 43b - “The Scourge of the Scarf”

The main villain of this episode needs to go back to Megamind’s school of villainy, like he’s got the theatrics all good, but his costume is literally just a scarf wrapped around his face, like come on, do better.

Episode 44a - “Super Swami”

So I’m not well versed in cultures or religions, but a quick google search indicates that Swami is a significant title used in Hinduism. So what kind of bullshit was this show on to think this depiction was ok?

I don’t even know what to call this. Xenophobia? Racism? I literally don’t know. All I know is it’s bad vibes.

Episode 44b - “The Birth of Micro Man”

Not to be confused with Ant-Man.

Episode 45a - “Knight Must Fall”

Last time I saw Sir Galahad, he was getting sexually harassed at the Castle Anthrax, but luckily he was saved by Sir Lancelot. I literally cannot remember what he did in the rest of the film.

Oh shit, I’m supposed to be talking about Spider-Man.

Episode 45b - “The Devious Dr. Dumpty”

Between Kingpin and Dr. Humpty Dumpty over here, Pete really likes making fat jokes. I’m not gonna call him fatphobic, I’m just gonna say Spidey needs some better jokes.

Episode 46 - “Up from Nowhere”

Ah yes, Atlanteans, the ancient geniuses that got themselves stuck at the bottom of the ocean. A real smart bunch that lot. Just in case you don’t realise, this sarcasm.

Episode 47 - “Rollarama”

So Wikipedia calls this episode a remake of Episode 30 “Vine”, and while I would mostly agree as it reuses the general plot and animation, it does have its own twist on the story.

Episode 48a - “Rhino”

Huh. So this was literally just a slightly reedited version of Episode 14a “The Golden Rhino”.

Episode 48b - “The Madness of Mysterio”

Ok, what the fuck? Why is Mysterio just some green guy? Like, he doesn't even have his suit, he’s literally just a guy this time.

Episode 49 - “Revolt in the Fifth Dimension”

I think I can understand why this episode was never aired. Grey Matter from Ben 10 fucking dies. Spidey goes on an acid trip. And there’s more flashing lights than “Electric Soldier Porygon”.

Episode 50 - “Specialists and Slaves”

So this is literally just a combination of Episode 23 “Swing City" and Episode 39 "To Cage a Spider”, which is fine; except for the fact that captain Stacy’s design is different in season 3 than it was in season 2, creating some very jarring continuity errors concerning him.

Episode 51 - “Down to Earth”

This was basically just Episode 33 again, but snow covered and instead of a NASA rocket the macguffin is a UFO disguised as a meteor.

Episode 52 - “Trip to Tomorrow”

So this is how the series ends, clip show versions of Episodes 29 & 37, an entire recap of Episode 13a, and Spidey scaring a kid out of wanting to be a vigilante. Huh.

Well at least we got to see actual Mysterio one last time.

[backstage-bucknell]

Curtain Call: Farewell Seniors

By: Katie Schadler 

As the school year comes to a close, we want to take a moment to honor the seniors who will be ending their time at Bucknell and moving onto their own new and exciting creative endeavors. Seniors, you have all contributed so much talent, hard work, and passion to Bucknell Theatre, and know that you will always have a community to call home. Best of luck.

Allure Cooper:

Major: Arabic & Arab World Studies

Future plans: Return to Baltimore, hopefully find a job in the non-profit or public sector doing community engagement and support/providing resources and support to refugees.

Something I'll miss about BU Theatre: The moment right after a show when we realize everything managed to come together amazingly.Allure Cooper Major: Arabic & Arab World StudiesFuture plans: Return to Baltimore, hopefully find a job in the non-profit or public sector doing community engagement and support/providing resources and support to refugees. 

Nabeel Jan:

Major: Film Studies and International Relations

Future plans: Freelance Work in Film and Theatre, WildWind Summer Fellowship at Texas Tech

Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: Randomly catching up with Hutch in his office. Thank you for everything, this department is awesome!Nabeel JanMajor: Film Studies and International RelationsFuture plans: Freelance Work in Film and Theatre, WildWind Summer Fellowship at Texas Tech

Katherine Leschner:

Major: Theatre, Minor: Management 

Future plans: Pursuing marketing in NYC

Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: Being on headset with Haley and Gabe, telling Hutch about working on the theatre archive with Elaine, my theatre little Yasmine

Advice: My advice to underclassmen is to enjoy all the time you have! Feel free to reach out if you need any advice or tips (classes, theatre, etc.)

Griffin Miller:

Major: Music with emphasis in contemporary composition

Future plans: I plan to release my debut album of original songs in the summer after graduation, and continue recording and performing for a long time after that. 

Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: The wide variety of projects available for students to get involved with in Bucknell Theatre, from modern musicals to classic plays to original works. Sometimes you'll be able to do all three in a single year!

Isabel Steinberg:

Major: Biology, Minor: Acting and Directing 

Future plans: Research Assistant in Mark Connor’s lab at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD (and then grad school!) 

Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: the amazing people!!! The professors of the department and my incredibly talented peers. Everyone is so kind and always has my back :)

Gabe Gross:

Major: Markets, Innovation, & Design, Minor: Theatre Design & Technology

Future Plans: Working this summer as the Commissioner’s Intern for the Cape Cod Baseball League, then working for the Little League World Series in August, and then pursuing work in Sports Management. Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: Coming into Harvey at any time on any day, knowing that there’s someone there who will make me smile, and of course, tech lunch corn hole and the Green Room couch naps. I’ll also always be grateful for getting slotted into my last-choice elective: Bucknell Backstage. I almost transferred out, and I’m so glad I didn’t.

Azhani Duncan-Reese:

Major: Theatre and Political Science

Future plans: Sleeping and securing a job 

Something I'll miss about BU Theatre: The people, the ghosts that haunt Tustin, and performing for Bucknell

Bethany Fitch:

Major: Theatre and Environmental Studies

Future plans: Starting in June, I’m working at Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake, NY as Company Manager. I am also in the process of applying for a Fulbright Scholarship to hopefully get my MFA in Acting in Fall of 2024.Something funny: The Green Room white board, Hutch yelling, the testosterone competition that is strike, dressing room shenanigans Something I'll miss about BU Theatre: All the people that have literally become my family and the feeling of place and belonging and love that this department has given me. I always leave Harvey Powers feeling better than when I came in.

C.F. Gould: 

Major: English Literary Studies

Future plans: Plan to work as a High School English teacher for the foreseeable future.  Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: The opportunity to work with such a diverse range of directors, all of whom have their own unique style and approach.

Isaiah Mays:

Major: Theater and International Relations

Future plans: Getting an MBA at Northeastern University

Something I’ll miss about BU Theatre: Hanging out with everyone in the Green Room

Zoe Wilson:

Major: Sociology and English Literary Studies

Future plans: I’ve applied for an internship with the Kennedy Center’s Archives Department this summer (have yet to hear back), but next year I will be in my home town of Altoona, PA substitute teaching. During that time, I’ll be applying to Journalism school and honing my writing for the local paper.  Funny thing/thing I’ll miss/want to share: I always thought it was too late to be active in the theatre department after doing Cocktails my first year and then not auditioning for over two years. Bryan Vandevender’s dramaturgy class brought me back into the fold, though. I couldn’t be more proud of the folks involved in Gross Indecency this spring. I’ll miss you guys and the folks who I went to KCACTF with most of all. We rocked it. 

Bucknell Fulbright Winners! 

Bucknell graduates Julia Tokish ‘22 and Kate Cognard-Black ‘21(0.5) were recently awarded Fulbright Scholarships for master’s programs of their choice based in the United Kingdom. Each university selects only one Fulbright applicant where the winner is funded to travel, take classes, conduct research, and fulfill their master’s degree. The Fulbright Program is highly selective, and given that two of the winners are Bucknell graduates, let alone Bucknell Theatre students whose journeys began on the Harvey Powers Stage, makes the department immensely proud of their tremendous accomplishments. Read more about these amazing winners below:

Julia Tokish

Julia Tokish was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship within a master’s study program at the University of Leicester in the UK where she will be studying Human Rights and Global Ethics. One of the main reasons she chose Leicester was for the city’s artistic atmosphere. She enjoys the large presence of amateur-scale theaters that feel less commercialized and more intimate. While acting in high school, it was not until she arrived at Bucknell that she discovered her true calling was behind the curtain. She found a passion in stage managing with a love for tech theatre and dramaturgy research. As an International Relations, Arabic and Arab World Studies, and Theatre triple major, Julia developed a passion for the intersection of theatre, history, and social justice. After graduating from Bucknell in 2022, she felt that Bucknell Theatre brought her out of her shell and equipped her with the necessary communication, organization, and confidence skills to conquer her professional endeavors. While intending to work in international law, Julia continues to find theatre all around her, interested in the research a Leicester professor is conducting on how refugees are problematically portrayed on stage, once again melding Julia’s interests of the show itself and the historical context behind it. Julia continues to feel grateful for the lessons and connections Bucknell theatre gave her, teaching her not just how to be a better actor or stage manager but how to be a better person. She urges theatre students and graduating seniors to not be afraid to keep trying and putting themselves out there in a variety of ways. From failed auditions to not making it past the first round of her former Fulbright application, Julia whole-heartedly believes that you will find your place and your purpose as long as you keep trying. 

Kate Cognard-Black (KCB)

KCB will be taking her Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Birmingham in the UK where she will be pursuing a master’s degree at the “Shakespeare Institute” that focuses on Shakespeare in literature, theatre, and adaptations within the modern moment. Her program directly involves bringing aspiring actors, playwrights, producers, and practitioners together in an interdisciplinary space. While trying out a variety of roles in Bucknell theatre from acting to dramaturging, she discovered her main passion was directing. It was at Bucknell Theatre where she enjoyed assistant directing alongside Anjalee and even creating an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” that was eventually picked up by a prison performing arts program in Missouri. Graduating from Bucknell with a Theatre and Creative Writing degree in December 2021, KCB entered the directing world with the knowledge that an effective leader means being a strong collaborator who is constantly open to new ideas. Grateful for the life-long connections she has made with Bucknell students and professors, KCB looks forward to the future opportunity to create art with these talented people again. To the upcoming theatre students and graduating seniors, KCB advises you to drag yourself out of bed and show up to that thing you don’t know if you should show up to, go to the thing you don’t think you belong at. Because when you open yourself up to new connections, you will be overwhelmed by the amount of people there to support you. As Hutch always says, “the people who get the opportunities are the people in the room.”

“The Best Week of College”: Arts First 

If you ask any of the Arts First kids, they will tell you that the “Arts First” pre-orientation is their favorite part of their college experience. The program is packed with hands-on sessions oriented around different art forms from ink blocking to gamelan playing. Whether you are making sashes or swords out of scarfs in the woods with Bryan or learning the art of sound and movement with Dustyn, Arts First is constantly giving you the vital opportunity to exist both in and outside of your comfort zone. 

The week is long and exhausting, but nothing brings you closer to the fellow artist beside you like literally holding up each other’s weight during the “Hutch Challenge” obstacle course or making loud animal noises and crawling around on stage Day 1. After exploring various art forms, the week culminates in a final show in which the entire group creates a theme, break-out groups, programs, and performances all in less than twenty-four hours. Something about creating art with a bunch of people formerly known as strangers and artistically putting yourself out there in a way you never would have imagined is truly a magical experience. 

As cliche as it sounds, when you are actually participating in the program, you don’t realize how special it is until it’s over. Until you are at the end of your first year at Bucknell, wondering where the time went, and you forget about the exhaustion, the imposter-syndrome, the first-day jitters. Because when you reflect on that week, all you can think about is pure happiness. One minute you are walking on the Harvey Powers Stage for the first time, forced to make eye contact with all of these random people, and the next minute you are sharing a beautiful sunrise with a group of passionate, diversely talented humans who make you feel like for the first time, you have a place to belong. 

When you are sitting in that pre-orientation meeting with your family on Day 1, you would never think that your two best friends are sitting in that room. That the wildly enthusiastic man in the kilt would become a life-long mentor. That you were blessed to have met your people on the first day of college, and you didn’t even know it yet. 

You had no idea that the cool camera guy who owns skateboard shoes and can walk on his hands would inspire the art tattoo you get in six months. That reluctantly agreeing to Macklemore’s “Can’t Hold Us” as your Karaoke song would catalyze your first formative months of college. That introducing yourself to the quiet Arts First kid with the dope nails three doors down from you would forever be one of the best decisions you ever made. 

Because Arts First was not just a great first impression of what my college experience could be like; It was the experience that influenced every subsequent experience I would end up having at Bucknell. I will be returning as a mentor at the end of the summer in hopes of giving the first-year class the type of experience I was lucky enough to have. To be their first introduction to all of the growing and loving and learning they are about to do. And so it begins. And so it goes. 

Hutch is Leaving!

I got you! That sounded a lot more dramatic than it is. No but really, it is with a combination of great sadness and pleasure to inform you that Hutch will be leaving the Publicity Team to become a Posse Mentor! This news is rather bittersweet to all of us, considering that he is taking on another impactful position at Bucknell, becoming a leader for dozens of other students; nevertheless, we are sad to see him go. 

Who will bring donuts and heckle us to hang more posters? Who will be unwaveringly difficult about Clea’s sticker design and ask about Libby’s day every meeting across the zoom call all the way in Italy? Who will bestow us with endless amounts of fatherly wisdom and recruit all of his “Arts First” kids to join the team–even the ones who never stepped foot into the Bucknell Theatre up to this point and now have to write about it? 

We are excited to be joined next year by the brilliant Anjalee Hutchinson who will make an excellent coordinator and will likely be able to send more coherent emails than the current one:) 

Hutch, I will forever miss when you share your Ritz Crackers with me and when the bullet point beneath the newsletter agenda is “ideas.” Thank you for your wit, your hard work, your genuine care for the wellbeing of your students. From all of us, we could not be more grateful for all that you do for this department and all of the lives you have touched just by being undeniably you. The team will miss you. 

[beardysteve]

while im at it, the first of many doodles + a hangst (hank angst)

[connor-sent-by-cyberlife]

Ho Ho Ho - I bring prompts for you

Welcome to my sixth Detroit: Become Human Prompt Challenge. In celebration of December and all the winter holidays here is another whole month full of prompts that will hopefully inspire you to get creative.

It will take place from December 1st - 31st, 2021.

As always, I hope for lots of participants and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with this time. Let's get cozy and festive! Or use the prompts in any other way that comes to your mind ;). You know I'm simply happy to see them being used no matter how.

Prompts:

December 1st - Wednesday: snowman

December 2nd - Thursday: ice skating

December 3rd - Friday: childhood memories

December 4th - Saturday: holiday shopping

December 5th - Sunday: A Christmas Carol

December 6th - Monday: snowed in

December 7th - Tuesday: eggnog

December 8th - Wednesday: holiday traditions

December 9th - Thursday: sharing a blanket

December 10th - Friday: mittens

December 11th - Saturday: Christmas firsts

December 12th - Sunday: hot beverage

December 13th - Monday: mistletoe

December 14th - Tuesday: decoration

December 15th - Wednesday: winter wonderland

December 16th - Thursday: I'm not wearing that

December 17th - Friday: obligatory Christmas photo

December 18th - Saturday: scarf

December 19th - Sunday: Christmas tree

December 20th - Monday: nightmare before Christmas

December 21st - Tuesday: lonely

December 22nd - Wednesday: greeting card

December 23rd - Thursday: last Christmas

December 24th - Friday: Christmas Eve

December 25th - Saturday: Christmas morning

December 26th - Sunday: leftovers

December 27th - Monday: cozy

December 28th - Tuesday: when the lights go out

December 29th - Wednesday: fireworks

December 30th - Thursday: New Year's Eve/New Year

December 31st - Friday: New Year's resolutions

Information and Rules:

The tag for this challenge is #dbhcarolsandcircuits (thanks to @veilder who came up with the name when I struggled to find one). Please use this tag for any of your contributions and follow it in case you want to see what other people do with the prompts

Any kind of art or writing is most welcome

You’re free to choose any character or ship from the D:BH fandom (no OCs) you like

Show/Write what you want, but please make sure to tag your content correctly, so people who don’t want nsfw/gore/a specific ship/whatever on their dash don’t have to see it

Don’t bash anybody for their chosen ship or content!

You can contribute more than one piece per day

Of course you can pick single prompts from the list, you don’t have to do all of them if you don’t want to

If you can’t finish a submission in time, you can always post it belated

Not a rule, but I’d really appreciate if you’d tag me ( @connor-sent-by-cyberlife ) if you contribute something to this challenge

Reblogs to bring attention to this challenge would be highly appreciated

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask

Thank you for your interest and support!

[asset35-maya]

HEAT WAVES

Short series written as part of the DBH LATE SUMMER PROMPT CHALLENGE

@connor-sent-by-cyberlife

[PART 6/7: ICE CUBES]

(Read Parts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 first!)

//

\\

Ice cubes clinked as Hank swirled the dark liquid in his glass around. He wasn’t supposed to be drinking, but like… how could he not? It was the Fourth of July and everyone who meant anything to him was right by his side.

It was a night of relaxation, of festivity, of celebration. And for the first time in a long while, Hank was filled with an overwhelming sense of calm. Life was good. So good that he had to pour himself a little Jack Daniels… buuuut not good enough to do so without drawing worried glares from his adopted sons.

So Hank dragged a deck chair to the very edge of his garden… under the cover of foliage… out of sight… and hopefully out of mind while the fireworks burst overhead.

Hank couldn’t see much of the sky, but it wasn’t like he really wanted to look at it. He leaned back leisurely against the canvas fabric and scanned the crowd. A sea of people he’d have never imagined welcoming to his home with open arms.

Humans and androids. Androids and humans. Who would have thought any of this would be possible just a couple of years ago? Organic beings and artificial life. Newfound friends and family. Renewed hopes and dreams and different kinds of love.

Hank shook his head in wonder. He’d been so worried about the kind of world he was bringing Cole into… but it turned out just fine. If only his little boy was around to see it. Hank blinked back tears and lifted the glass to his lips.

Before he could take a swig, he was distracted by a burst of laughter from the porch. Jeffrey and Jessica Fowler were up to their usual party antics. Twenty-five years together had led to a well-formed habit of roasting each other for everyone’s entertainment. Hank couldn’t hear what was being said, but a smile crossed his face nevertheless. Marriage goals.

He let his gaze wander... and fall upon Chris and his wife at the periphery of the lawn. Unlike others, they weren’t staring upwards impatiently or yelling for someone to go check the fuses. They stood facing each other, locked in a stolen moment of quiet intimacy. Hank knew it wasn’t often that they got a chance to just be. To spend time, however briefly, as a couple... away from the responsibilities of life and work and kids. 

There was a series of small flashes and booms... and the Millers leaned into each other as the fireworks began. Hank’s heart swelled with joy for his protégé. He set the glass of whiskey down on the grass and stretched luxuriously in his chair, now looking for his own brats among the crowd. 

He easily spotted Nines and Gavin. Each husband held a child in his arms, providing a nice vantage point for the little one to watch the colors painting the night sky. Gavin had one on his shoulders too. Hank watched proudly as the couple handled the shrieking children with expertise, bouncing them up and down, pointing in the right directions. 

Gavin nudged Nines’ shoulder with his own and received a playful shove back. There was an unhurried ease to their interactions. They weren’t chasing any kind of romance.

Sure they had their disagreements (the stuffy studio apartment was the most recent one Hank was aware of)... but they were on a path of utmost stability. Sure Gavin could still be hot-headed at times... and Nines could be too high-handed in his manner... but a vision of rosy-cheeked grandchildren flooded the grizzled Lieutenant’s mind just then.

The next couple he saw... still starting out with their relationship... still in that rather silly honeymoon phase... was Connor and Tina. They weren’t watching the fireworks... and were doing something distinctly not family friendly. Luckily, none of the little kids were looking. Hank had absolutely not expected to see this degree of passion from Connor.

The RK800 had been through a lot. He’d done a lot and contributed a lot... to the department, to society, to androidkind and the whole damn world. He’d seen a lot too. The best and worst of people. Hank was unsurprised that he remained unattached even two years after the android revolution. He would have understood if Connor wished to stay that way... but was glad there was now something flourishing with Tina Chen, the unassuming and hardworking girl-next-door. It was an unusual match, but made perfect sense in hindsight. 

Hank wasn’t a prude by any standards, but as a father, even he had to avert his eyes when Connor pushed Tina against the back wall of the house and wedged a thigh between her legs. Cheeks aflame, the Lieutenant decided to turn his attention to the fireworks. He leaned forward in his seat and peered up at the sliver of glittering sky visible through the tree branches. 

He blinked as he noticed a pair of men sitting on his roof. This was why he didn’t usually invite his rowdy colleagues over. Give an inch, they’d take a mile. Hank started to rise to his feet to tell the offenders off but fell back with a gasp as he recognized them. Sixty was prone to such behavior, but Captain Allen? 

They were sitting extremely close to each other... looking up at the pyrotechnics but not at each other... not touching, but definitely talking. Hank had no idea what could be happening... well actually, maybe he did, given the number of seemingly-innocent questions Allen kept asking about Sixty over the course of the evening. The tension between the SWAT heroes was palpable even from where Hank sat under the tree.

The fireworks reached a crescendo. The colorful glow grew brighter and the sounds intensified. Hank watched with bated breath as Allen put a hand on Sixty’s thigh... made the android face him fully... slowly leaned forwards... and kissed him tentatively. Sixty took a moment to unfreeze... and reciprocated.

Hank couldn’t help but pump his fist with pride as waves of emotion washed over him. He felt higher than he had in years despite his current state of sobriety. For all the terrible shit he’d done in life... his sons would make up for it with the big love they had to share with the world. 

The fireworks wound down and everyone began to return to reality. Before anyone could notice, Hank quickly stuck two fingers in his glass to trap the ice cubes... and poured the alcohol onto the ground. 

Footsteps approached. Hank pretended to not notice, making a show of retrieving the ice cubes from the glass and pressing them to his heated eyelids. He sighed in exaggerated relief... murmuring about the weather in the exact same way he’d seen his grandparents complain when he was a child. Hopefully the act would suffice. 

“Dad?” 

It was Nines, carrying a colleague’s baby. For all his superior surveillance programming, he seemed unable to locate the parent among the gradually receding cookout crowd. 

“You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just the heat. Can’t take it like I used to...” 

Nines obviously saw right through his father. He glanced at the wet patch on the ground and his LED spun yellow, no doubt scanning the alcohol content. He refrained from commenting though. 

“Dad, it’s late and there’s a lot to clean up over here. Mind if Gavin and I help and stay over?” 

Hank hoped the multiple layers of appreciation showed in his answering smile. 

“Of course, kid.” 

[idontlikeem]

Why are people so bitter about the Pens keeping Jeff / Kappy over Jared? Is it because Jared's doing so well in Seattle, and while Jeff has been fine but Kappy is mightily struggling right now? For some it's easy to say with hindsight now that the Pens should've kept Jared with Teddy injured and we might be better off in the standings but again one year is not an accurate indicator of roster decisions. This gives off the "should've drafted Makar" fan vibes for me, idk. Would love your thoughts!

hey anon! i love this question, thanks for sending it my way.

i think there are a few factors going into why people aren't happy, and honestly i can see it from both sides.

this got long so it's below a cut, god when will i learn to shut up, i'm so sorry:

the first thing to think about is that there is always going to be someone somewhere who will complain about expansion drafts. with the way they're set up, there isn't a way to 'win' them—we saw GMs try to game the system the last time, and look at what that gave us, the fucking vegas golden knights who started on third base lol. the truth of the matter is, someone's going to go, and because GMs by and large aren't fools (or at least they try to surround themselves with non-fools) it's not going to be that fringe player you wish wasn't in the lineup every night; it's gonna be someone with talent.

i'm going to go on a bit of a tangent now, but it's related i promise.

there's been a lot made recently of how the penguins' cupboards are bare—a lot of draft picks and prospects were traded away under GMJR, and that's kind of an uneasy consideration when you're looking toward the future. HOWEVER, when you have sidney crosby, evgeni malkin, and kris letang on your team, you're a contender. flat out, you have to be competing to win every single year you have those three players on the roster. i'm not GMJR's hugest fan, i think he ended his tenure with us poorly, with some badly-considered trades and then quitting in a huff when he wasn't allowed to trade tanger, but i also think the way people get upset at him for trading a lot of picks away is a bit overblown. you go all-in when you have players like that on your team, you don't sit back in a holding pattern and look to the future. this, incidentally, is part of what confuses me so much about the oilers right now. they should be trading every single pick and blue-chip prospect they have to bring in proven talent and get connor mcdavid to the SCF while he's in is prime. it's shameful they're not.

my point is: when you're contending, you don't hoard potential and prospects, you bring in stuff that can fit in and contribute now.

and here's where we link it back to jared mccann and the expansion draft.

we were always going to lose a player to seattle. no way around it. it was going to be a player that was important to our lineup, and someone the front office would have to work to replace in the off-season.

the key there is, a player. one.

with what burke and hextall did, we ended up losing two.

i think seattle taking tanev was the best choice for us. he's injury-prone, overpaid, and has a skillset that many others in the league also possess, as evidenced by how well brock mcginn has done so far this season. but mccann?

we replaced a proven roster asset with a prospect and a pick. as i referenced above, when your team is a contender, you need production now, not potentially hopefully maybe in five years when he's developed down in the AHL. mccann jumped in on the power play as needed, could play center or wing as needed, could slide up and down the roster as needed. he proved all of that last season. he was an absolute net positive to the team, and i would think the same even if he wasn't having as good a season in seattle as he is. when you're in the position the pens are in, which is to win, it's always better to have a guy you know can play than someone you're watching and hoping will turn into something down the line.

to be fully honest- i get why they protected jeff. geno was for sure going to miss time, and as much as sid was working to avoid surgery, they knew it was a possibility. i'm not sure seattle would have gone for kapanen. yes, he was magic with geno last season, but that's after several years of him being a streaky player, which we're seeing in full force now. i don't know if seattle would have taken the risk on him anyway. but mccann could have stayed and also acted as a center if needed during those early days of the season when we essentially didn't have players, haha.

i'm not going to say that we'd be better than we are in the standings, because we're, like, barely not in first place of the division lol, so i'd say we're plugging along really well. i will say that i think if we still had mccann our depth scoring would be a lot stronger than it's been the last couple of weeks, we wouldn't have had such a stalled-out power play at the start of the season, and we would have more line combo options to play with as sully works through what's going to be best for this team to contend in the post-season.

i agree though that the 'should've drafted so-and-so' stuff is irritating and stupid. you literally can't know how well a player is going to do when they're 18, with rare exceptions that we see less and less of each year. woulda coulda shoulda about draft choices is less than pointless. trades that handed away a proven asset for the breath of potential...worth looking at a little more deeply, IMO!

well! there you have them—my thoughts. do remember that you asked for this, and again i'm so sorry 😂

[rjhpandapaws]

I know I'm late and I'm sorry. But if you still want to write requests... Could you do Connor/Allen, very soft, Allen trying to teach Connor to cook? 👉👈

//Yes!

Allen found that there was a pretty common misconception that androids were good at everything, even things outside of their base code. Of course Allen had believed it as well up until he came home to his kitchen in absolute disarray, all of the smoke alarms taken apart and the distinct smell of ash in the air. Standing in the middle of all of this was Connor doing something that would have resembled something that could have been called cooking if half of it wasn’t burnt and the other half wasn’t trying its hardest to be. “Connor, my love, what in the actual fuck are you doing?” He asked with a laugh hanging on to his words. “Cooking.” He looked around the kitchen his LED rolling into red, “Well I was trying to... I don’t know how, the videos I watched didn’t tell me much, but I wanted to do something nice for you because you’re always busy - and I thought I could make you dinner so you could rest.” Allen smiled at the sentiment, it was just the short of thing Connor would do. Create a plan to do something nice, and get so caught up on the what he didn’t necessarily think about the how, “Do you know how to cook Connor?” “No. I don’t have any domestic coding outside of the perception of emotions and the YK expression codes so I can emulate them.” He admitted as he reached to turn off the stove, “But since I am coded to learn things I thought I could figure it out on my own.” Allen nodded slowly. “How about this; we get all this cleaned up, I’ll order takeout tonight, and then this weekend I can show you how to cook. We could do it together.” Connor smiled, “I like the sound of that.” “Then let’s get started on cleaning up.” Allen said as he stepped into the kitchen and rolled up his sleeves.

Cleaning the kitchen took more time than Allen had thought it would, but Connor apparently had been at this the whole afternoon. He had figured if he did it enough times he would get it right eventually, which was one of the things Allen admired about him. There were very few things that could stop him once he had his mind set on something, odds of success be damned. Which was an absolute disaster in this case, but Allen found himself too endeared to mind. This mess, as horrendous as it was had come from a place of well meaning. With the mess clean up and dinner ordered they settled in the living room and Allen scrolled through his phone showing Connor different recipes. Most of them were simple, but things that would take most of the day to make, Allen want to make a date of it. They were both pretty busy and this happened to be one of the few weekends that they had off at the same time. He wanted to make something of it and hopefully they could make a routine of it on their shared weekends. They settled on homemade mac and cheese because that would be the easiest to get supplies for the next day, and Connor hadn’t messed with the milk or the butter in his misguided attempt at cooking so that would make things a little easier. He let Connor run and inventory of the kitchen so they could pick up everything they needed as well as make up for this evening’s casualties. It was going to be an expensive trip but it would be worth it.

Saturday found Connor and Allen in a brightly lit grocery store much earlier than Allen thought should be legal, but Connor wanted to get started on this as soon as humanly possible. Which apparently translated into shove a mug of coffee into your human’s hands as soon as he is showing signs of life and drag him to a grocery store while he was still in his house clothes. Connor’s excitement was contagious and Allen was too tired to spend energy on being mad. Connor was good about sticking to list so Allen was pretty much just along for the ride at this point. Connor was rattling off something, recipe measurements if Allen had to guess but he wasn’t awake enough to contribute to the conversation yet. Seven in the morning was too early for grocery shopping, and  he was going to keep that belief even in the face of Connor’s delight. He nursed his coffee and waited for it to do its job because he was going to have to be functional for normal work hours this weekend apparently. He at least knew to mention a start time for the next time they did this. As it turned out grocery shopping looked like it was going to be the easiest part of the day. Allen had gone into this believing Connor could download a PL600 or similar code and he would only have to show him to basics after that. No, Connor couldn’t download other codes, and while he could learn things through interface, Allen was only human so that was a bust too. He had to teach Connor everything, from basic kitchen things to winging it with seasonings, and then the subsequent lesson that teaching someone who couldn’t taste things in the same sense as him to be liberal with spices was a bad idea. Allen found himself having fun despite having clearly bitten off more than he could chew.

“Connor, I know where you’re coming from because I thought that too when I was learning to cook.” Allen started, “But turning up the oven temperature isn’t going to cook it any faster despite the fact that it makes sense, and on top of that the glass dish we have it in is only so heat resistant. If we double the oven temperature it would shatter and the Mac and Cheese would probably catch on fire.” “But math indicates that if you do something at twice the rate you’ll only have to do it for half of the time.” Connor continued, “It makes more sense to do it this way.” “In theory, but you also have to think about heat and things like that.” Allen leaned against the counter and reached for his open beer, “Tell me how much of what we did today actually followed its exact measurements?” “Well none of it but-” “I know you’re trying to calculate this, you’re learning this and you want to do well.” Allen explained, “But that’s the thing with cooking, even for the best it takes time to learn, the only thing you can do is practice. It varies so much that here isn’t a code or a calculation to follow. You just wing it and see how it goes. If it works you do it again, and if it doesn’t you feed it to Gavin or one of your roommates if it’s still marginable edible and then you start over.” “So we’ll be trying this again next month too?” Connor asked. “Yes, and if you wake me up at six am to go shopping again we are going to have problems.” Allen warned. “Understood. Five am it is.” Connor said with a wink. “You know, I was going to let you sample one of these beers, but I think I’m going to drink them on my own now.” Allen teased. “Revenge for waking me up earlier than what is legal for a Saturday, and then having the nerve to be cheeky about it.”

@pinkwebby

[luvdetroit]

Hey! I 've just read the first chapter of the dbh series you wanted to start, and I really like the plot 🥺 Do you plan on continuing it? 👉🏻👈🏻

hey, sorry for the late reply! i actually do have it planned out a bit differently than i originally wrote it in the first chapter. i think this planned version is better than the one i posted. there are many other ideas that i have in my drafts, i just haven’t released them yet.

thank you for reading it! i'm happy you enjoyed it and i'm sorry for saying this but i think i'll just scrap this idea and go with my new one (VOW). it will be somewhat similar, just more complex? and hopefully interesting!

not sure if you are even interested in hearing about them but i’ll drop them here! maybe if you or anyone is interested, i will follow through with posting them (have been feeling very bad about my writing recently).

for anyone who does read my ideas, please do not steal! i really worked hard on thinking about these and would be really hurt if anyone took them. they aren’t super original or anything, but i still created them 😩

these are really roughly written so please don’t judge 🚶🏼‍♀️🚶🏼‍♀️

please do comment or send me a message in my inbox about which idea you like more, if i should do a specific one or all of them even! 💞💞💞

1. TITLE: VOW

pairings: various! x fem!reader

genre: meta (?), angst, fluff, etc

plot: metafiction. mc surfs the web to buy d:bh and finds a seller who is willing to sell the game for cheap (suspiciously). mc contacts the user and a deal has been made.

we will flesh out the seller later, he ain’t all that important rn. so mc gets the game after maybe two days? and in the packaging the seller wrote a letter to her, it is pretty cryptic. we can get into detail on the letter and stuff later.

so mc starts the game up right away because she is excited to play it. on her first play though everything is pretty normal. there are a few differences/odd occurrences but mc doesn’t bat an eye because it’s her first time playing so she wouldn’t know.

gradually as she plays, the characters (connor and markus) are more aware of them being in a game. (sense they are in the same series and are prototypes it only makes sense for them to be able to sync themselves/go beyond their coding).

connor and markus have broken the fourth wall/have become aware with other players. they grow a deep hatred for the player. sense they can’t throw their anger at the creators of the game, they can do so with the player.

at first, connor and markus only did minor things that didn’t really stand out to the player. when connor/markus breaks the fourth wall and directly talks about the player, the player thinks it’s apart of the game.

but when connor/markus mentions the player’s name that is when they freak out a bit, but assumes the characters got their names from their playstation.

it’s only when connor/markus states some personal stuff about them do they feel fear. (connor/markus can sync with the smart tv that also contains all their info).

connor/markus have tried to sync with the game/tv enough to transport the player in the game so the player can experience first hand what it’s like to live in their world. but their connection weakens each time the player resets. their memories are also wiped out.

over time connor/markus are able to retain their memories a lot faster but forget the previous players of the game. even if they don’t remember the previous players they still think of one goal. transport the player into their world, let them suffer, seeing first hand how THEY feel.

connor/markus will be slightly oc. they will have somewhat of a dark side.

i didn’t explain this in the summary bcus i’m dumb but the game can’t be destroyed (it’s like a possessed object). even if you throw it out or something it will still go back to you bcus you own it. the only way to get rid of it is selling it.

ik some wack logic but sjakwkw

sam is the seller of the game. (his username is GAMER BOY 69). the game is sold for $10 with free shipping and no tax.

mc: does this really only cost $10? why is this so cheap?

sam: i’m just being generous

sam: are you willing to buy it?

mc: can you show proof that you actually have it and it isn’t broken?

sam: sure, hold on a second

[sam sends a video of him filming the game packaging and saying his username (in a bit of embarrassment) and mc’s. he reassured her that it isn’t broken and works perfectly fine. he tells her he didn’t like the game so that’s why he’s selling it.]

sam’s letter is in a white envelope, his writing is slightly messy, almost jittery (from nerves). he feared he was being watched by, ‘them’ so he wrote cryptically.

sam’s note: i’m sorry i did this to you. i really am. i just didn’t have any other choice. don’t play the game, please.

2. TITLE: PARESTHESIA

pairings: various! x fem! reader

genre: dark au, cult au, angst, fluff, etc

plot: in this au kamski doesn’t publicly make androids n stuff

so amanda stern is still kamski’s mentor in this au

she, ‘disappears’ at some point and is listed as a missing person

kamski knows she isn’t gone though bcus she told him her plan

basically amanda is very manipulative and warped kamski’s young mind into thinking humans being lesser beings and that kamski can really create something even more superior, androids.

kamski and amanda are humans but they are excused because of them being intelligent and having that sort of mindset- humans being filth on this planet

instead of kamski making cyberlife public

he instead also disappears after a few years later (once he’s done w college)

it’s a gap between amanda and his disappearance to not completely draw suspicion

cyberlife is created in secret, hidden from the public

belief: humans are disgusting and should be replaced by something far superior, androids.

rules: only those who have the same mindset as kamski and amanda can join the cause and contribute. (so human co workers of amanda and such help gather material and thirium (blue blood) to create more androids in secret).

practices: a member has to willingly be able to sacrifice any body part kamski chooses to replace for an android part or partake in any experiment kamski may have. if not, they aren’t fully in the cause and should be ridden of.

kamski wants to take a oblivious civilian in for a secret test of his

he wants to test out how human his androids can be and if it can blend in with humans in normal day to day life.

so he releases one of his androids, connor (rk800) out into the world. his mission is to find a human he can initiate a relationship with. once he finds that human, he slowly grows a relationship with them over time- kamski is studying all of this through connor’s eyes.

kamski is amazed by this new discovery- his androids do blend in with humans well.

the last secret test for mc is connor telling her his true nature. (telling her he isn’t human, he’s an android). connor breaks this to mc at his, ‘house’ which is connected to their secret compound/underground base.

kamski wants to know how mc will react to this news because her actions depends on whether she’s just another piece of human scum or not. this will validate whether she can join their, ‘organization’ or not.

mc will be confused by connor’s sudden news at first. she won’t believe him until he pulls back his skin to show his porcelain interior.

she’ll be surprised then and question whether their relationship was all real or not.

connor reassures her that he does share her feelings. he admits that at first this was a mission but he truly does feel for her. he asks her if she still has feelings for him even after knowing he isn’t human and mc (after a bit of thinking) says that she does.

this makes connor happy as well as kamski bcus mc got through the test. this is the first android-human relationship too.

a few days pass just to really make sure mc doesn’t act any different and really is telling the truth about having feelings for connor still- when connor informs mc that his creator wants to meet her in person one day.

connor and mc go to his place and he leads her downstairs to his normal looking basement- and there is this really intricate hidden puzzle/door that opens to their underground compound.

connor leads mc to a room and meets kamski. kamski comments on mc- on how he was surprised that mc quickly took a liking to connor and how she still has feelings for connor even after finding out the truth. he’s impressed and approves of the relationship.

he tells her he hopes she keeps her word about this organization being a secret because he wouldn’t want anything bad happening to her so soon.

after that connor and mc go about their relationship like normal. although, connor has been experiencing these odd feelings lately. he’s also been oddly wanting to act out violently towards the most smallest things. like mc talking to someone else, smiling at someone else, touching someone else, even if it was platonic.

it didn’t sit right with him. he never voiced these new feelings to kamski though. he was too afraid kamski might tell him he has something wrong with his software. he doesn’t want kamski to call him defective and replace him for another connor. he doesn’t want to be seen as not good enough for mc.

connor doesn’t act on any of his thoughts. he doesn’t let his emotions control him.

after about two weeks kamski calls connor and tells him he wants him to meet someone (rk900) and that he should bring mc.

so connor visits the compound and meets kamski in a lounge area with mc. they both enter the room with kamski casually laying on a lush couch. a small smile is brought on his face when he noticed connor and mc’s presence. he greets them both and tells them that he’s happy they could make it.

connor opens his mouth, about to ask who the person kamski wants him to meet when rk900 walks in with two cups of tea + thirium in his hands.

rk900 places a tea down in front of kamski, the other tea and thirium on the opposite side of kamski’s before returning his attention to connor and mc. his eyes scrutinizing connor and mc.

kamski’s smile widens at connor’s reaction and stands up, clasping rk900’s shoulder with one hand. he prompts rk900 to introduce himself.

rk900 introduces himself somewhat stiffly in a monotone voice.

rk900: my name is conan.

it was short and to the point. he offers an open hand for a handshake.

connor looks over conan, completely ignoring the hand offered to him, then at kamski with all sorts of emotions. the main ones being confusion and fear. at this point connor is wondering if conan is going to replace him for a reason connor does not know.

kamski breaks the awkward silence/tension in the room.

kamski: “well, connor? aren’t you going to greet your brother?”

connor takes a few moments to process this information and absentmindedly inquires, “brother?” in a small voice. his brows furrow slightly and his gaze draws towards his look alike. from up close, conan looks exactly like connor with a few differences. he was slightly taller than connor and had cool greyish blue eyes. why would kamski decide to make me a brother? i didn’t ask for one.

kamski: “yes, brother. i just thought it might be lonely to live alone in that big house of yours so i have gifted you with your own brother.”

at this point connor is having a mental breakdown. kamski doesn’t do things without a logical reason. he’s not telling me the full truth.

connor finally breaks out of his thoughts, his eyes darting back to kamski and he nods shortly, ignoring conan’s still outstretched hand and his presence altogether.

connor: [in a stony voice] okay, is that all?

conan drops his hand.

the corners of kamski’s lips twitch, threatening to split into a menacing smirk at connor’s cold reaction. kamski clicks his tongue mockingly and sits back down, grabbing his tea.

kamski: “that’s not how you should treat your brother. [sighs] that will be all, but you have to teach conan how things work around here. that’s what a big brother should do, after all.”

connor bites back a disgruntled sigh of his own and settles for a slight frown.

connor: “why wasn’t he informed before meeting me? didn’t he go through the same test runs as me?”

it took everything in connor to not let his irritation show through his tone.

kamski pins connor with an annoyed glare, a small bit of amusement shining through.

kamski: “why are you testing my patience connor? are you not happy with my gift?”

kamski’s words were light mockery, with a dark undertone to them. connor knew better than to irritate his creator further. he bows his head slightly to him.

connor: “i apologize for causing you further inconvenience. i..am just surprised by the new addition, that’s all.”

kamski simply nods lazily. waving a hand, he tells them they are dismissed.

connor turns away from his creator and him to the exit with you following right beside him silently. he places his hand on the small of your back and presses you close to him possessively. the slight tapping of a pair of shoes follow behind connor and you. connor ignores it.

connor walks through the maze of hallways without pause, part of him hoping his, ‘brother’ would get lost and never return.

he knew better though. without even looking, he knew conan wasn’t even a step behind and it irritated connor to no end.

once the three enter the, ‘main area’ which was basically the center of the compound, connor turns around to face conan.

connor: [monotonously] “give me your hand, i’ll transfer the data so this all can be over with.”

connor outstretches his hand. part of him wants to pull it back because he doesn’t want to touch him.

conan looks at connor’s outstretched hand to connor’s face.

conan: “no, i can’t do that. kamski specifically told me to get the information from you the, ‘human’ way. he wishes for us to talk to each other like brothers.”

connor looks even more bewildered at that bit of information..why would kamski do this without his consent? this..has to be some sort of test. maybe conan is just playing the role as his brother to spy on him and catch him doing something that may incriminate him? does kamski know about his odd..’glitches’? did he make rk900 just to dispose of him and replace him?

no, he couldn’t have known..the cameras in his opticals were shut off weeks ago. so why was rk900 here? what is kamski getting at?

connor also took notice of how..machine like conan is. conan walks stiffly and has a rigid stance. in that sentence he brings up what kamski wants rather than his. he follows kamski’s orders as if they were law without question.

connor still has his hand in front of him and ignores what conan says

he’s like, “it would be easier if we just did this.” (he’s irritated and is insistent)

and conan refuses, again repeating, “we have to follow kamski’s orders.”

and connor taunts conan

he’s like, “can you not think for yourself? i thought you were supposed to be alive.”

at that, mc finally speaks, telling connor off, “that’s enough, connor. i think you should just follow what kamski says. conan is just as alive as you and needs some of your guidance.”

connor’s eyes slightly widen as well as conan’s. connor’s frown deepens at your words. you’re defending him. why? you should be on his side, not him.

conan still has a blank face but his eyes are now trained on mc, curiosity being one of the emotions flickering in his eyes.

connor notices conan looking at mc and narrows his eyes in disgust.

connor: fine..we can discuss everything at my place.

connor turns and places his hand back on mc’s lower back, pressing her as close to him and far from conan as possible.

conan follows on without question.

3. TITLE: DARK EXTERIOR

pairings: various! x fem! reader

genre: dark au, angst, fluff, etc

plot: the main plot is androids taking over and humans as pets

so mc is obviously gonna be a human, she is like in one of those sort of adoption places but it’s more like a buy your pet thing

and mc is gonna be 18 y/o because yes

- mc and her parents live in a house that is located in a rather secluded area in the woods

- when word gets out about androids dominating humans and turning them into slaves- mc’s parents decide to live underground. mc is 3 y/o during this time. (the father is an artist/architect, this was originally just a project for himself). years pass with them being undetected. (it was 2038 when androids dominated humans)

- 15 years passed without them being detected and mc is 18 y/o (year is 2053)

- mc’s father scavenges for food and such once a month

- underground they still have a tv, tablet, and phones to keep up with how everything is going in detroit

- mc feels trapped after living underground for basically her entire life and learning second hand about androids, the revolution, etc

- mc starts doubting her parents and their reasons. she questions whether if there are bad androids out there who will snatch her up.

- mc asks her father if she can help him scavenge one day but he along with her mother are against that (this is on her birthday when she turns 18 y/o bcus she thinks she’s mature enough to)

- this causes a big argument between her parents and her and she voices her doubts to them- this ends with mc locking herself in her room. after awhile when it’s night time, her father visits her and apologizes for yelling but tells her she still can’t go up there because it’s too dangerous.

- mc hides her anger and lies to her father about her understanding. when it’s about midnight mc decides to sneak out and go above ground.

- mc is wandering in the woods mindlessly basking in everything- she kind of becomes careless (she doesn’t act cautious when wandering around). she maybe follows a bird she sees (owl) out of curiosity and nears markus and his crew (simon, north, and josh). they were having a picnic or just stargazing.

- simon hears rustling and light footsteps coming towards them so he alerts the others, he’s like, ‘do you guys hear that?’

- the others listen and do hear the footsteps and rustling coming rather close and quickly. all of them are tense (because they have experienced a lot of..attacks in the past so obviously they got their bars raised)

- so mc bumps into markus and everyone is surprised by mc’s sudden appearance

- mc stops in her tracks and looks at markus, it takes her a minute to really look at him bcus it’s dark and her human eyes are very poor at catching details

- she recognizes markus and is frozen. she also faintly recognizes his friends because they are also a big part of the android revolution (or so she’s been told by her parents).

- after a beat of silence north says, ‘a human?’ in a rather disgusted tone.

- josh observes you and asks out loud, ‘how can a human be this far out of the city?’

- north: ‘maybe it escaped from it’s owner or something.’

- after observing you, markus reaches out to you (you are still frozen and too scared to move) and places his hand on the nape of your neck. he realizes you don’t have a chip installed there to tell him who your owner is. (let’s say every human at birth has a chip installed to their nape to identify them and their owner)

- markus informs the others that mc doesn’t have a chip which startles them.

- north: ‘wait..it’s a fucking wild?’

- josh: ‘how could it live this long on it’s own if it is a wild?’

- (markus had his eyes on you the whole time) he asks you if there are more of you in the forest and you slowly shake your head no. they all know you are lying though.

- north: ‘there are more like it in the forest..how come we didn’t know about this?’

- josh: ‘this is pretty bad..if there are more wilds out here hiding this could damage the trust we built with the others. everyone will be outraged if they find out we let wilds slip under our noses.’

- simon approaches you slowly and asks again if there are more people like you out there

- when you shake your head again markus holds your chin between his thumb and index finger, tilting your head up so that you can look at him in the eyes.

- with a dark look in his eyes markus says, ‘don’t lie to us again kitten because i’m not in the mood to play nice. now, tell us the truth. are there more of you out there?’

- you are scared now and regret ever leaving the hideout. knowing it would be futile to lie again, you nod. (you are unable to say anything because your throat feels constricted).

- north: ‘where are they?’

- you don’t say anything because you don’t want to give your parents away. you continue to berate yourself for your stupid decisions.

- north sighs (clearly irritated by you not answering their questions immediately), ‘well? aren’t you going to speak? or can you not speak?’

- josh tries to calm north down, ‘intimidating it isn’t going to make it talk’

- north: why are you defending it? have you gone soft now?

- josh: [sighs] are we really going to do this? i’m just trying to tell you that yelling at it won’t get us anywhere-

- north: babying it isn’t getting us anywhere and i don’t see /you/ doing anything.

- simon steps in before the argument could get even more heated and pushes the two away from each other, “that’s enough. can you both not argue for once? now is not the time.”

- a little bit of pressure on your chin directs your attention from the two arguing to markus.

- markus: show us and i promise we won’t hurt you.

- mc thinks about this, ‘deal’ and realizes at that moment she doesn’t know what the hideout even looks like from the outside bcus she was so caught up on other things.

- mc makes a half baked plan to pretend to know where her hide out is, lead them, then find an opening to escape

- mc responds after a bit of pondering, (in a feeble voice), “okay.”

- north: [annoyed and slightly surprised] that’s it? that’s all it took?

- markus lets go of mc’s chin and gives mc a slight nod, telling her to show them the way

- before mc could take any step north butts in

- north: shouldn’t we restrain it first? tie it’s hands so it doesn’t do anything stupid?

- mc really dislikes north and is pretty scared of north out of all of them.

- markus notices your discomfort and shakes his head at north, “no. we don’t need to."

- north: [irritated] but she is a fucking wild- she’s dangerous-

- markus: [interrupts north + raises one of his hands up] i said, we don’t need to.

- north huffs in annoyance but doesn’t say anything else. part of you is satisfied by seeing north being put in her place.

- markus returns his attention to you and silently tells you w his eyes to lead the way.

- you turn your back towards markus and observe the vast amount of trees before you and walk in the direction you remember vaguely running from.

[dirtyscholar]

Heyo, dbh anon again!

Your opinions on Gavin are so valid lmao I feel similarly about his character (though I contribute that to fandom tlc as opposed to how he’s written in canon).

My favorite character is Connor, though I admit it’s mostly the gender envy talking there. And I have several ships I love to gush about, but my main ship is definitely Hankcon.

I’d love to talk with you about dbh all day, I don’t really have other people I can talk to about it.

Anyways! Hopefully you’re having a good day, take care! 💙✨

Once again i have no idea when you sent this bc my inbox never notifies me of anything ahHHHHHHH! But pls feel free to message me over chat if you'd like to talk more about DBH, esp bc i do not want to miss these lmao. You're totally valid about the Connor gender envy tho he is so fucking handsome in the softest way it literally makes my heart ache to look at him sometimes (wow what a Hank mood 🤪🤪)

[gaiapaia]

Kermit and Friends: The Drama Queen Of Beverly Hills

Elisa Jordana is surely a Queen that resides in Beverly Hills, but is she a drama queen?

The definition of a ‘drama queen’ is as follows, “A person who habitually responds to situations in a melodramatic way.”

Granted, Elisa can behave this way when it comes to getting a vaccination shot, flying in airplanes, or reading about bugs in hotel reviews, but when it comes to her reaction to the people on her show, Elisa keeps it pretty even keel for the most part.

Take for instance Elisa watching a gentleman by the name of Juanbon display his butthole in the Kermit and Friends Discord Fanclub when he accepted Trumpster Bob’s infamous butthole challenge. 

Juanbon is a heavyset guy who claimed beforehand that he hadn’t showered in a month. Due to Youtube restrictions, Elisa couldn’t play the video of him showing his butthole, but she played the audio as there were dozens of people on microphone reacting to his butthole when he showed it... they were all flabbergasted and disgusted. Elisa? Nope, just a nice looking butthole according to her.

TBob unbelievably backed out from showing his butthole in return. For months we’ve heard Bob challenge countless people to a butthole showdown... finally someone accepted and Bob backed out! Bob still claims victory because according to Bob, the challenge is more so to prove your butthole hasn’t been “blowed out” due to anal sex, and since Juanbon supposedly had a prolapsed butthole, Bob felt he already won the challenge and didn’t have to show his nether regions afterward. Make sense of that!

Bob would make up for it later in the show though when he invited two nice men to be Kermit’s new friends - Steven Vulich and Ace Baker. 

Steven and Ace both have a history with Bob and Mark Connors. Bob used to attack Steven, calling Steven’s charitable efforts fraudulent. I guess over time they mended their relationship and became buddies. Steven seemed pretty hesitant to discuss Mark at length sadly. He basically just said Mark is a maniac who Elisa and everyone else should steer clear of.

Ace Baker is the man who Mark claims got arrested for weapon possession on the way to Mark’s house to kill Mark and his family. Just as Ace was about to dive headfirst into that story, his camera unfortunately cut off. Hopefully Ace will be back on next week so he can go into further detail. Before that though Ace did make it clear that Mark is full of crap, both regarding what happened between them and also about Mark’s country music career, which Ace says is a complete sham.

The best part about Steven and Ace’s appearances was how smitten Elisa got over Steven at first glance. I know Elisa’s type - the trimmed darkish beard on a svelte face with a nice smile in front of a professional microphone on Kermit and Friends... this is how Elisa pictures her perfect guy.

Unfortunately, Steven was wearing a hat and when you Google him, his pics aren’t as attractive as he was on camera yesterday. Steven even warned Elisa and the women fawning over him that he’s not ‘hot.’ Then when Steven got into his political and financial stuff... you could literally witness Elisa’s crush fading by the second. I’ve never, ever seen a crush evaporate that quickly. Damn!

That said, Elisa’s initial reaction to Steven was adorable and it motivates me to start looking for guys like that to bring on the show so she can finally get over a few of her stupid ex’s. If you know anyone like that, please feel free to DM me ;)

The big star of yesterday’s show, however, was none other than James Tsai aka Arf Arf Bark Bark, a guy who has quickly become one of Kermit’s best friends.

James joined the Kermit and Friends Discord Fanclub last week and immediately made an impact. He was invited by Barry Boss, who at long last made an awesome contribution to the show. From the get go you could tell James was perfect for KAF. 

James is a dog trainer, so of course right off the bat many in the community instantly liked him since a large portion of the KAF family loves dogs (I mean, Kermit and Friends is named after a beautiful dog, after all).

What really showed that James is a true Kermitarian though was his feistiness and his willingness to go to battle. James watched last week’s KAF episode and he was disgusted by Mark Connors, and James let his disgust be known in the KAF Fanclub. This led to James putting his phone number in the Discord so Mark could call him - Mark did 4 times and each time James went right at him, not falling for Mark’s charm like so many others in our community have fallen for.

Mark was so pissed at James that Mark lashed out at Barry over it, calling Barry and leaving a vicious voicemail threating both Barry and James if James didn’t leave the community.

After a fascinating conversation between Elisa and James about James’ time as a dog trainer (he’s literally trained some of the most dangerous dogs in the entire World), we got to see James’ feistiness in action when beloved Kermitarian Eric Riggs rubbed him the wrong way.

When Eric starts on his tangents, it’s really hard sometimes to keep track. He goes all over the place with his theories and dreams. James was paying close attention to Eric though and told Eric to “get his sh*t together and stop trying so hard to impress Elisa.”

Eric became deeply offended by this, telling James he doesn’t know the real Eric and shouldn’t be telling someone he doesn’t know to get their sh*t together. What Eric didn’t realize was that this past week James watched a few old episodes and clips of Kermit and Friends, and he got to know Eric’s tendencies from that, so James started laying into Eric about the jerkoff videos and his obsession over materialistic things.

Eric would eventually start dominating the conversation and Elisa brilliantly put Eric on cam by himself as he kept talking about James being in pain and how James needs to accept that Eric has a woman like Elisa in his life and James doesn’t, etc. Typical Eric... God bless him.

Typical Kermit and Friends, too! It was funny, insightful, entertaining, had some neat surprises... I absolutely loved yesterday’s show. I talked before a while back about how KAF goes into these different eras every couple of months... we’re now entering what will be a new era for the show - it’s going to be a fun ride, mark my words.

[humanmoodring-retired]

Season’s Yeetings Pt. 1 || Blanche, Connor, Nadia (x2), Regan, and Kaden

TIMING: Present PARTIES: @harlowhaunted @connorspiracy @humanmoodring @kadavernagh @chasseurdeloup SUMMARY: Another exorcism. feat. Mav the Exorcist CONTENT: Self harm, suicide attempt (possession-driven)

If it could, Nadia was sure that her heart would be beating way too fast. She was… scared didn’t seem like it could properly encompass what she was feeling. Nervous and terrified and resigned in case things went wrong. And this could really go wrong. This could go terribly, actually, ending with not just a dead body but the wrong spirit also being destroyed. But she didn’t think she could handle being like this for much longer, and she knew that there was no way in hell Cordelia could be allowed to keep her body and do whatever she wanted with it. This had to end, no matter what. She looked around her apartment, covered in dust and messy as the day she’d walked out. This was the first time she’d been in it since the wards had been put up, and it hurt a bit to be back. This was somewhere that she’d once felt safe, comfortable. She didn’t know if she’d ever feel comfortable again if she made it out of this. But she needed to steel her resolve. She looked over at the others, gave them a nod and what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “We’re just waiting for Kaden and the exorcist, right?” And her body, of course, but that didn’t need to be voiced, did it?

Regan knew that she didn’t need to remind Nadia of what she had said in the cabin. It was as good as a promise, even though she couldn’t say the word. Nadia wouldn’t die alone. No matter what happened here today, Regan could at least give her that. And anything could happen. The first aid kit Regan had set on the counter was testament to that. Nadia didn’t want to acknowledge it verbally, but her tense expressions and manic pacing -- sometimes through the floor -- said what her words didn’t. She was terrified. In some moments, Regan allowed herself to be, too. This wasn’t how Regan wanted to come back to their apartment together, both of them ghosts of their former selves, but if today went in their favor -- and she would do anything she possibly could to see that it would -- one of them could be saved.

When Blanche and a young man who she assumed to be Connor arrived, Regan backed up to the opposite side of the room, staring across at them with a tight frown and black eyes. She didn’t greet them, but she wouldn’t shame them either. She didn’t have anger inside of her anymore -- not enough to speak -- but from an objective point of view, she did blame the two of them for Nadia’s current predicament. They would set this right, or they would face consequences. They both seem determined but anxious, focused with heavy steps and tight knuckles. Blanche, especially, seemed more an adult than she ever had before. Regan silently watched as some parts of the stage were set. Candles, salt, metal which looked dangerously like iron, and more. For her own contribution, she pushed the furniture to the sides of the room, creating an open space in the center. She could see all of their footprints in the dust, layered on top of each other and the ones she had left just a couple of weeks ago. When that was done, she went back to her wall, maintaining as much distance as possible from anyone who wasn’t Nadia. “Yes,” Regan replied, Nadia’s nervous smile melting through her a little, “Kaden said he would be ready at twenty after.” She checked her watch. Soon. “As for the-- I don’t know anything about them.”

Did it make him look better or worse to show up with homework? Photocopied pages lay folded in his back pocket, but he hadn’t dared pull them out in front of the others. He’d read them countless times anyway. Connor was more than grateful for the material’s Leah had copied from her archives for him, as well as everything he'd found while researching with Rio, but he still hadn’t managed to find anything that related to the exact situation they’d found themselves in. As far as he could tell, exorcising the wrong soul from a body just didn’t happen all that often. He supposed either he was that much of a fuck up, or Nadia’s situation was just that special. Regardless, he reckoned the older exorcist would know. “Do you know where Kaden found this bloke?” Connor asked nobody in particular. He wondered if it would be impolite to smoke a cigarette while they waited. He opted against it, since the woman with the dark eyes seemed ready to kill him at any moment. “I mean, I appreciate the help. I really do. I just wanna check what exactly we know about him.”

The somber expression on Blanche’s face couldn’t seem to leave, even as she entered the apartment and took a look at Nadia and Regan. “Hey,” she said in greeting, her tone flat. She couldn’t say much else. Blanche dropped her smaller bag on a piece of furniture and began to set up as much as she could - Blanche was conscious enough to keep the iron as far from Regan as possible. She glanced at Connor as he began to speak, pulling the long black bag she had on her back off. “He has his connections. I’m sure he’s adequate,” Blanche replied, though she was unsure too. Granny had instilled a distrust of exorcists in her from when she was young. She wasn’t sure how much of that was out of fear of being exorcised herself, but Blanche knew that a lot of people liked to masquerade with powers they didn’t actually have for the chance to get quick cash from desperate people. She unzipped the large bag, before pausing, with a frown. Warily, she announced, “I borrowed a shotgun from a friend,” she said, pulling it out. Well, really, she borrowed it from Stan, who was all too keen to give her a firearm after she got stabbed in his place of business. “It’s loaded with salt rounds. In case things get… Bad.” She glanced at the door, moving her equipment out of the way. “I suppose we’ll hear them.” She looked to Connor. “And we’ll feel Cordelia whenever she’s nearby.”

It had been so long since Kaden pulled up to Regan’s apartment, pulling up to park in front of the building felt strange and foreign at this point. Putain, he hated that. Still, there was a small sense of relief. This was finally almost over. “Welcome home,” he said to Cordelia as he led her from the car up to the top floor. It was eerie being here, even though there were plenty of people waiting inside. Maybe it was because of how abandoned the building felt now. Maybe it was because of how defeated Cordelia seemed, almost accepting of her fate. Almost. Didn’t matter. He carted her upstairs and walked her in. His heart caught in his chest as he looked around the room. Empty, cleared out, and covered in dust nothing like he remembered. It was strange to see it like this. It was strange, too, to see Regan in this context. Willingly, at that. Black eyes and distanced, it was almost easy to forget who it was. Almost. This wasn’t the return to this building he expected for both of them. He winced when he remembered what he’d done to Cordelia’s wrist. Nadia’s body’s wrist. Hopefully Regan didn’t think too poorly of him. But it was too late to do anything about it now. And if this worked, a broken wrist was the least of Nadia’s worries. Blanche was here, too. With a shotgun no less. He shot her a look but let it lie. And also some kid he assumed was Connor. He couldn’t see Nadia even if he wanted to. Now where the fuck was this exorcist?

“Howdy, folks,” the man with a mustache said as he walked through the door behind Kaden, tipping his stetson. “I heard we have a big here nut to crack.” He took a good look around the room and assessed the situation. “I see you all followed instructions. Thank you kindly, this set up should work just fine. Just fine.” He noted the handcuffed woman in the center of the room and made a quick guess that was the little lady in question. “Mr. Langley, good to see you again. I suppose some introductions might be in order. My name’s Maverick, but you can call me Mav.” He was told there was going to be a medium, another younger exorcist, and a banshee. He wasn’t sure what a banshee was doing in these here parts or what her particular interest was in this here ghost, but he wasn’t one to question. Not if he was going to rake and scrape himself together a handsome pay day out of this job. “First thing’s first. I believe a repossession is in order, is that the case here? No need to dilly dally if we’re all ready and raring to go. You all know the plan?”

“What a fucking gentleman,” Nadia snapped at Kaden as they walked into her old apartment. Good memories, she remembered. There was the cabinet where she stored all of her equipment, and that was the couch that she’d passed out on after a couple of good heist, and there was what was left of the kitchen table that she’d definitely destroyed on her way out of this place. She rolled her shoulders, felt Kaden’s knife shift from where she’d tucked it in the waistband of her jeans, the shirt covering it up. She’d just need to snap her handcuffs off like she had the last time this happened. Whatever, she could do it. She could do it. She looked around the room, glancing at the little banshee, the children, the shadow of her host. “Howdy, folks,” she said mockingly. “This looks like a party, huh?” When the mustachioed hombre walked in, she rolled her eyes and glanced at the shadow, at Nadia Diaz. Give me your best shot, she said with her eyes.

For her part, Nadia didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to do. This next part was on her, right? She had to get this started, wasn’t she? She was. Of course she was. But she was a bit nervous. Really nervous. Scared, maybe, was the right word. She gritted her teeth as she and Cordelia stared at each other, steeling herself. All she could see was her reflection in the mirror, grinning as she faded out of existence. Except Nadia couldn’t fade now. She couldn’t. She couldn’t. She stepped forward instead. “Right. I-- I repossess her, and you exorcise her out, right?” It sounded easy. This was her body, too. It was her body. She could do this. “Is there…” She trailed off as she looked at Cordelia. What a mess the two of them had made of her life. Looking in that woman’s eyes, her eyes, Nadia knew what she wanted. She wanted her fucking life back. “Is there anything else I should do?”

For a moment, Regan lifted herself from the wall when Kaden walked in, yearning to approach. But now wasn’t the time for so many reasons, and she was forgetting herself. Cordelia -- Nadia’s body -- was dragged in, wrist swollen under the handcuffs in a way that made Regan think it might be broken. Would Kaden have-- later, that was something to think about later. Once Nadia was in there again. So she stayed glued to the edge of the room, eyes flitting between Nadia, Kaden, and the shotgun that looked so massive and out of place in Blanche’s small hands. There was only one more person they were waiting on now, and just as Regan thought it, their final party member swung into the room looking like a man straight out of a spaghetti western, but far scrawnier. He appeared almost as malnourished as that child Blanche and Kaden were friendly with, Rio. But despite his protein deficiencies, his mustache still glistened under the dull lightbulbs -- which Regan suspected wouldn’t be there long considering her own track record -- and he seemed energized and ready. Where on earth had Kaden found this man?

“Hello,” Regan said in response, her first words to anyone other than Nadia, “What are your credentials?” She bore into him, not stepping any closer. Was Nadia really ready to pour all of her trust and hopes into this? Regan looked over to her friend for a moment, seeing her fear and tenseness. She offered a hand, though she knew Nadia couldn’t exactly take it; maybe it would still be enough. “I’m Regan. I’m here for Nadia. I’m a-- I was a doctor. I will not let anyone die here today.” As for Mav’s question, she had no answer for him; she’d leave that to Blanche and Connor to answer. She relayed her friend’s concerns instead, in case Mav or others were unable to hear her. “Nadia is wondering if there’s anything she should do.”

Connor's eyes widened as Blanche drew the weapon. "You bloody Americans and your guns," he sighed, but they could have done worse in this situation than a rocksalt shotgun. It was powerful, yet non-lethal, at least at the right distance. "Just be careful. Get too close and you'll blow her fucking chest out even without actual bullets." Thankfully, Kaden and Cordelia's arrival saved them from further conversation about the weapon. "Oh, you're as lovely as ever, darlin'," Connor scoffed, his confidence boosted by the presence of the others in the room. Kaden seemed as gloomy and squinty-eyed as the last time Connor had seen him clearing Snicker-Snackers out of his apartment, yet this time, the weight of his bad mood was far, far heavier.

Connor stood as the final man walked into the room, raising an eyebrow as if this was some type of bloody joke. He imagined this was what John Wayne would look like as an exorcist. "Mav," he repeated, extending his hand. "Y'alright, mate? I'm Connor. I'm gonna be helping you out with this one." He was glad he wasn't the only one who wanted to know the stranger's credentials. Thankfully, Regan had saved him from asking the man directly. He could feel Nadia's nerves, her fear, and somewhere in there, her determination. Connor couldn't touch her, couldn't offer a comforting hand, but he gave her as reassuring a smile as he could manage. "Just stay strong, yeah? Stay focused. You got this."

“I know. If I didn’t know how to use it, I wouldn’t have it,” Blanche snapped quietly at Connor, her already bad temper souring even further. She refused to look at Cordelia, there was no need, considering Nadia hadn’t yet repossessed her body. She wouldn’t need to watch for the struggle for control between them -- not yet, at least. Blanche pressed her lips together into a thin line, examining the exorcist carefully. Had she died and woken up in a bad Western? Blanche was with Regan on this one, and she glanced at the Banshee quickly before turning back to Mav. What were this man’s credentials? It wasn’t like she could ask for a CV or an exorcist license… Blanche slung the shotgun over her shoulder, finally stepping forward to greet him. “Blanche. Medium. I’ll be running telekinetic interference in case it gets…” She let out a breath, remembering the telekinetic game of tug-of-war her and Constance played in the classroom. She had thrown the teacher’s desk through a window. Blanche grimaced, and she hoped they didn’t completely trash Nadia’s apartment. “Completely out of hand.” Eyes narrow, Blanche glanced at Nadia. “Whenever you’re ready to begin, Nadia. Just like we practiced.” She looked back at Mav, still distrusting of him. Finally, lowering her voice, she asked. “You can tell what she is, right? The spirit in the body?” He had to at least be able to answer that Cordelia was a poltergeist. It was the only question she could think to answer to make sure they weren’t getting scammed.

Kaden wanted to go over to Regan, give her hand a quick squeeze of reassurance before slinking off to the side, but it wouldn’t help. The only thing that would help was finishing this, giving Nadia back what was hers. He wished he could see her, give her some reassurance before all this started. “Mav’s one of the best there is. Trust me,” he said before backing away to the door. He had to be. After what Kaden sacrificed to get him here, he had to be. This wouldn’t be for nothing. “I’ll be right at the door. Let me know if you need me.” With that he headed to the door, giving the scene one last look. He really hoped he’d be useless here and it’d be over sooner rather than later. He had to trust this was the best group possible to make this happen.

Mav gave the hunter a nod. “I’ll call on you if I need you, partner.” He didn’t know much about this Langley fellow but he trusted Porter would only refer him to someone worth his time. And this case sure sounded like a doozy. “Nice to meet you, youngin,” he said, shaking Connor’s hand. “I hope you’re good and ready for this rodeo. It’s sure to be a hullabaloo. Just follow my lead and stay by me.” It seemed like Mav and Mr. Langley might be the only two in the room who couldn’t see ghosts by the sound of it. That was alright, he didn’t need to see them to exorcise them. “Telekinesis? Well I'll be damned. That’s a horse of a different color right there, boy howdy.” That was more than he bargained for from a medium. This might not be a total disaster after all. Maybe they had a shot. Though not if they all kept on questioning him. He hoped he could settle this score and keep the quarreling to the spirits. “Young lady, I’ve been dealing with ghosts and performing exorcisms since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I know a poltergeist when I feel one and you’d best believe I know how to handle one so none of y’all need to fret about any credentials, you hear?”

Mav fastened his hat on his head a little tighter and rolled up his sleeves before pulling out his grand pappy’s old iron pocket watch. It was a silly old trinket, but it was a fool proof focal point for him. “We’ll need our Ms. Diaz to repossess her body. Once she’s in there, we’ll start the exorcism. The circle here should keep little lady Cordelia trapped while we do the banishment. There’s bound to be a lot of rattling and hollering but it’s very important that once I start wagging my mouth that no one interrupts me. One missed syllable is all it’ll take for things to go belly up in a delicate situation such as this one. So if we’re ready to start wobbling jaws and get this show on the road, y’all need to be absolutely sure you’re ready.”

Just repossess the body. That was all Nadia needed to worry about doing. She looked at where Cordelia and her body waited within the circle. The moment she crossed that line, she’d be stuck in there with a homicidal maniac until everything was completed. The way that Cordelia looked at her without really seeing her would have chilled Nadia to the bones. This had to be the most twisted form of self-loathing, when her own eyes were filled with so much hate, but she wasn’t even in there. Nadia looked at Regan’s hand and, comforted, stepped forward. Cordelia straightened up, her mouth set in a hard line. Nadia crossed into the circle, and there was no going back. She stood toe to toe with her own body, her feet floating off the ground and making her an inch or so taller. Once again, Nadia felt like she was staring at her reflection in a mirror back in Phoenix, blood on her hands and a smile that wasn’t hers, had never been hers, stretching across her mouth. She was done with this. Nadia reached her hand out and grabbed her own shoulder.

It felt weird, feeling Nadia Diaz’s hand pass through her body, but the sensation meant that the repossession didn’t work, and all Nadia could do was laugh. “You can’t even be dead properly, can you?” she hissed at the translucent figure in front of her. “God, any ghost worth their shit can possess. Come on, champ, try again.” She looked out amongst the group in front of them, from the little banshee to the cowboy, sneering. Bet they felt like dumbasses, backing the wrong Nadia. She was clearly the better of the two, more in control and more capable of taking care of this body. Not that it’d matter for long, but, shit, it was as if Nadia didn’t even want it anymore. Just like when Nadia had taken over, the girl had no fight. She couldn’t have fought back if she wanted to. “Didn’t you hear me, you dumb bitch? Try aga--” Nadia gasped, and, for the first time in weeks, she wasn’t alone in her head anymore.

The first thing Nadia noticed was that she was unbalanced. She wobbled a bit, trying to remember how to plant her feet on solid ground. Her wrist hurt. Her throat hurt. Her head was killing her. She had to blink tears out of her eyes for a moment as everything came back into focus. She was trembling, but she could feel it. She could feel everything, not just herself, and the weight of it was crushing. It was relieving. But she could feel Cordelia, too, just underneath the surface, and the poltergeist was so much stronger than she was. However, Cordelia wasn’t the one that was used to being possessed, and this would always be Nadia’s body first. For a moment, and just a moment, she had total control, even if the spirit taking up residence in her body fought like a motherfucker. “Now,” she gasped out, locking eyes with anyone that she could. “Start now. You’ve got to start now.”

Regan wasn’t sure why Blanche felt the need to mention her size to Mav (she was more shrimpy than medium, though neither of those words were qualitative enough for Regan’s liking), but she was already struggling to follow everything else that was happening. Telekinesis? Horses? A pocket watch that made a shiver roll down her spine? Instead of trying to make sense of nonsense, she turned her attention to Nadia and Kaden. As much as she wanted him to stay here, she knew it was important that someone guard the door. The last thing they needed was for Cordelia to escape… or for Ms. Carmody to wander up insisting to see what was causing all the noise. Despite not agreeing with Mav’s chosen terminology, she understood that his warning about interruption was to be taken seriously, and for a moment, she considered promising that she wouldn’t interfere. But… what if she had to? What if there was no other option? What if Nadia’s death would be a result not of the “exorcism,” but of Regan’s inability to intervene? So she held her tongue as tightly as she held Nadia’s gaze. Her fingers felt nothing as she tried to graze her friend’s hand, but something in Nadia’s eyes told her that it helped a little nonetheless. Regan only wished she could do more. She wasn’t the best at inspirational speeches, but it seemed prudent to remind Nadia that she believed in her. “You were shot by a mime and wouldn’t even come to me for stitches,” Regan said, voice resolute, “you’ve been using hydrogen peroxide on your wounds despite my warnings, and you fearlessly confronted all of those dangerous individuals at 66 Brimme Stonne. There’s likely more that I don’t even know about.” That thought sank like a stone inside of her. “You can do this, Nadia. You’re tough and, to my chagrin, occasionally medically irresponsible. But most importantly tough. And I’ll be here. No matter what.” That was a promise Regan would have made if she could.

At Mav’s instruction, Nadia drifted into the center of the room, where Cordelia stood in handcuffs. Though Regan had seen both of them individually before, seeing them in one place, staring each other down, was maddening. Some part of her wanted to explain all of this away as a hallucination, but she couldn’t lie about that, not even to herself any longer. There was no imagining Cordelia’s fury out of nowhere, either -- it was very real, even directed at someone so insubstantial as Nadia. There wasn’t even a tremor under Cordelia’s voice; she thought herself invincible, truly believing that Nadia was going to die trying. More impossible things unfolded -- Nadia vanished. Regan looked down, expecting her to pop back up through the floor, but she didn’t. Her head swiveled frantically as she searched the room. Nadia was gone. But Cordelia -- something was changing across her face. And her balance. Cordelia nearly fell, and Regan was caught off guard by how Cordelia’s voice changed. Uncertain, fearful, frenzied, with a backbone of determination. Regan knew, then -- that was where Nadia had gone, somehow. She stayed back, lingering at the side of the room as she looked to Mav, pleading silently with him to save her friend.

Bloody hell, there were a lot of people here. Most of them actual adults. This wasn't like last time when it was a bunch of kids in the woods just hoping to get this right. Connor wasn't sure if he was intimidated by that, or comforted by it. "Right," he said, nodding and stepping into position next to Mav, trying not to let the man's colourful use of language blur his judgement. They wouldn't have invited him if he wasn't capable. This was Nadia's life at stake. "I've got you, mate." He touched his focal point, currently nestled inside his pocket. It would make its real appearance once they were ready. "You got this, Nadia," he said again, looking at her sincerely and giving her an encouraging nod.

Connor could feel the palpable tension in the room. He felt the poltergeist's fury, the struggle, the pain. He focused on the battling spirits, never taking his eyes off them, ready to leap in at any moment regardless of not knowing how he could help. "She's winning," he said, managing a hopeful smile. But they weren't out of the woods yet... There was still the rest of it to do. "Quick, I'll start getting everything in place, yeah?" No wobbly mouths, or waggling jaws, or whatever the cowboy had said. The ritual had to go perfectly. He drew the diagrams around the Nadias, taking the relics and items as Mav handed them to him, the two of them settling the playing field as Nadia and Cordelia fought for control over the other. "You’ve won, okay Nadia? Stay strong, we're almost there," he called to her.

The mustached exorcist watched and waited as the spirit of Nadia Diaz returned to her own body. Mav almost wished he could see it proper, but he didn’t need to see to know what was going on. The energy shifted around them, forces battling to occupy the same space, and beyond that, he wasn’t a spring chicken. He could hear the arguments back and forth. When she said the word, Mav didn’t hesitate to start chanting. He gripped his fingers tight around the chain of the pocket watch as he formed the Latin clean and precise even with his accent peaking through, narrowing in on the energy until it was clear and crisp as sweet tea on a summer’s day. In normal circumstances, he’d never need to focus his energy like this, not for a basic removal ritual. But this? This was three gallons of crazy in a two gallon bucket. The spirit that belonged to the body was weaker, it would take everything he had to pull the poltergeist away. And then a little more than that to banish it back to hell and keep Ms Diaz from heading down to the bone orchard herself. He felt the words forming a bond of energy, like the chain from his watch, latching onto the poltergeist and pulling at it, peeling it away from the body. She was tough as a pine nut. A focal point wasn’t enough. Without dropping a phrase, he nodded to Connor and reached out to him to pull from him, to strengthen the chain. It was going to need to be strong as steel, iron even, to make this work. But Maverick Mulaney was no failure, no sir.

Blanche understood Mav’s exasperation, but she wasn’t quick to drop her skepticism. Once it was all over, she could apologize -- or kill him, if she ended up being right. The somber thought made her grimace, even as Nadia succeeded in overtaking Cordelia and the removal started. The energy in the room was thick and made her skin tingle uncomfortably. Watching Mav start to pull from Connor, Blanche backed away and started inching closer to Regan. “Regan?” She said quietly, not taking her eyes off Nadia and Cordelia. This was probably the first thing she had said to Regan directly in a very long time, but it was better to warn her now then let her be surprised. She had seen the first exorcism, and Nadia’s screams of pain weren’t something she would soon forget. That said, maybe with the removal it would be, at least, a little better. “Once Cordelia is out, it’ll get better for Nadia.” She spoke softly so she wouldn’t disturb Mav or Connor’s concentration. “... Well… Maybe not better. But it probably won’t get worse,” she corrected herself. Her hands tightened on the gun, and let out a hissed wince as her body began to feel like ice. “I think he knows what he’s doing.” Blanche was struck again with a sort of sadness and pity for Cordelia, as well as the familiar guilt in her gut, but she shook it off. There would be time to lament her choices later, now she had to keep a careful eye on Nadia.  She narrowed her eyes at Nadia, taking a few steps forward as she tried to watch for Cordelia’s soul to be ripped out of Nadia’s body. “C’mon, c’mon. Let her go.” Blanche hissed under her breath. Before it killed Nadia.

Just like last time, Nadia felt a pulling sensation, like she was being ripped in half. She gritted her teeth against the pain so hard that she tasted iron in her mouth, but she stayed in control for as long as she could. This was working. They were going to win this. Granted, she felt like her insides were coming apart, as the connection with Cordelia that had literally just reformed was severed again and again and again. Cordelia raged against her skull, but Nadia held on as much as she could. If she concentrated, she could hear Mav chanting. She focused on that, on the sounds of words in a language that she didn’t understand. If she made it out of this-- When, when she made it out of this, she was going to start learning a new language. Maybe a dead language, something that could be useful in this fucking town. But she was making it out of this. Fuck, it was cold. It was so cold. Nadia felt herself trembling, and she opened her mouth to say something, but she didn’t say anything at all. She screamed.

“No!” Nadia screamed out, finally regaining control as the temperature in the room plummeted and the lights surged with her anger. No. This wasn’t happening. She wasn’t losing this. Not now. Not now. Just like in the last exorcism, she reached inward, to that part of her that was dead and had been for so long but refused to fucking stay that way. Again, the felt the shackles, fucking handcuffs of all things, fall from her wrist, but this time, she knew she wouldn’t make it out in time. She had one last Hail Mary. She didn’t even feel the pain in Nadia’s wrist as she gripped the knife hidden behind her back as tightly as she could. Lightning fast, she ran it against Nadia’s neck, leaving a thin red line. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? Too quick. Nadia Diaz would die suffering. She felt herself being pulled, pulled out of the body, but Nadia clung on as hard as she could, planted her heels, and dug the knife into Nadia’s stomach. It was poetic, wasn’t it? This was where she’d stabbed Kaden, where she’d stabbed the little medium. She gritted her teeth and dug in more, as much as she could. It wasn’t a big knife, sure, but she was a determined gal, and she didn’t give a fuck about Nadia’s pain. Not anymore. Then, Nadia wasn’t pulled out of Nadia’s body. She pushed herself out.

[rhinozilla]

“Future”

(DBH Found Family June 2020 challenge hosted by @dbh-found-family Week 4, Prompt 2: Future.)

The morning after the revolution was quiet. It seemed like it shouldn’t be. Well, not that Hank had anything to compare it to. It wasn’t like he’d seen anything like this in his lifetime…artificial life forms rising up and declaring themselves to be free, living beings…and the leader of their country openly admitting to that possibility being a reality.

Fuckin’ A, what a day.

It didn’t seem like the morning after such an event. The past twelve hours—Hell, the past week—had been chaos. The city, the country, the world, whatever, had been rocked to its core. The paradigm was shifting, and there was still so much—so, so, so much—left up in the air…but all Hank could think about was the fresh snow on the ground.

It was light and powdery and resting in piles over the road, the sidewalks, the closed up Chicken Feed truck. Morning sunlight was making it shimmer a little bit, but for all that snow, he wasn’t freezing his ass off. The same couldn’t be said for his partner.

“So…any idea what you’ll do now?” Hank asked, arms folded and looking over at Connor.

Connor stood a few paces away, also staring at the snow with his arms folded, looking detached and lost in the aftermath of all this. He started slightly at being addressed and looked at Hank.

“No?” he answered belatedly. “I have no…mission. Cyberlife has…severed its connection to my cranial processor. That part of my system is…dark.” He frowned. “They’re gone. They’ve…abandoned me.”

A strange word choice, but Hank wasn’t sure how else one would describe it. He couldn’t even fully comprehend what it must feel like…for your creators to weaponize you against your own people…only to bounce when the tide turned…and when you turned against that creator and defied their will.

It looked lonely from where Hank was standing.

Connor’s frame shivered.

Hank blinked, not sure he’d actually seen that…except it happened again.

“Are you…cold, Connor?”

Connor forcibly stilled his shaking, locking his arms more tightly around himself as he shook his head.

“My internal temperature is within normal parameters. My body is properly compensating for the lower external temperature. I’m fine,” he said, unconvincingly.

Hank huffed, and his breath came out in a fog.

That Cyberlife jacket sure didn’t look like it was meant to retain any heat.

Connor hesitated, eyes still locked on the snowy ground.

“I…don’t like the cold, Hank.”

“Yeah, not a lot of people do.”

“I really…really don’t like it.”

There was just enough of an edge to his voice that Hank took a few steps to the side, closer to the Oldsmobile. He popped open the back seat door and rummaged out an old blanket that he’d tossed back there, God knew how long ago.

“Here.” He tossed it to his partner. “It’s got some Sumo hair on it, but it’s warmer than what you got on.”

It was a testament to how miserable Connor actually was that he accepted the blanket without comment, wrapping it around himself and curling inward to conserve heat. Hank stepped closer to him and rubbed a hand along his back, hopefully creating some frictional heat. It wasn’t cold enough for this kind of reaction…but to someone who’d never felt cold before…It was probably Hell for the poor guy.

“I don’t know what to do now,” Connor mumbled.

“Just stay bundled up. Your body heat will—

“No, I mean…now,” Connor clarified.

Hank looked at him, then out at the vacant street around them. “Oh, uh…I don’t…I don’t have an answer for you, son.”

Connor nodded understandingly, eyes downcast to his feet. “I’ve never NOT had a mission, and now I…I don’t think I can return to Jericho. Even after last night—I don’t think I belong among them…And I don’t think I would be welcomed back to the DPD either…I feel…lost.”

Hank hummed thoughtfully at that, folding his arms and leaning back against the fender of the Oldsmobile. It looked to finally be dawning on Connor what his situation truly was. No home. No money. No support. Nowhere to go and nothing to do. He had been abandoned. Hank pursed his lips at that and squinted out at the bright snowy sidewalks.

“The future is unclear for a lot of us right now, son…you not the least of all, but…You’re not lost. Even before you deviated, you knew who you were. You were a person long before you realized you were a person…before I realized—“ He scoffed at all the mushy words trying to well up in him. “I just mean, you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for, and whatever today or tomorrow or the day after brings, you can handle it. I can help you handle it.”

Connor looked at him uncertainly, and Hank shrugged.

“You saved my life, son. Least I can do is to help you start yours.”

Emotion abruptly washed across Connor’s face at that, and he struggled to keep his composure.

“…Thank you, Hank.”

“Yeah…well, I—“

Connor just as abruptly jumped on him in another hug, this one more emotional and unsteady than the first. Hank kept his balance for both their sakes, putting his arms around the android in a tight hug for the second time in an hour. Connor was still shivering a little, and Hank held him a little closer for a little longer.

The morning was quiet and peaceful around them. The unbroken snow and the clear sunshine contributing to the damnable bubble of optimism forming in Hank’s chest…something he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.

The future was uncertain, for Connor, for Hank, for Detroit, for life as any of them knew it. It was likely going to have its ups and downs, like any new, rocky adventure would.

Yes, there was no telling what the future was going to bring…but for the first time in years, Hank wanted to be around to see it.