#i knew i took a video of the ocean on my last cruise for a reason

[patrickztump]

I think you’re my best friend…

[itawonka-creates]

Seabourne Burnouts: Part 10 - No Longer Adrift

Maribat! On Deck AU

Thank you @particularlygeeky and @imfreakingmagical for beta reading and @particularlygeeky for chapter name idea!

Start [Here] [Part 9] [Part 11]

Bruce was getting more and more frustrated as the days passed. The surveillance videos from the boat and from the jail didn’t give him anything to work with. He passed through each video, frame by frame, countless times. He watched as the pirates seemed to materialize out of nowhere, there was no other ship passing, they were in the middle of the ocean and were suddenly being invaded.

He rubbed his eyes, watching the oddly similar henchmen rampage through the halls. They didn’t even look to be looking for something like the gunman said, they were just going through the ship causing chaos. He slammed his fist on the table re-watching the pirates in the jail cells suddenly disappear without a trace, leaving behind two young boys. One was injured in his leg, shot. He slowed it down and watched as the camera seemed to glitch and show a purple-black screen before the camera came back into focus and everyone was gone.

Bruce was running through the list of known villains in his head. The gunman said joker was a part of this, didn’t he? He mumbled to himself, “Is Scarecrow a part of this?” He shook his head, “No. No. He messes with minds, not cameras.” He let out an exasperated sigh before sitting back down in his chair. He rubbed his temples and groaned, “None of my theories make any sense, all the villains are in Gotham. They wouldn’t come all the way to Europe to rob me. It would be easier just to raid the manor while it was empty.” He ran his fingers through his hair, “None of them are that stupid.” He thought for a moment before laughing to himself, “Okay, maybe Harley.”  

“So are you gonna keep talking to yourself in the dark or are you going to actually join us on this cruise?” He quickly turned to see Tim in the doorway.

Bruce allowed his eyes to adjust to the hallway lights and pinched his nose, “Tim, don’t do that.”

“When was the last time you slept?”

Bruce rolled his eyes and smirked, “Isn’t this conversation usually the other way around?”

“Bruce I’m serious. We haven’t seen you in days.” Tim narrowed his eyes, looking at the footage on the screen, “Oh, that’s what you’ve been up to.”

Bruce closed the footage and turned off the computer, “Barbara and I have been looking at this footage forwards, backwards, frame by frame.”

“And?”

Bruce looked disheartened and bitter, “Nothing. They just disappeared. No one saw anything, no residents ever reported anything, nothing. They vanished.” He shook his head, “Usually they leave a clue or lead or something I can work with. This time? Nothing. I’ve checked back in with Gotham and no one has heard anything about a job to overtake a ship. All the villains are accounted for too.”

Tim hummed, “But the one guy had Joker’s laughing gas.”

“I know.” Bruce stood up and stretched out his back until he heard a crack, “What day is it?”

“Bruce, seriously?” Bruce looked at Tim with a very serious expression and Tim rolled his eyes, “It’s Wednesday.”

Bruce’s eyes widened slightly, “I’ve been down here for over a week?”

“Apparently.” Tim went over to Bruce’s side and looked over his mentor, “I swear, Alfred would’ve never let this happen.” Tim straightened out some of his clothes and Bruce yawned, finally letting the exhaustion hit him. Tim sighed, “Have you been keeping up with everything?”

“I know about the Akuma attacks if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, I meant with your son.” Bruce raised an eyebrow at Tim and Tim just smirked, “Come on, you’ll want to see this.” Tim opened the door and motioned for Bruce to follow him, “Besides, you need to go back to your room. Seriously, you need to bathe.”

Bruce rolled his eyes and walked out into the hallway, letting Tim lead the way as they walked out of their little maze below deck up to the higher floors. Tim continued up until they were walking towards a balcony overlooking the main deck, Jason and Adrien already there. Jason turned back and grinned, “He’s alive! Who knew?”

Adrien turned around and smiled, “Nice to see you again, sir.”

“Bruce is fine, Adrien.”

Adrien smiled and nodded before turning his attention back over the balcony. Jason led Bruce over to the balcony and pointed at two figures standing closely together by the railings. “What am I looking at here?”

“That, my dear Bruce, is your blood son actually bonding with someone.” Jason grinned and did everything in his power to not burst out laughing at Bruce’s shocked expression. The bags under his eyes only made the look more exaggerated, making it even harder not to laugh.

“That’s not Damian.”

Adrien snickered, “It is and that there next to him is our little Marinette.” He sighed and leaned against the rails, “They’ve gotten very close.”

Tim let out a small ‘Ha!’ before turning back to Bruce, “We found out they do this practically every night after they’ve visited the captain and think everybody else has gone to sleep. They don’t do anything but talk, sometimes they lean on each other, but it’s still cute to see.”

“I’m more so surprised you three haven’t interrupted them.” Bruce turned to see Jason and Tim look slightly offended before the two shrugged and nodded, knowing damn well Bruce was right. “So why aren’t you guys crashing the party?”

“Because I won’t let them.” Bruce turned to see Alya, Nino, and Dick walking up the hallway. All of them were in pajamas and looked amused. “I refuse to let your sons ruin this for my best friend.” She nudged Dick forward, “Just caught this one trying to interrupt.”

“I just wanted to know what they were talking about!” Dick smiled nervously under Bruce’s tired glare before the old bat turned his attention back over the balcony. Dick relaxed and looked at the couple, “You know Damian is doing a lot better.”

“Is he now?”

“Alya, can you show him the photos?” Alya chuckled before handing Bruce her phone. Bruce scrolled through the feed before landing on a few photos. It was mainly of the group of classmates, but Damian was one of them. To a stranger, you’d think it was just a photo of friends. They all looked like they were having fun, even in the photos where some were squabbling with each other or where Damian looked like he was in the middle of scolding someone, and it looked natural. To Bruce, it was like looking at a different child altogether. He found a photo of the three boys holding bags from the day they first docked and smiled. “He looks so normal. It’s crazy, right?”

Bruce nodded and handed the phone back to Alya, “Make sure I get a copy of all those photos.”

Alya smirked, “Only if I get my interview, Bats?”

Bruce tense and Tim jumped in, “She thinks you’re Batman. Don’t humor her.”

Alya glared at Tim, “You’re just mad because I have way more leads than you do.”

Bruce blinked and turned to Tim, “Leads on what?”

Nino snickered, “He thinks Marinette is Ladybug.”

Bruce looked back at the girl next to Damian, “Is she?”

“She has to be. No one is that badass without some kind of history of crime-fighting.” Jason turned to Bruce and shrugged, “Plus, she took that night of the raid. She came up with a plan on the spot and, most importantly, bossed you around.” Jason watched as the gears in Bruce’s head begin to turn and smiled, “I’m telling you, she’s Ladybug.”

Adrien rolled his eyes, “Uh-huh. And I’m Carapace.”

“Who?”

“The turtle one.” Tim frowned and turned back to Alya, “Hey, where’s Chloe?”

“She said she needed to catch up on her beauty rest tonight.” Alya walked up to the railing of the balcony and pointed the phone at the couple below, “It’s fine. She’s not missing much.”

Bruce took a step back and looked over the group. He didn’t realize how close the Françoise Dupont kids have gotten with his own.  If he were to take a picture, nothing would seem out of place. The group looked so comfortable with each other. It was jarring, but not bad by any means.

Dick turned back to the group, “Alright. Enough spying. Let’s leave them be.”

“You’re just bored.”

“Yes, I am.” Dick began herding the group away from their vantage point and laughed, “It’s late. Let’s go.”

Bruce watched as the rest of the group groaned, but complied with the eldest. He hung back and walked next to Dick, “What have I missed?”

Dick chuckled, “You want to adopt five more kids?”

Jason shouted over his shoulder, “At least can we adopt Marinette?” The kids shook their heads and laughed and Bruce realized it was part of an inside joke.

Bruce looked surprised, “You’re all very close aren’t you?”

Nino turned back to Bruce and smiled, “Your kids are great company, my dude. Seriously.”

Adrien snorted, “You sound like a parent or something. ‘Oh, your kids are great!’” Adrien turned to Bruce and grinned, “He’s right though. This is the most fun any of us have had in who knows how long.”

Bruce frowned, “Really?”

Alya stretched and nodded, “Hardly any Akuma attacks, new friends, new theory, and I see my girl find romance? Best. Vacation. Ever.”

Tim rolled his eyes, “You’re theory doesn’t stand.”

“You’ve seen the evidence I gathered.”

“All substantial.”

“So is yours.”

Bruce watched in amusement at the two glared at each other, both determined to out investigate each other. It was rare Tim found someone to compete with, but he seemed to have fun. Alya reminded him of Tim when he first came into their lives; spunky, smart, stubborn, and fired up. “I’m Batman, huh?”

Alya nodded, “I’ll prove it. I know I can. Every bone in my body is telling me I’m right.”

Jason laughed, “You sure you aren’t constipated?”

Alya blushed and pushed Jason playfully, “No!”

The group laughed at the antics and Bruce turned to his oldest, “So what’s happening with those two? Any progress?”

“You mean Damian and Marinette? They’re inseparable.” Dick chuckled, “It’s actually kind of cute. They hang onto each other, but I don’t think they realize it. The way they bicker with each other is hilarious to watch, too. It’s like an old married couple.”

Alya laughed, “Plus, she’s the only one who can calm him down if he starts to get too annoyed.”

“It is getting harder for him to say no to her.” Adrien hummed in approval, “He gives Marinette a run for her money. He’ll randomly say things that just make her light up and embarrass her, it’s kind of great.”

Jason nodded, “Oh my god, what did he say yesterday?”

Nino thought for a moment, “Wasn’t it something like ‘I’m not leaving her’ or something?”

Tim laughed, “Oh yeah, the guide for the last city we visited wanted to separate them! He got so mad and wouldn’t leave her alone.”

Bruce couldn’t believe most of the stuff he was hearing, “This is Damian? My son Damian? Damian used to be al Ghul now Wayne, that Damian?” The group all nodded and Bruce scoffed, “She’s magic isn’t she?”

“If we’re right, she’s magic.” The group came to a split in the hallway and the group went their separate ways. The family waved goodnight to the classmates before walking through the halls towards their own rooms. Tim broke the silence, “So Bruce still can’t find anything on the videos.”

“Really? Did Barbara-“

“She looked through them, yes.” Bruce pinched his nose, “We can’t figure it out. How does a whole crew of raiders just disappear?”

Jason frowned, “All I know is if I find the bastard that threw Marinette overboard, I’m killing him.” Bruce sent a warning look to Jason and Jason didn’t even flinch, “What? I’m serious. He could’ve killed her.”

“So you think killing him is the answer?”

“It’s an answer, one I’m going to enjoy a lot.”

Bruce sighed and stopped walking, making the other three pause as well, “None of this is making sense. They disappeared, Akumas have popped up in a few of the cities we’ve visited, what is going on?”

“Have you tried letting Alya watch the video?” The group turned to Dick who only shrugged, “Out of everyone in Paris, we got the one person who knows all things Miraculous and Ladybug. If you think it might be an Akuma, she’ll be the one to confirm or deny your theory.”

Tim groaned, “Then she’ll actually know he’s Batman. The girl might’ve been naïve when it came to Lila, but she’s not dumb.”

“That reminds me, what happened with her? That Rossi girl?”

“Still a liar, but at least now Marinette has her friends on her side.”

Bruce did not miss the small scowl Dick sent Tim, “What happened?”

Tim flinched and Dick nudged him to talk, “I may have snapped at Alya and completely outted Lila to her.”

“That’s a bad thing?”

“It is when you yell at her and her friends to prove a point instead of just protecting your friends.” Dick sighed, “You still can’t figure out why you were so mad?”

Tim groaned, “No, I can’t. All of a sudden I got so pissed and then next thing I knew I was shoving my phone in her face. Everyone was yelling. And then the migraines-“

“Migraines?”

Jason nodded and frowned, “Migraines. I’m pretty sure everyone on the ship had them.”

“Everyone except Marinette, Adrien, Damian, and Lila.” Dick hummed, “I don’t get it.”

Jason snickered, “It’s the power of love. Damian is so head over heels for Marinette he wouldn’t notice if he was having a migraine anyways.” Jason sighed, “Adrien probably gets them all the time from the flashing cameras at his photoshoots. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just wasn’t bothered or didn’t even notice it.”

“And Lila?”

“She’s just a bitch.”

Bruce turned to scold him, “Jason!”

Tim and Dick shrugged, “True.”

Bruce was about to say something to his sons before noticing Dick’s shirt, “Where did you get that?”

Dick looked down and smiled, “Marinette made it for me.” He did a quick spin, “Red and black and Nightwing themed. It’s perfect.”

Bruce’s expression deadpanned, “You’re really walking around like that while a junior reporter is actively investigating our family?”

Dick shrugged, “She’s investigating you, not me.” The four stopped in front of Bruce’s room and Dick looked over Bruce one last time, “Get some sleep. Me and Tim can look over the video again tomorrow. You need to rest.”

Bruce’s shoulders fell, but nodded. He knew they were right. He went into his room, locking the door behind him, and headed for the shower first. All the while, the two teens at the center of attention continued to talk against their spot on the railings.

“So let me get this straight, Dick was part of a circus?”

“It makes sense why he acts like a clown now, doesn’t it?” Marinette snorted and lightly hit Damian’s arm. Damian chuckled, “Don’t act like I’m the only one with weird people in my life. You know two famous singers.”

“Jagged and Clara don’t count, they’re family now.”

“Mine are family too and I still make fun of them.”

Marinette smirked, “I noticed.” She sighed and looked over the water, “Where are we landing next?”

“Well, it seems we’ll be in Portugal soon. I suspect we’re visiting Lisbon next.”

She nodded, “You think there’s going to be another Akuma attack?”

“I hope not.” Damian sighed leaned against the rails, “Who do you want to investigate next?”

“I don’t know.” Marinette looked over at Damian and looked back at the past week. After the second Akuma in Pontevedra, they decided that Hawkmoth had to be on the ship. The only problem was he wasn’t talking to any of the Akumas. They couldn’t figure out what he was trying to pull, but Damian figured he couldn’t be losing all of these corrupted butterflies. It had to be coming from somewhere and considering it was only happening in the cities they visited, Hawkmoth had to be on the boat. “Have you noticed the mood recently?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s been on edge.”

“Makes sense, there are Akumas on the loose.”

“No, no, no. Like everyone is upset. I get being paranoid because of an Akuma, Paris is like that all the time, but this is different. It’s like everyone’s worst emotions are being amplified.” She sighed, “Alix and Kim went into a full-blown argument over something, Alya wants to kill Lila-”

“Still don’t know why you won’t let her have a go at Lila.”

Marinette frowned and nudged him before continuing, “Tim snapped at us, the staff gets frustrated easily. It wasn’t like this in the beginning.”

Damian sighed and thought it over, “Tension is rising and everyone is stuck on this boat. You can’t run from your problems here, you have to deal with them.”

A sudden breeze made Marinette shiver and she glared at the water, “Too cold!”

“You’re yelling at the sea.”

“I know.” She stuck her tongue out at the ocean and, as if to respond, another gust of wind nearly froze the poor girl.

Damian laughed, “You’re having an argument with water and loosing.” She glared at him, shaking from the cold, and he just rolled his eyes. “Come on. You want to go to the den?”

Marinette’s eyes lit up and she nodded before scurrying off inside the hall, away from the wind. Damian shook his head and followed her, close behind. Marinette looked over her shoulder and laughed, “Wanna race, baby bird?”

“Let’s do this Bug.” The two smirked and suddenly started running full speed up the stairs and through the halls. Damian looked over at the girl, he was impressed she could keep up with him, unbeknownst to him she was thinking the same thing. The two locked eyes and started laughing as they continued to sprint through the ship. He admitted to himself he felt odd. Doing things with this girl and her friends, talking together, doing things as mundane as racing for no reason, it made him feel some kind of way. Nothing bad, just unusual. He wondered if this was how a normal kid was supposed to feel like playing with their friends. He refused to say it out loud, but he considered them friends despite knowing them for such a short amount of time. 

Then there was Marinette. The nicknames started as a joke due to the theories being thrown around. Marinette decided if he kept calling her Ladybug then she should call him something. Without much thought, he told her to refer to him as Robin - Batman’s sidekick. He hoped she didn’t think too much of it and, unlike him, she didn’t pry the way he did if she was suspicious about something. Now, they had themed nicknames they’d say to each other in private, away from everyone in their own little world when they spent time together.

Marinette and Damian skid around a corner, but Marinette lost her footing and slammed into the wall. Damian came to a stop and ran back over to her. He helped her up and looked her over, “I’m fine.”

“Let me just check.” The two stood there, panting from the run, while Damian quickly examined her. “No bruises.”

“I’m telling you I’m fine. I’ve had worse falls than that.”

“Chloe’s right, you’re a walking accident waiting to happen.” Marinette pouted and Damian just smirked at her, leaning in, “What?”

She sighed, putting a finger on his nose and pushing him back, “You suck.” She felt an odd sense of deja vu after doing the gesture but didn’t pay any attention to it when she saw how his nose scrunched up. She giggled, “At least you’re cute.”

“I’m cute?” Now he was the one pouting, “I am not cute.”

She poked his nose, causing his nose to scrunch up again, “Cute.”

He shook his head, “You’re becoming worse than my brothers.”

“Yet you still want to hang out with me.”

“Yeah, because out of everyone you’re the least annoying.” She snorted and pushed him playfully, causing him to chuckle. “Come on, we’re close to the den.” She nodded and absent-mindedly grabbed his arm. He’s gotten used to her gestures, noticing very quickly she’s someone who likes to touch and be touched. He noticed that with everyone, with Alya they would link arms, same with Adrien and Nino. With Chloe they would at most hold hands as one dragged the other around stores and Marinette would hug Chloe when Chloe did something particularly good-natured. With his brothers, she’d give lots of hugs but never grab onto them. If she didn’t feel comfortable holding someone’s arm or hand, she’d unconsciously stand very close to them. 

He wondered if it was a way for her to keep them close, which to him made sense after the isolation she felt before the ship. Still, she didn’t do things like this with his brothers. She didn’t grab their arms or hold their hands or lean on them the way she did with him. He’d never admit it, but he liked being the only one she’d do this with.

She leaned on him and he smiled softly as they made their way to the den. Marinette loved the den. It was the one place on the ship where she could work out her feelings without issue. No one went up there except the captain and Damian. The captain turned into somewhat of a familial role, like a grandfather or an old uncle, and she trusted him. She worried for the man, she could tell his mood has also gotten worse, however, he wasn’t mad or frustrated. Captain Staller was just extremely sad and gloomy without the influence of the two teens. She wondered if he was depressed and if Anne’s anniversary was coming up, then this behavior would make sense. 

Then there was Damian. Damian became someone very close within the first few days of knowing each other. She knew there was something odd about him, even Adrien told her about his thoughts on the four brothers and their abilities, but he was honest. He allowed her to vent to him and helped her sort through her feelings and she would do the same for him. She sympathized with him, saddened by his past and lack of childhood at the hands of his mother. Bruce’s influence was clear to see, but she wanted to see him. Not the child molded to be the future head of the family, not the boy trying to live up to the legacy of his brothers or father, she wanted to know more about Damian. She could tell he wasn’t used to sharing or letting his walls down, making her feel special when he would around her.

They had a routine; change for bed, meet at the den, and then talk by the railings. They both knew they were being spied on half the time but were thankful for none of them interrupting their time together. Still, there was a small sense of uncertainty surrounding the two. While both wondered what their relationship was, neither wanted to ask and break the new bottle they found themselves in. It was safe, they were content, and they were together.

Damian pulled away from her side and opened the door for her. She walked in and noted how dark the room was, it made the moonlight seem that much brighter. She stopped Damian from turning on the lights and led him over to the big chairs that the two sank into. She laid down and placed her head on his lap, something they both just allowed to happen a few nights after the raid when her anxiety spiked. She was comforted by the company and he felt soothed by the warmth and the act of petting down her hair. The intimacy was something both lacked and this time together felt like they were making up for it. She sighed, “I think we should investigate Charles next.”

“Why him? I thought he was your friend.”

“He looked really out of sorts the next day and this week he’s just seemed out of it and paranoid. He would get jumpy if I accidentally snuck up on him.”

Damian hummed, “You think he’s Hawkmoth?”

“No, I just think he might know something. No one acts like that unless they’re hiding something.”

“Or hiding from someone.”

Marinette turned her head to look up at him, “You think he’s hiding from someone?”

“He could be, or maybe he’s worried about being akumatized.”

Marinette turned onto her back, looking up at him, “I don’t know. I don’t know how any of these people act. I’m grasping at straws at this point.”

Damian sighed, “Well, all of your classmates and Ms. Bustier have all been akumatized, so it can’t really be any of them. Unless we have another French passenger, we’ll have to look into everyone else.”

After a moment Marinette’s eyes widened and she suddenly sat up, almost knocking her head into Damian’s. “Another French passenger, of course!” She turned to Damian with a newfound spark, “Is there any way to get a list of the passengers? We’ll need a list of every French passenger outside the class.”

Damian smirked and sent out a text, “I’ll tell Drake to get that to me by tomorrow.”

“Tim?”

Damian sent out the text and locked his phone, “Drake is the best investigator out of the four of us. It could take us a bit to look through all the passengers, but he’ll take seconds and do a background check as well.” Damian let out a tired sigh, “Grayson’s the beloved oldest, Todd’s the strongest, Drake’s the smartest, and I’m-”

“You’re wonderful.” Marinette grabbed his head and turned it so she could look him in the eye, “Don’t compare yourself to your brothers.”

He rolled his eyes, “I was going to say I’m still the best out of the four.”

She relaxed and sighed, still not letting go of his face, “You really do have a superiority complex.” She squeezed his cheeks, earning a playful glare.

“You going to let go?”

“No.” She squeezed his cheeks one last time before letting go, “Okay now I’m good.”

Damian snorted, “You remind me of my best friend Jon.”

Marinette sat up straight with peaked curiosity, “You just called someone friend. Best friend. Tell me more!” Marinette shook his shoulders, “Come on, tell me!”

Damian moved her hands away, “I won’t until you calm down.”

She stopped bouncing in her seat and frowned, “Can you really blame me?”

“No.” He scrolled through his phone before finding an old photo of them when he was 13 and Jon was 11. He handed it over to Marinette and she smiled.

She sat back down next to him, leaning on him, before saying, “You guys are so cute. So he’s a childhood friend?”

“Yeah, we’ve known each other for some time now.”

“Is he older than you?”

He let out an exasperated sigh, “Just because he’s taller doesn’t mean he’s older. Everyone thinks that.” He looked back at the photo and pointed, “I’m 13 there and he’s 11.”

She giggled, “You look like a baby.”

“I did not.”

“Babyface.”

“Marinette-”

“Cute baby face.”

He huffed and poked her side, making her squeak and jump away. He took the opportunity to grab his phone, “No.” She narrowed her eyes at him and he smirked.

“You’re too cocky.” She looked between him and the phone before lunging for it. “I want to see more photos!”

Damian leaned back and held his phone away, “Never.”

Marinette huffed and struggled against him, “Come on! Let me see more babyface photos!”

“No!” He sounded angry, but his face held a big smile as he watched the girl try to figure out a way to get the phone. “This is actually very entertaining.”

“Shut up.” She blew the bangs out of her face and sat back down. “Come on! You’ve never mentioned your friends before.”

“I’ve mentioned my team.”

“Yeah, but you’ve never once said ‘friend’. This is exciting!”

“Me and you have very different definitions of exciting.” She frowned before lunging at the phone again and managed to knock Damian over, “Marinette!”

“Let me see more Jon photos, then I’ll get off.”

Damian narrowed his eyes at her before flipping them over. Marinette let out a small “oof” before looking up at a very smug Damian. “You were saying?”

She huffed, “Killjoy.”

Damian raised an eyebrow at her, “Really? Maybe I should get Lila in here. I was just assaulted.”

She glared at him before pushing him off, “Don’t even joke about that.”

Her serious tone made him frown, “Too soon?”

“It’s always too soon with her.” She frowned and rubbed her temples, “Should I just let Tim do it? Should he just out her to everyone in my class?”

“I would love that because I want to see her face when he does it, but considering there’s a chance Hawkmoth may be on the ship I wouldn’t want to have her become an Akuma.” Damian shoulders fell, “I really don’t want you being the target of that.”

She sent him a small smile, “I can handle her.”

“As Ladybug, maybe. As Marinette, no. I’m not risking that.”

“Be careful, you sound worried.”

“I am worried.” Marinette turned to him and found that he was staring at her, “I don’t want you getting hurt. Especially not while we’re on this trip.”

“And after it’s over?” He didn’t answer and she sighed, “Damian-”

“I know.” He turned to her and he looked her over, trying to figure out their next steps. “First let’s figure out what’s happening on the ship.”

Her shoulders fell and nodded, “Yeah.” She scooted closer to him and leaned on him, “Damian?”

“Yeah?”

She bit her lip before finally asking, “Are you actually Robin?”

He thought for a moment before finally closing his eyes and breathing out a soft, “Yeah.”

She hummed, “Makes sense.” She turned to face him, “You’re right. I know you know, but I thought I should say it.”

Damian snorted, “Thanks. Good to know.” He took a deep breath before shaking his head, “No. Actually, that’s not good. Nothing about your situation is ‘good’.” Marinette nodded and nuzzled into his neck, “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Find Hawkmoth, keep the city safe, fix everything.”

“It shouldn’t be your job to clean up the mess he makes.”

“What about you?” She frowned, “You don’t even have powers. You’re just human.”

“You’re human.”

“With magical powers, not the same.” She linked her arm with his and gave his bicep a comforting squeeze, “You shouldn’t be out there.”

“It’s not the same. I choose to go and fight, you were randomly given magic earrings and had to fight.”

She paused for a moment before admitting, “I almost wasn’t Ladybug.” Damian turned his head slightly in her direction and she took it as a sign to continue. “Stone Heart was the first Akuma we ever faced. He caused a lot of mayhem and I thought it was my fault for not stopping him the first time.” She let out a small bittersweet laugh, “I put the earrings in Alya’s bag.”

“What changed your mind?”

“Alya got hurt and Cat Noir was in trouble. I couldn’t stand there and do nothing. I had to help.” She sighed, “In a way, I chose it too.”

“That’s not fair. You have a good heart, of course you were going to save them, but to just put that responsibility on a kid?”

“What about you?”

Damian smiled bitterly as he thought back to when his mother dropped him off with a father who didn’t know he existed, “When my mother left me I was full of rage over those who killed my grandfather. I wanted revenge and nothing was going to stop me. Batman took me in after Nightwing stopped me from almost killing a man who had a connection to the murderer. I told him I wanted to help like Nightwing used to, as the new Robin, and he agreed.”

Marinette listened before pulling away, “You almost killed someone?”

Damian realized his slip and tensed before turning away from her, “Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff about me you won’t want to know.” He looked down at his lap and scowled, “I’m not a good person. I did a lot of bad things, even as Robin I’ve done really bad things.”

He didn’t want to look up, he figured she would run away like a sane person. He figured she wouldn’t want to talk to him anymore. “I didn’t know you before, but I can tell you’re a good person. Even if you did some bad things in the past, what matters is that you learn from them and be a better person now.” He wasn’t expecting that. She put her hand on his cheek and turned his head to her, “I think you’re a good person, Damian.” Damian didn’t respond outwardly until Marinette wrapped her arms around him. Her hug snapped him out of the initial shock and he wrapped his arms around her. This was only the second time they’ve hugged, the first time being when she first had a panic attack below deck, and he was grateful for it. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, “What’s going to happen now?”

Damian gave her a small squeeze, “I don’t know.”

He felt her hot breath against his skin as she let out a soft laugh, “I don’t know either.” She moved herself to be sitting in his lap, not releasing the hug. “I’m scared. What if the reason Hawkmoth is on this ship is that he knows Ladybug is on it? What if figured me out?”

“We don’t know that. We don’t know he’s on this ship.”

She rubbed her cheek against the fabric of his shirt, “Damian, these Akumas are coming from somewhere. They don’t wander this far out.”

“Are you sure? Has it ever happened before?”

“It has. The first time we brought Pegasus into the mix was because an Akuma made its way onto the train we were on. We were definitely outside of Hawkmoth’s range by that point.”

“Okay, so the option that he’s letting them wander isn’t impossible.” He knew it was farfetched, but he didn’t want her to think her identity was compromised. He didn’t want to think about a terrorist following her around and attacking her for some earrings, magic or otherwise. He could tell she was getting stuck inside her own head, upsetting thoughts taking over, and pulled out his phone. “You want to see more pictures of me and Jon.”

She quickly turned and looked at the phone, “Seriously?”

He chuckled, “Yeah.” She turned, back resting against his chest as he leaned back and they looked through the photos together. He pointed out different places they’d been, different pranks they’ve pulled on each other, their different pets, all the while making fun of his best friend. “He has this southern drawl sometimes and it’s so annoying.”

“He sounds fun.”

“He can be, but I’ll never tell him that. It’ll go to his head.”

She held his phone and made a confused face, “I’ll never get these fancy new phones.”

“You sound like a grandma.”

“Makes sense if everyone keeps calling us an old married couple.” She laughed, “You sound like an old angry grandpa.”

“I do not.”

“You are totally the type to yell at kids to get off your lawn.”

“I’ll take away the phone.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” She tapped on the screen and grumbled, “What the heck?”

Damian reached for the phone, “Hey, I can just-” All of a sudden the phone screen lit up, indicating a call had been placed and before either could do anything, a boy with messy hair and a tired look answered.

The boy yawned and rubbed his eyes, “Damian it’s like 6:30 am and its summer. There better be a goo-” The boy stopped talking and his eyes locked onto Marinette, who was still sitting on top of Damian, and he narrowed his eyes. “Damian, who’s this?”

Marinette awkwardly waved and Damian snatched the phone away, “Kent, if you tell anyone I’ll-”

“Oh my god.” Jon’s smile grew, “It’s late, it’s dark, and you’re with a girl! DAMIAN YOU ACTUALLY FOUND A GIRLFRIEND?”

Damian groaned and glared at the boy in the phone, “Say it louder why don’t you! You’ll wake up the entire city!” Damian was silently praying to whatever god he didn’t wake anyone. Jon decided to stay with the Titans while Damian was on the ship and Damian was grateful, but now he just wanted to wring the boy’s neck. “Now please don’t-”

Jon was already up and running through the tower, “Hold on! I’m hooking you up to the big screen!”

Damian sat up, nearly throwing Marinette off by accident, “You wouldn’t dare.” Suddenly the point of view changed from him looking at a phone to him looking up while a large living room came into view. Jon ran away, undoubtedly waking the others, “I’m hanging up.”

“Wait no! I wanna meet your friends!” Damian gave Marinette a pained look before giving in.

“Fine, but get up for a second so I can turn on the lights.” She quickly moved off and noticed a few people coming into view, “Oh! Hi!” The lights turned on, making her flinch as her eyes adjusted, and she smiled sheepishly at the other kids. “Damian’s told me about you guys. I wanted to meet his friends.”

She realized these kids weren’t normal, but then again neither was her. She figured they were probably other heroes and realized she was meeting his ‘team’. Damian sat back down on the couch and without thinking she took her place back on his lap to make sure they were both in the shot. Everyone looked stunned before the green one finally spoke up, “No way. Deep fake.”

Marinette tilted her head, confused, before turning to Damian, “Deep fake?”

“He doesn’t think you’re real.” He gently took the phone out of her hands, “Hey, Beast Boy, please tell me you haven’t made too much of a mess.”

“He said please, completely fake.”

Soon a woman with fire red hair entered the room, “What’s going on?” She looked up at the screen, “Oh! Damian?”

“That’s Kory, by the way.”

Marinette’s eyes lit up and she turned her attention to Kory, “Dick’s told me so much about you! You’re even prettier than I imagined!”

Kory looked confused but flattered. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

Jon smirked, “This is Damian’s girlfriend.”

The room stood still for a few seconds before everyone went up in arms. Damian groaned and pinched his nose before shouting, “Enough!” The team stopped and Damian gestured to the girl, “This is Marinette.”

Jaime narrowed his eyes at her, “I don’t trust this. Why the hell is she with you?”

Marinette made a face, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Raven shook her head, “She’s real, but I have to admit I was not expecting this.”

“No way! What the hell? You leave for like two weeks and when you finally decide to call you have a cute girl with you!” Garfield narrowed his eyes, “Why are you both in your pajamas?”

“Because it’s 12:30 am around here.”

Jon wiggled his eyebrows, “Why are you alone with a girl late at night? In a dark room no less.”

Marinette lit up bright red while Damian groaned, “I didn’t mean to call, idiot. I was showing her some old photos-”

“You keep photos of me? Aw, Damian, I knew you cared!”

Damian growled and felt his blood pressure spike, “Jon I swear-”

Marinette grabbed the phone back, “Hey what are your names? I know you’re Kory and you’re Jon, but what about the rest of you?”

“Jaime.”

“Raven.”

“Garfield.”

“Victor.” The team turned and Marinette watched a half robot half-human came into view, “I was wondering what the commotion was about.” Marinette didn’t react, but her eyes were trained on Victor. He rubbed the back of his neck, “If it’s too jarring-”

“You’re incredible! How does that even work? How do you function? Can you still eat? What do you do in the rain? Can you even be in the rain?” Marinette’s eyes lit up as she quickly rambled on more and more questions. Victor felt a wave of relief and chuckled when Damian grabbed the phone away from her. “Hey!”

“Sorry, she gets excited easily.”

Marinette pouted, “Come on, he’s half robot! How am I not supposed to be excited for that?!”

Jamie laughed, “She’s not what I expected you’d go for, but it works.”

“I know right!” Jon turned his attention back to Damian, “I’m assuming she knows-”

“She knows.”

“You actually told someone!” Garfield pinched himself, “Nope not a dream. Just really, really weird morning.”

Damian sighed and Marinette snorted, “Your friends are funny.”

Damian looked over at her and smiled, tired but happy to see her so excited. “Oh my god, he feels.”

“Why does everyone say that!?” Damian glared at Jon, “When I get back I’m going to-”

“So you are coming back! Marvelous!” Kory flew up to the camera and smiled, “We were worried there for a bit. You never contacted any of us after you left. We were starting to wonder if you left us.”

Damian’s lips pressed into a fine line, but before he could answer Marinette asked, “Is he a good hero?” Everyone looked surprised by the question and she shrugged, “I don’t know a lot about America’s heroes and if I asked him, he’d just inflate his own ego.”

“I would not!”

Her face deadpanned, “Yes you would.”

“I am the best Robin there is.”

“You literally just said your brothers-”

“I refuse to let that comment leave this room.”

She rolled her eyes, “You’re impossible.”

“You’re too excitable.”

“Rather be excitable than grumpy all the time.”

“I am not grumpy!”

“A-hem!” The two turned their attention back to the phone and noticed everyone watching them with an expression that was a mix of amusement and disbelief. Jon chuckled, “I’ve never seen anyone else argue with him. I’m the only one who can usually get away with doing that.”

Damian frowned, “Only because I can’t wring your neck when you get too annoying.”

“What’s stopping you from wringing her’s?” When Damian didn’t answer him, Jon’s smug smile only grew. “I’m telling my mom.”

“You are not telling Lois! It’s bad enough all of you met her!”

“Lois? Didn’t Tim mention her once?”

Damian nodded, “Yeah, but I’m surprised you remember that. You were knocked out in the arcade machine.”

“Not my fault none of you know how to whisper.”

Jon chuckled and turned to the team, “I can’t believe this. He actually found a girlfriend.”

Kory clapped her hands together, “We should celebrate when he gets back!”

“No! No celebration! She’s never going to the tower!”

“Why not?”

Damian turned to Marinette, “Because you’ll be back in Paris and I’ll be in Jump City.”

Marinette blinked and sighed, “Oh yeah, right.”

“Great now you upset her!” Jamie stepped up, “Hey, sweetheart, if you ever need a shoulder to cry on-”

“Don’t even think about it, Reyes.”

Raven sighed, “You’re all idiots.” Everyone turned to the girl who rolled her eyes, “Yes, this is exciting. Still, what if someone notices a normal girl coming into the tower and hanging out with us? With Robin? You all realize she’d be a target in a heartbeat.” The room fell silent and Marinette turned to Damian, only to notice his expression hardened. “Either we go to her as discreetly as possible or it’s not going to happen at all.” Raven turned her attention to the couple on screen, “If I were you Marinette I wouldn’t get too attached. You guys make a good match, but you just knowing our real names is going to get you into serious trouble if we aren’t careful. You don’t want to be sucked into this.”

Garfield frowned, “Raven, harsh.” He turned his attention to the screen and noticed the two thinking about what she said.

Jon tried to sound reassuring, “Hey! We can figure it out! I mean, I can tell you’ve been good for Damian.” That brought Marinette’s attention back to the boy and he smiled, “Yeah. When he left he was like a walking shell. Just talking to him now, I can tell he’s back to his old self and looks like he’s thriving over there. I can only guess it’s because of you.” Damian turned his attention back to his best friend and Jon sighed, “Look, Raven’s right. It could be dangerous, but it’s not unheard of! I mean, look at my parents! One’s a civilian!” He smiled encouragingly at the couple, “Damian, she’s good for you. I can tell. Marinette?”

She blinked and forced herself to respond, “Yes?”

“Do you want to stay with our little hot head over there? I know he’s a handful, but he’s worth it!”

Before Damian could say anything Marinette let out a firm, “Yes.”

Jon smiled, “Then I think you’ll be okay. If anything comes up, we’ll figure it out. We’re friends now too.” The group nodded and he waved, “You guys will be fine. Anyway, it’s getting late for you guys over there. Sleep. Think about it. Damian, check-in more often. We worry.” Damian gave a small nod, still reeling over the girl’s answer, and Jon nodded back. “Goodnight you guys.” The screen went black after Jon hung up and the two sat there in silence for a bit.

Damian spoke up first, “You meant that?”

Marinette gulped and nodded, “Yes.”

Damian thought for a moment and forced himself to ask, “Marinette, what are we?”

Marinette turned to face him, opening and closing her mouth, and answer struggling to come out before the door burst open. The two jumped and Marinette quickly left Damian’s lap as the two turned to the door. The captain stumbled in, seemingly unaware of the two teens inside the room. He stumbled to the bar and nearly fell over. The two teens shared a look of concern before walking up to him, “Captain Staller?” The captain didn’t respond and she turned him slowly to face her. She noted his glassy eyes and calm expression, “He sleepwalks?”

“I guess so.” Damian started to lead Captain Staller away from the bar and gently laid him down on the couch. The captain seemed to relax and fell right back to sleep on the cushions. Damian relaxed knowing that the captain was safe and asleep, “I think he’ll be okay now.” He turned back to Marinette who was staring at one of the bottles on the shelves, hugging herself and biting her lip. “Marinette?”

She jumped at the sound of his voice and turned to him, “What are we going to do?”

Damian’s brows furrowed, “What do you mean?”

“I’m a liability. You’re a liability. We’re liabilities to each other.” She shook her head, “I can’t go to Jump City because I could be used as leverage. You can’t come to Paris because you know who I am and if Hawkmoth akumatizes you we’ll have to fight.” Her nose turned pink and her eyes watered, “I didn’t even think about that, Damian. I have to think about these things. What was I thinking?” She ran her finger through her hair and started pacing, “I can’t believe I told you. I can’t believe I said that. I can’t believe I thought-”

“Thought what?”

She stopped and turned to him, “Damian, how would this work?”

Damian knew she knew he was worried about the same thing. He also knew she knew he didn’t want whatever this was to stop. “We don’t see each other as heroes. Just civilians.”

“That won’t matter if you get akumatized!” She sniffed and let out a shaky breath, “And you’re Damian Wayne! That alone is going to bring attention to me! Damian, I can’t let that happen! My advantage is that I’m a nobody! I can sneak away and no one suspects a thing! I can’t do that if there are cameramen waiting outside the bakery every day, waiting to get a picture of Damian Wayne’s girlfriend!”

Damian gulped, he agreed with her. He really wished he didn’t. So instead of arguing with some solid logic, he decided to do the next best thing. “My girlfriend, huh?”

She tensed up and shook her head, “I’m sorry, it slipped out and-”

“I thought we were already married.” She froze for a second, watching as he awkwardly stood there waiting for a reaction. She laughed, it started out small and full of disbelief and grew into a heartfelt laugh. Damian relaxed as she wiped her eyes, still laughing at his joke. “Marinette-”

“How is this going to work?” She sniffed and let out a small laugh, tears streaming down her face despite the smile on her face, “How will any of this work?”

Damian shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair, chuckling. “I don’t know.” He leaned against a table and felt himself be bombarded by the same emotions overwhelming Marinette. He sniffed and laughed, “I have no idea!” He wiped his nose on his sleeve and laughed more, “What is happening?”

“I don’t know!” She wiped her cheeks in vain and her body shook with another fit of laughter, “I don’t know!” She turned to Damian and ran to hug him, he immediately reciprocated this time and squeezed her. He picked her up and spun her around, making her laugh even more, before putting her down in the middle of the room. She sniffed, looking up at Damian, “Are we going crazy?”

“I have no idea.” Damian snorted, “I have no clue. This is out of my range of knowledge. None of this makes sense to me. You don’t make any sense to me!” He let out a shaky breath, “Every time I’m with you I feel out of character. I don’t know what I’m saying or doing half the time. It’s all impulse with you.” He sniffed and chuckled, “What the hell is wrong with us?”

Marinette thought for a moment, letting out a shaky breath of her own, “We’re teenagers, I don’t think we’re supposed to have all the answers.” She giggled, “Which is ironic because Ladybug is supposed to have all the answers.”

“And I’m supposed to know what to do in any situation. My training equipped me with the knowledge on how to deal with enemies of all kinds, superhuman or otherwise.” He laughed. “My training didn’t prepare me for you. I am an expert in martial arts, I can wield almost any kind of weapon, I’m a capable businessman, I have advanced engineering skills, I’m trained in forensics, acrobatics, criminology, disguise and escapology,” he paused and scoffed, “none of it prepared me for you.”

Marinette and Damian stood together, in the middle of the den, panting as they struggled to catch their breath from laughing, and just stared at each other. Marinette bit her lip, “I don’t know a lot about you.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“Will I ever know more about you?”

“Yes.”

Marinette sniffed and smiled at him before pulling him down. The kiss was awkward, neither really had any experience in any of this, but neither pulled away either. Despite the lack of skill, the two felt alive again. Every little cell felt electrified, any negative feels clouding their minds didn’t matter, and the world around them faded away the longer they stayed together.

“Well, I was wondering when you two would figure it out.” The two pulled away and looked at the couch to find Captain Staller stretching on the couch. He chuckled and scratched his beard, “Now, will either of you tell me why I’m here?”

Marinette hid her blushing face in her hands and Damian sighed before pulling away to help the man up, “You were sleep walking. You came in here and almost knocked over the alcohol at the bar.”

Staller looked confused, “I don’t sleepwalk.”

Damian shrugged, “Are you stressed?”

The captain thought for a moment before sighing, “My mood has taken a turn for the worse.”

Marinette turned to face the captain, worried expression on her face, “Anything we can do to help? We’re good listeners.”

Captain Staller smiled and shook his head, “No, you just continue to be yourself. I enjoy our visits. Although, I do think you would’ve fared better had I not interrupted tonight.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and her face flushed. Damian just rubbed the back of his neck before leading the captain outside. “Hey, you sure there isn’t anything my family could do?”

“Damian, you’re family has been nothing but good to me. If I ask for anything else, I’d be getting selfish.” The captain placed a hand on Damian’s shoulder, “You two were meant to cross paths, I can tell.” His voice got low as he held steady eye contact with the boy, “Don’t mess this up.”

Damian gulped and nodded, “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Good answer.” He patted Damian on the back and nodded at the couple in approval. “I’ll see you two soon. Goodnight.” The captain walked away and Damian closed the door, leaving the only two people in the room embarrassed.

Damian watched as Marinette grabbed a pillow and screamed into it before letting herself fall onto the couch. He walked over, confused, and she took the pillow off her face. She looked like she drank three cups of Tim’s expresso, vibrating with energy. “This is happening.”

“Yes.”

“We just kissed.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We know each other’s identities.”

“Marinette-”

“I’m dating Damian Wayne.” She sat up and threw the pillow at him, “Oh my god, I’m dating you. We’re dating. This is happening!” Damian caught the pillow easily and laughed at her, earning a short raspberry and a glare.

He sat down next to her, “Yes. Yes, it is.” He sighed and shook his head, “What the hell am I thinking?”

“You? What am I thinking? Tikki is going to be so mad-”

“Tikki?”

She bit her lip before sighing, “Tikki come out.” All of a sudden, a red blob flew around the room before stopping in front of his face. He blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating for a second as the being examined him. “Tikki, meet Damian. Damian, meet Tikki.”

“Hello?”

Tikki smiled softly at the boy before turning to Marinette, “This is against a lot of rules Marinette.”

She groaned, “I know.” She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, “I trust him though.”

Tikki nodded before falling to rest on top of Marinette’s head. Damian just chuckled, “Honestly, not the weirdest thing I’ve ever come across.”

Marinette snorted, “That’s a new reaction.”

“I’m serious.” Damian smiled at Tikki, “When you live in Gotham and work under Batman you see a lot of stuff.”

Tikki flew around Damian’s head a few times before landing on his hair and nodding, “I approve of this one.”

Damian smiled, “That’s good right?”

Marinette closed her eyes and giggled, “Yes, yes it is.” She rubbed her eyes, “I’ve only known you for a little over a week and look at us.” She shook her head, “We’re crazy.”

“I mean we’re talking while a small red fairy thing watches over us. I’m pretty sure if we went to any hospital they’d say the same.”

Tikki giggled, “I like him.”

“I’m assuming you’re the reason Marinette orders so many sweets?”

“Smart too.” Tikki grinned at her chosen, “He’s a keeper.”

Marinette nodded, “I mean I’ll have to figure out a way erase your memory if I don’t.”

Damian raised an eyebrow at her, “Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” She nudged him and the two sighed, “Marinette?”

“Yeah?”

“How are we going to tell my brothers?”

Marinette’s eyes widened, “How are we going to tell Alya?” The two looked at each other, realizing the chaos they were about to unleash on this ship when they go public. Marinette groaned, “We’re going not going to live any of this down will we?”

“No, I don’t think so. Dick is a crazy romantic, Jason will tell everyone else in the family if Jon already hadn’t, and Tim will work with Alya to spread the news all over the internet.” He groaned and leaned back in the couch, let his head lull back, “Can we not tell them?”

“And risk death by reporter? No thank you. If Alya doesn’t kill me for hiding it, Chloe definitely will.” She giggled before leaning on him, head on his shoulder and arm draped around his torso. “But we don’t have to tell them right now.”

He wrapped his arm around her and relaxed, “No, I guess not.” He looked down at the girl who finally relaxed enough that she actually looked tired, “Hey you want to go to bed?”

“No.”

“Still a bad liar.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to sleep, I said I don’t want to go to bed.” She looked up at him, “I don’t want to leave.”

Damian groaned, “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Puppy dog eyes. You’re the only person to successfully use that against me.” He groaned and hung his head before he looked around the room. “Hold on.” He got up, turned off the lights, grabbed a blanket from one of the cupboards from a counter and draped it over her. He sat back down, arms open for her to lay next to him if she chose, and he glared. “Damn you.” She snorted and snuggled up next to him, his arms wrapped around her torso and her head on his chest. He could feel himself relax with her weight and body heat against him. She threw the covers over him before yawning.

Tikki watched as the two teens fell asleep together on the couch. She giggled softly before nestling on a pillow nearby, out of view from anyone walking in the door. She looked at the couple one last time before closing her eyes and smiling. Marinette was healing, as far as she could tell so was Damian, and she couldn’t be happier.

*******************************************************************************************

I’m waiting for the screams of the maribat community because it happened. It’s happening. And from here on out? Brace yourselves. 

To those who want more Seabourne Burnouts content, @itawonka-creates is specifically dedicated to my writing (which is just this story rn) so you can just follow the blog and set it up to be notified just in case the tags do not work!

Tag List (Bitch I have a tag list whAT!?!?!):

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Let me know if I missed anyone!

[immabethehero]

Chase and the Treasure Hunt

Part one of my new multi-chapter!!!

For Chase’s birthday, the egos decide to go extravagant. What adventures await them as they sail through the beautiful ocean on a magnificent pirate ship?

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

“Alright kids, you all knew this day would come.” A single lamplight turns on. Sabrina and Noah squint against the harsh light. Chloe pays no attention to the four men staring her and her siblings down and simply plays with her doll.

“Uh… Guys? Is this… necessary?” Noah asks.

“Absolutely. Your father’s birthday is one week from now and we still don’t know what to get him!” Jackie exclaims.

“You could just get him another book,” Sabrina suggests.

“He still hasn’t read the books we got him LAST year,” Henrik grumbles. “We’re not getting him any new ones until he’s read the others!”

“A new hat?” Noah recommends.

“And add another ugly snapback to his collection? Gross!” Marvin interjects.

“A trip to Disney World?” Chloe asks.

“We went last year! We’re not blowing our budget again,” Jameson says. “Nice try, Chloe.”

“That’s all we got!” Sabrina says.

The Septics groan and grumble. Marvin turns the lights back on. Jackie flops onto the couch. Jameson gets up and begins perusing through his library.

Sunlight shimmers through the curtains of the Septics’ Library. Bookshelves line up against the walls, holding books organized by genres, or rather, the Septics’ favourite genre. The bay window has cushioned seating to sit on, so one could read then look wistfully out the window. Chase came up with the idea.

There are two low coffee tables in the middle. Noah gets up and looks outside. “Hey, it’s stopped raining!”

“Wait for it to dry up a bit, and then you can go outside,” Henrik says. “In the meantime, help us find more gift ideas!”

“You are surrounded by books, why don’t you go through them?” Sabrina asks. “Maybe you’ll find ideas inside.”

“That’s a great idea!” Marvin pulls a book off the shelf and thumbs through the pages, before putting it back. “Nothing in there.” He shoves the book back and takes out the next one, thumbing through it. “Nope.”  He continues on to the next book.

Chloe looks outside. Both the grass and the pavement hold large puddles that look like lakes. Her eyes light up.

“What if we took Daddy on a cruise?” she asks.

“Isn’t that a bit expensive?” Henrik asks.

“We’ll make our own ship! Uncle Marvin has real magic, so you can make a ship!” Chloe says.

Marvin pales a little. “Uh… kid? I appreciate the enthusiasm but…”

“Seriously? This could be the least expensive gift for his birthday and you’re rejecting it?” Sabrina says.

“It could be fun!” Noah agrees. “Us, Dad, and you guys all going for a sail in our very own ship that you don’t have to pay for!”

The Septics exchange glances. Henrik motions for a group huddle. After a minute of loud whispering, the egos turn around. Jackie clears his throat and says. “OK! Let’s do it!”

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

Not even an hour later after the kids left does another fight break out. This time over what kind of ship to make. Jackie has presented a video of an excavator on a barge, using the giant shovel as a paddle, and suggested they create a ship from that. Henrik retorted that it wasn’t safe, and that Jackie’s presents never met safety regulations, which made the hero explode in a fit of rage.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ‘SAFETY REGULATIONS?’” Jackie yells” “I’M A FREAKING SUPERHERO. MY JOB IS TO KEEP PEOPLE SAFE-”

“THEN EXPLAIN THE LAST FEW GIFTS YOU’VE GIVEN THE BRODY FAMILY!” yells Henrik. “YOU GAVE SABRINA AND NOAH FLYING TOBOGGANS LAST CHRISTMAS!”

“So they could get a sense of what it was like to fly like me!!! And those toboggans came with seatbelts and helmets and padding! It’s not my fault Chase decided to do a barrel roll and ended up in the hospital with a concussion!”

“At Chloe’s 3rd birthday party, you gave her a taser and put bottles of pepper spray in the guests’ party bags!”

“We are living in a society where females face attacks from horrible misogyny everyday! I was simply preparing them for how to respond in an attack!”

“You gave Stacy and Delilah machetes for their 3rd anniversary!”

“Girls like swords!” 

“My point stands!”

Marvin flies past the kitchen, wearing a pretty maroon coat. “I’m heading to the store, let me know if you need anything!”

“I’m coming with you!” Jameson yells, jumping out his seat. He quickly shoves on his own coat and follows Marvin outside.

“Not enjoying the match?” Marvin asks.

“They’re so loud when they argue,” Jameson complains.

“They’re Septic Egos through and through, it’s in their blood,” Marvin explains.

Jameson laughs. “Where are we heading? I don’t believe they sell boat parts at the grocery store.”

“We’re not going there, Jameson,” Marvin says. “We’re going to the one place where we might find a working ship.”

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

In the calmer parts of the town, nestled on the edge lies the Survival Kit, a store with fascinating trinkets and other things needed for emergencies and of course, survival. For Marvin, it’s where he can grab whatever items he needs for a spell or a potion and not be questioned by his strange purchases.

The store itself looks like a normal store, with a gable roof and stone bricks, but when one walks inside does the magic begin. Fishing rods, boats in bottles, bikes, even ice skates are lined up on shelves and walls, ready for use. Among the useful outdoor items and the emergency supplies are cool little trinkets from different parts of the world.

Jameson marvels at the gramophones, each decorated to represent different genres of music. Jameson finds one such gramophone whose records only play symphonies. When he plays the test recording, his heart soars along with the music. He sways side to side, basking in the beautiful noise.

Marvin peruses the shelves of nautical items, looking for the perfect Boat in a Bottle. He can simply resize it into a real-life ship and transfigure it to make it sail. He’s done resizing and transfiguration before, this won’t be any different!

“Need help finding what you’re looking for?” a voice with a strong Australian accent asks. Marvin jumps and turns around.

Angus McLoughlin, self-proclaimed “Survival Hunter'' and owner of the store, stands beside Marvin. Like the other egos, Angus has Jack’s brown hair and blue eyes, though his hair is often hidden underneath a dark green crocodile dundee hat. His left eye is somewhat glassy, and two long scars run down it. For a little while, the egos were fairly certain that Angus was connected to Jack somehow. When Marvin asked, Angus said that while he did share a last name with Jack, neither were related in any way and Angus didn’t really know the Youtuber that well. It was simply a coincidence.

“I’m looking for a boat in a bottle…” Marvin says, turning back to the shelves. “It’s for a friend’s birthday…”

“Fascinating!” Angus surveys his shelves. “Well, what kind of boats does he like?”

Marvin shrugs. “I don’t know. Something cool, I guess. Nothing too boring. Perhaps a pirate ship, I remember Chase saying he loved the Pirates of the Carribean series.. Or was it Treasure Island… wait… was it that stop-motion animation pirate movie-”

“Might I interest you in this?” Angus holds up a bottle with a little model brigantine ship inside. The wood was a beautiful mahogany and shimmered in whatever light the bottle caught. The flag colours consisted of blue and red. A tiny mermaid was carved into the bow of the ship.

Marvin slams a twenty euro poun noted into Angus’ hand, grinning like a maniac. “It’s perfect.”

“I’m assuming you’re also paying for the gramaphone?” Angus asks with a laugh. Marvin turns to see Jameson holding up the symphony-themed gramophone, eyes pleading.

Marvin chuckles. “Yes.”

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

The egos, minus one rad dad, gather around the little ship.

“What are we going to do with it?” Henrik asks.

“First: we need to take it apart and rebuild it. Jackie, you’re in charge of remodelling the ship,” Marvin orders. Jackie nods.

“Then we need to repaint it so it will fit Chase better. I want to use sails that go with our theme. Maybe Septic Sam wearing pirate hats and holding little swords. Jameson, you’re decorating.” Jameson whistles.

“Henrik, I need you to work on some clothes for the big day. We can’t go in our usual get-up! I’ll give you the designs to work with!” Marvin shoves a stack of papers at Henrik, then runs out the door. “I have more work to do! See you guys soon!”

The egos stare suspiciously at their retreating friend.

“What’s Marvin hiding from us? What is he doing?” Henrik asks.

“Probably just some more ideas for Chase’s birthday,” Jackie says, scribbling away on blueprints.

“It’s not like him to hide plans like that,” Jameson notes.

Henrik skims through the designs. “Are we… going on a pirate adventure?”

Jackie and Jameson stare at the blueprints.

Jameson grins. “Looks like it. Could be fun!”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because it’s fun! Chase would love to have a little fun and adventure for his birthday!” Jackie exclaims. “Besides, it’ll give Stacy and Delilah enough time to set up the house for the party after!”

“I wonder if there’ll be treasure!” Jameson muses.

“It better be worth all this trouble. It’ll take all night for me to make these costumes!” Henrik groans. “Jameson, could you help me?” JJ nods.

One of Jameson’s time manipulation tricks is the ability to speed up tasks, so that a task that could take an hour would only take seconds. Chase’s children used to bribe him with treats so he would use this gift and speed up their homework time, which worked until Chase found out and banned Jameson from homework help.

While Henrik and JJ work on costumes and sails, Jackie tinkers away at the ship, remodelling it to be more modern and fit for the six egos and the kids. j is out all night, but returns in time to paint the ship and transfigure it.

When the ship is done, the egos head to the docks. Marvin performs a spell, and soon, a large ship floats on the water, ready for use.

The egos take the ship out for a test run, Marvin pinpointing each place they need to take Chase too.

Back at home, Chase Brody doodles in his journal, humming softly. Nothing, not even a cryptic hint from Jack, can prepare him for tomorrow.

🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓🏴‍☠️⚔️⚓

@graysun, @florenceisfalling, @miishae​​, @lonelyseiren, @goldenoceanaart, @egopocalypse, @oasisofgalaxies, @fleecal, @kofi-king, @myspatialspace, @jo-ann-ahh-2, @writerwithdepression, @huffletrax, @gemstone6, @dumbasticart, @lunaarmada, @deadlydevine, @meteorshowersfillthesky, @bupine, @the-yandere-kitsune, @climbing-starrs, @the-spawn-of-loki, @jadehowlettthewolf, @obsidiancreates, @rammypaige, @hollenka99, @cest-mellow, @randowaffle, @green-protects, @dezi-popp, @badlypostedeverything

[me-a-hopeless-romantic]

Girls like her

(Author’s note: this is my first story in a while and I’m a bit rusty but I’ll get better as the next chapters come out, I hope this is good.-Gabi)

“Hi it’s me Y/N  and I’ve decided to start a youtube channel, It’s not going to be anything special just me and my friends hanging out.” I stare behind the camera and I see Emma, Ethan, and James sitting behind the camera giggling at me. I roll my eyes playfully and I continue talking. “Well, I hope you guys enjoy my sporadic and random vlogs, See y'all later in the video I guess.” I turn off the camera completely. I look at Ethan. “Grayson’s not coming?” Ethan shrugs and gives me an ‘i’ll tell you later look’ I nod in understanding.  Emma looks between us and says “We better get going then, we only have one hour until golden hour and we are riding bikes because you insisted we get it for the ‘aesthetic’ of the video.” James rolls his eyes and drags Emma to get their bikes leaving me and Ethan alone.

He runs a hand through his hair and sighs, I speak first. “ I get he doesn’t like me or whatever is it something I said because I’ll apologize or something-” He sighs again this time staring at my face with a slightly frustrated look. “It’s a really stupid reason and I don’t want to be rude. Just know the rest of us don’t feel the same he’s just being an ass clown.” My heart sinks, I can already tell what he’s gonna say. Tears burned at the back of my eyes. I frown “What am I not skinny enough to be in his presence or am I just too unpleasant to be around?”  Ethan pulls me into a strong hug. “ He’s being super childish and I know he’ll come around eventually because he’ll see what an amazing girl you are. Come on Y/N don’t get all mushy on me now.” I hug back feeling slightly better about this. “I won’t let him get me down about this, now let's go shred these streets.” Ethan pulls back and laughs at me. “Never say that again.”  I snicker as we walk out to where the bicycles are and I hop on. I strap the go pro on to the front of my f/c beach bike as the four of us cruise down the street. The wind is flowing through my hair, as the sun begins to set. We bike around blasting music until it gets dark, It’s an amazing night.

We all bike back to my house and I film a simple outro with all of them. One by one they leave until Ethan is the only one left. Grayson is still out doing errands so we end up watching a movie until he gets here to pick up Ethan. Ethan falls asleep sometime during an episode of the twilight zone. I finish the episode sitting alone in the dark with only the black and white tv show flickering on the television. I hear a knock on the door, I go to open the door.

“Who is it?” I hear a scoff. “Just open the door.” I open the door to see a disgruntled Grayson, he looks me up and down with cold eyes. He pushes past me and goes over to the couch, Ethan curled up on top of it softly snoring. I glare at him who does he thinks he is coming into my house like that. He shakes his brother awake “Get up you log, it’s time to go.” Ethan sits up and stretches, he catches me standing beside the door. I wrap my arms around myself as Ethan grabs his things. Grayson rigidly standing close by watching him pick up his stuff. When Ethan finishes Grayson just shakes his head at me as he breezes past me out the door. Ethan groans and frowns at his brother. “Y/N I'm sorry he’s-.” I let out a shaky frustrated breath, I unwrap my arms and clench my fists. “I shouldn’t and I won’t let him get to me, You don’t have to take up for him Ethan. If he wants to be a jerk so be it.” I straighten up and we hug each other before he leaves. I whisper “Thanks for being such a sweetheart.” in his ear. He beams at me “Bye Y/N I’ll see you next week.” We pull apart because of a loud honk coming from Grayson in the car. Ethan rolls his eyes and leaves. I flip off the fucking asshole that is Grayson then I shut the door and take a deep breath. Grayson Dolan isn’t the first or last person to be rude over something so simple as my weight, he wouldn’t be the last either.

One month later

  “It’s Friday and we’re at this private beach to just live life. Enjoy us basically dicking around all day.” I place the Go pro on a towel and step back to where James, Emma, and Ethan are standing. I have a total of 5 videos on my channel and the others have only my voice in them because I was too scared to be in my videos but James, Ethan, and Emma all convinced me to buy a bathing suit for the video. So I did; it’s a f/c halter top one piece that I picked out. I’ve been too nervous to show my face because I wanted to stay a small channel. I only had 300 followers and none of them knew who James, Emma or Ethan were. It’s just me and my small following and I like it that way.

I usually ask them not to post videos or anything of me and there’s usually no issue. But after filming us just swimming around we go back on land for a second. Emma takes a video of me and James running across the beach after Ethan because he threw seaweed at us and posts it to her Instagram story without thinking. Emma puts her phone away, We all go back running into the ocean without a care in the world. After about another hour in the water; we all go back to the towels to dry off. My phone is buzzing rapidly and hot to the touch. I look at my phone screen in horror. I have hundreds of notifications and I’m getting more as time goes by. I open my phone to see what is giving me all these random comments.

“EMMA” I shout and look at her. Her face goes white, her arms are crossed across her chest. She gives me a sheepish smile. James comes over with his phone in hand “Why would you-” Ethan interrupts James “What is going on, Why am I being tagged in like 50 screenshots at once?” James gives Ethan a glare “Before I was interrupted I was going to say Why did Emma post that video on her story.” 

We all look to her, she’s dragging her foot in the sand. “ I just thought it was funny so I took a video but I kinda forgot about Y/N’s no filming rule...I’m really sorry I completely forgot.” I plop down on the sand. My head in my hands, this was going to be a mess. I could already feel all the unwanted attention on me. James slid down next to me, he placed a hand on my shaking back. “It’s gonna be okay in the long run, everyone will forget eventually.” 

I look up at him sadness and anger in my eyes. “This is just going to draw more unwanted attention, I just wanted to make and post cool videos with my friends, you know?” We all look between each other, we know this has changed the dynamic of our videos and I realize something else. I quickly whip out my phone and I scroll down and see who else has been tagged in the screenshots. Grayson Dolan.

[ananxioussheep]

My Miscarriage Journey

Today: Tuesday, October 1st 

On October 1st, 2019 our journey of parenthood was put on an indefinite pause. What started as a routine check-up for the day became our worst nightmare. The second you find out you're pregnant is the most exciting and terrifying moment. You immediately change everything you are doing to ensure your baby is healthy. For me, unfortunately, our baby was not going to be. When I met my midwives that morning I went in for a Doppler check. My midwife was going to look around to find our baby's heartbeat. We couldn't find it the week before. She told me before she had even started last week not to worry if that happened since the baby could be behind my pubic bone or could still just be too small. When we didn't hear it we scheduled a recheck for next week once the baby grew a little more and I kept my bladder full for the check so that my uterus would hopefully be in a better position to finally meet our baby. Three midwives tried with no success. They told me a number of things could be happening, maybe I'm not as far along as we all thought, maybe my uterus wasn't shaped the way it was supposed and baby is just in a different spot, or maybe I was experiencing what is called a missed miscarriage. I left their center and headed to get an ultrasound. Jacob was at work for the day because we thought I was going to be having an easy check-up and I would be leaving with a video for him so he could meet our baby. When I got to the radiology center and saw what was happening I immediately knew this wasn't good. I spent a long year as a vet tech and have seen lots of ultrasounds. I had lots of pregnant friends and knew what I should see. I have a biology degree and have studied a lot of reproduction. When the tech turned the screen my way I saw my uterus. And I saw where my baby should be and wasn't. She decided she wanted to do a transvaginal ultrasound to be sure. If you know what this is then you know this is the last thing you want to be doing as your fighting back tears waiting for the inevitable. We found that although I was past 12 weeks, my baby stopped developing around week 7. My body still thought (and still thinks as I write this) that I was pregnant. I now have to walk around for who knows how many days still being pregnant and waiting to labor this child. Jake and I spent the day sobbing. Wondering what we could have done differently. I spent my time talking with God. Asking him if he had changed his mind about thinking if I was going to be a good mother. We told our family and friends and bosses that we would be missing for a while. That we were not going to be meeting our sweet baby in April. That our dream was ending for now. And that we wanted some time and space to process. Right now it's 6 am. I've fallen asleep for 2 hours. My mind can not shut off. I can't stop thinking about how this fight isn't over and I still have to “have” this baby. I can't stop thinking about the fact that we already announced because things were good. I was really sick for weeks so that must mean we have a healthy baby. My body still thinks I'm pregnant. I spent 4 hours last night having reflux and puking. But I still have not had a bit of spotting. We haven't taken a step toward “having” this baby. Part of me wonders if I just keep going along like I'm pregnant maybe God will perform a miracle. But most of me doesn't want to hold onto any hope because that would hurt more. It's crazy how quickly the best season of your life turns into the worst. 

72 Hours Later: Friday, October 4th 

Take day 3. It's been over 72 hours since we found out we lost this baby. I haven't made any progress in “having” this baby. I am angry. And I'm drinking and I'm almost entirely dependent upon my anxiety medication. My husband who never cries is crying a lot and I don't know how to help. I'm ready to have this child, bury this child, and begin to move on. This is the most challenging, devastating, and world-altering. I have so many doubts? Will I ever be able to be a mother? I want to try now, as soon as possible, but Jake's pain is too much to get there now. Will I ever heal from this? Am I capable of going on? 

6 Days Later: Monday, October 7th

Yesterday I called my midwife sobbing. I just can't wait for my body to do this anymore. I can't keep walking around like everything is fine with my lifeless angel inside me. Help. I'll get the pill on Tuesday. I'm reading the same scriptures over and over and over. Jake finished a 1000 piece puzzle in 8 hours and didn't sleep last night. I hid in the office at work all day because I can't afford to not be there. Worship music non-stop. Jesus as much as possible. And literal devastation. How can you miss something that's still inside you? We decided to name our baby even though we don't know what it is. Our baby deserves a name. Emerson, it means brave and powerful (I just keep referring to her as Emmie because I had so many dreams about it being a girl). Exactly what our angel is. And exactly what we will have to be these next few months. I'm planning a tattoo of rosemary their purple blooms which signify love and remembrance and I've decided our baby is a honeybee. All my dreams and plans during this pregnancy have been around bees. When I looked up their meaning I found that they extract sweetness from life, and represent abundance, brightness, and personal power. Because of our sweet little baby bee our family will learn all of these things this season. And now, we wait to finally do this tomorrow; have this baby. 

Tuesday, October 8th, 11:55 PM

Preparing for a long night ahead as I FINALLY started bleeding. As absolutely devastating as this moment is I'm so relieved to finally let this baby move through my body naturally and I'm it's timing. I was scheduled to pay another $300 tomorrow for another ultrasound for confirmation to get the medication. I am praying to God and have been asking him to let this be the way this happens. So now. At midnight Jacob and I are running to Walmart for freaking incontinence pads for old people. All because we decided we wanted to love each other a little tonight and I guess that's all baby needed. To know Jake and I still love each other. (He will literally hate me for that but guess what most happy marriages have sex lives, it's totally biblical y'all). Part of me feels terrible for celebrating right now and I know it won't feel like this as the pain and bleeding continue but right now, I'm proud of Jake and me for getting through this and so proud of our baby for trying as hard as it could in this short little life. 

Wednesday, October 9th, 10:00 AM

Well, I barely bled at all so to the Dr. we go to get this process rolling for real. Last night I held my tummy and told my baby how proud I am of him or her. It fought so hard for this life. And it's fighting so hard to get to the other side of this life. I'm so ready for us all to be at rest and be ready to heal. Jacob and I are realizing how perfect God's timing is. Although we were pretty annoyed when we didn't get to go on our Labor Day cruise I can now see that God perfectly planned this time away for us. I'm believing it's going to be so healing. And it also helps give me perspective that God knows exactly what he's doing with this little babe. They were just too precious to be earthside. I find a lot of comfort knowing we have a personal angel caring for us from above. 

Wednesday 5:30 PM 

Here we go. Pain. Cramps. Aches. I'm tired already and it hasn't even begun. 

Thursday, October 10th, 1:00 AM

3 pills in. I'm finally losing my mind. I just woke up Jake with my crying because I officially feel like I have lost at the game of life. I currently feel insufficient as a wife, a friend, an employee, and especially as a mom. I'm looking back on this year and honestly, it has been the most miserable and lonely year of my life. And this moment has been by far the hardest. There is no pain that can compare to watching pieces and clumps of cells that should have been your child fall out of you. And having to force your body to do it with pill after pill because after 7 weeks it still won't understand that it's not going to have this baby. I don't recognize myself or my life anymore. For the past 8 weeks we've known about this baby I finally felt purposed again. I was working toward a goal. A life that I saw so much fulfillment in. And all of a sudden it's just gone. Nothing can prepare you for these moments. I'm so deeply pressed for anyone who has ever and will ever do this and I'm trying to imagine how I will dig myself out of this. Here's what I know, one, I will not apologize for doing the things that are best for me and two, I will speak up about this experience as much as possible because this baby deserves a memory and this experience deserves to be de-stigmatized. My head is throbbing, my back is throbbing, the pain is so deep in my abdomen that I am nauseous yet nothing else is happening. I'm just exhausted. Physically, Spiritually, Emotionally. I'm fried. 

Thursday: 8:30 AM 

I was wondering why everyone kept saying you would know when it happened because I really didn't think I would know, but then it happened. Feeling dizzy, nauseous, and a little more empty. I love you little babe. 

Friday, October 11th

Today we took what remained of our little and planted a tree. It’s the first thing I see every day when I walk in the door. 

Sunday, October 13th - Sunday, October 20th

Time for “vacation” In the photos we took and posted are beautiful mountain ranges, conquered fears, crystal clear oceans, and lots of smiles. On the other side of those photos was a lot of time spent mourning and grieving. While I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to have moments like these it does not change how hard these past few days/weeks have been. I'm so proud of the steps Jacob and I took to enjoy this vacation as much as we could. I'm happy to say we have learned so much and are a stronger couple now than we were just weeks ago. But I would be lying if I uploaded all those smiles and didn't share the tears that were behind them each and every day. At the dinner table. On the beach. At the top of a mountain. There's no convenient time to suffer loss. While others might forget, Jacob and I will not. While others might feel it's time to move on, I'm not ready to. While others think we are supposed to smile, we have to cry. Don't mistake this for a pity party, but understand that miscarriage is excruciating on your mind, body, and soul. It's time we start being more honest with ourselves and others with the state of our hearts. I wanted to shed some light on our week. I wish I could say our vacation was all I hoped for and that I experienced so much healing during this time as I wished I was going to, but I didn't. I hope this encourages someone else today to know that it's ok to not be ok for a while and to be a little more honest with themselves and others about the state of their heart. I'm confident God has a plan for this as he works all together for good. 

Monday, October 21st 

I went back to work today and spent the night before sleeping a total of 2 hours and having panic attacks all night long. I spent my lunch break having one of the worst panic attacks I ever had, my breathing was so stifled I almost called 911 I was sure I was going to pass out. I walked away into the back office and cried for over an hour because someone asked me if I had kids… I’m feeling like it’s impossible to live in this world now. This whole process and loss hurts more now than it did when I found out or as I was living the miscarriage itself.  I am literally dragging myself out of bed day to day as a necessity and 3 times my normal dose of meds still aren't doing the job. So I guess the whole gist of this whole story is… It’s ok to not be ok... 

...I struggled with where to end this post because truly the end of this post isn’t the end of this process, but I hope this gives you insight into the brokenness of this process for so many women. I’m happy to answer any and all questions surrounding this devastating situation. Education is power, in all circumstances. 

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: EDITORIAL: Movies and the 9/11 effect

(Image: pathtoparadise.com)

EIGHTH EDITION: UPDATED SEPTEMBER 11, 2019– In an update to my annual editorial (after the original post on the 10th anniversary in 2011), I’ve got new movie inclusions in several sections, including the most recent section of faded and relaxed sensitivity in films.  I plan to make this an annual post and study for at least until the 20th anniversary in 2021.  (All poster images are courtesy of IMPAwards.com)

Never forget.  There’s no doubt that every American over the age of 25 won’t soon forget where they were 18 years ago at 8:46AM on September 11, 2001.  The world and our American lifestyle changed forever that day in more ways that we can measure.  I know movies and cinema are trivial pieces of entertainment compared to the more important things in life, but movies have always been two-hour vacations and therapy sessions from life, even in the face of immense tragedy.  Sometimes, we need movies to inspire us and help us remember the good in things, while still being entertained.  In seventeen years, they too have changed.

I’m here for an editorial research piece on the anniversary of 9/11 to showcase a few movies, both serious and not-so-serious, that speak to that day whether as a tribute, remembrance, or example of how life has changed since that fateful day.  Enjoy!

MOVIES THAT WERE OPENING THAT FRIDAY EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO

Call this a time capsule, but these were the notable movies that opened Friday, September 7, 2001 and Friday, September 14, 2001, the two Fridays surrounding 9/11.  Such a different time, huh?  Needless to say, few people were in the mood for a movie in those first weeks and the fall 2001 box office took quite a hit until the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone showed up in November 2001, followed by Ocean’s Eleven and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that December.

The Musketeer  (September 7th)

Soul Survivors  (September 7th)

Rock Star  (September 7th)

Hardball  (September 14th)

The Glass House  (September 14th)

All were box office bombs at the time.  The Musketeer garnered a good bit of overseas earnings and Hardball got some of the best reviews of Keanu Reeves’s post-Matrix career and grew to be a DVD hit.  Still, talk about bad timing.

EXAMPLES OF 2001-2002 MOVIES CHANGED BECAUSE OF 9/11

Spider-Man— Many of you may remember seeing this teaser for the big comic book blockbuster before it was pulled post-9/11. (New remastered video in 2019)

Donnie Darko— Suggested by Feelin’ Film Facebook Discussion Group contributor Josh Powers. Released months before 9/11, few remember how much this film was somewhat buried and forced to become an underground cult favorite due to a pivotal moment involving a horrific plane crash.

Lilo and Stitch— See a side-by-side video clip of differences in Imgur.  The trivia notes behind it are explained on IMDb.  

Collateral Damage— The Arnold Schwarzenegger terrorism movie had its release date bumped and terrorist overtones mellowed down.  (trailer)

City by the Sea— The production on this Robert DeNiro/James Franco thriller was moved from New York to Los Angeles in July 2001, dodging the terrorism attacks that would have threatened their home Tribeca studios.  (trailer)

Sidewalks of New York–– Edward Burns intermingled love story movie was bumped to November and had to have its posters changed.  See right here on the left for an example.  (trailer)

Men in Black II— The original scripted ending of the movie was scripted to have the World Trade Center towers open up to release a barrage of UFOs.  (trailer)

Serendipity and Zoolander— Both movies had shots of the WTC digitally removed from the skylines of their finished films before they hit theaters that fall.

The Time Machine— Had its December 2001 release bumped to March because of a potentially sensitive scene of meteor shower over New York (which it cut).  (trailer)

Big Trouble— It too had its nuclear bomb-centered plot cause a release delay well into 2002.  The delay didn’t help this already awful movie.  (trailer)

MOVIES ABOUT 9/11 ITSELF

September 11  (2002)– International directors from around the world, including Ken Loach, Mira Nair, and future Oscar winner Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, made a two-hour anthology of short films showing creative expressions of other cultures and their reactions to the tragedy. 

United 93  (2006)– Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass took an unknown cast and directed a harrowing real-time account of the flight that fought back.  Hard to watch, but undeniably powerful without exploiting the tragedy.  (trailer)

World Trade Center  (2006)– Conspiracy specialist Oliver Stone turns off the urge to dig into his usual musings and delivers an incredibly humble, respectful, and understated (words that hardly ever describe an Oliver Stone movie) true story of the last two men (Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena) rescued alive at Ground Zero.  Worth every moment to see and a great tribute to the first responders and their families.  (trailer)

9/11  (2017)– I think we all knew a day would come where some hack film was going to come around and exploit the tragedy that is the 2001 terrorist attacks.  That award goes to Charlie Sheen, Whoopi Goldberg, and director Martin Guigui’s straight-to-VOD trash heap.  Sheen, a noted conspiracy theorist on 9/11, took it upon himself to make a glamour project stepping on history.  Do not waste your time with this film.

MOVIES WITH PROMINENT 9/11 CONNECTIONS

The Guys  (2002)– One of the first reactionary films to 9/11 came from Focus Features in 2002 and starred Anthony LaPaglia and Sigourney Weaver.  Based on Anne Nelson’s heartfelt play, LaPaglia plays a fire captain who lost eight men on 9/11 and Weaver plays the editor who helps him write eulogies for the fallen.  The film is only available on disc from Amazon.  (trailer)

WTC View  (2005)– Gallows humor bubbles to the surface in this off-kilter indie romance from Brian Sloan about a SoHo man who placed an ad to find a new roommate and September 10th and now lives through a more difficult and trying landscape.  (trailer)

Reign Over Me  (2007)– In a rare dramatic turn, Adam Sandler plays a fictional wayward man who lost his wife and daughters on 9/11 and tailspins through life fiver years later when an old college friend (Don Cheadle) tries to help keep him from being committed to a psychiatric care.  (trailer)

Remember Me  (2010)– Billed as a coming-of-age film starring Twilight star Robert Pattinson, it features a fictitious family affected by the tragedy, including the fall of the WTC.  Most critics found the 9/11 connections exploitative and offensive.  (trailer)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  (2011)– Speaking of exploitative, the Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock Oscar nominee from this past year definitely rubbed more than a few audiences the wrong way in using 9/11 as a backdrop to a fictional family tragedy.  Critics (including this one) clamored that if you’re going to bring 9/11 to the big screen, use a real story.  (trailer)  (my full review)

September Morning  (2017)– Independent writer/director Ryan Frost crafted a small drama about five college freshman staying up all night after 9/11 weighing the impact it will have on their present and future.  The film won a youth jury award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.  (trailer)

MOVIES ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR

In the decade since September 11, 2011, our largest response as a nation to the terrorism of that day has been a pair of wars overseas in the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan.  The “war on terror” has quickly grown into a ripe orchard for possible movie storylines.

Home of the Brave  (2006)–Rocky producer Irwin Winkler earns the credit for the first mainstream Hollywood movie depicting the Iraqi War and the initial soldiers returning home to re-acclimate to society.  Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and Jessica Biel.  (trailer)

The Hurt Locker  (2008)– Of course, the best-of-the-best is the 2009 Best Picture winner from Kathryn Bigelow starring Jeremy Renner as a driven, yet dark Iraqi bomb specialist.  Its quality needs no introduction.  (trailer)

Grace is Gone  (2007)– In the Audience Award winner of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, typical gender roles are reversed when John Cusack plays a homefront father (in my opinion, the best he’s ever acted) who has to find the best way to tell his two daughters that their soldier mother was killed in Iraq.  This movie is “guy-cry” level brilliant.  (trailer)

Rendition  (2007)– Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, and Meryl Streep get together for a movie calling out the wrongs of detainment, interrogation, and torture.  (trailer)

The Kingdom  (2007)– Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman investigate a bombing and throw down in the streets of Riyadh.  (trailer)

Lions for Lambs  (2007)– Robert Redford delivers a three point-of-view discourse on U.S. war affairs before home and abroad with the help of Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.  (trailer)

In the Valley of Elah  (2007)– Crash director Paul Haggis leads Tommy Lee Jones (in an amazing Oscar-nominated performance) and Susan Sarandon as parents investigating with a local detective (Charlize Theron) the disappearance of their AWOL son returning home from Iraq.  (trailer)

Body of Lies  (2008)– Ridley Scott’s fictional take on the CIA’s involvement in preventing Jordanian terrorism starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.  (trailer)

Stop-Loss  (2008)– Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play three young Texas schoolmates who are finally home from overseas but are forced back via the stop-loss clause.  (trailer)

The Messenger  (2009)– Woody Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a U.S. Army Casualty Notification Team officer mentoring recent veteran (Ben Foster) on the uniquely difficult job of informing families the bad news.  (trailer)

Taking Chance  (2009)– Along the same bringing-bad-news-home lines is this gem of a HBO film starring Kevin Bacon (like Cusack earlier, in arguably his best performance as an actor) as a desk officer who never saw combat but takes on the duty of escorting a young fallen soldier’s body back to his old hometown.  Even though this wasn’t in theaters, it is outstanding and worth your time on DVD.  (trailer)

Brothers  (2009)– Jake Gyllenhaal takes care of his older brother’s wife (Natalie Portman) while he (Tobey Maguire) is declared MIA in Afghanistan, from director Jim Sheridan.  (trailer)

Dear John and The Lucky One  (2010 and 2012)– These two adaptations of Nicholas Sparks romance novels briefly touches on the War on Terror through Channing Tatum and Zac Efron’s lead characters’ return home to romance.  (trailer and trailer)

Green Zone  (2010)–Director Paul Greengrass followed United 93 with his Bourne series star Matt Damon in this taut and marginally-dramatized account of the early unsuccessful searches and the possible cover-up of Baghdad’s supposed stores of weapons of mass destruction.  (trailer)

Restrepo  (2010)– The highly acclaimed National Geographic documentary film follows a one-year look at the real men of the platoon embattled in the deadliest fortified valley of Afghanistan.  (trailer)

Act of Valor  (2012)– Disney pumped up the military with this fictional anti-terrorism film using active duty Navy SEALs.  Coming out after the death of Osama bin Laden, this was a welcome and well-promoted hero picture and recruitment reel.  (trailer)

Zero Dark Thirty  (2012)– The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow made a film about the SEAL Team 6 men and their story of taking down Osama bin Laden.  The film was my #1 movie on my “10 Best” list for 2012.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Lone Survivor (2013)– Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) directed an outstanding and patriotic film based on the Afghanistan saga of Marcus Luttrell starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and Emile Hirsch that echoes another true-life story from the ongoing War on Terror.  Very good movie!  (trailer)  (my full review)

A Most Wanted Man (2014)– Spy novelist John LeCarre’s multi-layered 2008 novel about the world of inter-agency espionage happening in Hamburg, Germany, the same city where the 9/11 conspirators hatched their plans, is an excellent and different post-9/11 film with an international flair and flavor.  It will also be remembered as one of the last performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was phenomenal in the film.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit  (2014)– This modern reboot or update of the famed Tom Clancy character, now played by Chris Pine, roots his pre-spy origins in the aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror that followed.  (trailer)

American Sniper  (2014)– Clint Eastwood’s Best Picture nominee war drama about the real-life story of the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (played by Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper) went on to become the highest grossing film of 2014 (north of $350 million).  Kyle’s journey from the heartland to the front lines was spurred by a sense of duty and patriotism that started from the attacks of 9/11.  This is, by far, the most high profile movie to date to feature the War on Terror directly correlating 9/11.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Good Kill  (2015)– On the smaller side, but just as solid with warfare and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is this under-seen film which had a limited theatrical release during the summer of 2015.  Andrew Niccol (Lord of War, Gattaca, The Truman Show) shifted his focus to the War on Terror by showcasing a Las Vegas base of drone pilots dealing with the ramification of their actions and the war being waged on their screens and with their joystick controls.  (trailer)  (my full review)

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi  (2016)– Director Michael Bay’s slanted look at the September 11, 2012 embassy attacks that have become a political firebrand since certainly qualifies to make this list.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot  (2016)– Tina Fey shed her comedic image for a heavyish war drama loosely based the true story of Afghanistan/Pakistan television journalist Kim Barker.  (trailer)  

Snowden  (2016)– Renowned politicized filmmaker Oliver Stone brought his brush of dramatic license to the story of whistleblowing former spy Edward Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The paranoia of the post-9/11 digital age was the mission field for Snowden and many other young men and women who sought the security and counterterrorism industries. (trailer) (full review)

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk  (2016)– A company of soldiers who lost their commanding officer in Iraq are making a victory tour of press dates and public appearances when the reflections of the title character (newcomer Joe Alwyn) fill the day.  Ang Lee’s film felt ten years too late and was not well received.  (trailer) (my full review)

Thank You For Your Service  (2015) and Thank You For Your Service  (2017)– This popular conversation sentence was the title of two different works.  In 2015, Tom Donahue’s documentary opened eyes to the shoddy mental health governance for modern veterans and made waves that changed actual policies.  The 2017 feature film borrows inspiration from David Finkel’s 2013 nonfiction bestseller dealing with the PTSD topic of returning Iraqi tour soldiers adjusting to civilian life.  Miles Teller is the headliner and is joined by Haley Bennett, Beulah Koale, Joe Cole, and Amy Schumer.  (trailer) (trailer)

Megan Leavey  (2017)– 2017 was a busy year for War on Terror-connected films with five new entries.  Taglined “based on the true story about a Marine’s best friend,” Megan Leavey stars Kate Mara as the soldier leader of a bomb-searching pooch on deployment in Iraq.  Touching film!  (trailer)

The Wall  (2017)– Nocturnal Animals Golden Globe nominee Aaron Taylor-Johnson and emerging WWE movie star John Cena play two soldiers pinned down by an Iraqi sniper in a single-setting thriller from action specialist Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow).  (trailer)

War Machine  (2017)– Enough time has passed now in 2017 where the War on Terror has reached a point of being a target of satire.  Animal Kingdom and The Rover director David Michod puts a witty spin on things creating a fictionalized account of U.S. General Stanley McChrystal with Brad Pitt in the lead.  Netflix is the exclusive carrier of this one.   (trailer)

Last Flag Flying  (2017)– The last and best of the 2017 bunch is Richard Linklater’s dramedy about three old Vietnam veterans (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne) who come together when one of their sons is killed in Iraq and coming home for burial.  The excellent acting trio and Linklater’s writing (adapted from Darryl Ponicsan’s novel, a spiritual sequel to his The Last Detail) deliver touching brevity and sharp commentary on the echoes of war across generations.  (trailer) (my full review)

A Private War (2018)— Documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman made his feature film debut with a biopic on British photojournalist Marie Colvin, who made her stops through the hellfire of Iraq and Afghanistan in her storied career. Rosamund Pike was snubbed for an Oscar nomination that year. (trailer) (my full review)

Vice (2018)— Speaking of biopics, writer/director Adam McKay brought his machete for satire to the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The film dove deep into the manipulated machinations from Cheney that engineered the War on Terror during the Bush administration. While not as good as The Big Short, Vice did earn eight Oscar nominations (winning one for makeup), including Best Picture and Best Actor for Christian Bale in the leading role. (trailer) (my full review)

Official Secrets (2019)— When invading Iraq was on the table to push the war to the ground, the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Tony Blair were lockstep next to the U.S. on seeking United Nations approval. The true story of whistleblower Katharine Gun unearthed secrets that led to questioning the war’s legality before it even began. This is a nice step-up for Keira Knightley. (trailer) (my full review)

The Report (2019)— Not yet widely released in 2019 after huge buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, frequent Steven Soderbergh screenwriting collaborator Scott Z. Burns made his directorial debut with this searing docudrama of the use of torture by American agencies during the War on Terror. Check out the film’s trailer:

MOVIES ABOUT THE CHANGES IN AMERICAN LIFE (BOTH SERIOUS AND NOT-SO-SERIOUS)

25th Hour  (2002)– New Yorker Spike Lee was quick to not shy away from the post-9/11 pulse of New York City following Edward Norton’s character’s last night of debauchery and unfinished business before going to prison.  Filled with scathing social commentary and visual reminders of 9/11 and Ground Zero, its amazing opening credits sequence alone set the tone as only Spike can.  (trailer)

Fahrenheit 9/11  (2004)– Documentary maverick Michael Moore’s slam at the handling of 9/11 and the war on terror became one of the most successful box office documentaries of all-time.  (trailer)

Sorry, Haters  (2005)– Robin Wright played a professional woman who receives conversation and unexpected interaction with an Arab New York cab driver in this IFC production.  (foreign trailer)

An Inconvenient Truth  (2006)– By contrast, in a small snippet and computer graphic on melting glaciers in this Oscar-winning documentary, Al Gore lets us know that half of Greenland or Antarctica’s melted ice would put New York, including Ground Zero, underwater within the next 50 years.  (trailer)

The Terminal  (2004)– Airports are now covered in bureaucratic red tape.  Heaven forbids, you’re not from America.  (trailer)

Anger Management  (2003)– Showed us that you can get kicked off a plane now for just about anything.  (trailer)

Soul Plane  (2004)– Then again, come on, guys.  Air travel can still be cool, even with the new security rules. (trailer)

Snakes on a Plane  (2006)– OK, maybe not so much… (trailer)

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay  (2008)– You’ve got to hate racial profiling as much as you equally love a good parody.  (trailer)

Iron Man  (2008)– Marvel’s steely hero had his Vietnam origin story conveniently and modernly flopped for an Afghanistan-connected one.  (trailer)

Bridesmaids  (2011)– Now, that’s how an Air Marshall gets down! (trailer)

Source Code  (2011)– Our fear of catastrophes on planes can easily be translated to trains as well.  (trailer) (my full review)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist  (2013)– For a serious look at the warped view of Muslim citizens post-9/11, take a look at Mira Nair’s dramatic thriller about a young Pakistani man (newcomer Riz Ahmed) who is successful on Wall Street but viewed differently through profiling after 9/11.  (trailer)

The Fifth Estate (2013)– The film story of the WikiLeaks of Julian Assange carry a loose connection to the changed post-9/11 landscape of security and more.  (trailer)

Boyhood (2014)– Richard Linklater’s huge biographical opus was filmed over the course of 12 years with the same cast growing up and aging to tell their family story.  The film starts in 2002, where the incidents of 2001 are fresh on the minds of the characters and discussed openly during the first year sequence of the journey.  Later on, political mentions of Bush, Obama, and the War on Terror make it into a reflective conversation as well.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor  (2018)– A key moment in the extraordinary Fred Rogers documentary chronicled when a retired Rogers was brought back for a special televised message to young viewers about reacting to the 9/11 tragedy that played on-screen for so many viewers.  It’s a touching historical moment.  (trailer) (my full review)

MEMORABLE PAST IMAGES OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN MOVIES

Sometimes, all it takes is the camera making a fleeting, yet memorable, glance at those beautiful and now-gone skyscrapers to immediately remind us of a different time.  The WTC towers have been shown in innumerable establishing shots.  We’ll highlight some great ones.  Beginning with the closing credits to New Yorker Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film Gangs of New York, here’s a great montage of cinematic views of the WTC from various pre-2001 movies.

Superman  (1978)– Even a passing fly-by over “Metropolis” feels different.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York  (1992)– Tell me this clip didn’t just go from cute to eerie to sad.  Wonderful then, but different now.

Godspell (1973)— Submitted by friend-of-the-page and larger-fan-of-musicals-than-me Josh Powers, enjoy this dance number from the summery musical filmed and completed before the skyscraper’s ribbon-cutting.

King Kong  (1976)– While it may not match the iconic 1933 image of the original ape towering on top of the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center plays a big role in the 1976 remake starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange.  (trailer) 

Independence Day  (1996), Deep Impact  (1998), Armageddon  (1998), and The Day After Tomorrow  (2004)– These all constitute the prominent disaster movies that leave New York (and, in three cases, the WTC) in destructive shambles.  

HONORABLE MENTIONS:  Godzilla  (1998), Cloverfield  (2004), War of the Worlds  (2005), and Watchmen  (2009).  Kind of not so entertaining for few seconds anymore, huh?  See for yourself.  Here’s a montage of NYC movie destruction:

MOVIES THAT FEEL DIFFERENT IN THE POST-9/11 WORLD

I don’t know about you but a lot of movies just don’t resonate or feel the same as they did before September 11th.  We’ve changed and the perception has changed.  For some movies, their message and impact is only made stronger (in good ways and bad) since 9/11.  In other cases, what was entertaining then doesn’t feel so right anymore.

Airplane!  (1980)– Farce or not (and still funny to this day), we could never get away with anything that happens on an airplane from that movie now.  (trailer)

Passenger 57  (1992)–Let alone this movie… (trailer)

Executive Decision  (1996)– …and this movie… (trailer)

Turbulence  (1997)– …and this movie… (trailer)

Pushing Tin  (1999)– …and probably this movie too… (trailer)

True Lies  (1994)– Slammed even then for its depiction of Arab terrorists, it likely has picked up a little more egg on its face. Adding to its burial, the movie hasn’t been released on any physical media format since 1999, which includes zero Blu-ray editions in its history (factoid from Josh Powers). Do you think 20th Century Fox wants that movie to go away or what?  (trailer)

The Siege  (1998)– This frightening martial law thriller with Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis makes True Lies look like G.I. Joe starring Ken from the Barbie dolls toy line.  Scary and eerily prophetic in its over-the-top terrorism and bombing scenarios.  (trailer)

The Dark Knight Rises  (2012)– Though fictional with Pittsburgh standing in as Gotham City, the New York imagery and parallels occurring during its terrorist takeover led by Tom Hardy’s Bane have eerie 9/11-inspired ramifications.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Syriana  (2005)– George Clooney won an Oscar, but the touchy subjects of torture, terrorism, and the oil industry evoke a little dose of fear.  (trailer)

Munich  (2005)– The Black September assassination of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the Mossad’s reaction was probably the last time before 9/11 that terrorism made worldwide live media headlines.  (trailer)

Arlington Road  (1999)– While this resonates more as a comparison to Oklahoma City-style domestic terrorism, the Jeff Bridges/Tim Robbins underappreciated thriller is no less scary now than then.  (trailer)

Fight Club  (1999)– Watching Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt/Edward Norton) destroy New York’s credit district is another example of domestic terrorism and destruction that rings a little louder post-9/11.

The Sum of All Fears  (2002)– Many people found the Super Bowl bomb plot far too soon to see those images just a year removed from 9/11.  (trailer)

V for Vendetta  (2006)– Urban terrorism in London via a Guy Fawkes fan resonates a little different for a public scare on our side of the Atlantic.  (trailer)

Courage Under Fire  (1995)– Our first trip to Iraq foreshadows a lot of the equal futility, bravery, and loss experienced in our second trip… (trailer)

Jarhead  (2005)– …especially when told from the true account of a disillusioned soldier who was there.  (trailer)

Charlie Wilson’s War  (2007)– The same foreshadowing can be made out of our 1980’s Cold War involvement on the side of Afghanistan versus the Soviet Union as outlined by a gem of a Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman film.  To think that we could have stuck around and cleaned the place up before they became our enemy.  (trailer)

Rambo III  (1988)– Speaking of an American fighting on the anti-communism side of the Afghans!  (trailer)

Air Force One  (1997)– Not that George W. Bush or Barack Obama ever channeled Harrison Ford here, but don’t you now root a little harder for a take charge President… (trailer)

The Patriot  (2000)– … or a flag-carrying American hero from 230+ years ago… (trailer)

Pearl Harbor  (2001)– …or the last great American tragedy that galvanized a nation and sent us to war.  (trailer)

MOVIES SINCE 2001 THAT RENEW THE AMERICAN SPIRIT

These examples (as well as the aforementioned World Trade Center) will get your patriotic heartstrings going and boost your down spirit.

The Last Castle  (2001)– Opening just over a month after the tragedy, the military and flag-waving patriotism of Robert Redford’s underrated drama undeniably stirs you.  (trailer)

Behind Enemy Lines  (2001)– Leave it to Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson (of all people) to win macho patriotic points for loosely re-enacting the famous pilot Scott O’Grady Bosnian prisoner escape story.  (trailer)

Black Hawk Down  (2001)– Released during the 2001-2002 awards season, Ridley Scott’s powerful depiction of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu showed the uncompromising courage of U.S. Army Ranger and  Delta Force soldiers at a time when our current soldiers were likely preparing for going overseas to similar urban warfare.  (trailer)

We Were Soldiers  (2002)– Mel Gibson may be embroiled in unpopular headlines now, but his 2002 action-drama from his Braveheart writer about America’s first official military action in Vietnam is as powerful and it is impressive.  Like Black Hawk Down, it added to the heroic mystique of the American soldier, even if it was set in the past.  If you don’t cry watching those wives deliver those first casualty letters, there’s something wrong with you.  (trailer)

Spider-Man  (2002) and Spider-Man 2  (2004)– New York’s #1 resident superhero always fights for a way for the citizen of the city to stand up together.  I suppose you can throw in the pair from the reboot (The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2) for some of the same reasons.  (trailer)

Gangs of New York  (2002)– Martin Scorsese is a quintessential New Yorker and his mid-1800’s history piece (while definitely violent) was a love letter to the city’s great history.  (trailer)

Elf  (2003)– Will Ferrell put the Big Apple back in the Christmas cheer.  (trailer)

Ladder 49  (2004)– Though it wasn’t set in New York, you can’t help but think of the 343 NYFD men and women that lost their lives on September 11th and ardent first-responders when you watch Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta as macho Baltimore firemen.  (trailer)

Million Dollar Baby  (2004)– America loves a good underdog story and Clint Eastwood gave the public a heck of a good one that went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.  (trailer)

Miracle  (2004)– What better way to boost American spirit than to relive our greatest Olympic triumph. (trailer)

National Treasure  (2004)– How about a history lesson to make you feel good about our great country?  Why not?  (trailer)

Hitch  (2005)– Will Smith brought popular romance back to the City That Never Sleeps. (trailer)  He would capture hearts for a different reason the next year with The Pursuit of Happyness.  (trailer)

We Are Marshall  (2006)– Another real-life airplane tragedy sets the stage for an amazing story of athletic and community rebirth.  One of the most underrated football movies out there.  (trailer)

Live Free or Die Hard  (2007)– Why not give NY’s best bad-ass cop a chance to save the nation’s capital? (trailer)

Captain America: The First Avenger  (2011)– Last but not least, you can’t get more patriotic and underdog than this skinny guy from Brooklyn transformed into a red-white-and-blue super soldier.  He followed it up this past summer saving New York in The Avengers.  (trailer and trailer)  (full review and my full review)

American Sniper  (2014)– The tremendous reception Clint Eastwood’s film had to become the highest grossing movie of the year made Chris Kyle a household name and heavily amplified a previously dormant red-blooded (and “red state-d”) surge of patriotism and soldier appreciation. (trailer) (my full review)

Sully  (2016)– Both the incredible true story of Flight 1549 from 2009 and Clint Eastwood’s respectful retelling featuring Tom Hanks as Capt. Chelsea “Sully” Sullenberger remind audiences of the strength of New York City.  There’s a great line in the movie where someone is trying to thank Sullenberger and says that it’s been a long time since the city has had good news about anything like the “Miracle on the Hudson,” especially about a plane. (trailer)  (my full review)

Patriots Day  (2016) and Stronger  (2018)– The way the city of Boston rallied from another terrorist attack on American soil during its marathon has key inspirational value.  It’s too bad the film was the Mark Wahlberg show rather than a well-rounded ensemble approach.  (trailer) (my full Patriots Day review) (trailer) (my full Stronger review)

Spider-Man: Homecoming  (2017) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018)– Much like the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield web-slinger movies that came before, Tom Holland’s take on Peter Parker is a born-and-raised New York kid that supports and protects his neighborhood and city from dangers foreign and domestic. His protection, joined by fellow New Yorker Doctor Strange, expands with the united effort with The Avengers when Thanos shows up in Avengers: Infinity War.  One part down on that with one to go in the summer of 2019.  (trailer) (my full Spider-Man: Homecoming review) (trailer) (my Avengers: Infinity War review)

Only the Brave (2017)– Just as with Ladder 49 thirteen years before it, you can’t beat the sympathy generated by the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice of firefighters.  Forest fires aren’t terrorists, but the feels are all there.  (trailer) 

The 15:17 to Paris (2018)– Four years after American Sniper, Clint Eastwood dipped his filmmaking brush in the hero worship paint again to tell another true story.  The wrinkle of this one is that Eastwood called upon the actual heroes that thwarted the 2015 Thayls train attack to star in their own movie recreation.  Results were mixed, but the Eastwood prestige is there. (trailer) (my full review)

THE UP-AND-DOWN PULSE OF CONTINUED SENSITIVITY AND/OR CENSORSHIP TO 9/11 SIMILARITIES

For 2014 and going forward, this is a new section I’m adding to this study.  Now that enough time has passed since 2001, I’m beginning to notice that movies are starting to go back to some of the images and themes of violence, destruction, and terrorism that were hands off for so many years after 9/11.  Like all history, even 9/11 will fade.  What we were offended by after the horrific incidents have returned, in some cases, to be more tolerated and even acceptable and celebrated again.  Sure enough, there are plenty who vividly remember 2001’s events and images and are quick to point out when something is in possible poor taste.  That shaky barometer has led to some allusions and reminders to 9/11 and some flat-out censorship changes and corrections.  Some get flak and slaps on the wrist while some don’t.  Here are some examples in recent years.

Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down (2013)– Both competing White House takeover films from 2013, one from Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and one from Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) had a bit of split audience reaction to their violent and terrorist content.  Some rooted and cheered as if it was the 80’s again and America is always going to win.  Others were not so keen or ready to see the White House become a target and battleground, even if it was just a movie.  Between the two, Olympus Has Fallen, the R-rated and more severe one of the two, was the bigger hit.  In a way, no one batted an eye. (trailer and trailer)  (my full Olympus Has Fallen review)

Man of Steel  (2013)– Despite being one of the most all-American heroes around, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel gave Superman a very serious tone that, in a way, can’t be included on the category before this one of movies that renew the American spirit.  Also, many people were not very pleased with the immense city-wide destruction scenes of Metropolis during the film’s climax.  Even though Chicago was the filming location of a fictitious comic book city, there were staunch critics who had a problem with huge office buildings and skyscrapers in very 9/11-esque rubble. Its 2016 sequel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice mildly addressed that a city can’t be destroyed without consequences, even on Superman’s watch in a colorful comic book setting.   (my full review)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)– Much like Man of Steel, the third Michael Bay Transformers movie features a great deal of city-wide destruction (again, in Chicago) that rubbed a few people the wrong way.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)– Throw in the terrorist label for the villain and his bombings and the big San Francisco starship wreck during this film’s ending action that was clearly a larger scale to a passenger jet taking out buildings.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Godzilla (2014)– Add the King of the Monsters to the list of more city destruction that raised an eyebrow for some.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)– Outside of this string of modern and accepted examples of urban attacks and destruction, is the minor amount of hot water the makers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got it for a promotional poster that had an exploding skyscraper that cut too close to 9/11 similarities.  The study pulled the poster and had to apologize.  Censorship and sensitivity won that argument and mistake.  (trailer)  

The Walk  (2015)– A very big test to peoples’ memories of the World Trade Center will be coming in the Fall of 2015 with Robert Zemeckis’s film The Walk, the true story of the French high-wire artist Philippe Petit’s quest to tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 (previously featured in the Academy Award nominated 2008 documentary Man on Wire).  Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the film will prominently display, thanks to Zemeckis’s stunning use of CGI,  a tremendous amount of imagery of the two lost skyscrapers.  Even though it’s a period piece to a non-turbulent time, no film since 2001 has attempted to show this much of those building.  Public reaction was mixed and the film was not a box office hit.  (trailer)  (full review)

Independence Day: Resurgence  (2016)– I guess it’s OK for patriotic mass city destruction again.  London gets it worse than New York, though.  (trailer)  (full review)

Ghostbusters  (2016)– Well, New York was safe for at least a month anyway between Independence Day: Resurgence‘s release and the new reboot (which conveniently made sure its city destruction in Times Square and other places be easy to erase).  Not far behind was the fictional Suicide Squad and its over-the-city halo of supposed death.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Rampage (2018)– Larger in size than the old World Trade Centers used to be, Chicago’s Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower and tallest building in the world, was the targeted collapsed skyscraper spectacle of choice in the Brad Payton/Dwayne Johnson live-action video game adaptation.   Monsters aren’t terrorists, but the imagery hits close as the Willis Tower was one of many skyscrapers across the country evacuated on 9/11 out of fear of becoming another target.   See the collapse clip above. (my full review)

I hope everyone enjoyed this little (OK, large) retrospective about the impact of 9/11 in movies for the last 18 years and counting.  Take some time this coming weekend to appreciate the freedoms we have the people fighting to keep them for us.  Support your troops and first responders and, again, NEVER FORGET!

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[myaekingheart]

So I’ve been having really intense dreams almost nightly for the past week, and then forgetting to document them, so here’s a shit ton.

May 4th

There was something about playing video games at some random girl’s house, but the details have since grown hazy.

And then I was five years old again. There was a magic school bus that would take you to different dimensions. The first trip we took, I was with an asthmatic boy who reminded me of Mikey from The Goonies, or my childhood best guy friend, or maybe a combination of the two. The bus took us to this pink mountain range, kind of like the one time space Kaguya sends Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi during that fight arc in Shippuden. Another person joined us for the second trip, but I can’t remember where we went. The third time was the most memorable and the most haunting, though. We were on a field trip to some pavilion, and I had flashbacks to when I was a kid and we visited the Indian River Lagoon. Me and this boy and three other kids snuck off to the bus, or maybe it was four other kids so that the math I present next will add up, because when we got to the bus it turned out it had a capacity of only five. We tried to pile inside but it was like the bus knew how many kids were inside of it and the boy was automatically, magically outside somehow. Our teacher was Steve from Blue’s Clues and when he noticed what we were doing, he started to gradually lose his mind. He panicked when he saw us all on the bus, and then the bus started slowly moving through the parking lot, and then it began to shake as if revving up for interdimensional travel. By this point, he had sprinted across the parking lot and was outside screaming “OPEN THE DOOR! OH MY GOD, OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!” banging on the door and the windows and just overall losing his goddamn mind. And then one of the windows shattered and broke the bus’s magic, effectively stopping us all. I don’t remember what became of us afterward.

May 5th

My boyfriend and I were in what was supposed to be the guest bedroom at my grandmother’s house. There was a mattress on the floor and a window at the furthest end of the back wall right next to the corner, and the view outside was that of a street. My boyfriend and I were sitting on the floor hanging out when a black man on a cell phone shows up a little too close to the outside window, and he looked sketchy just by the way he was dressed and presenting himself (almost like he was homeless), and I had no idea what he was doing there so I start to panic. I tell my boyfriend to get down so he can’t see us and we do. And then outside, another man shows up, an older white man with long greasy gray hair. He’s carrying what I’m assuming is a machine gun. He starts shooting. The bullets break the glass and start coming through the window. I’m assuming he likely killed the black man. My heart is racing and I know if we stay where we are, we’re going to die so I grab my boyfriend’s hand and race to the bedroom door but it was shut (it always was). I’m standing there trying to turn the knob as the bullets rain in but I’m freaking out and my palms are probably sweaty and my anxiety is getting the best of me and I can’t fucking get it to turn so I basically have to tell myself to calm the fuck down and concentrate and I eventually do finally get the door open.

This dream then fades into something about an old dream I had once about my grandmother’s master bathroom being connected to the guest bathroom by way of a door or a closet or something like that.

And then that transitioned into a really weird dream about walking to school. It was the same school that has appeared in my dreams many times before, some strange take on my high school that I’ve never seen in real life before. But anyways, I was walking through this neighborhood with the intention of getting to campus, only to soon realize I was being followed. Behind me was this nerdy girl with mousy brown hair, long and parted down the middle, and glasses, and her nose constantly stuck in a book. She had this very plain look about her, no makeup, not necessarily pretty but not ugly either. She kind of reminded me of a girl I knew back in middle school. But anyway, her presence only made me that much more nervous about all of this seeing as I had no real grasp of where the fuck I was going. At one point, when I was in what looked like an empty town square (there was a brick office building about three or four stories tall that kind of reminds me of downtown where I live currently), we ran into another group of students who were also walking to school. They were being led by who I can only assume was my most recent French teacher. She called after the nerdy brunette following me to tell her that she was going the wrong way and had to turn down the next street, therefore passive-aggressively telling me that I, too, was basically going the wrong way. I was left with an overall overwhelming sense of panic and frustration feeling as if I was completely lost and incompetent.

May 7th

I was on this weird, giant cruise ship, the inside of which resembled this mall that I kind of recognize appeared in a different dream from a while back. There was this princess procession, mainly girls dressed like Belle first, that I of course took great interest in. As it turned out, it was part of an audition for a local party princess company. Afterward, all of the girls auditioning left this little shop that the company was based out of. I was standing outside. One of the people who leaves the shop is Cory Nation who, if you’re active on TikTok most likely, posts a lot of Disney cosplay vids on there. So he’s standing outside this little shop as all of the other girls auditioning are leaving and I guess mistakes me for one of them as he comes over to me to tell me how I had done such a good job. I feel kind of awkward about it knowing full well I was not among these girls, and feel as I don’t deserve the compliment, but I don’t say anything about it. Later on, I end up going swimming with him and some others and we’re all in the ocean in full on mermaid tails swimming alongside this sidewalk that looks like a pool deck with lots of greenery in the background. On our way back afterward, I run into my mother who I guess at this point I hadn’t seen in a while and so I start walking along with her. She asked me if I had seen my wealthy aunt at all on the trip and I said no. Then just then as we turn the corner on the pool deck, there she is sitting in a lounger. The last thing I want is to get into a conversation with her, so to avoid the confrontation, I grab my mom by the wrist and start running, dodging other people and whipping around corners just to get away from this woman. Running leads us into this weird Alice in Wonderland type maze thing—I just remember finding our way into a small room made out of ivy-laced black wrought iron fencing that had this diorama windows inside like the ones you find on Main Street in Magic Kingdom. One of them was really bizarre, displaying something like a bunch of chibi Lumieres dressed like Belle? I don’t know, it was weird as fuck.

May 9th

The first dream was brief and kind of boring but I was at a bar and ran into my elementary school crush, who started flirting with me, and it was overall just very weird.

The second dream returned me to my childhood best friend’s house for some birthday party. I remember some sort of mermaid theme. Anyways, my childhood best friend and I haven’t spoken since middle school but we follow each other on social media so I see all of her shit and everything that goes on in her life. Everything about both of our lives at this point is completely separate, and that really shone through in this dream. I was back in this house that, as a child, I had considered a second home, but I was surrounded by people I didn’t know and I just overall felt very awkward and like I didn’t belng there. It was really jarring, especially scrolling through social media the next day and seeing a lot of posts from her.

May 10th

The first dream had me back in my creative writing class at my community college, or at least a version of it. I had forgotten my book. I remember sitting there only half-listening to the teacher as I tried to devise a plan to sneak out of the room with the smaller backpack that was inside my bigger backpack so I could get my book unnoticed. I excused myself to the bathroom. I remember slightly panicking inside a cramped stall as I reorganized my clothes-- I had a hoodie that I slipped on and a button down that I tied around my waist. I forget the rest.

The second dream was the most vivid and perhaps the most unnerving/surreal. I was in what was supposed to my grandmother’s neighbor’s house. This was based on my grandmother’s real life next door neighbor, a woman we’ll call Dolly, who died a couple months ago. She loved puzzles and her house always smelled kind of musty. When I was a kid, she bought me my first Webkinz, an elephant. But besides all that, in my dream I was in what was meant to be an iteration of her house. It was one of those sweeping two story homes that you’d expect an old person to live in. It was me, my grandmother, my parents, and a few other people (all anime characters: a knight with long blue hair in a ponytail, and his daughter who had matching blue hair and a dress, and then Jessie and James from Pokemon and their two canonically non-existent children) who were there, and the house was empty. Dolly, in the dream, had just recently died and I guess we were there to help clean out her things. There was a lot of dust and cat hair (even though she doesn’t have a cat) clinging to the staircase so I took it upon myself to wipe it all down. As I was cleaning, I came across what I had thought was a clump of dust sticking out from underneath one of the stair boards, so I forced it up to pull it out only to find Dolly’s lifeless, disembodied head. So of course I start freaking out, calling for everyone to come take a look at this shit. My mom almost immediately turned back around on the verge of vomiting. My grandmother lost her shit. My dad just kind of stood there calm as he could be and was just kind of like “Well that’s intense.” And the anime gang (save for the little girl, who was not there) kind of exchanged looks and then ultimately decided they could not do this and that they needed to leave. Then the scene switched and we were all outside. The backyard was a makeshift cemetery where patches of dead grass shaped like Christian crosses indicated where the dead were buried. A weird game was ensuing where there were two teams of three people, each run by an old man coach, and the goal was to see how many points each team could rack up by having people take turns kicking golf balls across a field. I was on a team with my boyfriend, who was a soccer player in the past so I remember thinking to myself “He’s got this,” with our captain an old stout man with a plaid newsboy hat on. He was probably from the UK somewhere, I’m thinking Scotland. The other team was led by a rather crotchety old man in a suit, and I don’t remember any of the other members except for a little baby no older than two. The baby was the one I was up against. I gave a decent kick of the golf ball, and then it was the baby’s turn to go but she just kind of waddled around off in her own world, so the crotchety old man took matters into his own hands. He picked up the golf ball and launched it across the field on his own, which made the Scotsman incredibly angry. He started fuming, grabbing a shovel and threatening to dig up one of the corpses, I’m assuming Dolly. Chaos ensued. Everyone started running around and screaming “Don’t do that!” And then next thing I know, I’m on the ground staring into a hole where a corpse had been buried, and all along the dirt wall leading downward were tiny doors in dark muted colors with gold plated numbers, like apartment doors for a dollhouse. And then the next scene saw us all sitting around the staircase staring at this disembodied head, which we had quickly discovered was fake. A hyper-realistic rubber head. Someone, maybe it was myself, made a comment about “Well, you know Dolly and her dolls.” Someone else demonstrated the way you could see the cross-section of the different layers where the neck was, and how you could take the head apart to study each layer. For the last scene, I was outside of my own body watching from afar as the anime group trekked past the house at a great distance through deep snow, feeling unresolved and yet as if they did what they had needed to do. The little blue haired girl, the knight’s daughter, suspected nothing, but everyone else was relatively forlorn.  

[raisingsupergirl]

Apple or AT&T—Who's More Evil?

Let me start out by saying that I get it. I really do. Companies have to make money. Successful companies with great products deserve to make money. Apple and AT&T? They both make wonderful products and provide top-notch services. The problem is, for some dumb reason, they both like making as much money as possible. And the easiest way for them to do that is to keep us, the consumers, buying their new crap. Convincing us that we need it and that there's no other alternative. So when a company gets that big, when they can leverage their power against the little people, what stops us from finally getting fed up, throwing our phones in the toilet, and going back to smoke signals? Well, to answer that, I need to tell you what brought on my recent frustrations (as if any specific examples need to be given)…

Problem 1: The Man With the Data Plan

My wife and I went on a cruise a few weeks ago. And like most Americans with 1st-world problems, we had to decide whether we wanted to 1) go a week without cell phone or internet access while we cruised across international waters…yeah, right, 2) buy an international data plan from AT&T, or 3) purchase access to our ship's Wi-Fi access. In the end, it looked like the Wi-Fi package would be the cheapest, so that's what we went with. My wife was careful to turn off all wireless data to all apps and services on her phone (I just kept my phone turned off all week. I would have thrown it in the ocean and never looked back if she'd have let me) as directed on the various FAQs she found, and she logged onto the ship's Wi-Fi without complication. Smooth sailing… or at least we thought so until we received our AT&T bill. Yup, you guessed it—$100 worth of charges for iMessages and calls.

Problem 2: Disposable Phones

My wife and I bought new iPhone 7s two years ago. It was a great time in our lives. I remember the occasion fondly because it was the same day that our sweet Avery (two years old at the time) dressed up in her yellow "Beauty" princess dress and took in her first movie theater experience with Mommy and Daddy. Well, fast-forward two years, and we just paid off those phones. And lo and behold, my wife updated her phone earlier this week and within 30 minutes…it stopped working. Not completely, just the microphone, which, contrary to this smart phone generation's beliefs, is kind of important. And there was "nothing" that could be done to fix it. Which meant, just when we were free from the clutches of our AT&T contract and iPhone debt, we were sucked back in. Sure, the wife would get her fancy new phone, but at what cost?

So off we went to the AT&T store. We spoke with our customer representative (Ayla, which is easy for me to remember because it's the name of a cavewoman character in my favorite video game of all time, but I digress…), and she was great. She upgraded our antiquated data plan, made sure we understood the new plan, showed us where things could be improved to fit our needs, let us know who to contact about the $100 charge on our AT&T bill, and put up with our two insane daughters while my wife got her new phone set up. All in all, it was a great experience, but it was one that should never have happened in the first place. Why? Because Apple is intentionally breaking their older iPhones (if two years is considered "old") so their customers will buy the newest model. If you're not aware of this practice (YES, it's real, and it's confirmed by Apple's corporate reps), read on. If you know about it, feel free to skip the next three paragraphs.

First, imagine a perfect product. Let's use a fish aquarium heater as an example. Its job is simple—heat water to a specific temperature so your tropical fishies don't freeze to death. A company could easily create a heater that would last for decades, but why in the world would they do that? Even if they charged double the price of typical heaters, they would still lose money because in those two decades' time, its customers would by three or four of those "disposable" heaters that crack or short out from routine use. So it just doesn't make financial sense for them to make a durable product when they could make one that works just long enough to keep the consumer coming back for more.

Now, take that principle to the tech world, and we have to look at things a little differently. For those of you old enough, you remember those first Nokia brick cellphones well. Why? Because they were indestructible, their batteries lasted forever, and they had service EVERYWHERE. They were perfect phones. Except, the most exciting game on them was Snake, and within a few years, the Blackberry (and all of it's thumb-injuring successors) had overshadowed the poor, reliable Nokia despite its inferior construction. In this way, the tech world kept consumers buying new products every year because the amazing technology advanced so rapidly. I mean, you'd be insane to use those boring old bricks that could only make calls and use T9 to text when there were newer phones out there that could take pictures and check electronic mail!

Then something happened. The technology started to stagnate. It kept improving, but not nearly as fast. All phones had cameras, internet access, and most importantly, apps. At that point, if a phone didn't break, it could be used forever while the user just downloaded whatever new apps that came out. Sure, the new apps would take up more space and demand stronger processors and whatnot, but a frugal user could make due for years and years. And that kind of return just didn't work for the tech companies. If they were ever going to be able to swim in a vault filled with gold coins a la Scrooge McDuck, they needed to find a way to keep selling new products that consumers had no real reason to buy. And so, they invented the "update." Oh yes, you NEED this update! It'll keep your phone safe. It'll keep it running smoothly with all those new apps. It'll keep it… updated. But we should mention that those updates will eventually fry your phone's "old" processor, forcing you to fork out a grand every couple of years.

I'm not going to pretend to be tech savvy enough to outline every reason for this (and that's not what this blog's about, anyway), but we've all been victims of the sudden battery death, random crashing, and in my wife's case, microphone failure that happens immediately after one of these "updates." And as I said, this practice is documented and admitted. For the big companies, it's essential to keep them afloat. Heaven forbid that they keep giving us actual reasons to buy new products. No, they've already perfected the smartphone, so instead of creating something new, they've found ways to keep selling us the same thing. It's brilliant, in an evil mastermind sort of way.

Okay, back to the story. My wife got her new phone. She was safe for the next couple of years (though it's just a matter of time before MY phone dies of update sickness…), so now it was time to take the fight to AT&T's retentions department and see about that $100 charge on our bill.

Round 1: I called 6-1-1 and I spoke with the level 1 boss, though I didn't catch her name… She told it to me, but I didn't catch it. She was polite the entire time. She explained how there were, in fact, charges on my bill and how those charges were because we'd used data and call services in international waters. I explained (politely) that we hadn't authorized these usages because we turned off all cellular data, etc. and only used Wi-Fi while out of the country, and that I didn't plan to pay these extra charges. 30 minutes later and she let me know that she was going to "send this case up," and I should get an email within 24 hours. "No," I said, again politely, "I think I'll just talk to someone now." Brief (ten minute) pause, then [insert name here] said, "One moment please."

Round 2: Level 2 boss's name was John, and his accent fit his name. He, just like Level 1 Boss, took a good while searching through the charges and getting back to me, but he also remained completely polite the entire time. He explained that the Wi-Fi packages on most cruise ships only cover international water usage, and our AT&T charges had come while we were docked in port in Haiti. Why? Because my wife's phone started using the Haitian towers (instead of the cruise line's Wi-Fi) without our approval. It made perfect sense whether it was true or not, but John went on to tell me that, while he may not be able to get ALL of the charges removed, he would do what he could because we were, "…long-time valued customers." His words, not mine. Five minutes later, John took me off of hold and told me that he obtained approval to take $75 off of the bill, so we would only have to pay $25. Truth be told, I had no intention of paying ANY of that bill, but my interaction with John was so pleasant (I didn't have to ask him to reduce the bill. I didn't have to bring up the fact that we were valued customers, or that we could take our business across the street to Crickett Wireless. He knew all of these things, and he that knew I knew them. And he got the job done, or close to it) that he'd gained my respect. I wasn't going to fight John over the remaining $25, even if it did take over an hour to get that $75 knocked off. Game over. Roll credits.

So here's the thing—I'm a huge skeptic. With everyone I worked with throughout this debacle, I know that there's a possibility that they were all just working off of a script. That they did exactly as they'd been trained, performing damage control and getting every cent possible out of a tough customer like me. After everything, it's possible that AT&T and Apple still won. But at least they played the game. At least these REAL people listened to me and answered my questions, and in the end, the interactions were extremely pleasant. Yes, I get that I'm a number to the companies, but I was a person to their employees. And they treated me with respect. And I did the same with them.

My title poses the question of who's more evil between AT&T and Apple. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to that question, but in THIS case, as much as it hurts me to say it, the bigger evildoer is definitely Apple. Why? Well, in AT&T's case, their charges were legitimate. My wife incurred roaming charges in Haiti because of the cruise line's failure to explain how their services worked. And even if John straight up lied to me about that, his company still only wound up stealing $25 (and one hour) from me. Apple on the other hand… they're openly breaking their own phones so their loyal customers have to buy new ones. And those new phones cost a whole lot more than $25. Yes, our experience in the AT&T store was pleasant while buying that new Apple iPhone (thanks to Ayla), but it should have never come to that.

In the end, we're victims of our circumstances. We're brainwashed by brilliant marketing. We're forced into competition with our neighbors. And there's only one thing I can say as I finish up typing this scathing report on my Apple MacBook Air—Joke's on you, Satan, er, Apple. Money's not real. No one really owns anything anymore. There's no privacy. No Freedom. The only things we have are our experiences, our interactions, and our attitudes. And as the days get longer and the grass gets greener, I can't help hoping Y2K is just running fashionably late (all you millennials should Google Y2K along with The Matrix and Surge soda. There's so much you've missed…). In the meantime, I'm going to go cut my grass with a lawnmower that's older than every piece of technology I own, and believe it or not, it's never had a single update. What a world.

[youthfulaesthetichobi-blog]

These Feelings

Chapter 2

“The dinner was unbelievable, Namjoon,” Taehyung said as he patted his stomach.

“I’m glad you liked it, Taehyung,” Namjoon said as he washed the dishes from dinner.

They sat in silence since Jin and Jimin went up to Jimin’s room to play video games and Yoongi went upstairs to listen to music. Namjoon turned off the tap and walked over to the door, telling Taehyung he was going out for a cruise and would be back later.

“Don’t be too long now,” Taehyung said as he pushed in his chair and walked up the stairs, hearing the front door shut behind him. Once he got to the top of the stairs, he saw Hobi shutting Jungkook’s door and asked what he was doing.

“I was just having a little chat with Kookie,” Hobi said as he walked with Taehyung down the hall.

“About what?” Taehyung asked.

“Oh nothing important really,” Hobi replied as he turned down the hall towards his room.

Taehyung waved to Hobi and opened the door to his room and switching on the light.

“Alone again,” Taehyung said out loud to himself.

He sighed heavily as he fell onto his bed, letting his hair fall over his eyes. He felt something missing, always has. He turned his head towards the window which was emitting light from the moon in the sky and watched as the moon laughed at him with its impish grin.

“Don’t laugh at me like that,” He said to the moon, “I didn’t do anything.”

He closed his blinds and listened to the music coming from Yoongi’s room.

Do you hear me, I’m talking to you, across the water across the deep blue ocean?

Taehyung didn’t know the name of the song but he knew the song, he listened closely to the lyrics.

I’m lucky I’m in love with my best friend, lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again.

Taehyung sat down at the foot of his bed as he felt his throat tighten and his eyes get watery.

They don’t know long it takes, waiting for a love like this.

He felt the tears dripping from his face onto his hands and tried to wipe away his tears.

Every time we say goodbye, I wish we had one more kiss, I’ll wait for you I promise you, I will

He fell back onto his bed and his chest heaved, just letting the tears come as they pleased.

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend, lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again.

Taehyung curled over to his side and cried silently, listening to the rest of the song play out.

_____________________________________________________________________________

He doesn’t know how long it has been since he has stopped crying but his eyes seem heavy and puffed. He got up to walk over to his mirror over on the other side of the room to look at himself. He looked fine, except for the fact that it looks like he has been hit by a truck. He checked the clock on his dresser to see what time it was. 12: 08 AM.

“Damn, I must’ve fallen asleep or something,” he thought to himself as he fixed his hair.

Taehyung opened his door, keeping the lights on and closed it. He walked down the hall towards the stairs so he could a glass of something to drink. He stepped into the kitchen to see Namjoon and Jungkook sat around laughing quietly about something.

“Hey, guys,” Taehyung croaked.

“Hey,” Jungkook and Namjoon said in unison.

“You look like you just got hit by a truck, Tae. You alright?” Jungkook asked worriedly.

Taehyung’s heart quickened, “Oh no, I’m fine. Just a nightmare,” he said hurriedly.

Even though Jungkook didn’t seem convinced he let it go, he didn’t want to push it. Taehyung got a glass cup and filled it with soda, regardless if it was a bad call, he didn’t feel tired at all and didn’t want to go to bed. He sat next to Namjoon so he would be able to sit and see Jungkook directly in front of him.

“So why are you up, Tae?” Namjoon asked while he turned his body to face Taehyung.

“I just woke up and was thirsty,” he replied, “So why are you two up?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Jungkook said

“I just got back from my cruise,” Namjoon said as he took a sip of his water.

“Just now? Didn’t you leave around 8:30 ish?” Taehyung asked surprised.

“Yeah but I brought the car back around nine and just walked aimlessly around the city,”

Jungkook looked into Taehyung’s eyes, desperate to really see what was going on with him. He let his stare go when Taehyung looked over at him, to which Jungkook looked down and took a sip of his soda.

“Jungkook, did you hear my question?” Namjoon asked.

“Oh, no I didn’t. Sorry, what was it?” Jungkook asked as he sat up in his chair.

“Do you want to go out for a cruise with Tae and me?”

“Sure but you just got back from yours,” Jungkook pointed out.

“But alas, the open roads call to me!” he replied excitedly as he got his shoes on and wrote a note explaining where they were and placed it on the tabletop.

Taehyung and Jungkook chuckled together, got both of their shoes on and walked after Namjoon out the door into the late night of summer.

“Where are you taking us, Captain?” Taehyung asked as he crawled into the back seat.

“Well I did see this cool looking arcade that’s open 24/7 on my walk,” Namjoon said as he did his seatbelt, “Thought maybe we could go there and play some games.”

“Sounds fun,” Jungkooked chimed as he did his seatbelt.

Namjoon put the car in reverse and drove up the streets until he got downtown.

“Wow, the lights are beautiful,” Taehyung said.

“Not as much as you are,” Jungkook chuckled.

Jungkook probably shouldn’t have said that, but he couldn’t help himself and saying that, made him feel more like himself.

“Thanks, Kookie,” Taehyung said while he hid the fact that he was blushing hard.

“Do you guys need a room?” Namjoon asked.

That got them all laughing and Namjoon parallel parked in front of the arcade he was talking about. They all undid their seatbelts and stepped out of the car, with Namjoon stepping into the arcade and holding the door open for Jungkook and Taehyung. They paid for at least an hour’s worth of gaming and got to work playing ski ball.

“No! How could I lose to you two?” Namjoon asked.

“That’s because you’re the worst at ski ball, especially when you’re compared to Kookie and me,” Taehyung chuckled.

“Did you see me throw that last one?” Namjoon said while wildly pointing at the ski ball machine.

“Yeah, then it rolled into the ten-point hole,” Jungkook pointed out.

Namjoon huffed and took the few tickets he won and set off trying to find another game that appealed to him.

“What a tantrum that was,” Taehyung said.

“Sure was,” Jungkook said as he playfully punched Taehyung’s arm, “Come on, let’s go find another game.”

“By all means, lead the way,” Taehyung said with a slight smile.

Jungkook smiled back at him and they stood there for a moment just looking into each other's eyes. They walked over to the old classic arcade games, arms nearly touching, and both blushing. The next fifty minutes consisted of laughing with each other, seeing who could get the most tickets before the hour was up, and laughing at Namjoon and his horrid ski ball skills.

“Well enough with sucking at ski ball,” Namjoon announced, “The hour is up.”

“It was fun while it lasted,” Taehyung laughed.

“Sure was,” Jungkook said with a goofy smile.

They took all of their tickets up to the counter, which all of the tickets combined equalled up to a large stuffed bear, a little more than half of the size of Taehyung.

“Taehyung, you get Mr Bear Monday and Tuesday, Jungkook you get him Wednesday and Thursday, and I get him Friday and Saturday,” Namjoon said as they climbed back into the car.

“What about Sunday?” Jungkook asked.

“Mr Bear picks?” Taehyung guessed.

“Yeah, it’s what he wants,” Namjoon said.

The fact that Taehyung feels like he can hang around Jungkook now, without being afraid anymore was incredible and exciting.

“I have Namjoon to thank for that,” Taehyung thought, “I don’t have to worry that I’m in love with my best friend anymore.”

Jungkook.

[angelwaters1704]

Making Performance 2 Final Blog Post

When starting the process of our Titanic piece we had a lot of key themes, ideas and issues. We started with the idea of having drowning as our key theme because we could use that to our advantage with visuals and direction but after a few conversations with our tutor we decided that the theme drowning is a very broad subject that needed to be cut down so we focused on one specific theme and idea. For the next week we met a couple of times to decide on our theme, which is were we came up with death and  but after trying to explore that idea it still didn’t sit right with us, so after a while we combined all of our ideas and came up with the theme and idea of loss because even though our characters didn’t die the night the titanic sank, our characters all lost a part of them self in one way or another.

Owen McCafferty’s play Titanic is set in a courtroom with a lot of characters coming in and out to be questioned. My group and I decided that we would also want to set our piece in a courtroom with one person questioning all the witnesses from all different angles of the titanic sinking. Through our meetings and class times my group discussed doing a lot of visuals that we would use throughout our piece including the motif of water and the use of a candle to show our theme of loss. With our motifs we had a lot of creative vision for our piece and they all worked really well within our piece but because we had it set in a courtroom some ideas didn’t make sense but we used enough for our motif of water, when it came to the motif of the candle we decided to start our piece with a candle that we blow out and to end our piece with a candle that we blow out to show the theme of loss and a sense of connection between all of our characters.

We had a lot of creative breakthroughs within our process of our piece, to me I feel that our biggest breakthrough was when we found our theme of loss. When we found that everything clicked into place, we found more visual ideas for our motif of water and we also found the symbol for the candle making it a motif to show that a light went out in all of us that night even though none of our characters died.

When it came to the dramaturgical decisions we used a lot of lightings to convey our meanings and themes. At the start of our performance we all (apart from the two lawyers) had no lights on and were seen from the candle light before it was blown so straight from the beginning we had the theme of loss by having a part of us blown out. From there the two lawyers had their main lights on when questioning the witnesses to show power and authority whilst the witnesses on the stand all had a spotlight to show the guilt, fear and interrogation of what happened. My group and I used the candle light again at the end to show the final loss after the audience had heard all of the different stories of the night in question.

The play Titanic by Owen has a drama and history genre because of the questioning of the characters that were on the Titanic to find what exactly happened that night and who and what was responsible the night of the disaster. Owen McCafferty is originally from Belfast in Ireland who got inspired to create a play to hear the survivors stories of what happened and who was responsible the night the Titanic sank.

Titanic, too, has its base and selfish figures (the capitalist Cal Hockley, his man-servant Lovejoy, and White Star executive Bruce Ismay)

At 11.40pm on 14 April 1912, the RMS Titanic, on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, struck an iceberg. At 2.20am the following morning, the ship sank. 1,517 people died.

In response to the disaster the British Government ordered an immediate inquiry and Lord Mersey was appointed commissioner. The British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry sat from 2 May to 3 July 1912. It took testimony from 97 witnesses.

Owen McCafferty's Titanic retells the survivors' stories, using dialogue taken word-for-word from the hundred-year-old accounts.

Titanic will provide ‘true lies’ about the past in order to bring us closer to that remote era than mere facts, documents and salvaged artefacts ever could.

https://youtu.be/_xKDRmhp6lQ - survivor interviews

The Titanic lies 12,600 feet underwater. The ruins of the Titanic lie nearly 2.5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean, approximately 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The ship broke in two, and the gap between the bow and the stern is about 2,000 feet in the sea bed

The iceberg that hit the ship may have jutted out 100 feet above water. The iceberg that the Titanic collided with is speculated to have been anywhere from 50 to 100 feet above water. The entire iceberg is believed to have been between 200 and 400 feet long.  

Over half the people on board could have survived if all of the space available on the lifeboats was used.

Only three of Titanic's four funnels worked. The robust ship's four funnels were partially for show -- only three of the funnels ejected soot. The other was merely used for ventilation purposes and added a certain majestic aesthetic to the ship.

The first lifeboat was released an hour after the iceberg struck. It may seem like common sense for a ship to immediately release safety lifeboats upon hull breach. The Titanic, however, did not release its first lifeboat until an entire hour elapsed.

The ship carried 2,223 passengers and crew. Of the 2,223 people aboard the Titanic, 1,517 did not survive the collision with the iceberg. The ship was not even at full capacity -- it could hold more than 3,500 people.

The ship was just under 900 feet long. The Titanic measured 882 feet and 9 inches in length, making it the biggest vessel of its time. Today, the largest cruise ship is Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas, clocking in at nearly 1,200 feet long.

The ship burned an estimated 825 tons of coal per day. The Titanic was far from a light craft, weighing some 46,000 tons. This behemoth of a vessel burned a reported 825 tons of coal per day in 159 furnaces that heated 29 boilers.

Less than a third of all people aboard the ship survived. Only 705 of the 2,223 passengers and crew members made it back home. Some 61% of the passengers who survived were first-class guests. Less than 25% of third-class passengers survived.

This semester we watched two different live performances:

The first was a show called ‘Shakesqueer’ by Tom Marshman. Tom Marshman used a lot of techniques to create his online performance, one technique that was used was camera movements and angles to create his creative vision. He also told his story not only through one camera but a hidden one on the other side of his clothes which also had a mirror effect to reflect on the different sides of the story. The way he told the story with the different angles and camera movements and effects, it made me feel a part of his journey and also his closet of clothes. There were a lot of deeper meanings in the show which I loved because they made the show a lot more interesting than it already was when you noticed them, Tom also used a comedy effect to convey his deeper meaning. Us as a group took influence with the different camera angles and movement from Tom Marshmans piece.

The second show was called ‘Sherlock and Homes’ by the theatre company Shark Teeth. I really enjoyed this piece of theatre because it explored the different ways we can work with an online performance in today's day and age. The company used a lot of breakout rooms and their chatbox to get the audience involved and make it fun. Shark Teeth’s piece was a murder investigation and we the audeince had to figure out who was guilty for the muder. They combined a lot of stories and reasons to make it more playful. My group and I took influence from this piece, not necessarily in the fun of it but in a way to make it more interesting and to keep the audience engaged with facial expressions and the way some characters speak to get their point and story across.

Another online performance we used took influence from was from a performance last semester that used shadows to create the creative vision. As soon as one of my group members brought it up we all knew straight way that we wanted to use it to create chaos and dramatic content.

Throughout the process of creating our titanic piece I had a lot of visual ideas to bring the piece to life but I found it very hard to communicate my ideas when it came to writing the script so my group and I decided to “assign” job roles that but we would all have a say in every bit of the roles throughout. My weaknesses throughout the whole process was communication with my group about how I was feeling. I also feel that communication was and is something that we could have worked on as there were some disagreements and miscommunication in our group. I feel that despite our differences one of our group strengths was that we worked well together and got through it and put on the best performance we could. My personal strength in the performance I felt I used my voice well for my character because of her status in society at that time, I felt as though I used the dramatic triangle well in the sense of one of the voice over in the last bit, Lady Duff Gordon and the audience knew something no one else knew.

If I could go back and do the whole experience again I would try and communicate better with my group and also push a lot more of my ideas as most of them were dismissed because it ‘didn’t’ fit the writer's intentions.

During the process of Titanic I learnt a lot especially when it comes to group work, but also a lot about camera angles and movement. I have learnt to not be afraid of trying things like delivering a line with a different eye line and how to create an intense piece on an online platform.

Flipgrid videos

https://flipgrid.com/c2034044

https://flipgrid.com/5bdacef7

https://flipgrid.com/dca59a75

I chose these flipgrid videos because they played a very big part in our piece. My group and I used a lot of the clips in our main piece to create the creative vision we wanted. We used these clips because we played a lot with the water motif and I feel that it brought our characters more to life.

Social Media Page link:

https://www.instagram.com/titanicbathspa/

Bibliography

http://owenmccafferty.com/

http://owenmccafferty.com/titanic

https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/person?docid=person_mcCaffertyOwen

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/02/titanic-scenes-wreck-inquiry-review

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2.681/titanic-scenes-from-the-british-wreck-commissioner-s-inquiry-1912-1.512907 (Crawley, 2012)

[call-me-rei]

Chapter 6

I woke up to the sound of the alarm on my phone. I wouldn’t usually have an alarm set on a Saturday, but it was game day and I didn’t want to oversleep and miss out on the last-minute drills coach had scheduled.

I reached over to turn the alarm off and sat up to stretch my tired muscles.

Game days always sent a mixture of emotions through me. I loved playing soccer; it was my escape. When I was on the field I wasn’t worried about a thing. The thrill of running down with the ball, dodging and juking opposing players, and the cheers from the crowd when you scored were exhilarating, so I always focused on that. But on the other hand, there were the nerves that came with it.

What if I miss? What if I get hurt?

And of course, the more I thought about it the worse I worried that I’d jinx myself. Still, the game itself was what kept me level. Soccer was going to get me into college because Lord knows my parents couldn’t afford more than a year of my schooling at most.

I swung my legs over the edge of my bed, my muscles aching slightly with the movement. With one more yawn I got up and walked to the bathroom.

After brushing my teeth and fixing my hair I got dressed in my uniform then headed downstairs to get something light to eat before our morning practice. To my surprise Mike was already sitting on a stool at the island.

“What gives? You’re not usually up this early.” It was true. On school days he was up before me, but he slept in on weekends. Our parents would usually get home from their odd jobs before he woke up.

He shrugged; his eyes focused on his phone that was sitting on the island. “I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“Something wrong?” I asked. I walked farther into the kitchen and picked up an apple from the basket on the counter.

“Nah,” was all he said. I shrugged and didn’t push it. If it was something bad he’d tell me.

I sat next to my brother on an adjacent stool. Looking over I saw that he was watching videos on YouTube, meaning that starting a conversation with him would be a pointless effort. I sighed to myself and took a bite of my apple.

Mike and I weren’t ones to talk so often. Our deepest conversations came from talking about movies, sports, or love interests. Other times we were known to sit next to each other in silence and do our own thing. I didn’t mind because he and I were close, but sometimes I’d wonder if we could be like those siblings who shared everything with each other.

“You ready for today?” he asked. He still hadn’t glanced up from his phone.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “I’ve gotta leave soon for the drills though.”

Mike hummed. I shook my head before getting up and throwing the core of my apple in the trash. “You coming with me?” I asked. It was still pretty early so I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to stay home until game time.

He finally looked up at me. “Sure,” he said to my surprise. He stood up with his phone in hand and walked toward the stairs. I shrugged and walked out of the room then out of the house. I knew Mike would take a minute to get ready, so I decided to wait for him on the porch.

It was a beautiful morning. The sun had risen an hour earlier so everything still had a fresh feeling about it. The sky was still in its early stages of blue, birds were chirping, and the air was cool. I could tell the sun was going to be shining all day since there weren’t any clouds overhead. It was perfect weather for a soccer game.

Mike finally walked out of the house and locked the door behind him. We walked off the porch and fell in step with each other as we headed to school.

“You nervous?” Mike asked me. I kept my gaze straight forward as I shrugged. Today was our last home game, meaning it was the game to decide if our team was heading to playoffs. If we won the game today we’d be in for certain. Losing would mean that another team in the district would have to lose for us to get the chance. Since there was always the possibility that that team would win, we needed to win our game.

“I’m trying not to think about it.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Mike’s confident smile. “You’ve got this. Just get out of your head and focus on the game. No problem.” I nodded, smiling back at him.

“No problem?” I asked. If only he knew about the things I thought about.

“Yeah, no problem at all. You’ve got this.”

My face fell as I sighed. I wished I had Mike’s confidence and carefree nature. I wished I could brush off worries, or at least appear to do so. Instead I kept things in, hoping that if I didn’t talk about it, it would resolve itself.

Still, Mike’s words did instill some hope in me. There wasn’t anything I knew to say to tell him I appreciated what he’d said, so we walked the rest of the way in silence after that little moment.

***

Our team ran through a few drills then a short scrimmage before our coach let us leave. I was grateful since I had done all of that practicing on an empty stomach. Mike hadn’t eaten before we left the house either, so it was more than likely that he was as hungry as I was, if not more so.

I walked up the steps of the bleachers to sit next to my brother. He looked up from his phone when he noticed me.

“We good to go?” he asked.

“Yeah, but you could’ve stayed home.” I wasn’t paying attention to him during practice, but I was sure he was on his phone for most of it.

“There’s nothing to do at home. Besides, I wanna go to IHOP.” I rolled my eyes. Of course he’d tag along if he thought I was going to be paying for something.

“Well we’re gonna have to go back home anyway.” Our parents had the cars for work which meant that Mike and I needed to get our skateboards. I hadn’t planned on going anywhere after practice so I didn’t consider taking it. Leave it to my brother’s stomach to make me change my plans.

He huffed but stood up and followed me down the stairs. We exited the field and headed back home. Once we got there we went to the garage and picked up our boards.

San Diego was a fun place to ride around. You could roll down the streets for miles and enjoy the cool breeze and the smell of the ocean. And even if you didn’t have a car nothing was too far out of the way.

We travelled down the streets toward IHOP. I was enjoying the wind against my cheeks as we cruised along. I looked back to see Mike following behind with his eyes closed. It looked like he was enjoying the weather as much as I was.

We arrived at IHOP and were seated quickly. It helped that the breakfast rush had died down before we got there. We ordered our meals and thanked the waitress before Mike looked at me.

“So how’s your friend thing going?”

I wasn’t expecting that question so I took a moment to answer. I knew he was talking about Kellin. I still hadn’t talked to him and I damn near forgot about him, but there was something that wouldn’t let me. I wasn’t sure what that something was, but it was infuriating.

I hated that I obsessed over things that I couldn’t always control. But I could control my thoughts, so why was I worried about this guy? Why did I feel like something was wrong? We’d talked for a few days a month ago so there was no reason to be feeling this way.

Maybe it was because our conversations were free flowing. We were able to talk for so long from the first moment he replied to me. We had similar interests. I thought we were friends. Then he ghosted me like I wasn’t important to him. Maybe I wasn’t.

I sighed. “I thought about it and I don’t think I’ll contact him. It’s not worth my time.”

“You’re sure?”

I looked at Mike quizzically. “Yeah…”

He shrugged. “Well I think you should.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Really?”

Mike nodded. “Not like have a full conversation, but at least check in. You could tell him that you hope he’s doing okay and if he doesn’t wanna talk to you again it’s cool. Or something.”

I was still confused. “Why?”

He shrugged again. “Because I know you. I know you wanna let this go but you can’t, especially after the talk we had with you last night. I know it’s still bothering you. Might as well get some kind of closure so you can move on.” Maybe he was right; maybe I did need closure. It could help.

The waitress returned with our food moments after Mike had given me his advice. We thanked her again and sat in silence as we ate.

I let my mind go over everything my brother had just said. To be honest, it sounded like a good idea. I was afraid to try to talk to Kellin again because I thought I would come off as annoying or needy, but not talking to him made me anxious and obsessive. Maybe one final message would help. I’d finally have some closure even if he ghosted me again.

With that in mind I pulled out my phone, opened Messenger, and added to our dead conversation.

Hey Kellin, it’s Vic. I know we haven’t talked in a while but I wanted to check in and make sure you were good. If you don’t wanna be pen pals anymore that’s cool. Stay safe out there

“It’s done,” I said as I put my phone face down on the table. Mike looked at me and smiled, a piece of egg stuck to his bottom lip.

“Cool, now you can focus on the game.”

***

I huffed as I dribbled the ball with my feet. Time was running out in the second half of the game and we were tied with Clairemont, two to two. This was our final play in the game and I needed to score.

I passed by Clairemont’s midfielders with the ball still in my possession. Their center back stood in front of me ready to stop me, but I swerved and confused him. He tripped over his own feet and fell.

I could feel the tension in the arena rise as the clock continued to count down. There were twenty seconds left in the game. I only had one shot at this.

I ran with the ball and approached the penalty arc. Ten seconds left to break this tie. Blocking out the cheers from the crowd, I focused my attention on the ball and the goal, lined up my angle, and shot my shot.

Time moved slowly as I watched the ball sail through the air. Everything was in slow motion, including my own heartbeat. I felt it pound as I watched the ball. It glided over the goalie’s head and into the net behind him as the buzzer sounded.

“Fuentes scores! Goal!” the announcer shouted. I felt relief course through my body as I fell to the ground. My teammates piled on top of me in a group hug/celebratory huddle. Around us the crowd was deafening. You couldn’t understand a single word, but you could hear their excitement.

The cheers rang through the stadium long after our team shook hands with Clairemont’s team. The congratulations from parents, fellow students, and our coach repeated in my head as Mike and I gathered our things and went home.

“That was so great!” my brother exclaimed. “I told you you got it!”

I chuckled. “Thanks.” Mike continued to ramble on about my performance, but I tuned him out to focus my own thoughts. I couldn’t believe that I had done it. I led my team to playoffs. It was a euphoric feeling that I wanted to cherish for as long as I could.

“Hey,” Mike said, bringing me out of my prideful thought, “I know you’re tired, but how about we do something?”

I didn’t want to deny him, but I was exhausted, so I shook my head. “The only ‘something’ I want to do is shower and sleep. Maybe tomorrow? The five of us could go down to the beach, maybe invite some friends or the team and celebrate.” Mike nodded with excitement. He knew I was referring to a bonfire tomorrow night and he was always down for bonfires.

We got home a few minutes later and headed upstairs. I went straight for the shower, happy that Mike let me go first for once. After winding down under the warm water and steam and going over various thoughts in my head from the game and planning the bonfire, I toweled off and got ready for bed.

I had a smile on my face as I plugged my phone in and turned off my light. I was both so tired and in such a good mood that I didn’t notice my screen lighting up from a notification:

I want to die.

[wesleyv21-blog]

Galapagos: Been there, done that(;

Hello once again!

Quito has never felt quite like home until now. After about 6 hours total of travel (including the hour I lost due to the time difference) from the Galápagos back to the Andes, I’m very glad to be back home-loosely speaking. There’s so much to tell yet so much that words can’t express, but I’ll give it my best shot to review everything that was our excursion to Guayaquil and the famous Galápagos Islands.

Last Wednesday we flew from Quito to Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. Nicknamed the Pearl of the Pacific for its beauty and the pride of its inhabitants, Guayaquil is the financial hub of Ecuador and really always has been. It’s named after the legendary figures of Guayas and Quil, an indigenous couple who according to legend led the resistance against the Spanish in what is now the area around the city. It was damn beautiful—and hot as hell compared to Quito! Upper 80s with 100% humidity and no clouds! Our first stop was the centrally-located Parque Histórico, where we took a tour of the zoological/botanical gardens that featured animals and plants from all over Ecuador. Crocodiles, otters, parrots, mangroves, monkeys—it was pretty cool! After that, we ate lunch on the famous Malecón (Boardwalk) that sits right on the River Guayas. Then, we toured an art museum that housed an impressive collection of pre-Columbian art from all around Ecuador. Ecuador is home to the first culture in South America to make pottery (the Valdivia culture). The Ecuadorian coast can also boast to be the home of the Manta-Wantawillka culture, the best and only ocean navigators in the southeastern Pacific. In addition, the infamous Spondylus shells are found in the depths off the Ecuadorian coast. These shells were traded as far north as Baja California and as far south as Chile and formed an important part of the economies of various ancestral societies. Alas, our time in Guayaquil was limited to a day, but what a day we spent! It’s a beautiful city that doesn’t have a tradition of tourism interestingly enough, yet I couldn’t recommend it more.

Thursday was the big day, the one we were all looking forward to: the arrival in las Islas Encantadas, the Galápagos Islands. The word “Galápagos” comes from old Spanish and means a saddle; it originally referred to the various species of tortoises that inhabit the islands and then came to refer to the islands themselves. We spent Thursday and Friday in San Cristobal, the capital and home of the oldest human settlements on the islands. Unlike mainland Ecuador, there is no history of ancestral communities living on the islands. Even though the Manta-Wantawillka were the first to discover the islands, they didn’t settle them because they’re very inhospitable. Only 2 islands have natural sources of fresh water. Only 4 are inhabited. I never knew the meaning of “desert island” until I came here. Yet they’re a curious mix of tropical, desert, and high altitude. On the same island (such as San Cristobal or Santa Cruz), you can encounter 5 different micro-climates, each with their own vegetation, animal life, and weather. And then there are the islands that look like they’re otherworldly, such as Bartolomé or Baltra. Bartolomé is red and rocky with an occasional cactus sprouting out of the lava flows and this scraggly grey lichen sprawled out over the entire surface of the island. Baltra has completely red soil, like deep red soil, and the same grey lichen except in much vaster quantities. There are also ruined buildings all over the island—probably dating from the WWII U.S. military base—which give the island an Old West-type feel.

But anyway, Thursday we spent on San Cristobal. We checked into our hotel and chilled the rest of the day, heading down the boardwalk to the beach and swimming with sea lions (which are called lobos marinos in Spanish, or sea wolves, which to me makes a whole lot more sense than sea lions). Sea lions are literally everywhere on San Cristobal—on the benches, on the beaches, on the sidewalk, on the outdoor patios of the restaurants, sometimes on the street. They’ll chase you sometimes if you get too close—as some of the students found out! The way human settlements work on the Galápagos is that 97% of all the territory of the islands is reserved as the national park, leaving 3% for human development. San Cristobal boasts a population of about 8,000 people; Santa Cruz is the biggest in population with around 18,000. So yea, Thursday we spent exploring and swimming and trying to avoid sunburn (which would prove a losing battle the entire trip, as there was hardly ever a cloud in the sky all the days we were there. The sun would be roasting us from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. every day).

On Friday we took a boat out to a tiny rock called León Dormido to go snorkeling! This was the first time I had ever gone snorkeling and it was amazinggggggg. We wore wetsuits, flippers, and masks—the whole outfit lol. The current around this rock was such that you could just float effortlessly while looking at all the wildlife literally right below you. We swam with schools of fish, sea lions, sharks, and even sea turtles! It was absolutely incredible to be only 10 feet from all these animals you see at the aquarium or on TV. One of the students brought a GoPro camera and got the whole experience—including the animals—on video! After eating lunch on the boat and taking a wonderful nap in the sun (which I later came to regret due to sunburn), we returned to San Cristobal to hear a talk by a local political activist about the tourism industry and local relations of power. This to me is far more interesting than the wildlife, although it’s never emphasized. The activist told us that some people come to the Galápagos not realizing that people actually live on the islands lol, which is indicative of the image projected to the rest of the world. There’s basically 4 entities that run the islands. There’s the Charles Darwin Research Station, which has the most funds of any of the entities I’ll discuss and enjoys the most privileged access to all of the islands—such unrestricted access that not even the local politicians or national park people have. Their agenda, which is ostensibly one of conservation and study, often prevails over the local interests of the people who inhabit and try to make a living on the islands. Second, there’s the Parque Nacional Galápagos, which is the administrative body of the national park aspect of the islands and is overseen principally by the Ministry of the Environment. Their agenda often meshes with that of the Charles Darwin Station, yet the key difference is the amount of money the two have. Whereas the Parque Nacional is funded by the state (meagerly), the Charles Darwin Station is an NGO affiliated with the Charles Darwin Foundation, which receives much more money from international donors. Third, there is the political system on the islands which includes local governments for each of the 4 inhabited islands as well as an overarching political body. Whereas the local governments are elected directly, the Minister of the Galápagos is appointed by the president and thus often a) is corrupt, b) is unpopular, c) does not govern with the interests of the local population in mind, or d) some combination of a, b, and c. Finally, there is the tourism industry, which really comprises two sets of individuals and companies: local and foreign. The foreigners are technically not allowed to operated in the islands by law, yet one always sees the fleets of international cruise ships circling the islands like vultures with their tourists on board. The corrupt politicians allow the international cruise lines to operate illegally, and the fucked up thing is that the conservationist agenda usually goes along with it because the rhetoric of tourism in the Galápagos is ostensibly to minimize the environmental impact of tourists by having them take up as little space as possible for as little time as possible. So, it’s very common for a trip to the Galápagos to be spent almost entirely on board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship or another similar one, which then lays anchor at various ports only long enough for tourists to disembark to take pictures, buy things, eat, etc.

We’re not taking this route obviously. In fact, this piece is important for yall to know in case you ever want to come to the Galápagos or have friends/family who do. It’s vital that visitors to the islands DO NOT rely on big-name, international travel agencies to visit the islands. In addition to the environmental impact these companies leave behind, they siphon money out of the local economy. Only 1/3 of the money spent in the Galápagos stays in the pockets of the local galapagueños. Even though the islands are the richest province in Ecuador, they should be a lot better off. Instead, their environment and their jobs get auctioned off to foreign companies because of corrupt politicians and because tourists don’t know any better and go with the household names over the local establishments and tours. The latter is wayyy more fun, trust me. And part of the fun lies in knowing that I’m contributing to a responsible tourist ethos. I came into this trip thinking that tourism was inherently exploitative. Now I understand that that’s not the case. However, when big transnational companies appropriate the livelihood of the local population, that’s when tourism becomes a problem. Now yall know and can plan a smart, eco-friendly, and relatively sustainable trip to these magical islands.

On Saturday we arrived on Santa Cruz, the biggest island population-wise and the tourism hub. We stayed on land and checked out the Center of Environmental Interpretation, a system of trails with cool information about the formation of the islands as well as sociological information about the human aspect of the islands. We hiked up breathtaking (literally and figuratively) trails and spied frigate birds, boobies, big spiders, marine iguanas, giant cactuses, etc. I found out that the colonists as the residents are called have their residency pretty much for life; the only way they can lose it is by failing to renew it once every 10 years or so. Yet obtaining residency in the first place is tricky: one must marry someone with residency or be born to parents who have residency. Living on the islands is so exclusive so as not to upset the delicate ecosystems or overburden the economy. This whole time we had been eating fabulously. I’ve never had seafood so fresh in my life. Lobsters, tuna, shrimp—out of this world delicious. At dinner some of us met this random U.S. dude touring the islands after having just graduated college. He rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning, but then he mentioned how he really wanted to try ayawaska recreationally. Ayawaska, or ayahuasca, is an entheogen that combines two vines found in the Amazon—one contains a neurotransmitter released at birth and at death, and the other contains an enzyme that allows for the metabolization of the neurotransmitter. This combination is distilled into a drink and taken by shamans (yachakuna in Kichwa, where the term ayawaska comes from) of various Amazonian nations in order to divine the future, receive instructions or warnings, or cope with loss or other powerful life events/emotions. It is a sacred plant, and partaking in an ayawaska ritual requires years of dedication, preparation, and for outsiders, trust and bonds of communion with a local population. It cannot be taken recreationally, and the fact that this tourist expressed an interest in doing so even after one of us pointed all the above out to him just really irritated me. However, it’s important I use him as an example and continuously strive to root out my own ignorance and prejudices toward cultures different than my own.

Sunday was the best snorkeling day by far. We took a boat from Santa Cruz to the little island of Bartolomé, which is home to perhaps the most iconic image of the islands (Google Galápagos and you’ll probably see it, or check out my Facebook as I posted a picture of it). Bartolomé is so inhospitable that it’s been used as a site to film movies that take place on Mars. There’s dried lava plumes, ridges, cliffs, and tunnels everywhere, and the sparse vegetation only adds to the merciless landscape. With no trees and no clouds to shade us, we were sizzling as we climbed up to the summit to look down on the bay. But it was all worth it once we jumped in the water! We snorkeled and swam with penguins! The second smallest species in the world. They were adorableeee! And they zoomed in the water right past us as we snorkeled! We also saw numerous sharks lurking on the seafloor, as well as seastars and tons of fish. There’s this giant fish called a parrotfish that is as brightly colored as its namesake. They are absolutely breathtaking. And the water was a bright turquoise—I’ve only ever seen water that beautiful in the movies haha. We also ate lunch on the boat (an incredible experience), and on the way back to Santa Cruz (about a 2 hour ride), I sat up top with the captain and jammed out to his playlist of reggeaton classics while the wind whipped my hair and the sun beat down on my back. Simply beautiful.

Monday was our last full day. We visited two sinkholes that are named Los Gemelos (the Twins) because they’re right next to each other. They were pretty cool but uneventful haha. Then we visited the famous Charles Darwin Research Center. We toured the tortoise breeding program and saw baby tortoises! They were absolutely the cutest things ever—only like the size of your hand, moving all around their enclosures exploring to their precious little hearts’ content, and eating leaves like you’ve never seen anything eat a leaf. The day passed far too quickly and left us all with sadness and nostalgia. We played classic group games like Hot Seat and the question game and games of that sort through the night. As we were leaving today, I couldn’t help but feel that this is an adios and not a chao—a goodbye forever and not an “until next time.” I certainly would love to return but I just don’t see how I’ll ever be able to for the rest of my life. Then again, I’m one of the 1% of the world population who has ever visited the islands. And what a fulfilling trip it was. Still though, returning to Quito has filled me with a profound sadness. It’s not just leaving behind such a paradise and knowing that I’ll never be able to recreate that experience in the same way. It’s also returning to the daily grind of classes and homework. But even more than that—being in an airport for the first time since January has filled me with homesickness for one of the really only times so far. I can’t really explain why beyond that just physically being in an airport made me recall the flight to the unknown that took place what feels like eons ago. The domestic and international arrivals share the same exit point, so I was literally back in the same place I was when everything was so new and I didn’t know anybody or anything. It was a weird feeling.

So, there ya have it—the Galápagos episode over and done with. These words fail to do justice to the sights, smells, sounds, emotions, and thoughts that comprised this trip. I encourage yall to go and see for yourselves, because the Enchanted Islands will certainly enchant you—as they have done me.  

[cinnamonroll-duffy]

The Last Girl on Earth--#ChoicesCreates29

This is in response to the Villian Prompt by @moonandstarscollide and @holly-park​

Summary: As Becca runs away from her problems, she finds herself faced with a new one. 

Starring: Becca Davenport, Madison, Lila (ES), Taylor (ES MC)

(Gruesome Scenes Warning)

Why was she blocking my way? I was ready to walk into the private jet, but Madison decided to be annoying and hug me before I walked up the stairs. 

“Look, I know things have been terrible between us, and I feel awful about it. We need to talk. I don’t want our last conversation to be a bad, shouty one. Becca, please, just listen to me.” I pulled my arms away from her and shook my head.

“No can do. I’m tired of your crap. Everyone’s crap. You’re Chelsea’s minion now.” Of course, Madison began pouting and almost weeping. That was too much to bear.

“How could you say that? Chelsea has been nothing but nice to me since you left the sorority. I thought we were like sisters, but I guess you had other things in mind.” Even if I hated her right then and there, Madison was right. I had too much on my mind.  

“Bye, Madison. If I never see your face in 4000 years, that would still be too soon.” I walked into the plane for my own private getaway. Yes, I was headed to the island paradise of La Huerta. I was able to ask my Dad to fork up some cash for this trip. Since he was feeling guilty about what happened to me and Mom, he agreed to it. I needed my own personal retreat, and it was coming in the form of tropical beaches, sunny days, and a secluded 5-star hotel.

Sitting in my seat as we took off, I shut my eyes and thought of all the reasons I was leaving Hartfield behind for a whole semester. I thought about how my relationships with Chris, Sebastian, and later Zig...all fell apart. Later, I thought of how I lost the trust of my new roommates when I still haven’t fully changed my ways, especially one who fought everyone else for the right to have me around. Last of all, I thought of how I wasn’t making my mom proud. I was still a terrible bitch to everyone in my life and I haven’t grown up. Exhausted, I fell asleep during the whole flight...

I woke up to see the plane in the middle of the jungle. Then, I checked the cockpit and didn’t see a single sign of the pilots. In the corner, I saw the emergency exit open. As I exited the jet, I saw a lady with short hair and an unmistakable tan. 

“Welcome to La Huerta. I hope your trip was enjoyable. My name is Lila, and I’ll be your host for your stay here. Let me get your bags for you.” I swear this woman must have been under all kinds of medications, because I had no clue why she was perkier than a Jack Russell Terrier.

“Why was the plane stuck in the woods? Where are the pilots? Most importantly, where’s the hot tub? I’m really irritable right now.” I knew so much mysteries were around me, but I couldn’t have given a damn as I needed to just kick back and relax. 

“I myself don’t know the answers to the first two questions, Miss. I could lead you to the hot tub, though. It’s in our world class outdoor spa facility as well as in each of our premium suites.” She had me sold. As we cruised down the path toward the hotel in Lila’s golf cart, I saw blood on Lila’s shirt, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. 

When we arrived at the Celestial, I was taken to the biggest suite, facing the ocean on two sides. I laid down on the King bed and felt the softest silk sheets I ever had the chance to touch. There was a hot tub by the balcony, so I turned that on and just allowed myself to breathe along with a glass of Chardonnay. Afterward, I turned on my phone and looked through my photos. The Wi-Fi password was “Andromeda”, which I found on a card in the desk. As I was fiddling with the card playing Dopey Cat and posting my window views on Snapchat, I saw on the back of the card a frightening message:

Running down the lobby, I thought of many scenarios in my head. I remembered the contest winners from Hartfield having vanished on a flight toward La Huerta, but I didn’t piece together that Taylor was one of them until I saw the note. By the time I reached the entrance, I saw a man in a suit nod at me. I knew that face anywhere.

“Miss Rebecca Davenport, I hope your stay in the Celestial has been everything you’ve wanted and more.” Everett Rourke had been one of my dad’s good friends, as they both worked on many business negotiations together.

“Mr. Rourke. Everything’s fine. Amazing Chardonnay from the bar, by the way. I’ve got a question and you’re gonna have to answer me.” I handed Mr. Rourke the note from Taylor. He studied it up and down before saying to me,

“Hmm, I’ll have you know that it was Taylor himself who went on a killing rampage. Apparently, he joined up with some of the Hostiles in this island to slaughter each and every one of his friends.” I knew right then and there Rourke was lying, as Taylor would never do that with a sane mind. However, I didn’t want to tip off Rourke’s hand. 

“OK, well, can you take me to the North of this Island? I know I’m the only guest, so surely you can accommodate that. The note says I need to speak with him. If he’s really the murderer, then I’m gonna kill him myself.” I knew that if I could find Taylor, he could explain to me everything. 

“Miss Davenport, check your phone calendar.” I looked through it and saw the date, [15 September 2024]. I did a double take and dropped my phone on accident. How did I lose 7 years of time? 

“What does this mean? I’ve been gone for 7 years? Look, Mr. Rourke, this is getting weird. I need to go home.” I didn’t know what happened during the plane flight to La Huerta, but I knew something wasn’t adding up and that my life was endangered every further second I spent in that island. 

Stop right there. You need to see this. This is what happened immediately after you left for La Huerta.” Mr. Rourke handed me a tablet. “You see, we sent a drone through the Lernaean Gate to document what was going on there with our various experiments.” I took a look at the video playing on the tablet. A volcano popped up out of nowhere and began spewing lava all over Hartfield. I saw the coffee shop I used to go to and people I knew dying all over. Then, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Madison die trying to help Chelsea up the sorority house for safety. The dread came over me of the fact I would never see or get the chance to say sorry to her for what I had done.  

“You sent a drone there and you couldn’t do a damn thing TO STOP ALL THE DESTRUCTION? What the hell was this experiment?” I slapped Rourke on the face and he just laughed.

“Now, young lady, save the anger for the forces who will try to stop me from making a better world. I will save your friends and much, much more.” His condescending tone was too much to bear. He obviously had something to do with Madison and everyone else dying.

“Shut up. I’ve had enough of you. I’ll find my way to see Taylor and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.” Before I was to go, Lila came out of nowhere and pleaded with me.

“Please, don’t make this harder on Mr. Rourke than it has to be. Don’t make me have to kill you too.” I looked over at Rourke and then Lila, wondering if Lila was really capable of murder like Taylor warned me.

“Miss Davenport. I took the liberty of recording your friends’ execution. See, this is where Michelle Nguyen got stabbed by our own Lila. Look at the grace of how Lila slammed that knife into her...” I grabbed the phone and threw it to the ground.

“ENOUGH. Do your worst. Seeing Madison and Michelle die...I’d rather be with them than you two freaks.” That’s when Lila peered over to Rourke, who gave her the thumbs up. She pointed a gun at me and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit my head and fell to the ground, blood spilling out of my skull....

I was in a dark void...and someone tapped me from behind. Turning, I saw Taylor’s face. He looked just as hot as I remembered him. Short brown hair and that smile.

“Am I dead? I bet I’m in hell. That’s what I deserve anyway.” After walking toward me, Taylor gave me a hug.

“No, you could never be in hell. You helped me get through my worst year in Hartfield by giving my stupid roommates who hated me...some hell. Yeah, you’re dead. You never were able to follow my note to see me. By the way, you’ve got to do something about those bangs; They’re ugly.” I then wondered if Heaven was a dark place with only me and Taylor.

“Funny, but I don’t see any hairdressers around. Look, how did they kill you, Taylor? Did that Manson disciple Lila get to you too?”  

“So, um, I’m not dead yet and neither will you in a few minutes. I’m using telepathic energy to speak to you...to give you courage for the next step.” All that metaphysical mumbo-jumbo started to bore me at that point.

“That makes zero sense, Tay. Seriously. Are you high?”  At that point, Taylor laughed,

“You got launched to another dimension, skipped years in time, and saw all your friends die. However, you say that telepathic energy makes no sense?” Eh, Taylor, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, had a point.

“Whatever. Let’s just fast-forward to this next step.”

My eyes jolted open, I saw the blood rush back inside my head. Later, I saw the bullet ricochet out from my skull and into the open air. Lastly, my legs picked up and I was back with Rourke and Lila.

“What the, Mr. Rourke? I shot her and she just popped back up?” Confused, Lila tried to shoot me again, but she had no more bullets.

“Lila, this is no ordinary girl. Miss Davenport is...the Endless.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I felt like my adventure was about to begin...

[sirrongirl]

Road Trip to Tahiti

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

I’m spending the morning on the terrace catching up with my writing and reviews. My view is stunning, aqua water surrounding me. There is the smell of smoke in the air and I’m wondering where that is coming from? We skipped the hotels $45 dollar continental breakfast and had coffee and Madeline cakes on our terrace. It was great out here until the sawing began again. I was hoping they’d be finished with the deck.  I think we’re going to rent a kayak and go out into the water, and I need to try out my new “dry” snorkel. 

 I need to comment on litter in the ocean. I don’t understand how a person could throw a plastic bottle into the water. On our last cruise to the Panama Canal, I remember seeing something sparkling in the water, only to find it was a bottle. And now, sitting here in a natural paradise, here comes a floating green plastic pop bottle. I’d grab it if it was closer to my dock.  So many beautiful places we have visited, and people throw there trash everywhere. In Ft. Myers recently, at Naples Botanical Garden, looking over the children’s garden rail, I look down and see a diaper and the remains of someone’s lunch. Really? If you have diapers with you, you should have a plan to store them until you can dispose of them properly. 

So I’ve been writing long enough, time to get into the water. I got Tom away from CNN and we got into the water in a double kayak. We boarded from the porch, which was awkward. It was comical watching me get into the from seat. I got in on my knees, then had to lift up and basically fall back into the seat. The wind was picking up and it really looked like it was going to rain, so I knew our time was limited. I have no problem with a little rain, but if it’s a storm like yesterday, I’d rather be out of the water. It took few minutes, but we got into a rhythm of strokes. 

We could see from the water some of the homes around here are nothing to look at street side, but really incredible water side. I’m taking a video photography class online, so I practiced with a few videos.  Soon it really started looking dark and we headed for shore. It was a repeat of yesterday, almost the same time, strong winds and rain.

I really wanted to get into the water to swim, and I did when there was a break in the rain. Unbelievable, here I am swimming in French Polynesia. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever be here. When I was in school in Hawaii, I use to feel the same way.

 I’d be floating on my back looking at the blue Hawaiian sky and think about how lucky I am. But is it luck? No one gave me these trips. I worked hard to get to Hawaii. College wasn’t easy for me. I had to work around my manic depression and get my work finished while I had the energy. I knew if I didn’t stay organized and up to date, I might have a crash of depression that would prevent me from finishing a project. For me, things always must be done now, today, because I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.  

Since Tom and I have been a team, together we worked, saved, and invested. .  We’ve had setbacks , for me mostly with my health, but we have to keep on going.  If we go out of this world broke, we had lives well spent. 

I tried out the soaker tub, but there wasn’t enough hot water to fill it up. There is a great rain shower, so I did that instead. 

We walked over to the Holy Steak House in a very light mist. Today Tom ordered the tuna “fish of the day," and I had sirloin steak. The steak was good, after I sent it back to be cooked to medium rare. It was presented to me raw. Tom’s tuna was also raw, and I sent that back for a little more cooking. It still wasn’t very good. We did accept the ride home again, because it was too dark to walk. 

It’s raining again, really hard. It sounds delightful on the thatched roof. The tropical garden location is starting to get to me a little. Tom says he doesn’t like it here, it’s too isolated. He’d go crazy, I think, if they didn’t have CNN. Walking through the garden, even though its private, is a pain considering the number of times I get up during the night. I missed the step down to the toilet area, but I caught myself by the towel rack. Once tonight coming into the bathroom, I saw the largest cockroach I have even seen crawl out of the box I had the toothbrushes in. No one heard me scream! The over the water room is built , as implied, over the water, over a sand beach, and then the rest of the room seems to be over dirt. I don’t think there is a cement slab under us. That makes me think about all the bugs under us, that could come up through the wood slats of the floor. I kept looking for bugs, and every noise tonight woke me up. We had the TV on, and fell asleep watching Captain America in french. 

[phoenix1966sbottom]

I read Mismanaged by Macbyrne and absolutely fell in love with Non-AU stories! Do you mind reccing a few more please! Thanks so much!

When Jared is “real”…I probably won’t do another one of these because I don’t read much RPF non-au stories. As always, heed the author warnings where the story is posted. Since many are on Ao3, consider hitting the kudos button on your way through or, even better, leave a comment! It’s all the writer ever gets…

Mismanaged by MacByrne on Livejournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Set during season one of Supernatural, Jensen discovers that Jared’s manager has been whoring Jared out for parts. One of my favorite non-au fics.

When the World Ends; That Is When We Begin by truelyesoteric on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.  Civilization as they knew it ended. That is all it took for them to admit what they really wanted. (no penetrative sex; mentions of past het relationships)

The Day Love Began (and the World Ended) by firesign10 in Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.  No time like the present…(no penetrative sex)

Fading Silhouettes by Indysaur on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.  The problem is, Jared is days, miles, light years away. (no penetrative sex)

Scary Monsters by annie46fic on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.   He wonders, sometimes, at the irony of it all. An actor from Texas who got his lucky break in a programme about monsters and demons is now facing them for real.

New Day, New Dawn by sylsdarkplace on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.  Post-apocalyptic AU (no penetrative sex; background, het relationships)

Arguing on the Internet is Like by longsufferingly on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jensen doesn’t know why everyone always thinks he’s the gay one.

Caught Red-Handed by nyxocity on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jared gets caught by Jensen while posting an anonymous kink request for J2 in the blindfold_spn community.

For the Love of Manips by egoists on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jensen can’t sleep and decides to search the internet. Clicks happen.

The Problem with Jared by fics_by_lindsay on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jared reads bad things about himself online. Jensen blows him.  (no penetrative sex)

Sources of Inspiration by bistokids on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. The boys bring each other off quoting fan fiction. (no penetrative sex)

Logging On by annie46fic on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jared is bored. Jared discovers the internet. Jared discovers fan girls and fan fiction. Jared learns that he is not quite what he thought he was!  (background Jared/Gen and Jensen/Danneel but nothing descriptive)

As the Tides Change by freakn-out on Livejournal. Jared/Jensen. Non-AU. The boys attend a Supernatural reunion cruise. An accident casts them into the ocean, and they find themselves stranded on an island. With no way of contacting for help, they have to find a way to survive. Jensen has a fiance waiting for him at home, but could there be a possibility of something more than friendship between him and Jared? 

#HappyHoHoHo by Exaggerated_Specificity on A03. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Inspired by the Christmas twitter pic, Jared was wearing more than a dress.

Time and Tide by choccyprofit on Livejournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jared likes to draw and paint as a hobby while acting on Supernatural.

The Incremental Breakage… by smash86 on Livejournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Set around season 3, Jared falls apart and turns to drugs. 

So Easy (to throw it all away) by incruenta on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. “Happy anniversary, love. When did you plan on telling me you’re screwing our co-star?” No topping or bottoming in this one.

From the Abyss by annie46 on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. 2 years after Supernatural ended and their relationship hit the skids, Jensen finds himself confronted with a very different Jared. Can he ever make things right again? Or is Jared broken beyond repair.

Along This Rocky Road We Travel, Together by lissa-an on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jared goes out to the store one night and is brutally raped and beaten. Throughout his recovery, Jensen’s there, every step of the way.

The Untold Love Story of Inanimate Objects by cyndrarae on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.  Season 5 was supposed to be the end of Supernatural. And after years of being together, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki prepare to part ways with one final getaway. But when Jared meets with a ‘freak accident’, saying goodbye becomes harder than it already is. Jared needs help healing, lots of it.  Also a favorite of mine!

Systemic Desensitization by lylithj2 on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-Au.  Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural are traveling through the Midwest visiting roadside attractions until they get lost and stop to see ‘The Horror. (no penetrative sex)

New Four Letter Word by rockstarpeach on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. Not specified if AU or not. Jared really likes to get fucked. Pretty much constantly. Jensen does his best to keep up and tries not to feel inadequate. Porn and schmoop here, folks. Based on a kink meme prompt asking for cockslut Jared.

Love Through Music by kultiras on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Sometimes you have to pay attention to a song to find what it’s really saying to you; at least that’s what Jared is discovering…(only kissing, implied het past Jared/Sandy)

Real Slow by deirdre_c on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. The stripteasing on stage at conventions is a joke, until Jensen gets drunk and sends a private video to Jared. Then it’s not so funny anymore.

Post Season Interview by Anon on spnkink-meme. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. J2 wants show fans other side their relationship…Inspired by: http://fawnsam.tumblr.com/post/117072598574/just-finished-season-10-10-years-same-show

Facts Don’t Constitute Arrogance by nyxocity on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Kissing Jared starts out as a joke to make Chad uncomfortable, but what it opens the door to turns out to be more than Jensen would ever have imagined.

Tell Me All the Things That I Wanna Hear by nyxocity on LiveJournal. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Phone sex. Jared’s at a con alone, Jensen’s jealous because he knows Jared’s been flirting all day. Jared shows Jensen he knows whose he is.

Yours By Any Other Name by nyxocity on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jensen gets jealous after watching Jared make out with an actress on set most of the day. Jensen then proceeds to show Jared he belongs to Jensen no matter who he is–especially if he’s Dean Winchester.

And a whole bunch by MorganaDW on Ao3 that I going to put below the cut so that this post doesn’t get too long. Some of these might mention future switching.

Bottles on the Beach by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Supernatural has been over for six years. Jensen’s moved on & is close to starting back on daytime TV but no one’s seen or heard from Jared in nearly five years.At a press event Jensen is approached by a reporter with a photo of his friend living on a beach. Confused & alarmed, he goes to find Jared to learn what happened.When he does, Jensen must also face the very reason he pulled away from Jared to begin in. As he does, and he learns that Jared’s kept his own secret feelings hidden the truth behind Jared’s disappearance comes out and Jensen finds out just what someone close to him was willing to do to keep him and Jared apart.

Birthday Wish by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.   It’s season 5 and Jensen’s birthday. He has one wish and plans to share it that night. The only problem is Jared decides not to go to the party so what’s a frustrated Jensen to do? He goes looking for answers as to why his best friend blew him off.Jared’s hiding a huge secret & while he wants to spend his best friend’s birthday with him he can’t watch him make out with another girl like last year so he doesn’t go.A knock on his door will change both their lives.

Reunion at the Upfronts by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.Jared’s been missing Jensen since filming for Season 9 ended. He’s been looking to catching up with his co-star, best friend and boyfriend when they go to the Upfronts but a harmless gesture from a meddling Misha might throw a wrench into his plans…or give him more than he could hope for.

Surprise Arrangements by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.Danneel and Gen are tired of their husbands pretending what they see between them doesn’t exist so with the help of a very unlikely Chad they make arrangements to get Jared and Jensen together and then can only hope the boys cooperate like they think they should.

The Day Twitter Blew Up by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.It should’ve been any normal J2 day an VanCon until Jensen decides to do something that not only shocks those closest to him but also his fans. Then it’s a matter of reassuring Jared that it’s a good idea when he worries about how Twitter and their fans will react in the long run.

In Too Deep by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Filming while directing is never easy but when a scene causes Jensen to go too deep into his own head and almost hurts Jared, his guilt leads to more later on that night.

Not Without Him by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Jensen’s off set when something happens that calls him back to Vancouver in a hurry and he’s faced with the very real threat of the show he’s given 10 years to changing in a way that he will not allow.When the network is fed lies about Jared and actually considers firing him Jensen finally has had enough of the lies, the innuendo and makes two very clear demands: one to his network and one to whom he blames for things getting to this point: Keep Jared or he walks as well and fix this insanity.

The Morning After by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Waking up the morning after they wrapped up Season 10 find Jensen and Jared both a little worse for wear and trying to figure out just what they got up to the night before.

Making it Home for Christmas by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.. Jared’s in Austin planning for Christmas when he wakes up with what he thought was nightmare until Jensen’s father arrives on his door with some news he’s not prepared for and rushes back to Vancouver.

Mistletoe and Countdowns by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. Innocent teasing and joking turns into something more under a sprig of mistletoe.

All Wrapped Up by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.Jensen finds an early Christmas present all wrapped with a bow when he gets home and remembers that Jared knows him all too well.

New Discoveries by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU. When an unexpected phone call from an unlikely source sends Jensen flying back to Vancouver over the summer hiatus he finds a very upset, very drunk Jared…in his bed.

Reality Check by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.When a joking question at a Supernatural convention about the height difference between Jared and Gen comes up. A mock kiss on stage takes both Jared and Jensen by surprise and both men make some choices that doesn’t come to a surprise to others in their lives.

Control Issues by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.Season 10 is winding up, emotions are running high so Jared plans for a relaxing weekend at home for him and Jensen. Unfortunately for Jared, someone has other plans and Jared finds himself playing with someone he wasn’t expecting.

Surprising Valentine by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.Jared’s home in Austin the night before a convention and Valentine’s Day. He’s tired and unhappy to learn he’s supposed to go out until he learns who the surprise dinner is with and what is planned for the night.

Reunited  by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.Jared and Jensen have been apart for a week before flying into Birmingham, England for the Asylum convention. Each want only one thing and that’s the other and Jensen is prepared to do whatever he had to in order to make it happen. Regardless of who he makes mad.

All Tied Up by MorganaDW on Ao3. Jared/Jensen. J2 Non-AU.After Asylum 16 in England, instead of going home to Austin in between cons, Jensen has other plans for him and Jared. Plans that include keeping his co-star very distracted and a lot tied up.

[thesteveyates]

Now, should that be ‘who’ or ‘whom‘ ? my grammatical’s are never the best.

In this post i am going to finish my current writing and video project : that of reviewing the boats and  books of the late L. Francis Herreshoff.  In previous posts i took a look at ‘The Compleat Cruiser‘ and ‘Sensible Cruising Designs‘ .  Just as i was finishing the last episode contained within my post ‘The poor man’s yacht’ the third book arrived in the post, this one being ‘The golden age of yachting’.   It’s most likely that i won’t get the video finished for this post because , shock-horror, i have actually got my boat alongside and i am actually getting some jobs done.

So, in this post i am going to take a look at 2 things : first the new book, as it covers a whole load of material from the big racing cutters of the late Victorian era and onwards, to a whole section about the glory days of the steam yacht…..essentially small private steamships.   Second, i am going to try and get a sense of what Herreshoff’s America was actually like, what was going on at that time and so forth.  The period that Herreshoff talks about in ‘The compleat cruiser’ and ‘Sensible cruising designs‘ seems to be the 1950’s or at least the immediate post second world war period.  I said in my first section of the review that i really couldn’t get a feel for what the USA was like at the time so i had a lot of fun doing some basic research.  The best way of putting that across seemed to be via a whole load of images, it being said that a picture is worth a thousand words…..so i have saved a few eh !

Ok so, first i would just like to say a few words about the structure and content of the book.    First there is a quick historical tour of the early days of going on the water as a leisure experience as opposed to warfare and trade.  The first ‘proper’ yachts as we might know them appearing as small armed sailing ships in the reformation period.

After that it’s straight into the big steam yachts and from there a technical discussion about the marine steam engine and then logically into smaller, faster steam launches such as ‘Turbinia’ which i had heard about.   After that it’s into the really big sailing, racing and cruising, yachts including the big private cutters and schooners up to and including the inter-war years.  After that there are sections about the ‘J’ class and the races for the America’s cup.

The racing cutter ‘Reliance‘ in dry dock, one of the most extreme and short lived boats ever built.

Lets take a look at the kind of thing, i hesitate to say boat, that Herreshoff is talking about in his section about the great era of steam yachts.  The one i found a useful image of online actually made me smile in the same way that my recent boat names thread did : boats such as ‘Chuckle’ (Chuckle made me smile post), recently, ‘Fat bottom Girl’ and most recently the appropriately named ‘Slaphead’.            I do love a good boat name, especially the ones that are a bit more personal than the endless ocean this and storm that.

The steam yacht below is, as far as i can tell, ‘La Belle Sauvage’ and if you know modern steampunk literature at all you will know that ‘La Belle Sauvage’ also appears in a book except that it’s in Philip Pullman’s recent book from the dust series and it’s a canoe.  It is owned by the hero of the story , a young boy and it’s owners friend keeps over-painting the name to call it ‘La Belle Sausage‘.  I read Pullman’s book while i was recuperating from my knee surgery and it made a nice relief from far too much Solzhenitsin, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche…..far too heavy a diet !

La Belle Sausage then in all it’s obnoxious glory.  Lets just call it the BS for short.

Now i don’t know how many crew it took to run the ship, for small steamship it was, and to look after the maybe half dozen family and guests but a similar ‘yacht’ had 140 crew*  according to the book !       As i sit and try to account for that many people i start at one end, so obviously a captain and mate or 2, then a chief engineer and probably a couple of engineers mates, after that i guess a bunch of sweaty stokers and oilers.  What else ? a bosun and some deckhands, quite a few stewards to pander to the owner’s every wish, maybe a governess and teacher if the family had children, but 140…..i wouldn’t even be able to remember their names.  That one maybe was a bit unusual being a ‘Royal’ yacht so add to the ‘useful’ crew a whole load of ladies-in-waiting and basically flunkies of some kind …..the norm for the ‘great’ steam yachts being a mere 40-50 or so.

Just to put that in context, the great clipper ship Cutty Sark, of the same approximate time frame sailed with a crew of between 26 and 30.  Cutty Sark carried some 32.000 square feet of sail and she was said to be able to run at an average speed of 17 knots….to put that into context the maxi yachts that i sailed, considered to be the big boats of that era carried around 5,000 square feet of sail and usually had around 17 or so crew.             I have laid alongside a couple of big modern superyachts (power) and the biggest of those ‘only’ had 40 crew including one stewardess who just looked after the owner’s wife’s clothes.  I have heard it said that the modern superyachts owned by the current super-wealthy run with about the same number of crew, except that quite a few of the newer ones include a heavy contingent of personal security.

Herreshoff tells us that this was the glory days of the great steam yacht and genteel living for a few aristocratic families.  Somehow i thought these would be the newly wealthy of the USA in it’s prosperous pre-first war era but apparently not.  Although there was some new wealth, even super-wealth, most of the big yachts were from Europe and a several of those were British owned.  Now, ok so the British Royals had one or 2, and several big racing cutters for sport, Britannia for example, the Kaiser (some German geezer with a dodgy helmet) had one….oh and he had a big schooner as a racing dayboat ! etc etc.

Kaiser Wilhelm 2nd aboard the Meteor 

Before i get too far into my own opinions about Herreshoff’s ‘golden era’ it would be as well to read some of his words.  These short takes are from the sections about the great steam yachts : only one of several sections of the book.

Herreshoff says :

“One of the things i remember about the large steam yachts was their characteristic and delightful odor.  If you passed under the stern or close to leeward of one of them you smelled the combined odor of new varnish, linseed oil, brass polish , Havana cigars and champagne all mingled with engine room smells and the slight odor of teak and other exotic woods, to say nothing of the burned gases of the naptha launches .  To a sailor this combination was delightful.

Unfortunately there have been handed down some strange stories about life in the larger American yachts.   I can assure you that these stories are not typical of the life that was actually led in these yachts when whole families were usually present.  I believe life on the larger English yachts was the most refined of that of any class that has been known

Their owners were often titled men and their ladies descended from ancient earls.  This perhaps was one of the reasons they were such good sailors”

Me again : well i can hardly keep my bile in check.  I can only guess that life aboard was something like an upstairs/downstairs division of class.  For sure the captain may have been held in some regard as a competent and loyal retainer but from there on down i suspect that it was a stratified society all the way downhill to the lowly stokers who, Herreshoff says, were controlled by the Ch.eng with threats and persuasions !   I guess that a ‘job is a job’ at any time and maybe a job on a steam yacht was a lot better than some.

Nor can i see how Herreshoff gets from a descent from ancient earls to ‘good sailors’, i once had the pleasure of knowing an old yacht surveyor who had sailed on the big cutters and the J class yachts. I cant imagine the landed gentry somehow as bowmen or mastmen aloft on a big racing cutter….perhaps ‘good sailor’ simplay meant that they knew which side of the boat to up-chuck on.   The old surveyor i knew told me that the skippers and crew of those big boats were made up principally of Essex smacksmen who sailed and fished all winter off the coasts of Europe and then made their real money by crewing the big race boats during the summer.  The lives of the smacksmen makes for much more interesting reading to my mind but that doesn’t appear in Herreshoff’s book at all but what does appear is his apparent disdain for professional yacht captains of his own era.

I find it very hard to read this kind of thing, although technically interesting, without holding in mind the greater history of the period. That i find is my own take on all of Herreshoff’s books where the boats and sailing seem to be happening in a vacuum with  no reference to anything else going on  : a couple of major wars for example.   If we take just one enormously privileged and powerful royal dynasty’s of the time, the Saxe-Coburgs for example, in one branch we get the British royals, in another the Russian Czar and then of course we have Kaiser Wilhelm…..well between them i think they should have had the power and influence to prevent the catastrophe of 1914-18 and none of them did.  I can barely control my contempt for the whole useless lot of them.

Dodgy helmet day !……what a total arse .

Well….lets move on.

In parallel with reading Herreshoff’s ‘Golden age of Yachting’ i have been trying to create a sense of what Herreshoff’s America was like at the time he wrote ‘The Compleat Cruiser‘.       That period seems to be the immediate post second world war period, so the 1950’s and i only have a fragmented idea of what that period was like in any sense.      I’ve studied the history of the cold war, so called, from a British perspective because i had an interest and i lived very close to the UK’s own ‘V’ bomber bases. Of course these were the early years of the nuclear era with the USA developing the hydrogen bomb in 1952 and the Soviet Union having a fully functioning  weapon by 1955.

That was only one small area though so i did searches for everything from returning servicemen and what their lives were like, the politics of the era for example the MCcarthy hearings and the civil rights movement.  While reading ‘The Compleat Cruiser’ i wondered what Mr and Mrs Goddard, their daughter ‘Miss Prim’ and her mate Veronica  looked like, what their homes were like, what it was like at work and so on.  From there i looked at advertising, art and music : did you know for example that doctors were portrayed in cigarette advertising not only smoking but claiming that smoking was healthy and good for you ?

What i did then was to create a series of image files about different aspects of American’s lives as seen through the camera, through advertising and art and simple searches of some events.   The 1950’s not only appear to me now as a period of radical change about to happen but look very visually different to what i was expecting.   Here they are with a short explanation of each slide show file.  They really need a soundtrack, maybe a big band sound, maybe Elvis ! …..lets make it Glen Miller :

1.Returning servicemen.

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2.The nuclear age.

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3.The life of work.

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4.Home life.

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5.Fashion.

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6.Politics.

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7.Advertising.

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8.Culture.

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Now i just need a good sailing book written in the 1960’s…..that would be fun !

      *British Royal yacht ‘Osborne’, according to Herreshoff the usual complement was about 50 crew.

A Golden age….but for who ? Now, should that be 'who' or 'whom' ? my grammatical's are never the best.