#i tried so hard to capture sophia's voice but it's really difficult

[opera-shitpost]

Let me tell you a story.

Picture it: Sicily, 1883.

An attractive peasant girl is minding her own business, when a young man from her village starts courting her without warning. That young man, Turiddu, is a former soldier who recently returned from the army, so she’s of course impressed. It’s a well-known fact that he had been courting with Lola, the village beauty, before he set off into the army, but that by the time he returned, she was married to Alfio, the village carter.

Anyway, after that betrayal, Turiddu immediately sets his sights on the aforementioned peasant girl, who believes his ardent declarations and promises well enough to allow him to make passionate love to her. Of course, what is bound to happen happens, and soon enough, the entire village hears all about this affair. And because this was Sicily, 1883, the girl gets all the blame and is even excommunicated from the church, while Turiddu gets away with everything.

To make matters worse, it becomes very clear that he seduced her with the intention of making Lola jealous, which works flamboyantly well, because soon enough, the jilted peasant girl witnesses him hanging around Lola’s house every night while Alfio is away carting shit, blissfully unaware of all these happenings.

And then on Easter, she begs Turiddu one last time to come back to her, to no avail. Outraged, she curses his Easter, and later tells Alfio all about Lola’s affair, though she immediately comes to regret it. Alfio challenges Turiddu to a knife fight, which he accepts by biting his ear till it bleeds, which is a Sicilian custom meant to represent a fight to the death. Turiddu gets killed in the fight, but not before telling his mother to look after the girl in case he doesn’t come back.

That peasant girl was me. And this story was a summary of the plot of Cavalleria rusticana in the style of the “Picture it: Sicily” stories from The Golden Girls.

[mayquita]

The Tell-tale Kiss

I was tagged by @cat-sophia , (thank you for thinking of me) who received this prompt request:

It’s the secret dating trope, like “I forgot we haven’t told people were dating and I just kissed you goodbye in front of all our friends” kinda like what happened on Friends with Chandler and Monica.

This may be slightly different than what the anon had in mind (among other things because I don’t remember the Friends scene, sorry), but at least it includes secret dating and a kiss. It’s a tiny thing written too fast for my standards, but I hope you like it  :)

Don’t forget to read this other fic, by @rouhn , based also on the same prompt.

This is unbeta’d, so apologies for all the mistakes.

FFnet / Ao3

"We'd better keep it a secret, you know, until we figure out what's really between us."

Those were the words of his girlf—, well of his friend Emma, when both were saying goodbye at the door of her apartment after spending a whole weekend without leaving her bed. And Killian understood because he knew Emma, he knew her fears, her insecurities and he wasn't going to be the one to add one more burden to her, especially when it was something so new that he didn't want to take any false steps that could lead to her pushing him away.

Not that he could deny her anything, especially when she bit her bottom lip before drawing the tiniest of a smile, as she gave him a pleading look underneath her eyelashes. So he couldn't help but let out a deep sigh, nod in silence and place a soft kiss on her lips before leaving.

To his relief, that weekend together was not a one-time thing. They kept dating in secret, sharing together every free moment, both in his apartment and in hers while also following the routine of going out with their group of friends, to keep up appearances.

And the thing worked well between them. In front of their friends, they continued to behave as they have until now, except for some furtive glances or some accidental touch of their hands. But when they were alone, oh, Killian treasured those moments as something precious. He felt privileged to see Emma act so carefree, so passionately. Her kisses were only meant for him, her hands only caressed his body, he was the one who listened to her most intimate secrets. With each moment alone with her, he fell more in love with that incredible woman.

But keeping the secret was increasingly difficult too. He had to make great efforts to avoid placing his arm around her shoulders while they were sitting in their usual Granny's booth with David and Mary Margaret in front of them.

Other times, he had to repress the longing and look away — he tried very hard not to look at her because it would be impossible to control himself — whenever David or Liam greeted their respective girlfriends with a kiss on the lips.

The worst part was the nights when they went out for a drink with the rest of the group. Those nights were a utter torture, especially when Emma decided to dress provocatively. "It's just for you," she whispered, brushing her lips against the lobe of his ear, too close, but at the same time so far away.

Her lips would draw a tempting smirk before heading towards the dance floor swaying her hips to the rhythm of the music and attracting both the eyes of men and women along the way. She was bloody gorgeous. On those occasions he wouldn’t move from the bar, while watching all her movements carefully, biting his tongue to avoid shouting from the rooftops that she wasn't available, while holding tightly his drink, in an attempt to keep his hands busy and avoid stamping a fist on the face of anyone who dared to touch even the least portion of her skin.

His whole body tingled those nights, not only because of the irrational jealousy that gripped him but because of his need to pull her towards him and kiss her senselessly for the rest of the night, not caring about anything or anyone around them.

These possessive impulses gradually calmed down, while he resigned himself to being patient, waiting for the next step, demonstrating with both his actions and words that she could trust him, that he wasn’t going anywhere.

For that reason, he didn't take particularly well to have to separate from her during a whole long weekend. And David was the one to blame. Well, to be fair, the poor man was only the fiancé, a victim after all. The person he should blame was his own brother, who had had the brilliant idea of celebrating David's bachelor party for a full weekend in a place lost in the middle of the mountains. Luckily the coverage was adequate enough to allow him to spend most of the nights in endless sexting sessions with his girlf— with Emma.

"That mattress was bloody uncomfortable." He mumbled that excuse in the mornings during breakfast, when his friends asked him why he looked so tired. At least he had been fortunate enough not to have to share a bedroom with anyone, he thought as he pressed his lips together to suppress the grin that threatened to form and that would betray his nocturnal activities.

What Killian didn’t imagine was that this weekend separated from his secret lover would bring surprising consequences. But after all, the passion that emanated between them was so powerful that it was a matter of time that that feeling ended up being revealed.

It was all his fault, actually. On Sunday afternoon after the bachelor party, Liam and David, the two friends with a couple —he silently also counted himself as one of them, of course— decided that instead of going to their respective homes, they missed their girlfriends, so they decided to organize an improvised encounter in Granny's. He wasn't going to be the one to reject the idea, especially when that would mean seeing Emma sooner than he would have anticipated.

The moment he entered the door and focused his gaze on Emma, who in turn offered him the brightest of smiles, he forgot everything around him, while any attempt to behave rationally went out the window. He hurried toward her and cupped her face with his hands as his lips sought hers instinctively. Killian realized his mistake at the same moment their lips came into contact, feeling as she stiffened. Everything happened in an instant, just as he pushed away while stammering an apology, she pulled him back towards her, capturing his lips with hers in a searing kiss. And everything ceased to exist around them.

"What's going on here?" After what seemed like hours, although it could only last a few seconds, David's voice brought them out of their reverie, getting to break the kiss. They still took a few seconds to pull away, resting their foreheads together as they tried to catch their breath. Then, he searched her gaze to make sure everything was fine. Only when she nodded subtly giving him a shy smile did he finally pull away from her, though their hands remained laced.

When they faced their friends, they met with a few wide eyes and open mouths. And an expectant silence.

"I guess I missed my boyfriend." Out of the corner of his eye, Killian could see Emma shrugged as she squeezed his hand slightly. That was the signal that everyone seemed to be waiting for, as the moment the words slid through her mouth the silence was replaced by shouts of joy, while they listened to the occasional "It was about time!"

It was in this way that his girlfriend — finally he could use that word freely — surprised him once again, exposing her feelings in front of everyone with just a few words. His impulsive kiss was the catalyst, of course. And also the first of the innumerable public displays of affection that their friends had to suffer from that moment on.

In the end, it wasn't so bad the idea of being separated for a weekend. Not at all. Although now that the love they felt for each other no longer had to be hidden, he preferred not to have to separate from her anymore.

Thanks for reading :)

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #53

UPDATE 53: Retribution

Last time the Undersiders delivered to Coil the data they got from their mission, and the Slaughterhouse Nine were introduced via exposition, effectively building what may start being the plot of the next arc. Before that there’s still an intermission, though, the next arc will start in the next update. Onwards!

Okay, there are a few things that are clear straight from the very first line. The first is that Regent is the character this will be following, since otherwise the other option would be Shadow Stalker and she already got her turn on the spotlight. The second is that this intermission tells what happened after a certain point last chapter. The third one...

“I’m letting you go,” Regent lied.

...is that this is going to be interesting. A lie, huh. Shadow Stalker isn’t going to be happy about this. But yeah, it’s just like this first line says: Regent lied about having let Shadow Stalker free in that moment. I had thought he had actually done that, to make an example of how easily he could take control over her again, but nope. Everything Shadow Stalker did last chapter after that line was Regent still making her move. I was fooled, let me admit.

I believe he wasn’t lying about how easy it’ll be for him to control her if he’s ever near her, though.

Once the charade is over, Regent makes Shadow Stalker leave through the door, doing just like he had said, ordering her to go to the other side of the city before letting her go. I still wonder how large his radius of action is. It sure must be considerably large, given how he’s taking her to the other side of the city without any trouble, instead of she snapping out of the body control just a few blocks away. No wonder he’s the highest Master classification in Brockton Bay!

Something I really like of these intermission is not only that they allow the reader to see better how a character thinks and how they behave – one of Mr. Wildbow’s greatest strengths as a writer is that he can make each character have their own voice – but also that there’s more insight about how their powers work.

For long minutes, he exercised her power, the ability to be as light as a feather, enjoyed it.  He even liked the running, too, when he turned off her power and just legged it

It seems Regent can feel the puppets to some extent. I don’t mean he shares sensations with them, but it seems to me he can have...some sort of vicarious enjoyment in what they do. Makes me wonder if he has captured other capes before. It’s unlikely, I guess, given how it’d require kidnapping a cape and staying in close-quarters with them for a long while, so maybe he’s more used to doing this with normal civilians.

Fighting had been much the same way, but it had been even better.  Her muscle memory had been so primed for punching, kicking, takedowns and evading that he’d almost been able to let her go on autopilot, let her body handle things on its own.

Not that he could, really.  But it had been easy.  He loved that sort of thing.  Maximum reward for minimum effort.

Ah, he can access her muscle memory too? Like, all he has to do is give some sort of vague direction, he doesn’t have to plan every single of her movements. Convenient! Another advantage of controlling a cape.

Also what a relatable philosophy, hm! He uses it to not stand out, just doing what he wants, when he wants. Staying under the radar, even in the team, is advantageous when he has to deal with his puppets. While the Undersiders are en route to meet Coil, he sits back and focuses on making Shadow Stalker move further away, nobody notices he’s focused on something else. In his opinion, it’s better that way. He likes doing this. This brings forth a memory of the time he was a child, living with a couple of her sisters, his father and some of his father’s ‘girls’.

Hah! He as prone to tantrums, apparently. Even when everyone tried to appease him, he just kept going, until Heartbreaker was forced to come into scene. That wasn’t good for anyone, to say the least.

Father had taken two or three seconds to assess the situation before using his power on Alec, his two sisters and the ‘girl’ with a hand over Alec’s mouth.  He hit each of them with stark terror.  The kind of fear you experienced when you were claustrophobic and you woke up in a coffin six feet underground.

Charming. Quite the way to get them to be quiet...and it doesn’t sound like it happened only once or twice, given how Regent wonders if Heartbreaker doing this may have influenced his actual behavior.

That was only one of a dozen or so experiences that came to mind.  So yeah, maybe father had broken something in the process. Maybe it had been the emotional equivalent of staring into the sun for far too long, too many times, being left almost half blind.

...maybe? It’s possible it may have influenced, yeah. I also wouldn’t be surprised it’s also a side effect of Regent’s power. True, he may not have had a trigger event, given how he was the son of a parahuman, but it’s possible his power may have made it easier for him to make use of it, like slowly conditioning him and making him able to use the power to its maximum extent. Look, Regent was surrounded by so many factors that may have contributed to how he is now, it’s hard to blame a single one!

And now he says maybe it’s his power what made him like this. It’s always nice to see when my thoughts are echoed, makes me feel like I’m going in the right direction.

It doesn’t take long to get far away. Regent enjoys the sensation of controlling another person, basking in all of Shadow Stalker’s feelings. Unlike him, her emotions aren’t dulled at all. Yeah, that may be a reason why he likes so much to control other people. He can experience what he can’t experience so well by himself.

“Funny thing about having this control over you, I can feel your emotions, your body’s reactions.  Like a really, really good polygraph test.  I wasn’t even half done saying my piece back there when I caught on to the fact that you were too pissed and too angry to back down and walk away. There’s no way you’re going to leave town if I let you go, right?”

...in hindsight I took at face value that nod. I should have known someone as defiant as Shadow Stalker wouldn’t simply leave the town just because of what happened. She’d be hellbent in vengeance. Why did I take that nod at face value? I’m not sure, honestly...

Since he has nothing better to do right now and the rest will have stuff to deal with, Regent decides to have some fun flexing his power, and he does that by throwing Shadow Stalker’s stuff to the trash and committing some privacy breeches. He’s no Tattletale, but he can find out the password to Shadow Stalker’s phones by using muscle memory. One is the Ward-issued cellphone, which has the contacts stored. I bet it has excellent protection, even against tinkers. The other is her personal phone.

Browsing through the sent messages is a tedious task, so he goes for the saved messages. It confirms to him who Shadow Stalker is – since Taylor accidentally mentioned the names of two of her bullies, it seems. The message that confirms it, well...hm...let’s say it still feels rather uncomfortable to read plans to bully someone, especially when they’re written so flippantly.

Long seconds passed.  He knew he should feel bad for the dork, but he only felt annoyed.  He felt worse about the fact that he didn’t feel bad than he did about what he’d just read.

Something to thank father for, maybe.

...at least he felt something. Of course this something isn’t really directed towards Skitter, since it’s nothing like sympathy or the such, but since the concept of right and wrong didn’t rely on his emotions, he seems to be able to decide to...punish Shadow Stalker for her bullying campaign. She’s not taking it well, seeing Regent calmly getting ready to send the incriminating proof to the teachers of the school.  Eeeeh...can’t say I have much faith in them doing anything about that, after how things went in that meeting many arcs ago. Maybe he’d get better results sending them to Director Piggot as well, who knows. Give her some more headaches to deal with.

Oh, nevermind, she’s adding the police force to the email recipient list.

When he’d added that email to the list, he added another line:

contacting police to make sure something is done

In a way that’s kind of a brilliant move. These messages are about Sophia Hess, not about Shadow Stalker. Civilian identities are something the heroes need to be careful with, trying to not reveal anything to anyone who shouldn’t know. If Piggot tries to make some damage control regarding PR, she’d pretty much giving away what Shadow Stalker’s civilian identity is, as well as what kind of stuff she does at school. That’s going to be difficult to twist with PR. Even if there are people in the police force who already know about Shadow Stalker’s civilian identity, that doesn’t guarantee they’d cooperate to bury this situation away.

All in all, either something actually happens and Sophia Hess receives some retribution, or Director Piggot has to spend many, many hours dealing with this major mess. Either way she’s not going to be happy at all with Shadow Stalker. How much longer will it be before she decides it’s not worth it to have her around?

Once the messages were sent, Regent makes Shadow Stalker go around, walking on precarious railings and calling Emma at 3 AM. Hah! She asked to be called later, yep, but not at three in the morning, that’s for sure!

Well...Regent isn’t really very good at imitating Shadow Stalker, but that’s not important. She’s annoying Emma a lot, there’s some satisfaction to be had in that. And theeeeen he makes her confess her love to Emma. Well alright then! If there were any doubts in Emma’s mind that something was up with Shadow Stalker, this will dispel them. Not that it matters much, after all, what can Emma do about anything? She’s somewhere else, and she’s just some random civilian. In the big scheme of things, she’s a largely unimportant character.

Emma didn’t believe not even a single word of that love confession. Figures. What’s next, Regent? He hasn’t gotten fed up of messing with Shadow Stalker’s life yet. He takes out the map application of the smartphone and studies the last request for directions Shadow Stalker did.

...

He’s going to do something at her home now, isn’t he? He sure is being thorough in this methodical dismantling of Shadow Stalker’s life. Her work as a reluctant Ward had been ruined already, and now he’s ruining everything about her civilian identity. That’s rather messed up, definitely.

But who knows if he’ll actually be able to do anything. The further away he is, the harder it’s for him to keep Shadow Stalker moving. She’s already moving sluggishly; it may be matter of time before she recovers all control over her body. Oh, nevermind, they got closer later. Shadow Stalker won’t ever know it, thankfully.

These people are awake at three in the morning, huh. Waiting for Sophia to arrive, perhaps? The young man who saw Shadow Stalker first seems to be unable to believe what he’s seeing, while the woman who’s likely to be Sophia’s mother reacts with...that behavior parents do when they want to talk something they don’t want their kids to hear.

“Chill, bro,” Regent was making a guess here. From the way the boy stared at Shadow Stalker, he knew he’d hit the mark.

“Sophia!?”

“Yeah,” Regent grinned behind her mask.  “Duh, moron.”

She has been keeping her hero identity as a secret from her family! Or at least from everyone who isn’t the mother. Now that I think about it, that makes sense. It’s not like the Wards surreptitiously induct people into the group. Kid Win had talked with that budding spy while the spy’s mother was present. Sophia’s mom must have known about the hero job.

There was a flurry of hissed words between Terry and Shadow Stalker’s mother.  Among them was a surprised, hurt, “You knew!?”

Hm. While I still feel some retribution towards Sophia’s action was deserved, this is starting to get other people involved and therefore it’s starting to go rather far. Emma was one thing, because she was directly into the bullying plans. This family, well...I doubt they had anything to do with all the poisonous mess Sophia is. Things are going to be very awkward for this family for a while.

This truly illustrates how someone like Regent having the ability to control other people’s bodies is a rather fearsome thing.

You know, I can’t tell if Sophia would behave so dismissively towards her mother. Apparently yes, since the mom isn’t realizing something is off about Sophia’s nonchalant behavior. The woman gets angrier with each flippant line, and even more when Sophia yawns. Wow, Regent really knows how to piss people off.

“It’s the rules in my house!  If it’s going to keep you out of prison and on the straight and narrow, fine.  But I will not have you glorifying violence-”

Hoh, nothing kept her on the straight and narrow at all. But yeah, looks like this explains why only the mother knew about Sophia’s hero role. She doesn’t approve any of this at all, and I have a hunch Sophia’s extreme vigilantism from before she joined the Wards can’t have helped to earn her support.

It must be horrible to watch someone else make you dig your metaphorical grave deeper and deeper. Showing the lethal arrows to the woman who disapproves of violence in the first place isn’t going to convince her she’s on the straight and narrow. The mom is appropriately horrified, and demands to know what’s going on – with her violent behavior, that is, not what’s happening right now.

“You do not have the right to complain about something like being bored!  I work two jobs for you three!  I put in overtime, I attend every school function, I come into the office every time you get reprimanded because you’ve got anger issues! You aren’t even taking care of your sister, or helping out around this house!  What do you think-”

What she does goes beyond anger issues, that’s for sure. But yeah, I feel a lot of sympathy for Sophia’s family, frankly. They didn’t ask for any of this to happen, and their lives were already hard enough before this night. I hope they will be alright.

Shadow Stalker stood at Regent’s directions, then pointed the crossbow at the mother. The woman’s eyes widened, and she hurried to back away as Shadow Stalker advanced.  They stopped when the mother’s back was to the wall by the kitchen door, with Shadow Stalker’s crossbow bolt pressed against her throat.

My sympathy is increasing exponentially. I don’t have children, and it’d be extremely hard to imagine how it must feel to be in this situation, but...having your kid pretty much threatening to kill you must be awful, to say the very, very least. Is this something she and Sophia can leave behind? ...who knows. I have a hard time believing they will. It’s simply too big of a shock to just...talk over.

Once Regent is done terrorizing Shadow Stalker’s mother, he makes Shadow Stalker go to her room, ignoring the brother who just found out his sister is a messed up hero. Sophia’s room is rather normal, with the usual furniture and many photos on the wall. Most are of Emma and Sophia. There’s also a photo of Sophia’s family.

He found a picture of Shadow Stalker – Sophia – with her family.  Her mom looked younger and far less tired there, and was pregnant. Shadow Stalker looked twelve or so, and her brother looked sixteen or seventeen, sporting a fantastic looking afro and a less fantastic attempt at a moustache.  They were clustered around one another, but only the mom was smiling.

I don’t know, in my opinion Shadow Stalker keeping that picture pinned there with all the rest says a lot, even if she’s not exactly happy in the photo. There’s also the fear and anger Sophia felt when Regent made her enter the house with the costume on. I think she does care a lot about her family, despite how she’s like.

Could it be that Sophia’s father leaving is related to her trigger event? Like, he leaving caused it, due to the stress and hatred she must have felt back then? There’s not really any detail about what happened back then. What’s for sure is that whatever happened with him, and he leaving, really took a toll on the mother.

Regent makes her burn Emma’s face off a couple photos, and reveals he has been dismantling Sophia’s life with a goal in mind. He’s...

...he’s making her write a suicide note. Wow. I don’t feel nearly confident about how to treat this. Seriously messed up, that’s for sure. Regent’s going rather far. I’m not sure if I should have imagined this’d happen. Then again, Rachel and he are the two that’s said to have killed before. Maybe that’s not why I feel surprised this is happening, or surprised about how cold Regent can be while doing this. The fact he’s a villain also makes it less shocking. None of that makes all this be any better, of course, but yeah.

“Here’s the thousand dollar question,” he mused, as he began following the steps outlined in the video, putting the knot together, “Will your boss tell your mom what happened with me controlling you?  If she keeps her mouth shut, well, this paints a pretty ugly picture, doesn’t it?”

For some reason, I keep trying to think about how Emma would react, since that call was a love confession and all. I simply can’t imagine how she’d react. After how she left Taylor behind, I just can’t envision her having an emphatic response to anything, even though she clearly isn’t unfeeling.

“But if she does tell, if she lets mommy know, then shit hits the fan.  It looks pretty fucking bad for her, and if word gets out, it’s as bad as it gets for public relations.  Scary, dangerous parahumans.  Not just lives at risk, but you could be controlled.  Ooooh, scary.  Nobody would ever be able to trust their coworkers or neighbors.  It’s the kind of stuff they want to keep quiet.”

You mean nobody in this city has ever imagined there may be a parahuman with the ability to control minds or bodies? Parahumans have all kinds of abilities, and the heroes are rather good examples of some of them. Has nobody in this city ever thought that, hey, there may be someone who can use you as a puppet, better hope it’s not a madman? I guess just imagining is fine, confirming there’s one in Brockton Bay would be the part that’d terrify everyone.

I never thought I’d be feeling anything resembling sympathy towards Sophia Hess, but there it is.

Regent gives Sophia enough control to say stuff, and of course the first thing she asks is why he’s doing this. He outright says it’s because of what she has done to his teammate, and thankfully she doesn’t make any connection to Taylor, she immediately thinks of Grue. That’s a bit of a relief...

“I dunno if I care all that much, but it’s the sort of thing I’ll do because it feels like I should.  Dunno. There’s also the fact that you’re dangerous, and you’ve outlived your usefulness, so… unless you can give me a convincing reason.”

“Please.”

“Not that convincing.”  He raised one foot, then kicked the chair, hard.

It rocked, but didn’t tip over.

He chuckled lightly, feeling the confusion and the relief from his host.  It was a thrill unlike any other.  “I think I made my point.”

I hadn’t realized I had been holding my breath with trepidation until now. True, I despise Shadow Stalker and all, but I can’t say I ever wished for her death. She’s, well, she’s not going to be okay, but at least she will live. That’s always a relief.

Regent is right, now Shadow Stalker has even less of a reason to stay in Brockton Bay, now that her life was completely destroyed, both in her hero identity and in her civilian identity. There’s also Regent’s threat about taking control over her again.

“I can feel your emotions.  I know I’ve convinced you.  You leave town, and if you don’t want me paying a visit, wherever you wind up, you keep your mouth closed about tonight.  They don’t need to know this was all my doing.  Things get messy that way, yeah?”

The more I read, the more it feels like this really may be Shadow Stalker’s last appearance. She has been convinced about leaving the city, she’s terrified...all in all, she’s not in condition to be an enemy to the Undersiders anymore. I can’t see how she can be integrated back into the story now. Quite a way to end her role in this story, if this really is the last time she appears. Well then...

This is pretty much how the intermission ends. I can’t think of anything else to say. Quite the shock, honestly. Mr. Wildbow doesn’t pull any punches in his writing. I feel a bit exhausted, for many reasons. All in all...wow. Yeah. That sure happened.

So! Next time the next arc will start. See you then!

Next update: in seven updates