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feminexisting · 2 years ago

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Vitro by Jessica Khoury

I’ve owned this book for years now, probably, but I don’t remember buying it. It’s got a Bargain Priced tag on it from Books a Million, pricing it at $3.97; apparently originally the book was $17.99, according to the price on the inner cover flap. If I’m remembering correctly, I decided to read this book because I was planning to read it last month and ended up not, so I chose to read it this month instead. Note: Apparently this is the second book in a trilogy, but the books aren’t actually connected lore-wise, so I don’t think I missed anything by not reading the first book.

The premise is that 17 year old Sophie Crue receives a strange email from her mother, Moira Crue, asking for Sophie to travel to the mysterious Skin Island, located on an uncharted island near Guam, where Moira has worked for as long as Sophie can remember. Desperate to see her mother again, whom she only sees a few times a year, Sophie runs away from home, from her father, ex-husband of Moira, and her stepmother and stepsiblings, to reach Moira. She reunites with her childhood best friend, Jim Julien, a young pilot, who agrees to fly her to the island that other locals are too scared to fly to after years of tales of ghosts and guns and more. Stranded on the island after Jim’s plane’s tires are flattened, Sophie and Jim meet Nicholas, a strange boy who says he’s there at the behest of Moira. Sophie goes with him while Jim stays behind, and Sophie learns a terrifying secret: Skin Island is a research facility for growing children in vitro and turning them into slaves. Not only that, but she herself has a lab grown twin, Lux. After two days of not hearing from Sophie, Jim goes to find her and mistakes Lux for her. Lux, now a slave to Jim, will do anything he asks of her. Sophie, taking Lux’s place, has to keep up face while trying to get closer to her mother to find out the truth, but time is running out: Nicholas plans to escape the island with Sophie no matter the cost, even if it means sacrificing everybody on the island, Vitros and scientists alike. Sophie, her mother whom she is now on difficult terms with, Jim, and Lux must now work together to save everyone and themselves from Nicholas’s plans before it’s too late.

I’m not sure what drew me to this book initially, but it was probably the cover, which was relatively interesting looking and for once wasn’t just a stock image, and also because the summary was relatively interesting. That said, it was a struggle to read the book for... honestly, pretty much the entire time I read it. I wanted to put it down and not finish it almost the entire time, and honestly it was a pain just about every step of the way. The main character, Sophie, was selfish, unsympathetic, wishy-washy, too forgiving towards specifically her mother, and overall annoying, the romance between her and Jim was, quite frankly, completely unrealistic, and the writing style overall was bland, plain, and cookie-cutter, not to mention long, boring (even during action sequences and suspense), and detailed but lacking substance.

A few things that I didn’t like about the book when first reading it were that, firstly, I didn’t care for the switching points of view throughout the book, mainly between Sophie and Jim (though, later, Lux was added and I actually enjoyed her additions), and I also didn’t care for how the book immediately thrust us into a frenzy, with Sophie flying around the world, without telling us anything. I would have liked some foreknowledge - what was her home life like, what is her dad like, why did she and her dad fight, etc. Another thing was that I just... hated the romance between Sophie and Jim. They were separated for ten years and only knew each other as children, and yet they’re immediately interested in each other and head over heels and would even die for each other? Honestly, every time throughout the book Jim threatened to leave without Sophie, I was cheering for him to actually do so. It would have been better if they had thought of each other as siblings. Another thing which is, sadly, unsurprising, was the lack of diversity in the book. Sophie is described as having blonde hair and blue eyes, and Jim has ‘sun-streaked’ hair, reads as them both being white, Sophie’s mom, Moira, is white, Almost every single named character in the book is white. The only two exceptions are, I believe, Dr. Hashimoto, who is a Japanese woman, and, I think, Jay, who, I believe, is black, though, honestly, I don’t remember. There was an Asian vitro who was unnamed, and also, possibly, a black vitro boy, but I’m not for sure. Jim’s nanny as a child was a Chamorro woman, and she would often bring him and Sophie to sit with her and her friends, also Chamorro women, and she was named, though I can’t remember her name. There were also some men back in Guam that, I believe, might have been dark-skinned, though I can’t remember if that was actually explicitly said. That, overall, is the extent of the diversity in the book; a very short list, especially if you only count named characters. Of course there was zero LGBT+ diversity, but that was never a surprise.

Normally speaking, I don’t like saying “mommy issues are why this is bad,” however, Sophie absolutely REEKS of mommy issues. She abandons her father and her home just to chase after her mother whom she almost never sees, she was ready to plan her entire future after her mother, even readying herself to go to nursing school, just so she could apply to work at Skin Island alongside her mother, she forgives her mother at the end of the book for abandoning her, and a million other small moments throughout the book that show just how desperate she is for her mother’s approval. Now, this, in itself, isn’t a bad thing and could be an interesting character trait with a good driving factor for the character, however it was poorly utilized and overly idealistic to the point that it was tiresome to read.

Sophie’s naivety is another thing that’s incredibly annoying; it seems like she never grew up from that little girl who had to move away from her mom. She never found it suspicious that her dad wouldn’t tell her anything about her mom after the divorce, she never questioned if her mom even wanted to take her after the divorce, she says her dad never understood her and he wouldn’t let her make her own decisions, DESPITE us knowing that that was probably only because he wanted her to have more information about Skin Island before signing her life over to it and unfortunately he couldn’t tell her about it (although, to her credit, at least she later admits that he was right), craving her mother’s love even after everything that happened and still willing to have a relationship with her, blaming Nicholas for any ‘evil’ thoughts she has, giving control of Skin Island over to her mother completely, despite how much of a coward her mother is, Sophie saying people wouldn’t buy human slaves in the present day even though we know that is completely false... her naïveté knows no bounds, and even after the events of the book, I don’t believe she learned much of anything at all. Even though Jim didn’t trust Sophie to be around Nicholas, the “first guy who flashed her a smile,” which was annoying, possessive, and misogynistic, it also probably wasn’t altogether the worst move he could make since she’s so incredibly naïve. (That said, on the next page he talks about how grown up she is, so it really falls short). There was also Sophie saying her mom and dad weren't REALLY her parents and that Lux was her only real family, which was so funny and really telling, especially since she spurned, resented, and outright hated Lux earlier in the book, not even to mention the fact that just because her parents weren’t the ones that conceived her, doesn’t mean they aren’t her parents. And then, of course, Sophie’s immaturity surrounding her parents, particularly her mom, continued to show through throughout the book. “As far as she was concerned, the day [her dad] dragged her across the ocean and forced her to restart her life, he lost all his right to interfere in her relationship with her mom. We could have stayed on Guam at least. Or I could have had a choice. Who knows? If she’d gone with her mom instead back when she was seven, she might have grown up with this Nicholas, maybe stayed friends with Jim. This Skin Island wouldn’t be a strange, menacing place that filled her with anxiety - it would be home.”

As much as I hate Sophie’s mom, Moira, I really appreciate her dad (whose name escapes me). “She had her chance to be there for you, Sophie, and she gave it up. She chose her work. All these gifts, these lavish vacations” -- he referenced the expensive dolls and toys her mother used to send her, which turned into electronics and cash cards as she grew older, the red Volkswagen on her sixteenth birthday, their trips together to Switzerland or Australia when her mother had vacation every few years -- “they’re just her way of trying to make up for the time she chose not to spend with you. Why can’t you see it?” / “You talk as if she’s bribing me,” Sophie had retorted, furious. “She’s my mom! If you want to hate her, that’s your problem - but why do you insist that I hate her too?” / “I don’t want you to hate her,” he said with a sigh. “I just want you to let her go.” It was wrong of him and his step wife and step kids to blame Sophie for things that she didn’t do, that’s true, and he’s definitely not dad of the year or whatever, but he’s worlds better than Moira. I think he could’ve taken well to Lux. Not to mention how he, at least, was strong enough to walk away from Corpus whereas Moira tucked her tail between her legs. At the end of the book it reads as though Sophie has no desire to go back to her dad's after everything that happened, which is incredibly annoying. If she was able to forgive her mom for... LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED... then she should be able to, firstly, forgive her dad, and secondly, apologize to him.

Lux was, I think, one of the most interesting characters in the book, if not the most interesting overall. Her passages, though few and far between, were written more interesting than either Jim or Sophie’s, because she was seeing everything for the first time while simultaneously learning and also because you were able to understand how and why she was thinking the way she was. It was tragic that, when she finally started fighting her chip (which was very obviously going to happen), she only had, like, two pages dedicated to the fight. Only thing I didn’t like, and quite likely the most out of character thing she did, was say that Sophie was one of the most important people to her. She might not have known Sophie hated her, but even if she hadn’t, what did Sophie do for her besides dress her up? Overall, it’s a shame that Lux was relegated to the role of a side character in this book, rather than as a protagonist of a different book.

There were two interesting Christian imagery choices that the author chose to include in this book; the first was the vitros all wearing khaki pants and white polos, lending themselves to looking like Christian missionaries, and the second being Nicholas, after waking the vitros, letting them crowd around him and touch him as though he were a messiah. I’m sure some metaphors or comparisons could be made here - Nicholas, the antichrist (?) disguised as an angel, leading the reborn astray and condemning them to hell by making them commit suicide, the false-god, etc, versus the clone kids being akin to missionaries in that, as soon as they enter the world, they will be spreading dangerous propaganda, even if they don’t know it, which is that slavery is back, it’s allowed, and it’s coming, which is, I think, a frightening prospect.

Moira... well, I hated her. I hated her almost as much as Sophie. I wonder if the hate was, in part, due to her cowardly nature reminding me of myself, but either way, I didn’t care for her at all. She was going to let Lux, the twin of the daughter whom she supposedly cares so much for, bond with Andreyev, and who knows then what would have happened to her if things were meant to proceed normally? How many awakenings did she sit through - we know other scientists have their own vitros, after all. Moira saying she felt responsible for the vitros, even motherly towards them, falls short when you remember exactly what she was allowing to happen to them, what she was going to CONTINUE to let happen to them if it weren’t for Nicholas’s email to Sophie causing Sophie to come and, essentially, ruin everything. The true responsible thing to do would have been for Moira to smash the test tubes holding the embryos 17 years ago, but I guess we won’t mention that. And, for the record, I understand that she didn’t do that because she believed so strongly in the program, but at what point, if any, was she ever going to stop and say that that was enough? And then, let’s not forget that while Sophie was having a breakdown, Moira was defending the project. Why did Sophie ever let her take control of the project in the end? Well, I suppose that’s easy enough to understand - it’s because, under and above it all, Sophie still needs her mother’s love. Strauss definitely shouldn’t have been in charge of the project, but neither should Moira. Give the project to Dr. Hashimoto or SOMETHING. Better yet, just kill it! Sure, it’s a moral dilemma - by ending the project, you ensure that vitros won’t be mass produced and sold into slavery, but by cutting the project, the current vitros are also killed. Ideally, finding a way to cut the funding and end the project while simultaneously saving the vitros is ideal, but it not, I mean, isn’t it better to end a future of slavery? Isn’t 24 lives worth the lives of, potentially, millions in the future? Moira has the backbone of a jellyfish and the second somebody with a stronger will than her comes by she’s just going to roll over and show her belly again. We saw no growth from Moira besides her standing up to Strauss, and even then that was... not really that impressive.

This book has the same problem that other books of its ilk has, in which it gives its characters entirely too much energy and reliance on adrenaline, especially when they’re exhausted. Jim, in particular, goes through absolute hell in this book for almost every single day he’s on that damn island, and yet, somehow, he’s still standing? Early in the book, after getting stranded, and after not eating OR drinking anything for at LEAST a day and only sleeping for, like, six hours at the most, he managed to push his plane into the ocean, climbed a cliffside, managed to sneak his way into the Corpus Facility, Find AND carry Lux all the way back, and swim across a channel at least twice, one of which was during a riptide. At that point, there was absolutely no possible way he should have been standing. And that’s not to mention the rest of the book, too, like being adrift at sea for hours after his plane exploded and also getting stuck in a fucking gas chamber, and like... so much else. Come on. He deserved to pass out.

I think it would have made more sense for Jim to be more protective over Lux than Sophie supposedly was, up to and beyond even wanting to be the one to go back and get Lux, rather than leave her on the island. Sophie clearly resented the poor girl for being (one of) the one(s) her mom chose to stay with, whereas Jim, even if he didn’t personally care for her, was the entire reason she almost drowned, and if guilt doesn’t drive him, then what does? He knows that he’s in over his head, but he also knows that he’s her only lifeline. Doesn’t he feel responsible for her? Sophie could stay with her mom on the island which, in the end, seems kind of like that’s all she wants to do, and Jim could save the other vitros and then everybody would be happy. (And, personally, I think it would have been nice if Jim and Lux had a romantic relationship, rather than he and Sophie, and him having ethical concerns over whether that’s even okay since she is quite literally programmed to like him and do whatever he wants, but I digress). As much as I want him to be the one to care about Lux, him saying he needed Lux at the end of the book was canonically uncharacteristic, considering up until that point he only ever really worried over Sophie. I would have rather he said he was doing it only out of responsibility, or else he should have started caring about her earlier in the book.

Funnily enough, from what little we know about Jim’s mom, she seems pretty similar to Sophie - incredibly selfish and also incredibly stubborn. I guess in this book that old adage about wanting a partner like your parent is true.

I REALLY didn’t like the demonization of psychopaths that was rampant throughout the book, but I wasn’t surprised by it either. God forbid somebody with low or no empathy be anything other than evil, I guess. Also, the author choosing a gas chamber, specifically, to kill Jim and the other vitros was... well, it wasn’t a great idea. This isn’t a well written book and it definitely was not written in such a way that this gas chamber idea could pass over easily. It feels wrong to have a gas chamber in a book that doesn’t make clear Holocaust references or outright talks about the Holocaust, and I think any other method of execution probably would have been preferable here. Jim later saying that the island was akin to some sort of fascist compound was too on the nose, considering everything, too. It definitely didn’t need to be said aloud.

The most tragic characters in the entire book are Nicholas, Mary, Jay, and Wyatt. They were the first guinea pigs and they were awoken wrong, through no fault of their own, and because of that they have to be the slaves and workers for the scientists. They’re overlook and uncared for except for, maybe, Moira, though that’s a very big maybe because although she acts like she cares for them, I’m sure she treated them just the same as the other scientists. Honestly, I wish Nicholas would have succeeded in his plans (and brought the other three along with him, but whatever). He’s incredibly charismatic, interesting, and overall sympathetic. Nicholas and Mary get such sad deaths, too - Mary gets a death that’s practically meaningless, in which she learns that Nicholas was going to abandon her right before she was killed without a chance, and Nicholas dies immediately after learning that Lux was able to overwrite her chip and knowing that he had no chance. Mary’s meaningless death would’ve been okay if this were a story about the futility of fighting or the problems that come when ethics and morals are abandoned to advance science, but it’s not. It’s only a YA novel, and not even a good one. Mary died without learning that she had a twin, a family, and Nicholas died after learning that he probably could never be free, but still wanting Lux to be. Their deaths are so, so, incredibly tragic, and yet we don’t even spend enough time on them. Even Jay and Wyatt are tragic, because their empathy is restored just in time to find out their two best friends have died. The defective vitros (and Lux) were better characters than anybody else in the book, and it’s a shame that we didn’t get to spend more time learning about them. At least Nicholas died free, knowing that the chips could be overpowered. It was too late for him, but it wasn’t too late for everybody.

This would have been a better book if it had a few select deaths - Jim, in particular. Sophie, despite everything, probably isn’t going to learn any sort of lesson, but if Jim died at any point on Skin Island, but ESPECIALLY if it happened in front of her because of something she dragged him into, if she realized that she was the cause of his death, and then had to watch Lux lose all will to live and then die as well, maybe she would’ve learned something. It didn’t sink in when she thought it was only Jim, but maybe, just maybe, if Lux died too, she would’ve gotten it. Strauss, also, would have been a good death, serving as the figurehead of the organization and then dying to signify the death of the project especially. If she tried to do a last-ditch kill of, I guess, Nicholas, to regain control of the facility and also to stop him from firing the bomb, and ended up getting shot and dying, maybe a shot to the head like what happened to Mary, would’ve been especially poetic.

Nicholas nodding Lux on as he saw her overwriting her chip, thereby signaling his support and cheering her on, support that she desperately needed without even knowing she needed it, THAT meant more to me than just about anything else that happened in the book, or at least more than anything Sophie ever did or said. He saw himself through the other, he saw her succeeding where he was failing, and that is so, so incredibly beautiful. As soon as he realized what was happening, he had to know that he wasn’t going to survive, but he didn’t try to run, or plead, or cry, he cheered her on. He tasted the freedom he craved all along, and you know what? I don’t think he was upset about it. Hope is hope.

Lux being the catalyst for change and the code she was able to overwrite being written into the other vitros, even Jay and Wyatt, so that they could all live normal lives, while simultaneously keeping her alive inside of them, was beautiful. I only wish that Mary, Nicholas, and the one dead vitro that jumped off the cliff for Nicholas, posthumously had their codes overwritten. I know that it wouldn’t have changed anything, and I know that they were probably cremated or something, but don’t they deserve at least that much? Don’t they deserve freedom even after death?

Unless Sophie hasn’t come to terms with things yet, it seems that Jim was more traumatized by the events of Skin Island than she was. That said, I think if we’re counting physical injuries and ailments and experiences, he definitely went through more, and although she went through more mental strife, I think, I don’t think his mental strife was anything to sniff at. If nothing else, Jim’s grief over Lux said a lot - Sophie might have cried over her, but Jim was still at the denial stage, even going so far as to want to tell her body to get up, to see if she would. He knew her code was overwritten, he knew she was dead, but he still wanted to try. Too bad he didn’t say it out loud; I think that would have been a good moment, very cinematic, very emotional. And, doesn’t he deserve to cry, too?

Overall... well, this book fucking sucked. I didn’t even want to finish reading it AS I was reading it. I don’t know if this was my worst book of the year, but it’s definitely getting put on the donate pile because I absolutely don’t want to reread it and I also don’t want to read the other books in the trilogy. My ideas for the book were better than what the book did, and I hate to say I’m better than a professional writer but y’know what? I could’ve executed this book, at least, better. 1.5/5

My bookmark for this book was the flap of the cover of the book.

#december 2022 #finished book on 12/27 but accidentally posted this post rather than saved it as a draft earlier in the month

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user-needs-new-hyperfixation · 2 years ago

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Embarrassing Story/Confession Time

In which I share things that I cringe to remember, and then insert a moderately related moral to make the telling worthwhile.

So, once upon a time, in days of yore, when lemons were a thing and FF.net was THE place to be, I had an account. I have ZERO recollection of the login info and it is a disturbing possibility that the crap I wrote still exists somewhere (please, I beg of you, don’t look for it.)

I recently reblogged this post that reminded me of my teen years and how far I’ve come (not that the journey is over)...so I figured I might as well tell a story from my cringe problematic past for the lolsies (and the shoe-horned in moral).

ANyhoo, I didn’t know until I was...errrm, 17 or 18?... that bisexuality existed. I knew that there were people who were gay (that was bad evil bad bad) and straight (that was good within a veeery limiting set of restrictions). In the year or two where I was just starting to hear whispers of this rumoured third option and slowly awakening to the (at the time, horrifying) possibility that it might apply to me, BL and shipping and such were part of the process of exploring that.

(And yes, there’s plenty to be said about the fetishization of mlm relationships and the many other problematic aspects of a lot of BL, but I was essentially so sheltered as to be developmentally stunted, and those were some of my first exposures to queer romance framed in a positive light. And because they centered guys, and I was a girl, it allowed me to somehow explore my own queerness without ever admitting to myself that that was what I was doing.)

So, I was tiptoeing into queer stories, and queer ships in not-specifically-queer stories, and I wanted to write fanfic for one of my ships. But, problem! Gayness was bad evil bad bad! (I swear in retrospect that I was 17 but operating on 12-year-old software in some ways.)

So how did I get around this? Weeeelll, I wrote one of the two guys getting magically turned into a woman. But here’s the thing...he, or rather she, was delighted by the change. She’d always felt not-quite-right as a man. She was attracted to her partner but did not feel that her attraction was correctly defined as that of one man towards another. She felt more herself, once she was a woman.

So...in attempting to de-queer my story, I accidentally wrote a moderately recognizable trans character (at least coming from the mind of a kid who had only the slightest awareness of trans folks existing). And I just find that hilarious in hindsight.

Anyway, the moral I’m gonna tack ham-fistedly on here is this: my fellow adults, be kind to ignorant kids online. Whether they’re far right like I was raised to be, or from the new batch of “so far left they’ve circled back to purity culture” kids. And, if it’s safe for your own mental wellbeing, gently interact with them. So much of who I am now can be credited to a handful of patient and kind LGBTQ+ adults who were just chillin’ in spaces adjacent to my identity crisis, listening to me ask questions like, “doesn’t the way male and female bodies fit together prove it’s the only right option?” and just...not taking my head off for it. I’m not making excuses for grown adults acting like asses, but kids, and even young adults, are usually repeating back something that has been hammered into them. And nothing quite takes the wind out of those indoctrination sails like older folks just listening, and answering questions when they’re able, and not raging at them the way they’ve been told that their “enemies” will.

#rambling #exvangelical #lgbtq #fanfic #bisexual #discourse or something

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bradenthompson · 3 years ago

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Writing down my thoughts on Disney’s Sneakerella as they come to me

Too hot, cannot sleep. Forgot this movie was coming out, and shame on me bc I was excited for it. But I also get the feeling Disney+ kinda wanted people forgetting it was coming out, I don’t remember a single peep on the film after that trailer dropped.

00:07 I hate those fucking pencil towers in Manhattan they bug meeeee

00:30 “Once upon a pair of sneakers” oh this is gonna rock

01:29 THIS IS A MUSICAL?

06:18 movie has a way of focusing on shoes that are objectively not special. Doesn’t mean they aren’t cool. Just not interesting enough to get a motion track. Will reserve that the movie might make a point about this later, like “yeah but aren’t all shoes special? Aren’t they all worth rocking?”

07:35 always a bummer when you notice the Cinderella movie is 2 hours long, because the og story cannot fill that time on its own so there’s gonna be 2313356 side characters that do not matter at all

09:08 Disney’s first* openly Gay character :))))))

09:43 protagonist has a mind palace so deeply wired into sneaker history that he can correctly identify that the Vans logo is old. lmao.

10:17 sorry of this sounds gatekeepy but I just do not believe sk8 hi’s qualify for the sneaker moniker

12:00 characters in movies categorized as “artists” always have this same artstyle I’m just gonna call “doodlecore.” ooh strange monster thing, UFO, fire, etc. People who do custom jobs on blank sneakers do exist and make cool shit but they also have unique artstyles unto themselves. Idk wtf this guy is going for when it comes to his own stuff. Maybe a little Jeremy Scott? I only say this bc I’m already detecting some Adidas bias in and around this movie.

13:01 main kid is plugged in enough to say things like “sneaker drop” but is still stunned to see the line is long.

14:44 the writer is struggling to communicate that the main kid is knowledgeable on sneakers because they themselves do not know what that means. So they just give him things to do that nobody does, like pulling the Myers Briggs on strangers based on the shoes they’re wearing. He unpacks why a man is wearing 1s as if that unravels his whole personality and never once considers it’s because that is still the most popular Jordan by a wide margin.

16:02 don’t wanna dump on this kid’s custom shoes too much, but I’ve been to sneaker releases just like this and am decently confident he would get bullied

21:53 editing is really doing something here. A charcacter will be sanding still and, between shots, 1/24th of a second, they will be in a full sprint.

22:12 New Yorkians really think they invented living in a city. “Ey you never been to da corner store? It’s da corner store! You buy things! Bada Bing.”

22:54 CGI spray paint CGI spray paint

22:54(cont) “hey girl, lil Manhattan belle, let me pull you away to a new world; type of living you never thought possible: Queens” hahahahahahaha

25:17 compelling protagonist 101: person is already a fully realized person who impresses everyone and always has the cool thing to say and their only weakness is not living in Manhattan.

28:32 this soundtrack is telling me 97% of viewers aren’t subscribed so be sure to uppercut that button and hit the bell

32:00 doing a Cinderella story has gotta be one of the tougher prompts to make work for 2 hours. Even though they definitely went “what if instead of a glass slipper it was a SNEAKER huehuehue” and figured out the rest from that. Just inevitably a very boring story because you’re beholden to the handful of things that absolutely have to happen but need to space them all out over 2 hours. Have I mentioned enough times this movie is 2 hours (I’m rounding up and accounting for blogging time).

35:16 going to assume right now the writers think they made up a Sneaker Con and do not know there is a real Sneaker Con, only because I don’t think Disney would want to directly associate with whatever the fuck Sneaker Con has mutated into this past year.

37:10 this girlfriend character’s sister is not doing a good job here, lol, I’m sorry

37:10(cont) girlfriend character has been tasked with finding a new designer for her family’s signature shoe. Time limit is 2 weeks. Shoes take just slightly longer than that, conception to execution, just like a day or two longer I think

39:31 *holding a beaker of science juice* finally. Straight male character with Lesbian Best Friend

42:48 always interesting when you can notice the exact moment in a scene where dialogue was cut. Character just jumps from slightly distressed to wildly upset on a reverse shot.

43:41 does the stepfather character deserve a redemption arc? It’s Sneakerella on Disney+, man, drop the sword sometimes.

44:47 sometimes I feel bad in these scenes where young actors are trying really hard. Not because I think I’m being harsh on them, I feel bad because they’re doing it in the name of a concept one degree removed from an SNL skit.

46:32 unclear whether main kid has a) given up sneaker designing because his mom died, b) given up sneaker designing because of self confidence issues, c) given up sneaker designing at all because he’s already done it like three times now

50:40 “pretty weird fit for stocking shelves” is a good line

53:17 at a point this movie stopped trying to convince me this kid designed cool shoes and is now asking me to just take their word for it. Odd quality for a visual medium to have.

54:30 the magic carriage in this version is just a pretty nice car. Getting the feeling Disney didn’t spend much on this.

56:47 they either explicitly referenced the Disney splash logo or reused animation assets. Don’t know enough about animation to call it but one of these possibilities is funnier than the other.

57:43 a gay character being in this movie constitutes homophobia

1:00:00 this script works in sneakerhead nomenclature about as well as an undercover cop trying to smoke some reefer with you cool kids

1:03:19 okay hold on: girlfriend character was tasked with finding a talented new designer for her families shoe brand and just didn’t ask the one sneaker designer she knows? Did I miss something. Why the fuck didn’t she call him. She remembers who he is, remembers his name. Am I just stupid.

1:03:19(cont) hey, set designer, come over here. *CDG converse behind a glass case? Are we serious? Are you being for real? That’s what you think a grail is? Did you get that from tiktok?*

1:04:55 okay so she just didn’t know he designed shoes, just thought he was big into them.

1:08:00 their stand in for cinderella being a fake princess is main kid being a fake... famous shoe designer? People at this gala think he’s like this super secret yet already accomplished sneaker designer. I ask, who cares. If you all like the shoe so much what does it matter.

1:09:05 “How will I find you again???” YOU WENT TO HIS HOUSE

1:14:41 they couldn’t get one person actually involved in the sneaker business to cameo in this? Jeff Staple could not have been busy.

1:16:31 the choreography in these songs needs to be seen to be believed.

1:17:00 in this version, it is not a matter of who fits the shoe, because the girlfriend knows exactly what he looks like. Literally just a matter of her glancing at someone and being like “no not you.”

1:19:50 the third act of every Cinderella story movie is such a chore. Its a trial and error thing by this point but no we 34% more shit going on

1:21:47 step brother characters are the best in the movie, no contest. Every face these guys make I’m weak

1:23:23 okay I think I like this villain song. It’s not good but also it’s very good. Also bizarre to have the villain song be the last song but do you, movie.

1:25:26 main kid is so reluctant to participate in his own movie they invented a friend character to drag him everywhere. Just noticed how frustrating this is. Whole movie he’s just “oh, i dunno, what if they laugh at me :(((”

1:26:10 “you lied to me!” “no, it’s a misunderstandng” there are twenty minutes left plz we dont have time for this i wanna go to bed

1:30:12 nearly ninety minutes later and the narrator is back for one line. Editing marvel, this.

1:32:32 the only “hrm unrealistic much” thing I subscribe to is characters waking up with makeup on, shit’s so stupid

1:35:36 once you notice there’s only two exterior sets you can’t go back

1:38:28 in the universe of this film, Sneaker Con takes place in the lobby of an apartment building

1:38:28 “they’re 1:1...just like you :))))))))))))))))))))” I’m very tired

1:41:20 the best musicals have you forgetting its a musical until the next song happens

1:43:44 this writer is a Hamilton fan, I can sniff out these things

1:47:10 jury’s out on whether this writer knows what a Yeezy is. Couldve done with some deep cuts like, idk, British Knights. Or Rick Owens, those are in right now. But I also buy they had literally only heard of Air Jordans before committing to make this movie.

1:49:31 counting returning writers, this was written by nine people.

#Sneakerella #Disney #Nightblogging #Im tired #yeah lets just fire this one off

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myearts-uwu · 3 years ago

Text

Random fun fact: Myra’s an old... and I mean OLD OC of mine.

This is a post for those who are interested in Myra!

Also, just a heads up that Myra is an original character of mine, not my self insert lol. I do have a persona but I’m too lazy to draw her.

Seriously. I think I created Myra way back in 2013-2014 when I was still into MLP and Yu-gi-oh Duel Monsters since I was still a child and after reading fics that have OCs in them, 10-year-old me decided to have a go at it and made my first OC!

Little did I know that this OC would become one of my most beloved creations that I’m so attached to.

Wanna go on a short trip down memory lane with me?

When I first designed Myra years ago, I was really into Rosario + Vampire (I liked the manga a lot) and I absolutely adored Moka’s design when she was in her real form. So I took a lot of inspiration from her design and created Myra! But at first her name was... oh god it’s so cringy.

Her name used to be Jessica Bloodriver...

... She was originally supposed to be a vampire, alright?

Sadly, I don’t have any drawings of Myra when she was still ‘Jessica’ but if you guys are curious about what she looked like back then, just imagine a tall white-haired woman with a curvy body, bright red eyes and is pretty dominant... Your average vampire OC

She definitely had gone through a lot of changes.

Anyway! About a year after that, I decided to make her human. An albino human since I really liked the white hair and red eyes combo. I also decided to change her name since ‘Jessica Bloodriver’... is honestly really bad. So, after looking through countless of names on random baby names websites, I decided to keep things simple and let her be named after me; Mira.

My second name is Ameera, for those who are curious. And as someone who had limited knowledge in creating good OCs with good names, decided to make things simple for myself and named her Mira for a few years. Her last name was ‘Yamina’ for no reason. I was listening to an old Vocaloid song when I gave her her last name.

And for a few years, Myra was looking like this!

This is an old drawing I made back in 2017! She has that fluffy-looking hair and, if you look closely, her current hair does have a bit of a resemblance to her old hair!

If you guys are curious on as to who the guy behind her is, he used to be her boyfriend but then I broke their relationship off after I started shipping Myra with Anastacius when I was months into writing ‘Reacting to Who Made me a Princess’. Don’t worry, they’re still good friends :)

If there’re two words I need to describe her hair in 2017-2018, it would be ‘round’ and ‘fluffy’. Basically, imagine really soft hair.

Her default age back then was basically 16-17, highschool age since I was still pretty young and I thought teens around those ages are kind of cool... I was wrong? Right now, Myra is 22 years old and is a university student! However, depending on the AU she’s in, her age will change.

Once 2018 rolled by, I thought it would be time to change Myra’s hair colour to a more darker colour since I kind of disliked shading white hair all the time. So, after reading a webtoon called ‘Miss Abbott and the Doctor’, I came up with this sketch!

The colours I chose for this sketch is absolutely horrid. What was I thinking?!

At the time, I really did like this hair colour so Myra was stuck with it for a while.

If I remember correctly, it was around this time that I change ‘Mira’ to ‘Myra’ because I liked the spelling better. And her last name was changed to ‘Smith’ since I listened to this sweet song called ‘Cecily Smith’.

And that’s how Myra got her name! Myra Smith!

Sadly, in 2018, I didn’t do much digital art as I was busy with an important exam when I was 15 so I mainly focused on school and studying. I did draw traditionally a lot but sadly I don’t have those drawings with me.

This was one of the drawings I managed to put out in 2018 on my old Instagram account. At the time, I just got back into playing Deemo so I drew a few Deemo-inspired drawings but I included Myra in them. Those fishies and that rabbit were traced over the original art, btw. I had no idea on how to draw fishies, sadly.

After that, I think I took another long break since I wasn’t having fun with digital drawing much. I think I picked up digital art again in the last few months of 2019?

This was when Myra’s hair slowly turned into a more brown-ish colour. And her bangs were changed to a more normal kind. You know, the regular bangs? Not the round bangs I gave her that made no sense in reality? And I dropped the circular art style because I grew tired of it.

During 2019-2020, I didn’t really draw Myra much since I was more into drawing her ex boyfriend Hyun-Jin during those two years.

But then I decided to write ‘Reacting to Who Made me a Princess’ in May of 2020 and I wanted to include Myra in it so she can act as some sort of observer who will watch over the main cast of WMMAP as they react to Athy’s life on the big screen.

My love for Myra had been rekindled as she spent more time with the characters and, in March of 2021, I wanted to draw my lovely daughter again!

She still has those normal bangs but look at how cute my daughter is! I love her so much, you have no idea.

I really loved how ‘kind’ Myra’s eyes are in this, which is something that I wanted to stick for her as I continue to draw her.

When I finally managed to download Clip Studio Paint, I finally drew Anastacius and Myra together for the first time ever!

And this, my friends, is when I decided to give Myra the bangs you guys are now familiarised with!

To be honest, it feels nice to walk down art memory lane like this and see how my OC Myra has evolved over the years to the best version of her right now. I’m really happy with how she turned out and I’m more than euphoric to be able to ship her and Anastacius freely.

Also I’m surprised that Myra has simps. Simps! But her simps are all lovely people :D

If you guys have any questions about Myra, feel free to ask me!

#original character #oc #anastacius de alger obelia #wmmap anastacius #old art #memory lane #takin' a walk down memory lane #these old drawings make me cringe lol #wmmap oc #myra smith my beloved

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hippohead · 4 years ago

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Okay, here goes for the prompts: number 4 on friends to lovers!

I hope you're doing well :)

thank you so much! sorry it took a little while also i’m feeling a little rusty but here’s a little something-something.

4. “you deserve better. it doesn’t have to be me, but you deserve better.”

Blaine went through a superhero phase when they were seven years old.

Kurt went along with it because he liked the capes and he thought it was cute when Blaine lifted his fist into the air and pretended to fly. The only part of it that was tedious was The Question, every day:

“What would your superpower be?”

The first time he asked it, Kurt answered honestly: “I want to be like Matilda. Move things with my mind and stuff.”

Blaine nodded and then picked super speed for himself. He ran around his backyard in loops until even Kurt felt dizzy, and they decided to just be superheroes who lay on the grass for the rest of the evening.

But then he asked it the next day, and the next, and the one after that. Over and over for almost a year. He wasn’t allowed to say the same one twice. Kurt ran out of superpowers to want.

When he finally moved on to his next obsession, Kurt was relieved, but right now he’d give anything for Blaine to ask him that question.

He’s not sure why Blaine would, though, considering it’s been over twenty years since the last time he did and they’re both wearing suits, not capes. But he’s got a new answer.

Time travel.

In fact, he’d do just about anything to flick a switch or drive a car past 88 or hop into a telephone box and end up thirty seconds earlier, before he said The Words.

The words. The ones that weren’t meant to come out. The one’s he’d vowed to keep stuck inside of his throat, even if it made it hard to breathe sometimes.

“You deserve better. It doesn’t have to be me, but you deserve better.”

Most of the sentence was fine and allowed. Most of it.

“What- what did you say?”

Shit. “I said you deserve better.”

God, he can see a million different things on Blaine’s face right now. He’s read those lines so many times; deciphered them, understood them, figured them out. He can still see all of the lingering pain about Tom not showing up, and the anger at himself for letting that be okay, and the tiredness of fighting for a relationship that neither person really wants. He can see the comfort that Kurt’s giving him, his best friend, in this tiny little restaurant cloak room, and the confusion, too.

“Look, I know you don’t like Tom-”

“It’s your thirtieth birthday. He should be here,” and it comes out like grit in Kurt’s teeth.

Blaine doesn’t say anything. If he did, he’d have to admit that this is actually pretty low on the list of Tom let-downs. There’s been worse - this one just looks bad.

“We should get back out there,” Kurt says, just to say something. The air is starting to feel too stuffy in here. He starts to leave, aware that Blaine’s parents and their mutual friends and a couple of Blaine’s coworkers are sitting at their table, probably wondering where on earth they’d disappeared to.

"Kurt?”

He stops halfway through the door, bracing himself - there’s no way Blaine would let Kurt just breeze over a slip-up like that. It’s not the first slip-up, either. There have been others in the past, from both of them. And it always goes the same way; the one who slipped up deflects and ignores, and the one who heard the slip-up pushes a little bit, desperate to see if the other will be brave this time.

Neither of them are ever brave.

“Yeah?” he says, resigned to the inevitable.

There’s plead in Blaine’s eyes – so much so that it makes Kurt kind of want to be brave this time, even though Blaine hasn’t questioned him yet. He’s gotten stuck, just sort of halted and trying to find the words.

And then the soft sound of a Billy Joel song starts to play from Blaine’s pocket – his ringtone.

Blaine holds his gaze for a second and then checks his phone, sighing, with a little puff of exasperation once he registers who’s calling. “It’s Tom.”

Kurt nods, drained of any bravery, and heads back to the table.

- - - - -

Kurt drops Blaine home after the dinner because even after the phone call, Tom still didn’t turn up.

It’s a quiet ride. Blaine had managed to do what Blaine does best which is to put on a cheerful face and convince a room full of loved ones that he’s fine, but he doesn’t have to do that in this car. Not in Kurt’s presence.

There’s a free spot right by Blaine’s apartment building so he pulls into it and turns the car off. It’s even more quiet now; the hum of the engine had been giving them some kind of music and it’s confronting now that it’s gone. He waits. Blaine seems settled in his seat. He’s staring at the sidewalk, curved in on himself but grounded, grounded to the space next to Kurt.

“Are you okay?”

Blaine’s shoulders lift, “I’ve had better birthdays.”

Kurt thinks that’s all he’s going to say but then he keeps going, his tone lightening a little bit.

“Do you remember that time you paid for all of the Warblers to fly into the city to surprise me?”

Kurt laughs, melodic and sweet at the memory, “I overshot my budget a lot that year.”

“I couldn’t understand why you wanted to go to the top of the Empire State so badly on my birthday,” Blaine laughs too.

“God, it was so stressful. Rachel was helping me co-ordinate it all but there was no service in the subway, and I had no idea if they were all in position and ready, and you were being... difficult, to say the least.”

“I wanted to go to Benny’s.”

That makes Kurt smile. It had been for Blaine’s twenty-first birthday. It was a big deal. And all Blaine wanted to do was get a milkshake from their favourite diner. Maybe share a plate of fries. Nothing big or fancy – just dinner in a place they discovered together. “If I remember correctly, I took you to Benny’s afterwards.”

“You did,” Blaine confirms. And then, with an odd mixture of wist and sadness, “I can’t believe you did all of that for me.”

“Is this your way of telling me you hate the watch?” and it’s an attempt to lighten the mood back up. He reaches for Blaine’s wrist and picks it up, admiring the new silver and ignoring the way it makes him feel to have Blaine’s skin under his palm.

“I love the watch.”

They catch each other’s eyes and oh, here it is. He almost got away with it.

“What did you mean tonight?”

Kurt drops his wrist.

“When you said it didn’t have to be you, but I deserved better?”

He looks straight ahead, the heat from Blaine’s stare burning into his cheek. He doesn’t know how to tell this lie again.

“Kurt?”

“Do you want me to be brave?” he asks, almost wanting permission to be.

Blaine nods, resolute. “I want you to be honest.”

Okay. There’s the permission. And he keeps it simple. “It doesn’t have to be me, but I want it to be.”

Blaine nods again, barely surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me this when we were seven?”

“Seven-year-olds aren’t in love yet.”

“We were.”

And maybe they were, or maybe they fell into it somewhere along the way, but one thing is for sure.

They definitely are now.

Blaine looks like he wants to kiss Kurt but doesn’t, mumbles a little incoherently about needing to sort some things out first which they both know means breaking up with his useless boyfriend, and then he squeezes Kurt’s hand.

Just as Blaine’s reaching for the door handle, Kurt can’t help but ask him something.

“Blaine?”

“Yeah?”

“What would your superpower be?”

Blaine looks a little confused, and then the context of his old obsession sinks in and his eyes crinkle as he laughs. And once his laughter settles, he thinks about it. “Time travel.”

He means: I wish I could go back to that day in Eighth Grade when we came out to each other and explain that you were the reason I knew, or, I wish I could go back to that party we went to when we were 17 and instead of getting horrendously drunk, kiss you instead, or, I wish I could go back to that night at your first apartment in New York when we argued and hold your hand instead. And Kurt knows that’s what he means.

“What about you?”

Kurt sets him with a look that is love, and adoration, and hope, and says, “I’m gonna go back to my original answer.”

“The Matilda thing?”

And he remembers. Of course he remembers.

“Yeah. The Matilda thing.”

#klaine fanfic #i wrote this!#klaine #it's just short but it's something!!

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purplesurveys · 2 years ago

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1542

What's your favorite non-fast food restaurant? It’s a nearby place that serves Korean cuisine. I love love love them because they’re super nearby; they have lots of options on their menu - they even have some local specialties; and I appreciate that the owner is Korean so the experience is as authentic as possible. The staff are also really nice!

What is something you hate, but wish you loved? Video editing. I feel like I’m the type to make lots of short-form vlogs if I only knew how to work those video editing programs and enjoyed using them.

What’s something terrible that happened to you in the past that you can actually laugh at now? I guess all the cringy stuff that happened in my previous relationship and its destructive aftermath; all the dumb arguments, me crying over my ex, the cheesy lines I once used. There are times I’d look back on those times somberly just because of the grave effects it had on my mental health; but there are times where I’d also laugh and cringe it off. If you could profoundly release anxiety's grip on one area of your life what would it be? My job. I wish I can have Bea’s chill approach to work, but I don’t think it would ever work with how uptight I innately am.

What product would you never be willing to go off brand with? Shampoo and conditioner. My hair isn’t at the healthiest state as it is, so going brandless on it just feels too big of a risk.

What are your favourite tv shows to binge watch? Easy watches, like Friends and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. If I’m gonna binge watch something multiple times they have to be shows that don’t cause me stress a la Breaking Bad, lol. What's the pettiest thing you've done? I’ve done a lot of petty things lmao but a recent one that comes to mind was when I nearly got into a minor accident with this motorcycle, and when he drove past me while glaring at me the entire time I shot him finger hearts and gave him a shit-eating grin. In my defense the near-accident was caused by him so I felt like I had merit to be petty, haha.

People with mental illnesses, what is an unexpected GOOD side effect of your illness? You always prepare yourself for the worst outcome, lol. < This is a good one. Another good thing, I guess, are those moments when you need to be alone and seek distractions, which will sometimes lead you to experience things that give you peace. Not too long ago I felt like getting away from the world for a bit which ended in me driving aimlessly for an hour, just going around the city. For the most part I don’t want to romanticize things like this, but then again I also don’t want to invalidate the happiness that these moments give me.

What is one thing you always have next to you when you go to bed? My phone. It’s one month into 2018. How fucked is your year so far? I barely remember anything that took place from 2016 to 2020 because my memories from then were largely linked to my ex; but if I remember correctly 2018 was actually a bit kinder to me compared to the turbulence that was 2016 and ‘17. I don’t think I have a lot of negative memories from 2018.

What is the worst thing your significant other did/say but you still decided to stay in the relationship and work on it? My ex was basically a huge gaslighter and I remember just swallowing every time she would invalidate my feelings or not apologize for remarks that hurt me.

What food blew your mind the first time you tried it? Risotto. The first time I tried it, it was my dad who made it and I was just stunned to silence. Ever since then I always get risotto if I see it on a menu.

What’s your favorite question to ask someone you’ve just met? If they’re into K-dramas or K-pop. Most of the time the answer is yes so it’s always able to open up like 10 minutes’ worth of conversation.

What small thing did your parents do for you (or a sibling) that you've grown to appreciate (more)? So my dad is super in touch with my food preferences, and what will happen sometimes is that when he’ll make a certain dish for dinner that he knows I don’t like too much, he’ll make a small serving of something else that’s just for me to eat. So for example if he makes sinigang for the rest of the family, he’ll make like one serving of pad thai for me haha.

What is the common stereotype about your job? That it’s all about planning events and meeting celebrities. It is those things to some extent, but it’s more than that and certainly not as glamorous as it seems.

What was the most scary symptom that you had which actually turned out to be minor? I’ve had toothaches bad enough to make me file leaves from work and miss a lot of sleep, when they turned out to just be wisdom teeth that needed to be extracted.

What board game do you absolutely hate playing? Monopoly, only because I never understood how it works.

What's the cutest thing your SO does, but denies it's cute in any way? I don’t have one.

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got-any-references · 4 years ago

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What are your fav beetlebabes headcanons? Also, love your stuff <3

Thank you <3. And thank you for the wait cause oh boy if I don’t answer this ask with a ridiculous amount of art how will I live?

*Digging out the dust covered manuscript that is my nonexistent Beetlebabes fic from under the floorboards* It’s showtime.

So...Lydia is the one who falls first. She is about 17 or 18 at the time, so this is very much an “I have a teen crush on someone I am not supposed to” type of deal. Honestly they fell in love with each other way before that but like, platonically

Beej is...horribly oblivious XD. Honestly its for the best because Lydia spends the better part of her pre-college summer freaking about because any time her best friend walks in the door her heart wants to go bull-riding in her chest and if she actually has to confront her feelings she might just explode.

Then, just before Lydia was supposed to go away to college, Beetlejuice...disappears. He leaves a note, saying he’ll be back, but weeks turn into months, months turn into a year, and no one either in the living world or the netherworld has seen a hair of him. Lydia goes through college without really knowing what to do with herself, missing what was probably the closest person in her life. She graduates with a journalism degree and a minor in photography. She works for a newspaper as an investigative journalist before breaking off over less than great circumstances and going off on her own.

She’s 25 when she establishes herself as a pivate eye, with an enormous amount of anonymous sources being dead people. Also, this takes place in New York City.

(Yes she absolutely does exorcisms on the side).

She’s following a rather stange missing persons case when one of her sources points to a run down establishment that is 100% totally haunted. Except when she goes there she doesn’t find any ghosts, but rather

Beetlejuice. And he looks awful. And very much human.

Lydia: You look like hell.

Beej: Yeah, I just got back.

...

Beej: Also I’ma pass out now so you better catch me.

So he crashes at Lydia’s place, and the whole thing turns into solving the crime as well as Beej’s mysterious aquirement of a beating heart and working lungs. He doesn’t remember how that’s happened, only now everything is Too Much with Too Many Feelings. Speaking of feelings, you bet your ass there is PINING. SO much pining. Lydia’s best friend comes back and suddenly those feelings she’d dismissed as a stupid teenage crush come FLOODING BACK.

While Lydia’s internally feaking out over her feelings (it's totally normal and platonic to wanna kiss your best friend while he sleeps, right??), Beetlejuice is, you guessed it, totally oblivious! To his own feelings especially! All he knows is that it's his best friend only now she seems like a completely different person, and hot. She is now hot. His mad respect for Lydia makes him bury that thought deep, deep down. Also the whole marriage deal is a source on bad memories for both of them and he doesn’t wanna ruin the only good thing he’s ever had and-

Anyway, more pining:

Lydia’s feelings bring out resentment, too. She hates that Beej calls her kid, because that means he still sees her as one, and her ego and her desire for him make her want him to see her, the woman who's seen some real shit in the name of finding the truth, who can take care of herself, and who is very different from that angsty 15 year old girl on the roof.

It all comes ahead to a big confrontation where Lydia is shot, and Beetlejuice has to drag her to the hospital without any knowledge of how human bodies work and he has no magic so he can’t help her-

The hospital needs to know his relationship to her when they take her away, and Beetlejuice knows they wont let him in unless he’s close family so he is blurts out: “Husband. Yeah, I’m her...husband.”

Lydia wakes up with a patched up hole in her side and Beetlejuice clinging to her hand. She’s happy she’s alive, but also angry, because she could have avoided all of this. She was competent enough to not need anyone to rescue her.

She wants to get back on the case as soon as possible, she found the key lead, but Beej doesn’t wanna hear it, cause he saw way too much of her blood and he’s not big on how human bodies work, but he's pretty sure that shit’s supposed to stay inside. They’re arguing when the nurse comes in and adresses him as “Mr. Deetz.”

Lydia snatches the clipboard away, sees that he’s told them she’s his wife, and is livid. Because crush or not the wedding thing had a whole lot of baggage she does not want to unpack. She has to confront the fact that her feelings are for someone who manipulated her into marriage at 15 and who she’s not supposed to see in that way but she does anyway.

And Beej, a dumbass but also angry cause she almost died out of a stupid reckless mistake is like: "Why are you all mad? It was a green card thing. It's not like it means anything." And that gets Lyds even more upset, with him cause he's an idiot, and with herself because she's still pining for someone who, she thinks, still sees her as a child.

Lyds, getting her coat: "Fuck off."

BJ: "Kid-"

Lydia: "Stop calling me that! I haven't been a child since my mother died. I haven't been a child since you showed up! I haven't been a child since I've started this, since I moved here, since the first asshole tried to kill me. I've been through literal hell and I've had to pull myself out of it all on my own because I was still here and you left."

There's a beat of silence as Lydia realizes what she just said.

Lydia: "And that's fine. Because I don't need you. I don't need anyone. You taught me that, at least." She yanks her coat onto her shoulders and turns to go.

BJ, quietly, but its clear he's angry: "Do you think I wanted to leave?"

Lydia: "I don't know what you wanted. Do you even know what you wanted?" She pauses at the door, turns to him. "Do you know what you want, Betelgeuse?"

BJ: "I-"

He stops. He can't look her in the eye anymore. You. I want you. Lydia scoffs, turns to go.

BJ: "Lydia, wait-"

Lydia: "Fuck. Off."

She leaves, and he just stands there, floored by his too little too late realization. Lydia thinks the best thing to do after leaving the hospital with a bullet hole in her side and hopped up on painkillers is to go get drunk! Self-preservation? None

Beetlejuice finally finds her drunk off her ass and suddenly in a great mood. He grabs her under the arms like "Whelp. Time to go."

Lydia: "Nooo come on-"

BJ: "Aren't you on hospital drugs? Doesn't that shit kill you breathers if you mix it all up?"

Lydia: ":D I stopped taking them :'D it hurts like a bitch."

BJ: "I guess I have the shared braincell now. Okay, time to go."

He manages to get her in the car without incident, but when he gets in the driver's seat suddenly Lydia's all over him.

BJ, with a lap full of drunk Lydia: "What. What are you doing."

Lydia: "Beeetlejuice."

BJ: "Yeees?"

Lydia, smiling all dopey as she cups his cheeks: "Beeetlejuuuice."

BJ: "What"

Lydia's finger hovers over his nose, as if to boop him. He closes his eyes. And suddenly her lips are on his. She tastes like alcohol and hospital food and as she pulls away he can't think. Then she starts laughing. "Ha! Gotchaaa! Classic Bait and Switch!"

And he’s pissed.

BJ: "Ha. Ha. Good one, Lyds."

He dumps her out of his lap and into the passenger seat. Lydia blinks in confusion. Now she's cold. She wants to ask, but her mental faculties aren't all with her at the moment. He drives them home and helps her up the stairs before dumping her onto her bed. "Well. Bye." Lydia scrambles up the bed. The car ride gave her enough time to be at least a bit sober, and everything before getting here is blurry. "Where are you going?" Beetlejuice turns around, the widest smile on his face. She's confused for a moment before she realizes he's vibrating with rage. "Ya said you want me gone? Great! You don't need me, you can do your weird little suicidal quest thing yourself!" Lydia looks lost. They had a fight but she'd rarely seen him this angry. "If its about the thing at the hospital, I didn't- I didn't mean it-"

Beetlejuice: "Really? You'd think you'd be glad to have me gone. Why would you want a creep like me around? The whole marriage thing didn't just disappear, after all! Great to know you can still pull one on me, huh?"

Lydia: "Pull what, Beetlejuice-"

She remembers, hazily, the car ride.

They stare at each other for a moment Beej is breathing heavily, he's not used to living person emotions, ones you can feel with your whole body instead of just as an abstract thing, but its clear he's holding back

Lydia: "I wasn't-"

Beej: "You weren't what?"

Lydia (quietly): "It wasn't a joke."

The angry grin slips off Beej's face. He suddenly looks very, very tired. She might have believed just now that he'd lived for millennia.

Beej: “Why are you doin' this, Lyds? Did you know the whole damn time? It's not like I was gonna do anything, I just thought- I just-”

Lydia suddenly realizes that they are having two different conversations. And something else. She looks away, trying to wrap her head around it, and Beetlejuice doesn't read it correctly. He turns to go.

Lydia: “Wait!”

She jumps off the bed, feeling the whole world tip over slightly, still drunk, and stumbled over to him. He catches her instinctively as she grips his forearms for support.

Lydia: “Beej. Beej, look at me.”

She takes his face in her hands, and turns it toward her. He looks so lost, like one word from her might actually break him. She'd only seen that look on his face once before, and she never wants to again.

Lydia takes a breath.

Lydia: “Beetlejuice, I-”

Aaand then she throws up all over his shoes.

She doesn't quite remember what happened next, only that she was in the bathroom, leaning against the door, the toilet was flushed, she was sweating, and he wasn't there.

Lydia: “Beej?”

Beetlejuice (through the door): “...hi”

Lydia: “What-”

BJ: “-happened? Well, that's a story!”

His voice sounds cheerful, but it’s shaking slightly

BJ: “First ya threw up all over us both! then that little experiment of yours with mixing the meds went off, and you started babbling about...rocks? Then we got here, you heaved out the rest of your insides, and then ya kicked me out and said you were gonna shower, and now we're sitting here, so, yeah”

Lydia: “...Are you still covered in puke?”

BJ:”...yeah”

Lydia: “...sorry?”

BJ: “Pshh, what's a best friend if ya can't throw up on 'im a couple times.”

They both fall silent

Beetlejuice (quietly): “Lyds, do ya still want me here?”

...

Lydia takes the time to find the words. Want him here? After everything, he was still asking that question. Did he still think, after all this time, that she'd throw him out at the smallest inconvenience? Would he ever stop thinking that way? Why did he think so now? Was it because he- Because he-

Lydia: “I love you.”

The other side of the door is silent.

Lydia: “I love your stupid laugh. You sound like a fucking cartoon villain, its so fucking obnoxious. I love your jokes, all of them, even the shitty ones- you always look so god damn proud when you say them.”

Is she crying? She tries to wipe at her face, but the tears keep coming.

Lydia: “I loved you since that last day on the roof, and when you left-”

Her throat closes up. She chokes back on her tears, she has to finish it, he has to hear it.

Lydia: “When you left I thought I might die again.”

Lydia: “I kept seeing things, dumb branding on cereal boxes, that shitty college play I went to, my first client, and I kept thinking aw, Beej would have a field day with this one. I thought about what you'd say. You were like a voice I couldn't scrape out of my head, I thought I was going crazy, I thought I'd imagined it all, some lonely little girl with no life or friends, needing someone to talk to- But you'd been real, and then you were just gone- “

The words dissolve in her throat as she sobs, pulling her knees up to her chest. She feels like a child now. She feels more childlike than she had at 15. She’s clinging to a scrap of hope she doesn’t have a right to demand from him. And yet he'd said-

Lydia: “I love you. Please, don't leave.”

They sit is silence for a while. Lydia tries to stop crying. Then, quietly from the other side of the door:

BJ: “You know what I thought when I first saw you?”

Lydia: “Here’s a suicidal teen haha what a riot?”

BJ: “What? No, not then. Like now.”

Lydia: “Oh. What?”

BJ: “I thought wow, who the hell is that and why is she so dang hot?”

Lydia laughs.

BJ: “And then I thought oh God that’s Lydia.”

Something in his voice makes her pause. Maybe it’s the strange fear that she feels coming from him.

BJ: “It’s like, you’re Lydia, and I don’t know shit about you! You’re the same person, but you’re a stranger to me. Lyds, do you know how fucking terrifying that is? You’re someone I never got to know because of a shitty decision I don’t even remember making.”

he falls silent. She can hear the pain in his voice. And something else. Longing.

Beetlejuice: “I’d like to.”

Lydia opens the door. Beetlejuice scrables up, only for her to throw her arms around him.

They figure it out. It’s a slowburn 200k fic that I’ll never write so it takes a while for them to actually kiss, or do anything more, but they get there.

This turned out...ridiculously long XD. I don’t know what you meant by “headcanons”, exactly, but have this instead.

Thanks for the ask!

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marzipanandminutiae · 4 years ago

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you asked and I am desperate for an excuse to happy to deliver! presenting A Point-By-Point Takedown of This BS Doll Article By Some Lady Calling Herself A Professional Antiques Appraiser

so she starts off with a random story about how she was in a warehouse doing appraisals and a dresser started glowing, and when she looked in the dresser the source of the glow was an antique doll. this convinced her that dolls “carry the energy of wicked little girls.” but not all of them! anyway now she’s scared of dolls. but not really. but yes, really

...okay then

she then shares a doll one E.H. sent her photos of for appraisal

(Pretty! French fashion doll, I’d say maybe a Barrois or an early Bru, late 1860s. You can tell by the distinctive “cobalt blue” eyes, that deep sapphire shade that only appears in the earliest era of FFs. Wig looks original, almost certainly mohair, and she has some sort of blouse or gown on that seems antique from the look of the lace. Could be a modern-made garment with antique materials. She’d probably fetch over $1,000 at auction unless there's some REALLY bad damage elsewhere on her person.)

EH’s one doll has a fabulous body that points to its age as 3rd quarter 19th century, because the body is made of fine-grained hand stitched leather. So what follows is a rough explanation of how you can determine if your doll is OLD, and that of course influences value – to an extent. The older dolls that are valuable are ALSO rare. And by the 1890’s dolls really were NOT rare.

Couple of issues with this. first of all, kid leather bodies can be seen on dolls as far back as the 1820s and as late in time as the early 1920s. the typical French fashion bodies were fairly distinctive, but just saying that the material determines the age isn’t correct. or if it is, it’s not a very precise dating

also like...what even is the last sentence? dolls weren’t rare in the 1890s. dolls weren’t rare in the 1860s. dolls can be made out of literally anything, at any price point, and have been present in almost every culture in human history. dolls, as a broad category, have never been inherently rare

if she’s saying dolls from the 1890s are not considered rare by today’s standards...oh honey, meet my dear friend the Simon and Halbig 1159

(This doll is c. 1900. This doll fetched $1,800 at auction. What was that about age determining value, again?)

also maybe Google “German art character dolls.” friendly suggestion

Another fact about doll valuation is that the best antique dolls are not replicas of children, but are replicas of fabulously well-dressed young women.

this is so ridiculous I laughed out loud. there is no single “best” type of antique doll. some people will pay top dollar for Kewpies, others for 1880s child dolls, others still for first-issue Barbies. there are examples that are the rarest in their class of doll, sure, but no one class dominates across the board. it’s one thing to say a certain type is your favorite and another to say it’s the Best(TM) as a professional appraiser

My favorite fashionable young lady dolls, French or German, have leather bodies made of kid leather, stuffed with cork or sawdust. When you check the bodies, look for tight stitching at the joints, because, if the arms and legs are meant to move, they must be compress seamed. That makes sense because with the stuffing, a moved joint will pop open if not sewn correctly. Look for another overlay of leather at the joint called a gusset, which indicates greater value. Only the legs, the body, and the top of the arms and shoulders will be made of leather. The arms will be creamy porcelain or bisque, or sometimes a wood pulp combination composite material. You will notice the head and shoulder plate fits in a U-curve around the shoulders, which are leather and affixed expertly.

couple of things

1. not all FFs have the bisque lower arms- that’s a rarity point, not the norm. most with leather bodies have leather arms, too.

(This is my Jeanette. She has leather arms. Guess she’s not really a French fashion doll, then, despite her markings, face painting, face mold, body construction, eye type, and literally everything else about her!)

2. this describes most reproduction FFs out there, and many bodies used for German child dolls later on. so unless you’re planning to give people other things to look for, not entirely helpful

oh but wait! here are the other things to look for! let’s venture

The best French Fashion dolls wear the latest styles and little girls never played with them. Wealthy fashionistas in the 3rd quarter of the 19th century collected them.

remember, all that contemporary hand-wringing about little girls being corrupted by their fashionable “Paris dolls” was planted by Big Children(TM). #wakeupsheeple #thetruthisoutthere

These come in the finest white leather bodies with a nice bust line and quite wide hips, as we know as the style for the shapely ladies of the 1870 and 1880’s.

...who’s going to tell her leather bodies are definitely not the finest

can it be me

can it be me with my Charlotte, who has one of the rarest wooden body types that I’m still not sure how I got for such a (relative) steal

can it be us, perched on the end of her bed, at midnight

The hairstyles of real human hair will also be ‘period’, and some will have real gem jewelry. These weren’t meant as toys for a middle class little girl. These were expensive and can sell today for a couple thousand dollars in perfect shape. Surprisingly the leather has withstood time if well preserved.

as I said earlier, for French fashions, mohair (wool from an angora goat) was a WAY more common wig material than human hair. sometimes the hair will be down, not in a “period” style, because it was meant to be played with and styled by the child owner

real gem jewelry DID exist for these dolls, but most of what you’re likely to find is of rhinestones and gilt. that was much more common, as you’d expect

a middle-class little girl, if she was very lucky, might be able to count one middling or lower-range French lady among her dolls. they were expensive, but, well, middle-class girls often have one American Girl doll today, right? these dolls ranged in price from AG-level to “this was bought for a young princess and has that real gem jewelry mentioned above”

her price assessment is accurate for the majority of FFs, with outliers on either end ranging from “got really lucky with a seller who didn’t know what they had” to “a museum bought this doll because not even the richest collectors could afford to.” but...well, just keep that “couple of thousand dollars” figure in your mind for later

Let’s compare this leather-bodied doll with another cheaper type of body. In the late 19th century a ball-jointed body could be made of a wood pulp composition material, or even Papiermâché with little hinges of wood at the joints. Of course, since these bodies are wood based, they’re painted, and you’ll find the ghastly colors, as the once flesh tones turn to green or olive.

remember that doll from 1900 I showed you?

she has a jointed composition body

$1,800

I do not feel any further comment is necessary at this juncture

(leather bodies came to be considered something of a budget option when the jointed compo bodies came into common use, because they couldn’t be posed and took less work/expense to make)

Finally, let’s think about the heads, if we dare.

oh bite me

Most heads are made of a porcelain type of material, and in this case, the porcelain is usually white with a painted ON skin tone. If the head is Bisque, bisque is material that will take a color or stain into itself and is often not painted nor glazed. The porcelain heads are more prized.

okay kids

porcelain is a type of very fine, translucent ceramic. it can be made matte, often called bisque, or shiny and glossy, often called china

(this stylish miss by Francois Gaultier is of matte bisque, the most common type of porcelain finish used for French fashion dolls. she’s also rocking the baby bangs look, and kudos to her for that)

(this early girl by Rohmer, on the other hand, has a glossy, shiny china head. note again the cobalt-blue eyes, another clue to her age. this is rarer than matte bisque for French fashions, though German glazed china dolls with molded hair could be quite commonplace depending on many factors like size, body type, hairstyle, etc.)

complicating everything further, a lot of older and even contemporary sources can use “bisque,” “porcelain,” and “china” interchangeably. context is key. but in modern terms, that’s sort of the breakdown

ding dong this blogger is wrong

You’ll see what I mean when I say dolls are sometimes too lifelike for my taste–or my nightmares. Notice the toes on EH’s doll. Pretty obsessive. The value is unknown until I find the maker of the doll, but a rough estimate might be $600, because the outfit seems original.

stitched toes are normal on kid-bodied French fashions in the most common size range (14″-17″). also

(The actual picture provided)

THIS gives you nightmares? really? I have Many Questions

also remember that valuation from earlier? a couple of thousand dollars? yeah. now she comes back with $600

depending on size, condition, and costume intricacy, I’ve seldom seen a doll of this type sell for less than $1,700 at auction (source: the online catalogue of past auctions at Theriault’s, the premier doll auction house in the U.S., and also personal experience)

and that’s a problem because the doll’s owner is PAYING for this “appraiser’s” services. they’re PAYING for an accurate idea of what they have and what it’s worth, whether for selling or insurance purposes. even if it’s just out of personal curiosity, you shouldn’t be swindled for a slew of misinformation and half-truths capped off by a wildly inaccurate dollar value

also the Creepy Doll stuff is massively unprofessional

Marzi out

#long post #pic heavy #dolls #antique dolls #french fashion dolls #snark #of course sometimes people's ignorance pays off for legit collectors #one of my friends got a stunning FF in her original clothes and wig for $100 #because the seller thought she was just 'an ugly creepy doll' and wanted her gone #and I've definitely had my share of luck or I wouldn't have four of these dolls today #(don't get me wrong- I also have a degree of financial privilege. but not so much that I could have afforded them all at market value)#(not even close)

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snowdice · 3 years ago

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Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 66]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29

It’s editing time for me because I have not edited in way too long. I am so behind on the Study Fic and this one. Oof. Also I should do some blog organization maybe.

Chapter 30

After lunch, Patton and Logan took Virgil out to the garden to walk around. They let Virgil lead them around wherever he wanted to go in the garden. A bunch more flowers had died since the last time they’d been out here, and Patton felt sad despite having never felt very sad about that sort of thing before. But, Virgil seemed to really like the flower he’d found last time, so Patton thought he was probably sad on the boy’s behalf.

Of course, Patton thought, perking up, eventually it would be spring, and Virgil could get to not only see some flowers but all of the flowers as they grew. Patton couldn’t wait to see him amongst the garden then.

Virgil took them wandering through the orchard for a while, but most of the trees had been stripped of their fruits and the leaves were beginning to fall off some. They ended up in the vegetable garden after a bit, and Virgil finally seemed to decide on a direction instead of just ambling about.

A few seconds after Patton noticed Virgil seemingly decide on a destination, Patton noticed Mr. Deknis kneeling on the ground a few feet away. Had… had Virgil been looking for him? Patton wondered. That was adorable.

Mr. Deknis looked up as they approached and smiled at them.

“Hello, Mr. Deknis,” Patton said as they came closer.

“Hello you three,” Mr. Deknis said. “Getting into trouble?”

“No,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Mr. Deknis gave him a flash of a smile. “I know, I’m joking,” he said. “Especially since there isn’t much left in my gardens for certain princes to destroy with experiments.”

“Oh, okay,” Virgil said. He tilted his head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the last of the acorn squash out,” Mr. Deknis replied. “It’s the last crop to get finished. Good thing too, it’s supposed to start snowing soon.”

Virgil looked down curiously at the dark green squash.

“Would you like to help me pick a couple?” Mr. Deknis asked.

“Sure,” Virgil said, sounding interested. Mr. Deknis patted the ground beside him, and Virgil knelt down to watch him.

“They’re not too difficult to harvest,” he said. “You just cut the fruit off the stem. You want to leave about a hand’s width of the stem left over which will help preserve moisture. The earlier harvests I left in the field to cure in the sun for a couple weeks, but the frost’ll ruin these, so we’ll take them inside the green house and let them sit in the sun for a bit there. We also want to keep the leaves. You’ll probably be eating those for dinner tonight since they have to be cooked up within about 24 hours after they’re picked. Patton’s mom makes a good side dish with them and she’ll be making some curry tomorrow, probably. Maybe some stew if there are some left over. Put the squash in this wheelbarrow and the leaves into this pile, okay?” Virgil nodded and Mr. Deknis handed him the extra pair of gloves and shears he carried with him in case one set broke. “These might be a bit big on you, but they should work for now.”

Mr. Deknis looked up at Patton and Logan. “Would the two of you like to help?” he asked. “I can get some more equipment.”

“I can help out if you want, but you don’t need to stop and get more equipment just for me,” Patton said.

“The same for me,” Logan said.

“Well, if you’d like to help still, you can sort the leave. Give your mother a head start.”

“Sure,” Patton said. He and Logan went to do that while Mr. Deknis and Virgil worked on cutting the squashes from the vine.

“What do you do during the winter?” Virgil asked curiously. “If this is your last crop?”

“Well, at the beginning, I mostly will be working on making sure things are stored correctly along with some of the kitchen staff. There’s some drying to do and some canning. After that’s done, I’ll spend some time organizing and planning. Then, before the spring comes, I’ll start preparing seedlings in the green house.”

“Seedlings?” he asked.

“I let seeds start to grow in the greenhouse that I replant once it gets warm enough.”

“Why don’t you just plant them where they’re going?”

“I do for some,” he said, “but giving some a head start is good for them.”

Patton watched as Virgil continued to ask questions about gardening while working on harvesting the squash. Mr. Deknis continued to answer them in a calm, soft tone that Patton didn’t think he’d ever heard from the often gruff man before.

Patton wasn’t surprised when, after finishing getting most of the squash off of the vine, Mr. Deknis asked if Virgil wanted to help him with canning some pears in a couple of days. Virgil immediately looked over at Logan and Patton as though asking permission.

“Say yes if you would like to Virgil,” Logan said.

“Yes,” Virgil said as soon as he was given permission. Mr. Deknis smiled at him softly and started loading the last of the squash into the wheelbarrow. Patton offered to run the squash leaves to the kitchen while Logan and Virgil helped Mr. Deknis take the actual squash to the green house.

He dropped the leaves off to a kitchen worker since Mama was busy and headed back out to the garden. By the time he returned, Logan was already back from the green house and sitting by one of the more decorative trees near the castle.

“He’s exploring,” Logan said, nodding at a large patch of bushes.

Patton chuckled. “I see.” He sat next to Logan. Every so often he’d hear the bushes rustle, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually Virgil or an animal.

“He’s adorable,” Patton commented, keeping an ear out.

Logan hummed.

“I’m glad we kept him.”

“He isn’t a pet, Patton.”

Patton rolled his eyes. “I know, but I’m still glad. I’m glad he’s making friends with Mr. Deknis. Once he knows how to read better, we should get him a book about gardening. He seems interested.”

Logan nodded. “Having a hobby would be good for him. Clearly he has a fascination with the garden.” He nodded to the blur of dark hair that could be seen through the bushes. It seemed Virgil had stopped his exploration and was now laying down in the bushes a few feet away.

“I’m going to go see what he’s doing,” Patton said. “I’ll be right back.”

Logan nodded and Patton got to his feet. The bushes were part of a small maze that was filled with flowers during the spring and summer months but were mostly just green and brown bushes for now. Despite the fact that Patton had been able to see him only a few feet away, it took him a while to wind through the path to where he was. When he finally turned the last corner and he came into view, Patton gasped softly.

“Ghost kitty!” he said, making sure to make his voice as quiet as possible.

Despite how soft he made his voice, two pairs of eyes shot over to him. The completely black kitten was perched on Virgil’s lap like she belonged there. Ghost Kitty hissed slightly, but Virgil reached forward to pet her head gently.

“This is Ghost Kitty?” Virgil asked. “I thought you said she was hard to pet.”

“She is,” Patton said. He lowered himself onto the ground from a few feet away from them. “How did you get her to come to you?”

Virgil glanced down at the cat and shrugged, scratching one of her ears. “She just came over to me and let me pet her.”

“Wow,” Patton said softly. He looked at the cat. “Could I pet you sweetie?” he asked, holding out a hand in her direction. She hissed again.

Virgil frowned down at her. “It’s Patton,” he said as though he expected her to understand his words and the exasperation in his tone.

He pet the cat’s head to soothe her and then reached over to grab Patton’s hand. He pulled and Patton carefully leaned a bit closer until his hand was within sniffing distance. Ghost Kitty sniffed his fingers contemplatively and then bumped her head against it. He barely restrained a squeal, knowing that probably wouldn’t be taken well.

He carefully turned his hand over so he could stroke the top of her head. He gently scratched her ear, not daring to go for under her chin yet since she didn’t know him well. “Hi,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to purr softly. Virgil reached over and scratched under her chin and she purred louder. “Oh, you’re a good girl,” Patton breathed, letting a hand trail gently down her back once and then again. Patton settled himself carefully into a seating position continuing to pet her. After a few more moments of soft petting, she hesitantly stepped her front paws onto Patton’s thigh, so she was sitting in both of their laps. Patton laughed softly. “Hi sweetie.” He glanced over at Virgil who had a wide smile on his face as he pet the cat. This. This was adorable. They continued to pet the cat for a very long time.

Chapter 31

Logan waited for a while after Patton left to check on Virgil, but the two never resurfaced. It was odd, Patton would usually remember to come back and get Logan or at least tell them where they were. With a sigh, Logan climbed to his feet to go find them. It took him a while to weave his way through the maze of bushes to them especially because they were suspiciously quiet (Well, suspicious for Patton. Virgil was often unnervingly quiet when alone.) Luckily, he knew the bushes enough after all of these years not to get lost and managed to find the two after a few minutes.

“Ah,” he said, immediately identifying the reason for Patton disappearing.

“Logan!” Patton said, his voice excited, but also quieter than normal. “We found a kitty!”

“I can see that,” Logan responded, taking a step closer. The cat hissed at him in response. The hissing was so intense and wild that he’d suspect the thing was feral if it wasn’t happily on Virgil’s lap having had it’s head in Patton’s lap before Logan had approached.

“No,” Virgil told the animal as though it could understand words. “That’s Logan. Be nice.”

The cat still glared at him and swished it’s tail back and forth threateningly. Virgil pet the top of it’s head and it broke eye contact with Logan to purr.

Patton seemed delighted by the purring, reaching to stroke under the thing’s chin carefully. “We should give her a name!” Patton said.

Virgil frowned. “I thought her name was Ghost Kitty.”

“That is ‘Ghost Kitty’?” Logan asked skeptically. From what Patton had said about that cat, it was terrified of people and no one could ever get near it, even him. Now it was in Virgil’s lap?

“But that was a temporary name,” Patton said, “for before we officially met her. Now we have to give her a real name.”

“Do not give it a name,” Logan said. “You will get attached.”

“How do you name a cat?” Virgil asked.

“Do not name it,” Logan said.

“You give them names based on their personalities, how they look, or even just because it’s a cute name,” Patton explained. “Like, remember Mittens? I named her Mittens because she has white fur and black paws!”

Virgil looked at the cat. “She’s completely black,” he said.

Patton hummed. “So, we could give her a name based on that like Midnight or Shadow.”

“Those are fine,” Virgil said.

“No, no,” Patton said. “I’m just giving you examples. You get to name her yourself.”

“This is a bad idea,” Logan said.

“Just throw out some names,” Patton said. “Anything you can think of.”

“Uh,” Virgil said. “Knife.”

“…Just Knife?” Patton asked.

“Nightmare.” Virgil seemed to think about it. “No, that’s mean.”

“How about things you like?” Patton suggested.

“Alfredo?”

Oh no, Logan thought, he was worse than Patton at cat naming.

“Good start,” Patton said. “Logan, do you have any suggestions.”

“Cat,” Logan said.

“Real suggestions,” Patton scolded.

Logan sighed and thought for a moment. “Aphrodite.”

“Catphrodite!”

Logan glared at him. “Helena.”

“Helenpaw.”

“Claudia.”

“Clawdia.”

“Persephone.”

Patton smiled at him, cheerfully.

“…Damnit!”

Patton turned to Virgil again. “Like that! They don’t even have to be serious. Like, uh, you could name her Madam Fluffywuffykins the Great!”

“Do not name her that,” Logan said, scrunching up his nose.

Logan sat on the ground, the cat eyeing him, but no longer hissing. Logan gently guided them towards more sensible names despite Patton trying his hardest to drag them into stupidity.

Virgil still didn’t quite get it. He mostly tried to name it after foodstuff, and often not even appropriate foodstuff such as “Corn” and “Acorn Squash” and “Sandwich” and occasionally would drop in semi violent ones such as “Razor,” “Nightshade” and “Void.” Patton suggested names like “Fluffers,” “Bobette” and “Darling” as well as some that were puns. Logan tried to direct them towards more sensible ones like “Salem” and even went so low as to suggest the contrary “Snowball.”

It quickly seemed to become less about actually naming the cat and more of a game. Patton had taught Virgil about playing with cats and had even gotten out a ball of yarn he cared around for his crafts. Both Virgil and the cat seemed to find endless entertainment with that. Logan hoped Patton had another ball of yarn that color because, he was never going to get that ball back.

The barrage of names fizzled out into naming things around them like “Leaf” and “Bush” until they stopped suggesting names altogether. Patton and Logan sat back and watched Virgil play with the cat.

Logan watched as they stopped playing suddenly and Virgil and the cat squinted at each other. “Marisol,” Virgil said, pulling the name out of nowhere. “That’s her name.” He said it with a certainty that was surprising considering how he’d treated the naming process with confusion and caution earlier. If Logan did not know better, his tone of voice would indicate that the cat, or Marisol he guessed, had gotten bored of them coming up with stupid names and decided to tell him her actual name herself.

The cat made a sound and batted at Virgil’s face without claws to grab back his attention.

He turned back to it and bopped its face with a finger in kind. It attacked his finger, but in a clearly playful matter as it still did not extend it’s claws and its teeth did not draw blood.

“That’s a great name, Virgil,” Patton said.

“Much more pleasant than any that Patton suggested all afternoon,” Logan said. He received an elbow to the side for his quip.

“A pretty name for a pretty kitty,” Patton said, scooting over to where Virgil was sat and attempting to pet Marisol’s head. Marisol, however, was too keyed up and batted at the hand.

“I love you too!” Patton said.

Logan rolled his eyes, but he had long since resigned himself to watching the two of them play with and coo over the cat for the rest of the day.

Eventually, though, it started to get darker. Even after Logan pointed this out, it still took over an hour for them to relent and leave the bush maze to go to the door. The problem was of course, that the cat had managed to grow very attached to Virgil in the last few hours and she followed them all the way to the door with manipulatively heart breaking mews.

“You’ve got to stay out here,” Virgil said, when they got to the castle door. He pet her ear softly and she shoved her head into his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anywhere to put you.” He sounded horribly sad about that fact and Logan felt himself shift uncomfortably. “I basically live in a closet and Logan doesn’t like cats in his room anyway.”

Logan immediately felt unreasonably guilty, probably more so because Logan did not think Virgil was trying to make him feel guilty. “…Bring the dammed thing inside.”

Virgil blinked up at him. “What?”

“It will get cold soon anyway,” Logan said.

He frowned at Logan from where he was crouched. “But you don’t like fur in your room…”

“I will have to find a potion that works,” he said with a sigh, “and we’ll have to say it’s mine to the guards and Father since it will be staying in my room, but it is yours in every other way. That means you are going to feed it, clean it, and clean up after it.”

Virgil nodded immediately and swooped Marisol up in his arms. The cat went without complaint. “Thank you!” he said. “I love her.”

“I know you do,” Logan said, already regretting it already. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to even consider recanting the offer considering how happy Virgil seemed to be. They had a cat now, he guessed.

Chapter 32

“What are you doing?” Helen asked a few minutes after her son walked into the kitchen and started looking around as though he were trying to find something. It was a few hours into the afternoon, and she and a few workers were already prepping for dinner.

“Uh,” Patton said. “Have you seen Virgil?”

“No,” Helen said. “Why.”

“Er… Logan and I sorta, lost him,” Patton said. He was wringing his hands anxiously. Helen put down the knife in her hand.

“What do you mean you lost him?” she asked.

“Well, see, we were trying to teach him how to play hide and seek, um, but then we didn’t think to tell him that he eventually had to come out if we didn’t find him, and now we haven’t seen him since breakfast.”

“He didn’t know what tag is?” she asked. That was just one more thing to add to the list of why Helen worried about Virgil and where he came from. Every morsel of information she’d managed to wring from Patton despite his evasions made her lists of concerns grow larger, even little things like him not knowing about simple childhood games. Actually, thinking of concerning things having to do with Virgil. “Wait, so he hasn’t eaten lunch.”

“Um, we don’t know that,” Patton’s mouth said while his eyes said ‘no.’

“He needs to be on a consistent diet, especially when he’s still taking the malnutrition potion,” she scolded.

“I know, Mama, I know,” Patton said. “I’m trying to find him. I’d kinda hoped he’d gotten hungry and snuck down here. He probably wouldn’t want to risk being caught stealing food though.”

Helen grimaced. Yet another concerning thing.

“Wait! I have an idea, I’ll be right back.” Patton turned and ran out of the room. Helen frowned at the space he’d been and finished chopping the carrot on the cutting board in front of her. If it had been any other person in the castle missing, Helen wouldn’t have worried, but she had literally never seen Virgil without Patton and/or Logan by his side. Even when he’d gone to help Jeff can some fruit, Logan had reportedly hung around to read a book.

Considering that Logan had never exactly been clingy even with Patton, she imagined that either Virgil asked, or Logan thought he should stay with him for his comfort. So, she was surprised that he was apparently hidden away somewhere in the castle where neither of the other kids could find him.

Still thinking about this, she walked over to the entrance to the cellar below the kitchen where they stored most of the vegetables, planning to grab some more carrots. She was confused for a moment when she heard movement from deeper in the pantry. She reached over and touched the panel near the door that controlled the magic lights.

The newly illuminated figure startled as the lights came on, whipping around to stare at her with wide eyes.

“Virgil?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he said immediately, taking a step back.

“It’s fine,” she said immediately, “but what are you doing here?”

He considered her for a long moment, but apparently, she passed some sort of mental test, because he relaxed, at least as much as he’d ever relaxed in her presence. “Where are we?” he asked.

Her brow knit together. “The cellar under the kitchen,” she said, “You don’t know that?”

He shook his head.

“The only entrance is from the kitchen.” Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen him go through the kitchen at any point.

“No, it’s not,” Virgil said. “There’s a tunnel.”

“A-a tunnel?” she asked. Actually, taking a closer look at him, he seemed a bit grimy. He had dust all over his front and dirt on his nose. She thought he might even have a couple of cobwebs in his hair.

“Yep,” he said.

“Where’s the tunnel?” she asked.

“It’s right over here,” he said. He took a couple of steps and pointed to the ground. There was an open square hole there that clearly had been made a long time ago but which she had never noticed in all of her time working here.

“How did you find this?” she asked.

“We were playing hide and seek,” Virgil explained. “Logan said I could hide anywhere inside the castle. I hid on top of a dresser upstairs in some unused sitting room. There was a hole in the wall above it, so I climbed into it. Then, I crawled a little bit and it let out into a hidden passage in the walls. I wandered around in it until I found another hole in one of the walls. I thought it was a way out, so I squeezed into it, but it took me to a different hallway where I found an old room. There was a different hole in that room that had probably been covered by something because it was in the floor but whatever it was had rotted away. I crawled though it into a tunnel and came out here.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a bit at his explanation. “Well, it sounds like you went on an adventure,” she said, “but Patton and Logan have been trying to find you. You missed lunch.”

He tilted his head at her. “I know. I was supposed to hide.”

“Yes,” she explained, “but you are supposed to come out at some point if they can’t find you for things like food.”

“Oh,” he said.

“They probably should have explained,” she said. “For now, why don’t we get you something to eat? You must be hungry.”

Virgil frowned. “But I missed lunch.”

“You can still eat even though it’s not in normal hours,” she said. “You could even if you had made it to lunch.”

“Really?” he asked, he looked tragically confused by this offer.

“Of course, sweetie,” she said. “In fact, I insist you get something good to eat right now. How about I made you a grilled ham and cheese sandwich? Maybe some cookies too!”

Virgil titled his head. “You are Patton’s mother,” he stated.

Helen laughed softly. “He gets its all from me,” she said. “We should probably go find him and tell him you’re okay. He was worried.”

“I didn’t mean to worry him,” Virgil said with a frown.

“I know,” Helen said. “It’s okay. He’ll probably laugh when he figures out where you’ve been, and Logan will interrogate you all about the secret passageways.” He seemed happy about the prospect of seeing his friends. “Come on, let’s go upstairs for a bit,” she said.

Chapter 33

Patton’s mom had already made Virgil sit down at the small table in the corner of the kitchen and had handed him a sandwich by the time Patton barreled into the kitchen, Logan coming after him at a more sedate pace.

“Virgil!” he said, sounding surprised and relieved.

“Patton,” Patton’s mom scolded. “No cats in the kitchen.” Patton had brought Marisol in with him and had let her go as soon as he’d seen Virgil. She immediately plodded over to him and hoped onto the table to sniff at his face in greeting.

“But she’s the princess!” Patton argued.

“No,” Logan said.

“Yes, she is!” Patton said.

“The stupid cat is not a princess.”

“Don’t be mean to your little sister, Logan.”

“I regret every life decision that has led me to this point.”

While Logan and Patton were distracted squabbling and Patton’s mom was distracted watching them squabble, Virgil tore off a bit of the ham in his sandwich and offered it to Marisol. Marisol gracefully took it from his grip and ate it.

“So, this is Logan’s new cat I’ve been hearing about?” Patton’s mom asked.

“Indeed,” Logan said, his lips thinned. He and Marisol were mostly amicable when alone with just them and Virgil, but Patton had a habit of cooing over the kitten and needling Logan into being irritated.

“Mmm, yeah,” Patton’s mom said. She glanced over at Virgil right as Marisol basically slammed her face into his chin in a bid to get pets. “Your cat.” She shook her head. “But Princess Kitten or not, I do not want fur in dinner,” she said.

“Sorry,” Patton said, honestly not sounding sorry at all. Virgil was always a bit surprised when the insolent shrug garnered nothing more that a scowl that did not reach Patton’s mom’s eyes. “I thought she could help me find Virgil, but you already found him.” He turned to Virgil. “Where have you been all day?”

“Found a tunnel,” Virgil said. He had to use one hand to hold Marisol back from his sandwich as he took another bite, but then gave her a bite of cheese.

“You found what?” Logan asked.

“There’s a tunnel under the cellar,” Virgil said. “It goes to an old closed up room and also to a set of secret passageways.” It was a bit of a security risk honestly, though clearly no one had used it in years by how dirty it was. He did plan to go back into it and make sure the sprawling tunnels didn’t go to anywhere more dangerous like the royal wing.

“A closed-up room?” Logan said. He could see a bit of curiosity already building in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Where the door used to be seemed like it had been bricked over.”

“Really? Can you show me.”

“Sure,” Virgil answered.

“Ah, perhaps we should be a bit more cautious about climbing through random tunnels we don’t know the stability of,” Patton’s mom said.

Logan’s frown edged on a pout.

“Talk to your father,” she said. “I’m sure he can get someone who understands these things so you can safely investigate.”

“It was safe enough for Virgil,” Logan pointed out.

“No, Logan.”

He sighed but seemed to concede. That was another strange thing about living here. By all rights Logan didn’t have to obey anyone except the king, but he often listened to those around him, not just the adults but Patton as well. It was interesting though it sometimes made the hierarchy hard to figure out. Virgil did sometimes stress out about the hypothetical situation where he got conflicting orders from two people, and he wouldn’t know which one to obey. So far it hadn’t been a problem luckily. They always seemed to work it out amongst themselves in some give and take social interaction that was a bit too complex for him to understand.

Patton walked over to where Virgil was sitting. “I’m glad your safe,” he said. “We should probably put a time limit on hide and seek in the future, so you know when to come out.”

“Did I win?” Virgil asked. He’d honestly forgotten they’d been playing a game until Patton’s mom had asked how he’d found his way into the cellar.

Patton laughed. “I’d say so, yeah,” he replied. He leaned over to kiss Virgil’s forehead, but drew back immediately with a pinched expression. “You are… very dirty,” he said, rubbing his mouth.

Virgil nodded. “Your mom made me sit on a tablecloth,” he said gesturing to the fabric she’d laid over the chair.

Patton snorted out a laugh. “We’ll get you into the bath when you’re done eating and you can tell us all about your little adventure.”

“I would also like to hear about your discoveries,” Logan said. “Though you are not allowed to sit on the bed until you do not have spider webs in your hair.”

Patton’s eyes widened and he jumped away from Virgil, startling both Virgil and Marisol. The latter hopped from the table onto Virgil’s lap. “Spiders?!”

Virgil tilted his head at him in confusion.

“He isn’t a fan of spiders,” Logan informed him, his voice amused at Patton’s reaction.

Apparently deciding that she was no longer startled, but more confused by the noises Patton had just made, Marisol jumped out of Virgil’s lap to investigate, wrapping her way around Patton’s legs. He bent down to pat her back, though he still looked a bit startled.

“Your cat, huh?” Patton’s mom asked Logan once again. Virgil studied her. She had apparently missed Logan mentioning that he allowed Virgil on the bed. Or perhaps Logan was correct in his insistence that it wasn’t actually that big of a deal here. Virgil would rather not test that assumption, however, so was glad that it had been distracted from by Patton’s outburst.

“Creepy, crawly death dealers,” Patton mumbled into Marisol’s fur, having picked her back up. Virgil made a note to not inform Patton of all of the different types of spiders he’d seen skittering around in the castle walls today. Maybe he’d talk about them with Logan once Patton left. He’d probably be interested. Virgil had seen some he’d never seen before! Logan probably could even help him figure out what their names were. “You’ll protect me, won’t you kitty?” Patton asked Marisol.

She made a little ‘burrrr’ sound in response, which Patton seemed to take a confirmation.

“Aw thank you, baby! Such a good baby.”

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Virgil popped the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. Patton’s mom turned away and grabbed a plate stacked with cookies. She handed it to Logan. “Take these, and please get the health hazards out of my kitchen,” she requested.

Logan took them without complaint. “Come on, Virgil,” he said. “Let’s go get you clean.”

“We’re going to need so much soap,” Patton said.

Virgil looked down at himself. “I can go outside and get most of it off if you get me a bucket of water,” he offered.

“Virgil, it’s below freezing,” Logan said as though that had a baring on what he’d just said. Logan sighed. “No. Bathtub.” Virgil shrugged. “Honestly,” Logan said. He turned with the plate of cookies in his hand, clearly expecting to be followed. “You’re not going to catch your death pouring a bucket of water over yourself in the cold when there are literally over a hundred perfectly good bathtubs in this castle. For goodness sakes.” And well, Virgil wasn’t going to complain.

Chapter 34

Patton, to be completely honest, was not all that interested in the room that Virgil had found. Beyond just the fact that it would definitely have creepy crawly death dealers in it, he really did not understand the intrigue. If it had just been him, he probably would have just let a castle worker deal with it, but it was not just him. Logan was ecstatic with the prospect of investigating a secret in the castle. People who didn’t know him well may not believe it considering he spent most of his time with his nose in a book, but he was an adventurer at heart.

Thomas had been easily swayed into finding someone to help tear down part of the wall into the secret tunnel near the room (so no one would have to crawl through the kitchen cellar like Virgil). It had taken a few days, however, and Logan was practically bouncing off the walls waiting. Virgil, despite having already seen the room before, also seemed excited, though if that was because of his own curiosity or because he was just excited that Logan seemed so exited remained to be seen.

“They are silly, aren’t they,” Patton asked Princess Marisol. He was laying on his stomach on Logan’s bed and Princess Marisol had just put her little paw on his nose.

“Yes, I agree,” he said. “Don’t they know that we’re literally going to be 2 feet away from the normal hallway?”

“It is not silly,” Logan defended himself. “Any number of things could go wrong.” He sounded far too excited about the prospect of something going terribly wrong. “The tunnels could cave in and block off the exit or there could be some unknown pathogen in the air.”

Patton did not ruin his fun by mentioning that Logan’s dad had definitely basically baby proofed the tunnels for them ahead of time. Instead, he just said, “Don’t let Virgil hear you say that sort of thing. It will just stress him out.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said, waving off Patton’s concerns as he mulled over two different weird green planty things (potion ingredients, Patton assumed) before setting one aside and sticking the other in his bag.

“So silly,” Patton cooed at the cat. Logan let out a huff but did not choose to say anything about it this time.

Speaking of silly, Virgil came back from Logan’s bathroom then, and Patton tried not to giggle. “Is this right?” Virgil asked, sounding and looking confused. Logan, in his overexcitement about adventure had commissioned Virgil an outfit that actually fit. Said outfit, however, very much made it look more like Virgil was going on a safari instead of a two-foot detour from the normal castle hallway.

“Almost,” Logan said, “Here, let me.” Logan started straightening everything out and flattening the collar, reminding Patton of an overbearing parent on picture day. Virgil accepted the fussing without protest. It was adorable. Well, the outfit was ridiculous, but still, adorable. “There,” Logan said. “I think we’re ready to go now.”

It was about time. Patton was sure people were already waiting for them downstairs. Patton got up and patted Princess Marisol on the head. She looked up at them with interest.

“You can stay here, sweetie,” Patton told here. She seemed to consider it and then hopped down from the bed to go rub up against Virgil.

Patton guessed she was coming. It didn’t matter too much since Logan had given her a magical collar that allowed her to open most doors in the castle and everyone knew she was the royal cat now, so if she decided she wanted to come back to the room and nap, she could. (She was very aware of the power she held.)

She pranced happily by Virgil’s side all the way down the steps to the first floor of the castle. She was such a good kitty.

Well, she did hiss angrily at everyone who came too close to them, but still, a very good kitty.

Patton did lean down and pick her up so they could actually talk to the man waiting for them at the large hole in the wall. Logan went to talk to the castle worker while Virgil half hid behind Patton. He was clearly listening very intently to the conversation however, at least more intently than Patton was. Patton was busy shaking his head fondly.

“Yes, yes, Princess,” he said to the cat. “I know we do not trust the strangers, but I promise this stranger is perfectly safe.”

“How do you know?” Virgil asked.

“His name is Chester and I’ve known him since I was 9.”

This seemed to slightly alleviate Virgil’s suspicion, but Princess Marisol still seemed antsy. Patton really needed to start slowly introducing the both of them to more people.

Logan finished talking with Chester after a few moments and it was time to climb through the hole in the wall. He wished he saw in the tunnel whatever Logan with his excited eyes and bounce to his step obviously saw. Or even that was more comfortable in the dark closed in space as Virgil obviously was. As it was, Patton’s nose scrunched up at the thought off all of the spiders that could be living everywhere in the secret tunnel, but he pushed through.

The entrance to the tunnel had been made only a little bit from the room Virgil had mentioned and Chester had led them through it after only a couple of seconds. As Patton had suspected, the room was already lit up and probably cleaned a little bit by the people who had cut into the wall, not that he was complaining.

Virgil was still clinging a bit to Patton’s shirt, though it seemed to be less out of anxiety at this point and more out of a desire to stick close. He was peering around curiously at the lit-up space. He probably hadn’t seen much of it in the dark when he’d been here before.

Yet, his curiosity was nothing compared to how excited Logan seemed to be. Now Patton may have not been interested in the room itself, but he was entertained by how interested Logan was and was happy to encourage that.

“What do you think this place is?” he asked Logan.

Logan hummed contemplatively, eyes looking around. “Well,” he said. “It’s a bedroom clearly, and old. Considering the location it is in in the castle, the size, the decorations, and it’s likely age, I’d imagine it was a bedroom of a royal family member. This used to be the royal wing three royal lines ago.”

“Bearing that in mind, there are a couple of likely possibilities for the origin of the room as well as the reason it was sealed up, but we will need to investigate more in order to come to an actual conclusion.” He had already placed the bag he’d brought on the ground and was going through it, pulling out things that Patton did not recognize. He also got a piece of paper and sat on the floor to start to sketch.

“What are you doing?” Virgil asked.

“I’m sketching the floorplan of the room,” Logan said. “I will then put a grid on it so we can investigate while being sure that we aren’t missing anything.”

Virgil seemed uninterested in this part of the adventure, instead electing to go poking around by himself. Princess Marisol squirmed out of Patton’s arms to go follow him. Patton swore that he only looked away from those two for 5 seconds, but the next thing he knew he heard metal clicking against metal.

“Oh,” Patton said, eyes wide when he saw what Virgil was fiddling with. “Honey, you probably shouldn’t touch…”

The old but fancy looking chest that had been at the end of the remains of the bed creaked open. Virgil sneezed as a cloud of dust puffed out of it. “Huh,” he said studying the contents. “There’s a skull in here.”

“Oh, I don’t like this adventure anymore,” Patton commented.

Logan was on his feet within moments. “Let me see,” he said eagerly.

“What if it’s cursed?” Patton pointed out.

“Then I’ll just break the curse,” Logan waved him off. “Oh, it’s just a horse skull,” Logan said, sounding disappointed. “And also what seemed to be potion ingredients. Though they seem very fresh considering the state of the room.”

“Maybe we should get someone else to…”

Logan already had both arms inside the chest and was pulling things out of it. “This chest must have some sort of stasis effect to it.”

He started pulling things out to look at them before setting them on the floor with no caution. “Well,” he said, “that answers the question of what this room is.”

“It does?” Patton asked.

“Ah, yes, between the horse skull and the potion ingredients, this is obviously the bedroom of Princess Marianne Elicia. She was the third child of King Simon IV and was quite the fan of horses.”

“…So she kept a horse skull in a stasis chest in her bedroom?” Patton asked.

“Of course,” Logan said. “Back when her family was in power, magic was outlawed and had quite the stigma against it, but she ended up learning magic and become quite proficient.”

“It’s debated what exactly happened when her father found out about her activities. Some sources say that she was executed silently by her father, but others say she managed to escape with the head of the stables but not before putting a curse on the country of Prijaznia. That is until she or one of her bloodline sits on the throne, every royal line will end in madness and blood by the 5th seated monarch before an heir is born.”

“Isn’t that something you should be worried about?” Virgil asked.

Logan shrugged. “It’s just a myth,” he said. “Besides I’m 6th in the line, so there really isn’t any concern.”

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“There are a lot of interesting things in here,” Logan said, still focused on the chest. “Not to mention the books. We’ll have to be careful with those though since they don’t appear to be in stasis.”

Logan pulled the horse skull out and set it on the floor making Patton wince.

“Marisol no!” he said as Princess Marisol immediately went to go sniff at it. He swooped her up in his arms. “How long are we staying in this creepy room?” Patton asked.

“Patton, we just got here,” Logan said.

“We just got here and already found a skull!”

“Yes! Exactly!”

Patton groaned into Princess Marisol’s fur even as she tried wiggle away to go back and investigate the skull. This was going to be a long day.

Chapter 35

Logan was surprised when he woke up alone in bed. He’d grown to anticipate waking to a smaller body unrelentingly clinging to his in the past couple of weeks. Confused he sat up and peered around his bedroom. He wouldn’t have seen Virgil with the way he melted into the darkness if it he hadn’t heard the sound of purring coming from near the window. He could just barely make out a dark blob shifting up and down at the cat kneaded at a different blob sitting mostly hidden behind the thick curtain.

“Virgil?” Logan questioned. “What are you doing?”

“It’s snowing,” was the answer.

“That is not an answer,” Logan grumbled at the ceiling. With a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed. It was a bit chilly in here, he thought. The temperature must have dipped suddenly and intensely enough that the runes keeping the castle at a warm enough temperature hadn’t caught up yet. He pulled one of the blankets off of the top of his bed to wrap around his shoulders as he approached the window. There wasn’t much light outside, the stars and moon covered by clouds, but there were some lanterns lit for the night guard who patrolled the outside. “Oh,” he said in surprise. “It’s really snowing.”

It had been colder but not quite cold enough for snow to stick the day before, so it came as a surprise when he saw snow was piling up quite high to the point where familiar paths outside his window had disappeared.

“I don’t like it,” Virgil informed him.

“Why not?” Logan asked.

“It’s cold,” Virgil answered. It was clear in his tone that in Virgil’s opinion ‘cold’ was a horrible insult to the concept of snow. Logan quirked a half smile and his attention was drawn to the fact that it was quite cold right here close to the window.

Frowning, he pulled at the blanket around his shoulder so he could wrap it and his arm around the lump that was Virgil. He brushed the boy’s hand when he did so and found it was like ice.

“You’re freezing!” Logan said. “How long have you been by the window?”

“I dunno,” he replied.

Logan was already tugging at him. “You need to get back in bed,” he said.

Virgil obeyed the pulling at his arms even as he frowned. “I’ve been colder than this before,” he said.

“That actually doesn’t make me feel better,” Logan replied dryly as he shooed him towards the bed.

He took the thicker blanket that usually stayed folded at the end of the bed and pulled it up over Virgil before climbing into bed beside him.

“There,” Logan said, rubbing Virgil’s arms through the fabric of the sweater he wore to bed. He was glad he wasn’t wearing a t-shirt at least. “The runes for heating the castle should catch up within a few hours, but until then this should do. Assuming we don’t sit by the freezing window for an undetermined amount of time.”

“I don’t like the cold,” Virgil told him.

Logan sighed. “Then why did you sit by the window?”

Virgil shrugged and ducked his head a bit. Logan reached out to grab his hands to help him warm more but was surprised when one of the hands was much warmer than the other. He found his fingers were clutching a crescent shaped stone: the protection charm they’d made. Logan knew that he kept it in his pocket most of the time, but he didn’t normally see him holding it like this. It was warm to the touch, of course, indicating the safety of the room around them.

Logan looked over his face. “Are you…” he said. “Scared of the snow?”

“I don’t like the cold,” he said once again.

“You’re scared of the winter,” Logan concluded. He looked at Virgil who was far too small for his age and seemed surprised at every casual act of kindness. It was clear that his basic needs were far from being met before he came here. Logan had to wonder what winter usually meant for him. His experiences were doubtlessly very different from Logan’s own. “That makes sense,” he acknowledged, “but you don’t need to be scared of it here. The castle is always perfectly warm and safe in the winter and Mr. Deknis and Ms. Heart work hard during the other seasons to make sure we have plenty of food. There is nothing to fear here.”

He did not seem convinced.

“You don’t even have to go outside if you don’t want to,” Logan promised. “The castle is plenty big if you’d like to stay inside all winter long. It was made for the winter even without the magic devices that keep it warm. We have fireplaces and well insulated rooms even if those that ends up failing.” Logan pulled open the hand that had the protection charm just to transfer it to his other hand to warm it. “Though, while no one would force you to go outside, the snow isn’t always bad.”

“Yes it is,” Virgil said, his voice sure.

“Not all the time,” Logan insisted. “Some people love the snow.”

“They’re stupid.”

Logan laughed. “It can be fun for a while with the right equipment if you have someplace to get warm again afterwards. Royal duties slow down during the winter and Patton tends to come up with all sorts of games for both the inside and the outside to pass the time. He’s particularly proficient at snowball fights, at least against me.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Play fighting,” Logan answered. “Like pillow fights, but snow.”

“I’ll stick with the pillows,” he replied.

“And then there’s a hill to sled down on the western side of the castle, and people like to build snowmen along the path.”

“What are snowmen?” Virgil asked.

They’re temporary statues made out of packed snow,” Logan explained. “Typically, they’re made of three different sized balls of snow: the largest being the base and the smallest the ‘head’ though there are some variations. After building them one typically decorates them with different articles of clothing and objects found lying around. It’s usually sticks and rocks for the face and then things like extra hats and scarfs for decoration.” He smiled softly. “When my Pa was alive, we used to steal my Dad’s crown and fanciest robes. Sometimes Pa would steal it right off of Dad’s head and we’d run away. We’d find a secluded area of the castle yards and build the biggest snowman we could as quickly as we could before we got caught. He’d usually end up letting us keep the robes, but we’d have to give the crown back since some of the metals in it would rust when wet.”

“That sounds…” Virgil’s nose twitched. “fun if you take away the touching snow part.”

Logan laughed. “It is fun,” he said. “Even with the touching snow part. Though, I admit that some of the ability for it to be entertaining does come from the fact that we could warm up afterwards with ease. You’ll enjoy Patton’s mother’s constant offering of hot chocolate during the season even if you never go outside, I’m sure.”

“Hot chocolate?” Virgil asked intrigued. His dark eyes shone brightly in the little light coming through the window. It was clear he could guess something about the drink just by the name and enjoyed the implications.

Logan smiled fondly. “It is a hot drink,” he explained. “It’s a warm drink made out of milk and chocolate. I can get you some to try in the morning.”

Virgil nodded, eyes still wide with interest.

“For now, we should sleep though,” Logan said. “Are you warm enough? I can get more blankets.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Good,” Logan said, reaching up and adjusting the blanket over them once more, tucking it around Virgil a little bit for good measure. “Goodnight Virgil,” he said.

“Goodnight,” he replied softly. Logan reached under the blankets to grab the hand that was still slightly chilly from the window between his own. Virgil’s eyes slipped closed after a moment as he nuzzle his face into the pillow. At some point they both drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 36

Thomas had already been well aware that winter was on the way, but he and the rest of the castle occupants had been surprised at how intensely and suddenly it had come on. Most things were ready for the winter, but not all of them had been initiated. The fireplaces that took some pressure off the castle heating runes were cleaned out and ready, but they hadn’t been started yet. The stables for different animals on the grounds had been checked over and staff assignments had been made, but most were still in far out fields. Staff that went home for the winter months had been dismissed, but there were a few stragglers that would have to be helped home before things got worse.

He’d gone out to the main stable to talk to the three workers that were the heads of different areas of animal husbandry to make sure a plan to get everything to where it needed to be soon was in place. It took a while to figure out considering that they’d expected a little more time before the first major snowfall. Thomas also asked them to make sure all of the workers’ homes were in good enough condition for the weather. Ranch hands typically had homes on castle grounds but not in the castle themselves since they needed to be close to the animals. Thomas knew at least half a dozen of those who spent most of their times out in the fields were the type to forgot to maintain their homes because they preferred camping amongst the animals in the summer months and then would be in for a bad time when snow began to fall.

There should be enough extra rooms in the castle if they needed a place to stay until repairs could be done.

Those conversations took a good couple of hours, before Thomas was satisfied. Before trudging back to the castle through the still falling snow, he made a point to stop at one specific horse stall in the main stable. The horse turned his head to see Thomas when he stopped in front of his stall and puffed out a rather disaffected snort before sticking his head over the gate so Thomas could pat his nose. “Hello, Mr. Apples,” Thomas said.

The horse seemed to conclude he’d tolerated Thomas’s petting enough and ducked his head to nudge at his torso. Thomas rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes,” he said. “I brought you an apple. Some things never change.” He reached into his pocket to grab the red apple he’d brought the white Arabian. “At least you don’t bite me anymore.” He paused, apple slice in hand and eyed the horse’s nose suspiciously. “Do not bite me,” he said even though he hadn’t felt the animal’s teeth in a decade. It would be just like Mr. Apples to wait until his guard was down.

After a bit of scrutiny, he offered an apple slice. It was snatched out of his hand and there was a loud crunch as it was bit into.

“It’s snowing out,” he told the horse. The horse seemed to roll his eyes at the statement of the obvious. “I’ll remind again that if you run out in a snowstorm, I’m not running after you, so you’d be out of luck.”

Mr. Apples snorted.

“You’re old now. You’d probably not survive long enough for people to find you. Besides, you blend in with that white fur of yours. They’d probably walk right past you a few times.”

He went back to nosing for treats as soon as he finished his first and Thomas sighed, pulling out another apple slice. “What are they not feeding you enough?” The gusto with which the horse snatched the apple slice was a very clear answer. “Well, we both know that’s not true.” Thomas fed the horse a third slice of apple when he was done with his second. “I have to get back to the castle now. Don’t be a devil horse.”

Mr. Apples threw his head a bit, splattering apple smelling foamy spittle all over Thomas’s front.

“Understood. Have a nice afternoon.”

He left Mr. Apples in his stall then, knowing he’d be well cared for no matter how ill-tempered he could be at times. He’d been a king’s horse once, after all, no matter that said king had been dead for more than a decade now.

Winters were hard.

Winters were the times when things always slowed down at the castle, where royal duties were often thin. There were a lot of memories in winter.

The trip back to the castle was not particularly long, but it was also not particularly pleasant. The snow had not been cleared away considering it was still snowing which meant his feet and legs were wet and cold by the time he made it to the nearest castle door.

He wasn’t sure if, when he entered, the castle heating runes had started to work in earnest or if he’d just been so cold that any measure of warmth was appreciated, but he was relieved to be out of the snow either way.

He decided to check up on the progress of the castle staff lighting the fireplaces. With any luck, they’d be lit already, and he could warm up even more. That in mind, he headed towards the main foyer where the largest fireplace in the castle sat to take off the chill brought in by the large front doors.

The main foyer was bustling with activity when he snuck in along the sides, giving the guards stationed around nods as he passed. The main fire in the room was burning brightly, though only one of the two smaller ones near the side exits from the room was lit. The other one was still being set up with safety mechanisms. It was good progress and assuming other areas of the castle were being set up as efficiently, he assumed they’d all be set up by nightfall.

He’d need to go check around to be sure, but for now, he walked up to the main fireplace to warm his hands.

He’d gotten into the habit when he was younger to every so often glance upwards. There had been a certain stable boy who had a propensity for climbing trees. These days, he usually found nothing when he did so, often not even consciously noticing that he’d turned his gaze momentarily skywards. Yet, today, he was startled out of his own idleness by dark brown eyes looking back at him from a small ledge in the shadows high above him.

He froze as he met the young boy’s gaze. Virgil seemed as surprised to be caught as Thomas was to have caught him.

#proofread stories #not writing

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