#old deerfield

[swforester]

A glimpse into the history of old Deerfield. In March of 1704 the town was attacked by the French and indians in the predawn hours. The town was burned down and 47 men, women and children were killed and 112 were captured and forced on a march to Canada. The top grave is that of Eunice. She was captured in the raid. But when she stumbled fell into a river on the way, she was killed by a single blow from a tomahawk. The indians were told to kill anyone who slowed them down. She was killed in front of her children and her husband, who was the 1st minister in Deerfield. A bridge over the river was named in her honor but it is said to be haunted by her ghost because she met with such a violent end. The inscription on her grave says she "fell by the rage of ye Barbarous Enemy.” The second picture shows a historic plaque with a brief sketch about Deerfield’s founding. The 3rd picture is a memorial for the family of James Corse. James died in 1696, 8 years before the raid took place. But his wife Elizabeth was captured and died on the march to Canada aged 34. Their children are listed, Ebenezer, James and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was carried captive to Canada and never came back. The last parts of the inscription gets a little tough to understand. But at the bottom it says someone was “mother to 15 children, the last were twins born on April 12th, 1737.” Bottom pic is one of the historic homes found in Old Deerfield. 

Deerfield MA 3/12/23

[ericstoltz]

dominic sessa u are a superstar 🌟

[emergencyplumbingil]

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[newyorkthegoldenage]

On June 28, 1956, 5-year old Steven was one of the flood of children at Grand Central Terminal heading off to summer camp, in his case Camp Deerfield in Wilmington, Vermont.

Photo: Meyer Liebowitz for the NY Times via Times Instagram

[fruitgoat]

Mapping/Routing the CTA

I'm still blaming @copperbadge for all of this.

As I am taking this trip in my mind, I have chosen to ignore a lot of the challenges the physical world brings.  Like road construction, neighborhood block parties, day of the week, trains that only stop there once a day in the opposite direction, buses that only run a few hours a day, the actual passage of time, etc.  This trip should not be attempted in the Real World – every route and stop apparently still exists, but you might need to wait hours if not days for the correct bus/train.  For the Extra Bonus Points of LOLs and Nostalgia I have included sections of the Metra (Milwaukee Districts North and West and South Shore Electric), Big Bus Tours, and the Water Taxi.

Again, do NOT try this route in Real Time.  Yet.  My ADHD brain may or may not get back to you in a few days on how long it would actually take just so we can all laugh at the idea of getting lost and being forced to sneak around and spend the night in a mattress store at the Golf Mill Shopping Center or whatever.  (Actually, that’s a hell of a meetcute.  I… I might need to go write something now….)

Starting at Linden.

Ride Purple Line to Howard.  Transfer to Yellow Line.

Ride Yellow Line to Dempster-Skokie. (Resist the muscle memory to catch the bus all the way to Deerfield. I really hated that commute.)

Bus to Morton Grove Metra.

Ride (MN) Metra to Mayfair.

Walk to Blue Line (Montrose).  Ride Blue Line to O’Hare.

Stretch legs and bathroom break.  Refill water bottle.  Refuel if needed.

Ride Blue Line back to Harlem. Bus to Fullerton.

Walk around my old neighborhood.  (I think the walk to Caputo’s is worth it, but maybe don’t buy any fresh squid if you’re getting back on the train.)

Ride (MW) Metra from Mont Clare to Grand/Cicero.

Bus to Blue Line (Montrose).  Ride Blue Line to Forest Park.

Bus to Green Line (Harlem/Lake).  Ride Green Line to Cottage Grove.  (I’m stopping along the way to visit family, get something to eat, and maybe nap while charging my electronics.)

Bus to Green Line (Ashland/63rd).  Ride Green Line to Garfield.

Walk to Red Line (Garfield).  Ride Red Line to Dan Ryan.  Hang Around Like An Idiot.  Ride Red Line to Lake.

Transfer to Pink Line.  Ride Pink Line to Cermak/54th, then back to Cicero.

Bus to Midway.  (Unhydrate.  Rehydrate.)  Ride Orange Line to Halsted.  Walk to River.  Or I think there’s a bus that’s just not showing up at the moment.

Water Taxi to West Loop.

Walk to Willis Tower.  (Bonus point for each instance of calling it Sears Tower.) Tour Bus to Museum Campus.

Metra Electric back to Millennium Park Station.

Walk to Washington/Wabash.  Ride Brown Line to Kimball.

Ride Brown Line back to State/Lake.  (Stop at Fullerton if it’s morning.  Walk to Orange and order the pancake flight and watch them fresh squeeze your citrus juice.  Walk to Molly’s if you like cupcakes.  Double Extra Bonus points if you pointedly reminisce about the Meatloaf Bakery when you pass where it was.  Crash a wedding at my old apartment building if you’re really bored. I really miss my neighborhood at the moment.)

Transfer to Red Line.  Ride Red Line to Howard.  (I’m going to stop at Granville for the Memories.  This was my first address in Chicago – even if I technically wasn’t supposed to receive mail because I wasn’t on the lease.)

[joelswritingmistress]

You Scare Me, Professor: Chapter 54

Summary: The reader is taking graduate classes at a local university in the wooded upstate New York. She is drawn to her professor, Dr. Joel Miller, though she is also inherently aware that he has something dark about him that she can't quite put her finger on. As the reader's attraction grows deeper, she has to decide whether to endure the danger or run away as fast as possible. 

Pairing: Professor Joel Miller x f!reader 

Dr. Miller’s castle - my home. It felt like a fortress away from the rest of the world. Neither of us had unpacked. We didn't sit or turn on the television or even a light. We just stood there in this lost, new world we were unwillingly thrust into.

My mind and body, alike, were tired. I didn't think I could accurately answer another question after the time I had spent with the police and investigators, and even a few stray reporters. I knew law enforcement needed every detail to assure Will would remain behind bars for the rest of his days, but I was spent; done.

Word had hit our area. The Lady Killer had been caught. The only thing that made me smile was the mention of James’s name. He had been the catalyst that led to Will’s reveal. We at least had backup from the local police surrounding Woodbridge, and it had to mean something for our testimonies.

“What's going to happen?” I asked quietly. I knew the question was vague, but I meant it in every single sense. Would Carol be okay? Would Chas’s injuries leave him with lingering health issues? Would Dr. Miller and I grow stronger from this or would we drift apart?

Dr. Miller walked up to me and touched my face in the way he always did. Without a word he left a single, gentle kiss on my lips.

“We take it day by day.”

I nodded and looked down. “I don't know what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“How do we move forward from this? How do we ever get back to normal? Poor Carol..” I shook my head and allowed him to pull me into an embrace.

“Things are broken,” he spoke quietly near my ear. “We have to try to mend them - together.” Dr. Miller hesitated before pulling back and looking me in the eyes.

He appeared as if he was going to speak and then took a deep breath and flicked on a small lantern lamp beside his decanter of bourbon.

“Do you, uh..” Dr. Miller motioned to the liquor but I shook my head and sat down in a chair in the formal living room - the one where we shared our first glass of champagne together on my first night in the castle. I hadn't spent much time in here since.

He poured himself a small glass and sat across from me in an oversized, leather chair. Dr. Miller took another deep breath and leaned forward, swirling the bourbon around in circles in the glass. He took a sip and drew a hand across mouth before looking back up to meet my gaze.

“I killed Ace Deerfield.”

Deep down I knew that. I felt it from the second he had begun talking about his relationship with the dying, old man; but hearing him say it out loud was weighted differently. It made it real.

“Lou asked me to and then took the fall for it. He left me all of this in exchange for it.”

My eyes never left Dr. Miller’s; his never left mine. I responded honestly. “I know.” 

“You know?”

“The possibility crossed my mind,” I admitted with a nod as tears welded up in my eyes. They sat comfortably there for a few seconds before falling. “I was never going to ask.”

“That's what my ex-wife was talking about. She kept my secrets but she couldn't handle being around me because of them.” His Adam's apple leaped in his throat and then settled back in place.

“Can you answer a question for me?” My voice never cracked.

Dr. Miller gave a solemn nod.

“I need to know,” I said quietly with an accompanied deep breath. “Where did you go that one night? The time when we slept in the bedroom with the glass ceiling and I got locked in? You were gone half the night and I had seen someone pull up in a car. They gave you an envelope-”

Dr. Miller glanced down and back up. “Someone paid me to kill Alec Pryor.”

“Alec Pryor..” It took me a second but the light bulb went off. “The original suspect in the Lady Killer case? But he’s alive.” I added, glancing away for just a second before catching his gaze again. “Right?”

Dr. Miller nodded. “I was all set to do it, too. I was sure it was him. I read the details of his sex crimes and it made me extra angry. So, I took the money. I left that night and I was sitting outside of his house. And then I thought of you. And us. I couldn't do it. I did it once for Lou. I had so many conversations with him and I was forced to type out every single word from that case. Ace was a bad man and not only did he rub it in that he got off for his crimes, but he was going to kill again.”

He took another sip of bourbon and went on.

“You don't have to stay with me,” Dr. Miller said, bowing his head. My bottom lip quivered when I saw tears fall from his eyes to the floor. “You deserve better than this; than me. But just know in this short time, you've made me a better man. Alec Pryor might be the scum of the earth but he didn't kill all those girls.. and he's alive because of you.”

I was speechless. I had nothing to offer back, but I realized this wasn't a conversation. It was a confession.

Dr. Miller couldn't look at me. He looked at the shadows on the wall behind the lantern and then the ceiling and the floor. He swirled the bourbon in his glass and swigged from it again with a huff of a breath.

After a lengthy period of silence, I rose to my feet. The faint squeak of the leather caused Dr. Miller to glance up for the first time in several minutes. I paced the short distance across the room to him and kneeled down before him. He appeared as though he was waiting for me to say something - anything; but I didn't have the words. For the first time in my life I didn't know what I was supposed to feel.

Supposed to feel? I questioned my own thought process and quietly asked myself: What do you feel?

I rested my head on his knees, using my folded arms as a pillow and a tear journeyed silently down my cheek. When Dr. Miller’s hand rested on the top of my head, my eyes closed and more tears fell.

I let out a deep exhale and laid there for a while, until my legs began to ache from the position that I sat. Still, I endured the discomfort. It was nothing in comparison to the internal agony I felt.

What was to come, I didn't know. But in that moment, this is all we could do. As the room grew darker with the fade of the overcast evening, I wasn’t surprised to hear the beginning of a steady rain rapping at the rooftops.

How dreadfully poetic.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER

@untamedheart81 @suttonspuds @cesspitoflove @michilandcof @grogusmum @morallyinept @akah565 @brittmb115 @magpiepills @poodlebae @gobaaby-blog-blog @mermaidgirl30 @mandojojo @shotgun-shelby @itscatrodriguez-thepearl @macaroni676 @smolbeanzzz@bandluvr97

[notes-from-sarah]

Kitty's Unexpected Hanukkah Road Trip

Rating: G/K+

Length: 6,700 words

Summary: Kitty is on her way home for the winter holidays when she’s attacked by The Purifiers. When Magneto rescues her she’s not sure she should trust him at first, but as they talk she discovers they share a lot in common. One-shot. Claremont canon compliant.

Link on AO3

Link on FFN

A/N: Takes place at some point after X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills and a few months after The Uncanny X-Men, Issue 150 – I, Magneto where Magneto thinks he’s killed Kitty at the end. Kitty is around 14 years old and her current superhero name in the comics is Sprite.

December 1981

Kitty Pryde swayed methodically from the motion of the train. The ride from New York to Deerfield was a long one, and normally she would enjoy the time to read her comics or listen to tapes on her walkman. She’d even brought spare batteries and headphones, but she wasn’t interested in distracting herself. All she could think about was what home would be like. Her mom and dad had told her they were separating and she was brimming with anxiety over how Hanukkah was going to go. Would they be fighting the entire time? Would they blame her for their divorce? How was the rest of the family going to react? All of these questions swirled in her head and caused her stomach to clench in the most uncomfortable way. She tried to look out the window but there wasn’t much to see in the dark. Fresh snow occasionally hinted at the presence of hills and ravines in the countryside. Trying to calm herself, Kitty closed her eyes and rested her face against the glass of the train window. It was cool against her skin. Kitty focused on the coolness and tried to forget about her anxiety.

Suddenly, the door to the train car blew open with a cloud of smoke and a shower of sparks. People screamed and dove for cover as the door rained through the car in small fragments. Kitty ducked her head, instinctively protecting her face from the debris. Peeking up over her arm to see what sort of threat in particular this was, what she saw chilled her to the bone. Standing in the wreckage were three figures clad in the distinctive metallic armored garb of The Purifiers. Ignoring the screams of the passengers the leader swept the car with a small square device and before Kitty could blink twice the device was pointed at her. Kitty didn’t even hear the shrill beeping coming from the electronic as she jumped to her feet. She was an X-Man, she needed to act.

“Prepare for judgment, demon,” said the man holding the device pointed at her. His two followers silently raised guns, aiming them squarely in her direction.

“You can’t do this!” A passenger clad in a brown camel hair coat stood. She seemed to be over her initial shock. “Put down your guns.”

“If you attempt to stop us, you will join her, demon worshiper.” The leader raised his own weapon, this time pointing to the woman in the camel hair coat.

Kitty glanced at the woman. She could see the fierce protective instinct in the woman’s eye. She wasn’t going to back down. Kitty knew The Purifiers would kill the woman. She had to do something.

So she did.

In the blink of an eye she threw herself backward towards the wall of the train. The Purifiers turned their attention back to her and reacted quickly, but not quick enough. Their fingers only just squeezed the triggers as she phased through the wall of the train, tumbling backward into the dark night.

Skidding, sliding and stumbling down the side of the ravine, Kitty knew she had to get as much space between herself and The Purifiers as possible. Speed was important now, not caution. Throwing herself into a headlong dive she phased through the trees and brush in her path. Head over heels, gravity dragged her to the bottom of the ravine in seconds. With a dull splash, Kitty found herself sitting waist deep in brackish water. Gasping for breath at the shock, Kitty tried to gain her bearings. The fresh snow from yesterday made the area strangely luminous in the dark. It also made her path to the ravine bottom more than obvious. Without waiting for another second to pass, Kitty used her phasing powers to do her walking-on-air trick and ran along the ravine bottom in the opposite direction of the train tracks. Her only hope was to get herself somewhere where she could call the rest of the X-Men. She’d seen what those Purifiers could do to a Mutant who was all alone, and she didn’t want to test if she could beat them in a fight.

The bottom of the ravine twisted and turned every which way. Kitty tried to remember her training, to keep her head calm and do what she knew how. Not leaving tracks was a good start, Logan would be proud of her for thinking of that, but the energy it took to use her powers to run through the air was beginning to drain her. That, and the cold. She was wet and the night air was more than frigid. The jacket she was wearing was no match for real cold. She just had to keep it up a little longer. She knew she could do this, she had to, she had no other choice.

The ravine took a sharp turn ahead of her, and where it turned a bridge spanned from one side to the other. A road! Kitty thought in relief. Roads meant towns, towns meant phones, rescue was within sight. Using every last bit of strength she had, Kitty scrambled up the side of the ravine. The slick snow cover made it necessary for her to use her powers all the way up the side of the steep slope and by the time she crested the hill she was exhausted.

Trembling as shivers wracked her body, Kitty hesitated on the side of the road. Looking up and down it she had no clue where she was, or how far away she might be from any sort of town. She’d been on the train all day but she didn’t have the foggiest idea of approximately where that would put her between New York City and Chicago. Deciding it was better further away from the tracks rather than closer, Kitty turned toward the bridge and began walking.

The road was quiet. Trees grew close to the edge of the rural lane and even though Kitty strained her ears, she couldn’t pick up the sounds of any approaching cars. She also couldn’t see any driveways where a house might be lurking. Just trees and fields. Great, thought Kitty, I’m going to freeze to death out here on the road instead of spending a nice Hanukkah with my parents. If I live through this I’ll try my best not to be mad at them for getting a divorce. Trudging on, Kitty was on the cusp of giving up hope when in the far distance she heard the sound of a car. It was coming up the road from behind her, Kitty could see the headlights flashing through the trees. It seemed to take forever to get close, the car was traveling slowly on the snowpacked road. As the car got closer Kitty stood in the middle of the lane, waving her arms. She didn’t want them to miss her in the dark.

The car came to a stop, it’s lights blinding Kitty. “Hey!” she called out to the car, “I’ve been in an accident and need help.”

The doors of the car opened and three people stepped out. Kitty could hear an electronic beeping, the same beeping from on the train. These weren’t good Samaritans, they were-

“The Purifiers have come to send you back to hell, demon. Kneel, and accept your judgment.” Kitty didn’t need to see to know that the metallic clicking she heard was three guns being trained on her. Fear flooded her brain, she was so tired, she wasn’t sure she was going to survive this. Gulping, she prepared to use what little strength she had to phase one more time. The timing had to be just right or those bullets would hit their mark and she’d be a goner.

“Strange, Purifiers, I was just going to tell you the same thing.” The voice from above was filled with a cold fury and echoed in the still winter air. Kitty and The Purifiers jerked their heads towards the sky. Hovering above them was a helmeted man, a long cloak flowing from his shoulders.

“Magneto!” Kitty breathed. If things weren’t bad enough, now the man who almost killed her a few months ago was joining the fray. Was she ever going to catch a break?

Three guns pointed at the sky, but just as The Purifiers curled their fingers around the triggers, their guns began to disassemble in their hands. Pieces of firearms fell to the road, leaving the anti-Mutant evangelists completely unarmed. “Get in the car!” yelled the one who had been driving, “we can’t fight this one!”

Magneto threw out his hand and The Purifiers seemed to freeze in their tracks. Completely immobilized by the metal in their clothes and armor. Magneto’s lip curled in a sneer. “You take great and righteous pleasure in hunting down a child, but look at you when you have to go against someone who can actually fight back.” Waving his other hand the fallen pieces of the guns stretched into bands and flew around the necks of the attackers. Without so much as a movement from Magneto the bands began to constrict.

Kitty knew he meant to kill The Purifiers. For a long moment she wanted to let him. The anti-Mutants were gasping for breath, their limbs still immobilized by Magneto’s powers. Their eyes rolled in fear as the last of the air was being strangled out of them.

“Stop!” Kitty knew she had to at least try. It’s what Professor X would want. “You can’t kill them.”

Magneto paused, glancing down at her. “These murderers cannot be allowed to live, child. The next time they might succeed in killing you or another defenseless Mutant.”

Kitty knew he wasn’t completely wrong. The Purifiers were ruthless and showed no mercy to anyone. Still, how could she just stand back and watch them die? “There’s got to be a better way. I don’t want anyone to die.”

“Unfortunately, my dear, that’s not the world we live in.” Magneto began descending from the sky, his concentration, however, remained completely intact. “Survival of the fittest sometimes means that blood will be spilled. You cannot ignore a threat just because it’s unpleasant to deal with it.” Alighting on the ground between her and the car, Magneto turned to face her fully.

Kitty had no idea how she was going to convince Magneto to spare the despicable lives of these cultists. Truth be told, she kind of wanted revenge for all they had put her through. The image of Professor X came to mind, all those times he’d told her how important it was to use their powers to make things better, not to exact revenge. Kitty shook her head. “This won’t help.”

“Then what alternative do you propose, my dear?” Magneto’s tone was that of a teacher patiently waiting for you to come to the obvious solution.

“We can tie them up and leave them here. We’ll call the police and tell them what happened. They were attacking me, they’ll probably even admit to it. They can rot in jail where they deserve.” Kitty knew the cult was under scrutiny from the state and the feds. Certainly this would be a slam dunk case and these thugs would be off the streets for good.

Magneto didn’t say anything for a long, long time. He looked at Kitty hard, almost ferociously. It was kind of frightening, but Kitty didn’t look away. She wasn’t scared of him – that much – and she was sure she was right. Only the force of her determination was going to convince him.

“Very well, child. I accept your alternative.” Magneto turned to face The Purifiers. “Kneel, apes, and thank this Mutant child for your lives.”

Kitty was shocked when all three anti-Mutants dropped to their knees mumbling tearful thanks before the bands of metal snaked from their necks to fasten securely around their ankles. Her eyes darted between the pathetic cultists and Magneto. The Mutant stretched his palm toward the pieces of one of the guns that was laying in a heap on the road. The pieces twitched, then jumped into his hand fully reassembled. Twisting his other hand into a fist, Magneto dragged all three cultists to dangle before him in front of the car. The figures hung limply in the car headlights, like puppets from a string. Kitty gulped, not sure where this was going.

“You are being permitted to live, you are not being permitted to hurt another Mutant ever again.” Magneto flicked a finger and the right hand of each anti-Mutant was drawn forward. Tossing the gun into the air, it hung there, supernaturally suspended, the barrel aimed at the outstretched hands. He turned to Kitty. “Get in the car.”

Kitty didn’t want to listen, but she didn’t know what else to do. Magneto seemed to forget about the people he had dangling in the air and went himself to the driver’s side. Kitty wasn’t about to be left here with these murderous creeps, so she dove for the passenger’s side door. Once inside, Magneto used his powers and crushed the electronic device that had been beeping non-stop since The Purifiers had gotten out of their car. Putting the car into gear, Magneto pressed the accelerator and smoothly navigated around the people and the gun dangling over the road.

Kitty was almost afraid to ask, but she couldn’t stop herself. “What are you going to do to those freaks? What’s the gun for?”

“To remind them what it means to go against Mutants whenever they remember why they can no longer pull a trigger,” Magneto pronounced, grimly.

Kitty turned in her seat to see what was going to happen next, but the winding country lane quickly obscured the site of the attack. Only faintly a few moments later did she hear the distant sound of a gunshot. As merciless as The Purifiers were, Magneto was far more ruthless.

After a few more minutes of silence Kitty reached over to turn up the heat in the vehicle. She saw that her movement caught Magneto’s eye. A weird feeling rippled through her. The last time she’d been this close to him he’d zapped her with a bolt of energy that had almost done her in. Did he even recognize her? She wasn’t wearing the outlandish costume she’d had last time. He didn’t seem to know who she was, he was helping her just because she was a Mutant. She wondered if he would have done the same had he known she was an X-Man.

“Where are you taking me?” Kitty pushed the heat lever to max, then did the same for the fan. “Where are we?”

“I’m taking you somewhere you’ll be safe, child.” Magneto seemed to notice that she was cold since all the air vents simultaneously shifted to blow air on her. “I have no idea where we are.”

Kitty looked up at him, eyes wide. “You mean we’re lost?”

“I have complete mastery over magnetism and as such can control the magnetic fields of the entire Earth. I cannot truly be ‘lost’ anywhere magnetism exists. However,” Magneto shrugged, “I’m not entirely sure where we are or where the closest town might be. I don’t usually travel on the ground.”

Kitty blinked. “So, where exactly are we going then, if you don’t know where we are?”

“That entirely depends on you, child. Where were you heading to before those animals accosted you?” Magneto’s blue eyes glanced from the road to her face. Every word he said sounded so confident and assured. It was no wonder he was the X-Men’s greatest foe.

“I was on the train-” Kitty started.

“The train?” Magneto cut in.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“How did you come to be on the road?” Magneto looked at her again. Kitty was a little worried he wasn’t paying enough attention to his driving.

“I jumped off when those freaks came after me. I didn’t want any of the people on board to get hurt.” Kitty put her hands up to the vents, the car was starting to spill out properly warm air now.

“You didn’t consider that you might be hurt?” Magneto sounded curious.

“Well if I didn’t then somebody woulda got hurt. I don’t think I could live with myself if someone got hurt on account of me.” Kitty looked at her hands for a moment thinking about all the close calls she and her X-Men friends had had. “Besides, I can phase through solid objects, I knew I’d be okay.”

“You are very brave, child.” There was approval in his voice. Kitty would have thought that he wouldn’t have cared.

Still, the compliment warmed her. She sometimes got told things like that from her teammates, but people like her parents or Professor X rarely praised her for bravery, usually they chided her brashness.

“My name is Kitty, by the way.” Kitty realized she hadn’t told him what to call her.

“Short for Katherine, I presume?” Kitty couldn’t quite tell with the helmet obscuring most of his face, but she thought he might have quirked an eyebrow when he asked the question.

“Yeah.” Kitty hoped he wouldn't call her Katherine, she only ever got called that when she was in trouble.

“Well, Miss Katherine, I believe I interrupted you as you were telling me your destination.”

Kitty cringed at the use of her name but tried not to let it show. “Right, anyway, I was on the train to Chicago so I can spend Hanukkah with my folks before those creeps made me take a detour.”

“You’re Jewish?” Magneto slowed the car to look at her.

Kitty tensed. She wasn’t used to dealing with dangerous antisemitism and she really didn’t want to start tonight after all she’d been through. “Yeah, you got a problem with that?” She remembered phasing through Magneto before and causing him harm, she didn’t want to have to do it again.

“No, Katherine, you have nothing to fear.” Magneto reassured, pressing the accelerator once more. “I, too, am Jewish.” There was a slight pause before he added, “Or, I was.”

Something in his voice caught Kitty’s attention. For the first time all evening there was a hint of uncertainty in him. Perhaps even doubt. He was such a commanding presence normally, the uncertainty was a sharp contrast.

“My bubbe says there’s no such thing as a former Jew, it’s a life sentence.” Kitty could feel the cracks forming in her perception of Magneto. She’d never thought of him as anything other than an evil spectre, a villain to be stopped, even some sort of warlord. She’d never considered that he was also a person.

“Is that so?” Magneto gave her an expression that Kitty could only interpret as a pre-smile. His eyes looked at her but it was clear he was far away. “Mine used to say something similar whenever I’d complain about how boring the sabbath was.”

Knowing Magneto had a grandmother was like a hammer that completely destroyed the illusion of Magneto the Master of Magnetism. He wasn’t some faceless monster, he was as human as she was. He had a family, people he loved and cared for. He had feelings. Hell, he probably had a favorite color and flavor of ice cream.

Kitty’s world was spinning out of control.

Turning off the rural lane, Magneto pulled into a gas station. The shop was closed up for the night, but it had a dirty payphone lit by an overhead light out front. Magneto parked the car in front of the payphone. “You should call the authorities and make your report.”

Kitty opened the car door and stood, feeling her pockets. “I don’t got any change.”

“No matter.” Magneto got out of the car and stood by the payphone. Lifting the receiver he tapped the payphone and handed her the handset.

Kitty took it and put the phone to her ear as she grabbed the phone book and flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. She could hear the dial tone so she punched in the number for the police. The call went through with no prompt for payment. “Bet that comes in handy, not having to pay for calls,” she said. After she said it she realized she might have spoken out of turn. She still couldn’t see Magneto’s face properly and she guessed he was more than likely frowning at her. Man, Kitty, she thought, you really can say some dumb stuff you know.

He didn’t respond but the police picked up. Kitty explained that she’d been attacked and where they could find her assailants. She’d seen the sign for the road they were traveling on and knew The Purifiers were only a few miles away. Shivering as she hung up, she was motioned back to the car by Magneto.

Still reeling from her revelations about the other Mutant, the only thing she could think now was that she wanted to know more. As she settled back into the passenger seat and put her hands back up to the heat vents, she looked at Magneto. “What’s your name? I mean, your real one. I promise I won’t tell anyone.” Mutants, villains, superheroes, monsters, they had names like Magneto, Sprite, Spider-Man. Names they had chosen for themselves to separate themselves from the rest of humanity. People, though, had names. First and last names that showed a connection to other people, to a family and a larger culture.

“Telling hardly matters anyway.” Magneto sounded almost tired. “I have no one my anonymity would protect. As far as the world is concerned, who I am – who I used to be – is little more than a ghost.”

“You don’t have a family?” Kitty could hardly comprehend such a thing. Her mom and dad were her entire world, and the X-Men were a part of her family now, too. Her anonymity as Sprite protected so many people she couldn’t imagine losing.

“Not anymore. Not after Auschwitz.” Magneto’s eyes remained carefully on the road.

The word sent a chill up Kitty’s spine. “Were,” Kitty’s voice was almost a whisper, “were you there?”

“Yes.” Magneto’s voice was calm. What little of his face Kitty could see betrayed nothing.

“And you lost everyone?” Kitty didn’t really need to ask to know the answer. For all the survivors she’d met the story was always the same.

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry.” Kitty let a silence lapse between them. It felt disrespectful to ask anything more.

Leaving the rural lane, Magneto brought the car onto a larger state route. Kitty wasn’t entirely sure where they were driving to exactly. She guessed maybe a bus station or something.

“My name,” Magneto broke the silence between them at last, “was Magnus.” Taking his hands off the wheel, but still using his powers to drive, Magneto pulled the helmet off his head and set it on the center seat.

Magnus. Such a normal, human sort of name. Something his parents gave him. Something he learned to write at school. Kitty looked at his face properly for the first time. He didn’t seem so scary now.

“My great aunt Rachel, she was at one of those camps.” Kitty didn’t know why she was saying this. “She’s always so mean and angry all the time and Dad says it’s because of that.” Kitty knew she was being overly bold, but she’d always had a big mouth and not enough sense so she pressed on. “Is that why you’re so angry? Is that why you want to hurt everybody?”

Magneto – Magnus – took his eyes off the road to study her for a long moment. “In a way, yes,” he said at last. “But I don’t want to hurt everyone, Katherine, I want to live in a world where no one gets hurt anymore. The world, as it is now, is dead set against such an idea. The only option is to use force.”

“You really think you can do it, make a perfect world where nobody gets hurt?” Kitty and the other X-Men had talked at length about Magneto’s plans after their last encounter. For some reason Professor X kept insisting that Magneto wanted the same thing they did, she never really believed that was true.

“Perhaps not, but someone has to try. If we just sit back and wait for the world to change we will only find ourselves in chains. I’ve seen what happens when you wait for people’s better angels to guide them, it only leads to destruction and death. I have the God-given power to do something this time, so I will do it.” Magnus’ eyes flashed and Kitty could see the passion of his conviction.

“But, aren’t things different now? Don’t we have laws and rights to protect us?” Something about Magnus’ words frightened her, those far away nightmare threats seemed a lot more imminent the way he talked.

“Katherine, I see that you are a smart girl. You know the world is more complicated than good guys and bad guys. When one homo sapien makes a law, it takes only another to unmake it. Whatever they give us they can also take away. We have to take what is ours, with or without their permission.” Magnus held Kitty’s eyes in an almost frightening way, his voice had hardly changed in volume yet it seemed louder and stronger somehow. “And this world, dear Katherine, is ours.”

Kitty gulped, Magnus was throwing her completely off balance. Everything he said scared her, but at the same time didn’t sound that unreasonable either. She wasn’t sure what to think. She wished Professor X was here to help her make sense of it all.

Magnus turned his eyes back to the road. “I can see I am frightening you, child. I did not mean to cause you distress.”

“I’m not scared,” Kitty said, even though it was a lie. “It’s just, well, I’ve never heard someone talk the way you do. Do you really think people, humans, will just turn their backs on us? Even our friends and family?”

“Katherine,” Magnus’ voice assumed a gentler tone, “we must believe this to be the case. To do otherwise would be utter foolishness. I’ve seen it happen before, it can always happen again. Just take a look at The Purifiers. Though they are but few, their ideas are spreading. We cannot afford to be caught unawares.”

“But if they all turn against us, then we don’t have a chance. There’s so many more of them than us.” Panic was starting to bubble up in Kitty’s chest. Professor X had made everything seem so hopeful, like people were generally good and could be trusted. Now the world seemed a lot more dangerous than it had just a few hours ago.

“A chance is precisely what we do have, and I do not intend on wasting it. A fight is coming, Katherine, and whether you like it or not, whether you are ready or not, you will be drawn into it. As will we all.” Magnus turned from the state route onto a larger highway, he seemed not to be looking at the signs at all, just navigating by pure instinct. “Do you know why our people celebrate Hanukkah?”

Kitty was a little taken off guard by the question. “The oil in the lamp at the temple was supposed to burn only one day, but lasted for eight instead.”

“Yes, that is why we light the candles, but why is the holiday celebrated?” Magnus had a way about him that made Kitty think he’d have made a good teacher in another life.

“Um,” Kitty struggled to remember what she’d learned in the religious education classes she’d had to attend before her bat mitzvah, “the Romans, or um, maybe it was the Greeks, they tried to make us stop practicing our religion and took over the temple and when we got it back there was only the one thing of oil.” Kitty cringed internally, she could just see her parents’ disappointment at her lame explanation. She glanced over at Magnus to see if he was similarly disappointed.

Instead of disapproval he was giving her the smallest of smiles. “I never had much of a head for the details of all the stories either. I suppose that’s why we have rabbis. However, the salient points are clear even in your telling. We were attacked by outsiders, oppressed and defiled. That which was most holy was desecrated. Oppressors benefited from our subjugation and had no reason to protect or help us. We had the choice to either fight back, or die.”

Kitty could see where Magnus was going with this analogy. “That was a long time ago.” Even as she said it, the phrase seemed hollow. The future was suddenly very dark.

“Those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it, Katherine. I’ve learned my history, I hope you have too.” Magnus’ tone was fierce and chilled Kitty to her core.

“So, what can we do?” Kitty wasn’t prone to nihilism, but the thought of facing increasing oppression and subjugation for the rest of her life made everything seem so bleak.

“We fight, and we never stop. Not even for a second.” Magnus’ voice was firm, but his expression softened when he looked at Kitty. Apparently her fear was showing on her face. “It seems that I can’t talk to you about this without frightening you. What does Charles say when discussing the state of the world?”

Kitty blinked, thrown for yet another loop. “Charles?”

“You thought I was unaware of your affiliation with Charles Xavier?” Magnus sounded a little confused.

“I, uh,” Kitty didn’t want to admit to anything, but it seemed that the jig was up. “If you knew who I was, why did you help me?”

“I bear no ill will against you, or Charles, or any of the so-called X-Men. I fight for all of Mutant-kind, I do not bear petty grudges over past skirmishes. We must band together if we are to survive. In many ways we are more alike than we are different, child. Someday that will be clear.” Magnus gave her a hesitant look. “I hope you can forgive me for hurting you in our last altercation. It has grieved me these many months thinking that I had harmed you.”

Kitty could hear the regret in his words. She wasn’t sure what she thought anymore. “I’m not sure,” she said truthfully, “Storm said I was as close to death as she’d ever seen. It’s only ‘cause she took care of me that I was able to get better like I did.”

“I am truly sorry. I wish I could make it up to you somehow.” Kitty believed him. Magnus really did feel bad about attacking her all those months ago.

“I suppose saving my life was a good start. I think we might be even now.”

Magnus gave her a small, warm smile. “I can see Charles’ influence on you. You are far more forgiving than I would have been.”

Kitty wasn’t sure quite what to do with that. She was glad that Magnus could see that she was a real X-Man, someone Professor X had taught well. Forgiving wasn’t always easy or in her nature, but she kept trying to remember what Professor X might say. She was trying so hard to be a real hero and have people take her seriously, it seemed like maybe she was getting there.

Traffic around them was thickening up. Kitty caught sight of one of the highway signs and realized Chicago wasn’t too far away anymore. “Hey,” she said “that’s pretty neat, we’re almost home.” As she said that, her original worries from the train came back to her. How was she gonna get through this holiday knowing that her family was all broken apart. Sitting back in her seat she wrapped her arms around herself. She wished Ororo was here to make her feel better.

“Is something wrong, Katherine?” Magnus asked. “Aren’t you happy to be going home?” She guessed her moodiness was obvious.

“It’s not gonna be the same. My parents are getting divorced and it’s just not gonna be the same ever again. It’s like I’m gonna have two separate families instead of one. I don’t know why they can’t just stick together. It can’t be that bad.” Kitty knew Magnus probably didn’t care about her little family problems, but she wanted to tell someone. She was so embarrassed that her parents were splitting up. Why were they being so dumb about this anyway? Couldn’t they just come to their senses and stay together.

“That must be very difficult.” Magnus’ voice was empathetic but shifted into a firm resolve as he said, “But you must be brave in the face of this adversity. You will come through this stronger than steel.”

It wasn’t exactly the sort of pep talk Ororo would have given, but somehow it did make her feel a little better.

“And also,” Magneto added a moment later, his voice softer, “hold on to your family, Katherine. Take not one day with them for granted. Hold them close and don’t be angry at them if you can help it.”

Kitty swallowed. She suddenly wanted to hug her parents tight. Gulping, she asked the question that had been bothering her since her parents told her of the separation. “Do you think they’re gonna blame me for pulling them apart? They used to be so happy together.”

Magnus took the exit for Chicago. All the traffic slowed down as they came into the city proper. “No,” he said. “Your parents must be good people to raise a girl as bright and kind as yourself. Such people would never blame an innocent child for their own incompatibilities.”

His words made Kitty feel a little bit better. She had been worrying about this for what seemed like forever now. She also glowed at the compliments. It wasn’t every day that someone who almost killed you said nice things about you. “It’s gonna be weird, though,” she said at last.

Magnus nodded. “You will have to find a path forward with your parents and yourself. As long as you remember to love and respect each other you will surmount this obstacle and come through this stronger. You are not losing your family, Katherine, it is just growing in a new direction. Growing can be painful, but it is what all living things must do.”

Kitty shook her head to clear it. Those words sounded like they could have come from Professor X himself. Maybe the Prof was right and the difference between the X-Men and Magneto wasn’t all that big after all.

“Where do you live?” Magnus asked, distracting Kitty from her musings.

“Oh, uh,” Kitty looked out the window to try and catch one of the signs they were driving past. “I live in Deerfield, it’s more North of here and not too far from the lake.”

Magnus nodded. “Are there any large metal structures near your house?”

Kitty thought about it. “There’s a TV station not too far away, they have a lot of big antennas there.”

Magnus closed his eyes and seemed to be feeling for something.

“Hey,” said Kitty, “keep your eyes on the road!” She reached out as if to grab the wheel.

“I’m well aware of my surroundings, Katherine. Fear not.” Magnus seemed to be concentrating.

Kitty held her breath, they were going to die. She looked out her window and saw all the cars jostling for space around them. She gulped, clinging to the door handle and wondering if she should put on her seat belt. This close to home and she buys the farm because some guy thinks he can drive with his eyes closed.

Magnus’ eyes snapped open and soon enough he was merging through several lanes of traffic apparently knowing exactly where he was going.

“You’re kinda crazy, you know that?” Kitty didn’t release her grip on the door.

“So I have been told.” Magnus’ voice held a hint of dry humor. “You should not worry, I am in complete control of every particle of metal in my surroundings. Nothing I don’t want can happen.” Kitty believed him, but it still seemed kind of crazy.

Finally, they came into sight of the TV antennas from the station. Kitty knew how to get back to her house from here. “Go left,” she gestured. She stopped and looked at her watch wondering if her parents were at the train station waiting for her. She saw that her watch wasn’t working. It must have gotten fried by the water in that ravine. And it was her new digital watch too. Bummer. She glanced at the dashboard but there was no clock there. “Do you know what time it is?”

Magnus thought for a minute. “Chicago is in the Central Time Zone, is it not?”

“Yeah.” Kitty nodded.

“Then it is about seven o’clock at night.” Magnus thought for a moment longer. “Perhaps closer to a quarter till.”

“How’d you know that?” If he was right then her parents hadn’t left for Union Station yet, her train wasn’t supposed to arrive till closer to nine. Kitty was glad. She was ready to be home and get into some clean clothes and give her mom and dad a hug.

“My powers let me feel the rotation of the Earth, I can approximate time from there.” Magnus shrugged. “Our abilities can let us do so much more than we might realize, all we must do is have a little imagination.”

Again, there he was, sounding like the Professor. Kitty indicated that he should turn right into her neighborhood. “Turn here, my house is at the end of the street.”

Outside her house, Kitty could see a bunch of cars in the driveway and on the street. She saw her grandma’s car and her aunt’s station wagon. That meant the cousins were there too. She bet everyone was having a great time and she could almost taste the doughnuts and latkes.

Magnus pulled the car onto the edge of the street right in front of the house. Shifting the car into park he exited and came around the car to open her door. “As promised, young one, I have delivered you safe to your home.”

Kitty slid out of her seat and shut the door as she exited the car. She was so happy and relieved to be home again her worries seemed to melt away. Mom and Dad and her were going to figure this out and she didn’t know exactly what would happen but she knew it was going to be all right. Her happiness bubbled over and flinging her arms around Magnus’ neck she gave him the type of enthusiastic hugs she usually reserved for her friends. “Thank you so much for helping me.”

Magnus seemed stunned by her effusiveness. Kitty smiled as he relaxed and gave her a brief embrace. He really isn’t so different from the Professor, she thought, it’s too bad he won’t just join us X-Men and fight on our team.

Kitty stepped back, still smiling. “Where are you going to go now?”

Magnus gestured in a general direction away from the city. “I will go where I am needed most to defend Mutant-kind.”

Kitty nodded. She was glad he’d been there tonight to help her. She was pretty sure she’d be a goner if he hadn’t shown up when he did. She glanced at her house. Warm light spilled out the windows filtered by the gauzy curtains in the living room. In the center of the big window stood a lit menorah, the glowing candlelight beckoning her inside. Looking back at Magnus a thought started to grow in her. After everything she’d learned about Magneto tonight, everything they’d talked about, it seemed kind of wrong to just say goodbye out here in the snow. It was Hanukkah, after all, he should have someone to celebrate with.

Reaching out, Kitty took Magnus’ hand. “Come on inside,” she said, “there’s enough latkes for everyone.”

[babybluebex]

i’m not sure if you mentioned this already, so i’m sorry if you have and i’m just bringing up old stuff 😭 but have you seen the deerfield commencement video? where dom delivers the speech to his class? it’s so good and weirdly inspiring. i can tell he was so loved at deerfield. (if you haven’t seen it, timestamp is like 52:00 on vimeo lolllll)

oh my god his lil hamster 😭 on the wheel, endlessly going

also how he roasts deerfield by being like "deerfield does NOT show you the theater building on the tour" like get em dom

but he's a very good writer and a very good public speaker, like i was surprised

[melis-writes]

Do you think Michael would be into formula 1??

I personally feel like he would really like it. I just became a fan of it and like...... EVERYONE IS SO FREAKING RICH AND OLD MONEY!!!!!!

I can imagine him just having meatings with people in the paddock and placing bets on who will win.

I think he would be even though he wouldn't flaunt or talk about it too much 👀 this does sound like a hobby he would really enjoy imo, it's giving me heavy Bobby Deerfield vibes of course 🤣🤣

[vinceaddams]

Top five extant waistcoats 👀👀

How dare you make me choose, agh! I have exactly 1302 images on my 18th century waistcoats pinterest board right now, so here are 5 that I especially love, but picking a definitive top 5 is impossible. (I already have a long post with 20 of my favourites, but I kept those confined to just the last 2 decades of the century.)

1. c. 1790's, Cooper Hewitt collection.

This one is super cool, because it's the only one I've ever seen with net overlay. Look at it! Teeny tiny baby 2mm silk ribbon, all hand knotted.

2. c. 1750's, V&A.

This one is printed to shape! Someone made a big engraved plate with this design that's specifically made to fit the front of a waistcoat! It's a bit off looking around the edges, so I think maybe the customer was a bit smaller than the pre-printed fabric shape, but it's still so cool.

There are more examples of this technique, and I have a pinterest board section for them.

3. This one. Wool thread on linen, sold by Christie's. Ugh, I want one!! Wouldn't this look amazing with my dark green wool 1730's coat and breeches?

I would love to do a crewel embroidered waistcoat like this someday. This grainy picture is the only one I've been able to find of this one, and I once tried emailing Christie's to see if there were more pictures, but they have a lot of employees and didn't seem to understand what I wanted, and the listing was from 2009, so I was not successful.

I hate it when auction sites take down the pictures after the sale!! >:( Nowadays when I pin pictures from auction listings I always make sure to back them up on the wayback machine. There are so many old ones that I wish I'd done that for... Crewel waistcoats are pretty rare, so there aren't many closeups out there, but these 1734 pocket flap samples are a great example of something similar. (got a subsection for crewel on my embroidery pinboard)

4. c. 1735-45, Historic Deerfield. There are tons of woven to shape waistcoats out there, but this is one of my favourites. I love huge flowers, I love sleeved waistcoats, and I love green.

It looks amazing at nearly 300 years old, so just imagine it when all those silver threads were new and not tarnished!

Similar to the blue printed one, this would have been woven with the brocade flowers in the shape of the front of a waistcoat, and then sold to a customer who'd then bring it to a tailor to have it made up to fit him. One of those things that was easy to find in the 18th century, but is completely unattainable to modern costumers, alas.

5. c. 1795-1800, The Met.

Heeheehoohoo. bugs.

There are a lot of late 18th century waistcoats with weird little pictures embroidered on them, and I can't choose a favourite, but bugs is way up there on the list. This isn't even the only bug embroidered one, there are others!

This one has been altered. I'd say it was probably originally made in the 1780's, and then cut down to be shorter and given a different collar shape sometime in the early 19th century. Lots of waistcoats were altered like this, and with the embroidered ones it's really obvious. I would have liked this one better in its original state, but oh well.

So! Those are not the very best 5, but they're 5 very good ones!

[readerbookclub]

Hello everyone! It's time for a new book list :) This month, our theme is witches, an idea that was suggested in a recent survey and that I thought sounded really fun! I realized after I'd already made the list that our current book also fits this theme. Oops! But hey, you can never have too many witches.

As always, please vote for our next book using the link at the end of the post.

Hour of the Witch, by Chris Bohjalian

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four years old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary--a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony--soon finds herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows. A twisting, tightly plotted thriller from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying novel of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.

The Lighthouse Witches, by C.J. Cooke

When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it's an opportunity to start over with her three daughters--Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she's frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.

Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she's initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers—except she's still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she'll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn't realize just how much the truth will change her.

The Witch's Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec

Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she's foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.

The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

The Mercies, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Bergensdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Northern town of Vardø must fend for themselves.

Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God and flooded with a mighty evil.

As Maren and Ursa are pushed together and are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence.

Please vote for our next book here.

[swforester]

A stylized soul effigy decorates the grave of Ensign Ebenezer Wells, 67 when he died in 1758. This carver did beautiful work. The pinwheels on each side of the soul effigy suggest that the entrance to eternity is close at hand.

Old Burying Ground

Deerfield MA 3/12/23

[elisabethelliott]

How to Start a Wildfire

Summer heat so oppressive, it makes the mosquitos pant? check. A family curse going back a couple of centuries? check. Secrets festering in every corner? Eldritch things lurking in the dark? check.

How to Start a Wildfire by Elisabeth S. Elliott

A Southern Gothic mystery set in the small town of Edom, Louisiana.

Most of the future that Cara Deerfield hoped for fell by the wayside a long while back, a casualty of more dire obligations. In a life riddled with loss, she fights to hold onto what little she has. For as long as Cara can remember, she’s been visited by dreams of a burning tree – the enormous live oak in front of the abandoned house right down the hill. When a stranger moves in, she catches people in town talking about him like he’s some kin to the boogeyman. It doesn’t stop her from meeting him or trying to befriend him. After all, whispers have gone around about her own family.

Coming home is no easy thing for Thierry Cotton. He’s been gone for a very long time, and returning to Edom feels like slogging into darkness. When the woman who lives in the only other house on his backroad comes drifting into his yard, it’s like she’s set a spark to tinder. There’s something about her, something familiar that draws him. He can’t ignore her any more than he can ignore what goes on in his home or the woods surrounding them. There are things that he needs to face, though, before he can find any sort of peace with the past that drove him away in the first place. He has work to do.

There’s always been something seething beneath the surface of Edom, smothered under blissful disregard and sweet Louisiana manners. When the unthinkable happens, when it seems the community has a murderer in its midst, some old ideals rear their ugly heads. What was left in the dark long ago must come to light. And as evil flirts with Edom right out in the open, Cara and Thierry find themselves connected through the past and present in more ways than one.

How to Start a Wildfire has reached the end of the in-depth outline process, resulting in 26k words of pre-writing. I’m about to dive into work on chapter one. Aiming to publish in mid to late 2024.

If Patreon is something you participate in, please consider having a look at mine (link in my pinned post). There’s at least one update every Saturday morning (usually a second with some kind of extras), and quite a bit of backlog to enjoy at this point. Ongoing, there are progress updates, inspiration image posts, character introduction posts, and there will be excerpts of actual story soon. The occasional poll turns up, as well!

And if you’ve read this far, thank you for reading and for your time!

[extinctionblues]

Old Deerfield MA 2023

[moby-writing-and-stuff]

The Pokemon Parade

Deep in the woods of the Kalos region, a small party of four was walking down the road. In this group was the spiky, black-haired 18 year old pokemon trainer by the name of Ash Ketchum.

Ash was from the Kanto region and was here on his journey to become a pokemon master like he had done in many regions before. This time, he was traveling alongside an upcoming Pokemon Performer, Serena, and the blonde Gym leader of Lumiose City, Clemont, along with his little sister Bonnie.

“So, how much further till Coumarine City?” Ash asked the blonde. Clemont smiled as he pulled out a small pad from his pocket and tapped on the screen a few times.

“Well, according to the map, we should be there in a couple of days,” he said

“That’s good,” Serena said, adjusting her hat as they quartet kept walking “It feels like we’ve been in these woods for days”

“I know the feeling” Ash muttered, glancing up

“Pika” his partner, Pikachu, muttered in agreement, looking up alongside his trainer. The two stared at the large green carpet that covered the top of the trees, which only allowed a few bits of light to stream through, and allowed the group a small sight of the sky, which was beginning to turn a nice, warm orange, signaling the setting sun.

“I think we should begin to set up camp soon” the raven-haired boy muttered as he looked back down.

“We should'' Serena agreed, giving Ash a small smile, which made the young man twitch a little and stare at the girl for a minute before looking down at his sneakers. Ash liked Serena, she was a good friend and a pretty decent trainer, but he always got a bit weirded out by certain things she did. She was always pretty damn quick to agree with him, especially in small things, almost without thought.

Sometimes, the young trainer was tempted to suggest something completely stupid and nonsensical to see if she would agree automatically. But if he was honest with himself, he was kinda afraid she would agree out of nowhere. He had no idea why she acted like this, and it frankly freaked him out sometimes.

“Actually” Clemont interrupted, saving Ash from the awkward situation that had been formed. Smiling, Ash looked over to the blonde gym leader “There seems to be a town close to here”

“Really?” Serena asked, drawing away from Ash and further getting rid of the awkwardness.

“Yeah,” Clemont said, still tapping on the maps screen “It’s a small town called Deerfield. The Town map doesn't really say a lot about it…” Clemont muttered

“Well, at this point I’ll be really happy to sleep in a bed,” Clemont’s younger sister said, smiling at her brother. Her purse twitched for a second before it popped open, and out popped the smiling face of Dedenne

“De nenne!” the small fairy type chirped in agreement

“Yeah,” Ash said, smiling “How far is it exactly?”

“Not far actually, it's in a clearing of the woods nearby, and the town in there”

“Probably explains why there isn’t that much info on it,” Serena said as the four began to follow Clemont, going slightly deeper into the woods “I don’t think that many people go in here just to visit a tiny town”

“Yeah, I think that since they don’t have a gym or anything like that, they usually get overlooked a wee bit,” Clemont explained as they walked through the thicket, seeing a small, slightly overgrown road

“Guess they don’t get that much traffic out here” Ash muttered as the group walked down, the dirt road being coated in ivy and bushes

“I’m not shocked,” Serena said, as she stepped over a rather large clump of ivy “This forest is really, really big.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised that someone built a town in here,” Ash said as they kept walking through the thicket, leaves and twigs crunching underneath their feet.

“Deerfield…. That sounds familiar…” Bonnie muttered as the group kept walking

“What is it?” Serena asked, crouching as they finally reached a break in the tree line. The quartet broke through and gasped as they saw the town spread out in front of them.

The town was quite big for how out of the way it was, with huge, rather fancy looking buildings, massive, ivy covered walls surrounding a rather old looking castle at the top of a hill that looks like it hasn’t been touched in many many years. Streamers, balloons and other festive looking decorations covering all the rooftops.

“Wow, is there a holiday or something?” Ash asked his friends, hoping the locals would know more

“Not that I’m aware” Clemont said with the shake of his head

“Nope, no holidays around this time of year at all actually” Serena said “Why are they-”

“YES!” Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs, interrupting Serena and making everyone jump

“Holy crap, Bonnie what’s wrong!?” Clemont shouted, rushing back to his sister, who was bouncing of the balls of her feet

“I know where I heard this town’s name!” Bonnie said with a huge smile “I saw it on a special on TV before we set out! This town is known for huge parades themed around pokemon! They throw them every two months and from what I’ve seen they're awesome!”

“Huh, neat” Ash muttered, as he looked at the town. He could indeed see people running back and forth, with ladders, streamers and uninflated balloons “It is a bit weird though. This town doesn't seem that big”

“Yeah, a bit strange that they’re able to throw big parades so often” Clemont muttered as the group started moving closer to the town “I mean, this town is really out of the way”

“Well, according to the TV, they also have a lot of really really rare pokemon they trade away to rich people and professors”

“So they trade pokemon to make a living?” Serena asked, crossing her arms as the quartet arrived at what looked like a makeshift dirt road that led up to the road itself. “That seems a bit… mean”

“Pika” the yellow pokemon on Ash’s shoulder cooed in agreement

“Well, as long as the pokemon end up in good homes, I don’t really see what the problem is” Ash said as they began to approach. Right before they could reach the city itself though, the nearby bushes began to shake rather violently.

Suddenly, a big green blob shot out of the bushes and stood in between them and the town entrance.

It was a rather big bipedal pokemon, with two golden horns with shining black pearls in the center. Its fur was a shimmering bright green that seemed to sparkle in the sunset

“Woah!” Ash said, putting out his arms to stop his friends from walking as the pokemon stared at them

“What is that? A Stantler?” Serena asked as she fished out her pokedex. 

“Yeah. A shiny one” Ash said as he took a step closer, only for the Stantler to stomp the floor and growl at them “Woah woah big guy!” Ash said, putting his hands up “Calm down”

“Stan! Ler antler Stanl!” the pokemon shouted at them, stamping its hoof one the ground and wavint its head at them.

“I’ve never seen a Stanlter that angry before” Clemont said, as he reached down for his pokeballs

“Clemont, don’t” Ash said slowly, stopping his friend

“W-What? Why not?”

“Stantler’s can hypnotize people with the pearls on their horns” he whispered at the group “If it thinks we’re being aggressive, it can use those before we can throw out our pokemon” the three blondes’ eyes went wide as they understood, Clemont lowering his arm and holding out his hands to show he didn’t mean any harm to the pokemon

“Stan!” the shiny kept shouting, stamping its foot and pointing at the woods with its nose. Pikachu tilted his head and looked at the Pokemon with pure confusion on his face.

“Any idea what it wants, buddy?” Ash asked, not taking his eyes off the Stantler

“Pika” the yellow chu said, shaking his head “Pika chupika” he muttered as he mimed fast moving mouths with his paws.

“He’s talking to fast?” Ash asked, to which his best friend nodded, making the young man sigh. “Look, we don’t mean you any harm. We just wanna go into town fo-”

“STANTLER!” it shouted at the top of its lungs as soon as Ash said that, charing at them. “PIKACHU! USE THUNDER!” Ash shouted as he shoved Clemont and Bonnie out of the way. “Piiiiikaaaaa CHUUUUUUU!” the yellow roden shouted as he jumped up and released a huge blast of electricity, which hit the Stantler right on the side “TAN!” it cried, more in surprise than in pain. It gave the group a glare before taking off back to the woods. 

“I have never seen a Stantler that aggressive before in my life” Ash panted as got back up. As the other clambered back onto their feet, the crunching of dirt rang out behind them.

“Hey!” someone shouted. Turning around, Ash saw a guy around his age, with a mop of brown hair and glasses over his eyes. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt with a deep blue t-shirt underneath and a backpack slung over his shoulders “Is everyone ok here? I heard a loud noise”

“Y-Yeah we’re fine” Serena said, as he dusted dirt off her skirt “Just had a run in with a Stantler”

“A Stantler?” the guy asked, fornwing “Was it shiny?”

“Yeah” Ash said as he adjusted his hat back on “Do you know it?”

“Know it? Yeah I do. The entire town knows that pokemon. Its been a massive pain for years now”

“What do you mean?” Clemont asked

“That Stantler runs up to every single visitor and starts acting crazy, stomping the ground, charing at them with Take Down. Or it hypnotises them into thinking there’s a giant rampaging Tyranitar or something and makes them run away.” the man growled

“Wow, why would it do that?” Bonnie asked “This place looks sooo nice!”

“I don’t know” the guy shrugged “Maybe it takes offense to the rare pokemon we trade, or maybe we caught its mate and its pissed at that”

“That would be unique, I’ve never heard of pokemon being that angry at a mate being caught” Clemont said, adjusting his glasses.

“Honestly I’m just guessing. The name’s Micheal by the way, nice to meet you” the young man said, holding out his hand

“Nice to meet ya, I’m Ash Ketchum” the spiky haired trainer introduced himself, as his friends did the same.

“Heh, we don’t get this many visitors at once around this time of year” Micheal said with a chuckle “You guys here for the Parade?”

“YE-” Bonnie shrieked, only for Serena to put her hand over Bonnie’s mouth, her face bright red

“Sorry bout that” she said with a nervous chuckle “We’re not really here for that. We got lost in the forest and we got a bit turned around trying to find the main road again”

“Ah, I see” Micheal said, his smile growing just a little, but none of the travelers noticed that “Well, the main road is a bit off from here” he explained.

“Had a feeling you’d say that” Ash groaned, his shoulders slumping a bit in disappointment “Do you guys have a pokemon center?”

“Center? Nope, sorry” the guy said, shaking his head, leading to groans from the entire group “We do have a hotel”

“Hotel?” Ash asked, frowning a bit “How expensive is it exactly?” he asked, a bit worried. The main reason the group mostly stayed at Pokemon Centers was that they offered free room and board to trainers with an active License. And Ash’s wasn’t exactly the best when it came to keeping money, and since Clemont hadn’t really been running his gym for a few months now, he wouldn’t get a payment until he himself participated in a gym battle.

“Oh, the rooms are free cause of the Parade!” Micheal said, leading the group into town proper. 

“Wait, seriously?” Clemont asked, his eyes going wide

“Oh yeah” Micheal laughed at his reaction, as the group entered the town proper. 

It looked like a typical Kalos town. Cobbled roads, old stone buildings combined with fancy looking street lights. What really set it apart was all the Parade decorations.

From the roofs, giant balloons themed around famous Kalosian pokemon floated up into the sky, staring down at the group. Streamers of every color the group could imagine hung in the space between buildings and hanging from the streetlamps

“See, the parade is a huge tradition for us” Micheal explained “So, whenever we hold it, the people who’ve moved out come back to spend the weekend here. And to make sure that they don’t go bankrupt from a trip back home, the hotel just hands out free rooms for the weekend.”

“Huh, that’s nice of them” Ash said as they entered what looked like the town center. “Woah” Ash muttered as he saw a group of people around the big fountain in the center. 

The fountain was drained and they seemed to be in the process of replacing the marble statue on the top with a new one, but that wasn’t what drew Ash’s eye.

No what drew his eye was the clothes they were wearing. It was a crew of around 6, four men and two women, and each of them was clad in a rather interesting looking costume.

One guy was wearing a bright orange wetsuit with a fake tail right above his butt, fake finns on his arms and a big, shiny yellow rubber disk around his neck. He had even dyed his hair a very bright shade of orange to complete the look. Next to him was a woman wearing what looked like a white tracksuit, with big round white and black ears popping out of her hair and a cloth attached to her arms that resembled wings. She even had yellow circles on her cheeks.

Every single member of the crew was like that, dressed up in some kind of pokemon themed outfit that seemed to pop out of the background with how colorful it was.

“Ah yeah, theres the second part of the three traditions of the Parade” Micheal said with a giggle as he saw Ash’s face “Dressing up!”

“You guys dress up as Pokemon!?” Bonnie asked, a huge smile on her face as she stared bouncing in place

“Yup. We try to vary up what pokemon we dress up as each year. Last year I was an Absol. This year I’m thinking of going for a Mewostic.”

“So does everyone dress up? Clemont asked, looking as the crew working on the fountain brough out what looked like a golden platform and began to screw it into place

“Oh yeah. The mothers of babies go on and on and on about what their going to dress their kid as for the next. It gets a little trying.” he chuckled as he came to a stop in front of what looked like an old castle “Here we are, Deerfield Castle Hotel”

“Holy crap….” Ash muttered as he got a good look at the place.

It was huge, with about 4 towers that he could see, bridges in between all of them. Flags fluttered away at the top, barely visible as clouds formed around the enormous towers. 

“This place makes the Parfum Palace look tiny….” Serena muttered

“Heh, thanks” Micheal chuckled “Always nice to hear we come on top of that spoiled bitch”

“Hey, careful with your language!” Serena chastised him, trying to block Bonnie’s ears.

“Hehe, relax Serena” Bonnie giggled as she stepped out from under her hands “I’ve heard a lot worse from Clemont”

“B-Bonnie!” the blonde inventor stammered out, his face going bright red

“I mean, you should hear him when one of his inventions fails! According to our dad, he swears more than a sailor!”

“And with that we’ll be going in!” Ash said, grabbing Clemont’s hand and leading him inside “Thanks Micheal! See ya later!” the two dashed inside before either Micheal or either of the girls could respond. Inside was exactly what they expected. A rather fancy and well lit reseption area, that was filled with people, all of them dressed up in costumes already. 

Ash didn’t pay them any mind as he headed for the receptionist 

“Hi. I’d look to book two rooms please. One for me and my friend here” he pointed at Clemont, who was still beet red “and one for his sister and another friend of mine”

“Of course sir” the woman behind the desk, dressed like a Chansey, said as she handed him a keycard “The Parade starts at 11:30 if you are interested in participating”

“Thanks! I’ll keep it in mind” Ash said, giving her a friendly smile before dragging Clemont off to the elevators “Come on, I’m about to pass out”

“Oh please wait!” she called out, makign the three stop 

“What is it?” Ash asked

“Pika?” the yellow pokemon on his shoulder chirped

“I’m afraid pokemon aren’t allowed in the hotel rooms.” the woman explained “We have a daycare for them to stay at however.”

“Oh” both Ash and Clemont muttered, looking at each other. Sighing, they both handed over their pokeballs, and Pikachu hopped down from his trainer’s shoulders.

“I’ll see ya in the morning buddy!” Ash called as he led Clemont to the elevators, and up to their room for some much needed sleep.

Ash yawned as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, slowly opening them as a rather loud bang rang inside the room.

“Clemont?” he asked he slowly sat up, blinking as a beam of light entering through the window hurt his eyes “What’s going…”

“Think the parade is in full swing” the tired voice of the inventor came from the other bed.

“Yeah seems like it” Ash groaned as he threw the covers off and looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. The soft red light glowed rather strongly as it showed the time

3:42 AM

“Arceus it’s 3 in the morning” Ash groaned as he threw his head against the pillow, a groan escaping his lips, as loud music and cheering flooded inside the room “Guess there goes sleep for tonight” Ash muttered as he heard another blast of pop music hit the room.

“Yeap” Clemont muttered as he grabbed his glasses, rubbing them clean as he looked around “Well, what do we do?”

“I dunno” Ash said, shrugging “Not really experienced in this kinda situation. I’m kinda more used to sleeping in the woods”

“Really?” Clemont asked with a mock gasp “And here I thought wild Hoothoot were infamous for their late night parties!”

“Pffft” Ash giggled, sitting up again “Yeah. You don’t know a party till you spent a night with a Noctowl!”

“Hehehehe!” they both laughed, doubling over in laughter

“Oh man I needed that!” Ash chuckled, wiping away a tear

“Me too” Clemont said, coughing as he stopped his chuckles “Right… So, what now?”

“I don’t know honestly” Ash said with a shrug “Wanna go check out the parade?”

“Uh?”

“I mean, we are here” Ash said with a shrug “And a big parade like this isn’t something you see everyday. Pokemon floats, people in costumes, and I think I smelled someone cooking something”

“Huh, good point,” Clemont said with a smile as he flicked on the lights. The two young men nodded at each other and hopped off their beds. Clemont’s smile disappeared after he reached the foot of his bed though “Wait… Where are my clothes?”

“I don’t know…. Mine are gone too” Ash muttered, frowning as he got on all fours and checked under the bed, finding nothing but an old crumpled up sock from the last tennant. “Is this a prank or something?”

“I don’t think so” Clemont muttered

“What makes you say that?” Ash asked as he stood up, still frowning.

“Found this” the blonde gym leader said, holding up a small sticky note “We apologize for any problems, but our hotel rooms come with a complimentary laundry service. All your clothes have been taken to the washroom and it will be returned to you in the morning.”

“Seriously? They took our clothes without asking?!” Ash groaned, sitting down on the bed “Guess there goes that pla-”

“However, in case you are interested in participating in the parade, we have provided various costumes in the closet. I hope that you find one to your liking and please enjoy your stay” Clemont finished the letter, looking up at Ash.

The raven haired trainer blinked before getting up and heading off to the closet. He opened it and blinked at the quantity inside. There were rows upon rows of costumes, all of them based on different pokemon.

The nearest one was the bright blue of a Meowstic, followed by a black and white Zangoose themed one.

“Wow, they’ve got a good selection,” Clemont said as he grabbed the nearest one, a rather fancy looking Munchlax outfit.

“Yeah” Ash muttered, frowning a little as he looked through the closet. “Too big a selection if you ask me…”

“What do you mean?” Clemont asked, as he dug through the closet looking at a few more costumes “These look awesome!”

“I’m not denying that” Ash said with the shake of his head “But, why would they have so many costumes? This town doesn't seem that big and like that guy said, everyone makes their own costumes”

“Maybe these are old?” Clemont asked as he pulled out a black and red outfit. A headband with black cat-like ears, a tail hanging out from the pants and a pair of gloves and sneakers themed after the same pokemon were attached to the hanger with some string. And on top of that, there was a small bottle attached to a plastic bag that looked like it contained red makeup. “Oooh I like this one!”

“It is nice, yeah” Ash said, as he looked at the outfit his blonde friend had chosen “But these don’t look old. They look brand new. I mean, look at this!” Ash grabbed one of the costumes and pulled it out.

It was a light brown outfit, with a cream colored front to represent the stomach. A pair of white gloves and a rather large boots with white toes hung from a rope attached to the hanger. The pants had a rather large tail coming out of the pants, just like the one Clemont had grabbed. 

Unlike the thin cat-like tail of the blonde’s, this one was different. It started off similar, a thin black strip, but soon it began to grow thicker and thicker until a soft, bright yellow thunderbolt like protution appeared. Ash grabbed it, feeling it was filled with plush, like a stuffed animal.

“This thing is brand new” he said, holding up the tail “Like, why would they store a brand new costume here in the hotel?”

“Maybe its there for the folks who live out of town?” Clemont offered as he began to take his costume off its hanger “I mean, they have to make plans to come all the way out here, clear their schedules and then actually make the trip. Which I’m guessing is a bit long since there isn’t an airport here”

“That is true…” the raven haired young adult muttered, as he looked down at the outfit he was holding. It was really well made, and the sounds of the party outside echoed through the hotel as a whole, as if it was a personal message to him. Tempting him with a night of wild abandon and fun alongside a cute guy. Grinning, he started taking the costume off its hanger “You know what, your probably right” he chuckled as he grabbed the outfit and looked it over for a zipper “I’m probably being a bit paranoid”

“Being hounded by Team Rocket for eight years, I can understand why you are paranoid” Clemont joked. 

The Kanto native couldn’t help but chuckle as he found the zipper “So, what do you think these costumes are of? This one kinda looks like a Riachu, but I’ve never seen a Raichu with white spots on their paws, a tail like this”

“Me either. But I’ve heard certain regions have unique versions of other pokemon” Clemont said “Maybe it's a regional variant of Raichu?”

“Could be” Ash nodded as he slowly slipped into the costume. He shivered a little as he stuck his leg inside, the inside of the costume being a bit colder than he expected. He wiggled his foot until it popped out of the opening “I think I’ve seen a picture of that pokemon though”

“Yeah?” Clemont asked as he slid on the lycra body-suit of his costume

“Yup. I think it's a fire type starter pokemon” Ash said as he put on the boots, wiggling his toes inside, finding them quite roomy. “Not sure the name or what region its from though”

“Huh, neat” Clemont said with a smile as he put on the gloves and adjusted the headband. The two friends looked at each other and couldn’t help but blush a little.

“You look really cute,” Ash said, a big smile on the young man’s face.

“So do you” Clemont stammered out, a smile on his own face. The two turned and looked at each other in the mirrors.

The costumes fit amazingly well. Not too tight, yet no part hung loosely off their bodies. The rubber of their shoes shone like it had just been polished and there was no trace of anything on the outfits themselves. Clemont grinned as he slipped the makeup into his new pocket.

“Might put it on later” he said as he headed for the door “Now, shall we?”

“Heh, yes we shall” Ash said with a grin as his friend opened the door and the two headed out into the carnival.

ONE HOUR LATER

“Hehe, better luck next time Clemont” Ash giggled as he dug some loose string from his friend’s hair, the two walking away from the line of Carnival Game.

“That game is rigged” the blonde muttered as he clutched the cotton candy he got as a consolation prize. It was a mass of bright cyan sugar woven around a decorated stick, themed after the pokemon Clemont was dressed as. “The gun was designed to misfire the string shot. You have to intentionally miss in order to get anywhere with it, and even then it’s a crapshoot.” 

“Sure… Whatever makes you feel better,” Ash said with a small giggle, patting his friend’s shoulder as they kept walking through the crowd of costume wearing parade-goers.

The festival was surprisingly lively, with all kinds of events available and the parade going nonstop down the main thoroughfare. That street, they learned, had actually been named Parade Avenue; a rather fitting name. Kids wearing more simple costumes rang back and forth, playing pretend battle against each other as their parents watched over them. Older people sat on benches, cups of alcohol in hand as they discussed what else was going on in their lives, and mothers with babies in arm talked about random things, a few trying to prove their children had the cuter costumes. Quite a few almost got physical until someone else stepped in and stopped them. Ash and Clemont bounced from stall to stall, casually gleaning to the parade every now and then, but clearly more interested in the carnival aspects of the festival. The couple was eager to see who could win more midway games than the other. 

“How many games have you won?” Clemont asked, “I’m at four.” he pointed at his backpack, which was filled with toys and various other bits

“Hmm… Well I was first through the hall of mirrors.” Ash began listing off all of the midway games that he had won and Clemont had lost, “I beat you in the shooting game. I beat you in the ring toss. I beat you in the Ducklett game. I didn’t throw up on the Gravitron, and…” 

“Hey that last one doesn’t count! You’re cheating!” Clemont accused, punching him in the shoulder, “That’s not fair!” 

“Hehe” Ash giggled, sticking his tongue out as they looked around for another game to play. 

As they did, someone stepped closer to them, two cups in hand and a big smile.

“Hey!” Michael said with a shout as he approached the two “Glad you two could make it! How are you enjoying the festival?” 

“It’s pretty unreal!” Ash and Clemont said at the same time, giggling at the serendipity.

“I’ve never seen anything like this” Ash muttered, his eyes shining in wonder as he looked around at the balloons and streamers. “I’ve been all over the world and this tops just about everything. Nimbasa City is nothing like this.” 

“This beats anything I’ve seen, that’s for sure” Clemont said with a smile “This puts the Champion Inauguration parade to shame!”

“Wow” Michael whistled “That’s high praise right there.”

“It’s well deserved,” Clemont said with a big smile.

“Thank you” the local smiled. He was wearing a rather fancy costume of a Reuniclus, with his jacket shimmering as he moved. Ash and Clemont beamed as the shimmering costume dazzled them. The local looked down at them and nodded in approval at their costume choice, but also was curious about the headcount. 

“Hmm… didn’t you two come into town with a couple of ladies?” he asked. 

“I think calling them ladies would be a little generous.” Clemont said “I mean, calling Bonnie that just feels weird”

“Yeah. And Serena….” Ash just shook his head “I dunno, she’s ok? But definitely not ladylike, I can assure you of that”

“Heh, I’ll take your word for it” the man-dressed-as-a-giant-cell said “So, where are they?”

“They're still sleeping,” Ash explained. “Those two sleep like Snorlaxes. They could sleep through Groudon and Kyogre brawls, so I doubt anything here could wake them up.”

“That’s a shame,” Michael said, not fully understanding the reference. His voice made it clear that he really was disappointed, however.

“Hey, sorry man” Ash said, giving him a small smile “If it's any comfort, I doubt Serena would be interested. She seems a bit….single minded”

“Huh?” Michael blinked for a second, clearly taken aback by the comment. “N-No it's not”

“Relax dude, I’m just teasing” Ash giggled “Anyways, yeah they're still asleep. We checked on them before leaving the hotel.”

“Oh well. Their loss, and your win!” Michael said, his tone changing back into what sounded like a cheerful tour guide “Here, I brought you these”

“What’s this?” Clemont asked as the two took the cups. Inside was a fizzing brown liquid, and as far as they could tell it didn’t smell of anything

“It’s a drink we make for the festival. Well one of two” Michael said with a chuckle “We give that drink to a kid, and we’d end up in jail, trust me”

“Oh, it's alcohol?” Ash muttered, looking at it with a frown

“You could say that, yes” Michael said with a grin

“I’m not really a booze guy” Ash muttered as he swirled the cup “My mom was a bit of a…. Hard-ass when it came to that”

“Oh come on Ash” Clemont said with a giggle “Your mom’s in another region!” 

“And she has a Psychic-Type Pokemon that practically knows my every move before I make it!” Ash retorted, “You don’t fuck with Mimey, Clemont.” 

“Just drink it.” Clemont gave him a look. “It’s one glass. It's not like you're gonna pass out the moment you drink it”

“Alright alright, I’m drinking the thing. If you do it at the same time” Ash said, jabbing his friend with his finger before downing the glass in one gulp. Clemont did the same. Bottoms up, the two gasped for air as the last of the drink passed their lips and went down their throat. 

“Gyah! That’s strong!” they gasped in unison. The thing burned on its way down, as if they had swallowed boiling water instead of a cold glass of homemade beer.

“Yeah, it feels strong on the way down” Michael said, putting his arms around the pair’s shoulders “But trust me, when it hits your gut, it feels amazing”

Ash blinked as the drink did that, he felt heat run up through his body to his face, as his cheeks went a bit red. A weird feeling rang out through his body, as if was both standing yet laying in a big pile of fluffy pillows at the same time. His skin began to tingle lightly, as if someone was running a light brush over it.

“Woah” Clemont gasped, his cheeks equally red as he dropped the cup “That’s… something”

“Feels nice, right?” Michael asked the two, leading them a bit towards the center of town. 

“Strangely, yeah it does feel nice.” Ash admitted, “I feel all… warm and fuzzy inside.” 

“Yeah, it's the trick of one of the ingredients” Michael said as he led the two to a rather large plaza.

It was a large square, made of shined paved stones with an enormous gold and bronze fountain in the center. Trees filled with berries of all kinds were littered around the edges. Stone benches were carved onto the ground, and were currently all occupied by kids, eating candy and drinking from cups with steaming liquids.

Strangely, unlike the rest of the town, there were no stands, no games or people selling food. It seemed strangely empty.

“Hehe, w-what’s with this spot?” Ash giggled a bit, stumbling as he walked closer. 

“Y-Yeah… R-Really empty” Clemont muttered, almost falling on his face if it wasn’t for Michael holding him tight. 

“This is the town square” Michael explained as he led the two closer to the center. As they got closer they realised it wasn’t full. Or being used at all. The shimmering bronze bottom of the fountain was bone dry.

“S-Seems more like a ghost town if you ask me.” Ash said, lazily looking around, “I mean where are all the *hic* f-fuckin’ sheilas at, eh?” 

“A-Ash are you *hic* cheating on me?” Clemont giggled, “D-Don’t do that to meh. Th-Those sheilas aren’t for you!” 

“Oh? You two dating?” Michael asked as he led them to the fountain

“Hehe, not really *hic*” Ash giggled “I-I admit we’ve been thinking about it for a while though”

“Interesting” Michael said with a grin as he stepped into the fountain, “Come on you two”

“Wh-who are you?” Ash stuttered, seemingly forgetting who Michael was in his drunkenness, “Wh-Why are you telling me what to do?” 

“Heh, I’m your friend. And you trust me” Michael said, tugging the two along.

“Y-Your our friend” Ash repeated, a bit more slowly than his usual speech pattern

“A-And we trust you…” Clemont said right afterwards.

“That’s right.” Michael said, the corners of his lips curling up into a smirk, as he led the two to the podium at the center of the fountain.

“H-Hey Clem?” Ash muttered as their guide pulled a hidden staircase from the side of the podium “D-Don’t these things usually have sta-*hic* statues or something like that on the top?”

“They do, but we have a better use for this one.” Michael stated.

The two intoxicated young men just looked ahead, blinking as if thinking was starting to become difficult.

“Seems it's starting to take effect. You two really can’t stand drugs” he joked as he led the two up.

“Can’t….stand….” Ash repeated slowly as he stood at the podium, looking out over the entire town. It seemed that whatever they were doing was a lot more interesting to the residents than their carnie games or their discussions. People were starting to fill into the square, abandoning the festivities for the drunkards on the fountain.

“Well then, I think it's time we get things started” Michael said, turning away from the two and looking at the crowd “Right! I hope you all had a good time so far! But now it's time for the main event!”

“M-Main event?” Ash muttered, his vision going a little woozy, and he could barely stand up. He looked over to Clemont, and saw that he wasn’t doing much better. While his mind was fuzzy, he could tell that something was very very wrong, but he had neither the energy nor the mind power to fix the situation.

“Wait, weren’t there four of them!?” someone from the crowd shouted

“Yes, but sadly the two are still sleeping” Michael said, with a series of boos coming from the audience. “I know I know, but remember, we only need two to fulfill this month’s order.”

“We’ll have to deal with them tomorrow then” another person said from the crowd. Their tone was confusing to the two trainers. Gone was the joyful and cheery voices of the festival. Instead, the villagers sounded cold, aggressive, and unsympathetic. They seemed to encourage their plights, and weren’t interested in lifting a finger to help them. 

“Still, we’ve got very lucky with these two” Michael said as he turned around to look at them. The kindness in his face was gone, instead there was the look of a Mightenya about to dig into a fresh kill “We’ve got a big order from one of the older families for a couple of extra rares.”

“W-What are you t-talking about?” Ash said, struggling to move his arms. 

“Oh Ash” the guy said as he walked closer to the pair, pulling a bottle from his jacket “You haven’t figured it out?”

“F-Figured it out?” Ash repeated, his head hurting a bit

“Right, you can’t actually think at the moment” Michael said with a low chuckle “That’s the drugs doing their work. Well, I’d say an explanation is wasted on you.” he moved what he had pulled out from his jacket and showed it to them. It was a syringe with bright blue liquid “Now for your second dose”

“Second?” Ash stammered out as he saw the local stick the needle into his arm, right through the bodysuit the young trainer was wearing over his skin. As soon as the liquid hit his veins, he felt funny. The drug acted quickly, reacting with his blood instantaneously, and causing him to grow delirious. His vision became extremely hazy, and lights became obscenely bright to him. He was already struggling to think, and as the needle was pulled out of his arm, the full dose of the drug delivered to the trainer, his mind was nearly destroyed. Struggling, he watched as Michael moved to Clemont, who was handling this worse than Ash was, and gave him the second dose as well. While Ash had been able to keep himself awake, as soon as Clemont received his dose, he fell unconscious, the drug completely overpowering him. 

“Well that’s something, first time in a while they’ve passed out” Michael said with a chuckle. Ash struggled to move again, but his eyes did go wide as he looked at Clemont.

His friend’s bright yellow, blonde hair was shifting before his very eyes. It slowly became coal black, with a sheen not normally seen in humans. It started as a small piece on top of his head, but it spread like fire, turning every hair into the black. But it didn’t stop at his hair, it began to spread to his skin.

“W-W-What the h-hell?” Ash stammered out, “Wh-What’s going on? What’s h-hapenning t-to him?” 

“He’s turning into our next paycheck,” Michael said as Clemont shivered as he began to shrink, as fur spread further and further down his body. His entire face was coated in black fur, with red markings on his forehead. “Don't be jealous, you're gonna start changing soon. I’m a little surprised you haven’t yet.” 

Ash shivered as he heard that, his ears feeling as if someone was pushing them into his head

“Never mind, you're starting!” Michael said with a smile as he took a step back

“W-Why…..a-are you doing….” Ash wasn’t able to finish the sentence as he felt a tingle all over his body, as light brown fur began to sprout from his skin. It spread fast, soon his entire arm was coated in it

“Well, better get these off” Michael said as he pulled a knife and slashed the suit Ash was wearing, leaving him in just his underpants in front of everyone. 

But the transforming young man didn’t really care, he was more focused on his transforming body and of his friends.

Speaking of Clemont, he was already around the size of his sister, his clothes being a huge tent over him. One of his hands was still visible, and Ash watched as it slowly shifted into a small, three toed paw.

Michael walked over to the pile and stuck his hands inside, pulling out a small kitten like pokemon from it. He turned so that Ash could see, and the transforming trainer gasped as he saw that the pokemon still had Clemont’s hairstyle in the fur on top of his head.

“I think that might be the fastest transformation we’ve had in years” Michael said with a laugh. “Your friend makes a cute Litten, don’t you think?”

Ash’s eyes went wide as he heard the crowd laugh and he turned to look at them. His eyes scanned the entire crowd, seeing no single trace of pity or shame at what they were doing.

Not from a human anyways.

As he looked over the crowd, his eyes caught a figure behind the crowd. One that shimmered bright green. It was the same shiny Stantler that had attempted to scare them off town yesterday. It glowed a bright blue and Ash could hear a whisper in his head

I’m sorry it said in his head, through psychic I promise you, no one else will fall to this town. But I’m sorry I couldn’t save you

“Nr-Nota…. Your faultchu” Ash stammered out as white fur began to cover his stomach and hands, and his new ears popped out of his head, twitching as the wind hit them.

“What did you say?” Michael asked, still holding Clemont, who blinked as he woke up

“Lit?” he meowed, yawning and stretching his legs

“N-Nochu” Ash blinked as his words twisted themselves. His eyes went wide as he quickly began to shrink. His underpants fell off as he reached a height barely above Michael’s knee and he looked over his new body.

He was a chubby, soft looking mouse-like pokemon with a soft brown coat of fur and white on his belly and his paws. His bottom paws were quite big in fact, and his top ones were small, almost nub like. Before he could say anything else, he felt a strong tug on his tailbone

“RAI!” he squealed as he felt his new tail be pulled out of his rear. It was a thin black wire like thing, with a big, yellow soft thunderbolt shaped bit at the end, that he couldn’t get to touch the ground. It floated a few inches above it.

“Heh, you turned out pretty well too, Raichu” Michael said as he grabbed the newly created pokemon, lifting him up.

Ash frowned and tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he still couldn’t move. Instead he just growled as Michael showed him and Clemont to the crowd

“We’ve got a sale here that’s gonna get us set for the next three years!” Michael cheered, getting a giant whoop from the crowd

“Raichu rai rai!” Ash spat at the crowd, growling at them as he again tried to wiggle out of Michael’s grip. 

“Oh, Pancakes is being a rowdy chu” Michael quipped “Better get them ready for their new owner”

Pancakes!? Ash thought What the hell is he thinking calling me that!?

Before he could get an answer, another member of the town came up with two pokeballs in hand. Ash’s eyes followed them as they slowly approached the two transformed mons and the person holding them.

He got a good look at them and frowned. Those weren’t regular pokeballs. These things were painted a dark purple with a spiral pattern on the bottom half of the ball. On top a pair of round petrutions like those seen on a Master Ball poked out. Michael nodded and the guy tapped the Litten that used to be Clemont on the head. The ball popped open and sucked Clemont inside, showing another difference. The beam was a bright yellow. The ball pinged as the Litten was caught, but the button began to pulse lightly.

“Heh” Michael muttered as the guy with the ball brought it close to Ash “Bye Pancakes. It was a pleasure meeting you”

“RAI-” Ash shouted as the ball tapped his head and it popped open. His entire body tingled as he was sucked inside. It didn’t hurt or anything like that, it more felt like he was being tickled lightly. 

He closed his eyes as he felt the tickle run over his entire newly transformed body. Soon it stopped and he opened them again.

He was in what looked a great white void with a pillow next to him and what looked like a bowl of water

“So this is what pokeballs look like?” he said, hearing his new voice, which was a lot squeakier than his old one. The place seemed to go on infinitely “Guess I know why Pikachu doesn't like these…..” he sighted and sat down on the cushion, his tail moving around him as he laid his head in his paws.

Before he could think anything else, he felt something tingle at the top of his head. He looked up and around, but he couldn’t see the source. But that didn’t help the sensation, which grew stronger and stronger.

“W-What’s happening” he groaned as the tingle turned into a headache.

Beginning hypno program a voice rang out from nowhere, making Ash look around again

“Who said tha-GAH!” Ash cried as the headache turned into a splitting migraine. 

Forget the voice hissed into his new sensitive ears

“W-What? What are you ta-GYAH!” he cried again as he felt another sharp smack against his skull. It felt like someone was smacking against his head with a thin needle.

Head is too full. Good pokemon have their minds empty, the voice repeated as the smacking continued. The newly transformed Alolan Raichu covered the back of his head in a vain attempt to stop the picking. But it did nothing, the needle kept pushing hard into his skull, despite his puffy paws covering it.

Good pokemon were never human it said as the needle kept pounding, making him cry out You are not Ash Ketchum

“S-Shut up!” the Raichu shouted “You t-took my body, but you’re no-AGH!” he shouted as he felt the needle again. This time it was less painful, and more numbing. As if the pain had gone beyond the point of actual pain. It just felt like dull pressure at this point, and the Raichu didn’t like it.

He stumbled over, falling flat onto the pillow with a huff, as the throbbing kept going, the pressure growing stronger and stronger.

“S-Stop it!” he cried, growling as sparks flew from his cheeks, a new instinctual defense mechanism. However, the electricity did nothing to stop the push.

You must be empty to receive your new life the voice whispered

“I don’t want a new life!” Ash screamed as he tried to get up, however he still wasn’t used to his new limbs.

The pressure just kept getting stronger and stronger, the needle feeling like it was going in deeper and deeper until.

The Raichu gasped as he felt a slight tinge of pain, and suddenly all the pressure disappeared. And more. 

It felt like something else was leaking out too. He sluggishly reached back and felt the area, but felt nothing but his own fur.

“Wha…” he muttered, but that was as much as he could say before he blinked, his head feeling lighter. “W-What was I saying?” he muttered, scratching his head as it felt lighter and clearer. 

You are a Raichu the voice whispered again, but this time he didn’t reject it, he nodded along with it, looking down at his paws

“I am a Raichu”

You have always been a rare Alolan Raichu. You have never been anything else

“I have always been an Alolan Raichu” the former human repeated, his eyes dull as memories of his old life leaked out “I have never been anything else…”

You are named Pancakes the voice continued You have never had another name

“I am named….” he twitched for a second. His name was a memory a bit too ingrained “N-No… That’s no...Gaah” he moaned as he felt the pressure hit the back of his head again, a dopey smile on his face as he felt more hissing out of his brain “Pancakes. I have never had another name”

You lived in Alola before you were caught and sold to your new owner. You can’t wait to meet them and serve them as good loyal pokemon

“I lived in Alola before I was caught and sold to my new owner” the newly minted Pancakes accepted, his mind having been changed too much to refuse the new memories that began to pour in. Memories of being a Pichu, then a Pikachu. Of sneaking into restaurants on Melemele Island and gouging himself with nothing but pancakes, then getting caught after one of his post-evolution raids and being told he was going to be taken to a very nice home in a far away region. His eyes turned a little duller as he stared ahead, his brain reforming around his new thoughts.

His stance relaxed, his paws letting go of the tension they had as knowledge of his body flooded into his body, as knowledge of humans was leeched out. His tail began floating right below him and he sat on it, floating a few feet above the ground as more and more Raichu knowledge was poured into him.

And that was how he spent the next eight hours, sitting there with the knowledge of humanity leaching out and being replaced by the knowledge of an obidient pet pokemon. Soon though, his body began to tingle and felt as if he was being tickled. His eyes went wide as he realized exactly what was happening and he squeaked in joy. It was time to meet his master!

Indeed, everything began to go red as he was converted into energy and he felt himself flying out of his pokeball.

“Rai!” he chirped as he came out of the ball, looking around with curiosity shining in his bright blue eyes.

He was in a big room, with lots of glittering golden decorations, fancy looking couches and huge paintings.

“Ooooo! He’s adorable!” he heard a boy squeak behind him. Pancakes turned around and smiled as he saw three humans standing in front of him.

The one furthest back was an older human with white head fur and a fancy red suit. Closer was a human with long blonde hair and a red bow on it. 

“Rai?” he asked, looking at that one. He thought it was a girl. Telling with humans was weird, especially with the young ones. He shrugged and looked at the closest one. That one had short brown hair, and a pair of glasses. “Raichu!” Pancakes chirped, waving at the three.

“Oh Arceus…. He’s adorable!” the one with glasses, a boy Pancakes guessed, squealed. He reached over and rubbed the spiky fur on the Riachu’s head. 

“Chuuuuu!” he moaned, leaning into the petting with a big smile on his face

“Glad you like him, Robert” the older human said “He’s yours”

“Rai?” Pancakes blinked, looking at the smaller human before a big smile broke on his face, throwing himself at the arm of his new master, hugging it tightly “Chu! Rai Raichu!” he squealed in happiness. He’s finally met his master

“Aw, I think he likes me” Robert said, wiggling his arm free and gently picking up his new Pokemon “Hi Pancakes! Nice to meet you!” “Raichu!” Pancakes chirped, waving at his Master.

“Aw he’s a lot more cheerful than mine” the girl muttered. Curious, Pancakes looked over, seeing that the girl was holding another pokemon. 

It was a small Litten, who seemed to be more interested in licking himself clean than paying any attention to his master. 

“Rai!” Pancakes chirped and waved at the Litten.

“....Lit” the cat pokemon meowed, giving Pancakes a small glance before returning to his important cleaning.

“Don’t worry Elisabeth” the older human said, patting her shoulders “Suma will warm up to you”

“If you say so” the girl said, shaking her head and walking away. Pancakes just shrugged and turned to his master, a big grin on his face

“Yeah I agree with you, Pancakes” Robert said with a smile, as if he could read his pokemon’s mind “Let her work out the issues with her Litten on her own. Come on I’ll show ya around the house! That sounds fun?”

“Rai!” Pancakes said with a nod and a big smile. His master grinned and started walking, the Alolan Raichu still in his arms, and started talking about all the stuff.

As the two walked around the room, Pancakes overheard something on that weird glowing box humans liked using so much.

“And it has been confirmed that indeed, the small town of Deerfield has been totally destroyed. As far as authorities can tell, no one has been seriously hurt, but the town has been demolished. According to the residents, it seems a massive stampede of Stantler rushed into the town after a local festival….” 

“Don’t mind the news Pancakes” Robert said as he walked out of the room and started showing him some more paintings “Grandpa likes watching boring stuff like that. Anyways, this one is a painting off…”

Pancakes wasn’t really paying attention. He was just happy to finally be with his new master. He seemed really nice so far, and he certainly didn’t look boring!

All in all, the Raichu was happy with his new life. Even if he didn’t quite know just how new it really was.

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[gurutrends]

Man disappears at the edge of a lake and reappears a year later: the mystery remains

A mysterious disappearance takes place in South Deerfield, Massachusetts (United States) in 1978. A man goes alone to practice cross-country skiing… He disappears and doesn’t return until 15 months later. In February 1978, while snow falls on South Deerfield and nature is adorned with white, Steven Kubacki, a young 24 year old man sets off on a beautiful ski trip on the shores of frozen Lake…