#storytime with ron

[slocum-dodson]

How badly do you want these cookies?

I made a batch of cookies today. nothing special, just normal dried mutfruit oatmeal cookies. I sat them in a bowl and approached two settlers with a knife. I placed the knife between the two of them and said.

"How badly do you want these cookies?"

I smiled and both men looked at the knife. One man, Brave Henderson was the first to react, socking Wise Anthony in the jaw with a brick-breaking right hook. Wise Anthony was on the ground as Brave Henderson made a draw for the knife, but he brought his newfound enemy to it first.

Wise Anthony seized the blade and slashed open Brave Henderson's tendon. The man screamed and screamed and his screams only became wet when Wise Anthony, his face drenched with his own nose blood sunk the knife into his throat.

I had Wise Anthony executed by the Firing squad.

{Preston Hated That}

I then handed the bowl of cookies to the street children (and Archie) of Sanctuary Hills.

It was the only right thing to do, friends.

[theworldoffandoming]

2: Oar - Rurutia

Hmm... upon reading the lyrics carefully it's pretty sad dskjgns no surprise there I guess. It's kind of fitting though. I'd tagged it as Tsuname and Ril'siiya. It kind of echoes Tsuname's sentiments that maybe he's too much and Ril'siiya should row away from him, or he has to before he swallows her up. That's kind of the theme of the song anyway. It has a kind of a bleak ending of the two people in the song separating, but perhaps story-wise this more represents what he thinks is going to happen. :)

99: still feel. - half•alive

half•alive in general has a lot of songs that vibe like Ron, and still feel is no exception. Thematically, Ron kind of has a backdrop of death being around the corner, especially towards the end when the Guardians are being hunted. So this is kind of like 'despite this darkness all around me, I still feel alive' so it's kind of a sort of victory over that, whether it's own personal darkness or the external darkness of the hunters closing in. So that's kind of the theme, sort of like 'hah' almost. XD Been a while since I've thought about him.

[bridenore]

HD fic recs : Muggle Life (part 2)

Here are a few recs in which either Harry or Draco is living a muggle life. This is part two of three and focuses on 30k to 75k words fics. Listed in alphabetical order, as always.

Black Holes and Revelations by @femmequixotic [38k]

What was meant to be an unexpected one-off in the loo of a Camden bar turns into something rather different, much to Harry and Draco’s surprise.

Call Me, Won’t You? by @aelys-althea [38k]

Draco’s sentence seemed a never-ending drag of groundhog days and melancholy. Ten years of isolation as a means of punishment hadn’t sounded nearly as bad as the threat of Azkaban, but he hadn’t considered just what that entailed.

Phone call after phone call invariably ended with a sigh and a extended series of beeps. Until one call, one unexpected call, hauled Draco from his monotony and back to life for the first time in years.

A day in your life byshushu_yaoi_lj / @orange-peony [48k]

Harry sees it straight away, the white trail of the comet so bright despite the lights of all the buildings surrounding him.

He feels a lump in his throat as he stops and stares at the moonless sky.

Is he supposed to make a wish or a prayer?

He checks that no one is looking his way and then he takes his wand and points it at the bright comet in the sky.

He wishes to feel whole again.

To feel happy and not so bloody lonely all the time.

He wishes for a new life.

Every You, Every Me by daftfear [49k]

I thought I had already hit the lowest point in my life, but as the universe seems intent on proving, I was wrong. The only thing that could possibly make this worse is Potter. And more Muggles.

Everybody Hates a Tourist by @wolfpants [51k]

On a stag do in sunny Brighton with the Gryffindor lads, the last person Harry expects to run into is Draco Malfoy. After a glimpse of Malfoy’s Muggle life in Britain’s gay capital, Harry’s curiosity gets the better of him and he finds himself returning to the seaside again and again, drawn to the city, drawn to this new version of Malfoy that Harry barely recognises from school. Meanwhile, Draco’s just trying to live his big and best queer life: working for the weekend, chasing hot men, getting lost in Brighton’s nightlife, and making friends with the neighbourhood cats. Why does his former school rival and crush have to show up and spoil everything?

Expecting to Fly by @coriesocks​ [45k]

While at university in America, Harry plans a cross-country trip to get laid. He doesn’t count on having to take this trip with Draco Malfoy.

Fawning Over You by toxik_angel [39k]

Harry’s not sure which would be worse: Ron and Hermione finding out he buys Draco Malfoy’s premium pornography and an extra gift off his wishlist every week, or Draco Malfoy finding out Harry has a horrible, distracting, embarrassing crush on him. Alt title: Whore-ton Hears a Harry.

The Full Four Seasons by @ravenclawsquill [49k]

Draco Malfoy just wants a quiet life. He has a successful business, a lovely wife, and a delightfully horrible circle of friends. He’s fine. Or, he was fine until Harry Potter thundered into his life with all the subtlety of a blast-ended skrewt and turned everything on its head. Now he’s beginning to wonder if ‘fine’ is enough, after all.

Here’s The Pencil, Make It Work by ignatiustrout [49k]

Harry thinks “Why is Malfoy working in a coffee shop in muggle London?” is a much simpler question than, “Are you going to accept that auror offer and, if you don’t, what will you do?”

Hidden in Plain Sight by momatu [56k]

Set four years after the Battle of Hogwarts, three years after Draco was abducted by person or persons unknown. Draco is now living in a small Muggle community and working in a library with no idea the Wizarding World exists, until one day, a bloke with a mop of just-shagged black hair comes in for storytime with a little boy to get out of the rain.

Highly (in)Compatible by gracie137 [37k]

Draco’s been shagging The Prat Who Lived on and off for a few months when his soul mark starts to change. Draco’s had to accept a lot of adjustments to his life, but accepting that Harry Potter could be his soulmate is one step too far. It can’t be true? Can it?

I Won’t Let You Fall Apart by @xanthippe74 [49k]

Harry has spent the year after the war staying out of the public eye, dodging political battles, and standing firm against pressure from his friends. But he has a secret plan to get away from it all. He just needs to testify at one more Death Eater trial: Draco Malfoy’s.

Little does Harry know what his act of compassion will cost him—and Malfoy.

The Miseducation of Draco Malfoy by @magpiefngrl [23k]

Zacharias Smith writes a tell-all about the D.A. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are not happy about it.

Modern Love by @tackytigerfic [61k]

Harry Potter, of all people, knows that life isn’t always fair. And no one gets to be happy all of the time. But surely there’s something more—something better—than a rubbish Ministry job, and a lonely old house, and that feeling that everyone out there is doing a better job of living than Harry is.

And it really doesn’t seem fair that Draco Malfoy is back in Harry’s life, all of a sudden, and even though he’s wandless, and living with Muggles, and making his mother cry with his lifestyle choices, he’s happy. So what’s he doing right, that Harry isn’t?

Because things don’t really change, do they? And if Harry can’t be happy, he’ll settle for a good night’s sleep, some posh antiques, and the opportunity to find out what Malfoy has been up to for all these years.

And that’s what starts it all.

Morning Mr Devil, Come Say Farewell to Your Dreams by @thisbloodycat [32k]

Nothing stays the same after a war. Except for lack of luck, that much Draco has noticed.

Orion in the Sky by space_wingding [30k]

Draco Malfoy owns a bookshop in the Lake District. He’s also cursed. Enter: Harry Potter.

Railway lands by Maelipstick [65k]

Draco finds his own way to cope with being a failed Death Eater at Voldemort’s headquarters. Voldemort finds a way to destroy the wizarding world even after his death. Harry is trying to hold the world together while his mind quietly comes apart.

Warnings for graphic drug use, depression and suicidal ideation, Draco being an arsehole, sex work, criminality, non-con sexual situations, shifting POVs, ofc werewolves, self neglect and self harm, general unprettiness, unplanned parenthood and references to other works of fiction.

Seven Days in June by fourth_rose [46k]

The war is over, the survivors are moving on. The hero is finally   allowed to go on leave – and meets an old enemy, who is working in a   Muggle profession in a city without magic.

Seven Days in June - the DVD extras by fourth_rose [9k]

Extras for my Harry/Draco fic “Seven Days in June” (post-Hogwarts,   written before book 7) - missing scenes, little future ficlets,   alternate POVs, and so on.

Soldier’s Eyes by Eruditewitch [31k]

Almost six years after Voldemort falls, Harry Potter goes missing. No one can find him, until chance would have Draco Malfoy thrust right in his path, picking up shattered pieces while trying to keep himself together.

Some Kind of Wonderful by taradiane [34k]

Harry is adrift without an anchor after the prophecy that shaped the first eighteen years of his life is fulfilled. Restless and bored, and wanting to stop Hermione from nagging him about wasted opportunities, he decides to spend his time volunteering at a Muggle homeless shelter…then along comes Malfoy, with an anchor of his own that he needs help carrying.

Sweet Creature by @whineosaur [63k]

Harry loves his sheep, his dogs, the tranquil countryside farm he’s turned into a home. He doesn’t need Draco Malfoy screwing it all up. But, god, what else is he supposed to do about Draco Malfoy sleeping with a lamb in his bed?

Take A Chance On Me by mintaminta [41k]

There’s a DJ on RareFM with a secret.

Or: the one with all the ABBA in it.

Their Kind of Forever by furiosity [34k]

The final part of Harry’s Auror training forces him to walk the line between truth and lie, between the wizarding world and the Muggle world, between the life he thought he’d have and the disappointing reality. And through it all, he finds unexpected solace in a most unlikely person’s company.

This Life Now by @nerdherderette [38k]

This close up, Draco can see the differences that have occurred over the years. Harry’s hair is longer, although it’s as unruly as ever; his forearms are well-muscled and decorated with ink; and there are small lines by his eyes that look like they would crinkle if he were smiling. Which, at this moment, he most definitely is not. He looks like he’s worn the same clothes for three days and just rolled out of bed, yet Harry’s so unfairly gorgeous it makes Draco’s heart ache.

“What do you want, Draco?” Harry asks, his voice resigned.

The question snaps Draco out of his reverie. “A divorce,” he proclaims as he opens his bag.

When It Alteration Finds by momatu [55k]

After the war, Harry left most of the Wizarding world behind and built a new life for himself in the Channel Islands. He opened a bakery and is happy with his life. Draco is a fiction author who writes under a penname, and he’s currently suffering from writer’s block. His agent suggests he try writing in a new environment and rents a cottage in the Channel Islands for him

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did!

[rondoodle]

https://a.co/d/3hKV0cF

🌾 Discover the Joy of the Farm with "Farm Friends and Fun Facts" by Ron Doodle! 🐄

Hello, wonderful families! 🌟 I’m Ron Doodle, and I’m thrilled to share my new children’s ebook, "Farm Friends and Fun Facts"—a delightful journey through the farm that your little ones will love!

👩‍🌾 Inside, you’ll find:

🐑 Fluffy sheep and their wooly wonders

🐱 Clever barn cats keeping pesky rodents at bay

🐐 Playful goats climbing and leaping with joy

🐖 Smiling pigs rolling in the mud and more!

Each page is bursting with vibrant illustrations and fun facts that make learning about farm life a joyous adventure. 🌟✨

Why you’ll love it:

🌼 Engaging and colorful artwork that brings the farm to life

📚 Simple, fun facts that make learning enjoyable

🐥 A perfect read for bedtime or storytime

Grab your copy now and bring the farm home! 🎉

Thank you for your support! I hope you and your children have a blast meeting all our farm friends. Feel free to share this with fellow parents and caregivers who might enjoy a fun and educational book for their kids! 🐾💕

[scentedluminarysoul]

So I watched the German ESC entry. It's so bad, yikes. What is the music style supposed to be? Looks like metal, but it sure ain't.

Oh, and don't think Germany is some queer paradise of gender diverse/nonconforminh people. It's not. It's super bad here. The CDU/CSU (party of Merkel, governed for 16 years) just met with Ron DeSantis and speak fondly of him and also want to ban Drag storytime. So yeah. Don't believe Germany's propaganda of being tolerant and accepting and shit.

[ao3feed-tomarry-harrymort]

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother

by apocalypseWallflower

These are all the times that Harry Potter met Voldemort but hated him, and the time they fell in love.

OR

Set to the backdrop of someone who has never seen nor interacted with the show/or otherwise “How I Met Your Mother” but still took very light inspiration from the memes.

Words: 5915, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Harry Potter, Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Hermione Granger, Original Child Character(s), Minor Characters

Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy/Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Hannah Abbott/Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter & his children, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Sort Of, Sane Voldemort (Harry Potter), Parent Voldemort (Harry Potter), Parent Harry Potter, Parenthood, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry Potter Next Generation, Not So Evil Voldemort (Harry Potter), Mentioned Pureblood Supremacy, Mpreg, Implied Mpreg, Abridged Story Telling, Making Their World a Less Shitty Place, Voldemort is a Good Parent, Harry Potter is a Good Parent, Parselmouths & Parseltongue (Harry Potter), Parselmouth Harry Potter, Light Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Albus Dumbledore Dies Off-Screen, Storytime With The Kids, Harry Potter is a Himbo, Harry Potter is a Trophy Husband, Age Difference, No underage

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48268984

[carolynsart]

Mr. Twisty's Storytime Adventures - Ep 34 - Dragon Stones - Kids - Fanta...

Ever felt like you couldn’t sit still during a grown-up visit, just itching for something exciting to happen? That’s exactly where this week’s magical tale begins! Join Lizzie and her brother Ron on what starts as a slow autumn day visiting their aunt… until they discover a hidden path that leads deep into the forest. There, they find a secluded lake, perfect for skipping stones—but suddenly, the stones come flying right back! Could something fantastical be lurking beneath the water? Or are these stones leading to a magical mystery? 🐉✨ This week’s episode is a *fantasy adventure**, designed to captivate young imaginations with wonder and suspense. But here’s what makes *Mr. Twisty’s Storytime Adventures special: each episode is unique! Every Friday, we feature a brand-new story by an independent author, spanning genres from fantasy to friendship, and from silly to heartfelt. Each story brings something different, with Mr. Twisty delivering the fun, warmth, and giggles that make reading an unforgettable journey!

[dawgland]

Alright, Dawg Pound, gather 'round. It's storytime with a twist of humility and a dash of "oh s**t, did we really just do that?" 😅 Picture this: We're all hyped up, talking a big game against the Broncos. I mean, we were throwing shade like it was sunny in Cleveland for once. Our confidence? Sky-high. Our trash talk? On point. Our comic book graphic? A masterpiece of mockery. We were ready to watch our Browns turn those Broncos into glue. 🐴➡️🪣 But then, the universe said, "Hold my beer." The Browns lost. 29-12. 🤦🏾‍♂️ Ouch. That's not just a defeat; that's a slap in the face with a wet fish. And guess who got blamed? Yep, yours truly. Apparently, my trash talk jinxed us. My bad, fam. 😬 So, as we gear up against the LA Rams on December 3rd, I'm taking a different approach. Inspired by the legendary Ron Burgundy, I'm here to say, "Stay Classy, Dawg Pound." That's right. No jinxes, no curses, just good old-fashioned class. 🎩🍷 But let's be real. Staying classy doesn't mean we can't have a little fun. We're still the Dawg Pound, after all. We'll cheer, we'll roar, and we'll support our Browns like nobody's business. But maybe, just maybe, we'll avoid any cosmic karma that comes from talking too much s**t. 😏 So, here's to a game where we let our play do the talking and our cheers shake the stands. To the LA Rams, we say, "Good luck, but not too much." And to the Dawg Pound, "Stay Classy," because apparently, the universe is listening. And to anyone who still thinks the loss was my fault... well, let's just say I'm keeping it classy and biting my tongue. For now. 😉 And just when you thought I'd gone all soft and sophisticated on you... Nah, screw that. Wasn't that some classy-a** s**t you just read?!! 🤣🍻 #StayClassyDawgPound #NoJinxZone #anchorman #ronburgundy #GoBrowns 🏈🐶👊

[slocum-dodson]

When I sit down, I'll tell you a story about The Boy With All The Skin.

Once, long ago. Long Before atomic fire choke slammed the planet. Folks didn't have skin.

That might sound farfetched, but it's true.

I say this to the youth of Diamond City. The green jewel of the Commonwealth.

People lived in the dark to protect their exposed flesh from the sun, and from the water, and from all the secrets that make men do evil.

Then along came a boy. The boy with all the skin. More skin than even he knew what to do with. So, the boy fashioned for his fellows whole sets of suits made of skin. It's even said he made a skin suit or four for the ghouls.

I take a deep jab of Psycho. *Preston Disliked that*. "And do you know who that boy was? That boy was me. So you all better be grateful that I gifted the world with skin."

---

I am quickly escorted offstage by Diamond City Security.

[maqaronnie]

TWITCH STREAMING REVIVAL!

BACK ON TWITCH STREAMING NOW SCHEDULED WITHIN EVERY FRIDAY TO SUNDAY!

you saw it right! Ron here is back on doing silly casual streams NOW WITH A NEW PNG AVATAR!

celebrating my revival with Casual Talk and Roblox gameplay; WITH A SPECIAL QnA SESSION DISCUSSING MY EXPERIENCES ON TIKTOK! (storytime, trivia, thoughts, and more)

SEPTEMBER 29 2023 8:30PM - 12:30PM (PST)

im so excited to finally revive my silly social circle, hope to chat with yall! MY TWITCH

[ron-do-i-get-to-sing-my-way]

Thinking back to last summer when a copy of “Music That You Can Dance To” turned up at my local record store in the middle of nowhere, Canada. I swear, seeing that record was a jump-scare, it was so fantastically unexpected. How did it get there? What’s the story?

Also, fun anecdote, I asked the record store guy if he ever came across any other Sparks records and he said “oh yeah, I think so, they’re like a 70s band right?” And I’m like “ah, uh, well, um, I gUeSs?” Like how do you describe Sparks in under 5 words to your local record store owner?

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 46 Review: 2 Theories About Jean Paul, Erica, and the Locket

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 | 3 }

{ Full Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

In this great house on Maljardin, evil lives, even amongst the dead, and the poison this evil spreads threatens Erica Desmond, who lies frozen in this cryocapsule until the day a scientific miracle returns her to the living and back into the arms of her husband Jean Paul Desmond, who has defied powers real and imagined to assure his wife’s return from beyond the veiled curtain of death. Strange happenings are forcing a decision that could doom Erica Desmond...forever. 

Hello and welcome back to my Garden of Evil, where today we will examine Jean Paul’s reaction to Dr. Alison Carr’s new discovery about her sister’s bloodied locket and two possible explanations of what it may say about Erica’s death and Jean Paul’s state of mind. I could do an entire recap of this episode if I wanted to, but I'd rather narrow the focus of this entry to the theories that have been floating around my head for a while (one since before I started this blog, in fact).

A brief summary of the important stuff that happens in this episode: Alison learns that the blood on the locket is human blood, type AB-, which leads her to conclude that it must be Erica’s, because both she and Erica have that rare blood type[1]. She also tests the poison found in the glass of wine that Holly drank from two episodes ago and finds that it’s not the missing cyanide, but an unknown poison of vegetable origin. Elizabeth defends herself to Matt, telling him that she has no motive to kill Holly, not even her inheritance--and, surprisingly, he believes her. And then Raxl and Quito steal the rabbit from Jean Paul’s room and stumble upon that wonderfully sinister skull, which will co-star with Jacques in Episode 47.

Jean Paul receives irrefutable proof that the locket found around the rabbit’s neck belonged to Erica.

Outside of those plot points, this episode focuses primarily on Jean Paul’s confusion over how a bloodied locket even ended up in the cryonics capsule with his beloved Erica to begin with. When Alison shows Jean Paul the blood sample under the microscope, he's skeptical at first and tries to convince her that she either bled on it or someone else somehow put her blood there to confuse him. I would say it boggles my mind how someone with an IQ of 187 like Jean Paul can conceive such a ridiculous theory, but, honestly, it doesn’t. The popularity of conspiracy theories and other misinformation in our time has convinced me that human beings of any intelligence level can trick themselves into believing anything, no matter how patently absurd, if they want to believe it enough.

Subtle Dark Shadows reference?

I can’t tell how much of the next part where Jean Paul continues speculating about the locket is actually in the script and how much is just a particularly bad line flub. Listening to his dialogue, it sounds like a combination of both, but it’s hard to tell given that the character is supposed to be very confused already. Here’s an exact transcription of what he says:

Jean Paul: "Well, maybe I-I-I put the necklace on her neck without realizing it. I perhaps didn't put it on her when I put it in the capsule. It could have happened that way very easily. You see, I had thought I had. You didn't see me do it, did you, Raxl?" Raxl: "No." Jean Paul: "Quito, did you?" Quito: *shakes head* Jean Paul: "Well, there you are. You see? She could have cut her finger a while before she died, and so the blood got on the locket, and maybe I put the locket in the, uh, dresser drawer, and it was left there, and in my grief I didn't know what I was doing and I gave her another piece of jewelry which I put around her neck. Don't you think that probably is what has happened?"

Vangie isn’t convinced of any of these theories, and neither is Raxl. The latter believes that the locket appeared because of evil, “slimy like a snake, ugly like a black rabbit.” (WTF? The rabbit is adorable!) Jean Paul accuses Vangie of suspecting him, but she insists she doesn’t. Of course, he doesn’t believe her and he takes out his anger by breaking Alison’s microscope in half, throwing it to the ground, and accusing Erica of mocking him.

In the next scene, he ruminates in his room over the likelihood that he killed Erica, intentionally or otherwise:

Could I have killed my Erica? Could I have slain my love? That's impossible! Oh, you would like it, Jacques Eloi des Mondes, my bloody murdering ancestor. If it was so, how you would rejoice! But then, if I didn't put the locket in the cryocapsule with Erica as I thought, what other things that I believe as facts--things which are part of my life and experience--may be no more than creeping, malicious, lying fancies? Perhaps I didn't love my Erica at all. Perhaps I hated her!

Jean Paul pondering whether he truly loved Erica.

Getting dramatic!

Later, while lying on his bed in shirtsleeves, he realizes that he genuinely loved her, but that his memory is still faulty:

Jean Paul: "I loved her. I remember how I loved her. There was no world but the world outside, and then there was another world and that was us. Oh, how I loved her, so good, so beautiful, but what happened at the end? I can't…was the necklace with Erica when she was sealed in the capsule? I can't remember."

But later on when he visits the Great Hall (inadvertently giving Raxl and Quito the opportunity to retrieve the Rabbit of Evil), Jacques torments him by implying that Jean Paul, like him, is a murderer. “Think there’s a chance you may have murdered your sweet Erica?” he asks. “That blood was very interesting, wasn’t it?”

Jacques hinting again that they’re the same man, or just that the apple doesn’t fall far from the proverbial tree? Or perhaps this is like that one line from Game of Thrones: “You can’t kill me, I’m a part of you now.”

Then we get this exchange which acts as a segue into the next scene:

Jacques: "So maybe you killed your little love before you put her in that tin coffin, hm? Maybe there is no pristine, pure body to revive. That's what's been on your mind all day, isn't it?"   Jean Paul: "Even if it has been, I certainly wouldn't tell you."   Jacques: "You can have no secrets from me, anyhow. You know, if you ever are thinking of murdering again…" Jean Paul: "I did not kill her!" Jacques: "All right!" *laughs* "But whether you did or not, you might want to kill someone else one of these days." Jean Paul:  "Good night." Jacques: "All right, run away, but you might find an example of my skill nearer than you know and sooner than you think."

After he storms out of the Great Hall, Raxl and Quito return, the latter carrying the rabbit. Before they can sacrifice the rabbit in an effort to rid the house of its evil, it jumps from Quito’s arms. While trying to catch it, he bumps his head into a painting of mysterious ancestor Étienne des Mondes and knocks it off the wall, revealing a hidden cupboard with a skull swinging from a rope through its jaws.

We’ll discuss this skull in the review for next episode, where it becomes the focus. For the rest of this review, however, let us turn our attention to two possible interpretations of the Jean Paul and Jacques scenes in this episode. My theories are as follows:

Theory #1: Jean Paul killed Erica and is living in denial

Jean Paul’s reaction to learning that his deceased wife’s blood is on the locket and especially Jacques’ comments about it seem to imply that Dan Forrest’s theory about murder may not be a red herring after all as Ian Martin would have had us believe. Remember that, although Jacques is evil and Martin’s episodes portrayed him as the Father of Lies, he and Jean Paul may or may not be the same man. That could mean anything from Jean Paul having a split personality to Jacques having transported himself forward in time to live as Jean Paul Desmond before the events of Episode 1, but I’ll save those ideas for another essay. The point is that Jacques seems to know Jean Paul as well as he knows himself, and as such knows things about him that the other characters don’t.

It’s possible even that Jacques has observed and interacted with Jean Paul since long before Jean Paul freed him by removing the silver pin from the conjure doll’s temple. Think back to Jacques’ introductory scene in the pilot, where he responds to Jean Paul’s proclamation of “on this island, from this moment forward, I am God” with “bravo.” He could speak through the portrait and even give characters visions before Jean Paul freed him! Also think of all the things he’s referenced that a man from the 17th century wouldn’t be aware of: merry-go-rounds, bus time tables, the figurative expression “jack up by the bootstraps,” and whatnot. Assuming Jacques is a spirit like he claims, he’s been observing and learning things on Maljardin for a very long time! Sure, he looked confused about that fountain pen in Episode 4, but perhaps that was only because he hadn’t had a chance to practice using one before Jean Paul set him free. If Jean Paul killed Erica, Jacques would know about it and may even have encouraged it by communicating with him through the portrait. There’s no indication that the scene in the pilot is the first time he made contact with his descendant. It could be the second time, the fifth, the tenth, the thousandth, or more.

Also note that the exact cause of Erica’s death is never made clear. Jean Paul claims in Episode 5 that she died of eclampsia, but the Lost Episode summary for Episode 47 from the CBC program log indicates that Dr. Menkin’s missing notes would have eventually revealed her to have “died attempting to gain eternal youth.” The latter could have meant anything from plastic surgery complications to swallowing gold à la Diane de Poitiers. It’s not even clear if the attempt at eternal youth is truly the cause of her death, just what she was doing when she died. This leaves the possibility of homicide open.

But did Jean Paul (or Dr. Menkin) intentionally kill her, or could it have been an unpremeditated, spur-of-the-moment decision? I believe the latter is more likely. Jean Paul seems genuinely confused by her death, and even by whether he loved or hated her. It’s possible he already wasn’t in his right mind before her death and may even have blacked out during it (although probably not because of possession, as he had not yet freed Jacques). Perhaps the artificial intelligence hinted at by the reference to W. Grey Walter’s “Imitation of Life” factored into this: for example, the implant inside Erica’s brain may have malfunctioned, causing her to become violent and attack Jean Paul and/or Dr. Menkin.

SPOILER WARNING FOR THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961)

Another thing to consider: Strange Paradise shares many plot points in common with the Roger Corman/Vincent Price movie The Pit and the Pendulum. In the film, we have (1) a husband whose wife recently died under mysterious circumstances, (2) whom he comes to suspect he accidentally murdered. (3) His doctor is living at the castle with him, when (4) a sibling of his deceased wife comes to investigate her death. Among the ghostly happenings in the house, (5) a portrait of the wife is slashed. Finally, (6) the husband goes mad and (7) is possessed by an evil lookalike ancestor, in this case his father. While I don’t think that we can accurately predict planned revelations in Strange Paradise using the events of a film written by someone unaffiliated with the show’s production, it is interesting to note that Vincent Price’s character accidentally buried his wife alive. This connects to the events of Episode 44, where Erica’s spirit possesses Holly and tells them to “let [her] out,” although in Erica’s case it’s more likely that she’s just been resurrected from death instead of being buried alive.

END SPOILERS

Theory #2: Jean Paul is imagining things

Another possibility is that he didn't kill Erica and is using the new (apparent) evidence to construct a false memory of killing her. Although most of us like to think of memory as infallible, numerous studies have proven that it's anything but. This can occur on a collective level, such as the famous Mandela effect where, prior to Nelson Mandela's actual death in 2013, many people misremembered him as having died in the 1980s. More often, however, individual people remember false versions of events from their own lives.

In the late 20th century, numerous psychological studies identified the way that even changing small details of a story--changing a stop sign to a yield sign, for example, or adding the detail of broken glass to the story of an accident--could alter a subject's memory of it, creating a "misinformation effect." During one such study, researchers used a fake advertisement showing Bugs Bunny in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland to trick their subjects into believing that they could meet Bugs at the park (despite Bugs being a Warner Brothers character and Warner Brothers being affiliated instead with Six Flags). For 16 percent of the subjects, it worked, and they described further false memories of meeting Bugs at Disney, adding details like that they touched the ear of his costume[2].

Speaking of false memories of amusement parks, I swore for years that I remembered visiting a dinosaur theme park in the northern Ohio woods back in 1998 or 1999, when I was five or six. I never questioned whether the memory was real until one day when my family drove past a drive-through dinosaur exhibit and my dad said to my mom, "They didn't have anything like that when Michelle was a kid." Skeptical of his claim, I did some Googling and discovered that there was a dinosaur-themed park in the woods near Sandusky called the Prehistoric Forest that looked much like what I thought I remembered[3]. When I sent my parents the link to the article about the Prehistoric Forest, both of them denied ever taking me there or even having heard of the place. Nevertheless, I swear I've been there or somewhere very similar. I think the most likely explanation is that I dreamt about it, but that the memory of the dream was so vivid that I mistook it as one from my waking life.

Much as a researcher can convince their subjects to believe that Bugs Bunny appeared at Disney or I convinced myself that I had visited a place like the Prehistoric Forest, Jean Paul is capable of brainwashing himself into thinking that he murdered Erica. This isn't even the only time he speculates without clear evidence that he’s guilty of murder. We'll see something similar in Episode 137 regarding the murder of a different character, whom Jean Paul will successfully convince himself he killed despite hazy evidence at best.

Note that these two theories are not one hundred percent mutually exclusive. It’s entirely possible that Jean Paul killed Erica, but misremembered specific details about her death or how he felt about her. Also note that this show contains quite a few retcons, one of which we saw last episode. Just as the trajectory of this show has changed significantly from Ian Martin’s original plot, the truth about Erica Desmond’s fate is currently in flux within the show’s universe.

The contents of the secret compartment that Raxl and Quito discovered.

Coming up next: A delightfully chilling episode where Jacques uses the skull that Raxl and Quito found to further terrorize his guests.

{<-- Previous: Episode 45   ||   Next: Episode 47 -->}

Notes

[1] While rabbits can have type AB blood (or type ZY blood, using the system from this 1954 study) and they cannot tolerate injections of Rh-positive blood, they have different antibodies in their blood from those of humans.

[2] Elizabeth F. Loftus, "Memories of Things Unseen," in Current Directions in Psychological Science 13:4 (2004), pp. 145-146. There are other examples from other studies, including one involving false memories of witnessing a demonic possession, but the Bugs one is my personal favorite. Also, this period of Strange Paradise puts me in a rabbity mood.

[3] Coincidentally, the Prehistoric Forest's entrance appeared in the 1995 film Tommy Boy, which also featured Colin Fox and Pat Moffat (Irene Hatter) in supporting roles. There was also an animatronic dinosaur attraction at Sea World Ohio called Carnivore Park that operated in the late 1990s. Despite having visited that Sea World many times as a kid, I couldn’t have gone to that exhibit because we couldn’t afford to go there in 1998 or 1999.

[simple-log]

Okaaaay. So, my prompt is obv a coping mechanism, but I need a story where Ron is angry with Harry for engaging with Ginny before Ron decided to propose to Hermione. As in sorry for the ugly feelings but he is an elder sibling and they've dated for years and financial pressure is real and all that bullshit

[home-of-chaos]

Storytime

No TW. Rolix mentioned.

The Huxleys sat around their dining table, quietly eating their breakfast. It was a rare occurrence for all four of them to be this quiet. Usually someone always had something to say-

“So Fe. Are you ready for your date~?” Ted asks, breaking the silence with a joking statement directed at Felix. It definitely ended the silence as both Felix and Roland, Mr. Huxley, choked on their food, coughing. Maria, Mrs. Huxley, gasps in excitement.

“Felix! You have a date? Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked, obviously very excited for this development.

“I don’t have a date! Ron is just taking me to the zoo today. That’s not a date!....is it? Oh god! I’m not ready to go on a date! I haven’t the slightest clue what to do! I don’t even have a gift to give him! I must cancel!” Felix rambles, panicked, as he ran a hand through his blonde hair.

“Nonsense! You are definitely going!” Maria hissed, not about to let her rather antisocial son back out of this.

“But Mother-!!”

“Woah Woah Woah. Hold on. I’m a bit lost. Which one is Ron?” Roland asks, interrupting Felix.

“He’s the boy with the red jacket that he tends to love lending to Felix a lot.” Maria explains, teasing Felix in the process.

“You know both his mothers!” Ted chirps, jumping into the conversation to hype up Ron’s image in his father’s eyes. “One of his mother’s are that really famous chef that Mother and you like. The other runs multiple charities and small multimillion dollar businesses.”

“Oh. Him. Wait. The boy that wears crocs?! THAT is who my son has as a date??” Roland exclaims, giving the very embarrassed Felix a bewildered look. “Where are your standards at? You definitely need better ones.”

Felix covered his face with hands, deeply embarrassed by his family before perking up. “Wait. Does that mean I don’t have to go, Father?” Felix asked, hopeful.

“Oh no. You are definitely going. He and his mothers are amazing influencers.” Roland states, snickering at the exasperated sigh that statement earned from Felix as Maria claps, obviously happy that Roland was on her side. “You just need to give that boy better footwear advice.”

“Yeahhhh. Ron isn’t too good with things like footwear. He wears socks and sandals.” Ted chimes in again, recalling his friend’s poor fashion sense.

“SOCKS AND SANDALS??” Roland cries out, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

Maria laughed softly, turning her attention to Felix. “Go get ready before your boyfriend’s bad fashion sense makes your Father change his mind.” She chirps, dismissing Felix.

“Yes ma’am.” He sighed. Felix stood up from the table before pausing in mid step once he realized what his Mother said. “Wait, he’s not my boyfriend!” He squeaks, face turning a vivid red which made his entire family laugh.

“Sure he isn’t.” They retort all at once only adding to Felix’s embarrassment.

[nicksreggies]

among us storytime

so i was playing among us, i joined a server that had only two people in it. one of their names was “weasley” and the other one was “potter.” they were wearing witch hats. so i typed in the chat “it’s roonil wazlib and roonil wazlib, my heroes” and the weasley person typed “what”.

I LEFT THE SERVER BC I WAS SO EMBARRASSED.

how do you call yourselves weasley and potter but not know what roonil wazlib means?

smh fake fans.

[lord-of-christmas-lights]

Throwback to the time my friends got drunk and summarized Harry Potter and I frantically typed the whole thing out on my Wattpad page