#the story is basically what if one night after partying barry takes him back home and alice was away for the night?

[taniushka12]

I have an alan/barry fic in the works (in my mind) and idk when I'll post it or if Im ever gonna finish it BUT... here are the first line and one of the last ones:

Stumbling down the hall with his weight supported by his friend, Alan laughed, and it felt like music to Barry's ears.

.

"...Goodnight, Al." The man inside his grasp closed his eyes, sighing, and Barry tried not to wonder whether it was from relief, or disappointment.

[thelowlysatsuma]

alright dipsticks, hear me out

taz balance au where everything is the same except that lucretia and barry have each others’ farspeech frequencies

it all starts about a year after lucretia voidfishes the plane. she’s poking around goldcliff, hoping to find some way to con some rich shit into paying for her gigantic moon base, when she runs — literally runs headfirst — into some bespectacled nerd in denim

barry, for his part, doesn’t know why this complete stranger is offering to buy him lunch as an apology for spilling his Fantasy Starbucks all over his oldass shirt, but he sure as shit isn’t complaining. especially when something, something about this kid feels so... familiar

in a spur of the moment decision, lucretia gives him her farspeech number. barry doesn’t think anything of it at the time

...anything, that is, until he’s rising, spectral and flickering, over his battered corpse, and he begins laughing hysterically, tears glimmering in long-gone eye sockets. he may not have lup back, but he’s got his little sister.

so they start texting. is barry furious at lucretia for what she’s done? sure, a bit. but he understands her logic, and his temper is soothed when she point-blank tells him that she’s going to help him find lup. they may be working against each other as far as the relics are concerned, but if lucretia can locate at least one more shred of her former family, then by god is she going to. barry understands, he thinks, and so they help keep each other a little less lonely over a long ten years

lucretia keeps barry updated on how the other birds are doing, as best she can. they rejoice together as magnus and julia take back raven’s roost, and when glamour springs is shadowed by a mass poisoning barry has to do everything up to physically restraining lucretia from beating the ass of whichever motherfucker did that to taako. wait, he tells her. physical pain is temporary. a lich, on the other hand, is in a prime position to make some douche’s life a living hell. lucretia grins and offers to fund his plots in any way she can.

barry, for his part, keeps lucretia up-to-date on the search for lup. they have matching little cork boards in their respective offices, each filled with maps and theories and half-baked what-ifs. they aren’t any closer to finding out what happened to her, but they will. they have to.

speaking of things happening, barry is the first one to find lucretia after wonderland. he hadn’t been able to reach her for a month, and so when he feels the enormous surge of pure magical despair explode outwards from the felicity wilds, he transports himself there as quickly as he can. he finds his baby sister at the centre of a mile-wide crater, twenty years older and countless sacrifices poorer, and he holds her as gently as he can without physical hands, and makes her promise to never deal with wonderland again. fuck, he’ll get the animus bell for her, he doesn’t care. he just can’t see lucretia in that state ever again. (never again, that’s what they told themselves, in a group huddle late one night the dawn of cycle 66. he’d failed her once. he couldn’t do it again.)

as she builds up the bureau, lucretia starts getting questions about her best friend on the stone. lucas asks her point blank who it is one day early in their acquaintance, and she answers “b- uh, b-j” “that tells me basically nothing. what does that even stand for?” lucas demands. “uh,” lucretia says, “🅱️amazing jrace”

thus begins a fine tradition of bureau employees trying to get any info they can on the mysterious “bj”, including his actual name. so far some of the top answers they’ve gotten from madame director include “bitchin jackass” “burger joint” “beetlejuice” and “banjo jimboree”. once, robbie asks her if he’s her secret lover, and lucretia has to summon a bucket before retching in disgust, which puts paid to that particular theory fairly succinctly

barry, for his part, adores these rumours. he keeps asking if lucretia will lift the lich barrier, just for a day, so he can come and stir up even more shit. lucretia, while admittedly very tempted, denies.

when he finds out that lucretia has been telling bureau employees that the red robes are evil, barry is understandably insulted. the next group of regulators that touch the ground are covered in fantasy cheez whiz for the duration of their mission.

lucretia gets him back by replacing all the denim in the jeans at his base with silly string. barry moves bases, and the prank war escalates

(no one has the courage to tell madame director that her hair has been turned rainbow at the last candlenights party. privately, lucretia thinks she looks bitchin)

every now and again, lucretia will text barry in a panic. these texts tend to look like this:

“barry.” “barold aid me” “barry I fucked shit up real good this time” “barry” “barry” “barry I was at the fantasy Olive Garden and the waiter said ‘enjoy your meal’ and I said ‘you too’ barry kill me n o w “

barry can and will mock lucretia mercilessly for this. he also insists for weekly video updates on fisher and junior.

he also has biweekly fantasy skype sessions with davenport

booyah: I saw a woman so beautiful I started crying???

bear-old: oh mood

booyah: and then I hired her and her son (who’s a little bitch) to work on my secret moon base and I think I’ve made a terrible mistake???????

bear-old: oh my fucking god this is why I don’t trust you to stop the apocalypse

when the thb start working as reclaimers, barry demands weekly updates on them, as well. it goes about as well as you’d expect

booyah: magnus ate the philosopher’s stone

bear-old: he fucking w h a t ?

booyah: he used the glutton’s fork, and he ATE the philosopher’s stone. taako and merle used stone skin and stone shape to get the damn thing out. happy fucking candlenights.

when barry finds out that taako’s DATING the fool who’s been chasing after him wile e coyote style for over a decade, he loses his s h i t. he and lucretia have a girls’ night where they bitch about taako and eat shitty chocolate to cope

bear-old: you HIRED a BABY???

booyah: he’s ten! that’s plenty old. and he’s certainly competent, seeing as he found my organization when even you couldn’t.

bear-old: creesh please. please do not Irreparably Fuck Up A Small Child

booyah: hey, at least I’m not the one who threw him off a moving train!

bear-old: I never threw anyone off a

bear-old: lucretia

bear-old: who

bear-old: who in your employ threw ANGUS MCDONALD, a LITERAL CHILD, off of a MOVING. VEHICLE?

booyah:

booyah: taako

bear-old: fucking fantasy CHRIST

(they have quite a few girls’ nights eating shitty chocolate and razzing on taako, actually)

team sweet flips goes to the director’s office one day to give a status report and find her red-eyed and coughing. she says she has allergies. the cute cat video barry just texted her on her stone, however, begs to differ

lucretia preps the boys for refuge, yes, but her mind is filled with texts and tomes and the letters “l u p” carved into a bureau wall. she passes countless sleepless nights with barry on the line, trying to decipher what it all means

but they emerge from the woven gulch unscathed, and that can only mean one thing: wonderland

she doesn’t tell barry where she’s sending them. she can’t let him interfere out of some misguided attempt to save her from the place. her texts grow few and far between

she doesn’t have to tell barry. he knows

the day they get sent out, as lucretia breaks down in her office, surrounded by a dizzying vastness that could envelop her very being if she would just let it, her stone buzzes.

four words: I’ll keep them safe

and then?

well, then it’s the end of the world

(but when lup emerges from her decade-long cage, phantasmal and resplendent, lucretia and barry share a look)

(and when the hunger is consuming the only home she knows and she’s flying out in one last attempt to face is, barry is on her stone)

(and when the dust settles and they’re finally, finally free, when the world hears a story and a song and former and current bureau employees alike learn just how important the mysterious “bj” really is, when lucretia looks at the wreckage of her life’s work and home and family — when all that happens, barry is the one to beckon to her with open arms.)

(they’ve been beside the other for a hundred and ten years, after all. that’s not gonna fucking change now.)

anyways yeah folks barry and lucretia texting au play with me in this space

@littlemisscritical @thatcoldfeeling and you know what? @herbgerblin what the hell

[youhearstatic]

For your blupjeans game: free choice? An au based on a story you think is fun but you don't think you'll write!

There's a Shah Rukh Khan movie that came out several years ago called "Jab Harry Met Sejal" that I think would be an adorable Blupjeans AU.

Picture Lup as a world traveling tour guide. It's a great life for her. She has no roots, no ties, she drags tourists around during the day and at night she parties and flirts and does as she pleases. It's an easy, breezy, free floating sort of life.

She dumps off her newest group at the airport and is looking forward to a week off when one of the tourists (Barry, of course) comes rushing up to her insisting he needs her help. He lost something important at the bar they went to the night before and he can't leave without it. She does everything she can to blow him off but he won't be dissuaded and eventually all she can do is take him there and hope that will get rid of him.

They go to the bar which is of course closed this early and she gets them to let them come search. While he searches everywhere he was in this place, she basically is just bored and waiting for him to be done. But slowly it comes out, he lost the engagement ring that's been in his family for generations. He was supposed to do the big public proposal with it and he can't leave without it.

What follows is a zany trip across fantasy Europe to each and every place they'd been to on the two week tour, chasing one ridiculous lead after another.

And falling in love.

Barry had been all set to marry the daughter of the family his family has known for decades because it would make all their families happy and he's never found anyone else he cared about, she's nice, so why not. (He doesn't love her is why not. She doesn't love him either. It's convenient, is all.)

Meanwhile Lup, for all she seems to enjoy her life, every time Barry seems to have any real interest in her, she points out that she's the one guys fall for but not the one guys stay with. They might want to have a fling with the cute tour guide, but no one ever wanted to settle down with her or bring her home to meet the parents.

Barry, of course, thinks she's trying to keep him at a distance because he's just not good enough for her. Especially since they just! keep! running! into! her! flings! and they are all young and handsome and fun.

They keep going and searching and not finding the ring and falling more in love but also more certain the other could never really feel the same.

And then they run into her brother Taako. He's getting married and he wants her to stick around, meet his fiance, come to the wedding. Please, she's rarely around, just a few texts a week, maybe a phone call. He'd really like her to be there.

Barry insists no only on them staying but on throwing him a party to celebrate. Lup sees how much it means to her brother and throws herself into it. Once she meets Kravitz and sees how crazy the two are for one another, she's even more committed to giving him the perfect party and wedding. And there's Barry, acting as co-host of the party and helping make sure it's the perfect, magical night.

When everyone leaves, it's just the two of them and the happy couple. Taako wants to know what's up between them. Lup shrugs it off. "It doesn't matter. He's a tourist and this is a holiday. In the end, everyone goes home."

And Barry, who'd been so happy and light and, for the first time in his life, completely at home in this group of strangers, feels that push again, of her shoving him away.

Taako and Kravitz leave and they are alone. "Where do we go next to find the ring?" she asks him.

He's distracted by her words earlier and slow to answer so she answers for him. "I think you go home now. It's time you go back to your real life."

So he faces her and says, "I don't want to. I don't want to go back. I've been a different person, a happier person, I-"

"So now you're going to be the guy who dumps his girlfriend, his fiance? And runs off with the tour guide? Come on, that's not who you want to be."

"What do you want, Lup?"

"It doesn't matter what I want."

"Of course it does."

And she's silent for far too long. "I want you to go back to your life."

So he does. He leaves an envelope for her and when she opens it she finds the ring and a short note. 'I found it a few days ago, caught in my jeans pocket. But you're the only one I wanted to give it to so I'm leaving it with you.'

Of course, she goes after him, tries to find him but he's gone. So she goes back to her life, being a tour guide, and okay, at least spending more time around Taako. And after a few months of her moping around and coasting through her days, Taako tells her to move on and forget about the guy. He's gone, probably married by now, get over it.

But she doesn't want to, she tells him.

"Then why didn't you tell him that?"

"Would it have mattered?"

"I don't know, that's not up to me! It's up to him! But you never said anything!"

So of course, she decides she WILL go tell him. At his wedding, which had of course come up in their weeks together, the whole big double family shindig at the biggest hotel in his city and the looming date of the thing. So she shows up, ready to crash the wedding and make her declaration.

But he's not part of the happy couple at the alter. The wedding was cancelled and some other couple got the venue.

Of course he outside when she leaves and they finally talk and kiss and live happily ever after because they're Blupjeans and I say they always always always do.

[saiilorstars]

Rise Up

Ch.2: In a World of Flashs

Previous Story: It Had To Be You || Current Masterlist

Pairings: Barry Allen x Female OC

Story Summary: Team Flash comes across a man named Jay claiming to be from another world. Mistrust rises as new foes continue to terrorize the city. The team discovers, with the help from Jay, that their enemies are coming by the orders of Zoom and are being threatened by a 'datura'.

Pronunciation of OC: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

Cisco and Caitlin gently helped Belén to stand on her feet. Today was the day she was finally able to leave the hospital and needless to say Belén was eager to get out of there. It had been a week since her accident and nothing had been more boring than being forced to lay in bed and do nothing.

"I can do it guys," Belén tried to shoo Caitlin and Cisco but neither moved away from her.

"Nu-uh, we are not letting you out of our sight," Cisco promised. "Not until we figure out why you were targeted."

"Cisco, that's so last week," Belén sarcastically rolled her eyes.

"He's right though," came mama-Caitlin's agreement. "We have a mystery to solve."

"Can we do that at Jitters while I eat?" Belén asked hopeful. She heard the place had finally re-opened - thanks to a 'mysterious force' reconstructing it at night - and was desperate to get back to her normal routine.

"We've actually got somewhere else to go," Cisco announced, his somewhat mischievous smile put Belén on edge.

She stopped struggling against the two to get to the bottom of their mysterious place to be at. "Oh, and where's that?"

"Barry's dad is getting released today," Caitlin smiled impossibly wide, matching Cisco's face exactly. "And we're throwing a little party."

"I-I'm invited?" was the words that came out from Belén's mouth in her rash nervousness. She knew Barry had begun the process of overturning his father's case thanks to the confession Wells left behind on video but neither she nor he knew how long that would take.

"Well of course!" Cisco answered her with a laugh. "So c'mon, everyone's setting up right now."

"But I need to get a proper shower and-and find something to wear…" Belén began to think about what she had in her closet. What could she wear with the new dark blue arm sling her injured arm was forced to rest in.

Caitlin chuckled as they finally got her to stand up from the bed. "Don't worry, I'll help you with whatever you need and then we can head to the party."

"Thank you," Belén could only wonder how much help she would need now that she only had one working, movable arm. Taking care of Axel sure was going to get even more interesting. She knew that one for sure.

~ 0 ~

"Where are half my things at?" Belén was mighty confused - and a bit alarmed - to find that her closet and drawers were half empty. Caitlin had walked in with a glass of water and some pills Belén needed to start taking. "I've been robbed," Belén turned back with wide eyes.

Caitlin couldn't take it and laughed. "Calm down, Belén. Iris and I came over last night and took some things you would need."

"As a welcome-home prank sorta-thing?" Belén raised an eyebrow, finding no relevancy in that plan whatsoever.

Caitlin continued to laugh but shook her head to answer Belén. "No, of course not. Iris and I thought that maybe it would be easier for you to stay with someone that could help you for a while. We put all your stuff in my spare room for you and Axel to stay in."

"Oh," Belén began feeling bad for making such a deal.

"Iris wanted you to stay with her instead but we figured it might be awkward staying in the same house as Barry so…"

Belén grabbed Caitlin's arm dramatically. "Thank you," she could not be more grateful for Caitlin convincing Iris of the alternative plan.

Caitlin chuckled and held the glass of water and pills for her to take. "Yes, now take these."

"Yes, Doctor Snow," Belén saluted with her good arm.

"And then we're gonna find you some clothes that we left for you," Caitlin walked for the closet, humming to herself, "I'm pretty sure Iris mentioned something she left specifically for the occasion."

Belén groaned. "Oh no."

~0~

Barry was glad to see his father happy right in front of him...without glass windows to block them. He was thankful that Iris had gotten the idea of making a little party for Henry and honestly couldn't think of a better way to welcome his father back than with his family and friends.

"Iris, Iris!" Axel tugged on Iris' dress sleeve and didn't stop until Iris paid him attention.

"What is it, Axel?" Iris looked down at the young boy. He seemed very impatient or upset, Iris couldn't tell which one it was but she knew the reason for his behavior.

"When is Auntie Belén coming?" he asked sadly. "I don't want cake until my auntie is here." He had been eyeing the cut cake for about an hour but refused any slices Iris tried giving him. Apparently, he was planning on not having lunch until Belén was finally home.

"She should be here any moment, I promise," Iris said and took the boy's hand. "If you want, I can cut you a slice right now-"

"No!" Axel stomped his foot, frustrated no one understood him. "I want auntie Belén! I miss her." He wrapped his arms around Iris waist and hugged her. "I miss her."

"Poor kid," Cisco remarked beside Barry, both having been watching Iris tend to the child. "Dad's dead, Mom's in jail, aunt in the hospital."

"Yeah, I can kind of understand," Barry admitted. While he'd been much older than Axel when he lost a parent, Barry still could empathize with the young child who had to cling to someone in order to cope with the losses. Joe and Iris had been his rock when he most needed it, and now Axel probably viewed Belén in the same way. Though even before Maritza had gone to jail, Axel was already close to Belén.

"Hey!" they heard Caitlin greet from the front door soon as she opened it. "Sorry we're a bit late."

But apparently it didn't matter. Axel gasped with delight at the sight of Belén and dashed from Iris to go greet his aunt. "Auntie Belén!" he embraced Belén however he could, making her stumble a bit back.

Belén laughed and hugged him with her good arm. "Axel! Tell me you've been a good boy with Iris."

"Mhm!" he said proudly but refused to let go of her just yet. "I helped wash dishes, I made the beds, and I helped cook and-"

"All that by yourself?" Belén managed to pry the four year old off her waist.

Axel gave a big grin as he nodded his face. "Aha!"

Belén didn't even argue with him. She just glanced at Iris who shrugged her shoulders (nearly laughing herself) then hugged Axel again. "Well thank you for being so good while I was gone."

"Why did you go away?" Axel drew away to stare at her arm sling. "I thought you were going away like Mommy."

Belén immediately paled in her face. She hadn't really thought about what Axel may have concluded on his own over her whereabouts for the past days. She'd specifically told Iris to tell him she had a small accident that required her to stay with the doctors. Belén didn't want Axel near hospitals.

Before Belén answered - which she was practically racking her mind for to avoid talking about Maritza - Barry approached them. "The doctors were taking care of her, remember Axel?" the boy in question looked away from Belén to Barry instead. Barry smiled down at Axel and bent down beside him. "She's not going anywhere. Hey," - he whispered - "You want to get some cake for your aunt?"

Axel's eyes widened at the reminder there was cake on the table. "Yes! I can share with you, auntie Belén!" he gave her a quick hug and then darted for the table, hollering for Iris to cut him that slice of cake now.

"Thank you," Belén said to Barry after Axel had left. "I...I should really get myself together when it comes to the subject of Maritza."

"You're doing the best you can," Barry said honestly. Even though they hadn't been together for 6 months, he was well aware of the challenges she had living on her own while basically supporting Axel. She worked her job(s) and took Axel to his preschool every day - though sometimes roughly depended on their neighbor Mrs. Andrews to babysit every now and then - and trained to have a better control over her powers.

Belén didn't seem to agree as she shrugged her shoulders and looked in Axel's direction. "I'm not his Mom - I definitely don't know what I'm doing half the time when it comes to him. There should be like a...guidebook on four year olds."

Barry laughed quietly, making her smile for a moment. "Yeah, I don't think you're the only one who wishes that. You're doing great, Bells."

Belén's smile returned with a light blush on her cheeks. She definitely liked hearing her nickname come out his lips. "Thanks. I'm happy for you, you know. I didn't think you would get your Dad out so quick, though in hindsight given your...speedy nature, I should've seen it coming."

"Joe pushed it, and I guess luck was finally on our side," Barry stuffed his hands in his pant's pockets.

"About time. You deserve it," Belén seemed hesitant about something but in the end, she decided to go for it and hugged him. After all, it was something she thought was well needed.

Although surprised by the action, Barry hugged back, careful not to hurt her in the process, and closed his eyes.

"I am so happy for you right now," Belén said honestly, her words slightly muffled from the party's music and overall low voice.

"Thank you. If you hadn't made me watch the video…" Barry couldn't even imagine what that would've been like.

"Don't even say it," Belén hushed him, relieved herself she made him watch despite his reluctance.

Barry held onto her for who knew how long, just relishing he had that sort of contact with her again. He opened his eyes and happened to cross gazes with his father who was smiling knowingly their way.

Immediately self conscious, Barry pulled back from Belén. "Come on," he took her hand by custom and led her down the small steps to the living room. He took her towards his father, willing to just get over the awkwardness now than later. "Dad, you remember Belén? My…" but the words failed him as he didn't really know what to call Belén if she wasn't his girlfriend. Friend just didn't cut it.

"I'm just Belén," the woman said after watching Barry fumble over his words.

Henry chuckled at his son. He flustered so easily. "Of course I remember you. And I'm so sorry for your losses. Is your sister doing well?"

Belén involuntarily breathed in at the mention of her sister. "She's...fine, in what fits. But I bet you're doing a lot better now that you're here with your son. Now it's your turn to deal with his weird science explanations because I don't understand them one bit." Henry laughed while Barry shook his head. "I'm serious. Last time he tried getting all sciency I nearly smothered him with a pillow."

By this point Barry was completely red in the face. "Bells…"

"You gonna lie and say I'm wrong?" she challenged him.

"Best to say no in these cases, son," Henry said and had Barry groaning.

"Unbelievable!"

Belén laughed and happened to catch Cisco walking by with a plate of cake in hand. She gasped and grabbed Barry's arm on an instinct. "Is that cake? I haven't had cake in months. I miss cake. And donuts. Oh, but cupcakes. I miss cupcakes more, though. Man I really miss cupcakes."

Barry swallowed down a laugh, thinking she was incredibly adorable at the moment. "Axel went to go get a slice of cake for him and you, actually."

"I love that kid," she mumbled and looked back at him and Henry. "If you'll excuse me…"

"You go ahead, I think you probably deserve it more than all of us," Henry assured.

"I really want a cupcake," Belén mumbled under her breath as she turned to go leave. She had never been happier to see so much junk food on the table and she planned on getting everything she could.

Although Henry, in the end, decided to leave the city, he did adhere to spending a couple of days in the city for Barry. In the meanwhile, the group began returning to normal. Cisco and Caitlin returned to STAR Labs. Belén had to leave her aerial dancing aside for the moment while she got back on her feet - or arm in this case. She came back to CC Picture News full time.

~ 0 ~

"Hey," Caitlin greeted Cisco in the cortex when she and Belén - and Axel - walked in. Cisco was busy working on the main desk with professor Stein while Iris stood beside the desk looking at something on her phone.

"I wanna play!" Axel rushed up to Cisco and tried peering at the computer screen.

Iris looked up from her phone screen with a rather nervous smile. "I got news on our, uh...assignment," she told Belén, careful of what words she used since she wasn't sure Belén had told anyone else about their article intending on causing doubt over the Azalea's death.

Belén moved over to see what was on Iris' phone and saw a couple pictures that seemed familiar but she wasn't sure where she'd seen them. "Where'd you get these?" she asked after handing Iris her phone back.

"Well," Iris tilted her head, her smile now becoming innocent, "Remember our early days where I had no idea you were the Azalea and Barry was the Flash?"

"Yes..."

"I snapped pictures of you and him in secret, duh!"

Belén remembered the one famous picture Iris snapped of Barry that'd gone on the front cover of their newspaper. That'd been over a year ago and it was still one of the most known pictures of the Flash. She should've figured Iris snapped pictures of her too when she wasn't looking.

"I sort of told Linda I got these from unknown sources but the backgrounds on them are evidence enough that they're not photo-shopped," Iris stuffed her phone in her back pocket. "But I have to ask again...are you sure you want to do this?"

Cisco loudly cleared his throat at the desk and raised a finger to make it known he'd be entering the conversation now. "I'm sorry, what are you two planning with the Azalea now?"

Belén playfully rolled her eyes at him. "I've been thinking about coming back as the Azalea."

Caitlin was the first to react and it was nothing but concern for her friend. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes," Belén said, truly honest. "I thought about it and I feel terrible that I left the city unattended. Even if Barry was looking after it, I had a responsibility to keep it safe as well."

"But don't you think it'll be hard if you can't control your powers anymore?"

Belén scrunched her face. "Weeeell, it's not like I haven't been practicing at all. I've done training by myself and with Cisco."

At that, Caitlin immediately shot Cisco a look to which the man raised his hands in defense.

"You weren't talking to me!"

Caitlin rolled her eyes and waved him off. "If it's your choice, Belén, then I'll be here if you need my help."

"Thank you," Belén smiled.

Joe and Barry walked into the room a couple minutes later. Barry had gone with his father to the train station to say goodbye. While he was still pretty sad to his father go, seeing all his friends once more in the cortex made everything a lot better.

"Ho ho! Hey, guess what?" Cisco shot up from his chair. "I added a little upgrade to your suit." He made a gesture with both hands towards Barry's suit that showed a brand new golden outline around its white emblem. "It's just like the one from the future newspaper Gideon showed us. I was thinking, you know, you shouldn't fear the future anymore, right?"

Barry laughed as he took a good look at it. It did look pretty nice he had to admit. "No, and it'll be here faster than we think."

"Well, see, I like it," Professor Stein said, moving to stand beside Cisco. "The lightning definitely pops more against the white."

"It is nice," Belén's comment made Barry smile at her.

"I wasn't thinking about your suit, Bells," Cisco admitted after a moment, now feeling rather guilty about it. "But if you'd like, I could get brainstorming!"

Belén sheepishly smiled and shook her head after a minute. "No thanks, I'm good. I want to get back to myself." She noticed Barry's confused stare and promise him she would explain it later.

"You'll also be happy to know that S.T.A.R. Labs is now safer than ever," Cisco promised. "Increased security and surveillance. Re-coded, double firewalled, electronic lock sets."

"Sounds sciencey enough to be true," Iris remarked and shared a laugh with Belén who understood her perfectly.

"Ha, ha," Cisco mocked their laugh and frowned. "People won't be able to just waltz in and out of here."

But it seemed like that would still continue to be untrue. A tall, blonde man donning a black leather jacket and matching pants did just that. Iris gasped and jumped from her chair. Belén quickly nabbed Axel and hurried to get him away from the stranger.

Cisco, despite being alarmed of the intruder, was overall irritated that none of his work did any good. "For real?"

"Stay where you are!" Joe had pulled out his gun to aim at the blonde man. He eyed Iris to get behind him.

Barry discreetly took a closer scoot to Belén should the man come straight for business. "Who are you?"

The man raised his hands, apparently meaning no harm. "You don't know me, but I know you... Barry Allen."

"Take one more step, it'll be the last step you take," warned Joe soon as the man had taken one step forwards. "The man asked you a question. Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Jay Garrick and your world is in danger."

"That's not much to go by," Belén scoffed. "Clearly, you're new to Central City."

"I am, Belén Palayta," Jay said, much to her horror and the other's shock.

Barry yanked Belén to his side, and consequently Axel. "How do you know her name?" he demanded.

"I know everyone's names," Jay said, then gesturing to the others. "Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Detective Joe West…"

"Enough," Joe threatened the man with his gun again. "That part about explaining needs to happen right about now."

Jay nodded, deciding it was best to follow orders when there was a gun aimed at him. "This world is in danger."

Iris wasn't sure she heard right. "What other worlds are there?"

"When you created the singularity above Central City, you also created a breach between my world and yours-"

"I'm sorry, a breach?" Cisco cut him off, confused as well.

"Yes, a portal connecting our two earths-"

"And what precisely is your concern?" Stein asked, partially following more than the others, but it didn't mean he was any less confused.

"A few days ago, you found a dead man named Al Rothstein at the nuclear plant. But then a different Al Rothstein tried to kill you."

"Atom Smasher?" Belén looked at the others.

"That man was from my world. If he got through the breach, I suspect there'll be more to follow."

"Okay, so, Jay, how exactly do you know all of this?" Barry asked, although it was easy to see that despite getting an answer he wasn't very inclined to believe it.

"Where I came from, I was a speedster like you. They called me The Flash. Before I arrived on your earth, I was in a fight with a man named Zoom."

The name rang in Barry's mind. "Zoom? I've heard that name before. Atom Smasher, he said Zoom sent him here to kill me. Who is this guy?"

"He's a speedster, like you and me. And fast," Jay paused as if to consider how much. "Maybe the fastest of all. But evil. He is an unstoppable demon with the face of death. We were engaged in our fiercest battle ever, racing throughout my city. But I wasn't fast enough to stop him. Zoom had me beaten. He was about to kill me when suddenly there was a blinding light and the sky split open. A breach, between my world and yours, caused from the singularity. It pulled me in and I somehow ended up in your world. Powerless. Unable to return home."

"What do you mean?" Caitlin stared at him.

Jay sighed. "Before nearly killing me, there was this woman - a siphoner - who took my speed."

"You can do that?" Iris immediately looked at Barry on instinct. Barry, this time, was just as lost as she was.

"She did," Jay answered her instead. "I lost my speed because of her."

"So, you've been in Central City for six months. Why haven't you come to see us before?" Joe lowered his gun for a moment but still kept a tight hold on it.

"I'm in a foreign world here, Detective. I didn't know who you all were. Took me that long to piece it all together."

"So that's how you know our names," Iris frowned. "You've been following us."

Jay sighed but admitted to it. "Look, I know how this sounds. The existence of another earth, you, another Flash, it all came as an unexpected shock to me, too. I just wish there was something I could do to convince you."

Barry looked at the others, seeing no one was willing to make a decision there and then. "There is," he walked for Jay. "We're gonna... do some tests on you. See if you're telling us the truth. 'Cause if you're not, this Zoom, he's not gonna be your only enemy."

~ 0 ~

Out in the city, in an alleyway, in the dark night a blue portal - a breach - opened up. Zoom himself, a dark figure dressed in all black complete with a black mask, threw down another man to the ground.

The man groaned as his back hit the ground harshly. "Where the hell am I?"

One moment he was making a petty theft and the next a brunette woman and a ginger one appeared and nearly killed him.

"You want to go home?" Zoom towered over the man. "You only have to do one thing."

"What's that?"

"Kill the Flash."

The man stared in confusion. He knew the Flash alright - from his world - but what the hell did that mean now?

"Fail and I'll have Datura siphon you," Zoom warned and stepped backwards.

~ 0 ~

Although they were fairly interested in the newest arrival to their world, both Belén and Iris had to leave the lab for work. Belén left Axel in the care of Caitlin and the rest in STAR Labs - who promised to keep him far away from Jay. Well, Barry promised her that, the others just agreed with him.

"These are so good!" Linda couldn't finish gawking over the pictures Iris had now printed out in high definition. "How the hell did you get these? The Azalea hasn't been seen in 6 months."

"She's here...just a sneaky one," Iris said confidently, briefly glancing with Belén. "Very sneaky."

"But that just leaves the question," Linda lowered the pictures, her shoulders slumping with confusion, "Why is she letting the entire city believe she's dead?"

"Maybe she's scared," Belén said, answering a bit too fast without realizing, "A lot of people died 6 months ago and...maybe she's scared about that."

"What? Like she thinks we're going to blame her for it?" Linda nearly snorted if it wasn't a professional setting. "Yeah, right! I'd love to see her back. She and the Flash were such a good team!"

"Maybe if we finish writing this piece she'll see that," Iris' suggestion seemed to make Linda more determinated.

Belén cleared her throat and gravitated towards her desk, making the other two follow her. "I have a draft already if you want to look at it." She stopped just beside her desk when she spotted a small, pink box sitting in front of her computer.

"What's that?" Iris eyed the box curiously while Belén studied it up close.

"No idea," Belén picked up a small white card and read it over silently.

"Seriously?" Linda rolled her eyes at the two. "It's a dessert box, idiots." She took the paper draft from Belén's desk and walked off with the intention of reading it over and giving some feedback.

Iris wasn't sure she liked seeing the dreamy smile spread across Belén's face while the woman read off a small card that'd been on top of the box. It wasn't the first time some secret admirer pulled the stunt at work. Linda had had one a couple months back as well.

"So, who's it from?" Iris couldn't help the sour tone stinging her words. She knew she was wrong to think that someone belonged to someone, but in this case that someone happened to really care for her friend and that someone happened to be like a brother to her. She had a right to feel offended.

Belén could practically see Iris' thoughts and, with a teasing smile, said nothing. With her good arm, she opened the box's lid to find a red-velvet cupcake inside. Its bright, white whip-cream swirled around to a fine tip.

"Who sent you that?" this time Iris had asked more demanding. Unable to help herself, Belén laughed. "I'm not kidding," Iris huffed, putting down her papers on the desk to then place her hands on her hips. "I know I've got no right but it's annoying knowing someone here-" she threw an aggressive look at the room, "-is trying to play Mr. Secret Admirer with you."

"Okay," Belén thought enough was enough and let poor Iris in on her secret. She handed Iris the card meant to be a letter.

Iris took it glumly and read the small message.

A sweet way to start the day. Maybe later we can finish the day in a sweet way with donuts? - Barry.

Iris didn't know whether to feel mortified at herself for being so jumpy with conclusions, or on Barry's behalf for being such a…

"What a dork," she ended up laughing.

"I will take that, thank you very much," Belén took back the white card and set it down on her desk, her eyes lingering over its message for a moment. "Can't believe he found a moment to do this." She shook her head, but was unable to stop smiling as she took a seat on her chair.

"Soo…" Iris narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "...are you two, like, back together or…?"

Belén raised her head in thought. "I...don't know. But this is very good points."

Iris laughed again. "Dork," she continued to say.

"Hey, he's sweet and I like it," Belén pointed a warning finger at her. "...I missed it," she added after a minute, her smile softening.

Iris laughed but she abruptly stopped when someone walked into the place. Iris noticed her sudden fall and followed Belén's gaze behind. Although Iris was surprised to find the woman there, it didn't match Belén's.

"Mom?"

"Hello Belén," Veronica Green walked up to them. "We have to talk."

~ 0 ~

After getting no such conclusive results that would prove Jay, at one point, had been a speedster Barry did what he thought was best.

"I hope you understand why we have to do this," he watched as the pipeline sealed the prison pod Jay was now in.

Jay gave a nod of his dead, looking pretty understanding. "I get it, kid. You're doing what you think you have to. But you'll all realize soon enough that this, the tests, it's unnecessary. I want to help you, Barry, not harm you."

"You're not the first person that's said that to me."

"If what you told me about Zoom is true, that he sent Rothstein here to kill you, instead of locking me up in here, you better start listening. Because if Zoom is involved, then it means so is the siphoner. And you're gonna want to listen to me then."

"Why?" Barry tried acting like it didn't affect him.

"Two things are gonna happen," Jay raised two of his fingers. "One: Zoom's gonna want your speed as well. If you're lucky he won't kill you, but you can say goodbye to your powers. Two? The Siphoner's gonna wanna come here as well. She'll have her target and you're not gonna like who it's going to be."

Barry's eyebrows knitted together, partially mad Jay was making all those claims without an ounce of backup for then and another half of him was just confused. But before he could say anything, Cisco's voice alerted him through the speakers there was a fire somewhere in the city. Leaving Jay, he went out to help the others.

~ 0 ~

Joe had just finished a phone call when he heard a woman calling his name. "Yes, Officer…?" he turned to face a petite blonde woman standing rigidly in front of him.

"Spivot. Patty Spivot," she introduced herself formally. "Captain Singh mentioned there may be positions available on your anti-meta-human task force."

Joe shook his head and went for a couple of papers on his desk. "Yeah, everybody quit. There is no task force anymore."

That didn't deter Patty from making her proposition. "Well, I know someone who's interested in being on it. Me."

Joe stared at her to see if this was just a joke, but the woman remained in her spot smiling. "You do realize that meta-humans have super powers, right? And even if they didn't, you wouldn't be a good fit for the team."

Patty's smile faded for a moment. "Because I'm a woman?"

Joe shook his head, making his way for the reception room with the papers he had picked up from his desk. "I didn't mean to imply that."

Patty turned on her feet and followed him out. Both missed a hasty Belén coming out of the elevator and spotting them.

"Good, because I know how difficult this job would be, but I think I'm an excellent candidate," Patty ventured to get her qualifications out in the open for Joe. "I triple-majored at Hudson in biology, chemistry, and physics. I'm in prime physical condition. And I rated top of my class in marksmanship."

"Your class? You don't even have your stripes yet." Joe set down the papers for the secretary.

"Soon. Been on the job seven months, sir."

"Are you aware of what happened to my previous partner?" Joe started back for his desk and once again Patty followed behind.

"Detective Thawne, yes. I know that he died and the one before him, Fred Chyre, died, too, but the one before that's not dead, just transferred. I'm sure it had nothing to do with you."

Joe stopped by his desk and looked at the blonde woman who seemed very sure of what she wanted. "Listen, Officer…"

"Spivot, Patty Spivot."

"Yes, Spivot, the answer's no."

Patty sighed. "All I'm asking for is a shot, sir. Please, just an interview."

"You just had the interview. Didn't get the job," Joe apologized with a face and walked away.

Patty sighed deeply and turned to leave when she bumped into Belén. "S-sorry!"

"Don't mind it," Belén watched after Joe who'd taken a conversation with another officer. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop or anything but I heard…"

Patty shook her head. "If he thinks I'm giving up so quick, he's got another thing coming."

A small chuckle escaped through Belén's lips. "You should. I have good word that he usually breaks down after a bit of hassling."

"Really?"

"Mhm. He's my boyfriend's and best friend's dad so I know a thing or two."

Patty's eyes widened a bit. "Really? Could you...give me some pointers, maybe?"

It was then that Belén realized she had branded Barry as her boyfriend. Her face turned a bright red. Oh my God if Patty mentions this to Barry…

"I, um, I'll look into that and get back to you," she said when she realized she left Patty hanging there in silence. "I'm Belén, by the way," she stuck a hand to shake with Patty.

Smiling, Patty shook hands with her. "Patty."

"If you'll excuse me, I came with a mission," Belén made a gesture she needed to get going and Patty nodded her it was fine. Taking a breath Belén hurried away from the woman, praying to every God she knew that Patty wouldn't put two and two when she eventually saw Barry.

"Joe?" she stopped a couple inches from Joe and another officer. "Could we talk for a bit?"

"Sure thing," Joe left his co-worker and gestured Belén to follow her to his desk. "Is there something you needed?" it wasn't usual for her to stop by the place since the singularity, and much less to talk with him.

Belén seemed to struggle with her words for the first minute, but eventually she got it out in one small-worded question. "Did you call my mom when I had my accident?"

Joe's eyebrows raised slightly but didn't intend on hiding what he did. "Yeah, I did. I thought that as a mother Veronica needed to know." Although he was very perplexed and shocked to find that the woman hadn't even made a call for her daughter to see how she was doing.

"Well, that explains why she showed up at my job today," Belén sighed.

"She did?"

"Mhm," Belén nodded. "She went ballistic when she my arm and other injury. She's blabbing about getting me to come back with her to Star City."

"Look, Belén, I didn't mean to cause you any problems with your mother-" Joe meant to explain but Belén cut him off with a soft smile and response.

"I know that, Joe. If roles were reversed and Iris had been hurt, I would have done the same thing."

Joe gave her a thankful nod in return.

"It's just...it's difficult hiding my other life when she's constantly breathing down my neck," Belén couldn't help her frustration seeping through her words. "Last time I warded her off because I had my life put together, but now I have Axel and I'm battling to keep his custody while holding down a job and trying to keep up with payments-" she stopped to take a breather, "I don't know how I'm gonna convince her I can do this."

And she truly didn't. She knew right now was not the best moment of her life but she didn't want to leave the city like a little girl who needs her mother. She didn't. She was old enough to be independent and work for what she needed.

~ 0 ~

The next day, Barry thought it would be a nice time for lunch with Belén. He hadn't had the opportunity to be alone with her anywhere, so perhaps today would be the day to start. After finishing up his usual CSI work at the scene where he fought their newest metahuman, he stopped by CC Picture News to see if she was willing to have lunch with him.

"I would definitely like that," Belén chuckled as a means of expressing her nervousness. It was as if they were beginning all over again and that included the feelings of a high schooler with a crush.

Belén moved around her desk trying to gather her things with one arm. Barry quickly offered to help her with that and as he was moving to put her phone in her purse it began to ring. He was unable to remain at ease when he saw 'Mark' flashing on the caller ID.

"I'll just take that," Belén saw nothing and grabbed her phone, answering then. "Hello?"

In the meantime, Barry pretended to just casually stand there like it didn't bother him this guy was probably still trailing after Belén.

"Yeah, no thank you so much. I will definitely be there tonight. Okay, thanks," Belén hung up with an incredible amount of excitement.

"So...what did Mark happen to say….?" Barry took her phone and let it drop in her bag.

"Things…" Belén said slowly, her eyes studying his expressions and gestures. It reminded her of the way Cisco and even Joe had looked at Mark the day at the rally.

"Mm, things that had you so happy…" Barry commented, utterly failing at hiding his jealousy.

Belén reached for his arm and motioned with her head for them to get going. Sighing, he took her purse and led her for the door. It was honestly refreshing seeing him this distressed over something as simple as a phone call from another man. Belén wasn't there to be fought over like a trophy, but after six months of having nothing from Barry, she could stand to see a bit of jealousy on his part.

Of course, midway down the same street she felt guilty. Barry was having a struggle to keep his mouth shut about Mark and Belén could tell it was killing him.

"Can I show you something?" she stopped suddenly to face him.

"Yeah, sure," Barry expected her to want to take something out of her bag but she shook her head and leaned to his ear to whisper something.

An address.

Barry blinked in confusion, but Belén assured it was for a good reason. He carefully took hold of her, not wanting to hurt her injuries, and sped them for an apartment building. There, they came to the third floor.

"Bells, I don't understand what we're doing," Barry was following the woman down a solemn hallway lined with various apartment doors.

"I'm easing those thoughts of yours about Mark," Belén glanced to see the metahuman fumbling over something he thought he'd been hiding relatively well. She stopped in front of the last apartment door and bent down to reach underneath the mat. Barry watched her pull a small golden key.

"Where are we?" he asked once she unlocked the door.

"Mark's apartment," Belén giggled and hurried in before he could refuse coming in with her.

The jealousy was undeniable then. "Belén, I know I was a jerk but I don't think this is fair-"

Belén hummed to herself as she looked around the almost empty apartment. Its living room was spacious without the old furniture that used to be there. There was a couple of boxes stacked up against a wall. She walked over to them and started sifting through them.

Meanwhile, Barry was scowling at everything there. The kitchen still had its table and a couple of more boxes. He could see the hallway was empty of any portraits or furniture.

"Barry, do you think Mark and I are dating?" Belén's sudden, straightforward, question pulled Barry to the moment. Widened eyes laid on her still going through a box. "Well?"

"Um…" Barry rubbed the side of his neck, "...what's the answer that doesn't make me look like a selfish jerk?" Belén laughed to herself. "I mean, I don't purposely try finding jealousy. I know you and I are not together and that you have every right to find someone who won't hurt you. It's just...it doesn't mean I stopped caring." Belén looked back silently, her playfulness gone as she listened to his words. "It hurts, yeah, that you could find someone else. It shouldn't but it does. And...and if you and this guy are trying something...then tell me, and I'll stop all of these attempts of mine. I promise."

Belén could tell, despite being a decent distance from him, that he was being completely honest. With a swelling heart, she pulled out a small, wooden portrait and walked back to him. "Here," she held the portrait for him to take.

"What?" Barry took the portrait and looked down to find a picture of Mark and a ginger woman side-by-side smiling.

"That's Mark-" Belén tapped a finger over Mark's figure, "-and this-" she moved her finger to the ginger woman, "-is Selena. His fiancee."

"F-fiancee?" Barry repeated. Belén nodded her head, giggling when she saw the relief wash over his face. "Oh thank God!"

"They're getting married - actually, I'm a bridesmaid - and Mark is moving in with her so...he let me take his apartment," Belén gestured to the place.

Suddenly, the apartment was amazing. Barry couldn't help himself and encased her in a hug. "I'm probably a selfish man but I'm really happy you're not dating anyone nor thinking about dating," he murmured beside her ear.

"Well, maybe just one person…" Belén responded quietly and pulled away to show a shy smile across her lips.

Barry blinked, initially taken aback, but it didn't take long for him to start smiling back. Definitely on the right track, he thought.

~0~

Cisco was setting to work on the sample of sand - which apparently was not sand according to Jay - that Barry brought to them earlier in the day. He was waiting for professor Stein to return to the working room to try and find out more of the breeches. He set the small sample of sand underneath a scientific microscope and barely got a look at it when he felt that same, odd sensation that often pulled him from the present.

He found himself in a blue, glowing building. He spotted Sand Demon being thrown to the hard ground, a crackling light threatening over him.

"What do you want!?" Sand Demon shouted frantically as the threatening light grew closer to his face.

A woman's laughter sounded behind him. However, a second woman's voice ordered the first to quit it.

Her soothing, almost sultry-sounding voice, then told the first woman it wasn't the way.

A brunette donning leather, her back to Cisco, stood in front of the second woman - a tall, ginger in a green one suit. "He says there's another one…"

The ginger wagged a finger at the brunette. "Then you shouldn't harm this one-" she gestured to Sand Demon who was still under the brunette's threat, "-unless you want to lose your only way."

The brunette sighed and retracted the threatening light from Sand Demon. The ginger moved past the brunette and stopped beside Sand Demon. "Zoom wants you to work for him. Either you agree or you lose your powers and probably die. Quite simple really." The sadistic smile on her face provoked a terrible tingle of fear in Cisco.

"Woah," Cisco sucked in a heavy breath once he managed to get out of that vision. "What's happening to me…?" he slowly fell back into his chair, exhaling and trying desperately to get that vision out of his head.

~0~

Before Barry could take Belén to lunch, he received a call from Joe that he had found their metahuman - whose name was Eddie Slick. Sadly, Barry had to cancel and leave Belén on the street. She didn't mind, she understood after all. SHe went back to work and did her best to finish her article as much as she could before it was time to go. Linda and Iris were really excited once they saw their work finally melding together in the article, and left Belén a little happy to see her return getting closer.

However, her happiness didn't last long when she returned to Caitlin's apartment.

"Oh for the love of…" Belén mumbled under her breath at the sight of her mother standing in Caitlin's living room.

"Annah-Belén," Veronica finally breathed from relief at the sight of her daughter.

"What are you doing here?" Belén demanded. "How do you even know we're staying here?"

"Wasn't easy but I am a cop," Veronica said, shrugging. "Your lovely friend - Caitlin, I believe - was kind enough to let me wait for you in her home. I've been trying to call…"

"One would think rejecting all your calls would give you a clue that I didn't exactly want to talk to you," Belén set her uninjured hand on her hip.

Veronica expected this sort of behavior from her daughter but couldn't say it didn't hurt her. Her talk with Belén earlier in the day at her job was a complete disaster. Belén was mad that she hadn't even tried getting in contact with her after she was shot. But what really drove things home was the fact Veronica had tried coaxing Belén to return with her to Star City with her.

"We need to talk," Veronica ventured to try again but Belén wasn't having it.

"You said everything earlier and I already told you no," Belén enunciated the last word slowly. "I'm not coming with you and there is nothing you can say that'll change my mind."

Veronica, exasperated, let her own purse fall to the nearest couch. "Would you stop being so childish? You would see that I'm only trying to help you!"

"Me!?" Belén scoffed. "How are you helping me? By trying to pull me away from my friends? From my job? From my city?"

Veronica was about to shout back but she bit her tongue and came up with an alternative. "I passed by the house...and I saw you were selling it."

Belén still became defensive over it. "The deed was under Dad's name, and with Rayan dead and Maritza in jail the house is legally mine. I can do what I want with it."

"But that's the point, Belén," Veronica sighed. "You are selling your home because you can't keep up with all the payments and now with Axel you have a lot more to deal with. Come back with me, please. It's the best thing for Axel."

"I am not going with you!"

Veronica gave her a stern, yet somewhat apologetic look, for what she was about to say next. She truly thought she would be able to get through with her daughter but apparently she had been wrong. "If you don't come back then I will be forced to file for Axel's custody."

Belén's eyes widened till they just couldn't anymore. "You wouldn't…" her voice trembled.

Veronica remained on her stance. It felt terrible seeing her daughter so shaken by a possibility of losing the child, but Veronica truly saw no other way. "Axel is a child, Belén, and he needs a stable home. Where is he right now, hmm?" she gestured to the clearly empty apartment.

Belén's eyes became teary but she answered anyways. "With my friend, Cisco."

"Mm, can't keep him with you, can you?"

"I have a job!" Belén defended herself in a mild-shout. "That thing I do to pay for his needs. Many single mothers have babysitters."

"I think I have said what I needed to," Veronica reached for her purse on the couch. "I will be here till the end of the week, but if you don't come back with me then I will be forced to fight for my grandson's custody."

"Maritza wouldn't let you!" Belén cried frantically. "She specifically left instructions for me to have Axel's custody."

"Well, when the judge takes a look at our backgrounds they'll see I have plenty experience unlike you." Veronica sighed as Belén's tears began to fall down her cheeks. "I don't want to fight you, Belén. I don't. But you are leaving me no choice here." With those words, she walked out of the apartment.

Belén angrily threw her purse across the room just as Veronica shut the door. Almost instantly, Belén felt the cold, plant-side of her start creeping out. But unlike the previous year, she didn't fight it, she let it come to her. There was a brief change of her skin - the emerald, scaly side appeared for but a minute before Belén felt calm enough to send it away.

"It's not over," she turned away.

~0~

Belén listened for the loud ringing bell that indicated she was allowed to move into the visitor's ward. Every time she came to Iron Heights' metahuman division, she couldn't imagine living in such a dull, cold place. But, it was where her older sister, Maritza, had been living for the past 6 months...serving a life sentence. Her metahuman side proved to be a challenge for her sentencing, and since the justice system hadn't caught up with the fact some of their population now had powers...it was easier to sentence almost any metahuman for a long, long time.

Maritza knew well what she'd done and she accepted her sentencing with true penance...not that Belén quite believed it yet.

"You came for a visit," Maritza beamed when her sister picked up the visitor's phone on the other side of the glass.

"It's not like I had much of a choice," Belén muttered. Her eyes seemed to struggle to remain on her sister, something Maritza noticed the first time Belén visited her.

"I heard what happened to your arm..." Maritza lowered her voice. "Did you catch the guy who did it?"

"Barry did," Belén cleared her throat. "Metahuman. What can you expect from low-lives."

Maritza took the sting with a slow nod of her head. She was being patient, very patient with Belén, but it hurt each time Belén made a snide comment like that. "I'm very glad Barry helped you, then. You and him...you're talking again?"

"That doesn't matter," Belén shifted on her seat. "I'm here for other business. Mom's in town." Maritza blinked in shock. "And she's not here on good terms."

"I...I don't understand," Martiza leaned forwards in her chair. "I haven't seen Mom since my sentencing hearing and...it's not like she had a lot of words to say to me."

"Well, she said a lot to me," Belén shook her head. "She wants me to come back to Star City. If I don't, she'll fight for Axel's custody."

Maritza's eyes widened in alarm. "What!? My instructions were specifically for you. I transferred my custody over - everything was legal, Belén! I swear it!" And judging by Maritza's distress, she was telling the truth.

"Has she come talk to yet? About anything?"

"No! I swear she hasn't!" Maritza sighed and brought a hand to her forehead. "Mom hates me." Belén remained silent for a moment. Maritza wasn't always one to show emotion, but her quiet whisper was signal enough of how honest she'd been when she said that. "I did terrible stuff, shamed her name in the police department. She doesn't come to visit me, ever." Maritza lowered her hand to the metal table and looked at Belén with a small smile. "You're her golden child now, her only child now."

"Mom and I don't get along, and if she does this - if she takes Axel from me - I will hate her forever."

And Maritza knew Belén meant every word of it.

~ 0 ~

The next morning that Belén made it to STAR Labs, she found all of her friends arguing with one another. It was enough to give anyone a headache.

Barry was the one in the middle of scolding the others. "We don't even know anything about Zoom! What is Zoom? Is Zoom even real? Right now, that's just, you know, a story around a campfire. I mean, have you discovered a breach yet?"

Professor Stein coughed awkwardly when the question was thrown at him. "Not yet, but we know how to now."

Barry made a gesture he was being proven right then looked at Caitlin. "Have you found one thing to suggest that Jay is a speedster? Is there a trace that the Speed Force was ever even in his system?"

"It doesn't appear to be, no," Caitlin shook his head. "But then again, if a siphoner was involved…"

"What's going on?" Belén spoke over them.

"We're being lectured, that's what," Iris sighed and glanced at the woman.

Barry groaned. He was frustrated that no one was listening and getting that this was important. They were all so quick to trust Jay - a man who had dropped in on them with a story they couldn't even yet prove. "We are scientists," he continued, voice louder and sharper than before. "You're journalists," he gestured to both Belén and Iris, the former blinking as she was yet to understand what the problem was. "We test, we prove, we report. That's what we do. Except right now, nobody here wants to do any of that except me."

"Okay," Belén spoke over him before he said something more, "I'm cutting it right here. We gotta talk," she pointed between herself and Barry with a warning look that he had to better agree with her. "Can we have the room for a mo?"

There was no disagreements among the group. Caitlin took Axel by the hand and walked out along with the others. Belén waited with arms crossed until they were all gone.

"Look, Barry, I know it too early to say this, but I'm not having a good day so can we just cut to the chase here. Why don't you want to trust Jay?"

Barry tried to look anywhere but her demanding eyes. "I don't know."

"Really? That's the answer we're going with?" Belén was mighty disappointed he was trying to play dumb with her. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that, then. I dare you." But of course, Barry was unable to. With a sigh, Belén walked up to him. "Is it...because of Dr. Wells? Well, Thawne, whatever his actual name was."

Striking the nerve, Barry didn't even hide his anger. "I trusted that man. For months."

"Hey, we all did," Belén reminded.

"But you know what?" Barry finally was able to look her in the eyes. "Eddie is dead. Ronnie is dead. And a whole lot of other people in this city, they are dead because we trusted him. I'm not gonna let us make that mistake again."

"You know, I would have thought that you being a scientist would understand that not everyone is the same. Jay is not Wells. And besides that, you defeated Wells because you trusted in people. Because you believed in them. The team that you have here, they will follow your lead. They'll do what you say. But if they think that you don't believe in them, it won't be long before they don't believe in you. Is that what you want?"

"Course not," Barry mumbled under his breath.

"Then…" Belén stepped closer to him, hands like a feather over his arms, "...why don't we give him a chance, hm? Think he deserves that."

Barry thought it over but struggled a bit as he felt her touch. He playfully rolled his eyes then, succumbing to her idea. "Yeah, I guess I could let him out for a bit…"

With a laugh, Belén stepped back. "There we go. See? It is possible to play nice with other speedsters."

This time, Barry laughed. Their conversation was cut short when they heard Barry's phone going off. He saw it was Joe and answered, hoping they had news (again) on their actual villain. Unfortunately, it also involved the kidnapping a fellow new co-worker.

"We're looking for any structures that promote humidity. Greenhouses, grow rooms, anything of the sort," Jay explained to the group who was ready to start searching for places where Slick could have taken Patty to. "His body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated."

"Like dry sand," Caitlin nodded her head.

"Exactly. Sand Demon always attacks on two fronts. He creates a diversion, then strikes when you're distracted."

"Okay, then what do we do?" asked Barry.

"We use your speed to get to him before the distraction can happen."

Barry did his best to not sound condescending as he asked, "Jay, how do I stop somebody who can slip through my fingers?"

But Jay already had the answer. "The way I was never able to. With lightning.c

Cisco clapped his hands together. "Yo, are you about to pull a Zeus right now?"

Belén snickered. "Oh my God, Cisco. But wait," her face scrunched in confusion, "Can you do that?" She looked between Jay and Barry. "Can you actually create thunder from speed?"

"Asks the woman who can poison anyone by touch," coughed Cisco.

"You can poison?" Jay asked curiously, making Belén chuckle.

"Yeah, suit's mine," she pointed at her old Azalea suit behind him. Jay glanced back and examined the suit for a moment.

"All right," Barry agreed to the plan, a but unsure ld how well it would go but at the moment it was all they had.

~ 0 ~

While everyone set to work on finding their missing meta and officer, Jay and Barry moved to the training room/garage to try out that lightning trick. Because neither Caitlin nor Stein had found the place they needed, Cisco opted for a different way but left abruptly to go try it out apparently. Unable to help herself, Belén followed a short moment afterwards.

When she found him in the working room, she was a bit concerned to find him holding his head with eyes shut. As Belén walked in further, he jolted like he had snapped out of something.

"Oh, no," he muttered with a heavy breath like he had just run a marathon or something.

"...Cisco?" her voice startled him into turning around. "What just happened here?

Thinking it would distract her, Cisco answered a different question. "I figured out where Patty is."

"Okay...but how did you figure that?"

Cisco nervously laughed. "Just a hunch. We gotta tell Barry." He made a move for the hallway when three tendrils of vines wrapped around the room's threshold to block his way. Slowly, he turned around. "Using powers against me now? That's a serious disadvantage."

"I'm sure," Belén smiled. "So are we going to discuss this or will I have to keep you hostage?"

"I know where Patty is, Bells. We can't waste time," Cisco adamantly said.

"Cisco I know you're hiding something-"

"Look, I promise we can talk afterwards but right now we have to save Patty. Right?"

Belén narrowed her eyes playfully. "Playing the good-guy card on me. That's the disadvantage." She pulled the vines back from the threshold and followed Cisco out the room.

After telling both Barry and Jay of where it was most probable that Sand Demon and Patty would be, Jay was designated as the visual distraction needed in order to save Patty. It was then that he revealed the silver helmet that had fallen through the breech on the day of the singularity was his.

"Never thought I'd see that again," Jay laughed when Caitlin emerged from a cortex side room holding said helmet. "It was my father's, from the War of the Americas."

Cisco blinked. "Did you just say War of the Americas?"

"I wish you would have just told us you lost your helmet. Would have saved us all a headache," Barry remarked as Jay put on the helmet. It really would have avoided so much distrust.

"Well, sure you want to do this, Flash?" Jay turned to him.

"Yeah. Let's go see what you're made of... Flash." Barry clapped hands with him.

As it turned out, Cisco had been right of where to find Sand Demon and Patty...to which Belén gave a sharp look at Cisco. Cisco, trying to avoid questions, got on the comm.

"I'm in the security feed. Go, Barry!"

Barry had sped into the building, making sure Sand Demon would hear his arrival but remained hidden and allowed Jay to come in as if he had made the noise instead.

"Is that you, Flash? Found your way here," Sand Demon turned from the bound Patty on a chair to face Jay.

"I came quite a distance," Jay remained where he was. He needed to draw Sand Demon away from Patty to allow Barry the time to get her out.

"I thought you were dead," Sand Demon admitted.

"You were wrong. Like usual. Let the girl go."

"Have at it," Sand Demon gestured to Patty. "But you touch her, she goes boom-" he made the exploding gesture with his arms, "-and I think even you aren't fast enough to save her."

He walked up to Jay, waiting for a moment but allowing Jay to throw the first punch. Sand Demon ducked and stepped back.

"Quite a bit slower on this Earth, aren't you, Flash?"

That moment allowed Jay for a clear shot across the face.

Angry he'd been caught off guard, Sand Demon returned the favor and started punching Jay back. "You don't have your speed, do you?" he realized with great delight and wonder. "Did she siphon them?" he had to know. While it was such a pleasure to see his enemy without powers, it meant that Zoom did have the power - or the woman - to steal powers from anyone.

But once again he had become distracted. Barry was able to come in and pull Patty from the chair she was tied to. As the bomb went off, he, Patty and Jay were blasted back while Sand Demon absorbed the energy.

"Must be my lucky day," Sand Demon laughed as both speedsters got up. Patty was identified as unconscious but alive. "Zoom sent me here to kill you. Now I get to kill The Flash from two worlds before I go home." He stuck a hand backwards, using a mighty sand blast to choke Jay from behind.

Barry took a big breath and started running around Sand Demon and Jay, just like Jay instructed.

"Come on!" Sand Demon shouted for him to stop and actually fight. He let go of Jay and waited for the other speedster to stop.

At light speed, Barry stopped in front of him and hurled a shard of lightning forwards. It caught Sand Demon right on the chest and threw him backwards. By the time he hit the ground he had turned into brown glass that shattered at the contact of the hard ground.

~ 0 ~

Later that same day, Belén returned to find Cisco working in his experiment room. She had held her tongue back for a reasonable amount of time but now she felt it was time to get those answers.

"Cisco?" she startled him as she strode into the room. "Professor Stein wanted to know if you've made progress on whatever the hell electrophotography is supposed to mean?"

Cisco smiled. "The satellite picture of the city's still rendering so we have a couple more minutes left."

"Oh, perfect," Belén made herself comfortable on the edge of his desk. "While we wait, maybe now you can tell me what's going on with you."

"U-uh...what?" Cisco glanced at her, eyes blinking rapidly.

Belén just smiled. "Your 'hunches'-" she made air quotation marks, "-don't really sound like hunches. I know you're smart very smart, but this is something else. I mean, you knew where Sand Demon was - like exactly where he was and what he was gonna use? Cisco-" she tilted her head, serious then, "-for real?"

Cisco knew there was no point in denying it then. "Something's happening to me."

"That much I got."

"I'm starting to perceive things. Horrible things…" Cisco paused and moved away from the desk. "It started after Wells killed me in the other timeline. It came back when Atom Smasher attacked on Flash Day, and then again when Sand Demon showed up. I get a vibe, and then a vision of something that's already happened, and then it's gone. That's how I knew where Slick was."

Belén was beginning to smile. "Cisco, you're a metahuman!" she jumped off the desk excitedly. "You have powers! And...and good ones by the looks of it! We have to explore them-"

Cisco was quick to refuse such an idea. "No, no, no, we're not doing any of that, and we're certainly not telling anybody, either." Belén's smile began fading. "I'm seeing things I don't want to see. And knowing things I don't want to know. I just want it to stop."

"Cisco...I think I am the most qualified to remind you what happens when you desperately try to push your powers away."

Cisco curly nodded. He acknowledged there could be consequences to his decision but he just didn't want to know of these powers.

"I tried to ignore a whole side of my powers and look where I am now? I have to be very careful now. Don't ignore them - embrace them." Belén hoped he would adhere to her warning because she wouldn't like to see him in the same predicament she was.

"Wells told me this was my future. That he gave me this power. But everything he did was evil. That's what scares me, Bells. You have to promise me you won't tell anyone about this."

Belén agreed. "I promise I won't. But you have to promise me you'll think about what I said."

"I promise," Cisco agreed to the terms.

Belén smiled and hugged him with her good arm. "But you know what?"

"Mm?"

"If you do embrace them, that means you get to name yourself."

Cisco laughed. That was something he hadn't yet thought of.

~0~

After Caitlin finished attending to Jay's newest injury, she left the side room to allow Barry to talk with Jay. She figured they needed to get some words out. It was the only way they would be able to start fresh on good terms.

"So, I hear they call you the Scarlet Speedster," Jay couldn't help the laugh he set loose.

"Yeah," Barry laughed too. He wouldn't even mention the first one Belén had dubbed him with during their early days. "What about you?"

"The Crimson Comet." Jay laughed again. "What is it with alliteration and nicknames?"

"Hey, look, Jay, um...thank you for all your help. And for being so patient with me," Barry knew he was a piece of work that Jay shouldn't have had to work for so long.

"Nah, anytime, kid. You're a quick study," Jay waved it off. "Took me a lot longer to learn how to toss lightning, believe me."

"Then I suppose I had the right teacher."

"It's going to be a lot harder to take down Zoom."

"Who is this guy?" Barry hoped to get some real answers on Zoom because so far no one else had them.

Jay sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "No one knows. He showed up around the same time as when I got my powers. He gathered himself a selective metahuman band to constantly terrorize my city. I managed to put most of them away except for a few…"

"A few?"

"Well, I couldn't exactly touch a meta who poisons, another who siphons, or freezes...they're all dangerous, Barry. These just happen to be more dangerous."

"Hmm," Belén cleared her throat as she made her entrance to the place, "Sorry, did you just say a meta who poisons?"

Jay smiled, understanding her curiosity. "Poison Ivy - you don't want to meet her."

"With that name, no thanks," Belén raised her good hand to pass. She moved beside Barry, sitting down on the side of the bed. "Are we talking about Zoom? Because I would love to know more about this guy who has it in for Barry and a hobby of shooting women?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too," Barry agreed. Without noticing, he had stepped closer to Belén and put an arm around her. "Because I don't get it."

He truly had thought and thought why Belén had been targeted in the first place. He understood that Zoom was after him - however twisted it was he got it. He was a speedster and so was Zoom but the latter was more competitive. That made sense. Him ordering an attack on Belén did not make sense.

"Maybe it was because Zoom knew you were someone important to Barry," Jay tried reasoning himself.

"We didn't even talk with each other for six months," Belén reminded. "We broke up like a day after the singularity. There's no way Zoom could have put that together when we didn't have any contact."

"When I fought the Atom Smasher he mentioned it was a test," Barry recalled and soon felt the anger he felt then resurface.

"That sounds like a test I do not want to pass," Belén frowned.

"He said that it was a test, like a standalone thing. A test for...datura? I don't know what that is, though."

"Datura?" It was easy to see the name was very familiar to Jay.

"Yeah, what is that?" Barry asked him.

"It's not a thing, she's a woman. Datura," Jay explained with a small sigh. "She's the siphoner who stole my speed and if she targeted you specifically...my guess is she's going to want to leave you just like me: powerless."

"Oh…" Belén said quietly, unable to hide her growing fear. "Well...I guess I'm gonna have to...learn how to fight a...siphoner?" It was impossible to stay unconcerned when she wasn't at her prime state.

Barry saw her being absorbed in her thoughts. "Jay, can we have a moment please?"

Jay nodded and walked out of the room to give them privacy.

"Belén-" Barry moved to stand in front of her but the woman turned away from him.

"How do I fight a siphoner? Can I fight a siphoner?" she turned back to him with widened eyes. "Have we done that yet?"

"No, but...we'll find a way," Barry stepped closer to her. He reached for her uninjured hand and laced his fingers with hers. "We always do, right?"

"...yeah, we do," she sighed. But even as she tried to stay calm, her mind began to race towards the mysterious siphoner who had it in for her. Who was she? Why did Datura want her of all people?

[suspiriu-m]

Examining Youth Culture

Youth Culture in television in cinema is a theme we’ve all seen before. In some way or another, we’ve all probably related or even seen ourselves in something we’ve watched. A lot of experiences we see in these coming of age style pieces most of the time have something to do with at least one of three recurring themes. Sex, drugs and alcohol. Character archetypes are also an important part of these stories too. To sum it up, we’re generally confronted with Jocks, Nerds, Goths, Popular Kids, Pot Heads etc.

A major point to take into account when looking at this type of media is the perspective the story is told from, and where it’s taking place. For example, Barry Jenkins’ 2016 film Moonlight, is completely different from 2018’s Love Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti. Moonlight tells the story of a young Black man named Chiron. Through three different time periods in his life, we see him come to terms with his identity and sexuality, all while living with his drug addicted mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Miami. Throughout the film Chiron not only faces the struggles of his sexuality within himself, but how his unaccepting peers react, his mess of a mother, and maneuvering masculinity without the guidance of his missing father. In a review written for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw says that Moonlight

“is a film about masculinity, the wounds and crises of which are the same for all sexualities, but conditioned by the background weather of race and class” ((Bradshaw Moonlight review – a visually ravishing portrait of masculinity).

Love Simon however, is a completely different ballgame. The juxtaposition between the two films is extremely noticeable, even from just from looking at their promotional images. While Moonlight is more of a serious, realistic and emotionally charged movie, Love Simon has more of a young adult, coming of age, happily ever after tone to it. In the film, the main character has to find his way through growing up, high school, coming out to his friends and family, but most importantly figuring out how Blue is. Blue is the person that Simon has formed a connection with through emailing each other. The only problem? He has absolutely no idea who Blue even is. One of the more important aspects of this film when looking to compare it to others is the fact that the main character and most of the cast are all white. Not only that, but it takes place in a much more suburban setting compared to that of Moonlight. Simon’s relationship with his parents is very strong, his friends are all super close to him and the impression is given that they would obviously support him once he comes out. Surprise, they do.

In terms of which character I related to from the selection of films and shows assigned, I don’t really feel like I can truthfully say that I felt some sort of connection with them. Being gay myself, there wasn’t a crazy amount of representation in terms of queer youth in the films. Yes in Mean Girls you had Damian but he was kind of underutilized and exaggerated. In Euphoria you have Jules who is a trans woman but that also isn’t something that I’ve experienced and won’t pretend to. Could I relate to a few aspects of her character? Of course, i’m sure anybody can. But am I able to say I identify with her? Definitely not. That’s not a bad thing though, trans stories need to be represented in the media. More importantly they don’t always have to be represented in some tragic story or situation. Even though we’ve seen more queer representation today than ever before. We still have a long way to go. Rachel Bays wrote an article for The Advance-Titan stating

“Out of 109 major studio releases in 2017 researched by GLAAD, roughly 13% had LGBTQ characters. Of these films, about 64% featured gay men, 36% featured lesbians, 14% featured bisexuals and 0% featured trans-inclusive content”(Bays The complicated history of queer representation in film: The Advance).

It’s imperative that we see more queer representation mashed with Youth Culture in our media because not every single person experiences the same thing, especially queer kids. In terms of Kids, Saved By The Bell and Mid 90��s, I don’t specifically remember any particular moments in which I personally felt any sort of strong connection.

Now, if we’re gonna speak about common themes in a lot of these stories, then here is where I can say I definitely connected with some situations more than specific characters. Sex, drugs and alcohol are topics we see come up in a lot of coming of age or youth centered stories. In Kids, the main cast is basically parading around the city smoking, drinking and fornicating multiple times throughout the entire day. In Euphoria, one of the main characters Rue suffers from drug addiction. Kat comes to terms with her sexual awakening and a lot of her storyline is focused on her coming in touch with that side of her, whether or not it was the best way to portray it. And most of the other characters are all seen smoking, drinking out having sex at some point in the series.

Growing up, especially in our teen years, we’ve all had the opportunity to partake in at least one of those activities previously mentioned. I know for a fact that I have definitely been to parties, drank alcohol, smoked weed. I’ve encountered hookups and the whole nine yards. Something that really stood out to me in Euphoria was the episode in which Jules ends up meeting with an older man in a hotel room late at night. We shall not name the character for sake of spoilers but those of you who watched know exactly who i’m talking about. That entire scene was just gut wrenching for me to watch and I know it was for many other young queer people as well. Everything about that scene was purposefully uncomfortable to watch from the cinematography, music, acting and the location.

Speaking of music, the soundtrack to a film or TV show is super important and a lot of the time helps the creators in getting their point across. Euphoria specifically used a lot of modern music but also threw in some classics as well. The singer-songwriter Labrinth played a big role in adding music to the show’s soundtrack. He even collaborated with Zendaya in making All For Us, the show’s theme and closing track. It was premiered in the last episode of the series and incorporated into the storyline with a performance by Zendaya herself. This song specifically is so important aside from the rest of the show’s music because it aids in showing Rue’s downfall at the end of the season. She goes through so much in her recovery and relapsing and her relationship with Jules that when Jules finally decides to hop on that train and leave even though Rue tells her it’s not the best idea, it absolutely crushed her. In an interview for Rolling Stone magazine, Labrinth stated “When you look back to your teenage days... it feels semi-magical but semi-crazy and semi-psychotic. I wanted to make sure the music felt like those things”(Marks How Labrinth Created the Perfect Soundtrack for HBO's 'Euphoria').

To help convey how certain songs can help in telling a story, I created a short playlist with songs that I felt matched certain plot points in the show. Without going into too much detail in an attempt to avoid spoilers, I want to give you guys a short explanation of each song about how I feel it can fit into the show. In no exact order, the first song I chose was Regulars by Allie X. The song is about trying to fit in with society and the people around you when you feel out of place all the time. Personally, I feel like this is a good representation of Rue when she comes home from rehab and has to try and blend back into society knowing that everybody knows where she was. Halsey’s Beautiful Stranger is about meeting somebody after being hurt so many times, or just being in a bad headspace and finally feeling like this person could be the one. This is a good explanation for how Rue feels about Jules when she first meets her. She’s hesitant but slowly starts to fall in love with her before Jules starts acting out. Contaminated by Banks is a piece about loving somebody but having their history or the other person's actions make you feel not so good about the relationship you have with them. This is how Rue feels after her first little fallout with Jules. They kind of have an on and off relationship throughout the season and Rue subconsciously has doubts. Simmer by Hayley Williams is a song about suppression. Suppressing your emotions, especially the bad ones like anger, fear, sadness, rage. Nate in the series suffers with a lot of mental suppression. He suppresses his feelings about his relationship with his father, his questioning sexuality, his feelings for a specific character. Although he does lose his cool multiple times throughout the show, it’s not until the end of the season that he really bursts and lets everything out. Another song from Hayley Williams with her band Paramore called Fake Happy is also on the playlist. Fake Happy, to put it simply, is exactly what the title suggests. Pretending to be okay when you’re really not. In the show Rue relapses a few times whether that be big or small, and she has to hide it from her friends and family.

Maddy and Cassie are both the pretty popular girls of this show, leading me to choose Rina Sawayama’s XS as a representation of them. The title XS, otherwise interpreted as “excess” is literally about money, appearance and materialistic items. All of which Cassie and Maddy display throughout the show. The popular cheerleaders with the nice clothes and toned bodies, the pretty makeup and done up hair. It’s a perfect representation of their characters in my opinion. Even though they do have storylines going deeper into their minds, this is what they portray on the surface level.

Hallucinogenics by Matt Masson is a song about going somewhere else most likely due to drugs, and feeling like a different person. Although the song is a bit lighthearted in terms of sound, I think it fits with the scene with Jules and Rue taking drugs together and tripping in her room together. Rue was wary about doing it especially after the fact that she just got clean, and she already has this war in her mind going on but she does it anyways because she likes Jules. Attack of Panic by Aly & Aj heavily focuses on anxiety, which is something Rue deals with multiple times throughout the show. Especially the episode when she’s in school and pretty much has a mental breakdown and runs to the bathroom and hides. Even though the character Kat isn’t the primary focus of the show, her storyline has a bit of line shined upon it multiple times. For her storyline i chose Doja Cat’s Cyber Sex. Kat becomes a cam girl at one point in her sexual awakening and kind of goes full throttle into it. The song talks about having sexual relations with somebody over the internet and that’s exactly what Kat does, except she sees it more as a way to make an income.

Last but not least, I of course had to choose Labrinth and Zendaya’s song made for the show All for Us. The song represents Rue’s feelings of not wanting to let her family down, knowing the struggles and pain they have gone through and not wanting to upset or disappoint them again. Everything she’s done to get clean and sober up has been because of them. She loves her family so dearly but in the end she just broke down again, all because of Jules and the mess that she got herself involved with pertaining to many of the other characters she meets throughout the show. I hope you guys enjoy the playlist and take a good listen to the lyrics and themes in each song! They might not be perfect, but to me they have a lot of commonalities with themes and specific moments and themes from the show!

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/playlist-for-euphoria/pl.u-AGAaiylr2l

[jackiforjustice]

hiya everyone! I’m dev ( use any pronouns, mine are up in the air rn ), and this is my social justice baby jacki! please hmu for plotting - I’d love to really develop something with each of you! bio below!

trigger warnings for racism, sexism, and police brutality.

✘ CHARACTER BASICS

Skeleton Title: The Cavalier Faceclaim: Laura Harrier Jacqueline “Jacki” Reynolds | Twenty-Two | Cis-Female | She/Her | May 18th

✘ CHARACTER BACKGROUND

The Gist: 

Jacqueline is the oldest daughter of Susan and Barry Reynolds. Born in 1969, just two years after the Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage across the United States, Jacqueline was one of the first interracial children in her small Idaho hometown. 

A couple years and two younger brothers later, the Reynolds family decided to move to Graingerville to be closer to a big city. It was clear from a very young age that Jacqueline was smarter than her years - she exceeded in school from day one, and always preferred reading to the rowdy games at recess. 

Although she was incredibly intelligent for her age, Jacki always had trouble fitting in. The other black kids thought she wasn’t black enough because of her white mother; the white kids took one look at her rich dark skin and knew she wasn’t one of them. While she managed to find her own group of friends who didn’t care much either way in terms of her race, the underlying discrimination and confusion based on being from a mixed family stuck with her for a long time.

When Jacki entered middle school, her father started telling her stories of his own adolescence - while Jacki worried about math quizzes and essays, Barry was fighting for his rights every single day. He became a lawyer because of it, and after hearing about the Civil Rights Movement directly from him and her other relatives, Jacki decided she wanted to be a lawyer too.

As Jacki got older, her peers began partying more often, rebelling against their parents to make a statement, to be reckless and bold with no apologies. Jacki tried that phase for a minute (but quickly ended when she realized she cared more about what her parents thought of her than her friends from school). Instead of completely locking herself away from the other teenagers in Graingerville, she chose a more proactive route: everyone at her high school knew if they needed a designated driver, Jacki would be there to lend a helping hand. 

By the end of her sophomore year in high school, Jacki had a perfectly laid-out plan of how to get into either Harvard, Yale, or Stanford majoring in Political Science. Her parents were undoubtedly impressed, and worked to help her achieve her big dreams of getting into top notch schools. 

Needless to say, her plan worked. After graduating as valedictorian from her high school, Jacki was off to Yale majoring in Political Science with a minor in American History. Yale pushed Jacki to her absolute limits in the best way - she worked harder than ever, made lifelong friends, and even had her first boyfriend (his name was Liam, and they dated for one semester before she dumped him during finals week because he was distracting her). 

Although Jacki entered college with the hopes of becoming a lawyer, the more she learned about the Civil Rights Movement and the treatment of black people in American history, the more she wanted to immediately help those in need. She had been eyeing the possibility of Law School for a while, but it wasn’t until she moved back home to Graingerville post-college graduation that she changed her career path slightly.

The Big Freakout Event of 1990 threw her family for a loop. Her younger brothers were just about to start their sophomore and senior years of high school, her mother had just been promoted at the hospital, and her father had just won a huge case against the unjust arrest of two young black men. But when people with psionic powers and lizard deers terrorize the streets out of the blue, the world sort of pauses for a while. 

When the dust had settled from the craziness of the BFE, Jacki found herself wanting to help more directly. Being a lawyer helps those accused of a crime - she wanted to help protect the people of Portland from...whatever the crazy shit out there was. She was still torn between being a lawyer or moving to a different career choice when another event influenced her decision.

In March of 1991, Rodney King was horrendously beaten by police officers in Los Angeles. It was unjust, it was unfair, and it was entirely based on race. The trial for the police officers in question was scheduled for the following year, as these sorts of things take time, but it was that one event (and reading about other racist events prior to the Rodney King beating), that led Jacki to join the Portland Police Department.

She was the top of her class at the Police Academy (she’s always had a penchant for rules and regulations), and with marks like that, she was absolutely sure she’d start making tidal waves once she was officially on the force.

Unfortunately, they had her saving cats from trees, dealing with parking tickets, and lost elderly people roaming the streets. 

The Emerging Threats Unit looks better and better by the day. Jacki’s dreamed of helping people since she was little - why won’t the higher ups let her just do it? She’s starting to get sick of pushing papers around while she could be making the world a better place. Luckily, that Yale degree is coming in handy - she’s doing her best to study up on the supernatural stuff going on around town, and she’s determined to be the expert on all things crazy in this place if it kills her.

Jacqueline Reynolds has no supernatural powers unless you count her unnerving organization skills or her endless knowledge on the historical racism in America thus far (both of which cause her major exhaustion and/or frustration, which I would deem a consequence for her power).

✘ “STAY WEIRD PORTLAND”

One wall of her apartment bedroom looks like a conspiracy theory wall. She’s incredibly organized, yes, but her obsession with being the expert on all things supernatural in Portland has caused her to look a little bit like a nutcase. However, the conspiracy theory wall is prettier than other conspiracy theory walls in TV shows and movies because hers comes with color coordinated strings, index cards, and pens. Sometimes when she’s feeling frisky, she even manages to color coordinate the thumbtacks. 

While Jacki is a picture perfect student, she has no clue what it means to be good at maintaining a romantic relationship. Absolutely no idea what she’s doing. Flirting often goes right over her head. She can give you historical dates and supernatural factoids up the wazoo, but hit her with a one-liner and she just sort of stares...and then walks away.

✘ ASPECTS & SKILLS

Straight A Student: Jacki never earned less than an A- in her entire academic career (a fact that her parents remind her younger brothers of every single day). She excels in history and English, and performs well in math and sciences. Although art has never really been her thing, her ability to give it a try has always earned her at least an A- in class.

Strong, Smart, Underestimated Woman: It’s 1991. She’s a Yale graduate, incredibly intelligent, resilient as hell, and determined to serve justice and protect those around her. She is fierce by any definition of the word, but that doesn’t mean everyone sings her praises. Some men find her strength frightening. Some others find her intelligence to be overbearing, or too “know-it-all” for their liking. She’s underestimated, and often given the dirty work rather than the work she joined the police force for, and she knows it.

I Have to Do What’s Right: Even though Jacki loves rules, regulations, and the like, sometimes the rules are wrong. That’s why she started training with The Fighter. That’s why she’s studying up on supernatural occurrences. And that’s why she’s more than willing to protect people who aren’t in the wrong. I mean come on, it’s not anybody’s fault that some of these people have powers - just because people fear them for being different doesn’t excuse any harm that comes their way, and Jacki has made it her mission to protect people with powers as long as they don’t maliciously hurt others.

Great: Will Good: Notice, Academics Fair:    Investigate, Shoot, Lore Aver:   Athletics, Stealth, Drive, Fight

✘ AESTHETIC

A brand new pack of index cards. Happy family photos on the wall. Clean laundry. The same haircut every time. Highlighted textbooks. Annotated novels. Reading the newspaper thoroughly. Fresh scented candles. Conspiracy theory strings. Too much coffee. Waking up to sunlight peeking through the window. Horrible headaches. Extra poster boards for future rallies and marches. Sleeping alone. Speaking quickly for efficiency’s sake. Gin and tonics. Being overwhelmed by large social situations. Studying without being assigned to. Forgetting to sleep. Forgetting to eat. Forgetting to take a moment to just breathe. Justice. Family dinners on Thursdays. Bending the law for things that are right. Ironed clothes. A color-coded planner. Wearing a retainer every night to bed like you’re supposed to. Bob Dylan CDs. Perfectly polished badges. Quiet breakfasts. Practical clothes.

✘ SEASON 2, EPISODE 1

If anyone else were to see what Jacki’s apartment looked like, they’d think it was just as clean as ever. But by her standards? Her room was a mess. Textbooks on the history of time and space stacked high on her desk; questionably sourced papers on the existence of supernatural creatures in our universe highlighted, annotated, and in their own folders; four mugs of coffee, all of them empty and lined up on top of her dresser. She would get to the bottom of this case. If her boss didn’t want her on anything more important than parking tickets, she’d work the Emergency Threat Unit cases on her own time. Sure, Jacki was losing sleep by the minute, but it would be worth it when crisis inevitably hit Portland again and she was the best resource they had. Plus, now she had a friend to help her improve her combat skills! She’d be prepared for anything, with a twelve-step solution to the next Big Freakout Event to hit her town. Just like her dad always told her: “If you can’t be the boss, be better than them.”

Please feel free to message me for any plots! I have a wimpy ass plotting page here, so feel free to look at that for inspiration!

[buzzdixonwriter]

Four Movies About Movies

If you love movies the way I do, you’ll appreciate the quadruple goodness Netflix is currently offering.

First off, Shirkers, a wild story about a lost film made over 30 years ago by a group of female Singaporean punks and their con-artist film school professor.

Of course, being a Singapore punk back in the 1980s meant you looked like an anime fan girl, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Wikipedia sums up the basic premise: “In 1992, Sandi Tan, alongside friends Jasmine Ng and Sophie Siddique, as well as film teacher Georges Cardona shot the independent film Shirkers. After wrapping, Tan, Ng, and Siddique left the footage with Cardona as the trio went to study abroad for college. However, Cardona disappeared with the footage and the trio never saw or heard from him again. “20 years later, and 10 years following Cardona’s death, Cardona’s wife emailed Tan, informing her that she was in possession of the footage for Shirkers, minus the audio tracks. In the proceeding years, Tan decided to digitize the footage and use it to make something new - a documentary about the making of the film.”

Shirkers is a delight. It captures the edgy exuberance of youth (and contrasts same with the middle age reality the three teens grew into) and offers an insight into the culture of Singapore, squeaky clean on the outside but containing its own forms of social rebellion.

Cardona, the bogus film school professor, is one of a long line of cinematic con men who tried to get a project off the ground with nothing more than a smile and a shoeshine.

That he comes across as more misguided than malevolent may be part of Tan’s shading of the story, but it may also reflect something about the man himself:  Never fully satisfied with who he really was, always wanting to build and embellish on that life, but while reckless apparently never cold hearted or cruel.

It’s a wonderful movie and extremely thought provoking.

Another cinematic con man can be found in The Other Side Of The Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, both released through Royal Road Entertainment.

It’s the savvy film company that releases not one but two movies based on an infamous lost / unreleasable film.

We’ll start with They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, a documentary about Orson Welles’ struggles to complete The Other Side Of The Wind and incorporating a lot of footage from that project that couldn’t be used in the final assembly (among other things, actors were replaced or changed parts).

While one could cite Welles as the titular con man, in truth there was a legion of schnooks, scammers, and slickee boiz attached to The Other Side Of The Wind over the years. The film was a hard luck project from the gitgo, getting mixed up with deposed shahs, revolutionary governments, and international embezzlers.

By the time all the dust had settled and some sense could be made out of the complicated rights’ claims, Welles and 90% of his cast had died.  What little bit he had assembled was analyzed, his copious notes and interviews were pored over, and in the end The Other Side Of The Wind was finally released.

Was it a good movie?

Well…let’s say it a movie, an Orson Welles’ movie, and let it go at that.

The Other Side Of The Wind had a long genesis, starting shortly after Hemingway’s suicide and evolving over the years to become a story about a macho film director.

However, the Great Big Shocking Reveal that Welles planned in the 1960s / 70s had become pretty passé by the 1980s and is now kinda corny.  It’s valid in the movie as a period piece but that works against the film; it’s not a living document but a look back at a different era, a different attitude.

The conceit of The Other Side Of The Wind is that it’s a documentary about the last film / last night of a legendary film maker, J.J. Hannaford (played by John Huston).  “The Other Side Of The Wind” is the uncompleted film he is shooting at the time of his death; it will remain uncompleted because the star stormed off the set (part of the aforementioned Great Big Shocking Reveal) and Hannaford, faced with a hostile studio and investors who have puled their cash, dies in a car crash, possibly a suicide.

The bulk of the film takes place at Hannaford’s home during a birthday party for him; it is shot using various film gauges and stocks to represent different film crews / journalists / film buffs recording the same event.

It’s a very free flowing / highly improvised affair with moments that can pass from brilliant to banal and back again in a flash (how much of this is because Welles’ was unable to assemble it the way he envisions, and how much is just a lack of material is open to debate).

A grim joke running through the bigger film is that “The Other Side Of The Wind” (i.e.,  the film-within-the-film) is constantly being interrupted during its various screenings, so there’s no way of appraising it as a totality. 

“The Other Side Of The Wind” was Welles’ attempt to ape the free form film making style briefly popular during the late 60s and early 70s.

It actually looks like a Russ Meyer film of that era, beautifully photographed, filmed with striking images, and lots of naked ladies.

Lots and lots and lots of naked ladies.

There’s a story about Alfred Hitchcock working on his supposed last film at Universal (in reality, the studio indulging an old man who made them a fortune by giving him an office and a secretary and the chance to hang out with old film making friends). Hitchcock worked on a script with a writer he’d used in the past, but the further they got into the story, the more the writer realized what he was writing had nothing to do with what could possibly be filmed and released by a major studio, but rather were the erotic fantasies and fetishes of a doddering old man.

“The Other Side Of The Wind” has that kind of feel to it, and while it’s well done and memorable, lordie, it ain’t good.  That The Other Side Of The Wind manages to rise a couple of notches above that is a credit to Welles and his posthumous collaborators.

Rounding out our list, Filmworker is a fascinating story about Leon Vitali, a successful young worker who landed the choice role of Lord Burlington in Barry Lyndon and become so mesmerized by Stanley Kubrick’s directorial prowess that he abandoned his acting career to becomes Kubrick’s assistant.

This isn’t the kind of story one expects to see about a talented film maker, a story about an acolyte who remains loyal and steadfast decades after the master’s death.

While Filmworker references most of Kubrick’s films, it focuses most tightly on Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut.

There’s a wealth of fascinating material here, including R. Lee Emery crowing about how he stole the role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from under Tim Colceri in Full Metal Jacket, and the intricacies of finding a compatible work around for Kubrick’s obsessive directorial style vs child labor laws.

Vitali’s own career and early life, especially the not-at-all-positive influence of his father, are also delved into.

By the end of the film, one feels happy for Vitali: Looking back, he thinks he made the right career choice, and if he’s happy with the way things turned out, who are we to question that?

© Buzz Dixon

[junghoseokit]

Growing & Glowing (Part 4/?)

Barry Allen X Reader

After Barry and I made up, we went downstairs to find everybody in the living room, Joe, Iris, Cisco and Caitlin. They all looked back curiously, wondering if everything was okay.

When we reach the bottom step when suddenly, Barry throws his hands up in victory. “I’m going to be a dad!”

Everyone took that as a good sign and everybody walked over to congratulate us. Hugs were given out and it turned into a mini party. Joe ordered pizza, making sure I have mine with pepperoni and pineapples. These damn kids only like the forbidden food. The entire time we ate, everybody was poking fun at my weird cravings. Trust me, they are much worse, compared it everything else, this could be considered normal.

After everyone finished eating their nauseating pizzas, we all sat on the couch. We were all going back and forth with different topics when Cisco asked:

“So, Y/n, how did you find out you were pregnant in the first place?”

I chuckled at this question before going into my answer. “Well if I’m doing the math correctly, the contraception happened the night Barry awoke from his coma.”

Barry’s eyebrows raised, and cheeks were bright red, “you mean that time we uh…"

Iris attempts to hide her giggle at our exchange, but ultimately fails.

Barry takes notice right away and turns to me. “You told her?”

“Told her what?” wonders Cisco.

“Barry and Y/n conceived the Allen twins in Y/n’s office!” Iris squealed.

Barry hides his face with his hands as Joe screams “god I did not need to know that!” I’m dying of laughter and embarrassment, I playfully push Iris off the couch. “Yes, that happened, but now we ae getting off track.” I sigh before I continue, “now Joe, this story is a little explicit, so don’t go all squeamish on me.” I chuckled at my statement before continuing.

“So, you all know how a woman typically finds out she’s pregnant at 4 to 6 weeks?” Everyone in the room nodded and Barry shifted on the couch and laid his head down on my lap. I started to play with his hair as he looked up at me.

“But the thing is, I found out when I was two weeks pregnant, and I sadly learned the lesson condoms don’t work around 2% of the time.”

“Dear god, kid” groaned Joe.

“Dad, everyone has sex, I have sex and so does Barry” Iris points out.

Cisco beams, “not only does Barry and Y/n do the tango, they also make babies.”

“Not only do they make babies, they make twin babies” Caitlin chimes in.

“Twins with meta-powers” adds Iris.

While everyone continued making fun of Joe, Barry’s eyes came back to mine.

“So, when do we get to know the genders?”

I smirk, “well, we could know now.”

He quickly sits up. “Really?’

I nod, “Caitlin did a blood test on me, and you can find out the X and Y chromosomes of the babies that way. So, all we have do is ask, I told her not to tell me till you knew I was pregnant.”

Barry fully shot up and stood up, silencing everybody, and basically squealing “CAITLIN WHATS THE GENDERS OF MY CHILDREN?!?!”

Everybody started freaking out bombarding Caitlin with the same question.

I got up on my feet before I whistled to get everybody’s attention, all the noise silenced, and all eyes were on me.

“So, before I was interrupted with genders and sex jokes, I believe I was telling a story.”

Out of nowhere a pillow hit me, I look down to see Cisco sitting on the floor looking up at me.

“Well then, continue your story, mom.”

I rolled my eyes “well, it was around two weeks after that night, and I had just gotten home from work and got into the shower. As I steeped in and the water hit my body, but when the water hit my breasts, my nipples felt different, and I just knew.”

“A mother’s intuition never lies.” Said Cisco.

Joe got up and walked towards the kitchen, most likely to grab a beer. “God, everything involving you is dirty.” I giggled at Joe’s disgust.

Caitlin cleared her throat. “Well, how about instead of me just telling you the gender, how about I throw you both a gender reveal party?”

Seeing Caitlin all happy and giddy for once was nice, I met her a month before the Particle Accelerator Explosion, and before that she was a ray of sunshine. Since Ronnie died, she has become way more distant with everyone around her. Then when he apparently was alive, he was ripped from her once again, and went to Pittsburgh. How could I say no to her one chance of happiness?

I reach out and place my hand on hers, “that sounds like a great idea, doesn’t Barry?” I turn to face him to get confirmation. He has his mouth scrunched up to one side, as if he was still deciding.

“Would we have to wait much longer?” He finally says. Of course, he is so impatient.

Caitlin shakes her head “not at all. I was thinking we could do it this weekend!”

“Alright, fine. I’ll wait till then.” Agrees Barry.

Caitlin’s smile grows from ear to ear, she begins clapping from excitement. “Amazing! I have this mazing idea involving chemicals with hydrochloric aci-“

Suddenly my phone vibrates and Barry’s rings and from the kitchen we hear Joe’s do the same. Barry and I both check our phones as Joe comes out to the living room. “There’s trouble at the morgue, they want you guys there too. Iris call Eddie to make sure he gets there.”

Barry gets up quickly and uses his flash speed to pick me up bridal style. “Need a lift, darling?” I roll my eyes at his cockiness.

“If I puke on you during this, that’s on you.”

A/N: Oops...its been awhile...Im sorryyyy

@letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @smileyishere92

[tabloidtoc]

National Examiner, May 3

You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Widow Queen Elizabeth suddenly alone at 95

Page 2: Holy Moly! Stars take on film roles of biblical proportions -- Willem Dafoe, Leelee Sobieski, Keanu Reeves, Charlton Heston, Ewan McGregor

Page 3: Jon Voight, Jim Caviezel, Ingrid Bergman, Christian Bale, Max von Sydow, Steve Carell, Milla Jovovich

Page 4: Garden of Delights -- floral fashion unfolds in spring -- Olivia Wilde, Mindy Kaling, Keira Knightley

Page 5: Sarah Paulson, Drew Barrymore, Tiffany Haddish, Penelope Cruz

Page 6: Brooke Shields has finally fought her way back after a nightmarish accident she was terrified would leave her paralyzed after she broke her right femur after falling off a balance board at her New York City gym -- Brooke said it felt like it was all in slow motion and then she just started screaming -- after two surgeries and a nearly three-week hospital stay, Brooke went home to her worried family, husband Chris Henchy and their daughters Rowan and Grier, but her nightmare wasn't over because a serious staph infection sent her back to the hospital for yet another surgery, saying for the first time in her life she thought she can't power through this and she can't even stand on her leg or go up a step and she needs to relearn how to even walk and she kept saying she could feel her toes because she was so afraid she would be paralyzed but if anything, she's a fighter -- now back at home and receiving physical therapy, Brooke feels like she's slowly on her way out of the woods and she knows she's got a long way to go, but she'll get there

Page 7: Do your pets suffer from mental illness? Humans aren't the only ones who can sink into depression or fall victim to stress and anxiety; household pets also have their share of mental illness, usually it's because there's something wrong in their environment and that means they probably don't need meds or a visit to the analyst's couch, just some sensitivity on your part and a little TLC and here's how to tell whether Fluffy, Fido or Tweety have problems you need to address -- dogs can have PTSD, birds get depressed, cats can have OCD, hamsters are hoarders

Page 9: Race Against COVID Mutants -- scientists scramble as virus variations gather strength

Page 10: In an incredible stroke of luck, and savvy cop intuition, a New York State Trooper saved a missing toddler from the top of a mountain

Page 11: 3 cheers for cherries -- it's cherry season again, and whether you like them sweet or tart, these deep red fruits pack a healthful punch

Page 12: After two years of dating and five years of marriage, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston split without children, then he went on to have six kids with Angelina Jolie, so if Brad wanted to have a great big family, why didn't he and Jennifer have children of their own? After suffering through a horrible public breakup, when her husband threw her over for Angie, poor Jennifer suffered even further indignation when she was raked over the coals for not giving Brad a baby, and vicious accusations began that it was her outright refusal to have a family that started their breakup and that made Jen furious, saying a man divorcing would never be accused of choosing career over family and she's never in her life said she didn't want to have children, and she did and she does want children and she will have them and the women who inspire her are the ones who have careers and children and she's always wanted to have children, and she would never give up that experience for a career and she wants to have it all -- in 2004, while Jennifer was finishing up with the ten-year run of her hit TV show Friends and Brad was doing the flick Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jen was telling pals the time was finally right, and they were in a good place, ready to start a family and they were even preparing their home for a child by adding a playroom and a room for a nanny and they were definitely planning on having a kid but the plans were blown up when Mr. and Mrs. Smith was completed, and Brad left Jennifer for his co-star Angie, who already had a toddler and when she fell wildly in love with Brad, he also fell into the ready-made family and it turned out he liked being a dad so much, the couple have five more, three biological and two more adopted -- by the time Jennifer married Justin Theroux in 2015 and divorced two years later without a baby, she admitted that starting a family was a frightening prospect and that she had no regrets about her two marriages or remaining childless and she doesn't feel a void and her marriages have been very successful in her personal opinion, and she's sick of being beat up about it, saying there is a pressure on women to be mothers, and if they are not, then they're deemed damaged goods and maybe her purpose on this planet isn't to procreate; maybe she has other things she's supposed to do

Page 14: Dear Tony, America's Top Psychic Healer -- lying and dishonesty bring trouble to our world

Page 15: Sharon Stone starred in Basic Instinct and Casino and her life seemed to be glamorous, but behind the scenes it was a different story -- Sharon recently released her new memoir, in which she recalls the sexual abuse she and her sister Karen suffered as children and their mother's failure to protect them

Page 16: The shocking day Barry Manilow first discovered he had the heart condition AFib, he was alone and acted quickly to save his own life -- he was driving home and he felt his heart skip a beat, which doesn't sound like anything serious, so he didn't pay much attention to it and then it went blump-bla-bla-blump and it got crazier and crazier and he felt like there was a fish flopping around in his chest and it calmed down for a while, but later as he was watching TV, it started up again so he dialed his doctor, told him the problem and blurted what is this? He did what he was told and drove himself to the medical center in a panic to find out what was wrong with him and put a stop to it fast -- that first time was 25 years ago, but AFib is a lifetime problem that has to be monitored and battled consistently

Page 18: Here's some good news for fans of Don Johnson -- the actor says he's bringing one of his most beloved characters back to the small screen: Inspector Nash Bridges -- he confirmed during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that's he's currently prepping a revival of the show that ran for six seasons from 1996 to 2000 and he said they're in heavy prep for a reboot of Nash Bridges and it's Nash some years later and Cheech Marin is going to come back, and Jeff Perry, and they've got a pretty exciting show that they're prepping in San Francisco right now

Page 19: Shaquille O'Neal was spreading the love when he overheard a man making a payment on his girlfriend's engagement ring and stepped in to buy it himself -- the generous moment took place in an Atlanta jewelry store, where Shaq says he just happened to be shopping for earrings and overheard the young kid, a hard-working guy asking to make a layaway payment on the ring and that's when Shaq said tell your girlfriend he's got it and promptly handed over his credit card and at first, the shocked guy tried to turn down the offer, but Shaq wouldn't hear of it -- Shaq said he's just trying to make people smile and the random acts of kindness make him happy

Page 20: Cover Story -- after 75 years with Prince Philip, the only man she has ever loved, widowed Queen Elizabeth has to find the strength to keep going

Page 22: Cool Uses for Cola -- pop open a can for cleaning, unclogging, cooking and more

Page 24: This little baby is the toughest survivor as she has already made it through COVID-19 and a liver transplant and you'd never know it to look at joyful Winter Moore, but she's been through more than many people endure in a lifetime, all before her first birthday

Page 25: Face Mask Mistakes -- here's how to do it right to protect your health

Page 26: When Irwin Allen's production of The Towering Inferno was released to stunned audiences in 1974, it represented the pinnacle disaster film and it was far and away the highest-grossing film of the year, with a whopping $203 million worldwide -- The Towering Inferno takes place on the opening night at the world's tallest skyscraper, where faulty wiring short-circuits start a fast-moving, out-of-control blaze that threatens the guests at the opening party on one of the top floors and to the rescue comes superstar Steve McQueen as larger-than-life Fire Chief Mike O'Hallorhan, and none other than the legendary Paul Newman as architect Doug Roberts -- here are some startling secrets from the flick: McQueen, Newman and William Holden all wanted top billing and Holden was turned down as McQueen and Newman had both become bigger stars so to provide dual top billing to both McQueen and Newman the credit were arranged diagonally with McQueen in the lower left and Newman in the upper right; Newman later regretted his decision to co-star with McQueen because of the rivalry between the two, created by Steve and as a result, the fireman role dominates Newman's architect; at McQueen's insistence, both characters have the same number of lines although McQueen's character doesn't appear until 43 minutes into the film and as a result, Newman had used almost half his lines before McQueen even enters; after seeing this film, novelist Roderick Thorp had a dream that same night about a man being chased through a skyscraper by gun-wielding assailants and this was the inspiration for his 1979 book Nothing Lasts Forever which eventually was made into another blockbuster film: Die Hard

Page 28: The Dashing Duke of Edinburgh -- Prince Philip was a study in elegance -- a look at Philip's long and amazing life

Page 40: Read Your Palm -- it holds your fate

Page 42: 10 things to know about Leonardo DiCaprio

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Blue Bloods castmates Steve Schirripa and Vanessa Ray and Bridget Moynahan share a lighthearted moment behind the scenes on the Brooklyn set (picture), Hugh Grant and wife Anna hit the red carpet in London (picture), Henry Cavill is flying high with a new galpal reality TV's Natalie Viscuso of Super Sweet 16, there may be a silver lining to Kelly Clarkson's ugly divorce with estranged husband Brandon Blackstock as she says she's written 60 new songs since their split, Christie Brinkley has called aging "the last frontier" as the longtime model seeks to continue her career in front of the camera at 67, Salma Hayek says her pet owl Kering stays in her bedroom with her when husband Francois-Henri Pinault is out of town, Dolly Parton delivered a heartfelt goodbye to her dear uncle and mentor Bill Owens

Page 45: Jay Leno is ready to take a spin in L.A. in a vintage purple Barracuda (picture), Percy Gibson escorts wife Joan Collins to dinner in Hollywood (picture), Patrick Dempsey filming Devils in Italy (picture), Matthew Perry posted a behind-the-scenes shot that showed him getting prepped to appear on camera for the Friends special and the posted racked up 27,000 likes before it was deleted without comment from the actor's account, Jessica Springsteen who is the daughter of Bruce Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa could represent America at the Olympic Games in Tokyo as a champion equestrian, Rosie Perez claims she's been snubbed by the Academy Awards for more than two decades since she was nominated as a Best Supporting Actress in 1994

Page 46: Online dating isn't just for the younger crowd as studies show older adults are the fastest growing group trying it out -- if you're considering looking for love online, here are some guidelines to help you stay safe while maximizing your chances

Page 47: Fear of Flying -- these jetsetters would rather drive -- William Shatner, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Megan Fox, Sandra Bullock, Whoopi Goldberg, Kate Winslet

[cheetahsprints]

Beyond the Surface

Words: 2822 Summary: Cisco couldn’t stand Harrison Wells. Crossing his path in an unexpected place would change that view permanently. Rating: Gen A/N: Title inspired by Fly Down - Stephen

Cisco tapped his pen on his mouth. He checked over his grocery list to be sure he got everything. It was just general foodstuff. He added some extra items.

- That new conditioner I heard about - All the bath bombs - Try the candle Caitlin suggested that smells like my kinda man called “Mechanical grease and Angst” - A recorder to piss off my grumpy neighbor. Tell him it's for a hipster band. - Dog food. - One of those big fake owls. It might freak out neighbors cats

Cisco always left without dog food. He underlined it three times. He chuckled at the recorder addition, picturing the constipated expression his neighbor would make. It wasn’t a challenge to antagonize him. Cisco was constantly finding new and creative ways to accomplish his mission.

His neighbor was also his professor. He was the unrelenting Harrison Wells. He cursed the day he incidentally moved to his floor, beside him to boot. The man was intelligent, handsome, and mysterious. Under most circumstances, Cisco would have a crush the size of Alaska. Unfortunately, Harrison Wells needed a personality transplant. He was an infuriating jackass. He gave not an inch, and he enjoyed pushing people over the edge.

Every day he passed the man’s giant door poster. It was a picture of the Grinch (cartoon version) that said: Don't bother me after 8 p.m. or I'll steal YOUR Christmas. The building supervisor had referred to him as only Mr. Grinch, due to this decor.

Cisco was willing to bet it was custom-made. Rumor had it that Professor Wells was a man of many talents. Cisco’s complaints also fell on deaf ears. Because no one else lived on this floor to corroborate his stories. Cisco didn't blame people for moving. On the bright side, he had to pay lower rent for this shit apartment location. The apartment itself was nice, with a big bathtub, walk-in closet, and balcony. It was worth Wells knocking on his door to tell him his party was too loud. Wells threatened to call the cops, but he never did. He knew Cisco would have it cleaned and shut down before they got halfway there.

His cats meowed all hours of the night. Cisco didn't know how he could hear them running around at night. Especially since one was a stick. One had also snuck into his apartment and shredded his stuffed Rocky the flying squirrel. It had been a present from his ex, Lisa. On one hand, technically kind of a good thing. On the other, he had liked that squirrel.

Cisco perked when he heard his six month old brown-and-white shih tzu mix yapping. He strolled out to the balcony. Sure enough, there they were. Wells’ stringy black and white oriental shorthair and tabby maine coon. The maine coon was the chillest animal on the planet, asleep to the tune of barking dog. That was the one that murdered his squirrel. Everytime Cisco left his apartment, the oriental starting yowling from behind Wells’ door. Then his puppy barked her head off.

Stevie, his brindle greyhound, appeared to investigate. He nudged Cisco curiously. He patted his service dog on the head absently. Cisco was prone to seizures. They were mostly random, but could sometimes be caused by distress. He grabbed a squeaky toy to distract Buttercup. He closed the balcony doors. He packed up and got Stevie in his work outfit. He expected to run into the Professor’s dumb face when he opened the door. He always complained about Buttercup’s barking even though he could just bring in his cats. Cisco had nothing against cats as a whole. He had everything against Wells’ disregard for the effects his cats had on others. Cisco was relieved when he was miraculously not there. He either decided to keep to himself or went out. Cisco saw enough of him in class, it just figured he would end up living beside him.

On a positive note, pissing him off was the most entertaining thing. He even drove him crazy in class. On the first day, Professor Wells had began by saying, “Science fact: The world around you is made up of protons, neutrons, morons, and electrons.”

When he said “morons” he had looked directly at Cisco. He wasn’t sure if Wells was presumptuous, if it was an accident, or if the man was prejudiced. Wells hadn’t eased up on him. He had called on Cisco to answer the toughest questions, contradicted all of his answers. Cisco wasn’t a special case, Wells was mean to other students, but they were slackers or whatever. He did have the potential for kindness, immediately helping anyone who seriously required it.

Either way, Cisco went out of his way to make his teaching aspect of life a bit of a nightmare. He pretended to be incredibly dumb in class, forcing Wells to cater to him. He would ace his tests and grin like a little shit.

He would ask the stupidest most basic questions, eyelashes fluttering like an infatuated schoolgirl. Wells was that “hot silver fox professor” as the women, and even some men, all of whom had no self respect, referred to him. They fawned over him. It was revolting. Cisco made them upset too by imitating their behavior. Wells always apparently lost his train of thought. He would sort of freeze on the spot, mouth open. He stuttered over his next words. It took everything Cisco had to hold in his laughter.

He kept the irritation to the minimum at home. Needless to say, but the airheads in his class didn’t believe Wells played the most obnoxious music at four in the morning. They didn’t believe he had a psychic connection to his cats and bid them to drive Cisco up the wall. They didn’t believe Wells pounded on the wall when Cisco played Christmas music. They didn’t believe he would sit on his balcony and throw things onto Cisco’s. Those objects had included: a wrench, a stupid singing toy from a dollar-per-item store, and even a rather large dildo. He had the supernatural ability to know when Cisco was studying. His hobby of throwing random shit would always scare the daylights out of Cisco.

For some reason, they did believe when he told them about the time Cisco had returned to his apartment shirtless. Some wiseass at he dog park had knocked him into a puddle of mud. At least, he hoped it was mud. He had thrown his shirt away and stormed home in a huff. Wells had seemed to choke on his own saliva when he saw Cisco. His blushing and stuttering was adorable. It was like he had never seen another man shirtless. 

Cisco figured he might’ve been offended by the tattoo, curling around his nipple and over his shoulder. Cisco had experienced a bit of a phase in his first semester of college. He lost a bet which required him to get the tats. They were pretty, and he luckily didn’t end up regretting his decision. He went through a bit of a ‘only get away with being young and dumb once’ phase. He cleared his less that stellar ideas and urges from his system, to pave the way for responsible adulting. He would have a lot of stories for his kids, if he ever felt like having any. Maybe he would tell the stories to Barry’s or Caitlin’s.

Stevie walked easily beside him in the Starling-Central City Shopping Center. He whistled a jaunty tune. He was having a pretty good day. He had satisfied with his level of studying for the upcoming exams and wasn’t exhausted. His new puppy hadn’t peed on the carpet this week. He hadn’t seen Wells’ annoying face yet.

He spoke too soon. He saw Wells, browsing in the assorted candles and incense. He glared at his turned back. He couldn’t believe the man chose this day to enter society and be shopping for something Cisco was looking to purchase. He tentatively stepped into the section, footsteps light. He hoped Wells wouldn’t see him.

He heard someone scoff and stage-whisper, “Do you see that rat he has in his cart? Like anyone believes that’s a real service dog.”

His girlfriend cackled. “What an asshole.”

Cisco’s gaze riveted on Wells’ little dog. She was a chihuahua-corgi mix named Rocket. Wells was secretive as hell. The only things Cisco knew was that he had a daughter and pets. That was due to the photos on his desk of a young girl in braces, a calm Chorgi with its tongue hanging out, next to the 85 % legs oriental shorthair (same pic) and one of the fluffy Maine coon. And there was a final faded, worn one of a German Shepherd/Dalmation in a doggie wheelchair next to an urn simply engraved Sam - Never Forget. Cisco had asked the little dog’s name, and gotten such a gruff reply that he didn’t inquire further.

It was simple to assume his professor was not much beyond a grumpy old jerk. His humanity seemed to be buried deep. He was robotic, functional enough to take care of pets and teach a class, that was all. Cisco would have to rethink that. Rocket was even cuter in person. Wells had obviously heard and he winced. He picked up Rocket, cradling her close. He marched up to the couple.

“Hey what is your deal? His dog is well-behaved, and he did nothing to you!” Cisco crossed his arms, raising his chin. The boyfriend attempted to tower over him, but he was no match for Cisco’s sheer force of will.

“Back off asshole,” The girlfriend butted in. “No one asked you.”

“I’m the asshole? It’s pretty rude to go around assuming things about someone’s life. For all you know, he nearly lost his life fighting in a war.”

“For all I know, you’re a phony too. Look at that - that thing you have. Is it imported from Africa or something?” The Dude narrowed his eyes at Stevie. And that was the end for Cisco.

“Listen here,” he said dangerously, voice flat. “Judgey tools like you is why we can’t have nice things. You can get that stick out of your ass and -”

Dude started making offended noises. The Girlfriend looked ready to jump on Cisco and tear his hair out. He braced himself. Let them try. A distinct high-pitched bark interrupted his tirade. His mouth shut with an audible click, and he whirled around. Rocket was back in the cart, whining, trying to get to Harrison Wells. He was crouched on the floor, all six feet of him. His hand was covering his eyes. The other hand was braced on the shelves. He was rocking back and forth, making breathy noises.

Cisco rushed over, argument forgotten. He wasn’t sure if he’d go to hell for it, but he gently picked up Rocket and placed her on the floor. He certainly lost his mind whenever someone tried to touch his well-trained greyhound on duty. But this seemed like an emergency. Rocket whined again and snuffled on Wells cheek. He sighed and pulled her close, taking deep breaths. Cisco shifted. He glanced over his shoulder to see that the couple had wandered off. Confrontation wasn’t always the best idea. Sometimes, his anger got the better of him. Stevie watched calmly. He looked a bit twitchy. He was always wary whenever Cisco got himself into tense situations.

Wells gained control of himself. His eyes were glazed for a moment, then it faded. His hands were shaking. Rocket was pressed close, licking at his face. He picked her up and stood, clutching her to his chest. He stared at Cisco with wide, bleary eyes. He had never seen Wells looking so spooked.

“Hey buddy. You good or do you need to call someone?”

“Did - did I hurt anyone? When episodes strike, I black out,” Wells explained at Cisco’s confused look. “I can be prone to violence because I think I’m. Back there.”

His voice was at such a low pitch. Cisco was stiff as a board. He shook out his hands, trying to loosen his muscles. He wasn’t afraid. He just wasn’t sure how to tread here.

“No it’s fine. You were kinda on the floor. Was that my fault?”

“They started it, you were only trying to defend me, thank you,” Wells replied.

He was surprisingly relaxed, for all that they didn’t get along. Cisco felt like a veil had been torn from in front of his eyes. He saw everything in front of him anew. He should really take some of his own advice.

“Well, it got a little out of hand ‘cause I don’t know when to shut my mouth and walk away sometimes. Can I - can I buy you some ice cream or something, Professor Wells?”

Wells blinked. Then he laughed, heartily. “You can call me Harry, Mr. Ramon.”

“Cisco!” He continued, mostly to himself, “Big Belly Burger sounds damn good right now.”

Harry nodded in agreement. Cisco indicated his cart. Harry began to pile his stuff inside. It was more efficient to take one cart. His eyes widened at the Star Wars paraphernalia. So, he was a fellow nerd too. There was probably so much Cisco didn’t know about him. These recent discoveries only scratched the surface. He suddenly had an overwhelmingly urgent desire to know everything that Harry would give him.

On the way to the in-store restaurant, Cisco said casually, “I have seizures. Stevie here, he’ll sit and howl when he senses one coming, so I can find a safe place. He stays by my side and helps me out. Completely necessary just like yours.”

“Some people think they’re smart. The reality being they know nothing at all,” Harry replied.

“I know that all I know is that I do not know anything,” Cisco said and snorted. “That guy didn’t even know how to remove the stick in his ass.”

“There’s no proof of that phrase, but the spirit of it is true.”

They finished their meals, bought separately, and Harry paid for their ice cream. Cisco opened his mouth to protest. He was silenced by Harry’s glare.

“I’m sorry I act empty-headed in your class,” Cisco confessed.

Harry nodded and lapped at his ice cream. He smiled as he scooped some with two fingers and fed it to Rocket. Absurdly, Cisco’s stomach started doing acrobatics. He couldn’t pinpoint the cause. He scratched Stevie’s ears, who made a dog-sigh of content.

“I’m sorry for being a difficult neighbor,” Harry offered. “Let’s promise to be at least civil to one another for now on?”

“Agreed. Life will be much easier. And we’re totally having a Star Wars marathon.”

Harry grinned. He rubbed at his lips with a finger. Cisco gnawed on his cone and watched him for a moment. He felt a stab of guilt. He had despised Harry for his behavior. He was a hypocrite. He saw now he had acted the exact same way and judged him. He knew next to nothing about his private life, because he presumed that he did not have one. What did he think? That Harry went home and hooked himself up to a charger?

The man probably had dreams, hobbies, as many likes as dislikes. Hell, Cisco had known he had a family he must care about, from the picture of his daughter on his desk. Cisco distantly noticed Harry had no wedding ring. Somewhere, under all that brain and bluster, Cisco was beginning to see his heart.

The best restart would be to address the root of the problem. Then they could clear the air. He licked his lips nervously. He locked his fingers in his lap and leaned forward. Harry folded his arms on the table, chin lifting in preparation.

Cisco kept his voice soft and not accusing. “Why did you single me out the first day of class?”

“Are you kidding? I heard you were practically wunderkind,” Harry answered in an incredulous tone. “I was very impressed with your records.”

“Seriously? I grew up in the most obscure town.”

“I’m in the habit of keeping an eye on talent. Finding out you were in my class made my entire week, which isn’t saying much, but still. You are the most brilliant and creative person I’ve met, aside from my daughter.”

Cisco internally preened, a flush of pleasure coming over him. He had a weakness for direct compliments of his talents. He realized that also meant Harry had believed in exactly none of his bullshit. Harry pointed at his own face and raised his eyebrows. Cisco squinted at him. Harry spread his hand and made circles. Cisco scrambled in embarrassment to wipe his face off. He found it wasn’t as bad as Harry indicated. He scowled.

“You say such sweet things. But you’re still a dick.”

“Did you really expect anything else?”

[wreckthelist]

a Precious Monday: meeting fionn & tom glynn-carney

I thought I'd had it with funny businesses of the heart.

Until I saw Fionn Whitehead coming down the stairs at the Old Vic.

(Relax, goddamnit, he's not some crush. He's an Other. The Other. The public's.)

He's a notoriously private person, so I'd felt guilty waiting for him at the stagedoor already. But I bolted, guys, soon as the performance wrapped (he's amazing. And different. And hilarious. And adorable. And probably all the wonderful adjectives I could pile on him at this point. Those little nervous tics. His anxious, searching eyes. The wandering hands and random intervals of mentioning the falafel in his teeth. The rhythm he'd put into the monologue. The laughs he got, and those two fingers in the middle of it all. He wore a long coat, over the army green sweater, white trousers and dark denim sneakers with white laces.)

I stood for him and the rest of the cast and clapped. I watched him, and I watched him.

Got the first place at the stagedoor, with girls lined up right behind me and a smattering in front of the door.

Mark Gatiss came out, to my surprise, and I was just shocked. A couple of people, some of them dealers, got signatures and pictures. He had to leave (but of course) before I could get anything, but I was hardly going to half-try for him.

Then Russell Tovey popped out, and the crowd squeezed in a bit more. Literally the concept of lines and queues vanished, and I thought the Brits were obsessed with queues.

I'm always surprised at how normal these celebs look in real life, in the flesh. In the open, in the wild. With fans clamoring with stretched hands for their autographs, for selfies.

A quick selfie with Russell and an autograph later, Fionn emerged from the stagedoor and he was literally mobbed.

I felt instantly sorry for him, and suddenly awfully intrusive of his privacy. He had to say to us, "Relax, okay?" and I almost regretted being there. So close.

I got a few pictures of his profile, but it felt way too much to keep photographing like he's some display in a zoo. I care. I do. Because I am not that sort of fan.

I had to push a bit--I know, I've never, but it felt like a sordid last resort-- and the dealer went, "You go girl, you do what you have to do." The girls behind me were muttering, "Can you not push, please?" And in my head I was saying a million apologies to her, to them.

"I'll sign things, but no pictures," said Fionn. He came out, apple in his mouth (it was adorable beyond compare), and took it out when he was signing. By the time I got to him (the dealer was all, "Hello again, how're you doing," with him. All chummy. How do these things even work.), he'd said, "I'll sign two more things and then I've got to go. I'm in a rush, guys."

I was literally saying, "Fionn, Fionn. Can you sign my ticket please. Please," holding my Sharpie for him, and then, after taking the pen (lucky pen) and a moment of cutest hesitation of what to sign (I had my program, my book of the monologues, and the bookmark I wanted him to sign), he signed the ticket quickly.

And his signature, as I've seen, is gorgeous.

Then he left, made his way out of the swarm. A girl who'd met him since Natives was walking and talking with him, and I'm forever sad about my tragedy of missing my invitation to interview the play's cast and a fucking after party (god, what a decision. I did not know him then, so it felt all too painless to dismiss and say unfortunately I had to fly home.)

I followed him at a distance, and saw him walked round, went into the lobby of the Old Vic again. I saw him standing there, so clear, so undisturbed, and wanted to give him his peace and space.

His eyes up close were blinding. Sparkling green jewels that changed colors, flickering with the sunlight. His hair was all gelled up (of course), and his jawline impeccable. He's something else. Too stunning for this world. There are other celebrities that look ordinary in real life, but he's not one of them. I swear. Boy's a definite stunner, a true star, and it's not just because I adore him to bits.

He had his backpack with him, looking small like a schoolboy when he actually towers over me (ah). It was brown, scots patterned, slung over his slim frame.

So I went back to the stagedoor (knowing Fionn, from a fan's perspective as I do, this was probably the one chance I was going to get. Either this, or the likely premiere for The Children Act at the BFI Intl film festival. Which I'm not even sure I'll be here for.), in a: this isn't over if I can help it sort of way, and found a couple of the girls waiting there.

One girl (whose name I later learned was Cora) who'd met him earlier that afternoon was there with her friend. I'd waited with them and the other two girls. One girl- the middle man for the dealers- was giving us anecdotes on her numerous celeb encounters, which was too much fun to hear.

I was a bit hungry by that point, and by the strangest stroke of fate (trying to make it sound dramatic. I just love theatre bars, and I'd spent couple of hours working on my laptop at The Penny the afternoon I was about to watch Woycezk.), I headed round the corner and stepped down to The Penny, the Old Vic's bar and restaurant.

It was packed, and I was racking my brains of what to order (what with these puffed out cheeks and the days I'd put off working out on account of having been so exhausted by my foolhardy trip to Dunkerque). I stood at the bar, palming one of them sandwiches on display (I wanted one to go, just to get back fast to the girls), pondering about the fillings (picky, that's me.), when it happened.

I looked up, and Fionn Whitehead was walking down the stairs, no one behind and in front of him. Just him against the white backdrop and the lighting of the stairs leading to the basement of the Old Vic.

I'm pretty sure (could be hallucinations, could be self-siding bias, but WHATEVER) I locked eyes with him for a split second, and my heart skipped a beat.

I'd honestly thought the last time that was possible was when my ex-crush scooted next to me on the bench at a fondue place in Seattle, two years ago.

A thing like that hadn't happen since.

He looked illuminated, divine, just singular and lean and standing there. I'll never forget it.

Shit. Went my head, immediate, on impulse, unconscious. Shit. Shit.

I whipped my head back around, the sandwich forgotten, and even the coffee order scrambled in my head.

I've always been one for Americanos, but then and there i went, "Do you have, um, something like an iced latte?"

(Goddamn)

And I'd waited. Stood there, trying not to stare too much. But he was precious.

Fionn'd met up with his friends, a little circle formed at the end of the stairways just next to the washrooms. He lit up when he saw them, and I was glad I was there to see him so happy.

He threw his arms around one of them, stood there chatting, laughing, and smiling. Threw his head back at one point, a beer bottle in his hand. I got my latte, and kept my distance.

He was sipping on another cocktail at one point. I looked away at some bits, didn't want to be too much of a stalker as I'd thought myself to be  right then (with him, since the stagedoor, I had that nagging voice in my head, asking me, What have you become??).

Finally he disappeared, and I'd gone up to the girls. Told them about him.

We decided to go to the front, at the official entrance. The security guard asked who we were waiting for, and I think it was Hannah who'd told him, "Fionn Whitehead."

I heard one of the girls say the guard asked her to 'describe him for me,' and I was chuckling internally.

Describe Fionn Whitehead.

What a question to ask a fangirl.

Two, three minutes later the guard came back out with a doe-eyed Fionn, and I was too stunned to do anything else, to see him so up close and relaxed, without that horrid mob around him.

We all told him how good he was, and I'm sure I was a mess for words. Was just repeating what other girls were saying, because i hadn't processed it in my head yet that he was right in front of me.

He'd said, "Hello again," when he came out. One of the girls put her arm around him, but I could never be that bold. He stepped back when we were done, saying, "Goodnight! Goodnight! Hope you all have a goodnight!" and was doing this cutest wave, long stretch of the hands toward either side of him in the air.

He was so close.

I was going to ask him to sign my bookmark, but felt we should've let him gone back in.

And we ran skipping away from The Old Vic, just ecstatic, just elated. Just over the moon. That it happened. Because I couldn't believe it did. And I still can't. That he was right there.

(Curse my April's Natives absence. Curse it. I could've met and known and talked to him then.)

The girls' next target was Tom Glynn-Carney (real surname: Whitehead, a curious and fabulous trivia known to the fandom by now) at the Ferryman. I was going to come see him next week, but sharing this experience with the girls was something new to me, and I was thinking, "Well, why not?"

It wasn't as if a night like this was going to happen again.

So I followed them, smiling and laughing and sharing stories. I'm the oldest, apparently, they'd just finished their GCSEs, darlings.

(And they marveled at how young I look, no surprises, like how Barry Keoghan could pass off as a teenager while being the same age as I am. The farthest I can go is 5-6 years younger, I've learned over the years.)

We went to Oxford Circus, hung around Chinatown and Leicester Square, where the girls touched up their makeup (the artists that they are-- I only know the basics.) and reminisced about the premiere. They'd camped out for it, and I was listening all the way through.

Fionn's everywhere, it's ridiculous.

We made our way back to the Gielgud around 9ish, 10. I started typing this absurdly long note (not sure if you're still reading, what with all my asides. It's how I do things.), and the girls passed around bubblegum.

We waited. And waited. Stage-dooring and premieres are thankless jobs, and they're not as easy as they look on camera. If you wanted it, you've got to fight for it and, thank Nike, just do it. Just ask. Just take out your phone, your camera. Just call their name. Because they haven't got time, and a million other fans were after the same things as you.

That said, Tom was the last to come out. Think we'd missed Paddy (Considine) Or maybe he wasn't doing stagedoor- who knows).

And let me say this about Tom Glynn-Carney: he's one of the sweetest celebs alive out there. Reminded me of Luke Treadaway almost.

He was up for anything. A hug, a signature. A video. I'd asked him a video for the Thai fans' benefit, asked him to personalize my bookmark (he signed it: with love!!!!), and asked him to take another picture because the first one was blurry. He'd put his arm around me, real close, and, as asked, was the one holding the phone.

He's literally the sweetest. (I've said it before and I'll say it again!)

He's gorgeous up close, earring and spiky ginger hair and a calm, friendly demeanor. Lovely. Ultimately just so.

Dark denim jacket over a striped shirt, navy and white. He'd said he's used to the play by now.

And there's my Monday. So made. So much made. I'd met my adorable bespectacled turtle, and it was unbelievable.

Still. Reeling. Still.

[its-just-like-the-movies]

Date Night!: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Back when the swell fella who would become my boyfriend and I were in one of those strange middle grounds where we were on our way to becoming a couple and very, very aware of it, our first sort-of-date was when Tommy invited me to go see Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice on its opening night. I, of course, accepted, somewhat reluctantly. I can’t remember if I was expecting the film to be good or bad, though I’m sure before then some of its abysmal reviews had been public. I was also nervous about the whole “oh my god this is probably sort of a date isn’t it”, especially since at the time I didn’t know him all that well. This would be the first of many dates at Ze Cinemah, although after this we’d be perfectly, happily aware that they were all dates. Even better, I think, is our immediate discussions after the film is over, and how eager we are to talk about it and discuss what we’ve just seen. We’ve seen plenty of films together, and maybe I’ll talk about other ones we’ve seen someday, but I can already feel a pit in my stomach drop at having to talk about this stinking pile of steamingness. All said, Batman v Superman is one of those truly atrocious films, like The Judge or The Danish Girl, that works like so much manure and makes me start sparking and frothing with how horrible they were. It’s an energizer more than it is a depressive, though it for sure is both, and there is one thing about our date in particular that haunts me every day. It’s not even something the film did, but something I did, or almost did, but could have done more of. Something that perhaps could have changed the screening for the whole theater, or as Anthony Hopkins keeps saying in the trailers for the new Transformers movies “change the tide of human history itself”. I wonder about it every day and every night, as I sleep and as I wake, and especially as a type this story to you, The Void, and now I must share the tale of my screening of Batman vs Superman with you to get it of my chest, to free myself, and to see where the tides of human history itself shall take me. Also: I’m going to be very mean to this film, and am very not interested in hearing about how wrong I am from random eggs as I and many others I know have been on Twitter. I hate it, don’t care if you love it, for fuck’s sake leave me alone.

It didn’t take the two of us long to find a pair of seats, though we immediately moved to the row behind us because our view was partially blocked by the structure of the stairwell. We warned the couple who ended up taking those seats about it, though I can’t remember if they moved too. And the film starts. Zack Snyder has the gall to open the film by reminding us that Batman’s parents died in front of him during a robbery gone wrong. He also seemingly cannot hire Jeffrey Dean Morgan to do much beyond die in the openings of his films, though I remember he had more to do in Watchmen. The visual of Martha’s(!!!) pearl necklace snapping in the gun’s safety as the trigger is pulled is sort of fascinating but also pretty grotesque, all things considered. Batffleck is saying something, though I cannot remember what. We see the funeral, little Bruce running into the woods in sadness during the procession, only to fall into a well or pit or some such hole in the ground. The score, I’m sure, was going crazy.

And then, it happens. Baby Bruce is levitated out the pit by seemingly hundreds of bats flying around him like a tornado, floating him towards the light. This is how we are abruptly told that this is a dream sequence, and reader, I laughed. Not the cackle it deserved, but I couldn’t stop it from escaping completely. I chuckled, giggled, whatever; I’m pretty sure Tommy hit me on the arm to calm me down and get me stop but I’m not quite sure. The giggle is what counts, though, and it haunts me. What if I had just burst out laughing at a moment that the whole theater was palpably flummoxed by? Batffleck wakes up but I am still reeling from the horseshit prologue we have been subjected to. It is not the most nonsensical thing we are going to see in this movie. It is not even the least plot-relevant indulgence that Zack Snyder will take us through, nor the least inexplicable jump of energy or plot logic that we’ll be forced to sit through. Academy Award winner Holly Hunter will be forced to stare dramatically, in close-up, to a jar of piss before she and dozens of other people are killed in an assassination plot meant to frame Superman, whose own close up registers at the subtle, bottomless despair and discomfort of sitting on the can and realizing you’re not quite done shitting, except Henry Cavill also registers as remarkably bored. Jeremy Irons reads every line as Alfred Pennyworth with such bitchy, subtly nasty inflections that I actually found the character an unwelcome presence, though if anyone found this a life raft of something enjoyable happening on screen, particularly Irons, then by all means savor him. Amy Adams will throw a Kryptonite spear into an underwater pile of rubble and, with no indication that Lois Lane has been told why the heroes need it to vanquish the rock monster that is Doomsday, dives into the water and nearly drowns recovering it. Batman slaughters - in fact, he often guns down - dozens of criminals on screen, brands sex offenders, had one montage that’s just him training to become even beefier and another, completely bizarre dream sequence that may also be a warning from another dimension’s Flash where Superman is technically Hitler, and Barry Allen screams about Lois Lane before Batffleck wakes up at his desk, which is meant to convey that this May Have Been A Dream Or Is It Ooooooh. This scene has no narrative impact and is never referenced again, though it is not as patently stupid as is the sight of Superman, wielding that Kryptonite spear, deciding to kamikaze himself by killing Doomsday with the knowledge that he cannot survive any assault the giant may bring on him while he is in such close proximity to said spear, ignoring the two superheroes who have been helping him fight Doomsday this whole time.

There are plenty of other absurd, delicious, amazingly shitty one-offs. Michael Shannon is credited for appearing in the film for the three seconds General Zod’s corpse floats in the remains of his spaceship. The President of the United States decides to nuke Superman in the middle of his fight with Doomsday after the latter threw the Man of Steel into the Earth’s orbit (a safe enough distance to nuke him, I suppose). Diane Lane is duck taped and tied to a chair, threatened to be burned alive as Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor throws photos of her with “Witch” written on her face, and all of this is tied into some mythological asinine crap that is Luthor’s motivation for wanting to kill Superman and create Doomsday in the first place. Eisenberg spends the whole film as some combination of Edward Nygma and a meth addict’s impersonation of Heath Ledger’s Joker, and it is by far the biggest trainwreck in the whole film. I think I also resisted laughing once “MARTHA!!???!?!?!?!!!” happened but in truth, I blocked that out of my memory. The sheer joy of seeing Wonder Woman, and hearing the score come alive as she roars into battle, literally, at some points, is all that is keeping me from giving this film an F grade, though perhaps I just can’t rate an Amy Adams film that low. Gal Gadot is at least enjoying herself, which is in even bigger contrast to the stark constipation that Cavill and Ben Affleck are constantly exuding. The film has ideas about literal hero worship, about what Superman could mean or stand for, and wants to have real conversations about his necessity, but it jerry-rigs them through Christic imagery and working hard to undermine the criticisms of genuine challengers and the critics themselves. Bruce’s hatred and suspicion of the Man of Steel seems completely arbitrary, banking on the fear of Superman turning on humanity in spite of his big coming-out party as a global entity being the eradication of his home species for the sake of mankind. Horrific as the collateral damage was, it’s not in line with anything Superman does in the film, is shown as doing, or is framed as doing by Synder himself, who doesn’t pretend for a moment that there’s actually anything wrong with Superman. He’s content to make the man a misunderstood martyr, a golden boy whose death inspires the formation of The Justice League and the warming up of Batman’s glacial, inherently distrusting heart. Superman is basically fridged on behalf of Bruce Wayne, and it’s clumsily executed as Smallville himself is. 

There are so many vile, absurd, abstracted, unnecessary, horrific moments in this film and yet, I still wonder how much that night would’ve changed had I actually burst out laughing at the beginning of the film. What would’ve changed for the whole theater if some jackass sitting hear the back-left had cackled as a small child is literally lifted out of a scene the filmgoing public had seen at least seventy-eight million times by now, one that kicks off an indefensibly ghastly excuse for a Hollywood spectacle lit worse than even the lowest budge episode of The X-Files and colored like it’s scared that bright shades will deflate how Dour and Serious this Cinematic Experience is? Recounting many of the set pieces I’ve already mentioned back to my sister afterwards I couldn’t help cackling at some of them, though I did so far more angrily with Tommy immediately after, baffled not just that I had paid for this film but that it even existed, that anybody who made this gigantic dumpster fire thought that it was in any way a competently crafted, psychologically or emotionally coherent picture. Could we, as a crowd, as a community, have laughed at this horseshit for what it was? I love that in horror movies the audience always make the pact with itself that fine, this is a lot, you deserve a good scream. This picture was even more upsetting, and perhaps if I’d laughed, having taken the piss out of it so goddamn early, we wouldn’t have had to just sit there and take it. We could’ve fought back and laughed at it (with it?), openly railed against it, or just fucking not be quiet throughout this whole ordeal. I will always be haunted by this inaction on my part, and to this day it shames me.

He did try to defend parts of it, but not much, and for sure stole my comments about how Eisenberg wasn’t even playing Lex Luthor when we starting talking about the film to our RA Josh and fellow hallmate Dylan in the hall that same night. Josh peddled the theory that Marvel people had paid off critics to hate on DC’s live-action features, which I challenged by asking why Marvel would even need to do that. It’s not even that DC’s films are so drastically worse than any of Marvel’s features, but Marvel at least has a brand formula at work. Their knock is never that their bad, just predictable and uninspired, though they’ve been getting a little better at going against both those counts lately, with the Guardians films at least. And I will say this for Batman v Superman: It’s awfulness has staked a far larger claim on my mental landscape than The Avengers or Deadpool or most Marvel fare ever has. I liked Man of Steel fine, was particularly impressed by the early minimalism in portraying Superman’s powers, especially his x-ray vision, and was even playing devil’s advocate with family members I saw it with. I’m semi-interested to return to it, but not passionately so. You for sure couldn’t call this film formulaic, perhaps unworthy of all the bombast it’s applying to itself but worthy of notice the way a burning car is, or how Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern are seemingly in awe of that giant pile of shit in Jurassic Park. As dubious as literally every aspect of this film is, the sheer magnitude of its awfulness is compelling in such a way that I became anticipatory of the film’s eventual Rifftrax takedown as I was watching it. I don’t know how soon into it this idea started, but once Amy Adams dived in to get that spear I could already hear the befuddled joke about Lois Lane: Plot Psychic that Kevin Murphy would probably hurl at the screen, and it made this mess a little bit better.

All things being honest, I am absolutely going to see Justice League with my boyfriend, though I wonder how much more excited he is than I am. I loathed Suicide Squad but thought it was so poorly edited I stopped caring and would up having something of an okay time, appreciating Margot Robbie trying to find a character in Harley Quinn and relishing that Viola Davis actively seemed to want to be there a little as I did. Of course I’ve seen Wonder Woman, a step above most recent DC efforts in that it’s compelling, competently told and emotionally resonant, though it really shows Gadot isn’t much of an actress. There’s a lot about it I questioned in the moment but I am so, so appreciative of Wonder Woman as a film that exists, and one I mostly enjoyed seeing even as I actively wished for a better version of the film while I was watching it. Maybe I should just not see these given how much I end up railing against these projects, but I love watching movies with my guy (who I also love) and they are great conversation fodder. Plus, we watch lots of better movies together! Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the first of many, many delightful date night movies, and we weren’t even dating yet! My guy was easily the best part of the film, though it’d be a discredit to it say that it wasn’t a memorable experience, future boyfriend or no. I truly hope I never see it again, at least not sober, but I got a great story out of it, and a great man too, which is more than a lot of movies have ever given me. And at the end of the day, it’s that the biggest reward a person could get? It’s not like this makes Batman v Superman anything more than a gray, ugly, violent, gross, despicable, unpleasant, misogynistic, time-wasting, utterly horrendous, steaming pile of shit. But hey, it counts for something.

[lotrewrite]

Well, here’s my comments! Feel free to message me with any questions or for clarification of anything

Overall, this is really solid you guys. 

The biggest issue is just fleshing some of the episodes out a bit. Character arcs are nicely done and the character stuff is spread out surprisingly well. In general, I think there’s a little more focus on Mick and Len than the others, and Amaya could probably be given a slightly larger role, but overall I’m impressed. Writing a team and giving them all equal focus is really hard. I’m so excited this is already so good

(Also like three of these episodes are set in times/places related to special interests I’ve had over the years so if I start getting caught up in historical details that’s why)

I haven’t looked at other people’s feedback yet, cause I didn’t want to be influenced so sorry if I’m just repeating stuff

LOTREWRITE: Yay, more comments! Sorry about the delay in posting these, all!

Episode 1:

-          I love the opening sequence with Kendra A+

-          How has Nate’s pencil lasted so long? It has to be at least 20 years old, right? A pen might be more plausible but have the same basic narrative effect. If you’re keeping the dog tags bit from the original though it might be best to cut it the reference to it being from his grandfather entirely or have it be a replica or something. Best to focus on a single sentimental object.

-          The banter is flawless and in character. Nice!

-          Thawne’s explanation is a bit of an infodump. That’s gonna need to be reworked into more of a dialogue, at the very least. It would probably be better to show it somehow. Maybe show the Black Flash appearing a few seconds after Thawne leaves, then disappearing just as quickly? Darhk can research it on his own and then explain it to someone later, for those viewers who aren’t familiar with the concept from The Flash.

-          “Damien Darhk?” Stein asks. “As in –” “The man who murdered your sister,” Rip says. I assume we’re talking about Laurel, but this makes it sound like Darhk murdered Stein’s sister.

-          “I never did” Talk about OUCH. This is amazing.

Episode 2

-          Some clarification on when and where “the infirmary” is would be good, as well as what Jax and Stein’s history here is, but I figure that will be added as this is fleshed out

-          Same with “decision makers”

-          I vote yes on “not drinking and driving” quip that’s excellent

-          Bambi is adorable

-          Make sure when you’re researching the crusades to look at things from multiple perspectives. This seems like it could very easily fall into a very generic “Good Christians” vs “Evil non-Christians” crusade narrative and that’s… less than ideal. There was a lot of politics surrounding the crusades, even if you’re just focusing on the Christians. That might also help provide a motive for your dissenter? Someone who thinks these soldiers should be back at home looking after things there instead of invading a foreign nation to secure power and riches for the church? Someone who’s been convinced that the crusaders have no divine right to this land and that they should leave it to the people who actually live there? Could maybe be a place to start setting up some doing what’s “right” vs doing what’s supposed to happen conflict? This is obviously just an outline so maybe you’re already planning something like that but I figured I’d mention it

-          I’m a fan of Bambi not dying

-          I love Firestorm as an angel that’s an amazing idea in so many ways A++++

-          Mick roasting a T-Rex with his gun heck yeah

Episode 3:

-          I love Sara’s canary pendant

-          Continuity issue: in episode 1, Mick punches Rex and that’s about the extent of their interaction. Not much of a basis for the trust he seems to be showing in this ep.

LOTREWRITE: Possibly we could make it more explicit that Rex noticed that the bomb the JSA were tracking was discharged harmlessly after Mick said he went after it, thus the trust?

-          Yay for bi Sara!

-          The Sara and Amaya scene sounds like it’s gonna be so cute

-          Ray’s speech to Nate about heroism is really solid

-          I see now why it’s a pencil, but I’m still not loving the idea. Does it just magically never get not sharpened? Has Nate never noticed? Does he sharpen it and lose tiny fragments of the spear every time? Am I being too nitpicky?

-          Love the mention of non-fighting military personnel 

-          Mick is starting to feel like he’s taking over the story a little too much here maybe, especially considering that he’s been the most major character in the previous episodes as well, while Jax and Stein seem almost nonexistent. Nate could probably have a little more prominence given that this is his big reveal episode.

Episode 4

-          Might want to give a quick rundown of some basics about Chernobyl in the finished episode for audiences unfamiliar with the history. I had to look it up because I thought it happened years later and was very confused.

-          Give some reason for why Stein’s actions were changed from the original timeline. Is Darhk’s presence there already changing things?

-          What do you mean by Jax can “safely detonate” the bomb? Is there some reason he and Stein can’t Firestorm up and transfigure it? I don’t recall Jax being a particular expert in bombs previous to this.

-          The Stein and Clarissa storyline is very very good

-          Sara and Mick (not) talking about their shared grief Thank You

-          Sara seems rather quick to trust Eobard. She knows it’s a speedster who killed Rex, right? Nevermind. She still seems very quick to trust for a former assassin.

-          Maybe avoid Eobard villain monologuing? He has no reason to.

-          Doesn’t the Black Flash only come after the speedsters, not anyone whose death is changed by time travel? iirc, both Cisco and Barry’s mother were brought back to life by Barry changing the timeline at one time or another and neither were targeted. There may be extenuating circumstances I’m forgetting though…

-          Sara and Laurel’s storyline is really touching and sweet

-          LISA!!!!!!

Episode 5

-          I’m loving the mix of historically accurate costumes and especially Mick

-          Crew interacting with Vikings is great and in character

-          Jax and Gunlød’s relationship is really cute

-          The funeral for Len and the others they’ve lost is fantastic

Episode 6

-          Eobard and Darhk banter already sounds like it’s gonna be great

-          How’s Lisa getting in? nevermind, that’s answered

-          The image of Len doing anything “emphatically” is kinda cracking me up. A look or something would probably be more in character.

-          Vampiric octopuses omg please have a flashback here

-          Building of tension for the break-in is excellently done. A bit cliché, but in a good way.

-          Lisa’s fury is great.

Episode 7:

-          Oa?

-          Independence Day banter is really fun

-          Lisa/Cisco scene is YES

-          “justified” I see what you did there

Episode 8:

-          Remember to introduce Constantine etc to audiences who might not be familiar with them

-          Are you going to show Mick vanishing or just have him suddenly no longer be there? Related: does he leave and then get beaten up or get taken out while with the rest of them? Does the audience know he’s telling the truth or will there be some room for them to wonder?

-          HARLEY/IVY YESSSSS

-          I’m assuming Booster is Booster Gold, yes? Do we get him in this season?! Okay coming back, we don’t. It’s a nice shoutout for those who know, but the prominence it’s given implies it will be relevant.

-          Clarify who Resurrection Crusade are

Episode 9:

-          Sara’s disguise for the Christmas party isn’t specified

-          This might be an issue with the original version of the episode as well, but the colonies were in open rebellion against the British crown and GW probably wouldn’t expect honorable treatment or a prisoner exchange if captured. He was openly committing treason in the eyes of the British army.

-          Ray navigating with one boot is hilarious and wonderful

-          Would soldiers from the pre-telephone era be able to adjust well enough in one night to work with a comm? Guns they at least have experience with. Tiny devices that let them talk to each other through long distances might be a bit pushing it. Or I might be getting too nitpicky.

-          The whole massacre plot needs some work tbh. How does Jax and Amaya knocking out a total of three soldiers stop a full massacre? How many were there? How did the soldiers feel about it? Sneak attacks on innocent (white) civilians weren’t really a common part of warfare at the time. Some or all of the villagers would have supported the British or at least pretended to. Not to mention the British soldiers were probably occupying the nearest village. Village sounds really feudal I’m thinking town might be more appropriate okay I’m definitely getting too nitpicky

-          End scene is great

Episode 10:

-          Ray’s pirate persona is gold

-          Why do they ask Jax for his name first? (or do they?)

-          Foreshadowing Rip joining the other side? Neat

-          Looks like this just needs more details for the climactic battle then you’ll be good

Episode 11:

-          The opening is so good

-          Adorable engineering duo yes good

-          So does the Greenpeace member know about the explosion? How?

-          This episode feels a bit short? It’s focused on a single plot that gets resolved relatively straightforwardly. Maybe add subplot(s) and/or throw a wrench in things somewhere?

Episode 12:

-          A little hard to follow at first but I think it’s supposed to be

-          Does Mick say “who’s Grace?”? That seems to imply that he recognizes the other names.

-          This has the potential to be really creepy I like it

-          Can Rip be incorporated into this somehow? Or not necessarily be incorporated as the character, but at least mentioned? It feels relevant, since he had the closest relationship to Gideon

Episode 13:

-          Could Legion!Len’s reveal be moved? If he’s not heavily involved in the Legion’s main plot for this ep, the previous ep would probably work better with a single big reveal (that oculus!Len is not just a hallucination) rather than two back to back. There could be mentions of a new Legion member (Darhk and Eo discussing Legends in Argentina “We’ll let the new guy handle them,” following orders from him, etc), without Len being revealed until he’s revealed to the Legends, or the end of this episode.

-          Really good moral quandaries here.

-          You could probably do something with the fact that the team (presumably intentionally) imitates oppressive government agents to get away with kidnapping, even if it is for a good cause. That’s gotta make them uncomfortable. (Mick seems like he’d probably be the most chill with it, Jax seems like he’d be really uncomfortable, and I could see Stein going either way.)

-          Maybe include one or more OCs or historical figures in a major role to add a human element to the conflict

Episode 14:

-          How does Rip find out? Does he already know?

-          So is the thing on the throne not the spear piece?

-          Tudor jewelry would probably not involve wood. They were big on showy jewels and metals. Maybe it’s in a fancy locket and rumored to hold part of the cross or something? You could have Anne make some sort of joke about how it’s probably fake. Artifacts like that were very common and almost never what they claimed to be.

-          Henry’s feeling a little flat here, but that might just be the outline format

-          This is another one that could use a subplot or two

-          MICK BURNS DOWN THE GLOBE I LOVE IT

Episode 15:

-          I like the option of Hex reacting badly to Rip

-          Carter and Kendra cameo is really neat

-          Continuity error: Len leaves and then says something in scene 6

LOTREWRITE: Len probably shouldn't leave since he has a big leaving sequence in the next episode

-          Lots of good stuff here

-          Make sure Lily stuff lines up with the following episode

LOTREWRITE: Lily should probably show up and have the argument with Stein in this episode, since the next one is very crowded

Episode 16:

-          Make sure Lily stuff lines up with previous episode

-          Bart Allen is from around this time period too. Can he cameo somehow?

-          I love this entire concept

-          All the hostages taken are women. Is there specific reasoning behind this? If not, maybe reconsider hostage choices

-          So Lily is volunteering to be a hostage, not switch sides? That was a little unclear.

-          I love the Monty Python joke. But it might be a little too anvil-y? Maybe change the wording from “what is your favorite color?” to “pick a color”?

-          How are the trials being administered? Verbally with spoken answers? Touchscreen? Fancy buttons?

Episode 17:

-          Cameo suggestion: A young Selina Kyle. The joke is that the found family she’s talking about consists entirely of cats. This can either be revealed to Jax via innocuous comment that wouldn’t make sense if referring to a human (something about litter boxes?) or revealed to the audience later when she looks at a picture in her wallet or something.

-          I love Legion!Len being fed up this is a Good Scene

-          The Legends make him cake aww

-          That ending man

-          Another episode that could use a bit of fleshing out. A little focus on what the other Legends are doing specifically might be enough.

Episode 18:

-          Love the cold open

-          Kendra cameo!

-          Why would putting Ray in a toga convince the guard to let him pass?

-          I’d add a subplot or a lot more happening at the gladiator fight. Does Darhk attempt to cheat? How does Sara counter that? Is she tempted to kill him? Maybe she could have a scene before or after where she talks to someone about her past with the League of Assassins and how sometimes she still has to fight those instincts? Even though she saved Laurel, he still almost killed her and Laurel is still almost completely out of reach for Sara so there’s got to be some pent-up anger there.

Episode 19:

-          HI YES YOU’RE INCLUDING MORDRED LET ME LOVE YOU

-          I can tell that you know your Arthurian legend or at least did some research this makes me so happy the Camelot episode was disappointingly generic in the official season but this is so much better

-          MICK AND MORDRED TALKING ABOUT BEING TRUE TO YOURSELF I HAVE ASCENDED

-          Yeah sorry I should have more constructive criticism but my brain kinda just starts screaming in delight at any mention of Mordred so just know that you did a good and there aren’t any glaring plot inconsistencies

Episode 20:

-          Snart is totally dedicated to his theme enough to take Antarctica let’s be honest

-          I believe there was a reference in a much earlier episode to Harley and Ivy both not returning someone’s calls. Did Harley do something to get back into the Legion’s good graces or…?

-          Ted Kord :D

-          This just needs more detail, in non-Len-related scenes in particular, which will presumably come with the full thing

Episode 21:

-          How is Rip rescued?

-          How does Ray contact GL and SS? Also, being in space shouldn’t keep them from being influenced by timeline change, since they’d still be within the bounds of time

-          BATFAM!! (I was gonna say that it was surprising no one changed things to keep them from being vigilantes, but that could be because they have secret identities and none of the LoD knows who they are) (Also are you going to include Oracle? You might be able to tie her into Ray’s character arc, since she’s a superhero who not only doesn’t have powers, but is physically disabled.)

-          How are you showing the spear going “fuck this“?

-          Wait is the implication that pre-doomworld didn’t have Batman or was pre-Batman? Because the gameshow ep mentioned him in one of the trials

-          I’m not sure about Sara being the one to throw Mick out. She is a former assassin, and she gave spear pieces to Thawne to save her sister earlier in the season. Seems like she would be among the more lenient. There should at least be some clarification of why. Maybe she’s upset because she was forced back into being an assassin?

Episode 22:

-          “proper Time Master captain” ouch

-          Sara’s scene with Laurel is lovely

-          Why would Ray blow up if he touched the spear?

-          “He holds up Cisco’s communication device with the” Finish this sentence

-          LEN!!!

-          This is a good ending

[teltoadstool]

I’m back, because I finally got all the photos I needed to introduce this family properly. I’m still not quite finished with the Batcave though. This post is long so I’ve put it behind the cut. Without further ado, the West-Wayne Family. 

First I’d like to say that this family consists of Batman, Flash, Alfred, the oc ships I’ve made for Batman and Flash, and of course their children. 

Backstory: The two families are sharing this house in Lucky Palms as a vacation home. They spend a month here, then return home to their respective cities for a month, which explains the short seasons and sudden growth spurts. Everyone in their universe is immortal due to a cosmic wave of an unknown variety. (Yeah, I know the explanation is pretty lazy, but I hate for characters to die.) Despite this, I am giving them jobs, simply because it gives them some structure to their lives. 

The upper right pic is Wally West aka the Flash and his daughter Hope. This the animated Justice League’s Flash with my own version of his backstory. Wally’s father, Rudolph, was abusive, and when Wally was seven, his father killed his mother in a drunken rage. Rudolph went to jail and lost custody of Wally. Wally lived in an orphanage until he was nine when he went to live with his loving Uncle Barry, aka the Flash of that time, and Aunt Iris, Rudolph’s sister.  At eleven he was in his Uncle’s lab and was hit by lightning, and he became Kid Flash at thirteen. Wally is a forensic scientist, or at least will be. His traits are: Brave, Good, Family Oriented, Athletic, and Friendly.

Hope has had superspeed in varying amounts since she was born. Thankfully no complications will arise from that fact. Her traits are: Brave and Friendly.

In the upper left is Bruce Wayne aka Batman. I think most everyone knows the basics of Batman’s backstory, but I’ll rehash them briefly here just for completion's sake. Bruce was born to Thomas and Martha Wayne, who were shot when he was eight. He was raised by his butler Alfred Pennyworth. He vowed to fight crime because of his parents deaths, so he trained extremely hard from that point on. He is running Wayne industries, so he’s going into the business career. His traits are: Workaholic, Brave, Disciplined, Perceptive, Athletic, and Genius. 

In the lower left is Grace West, Wally’s wife. She was born to extremely rich parents, but was stolen from her home when she was a baby by crooks with the intention of getting her extremely large family fortune. She was raised by them in a back room of their bar, that they later made her work in. While she was working at the bar, she became friends with Eleanor who was a temporary employee. Eleanor learned of Grace’s captivity and urged her to get free. Eleanor left Grace with a new determination to get free, but she needed help. She couldn’t just go up to her parents claiming to their daughter. She needed someone well known as trustworthy to help, so when the Flash came into the bar for information, she slipped him a note asking for help and that he meet her at the back entrance later. Late that night, Flash met her and brought her to a park to talk. Grace explained her situation and why she needed him to help her. The Flash believed her, and took a strand of her hair to help prove who she was to her parents. He told her that he had a friend who could help with everything. His plan being that he enlist Batman’s help, or rather Bruce Wayne’s. So to cut the story down a bit, she was reunited with her parents, and during the process of proving who she was, she and Flash got close. She discovered his identity while they were secretly dating, and eventually got married. Her traits are: Brave, Good, Family Oriented, Party Animal, and Friendly. 

In the lower right is Eleanor Wayne, who I’ve mentioned already, and Thomas her son. She’s Bruce’s wife. Her superhero name is Vampire Bat. She has superstrength, superspeed, super hearing, flight, and she can stay out in sunlight. Eleanor was born in the 1930s to upper middle class parents. At nine she went out for a walk in the woods with some teenagers, which she wasn’t supposed to do. The entire group was a attacked and killed by vampires. She was mortally wounded and unconscious when a different kind of vampire saved her by turning her. Eleanor managed to get home, but she was very hungry when she got there. Her parents being the only food source she tried to feed off of them. They were horrified and roughly carried her into her room and locked the door, thinking that she was possessed. Later they walled up the room entirely. Eventually she got hungry enough to climb out of the window to feed. From that point she had no identity, since her parents announce that she was dead. Eleanor never owned anything that she couldn’t stash in a abandoned house, and she only worked where no one asked questions. Occasionally she would steal things for a living, which is how she met Batman. Batman thought she was just a normal thief, so, when she turned out to be a vampire, he was caught off guard. She overpowered him, and, being hungry, drank from him. His blood tasted extremely good, so she started hunting him out ever-so-often. She was clever and knew of a lot of ways to surprise a person, so a couple times she succeeded, usually she failed but escaped. The times that she succeeded she drank enough to weaken Batman, and she would talk with him until he showed signs of recovering. Eventually he found where she was staying, but was ambushed by a lot of other vampires. Eleanor came home and claimed her food source, but not before he was severely injured and unconscious. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t take him to the hospital, because he was a superhero, and she didn’t know how to care for injured people. So she only had one choice left, removing the cowl. After discovering his identity she took him home, and left him in the care of Alfred. Now instead of hunting for him she turned up at the Batcave. He knew that she had saved him, that she had returned the stolen items a long ago, and that she meant no harm to him or anyone else, so he stopped fighting her and started having blood already drawn to avoid the weakness after she fed. It also helped that he could seem to find a way to stop her from enter the Batcave, and that Alfred seemed to be friends with her. She decided that she enjoyed his company, so she started visiting him when she wasn’t hungry, usually while he was on patrol. One night she took him to her old childhood room, and told him about her past. The same night they both realised that they had fallen for each other. However they couldn’t date while he was in costume, and Bruce couldn’t go anywhere without being noticed, so Bruce created her a new identity as an undiscovered singer, which she is good at. He also engineered her discovery. She was a big enough hit locally that she could realistically be invited to one of Bruce’s parties, which is where they officially met. Now they could date, officially, but she wanted to be part of all of his life, so she demanded to join Batman in his superheroing. so she became the Vampire Bat. They eventually got married, and had Thomas, who naturally was named after Bruce’s late father. Her traits are: Brave, Flirty, Night Owl, Party Animal, and Friendly.

Thomas normally isn’t a vampire while he’s a toddler. I didn’t want to deal with it changing him when he became one later. Normally he becomes one when he’s six. He gets eaten by a insane dog, so dies and comes back as a vampire. Understandably he’s scared of dogs now. He’s three months younger than Hope. His traits are: Brave and Genius.

The bottom pic is Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s loyal butler and father figure. Thankfully Alfred doesn’t have a long backstory. He took care of Bruce and the company after Bruce’s parents died. Bruce took over when he became an adult. In game Alfred is Bruce’s dad, and therefore Thomas’s granddad. His traits are: Brave, Neat, Handy, Nurturing, and Proper. 

[mizbabygirl]

Blackhawks' Jordin Tootoo relishes sober life after years of alcohol abuse [02\12\2017] (from the Chicago Tribune)

Jordin Tootoo sits at the dining room table cradling his daughter while she drinks from a bottle, laughing when the 8-month-old gives a contented "ahhh."

That scene is a stark contrast to when, as a teenager, Tootoo showed up to his future wife's Sweet 16 birthday party carrying a six-pack of beer. Or later when he would grab his best friend by the ankles to drag him out of bed so the two could go on drinking binges during a time when Tootoo's out-of-control lifestyle nearly derailed his NHL career.

The Jordin Tootoo of today, a winger for the Blackhawks and devoted family man who says he hasn't touched a drop of alcohol in more than six years, has moved on from what he refers to as his "past life."

It was a life that, beginning in his teen years, meant drinking to excess during the harsh days and nights spent not far from the Arctic Circle in a town where the only way in or out was by plane or snowmobile. It was a way of life that escalated after the suicide of his brother and reached its apex after Tootoo became the first player of Inuk descent to reach the NHL, where fame and fortune only fueled the opportunities to drink.

Tootoo does have a new life, one spent substance-free and trying to help the Hawks win the Stanley Cup and coming home to a loving wife, Jen, and daughter, Siena, where he is now as comfortable as he ever was on the ice.

"You look at life from a different perspective when you're comfortable and content in your own skin," Tootoo says. "You understand the meaning of life."

Which is?

"Right here," he says, looking at his daughter. "It's a balance and understanding that when you create something it's not all about you anymore. I changed my ways to change the cycle for my kids, for the next generation of my family. For me, this is an opportunity to be better."

Tootoo needed to be better.

Like most of his family and friends, Tootoo fell into the culture that permeates the Rankin Inlet of the Nunavut Territory in northern Canada, which included little talking ("in the arctic it's too cold to talk, so no one communicates," he says) and the abuse of alcohol.

"Growing up, it was just a part of life," Tootoo says. "For a lot of people in the north and in isolated communities it's a way of life to use and abuse drugs and alcohol. Basically what I knew growing up was to … wash away (everything) and not talk about it."

Together with his brother, Terence, and their best friend, Troy Aksalnik ("when you saw one of us the other two were usually right beside," Aksalnik says) they did what teenagers did in Rankin Inlet: Play hockey and drink alcohol.

The Tootoo brothers (especially Jordin) were standouts on the ice and were playing in the junior ranks when police pulled Terence over in 2002 while he driving home alone after dinner and drinks with his younger sibling. Terence was charged with impaired driving. A short time later, Terence, 22, committed suicide.

Thinking of his brother right to the end, he left a note for Jordin that read: "Do well, Jor. Go all the way. Take care of the family. You are the man. Ter."

"Reading it over and over I understood why it was plain and simple and to the point," Tootoo says. "I understood exactly what he meant by 'Go all the way,' meaning go to the NHL and take care of the family financially because he was the one who always tried to keep things afloat for our family. And with 'You are the man,' he never really got a lot of credit for being a leader as far as paving the way for a lot of the young kids in the north because everyone kind of looked at me like the one who was going to make it."

Consumed with grief, Tootoo began drinking even more heavily and continued to do so after the Predators drafted him and he made the team at 20. In Nashville, Tootoo made a name for himself on the ice with a hard-nosed style of play and off it with his hard-drinking ways.

Trips home took things up yet another notch.

"They don't have a liquor story there, so it's a dry community in a sense and you have to order all your liquor, which Jordin would do because he had the money," says Jen, who met Jordin when he was signing autographs at a junior tournament where she was working selling merchandise. "His family would look forward to him making that big order and once it got there Jordin would take the whole town out. 'Everyone come over, it's a free-for-all.'"

Aksalnik says when Tootoo drank "it was like there was no holding him back. He would come to our house and I'd be sleeping in the middle of the night and he'd grab me by the feet and say, 'Let's go.' My wife would be right there and she pretty much couldn't say anything. He'd pull me out of bed and we were off."

The partying continued until Predators general manager David Poile and then-coach Barry Trotz intervened.

"It was every other weekend I was getting called into the office, 'Toots,' what the hell?'" Tootoo says. "'You were out this late, people are saying things.'"

Poile and Trotz directed Tootoo into the NHL's substance abuse and behavioral health program, which he entered Dec. 27, 2010.

"It was a long time coming for me," Tootoo says. "Barry Trotz talked about his family, too, dealing with alcoholism, so he really knew what I was going through. To have someone that actually cared about you as a human being says a lot. I couldn't thank them enough for rejuvenating my life."

Clean and sober, Tootoo continued with his NHL career and detailed his struggle in a book called "All The Way: My Life on Ice," which was released in October of '14 while he was with the Devils. He says it was cathartic to tell his story.

"I wrote it for me personally," Tootoo says. "I felt like it was the right time in my life to turn the page and get it all off my shoulders. I think it helped my family understand how things are and why things were the way they were. I told them that I'm grateful for every experience that I've had. It has made me who I am today."

Today, Tootoo is a husband and father first and a hockey player second. Living in former Hawks forward Andrew Shaw's house not far from the United Center, Tootoo, 34, has settled in domestically.

"I never ever at the time envisioned being settled down," he says. "When you're living in that lifestyle or stuck in that dark place, you don't ever see this side of life. (Not) until maybe a year into my sobriety … did (I begin) seeing life from a different perspective."

Jen Tootoo, who married Jordin in 2014, described her husband's transformation from party animal to tea-drinking family man as "mind-blowing."

"I never even thought about marrying him — I just didn't see him as that guy," she says. "And he's just a totally different person. Not that I didn't love the guy he was before, but you just didn't even know him really. You didn't get on that level of a deeper kind of connection. When you have a past and an upbringing that has made you who you are, well, there are always things to work on and changing habits and breaking the past and the cycle. He has done a really good job of communicating and learning those skills.”

"I'm just really proud of him," she continues, her voice breaking with emotion. "I don't even think sometimes that he understands what a great person he is and how mature he has become. He puts so many people first. He's honorable. Everyone respects him. He's a man of his word and he knows who he is as a person."

That respect extends into the Hawks dressing room, where Tootoo is a mentor to some of the team's young players after signing a one-year, free-agent contract last summer. He also earns it on the ice protecting teammates.

"I know my role," Tootoo says. "Over the years the game has evolved. I know I can play the game, but my foundation is being a physical presence out there. Before when I played it was out of anger and frustration and I didn't really give a (damn) about my health, but for me now it's more of being a character guy and being a good teammate for the young guys. Mentally, it's a grind. It's not easy being a pro athlete. I always tell the guys, 'Page 172 out of my book is mind over matter.'"

Tootoo's transformation also has had an impact back home in northern Canada. His sobriety is an inspiration for others, including Aksalnik, who followed Tootoo's lead and went to rehab and is living a sober life in Rankin Inlet.

"I took the same approach he did," Aksalnik says. "I went to rehab for 30 days and straightened my life out. I did it because I knew he did it."

Aksalnik says Tootoo has inspired "a lot of people" in Rankin Inlet. "He's a role model by playing in the NHL and now that he's not drinking, I think a lot of people look up to him."

Being a role model suits Tootoo much better than wasting away his life in a bottle.

"It's a daily process of being a better person, a better pro," Tootoo says. "Maybe before I sobered up I put so much stress on myself as to try to control what I can't control. I feel more at peace on a daily basis. I can go to bed at night without any stress. It's not like before when I would be laying in bed for hours, (wondering) 'What is this person thinking or what did I do two nights ago?'"

Tootoo then is interrupted by a squealing Siena.

"What? What?" he says to her with a smile.

"I never knew that there was this side of life," Tootoo says again. "It has been a wonderful gift that was offered to me six years ago and I have a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter and we're all healthy."

[burningblake]

Snowbarry AU Part 2

Title: A Ballad for Ms Snow | Read Part 1 | Read on FF.net

Description:  Snowbarry Club AU. Caitlin is the sad DJ who's saving up money for her Master education. Barry is a fresh graduate who celebrates the night with his friends. What happens when he takes a bet to seduce her? Multi-chapter. Without superpowers.

Chapter 2 - Secrets Revealed

Barry's head swam as he downed the third drink. The music had eased to a lazy tune. The few dancers that pirouetted on the floor didn't even follow the rhythm. The club's energy had shifted to the tables, to casual chatting and flirting and kissing.

Caitlin sat with her legs tucked underneath her—her heels lay on the floor somewhere—while he had stretched his over the sound system. She held her glass with precision and cringed each time the alcohol touched her lips.

She wasn't much of a drinker, Barry deduced.

The colored lights illuminated her eyes and her teeth—whenever she shared a smile.

At first, they chatted about his graduation and his passion for forensics science. As with all things he loved, he spoke in a frenzy. It was crazy, he thought. He'd only met her minutes ago and it was like he was trying to compress the story of his life into a short summary—scary details excluded. (Though a voice deep inside told him she wouldn't mind the scary details. She would understand.)

The truth was, he liked her reactions.

She didn't just nod and smile. No. Her eyes and mouth widened with proper shock and surprise as he told her about his hearing accident.

"No!" she said, leaning forward.

"Exactly!" Barry returned the emotion. "I mean, out of all the places I could have been when the speaker system went off, I happened to be right in front of it. I couldn't hear anything for an entire day! At least, Iris enjoyed teasing me."

She laughed and shook her head. Then, when her eyes sobered, she said: "You had reversible hearing loss."

Barry stopped over his drink. "I had what?" he asked.

"Reversible hearing loss," she repeated, blushing. When she saw his blank expression she scurried to explain: "It's a mechanism your ears use to adapt to the loud noise and protect you from real damage."

He stared at her in awe. "Wow that's so... educated of you," he remarked.

She shrugged, turning her attention to her drink. "I read," she said.

Barry nodded, though he didn't quite buy her excuse. He realized she'd never told him about her major. She had skipped the question when he asked her by turning the focus to him.

In fact, each time he tried to center the conversation on her, she shrank inwards and guarded her expression. She cut her answers short. So far, he'd only managed to learn about her friendship with Cisco—he was the one who had recommended her for the job and had also tutored her on the art of mixing music. She hadn't always been as proficient as she was now—Barry imagined her struggling with the buttons, showing extreme caution. A smile tugged on his lips.

He stared at her profile-the way her intelligent eyes caught the light, the way her hair brushed her skin and her lips balanced each other.

"You never told me what you specialize at," he commented.

She turned her face and raised her eyebrows, as if she hadn't heard him. It was kind of cute, Barry thought. She actually believed she could fool him. The innocent looks were basically his expertise. He smiled, deciding to humor her anyway.

"Your major. You never told me what you're studying," he repeated.

This time, her hesitation was visible.

"I promise I won't feel intimidated," Barry said, raising his palm.

Her eyes squeezed into a smile. Barry's gaze caught on her dimples for a moment.

"I'm a biomedical engineer and geneticist," she said. Barry shaped a silent wow with his lips, his eyes widening.

"You said you wouldn't feel intimidated," Caitlin reminded him, pointing with her finger.

Barry closed his mouth. "I'm not—I mean I'm not going to pretend I understand what that is about, but you... you are a scientist-aside from a DJ, which I-I think is-is an interesting combination," he struggled to find the right words, to not sound like an idiot and at the same time compliment her mind.

A smile pressed into her left cheek. "You are not so bad yourself, Mr. Allen. A pizza delivery guy who's secretly a CSI detective."

He accepted her praise with a nod. "Yeah, people tend to think I'm fast at delivery."

Caitlin tilted her head.

"And that sounded not how I intended it to," he scurried to add.

Caitlin laughed.

Quiet settled as if carried by a breeze. Caitlin focused on her drink and switched the song.

5,4,3,2,1… the lyrics started. The voice was sweet melancholy and inner complaint.

5,4,3,2,1...

He holds the guuun... against my heart.

I close my eyes... and I'm... I'm dead.

He saw her close her eyes and bite her lip.

His eyebrows pulled together in a furrow as he watched the pain battle with her expression. It didn't take a genius to fill in the pieces. The song hymned romantic love and how it could murder you.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

She opened her eyes and stared. Her gaze turned cold and distant.

"I... lost my fiancé," she answered, her voice firm. "We both studied at the same college until... there was an explosion nine months ago. Basically, I lost a year of my studies and the man I loved... died." Her voice dried at the last word.

Barry sat up straight and looked at her, shaking his head. "I'm so sorry," he muttered.

"Yeah, me too," she said. "So, since you asked why I don't smile too much, this blank expression feels kind of the way to go."

Barry nodded. Her words connected strangely with him. He'd made a similar pact with himself. Only different. He couldn't vindicate his father. But still, hoping felt like the only way to go. The muscles around her mouth twitched, as if she was restisting emotion.

"Hey," Barry said. Before he realized it, he was reaching out and placing his hand on her shoulder. Caitlin jumped slightly. He pulled away, curling his fingers into his palm, but still held her gaze.

"Everything is going to be okay. You will be fine," he told her. He didn't know how he'd ended up offering support to this girl—this girl he barely knew—but it was almost an automatic reaction. Somehow he knew that she could survive this and he needed to tell her.

He almost expected her to protest, to shake him off, but Caitlin's eyes stretched wide as a tiny speck of hope glimmered in the depths of her irises. She was stunning. She nodded.

Barry tried to clear his head and smiled. He decided he wouldn't leave this place if he didn't see her smile again.

"I have an idea," he started.

Caitlin squinted and leaned a little back. "What?" "Let's play a drinking game," he suggested. "We'll both describe our worst experiences of a certain type and if yours are worse than mine, you'll take a shot, or the opposite." He grinned with pride.

Caitlin's expression shrank in hesitation. "I'm not sure…"

"Oh come on. You deserve to have some fun," Barry pressed.

Caitlin's eyes opened in protest as she resisted a smile. "I have never done a drinking game!" she confessed. "I'm not even sure I will be any fun!"

#

One hour later…

"Worst birthday party ever!" Caitlin shouted as soon as she slammed her glass down. Cisco gave her a look, then leaned toward Barry and covered his mouth with his palm. "Who is she and what have you done with Caitlin?" he demanded.

Barry laughed and lifted his shoulders, shaking his head. "Okay, me first!" Caitlin said. "It was the year my father died. He was the only one that remembered my birthday, so that year nobody was home to celebrate. I made a cake on my own, which turned out to be salty. Much like me." She snorted and snickered.

"That sucks, but not as much as my worst birthday," Barry pointed out. "I was eleven years old and I visited my father in prison for the first time, but they wouldn't let me see him, because they considered him a a threat to me, after he was accused with murdering my mother."

He frowned as soon as he uttered the words. He was sure this was something he wasn't supposed to say.

Caitlin pouted. "Fine, you win!"

Barry cheered and downed another shot.

"How about this?" he pointed a finger. "Worst pick-up line you've ever received," he suggested.

Caitlin wrinkled her nose and twisted her lips. "Hey Snow, I bet I can make you fall for me," she said, imitating a male voice.

Barry folded in half laughing.

"What did you tell them?" he wondered.

"Something about how I could freeze them to death instead. Which was pretty mean, but he deserved it." She almost looked like she was muttering to herself, which gave Barry another round of laughs.

As he straightened up, he saw Julian approach. His smile faded. Julian stopped next to him and studied Caitlin. Barry tensed.

"You were supposed to buy her one drink, Allen. Not get her wasted," Julian remarked.

It took a moment for his words to set in and create their disaster. Caitlin was too drunk to react to them. But the same didn't apply to the barman.

Barry met Cisco's grim eyes. His hands had frozen over the cocktail he was brewing. Barry opened his mouth and raised his palm in panic.

"Hey let me explain-"

"I thought I had made it clear to you that Caitlin wasn't in a place to date, much less be played with," Cisco said through tight lips.

"I didn't intend to-" Barry tried to explain.

"I think you need to leave now," Cisco cut him off. His voice stayed within civilized volumes, but somehow it sounded more threatening than direct yelling.

Barry got the message. He nodded and turned to leave.

"Thanks, Julian," he muttered as he swiped past him toward the exit. The other man had opened up his eyes, as if he'd just realized his mistake.

Too late, Barry thought, more to himself than to his colleague. He felt like the worst jerk in the world.

And he deserved it.

#

The next day he returned around the afternoon. The sky had opened up and was pouring on the earth, so he'd brought an umbrella with him.

He walked several times around the block, ignoring the chill of the rain, until he built up the courage to go inside.

The club worked as a pub during day time. Quiet background tones had replaced the echoing music. The air smelled of spicy perfumes and smoke. But mostly, it was dry, which was a nice change from the wet weather.

Barry shuffled toward the bar, closing his umbrella and slicking back his hair.

"Oh, you again," Cisco muttered nonchalantly once he noticed him. He was tasting a lollipop.

"Hi," Barry said breathily, pretending not to notice his attitude. "Is Caitlin here?"

Cisco pulled the lollipop out of his mouth. "She is Dr. Snow to you," he corrected him, his gaze a sharp knife.

Barry winced and waved his head. "Fine. Is Dr. Snow here?"

Just as he asked, he saw her coming from the bathroom. His heart hammered and his breath caught. Her gaze met his, cold and impassive, but she didn't stop in her tracks. His eyes travelled up and down her body on their own initiative. She wore a black tank top and grey trousers, while a stylish silver clip held her hair on one side.

"Hi," Barry said in a clipped voice, as soon as she came within earshot.

Caitlin turned her side to him and pressed her body against the counter, completely ignoring him.

"Give me a jean tonic, Cisco. With extra ice."

"Right away, m'am," he replied and instantly pulled a bottle.

Barry had never wanted the earth to swallow him as much as he wanted it at that moment. Her direct indifference was like an icicle cutting through his chest. He leaned on the bar, scraffing the surface with his finger. He struggled to find a creative way to start speaking. The seconds passed, and the silence took giant dimensions, and Cisco slipped the drink toward Caitlin.

"Hey, listen," Barry started, pivoting. Caitlin picked up the glass and took a sip. "Yesterday night-"

She whirled. Barry only caught a glimpse of her staggering glare before she tossed her drink right into his face.

He closed his eyes and pressed his lips. When he looked again, she was gone. Cisco stared at him with shock written all over his face, before he raised his eyebrows and returned to his work.

Barry wiped the water off his face with the back of his sleeve and turned around. The door of the club closed after a half hint of Caitlin. He ran after her.

The rain soaked him to the bone. It was the kind of rain that fell down in cascades, creating rivers down the road. Barry searched in the blurred view until he noticed a grey-coated figure heading to the parking lot, holding a black umbrella.

"Caitlin!" he shouted.

She didn't slow her pace.

He started running. He thought he would probably catch a cold later, but he ran regardless. He only wished he could run faster.

He stopped her just as she was about to enter her car, gently pulling her shoulder. Caitlin shook his hand off and pierced him with her eyes.

Water spilled down his face and lips. Her umbrella looked particularly appealing to him as cold had started to set in his bones, but something told him she wouldn't exactly welcome him under it.

"Caitlin, listen please," he begged her. "Yesterday-"

"Yesterday what, Barry?" she cut him off. "You took advantage of my emotional state to have a laugh with your friends? You used me to boost your stupid ego? You insisted on getting me drunk so you could then exploit me further?"

"No-NO! Please, I swear I only insisted on getting drunk, because we both needed it. I never intended to take it any further than that," he promised.

She frowned. "You don't have the slightest clue about what I need," she said through gritted teeth. "What I need is for you to get out of my sight. I have enough troubles in my life as it is. I don't need you to make fun of it," she spat, pain and anger painted all over her eyes. Barry's heart sank as she opened the door of her car.

He stood alone in the shower as her headlights shone in the dusk. He watched them fade away.

Lightning split the sky. Suddenly he wished it would strike him.

Read Part 3