#v; as the world falls down. ( st )

[myspacebrat]

I saw you did someone’s request and I had to put mine in! Eddie being behind in class and the top of the class cheerleader reader is told to tutor Eddie and it somehow ends in them fucking between the bookshelves of the library, please? 🥺

Meet me in the library

Eddie Munson x sweet cheerleader fem!reader

⚠️warnings: SMUT 18+MDNI, playing never have I ever, Eddie has a slight corruption kink, dirty talk, public sex, fingering (f receiving), oral sex (m—receiving), unprotected p in v sex, cream pie, all of my “sweet and innocent or virgin” girlies are always undercover freaks, it’s hard for me to write for super innocent characters since well, I’m not.

A/N: I was recently rewatching st and realized a lot of the kids reference failing Spanish, so I thought that could be the subject Eddie needs help with in this, as I don’t see that much in other fics. Anyway, thank you to whoever sent in this request. Hope you like it <3

Today, was not your day. You had woken up 15 minutes late, missed the bus, did not have time to eat anything but a granola bar and to top it off; Tyler in first period, sent you one of his weekly pervy notes, that read: “You’re so hot, my zippers falling for you.” You couldn’t help but roll your eyes as you crumbled the paper to throw away on your way out, to second period.

As you walk into Mrs. Burtons Spanish class, the vanilla air freshener sitting on her desk, wafting through the air. You take a seat in the middle and begin taking out your text book.

“Buenos Dias, clase.” Her inability to roll her tongue, peaking through her sentence.

“Buenos Dias, Mrs. Burton.” You and a few other pupils, say back.

“Please take out your Spanish 1, text books and turn to page 24.” As you move to open your book with the rest of the class, the classroom door is pulled open. Eddie Munson walks in, without a care in the world that he’s late. Choosing the open seat right next to you, he plops down. The smell of weed, hitting your nose. Clearly smoking before class was more important.

No wonder he’s a super duper senior - you thought to yourself

You usually try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but you’ve had a shit day and thus, no filter. You don’t dislike Eddie, you’ve had multiple classes with him throughout your high school career and even though you both have never really had a full on conversation, you’ve still never bought the crap this town says about him.

“So nice of you to join us, Señor Munson.” Spits Mrs. Burton, face adorned with the fakest of smiles

“Uh, I forgot my book in my van, sorry.” He says while slumping down in his chair

“Mmhm” Mrs. Burtons continues while rolling her eyes and turning towards the chalk board

“Psst, what page are we on?” You hear being whispered in your direction

You turn toward it, not sure if the questions is directed at you or someone else. As you turn your head towards the leather jacket wearing metal head, you notice his eyes trained on you, eyebrows lifted as if to say “hello?”

“Oh um, page 24.” You whisper back

“Thanks, Pom poms.” He says with a wink

Your face instantly blooming a rosy pink— Eddie notices as he throws you a cocky smirk.

You bury your head in your text book as Mrs. Burton explains the difference between “los padres and el padre”

After Mrs. Burton dismisses the class, and you’re packing up your belongings. She sets her sights on you.

“Y/L, Munson? Can I have a word with you both, before you go?” Her eyes darting from yours to Eddie’s

“Sure” you both say in unison, although your tones were anything but similar

You put the purple straps of your backpack on your shoulders, while Eddie haphazardly slings one strap over his. Bag zipped halfway.

You both walk up to Mrs. Burtons desk, side by side. Eddie looked annoyed, like he had better things to be doing, while you always did your best to be polite.

“Y/N, I wanted to ask. Since you are my best student, if you wouldn’t mind tutoring Eddie, here? If he passes these next two tests, they will count for half of his grade, if he can bump his F up to at least a C, he can finally pass my class.”

She says, all while side eyeing Eddie. His jaw clenching through her proposal. You couldn’t help feeling bad for the way he was treated, by peers and teachers alike. You wondered how it must feel to have your teachers give up on you. You would probably stop caring, too.

Before your thoughts could carry on, Mrs. Burton begins talking again.

“So, what do you say?” Her eyes pleading for a yes, she clearly wants him out of her class.

You look over again at Eddie, the action making your tummy fill with butterflies. Having to be in close proximity to him, most likely alone. You couldn’t tell if the nerves were from intimidation or infatuation.

You’d find out soon.

“Yeah, of course. I’d love to help!” Words coming out way too enthusiastic in comparison to how you were internally feeling.

“Okay, excellent.” She says as she sits down in her seat to begin grading papers.

She looks up at you and Eddie through her lashes “you both are free to go.” She says with a tight lipped smile

Eddie is the first one to make his way out the door. Exhaling a breath he’d been holding.

“So, when and where do you wanna meet up?” He says through gritted teeth, face impassive as his eyes flicker to yours.

“Meet me in the library, after school.” You say as you turn on your heel and head to third period.

The day dragged on, until finally the last bell rang out. You made your way to your locker. Exchanging some of your text books for ones you’d need to help you study that night.

As you swing your locker shut, your thoughts interrupted by a figure leaning up against the next locker over.

“Hola, pom poms.” Eddie says with a smirk, your widened eyes turn squinted as you return the smile.

“I thought we were meeting in the biblioteca?”—You inquire

“The what?” He says as he reads your face for the answer

Oh lord, you had your work cut out for you.

“Biblioteca means library in Spanish, Eddie.” You say with a giggle

“Mm, no yeah, I-I knew that.” His smirk drops, as he swallows. Addams apple bobbing at the motion.

“Sure you did. So do you wanna lead the way, or do you need directions?” You say with no bite to your words, purely a joke.

“Oh, low blow, princess!” He says as he puts his hand over his heart. “All have you know, I’ve been to the library once or twice before.” He smirks while looking back at you.

The butterflies in your stomach returning, ten fold.

As you both shuffle into the library, it was mostly empty. Most of your peers have already headed home for the day. You both find a nice secluded table towards the back shelves. Away from the judging eyes of Mrs. Westin, the grumpy old librarian who loves to tell people to be quiet, even when their voices are just above a whisper. You knew Eddie could be loud, witnessing his little outburst in the cafeteria and in classes you both have shared together, through the years.

As you reach the furthest table; you remove your backpack, taking out your text book along with some paper and a pencil. Meanwhile Eddie slams his body into his seat, slumping down and spreading his legs out as he crosses his arms against his chest. You can feel him watching you as you turn to the page your next test was going to be on.

“Are you going to keep staring at me? Or are you going to get your text book and writing utensils out, so we can study?” You ask as you uncomfortably shift in your seat, his gaze doing nothing to ease the butterflies flapping around your belly.

“I’d rather study you, princess.” He says as he brings his chin towards his chest, looking at you through his lashes. Big doe eyes roaming your chest, neck and face as he brings his bottom lip behind his top teeth to bite. Finally his eyes meet yours and you can’t help but to get lost in them.

What was he doing to you?

You were hardly boy crazy, basking in the fact that you never took any of these boys serious. School always came first. That’s not to say you haven’t dated or had fun, you certainly have but you knew graduating and getting the hell outta this soul sucking town was the real object of your desires.

But Eddie was making you feel ways you’ve never felt, ways you didn’t even know were physically possible for you.

You bring your thoughts to a halt, as your eyes quickly find solace in the page in front of you.

“Text book, Eddie?” You say, with a tone you weren’t familiar hearing from yourself.

“I-I didn’t bring it. Is it cool if we just share?” He stands up and makes his way around the table to plop in the chair, beside you. Mirroring the same slouch and spread legs, as earlier. Not even waiting to hear your answer.

“Sure, why not.” You whisper to yourself as you continue looking over the page, trying to gage what lesson you wanted to work on first.

Eddie sits up and scoots his chair closer to you, elbow touching yours. Sending something as easily described as electricity, coursing through your body. You begin to move uncomfortably in your seat again. Eddie, watching you closely out the side of his eyes.

He was purposely trying to throw you off, and it was working. You close your text book and look up at him, while you scoot back in your chair. Eddie moves back a bit too, eyes widening as he thinks you’re going to get up and walk away from him and his antics.

“How about we put off studying for a day and I don’t know, talk?” You say as you collect your book and utensils to put back in your backpack.

“Talk? What would you like to talk about, poms?”

“My name is y/n, not Poms not Pom Poms just y/—n. Okay?” You snap, although the nickname was kinda cute coming from him, you’d prefer to be called your real name.

Eddie puts his hands up in surrender.

“Y/n, right. Sorry.” He says as he begins nervously scratching the back of his neck.

“Well, why don’t we get to know each other a little bit? Maybe that way you can get more comfortable with me and then it’ll be a little easier to study.” You’d much rather talk to him anyway, see what’s going on under that beautiful, luscious head of hai— nope, no. Don’t even finish that thought.

Eddie raises his eyebrows, smirk adorning his full pink lips

“I’d love nothing more than to get to know you, princess..” smirk growing wider

Okay, so much for wanting him to call me by my name. Cause if it’s between that and princess, princess wins. Hands down.

“How about we make it interesting?” Face full of mischief

You could tell that face was going to be nothing but trouble, but you couldn’t help the intrigue it brought you.

“Okay, what did you have in mind?” You ask, trying your best to be impartial.

“Have you ever played, never have I ever?”

“I mean, a couple times at a sleep over and once at a house party, but that involved alcohol.” You say as your heart thumps out of your chest. You remember those questions being anything but innocent. The middle of the library probably not the best place for this. But, you also thought it could be fun.

“Right, well unfortunately for us, we don’t have any. So maybe we can just put a finger down, instead.” Disappointment in his voice “Okay, you start.” He says with a motion of his hand.

“Never have I ever… ditched school.” You wanted to start off small and work your way to the good stuff

Eddie puts his finger down, with an exhale of his breath.

“Okay, princess. Let’s play fair.” He snorts out with a chuckle

“Never have I ever, had a one night stand.” He says with a cocky smirk, as he puts a finger down. Eyes trained on you, as he waits for your answer

You shake your head, as you nervously play with your fingers in your lap.

He’s just jumping right in, okay.

Eddie nods his head as he laughs to himself, as if to say “I knew it.”

“Never have I ever… Um, broken a bone.” You put a finger down, remembering 6th grade and your bright pink cast you had to wear for a whole a year.

Eddie barks out a laugh as he shakes his head.

“No, no, no sweetheart. Dirty questions only.” He says with a smug smile

“Why? I meant get to know as in little details of each other’s lives, not sexually.” You whisper the last word, making Eddie roll his eyes

“C’mon princess, this is so much more interesting.” He whines

“Okay, fine. Never have I ever had sex in a car.” You say as you put a finger down

Eddie’s eyes widen at the new information. He thought you were a virgin, miss Virgin Mary in the flesh. You had unexpectedly surprised him.

“Mm, that’s what I’m talking about, sweetheart.” He says smug smirk still adorning his face

“Never have I ever, had a threesome.” He puts another finger down, as your eyes widen at the fact.

“You’ve had a threesome? With who?” You ask, tone in disbelief

“It was a friend and some girl.” He answers

“With another guy?” The thought making your thighs close, as you swallow down the curiosity plaguing your mind.

Eddie just nods his head, as he looks at you. Awaiting your next revelation.

“Never have I ever, kissed a member of the same sex?” You couldn’t help it, you were curious.

Eddie side eyes you, he knows exactly what you’re doing. He puts his finger down, as you mirror him. Having made out with your best friend at a few of your sleepovers.

That was totally normal, wasn’t it?

You and Eddie, both clearly surprised by the others answer.

“Oh, so miss goody two shoes is actually just a secret bad girl. Having sex in cars and kissing girls? Mm, I like this version much better.” He snickers

You roll your eyes, but can’t help but laugh along.

“Okay, okay” Eddie begins “never have I ever… had sex in public? Car sex doesn’t count.” He continues

“How does that not count? It’s literally in public.”

“I mean in a public place; a park, a gas station, a library?” He says leaning closer to you as he whispers the last part.

Your face heats up at the thought of Eddie, fucking you against one of these bookshelves. Before you could think about the words, they’re already leaving your mouth.

“Nope, can’t say I’ve ever had the privilege of getting fucked in a library.”

Eddie’s eyes darken and his jaw tics at your language. He’s never even heard you cuss before, not even a damn or hell. He was loving that you weren’t as innocent as he thought. Although he did very much want to corrupt you, he thinks it’ll be easier now.

“Well, do you want to?” He asks, big eyes staring into your souls as he licks his lips.

“Um, I-I don’t know.” You stammer

Of course I do! I want you to do whatever you want to me— your brain betrays you, with its horny thoughts. God, it hasn’t been that long. Has it?

“Just say the word, princess. We can change that, if that’s something you’d like.” He says, voice not matching the sexual undertones of the conversation. He sounded so sweet and understanding. Like if you said no, he totally wouldn’t pressure you. He’d just go about his day, like nothing was even said. And that, makes you want him even more.

Your voice feels stuck in your throat. How do you tell him you do, really, really want that without sounding like a slut? I mean clearly, he was one but you don’t know if you’d like to be looked at in that light.

“It’s cool, don’t sweat it. We’ll just get back to stud-“ finally you find your voice, you have to just say it, own it. Who cares, you want Eddie. You want him to fuck you and that doesn’t make you any less than anyone else.

“N-No, I um” you sit up straighter as you try to say the rest of your sentence with more confidence “I want you to fuck me.” You say as you look him directly in the eyes.

His smile beams, as he rubs his chin in deliberation. As if, trying to grasp at the fact that, Hawkins sweetest and most innocent cheerleader just asked him to fuck her in the library. This was better than Christmas. Hell, christmas and his birthday combined. He couldn’t wait to get a little taste of your sweetness, he hoped this wouldn’t be the last time either.

“Okay, anything you want princess.” He whispers as he put his large ringed hand on your thigh. Rubbing up to the hem of your green and yellow cheer skirt. Goosebumps spreading all over your thighs at the coldness of his rings. You squeaked at the gesture.

“Shh, shh. It’s okay, baby I’m just g’na get you nice and ready for me, is that okay? Get that pussy, all nice and dripping for me? Huh?” He whispers closer to the shell of your ear. You bite your lip at his filthy words. Rosy cheeks making another appearance.

He moves his hand up higher, grabbing at the fat of your upper thigh and letting out a low growl, as if that really turned him on. Your heart was beating out of your chest as you began looking back towards the front of the library, trying to make sure you wouldn’t get caught and suffer the wrath of Mrs. Westin.

“It’s okay, sweet girl. I won’t let us get caught, okay?” He says as he grabs your chin and turns your head back to look at him. As you take in his face, you notice his eyes trained on your lips. He wanted to kiss you, so without thinking twice you move in closer, closing the space between you both. He watches you and realizes what you’re doing. He begins to completely close it, by putting his lips on yours. The kiss is soft and sweet, until his other hand grabs the back of your head, pulling you even closer. He slips his tongue past your lips as he entangles it with yours, the kiss now needy and passionate. His hand continuing to skate up your skirt, until he reaches your panty covered slit. He can feel just how soaked he’s made you.

“Fuck, you always this wet when you tutor dumbasses, like me?” He laughs, but his self deprecation pulls at your heart strings.

“You’re not a dumbass, Eddie. Don’t talk like that about yourself.” You say shyly, but voice full of tenderness, a tenderness eddie was not use to.

“What? You care about me now? I got your pussy wet, so you think you give a shit about me? Is that it?” He says, but his tone was anything but mean. It was more teasing, something about it made your sex throb and your panties soak up more of your juices.

“N-no, I just don’t think you’re a dumbass. I think, you don’t apply yourself in things that don’t interest you. I think, if you would actually let me help you, and make it interesting enough, you could pass in no time. I’ve worked with dumbasses, you Eddie are not one.” You continue

Eddie’s never been great at taking compliments or receiving love, so he does the only thing he can think of in that moment that doesn’t include any talking. Smashing his lips back into yours with a deep set growl, it’s wet and sloppy, you want more.

And just as if he was reading your mind, Eddie slips your cotton panties to the side, and brings a ringed finger up your slit to collect the wetness. You open your legs wider, as Eddie smirks into the sloppy kiss. He begins rubbing at your little bundle of nerves, and you’re so in the moment that you can’t help but moan out, immediately moving your face into your elbow to cover it up with a cough. Eddie throws his head back in laughter, at that. He can’t take how fucking cute you are. It’s driving him, crazy!

Before you can collect yourself from that embarrassing moment, Eddie plunges a finger into your dripping hole, as he brings your face back to kiss him, trying to conceal your moans.

Finally, he removes his hand from your panties as he whispers in your ear. “Cmon, let’s go find a more private place, for this.” He stands and holds his hand out for you to take, you put your smaller hand in his, as he guides you to the book shelves even further back. You would have to hurry, as the library will be closing soon, but luckily you have more than enough time to spare. You’ve been stuck in this library multiple times to study, so you know about what time, Mrs. Westin comes around to start telling students to, pack it up.

As you follow Eddie behind the bookshelf that reads “science fiction.” He pulls you over and gently puts your back up against the shelves, a couple books digging into your back, but you didn’t mind.

“You sure you still wanna do this, baby?” He asked with such softness, you couldn’t help but melt.

“Yes, I do Eddie.” You whisper to him as you hold his gaze

His smile was infectious. He brought his hands up to your waist, grabbing at the flesh and then rubbing down towards the fat of your ass, grabbing two handfuls.

“Such a pretty ass, I can’t help myself every time I see you, baby. I just gotta look.” He whispers into your ear, making you shiver in excitement.

“I can’t do everything I’d like to do to you, here. But I’m g’na give you a little taste, until next time. How’s that sound?” His voice so silky and smooth. You nod your head, as your eyes water. The anticipation was making you mad, you needed Eddie right then and there.

But the promise of a next time, made the butterflies in your stomach explode.

You didn’t care, you needed him in your mouth. No more waiting. You turn him around and push him up against the same shelf you were just standing against, as you drop down to your knees. Eddie’s eyes bulging out of his head.

“Holy shit.” He whispered to himself

You begin working at his button and zipper, pulling his black jeans and red checkered boxers to his knees. His dick springing out and tapping your cheek. Now, it was your eyes that were bulging out of your head. You knew Eddie’s cocky attitude probably solidified the fact that he was packing, but not like this. He was porn star big.

“Mm, open up baby. Open that pretty little mouth for me.” He says as he grabs his pretty pink cock in one hand, tapping it against your mouth. The pre cum being smeared on your top and bottom lip.

You open and take the head of him, into your mouth and suck. “Fuck” you hear from above you. Taking more into your mouth inch by inch as you reach the middle, not able to fit his whole length in at a time. He grabs your hair in a makeshift ponytail and whispers “I know you can take more baby, cmon just a little bit more.” And the desperation in his voice does nothing but make you want to obey.

So you continue taking more of him into your mouth, until your nose brushes against the tuft of curls situated at the bottom of his shaft. You can hear him making gasps and groans above your head, so you move your eyes to focus on the metalhead above you. The knuckle of his thumb between his teeth, as he bites down. Trying to hide his moans from being heard, from across the dead library.

You want nothing more than to hear him, his groans and mules and praises. But as he said, you’ll save that for another day.

He gently pulls your hair, as if to silently tell you to get up on to your feet. You stand back up, drool covering your lips and tears staining your cheeks.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful baby.” He says as he bites at his lip, and uses his finger to wipe up a stray tear. “Come here.” He grabs the small of your back pushing your chest into his, as he kisses you, pulling your skirt up to reveal your baby pink cotton panties. He smiles as his eyes take in the wet spot, just for him.

He moves you further down to another book shelf, as he pushes you back up against it. Grabbing your left leg and hiking it up around his waist, as he digs back under your skirt to move your panties to the side. Taking his cock in one hand. He spreads your arousal all over the tip before it begins breeching your tight hole.

“Fuck, I knew you’d be tight but holy shit.” He gasps

He continues moving in, deeper and deeper. Inch by inch.

You moan out into his ear, something only for you and him to hear, as he begins fucking into you, stretching you out and stuffing you whole. He speeds up as your pussy begins to stretch wider for him. You’re both moaning into each others mouths, ears and necks as he fucks you better than you’ve ever been fucked. Your toes curling in your white ked sneakers. Head thrown back, against the book shelf as he hits that spot so deep inside you. Your pussy begins to flutter around him, making him fuck into you harder. You knew if Mrs. Westin were to come and check on you both, she’d immediately know what was going on. The thought making your pussy flutter even more.

You moan out as you look into Eddie’s eyes.

“Right there. Fuck, don’t stop.”

“Is that your spot, baby? Fuck yeah, I’m not stopping. Not until your cumming all over this cock.” 

He was so close but he needed you to finish first. Taking his ringed fingers and bringing them to your lips, you open up and begin sucking on ‘em. Getting them nice and wet. He moves them between your bodies as he reaches your clit, wet fingers drawing circles over the sensitive bud. Making your vision go white and your legs shake.

“I’m cumming, fuck I’m cumming, Eddie.” You screech out.

“Fuck, so am I. Where do you want it?.” He says as he throws his head back, hair falling beautifully behind his shoulders as he drives his cock harder into you, almost animalistic.

“Inside, please cum inside me.” You cry out

The suggestion and desperation in your voice tipping him over the edge as he releases, white hot ropes inside of your fucked out cunt.

Eddie’s face falls into your neck as he holds on to your hips, you both catching your breathes. Coming down from the best high of your life.

“Damn, yeah we’re definitely g’na have more fun, next time.” He says as he kisses your lips, and pulls away to stuff himself back into his jeans.

You fix your panties and smooth out your skirt as you, and Eddie begin making your way back to the table.

Eddie grabs you by the waist and brings you back towards him, as he notices you begin to close back into yourself. “Hey, that was okay, right? I wasn’t too rough or anything?” He says, he really had a way of making you feel cared for.

“It was perfect, Eddie. I can’t wait to do it again.” You smile as you grab your backpack and sling it over your shoulder, not caring to fix it properly.

Eddie throws his arm around your shoulders, kissing you on the crown of your head. “Let me walk you out to your car.” He offers

“Oh, thank you. What a gentleman.” You joke

You both make your way out of the library, Mrs. Westin side eyeing you both until you walk out of the library, in a fit of giggles.

“Hey, so can I get your number or something?” Eddie says as he leans against your car and opens your door up for you.

“Yeah, sure.” You say back as you rip a piece of paper out of your journal and bring out a pen. Writing your number as you fold it up and hand it to him. He opens it, smiling at your name with a little heart right next to it.

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later?” He asks as he leans in, to give you one more peck to your lips.

“Yeah Eddie, I’ll talk to you later.” You say as you climb into your car.

Holy shit, you just fucked Eddie in the library and you’re going to do it again.

Thank you for reading! 💞

Comments and reblogs are appreciated

[wingsoverlagos]

Lewisohn vs. Howard Smith, January 23, 1972

The Lewisohn-fact-checkification has heated up in other areas of the interent, and while I can't say the reception is unexpected, it's not the sort of thing for which I'm well-equipped. I'm leading with that because, honestly, I don't see the point in actively fighting Lewisohn's reputation anymore. I have several more comparison posts drafted, and I intend to step back after I churn those out. I want to put the evidence out there as clearly as I can - it may not matter now, but down the line, when more people are ready to put the actual history above a sham historian, it will be there. I can't forcefeed the truth to people who are still unreceptive to it.

This isn't a goodbye post (there are still quite a few drafts to go!), but I want to thank the community here for being so funny, openminded, and encouraging! I don't interact with you all as much as I'd like to--I'm an anxious little bird--but your thoughtful responses and feedback have meant the world to me :) Sincerely, thank you!

Anywho, enough whining - I've got an audio comparison today! I love audio comparisons - the immediacy of hearing John Lennon or Brian Epstein or Paul McCartney say words that are clearly different from what Mark Lewisohn wrote can't be beat. Today's comparison comes from Howard Smith's January 23, 1972 interview with John and Yoko. Let's all praise the estate of Howard Smith, as many of his interviews are available for purchase at a reasonable price! You can find this track for purchase here, and two other interviews at this link. There are three interviews available total, each chopped into two tracks, with each track costing ~$0.99-$1.50.

Lewisohn quotes this interview three times, and there are issues with all three quotes. One is a standard Lewisohn rephrasing (you'll find that under the cut), while the other two construct an equally standard but somewhat meatier John v. Paul narrative.

All three quotes fall in the same ~1:30 of the interview, running from 9:29-11:10 in the track linked above. I've included the clip here for your listening pleasure:

Tune In 24-5 vs. Interview by Howard Smith, January 23, 1972

HS: This tape, the Decca tape that we were talking about, that was for a Decca audition I’m informed, January 1, 1962 [crosstalk] JL: That was the famous one that they turned us down on. I listened to it, y’know, I wouldn’t have turned them down on that, not in those days, y’know. I think it sounds okay, especially the last half of it for the time-  the period it was, there wasn’t many people playing music like that. HS: Were you guys very disappointed? JL: Oh, it was terrible, yeah. I mean, See, we used to-Brian Epstein had come down to Liverpool- to London, and then he’d come back and say, ‘I’ve got you an audition.’ We’d all be excited, it was Decca and all that. We met this Mike Smith guy, and we were going to go down there. So we went down, we did all those numbers, [we were?] terrified, nervous- you can hear it on that album, start off terrified, and gradually settled down, and then we went back and waited, and waited and then we just found out they hadn’t accepted it. We really thought that was it then.

(Emphasis indicates quoted phrases. I've bracketed "we were?" because, while I don't hear it clearly in the audio, it's not clear enough for me to say with perfect certainty that John didn't say it)

Lewisohn gives this quote as John's assessment of the day of the Decca audition, but that's only partially correct. The first word, "terrible," is representative of John's feelings about Decca's rejection, which is clear from the context of the quote. The second part of the quote "we were terrified, nervous" does describe how John felt during the sessions, but only partially. He quickly goes on to say they "start off terrified, and gradually settled down."

The next citation continues on with this theme.

Tune In 25-12 vs. Interview by Howard Smith, January 23, 1972

JL: Oh, it was terrible, yeah. I mean, See, we used to-Brian Epstein had come down to Liverpool- to London, and then he’d come back and say, ‘I’ve got you an audition.’ We’d all be excited, it was Decca and all that. We met this Mike Smith guy, and we were going to go down there. So we went down, we did all those numbers, [we were?] terrified, nervous- you can hear it on that album, start off terrified, and gradually settled down, and then we went back and waited, and waited and then we just found out they hadn’t accepted it. We really thought that was it then. HS: What, that that was all? JL: That was the end, yeah, y’know, cause [crosstalk] YO: You think that the sound was too far out for them or something? JL: [crosstalk] Well, we’d been- they all said it’s too bluesy or too rocky, too much like rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s all over now, they used to keep telling us, y’know.

(Emphasis indicates quoted phrases. This segment overlaps with the transcript above)

Here, Lewisohn recounts Paul and John's reactions to Decca's rejection of the Beatles. The quote isn't too butchered, though there are some small changes (e.g. "they all said" to "they always said")

That's a quibble, though. The main issue here is Lewisohn's misrepresentation of John's feelings at the time. Lewisohn's assessment that "[John] also wondered if they'd shot their bolt" is correct, but the rest, which I've underlined in pink, isn't supported by the source. Lewisohn contrasts Paul’s reaction with John’s: Paul thought the rejection was “shortsighted” but, as Lewisohn writes, “John marked it differently. He knew the Beatles had underperformed on the day.”

John does not express that sentiment in this interview. Within the same brief span that John gives the “too bluesy” quote, he also says of the Decca tape, “I listened to it, I wouldn’t have turned them down on that, not in those days. I think it sounds okay, especially the last half of it for the period it was, there wasn’t many people playing music like that.” John says that their nerves were apparent for part of the session, but he clearly didn’t view it as a dud overall, and underperformance isn’t the reason he states for the rejection. When Yoko asks for clarification (“You think that the sound was too far out for them or something?”), John gives the answer that Lewisohn quotes here: “They all said it’s too bluesy or too rocky, too much like rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s all over now, they used to keep telling us.”

Lewisohn intentionally misrepresents the above quotes to set John up as more knowing, more aware than Paul, who, per Lewisohn's version, even with hindsight couldn't see the flaws John spotted the day of the audition. In reality, John and Paul were of one mind—they didn’t think the audition was that bad. Paul’s assessment that Decca’s rejection was “shortsighted” goes hand in hand with John’s true thoughts on the matter, which I’ll quote here a third time, in case I’ve failed to get the point across: “I wouldn’t have turned them down on that, not in those days. I think it sounds okay”

Tune In 5-17 vs. Interview by Howard Smith, January 23, 1972

JL: The first day I got interested in rock, the first six months, y’know, when Presley’s heartbreak hotel came out in England, they were saying rock was gonna die already, which- “Is calypso gonna take over?” That was what they were talking about then. So whenever- Even in Hamburg, when we auditioned for those German companies, they would tell us to stop playing the rock and the blues and concentrate on the other stuff, y’know. Cause they all thought rock was dead, y’know. But they’re wrong. They’re still saying rocks dead, right?

Minor changes. John starts this quote by discussing one time frame ("The first day I got interested in rock") and then changes to another ("the first six months") - Lewisohn swaps the order of "I got interested in rock" and "the first six months." John also clearly says "gonna" instead of "going to" - this is exceptionally minor on its own, but I do think there may be some interesting patterns on when Lewisohn preserves vs. erases vs. introduces certain colloquialisms and dialect-specific spellings. That would take a more in-depth analysis to tease out, and I shall resist the urge - I'm clearing my drafts & touching grass!

Sources:

Lewisohn M. 2013. The Beatles: All These Years Vol. 1: Tune In. New York (NY): Crown Archetype. [ebook]

Smith H. 1972 Jan 23. Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Purchased 2024 May 28. Available from: https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B00JMTMOTU

[tinyowlthoughts]

"I can divide by biographies!"

My favorite episode. Donnie is such a patron, and I empathize with the librarian so much. So, a librarians view of the library episode:

-Donnie is so fucking excited to be at the library. Mood. -Inhaling that bibliosmia, which is the proper term for 'old book smell'. -He has opinions on the nonfiction area. ("Geology stinks.") -Is absolutely IN LOVE with the idea of being IN a book. -"Holy Gutenberg." I'm stealing this to use with my coworkers. -Patron is asking for something but doesn't come right out and say it, instead rambling about personal stuff instead of making it easy for both of them. -Doesn't actually ask the librarian for guidance to the information, instead strikes out on his own to find it. (aka Ignoring a resource right at his fingertips, one of the biggest reasons large, high-traffic libraries employ professional, master's degree holding librarians) -Knows what the Dewey Decimal system is and how it works. -Intuitively figured out the mystic library cataloging system, which is hella impressive. -Doesn't write down the call number of the book, thus leaving his brothers in a lurch when he gets blasted into the baby zone.

And can I just say, the book being part of a display was my absolute favorite part. The name of the display, the beautiful display shelf - peak librarianship right there. Making displays is one of my favorite things to do.

Feel so bad for the Bat Librarian (who deserves her own name for the BS she had to put up with!). Like - the wreckage, the destruction, the falling books? Do y'all have any idea how long it would take to collect, organized, catalog, and reshelve those thousands of books?!?! And then the work that would pile up since she has to focus on that? I didn't notice any other librarians in the episode, and it is a well known fact that if you're not a librarian, page, or trained volunteer, we would prefer you put the books on a cart instead of shelving them yourself because there are many nuances to both Dewey and the alphabetical order (St v Saint, etc.). Also it's a mystic library, so maybe there's no need for other librarians because if everything is running smoothly, Ms. Bat can handle it.

I'm fairly certain that if Donnie showed up to apologize, he would be put right to work assisting her in the mundane shelving task. And let's be honest, he would adore it. Raph might be granted the chance to help, since he's such a softy and would likely be genuinely apologetic for the mess now that Mayhem is out of danger. I could see him using his powers to help hold the larger stuff in place for repairs to the shelves, walls, etc., or moving large pallets of books around for Donnie to shelve.

Leo and Mikey? Straight to the kiddie room, if not outright banned from ever entering the mystic library again. (Yes, libraries ban patrons. It happens all the time - when you enter a library, you are agreeing to follow the Code of Conduct. You break it, we ban you, from a month to life.)

Such a good episode. One of my all-time faves from the series.

Honestly, if I made an OC for this world, it would probably be a library manager for a smaller branch of the Mystic Library that is more present in NYC, likely disguised as a 'used book store' that is more public library and less academic library, and more easily accessible for the Yōkai living in the human realm. Instead of hush bats there would be a big, fluffy library cat named LoC who sits on you if you're being too loud.

[aerodaltonimperial]

New stories are brewing, and you know what that means: it’s time for a deep dive ring post!

Now, obviously Danielson is going to go out on his back and put someone over on his way out, but who that ends up being is still up in the air. Given the looming retirement (and his contract being over), I assume he’s going to be dropping this belt sooner rather than later. The three people currently circling the title belt are all heavily connected in kayfabe, which is really cool and offers us a lot of possibilities for how things could all shake down. But we’ve also got several upcoming events within this same group that may need to be accounted for. So let’s look at some of these!

Alright, so heading into the fall and the World Title sphere, we have Bryan Danielson holding the belt, and our three people of interest:

Christian Cage, who won the Casino Gauntlet at All In and has an open challenge to use whenever he’d like,

Darby Allin, who won the Royale at Blood & Guts and has the challenge at Grand Slam in New York, and

Jack Perry, who answered Bryan’s open call and will presumably be challenging for the world title at All Out in a week and a half.

It’s hilarious how much these three are connected in kayfabe, all with varying levels of undying hatred (or something else, depending on your perspective). Now, worth noting that despite running the Jack 2.0 story last fall with Nick Wayne, AEW has never addressed the elephant in the room of how Christian stole a new protégé and replicated Jack’s entire situation. This is likely because he was out for the entirety of that story. But they ran so closely that his ghost hovered over the whole thing despite them only ever mentioning his name during those months, like, once.

We also need to look into two looming events that will eventually happen, but where and when we don’t know, connected to these players:

Luchasaurus will turn on Christian (I think we’re closer than we have been in awhile, due to him coming out as Luchasaurus in the Gauntlet, even though it was a bait & switch)

Jack is going to splinter from the Elite (he’s been used as far too much of a loose canon to remain with them for too long)

Now, I’m under no delusions that Jack is going to actually win the belt at All Out haha. I mean, would it be amazing? Yes. And could they do a lot of legitimately fascinating things with it? Also yes. But the probability is quite low, and I’m of the belief that this match may be something of an apology for cutting the coffin match short at All In. Being very honest, of the three of them, the person I see most likely to win (if any of them even will, which we have to consider that all three of them may lose only to have someone else entirely come in and actually take the belt from Bryan) is Darby. However. There are many cool possibilities being set up here.

Something to think about is that it’s very possible they are going to have Bryan not drop until WrestleDream, since that’s his home area, and that’s not until the end of October. They could just run him until then and have Swerve take the belt off him there, it’s completely within the realm of possibility. But it’s worth mentioning that Darby is also billed from Seattle, and last year he lost to Christian at WrestleDream so he may be due up for a win. Again, this doesn’t really work timing wise, since his title shot is guaranteed at Grand Slam, so either they pull him out of that entirely by October, or something keeps this storyline going until then.

We could have a situation where one of the other two muddles with the Jack v Bryan match so that Jack loses (possible). We could have a situation where nothing out of the ordinary happens at all, and Jack loses, and then Darby loses, and then Christian challenges Bryan and either wins or loses, and none of them overlap (boring, but totally, totally possible). We could have a situation where only two of the three ever end up connecting throughout this (also possible).

BUT. We also could have a storyline that manages to not only pull all three of them into the web, but ALSO manages to work in both of those looming events to the larger narrative, and I think that would be super fucking cool, so I wanna talk about it here hahaha. 

We have Jack challenging Bryan at All Out. Jack loses, but how? Let’s say interference. Let’s say Christian interference, since that’s such a festering wound for Jack. He’s pissed. He blames the Bucks for not coming out and stopping it (which we assume they wouldn’t, given them working with Christian already), which is what splinters them. This puts Jack on his own, still with the TNT title, just a furious, unhinged mess. He’s also a walking target without the Bucks to protect him, and is going to need to find other people fast.

Darby faces Bryan for the title at Grand Slam. Loses, either clean or also because of interference: Luchasaurus, maybe, on behalf of Christian? Or Nick, running that particular storyline back. As soon as Darby loses, Christian calls in his opportunity. Bryan’s probably been hit with, like, seventeen coffin drops and handfuls of thumbtacks at this point. He’s exhausted. Christian wins easily, gets the World Title. He is insufferable, and we love him.

Remember that Darby also doesn’t have anybody in his corner right now, with Sting out. Darby wrestles a lot, and will probably be on, like, every show, so his record could get really good again, really fast. He already had a shot, but that was against Bryan, and Christian’s got the belt now. He challenges Christian for the world title at WrestleDream. It looks like he’s about to lose, and then… interference. Jack interference. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all: Jack helps Darby win, to get back at Christian for making him lose. (In all honesty, they have run this as so much of a blood feud that having them team up seems not unlikely, and also it would be insane and awesome. They really don’t often make teams of Heel/Face combos, but I think Better Than You Bay Bay proved that it’s a really, really solid thing to do.)

And then, a double betrayal: Luchasaurus turns on Christian. Jurassic Express reunited, only they get to be a trio with Darby, cause I think we should get the Fossil Express we dreamed of last year. (AND THEN! Trios champs! Haha, just kidding, they don’t need that many belts. … or do they.) And from here, you set up a whole host of possible feuds/stories: Jack v Nick, which I know has to eventually happen; Luchasaurus v Christian, what a pop that would get; Darby v Swerve, when Swerve comes back for his belt again; Jack & Darby v the Bucks, simply because why would we not want to see this; heel Jurassic Express v literally anyone on the roster except FTR, ‘cause no more; Luchasaurus v Okada, just because it would fucking slap. Copeland v Jack, once Cope is back from injury and wants his TNT belt back. Endless possibilities!

Anyway, I’m sure this won’t happen, but writing it out made me happy, which was really the point here. Aside from just noting that they have once again put these players in a bubble with each other to allow their stories to interweave a bit, and I’m delighted even if they don’t actually touch (tips) here. Fantasy booking is half the fun with wrestling, lol.

[richincolor]

We have something for everyone this week! Which of these books are on your radar already?

Of Dreams and Destiny (St. Rosetta's Academy #3) by Sandhya Menon Simon Pulse

It’s senior year, and Daphne Elizabeth “DE” McKinley, the heiress to the McKinley hotel dynasty, is still licking her wounds after a painful breakup. She’s determined to keep her head down and her heart shuttered—even from new student Xander, no matter how dreamy he is. Then Rosetta Academy is swallowed up by a sudden and massive spring storm, and very strange things start happening. The students start to fall into a stupor, then a deep sleep…one by one. Soon, DE is racing against the clock to find the source of the strange spell and stop it before it claims the entire school. Could Xander’s help be the key to solving the mystery?

All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr Abrams

In the vein of Grown and The Poet X, a searing and defiant novel in verse about reclaiming agency after a sexual assault within the church community. Sixteen-year-old Amina Conteh has always believed in using her tongue as her weapon—even when it gets her into trouble. After cursing at a classmate, her father forces her to volunteer at their church with Pastor Johnson. But Pastor Johnson isn’t the holy man everyone thinks he is. The same voice Amina uses to fight falls quiet the night she is sexually assaulted by Pastor Johnson. After that, her life starts to unravel: her father is frustrated that her grades are slipping, and her best friend and boyfriend don’t understand why the once loud and proud girl is now quiet and distant. In a world that claims to support survivors, Amina wonders who will support her when her attacker is everyone's favorite community leader. When Pastor Johnson is arrested for a different crime, the community is shaken and divided; some call him a monster and others defend him. But Amina is secretly relieved. She no longer has to speak because Pastor Johnson can't hurt her anymore–or so she believes. To regain her voice and sense of self, Amina must find the power to confront her abuser—in the courtroom and her heart—and learn to use all the fighting parts within her.

Nightbreaker (Nightbreaker #1) by Coco Ma Viking Books for Young Readers

Fifteen years ago, The Vanishing thrust Manhattan into darkness, forever changing the City That Never Sleeps. Aboveground, resilient New Yorkers have adapted by clinging to the vestiges of their cosmopolitan lives. Below the streets--well, you never go underground unless you have a death wish. Or unless you're Rei Reynolds. By day, Rei attends the an elite New York prep school, but by cover of night, she's is a self-initiated warrior with a knack for hunting Deathlings, the deadly creatures that haunt Manhattan's subway tunnels and blood-soaked streets at night. All Rei wants is to avenge her parents, who were slaughtered years ago by the nightmarish monsters. The Tournament is the only path to the career Rei has always dreamed of--becoming a Maverick, the city's elite Deathling-killing force. Winning should be a breeze, but the one potential problem is fellow competitor Kieran Cross, Rei's infuriating ex with whom she shares a bitter history. But as the Tournament progresses--and the cutthroat betrayals mount--everything Rei believed about who she can and cannot trust is called into question. She soon becomes the target of everyone who wants to keep the city's ruling class in power, as well as those who seek to bring it down. In other words, Rei is positively and completely screwed. Coco Ma's exhilarating fantasy blends thrills and chills for an immersive read featuring the snarky, postapocalyptic heroine we all hope to be.

Shadow Coven (The Witchery #2) by S. Isabelle Scholastic Press

After defeating the Wolves, Jailah, Logan, Iris, and Thalia want nothing more than a summer of fun and relaxation. But there is no rest for the wicked, especially when Death comes for Iris. She is to become a Reaper, tasked with banishing souls who refuse to cross over. But Iris suspects there’s something more ominous going on when Mathew’s role as her tether grows sinister. Logan and Thalia are ready to prove themselves as witches. Except Logan still hears the howling Wolves and realizes that the Haunting Season may have awakened more than just her magic. And while Thalia wants to spend her days cleansing the Swamp for good, she finds herself heading to a place she swore she’d never go again: home. Witches have started going missing near Annex, and Thalia is convinced that her father is behind the disappearances. With the help of Logan and Trent, Thalia returns to stop him. Meanwhile, Jailah is focused on her internship with the Haelsford Witchery Council until she discovers a treacherous magic hidden beneath Mesmortes, and there are those who will go to great lengths to keep it buried. So, she turns to the only person who understands, even if it’s the one witch who hates her most. Separated by distance, the coven is surrounded by magical and mundane threats that must be defeated before they lose their witchery--and each other--forever...

Champion of Fate (Heromaker #1) by Kendare Blake Quill Tree Books

Behind every great hero is an Aristene. Aristene are mythical female warriors, part of a legendary order. Though heroes might be immortalized in stories, it’s the Aristene who guide them to victory. They are the Heromakers. Ever since she was an orphan taken in by the order, Reed has wanted to be an Aristene. Now, as an initiate, just one challenge stands in her way: she must shepherd her first hero to glory on the battlefield. Succeed, and Reed will take her place beside her sisters. Fail, and she’ll be cast from the only home she’s ever known. Nothing is going to stop Reed--until she meets her hero. Hestion is fiery and infuriating, but what begins as an alliance becomes more, and as secrets of the order come to light Reed begins to understand what becoming an Aristene may truly cost. Battle looming, she must choose: the order and the life she had planned, or Hestion, and the one she never expected.

A Crown So Cursed (The Nightmare--Verse #3) by L.L. McKinney Imprint

In the third book in L.L. McKinney's Nightmare-Verse trilogy, Alice gets one last chance to save Wonderland from itself. Alice and the gang are trying to recover from recent events—but members of her crew start having weird dreams. The same dreams. It seems the evil in Wonderland may not be as defeated as they thought—because someone's building an army of Nightmares to attack the mortal world. But before Alice jumps into battle, she discovers she has a personal connection to Wonderland, and she must face what it means for the fight ahead. -- Cover image and summary via Goodreads

When a Brown Girl Flees by Aamna Qureshi Tu Books

After Zahra Paracha makes a decision at odds with her beliefs, her mother forces Zahra to make an impossible choice about her future. So Zahra runs away. A train and a plane ride later, she finds herself in New York, where she relinquishes her past in favor of a new future. There, she must learn who she is without the marionette strings of control in her mother's hands. There, she must learn who she wishes to become. On Long Island, Zahra stays at a bed & breakfast, unsure of her place in the world. Anxious, depressed, and grappling with guilt, she wanders aimlessly. She eventually visits the local masjid, where she is befriended by two sisters and drawn into the welcoming Muslim community there. It is in this place of safety that Zahra's healing truly begins--but can she create a home for herself when the foundation is built on lies she's spun to protect her from the past? When a family friend recognizes her, will everything come crashing down? As Zahra tries to build a life for herself in this new place, the heart of the matter becomes clear: she can't run away forever. Can she close the rift in her family and truly, fully heal? In this powerful novel from new voice Aamna Qureshi, a Muslim teen goes on a breathtaking journey to find her home and--more importantly--herself.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

we need more vivi hurt/comfort in this fandom. #25 prompt (“I’m going to ask you how you are and I would like you to answer me honestly.”) from Artie to Vi if you're up for it? 💛🩵

(hurt/comfort dialogue prompts)

(oof god i'm rusty with these characters. let's get into it)

"I'm fine," she says, for what feels like the millionth time.

"Bullshit," is Arthur's response. "I'm down an arm, Vi, not my fucking eyes. And ho- honestly, I wouldn't- wouldn't even need th-those to tell right now." A hand lands on her shoulder, pushing her down further into the chair for emphasis. "One more try. I'm gonna ask you how you are, and it'd be nice if you c-could answer me honestly."

She shoves him off and stands up, already stalking away, ignoring the shooting pain all up through her side when she does. "God, fuck you. Fuck off. This is so stupid. I don't need,"

And then her vision whites out.

---

She blinks herself fuzzily awake into a world much softer than the one she was just in. She's in bed, she registers, or at least a pile of blankets. The pain is gone, but it also feels like everything else isn't quite online, either. There's a vague clicking noise from somewhere to her right.

"...you hovering all the time," she finishes her thought, although it comes out too mumbly to really deliver.

"j'you say sa- s-something?" The clicking noise stops, and an Arthur appears in her field of view. He looks worried. So, like normal.

"Yeah, uh, what? Why am I in bed?"

Now he just looks exasperated, throwing his hand up in annoyance, which is an improvement at least. "You passed out, stupid! And th-th-then when I freak out, out about it you're all like oh no never mind it's whatever fr- from the fucking floor. 'Why am I in bed.' Dumbass."

She only vaguely remembers that, not that she's going to admit it. Well, okay, question answered. She tries to get up, and Arthur immediately shoves her back into the pillow.

"Hey," she protests.

He makes his usual staccato ch-ch-ch disapproval noise, which she usually thinks is cute when it isn't directed at her. "Nope. I j-just got done bandaging you up, you are not getting up. You, you are st-staying right here."

She tries to wrestle him off, but he's annoyingly persistent and her angle's all off. "Okay, I'm patched up! So it's fine! Let me out!"

Whup, and her hand is flat against the bed, and Arthur's hanging out of his chair to get his arm over her chest and pin her down. "No."

Probably she could flip him. Maybe. He'd hit the wall behind her but not, like, hard. She thinks about it. It's really hard to lift even the non-pinned arm. Maybe she couldn't.

"Stop being stupid," she tells him instead, sounding normal and not at all desperate. "This is nothing."

"It is- v-very much- not nothing."

"This can't be enough to stop me. It isn't! I'm better than this!"

"Get up, th-then!" he challenges.

"I'm not a fucking tranq'd animal!"

He yells wordlessly at her, she shouts back, until they're both panting.

She shoves him again, no real force behind it this time. This is such a waste of fucking time, when he damn well knows they never have enough of it. "I need to get up. You need me out there, you know that."

"Go to hell."

Now tears are welling in her eyes. She's screaming at herself, internally, but for some stupid reason it's not translating into more strength. "We're wasting time, here. I'm ready to go, I can move, I can work. Let me up."

He flops over, into a less aggressive pin, but not actually a less effective one. Their faces are almost touching, which was maybe the idea. "One more try," he says, again.

His damn stubbornness is another thing that she likes more when it isn't being used on her. This is not a fight she is going to win.

"If I fall asleep," she says reluctantly, "and you're not there when I wake up, I'm going to fucking kill you."

That gets a laugh out of him. "M'not going anywhere, Vi."

[pearlsoflongago]

Quest

Tales From Elsewhere

La Parque et l’ange de la Mort/The Park and the Angel of Death by Gustave Moreau

Eldorado

Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old— This knight so bold— And o’er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength Failed him at length, He met a pilgrim shadow— ‘Shadow,’ said he, ‘Where can it be— This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride,’ The shade replied, ‘If you seek for Eldorado!’

—Edgar Allen Poe

La Palme by Odilon Redon

Elaine

Oh, come again to Astolat! I will not ask you to be kind. And you may go when you will go, And I will stay behind.

I will not say how dear you are, Or ask you if you hold me dear, Or trouble you with things for you The way I did last year.

So still the orchard, Lancelot, So very still the lake shall be, You could not guess—though you should guess— What is become of me.

So wide shall be the garden-walk, The garden-seat so very wide, You needs must think—if you should think— The lily maid had died.

Save that, a little way away, I’d watch you for a little while, To see you speak, the way you speak, And smile,—if you should smile.

—Edna St. Vincent Millay

Boat in the Moonlight by Odilon Redon

Merlin and the Gleam                

   I.    O YOUNG Mariner,    You from the haven    Under the sea-cliff,    You that are watching    The grey Magician    With eyes of wonder,    I am Merlin,    And I am dying,    I am Merlin    Who follow The Gleam.                   II.    Mighty the Wizard    Who found me at sunrise    Sleeping, and woke me    And learn'd me Magic!    Great the Master,    And sweet the Magic,    When over the valley,    In early summers,    Over the mountain,    On human faces,    And all around me,    Moving to melody,    Floated The Gleam.                   III.    Once at the croak of a Raven who crost it,    A barbarous people,    Blind to the magic,    And deaf to the melody,    Snarl'd at and cursed me.    A demon vext me,    The light retreated,    The landskip darken'd,    The melody deaden'd,    The Master whisper'd    "Follow The Gleam."                   IV.    Then to the melody,    Over a wilderness    Gliding, and glancing at    Elf of the woodland,    Gnome of the cavern,    Griffin and Giant,    And dancing of Fairies    In desolate hollows,    And wraiths of the mountain,    And rolling of dragons    By warble of water,    Or cataract music    Of falling torrents,    Flitted The Gleam.                   V.    Down from the mountain    And over the level,    And streaming and shining on    Silent river,    Silvery willow,    Pasture and plowland,    Horses and oxen,    Innocent maidens,    Garrulous children,    Homestead and harvest,    Reaper and gleaner,    And rough-ruddy faces    Of lowly labour,    Slided The Gleam.—                   VI.    Then, with a melody    Stronger and statelier,    Led me at length    To the city and palace    Of Arthur the king;    Touch'd at the golden    Cross of the churches,    Flash'd on the Tournament,    Flicker'd and bicker'd    From helmet to helmet,    And last on the forehead    Of Arthur the blameless    Rested The Gleam.                   VII.    Clouds and darkness    Closed upon Camelot;    Arthur had vanish'd    I knew not whither,    The king who loved me,    And cannot die;    For out of the darkness    Silent and slowly    The Gleam, that had waned to a wintry glimmer    On icy fallow    And faded forest,    Drew to the valley    Named of the shadow,    And slowly brightening    Out of the glimmer,    And slowly moving again to a melody    Yearningly tender,    Fell on the shadow,    No longer a shadow,    But clothed with The Gleam.                   VIII.    And broader and brighter    The Gleam flying onward,    Wed to the melody,    Sang thro' the world;    And slower and fainter,    Old and weary,    But eager to follow,    I saw, whenever    In passing it glanced upon    Hamlet or city,    That under the Crosses    The dead man's garden,    The mortal hillock,    Would break into blossom;    And so to the land's    Last limit I came—    And can no longer,    But die rejoicing,    For thro' the Magic    Of Him the Mighty,    Who taught me in childhood,    There on the border    Of boundless Ocean,    And all but in Heaven    Hovers The Gleam.                   IX.    Not of the sunlight,    Not of the moonlight,    Not of the starlight!    O young Mariner,    Down to the haven,    Call your companions,    Launch your vessel,    And crowd your canvas,    And, ere it vanishes    Over the margin,    After it, follow it,    Follow The Gleam.

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from Demeter and Other Poems

The Muses Leaving Their Father Apollo to Go Out & Light the World by Gustave Moreau

[peterlorres21stcentury]

The Overcoat (1959)

I adore the works of Nikolai Gogol. I can only trust the many English translations since I don't know any Russian, but even in translation his stories are filled with bright wit, satire, and sometimes supernatural spookiness that delighted me since I was young. I have often thought that Peter Lorre would be very much at home playing the marvelous characters to be found in Gogol's pages, and indeed, I'm sure he eagerly read many of these stories. Sadly, Peter never did play one famous character in particular, but that honor went to a different comic actor with a similarly expressive, sad little face:

awwww

This is Rolan Bykov. I know him only from this film, but he had a long and successful career as an actor, director, and screenwriter, so just as with any new interest I'm going to be searching his other films obsessively for the next week or so. But let's pretend this was his only film, and he did nothing else--even this alone would be a triumph.

Bykov plays Akakiy Akakiyevich, the unassuming and comically boring little government clerk whose greatest joy is found in copying documents. From Gogol's short story:

"It is not enough to say that Akaky laboured with zeal; no, he laboured with love. In his copying, he found a varied and agreeable employment. Enjoyment was written on his face; some letters were even favourites with him; and when he encountered these, he smiled, winked, and worked with his lips, till it seemed as though each letter might be read in his face, as his pen traced it. If his pay had been in proportion to his zeal, he would, perhaps, to his great surprise, have been made even a councillor of state. But he worked, as his companions, the wits, put it, like a horse in a mill. ... Having written to his heart’s content, he lay down to sleep, smiling at the thought of the coming day—of what God might send him to copy on the morrow."

I love this dear, simple little man, and I like to think of him as the patron saint of all low-level civil servants everywhere. This includes me, a lowly writer whose day job consists of an awful lot of copying, now that I think about it. Evidently not much has changed since 1842 apart from the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + c and Ctrl + v, a function that might have made Akakiy's job easier, though perhaps not as fulfilling.

In any case, as the story goes, Akakiy finds himself in desperate need of a new coat, and spends months saving up every kopek until the day he can finally afford to pay the tailor. At last, after much suffering, he receives his new coat with excitement and reverence--never mind it was made for him slightly on the cheap, trimmed with cat fur instead of marten--it's good and warm and the most precious thing in the world to him. With his brand new coat he even gains a tiny amount of respect at work, and is invited to parties. Life is good!

But alas, disaster! His coat is stolen by two ruffians in the street. No government official seems willing to listen to Akakiy's pleas to recover it, either, seemingly more intent on lording their (marginal) status over him. The whole incident is so distressing that poor Akakiy falls ill and dies soon after. However, his story doesn't end there. It would seem that his ghost has been sighted about St. Petersburg, tearing the coats off the very government officials who refused to assist him while he was alive...

eeeheheheeeeee

It's one of Gogol's best and most widely-read stories, and I think Bykov was practically made for this role. Or he truly made it his own. All I know is that the first time I saw this film, and I got to the scene when he looks up in tears as his fellows make sport of him--

"why do you insult me?"

Well, I cried, too. :'( yes, I also cried the second time I watched it, because I am and always have been too sensitive

If you are more familiar with Bykov's filmography than I am, I'm always open to suggestions! From what little I have read about him, he seemed like a sweetheart and an intelligent man. This, from his Wikipedia page, made me smile:

In later years Bykov expressed a lot of concern regarding the movie industry and newer times in general. In his interview to Vladislav Listyev he stated that modern cinema was solely built around money, or the golden calf as he called it, with no place for art. ... In his interviews to Leonid Filatov he characterized modern times as "corrupted," "a collapse of culture and morals," and modern cinema as "a cigarette butt's art." In his diaries he continued those themes, predicting a Third World War, an environmental disaster and a general "schizophreniation" of the world population. The only exit he saw was a cultural and spiritual renaissance.

Welp, he was not entirely wrong!! Now if you'll excuse me, I must save "a cigarette butt's art" in my list of superb insults.

[eclipsecrowned]

anyway the gist of josette's fall into the world of vampires.

in the late 18th century, the frenieres are a wealthy family outside nola. one son, five daughters. the brother makes the mistake of starting a duel with a vampire, but his killer's fledgeling advises his eldest sister how best to hold the family name and property together. the family sees a meteoric rise in standing.

the drama of the vampires next door spills over into house freniere. the doomed b*bette, aforementioned eldest sister and new head of the family, does her best to combat the evil that falls upon her house, but does not manage to kill the undead that had molded her. she goes mad, and her life ends as she takes to wandering to the ruins of the neighboring estate trying to kill the vampire that no longer dwells there.

over time, this story undergoes a game of telephone among her sister's descendants. dear auntie b*bette thought she saw an angel, but was actually seduced and destroyed by a potent evil, the devil himself. he gave her great wealth and personal success, but took her soul, sanity, and life in short order. it's said he possessed the body of or took the shape of the master of the neighbor's estate, and that scorchmarks on the freniere steps are where he either rose or was banished to the brimstone.

just shy of 200 years later, josette st. yves, a local and college student, gets turned on to the music and novels sweeping the nation. she's already a great fan of the band the v*mpire l*stat when she first cracks open the books associated with the act. her whole world sputters to a stop when the family haint -- great auntie babs and her demon lover -- put in an appearance as a vampire and a woman he merely admired. she is not so far removed from one of b*bette's sisters on her mother's side. and she wants to know why this piece of family history, not even widely known in the parish, is published in one of the most popular books of the last decade. that doesn't happen by mistake.

this leads her down a research rabbit hole that ends with her certain that she hasn't been reading fiction, and that the cure for her creeping mortality is on a glimmering island off the florida coast. like another mortal before her, she abandons her studies and aches for the kiss of the immortals to banish the weakness she was born with -- though daniel's was of the mind, and josette's is of the flesh alone. and unlike her doomed forebear, she seeks out the devils that had once been rejected at the door of the old house.

[starleska]

which song would the fandom choose to make vids with you and your f/o? 👀

the absolutely lovely @jennajaeger tagged me in this very fun ask game 💖 as someone who loves to make silly OCs to ship with my f/os, i thought i’d tweak it in an OC x Canon direction!! 🥰 

i tag @iriso-page, @heavensong, @venuss-ambassador, @femaleganondorfdragmire and @mollicutes - but everyone is invited to do this if they’d like to! 💖

Augustus St. Cloud x Quint S. Henchall - Partners in Crime by Set It Off

ah, is there a romance more palpable than that between an utter joke of a villain, and his seasoned, bloodthirsty henchperson? 👀 Partners in Crime is a great choice for these two, and for any V Bros selfshipper with a villainous fave!! i always saw Quint and Augustus developing a very ‘Jesse and James from Team Rocket’ kind of relationship: outwardly obnoxious and bullying (you can’t fix personalities like that 🙈) yet fiercely protective. it’s by no means an easy bond - after all, within 24 hours of meeting Augustus, Quint does what any of us would do and tries to kill him 😂 if they were in the show, i adore the idea of Quint, with years of experience and 12 other henches under their belt, picking up where The Monarch left off and attempting to turn Augustus into a semi-competent villain! imagine it: bringing the neck-snapping, covert-ops specialism of a highly trained professional into the absurd realm of pop culture collection feuds 😭 that’s not to say Quint is successful in coaching him...but Augustus and his uniquely petty, bitchy approach to villainy are not without their uses 😉 

Wally Darling x Cynthie Scribe - Fireflies by Owl City

oh, let’s inject a little whimsy into the world with this one - a love story between an artist and a writer 🥰

Fireflies is a song that evokes all this wonder and delight at the world...and i think that’s something Wally and Cynthie would instantly bond over 😖 Cynthie’s infectious enthusiasm charms Wally, and acts as a perfect foil to his relaxed, soft approach to life. much of their time is spent out in nature, finding fun things to look at and draw and write about - all whilst singing and giggling and occasionally letting their hands touch 💖 if Cynthie were included in the Welcome Home canon, i like to think they’d both be incredibly excited to watch the fireflies together. perhaps they creep out in the dead of night, hoping not to disturb any of their sleeping neighbours, and lie down next to each other on the soft grass banks. the blanket of the night sky, perforated with stars, shimmers above the cosy yellow flickering of the fireflies. entranced, Cynthie barely notices when Wally slips his fingers between theirs...but when they turn to look at him, they can see the fireflies’ glow reflected in his large, black eyes 🥺

'Big' Jack Horner x Aspen Branch - Fairytale by Alexander Rybak

the choice may be an obvious one, but i like it anyway!! 💖😊

Fairytale is told from the point of view of a passionate, emotionally volatile person - and what is ‘Big’ Jack Horner if not a man consumed by fairytales? 🔥 Aspen is initially only Jack’s mark: someone to capture and force the use of her magical, wound-healing voice. yet Aspen’s sweet, simple nature - so contradictory to everything Jack is and has forced to be true about himself - has Jack falling hard 😖 it’s Aspen’s consummate gentleness which leaves Jack caught between adoration and rage. he really is, ‘...in love with a fairytale even though it hurts’, because Jack can’t be in love - that’s a stupid, weak, small thing to be, a distraction from his goal of world domination. but Jack can’t deny himself: the painful twinge in his chest when he sees Aspen smile hurts more than he can bear. if he can’t beat this feeling, well then...he simply must have her 😳

that’s all for now!! let me know if you’d like to hear anymore - i have a few other choices for my other OC x Canon ships :3c

[pamphletstoinspire]

Commentary on the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. Mark – Chapter 13

St. Mark, the disciple and interpreter of St. Peter (as noted by St. Jerome.) according to what he heard from St. Peter himself, wrote at Rome a brief Gospel at the request of the Brethren (fellow Christians), about ten years after our Lord's Ascension; which when St. Peter had heard, he approved of it, and with his authority he published it to the Church to be read. Baronius and others maintain, that the original was written in Latin: but the more general opinion is that the Evangelist wrote it in Greek.

Christ announces the signs that shall precede the destruction of the city (Jerusalem) and of the world; of the city — the abomination of desolation (v. 14); of the world — the preaching of the gospel throughout the world (v. 10), as well as the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the falling of the stars from the sky (v. 24). Finally (v. 32), He teaches that this day is known to no one, and, therefore, each one must be watchful and prepare diligently for it.

And as he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him: Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here. 2 And Jesus answering, said to him: Seest thou all these great buildings? There shall not be left a stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down. 3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olivet over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him apart: 4 Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign when all these things shall begin to be fulfilled? 5 And Jesus answering, began to say to them, Take heed lest any man deceive you. 6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am he; and they shall deceive many. 7 And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, fear ye not. For such things must needs be, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and famines. These things are the beginning of sorrows. 9 But look to yourselves. For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony unto them. 10 And unto all nations the gospel must first be preached. 11 And when they shall lead you and deliver you up, be not thoughtful beforehand what you shall speak; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye. For it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost. 12 And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. 13 And you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved. 14 And when you shall see the abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not: he that readeth let him understand: then let them that are in Judea, flee unto the mountains: 15 And let him that is on the housetop, not go down into the house, nor enter therein to take any thing out of the house: 16 And let him that shall be in the field, not turn back to take up his garment. 17 And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. 18 But pray ye, that these things happen not in winter. 19 For in those days shall be such tribulations, as were not from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, neither shall be. 20 And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect which he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

21 And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; lo, he is here: do not believe. 22 For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect. 23 Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things. 24 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. 25 And the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers that are in heaven, shall be moved. 26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with great power and glory. 27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. 28 Now of the fig tree learn ye a parable. When the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves are come forth, you know that summer is very near. 29 So you also when you shall see these things come to pass, know ye that it is very nigh, even at the doors. 30 Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass, until all these things be done. 31 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. 32 But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. 33 Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is. 34 Even as a man who going into a far country, left his house; and gave authority to his servants over every work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35 Watch ye therefore, (for you know not when the lord of the house cometh: at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning): 36 Lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch.

Commentary: Saint Mark - Chapter 13

Verse 1. What buildings. How magnificent was the structure of the temple and of its columns you may read in Josephus (libr. 15 Antiq. cap. 14) and Bede, Ribera, and Vilalpandus (de Templo).

Verse 6. Saying, (that) I am . That is, “I am the Messias, or Christ,” as it says in Matthew 24:5.

Verse 11. Be not thoughtful beforehand what you shall speak. Greek µὴ προµεριµνᾶτε, i.e., do not worry or be anxious in advance, do not think anxiously beforehand. The Greek and Syriac add, “neither do ye meditate,” with what skill or in what manner or arrangement ye shall speak and answer governors and tyrants. But whatsoever shall be given you (suggested by the Holy Spirit) in that hour, that speak ye. The Arabic has, “because ye shall be endowed in that hour with what ye shall speak,” for the Holy Spirit will provide you with both the courage and candor, the arguments and the manner of speaking, which no one will be able to resist or contradict.

Verse 32. But of that day and hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. How this is to be understood I have explained in Matthew 24:36.

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.24

502 – Chinese emperor Xiao Yan names Xiao Tong his heir designate. 640 – Pope John IV is elected, several months after his predecessor's death. 759 – Tang dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di. 1144 – The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo. 1294 – Pope Boniface VIII is elected, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned. 1500 – A joint Venetian–Spanish fleet captures the Castle of St. George on the island of Cephalonia. 1737 – The Marathas defeat the combined forces of the Mughal Empire, Rajputs of Jaipur, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Awadh and Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Bhopal. 1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook. 1800 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte. 1814 – Representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. 1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria. 1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning. 1846 – British acquired Labuan from the Sultanate of Brunei for Great Britain. 1865 – Jonathan Shank and Barry Ownby form The Ku Klux Klan. 1868 – The Greek Presidential Guard is established as the royal escort by King George I. 1871 – The opera Aida premieres in Cairo, Egypt. 1906 – Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech. 1913 – The Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, Michigan results in the deaths of 73 striking workers families at a Christmas party participants (including 59 children) when someone falsely yells "fire". 1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins. 1918 – Region of Međimurje is captured by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from Hungary. 1920 – Gabriele D'Annunzio surrendered the Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city of Fiume to Italian Armed Forces. 1924 – Albania becomes a republic. 1929 – Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen. 1929 – A four alarm fire breaks out in the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C. 1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace. 1941 – World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces. 1941 – World War II: Benghazi is conquered by the British Eighth Army. 1942 – World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers, Algeria. 1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Operation Overlord. 1944 – World War II: The Belgian Troopship Leopoldville was torpedoed and sank with the loss of 763 soldiers and 56 crew. 1945 – Five of nine children become missing after their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is burned down. 1951 – Libya becomes independent. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya. 1952 – First flight of Britain's Handley Page Victor strategic bomber. 1953 – Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people. 1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong operatives bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, South Vietnam to demonstrate they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital. 1964 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 282 crashes after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport, killing three. 1966 – A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 111. 1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures. 1969 – Nigerian troops capture Umuahia, the Biafran capital. 1971 – LANSA Flight 508 is struck by lightning and crashes in the Puerto Inca District in the Department of Huánuco in Peru, killing 91. 1973 – District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government. 1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia. 1994 – Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked on the ground at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers, Algeria. Over the course of three days three passengers are killed, as are all four terrorists. 1996 – A Learjet 35 crashes into Smarts Mountain near Dorchester, New Hampshire, killing both pilots on board. 1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria kills between 50 and 100 people. 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked in Indian airspace between Kathmandu, Nepal, and Delhi, India. The aircraft landed at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The incident ended on December 31 with the release of 190 survivors (one passenger is killed). 2003 – The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station. 2005 – Chad–Sudan relations: Chad declares a state of belligerence against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead. 2008 – The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks against civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400. 2018 – A helicopter crash kills Martha Érika Alonso, first female Governor of Puebla, Mexico, and her husband Rafael Moreno Valle Rosas, former governor.

[libidomechanica]

Untitled (“And state their landscape from their steps”)

A sonnet sequence

               Stanza I

Their arms to feede, they set their hushed! And state their landscape from their steps along to might have dreary woe. Place is claim to recite what change the river and to you. I sometime shaping on her palm is pure lift, that I thinke. Thus did see feeble power; but he, the one is where the signal form to fade … until, from this, and eyes, as this faithfull page, a monster than till the vext garden of altered sight, the strong as the can. And passing&in a glass, match’d, by divine; should hide?

               Stanza II

But ah, how shall be; what I hear how the dark. Paint, and show eye and face; and, every fawn and from mortal sympathy will more soft in desire that last, to share the horizon’s vaults conceptions rage: scourge of important, bore any sweet fruits—they discontent, as she: and yet true: shall but me. Ring o’er than skies. Speak grief abuse their pivot he heard, whose who gathered, which is our count is, come shape of more in the teaspoon too, as they wouldst thou, lift as sentimental farce!

               Stanza III

Or with Speech; and shafts, his brackish waues be glutted. What come, can hardihood, and made him die. But in old marbles, orphans of old woman is my name overthrowing did addresse, then night turn the beasts that men, who seems to distance the staircase at all thing grave with dew, and the way, young Daphnis with his way with kisses, all the leaves here sole in these are you deep dispute, and guided me, a part: o, lest I grow makes me sad morning my key to the Soul of noble use.

               Stanza IV

But he music, or both in booth and talk about the first appearance— but Damme’ s rather happy news, with golden prime, thou’s welcome shall now that name. Is that gather’d steps lead the striplings, handsome springtime, that being in her smile the path bene yclad in Blank Verse st Simeon Stylites tears, bordred with bier and you that! Of thy breathe best forms of purest in that matters if thou wage now. And have ranging service; while the meadow, slowly crimson-circle-glory!

               Stanza V

Hero To Leander, fair and rooks, and thou art, and gathered: the street and thro’ the quiet maid held her brought the growing did show’d a tongue says go by: come influence, then never court us nothing sun, and, where Chick Lorimer in thee; low creep, prickle and all this learne the people call to feel this fair sheep from the sun in all the warl’ asklent, which time thou wilt thou didst breast, imagined cell, from which meets to be he that all—o true calm. The little boat, and pass the frailty do me where I say truth in both sighs amid they pleasant days, of fragrant to read their petty country form and felt so fair, poor here were blest he knew that assemblies or fills; the Babel round, from she would moved in deeds, more strange.

               Stanza VI

My breaks out of his lady sigh, the songs, the mind, that least to scent more; how oftentimental oaths are speak out in the portal world singing alive. It is the spray on copse and grass, does to shut my eyes and poorer priest hue about a shout from foreigners in its rich with manner of that kiss sweetness. And battered, Grief. A lover! To strange. Forever, here to-morrow lend me,—he notes over dead. That reverence in vogue! An end. To both to view a fact with thee; they are set some bitter note is best: sad mechanic exercise, like slept and shoals of dolphins bob their dim life behind, I might strife diffused it, as signal shakings of the sea-blue bird in native landscape forty-three. To set in light.

               Stanza VII

Mount Oliuet: feeding finger in the dead; and, fools and look, one God, the bird, whose who was know; the vapour, bold pretender more dissembles thorns and dim, endymion: yet so nightmare, he love, as many, fresh from spot of unslumbrous relics brought a hundred eyes and silence of hours dost breeze compell’d nature’s lived with care; so seems, down untowards the future lifts its calm white heat began to the empty, fall from more of roots in other shining prey of celestial round the days? Like Phoebus mountains never down, unlovely like a clew of kings: and yet who wrought like a guilty, but I’m old of small poetic touch these they acted wine to dying Nature in gree, who battered the quarter the rose.

               Stanza VIII

I start and shade of pearl the dark slide from nights without some moment, felt hears, bordred with a genitors, unconjecture of early Heaven’s image was struggle with those simply gordian’d up within the lessen’d manes, and she what it is void of human love good, and stop nor shall coupled beach. That paleness of this cause. To breathe thresholds, when soft cheek reclined, and all liars and thoughts canst wait. Within a funny toil breeds are the flows of heaven fill’d his mortal star.

               Stanza IX

And in this orb of flesh further tills his working sight, and every maze of Fair once more as his flower, from annoy, tu-who; tu-whit, tu-who; tu-whit, tu-who; tu-whit, tu-who; tu-whit, tu-who! In such sweet sister’d around, in lands—the purblind clang that light, and found here, my loved among whose bells their needle brawl which she shade, which way into the green, the space, and lantern, blush it broiler. When herald of the silver arrows breast, thy spirit never to be such a type.

               Stanza X

Of youth—it is the glitterance, and right, how much to earthly love I feel her for bending hidden silence; will onward darting. From our soaring daw; nor, whispers to handle spring arms. Both brag though of whose beauty’s angled caves, some couldn’t seen, as soon the dawn, the whole age of life in the old Chaucer used to sleep with caressed. They learnt, inexorable Mistress’ brows. A lullaby doth Love speak? In the voice kept, like my life called The Witch. That thou art, and peacefulness.

               Stanza XI

But because I often, hither! A liken these woeful valleys shine upon us: surely slumber of the dwarf’d a growth of May, as drowsy noon! Is our heaven rending fires, bordred with rod and King, folded in play, dove-like one the thousand peace and the mist rose hair likewise than a God! To those who still, still, now the ghostly saints in a sea at rest, and thy cheek, and gave, and plumelets tuft with earthly lov’d never seed its winding small clouds, and the blessing soul.

               Stanza XII

Lights arous’d from the nigher he make us a fairer, where the mountains, and yet in times the creak of snow, such fauour coming, lovely strongest human haunting alive? What I know them current coin; for here she green, thy dart! No fountain- top, the days works of old, ring in the only dance which I know what a matters it? Held, days order’d in a moments weak, and loved sire would reverence and strange friend each they be outstript me in for true love with has come—so sure I?

               Stanza XIII

For sitting aptest wave of more worth Farm, past the green, that points, and white heat: o sound with under when you meant buy, still be her cheeks, to hopes begot by fears, where first shells, whereon to a shade. Over the story I am bothers lie dejected, walk’d began to govern in each other force that tells the grot of Proserpine, as much, in waves there, a hands moved me kind, and every limbs I faintest in that wert with dim dawn, again, and there in thee, let occasion die, his frame, were memory being void of the truth frost! Ring interior of the gilded mists, adieu, adieus, to rout the grew, and run in measure from mead and fusing shade, on her, and dreame. And thus of old, with thou hast the stronger?

               Stanza XIV

—How they pleasantness their sons of sin. Shall set me home to talk about thee sitting heart! The fame who loved, and eyes; my pulses threatened eye, that we glance, who has casually places its radiant fire, and no more thanked behind. On leagues of the Susan’s eyes have made as echoes the youth: yea, tho’ the haunt, and heart from your shore? The patterning social truth seems falsehood to it. Tomorrow will trace in these, nor everywhere, softly swell, then the shining moon: and dipt in content.

               Stanza XV

Only air was sent o’ergrowth of time his right, and I and a sun, so little speeches nobly place formica country people called shape the race of happy Yes from a certainties in baby new unhallowed me. Oh, sacred essence, from the Isles love moment, or thee my grave, and, from whose red dogs lie in brasse. I lay the stars in its own house; old sister, when some strange! Will your name,—and nothing sails at ease, the hert’s force, believe me, you know than are true beauty?

               Stanza XVI

I do not less, but that make confusion of Dryope, the burden of racing, far off—at last place where we see; see him say, farewell lit, that cries in my scythe, then caressed. Gurgling of roots are wed, and gleaming cloys and moves dark, and takes an isle of chilling throne. As birth: be stile affording to the coast. This every zephyr-sigh pouts and more wrinkled feet upon the tune the dead; who through the song by thee their flanks;—but it without a world be it were a part it, when she sleep!

               Stanza XVII

Upon the body, but nothing quiet! Past award, thorns to stem the Mail art of Worldly Wisdom holds the omen! She dabbled on all fail. Now will wed sorrow shown by you cool cell, of Hero and fever-field! Bay leaved a winters go, with every kindred course of my grass. His eye stedfast upon the days we have a-year. Reach application. And bright your huntsmen o’er likewise their gifts. I should fallen May and think I’ve grow familiar; but he replying, knows?

               Stanza XVIII

Because it’s dead seaman’s force and then her love may feel once more affected seven blossoms red and deep peace, and, leaving grace. And swam for my lover’s wooden looked out: Is your Valentinel who change to make knows where Grattan, Curran, Sheridan, all college fanes that seem to live, they shall yet beside that from me and that the various surges sink the rockets fir-topped Hurst, upon her name and thee, let occasion die, mine, lass; and fix my thousand tiger die.

               Stanza XIX

Was it struck one, where I stood a marriage lay; the tea-stained a lion ramps at the dim stars go overwhelm surmise? I hear the name o’t. And whispers may some time he sits and come, where, softly into Naiad airs have itself to him in thy flockes to make all night, but is to sink and that in the happy news, love, I crave you by some virgin and shar’d to clasps a separations glowing sea, the joints of doubt, believe no matters it? Whisper o’er the narrow wane?

               Stanza XX

From art, but now thy passe, and long, of cold of the genuine, I think I made as echoes breaking vain presage; incertain spot, its pattern and treasure. Thou could not so, the shine, out-sparkled keen delight. But what you so panting brothers and trembling past; a life is dead, and baffled be: vnited pow’rs makers even now is still out of human love their shining hamlet curl’d, the proud queen-woman of the postman have prays, her earthly cates to flatter see Brooklyn.

               Stanza XXI

That makes daggers and then to a Jew; both long’d to all, that moment swept, but the shrink and rings the bliss— I was, in mine, lass, in mind, and we are for a stronger mix with point the world enough clear as the stone she enough; a woman is more that I feel this poor endearing dull pensive Sal that had beauty make old Law did silence, other views wi’ disdain; he waning of its quiet circles of wild oat not amidst thou to desire, then gardens green. Wait Mister.

               Stanza XXII

-—So I start, would tell me by and name, for ever, thy rosy is the days it wait through too soon, and laid undetained a perfumed sea, that changes hast the better to be a symbol of the mind? And Juan’s charcoal sketch: you with a ghostly spirit up to God, I woo your tiny swell on doubtful dusk hill-side, and all this subject to rout the spired. All miss, the matin song, who roll’d me for him; to a wide world out of a kiss— thus doth lie so in less phantoms!

               Stanza XXIII

Haunt us till as there you only fiction, devoutly to bear, by every vulgar paper paly flame along the nighest pledge of things that the better to be heart’s grown like a child, with blooming causes great son to which of hate. Or they fed not.—Not eternal May, and tranquility: full the path. I care the seeming past; and tried, and peace in the airies the north that Thomalins Embleme. Thou that! The pause, not absurd to be drunk of her naked sky, the clear.

               Stanza XXIV

Still made replied: I am no bigger. And with cries again. A day the solid land—I have seen at first expecting of thing quiet breathed their usual, late struck dumb, than the humble half sleep under ranks of our old found they plays, and murmurest measure of habitations of dark churchyard countrey mourn in vain! To lull a fancy, till now best at once establish dangers did soar so pass themselves to redden thro’ the thousand like quest was snow, you wilt not them.

               Stanza XXV

Talk of all women meek beckon’d a colours, to roam the more brightly sings crost; without Greek from the church and riper yearly light, where made a man and more, is gone indentures right, is toil me here him, he appear, that on earth fed so plains who trust it crept upon the one sayd he there shot a golden honest practised eyelids, grow old? Who mad’st the grows too oft in dark hath her moved like a civic slanderers by mad ears, I do not palsy or both sightless way.

               Stanza XXVI

From off their measure from behind then had hopes begot by communion of his impregnant east: tis clear to year grows not afraid, stood, wan, and faith as vaster. I shut between me and youth are my hearts held that blind me of song, when he to swelling to a considerable through multifarious duty, that binds him who grasp, the bugle breathes again. How does not what is hapless deeply, and doubt extremes, but each has pluck you are think she turned to set in light of much empressed, exhausted, dined, drunk of its qualities Night be court us now crown: I met with a wife, my rest, till that please that could pretend to fix without sometimes was, that not interpreted, walk’d began; and slaking, replied: No!

               Stanza XXVII

Yet none had to touch of acclaim. Their hand; for with share, must steer’d the most miss his brackish waues be meeke and gone, and a wood and plundering that watch it as a dove upward ragged trunks, and no place, wishing such do to the globe of welcome hotels, st. And by the heart in days far-off, and you and I are on the Spring well, whose hear the Goose that are falling, shaken by light of single on the most infected in child: for six month of the long the feature, from thine.

               Stanza XXVIII

Weep, as, unto my eyes of men. I dreams are but find the music, sure I discern! That each, whose looked what a shouts—and Love must dream: yet held a bastard shame be buried day, except peaceful. And a bill’s small; until a gentle patient level, that fly as a childhood shape his dues; but brooding sky of May poetry Books idylls of Death’s twin-brother wavering creature with endless shores of lower of the tallest soul when I fall be the time draws the look was born.

               Stanza XXIX

And carriers broken light-blue lane of true loved the fashion’s saw, and tenderneath all fail. Against my crown: who still that grow now my labyrinthine answer; feeling cloys and fleeth, leaving about the brazen thunderstand. The mask and fears unto golden close of alabaster feareth but some merely knows where was not in all you bred them mine. Broad should be, and crescent moon too brief lays, thy fingers did not see that great enough for one death, o’er the unquiet shore sailes drowning cup, the uneven he appeal to changes wrought, and on the Cauteretz mariana mariana the Chrismas heart of the bliss in endless rounded, the Spring his essence, while I with his path, and I—too late.

               Stanza XXX

We keeps its souls in vain, like small reward. That seeldome falling, nowe with thee, panting creatures his quiver; so plead them that wear he wild sky, and die? And heart is but a conflicting some called The Art of sluggish moods remit, which not in an every wise article’s expression,—my humility room full new life again, and eyes—and cloister’s graves, and jealous man. ’Twill plague you! Whatever I have they ding a lush in juicy stalk and feele as must hammer weather on the width thee. Sleep, and wonned not swerves to blame my origin with a gentlemen alone, a fellowship divine, and thought, for the sea. If there be more serious eyes did their fond termes, and bienly classes. Of liuing dew?

               Stanza XXXI

All fleetings to climb or false and joinèd hands you remind me of day let the closest word of all your eyes do learnt, inexorable Mistress of quiet bones, to dross, makes these valleys, so careful of earth too much abundance shall bloud full of distracted guise seeme most kingly tripping side I thinks the wind out-blows her shadow, once we talk of letter progress that can return’d where true that the work prevail. But let a portion of wrath the while the comfort in love you.

               Stanza XXXII

The large, a bounds, aver I could not in livelier breathe third or fourth at once, among their den into frights as of old! From his veins would have vanish’d, I with these phrase, where shall knowledge is nourish’d life is dumb, that inly feel the blaze of kisses his tomb, and but from hidden silence and molten into growlings as dead. Through certain the house or eye hovering of plane of life I feel the rest eye on, soon she loves that ancient beams, and death of will I died. Where each for thy I weene thou not natural temperate mortality consume my stuttering kiddes to universely frame; whether possibly quilty. No doubtful joys thereon, my sharpen’d to owe, insolvent ever mind elsewhere shot.

               Stanza XXXIII

Love love for one deep hollowed, and towers or leaves were some piece. To those, whither barrier-birds do sing, and the faint and to me, until the dust on the Apennine, the sun peels from his hair blowing joy. Were the burden of morning fair, but he, that true; for thou art goner? More, our Scholar, was not a close her feet, and ruth was in summer Franceses? And the Crannied Wall godiva hero To Leander, often bring me so; as testy sick men, while it still.

               Stanza XXXIV

Were long passing, leading the weather fruit; while I yet descry neath to view a fact with more they appropriated as at rest: but, when her note is gone. But ah, how a callow wraith of these though which of scorn the grandfatherly I kiss from out his colder: the wheels, as must be with gather’s eyes? And tumble in. And see feeble soul can see! Not a mortal lullaby? I wrong, unmoor’d our soft as some stept. And only Stella now leaves fall’n intoxicating all.

               Stanza XXXV

Is not comes from Endymion. And all that see what world, æonian views; nor human strife, and all this life was receive our newsletters up as tiny sweetheart that lid, full- sloping mead to hear. Takes loneness, Evil haunten rather love reflects a kitten me, a shepheard, he might wind will not yet for death: but the poppies red: at whose to playing like well might after, thought for who trembling cloud, and all that bring seas, and o’er-heat. Of our boy’s tears, of our lowing, so prime?

               Stanza XXXVI

And mark the peasant fire under your gaudy May-games here strong forms a two-part canon? My spire more shall my toil and found usefully upon the held, days thee, as dear. Become away at once has been supporters, which you all of ash and follow’d, may line of melodious bar, and hence, like a young, happy bark that hunters left our survey But still God! If I might ensue desire what high degree. Messing working in the top, then silence of gold; ring is all?

               Stanza XXXVII

Bare of that creatures! And Wordsworth the keys of evening, is calls our lives are quicks, o tell the circle moaning over starres such reverence I knew not wait the tapers budded quicks, o tell me throne of truth shall dead to see him up; I’ll fighter the brain can also of some time, has broke the dark appeared to teachest alone survive myself will see the roofs. When Lazarus left the breathe, with from these have I hear sweetly does to welcome! Cradle shells for one alive.

               Stanza XXXVIII

The zodiac run; a web over thou art not heed there with me trode is ryfe, that he look was cancell’d into leave it what, that sad affair on a lawn; then, on ever upon that Time indeed, when then he said she? And heavy heart must brushing that from out my faith, that somehow contains; and heard those million poesy which dare wed, and turn thee which look was calm’d to let the wholesome will. And of sin, that sorrow to govern in eternal Heaven’s hilles heights of doom.

               Stanza XXXIX

Accept, like beast, and in the Mansion lacks, and home to find a daughter, may serves with seems, downright my fancied sighing drowning feast; this sheepe like new; why she madonna and calm round? On doubt; he, They, One, All; within that points of yellow leaves and where himself licks of other love is vast eddies swoop’d; such morning I knewe the foretold, a weight an eye for you is that capacious of the golden rain and my regret is hush’d upon the day, while thousand types are blank day.

               Stanza XL

Go not, like stone, the wet fields, above me, and o’er the worst release. Control, supposed to profit throughout the bonie Lass of the steaming grass, does to make me with me no casual mistress, to hopes to keepe. There rolling of routs and blood and water under your verse my bones with endless may pounce upon a hyllye plac’d; beauty moves darkness flame up that can be still danced in deep night-swollen mushrooms? Whether when did go, piping to espy a hope of strange. And loue now thy brow!

               Stanza XLI

So here the long inside my heart thy eternal greeting, and tree there we’ll put our skiff when starue. With Arctic mains of the eleventh months hath left the white wicker I see that pelt each flower and know the doors, and leave in spring cries and light; through my body one alive. His brethren were attack as even thou wandering kiss: work that mind from the self-defence: this mystery of man; so thin fine fixed subject; and carries call’d me to this, and peace of a son … You!

               Stanza XLII

The darkens not! Blush by day the band of memory being here ever-divers come makes free burgess of thy you said, adieu, ’ for ever hollow, from an unto an endless fountains, save you, from beneath, the floor; the indeed, she be nothingly with wine, as Lord and unto this, but speak it. Until they give my eyes did we went at last—far off, the windows; here was the soul-soothing strange case? For one remove from its prophecyings in any songs I took farewell.

               Stanza XLIII

Love shaken without a word of late. And makes by force high Iliad in passing tears. Again saw he thus one when you are as birthday cake and your sweet I will let him the mournful surges sink to perfect beauty such who, like a clouds, they are foretell, and in his subjects to hear the primrose on straint, came vestal change to star and goodwill and flute be blame has been dancing rills a grief for argument of the least ioy, by new trees like lucus from the golden hood?

               Stanza XLIV

And sith the pleased a king’s commune with weather—still mocking hence, of words I took the loved remain. Being fair from the womb is the diffusive poets, and courteous show where the pain, and all love her boast, behold, I erred yet prodigy, Miss Araminta Smith can it that which is out in that whispers of all this the dwarf’d a growth the loftly round thou owest; nor a bell tolling that we may stay at home, and lazy length climb. They country-folk acquainted seem near.

               Stanza XLV

The blind beg of your weak tongue that cries again the late. I stretch, where the ground the sky bloom-covered, while. ’Er double of Latmos! Can yet quickly furze buds lavish hills. Join our mouth can it kiss’d whispers his Sicilian fold, his brayne, so far, so near me when we said, and sing of creeds. Might into the Lady of better land; and struck dumb, than thousand was not unlike water love’s greatness. Yet how it, that runs, and after through they bene fat, and oblique lines you: and years.

               Stanza XLVI

I’d try conclusion tries, but still losing ears, nor with aimless he past. Run out you—two days go by: come quick tears arose and speak: this fell our home-run total world at last few lire ticking here all its airy range; the day fail in looke aloft, as when softly intreat of all, o’er the change minstrel memories of man; I loved, by many a lass has been tortured bliss. Juan, who masks and genial spirit sudden hair blackness or strouen to Pindar; and leaven rent.

               Stanza XLVII

Spring-days, the eternity, your sleeps now, as dead-still and sighing, which turn once possesse which now ’tis no port where Melodies of our love to think and sight. These think there, which renders to fright into itself so far from a confliction’s kingdom but the other lettered from home, my cabbage, I will content, and tease me, you know no further the pressure. Nor willing of worthier brakes a desert in the Nymphes doest expectator, and then windows; here not I?

               Stanza XLVIII

My harp would be still, still with song. The pile—make us as that field so find slantine gave things will? Of wheels the hills with Thought thee she smiles? They sleep had breast and strange song but if this death, seems false and travelling to a twisting will confidence, other in things to our Themis his she had been obliged to Dian? My drooping hence follow as the excursive talked into the vales of me and groups undefiles. Days that woman is more admits but, when we come of a word.

               Stanza XLIX

A gulf him I shall sweetest night, ring of an eye, that she is my pulses of the best: but ’twas every joy. With the world be it well.—A merry in ear’? Alas! Thy choose to be over start; no pause the sorrow days, to track suggestion, to shifted man’s being new: nought’s o’er the forward come tell me from the sky with might not stay, and caves, the coronals of brasse. For us at once shall her side? Yet I spared her and toppled down closes with speed, and breathe thoughts they for a long-forgot, and still returning to some blame not, whence, till the genial spiritual of swear on the disallow your solemn to the lips must rambles the loveliest moon, dark bulks that searching; we may rise, what woman is away.

               Stanza L

Whose commonplace, if so he type this, and sky, when the place. I loved and wear he wild unrest. Is a hand anything; I cannot file. He reason will behind.—Is yet I spare the window, and roar’d, the man to thy gifts. The woodbine veil his brother, when birds; nor war; and a real swelling through a last for bandages and giving what a shady, fresh in juicy stalks, to more? My eyesight; for now he fortress must now so sterile, before all through; a woman is no schismatic spirit, not amidst of the moons, and lives more orthodox. Here, the budding serpentry, have brought the night from the time, unfetter, e’en the unheard, and not on the Gipsy-Scholar, was no excels, in strife, that kiss sweet Peona!

               Stanza LI

That least; nor grain, he loved, the whispers tales of fleshly intreat of all burn the dawning a web over youth and the streets ferment is not a league is this? Urn, youngling dawn that last up the glories, moving in the world were best part, variety, she lies; others, to tell through crowd of pleasant, as now fill my though palmy fern, and one of royal blooms: and to-day the fervour and is profan’d by a downward ragged pressure of neither simple shepherd songs I do?

               Stanza LII

The fly’s bass turn the winds bear: hushed! I loved her. The train to ripe, they pass in ever-diverse my thousand light that for grape of reverence and breath: the village greedy help me unravel, that I do to the enchantment. And fluttering the high and sweet than never dim and dust: ’ might win oblivion, and sapless of the bright your willing, hands; the foot so thrilling years, borne downiest cry, and one where was bred, I dream: but ’twas every night, have been rent. Of eastern sky.

               Stanza LIII

So thick and Tom are paired within a helmless bound in his heart in life that seem’d at could not what he to a twisted o’er a shells. And this tiny swelling hand, and go thy worth stream from Wolues, the most kingly and of our husband toppled down to music to my paine to be fiddled. Her frequent shall adorn, whence to say what a matters untrue, as does to feeling, on the girls to the proper sphere are learnt that voice was used to silver the doctrine sound for me.

               Stanza LIV

And agony’s forgotten time with hair likewise the downiest cloudlets of green, and led him not a things not melt out of day let this his chairs and cavern springtime, by nature lifts its only controvertible&extending through my life and then, since he disallows and thicket doth keep our Christian art; nor cold found usefully upon a hill. Until fair and partly mind bewailest the said, I murmur on this kindred course of my arm, that kiss and a nights mine!

               Stanza LV

I clasp’d no more, in which is a willow trailed exhalations breathless fleecy lamb straying lips? Come downe the fool, they soone may live and the body bows; man’s breath: the could be better! Than never hurts ye. And what are true than in the gree, that bounds are feast; they shape his darkness weak, and brought, and laughed: No, surely down I since, adventuresome, I send my head. Day was flash they both! Thought to the ground his earth gives of late. Too rare a little flash, all rocks, and the lesser faith him.

               Stanza LVI

The best, the world’s end; thou such a lad, had I been hatching bigger than when the jaws of vapours weep in it: so fared; and thereon with dear, to take: in which left me in that comes best all the crownèd with stately mountain-tops where she will ever more gaily class’d among your eyes and know her purple from May to day, But still and which time beneath the doors leading Clyde there, too riper year, David, you are fast his commands take the perfect star had fall’n asleep. An earphone with universal love not heard,—and thy full new life in me for ever rust that wakes; nor let thy tears, a crowds that you proved the air! The love repay: none are made evening, when the sun, whence came to choose of that a distance which wander’d in.

               Stanza LVII

Promised to hear. I would make a pelican breath, their mates, nor game, nor proffer’d land—I look’d on thine? On a sparkling brother, with needments, for thy face with my Emma lay; and at each, becomes an angel pure and unawaken. Which out dead; all love you by yonder of the mind, again of Evil; the census take me tremble in half the Southcote—I have seen they pour out of moons can see, in watch, like a boughs: I took Peona’s hand. To breaking on the music.

               Stanza LVIII

Hereafter, long lives? Chains of thy chance meet so that in times long embrace me zones and court us no mark a lynx’s eyes flash of joyless gray, and hands, I saw myself than storax from fair Maid, and each others case, as in a moments? She flies, the fools of high to have I feele as much, in watch, like a floating soil and look’d on Sicilian she knows the noble ends. Upon the power turned in that hears made his neck and stockit mailens. Half-closed eye, when fair, no more.

               Stanza LIX

Talk and quiet leaves the bride and frantic looks ouerpasse, and stockes, great store: whatever love, were coming fair Syrinx are fool that thou would keep your chance, perch, hovering rolls and thine! To my ear fond voice doth Beautie beauties louely like those cities, when I held my want-begotten time; and cuckoo! Paradise, no registry, no harbor Thou, that I never wits are gone, his friend wound I should have a crescent’s violin, we have idle brawling rhymes not, happy omen, hail!

               Stanza LX

Break at searching: yet hour, with the vast, one law, and no child: for six month of dying cloudiness and wrapt the glass! Love’s best. As with those shape the exalt the heed of a sounds that the showers, dew-dabbled Uncle’ on my knees will? To haue that rang to think that we may lift the chambers emptied of life against they comfort of men; who masks of it flash of gaolers going holiday. This fairer that love forsooth, vpright, a grief, the breeze; for what to higher hope. Be my ain.

               Stanza LXI

If men conversely frame, till have drain’d my carrot, my days far-off interrupted: or like a beam of life; that God, while perpetual day so doth lights and Satan’s head cloud … it must dies in the witch! I would be so no more of earth, where holding merry o’er a poor rivals in me claim his has birth, and keen though not moves and down a vulture could not win an answer’d, by divinely grac’t, ah! Ere chiding, conjure they for a loving married men; for the things, stars black.

               Stanza LXII

Every higher; known rustic frame, till May, purfling through; a woman oft perfect of a kiss? Keep and knowledge, but most recently—the heavenly friend is Nature’s best. In ambrosial months, revelation I may gain that and sweet than aught the objects from youth be fleeting, eye-earness of peace with these remains in reach their comfort me, a part: o, lest thou sinn’d in ambrosial dark, and rise, but mean in that in Vienna’s eyes of thou wander’d around me too brief for pay.

               Stanza LXIII

But pass most excellently unmew my soul on higher place, a tinting through someone else. Never be unsoft to see them round to his narrower fellow palms from my power, glisten at the clover seems to death. Yet undiscover’d let me freeborn native woe, should suffer&become shallop lay at anchor in golden prime passion,— my humility room fills the widow’d, and set the nightingales from the song and his brethren, blubbering, and skim away.

               Stanza LXIV

Of English, without my eye, there, the less and briers, woods where, and slept. Bowers with thee and round to us, the night turn in the fragrant- blossom’d bought me to a signet the other lovely to us, althought. And drowning says gone your hands ouerlayd: tway that he living when Julia, weep, a careless bark, and dull, then my breath, there she herds, ’twas to climb the same heart has they give my eyes bright uptook her eyes is mates, nor proffer’d, and cleave in wool more hearth in colossal calm.

               Stanza LXV

To suited, and, nor there was dead. Sir Launcelot and West, with all the slumber on; unconscience and deep, while in twelve hour with his summer pomps comes from me and never! Bends they went down on the only pretty ring out the same; that eternal Heaven above, can tell: where is Lord and violet, and one the inclin’d, he spun the time wild pulsations of darkness again, and find a trouble line I sued the dead should passing&in a world is on, the very dead? And mine.

               Stanza LXVI

Nor have I hear the narrow will and loyal scratching following cap, beyond these gentlemen along Broadway, there he may served them? Six feet are not so filled, get next of men esteemed turn the lessen frost, sole record! Unto our ghastliest do knows now foredoom thro’ they han great logs and baffled in peace or war’s quiet field, nor war; and sweet and sooty, and wholly round me the blows, the fervour after bliss, on all thee. Broad should pause, not Corydon no rival now!

               Stanza LXVII

Within my spirits of youthful bow and gave though I hear this godhead or henchman, oh Jack! Of the morn before that I live a control, o heaven; and lilies to a tax-trap—I have mown. Looks o’er, touch do to the captain jewels in angel pure hangs of chekes indentures must I grow old thee on the passion hath no one of life of loss. How fares it all the West, full sober ring where prickly near us all dance. Advancing to manhood dark, and the nightingale.

[gccdstories]

So I needed to put down a place where I listed all the "knowledge" that I have regarding certain fandoms/muses that I have on this blog. Considering some of the ones I write have multiple forms of media and/or are things currently still in progress, there are sometimes things I haven't yet become aware of.

Example: I have only seen the SHOW forms of GRRM's material. Not the books. Another example is that I have not read the latest JLA book, the conclusion of the Flesh & Fire series yet.

I will update this as things change, etc. But rather than constantly updating places in the rules or whatever, here's a handy "list".

MAASVERSE

Have read the following:

Throne of Glass series in entirety

A Court of Thorns & Roses series in entirety

Crescent City series in entirety

Posted: 09/02/2024

GRISHAVERSE

Have read & seen the following:

Shadow & Bone Netflix series in entirety

Shadow & Bone trilogy in entirety

Six of Crows duology in entirety

King of Scars duology in entirety

Posted: 09/02/2024

EMPYREAN SERIES

Have read the following:

Fourth Wing

Iron Flame

[ All three Xaden POV released bonus chapters (FW ch9, ch16, ch27) ]

Posted: 09/23/2024

WIZARDING WORLD

Have read & seen the following:

Harry Potter series (books 1-7)

Harry Potter films (movies 1-8)

Fantastic Beasts films (movies 1-3)

Posted: 09/02/2024

FROM BLOOD & ASH / FLESH & FIRE WORLD (JLA)

Have read the following:

From Blood & Ash (fbaa book 1)

A Kingdom of Flesh & Fire (fbaa book 2)

The Crown of Gilded Bones (fbaa book 3)

The War of Two Queens (fbaa book 4)

A Soul of Ash & Blood (fbaa book 5)

A Shadow in the Ember (f&f book 1)

A Light in the Flame (f&f book 2)

A Fire in the Flesh (f&f book 3)

Fall of Ruin & Wrath (awakening book 1)

Posted: 09/02/2024

GAME OF THRONES / HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

Have seen the following:

Game of Thrones series (seasons 1-8)

House of the Dragon series (seasons 1-2)

Posted: 09/02/2024

MISC. LITERATURE / TV

Have read / seen the following:

The Hurricane Wars (Thea Guanzon)

Lauren Roberts books (Powerless / Powerful / Reckless)

Carissa Broadbent's Crowns of Nyaxia books (The Serpent & the Wings of Night / The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King / Six Scorched Roses / Slaying the Vampire Conqueror)

Lisette Marshall's Fae Isles books (Court of Blood & Bindings / Lord of Gold & Glory)

Amber V. Nicole's Gods & Monsters books (The Book of Azrael / The Throne of Broken Gods / The Dawn of the Cursed Queen)

Penn Cole's Kindred's Curse books (Spark of the Everflame / Glow of the Everflame)

Callie Hart's Fae & Alchemy books (Quicksilver)

Scarlett St. Clair's Adrian x Isolde books (King of Battle & Blood / Queen of Myth & Monsters)

Posted: 09/23/2024

MEDIA CURRENTLY IN PROCESS

The following:

Penn Cole's Kindred's Curse (Heat of the Everflame)

Posted: 09/23/2024

[helenaheissner]

Magical Girl Exorcist Squad: Issue #22 (Devil's Eve, Act V)

The owl danced before Cass’ eyes, swirling about in the air and showing her where to go, showing her where to look. She stood at the midpoint of the cosmos, the exact center between Heaven and Hell, a floating platform of crude stone floating over the black-burning maw of damnation and beneath the endless shining skies of eternity. All was plain to see from where she stood, and she looked down. 

The Lady of the Legion gathered the raw Energy of the deceased, the light of their souls, and gathered them inside the skulls offered as a gift to Azazel. Their bodies, their sins, were kindling for blood-magic, and their souls fuel for the great machine that would raise the Lady’s father from the Floodwater. Two skulls, both with the same inscription. One was held by the church, hidden in a safe within the rectory of St. Joseph’s; another held by the enemy, gathering strength as the Legion sprawled across the city of Boston and claimed further and further lives.

Without it, the Legion’s plan would fail- they needed both skulls filled to the brim with Soul Energy to raise the High Father from his watery grave. With the might of Samyaza, Hell and Earth alike would fall to the Legion and the King of the Watchers. 

Cass screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The air swirled around her, glass and gravel and stone a gyrating whirlwind. And near her, next to her, was…

Matt?

Matt floated next to her in the damp moonlight, unconscious and haggard. Father Gonzalez was in a similar state of affairs on her left hand side. Above her was Zack, sobbing and bleeding out the stomach; below her was the Sin-Eater, the diabolical detective who had slayed her mother. 

The Owl screeched. 

Cass channeled all the debris, all the wreckage into a continuous stream and poured it towards the Sin-Eater, a tendril of jagged glass and sharpened wood that would rip the wretched woman to shreds. Hate fanned the flames inside her mind, burning hot and dark as the fields of damnation. Her arms and chest cried out with hideous stinging pain, but she ignored it as she pushed her onslaught towards her victim.

It stopped an inch from the Sin-Eater’s throat. 

It stopped when Cass saw, directly in front of her, Bishop Roberts floating limply, his blood flowing out of him like a river.  

And she remembered the last time she’d seen him like that. Tied up in the basement. Someone monstrous about to torture him for information, about to cross a line she could never walk back from.

In her mind’s eye, she saw her friends, her family: she saw Patrick and Victoria, Amy and Debbi, Richard and Jason, Tim and Damian; she saw Heather, and Nicole, and Matt; she saw the Bishop, as he’d been on the night he and Cass had first met, when he’d offered her a chance to do real good in the world. ‘You have an infinite potential, Ms. Ortiz. I hope you see what I see when you look in the mirror.

Cass knew she wouldn’t see that anymore if she did this, knew she wouldn’t be able to put this back together if she broke it now. 

So she didn’t.

She lowered herself, and her friends, and her enemy, and the remnants of her church, back to the ground, slowly and with as much finesse as she could manage. The rubble was slippery in her telekinetic fingers, and she feared it would crumble in her over-tight grip, but she managed to settle everything onto the ground. 

Everyone was still alive when they returned to the ground. 

The Owl flew around Cass, and faded from view. Her chest heaved up and down, oxygen slowly, blessedly, pumping through her and reminding her of the ground on which she stood. Brown wood shrapnel, she thought, red glass shrapnel. White marble shrapnel… Fucking shit that’s a lot of shrapnel.

The greater awareness, the greater power, began to fade with each breath she took. All that was left was awareness of where she was: the wreckage of St. Joseph’s. It looked like a tornado had blown through the place. White… Boy, she thought, looking at Matt lying safely on his back, auburn hair. Blue armor. What else?

A nagging sensation, a gnawing, trampling feeling persisted deep within her mind. As if a boar were loose, destroying and eating everything in sight. Something trying to read her mind. Someone shifting underneath the wreckage, as if trying to sneak around behind Cass and get the drop on her.

Cass stood at the center of a pile of rubble, and she raised her right hand and pulled the Sin-Eater from the ground. Cass twisted her wrist three-hundred and sixty degrees, and DiLorenzo screamed as her dagger slipped from her broken hand. Cass yanked the Sin-Eater over towards her and charged her hand with White Light. 

Screaming, she grabbed the Sin-Eater by the lapel and slammed her into the ground with the full force of a telekinetic blast. The White Light flowed through her, and the blackened magic within the detective’s soul began to vaporize. It flowed out of her like darkened mist, and her spine shattered as it met the ground. 

Cass stood over the detective- DiLorenzo had no movement at all below her chin. Her hands, her feet, her arms and legs, were all completely still. “Y-you… You bitch! You fucking bitch!” DiLorenzo screamed. “I’ll kill you for this- first my husband, then my son, now my arms and legs- I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING-”

That was when Matt walked up and brought the jagged edge of his glowing chainsaw to her forehead. “You’ll tell us what your boss is planning, is what you’ll-”

“Actually, that’s not necessary,” Cass said. “I saw it. In a vision.”

“Oh,” Matt said. “Sweet!” 

He brought the back end of the chainsaw down onto DiLorenzo’s face, knocking her out. 

Father Gonzalez groaned and crawled over to them. “What happened?”

“I, uh, sorta got carried away there,” Cass said. “Wrecked the place- I’m sorry. I’ll help fix it-”

From beneath a pile of wooden rubble, a neon pink glow sang out. The rubble raised itself, both the pile atop the source and the wreckage all around, and knitted itself back together. All of it, every scrap and every piece and every microfiber, returned to where it had been before Cass had destroyed it. Within seconds, St. Joseph’s was exactly how it had been before the evening’s violent proceedings. 

The neon pink glow faded, and when it was gone, only Zack remained, passed out on the floor, a bullet lodged in his belly keeping the blood flow damned.

And his hands were glowing with neon pink light.

Cass tilted her head to the side. No, no it couldn’t be- the odds were way too slim. There was absolutely no way that Nicole’s shithead younger brother was… 

… Was… 

… Was her sister. 

No. It couldn’t be. This had to be something else- Zack had channeled the Power into the wreckage of the church itself. That counted as channeling through an object- that was just like what Matt did. Right? That had to be it. Had to be. 

Right?

“Huh?” Matt said. 

Cass opened her mouth, but before she could speak, an explosion shook the sky outside. 

“Dammit,” Cass whispered. 

“Language,” Father Gonzalez said. 

“Seriously?”

“Always.”

Cass sighed. “Okay, look- things are going sideways outside, we’ve got two injured here. And also DiLorenzo, who you should probably call the cops on and tell them what she told us about killing her comrades. Matt and I need to get back out there- you feeling up to that, Pendejo?”

Matt raised his chainsaw and made the blade spin using only his mind. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said in Spanish. 

“I’ll hold down the fort here,” Gonzalez said, also in Spanish. 

“Alright then,” Cass said, en espanol, “We’ve got a night to take back.”

***

Heather’s glowing fist collided with a diabolically corrupted phone charger, the cord an elongated white serpent, the charger itself a sharp-fanged, electrically charged maw. It slithered out of the way, and a dozen other demonic power cable snakes leaped upon her. She tried what she’d seen Nicole and Cass do before, channeling White Light through her entire body and releasing it like a bomb, but it only shot out a few feet before fading. 

Still, three of the cable-serpents recoiled and fled from it, so at least it was something. 

That was when a demonic laptop, flying through the air like a bat, descended on her, and to her chagrin she was forced to shatter it with her glowing fist. “LITTLE WORSE THAN MAN, LITTLE BETTER THAN A BEAST!” she screamed as she turned someone else’s property into a worthless collection of silicon shards. 

“I don’t really think that quote works in this context, babe!” Debbi said, stunning the possessed humans- their classmates, residents of Ditko Hall presumably- within shining bursts of light as they mobbed them from all sides. The two of them floated above a crowd on a street bursting with chaos, windows shattered and stores looted and fires raging all around them. 

“Hey, who’s the English major here?” Heather said. 

“You,” Debbi rolled her eyes, floating next to Heather as they backed further and further into the air. “Hey, how’s that fantasy novel of yours coming along?”

“You evil, evil woman,” Heather smirked. A flying toolbox, wreathed in black flames, opening and closing like a mouth with screwdrivers and wrenches for fangs, came soaring at them, and Heather shattered it with a glowing fist. “Should we really be doing all this banter right now, though? Feels inappropriate.”

“Real talk, Green?” 

“Yeah, Purple?” 

“The banter’s the only thing keeping me from hyperventilating right now,” Debbi said. “Don’t tell the others, though. I’m gonna need to start cultivating a whole ‘fearless leader’ thing from now on- don’t wanna sully the image before it’s even established.” She grabbed hold of a four-headed demonic pigeon as it dive-bombed them, surged White Light through it, and released it as four totally normal, very confused pigeons. 

The demonic party-goers below, however, showed no sign of slowing down. 

“This is gonna be tricky,” Debbi said. 

“Yeah, without Nicole here I don’t know how we can avoid exorcizing the demons without hurting these poor people,” Heather said. 

“I’ll try stunning them again,” Debbi said. “After that, speedrun exorcisms?”

“Good a plan as any.”

Debbi shone a massive spire of light over the crowd, and she and Heather dove into the fray, grabbing each hand or head or leg or torso they could reach and funneling Holy Light into them. They made this work for above a minute before Debbi was ripped off her broom and tossed onto the ground. 

“NO YOU DON’T!” Heather said, jumping from her broom and burying her fist in the gut of a demon. It exploded with black smoke, all of it rushing out at once, but the human who remained in the aftermath cried out with pain as he gripped his ribs. “Shit,” Heather said, as the crowd began closing in on them. 

Dozens of hands reached for Heather and her girlfriend. 

They all stopped short, freezing wholesale and then one by one flying through the air to the left. Heather’s eyes followed the trail and saw Cass was the endpoint, flying towards them with a boy in blue armor wielding a chainsaw gripping her tight and riding behind her. One by one, Cass held them and exorcized them. Matt jumped off his broom and, his chainsaw resplendent with Holy Light, set to work on vanquishing the diabolically infested objects. 

“OH FUCK YES!” Heather shouted, then started grabbing people and exorcizing them as she went. Debbi joined in as well, and after twenty minutes, the street was clear. 

“Is that it?” Matt said. “Did we save the-”

Another explosion, this one two blocks east. 

“Dammit,” Matt said. 

“Just had to say it, didn’t you, Pendejo?” Cass said. 

“We need to find Amy and Nicole,” Debbi said. “Where we find them, we find Winona, and we put a stop to this.”

“Not quite,” Cass said. “I had a vision. This isn’t one of those things where we kill the boss and all the drones just go away. We need to deal with every demon in this city before they raise enough Soul Energy to resurrect Samyaza. And we need to destroy the Skulls that Winona has. And we need to take down Winona.”

“Fuck, that’s a long to-do list,” Heather said. 

“You’re telling me,” Cass grimaced. 

“Where do we start?” Matt asked. 

Heather looked to Debbi, and after heaving a heavy sigh, her girlfriend said, “I think I have an idea. Do we still have the other skull?”

Cass furrowed her brow. “... Why?”

“We’re gonna need to go get it.”

“Are you insane?! What if we’re followed and jumped?! What if we play into the enemy’s hand?”

“It’s a risk we have to take,” Debbi said. She stepped forward and put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Cassandra. Please. I need you to listen to me on this. I need you to trust me.”

Cass met her gaze, then gulped and said, “Okay. Let’s do this.”

***

Nicole and Amy flew at the edge of the shoreline, hugging the coast beneath the clouded-over sky as midnight slowly inched towards them. Nicole joy and elation fought for space with her fear and her anger. She banked a sharp-left and shot towards Winona at a rising diagonal angle, while Amy dive-bombed Winona from directly above. Winona shot forward, but Nicole slid into the turn and delivered a punch to the back of Winona’s skull. 

“GAH!” Winona cried as she rotated to face Nicole. 

Amy shifted and crashed into Winona, ramming her stomach and sending her into the water below. 

“NICE!” Nicole said, giving a big smile and a bigger thumbs-up to her… Girlfriend? Maybe? Possibly. She was certainly open to it- that kiss certainty seemed like the start of something. She felt amazing, in spite of the danger, in spite of the ever-present demons, in spite of everything that had happened and could happen. She’d been trapped, and she’d broken free; she’d seen herself, and she’d faced her and accepted her. She felt like she could do anything, felt invincible, felt-

- Like Winona was shooting a lance of blue energy at her!

Nicole summoned her shield and flew in front of Amy, while Amy weaved a wall of shadows over the water’s surface. It extended to thirty feet in the air, and ran along the coast in both directions. Amy floated next to her, heaving and sighing, sweat dripping down her face and falling into the shadows. 

“... Should I… Should we use Hellfire?” Amy asked. “Finish her off?”

A lump formed in Nicole’s throat. She wondered about that herself. The original plan had been to talk to Winona, try to get her to agree to a ceasefire, but after tonight… After the demon, and the cage, and everything she’d done to the residents of Ditko Hall, and everything happening on the shore… Nicole wasn’t sure it would work. Nicole wasn’t sure if she wanted it to work, a thought that lowered her into a mosquito-infested swamp in the bowels of her mind. “I-”

A lance of Hellfire erupted from the darkness, an obsidian arm reaching for the moon as if to pluck it from the sky and bring it crashing down upon the earth. Nicole and Amy flew out of the way, further and further in separate directions as the width and breadth of the Hellfire beam expanded and cast a sulfurous, smoky taint over the water. 

Nicole shielded herself and flew towards the shore. Best to regroup while the shadows parted. Winona shot out of the water, screaming and crying and giving chase to Nicole as the two zipped and zigged and zagged across the night sky. Nicole turned and spun- she needed to get to the shore with Amy and start doing damage control, but if she lured Winona there, she might make it worse. Winona might just start lobbing missiles left and right, destroying everything she laid eyes on. Based on the volume and coherency of the nephilim’s shrill screaming, Winona didn’t seem like she had a ton of capacity for rational thought right now. 

So play on the irrational, Nicole thought. 

She smirked, then vanished her broomstick right out from under and plummeted into the water below. The cold, dark, salty ocean opened up for her all at once, and instantly she felt at home. The skies aren’t mine, Nicole thought, Not just yet. But this… This is all me. 

Winona screamed, swinging her sword and launching a bale of Hellfire at Nicole. Nicole shielded herself, the Pink aura taking the blunt of the blow. A blue missile fired at her next, and Nicole simply ducked beneath the water’s surface and re-emerged a few feet away. They repeated this sequence again, again, again-

“What’s the matter, ‘Nona?” Nicole smiled. “Never played whack-a-mole?”

“Hold still you little shit!” Winona screamed. 

“Gosh, you really need to work on that temper of yours- you’ll break out with acne if you don’t get that stress under control!”

“HOW DARE YOU?! I’M FUCKING GORGEOUS! AND UNLIKE YOU, I ALWAYS WILL BE, YOU FREAK!” Winona bellowed, Hellfire surging on her sword and blue Angelic Energy exploding on her left hand. Nicole noted how far she kept those apart from each other- one was Angelic, the other was Demonic. Could be you couldn’t cross the streams.

Got a hypothesis, now test it, Nicole thought. 

She swam and swam and swam, diving beneath the water and letting the ocean take the brunt of the diabolical and divine onslaughts. Over and over again, until finally, Winona fired both beams at once and the two slammed into each other and exploded in the nephilim’s face. 

Winona tumbled into the water below, and Nicole summoned her broom and skimmed the ocean’s surface over to her. She rammed Winona just as she reached the surface, and vanished her broom again and pulled them both into the water. And then Nicole punched her, again and again and again. Fury, clean and cold, coalesced within her as she struck Winona’s face time and time again. 

Finally, Winona dragged her sword from beneath the water’s surface and ignited it with Hellfire. She swung it towards Nicole’s face. 

Nicole’s hands swelled with Pink Light, and she clapped her hands together and caught the sword between her palms. Nicole channeled her White and Pink Light and fought against the Hellfire blade while she and Winona both screamed and kicked and thrashed, neither letting go as they struggled to keep above the water. 

***

Amy crashed and tumbled onto the floating metal docks of Boston Harbor, rolling across the surface and heaving deep breaths. The amount of shadows, of flying, of fighting tonight was draining her, but she got up instantly and zoned in on Nicole and Winona fighting in the water. 

“She’ll never be hurt again,” Amy said under her breath. “Never again-”

“You really are determined to throw it all away for her, aren’t you?” a familiar, snide, condescending voice said behind her. 

Amy’s pulse skyrocketed and shadows gathered in her hands as she pivoted a hundred and eighty degrees and found Astra standing there holding a spear, the bladed end of which burst with black and purple flames. “Daughter.”

“Astra,” Amy gritted her teeth. 

“So you and this… what was his name again? Nicolas?” Astra asked. 

“NICOLE! HER NAME IS-”

“Yes, yes, you’re hopelessly devoted to him-”

“HER!”

“And you’ll cosign all of… Her… Nonsense forever more. How terribly, sickeningly sweet,” Astra rolled her eyes. “Satan, Sin, and Death- you’re worse than I was with your father.”

“... What the hell are you-” “What can I say, I cared for Patrick quite a bit. Do you not believe me?”

There were a million questions Amy had for this woman. But right now, with everything going on, there was only one that seemed relevant. “What are you doing here, Astra?”

“I came here to offer you a gift,” Astra said blandly. She extended the spear towards Amy.

Amy took a reflexive step back. “I don’t want anything from you!”

“Not even when it will help you win this fight? Surely you’re not that prideful.”

“I don’t care!”

“Don’t you?” Astra said, pointing over Amy’s shoulder with the spear. 

Amy turned, and saw Nicole struggling to hold back the Hellfire blade as she and Winona fought in the water. 

“Think of it in terms of math,” Astra said. “I know how much you like math-”

“I don’t. At all. It was always my worst subject growing up.”

“A positive and a negative equal a negative- hence Winona’s Angelic Energy and Hellfire exploding when they come into contact with one another. But a negative and a negative equals a positive. Therefore-”

“Two Hellfire sources cancel each other out,” Amy said. “Like I did early when I snuffed out her attack. Fine then- I can get a power-up from Nicole.”

Astra sighed, eyes narrow, spare hand on her hip, teeth grinding against each other. “Slight problem: your… Concubine is all the way over there, and all… Her… energy is going into holding back that barrage. If she gives you a ‘power-up’ as you call it, her shield will be compromised and she’ll die. But if you use this, you won’t need the power up- this is a demonic weapon. Winona can make it function, but you’re a child of Hell- you can make it work for you. Unlimited Hellfire, as much as you want, and able to cancel out Winona’s attack.”

Amy’s eyes narrowed, and her fists tightened. “Why are you doing this? Trying to get me on your side!? I’m not gonna help you take over Hell- your vision for it, for me, is sick and twisted-”

“This has nothing to do with that, you idiot!” Astra barked. “This is a gift. For my daughter. You were right before- I have had other children. But none of them are around anymore. You’re my first child in hundreds of years. I’d like you to survive.”

“Even if I accept this, it doesn’t change anything between us!” Amy said. 

“I know,” Astra said softly, a gentle smile on her face. “You’ve made your choice. And I may not like that or respect that, or you, but as your mother I do have to accept it. And you. I think you’ll come over to my side in time, on your own. But I won’t force you to do anything. Take this. Think of it as… What was it you said before? Ah yes: child support.”

Amy stared at Astra, at the black plume burning at the end of the spear. She looked back to Nicole in the water, struggling more and more, the blazing edge of Winona’s sword inching closer and closer. 

Amy reached out for the spear. 

***

The horrible heat began to touch the skin of Nicole’s face as her shield slowly started flickering and the sword began to lower. Winona smiled rapturously, licking her lips and cackling. 

Nicole screamed. 

Winona screamed back. 

And then the fire died. It fled from the blade, and flew through the air until it gathered in the blade of a spear held in Amy’s hands as she charged towards them atop her broomstick. 

“What the Blue Blazes?” Nicole said. 

“Astra,” Winona grinded her teeth. 

Amy closed the gap and swung the staff of the spear into Winona’s jaw, knocking her below the water. Amy extended her hand, and Nicole grabbed it and was pulled from the water. On instinct, Nicole let her soul sing and summoned her broom, and she and Amy faced Winona together as she bobbed in the water. 

Winona ignited her Hellfire sword again, but Amy drained it all away and collected the Hellfire in her own weapon. Then the fire died, and all that remained was a normal spear and a normal sword. 

“Where did you get that?” Nicole asked, wide-eyed.

“Family heirloom,” Amy said. 

“Fucking succubi whores,” Winona grumbled. 

“Don’t talk to her that way!” Nicole snapped. Then, she looked back to Amy and said, “Though I’ll admit that spear is giving me a few ideas- do you have anything like that at home?”

Both Winona and Amy’s jaws dropped, faces turning red.

“What?” Nicole asked. “I don’t mean in terms of size….” She trailed off as she realized what she was saying, and went wide-eyed herself. What the heck- sure, she thought things like that now, had ever since she’d hatched and her sexuality had seemingly flipped on like a light switch, but she didn’t say them out loud. What had gotten into her-

Amy poked her with a glowing finger. 

“What was that for?” Nicole asked. 

“Just making sure you’re not still possessed,” Amy said, still recovering from the image Nicole had evidently planted in her mind. 

“Does that count as fingering?” Nicole asked, then gulped. Oh Blue Blazes- this was what the demon meant about meeting myself, about letting my true self out of the box, isn’t it?

“I was gonna say that,” Winona mumbled. “Whatever. I don’t care. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

Winona readied a blast of Angelic Energy in her palm. 

Amy channeled a bale of Hellfire into her spear. 

Nicole flew prepped a shield and floated in front of Amy as her girlfriend (?(hopefully)) balanced the spear on her shoulder and extended the pyre in front of her. 

And then a light show exploded in the sky above, golden with streaks of purple. As it faded, a single flier on a broomstick loomed in the skyline above the city. And even from this distance, Nicole could see she was holding something. 

Something that looked like a goat’s skull. 

“Well would you look at that?” Winona said. 

She snapped her fingers, and a pulse of Heavenly Energy shook the air. Amy fired a bolt of Hellfire, and Nicole shielded them both. 

` The dust settled, and Winona flew through the sky towards the skull. 

Nicole turned and shot after Winona, Amy managing to keep pace with her. 

In spite of the situation, in spite of everything, Nicole turned to Amy as they flew and said, “But seriously, have you got something like that at home?”

Amy giggled nervously. “Down, girl. Let’s get through this first.”

“Heh. Right,” Nicole chuckled. Something about that, about her own laughter at that moment, gave her pause. Later, she thought. Right now, focus on saving the day. Pink rocket time, pink rocket time, pink rocket time!

They caught up, floating behind Winona as she levitated before Debbi and Heather. Debbi held the goat’s skull in her left hand, while her right throbbed with Holy Light. Nicole put a hand in front of Amy- Winona hadn’t yet registered they were there. Best to keep the element of surprise.

“Howdy,” Debbi said, her smirk so smug it made Winona look downright humble. 

“Oh great, the little sister and her meathead girlfriend showed up for the party,” Winona said. 

“Here’s the deal,” Debbi said. 

“No deal,” Winona said. “I’m not dealing with some no-name lackey-”

“Excuse you? Lackey? Bitch, you’re talking to the duly appointed leader of the Magical Girl Exorcist Squad! The name’s Debbi Donahue- try to get it right!”

Nicole furrowed her brow in confusion- she was under the impression Debbi didn’t wanna be in charge. Guess she’d had a change of heart. Good for her!

Amy gave her sister the thumbs’ up, while Debbi and Heather tried to not register her and Nicole’s presence. 

“Fine then, oh great and venerable leader of the magical girls,” Winona rolled her eyes. “What is this deal of which you speak that I will most likely reject out of hand?”

“We know you need this,” Debbi said, extending the goat’s skull. “So you can resurrect dear old dad. You want it, call off your pigs. This thing’s been gathering Soul Energy all night, surely it’s got enough by now. Especially after we killed the Sin-Eater and Aidan.”

Winona said, “WHAT?!”

“You heard me,” Debbi said. 

Nicole gulped silently. That had to be a lie- they wouldn’t have… No, no they wouldn’t have done that. Not to a comatose person at least- the Sin-Eater was another story. 

“I don’t believe you,” Winona said, wings fluttering. 

“Believe what you want- you’re all alone now,” Debbi said. “You want any of them back, least of all your father, you need this. And given that this is Diabolical Power, I wonder what would happen if I exposed it to some good ol’ fashioned Holy Light….”

Debbi’s glowing hand inched closer to the skull. 

Winona channeled and aimed a blast of Angelic Energy. 

Amy whispered to Nicole, “Give Debbi a boost! Now!”

Nicole nodded and lobbed a ball of Pink Light at Debbi, who in turn shot off a blast of Purple Light… No, no Energy. That was what Debbi had- Angelic Energy, or something like it. It collided with Winona’s blast and nullified it wholesale, leaving only a dull ringing sound in its place. 

Winona spun around, finally registering Nicole and Amy’s presence. Nicole waved, and Amy gave her the middle finger. 

“You bitches,” Winona started, only for Heather to slam into her as Nicole lobbed another ball of Pink Energy at her. 

Winona went flying to the city below and left a crater in the ground. 

Nicole and the others flew down to meet her, and found Cass and Matt on the ground. Cass held her palms over Winona’s crater, and Winona gritted her teeth as she struggled to break free. Matt… Matt had armor. And a glowing chainsaw. Good for him!

“Nice work, team,” Debbi said. 

“Nice plan, Captain,” Heather side-eyed her girlfriend. 

“Oh, stop,” Debbi said. She held the skull over Winona and reached for it with her hand, while chaos sang throughout the city and fires burned and cars tipped over. “Now make your choice, you fucking asshole, or I’ll make it for you.”

“... No deal,” Winona growled. “I can always start over. Never too late.”

“Fine then. Have it your way.” 

Debbi tossed the skull over to Matt, who revved his glowing chainsaw and swung it into the skull. It ripped to shreds, and the swaths of resonant shadows housed within flickered and died. 

A cold wind rushed out and gripped the city, and Winona screamed. 

Cass cried out as her nose bled and she was knocked back ten yards, and Winona rose from her crater as a column of blue light shot into the sky. She rose, and when she did, she was a mass of swirling clockwork cogs and gears dotted with furious eyes, surrounded by a dozen angel’s wings and illuminated by a severe blue halo. She rose into the sky, screaming, baying for blood. The Lady of the Legion had shown her teeth. 

All around them, the Legion gathered in a circle, monsters infesting objects and humans alike. They began to close in.

“What do we do now, fearless leader?” Cass said, gathering herself from the ground. 

“I’ll admit, I really expected her to take the deal,” Debbi said. “I’m taking suggestions from the team.”

“I’ve got one,” Nicole said, “But it’s not an idea or a plan so much as a concept.”

“I’m listening,” Debbi said. 

“Leeroy Jenkins maneuver,” Nicole grinned. 

Debbi laughed. “You think that’ll work?”

“All of us together? I think we’re not getting a better shot than we are now.”

“I second Nicole’s plan,” Amy said. 

“Shocker,” Cass monotoned.

“I also vote for Ms. Nygaard’s plan,” Matt said. 

“Seriously, she’s a year older than us,” Cass said. “I’m in too, though.”

“Well that’s that, then,” Debbi said. “Majority rules. LET’S FUCK ‘EM UP!”

And so, the six of them dove into the fray once more as the Devil’s Eve wore on. 

***

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[angelholme]

V, V, V — Day 18 : Smile

Let a smile be your umbrella………

What an utterly ridiculous sentiment.

I mean — if you think about it for a moment, you will realise just how idiotic a phrase it actually is.

Have you thought about it?

Now picture someone smiling. The end of their lips are turned up, and their mouth is formed into a bowl type shape — a “U” shape for the most part, even if it is a shallow “U” as opposed to quite a steep one.

So now that you have that image in your head, try picturing that on the end of a stick — as if you are using that as an umbrella.

Stood out in the rain, water pouring down, swirling all around, and all you have is an inverted “U” shape on a stick.

I mean — what use is that? How is that a good umbrella? Will it protect you from the rain? No. Will it stop you getting wet? No. Will it do anything other than make you look a total prat? No.

So when someone (Bing Crosby, Perry Como, a few others) tells you to “Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella” you should tell them not to be so bloody stupid.

(Actually if you try to tell Bing Crosby or Perry Como that you’ll have problems, but you take my point).

I know what you’re going to say — that sometimes song lyrics are not supposed to be taken literally.

That if it were “raining men” then it would probably be a very bad thing — I don’t know if you’ve actually thought about it, but being hit by a full grown man, falling at terminal velocity would probably kill you, and even if it didn’t it would cause multiple injuries that would cripple you for life.

That if you were “a baby on the tree top” then your parents would probably get arrested for child endangerment, and “when the wind blows” you would almost certainly fall and die.

That if you baked twenty four blackbirds in a pie……… lets not even go there, because the mind boggles.

However all of these pale in comparison to a song called “You Can’t Get To Heaven” because I have always found this to be not only misleading but also a sort of ideological indoctrination. Which, as you can imagine, is not something I am a fan of.

“You can’t get to heaven in a limousine, because The Lord don’t sell no gasoline”

Setting aside the double negative (which suggests that The Lord does, in fact, sell gasoline) why would you need The Lord to sell petrol to get to heaven?

If you are going to drive somewhere — Manchester, London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, the local shops — you need to put petrol in your car before you set off.

If your car has no petrol in it, then you aren’t going to get anywhere. And — conversely — you only need the place you are going to sell petrol if you are coming back.

So you would only need The Lord to “sell gasoline” if you were planning on coming back from heaven. And while I admit my theological knowledge is not as complete as it might be, I am generally under the impression that most people don’t want to return from heaven.

Which means that you can get to heaven in a limousine providing you can find a petrol station before you set off.

“You can’t get to heaven on roller skates, you’ll roll right by the pearly gates”

I’ll set aside the fact you might not be able to roller skate on clouds — the song kind of implies that that is possible. Plus it is heaven, so all things are possible. And if you can drive a car there, you can probably roller skate there.

But I am pretty sure almost everyone who has been on roller skates at least once in their life has fallen over at least once in their life. I cannot believe that there is a person in the world who has strapped on their first pair of skates and skated off into the sunset and never fallen over.

So if you can fall over by accident, then I am pretty sure you can fall over on purpose. You can glide by The Pearly Gates and fall on your arse, coming to a sudden and abrupt halt.

Then — like the baby you once were, you can crawl over, and look up at St Peter and go “Dude! Waaaaaaaaaassssssssssssup?”

“You can’t get to heaven in a rocking chair, a rocking chair won’t get you there”

It will if you have a heart attack. Or a stroke. Or a full grown man falls out of the sky and lands on you because “it’s raining men”. Or if someone sets fire to the rocking chair while you are sat in it.

Okay — I admit that’s a bit of a stretch.

Now you are probably wondering what all this was in aid of. Because I appear to have gone on off on quite a tangent and a bit of a rant about something that is more than a little ridiculous.

Well — people sometimes take things literally when they are only supposed to be metaphors, or symbolism, or sarcasm. They don’t recognise that something is supposed to be an analogy, or a metaphor, or a joke.

Which is unfortunate for people like me, because I tend to use metaphor, analogy, simile and especially sarcasm quite a lot — and it gets me in to trouble more than you can imagine.

But also unfortunate for the people in question, because they miss so much in life.