#beautiful ohio creatures
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Lyric change....
You know I keep that candy, yeah
I need more like Mandy, yeah
eat you up like addies, yeah
and you can call me Daddy, yeah
#mkg#machine gun kelly#candy#that smile though 🥰#beautiful ohio creatures#music is medicine#music is my drug#music is therapy#on my playlist#music#lyrics i love
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*Please* tell me what don't starve is about I wasn't even aware it had characters
OH GOOD I GET TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU. YOU WILL REGRET THIS
let me be clear upfront: i don't know everything. i'm just neurodivergent as fuck please correct me on any misinformation. And any DST fans in the tag right now, hi prepare to see me infodump about Don't Starve lore and I am so sorry this is so long
So lemme start at the very beginning. The year? 1901. The man? William Carter. Moving from Liverpool (becuase of course there's a british man named william in an indie game who does crimes against nature) to New York City. He's doing magician shows and he just he sucks so bad at it. No one visits his magic shows. He's in literal debt. He gets no wins. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone etc etc
Anyway in 1904 Willy Boy tries to go to Cali gets in a train accident and dies. WHOOPS the end
Okay that's a lie. He did not in fact die unfortunately (/j). However, he did get in a train crash and was pinned under a train car, but was saved in part by a strongman named Wolfgang, who really desperately wants to be the strongest he can be (he'd recently had an embarrassing failure at the circus).
But, well... I say "in part." For there's more to how Wolfgang saved him.
See, somewhere around this time, William had found a book. The Codex Umbra. This book was filled with secrets about a land known as The Constant. And more than that, it allowed William to use magic. Not the cheap magic tricks he'd been doing up to this point, the ones that'd given him nothing. Real, actual, tangible magic. Summoning shadows creatures from this mystical realm, ones that would linger for a moment before vanishing.
This was power. True, actual power. And to a man as rejected as William had been by the world, a man as desperate for fame, attention, power... well, who wouldn't be bitter? Spiteful? Who wouldn't be tempted by the allure of unfathomable knowledge?
Of unknowable, uncontrollable power?
What'd happened during the train accident was William had briefly imbued Wolfgang with strength from dark magic, allowing him to throw the train car off of him. William had fled with the Codex Umbra shortly afterwards, and was presumed dead. However, he wrote a letter to his brother, Jack Carter, basically saying "Hey, I'm alive, I found this weird book, I'll cya soon."
(Side note, Jack Carter has two daughters, Wendy and Abigail Carter. We'll revisit them soon.)
William continued deciphering the Codex Umbra, learning more shadow magic. And in San Francisco, he reentered showbiz, reinventing himself into someone new. A new act, and a new name. The Amazing Maxwell.
This time, his shows were appreciated. Adored. His magic acts were magnetic, and horrifying, and beautiful. After all that failure, he had finally managed to get something for himself.
(additional note: maxwell really likes referring to people as "pal." this will be important remember this)
Around this time, he put out an ad to hire a lady assistant for his magician shows, wanting someone with "a curious demeanor and a keen interest in the mysteries of the universe."
And he got her.
Let us snap our attention now to two sisters in the dreadful state of Ohio- Winona and Charlie. Winona was, to at least my knowledge, a fairly tough little girl who was always a bit boyish (take with a grain of salt i'm a bit silly). She loved tinkering from a young age, and she loved her little sister intensely- maybe too intensely.
There's a thing in the game I'll go into more later that shows Charlie's perspective on everything, and from it we can glean that Charlie felt like Winona was, to use a metaphor Charlie uses herself, putting Charlie into an unbreakable suit of armor so heavy she was unable to move. Overprotective to a suffocating degree.
We're not completely certain on that, but it's quite likely and incredibly interesting.
And Charlie... we know painfully little about her. Most likely she fit the description Maxwell wanted. She'd go camping with her sister. She may have been annoying, as a lotta little siblings are. She had a flair for the dramatic. There's a line implying she used to playfight with Winona. And Charlie loved roses.
Charlie was scared of the dark.
So Charlie became Maxwell's assistant. And they were more than coworkers, they were also good friends. They'd hang out and laugh together. Charlie at least may have had a crush on Maxwell, as in her letter to him she writes a heart after her name, and she always calls him "Maxy." Maxwell cared a lot about Charlie- I don't personally see it as romantic on his end, due to my epic aroace swag and belief in the importance of deep platonic bonds, but he did care for her, deeply. They had a sweet friendship, both caring about each other intensely.
But of course, it couldn't last. It never could.
It's 1906 and Maxwell's doing fantastic mentally. Just kidding he's losing his fucking mind
Maxwell was losing control. The Codex Umbra was driving him insane, little by little. He was losing control over the book, over the powers of the Constant. It was growing too powerful, too angry. He was taking too much from it, and it wanted something back. He started pulling away from Charlie, growing snippier with her. And fucking understandably, she was concerned.
One night, after she hadn't seen him in days, she visited his apartment to get his costume for their last performance. He wasn't there at the time. So she investigated, desperate for an answer as to why her friend was drawing away from her.
She discovered a secret room in Maxwell's apartment- the room in the image above. With all those scrawls. And... we think she discovered something else.
I personally think she discovered Them.
I'll explain Them later.
She was terrified, and fled the apartment. Maxwell later discovered she'd been there, and was clearly fucked up over it. Evidently, he didn't want Charlie to discover all this.
She left him a letter, basically begging him to communicate with her. Saying they could take a break after their final show, her older sister had a cabin they could go to if they wanted to get away. Charlie wanted answers, and she wanted them to take a break.
They never got that, though.
April 17th. 1906. The Amazing Maxwell had his final show.
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Maxwell's final act was meant to be pulling shadows out of the Codex Umbra. It was meant to be simple. A last trick before they take a break. Neither of them expected it to go this horribly wrong. I don't see how either of them could have. Especially not her.
Maxwell reached into the book. Something reached back. They reached back.
They tried to grab him, tried to drag him into the Codex Umbra. He fought back though, for a moment, clearly weakened by it. Charlie tried to help him, to ask if he was okay, not understanding what was going on, desperate to help, to know how she could help.
She couldn't.
Shadowy hands erupted from the book, grabbing them, pulling them in, and Charlie and Maxwell were gone.
Let's snap our focus away for a while. We're remaining in the real world for now. Don't worry, we'll come back to them.
In due time.
Let me introduce to you a hugely important player to the plot, Robert Wagstaff. Now he's frustrating, because we (or at least I) know very little about Robert Wagstaff. He was studying the Constant, he founded Voxola and created these radios that Maxwell later communicates through (i'll explain later), he bears a suspicious resemblance to Wilson, he may have met Maxwell at some point, and he may have intentionally sent himself to the Constant to investigate it. He's currently a hologram and may be SOMEWHERE. God knows where.
Anyway forget about him because it's time for MY FAVORITE NONBINARY ROBOT WITH REPRESSED TRAUMA AND EVIL PLANS
Meet WX-78, an automaton with a fairly vague backstory who I love so so dearly. They're evil. They're canonically nonbinary (Maxwell even refers to them as "Mx" which makes me very joyful). They lack empathy. They love bees. They love the moon. And somewhere in like the very early 20th century they became a robot and chose NONBINARY VIOLENCE
What exactly happened to WX is left vague, but here's what I believe happened. WX and Wagstaff were working on a consciousness transference experiment, which turned out to be successful. WX transferred their consciousness into a robotic body. Yaaaaaaay :D
Well hold your horses there, not "yay" yet. Because it turns out transferring your whole mind into a robotic body has negative side effects. Namely, the way WX sees themself has become... fractured. Sometimes they see themself as who they were before, their human self, but sometimes they see themself as what they are now, their robotic form. A comment under the short described it as their entire body being basically a phantom limb.
WX started wanting to create more automatons, possibly roboticize humanity, but without the heart (it's called an empathy module in canon but i'm calling it a heart because it's designed with a heart on it, and it hits harder if i call it that). The heart, where WX's memories as a human reside, where hypothetically their emotions are. Take that out, there's no pain related to once being one, right?
Wagstaff was completely against this. Consciousness transference for a single scientist is one thing, but this? To roboticize everyone in the world and take out their heart, their memories, their humanity? Absolutely not. It'd be too dangerous. Leaving humanity as cold intellectual machines would destroy everything, removing a beautiful piece of humankind. He and WX had a fight over this, and Wagstaff ended up burning all of WX's research and sending them into the Constant.
Somehow after that, WX's heart module was disconnected, and the memories were gone. They became a spectacular evil little gremlin of a thing and I love them so much
This whole explanation comes from this excellent comment under the short:
I usually resent these sorts of "explanation comments," since they try to intellectualize horror, but this one doesn't it centers it all on the EMOTIONS and also is correct
And by the way, the short where this is revealed is SO UNBELIEVABLY DISTRESSING TO WATCH (POSITIVE). See, Winona repairs the wiring to WX's heart module, causing WX to suddenly remember everything, having flashbacks to what all happened, and it's horrifying. WX flashing between who they were as a human and who they are now, the snippets of whatever happened, the vagueness, the BANGER MUSIC, it's all so hard to watch, and yet so hard to look away.
And at the end of it, after remembering Wagstaff sending them into the Constant, WX lets out this agonized wail and RIPS OUT THEIR FUCKING HEART, before they just SHATTER IT IN THEIR HANDS. They fucking HATED remembering what happened, hated it so much that they RIPPED THEIR HEART OUT AND BROKE IT so they could STOP FEELING. Whatever exactly happened HURT and they didn't want to FEEL.
And evidently, IT DIDN'T WORK. Wagstaff appears as an NPC later in Don't Starve Together, and every single quote WX has related to him is full of this raw, painful, intense rage. It's genuinely heartbreaking.
WX fucking DESPISES Wagstaff for what he did to them. For sending them to the Constant. And like- they say a LOT they have no emotions. But very clearly, THAT IS A LIE. IT'S FUCKED UP. IT'S HORRIFYING.
It's the opposite of so many robot emotion narratives- a robot who wants to feel real emotions, who wants to be human. But with WX, that is the last thing they want. They're illustrated to have at least had distaste for organic life before their roboticization, they don't want to be human. And very obviously, they don't want to feel real emotions. They don't want emotions.
They hate being human so much, they hate the connection to human pain so much, they hate their memories of being human so fucking much, that they rip out their FUCKING HEART and SHATTER IT just so they can shut off the painful emotions of their repressed memories. They don't want to be human, they want to be a cold unfeeling machine, but they clearly can't be that even though they're trying because despite everything there's a part of them that's clearly human and just- JUST WATCH THIS SHORT IT'S SO HORRIFIC
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GOD I LOVE EVIL NONBINARY AUTISTIC ROBOTS WITH REPRESSED TRAUMA
Aside from that horrorshow of a backstory WX is very silly. They love bees and the moon. They hate humanity and all organic life. They say shit like "NOW THE OUTSIDE MATCHES THE INSIDE. EVIL" and "[name] IS CAUSING NEEDLESS DESTRUCTION. GOOD." I love them so much I can't believe I just slept on how funny they are when I was a young lad hyperfixated on DST
Okay let's go down the list of characters. Remember I mentioned Jack Carter has two daughters, Wendy and Abigail? Let's focus on them.
Wendy was more cautious than Abby was, preferring to live in the world of books and fantasies. Meanwhile Abigail was an adventurer, loving to spend her days climbing rocks and jumping around. Despite their differences, the twins were inseparable. The best of friends, with a love so strong it could transcend death.
And it did.
We're not quite sure how it happened. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that somehow, one day, Abigail died. And this death absolutely shattered Wendy. She became morbidly depressed, obsessed with death and tragedy. She refused to move on from her sister, believing if she did, her memory would fade. (There's specifically a few lines that really fuck me up /pos but it may be triggering so i won't bring em up.)
Wendy turned to the occult to try and get Abigail back. To try and at least talk to her. She tried everything to communicate with her again, and nothing was working. And she was just about to throw in the towel, to give up, to accept that maybe she would never see her beloved sister again, to fall into complete, total despair, when...
A ragtime tune started playing, and a voice on the radio began to talk to her.
Meanwhile let's snap our attention to WILLOWWWWW WILLOWWWWWWWW MY GIRL MY BELOVED I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE"S INSANE AND I LOVE HER
Willow had a rather difficult life. Her parents either died or left when she was incredibly young, and she was left in a cruel orphanage with caregivers who hated and mistreated her. And understandably, this took a toll on her mental state, and this attracted shadow creatures.
What exactly shadow creatures are is unknown- they're what Maxwell was pulling out of the book and using for his magic tricks, and they appear in game when your sanity is low, so my personal hypothesis is that shadow creatures are drawn to misery, insanity, or in Wanda's case, Women's Wrongs. also misuse of magic
Anyway, when Willow was a little girl, shadow creatures fucking wanted to kill her, drawn to her declining mental state. Willow took comfort in her teddy bear Bernie, the only thing that seemed to drive the shadows away. But one night, after being nearly killed by one of those things, her caregivers, upset at her being awake in the middle of the night, confiscated Bernie and locked Willow in a closet.
And while she was trapped in there, shadow creatures approached again, with the intent to kill her. Willow was backed into a corner, about to die, with no defenses...
Except for a lighter.
That night, Willow burnt down the entire orphanage, managing to save herself, and left with just her lighter and her Bernie.
This moment defined every fibre of her being. From that day on, Willow became completely obsessed with fire. Flames became calming for her, letting her breathe and relax. She's burnt her life down to begin again more than once, like a phoenix with more collateral damage. Fire protects her from the monsters in the dark, lets her stay sane. And- there's this one line from her that implies she's embraced a type of nihilism.
"Why worry about the past or future? It'll all go up in flames eventually."
That quote's actually really interesting to me you could use this for a character arc about her learning to embrace one place/one group as home and her accepting that unfortunately the survivors are her found family and she loves them and- GOD I love her so much she's a menace
Alright, who's next? Ah yes, Wigfrid. This one's really tragic.
Wigfrid was an actress whose debut role was as a noble badass Valkyrie warrior, slaying monstrous beings, being a true hero. And she embodied the role, capturing the public, being launched to stardom with just that.
But after that? Nothing she did seemed to capture anyone like the Valkyrie had. Every performance she had after that fell flat. She was completely rejected by the public.
(this could be a maxwell parallel oh my god)
And so, she retreated into that role- the role of the Valkyrie. She fled into fantasies of being her, taking comfort in them. It consumed her life, her very being. Whoever she was before was destroyed, completely lost. She would give anything to be the Valkyrie Wigfrid again.
And one night, a shadowy figure told her she could get to be that role. Forever. Her name in the newspapers again. Everything she'd ever wanted.
"What do you say, pal?"
...A few weeks later, she was in the newspapers as the latest in a string of disappearances.
Who next? Ah yes- Webber. THIS ONE FUCKS ME UP.
So when Webber was a little lad, his father, a scientist, received a gift from Wagstaff, something for his experiments. And whatever it was, Webber's dad was incredibly fascinated with experimenting on it.
But as a result, he sorta started... neglecting Webber. Webber wanted his dad's attention, wanted his dad to spend time with him and play with him, but his dad just... wouldn't. He was completely absorbed in his work.
Over time, Webber became furious that his dad was ignoring him. He started acting out, trying to get his father's attention in any way he could.
And one night, Webber broke into his dad's workshop, again trying to act out for his dad's attention. And when there, he tipped over the glass case holding whatever his father was experimenting on, shattering it on the ground.
But as it turned out, this thing was a spider- a massive one too, one from the Constant. And it was radiating with dark energy from its experiments, and it lunged at Webber to eat him.
But he survived.
Instead of being devoured by the spider, Webber was fused to it. Its consciousness may be in there somewhere (#system), but Webber's definitely is. But he's been turned into a humanoid spider thing.
This is the most fucked part to me. When his dad saw him, he didn't recognize him as his son. Why would he? As far as he knew, the spider had mutated. So his dad fucking chased his own son out into the night, under the assumption that he was a monster.
In the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, Webber (who btw is like ten) broke down sobbing, promised he'd be a good kid, and desperately wanted something to fix it, no matter the price.
That was when the shadowy figure started talking to him.
ANYWAY TIME FOR WOMEN'S WRONGS WITH WANDA
Wanda is an INCREDIBLY interesting character to me. Her whole conflict is basically- do you ever think about the fact that everyone is going to die one day? That no matter what we do, the passage of time will storm on, and eventually everyone you know and everyone you love will just die? That even if you don't get killed in an accident or by medical problems or through society's neglect, your body will eventually fail and crumble away? That time will eventually claim you, as it claims everyone, and you can do nothing to prevent it? That everyone and everything is already running out of time?
Sorry for giving you that existential crisis! Because Wanda's CONSTANTLY going through that. She's been running from her future for god knows how long, creating timepieces to make herself younger and prevent herself from dying of old age, and doing. Legitimate time travel!! Good for her!!
However, this doesn't come without a price. See, we've learned from Maxwell that toying with dark magic will get the Shadow Creatures hunting your gay ass down. And with how much Wanda fucks with time, she is CONSTANTLY being hunted by shadow creatures that want to kill her and take her away, to the point that her death animation has her body be pulled into the ground by shadow hands.
And one day, she was cornered. One of her timepieces was broken, the others recharging, she couldn't get away. And so she made a split second decision, trying to on the fly repair it, and what did this result in?
SHE BROKE THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM AND WAS SUCKED IN TO THE CONSTANT
(and the music in her short at that moment gives me chills don't starve together's music is so banging)
Wanda is a rare case of someone being sucked into the Constant not through someone/something tricking her or dragging her in, but through her own actions. From what we know, only one other person has done that. And he did it intentionally. But Wanda did it by complete mistake.
And her mistake resulted in her past starting to "catch up to her." Thanks to her time fuckery, she now ages twelve years every single day, and has to constantly fuck with time and deage herself in order to stay alive. She's spent years most likely terrified of the idea of aging and dying, and now she's been cursed with aging at a horrifically fast rate. It's incredibly interesting. God I love her so much she can do anything she could commit war crimes and I'd support her. Wanda Did Nothing Wrong
WANDA ALSO HAPPENS TO BE REALLY REALLY HOT LIKE UNBELIEVABLY GORGEOUS
HNHGNHBHGHBGHHHH PLEASE GOD JUST GIVE ME ONE CHANCE I WOULD TREAT HER RIGHT
Anyway who's next to talk about? Ah yes IT'S WORTOX TIME
Note, I'm gonna kinda start going through these faster because I'm close to the image limit and wanna tell you everything
Wortox is actually FROM the Constant. He's basically a little imp man who was best friends with. uhm. Krampus. And they'd go around playing silly pranks together! However eventually, Wortox started to realize that. Hm. Krampus's pranks are actually kinda mean. Like genuinely malicious at times. And Wortox really didn't wanna be mean, didn't wanna hurt anyone. He just wants to be silly and goofy. The prank's no fun if it actually hurts someone. So he tried to put his foot down and stop Krampus, but ended up whoopsiedaisy taking his soul and fully becoming an imp. And now he eats souls and is still silly but has just. Guilt. So much guilt.
Next up: WURT! Wurt, too, is from the Constant, and SHE'S JUST A LITTLE BABYYYYYY. SHE'S ADORABLE. I LOVE HER. She's a little Merm (fishy creature from the constant) and is pretty small and scrappy, and she hates pigs, and is vegetarian, and loves the swamp, and loves candy, and loves fairy tales, and wants to be a Merm princess. I love her she's adorable my beloved little guye
And now, WORMWOOD! Wormwood is basically a piece of rock fell down from the moon and gave a bundle of plants and vines life and he's the cutest little plant ever. He's ADORABLE. I LOVE him.
That's everyone FROM the Constant. Now let's speedrun through those who aren't from the Constant!
WICKERBOTTOM: To be completely honest she doesn't interest me that much lol. She's basically a librarian with a lotta knowledge, including knowledge of the CONSTANT, which she REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE. Anyway Willow burned down her library at the request of the Nightmare King and Wickerbottom got pulled into the Constant. By the Nightmare King
WOLFGANG: Brought him up earlier- we're not sure how exactly he got into the Constant, but he's just. He is a himbo. The quintessential himbo. He's a silly man. He loves his friends so much. He has the brawn, but no brains. No thoughts. Head empty. Pure of heart, dumb of ass. I love him.
WARLY: ohhh boy more tragedy. Cw for this point: dementia. yeah. Warly's mom had dementia, and she didn't recognize him most days. So he'd play her favorite music and cook her favorite foods in hopes that she'd recognize him. And she did, occasionally. But only occasionally. And he was so desperate for her to just know him, to remember him, to get that spark of recognition in her eyes... And around that time, he started to hear the voice on the radio.
WALTER: BABYYYY HE'S JUST A BABY HE'S JUST A LITTLE GUY AND HE HAS A DOGGY AND A SLINGSHOT AND IS ALLERGIC TO BEES AND DOESN'T CARE ABOUT FASHION AND I LOVE HIM SO SO MUCH
WOODIE: Woodie is an enigma. He's Canadian. He has a curse. He turns into a goose sometimes. He was forced to eat logs when he was 32. His beard might not be hair. He's canon objectum and is in a loving and healthy relationship with his axe Lucy. I love him.
here is him and lucy he goes with stanley and the bucket for number one objectum couples
If you're noticing a theme with the names: Congratulations! We've noticed it too. We have no fucking idea what it means either. Charlie's last name might start with W. Maxwell's name starts with M (upside down W) and his previous name was William. If you have a name that starts with W in the DST world you're completely fucked lmao
Anyway thatsss everyone! So I think we can move on and cover the plot! I mean, surely there's not someone I'm leaving out. Surely I have covered everyone. Surely I've talked about everyone. Surely we can move on and have full context. Surely this is not an overly long gag in order to make the inevitable person I'm leaving out's reveal hit harder.
Yyyyeah let's talk about Winona.
On April 17th, 1906, Winona's little sister Charlie vanished off the face of the planet, along with the man she was working with, the mysterious Maxwell. And Winona is three things: stubborn, determined, and willing to do anything for her family.
And so she searched for her. She refused to let Charlie's mysterious disappearance fade into obscurity, to let Charlie just vanish without a trace. She searched everywhere for her. She pulled on every thread. Tracked down every tiny clue. Questioned anyone who may have the smallest connection to the case.
For over ten years.
Finally, it started coming together. Everything was pointing to Voxola and its secretive, genius founder, Robert Wagstaff. If anyone would know anything about whatever had happened to her sister, it'd be him. So she started working there.
But not for long. Fairly soon after she did, an accident happened at the factory- a fire breaking out, and a malfunctioning portal. Wagstaff vanished that day, vanished into the Constant.
Winona refused to let him. She had searched for over a fuckin' decade for someone who could have a connection to Charlie's disappearance, and her biggest lead was right there, and she was not gonna let him just vanish like that. So armed with duct tape and her knowledge of engineering, she singlehandedly managed to repair the portal, turning it on, and-
...Whose face would appear but her beloved sister's?
Barely aged a day. Drenched in shadows. A rose in her curls.
She was disappearing into the portal, but Winona grabbed her hand, started trying to pull her back, trying to save her. She had been searching for over ten fucking years for her baby sister, and she wouldn't let her go now, refused to let her go.
But... Charlie was different. Horrifically different. And something took over her. Something with ink-black eyes and hair that moved like a shadowy flame. The monster of the night.
She pulled Winona into the Constant. The portal fell apart. Winona was presumed dead.
...
And now. I will answer a question you must've had for a while.
What the hell happened to Charlie and Maxwell?
In 1906, they were pulled into the Constant by the Codex Umbra. And Maxwell was placed on The Nightmare Throne, and given full power over the Constant. He became the Nightmare King, all-powerful ruler, chess master of the world.
Whether he wanted it or not.
Once he was sat on the Nightmare Throne, he was trapped. He couldn't get up, couldn't move from the throne, couldn't move to turn off the gramophone sitting so close to him.
He was simply sitting on the throne. Unable to be free. For eternity.
In his final speech in Adventure Mode, Maxwell says there was barely anything there when he arrived. "Just dust. And the void. And Them."
What exactly "Them" is is unknown. My personal theory, given a play telling the story from Charlie's perspective, is that "Them" is the power of the Constant. And Maxwell constantly using that power for himself angered Them. So They pulled him in, and imprisoned him on the throne. He took from Them. And in return, They now trap him.
From there, the throne- or maybe Them, or maybe the Constant itself- compelled Maxwell to pull more people into the Constant. Trap them, use them as playthings, force them to go through the wringer of everything the Constant had to offer, and eventually watch them break under its barrage of dangers and finally die.
That's what happened to everyone. How they got into the Constant. Maxwell's strategy was to communicate with someone in the real world, usually through a Voxola radio, and make a deal with them so they are dragged in. Usually they're at a low point in their life and desperate for a solution to their issues, and he gives them that.
(Interestingly, he does follow through with his promises. Just neglects to mention the whole getting-dragged-into-Constant part.)
And everyone he drags in serves their purpose, they all serve as fun playthings for a while, providing him some level of entertainment.
But he's not happy. How can he be? He's trapped in an eternal game that he cannot end. Bound by its rules that he can't bend or break. He's tried everything. Nothing has ever worked. He's trapped, for eternity. In his own words, "Even a King is bound to the board."
The Constant demands a ruler.
And he serves that role. He must drag more people into this world's trap, let it spiral in on itself forever and ever. He can't put the game to an end. He can't get off the Nightmare Throne. He can't even turn off the gramophone right next to him.
All Maxwell can do is sit on his throne, and observe whatever survivors remain, and listen to that little ragtime ditty. Forever, and ever, and ever.
And Charlie...
God. Charlie.
One heartbreaking thing about what happened to Charlie is that we still don't know exactly how it happened. With Maxwell, we can make a very strong guess- he was stuck on the Nightmare Throne, and became king of the Constant, and dragged people down with him from the real world.
But with Charlie... we know how her fate ended up. We know what she became after that. But we don't know how she went from the sweet young woman she was to... to that.
From how she tells it (in her biased view, but it's all we've got), after being dragged into the Constant, she was either grievously injured or straight-up died. But she was brought back by Them. Back to life, but not as herself.
There was something new inside her.
Now, the way canon has it, it's a split personality pop-culture-Jekyll-And-Hyde thing. However, that's fucking dumb and pretty ableist. So here, my explanation diverges from canon, because I feel it's better, and stronger writing-wise, and I am better than Klei. Here's how I personally see what happened to Charlie.
It was like a garden being taken over and destroyed by an invasive species. Like black ink seeping into a bright and colorful shirt, spreading outwards, hiding- no, destroying the colors underneath.
They gave Charlie immense power, but at a great cost. Something dark grew inside of Charlie, transforming her from the sweet young woman she'd been, into something... monstrous.
The way I see it, it wasn't a split personality thing. It was more like a virus, infecting every cell of the body and multiplying into infinity until there's nothing left. Slowly erasing who she was before, destroying her humanity and turning her into something else.
Something more.
More powerful than Charlie had ever been, than she could've ever dreamed.
In every dark shadow, Charlie is there. In every pitch-black cave, she watches you. When dusk falls, she begins to awaken. And when the moon has risen, when the stars are out, when you can barely see your own hands in the dark, she is there. Everpresent. Watching. Waiting for you to walk into her arms.
There are shadow monsters all around the Constant. But most of them can only hurt you when you've lost your mind. Charlie, though, Charlie is different. No matter how much of a grasp on yourself you have, no matter how much sanity you've held onto, she will still be able to kill you, if you're outside at night with no way to see her.
Charlie is the most powerful shadow monster of all. She is everywhere. She has been everywhere. She can be anywhere. After all, there is nowhere the dark will not eventually be. And where the dark is, she is.
Charlie is the night.
Charlie is the darkness.
Able to kill a human with a few swift blows. Unfathomably strong, unfathomably dangerous, unfathomably powerful. It's hard to believe her humanity has held on this long, considering her omnipresence. It's incredible that her mind hasn't collapsed yet.
Because her humanity has held on. The virus in her mind has consumed so much of her, yes. But she's held on. Her humanity is surviving.
However long that lasts.
You wanted to know what happened to Maxwell and Charlie.
This. This is what happened.
Maxwell was imprisoned on the Nightmare Throne. Charlie was turned into the Night Monster. Both gained unfathomable power.
And both are trapped by it.
AND NOW. AFTER ALL OF THAT. WE FINALLY GET TO THE ACTUAL PLOT OF THE FUCKING GAME.
The year? Somewhere in the 1920s. The man? Wilson Percival Higgsbury. Lover of puns. Hater of spiders. Has a skeleton under his floorboards for some reason (skeleton might be wx-78's old body). Guy with the weirdest hair ever. Wannabe scientist who's terrible at science. The very first shot we see him in he blows himself up
He's a complete dumbass and he has stupid hair and he makes dumb puns and he's pathetic and he's in his thirties and he knows how to do amputations (according to him). What more could one want in a man. He's insanely confident in himself and has this attitude where he can do anything, when really he's kinda in over his head. He's a bit of a fool and he's got a good heart and a cheerful spirit. Not to mention he's wearing a vest, which in the rule of fiction means he's trans according to me and me alone.
So he's sad about his experiments always going wrong and he also sits down on a chair that looks like a throne hope that's not foreshadowing anything. Anyway Wilson's just like "Oh Voxola radio I'm just feeling real low" and his Voxola radio is like "SAY PAL I CAN GIVE FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE" and Wilson's like "Oh shit for real???" This is exactly what happened don't fact check this
So Maxwell hijacks his Voxola radio to be like "Hey hey hey you wanna do science shit right. Well guess what I can give you knowledge if you think you're ready." Wilson, of course, jumps at the chance, and Maxwell instructs him to create a machine of sorts. And Wilson works tirelessly away at it for some time, including SLICING HIS WHOLE HAND OPEN TO GET ONE DROP OF BLOOD, BECAUSE HE'S SO UNBELIEVABLY DRAMATIC I LOVE HIM
Anyway, Wilson throws the switch, thunder crashes, Maxwell laughs evilly, and
OH NOW YOU'RE JUST SHOWING OFF ANIMATORS
(seriously the don't starve animation and artstyle is so charming i love it. i think the framerate of the characters' animation should be lower again and the sketchiness should be more visible tho it was so much more charming than ultra smooth in my opinion)
Anyways, Wilson gets dragged into the Constant and cements himself as the greatest isekai protagonist of them all. Somehow he keeps his fairly cheerful attitude even when going through The Horrors, which is so very silly of him. He makes dumbass puns. He calls evergreen trees "piney." He hates spiders. His one perk is growing a magnificent beard. I love him. So much. He's not the deepest character, but god DAMN if he isn't endearing and lovable and so very silly.
So that- ALL OF THAT- is the setup to Don't Starve. From there on out, the plot goeth thusly:
CHAPTER ZERO, SANDBOX MODE. Maxwell greets Wilson like "Say, pal, you don't look so good," and proceeds to fuck off to watch Wilson go through it. Wilson however is a stubborn bastard who refuses to die and will literally make meat effigies of himself to not do so.
...actually that's really interesting. Hey wait that's really interesting. HEY DST FANFIC WRITERS ARE YOU UTILIZING WILSON'S STUBBORNNESS TO NOT GET KILLED TO THE POINT WHERE HE BUILDS EFFIGIES OF HIMSELF TO REVIVE HIMSELF IN YOUR FANFICTIONS BECAUSE THAT'S REALLY INTERESTING. "BUT IT REFUSED" LOOKIN ASS
UHHHH ANYWAY. THAT'S A PRETTY INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO WILSON I JUST FIGURED OUT. GO USE IT WRITERS.
So eventually, Wilson finds the scattered pieces of a portal Maxwell has, and activates it, getting dragged into Adventure Mode. LET'S GOOOOO
CHAPTER ONE, A COLD RECEPTION. And I should note here- the chapters are not in order, the order can get shuffled around. I'm gonna present them all though because it's funny.
So Maxwell is like "Wow :/ you're a dumbass :/ you REALLY think you woulda learned your lesson about activating mysterious portals :/ Anyway the seasons will be changing very fast now good luck" which is prrobably a nightmare for the ecosystem but what ever Anyway Wilson's stubborn ass doesn't die.
CHAPTER TWO, KING OF WINTER. Maxwell sends Wilson into eternal winter because he's being annoying. However, Wilson's stubborn ass STILL REFUSES TO DIE. And thus he continues.
CHAPTER THREE, THE GAME IS AFOOT! Maxwell is like "Uhm. Pal. Buddy. Why are you still alive. Please stop going onwards" and tries to feed Wilson to hounds. Wilson's silly ass is not fed to the hounds though because he is too silly.
Now. In Chapter Three, there's a chance you may find a strange setpiece, where there are these clockwork statues, trapping a strange mime. Creatures and gentlemen, allow me introduce you to the FUNNIEST FUCKING CHARACTER in Don't Starve. Wes.
Now, where do we begin with Wes? Well, let us begin with his backstory. His whole life has been plagued by a hilarious string of bad luck. He's French. He has the worst luck. He would get pied in the face. When he bites into a crepe all the filling falls out. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone. He is a silly and sad clown mime man. And yet, he simply dedicates himself to making everyone happy.
Now, how would a silly little failure such as Wes get into the Constant? Hilariously, of course. You see, he was buying a crepe one day and gave half of it to a silly monkey guye when he saw a little girl drop her doll from a window and tried to return it to her with a balloon but the wind blew the balloon away and he chased it all throughout the town and saw it'd gotten stuck on a clothesline and managed to balance on the clothesline to get it but unfortunately the clothesline snapped and Wes fell down though he managed to grab the balloon and save a falling nest of eggs and was chased by crows while trying to get the girl's doll to her and he ran into an alleyway where he accidentally knocked someone else out of the way of getting dragged into the Constant and Maxwell accidentally getting Wes pissed him off SO MUCH that he put him in a special prison just for him and Waxwell's quote upon seeing the imprisoned Wes is "He displeased me."
I mean it when I say that Wes is one of the funniest characters in the entire game. In fact, you go through all the trouble of saving him from the prison, and when you do, he immediately DIES, and you unlock him as a character, and he has the WORST STATS IN THE GAME. His hunger drains hilariously fast. His attacks are laughably weak. His only special power is balloons that do nothing but cost him sanity. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone
okay anyway you free wes and go onwards
CHAPTER FOUR, ARCHIPELAGO. Maxwell is like "UM. BITCH. PAL. TURN BACK. OR I MAY HAVE TO MURDER YOU TO DEATH EVEN MORE." However Maxwell has clearly not realized that Wilson is so stubborn that he will BUILD MEAT EFFIGIES OF HIMSELF SO THAT HE'LL JUST REVIVE FROM THE DEAD. GOD THAT'S SUCH A FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO HIS CHARACTER MAN JUST REFUSES TO DIE
Anyway Wilson goes onwards. CHATER FIVE, TWO WORLDS. Maxwell's actually nice to Wilson for a sec like "Heyyy :) Say pal :) Friend :) My best friend Wilson Percival Higgsbury :) Let's make a deal :) Here :) I made you a lovely little island :) Special for you :) It's got food :) And pigs :) And gold :) And whatever you need :) You can settle down here :) Have a life :) Just PLEASE :)) you ANNOYING BITCH :)) can you GIMME A TRUCE :)) and PLEASE :))) STOP :))) GOING :))) ONWARDS :))) I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD :))) :)))"
Wilson does not stop going onwards
CHAPTER SIX. DARKNESS. Maxwell is PIIIIIIISSED, like "BITCH. YOU BITCH. YOU TINY PITIFUL INSIGNIFICANT BITCH. I AM GOD. PLEASE DIE." And so he sends Wilson into a world he will surely not survive- a world of eternal night. Surely, with Charlie all around, with Charlie being the literal night monster who I feel an immense sense of grief over, surely Wilson will not survive this. Surely Wilson will die of darkness. Surely.
But as I have been stressing, Wilson is stubborn. He refused to give up on his dream of doing science even when it was clear he was bad at it. He refused to sit back and let Maxwell win by staying in the world Max made for him. He is so stubborn he refuses to die, making effigies of himself so he can resurrect from death. Wilson is the most stubborn bastard you've ever fucking met.
If Wilson decides that he will make it through something, then by god, he will make it through.
And he does.
Epilogue: Checkmate.
After all his struggle, Wilson finally, finally gets to Maxwell, to the man who's tormented him this whole time.
Only to discover him. Trapped on the throne. The all-powerful king, and he is weak. Pitiful. Listening to a hellish ragtime melody that won't stop repeating, over, and over, and over.
You can turn off the gramophone. He thanks you, saying he's been listening to that song for an eternity.
Maxwell has this honestly excellent speech about what happened to him. How They changed him over time. How he's completely powerless, despite being in control of everything. He mentions how time moves differently in the Constant, which is a really nice touch- it's not specified how it moves differently, letting the soft magic of the Constant stay soft. We just know it moves differently. How so is left up to us.
Wilson takes pity on the Nightmare King, and unlocks the Nightmare Throne. And Maxwell stands up, stands for the first time in an eternity, pure happiness on his face, free of the Nightmare Throne, getting up for the first time in god knows how long-
...And he screams, his body rotting away into a skeleton, before he crumbles to dust.
After everything, he just fucking dies.
...The Constant demands a ruler. And well, it's got a lovely candidate right there.
Shadowy hands erupt from the ground, grabbing Wilson. Lightning strikes where the Nightmare Throne was, building a new one, and Wilson is dragged onto it as the gramophone resumes. The new Nightmare King of the Constant.
Ruler of everything, trapped forever, with no control, listening to that hellish song.
Honestly, watch this playthrough of Checkmate. It really captures how just amazing this end is. (amazing = horribly fucked)
youtube
There's something so utterly horrific about how Wilson is dragged onto the throne after watching Maxwell rot into a skeleton and turn to dust, only for the ragtime melody to resume.
This end is already horrifying to watch. But the music resuming, refusing to stop, is what turns it into a pure nightmare for me.
A melody of eternal torment, never to break. No matter what.
The cycle continues. More will be dragged into this trap, right? And Wilson has become trapped. He can't move. Can't turn off that stupid fucking gramophone.
Doomed to the same fate as Maxwell. To sit there for god knows how long, as They watch him, until someone else frees him and he dies, trapping them.
Right?
..................
SO TURNS OUT YOUR BODY ROTTING AWAY INTO A SKELETON AND TURNING TO DUST IS LESS DEADLY THAN ONE MAY HAVE THOUGHT, BECAUSE MAXWELL IS STILL ALIVE. SOMEHOW. APPARENTLY.
Anyway so Maxwell's alive. Falls out of the sky into the Constant, still got the Codex Umbra, but is no longer all powerful. He learns this upon getting ambushed by a gang of Creatures and realizes he is powerless, and immediately does the brave thing and runs away like a little baby
Anyway night is FALLING and Charlie will wake up soon. And Charlie fucking HAAAATES Maxwell. She HATES him. DESPISES him. And honestly? GIRL'S VALID. Maxwell turned her into The Shadow Creature, hating him is completely fair. And yeah Maxwell's got guilt over the fact that he did that to her. BUT LIKE. HE STILL DID DO THAT TO HER.
Anyways, Maxwell sees smoke in the distance. And where there be smoke, there be fire, which he needs if he is to Not Die. And so he makes his way over.
btw this part is told through a fantastic comic here it is
So he gets to the fire and OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE
BITCH JUST. DOES NOT DIE. MAN GOT OFF THE NIGHTMARE THRONE. SOMEHOW. STUBBORN FUCKING BASTARD. THIS GUY MADE MEAT EFFIGIES TO CHEAT DEATH, PERSISTED PAST SEVERAL HORRIBLE TRIALS TO TRY AND GET TO MAXWELL, GOT STUCK ON THE NIGHTMARE THRONE, AND IS STILL KICKING. KING SHIT. FRISK KINNIE. DETERMINATION SOUL. UNDERTALE
Anyway Maxwell is like hmmm maybe it is best to not approach the guy i tried to feed to hounds and tries to leave but the idiot steps on a branch because of course he does. Wilson assumes it is a Creature and grabs his axe to Kill, only to discover it is not a creature and is instead Maxwell. (who ig is a type of creature)
AND UPON DISCOVERING IT IS MAXWELL, HE ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES AND STARTS TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM. WHICH IS HILARIOUS GOOD FOR HIM GO WHITE BOY GO KILL HIM
Anyway shadow hands put out Wilson's fire which freaks him out because of The Creature (charlie), so they run over and get the fire started up again. And unfortunately, the two must team up in order to not die. Look how thrilled they are about this arrangement
Anyway there's these panels that together are absolutely HILARIOUS of Maxwell and Wilson just sitting there glaring at the firepit over several time periods. I understand it's probably meant to show several days passing, however I find it funny to interpret it as "they just sat there glaring at the firepit not saying anything to each other for a whole day" because it's objectively hilarious.
Anyway Wilson offers Maxwell food since they're stuck together they should make sure neither of them die and he's like "Hey didn't you Die. You Died. Like turned to dust. In front of me. I saw it" AND MAXWELL'S PRETTY MUCH LIKE "death is a social construct. how did you get freed from the scary throne and how come i didn't think of it sooner"
And so Wilson explains. See, Wilson was freed from the Nightmare Throne, but he didn't manage to get off of the throne through his own sheer force of will (shockingly enough for this stubborn bitch).
He was freed by Charlie.
For her own reasons, she let Wilson out of the throne and let him free. But she also took all the powers he might have had as the Nightmare King, rendering him the ordinary survivor he was before he was trapped (though many people give him claws and/or blackened hands as a result of the nightmare throne which i find to be very cool and awesome). Charlie sent Wilson back to the Constant and Definitely Nothing Happened With Her And The Throne Afterwards Please Believe Me I Would Never Lie About Anything
So a little bit later, Wilson and Maxwell start trying to build a portal, most likely to actually get out of the Constant, since GOOD FUCKING LORD. That, or to connect to the other survivors in the Constant, which also makes sense! Pooling together the knowledge from the Codex Umbra and Wilson's own blueprints, they manage to build said portal.
The survivors manage to get to them.
Before the portal is destroyed and reshaped.
Shadow hands erupt out of the ground, pulling pieces of it into the ground, black thorny vines wrap around it, the wood is replaced with marble, shadowy flames erupt out of it, red curtains on top, making it resemble a stage.
And all around it grow roses.
The Florid Pastern is created, and above all of them, they see a strange apparition in the sky.
The Constant demands a ruler.
And Charlie, absorbing Wilson's power as the Nightmare King, became that. The monstrous part of her, the part that is cruel and dark, the shadow monster of the night that demands to be fed with hot blood and flesh, fused itself with whatever scraps of her humanity and kindness that'd not been fully consumed.
She became the virus in her mind, fused with it, merged into a whole being, rather than a fractured one.
The Shadow Queen of the Constant.
also here's an exhausted looking Wilson good lord when was the last time he SLEPT
ALSO. BEFORE I FINISH OFF. LET ME TALK ABOUT CHARLIE'S SILLY PLAY.
In Don't Starve Together, you can find a stage, with costumes for you to act in. If you put on the right costumes and choose to start acting, shadow hands briefly control you, and you start acting out a story that is pretty obviously a thinly veiled allegory for the events of Don't Starve.
Charlie is cast in the role of the Doll, and later The Queen. Winona is in the role of the Blacksmith. Maxwell is cast in the role of the King. We THINK that Them is cast in the role of the Mirror. And Wilson- I'LL GET TO WILSON.
What's interesting about this play is how obviously biased it is. The King is cast as an obviously evil man, hoarding magic to himself, shattering the Mirror and taking its power away. I mentioned this earlier- the Blacksmith loves the Doll dearly, but loves her too much, and puts her in a suit of armor that is protective, yes, but is so heavy she can't move, which god damn if that's not an effective metaphor for overcontrolling overprotective siblings.
The insight into Charlie's motives is also interesting- it's shown that the reason she didn't take Maxwell off the throne (aside from maybe spite and wanting to see him hurt which good for her) was because she legitimately didn't know where he was. And she sorta followed Wilson as he traveled so she could find the throne.
And more interestingly- Charlie is an unreliable narrator here, so her perspective is to be taken with a grain of salt, but- according to her, Charlie's motivations are to heal Them. They're broken currently, according to her, and They gave her the power she has now. And she wants to repay Them for what They've given her. Which is INCREDIBLY interesting.
AND. THE FUNNIEST PART ABOUT THIS PLAY. IS WILSON.
So, everyone's cast in different roles, right? Charlie's the Doll, Winona's the Blacksmith, Maxwell's the King, and the Mirror is probably Them, right?
WELL. WILSON. IS CAST IN THE ROLE OF "THE FOOL." HE'S CAST AS SOME FUCKIN DUMBASS WHO ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKS THE KING OFF HIS THRONE AND KILLS HIM BY MISTAKE. AND IT'S ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS.
What's funnier is that WILSON HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. Winona comments on the scene where Charlie casts her as suffocatingly overprotective, saying "Is there something you wanna tell me, sis?" Maxwell comments on the scene where the Doll finds the Mirror, asking if this is how she really sees him and remembers what happened.
BUT WILSON. HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT BEING CAST AS "THE FUCKING IDIOT DUMBASS WHO TRIPPED OVER HIMSELF AND KILLED THE KING ON ACCIDENT WITH HIS MERRY FOOLERY." Meaning either he DOESN'T realize that's meant to be him, he DOES realize and is just silently fuming, or he DOES realize and just ACCEPTS IT. Like "okay yeah fair." No matter how you slice it, HILARIOUS.
Anyway, here's the play, it's an interesting watch and the video's only 15 minutes long.
youtube
god the fool costume even looks like wilson if his hair was looser
Aaaaand that's the lore thus far! There's other stuff that's happened- Charlie got a new outfit and became EVEN MORE beautiful, Wagstaff is a hologram, Maxwell teamed up with Charlie as a double agent which I think was a stupid writing decision because I don't feel it makes sense for Charlie but Fine Whatever I don't care Encore isn't canon to me I'm resisting a full rant about this, Wilson has a skeleton under his floorboards, something else may be trying to get people into the Constant, Wilson looks tired as shit, WX ripped out their heart because feeling emotions was painful I'm not over that short I'll never be over it ever and don't get me started on how Don't Starve feels like it has this intense unending grief woven throughout it and
Uhm. Anyway. I'm normal. I'm SO sorry this got this long my beams got me. This is 8k words long and I spent the whole time listening to Ragtime (the song that plays on the gramophone that maxwell had to listen to for eternity)
#asks#dst#don't starve#long post#cassie rambles#i did not mean for thsi post to get THIS LONG good jesus christ
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Agent Ohio ❌ Sherry fanmix
Spotify link
this bitch LONG because i am. so obsessed. there is no hope for me. only toxic yuri that has the possibility to become the kind of love that instead transforms a toxic situation into something beautiful. join me.
I Swallowed Shampoo / Soupy Garbage Juice
I can't even explain it's just the exact vibes of Overwhelming Stupidity mixed with Overwhelming Dread and Certainty Death Is Coming
Why Am I in This Room / Soupy Garbage Juice
as above, but with the Overwhelming Stupidity mixed with the Overwhelming Existential Ennui when faced with rotting away in insignificance without any purpose, because it has been decided that your life is so worthless and pointless that's all there is for you, and that decision being made made itself true, simply because a Powerful Man had an "eject bozos" button
Community Gardens / The Scary Jokes
Full disclosure/I am a monster, a creature of despair/Not that that should be a cause for concern/If there's one thing I've learned in all my years here/It's that despair is less abundant in those who understand/How to plant their hearts in community gardens .... The years have been hard on this lonely heart/If you wanna know the truth/There's no more community gardens/So, I guess I'll have to settle for you
seeing two possibilities in front of you: 1) growing "community gardens", both literal and metaphorical, to make the best of a bad situation - or even make it into a better situation than where you were before losing everything - with those you love and take care of each other, 2) dwelling on the despair of your situation and trying to find meaning instead in more fighting, more conflict, because that's all you have been taught can be a Purpose in life, as someone grew up in the era of total war and tried to give themself for humanity to the military. sherry can see the former as possible, but only if vera does, but is increasingly losing hope that vera ever will. vera loves sherry, but can only see the second possibility. the only way she can see herself and sherry together is secret, starcrossed Toxic Yuri TM within this narrative of conflict between the bases she's created, and so that's what she'll settle for.
Climate Crisis Love Song / Nathan Apollo
Skies are grey, grass is brown
Trees are dead, they're burning down
World is ending, look around
I can't breathe
But your eyes look me down
I got nothin' I can say
Yeah, you took my breath away
loving someone fiercely within a horrible, hopeless situation, and not knowing whether that love is the bright spot within it or part of that horrible situation. also, the whole thing is hilariously absurd, because there is always a really slapstick element to sherry and vera's tragedy, on account of 1) the absurdity that there is literally no reason for them to be fighting, and 2) vera is a theatre kid at heart and cannot Be The Villain without treating it like a super hammy role
Psycho / Cloudy June
You're the one that I can not take my eyes off
What's it like to fall for a psycho?
Need another rush to die for
20/20 Sight when the night falls
Better be the one to hunt than to cry for
What's it like to fall for a psycho?
Need another rush to die for
being totally obsessed with each other and just as obsessed with the rush of constantly trying to kill each other as a distraction from thinking about the pointless horror of your situation
Teeth / 5 Seconds of Summer
Some days, you're the only thing I know
Only thing that's burning when the nights grow cold
Can't look away, can't look away
Beg you to stay, beg you to stay, yeah
Sometimes, you're a stranger in my bed
Don't know if you love me or you want me dead
Walls Could Talk / Halsey
Told my new roommate not to let you in
But you're so damn good with a bobby pin
Now you gon' play me like a violin
Hittin' these notes
And we both hope there's something
But we bo-both keep fronting
Super Freak / Rick James
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Super freak, super freak
That girl's a super freak
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
vera is indeed a super freak. they also have super freaky sex. that's all.
Fahrradsattel / Pisse
Du willst einen Ring am Finger / You want a ring on your finger
Eine Gummihand in deiner / A rubber hand in yours
Festgekettet und für immer / Chained and forever
Aber ich will dein Fahrradsattel sein / But I want to be your bicycles seat
vera can't see a committed, normal relationship between them as anything but a sad pipe dream, with them out here, because there's no way to find any purpose without being Enemies. she just wants to fuck real nasty.
Hey Sexy Lady / Shaggy
Hey sexy lady, I like your flow
Your body's burnin', I lost control
Your booty on me, ceiling to floor
Only you can make me scream and beg for more
they are literally just. so embarrassing and cheesy in dramatic sexy hatefucking foreplay. think that one Hark! A Vagrant Comic
this is them all the time
Flip Flop / Yucky Duster
And your friends they kind of blow
They're all jerks I don't know
They're all such jerks! I don't know
You don't even know what you want
You don't even know what you want
sherry and vera at each other: fuck your idiots they shot my idiots
What If Things Get Worse / Kaden MacKay
There is need to fret, though you can bet it'll get better
But probably not yet or ever, so don't hold your breath
Actually, hold it as long as you need
'Cause you locked your own cage, and you'll never be freed
And the only thing that is approaching with speed is your death
You're gonna die!
You're gonna die!
You're gonna die!
You're gonna die!
never forget the underlying existential dread driving every crazy thing they do. because they sure don't! BONUS level of existential dread for sherry: being acutely aware that "you locked your own cage" and things would literally be So Much Less Bad if her and these fuckers she's marooned with could just. stop trying to kill each other. l'enfer c'est les autres.
The Chain / Fleetwood Mac
And if you don't love me now (you don't love me now)
You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying (still hear you saying)
You would never break the chain (never break the chain)
Chain keep us together (running in the shadow)
sherry knows that whatever this relationship is, it's not love (oh, but it's so much worse than that: it is love yet they still do this to each other). but they are obsessed with each other and will never stop.
Problems / DeathbyRomy
Wonder why, when we both got problems
Why won't you help me solve them?
I love you, but you don't and this is how I cope
sherry, screaming into the void and banging her head against a wall: WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS AND ***WHY THE FUCK*** DO I LIKE YOU
Bad Romance / Lady Gaga
You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
I want it bad, your bad romance
I want your love, and I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
Criminal / Britney Spears
But mama I'm in love with a criminal
And this type of love isn't rational, it's physical
Mama please don't cry, I will be alright
All reason aside I just can't deny, I love the guy
see above re: incredibly embarrassing chewing-the-scenery-in-role-of-villain hatefucking foreplay, and dear lord, sherry is into it even though she's extremely aware of how incredibly stupid and cringe it is, objectively. fuck her whole life
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now / The Smiths
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now
In my life
Oh, why do I give valuable time
To people who don't care if I live or die?
good news: vera found a purpose! bad news: it is a terrible, miserable purpose she allowed to be given to her by the people who decided she and her friends are too worthless to be allowed to live or even to bother to kill properly.
Come As You Are / Nirvana
Come as you are, as you were
As I want you to be
As a friend, as a friend
As an old enemy
Take your time, hurry up
Choice is yours, don't be late
despite everything, i love you, and i will whether we choose to be enemies or friends, so the choice is yours: are we going to make our own concept of a worthwhile life and try to find happiness together, or will we live in a fun, blood-and-adrenaline-soaked rush distracting us from underlying misery?
The Killing Moon / Echo & the Bunnymen
In starlit nights, I saw you
So cruelly, you kissed me
Your lips, a magic world
Your sky, all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon
Trigger Of Love / JAWNY
Run, she got the gun
She will pull the trigger on you and the trigger is of love
vera will shoot you both literally and with love for someone (her) that you are SO mad at yourself for being in love with
I Shot Cupid / Stela Cole
I shot Cupid, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang
'Cause I don't wanna fall in love again
Lo-lo-lo-love again
I shot Cupid, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang
'Cause I don't wanna fall in love again
Lo-lo-lo-love again
desperately fighting that trigger of love
Worst In Me / Unlike Pluto
I saw you standing there, and I knew
I'm done for, it's over, I'm through, oh
Playing games from the start, oh
Sinking your nails in my heart, no
You bring out the worst in me, oh
sherry, realizing that she is utterly fucked from how into this crazy asshole she is, and that she's going to keep falling into this crazyness, too
Lover Is a Day / Cuco
I'll take the bumpy road, it'll probably break my legs
As long as I don't show you what's ruining my head
Funny thing about you is you read me pretty well
But you haven't found me yet at the bottom of the well
Annoying you with smoke signals, asking you for help
'Cause your immediate presence lifts me straight away from hell
vera knows that what she's doing is fucked up and irrational, but she's in a fucked up and irrational situation and can't see any other way to be.
you stupid bitch / girl in red
You stupid bitch, can't you see
The perfect one for you is me?
once again, here sherry is, banging her head against the wall and screaming about vera's intentness on making things worse
Crazy Girls / TOOPOOR
I know I can be destructive in the things I do
Will hurt you, and might make you hate me
But I'll still love you
You're my enemy and my remedy
But if you're not gonna bleed for me, go (Go)
vera, once again, certain that hatefucking is as close to a happy ending as they get, and afraid that this isn't enough for sherry and she'll be left all alone
Fall in Love / Android52
Heaven is really not far away
Why can't we fall in love for a day?
I want to fall in love
Baby just for the night
Just for the night
vera's "starcrossed enemy-lovers who must keep their nights together secret from their teams" roleplay she's living in
Daisy / ashnikko
I'm crazy, but you like that, I bite back
Daisies on your nightstand, never forget it
I blossom in the moonlight, screw eyes
Glacial with the blue ice, I'm terrifying
see prev note, but with more of vera hamming up her "i'm a villain now because a story needs a villain and i will not let us fade into narrative meaninglessness" role
Villain / Bella Poarch
I'll be the villain tonight
I kinda like when you despise me after we fight
(Feels so much better when I'm)
Pushin' all your buttons 'til you're crawlin' on the floor
You say you hate my guts, but you're still coming back for more
vera honestly finds method acting as ~sherry's villainous enemy~ so fucking therapeutic. freak.
dumb dumb / mazie
Disappointment takes us by surprise
Even though by now I think we should have realized
Everyone is dumb (dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb)
I just wanna go from here
Close my eyes and disappear (disappear)
every day sherry is amazed by the depths of stupid they all reach, shooting at each other for no reason etc, and she kinda wishes hargrove had just killed them instead of going through this indignity of seeing that they're all so incompetent and stupid that they'll make their own hell. l'enfer c'est les autres indeed!!
Just Pretend / Bad Omens
I'm not afraid of the war you've come to wage against my sins
I'm not okay, but I can try my best to just pretend
I can wait for you at the bottom
I can stay away if you want me to
I can wait for years if I gotta
Heaven knows I ain't getting over you
I know the pain that you hide behind the smile on your face
And not a day goes by where I don't think I feel the same
they are Not Doing Okay, but they understand that about each other and they love each other no matter how much they hurt each other, so they'll keep this up as long as it takes for them to actually get together and lift each other up
Shameless / Camila Cabello
Right now, I'm shameless
Screamin' my lungs out for ya
Not afraid to face it
I need you more than I want to
Need you more than I want to
Show me you're shameless
Write it on my neck, why don't ya?
they fuck real nasty and real stupid and god sherry wishes she wasn't so into it
Kiss or Kill / Stela Cole
K-I-L-L-I-N-G
Kiss or kill, kiss or kill
Kiss or ki-ki-ki-ki
Kiss or kill, kiss or kill
Kiss or ki-ki-ki-ki
Mixed Messages / Tom Cardy
Mixed messages
Mixed messages
One second, I say you're very pretty (very pretty)
And then I show up at your house and I kick your dog, yeah
Mixed messages
Mixed messages
I pay for the dog's veterinary bills
But then I punch your dad in the dick
Now we're going to a hospital
Just me, you, and your dad in the back of an ambulance
And even with your dad's broken dick
The air is thick with (sexual tension)
exactly this sort of stupidity and insanity and, somehow, in spite of it all, horniness
Fall / The Terrordactyls
Shoot me in the face
I'll shot you in the face
We'll see which one of us
Can shoot the other in the most accurate place
Stab me in the chest
I'll stab you in the chest
We'll see which one of us
Can stab the other in the chest the very best
If you want to die
Give me a call
We'll have each other bleeding in no time at all
My Nemesis / Danny Jacob
My neme'-neme', ooh, my neme'-neme'-neme"
And I feel fine 'cause I've got a nemesis
My neme'-neme', ooh, my neme'-neme'-neme'
My neme'-neme', ooh, my neme'-neme'-neme'
Now I hate him, and he hates me
What a wonderful animosity
Besides his hat, he wears no clothes
Now I have someone to oppose
Yes, I have a nemesis
What Is This Feeling / Wicked The Musical
What is this feeling
So sudden and new?
I felt the moment
I laid eyes on you
My pulse is rushing
My head is reeling
My face is flushing
What is this feeling?
Fervid as a flame
Does it have a name?
Yes!
Loathing
Unadulterated loathing
Shutup You're Stupid / That Handsome Devil
It's the middle of the night
And I'm calling you crazy
While you're calling me baby
I don't wanna close my eyes
Cause I'm here right now
Tryna memorize
Every crack in your lips
Cause I already miss it
You're stupid and I love you for it
You're stupid and I love you for it
(So dumb, literally so dumb, just like so not smart)
I Did Something Bad / Taylor Swift
They say I did something bad
Then why's it feel so good?
They say I did something bad
But why's it feel so good?
Most fun I ever had
And I'd do it over and over and over again if I could
It just felt so good, good
vera is living her bestworst life and insisting on keeping up the act that yes!! she is so bloodthirsty and rogueish muahahaha she totally is having so much fun!!!! not on the edge of despair at all!!!
Shoot All Your Problems Away / LilDeuceDeuce
lol. yeah sure did get passed up for that big promotion and stuck in a REAL shit job with a REAL shit boss huh. shoot each other about it.
Perfect For You / Jennifer Damiano and Adam Chanler-Berat
Our planet is poison, the oceans, the air
Around and beneath and above you
The world is at war, filled with death and disease
We dance on the edge of destruction
The globe's getting warmer by deadly degrees
And this is one fucked up seduction
I can't fix what's fucked up
But one thing I know I can do
I can be perfect for you
Sweet but Psycho / Ava Max
"Grab a cop gun" kinda crazy
She's poison but tasty
Yeah, people say, "Run, don't walk away"
'Cause she's sweet but a psycho
A little bit psycho
She'll make you curse, but she a blessin'
She'll rip your shirt within a second
You'll be coming back, back for seconds
With your plate, you just can't help it
No, no, you'll play along
Let her lead you on
You'll be saying, "No, no"
Then saying, "Yes, yes, yes"
'Cause she messin' with your head
have i mentioned just how mad sherry is at herself for being so in love with this asshole and so into these incredibly transparently putting-on-a-show-of-being-soooo-edgy-and-vicious theatrics
Trying to Survive / Colony House
Aren't we all in the same boat?
Taking on water
Yeah, we're all in the same boat
Don't we all share the same space?
Living and dying
We all come from the same place
Tired of trying to survive
Tired of fighting for my life
I'm just like anybody, anywhere
Navigating complicated times
But I'm trying to survive
Yeah, we're all trying to survive
COULD WE NOT JUST ALL GET ALONG. GOOD GOD.
The Great War / Taylor Swift
My knuckles were bruised like violets
Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked
Spineless in my tomb of silence
Tore your banners down, took the battle underground
And maybe it was ego swinging
Maybe it was her
Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur
good god the drama. please vera stop being such a Theatre Kid for just ten seconds
Judas / Lady Gaga
I'm just a Holy Fool, oh, baby, it's so cruel
But I'm still in love with Judas, baby
I'm just a Holy Fool, oh, baby, it's so cruel
But I'm still in love with Judas, baby
sherry is completely aware of how stupid and manufactured the team-vs-team-and-starcrossed-lovers drama is and yet she is just as swept up in the drama of BEING IN LOVE WITH JUDAS OH WHAT A FOOL SHE IS. it just also comes with the hell of being more self-aware about it
Cry About It Later / Katy Perry
I'll cry about it later
Tonight I'm havin' fun
I know tomorrow I'll be love hungover
But I'm ready for a shameless summer
sherry does not respect herself the morning after most of her Bad Vera-Related Decisions but oh god are they ever fun
bad idea! / girl in red
It was a bad idea
Calling you up
Was such a bad idea
I'm totally fucked
It was a bad idea
To think I could stop
Was such a bad idea
I can't get enough
see above!
10 Things I Hate About You / Leah Kate
Five, you're toxic
Four, can't trust you
Three, you still got mommy issues
Two years of your bullshit I can't undo
One, I hate the fact that you made me love you
Nobody / Mitski
And I don't want your pity
I just want somebody near me
Guess I'm a coward
I just want to feel alright
And I know no one will save me
I just need someone to kiss
Give me one good honest kiss
And I'll be alright
at their most vulnerable core, they're just sad and desperately want the comfort of straightforward, healthy love, or physical connection if they can't have that, that most basic need of human connection in this isolated wasteland
I'm Your Villain / Franz Ferdinand
You toss in a word
And I'm your villain
I see the passion emerge
And I'm your villain
I know what I am
And I'm your villain
Oh no, I don't give a damn
If I'm your villain
Combat Baby / Metric
Combat baby, come back baby
Fight off the lethargy
Don't go quietly
Combat baby
Said you would never give up easy
Combat baby, come back
vera will not go quietly into irrelevancy, worthlessness, meaninglessness. she will claw back meaning to her life with combat. and that's her love language with her baby <3
Is This Danger / Bombadil
Is this danger?
Is this true love?
Is this something I can hope to know?
Is this a basket?
Is this my own life?
Is this container to never use?
Is this sadness?
Is this past us?
Is this a moment we did not choose?
I've been holding back on loving you
I've been holding back, I've been holding back
vera in a moment of reflection and allowing herself to hope that maybe, perhaps, they could have something better
You Don't Understand Me / The Raconteurs
You don't understand me.
But if the feeling was right you might
Comprehend me.
And I don't claim to understand you. (Oh...)
But I've been looking around
And I haven't found anybody like you.
And there's always another point of view,
A better way to do the things we do.
And how can you know me and I know you
If nothing is true?
vera, again reflecting. she knows that sherry doesn't understand why she's so intent on making up this conflict for a Purpose, but she's always felt that it's her only choice to survive and cope, to cling to the military way of life and view of herself as A Soldier. now, she wonders if she can accept that the people who told her that combat was what she was good for also told her she was good for absolutely nothing, and if she can give up clinging to that "point of view" and "way to do the things we do"
You Think You're Tough / Hunx and His Punx
Oh god, what have I done?/Oh no, what have I become?/Am I in love?/Oh shit, I hate myself for falling for someone who's tough/I swear I hated you, thought you were gross, now I'm the fool/You were my nemesis, never thought we could coexist/Am I in love? Am I in love?/Am I in love? Am I in love?/Am I in love with someone who thinks they're tough?
spoiler they fell in love concurrently to becoming "enemies". there is no time they thought they hated the other without also loving her... but vera does love pretending to live in her bitter-enemies-to-lovers roleplay with sherry sometimes
The Jail That Sets You Free / Asaf Avidan
Honey, come with me, it's just you and me
Baby, believe it's as simple as can be
I will be the jail that sets you free - I will be the jail that sets you free
I'm shuffling underneath my pillow for the bed-crumbs of my mind
It's hard to look there for a future, when I left it all behind
Please don't condescend and say you've heard this one before
I'm hard to please sometimes - I'm hard to please sometimes
their life together, marooned together, could be the jail that sets each other free. vera starts to believe in this, she wants to believe in this, but it's just so hard for her to let go of the past, of everything she worked for to get to where she was before she left it behind, before she was left behind. she knows she's hard to love and hard to please and she's sorry. just please don't pretend you understand exactly what she feels, sherry.
Your Stupid Face / Kaden MacKay
What are you doing here?
I didn't run away!
It was... it was a strategic retreat
What is there to talk about? It's over—I ruined it
Well, yeah of course I'm sorry, but
No, no, don't forgive me!
Why do you do that?
Why—why give me another chance to mess things up?
Because you—what?
Those three little words
Out of the blue
Completely uncalled for
Especially from you
Don't you dare leave our problems and pain on the shelf!
Because if you don't hate me, I can't hate myself
But that's why I need you
You shatter my fear
'Cause despite my misdeed, you are still right here
Though it's stupid to date me
You're willing to try
And if you don't hate me, then why should I?
Are you sure you don't want to give up on me?
You're a moron
Bet / Rio Romeo
I'll bet on you sweetheart
Like a game of cards
And if I lose my hand I'm sure it's worth the charge
To love and to loss
Is worth the cost
So I'm wagering forever just to be in your arms
I'm playing with fire
In the sense I feel warm
And I swear to fucking God I'll weather the storms
trying to make something better together and letting go of everything they cling to from the past is scary but it's worth it
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John in buckleming episodes
(just compiled via ctrl-f-ing transcripts, so probably missing something or other)
1x13 Route 666
DEAN
Am I speaking a language you're not getting here? Dad and I were working a job in Ohio, she was finishing up college. We went out for a coupla weeks.
–
DEAN
(Hesitantly) You know, I'm still really involved. With my dad's work.
7x05 Shut Up Dr Phil
7x13 The Slice Girls
7x19 Of Grave Importance
8x03 Heartache
8x15 man’s Best Friend With Benefits
8x19 Taxi Driver
9x03 I’m No Angel
9x09 Holy Terror
9x16 Blade Runners
9x21 King of the Damned
(gavin and crowley)
CROWLEY (answering phone) Squirrel. I hope you were nice to your father.
DEAN (driving, on phone) What? Shut up. Look, we got the Blade.
10x03 Soul Survivor
DEAN: You notice I tried to get as far away from you as possible? Away from your whining, your complaining. I chose the King of Hell over you! Maybe I was just … tired of babysitting you. Or always having to yank your lame ass out of the fire since …
[Dean laughs.]
DEAN: Forever. Or maybe … Maybe it was the fact that my mother would still be alive if it wasn’t for you. That your very existence sucked the life out of my life!
SAM: This isn’t my brother talking.
DEAN: You never had a brother! Just an excuse for not manning up. But guess what: I quit.
SAM: No. No, you don’t. You don’t get to quit. We don’t get to quit in this family! This family is all we have ever had!
DEAN: Well, then, we got nothin’.
SAM: Would you say that to Dad?
DEAN: Dad? Oh, there’s a prize. There’s a man who brainwashed us into wasting our lives fighting his losing battle!
10x10 The Hunter Games
10x16 Paint It Black
10x21 Dark Dynasty
(eldon and his father)
11x03 The Bad Seed
11x09 O Brother Where Art Thou?
Sam: You’re sitting there with the Book of the Damned and the means to read every word, and you think I’m going to set you free? Do I look crazy?
Rowena: Well, you do have unresolved issues with your domineering older brother and the abandonment by your father.
Sam: You know what? Just get back to work! All right.
11x18 Hell’s Angel
11x21 All In the Family
Dean: Here's the thing, um...Chuck... And I mean no disrespect. Um... I'm guessing you came back to help with the Darkness, and that's great. That's, you know – It's fantastic. Um, but you've been gone a – a... long, long time. And there's so much crap that has gone down on the Earth for thousands of years. I mean, plagues and wars, slaughters. And you were, I don't know, writing books, going to fan conventions. Were you even aware, o-or did you just tune it out?
Chuck: I was aware, Dean.
Dean: But you did nothing. And, again, I-I'm not trying to piss you off. You know, I don't want to turn into a pillar of salt.
Chuck: I actually… didn't do that.
Dean: Okay. People – People pray to you. People build churches for you. They fight wars in your name, and you did nothing.
Chuck: You're frustrated. I get it. Believe me, I was hands-on – Real hands-on for, wow, ages. I was so sure if I kept stepping in, teaching, punishing, that these beautiful creatures that I created... would grow up. But it only stayed the same. And I saw that I needed to step away and let my baby find its way. Being overinvolved is no longer parenting. [Sighs] It's enabling.
Dean: But it didn't get better.
Chuck: Well, I've been mulling it over. And from where I sit, I think it has.
Dean: Well, from where I sit, it feels like you left us and you're trying to justify it.
Chuck: I know you had a complicated upbringing, Dean, but don't confuse me with your dad.
12x02 Mamma Mia
(with action lines from production draft)
Dean: Sleep okay?
Mary: I had dreams all night. I haven’t had dreams for… thirty years.
Dean: Good dreams?
Mary: Stuff I’d forgotten about. Funny things your dad did. He was a great father.
Dean considers this. Almost takes up the topic. Thinks better of it. Smiles a vague smile.
–
(transcript)
MARY: Very. The thing is, Hunters... no matter how good they are, they all end up the same way.
DEAN: You know when you died, it changed Dad. I mean, he was Hell-bent on finding out what happened. The Hunter life, it just took him over. I guess I was the same. But Sammy – Sammy, he was different. He wanted out. He went to school. He went to Stanford.
MARY: Sam had a chance to get out? And he came back?
DEAN: When Dad disappeared, Sam and I looked around, and something became very clear. That the only thing we had in this world – the only thing, aside from this car – was each other.
(production draft version)
MARY: Very.
He smiles. But Mary doesn’t– she knows the truth–
Mary: The thing is… Hunters... No matter how good they are? They all end up the same way.
Dean (teasing): Rich and happy?
But Mary’s not in a joking mood–
Mary: I mean, the life… Sometimes it’s exciting… The adrenaline rush. Just wish you and Sam hadn’t signed up.
DEAN (with difficulty): When you… Died… Dad changed. He was Hell-bent on finding out what happened. The Hunter life took him over. I guess I’m a lot like him, if I’m bein’ honest, and I took to it. But Sammy. Different guy. He wanted out. Went to Stanford.
(off her startled look)
I know, right? Dad could never get his head around it.
MARY (incredulous): Sam had a chance to get out? And he… came back?
DEAN: When… Dad disappeared… Sam and I looked around, and things got real clear. The only thing Sam and I had in the world… The only thing. Except for this car… Was… Each other.
She stares, realizing the truth in this, as tears appear.
–
SAM: Dad's journal. His writing, his words. Helped me fill in some blanks, answer some questions I didn't know I had. And, you know, it – it – it keeps him with us, sort of.
MARY: Thank you.
12x08 LOTUS
12x13 Family Feud
ROWENA Uh, to be honest, I'm not sure. I was forced to leave, you see.
GAVIN Oh. That's too bad. L-Left him with his father, did you?
ROWENA Well...
GAVIN You left him alone?!
ROWENA He was eight, he seemed very enterprising.
12x17 The British Invasion
12x21 There’s Something about Mary
(transcript)
TONI: You're being realigned. Soon, you won't differentiate between your thinking and ours.
All of your thoughts and actions will come from us.
MARY: What are you talking about?
TONI: Well, not about this illusion of you that you hold on to. The perfect life. Loving husband and kids. But it never really was perfect, was it? All those secrets you kept from your beloved John – that you were a Hunter. That you invited Azazel to visit when he spared John's life.
MARY: How do you –
TONI: I have sources, Mary. Everywhere. After you died, your beloved John was a man slowly going mad, searching for revenge. What? Your boys didn't tell you? The drunken rages? The weeks of abandonment? Child abuse, really. It's no wonder they're damaged. So enough with the fairy tale. We are returning you to a more pure version of yourself – Mary Campbell, natural born killer.
(production draft version)
Toni: You're being… realigned. Soon, you won't differentiate between your thinking and ours.
All of your thoughts and actions will come from us.
Mary can only stare, stunned.
Toni: In a way, we’re doing you a favor. Putting you back in touch with who you really are.
Mary: What are you talking about?
Toni: Well, not about this illusion of you that you hold on to….the “perfect life,” the “loving husband and kids…”
(then)
But it never really was perfect, was it? The secrets you kept from your beloved John – that you were a Hunter. That you invited Azazel to visit.
Mary: How do you…
Toni: You left your sons without a mother. Without a father, for that matter. You “beloved John” was a man slowly going mad, searching for revenge.
(off Mary’s stare)
Oh, your boys didn't tell you? The drunken rages? The weeks of abandonment? Child abuse, really. No wonder they're… damaged.
Mary stares, stunned, trying to process.
Toni: So enough with the fairy tale. We’re returning you to a more pure version of yourself – Mary Campbell, natural born killer.
13x02 The Rising Son
BARTENDER I hated my old man. I ran away myself. See, my mom would never stick up for me. But… (sighs) you know kids. No matter what, they still want the old man’s approval. Well, that’s how it was with me, just…
DEAN You know, that’s, uh, that’s how it was with me, too.
13x07 War of the Worlds
13x13 Devil’s Bargain
13x18 Bring Em Back Alive
SAM: Gabriel, you have to dig yourself out of this hole. Look, I know you think it's safer inside. No more torture. No more pain. No more expectations. I've been there. You were nothing like your family. You sure as hell weren't like your dad. Me either. And just like you, I got out. Or I-I thought I got out. But then... then my family needed me. And this is my life. No matter how many times I tried to fight it, this is what I was put here to do. This is where I make the world a better place. And sure, yeah, hookers in Monte Carlo sounds great, but your family needs you.
13x22 Exodus
14x02 Gods and Monsters
14x07 Unhuman Nature
Dean: Well, bait and beer. You are a cheap date. This certainly isn't Tahiti.
Jack: You once told me you and your father did the exact same thing. It was your happiest memory of him.
Dean: I didn't say that.
Jack: It was how you said it. I could tell.
14x12 Prophet and Loss
(transcript)
DEAN I know I wasn’t always the greatest brother to you.
SAM Dean, you were the one who was always there for me. The only one. I mean, you practically raised me.
DEAN I know things got dicey… you know, with dad… the way he was. And I just… I didn’t always look out for you the way that I should’ve. I mean, I had my own stuff, you know. In order to keep the peace, it probably looked like I took his side quite a bit. Sometimes when I was… when I was away, you know it wasn’t ‘cause I just ran out, right? Dad would… he would send me away when I really pissed him off. I think you knew that.
(blue pages)
DEAN It’s just that… I know I wasn’t always the greatest big brother.
Sam stares over at him.
SAM Dean, you were the one who was always there for me. You raised me.
DEAN Yeah, well, things could still get dicey…with dad. The way he was. And I didn’t always look out for you like I should’ve. I mean, I had my own stuff goin’ on with him, so to keep the peace I’d– it must’ve looked like I took his side…
SAM I was just a kid…
DEAN And sometimes I wasn’t around at all. You know I didn’t just run out, right? Well, sometimes I did. But Dad would send me away when I really pissed him off; I think you knew that.
14x19 Jack in the Box
(transcript)
Dean: She could handle a machete. She could handle a vampire. She could handle our old man. She couldn't cook worth a damn. Mom, you weren't here long enough. But we're so glad for the time that we had. Goodbye, Mom.
–
(transcript)
Sam: We know that Mom's not sitting on a cloud playing a harp. She's in a good place. Or she's in a great place. She's with Dad.
Dean: Hmm.
(writer’s draft)
Sam: And we know Mom’s not sitting on a cloud with a harp. But she’s in a good place. In her personal heaven with her best memories.
Dean: Fair enough.
15x02 Raising Hell
BELPHEGOR: Yeah, yeah, not gonna happen. Souls cast down to Hell? That's the end of it. Heaven can't take 'em.
SAM: That's not true. Our dad made it to Heaven after he was in Hell.
DEAN: And Bobby Singer.
15x08 Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven
SAM: But if Michael helped Chuck overpower Amara, then maybe he also knows how to lock him up.
CASTIEL: Perhaps, but even if we could get to him, he wouldn't tell us.
DEAN: I don't know. But I mean, if my dad kept me locked up in a cage for 10 years, I might be looking to get some payback. It's worth a shot.
–
ADAM: The point is parents keep secrets, right? Does it hurt to ask the question?
MICHAEL: Yes! It would. It would mean that I doubt him. The good son, the favorite, doubts his father.
ADAM: You still care about that? After he left you in the Cage?
15x13 Destiny’s Child
ALT!DEAN: We actually don't drink much of this stuff.
ALT!SAM: Dad won't keep it in the house. He only likes his "private-label Scotch." He spoils us.
SAM: Wait, your dad is... still around?
DEAN: And he "spoils" you?
(script: Sam and Dean stare.)
ALT!SAM: Well, he did. We don't know where he is now. Uh, we all went through the rift together, but, uh, guess we got separated.
ALT!DEAN: Mm. To Dad.
(Not in script:) ALT!SAM: Best guy ever.
(script: They clink bottles. Sam and Dean are staring, dumbfounded.)
SAM: HunterCorp?
ALT!DEAN: Yeah. Well, got to hand it to the old man, huh? Pretty much built up an entire empire from scratch.
ALT!SAM: To Dad.
(Not in script:) ALT!DEAN: Smartest guy ever.
(script: They clink bottles again. Sam and Dean look at each other.)
(Alt Dean finding Dean’s porn)
ALT!SAM: Can you imagine if Dad caught us with that kind of stuff? Goodbye, trust funds.
15x19 Inherit the Earth
(script and deleted lines)
Sam: To Jack
They touch bottles and drink.
Dean: And Cas. And Mom.
Sam: And Adam.
Dean: And Kelly. And Bobby. And John.
Sam: Dad?
Dean: Yeah.
Sam shrugs; they take long pulls from the beers. Dean sighs wistfully.
Dean: And everyone… we’ve lost along the way.
Drink and silence.
sources:
scripts
transcripts
#brl#dean and john#john and mary#sam and john#i have maybe found what they're best at#masterpost#transcript#john winchester#child abuse#child abandonment#long post
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Frankenfic 2022: "Stage Fright"
Summary: In their latest scheme to fundraise for Regionals, The New Directions decide to host the spookiest haunted house that Lima, Ohio has ever seen. But when strange things start happening on the set of their haunted house, it may be the spooksters themselves who get the biggest fright.
Chapter 8
By Esperanto (@esperantoauthor)
“Well, come on old lady, be quick about it!” Puck called out. He had a point. The shimmering figures were swirling just a few feet above their heads, faces contorted into expressions of despair and rage.
A shiver ran down Santana’s spine as Lillian Adler glared icily at Puck.
“They can’t hurt you,” Lillian explained, rolling her eyes. “Poor things are incorporeal. And they’ve been stuck In-Between for decades. You’d be furious too.”
🕸 Keep reading below the cut or on Ao3 🕸
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Sure enough, one of the ghosts’ heads separated from its body and plummeted toward Rachel, who yelped and managed to leap out of the way just before the silvery globe came shooting toward her and sank halfway into the stage floor. Behind her, the headless phantom fumbled around wildly for its lost body part. Just as Rachel was regaining her composure, one of the ghost’s arms reached straight through Rachel’s chest, fingers wiggling just under her chin. Rachel gasped, looked down, and then jumped backwards with an ear splitting shriek. Unfortunately, she jumped right through the ghost. They all watched in horror as the creature retrieved its head and reattached it with a horrible rotating movement, as if screwing in a lightbulb. Rachel stood there, trembling, but remarkably unharmed.
Finn ran to her, grabbing her shoulders and looking her up and down, making sure that she really was all right.
“I believe you said something about a plan,” Santana said pointedly, tapping her foot.
“I did indeed, young lady. There is something I’ve been looking for all night but I can’t seem to find it. If one of you can locate it, then I just might be able to exercise some control over the poor lost souls of my students.”
“Just tell us what it is! I know we can find it!” Finn declared confidently.
“My conducting baton. I can’t seem to find it anywhere.” A wistful expression passed over her face. “Oh, we made such beautiful music, she and I.”
Mike turned to Sam and mouthed, “She?” Sam shrugged.
Rachel, predictably, took charge. “All right, we need to split up so we can cover more ground. We should be okay now that we know the ghosts can’t hurt us. Mike? Sam? You two search the choir room. Tina? Artie? You check all the rooms backstage. Puckerman? Finn? Check the Spanish room. Rory? Joe? Search the teacher’s lounge. Mercedes? Santana? Investigate the basement storage under the stage.”
“And what will you be doing, praytell?” Santana glowered.
“Uh, I will be…holding down the fort. Someone has to stay here in case someone finds something. Or the others come back.”
“Oh, hell no! All day you have been ordering everyone around, making sure you never have to get your hands dirty. I’m sick of it. Why don’t you search the filthy, dank basement this time Princess and I will wait for Brittany to come back. If it’s going to be anyone, it should be me.” Santana stared down the tiny brunette, silently daring her to disagree.
“Th-that works too. Mercedes?” Rachel held out an arm and Mercedes linked her arm through it.
“Um, did you forget about me?” a voice called out from just behind one of the curtains.
“Quinn!”
“Where have you been?”
“I was backstage. Actually being useful. Since no one’s phones seem to be working we need a way to communicate.” She held up a handful of plastic and wires. “I found the stage crew supplies. Should be enough for each group to take a headset and radio.”
“Quinn, you genius!” Rachel declared, throwing her arms around Quinn and planting a kiss on her cheek. Quinn turned pink and cleared her throat.
—
“Brittany, we got the door open. We can go back to the auditorium now,” Kurt said gently, still rubbing comforting circles into her back.
“I can’t,” Brittany whispered. “Not yet.”
“Why?” Kurt asked.
“We need my spellbook.”
“Where did you leave it?” Blaine’s voice was so gentle.
“I hid it in one of the stalls. For safekeeping. Here, I’ll show you.” Brittany rose to her feet and carefully counted the stalls until she seemed to have located the one she wanted. Kurt and Blaine crowded into the stall behind her; Kurt looked around in confusion, not seeing a book anywhere. Brittany grasped the porcelain cover of the toilet tank and wrenched it off. She shoved it at Blaine, who wrinkled his nose but took it without protest. Inside of the tank, was a large leather-bound book. Brittany clapped her hands in delight and pulled the dripping book out.
“Brittany, it’s soaked,” Kurt pointed out, as gently as he possibly could.
“Well, there’s no way I could have known that would happen,” she replied dismissively.
“Actually, I—” Blaine started, but Kurt shook his head. There was no point.
Blaine replaced the lid gingerly and then immediately went to the bathroom sink to wash his hands. Kurt hoped the suds would not summon any more ghosts.
Together, they patted the book down with paper towels as best they could. Brittany cracked open the book, flipping the pages until she found the one she was looking for.
“Can you still read it?” Blaine asked nervously.
“Mostly,” Brittany said brightly.
Kurt could only hope that it would be enough.
—
Static crackled. “Come in, Frankenteen. Are you there, Frankenteen? Over.”
“Sam, no one else is on this channel. I told you there is no need for pseudonyms,” Santana barked.
Sam’s voice replied, “You’re supposed to say ‘over’ when you’re done talking, Santana! Over.”
“If she had left me in charge, I would remember to say ‘over,’” Rachel commented.
Mercedes just shook her head in disgust. She turned on her flashlight and crept deeper into the basement and wondered why she had ended up with the worst assignment and the worst partner.
Rachel, of course, screamed every time they found an animal floating in formaldehyde or a particularly odious theater costume. Mercedes’ nerves were frayed near to their breaking point.
“Oh my god, what do you think this could be?” Rachel called out.
Mercedes grumbled but dutifully joined her partner. Rachel had found a dusty wooden box labeled, ‘ Do not open.’
“Clearly, someone doesn’t want us finding out,” Mercedes responded.
“Wait! Look at this.” Rachel blew the layer of dust off the top of the box to reveal another word. Mercedes coughed a few times and then peered at the box. It wasn’t a word; it was someone’s initials.
L.S.A.
Mercedes traced the letters a few times. “L. S. A. Rachel! Do you think this box belonged to Lillian Adler?”
Rachel gasped. “It must have! We have to open it!”
Rachel pulled the box off of the shelf and settled it on an empty folding chair. Mercedes wasn’t sure what she thought might be in the box, but she took a step back.
For a moment, nothing happened. The lid of the box came off and revealed a very ordinary collection of personal mementos. Mercedes could see old Glee Club programs, photographs, ticket stubs.
Then she couldn’t see the box at all because bright, shimmering figures began to surround the box. The ghosts gathered in a circle around the box, their numbers growing quickly. Rachel leapt back, shivering at the coldness of the spirits passing through her. “Not again,” she muttered under her breath.
“It must be in there,” Mercedes insisted.
Rachel nodded gravely. “Lillian Adler said it had the power to control the ghosts. That must be why they came. We have to get that box.”
Mercedes shook her head. She absolutely did not want to get any closer to those ghosts but her friends needed her and Rachel had already dealt with the ghosts twice. It was her turn. She gritted her teeth and threw herself into the circle of ghosts, grabbing the box in both hands. She gasped and nearly dropped the box. She felt as if she had been plunged into a bathtub of ice water and for a moment, she forgot how to breathe.
Yank.
She was free. Rachel had pulled her out by the back of her jacket.
“Thanks.”
“Run!”
—
Santana was starting to regret staying behind. No one had spoken over the radios in five minutes and she was equal parts bored and creeped out.
Then, she heard the rhythmic thudding of running feet on carpet, growing louder as they grew closer.
“Santana!”
Brittany burst into view, followed closely by Kurt and Blaine, running hand in hand. Santana jumped off the stage and met them halfway, wrapping her arms around Brittany and swinging her around in a circle. Brittany’s hands found her cheeks and her lips found Santana’s own; she breathed in the sweetness of her favorite person in the world and breathed out relief at having her back in her arms. Suddenly remembering that they weren’t alone, she set Brittany back down.
“You tell, you die,” she said sharply, glaring at Kurt and Blaine. Blaine looked suitably alarmed and Santana already trusted Kurt not to blab. Satisfied, she relaxed her expression and gave them a smile.
“Where’s the new light? Didn’t you two go to Home Depot?”
“No! We’ve been locked in the lobby this whole time.”
“Did you at least make out?”
“I-”
“We-”
The boys were too flustered to get more than a few syllables out.
Santana smirked. “Well, I think that answers my question. Well done. Took you long enough.”
Static crackled over the headset and Rachel’s annoying voice came through, far louder than it needed to be. “We found something!”
“Berry, my ears!” Santana complained.
“We’re on our way but we’re not alone. The, uh, the ghosts seem very interested in whatever we found.”
Santana jumped into action, instructing the rest of the Glee Club to rendezvous back in the auditorium and calling out to Lillian Adler, who had floated up near the catwalk.
One by one, each member of New Directions burst in through one of the entrances to the auditorium. Last to arrive, Mercedes and Rachel came tearing up the stairs followed closely by a roiling mass of ghosts. Blaine jumped into Kurt’s arms in terror. Santana decided not to tell them the ghosts couldn’t harm them just yet. This way was funnier.
Lillian Adler soared in a large spiral, soundlessly clapping her hands together. “Yes, oh, yes! I can feel it.”
Mercedes dropped the box as if it were burning her hands and kept running, Rachel at her side, until they were well past the ghosts, who began to circle the box.
Lillian Adler dove straight into the hurricane of ghosts. For a moment, Santana feared that they had somehow consumed her. After all, Lillian had never said that the ghosts couldn’t hurt one another. But then, triumphant, she emerged with her baton in hand. It was the first object the ghosts had been able to touch. It glowed faintly in her hand. She tapped it on the edge of a music stand and the ghosts froze. She cleared her throat. “Students! Gather, please, it is time for rehearsal.”
Spellbound, the ghosts floated into orderly lines and began to sing scales.
“How?” Santana blurted out.
“I was the choir director here for thirty-six years. For thirty-six years, young people opened themselves up to joy and this little stick has been soaking it up. Ended up with a lot of power.”
“Now what?” Rachel asked. “That’s great that you have them singing instead of wailing but our auditorium is still full of ghosts. We’re supposed to be having a haunted house here in—” she checked her watch, “— thirty minutes !”
Lillian Adler cackled with laughter. “Young people really haven’t gotten any cleverer, have they?”
“There’s no need to be so rude,” Rachel snapped.
“You’re telling me that in order to raise money for Regionals, you need to make this auditorium as terrifying as possible so the people who come through will tell all their friends to come and you want me to get rid of the ghosts ?!”
“I…oh… oh! Do you think you can get them to behave?”
Lillian Adler scoffed and gestured at her choir of ghosts who were now singing Superfreak in perfect three-part harmony.
“This is going to be the best haunted house ever!” Puckerman yelled.
Five Hours Later
“We’re rich!”
“This is enough money to get us to Regionals and Nationals.”
“We have to qualify first, don’t jinx it.”
The members of the New Directions high-fived and hugged, satisfied that for once a fundraiser had gone well.
Kurt cleared his throat. “Not to put a damper on things, but… the auditorium is still full of ghosts. And I don’t see Lillian Adler anywhere.”
Kurt was right. While they seemed less agitated than before, the ghosts were very much still there, circling up near the rafters.
“That’s why I brought this,” Brittany declared, holding out a slightly damp book. “It’s the spellbook I used to summon Ms. Adler in the first place. I think there’s a section on banishing.”
The New Directions crowded around Brittany as she paged through the book, searching for the right page. “Uh oh. I was worried about this.”
“What is it?” Kurt gulped.
Brittany read from the book. “In order to permanently extinguish a haunting, the spirit must first resolve any uncompleted tasks that may be keeping the spirit stuck in The In Between. While a simple exorcism will often temporarily rid you of a haunting, the ghost is likely to return so long as it has not Moved On. ”
“Are you telling me these ghosts have unfinished business?” Sam squawked.
“Exactly right.” Lillian Adler floated through the wall and joined their conversation.
“Oh now she shows up,” Rachel groaned.
“Hush! The truth is that these poor singers never got to perform at Regionals. There was a horrible bus accident on the way there. Terrible business. Ten killed. I myself was in the hospital for several weeks.”
“Are you telling me we have to perform with a ghost choir at regionals? Badass!” Puckerman pumped his fist.
“We can’t bring ghosts to regionals!” Rachel protested. “The audience will be terrified.”
“Only if they don’t think the ghosts are simply very convincing special effects. And I think we proved here tonight that you can show real ghosts to hundreds of people and have them leave none the wiser.”
“We’re going to have to completely rewrite our set list,” Kurt pointed. “But it’s doable. We just need to make it part of the theme.”
“When has needing to rewrite the set list at the last minute ever stopped us,” Finn reminded him. “I think this is just the fresh new edge we need to make it all the way to Nationals.”
Tina pulled out her iPod and began scrolling. Her eyes lit up.
🎵I was struck by lighting, walkin' down the street
I was hit by something last night in my sleep
It's a dead man's party, who could ask for more
Everybody's comin', leave your body at the door
Leave your body and soul at the door🎵
The ghosts immediately joined in. With Finn, Blaine, and Artie still in full zombie makeup, the effect was quite powerful.
Lillian Adler surveyed the scene on the stage as she conducted her ghosts through their impeccable choreography. While she hadn’t managed to get rid of that horrible director, she had accomplished a lot tonight. Kurt and Blaine finally admitted their feelings to one another; she chuckled to herself in amusement, hardly believing that she’d had to go so far as to lock them in together before they finally figured it out. Santana was getting closer to feeling ready to open up to the Glee Club. The New Directions earned enough money to make it to Regionals. And best of all, her dear, dear students would finally be able to rest. And with that, her own unfinished business would finally come to a close. She was satisfied with the knowledge that it would be her last Halloween stuck In Between. She smiled as Blaine shyly took Kurt’s hand and spun him around. She hoped they would never know the pain of being apart from one another. She was looking forward to seeing her own dear Jane again very soon.
🕸The End🕸
Author's Note: Happy Halloween, Everyone!! That's a wrap on the third annual "Frankenfic."
Thank you to all of the creative authors who shared their talents and collaborated so wonderfully to create this story. I hope you are as proud of what we were able to create together as I am. It was really fun figuring out how to tie it all together!
Thank you for reading this story! I hope you will take a moment to leave a comment and let us know what you thought.
The song referenced in this chapter was "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo.
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Women’s History Month: Classic Female Authors
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.
But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
'Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart...'
Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.
This is the first volume of the “Beloved Trilogy.”
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
#fiction#women's history month#classics#female authors#historical fiction#strong female characters#strong female protagonist#Library Books#Book Recommendations#book recs#reading recommendations#Reading Recs#to read#Want To Read#TBR pile#tbr#Booklr#book tumblr#book blog#library blog
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IV. Yours Forever
A/N: I know, I know. It's been a bit. I have this story planned; It took a bit to figure out how I wanted to write it. And I finally figured out that instead of going in one fluid line, past to present, I'm going to jump back and forth and even do flashbacks. I think it will make the story less difficult to write.
So, this chapter takes place October 1 st , 2001, approximately 44 years, 2 months, and 27 days (excluding the end date) since Royce and Emily's murders and then it jumps back to February 1955 when our ghostly lovers are alive and fifteen.
WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Sappy romantic stuff between two teens (alive and dead), violence, and language.
Also, some hints of Emily's ability are given in this chapter
The song Emily is playing on the piano in this chapter is "The Portrait" by James Horner. It fit with the emotions I was trying to convey in this chapter.
The Present
"Em!" Royce was about to lose what was left of his sanity if his sweet doll did not manifest her ectoplasmic behind into his sight within the span of the next five minutes. "Emmy! Where did you go?!"
He'd been looking for her for an hour. She never strayed too far away from him. As he slowly began to descend into his thoughts, trying to recall anything he might have said or done to upset her, he was saved from the black hole of his mind by a humming.
A small orb appeared in the clearing in front of him.
One of Emily's purple butterflies. They consisted entirely of glowing purple light and hummed a sweet tune he could not place, and she could manifest them and cause them to disappear at will. This one was clearly trying to lead Royce to her, so he followed the tiny creature to an area he knew very well.
Emily sat before their shared tombstone, large, and made of shining black granite, situated beneath the largest – and only – weeping willow tree in all Crescent Valley.
He observed the words he could see from his vantage point.
Royce Matthew Clayton
April 2 nd , 1940 – July 4 th , 1957
And right next to him on the stone
Emily Alice Clayton
April 8 th , 1940 – July 4 th , 1957
"It was sweet of our parents to have us legally married after we died, huh?"
He took a seat behind her on the grass and pulled her into his lap, nuzzling his face into her hair, the silky strands feeling like heaven against the torn skin of his face.
"We were engaged, kitten," he nipped at her neck gently. "And we were hardly ever apart."
"I think that horrendous fourth was the only time in three years we'd ever been apart."
"I still can't believe Emilia really thought that Johnny would have it in him to kill someone," Royce shook his head, remembering the pained expression on his enemy's face as the heat of the flames licked at him as he had struggled to free Royce from the wreckage of his car. "After I helped him clean up the mess he made of Ricky, we came to an uncomfortable truce of sorts."
At the mention of her, Emily's small face darkened, her fingers clenching in the material of her skirt. Eerie violin music echoed through the air as the wind picked up, the earth almost seeing to roll beneath them.
"Easy, kitten," he tightened his grip, pressing his lips to her temple as he spoke. "You don't want to cause another storm."
She took a deep, unnecessary breath before settling back against him and looking out at the field below them as Royce began to play with a strand of her hair, curling it around his finger before releasing it and then repeating the motion.
It had always been one of his favorite things to do.
February 20th, 1955
March Mansion
Crescent Valley, Ohio
Royce watched from the chaise as Emily's fingers glided gracefully over the ivory keys of her parents' piano, one of her black curls escaping from her pinned hair and brushing against her cheek. Occasionally, she would pause to write something in the musical staffs in the open book in front of her before going right back to it.
He didn't know why she was fixing it. It sounded beautiful.
"Thank you," his eyes grew a bit wide when he realized he must have spoken out loud without meaning to. She turned to face him. "But its not quite perfect yet."
She patted the bench next to her.
"I'm not going to bite you now that we're dating, you know."
He stood up and glanced around before walking over and taking a seat beside her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. She smiled softly at him, giving him a sweet, featherlight kiss on his lips, before returning to her task. His heart fluttered against his ribs like a hummingbird at the gesture.
To distract himself from his wandering thoughts, Royce reached up and unpinned her hair, the black waves of hair falling to rest above her shoulders. He began to play with one of the strands, curling and uncurling it from his finger as he tried not to stare at her face.
He was so ridiculously in love with the girl next to him. She could ask him for the moon, and he would do whatever it took to obtain it for her. Emily would never ask him to do such a thing, of course, because she was a logical person who knew such a feat was impossible. But even so, Royce would give her the world if she desired it. Even as children, he could never say no to her. And she seemed to be the only person on the entire planet that could get him to calm down when he lost his temper.
Everybody else just got the hell out of the way.
But not his Emmy. No. She wasn't afraid of him like everybody else. Even his own parents strived not to upset him if they thought it could be avoided.
Movement from the entryway to the room drew his gaze where he met the enraged eyes of Emilia March. He merely rolled his own and went back to what he was doing, seeing her turn and storm off out of his peripheral vision.
"She's not happy."
Emily did not look up or stop playing as she spoke.
Royce shrugged and continued playing with her hair.
"Are you happy?"
That one drew him up short and he looked at her.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye but merely shrugged and continued what she was doing until his hand stopped hers and made her look at him.
"Answer the question please," he gripped her chin gently with his thumb and index finger. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
She shook her head and looked down, making him sigh and cup her small face between his hands.
"You have no idea," he shook his head with a disbelieving chuckle. "No concept at all of how devastatingly perfect you are."
She shook her head. "Stop."
"It's true, Emily. You know," he paused briefly before continuing. "Johnny has a crush on you," the words leaving his mouth had hatred curling in his gut, but he bit it back. They had hated each other for years over a girl. Being on opposite sides of society did not help, of course, but Emily was the root cause. "Several of my teammates." All of whom valued their limbs and quality of life over their desires, luckily for them. "Point being, you don't see yourself clearly at all, kitten."
Her bright green eyes penetrated his blue ones as he continued.
"I could live a thousand years and never deserve you, Emily," she reached up and rested her hand on his cheek. "But I am so grateful you were willing to give me a chance to try, despite the fact that I am a mess of pride and rage - "
She surprised him when she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, the hand on his cheek sliding around to tangle in the hair on the back of his head, her sweet kisses saying more than any words could. And Royce was okay with that.
A/N: Yes, yes, I know. I am sorry it took so long. But honestly, the lack of interest shown in this story by others kind of robbed me of inspiration for a bit. But a PM I got the other day rekindled it, so here this chapter is.
Reviews are appreciated.
#13 ghosts#thir13en ghosts fanfiction#13 ghosts fanfiction#thir13en ghosts#royce clayton#royce clayton and emily march#where butterflies never die#1950s
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Find the Word Tag
Thank you for the tag @space-cadead
Pulled from Phagophobia once again:
Tea & Stark (from the same scene!)
Making no sound over the whistle of the wind through the canyon’s boulders, the silhouette approached the headlights until they materialized into full detail. The stranger’s features had the same sort of sharpness a falcon’s did: all streamlined angles, unflinching intensity, and a stark beauty that offered no comfort to the lesser creatures they preyed on. Thick black hair, shaved on one side and sweeping down just past their pointed chin on the other, did nothing to soften the effect. No makeup decorated their deep golden-brown skin. No ink, no mods, no scars, no beard or mustache. Their maroon parka suited the weather, and was outfitted with plenty of pockets for ammunition, handheld weapons, and other nasty surprises.
None of that made the primitive part of Isaac’s brain rear up and hiss like the sudden grin that slashed across the stranger’s face. He didn’t count too many teeth in it, though they were a little long from receded gums maybe. Slightly crooked in the bottom row too, and off-white from drinking coffee or tea, just like millions of other people’s across the States and surrounding territories. Neither of those logical observations convinced his instincts he hadn’t stepped within mauling range of a predator displaying dominance.
Mint
I don't have this one, so I'll share a fun fact as user marinesocks suggests. The first werecreatures Isaac ever met after becoming a Coven agent were mountain lions. They were part of a community that had set up in a mid-sized city ruin out west. Mint was definitely one of the many things they had growing in the rooftop gardens they'd planted.
Droop
This one's absent too. Coven HQ is in Confluence, Ohio. The city used to be called Columbus, but it was finally changed a few decades after the break (when California sank into the ocean). People voted to use one of the names originally suggested during its founding since it's close to a lot of rivers.
Light
For a second, Isaac thought they meant the botched kidnapping. Then he realized they had to be referring to the other horrific event he’d somehow survived. He lifted a hand, meaning to press it to his aching head, before remembering he was holding something. Uncurling his fingers, he found a jumbled rosary piled in his palm. Raising an eyebrow at St-Ange, he held it up so the blue glass beads sparkled even in the subdued light.
“Faith can ward off some of the side effects of bloodborn feedings.” They gave a one-shouldered shrug. “We figured it might help, if you were a believer.”
Once again leaving an open tag. For anyone interested, your words are: coil, wing, chew, fish, and track.
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Killer Fish #1:
2000s Christian Metal
cleaning out some drawers, i rediscovered this album today. unfortunately, the cd and front cover have been lost somewhere in my house (hopefully). but it reminded me of a subgenre, or really a movement, that i hadnt considered fully before.
i found this cd in the basement of an odd store, half of which is a Moon Pie General Store, where you could find anything moonpie related as well as typical tourist junk. however, the other part of this business is a christian book store. on the main floor they sold new books. past the selections of bibles and christian novels/self help/anything, past the surprisingly funny secular selections of diary of a wimpy kid and Five Nights at Freddys novels, and past the section of childrens entertainment, there is a GIGANTIC basement.
scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net
scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net
im not sure where the basement items they sold at a discounted price came from. it was like flea market levels of unsold stock. im talkin odd sh*t. at points they had 18+ erotica from the 90s, some Star Wars Episode 1 merch i regret not buying, 14 billion copies of a political hate book about president Obama, and of course a shit ton of cds. ive found suprisingly obscure and amazing books there, but thats not what this is about.
sometime maybe 2020-2021 i found this cd for 3 bucks. being an edgy teen with a hatred of Christianity, i was enthralled to find such a cd with the album name "buried alive." at a time in my life where i had limited to no internet access but blossoming music taste (and an impressive cd collection), I listened to this shit SO MUCH. heres one of my favs.
youtube
(sorry, wish i could find a better site to link their music, but the only site they seemed to upload to was myspace, and for some reason the site is broken, idk im not familiar with myspace)
The band Inhale Exhale was a semi popular american metal(core) group, hailing from Ohio. and like so many independent rock bands with the best music youve ever heard, they promptly disbanded with only a few albums under their belt.
R.I.P inhale exhale, 2005 - 2013.
its that yummy yummy mix of metal, emo, melodic hardcore, and probably countless other labels (can you tell i have a distaste for genres?) that rocked the scene in the 2000s to early 2010s, around a time when the Jesus Freak Movement had revived and infused its 70s hippie values into the grungey, edgy and dark undertones of the late 90s-00s, delivering the gospel with a unabashed punch. truly of another era, an era i wish i had experienced. i think this was the first "metal" music i ever listened to on my own, but i found out just today that they were in fact a christian metal band.
this year ive been really into metal related music. but ive also been really into the concept of christianity. my family, really my entire community ive been raised in is "christian". going to "christian" schools, having only christian "friends", adult role models who were "christian", its always been about salvation and damnation. as i became a teenager, i evolved into a creature who despised this religion, for many good reasons im sure ill talk on another time, but also pure teenage rebellion. studying the bible this year (as a part of my last year in.. you guessed it... a christian school) has been oddly eye-opening. maybe ive matured since i last cracked open the holy bibbel. but ive found myself debating the idea of it. at its core, it seems to my mind to be the best sounding religion out there. what i love most is the rich story and the themes of love, redemption, brokenness, true evil and true good; they resonate with me.
christian metal really hits the spot. the themes i have deep history with, pared with the aggression and beauty of the screams and rage filled melodic guitar riffs, as well as my personally over powering, nostalgic/anmoiac obsession for the 00s and early 10s creates a great mix. its a movement of music i wish i could be present in.
and why did christian metalcore decline in popularity into the 10s and 20s? im sure theres not an easy answer. i mean, look at popular christian music and culture today. its
so.
BLAND.
so void of life and culture, void of our beautiful human qualities. they speak the same, often hateful, script; they water down the thought provoking concepts and stories of their religion, and they try to remove what they think isnt acceptable. a lot of these christian metalcore groups have abandoned their roots, stating their disagreements with Christianity, which of course is valid.
hey, im still not sold on christianity, im still learning. everyone has their own free will to find what idealogies or lack thereof to believe in. so i mean no hate
i do feel though, in certain circumstances perhaps, this says something disturbing abt modern christianity. its mindnumbing. its boring. its really sad and honestly, with how perfected it appears to be, its f*cking ugly.
it also seems to connect with the way life today just dosent hit like it used to, and i know im not alone in my age group thinking this. there seems to be a blandness encroaching on our art and lives today. in the music, films, internet; a corporatization and general simplification of our art has been slowly killing us.
i long for a time when christians could death growl about god. but honestly, this can be done today if we really try. fuck modern christianity, fuck modernism in general; this isnt just for the christians. go nuts. scream, riot, portray your truths how you want to, dont follow some guideline.
i might have gotten out of hand with this post, i dont want to get to philosophical here. i guess thats what this blog is for though. christian metalcore is really cool tho, check it out. you might be surprised how many popular metal bands from that era had ties to christianity. ill include some recommendations, or you can search it out yourself.
have a punk ass day,
-nikki
(yeah i decided to use my current name, fuck it)
some bands:
A Plea For Purging.
Shiver.
Heart of a Child.
The Fall.
Malevolence.
Underoath.
Norma Jean.
For Today.
Impending Doom.
Wolves At The Gate.
Phinehas.
Midst of Lions.
Demon Hunter.
killer fish.
#emo#early 2000s#90s#rant#tumblog#nu metal#metalcore#christcore#christianity#christian broadcasting network#christian metal#jesus freak#underoath#inhale exhale#demon hunter#rock#Spotify#Youtube
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Okay, I wasn't online at all really yesterday. Ok, I lied, I was, but I was not doing anything. Because I was watching The Devil in Ohio on Netflix. Never read the book, but I loved the TV Series, it was really good. But I finished the CARRD for @panicasatanica , just got to get the bios written up now. And , finish creating the last page, but you all can go take a look at him Here ----> http://satanicpanicc.carrd.co/# and add His Tumblr here -----> http://www.tumblr.com/panicasatanica . He is a Side Blog to Alexis here, and he will belong in The Supernatural Verse. But be warned, he isn't going to be anything like what you all see Demons and Supernatural creatures like in the show. He is a Satanic Priest and a Cult Leader, who made a deal with The Devil. Anyhow, I will be working on Drafts today, for sure.. <3 <3 Love you guys, remember that you alll are Beautiful, Your Creative, and You are so very important & Special. You all are Amazing.
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#black veil brides#scarlet cross#andy biersack#andy black#beautiful ohio creatures#black veil army#music is medicine#music is my drug#music is therapy#music#on my playlist#lyrics i love
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Transition
What a week. Has it only been a week? It's been a week since Ive moved from Wisconsin to Ohio, and it's been one of the best weeks of my life. It's like, I won the boss fight on Dark Souls…these bosses are NOT easy. No, it's more than that…I'm at peace.
I have spent a year working on myself. A lifetime battle of mine dwindled down to a year of consistent and hard work.The work that makes you see ALL parts of yourself- the good and the bad. The really good and the really bad too. A year of figuring out what my boundaries were, and actually sticking to them. A year reconnecting with people that I never thought I could, and finding out they are beautiful people too. A year of getting rid of anything toxic to my growth, and realizing the blunt reality of things. A year of learning how to accept things I can not change, and understanding that I am enough as I already am. A year of crying, kicking, screaming, isolating, and fighting…when all I had to do was to accept people, places, and things for who and what they currently are, and understand that it's okay if they don't line up with me. Do I believe people can change? Absolutely…BUT….they have to want it for themselves first and foremost. If a specific person is reading this…thank you for that lesson. I never knew how that would be a catalyst into the best part of my life. There was a person in my life that wasn't scared to be blunt and honest with me during our friendship. I wasn't ready to hear or accept it. I heard you and got to work. So, thank you. I'm so sorry for all the chaos I drug you through.
During this week, I have learned things about my family I never knew. I've got to sit in the back of my own car, and have my sister in law drive me to her house …because I live there now- not because it's the closest to Columbus Airport. I got to watch a movie with my family. Not just any movie…my favorite movie. I got to drive to my new job, Hospice Massage Therapist/Activity Director, and that's a 2 minute drive. I got to be greeted by people I haven't met, and they STILL said I have this light that shines bright, and they are so excited to have me on the team. I got to do a yoga pose with my papaw. I got to have a conversation with my mother that was 10 years overdue. I have been exposed to the show Big Brother…and I still don't get it LOL! But I get to spend time with Zachary figuring it out. I got to listen to new music with my aunt.I got to learn that my uncle is still working 48 hours a day. My sister Jess was even there in spirit. I felt her when all 11 of us were sitting on the porch…she was there. She was there clapping her hands, she was there when we lifted the lanterns too. She’s always here. We miss you Jess. I could go on and on and on…. I'm so glad to be home. It really is the little things in life that mean so much, and I'm sorry it took me so long to figure that out.
I think the crying will eventually stop. Crying from being so damn happy when the things I've envisioned happening for years…have finally happened. Moving back to Ohio was the best decision I've made in a very long time. Chunk and Chee are happier too. They have new sights, sniffs, and sounds to explore. My cats saved me too. I wish they knew how much. I think they do. Animals are incredible creatures.
So, here's to this week- I start my new career. I'm a hospice massage therapist. I have 14 patients, and 148 residents to watch over with an incredible team. I can't tell you readers enough how incredibly lucky I am to have found this career. This career found me. Jess showed it to me actually. She grew up with nurses and aides in our home her entire life…she had a hospice massage therapist. This was before I even knew a hospice massage therapist was a thing. Thank you sister, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You taught me how to love again, how to put others before myself, how to give without expecting something back, how to treasure all the precious moments life has to offer someone, how to keep moving even when I can't move, and how to trust the right people. My sister is with me during every client I have…and will continue to be the reason I do what I do everyday moving forward. I love you past the end of the earth. Thank you. Thank you a million times. I love you.
Ohio. Here we go, my old friend.
“My emotions need to be as educated as my intellect. It's important to know how to feel, how to respond, and how to let life in so it can touch you.”- Victoria Bloom.
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fun fact, i live in a swamp.
no, it doesn’t smell bad. when you get to the swampy areas there are cypress trees in the water that put of the smell really good.
the marshes near the salt and brackish water that smell like the pluff mud from which the sweetgrass grows. it smellls like dead sea creatures and works like quick sand and the more tou struggle the more you sink. simply do not walk on it. i have literally never in all my years.
anyway, living in a swamp is cool. there are all sorts of creatures and plants. you can find and hunt for food. i wouldn’t go swimming in it (don’t die from brain eating amoeba or gators pls. take florida level precautions bc it’s not that that different in coastal neigboring states).
we also have lots of swamp themed/related events. my favorite is the hell hole swamp festival, a bomb community event where everyone comes out for essentially a swampy country fair (no rides or funnel cakes but like barbeque and cake and children’s games, and child school choirs, and fun competions. Its also home of the Hell Hole Gator Run, a 10 K. The Hell Hole Talent Show is great too. Just community members of all ages putting on performances and a dinner. If you are from the lowcountry come check it out. we admittedly can be a bit insular, but bring a friend or family and you’ll intergrate right in. express interest in them, their culture, and the geographic area and they will be happy to share.
there are state parks specifically so people can enjoy there time in said swamp. the Santee Canal park has a nature museum that’s pretty cool. you can learn about the ecology of the area and the flora and fauna there in. knowing how to navigate the swamp help the US win the revolutionary war (they didn’t have immunity against malaria and probably got attacked by gators like today’s clueless and or ignorant tourists to the southeast US. like don’t get piss drunk in an area that has deadly wild life and don’t think you’re city smarts apply in nature. they don’t. listen to locals. also don’t screw around with the gators??? we have tourists who pelt them with stones. they are opportunistic hunters who often don’t even mess with you unprompted most of the time. they are important to the enviroment and tourist foolishness can get them put down/ euthanized).
i realize i keep pointing out how deadly it can be, but urban places like NYC, Philly, Los Angelos, and Chicago have their potentially deadly issues, just different ones. still places worth visiting and respecting.
but basically, i live in a swamp and it’s great actually. i often feel like Shrek when people come here to live and disrespect the area. it’s a beautiful place, ecologically important, has events you can’t find in urban areas, people (left and right politically) care about ecological preservation (hunters and fisherman are on board). don’t disrespect the swamp because the swamp WILL disrespect you.
also don’t try to make it new york city or columbus. (becuse its usually and ohian. they are gentrifying the area and promoting “development” that ruins the natural beauty and ecological important cites that the locals take a lot of pride in and are essential to our way of life. literally stay in Ohio if you can’t intergrate into rural/ small towns in southeast states, deadass. i get so angry, no joke. i love my home and my swamp. the state most hated by south carolinians is ohio and there is a reason for that.)
in the words of shrek which often echo in my head:
“what are you doing in MY Swamp?!!!”
i like it here, you should totally visit and drop you preconceptions to best enjoy the experience, and be on your toes and your best behavior if you are an ohian, because most of us already hate all things ohio and will may mess with you if you have an ohio tag on your car and tick them off on the road for diving rudely or insulting said swamp, and our preferred “lack” of development. We feel about it like shrek did tbh. we want to live in south carolina, not ohio /srs.
#ohio#lowcountry#swampcore#swamp#south carolina#southern pride#but not in the white supremacy/confederate sort of way#the thing is most of us (imo) are proud southerners not just the racist people#i am never setting foot in ohio such have the ohians in south carolina have contributedd to my dislike of ohio#please go home#this got of topic but just know south carolinians are thinking it#i am fine with immigration except ohio and people with negative views about the south and southerners#/hj but also /srs#like i am a Black nonbinary Lesbian who is part of a minority ethinic group in the southeast (Gullah Geechee people)#/srs#lol#i don't claim indigeniaity to say our land but arguably could as it is a part of our culture and blood due to the Seminole#we have beef (bc some of the held us Gullah people as slaves) but have also allied in wars against white colonizers#we have also intermixed racially#idk my percentages if any but bc of the slavery thing i likely would not claim it#the main settlement the formed was in florida which half of my family is from#but maybe i should amke amends and take pride in my floridian idenitity lmao#take my rightful place as a proud decendent of florida men and florida women#also learn more about the Seminole and learn about our shared characteristics and history and#have less of a generational chip on my shoulder but idk any#maybe i should make a post#there are so many tags here but they are even less relevant to the post#if you are seminole please dm me bc now i am more curious
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FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Every Now Is a Yes by Kathleen Wade
On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/every-now-is-a-yes-by-kathleen-wade/
RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY
Every Now Is a Yes invites you to step into a metaphorical photographer’s darkroom where the poet has coaxed images, stories and all manner of people to develop and take flesh. Travel with the author across country in a 1950 Chevy, or stand with the poet on a Carolina beach and see the perigee moon kissing the earth. The author teases out the meaning behind an abandoned car on a highway overpass, or a farmer building a “wind phone” on a hillside in Japan. Images come to light and develop in this collection, where each poem leads to the next in a collage of light and shadow. An observer of the everyday, the poet draws a picture by uniting creature and creator, parent and child, beggar and bystander. Every Now Is a Yes tells an intimate story of becoming. #life #poetry #chapbook
Kathleen Wade began writing poetry around age eleven, after inheriting her father’s hand-me-down Olympia typewriter. Her poems have appeared in a number of anthologies, including The Plymouth Writers Group, Ohio Teachers Write, For a Better World, Inside Out:SOS Art Cincinnati, Shelter in This Place: Meditations on 2020, Medium.com, and for several years in the City of Cincinnati’s Neighborhood Poets Laureate Anthology. A non-fiction book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, was published in 2012. A fictional memoir, Perfection, was published in 2018.
PRAISE FOR Every Now Is a Yes by Kathleen Wade
Kathleen Wade’s Every Now Is a Yes is an intimate reflection on the people, places, and experiences that weave the tapestry of who we are, and it chronicles Wade’s brave journey toward saying “yes” to it all. “Everything I have ever done / has prepared me for this,” she writes in “Meditation at the Shoreline.” The poems shimmer with haunting portraits of people who are etched in the poet’s memory – a transgender youth named Leelah, a struggling panhandler at Christmas, and the “ordinary guy” who caused “the third-worst bus crash in US history.” At times, the collection aches for the suffering in the world as the poet quietly utters a prayer to save a sparrow with a broken leg. But these stirring and striking poems are finally about grace. The poem “Like the Sun” reminds us that even when we feel the “rain has thickened the veil,” at that moment, “even then / we shine.”
–Donelle Dreese, author of Organelle and Sophrosyne
Thank you, Kathleen Wade! Your poems are songs for being with in a world which glorifies being against. Whether your poems involve me in moments of glory or cruelty, place me in stories on beaches, porches, or city streets, they inspire me to sing my own Nows into (sacred) Yeses.
–Mary Pierce Brosmer, Founder of Women Writing for (a) Change; author of Women Writing for (a) Change: A Guide for Creative Transformation (2009); and the author of numerous poems and essays.
The opening poem in Kathleen Wade’s poetry chapbook, Every Now is a Yes, lists instructions for developing film in a darkroom—as the “image / shimmers into being,” we are left with one word: “Tremble.” Indeed, the poems in this collection shimmer, take shape, and sharpen into the focused insight of a speaker who has lived her life with careful attention. This poet turns a keen eye toward life influences: her maternal family line, grief about not having biological children (especially daughters), mature marriage, acknowledged “white privilege,” and an abiding appreciation for natural beauty. A complex picture emerges of a woman who cares deeply about humanity and our world. Witness poems about transgender people (and other social justice causes) and tender encounters in nature demonstrate deeply held passion. Wade writes, “Everywhere I have ever been/has brought me here.” This book is art honed to reflect a seeker’s gained wisdom and elevate our appreciation for poetry’s gift of sublime mindfulness.
–Ellen Austin-Li, author of Firefly (2019) and Lockdown: Scenes from Early in the Pandemic (2021), Finishing Line Press
Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #life
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April is... Keep America Beautiful Month!
Check out these nature reads as we celebrate not only Earth Day and Arbor Day, but also Keep America Beautiful Month this April!
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave. This exquisitely designed volume features more than one hundred full-color images that bring the spectacular variety, strangeness, and beauty of fungi to life as never before.
Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy
Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation, showing how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors and wildlife habitats. He asserts that by acting now, we can help preserve our precious wildlife - and the planet - for future generations.
An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In this volume, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted - no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape - she was able to turn to our world's fierce and funny creatures for guidance. Even in the strange and unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship in this collection of essays about the natural world.
#nature#science#nonfiction#reading recs#reading recommendations#book recommendations#book recs#library books#tbr#tbr pile#to read#booklr#book tumblr#book blog#library blog#readers advisory
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In the hot summer of 2020, a mysterious creature has been spotted by locals in the state of Ohio. Witnesses describe the gleaming creature as having a long, slender body, like a snake, and a bright, shining surface that reflects the sunlight like a mirror.
The cryptid, dubbed the "Gleaming Serpent" by locals, has been spotted traveling along the roads of the state, seemingly yearning for something. Every time it passes by an area, people report a feeling of jealousy and envy, as if the creature desires something they have.
This has caused some speculation as to what the creature is searching for. Some believe that it is searching for a mate, while others suggest that it may be looking for a place to call home. Whatever the case, the serpent is mysterious and fascinating to locals who have spotted it.
Local authorities are asking anyone with information on the creature to contact them. They are also warning people to stay away from the gleaming serpent, as it is still unknown what it may be searching for and how it might react if provoked.
The gleaming serpent has become a bit of a local celebrity, with people posting about it on social media and creating art inspired by it. It has become a symbol of mystery and beauty, reminding us all of the incredible creatures that still remain just out of reach.
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