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tamayula-hl · 5 months

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Headcanon about Sebastian and my mc, Sakurako

NOTE ･Sakurako is a Mary Sue-like character with an unrealistic personality. Reading is not recommended if you don't like Mary Sue-like OCs! ･It's very long. To be honest, all the descriptions of Sakurako are nothing more than a product of complacency for me. I am a little embarrassed to disclose my headcanon, which is filled with these particular settings and delusions...😳 ･Read from the top right in Japanese manga style. ･And again, please bear with my poor English🤣

Until admission to Hogwarts

In 1875, Sakurako was born into a former samurai family when the cherry trees (sakura) were in bloom. In Japan, the samurai society was abolished around 1868 and the samurai were forced to take the status of commoners. Sakurako's samurai-turned-commoner father became a successful trader and took young Sakurako and his family to Britain to get serious about the raw silk trade with Britain. (At the time, there was a thriving raw silk trade between the British and Japanese.)

Her father, who had a male-dominated mindset due to his birth in a samurai society, restricted her from academic opportunities that she did not need for a better marriage. Whenever she went out of the house, local children always made fun of her yellow skin. One day, after such a depressing life, with the sudden awakening of her magical powers, Sakurako received her Hogwarts acceptance letter and became a member of the Wizarding World, a place free of sexism and racism, where she had a fateful meeting with Sebastian and formed a warped love with him.

During the relationship quest with Sebastian

In my personal opinion, I consider Sebastian to be a very calculating character. Sebastian initially comes into contact with Sakurako as a means of breaking Anne's curse. Sakurako takes an early liking to the boy, Sebastian, who is very kind and helpful to her in her first time in the wizarding world, but it is around the 'In the shadow of the study' quest that Sebastian begins to take a liking to Sakurako. Having grown up watching her parents become arrogant new rich through their success in the trades, Sakurako has a desire to be a good person who is not conceited by her talents and luck. Impressed by the fact that the wizarding world is free from sexism and racism and that everyone treats her with openness, Sakurako is so excited that she takes on any request from anyone without refusal. Sakurako feels threatened by Sebastian's obsession with the relics after "In the shadow of the study", but she can't refuse Sebastian's request and continues to cooperate with him. Then came the tragedy of 'Avada Kedavra'.

After all is over, Sakurako realises how stupid she has been. She continued to help Sebastian (and the other students) out of kindness and goodwill, but as a result she realised that she was not a good person, but an arrogant monster with no sense of right and wrong. Sebastian's mistakes were all her fault, and she blamed herself from this moment until her death, and she would have lifelong thoughts of 'rewinding time and starting all over again'. Sakurako was deeply in love with Sebastian at this point, but out of remorse she tried to distance herself from him. However, Sebastian forcefully continued to contact Sakurako, confessed his fondness and they began dating.

About relationships

Elsewhere, Sakurako had established a friendship with Anne over a number of correspondence until tragedy struck, which was disrupted by Anne's disappearance after Solomon's death. In my headcanon, Sebastian heard the news of Anne's death in the seventh year, and Sakurako was also deeply saddened and even more remorseful when she heard of her death. Sakurako kept Anne's letters and the last letter she was unable to send to Anne for the rest of her life.

Subsequent relationship with Sebastian Since she and Sebastian have been seeing each other, Sakurako has been constantly worried that the love Sebastian has for her is not genuine love, but an obsession caused by the confusion and trauma of losing Anne. She was aware that their relationship was codependent, not healthy love, yet she spent her days loving Sebastian so much that she could not reject him. She dreads every day that one day Sebastian's love will disappear and he will instead resent her and saying 'Solomon's death was your fault'. When she is in the seventh year and thinking seriously about her future life, she finally decides to break up with Sebastian.

When Sebastian realised that Sakurako was acting strangely and that she wanted to break up with him, he asked her to marry him in The Great Hall at a crowded time, in front of many people watching, in a situation where she could not say 'no'. As per Sebastian's cunning intentions, Sakurako is unable to reject Sebastian and becomes engaged to him. However, even after her engagement, Sakurako's insecurities were not exhausted. Worried that she would never be happy even if she married him in an unhealthy codependent state, Sakurako finally came to her senses and, after secretly returning the engagement ring in Sebastian's bag after the graduation ceremony, disappeared without saying anything to him. Sakurako then went to Japan and spent her days learning about Japanese native magic, which she had long been interested in. However, after about a year, she is discovered by Sebastian. After Sebastian apologises for how selfish he had been, he asks Sakurako to marry him again. After a few days of deliberation and discussion with Sebastian, Sakurako accepts his engagement with a smile.

(This is an Illustration I drew for a previous Twitter post introducing the MC's image song) Afterwards, Sakurako returned to Britain and officially married Sebastian, giving birth to their first daughter the following year, and then to male and female twins the year after that.

About the death of Sakurako Sakurako became Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries shortly after returning to Britain. https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Department_of_Mysteries#Early_history It is official canon in the Wizarding World that the Department of Mysteries conducted time travel experiments in the 1890s and then had a serious time accident in 1899. I have built on this canon to create a head canon in which Sakurako dies in 1899.

Ever since the tragedy of 1890, Sakurako had been harbouring a wish to 'go back in time and do it all over again so that Sebastian would not make the same mistakes'. Then, she is asked by the other Unspeakables to help them with a time travel experiment using her ancient magical powers. She understands that it is a dangerous experiment, but with a strong desire to redo the past, she accepts the request and takes part in the experiment.

Then one day in 1899, Sakurako was involved in a time accident with Madam Mintumble and her existence was lost. The Department of Mysteries determined that she had died in the chasm of time.

When Sebastian heard the news of his wife's death, he despaired violently, but had no time to grieve as he had the three young children Sakurako had left behind to look after. He vowed to raise them well on his own. After his wife's death, Sebastian, who had been active in the outside world as an Auror, moved inside work and, after the twins entered Hogwarts, became a Professor of Charm, watching over his precious children as they grew up.

The consequences for Sebastian and Sakurako I consider an even more specific headcanon for Sakurako: 'She survived only her soul by the power of an ancient magic, losing her memory and trapped in an endless loop of time'.

She loses her memory but somehow survives with only her soul and travels back in time to 1890 with only her soul for her obsessive wish to 'start all over again for Sebastian'. But because she has lost her memory, she ends up repeating the same mistakes and is unable to save Sebastian, despairing and wishing to 'start all over' again. Trapped in the Ouroboros circle of time and tormented by eternal guilt… is the headcanon about her. (I love novels and movies about time leaps and infinite loops… 😳) But I also have two possible outcomes when she is able to escape the endless loop. The first is route A. If Sakurako is able to time leap without losing her memories.

(I like Butterfly Effect soooooo much!!!!!!!!) During that fateful encounter with Sebastian at DADA on her first day of transfer, when he spoke to her after class, she rejected him and said terrible things to him. Sakurako thinks that that tragedy happens because she and Sebastian have become friends, so she tries to save him by making Sebastian hate her… and so the ending goes.

And Route B. If by the power of love she accidentally escapes from the infinite loop and travels back in time to a world 100 years later. (Never mind the details. The power of love is powerful in the Wizarding World, right?)

She is miraculously reunited with Sebastian, who has been surviving and waiting for her return for all of a hundred years… and that is the ending. Having fulfilled his purpose in life, Sebastian soon dies, and Sakurako's soul, weakened by multiple time slips, also ascends.

In any case, Sebastian and Sakurako do not end up completely happy… which is my preference. I love tragic love stories 😂 But it's nice to see these tragic couples having fun in extra episodes and so on!

(The drawing on the left is part of a cartoon I drew when the Sebastian T-shirt was decided to be launched. The drawing on the right is a parody/trace of a meme that used to be popular in Japan)

These are my headcanons on Sebastian and Sakurako! I'm honestly embarrassed to reveal my brain fantasies 😳. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this long post! 😭💓 The following are the Japanese versions!

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy fanart #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow fanart #hogwarts legacy mc

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normal-horoscopes · 2 years

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Do-do you think one of Jones's attorneys "accidentally" sent those out on purpose bc of how much they fucking despise the man and wanna see him burn

We are entering CT Parallel Speculation Mode:

Occam's Razor: "Alex's current lawyer is the 12th in this case. Every last one of them has been an incompetent idiot, brazen sycophant, or both who shot themselves in the foot. There is no reason to consider this any different. Best not to assume intent where incompetence is sufficient."

Expert Counsel: "Legal experts talking about the case have pointed out that the lawyer has repeatedly made 'first year lawyer" mistakes, likely in an explicit and obvious effort to trigger a mistrial. The judge has noticed this, and chastized him for it. There is a possibility that the lawyer is trying to get Jones to fire him, and that this is a gamble that has not payed off."

Unorthodox Speculation: "Legally speaking, this is a special case. Knowing Alex, his refusal to cooperate with the legal process likely also extends to his own attorney. Given that he has systematically denied himself all possible recourse, I can see a lawyer getting frustrated, covering his own ass, and kamikazeing the case to make it end sooner."

Occultist Brain: "Alex is a showman. He knows he's fucked, and I would not put it past him to weaponize his own incompetence in spectacular form for some pathetic attempt to turn his case into a hot button culture war issue. You saw shades of this in his interview with Steve Bannon. He's using his own fuckup to get the case on Tucker Carlson. This would however require a degree of forethought that is uncommon, but not unheard of for Alex. Additionally, Tucker fucking hates Alex, and thinks he's an embarrassment. Alex knows this. This would be a desperate hail Mary on Alex's part."

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canonically47 · 5 months

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my contribution to the TDI fandom: last names

you've heard of gen 1 last names, now get ready for gen 4 last names!

Hezekias ‘Zee’ Abara. abara means spirit and i think it's a name that fits zee a lot

Damien Calvin. 'calvin', as inspired by melvin calvin, an american biochemist

Ripper Marchetti. in italian, marchetti means warlike, and i like to think ripper has some italian heritage!

Bowie Finley. finley = fair-haired hero, and hasn't our fair-haired boy proven to be a knight in shining armour, rescuing raj from tapioca pudding sharks and giving his very best until the finale?

Raj Bhatti

Wayne Curran (Curran = hero. our little guy is badass c'mon!!! also this was of irish descent i think? i can see it)

Chase Cooper. while researching names, for chase, i looked up 'youtuber last names'. one thing led to another, and i discovered some buddy of that annoying ass loser ben shapiro, whose last name was cooper. considering i hate chase (and i love double initials), i thought this would be fitting!

Caleb Campbell. shares his name with a model. no need to go into more detail.

Axel Ectorius (Ectorius = hero in latin. don't tell me you can't see it. also very close to victorious, which i wished for her to be this season *sad emoji*)

Julia Amana. amana means trust, faithful, which is a very ironic name for julia to have, so therefore, a must-have

Mary-Kate ‘MK’ Nghiem. nghiem = stern, strict, rigorous; similarly to julia, MK is not at all what her name represents, so, funny

Nichelle LaDonna (canon name not much to say here)

Emma Baker (both because baker is a simple name to me and i see emma as just a simple girl (just like me fr) and because i could totally see her as a baker)

Priya Chanda (Chanda = of the moon)

Millie Nisim. nisim, as in, miracles, because millie, unprepared and under pressure, still made it to the finale... and because her voice actress also voiced zoey, and both millie and zoey were, coincidentally, the third contestant in their respective debut season

Lauren ‘Scary Girl’ Graves (do i need to explain this?)

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thedeviltohisangel · 21 days

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Sorry for spamming your inbox but have you considered sick John Egan? Specifically, sick pouty John Egan who wants Cass so he shows up at her billet and makes himself comfortable in her bed and Mary telling him to get out and Cass shows up to find Buck trying to forcibly remove him from her bed to go to a Brass meeting

NO ONE EVER APOLOGIZE FOR SPAMMING MY INBOX BECAUSE I LOVE IT!

Pouty John has to be one of the John's that is hardest for her to look away from. Because he already has such plush and kissable lips but now that bottom lip is teasing her from miles away as he pushes it out and towards her in despair.

He (and their eventual children) and very very clingy when they are sick. He becomes a little snuggle bug who just wants the warm embrace of the person he loves and the comfort of her carding her hands through his hair and kissing it all better.

In my mind, Cass and him have basically moved into her private room after their night in the B-17. So he feels miserable and heads there after a briefing and wants to just sleep against her chest for a little while.

Cass comes back from a run and finds Mary standing in the door way shaking her head and Buck is on the verge of throwing some ice water on John's face to get him to wake up because they have another briefing to get to.

"Oh thank God, Lieutenant Cooper maybe you can be of assistance." And Mary sounds like the world has just worn her out today and the snoring log of a man in Cass' bed probably has.

"John, what's wrong?" He's a little flushed and sweaty and she drops to his side and presses a hand to his forehead.

"Don't feel well. Wanted you." And she smiles and Buck knows he has lost this round. Cass kisses John's forehead and grabs a little towel from her closet and starts to dab at his skin.

"Major Cleven, I'm sorry but I don't think Major Egan is up for the afternoon briefing. He's now in my care and I will ensure he is back at full strength as soon as possible."

And John probably opens one eye to wink at Buck before going back to sleep.

#john egan #masters of the air #john egan fanfiction #masters of the air fanfiction #mota #john egan x oc #answered #cass and bucky

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starqueensthings · 1 year

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Crosshair’s Actions

From his perspective, agonizingly pulled from my overly emotional brain.

Mistrust. “How are you feeling?” … “What’s it to you?” … “Cooperate, or he will resort to methods that you will not enjoy.” … “You’ve healed quickly, considering the state you arrived in.” Their guise of concern for him was repulsive, and he had no patience for it. “Why am I here?” A demand, voiced. Answers. He wanted answers.

Realization. “All you have to do is tell me where to find Clone Force-99.” … “They are in possession of something I need.” … “The kid.”

Recollection. A memory. An info dump that, at the time, had been unsolicited and unimportant to their objective. “A state of heightened awareness is not unusual for an enhanced Clone such as herself. When Nala Se spoke of five clones, Tarkin assumed that meant us. But Echo’s a reg. The fifth is Omega. I confirmed my suspicions after analyzing her DNA.”

The Truth. “You’re wasting your time, they’ll never turn her over.” This one-gloved doctor clearly hadn’t done his research. Hunter called the shots, and he was as protective as Wrecker is strong, and as Tech is logical. There wasn’t a force or a promise anywhere in the galaxy that would convince his Sergeant to forfeit the kid. “I don’t know where they are.” Still, the truth. He didn’t. He hadn’t for a long time. And as often as their likeness and the sounds of their voices flickered like ghosts through his mind, the reality was, he was alone.

Defiance. “You know how they think… how they operate… Surely, you have something useful to share?” … “Wrong.” One simple word saturated in refusal, obstinance. He was unyielding. This was a challenge to which he would not concede. He had extensive experience as a lab-rat, try me.

Torture. Was it the warbling of the droid that unnerved him the most? Or was it the needle? Or the diabolical smirk on the doctor’s face? His awareness quickly left him, replaced with pain, terror, agony.

A second realization. “Our orders were to not stop until he talks.” … “He can’t talk if he’s dead.” So that was the limit that they were willing to take it to. How resistant and unyielding could he be? How long could he withstand their interrogative methods until he undoubtedly cracked, damning his brothers and sister to the same horrible fate? The answer was in every debauched, trembling cell in his body: not long.

Desperation. He had to warn them. Immediately. At any cost. But how could he manage it? An opportunity, embodied as unsupervised blaster. “Release me.” … “You can not make it out of this facility. Not in your condition.” Digressive. Redundant. He already knew that. He could barely stand, barely form a coherent word. “Give me your access card.” … “It won’t get you outside. Don’t make this worse, Crosshair. There is no escape.” Again, digressive. He knew this. That was not his goal anymore. The long harboured hope of escape had been abolished; sent to the graveyard in the back of his mind where it could nestle beside his discarded dreams of redemption… and reunion. No. Too many shots were taken, too many bridges set alight and left to burn. Regret.

Determination. If he acted quickly, he could potentially pull it off. One last Hail Mary before the repeated debauchery of his mind sent him over the edge, or into the grave. Stealth could not be an option. He had mere minutes.

A coded transmission. “Plan-88.” One that he knew only his brothers would understand. Immediately followed by an anguished plea. “You have to hide. They’re after Om-” Vapour. A dense toxin filling his lungs, stealing the awareness that he had barely been able to cling to. The diabolical smirk. Nothing.

#this is just my interpretation after rewatching it and sitting on it for a while #it’s totally okay if you disagree #that’s the beauty of a story #the bad batch #tbb #bad batch #tbb spoilers #tbb season 2 #the bad batch spoilers #bad batch season 2 #tbb crosshair #Crosshair tbb #bad batch Crosshair

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nadjaofstatenisland · 9 months

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now that the show's over, top 10 parentdale lines?

I'm actually an idiot and posted the draft last night instead of the ask. Why did no on ask for context.

Anyway I only did 8 but some are more than one line. I also kept it to s1.

"Okay, what is wrong with you people?" "Will you just spare us the middle-class morality? It's not like they were brother and sister." - Hal Cooper, Clifford Blossom (all the dialogue from this scene is gold tbh)

"Slut shaming. It's what they call it when sluts get shamed." - Alice Cooper (iconic and beyond reproach)

"Alice Cooper - no longer lactose intolerant I see." - Hermione Lodge (been haunted by this line for six and a half years what the FUCK does this line mean)

"There's the sticky, dark, dirty truth. Maple syrup. Drown in it why don't you!" - Penelope Blossom (she's literally SO dramatic in this scene especially considering what we find out scenes later happened)

"I'm so sorry to interrupt your adultery, Fred." - Alice Cooper

"You remember our Homecoming, Alice?Hal? Back in the day? Your mom ever tell you about that night? ("Just that she and my dad were king and queen.") "Yeah they were - of hell." - FP Jones (this whole scene is also great but you KNOW this bitch thought he was so clever coming up with this little quip)

"I mean is there not a nice gay kid at your school?" - Tom Keller (#1 ally)

"I didn't realize that you were a polyamorist." "I don't think that's an actual word." - Alice Cooper, Mary Andrews

#parentdale #riverparents #alice cooper #hal cooper #fp jones #hermione lodge #penelope blossom #clifford blossom #sierra mccoy #tom keller #mary andrews

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jaycrakhead · 2 months

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MY OC SQUAD (info and drawings)

Sangria Coyote; Why the name "Sangria"? Besides being a cocktail and sounding goofy, in history or in other laguanges "sangria" means "bloodletting", "bloodshed", "bloodbath", etc... or well in latin means "sanguis" which is blood. So the name is basically "Blood Bath Coyote" or something like that, the association with blood just makes the squad look more lethal which goes along with Zura's quote for the Squad: "Doesn't matter how. We finish the mission." Why "Coyote"? This Squad is meant to be full of Wildcards. Besides normal squad mission (in and out of the Clover Kingdom), the members can be assigned or requested by other Captains to work with the squads frequently. If a member is always assigned to a squad, they can be promoted as an "official Wildcard". The Captain can be a "Grand Wilcard" too. So why "Coyotes" as the animal/symbol of the squad. Soen, which is Zura's spirit, is a canine. Coyotes are highly adaptable predators known for their intelligence and cooperative hunting strategies. Their adaptable nature and opportunistic behavior would likely be considered more of a wildcard nature which goes along with what Zura wanted for a squad. Their behavior is less predictable compared to wolves (which was the second option for the name). So yeah, a lethal coyote gang. Well now the members. The COYOTES.

(Forgot to note that her heels add more to her height as it's obvious so if her height isn't consistent... yeah)

So I didn't draw Touya's cat (Gray) or June's cat (Gingerbread), but Gray has "Sleeping Magic" (doesn't talk like Geister) and Gingerbread is just a normal cat. Anyways, These are an updated version, so here's some notes: -Before Hera becoming a captain together with Zura, her cape had a "round back" like the one Kai's wearing on the sheet, since she was the vice captain. Of course after becoming a captain, she changed for the one with the same back as Zura and Kai changed for the Vice Captain cape. -The outside members (Shau and Linus) have a different rope and Damon has one for his size but it's still different from the regular members' ropes.

-Geister (human) didn't want a rope so he just has the symbol on his suit. -When I created the characters, I gave them mainly madeup or japanese surnames (and some first names too) however I did want to change that... but I also wanted to honour my 15y ass so I kept it... anyways Kai would be Spanish (as the surname can tell ofc); Hera doesn't really have a place where she could be from since she is from the Witches' Forest; Touya would be Finnish; The twins would be Mexican; Geister would be British; Linus would be Belgian; Shau and Damon would be Italian (no they are not related); June doesn't really have a place she would be from;

-Damon, Shau and Linus were recently added to the squad (2022-2023) -Some characters have a "?" on their sexuality, since they aren't straight but don't exactly have a clear definition like Ryu, Touya, Hera and Zura. In other words, it doesn't take a big part... However Shau and Linus are kind of a suspicious duo- -In a possible Timeskip, Damon is the captain of a new squad called "Raven Crows" (yes I wanted to play on words and it sounds like "Ravenclaw") and he is dating Marie; Geister would be now Damon's caretaker; Zura would still be around in Magic Knight stuff but Kai would be the Captain of the Sangria Coyote; Hera would still be around but not involved as much in Magic Knight stuff but I do see her being a teacher; Touya and the twins would still be Coyotes; Shau and Linus I see them living in other Kingdom having their own journey but they would visit Damon; June would have her own squad too and be the "Aloe Sylphs"; sorry for the long post

#black clover #black clover fanart #black clover art #fan art #oc #ocs #oc info #my ocs #black clover oc #oc art

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fromthedeskofthecaptain · 8 months

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Unpopular Ghosts opinion. Come at me! 😉🤣

I’m disappointed that series 5 will be the last, not only because I’ll miss the show and the characters (especially Cap, obvs) but because I feel like lots of opportunities were missed.

There are a total of three hours left. How can they do justice to every strand they began to weave?

Frankly, they missed the chance to give Mary real character development and backstory. It’s not like they couldn’t have talked about witch trials, misogyny, social exclusion, etc, without it being poignant and funny. (See “The Witchfinder” with Daisy May Cooper, or even some Terry Pratchett). They gave her very little to do as a character and I was disappointed. This is especially irritating bearing in mind how much filler there has been in some episodes written during lockdown.

Considering how much trouble they went to to show ghost characters from previous eras impacting the “lives” of the current ghosts, they’ve done nothing with that really.

They had the whole of history to play with!

I don’t hold out much hope for Kitty’s ending. We’ll find out how she died, but what about her whole range of experience as a Georgian black woman?

Thomas has never had any character development. There was a point when he looked like he would, but it’s as if the Idiots forgot about it and returned to writing him as if he didn’t learn anything from the revelations of his death episode.

There are more!

I’m just sad because I wanted more…😢

#bbc ghosts #the captain #ben willbond #larry rickard #martha howe douglas #matt baynton #ghosts #fanny button #julian fawcett #Humphrey

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haggishlyhagging · 3 months

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Yet, despite [Marguerite Porète’s] death as a heretic, and even though the Inquisition declared that to retain a copy of her book made one subject to excommunication, the Miroir was widely read and cherished in succeeding centuries. One copy of the original in French was saved, but there were five medieval translations (two Latin, two Italian and one Middle English) in which the book survived. For a time, it was even ascribed to the celebrated male mystic Ruysbroeck, whose orthodoxy was unquestioned. Porète's work was always more acceptable than her person and her attitude toward authority. Other rebellious women affiliated with social movements considered heretical or revolutionary were savagely persecuted for such affiliation, but Porète represents a more solitary figure. Like Joan of Arc, and, much later, the Quaker Mary Dyer, she followed her inner voice and refused to cooperate with Church or state authority. The fact that, after a year and a half in jail, she remained silent during her trial and refused to obey all orders asking her to renounce and abandon her own writings makes her a heroic figure, braver than Galileo and many others, better known and more celebrated. Galileo, after recanting his theories under pressure from the Inquisition, is said to have stated on his deathbed, "And yet it [the earth] moves. . . ." Marguerite Porète, never recanting, anticipated her martyred death and, after listing all those who would say that she was wrong, defied the future with her proud assertion: "I am not [wrong]."

-Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness

#Gerda Lerner #female mystics #Marguerite Porète #brave women #women’s history #heretical women #patriarchal religion

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ailendolin · 5 months

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Grace - The Epilogue

Title: Grace [AO3]

Characters: Thomas, Alison, Mike, Baby Cooper, the Ghosts, the Plague Ghosts

Summary: “Mike and I are going to have a baby.”

Baby Cooper’s arrival at Button Houses changes many things, and all for the better - at least at first. Or as Mary once said: babies can see ghosts sometimes but usually only up until they can walk.

Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - Epilogue

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A/N 1: This was written before series 5 so there are no spoilers in it.

A/N 2: I want to use this opportunity to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been following this story for over a year now! Your support means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy the epilogue!

————

Grace

The Epilogue

Grace Katherine Cooper has always known she’s just an ordinary girl living a very special life.

She knows that to an outsider, it looks like it’s just her, her mum and her dad living in an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere, trying to make ends meet by hosting dinner parties, weddings, birthdays and every other kind of celebration one can imagine. Her whole, she’s heard people saying things like, “Oh that poor girl, growing up so isolated,” or, “That child must be so terribly lonely on her own in that big, empty house.” They think she doesn’t hear what they whisper about her and her family behind her back but she does. It’s never really bothered Grace, though. On the contrary – most of the time, it makes her giggle and she has to bite her lip to hide it. Oh, if only they knew …

She’s not surprised people think her childhood is lonely but considering she��s never felt alone for even a second in her life, she finds the pitying looks on everyone’s faces when her mum and dad take her into town more than a little amusing. She may not have any siblings by blood but she has a ghostly sister who likes singing songs with her in the pantry and more than a dozen crazy aunts and uncles who play games with her whenever she gets bored and are the best at making her smile even when she feels like screaming and throwing something against a wall.

She also has Thomas.

Grace knows she shouldn’t have favourites but he is her godfather so she thinks that makes loving him just a little more than the others okay. Her mum reassures her that it is, and that the other ghosts don’t mind her keeping his doll in her bed while theirs sit on the shelf above it, watching over her; or that a large amount of the paintings lining her bedroom walls feature him.

Her mum made those paintings for her over the years and Grace loves every single one of them dearly. Every time she looks at them, she can see herself growing up more loved than most people will ever be in their entire lives. The fact that the ghosts always stay the same in the pictures has often brought her comfort, especially when nightmares about losing her parents startle her awake in the middle of the night. The ghosts are as much a constant in her life as the sun, moon and stars are, and even though she can’t see them like her mum can, Grace knows they are there. She can see it in the flicker of the lamp on her bedside table when she reads and feel it in the gentle touch of fingers on the tip of her nose when she daydreams instead of doing her homework. She can hear it in the faint echoes of an old nursery rhyme ringing through the hallways and smell it in the smoke hanging invisible in the air. The ghosts are always there, always present, and as long as they are, Grace knows she will never have to be afraid of being alone.

That doesn’t mean her life is always easy, though.

The other children don’t understand. They humoured her at first, back in nursery school when they were still young enough to believe in imaginary friends and find the idea of having a ghost family exciting. With the start of primary school that changed. They stopped believing in ghosts, and Grace suddenly found herself being told to stop being childish and grow up. She refused because she was not being childish – her ghosts were real! – and it broke her young heart when slowly, all her friends turned away from her. Only Julie and Emmett stayed, and she was grateful beyond words they still wanted to come over to play hide and seek with her and Kitty in the garden. A part of her knew even back then that they were the best living friends she’ll probably ever have – possibly the only ones, too – and she swore to herself that she would hold onto them as tightly as she could and for as long as they’d let her.

As she grows older, Grace stops telling people about the ghosts. She’s not embarrassed but she’s so tired of everyone calling her and her mum crazy. It makes her blood boil every time until one day, her anger spills over and she punches Kevin McMillan in his smug, little face for saying she’s a witch and should be burned at the stake. Her parents are not happy about it and neither is Grace if she’s being honest. It doesn’t really make her feel better and it solves nothing so the next time someone says something awful to her, she decides to walk away. She has Julie and Emmett who think it’s so cool when Robin makes the lights flicker and Jemima sings for them, and that’s enough.

No, Grace thinks to herself when she hangs up a photograph of the three of them on her wall in-between the paintings of the ghosts. It’s more than enough. It’s all she needs.

Not only do Julie and Emmett accept that the ghosts are real and a huge part of her life, they’re also almost as desperate to communicate with them as she is. While Julian is able to use the laptop – something that often comes in handy when Grace’s mum is not around to translate what the ghosts are saying – his typing is still so terribly slow after all these years that it’s exhausting to have a lengthy conversation that way. So together with Julie and Emmett, Grace tries to find new ways of talking to the ghosts.

Their first idea is inspired by those programmable buttons for dogs and involves an old Ouija board they find in the basement and a lot of little lamps. Julie, being the technical genius she is, somehow attaches one of them to every letter on the board while Grace and Emmett cheer her on and offer her snacks throughout the process. Once she’s done and sure every single lamp works, they go off to find Robin to give the board its first test run.

Robin takes to it like a fish to water.

It only takes him a few tries to figure out how to turn on the different lamps and Grace is absolutely delighted to have her first conversation with him that doesn’t rely on her mum being in the room and repeating what he says or Robin making the lights flicker in Morse Code to get a message across.

(Her mum once told her how proud Pat and the Captain were that she took their recommendation to heart and spent her first summer holiday learning Morse Code. It made the headaches her efforts gave her more than worth it.)

Being her father’s daughter, there comes a point in her life when Grace looks up ghost-hunting devices on the internet, just on the off-chance that one of them might actually work for one of the ghosts she hasn’t been able to talk to directly yet. So when her twelfth birthday comes around, she asks her parents for ghost-hunting equipment rather than conventional presents.

“Oh honey, we already tried that,” her mum tells her with an apologetic look after she has scanned the list Grace has handed her.

“Yeah, we had a bunch of ghost-hunters with all sorts of tools here once. None of them worked,” her dad adds.

Then they pause and share a look that gives Grace hope. “Although the ghosts were boycotting the whole thing at the time so …”

A few days later, just in time for her birthday, two ghost-hunting devices get delivered to their doorstep. Her mum and dad put little bows on them and Grace almost squeals in delight when she sees them waiting for her when she comes home from school. By the time Julie and Emmett arrive an hour later, she’s read the instructions twice and set up the devices in the drawing room, ready and eager to try them out.

“The ghosts are here,” her mum says and then pauses to look at the empty air behind the chessboard. After a moment, she rolls her eyes and adds, “Yes, I’ll tell her that you’re here too. Grace, the villagers want you to know they’re here as well and very excited about the whole thing.”

It warms Grace’s heart.

“Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work, though,” her dad cautions just as they’re about to try out the first device: an SLS – Structured Light Sensor – camera which is supposed to make the ghosts visible on a screen in the form of stick figures and give them all an idea of where they are in the room. “It’s a long shot.”

Grace smiles up at him. “I know, Dad. I just want to give it a try. Just in case”

With that, she turns on the device. Despite her dad’s warning, she feels a rush of disappointment when no stick figure appears on the screen. She waves the SLS around the room, even turns around in a circle to make sure she doesn’t miss anything, but the result is the same: screen remains woefully empty.

“Yeah, it’s really a shame,” her mum says in reply to something the ghosts must have said. She’s looking at the fireplace and, figuring it’s worth a try, Grace points the camera in that direction.

Nothing happens.

Hating how upset she feels despite having always known this was a long shot, she is about to turn off the SLS when suddenly, something pops up in the corner of the screen. Her eyes widen in disbelief as she looks up at the empty wall next to the door to the library and back down at the device. Next to her, Julie and Emmett start jumping in excitement.

“Oh my god, it’s working!” Julie says breathlessly.

“Is that Humphrey?” Emmett adds with a tilt of his head.

Grace laughs, giddy and full of relief. “It is!”

Her mum turns to them with a look of surprise. “How did you know?”

They grin and point at the stick figure on the screen. “It’s got no head!”

Apparently, Humphrey’s head doesn’t find that as funny as they do.

They experiment a little. Her mum asks Thomas to place Humphrey’s head on its body and the moment head and body reunite, the stick figure gains a head as well. But when the head is on its own, it doesn’t show up on the SLS at all, no matter how close Grace gets to it with the device.

Meanwhile, Emmett is furiously scribbling down every little detail of what they learn in the little notebook he always carries around with him when he visits. He’s been recording everything ghosts-related for years now and Grace would be lying if she said she doesn’t find that a little endearing. Apparently, the Captain, Pat and Lady Button approve of his meticulous note keeping. Humphrey on the other hand – the head, that is – seems to be a tad annoyed that the record now shows that only his body can be seen on its own.

“He says it’s unfair and – yeah, no, I’m not going to repeat that,” her mum glowers at the piano.

Julie chuckles and sits down near Humphrey.

“Don’t worry,” she tells him with a smile. Grace can’t help but smile as well because she knows what’s coming. Humphrey’s always been Julie’s favourite. “We still love you, Humphrey.”

There is a beat of silence before her mum says, “Humphrey says thank you.”

The second device they try out is an Ovilus – a small tool with a dictionary mode that’s supposed to allow ghosts to talk to the livings. It’s apparently similar to the spirit box but less annoying – Emmett’s words, not Grace’s.

“This better work,” her dad mutters when he hands the Ovilus to Grace. “That thing cost a small fortune.”

Like with the SLS camera, nothing happens at first when she turns it on. But before disappointment can settle in once more, her mum raises her voice and says, “Not all at once, guys! Please! One at a time.”

Grace assumes the ghosts are quieting down because her mum lets out a relieved sigh and starts calling out their names one by one. She starts with Lady Button, then the Captain, and when it’s finally Thomas’s turn, Grace feels her heart swell with hope. She’s been wanting to talk to him her whole life and this could be her chance. Thomas is an orator, after all; a poet. It would make perfect sense for a device like the Ovilus to work for him.

But nothing happens.

Her mum moves on to Robin, and Grace mentally kicks herself for forgetting about the first ghosts rule – that logic cannot be applied to the ghosts’ existence and abilities. There is no rhyme or reason to what they can or can’t do. It’s completely unpredictable and in moments like this, Grace really, really hates that that’s how it is.

Looking down at the device in her hand, she wonders if Thomas feels as disappointed as she does right now. She would be ecstatic to talk to any of them, of course, but ever since her mum and dad explained to her why she doesn’t have a brother or sister, she’s been desperate to tell Thomas how sorry she is that she caused him so much pain all those years ago. She knows he never blamed her for that but she still wants to tell him personally without her mum having to be there to speak for him.

She’s so lost in her thoughts that she doesn’t notice her mum moving on to Pat until the device in her hand suddenly pipes up with a surprisingly enthusiastic, “Hello!”

Grace almost drops it in shock.

“Pat?” she asks, breathlessly.

“Oh goodness gracious!” the Ovilus says. “Hello Grace!”

There are tears in her eyes when she looks up at her parents.

“It’s working! It’s working!” she chokes out, stuck somewhere between laughing and crying.

She has her first ever conversation with Pat that day. It’s a little stilted – the Ovilus is far from perfect – but it works and that’s all that matters in that moment.

To everyone’s surprise, Pat is not the only ghost it works for. When they go through the rest of them, just to be sure, the device suddenly crackles to life again when it’s Jean’s turn.

“Hello dear,” it says and this time, Grace does cry.

It’s the best day of her life, and she’s so glad her mum and dad bought the tools on the off-chance that they would work and gave her and the ghosts another way to talk to each other. She can’t imagine a better birthday present.

That night, when she gets ready for bed she does so with a huge smile on her face. Her mum is already waiting in her room when she comes out of the bathroom, and even though she can’t see him, Grace knows Thomas is there as well. She may be twelve now but she’ll never be too old for his stories – that much she swore to herself a long time ago. Tonight’s tale is all about birthdays – of course it is – and Grace can’t help but giggle when her mum starts to sing a quirky Happy birthday at you that is so weird it fits perfectly into the universe Thomas has created for her over a decade ago.

When the story ends, she gives her mum a kiss goodnight and asks Thomas to stay a moment longer. Her mum nods at her and gently closes the door on her way out. Taking a deep breath, she addresses the empty air at the foot of her bed where she knows Thomas likes to perch. “I’m sorry none of the devices worked for you. I was hoping at least one would but I suppose it’s a miracle they worked at all.”

She imagines the sound of a soft sigh and sad brown eyes looking down at the bloody cuff of an otherwise pristine white shirt.

“It still sucks, though,” she continues quietly, and the heavy silence in the room seems to agree with her. Still, she wouldn’t be her parents’ daughter if she gave up so easily. “Maybe we just haven’t found the right tool yet. We’ll keep trying, Thomas. I promise.”

Her eyes stray to the painting of him that hangs opposite her bed, the one in which he is smiling a little bashfully. It’s her favourite, along with the regal one her mum made years before she’d been born, and she hopes her words make him smile a little like that right now.

————

In the following months, her parents do their best to help her keep her promise but no matter which ghost-hunting device they try, none of them works for Thomas. Grace has always considered herself an optimist but when a year goes by and her thirteenth birthday comes and goes without her having found a way to talk to Thomas, she begins to lose hope that it’s ever going to happen. She tries to make her peace with that. It’s all she can do at that point – accept that it just isn’t meant to be.

Then, a week into the new year, Julie remarks with a thoughtful look, “Maybe the right tool just hasn’t been invented yet?”

Her brother raises his eyebrow at her. “And I suppose we’ll be the ones who’ll build it?”

Julie snorts. “We? God, no. But I’m going to have a crack at it.”

And she does. Almost every week, she comes up with a new idea that’s both ingenious and insane, and even though none of them end up working in the end, Grace is grateful beyond words that she has friends who are willing to pour their hearts and souls into helping her talk to a ghost. Not to mention a dad who is more than happy to help them tinker around and build crazy things from scratch. It makes her feel a little better in the face of all this disappointment.

“You know,” her mum begins one evening after another failed attempt that involved their toaster and an old radio her dad found in the basement. Grace can already tell from her tone that she’s not going to like what she’s about to say. “Thomas says it’s okay if you want to focus on something else for a while. You and your friends have been trying to build something for over a year now – maybe it’s time to give it a little rest?”

Grace was right: she does not like this at all.

“I promised him I would keep trying,” she says stubbornly.

“I know,” her mum sighs and looks to her left where Thomas is presumably standing. “But he doesn’t want your life to revolve around him. There’s so much more to it, and he’s missing watching you play the piano and compose songs.”

Grace hasn’t even noticed but she knows in her heart that Thomas is right: she has been neglecting her hobbies. Even though she tries, she can’t even remember the last time she sat down and turned her feelings into verses and melodies. Her fingers start to itch for a pen and the smooth texture of old piano keys under her hands, and she suddenly finds herself missing Emmett’s thoughtful suggestions to her lyrics and the peaceful look on Julie’s face when she listens to a particularly goosebump-inducing chord progression.

Knowing Thomas was there for it all and found as much joy in it as she did, makes it a little easier to agree to put a hold on ghost-hunting devices for a while.

“All right,” she says softly before she looks up at where she thinks Thomas is standing. “But I’m not giving up completely.”

She can tell from her mum’s reaction that Thomas is smiling.

————

Julie and Emmett are more than a little surprised when Grace tells them about it the next time they see each other.

“But it’s been so much fun!” Julie whines, her eyes pleading with her not to give it up.

In the end, they compromise: once a week on Saturdays, Julie gets to spend the afternoon tinkering in the shed under the observation of Grace’s dad while Grace and Emmett pour over verses and music notes in front of the fire in the drawing room. Sometimes, when Emmett brings his violin along, they move over to the piano and practise together for an hour or two, and Grace has to admit that it feels good to play music with her best friend again. She can’t know for sure, of course, but she likes to think that Thomas is sitting next to her by the piano on those afternoons, clapping his hands with pride when they finish a song and smiling encouragingly whenever her fingers stumble on the keys. Every now and then, she glances over to her left at the empty air next to her, and there’s always that feeling of regret tugging at her heart in those moments because she knows it’s all just in her head and that she will never get to actually see him smile at her.

Or so she thought.

Winter is in full force by the end of February when she realises something feels different. Grace can’t quite put her finger on what it is exactly until she goes to the bathroom that afternoon and sees the specks of blood on her underwear. It takes her a moment to realise what that means, and when she does, she calls for her mum with barely controlled panic.

She should have known her mum wouldn’t come to her aid alone.

“Mary says, and I quote: Oh, she be a woman now,” her mum tells her with a grin as she hands her a fresh pair of underpants and a pad through the crack of the bathroom door.

Grace shuts the door in her face with a groan.

She doesn’t want to be a woman – she’s not ready to be a grown-up yet and she certainly doesn’t feel like one. It’s weird to think that, theoretically, she could have a baby now. A real, living human child.

Yeah no, definitely not, Grace thinks with a shudder as she washes her hands.

When she has calmed down enough to go downstairs, Robin’s Ouija board is blinking like crazy in the drawing room. She feels a gentle pressure on her shoulders and lets Julian guide her to it. C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S Robin spells out. Grace feels her face flush but before she can do more than grow beet red from embarrassment, Julian steers her towards the Ovilus.

“Hello!” Pat says the moment she turns on the device. “Mary told – what happened!”

The tone of the Ovilus changes slightly, indicating that Jean has taken over. “If you have – questions about – we are here for you.”

Grace glances over at her mum, mortified. “Do they all know?”

Her mum nods, unable to hide her amusement. “More or less. Jemima is asking what’s going on.”

No way is Grace going to explain that to her ghostly friend. Judging by the way her mum’s expression slowly turns into one of horror, she doesn’t seem to have to. “Oh no, Julian, don’t you dare–“

In the end, it’s Lady Button who ends up explaining periods to Jemima Grace honestly doesn’t know if that’s better or worse. What she does know, however, is that this is one of those rare moments when she doesn’t envy her mum her gift at all. The last thing she needs is hearing Lady Button talk about the birds and the bees and the others oversharing their own thoughts on the matter at every opportunity. The day had been traumatising enough already.

When she goes to bed that night, her dad is there to tuck her in. Grace is a little surprised to see him instead of her mum but it feels nice to have him pull up the blankets around her shoulders for once and press a kiss to her forehead.

“How are you holding up, kiddo?” he asks with a gentle smile that iputs her frayed nerves at ease.

“Okay, I guess? It’s just … weird. I don’t feel any different but I am, aren’t I?”

Her dad’s smile softens. “You’re growing up, love. That doesn’t mean you haveto be a grown up right now, or that you have to feel like one. It’s okay to still be a child.” His eyes twinkle when he adds, “And you know you’ll always be my baby girl, no matter what.”

“Even when I’m sixty and my hair is going grey?” Grace asks softly.

“Even then,” her dad reassures her.

His words manage to soothe the tightly coiled thing full of worry and fear that’s been sitting heavily on her chest all day. Chuckling wetly, Grace flings herself into his arms and buries her head in his chest. There’s no safer place in the world than in her dad’s arms, and when he kisses the top of her head, she closes her eyes and smiles against his shirt. “Love you, dad.”

“I love you too, Gracie,” he whispers against her hair and tightens his hold.

When they pull back, Grace can’t help feeling a little embarrassed but her dad knows how to deal with that too: he ruffles her hair, messes up the carefully made braids and Grace squirms out of his arm, all the while laughing.

He grins but lets her go. There’s a moment of quiet as she catches her breath before she asks, rather timidly, “Will Mum and Thomas come to say goodnight?”

Her dad’s face softens. “Of course they will. They wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

But he also tells her that today threw Thomas a little, and that her mum is talking to him about it right now; that change like this is difficult for him, and her growing up feels just a bit too much like she is slipping through his fingers again. Grace would think that’s absurd – after all, nothing’s really changed; she’s still the same person she was when she woke up that morning – if she didn’t know how impossible it is for him and the others to hold onto the people they care about. Life, inevitably, passes them by. What feels like an eternity to her is just a blip in time for them. Seeing her grow older – being reminded of how much time has passed and that she’s not that little baby they all cooed over anymore – must be both heart-breaking and terrifying for them, doomed as they are to watch it happen while they stay the same.

There’s the soft sound of a throat being cleared and when Grace looks over to the door, she finds her mum holding up a hot water bottle. “Ready for your bedtime story?”

Grace smiles and scoots over so her mum can join them on the bed. She wonders what kind of story Thomas will tell her today as she settles down, and is not disappointed when it turns out to be a childhood tale about one of the Elders. It’s full of love, understanding and acceptance, and all about how different one’s life can be after meeting the right person.

Grace knows she already has the right people in her life – her parents, the ghosts and, of course, Julie and Emmett. She was fortunate enough to meet them all very early and can’t imagine ever needing anyone else to be happy.

“I love you,” she says when the story is over and Thomas and her parents say goodnight.

Her mum and dad share a smile. “We love you too, sweetheart.”

“And so does Thomas,” her mum adds with a soft look towards the foot of the bed. “He bids you goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Grace whispers and curls around the hot water bottle. Just before she closes her eyes, she catches a glimpse of warm brown eyes and a soft, melancholic smile. Her dad turns off the light and she shakes her head. She must be more tired than she thought if her mind is playing tricks on her like that.

————

It’s still dark outside when she wakes up the next morning. There’s only the thinnest line of pale blue light on the horizon, heralding the arrival of a wintry sunrise that makes Grace wish spring would hurry up and allow the world to burst back into colour again. She’s so tired of icy skies and snow-covered landscapes.

Since it’s a Sunday, she takes her time getting ready. By the time she heads downstairs for breakfast, the sun is already beginning to tentatively peak over the horizon in the distance, making the fields glitter with frost and snow in the weak light. A deer is grazing in the cold morning air and Grace briefly hopes Uncle Barclay isn’t out and about with his shotgun again. Not because the deer would be in danger – according to her dad, Uncle Barclay has been famously missing his targets for years now – but because she knows the sound would upset Thomas and she doesn’t want that.

“Morning Mum, morning Dad,” she mumbles around a yawn as she enters the kitchen. She plops down onto her chair and reaches for her glass of orange juice.

Her parents exchange a fond, amused look.

“Sleep well?” her dad asks as he hands her a plate with toast and omelette.

“Like a baby,” Grace tells him truthfully. She looks over at her mum. “Thanks again for the hot water bottle. It really helped.”

Her mum smiles. “You’re welcome, love.”

Before she can say anything else, Kitty bursts through the wall with an excited, “Alison! Have you looked outside yet? It snowed again last night! Can you ask Grace if we can make snow angels together later? Please? It was so much fun last time!”

“Sure we can,” Grace absentmindedly says around a mouthful of toast before she starts digging into her omelette.

She only notices something’s wrong when her dad gives her a very confused look. “Can do what?”

Grace blinks. She looks up from her plate, looks at her dad, then at her mum and finally at the young woman in the pretty pink dress who is staring at her with wide eyes full of wonder. “Kitty?”

“Oh gosh!” Kitty exclaims and promptly turns around to run from the room.

Grace stares after her, not quite convinced she isn’t still lying in her bed, dreaming, when her mum whispers in a tone of wonder, “Did you just … see her?”

Grace is unable to tear her eyes away from the empty space where Kitty just stood. “I think so?”

There’s a tense moment of silence as it slowly sinks in what that means. Then her dad groans. “And we’re back to me being the only one who can’t see ghosts. Great.”

He says it so dramatically that Grace can’t help but laugh. Even to her own ears it sounds a little hysterical. She wonders if that’s what going into shock feels like.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” her mum says with a meaningful look towards her that Grace doesn’t understand at first. She didn’t fall out of any windows or down any stairs and cracked her head open, didn’t have any near-death experiences in the last 24 hours at all, let alone in the thirteen years before. It just doesn’t make sense. She shouldn’t be able to see the ghosts. Nothing has changed since yesterday except–

Oh, Grace thinks and places a hand over her cramping stomach. “Do you think–?”

“What else could it be?” her mum asks.

Her dad glances between them. “All right, time out. Since when does getting your period mean you can see ghosts?”

“It doesn’t, not normally.” Her mum glances at her with a curious look on her face. “But she’s not a normal kid, is she, Mike? She’s my kid. What if my gift is in her genes?”

“And puberty triggered it?” her dad asks sceptically.

Her mum holds up her hands and shrugs. “Do you have a better explanation?”

Grace can tell by the look on her dad’s face that he has not. She hasn’t either. What her mum says makes sense, in a our lives are so weird already so why shouldn’t this be possible too? kind of way. And it’s that thought, that moment of realisation that nothing is truly impossible in this house that makes the whole thing truly, undeniably sink in. She saw Kitty. She can see ghosts!

Before any excitement has a chance to bubble over, doubts creep into her mind. Because can she, actually? Can she see ghosts, plural, or is it perhaps just Kitty she can see? Not that that would be disappointing – far from it. It would be so much more than she’d ever thought possible but Grace needs to know.

Omelette and toast forgotten, she stands up from the table so abruptly she startles her parents. “We need to find the ghosts. I need to–”

“I know,” her mum says and stands up too. With a sigh that sounds more amused than resigned, her dad follows them out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

They haven’t even reached the drawing room yet when she starts to hear them: a cacophony of voices, all talking over each other, with Kitty’s rising above them all, insisting, “I swear it! She saw me! She looked right at me and she talked to me!”

Grace stops just shy of the door and lets it all wash over her: the Captain’s voice, less stern than she remembers; Pat’s desperate attempts to calm everyone down; Robin’s rough half-sentences as he tells Kitty she must be wrong because he’s been around long enough to know something like this doesn’t happen; Julian’s call for order that sounds just like her mum’s impression of him and makes her smile; Mary’s old way of talking that turns singulars into plurals in the most peculiar ways; Humphrey’s cautious optimism that Jemima tentatively agrees with; Fanny’s sceptical huffs as she joins forces with Robin and tries to be the voice of reason; and finally the villagers’ excited voices that become so entangled Grace has no hope of making out who’s who.

“I can hear them,” she whispers in relief. She looks up at her mum and doesn’t care when a tear drops down her face. “Mum, I can hear all of them.”

It’s the best feeling in the world, and the only thing that could possibly top it would be being able to see them too. So Grace takes a deep breath and slowly opens the door. All the beloved faces she knows from her mum’s paintings turn to look at her at once. The ghosts seem to hold their breaths – unnecessary but so endearing – as she lets her gaze roam over them. She soaks up every little detail, every hesitant and hopeful smile in stunned silence until finally Pat steps forward and gives her a tentative wave. “Hello, Grace.”

The dam breaks. Grace laughs and lets the tears well over. The room blurs around her and so do the ghosts but she can see them stepping closer, surrounding her like they have all her life except now they’re not just pictures on her walls. They’re real – beautifully, undeniably real. Some of them are crying along with her and reaching out their hands as if to comfort her, and it feels like coming home in the most perfect way Grace could have possibly imagined.

“Hi,” she manages to choke out and laughs again when a chorus of hi’s and hello’s greets her in answer.

“See? I told you I didn’t make it up,” Kitty says with a triumphant grin before she turns to Grace and claps her hands excitedly. “Oh, I’m so glad we finally get to talk to each other! I have so much to tell you!”

Her words remind Grace of all the things she’s been dying to tell the ghosts herself, and one ghost in particular. She lets her eyes wander over them, desperate to find brown curls and warm brown eyes among the sea of the familiar faces. Her heart sinks when she realises he’s not there.

“Where is Thomas?” she asks. The question comes out trembling and her worry only grows when the ghosts go silent and look at each other. In that moment, she knows exactly how her mother felt all those years ago when Thomas vanished without trace. The mere thought that he could be gone before she could see him again, that she’s missed her chance, that he’s–

“Didn’t he say he wanted to watch the sunrise this morning?” Nigel pipes up suddenly, and the rush of relief Grace feels at his words makes her knees feel so weak she has to hold onto the nearest chair for a moment. She looks out of the window, sees the warm glow of the sun stretching over the grounds that are as familiar to her as the house, and wonders if he’ll be at the lake or the well.

She doesn’t stop to ask. Without thinking about what she’s doing, she turns around and runs out of the house. Her breath freezes in the cold morning air; she’s only wearing her slippers and didn’t stop to grab her coat but Grace barely notices. She’s running across the lawn as fast as she can, the frozen grass and snow cracking under her feet, and when a look into the walled garden reveals an empty well, she changes course and heads straight for the lake without stopping to catch her breath.

Her heart is pounding in her chest when it finally comes into view. She slows down and blinks against the sun. It takes her eyes a moment to adjust to the glare but suddenly, between one blink and the next, she can make out a dark silhouette against the bright orange glow.

“Thomas,” she breathes and feels a smile tugging at her lips.

Sunlight is shining through the wound that took his life, making him look more ethereal and ghost-like than her mum’s paintings ever managed to convey. He stands perfectly still, his breath turning to mist in the morning air in front of him with every slow exhale, and Grace wishes he would turn around so she could see his face. So she calls out his name, louder this time, and picks up her pace. As she runs across the frozen meadow towards him, she feels as close to a soldier returning from war to her loved one as she probably ever will, and when he finally – finally – turns to look at her, she could have wept with happiness.

Thomas’s eyes widen a fraction before a frown full of worry replaces the surprise on that gentle, loving face she knows so well. “Grace! What are you doing out here? Goodness me, you don’t even have proper shoes on!”

Grace can tell by the helpless look he casts behind her that he hasn’t realised yet that she can see him. He is hoping for her mum to appear and fix whatever is wrong, and that more than anything makes her heart ache. Because despite it all he is still talking to her as if she never lost the ability to see him, as if she can still talk back. Grace had no idea and the realisation that he never gave that up, not even after all these years, makes her steps falter in the snow.

“Alison?” Thomas shouts and begins to scan the field behind her with increasing urgency. “Alison! Damn your eyes, where are you? Alison! Something’s wrong with Grace!”

His fear, worry and love for her come together in a crescendo of emotion that makes his voice hitch and tremble. He is so clearly torn between staying with her and finding her mum that Grace feels more tears well up in her eyes. Thomas looks at her in alarm.

“Gracie, please. I – I don’t know how to help you. I physically can’t.”

He sounds so distraught that she finally manages to swallow around the lump in her throat.

“It’s all right, Thomas. Nothing’s wrong with me. Quite the opposite, actually.” Thomas freezes. He looks as if he’s seen a ghost and the irony of that isn’t lost on Grace. She gives him a shy, little wave. “It’s good to see you.”

His face goes slack. For a heartbeat or two, he’s just staring at her, completely still. Then he whispers brokenly, “Grace?”

Her name hangs in the air between them, as fragile as the frost under her feet. Warmly, Grace smiles up at him. “Hello, Thomas.”

Thomas lets out the softest, “Oh,” she has ever heard, full of wonder, hope and disbelief.

Behind her, Grace can hear her mum and dad running across the field towards them but she doesn’t turn around, doesn’t look away from Thomas who keeps opening and closing his mouth as if he wants to say a thousand things but can’t find the right words. His hands are trembling at his sides and a moment later, his face crumples. Without warning, his shoulders begin to shake and he sinks down into the fresh snow. He hides his face in his hands, unable to stifle his emotions. The sound he makes is so awfully raw that Grace falls to her knees beside him, helplessly. “Thomas.”

There is a blur of movement next to her and then Jean is at Thomas’s side. She wraps an arm around his shoulders, holds him tight and together in a way Grace cannot and never will, not even with her newfound power. Thomas is crying in earnest now, and one by one the other ghosts join him on the ground. They don’t just surround him with their presence; they surround him with their love. It’s both beautiful and heart-breaking to watch, and Grace wonders if that’s how it was when they found him all those years ago too.

Something heavy lands on her shoulder. She glances up at her mum and dad, grateful for the warm winter coat they’re bundling her up in but even more grateful for the hug that follows. Looking back at Thomas, she hears his broken sobs, sees the way he buries his face in Jean’s shoulder and thinks this is the first time she truly understands what losing her did to him all those years ago. Right now, he isn’t the elegant poet from the portrait on her bedroom wall or the silly storyteller from her bedtime ritual. He is a young, broken man who has just gotten back a piece of his heart he’d thought forever lost.

“Thomas,” she says again. “Look at me? Please?”

He sucks in a ragged breath and slowly raises his head, unable to say no to her. His eyes are shining with tears, and his silent, desperate plea of Please let this be real feels as loud as if he had shouted it.

Grace smiles at him through her own tears. “I’m here. I promise, I’m here and I can see you.”

“She really can, mate,” Pat says softly.

“Praise be,” Mary adds with a smile.

Thomas sniffs and wipes his face on the bloody cuff of his shirt. “How is that even possible?”

“Long story,” Grace says. “I’ll explain it all later.”

“Okay,” he whispers and takes another shaking breath. “I never gave up hope – you have to know that, Gracie – but I didn’t think–“ He cuts himself off with a shake of his head. Biting his lip, he does his best to pull himself together before he continues in that soft voice Grace remembers from her earliest memories, “I love you so much. More than words can say. I’ve never stopped, not even when–”

He breaks off again and Grace wishes so badly she could hold him like the ghosts can.

“I know,” she promises him instead. “I’ve always known. And I love you too. I’m just sorry it took me so long to tell you.”

He smiles and shakes his head even as his breath hitches. “You’ve told me in plenty of ways, Grace; every single day.”

That may be true but Grace knows he needed to hear it anyway and probably would again. That is okay, though – they have all the time in the world now.

What an incredible thought.

————

That night, after her mum and dad have tucked her in and kissed her goodnight, they leave her bedroom with matching smiles on their faces. It’s the first time in twelve years that her mum doesn’t stay for Storytime, and Grace is so giddy with excitement she almost feels like a toddler again. She might be thirteen years old now but Storytime with Thomas is one of her earliest and fondest memories and she’s been waiting to hear him – actually, physically hear him – tell her another story for over a decade now. Even though she spent the whole day talking and laughing with the ghosts, it feels a little surreal that the moment is finally here and Grace pinches herself just to make sure she isn’t dreaming.

She’s not.

Reassured, she takes a deep breath and glances towards the foot of her bed. Thomas is sitting exactly where she always imagined he’d be, perched on the very edge of the mattress. He is quiet – a little too quiet, Grace thinks – as he stares down at his hands in his lap. His fingers are restlessly worrying the bloody cuff of his shirt, making him look nervous, as if he’s not quite sure what he’s supposed to do now that she can see him.

It’s utterly endearing.

“I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” Grace says quietly, hoping it will put him at ease.

Thomas glances up and the look of surprise on his face makes her heart ache. “Really?”

She nods. “Mum did a good job but your voice … I still remember it from all those years ago. It’s probably the most soothing thing I’ve ever heard.”

He swallows hard and looks back down at his hands. “I feared you were only indulging me all this time.”

“Never,” Grace says fiercely. She patiently waits until he looks at her again, and when he does, she offers him a soft smile. “Will you tell me a bedtime story, Thomas?”

As the stars twinkle in the endless sky outside, Thomas begins to spin a tale of a lonely clown who only ever wanted to make people laugh. There is cake-stealing involved, and a war, and Grace can’t help but giggle when the clown ends up at a children’s birthday party and Thomas acts out all the silly faces and funny noises he makes.

Growing up, she thinks when the story ends and Thomas softly bids her goodnight, isn’t so bad after all.

#thomas thorne #alison cooper #mike cooper #bbc ghosts #bbc ghosts fanfic #my fic #bbc ghosts babyfic

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lucreziaq2001 · 5 months

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•TV show: "Criminal minds".

•Content warnings: Bullying the victim is blamed for and the culprit partially tries to justify, mentions of the fact that someone was humiliated in front of all his friends and his bad boy reputation was kind of ruined, mentions of the fact that a girl apparently made most of her schoolmates uncomfortable and of fights between her and another girl, plus this other girl being referred to as "vicious" by her former boyfriend and a man trying to flirt (in a way) with the daughter of the writer who is questioning him.

•Some of the lines are almost the same that are in a scene of the "Cold case" episode this story is inspired by. I did modify them a bit, though. I didn't just copy and paste them.

•Tags: @lex13cm, @golden1u5t, @avis-writeshq, @chrrysgirl, @hugyourlungs, @achillmango, @marie-sworld, @iluvreid, @babygirl-garcia, @rynwritesreid, @strangermoonlove.

The bridge to Heaven

Chapter 6: Aaron Hotchner

After hearing what Matthew had to say, as the man had predicted, everyone almost immediately agreed to cooperate.

"Good. Then if it's okay with you, I'd like to ask you some questions in another room, one person at a time" David then said, and again, everyone agreed to it.

It took longer that time, maybe because they understood that even though Dave wasn't a policeman and hadn't used the word "interview", they were considered suspects.

In the end, however, they accepted.

Aaron asked to be the first person to be questioned, just as David hoped, so the two men went into the dining room and closed the door, then the interrogation began.

"Aaron Hotchner. Elizabeth Prentiss has told me a lot about you" Dave began.

He wasn't lying.

The day after the one of their brief meeting, Emily's mother had asked one of the nurses at retirement home she lived in to look up David's phone number and had called him, mainly to talk to him about the difficult relationship between her daughter and Aaron Hotchner.

"You had quite the bad boy reputation in high school. Ladies' man, cool car" he added a few seconds later, and Aaron laughed, clearly pleased that Dave knew those things about him too.

"I still have it, actually, it's in my garage. Maybe your middle daughter wants to come take a spin. Her name is Diane, right? I've heard she's single and she and I are almost the same age" he then said, and although David didn't like the fact that Aaron was practically hitting on his daughter, he couldn't help but smile.

"Some people, at least for certain things, never change" he thought, shaking his head, then he decided to continue with the interrogation.

"I'll ask her" he replied "But let's get back to us now. People still remember those crazy races near the pine forest".

"Undefeated. All through high school" Aaron boasted "That car was like a rocket".

"Oh. Actually, I heard a different story" David replied, finally getting to the point "One night, you lost a race and were humiliated in front of all your friends by a girl".

"Who? Emily Prentiss? Oh, she wasn't like other girls" Aaron replied.

Thankfully, he had clearly changed his opinion on Emily over the years.

"You used to bully Emily at school, and after she showed you off, you only hated her more" Dave said, and as a response, at first Aaron just nodded.

"Now I regret what I did, but I also still partly think that if she had just dressed like a woman, no one would have made fun of her" Aaron told him, partly trying to justify the actions of his teenage self.

"You felt threatened by her, didn't you, Aaron?" Dave then asked him, irritated by the man's attempt to blame Emily for his mistakes.

"She made me feel uncomfortable, actually!" Aaron responded "She did it to everyone, even the girls".

"Are you saying Emily had argued with one of them too?" David then asked, not really expecting those words from the man sitting in front of him.

"Oh, yes!" Aaron exclaimed "I think you know how some women are: vicious. And my girlfriend at the time was just like that".

Then he too, just like Elizabeth Prentiss had done over the phone, began to talk about an event he had kept secret for almost fourty years.

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sideburndanny · 7 months

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So, with the end of the current hiatus nowhere in sight, the creators of Epic Rap Battles of History have been releasing short videos in which they respond to people's matchup ideas and talk about whether or not they'd do them. What follows are my thoughts on each suggestion.

Dog the Bounty Hunter vs Chris Hansen: Terrible; Dog stopped being relevant years ago and Hansen has no real valid matchups

Jack Sparrow vs Bilbo Baggins: They might be able to pull it off, but the connection is tenuous at best

Malcolm X vs Nelson Mandela: Perfect. Do it immediately

Dexter vs Punisher: Could work, though I prefer Punisher vs Peacemaker

The Wiggles v-NO

Marco Polo vs Zheng Yi Sao: Awesome; the show's always great at spotlighting obscure historical figures, so this would be fun

Sheldon Cooper vs Rick Sanchez: I don't really get their reasoning for passing this one up. "I don't wanna use Rick because his creator is problematic," they say seconds before suggesting Roseanne instead and three years after using Harry Potter

HP Lovecraft vs Mary Shelley: Could work, but Lovecraft might be better suited for a more prolific author

Captain America vs Mussolini: Could work, but I prefer Cap vs Batman

Black Panther vs Catwoman: Unique idea; would be cool to see which versions of the characters they use

Ethan Hunt vs Angus MacGyver: Meh

John Wilkes Booth vs Lee Harvey Oswald: I'm glad they turned this one down; it just sounds very insubstantial. The fact that they each killed Presidents is the only thing either of them are known for

Robin Hood vs Ned Kelly: Sounds awesome; I can’t fathom what Lloyd was talking about when he said Robin Hood can't be made "cool." Has he never heard of any of the non-Disney movies he was in?

Steve Harvey vs Dr. Phil: Meh

The Three Stooges vs The Three Musketeers: IT'S ALL I WANT AND I'VE WAITED FOR SO LONG

Patrick Bateman vs Andrew Tate: Bateman is worthy of a rap battle, but there is no fucking way a disgusting sack of shit like Andrew Fucking Tate deserves to be immortalized in this or any series. Not only is he a monstrous asshole, but since I'd never heard of him before he got arrested, he just comes off as too second-string and his image too fleeting to be remembered after the battle's release anyway. It's like how Sarah Palin and Napoleon Dynamite appeared in season 1; what's the point? Bateman would be better off facing another fictional character like Tyler Durden or Tommy Shelby or Rorschach or Homelander or any other member of the "you're missing the point by idolizing them" club

Miles Morales vs Dick Grayson: A great idea for a battle, but it irks me how they seem to only think of Dick Grayson as Robin, and even then only how he was portrayed in the 60s TV show. Since Dick Grayson's graduation to the solo hero Nightwing and his leadership of the Titans have been the status quo in the comics for decades, and even his TV and movie appearances as Robin clearly show him to be more than the hyperactive goofball that Lloyd portrayed him as in season 2, their lack of research here is jarring — especially considering how diligent they are with their other characters (remember, Peter read every issue of the Dragon Ball manga and watched every episode of Breaking Bad in preparation for the later half of season 3).

Garfield and Jon vs Calvin and Hobbes: Eh, I don't see it. No disrespect to their creators or fans, but they just ain't rap battle material

Metallica and AC/DC vs Slayer and Guns n Roses: I agree with them that a team battle between unrelated heavy metal acts would be unwieldy, but any combination of those four could totally be awesome in a straight 1v1 battle

Richard Nixon vs King John: Could work, but I'd rather have Nixon in a Presidential royale

Barbie vs He-Man: Another "meh" idea, but I'm not fond of Peter's assertion that He-Man is only known for the bad '90s movie when he's appeared in multiple media before and since that have all gained a far more positive reception and a strong fanbase

#epic rap battles of history

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homomenhommes · 6 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

1871 – Stephen Crane (d.1900) was an American author. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation.

The eighth surviving child of Methodist Protestant parents, Crane began writing at the age of four and had published several articles by the age of 16. Having little interest in university studies, he left school in 1891 to work as a reporter and writer. Crane's first novel was the 1893 Bowery tale Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, generally considered by critics to be the first work of American literary Naturalism. He won international acclaim in 1895 for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote without any battle experience.

In 1896, Crane endured a highly publicized scandal after appearing as a witness in the trial of a suspected prostitute, an acquaintance named Dora Clark. Late that year he accepted an offer to travel to Cuba as a war correspondent. As he waited in Jacksonville, Florida, for passage, he met Cora Taylor, the madam of a brothel, with whom he began a lasting relationship. En route to Cuba, Crane's ship sank off the coast of Florida, leaving him and others adrift for several days in a dinghy. Crane described the ordeal in "The Open Boat". During the final years of his life, he covered conflicts in Greece and lived in England with Cora, where he befriended writers such as Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells. Plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, Crane died of tuberculosis in a Black Forest sanatorium at the age of 28.

Obsessed with urban street life, Crane left behind an unpublished novel, Flowers of Asphalt, a realistic portrayal of a Gay male prostitute at the turn of the century. No one knows what became of the manuscript or who destroyed it. The reason why it disappeared is much more certain. The trial of Oscar Wilde, only five years before Crane's untimely death, drove the subject underground for more than a generation.

A 1951 film by the same name is seen as an allegory for a young Gay man's coming out, with the handsome (and usually shirtless) son getting ready to leave the house, despite the disapproving gaze of his mother and father. The film's title is taken from the name of a legendary lost manuscript by Crane, which dealt with the then-taboo subject of boy prostitution.

In 2007 Edmund White published the novel Hotel de Dream, based on the 40-page novella fragment about a boy prostitute as recalled in the memoirs of a Crane friend, James Gibbons Huneker.

1896 – Captain Napier Sturt, 3rd Baron Alington was a British peer, the son of Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington.

He was born in November 1896 in St. Marylebone district of London. He succeeded to the Barony on 30 July 1919 on the death of his father. He owned the Crichel House estate in Dorset.

He married Lady Mary Sibell Ashley-Cooper, daughter of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, on 27 November 1928. They had one child: Hon. Mary Anna Sibell Elizabeth Sturt who later fought the Government and won, leading to the resignation of a Minister, in the Crichel Down Affair.

Alington may well be most notable for having dated Tallulah Bankhead in the 1920s. Alington was described as "well cultivated, bisexual, with sensuous, meaty lips, a distant, antic charm, a history of mysterious disappearances, and a streak of cruelty." His bisexuality was well known. He was a friend of the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski who dedicated his highly sensuous Songs of an infatuated Muezzin Op.42 to the handsome young Englishman, on their publication in 1922.

He had no male heir upon his death, so the title became extinct. The Crichel estate passed to his 11-year-old daughter Mary, who later married Commander (George) Toby Marten.

In the First World War, he was a Captain in the Royal Air Force. In the Second World War, he was commissioned on 2 July 1940 as an officer of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch and was posted to Cairo, possibly serving as a staff officer at HQ Middle East. He died on 16 September 1940 aged 43 in Cairo on active service of a short illness after pneumonia, and is buried in the New British Protestant Cemetery, Cairo, Egypt.

1937 – Dr. Tom Waddell (d.1987) was the gay American sportsman who founded the international sporting event called the Gay Games, which was named such after the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sued Dr. Waddell for using the word "Olympic" in the original name "Gay Olympics". The Gay Games are held every four years. The first was in San Francisco in 1982.

Waddell was born Thomas Flubacher on November 1, 1937 in Paterson, New Jersey to a Catholic family. Aware of his homosexual feelings in high school, he excelled in athletics as a means to compensate for them. His parents separated while he was in his teens, and at the age of fifteen he went to live with Gene and Hazel Waddell, for whom he did chores; they adopted him six years later. The Waddells were former vaudeville acrobats and encouraged Tom to take up gymnastics.

In the summer of 1959, he worked at a children's camp in western Massachusetts, where he met his first lover, socialist Enge Menaker, then a 63-year-old man. The men remained close for the rest of Menaker's life, which ended in 1985 when he was ninety years old.

Tom was a football player and gymnast when he was in college at Springfield College, Massachusetts. He served as a military doctor afterward. He represented USA in decathlon at the 1968 Summer Olympics, in which he placed sixth.

In his medical career, he received his MD from Stanford University Medical School. During his life, Waddell had done research on viruses, as well as served the Saudi Royal family. This was followed by moving back to San Francisco where he established his private practice on 18th Street in the Castro neighborhood. He later was employed at a city clinic in the Civic Center area of San Francisco which to this day carries his name.

Waddell happened to attend a Bay Area gay bowling competition, which inspired him to consider organizing a gay sports event modeled on the Olympics. He took up the cause of the "Gay Olympics" by traveling across the country to drum up support. The first Gay Olympics was to take place in San Francisco in 1982 in the form of a sports competition and arts festival, but the U.S. Olympic Committee (U.S.O.C.) sued Waddell's organization over its use of the word "Olympic." Despite the fact that the U.S.O.C. had not previously protested when other groups had used the name, they alleged that allowing a "Gay Olympics" would injure them. They succeeded in securing an injunction just nineteen days before the first games were to begin. Nevertheless, the games, now re-christened the Gay Games, went forward and were a great success, perhaps because they emphasized sportsmanship, personal achievement, and inclusiveness to a far greater degree than the Olympics.

Waddell had a daughter in 1983, Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, with lesbian activist Sara Lewinstein, whom he had met while founding The Games. He died from AIDS in 1987. His battle against HIV/AIDS is one of the subjects of the award-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

Waddell wrote an autobiography titled Gay Olympian with sports writer Dick Schaap.

1960 – Tim Cook is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Apple, one of the world's most valuable companies. In 2011, Steve Jobs handpicked Cook as his successor.

Cook was born in Robertsdale, Alabama.

Before joining Apple, Cook managed manufacturing and distribution as director of North American fulfillment for IBM. He also served as chief operating officer at Intelligent Electronics and as as vice president of corporate materials at the Compaq Computer Corporation.

In 1997, Apple reported a loss of a billion dollars and was expected to declare bankruptcy. In 1998, Steve Jobs convinced Cook to accept the position of chief operating officer, despite Cook's reservations. Within a year, Apple reported a profit.

In 2011, Cook became Apple's CEO and a member of the board of directors. He is one of the highest-paid CEOs. He ranked No. 1 on Out magazine's "Power 50" list of the most influential LGBT people in the United States. Forbes magazine named him one of the "World's Most Powerful People."

Cook has kept his personal life private, but has appeared at the top of Out Magazines Power 50 List for 3 years in a row. The closest he had come to publicly acknowledging his homosexuality was in a 2014 speech:

"Since these early days, I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority."

But on October 30th 2014, two days before his 54th birthday, Cook announced in a interview with Bloomberg Businessweek:

"While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

He also challenged his home state of Alabama to ensure the rights of gay and transgender people.

1971 – The Body Politic begins publishing. The Body Politic was a Canadian monthly magazine, which was published from 1971 to 1987. It was one of Canada's first significant gay publications, and played a prominent role in the development of the LGBT community in Canada.

The magazine was first published on November 1, 1971 by an informal collective, operating out of the home of Glad Day Bookshop owner Jearld Moldenhauer. The collective was incorporated as Pink Triangle Press in 1975.

Writers associated with the magazine included Gerald Hannon, Stan Persky, John Greyson, David Rayside, Sue Golding, Richard Summerbell and Gary Kinsman.

The Body Politic was twice charged with publishing obscene material, in 1977 for Hannon's article "Men Loving Boys Loving Men", and in 1982 for "Lust with a Very Proper Stranger", an article on fisting. The magazine was acquitted in both trials. Materials seized by police in the Hannon trial were not returned to the magazine until 1985.

The magazine ceased publication in 1987, following PTP's launch of the tabloid Xtra! in 1984. In 2008, it was ranked as the 17th most influential magazine in Canadian publishing history by Masthead, the trade magazine of the Canadian magazine publishing industry.

The magazine also created the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in 1973.

1981 – Pierre Fitch, né Viverais, born in Cornwall, Ontario, is a Canadian gay pornography actor, formerly exclusive to Falcon Studios. Although Christian name is Pierre, he admitted that he loved the fashion line Abercrombie & Fitch and so took the surname. He is also an entrepreneur, who now works for himself as an actor and producer of video productions. He is currently performing as a DJ, presenting his own mixes through a number of night clubs in Canada, The United States and Latin America.

His online presence includes his private membership site that includes his almost daily updated blog. He has numerous fan-sites such as the 2008 launched Pierre Fitch Galleries.

Fitch was nominated for the 2006 Best Actor GayVN Award and, with Tom Judson (credited as Gus Mattox), for Best Sex Scene (Duo). He did not win either award, being beaten twice by Johnny Hazzard. Fitch has tattoos all over his body including his neck, chest, stomach, arms and legs.

Fitch is considered "versatile," though more often than not he is seen as the "bottom" (receiver) in scenes featuring anal intercourse. Fitch started off in the industry as a "twink" (younger looking boy), but has now fully grown into a more jock look.

He was previously in a relationship with Ralph Woods. They were reputedly married. In the fall of 2008, Fitch revealed that his marriage to Ralph Woods was never official or legal, but it was a marketing strategy.

2008 – Pin-Ups, by Maurice Vellekoop, a coffee table book of gay erotic cartoon art, is first published.

Maurice Vellekoop (born 1964) is a Canadian artist and illustrator. His work has appeared in publications such as Drawn & Quarterly, Time, GQ, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Wallpaper, as well as in the books ABC Book: A Homoerotic Primer, Sex Tips from a Dominatrix, Mensroom Reader and Vellevision.

Vellekoop attended the Ontario College of Art and Design from 1982 to 1986. He is openly gay.

His autobiographical I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together is a comic and compassionate late-bloomer’s coming-of-age story that deals with his fraught relationship with his staunchly Calvinist Dutch immigrant parents.

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