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stella-monstrum · 3 years

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1996′s “Scream” // Stu Macher survives - [Fan Theory]

As a horror movie fan,

My brain is always sort of reimagining and rethinking ways to flip their ideas as a whole, whether it’s fantasy recasting or even changing the ending altogether. Specifically to this piece, I want to focus on 1996’s Scream, written by the legendary Wes Craven. Now, Scream’s essence was to parody and poke fun at what fans know to be ever-so-classic slasher/thriller films.

In honor of what this film was, and all in good fun, I’ve decided to put my own fictional events into a loosely based timeline.

I’m going to be tying in two separate film timelines (very very loosely)—and yes, they both have one actor in common: Matthew Lilard. Matthew was a huge part of my childhood, and I’m sure he was a big part in others’. For this piece I’m focusing on both Scream and 2002’s live-action Scooby Doo films that featured Lillard.

Stu Macher // Scream (1996) screencap / source: google images

Theatrical poster for Scream (1996). (Source: Amazon)

(I’m not going to incorporate the Mystery Gang or even Scooby, focusing more so on a fictional similarity basis.

Disclaimer: This is obviously just a satirical piece because well, I wanted to write it. I don’t own the characters, rights, yadda yadda. Also, potential spoilers for various movies ahead.)

(written by Stella, edited by Jacob J.)

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Stu Macher

As an 18-year-old high-schooler, Stu Macher appeared as the seemingly peculiar boyfriend of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), but became entangled in revenge by his best friend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich).

Their 1st victim was Maureen Prescott, who had an affair with Billy’s father, causing Billy’s mother to leave. (They got away with it by framing Cotton Weary, Maureen’s rapist from years prior.)

One year later, to celebrate, Billy and Stu terrorize fellow students, particularly Casey, who’d left Stu for another man (Steve).

Stu ultimately meets his “fatal” demise after being hit over the head with a vase, then a television, by Sidney—which seemed to electrocute Stu and end his reign of terror.

If you’re a fan of the franchise, you know the deal. If you don’t, then you can catch up here.

Stu Macher’s death-by-TV scene. (Source: Tumblr. Watch the scene on Youtube)

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Now just for fun, imagine that Stu somehow survived this attack. You’re probably wondering, “How the everloving hell could he survive?” Just work with me here.

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Stu’s (fictional) survival story:

What if...

After seemingly killing Stu,

Sidney calls the police. She’s absolutely still mortified, but she wants to explain what she’s done and also obviously tell them all about the mass killings that Stu and Billy committed.

Stu is barely hanging on to life. The police call an ambulance and escort him to the local hospital for treatment under close police watch. Stu winds up suffering from traumatic brain injury.

When he’s functioning enough, after questioning and court decision that placing him into a jail wouldn’t be fit, Stu is admitted into a high security psychiatric hospital. During questioning, Stu cannot recall what had happened and shows signs of dissociative episodes.

Matthew Lillard as Shaggy in the live-action Scooby-Doo (2002). (Source: Google Images.)

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Whilst in this psychiatric hospital,

Stu takes on this very laid back, hippy state, growing his hair out and taking a lax, almost spiritual mindset. (Mind you, this is all a scheme.) With this change in his behaviour, the hospital allows Stu to help run some recreational crafting and board game-like activities.

During this time he connects with a fellow patient, Mary.

They begin to bond, and he eventually convinces her to help him escape from there. Stu gives Mary the “I can’t be in here anymore, you see? I have a higher purpose, to help others on the other side of these walls” blah blah metaphysical spiel. Stu, with Mary’s help, escapes the ward by knocking out a guard with a vase (like Sidney did to him).

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Fast forward a bit...

Stu winds up creating and taking on the new identity of “Shaggy Rogers,” deciding to move back to California—but not in a home. He...well, “borrows” a beaten down van and lives as sort of a vagabond. He still keeps track of the goings-on in his old stomping grounds as copycat ghostfaces continue where he and Billy left off.

Scream newspaper prop. (Source: This Etsy listing)

Stu, now Shaggy, begins to feel guilty and vows to dedicate his life to following cases and crimes by himself.

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Years later...

Whilst headed on vacation, Shaggy is reunited by fate with Mary on the same plane. They reconcile and catch up the entire flight.

Shaggy and Mary Jane from 2002’s live-action Scooby-Doo film. (Source: Google Images.)

The island, disguised as an amusement park, has been accused of performing ritualistic killings and is home to a brainwashed cult.

Little does Shaggy know that Mary Jane knows exactly who he truly was— or that, someday, she would take out a planned revenge on the unsuspecting Stu.

Mary begs and ultimately convinces Shaggy to allow her to be by his side and help him.

Shaggy and Mary Jane from 2002’s live-action Scooby-Doo film. (Source: Google Images.)

When it’s all said and done, Mary is one of the island’s cult members, stringing Stu along, luring him to his true death and demise.

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I know this piece was incredibly out of left field, but I had such a damn blast creating this hypothetical situation. Maybe one day, Lillard will give this a read and know how much of a part he had in a lot of people’s childhoods.

Lillard responding to a fan’s tweet. (Source: junkee)

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stormcrawler75 · 4 years

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Virgil is terrified of Pokemon after a bad experience in his childhood, none of his friends know. One day Roman brings in his fennec? And shows his friends. Virgil practically runs and goes to his brother Deceit to comfort him. Patton later on comes back and helps Virgil with his fear

Patton knocked on the door of the Adonia household, shifting on his heels nervously. He could almost still hear Virgil’s screams from before and it was just making him all the more anxious. He really hoped that his friend was okay.

The door opened and Virgil’s older brother Janus was staring down at Patton with a guarded frown. “May I help you,” he said coldly, crossing his arms. His partner, Arbok, was giving Patton almost the exact same look. Like he’d be more than willing to swallow Patton up whole if given the reason. It made Patton shiver and wish that he could take out the Pokemon that he had gotten today as his partner with Roman.

But Patton didn’t reach for the Pokeball on his hip. He instead straightened up and said, as firmly as he could, “I wanna see Virgil. Please,” he rushed to say. “He was really scared when Roman took out his new Fennekin and just ran off.” Patton gave Janus a pleading look, something that made Janus’ expression soften just a tad. “Please, I just wanna see if he’s okay!”

Janus took a long few seconds to stare at Patton, seemingly looking through him. Finally, he said, “Virgil is inside but he doesn’t want to see anyone right now.” The teen sighed. “Look...Virgil hasn’t told you what happened before we moved here, has he?”

Patton frowned and shook his head. Virgil and his family had moved into their town just a year ago and the younger boy had been so skittish and quiet. And while he had opened up to them eventually, he had never spoken about where he had lived before or why they had moved.

Arbok and Janus shared a look. “Something happened to Virgil before our parents moved us out here,” Janus sighed, leaning against the doorframe. “He accidentally got locked inside a Pokémon Daycare overnight. Our grandma helps runs it and Virgil loved going inside to help. Only, she didn’t know that he had gone in and when she locked up for the night... she locked him inside with all the Pokémon. Which, would’ve normally been fine but there was this fucking piece of work Ditto inside.” Janus ran his hand down his face. “We found him the next morning, terrified out of his mind. The Ditto had been chasing him all night long, taking the form of, like, hundreds of different Pokémon to freak him out. Stupid thing thought that that was hilarious.”

“He was stuck in there all night,” Patton whispered in horror, hands clasped to his chest. “And no one noticed?!” His and Roman’s own older brother, Remus, would’ve been on a warpath if they hadn’t gotten into the house before curfew.

Janus shrunk back a little as if Patton’s general question had been a direct accusation aimed directly at him. Arbok leaned against him, tongue flicking gently against his cheek. “I was having a sleepover with some friends,” he muttered, leaning into his partner. “So I was just glad my stupid brother wasn’t being clingy. And our parents aren’t exactly the best. So, yeah... no one noticed until morning.” He shrugged and mumbled, words sounding thick and a bit wet, “Virgil’s kind of traumatized cause of it. He can barely stand to be around Arbok on some days and Arbok used to be his favourite to be around.”

Patton blinked tears from his eyes. “That’s terrible,” he whispered. “And... he’s scared of all Pokémon?”

“I guess? His therapist would probably disagree but it sure seems that way sometimes. He has good days and bad days. Somedays he’s perfectly fine for Arbok to be wrapped around him protectively. Other days, he runs inside if he hears a Pidgey even somewhat close to the house.” Janus sighed and shook his head. “He’s gotten a lot better bit,” he paused, “why the hell am I even telling you all this?”

“Because I’m Virgil’s friend and I wanna help him,” Patton said firmly, puffing out his cheeks stubbornly. He glared up at Janus. “I wanna see him. Please.”

Janus sighed and stepped back inside. “Just... gimme a sec. Let me see if he’s ready to talk to-”

“Janus?”

Patton and Janus both looked back to see Virgil standing behind Janus, hugging a pillow to his chest tightly. He swallowed and said softly, “I-I wanna see Patton, please.”

Almost immediately, Janus was ushering Patton into the house, his Arbok sliding away to make room. Patton ran ahead, pulling Virgil into a tight hug. “Virgil, are you okay? Roman was so worried about you! He wanted to come over but we decided that you might only wanna see one person.”

“I’m okay,” Virgil mumbled, face buried into Patton’s shoulder. Patton was distantly aware of Janus and Arbok leaving into another room to give them space. “I’m sorry for freaking out. I was being stupid.”

Patton shook his head firmly. “Nu-uh! I’m sorry! We should’ve asked first to show you our Pokemon instead of just assuming.” He pulled back and ducked his head. “I’m sorry.”

Virgil smiled before saying softly, “It’s okay, Patton. I should’ve guessed that you guys would’ve wanted to show me. It’s all you’ve been talking about forever.” He wiped at his eyes. “It’s just... I mean...”

“Janus told me,” Patton said, squeezing Virgil’s hand. “That must’ve been so scary.”

Virgil shrugged silently, looking down at the Pokéball on Patton’s waist. Patton glanced down and blushed, putting his hand over it. “Sorry. Me and Roman got our partners today and Remus gave us these belts so they could just hitch on it.”

“It’s okay,” Virgil whispered. He hesitated before asking softly, “Which one you pick?”

Patton blinked before smiling softly at his friend. “Wanna see?”

Immediately, Virgil shook his head and took a step back. “No,” he whispered. “No, I don’t think so. Sorry.” He wrung his hands worriedly and whispered, “I just... don’t think that....”

Patton took his hand. “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t gotta meet her if you’re not ready.” He smiled at him gently. “Hey, why don’t me and you go watch a movie or something? How’s that sound?”

“...Sounds okay, I guess.” He glanced behind Patton and asked, “C-can Arbok come with? J-just,” he glanced down at the Pokéball again, “j-just cause.”

Patton turned around to see Janus standing in the doorway of the living room and Arbok slithering toward them. “Course,” Janus said with a firm nod. “I’ll head upstairs so you two can hang out down here.” He walked up the stairs, taking a moment to ruffle Virgil’s hair on the way.

Arbok nuzzled Virgil’s head gently, flicking his tongue at Virgil’s ear. And even though Virgil jumped, he did lean into the large Pokémon. “Come on, Pat,” Virgil said, taking Patton’s hand, “let’s go watch a movie.”

Patton smiled at him and nodded, letting Virgil pull him along. “Okay, VeeVee.”

#Anonymous #storm writes #Pokemon AU #Virgil Sanders #Patton Sanders #Janus Sanders

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aconboyindependent2021 · 3 years

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‘Now and Then’ - current state of play

My film is a re-imagining of the site of Brighton General Hospital next to my home. Until around 70 years ago, a workhouse operated on the site (for details, see: Gardner, J, (2012) A History of the Brighton Workhouses). Aspects of the austere workhouse are still evident on the site today. I began to think about the stories of the residents of the workhouse – what did they have to endure? With this in mind, I bought the above book by a local author about the history of workhouses in Brighton.

I have always been fascinated by the idea that traumatic events in a particular location can be recorded and replayed at a later time in history and that this might be a basis for ghosts and hauntings – for example, in the blockbuster, Poltergeist, and the BBC drama from the 1970’s The Stone Tapes (Sasdy, 1972). This is one of the key concepts behind the film.

After a lot of thought, I settled on the story of the workhouse being told by a single woman, Agatha, whose infant child was taken from her illegally and sold to a rich couple living in Brighton. This is a variation on the common Victorian practice of unmarried women being compelled to give their children to a foundling home.

The film starts with Aggie telling her story in largely neutral terms and comparing the workhouse and the site’s positive use today as a hospital, but it climaxes with Aggie screaming with the loss of her child, and we see that she is a tormented spectre.The film ends with her anguish fading into a sign on the present site, promoting a nursery for infant children.

The film will be around 5-6 minutes long and will consist of edited original footage taken on the site in the present day. The film will be treated with video effects to alter the pacing, colour and atmosphere of the original footage. I have asked for a drama-trained friend to narrate the film as Aggie and will be using original and library sound effects and music motifs, or possibly drones to punctuate the soundtrack.

Now and Then – influences from other artists

1. Brian Percival - About a Girl

Female voice-over revealing a terrifying truth about motherhood at the end of the film. This film gives a cold dead feeling inside from the casual yet downcast demeanor as the leading character talks about her dysfunctional life and especially the ending, where the girl is revealed to have secretly miscarried a baby and we see her dump it into the canal (“I’ve become good at hiding things”). Both my film and About A Girl attempt to humanise the female main character outside of their tragedies.

2. Tobe Hooper - director of Poltergeist Paranormal activity centred around past events and the presence of aggrieved spirits. This was a film that made an impact on me from its non-stop tension, even before the presence of the supernatural becomes apparent. Tobe Hooper, ever since creating The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) has achieved many awards, and after this film, it is easy to see why. It also has a similar plot to my initial idea for my film - where a great wrong done in the past creates a ‘haunting’ by aggrieved spirit(s)..

3. Peter Sasdy – Director of The Stone Tape (1972)

The original idea from the film was stones “recording” traumatic events from the past. While the current draft has drifted away from this concept, it still lives on with how Agatha remembers everything about the past as if she died yesterday, despite the superficial veneer of the current day hospital. However, Agatha is a real soul though in my film.

4. David Lynch - Eraserhead, The Elephant Man His black and white films – particularly The Elephant Man In the latter, view of Victorian England shot in black and white featuring cruelty and time-specific sounds, sights and atmospheres. The film always seems to have a sense of foreboding, even when the scene is uneventful, and with a deeply engaging soundtrack. Eraserhead will always always be an influence due to its deliberate disturbing monochrome style, investigation of altered perception and the anxieties of parenthood.

5. James Gardener- Author of: A Complete History Of Brighton Workhouses A detailed and easy-to-understand book centred around the original workhouse in my area. It includes the Brighton General Hospital Site. It helped give a real-life grounding to my supernatural tale.

6. Richard Boden - director of the Blackadder series 4 finale, Goodbyeee The series as a whole has very little to do with my film, but this is a powerful episode whose fade-out ending and closing-sound inspired the cross-dissolve effects and soundscape in my film - coincidentally both are centered with the cruelty of the past and atmospheric sound. Present and past merge at this point. One of the most popular scenes in TV drama/comedy and understandably so too.

7. Piotr Obal – various films and still images Obal is an independent artist who works with art, music and still photography. Occasionally, he teaches youths how to work at the computer like me (!) when he was helping out with an arts award I was studying for. Below is one of his images that has been an influence on me and the film. I love his Photoshop collages and the wonderful images he posts from his native Poland.

Work by Piotr Obal

8. Nalini Malani- for her immersive installations, ‘disgraced’ women under partiarchy, history and mythology, miscarriages of justice. I found out about Malini when I was writing my essay on her work in the Diversity module: what started off as just finding out about an artist for the sake of my writing became a long-lasting admiration and inspiration from an artist who not only knows where she is coming from (from her upbringing hugely affected by India and Pakistan’s partition) but willingly sticks her neck out for those oppressed by society and history, and confidently shows her creations to the world. A particularly relevant aspect of her work is her use of the supernatural and mythology stories and myths to highlight aspects of women’s oppression throughout history.

9. Chris Butler- director of ParaNorman A key influence, supposedly aimed at children, I used the same of the spectre in this moving animation, and I was influenced by its themes about the cruelties of humanity and how we “moved on”. The spectre is a ghost of a falsely accused of being a ‘witch’ who wreaks her revenge on those who persecuted her.

It was also a strong influence that is more powerful at its climax and twist. In-depth look at how prejudice destroys lives that are never regained - even death provides no relief. Butler is a part of Studio Laika, creating animated films that go beyond the norm.

10. Jacqueline Wilson - the writer of the Hetty Feather trilogy and other such Victorian novels such as Clover Moon.

A part of Jacqueline’s writings is her commentary about how unjust the past could be compared to today: even though her protagonists speak in ways that were customary to Victorians, she keeps them relatable the same way she keeps her modern-day protagonists relatable. The writing style of her books inspired certain characteristics of Agatha’s narration, because it was easy to understand yet engaging.

11. David Lean - Director of Great Expectations (1946) This film, based on the Dickens book, also brought to mind the cruel period of the Victorian era, and the acting and emotions continued that spirit and my inspiration around my project. I love that it is black and white as well as dialog-centred - I particularly like the formal style of speech - even to express negative emotions- for example:

“Let me point out the topic that in London it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth for fear of accidents. It's scarcely worth mentioning, Only it's as well to do as others do”.

Miss Havisham, an almost ghostly older woman, in a similar way to Agatha cannot move beyond the terrible wrong done to her - she was left at the alter and devoted her life to training her adopted daughter, Estella, to get revenge on men.I use s similar obsessive, sing-minded hatred to motivate Agatha.

12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

This film involve a man becoming the object of affection of a former silent movie star, Norma Desmond who overtake his life little by little until she kills him. Norma suffered with the times when silent movies went out of fashion and she is unable to move on, alone in her great house: people told Norma that she had no value and it had an impact on her psyche. She loses all sanity when arrested for killing Joe Gillis as she believes she is back in show business. The film also explores facades; Norma may live a glamorous if not lonely life, but her mental state torments her, like Aggie has with hers as she wanders around the hospital site driven ‘mad’ with grief and anger.

13. R D Laing: ‘anti-psychiatrist’

'Here was someone explaining madness, showing how the fragmentation of the person was an intelligible response to an intolerable pressure”

Quote from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/25/rd-laing-aaron-esterson-mental-illness

In discussing the concept of my film with a member of my family, I was directed to the psychiatrist/anti-psychiatrist, RD Laing. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s Laing wrote about how a person’s so-called ‘mad’ behaviour was in fact intelligible when their entire situation and experience was taken into account. He and other writers (like David Cooper) talked about the concept of the ‘double-bind’ where a person’s opportunity to make a decision to resolve the way they were being treated was blocked – perhaps by a member of their family saying that it was not in their personality to be assertive or angry.

This reminded me very much of Agatha; she tries to express her outrage at the great wrong done to her, but she is judged as unworthy and undeserving, so the wrong is seen as justified and her punishment for being the ‘low-life’ who would have a child and have to live in a workhouse. It is circular – she is treated badly because she deserves to be treated badly and so this means that her hatred and insanity brings the great wrong up herself.

Laing is largely forgotten today, but his ideas resonate with certain ideas in feminism and anti-racism. ‘Gaslighting’ is everywhere, both back then and now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NnBonXPLJM

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lucarioisinthevoid · 3 years

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(Random drabble I decided to write! Have it as an apology for how little I’m created. Just some backstory stuff that is canon to my Henry- and inspired by another story. If you actually know where this comes from, you’ll get something from me and also we can both sit in shame.) ---- The first and only time Henry Miller broke the law ---

The boy was sitting in the room over. They left him alone to stew a little- and to review the footage, to be sure about what happened. The cameras they had put up were brand new and not all that obvious, cameras in general were still unreliable, cutting in and out at seemingly random intervals. Newest tech indeed. Though it was still amazing what it could do and see, even on grainy, black-and-white footage. The owner, Frank, was glancing at the door, not quite believing what his staff was telling him. Henry Miller, honest to god Henry Miller, who was always eager to help out, who treated everyone with amazement and enthusiasm, no matter what they did and how they acted in return- They caught him steal. Casually stuffing his pockets here and there. It just didn’t seem to make sense- they knew this boy. When he was younger, he every now and again got a few bonbons from Frank, as he was wandering the store, bugging the staff before his mother quickly came to pick him up, always apologizing, but never being a problem. Hell, he sometimes helped out, insisting it was only because he wanted to, never accepting any sort of pay for his efforts. It’s fun! That was always what he said and Frank envied and admired his ability to see pleasure in everything. Even in things as stocking shelves or mopping some floors. His innocence was magnificent. Was. Seeing how Henry had just been walking around, lining his pockets- Now they didn’t find anything in his pockets, he must have gotten rid of it between then and now. He sighed. Maybe it was just that age, where children turned into teenagers and did stupid things. He would go in, hear his apology, give him a stern talking to and then let him go again. After all, he was such a good boy. No needs to get any police involved, only his parents had been informed and they were on their way to come and pick him up. Quietly Frank sighed to himself again. Such a shame, but it was something every growing person had to go through. As he opened the door, his eyes fell on Henry who was crying, pressing his hands against his eyes, rubbing, hysterically breathing, broken by hiccups. Oh, he was in for one hell of an apology. He had to hide a small smile- after all Henry had only been trying to steal candy. A lot of it, but it wasn’t the end of the world! Yet here he sat, all shaken up. Poor boy probably considered himself a devil now- after his first time acting out. Well, he would set him straight gently. Sitting down across from him, he looked at the boy, calmly speaking up. “One of our stores employees said he saw you steal quite a bit of candy. What do you have to say for yourself?” Leaning back, he got ready to tell the kid it was okay, that it was- “I- I didn’t do-o it!” Instantly, Frank froze, something cold climbing up his neck as he looked at Henry again. Henry who was looking up at him with pure DESPERATION in his eyes, shaking to his core at the accusation. “Sir, I- I don’t know why he- he would say that- but- I’m-“ Once more a flood of tears burst out of him. “I was j-just looking for my f-friend- I just- I wanted to- and then he GRABBED me- h-he told me I- I would get i-into a TON of t-trouble-“ Frank just stared, transfixed on the scene, slowly nodding. “S-said he A-ALWAYS knew I- I was a troublemaker- and- and I was SCARED-“ Breaking off, he desperately tried to take a deep breath, failing miserably, accidentally swallowing on his hiccups, leading to a coughing fit. He looked MISERABLE. “A-and I- I asked wh-what I DID- and- he- he said NOTHING, ‘you d-did NOTHING, b-but I’m telling Frank- I’m telling h-him you tried t-to steal!’ H-he said ‘I- I’m telling Frank that- that you’re a little R-RAT!’” The employee was a new hire. Someone who didn’t know Henry very well, not like a good amount of the other employees. Was this planned? Henry continued, sincerity oozing from his words, drenched in hurt pride and pain. “A-and I said- ‘No- no way he’ll believe you! H-he knows me!’ a-and that was when th-the guy gr-grabbed me even TIGHTER- so my wrist w-went all red-“ He showed off his red wrist- unmistakable fingers marks, with the place where nails dug in clearly visible, still red. “H-he grabbed me a-and said ‘wanna bet?! Wanna bet?!’ a-and that was when he dragged me h-here and threw me i-in! Then h-he locked the door- I swear! I- I swear I didn’t do anything! I- I don’t know what I did w-wrong! I didn’t take ANYTHING! Y-you can check m-my bag again-” It was unbelievable. Unbelievable in that he would have believed Henry under any other circumstance. He was too young to lie like this. Digging his nails into his own face, as he kept weeping and weeping, shaking his head while hiding his face. “I- I just don’t w-want you to b-be angry with me, s-sir! I swear, I swear, I- I would never do that! P-please, I don’t kn-know WHY he was s-so ANGRY- but- I just- I was just c-coming in to see i-if-“ Frank forced himself to take a deep beath and play along. “Please Henry, calm down. When did he ask you to come with him?” “J-Just when- when I was about to leave- it scared me so b-bad- I th-though I accidentally br-broke something or-” “What did you say he said you did?” “Th-that I- that I stole s-something!” “What exactly?” “I DON’T KNOW!” The boy howled in agony. “I- I DIDN’T- I’M SORRY, I D-DIDN’T TOUCH ANYTHING- PL-PLEASE BELIEVE ME!” For a moment Frank looked at him, feeling numb, his lips and fingers as though something had sapped all energy out of him. With a dry tongue he got out the words. “… Henry. We have you on the new security cameras. I know you tried stealing.” It was like a flip was switched- All of a sudden, silence. It looked like something fell out of Henry’s face, all life, all energy, all expression. Blankly he stared up at the adult in the room. The tears quenched, already staining into thin lines. Only ever so slightly a frown formed. And then he opened his mouth, his words almost unrecognizable. “Then why were you wasting my time just now?” - Years had come and gone. Frank was still managing his little store, though he considered finally finding someone who would be good to take over his place. For now though, he was doing fine, a bit of coffee in the morning, that he drank while reading the newspaper. One day though he almost started coughing when his eyes fell on something- A death announcement. Mr. & Mrs. Miller. In loving memory… tragic passing during a terrible catastrophe nobody could have predicted… announcing the funeral during… at… Slowly he put down the paper and checked the calendar. When he arrived at the graveyard during the ceremony, he carried the flowers, planning to put them on the grave after everything else had passed. But what he most wanted to see, needed to see- Henry stood amidst the group of mourning adults. Pressing his knuckles against his eyes. Shaking in his despair. Digging his nails into his head as he shook his head, hiding his face. Weeping in all the right ways. Frank felt sick to the stomach, his hands balling into fists, as he remembered, the poor guy was barely eighteen and lost his parents to a fire, to a malfunction, it had to have been a traumatic accident- He was shaking, goosebumps crawling up his arms, despite it being a wonderful summer day. And then, for a second- Henry’s eyes met his own. And there was nothing inside, no expression on the face, the tear stains utterly out of place, almost like drawn on. Abruptly Frank turned to the grave he was next to, kneeling down, pretending to pay his respect to the stranger resting in the ground beneath him. He prayed, yes he prayed for a moment or two, in front of the grave of a family he didn’t know, who’s names were in no way affiliated with his own- Placing the flowers onto the earth in front of him, he turned to walk away, his hands shaking. Still praying. Horrible accidents happened all the time. This tragedy messed with anyone who heard about it.

#henry miller #honestly I'm just happy about an excuse to write his childhood #Because it's such fun #He was such a feral monster #But liked by basically everyone for his sunshine-self #He watched his back- Ethan never found ANYTHING he could accuse him to be a psychopath over #That would have made things easier #To justify watching him at least among his close friends #oh well- he never asked in the right places #too bad~

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allyvampirelass29 · 4 years

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Murder at Cripple Creek

A NOS4A2 Review By: Allyssa J. Watkins

A boomtown swimming with ghosts Dead eyes can't hide Their hedonist living Drinking, debauchery and sinning Scarlet ladies having babies But a whorehouse is not a home Trading flesh for coin Tempting patrons, at the sacrifice of your boy Little Charlie grew up in the hellish dark The sins of the mother Scarring the son's heart Murder brewing in this simmering fleshpot Oh Hateful Harlot, Mother Manx Is is to your neglect and bitter thanks Your baby boy, molested, and you can't protect Your little dreamer from the wicked world you wrought for him Blood on a beautiful boy's hands But the only thing murdered here Is his innocence. Sending his rapist and that lustful bitch Back to hell Charlie, Charlie you're not a villain You had to save yourself.......

Is...... anyone alive out there? It's been days, and I'm still sobbing, my heart desolated by the roiling emotional turmoil, my ignited rage murderous. I don't know about you guys, but...... I'm an absolute wreck. WHY are you DOING this to me, NOS4A2!?!? After the brilliant turn of last week, the sleek sophistication, and glamourous entrapment, "Cripple Creek," was a backhand strike, a blatant violation that I never saw coming, and I spent the entire episode, quivering, sobbing, pleading desperately behind my hands plastered over my face, watching between my fingers, helpless to stop the punishing abuse My Charlie suffers in two different timelines, his bruises of an abused childhood mingling with the fresh wounds of now, as he is tortured, beaten and berated by Bing Partridge!!!

I hated this episode. I HATED it. There, I said it. But I think you're supposed to, I think that was the sole purpose of this traumatizing ordeal. However, as far as Bing (GO TO HELL YOU FILTHY BASTARD) is concerned, the writer's motivation seems drastically convoluted. If this was supposed to be Bing's Big Epiphany, his "redemption," (Ughhh seriously?) This episode fails miserably in accomplishing that. And if this episode was meant to do, what I had predicted back in Season One, cement him as the actual villain of NOS4A2, making him the more immoral evil, be his rise in notoriety, his coming of age as it were, into the monster he was always going to be, giving Charlie and Vic someone to unite their hatred against, it fails to do that too. The biggest misstep of the series, after so elegant a triumph, I'm going to drown my sorrows in ice cream, and try to forget that any of it ever happened. Close your eyes, and think of Christmasland........

I audibly groaned when we opened onto Bing at the Lake House. After so much needless repetition in an otherwise FLAWLESS episode, I REALLY did not want to relive Bing's point of view of the siege, unless it was him getting shot by white knight Chris McQueen over, and over, and over........ Thankfully, the rewind didn't last too long, but I was having NONE of his, "Are you there, God, it's me, Bing Partridge," moment!!! On his knees in the graveyard, (Why...... why are we in a graveyard?) Bing appeals to the heavens, proclaiming his own innocence, asking God to show him what he should do next. I snickered coldly, the whole thing melodramatic, and absurd, as he cries, "I've been so good!!!" Secretly, I was fantasizing about Buffy SLAYING his creepster ass in the graveyard, beating him bloody, before staking him in the heart with a witty saying like, "It's been a gas, Bing, but I get the last laugh!!!" Alas, alack, no such luck. His appeal to the heavens was answered not in divine intervention, but with bird droppings splattering in his mouth, which of course, translated in Bing-A-Ling Logic to, "Kill the FIRST person that tries to help you, bury him in the freshly dug grave, and take his keys!!!" It's PRAYING Bing, you dolt, not preying!!!

While the side quest FINALLY explains how Bing was able to catch up to Charlie and Wayne, after previously believed to be on foot, not to mention shot, which would have been IMPOSSIBLE, supernatural car not withstanding, it's altogether unnecessary. It was the less than scenic route to get to last week's blood-curdling cliff hanger, and I really think we could have done without all the maudlin hullaballoo, and picked right up from there. Also, it creeped me out BIG TIME hearing Bing Partridge say, "Hidey holes," because that's what I called them last week, when Charlie was adorably telling Wayne about his hiding places. "Look at you with your hidey holes, Babe!!!" Needless to say, Bing has ruined that phrase for me FOREVER!!!

"Charlie, Charlie, telling lies, soon he will be crying cries......" A chilling foreboding that was like ice in my veins........ I was definitely crying cries...... I literally WEPT with this horrid little rhyme, and even still I was so naïve, unprepared, for the gut-churning horror that waited in the shadows of a broken little boy's murdered childhood, and the degradation of the beautiful soul that survived it. It's one of the most grueling, and disturbing things, I've ever watched, and like my Darling Boy, strapped to the chair, enduring forced interrogation by gassing, brutal beatings by Bing's homicidal, ham-fisted punches, and some....... deeply unsettling sexual innuendo, I felt like I was the one getting tortured.........

I did utterly enjoy Charlie's feigned relief, as he uses that silver tongue, in valiant effort, to slip his way out of this sickening predicament. "Bing, My Dear Fellow, thank the stars! I thought you had been done in by those wretched McQueens!!" Charlie gasps, thankfully, knowing full well he'd left Bing behind to die, and for good reason. Any other time, this would have worked, Charlie would have used his coaxing charm, and Bing's oafish gullibility, twisted them into a breathtaking manipulation, weaving the lie that he had no choice but to leave him behind, and Bing would have eaten it out of the palm of his hand, because he wants that badly for it to be true. But Bing watched it happen, his face falling, as Charlie sped off without him, and he's DONE playing. Charlie's pleas fall on deaf ears, as Bing drugs him for answers, revealing the fatalities of every single one of Charlie's former accomplices, and with the finality of one apocalyptic truth....... Bing descends into a frenzied, foaming madness.

"Cripple Creek," is the double edged sword that none of us were meant to survive. Switching between the stabbing scenes of Charlie's withering assault, his lifeline to The Wraith, cruelly severed, and the slicing violation of his childhood self, his innocence massacred before our very eyes, our bleeding hearts never stood a chance. I always knew that Charlie's childhood was going to be horrid, downright Dickensian, devoid of magic and light, unloved by his drunk, whore mother, but I had no idea the HELL this beautiful boy endured at so tender an age, forever scarred, betrayed by the one person he trusted, respected, desperately in need of a father figure, only to be exploited in the most heinous way. It's a MIRACLE My Precious Love can even function as an adult, much less still manage to find wonder and beauty in the world, clinging, clawing to hold onto his ember, his remnant of pure light that persevered in a life of darkness.

The inexplicable joy at seeing a young Charlie Manx, aged 11 or 12, tapdancing on stage, along with the giddy marvel that this young actor looks just like our leading man in miniature, is short-lived, as a stranger takes an uncomfortable interest in him....... I don't know how, maybe it was the intent way he watched him dance, or the way he touched his shoulder a little too long, but I knew........ I KNEW this man was going to sexually abuse Charles, I felt it gnawing in my stomach, instantly unnerved, and I hoped with all my heart, my first instinct was wrong....... I'm devastated to say........ it was not.

Not only does this manipulative pedophile Son of a BITCH molest my baby, he first uses him to persuade other boys to flock to his house, knowing full well how much the young ones look up to Charlie, as their leader. He wins Charlie's favour and trust by befriending him, and giving our little darling the one thing he wants more than anything else. Escape. Escape from the vulgar, gratuitously sexual environment, that no young boy should have to endure, a chance to make money, have an honest, respectable living. A chance to have a father figure, a man to look up to, learn from, and take him under his wing. The shop owner offers all of that, with a crooked smile, the charade falling dangerously away, as he knocks back a shot glass, eying our boy, and then says in the cruelest, most chilling voice. "You've earned yourself some fun........"

Thankfully, NOS4A2 was not overly graphic in this lewd portrayal, but the innuendo was enough to make me ugly cry, and seethe, as this sweet child is violated by someone he admires so much, realizing in horror, that he led all of his friends to be mishandled in this same disgusting manner, like lambs to the slaughter. But our brave little Manx was NOT going to let this sin go unpunished, and I clapped, cheering him on, as he uses his sled, now tainted by its means of acquisition, to kill the shopkeeper, dark fire flashing in his eyes, blood splattering on the shot glass, and I've never been so happy, or nervously relieved to see someone die.

His mother comes to him, and instead of crying, and taking her boy in her arms, stroking his dark curls, soothing his fear, and assuaging his guilt, she just scoffs at his accusation, the picture of apathy, and places the blame back on him. "You knew too, Charlie!!!" You WHORE-ABLE Mother!!! Your son was just sexually ASSAULTED, and YOU DARE make it his own fault, like he'd turned a blind eye, and therefore deserved to get raped!?!? Charlie might not have killed her, if she'd actually had a maternal bone in her body, if she'd done SOMETHING, shown any sign of regret or compassion, but she doesn't, and I feel nothing but proud as he finishes her off too. Her death was surprising, given the admonishing way Charlie talks about his mother, creating the impression that she'd been a bane on his existence his entire life, and yes, as a writer, I wanted to see more of a direct conflict between them to make that defining moment that much more satisfying, but as a viewer, I was just grateful she was dead, and Charlie was free. The only murder perpetrated, the only death I mourned at Cripple Creek, was that of Charlie's innocence, his childhood slaughtered.

Meanwhile, Bing continues to torture Charlie in the present day, my chest shuddering with every thrown punch, and I have to bite my lip to keep from screaming. What was the deafening truth spoken that sends Bing Partridge into a flailing rage, you ask?

"Christmasland is for children. We are special...... That's why we can't go......."

Charlie was never going to take Bing to Christmasland. All that this poor dope had lived for, dreamed of, for eight years, amidst his conning his way into dentists' offices, and offing mothers, and it was always a lie. I had suspected it the entire time, especially after the mention of a, "special feast," but what SHOCKED me the most, was the unimaginable heartbreak of Charlie's own deepest secret coming to light, and as Bing draws it forth, it's like drawing blood. In spite of being the architect of his lifelong dream, and greatest solace from a life full of abject misery, Charlie doesn't think he deserves Christmasland, because he sees himself as ruined........

I broke down sobbing, that pain, that anguish, that he's so long carried with him, ripping through me, and I'm tearing up even as I write this, remembering....... Charlie denying himself his own dream, seeing himself as a ruined article that might profane its pure vision, is a tragedy that I can't come back from. It's a sorrowful, aching confession, and yet somehow it explains so much, and in this, his greatest pain, his darkest secret, I felt intimately closer to him. At last........ we see why Charlie never stays long in his Christmas kingdom, why he's so focused on the next child, and the next, sacrificing time with his own daughter, because they deserve Christmasland, and he doesn't. Always the courier, never the partaker. Christmasland is for children, and Charlie Manx never got the chance to be one.

The searing pains of his past still guide so much of who he is today, placing a strict emphasis on propriety in every aspect of his person, in manner, speech, and dress, because he was robbed of his dignity as a child. I also, FINALLY, after two seasons, understand why he turns the children into vampires, a contradiction to his love of them, that has remained frustratingly elusive to my grasp. Charlie's childhood was taken from him, brought to a vulnerable, violent end, and by turning the Lost Children, theirs becomes eternal. They never have to grow up, and lose that purity, that innocence. I also realized, that by giving them their bite back, they are able to defend themselves, meaning no one can ever hurt them again.......

There was so much awful going on, so much inflicted misery, and disorienting chaos, that I was sure I'd heard wrong when Bing decides on an even more dehumanizing method of torture. Did Bing just...... call Charlie a BITCH!? I shook my head, but there it was again, and at this point I'd HAD it. Somebody give me a GUN, I will WASTE this SICK BASTARD myself!!! The skeevy sexual threat against Charlie felt like overkill to me, utterly ridiculous, a cheap shot at adding dramatic effect, especially in the face of his childhood shame. Bing has exhibited absolutely no inclination of...... swinging that way, as it were, before, and yeah they kind of threw in last minute that he'd done this to Mike's father, offscreen, but I don't know WHY he would do that, especially given his particular affinity for Mike. Charlie, himself, pointed out that there was no indication in the Graveyard of What Might Be that Mike needed saving, or that his father deserved punishing. It's awkward, and disturbing, and there seemed to me no method in this madness.

"If I'm a monster....... who deserves to die....... You deserve so much worse." BAM. Hell yeah, Babe!!! Thank GOD, Charlie's quick enough to convince Bing that he too is a monster, and we are spared any further asinine innuendo. Bing, after these series of unfortunate events, beating, berating, and threatening Charlie with rape, suddenly, deus ex machina-esque has a change of heart, and an epiphany that comes a LOT TOO LATE!!! We're both monsters, we BOTH deserve to die....... What we're doing is WRONG. Was I happy when Bing urged Wayne to go, and tell a police officer that his mom is Vic McQueen? Yes. Do I believe he did it out of the goodness of his heart, and has finally seen the light? Freaking HELL NO!!! Bing, after losing Christmasland, has nothing left to live for, and this is his way of giving up. If I can't go to Christmasland, Wayne can't go...... and he decides a bizarre murder/suicide in The Wraith is his final act of redemption.

Before they even showed the car crusher, I was already sobbing profusely, losing my freaking mind, because I had figured out exactly where Bing had taken Charlie.

"There's going to be two less monsters in the world........"

Meaning to crush them both, and kill the Wraith irrevocably, Bing puts on his mask, and presses the button. At first Wayne laughs, and thinks it's a game, his inner vampire child coming out, but when it hits him that Charlie's in actual danger, he realizes he has a choice to make....... Save Charlie Manx, or let him die, and go home safe to his Mom and Lou.

"No, My Boy, this isn't a game, it's time to play, Save Father Christmas!!!"

Charlie calls out frantically, coaxingly to his young charge, and I loved that so much, my heart overwhelmed with emotion. Yes, Wayne, PRETTY PLEASE save Father Christmas!!! A lot of people despised him for what happened next, screaming at Wayne for his choice, even calling him a stupid kid, but I, myself, felt even more love in my heart for that already dearly cherished little lad, as he smiles, and slams down on the button, halting the crusher, and saving Charlie from imminent death.

It's a profound moment, the abductee choosing to save his kidnapper's life, and many cried out strongly against it, but you have to understand....... Charlie Manx has become so much more to Wayne than the scary face in his mother's paintings. Here is a man that has shown genuine interest in his life, his hopes, his dreams, who has treated him gently, fussed over him, concerned, and who has come to love him like a father. Couple that with The Wraith's effects on Wayne, slowly tying the two of them together, it makes perfect sense to me, how this unexpected bond has formed. Yes, had Vic been there, herself, he would have chosen her over Charlie in a second, but when faced with the reality of letting Charlie die, our tender-hearted Bats just couldn't do it.

"Do think of me at Christmastime, won't you?"

CHARLIE. LIKE. A. BOSS!!!! The single greatest moment, and brightest scene in an hour of plunging darkness, is definitely Charlie, snapping back into his delectably dark, unrivaled perfection (although, I must say I still found him incredibly dashing in his distinguished grays) charging Bing Partridge, murder striking in his wild, smouldering eyes, stabbing him, with a reveling whisper, twisting the knife, with this most PERFECT line, that gave me wonderous, reverberating chills!!! I also LOVED how Charlie glowers in his lumpy face and says, "You were never special." DAMN that's HOT!!! My only grievance with an otherwise ENTHRALLING moment, was that inexplicably, yet again, CHARLIE DIDN'T KILL BING!!! Charlie has KILLED for so much less, and while he did offer a vague explanation about prison being so much worse for Bing than hell, it felt like hell frozen over that Charlie would ever let Bing live. I know this is the writers wanting to keep Bing around to creep another day, but MY GOD, hang that Partridge from a pear tree, and HAVE DONE already!!!!!

This was an especially dark episode, but there were flashes of some really beautiful, albeit fleeting moments, first with Wayne and Craig, and then with Millie and Cassie, though the reoccurring theme, the common thread, did seem to be Innocence Lost. I was startled with the The Wraith's sneaky trick of causing a child to forget their parents the longer they are in the car, and BLESS YOU, Craig for helping your son remember his mother, and fight the transformation!!! He tells Wayne that Vic's favourite movie was Jaws, and Wayne tells him that her favourite holiday is the 4th of July. (Which is really cool, because it's my favourite too!!!) This slows the Wraith's effects on Wayne, and becomes a very special moment between father and son, as they fight to keep Vic's memory alive.

"How do you know my mom?"

"She was my best friend."

More overwhelmed sobs, because apparently I haven't cried enough this episode!!! Craig decides not to tell Wayne that he's his father, but our little Bats is ingeniously clever, and I think he's going to figure it out before long!!! Another mini heart attack comes with a second lost tooth. The suspense of Wayne's slow turning, mirroring the tender emotion in this scene was fantastic.

Millie and her mother have a similar moment, and I thought that was BRILLIANT of her to introduce Vampire Millie to her former human self. The two play with dolls, and human Millie talks about how she can't wait to go on a date, and have adventures when she grows up! It's such an endearing scene, and also incredibly sad, as the pale, gaunt shell of Vampire Millie envies her bright, and bubbly human counterpart, seeing the hope and innocence that she's so long been bereft of. "She's me...... Who I'm supposed to be." Cassie explains that her father's sad fantasy is depriving Millie of the gift of growing up, and explains that there's nothing Charlie Manx fears more than a woman with her own mind, and that's the LAST thing he wants his beloved daughter to become. A woman that would eventually leave him. More tears. Poor Millie. Poor Charlie!! Can I just give everybody a hug!?

"Cripple Creek," lingers like BAD Dream, and all I want to do right now, is curl up with Charlie Manx, hold him in my arms, stroke his cheek, soothe him with the tenderest hands, and softest words, tell him he's beautiful, and that he deserves Christmasland, and the world, that he's not ruined, but PURE!!! This was my least favourite episode in the entire series, and just like, "The Gas Mask Man," will be skipped indefinitely in the re-watch, but like I said, it endeared Charlie even more to my heart, and I feel fiercely protective over him, over that goodness that still glows in his dark eyes, despite lifetimes of feeling unloved, and in ever-present pain. All I ever wanted in Season One, was a glimpse into the past that crafted my mysterious and refined vampire chauffeur, and this entire experience, My Darlings, is an exercise in, "Be Careful What You Wish For..........."

#nos4a2 #nos4a2 review #charlie manx #wayne mcqueen #bing partridge #christmasland #the wraith #cripple creek

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miraayyalcin · 3 years

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Class essay - WRT 201 0204

WRT 201 0204

March 20, 2021

Miray Yalçın

Sibling Relationship in Catcher In the Rye

Humans are social creatures who build connections with others and thrive as companionship increases. Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, describes two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, who experiences much frustration in his inability to form long-lasting connections. Holden Caulfield has major problems and Salinger creatively infused his work with varying themes. This novel is sophisticatedly written in a manner that allows us to see all the themes clearly. Throughout the novel Catcher In the Rye, there is a sense of delaying adulthood, Holden's inability to stay in focus in education, the inability to form relationships or stay in the same place all seem to tie to the idea of avoiding adult notions, such as responsibility. It also shows Holden’s struggle against growing up. Holden's enemy is the adult world and the cruelty and artificiality that it entails. Holden’s story is full of failed attempts such as lack of communications, messages never delivered, uncompleted phone calls and more (Sandock). The people he admires all represent or protect innocence. With all of these situations, Holden's siblings Phoebe, D.B., and Allie play key roles in developing our perceptions of the books themes. Each character gives a different sense of personality. Holden’s differing relationships with his siblings not only influence him but also gives him different attitudes throughout the story. The relationship between Holden and his little sister Phoebe is probably the most significant in the book. Phoebe is Holden's favorite person who can truly communicate with. Phoebe's perspective is amusing and refreshing, and she is also emotional and affectionate. She is ten years old, skinny, and has reddish hair similar to her deceased brother, Allie. Holden elaborates on the positive personality traits of his younger sister by mentioning that she is extremely intelligent and funny. Interestingly, Holden says, “I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you're talking about” (Salinger, 37). Phoebe's ability to understand and connect with Holden is what he cherishes the most. Throughout the novel, Holden's immaturity and cynicism prevent him from developing authentic relationships with people his own age. Unlike the "phony" adults, Phoebe is genuine and innocent. In another saying, Phoebe is a representation of innocence in Holden's mind and the one person he loves unconditionally (Tolchin). Their relationship is different than others. It seems like Holden looks up the Phoebe in a way, even though he is the older sibling. Holden's affinity for Phoebe and Allie reflect his love for children and childhood in general. Holden feels like Phoebe can truly understand him, and he sees his younger sister as a genuine, compassionate person.The fact that Holden relates to Phoebe the most also reveals his immaturity. As an adolescent suffering from anxiety, Holden fears entering the world of adults and feels more comfortable around his younger sister. Phoebe represents to Holden the pure and ideal. However, Phoebe’s character is described from the standpoint of Holden, who is biased, unreliable narrator (Takeuchi). He chooses to view her in this way. However, Phoebe plays a larger role than just this. Phoebe is independent, straightforward, and a catalyst for Holden. She does not share his disenchantment with the world and scolds him for not liking anything. For2example, when she asks him if there is anything that he likes a lot, Holden struggles to answer. She calls her brother out on his depressive tendencies and glum outlook, and she pushes him to recognize his inability to answer her clearly. Although Holden cannot come up with a positive idea right away, he does eventually say he likes his younger brother, Allie. Phoebe angrily reminds him that their brother is dead. Phoebe is still only 10 years old and it is hard to expect her to understand Holden’s life. When he bares his soul to tell her of his dream of being "The Catcher in the Rye," she is quiet for a long time but then simply states, in reference to his expulsion, as he says in the book "Daddy's going to kill you," illustrating that despite their great friendship and connection. Although they both have totally different personalities, their relationship is so deep and strong.Allie, Holden's younger brother, died of leukemia when he was just eleven years old. Holden was thirteen at the time, and had to be hospitalized for breaking his hand while destroying every window in the garage. Allie's death causes Holden's descent into depression, where he hits rock bottom during the three days this novel takes place. Although Allie has been dead for about three years, he is a mystic presence in the book. Holden thinks of him often and speaks to him when things are darkest in his life. Allie is associated with the theme of death, but his role is not that simple. He also represents hope and the gifted innocence of childhood, which is tenuous and sometimes short-lived. Holden clearly loves his brother. Only two years apart in age, they were close friends. Holden, distraught over the loss of his brother, broke his hand punching the windows out of the garage of their summer home. Holden missed Allie's funeral because he was in the hospital, apparently for a psychiatric evaluation as well as for attention to his hand. It has thrown him into a deep depression (French). Holden reacts to Allie's death in a3way that alarms his parents about his mental health: “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage... It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie” (Salinger 21). Even when Holden gets depressed about events that, on the surface, aren't directly about Allie, the state of being depressed leads him to think about his dead brother. This suggests the root of all his depression is Allie's death and the survivor's guilt he feels over it.One of the first relationships that is mentioned in the story is Holden’s relationship with D.B., his brother. Throughout his childhood, it is obvious that Holden has idolized his older brother. Now that D.B. is a writer for Hollywood, Holden considers him a phony, and accuses him of prostituting himself by agreeing to work for the film industry. D.B.’s just one more phony in a world full of phonies. What really matters about D.B. is that he was in the war and was apparently quite traumatized by the whole thing. For Holden, Hollywood epitomizes everything he hates. It stands for all that's phony, fake, and insincere. He positively loathes the movies, and he isn't in the slightest bit impressed at his brother's becoming a screenwriter. More significantly, Holden wants to live life on his own terms, however difficult that is. His brother, like every adult he's ever come across, doesn't do that. He simply goes with the flow, acting the way that people expect him to, working for someone else, and doing their bidding. In other words, D.B. is no longer an individual in Holden's eyes, and Holden can't respect him for it. Because D.B.’s different life style doesn't fit with Holden's point of view, Holden doesn’t feel that D.B. understands him well. Thus, their relationship becomes toxic in a way that Holden reflects the reader through the novel.4Throughout J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, it is a book about Holden Caulfield's crises and interactions with society (Dhasti). The way he talks about, or to each, gives the reader some idea of whether he thinks they are "phony" or normal. A few of his accounts make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each family member. From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to refer to his parents as distant and generalizes both his father and mother frequently throughout his chronicle. One example is: "...my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also touchy as hell" (Salinger 1). Each relationship among siblings are different and special. He describes his relationship with his siblings in very different ways and expressions. For Phoebe, Holden describes her by saying “She was somebody you always felt like talking to on the phone.” For D.B. and Allie, Holden describes him by saying “My brother D.B. is the writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard.” He says that he is the stupid one of the four. Holden compares himself, it seems, in a negative way to his brothers and sister until the end of the novel. Each relationship embodies various attitude and approaches of Holden.

#spring #essay

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thehundredplusone · 4 years

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Infodump: The Satanic Panic & Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA)

GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD! STRONG CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING:

Child abuse

Murder

Police abuse

Satanism

Mental illness

Cannibalism

TL;DR at the bottom.

I'm autistic and my "focus" or specialist subject is extreme religion, cults, and religious abuse. The subset I've been most interested in for several years is the satanic panic of America in the 1980s and 90s. This is the period of time which the idea of satanic ritual abuse comes out of. For those who don’t know, satanic ritual abuse or SRA is purported to be an organized form of child abuse and murder conducted by underground rings of “satanists”.

An important bit of context around these events: it was around this time that the fact that child abuse existed first entered the public consciousness. It's weird to think that child abuse wasn't considered a 'thing' at any point because we're so aware of it today but up until the 1970s, at least in the USA, no one really considered it. People ignored physical, mental, and sexual abuse in the home, considering it a private matter. "We believe the children" was such an important mantra during this time and so key to the SRA movement precisely because they were coming out of a period in which children were never believed about abuse at home and there was a major push to be aware of the symptoms of abuse.

The first ideas of SRA initially came from a book called Michelle Remembers, which is purportedly true account of a woman surfacing memories of SRA with her therapist. The book was a cultural hit and spread like wildfire, leading the authors, Dr. Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith (soon to be Dr and Mrs Pazder, as they both left their spouses and got married), to go touring the country to speak at psychology conferences, to newspapers, and on TV shows. They claimed that there were underground rings of satanists going around abusing children.

Interestingly, as people dug into Michelle's history to make sense of how this horrible abuse had happened to her, some inconsistencies showed up, like the fact that she had perfect attendance at school during the periods which she was supposedly being held captive by satanists. Michelle also claimed to have been directly healed by religious figures like Mary and the Archangel Michael, which was why she bore no physical marks from her abuse. Some have speculated that Michelle’s trauma was actually related to repeated miscarriages and the medical procedures she went through surrounding them. There are a number of elements which make the story suspect but they were brushed aside during that time.

Soon enough self-titled experts on SRA with no real qualifications other than attending a conference began to offer training sessions about recognizing the signs of satanic activity and abuse to police departments and teachers. Among their claimed signs that satanism was active in a community was one particularly dangerous suggestion. These experts, who often had little training in child psychology, claimed that while children never lie about being abused, children who were victims of SRA may lie and claim that they weren't abused. It was important, they said, to keep asking and make it clear that they didn't have to protect their abusers.

If you know anything about about psychology, your red flags might be going up right now, and with very good reason. Children are highly susceptible to suggestion and pressure. If they are asked a question over and over again by an adult who is pushing them to give a certain answer, they generally will. Adults are susceptible to this as well but to a lesser degree, which is part of why you see people confessing to crimes they never committed. Hold a person in a room for hours and hours, asking them constantly about something they want you to confess to and many people will eventually confess falsely just to get out of the room.

This is exactly what happened once things really took off. If you ask Americans about the satanic panic, those who know of it will often point to one key trial set right in the midst of the most frantic part of this cultural hysteria. That would be the McMartin preschool trial. So the McMartin preschool was a daycare in California run by a family, the McMartins. They were well regarded in the community and had quite a few kids attending their center. One day, a mother noticed an odd mark on her son's bottom and became concerned that he was being abused. After questioning him repeatedly, he finally said that his father, who was a teacher at his preschool, had hurt him. She contacted the police, and the police, seemingly knowing exactly what would send the community into a fervor, sent a letter to every parent at the preschool urging them to talk with their children and find out if they were being abused. More parents insistently questioned their children until they too confessed to abuse of all stripes. Another interesting note here: The mother who initially made the complaint had a history of mental illness and of suspecting others of abusing her son. She checked him for marks regularly and questioned him about possible abuse. While we can't say for certain this is what led to his confession, knowing that he'd had this line of questioning before makes it more likely he could have been coerced into a false confession.

The daycare teachers were arrested and all of the children were brought in to be questioned by social workers and police. They used the same tactics as described above, holding children in rooms for extended periods of time, asking them over and over about the same things until they agreed, telling them that other children had confessed to acts which they hadn't confessed to, and describing explicit, leading scenarios. The children questioned were very young, as young as two in some cases, and they were being prompted to agree with trained adults.

The adults also took any fantastical statement the child made as fact, going on the premise that they should believe the children. Claims taken seriously included dozens of babies being butchered and eaten, being flushed down a toilet into a secret room, and flying through the air. The daycare's entire building and property were dismantled and searched for hidden compartments or rooms and remains of the children supposedly killed. Nothing was ever found. The parents and children also met with Dr Pazder and Michelle in the run-up to the trial and it's believed that this influenced their testimony. SRA claims were also heavy in the medial around this time through a number of other cases and it's likely that children picked up on the stories and them subconsciously used what they'd heard from the TV or their parents in their own accounts. Ultimately, most of the charges were dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The few which went forward were eventually reversed, in some cases after the defendant served time in jail.

That's not the end of the story on SRA though. Remember the kids going through this? The kids who were trapped in rooms, separated from their families, forced to confess to graphic details of abuse which no child should ever have to hear, not allowed to leave until they told the police or psychologists what they wanted? That is scarring for a child. While some kids had enough of a sense of self to realize that none of it happened, many others had their very fragile sense of self ripped to shreds and tainted with the ideas people pushed onto them. They developed false memories of their childhoods. Normal scenes of happy families, playing with friends, going to preschool, were tainted by the anxiety and fear they were put through by people who should have been protecting them.

One story highlighted in a podcast I listened to highlighted a young man named J and his father, M. M was accused of satanic abuse by his ex-wife and ended up in jail. J and his siblings were sent to a therapist who convinced them that they were abused. The therapist told him he'd never be able to hold down a job, that he'd be stalked all his life by the satanic cult, and if he tried to be normal, he'd wind up abusing children the way his father did. J wound up depressed and involved in drugs but did eventually stop therapy and managed to pull together a life for himself.

When he was in his 30s, still fully believing that his father had abused him, his younger brother made contact with their dad. M sent the brother a long letter explaining what he remembered of the events and apologizing for them, which was forwarded to J. The letter ultimately helped J find cracks in the abuse memories which his mother and therapist had created and he began to question everything. He had been traumatized as a very young child into believing he was abused, but that itself was ultimately the abuse. Nothing had happened to him but a mentally ill mother and a manipulative, unethical therapist, but those were enough to leave him with years of scars and problems to work through.

I want to be clear that I’m not trying to discredit or harm people who have memories of SRA. While the acts never happened in nearly every case, the pain and trauma inflicted by being made to agree to graphic descriptions of abuse is very real. Their suffering is real. The blame for that suffering should be placed where it belongs. The only way we prevent something like this from happening again is to have accurate accounts of how it happened the first time. If you believe yourself to be an SRA victim, my heart goes out to you. I hope you’re able to heal in time and piece yourself back together.

TL;DR: SRA came out of a weird period of botched child psychology and hysteria. It's not likely anyone was ever ritualistically abused by satanists. People with memories from SRA cases have had false memories imprinted on them through repeated questioning by police, social workers, therapists, and parents. These people were their abusers, not satanists. They are abuse victims and they may have very real mental illnesses due to trauma.

If you want more info about this topic, I recommend checking out the podcasts "Conviction" (Season 2), "You're Wrong About" (Michelle Remembers episodes) and "The Satanic Panic".

#sra #satanic ritual abuse #cw child abuse #cw murder #cw police abuse #cw mental heath #graphic #michelle remembers #ritual abuse #infodump

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in-tua-deep · 5 years

Note

So I’m curious as to how Alison is with Five in your Responsible Luther AU. Has she had Claire? And does interacting with a younger Five prevent her from rumoring her daughter or is that still the same? And is she as maternal towards a younger brother since she herself is younger? I just absolutely love this entire AU!

(responsible luther au posts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven)

Claire exists! I headcanon her as being about six during canon because that allows her the four years that Luther knew of her existence plus some extra years because I didn’t think she was four in that flashback at all SO because the responsible luther au takes place four years before canon…

Claire is in her terrible twos!! Allison is married and Exhausted and is now in contact with the squad a la skype/facetime, partially because Five absolutely insists and partially because Allison feels lowkey guilty about cutting everyone out of her life when she left home

the main difference between canon and au here is that Allison has a support network

She gets on skype and can vent and complain and ask for advice in a way that she can’t ask anyone else because her siblings know her, know her circumstances, and most importantly know her powers

I sincerely doubt that Allison confided in Patrick (their marriage had issues) and I doubt she breathed a word about her child soldier childhood with her actress friends and Allison was so very desperate to put it all behind, to be normal, that she was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. She felt like a failure constantly because she couldn’t handle an infant child, a job that is stressful for the best of people, and she didn’t know how to ask for help or advice and what knowledge she had to draw upon of disciplining a child made rumoring sound like a merciful option tbh

but the point is that Allison gets online and calls up the family and she has people who understand that her first reaction to most things is a violent one because violence was drilled into her bones, into their bones

so when Allison complains, the squad understand and are willing to brainstorm solutions that don’t involve violence OR rumoring, because Allison would absolutely admit her desperation or admit to rumoring her daughter into not crying or silencing a tantrum and all that, and, most importantly, she has people who would tell her no while understanding why she would jump to it

there’s no judgement (well only a tiny bit) but she’s talking with the people who remember her rumoring them to do really stupid and petty shit when they were kids. Diego still has the scar on his arm after the incident where Allison’s magazines went mysteriously missing that no one speaks about since Allison still gets that slightly crazy look in her eyes when it’s brought up (it was actually Klaus’s fault but Diego will deny it to his grave due to a very particular piece of blackmail between the duo)

Luther and Allison get close because Luther’s basically raising Five right now so they both compare notes on child rearing. Like yeah, there’s some differences but actually Allison’s advice on how to help your child sleep all the way through the night/soothe them back to sleep is alarmingly applicable with a traumatized Five who frequently wakes up not knowing where he is and thinking he’s either back in the apocalypse or locked up in their childhood home. And Luther’s advice on how to deal with a picky eater is pretty applicable to baby Claire, though admittedly Five’s wariness of certain foods which spoil quickly is fairly justified (Five still accuses raspberries of going moldy overnight which I mean. Luther can’t exactly argue with because he takes his eyes off the fridge for two seconds and suddenly the berries are fuzzy)

Klaus is somehow?? A baby whisperer? Small children absolutely ADORE him (Diego says it’s because he’s a child himself and Klaus always shoots back about being young at heart) so Claire can be a sobbing mess and Allison will facetime Klaus and then suddenly Claire is cooing at the phone and babbling about her latest imaginative story she made up while Klaus offers up critiques and suggestions for even cooler ideas and characters while Allison is gently irritated that Klaus can get Claire to stop crying faster than she can (but then again she’s also just relieved)

Patrick also chats with the whole squad now that Allison is actually back in contact with the family. Him and Klaus get along well, Patrick laughs at Klaus’s jokes and comments, though Patrick has already solemnly informed them all that if it comes down to it he’s legally obligated to take his wife’s side in every argument which they all respect

Allison IS maternal towards Five, but I mean,,, all of them are protective over their smallest and youngest sibling even though Five rolls his eyes and bristles under it half the time. Five survived the apocalypse! He survived thirteen years under Reginald’s regime! Honestly Five’s mood towards his siblings general being-older-ness is somewhat mercurial - sometimes he’s perfectly fine with it and even seeks it out and other times he absolutely rejects it and gets as prickly as a hedgehog

but for the most part Five is the one prodding everyone to call Allison and being absolutely draconian about everyone sitting down for family time because so help him god he spent months trying to get back here after finding his family’s dead bodies and dealing with THAT he’s very insistent on keeping an eye of everyone’s whereabouts and health (especially Vanya’s because he never did find her body)

honestly talking to Five actually helps Allison with Claire a lot because Five literally tells Allison to ask Claire things. Why is she crying? What upset her? Why did that thing upset up? What can be done to make it not be upsetting?

Claire adores Five because he takes her very seriously whenever he chats with her. He asks her very seriously about the status of some of her stuffed animals while she giggles into her hands. Five is willing to patiently wait while Claire introduces him to every single one of her toys, and he is also willing to memorize every single name given to him.

Allison gets therapy!! Mainly because Five is in therapy, and Luther is in therapy, and Klaus is in therapy, and Vanya is in therapy, and they’re all trying to convince Diego to also get therapy (he’s actually seeing someone but hasn’t told the rest of them because he likes being a difficult son of a bitch) and so everyone is gently confronting their child soldier childhood and the shit they went through so Allison gets to go to therapy as well

and Allison gets to learn some communication skills and is encouraged to talk with Patrick so their marriage doesn’t break down the way it does it canon (though I dunno I still think they probably get divorced but more of an amicable one)

Allison probably does fly down at some point, probably after a few gentle kidnapping attempts a la Reginald/Hazel/Cha-Cha who are after Five, leaving Claire in Patrick’s very capable hands (they facetime twice a day so that Allison can see Claire, though Claire is sulky the entire time because a, her mother is gone and b, SHE wanted to go visit all her cool uncles and aunt as well heck)

Allison, showing up: oh, oh no. i’m going to get everyone a new wardrobe what do you have my baby brother wearing?

Luther: j,,jeans? t-shirts? regular people clothes?

Allison: are these from walmart? don’t answer that. everyone is getting a new wardrobe consider it payback for all the missed birthdays and christmas gifts from when I, you know

Klaus: cut us out of your life like yesterday’s trash?

Luther: KLAUS

Klaus: hey man you can keep your grease monkey shirts to yourself I for one and THRILLED to go shopping on Allison’s dime

Five: can i get a hat? I had a hat in the apocalypse and i was fond of it

aww now I want to write a scene where Allison shows up but this is already getting to be a really long post hmm

is that going to stop me though?? probably not

So Allison arrives at the door with her bags after a long day at the airport (she’d told Patrick five times that you only had to be there three hours before for international flights but he could be such a worrywart) and knocks a quick ‘shave and a haircut’ tune just like she always did as a kid.

Immediately the door flies open and there’s a breathless looking Five who clearly jumped to the door to get their first and he’s got a smile on his face and yeah, she’s seen him through a screen with great frequency but it’s not the same as seeing him in person. Folding him into a hug is the easiest thing in the world. He’s so little, and skinny. Even skinnier than she remembered him being, and Five had always been a boney little shit with sharp elbows and a willingness to use them.

“I like your hair.” He tells her, hands fisted in the back of her shirt. He’s told her that about once a day since she let Claire pick out a color and she ended up with purple hair.

She looks up and meets Luther’s eye where he’s wiping his hands on a towel and making a face that says there is probably more to this love of her hair color than meets the eye.

(”He saw us dead.” Luther tells her, later, when the rest of the house is asleep on the couches while one of Allison’s movies plays softly. “Your hair… it wasn’t purple, when you died. It makes him feel safer. He shredded Klaus’s favorite coat right after he moved in as well, almost caused world war three.”

Allison presses her hand to her mouth, feeling tears gather at the corners of her eyes as she looks over her shoulder in the direction of the teen draped across Klaus with a dog drooling on them both. He looks so carefree and innocent in his sleep, it’s so easy to forget what he’s been through. What they’ve all been though.)

“Allison!” The cheerful greeting heralds the arrival of Klaus who stumbles out of the kitchen, mouth half full of a cookie. Freshly baked, from the smell wafting around the house. It’s easy for Klaus to brush past Luther and wrap his arms around both her and Five, swaying them side to side and making Allison giggle as he lays an exaggerated kiss on her cheek with a loud “Mwah!”

“Okay okay,” Allison says, prying both of them off of her so she can fully come in the door with her suitcase.

“Let me take that for you.” Luther says, coming forward and grabbing it out of her hands. He looks good, more relaxed that Allison has seen him in years. He reaches out to ruffle Five’s hair in an affectionate gesture familiar between the two, “And why don’t you go grab our sister a cookie before Klaus manages to eat them all.”

“You’re sleeping in Klaus’s room.” Five informs her, smile quirking his lips up. The reason for the mischief on his face is quickly explained by the outraged squawk that emerges from Klaus’s mouth.

“You can’t expect Allison to sleep on the couch.” Luther throws over his shoulder as he’s already heading deeper into the house.

“I’d be fine with the couch.” Allison shrugs, half because she actually was and half to stir up shit because that’s just what their family is like.

(It used to be if they weren’t in their rooms for bedtime, they would be locked out - because of course their rooms locked on the outside and not the inside, like in normal houses. Allison spent more than one night sleeping on the hardwood floor outside of her door, knowing that to be caught sleeping on one of the couches or other soft surfaces in the mansion was to invite further punishment.)

“We aren’t making our guest sleep on the couch!” Luther calls, out of sight.

“Diego sleeps on the couch!” Klaus hollers right back in outrage.

Five tugs on Allison’s arm, “Allison! Allison come on! You have to meet Mr. Pennycrumb.”

“I’ve already met him.” Allison informs her brother, because she has. Over the phone. Luther and Klaus are still yelling at one another, but it’s in a way that everyone knows that Klaus is going to end up sleeping on the couch.

“That doesn’t count.” Five insists, tugging on her arm again. Allison allows herself to be towed towards the kitchen where there is a half eaten tray of cookies on the counter, and a dog that looks like the very picture of patience laying in a dog bed in the corner. At their entrance, Mr. Pennycrumb raises his head and gives a few thumps of his tail but doesn’t get up until Five makes a ‘come on’ gesture with a hand.

Immediately the dog is at their feet, and Five’s hand is clamped around Allison’s wrist and offering her hand for said dog to sniff. “Mr. Pennycrumb,” He says, with great gravity, “This is my sister, Allison. Allison, this is Mr. Pennycrumb.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Pennycrumb.” Allison says with equal gravity. Mr. Pennycrumb finishes sniffing her hand and immediately sits and puts one paw in her hand. Allison, never one to be caught off guard, gives it a firm shake. At least having a toddler prepared her for this - this exchange actually reminds her of introductions to some of her daughter’s stuffed animals. Though she is never going to inform Five of this fact.

Five, for his part, looks exceptionally pleased that the two of them are getting along.

There’s a new argument echoing through the house, which from a quick listen reveals that it’s because of the state of Klaus’s room. Which, thinking back to their childhood, Allison is not so surprised. Though it seems to be only about clothes on the floor, which is far neater than their youth where scorch marks were commonplace. Klaus had been quite the little pyromaniac.

“Where’s the rest of the motley crew?” Allison asks, straightening up and swiping a cookie from the tray on the counter. It’s still warm, with gooey chocolate. Allison doesn’t even hesitate to pick up two more. Self preservation, really.

“Ben’s probably with Klaus.” Five says, shrugging, apparently not even realizing that Allison is choking on her mouthful of cookie. No matter how many times she heard about their deceased brother being an active member of the family thanks to Klaus, it never got any more bizarre to her. “Diego should be here before midnight, maybe? He’s never on time for anything. And Vanya’s gonna swing by after practice but she can’t stay ‘cause she’s got a lesson with the Brat early in the morning.”

“The brat?” Allison asks, already amused.

“The brat.” Five confirms with a nod, “Vanya says she won’t tell me a name ‘cause of teacher-student privilege but she’s awful. Thinks she’s the next coming of - of - of whoever is a famous violinist except for Vanya I dunno.”

Allison elects to not inform her younger brother that teacher-student privilege isn’t actually a thing. It’s probably safer for whatever young girl happens to be both spoiled and have the luck of being taught music by Vanya Hargreeves.

“You know, you calling someone a brat is a little like the pot calling the kettle black.” Allison informs her brother with a smile, scrunching up her nose and pulling a face at him. He makes one right back, and it’s so familiar that it feels like she’s being punched in the chest for a moment.

She’s known that Five is back for months, that he’s alive for months, but it’s not the same as him being there. Solid and real. He’s skinnier, cheeks more hollow and eyes more haunted. His hair is a bit longer than she remembers, though reportedly not as long as it had been when Five had made it back.

They’d never been close, her and Five. Not like he’d been with Vanya, with Ben, with the kids lower on the totem pole than Allison had ever been. Oh, their father hadn’t liked her, but she’d completed every task he set before her with ruthless efficiency and she was rarely punished. Too good at gaming the system. She’d only ever been close with Luther, too busy to deal with the others on a regular basis. But there had been times regardless where they’d all been together, as a family.

Five had been a firecracker of a kid, always explosive where Allison preferred to skirt around the rules, bending but not breaking. They both liked the spotlight, though Five had never seemed to begrudge her for her own time shining. She’d thought he was such an arrogant brat, but he was still her brother.

It’s different now, seeing mischief light up his face. Back then she would have rolled her eyes, felt irritated, maybe even tried to rumor him into being quiet for once (though he’d gotten alarmingly good at telling when she was about to speak a rumor over the years, and gotten even better at jumping away before she could get a word out). Now though, now she just felt affectionate nostalgia. Maybe it was because she was older, she was an adult looking into the face of a child who she knew had never gotten a real childhood. It was almost a relief that Five’s spark had never managed to be stamped out.

“Hey,” Five interrupts her thoughts. He’s on the floor, rolling Mr. Pennycrumb’s head between his hands thoughtfully, “Can we watch your movies? I’ve seen a couple but Luther and Klaus are always super weird about it.”

Allison’s mind scrolls through some of her more risque movies with scenes that she would much rather none of her siblings ever witness, especially her thirteen-year-old sibling. Or thirteen-year-olds in general, truthfully. “Uh,” She starts, but is thankfully interrupted by Klaus gliding into the kitchen to sweep up three more of the cookies, pouting while he does so.

“I,” Klaus pauses, bringing a hand up to gesture dramatically, cookie still gripped and sprinkling crumbs, “Have graciously decided to allow you to use my room - ”

“Technically it’s my room.” Five interrupts.

“You gave it to me!” Klaus rebuffs. It sounds like this is an old argument between the two, “You can’t just take back a gift! That makes it my room! You’re such a little brat - ”

The argument continues and Allison eases herself back to lean against the counters and watch as her two brothers snipe back and forth at one another with a smile. It’s the kind of controlled chaos that she’s almost used to. She can’t help the smile across her face. Even though she misses Claire like nothing she’s ever felt, that hurt is soothed just a little bit by being around these losers again.

Despite everything, she missed them. All of them.

It’s good to be back.

#ask me #anonymous #tua #the umbrella academy #far tua long #responsible luther au #allison hargreeves #luther hargreeves #claire hargreeves #tua claire #patrick hargreeves #tua patrick #diego hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #number five #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves

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cupidmarwani-archive · 5 years

Text

The Med Groupchat

Summary: The title speaks for itself.

WC: 1.5k

[crickett has renamed the chat “SEXY BITCHES”]

crickett: my city now

[Maggie<3 has renamed the chat “Gaffney ED”]

Maggie<3: Absolutely not

J. Lanik: Dr. Marcel, I can just kick you out of the chat if you cannot take this seriously.

crickett: rude

[J. Lanik has changed “crickett”’s username to “Crockett Marcel”]

[Crockett Marcel has changed “Crockett Marcel”’s username to “crickett”]

[crickett has added “HUBBY” to the chat]

HUBBY: Hi this is Ethan Crockett made my username and I don’t know how to change it

J. Lanik: I can change it in the chat for you I have admin privileges

crickett: no fun

HUBBY: Please change my username

[J. Lanik has changed “HUBBY”’s username to “Ethan Choi”]

crickett: how come u have all the power

J. Lanik: Because I’m an adult.

FreeWilly: who acts like a five year old lmao

J. Lanik: YOU KNEW I WAS SAVING THAT SORBET FOR FRIDAY NIGHT AS A TREAT FOR MYSELF

crickett: no need to yell

[crickett has sent an image to the chat]

FreeWilly: WHAT THE FUCK CROCKETT

J. Lanik: HOLY SHIT

[Maggie<3 has left the chat]

[crickett has deleted a message from the chat]

crickett: sorry babes i meant to send that to @EthanChoi

Ethan Choi: I’m breaking up with you

[J. Lanik has added “Maggie<3” to the chat]

Ethan Choi: You’re safe now, Maggie

Lesbian’s Wife: hey google how do i bleach my brain

Lesbian: Seconded

Maggie<3: Remind me which one of you is which

Lesbian: I’m Ava

FreeWilly: I remember cos Sarah never shuts up about being Ava’s wife

Lesbian’s Wife: I’m Ava’s wife <3

[J. Lanik has changed “Lesbian”’s username to “Bekker”]

[J. Lanik has changed “Lesbian’s Wife”’s username to “Other Bekker”]

crickett: not that i dont love and support dr bekker but this is the ed chat

crickett: since u wont let me name it the sexy bitches chat

J. Lanik: She’s married to Sarah and cardiology is always down here.

J. Lanik: WAIT

[J. Lanik has added “connor” to the chat]

[J. Lanik has added “MommyPower” to the chat]

Maggie<3: I love you, Nat, but please change your username

crickett: give me admin power

[MommyPower has changed “MommyPower”’s username to “Nat”]

Nat: I’m in a mom chat leave me alone

Maggie<3: How’s Owen btw

crickett: @J.Lanik give me admin give me admin

Ethan Choi: do not give him admin I’m begging you

[J. Lanik has promoted “Ethan Choi” to administrator]

[Ethan Choi has changed “J. Lanik”’s username to “BooBoo the Fool”]

Nat: Owen is great thanks for asking! He just started soccer.

[Ethan Choi has removed “BooBoo the Fool” from the chat]

Ethan Choi: YOU FOOL

Ethan Choi: I HAVE ACCESS TO ETHAN’S PHONE

Ethan Choi: AND HE IS EASILY DISTRACTIBLE!

crickett: He locked himself in the bathroom with my phone. But now I have his

Ethan Choi: WAIT NO I HAVE PRIVATE STUFF THERE

Maggie<3: More private than your dick pics?

Connor: his WHAT

[Ethan Choi has added “BooBoo the Fool” to the chat.]

[BooBoo the Fool has changed “BooBoo the Fool”’s username to “Lanik”]

[Lanik has demoted “Ethan Choi” from administrator]

Lanik: This close to removing you from the chat, Marcel.

crickett: u love me too much

Bekker: Crockett sent us all his dick earlier @connor

crickett: NOT ON PURPOSE

connor: ...is it a good dick

crickett: i mean yeah? i hope so

Ethan Choi: I’d like to stop talking about my husband’s dick please

Ethan Choi: (but for the record @connor it is a good dick)

Other Bekker: can we not talk abt his dick

Other Bekker: not unless i can talk about the strap but lanik said thats not allowed

Bekker: So he can send nudes but Sarah can’t talk about our new strap?

[Lanik has added “Dr. Charles” to the chat]

Lanik: Will this make you all calm down?

Dr. Charles: I don’t want to be involved here.

[Dr. Charles has left the chat]

Other Bekker: DAD

connor: lmao daddy issues

Bekker: @connor is this the hill you wanna die on?

[connor has deleted a message from the chat]

FreeWilly: can we all calm down lol

crickett: no. @connor dm if you wanna see my dick

Ethan Choi: …

crickett: i was kidding!!

crickett: haha unless……..

Lanik: Please do not plan threesomes in the work groupchat.

April: @Lanik bitter because you weren’t invited

crickett: OOOOOH burn

Ethan Choi: Does @no-ah have us on mute

April: yes

crickett: I’ll dm him some booty pics

Ethan Choi: Do not dm him booty pics

crickett: doing so is a public service

FreeWilly: to be fair Ethan he does get naked anywhere and everywhere

Nat: Including my birthday party >:(

crickett: in my defense u and april and sarah were also naked

Other Bekker: i remember that lmao

Lanik: This is a work chat.

FreeWilly: we should have a nude exchange

[Lanik has removed “FreeWilly” from the chat]

crickett: ooooh drama. are yall gonna break up

[Lanik has muted “crickett”]

Maggie<3: It’s so… quiet

Ethan Choi: Please unmute him he’s whiny

[Lanik has unmuted “crickett”]

connor: anyways

connor: who wants to talk about their trauma

Bekker: @connor Like when you accused me of murder

Other Bekker: when i was a kid my mom really hated me and ive never really felt loved and maybe thats why im in a constant state of loneliness and being unfulfilled and even though im the happiest ive ever been i constantly feel like im on the edge of a cliff and at any moment im gonna fall over the edge and die

connor: that was loaded

Other Bekker: you asked

Maggie<3: I was traumatized by seeing Crockett’s penis

connor: lucky :(

Lanik: Jeez kids can you lighten up a little

Nat: HE KNOWS MEMES HE KNOWS MEMES

crickett: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THIS JIMOTHY

Lanik: Don’t call me Jimothy.

Ethan Choi: @connor why are you thirsty

[Lanik has added “FreeWilly” to the chat]

Lanik: It’s worse without you

FreeWilly: that may be the nicest thing youve ever said to me…

crickett: hey baby

crickett: baby

Nat: Use dm

crickett: baby

Ethan Choi: What

crickett: since ur going to the hospital tonight can u pick up my meds uwu <3

Ethan Choi: Only if you promise to never say uwu again

[Other Bekker has renamed the chat “uwu”]

Nat: uwu

connor: uwu

Other Bekker: uwu

Bekker: uwu

April: uwu

Maggie<3: uwu

FreeWilly: uwu

Crickett: OWO

Ethan Choi: I want a divorce

[Lanik has renamed the chat “SHUT THE FUCK UP MARCEL”]

connor: lanik snapped

FreeWilly: hot

connor: WAIT CROCKETT DID YOU DO THAT ON PURPOSE

crickett: ;)

Bekker: What did he do

connor: i saw the dick pick. @EthanChoi you were right its nice

Lanik: Please stop planning threesomes in the chat

Ethan Choi: @connor I’ll set up a private chat

connor: yesyesyesyesyes

Nat: I wish I could get laid this easily…

April: You can

Maggie<3: I’m with @Lanik can you guys not be horny in this chat

Other Bekker: my two modes are horny and depressed

Bekker: Actually you have a third- hungry

Other Bekker: fair

No-ah: This is why I have the chat muted

[No-ah has left the chat]

[Lanik has added “Queen Elsa” to the chat]

Bekker: Rounding out the lesbianism I see

Queen Elsa: Is this even a chat I want to be in?

Ethan Choi: No

Maggie<3: No

crickett: yes

Other Bekker: to summarize: crockett sent a dickpic on accident and connor was disappointed he didnt see it and now hes gonna sleep with ethan and crockett and also i think nat and april are gonna get laid and also in case you didnt know yet will and jimmy are dating

Other Bekker: AND @Bekker IS MY WIFE!

Maggie<3: There it is

Lanik: Hi, Ms. Curry. This is the groupchat for the ED and I trust that you’ll treat this respectfully unlike some of the other doctors have been

Queen Elsa: Did you just call me a doctor?

crickett: do not listen to him this chat is all fun and games and dickpics

Queen Elsa: If that last part is true, I’m leaving the chat.

crickett: it only happened once and it was an accident

[Other Bekker has sent an image]

Other Bekker: look at my wife look at my wife look at my wife

FreeWilly: @April @Nat are you guys still here

Maggie<3: It looks like they both have us on mute

crickett: good for them,, we been knew they were in love

Ethan Choi: Please act like a person

crickett: bold of u to assume im a person

[connor has renamed the chat “tinder for lonely gay doctors and nurses”]

Other Bekker: DOES THIS MEAN WE CAN HELP ELSA GET A GIRLFRIEND

Queen Elsa: I have one.

Other Bekker: omg omg omg spill

Lanik: I feel like none of you are taking this seriously.

[Lanik has promoted “Maggie<3” to administrator]

Lanik: Never let it be said that I did not try.

[Maggie<3 has changed “Lanik”’s username to”BooBoo the Fool”]

[BooBoo the Fool has left the chat]

#chicago med #chicago med fic #one chicago #mine #fic #medgroupchat

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alex-baebae · 5 years

Text

Immaculate

Chapter 20

Pairing: TOP X READER

I didn’t notice how much time we stayed there, suddenly Takashi called us “hey! What did you buy?” He said “oh…” the guys were in front of us “uh, we decided to wait for you”. We were talking when a girl ran into us “could you tell me if you see him?” She gave us sheets of paper with a guy’s face printed on “my phone number is written here” she pointed out “please call me as soon as possible if you see him” then she walked rapidly through the hallway.

I saw the paper, that guy was not Asian, so… he was that girl’s 'sex-doll'. I felt relieved instantly, it was like since the moment Josh commented it, I had been carry a huge weight on my back and fortunately after many minutes it was not there. “What the hell is wrong with the people like her?” Takashi said “those ones who own sex-dolls?” Josh asked “yeah, and with all the people who are rich” he told us annoyed looking to the girl who was desperately spreading her sheets of paper out “thank you, Takashi” I told him “no, I mean… not you. You’re the only rich person I have ever met who is not a j*rk” he said. I looked at TOP, he was relieved too 'you, okay?' I make the gestures with my mouth without sound, he nodded. I squeezed his hand and smiled, he smiled too and looked into my eyes.

Takashi hadn’t so much money, he always had to work hard. Neal usually helped him with money but only when Takashi accepted… Neal and Josh had not so much money too, but their families had enough to live a good life. “She seems so desperate and sad” Josh commented.

Aproximately three weeks before the creepy situation took place, TOP was getting better, the nightmares bit by bit were disappearing, I changed the colors of the apartment wall to make him feel more relaxed, and we did some aromatherapy too, that was helpful as hell. Nevertheless when that occurred TOP's healing stopped, fortunately he didn’t return to his initial state, you remember... that scared little boy I found. Well that was amazing because what we all experienced was… traumatic. He started to be stable, maybe more than I thought.

I’ll explain you quickly what happened, one day we were about to meet with Takashi and Neal. They were outside in front of the main building, they were eating, I guess. Takashi previously told us he was pretty hungry. We were still inside due to Josh, he had to talk with a lecturer and TOP and me offered to wait for him, Josh accepted.

Whatever… it is said that a blue SUV parked in front of the girl who had lost her sex-doll, she was outside too, sat on a bench, everyone didn’t suspect that, from that SUV were going to got out of it four men… they carried a black plastic bag, it was pretty big…

The girl was there with a friend, it is said she didn’t noticed them. Suddenly the guys throw that bag on her lap, it was her ‘sex-doll'.

“It was a guy… his body was quartered… lots of blood, something that seemed to be his intestines… his arms his legs… it was horrible” Takashi told us that when we all arrived at Josh’s house which was the nearest to the university. I could imagine how impressive the image was for Takashi, he was very impacted, he vomited as soon as he saw the corpse, that’s what Neal told us.

When we were walking outside looking for them, there were some curious people and the university's security guard around the girl, she was crying and shouting so hard, maybe the whole campus could heard her.

I took TOP's hand and turned him around so he wouldn’t be able to see more of such a brutal scene “look at me, sweetie, look at me” he was shocked, it was late “let’s f*cking find them, and get out of here” Josh said panicked “Josh, help me” Neal was almost carrying Takashi who seemed to be dizzy “sure, let’s go to my house” Josh offered “yeah, it’s the best option” Neal said scared of Takashi's situation.

At Josh home Takashi told us everything he saw, TOP was getting more and more scared, however I was hugging him, Neal was hugging Takashi too. “Guys, I guess it would be better if you stay here this night” Agnes told us so much worried “yeah, guys… don’t leave, it’s too late and this…” Josh commented “we’ll stay here, Takashi is not feeling well, thank you very much” as soon as Neal said this, Takashi ran to the bathroom, he vomited again “we too” I said “I’ll prepare two rooms for you all” Agnes said “N-No, please” Takashi was stood up near to the bathroom’s door “we can sleep here, we all” he told Agnes “I don’t want to be separated from them now” Agnes just nodded “well then, I’ll bring some blankets, pillows, I don’t know” she went upstairs.

I sent a message to my mother telling her we were okay, with photo of me and TOP attached. “What’s going on, ____?” TOP asked me whispering “calm down, my angel… this is not connected with us” he nodded and layed on my lap, he took my right arm and put it around his shoulders, I kissed his head. We didn’t talk in many hours, we all were shocked, no one wanted to talk.

“There are news!” Josh exclaimed “what they say?” Neal asked interested. "A sheet of paper was glued to the plastic bag, it said 'your daughter is the next corpse, Eduard Foster" Josh was reading the news for us "she's the daughter of that man?!" Neal exclaimed "yes, I didn't know" Josh said "neither I" Neal whispered "we must remember that the Senator was accused in June of being covering up illegal business" Josh continued reading "so it probably was a revenge or something" Neal commented "yes it could be, I guess they are threatening him" Josh told us "what else does that article says?" Neal asked Josh "that's all" he said.

"Poor guy" Agnes said "yeah, it's unfair" Josh said "Josh..." I called him "has the university said something about this?" I asked "no" he told me "it's probably that all the activities will be postponed" Takashi told me "yes, it's probably".

We were quite again, Takashi looked at TOP for a minute then he approached to him "Seunghyun" he called him, Takashi sat on the floor "are you okay?" He asked him "y-yes" TOP said nervously "I know that this is a really bad experience, and everyone here is kinda scared, so... Please do not hide your feelings, it's okay to feel scared, bad, if you felt that way... We'll help you okay?" Takashi told him with eyes filled with compassion, TOP nodded "thank you" he said "don't be ashamed please, I vomited a lot so..." Takashi laughed, TOP laughed a little too "yes, thank you".

We didn't notice that Agnes was in the kitchen preparing the dinner, in the room was a very delicious smell "guys, please eat something and after try to sleep please" Agnes told us, we walked to the kitchen where Agnes served us a delicious soup "I prepared something special for you, Takashi" she gave him his special dinner "thanks a lot" she smiled "you will feel better when you finish eating this soup".

That night we slept in the living room, except Agnes, she was in her room "if you need anything else, please let me know" she told us before went upstairs.

We were resting on the floor, Neal and Takashi used to sleep hugging each other as TOP and me. Josh was there with us, he was covered in many blankets on the sofa, we told him to sleep there due to there was no more space for him on the floor.

"You will stifle yourself with all those blankets" Neal told Josh "oh just shut up man" Josh fake angry "you are going to spend the winter or something? " Neal said joking, we all were laughing "none of your business, by the way... Don't you sleep naked?" Josh told him, Neal got embarrassed "why did you say that? Seunghyun is gonna think I'm weird" Neal started to poke Josh's body with his foot "oh what's wrong with you?!" Josh laughed uncovering his face "you seem like a mummy" I commented "oh! you too man? I believed you were in my team".

Seunghyun and Takashi were laughing hard while we were teasing Josh. "We should do this more often" Josh told us "oh you just were complaining seconds ago! and now you want to organize a slumber party" Neal teased him again.

I didn't know what we were going to do in the morning, but at least that night we were safe all together at Josh's house.

Good night, or Good morning y'all ❤️

Thank you for the ♥️, the comments, the messages and for reblogging (did I write it correctly?)

Love you ❤️

Alex

#choi seunghyun angst #choi seunghyun x reader #choi seunghyun #t.o.p x reader #t.o.p angst #t.o.p #kpop x reader #kpop stories #kpop angst #kpop #bigbangxreader #bigbang angst #bigbang stories #bigbang

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realfxntasy · 5 years

Text

The decline of Game of thrones SPOILERS INNIT

So the show has finally came to an end, it took the world by storm with its twists and turns, the violence, intrigue, characters, worlds and winning the award of most genitalia shown on a TV screen. But the last season was unfortunately blasted with lots of heat, negative opinions rained fire on the show’s creators just as Dany did to all those innocent Kings Landings citizens. So where did the beginning of the end start for game of thrones? Let us take a look at thrones in its entirety and talk about what happened to the show we all once loved.

I absolutely loved the first six seasons, they were incredible, season one introduced us to a world of deep political intrigue, not your usual fantasy, this one was incredibly dark and realistic, realistic even when it had zombies and dragons, like a world that really could exist, because the show managed to capture so elegantly the motives of each character and why they acted as they did. Seasons two, three and four brought the same brilliant realism, intrigue and storytelling but upped the ante with some incredible spectacle, I remember watching the battle of kings landing for the first time, seeing the shot of wildfire explode and thinking this show was just something else, season three brought serious shock in terms of the red wedding and season four showed off the shows continuous ability for intense battle sequences mixed with great character development during the battle for the wall. The first four seasons for me are basically near perfect, I’m sure there are flaws here and there but none I can remember too well, they facilitate game of thrones as one of the greatest shows on television.

Season five is where things began to change a little for me, not greatly though, season five was still fantastic, the plot with the sons of harpy, the tensions on the wall, in Mereen and so forth but I felt the pacing did struggle at some points especially in Mereen and Kings Landing, luckily by the end of the season I felt things really begin to kick off as Dany had to fall to the whims of the slavers and re open the fighting pits, Cersei got in hot bother with the sons of the harpy and was arrested for her sins and who could forget Hardhome, it was amazing. However even though season five was still a high quality part of the thrones story it does to some degree begin to mark the beginning of the end as this was when things really began to deviate from the books, I hadn’t read the books the first time I saw season five so I wasn’t sure what I was missing out on, but my god, I’m up to date on the Song of Ice and Fire novels now and there is some difference, mainly where a certain place named Dorne is concerned, this is where most people’s complains about season five stem from, the whole Dorne arc seemed to be a little rushed and quite flimsy at points, but this was game of thrones, it had delivered so much, so why would we have been worried? Well I certainly wasn’t but looking back now this was where you can really put the show creators into question, they properly deviated from the books this time and it was up to them and their own creativity and it was the first time the show seemed to fall short a little, not that I hated the Dorne arc or anything but at the same time the frustration people feel comes from how good it was in the books I believe.

Season six, I really enjoyed season six, it was the point where the show seemed to really be moving on to its grand conclusion, Bran was having visions about Ned Stark and Lyanna and if you had seen any internet theory video on the fabled R + L = J then you knew what was coming, the hype was real, Jamie was facing off the Blackfish in a part now taken from the books, rather than his Dorne arc which the show writers created the season before and the change in quality here with a sequence from the book was more evident, the battle of the bastards gave us one of the most gut wrenching and intense battles not just on TV but really in any medium, straight out of a movie really, who could also forget Cersei’s glorious revenge against everyone who ever screwed her over when she blew up the Sept of Baelor and finally the season ended with Dany making her way to the seven kingdoms, season six for me was absolute quality and I think we were all pretty hyped for what was to come in season seven.

But then, all of a sudden, something was different. Season seven was when things began to truly go downhill; the show had veered off from the books fully now and it was up to the show’s creators to keep the quality up, season seven for me was poor for a number of reasons, the biggest flaw for me was how they had completely thrown away game of thrones’ realism, not in terms of fantasy, the white walkers and dragons are fine, but how it became a show where things happened for plot convenience and really badly at that, people were using teleportation all over the map by this point like the show was an MMO or something, beyond the wall was the perfect example of this, we see Jon, Tormund, the hound and the rest of the gang travelling north to capture a Wight, its cool to finally see so many beloved characters in one place but at the same time the whole thing feels messy, it looks like a hard and long trek and they send Gendry back to the wall when they’re in trouble because he’s ‘the fastest’, Gendry makes it back to the wall in record time and sends a raven off to Dany, the raven reaches her and she’s off to the north to fight the white walkers, meanwhile Jon and the gang are surrounded by hundreds of the dead, things felt so sped up by this point, there was no pacing, everything was going on at once. Another issue with season seven was to do with the death of intrigue and compelling writing, Kings Landing, where pretty much every scene from the show was riddled with genius dialogue and political stakes was now completely forgettable, not once in season seven or eight did you actually see a crowd of nobles watching the queen decide the fate of the realm, it was simply Cersei and her closest allies treating with Euron and not much else, I was really disappointed with how little interest seemed to be going on in Kings Landing, as for Winterfell, my god, I was furious with the treatment of one certain character, Arya, she was easily one of my favourite characters in the show until this point. The entire debacle for me was over how her relationship was handled with Sansa, they seemed to force some kind of split between the sisters for the sake of it and it just felt completely uncalled for, I get that sisters are like to argue but Arya was pointing out such strange things about Sansa, she was genuinely trying to do what was best for the people of Winterfell but Arya began accusing her of all sorts, of being power hungry, narcissistic and self-serving, I really just didn’t buy it, if they gave it more time and some more development of such an idea like Sansa really trying to uproot what Jon was doing as King in the north then I would have understood, but it really just seemed like the show creators were forcing a divide between the sisters so they could have an excuse to build tension, then have them reunite to kill Littlefinger, which to me was also a bit of disappointment, I think a lot of us didn’t expect Littlefinger to go out so easily, he seemed like he could have a plan for almost anything, if it did come to the point where he was put on trial for being more or less a giant snake wouldn’t he have something up his sleeve? like how maybe the Lords of the vale are under his rule, bound by law to serve their lord, when Robb Stark executed Lord Karstark the north lost all Karstark men, when Sansa executes Littlefinger the Vale just shrugs it off, meh, is basically their reaction, this is the vale which loyally served a lunatic of a women, everyone could see how much Lysa Arryn had lost her mind, but the laws are laws, people must follow their Lords and ladies, such is the nature of Westeros and its culture, or so we’d think, the men of the Vale allow their Lord Littlefinger to perish, Littlefinger being a supposed genius, wouldn’t he think something like, I don’t know, ‘I should probably make sure all the vale is loyal to me so they love me and protect me’ the man is always tactical and conniving, finally he is the Lord of an entire people and he doesn’t really use this to his advantage at all. The dynamic between Dany and Jon Snow was fairly interesting; Jon refuses to have the North bend the knee to the iron throne once more regardless of who is sitting on it, but he also needs Dany for the obsidian down in the Dragonstone mines, it’s a pretty interesting plot, yet still I found the dialogue wasn’t as conveying as the previous seasons where the words which came out of characters mouths were like music to my ears. It was in season seven I began to worry that the lack of episode count in the season really pushed the writers to hurry up and get this thing moving, therefore sacrificing a lot of the shows quality.

Let’s move on to the final season, game of thrones had a much needed years break it seemed to me, I was glad about this, I mean look how long it’s taking Georgie to write the next book Winds of Winter so by all means go ahead HBO and give the show some time to work on what it needs to, so the first episode aired and well, I was excited you know, they had a year off so things seemed to look up, but erm, well I wasn’t exactly super impressed by the opening scenes, one in particular, we’ve got Tyrion and Varys in a carriage, famed for their trading of incredible wit and knowledge, clearly the years have not been kind to Tyrion as all he can muster up in this scene is, “I have balls and you don’t” I know it’s not much but for me it really just set the tone of how dialogue would be handled this season. The next episode picked things up a little for me, there was more character development, Samwell is traumatized by the news of his father and tells Jon of his true heritage and Sansa is also none too happy about Dany and the power she now has over the North, it seemed like things were moving in the direction of some in-fighting, Sansa would maybe raise the north up against Dany, Jon would be highly conflicted on the matter and friends would have to turn on friends, classic game of thrones, I was thinking maybe they would end up destroying each other, and as the white walkers come they are decimated, too busy fighting politics the white walkers end up causing serious damage the living, thus the lesson is humanity could not hope to survive divided. Anyhow the white walkers invade in episode three, now this episode for the most part I found really enjoyable, the action was crazy, it was intense and the visuals were something else, scenes like the Dothraki swords being lit on fire got me all chuffed about how far the show had come and Arya being trapped in the library with a bunch of Wights was gut wrenching, however then comes the end of the episode, in a twist pretty much nobody was expecting, Arya kills the Night King, well damn, there it was, the apocalypse was over, it was very strange to say the least, no one expected it to happen, I was one of the people who was a little optimistic about the season still, I got it, so the Night King is beat and the final battle is for the iron throne, ok I guess it is all about the Iron throne at heart but still it did leave a strange taste in my mouth as the shows greatest enemy was defeated before the final episodes, it felt like whatever could happen now was just a little underwhelming compared to the fight against the dead, all this we heard about no wars mattering but the great war as Jon would say, but now it was over. In the next episode Dany declares optimistically that ‘the we have won the great war, now we will win the last war’ ok cool I get it, I’m thinking let’s see what the show has to offer from here, the party scene shows that everyone loves Jon Snow and that Dany is becoming very insecure about her ability to rule as everyone loves Jon and that he is also the rightful heir to the throne, this all seemed well and good to me, things were getting interesting, sure the dialogue still was off par compared to earlier seasons but I was still behind the program here, despite my fears, by this point a lot of people seemed to have lost faith in game of thrones, I understand this, the decline here was evident but I was kind of hopeful that despite the bad writing and entire rushed feel of the final season the ending would be satisfactory, therefore not taking away from the shows overall glory. As episode four continued some more questionable things began to happen, Rhaegon is straight up shot out of the sky with four straight bolts placed perfectly, it all happened in an instant, so fast I couldn’t really process it, Dany then goes into a rage and heads straight to Euron’s ships to toast them all, as at least a dozen more bolts are shot this time and Drogon is arguably in better range they all seem to miss? The plot armor is pretty strong here, never the less Dany retreats and Euron’s fleet destroys Dany’s. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, let’s take a pause from the episode and have a look at one certain character, Euron Greyjoy, if you haven’t read the books then I’ll explain things for you, Euron from the books is a straight up psychopath, his presence is felt in every page he’s in, the way he is portrayed in the books is brilliant, he’s extremely selfish, power hungry, savage yet also comes across intelligent in a horrifically manipulative way, he’s also very mysterious, the man came back from travelling all over the world, he’s seen things no one else in Westeros has but in the show, he’s pretty dull to be honest, he’s mad but in just a silly lunatic fashion more than anything else, I just don’t think anyone is that bothered about Euron in the show, he’s not a great character, I’m ok with things being different from the books, its fine, but Euron isn’t different to the book in an interesting way, he’s just a really bad version of the real Euron, this is illustrating my point further that the writers don’t seem to be handling things well if it’s not taken from the book, which is sad because in earlier seasons there’s scenes that aren’t in the books that are exclusively part of the show that are brilliant pieces of dialogue, every exchange between Littlefinger and Varys in the show is purely the show writers creation, ‘the chaos is a ladder’ scene isn’t in the books, and it is one of the shows definite high lights. Back to the main story, Dany makes it to Kings Landing and Cersei declares she will not be making peace any time soon, thus beheading a captured Missandei, ok so we all know what is coming, one final battle for Kings Landing. Episode five, some scenes in this episode are actually great, Tyrion setting Jaimie free and them having a brotherly bond hit me hard, visually everything was excellent and you truly felt right in the middle of the onslaught. Drogon absolutely rips through Euron’s fleet like butter, which was weird to me because the season set up how dangerous the scorpions (the giant dragon killing crossbow machines) were to dragons but apparently not, there’s plenty on the city walls and on Euron’s ships but Drogon evades all and destroys every one of them, finally he flies back to the front of the city and destroys the golden company who are meant to be pretty formidable but they completely disappoint, they just act as more cannon fodder really, also I was well salty that no elephants appeared, why even set that up just to tear down our expectations? Then the moment that shocked us all, the men of Kings Landing surrender despite Cersei’s commands, yet Dany decidedly burns the whole city anyway and murders plenty of innocents as part of her rage. So this is where pretty much 90% of the shows audience turns on the show, that’s not an exact statistic but it seems like a whole lot of people got furious here, I want to go in deep on Dany’s turn to full madness, some of it can be explained, she was insecure that the thing she has worked for so hard is now out of reach because she is not in fact the true heir despite believing that for most of her life, she’s lost two of her dragons and one of her closest advisers betrayed her via her lover revealing he is in fact the true heir, it’s tough we can definitely say that, but does it merit what the creators did with Dany, overall no I don’t think so, certain signs were indeed there, she nailed nobles of Mereen to crosses independent of their part in the slave trade and burned one of them to root out the sons of the harpies, from her slow decline you could see how Dany becomes less of savior to more of a lawful bad in serve of the greater good, she wants the best but she’ll be absolute in judgement to achieve it, however the slaughter we see in Kings Landing is chaotic evil, not lawful, it’s just utter madness, killing soldiers in an army is lawful and cannot be avoided, their all farmers and villagers when you think about it, enlisted into the ranks but in war killing them is virtually unavoidable, however I don’t think Dany could see murdering innocent children as unavoidable, the greater good always seemed in her best interest, serving the oppressed in society, here she murders everyone she claimed to once motivate her, her turn to madness is just, well, mad. Her character is completely butchered and not just her, Cersei’s ending I found to be pretty underwhelming, I felt the shows undoubtedly greatest villain should have gone out in a blaze of glory and madness, Cersei was truly mad, yet she gives up completely while Dany takes the spotlight of lunatic, it just doesn’t seem right, it feels completely rushed. Moving onto the final episode, I was hoping despite all that had happened this episode could make the ending still satisfying to a degree, everyone would have to fight Dany and restore order to the kingdom, again the visuals are stunning, the scene where Drogons wings fly over Dany and it looks like she’s half human half dragon was crazy good, I also loved how the throne room looked exactly the same as it did in season two when she had her vision of the red keep, but the action is over before it starts, with Jon killing Dany while she kisses him, it was certainly an anti-climax, what happens from here is by far the worst.

This is where I just wanted the show to end already, there are so many strange things going on in the finale, Grey worm decides to not kill Jon Snow despite already being shown as blood crazed and exclusively loyal to Dany, Grey worm has been in Westeros for maybe a year or less I’m not sure and at no point does he show any care for the other lords of the kingdom, only his queens law, as you’d expect, he’s from the other side of the world and it was Dany who saved him from slavery, he only came to Westeros to serve Dany, but for some reason he keeps both Tyrion and Jon alive and awaits the judgement of some nobles he barely knows or cares about, and what great judgement they all have. This was the biggest crime of all for me, Tyrion spouts some absolute garbage about stories uniting people, to one point I get it, everyone loves a good story about their ruler but really it just wasn’t a very convincing reason overall for me, and to choose Bran as the King of Westeros, what… the … f### ok so the reasoning for Bran to be king is that he, well, knows everything, but this isn’t even a good reason, a king must have heart, he must sympathise with his people and make a choice for the realm he believes is right, having an overpowered omniscient wizard as king is a terrible choice, Bran is so un-relatable, he can’t even connect to his siblings, telling Sansa how she looked beautiful during one of the most traumatising moments of her life and completely freaking her out for example in season seven, Bran also has zero experience ruling anything, he is literally the least suitable choice for king out of everyone sat there, just elect the Dornish geezer because he has a cool beard, that makes for a good story, Brans sister who has survived the Lannisters, Littlefinger and Ramsey Bolton and has also got experience ruling the north is just passed up for the magical tree wizard, I was happy Sansa ended up ruling the north but really did Tyrion not consider her for the throne? She even shows her commanding presence when she completely shuts down her uncle who tries to state why he should be king. Now what about the other characters, Jon gets sent back to the wall, what an unsatisfying character arc for the man rising above his constant mistreatment through childhood as the bastard, as the soldier on the wall, to lord commander, to king in the north, the ultimate underdog, oh then back to the wall, it’s just ridiculous and he doesn’t even seem bothered, neither do his siblings, then he goes off with the wildlings to I assume become king of the free folk which isn’t really explained but we just take it as it is, poor effort I think. The complete decline of smart decisions is shown off with the new small council, why is Bronn on the small council! This is completely baffling, I liked Bronn’s whole point of all Lords and houses beginning out as cut throats, Littlefinger started out from nothing but he’s a devious genius who worked his way up to the small council, Bronn is just there, chilling as the new master of coin literally nothing but a bloodthirsty mercenary, I mean who needs someone with actual knowledge of Westeros’ economy anyway? It was simply so we could see a familiar character we once liked be there for maybe an attempt of fan service or something, it’s strange the final season on one hand feels like a bad attempt of fan service but then also a bad attempt of completely subverting fan expectations.

So, game of thrones, this is how I feel overall, it was my favourite tv show hands down, it was genius, the first four seasons are near perfect to me, I’d say the decline of this show is down to two main things, the deviation from the books, unfortunately the writers of the show don’t live up to George R.R Martins masterful way with words, the rushed nature, they only had two seasons to finish everything up, with less episodes too, we cannot fully blame the writers, I think in earlier seasons they demonstrated an ability to make great original content for the show, but with the added pressure of finishing the show in just two seasons and thirteen episodes this just put things in disarray, the mistreating of characters, bad dialogue, flimsy plot choices and an unsatisfactory ending. However despite this I’d say we can still enjoy the good parts of this show, like any form of art, its subject to interpretation, nothing can be perfect and this is ok, I hope the writers of game of thrones take all criticism constructively and don’t get disheartened by the some of the monumental hate they’re getting, this is how art improves, through feedback, I don’t think game of thrones should be rewritten or anything like some are proposing, take it for what it is and enjoy the show for what it once was, a masterpiece and it’s not like there were not some enjoyable parts in the last season, the battle for Winterfell in episode three of season eight was genuinely incredible to me, and who’s to say if you loved the last two seasons you’re wrong, this is simply my opinion so by all means if you loved game of thrones all the way through, more power to you, don’t let others ruin your opinion, I think it’s important for us all to have our own opinion on shows and other forms of entertainment, this is mine, let me know yours! Thanks for reading, peace dudes : )

#gameofthrones #gameofthronesreview #got season 8 #tv review #fantasy #a song of ice and fire #d & d #george rr martin

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scope-dogg · 6 years

Note

I might regret asking this but clawshrimpies?

Clawshrimpy is a notorious internet clown with a history on /m/, somethingawful, twitter and other websites besides (I think he’s on tumblr too or at least used to be.) He managed to get his own thread on Kiwifarms, the website featuring all the most notorious laughable internet personalities. He’s a real oddball but the tl;dr version in the context of that post is that he’s notorious for the same kind of “toxic masculinity” discourse, only in the context of mecha anime, going back many years. The full rundown on why he’s such a joke is a much longer exercise but I’m going to do it anyway.

He first came to infamy on /m/, which he’s now permanently banned from purely for being annoying. His favourite show was Gaogaigar because Mamoru, the child protagonist of the show, was a sensitive little boy, not like those other mecha anime with big loud paragons of “toxic masculinity.” Naturally, he disregards that most normal people who like Gaogaigar like it exactly because of its bombast grandstanding of masculine values like valour and courage, and that Guy, Gaogaigar’s badass hero pilot who is arguably exactly the kind of character that Shrimpy claims to despise, is a much more popular character than Mamoru. Goldran and especially J-Decker are much better examples of the show he claims to like but he sticks to Gaogaigar anyway, presumably because its more well-known which makes his hot takes more annoying. He claims that it’s unacceptable for nominally good characters to treat each other in any other way than wrapping each other up in cotton wool and being ultra-considerate to each other’s feelings. For instance, he claims that those scenes in Gurren Lagann where Kamina hits Simon (and later when Simon hits Rossiu) to jolt them out of despair is beyond the pale, and has even said when pressed on the issue that it would have been preferably for Kamina and Simon to let the other characters stay in their funk and accept the consequences (everyone dying in the former case, Rossiu committing suicide in the second case) rather than for them to do something mean.

He got banned from Somethingawful when he was issued a Toxx challenge (a trial set by a mod where a user in hot water has to do something specific or else get banned) to watch Overman King Gainer (a softball Tomino series where nobody dies) and deliver his episode-by-episode commentary, but he still found it too problematic because some of the main characters aren’t 100% nice to each other all the time and bailed out of the challenge early, resulting in him getting the ban he was promised. It really begs the question of why he’s even into this genre at all when he’s so anti-conflict, given that actual and emotional conflict is the driving force of pretty much every mecha series ever released. God help him if he decided to watch something actually traumatic like Zeta or Thunderbolt or anything to do with Muv-Luv, for instance.

He’s also an infamous attention whore. I thought he was a troll for the longest time but that’s not so much the case. Trolls post bad takes to provoke anger because they think it’s funny, Shrimpy posts bad takes to provoke internet aggro so then he can turn around and play the victim and farm for pity from people who don’t know any better. It’s kind of hard to tell if the brainlet takes he posts are sincere or just intended to attract other people’s ire. He’s also attached himself like a limpet to all the most ridiculous SJW takes and talking points (he was practically jumping up and down with glee when Totalbiscuit died, for instance) and suckers up to other like-minded users to beg them for money to buy pizza with (of course, he has no job and spends all his time online.) When he first got noticed on kiwifarms he deliberately exacerbated their mockery of him by going onto the forums and flying into a petulant rage, causing an offhand mention of him in a general thread to become its own dedicated thread that’s now over 100 pages long. Of course, he probably secretly loves this because as said, he has a masochistic personality and he loves playing the victim.

The most offputting thing about him though is his apparent pedophilia. That’s a heavy accusation that I don’t want to make casually but the weight of evidence is not in his favour. You don’t have to dig too hard through his shit before posts expressing his preference for shota stuff come up, and some speculate that his love for Mamoru and Kaidou from Gaogaigar stems from his deviant tastes.

Overall he’s just a joke of an individual who’s been provoking mirth, annoyance and disgust in equal measure for a long time now. He long since passed the point where him growing up and rehabilitating himself seemed like a realistic prospect.

#Anonymous

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ryouverua · 6 years

Text

Trial 4 - The Confession (3)

THIS IS.... NOT HOW I THOUGHT THINGS WOULD GO DOWN... AT ALL...

Investigation 1 / 2

Trial: 1 / 2

WHAT THEY HAVE A TEXT BOX AND EVERYTHING THIS IS LEGIT THEN?!?!

Wait, so she really did meet up with him before the virtual world then? I imagine it was before she gathered everyone, but after that flashback light that caused her to panic the way she did - so in the last few days? And it would have to be before he met Monokuma too... so not yesterday (as I’m imagining this taking place midmorning after they went to the VR world) but the day before that?

I can only imagine what threw him off as she was speaking. He has an excellent poker face though, so I’m not surprised she didn’t realize he was onto her.

It says a lot about Kokichi that he could stay calm in the fact of that, but also it’s... a bit sad that he didn’t think he could approach anyone for help...

... Then again, countering a murder plan with a murder plan is, uh, very Supreme Leader-ish! And one that doesn’t get your own hands dirty...

I guess you are really confessing everything, because I don’t know why you would feel the need to add that damning evidence on top of all the other stuff???

By making it more interesting, did he just mean getting everyone into the simulator full well knowing Miu’s plans, or literally telling Monokuma, ‘I am going to counter Miu’s murder plan with my own’?!?!

It sounds like Kokichi’s idea wasn’t to put the motive in the simulator, after all! Monokuma is straight-up saying it was his!

But does it matter at this point if we didn’t find it??? I swear, between the Necronomicon, the First Blood Perk and this, we seriously not using any of the motives!

So they argue a bit with Monokuma about him working together with a student but he handwaves it away with the whole, well, ~I wasn’t involved with the actual murder myself~ which, okay, fine though technically isn’t he working with the mastermind. It’s kinda distracting from the confession at hand anyway.

It’s a bit scary how badly you want to confess though.

“Anything that lets me actually put you in the ground.”

That’s a lukewarm revenge -

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

W H A T

j us t

happen....ed...........

shuichi also reacted with probably one of the cutest ‘eh’ sounds I have every heard out of his mouth but unfortunately this is all visual based, not sound based, so I cannot include it here, and also that is entirely beside the point

Holy shit, Kokichi. Holy - shit - DID YOU... STRAIGHT UP... JUST..... DROP GONTA’S NAME...

AN ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE REACTION TO FINDING OUT YOU MURDERED SOMEONE VIA ALTER EGO AND DON’T REMEMBER IT once again, a masterstroke by Kokichi, Mr. ‘I reference YGO Duel Monsters without even trying’

Yeah, I’m not surprised to see Tsumugi chiming in here. She has been Gonta’s biggest defender from trial to trial, even if her voice isn’t as loud as Kaito’s. 8(

And my god, if Kaito’s voice ain’t loud right now!

HIMIKO DON’T YOU FUCKING SAY IT

A;SLDKFJ KOKICHI DON’T THINK YOU INTERRUPTING HERE SAVES YOU FROM ME SERIOUSLY JUDGING YOUR LIFE CHOICES

“YOU CAN’T JUST SPLIT THE SCREEN LIKE THAT WITHOUT A SWORD DUEL THAT’S NOT HOW THE MECHANIC WORKS!”

“- ANYWAY I was totally confessing guys, and on behalf of Gonta as well as myself! I can’t believe you would just interrupt me when I’m being so charitable! Waaaah, you’re all so meeeean ~ !” insert crocodile tears sprite here

I am here to interrupt this incredibly serious and terrifying confession with accompanying illustration to ask - why ‘Busters’?! What kind of dumb name is that, honestly.

Between this and your ‘if everyone dies, the game will end!’ comment, you’re really scaring me right now, Kokichi - !

Gonta is not about this at all.

Man, I’ve been making the D: face over and over again during this trial - meanwhile, Gonta right now is the living embodiment of that text emoji right now.

Oh.... oh, of course. Kokichi doesn’t know about the avatar error either, does he? He’s been operating under the assumption that Gonta has been... lying to us this whole time............ That he’s been a perfect liar, without a single crack in his veneer, even to a keen liar-spotting master like Kokichi, and that he’s been just as good at tricking us as him - even better, possibly.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

Gonta’s strongest, most stalwart supporter of the whole game is back in the game!

TRAUMATIC BUZZING NOISE FLASHBACKS

Between all the back and forth, including a bit of gloating at Shuichi on Kokichi’s part, he drops this:

And here, to counter all of the ‘Gonta is too ~dumb~ to do something like this’ comments, he already has a ready-made argument. He really has been set from the beginning, huh? Either that or his improv ability is topnot - oh wait this is Kokichi Ouma we’re talking about, of course it is. Anyway, while I think Kokichi set Gonta up to do this, I feel like I’m at least affording Gonta a bit more agency than his classmates. 8′/

d-don’t.... neglect the heart...... nngh

erika furudo is being channelled by kokichi ouma to wreak havoc on this killing game, this truly is the worst timeline

FUCK PLEASE DON’T BRING UP GENTLEMEN THIS IS SO AWFUL I’M GOING TO D I E

and everyone else seems to be in the same state I am, minus the whole ‘I’m 99% sure it was Gonta’ mindset I had going in, so Kokichi asks them the obvious question:

Aaaah, I thought so. Kaito has been pushed far enough that he won’t accept anything other than Kokichi being the culprit. :(

Kokichi’s about to drop a massive truth bomb in the trial and Kaito is not going to like it.

OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE KOKICHI NOW YOUR TROLL FACES ARE WARPING THE FABRIC OF REALITY ITSELF AROUND YOU PLEASE CONTROL YOUR TERRIFYING ULTIMATE POWER

I just really wanted to isolate this one shot from the debate especially because damn, just - the way they set it up for him and his sprite to dominate the whole screen by just - towering over everyone despite everyone being against him, despite everyone accusing him, is just some great work by the layout team!

Also the fact that they can contrast that with this image with all the flowers and sunshine around him, with that cute little smile on his face... man, I keep praising what they did with the trial debates for a reason!

And once again, it’s Kaito argument that Shuichi is forced to cut down...

All the pieces except for two - Gonta’s motive/reason he would work with Kokichi (because I thought it was maybe spur of the moment move on his part to protect Kokichi, but Kokichi is heavily implying it isn’t, and the fact that it was done via prepared item is.... a problem) and Gonta’s memory problems - are officially out in the open. Oooh geez - I had been wondering how they would do this case since to me, it didn’t seem technically difficult to figure out, but I guess the writers’ solution to that issue is to just gut-punch the players all the way to the end. 8′D

And now Kaito’s being countered by his other sidekick. Can we stop kicking this poor puppy while he’s down??? As in, the poor puppy who is probably dying a slow death from a mysterious illness right now??? Is this the game’s idea of karmic rebalancing for not outright deathflagging him again this chapter, or???

Because you’ve been baiting him this entire time.

So... was he going to let them fall for the lie of ‘Kokichi Ouma is the culprit who killed Miu’? That’s what I’m wondering right now. He’s very happily driving in the point that the one, singular truth can be incredibly painful, but this still seems very much to be a reaction to all the events of the trial leading up to this point!

Having Gonta beside Kaede’s stand, the other person who we thought, ‘No, it couldn’t be, it couldn’t possibly be....’ was probably planned from the very beginning for this trial, I imagine.

I-I MEAN IS THAT FAIR SINCE BUGS ARE DIRECTLY TIED TO HIS TALENT...

But of course, while the classmates are rallying around Gonta and Kaito...

Showing growth at the most unfortunate times, Shuichi Saihara uses his budding confidence to grow up up up and away from Kaito. 8′\

Look at him, inserting himself in between the two like this -

“SHUT UP KOKICHI YOU’RE RUINING OUR BROSHIP - W-WE CAN STILL BE BROS AFTER THIS, RIGHT KAITO???

Kaito directly after the trial but actually no please let the saimota stay strong you must overcome....

On the one hand I feel like Kokichi is being heavy-handed - on the other, I’m starting to think that he feels the need to over-explain everything to his classmates because they just won’t get it otherwise. 8′D

I don’t feel like this is 100% fair though - he did a really great job with finding the door in Chapter 1! He, uh, did completely lose his mojo though, so...

Well, the point is, Kaito did need to teach him how to trust in other people because Kaede broke it by lying to him! Shuichi has been a naturally suspicious worrywart this whole time!

HIS VOICE IS BREAKING I CAN’T FUCKING DO THIS

SHUICHI CAN’T EITHER

FUCK I THOUGHT DOING HIS FTES WOULD HELP ME THROUGH THIS BUT IT MADE EVERYTHING SO MUCH WORSE

Oh shit, this was a surprise bit of support that I wasn’t expecting! How shocked do you think Kokichi is right now that K1-b0 of all people is not completely disbelieving him, on a scale of 1-10??

If I make a comment about how computer-like this is would I get slammed for being robophobic or -

I mean Kaito’s technically not wrong? But he’s not completely right either... I, I really think Kokichi is trying to kill two birds with one stone here. 8′/ But to what end, is the real question... Disillusionment? Is that the ultimate goal?

MONOKUMA YOU’RE BRO-BLOCKING ME!!!

unholy screeching -

Kaito sounds so betrayed -

“Hold on Monokuma, I thought this was only supposed to happen in the event of an even split -”

“Shut the fuck up Shuichi Is2g I’ll crazy glue your hat back on!”

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY TEAM and also a popular OT3, I imagine with an incredibly complicated name. like. how do you combine saiouma and, uh... kiibouma I’m guessing - saikiibouma maybe???

also K1-b0 please don’t wave your Objection! finger in Gonta’s face like that, it is neither the time nor place and also incredibly rude and not helping -

I absolutely love (and by love I mean my heart is being wrenched In Twain) the way they have Shuichi facing in one direction, and Kaito fully, completely turned the other way.

Once again Shuichi is learning how to defend himself, and is finally willing to do it. I... just wish it would be under better circumstances...

Actually, out of pure luck, it lines up really well with Kaito’s last FTE and the option I chose where Shuichi bites back about his detective work. It’s funny how in the end, his natural reaction is still to search for the truth at all costs, and I like reading him as someone who is naturally curious as well as singularly focused that way, sometimes to the detriment of everything else - and come hell, high water or, regrettably, casualties. And he’ll certainly have those regrets, and fret on them endlessly as he loses himself in a spiralling circle of self-doubt, but would he be able to stop himself from following that path down to the bitter end? No... no, I don’t think so.

Should I include every cap of Gonta pleading with everyone that he isn’t the culprit? No, it’s redundant. Will I anyway because he’s tearing my heart to pieces? Yes. Yes I will.

asldkf;asdf the worst thing is he isn’t. He isn’t lying. He paradoxically is the killer and not lying about it, because not being the killer is his current truth AS HE KNOWS IT...

Y-You sound like you’re talking from personal experience, and outside of the last few trials, too! Which side of this ‘cornering’ were you on exactly...????

Oh!!! We haven’t seen this sprite in a long time!

Is it just me or is Kokichi acting extremely viciously right now? Like, his vitriol levels are off the charts. Honestly I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt this part with commentary because the way Kokichi is going off, just absolutely screaming at him, is a huge departure from the cool and collected Ouma we’ve had up to this point!

Did they... prepare arguments beforehand, maybe? And he’s losing it because Gonta isn’t playing along with the plan he said up? With that said, when Gonta turned on Kokichi in the Meet-n-Greet, Kokichi wasn’t anything like this. So what’s his deal???

Kokichi Ouma will not rest until he has flipped every single aspect of this trial and the trial format as it’s been up to this point on its head, and subsequently, used it to attack everyone around him.

Holy shit, Kokichi has well and truly lost it. This - this has to be real. It’s far too raw for it not to be real.

Ugh, the way Kaito’s voice cracks when he jumps in here...

KAITO......................

I... feel like, despite flickerings of his ‘playful’ persona, this may be the longest he’s ever gone showing his genuine feelings - and man, they aren’t pretty. I mean, that’s assuming this anger is genuine... but I really, really feel like it is.

Just like another character I love who also uses lies and fantasy as weapons, I feel like going over this section again with new eyes will be extremely telling.

Still, that means he really, really wants to live. And the ‘we’ there is interesting. Who is the ‘we’? Is he speaking for a select few, including Shuichi? For the whole class? Someone not here, in a similar vein to Kirumi?

you know Kokichi for someone who wants to live, maybe screaming at someone whose good friend is an assassin is a bad idea

You know everyone fighting over him is eating Gonta from the inside out.

Ah, fuck, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop and I think this is when it’s going to happen.

I’m like 99% sure Kokichi’s on Tsumugi’s hit list for next chapter. 8′D

Oooh, speaking of growth - !

You know, I keep saying this and I don’t know if I’m alone in thinking this or not but Shuichi has been consistently weak in all things social and emotional, detection-wise and otherwise. But now, here, we finally have Shuichi picking up on the true source of Gonta’s confusion on his own, his language, and how it could be relevant to the case on his own without anyone else giving him any clues or hints!

The one who has consistently stood up for Gonta in every trial, Kaito, the one who wants to believe in everyone, and Gonta himself... aaaaah, no, no no..... 8′/

KAITO WHAT IS THAT NEW SPRITE

OH GOD NO THAT’S SUCH A SAD SPRITE SDLKFJ

OMFG HIMIKO ARE YOU SERIOUSLY WHY ALL OF THIS HAPPENED

ALSO... oh, that’s right. Gonta lifted up the manhole cover at the beginning of the game with his lefthand, didn’t he? SHIT....

His sprites and tones of voice are oscillating so wildly now and it’s really hard for me to keep up??? I’m getting whiplash asdlfkj

THAT. THAT IS THE ONE PART THAT I AM WAITING FOR. I thought it was in defense of Kokichi because that is the only way I can feasibly see him killing someone and still be, well, the Gonta Gokuhara who wants to protect everyone, but there is too much of this murder that seems premeditated!!!

So we’ve established this in previous games via Celes’ and Peko’s trials, but it’s worth going over again - especially since these guys have no knowledge of either of those games -

Yeah... we’re really going to need a motive from Kokichi. Could it be as simple as countering Miu’s plan? I suppose taking her out as an obvious threat makes sense, and he’s already established that he wants to live ... There’s also the question of if it can really be something like, ‘he also wanted to use this as a way to create a fun mystery.’ I really hope not. 8′\ I suppose something like, ‘I’m taking opportunity of the fact that I’m getting rid of a threat on my life to also drive home certain points to the rest of my classmates, and also as revenge for the events of the last few days’ would be more of an acceptable answer to me, given what I’ve seen of him so far. With that said, that... is not a great way to survive, considering the target being painted in broader strokes on your back each passing minute...

DON’T LOOK AT ME, SWEETCHEEKS!!

don’t neGLECT THE HEART, DAMN IT

Jeez, maybe he really does see the rest of them as chess pieces... and Shuichi as a knight that can move in abstract, highly unpredictable ways. 8/ Either that or he’s thinking he can keep tightlipped on the motive since Gonta no longer knows it?

Looks directly at Shuichi - winks - blows kiss - “Hey you know what would be a great first date idea? Setting up a tragic murder via patsy that will rock your worldview, potentially break you apart from one of your only friends in this wretched place and ultimately send everyone spiralling into despair.”

“W-Where did you learn how to pick up people?”

“Oh, some book I found in the library called ‘Enoshima’s Guide to Love for the Hopelessly Loveless’, why?”

“KAEDE.AGAIN, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME IN THIS SPOT. I DIDN’T WANT TO BE THE PROTAGONIST. SOMEONE, PLEASE SEND HELP.”

Sadly, Kaito is all bluster at this point... oTL

I have a feeling this is going to end up looking a lot like my reasoning...

He goes down the list so clinically. It’s one thing for me, an outsider, to be able to do that (and just barely, because I was SAD about the conclusion I came to, damn it), but for someone in the game to be able to do it... yikes....

“There is no amount of incest roleplay fantasy dreams that’ll make up for the shitshow that is today.”

“He’s making me be the one to say it, isn’t he. Sonuvabitch.”

well fuck you too

no no no no no no no he’s CRYING HE’S AUDIBLY CRYING THIS IS 50 SHADES OF NOT OKAY

He’s straight-up challenging Shuichi to be the one to pull the trigger (absolutely pun intended).

IF.... IF ONLY IT WERE SO EASY, KAITO....

“If I just choose myself THIS HELL WILL BE OVER.”

“Bro I will fucking deck you.”

What if I just

turned

the game off

right now

just let this game board sit open, here, for all of eternity

that would be okay right

#Kaito Momota #Shuichi Saihara #Gonta Gokuhara #Kokichi Ouma #Ryou plays drv3 #Kokichi Oma #Maki Harukawa #Miu Harukawa #someone please put me out of my misery already #Kiibo #K1-b0 #Himiko Yumeno #Miu Iruma #Tsumugi Shirogane #drv3 spoilers #spoilers

71 notes · View notes

ficdirectory · 6 years

Text

Somewhere Inside (Disuphere series #4) Chapter 29

(To listen, click here) - 15:30

On the rest of the drive back, it’s hard for Levi not to let guilt eat away at him. If Dominique and Francesca hadn’t come along, they wouldn’t have been tailed by that ass employee. Francesca wouldn’t have freaked out about riding in the cart that she thought wasn’t meant for her.

Levi remembers Dominique’s question from yesterday: “If guilt were not a thing, would he want them to come with him?”

What he should have said is, “But guilt is a thing and I’ll be fine.” But, of course, he hadn’t thought to say that and instead he was super-weak and now they’re probably extra traumatized because of him.

(He knows Francesca, at least, is exhausted from walking for hours around SuperOne. How insensitive can he be?)

When they park out in front of Frank’s cabin, Levi makes up an excuse to lag behind. Sends the groceries in with Francesa who wants to carry them. Dominique promises to give her a hand.

Like he hopes, Dominique is so distracted that she assumes he is right behind them. But Levi’s not.

Instead, he stays in the car, and when everybody’s inside, he pulls away. Just drives. To somewhere private. Somewhere there’s nobody. No signs of life. Then, Levi pulls over. Parks. And when he’s sure he’s alone - and he’s sure he can’t hold it in anymore - he screams.

He hits the steering wheel and screams until it feels like his throat is ripping. How dare he do this? To his friends? What kind of terrible person is he? To make them suffer just so he can make it through a four-hour shift at work without losing his mind? He had been fine! He hadn’t needed them. He could have made it on his own. Seriously, why would he do this?

Levi keeps screaming. Keeps hitting the steering wheel, vaguely aware of avoiding the horn, if only so he won’t attract any attention.

He has no idea how much time passes. When he stops screaming, he just stares out the window at the fading dark. He can’t face them again. Not when he did so much to hurt Dominique and Francesca in the first place.

“Seriously, where is he?” Dominique wonders. “Fran, we cannot lose a whole person. This is bad.”

“I know,” Francesca nods. “Do you think,” she gulps. “Do you think it was a bad guy?”

“No.” Dominique shakes her head. “His car’s gone, too. “So, he probably left to go do something and just forgot to tell us…”

“It’s a good thing Jesus and Mariana and Pearl are next door…” Francesca ventures, nodding at their note. “Because Jesus and Mariana don’t do disappearing people very good and, you know, Levi’s Pearl’s brother…”

“Yes, babe, I know…” Dominique breathes. “Why don’t you make yourself a sandwich and grab some veggies and chips for dinner,” Dominique advises.

Moments later, her mouth full of nacho cheese Doritos, Francesca exclaims: “We should text him!”

“Francesca, yes, you’re a genius, thank you. Let me take your plate outside to the picnic table. There’s a signal there.”

“What if they see us next door and ask what we’re doing?” Francesca worries.

“Then, we tell them the truth. Even when it’s really hard. Friends don’t lie, right?”

“Right, but I wish we could...So we might not get in trouble for losing a whole person…”

“Levi’s a human being. He has the right to make choices. Even ones we don’t understand, and even ones he doesn’t share with us.” Dominique says. All the while, texting.

Levi, we’re worried. Can you please text and let us know you’re okay?

Francesca wants to text, too, so Dominique rushes in to grab her phone off the charger, where it’s been all day, and then back out. Relieved that she’s still at the picnic table, and has not vanished into thin air like Levi.

Like a pro, Francesca records a short video:

“Levi, it’s me. Hi. Where are you? Please come back. I’m having PB & J with carrots and Doritos. You can have some with me.” She’s quiet for a moment and then, softer, she says: “I really hope you’re safe and no bad guys got you…”

Francesca sends the video.

A few minutes later, her phone pings.

“Ooh, it’s Levi. He says: “I am safe. Don’t worry.” Francesca reads.

Dominique curses under her breath. He needs to come back not to send some vague-ass text about how he’s safe. Safe people don’t just vanish. She ought to know.

Pearl feels like all of this just might be okay. She has enjoyed a gloriously lowkey day, where she slept until God knows when, only to be awakened by a video from Levi (really Francesca) that was for Mariana. Then, Pearl got up and walked next door to deliver the message, and Mari replied. And for the rest of the day? She, Jesus and Mariana have just been hanging out.

They’ve caught up on each other’s lives and business, feeling confident that Levi, Francesca and Dominique are together and looking out for each other. She glances out the window toward next door.

“Looks like Francesca and Dominique are outside,” Pearl notes. “Levi must be inside already.”

“I could seriously live off of your hot chocolate,” Jesus insists. “It’s the best thing ever.”

“Aw, thanks…” Pearl sighs. “If only it had magic, fortifying powers, to get me through hideous anniversaries.”

“My first was last month…” Mariana shares quietly. “Since the accident. It was weird. And hard. I didn’t wanna go in a car anywhere, but naturally, Francesca had a thing at school, and we all had to go.”

“A thing?” Jesus asks. “Oh, yeah, her choir concert. She was so cute. But that music teacher had them doing way too much choreo…” he grimaces.

“Jesus, I didn’t know you were such an aficionado of the performing arts…” Pearl teases gently.

“I don’t know what that means,” he tells her blankly.

“That you know a lot about it,” Mariana clarifies.

“I don’t, I just know that doing step-touch-clap choreography, and singing, was way too much for Francesca to do all at the same time…”

“I remember, it took us some time to get in, because I didn’t wanna get out of the car…” Mariana shares, a little distant. “I don’t know why. I just...didn’t want to. And so...Mom was back there trying to like….”

“Drill sergeant you?” Jesus asks.

Mariana nods. “And that just made it worse. Eventually I came in. Because of her massive guilt trip about missing important moments in Francesca’s life and how she knows what that’s like because she didn’t get to see Jesus’s fifth grade concert…”

Pearl’s eyes widen.

Mariana bites her lip and glances at Jesus. “Sorry.”

Pearl watches as Jesus scoots closer to her. Takes her hand. “I’m sorry she said that. It was a low blow. I hate that she uses me going missing as an excuse to make you muscle through your trauma…”

“Yeah, well, it worked. I came in.” Mariana shrugged.

“I should’ve met you guys there. Stayed with you. Instead of going ahead inside,” Jesus apologizes.

“You like to keep a low profile. I get that.” Mariana reassures.

“Do you know you guys have one of the most beautiful relationships?” Pearl gushes.

Both of them look at her in tandem, twin expressions of confusion.

“I mean, your brother-sister dynamic. The way you’re there for each other. Support each other. I’m learning so much here.” Pearl knows this probably sounds over the top, but she has been deep in the wilderness with Levi lately and any advice on how to be a good sister is advice she’ll take, even if Pearl gets it from observation only.

“We’re just…” Mariana starts out.

“...being normal,” Jesus finishes.

“But it’s not just normal,” Pearl insists. “It’s...I don’t know…”

“Hey, speaking of Moms…” Jesus ventures. “How are you doing? You know? Since telling off yours? You worried she’ll come back here?”

“Not really,” Pearl says. “She’s lived up here for years and that’s only maybe the second time she’s ever stopped by. Levi’s not used to her harshness. Her energy. But growing up around it for most of my life? That feels normal. She doesn’t scare me…”

Pearl watches Jesus raise an eyebrow at Dudley. “Pearl’s braver than me…” he whispers.

It makes Pearl laugh. And God, she needs to laugh.

The dark is invading his car. Levi pulls out and parks somewhere else every so often so he’s not accused of loitering like Dominique and Francesca (and so that, if they are looking for him, they won’t find him…)

The truth is, he deserves everything that happened to him. If he’d just behaved himself that day in third grade, nothing would’ve ever happened and then maybe he would’ve gotten the chance to meet Pearl years ago. But no. He’d gone and messed it all up. Because mud felt good? Like, really? What kind of excuse was that?

Levi was a rude little shit who couldn’t stop himself from getting filthy and tracking mud inside. He shouldn’t be surprised at what happened. He should have expected it.

He tries to scream again, but his voice is a hoarse, croaking whisper.

Levi checks the time. Knows Feelings Time is probably happening and he is not there for it. Oh well. They can all be honest about their feelings about him. They don’t have to spare him.

Not like they’d understand Levi has no actual feelings. No way of articulating them except screaming. And he knows enough to know that him screaming and hitting stuff is just going to freak all of them out.

He’s done enough damage.

Best if he just stays away from them.

Francesca’s crying because Levi’s missing. Because he missed Feelings Time. Because she really misses him. (They didn’t even have Feelings Time because without all of them it wasn’t the same.) So now all of her feelings are trapped on the inside.

“Can’t we go look for him?” she begs.

“No,” Pearl says. “He texted to say he’s safe. He’s still responding to us. We have to respect that he might need some space right now.”

“But somebody might’ve stole him!” she bawls. “I don’t want anybody else I love to just disappear!”

“Francesca,” Pearl says, like Frankie’s being unreasonable. “I understand you’re afraid somebody might have stolen Levi, but they didn’t.” She keeps looking at Jesus and Mariana and Dominique too. “Levi...he’ll come back when he’s ready.”

“I can’t sleep if he’s not here…” she insists. Her nose is running. “What if your mom is yelling at him?” Francesca asks Pearl. “Remember she was yelling at you yesterday? What if she’s yelling at him like my moms yell at me? What if he can’t come back?” she cuddles Night-Night, her old blanket from when she was a baby. No one teases her.

“My mom isn’t Levi’s mom. They don’t know each other. She’ll leave him alone, okay? I promise…” Pearl says.

But promises don’t mean anything against bad people.

Dominique’s thinking Francesca might be onto something regarding Pearl’s mom, but she knows she can’t say anything without outing him. Eventually, Pearl goes back to her own cabin. Francesca exhausts herself from crying and falls asleep.

Mariana tries, but she can’t stay awake, and neither can Jesus, after their late night last night. So Dominique’s the last one up. She sits at the table, drinking cups of coffee to keep her sharp, even though caffeine wrecks her nerves. She gets a deck of cards and plays round after round of Solitaire. Trying not to think about years ago. Her own disappearance.

It’s just past 4 AM, and Dominique’s drunk a whole pot of coffee, when Dominique sees headlights out front. They left the porch light on, both here and next door. She can see clearly, it’s Levi’s car.

Dominique slips outside, flashlight in hand, closing the door softly behind her. She approaches the driver’s side. Sees him inside. He looks pale. Tense. Exhausted. Distant. She taps on the window.

Slowly, Levi unlocks the door, But he stays put.

Eventually, Dominique comes around the other side of his car. Gets in. Just sits.

“Sorry,” he rasps. “I’m sorry…”

“Hey...what are you sorry for?” Dominique asks, gently, though the pot of coffee she’s drunk is buzzing in her blood.

“Sorry… I’m sorry…” he repeats. He sounds like he’s developed laryngitis suddenly.

“Levi, look at me.” She reaches up to turn on the interior light. “It’s Dominique. You don’t need to apologize for anything. You don’t need to be sorry.”

He nods. Nods. Nods.

“No. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Dominique reassures. “Is that what happened? Did you think you did? Did you feel like you had to run?”

He nods again.

“Okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. I promise.”

“Don’t…” he croaks.

“I know you don’t like promises, Levi. But I mean it. Why’d you run? You didn’t...see her? Did you?” Dominique feels terrible, but she wouldn’t be doing her duty as his friend if she didn’t ask.

Levi shakes his head. “I made you come. You got followed. Francesca...got exhausted. She was scared to ride in the cart. Thought the life jacket cost too much. I was okay. Nothing happened. I hurt you guys...for no reason.”

“Levi, I’m glad nothing happened. I’m glad we were there. So is Francesca. It’s not your fault that we were followed or that Francesca got tired or any of it.”

“I shouldn’t….I shouldn’t…” he stutters.

“Hey. You should,” Dominique looks at him seriously, nodding. “You should. Come inside with me, please?”

“No. I shouldn’t…” Levi insists. “I’m terrible.”

“Levi, I’m protecting you, remember? This? You being scared? Feeling terrible? Like you did a billion wrong things? That’s trauma, and that’s okay. I’ve got you. Please trust me. Please come inside.”

Slowly, Levi opens his door. He gets out. By the time Dominique comes around the car, he still hasn’t moved.

“What do you need right now, to feel safe?” she asks.

“Hug…” he whispers.

“Okay, walk with me up to the porch. I don’t feel safe hugging by the car,” Dominique explains.

Levi moves woodenly but eventually they make it up the steps.

The minute they’re on the porch, Dominique turns to Levi. “I’m gonna hug you now, because it’s what you said you needed to feel safe. You just back up or shake your head or something when you wanna stop.”

Levi nods.

And Dominique reaches up. Hugs him hard. She’s not a hugger. A few days hasn’t changed that. But, God, she thought she’d lost him. She thought she might not be able to see him ever again. Dominique thought every terrible thing Francesca thought and more.

She holds him tight. Shifts her weight back and forth.

He hugs her back.

They go inside, and she walks him up to the loft. Hanging out on the stairs.

“Talk to me,” she urges.

“I can’t. I can’t. I can just scream…” he admits.

“You know, I had a time like that?” she confides. “It’s okay to have a time like that. You don’t have to drive away from us to have it.”

“If I scare you…”

“If you need to scream, and if you feel better doing that in your car by yourself. Go out and sit in your car by yourself, in front of our cabin, or wherever it is. You go ahead and scream. We’ll stay inside. We’ll give you space. Just...please don’t run again…”

“You guys still want me? To be your friend?”

“Levi, we never stopped.” Dominique insists.

He hangs his head and Dominique leans closer. When he puts his head on her shoulder, Dominique doesn’t pull away.

#fic: somewhere inside

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