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scribbledonausednapkin · 11 months

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Missing Crystal: A Yellowjackets Mystery

Summary: Misty isn't that good of an actress, and Mari is onto her. A sharp tongued defender with anger issues and a sweet but savvy junior varsity player team up to crack the case of their missing teammate. The only things standing in their way are the scrappy psychotic team manager, the threat of starvation, and their group devolving into a cannibal cult.

Mari and Akilah put on their detective caps and work together to find evidence to expose Misty for killing Crystal; but is that what the Wilderness wants?

Warnings: Mentions of Canon violence/death/SI

Word Count: 4.5k

Cross-posted on AO3; Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Wilderness GPS

Akilah breathed in the fresh air, the only nice thing about being here and only because it was clean compared to the stagnant stench that suffocated her inside the cabin. Akilah used to love the outdoors, camping with her fellow troop members for a weekend was a way to get away from the continually growing list of things she needed to accomplish; but the outdoors she loved was a temporary retreat, she realized. The trips she enjoyed were just that - trips. She could escape to the forest and learn about the environment. She could go kayaking, learn how to build a fire, tie knots, all for fun. It was never meant to be longer than a couple days. Now it was her entire life.

Despite the unwanted permanency, the connection she felt to her environment was still strong. Her connection with animals was stronger than the one she felt to the forest, but there was still something there. Something Akilah had never labeled anything more than an enjoyment of the outdoors.

Akilah’s family was Christian so she was Christian, but she was also a scientist. Okay not actually, obviously, but she believed in evolution. She didn’t not believe in God and she attended church every Sunday, but some things just didn't add up. There had never been a real point in questioning it too much because what was she going to do? Tell her family she wasn’t going to church anymore? They would have killed her.

Still, it wasn’t like she hadn’t dabbled in faith. She wanted to feel a connection to God like her grandma and mom and sisters, like the one she felt with Simba; but honestly, closing her eyes and praying never helped nearly as much as talking to the stray cat.

Akilah had felt something yesterday. When Mari and Shauna looked like they would recreate the other night’s fiasco, she had been calm. She didn’t overthink it, she let the words find her as she acted on impulse. It was an adrenaline rush even better than winning a game, but was it a connection to the Wilderness or just her blood pumping?

Nugget was gone, but that was for the best. The innocent weren’t going to last long in this group, that much was clear. His sacrifice would hopefully bring them to food; and with food they could save Lottie. Food. Crystal’s body. Akilah gulped, closing her eyes.

“Hey, you okay?”

Akilah and Mari were by the side of the house filling two buckets with snow for water. It was still freezing, but they needed to boil it for drinking water since everyone was going out again. Akilah opened her eyes and found Mari’s weary expression. She gave a half-hearted smile.

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“Me too. I don’t like this splitting up thing. Why would Crystal be near the cabin?” Mari frowned as she bent to dig her bucket into the pact ice.

“Maybe she really did get lost in the blizzard,” Akilah murmured, but Mari was having one of her stubborn tangents where she refused to see another option.

“Lottie never said anything about the queen card being like special or significant or whatever,” Mari grunted as she lifted the bucket, shaking the snow so it settled toward the bottom.

“Javi found it out there somewhere,” Akilah countered, scooping up her own bucket of snow, “and it’s the only queen in the deck. And its eyes are marked off. I think it could mean something.” That feeling of connection was there, maybe not with the queen card specifically, but something about the deck was definitely special. The flames had risen, everyone saw it, right? It couldn’t be another hallucination if the entire group confirmed its existence… right?

“You do?”

“Yeah, it’s worth checking out,” Akilah straightened up, standing firm in her opinion. Whatever they saw, this was a chance to save their friend without resorting to killing each other. Akilah was becoming more numb to the horrors and violence she’d crashed into but there was still hope for something better. They just had to make it through the winter. That’s what her gut told her anyway. Is that what faith was? A gut feeling?

“It’s just Lottie never -” Mari began.

“Mari,” Akilah cut her off gently, “can you just trust me on this?” Her eyes locked with the girl in front of her, brows glued in a furrow just as they had been all morning. Akilah wondered if Mari slept much last night, she hadn’t felt her tossing and turning nearly as much as usual. She’d burrowed into Mari’s back for warmth, even though more than half the time she was pushed off, but the girl had been stiff. So stiff for half a second Akilah feared she was dead, but no, she had been breathing. Maybe she was still hearing the dripping. Akilah almost wished she could still see Nugget the way she had, as a cute fluffy friend and not a corpse stained with Misty’s blood.

“Oh.” Mari stopped, surprised by Akilah’s request. “Yeah. I trust you.” Her expression finally relaxed, but her gaze was intense. “What you did yesterday was pretty cool. I mean, how did you even think of using the deck like that?”

“I don’t know, it just sort of came to me I guess,” Akilah felt a swell of pride and a bit of heat in her cheeks which was nice against the cold. Even if she had enjoyed orchestrating the ritual, attention still made her uncomfortable.

“So they didn’t teach you that in the girl scouts?” Mari cracked a smile, taking a step. Akilah realized they’d just been standing in the snow.

“No,” she chuckled, “Not really.” She swung the bucket around, falling into line with Mari.

“What about all that medical stuff?”

“What do you mean?” Akilah cocked her head.

“Like how you did with Shauna, that was really impressive.” Mari shrugged, the buckets felt a lot heavier with the depleted energy and receding muscles. They both struggled to carry the snow, even the short distance to the front of the cabin. Mari had insisted on putting distance between them and the ever listening ears of the group.

“Oh, um, I didn’t really know that much, just what I learned from watching my sister… I was thinking about medical school -”

“Woah,” Mari interrupted. “That’s serious.”

“Kind of. My dad’s a radiologist,” Akilah explained, “It’s good money and hours aren’t bad.” It was a solid plan for a comfortable future, or it could have been.

“Pretty exciting life you got there.” Mari huffed as she dropped the bucket down by the front door. Akilah moved to get closer to the entrance so could quickly enter while Mari held the door. When Mari didn’t immediately open it, however, Akilah looked up.

Mari was eyeing her with that usual suspicion.

“Is that what you really want?”

Akilah was surprised, she nearly dropped her bucket. The handle dug into her palms.

“Yes.” She responded immediately, then faltered under Mari’s unmoving gaze, “I don’t know, maybe?”

“You sound very confident,” Mari replied, smirking. Her hand went to the door handle.

“I think being a vet would be kind of cool,” Akilah blurted. Mari raised an eyebrow.

“I could totally see you as a vet.” Mari had an easy smile, so different from her usual resting bitch face.

“Oh - thanks.”

Akilah felt that embarrassment again, but she smiled in return.

“But maybe work on the whole knowing if they’re alive part?” Mari laughed as a harsh wind came by, reminding them that they were again standing in the cold. “Fuck,” Mari breathed as she shoved open the door.

“Okay, but only if you get your ears checked,” Akilah replied humorously, picking up the bucket into the creases the handle had left just a minute before. She shuffled into the cabin heading toward the fire.

“I swear I’m not crazy,” Mari said, but it was more to herself.

“Bullshit,” Van cut in. She was with Melissa and Gen shuffling through some old shirts and tying them into more headwear. Her tone was a bit harsh for a joke, but before Mari could be offended Akilah added, “I’m just kidding, we’re all crazy.”

Mari frowned, possibly wanting to object but she didn’t. Instead she started preparing the water.

Akilah noticed Javi and Nat by the window, though it wasn’t long before the young boy got up from the bed. Even though Nat had criticized her plan, she was still going to help. That made Akilah feel better at least, having Nat out there with her tracking skills maybe she could find Crystal. If she actually tried to.

Natalie’s eyes followed Javi as he stood, acknowledging her “gift” with a smile. Gift was the wrong word, it was more like reparations. Trying to make up for the time she let him stay gone, lost. Travis wanted to find his brother and she said no. Even if she was right and the group was more important, still, she had tricked him into thinking Javi was dead. Fuck. That was so fucked; and what did she have to show for it? No meat, no food, just more pain.

The shadows along the wall moved like it was evening. It wasn’t, she was pretty sure it wasn’t even mid morning. Time moved differently now that the last watch had broken. All they had out here were shadows and the sun which taunted them high in the sky where it could see everything they wished they could. A figure approached from the darker corners of the room.

It was Travis. The light of the fire lit his left profile, the reflection from the white snow through the window lit his right. Nat’s expression dropped.

“Need something?”

“No,” he said simply as he approached, raking a hand through his hair. He took the spot Javi left behind, his eyes drawn to the fire. Clearly that was a lie.

He was hunched over, a typical posture for him as if the weight of his shoulders were too heavy. His forearms rested on his thighs until he got the courage to say what he wanted; he sat up, sighing.

“You’re a good person.” He stated simply, craning his neck so his dark eyes could examine her. Nat didn’t reply, her eyebrow twitching in response, but she didn’t meet his gaze. “And I’m sorry for…” he shook his head, “ever making you feel otherwise.”

Cool. Cool. Yeah, this was normal.

Nat didn’t feel like a good person, but she also didn’t feel like she did anything wrong. Sure she felt bad about Javi being out there and facing him now was tough but she didn’t regret it. Travis got that now, that she did it for them , not to hurt him.

She didn’t respond, holding back tears. If all that were true, why did she feel so damn guilty?

Nat took Travis’s hand clutching it tightly, afraid to look into his eyes in case she started getting emotional or some dumb shit like that because she couldn’t do that right now. She had to prepare for a hunt. That’s what it was right? Maybe you could call it a search party but at the end of the day they were all about to do what she did everyday for almost a year. Hunt for food.

She’s already dead, Nat .

“What?” Nat slowly lifted her head from where she’d been watching his thumb stroking their intertwined fingers.

“I said, are you still pissed at me?”

“What? No.” Nat shook her head, drawing her hands back without thinking about it. “I get it, really. He’s your brother.”

“Yeah, but you’ve been better to him than I ever have been,” Travis basically whispered, hanging his head in shame. She couldn’t let him say that.

“Nah, I just feel bad. He was alone and cold and I -”

“Hey, wherever he was, he was safe.” Travis surveyed the group but no one seemed to be listening. They were all equipping themselves with all the clothing they had left. Nat’s eyes followed his. She got what he was saying. Maybe wherever Javi had been, he’d been safer than he was now. With them.

“He told Ben something,” Travis whispered so low she was sure she heard him wrong. Her eyes locked onto his, nodding for him to continue. He glanced back around them, making sure there were no gossips listening in. “He said he had a friend who helped him.”

“What?” Nat reacted a little too loudly. A couple of curious eyes hit them. Shit. She’d ruined their privacy, as thin as it was.

“I’m serious,” Travis replied firmly, then brought his hand on her neck and drew her in for a kiss. It was light, but deep enough to warrant a groan or two from the peanut gallery. As he drew away he whispered, “We’ll talk about it later.”

“Where’s Ben?” Mari asked, distrust present in her tone.

“He was in the bedroom,” Misty replied eerily. Since the stillbirth or maybe since Crystal disappeared she’d been acting weird, and not the usual Misty vibrating off the walls kind of weird. “He was fixing his crutches for the snow.”

Melissa was by the bedroom door and she pushed it open to reveal an empty room. “Not here,” she confirmed after an obligatory scan of the dirty walls with a single bed and empty suitcases.

“Figures,” Mari huffed. She looked over her shoulder at Akilah who shrugged. There was something going on with those two, they’d been whispering a lot lately.

Nat’s eyes found Javi standing in the kitchen fiddling with his gloves. Then they flicked to Travis who was watching her intensely. A friend ?

“He’s been acting weird since…” Gen started, but immediately trailed off.

“Since we ate Jackie,” Van finished.

“Yeah, you don’t think he’s trying to find Crystal first?” Melissa said, obviously suspicious. They were all beginning to turn on him.

“Why would he do that?” Tai asked dismissively.

“To… you know, stop us from eating her… or whatever.” Melissa shrugged, arms crossed. She had on the backwards cap she always wore, her blond hair streaked with dirt.

“He wouldn’t do that to Lottie.” Van defended, but her expression wasn’t nearly as confident as her tone. Her eyes lingered on the front door.

“Maybe he’s scared we’ll eat him.” Shauna said off-handly, more to herself than to the group. Still, it was clear by the uncomfortable air that everyone had heard.

“Won’t you?” Nat questioned, unable to hold back her defense of Ben. The girls had been treating him weird since the Jackie incident and she had no doubt he was high on their list of potential meal candidates.

“Don’t act like you’re better than us,” Mari growled.

“Hey, it hasn’t come to that yet, right Akilah?” Tai insisted, calling Akilah to once again keep Mari from a physical altercation. She was beginning to seem a lot like Mari’s keeper.

“Right, we have a plan. Let’s stick to it okay?” Akilah eyed her hot-tempered friend, communicating without speaking.

“Yeah.” Mari nodded, but it was clear she was worked up.

All of them were on edge.

“How should we decide who goes where?” Gen asked.

“The cards,” Van and Akilah replied simultaneously. They exchanged a look before Van grabbed the stack from the kitchen table. Nat watched helpless as the group used a deck of cards to determine all their decisions.

If this was the Wilderness talking to them, it was laughing its ass off.

Akilah ended up by the cliff. Mari was super pissed, especially when Misty drew the ten of clubs. Akilah, Misty, Travis, Gen and Van had drawn the black cards and so they ended up by the cliff. The rest headed for the forested area where the Queen had been placed, near the creek not too far from the cabin.

“Don’t let her out of your sight,” Mari instructed. “And if she doesn’t want to look somewhere that’s exactly where you send Travis to dig.”

That was obvious to Akilah but she let Mari go on with her plan. Obviously she was anxious.

Akilah had known Mari since tryouts freshman year but even as a sophomore Mari was a sub for varsity so they never really interacted that much. When they crashed Akilah was the resident expert on what was safe to eat and Mari was in charge of cooking so they formed a natural team.

Mari was brass, that was for sure; but she was honest. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind or call out someone on their bullshit. Akilah appreciated that, admired it even. Maybe that’s why she gravitated to Mari the most. That and aside from Tai she was the funniest on the team.

“Misty, where did you see her last? Do you remember?” Van asked seriously. Their group was approaching the dump cliff, surrounded by a line of trees on either side. It was a mostly clear path, except for the snow up to their mid calves.

“I - I don’t know exactly. I think it was around here,” Misty replied, rubbing her biceps. It was miserably cold but the action annoyed Akilah. They were out there because of her.

Maybe Mari was a hater. Okay, she really was, but she also made some really good points. Misty never forgot anything. She remembered every game, who scored which goal when, whose fault it was the other team scored. She remembered all that medical stuff and who did which chore and all the lyrics to all those musicals and every line to that convincing ass monologue -

But she didn’t remember when she last saw her best friend?

“Did you guys dump the poop before you lost her?” Travis asked. He clenched his jaw and looked over his shoulder. Akilah was pretty sure he was more upset about the separation from Javi and Nat than being out in the cold.

“Um, yes. Yes, she dumped the poop and then we started heading back -”

“Heading back? Are we even looking in the right place?” Gen asked concerned.

“Yes, the card was over the cliff,” Van replied.

“But not right over it, maybe she got lost in the woods,” Misty countered.

“If she did, she'd be where the queen was,” Van answered confidently. Even though it was Akilah’s idea, Van was taking the ritual the most seriously. She seemed to know something they didn’t or maybe it was just that her faith in the Wilderness was so strong. No matter what it was she was a completely different person than the one that had led them cheering to the lake in the summer.

Akilah was glad Van was here. She knew it would be hard to keep Misty in check if it was just her leading the group, but Van was a strong believer and would listen to the Wilderness above logic. As long as Akilah used that to keep them looking in the right places, maybe they had a shot.

“We should start by the cliff. Even if you too dumped the bucket, maybe she got confused in the snow and turned back by accident.” It seemed likely enough.

“If?” Van was suddenly right beside Akilah and she jumped.

“What’s wrong?” Travis asked.

“Nothing, just tripped,” Akilah answered but she was thrown off by the wide and intense green eyes staring daggers into her soul.

“I meant when,” she corrected quietly to Van. Van looked over her shoulder, but her eyes fell on Travis for a moment.

The group came to the small clearing before the cliff. They looked out onto the snowy landscape, hearts beating rapidly from the little exercise on no calories.

“What if she fell?” Gen asked, shuffling toward the edge and peeking down below. There was a small squeak from Misty and Akilah glanced at her concerned face. She pictured what Mari told her: Misty digging frantically in the piles of snow covering the shit dump.

“Maybe she did,” Akilah answered quietly.

“We should split up and look,” Travis declared, “Standing around will only make you colder.”

Mari wanted to scream. No way she was out in the snow searching for Crystal’s body when she knew Misty was trying to cover it up by the cliff. She had to trust Akilah, she told herself, she had too.

If there was anyone Mari knew she could trust, it was Akilah. Well, Lottie too, obviously; but with her thoughts and plans to uncover Misty, only Akilah understood.

They had used the Wilderness to guide them and Mari was sure the Wilderness had answered. It had given them a sure sign Crystal was by the cliff. How could it not be more clear? The two of clubs, the exact one Crystal had drawn, was placed right over the cliff. Unlike most of the other times Mari held the deck, she had no control over which card was picked during the ritual.

Okay, okay, Mari had been fucking with the deck. It wasn’t hard - her brother Sam was a total nerd and super into magic when he was younger. As the youngest, and also because she was a girl apparently, she was the assistant. Except Mari hated being the assistant. So instead she pretended to be the assistant and learned all the tricks herself. Then when she and Sam performed for their parents, she’d stolen the spotlight. Not exactly the nicest thing in the world but Sam got her back when he tripped her into mud a week later.

The point was, she knew how to shift a deck. It was easy and since no one knew about her sleight of hand it was simple enough to rig the chores. The day Crystal disappeared she made sure Crystal got the two, but then Misty offered to go with her so she never drew her own.

It wasn’t possible that someone could have - or even would have - fixed the deck. No one could have expected the brilliance of Akilah. The Wilderness was speaking through her to them, but it felt like Mari was the only one listening.

The queen card - really? Yeah it was weird and maybe it had significance, but Lottie never said anything about it being special. Besides that it was nowhere near where Mari was certain Crystal’s body was. Akilah was a genius for figuring out how to speak to the Wilderness, but was she serious about this splitting up bullshit? Especially since not only was Misty part of the group she definitely should not be in, but also because the queen group was bigger than the cliff one.

It had been at least an hour of them searching, and while Mari was trying to give it her all, her heart wasn’t in it. Still, she thought of Akilah out there with Misty and she pushed through. Akilah wouldn’t half-ass it, she never did.

Mari didn’t know Akilah super well until they crashed, mostly because Mari was only really on JV her freshman year. She kind of was sophomore year, but she only played if Varsity didn’t need her. Then junior year she’d been bumped to starting center back with Lottie. Back then, Mari knew Akilah as the girl who was always studying before almost every game. She always had a textbook on the bench which would annoy Coach Martinez. Dork, Mari smiled as she thought back; but not like Misty dork like adorable dork.

Now she knew why Akilah was always studying - trying to be a doctor, or vet. She was probably the most studious person she knew other than Tai. Also pretty funny, and really sweet. Things didn’t bother her the way they did Mari, and if they did she never showed it. Akilah was subtle, she didn’t lash out whenever her anger bubbled up. Mari admired that, it wasn’t something she could do. When her anger boiled she felt she had to react or she’d burn alive. Holding back wasn’t in her nature.

“Hey!” Someone called from somewhere in front of her, hidden by the trees and snow. “Anyone nearby?” The scratchy voice of Nat rang in the still frigid air.

“Yeah,” Mari called, but she wasn’t sure Nat would care to hear her voice. She was probably hoping for Javi. Not that he would verbally respond.

“Find anything?” Nat’s tone was flat, devoid of hope. If anything she was probably hoping for a no. Where would that lead though? Aside from wishing for proof of Misty’s psychotic ways, Mari wanted food. Needed food. She feared the dripping would come back.

“Not yet,” Mari replied, turning away from Nat’s voice and stepping wide into the deep white sea.

Nat didn’t respond, not that she expected her too. If Crystal was here, Mari would find her. If the Wilderness was serious about this queen card shit, then Mari would just have to trust it.

“What was that?” She heard Nat’s voice, but it wasn’t necessarily directed at her. Still, Mari quieted and closed her eyes like Lottie taught her, listening for the sounds of the environment around her.

There was the chill on her cheek, the trees gentle swaying, the whistle of the wind -

The cracking of a branch.

Mari’s dark eyes shot open toward the source of the sound behind her, in Nat’s direction. Immediately she took off, hearing Nat huffing and boots crunching as she sprinted ahead.

“What is it?” Mari shouted.

“A deer!” Nat’s cry rang out.

A deer?!

“Where?” Mari yelled as she stomped through the covered forest floor trying to close the distance between her and her teammate. Her heart jumped at the idea of an actual animal in the forest, when they needed it most.

“A deer!” Nat’s voice repeated, but blew away quickly as the air whipped around Mari’s head. Her head wrap came loose, sagging around her neck. It was hard, so hard to run in the snow.

Nat’s blonde hair was barely visible as Mari dodged between trees, leaping over branches trying to keep up. Nat was so fast, Mari could never beat her in sprints. She was losing her, but she was fighting with all her strength not too.

“Hey!” A voice shouted from somewhere in the Wilderness.

There was the sound of more branches snapping up ahead to her right and Tai broke through the trees. Her long legs maneuvered through the brush and she sprinted by Mari, focused on the target ahead. She didn’t acknowledge her.

Mari kept running even as Taissa disappeared, legs feeling rock hard and heavy. A deer, seriously? A deer? It was the only thing keeping her from stopping as the cold hit the back of her throat and she gasped for air -

Then she was falling, crashing into the deep snow.

Mari landed hard on her forearms and the thick twigs below splintered against her bones as they broke her fall. She groaned as her body sagged forward into the frigid ice.

“Mari?”

She heard a voice calling her name. Melissa -

“Deer!” She screamed pointing ahead though her body was still stuck in the firmly packed snow.

“What?” Melissa panted.

“Deer!” Mari yelled with all her might as she propped herself up out of the snow. “Follow Nat!”

Melissa gazed wide eyed, but quickly took off in the direction Mari pointed. Mari’s head fell back into the freezing snow as Melissa’s dirty blonde hair disappeared into the forest ahead.

#yellowjackets #yellowjackets fanfic #mari yellowjackets #akilah yellowjackets #akari #akilah x mari #mari x akilah #Missing Crystal

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buck-buck-boose · 3 years

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I'll Love You 'Til I Die

Masterlist | Playlist

Summary: A Brooklyn schoolgirl fell in love with James Buchanan Barnes at the tender age of nine. With this love she made a vow, promising to love him until her very last breath.

Pairing: Bucky x OFC

Warnings: Language, mild violence

Word Count: 4.6k

Author's Note: Big things are happening y'all

Chapter Twenty-One: The Super Soldier

March 19, 1943

Dawn crept up on Camp Lehigh in a thick haze of fog, the chirp of crickets its only whispered greeting. A late-winter frost bloomed across what little grass remained, the majority having been trampled underfoot by platoon after platoon of soldiers. Winter was quickly fading, giving way to a promising spring, but the bitter chill still latched onto those dewy mornings to remind Camp Lehigh’s inhabitants of the cold season they’d just nearly escaped.

Although sessions of training were not due to begin for hours, warm bodies were stirred from slumber in their barracks, meeting the cold, stale air of their poorly-insulated lodgings. The nurse’s barracks was lit by a lamp's dim glow, which splayed a flush of golden light across the room. Five women quietly and nimbly dressed, none of them wishing to break the silence that balanced among them; the early morning was sacred to them, as it seemed to be the only time apart from nighttime in which one could be alone with one’s thoughts.

Lottie deftly pinned her mousy curls beneath her white cap, caring little for their arrangement or appearance. Once upon a time, she’d tamed her curls with gentle finger waves and carefully pinned back strands, desperate to look the part of a fair woman like Ginger Rogers. It was a quieter, more joyful time in which she had the time and desire to put ample effort into her appearance. How simpler life in Brooklyn seemed, in retrospect. She only had to care for Steve or Bucky’s wounds, usually from some street brawl instigated by Steve and ended by Bucky; now she had soldiers to care for. Soldiers who would one day be covered in great, gaping wounds, some so deeply ingrained within their souls that neither the highest of morphine dosages nor the strongest suture could soothe them.

Lottie made swift work of fastening her blue cape around her neck, situating it so that the inner red lining wasn’t peeking out. In her peripherals, Mary smoothed a hand down her white skirt in a weak attempt at combatting its wrinkles while Betty gave her face a once-over in a battered compact that she always seemed to have on her person. Lottie was downright envious of her ever-red lip and sultry gaze, they seemed to turn the heads of all the young privates on base, which earned them more than a few reprimands. It was only a few weeks ago that Betty had explained her reasoning for putting such effort into her physical charm, even in the middle of the war.

“Nurses are supposed to provide comfort, care, right?” She sat across from Lottie at their table in the mess hall, smoke curling from a freshly lit cigarette resting between her fingers. She puffed on the cigarette for a moment and slowly exhaled the smoke, “Well these boys have been stuck in a war for over a year now and they probably haven’t seen a pretty face in a while. They’re probably missing their sweethearts, fiancées, you name it. Either way, they’ve gotta be awful lonely out there, so what’s the harm in being that girl with the pretty face that can make them a little less lonesome?”

Before anyone could raise a question, she continued, “I’m not talking affairs or anything illicit, sometimes they just need a pretty face and a nice voice to remind ‘em of home, to ease that loneliness.”

Betty’s little sermon drew Lottie’s thoughts to Bucky. He was a fiercely loyal man who would stop at nothing to protect or care for his closest companions. For his own sake, Lottie hoped that he’d found a sort of comradery with his fellow soldiers, a bond to strengthen him while they were separated by an ocean. He’d always had a habit of flashing her his trademark grin and ruffling her hair, all while declaring something silly like “You ‘n Steve are all I need, Little Lottie. It’s always gonna be the three of us, ‘til the end of the line.” Lottie could only hope that Bucky had found a bond like theirs with his fellow soldiers as a source of comfort and a respite from loneliness.

“Lottie dear, Dr. Erskine’s waiting for us.”

It seemed that the other nurses had filtered out of the barracks as Lottie was lost in thought. Only Gladys remained, waiting for her expectantly at the doorway. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a tight bun, with her white cap nestled daintily atop her head, held in place with a handful of pins.

“Apologies, Gladys, I’m coming.” Gladys gave her a small smile as she caught up, nerves keeping her from forming her true toothy grin. All the nurses were nervous, to be truthful, as it was a significant day. Their serum was finally being put to use; they had found their first Super Soldier in Steve Rogers.

When Lottie had received the news of his selection to receive the serum, she’d nearly fainted with shock. Steve was a man with a heart of gold, she’d always known that, but it only served to heighten her self-doubt with regards to the serum’s efficacy. If the serum went awry as it did with Schmidt, Lottie wasn’t sure how she would be able to live with herself.

Dr. Erskine and Colonel Phillips’ debriefing as to why Steve had been chosen to become America’s first Super Soldier was a source of comfort, though. The two men had cornered the five nurses outside their barracks right as they were heading inside to turn in for the night.

The scientist had been the first to speak, “Ladies, we wanted to catch you as soon as possible. Colonel Phillips and I have decided upon our candidate for the serum. Private Steve Rogers will report to our facility in Brooklyn promptly at ten hundred hours tomorrow. We will need to depart camp at six hundred hours so we have abundant time to become accustomed to the equipment that will be in use. Mr. Stark will be joining us there.”

Lottie was sure there’d been spots in her vision, the announcement had nearly knocked all the wind out of her.

“I expect you ladies to uphold the same sense of secrecy and vigilance that you’ve had up until this point,” Colonel Phillips interjected, “This is only the beginning of our mission. We must continue to protect Project Rebirth, no matter how hopeless it may seem.” His voice was laced with bitterness, obviously doubtful of Steve’s abilities.

Nancy furrowed her brow, “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Private Rogers the ninety-pound asthmatic? Why him and not someone more… reliable, like Private Hodge?”

Lottie bristled slightly, as she did not take kindly to critical remarks regarding her friends.

“Need I remind you that the serum is not focused only on the physical?” Dr. Erskine fixed Nancy with a level gaze, “He is not the most well-built soldier, I admit that. But as you have seen yourself, the serum is capable of incredible cellular change that will only strengthen him. It will also amplify the qualities that he already has inside of himself. He has proven himself to be a good soldier and a worthy recipient of the serum.” Lottie glanced at Colonel Phillips, whose face was twisted into an awkward grimace, though he did not comment.

“During training today, he exhibited qualities of strength and humility that I have yet to see in any other soldiers thus far. Would Private Hodge throw himself over a grenade to protect his fellow soldiers? He showed me today that he would not, but Private Rogers would.”

Colonel Phillips muttered something along the lines of, “Still skinny,” though the bitterness seemed to fade. All of the nurses came to accept the news, trading in their expressions of shock and concern for ones of uncertainty and anxiety. It seemed that reality had hit for all five of the nurses at once; their work had finally come to fruition, making the road ahead even more daunting than before.

There was little conversation in the nurse’s compartment on the train to Brooklyn. There were moments of brief chatter among the women, but they were all too lost in their thoughts to carry on a proper conversation. Lottie shifted in her seat every few minutes, the poorly-cushioned seat providing little comfort during the duration of the train ride. Beside her, Gladys flicked through a stack of paper, which she’d pulled out of a manila folder that had been stamped with the word “Confidential” in large red letters. Ever the levelheaded academic of the group, she’d decided to look over their notes on the serum and its activation procedure one last time.

Across from her, Mary and Nancy were busying themselves with embroidery, an activity that a few of the nurses had picked up to improve their abilities with stitching. Lottie pictured a frayed handkerchief in her mind’s eye, a tattered old thing covered in clumsy pink flowers with a “JBB” monogram stitched carefully onto its corner. She wondered if Bucky had taken it with him overseas. He’d always kept it on his person back in Brooklyn, “Never know when a dame’s gonna go all misty eyed on me,” he’d say, humor in his eyes. There wouldn’t be many women for him to comfort overseas, but maybe he’d need it for his tears someday.

Betty sat to the right of Gladys, scanning the pages of a battered copy of Gone With the Wind. She’d never struck Lottie as a bookworm, but more often than not, she was the last of the women to fall asleep at night, usually engrossed in a novel for an hour or two past lights-out.

Two hours passed uneventfully; its monotony was only interrupted by the transferring from one train to another. Lottie’s heart seemed to pound in her ears as they approached Brooklyn, the tall buildings in her window becoming more and more familiar to her. Her heart swelled at the sight of it; she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed the city until she returned after all that time. Of course, she’d been gone from the city for longer while she was in nursing school, but it tugged at her heartstrings even more than before because a damn war was what kept her from her beloved borough.

It wasn’t long before the train had arrived, initiating a flurry of movement out of the train car and toward a car that sat at the curb, waiting for them. All five nurses clambered inside, with Dr. Erskine following behind in his car. The car ride was a short one, though Lottie took the time to observe her surroundings; she wanted so desperately to drink in the familiar alleys and side streets before she had to return to Camp Lehigh, to war.

Their car stopped abruptly in front of a cozy antique shop; one she’d never paid much attention to. Dr. Erskine’s car had arrived just a few moments before theirs, so they followed him inside. Once inside, they were faced with an aged woman, who greeted them with a casual question, though her eyes betrayed a deeper glimmer of suspicion, “Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?”

Dr. Erskine responded promptly, “Yes, but I always carry an umbrella.”

They were quickly led through a false bookcase, which hid a vast laboratory full of all that was needed to complete the transformation that would occur in a few hours. There were dozens of monitors and gauges, all for measuring Steve’s vitals and the Vita-Rays that were intended to activate the serum within his cells. In the center of it all, there was a bed on which Steve would lie, and when injected with the serum, the bed would be surrounded by a chamber while the Vita-Rays were projected into him.

Lottie and her peers stood at the top of the stairs, taking it all in, while Dr. Erskine descended the steps toward a control panel. He glanced back at them briefly, “Shall we all get accustomed to this now, ladies?”

Over the past few hours, Lottie had tired herself by calibrating various instruments, readying the equipment, and arranging several vials of serum within the transformation chamber. Throughout that time, doctors, higher-ranking soldiers, and members of the SSR slowly filtered into the room, some even gathering in the observation booth that looked down on them from above. She knew that Steve was due to arrive with Agent Carter at any moment. Frankly, she was terrified— mortified, even.

Howard Stark flitted about the laboratory, checking up on the various devices that would be used throughout the process. The Vita-Ray chamber was his brainchild, so a majority of his morning was spent double and triple-checking its minute parts and its stability.

At precisely 10 o’clock in the morning, Agent Carter and Steve stepped into the laboratory, two metal doors held open by guards for their entrance. Silence quickly descended upon the scientists and personnel who had been moving about the room in a sort of organized chaos. Lottie knew that most of them were looking at Steve in confusion, and in some cases dismay, but she made sure to send her best friend a reassuring smile. Even if the bullheaded scientists in the room were doubtful of his abilities, Lottie was with him. She believed in him. Her only doubts were in her abilities.

The staff quickly returned to their business as Agent Carter and Steve descended the steps and approached the center of the laboratory to meet with Dr. Erskine. They shared a brief greeting before Steve was ordered to remove his hat, tie, and shirt; Mary waited beside him with a kind smile, accepting his shed clothing. Agent Carter stood a few feet behind Steve, respectfully averting her gaze as he partially disrobed. Lottie took a special interest in their interactions, examining the way in which she treated Steve. She didn’t ignore or belittle him as some women did, she treated him with more dignity and respect. For that, Lottie was grateful.

Lottie busied herself with sterilizing several glass syringes as she impatiently awaited the initiation of the transformation. She could just barely make out a conversation that Dr. Erskine and Steve had shared about schnapps, but before she could quite figure out what was said, the scientist turned to the inventor beside him, “Mr. Stark, how are your levels?”

“Levels at one hundred percent. We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready as we’ll ever be.” Mr. Stark stood in front of the chamber where Steve now lay, projecting an air of confidence despite an uncomfortable look in his eye.

Agent Carter was dismissed to the booth to join Colonel Phillips, who was seated with several other seemingly important men that Lottie didn’t care to know. Dr. Erskine addressed the crowd in the booth using a microphone, explaining the purpose of Project Rebirth. Meanwhile, Lottie and her fellow nurses prepared the Vita-Ray chamber; she’d just situated the paddles on his chest when his gaze met hers. They’d been in a similar position so many times before. There were countless times over the past decade when she and Bucky had shown up at his apartment, soup and medicine in hand, to make him feel better during his latest bout of sickness. Bucky would always sit on one side of the bed, leaning on the mattress as he tried to distract Steve with idle conversation. She always kept vigil on the opposite side of the bed from Bucky, pulling Steve’s sheets up to his chin no matter how much he complained of the heat. She would never have to do that again, Lottie realized, as the serum would (hopefully) strengthen his immune system to the point that it would nearly be impossible to get sick. He wouldn’t need her or Bucky to look after him anymore. It pained her only slightly; she was overjoyed that he would be strengthened and healed by the serum, but it felt like the end of an era for her. She wasn’t truly needed anymore.

When the scientist’s speech to the booth had concluded, Lottie disinfected Steve’s shoulder and injected a syringe of penicillin into it; beforehand, she gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze, warning him for the pain of the jab. She felt him sigh in relief, “That wasn’t so bad.”

Lottie bit back a giggle while Dr. Erskine looked down at Steve with a furrowed brow, “That was penicillin.” The scientist gave her a look and without missing a beat, began the countdown.

Five

The doctors and scientists that were scattered around the laboratory rushed to their control panels, monitoring Steve’s vitals and the Vita-Ray levels that would soon be harnessed for the serum’s activation.

Four

Those that were observing from the booth looked at the scene below with bated breath; they either anticipated either a predictable failure or an unlikely success.

Three

The five nurses gathered around the Vita-Ray chamber, monitoring the serum infusion. Two mechanical arms latched onto Steve’s biceps and embedded several syringes deep into his muscle.

Two

Dr. Erskine placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder. Lottie met Steve’s gaze once more, she was that little girl at his bedside, sitting her vigil for one last time.

One

A switch was flipped and several syringes of the serum were injected into Steve’s system. Lottie could already see the strain it was putting on his body, his face contorted and he grunted in pain as he felt the serum begin its work in his body.

When given his signal, Mr. Stark flipped a lever to encase Steve in the Vita-Ray chamber, which maneuvered Steve into a vertical position before he was completely locked into the machine. Dr. Erskine knocked on the metal, “Steven? Can you hear me?”

A muffled response came from within the metal, “It’s probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?” Lottie snorted, only Steve would make a terrible joke at a time like that.

The scientist faced Mr. Stark, “We will proceed.” Below him, Mr. Stark slowly turned a dial and donned a pair of goggles. Lottie and her peers followed suit, as the luminosity of the Vita-Rays would cause vision damage if their eyes were left uncovered.

Lottie worried her lip as Mr. Stark slowly increased the radiation levels by turning a wheel that was mounted on the control panel. Next to him, a doctor carefully monitored Steve’s vitals; he reported that they were all normal, which calmed Lottie a tad.

At around the seventy percent mark, cries began to ring out from within the Vita-Ray chamber. It was as if screams were being torn from Steve’s throat, they were so hoarse and raw. Dr. Erskine rushed to the chamber while Peggy quickly descended from the booth, urging the personnel to cease the radiation. Lottie stood in shock, stuck in an internal impasse. She worried deeply for Steve’s safety, she always had and always would. Simultaneously, she needed to trust in the years’ worth of work she’d put into Project Rebirth. She and her fellow nurses had worked day after day, slaving over the Super Soldier Serum and Vita-Ray theories to develop the perfect transformation method. If she couldn’t trust her abilities and research, what could she trust?

But when Steve’s cries seemed to echo throughout the laboratory, she knew that his safety superseded whatever pride she had in her research. Lottie had just opened her mouth to call for an end to it when Steve insisted from within the Vita-Ray chamber, “Don’t! I can do this!”

A burst of warmth bloomed in Lottie’s chest; Steve trusted their work and he was fighting to see it through. Mr. Stark continued to raise the radiation levels until they had reached one hundred percent. The staff and observers from the booth could only look on in shock and wonder as the light from within the chamber continued to glow brighter and it began to give off a steady humming noise.

Without warning, sparks began to spray out from the control panels as a result of the copious amounts of electricity being funneled into the transformation. Lottie cried out, ducking down with Mary to avoid the sparks that showered down on them from overhead. Across from them, Nancy, Gladys, and Betty assumed similar positions, clutching their white caps as they attempted to shield themselves from the onslaught.

As quickly as it started, the sparks ceased, as did the humming of the Vita-Ray chamber. The laboratory was far dimmer than it was earlier, with the light from the radiation gone, and nearly half the bulbs in the laboratory having been blown out.

All eyes were on the Vita-Ray chamber as they all awaited the final result of Project Rebirth. The chamber hissed open and released a gust of air, revealing an exhausted-looking Steve.

Lottie could barely believe it, not only was he exhausted-looking, but it seemed as if he’d gained nearly 8 inches of height and a few dozen pounds of muscle. Gone was that scrawny blond boy who’d gotten lost in crowds far too easily, here was a man— a Super Soldier —who was perfectly enhanced on a cellular level.

The SSR agents and politicians who were previously gathered in the booth rushed to meet with Steve, barely able to contain their excitement. They clambered over each other, all of them desperate to be the first one to speak with America’s first Super Soldier.

In all the chaos, Betty had sidled up to her, her jaw nearly touching the floor, “Hot damn, Lottie Green. Hot damn.” She ogled at Steve as she took in his new physique. Lottie rolled her eyes, “Just because he’s got more muscle doesn’t mean he’ll be able to talk to you any better. Or that he won’t step on your toes if you get him to dance.”

Steve stood in the middle of a crowd of men, though Agent Carter stood in front of him, attempting to look at anything but his chest.

“I think you might want this, Stevie,” Lottie moved in to stand beside Agent Carter and offered him a shirt, which he accepted gratefully. He smiled down at her gratefully, murmuring a quiet, “Thank you, Lottie.”

How odd it was to be looking up at him. It was certainly something that Lottie wasn’t used to, she’d gotten quite used to looking down at him, in fact. By age sixteen, she’d gained about two inches on him, and though he was loath to admit it, she knew it pained him to be the shortest of the three of them. Luckily for him, his new height delegated her as the most diminutive of the Brooklyn trio by far.

Amid the jubilation following Project Rebirth’s success, grave mistakes were made. Gladys had left her manila folder of notes— all the notes that the nurses had ever taken during their research —on one of the control panels closest to the stairway, just close enough to the exit to be snatched up by a discreet hand. An extra vial of Super Soldier serum sat in its case, at the ready for its eventual use; it stood unguarded and unwatched.

The once-unassuming Fred Clemson hung back from the crowd, a lighter in hand. Dr. Erskine was the first to notice his position apart from everyone else; the scientist opened his mouth as if to say something, but before he could form a sentence, Clemson had flicked open the lighter and triggered an explosion from the observation booth.

Screams rang out from the middle of the laboratory as glass rained down on them. Sparks even worse than before began assaulting them and left stinging burns in their wake. Lottie grunted as she felt minuscule shards of glass tear at and become embedded in her skin; it would surely be a pain to treat such small cuts and remove the pieces of glass later on. It was shocking, really, how quickly the mood of the room had shifted. Just moments before, she’d been looking at Steve in awe, fully processing all that the serum had accomplished. Her sentiments of excitement and pride quickly evaporated, replaced by a growing sense of panic and dread.

The force of the explosion had thrown Lottie and some of the other nurses to the ground, so she scrambled to her feet in an attempt to take action against the man. It was all in vain, for as soon as she regained her footing, all she saw was the bespectacled man diving through the crowd to grab the last vial of Super Soldier serum and the thick manila envelope that Gladys had brought with her. Lottie’s stomach dropped in terror; she opened her mouth to cry out for backup, but Dr. Erskine was one step ahead of her. He commanded the man to stop, but the only response he received was several gunshots in the chest.

Deep red stains formed across the front of his shirt and seeped into his lab coat, his vibrant blood was a sickening contrast to the crisp white color of his lab coat. The scientist fell to the ground, his legs sprawled out before him and his arms at his side. Lottie knew that there was no hope for him— there were no exit wounds and she was more than certain that at least one of his lungs had been punctured. His breathing was labored, his chest heaving with every inhale and exhale. Lottie didn’t need to perform an examination to know that the wounds would be fatal. There was no time for an examination anyway, gunshots continued to ring out across the laboratory, and Agent Carter was in hot pursuit of the offender.

Mary looked at Lottie for some sort of reassurance of direction, her mouth agape, “Lottie, he's— he’s gonna die if we don’t do somethin’. C’mon, we’ve gotta help him.” Her voice came out in a whimper and her hands shook as she searched the floor for any fallen bandages. She took Mary’s trembling hands into her clammy ones, “Mary, look at his breathing. You know there’s nothing we can do for him now.”

She knew it was a heartbreaking thing to say, but Mary was a brilliant nurse; she already knew all the signs of a punctured lung. Lottie knew that she was having a hard time processing the information due to the shock that was no doubt obscuring her senses and rational thought. What Mary needed was a calm voice to guide her back from the brink of hysteria, a friend to bring her back to reality.

The nurses learned a jarring lesson about reality’s harsh nature that day; they learned of its cycle of gains and losses, successes and failures. The five nurses of Project Rebirth had achieved all that they’d been dreaming of for more than a year, they’d proven themselves to be reliable and even stellar researchers in their field. It had all been ripped away from them in a matter of moments, with the loss of their notes and serum, as well as the brutal death of Dr. Erskine. All they could do was clutch each other helplessly as they watched Steve follow the man in hot pursuit— the man who had stolen everything from them. Lottie, Mary, Betty, Nancy, and Gladys had certainly entered a new era in their careers as nurses, an era of uncertainty. With nothing left from Project Rebirth besides the Super Soldier himself, their futures were left in limbo until the Strategic Scientific Reserve could figure out what to do with them next.

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riverdale-retread · 3 years

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Riverdale S5 E13 (Coyote Ugly)- 5 Things I loved/ 3 Things to consider

I loved a LOT of things about this episode, so I might have to cheat on my loved-it count. Indulge me, please.

Things I loved

1. I loved that Tabitha totally belongs and fits in with these crazy OG Riverdale people. Tabitha asks Betty, the crazy girl, to not “do anything crazy,” while doing crazy things with Betty, herself. Why Tabitha does this, we don’t know yet, but she absolutely belongs with these people. For fancy-school-educated beautiful Tabitha, with her neat puff sleeves and delicate frame, to go all in with Betty Cooper, fake FBI agent, trying to hunt down a serial killer is insanity. To agree to open up her business premises and offer up her own body as bait for this known serial killer is insanity. To be aware that Betty has caught someone who was acting violent, but to go alone, and also unarmed and apparently without having told anyone, is insanity. Tabitha is very, very interesting. Oh and she drives the most amazing car.

2. “Reggie, You’re A Genius!!” and Veronica is not being even a little bit sarcastic. Reggie Mantle’s air punches every time either he or Veronica close a sale really just cheered me up no end. He’s just so exuberant and physical. He’s already stated that he is good with numbers and he has a lot of ideas and he’s finally, at Pearls & Posh, getting a chance to let those parts of himself bloom. I loved the beautiful jewel tones that Reggie and Veronica wear throughout the episode, and the way they become ever more color coordinated. I just love the two of them teaming up and dismantling Hiram’s scam one brick at a time.

3. All the Cheryl things, basically, I loved them.

-“Compulsion Thy Name is Kevin of Finland” is a line that had me hooting. And the fact that Kevin, in the right clothes, totally has the body and jawline to be a Tom of Finland illustration is just icing on the cake. Cheryl has been keeping a very close eye on Kevin his whole life, honestly, like a dangerous sort of fairy godmother. Cheryl in a checked version of her little red riding hood outfit walking out of the misty blue forest! What a beautiful shot.

- I did not love Tabitha having to say, “Hot Ladies, dancing on the bar, fully clothed, of course,” but I *did* love Fang’s groaning in response, just so put upon. I did this simultaneously with the character, so I appreciated that. I did love the glorious amount of cleavage that Cheryl the minister and cheerleading coach insists on putting on display while IN a high school. Her sartorial choices felt like a vengeful commentary on the mores of American television. I would much prefer to see tits on my TV than blood & violence, so the fact that an entire severed leg, a ghost of Christmas past with bullet wounds, and a man getting his face smashed in by a furious fit young man armed with brass knuckles can be shown in full but hot ladies dancing on a bar must be fully clothed irritated me.

So yes - I said a whole bunch of words to fancy up the statement that I loved seeing Cheryl’s cleavage.

Sidebar: Also why does it gotta be only ladies? I think Fangs was fishing for an invitation.

- “I caught them (Moose & Fangs) having wine & cheese” - “Ew that is diabolical.” OK so when you’re in that mindset where you want to ‘win’ the break up but you’ve lost, this sort of hyperbolic reaction is exactly what you want from your female friends, and Cheryl doubles down with, “You did nothing wrong.” Why has Kevin never declared best friendship with Cheryl?

4. I loved that the show gives me permission to do what I’ve been doing already, which is that I absolutely despise Uncle Fucking Frank. That asshole, who claims to understand battle trauma and love dogs, brings home a traumatized dog which deserves to have stable people look after it and be aware of its issues, and doesn’t tell his housemates who aren’t even getting basic mental healthcare, one of which is a nephew he is mooching from for room & board, about the dog’s potential problems. Absolute failure garbage human, and I am elated to have this affirmed. Everything Frank does makes Archie so much worse, and Archie does not trust Frank fully either. Loved this too. Archie lies to Uncle Fucking Frank about ‘Bingo.’ He was a dog, he says, and then says that Eric does not like to talk about the dog so Frank won’t go mentioning him to Eric.

5. I loved the musical numbers, each for a different reason.

- Coyote Ugly Bar Top Dance: These terrifying, formerly terrorized children of Riverdale thrill me and break my heart. Everyone just tosses themselves at danger. Cheryl, Veronica, and Betty are all women who’ve had the experience of being hunted, terrorized, gaslit, stalked, sexually assaulted, having to fight for their lives while under attack from a much bigger assailant, etc - just *all* the bad things, really - but with the promise of a good time (lyrics actually say: How Can I Resist?) they will make themselves live bait for a serial killer.

- Everything Is All Right from Jesus Christ Superstar. I love Kevin’s singing, always. I also adored Penelope Blossom hating the musical interlude, she’s great. This song is also meant to be ironic, in the show, from my memory, because in context things are NOT all right. Mary Magdalene was wrong. They’re showing Kevin and Fangs making up, they’re showing Veronica and Reggie making a sale, Jughead was not in this episode at all, so this was quite arresting from a show perspective. The song is disquieting, with minor key elements, and so it’s a little uneasy, you know? Things are not all right, at all.

3 Things to Consider

a) “This award is a painful reminder of all that I haven’t accomplished.” Kevin breaks my heart but not in a campy tingly way. The feeling that I’m supposed to be somewhere better than this, doing something more than this - it’s so painful and real. I’m you, Kevin. “This can’t be my life, it just can’t be.” This seems to be the theme of the post time-jump Riverdale, but it feels more visceral because of what’s happening in the real world on the date of airing (Fall of 2021).

b) Bingo being a person, not a dog, puts an entirely different and devastating cast over the dream-dialogue between Eric and Archie. According to Archie’s subconscious, Eric is basically saying, “Leave the other man for dead, and save me and only me.” In the football field dream, Eric was transformed into Jughead, who just needed a little help, and had to be fireman-carried to touchdown. Eric insisting that he be prioritized over the unfortunate Bingo goes some ways to explaining the bond between Eric and Archie as well.

c) Archie Andrews is terrifying, and this adult Archie is fascinating and arresting to me. “I don’t want this scumbag arrested! I want him hurt” is the most honest thing Archie has ever said on the show. And when he says, “I’m trying to save this town, but it’s so corrupt, broken, full of awful, despicable people. I think there’s nothing worth saving here,” Archie is very reminiscent of the Dark Hood/ Hal Cooper, actually. Archie scares the worthless Uncle Fucking Frank so much that U.F. Frank can’t even say, “Nobody asked you to save the world, Archie, just save yourself.”

#riverdale s5 opinion #riverdale positivity #It's interesting to experience Riverdale's actual episodes a month later than the states-side viewers #all the stuff that comes up on tumblr is so entertaining but disjointed like reading telegrams sent via bottle all out of order #because I'm in a lighthouse in the middle of the sea #reggie Mantle #cheryl Blossom #Tabitha Tate

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marvel-and-moor · 2 years

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Having conflicted feelings about Iron fist Season 2

(Tw harmful representation of DID, police brutality)

Like, on the one hand Mary Walker is potentially the most compelling portrayal of DID I've ever seen, and Walker is just a very intriguing character and I love the odd relationship she is building with Joy, but I know that this character "typhoid mary" in comics has historically perpetuated very harmful portrayals of DID and I'm not well educated enough to say if this particular iteration of her character is a well done representation, and even if its well done, it's still another play into the stereotype that systems are violent and dangerous and we have too of that in the media already.

It's also interesting how it feels like they are full on confronting many viewers complaints about season 1. Danny doesn't want to be seen as just a rich white privileged guy, so he gets a job moving furniture. But he still has his Rand fund to lean back on when he needs it. Davos says Danny doesn't deserve the fist, he and his mother see Danny as a white usurper who doesn't fully understand the culture and significance of it, echoing a lot of complaints surrounding cultural appropriation that viewers had. But the narrative isn't really disproving any of the problems. Danny still pulls his money around, we see that he did kind of cheat Davos out of the Fist, and he continues to act like he can just do whatever he wants when he wants to with no regard for consequences. All it does is make me feel like the "villains" are right.

The part that has bothered me the most in the episodes I just watched though is the way they wrote Misty. Twice now she has threatened to discharge her weapon, once on Asian teenagers and another time on a character with mental illness. To be fair, in both these instances Misty was protecting a main character, and yes the people she threatened were also threatening violence. But still. I don't like them using a black cop and making her seem so comfortable with police brutality. It felt wrong.

Those are my iron fist thoughts! Again I'm woefully underedcuated on a lot of these subjects so I'm sorry if I got stuff wrong.

#marvel #iron fist #mary walker #danny rand #misty knight #season 2 #ray's ramblings

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faerune · 3 years

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basics and background + vera! 🧡

background also asked by @queennymeria!! thank you guys 🧡

What’s their full name? Vera Maria Victoria Volakov (we love a mouthful!)

What does their name mean? Why were they named that? Vera’s mother picked out Vera for her first name and Victoria and Marie are her maternal and paternal grandmothers respectively!

Do they have any nicknames? Besides, V I can’t really think of any! At least none that she would respond to lmao. The enemies in the game certainly have some colorful things they call V.

How old are they? Twenty-seven!

When’s their birthday? July 29th, 2050!

What’s their zodiac sign/element/birthstone/etc.? Do they believe that holds any significance? Leo, fire and rubies! For most of her life no but Misty turns her onto astrology for fun and honestly she’s just grabbing onto anything to make sense of everything/find comfort.

What’s their species/subspecies? Do they have any special/magical abilities? Just human! She’s got cyberware - most of it to help with her aim.

What “class” do they belong to (for fantasy characters)? If none, what weapon do they favor? Pistols~ Any guns really but pistols are her favorite. Too bad you can’t duel wield pistols in the game because you know I’d be using that all the time playing her save.

Where were they born? What was their childhood like? Heywood, Night City!! Full of both a lot of violence and things that kids should never be subjects to and a whole lot of community. Vera had love in her life - and she attributes that to her not going completely dickhead gonk ganger but her father was emotionally and physically abusive and her mother was in and out of her life due to her profession and addiction.

It really...made her accept the way things are in Night City and harden herself with that. A lot of things she can shrug off as “just the way things are” because it’s the way they always were for her and the people around her.

What’s their family like? sdkglsdgjk see above. Complicated and unstable. Vera’s mother really did love her and want the best for her. She tried her hardest to be the mother that Vera deserved and a lot of Vera’s fond memories of her early childhood are with her mom. Vera gets back into contact with her after about a five year gap when she’s 22/23? Her mother gets clean and they have a good few months together but sadly she relapses and passes away.

It’s what first shocks Vera into some kind of...doubt of Night City? It’s why she leaves for Atlanta.

Vera was her father’s pride and joy - he told her how to shoot and fight and survive on the streets but he was very harsh and abusive in response to any of her wrong doings even just...mistakes that kids and teenagers make and deserve to learn from instead of...that.

He died when she was 18 during the final few years of the Valentinos pushing the mob out of Heywood. It was just another of those things that she shrugged off as “just the way things are” and he had nailed into her head that people who die are stupid so...funnily enough she kind of thought about him that way for a long time.

What factions or organizations are they a part of? What ranks and titles do they hold? Vera stays away from gangers, just being a solo because she saw how long her father was on a bottom rung of the mob and where it got him. She’s basically the last person who would be part of any organization lmao. Which is what makes her becoming an Aldecaldo -chef kiss-.

How do they fit into their “story”? I guess she’s the protag since she’s my V? lol

Idk I just really love the way throughout the story I kept hearing dialogue between a bunch of different unconnected characters about ya know. Do you wanna be a legend? Have you ever tried to leave Night City? Night City you either rise or you sink in quick sand, etc, etc. So I really wanted my V to lean into that struggle of wanting to be known and having their only option for that following this awful suicidal path of these “heroes” that came before her. And then breaking all that down and having her becoming disillusioned and finally finding peace on her own terms.

Where do they currently live? What’s their place like? She currently lives on the road with the Aldecaldos! Vera and Johnny own an RV and it’s cute. Nothing bougie or anything but they’ve made it their own and Vera loves it so much - Johnny says he hates it but he loves it too. It’s got a nice big bed in the back, a little kitchenette, nice living area with a breakfast table and sofa and some chairs.

Lots of windows. Vera insisted.

How do they eventually die? I haven’t really given it much thought but hopefully old and after a long, happy life on the road with her soulmate.

#chuckhansen #asks #thank you GUYSSSS #this is long underneath the cut be warned #oc: vera

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sad-sweet-cowboah · 4 years

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Misty Forester

Name:

Misty Selene Forester (Rodriguez)

Born:

April 10th, 1873 (Aries)

Age: 24 in RDO events, 25 in the main game, 33 in the epilogue

Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, New York

Notable Characteristics:

Long brown hair

Bright green eyes

Plump red lips

Black, red, and white color scheme

Fashionable, will always make sure she looks good even if she’s wearing a potato sack

Sassy af

Vocally talented

Other Info:

Half Puerto Rican, 1/4 English and 1/4 French.

Bisexual, known to openly flirt with both men and women

Skills:

Sharpshooter

Persuasive speaker

Skilled actor

Weapons:

Duel wielding custom Mauser pistols

Lancaster Repeater

Carcano Rifle

Hunting Knife

Family:

Arella Forester (Mother)

Luis Rodriguez (Father, unknown whereabouts)

Marie Forester (twin sister, deceased)

Background:

Misty is the child of immigrant parents. Her mother, Arella, is from England and is the daughter of a successful French businessman and an English woman whose own family came from their own wealth. Arella was set to be married to a man who too came from a rich family. Arella was unhappy with this, stole some money from her parents and managed to escape to America for better opportunities. Despite her parents search, she managed to avoid them. She settled down in New York City. There she met Luis, a man who escaped his own home, once living in extreme poverty in Puerto Rico. They bonded and quickly formed a relationship, and Arella soon found herself pregnant.

Before Misty and Marie were born, Luis received word that his mother back in Puerto Rico had fallen ill. He didn’t want to leave his love and their soon to be children, but he had no choice. He managed to get back to PR and would often send letters. Arella kept him up to to date with everything, eagerly waiting his return. However after the twins were born, the letters stopped coming.

A couple of years passed and Arella gave up hope that Luis would return, wondering if he perished or just stopped caring. Either way, she had her daughters to take care of and did her best to raise them. The funds she once nicked from her parents’ fortune allowed her to provide her and her daughters a comfortable living situation.

All the money in the world however did not prevent Marie from getting sick. She became infected with Cholera at the age of five and despite the aggressive medical care, she ended up passing away.

Both Misty and Arella were heartbroken. They stayed in NYC for another six years, and decided to move south, relocating to another city known as Saint Denis. Arella, having grown up around French culture, felt right at home. Misty missed NYC, but soon fell in love with the grandeur of Saint Denis and often wandered around, marveling the well-dressed citizens and enjoying the entertainment. She soon realized she wanted to become a singer, seeking out a vocal trainer whom she learned from for a few years. She also hung around the theaters, speaking with performers and learning tips and techniques on not only singing, but acting as well.

Little did she know that it would come in handy one day. At the age of 16, her grandparents ended up in Saint Denis for a vacation when they ran into Arella by accident. The reunion was explosive, and a lot of shouts and curses were exchanged before everything calmed down. Misty did not know that her mother ran away years ago, and she never heard much about her grandparents except for that they lived in the UK. Despite the tension held, her grandparents absolutely loved her and wanted to keep in touch. Sometime after, she was kidnapped by a gang of outlaws. Somehow word had gotten out she was the granddaughter of a wealthy family, and their intention was to hold her for ransom.

She was with them for three weeks, having to endure their vulgarity. They gave her the bare minimum, feeding her bread rolls and making her sleep on the ground, knowing she would do no good if she got sick or injured. Despite how afraid she was, Misty managed to form a plan, carefully learning their mannerisms and how they interacted with others. She managed to escape without inflicting violence, using her charm and learned acting skills to weasel her way out. Unfortunately for her, she had no idea where she was.

No longer was she in the state of Lemoyne, instead finding out she was in a completely different state called West Elizabeth. With nothing but the clothes on her back and no money in her pockets, she had no idea how to get home, and she was certain those outlaws would catch up to her sooner or later. She managed to keep herself discreet for a couple of days, laying low and charming shopkeepers into giving her a couple of cans of food. All the while, she was desperately trying to find a ride back to Saint Denis that didn’t cost her money, or being subjected to disgusting favors from men twice her age.

One night she’d found shelter in a barn, sleeping peacefully when the sounds of voices aroused her. She realized immediately it was the gang of outlaws that kidnapped her in the first place, and she had no way to defend herself. Despite her trying to keep quiet, they eventually found her hiding spot. With no way out she was ready to accept her fate, until she heard gunshots and the heavy thudding of bodies. More gunfire sounded and she opened her eyes to see them facing outside the barn as a flurry of bullets both entered and exited the barn. She hid behind a crate, listening to the carnage until the gunfire stopped. Seeing the gang were all dead, she warily left her hiding spot and met the man who saved her, a fellow named Hosea Matthews. She recognized him immediately, having seen his wanted poster plastered all over Saint Denis for years. She thought he had the same intention of holding her ransom, but instead surprised her in saying he was here to help, after hearing talk about the rival gang searching for a young girl.

And so for the next few days, Hosea taught Misty how to defend herself. He gave her a revolver, teaching her how to shoot and basic tracking/hunting skills. He even offered to bring her back to his personal gang.

Main Game AU:

Misty considered Hosea’s offer. How she wanted to return home, but had a fear that upon returning, the same events would transpire and may end up with her, her mother, or others she cared about getting injured or killed in the crossfire. The last thing she wanted to do was bring home dangerous, greedy men, and decided to leave with Hosea.

Thus then started her journey as part of “Dutch’s Boys”, a scared young girl soon taught to be a useful gang member. Dutch and Hosea discovered her acting skills and put her to work for heists and robbery.

More to come soon...

RDO Events AU:

Upon declining Hosea’s offer, he gave her money to take a train back to Saint Denis and wished her luck, and let her know that he’d help her again if she ever needed it. She thanked him and got on the next train back home, glad to finally have a way back but she’ll never forget Hosea.

She returned to an emotional reunion, by not only her mother but her grandparents as well, who refused to return home until she was found. They immediately offered to take her and Arella back to England with them, where they guaranteed her safety. Arella declined for the both of them, while it was tempting, she did not want to subject Misty to the life that she hated.

Life returned back to normal for Misty, and putting the experience behind her, she tried pursuing a life in show business as she intended. Despite having a beautiful voice, she just couldn’t break past performing on the streets. She was constantly in other more successful performers’ shadows.

When she moved out on her own, she found it much harder to live on the meager money she was making. She then remembered her experience while being held hostage. The outlaws spoke about their tales and triumphs with stealing riches. She soon began to succumb to her curiosity, finding herself hanging out with the less desirable folk in Saint Denis.

She soon made herself a posse of her own called the Midnight Regulators, making their way across five states like a storm in robberies and ambushes. Misty often takes the role of damsel in distress to lure rich folk into trying to help her, and then robs them blind. She will also help those who are in greater need than her, sometimes becoming a “Robin Hood” and giving part of her loot to poor families.

Unfortunately, one of her gang members became too greedy and tried to overthrow her by attempting to kill her. The fight ended with Misty putting a bullet in their skull. The gang disbanded after that and she was alone, pulled to perform for funds.

Extra:

Legally her name is Misty Rodriguez. However, her mother introduced them using her own maiden name for her daughters to avoid discrimination.

Misty is actually afraid of horses, except her own, after being kicked in the chest as a child. It took her a long time to get comfortable around them.

She secretly hopes to meet her father one day.

She is considered morally gray.

Despite how her life has changed, she still wants to be on stage one day.

She has a soft spot for children and while it doesn’t seem likely, she hopes to settle down and have her own family.

Horses:

Cressida, an amber champagne Missouri Fox Trotter mare:

Misty’s main mount and her absolute favorite horse. Both fast and resilient, Misty was drawn in by this mare’s prowess and beauty.

Cornelia, a marble sabino Criollo mare:

Misty’s first horse. Cornelia can easily match Cressida in speed and stamina, but she’s very clumsy. Misty doesn’t ride her as often in fear of accidentally injuring her.

Orion, a sorrel overo Criollo stallion:

Misty came across this beautiful stallion tied up at a gang hideout, and took him once she’d done away with them.

Andromeda, a bay frame overo Criollo mare:

Misty’s newest horse. A prized mare she found at Braithwaite Manor when she snuck over to originally steal horses. She made out with the ones needed plus Andromeda for her own collection.

Blanche, a white Kladruber mare:

Not the fastest mount, but gorgeous and sturdy. Blanche, meaning “white” in French, was given to Misty by a man in thanks for saving his daughter.

#Misty Forester #red dead online #RDO #red dead OC

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strahd-von-asthmavich · 4 years

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The Ancient and The Land - Mod Escher’s Roll20 Curse of Strahd Campaign [Session 0]

Gather round, for a tale you won’t surely forget! Join my dear, dear players as they all embark on quite the adventure in Barovia!

Before we begin, some disclaimers are needed:

Outright, there are trigger warnings for implied abuse and graphic violence.

Now, to introduce my party (one player will be introduced next session, she’s still getting used to her new work schedule)!

Diane GoldenDew - Mastermind Rogue Diane is 13 year old high elf itching for adventure! She learned a lot about different heroes, and she wishes to go on one of her own, like her favorite hero White Glint! She’s traveling by herself, since both of her parents had tragically died of old age.

Ireena Kolyana - Duelist Fighter (Played by Mod Strahd!) Ireena is the adopted daughter of the late Burgomaster of the Village of Barovia. She was found by the Burgomaster and her brother Ismark as a young child, and they took her in as part of the family. However, due to red hair being a bad omen and unforeseen circumstances, Ireena was holed away in the mansion at the age of 15, never allowed to leave again. She tried running away with her family’s ancestral blade in hand on the night before her 20th birthday, but she was ambushed by wolves not too long after. She was saved by Vasili von Holtz, a young lord of Vallaki that frequently visited the mansion and had an interest in her. Her father took exception to her departure, but after dealing with his wrath, she confided in Vasili. Just days later, Kolyan passed away.

Mirthe - Witch, Covenant of the Wise (Mod Strahd’s homebrew class!) Accompanied by her familiar, Nadcasovy (a giant weasel), Mirthe is a Carnival Performer (and might I add the cutest pastel tiefling). Her act was as a hair hanger, instead with horns! She grew up with the matriarchs of her family in a forest. Her family never shunned her father, just said he had another calling. When she grew older, about 16, she decided to go seek him out with her familiar, feeling she was missing something in connection to her magical abilities. She found her father in a carnival show and took on that life ever since. Now, she’s traveling on her own to perform.

Savita Orelene - Light Cleric Savita is a fire genasi, cursed at birth by her mother’s family after her father left shortly after her conception. Savita and her mother were taken care of clerics of the sun god, Amaunator. Grateful for their help, Savita and her mother stayed with them, and Savita was eventually blessed by the god himself. Tragically, however, her mother was slain, drained completely of her blood.

Valarys - Blood Hunter, Order of the Lycan Valarys was found by an older couple as an infant, abandoned and left on the side of a beaten road. They’ve been taken care of by the couple and was raised as their own. However, Valarys was also half-lycanthrope. As they were coming of age, they turned on accident in public, which caused a panic in the village that soon turned into a full on mob. Their father was killed in the process of protecting Valarys, but before he told them to escape, he gave them a letter and told them of a name of someone that might be able to help them.

With that, let’s begin the story of their journey under the cut!

Diane, Mirthe, Savita, and Valarys all were in their own respective campsites the night before they all met, traveling who knows where to go ahead and do who knows what. It was starting to get a little misty while they were all resting. But when they woke up the next morning, they were all trapped in a fog. when they tried to get out, they couldn’t breathe, and they all ended up meeting each other within the mists. They all decided to move out of the fog and end up in strange, dark woods that they don’t recognize. They get to know each other in the woods.

Valarys is a bit standoffish when meeting the other members of the party. Diane, being a curious and rambunctious child, was more than eager to start on her adventure. She’d read stories about Barovia, a lost city of beauty, of flowers, and of the sun. Its radiance could be something like she’d never seen before. Savita was so confused at being in such a strange land. Mirthe was more than happy to introduce herself to the players (note: Nadcasovy is bigger than Diane).

In the woods, a letter gets delivered to them in the form of a breeze, as if they were expected. The letter was as follows:

Weary Travelers and Adventurers, Welcome to Barovia.

Do forgive me for such an intrusive fog. The Mists have their own way of welcoming new visitors. Allow me to offer a far better form of hospitality.

My home is your home, as the saying goes. Feel free to roam about and indulge in the bounties of my reign. Do be careful traveling at night. We would not want any... unwanted accidents, now, would we? Mind where you tread. If I were to enter your home, I would have limitations of where I may wander, would I not?

I do hope you enjoy your stay. So long as you all follow these specific guidelines and mind your manners, we will all get along just fine. After all, this wonderful land of mine is where you will stay for the rest of your life. Do not try to go back in the fog from whence you came. You may have survived the Mists for now, but you will never be so lucky again.

And do watch your backs.

Your new Lord and Master, The Ancient and The Land of Barovia

Valarys is distraught at the concept that they may never be able to go back again. Everyone doesn’t like that idea, but they know now that they have no choice but to continue forward. After several hours, they arrive at the Gates of Barovia, where they easily open for the party.

They walk through the forest, until they hear a strange noise coming from the woods. A wolf (which Diane insists is a horse) bounds out from the forest but doesn’t attack the party. Instead, they’re running away from whatever noise was just made in the woods. Out from there comes Vasili von Holtz, who was riding a mount while holding what he describes is a gun. Mirthe in particular wonders why he couldn’t just use arrows, after he describes what a gun does, and Vasili insists that he just likes using a gun better. Valarys doesn’t trust Vasili outright, given their lycanthropy and feeling a kinship with the wolves.

Vasili was there in Svalich Woods hunting before he would then go to the Village of Barovia. He offers to let them tag along with him. On the way, he tells them about the history of the Dark Lord of the land.

“This place was not always this closed off from the rest of the world. Centuries ago, there was an ancient Prince. He came to this land and fought many battles, turning this valley into what is known today as Barovia. Not everyone treated him with kindness, however. But, when he was wounded during a harsh battle, he was nursed back to health and protected by the people who wander the land after wrongfully being forced from their homes. They’re known as the Vistani, and after taking such good care of the wounded Prince, they now forever are free to enter and leave the valley. Only they can come and go as they please.

“The Prince became the Lord of the land, maintaining order from the Eastern territories of the Village to the Western outskirts of Krezk. But he was growing older. He called for his family to come to him, and through this came the answer from his youngest brother. This young man was described to have a smile that radiated like the sun.

“Just when the Lord thought all was lost, he met a beautiful woman with fiery auburn hair; a true treasure. He loved her with all his heart. But she was taken from him. His brother, in his youthful cunning, took the woman as his own before the Lord had a chance. Enraged, the Lord attempted to take back what rightfully was his, but not without consequences.

“A coup had been staged during the brother and bride’s wedding day. The brother was slain, and the Lord was inflicted with a dark curse. And this curse spread throughout the land. The Lord became a dictator, and almost no one was safe from his wrath.”

He insists that they should go to Tser Pool to see if they could end the curse, where Madam Eva, a Seer, would be able to tell them more.

Mirthe is very pleased to hear that there is a Seer. However, Valarys is aghast at the idea of Madam Eva knowing about their past, present, and future. Vasili insists that either way, she knows all, and she could help them.

Set on going to Tser Pool, Vasili first offers to take them to the Village of Barovia to see the late Burgomaster’s children, to which Diane eagerly asks why the “Burger Master” is late. That was when Vasili reveals that the Burgomaster died of a heart attack.

Taking exception to the fact that the party let Diane, a child, walk on foot for over 5 hours, Vasili offers to let her sit on his mount. With that, they all travel as it starts to rain (Savita, being a fire genasi, is pretty disheartened at that).

At the Village of Barovia, they’re all greeted to the sound of sobbing as they reach the center of town. After the party fails to properly perceive where exactly the crying is coming from, they proceed to knock on every door on that street until they find the source.

The first house was answered by a disgruntled man, who tells them that Mad Mary was the source of the crying. During this, Diane shows off her master skills by speaking in a perfect Barovian accent (which Vasili kindly thinks “WTF” upon hearing her). The disgruntled man tells them that crying is coming from across the street. So, they go directly across the street, where a different woman answers and insists that the crying is coming from next door.

Mad Mary answers, completely distraught at the loss of her daughter, and she is dismissive of the players being able to help her at first. She is also initially scared shitless by Diane’s talking doll, after she shows it when seeing a doll in Mad Mary’s hand. She then cries that the “Devil” could possibly have her. Diane insists that this devil must’ve been a Bone Devil, after Mad Mary describes that the Burgomaster was publicly executed by being drained completely of his blood. Initially hopeless, the party manages to convince her that they would try to find her daughter, Gertruda.

With that, Mad Mary leaves them to their own devices, just as they hear a cart roll by and a withered voice shout “Fresh Pies, Fresh Pies, Freshly Made from Granny’s Supplies!”

Crowds gather to have a taste of her delicious food.

Diane manages to successfully steal a savory meat pie from her cart, just as Vasili also decides to come up to the cart. He and Granny know each other, and Vasili eagerly does business with her, buying three pies for the party. Savita eats a meat pie, Mirthe eats half of a fruit pie, and there was also a berry pie that was purchased. Granny notes that one of her meat pies is missing, but she doesn’t think too long about that. Granny also mentions that if they ever needed any more pies, they could always visit her at the Old Durst Mill, where she lives and works.

Vasili then takes them down to the end of the street, where the Burgomaster’s mansion was. They all go inside, and they’re greeted by Ismark in a drunken stupor. At the mention of his father, Ismark simply states, “Peace be upon him” and proceeds to belch.

Right away, Vasili is looking for Ireena, who has been sitting in the library. She eagerly greets him, as well as the party. Vasili leaves to find Ismark to see if they found Kolyan’s will. During this, Diane explores the library to try and find a book about heroes, but she doesn’t find exactly what she was looking for. See, she was looking for a book about White Glint, but instead she found one about the story of a hero named Ivan Denesch and his quest to defeat Koschei the Immortal. Ireena more than happily talks about the story with Diane, who enjoys it.

Valarys meanwhile finds a book about werewolves, in which Ireena tells them that it was written by none other than Rudolph van Richten, a legendary hunter of sorts.

The party takes time with Ireena to get to know each other, in which they point out that Ireena has several healing bruises down the left side of her face and on her neck. When asked, she insists that she’s fine and that things will be better now, but she secretly insists after Diane asks that her insistence is because of Kolyan being dead. They all continue to have heartfelt moments when interacting, one such moment including Ireena giving Nadcasovy the good scritches.

After a while, Vasili and Ismark return to the library after being in a room across the hall. In hand, Ismark has Kolyan’s will, and he gives it to Vasili to read. Ismark can barely sit down, let alone look straight to read a letter. Vasili begrudgingly reads ahead first, before reading aloud:

I, Kolyan Indirovich, Burgomaster of the Village of Barovia, hereby write my final will and testimony.

For my son, Ismark, as painful as it is for me to bequeath to you this, I leave you my title and the mansion. Never forget the responsibilities of maintaining such a village and the privilege that implies. Do not let the people down more than you already have. Straighten yourself out, and maybe I will look at you fondly from the afterlife. Do be the one to place me in my final resting place. You know why, my son.

Vasili von Holtz, my dearest friend, I know we have only known each other for a short time, but it is my dying wish that you look after my daughter. She is a bright young woman with ambitions that far surpass my expectations. Wherever she may roam off to next, please assure me that she will always be under your protection. Interpret that as you see fit. I know you won’t disappoint me.

For my dearest daughter, Ireena, I leave behind for you the knowledge that everything I have done, no matter how drastic my methods may have seemed, was for your protection and your own good. My reasons for worrying for you have been confirmed. You are a wise, determined young lady, but with hair as blood red as yours, my concern for you has been like a Plague. Heed the world with caution. Stay safe, and stay home.

Distraught, Ireena immediately leaves the library after punching a decently sized hole in the wall, and Vasili goes after her to console her. They both know that they need to act sympathetic to keep up appearances, but they know that this was something Kolyan did not deserve. Ireena hates the message for her that was left behind, insisting how horribly she had been treated. Vasili offers that she can stay with him, so long as Ismark lets her go (since he’s now in charge of the mansion and everything in it) and she wants to join him. Needless to say, they’re both glad that Kolyan is dead.

Ireena then reveals what the Dark Lord had said to her at the execution: “I will always protect you, my lovely summer rose.”

She doesn’t understand how he was able to find out what was happening anyways, in which Vasili recollects that superstition says that he’s always watching, but his timing was impeccable. The two embrace each other. In the middle of the hallway.

Meanwhile, Ismark explains to the rest of the party how the Burgomaster really died. Mad Mary wasn’t exactly “mad” when it came to her claim. Kolyan was dragged out to the center of town for his crimes against humanity (which somehow was found out) and was executed by the Dark Lord of the land himself. He was drained completely of his blood in front of the entire village, and since then, no one wanted to go near the Burgomaster’s children or even try to help bury him.

Ismark also tells them that he’s not going to keep Ireena cooped up like it said in Kolyan’s will. He explains that the reason why Ireena was initially cooped up was that being a red-haired woman was a bad omen (or so they say, since he’s impartial to superstitions). He also puts to rest that the “devil” is not a Bone Devil, but a vampire. He also warns them of strange creatures that all want to kill you: “Wolves, werewolves, dire wolves... a lot of wolves. There’s men that look like trees. Scarecrows...” He’s too drunk to be coherent about what’s actually out there, but he does warn them seriously that they should watch out for fleders, an aggressive type of vampire that hunts ruthlessly at night.

Ismark then politely asks if they could help them bury the Burgomaster tomorrow, as much as he doesn’t want to do a proper funeral. They all agree.

The session ends when Ismark offers that he can ask Ireena to make them dinner and that they could stay the night at the mansion. Valarys offers their help, in which Ismark insists Ireena would appreciate that. Meanwhile, Diane interrupts Ireena and Vasili kissing in the hallway by swiftly moving passed them, with Nadcasovy following suit.

#mod escher #taatlroll #curse of strahd #dungeons and dragons #dnd #cw abuse #tw implied abuse #graphic violence cw

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daresplaining · 5 years

Note

With the shows finished, I'm curious what you think were the high and low points of each show/season (if any).

Ooh, good question. I’d say:

Daredevil:

The first season was quite solid. I tend to be the pickiest about Daredevil, because Matt is my favorite superhero, and I did have a lot of complaints about the first season, but it was exciting and well-executed. The MCU version of Karen Page in particular was incredible. DD Season 1 Episode 10 (”Nelson v. Murdock”) is my favorite episode in any season of any of the shows, though Luke Cage Season 2 Episode 10 gave it some serious competition. Daredevil Season 2 was my favorite DD season, and switches off with Iron Fist season one for the status of my favorite Netflix MCU season overall. As a comics fan, it felt the most familiar to me and therefore the most fun, and Elektra was fantastic. The Hand were poorly developed, but in general, it was a high point. Season 3 was enjoyable but mostly a disappointment (it was basically a re-hashing of Season 1 plus pseudo-Bullseye. Maggie was the best part), which is why I was perfectly happy this show ended where it did: with a proper conclusion, and just as the quality was starting to deteriorate.

Jessica Jones:

Season 1 of Jessica Jones was brilliant; tightly-plotted, well-acted, and absolutely terrifying. The first episode is another of my absolute favorite episodes ever, and probably the strongest opening out of any of the shows. Since Jessica as a character was only introduced about twenty years ago, she has much less source material than the other characters, and so this show had to do more original thinking and content creation, which I think hurt it in the end. The second and third seasons, while perfectly solid, didn’t feel nearly as polished, though I absolutely adored Alisa and thought the revamping of Jessica’s backstory was really interesting. I also loved Trish’s character arc and the richness of her MCU-specific sibling relationship with Jessica, until it was torpedoed with what I considered some poorly-executed character development in Season 3.

Luke Cage:

Luke was given a personality make-over in the MCU, and I’m torn on how I feel about that, but I really enjoyed his show. It was bold and rich and utterly unique. I thought the pacing in Season 1 was wonkier than normal (most of the shows had pacing issues), but I still really enjoyed it. Its reinvention of most of the comics characters was masterfully done, in terms of both writing and acting, and Misty Knight in particular was perfect. And Season 2 was a masterpiece. Where the hell are all of the awards for Luke Cage Season 2? Where is the hype? Mariah Dillard is the best antagonist in the entire MCU, and you can quote me on that. The way this show wove together classic Power Man goodness with elements of real-world black culture and current events was really, really cool. And, as I mentioned… that Power Man and Iron Fist episode was magic. Everything a PMIF fan could have ever dreamed of.

Iron Fist:

Iron Fist Season 1 got off to a shaky start with an awkward first episode (which I discuss in-depth here) but it moved on from that to become either my favorite or second favorite (depending on my mood) season of all of the Marvel Netflix properties. It combined rapid-fire pacing with beautiful character moments, and its reversal of Danny’s revenge quest was, to me, the best engagement with the source material out of any of the shows. I am about to finish up my deep dive into this season over on my Iron Fist blog, if you want to see more specific gushing and shouting. Season 2 wasn’t quite as strong, which I partly blame on the derailment of Danny’s character arc in The Defenders, but I still mostly really enjoyed it. The brilliant variation on the source material continued with a further development of Danny and Davos’s dynamic (which is completely different than the comics version but managed to be my favorite MCU sibling relationship) and an awesome new version of Typhoid Mary (Dex wished he could be what Walker was). And then the writers had some kind of collective mental break-down in the final few episodes, which I’m not going to go into because I discussed it here and would rather not think about it again. Essentially, Danny and Colleen were disrespected, and I’m angry about it. The season was only saved by the final few minutes, with an exquisitely-wrapped gift to Iron Fist fans everywhere, which promised an incredible third season based on one of the best IF comics plotlines… which was then ripped away from us, and I’ve been mourning that loss ever since. But anyway. If I had to pick a favorite Marvel Netflix show, it would probably be Iron Fist. It’s my comfort show, and makes me happy in ways none of the other shows quite managed. Look how long this paragraph is. My love is (mostly) free-flowing. #SaveIronFist and all that.

The Punisher:

I should mention that while all of the other shows featured characters who I was big fans of already, I haven’t read that many Punisher comics, so I went into his show not quite as knowledgeable or invested. That said, I very much enjoyed both seasons of it. I thought the first season had a stronger plot and much more polished writing (this was true of pretty much every show, which is interesting). Jon Bernthal was a fantastic Frank, who perfectly embodied both the extreme violence and intense compassion inherent in the character. I loved his dynamic with Micro in Season 1 and with Amy in Season 2. And his alliance with Karen Page was a surprising deviation from the comics (616 Karen and Frank never even met, or had any reason to interact) that I found fascinating.

The Defenders:

I was surprised we only got one season of The Defenders, but I was also okay with it. A second season wasn’t necessary, especially since the characters started cameoing more frequently in each other’s shows after that. I really enjoyed The Defenders. The poor showrunner was forced to do a lot of reverse-engineering of the worldbuilding thanks to undeveloped hints in previous shows, which meant that the Hand plotline was a little bit clumsy, but the plot wasn’t important. The Defenders existed for the team-up, and the team-up was a lot of fun. Most importantly, we were treated to some beautiful Power Man and Iron Fist and Daughters of the Dragon goodness, which was all that really mattered. I also loved the dysfunctional family dynamic of the Hand leaders, which I was not expecting. In some ways, their bickering and back-stabbing was even more fun to watch than the protagonists’ antics. My biggest complaint was that Elektra and Danny’s character arcs were sabotaged, which was very disappointing.

Overall, I was really impressed by the high quality of all of the shows. They were pretty much everything I’d hoped for, and quite a few things I never knew I wanted. I feel really lucky.

#breckstonevailskier #Netflix Daredevil #Netflix Jessica Jones #Netflix Luke Cage #Netflix Iron Fist #Netflix Punisher #Netflix Defenders #Asks #Commentary

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elysiumwaits · 5 years

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1, 7, 8, 18

Yaaay, thank you! I love talking about myself and books. Mostly myself, but also books, and how I feel about books. Thank you for sending me the ask!!

Also - I rambled. Sorry.

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

Off the top of my head, probably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It’s my favorite of the series and I was in third grade when I started the series, so that was like... what, 2001? I blew through the four that were out at the time, but I have super fond memories of PoA so I tend to reread it when I need some comfort reading.

More recently, as an adult, I’ve been rereading Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses pretty often, every few months starting a couple years ago.

7. is there a series/book that got you into reading?

So, fun fact about me, I was a remarkably advanced reader. I was reading “chapter books” when I started kindergarten, and then when they tested me again in second grade, I was “reading at a college level,” meaning that I could understand the vocabulary and comprehend the material, but not necessarily the context (because I was, you know, 7). At the time, the reading system at my school was pretty strict about reading at the level you tested at - which meant they had no idea what to do with me, because our elementary library didn’t actually have books at my tested level, nor were they actually appropriate for my age.

All this to say: I really didn’t like reading by myself until the end of second grade, because my teachers consistently tried to force me into books that I didn’t enjoy thanks to my tested reading level. They were handing me Little Women and Wuthering Heights, my mom was attempting to keep my interest with books I actually liked at home, but due to the grading system and point value, I was basically forced to suffer through a bunch of classics I could technically read but didn’t interest me.

And then the school district shifted, they reluctantly dropped my reading level from a 12 to a compromise of level 5 or 6, and I discovered The Hardy Boys. I devoured the 1957 revisions, all 58 of them, and then went onto the newer ones and the Nancy Drew crossovers. I tried the original Nancy Drews, but she didn’t get as many explosions and kidnappings and action scenes until the series in the 80s, so that’s my main area of interest there. So it’s pretty much thanks to the Hardy Boys that I enjoy reading at all, because that stupid school on the military base was totally ready to stomp it out of me because it looked good to have me read what the high school seniors were reading.

8. what is the first book you remember reading yourself?

It probably wasn’t actually my first book read, but it was my favorite book as a toddler - Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hatches the Egg. My mom bought it, and then later it became my favorite when I made the connection between Horton and the egg and my situation being adopted by my dad. I remember sitting on my mom’s lap and reading it to her for once.

Today, 20+ years later, I can ask her, and she can recite the whole damn book from memory. Complete with the voices still.

18. do you like historical books? which time period?

Honestly, it depends. I don’t tend to gravitate toward the official “historical fiction” section of the bookstore, as I’m not usually interested in the history itself, but rather a time period as a setting. I love things based in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before the Great Depression - my favorites in this time period are The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (a marvelous Sherlock Holmes novel) and the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King (also a Sherlock Holmes series, maybe I just like Holmes...).

The 1940s are great too, though I don’t care for WWII novels usually - I like to read about the people but not necessarily the horrors of the war. Instead, I prefer quieter, atmospheric reads. One fantastic book in this time period is At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen, about a woman discovering herself when her not-great husband set off to try and prove that the Loch Ness Monster exists. It’s a great exploration of becoming an adult, dealing with domestic violence, and finding a healthy love - set against a misty Scotland backdrop.

Last but not least, I love westerns - both historical and modern. True Grit is a popular one, of course, though I’ve also been known to pick up a Zane Grey or Max Brand and spend an afternoon with it. I’m not a Louis L’amour fan, much to my grandfather’s chagrin. My favorite “western style” is the Longmire mystery series by Craig Johnson, but I do love a good cowboy romance - Sarah McCarty’s Hell’s 8 series sits pretty on my bookshelf. (This does bleed heavily over into my movie preferences as well - I have, lined up in a row, True Grit, Young Guns, The Magnificent Seven, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Alamo. Yes, I know The Alamo wasn’t a good movie - I still like it.)

#homosociallyyours #yaaay ask #ely answers

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amandajoyce118 · 6 years

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Iron Fist Season 2 Easter Eggs And References

I actually managed to squeeze in watching the second season of Iron Fist in less than a month. Maybe I’ll be able to catch up on all of the other TV I’ve been behind on. Who knows? As usual, I haven’t explained who characters are if we’ve already met them, and I’ve tried to stick to comic book and MCU related Easter eggs, not the broader pop culture ones.

I will say, I found the first season of the show to drag, and not particularly compelling. The second season is much better. I actually don’t hate the Meachums this time around, for example, and I didn’t find Danny as annoying. Colleen is still the best.

If you haven’t yet watched the season, there are, obviously, spoilers. I’ve broken the Easter eggs down by episode so you can read one episode at a time if you want to avoid being spoiled, but you want to read as you watch.

Enjoy!

S2E01 “The Fury Of Iron Fist”

The episode title

The title is actually the title of Iron Fist’s first appearance in an issue of Marvel Premiere. Marvel Premiere was more of an anthology series. It was used to introduce a lot of characters in short story arcs to see how they did with the audience. Some of them stuck, others are now lost to time. (Funnily enough, when I first started watching the show, the episode titles were not showing up in the right order. Thanks, Netflix.)

Danny’s yellow mask

Yes, it’s yellow, a nod to his comic book costume. It also reminded me though that he promised Matt Murdock to take care of the city. Danny wasn’t huge on masks before, but Matt was.

Golden Tigers

This gang was actually in the comics, though in the comics, they were a little more conspicuous. They basically wore robes and tiger masks.

WJPBTV

The news footage that Danny watches and Colleen observes over his shoulder? That’s courtesy of the unofficial Marvel news network of the TV arm of the franchise. It was last seen in Luke Cage, I believe.

Mr. Yang

Mr. Yang not only appeared in the first season, but I think he also got a mention in season two of Luke Cage when Mariah was attempting to get all the gangs to work together.

“Old truces are being thrown to the wind.”

This is a bit of a theme in the Marvel Netflix world right now. Just like Luke Cage going after gangsters in Harlem, Danny Rand and company taking out the Hand here left a power scramble going on and old rules are no longer in play.

Oak Creek, Wisconsin

Oak Creek isn’t big in the comics, but since Mary said she’s from Wisconsin, I thought you might like to know of a few other characters from the same state. Phil Coulson is, for one. So are the Great Lakes Avengers. Funnily enough, the first time Wisconsin appeared in a Marvel Comic was in an issue of Captain America.

Mary

Speaking of Mary, she is a comic book character, but I think I’ll wait until that’s revealed in show in case anyone is taking this episode by episode.

The Silver Lotus

This restaurant actually exists in the comics. Usually the restaurants for the Netflix shows don’t. This one was a spot where Jean Grey, Storm, Colleen Wing, and Misty Knight grabbed some food. In case you didn’t know, Jean and Colleen actually were roommates for a while in the comics.

When Davos and Danny are talking on either side of a doorway, the number of the door reads 47. It’s probably a coincidence, but it made me wonder if there was any significance to the number since it was right in the middle of the shot. No Iron Fist solo series has ever made it to that number. Marvel Premiere, the comic where Iron Fist first appeared did, and it’s original issue 47 featured the first time Scott Lang put on an Ant-Man suit. Item 47 was also an MCU one shot featuring SHIELD Agents Sitwell and Blake after a couple who stole alien technology. That’s all I’ve got.

S2E02 “The City’s Not For Burning”

The episode title

Just like the first episode, this one is also named after a comic book. I guess that’s a thing this season. This title comes from Iron Fist #3. Though that comic book took place in London, it as a lot of the same ideas of the episode. In it, the city was seeing a lot of violence, though it was Danny and Misty who were teaming up there instead of Danny and Colleen.

Coffee A Go Go

Actual coffee houses have this name in reality, but it’s also a location from the comics. Hank and Bobby (AKA Beast and IceMan of the X-Men) used to double date with their girlfriends there. It was eventually turned into a sushi place instead.

Mary in the mirror

If you’re not familiar with this comic book character, the whole bathroom mirror thing is a huge clue to her identity.

Masks

The masks worn when Davos and Danny fight for the honor of facing the dragon are probably one of the closest things we’ve seen to the Iron Fist and Steel Serpent comic book costumes. They also employ the green and yellow color scheme.

The bowl

The priceless piece that Joy and Davos are after reminds me a lot of the candy dish that was in Joy’s office (I think?) in the first season. Same colors, in the Iron Fist scheme of course, but even similar in size and pattern.

Davos loses

Though Davos actually fought Danny’s father in the comics, the match basically went down the same way. When he loses, it’s actually his father up there on the panel watching who declares Danny the winner.

S2E03 “The Deadly Secret...”

The episode title

This episode gets its title from Power Man and Iron Fist #99. In that issue, Colleen and Misty team up for one story while Danny and Luke team up for another. Unfortunately, Misty gets kidnapped while they’re looking for an artifact, so Colleen is forced to ask the guys for help. They also find all of the films at their movie theater office stolen, Luke’s friend DW missing, and their foes Comanche and Shades out of prison. Whew. That’s a packed issue compared to this episode.

Cafe Bustelo

I just think it’s funny that this particular coffee brand hasn’t shown up (that I remember) on the show before. You know where this brand is popular? Luke Cage. I feel like these two shows have borrowed a lot from one another in their sophomore seasons.

“Someone called Walker.”

Yet another clue to Mary’s comic book backstory. Some might have thought this was a nod to Trish Walker if they didn’t know better, which would actually be very interesting if the shows decided to tie those two together. But no. I’ll wait for a full reveal to give the character details though. And isn’t it funny how we all thought Joy’s PI mention in season one was Jessica Jones? Apparently not. Instead, it’s Mary Walker.

Mrs. Yang’s hairpin

As far as I know, the Yangs aren’t comic book characters, but I love her use of her hairpin as a weapon. It’s a comic book trope that all of the femme fatales had deadly hairpins back in the day. It’s a classic.

S2E04 “Target: Iron Fist”

The episode title

This is the title of Iron Fist #3 from the 70s. In it, Misty takes center stage. She’s determined to take down a drug kingpin. It’s a storyline that was a little early for Marvel. Most of Marvel’s drug related arcs happened in the 80s instead. (It also featured Iron Fist facing off against a villain named Boomerang, if you’re interested in the Danny side of things.)

“I lost it back there, didn’t I? I blew our shot at peace.”

Oh, look. Another thing that was happening in Luke Cage. Luke taking things a step too far when all he wanted was peaceful streets. Were these writers hanging out before filming started or something?

Misty Knight

We all remember Misty from Luke Cage and The Defenders, right? Colleen saved Misty’s life when her arm was chopped off. Danny’s company paid for and developed Misty’s prosthetic, and now she’s in town for a visit.

Crane Sisters

Madame Gao was the show’s equivalent of the Crane Mother. The Crane Sisters appear to be the equivalent of the Crane Daughters. In their case, they were women who were the Mother’s actual daughters (she gave birth to thousands over the years according to the comics, but it seems more likely they’re from the same “Heavenly City” as her for the show). They actually gave their chi to another when they believed the Iron Fist was in the wrong for killing the Crane Champion. We kind of get a weird version of that here with them giving Davos his power.

The Steel Serpent

The symbol on Davos’ chest isn’t the dragon like Danny’s. Maybe it’s because he stole his powers. Maybe it’s just because it’s a nod to his comic book character. He’s the Steel Serpent in the comics. The same symbol was used on heroin in the Netflix corner of the MCU before.

Davos also stole Danny’s power in the comics, but it wasn’t quite the same way. He basically just stole it via the power of chi. This way looks more complicated.

S2E05 “Heart of the Dragon”

The episode title

This one comes from Marvel Premiere #16, which actually has a lot of nice thematic tie ins to this episode. In the comic, Iron Fist gets attacked by thugs as soon as he first arrives in New York. He also discovers there’s a mercenary named Scythe after him and that Scythe was paid for by the Meachums. He also spends a lot of time in the issue remembering just how Danny Rand became the Iron Fist. The difference here is that we’re seeing things more from the point of view of Davos this time around.

Promotion to Captain

This was flirted with in season two of Luke Cage. Misty was getting the offer for the job, but she didn’t seem to keen on it. She still doesn’t. But at least, we now know vaguely where we are in the timeline.

Colleen’s investigative instincts

Misty remarks that Colleen has good instincts when it comes to investigating Mary. Coincidentally (or not, since this is an Easter egg list), Misty and Colleen ran their own private investigative firm called Daughters of the Dragon. Still want to see Netflix make that the focus of a series.

616

A possible suspect with abilities gets this very fitting police code. Why? Because 616 is the designation given to the main universe in Marvel comics. Every Marvel TV series must give a nod to 616 at least once. It’s just a rule.

Mary Walker

They have definitely changed up Mary’s comic book backstory for the show, and probably for the better. In the comics, she’s a prostitute who is accidentally thrown out a window. When that happens, it awakens her “Typhoid Mary” personality, who essentially wants vengeance on all men ever. She starts with three distinct personas; the villain, Mary the meek, and Walker the stable peacemaker. As Typhoid Mary, she works for a few supervillains over the years. As Mary, she dates Matt Murdock. Her Dissociative Identity Disorder creates such distinct breaks in her personas that he can’t even tell that they’re the same people.

S2E06 “The Dragon Dies At Dawn”

The episode title

This comes from Iron Fist #9. In it, Danny ends up facing off against some members of the Golden Tigers, gets poisoned, and then finds out the guy he’s been fighting for the antidote isn’t the bad guy at all. Oh, and he’s framed for murder. Whew.

The Steel Serpent

Okay, I already talked about the tattoo, but it gets a comic book shout out here because the Crane sisters specifically say they used steel needles and Davos called it a serpent instead of a snake.

42 Baxter

Probably a coincidence, but when Mary calls the ambulance to 42 Baxter, I thought of the Fantastic Four with their Baxter Building on 42nd Street.

S2E07 “Morning of the Mindstorm”

The episode title

This title actually references Marvel Premiere #25. That issue was the last of the Marvel Premiere titles before Iron Fist got his own comic book series instead of being featured in the anthology. In it, Colleen was kidnapped and Iron Fist teamed up with Scarfe (who we see was Misty’s partner in season one of Luke Cage) to find her. The bad guy was Angar The Screamer who actually appeared in an old episode of Agents of SHIELD, so fun MCU connections in that particular comic.

The man with bullet-proof skin

Obviously, that’s Luke Cage. I like how the detectives think they’ve only got one person with abilities in each precinct’s jurisdiction. I have a feeling there are a lot more than that what with terrigen in the water in the MCU and all.

Red Fist vs Yellow Fist

In the comics, when Davos stole his power, Davos also had a glowing red fist.

A Tibetan antiquity

In addition to this being a nod to just where K’un L’un was in the comics, this also provides a nod to some of the other more mystical aspects of the MCU. The bowl might have been found somewhere near Tibet, but that’s also where the Ancient One is from in the comics (though that is certainly left murky in the MCU). Outside of Tibet somewhere, if I remember right, is also where Jiaying hid her village of Inhumans.

Professor Erskine

No, this isn’t the same Erskine that developed the super soldier serum for Captain America. He must come from a family of academics though. In the comics, Ernst Erskine was actually a writer and adventurer. He used the alias Lucky Pierre and he wrote about a much older Iron Fist than Danny.

Sokovia

Mary in Green Bay might be backstory we never get, but hey, she was in Sokovia, a major place in the MCU. Back when she was a soldier, she was captured and held there. When? We don’t know. But I do wonder if it was during the war torn days that saw Wanda want revenge on Tony, or if Mary’s too young for that, and she was captured by Hydra or something right before everything with Ultron went down.

Sensei Colleen

Not an Easter egg, but I think Colleen deciding to become Danny’s Sensei, break up with him, and not hold back while she trains him is my favorite scene in the show. I love her.

S2E08 “Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance”

The episode title

Named after issue #17 of Marvel Premiere, the only thing the two really have in common is Danny seeking vengeance. In the comic, this was only his third appearance, so he was setting out to take on Harold Meachum. Meachum had set elaborate traps for Danny so the Iron Fist couldn’t get to him. (He had 10 years to make sure he was ready, after all.) In the end, Danny ended up facing off against a guy who had been trapped in Meachum’s office building for 10 years who vowed to kill him, because, why not? His name was Triple-Iron, and I think that he only appeared in the two issues of their fight, never to be seen again.

More than two Marys

So far in the show, we’ve seen Mary and Walker. In the comics, her most deadly personality is Typhoid Mary (or Bloody Mary, some people label them as different personalities in the comics, but I think they’re the same?), which is likely going to end up being the person who saved her in Sokovia that she doesn’t know about. Interestingly, in the comics there’s also technically a fourth person called Mutant Zero. This version of Mary was part of the Initiative and was initially unstable, kept in check by the team leader, before becoming a full fledged fourth personality of hers that abandoned the team.

S2E09 “War Without End”

The episode title

Funnily enough, this is a pretty common title in sci-fi series. This episode shares its title with an episode of Babylon 5 and an issue of the old Transformers comic. Less famously, it’s also a title of a Power Man and Iron Fist comic - issue #83. The issue actually focuses on Luke Cage because Iron Fist is beaten unconscious. Think of it as an ally having to save him because he can’t use his powers, yes?

Turk

It feels like it wouldn’t be an episode of Marvel on Netflix without Turk. I guess he gave up his legit business in Luke Cage, and went back to selling weapons.

The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay

This is actually a character from the comics. Wu Ao-Shi was the first female Iron Fist, and yes, a pirate queen. She wasn’t just a fairy tale. I think we see where this is going, yes?

S2E10 “A Duel of Iron”

The episode title

This is actually the title of Iron Fist #1, and though the title suggests a battle between multiple Iron Fist powers, like we saw in the show, that’s not what goes down in the comics. Instead, Misty and Danny team up to save Colleen, not unlike the show, but Misty suspects that Stark Industries has something to do with Colleen’s disappearance, so that’s where they head. As you can imagine, it’s more of a misunderstanding, but Iron Fist and Iron Man do get into a brief fight before uniting.

The Mamas and the Papas

Mary singing “Monday Monday” while waiting to take aim at Davos is almost straight out of the comics. She sang it on the page during a fight scripted by Brian Michael Bendis, who is also the man behind the creation of Jessica Jones. (I’ve seen some people speculate that because the Mamas and the Papas were known for their four part harmonies that Mary might actually have four separate identities, not just the three we know about. I think that’s reaching, and that it’s just a nod to the comics, but anything is possible.)

Colleen’s fist is white

I like that each of the people sporting the Fist gets a different color scheme. Danny, of course, has yellow because of his comic book aesthetic, and Davos had red to show he’s a bad guy. Colleen gets white because white is her signature color in the comics, but white is also often associated with “pure” power, bright light, and all that, so maybe Danny’s right in the end and it was her destiny to be the Iron Fist after all.

(Also, Colleen has never been the Iron Fist in the comics that I know of, but she has shared Danny’s power on occasion when him using his power to heal her changed her. While she doesn’t have the Fist itself in the comics, she does have mastery over her chi.)

Misty’s arm bling

Misty makes a joke about blinging out her arm in the show, but in the comics, she did have a gold one.

KnightWing

No, this is not a Titans reference to poke the DC stick. Instead, this moniker coming up while Colleen and Misty talk career paths is a nod to NightWing Investigations, the name of the private investigative firm owned by the Daughters of the Dragon.

Orson Randall

The mysterious “employer” that Danny and Ward steal some property from? Yeah, he’s the World War I era Iron Fist. It looks like he’s still alive and kicking, and that his weapon of choice still holds onto his chi or something? Those two guns Danny sports that allow his fists to glow were what Orson liked to use in the comics. Just like Colleen channeling her power into her kitana, he could do it with his guns, and Wu Ao-Shi could do it with arrows. Fancy.

That’s all I’ve got for the second season of Iron Fist. I’ll be back for Daredevil season three next month!

#iron fist #iron fist season 2 #iron fist easter eggs #iron fist spoilers #marvel easter eggs #marvel comics #mcu #marvel on netflix

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scribbledonausednapkin · 11 months

Text

Missing Crystal: A Yellowjackets Mystery

Mari and Akilah put on their detective caps and work together to find evidence to expose Misty for killing Crystal; but is that what the Wilderness wants?

Warnings: Mentions of Canon violence/death/SI

Word Count: 5.6k

Cross-posted on AO3; Chapter 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Bad Cop, Good Cop

Mari never knew when to shut up. Or was it that people couldn’t handle the truth?

“Not everyone is going to like you all the time, hell most people won’t like you most of the time. Dad’s wrong. I think it’s better to be honest and hated than deal with all those fake smiles and bullshit lies.”

At least that’s what Ken, Mari’s older brother told her at Christmas when she was eleven. He was only sixteen at the time, drunk on wine he snuck from the kitchen. He was right though (surprisingly) and she didn't want to deal with the bullshit either.

Mari was the youngest of three and her parents split when she was eight. It wasn’t some big tragedy, or even a surprise. Her parents barely spoke to each other by the time they finally decided to call it quits. After the divorce they each found solace in their new lives, pretty much forgetting about the three kids they still had left to co-parent.

Now that both of her brothers were gone and she was about to graduate her parents took checked out to a whole new level. There were perks of course: Mari could throw big parties, have friends or even boys over whenever she felt like it, and she could say whatever she wanted and no one cared. If she was lonely, upset, worried, or god forbid angry, there was no one around to listen, but it was worth it for all the freedom, right?

On the day they left for nationals, Mari’s mother drove her to the airport hungover (her dad was in Miami for the weekend). The last thing she said to her was, “Don’t get pregnant.” At the time she just rolled her eyes, did the woman even realize where she was headed?

She wondered if the jerks were relieved she was gone; one less reason to have to talk to each other and one less thing to not take care of. While she was starving in the middle of a fucking forest, they were probably out enjoying their childless lives, relishing in her disappearance.

“She’s hiding something, I know she is. That little psycho never shuts up and now suddenly she’s mute?” Mari sat with Akilah in the food pantry, tossing sticks at a jar to see if she could get one in. So far, no luck.

Akilah sat perpendicular, her back up pressed up against the empty shelves. They were wasting away and there was nothing to do but await the inevitable. The cabin festered with the smells of dirty dying girls like the thoughts in Mari’s head, growing darker and more disturbed with every tink of a stick hitting the edge of the glass.

“Maybe she’s shook by the Coach Ben thing?” Akilah wrapped her arms around her middle, cradling the pouch of her sweatshirt. She’d been doing that a lot lately, most likely due to hunger. Mari felt like she was going crazy too, followed periodically by a dripping sound no one else seemed to hear.

Mari shook her head, Akilah could be so naive. Misty had been suspiciously quiet this morning. Not even a hum as she cleaned Lottie’s wounds with a cleanest cloth they could find.

“You mean the thing where he tried to walk off a cliff?”

“Yeah or the thing where Shauna almost killed Lottie.”

Mari jerked back, a small stick still pinched between her fingers. Yeah, Misty was focused on Lottie. She loved the role of nurse so she could talk about how much she did for everyone. Maybe she really did want to help, but she also wanted everyone to rely on her. Mari stood, throwing the stick which bounced off the glass and rolled onto the floor.

“I’m going to check on Lottie, she shouldn’t be left alone with that lunatic.”

“Mari, you just checked on her like five minutes ago,” Akliah replied, worried eyes following her friend’s movements.

Mari rolled her eyes.

Lottie’s recovery should have been her priority. Lottie was connected to this place more than any of them. When Mari listened to Lottie and really focused on her words, she felt calmer. She felt better and lighter for the first time, ever. There was something powerful about listening to her breath, listening to the wind and the forest and each other. Mari couldn’t explain it, but she believed in Lottie. She’d never been religious before, but she was starting to understand the appeal.

Mari certainly did not trust Misty with Lottie’s recovery, though she didn’t suspect she’d kill her either. There’s no way she was that stupid. That was the problem. Misty was absolutely badshit insane, but she wasn’t stupid. So what did she do with Crystal’s body?

Mari shrugged off Akilah’s concern, heading out of the pantry; but she didn’t go back to check on Lottie. She headed for the bedroom where Coach Ben was holed up.

“Coach?”

The broken man was sitting on the creaking bed, his back against the wall. He was really hogging that thing lately.

“Hey, Mari,” he answered; chipper compared to his usual zombie state.

There was no point in tip toeing around it.

“I saw you yesterday,” she accused, “on the cliff?” Her eyebrows rose with her heart rate, her temper already flaring.

He sighed, staring at his leg; still wearing that same stupid sweatsuit jacket.

“About to walk off the edge? Ring any bells?” She stepped forward, her words biting the air.

“What do you want, Mari?” He croaked out. His eyes were heavy with embarrassment, as they should be. Who knew Coach Scott would turn out to be so weak?

“Was it Misty who stopped you?”

He jerked up, face scrunched in confusion. “Why does that matter?”

“Did you see what she was doing before she talked to you?”

He frowned, his face long and hollow.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“I think she killed Crystal.”

Ben gave a long and exasperated sigh, face turning toward the window to his left. “So?”

“So? So she’s a murderer! She’s insane!” Her voice was becoming too loud but she didn’t care.

“This place makes you insane.” His whisper was barely audible as a strong wind beat against the outside of the cabin.

“Misty was already insane, she poisoned us!” Mari couldn’t help it, she started striding over to him, ready to pull him off the bed and punch his ugly bearded face. Make him talk.

“Yeah, I know, but-”

Mari grabbed him by the collar, bringing her nose inches from his own.

“So you’re just fine with it? You’d rather kill yourself and leave us all to fend for ourselves!” She was about to slap him, hand coming up overhead in a flash, when the door behind her opened and shut quickly. Mari snapped back and saw Akilah standing in the front of the door, eyes wide in surprise.

“I thought you were checking on Lottie?” She squeaked.

“He knows something. I know he saw Misty in the woods,” Mari spat, turning back to hover over Ben like he was vermin. How dare he protect that crazy bitch.

“I didn’t see Misty, she just showed up behind me,” Ben claimed, pushing Mari away. She reared back ready to reattach to his collar.

“Liar.”

“Mari, wait.”

Then Mari felt a hand on her shoulder, gently drawing her away and she let it, for now. That little exertion had taken a lot out of her and she suddenly felt very tired as she caught her breath. Anger was hard to hold onto when you were starving.

“Even if he does know something, I don’t think yelling at him is going to do any good.” Akilah’s dark eyes found Mari’s and she crumpled for a moment under the weight of the warmth she found there.

“Whatever, this is bullshit,” Mari cut with the last bit of her fire dwindling. She stalked past Akilah and out the bedroom door, finally making her way upstairs to check on Lottie.

—

Akilah always knew when to be quiet. She wasn’t a big talker in general, but she also knew better than to stir the pot. It never worked out well for those who did.

“You learn a lot more with your ears than your mouth,” her grandfather used to say with a wink. He’d preach that his fifty year marriage was a testament to knowing when to shut up.

Out of everyone in her family, Akilah was the only one to take his words to heart. Her older sister was extroverted as hell, super popular in high school including captain of the varsity volleyball team, homecoming queen, and usually sporting a new boyfriend. Akilah’s mom was constantly gossipping with her twenty girlfriends on the phone in rotation and her dad was no different with his golfing buddies. In fact, her parents attended more parties than she was even invited to.

Being the quiet one never bothered Akilah. She had a good group of friends and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, but she wasn’t someone who thrived in the limelight. She liked being on JV, she liked staying home and studying instead of getting drunk, and she preferred animals to people.

Akilah felt a connection to animals, she couldn’t explain it. Back home there was this beautiful orange cat, a stray in the neighborhood. When she was on the porch highlighting her notes he would come and lay beside her, never afraid of her. They’d come up with a system: Simba would listen to her worries when she was stressed out about an upcoming test or a game and Akilah would bring him milk she snuck from the fridge.

Akilah wondered what had happened to the one who was there to celebrate with purrs when she succeeded or to sit in her lap as she cried when she didn't. Was it wrong that sometimes she missed that cat more than anything else?

That was why she was so grateful for Nugget. When she was struggling at home, she had Simba. Out here in the wilderness, when she had to deliver a fucking baby, she had Nugget.

Really, thank god for Nugget. He was the only thing keeping her sane when it felt like the end was nearing. He made her hopeful for a future, and it was comforting to think about what they would do when they made it back to New Jersey. Even though there were some logistics to work out with Simba and her nephew, Akilah was sure they could make it work.

“For what it’s worth I’m glad you didn’t do it Coach,” she said simply after Mari had abruptly left the bedroom.

“Thanks, Akilah,” he responded with a forced half smile. He seemed to be doing better since yesterday, not that that meant much. “I really didn’t see her, if that helps.”

Akilah left to sit in the main part of the cabin by the fire since she got cold very easily these days. The girls were scattered and chatter was to a minimum. No one had much energy to do anything anyway. She peered into her front sweatshirt pocket to see her little friend, but was careful to scout out any onlookers first. Her vision was a bit blurry around the edges, but she was sure that was the way everyone was now. The hunger was eroding their senses. Her pointer finger patted the tiny rodent’s head as she leaned her own back against the wall, letting the heat of the flames lull her to sleep.

Hunger… eating… Nugget… chicken…

The door slammed and Akilah jerked awake, her eyelashes fluttering as she resurfaced to reality. She cleared her throat softly, rubbing her eyes.

“We seriously need a new poop bucket,” Gen said grimacing as she entered from the outside, her cheeks pinking up from the below freezing temperatures. The cold air wafted in causing Akilah to fold into herself. “It’s already getting nasty out there.”

Akilah’s ears perked up. She hadn’t shit in almost a week, she was surprised the other girls still could.

“Damn, I can’t believe Crystal just disappeared,” Melissa commented; she was sitting next to Van at the table, scribbling over the porn magazines. Her voice dropped as her shoulders bent toward Van and Akilah had to scoot up and lean in to hear her. “Do you think the Wilderness took her to save Shauna?”

“Lottie said it doesn’t work that way,” Van answered definitively. She had become a lot colder - personality wise - since the real hunger had set in. The hunger that let you know your body was beginning to shut down. It was hard to make jokes when that got a hold of you.

“How does she know? I mean the baby-”

“Shut up,” Van shot, eyes darting meaningfully to Shauna across the room, who was mindlessly picking at the floor. The poor girl’s eyes kept closing and opening like she’d fall asleep at any moment.

“It doesn’t work like that. The wilderness listens to us and we have to listen to it. Crystal is gone for a reason and if we find her it will be because the Wilderness wants us to.”

Akilah sat back, rubbing her stomach where Nugget was curled up in the pouch. If the Wilderness wants us to . Did the Wilderness want them to starve? Did Misty actually kill Crystal? If so, where was her body?

Akliah eyed a vague image of Gen now sitting at the table with Van and Melissa. What did she say when she came inside? A hunger headache was setting in making it hard to think. It was something about how nasty the cabin was -

There was the clatter of a dish that echoed throughout the large room and most of the girls turned to see Mari had dropped something on the floor. Akilah's eyes found the splatter. A liquid? From upstairs? Then the faint stench of the piss hit her nostrils and she recoiled.

A pee bowl. Gross.

The poop bucket!

That’s what Gen had mentioned. Akilah stared at Mari who seemed to be having a minor breakdown on the ladder leading upstairs. Akilah gathered her strength and headed over to her, but Mari didn’t look up even as Akilah’s hand went to her back, rubbing it in comforting circles. She bent down to her ear and whispered, “I need to talk to you.”

Mari’s watery eyes found hers and she nodded. They reconvened in the cupboard, and Akilah shut the door for privacy.

When they were alone Mari straightened up, wiping her eyes though there were very few tears. “Sorry,” she said, turning her head. “So embarrassing,” she muttered.

“Where’s the poop bucket?” Akilah asked, getting ahead of herself.

“What do you mean?” Mari cocked her head to the side.

“I mean Crystal and Misty went to dump the shit, but where’s the shit bucket?” Akilah asked excitedly.

“Probably buried in the snow with Crystal,” Mari deadpanned, not understanding.

“Okay, but what if Misty wasn’t looking for Crystal’s body when we saw her digging. Just the evidence marking where she killed her.” Akilah’s eyebrows raised, her energy was animated despite the growing tiredness again.

“You’re saying Misty was looking for the poop bucket yesterday?”

“Yes, which means -“

“Which means she could have dragged her body somewhere else,” Mari finished. She took a deep breath as the realization hit her and she smiled. It was nice compared to her usual scowl.

“Exactly,” Akilah confirmed. She was thrown off to see Mari’s smile recede back to a frown.

“But where?”

Something rang in Akilah’s ear, something she’d heard recently.

“We’ll find Crystal’s body if the Wilderness wants us to.”

Mari searched Akilah’s eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we should ask the Wilderness where Crystal’s body is.”

“You lost me.”

Mari’s expression did not strike confidence in Akilah. Was she saying it wrong? Her head was starting to hurt -

A squeak came from Akilah’s stomach. No, not now . Akilah’s eyes widened as she glanced from her middle pocket to Mari, who seemed taken aback. Did she hear it?

“What?” Mari asked suspiciously.

“What?” Akilah responded nervously.

“You're being weird and holding your stomach again. Are you sick?”

“No!” Akilah defended too emphatically.

“What are you hiding?” Mari reached for Akilah’s middle sweatshirt pocket and Akilah stepped back into the shelf, hitting her back hard. She yelped, clutching the bulge that was Nugget in her pocket.

“Stop Mari!”

Akilah shoved Mari back hard and she went stumbling into the shelf on the other side. Akilah felt wild, her vision blurring and she held on tight to Nugget.

“He’s mine! He’s all I have! I won’t let you eat him!”

Mari was slumped against the shelves, gaping.

“What are you talking about?” Mari asked, confused.

The pantry door swung open, and a skeleton version of Tai revealed herself. Her eyes darted between the two, examining the Akilah’s defensive posture and Mari’s fallen form.

“Is everything okay in here? I heard a crash.”

“Yeah,” Mari replied, straightening up. She eyed Akilah whose heart was still pounding like drums in her ears. “I tripped.” She didn’t look Tai in the eye, she was a horrible liar. For some reason that thought is what calmed Akilah.

Tai arched her brow giving Akilah her best are you really okay look. “What about you?”

“I’m good,” Akilah replied, looking down at her hands. They were gripping so tightly to her pocket - too tight. Oh no .

“Nugget!” Akilah cried. She reached in and took him out of her pocket, bringing his soft limp body into her palms. “No! I killed him! I killed him!” The little mouse was lying on its side, not moving or breathing. She’d crushed him trying to protect him. It was her fault, all her fault.

“Akilah…” Tai began and Akilah snapped up to see her friend beside her scrutinizing her reaction.

“That thing has been dead,” Mari’s remark pierced her ears like a blade through her heart.

“No, what?” Her brown eyes peered down into her open palms where her last piece of comfort lay. This time when she saw Nugget, however, he wasn’t the cute fluffy friend he’d been just minutes before. It was a mummified corpse of a mouse, possibly dead for years. His body was a vile yellow and curled into a deformed ball.

“Nugget?”

Tai and Mari exchanged a look.

“Akilah - I - I’m sorry,” Mari stammered somewhere in the distance. Akliah was utterly focused on the fossil in her shaking palms.

—

Mari was used to cooking for herself, that’s why it was so easy to start cooking for the group. Not that you could call what she was doing now cooking.

Van had given her Jackie’s fucking belt to simmer in the hot water.

This is what it had come to. Belt soup. They were all going to starve. Lottie wasn’t getting better. She checked on her all day and there was no change. Misty was worried about a kidney infection. Shauna pretended to give a shit even though she was the one who tried to kill the person who had only tried to help her.

Mari looked around at their pathetic pack. The girls gathered in the center of the room mostly; Ben and Nat were on the bed by the wall, gossiping or whatever the fuck they talked about. They were all disgustingly skinny. How much longer were they going to last, realistically? And Akilah was hallucinating now? They were all batshit. They were all -

What the fuck.

Mari heard the dripping again. She shot to her feet.

“It’s back,” Mari announced as she stood, her head on a swivel. “The dripping, I-I just… I just heard it.” She stepped through the sprawling bodies toward the back of the cabin. Despite the sound echoing in her ears it wasn’t clear where it was coming from.

“I hear it too,” Taissa said, sitting up.

“Really?” Mari was in disbelief. Finally, finally someone else heard the dripping.

“You do?” Van cut in.

“Yeah. I think… It sounds like maybe it's coming from over there,” Tai answered, gesturing toward the back wall where a work table was pressed against it full of useless junk; tools lined the wood panels above.

Mari followed where Tai pointed. For a moment, it was the normal cabin wall she saw everyday; then, suddenly, from the slits came an inflowing of crimson blood. Between the wooden panels spilled dark liquid that could only mean one thing. Mari screamed.

“They’re dead. Oh my god, they’re dead!”

She repeated it over and over as she watched the trickling blood until the girls grabbed and shook her back to reality. Tai didn’t believe her? She’d heard it, hadn’t she?

“It’s the hunger, Mari,” Van assured her.

“No.”

“It’s just the hunger.”

There was the creaking of footsteps on the ladder and Mari turned, still dazed from the hallucination, to see Misty returning to the room.

“I heard yelling,” the curly-haired psycho said as she approached. The girls’ eyes flicked to Mari, who was trying to focus on breathing again.

“It was nothing, right Mari?” Van asked.

“Yeah, nothing. Just the hunger,” Mari repeated, trying to steady herself. She felt Akilah next to her, arm wrapping around her. Usually Mari hated being touched but this was nice - it was a reminder she was real, she was alive.

“Yeah well, I wouldn’t say that’s nothing.” Misty remarked. “If Lottie doesn’t eat something soon I don’t think she’s going to make it.” There was a long silence as the words sank into the room; there was no food to give her, nothing they could use to save her. “She said that if… if she dies… she wants us to make use of her. To stay alive.” Misty voice grew quiet as she spoke, a slight mutter as she presented Lottie’s reasoning.

“Did she really say that?” Melissa began, worry in her tone, “she must be really fucking sick.”

“We can’t lose Lottie,” Mari said, voice scratchy from her screams. Lottie couldn’t die, she wouldn’t.

“No, she’s done so much for us. I can’t imagine being here without her,” Van professed, her face serious as the fire lit her forest green eyes.

“Me, either,” Tai agreed.

“No - no. Lottie can’t die. The Wilderness won’t let her die,” Mari insisted, holding onto her confidence in Lottie. It was not her blood dripping from the walls, it wasn’t her time to die. That much she was sure of. Akilah squeezed her arm as Mari took a deep breath.

“It may not want her to, but if she’s starving… there’s no way she’s gonna live,” Travis’s voice resounded from the edge of the room where he stood by the window. He was shrouded by shadows on his left side, his right bathed in the glow of the flames.

“What are we supposed to do?” Gen asked. “It's not like we have anything to give her.”

“Yeah I don’t think belt soup is enough,” Melissa added, her voice empty of hope.

“No, it’s not.” Shauna affirmed. “She needs meat.”

No one responded for a moment and Mari narrowed her eyes at Shauna, feeling fury bubbling in her gut. It’s not like they weren’t all thinking it, but for her to think she had the right -

“What are you suggesting?” Tai asked, but she did not hold an insult in her tone the way Mari would have.

In the back Nat sat up and the bed springs creaked. Coach Ben’s eyes grew wide as they scanned the crowd before they fell on Javi.

“I’m just saying; she needs protein.”

“And whose fault is that?” Mari shot. “You weren’t so concerned about Lottie when you were beating her to death.”

“Hey!” Van interjected, and Mari could see the rage in her eyes. “Lottie took it from her to protect us. Don’t let that be for nothing.”

“Yeah, protect us from her,” Mari returned to glare at Shauna, “If anyone should be eaten it’s you for what you did to Lottie.” Mari didn’t drop her stare as the semi-proposal caused a collective stillness.

“Mari, stop,” Akilah started, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Mari jerked from her friend’s hold.

“Fine. You want to do it, just do it already Mari.” Shauna said, tone dripping with venom as she stood. Mari faced her head on, ready for a fight.

“Guys!” Akilah interrupted, stepping between the two. “I have a better idea.” The group’s attention fell on a girl who tried not to speak up unless it was necessary. The Girl Scout who thought she’d found a little mouse alive in the dead mountains. “We need to ask the Wilderness to tell us where Crystal is.”

Natalie wasn’t a part of the first ritual for Shauna, or even the second one meant for Lottie; but she watched everything go down. Both times, she was powerless to stop any of it.

“You’re kidding.”

“We tried that already.”

Akliah cleared her throat, she wasn’t usually one to make a big speech but she didn’t seem half as shaken by the conversation as Nat. Was Shauna about to be the next Jackie? Or Mari?

“No, not like we did for Shauna. We were shooting in the dark. We should ask the Wilderness to give us Crystal’s location.”

All this occult bullshit had gotten too far. They were starving and giving in to delusions.

“How?” Van asked intrigued.

“We need to set up, like you guys did last time. Just trust me okay?” This coming from the girl who had been screaming and bawling about a dead mouse a few hours ago.

“We need to show the Wilderness that we’ve sacrificed,” Mari began. “Misty, go and get the bloody rags from upstairs.”

Akilah’s partner on the hallucination train was more than happy to jump on the Wilderness wagon. Mari was the most devoted to Lottie’s bullshit. To Lottie. At least that’s what Nat had thought. Now, the whole group was talking about eating one of them to save her - that’s what they were implying, right? They needed to find Crystal not to save her, but to eat her.

Misty eyed Mari for a second unsure, but nodded and turned to retrieve the rags stained with Lottie’s blood.

“Travis, get the antlers,” Van instructed as the girls began to move around the table they had used during Shauna’s labor. Travis stood against the wall, not moving despite the instruction. He glanced at Natalie who was standing in front of the spot where she and Ben had just been discussing if it was better for Lottie to just die.

Ben was horrified. He hadn’t participated the first time, she doubted he would be interested in round two. Especially since the way things were looking, it might be him on the plate. Nat couldn’t move, frozen in fear, and the protests she envisioned voicing were caught in her throat.

“Travis,” Van repeated and he found her gaze, his entire profile lit by the fire as he faced it. “For Lottie.” Travis only nodded and moved to retrieve the altar.

The other girls remained silent, not interrupting. Options were dwindling and this could be their last hope. None of them questioned what they were doing now when the alternative was so unthinkable.

“Ben,” Akliah addressed, bringing attention where it was not wanted. “Can I use your map?”

“Uh - sure,” Coach choked out. He swallowed hard and gestured to where it lay in the back of the room.

Akilah, Mari, and Tai brought the map onto the floor in front of the altar which sat on the table before the fireplace. Misty returned with the rags and Mari deposited them on top of the head of the moose skull.

“Okay,” Akilah breathed. “Okay.” She stared at the map for a second. The group was crowded around their Lottie-inspired set up, even Javi was participating. Their frail bodies were framed by the fire, the empty eye sockets of the skull captivating Nat as her breath trembled.

“What should we do now?” Gen whispered.

“We need more offerings,” Van replied, eyes finding Akilah who nodded.

“We have one,” Akilah answered. She pulled the mouse’s mummified corpse from her sweatshirt pocket and placed it in the coiled wrapping.

What the fuck?

“Spill blood,” Travis spoke up. He avoided Natalie’s surprised and terrified expression.

What the fuck? Not this again .

Mari’s eyes fell across the circle. “Misty, she was your friend. You do it.”

“I-”

“Your connection with her is the strongest,” Akilah added. She exchanged a look with Mari that Nat didn’t understand.

“Alright, for Crystal,” Misty replied, sucking her lip.

“For Lottie,” Van corrected.

“For Lottie,” Shauna repeated.

The group’s hunter lost her breath and her body shook as she heard the group follow in unison.

“For Lottie.”

Natalie watched helpless for a moment as Travis became one of them. Possibly, he always was. She exchanged a worried glance with Ben, who appeared as a frozen ghost, pale white despite the layer of clothes he wore. There was a good chance he was going to shit himself.

Nat had been right just a few minutes ago. It would be better for Lottie to die.

Misty held out her arm over the offering and Shauna took her hunting knife, cutting a clean line along the forearm. Blood slowly trickled like the wound of a dying animal. Shauna gripped Misty’s wrist and the blood dripped onto the long dead mouse.

“The Wilderness recognizes your sacrifice,” Travis spoke softly to Misty, repeating the words Lottie had given him as he shed his blood for Shauna. Nat stared at him, eyes wide and white against her dirty hollow cheeks.

“Wilderness, please show us where Crystal is. Please hear our pleas,” Akilah cried, shutting her eyes.

“Please help us save Lottie,” Mari called, and like Akilah she closed her eyes tightly.

“Wilderness, hear us,” Tai said calmly, eyes fixed on the trickle of blood.

“We hear the Wilderness and it hears us,” the voices of Travis and Van began their chant. Nat felt de ja vu as the words that supposedly saved Shauna were brought back to life.

“We hear the Wilderness and it hears us,” the group repeated over and over.

For the briefest moment the flames in the fireplace rose, and the collective gasped and shuttered. It was just a trick of the light, or the hunger. Nat saw the girls grow excited over the flame, but it couldn’t have been real. Mari and Akilah opened their eyes in astonishment. Van basically smiled at Tai. Nat chanced another glance back at Ben.

“Did you see that?”

He didn’t respond, eyes staring out into the fire.

“Hand me the cards,” Akilah ordered and Misty retrieved the playing cards from the table. One by one she began flipping them on areas of the hand crafted map until the entire throng was littered with playing cards at mostly even intervals.

A hush fell over the group as they examined the product of their work. There was no discernible pattern, red and black seemed to be scattered at random.

“Here,” Mari pointed to a specific spot. “The two of spades is right near the cliff where Crystal and Misty dumped the bucket. That’s the card Crystal pulled that morning. It makes sense if that’s where her body is.” She seemed already sure of the idea, but then again Mari always seemed sure of everything she said.

“Okay so the Wilderness is telling us to search the place where we dump the shit?” Gen asked, her voice wavering.

“That’s what she was doing when she disappeared, right Misty?” Mari observed with a hint of accusation in her tone.

“Yeah - yep,” Misty answered as Shauna wrapped her bleeding wound, “but that doesn't mean that’s where she is, we searched that area.”

That’s when Natalie found the courage to speak up.

“What are you guys doing? You think a little ritual is gonna, what? Reveal Crystal’s body? She’s gone.” Natalie’s sudden interjection turned all heads to her, a mix of surprise and annoyance.

“This is our best hope -” Van started.

“To find Crystal?” Nat questioned.

“To save Lottie,” Shauna answered.

“Akilah’s right we should - we should at least try to find Crystal’s body. She’s out there somewhere,” Tai stated. Sure, somewhere. Just like them Crystal was somewhere no one would ever find her.

“Yeah, buried in the snow,” Nat retorted. “And what if you're wrong? What if you go looking and she’s not there?” Were she and Ben the last of the resistance to all this bullshit? Even Shauna and Tai had given in to the madness.

“We’ll figure it out if it comes to that,” Tai replied. “We’ll do what we have to to survive.”

There was an awkward silence as each thought about what that might be.

It was Misty who had the guts to say it.

“You mean eating one of us?” Misty asked as Shauna tied the knot of her bandage.

Tai swallowed, locking onto Misty’s of all people. “Yeah,” she sighed, dark eyes drifting toward the fire.

Nat bit her cheek, but couldn’t think of what to say. If she kept resisting, she could be putting a target on her back.

“Look,” Melissa was gazing at the map. “The queen card is near the cabin.”

“That’s the card Javi had when he was lost, maybe - maybe we should look there too?” Gen stuttered.

Mari glared at the suggestion, but Akilah responded. “It’s not the worst idea. We could split up.”

Nat had no choice, she had to join. Lottie was going to die and even if she believed that actually might be for the best, the group wasn’t going to let that happen. And they were starving. Not like the kind of starving they were in the summer, but actually on the brink of death, starving . They all needed food, they all needed meat. Maybe Crystal was out there, or maybe she was buried too deep and they wouldn’t find her; but they had to try, because if they didn’t one of them was going to die and the decision on who that was -

Well, it wasn’t going to be pretty.

#yellowjackets #yellowjackets fanfic #mari yellowjackets #akilah yellowjackets #akari #akilah x mari #mari x akilah #Missing Crystal

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playthatthing · 6 years

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albums i cared about this year of 2k17

A couple of weeks ago I convinced myself to put together a favourite albums list (something I usually find myself incapable of doing) for a facebook gorup, so I will go ahead and post that here.

But because I almost always feel like top lists are unrepresentative and inauthentic to my feelings, under the cut you will find every damn new record I gave a hoot about this year. I realize this is very audience-unfriendly on its face, and probably better suited for a private post (motto of my entire blog!!) but here is my reasoning: I have discovered a lot of music thanks to recommendations by friends, and if you look through this list, you might pick out some things that you were going to check out anyway, or just things that interest you and might end up bringing you joy.

Top-ish Albums Slowdive - Slowdive (this is my clear #1, the old shoegaze bands went hard this year and no one went harder than Slowdive, this is a perfect, blissful record) Semper Femina - Laura Marling Future Politics - Austra Everything Now - Arcade Fire The Far Field - Future Islands Damage and Joy - The Jesus and Mary Chain Masseduction - St. Vincent Antisocialites - Alvvays Okovi - Zola Jesus Planetarium - Sufjan et al I Tell A Fly - Benjamin Clementine Weather Diaries - Ride Soft Sounds From Another Planet - Japanese Breakfast

Individual songs that I want to highlight

Big Picture - London Grammar Something To Remember Me By - The Horrors Ocean - Goldfrapp The Embers - Vagabon Someone Tell The Boys - SAMIA (@caressyouintodarkness <3) Cover Me - Depeche Mode (@thetwoofusagainstthequaternary is to blame for all of this, obviously) Új városok épülnek - Felső tízezer

Below are all the new records by month of release, some bolded for emphasis, some thoughts or favourite songs

JANUARY

Macao by Tape Delay ✵ awesome Hungarian stuff, support eeeet

No Plan by David Bowie ✵ Killing A Little Time

Oczy Mlody by the Flaming Lips ✵

I See You by the xx ✵ A Violent Noise

hang by Foxygen ✵

Future Politics by Austra ✵ Utopia ✵ I once pitched Austra as “21st century lesbian Depeche Mode” to Szandra, which... probably not accurate but what the hell.

Life Without Sound by Cloud Nothings ✵

Near to the Wild Heart of Life by Japandroids ✵

Nem Vagyok Itt, Barkóczi Noémi ✵ support Hungarian excellence!!!!

Not Even Happiness by Julie Byrne ✵

FEBRUARY

The Painters EP by Animal Collective ✵

The Chief by Jidenna ✵

Focipályákon sétálsz át éjszaka, Szabó Benedek és a Galaxisok ✵ again, same

Sick Scenes by Los Campesions! ✵

Commons As Light and Love dfhdfhd by Sun Kil Moon ✵

2016 Atomized by the Raveonettes ✵ PENDEJO

Flying Microtonal Banana by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard ✵ Rattlesnake (Rattlesnake! Rattlesnake! Rattlesnake!!)

Infinite Worlds by Vagabon ✵

MARCH

Slowdive by Slowdive ✵

Preservation by Nadia Reid ✵

50 Song Memoir by The Magnetic Fields ✵

Last Place by Grandaddy ✵ Evermore

In Mind by Real Estate ✵

Paradise by Anohni ✵

Semper Femina by Laura Marling ✵

Damage and Joy by the Jesus and Mary Chain ✵ All Things Pass

Spirit by Depeche Mode ✵

Silver Eye by Goldfrapp ✵

In the Same Room by Julia Holter ✵

FROM DEEWEE by Soulwax ✵

APRIL

The Far Field by Future Islands ✵ Ran

Something Else by the Cranberries ✵

Pure Comedy by Father John Misty ✵

Humanz by Gorillaz ✵

MAY

Endless Summer by sóley ✵

Occult Architecture vols 1 & 2 by Moon Duo ✵

Diversions, Vol. 4: The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake by the Unthanks ✵

New Thrills by the Primitives ✵

Berdeyminn by Sólstafir ✵

Come On Feel The Misery by The Somersault Boy ✵ bless all this good music by Hungarians hey

JUNE

Is This the Life We Really Want? by Roger Waters ✵

Truth Is a Beautiful Thing by London Grammar ✵

Weather Diaries by Ride ✵

Melodrama by Lorde ✵

Fake Sugar by Beth Ditto ✵

Planetarium by Sufjan et al ✵

Crack-Up by Fleet Foxes ✵

The Underside of Power by Algiers ✵

B-Sides and Rarities by Beach House ✵

Mister Mellow by Washed Out ✵

Somersault by Beach Fossils ✵

JULY

Everything Now by Arcade Fire ✵

Add Violence by Nine Inch Nails ✵

Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey ✵

Soft Sounds From Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast ✵ Diving Woman

AUGUST

A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs ✵ Pain

Painted Ruins by Grizzly Bear ✵

SEPTEMBER

American Dream by LCD Soundsystem ✵

Antisocialites by Alvvays ✵

Every Country's Sun by Mogwai ✵ Don’t Believe the Fife

Sleep Well Beast by The National ✵

Okovi by Zola Jesus ✵ Exhumed

Wonderful Wonderful by The Killers ✵

Luciferian Towers by Godspeed You! Black Emperor ✵

V by The Horrors ✵

Three Futures by Torres ✵

Music From Before the Storm by Daughter ✵

I Tell a Fly by Benjamin Clementine ✵

Unfall by IAMX ✵

Grace by Lizz Wright ✵

OCTOBER

MASSEDUCTION by St. Vincent ✵

ken by Destroyer ✵

Plunge by Fever Ray ✵

Carry Fire by Robert Plant ✵

The Kid by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith ✵

Lotta Sea Lice by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile ✵

NOVEMBER

Phases by Angel Olsen ✵

Revelations by Shamir ✵

Who Built the Moon? by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds ✵

Utopia by Björk ✵

Rest by Charlotte Gainsbourg ✵

DECEMBER

Chaka Chaka by Dope Calypso ✵ More HU greatness

Songs of Experience by U2 ✵ oh this album is not good. Songs of Innocence, I thought, was surprisingly good, but this is bleh.

Miscellaneous discoveries:

DIIV

Weyes Blood

Trouble in Paradise - La Roux. I knew La Roux, of course, but this record had flown by me unnoticed and it’s GREAT, see Sexotheque

Roxy Music - finally dug into their discography.

really dug into the Cocteau Twins too, pure perfection

And Also the Trees

Still Corners

also caught up with Mitski and her well-deserved hype

Nadia Reid - she does have a new record out but I discovered her previous (first) album. I can’t put my finger on what’s so great about her because the world is full of moody singer-songwriters but she’s captivating. Track of the Time for a taste.

#year in music #music

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mattyslittleworld · 4 years

Text

Ferris Wheels / Cocaine

In a field at 2 am drinking tea and whatever spirits exist in this world are all in contact with me at the same time pulling me towards light. I feel like i am dreaming and carrying something. Like a vessel. A subject has been given to me. I am obsessed with the acoustic version of northern lights by the dangerous summer. Repeat. Play it back. I need to access these elements of the universe to create the hardest rap shit ever. I need to contradict that with drowning in acoustic folk music as if its the door that opens to walk into that different room. I fucking hate you you fucking piece of shit coward for doing this to me again. Its chilly out right now and theres a fire burning off in the distance and if you try real hard you can pretend it’s October and honestly its absolutely everything.

Im parked in front of a Ferris wheel in seaside nj. It’s misting rain right now and it’s 1 am. I caught myself drinking coffee and had to throw it out because I didn’t realize the time. I’m reading a book eating pink starbursts. It’s really interesting because through my misty car windshield the Ferris wheel lights are shining in. A huge illuminating heart is projected across the massive Ferris wheel blinking on and off changing into different neon colors. I think...shit. That’s crazy. Well that’s also nice due to the times we are in to spread love. But now it changes and the word LOVE spells out across the Ferris wheel and starts blinking and I feel attacked and taunted. I have an odd relationship with Ferris wheels. They give me hope. The st Mary’s fair near my parents house had one and just seeing those bright lights always boosted my spirit. I also fell in love on one, during the first date I ever went on with an ex of mine. I’m terrified of heights I don’t fuck with shit like this but I was all in. We paid got on and we were alone sifting through the air like a movie. 3 years later we are back at the same fair. Same us. Only growth, living together, fights, touring, etc has happened. We go on the Ferris wheel and I am terrified, no longer numb. And extremely uncomfortable. But I don’t think it was the heights. My focus wasn’t on her anymore. There was too much distance, we grew too far apart to avoid how much I hate this. Nobody ever speaks about the trajectory of Ferris wheels. What goes up must come down. The movies make you believe you fall in love on them. But at the very top of one, I realized in that moment I wasn’t in love with her anyone and we broke up shortly after. What goes up must come down. I’m certain we will never speak again - so I’ll always wonder if she ever felt the same way I did at the top of that Ferris wheel.

The mist is coming into through the cracked window beside me and I just want to be. Exist. I’m in a light jean jacket and shittttt vans just desperate to be my skeleton. I find myself back in this song. Which is your eyes. Your heart. Your voice. Your frame. Your tears. Your skin. Your branches. Your autumn leaves. Your breathe. Your messy hair. Your sleep. Your coffee. Your sun. Is true love escapable? Can you outrun it? Have I been out ran? Maybe I am a neon light flickering in the far distance of someone’s life. Maybe I was the one that had to be left. I am no safe fucking bet. I can be a real piece of shit. I’ve done some terrible shit in my life to people I loved and hated. I’ve had long streaks of violence and pure evil intentions, I am damaged, I am broken, I am fucked up in all the unredeemable ways. I am a piano out of tune but still plays if you pretend you hear the notes they intend to be. I am this Ferris wheel that says love but only seen through a misty blurry windshield. But damn do I have heart and soul. I really fucking mean it. I really fucking do. Nobody has more heart and spirit than me. My fists are bloody and broken but I’m still swinging for what and who I love. I don’t care if it a broken record. This record is still spinning. It won’t stop. I’ve been having vivid dreams of somebody of my past - that I think I mentioned on here prior - and I can’t escape them. They’re so real it’s insane. It’s sparking memories I’ve had, very specific ones that are worth revisiting and writing about. But to anybody else they aren’t important or exciting because i romanticize the simple things in life when everything is so beautifully still and in place. My whole life revolves around chaos so most goes unnoticed - but when shit is still and comfortable for once it really seeps into the deeper layers on my being. I remember being in Philly - the last show of a weekend tour. Dead of winter / snow everywhere and we’ve been traveling around Virginia Maryland and now Philly.

Side note: it’s raining and I want to run around in the rain in a suit blazer coat thing with a feathered hat and dance to this national song like a fucking dream.

Okay back to what I was saying. Gang.

The show was with Sean from modern baseball and Mikey and there were mad people there. I had no songs or records out just a guitar. This was the very beginning of a transition from hardcore to folk music and the months before this people thought I was a failure and was crazy and generally in disbelief of my ambition. But on this day I played to a lot of people, my songs, singing in key, with a guitar, dressed how I wanted to dress, on tour, and I was accepted. I had my girlfriend with me on the road at the time and having her there was everything. The van we rode in for the weekend run was going back south and we needed to go north so my best friend at the time - also a hardcore kid - came and met us in Philly he saw the show. We were all together. After the show we got in his car and we hit a wawa on the way home and I swear his memory plays like a dream in slow motion through my head. Of us hopping in the back seat of the car, with no room, just stuffed back there with our snacks and coffee - and off we floated back to New Jersey: in a 2 hour stretched moment of my fucking plan being real and working and still and calm and everything. Me and the girl fought all weekend on that little tour. But when my boy dropped us off at my car after Philly and it was just us we laughed all the way back home to where we shared a room and my parents house and we were whole again. Trails and tribulations. Love and pain. Growth and hunger. I sit here in the rain all these years later and contemplate what all that meant will mean and so on and so on. I have a lot ahead of me in the future. Some of the biggest shit I’ve ever had to conquer. A lot of pressure. A lot of work. A lot of becoming someone I never planned on being to where it makes me uncomfortable and scared that I’ll be judged by those who know the real me but this is where my life is going and I’m ready. The time is now and those little memories in slow motion revealed themselves in simpler times in a way to prepare me for now. In 6 years I’ll look back on this and see it in slow motion. Laughing. Crying. Here’s to the future even if it’s only seen through a blurry misty fucked up car windshield. But hey at least there’s neon lights.

Fuck fight coke dust

We’re all fucked up in a cold world.

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