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fa-by · 3 years

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hi F! Please do an analysis on Lauren’s new song While I’m Alive! She said on her instagram that it was directed to “someone” at first 👀👀

Hi to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 and for sure. No problem, in fact, I'm sorry for the delay 😅

So. While I'm Alive is part of the Femme it Forward's all-female album called Big Femme Energy, Vol. 1. Laur wrote it long before she was part of this project, and yes, she said she wrote it with a person in mind by turning a vent into art because tired of the way she was/is treated:

This person, in my opinion, is 100% a shark. And this also responds to another ask I've recently received:

Hey to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Yep, Laur wrote it for someone among the higher ups and therefore it concerns her career in particular, but she also applies it to other situations in her life in general.

Now let's move on to the interpretation.

Verse 1:

“Don't say I'm too loud when I cry out what I've held inside

I wanna know why they tried to take me and bury me alive”

The music industry is dominated by men. Gender inequality, sexism, and ageism reign supreme. No matter how much harder they have to work in order to succeed, women are anyway either sidelined, or supervised by men. Why? Because there’s a huge disparity between men and women, especially due to the way the public perceives their success and power. For example.

A man is praised for performing on stage with just the guitar. A woman who does the same, however, not only is she criticized for being too lazy and boring for not having made the performance more lively with a choreography, but she’s also criticized for what she was wearing. Same woman who gets criticized when she instead performs with a choreography because she wasn’t good enough. A woman who can’t be a drummer because it’s a thing for men, and if she persists in wanting to play, it’s not because it’s her passion and she’s pursuing her dream, no; it’s because she wants attention 🙄. A woman who can’t have a good idea about a song because, what can she understand about music, right? 😒

Unfortunately, it’s all a double standard. Women work harder than men and they then get questioned whether their success is deserved. One way or another, women are constantly being torn apart. Reason why Laur begins the verse by already letting us understand how put down she is by the sharks, followed by a question that actually doesn’t represent a real request for information, but that implies a predetermined answer.

“'Cause who am I to think that I have a right?

Or decide to know what I need, right?”

She's sarcastic of course. Since they've always told her what to do, how to act, and how to feel, here she's including a couple of examples among the thousand and more things they always have said and say to her. Because who better than her knows what's best for her? The answer is her. Especially when these orders, because they're orders, are imposed on her to make money with her career and not for her sake or because they care about her as a person.

“It's in the way, I talk and I walk away

From what you made me”

By ‘what you made me’, she refers to the way she was before. The person who was forced to accept everything she was told to do and therefore she couldn’t be herself. The person they made her become, and she didn’t like that person. Now she no longer wants to ‘submit herself’ and accept everything just for money and fame as she did in the past because she was legally obliged and not to do so. She did it many times especially when she was still in the group, but unlike in the past, she luckily no longer has the same kind of obligations. So if she doesn’t want to do something now, she simply doesn’t. She says no to what she doesn’t accept and walks away from that (I talk and I walk away) by not caring if she doesn’t have the same success as before because she prefers not to have that kind of success anymore but to remain herself, rather than have it and be just a product (what you made me); a different person from who she really is.

Verse 2:

“And I know this is all too familiar

Feel the motive behind all that fake love”

In Olivia Rodrigo’s voice 🎤: 🎵 Did you get deja vu, Laur? 🎶 No, but all joking aside. By ‘I know this is all too familiar’, she means what she has already experienced in the past and which she has once again found herself in front of. Once out of both Epic/Syco and Maverick, she believed she would’ve be dealing with better people, but it wasn’t like that. She realized that those kinds of people are everywhere because it’s the music industry that’s like that. The problem isn’t the single label or the single management team, it’s the entire industry. The problem isn’t the surrounding, but the people who are in it. Not all of them luckily, but most of them unfortunately.

By ‘Feel the motive behind all that fake love’, on the other hand, she describes precisely that kind of people. The fake ones who first treat you well because they want something from you, and then show themselves for who they really are when they don’t get it and try to hinder you, punish you, destroy you, and ‘bury me alive’ (verse 1) because of it.

So. Although I said it playfully at first, these two sentences go perfectly well together to describe the sense of deja vu that Laur felt.

*Small note* In the next three sentences of the verse, I will use these ‘---’ to complete her sentences as if I were Lauren to give you my interpretation. I’ll then continue as I always have. Oh and, she’s talking about her music here.

“I can’t take all these unsolicited opinions --- Nope, not anymore. I don't want them. Thanks, but no thanks.

Go ahead and be the scared ones --- with someone else who’s ready to tell you yes to everything and who doesn’t have a vision on how they want their own songs. Someone else who has no problem being a marketable product/puppet.

Either way, I’ll get it done” --- with other producers, songwriters, collaborators, etc., of my choice.

“I’ve been told I’m too much

Too proud, too cruel

Too wild, difficult to be around”

Let’s also add too confident, too sincere, and too honest from the people who mocked her at school before she became famous, shall we? Or maybe too fat, too arrogant, too full of herself, too whore, and all the other things said by the haters over the years? 😒😒😒🙄🙄🙄

I was being sarcastic of course, guys. I mean, can our girl ever have a break?

“With too much to say

Never in the right way

So, what’s the right way?”

Rhetorical question here because the right way is exactly the way she is. She has no intention of behaving in the ‘right way’ they want because it would mean not being authentic and automatically it would no longer be the right way because she would be fake.

Chorus:

“If I can’t be me

Who do you want me to be? (Who do you want me to be?)”

I love, love, love, love this. For real. It’s so powerful. And it doesn’t surprise me that this part along with the rest of the chorus is repeated four times, because it’s the most important part and it encloses the whole song perfectly.

“‘Cause if you can’t see beyond your gaze”

Behind their ideas to be the perfect product without looking at the person and their feelings.

“You don’t phase me and I don’t trust you anyway

‘Cause runnin’ through life, I figured out time

Don’t wait for no one”

After all these years and precisely because of what she’s been through, she realized she can’t wait for them to see it the same way she does or for someone to ‘save her’. She prefers to ‘save herself’. Therefore, she will continue to be wary, not to trust, and above all, to remain authentic as she says here:

“So while I’m alive, I’ma just be me (I’ma just be me)

Whoever that ends up being”

And that's it, dear Anon 😉 This song is dedicated to one particular asshole who gave her the idea, but mostly, it's dedicated to all those assholes who tried to tell her what kind of music she should have made, how she should have behaved, and how she should have felt. She decides for her, and she doesn’t care if she doesn’t have the same success anymore. Just like she doesn’t care about all the rest like the expectations and superficial perceptions they have of her that are completely wrong.

I hope you enjoyed it, and I wish both of you Anons and everyone else reading this, a beautiful day ❤🥰🤗

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

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Survey #359

“i’m only a crack in this castle of glass / hardly anything there for you to see”

Do you look better with your hair down or up? It's too short to go up. Has you mom ever directly told you that she favoured your other sibling(s) over you? Yeesh, no. Have you ever read The Outsiders? Seen the movie? Read the book, seen the movie. Adore both. What’s your favourite drink from Jamba Juice? I don't think we have those here. Can you stand eating the crusts of a slice of sandwich bread? I don't mind the crust at all. Do you do your homework at home or in class? Prior to college, I did my work right after getting home to get it out of the way. In college, I did it in-between classes or when waiting for Mom to finish class. Do you feel uncomfortable sharing drinks with other people? Yes, I never do it. Do you get jealous if your boyfriend hugs another girl? I'm single, but hypothetically, I wouldn't... It's just a hug. At least for me, it's just a friendly gesture. Is there something that happened in your past you hate talking about? A few things, yes. Is it hard for you to be “just friends” with the opposite sex? Nah. If you had to choose, what color is your favorite? Baby pink. How many times have you dated the person you’re with now? I’m single. Has anyone suspected you of being a different sexuality? Yes. Do you like chocolate or vanilla cake more? Chocolate. Does it bother you to have blood drawn or not so much? Nah. What color is your toothbrush? It's a white electric one. Do you normally fall asleep fast or slow? Ridiculously slow. Have you ever had a severe allergic reaction? No. What do you want to be for Halloween this year? I'd love to dress up as like a Ms. Oogie Boogie and take some cool pictures, but I highly doubt it'll actually happen. What color are your glasses, if applicable? Black. Do you still look in the toy aisle, or do you pass it by? I walk past it. What are your summer fashion essentials? I don't have fashion essentials for any season. Do you have your own website? For my photography, yeah. Do you think you would be a good salesperson? Ha, no. I worked in retail before and I fucking sucked. Do you like candy corn? NO. Just colored wax, ugh. Do you like to wear skirts? I don't wear anything that shows my legs. Were you happy as a kid? Yeah. That, talkative, and hyper. Favorite store to browse but not really buy anything? Haha, I LOVE going on MorphMarket now and again to browse the ball pythons especially, but boy if I had the cash and space would I buy like fifty of them at once. I don't really know about a store I like browsing but not buying from. Skittles or Sour Patch Kids? Both are great, but I guess Sour Patch Kids. BUT, if you throw SOUR Skittles in there... then it's a war lol. If tattoos were free, how many would you have? A HELL OF A LOT. I wanna be just about totally painted. Do you wear a retainer at night? Not anymore. I had one, but I stopped using it. Are you afraid of dolls, puppets, or clowns? I'm not a doll person, particularly porcelain ones. When you’re in your room, do you keep the door locked? No. It's not even closed. Do you think your face is mostly symmetrical? Actually no, and I'm self-conscious about it. Stupidest thing you have ever said out loud? OH Christ, I'm not retrospecting on this. What’s your least favourite ice-cream flavour? That I've actually tried, strawberry. It's disgusting. What was the last good news you heard? I got approved for TMS therapy! Who was the last person to comment on your Facebook status? My friend Lyndsey. How did you meet him/her? World of Warcraft. She's actually my guild master, and she is the sweetest damn person. Have you ever learned any self-defense? If not, would you be interested in learning? I haven't, but yeah, I'd like to. When was the last time you took a nap? How long was it? Yesterday. For some reason, I actually slept a LONG time, like at least three, but probably close to four, hours. I mean I was tired, but I didn't feel THAT tired. Do you like Gushers? YAAAAAAAAAAS What would you do if you could do anything without failing? Actually get a degree for SOMETHING. What is your native language? English. Do you have a younger brother or sister? A younger sister. If so do/did they really get on your nerves? No. We were very close as kids, but we've drifted apart. Now, she absolutely doesn't get on my nerves. I'm so proud of her. Name something that happened to you that was completely unexpected. Uhhh I dunno. Do you judge people that have multiple piercings? Lol wtf? No. Do you watch the Olympics? No. What did you have for breakfast this morning? I had Kix cereal. Do you like orange juice? Yes. So long as it doesn't have pulp in it. Do you think it’s cruel to keep an animal in a cage while you’re away? It depends on the size of the cage as well as how long you're away. Do you have a pet gecko? No, but I'd love a fat-tailed gecko. Are you scared of reptiles? Not at all, I adore them. Is your car messy? I don't have my own car. Mom's kinda is, though. It needs a wash badly, but because of her bumper literally being zip-tied on, she doesn't trust going into a car wash. And neither of us are about to do it manually, lol. Have you ever seen the show 16 and Pregnant? No, fuck that show. Do you buy expensive clothes? No. Does death scare you? Not really. What are your current goals? Conquer my social anxiety, get a job, lose weight, do something to strengthen my legs... Those are the four biggies. Do you clap or cheer when at a concert? I did both at the one I've been to. Do you drink coffee? What brand? No. Do you use a comb or brush? A comb. When you were younger, did you ever do that exclamation point that looked like an upside down triangle and had a really big dot? No. I loved the cutesy girl handwriting though, haha. I just could never do it. You’re locked in a room with the person you last dated, any problems? Well yeah, we're locked in a room lmao. What kind of relationship do you have with the last person you kissed? It's perfectly fine, we're best friends. Have you ever gotten burnt by a cigarette? No. Do you get mad when people smoke around you? Yes. Honestly, have you ever eaten raw cookie dough? Yeah, more than once. When was the last time you were on a city bus? Never. Do you have a garden? Does it have flowers, vegetables, or both? No. Where do you want to raise your kids? Who said I even want kids? Have you ever been to Cracker Barrel? Yessssss, good shit. Have you ever seen a ghost? I think I have. Have you ever burned an ant with a magnifying glass? No. Have you ever been to craigslist.com? Yes. Have you ever used Nair? Yes, on my legs. It works, I just have stupidly hairy legs that need so much to get it all. How many tabs do you have open and what are they? Two YouTube tabs and then Tumblr. What browser do you prefer to use? Chrome. What room are you in right now? My bedroom. Are you excited for anything this month? 1.) I get my tattoo on the 19th, and 2.) I start TMS next Wednesday. What language course did you take in school, if any? I barely survived one semester of Latin, then I did all four available German courses. What language would you most like to learn? I'd love to improve my German. What would you like to get a degree in? Photography. What book are you reading, what genre is it and do you like it so far? Wings of Fire: The Brightest Night. It's young adult fantasy, I think. Did you ever sometimes flip through your text books even when you didn’t need to? Yeah, mainly to just look at pictures because I was that bored in class, haha. What types of magazines do you read? None. Would you prefer to read a book, watch a movie or TV show, or play a video game? Play a video game. What’s your current relationship like with the person you lost your virginity to and do you wish it was different? We don't have any relationship anymore. I don't regret losing it to him, if that's what you're asking. If you mean our relationship stance, it'd be nice to still be in touch with him, but I know it wouldn't be healthy for me. Have you ever felt responsible for someone’s death? Pets, yes. No humans. What was the last book you recommended to someone? Idk. What’s the most difficult thing you and your current or last significant other have gone through? Distance was very hard. What’s your best memory with your ex? I'm going to assume this refers to "the ex." In which case, we were "play arguing," and I came storming into the kitchen after him to make a point, and I slid mid-sentence, and he caught me. We just held each other laughing our asses off. It's the simple things, man. Who was the last person that asked to hang out with you and what’s the story of how you met that person? Summer. My little sister and her were in pre-k together and became friends, but I gradually became closer to her than Nicole did when we were teens. Has anyone ever asked you out and you turned them down? Yes. Is there something you generally always ask for help with? Yeah. Like recently I've been having apples and peanut butter a lot, and I ask my mom to cut the apple because I'm terrified of knives. Do you feel comfortable telling people how much you weigh? NOPE. Have you looked at any old photos of yourself lately? No. In a relationship, have you ever been on and off with your partner? No. Do you consider cooking to be an art? Yes. Are you a fast or slow reader? I'd say I read at a moderate pace. Does it take a lot to gross you out? It depends on what it is, but I am actually more squeamish than I used to be.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''castle of glass'' by linkin park

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growingstronglikeahighgardenrose · 4 years

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Thoughs on Mace Tyrell? I undertand that the show really cemented his image as a foolish lord, but I can't avoid to feel a little of cringe when someone claims that the Tyrells are a matriachal family and that Olenna easily manages his son like a puppet. In the books Olenna complaing that Mace is always "tut-tut" at her and the fact that he have managed to change so easily from a king to another without facing mayor consequences to his family makes me question how much of a oaf he's truly.

Hi, thanks for the question. To be honest, I don’t have a clear answer. I’ve thought about it many times.

TLDR; Olenna not liking Mace is a combination of family relationships and perhaps polital tactics. Mace is certainly not a puppet nor a complete fool. But he isn’t the smartest either, I’d say he is about average and certainly has some flaws.

Long text (sorry, if brevity’s the soul of wit, I don’t have it)

I believe it’s a good case of a pair of ego’s bumping against each other, the older generation looking down on the next, Olenna being unsatisfied that her child doesn’t exactly act as she would, and some truth.

Olenna sees herself as a very clever cunning woman, and she is, undoubtedly, but bookwise we have awfully little to stave that, we know little of what she has achieved. What we do know is that Olenna is very much involved in marriage politics, she claims to have boycotted a marriage to Daeron Targaryen, and was very involved in Margaery’s engagement with Joffrey both in conversations with Littlefinger and Sansa. And as many old women she loves to stick her nose in everything, especially since she feels she’s clever. So I do believe she tries to exercise as much influence as she can.

Secondly, an often used technique to get people to talk, is to start critiquing people. Once you start talking trash about somebody, people are quick to jump in. Olenna complaining about her family members might be a way to see who agrees, and is thus against her family. It’s Westeros, Randyll sent his own heir to the wall. Walder Frey plays with his heirs, the list goes on. Family backstabbing is a sport in Westeros as Mace’s got heirs to spare. Secondly, Littlefinger and Doran Martell both believe it can be beneficial to be perceived as weak and stupid. Perhaps she tries to get people to underestimate Mace.

I don’t think she’s the awesome pupeteer of house Tyrell, if she was, she wouldn’t be so annoyed with her son and husband. A pupeteer is someone who exercises control over someone. Olenna constantly complains about Mace and calls him dumb. Personally, when I call people dumb, nine times out of ten it is because I don’t agree with their decisions. Mace obviously has no problem ignoring his mother, otherwise she wouldn’t be as annoyed. Olenna might influence some decisions, but she has no full power over Mace.

Next as to whether Mace, who clearly makes his own decisions from time to time, is oafish. What do we actually know? He’s not the best military tactician. It’s been pointed out that the military succeses he did have, were because of Randyll Tarly, Kevan Lannister believes that with Tywin dead, no one is better suited to lead an army than Randyll. Not Mace, not Jaime, but Randyll. Randyll was also the real hero of the ONLY battle we know Mace took part in, and Mace totally stole the credit for the victory. That doesn’t make Mace an oaf, but he is at least arrogant and silly for claiming military victories and pretending he’s good at war. He also talks about his siege of Storm’s End as if it was a success. As if it was hard to be stationed there with good food supply and do nothing but make sure that no food got into Storm’s End. Now, I have seen on certain fora that it could have been a deliberate move by Mace. By dragging out the siege he didn’t kill lords of other houses (which would make post-war diplomacy for the Tyrells hard or could potentially result in revenge plots if the war turned out in the favour of Robert, and that was the case), nor could he be blamed of abandoning the Targaryens. Keeping the siege also meant he didn’t lose his men in war, didn’t lose face or was branded a coward. That could be, but it’s only a theory. And so far many young heirs went into the war, risking the futures of their entire houses. Mace already had three sons by that point (or 2 sons going 3, Loras was born during the first year of the rebellion), he had heirs to spare. I reason he’s at least a bit of a coward who wasn’t willing to get hurt, and was deliberately avoiding battle because he KNEW he wasn’t good at it. So +1 for his knowledge of self and avoiding situations that would have outed his weaknesses, but a great military mastermind? Nope.

Mace’s "Always side with the winning team” approach has kept the Reach safe from most harm in Westeros, and nobody’s going to complain when the harvests are good, food is plentiful, and no heirs are dying. We got an example of the potentially destabilizing power of a big lord losing their sons in the shape of Karstark. So his politics have kept the Reach at least stable, but was that deliberate? Or was it just a coincidence that him jumping ship benefitted the other lords? His one clear act of diplomacy within the Reach was his marriage. He married a Hightower, which is good internal Reach marriage politics, and the Hightowers are one of the oldest/the oldest Reach house. But personally, I believe his marriage was decided upon by his parents. Almost all marriages in Westeros are. It would also make Olenna the go-to marriage diplomat of House Tyrell. Which is very possible. During my diplomacy courses at uni I was taught that niche diplomacy is a great thing since it always you to maximize your influence and become a “go to” for certain matters. It’s interesting to me that the Tyrells almost always marry within the Reach, and almost always to one of the houses that are supposed to hail from Garth Greenhand’s children. If all your high families are interwoven, it’s hard for them to take up arms against you. On the other hand, a need for intermarriage could also point towards a fear of the other noble houses in the Reach.

That’s it though, it’s clear Mace’s eyes are aimed at the “big politics”. He doesn’t care for Highgarden. The Western coasts have been attacked by Ironborn for months and what does he do? Nothing. The Shields are taken? Nothing. Also, given how stressed Loras is about needing to sail to the Shields, and rashly attacking Dragonstone, tells me that Mace didn’t leave enough troupes within the Reach so it could protect itself. Otherwise Loras wouldn’t be so desperate to go there with his men.

Alright, but now for his King’s Landing Politics: - A smart move was locking down the Rose Road, leading to riots and starvation in King’s Landing. A great move to apply pressure on the council, and he kept the pressure on until he had a sweet deal in regards to marrying Margaery to Joffrey. He might also have been involved in the poison-Joffrey plot and played the “shocked father” role perfectly.

- He doesn’t do anything as master of ships

- He does want more positions for the Reach but doesn’t get these in AFFC. he doesn’t “win” them either, he just manages to get them because Cersei screwed herself by letting the Faith arrest Margaery. Now that Mace is Hand of the King, Tarly justiciar and Redwyne Lord Admiral he has all positions he wants. But what has he decided? What did they do? What was their plan with those posts? It isn’t clear

- Mace was literally laying siege to Storm’s End and could have prevented Aegon from taking it (he was laying siege to Stannis’ men, but his army was big enough to potentially keep off Young Griff’s fleet. But the second he heard Margaery was arrested he just came to King’s Landing with full military force, not even leaving some troupes behind that could’ve kept up the siege against the few men Stannis had left behind. Now Stannis’ men could go and get rations so the siege was ruined, and Griff managed to take it (or so we hear in the released WoW chapters). That’s just straight dumb-assery, he could have used his men wiser. And he wasn’t just laying siege for Cersei. From Storm’s End it’s just a march through Felwood and then up the Bluebell and down the river to Highgarden. It didn’t even do anything, by the time he got there Randyll had arranged Margaery’s release already. And what was he going to do? Lay siege to KL? Really? Good luck boy, to succesfully take KL you need ships, and the Redwyne ships aren’t anywhere near him.

- It is known the Iron Throne has huge debts and still he wants his cousin Garth The Gross as Lord Treasurer. As father of the queen, and as hand, he was already expected to cough up money and invest in the throne. Because if the throne goes bankrupt, and the throne has to start demanding huge soms of all lords and smallfolk in winter... shit isn’t going to be pretty. It was already going to be bad. But to have the main responsible for the money be your own family as well? The Tyrells are doing good but that’s a ticket to bankrupcy. He wants power so bad it’s going to screw him over.

- Winter is coming and he isn’t worried at all (and that’s a thing I blame every player of the game of thrones for).

So all by all Mace isn’t blatantly stupid. He can be diplomatic and courtly, and knows the game of “give and take” politics better than say Stannis or Ned. He can also lie easily (about his victories, about being afraid that his daughter could have gotten poisoned... That is if we rule out that Mace is so full of himself he legitly believed the victory was his and was involved in the purple wedding poisoning). He also knows how to do image control, he’s called the fat flower by his mother and is despised and mistrusted by Cersei but given that he has no real military victories and has done nothing but switch sides for over twenty years, his reputation could be so much worse, yet it isn’t.

But he is at least a bit negligent of the Reach, is power hungry, doesn’t think long term, weak military skills, can’t think clearly in times of crisis (like Margaery’s arrest) and his moves are just plain predictable at this point.

I’d also say much of his "wins” relied on luck: Margaery becoming queen was partially up to luck and circumstance. If Ned had been succesful in telling Robert about the twincest, then Margaery could have become Robert’s queen. But although everyone in KL knew, no one was doing anything to help Ned, including the Tyrells. So Marg wouldn’t have simply become queen, the Tyrells weren’t working towards it. It was only after Robert died that Margaery marry Renly (queenmaker plan 2), then broker a deal with the Lannisters (attempt 3) , so on. Mace had four adult children, and only one of them married. Why didn’t he marry them to influential houses? Or at least promise them? How old were they supposed to get before he would start marrying them? Mace wanted more Reach men on the small council. When Cersei refused and replaced him on the council he only complained. Complaining isn’t scheming. It was only because Cersei screwed herself by arresting Margaery that she was stripped of her position of power and Mace and his friends gained their positions. Because contrary to Cersei, Kevan is a sane person who knows the Lannisters must treasure the allies they have.

Of course, we could still learn a lot more about the Tyrells. We might learn a lot more in the upcoming (hopefully) books. I could be very wrong :)

#asoiaf #tyrells #highgarden #mace tyrell #the fat flower #affc #adwd #game of thrones

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creativeskullcreations · 4 years

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Outside chapter 4: Home at Last

Fourth chapter, once again from Scout's POV! Idk, I think I'm getting better at writing her. Also a little bit more of a look into Stacy’s life, and what her personality is like.

"So, you ready for another ride in the truck?" Stacy asked as she locked up Sammy's apartment. True to what he'd said, he was long gone by the time they'd woken up, much to Scout's disappointment. She'd wanted to at least say goodbye, though Stacy had assured her that she'd see him again at soon enough.

"He wants to keep an eye on the stitch wounds, make sure they're healing right. So we have to come back here next week." She'd said. "Also, he's my favorite cousin. He kind of has to deal with me coming over, anyways."

While that hadn't actually made the Puppet feel any better, she did appreciate the effort. It actually meant a lot to Scout that Stacy would at least try to be comforting.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Scout replied from her hiding place in her Host's hood. She was mostly behind Stacy's neck, with her head peeking around the side to better see what was going on. Yeah she was surrounded by and covered in hair, but it was better than the other option of hiding in the bag. At least this way she could see things.

And see things she did. What had been hidden from her the other night now held a strange beauty in the bluish light of predawn. Buildings with darkened windows, street lamps starting to dim down, trees just starting to grow leaves. To the Puppet, who had only ever viewed the world through a TV screen, everything looked new and beautiful.

The entire, short, walk to Stacy's truck, Scout had to fight the urge to launch herself from her hiding spot in order to see better. It was too risky, even with how early it was. Anyone could glance out their window and see her, and she wasn't ready for that just yet.

As they made it to the vehicle, it beeped at them as the lights flashed, startling Scout. Stacy climbed into the truck and tossed her bag into the passenger seat. She then lowered her hood and gently dropped Scout on top of her bag. "You gotta ride over there. I need to concentrate on the road. Also I'm going to get us some Wendy's for the trip. What do you want to try from there?"

Scout didn't answer and instead climbed into Stacy's lap in order to plaster her face to the window. She ignored Stacy when her Host sighed, and watched as they pulled out of the lot and on to the road.

As they passed by the buildings, and occasional tree, Scout found herself getting more and more excited. 'The TV never told me just how big everything is out here. Or how many Hosts there are.' She thought as they turned into another parking lot and approached a weird looking box with a speaker . '... I don't think I thought this through enough. What if they all react like Sammy did? Fuck, I want to go back.'

"Welcome to Wendy's, how may I help you?" Scout jerked at the strange voice, and turned to look up at Stacy, who wasn't staring at a box full of pictures of food. She glanced down and, seeing the Puppet staring, gave her a quick pat on the head.

"Yeah, I'd like a single cheeseburger combo with a coke and a kid's meal with chocolate milk." She told the box as she did this, ignoring Scout as the Puppet fixed her with a death glare for her antics.

"What kind of kid's meal would you like?" The box sounded rushed. In the background, beyond the static, Scout heard a loud crash.

"Uh..." Stacy turned and stared at the Puppet for a long moment, almost to the point of discomfort. "Chicken nuggets? No sauce please."

"That'll be $11.83 please pull forward to the first window." The box shut off with a click, and Stacy slowly started driving up to the first window while Scout just stared at her.

When they reached the window, the Host reached for her bag and dug out a small, flat rectangle. When the window opened, she handed it to the Host inside, who did something with it before handing it back. Said Host also ignored Scout completely, which was just fine with her.

"What was that?" The Puppet asked as they drove to the next window. Nothing like that had ever come up in the shows she'd watched, nor had any of the Puppets at HQ ever mentioned anything about it.

"Me paying for our food." Stacy responded. "Money is very important to, uh, Host society. Remind me to teach you more about it later, it's something you'll need to know." She handed Scout the small rectangle. "Here, you can look at it if you want. Just don't break it."

The window opened then, and the Host inside handed Stacy a white cup with a lid and a small bottle. She put these in the cup holders, and then grabbed the two bags that were handed out next. She thanked the Host inside, dropped the bags in the passenger seat, and drove away. She parked again a few feet later, though, and grabbed the bags.

"Okay, so this one is mine." She pulled the white bag closer to her, then picked Scout up and set her in front of the more colorful one. "And this one is for you. Don't worry if you make a mess, I'll clean it up later."

Scout stared at the bag for a moment, then pulled it over so she could reach inside and pull out the food that was supposedly in there. Underneath some brown papery things and a plastic bag, there were several long, skinny yellow sticks, and four fat brown things. She picked up a few of the yellow ones first and shoved them in her mouth, having to fold them up a bit to make them fit. She mashed them up, then tipped her head up to swallow as she glanced over at her Host, who was eating the large sandwich she'd ordered.

"These taste weird." Scout spoke up, shoving yet more into her mouth. It was certainly different than what they had eaten the night before. Less soft, for one, but not so hard she couldn't "chew" them.

"It's fast food. It's supposed to taste weird." Stacy told her. "What you're eating now is french fries, the brown things are chicken nuggets, and I have a cheese burger. And then we have coke and chocolate milk to drink."

"Hmm." Scout picked up a nugget and stuck it in her mouth, finding it chewier than the fries. It reminded her of the red things she'd had last night, and she wondered if it was something similar. She then grabbed the bottle and gave it a shake, scowling when she heard liquid inside.

'Noooo thank you...' She put the bottle back and picked up more fries. 'Stacy can have that.'

They continued to eat their food in silence, with Scout watching as they slowly left the buildings behind to only simple blue sky. Climbing back up she could see that it wasn't as empty as it seemed. Miles of green plains were all she could see, but there was the occasional house or grouping of trees. Sometimes there were also large, strange animals.

"It's so empty..." She hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud until Stacy answered her.

"Yeah, most of us like to live all clumped together, but we still have need for, like, farms and stuff. Most of what's out there now is fields for growing food. They should be planting them soon, actually, if they haven't already." She told her. "You might be able to see some of the machines if you look for them." Scout could see some odd looking cars in the fields, but wasn't entirely sure if that was what Stacy was talking about. Instead she rested her head on her folded arms and simply enjoyed the view.

Sitting there, watching trees and houses and other cars pass by, made the Puppet feel more relaxed than she'd ever been in her entire life. She sunk even deeper into that feeling when Stacy clicked the radio on and music filled the small space. Her Host started singing along to whatever song was on, and the Puppet gave a small sigh of contentment.

Life was good on the outside.

"Welp, here we are." Stacy finally announced as she pulled into another lot in front of a brick building. Scout jolted awake at the sound of her voice, having fallen asleep at some point in the journey. Shaking her head, she watched as Stacy gathered up the "fast food" trash and shoved it into the white bag. She then grabbed up her own bag and Scout before finally opening the door and stepping out into the open air.

As Scout quickly crawled into the hood, she was struck by how similar the building was to Sammy's home. If it weren't for the fact she knew they were somewhere completely different, Scout would be worried they'd gone in a circle. Stacy jogged up the steps and into the building, heading straight for the stairs. she paused only briefly to make sure her bag was settled properly and Scout was there before starting the long climb.

"We can't take the elevator?" Scout asked as they started the climb to the fourth floor. "The other place had one. And the TV said all buildings like this have one."

"Nope. Well, the building has one, but it's not for people to use." Scout blinked. Who used it then, if not people. Stacy continued to fast for her to question it, though. "And I live on the fourth floor, so that's... fun." Her grip on her bag tightened just a bit as she sped up a little. "But yeah, apartment thirteen on the fourth floor, in case you ever get lost. I'll try and get a key made for you next time I go to Home Depot."

Scout stayed silent on that. A key would be cool, but she was far too short to even use it. Still, it was nice that her Host was thinking of a detail like that, however useless it would be in reality.

When they reached the door, a shiny 413 sitting just above eye level, Stacy pulled a small key out of her bag and unlocked it. The door stuck a little, but Stacy managed to get it open and they ducked inside, with the Host locking it behind them.

"Welp, here we are. My own little home." Stacy said as she dropped her bag by the door. Scout took the chance to look around while she still had the height, before Stacy dropped her off somewhere.

Right away Scout could see a kitchen area with a larger table and four chairs around it. Behind them was a shelve filled with books, figurines, and stuffed animals. Against the far wall was a bigger couch than what Sammy had, along with a large TV. There was also a desk with two smaller TVs on it and a cool chair with wheels in front of it, and beside the shelf was another door. "Definitely looks cleaner than that other guy's place." She remarked as Stacy took her shoes off. Her Host bit back a laugh, shaking her head.

"Yeah, he's never really been all that clean." She said as she hung her hoodie over one of the chairs. She then started pulling her phone out of her pocket. "I've gotta make a couple of calls real quick. You can go watch Netflix or something until I'm done, okay?"

"Kay." Scout Jumped to the couch when Stacy looked down at her phone and started searching for the remote. It was easily found under a blanket, and she managed to get the bigger TV on while her Host started her call.

"Hey Will. I'm back from my most recent expedition!" She sounded perky, but the smile she had quickly faded as whoever Will was said something. "Uh, well, it kinda... didn't. Things got pretty bad in there. No, no I'm not... dead, anyways." She rubbed at the bandage on her left wrist. "And I did manage to bring home a souvenir. Kinda."

Scout looked up at that, staring openly at her Host, but was ignored. "No, she's not another pipe. I told you I wasn't bringing you any more of those. Nor a dog. Or a cat." She sounded exasperated, rolling her eyes while she started pacing behind the TV. "She's not an animal. My apartment doesn't allow pets anyways. You'll meet her when you come over tonight. No, Will, it's not an orphan child with magic powers. Well," She caught Scout's eye as she passed by again, "maybe yes on the powers part. No. Yes. Look, Babe, I still gotta call Carol about the article. Yeah, I called you first." The smile was back, but was different from the other times Scout had seen her Host smile. It sent a spike of something pleasant through her, and she quickly turned back to the screen. "Okay. Yeah, I'll see you tonight unless Carol kills me through the phone. Love you too. Bye."

"Who's Will?" Scout asked when she'd hung up the phone. She'd managed to get to Netflix, but hadn't yet selected something to watch. Not that she knew her choices, of course.

"Will's my boyfriend, you'll meet him tonight. He should be bringing pizza." She started messing with her phone again while Scout looked away, suddenly nervous. "Now just to call Carol..."

'<i>So there's going to be someone else who knows. Great...</i>' Scout shook her head, refocusing on the TV. 'Remember that you wanted this, Scout. You've made it this far, you can't back out.' Her thoughts were interrupted by Stacy, now talking to "Carol".

"Yeah, hey Carol. I survived my latest expedition. Barely." She fingered her bandages again. "Yeah, I'll get started on the article right away, I just had to stay with my cousin for a few days. I'll explain why when I come over with my piece tomorrow. Pfft, yeah, I can totally get the whole thing written tonight, this is what I do, remember?" Scout rolled her own eyes at the cocky tone.

'We almost died, dumbass.'

"Yeah, I got a souvenir. No, she's not a pipe. Why does everyone think I adopted a pet? My building doesn't even allow fish!" Stacy facepalmed, shaking her head. "Yeah. Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, I'll bring her. I kind of need to so you'll believe me. You'll see tomorrow! I gotta go now. Bye." Stacy quickly hung up and let out a sigh.

"So was that one Carol?" Scout asked as she looked for The Good Place on Netflix. Unfortunately, the words all looked like gibberish to her, so she was trying to go by the pictures. It wasn't working so far, but she stayed determined.

"Yep. We gotta go talk to her tomorrow." Scout didn't miss that wording, but didn't protest it as Stacy walked over to the desk and sat in the cool chair. She leaned down fiddling with something underneath. "I gotta work on my article. Two articles, actually. I need a back-up one for tomorrow depending how Carol takes things."

While she messed with things, Scout Jumped on top of the TV, and then onto the back of the chair. She watched as Stacy did something with the small TVs, and then started making words appear. The Puppet was confused, having never seen anything like this before.

"Uh, what are you doing?" She asked, flopping onto her Host's head. Stacy paused her typing to steady the Puppet, but other than that didn't react. Scout took it as a good sign.

"Writing about what happened at the HQ. I've gotta write two separate pieces about this. What really happened, and then what Carol will probably want published after she reads the first one and meets you."

"Oh." Scout watched a bit more. "Can I help?"

Stacy paused, considering. "Actually, yes. You can tell me what happened between Mortimer casting the spell and when I woke up. I don't really remember, considering I was a zombie and all."

Her Host smiled, but Scout winced at hearing her own words thrown back at her like that. "Ummmm! You don't want to know about that. Like, at all!"

"Why not?" Stacy sounded genuinely curious, and Scout realized she probably didn't think anything had happened beyond the stitching. But there was a whole process to making a Host into, well, a Host. It was a process that Scout was far too familiar with, and that Riley had taken far too much pleasure in each time she'd had to do it.

"Look just... don't ask me that again. Riley... And..." The Puppet shook her head. "I went through it three times. I... Just, don't ask. Please." She didn't like begging., but this was the one thing she wasn't going to talk about. It was horrible, and she was glad Stacy didn't know or remember anything about it. Her Host didn't need or want that knowledge. It was bad enough that Scout had to live with it.

"Alright..." The Host focused back on the screen, and Scout gave a silent sigh in relief. "How about you make sure I get all the details right, instead? If I read it back to you when I'm done, you can make sure I got everything."

"Deal!" That was a much better option. Less telling of nightmares, and more of what Stacy already knew.

Together they worked on the first article, with Stacy reading each paragraph she wrote out loud, and Scout reminding her of anything she'd forgotten. Even with the extra work to it, together they finished it rather quickly. And when it was finally done, and Stacy had clicked on the save icon several times, the Host stood up and stretched.

"Okay, that's enough for right now. It's way past lunch time, and I gotta eat something before I take my pills." She made her way to the kitchen, Scout still on her head.

"Pills? Are ya sick?" The Puppet questioned.

"Eh, kinda?" She waved her hand in a so-so way before grabbing the ingredients for a sandwich out of the fridge. "It's mostly in the head, though." "What, like brain damage?" Scout was confused. She'd seen an episode of some medical show, and it had someone with brain damage in it. Stacy didn't act anything like that Host had in the show.

"Uuuuuuh, no." She put together her sandwich and then dumped a number pills onto the plate. "It's really complicated. I'll tell you later." She cut the sandwich into quarters, then added some small orange sticks from the fridge.

Scout didn't answer, still wondering what else Stacy could mean by "in the head". Her Host grabbed a bottle of water and went back to the computer. She set the plate and bottle down, then picked Scout up off her head and put her next to the plate. Puppet and food in place, she finally sat down herself.

"Okay, so this one has to make the HQ out to be both boring as hell and as dangerous as possible. We gotta make it absolutely not worth going in there." She told Scout through a bite of ham and cheese sandwich. "Like, I'm giving it a zero out of ten either way, but this has to hit home that nobody should go there while leaving out Mortimer's Fun Gang."

"Why? Shouldn't we tell the Host leaders so they can deal with it?" The Puppet asked, pausing in trying to chew through a "carrot stick". She was considering giving up on it as too hard for her plastic teeth.

"You mean the cops? Anthony tried that, remember? He got laughed out of the station. And even if they did believe us, the last thing we want those creeepos to have is guns and more Hosts." She swallowed another bite and started typing. "No, the best thing we can do is make it out to be so dangerous that nobody goes there and it dries up their supply line. They only had so many bodies in that freezer, they've gotta run out eventually."

"Hmm." Scout wasn't too sure. They had other ways of getting Hosts rather than waiting for them to stumble into the building. Riley in particular had made use of Scout's own "siblings" for those ways in the past. Waiting for people like Stacy was actually the least reliable way to get Hosts in the first place.

But Scout wasn't sure she should say so.

Instead she sat on the desk and watched as her Host typed away, stealing some ham and cheese out of one of the sandwiches. When she got tired of that, she Jumped her way back to the couch to find something to watch.

#hello puppets #fanfiction #outside #stacy stein #scout

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tarajenkins · 5 years

Text

And then there's the matter of the crap people have brought to my yard in the tags they put on my art and errant vagueposts, and my need to no longer smile and nod silently like the WoL. GANGWAY, IT’S THE DISK HORSE

When I was posting a lot of art with the Chais and Vauthry, it didn’t take me long to notice there was a distinct double standard at work in the tags of the reblogs. People who lovingly cooed over rat grandpa would tag my art--why they reblogged it in the first place, I wish I knew, I started blocking ones who did this--they would tag my art about how ew Vauthry is, how they were triggered by Vauthry, how they DEFINITELY WEREN'T REBLOGGING FOR VAUTHRY, etc.

Even though there is a very good case Vauthry had no choice in his behavior at all, as perhaps the Ascians didn’t. Even though what he did do is a fraction of the atrocities the Ascians have done, the breaking point for these people was literally the lesser of two evils. Rat grandpa is afforded an amazing level of sympathetic theorycrafting, Vauthry is just dismissed as a “bloated parasite” (interesting choice of adjective to the person who made that comment). Despite all in-game evidence the Lightwarden corruption rat grandpa forced on him before he was born likely twisted both his body and mind. Despite all in-game evidence Ascians took full advantage of their newborn pawn.

When @kasunshine pointed out that vaguepost in the Vauthry tags aimed at me, I saw a second one by the same person--it seems to be gone now?--calling me a "Vauthry Stan" who had gall to talk shit about rat grandpa for what he did to an unborn child.

Why does it take a “stan” to find what was done to him monstrous? Oh--right. Because rat grandpa. I probably would’ve made it under the radar if Lahabrea had done it.

No matter how much people may say it’s because Vauthry did bad things (that was sort of the point of rat grandpa corrupting him), or that he had no character development (hi Zenos), the fact remains that somehow, fat jokes are the preferred method of mockery.

Creating, liking, reblogging, not speaking out against (unless confronted), fat jokes. Fat jokes, imagine that.

Fat jokes even got defended in this recent round of discussion, under the guise of "concern", of course--even though it’s been thoroughly documented that shit is bullying and helps no one but the bully to feel better about themselves. Imagine upskirting Dulia-Chai’s model and laughing at her body, because haha, fat people are fat, gross! Imagine laughing at Dulia-Chai for eating because haha, fat people eat, gross! I’ve even read so many comments elsewhere about how Vauthry is absolutely a sexual predator, although nothing in-game backs that up. Yet when rat grandpa practically brags about all the kids he's had with unwitting partners, there is only silence from the same people. Silence, or excuses.

But haha, fat people would totally be predators, amirite? They’re gross!

I've dealt with this attitude before when drawing big guys in other fandoms. I’ve seen this phenomenon happen with them too. It’s always the same. Tumblr will gleefully reblog a fat woman for progressive brownie points (like my Dulia-Chai art), then will point and laugh and otherwise dehumanize fat men like kids on a playground (see disclaimers for EW VAUTHRY in the tags of the aforementioned Dulia-Chai art). If Vauthry had been a woman, or if rat grandpa had Vauthry's model, I am pretty sure most of this argument would not happen. In fact, if Vauthry’s model were reversed with rat grandpa, I would bet money people would all share my pain over the injustice of the Eulmore arc and all its poorly thought out shlock.

Square played the fat hate themselves, to the hilt.They used nothing but fat bodies in the trailer to represent the evils of Eulmore. Vauthry's introduction made sure to begin with a long, slooooooow pan from the stomach up. In German, Alphinaud straight-up called him a "fatass", apparently. Implications of cannibalism because we’re back in the Austin Powers days, I guess, even though meol made absolutely no sense if you bothered to do the math. But why bother to do the math? “Get in mah belly” haha fat people would totally eat people, amirite?

And finally, in the end, Square elevated the man who did this to Vauthry to a hero, because it seems they guessed correctly--not a lot of people would give a shit what was done to the fat guy, they’re too busy blaming the victim (and everyone else rat grandpa killed) because rat grandpa is just soooo tragic and

"aesthetically pleasing". (Modding rat grandpa into bed for screenshots is just a coincidence, it’s all about his character.)

I've read long discourse on how rat grandpa is innocent of all things he's done because Tempering, though rat grandpa's dialogue sounded like the Ascians expected to be Tempered ("of course" Zodiark Tempered them, "it was only natural".) It would be tragic if it pans out the Ascians were puppets, but before they were, there was a choice made -- of free will and immortal wisdom -- to commit to this bloody course. I don’t really buy the bullshit rat grandpa was selling about looking for other ways to achieve their goal. If there was really a less tragic path and they could choose it, why didn’t they choose it in the first place? They’re immortal. They have all the time in the worlds to achieve their goal. Yet they went headlong into the murder of billions of sentient creatures. Made a game of it. Oh, the WoL was being tested? Why does the WoL need to pass a test, when if they disagreed with the Ascians’ methods, it was stated plainly that the Ascians would then kill them anyway? Why does anyone on the Shards need to pass a test for the right to exist? Yeah, yeah, “moral relativism”, I know. Cool motive, still murder, and by rat grandpa’s own admission they freely chose to become the thralls of a primal, apparently fully aware of the monstrous things they may do in Zodiark’s name. Of course, rat grandpa said he’d do it all even if he weren’t Tempered. Hm. And I thought Raha was a shitty actor, lmao. BUT ASCIAN HUBRIS AND GENERAL JACKASSERY ASIDE

For all the mental gymnastics to excuse the Ascians of the deaths of entire worlds, the people I've countered about Vauthry go through comical, armchair-psychologist lengths to claim Vauthry was ABSOLUTELY aware and responsible for everything he'd done since rat grandpa corrupted him before he was born (corrupted him with Light, which the latest patch implied was very much like Tempering).

There are no examples in-game of Light corruption leaving a person unscathed, mentally or physically. Not Pixie Kings, not even the Hydaelyn-blessed WoL. But these people will look at rat grandpa, sigh lovingly, and absolve him of all these atrocities because Tempering--then look at his creation, his Light-Tempered corrupted from birth creation, the twenty-foot-tall Hume with the bendy straw neck and a Lightwarden forced into his chest, the guy quite clearly mad, the guy who was never asked if he wanted this and who wasn’t even born when it was forced on him, and condemn him for acting as he was made and conditioned to act by rat grandpa and rat grandpa’s pal, Vauthry’s father, because obviously Vauthry is not affected by the corruption forced on him at all, no sir. Against every bit of evidence to the contrary, Vauthry was in total control of himself, and so is to blame for everything. Because reasons. He was fully aware of reality despite being brainwashed into a bubble of lies. That uncontrollable urge to violence that was going to make your WoL kill their own friends? Nah, wouldn’t affect that kid without Hydaelyn’s Blessing, what a leap of logic that would be! Certainly wasn't rat grandpa’s fault, nope! Vauthry would’ve become a Lightwarden without anyone’s help! The Ascians just accidentally corrupted an unborn child and then saw him groomed to a “desired end”. Happens all the time. (Yoshi-P saying he would like us to consider if Vauthry was “really just a friend of the Sin Eaters, or was he being controlled by someone” was just a really oddly specific red herring. ) The folks I’ve countered definitely don’t give a thought to how frightened his mother looked while The Men (tm) discussed what to do with her body, either. Consent is only valid if convenient when it’s rat grandpa. (”Respects women” my fat ass.) And whatever happened to grooming children being fucking gross, Tumblr dot com? Because Vauthry was a child. Just because he didn’t grow up into your dating sim wet dream doesn’t mean what was done to him was remotely okay.

These people couldn't just relent neither one may have had control. There isn't a fraction of the Deeper Understanding spared to Vauthry that they seek to give rat grandpa for genocide.

They just have to make sure the fat guy they don’t want to, uh, take screenshots with gets what he "deserves".

#Vauthry #FFXIV #above all I ship this man with the life he should have had #and the happiness he never really seemed to know #jfc

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bythebigcoolingtower · 6 years

Text

I Wrote a Simpsons Script...

Over the last couple of months, when I’ve had time, I’ve tried to write something that was not only better than what’s currently being produced but could also find a place lower down the seasons. I don’t think I’ve been successful but I thought I’d share my endeavors for an important reason: It made me realize how hard coming up with an idea, writing and editing a script for a cartoon was. For some background, I write scripts for films part time and try to sell them, so far (obviously, because I wouldn't shut up about it if I had) I’ve not been able too (partly because it’s tough to sell scripts in England and partly because I don’t have the money/time/resources to make them independently) but I do have some experience in shaping a narrative, the structure of scripts and other techniques, so I’ve not walked into this blind. Whether it’s good or not is your opinion, seriously, feel free to criticize it, if you think it’s bad, tell me, I’m a grown man, I can take criticism. If you like it, that’s allowed too, but the main question is this: What season do you think it’d fit into?

Be warned, it’s 30 pages on Word so it’s a long read, it’s your choice, you don’t have to. For reference: Italics are description, bold is who’s talking, normal is dialogue, (Beside name is ‘Off Screen’, under name is the way the line is delivered).

(Disclaimer: I obviously don’t own the rights to the Simpsons, this is a non-profit idea and simply a writing exercise to keep me amused, so I believe it falls within fair use, please don’t sue! If you want me to take it down, I will.)

OPENING CREDITS

COUCH GAG: The family sit on the couch, Maggie is a baby’s bottle, Lisa a plastic cup, Bart a glass, Marge a wine glass and Homer a beer mug. They are then filled with drink, Maggie with milk, Lisa with orange juice, Bart with Buzz cola, Marge with Wine and Homer with Duff.

EXT. CHARITY FUN FAIR – DAY

We move down from a clear blue sky past a sign, ‘CHARITY FUN FAIR: WHERE ONLY THE CHAIRTY IS OBLIGATORY’, down into the park which has been taken over by various things.

There’s a puppet show, some games and a stage. It all looks very cost effective, as if they wanted to bare minimum to maximize profits.

Walking around are the Simpson’s, looking a bit bored, except Marge who’s seems disappointed. Lisa holds a brochure about the fair.

MARGE

Fifteen dollars for cotton candy, what charity would charge such high prices?

Lisa consults the brochure.

LISA

‘Quimby retirement homes’.

(she reads more)

He wants a place in Tobago.

BART

I thought he already embezzled funds for that?

LISA

No that was for his golf club membership in Bermuda.

HOMER

(wistful)

I wish I could retire.

BART

What’s stopping you?

HOMER

Burns had us sign contracts in perpetuity in exchange for a second ice machine.

STAGE, CHARITY FUN FAIR – LATER

Quimby is on stage, along with a few others, and has a big smile on his face. Something sits under a sheet on a table beside him. He approaches the microphone to address the crowd, which includes the Simpsons.

QUIMBY

Thank you ladies and gentleman for your tremendous charity. I’m one step closer to getting a holiday home in Trinidad.

There’s scattered applause, murmurs. Quimby doesn’t care, carries on as an assistant walks over with a bucket.

QUIMBY

To show my appreciation I will now draw a winner from this bucket of parking tickets, that’s worth more than the prize in question, this-

Quimby unveils the prize, a toaster oven, has to be told by his assistant what it is.

QUIMBY

Toaster oven, I didn’t want as a gift.

No applause this time, just coughs and confused looks. Quimby draws a ticket.

QUIMBY

Marge Simpson.

The family react with little enthusiasm. Scattershot applause as they move up onto the stage.

QUIMBY

(to Lisa)

Congratulations, Marge.

He shakes Lisa’s hand, she can’t be bothered to tell him, it’s over quickly enough.

QUIMBY

(to his Assistant)

Bundle the cash, my flight leaves in an hour.

Quimby and his assistant leave, the stage is vacated by all but the Simpsons and a reporter, TOM, 20′s, The crowd disperses.

TOM

This is headline stuff, can I get a quote?

LISA

This is your headline? I thought you reported on real news, like your stories on the upcoming winter.

TOM

That was a Game of Thrones review.

LISA

Oh.

TOM

We haven’t printed a real news story since the town got high speed broadband. No one reads the paper anymore.

MARGE

Well, it would be nice to be named in the paper in a context other than: “we apologize for erroneously reporting the death of Homer Simpson”.

TOM

(to Homer)

Oh hey, I thought you looked familiar.

HOMER

Can you print a different picture of me this time? That old one makes me look fat, I’m portly.

TOM

Sure, we’ll send our new guy round later.

LISA

I thought Fred was your photographer?

TOM

He was until 7/11 poached him. They offered him something we couldn’t.

BART

Job satisfaction?

TOM

A wage.

(pause)

Oh and that.

INT. DINING ROOM, SIMPSON HOUSE – NIGHT

The family are sat around the table eating.

HOMER

This is great pasta honey.

MARGE

It’s Shepard’s pie.

HOMER

Do you want the compliment or not?

Moe enters, camera in hand.

MOE

Hey everyone.

HOMER

Hey Moe-

(sees camera)

Are you the Shoppers new photographer?

Moe looks around, stutters.

MOE

Uh... yeah... I sure am.

LISA

How did you get in?

Moe panics slightly.

MOE

Gather round, picture time.

There’s a knock on the door.

MARGE

I should get that.

Marge walks past Moe, who stands awkwardly at the top of the room, to the front door.

DOOR

Marge opens the door to CLIVE BREWER, 38, average looking, gentle.

CLIVE

I’m Clive Brewer, from the Shopper.

MARGE

If your-

Marge turns right to find Moe has gone, then left to see an open window at the back of the living room.

MARGE

Never mind. Please, come in.

DINING ROOM

Marge shuts the front door and walks Clive into the room, then sits back down.

CLIVE

Hi, it’s nice to meet you all. I thought it’d be good to have the toaster oven in the picture.

HOMER

The what?

CLIVE

The prize you won.

Nothing, the family don’t remember it.

CLIVE

Earlier today.

Nope.

CLIVE

It’s the reason I’m here.

HOMER

You should probably just take the picture.

CLIVE

Alright, big smiles.

The family bunch up, Clive takes the picture.

THE SPRINGFIELD SHOPPER

HEADLINE: LOCAL FAMILY FILLS PICTURE SPACE

SUB STORY: FRED PROMOTED TO ASSISTANT MANAGER

INT. GROCERY STORE – THE NEXT DAY (MORNING)

The family are out shopping, Marge reads the newspaper, very proud that they’re on the front.

MARGE

What a great picture, we’ll have to ask Clive for a copy, he’s so talented and nice.

HOMER

Pfft, he’s no nicer than me, Carl, Lenny or Moe.

MARGE

Last week you told me Moe throw a mug at you.

HOMER

(laughs)

Oh, honey, that was only because I hit Lenny in the head with a pool cue to stop him biting Carl after he’d bruised Lenny’s arm in Moe’s annual pain Olympics.

Marge stares at him, doesn’t like any of that.

EXT. SPRINGFIELD SHOPPER – LATER ON

The shopper is housed in a wide, one storey building, Marge’s station wagon is parked outside.

INT. FOYER, SPRINGFIELD SHOPPER – SAME TIME

Marge carries Maggie with her as she stands at the reception desk, a woman, FELICITY, walks over to her.

FELICITY

Hi, can I help?

MARGE

I was looking for Clive Brewer, the photographer?

FELICITY

He should be at his desk. We can look after your baby while you talk to him. We’re running a day care to add a little extra cash until our readership picks up.

MARGE

You are? I didn’t know that?

FELICITY

You didn’t? We advertise it all the time-

(pause)

Oh.

OFFICE – MOMENTS LATER

Marge enters what should be a loud bustling office, full of journalists and writers, but instead finds around twenty very unenthusiastic employees, mainly students, not doing much at all.

Clive stands out like a sore thumb, not least because he’s stationed by a window with the sun is beaming through it.

Marge walks over, Clive sees her, smiles.

CLIVE

Marge, hi, I assume you’re here because we referred to Homer as a “buffoon” in the article.

MARGE

Well, he is really more of an oaf but I was actually hoping I could get a copy of the picture you took. It’d be nice to have one were Homer isn’t giving the kids rabbit ears.

She takes out her phone, opens up the picture folder and shows Clive several photo’s as she’s described. The shadow on the wall behind the kids makes them look like characters from ‘Life in Hell’.

MARGE

I just don’t get why people find it funny.

Clive laughs. Stops when he really hears what Marge said.

CLIVE

Sure, I’ll print you off a copy.

Tom, walking past at the time, overhears the conversation.

TOM

The printer here doesn’t work.

CLIVE

It doesn’t?

TOM

No, wasn’t this explained when you were given the tour?

CLIVE

I was supposed to have had a tour?

Tom looks around.

TOM

(covering)

No.

He walks off. Clive sighs.

CLIVE

I guess I can’t print you off a copy.

Marge can see his disappointment, smiles trying to perk him up.

MARGE

Don’t worry, we have a printer a home, you can bring the picture there.

CLIVE

(trying)

Sounds like a plan.

EXT. PARK – THE SAME TIME

Bart, Lisa and an annoyed looking Homer walk around the park, it’s barely been cleaned since yesterday, or the days before that.

HOMER

How many days do I have to do this for?

LISA

Dr. Hibbert said you need to walk for at least an hour a day for the next three months.

HOMER

Three months! What’s the point?

LISA

(concerned)

Dad, he said in your condition you could die at any moment.

HOMER

(grumbling)

That can’t come soon enough.

Lisa gives him an off look, concerned but confused as to whether Homer actually understands.

BART

Why am I here?

LISA

You were supposed to be walking Santa’s Little Helper.

BART

Oh, yeah.

(pause)

I’m sure he’s getting plenty of fresh air.

CUT TO: The basement of the Simpson house, pitch black, SLH barking incessantly.

BACK TO: Homer and the kids walking, Lisa now concerned by the amount of rubbish about.

LISA

Did they even bother cleaning up from yesterday?

They pass a crumpled sign: 2017 CHARITY DRIVE. QUIMBY WANTS A PORSCHE.

LISA

Or last year?

HOMER

Lisa, fly tipping is a part of nature, ever since the caveman.

LISA

It’s destroying the natural environment of the animals.

BART

Looks like there adapting to it.

We pan across the rubbish, which the animals are using, including a family of raccoons operating the toaster oven.

LISA

Well, it’s not right, animals deserve to live with the same rights as us, nature deserves to flourish and not be cluttered by plastics that should be being recycled. I’m going to start a group to clean this place up.

Homer gets down to Lisa’s level, puts his hand on her shoulder to calm her.

HOMER

Lisa, is this the type of thing were you ask me to join and I keep saying no and you just keep asking and interrupting while I’m trying to drink beer and watch TV, until I eventually cave?

LISA

(shyly)

Yes.

HOMER

Then consider me in.

INT. KITCHEN, SIMPSON HOUSE – A LITTLE LATER

Marge carries Maggie into the kitchen, leading Clive through with her.

She puts Maggie in the high chair.

MARGE

Take a seat, I think the printer’s in the basement.

Clive takes a seat at the table, takes his bag off as he sits, from that he takes out his laptop and opens it on the table.

Marge walks to the basement door, opens it, SLH rushes out.

MARGE

Hmmm.

She disappears downstairs. Clive begins clicking through his laptop, trying to find the image.

He goes through various folders, opens one that he hadn’t meant too, it’s full of beautiful shots, landscapes of parks, woods and forests.

Clive opens one, a melancholic look upon his face. Maggie begins laughing.

Turning, Clive sees that it’s the picture Maggie is amused by.

CLIVE

You like it huh?

(pause)

Yeah, it’s alright.

Marge can be heard coming back up.

CLIVE

Let’s just keep it between us.

He backs out of the folder, Maggie stops laughing.

Marge re-enters, carrying a really old looking printer.

MARGE

Here we go. We only use it when Lisa wants to print out protest leaflets. Luckily she’s boycotting paper right now.

CLIVE

I’m sure it’ll work fine.

Marge puts it on the top, plugs it in, it comes on immediately. She hands Maggie the bottle she’s reaching for.

CLIVE

It’s connected. Here-

From his bag Clive takes a ream of paper, hands it to Marge.

MARGE

Do you always carry so much paper?

CLIVE

Oh, I took it from the office.

(pause)

I mean, there not actually paying me.

Marge shrugs, puts the paper in. Clive clicks on the picture, selects print, the process begins immediately.

He backs out of the folder, leaving him on the page with all the folders on.

Quickly the picture prints, Marge is very pleased with it.

MARGE

What a great shot. You really do have a talent.

Clive is non committal, modest.

CLIVE

Maybe.

MARGE

I’ve got the perfect frame for it too, hold there.

Marge leaves Clive sat with Maggie again, she sees the situation, ‘accidentally’ drops her bottle on the laptop, the printer starts up again.

Clive turns, looks panicked once he sees that it’s printing the pictures from earlier.

CLIVE

What are the odds?

One after another they print, Clive tries to grab them as quickly as he can, to hide them but can’t. Maggie laughs.

MARGE (O.S)

It fits perfectly.

Marge enters to see Clive stuffing a couple of the printed pictures into the toaster, she looks suspiciously at him, wondering what he’s up to.

At that moment the printer jams. The final fully printed picture flies out, lands at Marge’s feet.

Putting down the family portrait, she picks up the printed picture, a glorious shot of the early evening.

MARGE

Clive, did you take this.

Clive looks embarrassed, by both his actions and Marge seeing his work.

CLIVE

(nervous)

Yeah.

MARGE

It’s so expressive-

She moves around, fishes another from the oven.

MARGE

They all are. Why would you hide them?

CLIVE

I guess because they remind me of what I had, lost.

MARGE

Please, sit down, tell me.

Clive takes one of the pictures from the toaster, gives it to Maggie, then sits down.

INT. GYM, SCHOOL – 30 YEARS EARLIER

An eight year old Clive sits on a stall.

CLIVE (O.S)

My passion for photography came from my dad.

A photographer stands behind an old camera, readies the shot, beside him is Clive’s dad, DANIEL BREWER, 36, taking multiple pictures.

CLIVE (O.S)

He was always taking pictures of me, the whole family.

MONTAGE - OVER THE FOLLOWING YEARS

Daniel takes pictures of Clive in the bathroom, sleeping, at school, playing sports, as he has his first kiss, first date and even through the window of his first ‘adult sleep over’.

CLIVE (O.S)

I just started doing the same.

Clive takes pictures of Daniel in the bathroom, sleeping, at work, watching sports on TV, watching Clive play sports whilst Clive plays and while Daniel is taking pictures of Clive.

MARGE (O.S)

Are you two still close?

CLIVE (O.S)

We haven’t been close for a while.

EXT. TRAIN TRACKS – DAY, 20 YEARS AGO

Daniel stands in the middle of the tracks, camera ready.

CLIVE (O.S)

He was trying to take a picture of the front of a train.

A train can be heard approaching, Daniel takes his stance.

The train approaches from behind Daniel.

EXT. FUNERAL, CEMETERY – A COUPLE WEEKS LATER

Daniel’s headstone is a camera, his picture is a picture of him taking a picture of the picture taker, presumably Clive.

The family weeps in sadness, as does a now eighteen year old Clive. Still, he continues to take pictures.

CLIVE (O.S)

After that I vowed to take my time in my work and for a while that went well.

INT. HIGH END MAGAZINE COMPANY – TEN YEARS LATER

A happy Clive, now twenty eight, shows off the negatives of his work to his boss, MR. HARTFORD, 44.

He gets the thumbs up, which he takes a picture of.

CLIVE (O.S)

But it didn’t last, with smart phones, people wanted shots quicker and I just didn’t work fast enough.

EXT. TOWN SQUARE – TIME LAPSE, OVER 12 HOURS

Clive arrives in the empty town square to take a picture of a new sculpture, he takes his stance and waits.

Over the course of the next twelve hours, hundreds of photographers, selfie taking tourists and interested locals take pictures.

There’s also a protest about the statue, people with banners and plaques turn up, then the police arrive to stop them, there’s a conversation and then the police join in with the protesters.

Lastly a work crew turns up and removes the statue, Clive is alone again, finally takes the picture.

INT. KITCHEN, SIMPSON HOUSE – THIRTY MINUTES LATER

Marge has sat and listened, she and Clive have also drunk coffee in the interim. Maggie is asleep, holding the picture Clive gave her.

CLIVE

Eventually the work began to dry up, now I’m wherever here is, taking pictures for nothing.

MARGE

Clive, I’m so sorry.

He sits upset, but he’s been like this for a while so it’s almost normal to him.

CLIVE

It’s not the work or money I miss, it’s the feeling. That passion I used to have when I was an eight year old, like there was nothing more important.

(sigh)

I wish I could capture that again.

HALLWAY – AT THAT MOMENT

The door bursts open, an impassioned Lisa enters as SLH bolts out the house.

LISA

(loud, excitable)

Mom, get the printer, were making flyers!

EXT. PARK – TWO DAYS LATER (MORNING)

Lisa has organized an impressive line-up, along with the family, her and Bart’s school classes, Skinner, Willie and Grampa, Jasper and the old Jewish man. Each has a rubbish picker, bag and hi-vis jacket.

Skinner looks annoyed and anxious, walks over to Lisa, who’s reading through her to-do list.

SKINNER

Exactly how many more favors does the school owe you? I feel this is bordering on absurd, especially since you already hijacked the band to play for sick children at the hospital.

LISA

Your right, maybe I have been abusing my power.

Skinner relaxes, but Lisa isn’t done.

LISA

Although I’m quite sure the building shouldn’t be held together with driftwood and crazy glue.

All Skinner’s good thoughts have gone, he groans.

SKINNER

Young lady, I’d like to see you run a school on two hundred and seventy five dollars a month without resorting to crazy glue and criminality.

LATER ON THAT DAY

Everyone is picking rubbish up, rather un-enthusiastically, but slowly the park is looking a little better.

Sat under a tree, watching, is Clive he eats a toasted sandwich. Marge walks over to him.

MARGE

Clive-

(sees the sandwich)

Where’d you get that?

CLIVE

A raccoon gave it too me.

MARGE

Oh.

(pause)

Is any of this inspiring you?

CLIVE

It’s great to watch your daughter care so much about nature and boss around her principal but it feels like something’s missing, I can’t put my finger on it.

Lisa, seeing Marge and Clive talking, has come over.

LISA

Mr. Brewer, maybe joining in will inspire you, being involved with the experience.

Clive stands up, sandwich in hand.

CLIVE

Your right, it’d certainly be more helpful than me just sitting around. Hand me a stick.

In comes a stick, held by Homer, his bag and jacket in the other hand.

HOMER

Have mine.

Clive takes it, Homer runs off, drops the rest of his stuff.

LISA

Dad!

He walks back to Lisa.

HOMER

Lisa, honey, I wouldn’t leave unless it was very important.

LISA

But-

Homer snatches Clive’s sandwich-

HOMER

Yoink!

Then runs off.

CUT TO: Close up, Homer, moments later. He laughs to himself.

HOMER

Got away clean.

He looks around, finds he’s back in the park, gear on. He stares at his legs, accusingly.

HOMER

(to his legs)

I said go to Moe!

Homer looks back up, finds Moe stood there, in full gear.

HOMER

Moe!

(confused)

What are you doing here?

Moe laughs, looks away, remembering.

MOE

Well, you remember the other day, when I was in your house?

He looks back to Homer, who’s gone, his stuff on the floor.

Moe sighs, looks away, finds Homer stood the other side of him, chastising his legs, he looks up.

HOMER

Moe!

(confused)

What are you doing here?

TIME LAPSE – OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS

Lisa, Clive and the rest pick up what rubbish they can, but it’s a losing battle.

First the other kids leave at three o’clock with the school day over, then the old folks at four being called back for bedtime, then Skinner and Willie leave.

Now with only Clive and the family they face other residents openly fly tipping as they clean up. For everything cleaned three more things are dropped.

It hits early evening, everyone bar Lisa is exhausted.

7:10PM

Maggie is asleep on Marge’s shoulder, even she is yawning.

MARGE

Lisa, I think we should stop for today, we need food and rest. We’ll come back tomorrow.

Lisa puts another can in the bag, knows that Marge is right but has a hard time accepting it.

LISA

(sadly)

But we aren’t even close to half way done and Clive-

She looks across the park, to the tree Clive was sat under earlier, where he is now, grabbing his stuff.

MARGE

It’ll be better tomorrow.

Lisa well’s up.

LISA

But if we don’t do the work today, there won’t be a tomorrow.

In goes another can, her bag splits, the rubbish falls out and she bursts into tears.

The family stand, as sad as Lisa but unable to help her.

From the tree Clive can hear Lisa, he turns and sees her, his eyes ache over her pain, he can feel his own, the rejection, the loss of his father, in the pit of his stomach.

Grabbing his camera, Clive steels up, he aims and takes a picture.

INT. OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD SHOPPER – LATER THAT NIGHT

ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN: The picture of Lisa crying, rubbish at her feet, family beside her. The headline reads: TOWN MUST CLEAN UP ACT.

Alone, Clive writes the story himself.

PRINTING ROOM – LATER

The paper runs through the machines, Clive snaps the process.

At the end of the process, the papers are bundled, Clive snaps it.

INT. BACK OF VAN – EARLY MORNING

Paperboys throw bundles of the paper onto the street for waiting sellers, Clive is in the van handing the papers to them and, of course, taking pictures as he does.

EXT. STREET – MORNING

A young paperboy rides his bike quickly, throwing papers to the doors.

Behind him Clive runs, struggling to keep up and take pictures at the same time.

INT. BEDROOM, CLIVE’S APARTMENT – A LITTLE LATER

Clive sleeps, exhausted, his finger on the resting on the button of his camera which faces him.

INT. LISA’S ROOM, SIMPSON HOUSE – 7:30AM

Marge is waking Lisa up, but Lisa is reluctant.

LISA

(sleepy)

Do I have to get up?

MARGE

No, honey but at least read the paper first.

This intrigues Lisa, she gets up fully and is handed the paper by Marge.

Her eyes light up seeing the headline and picture she reads the story below. The sub headline is: FRED FIRED. PAGES 3-12.

LISA

Do you think it made a difference?

MARGE

I wouldn’t have woke you up if it hadn’t.

EXT. PARK – 9AM

The whole town, inspired by the picture or perhaps feeling really guilty for making an eight year old cry, are out picking up rubbish.

Lisa watches over them, helping herself.

Clive enters the park, having just got back up, Lisa spots him immediately.

LISA

Oh Clive, thank you!

She gives Clive a hug, he half smiles, a little embarrassed.

CLIVE

Wow, I didn’t think it would have so much of an impact.

LISA

Then why did you do it?

CLIVE

Because I didn’t want you to give up, I wanted you to keep that passion, that fight that I lost.

LISA

Do you think you’ll rediscover yours?

CLIVE

Maybe in time, but right now I want to take pictures to show what can be achieved with a passionate spirit.

PICTURE MONTAGE – OVER THE REST OF THE DAY

We start with a picture of Lisa stood in front of a large group of helpers. Lisa working within that group.

Moe, Homer and the other barflies picking up cans and bottle’s of beer.

Skinner picking up bricks. Skinner putting the bricks in his car.

Homer picking up the toaster oven. The raccoons fighting Homer for the toaster oven. Marge, Bart and Maggie helping Homer take the toaster oven. The raccoons crying.

Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph putting together a bin. Then putting Milhouse in the bin.

Shots of people cleaning, the park changing and eventually being clean.

Finally the whole town together in a photograph, in the background is a plane.

5PM

The town talks as it begins to disperse, rolling past the park is a black car, Quimby’s. The window rolls down.

INT. BACK, QUIMBY’S CAR – CONTINUOUS

Quimby, very well tanned, takes off his sunglasses to look at the scene in the park.

QUIMBY

Someone find out what’s happening.

One of his bodyguards exits the car.

Through the window we watch the bodyguard, who is dressed top half in a suit and bottom half in shorts and sandals from the holiday, walk over to Carl and talk to him. He walks back to the car, leans in at the window.

BODYGUARD

Apparently the town came together to clean the park and Lenny’s having an ice cream party, can we go?

QUIMBY

No you moron, but this park thing, that we can exploit.

(thinks)

How much money do we have left from the holiday?

BODYGUARD

Around three hundred dollars sir.

QUIMBY

Perfect.

EXT. SPRINGFIELD MUSEUM OF ART – THE NEXT NIGHT

Lit up and looking good the museum has a stream of patrons entering it.

ENTRANCE – SAME TIME

A doorman stands selling tickets, beside him there’s a sign:

TONIGHT – CLIVE BREWER EXHIBITION (ADULTS: $30, KIDS $20)

TOMORROW – PICTURES FROM YESTERDAYS EXHIBIT.

INT. MAIN, SPRINGFIELD MUSEUM OF ART – SAME TIME

Everyone in town is about, looking at the various pictures on the wall, a photographer, FRED, takes pictures of them.

Lisa stands looking at one of the pictures holding a program from the evening, Clive walks over to her.

CLIVE

What do you think?

LISA

They’re so good, I’m really impressed.

CLIVE

I’m glad you like them. Honestly I’ve never had a crowd this big for my work before, where’s the money going to?

Lisa consults the program.

LISA

It’s going to pay off Mayor Quimby’s tax bill.

CLIVE

Well, I would complain and say something like “if only you could clean up the corruption in the mayors office like you did the park”, but he did pay me two hundred dollars for tonight.

MAN (O.S)

How would you like to make twice that a year?

Clive turns. His old boss Mr. Hartford is stood there.

CLIVE

Mr. Hartford? What are you doing here?

MR. HARTFORD (MAN)

We were in town to do a story on small town mayoral corruption, until Mayor Quimby paid me fifty dollars not too. Then we saw the sign, figured we’d see your work.

CLIVE

And?

MR. HARTFORD

It’s impressive, so how about coming back on staff?

CLIVE

Last time we spoke you said as long your daughter had a smart phone you wouldn’t need me?

MR. HARTFORD

(laughing)

Yes, what a four years it’s been.

(serious)

Unfortunately Stephanie has gone from a cute twelve year old to a sullen sixteen year old.

Across the room STEPHANIE, 16, is sat on the floor, headphones on, in her own world.

MR. HARTFORD

The only pictures she takes now are of herself looking unhappy. I need a true photographer, I need you Clive.

CLIVE

Okay, but not for four hundred pound a year.

MR. HARTFORD

How about four hundred pounds a day?

CLIVE

Deal.

He almost snaps Mr. Hartford’s hand off shake on it, which Hartford doesn’t quite understand.

MR. HARTFORD

(thinking)

Did I say a day or a month?

LISA

A day.

MR. HARTFORD

Darn it.

(sighs)

Nevermind, I probably fire you in a couple weeks anyway, I fire everyone eventually.

Mr. Hartford walks off.

MR. HARTFORD (O.S)

Stephanie, you’re fired!

LISA

I guess this means you’re leaving?

CLIVE

If it’s any consolation I probably would have left anyway, the paper hired Fred back.

Fred walks over at the same time.

LISA

Are the rumours true, Fred?

FRED

(staunch)

No comment.

He takes a picture of Lisa and Clive, then leaves.

CLIVE

Thank you, Lisa. You’ve given me a taste of the passion I had for photography and a chance to have another go at making it into a career.

LISA

Well, thank you for helping me clean the park.

CLIVE

I have something to give you.

From his pocket Clive takes a picture, an image of train tracks, hands it to Lisa.

CLIVE

This is the last picture my dad ever took. I want you to have it.

LISA

Clive, I can’t take this.

CLIVE

Why not? It’s just a copy.

LISA

Oh.

QUIMBY (O.S)

Yes, alright now.

Lisa, Clive, and the rest of the patrons turn to see Quimby at a hastily set up mic stand.

QUIMBY

I’d like to welcome everyone, from art lovers to lovers of free food-

Cut to Homer holding two bowls of food that was supposed to be for everyone.

QUIMBY (CONT’D)

To this celebration of our town and it’s ‘do it anyway’ spirit. And now, welcome the man who took the pictures you see here tonight, without permission, Clive Brewer.

Clive looks surprised, walks over to the mic, applauded.

CLIVE

Wow, what a reception, but your applause should be for Lisa, she’s the one who inspired all of this.

He waves Lisa over, drops the mic stand to her size and moves away from it. She gets even greater applause.

LISA

I believe strongly that this town can be truly great if we all work together and to better ourselves each and every day.

She looks across to where Clive was, he’s gone, she looks back at the crowd, all of whom are fully engaged by her words.

Taking a deep breathe she continues on.

EXT. SPRINGFIELD MUSEUM OF ART – SAME TIME

Clive watches Lisa through the window, smiles, takes a picture of her, then moves on.

CREDITS

We see Clive’s journey back to his job, then his work on the job.

We end on three pictures. The first of the front of a train. The second the back end of that same train and the third a picture taken of Clive by a nurse as he lays in a full body cast in a hospital. Big smile on his face.

END

#The Simpsons #Not tall or wide

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high5nerd · 4 years

Text

Alone Together---Chap. Ten

Sadie had her lower lip jutted out, quivering in fear and guilt for running off without telling her sister or even me. Of all people I assumed she would at least tell Alice, but the fact that this ten year old told absolutely no one as well as the middle of the night is more than absurd. It's atrocious behavior. If I pulled that as a kid a thousand years ago my father would whack my sorry ass with a two by four paddle. That's just how it was back then. But something told me by the look of Alice's face her future screaming was going to be worse than a rear end beating.

"I didn't mean to scare you." Sadie whimpered as she looked at her winter boots.

I was about to open my mouth but Alice gave me a look that made the words die in my throat. I've seen her angry before, you know that. But this anger was mixed with relief and fear, and I knew exactly what she was going through. I had a daughter myself once, and that little girl constantly escaped the house to go into the woods and play. I'm a friend to heart and panic attacks.

As Alice was taking a couple deep breaths to make the red in her face die down, I snuck a glance in North and Sandy's direction. Sandy looked thoroughly apologetic towards Sadie...I blamed him, too. That wily sandbag encouraged her, gave her the grand idea to leave to North's place when we turned a blind eye for a second.

...What's this 'we' I'm doing? It's Alice, not me.

...Then again, I was in charge of her when she left for work. Whoops.

The silence hung in the air like dead fish for a while before Alice opened her eyes. Sadie looked up at her. Her fear smelled like petrichor.

"If Mom and Dad were here, they would not shout. They would tell you calmly that what you did was wrong and to never do it again." Alice finally murmured out.

Sadie slowly nodded, looking back at her snowflake winter boots. Melancholy. Boy, that was a familiar emotion I knew by heart. What was Alice trying to point out?

"Shouting won't help anything, even if I want to. You scared me, Sadie. You scared Pitch, too. He was the one who found you missing and told me. If he didn't, we wouldn't have known you were gone. He was probably more terrified than I was."

I sucked in my cheek as I felt all eyes on me. Yep, this was definitely embarrassing. Believe me, I liked attention, but not this kind of attention. This was out of bounds. Even the hairy yetis and those creepy elves were watching my every single move. It made me feel antsy. Thanks a fucking bunch, Alice. Love you, too. Let me keep at least some of my dignity.

"Is that true?" surprisingly North was the one that voiced that question in the stillness.

Alice turned to him, almost forgetting he was even there due to his long period of silence, watching not only Sadie be scolded but also in shock that I was there, of all people. She, remembering that he was the living and breathing proof that Santa Claus existed, slowly nodded, her serious look still written beautifully on her face.

North looked at me with surprised eyes, causing me to glare at him. I'm not taking any of his sarcasm-if the oaf had any-or mockery. I wasn't up for that right then and there.

Sandy got North's attention by patting the big man's leg. Once the Cossack looked down at his counterpart, Sandy spoke fast elvish language in written sand to him, a few symbols were recognizable, but not all of them. Protect. Devout. Care.

Again, cue North's honestly wide and surprised face. I looked back at Sadie, who turned to me as if I had something to say of the matter.

"You do realize all you had to do was ask your sister for permission, yes?"

Sadie was silent for a minute, before nodding timidly. But then she voiced that question I really did not want to face.

"Were you really scared?"

I accidentally bit my tongue at that. I really didn't want to answer that. It would make me look vulnerable, and that's not a trait I want to display freely in front of Sandman and North. They already saw my retreat before and I'm certainly not bending to that level again.

...But her big eyes were convincing enough, so I stiffly nodded and the word 'yes' barely left my mouth. But sure enough, Sadie heard it, for her eyes widened with shock that someone who controls that could feel it, too.

"See? And you thought I was lying." Alice said as she put a hand on her hip, "Now, what do we do from here?"

Sadie looked at her shoes for a minute before trudging over to Sandy and North for a final goodbye. She walked like a puppet on strings, her head hung limply along with her shoulders and arms. She looked so forlorn...it kind of hurt watching. I looked over at Alice, who looked just as bothered by it as I was.

"Bye, Sandy," Sadie hugged the sandbag before trudging over to North to hug him as well, "Bye, North."

"Oh, come now, Alice! Can't she stay for just a couple more hours?" North asked gently.

"But Sadie-!" She started, but North cut her off with a polite hand.

"Would it be better if you were to be here with her? That way she can stay here longer and she's under your watch."

I couldn't help but feel a faint smile at Alice's thinking face. It was rather adorable on her, can't deny that. Sandy grinned at Sadie who looked hopefully back for a response from her sister. Alice stammered out an excuse that we had to head home, but North's smile made her stop.

"I know how much you care for the best of your sister, and you are very protective. You've been on Nice list for a long time. I applaud you."

"Am I being buttered up to say yes?" Alice raised a teasing brow, making North chuckle.

I hated his chuckle. It annoyed the piss out of me. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"In a way! So! What do you say?" North offered, casting a quick glance in my direction.

I may not know North personally, but I knew that look, and it filled me with dread. Suspicion. Spite. All mixed in one. You wouldn't think that jolly old Saint Nick would have that quality in his face but he just so happens to, and he reserves it all for me. How lucky am I...ugh.

Alice finally sighed and threw up her hands, "Sure, why not. We'll stay for a couple more hours, alright?"

But just as Sadie cheered and jumped around in circles, Alice warned, "You have school tomorrow and you haven't finished your homework, so we have to be home soon."

Sadie pouted angrily and muttered, "Now that I have that hanging over my head how can I have fun now?"

But sure enough, her antics continued with Sandman. He flew his cursed sand plane around outside and around the globe, and soon enough Alice joined the fun after she watched the yetis make toys. Though I wanted to continue watching them entertain themselves, I felt a stiff hand on my shoulder. An unwelcome one.

I quickly shook North off and gave an acidic snarl at him, "Don't touch me, Cossack heathen."

A vein pulsed in his forehead before hissing through gritted teeth, "Before you make a scene in front of two people you care about I suggest you follow me. We need to talk."

"No."

"I'm not asking you. I'm ordering to."

"I'm a goddamn king of darkness and you're just a fat man who bribes kids. If anyone does the ordering around here it's me." I spat, but followed him anyways.

"Not while you're in my domain, Pitch." North was quick on his feet as he led me to a solid, wooden door. It appeared the same as the other million here but it was twice as tall.

I found myself standing in a giant library with a massive fireplace and couch fit for a giant. Fur rugs scattered over the stone floor along with many red oak and mahogany tables that held parchment packets, candles, and whittled statues. The entire room was lit up to glow by the candle chandelier, including the sun leaking in through the ceiling windows outside. The shelves reached the dome above, holding everything from a scroll to a book. Ladders were scattered here and there that rolled with certain shelves for an easy climb, completely made out of sturdy oak wood.

North finally turned around and folded his arms, as if to challenge me to attack. I either had a choice: to look directly into his face to challenge him back or look away. I chose the latter. I gave him a hard stare back to show that just because they won the war and I didn't, I wasn't vulnerable like they thought I was.

"I know what Alice means to you." he finally said strongly.

Oh shit. No...no, no, no, no. Though panicking on the inside I remained calm on the outside. How would North know about that? Those hidden feelings of affection were only expressed in my mind, never out loud.

Wait...I told Sadie…

...that little snitch.

Might as well pretend to not know what he's talking about. Play it out, or something.

"What makes you think that? They're just giving me a smidgen of belief I lost thanks to you weirdoes." I drawled as I folded my hands behind my back smoothly.

"Oh, give me break!" North rolled his eyes, "I can see it in your eyes when I mention her name! Alice. Alice. Alice! You see yourself when I say it? It is obvious as the nose on your face!"

I huffed angrily, turning my back to him and walking to the door. "What are you going to do about it, old man? Tell Man in Moon?"

"He knows everything of time, Pitch. I assume he already knows." North sounded snarky right there.

I swore under my breath and looked back at the door, itching to just swing it open, grab the girls and leave. They're probably having a freakin' tea party with the fat sandbag, I bet. They're not getting interrogated like I was. How unfair was that? It wasn't fair that what feelings I had were forbidden...let alone admitting them was unbearable enough.

"Look, Pitch," North sighed, "Sandy told us that you're making amends. And I can see how much Sadie cares about you and Alice likes your company. You matter to them, and I can't take that away. It wouldn't be right of me."

"Oh, so you're not going to gut me like a fish? Damn, I was looking forward to that." I sarcastically said, snapping my fingers in mock disappointment.

"Nope, though still an option if you want." he smirked, folding his tattooed arms.

Seriously, he shouldn't have those. He'd be a disappointment to adults everywhere. Well, at least some.

"I'll pass on that. Is this it? Just a threat about something stupidly forbidden and I can leave?" I honestly was getting tired just standing there. I had better things to do.

North was silent for a while, just watching me. Scrutinizing my every breath and nervous flick of my eyes. I get fidgety under his stern look. He finally nodded, and just as I opened the door to leave the damned library, he said something that struck whatever was left of my nerves.

"Know your place. I doubt someone as kind as Alice would willingly open her heart to monster like you."

I knew it.

#rotg fandom #rotg fanfiction #rotg fanfic #fanfiction #fanfics #pitch black #pitch black x oc #rise of the guardians #rise of the guardian fanfics

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Watchmen Episode 7 Easter Eggs Explained

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More big secrets are revealed in HBO's Watchmen episode 7, and we're here to help you make sense of it all!

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This article contains Watchmen spoilers.

Watchmen episode 7, “An Almost Religious Awe,” is the hour where the remaining big questions finally start getting answered. And in the case of its last scene, it may even answer a question that you might not even realize had been asked in the first place. But from its first scene to its final moment, there’s a ton of info packed into this episode, from the mystery of why Angela Abar adopted the masked identity of Sister Night to the actual whereabouts of Dr. Manhattan. In fact, that last one is a good place to start.

AN ALMOST RELIGIOUS AWE

- The episode’s title “An Almost Religious Awe” takes its name from a line in the book, where it’s revealed via Dr. Manhattan’s own narration that many North Vietnamese wanted to surrender directly and personally to him, “...their terror of me balanced by an almost religious awe.”

You can see that “almost religious awe” in how VVN day is celebrated in Vietnam, where Dr. Manhattan is more omnipresent than Santa Claus at Christmas or Uncle Sam at the Fourth of July.

DR. MANHATTAN

The episode opens with footage from a documentary about Dr. Manhattan, which is thoroughly packed with Easter eggs and even some new revelations about our good pal Jon Osterman.

Among those, we get a New Frontiersman newspaper headline with Jon on the moon alongside Neil Armstrong, with the words “The Right Stuff,” our first HBO-ified look at great moments in Dr. Manhattan history like Osterman Fine Watches or the exterior of Gila Flats, magazine ads touting Manhattan-led technology innovations like the lithium batteries that powered his first wave of cars (one of which is named the Ford Andromeda), the color news footage of the famed panel from the book showcasing a giant Dr. Manhattan on the battlefields of the Vietnam War, the October 30, 1985 New York Gazette headline announcing his departure for Mars, and more!

Another important one is the Nova Express cover story that ended up being so pivotal to the events of the book, where Doug Roth wrote the expose (based on false info planted by Adrian Veidt) about the link between Dr. Manhattan and cancer deaths in people who associated with him.

There’s one more hidden detail in that New York Gazette headline, as a side story seems to say something along the lines of “Italians Flock to Rome to Protect Decaying State City.” Presumably, this is a reference to Vatican City, and it’s it’s “decaying” in 1985, it’s another clue to the idea that religion has fallen almost completely out of favor in the Watchmen universe after the arrival of Dr. Manhattan in the mid-20th century.

- The Dr. Manhattan puppeteer on VVN Day being the mastermind of an attack is apt because of Manhattan’s whole “I’m just a puppet that can see the strings” philosophy from the book.

- The episode ends with Angela holding Dr. Manhattan’s symbol as a blue glow envelops her. Yes, it turns out that Cal is actually Dr. Manhattan. We wrote more about the implications of all of this right here.

- Incidentally, if you ever catch me misidentifying Jon Osterman as Jon (or Jim) Osterberg, it’s because I keep confusing Dr. Manhattan’s former name with the former name of Iggy Pop. Both of these gentlemen are beings of immense power with a penchant for nudity and zero percent body fat, and both have been known to inspire “an almost religious awe.”

YOUNG ANGELA

It’s tough to find an exact date for this first sequence depicting Angela’s childhood, however, there are a few clues. You can clearly see a VHS copy of Ghostbusters on one of the racks. Ghostbusters wasn’t released on VHS until October of 1985, so that, along with the fact that the documentary narration audible in the store indicates that this takes place after Dr. Manhattan left Earth. We can also assume that VVN Day takes place in May or early June, thanks to a mention in the book, where Dr. Manhattan talks about being in Vietnam in May and that “the Vietcong are expected to surrender within the week.” So most likely, this is taking place in May or June of 1986, which makes Angela approximately 10 years old.

- The song that plays during the VVN day sequence earl in the episode is another tell for the fact that this comes after November ‘85. James Brown’s “Living in America” wasn’t released until December of 1985. It was also, notoriously, a centerpiece of Rocky IV.

- Burgers n’ Borscht is a fast food joint from the book and its presence also places the events of Angela’s childhood here after the events of 11/2/85. Why? Because the melding of US and Russian cultures in such an absurdly commercial way comes about AFTER a new spirit of cooperation is forged because of the “threat” of extradimensional invasion successfully forged by Ozymandias.

- There are three key movies on the VHS spinner rack that young Angela Abar is perusing. The first, obviously, is Sister Night, which should need no explanation. Amusingly, the blurb on the cover reads “A nun with a motherfucking gun” which is also the name of a track on the Watchmen soundtrack from episode 1. In many ways, giving Angela a relatively straightforward origin story (inspired by a fictional hero) puts her almost in line with both versions of Nite Owl from the book (and, of course, Hooded Justice as we now understand him), the few characters who become heroes because it's the right thing to do.

Now, as for those other two movies…

One is Fogdancing, the movie adaptation of the novel by Tales of the Black Freighter writer and unwitting pawn in Adrian Veidt’s schemes, Max Shea. The movie apparently is quite good, as there’s an awards laurel visible on the box and hell, it was directed by David Cronenberg! The painting of the protagonist, with his back to us, is of a man with a ponytail and blond hair, which is very similar to what Max Shea looked like in the book. Its tagline? “When War Makes Monsters of Us All…” Ugh, can you imagine how amazing a Watchmen movie directed by David Cronenberg circa 1986 would have been? Between this and Steven Spielberg's Pale Horse, the alternate history of Watchmen also has some intriguing movie projects.

The other is Silk Swingers, a crappy exploitation movie from the late ‘40s that dramatized (apparently quite poorly) the early career of the first Silk Spectre, Sally Jupiter, the mother of FBI Agent Laurie Blake.

There are also several kids movies about elephants, Trunky and Tusky. Considering how important elephants are later in the episode (and how Lady Trieu's mother wrote a book called Pachyderm Mom) these are also significant. We won’t talk about some of the other showcased fare like Porked! Down on the Farm and The Raunchy Pistol.

- Angela lying to Lady Trieu about what she sees in her memory with something innocent (a pony at her birthday party) mirrors Walter “Rorschach” Kovacs lying to his prison psychiatrist in the book about what he sees during a blot test (Rorschach sees a dog with its head split in two, he lies that it’s “a pretty butterfly”).

THE FATE OF LOOKING GLASS REVEALED

- There are back issues of New Frontiersman in Wade Tillman’s bunker, specifically ones related to the squid rain, so he probably isn’t a reactionary kook. That’s the only thing worth noting, right? NOPE!

- In other/better/more important news, Detective Looking Glass lives! The carnage left after everyone’s favorite lonely masked cop turned no fewer than five members of the 7th Kavalry into racist McNuggets is kinda reminiscent of the disarray that the apartment of the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, was left in after a gang of Knot-Tops broke in and murdered him in the book. Only here, things turned out very differently for the home invaders.

THE TRIAL OF ADRIAN VEIDT

- Ozymandias has been on trial, in full uniform no less, for a full year. I believe we just need one more year to get Adrian’s story caught up to the main story back on Earth.

- The one commandment that Veidt is supposed to live by, and that his “subjects” certainly live by, is “Thou shalt not leave.” It makes the circumstances of Veidt’s arrival that much more questionable.

- You can see a courtroom sketch of the squid that Veidt used to kill millions, as well as a Black Freighter seal behind the head of the Judge/Game Warden.

LADY TRIEU

- So it turns out that Bian, Lady Trieu’s daughter, is...actually a clone of Lady Trieu’s mother. Who was also named Bian. The elder Bian wrote a book called Pachyderm Mom (there’s that elephant symbolism again) about how she intended to raise Lady Trieu to be exactly the kind of embodiment of genius and perfection that she ultimately turned out to be. And according to Peteypedia, those methods sound awfully similar to how we see Lady Trieu raising the younger Bian. So, while it sounds crazy...is it possible that Lady Trieu is ALSO a clone of her mother?

Lady Trieu’s Millennium Clock launch speech refers to how she wanted Nostalgia to be a way for us to evolve. Veidt, incidentally, had hoped to evolve people into a more superheroic mindset with his “Veidt Method” and Millennium line, both of which were failures.

It’s also worth noting that the 7th Kavalry are using stolen Trieu Industries tech to build...whatever the hell it is they’re building. Unless, of course, it isn’t stolen. But that’s too dark and I prefer not to think about that.

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

- I don’t know why the remote control for Mrs. Crawford’s trap door says WILSON on it. There is indeed a “Wilson Electronics” but this doesn’t seem like the kind of product they make.

- While Paul Young had the big hit with “Every Time You Go Away,” the version that’s playing in this episode is the vastly superior Hall and Oates original.

- Cal is reading Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.

- The closing credits are an instrumental version of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Reznor's Nine Inch Nails toured with Bowie in the ‘90s and they collaborated on several songs. This brilliant, beautiful version of one of the most brilliant, beautiful songs ever written is killing me dead.

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Dec 1, 2019

Watchmen

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mysticscanlations · 7 years

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I have already read all the backstory about YW and still I don't like the guy at all (I really wish that HB goes to America and finds a person that really appreciate and loves him, not some a***ole like YW), once again sorry to all the YW lovers, but try to be realistic about him for a minute, the only good thing about him is his undeniable love for his mother, being handsome shouldn't be enough to forget all the damage hi has caused so far to wonderful people (JM and HB).

Why I still don’t like him? well, first: a shitty childhood can’t be enough to forgive all the actions of YW until this point, so If he steals his friend’s jar all shall be forgiven ‘cos he is a child and he’s just jealous?, sorry but nothing excuse a person to steal another person possession and what is more amazing is how he is totally incapable of some sort of empathy with other people feelings, he has always thought about himself and his mother without thinking about how all his actions have hurt a lot of people in the process (Semi, JB, JM) and he actually doesn´t even care, so why exactly should YW be liked? all because of his face? that’s all you look for in your SO? I don’t think so.

Second: in ch 84 is evident that all for him is a game and he just want something fun to past the time, because he’s always bored and needs some new entertaiment (HB in this case T_T), he admits it “at the start, it was a joke” so he didn’t kiss HB out of love (be realistic, he wanted to make HB nervous and he succeded, he wasn’t think “oh, how cute looks HB or I kind of like him”, nope, everything was a big fat joke to him, har har ¬_¬).

Third: I don´t really care if after that kiss he began to fall in love or whatever, the facts are that he toyed from the begining with HB insecurities and feelings, is that a good start for a relationship? then, let´s keep going, they start dating, so why not use a girl and her feelings for me to date another guy without suspicions, great plan, ‘cos that’s what YW wanted at the time, meanwhile HB’s father finds out about their relationship and I’m totally sure he threatens his own son and beat him up a few times (ch 21 flashback can be a perfect example of what HB had to endure to be with YW), and after all that drama YW realizes that the most important thing is his mother and his future, so nothing else matters, even after all the suffering HB has to go through for his selfish whim.

Fourth: so because of YW arrogance and confidence about HB’s feelings for him, after thinking for a while, he just breaks up with him in the most painful possible way for HB, and when he finally realizes about the progress in JM and HB relationship, YW finally understand that HB is not a puppy that will wait all his life to get his feelings returned, not HB, he’s a normal guy and one’s life should go on, you can’t possible expect that a person’s love will continue forever and ever without the right nourishment (and even less when he was throw away to be picked up later without even knowing the oh so great plan of YW), that’s not how it works and if YW really thought that HB will be his puppet and will dance to his rhythm he was awfully mistaken and now he has pay the price, what really satisfies me.

To summarize I can’t like a person that starts an homosexual relationship with an innocent and lonely guy just for fun (YW has mentioned a couple of times that HB is funny and fun to be with), makes him go through rough times with his violent father, then breaks up with him but when someone else show interest in him, he just made up with him as if nothing had happened and expects that all goes just the way he wants until the end without really understanding the pain and sorrow of HB, and actually has the nerve to tell his mother that “I foolishly looked past how much she(he) was hurting”, sorry but he is just a pretty a***ole to me.)

OH MY LORD ANON YOU WROTE A BOOK I RESPECT YOU. okay hold on i’m gonna try and respond to everything i can cause this is really interesting! i’ll answer them in the order of the reasons you listed to make things less messy ^^;; i’m also putting this under a cut cause it’s gonna be SO LONG

1) for me, i think author-nim showed yoo won’s back story to really drive home one thing aside from furthering the plotline/giving insight into his background: it was to show that yoo won was a character with flaws as well. of course, stealing the jar wasn’t a bright idea, and it shouldn’t be something to be waved off because “he was just a kid”. but it showed that yoo won, this person we’ve been seeing as this perfect and beautiful guy everyone admires in the present timeline, also has had his low points. he’s made mistakes and that makes him more human. in terms of his lack of empathy, i put that all on the circumstances he was put through. i mean, this kid was in fifth grade when his so-called first friend beat him up in front of his class, got completely ignored by everyone, and even openly teased by others in front of the teacher without repercussions. his personality drastically changed after that, and i think that made him sort of numb to others around him ever since he started closing himself off from anyone getting too close. and we can’t forget the reason why he’s started to only focus on his mother is because dong rae, the person who completely changed his life, gave him that one piece of advice before leaving: to live for only one thing and bury the rest in your heart. yoo won undoubtedly chose his mother, and has been following dong rae’s mantra all the way into his college years. he isn’t intentionally ignoring how his actions might be affecting others, i just think he’s grown used to not attuning himself to others since he lost his trust in their sincerity because of past issues

2) i can see how this kiss could be controversial since it’s evident that yoo won wasn’t taking this whole “wanna go out” thing seriously, but i still think there was some genuine interest on his part when he went in to kiss hee bum. HONESTLY, i don’t think he’d planned on going as far as kissing him until hee bum asked “but why do you want to date me?”. his internal monologue proved that when he stated that had hee bum not asked that question, he would’ve just been another hoobae yoo won liked to tease. so yeah, although him starting it off as a joke wasn’t really a romantic (or nice) start, i don’t think yoo won did everything for the sole purpose of messing with hee bum, since he has shown a lot of interest in getting closer to hee bum prior to this.

3) even if eldo’s claims that she was used as a shield were true, in the end i still think she still had the choice of breaking away from that role if she chose to. yes, yoo won might have had asked eldo to hang occasionally because it seemed more natural as a trio, but eldo also decided that she would pretend to get along with hee bum because she wanted to get yoo won’s attention. and in terms of hee bum’s dad (who i hate), i definitely don’t think yoo won was completely blind to the abuse. yoo won mentioned that even when the dad did find out, hee bum didn’t say anything about breaking up because he still wanted to be with yoo won. i can’t put the blame on yoo won for that, that’s all on his dad for being a terrible and abusive person. and don’t forget that yoo won did try to break it off with hee bum at the beginning. hee bum was the one who was completely in denial that they would break up, even chasing yoo won down to the academy to try and get back together. it wasn’t as if yoo won was forcing hee bum to stay in a relationship with him regardless of the abuse he was going through. hee bum was even more adamant on staying together.

4) this one confused me a bit because hee bum was the one who broke it off with yoo won, not the other way around. but you’re right that yoo won getting dumped was when he realized that hee bum wouldn’t be waiting around for him in the back, constantly giving him love. i think that realization is an important starting point for yoo won to address that he’s really closed himself off too much from others, even hee bum, while trying to prioritize his mother’s health and happiness. for me, i saw it as a precursor for yoo won to really develop in terms of how he treats others and putting the whole “throw away everything but one single thing” idea into a new perspective. i don’t particularly think yoo won is a bad person for this, though. just a pitiful person. he grew up believing he couldn’t really rely on anyone and followed the last advice given from a major significant figure in his childhood, and that led to the distant and whimsical way he was treating his relationship with hee bum.

5) but while it might have started off as a joke, like yoo won said, they did seem to develop to the point where both of them were equally committed to the relationship. i don’t think hee bum was forced into it, since he has the personality and nature to easily rebuff and back away from something he doesn’t like. i definitely don’t think yoo won made hee bum go through his father’s abuse. it’s not like yoo won told hee bum’s dad to hit hee bum for being in a relationship with him. even still, hee bum kept pushing to pursue the relationship even after yoo won broke up with him. for the last subpoint, i do think this only happens because of miscommunication on both ends. yoo won had the belief that hee bum would always be there for him and so he didn’t put much effort in maintaining that relationship because of it. but hee bum also never really voiced his concerns to yoo won. all those things about “feeling like he loved yoo won more than yoo won loved him” and being upset about it - these were all things he told jumi, not yoo won. i think yoo won was oblivious to just how much it was bothering hee bum because he never even mentioned it around him, which is why he kept thinking that hee bum was still in love with him and that everything was perfectly fine. that’s why i think they both need to talk to each other, fully and openly, so that these issues stop driving them apart.

THIS GOT SO LONG BUT ANON I REALLY LOVE DISCUSSING THINGS LIKE THIS SO THANK YOU. please feel free to send more asks if you want to continue to the conversation ^^ or anyone can feel free to add/comment to this post! i love reading analysis stuff on stories i love ahh

#ask #anon #analysis

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yellowcatcassette · 7 years

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How to Become a Hitman

You know that question you’ve always been asked as a child? It goes something like, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

When I was a child, at first I didn't know that whenever you are asked that question, you are suppose to answer what kind of career or job you want to have. When someone asked me just what I wanted to be, my answer was simple. I wanted to be me, Satiné, forever. Sure, if I ever marry someone, if I love someone enough, if I ever find someone I love that much, I would let them change my last name. But as I child, I resolved to always be Satiné.

And they made me change my answer. Because apparently, just being me wasn't good enough. No one cares about who you are when you’re an adult. It's all about what job you have and how you make a living. That's what supposedly defines an adult. Either that or my answer was rejected because I couldn't pronounce my own name right when I was younger. Yeah, it wouldn't have been right to let a child go around saying, “I wanna be Satan when I grow up.”

But Matthias had an acceptable answer. I’m the older sibling, yet whatever he says is always the right thing. Not that I am jealous or anything. His answer back then was just as good as mine.

When he was a child, Matthias wanted to be a hitman.

And of course that was the better answer. Matthias didn't want to be just Matthias when he grew up. He wanted to be dad.

Matthew Dauch, the best hitman in the business. About a hundred or so lives were taken by him. It wasn't just his way of putting food on the table. It was his passion. He was wholeheartedly devoted to serving his clients with unexpected death. And fervor just makes half the hitman. His skill and expertise made the old standards skyrocket. Even the most clean freak hitman cannot manage to leave without the smell of blood and torn flesh lingering. But dad, he left absolutely nothing behind. No one ever heard his targets scream when he attacked. But in most cases, somehow everyone knew it was him. A death scene left so spotless could not be the work of any other. People theorized that he wasn't even human and simply swallowed his targets in one gulp. But I can assure you that's not true. Dad was just that good at disposing of people.

Before I was nine, all the kids would know me as Satiné Dauch, the daughter of the ultra-cool Matthew Dauch, a hero to all. Mess with her and you'll mess with Matthew Dauch. If he’s cool and better than everyone else, then so must she be.

When my dad was killed, however, then I become known as Satiné Dauch, daughter of the ultra-lame Harlem Dauch, the quiet, ugly widow who runs the boring thread shop. Mess with her and you'll- well, actually, no one ever comes to mom’s shop anymore. So I suppose charging an extra 15% on your purchase of plastic needles isn't as threatening as losing your life. It doesn't matter, mom would never do anything even like that. She’s too soft. Too mom.

Speaking of mom, she was the one thing dad would give up being a hitman for. I don't know what someone like him ever saw in mom, but it was enough to make him quit his career, help take care of her tiny shop, and raise two docile children. In other words, she made him weak and vulnerable. Even so, dad’s legacy lived on after his retirement, as did the jealousy of his rivals. So one day, years after dad “settled down,” as mom calls it, bullets shattered the shop window and dad’s rival hitmen (who, when you were as famous and successful as the great Matthew Dauch, was pretty much every hitman out there) tore his body to untidy shreds. Understandably, common hitman sense justified the kill and none of the involved assassins faced charges.

Sounds traumatic, right? What a harsh reality a child must suffer, they said behind my back. But me, I didn't cry. If anything, I consider having such bloodthirsty enemies like dad had to be an honor. But of course, mom, being mom, cries even today.

Matthias told me a year after the incident occurred and when he finally learned how to speak that he knew about the conspiracy against dad before he was killed. Apparently, he heard it from one of his teacher aids who was dating a nameless hitman and couldn't keep her mouth shut. How unfortunate- the only member of the family who knew of dad’s impending death couldn't talk until he was seven.

But let's move on from my dad. I've boasted about him enough. This is Matthias’ legend. Well, it will become a legend one day. For now, it’s a tale only I can start.

Becoming a hitman was just the beginning, because Matthias wanted to be exactly like dad. And he needed to, because there was no way mom could also play the father of the Dauch family. Problem is, as a child, Matthias was nothing like dad. Dad was confident, poised, graceful, and clever. Matthias was timid, clumsy, and took decades to understand a simple pun. And now that that Matthias has grown up, he is pretty much the same Matthias. Since Mom became even more pathetic after dad was killed, she provides lousy support for Matthias’ hitman dreams. Looks like it's up to me to make this kid a proper hitman.

So how does one set himself up in the hitman industry, you ask? Well, allow me, Satiné Dauch, a member of the soon to be Dauch Hitman Dynasty to describe the process in a few easy steps.

First things first, you have to pick your hook. You need a theme, something that makes you stand out among the hundred other hitmen out there. Pick a stage name if you need that extra boost.

Dad’s thing, shadow manipulation, will never be topped. Imagine this: you're sitting at home watching Saturday Night Live and are on your third slice of cheesecake. It occurs to you that the shadows cast by your recliner, your flat screen, and your coffee table seem to be engulfing your own shadow. Suddenly the silhouette of Matthew Dauch appears on your vomit colored carpet and the real Matthew Dauch appears behind you. The last thing you see is a shadow puppet show on the floor depicting the gory fate you're about to meet. Dad’s stage name was, in fact, Puppeteer in the early years of his career. Soon enough, after becoming so well known, he went by his own name, and by doing so his ordinary name suddenly held more weight and power.

Matthias is all around just as boring as mom, so we had trouble trying to figure out what his hitman motif should be. We were sitting in mom’s shop one afternoon when Matthias picked up a spool of red thread and suggested he could be a sewing themed hitman. At first I thought that was a stupid idea. But in an attempt to persuade me, he picked up a metal sewing needle and pointed it at me in a jabbing motion. At that gesture his vision clicked in my mind. I then dared him to stab me, just for the fun of inflicting pain. Matthias chickened out. By that point I could tell I had more work to do than I expected.

So we went through with Matthias’ needle and thread theme after all. Mom, who use to work as a seamstress, actually became useful during this part of the process. Matthias was able to coax her out of her slump to make him a hitman costume. Her end result is a hooded trench coat with a frenetic stitched pattern and loose satin draped across the waist and shoulders. I think the costume looks too fancy to be the intimidating garb of a killer, but I let Matthias keep it. Maybe “pretty boy hitman” could also be his thing. Besides, mom put a lot of effort into making the coat and I have to admit, it is of excellent quality. But just for an extra touch, I make Matthias wear dad’s old black wispy scarf.

The next step to become an official hitman is to find clients. Back in dad’s day, there were about twenty well known hitmen in the metropolitan area, and in our borough there were three including dad himself. But today there are hundreds of hitmen, each well known and skilled to varying degrees. That being said, it's much harder for a no-name hitman to receive even his first client.

Matthias is not entirely a no-name hitman though. Instead of using whatever cheesy stage name Matthias would have come up with, I decided using his real name would be best. Like I said, the name Dauch has a lot of power thanks to dad. So I thought Matthias would have a multitude of clients on his first day.

But nope, of course it wouldn't have been that easy. Maybe people are scared to contact Matthias because of the controversy surrounding dad’s death. Many of his former rivals are still active today. I suppose it’s been assumed that anyone who hires Matthias would become some other hitman’s victim. If that really is a big reason, I think that's ridiculous. After all, a hitman wouldn't dare kill a normal civilian not on a hit list. That would just be murder. No, hitmen are much more organized and professional.

The other reason I theorize for Matthias’ slow business is that no one believes he could do the job as well as dad did. And yeah, they’re right, but somebody has to give him a chance. A year and a half has passed since Matthias’ profile on Hitman.org went public. The number of “assignments” Matthias has discarded technically remains a big fat zero.

I use the word “technically” because in actuality Matthias has committed half a thousand hitman jobs, and they were all for the same client and target each time.

There is no good way to sugar coat this, so I will just say it as it is: Matthias’ number one and only customer is me, Satiné Dauch. I gave Matthias orders to kill the same victim over and over. Five hundred and forty-seven times to be exact.

Matthias’ rate is the same as dad’s: $10,000 per victim, an additional $1500 for a double speed kill, an additional $1200 for extra customizable torture methods deployed during the kill, an additional $1000 for each pre-kill paranoia attack, and a $12,000 combo deal.

Now I’m a freelance artist who only works in the black market of doll implantation. For the old farts out there, doll implants is a hot trend among the tweens and teens and in betweens these days. It seems that the only skill I have is, lo and behold, sewing. Thanks a lot, mom. Fortunately, kids think it’s cute to have their consciousness uploaded into dolls. I stitch and sew the dolls according to whatever design customers pick, be it a stuffed dinosaur, the newest Disney princess, a blob like creature with centipede arms, whatever. Like a good ink tattoo, doll implantation is permanent, yet due to certain illegal reasons my commissions earn me just above minimum wage.

So, no, of course I didn’t invest $5,470,000 in hitman kills. Although whenever the day felt lacking, I added in some of those extra benefits, but at no pecuniary cost.

I force Matthias to give me a family discount; in other words, he does hitman jobs for me free of charge. That takes care of the money problem. I convinced Matthias that these freebie kills will pay off in the end, because soon he’ll have real clients buying that $12,000 combo deal.

You should be wondering who my selected victim is if you are not already. Again, ditching the sugar coating, it’s me, Satiné Dauch. Matthias has killed me five hundred and forty-seven times, and tonight will mark the five hundred and forty-eighth.

Hear me out, this makes sense.

Here’s something the media does not always cover: anyone can sue the client of a hitman on behalf of the victim killed. It was normal for dad’s clients to be taken into court by his victim’s loved ones. Fortunately, the hitman and his rights are always protected under law during such a case.

I could easily pick any oblivious stranger who passes by the shop window as a target for Matthias. But if that random stranger’s friends or family learn that I am the client (and today there are many methods of tracking down clients), then even though Matthias is otherwise safe, I will be brought to court. If the court rules that my reasons for targeting so-and-so are unfair, and in my case, that would be most likely, then I’d face charges for murder.

I’m the only person I know who has no one else who would sue on my behalf. Matthias suing me would be stupid, and he doesn’t have the guts to do that anyway. Mom? Is mom even alive anymore, who knows? Who cares? I don’t care. She won’t do it.

Yet every daughter of a dead retired hitman is fully aware that once someone is dead, that’s it. He can’t be killed twice. The first time Matthias killed me, Satiné Dauch was technically dead, just like her father. Her corpse was found suspended in her bedroom by a web of red thread, needles impaled in every direction. That day Matthias’ body count meter online officially went up by one.

Keep up now, this is my favorite part of Matthias’ story. Like I said, I’m a freelance doll implant artist. Before the first kill, I simply uploaded myself into one of my commissions, a doll that was a cross between a fish and a waffle, before Matthias killed Satiné the human, who by then was in a vegetative state. From there, everything became simple.

I figure that once people see Matthias’ kill count rising, they will all assume that everyone is either hiring Matthias or being killed by him, therefore making him a popular and successful hitman. As for me, all I have to do is sew myself a new doll body, download my soul into it, and wait for Matthias to arrive at the newest location we agreed on, and watch as he kills who I was before.

It’s a swell life, really. By day, I create a new doll to become, and the only daily concern I have is to give my upcoming body at least two appendages to sew with for the next day. I don’t experience hunger or fatigue. The only pain I feel is at night when Matthias destroys my last vessel.

See, the thing with soul transactions is that even if you’re not in your old body, that old body is still a part of you. From the death of my original body and through the destruction of the last five hundred forty-seven dolls, I felt everything. Every stab of the needle, every pull and burn of the thread, I’ve never grown numb to it. It reassures me that when dad died, at least he had one last thrill before he was gone. If you ever have the chance to feel such discomfort, I recommend it. Really clears up the sinuses and sorrow, you know?

Every now and then, Matthias begs me to let him quit. Even though he’s a legal adult now, he still bawls like a baby at every kill. I keep reminding him that if he won’t shut up his blubbering, a passersby will hear and his yet to exist reputation will never recover from that.

I think back to when I was a child often, when dad was still alive, and when I thought I brilliantly answered that certain question inquiring who I wanted to grow up to be. Of course I certainly never answered with something like, “I want to be a new doll each day before my brother brutally kills me.”

The irony is that after five hundred forty-seven deaths, I am no longer Satiné Dauch, who I once was so hell-bent to be. Nope, Satiné Dauch is dead and forgotten. I am nothing but statistics in Matthias’ hitman record. Likewise, Matthias is still a ways away from achieving his childhood ambition. Maybe after five hundred more deaths Matthias will become just like dad. Maybe after one thousand. One million. A trillion, if Matthias is more pathetic than I think.

Doesn’t matter. Nothing has mattered after dad died. But once Matthias and I resurrect the legendary hitman Matthew Dauch, everything will all mean something once more.

#short story #writing #hitman #fiction #yellowcatcassette

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sloanecore · 7 years

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hey whats up taz fandom can we chat

hey yall can we talk abt lesbophobia for a hot second bc it has been uhhh disturbingly prevalent lately. i just wanna preface this by saying i absolutely welcome feedback + don’t claim to speak for anyone else. if you have thoughts on this i’d love to hear them + possibly have a discussion.

so here’s the thing: there’s been an Uncomfortable amount of lesbophobia in the TAZ fandom lately in 2 distinct ways. #1 is, of course, the Lup discourse. I KNOW I KNOW you feel a creeping sense of dread at the very words but hear me out for a second.

here’s my hot take: her sexuality hasn’t been confirmed and anyone can have whatever headcanons they want without people slamming them up until her sexuality gets confirmed (if it ever does). before i delve into how lesbophobia has starred in this particular discourse, let me get something out of the way that may raise a few eyebrows at first:

blupjeans isn’t canon (yet).

do i think it will be? yeah probably. is it as of yet? big fat nope! we know barry has feelings for lup. we know lup trusts him. we do NOT know if lup has romantic feelings for him. she told taako to trust him, she put a friendly arm around him in a portrait that she didn’t pose for that was painted before she knew he had feelings for her, and she picked up his glasses. it isn’t canon yet, and insisting that it is is dumb and a waste of time because it contributes nothing to this discussion.

Anyway! on to the main point. i headcanon lup as a lesbian. hi! what’s up, how ya doin. i’m a lesbian who loves projecting. most of my TAZ friends are in the same boat. none of us have made any posts, messaged each other, or anything of the like about disliking bi/pan lup HCs because—news flash—we don’t dislike them. we think they’re awesome. lesbians and bi/pan women aren’t “natural enemies” like some of you seem to want them to be.

but you know what i have seen? a RIDICULOUS amount of posts—a lot of them from people who aren’t even gay/bi/pan women—decrying lesbian lup HCs, talking about how much they hate them, how entitled and whiney the people who have them (lesbians) are, and like, listen. I get it. every fandom needs its opportunity to Let It Out re: hatred of the Big Bad Dykes. but it’s getting ridiculous.

if your reasoning for why lesbians can’t HC lup as gay is because she’s “been involved with/is involved with a man” (which, still, unconfirmed) surprise! that’s lesbophobic. plenty of lesbians (hi! me! what up!) have had past relationships with men due to compulsory heterosexuality. this doesn’t make us “not gay” and it super sucks for non-lesbians to try to enforce the toxic gold-star mentality that we as a community have spent so long fighting to move past.

lesbians having lesbian headcanons for characters with unconfirmed sexualities/straight characters harms no one and does not nullify bi/pan headcanons that people might have for the same character. We Can Get Along it’s not as hard as y’all are making this!

also, a lot of the justifications for trashing lesbian lup headcanons i’ve seen have included something along the lines of “all the other girls in TAZ are lesbians” “there’s a ton of lesbian representation in TAZ” “this is the PERFECT opportunity to HC a character as bi.” which. okay.

1: no. 0 characters have been Confirmed as lesbians. zero, zilch, nada. as it stands, taako is the only character with a confirmed sexuality. there’s confirmed WLW for sure! but No confirmed lesbians.

2: nope again! what is this in reference to, the side couple that’s barely mentioned or the dead ones?

3: hoo boy! here’s the thing: the other women in relationships in TAZ have been in relationships with other women. lup is the first to be implied to be involved with a man. none of the canon WLW in TAZ are canonically confirmed lesbians. there is and has been nothing stopping anyone from HC’ing sloane, hurley, killian, or carey as bi or pan. if lup is “the perfect opportunity” because she’s maybe involved with a man and you’re subconsciously making that a prerequisite for Good Bi Rep, that’s a You problem that you need to unpack on your own without dragging lesbians into it!

if you can tweet all day about how lesbians allegedly think lup being with barry is “not queer enough” (no one alive has ever said that and also that’s its own special flaaaavor of lesbophobia, so thanks) but you automatically consider a woman whose only canonically shown relationship was with another woman to be a lesbian, that says more about you and you should probably examine that before you project your weird insecurities onto your imagined Enemy Dykes. i know it’s easy to impulse hate us, but here’s a thought: Fucking Chill Dude

Alright!! onto the second Big TAZ Lesbophobia: objectification!!!!!!!

let me set the stage. eh-hem.

Years ago, lesbians in fandom said “Gee, I wish people would stop ignoring us!” And the monkey paw curled one finger, and the TAZ fandom was born.

i see posts Every Goddamn Day about how the whole TAZ fanbase are toxic homophobic fetishizers of MLM and to an extent i understand where that anger comes from because MLM fetishization is a pervasive issue in fandom (though the specific Issue addressed in most of those posts makes me fall asleep instantly because it isn’t even deep enough to drown in). but the thing that really gets me is that the authors of those posts—and like, a good 80% of the fandom in general—objectifies WLW to an OUTRAGEOUS extent and it is honestly hilarious for them to be getting on a soapbox about how shipping certain characters is homophobic while perpetuating almost that exact issue with WLW as their puppets.

i don’t know when lesbians and having a new wacky ~cute~ f/f pairing (between characters who have never spoken and never will) every hour on the hour became the Hot New Trend, but as a lesbian, It Kind Of Fucking Sucks Guys!!! we aren’t dolls. we aren’t your Pure Soft UwU playthings that you can jam into any pairing you want to make wildly OOC art of them braiding each others’ hair in the moonlight or whatever. if you’re a nonlesbian/non-WLW and you have 18 ships with the same 4 girls or you reblog posts like the “luptroth is the new ship” post (altho hey at least those two have fuckin Spoken), You’re A Fucking Geek and Very Annoying and i also probably feel unsafe or at the very least uncomfortable with you!

instead of pouring your energy into f/f crackships (get off your high horse, you aren’t ‘creating representation,’ you know damn well that isn’t how that works) maybe you could create some more fucking content for the two (2!!!! one of whom is UHHH dead!) canon f/f ships that we have—*spongebob “AND LIVE” voice* AND NOT AS THE BACKGROUND PAIRING TO A M/M FIC!!!!

also, quick note before i finish, stop using the futch scale to refer to nonlesbians/if you aren’t a lesbian you freaks it’s For Lesbians. bye

#taz #the adventure zone #i wrote this all at once so it might be a little rocky to read but i tried to space it enough to make it easier

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kandadiff · 5 years

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Missing (20) - apologies & reconciliation

- (italics are flashbacks) -

Negan had his men whip up some of my favorites, blueberry pancakes, honey buns, fresh fruit just drizzled with honey and sugar and I filled my plate but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t relax. Negan sat across the small table from me, the fireplace in his room crackling and popping warming us up and the soft sound of music coming in from somewhere down the hallway should have done it. But I was on edge and I couldn’t tell if it was because the last time I had a breakfast like this it resulted in me being chained then hunted by GD and his men or because the elephant with Negan was still in the room and neither one of us was acknowledging it. Maybe he expected me to go first but I wasn’t exactly sure how to bring it up. ‘Hey we haven’t seen each other in about 2 years remember when I punched you and ran away?’ Nope. ‘Hey remember when I cursed you then you tried to grab me so I sucker punched you in the head?’ nope.

“Any reason you aren’t eating, darling?” Negan said with a small smirk on his face, he had been watching me the entire time go over dialogue in my head and I really had just pushed my stuff around on my plate. “You’re nervous.” It sounded more like a statement then a question but I answered it with a small nod anyway. He chuckled a bit and rubbed his face in his hands. “You know why we have to talk right?” There it was the perfect opening to bring it up...

“Jack?” I mused looking down at my plate … I blew it. He chuckled again and I looked up at him.

“well yeah about Jack but I think you know the real reason.” I looked down on my plate taking a tiny bite of a blueberry.

+ Years Ago +

The sun was beating down in early June, the temperature slowly rising did not help my irritation at Negan or Simon or whoever had the damn audacity to have me followed today, I only assumed that's why Zayn or Ashton didn’t show up today, I should have seen it coming... I had a feeling Negan was reading the letters between us. They had it on ‘good word’ that a man named Liam was trying to reach out to me but they needed money to give more information, enough to run and now where were they? The gates of the sanctuary opened for the car and Roman glanced over to me from the front seat. “I don’t think you should go see him.” His voice was full of worry as he parked the car and followed me as I hopped out and started to walk towards the mansion where I knew he was “I think you should just let it go, you weren’t supposed to be out there alone,” he ran in front of me blocking the door so I couldn't go in. “He’s going to be really upset and-”

I cut him off grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the door “Do not speak to me like I’m a child.” I walked in and he scrambled to follow me up the stairs. The more steps I took the more irritated and angry I was becoming “he read my private letters, he had me followed like some damsel in distress, I don’t care if hes upset! I am too! I can handle myself!”

“Kay-” he tried to grab my wrist but I dodged it and pushed him back “I really think you should reconsider.” It was no secret Negan had a jealous streak, its the reason Louis now walked with a limp and Niall fled Newcrest, Negan was a jealous man but jealously was not a good reason to prevent this meeting. I had known Liam since I had escaped Jack, he helped me when no one else would and if he found me and wanted to talk, I owed him that much. Did he truly not think I could handle myself against two idiots like Zayn and Ashton? I heard the mumbling of men talking from outside the heavy metal door that lead to the saviors meeting room and Roman did one last attempt to prevent me from going in there. “Please rethink this” he begged and his brown eyes concealing something behind them. He knew something and was not telling me but I was two angry to question it. I pulled him away from the door and bursting in gasping at what I saw.

“You know what? I do not accept your apology.” Negans hunting knife was buried deep in Liam’s neck, his brown eyes wide as he stared in disbelief into Negans hazel eyes. Simon spotted me first and murmured a curse word that caught Negan and Shawn’s ear. Negan pulled out the knife, spraying around him with blood as Liam collapsed on a small pile of bloodied bodies below him.

“Oh god” Roman whispered behind me but I was to in shock to react. I carefully walked closer almost afraid to go to close to Negan, the bodies on the floor coming more into view. It was Ashton and Zayn, Roman took my wrist trying to bring me out of the room before Negan can fully register I was now there. But it was to late, he turned to me, grabbing Lucille from the table and bringing it down on Liam’s head while his eyes were locked with mine. The hard noise of wood on skull made me jump but I still couldn’t move and I was horrified.

“Why hello, princess.” he said lifting Lucille quickly spraying Liam’s blood over his face as he bashed his skull in again and again. I knew Shawn and Simon were both looking at me but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Negan. But his eyes flicked to Roman, “I thought I told you to keep her out of here.” He stood up straight dropping Lucille on the table and marching toward Roman but I blocked his path. And with a blood-soaked smirk he looked down at me. “Move over, baby.”

“Why?” my voice came out in a cracked whisper and I shook my head. “Why?!”

He grabbed my chin roughly making sure I looked at him the entire time. “You belong to me, remember? No one is ever going to fucking take you from me, under-fucking-stand?” Before I could truly react my fist collided with his face and I kept hitting him as hard as I could. He tried to stop me and hold my fists but I was quick, it took both Simon and Shawn to pull me off but I quickly wiggled out of there grasps and ran as fats as I could back outside. I heard them calling for me but I needed to leave.

“I remember” I sigh unable to look at him instead looking into the crackling fire.

“I am sorry, I am truly sorry and I did not mean to upset you with what I did. In fact I never intended for you to find out but I guess that is my fucking fault. I shouldn’t have underestimated you and I’m sorry about that, It was disrespectful.” I nodded still focused on the burning logs. “But! I guess you got even.. you socked me a few good ones in the face in front of my men disrespecting me!” A small smirk formed on my face and I tried to hide it but I when I heard his chuckle I glanced at him in my periphery. “Can you really look at me, doll?” I sighed and turned to face him fully. He was leaned forward in his chair his hands folded in front of him his face turning serious “I know Liam was your friend” I was about to look away but he placed his hand gently on my fingers “and you had a big fucking history, but Liam crossed the line. and when you cross the line here you know better then anyone!” he enunciated his words “that the rules matter.” I nodded looking at my plate again, wondering for a moment if he truly knew what Liam and Zayn and Ashton were trying to do. “So princess,” I looked up at him secretly happy that he used the finally used his nickname for me. “I had to bash that fuckers head in when I found out and I had fun doing it to! You know what it was right?”

“He was a fucking puppet for Jack.” I gave a heavy sigh and shook my head “I found out when Jack gave me congratulations for figuring out and killing them. He didn’t know it was you.” I pushed my plate away and stood up plopping myself on the chair by the fire place and he followed sitting across from me on the plush black couch.

“That fucker deserved it” his voice was a little softer. “But what happened last time we saw each other... that doesn’t have to be us. You know that shit would never happen to you, not here, not with me.”

“You could have told me first,” I roll my eyes “I’m not a child I could have handled it.

“I would have investigated it.” I said with a small smirk hearing him chuckle, then I turned toward him “But you didn’t even give me the chance, all I saw was crazed jealous boyfriend.”

“Shit,” he sighed leaning back in his chair “Shawn told me you mustev thought I looked like some big bad fucking monster.”

“You’re not a monster, don’t say that.” I moved my loose hair from my face “you had a legit reason to be upset and instead of hearing you out I ran. That’s my fucking m.o I guess, I certainly didn’t think it through.” I turned back to the splinting fire and slammed my hand frustrated down on the cushion. “I’m so fucking stupid, you know how I got in with the Red Dragons again? I was helping Adi leave the fucking country and they followed me, they beat the shit out of Hoseok and instead of running away I ran straight into the trap. Just like I was going to do with Liam, Zayn and Ashton. But Negan they were beating the shit out him,” He nodded and I could tell he was paying close attention to what I was saying “I couldn’t let that happen. Hobi never hurt anyone, he never did anything against anyone and they just beat the fuck out of him to get me running and like a damn idiot I did. G-Dragon even said it ‘You’re gentle heart is your biggest weakness.’ Right before he beat the shit out of Taehyung to get Katya to listen.” I bit my lip and leaned deeper into the chair my eyes flicking to him “I avoided you because I didn’t think you’d forgive me, I thought you might think I chose Jack or even Red Dragon over you. I avoided Shawn and Roman like the plague too. It was easy after what happened between him and Adi… oh god how is she doing here? He brought here hear right? Oh my god I have a fucking headache and my whole damn body hurts! FUCKING JACK!” I shouted giving myself a headache and starting to tear up due to frustration. I was hurt all over, my head hurt, my voice and throat still felt raw and all I was feeling right now was hate and boiling anger. All I wanted to do was scream and yell at Jack and Red Dragon and everyone who put me in this position. I couldn’t tell who I was more frustrated with, myself or the fuckers who put me here. No I was more frustrated with them and Max how dare he leave me? I risked my life with him! We did everything together and all of a sudden I wasn’t enough?! Fuck him! No…I didn’t mean that but Fuck Gdragon and TOP and Daesung and Jungkook and Jack! I hit the cushion again in anger and Negan’s deep voice pulled me out of my spiral.

“Princess,” I stayed focused on the fire. “Princess” he called out louder and I tore my eyes away from the orange and yellow flames. “Come on over here,” he patted his lap and I couldn’t help but give a small smile at his attempt to make me smile. “Come and sit on daddy’s lap.” I let out a loud laugh and stood up slowly walking over to him. He went to grab my hands but I jumped back playfully before he could. I did it a couple more times until he was laughing “Stop playing!” I laughed and he grabbed my arms again pulling me onto him. I settled on his lap, my head on his chest and his hands holding me tight. I hated to admit it but I was the safest I felt in weeks. Even with Max I knew we were never truly away from Jack but right now Jack was hurt and until Michael N’Jaku, Negan did not spread the location of the headquarters around. I doubted other gangs even knew I was here, so I settled deeper into Negans chest listening to the steady heartbeat. “You know I love you right?” I hummed a response relaxing into him. “You do?” I nodded with a smile “You know I’d do anything for you, right?” I nodded again looking up at him. “Don’t let that incident break us apart. I came because you called, Jack is gone, Max is following him but I’m still here, you’re still here and that is all we need and those cock sucking red dragons are going to in a shit storm when I get to them, every motherfucker in there is going down.” I shifted uncomfortably and sat up straighter looking into his hazel eyes.

“I don’t want that. A few helped me escape, others tried to help me.”

“Like Hosick?” he asked cocking an eyebrow.

“Hoseok” I corrected “and Namjoon and Yoongi and Mark, yugyeom was always so sorry and, taehyung wasn’t even there-“ He put up his hand.

“Darling you’re going to have to write me a list-“

“I don’t want them to-“ But I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I wanted GD to pay for what he did to me and Max and Katya and Hobi and… god I was giving myself a headache again. “just, don’t do anything yet.”

“Princess,” he sighed smoothing down my unproducted hair “GDragon really shit the fucking bed, I don’t know how mad these other fuckers are but I, no Lucille, needs to bash some of those motherfuckers heads in for disrespecting you and little purse dog. Shawn is livid, she can’t even walk from what hes told me. And isn’t there a fucking good reason she left? She left for a fucking good reason here.”

“I don’t want the wrong people” I trailed off thinking what to say but I couldn’t focus. My head was pounding and I couldn’t stay focused, I huffed but he was patient.

“You shouldn’t take more medicine on an empty stomach.” I nodded and leaned back into him pretending to reach for my plate lazily and Negan let out a deep chuckle. There was a knock on the door and Shawn poked his head in.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything” He questioned and I sighed shaking my head and he walked in. “I didn’t tell Adi you’re here yet but I think, if youre feeling up for it you should see her.” I nodded and stood up Negan following behind me. “Amber!” he called and I was met with the same girl all cleaned up from the forest. “Can you take Kay to see Adi?”

“Of course.” She said motioning me to follow her but I looked back at Negan and Shawn.

“You’re not coming?” I raised an eyebrow then shook my head “wait is she not talking to you.”

“No, I mean yes” Shawn said the tried to correct himself “I need to borrow my father for a little bit. People are starting to ask question and-“ I put my hand up signaling I understood and continued walking with Amber. It wasn’t until I was out of earshot that Shawn admitted the real reason for calling on Negan. “Guess who called a meeting and invited us.”

“I don’t fucking guess.” He smirked and Shawn gave a laugh. “You’re uncle?” Shawn shook his head “Michael? He’s been trying to talk for a while now.” Shawn shook his head again as they walked down the stairs and Negan shrugged his shoulders.

“The damn Red Dragons to discuss what happened yesterday.”

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

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