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wellhalesbells · 3 years

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✨✨ TOP FIVES FOR 2020 ✨✨

2020 was, i think we can all agree, a massively chaotic year but i have never consumed as much media before in my life, so i thought others might benefit from my slothery uh, connoisseur.... ship? yes, that. below are the books, comics, shows, and movies that got me through!

B O O K S .

the starless sea, by erin morgenstern - i loooove this book because it loves me back. it says: ‘oh, you’re a reader, well i have just the thing for you.’ it luxuriates in language and story and riddles and fairy tales and it feels like an entire library in a single tome.

they never learn, by layne fargo - oh fuuuuuck, this was satisfying. i thought it might feel a little exploitative as it is very aware of the zeitgeist and likely would not exist without the #metoo movement but it never ever did. this was a fucking ROMP, period. reading about a woman getting away with murdering skeezy guy after rapey guy after shitty human just made me happier and happier.

moonflower murders, by anthony horowitz - this is the second in the susan ryeland series (and the first was hardcore good fun too) and really feels very classic mystery with the artful twist of catering to the literary community. mainly because: susan isn’t a detective, she’s an editor and she gets drafted in this time because the clue to what happened to a missing woman is in a book she edited, if she can find it. both of the books in this series have such an excellent coming together moment that is rare af to find.

the invisible life of addie larue, by v.e. schwab - the writing in this is just so good. it has that feel to me where i just want to drop the book and open up my own page and let my fingers fly. it’s that inspiring kind of writing that reminds you of all the things language can do.

crown of feathers/heart of flames, by nicki pau preto - aaahhh, this series is SO FREAKING GOOD! why is there not more of a fandom for it, why???? it is so many of my favorite tropes all resting perfectly together to the point where you almost forget they’re tropes because they just so naturally evolved there. ugh, it’s just.... it’s so heart-bursty good.

.... number 5, part 2? raybearer, by jordan ifueko - this was just so original and i was invested af. like, what a brilliant idea though and an even better execution?? i loved every character and am so looking forward to the next in the series so i can get to know them even better!!

honorable mentions (sh*t i still liked a whole heckuva lot): you/hidden bodies, by caroline kepnes // writers & lovers, by lily king // i’ll be gone in the dark, by michelle mcnamara // the faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home, by joseph fink & jeffrey cranor // girl, serpent, thorn, by melissa bashardoust // a little life, by hanya yanagihara // the guinevere deception, by kiersten white // obsidio (and the entire illuminae series), by amie kaufman & jay kristoff // the bone houses, by emily lloyd-jones // house of salt and sorrows, by erin a. craig // we hunt the flame, by hafsah faizal // savage legion, by matt wallace // blacktop wasteland, by s.a. cosby // crier’s war, by nina varela // the empress of salt and fortune/when the tiger came down the mountain, by nghi vo // upright women wanted, by sarah gailey // the monster of elendhaven, by jennifer giesbrecht // a deadly education, by naomi novik // you let me in, by camilla bruce // when you ask me where i’m going, by jasmin kaur // the lights go out in lychford/last stand in lychford (and the entire lychford series), by paul cornell // the devil and the dark water, by stuart turton // serpent & dove, by shelby mahurin // one by one, by ruth ware // ruthless gods (this was SUCH an upshot from the first book - it’s worth sticking with if you’re on the fence), by emily a. duncan // cemetery boys, by aiden thomas // the inheritance games, by jennifer lynn barnes // the fortunate ones (2021 release), by ed tarkington

C O M I C S .

cosmoknights, by hannah templer - the art was gorgeous, the gayness was glorious, and just.... hot HOOOOOOOOT lady knights in space?! a princess winning her own hand? find something not to love in there, i dare you.

don’t go without me, by rosemary valero-o’connell - wow. wow wow wow wow wow. the writing was stunning, so lyrical and atmospheric and deep, and rosemary has to be one of my favorite artists but even that managed to come as a beautiful surprise because it was just so freaking bold.

through the woods, by emily carroll - i loooove emily carroll, the convergence of spine-tingling horror and art that feeds into it, that is both visually and aesthetically pleasing, is hard to beat! p.s. i also read beneath the dead oak tree from her this year and it was also a BANGER.

the impending blindness of billie scott, by zoe thorogood - zoe is someone that i just want to follow. she’s just starting and i want to be there for every single step. i love her art style and her ability to tell a story with it.

above the clouds, by melissa pagluica - this was so unique, and such a baller concept, as nearly half the entire book is conveyed only through the art and yet you’re never once lost, never once confused as to what any character is thinking or feeling. it’s a story within a story and only one of those gets words though they both are chock full of emotion!

um.... number 5, part 2? crowded, by christopher sebela - everything about this series is fun af. crowd-funded assassination and a hirable bodyguard who’s rated like an uber driver??? and the chemistry between the two mains is so great and gay!!

honorable mentions: monster and the beast, by renji // long exposure, by kam ‘mars’ heyward // fence, by c.s. pacat // invisible kingdom, by g. willow wilson // ms. marvel, by g. willow wilson // heathen, by natasha alterici // not drunk enough, by tess stone // giant days, by john allison // die, by kieron gillen // be prepared, by vera brosgol // ascender (sequel to descender, which is also great), by jeff lemire // the unbeatable squirrel girl, by ryan north // bang! bang! boom!, by melanie schoen // gideon falls, by jeff lemire // life of melody, by mari costa // cry wolf girl, by ariel slamet ries // the tea dragon society, by katie o’neill // ptsd, by guillaume singelin // heartstopper, by alice oseman // solutions and other problems, by allie brosh // finding home, by hari conner // the magic fish, by trung le nguyen // something is killing the children, by james tynion iv // the weight of them, by noelle stevenson // spill zone, by scott westerfeld // skyward, by joe henderson // miles morales, by saladin ahmed

F I L M S.

parasite, dir. bong joon ho - oh it was satisfying, oh it was suspenseful, oh i had to watch some of it through my fingers but i loooooooved it. such a good story and so well made.

knives out, dir. rian johnson - okay, everything about this movie was amazing. every single character was fun as hell and i could’ve watched an entire movie about each of them. what a great fucking mystery!

blindspotting, dir. carlos lopez estrada - this made my heart hurt so damn much. what glorious writing, acting, and story!

portrait of a lady on fire, dir. celine sciamma - gooooorgeous cinematography, amazing chemistry, and such a soft, atmospheric film.

the farewell, dir. lulu wang - i cried and my heart felt so full and i love it so so much.

um.... number 5, part 2? someone great, dir. jennifer kaytin robinson - no part of me expected to love a netflix movie this much but it’s a love story that doesn’t get told that often?? the end of a relationship and the true love of friendship and i love these girls and i love jenny and nate’s broken relationship.

honorable mentions: eighth grade, dir. bo burnham // booksmart, dir. olivia wilde // midsommar, dir. ari aster // the curse of la llorona, dir. michael chaves // the secret life of pets 2, dirs. chris renaud & jonathan del val // jojo rabbit, dir. taika waititi // the invisible man, dir. leigh whannell // the favourite, dir. yorgos lanthimos // can you ever forgive me?, dir. marielle heller // troop zero, dirs. bert & bertie // ready or not, dirs. matt bettinelli-olpin & tyler gillett // brave, dirs. mark andrews & brenda chapman & steve purcell // the half of it, dir. alice wu // palm springs, dir. max barbakow // doctor sleep, dir. mike flanaghan // uncut gems, dirs. benny sadfie & josh sadfie // birds of prey, dir. cathy van // bloodshot, dir. dave wilson // the old guard, dir. gina prince-bythewood // enola holmes, dir. harry bradbeer // hocus pocus, dir. kenny ortega // always be my maybe, dir. nahnatchka khan // finding dory, dirs. andrew stanton & angus maclane // die hard, dir. john mctiernan

S H O W S .

black sails (2014) - this show, this shooooooooow. i cannot, it just makes me want to cry with how good it is. the characters, the EMOTIONS, the story, the plaaaaaan. like, the creators clearly had a plan for every single step of this show and it was a gOOD, GOOD PLAN.

the untamed (2019) - truly, cheesy good fun with one of the best gay romances ever. i love these characters and their relationships to each other and the way it glories in its own ridiculousness.

the righteous gemstones (2019) - one of the things that bothered me about my next choice (the ratio of female to male nudity) was so much more realistic in this one (i mean, we’ve all gotten five thousand dick pics and i know like three people? so the fact that there is so rarely male nudity in shows when there are tits everywhere..... no, how does that even make a tiny bit of sense?). this show was such great, wonderful, awful fun. they’re not great people and the show is under no delusion about that and it’s GLORIOUS!

the witcher (2019) - this was just hella fun, i loved the characters and the fantasy elements. i’m excited for the next season, it’s just entertaining swashbuckling through and through!

fargo (2014) - all of this was really very enjoyable with the through line being somebody fucks shit up and gets involved in something they really shouldn’t be involved in that’s going to swallow them whole. season one and season three were my stand-out favorites but they were all so violent, clever, and vicious!

um.... number 5, part 2? central park (2020) - um..... so many of the hamilton actors in a muscial cartoon drawn and written by the bob’s burgers team? WHAT ABOUT THAT DOESN’T SOUND AMAZING?! it was such a joy to hear daveed diggs and leslie odom jr.’s voices again!!

honorable mentions: schitt’s creek // the mandalorian // mr. robot // broadchurch // mindhunter // jack ryan // the good place // the end of the f***ing world // big little lies // elite // kidding // servant // letterkenny // curb your enthusiasm // i am not okay with this // ozark // buzzfeed unsolved: true crime/supernatural // you // runaways // dear white people // dickinson // brooklyn nine-nine // will & grace // 9-1-1 // dead to me // solar opposites // never have i ever // killing eve // what we do in the shadows // grace and frankie // avenue 5 // roswell, new mexico // the bold type // evil // tuca & bertie // impulse // the umbrella academy // watchmen // infinity train // corporate // search party // on becoming a god in central florida // a.p. bio // criminal: uk // the morning show // mythic quest // last week tonight // prodigal son // the great

#the starless sea #the invisible life of addie larue #the untamed #knives out #2020 favorites list!!#i tried to stick to shows i both started and finished in 2020 otherwise like schitt's creek and the good place would be in top five #same for comics #uh oh i've found the keyboard again

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swanqueeneverafter · 4 years

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Sins of the Past Pt.20

Wonderland. (Lighting candles on an altar, Morgause looks up to see Ella standing nervously beside her.) Ella: "You said you had answers about my mother. Please, tell me all that you know about her.” Morgause: “I’m sorry, Ella, but your mother is dead. She’s been gone a long time now. (Ella drops her head, her worst fears confirmed:) Perhaps you would like to see her?” Ella: (Raising her head quickly:) “What? Oh I... I want that more than anything.” Morgause: “As you wish. (Morgause holds out her hand, which Ella takes. Turning her so that Ella's back is to the altar:) Close your eyes. (As Morgause begins to chant, a breeze blows through the garden:) Arásae mid min miclan mihte þín suna to helpe. Hider eft funde on þisse ne middangeard þín suna w’æs." Cecelia: “Ella. (Ella opens her eyes:) Ella.” Ella: “Mother.”

Wonderland. Red Queen’s Dungeons. (Returning to check on her prisoner, Anastasia stands outside Will’s cell.) Will: “You’re a funny wonder you are. I thought the whole point of becoming Queen was that so you never had to get your hands dirty again.” Anastasia: “Will, I still get my hands dirty.” Will: “That’ll be because you’re not actually queen of anything! So what, you've just come to gloat? Laugh about how you’ve got half of Wonderland thinking you’re still queen?” Anastasia: “That's not why I’m here.” Will: “Then what is it?” Anastasia: “I came to tell you that while you might be feeling cavalier about your life, there are those of us who think you’re one of the finest men they’ve ever met. I’ve locked you in here to get it into your head that there are people out there who want you dead!” Will: “I’m well aware of that, thank you!” Anastasia: “Oh I know you are, but what about the people you care about? Do they know what kind of danger you’re putting yourself in just by being here?” Will: “They don’t need to know all of my sins.” Anastasia: “That’s where you’re wrong, Will. Back when I was being hunted by Cora’s men, you were there to make sure I survived. I became the Red Queen to save myself and you became a thief for the same reason. A long time ago you reminded me that no matter how bad things may seem, the one thing that will always be there for you is family. Well today I'm the one standing outside these bars and I've brought your family to you.” (Will watches as Tiana climbs the steps towards his cell, followed by his sister, Alice.) Tiana: "We're not going to let anyone hurt you, Will, but I'm gonna need a real good reason to not kill you myself. (Will drops his head:) How could you not tell us about all this?" Will: "I didn't want you to know. Either of you. (To Alice:) The things I did while you were locked in your tower, I couldn't have you worrying about your big brother. (To Tiana:) I never wanted you to find out what kind of man I was back then." Alice: "So you'd rather risk your own life than let us down? Don't you know how stupid that sounds?" Will: "It wasn't stupid to me. I thought I was protecting you from the truth." Alice: "What truth? That you were so desperate to survive that you stole a few things? Are you forgetting that we used to pinch stuff together? Back when it was just the two of us, right after Mum and Dad died. We were a regular Fagin and Artful Dodger, you and me." Will: "That doesn't make it right, Alice." Alice: "No, but I also remember who we used to steal from. Only those who could afford to lose a little here and there. (To Tiana:) I bet you that's who he stole from for the Caterpillar. (To Will:) I'm right, aren't I?" Will: "It's not that simple-" Alice: "See? I told ya." Tiana: (Moving closer to the bars:) "I never would've asked you to come on this journey with Ella if I had known just how dangerous it was going to be for you." Will: "It's me own fault. I should've told you." Tiana: "You're damn right you should. Because of you, we've got blondie over there thinking she's still queen." Anastasia: "Excuse me?" Tiana: "Oh I'll get to you in a minute. For now let me just say this, if you ever even think about keeping secrets from me again, the Caterpillar will be nothing compared to what I'll have in store for you. Are we clear?" Will: "Yes, love." Tiana: "Pardon?" Will: "Yes, Your Majesty." Tiana: "Mm hmm. Now, speaking of Ella, where is she anyway?"

Wonderland. Oracle's Garden. Continued. Cecelia: “My daughter. (Cecelia goes to Ella and embraces her:) When I last held you, you were just a child. You were the most precious thing in my life. I’m so sorry.” Ella: “You have nothing to be sorry for. Alice and Will told me what happened, that you were cursed.” Cecelia: “I should have told you. The pain I’ve put you though-” Ella: “No, you are not to blame.” (Cecelia releases her, holding Ella’s hands in her own.) Cecelia: “I cannot bear the thought that you believed I didn’t love you, that I wouldn’t have done everything I could to find my way back to you and your father.” Ella: “It’s me who should be sorry, for doubting your love for us.” Cecelia: “Do not think that. It is the Evil Queen who should carry the guilt for what happened.” Ella: “What do you mean?” Cecelia: (Hesitates:) “It is not important. What matters is that you are happy.” Ella: “Why should the Evil Queen feel guilty?” Cecelia: “It’s better left in the past.” Ella: “You cannot leave me with more questions. Please.” Cecelia: “Shortly after I left you, the Hatter’s travels to the Dream Realm came to an end. With the loss of his wife, Sarah, Jefferson had to do whatever he could to keep his daughter safe. He decided they would leave Wonderland and start afresh in the Enchanted Forest. The Hatter offered to take me with them, but I refused, believing the answer to my curse lay in Wonderland. So I remained behind, living in Jefferson’s old house in Tulgey Woods.” Ella: “So you were there?” Cecelia: “Yes, for a short time. By night I would read books about Wonderland’s many different poisons and by day I would search the forest looking for them. Until the day she came looking for Jefferson.” Ella: “Regina?” Cecelia: “After my dealings with the witch who cursed my heart, I knew evil when I saw it. Jefferson was trying to begin a new life away from the kind of wickedness the queen courted. I couldn’t let her jeopardise that for him, so I told her he wasn’t interested. The queen attacked me, insisting that I tell her where the Hatter had gone, but I couldn’t betray him.” Ella: “So she killed you?” Cecelia: “I sacrificed my life so that Jefferson could live his in peace, together with his daughter. (Ella closes her eyes, shaking her head:) Please, do not let this knowledge change you.” (The wind blows once more. Ella looks back up and sees that Cecelia is gone.) Ella: “No! Bring her back!” Morgause: “I cannot. Once the doorway is closed, it is closed forever. I am truly sorry that you learnt of your mother’s fate in this way. I can only imagine how it must feel to discover Regina is responsible for her death. It is an unforgivable betrayal.” (Morgause walks away, leaving Ella standing alone, a fire burning behind her eyes.) Storybrooke. Swan-Mills House. Regina: "What the hell are you talking about?" (Standing outside on the porch, Emma and Regina have been visited by Mulan and Ruby.) Ruby: "A friendly contest between two of the hottest couples the world has ever seen." Regina: "And what makes you think we'd be interested in something like that?"

Ruby: "Hey, I'm just the messenger, it was Xena who laid down the challenge." Emma: "Xena did?" Mulan: "She told us to tell you when she and Gabrielle took over our watch in the forest." Ruby: "Apparently her ego was bruised after what happened at the gym." Regina: "Xena has nothing to worry about, loss of flexibility is perfectly natural, for a woman of her advanced age." Emma: (Scoffs:) "That's cold." Mulan: "Wait, aren't you both the same age?" Ruby: "Well let's work it out. (Regina rolls her eyes:) Let's say Xena left home at sixteen, had ten years of dark deeds." Mulan: "The Evil Xena phase." Ruby: "Right. Then she spent five years or so travelling with Gabrielle before they were frozen in ice for twenty-five years." Emma: "Don't forget the year she spent without her memory. (At Regina's look:) What? It's a great show." Ruby: "I think Regina was around the same age when she cast the curse so... they're pretty much the same age, yeah." Regina: (Flatly:) "Well that's two minutes of my life I'm never getting back. (To Mulan:) Shouldn't Xena be spending her time coming up with a battle strategy should we need to lay siege on Camelot?" Mulan: "We have discussed it. As things stand right now, if Morgana's army is truly behind her, there's no one who can match it." Ruby: "And that's if it remained a non-magical battle." Mulan: (Nods:) "Because if Lily and Maleficent are being held in the castle, we can't go in blasting through Camelot's defenses without the risk of retaliatory action being taken against them." Ruby: "It's your classic impasse." Emma: (Sighs:) "Any sign of Mordred?" Mulan: "No, but we're covering a lot bigger area now that there are more volunteers." Regina: "We can't just sit on our hands and continue to do nothing." Ruby: (Mischievously:) "So, does that mean you're accepting Xena's challenge?" Camelot. Dungeons. (Morgana accompanies Elsa to the dungeons for a second time. Having previously inspected each cell the night before, Elsa curses under her breath after finding no trace of either Lily or Maleficent.) Morgana: "I understand your frustration, Elsa, but they are simply not here." Elsa: "It doesn't make any sense. The potion lead me to Camelot." Morgana: "You are free to search wherever you like. (Taking Elsa's hand:) Please, if there is anything I can do for you, all you need do is ask." Stables. (Anna and Kristoff speak in hushed voices.) Anna: "Of course they're here, they're just very well hidden, that's all!" Kristoff: "How can you be so sure?" Anna: "Because Elsa used the same locator spell when she found us washed up on the beach in that old trunk." Kristoff: "Yeah, but I think Morgana's sense of hospitality might waver if Elsa were to start blasting through walls!" Anna: "Well we have to do something!"

Kristoff: "We've searched every inch of the castle including Merlin's tower. Where else is there to look?" Anna: "I don't know! If you like questions so much, why haven't we seen Morgana's sister since we've been here? Huh? Answer me that." Kristoff: (Shrugs:) "Maybe Morgause has her own life to lead? Not all sisters are joined at the hip all the time you know." Anna: (Ignoring this:) "Or maybe she's where Lily and Maleficent are being held. Guinevere said Morgause is untrustworthy and has dark tendencies. It doesn't get much darker than kidnapping." Kristoff: "Well, there's murder. That's definitely darker than kidnapping, but there's been no proof of that either. And don't most kidnappers leave a note or a list of demands?" Anna: "Don't try and sway me with your cool-headed logic, Mr. Questions, this isn't the time." Kristoff: (Dryly:) "Of course not." Anna: "Camelot's a big place so we have to check anywhere and everywhere. Lily and Maleficent are family and we are not leaving without them." Kristoff: (Putting his hands up:) "Agreed. So where do you wanna look next?" Storybrooke. Sheriff's Station. (Emma and Regina meet up with the Charmings.) Snow White: "I think it sounds like a great idea. It could be just what everyone needs." Emma: "What, a chance to see me get my ass handed to me by Gabrielle in a staff fighting contest?" Snow White: "No, an excuse for another festival. (Emma and Regina groan:) Last time it was to raise the spirits of the people of Dun Broch. This time we can invite everyone from all the realms." Regina: "Oh great. Your mother's going to sell tickets." Snow White: "I just think that given the current situation, Storybrooke needs as many allies as possible if we're on the verge of going to war with Camelot. David thinks it's a good idea, don't you?" David: (Smiling:) "Absolutely." Regina: "Well of course he does. After knocking that knight over with his truck, he's got his swagger back. You'll probably challenge everyone you can to a joust." David: "Actually, no, not this time. I'll be helping Snow with organising everything. Guinevere's already got her hands full so I thought I'd offer my services." Snow White: "Plus Jasmine's offered to help Queen Roberta, so David won't have a chance to ask Aladdin for a rematch." Regina: “Mmhmm.” Emma: "Yeah, well that's great and all, but we haven't actually accepted the challenge yet. We don't even know if it's something we want to do." Zelena: (Entering:) "Oh you're doing it all right. I've got a lot of money riding on you two to win." Regina: "You only want us to do it so you can spend more time with Maria." Zelena: "And what's wrong with that? Someone's got to look after the poor girl, while you're off gallivanting. Tell you what, (Her hand already on Maria's baby carrier:) why don't you two go discuss it over coffee at Granny's (Picks up the basket and places five dollars in it's place:) My treat." (Before either of them can say anything, Zelena turns and leaves the station with Maria.)

Forest. (As the search for Mordred continues, Hook and Robin walk together along the forest path. Hook stopping occasionally to look through his spy glass.) Robin: "So, how are you holding up?" Hook: "Not great if I'm honest with you. It would be one thing if we knew for sure where Lily and Mal are so I could then go and rescue them." Robin: "Yeah, it's the not knowing that's the worst. Have you heard anything from Elsa and the others?" Hook: "No. I should be there with them in Camelot. (Sighs:) But it was agreed, what with my temper, that my staying here was best for everyone. (Notices Robin glancing at her watch:) Am I keeping you from something?" Robin: "What? Oh, no, it's just that Robin Hood was supposed to come take over for me. With Maleficent gone, it's been down to me to run the bar and-" Hook: "You've done a grand job with that place, Robin. Mal knows it too, though she'd never say it to your face." Robin: "Tell me about it." Hook: "That's just her way. She shows her appreciation differently to other people. You'll get to know her quirks the longer you work together." Robin: "I hope so. Did she really say she likes the changes I've made?" Robin Hood: (Arriving:) "Sorry I'm late. I was just rounding up the Merry Men. Your brother's back there with Little John." Robin: "Great, I'll say hi to him on my way back. Thanks for covering me." Robin Hood: "Not at all." Robin: (To Hook:) "Well, I guess I'll see you." Hook: "Aye, it's the best thing anyone can do for now. Keep doing what you have been and make Mal proud. (Robin smiles and turns to leave, almost bumping into Robin Hood. They share an uncomfortable nod and Robin Hood steps aside to let her pass:) Well that was awkward." Robin Hood: "Shut up and give me that. (Hook allows himself a smile as he hands over the spy glass:) I know this might not be the best time but, do you have any advice... on how to be a good father?” Hook: “Robin giving you the cold shoulder is she?” Robin Hood: “Oh we’re perfectly civil to each other, it’s just... me being with her mother and-” Hook: “And the fact that you’re not actually her father but look exactly like him? Yeah, that’s a tricky one. My advice would be not to force these things. Robin knows you’re not her dad and at this stage she’d probably resent you for trying to be. The one you have to worry about is Zelena.” Robin Hood: “Zelena? Why’s that?” Hook: “That woman’s got baby fever in the worst way. (Holds out his hand for the spy glass:) So good luck with that, mate.” Wonderland. (Striding along the forest path with a new sense of purpose, Ella is stopped by two men who are cooking their dinner beside the road.) Man 1: “Hold on there. Where do you think you're headed?” Ella: “I'm heading west. I need to find someone, and you're blocking my way.” Man 1: “If you keep heading west, you'll end up in the Black Forest, luv. You won't find anyone there.” Man 2: “They say it's so dark, you can't even find your own nose.” Ella: “I'll take my chances. Thank you.” (Man 1 blocks her path.) Man 2: “That seems awful dangerous, don't it? A little girl traveling alone. She might not know the rules.” Man 1: “See, this here's a toll road. You needs to pay the toll.” Man 2: “Now be a good girl and give us that necklace.” Ella: (Draws her sword:) “You even touch this necklace, and you'll lose your hand.” (Man 2 laughs.) Man 1: “Careful who you threaten, luv. No bauble's worth losing your life.” Ella: “This one is. (Ella knocks Man 2′s mace out of his hand and hits him with a spinning back elbow. Blocking Man 1′s overhead strike with her sword, she kicks him in the gut and he falls hard to the ground. Side stepping another attack from Man 2, Ella knees him in the gut and pushes him face first into a tree. Ducking Man 1′s wild swing, she punches and elbows him several times before hurling him to the ground. Standing over him with her sword in his face:) Be careful who you threaten, luv. (Picking up a flaming log from the fire:) Thanks for the light.” (Ella sheathes her sword, using the log as a torch, and continues on her way.) Storybrooke. Granny's Diner. (Taking Zelena's advice, Regina and Emma discuss Xena & Gabrielle's challenge.) Regina: "I mean just the fact they even challenged us shows that they're the ones who have something to prove." Emma: "Well, it sure as hell beats sitting around waiting. Besides, Mom was right when she said we need allies." Regina: "The other realms wouldn't possibly choose Morgana and Morgause over us. They love us. We're still wading through all the baby gifts the people have given us." Emma: "Yeah, but that was before Morgana reminded everyone that I killed Arthur." Regina: "Oh, no one cared about that bearded buffoon when he was alive, why should they care about who killed him?"

Emma: "Hm. You know, it might not be so bad. Do you remember the first time we had a friendly wager between us?" (Emma conjures a piece of paper into her hand and gives it to Regina. Looking at it, Regina sees that it is an old poster depicting Emma as a firefighter with the words 'Vote Swan For Sheriff' written on it.) Regina: (Smiling:) "I remember very well." Storybrooke. Past. Mayor's Mansion. Night. (Answering the door, Mayor Mills opens it to find Sheriff Swan standing on her porch.) Regina: "Miss Swan, it's late." Emma: "Is Henry asleep?" Regina: "Yes, why?" Emma: "We had a bet, winner take all. (Puts on a large fireman's helmet:) I've come to collect." Regina: "What the- Ahh! (The mayor gives out a yell as she is lifted over Emma's shoulder into a fireman's lift. Struggling momentarily with the door, Emma closes it and heads towards the staircase. In a hushed voice:) Emma put me down, this is ridiculous!" Emma: "Sorry, can't do that." (Emma readjusts her grip, so that one hand is now firmly squeezing Regina's ass. Resigning herself to this indignity, Regina ceases any pretense of a struggle. As they travel across the hall however, one of Regina's shoes falls noisily to the floor just outside Henry's bedroom door.) Regina: (Her voice serious:) "Put me down, I mean it." (Emma lets her down. Straightening her dress, Regina takes a deep breath before slowly turning the handle and gingerly enters her son’s room. Seeing that Henry is still fast asleep, she backs out of the room and closes the door.) Emma: "Well?" Regina: (Nods:) "He's still asleep." Emma: "Good." (Immediately, Emma scoops Regina into her arms and resumes carrying her across the hall.) Regina: "Well this is much better." Emma: "Yeah, but you're so fun to mess with." Regina: (Reaching her bedroom:) "I'm even more fun to fu-" (The door closes sharply behind them.) Wonderland. Present. (Walking past a sign that reads ‘Dead End of the Queen’s Road’, Ella continues undeterred.) Ella: (Reading more signs:) "‘Abandon all hope ye who enter.’ I'd have to have hope in order to abandon it. (Seeing yet more signs:) Seems like an awful waste of wood, when one sign would do. I mean, is it really that bad? Worse than finding out your mother-in-law killed your mother? (Reaching the end of the path, Ella sticks out her hand into the darkness which ripples like a wave, enveloping her fingers. Gasping, she removes her arm:) Okay, Ella, a little bit of darkness might be just what you need.” (Taking a deep breath, she steps inside the darkness and disappears.)

#sq #swan queen #swanqueen

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missnight0wl · 5 years

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HPHM Character Profile: Helena Ellis

Thank you for tagging @callmederok ! 😊

I’m tagging anyone who reads this and would like to organise information about their MC. Please, let me know if you do it!

Created by: @cynicaljapanophile

General Information.

Name: Helena Sarah Ellis Age: Currently 15 Gender: Female Nickname(s): Majority of people, including her friends, call her simply Helena or Helen. During the fifth year, Charlie started calling her Nell. For family members though, she’s Ellie. Date of Birth: 23rd of June, 1973 Astrological/Zodiac Sign: Cancer Ethnicity: Welsh (father’s side), English (mother), American, possibly Jewish (maternal grandmother), Polish (maternal grandfather). Nationality: She was actually born in Cardiff, Wales, so technically she’s Welsh – even though she never lived there, only visited her aunt. Species: Human Blood Type: AB Rh- Blood Status: Half-blood Family:

Christopher Ellis, Helena’s father. A Muggle with a scientific mind who’s fascinated by the wizarding world (sometimes also terrified, especially after Jacob’s disappearance). He is is a Physics teacher in secondary school. Christopher had an older sister, Margaret, but unfortunately, she died of cancer when Helena was eight. His parents passed away as well, even before Chris met his future wife.

Alice Ellis (née Kowalski), Helena’s mother. The only daughter of Queenie Goldstein and Jacob Kowalski. True Hufflepuff, kind and hard-working. She works at the Department of International Magical Cooperation in the Ministry of Magic. Way more powerful than it seems.

Both Queenie and Jacob are a big part of their grandchildren’s life. They’re also close with Tina and Newt. Now, I didn’t spend much time on developing the Scamander family, however, I had a problem with Rolf’s existence in general as he probably should have overlapping years with Jacob and/or Helena. So I decided that Newt and Tina’s son moved to the USA, and that’s actually the relatives from the Christmas SQ. At first, it felt like a stretch, but then I decided that it’s even cute – you know, Tina went to England for Newt, and their son went back to America for his love. Affiliation(s)/Organization(s):

The Ellis family

The Kowalski family

The Scamander family

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Ravenclaw House

Occupation(s): Student

Magical Characteristics.

Form of Boggart: Her loved ones telling her it’s her fault. Helena blames herself for many things that hurt her friends, and she fears that deep inside, they think so too. She’s afraid that everything that’s happening with the Cursed Vaults is her fault, no matter of her actions. And that Jacob might be dead because she didn’t prevent it in time. Form of Riddikulus: Probably the same people in some light-hearted situations. Like Ben thanking her for believing in him instead of blaming for everything he had gone through. That is assuming she’d be able to cast Riddikulus at all (she probably wouldn’t if she saw Jacob). Form of Patronus: A Spotted Hare. What do they see in the Mirror of Erised? Helena wants the most to have a normal life. Not only for the Cursed Vaults shenanigans to be over, but so they never happened. Therefore, she’d probably see herself, her hair in a neat plait, her parents not being overtired, her brother holding his cat, her diary having entries starting with “Dear diary,” instead of “Dear Jacob,”… Just an average girl with the average family. Wand(s):

First wand:

Length: Twelve inches.

Flexibility: Pliable.

Wood: Acacia.

Core: Unicorn hair.

Description: Given by the game. It is said that Acacia wands often refuse to produce magic for any but their owner, and also withhold their best effects from all but those most gifted. Unicorn hair wands produce the most consistent magic, are the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts and the most faithful. I feel like it’s something Helena needed at that time – something unique and powerful that chose her and will stay loyal to her.

Second wand:

Length: Eleven-and-a-quarter inch.

Flexibility: Fairly flexible.

Wood: Ebony.

Core: Dragon Heartstring.

Description: Given by the game. Highly suited to all manner of combative magic and to transfiguration. Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves and hold fast to their beliefs. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider – something that Helena has learnt over the years.

Animagus: A doggo! Pretty similar to the model in the game – just a light brown scrub. Amortentia: Her grandparents' bakery, petrichor, honeysuckle, grass, popcorn.

Appearance.

Height: Currently 163 cm (5’4”). She won’t be much taller by the end of school – pretty average 165 cm. Weight: I don’t know… About 50 kg (110 lbs)? She’s a rather slim girl. She loves to eat but she easily loses weight due to stress. Complexion (skin tone/conditions): Quite fair, probably with some acne every now and then. I mean, she’s a teenager under a lot of stress. Hair Color/Style: Her natural hair is light brown and wavy. In the fifth year, she made it darker – similar to Jacob’s shade. She usually keeps it medium length. Eye Color: Green.

Hogwarts Information.

Worst Class(es): Probably History of Magic. Not necessarily because of the subject (she actually likes to study it with Rowan, and she enjoyed study session with Ismelda), but because of Binns - as the teacher’s role is quite important to her in overall opinion. Also, she’s surprisingly not very good at Care of Magical Creatures. She’s a bit too confident due to everything she learnt at home and from grandpa Newt. She has the knowledge, but it’s not really structured. Luckily, she’s good at improvising and connecting facts. Best Class(es): Charms. Again, for a big part because of the teacher. She also likes how universal it is. Least Favourite Teacher(s): Binns. She respects his knowledge, but she hates his absolute lack of teaching skills. She also didn’t like Snape for quite a long time, but she grew weirdly fond of him. She even learnt to laugh at his jokes. Unfortunately, they’re usually not meant to be jokes… Favourite Teacher(s): Flitwick. She loves his passion, his dedication, his approach to students. She never attended any of her dad’s class, but she often imagines that Christopher and Flitwick are similar kind of teachers: infecting people with love for their subject, sprinkling it with a healthy dose of puns.

Honourable mention: Rakepick. They have their ups and downs on the personal level, but Helena admires her as an educator and a mentor. Quidditch: Meh. She doesn’t play herself. She’s pretty good on a broom, she understands the rules well, but when all the balls start flying around her, she feels lost. She cheers very loudly whenever Charlie or Andre play, but the social aspect of those events is more important to her than the game itself. Favourite Spell(s): Protego and Expecto Patronum.

Trivia.

(random facts about them, future job, face claim, theme song, etc.)

Helena has a piercing in her ear done by Tonks. At some point of the fourth year, Tonks wanted to convince Helena, Tulip, and Rowan to get matching tattoos. You know, because she was always hanging out with Helena and Rowan, she started getting closer with Tulip, and most importantly, she joined the team when they went to the Cursed Vault. Surprisingly, no one wanted a tattoo, but they agreed for piercing. And Helena was stupid enough to go first… The end result is really nice, but the process itself didn’t go as well as planned, making other girls withdrawing from their decision. Also, nobody wanted to pierce Tonks’s ear, and they stopped her from doing it herself.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm mc #jacob's sibling #helena ellis #hphm jacob #jacob ellis #christopher ellis #alice ellis #hphm character profile

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ravencromwell · 4 years

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On Rage and Complexity interwoven with disability and queerness as filtered through Sarah Gailey's "maybe novel"

I've drifted into posting much of my more personal/metaish content on my dreamwidth In an effort to try and be better about cross-posting, thought I'd put a bit of meta up here first for a change.

We lament, often and at great length, about the kind of tales we'd like to see: with more diverse characters, yes, but also well-rounded diverse characters. As Liz Bourke concisely opined recently :

It’s troubling, sometimes, how much the issue of “good representation”—and the arguments around it—slides towards a pervasive sense that creators must depict people who are good and right and do right. It’s not necessarily an explicit dictate, but there’s an unspoken undercurrent, a sense that to portray ugliness, unlikeability, fury—to portray people who have responded to suffering with cruelty and bitterness and rage—is to be complicit in one’s own vilification. And to be vulnerable. Justify your existence is the sea we swim in, always against the current.

To be unmarked by compromise, to be without sharp edges that sometimes cut even when you don’t want them to—because the world is what it is, and sometimes what it is teaches you that the best defence against being hurt by cruelty is a really quick offense—is to either be very young or hardly human. But when we come to fictional portrayals, well… As you know, Bob, Bob gets to be seen as a difficult genius, where Alice is seen as a bitch or a Mary Sue.

And as insightful as that essay is, I'd argue that a central factor it overlooks, or doesn't articulate as well as I would like, is that the more intersections of marginalization your identity rests upon, the more that unspoken pressure kicks in. I certainly feel and see it, as both a queer and disabled person, and I have friends who feel that weight even more heavily--that internal voice policing their own writing even stronger when they're brown and/or queer and/or coming from decolonized places; even heavier if/when they and their compatriots are still untangling the effects of colonialism and modern neoimperalism. And so it becomes vitally imperative for all of us, using whatever privilege we have to work in concert to expand what characters can be portrayed in mainstream fiction. And oh, aint that an easy proclamation to make; doing the work, though, is far harder.

So y'all can imagine my overwelming delight when the Bourke essay and twitter convo that sparked it--linked to in essay and so very much worth a scan--dropped on the same week as my introduction to Sarah Gailey's maybe book Every bit of what I read of Gailey's makes my love of her work slowly, steadily increase, but to be perfectly honest, this's probably my favorite thing of hers so far. It's the thing that tugs sharpest at my heart, that I see so much of my own experience reflected in, and it's only two fuckin chapters in But even if Gailey never writes another word of this--for which a large chunk of me will mourn--, it'll still be one of the most special things I've encountered for being, in western lit terms, a masterclass in putting the characters we wanna see in the world. (I insert that caveat because I know well that folks like Viet Thanh Nguyen are doing astonishing, under-appreciated work in nonwestern litfic. But the genres I'm most familiar with, western scifi and fantasy, have a long way to go to catch up.)

There are, so far, four--maybe five? I can't quite tell--characters in this novel. Three of 'em have serious, life-changing disabilities, and one of them is delightfully, tragically queer. And they're all allowed to be wonderfully vicious and complicated. Just look at something like:

Cory Jefferson is a hunched-over curled-up boy with bones too long for his body and a jaw you could use to shovel the ashes out of a fireplace. His chest has the caved-in look that comes with growing tall before you can grow wide, and his hair is long enough to want cutting but not long enough to look like it’s long on purpose. His hoodie sleeves have holes in them, and the bottoms of his jeans are frayed from walking, and all his fingers are missing, cut off at the bottom knuckle a year ago on a night he can’t remember no matter how many Thursdays he spends looking back and forth between Piper and Ethan.

"I think we should go back," Piper says. She’s chewing on her thumb, and Cory is staring at her thumb while she chews on it, probably because that used to be his nervous tic. Piper used to nag him about it.

Piper Durham has a spine as straight as a plumb-line dropped down a well. Her dark hair falls past her shoulders, less straight than it used to be, and with a few strands of white that weren’t there before. She’s thin enough to look hollow, and pale enough to look scared. She wears large black sunglasses with scratched-up lenses. She wears them because they cover up the holes where her eyes used to be, back before the night a year ago that she can’t remember no matter how many Thursdays she spends chewing on her thumb.

"That’s a bad idea,” Cory snaps. “That’s the worst bad idea I’ve ever heard, and every time you bring it up you sound stupider."

"I don’t hear either of you coming up with something smarter,"Piper snaps back, and then she immediately closes her mouth. She’s biting her tongue, literally biting it, you can see her doing it, and then she flinches again and stops doing that, because biting her tongue is even worse than what she said.

Ethan’s hands rise from his lap. After a silent moment, Cory translates for him, so Piper can hear. "Ethan says it’s okay. He says not to worry about it. He says he’s used to people saying stuff like that."

"Sorry," Piper whispers.

Across from her, in his own folding chair, Ethan signs it’s okay again. Cory doesn’t translate this time, and the decision not to translate is a hateful one. He watches with narrowed eyes as Piper, who can’t see Ethan’s hands and will never see them again, returns to chewing on her thumb.

Ethan rests his square-fingered hands on his crossed legs and sits back in his chair, his every movement controlled. Some would call him poised. Some would call him that. He wears dark jeans, like always, and a button-down shirt, like always. His fingernails are short and clean, and his sandy-blonde hair is short and clean, and his shoes are polished and his clothes are pressed. He wears a clear plastic face mask to help heal the skin grafts on his face — his face, which was cut away from his skull in one tidy sheet. He does not speak because he has not had a tongue for a year, not since the night he lost his face, which is a night he can not remember no matter how many Thursdays he spends watching Cory and Piper hate each other.

These are people not made saintly by their experiences, who fuck up and apologize, and honestly still fuck up. But who're trying, in their deeply jaded fashion, to show solidarity after this horrific experience they've all been through. They have so many rough edges between them that it'd be impossible to navigate a room between them without cutting yourself to ribbons. Three disabled characters, never put on pedestals, allowed to be as complex as any able-bodied person. It's something still so astonishingly rare that it brought me to weeping this afternoon and meant more than I can say.

And to have these three disabled characters get language this evocative and gorgeous--to have Ethan dress so sharply! when to so many people disability translates to a disconnect from cultural touchstones like fashion. As someone who loves and wants to adopt men's fashion, that, too, meant so much. Every word of this is just so lush! I can't decide whether it's the description of Piper's spine or Cory's caved-in look that comes from growing tall before you can grow wide I love most as a descriptive passage, but to see disabled characters get this kind of attention is breathtaking.

And then there's this description of queerness, from our resident ghost:

The girls fascinated me in death the same way they had in life. For all my sixteen years alive, I was hypnotized by the way a girl can move through a room fast and subtle, like a secret moving through a church during service. The way girls laughed, the way they wrapped their hands around things they wanted to own, they way their eyes got sharp when they were angry. The way they smelled. Boys always seemed the same to me, all of them echoes of each other, all of them saying the same three sentences over and over again, all of them looking at each other with the same eyes. I could never tell the difference between them, not really. But girls. Girls.

It mattered to me while I was alive, but it didn’t make a difference in the way I lived my life, which was a regret I chewed on when I’d worn my other regrets into pulp. The town was small, and everyone knew everyone, and by the time I knew I wasn’t the only girl who watched girls the way I did, I’d been dead for too long to do anything about it. If I knew then what I know now, maybe I would have said something to Molly Two-tone, whose real name was Molly Tutonne and who had straight black hair that fell between her shoulderblades as black as roofing tar, who had bright green eyes and a laugh that you could hear from a block away. Molly Two-tone, who came to my house after I died and stood in the kitchen and whispered that if I was there and if I could hear her, she wanted me to know that she wished she’d kissed me when she had the chance.

There wasn’t a thing I could do to let her know I’d heard her. All I could do was watch her cry, and then watch her leave, closing the door quiet as she could when she went. She didn’t ever come back again.

God, that description guts me every damn time. There're so many of us for whom that metaphor applies: death can be substituted for disapproval or fear or a million other things that separate us from our queerness. I don't know if there's any way for our ghost to have a happy ending, or even something close to catharsis, but Gailey confronts the mess and complication of queerness in ways I've rarely seen.

And getting back to the original point of marginalized characters not being allowed to be cruel, look at this fucking gem on Piper:

Maybe I knew, when Piper walked in with Cory and Ethan. Maybe I knew she was Piper’s granddaughter. Or maybe I saw Piper and thought, for a breath-held instant, that Molly had come back to see me again. I lost track of time more and more often as the years went on, forgetting sometimes how far I was from my life. Forgetting that it had happened one hundred years before, and not just that instant.

When Piper eased the front door open and stepped inside, waving her hand in front of her face to ward off cobwebs, she looked just like Molly — that long black hair and those jewel-bright eyes, and a mouth with a smile hidden at the corners of it. But once the moment of hope melted away, I could see the differences between Piper and her grandmother, and there were plenty of them. And then two boys walked in behind her, and they shut the door.

Piper turned to face them, and she let that hidden smile loose, and it was a different kind of smile than I’d ever seen on Molly’s face — bright and sharp and cruel, ready to have that cruelty dialed up as far as it needed to go. When I saw that smile on Piper’s face, I knew.

I knew that she was nothing like Molly at all.

This's a character who is gonna shortly be disabled, and she's allowed all her sharp edges and I will never fucking be over it. This's a novel of sharp edges, not pulling a punch in deference to its subject matter, not doing a thing to make its readers comfortable or reassured. It's all the ferocity horror should be, with probably my favorite insight being:

When there is a house that no one will ever live in again, people bring their secrets to it. They hide things there — treasures and secrets and sins and violence and love. They turn it into a place to be cruel to each other, because they’re afraid, and fear slaps a dial onto cruelty and turns it up as high as it can go. They turn it into a place to want each other, because fear puts a dial onto want, too. They turn it into what it is, and without them, a house is just a house, no matter what happened there. It’s just empty.

a two-chapter masterclass in writing representation we wanna see.

I was a disabled child told to be kind, not to make folk nervous or bristle at their pity. To know my limitations and stay quiet, not rock the boat and I wouldn't be hurt or scorned more than was expected for my disability. They're lessons I'm spending much of my twenties unknotting, and this vicious, many-toothed novel has wrapped itself round my heart even in its infancy.

#book babbling #disability stuff #queer stuff #my meta #sarah gailey

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wouldadepressedpersonmakethis · 5 years

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Next 2 Tiers of TVW

ADAM ELLIS - OPEN Age: 34 Portrayal: Charlie Hunnam Alliance/Occupation: Moralist/Lawyer Relationships: Cora Ellis (sister), Theodore Clarke, Cecil King (best friends), Katherine Clarke (interest), Alice Wilson, Samuel Dawson, Harriet Price (friends/allies)

honestly one of the best people you will ever meet!!!

super logical and rational

will win any argument against you!!!!!!

definitely thinks before he speaks and won’t always come back with a super snappy comeback but when he does reply he will politely destroy you with a painfully detailed argument and the sources to back him up!!!

has probably never raised his voice ever????

part of his power in the courtroom is his ability to never lose his cool

has been in love with katherine clarke for years!!!

unintentionally gives her a lot of mixed messages b/c he does care!!!! so much!!!!! but he has no desire to involve her in the secret dangerous life he leads

he and his sister have been harboring witches in their own home until they can safely send them off to other parts of the country (or beyond, if necessary)

he knows that the life he leads is super dangerous!!!!

plus he has little to offer her

he is selective in the clients he takes on - most of them cases who can’t afford to pay for his services

CORA ELLIS - TAKEN BY LIZZY Age: 27 Portrayal: Dominique McElligott Alliance/Occupation: Moralist/Teacher Relationships: Adam Ellis (brother), Howard Calvert (childhood best friend/interest), Anna Calvert (best friend), Harriet Price (best friend/ally), Alice Wilson, Samuel Dawson (friends/allies), Edith Craven (rival)

the opposite of her brother in a lot of ways!!!

tends to act now and think later!!!

fluent in sarcasm!!!!!!

witty and clever

will nOT take your shit!!!!! doesn’t care who you are!!!!!

speaks her mind 100% of the time idk how she’s not dead tbh

left town a few years ago after the sudden death of her father to become a governess for a family in the southern part of the country, but really she was helping to harbor and settle several orphaned children who had discovered their abilities with families who lived far away from the city who would help protect them

now she’s back home and aiding her brother hide local witches who must escape in their basement

started to develop feelings for howard calvert when she left town????

they were super close friends as kids and she never looked at him that way until more recently

definitely distanced herself once he took up his father’s cause to hunt down sorcerers

once considered trying to stay close to him for information, but realized she cared about him too much to hurt him (even if she also kind of hates him now? it’s complicated)

ELI WRIGHT - OPEN Age: 40 Portrayal: Anson Mount Alliance/Occupation: Moralist/Drifter Relationships: Oliver Wright (brother), Grace Seymour (former sister-in-law), Alexander Lambton (former boss), James Wilson (childhood best friend), Louisa Wilson (interest), Sarah Wilson (current employer)

eli’s had a complicated life!

grew up the eldest of three bros

raised as a hunter!!!!

honestly before even the king declared all sorcerers to be evil, the concept had been drilled into his head by his father!!!!!!

when it was discovered the the his youngest brother, however, was a sorcerer, eli began questioning all he ever thought he knew

either his brother was the exception to the rule, or everything they’d been doing their entire lives was wrong (whatever the case, he would not believe that his brother could ever be capable of doing the horrible things their father promised)

he meant to help his brother (somehow, someway) but his brother oliver was not so optimistic and before eli could stop him, oliver killed their youngest brother

his first impulse was to avenge his brother, but once he knew that oliver thought he was doing the right thing .... all killing oliver would do would leave him without any brothers, at all

but he’s still not forgiven oliver for what he did and he left valeria without a word of farewell to anyone

he ended up in lostaria where he ended up working security for alexander lambton ...

that only lasted for a few days before a bounty was placed upon his head after he threatened the king when he saw him physically abuse one of his servants

he’s been on the run since, finding himself back home in valeria ... at the same time that the King happens to be visiting

he knows he can’t stay here (he doesn’t like the idea of running into either alexander lambton or his brother), but he’s gotten temporary work helping the wilsons build a barn

knows he puts them at danger by staying with them, but he won’t deny that being amongst good people

definitely super rough around the edges!!!!!

doesn’t like to get close to people b/c he’s been betrayed before ++ there’s a mark on his head and he knows it’s v likely that he will hurt people he cares about

#victorian fantasy #these bios still need a little bit of work but this is the basics

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clenastia · 3 years

Text

What’s this? Clena, writing many original things!

If only my fanfic would be this productive.

Prompt: “It’s been over an hour since you were bit, and you still haven’t turned into a zombie. You’ve also been oddly nonchalant about the whole thing. Your group is starting to suspect you weren’t human to begin with.”

Fic below the cut!

---

It itches. You try not to scratch it, try not to drag attention to it, because if the rest of the group finds out they’re going to flip.

You’re not even sure if they’ll let you try to explain, although what you could possibly say to make the situation any better is… a bit beyond you.

But by all the stars does it itch.

“Alright, sound off, how’d the run go.” Aaron barks, a crisp order from a man who’s had too much pressure on him for too long.

You almost miss the young man who was your college roommate once upon a time.

It feels like a lifetime ago.

“It was all clear for us!” Sarah chirps, clinging to her peppy attitude with a tenacity that is almost desperation.

Her sister was bit two weeks ago, and sometimes you wonder if she’s going to do something stupid.

She’d probably have the worst reaction, you know, if only because of how fresh her pain is.

It’s not like you could have done anything, but you’ve come to learn that for humans, that often doesn’t matter.

They just need something to blame, sometimes, and you don’t want to be that ‘something’.

Your fingers twitch, a desperate need to scratch, but you know it will fade in a few hours.

This isn’t your first bite, although you hadn’t yet found Aaron and the others, last time.

You really should have been more careful.

Everyone else gives their reports, and you’re about to offer your own, when Mike says those damning words.

“-but I thought I saw Tannik go down, coulda swore you were dead man, til you clawed your way out. Nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Mike claps you on the back, and you fight not to groan.

You know the procedure as well as everyone else.

If you try to cover it up, you’ll only look worse, so you just nod brusquely.

Aaron’s face falls.

No, rather, he looks nearly in tears.

You shift awkwardly on your feet, a human gesture that was… picked up unusually quickly, if you’re honest.

You hold out the bag.

“I was in charge of medical supplies - I had to at least bring them back.” You offer, trying to play it cool.

If they behead you you’ll die, but they usually only do that to people too far into the bite’s thrall. As long as they just shoot you through the heart or something, you’ll survive, and you can strike out on your own later.

You can’t give them reason to think you’ll need to be beheaded.

You try not to think about how lonely it was, before you found Aaron again, how much you’d missed your roommate and the bustling human activity.

You got bit, and worse, you got seen.

And more than that, you know what S’thalissae did. The humans don’t know where their plague came from, but you know what will happen if you tell the truth. Even if you betrayed them, it’s not going to matter to the people who’ve been living like this constantly asking why.

“It’s been over an hour though,” Alice murmurs - she’d been with Mike, and she’s always been good with time.

You should be much further along in the infection after so much time.

You have to try and convince them of- something, anything, you can’t protect them if they actually kill you (you ignore how likely you are to get caught, if you follow after them)

(it’s not important)

“I- guess it has, yeah,” you return, and finally, finally give into the urge to scratch. “Itches like the fucking devil, but that’s all it’s done so far.” You offer - scratching is a symptom, but it’s not a severe one, hopefully they’ll think it was just a delayed response-

Aaron clings to that statement with a desperation that terrifies you.

“An entire hour and you’re only at the itching stage?!” he asks, voice pitching up in hope.

This is not what you want. “I- well- I haven’t actually looked at it, been a little scared to, s-so-”

He leaps forward with fervor, ignoring the calls of the rest of the group, jerking up your sleeve.

You close your eyes.

You know what it looks like, after all.

“It’s- not swollen?” Aaron stumbles over his words, twisting your arm this way and that.

You crack open an eye, taking in the very faint green lines twisting out from the bite.

If you watch them for long enough, you know, you’ll see them shrinking slowly back towards the bite zone, and eventually leak out of your arm entirely.

Your body, for all the tech and magic you’ve used to hide it, is not human. The poison can’t find an anchor, no matter how hard it tries, and it’ll bleed out in the end.

You might get a minor infection from the general unsanitary nature of a zombie’s mouth, but the poison is nearly more a curse than a biological process, and it can’t hold you.

“Do you think it’ll heal?”

“Aaron! Don’t be stupid! There’s no saving him, there’s no saving anyone!” Sarah snaps, hands trembling.

You fight not to react.

Once her sister was bit, there was nothing you could do. Not that there’s much you can do before anyone’s bit either, you don’t know where the cure is kept or if it even exists.

Your people have perfected the art of creating biological weapons that don’t affect them.

Half the time, they don’t even bother to invent cures.

You try not to think of how long you helped them without thought, until Aaron and that college dorm.

Somehow, humans are just… different.

Or maybe it’s just Aaron, who was such a different person before all this, always willing and eager to help you as you struggled through college courses when you barely knew how to speak any human language.

Even the math is different, and you’d been under the impression that math never changed, and-

Humans are just so needlessly complicated, but Aaron was so invested, even from the very beginning, helping you learn more than you ever thought there was to know-

You were wrong, you know now. All those other planets, all those other species, you’ve come to learn that you were wrong, but.

There’s nothing you can do to help them.

You’re pretty sure there’s nothing you can do to help the humans, either.

Perhaps it’s selfish then, to want to keep these humans alive, as best you can. It’s your information that damned their species, that gave your superiors everything they needed to craft the virus.

Your conscience came far too late to do any good, and at this point you’re not even sure your death will absolve you of the crimes you committed against all those other worlds. All those other people.

Aaron and Sarah keep arguing, but-

This is your fault. Maybe not directly, because if it hadn’t been you, your superiors would just have sent someone else, and you know you can’t beat them, can’t overthrow them, but it was you, here, and so it has to be at least a little bit your fault.

Aaron shouldn’t defend you like this.

“He has a chance Sarah, please, let him take it-”

“You didn’t let my sister take it-!”

“She was dying, there was nothing we could do, but it’s been an hour and he’s not that bad, he has a real chance, Sarah please-”

“Just because you-”

“Wait! Are those marks… fading?” It’s Alice who grabs your arm, just as you reach for your knife.

Everyone turns to look, Alice dragging your arm into better light and staring with intensity at those faint green lines. The curse is trying to seep deeper, you know, trying to find some piece of humanity to latch onto. It’ll start draining out soon, though for now the itch is almost unbearable.

“I don’t know what it’s doing,” you lie, desperate to keep the truth from them, to keep your friends just a little while longer.

You know they’ll hate you if they learn the truth.

“But I don’t think we should take the chance. Just- just kill me, and get out of here. Yeah?”

“Absolutely not!” Aaron all but snarls, grasping your arm tight enough to hurt, staring with wide-eyed desperation at the bite. You don’t know what else you can say to convince them.

You just know you can’t tell them the truth.

It may be what you deserve, after so many planets and so many innocent lives on your hands, but you’ve always been a coward.

“Aaron, it’s not safe.”

“I’ll be the judge of that - or are you going to change your mind on electing me leader?” He addresses the question to everyone, and you close your eyes.

They won’t, you know.

You wish they would, but Aaron’s got them through too much, led them too well. They’ll keep you under observation, and the truth will spill out with all that unnatural green poison.

Perhaps-

Perhaps this is no less than you deserve.

Mike and Tommy argue with Aaron, enough to have you tied up, just in case - you almost wish it would be necessary, but you know it won’t.

The lines grow fainter, and then darker.

Watching Aaron’s face swing from bright hope to utter despair is painful, but you know it’ll only get worse.

Sarah nearly has him convinced to kill you, when the first drops of unnatural green drip uncomfortably out of the wound.

Everyone freezes.

They crowd around, almost too close, and watch as the cursed poison that’s all but destroyed their people leaks out of you, drop by painstaking drop.

“That- shouldn’t be possible.” Tommy offers.

Everyone looks at you, and you play dumb with a desperation that borders on madness.

“Well it’s certainly not something that came up in med school,” you grin, and realize only too late that perhaps reminding them about your course of study in this sort of situation is a bad idea.

“Yeah. You were in med school, weren’t you.” Sarah says, deadpan and bordering on angry. Your entire being seems to skip a beat.

No no no no, please no, you beg to whatever silent gods bear witness over this world.

You never did quite figure out humans’ religious ideology.

Some planets are easier than others, but humans have turned out to be especially complicated.

“Yeeeeees?” you finally manage to respond, a question as much as a stall for time.

Humans do that sort of thing all the time, when they want to pretend they don’t know where you’re going with something.

You know it won’t work, but-

You can’t just tell the truth.

“Come on Sarah, I was in med school too! I don’t think that has anything to do with this! He’s just- lucky, or like, I dunno, fucking real-life Ellie or some shit, it’s- I know you’re still upset about Susie, but this is a good thing it’s-”

“It’s fucking suspicious is what it is! He barely eats, Aaron! And everyone knows he’s creepy-fast and have you seen the way his eyes glow at night? At least, before he started wearing the fucking goggles! Maybe he’s the- the fucking antichrist or some shit, maybe he’s actually Ellie fucking Williams but I’m certainly not trusting him until I get some answers!”

Sarah points aggressively in your face as you try not to cringe.

Have you really been moving faster than normal? You didn’t think so, you’d studied human limits very thoroughly to make certain, but-

There have been a few times, when Aaron was in trouble, or one of the others-

Perhaps you’ve been a bit careless.

You really should have been more careful with your eyes though, the goggles were too little too late.

In your defense, humans have a bit of a wider visual spectrum than the last two species you helped destroy, and you’re a bit out of practice.

You sink back against the tree you’re tied to, hoping that if you don’t say anything they’ll just kill you.

But then Aaron turns to face you properly, eyes wide in realization as he puts together facts no one else in the group would have.

He’s been your roommate since the very beginning, after all.

He knows you barely spoke the language, that you never claimed a nationality, that you’d sometimes make noises in your sleep that a human throat couldn’t quite mimic.

Aaron’s never really thought about it, you know, because humans are selectively blind like that.

He’s thinking about it now.

You can practically watch as the betrayal creeps across his face.

He knows just as well how deeply you studied human biology and infections, even though you hadn’t been in the college long enough to specialize in a particular medical branch.

Suddenly, you need to explain - before he gets the completely wrong idea, before he decides that you’re responsible for everything (even though you are, even though you did, you may not have given the orders but you made the choice to obey them)-

“I tried to stop them- I swear, I swear Aaron I changed my mind and betrayed them and tried to stop them I didn’t want to help anymore-”

You bite your tongue.

Duck your head.

You don’t-

You know that’s a pathetic excuse.

You could have tried harder to stop them, but you wanted to find Aaron and make sure he was safe.

Maybe, if you’d fought more, you could have stopped them.

A fist slams into the tree above your head.

You hunch your shoulders.

You’d have rather died while everyone was still your friend.

It hurts more, you think, to know that your death won’t be mourned, but celebrated.

You hunch deeper into yourself, curled close to the tree trunk.

You hope it’ll be quick, the way the others’ were, even if it won’t be mourned.

Your hopes die with Aaron’s harshly snarled question.

“Who did this?”

So it will be torture, you think, distancing yourself. You’ll answer, of course. But you doubt they’ll believe you.

The humans have such a glorified opinion of their so-called ‘aliens’, how could they ever take the truth seriously?

But he’s your friend, they all are, so you can only answer.

Your hopes for a quick death die more swiftly than you will, you’re sure, but you can at least cooperate.

You can at least give them that much, when everything’s your fault.

#clena's original ficlets #clena writes a zombie fic!#i have no idea where I originally found this prompt #okay so really I'm just on an alien bandwagon #it's that fucking Voltron Seasn 8 rewrite I still want to do I fucking swear #voltron haunts me #all the alien fics #all the time #this is not fanfic #not even a little bit #but like #haunted man #maybe one day I should just give in and write the fuckin voltron fic #but its like #so many other people have written so much better fic #I just don't feel like it'd be able to stand out among all the other awesome fics #second person #because the prompt was in second person and it just... happened that way #Tannik is hopelessly in love with Aaron #but he doesn't realize #Aaron is hopelessly in love with Tannik #and he DOES realize #but y'know #Zombies #bit more important eh?#cursing warning

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somefantasticplace · 3 years

Text

LIVING WITH MY WIFE AND HER FEMALE LOVER

His wife Sarah left him first for a builder and then for another woman. So what did funny man Vic Reeves do? He forgave her and now spends most of his time with her and her gay lover. The comedian tells Rebecca Hardy why he feels this unconventional set-up is bet for his children.

Vic Reeves' two-and-a-half year old son Louis is passionate about the children's cartoon character Bob The Builder. He watches the videos and knows the song: "Bob The Builder can we fix it? Bob The Builder yes we can." Vic sings in a different version: "Bob the Builder can we fix it? Bob The Builder can we ever."

Vic's wife Sarah ran off with a builder called Keith Burke four years ago. Vic hurt - a lot. When the affair foundered (she said it was a 'dreadful mistake'), he welcomed her back with open arms. Louis was the product of their reconciliation. They hoped a baby would help to cement things. Sadly, though, it didn't fix anything much.

Today, Sarah lives with her gay lover Julia Jones and Vic's two children - they also have a six year old daughter, Alice - in a sprawling house in Folkestone, Kent. Vic sleeps in the spare room. He has his own home in nearby Rye, East Sussex, but more often than not stays with Sarah and the children. He says he misses the children dreadfully when he's not with them. He continues to call Sarah 'my wife'.

"Some people might think it's weird but I like being there. I like being with them," he says. "Sarah and I split up at the start of last year. We'd got to a stage where we weren't getting on very well. I don't know if it was anything to do with Sarah's sexuality - it probably was. It's also very hard living with someone who's in the public eye the whole time. It's difficult to accept that your partner is constantly noticed. You might be in a pub and people say, 'oh look, it's you.' They home in on you and ignore whoever you're with.

"It was difficult for Sarah to find her own way. I think she wanted something else. She always likes to be doing something. We decided to separate and it was probably about six months later that she got involved with Julia. She was a friend before all this and she's still a friend. She's a really nice girl. It's great to be in this situation with someone you know rather than somebody you don't know.

"The children completely accept everything. Just because you have an unconventional life it doesn't mean the children are going to suffer. They are very, very happy children. I don't think they're aware of the sexual side. They're too young. It's not something we'll have to consider until later.

"Ideally it would be very nice just to have a family unit - mummy, daddy, kids. But when things get taken away, you can't just say, 'oh, that's it,' and walk away. You discuss it, talk about it and at some stage you have to accept the situation. It's like if you lose a leg, you fall over. There's only one solution, you have to get used to a prosthetic leg. If I'd said, 'right, I'm not having anything to do with this,' I wouldn't have been happy because I wouldn't have been involved.

"Now we just all much in together. I'm there all the time seeing the children. I get on fantastically well with Sarah and I've got two fantastic kids. I still put them to bed and take Alice to school."

Vic rarely reveals much about his private self. He is a comedian, a funnyman, a great British clown. With his partner, Bob Mortimer, he makes us laugh; side-splitting, stomach-knotting laughter that helps us forget our woes. Vic's woes are not part of the act. When his marriage fell apart, Vic kept his problems to himself. "I tended to deal with it on my own. I didn't want to get other people involved in a situation they might not want to talk about. I didn't want to bother or pester anyone. I get upset. I get as screwed up as anyone, but I'm not the sort of person who allows it to defeat me."

We meet in a London studio to discuss the BBC1 drama Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), which co-stars Vic and Bob. This, a remake of the cult late-Sixties series in which Vic plays the ghost of detective Hopkirk, who returns to haunt his former partner Randall, is their first attempt at television drama. The action turns on a sixpence from comedy to melancholy, for the absurd to the sad, and is, quite truthfully, absolutely brilliant.

Vic is a genuinely funny man. He is also decent, kind, unfeigned; the sort of bloke who often gets dumped on. During the filming of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and following the breakdown of his marriage, Vic, 41, fell in love with actress Emilia Fox, 25, the daughter of Edward Fox. She played his fiancee in the series and soon they were engaged in real life, intending to marry this year.

On the face of it, it was a thoroughly modern, happy affair that suited everyone. Emilia was wonderful with Vic, and wonderful with the children. She didn't seem to bat an eyelid over the fact that his soon-to-be-ex-wife was now gay. They even went on holiday with Sarah, Julia and the children and planned to spend Christmas and the Millennium together. But the relationship had ended before the Christmas tree was decorated.

"You work really closely with somebody and get on with them really well and things occur. After a marriage ends you start to look, not necessarily for a replacement, but for someone else. Perhaps it's something you shouldn't do," says Vic. "In the end, I decided that I wanted to be on my own. I don't want to be unfair to Millie. We were in love with each other and it was very good. But there is this bond with the kids which is hard to explain. It's difficult especially if you've got young children who want and shall have constant attention. Even though another person can love your children, it's still a barrier. You're the one who's closest to them and I love my children more than anything else on earth."

Vic is speaking with unusual candour. It unsettles him. "I wouldn't like to make this a habit," he says. "I am very private and families should be private things." Vic was a happy child. He was born Jim Moir, sharing the name with his father and grandfather and, rather uncannily, a January 24th birthday. "Precision grinding, as someone one said". His father was a Linotype operator who practiced funny walks and worked nights, so he could spend the day with Vic and his sister Lois. His mother was a stitcher.

"We're very close still,' he says. "We were always out walking and looking at things. We were encouraged to be interested in things and it was fun. I'd think, 'I can't wait to go to the library tonight.' All my friends would go off to the ABC film club on a Saturday morning and we'd go off to visit come castle or climb a mountain."

His mother also held seances on a Sunday evening. "I believe in ghosts somewhere along the line," he says. "I'd like to think you're guarded by a dead relative or something. I think my grandad may be keeping an eye on me because wherever I've lived, I've always felt a presence, as if somebody in the room is looking at me, or I've heard footsteps. I can't believe that everywhere I've ever lived has had a ghost in it."

Vic was particularly fond of his grandfather. He was an eccentric who wore a deerstalker hat, made fly-fishing hooks and put them in, but never fly-fished. "We used to go on holiday together," says Vic. "He did things that would probably be considered quite politically incorrect now. He'd dress me up as an Arab boy and send me off begging.

"He'd also pick a word out of the dictionary and say, 'when you come back next week you've got to have put that word into context in a conversation.' I was ten at the time and he'd pick really hard words like conglomeration. It's good to make up games and involve yourself with your children.

"I quite often get dressed up as a pirate with Alice and tell a story to her and her friends - the sort of thing my mum would do with us. Children have an innocence and imagination that isn't hampered by pride. Then, when you go to big school you get it slowly beaten out of you. I wouldn't allow it to be beaten out of me. I didn't want to lose the fun I was having. I could see there were children around me who were starting to become more adult and more afraid of saying and doing something stupid. Alice has a lot of fun, but she's also got a very old head on her shoulders. We'll have a good laugh together and be stupid but she's also very wordly. We're very honest with each other. Alice wouldn't hide anything from me."

Vic dotes upon his daughter and son. "Love for your child is unconditional. It's not even considered," he says. Alice was born in May 1993, four months after Vic married Sarah at Woolwich register office. They'd been seeing one another for two-and-a-half years and Vic truly believed the marriage would last for life. "I tried to use my parents as a role model," he says. "They're the closest, most loving couple I've ever come across."

Sadly though, within three years Sarah had embarked upon an affair with the builder employed to renovate their home. She knew Vic would have tried forever to make their marriage work, but was having none of it. She blamed Vic's career, his close friendship with comedy partner Bob Mortimer, his relationship with Shooting Stars colleague Ulrika Jonsson. "We didn't have an affair," he says. "But we were very, very good friends. It's odd this job. You'll be working with somebody and see them the whole time, then you won't see them for three years. I've been meaning to give her a ring, but I lost her phone number. In fact, I've lost everybody's phone number because I lost my book.

"I've got a few good friends - five or six. The older you get the less you have to have. Bob's a good friend. When you work with someone that long and you get on with them, you become almost psychic. When we're doing live stuff I can predict what he's going to say and vice versa.

"We've never argued but we don't see each other all the time. We'll go for five weeks not seeing each other and then we'll spend a long period together. It's to do with timing and leaving space. There's a very good bond between us. He wouldn't be the first person I'd call in a crisis, though. Bob's not very good in a crisis. If I had some very exciting news I'd probably ring Bob, otherwise I'd talk to Sarah, my first wife

Vic didn't like Keith the builder. He particularly didn't like the thought of him being around his daughter. "Sarah didn't have Alice," he says of that time. "She stayed with me." He was overjoyed when Sarah tired of her affair and returned to the family home. "I think anyone would want their family to survive," he says. It was a difficult reconciliation. Friends found they could not forgive Sarah, but Vic stood by her. "She's my wife, and if you don't like her than I want nothing to do with you," he's say. Then, Louis was conceived so very quickly.

"It's an odd thing with boys," says Vic. "I wouldn't give Louis a gun or an Action Man but that's the way boys naturally go. His current fascination is with cars crashing, so it's "crash, fire". We were on a plane going to my dad's and it was really turbulent. I don't mind turbulence on a plane but there were a lot of very nervous people. Louis was sitting there saying, "plane, crash, fire." It was so funny I didn't want to say, "no, don't say that."

Vic patently adores being a father. I suggest perhaps he is so accepting of his wife's gay lover because she doesn't threaten his role as dad. "Yes, there is that," he says. "It is a lot easier." He is certainly not jealous, nor does he find the relationship an attack on his masculinity. "I would imagine some men probably would," he says. "I don't really think like that. I've never really done that beer-drinking, football crowd thing."

Is he concerned, though, that just as he tried to ape his parents' loving marriage, his children might use their mother and Julia as role models? "I'd probably hope Louis would be heterosexual from the point that I'd have grandchildren," he says. "If he was gay I'd want to help him. I'd want him to talk to me. He wouldn't have to hide it away. But it would make life easier if he was heterosexual."

Again, he starts to list Julia's merits. I'm sure he's right, that she is a lovely person. I also suspect kind, decent, dumped on Vic is trying to make the best of a mess. "There was something on Radio 4 the other day," he says. Ian McEwan was talking about his father. He said he was a brilliant character and that it was great when he saw him at the weekend. That he'd burst in smoking these fags and filling the room because he was a sergeant major and he bellowed. It made me think. There are parents at Alice's school who are working fathers and rarely see their children. I just muck in with my kids and see them as much as I can.

WEEKEND MAGAZINE, MARCH 2000

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crimsonrevolt · 6 years

Photo

Congratulations Hope you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Molly Weasley!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

This was such a tough decision for us but your interpretation of Molly won us over! It was clear from the very first part of your application just how much you love her as a character and you gave us such a good look at your vision for her and really brought her to life. Your writing sample also gave us a clear idea of who Molly is and explored so many sides of her as well as giving us a strong idea of her role within the Order and relationships to others around her. We are very excited to have you back and cannot wait to see what journey you choose to take Molly on! *your FC change to Rose Leslie has been accepted!

application beneath the cut

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

Hello, hello! My name is Hope, I prefer she/her pronouns, and I live in the EST time zone!

ACTIVITY

WELL, I’m not in a show for a while, and all in all my class load is light. I believe I’ll be reliably within a 6-7, and I’m excited and thrilled at the prospect of coming back, better than ever!

TRIGGERS

*removed for privacy

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

Former player, but before that I learned about this RP from a current member!

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

I’ve always been hard working and ambitious, with a drive to prove myself to people who don’t believe that I can achieve everything I want for my future. Therefore, I’ve always felt like Hermione Granger is the character I’ve related to the most.

ANYTHING ELSE?

That’s all from me, thanks darlings!

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Molly Alexandra Weasley (née Prewett)

Alexandra is an ancient name, which became popularized in Europe after the thirteenth Century. It means Defender of Man, a meaning well suited to describe Molly herself.

FACE CLAIM

I prefer Rose Leslie, but Sarah Drew is a lovely alternative. Whichever you prefer!

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER

I’ve adored Molly as a character since the first time I read the Harry Potter series, and since her first introduction. Molly Weasley saw a boy, alone and confused at King’s Cross Station, helped him find the platform (even though she had her hands full with five children of her own), and made sure he got on the train safely. Molly Weasley couldn’t bear the thought of that little boy waking up on Christmas morning without any presents, and who, despite having her strained time and resources, knit him a jumper like her children, to make him a part of her family. Molly Weasley is the ultimate mother figure, and a guiding hand without whom Harry could not have functioned. In a story with so many orphans, and casualties of war, and so much loss and pain, Molly and Arthur’s beautiful, supportive family, and their unbreakable love for one another, is an extremely inspirational beacon of light in the community.

Molly’s motherly instincts are a driving force within her, and her archetype of The Mother is apparent in all parts of her life. Even Molly’s exceptional aptitude for healing spells show her big heart, and how much of her spirit is dedicated to taking care of others. I see Molly as an old soul, and a romantic. She reads books about true love conquering all, and strong, wise women who, despite incredible odds, overcome their circumstances to build happy lives for themselves and those they love. Molly Weasley is the type of woman who would let a friend stay at her house indefinitely, if they ever needed to get away. Molly Weasley is the type of girl who would see her classmate who came to school without a lunch, and would bring extra, so they could be fed while maintaining their dignity. While Molly is gentle and kind, she is indestructible, and a force of nature to be reckoned with when she’s been angered. Molly would drag herself over broken glass by her fingernails for her family, and is fiercely protective of anyone she takes under her wing. I see Molly as a Mother figure within the Order, looking at these young people and doing her utmost to protect them, to shield what remains of their childhoods. She is especially protective of her younger siblings, Fabian, Gideon, and Alice, whom she has spent a lifetime caring for.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

MOLLY AND ARTHUR WEASLEY ARE MY DARLINGS. I love them so much. In my opinion, Arthur has been Molly’s lifelong love, since they were housemates in school. Their marriage is an example of true love, and hard work, and compassion. Which is not to say there is no conflict, which can be elaborated on within threads!

Molly identifies as female, and it is my belief that she has far too much love in her heart for gender determine her love for someone. She uses She/Her pronouns.

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

-AN AESTHETIC

(extended associations!)

~ golden sunlight ~ soft music ~ wooden record players ~ cream colored sweaters ~ steam rising from a hot cup of tea ~ lazy good morning kisses ~ wool on bare skin ~ red autumn trees ~ the crunch of leaves underfoot ~ vanilla ~ hugs around the neck ~ hour long conversations ~ earthenware bowls ~ hearty breakfasts ~ fresh cookies ~ spending all day cuddling ~ worn out armchairs ~

-A PLAYLIST (mini time!)

Artholly:

Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur

Dearest by Buddy Holly

Happy Together by The Turtles

Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran

No One Else sung by Denee Benton from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

Molly:

Phenomenal Woman by Olivia Newton-John

-EXPAND ON THE TRAITS

Assertive: (+) Molly is a woman with a good head on her shoulders, and a strong moral compass. As such, when someone disagrees with her, she is able to deliver a competent, logical reasoning for her opinions. Molly is especially firm when her loved ones are involved. Molly will always stand for her family’s best interests, and will always stand up for herself and others when she believes there are injustices being committed.

Passionate: (+) When Molly gives her heart to something, whether it be an occupation, a goal, or a lover, Molly gives it all. She has never been one to let circumstance or hardships keep her from what she wants, and what she imagines for herself. For Molly, if you aren’t being passionate about something, you don’t care about it enough. So, she puts her soul into the things she cares about, like her relationships. She is tenacious, and will do anything for those she loves.

Temperamental: (-) However, Molly’s assertiveness and passion can sometimes result in her becoming very angry when she is hurt, or betrayed. Molly is a very stubborn woman, and when she encounters something that stands in the way of what she wants, or what is in the best interest of her family, she will blow up at it. In relationships, Molly’s temper is always in the best interest of the people she loves. For example, if she believes that someone she loves is doing something dangerous, something she knows they shouldn’t be doing, she will tell them so, and become very angry if they refuse to change. She can be easily provoked into an argument, but she’s never malicious or in search of conflict.

Overprotective: (-) While her motherly instincts are an asset in many ways, it can be one of Molly’s more annoying attributes, especially to her little sister Alice and some of the younger members of the Order. While they are technically adults, and fellow soldiers in this war, she can be sharp with them when she believes they’re being careless, or putting themselves in danger. She’s significantly protective of Alice, whom she has watched grow up from her childhood, and for whom she feels responsible. She can be smothering, trying to prevent someone from doing something because she believes it’s too dangerous for them.

-A FEW HEADCANONS

Boggart: Molly’s boggart is her siblings’ mangled corpses, with Arthur later included. She cannot stand the idea of seeing them dead, and even the thought is enough to bring Molly’s stomach into her mouth and set her in a cold sweat.

Patronus: Molly’s patronus is, appropriately, a bear. Bears are extremely protective of their cubs, and are representative of the overwhelming strength that lies within her.

Wand: Molly’s wand is a flexible 10-inch willow wood wand, with a unicorn hair core. Willow is a tree known for withstanding the toughest storms, due to its ability to bend and sway in wicked winds; it is best suited for those with great aptitude for healing.

-A FEW POTENTIAL PLOT POINTS

❧ Arthur being injured during a mission, or during a duel against a Death Eater. Plots include her helping nurse Arthur to health, psychological aftermath of the idea of Arthur dying, and being left alone (as a young mother with young children, if they have their kids already), and the resulting paranoia and fear. How she overcomes it, or doesn’t.

❧Molly’s general involvement with the Order, and any missions/jobs she does to help them.

❧Molly meeting/having a conflict with a member of Aversio, because while they, too, wish to defeat Voldemort, she stands completely opposed to their methods.

❧Molly being captured and tortured by death eaters, her panic about not being able to protect her family and her fear that they’ll do something rash to save her

❧MOLLY GETTING PREGNANT (AGAIN) DURING THE WAR. MOLLY AND HER BABIES. MOLLY WEASLEY DEVELOPING SEPARATION ANXIETY BECAUSE EVERY TIME ARTHUR LEAVES OR SHE HAS TO LEAVE THE CHILDREN FOR A MOMENT SHE’S STRICKEN WITH FEAR AND GUILT.

❧Molly dealing with trying to raise young children and give them a normal life despite the threat of death and destruction all around them.

(Really anything, I’m open to any plots that can be thrown at me.)

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

“Oh! That’s a good one. I’d have to say… I’d like to create a way to cast several healing spells at once, just in case of an emergency. I’d hate to ever need to use it, but there have been times, you know–… Where things go awry. But if the situation arose, I think it could be invaluable.

Barring that, a potion to safely help the twins finish teething would be life-changing.”

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

“Oh, well, Arthur of course. I honestly can’t imagine taking anyone else with me! And for an object, I’d say either an invisibility cloak, or what Arthur says the Muggles call a “chainsaw”, in the event we need to get out quickly.”

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

“Those where I know the right thing to do, but it may put me or Arthur at risk. I have obligations to the Order—this is a war after all. But I have my children to think about. When I take dangerous missions, I feel immense guilt. When I shy from them, however, I still feel guilt. It’s a double-edged sword.”

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

“That I failed to do enough to fight while those around me suffered. Or that I wasn’t good enough as a parent. If I ever gave my children a reason to say that about me, I couldn’t live with it.”

WRITING SAMPLE

Molly had learned to live her life with little boxes. Her cupboards and closets were stuffed to the brim with scratched wicker baskets, sturdy heirloom chests made of oak, old garment boxes with mismatched lids, all in an attempt to create the storage space necessary to support her growing family of seven. When there were so many of them in one house, and so much shared property, it was important to sort the few independent belongings the children had into labeled containers. Bill, a stern 8 and ½, and Charlie, an enthusiastic six year old, had had enough territory disputes to drive her mad; Charlie followed his big brother around like a puppy, and so often found himself with Bill’s things in hand, in an attempt to emulate his big brother. Bill, who’d had enough of his toys being smashed by the little one’s indelicate fingers, begged Molly to keep his things away from the toddler. For a long time, she insisted that he try to share, that he just teach Charlie to play nicely with his belongings. After Percy was born, however, Molly found it necessary to start dividing up her children’s things, which evolved into her obsession with keeping things in little boxes.

Boxes were how she kept herself sane. Compartmentalizing. She learned to keep parts of herself bottled up, far away from her children. When she was with the children, when it was family time, she belonged entirely to them. But when it came to matters of the Order, she kept those hidden, and never allowed the two to meet. Even the rooms in her house shared her divided mind. The dining room, for instance, which was a sacred place for her family, was a servant of two masters. By day, it was where she fed and nurtured her children; where Arthur read crisp, new printings of The Daily Prophet, beckoning her over if there was a story he thought she may like; where her and Arthur shed happy tears as their baby twins, now hardly a year old, babbled their first words; where her little Percy, who had learned to walk but much preferred to be carried, would perch happily on her hip while she made dinner for the family; the dining room was where her and Arthur would steal a tender moment alone after the children were abed, dancing slowly to soft music floating from the Muggle gramophone he’d enchanted and set on their windowsill.

By night, however, her dining room was transformed. It would frequently become a war-room for the Order of the Phoenix and its secret soldiers. Plans were made, defenses measured, good witches and wizards brought back, in agony, after violent run-ins with Death Eaters, and she would immediately set to healing their wounds. Blood had been shed in her family’s sacred space, blood which she would later diligently clean in order to keep her children from worrying anything was wrong. When the Order made camp in her home, she tried to separate her tender memories and moments with her family from the fear and panic that had often been felt inside her home. It was the only way she could keep her children safe; but she didn’t know how much longer she could. More and more frequently, now, Bill would creep downstairs, hearing a bump in the night, and she would narrowly scoop him up in her arms before he heard something that would surely make sleep impossible for him. More and more, he would ask her about the strange friends mummy and dad were having over after they were all asleep, and he was less and less satisfied by her flimsy explanations. It was not his fault: it’s natural for children to be curious. It was hers. She had brought this into her children’s lives. But she would keep it boxed up, and away from them, as long as she could. She just didn’t know how much longer that would be.

#Accepted App

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originalbouquetcolor · 6 years

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Hola Booklovers,

In this article, I would be sharing famous love quotes from young adult fiction series. Love quotes makes you feel good and bitter, both at the same time. But, one cannot deny the feelings of a heart that has loved. Some of these quotes are tangy, sour and sweet. Check out these beautiful, heart touching quotes which can lighten your mind, savor the body and enrich your soul. So, grab your coffee, relax and enjoy the quotes 🙂

Here goes the list of famous quotes from YA Fiction novels.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Never say no when you really want to say yes.

Being vulnerable, letting people in, getting hurt… it’s all part of being in love.

Music makes everything more romantic, doesn’t it? One second you’re walking your dog in the suburbs, and then you put on Adele, and it’s like you’re in a movie and you’ve just had your heart brutally broken.

I like the way he looks at me, like I am a wood nymph that he happened upon one day and just had to take home to keep.

She always picked love; she always picked adventure. To her, they were one and the same.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

You are my life now.

You’re not like anyone I’ve ever known. You fascinate me.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I hope our paths will cross again. Really? In that case, I guess I’ll keep following you.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Trust is a careless pursuit at best. At worst, it’s a good way to get yourself killed.

You know everyone loves to hate a happy pair of lovebirds.

We meet. We always meet, somehow we’re always thrown together, no matter where I go, no matter how I try to distance myself from you. It never matters. You always find me.

Her heart was pounding impossibly fast. Then she realized She was feeling both of their hearts, racing each other. A kind of desperate conversation, one they couldn’t have with words.

Love is Fallen…. Like *FALLEN* ANGELS…

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

I’m oxygen and he’s dying to breathe.

Raindrops are my only reminder that clouds have a heartbeat. That I have one, too.

Ignite, my love. Ignite.

Hope is hugging me, holding me in its arms, wiping away my tears and telling me that today and tomorrow and two days from now I will be just fine and I’m so delirious I actually dare to believe it.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

He made her feel like more than the sum of her parts.

I don’t like you, Park. Sometimes I think I live for you.

Can’t you just like a girl who likes you back?

I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

I believed, and still believe, that you can build your dreams brick by brick. That you can accomplish anything with persistence.

Real love: It was all about risk and having faith. There were no guarantees.

I believed, and still believe, that you can build your dreams brick by brick. That you can accomplish anything with persistence.

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater…The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that’s the key. It’s like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot.

Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone’s bad qualities because they somehow complete you.

The fate of your heart is your choice and no one else gets a vote.

Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour could make all the difference.

Love is so unpredictable. That’s what makes it so great.

Love is an excuse to put up with the shit that you shouldn’t. That’s how it gets you. It throws off the scales so that things that should weigh heavily don’t seem to. It’s a crock. A trap.

You know, when it works, love is amazing. It’s not overrated.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

The marks humans leave are too often scars.

You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you. All efforts to save me from you will fail.

You are so busy being YOU that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.

You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.

I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

I never loved you any more than I do, right this second. And I’ll never love you any less than I do, right this second.

Even lost in the darkness, my heart will find you.

Darkness can’t drive out darkness only light can do that, Hate can’t drive out hate only love can do that.

Mortals. Everything is so black and white to you.

The thing about fate is, are you the master of your fate, or are the stars?

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

I love you more than I think I should.

…I need a boyfriend. And to get a boyfriend, you have to look good. Doesn’t hurt to smell good too.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Frostbite by Richelle Mead

When Love And Jealousy Collide On The Slopes, Winter Break Turns Deadly

You can’t force love, I realized. It’s there or it isn’t.

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

You will lose what you value most, so treasure it while you can.

You might be surrounded by clouds, but you’ll be like sunshine to me.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel.

Silence is a protective coating over pain.

I love him, but I am not sure I like him.

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

You’re burned into my mind forever. There is nothing, nothing in this world that will ever change that.

Alive or undead, the love of my life was a badass.

Matched by Ally Condie

Every minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs.

I am trapped in glass and I want to break out and breathe deep but I´m too afraid that it will hurt.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

It is as great a thing to love as it is to be loved. Love is not something that can be wasted.

Whoever loves you now—and you must also love yourself—will love the truth of you.

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Love shouldn’t hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another person. Love was intangible. Universal. It was whatever someone wanted it to be and should be respected as such. For Alice, it was staying up late and talking about nothing and everything and anything because you didn’t want to sleep—you’d miss them too much. It was catching yourself smiling at them because wow, how does this person exist?? before they caught you. It was the intimacy of shared secrets. The comfort of unconditional acceptance. It was a confidence in knowing no matter what happened that person would always be there for you.

Thanks for reading 🙂 🙂 🙂 Hope you have loved these quotes. 🙂 ❤

What are your favorite quotes? Let me know in the comments section below.

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61 Upbeat Love Quotes in YA Fiction Hola Booklovers, In this article, I would be sharing famous love quotes from young adult fiction series.

#books #fantasy #fiction #love #novel #quotes #romance #series #ya #young adult

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years

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Bright Wall/Dark Room August 2018: Women, Aliens, and Dangerous Things: Female Bodies in Alien 3 by Sarah Welch

We are pleased to offer an excerpt from the latest edition of the online magazine, Bright Wall/Dark Room. The theme for their August issue is BODY, and in addition to Sarah Welch's essay below on "Alien 3," they''ll also be featuring essays on "Body Double," "Safe," "The Virgin Suicides," "Nosferatu," "Weekend at Bernie's II," "George Washington," "Pet Sematary," "Goon," "Alice," "The Wizard of Oz," and "Videodrome" throughout the month.

You can read our previous excerpts from the magazine by clicking here. To subscribe to Bright Wall/Dark Room, or look at their most recent essays, click here.

Alien 3 explores the worst form of body horror: discovering that you’ve been reduced by the people around you to the body you live in, that you will be judged for your body, and that there is no way to change this perception of you. The result cuts deeper than any ravenous monster ever could; it hurts the heart and wounds the soul.

The Alien movies perfected body horror. The alien will kill you on sight, if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky—and you’re unlucky by default if you find yourself in an Alien film—the creature that serves as the reproductive portion of the alien’s life cycle will catch you and lay its offspring in your chest via your throat. It will nest inside your ribcage as you walk around, using you as an incubator until it’s time for the creature to be suddenly and violently born, a process that will kill you painfully. Having used your body, it will go on to inflict more pain and terror on those around you. The alien is shorthand for fear of rape.

Each of the Alien movies explore this concept in a different setting and flavor, each with their own director’s signature stamped in bold letters across its face. Alien (Ridley Scott) is cold, analytical horror, slow-moving at first until all hell breaks loose. Aliens (James Cameron) is hot-blooded action, all heart and pumping adrenaline. Alien 3 (David Fincher) rotates back to the horror of Scott’s original film, but this time it is grimy and confused, more callous and nihilistic than the original. There’s no hope to be had when you’ve crash-landed on a penal colony with an unwelcome passenger in tow.

It gets worse. The Alien universe has always been cold and unforgiving, but the maximum-security prison world of Fury 161 presents the bleakest setting yet. The atmosphere is tinted yellow; it’s easy to imagine that breathing Fury 161’s air is like breathing fumes and sweat. The planet is a leadworks, home to a skeleton crew of 25 convicts, a medic, and two wardens. Almost none of the technology works anymore. The prisoners have turned to religion, of the apocalyptic Christian fundamentalist variety. They haven’t seen a woman in years.

The subtext from the previous movies becomes text in Alien 3. The film telegraphs its intent from the very beginning, cutting rapidly back and forth between the opening credits and the demise of the survivors of the Sulaco, flying home from their mission in Aliens. A fire breaks in the cryogenic compartment where Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Newt (Danielle Edmond), Hicks (Michael Biehn), and the android Bishop (Lance Henricksen) sleep; alarms wail as the jointed legs of a facehugger unfold. An escape pod is jettisoned, tumbling toward the dark, rocky planet Fury 161. Hicks and Newt are killed on impact. Bishop is scattered into pieces, too damaged to be considered salvageable. Ripley is doomed from the beginning. She’s a dead woman walking among convicted murderers and rapists.

The prisoners have taken vows of celibacy as part of their religion, although some are more devout than others. Their leader, Dillon (Charles S. Dutton), is upset about Ripley’s arrival, since she’s the first real “temptation”—his words—he’s encountered in years. He wants nothing to do with her. He’d elected to stay on Fury 161 after the prison was to be closed, because he wants to live out his sentence in penitence and prayer among the soaring columns of the mostly defunct machinery and the cells of his fellow prisoners. It’s a twisted interpretation of the call to be a monk, in a twisted analogue of a monastery. Dillon’s prayers emphasize his bleak worldview. In his religion, there is no grace to be had, only punishment for past crimes. To his mind, Ripley’s appearance is an unjust temptation, when he’s already done so much penitent work. His reaction to her is a mix of fear and hostility.

The prison superintendent, Andrews (Brian Glover), has an even stronger reaction. Dillon speaks to Ripley as if she’s a threat, but at least he treats her as an equal. Andrews has a tenuous hold on the top of the power structure on Fury 161, and Ripley’s arrival has cracked everything. Andrews speaks with the authority of a man who has to defend his position, and not one who has earned it. His distaste for Ripley bubbles over into outright condescension every time they talk. He calls her a “good girl” when she agrees to his demand that she stay in the sickbay away from the prisoners. The request is under the pretense of Ripley’s “personal safety”—a valid concern—but the superintendent also makes it clear that he doesn’t want “ripples in the water, and… a woman walking about giving them [the convicts] ideas.”

Ripley acknowledges Andrews’ orders to his face, but doesn’t while away her time in sickbay. She explores her environment behind Andrews’ back, digging through the trash heap for Bishop’s pieces and eating meals in the cafeteria with the prisoners. She, like the audience, knows that everyone else on the planet considers her to be the dangerous one. When Ripley and Andrews do interact, their scenes echo the interrogations from The Passion of Joan of Arc; Ripley with her head shaved, Andrews shot from a low angle. The religious imagery that pervades the film is especially obvious here: Andrews’ office looks like a cleric’s room, with oblong windows barred like stained glass framing his head.

Andrews does not want to hear anything from Ripley; nothing she can say or do is of service to him, ostensibly because she’s a woman who shouldn’t be where she is. He just wants her off the planet. At first, this suits Ripley just fine. The less she has to talk about the horrors she’s survived up to this point, the better. But even after it’s clear that there’s an alien stalking the prison, and after convicts turn up mauled in the basement passageways, Andrews still refuses to listen. “She doesn’t have all the facts,” he snaps; it never occurs to him that the danger comes not from the woman who crash-landed here, nor from the men inside his walls, but from something far worse.

The men consider her dangerous because she’s a woman, and therefore a temptation: a poor judgment on the prisoners’ worldview, because they blame her for the sudden tension in their lives. They’re unable or unwilling to question their own homicidal impulses toward her. Andrews is worse. To him, Ripley is a threat because she’s assertive, taking action without stopping to ask permission or to consult with him. She tells him to cremate the bodies from her crash landing, not to keep them on ice; she convinces Clemens to perform the autopsy without obtaining Andrews’ approval. Andrews sees her actions as a challenge to his authority. Because he has no weapons, his only power over the prisoners he oversees is information: he holds “rumor control” meetings, and is the only person who can access the outside world by sending messages to the company. As someone else from the outside, Ripley threatens to topple his hold on power because she has her own information.

Whether Andrews is conscious of this or not is left ambiguous, but his reaction is anything but. His only defense is outright sexism: sequestering Ripley away from the others, belittling her as a “good girl” and claiming that she “doesn’t have all the facts,” and therefore cannot contribute anything to their little microcosm of society—ironic cruelty, as his second in command, nicknamed “85” for his IQ, does nothing of import but parrot Andrews’ orders. Ripley is made a second class citizen on a prison world. She is just as intelligent and capable as the men around her. She even looks like them: her head is shaved to prevent the spread of lice, and the baggy, shapeless clothes she wears obscure her body. But still, she’s an outcast among outcasts, feared and hated only because of her gender.

The only sympathetic person on Fury 161 is Clemens (Charles Dance), the medic. He’s initially skeptical of Ripley’s story—the crash is suspicious, and she’s sparing with the facts of her life, at least at first—but he comes around quickly when she asks to see Newt’s body.

The autopsy stands out as one of the best scenes in the film. It’s cold and unpleasant, but spare, stripped down to shots of the child’s frozen eyelashes, a morgue slab, a bone saw in the hands of a sympathetic but skeptical doctor. There’s a splash of blood, then a cracked chest, and nothing more. Ripley confirms for herself that Newt did not die as host to an alien. She’s desperate for closure, but unwilling to answer Clemens’ questions herself; others have disbelieved her before when she’s told them about the alien. The only people who have believed her story have underestimated the dangers that the alien presents, or have tried to use her as an expendable asset to acquire the alien for their own purposes. It never ends well. She’s left a trail of death in her wake, followed across space by a ravenous monster. The alien has insinuated itself into her life so fully that she “can’t remember anything else.” In the face of this new, raw, young death, Ripley doesn’t care to make herself any more vulnerable than she already is.

And she is vulnerable, perhaps more than she’s ever been. She’s been questioned before, but that was by the corporate wing of the company, eager to close the book on a failed mission and happy to have a scapegoat for a destroyed refinery. She’s been scoffed at, but that was by the contingent of marines sent to investigate the sudden radio silence of a human colony, convinced that there’s no danger to them and their massive guns until it’s too late. Here, Ripley is questioned and scoffed at by men simply because she is a woman, and because her existence in a female body is a far more believable danger to all of them than the “possible contagion” she warns them about. They treat her as a temptation and as an alien figure, something that isn’t quite human, just because she’s female. Until the body count mounts and their leaders are gone, the prisoners on Fury 161 act as though Ripley is a greater threat than the alien itself.

It turns out Ripley is more dangerous than the convicts around her can ever know or fear. After being menaced, but not killed, by the alien that’s been stalking the basement passageways, Ripley discovers that she carries an alien queen inside her chest. She’s spent half the film up to this point trying to fly under the radar of the men who think her the greatest possible threat to their existence. She spends the second half of the film trying to convince them that the alien she carries is worse than anything else they could have imagined, and that to hand her over to the company coming to collect her would spell destruction for countless other lives. To the convicts, she’s a threat. To the company, she’s an incubator, a pulsing body that exists only to sustain the creature that they want for their bioweapons division, no person at all.

Unfortunately for Ripley, there’s no happy ending here. She sacrifices herself to keep the alien from falling into the company’s hands, gaining a respite for the universe: the alien threat is gone, at least for now. Ripley is dead. The Fury 161 prison is closed, its machinery sold for scrap, reduced to the parts that once made it function. The world continues to spin.

And yet Ripley lives on. The first two Alien movies are remembered because they are the best in the series. But Alien 3 endures, in spite of its thorny reputation and imperfect execution, just as Ripley endures in spite of her continued run-ins with the alien. The men around Ripley define her only by her gender, by the shape of her body. The film never makes that mistake. Ripley is vulnerable and strong, tough and temperamental, intelligent and brave, and none of those aspects of her character cancel each other out. Alien 3, more than any other Alien movie, is aware of Ripley’s existence as a woman, and the unique and universal horrors that come with the territory of inhabiting a woman’s body.

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