Betrayed: Chapter 4
Apr. 27th, 2011 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelda_queenZeldaQueen: In which Zoey is an idiot and the plot patters on and nearly dies
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 4
ZeldaQueen: So Zoey understandably wants to talk to her friends about the thing with Blake, but only wants to talk to Stevie Rae about it. She’s worried that Shaunee and Erin will be pissy because they themselves lust after Blake, plus she suspects that because he just poked her face, nothing actually happened, no matter how she actually felt or how he was acting as he did so.
We skip ahead to lunch of the…next day I guess, and Zoey tells them about her ideas for the Senior Council and Prefect system. Everyone hugs her and agrees that it’s the most fantastical idea ever because Googling someone else's ideas is just so clever and Damien actually says “I feel like I'm in the court of a great queen”. The Twins promptly make a joke about him just being a great queen, in case we forgot he was gay.
Zoey tells them that she thinks there should be seven people on the council, and apparently she has automatically decided that the five of them are all going to be members. Okay, Zoey I can understand but what have the rest of them done to show that they’re able to run the Dark Daughters? Hooray for blatant nepotism! Anywho, point is that she feels it’s odd for the council to be made up of so many young students, so she feels that the last two positions should be filled with older students. Damien quickly nominates Erik Night, and the Twins instantly get on his case because dude, Damien’s gaaaaay and Erik’s nooooot and Shaunee actually says “He likes breasts and vaginas, not penises and anu—” before Zoey mercifully interrupts her. The Twins also pout because membership isn’t based on how good-looking a person is, and Zoey comments “They're actually not real shallow; they're just kinda shallow”. I just can't understand why them being on the uber-special council would bother people.
We then hear Zoey’s other idea - that the other upperclassman chosen for the council be chosen from one of the previous members of the Dark Daughters. Zoey feels that this will help keep things smooth with the previous members, who might be tempted to cry nepotism. Given that the other members of the council are her friends and boyfriend, that’s a good idea. Of course everyone starts protesting because everybody in the old Dark Daughters was eviiiiiiil, every single one of them, and letting one of them in will just be the worst thing ever. Zoey raises her hand like she’s queen (no really) and reminds them all that even snakes are symbols of Nyx and “Haven't they gotten a bad reputation because historically they've been symbols of female power, and men wanted to take that power away from women and make it something disgusting and scary instead?”
Pause here for a few points.
First, I suspect that the fact that some snakes are giant and scary and have large, poisonous fangs added just as much to snake fears as the big, bad, evil men. Those things fall under "primal fears" for a reason, you know.
Second, you see what I mean about the soap boxing about how men are Evil and screwed up the sacred feminine symbols and whatnot?
Third, she's soapboxing about the evils of men to Damien, the only man in the group. But oh yeah, he's gay so he doesn't actually count as a guy.
I'm quite irate by now.
I can't actually comment on the accuracy of that any further, because I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject of snakes. Does anyone else know?
Somehow, they move from this on to the topic of not making the Change. Reasonably enough, they all agree that they want something of themselves left behind, if they were to die. They agree on leaving handprints in cement, like Hollywood stars do, and then lunch is conveniently over. Everyone heads off to class, except for Zoey who decides she has to go tell Neferet right that second what she decided. Hoooo boy.
And suddenly…we’ve teleported to outside of Neferet’s room. Huh. I mean, one minute, Zoey’s in the lunchroom and the next, she’s listening in on a conversation in Neferet’s office. And what do you know, it’s a Mysteriously Vague Conversation, between Aphrodite and Neferet!
Zoey, like the good little spy she is, drops an earring so she has the excuse to have been looking for it and listens in. Aphrodite is clearly upset, insisting that she saw something very important. Neferet is all cold and scary and keeps saying that Aphrodite is mistaken. Zoey’s first thought is that Aphrodite is trying to tell about how Blake was grabbing her face in the library. Considering how Aphrodite is a bigger mustache-twirler than Gethesemane’s villains, that seems rather unlikely.
Meanwhile, all we get beaten over the head with is how cold and cruel Neferet sounds. Zoey is scared by it and can’t understand why that would be. I’m pretty sure it’s human nature to be scared when a teacher goes all bitch-faced on someone who is clearly out of their mind with worry. Instead, we’re reminded how Zoey totally had an out of the body experience in the last book and met with the vampire goddess Nyx in an alternate plane of existence (because she’s that big of a Mary Sue) and how besides having the ability to control the five elements, she also has some convenient gut feeling when Something Bad Is Happening.
Neferet, meanwhile, keeps insisting that Aphrodite is having false visions because Nyx is displeased with her and thus has removed her gift. So…she took away the gift and Aphrodite is still having visions? Blu, what? And yes, this is about Aphrodite’s future vision. Zoey's an idiot though, and keeps thinking that Aphrodite is yes, of course, totally telling on her! Aphrodite is crying and begging Neferet to do something about whatever it is that’s going to happen and Neferet just keeps insisting that no, the vision is wrong and Nyx hates her. And with that, Zoey runs off.
Oh boy! This must be when the plot picks up, right? I mean, Zoey surely must remember that cryptic warning Aphrodite gave her in the last book about how they are all being played and hear this and figure out that something bad’s on the way! Right? Right?
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Onward to: Chapter 5
Back to: Chapter 3
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 4
ZeldaQueen: So Zoey understandably wants to talk to her friends about the thing with Blake, but only wants to talk to Stevie Rae about it. She’s worried that Shaunee and Erin will be pissy because they themselves lust after Blake, plus she suspects that because he just poked her face, nothing actually happened, no matter how she actually felt or how he was acting as he did so.
We skip ahead to lunch of the…next day I guess, and Zoey tells them about her ideas for the Senior Council and Prefect system. Everyone hugs her and agrees that it’s the most fantastical idea ever because Googling someone else's ideas is just so clever and Damien actually says “I feel like I'm in the court of a great queen”. The Twins promptly make a joke about him just being a great queen, in case we forgot he was gay.
Zoey tells them that she thinks there should be seven people on the council, and apparently she has automatically decided that the five of them are all going to be members. Okay, Zoey I can understand but what have the rest of them done to show that they’re able to run the Dark Daughters? Hooray for blatant nepotism! Anywho, point is that she feels it’s odd for the council to be made up of so many young students, so she feels that the last two positions should be filled with older students. Damien quickly nominates Erik Night, and the Twins instantly get on his case because dude, Damien’s gaaaaay and Erik’s nooooot and Shaunee actually says “He likes breasts and vaginas, not penises and anu—” before Zoey mercifully interrupts her. The Twins also pout because membership isn’t based on how good-looking a person is, and Zoey comments “They're actually not real shallow; they're just kinda shallow”. I just can't understand why them being on the uber-special council would bother people.
We then hear Zoey’s other idea - that the other upperclassman chosen for the council be chosen from one of the previous members of the Dark Daughters. Zoey feels that this will help keep things smooth with the previous members, who might be tempted to cry nepotism. Given that the other members of the council are her friends and boyfriend, that’s a good idea. Of course everyone starts protesting because everybody in the old Dark Daughters was eviiiiiiil, every single one of them, and letting one of them in will just be the worst thing ever. Zoey raises her hand like she’s queen (no really) and reminds them all that even snakes are symbols of Nyx and “Haven't they gotten a bad reputation because historically they've been symbols of female power, and men wanted to take that power away from women and make it something disgusting and scary instead?”
Pause here for a few points.
First, I suspect that the fact that some snakes are giant and scary and have large, poisonous fangs added just as much to snake fears as the big, bad, evil men. Those things fall under "primal fears" for a reason, you know.
Second, you see what I mean about the soap boxing about how men are Evil and screwed up the sacred feminine symbols and whatnot?
Third, she's soapboxing about the evils of men to Damien, the only man in the group. But oh yeah, he's gay so he doesn't actually count as a guy.
I'm quite irate by now.
I can't actually comment on the accuracy of that any further, because I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject of snakes. Does anyone else know?
Somehow, they move from this on to the topic of not making the Change. Reasonably enough, they all agree that they want something of themselves left behind, if they were to die. They agree on leaving handprints in cement, like Hollywood stars do, and then lunch is conveniently over. Everyone heads off to class, except for Zoey who decides she has to go tell Neferet right that second what she decided. Hoooo boy.
And suddenly…we’ve teleported to outside of Neferet’s room. Huh. I mean, one minute, Zoey’s in the lunchroom and the next, she’s listening in on a conversation in Neferet’s office. And what do you know, it’s a Mysteriously Vague Conversation, between Aphrodite and Neferet!
Zoey, like the good little spy she is, drops an earring so she has the excuse to have been looking for it and listens in. Aphrodite is clearly upset, insisting that she saw something very important. Neferet is all cold and scary and keeps saying that Aphrodite is mistaken. Zoey’s first thought is that Aphrodite is trying to tell about how Blake was grabbing her face in the library. Considering how Aphrodite is a bigger mustache-twirler than Gethesemane’s villains, that seems rather unlikely.
Meanwhile, all we get beaten over the head with is how cold and cruel Neferet sounds. Zoey is scared by it and can’t understand why that would be. I’m pretty sure it’s human nature to be scared when a teacher goes all bitch-faced on someone who is clearly out of their mind with worry. Instead, we’re reminded how Zoey totally had an out of the body experience in the last book and met with the vampire goddess Nyx in an alternate plane of existence (because she’s that big of a Mary Sue) and how besides having the ability to control the five elements, she also has some convenient gut feeling when Something Bad Is Happening.
Neferet, meanwhile, keeps insisting that Aphrodite is having false visions because Nyx is displeased with her and thus has removed her gift. So…she took away the gift and Aphrodite is still having visions? Blu, what? And yes, this is about Aphrodite’s future vision. Zoey's an idiot though, and keeps thinking that Aphrodite is yes, of course, totally telling on her! Aphrodite is crying and begging Neferet to do something about whatever it is that’s going to happen and Neferet just keeps insisting that no, the vision is wrong and Nyx hates her. And with that, Zoey runs off.
Oh boy! This must be when the plot picks up, right? I mean, Zoey surely must remember that cryptic warning Aphrodite gave her in the last book about how they are all being played and hear this and figure out that something bad’s on the way! Right? Right?
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Onward to: Chapter 5
Back to: Chapter 3
Back to: Table of Contents
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 03:37 pm (UTC)*head-desk*
You know the frustration I feel whenever Meyer or Clare can't stop talking about their male love interests' looks? That's how I feel with the constant references to Damien's sexual orientation. Stop it!
Oh, and the Twins' unbelievably immature objections to Erik's nomination make me want to bash them in the heads. How old are they, twelve?
/Third, she's soapboxing about the evils of men to Damien, the only man in the group. But oh yeah, he's gay so he doesn't actually count as a guy./
Remind me again why Damien puts up with such treatment? Does he have no other friends?
/I can't actually comment on the accuracy of that any further, because I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject of snakes. Does anyone else know?/
I'm not a snake expert, but funnily enough, snakes have long been a phallic symbol as well as a feminine symbol. As a matter of fact, snakes have often been used as symbols of duality and ambiguity, kind of like the yin-yang.
According to "The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art" by Hope B. Werness, "snake symbolism is laced with ambiguity - life/death, male/female, progenitor/monster" (377). So, to say that snakes are solely a symbol of female power or male power is overly simplistic at best and utterly wrong at worst.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 03:40 pm (UTC)Yes, really. According to Stevie Rae, pretty much everyone else in the school is either a ridiculous bigot or an even more swishy gay stereotype.
"I'm not a snake expert, but funnily enough, snakes have long been a phallic symbol as well as a feminine symbol. As a matter of fact, snakes have often been used as symbols of duality and ambiguity, kind of like the yin-yang.
According to "The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art" by Hope B. Werness, "snake symbolism is laced with ambiguity - life/death, male/female, progenitor/monster" (377). So, to say that snakes are solely a symbol of female power or male power is overly simplistic at best and utterly wrong at worst."
Yeah, I do recall the phallic symbolism. I figured there was more to it than that. ^^;
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 03:36 am (UTC)I can ask the same about Zoey. There is only one character I can see getting away with that kind of lines, taking about sexual organs and that is simply because when she does it, she does it to make guys think she's dumb when she really isn't. That, and to REALLY iritate the preteen taicho and check to see if she can't embaress him. Aka, I am talking about Matsumoto Rangiku from Bleach.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 04:17 pm (UTC)So it wasn't this chapter that makes me throw in the towel - no Loren as yet. It's an annoying chapter though. Annoying comments from the girls, annoying sledgehammer to the face with 'oh-look-he's-gay!', annoying actions by Zoey and annoying idiocy by same. It's like the Casts are dangling plot on a string in front of our noses - as soon as we think we've finally got some, they yank it back. Unfortunately they haven't quite mastered the entertaining plot-building interlude.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 11:12 pm (UTC)I think it's the next chapter you're thinking of. I nearly threw in the towel not long after. It wasn't Blake that did it, it was Stevie Rae's reaction to it all.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 05:55 pm (UTC)Oh. Wait.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 03:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 08:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 06:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-29 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-02 05:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-02 06:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 10:10 pm (UTC)Wow...my eyebrows never shot up all the way to my hairline before. Seriously, what the hell?
Oh, also? Cobras were a symbol of protection and the pharaohs wore them on their "crowns" for that very purpose--the men and the women. Also, in some parts of Egypt it symbolized the king, not exclusively women, though a goddess had taken the form of a snake. So suck on that, Cast ladies.
(Also, I'm shocked that they didn't use this scene as an excuse to say CHRISTIANS ARE EVIL because of the serpent in the Garden of Eden.)
....so Zoey just heard Aphrodite crying and begging for help, and Neferet telling her that "No, you are wrong," and a god hates her, and she still doesn't feel sorry for the girl and thinks Neferet is all good and pure?! Zoey, I want you to meet Mister Two-By-Four...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 11:16 pm (UTC)Eh, probably implied. After all, the eeeevvvilll People of Faith abuse ALL OF THE WOMEN ASSOCIATED WITH THEM EVER.
I hate this book. I'm sorry.
"....so Zoey just heard Aphrodite crying and begging for help, and Neferet telling her that "No, you are wrong," and a god hates her, and she still doesn't feel sorry for the girl and thinks Neferet is all good and pure?!"
To be fair, Zoey *does* actually continue to wonder about what's up with Neferet and keeps this in mind. It's far more attention than what she devotes to the red-eyed ghosts. -_- No, you want to apply Mister Two-By-Four to her friends, who pretty much make all conversations on the topic go like this:
Zoey: Hey guys, I overheard Aphrodite and Neferet talking. Neferet was being really cruel and uncharacteristically harsh and Aphrodite was crying -
Friends: OMGBBQWTF?!? WHAT DID WE TELL YOU ABOUT FEELING SORRY ABOUT APHRODITE?
Zoey: No, I meant that it's odd that Neferet would act like -
Friends: APHRODITE IS EVIL! SHUUUUUUN HER!
And then they forget about it. -_-
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 03:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-30 11:27 am (UTC)God, now I'm really insulted, especially with that 'breasts and vaginas' line! And I refuse to believe Damien said those words, the Casts merely shoved them in his mouth.
“They're actually not real shallow; they're just kinda shallow”
Like that's a good thing?
“Haven't they gotten a bad reputation because historically they've been symbols of female power, and men wanted to take that power away from women and make it something disgusting and scary instead?”
No offence, but that's a pretty rough generalisation of men. Some women out their can abuse their positions of power, too.
Once again, I feel bad for Aphrodite. Why isn't SHE the protagonist? Her story is so much more interesting! She has visions she can't control and no one believes her when she has them. And STILL, she's made out to be evil? How is that evil? I wanna hear the story from her POV! Screw Zoey and her shallow crap, and her stupid dimwit friends bringing the story's IQ down!
Spitefic Time - Circle of Friends (Part 1)
Date: 2011-04-30 11:39 am (UTC)“…So, I think we can go ahead with those ideas for the Senior Council and Prefect Systems, am I right?”
Every one of Zoey’s friends nodded in agreement with one another, rather jovial at her grand plan with both Shaunee and Erin giving her a hug either side of her at the table in the cafeteria, along with a small round of applause.
“I feel like I'm in the court of a great queen,” joked Eric, sitting across from her.
“Yeah, right!” bellowed Shaunee, her voice echoing throughout the cafeteria, “you’re the biggest queen here, Damien!”
“A flaming queen!” Erin added.
Everyone at the table joined in on the laughter. Damien, meanwhile, strained a smile. He was used to the digs at his sexuality, but at times he felt his head grow all fuzzy and his palms start to sweat. Sometimes he wished they could all just go five minutes without making a joke about him painting gay unicorns for his art projects or only watching football for the hot and sweaty guys on the field. No matter what he took an interest in, they all seemed to find some way to turn it into a gay slur or stereotype. At least the taunts were nothing on the level of bullying he used to get back at home at Shelton High, where he got locked out of the male toilets so the other guys didn’t have to share the urinals with him or have ‘fag’ written all across his locker with permanent marker. His parents were another matter entirely, the whole River-in-Egypt deal…
He listened as Zoey and the rest of her bubbleheads discussed the upcoming Dark Daughters ritual. He wasn’t even sure what she had done to get nominated as leader in her short stay here. He didn’t remember her doing much the night she drew the elements together besides stand there and look stoned. Everything had changed once she swanned into the House of Night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All his friends – Stevie Rae, Erin, Shaunee – seemed to just get worse once they befriended her. Sure, they had been shallow and whiny before she arrived, but now they were all-out harpies, growing more obnoxious and shrill. Of course, their abuse of him grew, too, once Zoey started getting in on the fun.
Although Zoey was nowhere near as overt as The Twins were with using Damien as their gay whipping boy, the way she pretended to sympathise with his ‘plight’ and patronisingly pretended to understand his ‘gayness’ (as she once put it) just made his jaw tighten and his head hurt, while at the same time having to endure her stereotypes and stupid questions: ‘You must know all about fashion, Damien,’ she had trilled to him that morning, ‘what do you think of this skirt on me?’
“Okay, now that we’ll all be apart of the Dark Daughters, I say we fill the last two openings with older members,” Zoey proclaimed, her familiar nasal twang sounding stronger.
“How about Erik?” Damien offered. He and Erik actually got along pretty well, especially in drama where they would joke around and come up with the most outrageous ideas for movies, vowing to one day write a screenplay together. Soon, the world would see their horror movie classic based on a killer house that eats whoever lives inside it (which Damien had named ‘Residential Tendencies’).
All the girls around the table started snorting with laughter. Damien was wide-eyed and confused.
“What?”
“Yeah, sure,” scoffed Erin, “so you can ogle and drool over Erik!”
Shaunee, naturally, just had to put her two cents in. “He likes breasts and vaginas, not penises and anu—“
“Guys!” Zoey cried shrilly. “C’mon, we all know, he’s mine! You better not steal him off me, Damien…”
“That’s it!”
Re: Spitefic Time - Circle of Friends (Part 2)
Date: 2011-04-30 11:42 am (UTC)Damien stood up from his seat, his eyes narrowed and his hands flat on the table. “I’ve had enough of this shit! I’m not your little gay joke to beat around anymore! I’m sick of all the bullshit about me being gay and all the stupid stereotypes! You don’t think I’ve heard them all before?!”
“But Damien…” Stevie began.
“No, shut up!” he snapped at her. “I don’t care if you were just playful and gently joked with me once in a while, but it’s every fucking day of this crap! Just because I like art and painting and whatever music I listen to doesn’t mean I’m some flamboyant queer! And just because I say I like football or I like Erik doesn’t mean I wanna get gay with them either! Erik and I are friends and I’ve always loved football. But hey, if you bitches actually were my friends and got your heads out of your arses for once you might realise that!”
“Hey, calmed down a bit!” Zoey laughed, not fazed in the slightest. “C’mon, you’re gay, we get it. But you have to admit you just give off that vibe…”
Damien turned to her, leaning in Zoey’s face. “And what vibe would that be?” he spat. “Who made you the almighty scholar of gay people, huh? You think you know just who’s gay and who isn’t because they have a ‘vibe’? Anyone you can be gay, you dumbshit!”
Zoey backed away a little bit.
“Ever since you got here, Zoey, you’ve just swanned in and taken these idiots here as your little sycophants!” Damien exclaimed, pointing at the others around the table. “It’s like you’ve all gotten worse and think you’re all entitled to say and think whatever you think is right because, of course, you all know everything! You don’t even deserve to be leader of the Dark Daughters, Zoey! You’re so fucking brain-dead, you think you can just breeze through anything without consequence. Not this time!”
Damien got out from behind the table, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Fuck you bitches, I’m outta here. Enjoy sharing the same brain cell with one another.”
And with that, he left the cafeteria, all the girls staring back at him in awe.
Re: Spitefic Time - Circle of Friends (Part 3)
Date: 2011-04-30 11:43 am (UTC)Damien had cooled off outside, wandering around the school grounds as the anger eased. He felt, however, that a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, free of the idiots that had been toxic around him for so long.
As he turned the corner leading into the courtyard, he saw Aphrodite and a few other students chatting by the fountain.
“Hey, Damien!”
He saw her beckon him over. He prayed he wasn’t going to have any more shit hung on him for today, to top it all off. He walked over anyway with a sigh.
“Heard you royally dumped Zoey and the other airheads in the cafeteria,” Aphrodite laughed.
“So?” Damien drawled.
“If anything, I wanna congratulate you,” she replied. She moved aside a little. “Come sit down with us.”
Warily, Damien took the seat beside Aphrodite.
“Thank god somebody told that little slut Zoey-Sue where to shove it,” Aphrodite continued. “Holding her nose in the air like her shit doesn’t stick.”
“God, I know!” the guy beside her snickered. “You should have seen her in Vamp Sociology this morning talking to those stupid Twins, laughing that she hadn’t done any research for the Dark Daughters, but it didn’t matter ‘cos she should be able to whip up something because Neferet would like any idea she came up with anyway.”
“Idiot,” spat Aphrodite. She then turned to Damien. “I should introduce you to the gang…” Pointing clockwise and going around the circle, she began with the guy with the buzz cut and T-shirt that read ‘It’s On Like Donkey Kong.’ “That’s Michael and the girl beside him with the pink skirt is Sarah.”
They both gave a warm hello to Damien, he waving back.
“And these two chuckleheads over here beside me are Jack and Sean,” she continued, pointing over to the guys in black T-shirts, one wearing black-rimmed glasses. “Be careful, though, they might try to rope you into one of their homemade slasher films they’re always making around campus.”
“Oh my God!” Damien laughed. “I have just the idea for a horror movie!”
“So, would you like to be our friend, Damien?” Michael joked, smiling sweetly. “Maybe spill a bit more dirt on Zoey-Sue and her minions?”
Damien smiled back. “Sure. I don’t even know where to start!
Re: Spitefic Time - Circle of Friends (Part 3)
Date: 2011-04-30 02:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-22 08:53 am (UTC)How did I know this was coming?
"Twins instantly get on his case because dude, Damien’s gaaaaay and Erik’s nooooot and Shaunee actually says “He likes breasts and vaginas, not penises and anu—” before Zoey mercifully interrupts her."
So you're not allowed to be attracted to someone who doesn't share your sexuality now?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-30 09:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-30 11:44 pm (UTC)The Snake Thing...
Date: 2016-12-21 10:47 am (UTC)