Watersports

Wide awake and hungry at two in the morning. Gave in and ordered some biscuits and gravy for me, and scrambled eggs and sausage for mom who is also up tonight. I love me some good biscuits and sausage gravy!

I'm kind of confused now. I thought I'd posted these chapters yesterday. I think must have clicked "Submit Reply" just as the wifi dropped out yet again; didn't notice that it had failed to post. So, while it's been an extra day, you can have an extra chapter I feel bad about going so long without posting a TLNS chapter; but the last one I posted refers to the movie screening as "last week", so this story clearly has a bit of catching up to do.   22. My Morning Routine Getting up on Saturday morning was often a chaotic time in my house, especially when Ffrances had been working nights. But this time it was perfectly convenient, as my girlfriend was there to wake me. She looked tired, but still elegant as she leaned over the bed. “Mmm, you look ravishing.” “And you look ravishable. But we need to be getting up, right? We’ll be getting into Helmsford around rush hour, so we need to allow an hour and a half to drive over there and find parking.” I shook my head and tried to remember what the plans were, and then it came to me. “That movie. You’re okay with that? You must be exhausted.” “Most people going to the theatre have had work earlier in the day, and it never bothers them. Counting from when I woke up last night, it’s early evening for me. I got dinner on the way over, and picked up a nice dress from home.” “Right,” I nodded. “I hope mine’s okay. And I found something for Tess, I hope she’ll wear it…” “Hanging outside her room? I saw on the way up. I banged on her door as I passed, and shouted that there’s something there, but she’s got the door locked so I couldn’t check she’s awake.” “Thanks. I said I’d find something last night, but she’d already turned in before I’d gone through all her clothes. Think that means she’ll be feeling awake this morning, I hope so anyway. But I’d best be getting dressed. Can you put coffee on while I shower? Think we’ll be rushing this morning anyhow.” “Sure. I can’t believe you managed this. How did you get the tickets? I’ve been following all the rumours for months, and it won’t be out for months more.” “I got them from Claughton Innovative. My latest clients at work; they want me to know that they’re patrons of the arts and not just another faceless corporation, apparently. I think there’s some product placement or something in the movie, so they might want me to take note of that in my work. But I think this is probably one of those weird social things, like they want to know we’re personally involved in working with them or something. Not sure if I’m supposed to be impressing them or them me.” “Think about that later. I promise not to show you up. You get your shower, right?” When her voice goes all serious and commanding like that, it always makes me shiver. And I also knew that I needed to be organised, so I followed her orders without complaint. Twenty minutes later, I stepped out of the bathroom and I could already smell bacon frying. I muttered a whispered thanks under my breath; I hadn’t been sure we would have time to prepare a proper breakfast, but it seemed that Ffrances was already one step ahead of me. Just like always. I saw that Tess was up as well; the dresses I’d hung on her door handle were gone, although the door was closed again. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t stop to check if she was hiding something. She normally left the door ajar if she wasn’t actually inside, but I guessed that if she;d wet her bed again she might have decided to hide the fact by shutting me out. I hurried downstairs and saw that they were both digging into their breakfasts already. Tess had bacon and waffles, while Ffrances had made herself a burger with fried mushrooms and onions. A more substantial meal, but then I guessed it must be dinner time for her after a long shift at work. It didn’t stop her talking excitedly about which characters she hoped were going to be in the movie. Apparently one of the comic book authors she was a fan of had mentioned how much he was looking forward to Tags before it was even announced, and even though the post had been quickly deleted, there were armies of fans combing through the teaser trailers, trying to match every half-second cut with the images of his characters. It was turning the rules of marketing upside down, but it certainly seemed to be working. People were talking about the movie, anyway, even if all they said was guessing which franchise it might be based on, or who the stars might be. Half the cast, even those who had been shown in the trailer, were still unknown; and the public were still lapping up the mystery. I bolted my own food, and then went back upstairs to fix my hair and my outfit. I started to worry, thinking that every detail was likely to let me down. I wasn’t used to being on show; my clients would normally be judging my work more than my appearance. This wasn’t the kind of publicity I had skills in, but Ffrances was always there to reassure me. She had to get changed as well, of course. She had a black strapless dress that managed to be both beautiful and very smart, and one that I didn’t think I’d seen before. As much as I would have liked to admire her more, I was already keeping one eye on the clock. We met Tess in the kitchen, and saw that she had apparently selected an outfit that could have been a stylised version of a school uniform, with a very smart blouse and a pleated silk skirt. When I’d chosen it for her originally, I had thought it might be a kind of schoolgirl chic; fashionable enough that she would voluntarily wear it, but childish enough to keep her feeling little. But somehow, once she was wearing the outfit it was easier to see the mature young woman she always tried to project. She looked like a smaller version of me, all self-assured, and it was easier to see her as her real age than the inner child struggling to escape. “You both look incredible,” I told them. “You too.” “Right, now let’s get moving. We’ll take my car.” 23. My Clueless Morning “We’ll take my car,” Ffrances said, and I just nodded. My truck was reliable, but it might not create the right atmosphere for being driven to a swanky movie premiere. Not that anyone else would even see it, but it would put us in the right frame of mind. Stylish clothes and a luxury sportscar were exactly what we needed to start thinking of ourselves as a successful society family. “I forgot my jacket,” Tess said as we reached Ffrances’s car. I was already sitting in the passenger seat, ready to close the door, but I swung my legs out of the car again and started hunting for the keys I had just dropped into my purse. “Do you need it?” I asked. “I’ll –” “I’ll get it!” she called back from the door, and I could see that she already had her own key in hand. So I called back an instruction to hurry up, and did my best to fasten my seat belt without creasing my new clothes. “You’d almost think she needed an excuse to go back into the house,” Ffrances commented with a smirk. With all the chaos of hurrying, it took me a second to work out what she could have meant. “She’s been remarkably mature this morning,” I said with a shrug, “and didn’t say anything about my choice of clothes for her. I’m quite proud of her, but I hope that doing everything herself isn’t imposing some psychological toll.” “You said she went to bed early. She’s mentioned being tired in the morning a few times before, but she seems like a fresh early bird today. Makes me wonder if she needed some pharmacological help to sleep without worries. To guarantee she’s not worrying or half asleep this morning. Think she might have done that again?” “I wouldn’t be surprised,” I said, after a few seconds thought. “I don’t think that’s healthy in the long term. But you think she’d do that when she needs to be up early in the morning?” “Sleeping pills would make it easier for her to get a good rest and wake up fresh in the morning. And it would explain why she hung her jacket up again after getting changed. She wanted an excuse to go back into the house when we were about to leave. So she can put laundry on.” “Wow… I didn’t even think about that. I’ve kind of been listening for the sound of the machine running in the morning, so I know if she wants a little privacy. But she would have fooled me completely.” “Yeah. Anyway, I do think it would be better to give her another way to approach it. After what you said before, about using hypnosis, I had a look online. Apparently it’s not exactly unheard of, but not normally something a health professional would countenance. And I think I can see ways it could be done while minimising risks. Less risks than using OTC drugs, in any case. And… I’m not sure, but I think it might be beneficial to put someone else in control. So she has to ask permission, it’s not something she can just do by herself. Means you can make sure she doesn’t abuse it.” “You’d really  be willing to…” “I think I can see the appeal, if I try to put myself in her shoes. And giving her a way to do that when you think it’s a good idea, without side effects, is going to be better than letting her research it herself. She’s going to do it anyway, so it would be good if we know exactly what she’s up to. So… if she’s willing to confess what she wants…” “I’ll talk to her,” I said. “I might have mentioned it  in passing, as something I’ve heard of people doing. And she seems like she’d much prefer to do it in a safe way. But at the same time, she’s asked me to promise that I won’t tell you about her secret. But hopefully she’ll have the courage to come out to us; I think she knows the risks of what she’s doing.” Ffrances opened her mouth to reply, but I put my hand on hers to get her attention, and she turned to see that Tess was already running towards the care. She knew that the little one didn’t want us talking about her problem, and I think she could understand that. “So, are we expecting horror or espionage?” she asked instead. “The movie? I don’t know, from those teasers it could be either. Some of those guys look scary enough. Is horror an option? There was so many shadows that it’s hard to tell if they’re human or–” “All ready now?” Ffrances interrupted as Tess closed the car door behind her. We both nodded, and then the car moved away. “You haven’t checked out the comics?” Tess asked, and it took me a second to realise she was talking to me. “No. I barely know anything about it. I watched the trailers that are already out, but nobody has any idea what the movie is about. It’s only a bunch of fans guessing that it’s based on that guy’s comics, and then there’s like three different series to choose from. Where do I start? I guess that’s why you two are arguing over the genre, right?” “The accents in the trailer,” she answered. “Sounds pretty gritty to me, down to earth. I think it looks like a crime movie, inner city violence or something. I can see the espionage stories coming out like that if they’re pushing for realism, especially if they’re bringing the Russians in. But I wouldn’t mind if it turned out to be more horror.” “See, I don’t buy that,” Ffrances answered. And I would have been willing to bet she was right; over breakfast I’d got the impression that Tess had asked all her friends if they’d heard about it the night before, and then absorbed as much information about the comics as she could online. Ffrances, on the other hand, had been a fan for years, and the few times I’d seen her talking to others about it I’d got the impression she could quote the backstory of every minor character from memory. She was a veritable human encyclopedia on at least two of those series of comics, and she’d been buzzing with excitement every time there was the vaguest hint of a leak about this movie. I was starting to regret not learning more about it before now; but I’d assumed that she would help bring me up to speed on the comics some time before the movie was actually out. “No?” “It does feel like the underworld, but I can’t imagine them doing that movie without Victor Cassarone, and there’s nobody credited who might fit the role. And you saw the trailer, right? Jackson at the end, with that scar. Tell me he’s not playing Junior.” “I… uhh…” Tess mumbled. “I don’t actually know Junior. But there’s a lot of people who think that character is meant to be Justice Goldstein. I’ve not seen much of him, but it seems to fit.” I at least knew the actor they were talking about, and I remembered him in a single second at the end of one of the trailers, slamming his fist down on a table and growing “Mine”. Not exactly the biggest clue to the identity of a character, when you didn’t know which franchise a movie might even be attached to. But I’d seen more than a couple of debates online, and from the scale of the debate now I suspected that this might be the future of movie marketing. Everybody wanted to be the first to know, and that was driving massive speculation. It was almost impossible not to have heard of Tags even if you knew nothing about it. I was interested in that precisely because it was so different from any of the audience influence techniques I’d studied in the past. 24. My Family on Display When we got to the Grand Theatre, I was pleasantly surprised that the staff there asked our names, and then offered refreshments without any hint of prices. It wasn’t like any movie I’d ever been to, but the unusual time had already proved that. There was a large lobby area, where people were milling around talking to each other, and the majority of those present seemed to know everyone else. It felt like I imagined a celebrity party must, but the people in this room weren’t big names in any sense the man in the street would understand. I felt very alone, and I wondered if it had been a good idea to bring a child to this kind of gathering; but it was too late to back out now. Before I could turn around and remind Tess to be on her best behaviour, there was an elegantly dressed man at my elbow, commenting that we hadn’t met before. I was a total fish out of water, or my usual confidence deserting me. But Ffrances recognised him after a few words, apparently. Someone connected to a certain comics publishing company, which only reaffirmed her opinions on the story we were going to be watching. She happily introduced me, identifying my corporate affiliation and my connection to Claughton Innovative, and then followed up with the information that she had been trying to give me a better insight into the world of those comic books. The way she said it, it sounded like I was going out of my way to find out even tangentially relevant information that could help with understanding a client; it made me sound a lot more informed than I was. The gentleman, whose name I somehow managed to miss, whisked me away to introduce me to all of his friends. There were several Claughton representatives there, from media consultants to heads of department, and image consultants to heavy hitters among the shareholders. This was a very big deal for them, apparently, and several said that they were happy to see that I was interested in the arts and culture of the company rather than just the bottom line. I was overwhelmed, taking in more information than I could process, but I agreed that my work  would be very different now I really understood their corporate culture. They weren’t just sponsors; the company saw themselves as creators, and took a great deal of pride in making sure that everyone attached to this movie from their side was a bona fide fan of the comics. I wasn’t, of course, but I was putting in the effort to understand what it was all about; which seemed to earn me a lot of points. Every time I managed to pull myself back to Ffrances and Tess through the morning, they were continuing their debate about which series of comics the movie would be based on. But rather than standing out, many people were joining in their debate, and after an hour I felt like I was the only wallflower here. I didn’t need to worry about Tess; she conducted herself with maturity and grace, and I knew there would never be any problems bringing her along to corporate functions in future; at least as long as she could keep her inner child under control. The movie itself was incredible. I wasn’t sure if I was missing anything, not knowing anything about the characters beyond what was presented on the screen, but it was a rich and detailed story. Towards the end, I didn’t think I had heard any of the character names that those two had been talking about on the drive over, but I think I enjoyed the show just as much as anyone else there. After the performance people were milling around, discussing a twist ending that had really taken our breath away. “I guess Jackson wasn’t who you were expecting?” I asked as I managed to get Tess’s attention for a while. “I heard you gasp in his first monologue.” “No,” she shook her head. “I don’t know the series that well, but that was not Goldstein. Think we were all completely stunned there.” “We both lost that bet,” Ffrances chuckled. “As did ninety-nine percent of the people speculating about which characters we were going to see. Nobody ever expected Cerberus Shark.” “Wait, Detective Shark? Isn’t he in some kids action-adventure show on TV?” “Yeah, but the original comics are a lot darker. And he’s a narcissist vigilante, not a cop. Millhouse Underground is not Kernigan's most popular universe, and even if they were doing that series, Shark wouldn’t be the first character you’d pick. Especially not after he had his own adaptation that’s virtually unrecognisable. But to throw him in near the end like that…” “He never mentioned his name,” Tess pointed out. “I’ve seen the TV show years back, think I was a bit too old for it. I don’t think anybody will even recognise him from that. Not unless they know those comics. Are they setting up another wave of speculation for a stealth sequel?” “I’m out of my depth with you two,” I said with a smile. “I never thought knowing less than everyone around me could be so much fun. But you’re really going to have to bring me up to speed; it looks to me like Claughton Innovative isn’t just into all this stuff as a sponsor. They’re making movies, making stories, and I think they’ll be a lot more satisfied with my work if I can understand their artistic output as well.” “Right,” Ffrances said with a smile. “I’ll have to dig out my copies of the 80s movies on VCD. If you want to take in the world and the relationships between the characters, that’s where you start. And then you can borrow the comics. I’ll test you if you want, see how much you’re understanding. There’s so much subtlety that you might not get on a first reading, and I just love poking someone to ask the right kind of questions until they start to notice that not everything is as it seems.” The way she was bubbling over with enthusiasm now, it seemed strange that she hadn’t tried to get me interested in this fandom before. But then I thought about how long I’d gone without even mentioning Captain Kairo to the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Maybe it was the same for her, more recent obsessions capturing her attention, and never even realising that I’d missed out on something she considered a classic. Or perhaps, and this guess seemed a little more likely, she’d brought it up before and I’d brushed it aside without thinking. I promised myself that I would do better in future, and try to understand the things she was interested in, at least until I could say for sure that they weren’t for me.

Bonjour,   pourriez-vous mettre le lien du site où l'histoire complète se trouve s'il vous plaît j'arrive pas à la trouver

And Stevens mother... 😬😬😬

I like the way the story is going.