Taking a Break (Update)

Hi everyone, so as from the title you know what this update is. I am taking a break from the blog. There are a few reasons for this, but the main one is due to stress and pressure. I am stressing myself out with posting twice weekly new content that is at least 500 plus words. While, I can pull inspiration from my journals it takes time to type out hand written pieces and half the time I have to edit those.

Yesterday was my birthday, and while it was a happy day there was a dark cloud that hung over my day. On the 18th, my family and I received news that we were not expecting at all. A relative very suddenly passed away and we're not sure on everything that happened. So, at this time I need to take a break to try and recover.

I hope that you'll understand, I will try to post in September.  But please feel free to read some of my previous blog pieces as a lot of them are quite fun reads.

Gala Searches (DC Amy-verse)

Brown eyes scanned the crowded ballroom, Amy kept her eyes out for her children. Easily, she spotted Damian hidden behind a large potted plant. A smile crossed her face as she saw Damian wasn't alone. Ella stood beside her brother, her dark waves hidden in the crown braids she wore. Amy's heart squeezed as she moved her eyes in search of her oldest two children.

A hand pressed against the petite brunette's back. "What are you up to?" a familiar voice whispered against the shell of her ear.

Amy's grin grew as she spun around to see her husband. Even in three inch heels, Amelia Wayne was only five feet four, in comparison to her husband's six feet two. Bruce easily towered over his wife, but neither complained.

"Keeping an eye on our children," Amy answered as she pressed her hands against Bruce's chest.

Blue eyes met brown as he gazed at his wife. "They know better than to misbehave at a gala," Bruce reminded his wife. His eyes narrowed as he glanced around for his children.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night dear," she said with a sly grin on her red painted lips. She gently patted her husband's cheek before she turned on heel and made her way over to Dick.

A warm smile crossed her lips as she looked at her oldest Robin, he stood with an wrapped around Barbara Gordon's waist. The Batgirl who had taken over her role as the woman of the night. The auburn haired woman looked happy and gorgeous in her beautiful dark blue dress a soft homage to the first Batgirl and Nightwing costumes.

"Ah, the woman of the hour," Commissioner Gordon said as he caught sight of the Wayne Matriarch.

"Hello Jim," Amy greeted Gotham's Police Commissioner wit ha warm smile as she sidled up to her son's left side. "Barbara," she added as she met the red head's gaze.

"Amy," Babs greeted in return as she moved from Dick's side to hug her mentor and mother figure.

Amy's arms held onto her surrogate daughter tightly, Barbara would always hold a special place in her heart. She enjoyed time with her red head child, just as much as the rest of her chaotic children.

"Hey, where's my hug?" Dick cried out in outrage as he looked at his mom.

Both the brunette and red head scoffed at his question. Amy sighed and didn't say a word to her son. Instead, she shook her head at her first son.

"What?" Dick asked as he looked at his mother.
-fin

Interrupted Night

Sapphire happily sipped on the champagne  from her glass with a grin. Her blue eyes spotted a familiar tall figure enter the night club. With an eye roll, the dark haired woman looked at her best friend with a raised eyebrow.

"They're here again," Sapphire commented before she took another sip of her bubbly.

A groan escaped Melinda Halliwell's lips. "Why? God, why can't I just be left alone?" she questioned was she looked up at the ceiling.

Sapphire sent Melinda a sad smile, she reached a hand out and squeezed one of Mel's. The French-Egyptian witch empathized with her best friend.

"Because older siblings always butt in, especially their little sibling's business," Artemis St. Rose commented from Melinda's other side. "I can't believe they had the nerve."

"It's only Wyatt and Christian, thankfully Chris and Henry didn't show up," Sapphire reassuringly told her friends with a smile.

This was one of those times that Sapphire was grateful that she was an only child. But she had a lot of surrogate/adopted siblings from all of her best friends.

Before either Mel or Artemis could reply, a throat was cleared behind them. Three sighs simultaneously left their lips.

"Hello ladies," Wyatt greeted his sister and her two friends.

"Wyatt," Saph coolly replied. Her eyes filled with disappointment, a pout on her red painted lips.

"Christian, why are you here?" Artemis asked her brother with anger burning in her brown eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed with a frown set on her lips.

A smirk played across the oldest St. Rose's face, "I can't go out for a drink with my best friend?" he asked with a false innocent smile on his face.

"Ooh, I oughta," Artemis mumbled, she her attention back to her champagne. She downed the rest of the glass and slammed it onto the bar. "Could I get four shots of vodka?" her voice sweet sounding, asked the bartender with a wink.

"Of course, Miss St. Rose," the bartender answered with a wide grin.

"Be careful, Artemis," Sapphire warned softly. She glanced at the contents of her glass, the idea of throwing the remaining champagne at Wyatt and Christian briefly temped her. A frown crossed her lips before she decided against the action. It would be a waste of good champagne.
-fin

Zorro's Return (Journal)

Today's piece is a journal entry for you guys. So, story time, as a kid I used to have Disney Channel East and West. Mind you this was back in the 90's. One of my favorite things my family and I would do was watch Zorro (the 1957 Disney version) with Guy Williams as the titular hero. We would watch the two episodes at seven at night. Then three hours later, we would re-watch the episodes at ten. Then my sister and I were sent off to bed.

I wasn't in school at this point, and my parents were flexible with bedtimes for me and sister. We won't get into their parenting style, not the point. 

Anyway, this happened for a few years. I must have seen the two seasons in their original black and white version and colorized version at least five times each. It was a great show, and as someone who is Mexican-American it was a great representation of my ethnicity, despite the fact that it's set in 1820 Spanish California.

Why am I bringing this up in today's journal? Well, I've recently found a few of the episodes in their black and white format on YouTube. The colored versions are also available to watch there as well. I've started watching them again and I've re-fallen in love with this show. No, I haven't seen the 1990 version, but I have seen the Antonio Banderas movies, and they're pretty good. But the 1957 version of Zorro holds a special place in my heart. This was the version that I grew up watching, Guy Williams was my first Zorro.

Yes, I am aware that Guy Williams is not hispanic/latino, but he's actually Italian-American. I'm 1/8th Italian, on my dad's side, it doesn't matter to me.

I am so happy to find a piece of my childhood to re-watch and enjoy. Somehow, I'm instantly brought back in time to a little girl, who sat on the couch next to her sister. Together, we're singing the opening song and watching with such captivation that the living room is quiet. It's a fuzzy memory but it's still there because every time I hear the words 'Out in the night, when the full moon is bright' I'm reliving those precious moments.

I guess, today's journal piece was just to share this childhood memory with you guys. And maybe it's a lesson about representation as well. As a Mexican-American, it's hard to find TV shows and movies that have that representation of a bi-cultural family. Zorro was one of those rare gems that fit the bill, in my opinion. Plus, it also plays into Bruce Wayne aka Batman, so I'm not complaining. 

Thanks for reading

-ADF

Endings (Marvel Amy)

Avengers Infinity War: Amelia Carter-Sousa/Steven Rogers/ Grant Ward/Brock Rumlow

“Everyone on my position, we’ve got incoming,” Steve’s voice came through the comms.

Amy looked around the battlefield for Grant, Brock, and one Bucky Barnes. As she spotted her two soulmates, and Steve’s best friend, she lifted the three of them into the air. As they all flew through the sky into the woods, which surrounded the capital of Wakanda, Amy felt a horrible feeling in her gut.

“It’ll be alright, sweetheart. Don’t worry so much,” Brock commented as he looked at his petite wife.

Brown met brown and brown, as she looked from Brock to Grant. The three of them all felt worry in their hearts, this battle had been building up since Loki’s invasion of Manhattan six years ago. The same battle that brought Amy, Grant, Brock, and Steve together as a foursome.

With keen eyes, the Inhuman female spotted her super soldier soulmate. She brought the three men with her down for a landing. “Brace yourselves,” she said quietly as she landed on the forest floor. Grant, Brock, and Bucky still hovered only a few inches above the ground before she released her telekinetic hold on them.

With small steps, Amy stood on Steve’s left, her hand grasped his tightly. Fear creating trembles through her body.

Steve squeezed her hand, as they watched and waited for the arrival of Thanos.

“Steve,” she faintly got out. Her voice caught in her throat. Tears filled her eyes as a sense of dread consumed her body.

Captain America turned his head to look at his wife. There were no words to comfort her or even reassure of their survival. Instead, he pressed his forehead to hers, in hopes that she would find peace in these last few moments.

As he pulled away, Brock and Grant joined them. Together the foursome stood together. A picture of calm and strength as they waited.

It was a short wait. A breeze from seemingly nowhere caught Steve’s attention. As a group, the Avengers excluding Wanda and Vision turned to see a giant wrinkled purple being step out a portal that resembled the kind the tesseract created.

“Steve, that’s him,” Bruce Banner’s voice gravely called out through comms.

Steve activated the new shield from T’challa. Then as a group, the Avengers ran to take on the alien set on destroying the world. Bruce took the lead, only to be sent flying and embedded in a rock bed. Grant threw a hellfire chain, like a lasso to wrap around Thanos. Only for it to be destroyed.

Hellfire was thrown into a tree, which split in half upon the impact. Rocket Racoon, Falcon, and War Machine threw all kinds of firepower in rockets, short range miniature missiles, and bullets. Nothing worked, it bounced off some sort of invisible shield that surrounded Thanos.

Nat and T’challa’s general of Midori Ana threw their staff and spears only for them to bounce off. Amy flew into the air and lifted several trees from the roots up with her telekinesis. She broke them into sharpened spears and aimed at Thanos. They proved to be ineffective, disintegrating. Before she too was thrown into a tree not too far from Hellfire.

Amy gasped as she landed on the ground with a loud thud, her eyes locked onto Grant’s whiskey colored eyes. She reached a hand out to find one of Grant’s. Tightly she held it, as her eyes fluttered closed. She knew the others were trying their hardest to take out Thanos, they needed the help.

Together, she and Grant climbed back to their feet, his hands on top of her shoulder. With a nod, Amy and Grant turned to see Steve against Thanos.

Grant threw another hellfire chain, this one closer to the ground to wrap around his ankle. Amelia used the vines and other flora to snake itself around Thanos like a rope. Together they pulled tautly on their ropes.

Thanos jerked back only a few inches, but he flexed his muscles. The hellfire chain and flora ropes snapped like rubber bands. The couple flew back onto the ground from the force of the snap.

A groan left Amy’s lips as she landed on her back, hard. Someone landed not too far to Amelia’s right, she looked over to see it was Steve. She flipped onto her front and crawled over towards the final soulmate she found, but the one she knew of first.

“Steve,” she gasped out as she reached his side. One hand on his cheek.

“I’m okay, Amy,” he replied as he sat up.

She helped him to his feet, before she went to Grant’s side. She pulled on his arms, forcing him to sit up. With a groan he stood up. “Where’s Brock?” he asked.

Brown eyes looked around for Crossbones. She spotted him not too far. Together, Amy and Grant made their way over to Brock. Just as they reached Brock, an explosion of golden light fell around the area. Amelia closed her eyes against the blinding light.

Hesitantly after a few minutes, she opened her eyes. “Brock,” she softly called as she looked at him.

“I’m alright, sweetheart, save your worrying,” he replied.

Together the trio moved to join Steve, but before they reached their fourth soulmate. The golden light erupted once more. With closed eyes, Amy turned her head into Grant’s chest to avoid the brightness.

“What did you do? What did you do?” Thor demanded loudly.

Amy looked for Steve, she saw him in on the ground. He wasn’t too far from where Thanos stood with Thor. An axe in the purple aliens chest. The hand which wore the golden gauntlet now black and smokey as if it had been burned.

“Steve,” Bucky called out as he approached his friend.

Amy and Steve turned to look at Bucky. After two steps his new mechanical arm disintegrated into ash. Only seconds later his body did the same. A gasp fell from Amy’s lips as a pain hit her. Heart clenched, as if someone had ripped it from her chest.

“Amy.”

“Sweetheart.”

Two voices, called out. Amy and Steve turned to see Grant and Brock dissolve.

“No no no!” Amy cried as she tried to grab onto Brock’s hand.

Just as her fingers brushed against his, a pile of ash fell onto her fingers.

“NO!” the shout fell from her lips as she fell to her knees. The pain in her heart grew as she looked at the piles of ash that belonged to two of her three soulmates. Two of her husbands gone like smoke in the wind.

Arms wrapped around her shaking body. Sobs fell from her lips at the loss of her husbands. How could they have disappeared? Where had they gone?

So many questions but no answers filled her thoughts. Blinded by her tears she had no idea where Steve was. Gasping breaths left her lips. The arms that held her, hugged her tightly. Sobs that didn’t belong to Amy joined hers, sobs that sounded familiar.

-fin

A/N: I wrote this literally when I got home from seeing Infinity War on April 27th. I've been sitting on this for awhile and with the digital release of Infinity War just last week, I figured now would be a good time to post. I want to delve more in this soulmate quad. Yes, they are all soulmates and it is AU, I'll hopefully post more soon!

Where Have I Been? (Update)

Where have I been for the last month?

Well, that's kinda an interesting story. At the end of June and start of July, in the middle of the night, I heard my dad groaning in pain. I took him to the ER, a few hours later, we learned that he had a gall stone attack and he should have his gall bladder removed. We had been at the ER for nearly five hours at this point, and I hadn't slept. I ended up pulling an allnighter, boy I was a fun person to hang out with the next day. Haha, no I was not, I was exhausted all day and the next few days.

Anyway, my dad is fine now. He hasn't had the surgery to have his gall bladder removed yet. It's a work in progress at the moment. In July, I decided that I would make another attempt at Camp NaNo to try and finish Crimson and Indigo...

That was bust, yes, I worked on my writing for over 30 hours (my goal was 30 hours), I did no work on C&I. But I'm hoping to slowly get back into. So, keep your fingers crossed that I can actually finish the darn thing after nearly six years of working on Claire.

Let's just say that July was a weird and rough month for me. As a result I did not do anything for the blog. I do apologize for that. You'll receive your regular twice weekly content starting on Monday. So be on the look out for some new posts.

-ADF