Wednesday, January 04, 2017

No Home for Dolls

When I started breakfast this morning, I decided I needed "Radio Silence," Remember WENN's second season opener. (In fact, I meant to watch it last week, but never got around to it.) Victor Comstock, WENN's former manager, died in the bombings of London. Actor Jeff Singer sustained injuries, but survived. Betty Roberts is taking Victor's death badly. She had a crush on him, but never had the chance to tell him her feelings. She's writing volumes of dull scripts where nothing remotely bad ever happens to anyone...because she wants her characters to be happy when she can't. Meanwhile, diva actress Hilary Booth tries to figure out how she feels about her (sort of) husband Jeff coming home when Victor isn't, and current manager Scott Sherwood attempts to keep the station running.

Changed the American Girl dolls after breakfast. Inspired by Minions last night, I listened to my British Invasion CDs while working. Discovered the magenta Swiss lace ribbon that originally went with the Our Generation pink overalls outfit looks smashing with Jessa's mid-90's meet outfit yellow felt sweater with magenta, teal, and blue-violet trim. Added the Coconut Fun Outfit studded t-shirt, her original black corduroy pants, and high-top sneakers. Whitney's wearing the pink overalls outfit with the red ribbon from the Our Generation sundress, white socks, and loafers. Felicity is in her forest green Riding Habit and Tri-corn Hat. Samantha's in her gray Buster Brown School Outfit with the black boots and stockings from Rebecca's School Outfit. Molly's nice and comfortable in her Play Outfit with the oxfords from Kit's School Outfit. Josefina sports a corniflower-blue floral dress with an empire waist and a navy-blue velvet hat with flowers that I found on eBay a few years ago.

Changed the Cabbage Patch Dolls, too. Carrie's in her original yellow dress with the green and pink satin ribbon stripes. It's old and the Velcro barely works anymore, but it'll do. Dulcie is in a red gingham dress and underwear.

Had a really quick lunch while doing a Scooby Doo episode, in honor of the (little bit) of snow we may be getting tomorrow. "That's Snow Ghost" from the first season takes Mystery Inc to an old ski lodge in the mountain. The lodge is being haunted by the ghost of a yeti-like creature. An old Asian man claims that the creature is after him...but does it have something more sinister in mind?

Headed out to do the laundry first. Thankfully, by 1:30, they were pretty quiet. I didn't have a really big load, anyway. It was mainly my new pants and the Christmas linens. I was in and out in less than an hour.

As soon as I finished putting away the laundry, I went right back out again. I wanted to get to the Haddon Township Library while the weather continued to cooperate. And it was cooperating. It was a gorgeous day when I rode across Newton Lake Park. The sun was shining. It was windy, but not too cold for this time of year, 50 degrees according to the digital sign outside of the Oaklyn City Hall. I dodged tons of people walking their dogs or out for a morning stroll.

Maybe because it was a nice day, but the Haddon Township Library wasn't any busier than the Oaklyn Library was yesterday. There were a lot of kids' DVDs to shelve, though. I guess everyone was bringing their kids stuff back, now that they're in school. I wasn't able to get all the Ds or Ms on.

I only ended up with two movies, The Lost World: Jurassic Park II and The Glass-Bottom Boat (the latter with Doris Day), but I did take out a few books. I felt like I needed the laughter of children, a silly old bear's adventures, and a pirate wooing a princess (badly). Picked up the next Penderwicks book, a collection of new Winnie the Pooh stories, and The Courtship of Princess Leia. Courtship isn't popular among many Star Wars fans (who can't accept anyone competing with Han for Leia's affections besides Luke or Lando), but I always thought it was cute as a teenager in the late 90's.

It was nearly 5 before I finally made it home. I spent the next four hours working on a story I had to get off my chest. This was intended as a follow-up to my Rey/Luke fic on Han's death from last summer, The Stories We Leave Behind.

The story is based after real-life. Rey feels Leia having a heart-attack in the Force well before she sees the headline on a holo-net blog. Luke feels it, too. Rey rushes him to D'Qar so fast, she's pretty sure she's broken a couple of major galactic traffic laws and Han's Kessel Run record. Luke goes into Leia's room in the medical ward right away. Dr. Kalonia explains to Rey, Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, BB-8, Poe's squadron, and the young dispatchers Kaydel and Pamich that Leia is in critical condition, and she'll tell them if there's any change.

Unfortunately, the change is for the worse. Five days later, early in the morning, Rey feels Leia pass into the Force. Finn and a heartbroken Poe and Kaydel are already at the ward when she gets there. Kaydel clutches the leash of the Resistance's dog mascot, whom she was walking for Leia that morning. Luke stumbles out, his eyes red with many tears. Rey just hugs him wordlessly, the way Leia did for her after Han died.

They give Leia a Jedi's funeral (despite protests that she wasn't a Jedi - who cares, says Luke, she deserved one) and bury her ashes next to Han on a distant beach planet. Poe and his squadron give her a 21-laser salute (Poe when he's not using his hand to wipe his eyes). Rey swears she even sees Kylo Ren - Ben Solo - skulking around, then throwing a fit in the woods, tearing up trees and roots with his lightsaber in his anguish over his loss.

Rey sobs into Luke's chest later. Why did the Force take Leia away? Why? Why?! She was still strong, still vital. Still needed. The Resistance needed her. Poe and Kaydel needed her. She needed her.

Luke has no easy answers for the distraught girl. It was more than likely too much stress on her heart. She hadn't been the same since her husband's tragic death, and there was running the Resistance, Ben's defection, and the losses from Starkiller Base on top of that. At least, he reminds Rey, she's with Han now. It doesn't matter if Han is Force-sensitive or not. He will do what he can to be with his Princess.

Rey asks if they can add stories about Leia to the ones about Han at their memorial holo-blog. "Sure," says Luke. Telling stories won't bring Leia or Han back. Nothing can, not even the Force. But it will make them seem a little bit closer.

I'm glad I finally got this one off my chest. I think I needed it. If you need it, too, here's the links:

The Sun Is Gone at Archive of Our Own
The Sun Is Gone at Fanfiction.Net
The Sun Is Gone at My Writing Blog

I was just finishing up Sun Is Gone when I got a call from Miss Willa. She had something to bring me, she said. Turns out what she brought me was a heavily revised rental notice. I have to start paying $650 by March.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have $650. I don't even have $550 at the moment. She wants me to give the rent to Charlie tomorrow! I'd love to know how all these people think I can just make money appear at a moment's notice. Hello, folks, I don't have a nice, normal job like the rest of you. I work at a damn grocery store, not even full-time. I've tried finding a real job. It didn't work. I can't borrow more money from Dad and Jodie, and I have no one else I can ask. Everyone else has medical bills or children or homes to pay for.

Tried to cheer myself up with a very late dinner and Frosty Returns. This is not a direct follow-up to the Rankin-Bass special. Actually, I think it came out in 1992. Holly DiCarlo is a shy young lady with a fondness for magic and a science-obsessed best friend named Charles. She encounters Frosty while chasing her magician's hat and makes friends. But her home town has suddenly become unfriendly towards snowmen, thanks to a nasty old man and his aerosol snow-removing formula. Now, Holly has to find a way to save Frosty, while reminding the town of just how much fun snow and winter can be.

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