Post by Fiona McFly on Jul 21, 2021 16:24:06 GMT
Chapter I
"WHEN I'M BACK ON MY FEET AGAIN"
17 July 2021 + 0030 GMT
At life's lowest moment...
Fiona McFly slowly walked inside a traditional pub in her native Belfast. For the most part, it was a very lively sort -- perhaps a little too lively. Yet through it all, she quietly looked down at her iPhone, not to look at her time...but checking to ensure that she had gotten a certain phone call or at least a text message.
The call from Steven Bates.
It had been nearly three years since the drunken incident at Diamonds are Forever, Christmas 2018. All she wanted from him was nothing more than an apology. It was common courtesy, the right thing to do as it were. He took the time to apologise to her longtime friend James Gilmore over being an asswipe, but he couldn't take a minute out of his schedule to tell her that he'd fucked up.
Instead?!
Steven played the victim and threw everything on her.
What was more frustrating about the whole thing was that Shea O'Hara insisted that Fiona simply moved on. How can I...Fiona growled under her breath; perhaps...she was one of scores of women who got the same treatment from Steven through the years. In Fiona's mind, it was irrational for her to simply give the man who betrayed her a free pass for his actions whilst he lived a safe and comfortable life on the road.
"How many more women will it take, Steven, before you fuck with the wrong one...?!"
That particular line of thinking was taking Fiona into a dark place, a place that very few ever make it out of. She was going to be tested in ways that she couldn't begin to imagine. Everyone...faces the dark side, and it was all too easy to fail. This pub, as lively as it was, was the epitome of the dark side in Fiona's mind -- full of druggies, drunks, thugs, punks, and general hooligans who did nothing but waste their lives away, hoping to drown away the blues.
The temptation was readily and easily available to her.
PATRON #1:
What a shame, the McFlys are dead and buried...
PATRON #2:
Aye, don't bother with the stories on how great your family once was.
PATRON #3:
Besides, you look like you've been hit in the head one too many times...
Fiona wanted to take to the bottle on this damp and cool night, to put herself in Steven's shoes and feel what it was like to drink. It was a mechanism to help her escape from her troubles; she was used to the struggles and, normally, often came back to fight them. Yet this time...it was different, extremely different. It didn't help matters that the patrons often made fun of her for wanting to share stories about her travels.
On top of it, as the bartender handed her a bottle of Jack Daniels...?!
BARTENDER:
Don't lower yourself down by being here...
Fiona was being beaten down -- not simply by Steven, but by society as a whole. As gritty, dark, and brutal Belfast often seemed to be, this was still Fiona's native land. Even in a place where APUs were often seen in the streets, her father often gave her some of life's happiest moments when she was a child. It was those moments that gave her hope, hope that someday...Belfast could be a much better place than what it was.
Yet Fiona felt like she was in the same condition as the city itself.
Dilapidated. Abandoned.
Taking the bottle with her, she walked out of the pub and onto the street, growling to herself whilst keeping out of the earshot of fellow patrons.
"What the fuck have you done with your life..."
As some Michael Bolton tune played in her mind, Fiona popped the lid open and took a sip. Whilst she did drink a beer or two during Christmastime or some other special occasion, whiskey was the harder stuff -- stuff that she wouldn't have dreamed of touching until this moment, until this night. With every sip she took, she began to feel some sort of dark aura coursing through her veins, as if it was pulling on her to go in a certain direction.
"Gonna break from these chains around me
Gonna learn to fly again
May be hard, may be hard
But I'll do it
When I'm back on my feet again
Soon these tears will all be dryin'
Soon these eyes will see the sun
Might take time, might take time
But I'll see it
When I'm back on my feet again
When I'm back on my feet again
I'll walk proud down that street again
And they'll all look at me again
And they'll see that
I'm strong"
Yet somehow, Fiona just kept taking itty-bitty sips from the bottle instead of swigs. As she walked through the Gaeltacht quadrant's rough streets, she listened to the laughter and cheers coming from the other pubs in the area -- from nameless, faceless people that hardly knew who she was or what she was. The demographics of the entire land had changed, the roads and paths teeming with immigrants from places like Somalia or Crimea -- places that had been ravaged by years and years of bloodshed like Belfast.
"Gonna hear the children laughing
Gonna hear the voices sing
Won't be long, won't be long
Till I hear them
When I'm back on my feet again
Gonna feel the sweet light of heaven
Shining down its light on me
One sweet day, one sweet day
I will feel it
When I'm back on my feet again"
Fiona, for all intensive purposes, was just another face in the crowd. It was a depressing sight for any mind to experience, knowing that there were scores of women who were waiting for that one phone call but only got heartbreak instead. Yet it was deeper than a simple case of the blues -- all she ever prayed for, when it came to Steven, was for the man to be at least A THIRD of what Jack Gaither was to her during their marriage.
But alas, it wasn't meant to be the case.
All she wanted, more than anything else, was for someone to love her again -- and for her to able to love that someone right back. Yet as Fiona proceeded into a dark alleyway, taking more sips as she progressed...
"And I'm not gonna crawl again
I will learn to stand tall again
No I'm not gonna fall again
Cos I'll learn to be strong..."
...the music inside her mind immediately cuts off when she heard a distinctive throat-clearing. Fiona turned around to see a mysterious, shadowy figure step into the light. We see that the figure is an older gentleman sporting flowing gray hair and a beard -- a look resembling that of Liam Neeson. He stepped further into the light, revealing a Royal Navy captain's uniform before speaking in a somewhat dignified manner.
HARGROVE:
This is not a place for a Captain like you...
~TO BE CONTINUED~
"WHEN I'M BACK ON MY FEET AGAIN"
17 July 2021 + 0030 GMT
At life's lowest moment...
Fiona McFly slowly walked inside a traditional pub in her native Belfast. For the most part, it was a very lively sort -- perhaps a little too lively. Yet through it all, she quietly looked down at her iPhone, not to look at her time...but checking to ensure that she had gotten a certain phone call or at least a text message.
The call from Steven Bates.
It had been nearly three years since the drunken incident at Diamonds are Forever, Christmas 2018. All she wanted from him was nothing more than an apology. It was common courtesy, the right thing to do as it were. He took the time to apologise to her longtime friend James Gilmore over being an asswipe, but he couldn't take a minute out of his schedule to tell her that he'd fucked up.
Instead?!
Steven played the victim and threw everything on her.
What was more frustrating about the whole thing was that Shea O'Hara insisted that Fiona simply moved on. How can I...Fiona growled under her breath; perhaps...she was one of scores of women who got the same treatment from Steven through the years. In Fiona's mind, it was irrational for her to simply give the man who betrayed her a free pass for his actions whilst he lived a safe and comfortable life on the road.
"How many more women will it take, Steven, before you fuck with the wrong one...?!"
That particular line of thinking was taking Fiona into a dark place, a place that very few ever make it out of. She was going to be tested in ways that she couldn't begin to imagine. Everyone...faces the dark side, and it was all too easy to fail. This pub, as lively as it was, was the epitome of the dark side in Fiona's mind -- full of druggies, drunks, thugs, punks, and general hooligans who did nothing but waste their lives away, hoping to drown away the blues.
The temptation was readily and easily available to her.
PATRON #1:
What a shame, the McFlys are dead and buried...
PATRON #2:
Aye, don't bother with the stories on how great your family once was.
PATRON #3:
Besides, you look like you've been hit in the head one too many times...
Fiona wanted to take to the bottle on this damp and cool night, to put herself in Steven's shoes and feel what it was like to drink. It was a mechanism to help her escape from her troubles; she was used to the struggles and, normally, often came back to fight them. Yet this time...it was different, extremely different. It didn't help matters that the patrons often made fun of her for wanting to share stories about her travels.
On top of it, as the bartender handed her a bottle of Jack Daniels...?!
BARTENDER:
Don't lower yourself down by being here...
Fiona was being beaten down -- not simply by Steven, but by society as a whole. As gritty, dark, and brutal Belfast often seemed to be, this was still Fiona's native land. Even in a place where APUs were often seen in the streets, her father often gave her some of life's happiest moments when she was a child. It was those moments that gave her hope, hope that someday...Belfast could be a much better place than what it was.
Yet Fiona felt like she was in the same condition as the city itself.
Dilapidated. Abandoned.
Taking the bottle with her, she walked out of the pub and onto the street, growling to herself whilst keeping out of the earshot of fellow patrons.
"What the fuck have you done with your life..."
As some Michael Bolton tune played in her mind, Fiona popped the lid open and took a sip. Whilst she did drink a beer or two during Christmastime or some other special occasion, whiskey was the harder stuff -- stuff that she wouldn't have dreamed of touching until this moment, until this night. With every sip she took, she began to feel some sort of dark aura coursing through her veins, as if it was pulling on her to go in a certain direction.
"Gonna break from these chains around me
Gonna learn to fly again
May be hard, may be hard
But I'll do it
When I'm back on my feet again
Soon these tears will all be dryin'
Soon these eyes will see the sun
Might take time, might take time
But I'll see it
When I'm back on my feet again
When I'm back on my feet again
I'll walk proud down that street again
And they'll all look at me again
And they'll see that
I'm strong"
Yet somehow, Fiona just kept taking itty-bitty sips from the bottle instead of swigs. As she walked through the Gaeltacht quadrant's rough streets, she listened to the laughter and cheers coming from the other pubs in the area -- from nameless, faceless people that hardly knew who she was or what she was. The demographics of the entire land had changed, the roads and paths teeming with immigrants from places like Somalia or Crimea -- places that had been ravaged by years and years of bloodshed like Belfast.
"Gonna hear the children laughing
Gonna hear the voices sing
Won't be long, won't be long
Till I hear them
When I'm back on my feet again
Gonna feel the sweet light of heaven
Shining down its light on me
One sweet day, one sweet day
I will feel it
When I'm back on my feet again"
Fiona, for all intensive purposes, was just another face in the crowd. It was a depressing sight for any mind to experience, knowing that there were scores of women who were waiting for that one phone call but only got heartbreak instead. Yet it was deeper than a simple case of the blues -- all she ever prayed for, when it came to Steven, was for the man to be at least A THIRD of what Jack Gaither was to her during their marriage.
But alas, it wasn't meant to be the case.
All she wanted, more than anything else, was for someone to love her again -- and for her to able to love that someone right back. Yet as Fiona proceeded into a dark alleyway, taking more sips as she progressed...
"And I'm not gonna crawl again
I will learn to stand tall again
No I'm not gonna fall again
Cos I'll learn to be strong..."
...the music inside her mind immediately cuts off when she heard a distinctive throat-clearing. Fiona turned around to see a mysterious, shadowy figure step into the light. We see that the figure is an older gentleman sporting flowing gray hair and a beard -- a look resembling that of Liam Neeson. He stepped further into the light, revealing a Royal Navy captain's uniform before speaking in a somewhat dignified manner.
HARGROVE:
This is not a place for a Captain like you...
~TO BE CONTINUED~
Well howdy there pardner.