Watch: Meghan Tonjes Just Gave Body Shamers The Biggest Middle Finger.

Watch: Meghan Tonjes just gave body shamers the biggest middle finger.

Why do they even put sex scenes in movies anymore? Like, does anyone feel anything but vaguely uncomfortable watching them? They’re not explicit enough to titillate most people in the age of instantly-available internet pornography, and just serve to make awkward silences when trying to watch movies with friends and family. It’s seldom that plot-relevant things occur or are said during them - why not just cut to black? Why do we have to suffer through several minutes of awkward moaning and close-ups of naked shoulders and necks?

Pink, purple, and gold, she’d said. And as the dying light fell on the morning glories that climbed the walls at Calm Hearts and Clear Minds Clinic in Queensdale, that was what she was met with. Auberdine inhaled deeply, smelling sweetness, hearing birdsong. Just as she’d known she would. There was a comfort in the familiarity of her visions. It kept her grounded when everything else was shifting around her.

Her mother’s footmen looked nervous at the charr that came out to meet them, but she had been expecting him. She curtsied gracefully. “Good evening. I am Auberdine LeBlanc. My mother said I was expected.”

The charr, blond and taller than her by more than a head, looked down at her through his spectacles and nodded. “Your mother has arranged for your stay here, yes. I am Leotian Calmheart. Did she explain to you our process?” He offered her an arm so they could move further into the compound. High walls surrounded a large courtyard planted with trees and flowers. Benches were hidden in the shaded areas. Two main buildings stood in opposite corners with a third storage building along the back wall. 

“I know they are disappointed in me. They want me to change. That is the purpose of my stay here.” Auberdine spoke quietly, looking around. There were signs everywhere. There had been children here, once. She could still hear their laughter. But there was ugliness, too. The mud and blood she’d sensed before smeared the walls here. She looked away, swallowing thickly. 

“Are you alright?” Leotian inquired politely. 

She gave him a brave smile, enough to calm those of a sympathetic nature. “Quite lovely, thank you.”

“Then we will settle you in, get you into some more comfortable clothes, and let you meet your fahrar,” he said, leading her toward the closest building.

“Fahrar?” she asked. The word invoked images of caves, children playing with claws and fangs and tails. 

“I do not have a good human word for it. So I use the one from my culture,” Leotian smiled down at her. “It means your family group. Over the next two weeks you will become close. Depend on one another. Learn from one another. And, I believe, become stronger for the experience.”

He opened the door and ushered her inside. The room was large and open. Nine beds, three sets of bunks and three singles, were arrayed against one wall. Several tables cluttered the center of the room with chairs around them. A small cook fire burned happily in one corner. A tall partition divided off one corner of the room.

“You will choose a bed,” Leotian explained. “I believe there are two still available. I have a trunk of clothing here. You will wear what we tell you. Part of the process of detaching yourself from your former life and the things that have made it more difficult for you.” Then he smiled at her gently. “Is there a color you like?”

Auberdine stood in the doorway, blinking at the images and feelings surging around her. She swallowed thickly again, an involuntary shudder running through her body. “L-lavender and grey,” she whispered, seeing herself in it, smiling and crying and running and bleeding...

Oh this was a mistake. Such a mistake. The charr, Leotian, he was kind in his eyes but lost in his mind and sometimes the lost came out and shredded everything. She was not safe. None of them were, the faces she could see parading in front of her now before they had even been brought in to meet her. But fear, panic, denial, none of those things would help her. They never had.

So she straightened her shoulders and walked toward Leotian. She gave him a wan smile and took the lavender and grey shirt and pants from him. “Thank you, sir,” she nodded, then went to change. She spent the time adjusting her breathing and her perceptions. 

For years she had just been her parents’ beloved if dysfunctional child. She played the role well. Now she was something else. A doll someone else was playing with, trying to control her with strings. She didn’t want to be a doll. But for now she would be. Until she could see a path clear of this. Not just for her, but for all of them.

Hi you! You're great! Signed, me.

So are you, Morgan! :D

“and the universe said…”