#& let matt talk! ffs.

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 37

PREV

Laughs might be an understatement.

Falls into hysterics might be the better way to phrase it.

It’s all so ridiculous.

He’d been scared to lose them and yet here they all were. Running around in Abby’s backyard, making a huge fuss about something stupid, talking about killing Daniel, arguing about his diet, and watching him with growing concern as he continues to laugh.

“See! This is because you gave him the damn milkshake!” Kevin exclaims turning to Aaron throwing a hand off.

FF laughs harder.

“How the fuck is Smiths having a mental breakdown about a milkshake?! He’s probably freaking out about that asshole and the fact that you want to let him make it to try-outs!” Aaron shouts back.

“He could be great!” Kevin defends.

“Man, is it worth him being great if Smithster is like this?” Matt asks.

“Well, we just keep him away from Smiths.” Kevin crosses his arms defensively. “Andrew can do it like how he kept Riko away from me.” Kevin points at Andrew.

“Riko was on a different team.” Captain Neil reminds coming up to look at FF in concern as he continued to laugh.

“He was prepared to keep you away from me and we were on the same team.” Kevin argues again.

“I don’t think Andrew is going to make out on the roof with Daniel.” Nicky says with an awkward laugh apparently recovering from Gran’s stated new favorite. Andrew and Captain Neil made faces, “Yeah, he’s not as cute as Neil.” Nicky agrees before settling at FF’s side, “Hey buddy, what’s going on? Do you wanna lay down?” he asks like FF is a toddler who is over tired.

He is pretty tired.

“Nicky he’s having a mental breakdown he’s not a toddler who needs a nap.” Aaron says.

“Well, what do you want to do Mr. Future Doctor?!” Nicky asks panicked.

FF really should stop laughing.

“I don’t study…” Aaron makes a face, “psychology.”

“Literally your only redeeming quality.” Captain Neil interjects but looks chagrined as FF wheezes.

“Shut up.” Aaron spits at him before turning to Andrew, “You’re the one who spends all that time with Dobson. Do you have any idea on how to fix him?” Aaron asks.

Andrew looks at him and FF is a little worried that he might split something in his stomach if he can’t stop laughing soon but he feels like his muscles are stuck in an almost loop that he can’t get his diaphragm out of.

Andrew walks over, “Percussive therapy.” He says and smacks FF hard on the back twice.

“Andrew!” came four different shouts.

FF coughs and it releases him from his hysterical laughing hell.

“Thanks.” He says and his stomach hurts the way it would after an especially hard work out.

“Anytime.” Andrew shrugs and moves back to stand by Captain Neil.

“Smithy? You with us buddy?” Nicky asks concerned and when FF looks around, he realizes it is well and truly the next day and well into the next day at that he must have been on auto-pilot for a while.

“Yeah,” he says and his face aches as bad as his stomach from the strain of using muscles he doesn’t normally. He coughs again, “Sorry about that.” He apologizes.

“Nah man, it’s cool.” Matt assures, “Are you okay? That was uh…a concerning amount of laughter.” He says gently.

“Yeah.” FF says, “I’m fine.” He looks at them and still doesn’t get why they all look at Captain Neil whenever he says it and why Captain Neil always looks especially pained. He decides to move along, “So, Daniel is going to try out.” FF says.

“Yes.” Kevin says at the same time the rest of his friends say “No.”

“Kevin, seriously?” Captain Neil asks.

“We need options.” Kevin shrugs before turning to FF, “Is he any good?” he asks.

“He’s obviously not as good as Smithy!” Nicky exclaims arms around FF in an instant. “Smithy got the offer, and he didn’t.” Nicky adds.

“I didn’t ask if he was better than Smiths, I asked if he was any good!” Kevin bristles.

FF shrugs, “Daniel has always been athletic.” He says thinking about the trophies that lined the halls of their home in Washington.

“The University didn’t listen to Neil and he’s Athletic. He’s going to try-out.” Kevin says.

“Not if I can help it.” Captain Neil grumbles under his breath.

“Neil, bud, you’re scaring me.” Matt says.

“I don’t need a car to kneecap him.” Andrew says with a shrug, “Smith if you don’t want him on the team then-“

“I don’t really care.” FF interrupts Andrew and the goalkeeper blinks in surprise.

“You don’t…care?” Aaron asks.

“Not anymore. Not really.” He says.

Nicky and Aaron were so worried that Andrew would murder Daniel for him that they hid the terrifying goalkeeper’s Maserati. Kevin and Matt spent the afternoon trying to make Kevin’s smoothies taste a little less terrible. Andrew is thinking about kneecapping Daniel and Captain Neil argued in front of people for his sake.

He has friends and they’re some of the most stubborn people on the planet. Once they make up their mind about someone it’s hard for them to change. They don’t care that he’s a mess of anxiety or that he’s got things he doesn’t want to talk about.

He’s got people on his contact list who would text and call him if he disappeared. More than just his grandma.

What does he really have to worry about?

The night and day of processing everything starts to catch up with him. “I’m kind of tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.” He says feeling like the weight from the night before was truly off of his chest and eager to catch some sleep.

“Drink this first.” Kevin says and FF can hear a slight concern for him but he’s not sure why.

He takes the drink.

“The flavors a little better.” Matt says and FF slams the entire drink as he’s learned to do with Kevin’s smoothies, and it really does taste better.

“Thank you.” He says.

“I’ll take that.” Nicky takes the glass from his hand. “How about we cuddle again tonight?” Nicky asks.

FF thinks that’d be nice but also thinks that Nicky moved a bit too much in his sleep.

“I’ll be okay tonight. Thanks.” he looks back at his friends, “Night guys.” He says and heads inside where Gran and Abby were enjoying some tea.

His Gran kisses his cheek, she’ll be leaving after Monday and FF will miss her like he would miss an arm but she has a bowling league to get back to, a knitting club to run, and she misses the Pacific North West. “I’m going to take you somewhere tomorrow.” She says to him in Polish.

“Ok Gran.” He says back in the same language before kissing her cheek right back. He hears Abby make a touched sound and then a commotion outside and his lips twitch in an attempt to smile, “I’m glad I came here.” He says.

She smiles back, “Me too.” She agrees.

***

“Great, Smithy is depressed.” Nicky hisses looking at Kevin, “Why the fuck would you give him one of your god awful smoothies when he’s already depressed?!” he demands.

“Physical health and mental health are heavily correlated. If his physical health improves-“

“Shut up.” Five voices chorus together as one.

“I’m not wrong.” Kevin grumbles.

Neil looks at Andrew, “We’ll watch his back.”

Andrew nods and when he looks to the rest of their group.

They will.

“Now tell me where the fuck you hid my car.” Andrew turns to Nicky.

“I have zero faith that you won’t run him over.” Nicky returns, “Can’t watch Smithy’s back in jail.” He points out.

“To be fair, his back wouldn’t need to be watched if Andrew ran Daniel over.” Neil argues.

“Neil.”

“I’m just saying.”

***

There had been late night dorm discussions about shifts, what to do if they saw Daniel, and Andrew threatening a few more times that he’d call the cops until Aaron called his bluff.

“You would never call a cop to help you.” Aaron argues.

“Bee said it’s the sign of a narcissist if they use what they learn in group therapy against you.” Andrew crossed his arms and looked away.

So they walked back to Abby’s house that morning but… maybe they should have made it clear to FF that they were planning on watching out for him that weekend.

"He left?" Neil asks.

"With his grandma. She was writing to me last night. She got in contact with an old family friend, Smith's godfather. She wanted to cheer him up." Abby says leaning against her door frame with her coffee mug in her hand.

"She's good." Matt says appreciatively.

"Any word on when they'll get back?" Nicky asks.

"More than likely before the end of the day but otherwise? They didn't say. Smith's face did that thing it does when he's happy though so I don't think you have to worry. He's in good hands." she says.

In the end they have different people loitering around Abby's but FF doesn't get back until after they are all back in the dorm.

So none of them quite knew what to expect when they came to Abby's house and found a motorcycle in her driveway. "Wow, that's a nicely maintained bike." Matt comments looking the bike over with an appreciative eye.

"Thanks." came from the door and when they looked up they see FF standing with a leather jacket on and a helmet in hand. "My uh..." he hesitates, "uncle Theo," he says the title likes it's unfamiliar to him, "kept it. It was my dad's and yesterday he signed it over to me." he explains.

"Do you know how danger-" Kevin starts but Nicky's hand slaps over his mouth before he can finish any reprimand.

"Smithy that's so cool! Are you going to get your license?" Nicky asks.

"Oh, I already have my motorcycle license." he explains, "Since I don't like cars." he adds and his face does that thing again that means he's happy, as if talking about his phobia makes him feel better. "I would ride Gran's motorcycle to school a lot." he explains.

The conversation continues as Aaron, Matt, and even Andrew inspected the Motocycle approvingly. Neil was the only one who had ever ridden one aside from FF and he'd always been more interested in ones that were easy to steal than good ones like the one FF had gotten.

FF goes on a solo drive on his new motorcycle and they keep an eye on him when he's back safe.

Eventually, it's try-outs.

***

"You're sure you want to watch?" Captain Neil asks for the 3rd time since FF had stated the night before over dinner that he intended to come to practice to watch the try-out.

"Yeah Captain Neil." FF answers dutifully.

"You really don't have to come." Captain Neil implores again as they continue towards the Court.

"I want to." FF offers a half smile to Captain Neil. It'd be better to know what he's dealing with. He may have decided that he doesn't really care about the fact that Daniel is here since he has faith in his friends but he also would probably die if he sat around waiting for the news.

So he gets to the Court and Kevin hands him a new shake. "This one actually tastes almost good." Matt says with a smile. He takes the same seat next to Coach Wymack he'd taken over the last couple weeks as the team changed out.

Daniel was there bright and early already kitted out. He sees Daniel see him but Coach Wymack stepped between them when Daniel starts to move towards them, "Keep going with your warm-up Stanton." Coach Wymack orders.

Daniel gives Coach Wymack a pleading look but he must not see what he wants on Wymack's face because he scowls at Wymack and FF before he returns to stretching.

FF takes a sip of his smoothie.

He doesn't know if the smoothie is actually good, if his mouth tastes like ash, or his tastebuds are so obliterated from having drank all the previous smoothies that he can no longer understand what tastes good or bad anymore.

There's someone in the stands. "University sent someone to make sure the try-out is fair." Coach Wymack explains as he settles on the bench next to FF.

Eventually the rest of the Foxes are out, "We have a potential new recruit with us this morning. He will be trying out for the position that Lisa left open." Wymack explains and FF is shocked to see almost the entire team glowering at Daniel. (His upperclassmen friends he had expected, but Jack, Sheena, and his old roommates seem unamused by Daniel's presence).

Wymack gives the practice to Captain Neil to run.

FF sits back and watches the practice unfold.

He sips his drink.

Huh.

"Christ," he hears Coach Wymack mutter under his breath. "What kind of confidence did that kid have to argue for this try-out playing like that?" Coach Wymack asks in stunned awe as he turned to him, "Did he even ever play Exy before?" he asks.

FF sips his drink.

"I said he was athletic." he says and had figured that would have carried Daniel through. He figured if he didn't know the rules and could play at a Division 1 Collegiate level well then it's not like Daniel had zero chance.

Coach Wymack groans, "Kevin is going to kill that kid." he says and it is amazing how poorly Daniel is doing at the precision passing drill.

FF blinks in surprise before he turns his attention to the player standing still watching over the drill.

FF can feel the fury radiating off of Kevin Day.

Huh.

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

NEXT

[sturnioloshacker]

have you seen the posts saying matt is getting fat? they're talking about how fat his face is getting recently........and i'm sitting here like MF WHERE?!?! WHERE DO YOU SEE ANYTHING OF THE SORT?!?! HE LOOKS THE SAME AS ALWAYS PLZ!!!

say what now???? they must be blind as fuck if they think matt’s face has gotten fat because it hasn’t. his face looks the exact same it’s been all year.

and ffs why are we fat shaming people?! it’s almost 2024! why are we being so disrespectful and rude for? let’s listen to the love of my life mr harry styles and TREAT PEOPLE WITH KINDNESS!!!!!

[chemicallady]

I LOVE YOU TO DEATH BUT I'M DROWING

Part 1

Couple: Noah Sebastian x Fem Reader

Content Warning: talking about sex; bondage, possible heartbreak.

Summary:  getting closer to Noah is like trying to give a quick look into an abyss; it's impossible not to fall down with all your certains.

And in the end, a firm decision must be make.

Taglist: @lilhobgobbler ; @aprosiacperson

A/N: no smut in this one, sorry for that but this is the last introduction chapter, I promise. I need to do more research on /the topic/ you will find out reading but I promise you this is the last slow chapter. From next one on, we all will be on fire 🔥

Thanks to all the kind souls who are reading my story. As usual, I don't know Noah, this is fictional and I respectfully don't want to offende anyone.

Maybe for someone, reader and noah could look a bit weird in comparison with many other ff; I love realism so those dialogues sounds 'possibile' in my head. As long as the situations.

Enjoy!

《 I was fantasising on binding you.》

Day off are so weird, sometimes. Becca and Mandy, the other two merch girls, bonded pretty quick and you feel a bit left behind when you woke up in the room you share with them and they weren't anywhere to be found. You can understand why they decided to spend their day off without you, to be honest. You all are I'm New York and due to the Blue Ridge Festival being last minute canceled, the entire crew gained two days off in the Big Apple. You're relieved from some aspects because that festival is HUGE and you don't like the idea of so many fans asking for t-shirt and ski mask for hours and hours under the sun. At the same time, you regret a little how you declined Steve invitation to organise a cozy dinner in his room with him, Mandy, Becca and Chris.

The reason of this decline is all Noah's fault.

Entirely.

《 Why are you looking at me like that?》

《 I was just thinking...》

《 C'mon. Spill the tea. I believe we have enough intimacy at this rate》.

Some kind of weird silence filled the elevator making the air heavy. Good job, y/n. You were able to create even more tensions between the two of you. More than then, this sarcasm is not helping. There is not such a thing as intimacy between the two of you.

Being fucked due to an excess of stamina before a gig is not like having a long walk in the nature, hands in hands.

It's rough and primal. Exciting but somehow dry. Emotionally dry, of course, because you feel nothing but wetness rethinking about all your encounters.

Noah is not answering and neither looking at you, and you have almost reached his floor. You take a long breath before speaking again. 《 I know I'm crossing some boundaries, but it's weird. We had some best buddies moments and them because I kissed you once, you stop talking to me and started to act pretty directly. 》

It's so frustrating being an extrovert who is trying to explain is feelings to an introvert who is actually not replying at all.

《 I mean, I really enjoy the fun time you give me, but it's not like I've pictured us.》

Oh that was too much. Why did you say that???

《 and I didn't actually pictured us. It was more like a chill situationship in my head because you gave me some vibes but-》

《 God dammit I was just fantasizing on binding you. That's it, y/n.》

The elevators doors open but you prevented him to escape the situation. 《 alright this is even weirder》, is you reply while you push the bottom to close the door again. And then the one to go back to the main hall. Your are not a shy person, at least not now. Not with the guy who apparently loves to fuck the shit out of you in front of a mirror. He blushes, try to say something else but you are too confuse to let him explain 《binding me to what?》

The doors opens again in front of Matt. He looks at you surprised but before even say a word, Noah pushes the bottom to close the door. Like you have just done. And again to floor nine. 《 to nothing》 his is answer. He is in distress, like is really hard for him to provide you a decent explanation. 《 just... tide you up. Your body is so beautiful and I'd love to .... tide you up. But you are right, it's weird.》

You can feel a certain amount of disappointment in his voice and even if you don't really trust him that much or know him enough to get the exact meaning of this, you can't help yourself but touching his arm in reinsurance. His eyes meet yours and you just get a bit closer.

You're not an idiot, this guy is buff and could easily tak advantage on you, but you have seen something trustworth in him; he has such a gentle soul hidden behind an armor used to denied his very own feelings. Even if he is avoiding you, he is still gentle when you two meet around. Maybe, you overthinked for days, he is just as uncomfortable as you are with your rendezvous with zero talking in between.

《 I don't understand what you mean, that's why it's weird》 , you tell him. 《 I don't think you are weird. Well, maybe a bit, but mostly I think you're hot》 , you continue making him blush again. Noah chuckles a little laught while the elevation door get open for the second time on his floor. 《 Its a weird catch up phrase, Noah-idiot. Asking a girl to be tied up.》

《 You are not wrong》 he replies, amused by the way you're making him confortable with jokes, before putting an hand to stop the doors from closing again. 《 But... I can show you what I mean, if you want.》

《 Now?》

《 if you don't have any plans for dinner...》

《... Show me the way, tho 》.

You know that Steve and Chris really didn't care that you decided to not show up for dinner, but the girls are pissed. Anyway no one bought the excuse that you felt suddenly so tired to attend the gathering. That's why you woke up alone in the room. Looking back at your night conversation, you can't really feel sorry for missing it. But it also has a bitter taste from some point of views. You hate to be the one who has to take decisions.

But Noah is turning your world upside down.

You've never felt that way.

He makes you feel like someone else is wearing your skin. His eyes are trustful and when he feels enough secure of himself - weird how someone that pretty can he shy and with a low selfsteem- he turns into this primal, feral seducer. You can't get enough of him. His mouth on your body, the grip of his hands, firm but somehow armonic.

It looks like he have studied how to be a beast in bed. And after yesterday, you only got solid evidence of this suspicious.

You have never heard about Shibari before. Your have always pictured bondage as a strainge kink, connected with pain and humiliation and you're not the kind of person who likes to be humiliated at all. But Noah is pretty clear about what he actually wants.

《 Shibari is a matter of aesthetics》, he tells you why showing pictures of naked women tied up with beautiful knots and intricate ropes combinations. 《 Its not even connected directly with sex. The schemes of the ropes are related with specific body points; every knots has a deep simbolic meaning. My intention is not to control you or humiliate you, but just having some visual pleasure of your pretty body.》

You rise your eyes, trying to meeting his, but he looks a but insecure. Like is costing so much to him to expose himself. 《 If its not sex, what I get in return?》. You decide to ask first, trying to not sound greedy. On the contrary. It's quite interesting.

《 pleasure. I'll take care of you. My intentions are aesthetical but I'm still a guy.》 It's sounds so wrong seeing such a shy guy talking about this stuff and them imagining him doing such intricate knot on your body. You can't help but feel you're getting wet already and that a shame. Every inch of feminish is taken away from you in the moment you can spend some time with Noah.

《 This have something to do with the fact that you don't want to kiss me anymore?》

Another important question and Noah can't avoid but oblige you an answer. 《 No》

The dryness in this simple one word make you sigh in frustration. You look at one last photo before handing his phone back again to the boy seated next to you.《 Did you take all of this pictures?》

《 Yes.》

《Have you made sex with all these girls》

《 I usually don't make sex with a girl who likes this kind of things. I can go to a dive bar and meet someone for that. To me, this is work of art. It's helping me through a lot of stress the tour is giving me. You are an exception because you kissed me and I lost my balance.... but I believe I need to get it back》

The oddly sound of a silent hotel room followed his last sentence. 《... if I agree with all of this, with the ropes and knots, we stop to have fun before the concerts?》

Noah let himself fall on the mattres, lost in his thoughts. You can tell he doesn't no for sure. 《 Maybe. I can't tell you for sure. But the choice is up on you; I want force you anyway. 》

Since the moment you have left his room, you can't stop thinking about him. About how intrigued you feel in letting him doing whatsoever he wants with your body. More than that, everything you have will be just a dream in the moment the tour will be over.

You have in front of you one last month with Noah and the chance to experiment something new.

But do you really want to be part of his photo collection and be remembered just as another chick he tied up?

It's not so easy to pick up a decision.

Especially because you like him, a lot. And losing him will be painful anyway.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 44

The second half of a two-parter! And in a sensible order, which in this project, is not to be sneezed at.

So, Matt Smith, Amy, Rory and River, in America AGAIN (is this the third time of going to New York? The fourth?). Last we saw, Amy was shooting a terrified child through the head. Let's see how that resolves!

We open with one of those classic Moffat openings, where everything is slick and fast moving and tries to pull the wool over your eyes before a quick pull-back-and-reveal but regrettably has a few plot holes. Only minor, though, it's not bad. Amy, Rory and River are all on the run being hunted by Sterling-From-Leverage while they build a prison around the Doctor. He "shoots" all of them and then takes them to the prison, but it's a magic special prison that doesn't allow any particles of anything in or out (presumably including air) so they're safe from the penis-fingered aliens and off they go in an invisible TARDIS. Eh. It's fun.

Then there's about 15 minutes of classic horror as they try to track down the little girl (it's River) in an abandoned children's home to find out who she is (it's River) because she's Presumably Important (we literally know this it's River). They're all given a lil' recorder in their palms so when they see a penis-fingered alien they can record into it, and it will flash to let them know they have a message when they look away. They also draw tally marks on themselves so they know when they've seen one. These two things mean lots of creepy shots that are fucking great - I know I often shit all over this era of the show, but the jumpscares and the scary stuff are great.

The only problem really is that the characters are required to be a bit stupid and useless to maximise the horror. There's a GREAT scene where Amy is exploring an abandoned dormitory in the orphanage by torchlight (she looks out the window and we see her reflection, and then there's lightning and her face and hands are now covered in tally marks, fucking FANTASTIC), and the door closes and locks... somehow. Unexplained. Anyway, she suddenly realises her palm is flashing and the message is "I can see them! But I think they're asleep! Just get out!"

Useless. You see them WHERE Amy. WHERE are they. Turns out they're on the ceiling. That would have been useful to know. FFS.

Anyway Amy sees the eyepatch hatch lady again, and then gets kidnapped by penis-fingered aliens. Sterling shoots a penis-fingered alien and takes it back to the prison to film it, and we get a name for them - the Silents. Silents! An answer! We've heard of them. The rest spend a while looking at the space suit the little girl (River) was in. The Doctor claims the Silents steered the development of humans because "Why does humanity suddenly decide to go to the moon?" as if there isn't a long-attested record of humans wanting to go to the stars tracking back to the ancient world, but look - we can't expect the writer of a sci-fi show about history to waste his time knowing things about history.

Also, they've already been to the moon at this point. We've seen Victorians on Mars, with Capaldi and Bill. Lol, this show. How funny that it forgot that little detail that only came a few episodes ago in this watch order. Trololol.

Rory listens to Amy's recorder, which was removed from her palm but is inexplicably still broadcasting everything she says in spite of being nowhere near her. She says some deeply tedious things about wanting to see him BUT WHICH ONE IS SHE TALKING TO it is honestly the most boring thing I've seen on television in a while. "You have a stupid face," she says. Rory looks happy. "My life was so boring before you dropped out of the sky", she says. Rory looks sad.

And then! Interesting!

The Doctor sits next to him.

"Do you remember spending 2000 years as a Roman waiting for Amy?" he says.

"Sometimes but I try not to," Rory says, which is fair.

But interesting! We've had that mentioned before. Is Rory still plastic, then? Must be, he was plastic as a Roman. It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever if he was now human but remembered his plastic memories, after all. Still plastic! Gosh.

Anyway, Sterling gets the Silent he shot to say the sentence "You should kill us all on sight," which he duly videos and sends to the Doctor. The Doctor interrupts the moon landing to play it, which fair play, actually is quite a clever and pleasing way to get rid of the Silents - we won't remember it because it features a Silent, humans then kill them all but don't remember doing it... it's all meta, look. I could have killed one just today. On my way to work, like. Pushed it in the Tawe. Who knows? Fun.

They rescue Amy.

"I didn't know if you meant me or the Doctor," says Rory.

"Obviously you," says Amy. "Why would I mean him?"

"Because you said he "dropped out of the sky"," Rory says

"It's a figure of speech, you dribbling imbecile," mocks Amy.

It's not. There's no such expression. And if there were, I struggle to see how you would apply it to Rory, a man you have known for literally your entire life, apparently. "My life was so boring between the ages of birth and three until you came along" bitch how the fuck do you remember

Anyway it turns out she's NOT pregnant, but the Doctor scans her again and it's inconclusive, which... lol that is the only mystery in this episode, actually. We know all the rest! Amy will have baby Melody who will be the child in the space suit who will regenerate into Mels who will become River who will kill the Doctor. The ONLY part of this storyline we haven't yet seen resolved is why the pregnancy scan is inconclusive. This episode is Badly Served by this watch order.

It finishes with the child regenerating into Mels. This is just as well, because the Doctor decides out loud that he's not going to bother trying to rescue the terrified abused little girl he's been seeing because he wants to have an adventure instead, and so quite literally and without hyperbole abandons her to die on the streets.

Oh and Sterling turns out to be gay and dating a black guy.

Plot threads! Let's update the board!

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest. The Thijarian planet was destroyed by some sort of impact). Is this the Flux?

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. Nope: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again. NOPE, back to not working.)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregnancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?) She’s deffo pregnant and the baby becomes River, but why inconclusive?

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri (Not anymore, somehow)

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory? How did she forget a Dalek invasion?

Is Rory plastic or not? NEW INFO: Yeah, must be, he couldn't possibly remember being plastic otherwise

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years? NEW INFO: since Roman times, it seems

How does the Doctor survive River? He doesn’t, apparently

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

When did the Doctor send the Daleks into a void to save the universe?

What’s with the weird crack in the wall and is it affecting memories?

Why do Amy and Rory think the Doctor is dead? Is it because of River as an astronaut?

Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a tree racist?

Why is the beautiful geode woman stealing people into a Passenger form?

Who are the penis fingered aliens? RESOLVED: The Silents!

River says she’ll die one day when the Doctor doesn’t remember her, let’s hope she doesn’t mean it

[destinyc1020]

⚠️ **TRIGGER WARNING: Me Too ⚠️

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I feel like this topic isn't talked about enough. 😔 So glad Matt came out and talked about this.

I know more men go through this in Hollywood than we realize. I almost feel like men need their own "Me Too" Movement in Hollywood because it's almost like nobody takes them seriously when they come out and mention how they've been propositioned, or groped, etc. People just either laugh or make light of it, but it affects some men too!

Look at what happened to Brendan Fraser! 😔 Terry Crews... etc. I feel like many just keep silent about what they've witnessed or experienced, but they shouldn't feel like they have to remain silent. 🥺😥

This was so eye-opening my goodness.

Then we wonder why some actors suddenly "turn crazy", go off the rails, turn to drugs or alcohol, or even unfortunately kill themselves. 😭

We just don't know what ppl are going through bts. Smh. 😔

Hollywood can be such a vile place sometimes I swear.... 🤦🏾‍♀️ I knew this type of stuff goes on, but I had no idea it was to this extent. 😔

Link to the tea in the full podcast interview:

FF to min 2:12

Will they let Matt talk? 😂 Geez! He was spilling some TEA!

And to think, if some A-List directors are doing this type of stuff, can you imagine what B-list and C-list directors might be doing? 🥴 smh! 🤦🏾‍♀️

If some MEN are going through this in Hollywood, I can only imagine what the women are sometimes going through. 😔

[kmze]

Thoughts on 7x01 - 7x12 welp the best way I can describe it so far is weird, this is the weirdest this show has ever felt for me. The biggest issue is the heretics and how the show tried to make them the main characters without putting any effort into making us care about them. They tried to do what they did with the originals but the difference with that was we were slowly introduced to that fam, this was basically six new characters at once! And it doesn't help that it's very obvious by episode 5 Valerie is getting the screen time Caroline usually would have. Whether that's because Candice was preggo (like she doesn't do much but walk, sit or stand around) or Dries' sabatoge I don't know but I didn't like it! I do give the writers some credit for at least trying something new with the FF but I just felt like I was watching a completely different show for most of these episodes. The good news is once we move onto the huntress and the phoenix stone it gets better, again all my bitching below and accompanying meta about the bane of my existence!

7x01

In retrospect EL OH EL that right after Stefan talked to Caroline on the bench he walked by Valerie.

“She’s going to want to know how Ric died of alcohol poisoning” don’t threaten me with a good time Bonnie!

The whole bomb idea is incredibly dumb but the scene where Caroline and Stefan talk about it is great. I love that Caroline just picks up the bomb and Stefan is like "what are you doing!" like those memes of all the brain cells leave my body when I'm around my man LMFAO

This episode just feels off, I can’t really explain it, it’s kind of like 4x01 like the writing for everyone is just weird. Some stuff just sounds soooo dramatic and I just want to roll my eyes, especially the diary voiceovers.

“What would Sheriff Forbes do” let Damon kill everyone!

I do love the “you make me happy” scene and the kiss is great but it’s cut up so weirdly it feels rushed and choppy, fucking Dries.

I think my biggest problem with the heretics is that it was too many at once. They should have only had like 2-3.

See this is why I don’t fuck with Enzo!

7x02

Yo Stefan walked in mad! I love how NOT HERE for Damon he was in this whole episode lol he was so pissed off as he should be!

Damon and Lily crack me up!

What Bonnie sees when she touches the phoenix stone looks like a scene from Event Horizon which is the scariest movie ever. So I agree with Bonnie! Like absolutely NOT! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!

"I'm just saying when a guy's willing to let another guy die so his girl can live, there's usually something cooking in the kitchen" that was 100% shade at Stefan letting Elena die so Matt could live, you can't convince me otherwise!

Why didn’t Damon just snap Enzo’s neck?

Who ever shot the scene of Stefan walking in to save Caroline, I hope you step on a lego.

The skin to skin contact joke was so cheesy, dork. I do love that Stefan is always teasing Caroline when he flirts with her, he's been doing it even before he realized he had feelings for her.

Bringing people back from the dead with a stone is just a line I would not cross. I know it’s a supernatural show but like nah, that’s too ominous to mess with. No thank you.

I agree with Matt this is all Damon’s fault!

There’s just no way I can believe Matt is letting Stefan and Damon live at the Lockwood mansion. I know it’s because of limited set pieces but there’s just no way!

I really love the “I don’t want to hear the name Stefan Salvatore EVER again” scene, like she is so mad! Then she walks away all dramatically until the moment she stops and catches her breath and breathes out to calm herself (like he taught her) and the look on her face where she thinks 'he came back' and all the emotion that hits her with that realization. So much credit goes to Candice on this scene too, she plays it to perfection.

7x03

Prime example of Dries weaponizing the FF, they had to have Stefan say the car line to Lily because he burned his car in the future (which why?) so he wouldn't say "tell those brats to stop torturing Caroline" first so it wouldn't hold as much weight. Hoe.

"So you know what it's like to have a completely unforgettable place in someone’s mind" I can't believe how much Val played herself with that line! Because she learned that Caroline had a completely unforgettable place in Stefan's mind (7x18).

I can’t believe they killed Oscar he was the only interesting one!

Stefan thinks showing a girl his mothers grave is romantic HE IS SO WEIRD!

You’re in trouble now Damon! Fuck Ric too! And furthermore why does ever Bamon scene have to have Ric there too!

They DEFINITELY hyped up the SV flashbacks lol. Apologies to the anon who said this and I couldn’t remember how OD the whole thing was, you were right. But it’s also so boring so it’s really hard to care as much they (Dries) wanted the audience to feel this. They tried to do what they did with the Stebekah flashbacks in 3x03 and it fell incredibly flat IMO.

Stefan and Caroline inadvertently worked together to get Caroline free by being honest with Lily. All the razzle dazzle of these flashbacks but the true team is still Steroline.

The fireplace scene is still one of my favs. I love how they each got zapped because they keep forgetting the spell because of their love language is touch. Lots of honesty in it and I really love that Stefan says "you're here and you're safe and you're with me" because that's the opposite of what's going on in the FF and it works as a full circle kind of thing that he gets that back in the finale.

7x04

LIZZIE AND JOSIE!!!

I remember I was so confused why Damon seemed so mad at Ric in the FF and now I realize he was just being proactive of his OTP!

Baroline you are both so adorable!

Stefan and Caroline’s other love language is shenanigans!

“Torture” this man wants sexy Caroline time SO BAD

VERVAIN NEEDLE AGAIN! CRYING

I am very here Stefan manipulating Mary Louise and being ready to kill her so he could have sex with Caroline! Then Caroline appears so we know it was their plan all along. The whole sequence too parallels with their no-humanity first time which was so important because it showed that their first time still had their essence. Like Steroline's relationship revolves around them being vampires, I always felt Caroline helped Stefan accept his vampire side more and that’s why the duo off arc was so great for them (and no other ship got that). This episode was so good for them.

Paul and Candice were so great in the scene where they burst into Caroline’s bedroom to have sex. Stefan sounds so out of breath lol and he’s smiling and so desperate like he needs to touch Caroline everywhere now! Candice does such an adorable look when Stefan says “I’m thinking about you” and like melts into his forehead. I love it, just wish the lighting wasn’t so dark, overall this season's lighting is super dark like S1 again.

7x05

Why does Ric think Bonnie is here to be his assistant GET AWAY FROM HER!

The morning after scene and even Damon barging in is all completely adorable and hilarious! Stefan teasing Caroline about how well he knows her, the kiss is super sexy and sweet. Damon picking up on Caroline’s ‘tude about Valerie and making Stefan more and more uncomfortable. The part where Stefan mouths “SHUT UP” at Damon clenching his fist then smiling up at Caroline! A+ comedy!

The lyrics to the song playing are “can’t forget the sex we had” this show is too much sometimes lol.

HA! Julian and Stefan both committed murder sprees on CHRISTMAS!

“Will you please just shut up” CRYING Stefan is ready to kill him!

Told you that stone was evil! The "who's soul is it really" was a cool plot.

The Bonenzo scenes in this episode were surprisingly good! I wish they had kept the momentum and not done Lily/Enzo. Then they could have teased Bonora too! This is how they shot themselves in the foot with the FF though, this show never operated on a structure of showing you what happens and building up to that. The timeline is always chaos, sometimes it’s a day between episodes sometimes it’s a week, hell the 2nd season was 3 months in total!

Valerie pretty much orchestrated all these dramatics so she could reveal the truth to Stefan and ruin his date with Caroline. She heard him making plans with her at the gas station and looked right over in jealousy so you know it affected her. And Stefan falls for it because he always has a weakness for a crazy bitch with a sob story. But I think there’s more nervousness over his kindness than when he would sympathize with Katherine or Rebekah because of the FF (and the sabotage against SC scenes). We know Caroline hates him but we don’t know why and we know he saved that journal.

Damon is diabolical! Do love this Bamon scene though and finally they get a scene without Ric!

7x06

The manipulation kiss scene reminds me of the scene in 6x19. The dopey lovesick face Stefan makes as Caroline puts her arms around him is so damn cute! Even though their scenes are too few and have been played down on purpose, it feels like them. I've liked every scene since the fireplace scene in the 3rd episode.

Stefan’s murder face!

Credit to Damon for figuring out his brother was an unhinged maniac with murder on his brain so fast.

“Wow that was a wonderful story Hemingway” CTFU

Matt working with unhinged Stefan! Plot twist!

Caroline so appalled at Valerie’s complete lack of tact lol.

Bonnie’s styling is at its best this season though so at least there’s that.

Beau’s character is… a choice… I S2G there’s never been more proof there’s no black people in the writers room than having a black character who can’t speak appear as a “servant” to a bunch of old white witchpires. The optics are HORRIBLE!

I do kind of dig Julian and Lily and that kiss was hot!

Really nice Defan scene where they talk about being Dads and Damon agrees to help Stefan commit murder.

Caroline’s scared BB face!

7x07

Still can’t believe after all that we never got to hear the broadcast!

I do not remember this plot with the people being compelled to sit around Mystic Falls on an IV.

Show why are we acting like vampires being “older” makes a god damn difference on this show now. As if 1000 year old Klaus wasn’t constantly being outsmarted by literal supernatural teenagers.

Stefan always has to do psychological torture with a theme, last season it was the B&B now it’s murder thanksgiving! I love how Damon just grabbed a plate ready to sit back and watch Stefan play his little mind games.

Matt’s face at pregnant vampire CRYING

Damon wasn’t really the best person to send to protect Lily Stefan LMFAO

Well Valerie you don’t make it easy to trust you!

Man this was some other Dries bullshit trying to fracture Matt and Bonnie’s friendship and for what!

This Defan scene is one of my favorites and Ian does such a fantastic job, I love how he says all three of them will never change. When he says “I don’t want to know the whole story!” CHILLS

I know everyone hates the baby plot but I really love that Caroline got to be a Mom and as someone who watched Legacies I love Lizzie and Josie and that the school and the girls were her endgame. So I’m just accepting the nonsense part of it because I do love what it gave to Caroline.

7x08

I find the huntress/stone plot line way more interesting than anything with the heretics. I also feel Defan/Lily wasn’t explored enough because so much time was wasted on them.

Oh here's an example of “Things Dries took from me” there was supposed to be a convo between Stefan and Caroline talking about the SV baby and it was cut because she’s the worst, and this goddamn scene was the perfect spot to put it in!

IDK why but this show just loved doing proposals in the final seasons lol. There’s been four so far and if my calculations are right there’s seven all together, Stefan had four alone!

Forever love how Julie retconned the greenhouse to be on the Salvatore plot instead of this random house in this random episode lol. This was a nice scene where Valerie tells everyone the truth, I honestly don’t hate Valerie at all she’s shady and crazy but she isn't annoying.

The Stefan and Lily scene warms my heart, it’s just so good! Stefan finally getting that one last day with his Mom and being able to ask her for advice about the girl he loves. And I always felt Lily’s words stayed with him about Caroline sacrificing everything for her girls, I thought it was a big part of why he sacrificed his relationship with her to keep the girls safe. Also LOL at Stefan being like “Damon give me the you’re dead to me look on a weekly basis” you get used to it.

The I love you phone call is great, I like that it was a subversion of what happened in 6x15, Stefan made sure to tell her in time.

My god it took Lily a long time to die due to plot contrivance!

7x09

Makes zero sense that Stefan wouldn’t take Valerie with him since she’s super powerful and all. So it was definitely because he didn’t want her there if he was going to get the chance to see Caroline again.

FUCK THIS SNOW SCENE! I will never not be bitter that Caroline didn’t go to Lily’s funeral for this shit. God they even parallel Stefan and Caroline with how they say goodbye to their mother with “I’ll make this all right” “I’m going to be alright” and how their choices after were anything but that FOREVER BITTER!

At least Damon makes me laugh.

God Mary Louise is the most insufferable of the heretics. We should have just had Valerie and Nora last past the 2nd episode.

BONORA SUCH SEXY WASTED POTENTIAL!

The theme of this episode is crazy vampire people who won't just sit and talk about their problems or feelings!

Caroline visiting her Mom's grave is so sad but I love that they're showing how conflicted Caroline is about the babies and what she feels for them. In her head she thinks it should be easy to give them up because their not hers but there's a part of her who feels something for them. I actually love the way Klaus phrased it as "it's okay to love something you can't explain" (it's a good line I cannot lie).

They needed to make it more obvious but Valerie was waiting for Stefan's call. Because in the next scene you see Caroline arrives at the boarding house because Stefan called Caroline instead after Damon was stabbed because he finally broke out of his revenge-fueled haze. He admits he should have let it go and Caroline assures him she knows what it's like to not be able to move on from your Mom's death. Really love the moment where Caroline touches Stefan's should and he has such a reaction to her touch, like he's been craving it to soothe him. That is at least back to the essence of who Steroline is, which was very much missing for most of these episodes, thank god it gets better after this. Eat shit Dries!

Honestly Stefan kinda needed to take a nap, in hell!

7x10

"They tell us to only send good news, but I cannot. The days grow darker in Mystic Falls, and my heart darker still." ADSFJSHBFEWGDG KILLS ME EVERYTIME! THE DRAMA!

See now THIS feels like the show I had been watching for 6 seasons, besides 7x04 this is the only episode that felt like the usual Mystic Falls shenanigans of yore. Neil Reynolds is the hero we needed this season.

The way Bonnie stood up ready to fight Stefan CTFU I told you she don't really fuck with him! Mama bear had to step in!

The groundhog day sequence is great, I am a sucker for that plot device.

The Defan scene with PS!Stefan is really great too, this is honestly a very good season for the brothers and their relationship and really dives into how off balance it is.

7x11

Caro with the vervain needle this time!

The whole derelict Mystic Falls taken over by Julian’s goons was not my favorite.

Two great parallels with 2x02 in this episode! One where Hallucination Damon almost stabs Caroline on the Steroline date is filmed like when he tried to stake her 2x02 (plus it’s literally brought up). Then the scene where Caroline takes Stefan into her room to calm him down mirrors when Stefan brought Caroline into the bathroom to calm her down in 2x02. Caroline even repeats some of his words like “you have to try” “it’s the only way” etc.

I cannot believe Damon killed Tyler. He deserved so much better.

Honestly I kinda dig watching Stefan and Damon go a little crazy pants this episode.

God this scene is so frustrating. Because I’m watching it and I’m like YES STEFAN YOU GET IT when he says he’ll never be happy until Damon is out of his life. And he makes so many god damn strides in doing that from the end of this season into next season and the finale just crushed all of that. Notice as well that Hallucination Damon keeps trying to kill Caroline because that’s Stefan’s happiness. This episode is a bright light in a sea of dark.

Ending FF with “you’re the easiest way to get to Stefan” while the whole episode the Phoenix stone was using Caroline being in danger to get him to learn the lesson. Good tie-in.

7x12

Bless this cute scene with Caroline eating fries and Stefan giving her heart eyes I haven’t seen the heart eyes since episode 4! It’s also very cute when he takes her hand and says she scared him for a minute.

Damon’s such a maniac lol.

You know what the Stefan Valerie coffee scene didn’t bother me I thought it did in the past. The Steroline coffee scenes were always about Stefan bringing a coffee to Caroline so doesn't feel the same.

Omg Julian never stops talking! Thank god Stefan kills him in this episode but like 3 episodes too late my lord.

The huntress stuff is truly interesting and I am enjoying Bonenzo way more than I did the first time I watched. I really like how front and center Bonnie is with that storyline (foreshadowing her becoming the huntress) and she’s getting dual attention from Nora and Enzo.

Oh wait the huntress was activated by Enzo I take it back he still sucks.

Again good FF tie in with Stefan not getting to Caroline in time both in the present and future.

Lines that made me laugh:

Damon: At which point, we kill said person, storm the castle and save your damsel (Stefan's right he was having so much fun at Stefan's expense it's so much better when they aren't in love with the same girl)

Damon: Bastard links his life to my mom's and then engages in a duel. What is this, Hamlet community theatre? (I love on the nose jokes!)

[aci32]

MACHINE HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey folks, sorry for running two days late but better late than never, here is my 1st review of 2024, Machine Head!!!!!!!! It was my first gig in 2 months as the last one I saw was Cattle Decapitation and Immolation last December, I was going to see Exmortus but I decided against it due to pre holiday stress getting to me. This was the first time in 4 years I had seen MH as I last saw them when they did their evening with tour, and it was the first of two shows I saw that year a month before covid took a stranglehold on the world, second show was Vader two weeks later. Plus when I saw them 4 years ago it was when they played Burn My Eyes in it's entirety in the 2nd half of their set after they played the first half of their songs from all their catalog, which to me is a show that won't get topped.

Let's begin the festivities!

First band up was Gates to Hell. I had looked them up on metal archives and they looked like a band I wouldn't be into, sure enough my point was proven as I found them boring like I do with a majority of metalcore and deathcore bands and it was all the more reason to save my headbanging energy. I then said to my pal Alex "Stogie" Stojanovic in a joking manner "I at least didn't get splashed with water in my face twice".

Next band up was Orbit Culture!!! Compared to Gates to Hell, these guys were better as their songs were more groovy since they are a mix of Melo Death and Groove Metal and plus they had great stage presence. When I heard them live I was hearing some Dark Tranquillity vibes off of them. At one point during their set frontman Niklas Karlsson had said "Of the shows we've played in Canada, I think this is the biggest? But it's also the weakest" which elicited boos from the crowd but he did give them a pep talk to start moshing and crowdsurfing more, which they did and he would then compliment Toronto's energy and efforts.

After Orbit Culture it was time for Fear Factory!! This was my 3rd time seeing Fear Factory as it had been almost 11 years since I last saw them which was also the last time I would see them with Burton C. Bell as he had acrimoniously left Fear Factory as the previously squashed beef between him and Dino Cazares had ignited almost 4 years ago and it came as a shock to all of us, especially when it was at the height of covid at that time. So they got a new singer from Rome, Italy in the name of Milo Silvestro and his growls and cleans almost sounded identical to Burton's vocal style, which was scary in a sense but I was otherwise pleasantly surprised with that performance. I'll also point out I've now seen Fear Factory three times with three different drummers and three different bassists respectively: 2010 was Byron Stroud and Gene Hoglan from Strapping Young Lad so it was ½ FF and ½ SYL. 2013 was Matt Devries who is also rhythm guitarist for Chimaira and Mike Heller formerly of Malignancy and who now plays for Raven, so ½ FF and ¼ Chimaira and ¼ Malignancy. This year was Tony Campos from Static X and Pete Webber from Havok, so ½ FF and ¼ Static X and ¼ Havok. Also when Dino Cazares had finished introducing the band members he said "I think I speak for all the fat dudes here how many fat guys we got *many raised their horns and yelled* we got some XXL shirts at the merch booth or as I call them Dino size" which had Stogie and I cracking up. Here's FF's setlist:

1. Shock

2. Edgecrusher

3. Powershifter

4. Disruptor

5. Fuel Injected Suicide Machine

6. Linchpin

7. Slave Labor

8. Demanufacture

9. Replica

After FF it was time for MACHINE HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 7th time seeing Machine Head and first time in almost 12 years I see them play at a large nightclub as last time that happened was when I saw MH at Rebel as direct support for Dethklok, in which looking back on it MH stole the show. This was also the first time in 12 years I had seen MH on tour with opening acts as I last saw that on January 28th, 2012 at Rebel then known as Sound Academy with Darkest Hour and Suicide Silence on the Unto the Locust tour. Each time I've seen them live they just get better with each performance. Before Aesthetics of Hate and then dedicating it to Dimebag Darrell, Robb Flynn had said the following "Holy Shit Toronto! Goddamn! We got some rowdy motherfuckers for a monday night here in Canada, lemme hear you make some noise Toronto *crowd roars* nah nah nah let me hear you make some NOIIIISSSEEE *crowd roars louder* fuck. I tell you what, it is awesome to be back now, so awesome to be back. We got here, actually we got here last night, yesterday afternoon, I went walkin around, it totally brought back all these crazy memories of the first time Machine Head played in Toronto. So the first tour we did was opening for Napalm Death and Obituary and we played over at the Opera House so I walked by the Opera House and then we came back with Slayer a little while later and we did a little show called umm.. I think it was Much Music or something like that? They had us come on and play Davidian and I walked by that building and I was like 'oh shit' and all these killer memories came back and I just wanna say man it feels good to be back in your fuckin city man thank you". Also at the end of Aesthetics of Hate, there was a silhouette of Dimebag on the screen, which was a touching gesture. As MH were performing Unto the Locust Robb had made commented on the weed being smoked and he admired the smell of it as it made him say "woooooo". Before their last song Halo and opening band acknowledgements, Robb Flynn did another speech "Like I said earlier, we got some rowdy motherfuckers on a monday night in Toronto fuck! How's everybody in the balcony doing man, you guys doing alright back there? Fuckin eh, ragers ragers over here man. And how's all my motherfuckers in the circle pit doing, you guys doing alright? Where's the captain? I love all the masks, everyone's wearing the fuckin ram skull masks I love it, see people go *makes horn crashing sound with his fists punching together* where's the captain at? I need your captain's hat man, I need that no no no, bring it up here, I need that captain's hat, that's some good shit *Adam Cooper brings his hat to Robb Flynn* Slayer captain's hat, thanks Toronto". I'll also point out that Wacław "Vogg" Kieltyka wasn't on this tour due to his commitments with Decapitated so instead Reece "Babyface" Scruggs from Havok was in the band on lead guitar duties, so this tour was definitely linked with Havok members. Here's MH's setlist:

1. Imperium

2. Ten Ton Hammer

3. CHØKE ØN THE ASHES ØF YØUR HATE

4. Aesthetics of Hate

5. Old

6. Locust

7. The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears (Robb Flynn renamed the last part Beers)

8. NØ GØDS, NØ MASTERS

9. SLAUGHTER THE MARTYR

10. Bulldozer

11. From this Day

12. Davidian

13. Halo

Overall, an awesome metal show and a great way to kick off the 2024 concert season for me.

HEAVY METAL FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [2 out of 2]

Refer to part 1 before reading please

The cast has seen improvements all around Brianna White’s Aerith was already an all time performance for the series and it being joined not only by Suzie Yeung’s Yuffie but also by John Eric Bentley’s Barrett was a great surprise and a huge glow up from Remake. It might be too early to tell but between the interview where they told her to tone down her acting because it was too good (her vomiting noises specifically) and the sheer strength of the cast this time around I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the performance of the year at The Game Awards later this year. As for Barrett the main factor is that Rebirth gave Bentley more to work with and he sure took advantage of it delivering a performance worthy of the nuance Barrett deserves. This is not to say the other performances where bad as Cody Christian, Britt Barton, Max Mittelman and Paul Tinto all did great jobs as Cloud, Tifa, Red XIII and Cait Sith respectively or the side characters like Caleb Pierce, Kayli Mills and Piper Reese all did fantastic jobs as Zack, Cissnei and Elena but we would be here for like 8 more paragraphs if I listed every performance[also wanted to drop here Matt Mercer and J Michael Tatum as Vincent and Cid to finish up the main cast].

Gameplay wise it plays like a faster version of what Remake was doing which is just an ATB version of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII’s combat which is to say it plays really good, the game now includes way more commands and allows you to stack even more wacky materia to make your characters as customizable as you can without dropping what made them unique and letting you work with whatever party you vibe with the most (Aerith and Yuffie is the best party and I will die on this hill), the second most important gamemode is the exploration section of the game which unlike 7 Remake or 16 is very open while still filling condensed unlike 15’s huge vastness this one is closer in approach to the always reliable Witcher 3 open world zones but that doesn’t mean it drops the basics of the huge open world trend, like many of its kind Rebirth has the infamous Ubisoft towers, (which hot take but I enjoy in a checklist sort of way) some random busywork and the third gameplay pillar minigames which there are a lot, probably too many to talk about here without making this longer than it needs to (which it already kinda is) but one I do wanna talk about is Queen’s Blood as its questline was a great little distraction with bizarre analogue horror elements that I didn’t expect from the obligatory FF card game at all while also being a somewhat fun game with some interesting strategic depth.

From here on out I’m gonna talk about the ending so skip from here to the conclusion if you want to keep reading spoiler free but otherwise. [First off the second visit to the Golden Saucer is great fun, this time the “date” goes fantastic as you visit Loveless, a beautiful rhythm game and the story of a knight fighting darkness to save his beloved accompanied by some of the best music the game has to offer and topped with a musical performance by Aerith with her singing voice being provided by Loren Allred who performs a gorgeous ballad to close out a contender for moment of the year, and afterwards if you upped your relationship to your date enough you get one of the “intimate endings” which are little character moments between Cloud and whoever he is with that I hope will be revisited in the third game as they are just wonderful. Afterwards we get a slightly better version of the Cait Sith liar reveal during the Dio vs Don Corneo tournament and soon we are, sailing through the Meridian Ocean chasing the turks with the help of Vincent to arrive at the fortress of the ancients, where another moment of the year takes place in the trial, a small section where we essentially make everyone face their worst moments again so that they may be prepared for what comes ahead (special shoutout to Yuffie’s Intermission revisit, it felt crushing in all the right ways),in general things were shaping up great and we were wrapping the most ravishing bow to finish up the gift that was the middle of the VII series, but then suddenly a dog arrived and bit everything, that dog is called the temple of the ancients. That final push started strong with the isolation of Cloud trying to save Aerith from the grim fate she is predestined in the original game and surprisingly succeeding in saving Aerith from fake Sephiroth only for what I can only understand as a convergence of timelines to start happening and switching our Aerith into a different timeline while leaving us with a dead one from another but I will get into that in a second, then everyone is able to arrive and they see the dead Aerith which prompts the start of the bossfight, an interesting detail is that everyone but Cloud starts with their Limit as they are fighting to avenge their dead friend while Cloud still needs to build it up since he is fighting to restore her and prevent Sephiroth from fusing the timeline, in a bizarre way Zack is also there for a bit of the fight until he gets separated into another world again while still being attacked by Sephiroth, what is curious is that for brief moments (synergy attacks in this case) Cloud can join Zack as a sort of projection without entering this dimension fully as well as fighting Sephiroth now in a white void instead of the usual dark one that represents his subconscious even being joined by either the summation of Aerith across all timelines or just our Aerith now aware of her role in all of this to finish the story of Rebirth. At the end we see that everyone Aerith was killed by Sephiroth except for Cloud who is still communicating with her from the other dimension (if he was losing his mind we would have the static and not the rainbow) while everyone else mourns her loss. This leads to the ending cutscene where Cloud and Aerith go their separate ways to finish the story and frankly I kind of hate it, Remake already had a decently open ending that needed some input from the Ultimania (a book about the game that Square Enix releases like a month after the game) to fully get and now it feels like they just doubled down and made the Ultimania a required part of understanding what is going on since everything is just very speculative and borderline impossible to confirm as a thing that actually happened. Maybe it will fix it and an explanation will be available online for people that finished the game to look up but it's still an incredibly scummy way to sell us the Ultimania and a blight in what was otherwise an outstanding game.]

Bringing everything to an end, I really loved this game, despite my issues with some parts of it, it's good to see that like with Remake, VII can carry the franchise while the main series struggles to turn out greatness again. The sheer love that was put into it can be felt all around and the team deserves all the praise they are getting, iIt was a great experience and I can't wait for the final one in a few more years.

[zoyalannister]

So, since many Gabrily are passing by this blog, I decided to post in preview the unedited Prologue of the ff.

1. The story already has a title, you will just see it when I will post it on Ao3.

2. Bridgestock became Inquisitor a few days before Matt and James's parabatai cerimony, so for the sake of this fanfic I created my OC which is only useful to bring the story forth.

3. You will understand in a moment why I say you will regret the random updates ahah

4. This is the unedited version, the one I will post on Ao3 will be better. And in this prologue there's no smut.

Gabrily prologue

London, 1895

"Let. Me. Go!"

Cecily's words were unheard by the other Shadowhunters who were dragging her through the Silent City.

"You have no idea who you are against," she went on. The rage that she tried to repress for so long was now running free. "My brother, William Herondale, is the head of the London Institute. My husband and my brother-in-law are respected members of the Clave and I myself have helped to save your lives from Mortmain's devices!"

She may as well talk to the dead bones of the walls. The Shadowhunters didn’t reply to her, but they just led her to a cell. Her heart was racing with wrath and fear, and they closed her inside. Cecily gave herself a moment to scream all her feelings.

"This is a mistake!" she yelled against the barred door. "Let me go!"

"We are going to see if it was a mistake."

A voice came from the other side of the door, and a moment later a man showed up. Despite the fact that she didn't meet him often, Cecily recognized Mr. Morgenstern, the Inquisitor.

He was holding the Mortal Sword. That wasn’t a good sign, at all.

But she was too furious to see it rationally.

"I want to see my husband and my children now," she hissed, as the Inquisitor came into her cell.

The man, on his credit, didn’t look impressed.

“I do not think you are going to meet your family anytime soon. You are accused of theft, trespass, opposition to arrest, murder–”

“I did not kill anyone!” Cecily snapped.

She didn’t care if she was disrespecting the second most important charge of the Shadowhunter society. She was innocent, and hearing all those charges–

Murder.

That charge hurt the most. She didn’t kill anyone indeed, but for days she’d been trying to silence the voice in her head that blamed herself for what had happened, with no result.

The Inquisitor seemed to read her face perfectly.

"I will ask you some questions, and, if your answers can prove your innocence, you are free to go."

Cecily took a deep breath. And then another. And another.

It seemed almost impossible to keep air in her lungs.

Calm down, she told herself. She needed to give a priority order to her thoughts to find a solution.

"I need to see the Consul–"

"Charlotte Fairchild is not to lead the interrogation, since she is a dear friend of yours," he interrupted her.

Cecily had no choice. She had no time to lose if she wanted to meet Gabriel again, and then see Anna and Christopher.

That thought was a pang of pain in her heart. She hadn’t seen her children for almost four weeks now. She missed them terribly.

The Inquisitor gestured her to sit on the chair at the far side of the room, and she reclutantly held out her hands, where he placed the Mortal Sword.

It felt like many little hooks grabbed her hands' skin and started pulling. Cecily bit her lip so as not to let any sound escape her.

"What is your name?"

The Inquisitor's voice brought her back to reality.

"Cecily Lightwood, but Herondale was my maiden name."

The man nodded.

"How old are you?"

"Thirty-two, my birthday was last April."

The Inquisitor nodded again, then his gaze got sharper. These were the preliminary questions to be sure that the sword was working properly, but Cecily knew what he was going to ask.

"What were you doing in Cornwall last month?"

The Mortal Sword dragged the words out of her mouth.

"I was looking for Heavenly Fire weapons."

"Heavenly Fire–" the Inquisitor interrupted himself, then he added with irritation, "For the love of Raziel, that is no more than a children's tale!"

"Are you seriously accusing me of lying while I am holding the Mortal Sword?" Cecily asked with sarcasm.

The Inquisitor's cheek turned a light red, but he had the decency not to confirm his allegation.

"I mean–why?"

Cecily sighed. She was just wasting time.

"It is a long story, and I need to see my husband now."

Morgenstern didn’t flinch.

"Tell me the story, and if it convinces me that you are innocent, I will let you go to see your family."

Cecily snorted. It was going to take too long, but the more time she hesitated and postponed, the more she was delaying her meeting with Gabriel.

"Fine," she spat. "Fine."

She straightened on the chair.

"I will tell you the story, but as soon as I finish speaking, you will take me to Gabriel immediately."

“I promise, if I will declare you innocent. If not, you are staying in this cell indefinitely.”

She gave him a cold look, which made the man flinch.

And so Cecily began her tale.

[kiss-my-freckle]

People criticize Damon for lashing out over Katherine but Caroline isn't criticized for doing the same over her perceived rejection from Stefan in 6x15, turning her humanity off knowing she'd at least feed on people, let alone kill people. She snapped Elena's neck before she turned it off and never apologized. She has better control over her desire for blood than Elena does just as Damon does over Stefan, so the harm she inflicted was primarily driven by other feelings. She wanted Stefan to say he liked her before he was ready to tell her and was annoyed in 6x16 "See that wasn't so hard, was it?" Damon misread Elena as having feelings that she refused to act on since she didn't want to cheat on Stefan and tried to get her to open. It had only been months since she had dated Stefan and he had never heard her say she loved Stefan so had she verbalized that earlier he would've had his answer. Similar as Caroline wanting Stefan to confess. Also the way she blackmailed Stefan by trying to have his family member murdered and put his addiction at risk to join her isn't criticized as often. When Elena's humanity was off she didn't feed on and kill as many people and she was calmer with Damon than Caroline was with Stefan. People criticize the way Damon treated Elena and Jeremy in 2x1 but don't nearly as much over Stefan and Sarah. Plus the way Caroline killed people and extended their pain was gruesome as Elena wasn't as bad.

Just think, Stefan didn't even reject her, he only told her it wasn't the right time because Liz died. Like, wow... girl was literally thinking about herself and the man she wanted while burying her mother. Caroline flipped her switch because of Damon's advice.

"The worst day? That's next week when there's nothing but quiet."

She didn't want to face the quiet, so she made it loud.

"And there will be people day in and day out like they're afraid to leave you alone."

And she made sure everyone was afraid to leave her alone.

People should always consider the personal experiences of others. Elena warned Caroline about flipping her switch. Caroline was like... but when you came out of it, the worst part of the pain was gone. I'm like, you idiot. Elena's pain was gone because Bonnie switched places with Jeremy soon after. Had she not, Elena would've been wrecked. So you've got Elena burning her house down only for Damon to rebuild it. You can't rebuild a letter holding the last words from your dead mother ffs. Talk about mistake.

Caroline killed more people than Elena when she flipped her switch, but Damon isn't Stefan. Elena killed one person while her humanity was off. She killed less people in the entire series than Caroline did while her humanity was off. Stefan basically turned her into a ripper when he pushed her to let go... that's why I often talk about Stefan training Elena to feed. Damon knew it was better he train her than Stefan, and he flat-out told Bonnie before shoving her on his way to the car. He shoves her because he tells it like it is.

He's not the one that made her cry, Bonnie is. But Bonnie spoke without knowing that Elena nearly killed Matt, that Damon had to stop her from killing him. They starved Elena to show what it's like to be Stefan on the animal diet. That's what his diet is... he's starving himself so bad that he can't even compel people right. So when he finally gets a taste of human blood, he rips them apart.

In 4x3, Elena is ashamed and Damon tells her not to be. In 4x4, Elena is shamed and Damon sets the record straight. In 4x5, Elena isn't on a shame spiral because Bonnie isn't there. A truth that both Damon and Stefan admit. Vampires enjoy the hunt and the feed. In 4x4, Elena was enjoying the hunt and the feed. When Damon said she is a different person, he meant she's a vampire. A predator. But she doesn't have to be a ripper.

[kudosmyhero]

Daredevil (vol. 1) #72: Lo! The Lord of the Leopards!

Read Date: November 24, 2022 Cover Date: January 1971 ● Writer: Gerry Conway ● Penciler: Gene Colan ● Inker: Syd Shores ● Colorist: {uncredited} ● Letterer: Artie Simek ● Editor: Stan Lee ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● Tagak's mask is legit creepy ● Silver Age comics are so melodramatic. I love it. The characters wax poetic… aloud… when no one is listening ● for example, here's Matt somersaulting off a roof, having a full-on conversation with himself ● aaand here he is somersaulting to one of the biggest leaps of logic: "moves like a cat? well it's gotta be Tagak!" ● big kitty ● I read "Man without Fear" #3 today, and Matt had blood streaming down his right arm in that story, too. I believe this is the first time we've seen fairly active bleeding from DD in these Silver Age comics. ● now his left hand is probably bleeding, too… ● oh ffs, DD is annoyed at a guy for assuming Tagak is the culprit, yet DD made the exact same assumption just a couple of pages ago ● ok, he's calling himself out on his assumption ● his radar sense is acting a lot like Spidey-sense; and there've been times Peter's Spidey-sense acts like Matt's radar sense--including letting him get around without being able to see in some situations. here, Matt's radar sense is acting more like uncanny intuition ● ok, something is actively drawing his radar sense ● oo, this green panel on pg 15 is cool ● Tagak is blind, too, eh? ● wait… is Tagak wearing a mask? ● Quothar had entered the chat ● no, kitty!

Synopsis: After a series of strange sightings of a Leopard skin-dressed man and a leopard running loose in New York City, Daredevil investigates and ends up befriending the being, known as Tagak, who came to our dimension through a magical mirror and is in pursuit of a criminal from his home world. DD helps Tagak capture the thief and return him to Tagak's reality to face punishment for his crimes, although Tagak's leopard (who facilitated his ability to see) was killed during the episode by police bullets.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil_Vol_1_72)

Fan Art: Daredevil by jdtmart

Accompanying Podcast: ● Josh and Jamie Do Daredevil - episode 09

[splishsplashyouropinionistrash]

We’re back, bitches!

You will never escape me.

It’s time, once again, for AFTG Hot Takes, the show where I just say whatever the fuck pops into my head.

Today’s topic: Kevin Day and his romantic interests.

Now, okay, I’ve discussed this a bit in previous posts. I’m not going to go too far in depth for the two ships I’ve talked about already.

Please, for the love of god, these are just my opinions. I’m literally just a teenager on the internet. It’s not that deep, you don’t need to write a ten paragraph essay on why grooming is okay (although tbf that made my night. Still waiting on a reply, bb)

With that out of the way, let’s get into it.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of most Kevin ships. I only like two of them, so we’ll save those for last.

1. First up we’ve got Kevandriel, Kevneil, and Kevandrew (pls dont @ me, i’m not 100% on those names)

I hate it. Despise it. Just so bad. Ew.

I made a whole post on why I have Kevandriel, read it if you want. 

Kevandrew (Kevin/Andrew) just doesn’t make any sense. Their personalities don’t mesh at all. Kevin doesn’t take no for an answer, which is something that is so important for Andrew.

Kevneil (Kevin/Neil) is one I just don’t like because, as we all know, I am a petty bitch. I don’t have a reason for disliking it, really. It just... idk, gives me the ick.

2. Moving on, Kevin and Thea.

I made a post regarding this one too, check it out (or don’t).

I don’t feel like rehashing all of that tho, honestly. (but pls feel free to read the reblogs, some were v good and others just made me cackle. Still looking at you, grooming guy)

3. Now, onto the ones I haven’t discussed. We’ll go with Kevjean first.

So, I mean... it’s not impossible that this actually happened in cannon, however. Just judging by the reactions these two had to each other once Jean was out of the Nest, them sustaining a healthy relationship would be nearly impossible.

Also, I am a diehard Jerjean fan (thanks gus_47, I blame you and the masterpiece that is Hoax for this) so I just... can’t bring myself to picture Jean with anyone else.

4. Kevin and Jeremy!

Listen, I don’t hate this one. I simply adore those fun lil fics where Kev is tripping over himself cause he’s in love with Jeremy (looking at you, quicksand). They’re so fun! But, Jerjean owns my soul (again, thank you Hoax) so it’s gonna have to be a no from me.

5. Kevin and Matt

I’ll be real with you, I didn’t know this existed until yesterday, and I am shocked.

I haven’t stopped to think about it much, and I probably won’t, because Dan. I just- that is her husband, excuse you.

6. Kevallison (Kevin/Allison)

I don’t mind this one, honestly. I sorta get it, tbf. 

HOWEVER.

Diehard Renison fan. Enough said.

And now, at last, we come to the two Kevin ships that I can (and do!!) suport whole-heartedly.

7. Kevaaron !! (Kevin/Aaron)

Listen, I just love their personalities. I love the idea of these two assholes healing together. Simply adore.

Before you say it (you know who you are, and yes I’m still salty ab this) I. Don’t. Ship. It. Because. I. Want. Andrew. And. Kevin. Together. ffs, people. What kind of person do you think I am? 

8. Kevin and... (drumroll please)

Himself!

I am 100% in support of aroace Kevin living his best life with his friends and family.  

I mean, it’s lovely. Spectacular. 10/10, adore it.

Okay okay I’m done (for now)

Let me know what other hot takes you’d like to hear!

And as always, if you disagree with anything I’ve said, fight me! I mean that, i love a bit of lighthearted discourse. (unless your opinions are truly heinous, in which case I will verbally punch you in the trachea.)

Blah blah hitman, blah blah death threats

[laufire]

this rewatch really reminds me how much I hated the other characters on Caroline's behalf in the early days smh. Bonnie’s (snapping at her) “why would you [let him bite you]” + complete innaction or comfort when you KNOW how she’d react if Elena was the one hurt (she was too busy trying to light up candles while Caroline tried to talk to her ffs). Elena "Caroline has many annoying qualities...” while a 20+ guy talks about how he doesn’t want to fuck her anymore; her “I’m not gonna be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy” in clear veiled reference of her; her “unbelievable. it’s like nothing happen” the episode after she finds out Damon was hurting her and she's trying to go on with her life. Matt’s... everything. let’s not even get into Stefan and fucking Damon... I really couldn’t be happier that she ends up better than all of them <3

[izbelross]

The World will change wether you want it or not

3/3- I do plan on doing a continuation for this though!

✨Hello!!! Isa here😘 I got the terrible "Not interested on doing this or that anymore" and now I'm struggling with the lack of attention I put to Tumblr. As a consequence of this, I can't write ff for Now. Maybe in a few months it will pass. My crazy brain and blah blah blah. Anyways... following my mood this chapter is gonna get you through a roller coaster.

Warnings: Angst, sadness, character death, mentions to death and killing (very briefly)

I want to say thank you @saddykar for the final idea for this fic. You perra are very mad but hell that's why we're besties. 🫶🏻🥰😘

And thanks again to @raelwrites Love you humnsee you later I guess... 🫶🏻🥰

Enjoy!!!!

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

You can remember the first time you used your power– well, more like when you accidentally used your power.

You were just a child that had discovered a beautiful bee perched on top of the rose bushes outside your home. –At that time the family you lived with had some issues with the belief of mutants protection. In the mind of someone your age it was difficult to understand. Preferring for playing outside than to pay attention to the adults talking.

And the bee that was lounging at the bright yellow rose suddenly took flight straight to your face.

The pain of it's pinch was pretty much the cause of that first step into the world of discrimination for you.

Your chest combusted into an ending rush of blue, purple, cyan colours that protected you from the inside, everything coming in contact was reduced to less than ashes. Something was being screamed at you, at someone else. Screams were coming out of you as well.

Asking for help for a child your age always made the adults come right into rescue.

Not this time though.

Not when the hand of one of them became dust at the first approach, or when their worry became fear.

At their eyes you turned into a monstrous being and when the people you love the most looked at you that way... then they should be right at doing it so, why wouldn't they?

In a blink the bee was non existent along with the entire garden and the living room of your house. Ripped petals where the only thing left around you and the screams of the people that were supposed to keep you safe.

After that your life was a constant of fighting against your own dangerous mind, with the feelings, emotions and shit, and then came the alpha awakening, but that's a different topic, which you already know.

With the lapse of time you learned to love what you were. To know that the power that was your mutation couldn't hurt if you didn't wanted to. It wasn't a bad power or a wrong power. It all depended on you. On what you wanted to make out of it.

You can still remember the emotional pain of all the months to come, your hollowness. The invisible scars that are still there, but nothing more than that, scars. Healed but lingering.

That's what you felt when the little connection with Yelena ceased. Like those same already healed scars were torn open. Your inner alpha was blinded with the pain of not being able to feel her. It couldn't think, couldn't move but for wailing and turning around. So you took this on your own accord.

This time your power didn't snap, no. You were on your full capacity, hearing Matt's cries of war and his snarling at something you couldn't quite identify yet. There was something climbing your power, trying to bring every barrier down. But you knew very well that at the first moment you let your inner alpha take control Matt and Yelena –hell, even you– would be lost. It was the part you didn't like about the protectors, they became blinded by rage easily.

So you ignored it, like you did all those times before and started to act on your own accord.

The room you had entered was only a little space of concrete that held a metal rounded staircase, it went deep down, only illuminated by red lights that reminded you of the contention systems at the government capitol.

Giving zero fucks about your own safety you flew down the stairs trying to make the less noise possible, keeping a guarding ear for any kind of sound.

It felt like an eternity when another snarl was heard, but this one was painful. It touched your bones making you shiver, heartbeat becoming steady.

Focus, focus. C'mon... Where are you? C'mon...

At the end of the steps you practically jumped to the next door ripping it off its edges and throwing yourself inside.

Yelena, where are you? Matt... please, please-

The hallway was long with nothing but the same red lights hanging from the ceiling and concrete walls that surely had metal between the structure.

And finally at the end of it an open passage that was glowing in white light.

Then the scream that made you run faster than ever in your life.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Matt's voice flew to you and the nerves you poorly contained snapped with fear of not hearing Yelena... not even a murmur, a soft noise.

The light blinded you for a moment after crossing the doorframe.

Forcing yourself you ran to the first silhouette on the floor, it was Matt.

When you touched him he recoiled, hissing at you and throwing a punch that you easily dodge.

"Calm the fuck down, damn it!"

He screamed your name in relief but it didn't last long when your eyes finally focused and looked at his state.

"What happened? Oh my god Matt, what happened to you? Where's is Yelena?"

The Devil of Hell's Kitchen was utterly horrified, not because of you but for the fact of what you might be able to do once you knew, once you'll figure it out.

"Where's Yelena, Matt?" Looking at him up and down you realised he was almost beaten to death. With his face covered in blood and swellings all around. You couldn't even imagine how his entire body might be.

"It was an ambush, we-" he wheezed through a cough that made him throw blood "shit- we didn't see them at first, we were sure they weren't here- no one was supposed to be here but-" he cough more and you cursed under your breath.

"C'mon, I need to get you out of here." You moved to stand with him but Matt stopped you.

"They- they took her, they took Yelena" your blood ran cold, looking through his broken mask his eyes were moving uncontrollably searching for something without avail. "I can't hear her, I can't see anything "

You knew what he meant by that, and it only fuelled your fear. "You have to go and find her-"

"I won't leave you here, you need me now–"

"No! There's no time, I'll be fine, but her..."

Another coughing fit took over and soon his head lulled back, Matt was unconscious.

"Fucking shit, Matt! C'mon, hang on, darling... " you laid his head back on the floor like he was made of glass, you checked his neck for a pulse and though almost noticeable it was there, he was alive. Still.

His heart was most probably going to stop beating, his chest wasn't really moving anymore and a strangling sound came out of his mouth at every breath he took.

You couldn't call Frank, there was no signal, your coms were dead and you certainly couldn't run straight back up leaving Yelena to her unknown fate.

Matt was dying, Yelena was most probably about to get murder or worse and your head was starting to mess with your surroundings.

The alpha in you didn't dare move or make a sound. It was quiet. There was no other option.

Fuck my life.

The last option was the worst of them all.

The power covering your entire self buzzed with the excitement of finally being of use.

And so you did.

-----

Frank was going to lose his mind. You weren't responding to his attempts at making contact. You hadn't reach the meeting point, Erik was nowhere in sight and he still hadn't caught a single glimpse of Matt. He still had the hope that when he reached the bottom of the stairs Yelena will be there waiting just like what they had planned.

This whole thing was a total failure, everything that could go wrong went worst.

With each step he took, without finding any one to even try and stop him his gut was telling him that 'yes, this whole thing was a shit of a plan'

When reaching the meeting point his lungs released a long sigh. He passed a hand through his hair and focused himself on re counting his ammo. He hadn't waste one bullet. And Yelena was no where in sight.

–Blondie hasn't make it– he talked on the comms, no response from you still. –if you are hearing, I'm coming your way–

Going straight to the small hallway while remembering the map Wade had so fervently made him memorise he came to a sudden stop at the amount of fallen men in front of him. It had been you, it had to be you.

He took out two guns of his holster and got in hunting mode. In front of the now closed door small drops of blood made a path directly through it, and in the wall at his right was the undoubtedly stain of fresh blood.

Frank took an unsteady breath and called for you through the comms –Answer me dammit!–

Nothing but white sound came out of them and so he mentally prepared for whatever was on the other side.

-----

The world made a sudden stop, quiet. It was quiet. The same kind of nothing when you are underwater with ears filled of tranquility. The peaceful past of seconds, minutes, until suddenly the nothing became a buzzing feeling in your ears and the pain of no air was waking you up from the calm.

The world started moving again, and now you were no longer being part of the ones clinging to its gravity.

You were your own gravity.

Your once clouded mind and numb senses woke up, softly, gently. Like the touch of a lover that used to cover you entirely and left away just to be standing next to you, in front of you, in you.

You were watching everything from the same perspective yet it wasn't.

The whining of your inner alpha trying to gain control was shushed by the chaos emerging from within your mind, the air surrounding you.

'I am me. You are me'

A whisper on the universe send your body to collapse in front of Matt.

You could feel it on your fingertips, barely noticeable but bright enough for your unaccustomed eyes after almost ten years of a "normal human life".

This was you. You had been so lost for so long.

So tired, so... so...

Scared.

A tiny sniff made you look at Matt. His scent was decreasing, his heart was dying. And so you clung to him like that would stop him from not slipping away. In a way, that's what happened.

You willed his wounds to heal, his internal injuries to resist.

This power creeped underneath his skin, fixing, joining, craving to be near him and protect him. It was the natural reaction that the alpha in you had. It was your whole self after all and not even your mind could deny it now.

'Matt, can you hear me?' You whispered to his mind. 'I'll come back for you, Frank will be here soon.'

There was nothing else you could do, his own strength would have to be enough to keep him alive. Or so you hoped.

With a final delicate touch to his cheek you stood up and left him there.

------

The world was the same with it's unmistakable lively scents and wide sounds. Every drop of water you could smell and every tiny creature you could hear.

You focused yourself on finding Yelena. Her fresh scent was still on your now unlocked memory. And far beyond you recognised the artificial flavour of a very known power. Something you fought against ten years ago. The new Infinity Stone.

Her scent was mixed with whatever was beyond the walls. When you finally made it through a concrete arch your instincts recognised the veil that protected the place. Nothing could be seen outside this mind trick, but once you went through it, it was visible.

Yelena was there, unconscious but still breathing, far beyond the last wall. As Matt she was beaten almost to death, few seconds away for her lungs to collapse.

The alpha screamed to go there, but you knew better than to run to a suspiciously empty room with the smell of magic in the air.

"Show yourself" you said to the room, and a chuckle traveled through the space "what do you want?"

'I am but a something with no existence in here'

A shivering ran down your spine for you recognised the voice. It was Charles's... and Erik's, and Frank, Matt, Yelena... yours.

"You're the result of something that should have never been created." You answered, taking two steps more into the empty space.

'I used to be more.' A silence ensue for a while, in which you walked to her with caution, looking at everything and trying to contain the chaos inside. Not that you could fight to release, what ever this power around you was, it was strong enough to not let you. 'I used to be part of a something that resembled a someone. He used to be loved, he used to have humanity.'

You stoped in your tracks, how you wished you could see this being. "Are you... are you talking about Vision?"

'Yes'

Behind Yelena the glooming of a purpurean stone shined with barely contained force. It was beautiful, a magnetic field that dragged you to it. "Vision is dead. Thanos used the stone that gave him life and that stone was destroyed as well, what you are is nothing but a replica."

The voice kept quiet, watching you inching closer and closer to the beta.

'I long for humanity. I long for being alive. Not just existing but alive.'

"The people that created you... where are they?"

You already knew the answer even before he told you 'I eliminated them. They were no longer of use. They wanted to keep me for their selfishness. But they didn't count on me having-'

"A mind of your own." You cut him. An approving hum was all the answer. "But why attacking my- my friends?"

'As I already made you know, I want to live. And to be alive means I need a body that is as alive as I want to be.'

"You want to live in one of their bodies..." you murmured. Red alarms started in your head and suddenly the little gap between you and Yelena became abysmal.

'Yes.'

The shine covered Yelena's body and you stumbled forward graving her and yanking her against your chest. She didn't even groaned in pain, so passed out she was. 'It's not your beta I want. She is strong for many of your kind. But for my capacities her body will only resist so much.'

With the beta securely on your arms you started to back away, the words almost passing by your head until Frank and Matt's figures appeared on the other side of the veil 'shit'.

The arch covered by the veil started to glow with the purpurean colour from the rock and the men were suddenly aware that you and Yelena where behind it. What were you supposed to do? If it wanted a body, if it was as powerful as to block your own... you looked at it, begging.

"If you need a body, I can help you create a new one. I- I know of people that can do such a work. But please, not- don't touch them."

'Oh no, you have misunderstood my intentions.'

"What is this?" Spoke Matt, hearing loud and clear what was happening.

You started to plead to the stone that froze Frank's and Matt's movements. The Punisher screamed your name, but it was useless. The current of energy that went through them made them fall to their knees between screams of agony. Electricity almost so unbearable that their eyes got bloodshot and the closed wound of Matt started to reopen again.

"Please! No! I beg you!" The stone didn't make a sound up until the current of electricity ceased on the mans bodies.

"I want you. Your body has strengthened with time and the more you fought it the more control you held.' You didn't even registered when you said yes, too focused on looking at Frank who cradled matt in his arms the same way you did with Yelena. He looked at you in alarm when you accepted.

"What ever you want from me, yes. Yes! But please- not- not them, please..."

The stone shone again, and the power holding down yours lifted up enough for you to walk to it.

'...'no' murmured an almost unconscious Frank. Your name was murmured by the wailing man beside him as well. You couldn't...

The lighting started again against them, this time including Yelena "NO!" Your thrashing was useless against the force that once again put its weight on top of you "I agreed, I fucking agreed to you, leave them! Do not touch them!" But the stone only buzzed even harder and the heartbeats were almost in synch until one snapped.

You can still remember the emotional pain of all the months to come after you discovered your powers, the hollowness of being an abandoned, betrayed child.

Today you discovered another kind of pain when Yelena's heart stoped beating.

The stone spoke behind you 'but first I have to weaken you'

The sounds were muffled. The lighting had stoped and had left Matt sobbing on the floor with a breathless Frank crawling to Yelena, that in the meantime had opened her eyes only for life to leave them a second after.

This was not supposed to happen. Not like this. Not her, not her. Not Yelena, never.

Not her.

Your vision became blurred, with only the shapes of figures moving in front of you. Your throat was raw of the bagging and crying and screams coming out. You went full on berserker the next second. Nothing was fair with this. Nothing.

The family you found days ago, which you only had a taste for a few hours was long gone. Memory was the truth now. A memory that you will never remember with the same intensity as now. For time passes as well as details and it carries away those little tiny glimpses like how her hugs felt like or how her smile looked like.

Frank touched her cheek, carefully and looked at her now unmoving eyes, looking straight to the ceiling. Red murmured your name but you were not with them, your eyes were turn all the way up, only leaving the white to sight. The ground rumbled and even the stone kept it's shine to a minimum.

"What have you done?" Asked Frank to the purpurean thing.

'I did what I needed for me to get alive'

Matt walked to your unmoving form, you were in a daze, your body rocking left and right with mouth wide open in a silent scream. "Alpha?"

The snarling that came out of you made him throw himself at your wailing body. Cradling you and moving his hands on your hair, you didn't respond.

'They are now mine and you will-'

The stone exploded in a million pieces and the light that was left erupted around blinding Frank for a minute.

"Matt!" He got on his feet and rushed to you two only to be intercepted by Matt flying form crashing against him "What the- RED!"

Colliding on the nearest wall made him lost his focus. "Hey Frank, look at me."

'"M'fine" he said while hanging onto Matt's shoulder. "What happened?"

"They threw me away" Frank pinned his sight on the ceiling that now had a big entrance hole on it. "And then went through the ceiling with Yelena"

For a minute they went silent, holding each other and the omega and alpha went on their minds wondering if what had happened had really happened.

Yelena died. You destroyed the stone and then you left with her body. You left them.

"Do you think they- they will come back?"

Matt didn't dare to utter the words Frank didn't. Would you ever come back to them? Was this the only chance they got to be with the destined one the universe had made for them?

"We should get going."

"What the fuck is happening! Someone answer me!"

Charles voice rang on their heads making them flinch and until then Frank remembered that you all went in here with back ups. But they didn't do shit.

"Who the fuck is that?" Murmured Matt, supporting his weight on Frank while they left the room.

"Charles Xavier, the mutant. We came here for you and Ye- and Yelena with them. 'Spoused to help us, look how that went."

"I have been screaming for hours and no answer I wasn't able to reach you, not me nor Erik... what the fuck happened? Where are you?... Where are they?" Asked Charles. Frank didn't even say a word, he thought about what happened and it was enough for the professor.

Halfway outside the place the coms started to buzz again with life.

–We have a situation. I received a message from Roge.– Erik's voice flew out the coms. He then say your name. –... has been seen alongside Wanda Maximoff near the Sanctum. They alone killed some of the students, the Supreme Sorcerer, Stephen Strange was left almost dead and they stole a relic from the vaults of the Sanctum.–

"They killed–"

"Yes"

Both Frank and Matt stopped on their tracks.

"But they just left, how did they got so fast? It must be a mistake." Murmured Matt.

"That is the thing, they looked far way older than today."

"With Wanda's and their power combined, the achievements they could get together is unthinkable."

No one spoke a word there after. A million things ran through their minds. What had happened? How did you made to travel in time without Charles knowing?

And if so much time had passed... why you never came back... back to them?

----------------

Thank you for reading . I'll be away from Tumblr for a while but I will be checking from time to time to see what's going on because curiosity killed the pussy... I mean... well that... yeah 🥰🥰🫶🏻

I'LL BE BACK

Love you all !!!

Isa.✨💃✨😘

[giantsnweretigersnbugbearsohmy]

Wild speculation post because I guess this is who I am now, dad

Y’all is no one talking about what Chetney overheard?! We got SO MUCH detail! (Please please please feel free to add on to this)

The transcription:

Matt: You hear voices. One that, as you pick up the conversation says…

Voice 1 (possibly Vali Dertrana) : Our patron is pushing for legislation in the coming weeks, so whatever you plot must be quickened.

Voice 2: Your dullard mind fails to grasp the beautiful pattern I’ve already constructed across the city…

Voice 1 (possibly Vali Dertrana): Ira, I’m serious. Let us get this over with, that I might never deal with your cruel arrogance ever again!

Voice 2 (Ira): Then bring me some riffraff from the steps — people no one would miss — and maybe a Mahaan child just to spice things up… this next wave will-

Voice 1 (possibly Vali Dertrana): -I will most certainly not bring you a child, you freak! And only a short time longer. Finish your work and be gone from my life!

Voice 2 (Ira): Of coooourse. Once my work is done, I shall leave…*sinister chuckle*

What does this all mean? There are so many insinuations and dangling threads and clues, and now I spend the rest of my Monday night trying to piece it all together for the Tumblr critters bc it’s taken over my brain!

Setting info lampshaded in this convo to keep in mind (all taken from the wiki):

the Steps are located at the base of Jrusar, filled with outcasts and people who wish to be free of the city’s business structure

this conversation was overheard in the Moon tower, located in the Mirror Towers guild district which seems to have a strict entrance policy (business or gtfo)

the Mahaan Houses are the noble houses of the Oderan wilds. They oversee and manage the region. Nine individuals from the Mahaan housss are part of the anonymous Chandei Quorum. There seems to be mixed feelings toward these houses, with some vying for power and others trying to do good (according to Eshteross). The Hubatt Corsairs are bent on exposing the identities of the Chandei Quorum, and thus, target the Mahaan houses in many of their actions.

the Chandei Quorum is the mainly anonymous ruling body of Jrusar, and there are questions of collusion between them and the Ivory Syndicate, a criminal organization that began the trade in Ivory (a big fuckin no-no when there are Pachydan that exist ffs)

What we know (plus my wild speculation):

Vali and Ira have a secret meeting place (likely some sort of workshop, arcane or otherwise) in the Moon tower, in the Mirror Towers Guild District, which seems to be very gated, with entry allowed only for those in business. It also seems to be heavily controlled by the Treshi house, who make even Lord Eshteross edgy.

Vali and Ira are working for someone capable of pushing legislation - Aka a member of one of the ruling bodies, perhaps a member of the Chandei Quorum? The suggestion of taking a Mahaan child for whatever purposes, however, hints at a few things — the patron is *not* a member of the Quorum, or else they would likely not be ok with that request, being one of the Mahaan themselves, or they are a member and there is animosity between houses/members of the Quorum, or the patron is a member of the quorum but not a Mahaan themselves. What I’ve seen in the wiki doesn’t seem to confirm or deny whether the open lord is a Mahaan or not, which could be a point in the favour of the patron being the open lord, so to speak. However, their location and business connections with the guilds aligns them even more closely with house Treshi, and if my spidey senses are right, possibly with the Ivory Syndicate.

there’s something fucked up in the House of Treshi. One, they have their hands in more than one guild, which feels very monopoly robberbaron to me — the mason’s guild and the gold guild (which was robbed and which earned Cyrus the bounty on his head), and they’ve been present/in the vicinity near two altercations - the road crew near the Dreamscape’s modded Mimic, and the Gold Cartel theft. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they’re the family tied up with the Ivory Syndicate, and that the cartel theft was more than an inside job, it was a fucking insurance scam on behalf of the Treshi themselves, probably in conjunction with the syndicate, and Cyrus was supposed to be the fall guy for EVERYONE. Even Eshteross seems concerned and on edge with talk of them, giving the party warnings not to accuse them/get involved if they aren’t sure. These guys are BFDs - big fuckin deals (and alternately, but I think just as accurately, bad fuckin dudes).

Vali Dertrana had a coded ledger that said ‘Pay made, order, dreamset’ and ‘requested by Nightmare King. Bring Alive.’ We know Dertrana has been bringing Ira people for what I assume are experiments of an arcano-scientific nature, and that strange corruptions have been occurring for the past few weeks (Dugger). What if Ira is the Nightmare King? I know that’s the code name i’d give to the terrifying freak show that made jellymorphous DUGGER. Just sayin’. As for the pay made, it could be the automaton that was stolen from the Treshi gold cartel. Of it could be short for Payload made…the ‘order, dreamset’ I’ve not got any theories on, though it’s not out of wilds of possibility that the dreamset could be a reference to the dreamscape mimic…

the general contracting work that was supposed to have been done near the Dreamscape Theatre was apparently done by the Treshi house Mason’s Guild, which was plagued with the Spitting Mimic. There were odd orbs implanted in it’s body, one that Imogen managed to steal. This is another connection between the guilds and the odd one-off body horror encounters they’ve been dealing with, and a clue as to some sort of body modification/outside intent. The mimic was planted, and there must be reasons for it, and my guess is that they’re related to whatever nefarious doin’s a-transpirin’ in the house of Treshi, at the hands of Ira. It’s part of his ‘pattern’. I think the mimic wasn’t just eating bodies, but collecting them to be harvested from.

things are going to heat up in the next few weeks both on a political front, and in terms of whatever shadowy business is transpiring in the moon tower. I’m suspecting they’re going to hit big and in a big way, with all the suggestion that things have already been put into place. With talk of detonations, weird body horror happening, and issues in the core spire, I’m guessing that some sort of mass-transformation body-horror were-creature attack on the Chandei Quorum will happen following whatever ‘legislation’ is being pushed, for good or ill. I think all of the previous weird, body-horror encounters are related to this:

The IKEA furniture attack

Dugger and the Shade Creepers

The mimic wall at the Dreamscape Theatre

Gurge the Wildman (and possible were-creature) going missing/getting captured by Vali Dertrana, business commissioner of the Mirror Towers

Dire Wolf attacks (probably a Gurge red herring, but maybe connected to whatever is happening with Ira and the Moon Tower), burglaries, a detonation in the core spire, spirits haunting the Prakash Pyre

Dugger’s fucked-upness started 6 months ago, and was *not* connected to the Hubatt Corsairs, who didn’t know he was smuggling a Brumestone (whether this is relevant or not, I’m not sure yet…)

Neither here nor there, but I’m feeling a big flippin’ the bird energy to capitalism with the start of this campaign and just *chefs kiss* thank you Matt.

This has been downplayed, but I feel like it’s super relevant — Oshad “The Anger” Breshio was working for the Lumas twins who were killed a few weeks ago. The attack was similar to what happened to Keyleth is Zephrah — which we know from EXU has some stake or trade relationship to Residuum. The twins interests were in geology and scientific pursuits — two things we’ve seen at play recently — Brumestone and whatever strange arcano-science has so altered and corrupted Dugger. It seems odd that for those not engaged in anything ‘nefarious’ they should be killed…

gurge becomes a beast ‘when assaulted’ and the dire Wolf attacks seem to have been more than one - someone must have been assaulting gurge to cause him to go into such a state and lose control - someone who wanted him that way for their own purposes… maybe to confirm a hypothesis, or steal parts of his body and mass manufacture whatever werewolf parts of him are there, in order to create some sort of mass-mutagen bomb they can detonate on the populace and cause an attack on their political rivals in the Chandei Quorum, taking out their opposition. I can see how residuum could come into effect with that, or any sort of body mutagenic magics, but the Brumestone I’m at a loss for what purpose the smuggling of Brumestone is serving, because I don’t yet see how levitation could come into play based on these leads so far, though it could be less about the levitation, and more about the smuggling, which would once again point in the direction of the Ivory syndicate

I am making a lot of suppositions and proposing a lot of theories and tbh I just need to know what other people are making out of this insane break in the plot that we just got! What the FUCK is happening and how is it going down?! Who in the good goddamn is the Nightmare King? Why is the Guild District and House Treshi shadier than a beach umbrella?

[captainsspnanon]

C3E21 - reaction

Overall thoughts:

This was a much more satisfying aspect of the dungeon crawl to watch. I’m not sure why the first half of last episode wasn’t hitting with me, but I’m glad the rest of it is.  As much as they were technically In Combat, it felt very strategic and honestly well done. I’m also very pleased with the fact that the other team was able to use their tactics against the PCs (though I am sad the EverSmoking bottle got stolen) because despite feeling like in some ways Matt was letting the PCs get there first, he certainly wasn’t making it a breeze.  And even then, maybe it really was just the rolls that had the PCs get there before the Verdict, but I have suspicions that unless they spent like the ENTIRE last episode fucking around, that they’d always get there at least just before.

I also really appreciate Ashton.  They’re outrage at what the groups were put through, for something that wasn’t meant to be anywhere near as deadly, with the turnaround once the paperwork was found… I just feel like I’m steadily getting a much better grasp on Ashton’s characterization as the episodes go by, and I’m really liking what I’m seeing.  I still need more from FCG, but this may just be due to Sam’s RP.  As much as I love Nott, I also struggled with her for a while because Sam’s jokes came through more clearly than Nott’s character choices.  Saw it with Scanlan, see it with FCG.  I’ll get there eventually, and I’ll retroactively love FCG, I’m sure, but I’m not there yet.

I’ve been enjoying it since the very start, but now that the relationships are starting to settle in, I am REALLY enjoying the different dynamics we’re getting between the characters.  There’s something so beautiful about a group of close friends ‘meeting’ each other and ‘learning’ each other over and over again in different ways.  I’m also very excited to see over the next years which dynamics will deepen and which won’t.  Which PCs will have wonderful depth for 30 episodes or so and then switch dynamics where the relationship is still good, but is often hidden because of how frequently other dynamics among the party are explored?  I cannot wait.

I am a bit disappointed Matt went right into survival checks for the journey, they had at least two stories they wanted to discuss with the group (ultgar and chetney wolfing out) and it kinda pushed them past that.  I’m sure they’ll get around to it, but I wanted it now.

Sporadic live reactions:

Sometimes, I don’t actually have energy to watch something spoiler free.  SO!  Things that I already know about the episode: they get the earring, they put it in FCG’s mouth, they beat the other team and set off a trap three times (probably fire), Laudna goes down once?, Sam’s mug is photoshopped yassifying, Ashton is pissed at the lethality of the traps, JH is smuggling something in boxes, suspected to be the luxon or brumstone?, Chetney talks a little about Oltgar, they hit level 6 at the end and Travis is considering maybe a level in rogue, FGC doesn’t think animals have souls, and they return the horses safely?  Pretty sure that’s all I know, and pretty much all the context I have for it as well.  Oh, and of course I know that Ashley is out due to COVID.

THIS IS MISSING ASHLEY HOURS.  T.T

They do not know how to do Ashley’s voice and are just doing breathy sexy voice XD

Also, Fearne has now used Burning Hands without flavoring it as touch.  Can the internet now shut up about Ashley and her spell usage????  ffs (and it looks like she had intended mister to teleport her out too, which would have also shut up other people. Unfortunately Laura acted before reading.  Texting in real time to a probably-delayed stream is hard!)

Liam is standing and reseating himself a lot, I hope he’s physically comfortable!   Having to sit in a chair for four hours if you’re dealing with discomfort sucks. :(

Bah, the fact that I looked up spoilers in the reddit thread earlier means that I’m just annoyed with people.  Luckily I do this rarely, but the people who were saying that Matt was clearly going easy because he was going to throw Fearne rather than attack?????  There’s a hefty chance that he would have set off the trap room and fucked them ALL.  How is that going easy????   Ugh, must ignore people on the internet.

Can I talk for a second about how much I adore Travis when he freaks out on Matt?  Because it is wonderful every single time it happens! And it’s always a very clearly joke!arguing, it never comes across as a bit too ‘true’, which I think has happened for most of the players one time or another.  And he just full on SHRIEKS or BEGS when it happens.  I love it so much.

New Ashton rage of adding a d4 to an allies attacks when in 10 feet. ...I still have mixed feelings about this homebrew, but at the same time I think of the wild magic barb where all the magic effects are really good….so I guess I’m more comfortable with it.

Orym does not feel 3’3”.  He feels more like 2’ at most, with how teeny Liam makes him most of the time.  I think it’s because he reaches above his head for things that would be around head level, adding that discrepancy.

Imogen setting off the traps three times with the group OOC totally for it!  I loved seeing Liam’s face quickly slip from delighted OOC ‘horror’ to completely serious IC horror.  I remembered seeing a mention of this, and I do hope to have some interparty play a little bit.  ESPECIALLY between Liam and Laura.

Mmmm, still not a fan of how Taliesin asks for Guidance each time. It’s just, he’s out of character most of the time, and while it’s super valid optimal play, it just ends up feeling like min-maxing or meta gaming because of how frequently he does it.  He’s been doing it all episode, and not just for himself.  Not all checks need to be guidanced!  (I’ll also be super fair, this isn’t something that would bother me at a home table or anything like that, so my dislike is complete bias, just because this is presented more show and RP heavy than mechanical.  I can freely admit when I’m in the wrong, and I am here!  ...still don’t like it though.)

“Guards, kill them.  I’m kidding!” OMG I want to hate this guy but I love him.  I’ve seen this expressed a lot and it’s super true.

Did not expect Ashton to not punch Evon in the face.  Wondering if this is him being content with the papers/glasses they got, or if this is some sort of reaction to authority that he can’t really fight?  All his anger seems to have vanished pretty much instantly.

Ah, just him being content with the paperwork.

ULTGAR DRAMA this has been utterly glorious and I love every second of it.

I am loving the Orym and Chetney dynamic so much, I really hope this gets explored more in the campaign.  Vax and Grog didn’t have too much interaction, Fjord and Caleb were wonderful early campaign but then in mid-to-late campaign more interacted with other PCs than each other, I’m hoping the Orym Chetney pairing continues to be wonderfully wholesome the whole campaign through.

Fun Ashton info!  *deleted massive paragraph where I went off on a rant on a portion of the fanbase*

LOL at Evon clearly having faked everything.  Good to give to Jiana for the embarrassment/humiliation aspect.  Hope they get paid well!

@suicidallyreckless