#(MY ABSOLUTE BELOVED!!! EPISODE OF ALL TIME!! SCREECH!!!)

[twochildreninamoteldemo]

This is why you fast forward ten years into the future and Azazel/John is standing in the nursery and they are indistinguishable to her.

(highlights/underlines this sentence several times !!!!!!!!!)

If Azazel is John’s shadow-self or every Special Child’s father’s shadow-self, this entire plot/subplot/aspect of plot is part of the gothic trope of the monstrous “other” found in the self. Frankenstein vs. his creation, reflecting his own anxieties, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the duality of self, Dorian Grey’s portrait rotting in the attic...the list goes on. A modern example would be Adelaide/Red in Jordan Peele’s Us.

It reminds me of the original fan theories regarding Sam’s parentage. In a way, Azazel is Sam’s father regardless of genetics, as countless meta has discussed through demon blood, Azazel & Mary’s kiss, etc. Regarding what you said about Azazel grooming Sam, it’s an effective parallel to John’s grooming of Dean; while he did raise them both in the life, people have hashed out dean/john CSA subtext to hell and back. It’s also why the climax of “Devil’s Trap” is so effective--both Sam and Dean’s personal space (and mental space) are erotically encroached upon by John!Azazel/Azazel!John, bringing both of these groomed relationships to a head.

So I was thinking about this scene from In the Beginning yesterday in relation to a Discord conversation about Mary's deal to bring John back and whether she sufficiently "pays" for it. (All the other deals to bring loved ones back involve selling your soul and a trip to Hell --- and Mary does die, of course, but only incidentally, and apparently goes directly to Heaven. The thing she pays in exchange is permission for Azazel to enter her home and, unbeknownst to her, infect/poison Sam with demon blood --- which is another way of saying she pays for John's life with Sam's soul (and remarkably, John does the same for Dean's life --- he sells the Colt, and his soul, but also he sells Sam's soul by leaving him out there vulnerable to YED's influence despite the uncertainty that he would be able to resist.))

Anyway, what strikes upon re-visiting that scene is that 1) Mary also effectively sells John as Azazel's vessel and 2) I never see anyone ask Who exactly is the person Mary brings back when she makes that deal?

In addition to the sacrifice entailed by the Faustian bargain (i.e. the cost incurred by the human bargainer), there is a constant anxiety in the early seasons about the cost to the person brought back. When you defy the natural order, is the person you bring back identical to the person you lost? This comes up in relation to Dean coming back to life the first time when John saves him in 2x1 and again in 4x1 when he's saved by Castiel. The same question is also brought up in relation to Sam in the end of S2 (and Dean spends three days contemplating this before he goes to the crossroads, which interestingly people like to paint as an impulsive off-the-cuff decision) and persists into s3 and later with the demon blood situation. And of course throughout those early seasons Sam and Dean are confronted with all the reasons what's dead should stay dead --- people come back as zombies or revenants or whatever and that's all terribly sucky-- which is to say they come back fundamentally and adversely changed, less human somehow. But again, I don't think I've seen anyone talk about this in relation to John.

When Dean asks Mary about him earlier in the episode she says, "He's sweet, kind. Even after the war, after everything, he still believes in happily ever after, you know? He's everything a hunter isn't." --- and obviously at that point their relationship is new and untested (and eventually it's Dean who comes to know his dad better than anyone else). We talk often about pre-Fire John, or if you want to locate his transformative trauma somewhere else you might gesture to his participation in the war (though Mary finds it remarkable how unchanged he is by it)--- but I think there is something about his being brought back to life that fundamentally changes him.

We see in s5 how John and Mary's marital relationship was maybe less than ideal, we see that he moved out perhaps not infrequently, we see him in the pilot drunk and/or sleeping in front of the TV -- and none of these things are particularly red flags or unusual in the course of a 10+ year long relationship--- but then we also see him stand over Sam's bed as Azazel's vessel. He and Azazel are consistently tied together throughout S1, both visually and thematically, until they come to occupy the same body in Devil's Trap. By letting Azazel into her home Mary not only lets him prey on her future children, she more immediately lets him prey on John. But it's not clear that Azazel just feels warm and cozy in John's body, or that John is only a victim --- I think John becomes Azazel, in a way. Azazel is John's shadow self, maybe dormant all along, but he comes to the forefront not when Mary dies, but when she makes the deal to bring him back. This is why you fast forward ten years into the future and Azazel/John is standing in the nursery and they are indistinguishable to her. And it's also why John's redemption begins by breaking from Azazel's control in 1x22, but ultimately he's not the one to kill him, it's Dean, who's arguably John's most serious victim that ends it.

And maybe Azazel is every father's shadow self, because he is also Samuel's shadow self --- concerned with children and lineage, effectively grooming them from infancy into a preordained life mission and so forth.

Another thing that intrigues me endlessly is how it is that John becomes unbreakable in Hell and whether that's indicative of extraordinary righteousness or extraordinary viciousness; and now I'm wondering if that also has to do with his having once died and come back.

[shoezuki]

It me ya boy alcoholic beverage, back again to scream about dungeon meshi XD

Wtf wtf wtf wtf. So much is happenin right now and I simply should not be stayin up so late (early?) to binge it T-T

Firstly Namari is freaking awesome. Love em. Strong dwarf? who knows her way around ore and love to see that she still loves her old party. Goin to check for Falin jus in case. Also love how she 1000% would kill Senshi for turnin mithril into a blade lmfao

Whatever is goin on with the gnomes and the magician blueprint stuff is sketchy as hell n I kinda trust the elves with that info more than them.

Tho tbh, can Marcille have it instead. If I met a dark magic user that was scared of bugs and genuinely loved her party, I wouldn't think twice about trustin em with my life. You can probably destroy the entire world given enough study time but you kickin it with the lads and tryna make a safe dungeon? Based.

Iconic bath scene. Love the sapphics havin a Moment™️. It's what they deserve. Peace and a heartfelt talk before everything comes crashin down around em.

The magician makes me angry!! I mean, they defo hold true to their name. Fully out of their mind. Would happily clock em for exactly 3 pennies. Tho I am hella interested in how they went from lil jester to obsessed with the prince n knowin all the dark arts. I wonder if they tried to resurrect princey n it all spiraled from there. Can't wait to see all that unfold in later episodes.

Also Chilchuck my beloved. Solidified as my fave. Jus barely tho, Laios was gettin pretty close. He acts aloof and disappointed but dude would be completely besides himself if any of em died. Feel like he'll try n scanper off once on the surface but not be able to bring himself to abandon them.

Marcille n the dark arts was a complete surprise like wtf. That's insane. But also hell yes, let the pretty elf lady go absolutely nutso and summon demons or something. She deserves it.

I know what Falin turns into cuz of That One Gif lmfao hut also hyped to see that all turn out.

Ever so slightly disappointed that Laios didn't lose his leg n have to get a cool magic one or something. N am desperate for him to have the sword looked at. Wonder if there's more to the lil critter or if it can help him further. Someone teach this man speak with animals, he needs to connect with the lil guy.

Senshi!!! Grand lad, not much more to say bout him so far but love that he's connected with everyone. N is intent on bein honest about everything he feels.

Love how the orcs went from standoffish to genuine allies. Love the sister's (dammit, I forget her name) attitude to everything. She read Chil like a book and recognises strength regardless of race. Also her fit is very cool lmfao.

Swordsman. Waitin for him to show up because wtf, he wanted to marry Falin?!

I went into this expecting a funny, chill anime. I blame you entirely smh. You made it seem so cool and lighthearted and now I sit at 6am with tears in my eyes because wtf the look on Laios' face when he agrees to go back to the surface. Not been so invested in an anime for a while!!! I stopped after ep 13 cuz my heart can't take much more.

I may have a brain cell when I awaken and come crawling back to cry more about the show as a whole or jus character things. Maybe screech about creatures tbh. I was genuinely distraught when the dragon ham rolled into the blood. Like wtf, I wanna see more dragon meals. I'm bein robbed of cooking content!!!!

~🥃

fuck sorry this has been in drafts for so long but. fuck yes dude i grin ear to ear readin what ur feelin a dunmeshi vsmsdvsudy. its so so so so good. feel free to ramble to me bout it all u want it makes me giddy

[hydrangeawise]

Woah, El Cazador de la Bruja EP25 was a rollercoaster!! (And we got a bingo, too!) So much happened!

First of all, Nadie and Ellis finally reached their destination - and while Nadie apparently thought that just cutting of communication with Blue-eyes would be enough, uh, she did apperantly still carry the communication device with her which allow Blue-eyes, Ricardo, and Lirio to track them. There was also this funky little scene in which someone approached Lirio which turned out to be a witch after all, but more on that later.

The whole thing in the ruins was honestly so very unsettling. Especially with how Glasses Guy suddenly started gushing about Ellis' beauty and how much he loved her and how he would ensure to awaken her powers and gah! It makes my skin crawl just to think about it! I don't think I don't think I've hated Weekday Guy as much as I hate Glasses Guy, and Weekday Guy was already the crème de la crème of creepy. The thing that crushed me the most was probably not even that Ellis asked Nadie to kill her before her memories of their time together would disappear (which in itself hurts!) but that after Nadie shot Ellis, she still came up to die next to her!!! To not leave her alone!!! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL ABOUT THAT OTHER THAN PURE DESPERATION?! And Nadie fucking used her catch phrase, and Ellis answered with "I love you, Nadie"??? And I'm supposed to be NORMAL about this?! I'm screeching into my emotional support orca as I write this! And then, then Lirio *talks* (most likely as a conduit for the witch she met earlier, but still, she talks) and Blue-eyes manages to resurrect Ellis??? And then, Nadie is still cold, Nadie is still dead, and Glasses Guy gears up to be a whole new level of creepy with planning to get Ellis a new sacrifice, and man. And then Ellis hugs Nadie close and resurrects her, and I cannot tell you how much I love these two. Genuinely.

There also never has been such a gay kill as the scene in which Glasses Guy finally takes his last breath. Nadie steadying Ellis hands on the gun from behind, Ellis using Nadie's catchphrase, the absolute banger of a music in the background (and man, Yuki Kajiura really did it again with the soundtrack) - just, perfect. Perfect. I'm so glad he's finally dead. I'm also so intrigued that Ellis is now fully capable to handle her powers (which is apparently enough for the witches. Ellis basically got the witches' blessing!) and ungh. My beloved little weirdling. She has come so far! I can't wait to watch the final episode. What a ride!

[ollieofthebeholder]

For We Are Afar With the Dawning: A RQG Fic

Also on AO3. Contains spoilers for Episode 207.

Augusta is floating. Both literally and metaphorically.

Mentally, she’s floating on a peachy-pink cloud of euphoria and warmth and happiness and contentment. It’s an absolutely perfect day, the kind of day she never gets to experience anymore. The sky is a clear blue dotted with puffy white clouds, the sun bright enough to illuminate the scene but not so bright to hurt the eyes, and it’s pleasantly warm without being oppressively hot. The gentle, cooling breeze brings with it the faint scents of something floral; Augusta’s never been all that great with scents per se, but she thinks it might be roses or something.

Physically, she’s in a rowboat in the middle of a glassy lake, lying on her back with her arms folded contentedly over her chest and her head resting on a lap that seems to mostly comprise of white illusion. Augusta herself is wearing a loose-fitting lawn shirt and a pair of trousers, her feet bare. A pair of oars rest in the locks on either side, but nobody is using them.

“You know, Gus, I think you’re going to have a curly crop when this grows out a bit.” Delicate fingers run through Augusta’s delightfully short hair. “You’re going to look quite rakish.”

“Just so you don’t try to get me to wear one of those dreadful outfits you were talking about that boy wearing in your book.” Augusta smiles. “Really, Lou, where’d you come up with that? Nobody actually dresses like that.”

Louisa laughs. “I wanted it to be really clear that there was no way Jo would ever fall in love with him. Why would she love someone who dresses like that?”

“You should have given one of the girls who came to the Christmas play a name,” Augusta says. “And a personality. And a reason to come back.”

“Are you suggesting I should have put you in the book after all? I thought you didn’t like publicity, O Best Beloved.”

“I don’t like being tied to my brother. Being tied to you is different.” Augusta punctuates this by reaching up and twirling a strand of Louisa’s dark hair around a finger.

Louisa swats her hand away, but she’s laughing again. “Are you going to row us back to shore at any point? Mary and Emma should be here soon. Your Sasha was going to take the carriage and go get them.”

“She’s not my Sasha,” Augusta protests.

“She could be, if you asked, I’m sure. You know we’re all just yours for the asking.”

“Oh, stop it. That’s not how this works.”

“You can’t tell me the idea doesn’t appeal to you,” Louisa says relentlessly. “Having your own personal harem of beautiful and brilliant women. Mary for those delightful scientific discussions and Emmuska for solving puzzles and mysteries and Sasha for going on daring adventures and robbing tombs with and me for...well, when you want to be lazy and bored, I suppose.”

���Louisa May Alcott.” Augusta sits up and takes both of Louisa’s hands in hers. “You have no idea how happy I am. Right here. With you. I don’t need anyone else. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Sasha and Mary and Emmuska and I love having them around...and you’re right, Sasha’s so much fun to go poking around places we aren’t wanted with. But if none of them were here, I’d be happy just the same. Maybe more so. Being with you?” She brings Louisa’s hands up and kisses them tenderly. “This is perfect.”

Louisa blushes beautifully, but there’s a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “You’re just saying that because you don’t want to row back to shore.”

Augusta laughs. “You wound me. Right here.” She places one hand over her heart.

She’s joking, but suddenly, it feels like Louisa—or someone—has wounded her. There’s a sudden, sharp, stabbing pain in her heart, and the last thing she sees is Louisa’s sparkling eyes and sweet smile before the world goes white.

It resolves after a moment. Now instead of sitting in a boat, Augusta is sitting on a rock in a clearing in a verdant  forest. Looking up, she can see the night sky and the stars, so many stars, more than she’s ever seen, and the sweep of the Milky Way looks almost green. The moon shines down on the clearing and illuminates her.

Augusta looks down at herself. She’s wearing more practical clothes now—boots, trousers, tunic, leather jacket—actually, it’s a lot like what Sasha Rackett wore when Augusta first met her, nearly two years ago now, except newer and neater. Across her lap is a well-made crossbow.

A big beast swoops overhead, one Augusta can’t identify (she grew up in a city and the only kind of hunting really considered proper for young ladies of her station was foxhunting). A moment later, there’s a rustle in the undergrowth, and a figure pops out into the clearing, a short figure with outsize ears and a drawn bow.

“Wotcher,” the figure says. “Seen a big beastie go by here?”

“It went that way,” Augusta says, pointing the direction she saw the beast fly. “What is it?”

The hunter—she presumes—shrugs. “Dunno. Still haven’t figured it out. Haven’t caught it yet. Maybe once I do, I’ll know. For now I just call it The Beast.”

He doesn’t seem particularly put out by this. He has a hunt, and what exactly he’s hunting doesn’t seem to matter much; he’ll find the answers when he finds the beast. It’s something Augusta feels an odd kinship towards. “How long have you been hunting it?”

The hunter shrugs again. “Dunno. What year is it?”

Augusta tells him. The hunter draws in a breath, then nods. “Well, then...two thousand years, give or take a couple hundred.”

“Ah.” Augusta looks around her. “We’re dead, then.”

“Probably, yeah. Well, I know I am. You probably are too. What were you doing?”

Augusta thinks for a moment. “Dreaming.”

The hunter snorts. “Not the best way to go out.”

“It’s not like I chose to go out that way. I’d rather have gone down fighting.”  Augusta sighs. “At least it was a pleasant dream, though.”

She touches her chest, out of habit, and has a moment of panic when she can’t find what she’s looking for. Frantically, she scrambles at her neck until she finds the fine chain, then pulls it out and breathes a sigh of relief when the heavy silver locket lands in her palm. Just to be sure, she pops it open, and Louisa’s eyes stare back at her.

Augusta smiles back at the picture, then looks up to see the hunter staring at her inscrutably. She coughs and closes the locket. “Sorry. Just...checking.”

The hunter reaches into his own clothing and pulls out a photograph, but doesn’t show it to her—which startles Augusta, as she didn’t think photographs were that old—before putting it back. “It’s important to hold onto these things. Until you find them. Everything dies, after all.”

“That...probably shouldn’t be comforting, and yet…” Augusta takes a deep breath. “Everything does die, doesn’t it? I don’t know that this is exactly her idea of paradise, though.” Then again, she hadn’t realized it was hers, either.

The hunter shrugs. “Probably not theirs, either. But they all connect. I’ve got a camp set up.” He gestures off to one side. “Check in there every few...decades, maybe. Just to see if they’re there yet. It’ll be nice to have a home to come back to, someday, but for now...there’s the hunt.”

Augusta considers that as she tucks the locket back into her shirt, then looks down at the crossbow on her lap. “I’ve never really hunted in forests before, but I’m not bad at hunting in general.”

“I’d be willing to teach you some tactics. If you’re interested. Just until we both find what we’re looking for.”

Augusta stands up, shoulders the crossbow, and holds out her other hand. “My friends call me Gus.”

The hunter grins, red eyes sparkling, as he accepts her handshake. “Grizzop.”

~*~*~*~

Sumutnyerl soars, buoyed up by a thermal, then banks to one side and swoops low, skimming over the grass. This is their favorite form; they love to fly, and it’s a perfect day for it.

Beside them, another eagle tacks and swoops playfully, then sheers off. Sumutnyerl beats her wings to gain a bit of altitude and follows. For a moment, they race one another straight up into the air. Then the other eagle dips backwards into a loop. Sumutnyerl screeches in delight and goes into a spiraling dive, weaving around the other.

They continue this sky-dance for several minutes before the other leads up to the branches of a tree; Sumutnyerl follows and lands on a branch, then transforms back. They’re already laughing with delight. “I never get tired of that.”

“Nor should you.” Oblaitko smiles warmly, their eyes soft and kind. “The day one grows accustomed to the gifts that have been given is the day one ceases to live and begins to only exist.”

“I mean doing it with you.” Sumutnyerl looks out over the rolling meadow. “I would that we could do this forever.”

“We can,” Oblaitko answers. “Our duties are...light. And not incompatible. We needn’t go back to the town at all. You can attend to the Garden, I to the River, and we can spend the rest of our time here.”

Sumutnyerl considers. The idea is...not unwelcome. She feels an utter sense of peace here, with Oblaitko by their side. More than that, they feel like herself, like an individual and not just part of a collective.

“I would like that,” they say at last. “Very much.”

Oblaitko tucks a strand of Sumutnyerl’s hair behind their ear. “As would I.”

“A bargain, then.”

“A bargain,” Oblaitko agrees. “We can ask permission in the morning, but I hardly think the Council will object. It will save resources, after all.”

Sumutnyerl sighs and leans their head on Oblaitko’s shoulder. They place their arm around her shoulders and pull them close, one hand idly resting over their heart.

For just a second, Sumutnyerl wonders if Oblaitko is concealing a blade, because they suddenly feel a sharp, stabbing pain in their chest. They look up in shock, but there’s nothing on Oblaitko’s face to indicate they’re doing anything...and then the world goes white.

When Sumutnyerl’s vision clears, they are no longer in the branches of a tree, but somewhere else, somewhere far too familiar. Awareness settles on Sumutnyerl’s shoulders as they look around the Garden of Yerlick, but not as it is in life—currently or under ordinary circumstances. The flowers bloom as they past, trees put out their hands like old friends, and the spirits of the dead are instantly visible, smiling and calling to them.

Ah. This again.

“Sumutnyerl?”

Sumutnyerl turns and smiles again. Oblaitko stands before them once more, not in the same form as a moment ago—no longer young, their hair white, their back bent with age and the weight of their position—but their eyes are the same warm, kind brown they have always been .Right now, they are wide with shock and not a little sorrow.

“Hello, my dear friend,” Sumutnyerl says.

“Sumutnyerl,” Oblaitko says again. “Why...how are you here? Like this? You—you mustn’t. It isn’t your time.”

“Perhaps not,” Sumutnyerl agrees. They touch their heart, where the phantom pain is fading fast. “I—I believe I may have been stabbed in my sleep.” Like Nik, they think, with a mingling of regret and anger.

“You will be given another chance.” Oblaitko states this quite calmly, as if it is a given fact rather than an opinion...or a hope. “The Garden needs you. Our people need you.”

“Perhaps I shall be given the offer,” Sumutnyerl replies. “And...perhaps I will accept. But...well. There is much that has happened. Perhaps if I am not needed...perhaps if my last great task has been fulfilled after all…” They hold out their hands. “Would you allow me to stay?”

Oblaitko takes Sumutnyerl’s hands, and stares into their eyes, and no other words are necessary.

~*~*~*~

Hamid knows, on some level, that he’s dreaming, if only because Zolf isn’t really one for parties. That doesn’t stop him from being happy, though. Hamid’s sleep for the past few months has been dreamless at best, teeming with nightmares more commonly, and occasionally non-existent at worst. A part of him has started to believe he’ll never have beautiful dreams again, so the fact that this is a good dream means he’s going to enjoy it for all it’s worth.

And the others all look happy, too. Aziza sings beautifully, her eyes sparkling and face expressive, and her husband gazes on her with a proud, adoring smile. Saleh, his wife, and Hamid’s mother are listening to Oscar tell some story, gesturing dramatically with his drink, his other hand being occupied holding Zolf’s. Zolf has a faint smile on his face as he listens to a story he’s probably heard a hundred times—hell, it’s probably one he was there for, those are Oscar’s favorite stories after all—but that he never gets tired of hearing Oscar tell. Hamid’s father looks more relaxed and content than Hamid has seen him...well, ever since he started paying attention anyway, deep in conversation with Saira and Apophis. Azu, wearing the gown she and Hamid designed together for the opening of the so-called Bow Bar, is making a valiant effort at letting Ismail teach her one of the fancy dances he’s learned, while Ishaq enthusiastically does the same with Cel. Skraak and Grizzop have become fast friends, which Hamid isn’t surprised by, and he wonders what they’re talking about and if he’s going to have to help Zolf clean it up later.

Hamid dances. He loves to dance, almost as much as he loves to fly, and he doesn’t really mind that he doesn’t have a partner at the moment. As he spins, putting in one of the fanciest twirls he knows, he catches Sasha’s eye across the room and grins; she grins back and shoots him a double thumbs-up.

Hamid starts in Sasha’s direction. She’s so good on her feet, he thinks, she’ll be really good at dancing, and she’ll love it. Aziza’s just wrapping up the song she’s currently working on, and Hamid’s pretty sure she’s going to go into the aria from Act I of Carmen, which was her first leading role and one she’s quite proud of. Hamid knows with absolute certainty that Sasha will kill it at a tango.

Before he gets to her, he passes his mother and gets a kiss on the cheek. Saleh gives him a friendly poke in the chest as he passes, which actually hurts a lot more than Hamid is expecting, but he tries to laugh it off, especially as Saleh is laughing, too.

Zolf turns to face him. Letting go of Oscar’s hand, he reaches over and touches Hamid’s forehead with one thumb. He’s still smiling a little, and the look in his eyes is one he hasn’t given Hamid in a long time—not since the beach south of Calais, after they survived the storm sailing from Dover. It warms Hamid all the way to his toes.

“It won’t end this way,” he says, and while he sounds like he’s talking at an ordinary volume, Hamid somehow gets the feeling that nobody can hear Zolf’s words but him. “I won’t let it. Your heart’s too big to be destroyed by something like this.”

Hamid feels simultaneously stronger than he has in ages and like something’s being sucked out of his lungs. His wings unfurl from his back before he completely registers that the music is gone.

He blinks. Someone is holding him—it feels like Cel—and it’s dark. The memory of the lights dimming and then going out comes to him...and they’d been heading to the lab, he remembers, because of the tunnel, but what—?

Zolf’s voice comes from not very far in front of him. “Get in in the door, and get safe.”

Hamid blinks again. That’s an order, they’re in the field—he promised he would follow Zolf’s orders in the field, so even if he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, he’s going to do what he’s just been told and he can ask questions once they’re all safe. Surely Zolf will be right behind him.

He takes in a breath to acknowledge his instructions—and sucks in a lungful of sweet-smelling gas. Instantly, he drops unconscious back into Cel’s arms.

He blinks and he’s at the party again. Zolf is still standing in front of him, smiling as he turns back to the conversation—did he leave for a minute? No, surely not, Hamid’s been here the whole time, he thinks fuzzily.

The song wraps up on a triumphant sting, and there’s a smattering of polite applause, and then just as Hamid suspected, the music starts up and it’s “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” from Carmen. He hurries over to Sasha and holds out a hand. “Sasha, come on, you’ll love this!” he cries.

Laughing, Sasha takes his hand and lets him pull her onto the ballroom floor. She’s a natural at the tango. Hamid would never have dared ask anyone else to do this dance with him; it’s a fiery dance of passion, usually, but this is Sasha and she’s just his favorite sister, as far as he’s concerned, even if she’s not his sister by blood. There’s no romance behind what they’re doing here, no heat. They’re just two kids having fun, really, laughing and taking increasingly flamboyant chances with the flashier moves.

He ends the dance by dipping her, somehow, despite the fact that she’s two feet taller than he is, but they’re both flushed and laughing and having a great time. It doesn’t even matter that they overbalance and fall onto the dance floor. Nobody’s really watching them anyway, which is just the way Hamid wants it right now. He doesn’t have to be the center of attention all the time. Not even most of the time.

“I like your wings,” Sasha says, poking one of them, and when did they come out? Hamid genuinely can’t remember. “This ‘cause you’re a Meritocrat?”

“I’m descended from a dragon,” Hamid corrects her. “I’m not a Meritocrat.”

“Good. But the wings are cool anyway. Do they work?”

“Oh! Yes. Want to see?” Hamid gets to his feet and manages—somehow—to pull Sasha up too. “I can cast fly on you and we can—”

“No,” Sasha interrupts, surprising him. She pulls him into a tight hug, and, oh, Sasha gives the best hugs. Hamid’s always suspected she would, but she’s always been iffy about being touched. If his wings hadn’t already popped out with joy—apparently—they would be bursting out now. He hugs her back just as tightly as she lifts him off the ground with the force of her embrace..

“Don’t you give up, Hamid,” she says in his ear. “Don’t you do it. There’s no dream so good it’s worth losing the whole world for. You get back out there and you fight to make the world this good. Because this right here? This is worth fighting for.”

Just a little of the euphoria peels back from the edges of Hamid’s mind, and he clings to Sasha a little tighter. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

“’M always with you, mate. Just like you were always with me. We’ll meet again. But right now, you’ve got to go save the world for me.” Sasha pulls back enough to smile at him, and her eyes are wet. “Make it a good one.”

Hamid’s eyes snap open.

~*~*~*~

If you had asked Oscar even a year ago, he would never have described this as the most perfect moment of his life. He would have said that the most perfect moment he could imagine is a gala celebrating the opening of his greatest work, a play that will be talked about through the ages and mean his name lives on long after he does, resplendent in his finest clothes, a rapt audience listening to him declaim his opinions—finally being the center of attention for art instead of admin.

But no. He enjoyed that, yes, and he’s looking forward to reading the description of it in the newspapers. But the truly perfect moment is this one. Just a simple, quiet family breakfast the morning after.

Azu is at more or less the opposite side of the round kitchen table they’re using instead of the formal dining table, nursing a hangover bigger than she is; she’s got a glass of tomato juice and a cup of strong black coffee and isn’t really talking to anyone. Cel is scribbling on a piece of paper and muttering under their breath, probably trying to improve or refine the special effects they and the kobolds designed and built for the production. Zolf presides over the stove as usual, his beard done up in one of the intricate braids he only does when he’s in an especially good mood and his shirtsleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. Sasha stands a little way down the counter, beaming as she slices and chops meat and vegetables for him; she’s the only one Zolf allows to help him in the kitchen, and even then only on special occasions. Hamid sits to Oscar’s left, a pile of newspapers between them, his pre-breakfast snack actually half-forgotten at his elbow.

“The reviews look really good, Oscar,” he says, sounding almost as delighted as Oscar feels as he hands over the Times, folded back to the Arts page. “All the criticisms I’ve seen so far have been about the acting, not the play itself.”

“I told you to cast Barnes in the lead instead,” Zolf calls from the stove.

“Not my call, darling. I’m not the casting director.” Oscar reads the article Hamid is handing him, a broad smile blooming across his face as he reads. Hamid’s right, the reviews are glowing, and this is from a critic who’s notoriously hard to please. A particular phrase about halfway down the column catches his eye: Wilde’s masterful words and turn of phrase makes even Johnson’s leaden performance turn to the purest gold.

Turning a few pages on, Oscar opens the society page and is delighted to see that most of it has been given over to a description of the party celebrating the opening. There are even a couple of pictures accompanying the article, and Oscar very carefully folds the paper back so that one of them is more fully visible—Oscar at the center, smiling broadly and holding a drink in one hand, his other arm draped around Zolf’s shoulders, the others arrayed around him looking pleased and proud.

“Have you thought about your next project?” Cel asks, looking up from their notes.

Oscar shakes his head before Cel can launch into an elaboration of the question. “No, not yet. I think I’ll take some time to see how this one does first. It may have opened well, but that doesn’t mean it will end well.” He sighs, a bit dramatically but not entirely put-0n. “Things so rarely do.”

“Things rarely stay good the whole time they’re happening, but that doesn’t mean they won’t end well,” Azu points out. “We got here, didn’t we?”

“And you’ve earned it,” Hamid adds encouragingly. “Happy endings feel a lot better when you have to work for them.”

“Cheers to that.” Sasha tosses her knife into the air; it flips four times and then returns to her hand without her even looking at it, and she goes back to her chopping.

“Have a bit of faith, Wilde,” Zolf chides him.

Oscar smiles fondly at his dwarf as he sets aside the paper. Azu’s faith in Aphrodite is a certainty you can cut your teeth on, but Zolf’s faith in Hope is nearly contagious. Like their happy ending, Zolf has worked for his faith, he’s earned it, and it’s never betrayed him. It’s the only reason any of them are still here, really. It’s the anchor that kept Cel from spiraling with guilt, it’s the keel that steadied Azu when she doubted herself (not her god, never her god), it’s the beacon that led Sasha back to them. And it’s the only reason Oscar and Hamid are still alive, albeit with matching scars—

Wait. Where did that come from?

Shaking his head slightly, Oscar pushes away from the table and passes behind Zolf, touching him first on the shoulder, then the cheek. “I have plenty of faith, dearest. In you if nothing else.”

“Get away from my workspace,” Zolf grumbles, though without any heat.

Oscar smirks and moves down the counter towards the cutting board, ostentatiously reaching for one of the ingredients waiting to be added to whatever Zolf is preparing. Sasha jabs playfully at his chest to make him back off.

She’s too good at what she does to accidentally stab someone when she’s only pretending to, and she wouldn’t stab him, especially not with Zolf’s good tomato knife; she has too much respect for both Zolf and blades to do that. And yet, pain suddenly erupts in Oscar’s heart, as though she’s driven a blade far bigger than the serrated one she’s holding into his chest. He inhales sharply, and the world goes white.

For just a moment, it resolves itself into his flat in Paris from when he was in university, or something similar anyway, but then it swirls into a pink mist. He feels something solid holding onto him, something anchoring him firmly in reality, and warmth floods his entire being. He feels safe and protected and cherished, and it gives him strength.

His eyes open, and he finds himself lying more or less on his back. Zolf kneels next to him, one hand tenderly cradling his jaw, the other pressed to his heart, which hurts like anything.

“Wh—huh—?” Oscar tries to sit up, his mind scrambling to fit this dark and rather crowded antechamber or wherever it is they are in with the light and airy kitchen-slash-breakfast nook he remembers from just a few...moments ago? What’s going on?

Zolf’s face is pale, his blue eyes intent, and there’s a trickle of blood near his hairline that worries Oscar in a vague and distant way. But he doesn’t have time to ask about it before Zolf looks into Oscar’s eyes and says in a voice that crackles faintly with an emotion he can’t place, “Get the others out, and get safe.”

Before Oscar can question it, or protest, or even figure out what it is they’re supposed to be safe from, Zolf half-shoves, half-throws him through a door that’s barely open wide enough for him to get through. He slides a few feet until he’s able to at least drag himself on his hands and feet a little further into the room. Someone runs past him and takes hold of the door, but doesn’t close it.

Oscar blinks hard, shaking his head to clear it. There’s a sweet smell in the air and he almost sniffs at it, almost tries to see what it is, but then his eyes fall on the crumpled figure not far from where he is and it acts like a dash of cold water across his brain. Hamid. Hamid is flopped in a pitiful heap, his new wings draped across the floor, his eyes closed.

He was dreaming. Oscar realizes that in the same moment that he takes in Hamid’s unconscious (oh, gods, please let him only be unconscious, Oscar cannot have failed him a second time) form and the sounds of something that is definitely not making breakfast in the other room. He pushes himself to a standing position and looks around the room. It doesn’t take long to spot the tunnel Hamid spoke of, at the back of the lab. That must be both out and safe.

“Tell the others to follow us,” he calls over his shoulder to the person he now recognizes as Ada, hurrying over to Hamid’s side and hefting him into his arms. The wings make it awkward, but Hamid sort of nestles into Oscar’s arms. Thank the gods, he’s alive.

Oscar runs. He heads down the tunnel, the light fading behind him, but he can’t spare a hand to cast any sort of spell to help him, so he just gets as far as he can. There’s just enough light left for him to see the gate before he runs headlong into it, and he checks, then looks over his shoulder. The others will be coming any moment now, he tells himself. They just have to wait a moment.

He sets Hamid down on the ground and looks him over quickly. He looks...fine, really. A bit disheveled, but fine. Then Oscar notices the bloodied tear in his shirt. Underneath the rend is a scar so new its edges are still shiny, directly over Hamid’s warm and generous heart.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess what happened. And, touching his own chest briefly, Oscar feels the same thing.

He checks Hamid over quickly, and even though he’s a bit rattled, he realizes that the sweet smell he noticed earlier is probably what knocked Hamid out; other than that, he looks fine. Oscar sniffs the air experimentally. It’s a bit fresher down here, so he should be able to…

“Hamid,” he says urgently, shaking the halfling, then slapping his face as gently as possible. “Wake up!”

Hamid’s eyes snap open. There’s a moment of disorientation before his eyes clear. “Oscar?” he says, his voice a bit higher-pitched than normal as he sits up. “What’s—what happened?”

Oscar still has no idea, actually, except for one absolute certainty so strong he sensed it even in his dreams, maybe even before it happened. “Zolf saved us.”

The confusion on Hamid’s face melts into fierce determination. “Then let’s go return the favor.”

[thesuperduckling24]

i figure i’d respond with some of my own favorites from seasons i’ve watched!! your choices are all absolutely top tier tho

(note: i’m doing this in chronological order of release date, not watch date cause i’m gonna be so fr i do not remember in what order i’ve watched shit)

fantasy high freshman year: gorgug is also top contender for me, if only because both the "are you my dad?" and his parents being super cheerful and also fucking menace artificers is so so hilarious. fabian also gets an honorable mention though, i Love lou wilson and "rich boy gets friends who care about him" is so so delightful to me. also fabian’s "papa!" lives in my head rent free as a stim lmao

escape from the bloodkeep: god, it’s hard. matt mercer as my most beloved cringefail warlock man leiland, but also weird-creature lover ranger sokhbarr, but also the wettest oracle efink murderdeath, but also supportive wine mom lilith!!! honestly if i had to choose i think i’d pick lilith, solely because i adore erika ishii so so much. lilith is slaying and i’m so excited for you to see where the story goes!!

(i haven’t actually watched fantasy high sophomore year because the livestream format kind of scares me, but with the announcement of junior year i’m gonna try and get into it cause i gotta get caught up!)

unsleeping city: only watched season one as well, but i gotta say that my favorite is absolutely one hundred percent ricky matsui, mr march himself. in general you’re gonna see i have a bias towards zac’s characters but they’re just. so funny! the bit about bringing forth the darkness in his heart and there just Isn’t any cracks me up every time. shoutout to siobhan with misty moore though! so fancy and distinguished :D

misfits and magic: god i love brennan as a player. evan kelmp my beloved. i really don’t have any words i just think about evan kelmp sending a kid to hell and laugh sometimes. so so so good.

the seven (currently watching): i’m only at the second episode or so but god i love katja. horse girl who is just so so awkward around people but deeply deeply loyal to her friends (and of course her horse) my utterly beloved. also the moment where her dad tells the servants to get her anything she wants when all she wants is him back home is. man ;-;. big shoutout to izzy and ostentatia though, utterly obsessed with the accent and also the deep love for her family.

starstruck odyssey: oh god this one is so hard for me. starstruck is like my Favorite d20 season and they’re all just such good characters in this one. barry and the barries are so so delightful to me. rich boy gunnie just Immediately fucking his space adventure up is so beloved to me. sundry sydney my most especially beloved cyborg girl, emily and murph as a cyborg duo meant literally everything to me and i adored her arc of discovering herself and finding her own purpose. and, of course, norman "skip" takamori, brain slug extraordinaire. "i got my proldier’s license right here!" *high kick to fire my straight down gun boots*

a court of fey and flowers: brennan as a player my utter beloved, but my h(e)art was stolen by none other than the lords of the wing. i fucking love birds and emily and lou’s duo of "cousin! cousin? cousin!!!" was just so endlessly entertaining, i was in tears over the chair scene. yes yes, pining and yearning are all good and well, but the flouncy nature of chirp featherfowl and rakish audacity of squak airavas truly stole the show for me

neverafter: god i love pib. pib was catered Specifically To Me, cause that little guy is a Tabaxi Rogue played by Zac Oyama, three of literally my favorite things in dnd. lou’s pinocchio voice was fucking hilarious, though, the nat20 whale screeching scene in burned into my ears forever and ever.

ravening war: to no one’s surprise, i fucking loved colin provolone. ultimate straight man to brennan’s bullshittery, and also deeply hilarious that the guy specifically built around lying and keeping secrets couldn’t do it half as well as zac just chilling there. raphaniel and karna are tied for the shoutout, though, because brennan and aabria are such good storytellers and it’s always fascinating to see that poured into a single character and how it plays out.

dungeons and drag queens: so so torn, all of the questing queens were utterly fantastic. i think my favorites were either gertrude or twyla, though; gertrude because bob’s passion for theatrics and performance gave her and her magic such life, and twyla because jujubee got so so invested into the game and into the story that it just compelled me to keep watching her specifically.

mentopolis: there’s no picking a favorite here. the prefrontal pi’s were all utterly brilliant to me. i loved leaning into all the noir tropes, from the hardy gumshoe always looking for his next case to the femme fatale who ends up in a wonderful marriage with an ironclad prenup, and everyone in between. still not over dan fucks and his diamond hard nuts, though.

who are your favorite pcs on dimension 20? (either as a whole, per season, whatever you want!)

oh gosh, that's such a difficult decision! i might go based on seasons i've seen? and as a disclaimer: i love every single pc, everyone plays so well on dimension 20 and i love the choices people make, this is all just my opinion!

fantasy high freshman year: god i love gorgug in this season, he was such a goofy guy, and i love him. he honestly was what made me switch to playing more barbarians in my own gameplay

fhsy: fig was sooooo good in this season, the stuff with her and ayda, all the skateboarding away, and just her coming into her own as a person hit very hard for me.

the seven: ostentatia wallace was so good, and izzy was so fun at the table! i'm so excited to watch her in coffin run and in burrow's end. just yelling "i love you" at her dad and all the cleric shit was amazing, and i loved every second of her.

unsleeping city: i've only seen the first season, but i loved kugrash so much!! him being rat jesus was too funny, but he also had his heartbreaking moments. he was a very well developed character and murph played him so well

crown of candy: it's a tie between 3, which i know is so bad, but they are liam, lapin, and theo. they each are just so fantastic and i love them all so much. liam was so sweet, and then when he was a war guy, that was so good too! him and primsy <3. lapin was fucking hilarious, i don't care what anyone else says. his banter with theo was unmatched, and the last episode with him was heart-wrenching and i loved every second of it. theo is also so good. casting knock on the door!!! the banter, sprinkle, the protectiveness all of it!

ravening war: god i love colin and raphaniel so so much! they are such a duo. but so are colin and deli! but then deli and karna! but then karna and amongeux! god, that season was full of top players and i probably couldn't choose one rn.

starstruck oddyessy: god i loved gunnie! the ball is rolling up is in my vocabulary now, and i honestly enjoy everything that lou wilson does, he's phenomenal. also skip is fucking hilarious in the beginning, when he's learning how to talk, it makes me giggle all the time

neverafter: tbh i loved everyone in this season! my top favs were definitely ylfa and pinocchio though. lou's voice was fucking crazy but it was wonderful. his arc with his stepmother slayed. ylfa is a character that i relate to a little too much probably, but she is so wonderful. her and the wolf are crazy. i watch way too many edits with ylfa clips, it's probably something i should work on haha

escape from the bloodkeep: tbh i love leiland! i'm only on episode three but he slays figuratively and literally (though not much literally lol) matt mercer is a great player and i love everything he does!

i'm so sorry that this was so lengthy lmao, can you tell that i like dimension 20 and dungeons and dragons???

[221bsunsettowers]

Buck/Eddie: I Can’t Get Enough of This Kind of Love (Part 2 of the Good News on My TV Screen Buddie AU series)

In just a few days, Buck has been in his second helicopter crash, been rescued by his boyfriend and their friends, witnessed people almost dying at a bug eating competition and the largest charley horse possibly ever, seen a woman with a high heel through her face at a child's beauty pageant, and had his beloved Eddie tell him he loves him for the very first time while tripping on laced brownies.

So there's that.

In which news reporter Buck is an integral part of the events from the episode 2x06 "Dosed".

(Amazing fanart poster by the amazing @jemmalynette! )

(Thank you so much to everyone who left love and kudos and comments for the first story in this series! In my head, the first story was a one and done that I had a lot of fun writing, and then all the requests to make this a series inspired me to do exactly that!

If you haven’t read the first story in the series, I would recommend doing that first, so you get the background of news reporter Buck and firefighter Eddie, and how they first meet and get together. You can read the first story here )

I Can’t Get Enough of This Kind of Love (can be read on Ao3 here)

Carefully placing the box labeled Dishes on the kitchen counter, Eddie immediately went back outside, bending down to grab the next box. "You really want me to like you, don't you?" Maddie's voice came from behind, and Eddie spun around, meeting her stare with a hopeful smile.

"Honestly, Maddie, I really like your brother, so yes please," Eddie answered promptly, and Maddie's gaze softened. She stepped forward, and patted Eddie on the shoulder as she walked past him and into her new home.

"Excellent answer!" Maddie called back, and Eddie felt arms wrap around him from behind. He leaned back into his boyfriend's embrace, smiling as Buck planted a kiss behind his ear.

  "Evan!" Maddie yelled out the window, "you can make googly eyes at your boyfriend later, he wants me to like him and my furniture isn't going to move itself!" She smirked as Buck blushed and walked over to the couch, bending his knees and grabbing one end as Eddie dutifully grabbed the other.

"Googly eyes, maybe when you stop making googly eyes at Chim," Buck muttered under his breath, and Eddie laughed as they moved in tandem up the stairs.

"I'll tease Chim relentlessly at work if that helps," Eddie promised with a wink, and Buck grinned mischievously, nodding his head.

"We've got a helicopter crash, a news station was doing a traffic report," Bobby explained as the fire truck screeched to a stop and everyone quickly hopped out. Eddie noticed the rest of his team shooting worried glances at him, but he waved them off with a grateful smile.

"Buck never does the traffic reports," Eddie assured them, as Bobby called them into a quick huddle. "He told me he paid those dues a few news stations ago."

"Um, Eddie?" Chimney said hesitantly, facing the helicopter and extending a finger to point at the back window. Turning, Eddie met Buck's gaze, could see from even this distance how he was working hard to keep his breathing even and his body still.

"Fuck," Eddie breathed out, feeling his heart stutter in time with the still-spinning rotors.

"Eddie, you going to be okay on this one?" Bobby asked softly, laying a comforting hand on Eddie's shoulder.

"Buck needs me, Cap, I'm on it," Eddie promised, forcing his focus onto the job at hand. "We need to watch for dynamic rollover, when we start getting them out the weight of the copter could shift."

"Okay, Chimney, you're going to pull Buck out first, make sure you're keeping an eye on the balance," Bobby ordered as they moved towards the helicopter.

 "Eddie, can you shut down the helicopter?" Eddie opened his mouth, about to argue that he should be the one to get Buck out, but then he sighed, nodding, knowing he needed to trust his captain to get Buck out of there quickly and safely.

  Still, Eddie couldn't keep his eyes off Buck, lunging forward as the helicopter rocked, but then Chimney had Buck back on solid ground, and Eddie was next to the pilot, stabilizing the balance and shutting off the engine. The second he had the pilot out and in Hen's capable hands, Eddie spun around and grabbed Buck in his own grasp, pulling him into his arms.

Eddie gripped onto the back of Buck's shirt, tugging his body as closely as possible. Buck nestled his face into the crook of Eddie's shoulder, and Eddie swayed them gently from side to side, pressing his lips against Buck's temple. "You're safe, sweetheart," Eddie murmured into Buck's skin. "I've got you."

He could feel Buck nodding and pulled back just enough to see Buck's face, running a gentle finger over a small cut on his boyfriend's cheek. "Let me check you out," Eddie insisted, leading Buck over to a bench and kneeling in front of him.

"You can check me out any time," Buck bantered back with a mischevious smile, and Eddie laughed, shaking his head as he squeezed Buck's hand.

"Sounds like he's just fine!" Chimney called out with a smile, patting Buck's shoulder as he made his way over to where the pilot was sitting.

"No comments about how you're hotter than just fine, or how much you like me kneeling in front of you," Eddie commanded, pointing a finger at Buck, who shrugged and grinned,  Eddie smiling back in relief. "You scared the shit out of me," Eddie whispered, leaning in to cup Buck's face in his hands, laying a soft kiss on his lips. "Let me make sure you're okay, please?"

"Yeah," Buck whispered back, resting his forehead against Eddie's, "yeah, of course." Pulling out his penlight, Eddie shined the beam into Buck's eyes.

 Nodding in satisfaction, he took Buck through the rest of concussion protocol, checked for any other injuries, and cleaned out the small cut and bandaged it. Next to him, Chimney and Hen were finishing checking the pilot, assuring Buck he was completely fine.

"What were you doing on traffic anyway?" Eddie asked, sliding up to sit next to Buck, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as Buck leaned into Eddie's side.

"Oliver called in sick last minute, so I offered to sub in," Buck answered, sighing in relief as Eddie moved a hand to the back of Buck's neck, rubbing at the tense muscles. "I definitely didn't expect to be in my second helicopter crash." As Eddie's hand suddenly stilled at Buck's words, Buck bit his bottom lip, meeting Eddie's wide-eyed gaze. "If it helps, I clearly survived that one too?" he offered up hesitantly, and he heard poorly-concealed laughter coming from the rest of the team's general direction.

  "Can't say I didn't know what I was getting myself into," Eddie sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head, before leaning in to kiss Buck softly. "Let's try to keep helicopter crashes off the agenda, yeah?"

"No subbing in for traffic again or chartering a romantic copter ride for the two of us, got it," Buck recited with a smirk, and Eddie rolled his eyes, nudging Buck in the side before hopping off the bench.

  "Any chance I could get you to come back with me to the fire station so I can keep an eye on you?" Eddie asked hopefully.

"I would love that, but I have to get back to work," Buck said ruefully, gesturing at the news van that was already pulling up.

  Eddie sighed, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Buck's. "Text and call me when you can, please? Just let me know you're doing okay?"

"Of course," Buck promised, sneaking another quick kiss in before heading towards the van. Grabbing the door handle, he turned around. "Be safe out there, babe! And thanks guys!"

Eddie had gotten a myriad of selfies from Buck in the hours after the helicopter rescue. One at his desk, captioned I promise I'm watching out for papercuts. Another getting ready to go in front of the camera, Taking proper electrocution prevention steps. The pictures continued rolling in, Eddie laughing fondly at each one, saving them to his photos because he couldn't resist. Any picture of his boyfriend was one he wanted to have, even when said boyfriend was being a glorious little shit.

His phone trilled out "Breaking News!" again and Eddie quickly clicked on the new picture, a smile spreading across his face as the photo revealed Buck standing in front of the fire station, captioned Practicing fire safety. Shoving his phone in his pocket, Eddie hurried down the stairs, skipping the bottom step in his haste.

"Surprise!" Buck called out with a grin, hurrying forward to meet Eddie, throwing his arms around his boyfriend's neck before leaning in for a kiss. Eddie's arms looped around Buck's waist as he held him close, both men smiling broadly.

"This is a great surprise," Eddie proclaimed, brushing a curl of hair away from Buck's eye. "Did a story fall through?"

"Actually, a new story came up," Buck grinned, grabbing Eddie's hand and interlacing their fingers. "C'mon, let's go upstairs, I want to talk to everybody about it."

"Hey Buck!" Chimney met the two at the top of the stairs, grabbing Buck's hand and pulling him in for a quick hug. "Since we have a chance now, what kind of wine does your sister like best? I'm going over to help her move more of her stuff after work."

"Red, and make sure you bring some popcorn too," Buck answered with a wink, patting Chimney on the shoulder. "Maddie could eat popcorn all day every day and be very happy about it."

"Thanks!" Chimney called back as Buck made his way around the kitchen, greeting everyone else before moving to the coffee maker. Placing a filled mug in front of Eddie, Buck sat down holding his own mug (the one Eddie had brought from home for Buck to use whenever he visited the fire station). Leg brushing against Eddie's, Buck took a sip of coffee.

"Before I say anything else, I just want to make sure you guys know you can absolutely say no to this," Buck began, meeting the eyes of everyone else around the table. "You don't have to give me a reason, and I won't take any offense, I promise." Turning to Eddie, Buck interlaced their fingers. "Including you babe, okay?"

  Waiting until everyone had nodded, Buck continued. "My boss knows I'm dating someone from the 118, and after that helicopter rescue this morning, he came to me and told me he wants a story done on a day in the life of the LAFD heroes of the 118. I told him I have to be the one to do it, because I don't want anyone else twisting up the story in any way, and that you guys have to be okay with it or it isn't happening."

There was silence for a minute, and then Bobby spoke. "You know, normally I would absolutely say no to this," he said with a sigh, leaning back in his chair, "because a reporter could get in the way, could create their own narrative that has nothing to do with the truth, or could even use someone's pain or cause harm themselves. But Buck, you also know I trust you. I believe that you will do this truthfully and put the safety of others above the story."

"I will, absolutely Bobby," Buck vowed, blushing at Bobby's words. "I would never spin anything to make you guys look bad, and I would never put anyone in danger or show them suffering, I promise."

"Of course you wouldn't," Eddie said proudly, slinging an arm around Buck's shoulders and pulling him in close. Buck beamed up at him, leaning into his side.

"We all trust you, Buck," Hen said, and Chimney nodded, and Buck smiled bashfully, glancing down at where his and Eddie's fingers were now intertwined on Eddie's thigh.

"So it's okay to start tomorrow?" Buck asked hesitantly, and Bobby let out a gentle laugh, nodding.

"Absolutely, Buck, we'll see you then," Bobby responded, just as the alarm sounded, and the rest of the team leapt to their feet.

  "I especially like the part where you'll be at work with me all day," Eddie grinned, leaning in for a quick kiss, which Buck eagerly returned.

"Me too," Buck grinned back, squeezing Eddie's hand before letting go. "Stay safe, sweetheart."

The next day saw Buck arriving hand in hand with Eddie, each balancing a carryout tray of coffees in their free hand. "You know we already love you two, right?" Hen teased, plucking the coffee with her name on it from the tray and taking a grateful sip. "But please feel free to keep the caffeine coming."

"I'm ready for my close up!" Chimney announced, dramatically leaping into the room, arms flourished. He grinned as everyone laughed, before taking his coffee as well.

"Since you're so ready, Chim, why don't you come for your interview first?" Buck gestured downstairs, eyes twinkling mischeviously as Chimney followed him. "We can start with you telling the story about how you got  your nickname..."

By the time the round of interviews was over, Buck was near tears. He would swear he heard his cameraman sniffing as well. Every story the 118 had told him had broken his heart and lifted him up, all at the same time, and when his friends and boyfriend shared what were the best things about being a part of the 118, Buck was honored all over again that they had welcomed him into their family.

A sudden alarm jolted Buck out of his emotions and back into the present, and he quickly followed the team as they raced towards the fire truck and flung themselves in, settling into their seats.  "You mean I can't just ride on your lap?" Buck pouted teasingly, as he ran to the driver's side of the news station van.

"You've taken a ride on my lap plenty of times, Buck," Eddie murmured into Buck's ear, "and I'm sure we can arrange another ride when we get home tonight." Smirking, he planted a quick kiss on Buck's lips before joining the others in the truck.

"You gorgeous bastard!" Buck yelled at Eddie's retreating back, Eddie's snort of laughter making Buck smile as he buckled his seatbelt and started the car.

"Whoa!" Buck's jaw dropped as he took in the crowd, and particularly the monitor lizard, in front of them. "Did you know monitor lizards have long forked tongues just like snakes?"

"Ah, a fan!" the woman nearest the lizard exclaimed, clapping her hands as Chimney darted out of the way. "His name is Claude, and the winner gets to take him home. Do you want to give it a try?"

"I'm okay over here, thanks," Buck responded quickly, as he took in the rest of the scene before him, namely the man struggling to breathe. As the 118 made their way over to the man, Buck made sure he and his cameraman stayed out of the way.

Chimney and Hen both flinched as they knelt down beside the man. Buck had the cameraman swing the camera away as soon as he realized the patient was in clear medical distress, instead having him film the other competitive eaters at the table, which unexpectedly included the woman with live cockroaches crawling back up out of her mouth.

  As the man began breathing again (and consequently began throwing up live crickets), the camerman got footage of the saved patient and the 118 loading him into the ambulance. "Did you know Joey Chestnut once ate seventy four hotdogs in ten minutes?" Buck piped up eagerly, and Eddie grinned, giving Buck a quick peck on the lips as he hurried towards the truck.

"You are so smart, babe," Eddie said proudly, Buck beaming as he slid back into the driver's seat of the van.

  "Even live bugs erupting out of people's mouths can't turn you two off from kissing, huh?" Chimney called out as he started up the ambulance. Eddie shook his head, offering Chim a proud grin and a wink as he drove off.

After rescuing a body builder from the largest charley horse anyone there had ever seen, the fire truck and news van pulled back into the station, Buck hopping out to join the 118 as they headed towards the kitchen.

"You did good, kid," Bobby said with a smile, squeezing Buck's shoulder as he passed. "You put the people above the story." Buck ducked his head, blushing, as he did a pleased little hop on his way towards Eddie.

"He's right, babe," Eddie grinned, tugging Buck into his side, planting a kiss to the top of his head. "Just like the day we met."

"Thanks, baby," Buck said with a bashful grin, turning his head to steal another kiss from his boyfriend, before squeezing his hand and pulling away. "I've got to get in a call to Taylor and give her an update before the next call."

"I'll be waiting on the couch," Eddie promised, and Buck winked at him before striding away, already pulling his phone out as he headed towards the bench right outside the station.

"Want a brownie?" Hen asked Eddie as she walked over, holding out the last brownie on the plate.

"Thanks, I'm starving," Eddie answered, grabbing the brownie and taking a bite. "Are there more treats on the table for Buck? He's just calling in to his boss."

"There are plenty of delicious snacks left," Hen promised as she settled into a chair. "Just not any more of these between you, me and Bobby."

"As  long as there's sugar," Eddie laughed, looking fondly over towards Buck, who had now hopped up onto the bench and was skipping back and forth across it as he talked into his phone.

The next call brought them all to another unexpected venue, this time a child beauty pageant. "Is that..." Buck asked, trailing off as he stared at the reason the 118 had been called.

  "A woman with a high heel stuck in her face?" Chimney responded, shaking his head as they made their way towards her. "Yes, yes it is."

  The little girls were all swarming around Buck, who had crouched down immediately and was now occupied giving out smiles and high fives to the giggling children. So it took him a bit to notice that Eddie and Hen were definitely not acting like themselves. Eddie was staring down at the kids surrounding Buck with a look of shock and some terror too, his eyes wide and his body frozen.

"Eds, you okay there?" Buck asked, carefully rising to his feet and laying a hand on Eddie's arm.

"Are we giants, Evan?" Eddie asked, dragging out every syllable, before getting distracted for a minute trying and failing to see his own tongue. "Or are these the tiniest ladies ever?"

"Um, they're definitely kids, babe," Buck responded, eyes squinted in confusion even as he couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Your hair is glowing," Eddie breathed out in awe, holding his hands out over Buck's curls. "It's making my heart warm." Buck blushed, reaching for Eddie, who just kept making grabby hands at Buck's head. Buck quickly gestured to his cameraman to stop filming, before turning to Chimney.

"Hen's doing it too," Chim answered, just as confused, as he finished up with the injured woman and watched her be taken out on a gurney. Both men turned to see Hen poking a balloon, giggling with delight each time it bounced back at her.

  "They are definitely tripping," Athena said matter-of-factly, coming up from behind them, having finished putting the high heel attacker in handcuffs. Hen hurried up, beaming as she took in Athena's face before delightedly informing her she smelled like love. Athena calmly nodded her thanks before radioing in for RA backup.

"The brownies," Chim said suddenly, turning to Athena. As Athena pressed him for more information, Buck heard Eddie start loudly crying, and ran to his boyfriend's side.

"I don't like this," Eddie blubbered as a police officer gingerly handcuffed him.

"Hey, hey sweetheart, it's going to be okay, I promise," Buck promised, cupping Eddie's face in his hands reassuringly, Eddie leaning into the touch. "Just breathe, I've got you."

Eddie sucking in air and puffing out huge dramatic breaths was definitely a sight Buck was tucking away for later, to tease his boyfriend with when it wouldn't make Eddie start crying more. Athena shook her head and sighed, exchanging a fondly exasperated look with Buck before explaining to Eddie and Hen what had happened.

"We don't want you to hurt yourselves or anyone else," Athena finished, as Hen was beginning to reach for her for another sniff and a hug.

"Yeah, yeah I like that idea," Eddie choked out. As Athena helped guide them towards the door, the backup RAs rushing in, Eddie tugged back towards Buck.

  "I've got you, let's get you somewhere you feel safe," Buck said gently, squeezing Eddie's arm in reassurance.

"I love you, beautiful Buck," Eddie whispered into Buck's ear, before planting a sloppy kiss on Buck's cheek and letting himelf be led away, a stunned Buck following silently behind him.

Stumbling out of the bunkroom a few hours later, Eddie blinked at the bright lights, sighing gratefully as Buck pressed a large glass of water into his hands. After Eddie downed the entire glass without stopping, Buck refilled it and joined Eddie on the couch.

  "Are you feeling okay now?" Buck asked softly, as Eddie placed the now-empty second glass on the table and leaned his head onto Buck's shoulder.

"Just got a headache, dry mouth, and an overwhelming sense of humilation," Eddie huffed out, burying his face in Buck's shirt. "I can't even imagine what came out of my mouth."

"You don't remember, huh?" Buck sighed softly, and Eddie quickly lifted his head to look at him.

"Buck, please don't tell me I said something horrible to you," Eddie said quickly, grabbing at Buck's hands. "I was out of my mind, I had no idea what I was saying."

"That's what I was afraid of," Buck mumbled, staring at the floor. Eddie tugged at his hands until Buck looked at him again, and Eddie's eyes grew wise as he took in the pained look on Buck's face. Reluctantly, Buck pulled away before responding. "Eddie, you told me you love me."

"Shit, that's what I was afraid of," Eddie sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face. The whimper that slipped past Buck's lips, the sharp intake of shaky breath, and the footsteps quickly retreating had Eddie snapping his head back up, yelling "Buck!" as he saw his boyfriend's back moving further and further away.

Sprinting, Eddie reached out and grabbed Buck's hand, planting his feet and refusing to budge an inch as Buck tugged half-heartedly. "Eddie, please," Buck whispered, fixing his gaze on the floor. "I can't watch you walk away, okay?"

"And you think, what, that I want to watch you walk away instead?" Eddie was fully aware how much of himself he was putting on display, but he kept going, fingers under Buck's chin to tilt his head up and meet his eyes. "I meant I didn't want the first time I said it to be while I was out of my mind on laced brownies surrounded by tiny beauty queens."

  "Wait, Eddie, what..." Trailing off, Buck's breath hitched, his wide watery eyes staring into Eddie's.

"Turn the camera on," Eddie said firmly, gesturing to where the cameraman had left his equipment while he went to grab food with the crew. Buck opened his mouth, but Eddie gently lay a finger across his lips, shaking his head. "Please trust me, and turn the camera on. Point it right at me."

Buck nodded, shaky, picking up the camera and resting it on his shoulder, turning so the lens faced Eddie, who was now sitting down on the couch. As soon as the light switched on, Eddie looked straight into it. "You once asked me what was the best thing about being a firefighter with the 118," Eddie said, voice strong even as he wiped the fresh tear on his cheek. "And I said it was the comradery, that that was what I missed from being in the military, and I had found it here, again, with this team."

Lacing his fingers together, Eddie rested his chin against his knuckles, keeping his gaze focused on Buck, who appeared frozen, all breath and words caught up in his throat, eyes glued on Eddie's face. "But that's not true. I do care deeply about the people here, the family I chose, but that's not the best thing about being a firefighter here."

"Then what is?" Buck whispered, hands gripped so tight around the camera his knuckles had turned white.

  "The best thing is that I met the love of my life," Eddie said, making sure his voice was loud and clear, that both the camera and Buck couldn't miss a single word. Eddie shrugged helplessly, letting out a watery laugh as he bit his bottom lip. "This gorgeous man refused to air someone else's pain to gain viewers, and suddenly I was watching the news way more than I ever had before, just to see his face and learn his name. Turned out his name is Evan Buckley. And he's the bravest, smartest, kindest man I've ever known. And I am so, so in love with him."

Buck sniffled loudly, and Eddie knew his own voice and face were full of the degree of emotion he only ever really showed around his son...and now around Buck. There wasn't any point in fighting it, especially not if it ever made Buck doubt how much he was loved.

"So Buck, you can use this video in the story, you can keep it for yourself if you ever need a reminder of how very loved you are, you can do whatever you want with it. I know I don't always say how I feel, and I'm sorr-" His words cut off on a surprised huff as Buck suddenly put down the camera and ran to the couch, bouncing onto the cushions and tackling Eddie onto his back, immediately wrapping his arms around him.

"I love you too, Eds, so much," Buck sniffled, wiping at his eyes, "and if this is you keeping your emotions hidden, I don't think I would survive having you turn them on full force." Eddie laughed, grinning up at Buck full force, before reaching up and pulling him down into a slow, tender kiss, one that Buck eagerly reciprocated.

When the special on the 118 aired, Eddie and Buck watched it snuggled up on the couch with Christopher, all three in their pajamas and surrounded by empty pizza boxes and popcorn bowls. Christopher giggled and clapped his hands every time he saw his dad, and patted Buck's cheek with a grin every time he heard one of Buck's voiceovers play over the images on the screen.

The special concluded with a montage of the 118, all explaining why they joined the station and what it meant to them. Eddie heard his sound bites about the military and comradery interspersed with the others, before the camera focused in on him again. "The best thing is that I met the love of my life," Eddie heard himself say, the image on screen changing to a video clip of Eddie hard at work on the scene of a car crash, the very first day and the very same place he and Buck had met.

"The best thing is that I met the love of my life too," Buck's voiceover rang out over the footage, before the video faded out to a wideshot of the fire station. "And he is a hero, surrounded by heroes. The 118 never hesitate, never put their safety over the well being of others. They spend long days and nights in harrowing conditions, helping people through horrific experiences, and these brave men and women never ask for anything but to know where the next emergency is. We all owe the dedicated members of the 118 far more than we may ever know. So next time you pass by a fire station, think about saying thank you, even though they will never ask you to."

Eddie couldn't stop smiling, pressing kiss to Buck's temple, who grinned up at him from where he was nestled into Eddie's side.

The video shifted to one of Buck, hanging off the fire truck by one hand, grinning mischeviously. "Just please, please don't bring brownies. Try a nice gift card instead. Trust me on this. This is Evan Buckley, signing off, thank you for watching."

Eddie's laughter rang out over the closing credits.

If you would like to be added to my Buddie fanfiction taglist and/or my Good News on My TV Screen taglist specifically, just let me know!

@dancer-me @buddie-buddie​ @perfectlynervousbeard​ @i-had-bucky​

[terracyte]

terra my beloved !!! i caved and just watched the first episode of jjk and i am ✨curious✨!!! who’s your favorite character??? feel free to screech about them as much or as little as you’d like:)

corey!!! youre starting jjk ahHH welcome aboard <33 i know youve seen us all suffer but it's a good time i promise 🥰

so both kai and laila already talked about some of the very beloved characters <33 i absolutely adore geto and yuuji! they're such tragic but beautiful characters and the way their arcs parallel eachother are just :"3 also! i know you didnt ask but i think you and grace would love yuuji and maki a lot- yuuji is the pink haired mc and he is so precious (pure of heart dumb of ass if you will <3) and maki is an amazingly badass character and her outlook on life is basically all i aspire-

ok BUT this is all to say that I am v basic and my beloved one and only is gojo <3- yup the overpowered stringbean with white hair lol i know on the surface he seems like a p shallow character thats only defined by his power and looks (and also the author of jjk gege akutami HATES him and its so funny dkKJDHSA) but i could go on all day about what i love about him!!

he's just such a lonely character. hes someone who has the whole world watching him and never got to be a kid because of it. hes kind of framed as a "god" and hes expected to be a constant and always unshakable because thats how he builds himself up to be and what people expect of him. hes never really gotten a chance to be "human" if that's a good way to put it? idk how to explain it like- revered and respected (ok though that one is debatable among people who know him lol i mean hes a straight-up clown but I DIGRESS) but never really loved. and his infinity, "the space between him and the rest of the world," is probably the most heartbreaking metaphor ive ever heard- i won't go into specifics cause i don't want to spoil anything but more of his past/motivations/heartbreak is revealed in the manga and yeah i just love him a lot!!!

but my god this was an essay corey i'm so sorry- but really thank you so much for sending me this mwaH 💗💗💗 i hope you'll enjoy the watch!!

[fanficflaneuse]

Life in Black - The Pilot

Index 

Episode 1: The Pilot 

A/N: GIF is not mine, I found it on Giphy. I hope you like this experiment. It is a mixture of narration and scriptwriting. 

Words: 2341 

Summary: Bellatrix decides she wants to live with her younger sister and her brother-in-law. 

Opening Sequence 

Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy sat in front of each other. Just like every morning, they took breakfast in the porch, overlooking the gardens. Narcissa insisted it reminded her of her homeland and Lucius knew better than to challenge her. He indulged her instead. He read The Daily Prophet as she drank her tea.

Narcissa was in the middle of a story about the preparations for the Paris Wizarding Fashion Week, when they were shaken by a loud bang from the house. The couple ran inside, wands out and faces full of concern. The elves ran frantically to the living room. As they approached, Narcissa relaxed and Lucius tensed even more.

“Bella!” said Narcissa, approaching her eldest sister and giving her a hug. Lucius took a deep breath, bracing himself up for whatever was coming; Bellatrix and him were barely on speaking terms.

“About time you came to greet me, sister” she answered.

“We weren’t expecting you,” mentioned Lucius.

“Do you hear something, Cissy?” said Bellatrix, pretending her brother-in-law wasn’t in the room.

Narcissa rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here, Bella? I thought you and Rodolphus had moved back to Paris?”

“Don’t even mention him to me. We’re getting a divorce,” she said casually, not a hint of sorrow or melancholy in her voice.

Both Lucius and Narcissa eyed her warily. “I am so sorry, sister,” said Narcissa after a moment of awkward silence.

“Oh, don’t be. It was doomed from the beginning.”

“That’s what happens when you marry for convenience,” Narcissa said, shaking her head at the memory of Bellatrix’s rushed, loveless marriage.

“If the other option was to end with a slob like your husband, then no thank you.”

“Excuse you?” he said, outraged.

(NARCISSA MALFOY) TALKING HEAD.

(Narcissa sits on a very elegant armchair. The room is full of paintings and photographs staring at her. In the back of the room, above a marble chimney, there’s a very big portrait in which Lucius and Narcissa stand on either side of a teenager. He resembles Lucius and smiles awkwardly.)

“My sister...she’s truly something. I can’t really put it into words,” she says, politely smiling at the camera.  

(Lucius comes into focus. He’s sitting on another armchair).

“She’s crazy,” he adds, deadly serious. Narcissa frowned at him.

(Bellatrix comes into focus, half sitting on Narcissa’s chair arm).

“Excuse you?” she exclaims, mimicking his previous outburst.

[Back to scene]

Lucius and Bella bickered for a while. Even the elves stuffed their ears with cotton balls so they didn’t have to hear them. Narcissa grew bored a few minutes into their petty drama; it was always the same with them. This time, though, the fact that Bellatrix had decided to move in with them without even asking made their usual passive aggressiveness less passive and more aggressive.

After Lucius stormed off and Bellatrix chose to establish herself in the closest room to theirs, Narcissa decided to call the big guns (also known as her sister Andromeda). She knew her sisters didn’t have a good relationship, but she was also sure she couldn’t deal Bella full time on her own.

(BELLATRIX LESTRANGE) TALKING HEAD.

(Bellatrix sits cross-legged on a champagne coloured divan. It’s placed in front of a big window that oversees the Malfoy gardens. As she talks, a flock of albino peacocks runs in the background).

“My relationship with Andromeda? Oh, it’s nonexistence. Since she married that mudbl- oh right, everyone’s offended by everything nowadays. So, the pc term is muggleborn, right? Well, ever since she married that muggleborn and had a half blood spawn of the devil I decided I just have one sister. She also married an absolute tosser, but at least he brought a pure last name to the table.”

[Back to scene]

Andromeda appeared a few hours later, ready to see her sister for the first time since she got engaged. The two estranged sisters bared a very close resemblance. They were both tall women with curly hair, big, blue eyes, long eyelashes, thin lips and sharp jaw. Anyhow, as they sat by either side of Narcissa, she thought there couldn’t be in the world two more different people. Andromeda’s soft, brown curls in a fancy updo complemented her face and made her look younger. Her eyes were full of kindness and patience. Their older sister, on the other hand, had a thick, raven hair, which looked as though she had hardly combed it. It made her come across as a patient of St. Mungo’s fourth floor.

The sisters sipped tea stiffly and avoided eye contact. Narcissa decided that the feud needed to end, for her own mental wellbeing.

“Andy, Bella is now living with us here,” she said.

“What?” Andromeda now looked at her older sister, trying to the decipher the mask of indifference Bellatrix had always worn.

“Go ahead, laugh all you want,” said Bellatrix, a sardonic smile on her face.

Andromeda was left speechless for a few seconds. Narcissa could see her sister’s mind working and tried to amend Bella’s words.

“She meant -”

“Do you really think I’m so heartless, Bellatrix?”

“Well, you did change your beloved family for a dick,” she shot.

(NARCISSA MALFOY) TALKING HEAD

“I really can’t blame Andy.”

She has a knowing smile as she says this.

(Lucius comes into focus).

He smirks and nods.

[Back to scene]

“Well, Bella, at least I was transparent with my intentions. What were yours exactly? Have a pure and most noble last name and a bit on the side? We’ve all heard about that one, even Cissy, even if she pretends not to.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Andromeda.”

“Tom Riddle. Does it ring a bell? Toujours pur and all that crap only to end your marriage for a fling with none other than an ex - convict,” she spat.

“You’ll drown in your self righteousness, dear. How bored you must be with that husband of yours and all our stupid social norms.”

“You’re talking to me about social norms? You burned my face out of the family’s tapestry when I got engaged to Ted.”

“It was just a game and Cissy fixed it.”

“Just a game? For whom? An arsonist?”

“Your insufferable! Always thinking you’re the better sister, the prettier sister, the perfect sister.”

“I am the prettier sister,��� said Narcissa flatly; she had already grown bored of Bella bickering with everyone.

“I never said that!”

“You thought about it! I know you did. You think I’m unbalanced. You think I should be in an insane asylum or something, but I’ll tell you what, I’m smarter than you are. Wait till I fix my hair and climb out of the pit of desperation I’m in and I’ll even be prettier than you are.”

“It’s not a competition, Bella,” reminded Narcissa, “although if it was none of you would stand a chance against me.”

As always, the older sisters ignored the youngest one and concentrated on outsmarting one another. A loud bang came from the other end of the room. Narcissa, cigarette in one hand and lighter in the other, turned her head to see her cousin, Sirius and his husband, Remus. She shot them an almost pleading look as they took seats by her side as Andy and Bella had long since discarded their place.

“Cissa, toss me the light,” he said, lying back on the couch.

“No, no, darling. This is bad for your health,” she answered as she put the cigarette between her lips.  

Sirius raised a brow. “You taught me how to smoke,” he remarked.

As she refused again and he was about to give her some new argument, Remus put his hand on his spouse’s thigh. “Remember your new year’s resolutions,” he said in a sing-song voice.

Sirius groaned.

“What brings you two here. It’s been a while,” said Narcissa.

“Andy told us you invited her and we wanted to make sure Bellatrix didn’t rip her head off,” shrugged Remus.

(ANDROMEDA TONKS) TALKING HEAD

(Andromeda sits on a grey, L shaped couch. Her living room is small and cozy. It looks exceptionally clean. She’s surrounded by plants. Behind her, there’s a big shelf full of frayed books).

“Rip my head off? What, because I’m the only one of the Blacks who wouldn’t be diagnosed as a loony then I’d let Bella walk all over me? No, sir. I showed them right then and there I could also roast someone.”

She looks pleased with herself, but her smile falters a few seconds later.

“Is roast a real term? Did I used it correctly?”

[Back to scene]

Lucius had also joined the others in the drawing room. He cheered on Andromeda every time she said something particularly witty to Bellatrix.

“You go, ‘Meda!” he said after she remarked how everyone breathed a little more peacefully after she moved out.

Andromeda looked at him straight in the eye. “I know you’re my brother in law, but we’re not there yet, honey.”

“I hate her,” he said pointing at Bellatrix, “isn’t that enough?”

The three sisters looked at him, eyebrows elegantly raised.

“Whatever you say now will determine your faith, Lucius,” taunted Sirius.

“I’m also married to her,” Lucius continued, this time pointing at Narcissa, “so you should consider yourself lucky she didn’t run off and have a baby with a convicted felon.”

Remus snorted obnoxiously.

(NARCISSA MALFOY) TALKING HEAD

“I couldn’t smoke while I was pregnant with Draco. Hardest nine months of my life,” she says with a grimace, “it was all worth it, though. I’m living the dream. I mean, who doesn’t want to be in charge of a fifteen years old boy who only babbles about one of his classmates?”

She doesn’t look very convinced.

[Back to scene]

Sirius had joined in the roasting now. Bellatrix had mentioned something about her not being invited to his wedding with Remus. He, in turn, spilling the family tea all over the living room’s floor.

“I never really cared that you were a twi-”

“Tais toi!” screeched Narcissa, not wanting her sister to literally taunt their cousin once again for his sexual orientation. Bella knew exactly who else in the family she was mocking and Narcissa was having absolutely none of that.

DISSOLVE TO: the whole family sitting like scolded kids. Narcissa furiously pacing in front of them.

“This ends here!” she announced, “I’m tired of the Blacks being the absolute worst family in the history of families.”

“What is she saying?” Remus whispered to Sirius while Narcissa kept rambling.

“Shhh,” Sirius mumbled back, “I can barely understand. Somehow her accent keeps getting thicker and thicker.”

“Sirius,” she said. Her cousin perked up at the mention of his name. “When was the last time you saw Nymphadora?”

“Uhh, yesterday?”

“What?!” she exclaimed, “so you see each other regularly?”

“We go to work together.”

“You work?” she asked, even more surprised than before.

“I own a bar,” he shrugged, not surprised that his cousin didn’t know of his whereabouts.

“Of course you do,” interjected Bellatrix, “and what does dearest Nymphadora do?”

“She’s an auror,” Andromeda answered, not allowing any biting remark to come from her sister’s malicious lips.

Narcissa looked at Andromeda curiously. She tried her best to be close with both her sisters and yet somehow she didn’t know know Nymphadora was an auror. In her mind, for some reason, her metamorphmagus niece was still in Hogwarts.  

“She sees Lucius at the Ministry all the time. Just last week she told me they chatted on the elevator,” said Sirius.  

Narcissa shot his husband an accusing look.

“I’ve seen her a couple of times, but I never thought she worked there. I just assumed she roamed the building for...reasons.”

Andy facepalmed as Bella cackled.

“Alright, well those days are over.”

“What days?” asked Remus, afraid to know the answer.

“The days of us not knowing what each other are up to. Auntie Walburga died three years ago,” she said. Andromeda patted Sirius’ back when he frowned at the mention of his satirical mother. “She was the last one of our parents’ generation. It is our chance to start anew, to accept each other. So, it’s decided. We’re having dinner tonight.”

The rest of the family joined in a collective whine, but accepted. Everyone knew better than to mess with Narcissa once she was set on something.

A few hours later, the elves placed all sorts of delicacies at the table. Draco was granted permission to apparate from the school back home, arriving as the rest of the family took their sits. He frowned as he sat by his aunt Bella’s side, who only talked about how he looked like his good for nothing father. He sent a pitiful look at his cousin Nymphadora, who smiled amusedly at him as she tried to start a conversation with Regulus. Sirius and Ted were already talking like old friends and Remus and Lucius shared a laugh at Professor Snape’s expense. Andromeda looked satisfied. Narcissa, at the head of the table, eyed her family proudly.

“Levitate the potatoes my way, please Nymphadora?” said Draco. He wasn’t particularly close with his cousin, but he knew she hated the name.

“Don’t. Call. Me. Nymphadora!” she said as she pushed the potatoes a bit too harshly towards him. Her changed from purple to a shade of red.

“I like you already,” said Bella.

“That’s a very bad sign,” muttered Remus.

(LUCIUS MALFOY) TALKING HEAD.

(Lucius sits on the same elegant armchair as before. He has his legs crossed and the attitude of a dandy).

“Life is full of changes. Some big, some small. I learned a long time ago you can fight it or try to make the best of it. And that's all a lot easier if you've got people who love you to help you face whatever life throws at you,” he says, an affectionate smile on his face.

He then frowns worriedly. “I just hope my house doesn’t become the designated place of gathering. My peacocks couldn’t take it.”

Roll Credits 

[lindoig7]

Tuesday-Friday, 25-28 August

Tuesday

We awoke carrying a few aches and pains from yesterday’s exertions, so we relaxed over some very simple killer Sudokus – we finished our previous book yesterday so started a new one today and the first few are VERY simple.

It was still raining on and off – more off than on – so we stayed in the van virtually all day.  We sorted and edited photos and wrote for our blogs all morning and watched a movie in the afternoon – Legends of the Fall.  It was quite good, if a little depressing.

After I cooked a more than acceptable steak and added it to Heather’s veges brilliantly cooked inside, we ate dinner and then played dominos while waiting for the HWS to heat enough water to do the dishes.  We usually turn the HWS off during the day to save gas (and the noise the heater makes) and had forgotten to turn it back on in the late afternoon.

We then started a new series of DVDs – just the first episode of True Detective. It is too early to tell if we will like it, but it is set in the US.  For some reason, I thought it was set in the UK when we bought the series a couple of weeks ago.

Wednesday

We were still a bit fragile this morning so had another easy morning in the van. We had intended doing the laundry, but opted instead for a quiet morning catching up on a few items of business, looking at photos and relaxing.  It was mostly sunny but still felt cold so we ran our heater almost all day again.

During the afternoon, we went for a pleasant drive before hitting the supermarket and booze shop again.  We mostly shop at Woolies, but I needed beer and have become quite partial to a cheapie made specifically for Liquorland.  It is called Steamrail Pale Ale and given my penchant for the romance, noise and smells of steam trains (and the fact that I drove one about 30 km as an 11- or 12-year-old kid), it seems appropriate to add the taste of Steam(rail) to my list of pleasures. We shopped at Coles, but they didn’t have everything we wanted and Liquorland didn’t have Heather’s favourite cider, so we finished the groceries at Woolies and the booze at BWS after all.

Our drive was originally planned for Noojee, but we saw a turnoff to the Tarago Reservoir and detoured to that.  It was a delightful drive, especially the last couple of clicks to the reservoir itself – big trees, winding track through pastures, quaint farms and outbuildings – very cute.  We had a short walk around the sprawling picnic area (where all forms of picnics or social gatherings are absolutely forbidden) but access to the dam and its water is securely fenced off. Instead of returning to the main road and Noojee, we continued on the Tarago road through picturesque Jindivik and meandered via lesser roads back to Warragul.

Thursday

It looks like being fine most of today, but with a wickedly wild, wild wind.  It is howling around, rattling the whole caravan and battering the awning even though it is in the lee of the van.  A great day to get the washing dry and it was definitely laundry day for us – but Heather used the dryer in the laundry and everything was dry in the time it would have taken to peg things on the line (and retrieve the things that would inevitably have blown away!).

I had a few little maintenance things to do, including trying to secure the awning a little more rigidly. As I said, the wind has been quite ferocious here today, particularly in the afternoon, and the whole caravan is constantly buffeted and bombarded with the shriek of the wind and the crashing of the awning.

We went out for a walk in the afternoon, just a kilometre or two around the circuit behind the van, but it was quite hard work heading into the teeth of the gale.  It is a few days since we did the loop out there and it is amazing how much difference such a short time makes.  There are many more flowers out (mainly our beloved Flinder-bells, aka onion weed) but so many trees and shrubs are now in bud, the willows are covered with long trailing green ribbons, all looking very lacy and delicate, and even the scrawny little stick just outside the van is developing its mantle of beautiful white blossom.  We hadn’t noticed any of this before, but it seemed quite obvious today that the season is definitely changing – even if the weather still shows little hint if spring (other than its traditional winds).

It is getting very hard to post anything to my blog at present.  The Wi-Fi in the park is very weak and frustrating.  I can get very slow access most days until about lunchtime, but still with lots of delays and drop-outs.  After lunch, I can never access it at all.  I managed to post a few things today by transferring some text and photos from my PC to a Sandisk USB stick, then using Bluetooth to drop that into my iPad Camera Roll, and composing and posting that to my blog using my tethered iPhone as a hotspot.  It’s a slow and laborious process with too many steps and stages where I can get things wrong.  The Tumblr app is by no means intuitive – and is a bit different on either my iPhone or iPad – so the whole process is fraught!  I will just have to keep persevering – or get up early enough to post things from my PC in the morning.

We went down to the ablution block for our showers just before 5 pm with some mountainous livid clouds threatening – and it is a good job we never left it any later.  Heather got back in time, but I had gone down a few minutes after her and had to jog back to the van in the first of some sprinkles foreboding a very heavy downpour that hit just as I reached the awning.  Another 30 seconds and I would have had two showers for the day.

Within an hour, all Hell broke loose.  The wind went absolutely wild.  It shrieked through the adjacent trees and the awning on the van next to us was reduced to a twisted pile of scrap within minutes.  Ours disconnected from its struts a couple of times but we went out quickly and rescued it before any damage occurred.  We could hardly hear each other for the noise, and the poor screeching Corellas and Galahs in the trees were being blown off their perches. The rain bucketed down and the lights flickered on and off for several minutes. If any of the trees behind the van had fallen our way, the van would have been completely crushed.  Fortunately, the prevailing winds all pass our van on their way to the trees.  It was all very exciting, if more than a little disconcerting.  It rained/poured on and off until about midnight or a bit after, but the wind kept lashing the van until about 5 am.  Next morning there were numerous branches down around the park, but the extent of the damage elsewhere became obvious during our excursion later in the day.

I have experienced some amazing winds in caravans.  I recall many (many) years ago, I was in an onsite van in Busselton (Western Australia) which is not so far from the Cape Leeuwin weather station and we heard that the anemometer wound off its stanchion at about 190 kph.  We awoke to 20 cm of water throughout the park, but being so sandy, it was all gone within a couple of hours.  Much more recently, we were at Camperdown in our previous little van and it was so wild that I had to park the car across the van to shield it from the worst of it as well as chocking the wheels and tying it down.  And at Tibooburra a few years ago, we were the only van in the park and drove out to Cameron Corner for the day without any inkling of an impending storm – but came back in the afternoon to find all the components of the awning distributed around the park.  Fortunately, nothing was broken and we were able to reconstruct it well enough to continue on our way.  We sat out a wild cyclone in the Kuril Islands a few years ago and Heather drew attention to another exciting storm event the first time we approached Inexpressible Island in Antarctica (NEITHER of these were in our caravan) but I still think Thursday’s little puff was about as violent as I can remember – perhaps because we were so close to the trees and the cacophony they generated.

Despite the drama of the storm, Heather made the most wonderful meal using our new double-sided frying pan/mini-oven.  We had bought a boned leg of lamb and she marinated it for almost a day with a great concoction of herbs and spices (in lots of yoghurt).  Cooking it in the pan with lots of chopped onion resulted in the most amazing rich, caramellised, delicious feast you could imagine.  It really was fantastic and we have enjoyed the leftovers in 3 meals since.  Superb!!!

Friday

A really great day today.  We headed south to the coast, but you should have seen the trees on the way that had been brought down overnight.  We saw maybe 20 or so giants and hundreds of smaller trees as well as thousands of branches, twigs and metres of bark stripped from the vegetation. We had to drive around dozens of branches and small trees on the road, but the really big ones blocking the whole road were already being removed.  Council and SES crews were hard at work, along with local farmers who were cutting up the logs and repairing broken fences and other damage.  I don’t suppose this was hugely unusual for them, but for (sort of) city slickers to see so many mammoth trees that had been guarding the road for centuries laying on the ground with their roots splayed to the heavens was pretty amazing.  It reminded us how lucky we were not to have been in the way of the giants that could have demolished our caravan had we been in the path of one.

We went down through Korumburra and Leongatha to Tarwin South and hence to Tarwin Meadows – only to find that it was private property and we almost ended up in their front yard.  We back-tracked and followed a lovely quiet road to the Cape Liptrap Lighthouse.  It was a wonderful short walk to the light-tower itself and we enjoyed some magnificent views and saw some lovely little birds (and some quite a bit bigger). The coast was still pretty wild after the storm but we kept ourselves safe, well away from the fury, at the top of the cliffs.  We had a bit of fun playing the calls of the Brown Thornbills on our birding app.  There were quite a few around and several came out to say good mornig to us as well.  Don’t usually do this, but we were trying to confirm their identity using the app and next moment they were reacting with us.

We followed the coast as close as we could and ate our lunch at Walkerville North whilst watching the sea-birds (and a dog harassing them) before going on to Waratah Bay.  We walked along the beach and saw millions of tiny sand-balls created by the little crabs that had burrowed down while the tide was out.  There were quite a few pretty shells, all broken, and hundreds of small smooth stones of almost every colour and pattern.  The beach was very flat and very wide, at least 150 metres wide I reckon, but the tide was coming in and although we watched it for a while, I guess the entire beach would have been reclaimed by King Neptune within half an hour or so.

We tried to get to Shallow Inlet but were again thwarted by the National Park closure.  We had tried to get in from the east a week or so ago without success and coming from the west didn’t make it any more doable.  It simply doesn’t make sense to close so many parks and reserves because of Covid.  Every National and State park is locked up for no conceivable reason.  They would be the safest places around!  Sure, Melbourne people aren’t allowed to travel, but there is much more freedom throughout the rest of the State but government/s have chosen to punish the rest of the country despite there being absolutely zero risk.  Many of the rules are simply moronic.  There is no possible policy reason for them and the only other interpretation I can put on this stupidity is that the rules are set with only vindictiveness in mind.

We were able to go to nearby Sandy Point - and when we reached the end of the road, we simply drove straight onto the beach. We weren’t the only car on the beach and it was obvious from the many tyre tracks that driving on the beach was normal.  We drove half a kilometre or so along to where there was a sign indicating that driving beyond that point was not allowed, but it was a bit of fun and enabled up to get some good views of the shore-birds.  We saw about 15 Eastern Curlews – not that common in our experience – and a couple of hundred Red-capped Plovers – a lot more than all I have seen in my lifetime.  It was a great opportunity for a few photos and a bit of a novelty to drive on the hard-packed sand.  The whole area was wonderfully quiet and peaceful and quite beautiful!

We dilly-dallied there for a while and then drove home via Meeniyan, Mirboo North and Trafalgar with the last leg in particular being through really beautiful country.

[sanjayyyy-13]

The Heist

‘Ello Dudes! This was requested. It is influenced by the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Halloween episodes. I enjoyed making it. It is pretty long and I hope you guys enjoy!

It was a relaxing day at the manor with Damian laying his head on your lap and reading whilst you played with his hair and scrolled through Instagram. You sat in the living room on a beautiful victorian era couch that you were sure the queen had sat on. The high sun was streaming through the open windows and allowing the cool, fresh air to waft inside. Damian looked up at you and gave you a serene smile. He put his book on the side and said “Beloved, when was the last time we… you know?”. You blushed and asked “had sex?”. He nodded and pushed you down on the couch as his body hovered over yours. He sexily smirked and closed his lips over yours. It became really hot, really fast and the fresh air did nothing to cool your skin. He began kissing your neck and you tried your hardest to keep quiet.

You were enjoying the moment when you heard two loud voices coming from the hallway. You got up quickly and pushed Damian off of you, ultimately pushing him on the floor with a thud.“Ow” you heard him whimper as he got up and scowled at the two boys who walked in shouting at each other. “Sorry” you winced.  You felt really bad but got distracted by Dick and Jason yelling at each other.

“Jason, you are like a fucking elephant. You can’t stealth for shit” Dick yelled throwing his hands in the air. “You little shit. I can fucking stealth the fuck out of you” he replied back angrily. You were utterly confused and turned to Damian for an explanation but he just shrugged. “Guys, Whats the problem?” You ask curiously. “This asshole completely ruined our operation because he couldn’t sneak into the warehouse without letting everybody know we were there” Dick clarified. “I caused a distraction so you could get the information faster” Jason butt in furiously. “Boys, I am sure that we can work this out. Jay, just apologize for ruining the operation and Dick say sorry for saying he can’t stealth.” You say. Damian turned at you with a glare because he hated it when you called Jason, Jay. You glanced apologetically at him and turned your attention back to the mess in front of you.

“I’ll only apologize when he proves that he can actually stealth. I bet he can’t even steal Tims prized computer mouse without him noticing” Dick says confidently. “Oh you wanna bet? I swear. If I get that stupid mouse before the sun sets and before you, you have to embarrass yourself in front of the members of Young Justice” Jason says maliciously. “Pfft, I bet I can get it. And if I win then you have to embarrass YOURself in front of Young Justice” Dick says nonchalantly. “Deal” Jason replies.

You glance at Damian and he just shrugs and picks up his book to continue reading. “Wait, but we can’t do this by ourself, I want teams. And I get first pick because I proposed the idea.” Jason says. “I want (Y/N)” he continued. Damian glared menacingly at him and said “(Y/N) and I will not be taking any part of this incompetent game”. He pulled you toward him and whispered so only you can hear “Come on. Let’s continue what they interrupted in my bedroom. You clenched your thighs.  “Dami, it’s fun. Just play along” you said. “I will not be taking part of this incompetent game. This is absolute insanity.” Damian said lowly. “Let’s go partner we have an ass we need to kick.

-Time Skip-

Jason managed to recruit Cassandra on his team unbeknownst to Dick. However you were pretty sure Dick had Barbra and Stephanie. You were glad you had Cassie because you knew she was much more skilled than all of the combined. When Jason was trying to recruit her he was legit begging on his knees and holding her hands in his saying “Please, Kit Kat. I promise I will let you use my motorcycle whenever you want.” You stood back and watched whilst Cassie pleaded to you through her eyes to get him off of her. “Jason will promise to stop calling you Kit Kat, if you join our team” you said. “Fine! Just get him off of me” Cassandra said impatiently.

That ultimately brought you here, in front of Tim’s room. You were supposed to be the distraction and lure him out the room whilst Casandra came through the window you would open and steal the mouse. It was a good plan and Jason said he would join at the end where he would hide the mouse in a secret place only he knew. You knocked on his door and walked in to see Tim hunched over his computer with the room completely dark and eerie. “Hey, Timmy.” You said cheerfully. He looked up from his computer and said “Oh hey there (Y/N). Didn’t know you were here.” You smiled and walked in, closing the door behind you. “Why is it so dark in here? It smells like week old coffee. You should let some fresh air” you stated as you opened the curtains and cracked open the window.  He hissed at the unwelcome sunlight and screeched “No! Oh man the smell of coffee was keeping me up.” You rolled your eyes and said “Tim, you should probably go and have a shower. Take a break man”. “I-I suppose I can do that.” He says. You were surprised it was that easy. He got up from the bed and walked towards his bathroom. He turned around and said “But if you even think about taking my computer mouse, just know I can ruin your life in a matter of seconds”. You gulped and he continued to make his way to the bathroom, closing the door and locking it. You wondered how he even knew about that but just shrugged because what harm could poor little Timmy do. You were lost in thought when you completely forgot to leave after you saw Cassie prying the window open. Your part of the deal was done, you were free to do whatever you wanted now.

Leaving the room quietly you began walking down the hallway and saw Stephanie walking towards Tims room. Fuck. Cassie is probably not done yet. You stepped in front of her and said excitedly “Hey! Steph. How are you? I haven’t seen you in ages.”. She smiled mischievously and said “Don’t even try distracting me. I have a mission and I intend on completing it.”. She started speed walking to his room and you had to jog to catch up with her. “Oh please, I just want to catch up” you said. She stopped unexpectedly and said “You know, Damian is looking for you. He seems pretty pissed so good luck”. “Lies” you said dangerously. She shrugged and continued walking, “believe what you wanna believe (Y/N)” she threw over her shoulder. You didn’t want to risk it so you began searching for Damian throughout the manor.

-30 minutes later-

You glanced at your phone and realized you have been looking for Damian for 30 minutes and it was nearing the deadline for the heist. You sighed and began calling Damian’s phone, unfortunately he didn’t pick up. God damnit. Where could he be? Your phone began ringing and you excitedly thought it was Damian however it was Jason calling you. You answered saying “What’s up?”. “(Y/N), where are you? We were supposed to meet in the kitchen! We have 10 minutes left” he said hurriedly. “All right I am on my way” you replied. You made your way to the kitchen and saw everyone crowded in there. Dick, Barbra and Stephanie were on one side of the counters whilst Jason and Cassie were waiting for you on the other side. Both of them looked pretty smug so you wondered which team actually had Tims prized mouse.

“Ahh, (Y/N) how nice of you to join us” Dick said. You rolled your eyes and took your place next to Cassie. Leaning against the counter behind you, you glanced at Jason who was smirking at Dick. “Jason, you have proved your incompetence by not having the mouse.” Dick said confidently. He pulled out a black mouse with green stripes on the side. You began to chuckle because you knew that that wasn’t his “prized” mouse. It was just his regular mouse. “You fool! That isn’t his favorite mouse. This is” Jason proclaimed pulling a green mouse with a cool design on the top. You glanced at the clock and realized there was only 1 minute left. “You both are retards! Those are not my favorite mouses. The golden one is. It is right behind my computer stand.” Tim said as he walked in from the side door, smirking. Everyone turned to look at him in surprise.

Jason and Dick looked at each other and an unspoken race began. Dick threw the mouse at Jason to startle him and ran for the exit. Jason recovered and glared at Dick whilst going for the exit it front of him. Both ultimately failed when they realized the door was locked. Everyone glanced at each other in confusion. “I suppose I win.” Damian said unexpectedly coming from the same entrance Tim did. Everyone brought their attention on Damian and gasped as he pulled out the golden mouse from his pocket. He was smirking big time and looked super smug about it. Jason and Dick both glared at him and ran for him. Jason said “(Y/N) is on our side. And you love her right. Give it to me then”. Dick said “Oh baby bird. I’m your favorite brother. Come on and give it to me!”. Damian scoffed and looked at the time realizing there was 5 seconds left. “I guess since your both sore losers, you can both embarrass yourselves in front of the league” Damian proclaimed. They both sighed and groaned sadly.

-Time Skip-

“Why did you let yourself be dragged away, (Y/N)?” Damian said softly. You guys were currently sitting in the living room of the young justice compound waiting for the others to shown up for their embarrassment. “I’m truly sorry Damian. I wish I could change that” you replied sadly. He pulled you to sit on top of him and said “It’s okay beloved. I love you”. You smiled and gave him a passionate kiss. His hands to your hips to keep you balanced as he began kissing you back. He pulled back and you saw lust misting over his emerald hues. “You know, we never really got to finish what we started at the manor” he whispered seductively. You clenched your thighs and started kissing him back with a new hunger. But ultimately was once again disturbed by the sound of footsteps coming through the hall. You pushed yourself off of him hurriedly and ended up hurting his arm in the process. “Ow” he said holding his arm. You chuckled and said “I’m really sorry. Deja vu. It’s like living rooms are bad luck”. He smiled.

The members of the young justice filed in the living room and sat in their seats waiting for a supposed performance by Jason and Dick. Dick said he wanted it to be classy embarrassment when you asked what he was gonna do. Everyone greeted you and Damian. Everyone was there, M’gann, Artemis, Wally, Conner, Tim, Steph, Barbra, Cassie, Kaldur and Zatanna. “Ladies and gentleman, welcome to our fabulous play, Romeo and Juliet” Dick’s voice echoed. Everyone began laughing. The fake curtains rolled open revealing Jason wearing a olden era dress looking out his balcony. All the girl began hollering and whistling at him. He seemed pretty miserable and uncomfortable and he had a look that roughly translated to “I hate everybody”. He began flatly saying “Oh Romeo, oh Romeo. Where art thou, thy Romeo”. Dick came out of nowhere wearing pretty tight tights and a fluffy top that looked ridiculous. Everyone began dying of laughter. “I am here my Juliet” he said dramatically.

You laughed so hard and Damian was chuckling along with you. You looked up at him from your position and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Hey! This is our love story you love birds” Jason yelled pointing at you and Damian. Damian stopped laughing and began blushing furiously at the attention everyone was giving him. “Shut it Todd and keep in character” he growled. You laughed and the show continued. The whole night was dedicated to the hilarious embarrassment of Jason and Dick. After the show you and Damian retired to his room… not to sleep though *wink* *wink*.

[yourpixiewrites-blog]

Supernatural Parody 2 - Review

Now I’ve been a fan of Hillywood for a couple of years now. I wouldn’t say I’m a superfan, but I really do enjoy their stuff, and I think they’re both incredibly talented. They’ve had their good stuff, and they’ve had their not so good stuff, but that’s not what we’re here for. Right now, we’re here to review their second Supernatural Parody.

Please remember that this review is based on my opinions, and my thoughts and feelings while watching/listening to this parody. I’ve seen it a few times now, so this isn’t my initial reaction, but I can tell you, my initial reaction was full of screaming, yelling, and disturbing the locals.

Possible spoilers below if you have not yet seen this parody!

So we start out with their usual intro with a collage of their supporters, the super-awesome blend of Supernatural title screen cards, and a request to not repost this anywhere. That’s REPOST, not share. Share the Hell out of it to get them the love they deserve, but don’t repost it and make it look like it’s yours or something, because that’s a douchebag move and you’re scum if you do it. As they say, help protect the work of online creators!

The first thing you hear is a phone ringing, and you see a short list of who stars. Upon seeing Osric Chau, I knew it was going to be good, because it’s Osric guys. And Hannah Hindi has phenomenal directing skills, so massive kudos to her for pulling this together the way she did alongside Hilly and the others.

When the screen finally comes to the start of the video itself, you get Misha. Misha Collins. Yes, that same Misha who plays the damn Angel that everyone – myself included! – is obsessed with. The same Misha who created GISHWHES. (more on that another time!) And he is playing a receptionist. If you don’t get this reference, you need to watch the movies, because seriously, that’s some good shit. I however got the reference, and this was my first screech moment. Misha Collins, playing the receptionist from Ghostbusters. YES! And my gosh, Misha does it so well. He just fits so naturally into the roll and he brings something to it that is just right. He answers the call, gets the information needed, and with a delighted yell, he hits the bell. Please welcome to the stage; Osric Chau and Hilly Hindi! And of course, Hilly’s lunch.

Osric, if you remember, was in the very first Supernatural Parody, so it’s fantastic to see him back reclaiming his role as Sam Winchester, our loveable Moose! Osric of course is not Jared, but he brings something of his own to the character of Sam and he does it incredibly well. He and Hilly work so well together. There’s a chemistry there that just makes them click, and everything they do throughout this parody is flawless and well-done. And this is when the music really kicks in, you hear the siren that makes you feel really nostalgic, and you see the beloved Impala with a bit of a makeover to fit the theme. I will forever envy that they get to use the Impala for these parodies, because holy hells bells, I would kill to have an Impala! The music has a much more rock feeling to it than the original does, so my inner Rockstar was thrilled. And instead of “Ghostbusters”, we have a call of “Winchesters!” This made me smile to no ends.

Immediately I felt that the lyrics fit so well that it’s not even funny, and the song is well re-written/parodied for this. They did a fantastic job on that front.

Insert my second screech of the day, Samantha Ferris and Chad Lindberg! Respectively, Ellen Harvelle and Ash, both of whom were amazing characters in the show, and I was so, so mad when they came to their ends. Following them, we had Alaina Huffman, known on the show as Abaddon, and the giant suicidal from that one episode where I imagine most if not all of us were wondering what the Hell was going on. She was my third screech, because I adore Alaina, and I was so, so glad she featured here. And, having watched the two hour long behind the scenes footage, I know that the guys behind moving the teddy did a really, really good job in making the movements fluid and alive.

Cue more epic dancing and acting from Osric and Hilly! Followed by a party in the Impala, and Jim Beaver. Good ole’ Bobby Singer himself! I screamed so loudly that the locals wondered if someone was being murdered or not. We will never not love Jim in this fandom, and we will always welcome him back with open arms no matter what the writers do to try and get rid of him. And damn it, Hilly, you’re so lucky that was a fake mirror!

On the verse talking about the hellhounds, we had Ruth Connell. An absolute Queen, and the perfect actress to have played Rowena in the show. Even in silk pyjamas with her hair in rollers, she was beautiful and graceful as ever. And she needs her beauty sleep don’t you know? Let’s get those Hellhounds out of here!

Hilly was disappearing through the mirror she’d broken, but it was a good thing Jim and Osric were there, because let’s be honest, would Bobby and Sam really, truly let Dean disappear like that? I don’t think so!

Another Impala party with lots of plaid. Every plaid fan is melting by this point because look at it all! And if you watch carefully enough during the Impala party scenes, you’ll see the appearances from Lauren Tom (Kevin’s mother), Tyler Johnston (Samandriel), Tahmoh Penikett (Gadreel), Adam Rose (Aaron Bass), Adam Fergus (Mick Davies), Michael Borja and Billy Moran of Louden Swain, Jason Manns (writer/performer of various episodes), and Clif Kosterman, who is not only Jared and Jensen’s personal bodyguard and driver, but also made an appearance as “Tiny” in Folsom Prison Blues from season 2, and also briefly as the wrestler Wrecking Ball Calhoon in Beyond the Mat in season 11. We also get another appearance from Sam and Chad (Ellen and Ash), because hey, who doesn’t want to see these two dancing in plaid?

I feel like I forgot to mention the scene recreated from “Changing Channels” because that was an amazing, funny episode, and was recreated very well in the various clips of it throughout this section of the parody.

Jake Abel is next to make his appearance, and finally, after 8 seasons, we get to see Adam Milligan getting his ticket right out of the cage in the form of a get out of hell free card! Monopoly reference anyone? But really, I’m so glad to finally see Adam getting out of there. It’s been too long, guys! Way too long!

Richard Speight Jr is back, but not as Gabriel this time. Instead, he claims the role of news channel host T. Rickster. D’you get it? Trickster? I thought it was a good joke… Rob Benedict follows as the on-site reporter instead of playing God, who to the fandom will always be known as Chuck. Both are hilarious in their own rights, and bring some bounce and joy to the reporting characters, so good casting call right there girls! And not only would I love to hear some of Rob’s ghost stories, but he referenced the thing! The saving people, hunting things! Did anyone else add the family business to the end of that line or was it just me?

I’m not going to continue to retell the whole parody like this, because honestly, you can see it for yourselves. Go and check it out on Hillywood’s YouTube page. Throughout the rest of this parody, just when you think they couldn’t possibly fit anymore guest star appearances into it, they do! We get to see Curtis Armstrong (Metatron), Alex Calvert (Jack the Nephilim), Briana Buckmaster (Sheriff Donna Hanscum), Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills), Mark Pellegrino (Lucifer), Julian Richings (Death) and Stephen Norton, also of Louden Swain. Of course we have more scenes of Misha as the receptionist, and finally, the appearance of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, respectively, Sam and Dean Winchester.

I feel like Jensen and Jared had way too much fun pretending to be ghostbusters in this. They did a great job, as expected, and they really brought something to it, as did all the other stars appearing. You have to admit, Death himself enjoying some pizza is probably one of the best things we’ve seen on the internet in a while. It certainly was for me, and it definitely beats all the cat memes I’ve been watching! Adam Stuckey taking back his roll as Crowley was a massively well-made choice, because he just does it so well, from the facial expressions down to the mannerisms. I feel like Mark Sheppard would be proud!

All in all, this parody is one long video of screaming, getting excited, dancing along and yelling at your friends each time you see one of the actors show up to play their part. I thoroughly enjoyed everything from the music, right down to re-creation of some of the iconic scenes. And you can never get enough references, either! Yellow eyes, though, was probably one that made us all huff a little because look at all the trouble this guy caused! The music was a perfect choice, the dancing was flawless and the acting was on point. Another amazing parody from the Hillywood Show. Both girls are super talented, and did an amazing job with everything.

Please do check them out, I’ll add links below to both the parody, and the BTS video. Show the girls and their channel some love and support because they deserve every little bit of it!

 Parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsy06n-omrg&t=481s

Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQVirHo_y_Q

[lastsonlost]

Thanks goes out to @yourownpetard​for bringing this to my attention with his post HERE.

Fifteen years ago, Hollywood’s glittering superstars—among them Meryl Streep— were on their feet cheering for Roman Polanski, the convicted child rapist and fugitive from justice, when he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Director. But famous sex criminals of the motion picture and television arts have lately fallen out of fashion, as the industry attempts not just to police itself but—where would we be without them?—to instruct all of us on how to lead our lives.

The Golden Globes ceremony had the angry, unofficial theme of  “Time’s Up,” which quickly and predictably became unmoored from its original meaning, as excited winners tried to align their entertaining movies and TV shows with the message. By the time Laura Dern—a quiver in her voice—connected the nighttime soap opera Big Little Lies to America’s need to institute “restorative justice,” it seemed we’d set a course for the moon but ended up on Jupiter: close, but still 300 million miles away. And then Oprah Winfrey climbed the stairs to the stage, and I knew she wouldn’t just bat clean-up; she’d bring home the pennant.

Winfrey began speaking to crowds at the age of 3. “Little Miss Winfrey is here to do the recitation,” the preacher would say, and the whole congregation would lean in to listen to the remarkable child. As far as sexual abuse is involved, no one speaks with greater personal authority; the first time she was raped, she was 9.  “I knew it was bad,” she said later, “because it hurt so badly.” From the second she started speaking at the Golden Globes, filling the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton with her rich, confident, and sui generis voice, she gave the night what it had so desperately wanted: emotional coherence.  

She smoothly accomplished what other speakers had struggled to do: She connected the grotesque but statistically insignificant problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood to the larger fate of women and girls. “It’s not just a story affecting the entertainment industry,” she said; “it’s one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace.” She said that a new day was on the horizon—this was near the end of the speech, by which point she could have marched the crowd right over to The Weinstein Company and torched the place—and that the catalyst for this important change was the number of women willing to “speak their truth.” In that moment, all us watching from home witnessed the revolution become a movement.

Less than a week later, the movement became a racket. A previously obscure website called Babe, which is operated by a group of very young women in Brooklyn, got a hot tip. Through the grapevine, the staff had heard that another young Brooklyn woman had been talking about being sexually violated by the comic Aziz Ansari. They reached out to a woman they called “Grace,” persuaded her to “speak her truth,” albeit anonymously, and rushed the piece into publication: Ansari was given less than six hours to respond to these reputation-destroying allegations. There was no need for the furious pace—this wasn’t a breaking story about a political election or a natural disaster—which seemed to have been motivated by the urgency of the “Time’s Up” motto. Almost immediately the piece became the object of intense cultural interest, with many commentators (including myself) deciding that Ansari had been unfairly treated by the website. Just as many others, particularly young women, said that the account resonated deeply with them, and concluded that Ansari had violated Grace.

Predictably, the piece drove huge traffic to Babe, and visitors who explored the site were exposed to its credo: Babe is created by and for “girls who don’t give a fuck.” Collectively, the articles address what the site suggests are universal conditions of the young female heart, or at least conditions universal to its fans. Unfortunately, many of these shared concerns boil down to an almost exact list of traits which blatantly misogynist websites like Return of Kings have enumerated for years. 

The Babe girl is 

MANIPULATIVE (“Period-Trapping Is the Only Way to Find Out if You’re in a Relationship or Not”)

INSECURE (“You Should Be Secretly Looking Through Your Partner’s Phone”)

ADDICTED TO DRAMA (“We Pranked Our Exes and Asked Them to Be Our New Year’s Kiss and It Was a Complete Disaster”)

JEALOUS (“You’re Not Paranoid: This Is How to Tell If Someone Else Is Closing In on Your Man”)

OBSESSED WITH TEARING DOWN THE SAME FEMALE SHE’S IDOLIZES & ENVIES (“Amber Rose’s Plastic Surgery Is Absolutely a Feminist Statement” and  “Sorry, but Kendall Jenner Can’t Model for Shit”). 

The Ansari piece was written by a recent college graduate named Katie Way, who shot into the popular awareness like a rocket blasting away from Cape Canaveral on Sunday night, only to plummet—flaming and disintegrating—by Wednesday. On Monday, she was excited to appear on CBS This Morning to discuss her piece, tweeting, “Catch me on @CBSThisMorning brrright and early tomorrow morning, can’t wait for America to hear my weird low voice.” But her anger toward those who would question her motives and moral rightness was soon piqued by the HLN news analysis show Crime & Justice. The host, Ashleigh Banfield, read an open letter to “Grace” in which she said, “You have chiseled away at a movement that I, along with all of my sisters in the workplace, have been dreaming of for decades.”

The producers reached out to Way, via a direct message on social media, inviting her to come on the show to discuss the essay. At this point, Way abandoned the low voice for the high-pitched screech of the angry teenager. She wrote back that she wouldn’t go on the program, principally because Banfield was too old and unattractive, called her a “burgundy lipstick, bad highlights, second-wave feminist has-been,” and said that “no woman my age would ever watch your network. I will remember this for the rest of my career—I’m 22 and so far, not too shabby!”

I happened to be sitting in a Los Angeles green room waiting to appear on Crime & Justice the night when Banfield read part of this fantastical letter on the air, at which point the entire Katie Way arc of the story seemed to have turned into an unfilmed episode of Girls: the time Hannah wrote a hit-piece on a famous celebrity but only did half the amount of work required, and when confronted about it by a respected journalist she fired off a nasty letter that might have seemed like a great idea in the moment but ended up getting read on national television. Suffice it to say, it seemed that Katie Way—beloved only child, recent graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, nongiver of fucks—had bitten off more than she could chew.  

Like many news and information websites created by young women, Babepublishes many stories on sexual assault. But unlike most other such outfits, it also runs stories about the pleasure of rape fantasies. Feminists have fought for years to keep the notion of rape fantasy as far as it could possibly get from actual reports of sexual assault. But those were feminists who gave a fuck. Babegleefully, witlessly runs angry pieces about sexual assault as part of the same cotton-candy pink, swirling galaxy as the ones that describe the pleasures of fantasizing about rape. The site has devoted many pixels to explaining to readers how enjoyable and common these fantasies are.

Babe explains to readers that rape fantasies serve lots of worthy sexual desires: “You want to know you’re wanted”

 (“A Clinical Psychologist Revealed Why Women Have Rape Fantasies and It’s Totally Fascinating”)

 “What I like about rape fantasies is the loss of control” (“These Women Revealed Why They’re Into Rape Fantasies”)

 “It’s all about ‘sexual desirability’” (“There’s a Major Rape Fantasy Sub-Culture Out There That’s Pretty Intense”)

 “I hear how rape fantasies can be exciting and fun, even for those who have been raped. It’s not an unhealthy expression of sexuality” (“A Sexologist Explains Why Women Have Rape Fantasies”)

 “I beg him to stop while he carries on fucking me harder and harder. I dig my nails into his back with tears in my eyes and whisper that I want to go home” (“Sex IRL: The Grad Student With Graphic Rape Fantasies”).  

Many of the pieces on actual sexual assault are filled with the precise, clinical detail that is the hallmark of reporting on the subject, such as the texts between two high school students after a drunken hook-up which the girl said constituted an assault, but which the boy thinks was not: “Wanna clarify that we didn’t fuck last night … I ate you out and fingered you, but that’s it.”

Obviously these two types of story are in conversation with one another. For girls who enjoy rape fantasies, the vividly reported sexual assault reports provide a world of concrete details to feed into them.

Katie Way’s college interests were journalism and creative writing. At Northwestern she wrote skillfully composed short stories in a vein of fiction she admired: magical realism. One of the reasons her Babe story has such an impact on readers—other than its naming of a very famous man—was its literary skill: It’s filled with precise details, and provides an immersive, world-building reading experience. On a “beautiful, warm September night” Ansari and Grace walked together to a romantic dinner spot, “Grand Banks, an Oyster bar onboard a historic wooden schooner on the Hudson River.” Over lobster rolls and a bottle of wine, they chatted about things that mattered to Grace: NYU, photography, and “a new, secret project” that Ansari was working on. They headed back to his apartment located in “an exclusive address on TriBeCa’s Franklin Street, where Taylor Swift has a place too.”

It was a night when a rich, successful, older man was taking a huge amount of interest in a young woman and treating her well: taking her to a fancy dinner, paying the check, listening to her stories. It’s a dream date. And then—as soon as they walk through the door of his apartment—the story turns dark and terrible. The language that Way uses to describe it is not the straight-ahead dispassionate language of crime reporting; it’s the language of pornography:  “‘Where do you want me to fuck you? Do you want me to fuck you right here?’ He rammed his penis against her ass while he said it, pantomiming intercourse.”

The piece, with its dreamy opening, its pornographic passages, and its tone of aggrieved score-keeping over petty slights—HE DID OFFER HER THE KIND OF WINE SHE LIKES—has stirred something in young women.  

But the piece is the almost inevitable consequence of a lifestyle promoted on the website, which enjoins young women to fulfill men’s sexual desires and to— literally—behave whorishly. Or, as a wrap-up of Babe’s 2017 service journalismput it: “You now know how to give life-changing blow-jobs, what it’s like to have rape fantasies, what percent hoe you are based on a scientifically accurate quiz, and how to keep your lipstick on even if your mouth is … otherwise occupied.”

Pulsing underneath all of this is the exact emotion which Katie Way lost control of Wednesday night: rage, so overpowering and so poorly understood that it can easily erupt and excoriate the wrong person.

In such swirls of high emotion and with diffuse goals, social entrepreneurship becomes lucrative. This Ansari episode, for example, has been a huge boon to the girls who don’t give a fuck, as they gleefully tell every reporter who asks them about it. As the writer Kerry Flynn wrote in an essay about the website published in Mashable, “For Babe, Grace's story was a big break—good for traffic and for the brand.”

[shiningsagittarius]

The Penultimate Peril

Er, whoops- wrong franchise

(Book and show spoilers up ahead! And to your right, you’ll see a sign that says “these are my thoughts and opinions”)

1 x 07

STARTING OUT STRONG WITH KATE’S MISSION!!

The m u s i c 👌👌👌👌

HER SNEAKING UNDER THE CONSOLE

The keycard isn’t working omg

I have no idea what to make of the Jackson and Jillson banter XD

“Not. A. Rat.” A very husky mouse?

“Given his memory challenges…” “…His short-term memory is spectacular”

“That’s a plausible theory… I buy it” Rhonda my absolute beloved

The rudder 😰

Oh cool she’s straight up at the edge of a dANGEROUS CLIFF

SHE’S LITERALLY HANGING ON THE EDGE OF A CLIFF, THIS BRAVE GIRL!!

Constance guessed Sticky’s dream!! Reading his mind, or just an accurate guess? 🤔

Sticky is starting to sound like Dr. Curtain……

Reynie actually spoke sternly for once! …And then immediately apologized XD

I CANT WATCH THEM ARGUE IT HURTS SO MUCH 😭😭😭

“I’m telling you, Kate’s fine!”

Again, Sticky has a valid point

THEY’RE DUSTING FOR FINGERPRINTS OH NO-

HAS SHE BEEN HOLDING ONTO THAT CLIFF ALL FREAKING NIGHT???

(AND NOBODY HAS LOOKED DOWN ONTO THE SHORE???)

THE B U C K E T

Are they… having a funeral for Milligan???? 🥺

Well… at least you tried to cheer them up, Number Two

THE ADULTS ARE ON THE MOVE!!!!!!!

MISS PERUMAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Curtain is actually starting to lose his cool!! Have I praised Tony Hale enough for his performance yet?? Well, I will again!! XD

But seriously, this is the first time we’ve heard Dr. Curtain yell in the whole series.

Go ahead, say “Snakes and Dogs!” Don’t be shy!

What laboratory did this Jack Black clone escape from?

DONT EVEN LOOK AT S.Q. YOU BASTARD

GO OFF SHEPARD QUAID

“Kate ‘The Great’ Wetherall, the Trapeze Goddess!”

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

(Not to be rude but did somebody mess up the special effects? It kinda looks like there’s a clear outline around Kate as she’s falling)

If only someone was nearby….. someone who, perhaps, might have washed up on shore after a terrible submarine accident…..

THEY

MILLIGAN MY BELOVED, YOU LITERALLY WASHED UP ON A SHORE AFTER BEING UNDERWATER FOR HOURS AND THE FIRST PERSON YOU SEE IS KATE, WHAT’S NOT C L I C K I N G

The two of them having a heart to heart…… I Simply Cannot

“I had to act! So I-“ “Fell off a cliff and nearly died. All alone.” KILL ME NOW ACTUALLY

Milligan getting that faraway look in his eyes whenever he’s explaining what he’s been through djhslsgskdhs

Kate thanking him 🥺🥺🥺

Oh thank God the bucket is ok

Uh oh, the Recruiters are patrolling the cafeteria…

“Wetherall’s Widget”

YESSSSS STICKY IS SNAPPING OUT OF IT!!!!

“But the real you won out. I knew it would.” Top 10 Friendship Moments

AND THEY’RE GONNA HAVE THIS DISCUSSION WITH THE RECRUITERS PATROLLING THE AREA?!?!?!!??!

I really wish Kate had overheard Dr. Curtain talking about the Improvement and the server room like she did in the books :(

UH OH REYNIE

“Imagine, he could ask everyone to mail him a dollar and become a billionaire by the end of the week.” Freaking fantastic how this line manages to be a bit funny and quite menacing at the same time. I genuinely love this show

Ms. Perumal and Mr. Benedict have switched sides now!

(We interrupt this review for… me literally having to walk away from the show for a few minutes because I was just so overwhelmed by how good this episode is)

She wrote him a letter. After all of his mental letters, she wrote him a letter. I think. I think I need to lie down. Excuse me.

Ok we get it Nathaniel, you know Reynard means Fox 🙄

Ughhh that screeching noise 😖

Dr. Curtain flipping out on the stenographer 😬

“Then let’s try documenting the exchange without the T-S key” that’s a bit…. Very difficult

Dr. Curtain is menacing as hell, I would NOT like to be in Reynie’s place rn

Reynie’s long winded lie about using the bathroom

Mr. Benedict stressing about the mission and the kids’ safety 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

THE FALCON

SHE STOLE THE LETTER AAAAAAAA

Reynie omg……… I would almost believe his lies, but Dr. Curtain sees right through it

Oh yea, I was wondering what “the dance of the celestial orb” means

DR. CURTAIN IS QUIZZING HIM ON ASTRONOMY NOW????? I CAN’T STAND THIS MAN

Glue on her fingertips? Does that actually work?

MARTINA???????

“ONE ATTACKED ME AS A SMALL CHILD… IT DID NOT WIN... SO, WE DANCE AGAIN”

IM CACKLING AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Building montage!

“You’ve built one of these before, right? Was it functional?”

“You’re the only one I can trust!” PAIN. SUFFERING, EVEN.

S.Q.’s pointillism painting 🥺

THE FALCON STOLE HIS LUNCH HDKSGSHGSJS

OH DAMN THE L E T T E R

S.Q. is probably reading that letter like

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

He must be heartbroken oh my g o d

Dr. Curtain is hanging on by a thread at this point

They’re starting the Improvement 😰😰😰

Reynie told S.Q. everything!!

And S.Q. has a change of heart 🥺

SHE SMUGGLED MARTINA IN THAT BAG?! XD

Martina is gonna make me cry…. I never thought I’d see the day……

FELLAS!!!!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

HE. THE LETTER. MS. PERUMAL’S LETTER. THEY. I’M-

“Of course. 🙂 I always have time 🙂 for my son 🙃”

I’m so unbelievably concerned for S.Q. I seriously thought Dr. Curtain was gonna backhand him or something-

“How do you so convincingly fake a tetherball obsession?” HDKSGKSGSKSG

“I still have a cassette of his talk” 😭😭😭

“Feels good to have the old Benedict back, doesn’t it?” I CARE THEM. I LOVE THEM.

GAH THEY FOUND THE CABIN. THEY FOUND HIS TWIN. OH GOD OH NO

SHE WANTS TO TAKE MARTINA WITH HER

This scene with then debating if they should leave is so close to the book omg

THEY’RE A TEAM AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Milligan is stuck in the ceiling hckdgdksgkdgdksghs

THE K E Y C H A I N

“The clothes of someone who had given up.”

HE KNOWS HIS TWIN IS OUT TO GET HIM NOW THO!!!!!

A FREAKING DIRIGIBLE!!! THEY WERE BUILDING A D I R I G I B L E OH MY SWEET LORD

TLDR:

This is certainly the most suspenseful episode of the series, my stomach was in knots for 90% of the episode! The pacing was also very cutthroat, it worked surprisingly well. They were able to fit so much into this episode! They’re slowly but surely moving back to some book scenes/plotlines (or at least, the echoes of things that happened in the book), but also blending it seamlessly with what they’ve established in the show. I might actually sob while watching the finale. This episode was an 11/10 idec that’s not a real rating this is my blog I’ll do what I want

No meme today, I’ll just leave you with this song (from the official MBS playlist)

[oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch]

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Movie Review

DON’T WORRY, IT’S SPOILER-FREE. Just thought I would put everyone’s minds to rest on that. (I actually don’t remember the last time I did a spoiler review of anything, but that’s beside the point.)

It’s here. It’s finally, finally here. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has blasted into theaters at light-speed and all of your favorite characters are back (well, minus Han Solo, but you knew that. R.i.p, Han). This film, the eighth in the episodic Star Wars saga, was written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), and stars Daisey Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Dohmnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, and Carrie Fisher. The story picks up immediately after Rey lands on the island where Luke has been living for the past number of years as a castaway, her holding out his original lightsaber, the one his father had, to him. And that’s really about all I can say about the plot, because that was publicly announced in a number of marketing videos/promos, and basically everything else in terms of plot synopsis is essentially a minor spoiler; a minute spoiler, but a spoiler nonetheless.

This film would’ve been tricky for any director to navigate. Firstly, it’s the second film in its immediate trilogy, so if it’s not better than The Force Awakens, people might take issue with that. But not only is it the follow-up to TFA, a brand new director is taking the helm with it, and since Disney just asked that director to helm a brand new Star Wars trilogy after this one, that places a lot of weight on how good this film has to be for people to want to keep him around. Finally, the film has to take risks. It has to. One of people’s main issues with The Force Awakens is that it felt too much like a re-tread of the original Star Wars, so this entry in the franchise has to blaze a new trail in order to stand apart from the other films while also standing as one of the best in the franchise. And it does all of this in spades.

I saw this film twice in theaters in the same day, eight and a half hours apart, and I did this because there is a lot to process when this movie’s credits start to roll. I had to think very carefully about how I felt about the film, how I felt about the direction Rian Johnson had taken the characters and story, and whether or not some of the flaws that I had in my initial viewing still translated to the sophomore run as legitimate criticisms. But the first thing I thought to myself when I walked out of this film, both time was this: this film is bold, truly bold. This film is daring. It takes risks – a lot of them. It doesn’t play it safe, and that is such a refreshing and honest and beautiful thing to see in a tent-pole blockbuster franchise, especially the blockbuster franchise that Star Wars is.

Rian Johnson’s Star Wars tale is just as John Boyega said: fresh and new. And there are a million different ways that that can be addressed but for now, I’ll just say this: Rian Johnson is an excellent choice to helm a new Star Wars trilogy because you will be sure to get something fresh, bold, and original with each film he does. There are moments in this movie where both the audiences I saw it with applauded, moments where our collective jaw hit the floor in awe of the imagery that was on screen, and moments that subverted expectations in ways that made sense and served the story beautifully. Johnson did a terrific job directing this film, with spectacular action sequences to spare, and I can’t wait to see what he does next both with this franchise and with his other properties. (And just as a quick side note: John Williams’ score is even better here than it was in The Force Awakens, utilizing new themes and old in near-perfect balance. It’s confident, something the score for the previous film had trouble reconciling.)

The performances in this film are all excellent as well, with every major player absolutely bringing everything they can to each role, though some don’t get as much time to shine as others. Daisey Ridley proves for the second time in this trilogy that she is the perfect lead for this franchise. She carries so many of the emotional and more dramatic moments in the film, even opposite Mark Hamill, and goes toe-to-toe with whoever else is on screen to tremendous effect.  Oscar Isaac is once again great as Poe Dameron, with an arc that challenges him in ways that one wouldn’t initially expect, but that gives him such a great amount of character growth throughout the film that the story is better served by those subverted expectations. Dohmnall Gleeson is great as General Hux, and although he still doesn’t have a ton to do in this film, he does walk away with some of the best comedic moments it has to offer. Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro also perform exceptionally, although the time spent with their characters, despite how integral to the plot the prior one is (one could just re-write the film to not include Del Toro’s character and the story wouldn’t change that much) didn’t feel like enough to connect with them on a deeper emotional level.

And now it’s time to talk about Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher’s passing was something that hit all of us Star Wars fans in a really major way when the news broke of it, so watching her final performance as Leia in this film was a fairly emotional and bittersweet affair. And while I’ll admit I didn’t think she stole the show necessarily, she is just as excellent as Leia as she’s ever been. There is a beautiful tribute text (not a scene, just some on screen text) to her during the credits of this film that I think everyone should stay for.

The two best performances in the entire film, however, belong to Adam Driver and Mark Hamill. Any time either one of these two is on screen, they steal the show. Adam Driver continues as the conflicted Kylo Ren to great emotional effect in this film and the directions his character is taken give Driver the challenge necessary to bring his performance to the next level, making him one of the top tier Star Wars villains in the entire franchise. It’s impressive to watch him work in this film.

But the Oscar doesn’t belong to Adam Driver this time around, not just yet. If ever a Star Wars film were to be nominated for an acting performance, this would be the year to do it for Mark Hamill’s performance in this film. This is the best on-screen performance that Mark Hamill has ever given. Ever. He is fantastic as Luke Skywalker in this film, portraying the same man from Tatooine we know and love, but now with so much more nuance after all he’s been through the past 30 years. With every single scene he is in, the film becomes eight times stronger than it was before. It is a mesmerizing thing to see an actor who hasn’t done a ton of on-screen work for the past 30 years come in and school every other performer in the room on how it’s done. It’s a beautiful performance and Mark Hamill absolutely knocks it out of the park.

The film isn’t perfect though, and we’re gonna get into it a little bit as to why. There are certain moments in the film that almost feel like they’re stolen away from the audience for the sake of story or franchise convenience. Certain characters make decisions and you get to feel the weight of those decisions for a little while and it’s a great feeling, but then the film decides to switch back to what the original ideas of these characters or moments were, and it left me feeling a little robbed of some emotional or narratively subversive moments that could have made the film, in my personal opinion, a little better. The writing also could’ve been cleaned up a little as far as dialogue, and I think some further edits would have done it good. There are a few moments scattered throughout the film where a character says one thing, and then someone else right next to them will make the exact same point with different words, one of these exchanges using three lines of dialogue to all say the same thing. It tended in a few places as well to get a tad expositional. The previous film also built up Supreme Leader Snoke (played brilliantly by motion capture god Andy Serkis) as the big bad to beat character, but this film never really gives the character the gravitas necessary to be a truly intimidating presence on screen.

One may have also noticed that in my performance talk, I didn’t mention John Boyega or Kelly Marie Tran, and that was for good reason. While I absolutely thought they both did an excellent job as their respective characters, Finn and Rose, the arc and journey their characters share in this film detracted from the movie as a whole so much so that I would’ve preferred to just cut it out entirely. The only issue therein is that things happen during that arc that tie in to the rest of the film, so it can’t necessarily be removed (I mean it definitely can’t now that the movie’s out, but you know what I mean). Any time the film focused on that part of the story, any sense of urgency I’d previously felt flew right out the window and the film came screeching to a halt, which affected the pacing of the film in a pretty negative manner. However, despite how large a flaw this is for the film, for me, it didn’t detract enough to bring the film down from being great to just being good.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is not a film that will work for everyone. In fact, a good chunk of mass audiences are openly stating that they didn’t like this movie. And that’s fine; all film is subjective, and not everyone is going to like this film anyhow. Any time a film goes in bold, new, or challenging directions, especially if that film belongs to a franchise as widely beloved as Star Wars, there are bound to be a number of people who don’t like that new direction. For my money, though, Rian Johnson has made an incredible Star Wars film where everything happens in service of character and story, and even if some of those things aren’t executed very well (like the Finn/Rose arc), that is ultimately what matters. I am excited for the future prospects of the franchise, and I am eager to go still again and again to that time long ago in that galaxy far, far away.

I’m giving “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” a 9.5/10